Chapter 20: Monster Mash
It was warm outside, too warm in Aven's opinion. Sure she grew up dealing with direct sunlight in the summer but somehow summer in Midgar just seemed that much hotter. She quickly discovered, while working out on the track, that even without being able to see the sun its rays were still able to warm the ground to a near unbearable degree. The polluted smog was able to trap the heat over the city as well, making it even worse.
After training for hours in the sweltering outdoors, Aven finally decided to go back up to her room for a nice hot shower. She didn't feel the need to hurry through her shower as it was one of those rare and beautiful days off. But with nowhere to go and by that point nothing to do, she'd spent most of the day training and was now washing off the sweat of the day.
As she sat there soaking, her thoughts wandered over to the five wooden dolls sitting on one of the bookshelves. She'd just finished the most recent one that morning and was quite proud of it. Now, she had Reno , Rude, Cissnei, Haruto, and her newly finished Tseng. She'd realized after her attempts on Reno that having a photo of the person severely helped in making them look perfect. Now all she needed was a really good one of Veld and she'd have a full set.
Aven grabbed the bottle of citrus smelling shampoo and squirted half a handful out on her head lathering up her hair. Soon her white curls were covered in thick foamy white suds. She inhaled deeply loving the way it smelled. As she worked her fingers deep into the roots, massaging her own scalp, the alarm suddenly went off, startling her.
"ATTENTION SHINRA EMPLOYEES." The voice was a calm female drone that sounded robotic. "THERE HAS BEEN A MINOR BREACH IN SECURITY. WORKERS PLEASE REMAIN ON YOUR DESIGNATED WORK FLOOR. WE WILL BE SHUTTING DOWN ELEVATOR FUNCTIONS UNTIL THE SITUATION HAS BEEN HANDLED ALL SOLDIER MEMBERS AND OTHER SECRET TASK FORCES ARE TO STAND BY FOR FURTHER ORDERS."
Secret task forces? Was that supposed to be the Turks? In the other room, Aven could hear her phone going off.
She swore under her breath and quickly rinsed the suds out of her hair before turning off the water and hurrying to her room and snatching up her phone before it turned off. "This is Aven," she said the moment she had it open and pressed against her ear.
"Aven, the building has become infested with a large group of monsters," the voice on the other end greeted. It was Tseng and he sounded irritated. "I know it's your day off but your assistance is required to rid the building of the intruders."
"Of course, sir," she replied confidently as she began pulling her clothes back on as fast as she could. "What about the executives?"
"Most of them are in the conference room with the commander and myself so there is no reason to be concerned," he replied with a sigh. "However, as Rufus is not among them I will require you to locate him first."
"Right away, sir," she answered quickly. "Where is he supposed to be?"
"I would try the gun range first," Tseng told her. "Though the elevators will be out of operation so use the stairs."
"Got it."
"I'm counting on you. Keep him safe."
Aven's chest swelled with pride. Tseng was counting on her. If the situation weren't so serious she might have stopped to do a little dance of joy. "I will, sir."
After he hung up she pocketed the phone and headed out the door. Not far down the hall, there was a crawler creeping its way through the corridor, searching for prey. Aven got both her gun and her whip out. She knew she couldn't waste too much time on monsters, but no sense letting this one freely roam her floor either.
She rushed forward and made quick work of the creature before heading for the staircase. Right away she knew reaching the president's son without anything happening to him would be difficult as the stairs were lined with monsters.
She sighed seeing the massive group before stealing herself and rushing down the stairs firing at each one she came across. By the time she reached the floor with the shooting range, she was completely out of ammo and she had blood speckling her uniform and head.
As she pushed the doors open to the shooting range, she was stunned to see a large monster barreling towards a lone standing Rufus, who lifted the barrel of his gun towards the creature and fired, dropping it to the ground dead. After that amazing display, she looked around the room and found it covered in already defeated monsters.
"Wow..." she breathed stepping inside and heading towards him. "Again, why do you need us?"
