Chapter 28: Costa Del Sol
Not long after their battle against Jenova's arm inside the engine room on the Shinra ship and Cloud, Angelina, Tifa and Laina rejoined with the others waiting anxiously for them on the upper deck of the ship before all of them (including the sailors and Shinra soldiers/infantrymens) soon saw the popular port town/holiday resorts of Costa Del Sol (famous for its sunny beaches and clear, blue ocean) far on the opposite side of Junon Harbor/City where the two continent connected via one main ship/sea line. The Shinra ship turned around and pulled itself backward into the Costa Del Sol dock before the ship's captain lowered the anchor hanging against the side of the ship's right frame into the ocean water so that it would kept the ship from drifting out of the dock and off into the ocean.
After all the sailors and Shinra soldiers/infantrymens left the Shinra ship and out of Cloud and his friends/companions sight, they (Barret, Aeris, Kunsel, Red XIII and Yuffie) quickly shed and toss away the Shinra uniforms and sailor outfits (except for Cloud, Angelina, Tifa and Laina) which they wore over their regular clothes before they quickly and quietly ran down the ship's staircase, went through a door and onto the dock before either Heidegger or Rufus could spotted and catch them (all of them were immensely glad to feel the warmth of the sun shining down on their bodies and which relieved the cramp feelings they all had while on the ship, most of all Yuffie, who no longer feel seasick). After a few seconds, Cloud and his group began to sweat profusely, their relieved feeling of standing and savoring the warmth of the sun above them soon dissipated.
"Damn! Sure is hot here!" exclaimed Barret as he raised his left arm to wiped the trickling sweats away from his face. "But I sure feel a whole lot better now that I can say goodbye to this sailor suit."
"I agree with you on that, Barret." Tifa said to him with a dark look on her face. "I despised that Shinra infantryman outfit I wore on the ship just now."
Barret nodded to her before he turned to glance at the others near him. "Yo, listen up! Y'all be sure to mingle like normal, regular folks here!"
Both Laina (who took off her velvet-blue long coat and folded it under her left arm due to the hot sun) and Angelina rolled their eyes at Barret's words while Aeris stepped closer to Barret's left with a sly smile on her face. "Oh, that's too bad." said Aeris in a teasing tone to Barret. "I liked Barret's sailor suit. He looked so cute in it."
Barret turned to Aeris and scowled darkly at her before he looked away from her to glared at Cloud, Kunsel, Red XIII (who turned their heads away to stifled their laughs with the back of their hands/paws), Angelina, Tifa, Laina and Yuffie (who chuckled at Barret) then glared back at her (who also chuckled at him). "… What'ya mean "cute"?"
"Why don't you use the sailor suit for your pajamas, Barret?" Tifa suggested to Barret before she glance at both Cloud and Angelina. "Right, Cloud, Angie?"
"Yeah, Tifa, you're right." said Angelina with a sly smile on her face. "He totally look like a huge dark brown-coloured bear wearing a pristine white-coloured marshmallow suit." Both Angelina and Tifa chuckled once again (which make Barret even more mad).
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Barret growled at both Angelina and Tifa. "It just happens to be the only outfit that I can wear comfortably while on the ship, so you two quit laughin'!"
But his words only make them both chuckled even more and Laina sighed and shake her head at them both. "Will you two stop picking on poor Barret? He looked like a live volcano which is about to erupt any second."
"Sorry, Laina." said Angelina as she ceased chuckling and wipe some tears away from her eyes (due to chuckling too much). "But it's just hilarious."
"Will you all give it a rest already?" said Cloud sternly to them all. "Remember that we're after Sephiroth so all of you, keep your mind on him. We're not here to have vacation. I'm going on ahead." Cloud then turned to his right and began walking away from them.
"Hmmph, Cloud. You're the one, who's always hangin' around wastin' time." scoffed Barret and Cloud halted in his tracks and turned around to glared at Barret, who ignored him.
"…puff…puff… Would you all kindly hurry?" panted Red XIII heavily as he crouch his body very low onto the dock ground. "The heat here is drying my nose."
"Yeah, mine, too!" said Yuffie suddenly, agreeing with Red XIII.
Cloud glance at both Red XIII and Yuffie, sighed and nodded his head. "Fine then. We'll take a break here and then we headed off. Don't all of you wandered too far off."
"I'm going to skip this resort!" Barret snapped suddenly at them before he turned to the right, ran off away from them and the dock, up a short yellow-coloured concrete staircase far to their right and toward the town.
"It looks like my mane got messed up. I'm going into the town to see if I can find and rest somewhere cooling." Red XIII told Cloud and the others before he turned around and crawled away from them.
"Don't any of you bother looking for me!" Yuffie exclaimed to them before she quickly turned away from them and ran off.
