Hojo was whistling a happy tune on his way back to his lab in Junon. The moment he reached the door, he froze… it was open. "Oh no!" he ran inside frantically and his eyes were wide in shock upon seeing that one of the cages were open and that his PC was also open. He began to feel enraged. "NO, NO NO!!!!! This is bad! He escaped!!!" he cried out in anger before rushing out of the laboratory, wanting to complain. "Who left the damn door open?!" he demanded angrily… and he stopped in his tracks. He remembered seeing his PC open. Alarmed, he rushed back inside the laboratory and went straight to his PC, disabled the screensaver and then stared at the monitor unbelievably. His eyes widened in too much shock before he yelled out a loud "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" which sent Heidegger and Palmer running to the laboratory together with some members of Second Class SOLDIER.
"What's going on?" Heidegger demanded.
Hojo frowned angrily. "Who left the door open?! Someone peeked into my files!" he snapped impatiently.
"Eh… I'm sorry but I…" Palmer began, but decided not to continue because he did not really want to start an argument with a person like Hojo. "Never mind… he might snap and kill me and turn me into specimen…" he just thought silently to himself before he turned away, "I have to go back to work," and ran off.
Hojo was scratching his head and turned back to the PC. "And one of my specimens had escaped!!!" he pointed out.
"Gyah…" Heidegger rolled his eyes. "What specimen is that?" he asked.
"It's a rabbit. Male. It's just a new one and I am planning to experiment on it by letting it mate with another organism with JENOVA cells in it!" Hojo explained. Then he laughed.
"Oh my goodness… You can just get a new rabbit from the pet shop downtown! I'm going back to my office and try to call President Rufus. Gyah! I wonder where he went to… I haven't seen him ever since this morning! And I can't believe he wasn't even there during the execution that did not even take place! Gyah! This is so annoying… He might get mad at us when he returns here because we weren't able to kill Lockheart and Wallace!" Heidegger was saying.
"Oh, mon Dieu, mon Dieu!!!" Scarlet was wailing in French as she entered rather dramatically, still crying, surprising the two men. "You… do you have any ointment?" she asked Hojo before bawling again, wanting them to feel sorry for her because of her condition. She just likes attention.
Hojo stared unbelievably at her before turning back to his PC and exited the program before deciding to shut it down. "Do not disturb me, I'm busy! Can't you see that I just lost a very important specimen?" he explained with a frantic look on his face.
"Now would you mind telling us what happened to your face and how that woman with big boobs escaped?" Heidegger demanded impatiently from her.
"Kyah! She wouldn't have escaped if it wasn't for that rabbit!" she shrieked angrily.
Hojo's mouth dropped open and his glasses almost slipped off down his nose, but he pushed it up in time before facing her, "What? Rabbit?" he asked.
"Kyah! I wonder where that damn rabbit came from! And that disgusting rodent also scratched my face and bit my nose!!!" she snapped impatiently. "Like it had a human mind!"
Hojo was just silent, looking so dumbfounded while Scarlet continued to blab to Heidegger about her experience. Hojo stepped forward, "Where is the rabbit now?" he asked.
"Kyah… is that damn rabbit yours? I swear I'm going to murder it and turn it into rabbit stew once you get it back here and…"
"JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!" Hojo cried out impatiently before taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
She was stunned at first before answering softly, "The slut took it with her… because I think she felt pity on it… because I threw it at the wall."
Silence.
"YOU HURT THE RABBIT?!" Hojo demanded, his eyes reflecting too much surprise and disbelief.
"Yes…" Scarlet replied softly with a somewhat perplexed look on her face. "Anyway, do you have any ointment? My face is swelling, I can feel it!" she told him with an impatient tone.
Hojo just turned away, his eyes wide in confusion. He grabbed his head with his two hands and grabbed handfuls of his hair in a confused motion. "No… this is bad… what if… what if…" he closed his eyes for a while… and then calmed down before smiling dementedly and then faced them again with a poised bearing. "The ointment is in the medicine cabinet inside the bathroom…" he replied calmly, then switched his gaze to Heidegger. "I think you'd better start looking for President Rufus now. He could be in big trouble." He told him.
"I think it's dead," Yuffie pointed out to Tifa as she poked the bunny rabbit's side, surprising it. Yuffie's face lit up in delight. "Oh! Heehee! It's still alive! Maybe it just got afraid of heights when you climbed up the Highwind!" she said joyfully.
Tifa scooped the bunny rabbit off the chair and cradled it in her arms rather dearly, "Aw, you frightened it again, Yuffie!" she said.
"Why would there even be a bunny rabbit in Junon?" Barret asked with a perplexed look on his face.
"Maybe it's Rufus's pet," Cid pointed out before laughing. For some reason, the rabbit's ears twitched and then it began to stare rather angrily at Cid."What's that #$%%$ varmint starin' at?! I oughtta turn that into rabbit stew…" he snapped impatiently. The bunny rabbit reacted at this remark by biting Cid's hand. Cid cussed again.
Tifa frowned at him, "Leave it alone, Cid! It's just an innocent little animal! It wouldn't do anything bad to you, right, dearie?" she asked sweetly at the rabbit with a gentle smile on her face. She peered into its unusually blue eyes and then she giggled, "You're so cute! And you're so tiny too! I think I'd like to keep you as a pet!" she said happily, petting the rabbit.