"Every king needs his pawns," his replied simply, shouldering the gun. He looked to her, his expression completely unconcerned, almost bored. "What took you?"
"I was in the shower when all this started happening," Aven said in her defense. She looked down at herself and inwardly groaned. She'd need another one by the time this was all over. She noticed the corners of Rufus's mouth draw up in a faint smile and she raised her eyebrow at him, hands going to her hips. "What?"
"It's not very often I come across a female who smells of both blood and oranges."
"You're not helping," she grumbled moving over to where they store the weapons and clips.
"What are you doing?" he asked noticing her destination.
"I'm out of ammo," she answered opening the supply cupboard and grabbing a few clips before loading one into her weapon. "I needed to restock."
"What a waste of effort and resources," Rufus stated with a small smirk in place.
"How is it a waste if I'm..." she started to ask, but she turned and saw the expression he wore. "Oh, so you're making fun of my crappy shooting again? Well it's not my fault I can't shoot yet. I only just started learning a few months ago. Besides, would you rather me be down a weapon while fighting these guys?"
"It might be safer that way," he answered pleasantly.
"Stuff it." She inwardly winced at the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. Bad situation or not, she knew she shouldn't be mouthing off to the president's son, even if he was needling her for such a response.
If he was agitated by her belligerence it didn't show. Instead his face was drawn together in a contemplative expression. "You're far more assertive than last we met." He paused. "I'm not sure if I like it or not."
"Can't that wait until later?" she asked him, glancing around to make sure there were no hostiles lurking around nearby. "We need to get a move on, especially if the whole building is swarming with these things."
"I doubt it'll make much of a difference if we move quickly or stay put," Rufus pointed out.
She sighed and shook her head. "Look, let's...just go," she mumbled trying not to blow up at him. She was mostly irritated by the situation itself and really didn't want to make it any worse by blowing up at someone as important as the president's son.
He shrugged in response as he watched her head for the exit, following a short distance behind her. Before she could reach the exit though, there was a huge shuddering thud that shook the ground they were standing on. Next thing they saw was half the exit wall being broken through by a very large green creature with tentacles and multiple eyes.
"A...A Marlboro!" she mumbled under her breath in despair. She'd never faced one before; heck she'd never seen on in real life before, but she did know how powerful it was and what sort of status affects it could inflict an enemy with. Sigh...this just wasn't her day.
In the labs, several monsters lay dead. Bodies of hideous and majestic alike were strewn over the floors, along with broken equipment and toppled chairs and tables. Haruto stood in the center of the massacre, his sword drawn and dripping with blood from dozens of different monsters. He had been the only Turk on call other than Aven who hadn't been out on patrol, and his main priority had been making sure the chief of the science department was safe.
It might not have been so intolerable if said chief wasn't having such a poor attitude about it.
"Such barbaric actions," the scientist muttered. "All my precious specimens gone, not to mention thousands worth in equipment ruined. I didn't realize your sort excelled in destruction of property."
"We excel in doing our jobs, Mr. Hojo," Haruto said civilly with a smile. He pulled off his glasses and proceeded to clean away the speckles of blood. "Mine was to protect you at all costs. I had no orders to take into consideration the well being of your pets." Considering many of them had attempted to eat Hojo alive, one would think the scientist would be a bit more grateful. Hojo, however, gave little thought to anything outside of his 'precious experiments'.
"Well you obviously did less than take into consideration that I will now have to obtain a whole new batch of specimens," Hojo retorted in irritation.
"My apologies, but your protection was a higher priority," Haruto replied calmly. As always the scientist was a pain to work with. Once he was sure that all the monsters on that floor were disposed of, he took up a position in front of the door to the stairwell and pulled out his PHS to inform Tseng of his success.
"Tseng. What is your report, Haruto?" the man on the other side answered calmly.
"Hojo remains in one piece and the floor is secured," he answered easily. "I am prepared to place this floor on lockdown to prevent any further intrusion."
"Excellent." Tseng sounded all but satisfied at the announcement.