Cloud sighed again before he glance at Angelina, Tifa, Laina, Aeris and Kunsel, who also glance at him and all six of them quickly turned to their right, ran away from the dock, up the concrete staircase to their right and into the town.
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Seconds after Cloud and his friends/companions left the dock and into the town, a Shinra helicopter came flying from the right in the air toward the dock and flew over it before it slowly lowering itself onto the helipad ground at the far left end of the dock, near a tall, light brown-coloured lighthouse. After the Shinra helicopter landed on the helipad ground, the door to the ship opened outward again and both Rufus and Heidegger walked slowly out of the ship, along with both Crisis and Phemie following behind them and two sailors following behind both Crisis and Phemie.
"What a long ship ride that was!" exclaimed the first sailor to the other sailor next to him who nodded as the first sailor take a deep breath of the fresh air of Costa Del Sol.
"Hmmm…" said Rufus thoughtfully while he take a look around the dock for a certain group of people and saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Good work, everyone…" Rufus said to the two sailors and to both Crisis and Phemie and they all nodded to him before he glared at Heidegger.
"Gya, heh, heh…, ha!" Heidegger laughed quite nervously when he noticed Rufus giving him a hard glare out of the corner of his eyes and glance at the helicopter far to the left of them. "Hurry up with that!" Heidegger yelled at the pilot sitting inside the Shinra helicopter.
"Yes sir!" the pilot yelled back slightly nervously before he began starting the helicopter up for taking off again.
Satisfied that the pilot is working to start the helicopter up for them, Heidegger turned to glance at Rufus, silently hoping that his mood is much improved now but to his dismay, his mood didn't improve at all. He still had the same hard glare look on his face.
"I heard that Sephiroth was on board the ship." Rufus said to Heidegger as he turned to looked away from him.
"…Yes." replied Heidegger in a small voice while he lowered his head in shame.
"And he's not the only one. It seems that Cloud and the others were also on board the ship too." Rufus added to him while unnoticed to the both of them, both Crisis and Phemie exchange glances with each other.
"My sister's was on the ship?" thought Phemie to herself. "Then that means that the infantryman I've been talking to is…"
"So, Laina, you and your friends managed to slip through our fingers this time." thought Crisis to himself. "But you and your friends won't be so lucky the next time we meet."
"…Yes." said Heidegger again.
"They all slipped through…" said Rufus as he narrowed his eyes at Heidegger while he lifted his right hand to flicked a lock of his blonde hair behind his ear. "You messed up big this time, Heidegger."
"I'm ashamed of myself." said Heidegger in a pitiful/pathetic tone of voice.
"Is that all you can say and do…?" said Rufus in disgust at Heidegger, who take a few steps back from him. "Give one word answers and apologize for everything? As if."
Heidegger looked away from Rufus and didn't say anything.
"President Rufus!" yelled the pilot's voice. "The helicopter is ready for departure, sir!"
Rufus glance away from Heidegger to the pilot, nodded grimly to him before he glance over his shoulder at both Crisis and Phemie. "Come, you two." Both Crisis and Phemie nodded before they followed after Rufus as he walked past Heidegger. He suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around to glance past Crisis and Phemie's shoulders at Heidegger's back.
"…Do something about it, Heidegger. I'll be expecting results from you." Rufus told Heidegger harshly before he turned around again, headed toward the helicopter and he opened the door and went into it, with both Crisis and Phemie followed suit after him and Crisis close the door behind him.
After Rufus and his two Turks bodyguards went into the helicopter, Heidegger turned to glared at the two unfortunate sailors standing at the edge of the dock near the ship and he run toward them both, intending to unleash his anger on them. He pushed the two unfortunate sailors roughly into the ocean water, who cried out before they landed with large splashes in the ocean water. After Heidegger pushed the unfortunate sailors into the ocean water, he turned his attention toward a group of guys in swimming trunks who watched the scene from their boats and they panicked and run straight into the safety of their cabins in their boats when Heidegger charge toward them. Heidegger stopped in front of their boats, shakes his fists angrily and decided to cursed them instead. The sound of the helicopter blades turning on far behind him make him stopped his cursing and he turned around to see the helicopter slowly rise up from the helipad ground and into the air before it turned to its right and flew off away from Heidegger and Costa Del Sol, leaving him behind.
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As Cloud and his group crossed a bright, yellow-coloured bridge with brown-coloured woods in the middle of it which led from the dock and is connected with a huge and luxurious looking two-storey villa with creamy, light brown-coloured walls and orange-coloured roof in front of them (with the words Costa Del Sol in large, black-coloured writings next to a door), went down another set of staircase attached against the villa's wall into the streets of Costa Del Sol, they were quite amazed by the sight of it (except for Laina, who came here once before 5, 6 years ago). Unlike the dark and dreary city of Midgar and lower port town of Junon Harbor or even the lonely, quiet and slightly peaceful town of Kalm, Costa Del Sol was a bright, vibrant and lively town (completely untouched by Shinra and their mako reactors), filled with men in swimming trunks and women in swimsuits/bikinis (and some of them in clothes too), enjoying the sun, foods, drinks and sight.