"What?!" Barret asked in disbelief.
"What's wrong? I can't leave it behind! Scarlet would've killed it if I did!" she argued with a hurtful look on her face before smiling at the rabbit again, "I think I'll name you… hmm… I can't think of a name. Say, guys, can you suggest a name?" she asked.
"What about naming it Cloud since it's white?" Barret suggested with a glum look on his face.
Cloud just stared blankly at them.
Tifa shook her head, "Nah…" she told them.
"Can I see that?" Vincent got the rabbit with his claw, surprising it.
"Careful, Vincent," Tifa warned with a worried look on her face.
Vincent began to examine the rabbit, "It's a boy." He declared.
The rabbit jumped off from Vincent's grasp and hopped into a corner.
Cloud got up and went to it, grabbing it by its ears, "It sure looks strange. I thought rabbits are either dark-eyed or red-eyed?" he asked.
"Cloud, be careful, you're hurting it!" Tifa said as she got up and went to Cloud and grabbed the rabbit off from his grasp and cradling it in her arms again. "Aww… you poor thing… did it hurt?" she asked gently as she softly caressed the rabbit's fur and its ears.
The rabbit just glared angrily at Cloud.
Cloud raised his eyebrow at it, "I don't think he likes me." He told them.
"It's just a #$%%$ animal, Strife. Don't pay much attention to it," Cid muttered.
Silence.
"I'll just go down for a while." Cloud told them. Barret, Cid and Yuffie were expecting that Tifa would demand why he's going or where in particular he is going… but she did not say anything. She was cradling the rabbit in her arms like a baby. She was even singing to it.
Vincent was still staring at the rabbit. "He has blue eyes," he pointed out.
Tifa giggled. "I know…" she said softly.
"Aw man… don't tell me you're trying to imagine that it's him?!" Yuffie demanded in disgust.
Tifa stared at her. "Who?" she asked cluelessly.
"Duh!" Yuffie said airily.
"The guy with spiky hair." Barret pointed out.
Tifa made a face, "Zack?" she asked in disbelief.
"CLOUD!" Barret, Yuffie and Cid all said in unison.
Silence.
Tifa blinked. "What made you think of that?" she asked in disbelief before giving the rabbit a kiss on its cheek. The rabbit stopped moving again but its eyes were wide as if it got stunned by the kiss. "He actually reminds me of another person… and that person isn't Cloud. Do you think Cloud even wears white? I don't think so." She told them with a sweet smile on her face before settling the rabbit on the floor to allow it to hop around the place for a while, but it did not move in its place. It was just frozen stiff in one area by her right foot. "Run along, Ruffy," she instructed it.
"Ruffy?" Yuffie asked in awe.
"Why the #$% did you name that #$%%$ varmint Ruffy?!" Cid demanded in shock.
"Because this rabbit came from ShinRa and he reminds me of Rufus so…" Tifa began, but Barret cut her off by laughing hysterically, "Oh my goodness. You found that rabbit in Junon and saved it from the evil clutches of Scarlet… what if it's an experiment gone bad from their laboratory?" he asked. "Or even… something infected with JENOVA!"
"I don't think there's something wrong with the rabbit, Barret. Besides, don't you think that AVALANCHE should have a mascot?" Tifa asked with a sweet smile on her face before she picked up the rabbit again and cradled it in her arms, its face close to her chest. "Oh, you're so cute and you're so adorable!!! Heeheeheehee!" she giggled happily.
The rabbit was still frozen stiff.
Vincent stared at the stunned rabbit. He could have sworn it blushed underneath its snow-white fur. "There's something strange about that rabbit. It's not really acting like a rabbit…" Vincent told her.
"Don't be ridiculous, Vincent." Tifa told him before petting the bunny rabbit's head. "You like some food? Wait a minute…" she turned to her other companions, "We still haven't eaten… you think we could stop by some place where there is food for us and for Ruffy?" she asked.
"ShinRa's probably after us so it's best we all stay inside here for a while." Barret explained.
Silence.
"Tifa, you really have to let go of that rabbit. We can't take it with us if we're going to battle Sephiroth!" Barret instructed. "Do you think that… Ruffy here could damage Sephiroth with its buck teeth of death?!"
The rabbit glared. Barret stiffened when he saw it grit its teeth.
"But I don't want him to get harmed in case meteor hits! C'mon, can't I keep him? I promise he wouldn't get in the way of my work with this group." Tifa told him with a worried look on her face.
"Just keep that varmint away from my stuff." Cid muttered before he got up and left for a while.
"Well where are we going now?" Vincent asked Barret.
"I think we need to let Cloud rest in some safe place. He's been through a lot." Tifa explained.
"Alright. Get him back inside and we'll go some place where we can stay without being inside this Highwind." Barret replied rather miserably after a moment of silence.
"You call him. I'll have to guard my Ruffy." She replied with a sweet smile on her face before she lifted the bunny rabbit until she was face to face with it, and then did the nose-to-nose with it while giggling cheerfully, and then kissed its forehead.
The rabbit froze again.
"I swear there's something wrong with that rabbit!" Vincent was telling himself quietly but just decided not to broadcast it.
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