"How are things on the other ends of the branch?" Haruto inquired mildly.
"Reno and Rude have secured the entrance," Tseng informed him, "and Cissnei is taking care of other more confidential matters." He paused. "I've yet to be informed of Aven's progress."
The swordsman quirked an eyebrow. "What was her assigned task?"
"I sent her to locate and guard Rufus."
Haruto pondered that for a few moments. It wasn't like Aven to just leave everyone wondering. She was normally very thorough and professional about her work. The only reason she would fail to call in was if something was preventing her from doing so.
"Is something wrong?" Tseng asked when there was no word from the older Turk.
"I was considering going to check up on her," he answered after a moment of thought. "I am concerned that she has not reported in as of yet."
"As am I, but she is a Turk and should be able to handle this situation herself," Tseng replied calmly. There was a short pause before he continued. "However, as it is the life of the President's son on the line, I believe it would be best if you did indeed went to her aid. Just be sure to fully secure the lab before you leave."
"Understood, sir," Haruto replied just as calmly. With that he hung up and turned to a passing scientist telling him to keep the door locked until they heard the monsters were all disposed of. The man agreed and sealed the door behind the Turk as he left the room.
Aven didn't think fighting a giant hunk of mucus with teeth would be so difficult. Even though Marlboro's were susceptible to ice, her ice spells seemed to barely be phasing it. She couldn't quite figure out how a monster of such a high level had gotten loose in Shinra, but there wasn't much time to speculate at the moment. Rufus was doing what he could to back her up by firing the occasional bullet at the thing, but nothing seemed to be slowing it. It didn't help they were in a rather enclosed area and the beast was blocking the only exit.
The thing seemed determined to go after Rufus first, and every time it went for him, Aven did everything she could to draw its attention back to her, lashing it in the face or on its tentacles with her whip until it would no longer ignore her.
After a while of this. Aven felt herself starting to tire, she looked to Rufus. "Alright, I'm going to distract the thing, and when I do, slip past it and go for the exit."
Rufus raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to stay with me and protect me?" For all his heirs, he was beginning to look fairly worn out too from all the running around avoiding the thing.
"I'll be right behind you," she assured him. For the moment she just needed him out of the way so she didn't have to be concerned about him getting hurt.
"As a Turk it is your duty to dispose of this creature whether I am here or not," Rufus stated firmly refusing to budge. She wasn't sure if he was attempting to boost her confidence by saying she could do it or telling her she'd better do it because her job depended on it.
She sighed in frustration as she dodged around another attack from the monster's tentacles. "Fine! Then just cover for me, I'm going in for a closer hit!" she shouted back.
He seemed alright with this decision as he pulled back and raised his weapon preparing to fire. She took a deep breath as she dodged around one more tentacle attack before rushing in as fast as she could while Rufus chipped away at its health. She quickly managed to get right underneath it and spotted a crack in its very tough hide before shouting "Blizzaga" and directing the blast at the small weakened part.
The creature roared, its massive body writhing and nearly crushing Aven in the process. The girl was quick however, and dodged away and it crashed into one of the walls. It recovered itself, looking more vicious and angry then ever.
Then the oddest thing happened. It somehow got a lot faster. Way too fast for something of that size. Aven had to push herself to her highest speeds to avoid it. Even Rufus looked as if he was having difficulty avoiding the thing whenever it decided to switch targets.
The monster charged and she was forced to dodge it again. It slammed into one of the supply closets, breaking it open. It was then Aven realized what was going on. As she watched the boxes of bullets fall to the ground and scatter, she realized it wasn't the Marlboro that had gotten faster. They'd gotten slower. Someone had cast a time spell.
Instinctively she began searching for any sign that someone else was present. As she did so, she didn't see the large mouth opening releasing its foul breath, hitting her full in the face with it. The moment she felt the warm air hit her, she covered her mouth and nose with one hand, but she knew it was already too late. She'd inhaled the foul stuff.