Cloud and his group then headed deeper into the town of Costa Del Sol, walked past a building with a doorless entrance (with a staircase inside leading up to the second floor) with a single huge word "Bar" next to it written in black (Kunsel broke away from them and went into the bar for some food and drink), they soon saw Red XIII lying asleep under the shadow of another villa roof, which blocked the sun's ray from shining on him (while two kids, a boy wearing a white T-shirt and grey shorts and a girl wearing a short, pink dress is kicking a football back and forth to each other without the ball hitting Red XIII). They also saw Yuffie standing behind a stall which sells some common materia and helping an almost bald-headed guy in his early forties (who's wearing a light, brown-coloured business suit) to sell the materia to any customers who passed by. As Cloud and his group approach the stall (while making their way past a small crowd which gathered before the materia stall), Cloud noticed that even though Yuffie is helping the guy, she still managed to steal/slipped some materia from the table and put them into her pockets (Laina decided to stay near the stall to keep an eye on Yuffie).
Cloud and his group then left Laina behind and they walked down yet another staircase to their right which leads to the beach. Once they stepped off the stairs and standing on the beach (filled with people lounging/sitting back on their chairs to enjoy the sun, sitting under the huge blue/white stripe umbrellas to avoid it or swimming in the ocean), both Aeris and Tifa saw something across the beach from them and the others and they quickly turned to glance at Cloud.
"Oh! Cloud!" said Aeris.
"Look, look over there!" said Tifa as she raised and pointed her finger across the beach at something.
Cloud looked across the beach to where Tifa's pointing her finger with Angelina (and Barret) looking as well and both he and Angelina widened their eyes in surprise when they saw a familiar-looking man with glasses on his pale face, long, slick black hair tied up into a ponytail behind his head and wearing a white lab-coat over a dark, grey T-shirt and long, brown pants is sitting/relaxing back on his beach chair with three girls in swimsuits/bikinis standing or sitting on the beach near him.
"Cloud, isn't that man over there is who we think it is?" said Angelina as she narrowed her eyes at the man.
"Yeah, Angie." said Cloud, narrowing his eyes as well. "It's Hojo."
"Cloud, why don't you go over there and talked to him?" Tifa said to Cloud and before he could say anything, she went behind his back and pushed him forward. Cloud sighed and went toward Hojo with both Angelina and Aeris who decides to followed behind him (both Barret and Tifa stay where they are to watched).
"At least Laina isn't here with us. If she saw Hojo, she'll be consumed with hatred and slaughter him in front of all this beach people and she'd probably don't care about it." thought Angelina to herself.
As Cloud, Angelina and Aeris approach Hojo and the three girls in bikinis/swimsuits, one of them looked up and noticed Cloud, Angelina and Aeris standing near them and she rolled her eyes.
"God!" said the girl in a sarcastic tone of voice to them. "What do you want?"
"I want to talk with that man." Cloud said to the girl in a "brook-no-argument" tone of voice while he pointed a finger at Hojo.
"Hey, who do you think you are?" the girl demanded as she stood up and scowled darkly at Cloud, who responded by glaring back at her until she sighed and turned to glance down at Hojo. "Professor Hojo, this scary-looking guy here says that he wanted to talk to you."
"You tell him that I'm busy right now." Hojo told the swimsuit girl without looking at her before he turned to his right and continue his resting/sunbathing.
"Oh, really? Well, too bad for you, Hojo!" snapped Angelina as she crossed her arms and glared down at Hojo's back.
Hojo heard what Angelina said and he slowly turned back to glance up at them clearly. "No, I remember you all now… " said Hojo to them before he sat upright on his beach chair. "Yes, that's right. I remember clearly now. It's been quite a while since we last met back in Shinra company, Cloud. And I see that you brought your friends with you too."
"Hojo…" said Cloud in an angry tone of voice to him.
"What are you doing here, Hojo?" asked Angelina as she continue glaring at him.
"Isn't it obvious, missy?" replied Hojo with a smirk on his face. "I'm getting a tan."
"Answer the question!" Cloud snapped at him (at this time, both Barret and Tifa decided to joined them in talking to him).
"Hmmm! So impatient. Very well, then." said Hojo disdainfully at Cloud. "I believe that me and you and your group are after the same goal."
"You mean Sephiroth?" said Cloud.
"Did you and your friends see him?" Hojo asked as he turned to glance up at him.
"Yeah, we did see him." replied Angelina. "He was on the ship and he carried Jenova's body with him, even though we can't see it."