She stumbled and hacked trying to rid her system of the creature's breath, but to no avail. Quickly she looked back at the creature to make sure she was ready for whatever came next and ended up almost tripping over herself in surprise. Where the monster stood, she now saw Rufus standing there with an impatient expression on his face.
Aven glanced around, and saw the Marlboro sitting where Rufus had stood not two seconds ago. How had they switched places? Suddenly she didn't feel so well. In face, she felt sick, weakened. She also felt something else unsettling. Her vision was steadily going red, and an unnatural desire to charge forward and kill her enemy began to wash over like a rising tide.
She gripped her whip, the room was spinning and neither Rufus nor the Marlboro were staying in one place. "Stop moving, dammit!" she shouted, hurtling towards the monster. The young girl landed a hit, and then another, and another. Her own safety was no longer important. The only thing that matter was seeing the creature dead.
She felt one of the tentacles connect with her stomach and send her flying into the wall. The air left her lungs in a rush and she fell to the floor, dazed but still struggling to get up so she could kill the beast… or was is Rufus?
She blinked multiple times to try and clear her head, but if anything it only made it worse. The room was still tilting around her and she was sure she felt her limbs going numb. Then she heard Rufus shouting at her...or was it the screech of the monster.
She found it impossible to wrap her mind around who was who and which she was supposed to be fighting. Her new burning desire to destroy her enemy was starting to make her stomach churn. As she tried to get to her feet and just guess, there was no strength in her legs and she simply slipped back to the ground.
Then as her mind neared the point of implosion from the flickering images, she saw the point of a sword stab through the Rufus next to the door. He looked down at the blade in surprise before releasing a pained shriek as it moved through his entire body.
Aven released a strangled cry, despair flooding in at her failure to protect him. She'd let him down. She'd let Tseng down. When she blinked again, she saw the Malboro slumped over, dead, its body sliced almost completely in half. Footsteps were thundering towards her, multiple faces started appearing in her vision and she shut her eyes. Voices were speaking, though she couldn't tell if they were speaking to her or just in general. None of what was said made any sense, it was all just garbled noise. She felt a pair of arms lift her off the ground. Her head lolled around uselessly, and she opened her eyes again, her vision going in and out of focus. As she was being carried away Aven thought she saw someone else. It was a woman. Not someone she was familiar with, but a face she swore she'd seen somewhere before.
"She's in the infirmary?" Reno exclaimed once he and Rude finished cleaning up the building and met back up with the others. It turned out none of the monsters managed to make it high enough to reach the main executives, though he did see the corpse of the Marlboro in the shooting range. He'd wondered how something that big even managed to make it up there.
"Yes, she was caught up in the Marlboro's bad breath," Haruto explained calmly. "It was clear when I arrived that her mind wasn't processing anything properly. I'm certain she was confused, berserked and poisoned. I gave her an antidote on the spot and moved her to the infirmary as soon as I could. Once there they gave her a remedy to clear the rest up. Now we're just waiting to see how she is when she wakes up."
Reno sighed and shook his head. She really had a knack for attracting trouble and he was sure trying to protect Rufus didn't help any. He exchanged a few more words with Haruto trying to learn what he could before heading towards the room she was staying in. He was surprised to find she wasn't alone when he walked in, instead the blonde haired son of the president was standing near her.
Reno strolled into the room, his gaze immediately shooting to the girl in the bed. She appeared to be resting well for a change. That was good. To think, all it took was getting hit with a Bad Breath attack. His gaze then went to the junior Shinra. "Well, now, I thought monsters storming the building was pretty nuts, but THIS is probably the biggest surprise I've seen all day."
Rufus looked at him in mild annoyance. "How so?"
"Because it's you." Reno leaned against the wall near the door, keeping his little apprentice in ready view. "You wouldn't even visit your dad if he was dying from getting his limbs chewed off by a Behemoth. No wait, scratch that; you'd be there just so you could enjoy watching him kick it."
The blonde released a delicate snort. "If it were you, I might."
Reno grinned a little before letting his eyes go back to the sleeping girl. "So why ARE you here then?"
"Simple. I would be very unhappy if Dark Nation no longer had an adequate caretaker during my leaves of absence." His tone was very business-like as he smoothed a stray hair back into place.
"Course that's the reason," Reno scoffed shaking his head. "It has nothing to do with the fact she got hurt saving your ass."
"On the contrary, Haruto and I saved hers," Rufus replied shortly. Reno watched him stare at the young Turk for a few more moments before turning and leaving the room. As he passed Reno he paused for a moment. "She is rather unique though...I'd even say she has the potential to surpass your skills as a Turk."
"Heh, who'd have thought, you're actually complementing someone," the redhead chuckled. "Careful, someone may think you're turning soft."
"Remember that I am still, by extension, your boss," Rufus reminded him curtly.
"Remember that I, really don't give a rat's ass," Reno mimicked in a falsely courteous tone.
"Always a displeasure, Reno."
"Right back atcha."
He watched the kid leave before pushing off from the wall and approaching the bed. There wasn't really a need for it, not really. It was obvious she was fine and that she'd pull through. Reno just wanted to be near her, so that when she woke up, there'd at least be one familiar face.
He sat next to her bed and waited. She didn't wake up for quite awhile, though he wasn't too bored. Rude came in at one point and they had a chat for a bit. The big man alerted the redhead to the fact that the monsters were probably let in thanks to that mole that was still at large, though Tseng was still looking into the how.
Reno figured as much and secretly only really wanted to know how the Marlboro got inside...especially without anyone noticing it until it was too late. Either way, an hour later he was alone again with the younger Turk when she finally opened her eyes.
"Hey, squirt," he greeted watching as she blinked her eyes several times glancing around the room. "Didja have fun playing with the wildlife?"
She didn't answer at first which concerned him until a moment later when she shouted in surprise. "Rufus...what happened to Rufus?"
"Woah, calm down," Reno said quickly stopping her from trying to get out of the bed. "The blonde bastard's just fine. You're the only one that's ended up hurt in some way."
He watched as Aven took a few breaths, her eyes darting around the room. He could practically see her mind trying to piece together how she'd managed to end up there. After a few moments she calmed a little. "So… I didn't see Rufus get cut in half?"
"Hah… wouldn't that be fun to see…" Reno caught her expression and he coughed. "No, squirt, that didn't happen. You were just confused, literally."
Aven buried her face in her hands. "I'm so stupid… I can't believe I let myself get hit by that!"
"Yeah, about that…" Reno relaxed back in his seat. "What happened? You should have been able to avoid that kind of attack easily."
She rubbed her head, eyes focused and face taught as she tried to remember the details. He didn't rush her. Getting hit with three status effects at once were enough to put anyone off balance for a good while. He was glad to see by her movement alone she seemed physically well at least.
After a moment she began to answer. "I found Rufus...the Marlboro crashed through the wall...we were chipping away at it and then..." Her head shot up and her eyes widened in realization. "Oh yeah, when the thing knocked over the cabinet of ammo, I realized everything was moving far too fast to be normal. We were slowed...or at least I was. So I turned to see if there was anyone else around who could have cast the spell...and that's when it released the attack. I was too slow to dodge it."
"So in other words you turned your back on your opponent," Reno summed up shaking his head. "Didn't you learn anything from Junon?" Aven scowled at him and he knew she wasn't enjoying him bringing that up. He gave a light roll of his eyes but decided not to beat the dead horse. "So who do you think slowed you?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure… I thought I saw someone else there…" She rubbed her head again, as if she might physically clear away the fuzz in her head and focus on recalling what she witnessed. "It was a female… kind of pretty… older looking."
Reno watched her carefully. She seemed very serious about this and he couldn't help but wonder if she'd witnessed something important. However, Haruto hadn't mentioned anyone else being there, and the kid had been delirious at the time. She could just as well have imagined it. "Are you sure you saw someone else there?" he asked slowly trying not to irritate her. "Glasses didn't see anyone and you weren't all there."