"I see…" said Hojo as he lapsed into silence then suddenly, he stood up from his beach chair and began sniggering silently to himself in front of them (while waving the bikinis/swimsuit girls to go away with his right arm), making Cloud, Angelina and Aeris looked at Hojo in bewilderment.
"What's so funny?" Cloud demanded angrily at Hojo.
"Oh, nothing. It's just that I suddenly remembered a certain hypothesis…" said Hojo as he turned to his left away from Cloud, Angelina and Aeris for a few seconds before turning back to glance at them. "Tell me, Cloud. Have you ever had the feeling that something is calling/talking to you? Or that you had to go and visit a certain, unknown place somewhere…?"
Both Cloud and Angelina heard what Hojo says and they lowered their heads as they thought back to the unknown male voice who would sometimes spoke to them in their heads. They decided to not tell him about it and lifted their heads to glared at him again.
"We'll go anywhere Sephiroth is at!" Cloud growled at him while he clenches his fists angrily. "To defeat him and put an end to all this!"
"I see…" said Hojo as he clasped his hands behind him in joy. "This could be interesting. Were you in SOLDIER? Heh, heh, heh! How would you like to be my test subject?"
That statement of his pushed both Cloud and Angelina's anger over the deep end in their minds and they both reached for their Buster Sword and naginata behind their backs, ready to pull it out and killed him off.
"Oh, now what?" said Hojo as he noticed that both Cloud and Angelina were ready to killed him. "Are you two seriously going to draw out your weapons here, in front of all this people?"
"Yo, you two!" Barret protested to them both. "It's a bad idea to kill him here."
Both Cloud and Angelina turned their heads away from Hojo to glared at Barret, but they knew that he's right about it. So as much as they both wanted to kill him right here, right now, they couldn't bring themselves to do it in front of innocent peoples. Hojo began laughing in joy when he saw that both Cloud and Angelina had decided to not kill him until he saw Aeris standing behind Angelina.
"Say, aren't you the "Ancient" girl?" Hojo asked Aeris.
"I'm Aeris Gainsborough!" said Aeris in an annoyed tone of voice as she glance at Hojo. "The least you can do is remember my name. Also, I want you to tell me something, Professor Hojo…"
"And what is it you wanted to ask me?" said Hojo.
"I know that I'm an "Ancient". My mother told me." Aeris told him.
"Your mother?" said Hojo in confusion for a few minutes before he remembered. "Oh, you mean Ifalna. How is she?"
"You mean you didn't know!?" said Aeris in a shocked tone of voice. "She passed away years ago."
Hojo was shocked to hear her say that and the smirking look on his face abruptly faded away to give way to an almost pity/sad look before he turned to glance away from her and the others. "… I see." said Hojo.
"Professor Hojo…" said Aeris as she glance at his back. "Is Jenova an Ancient? Is Sephiroth an Ancient? Do they have the same blood as me?"
Hojo heard what she said but he didn't turned around to answer her questions, instead he began mumbling in a small voice to himself and Cloud, Angelina, Tifa, Aeris and Barret only managed to hear two words clearly from him.
"…Head west…" mumbled Hojo.
"He's mumbling slowly…" said Aeris, glancing at Cloud. "That means that he's hiding something!"
Hojo finally turned back to looked at them blankly for a few seconds before he sat back down on his beach chair without saying anymore words to them.
"Hey! Answer us!" demanded Tifa angrily at Hojo.
"…It's no use already." said Cloud as he turned around to glance at them with a dismay sigh. "We won't get anything more out of him now."
"But…" Tifa began saying and got cut off by Angelina.
"Cloud's right, Tifa." said Angelina. "Let's rejoined with the others and get out of this town."
Tifa sighed in dismay and nodded to Angelina. Cloud and his group then turned to their left and went up the stairs, away from the beach (and Hojo) back into the town and they soon saw Yuffie hiding in fear behind Laina while Laina try to pacify/reason with the bald-headed guy (who finally realised that Yuffie's been stealing some of his materia from the table and wanted to punish her for it) from punishing/scolding Yuffie and she succeeded somehow before he turned and walked away from them both (and saying that he never want to see them both again, especially Yuffie).
Cloud, Angelina, Tifa, Aeris and Barret (who decided to not tell Laina about them seeing and talking to Hojo on the beach minutes ago) then walked toward both Laina and Yuffie (who rejoined with them) before they went to looked for both Red XIII (who still lying asleep under the shadow of the villa roof and Tifa gently woke him up) and Kunsel (Laina break away from the group to went up the stairs into the bar's second floor, saw him and dragged him by his left arm out of the bar building after he's done eating and drinking). After everyone has gathered together, Cloud and his group then turned to their left and they walked through the underside of the bridge (which led from the dock and is connected with a villa), out and away from the vibrant, lively town of Costa Del Sol and heading west.