"Well...admittedly it was only after everything started spinning," she muttered under her breath. "But I'm positive I saw a woman...one I know I've met before."
"Can you tell me who it was?"
"No..I can't place how I know her," she admitted with a sigh. "But I know she was there!"
"Alright, take it easy." Reno reached over and placed a hand on her head, lightly stroking her hair in order to placate her. "We'll look into it. In the meantime just focus on getting better."
This did seem to placate her and she relaxed back against the bed. "Actually, I feel fine," she said frankly. "Can't I leave now?"
"Sorry, squirt, but Tseng would rather you stay here for the night…" He shrugged and smiled. "Just to be on the safe side."
Aven's snowy eyebrows drew together in a scowl. "But I feel fine."
He could tell she was trying very hard to keep up her tough front, and honestly he had to commend her for it. "Not a fan of hospitals either, huh?"
"Well, until I came here I've never been in one before," she explained running a hand through her hair. "That and laying here doing nothing is boring."
"Hah, I'll agree with that!" Reno laughed loudly ruffling her hair. "But unfortunately ya got to stay in here 'till the doctors and Tseng say you're good to go."
"I know," she sighed collapsing back onto her pillow. "How'd all this happen anyway? I mean one minute I'm in the shower and the next I'm running down the stairs fighting off a slew of monsters. Shouldn't they have been destroyed before they reached that point?"
Reno nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's what we're working to figure out. Though the monsters crawling around in the building were the ones Hojo's been keeping for his creepy experiments."
Aven's eyes widened. "So… you're saying these monsters just broke out and went on a rampage?"
"Well I dunno about them just breaking out," Reno said with a shrug. "We're pretty sure someone let them out. We just don't know why yet. To be honest I'm a little more disturbed by what we had going on outside than inside."
"What do you mean?"
"There were monsters literally crawling out of the sewers trying to get into the building." Her mouth fell open and he nodded. "Yeah, this ain't your average shit storm."
"What could have possibly caused all of this?" Aven muttered to herself. She layed her hand on her head as it was beginning to hurt again.
"Well, don't worry about that right now, squirt," Reno told her getting to his feet. "Just get back to being 100% and we'll fill you in on what we learn when you're out."
"Promise?" she asked looking up at him in disappointment. She really didn't want to be in there by herself.
"Promise," Reno laughed ruffling her hair once more. "We kind of have to if we expect to have any help from you here."
Aven grinned at that. "Good to know."
He lingered there silently for a few moments before finally pulling his hand away and heading for the door. "See ya later, squirt. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
She crossed her arms and smirked at him. "Right, I'll be sure NOT to behave myself."
Reno chuckled at that. Her witty retorts were getting better every week. He gave one last backwards wave as he left the infirmary. It sucked leaving her in there all by herself, but he had a job to do, and that always came first.
Later...
Aven had a brief moment of terror when she jerked awake in the middle of the night. The dark room was unfamiliar to her, until she remembered she wasn't in her room, but the infirmary. She inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm down. She didn't like being away from her room, sleeping in a place that was unfriendly and alien to her.
She heard a snore and once more jumped a little in surprise. She looked down and saw, to her fullest amazement, Reno. He was haphazardly situated, his top half resting on the seat of the visitor's chair while his legs were sprawled on the floor. While the position looked beyond uncomfortable, he seemed to be sleeping quite soundly.
Seeing him there, she was able to relax back into her pillows. It was odd knowing that he was there without her asking for it. She wasn't even having any nightmares but he was still there. She smiled lightly to herself realizing that he was just that kind of friend.
As she watched him snoozing in the chair, her body continued to relax more and more. After all, why should she worry about anything when she was among family? In no time her eyelids grew heavy once more and closed dragging her off to a sound sleep of her own. She'd have to remember to thank Reno later for sticking around.
CM: D'awww! Well that was fun. Still plenty of excitement and fluff to come. And next chapter we will be seeing another face you all should know very well. ;)