-1For the third time in a day, Vincent told himself he really needed to teach Shelke the meaning of the word "romantic." He acknowledged that he wasn't the most romantic of people in the world, but sometimes Shelke made him look like a starry-eyed dreamer. For example, hunting mutant abominations in underwater buildings was NOT the way Vincent wanted to spend his anniversary. Now, it would be wrong to say he didn't like Shelke's work ethic or anything, in fact, he was rather proud of his wife's work ethic, but...sometimes...
"Vincent?" came the voice from the radio at his hip. "Please remain focused on your objective."
Vincent sighed. He really didn't want to be here right now. On any other day, he wouldn't have minded, but… True, he had no choice to admit that Shelke was right when she said that no one else was really qualified to do this job… but couldn't this job have waited until tomorrow?
Briefly, Vincent considered the possibility that Shelke had simply forgotten what day it was and had proceeded with the routine. Of course, then he remembered that Shelke never forgot ANYTHING. He knew he should have expected things like this to occur from time to time when he'd married her but…well, he'd also hoped that after three years Shelke would have figured out that certain things did in fact matter to him, even if he didn't show it. After all, he had figured out what sort of things mattered to her, and she was even more difficult to read than he.
"Vincent. Please respond. Your target continues to move deeper into the reactor complex. Should you delay any longer, I may lose track of it. Locating a target is…"
"Significantly harder when it is not visible. I know."
Well, the sooner he finished the job, the sooner he could get back to HQ and relax a bit. Maybe if he got back in time for dinner then…
Still, Vincent thought as he continued down the long glass hallway into Shin-ra's old abandoned reactor, Shelke's first three words had warmed his heart a bit. First, he'd finally gotten Shelke to stop calling him by his full name whenever she addressed him. He'd caught her doing it from time to time when they went out and she dropped her guard a bit, and had worked on getting her to just call him "Vincent" ever since. The fact that it had taken until after the they were engaged to get her to stop entirely still amused/frustrated him, but old habits die hard, he supposed. Her second two words, though: "Please respond." It had taken him a while to figure the hidden meaning behind certain things she said. The girl did have emotions, she just very rarely showed them. Thus, reading her came down to nothing but a lot of experience. Eventually, though, he learned how to translate her speech into something a bit more explicit in meaning. In this case, "Please respond" meant something to the effect of "Are you okay? I am worried about you." Little things like that made being married to her worth it.
Of course, if Vincent ever told anyone about what he thought about Shelke's speech and underlying messages in them, they probably wouldn't believe him. Vincent shrugged. He supposed it was most important for him, and not someone else, to know that sort of thing anyway.
"Vincent. You have ceased moving again. Please open the door before you and proceed with the mission."
Right, right. Vincent looked before him and indeed saw a hatch. He approached and turned the wheel on its front side, then pulled it open. Vincent strengthened his resolve to finish this mission. There'd be plenty of time to think about Shelke if he just hurried up and completed his objectives. Again if he could just make it back in time for dinner…
Vincent shook his head to clear it and stepped through the hatch.
Before him was a long hallway. Three doors (other than the one he'd just passed through) led out of it, one directly in front of him, two a bit further down the hall on the left side, and further down the hall and also down a ramp, there was another door on the right. Vincent vaguely remembered where each of the doors led from the last time he'd been down here, during the Jenova War. He wondered which one his target had gone down. Maybe it had gone through the door directly in front of him. That would be nice. If Vincent remembered correctly, the door directly in front of him was a storage closet. It would make his job easier.
"Your target seems to have moved down this hall and deeper into the reactor. Pursue it before it reaches the reactor core."
Vincent proceeded down the hallway (jumping down the ladder). He was thankful for the report on the mutant's location, but Shelke seemed awfully impatient today. Vincent briefly wondered why. Then something popped out of the floor in front of him and distracted him.
Shaped like a fusion between a street sign designed by robotic drill sergeants and a baseball pitching machine for footballs, Vincent recognized this as a rather standard Shin-ra security device. The durability of Shin-ra's security systems never ceased to amaze the gunman. That they were still operational even now… The sign on its back read of course "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY." Vincent had no intention of doing so. He drew Cerberus (lasting nine years since he'd obtained it in the Jenova War and still working fine) and put three bullets into what he assumed was a gun barrel. This didn't shut the machine down, of course, and it did immediately begin blaring an alarm and shouting a recorded message about how he should desist and leave the area, but it was no longer a threat.
Then it called for reinforcements. Two more signs from hell rose out of the floor tiling and immediately opened fire. Vincent rolled to the side, dodging the hail of bullets and unloading three more bullets into the nearest of the two gun turrets. This shot neatly hit the ammunition supply of the weapon, and the turret exploded. Then, as the remaining turret swiveled to redirect its stream of fire at Vincent once more, he jumped up, kicking off the wall to land behind himself, on top of the original sign/turret amalgam. Apparently the devices weren't designed to support much weight, as the sign crumpled beneath the force of Vincent's landing. Cerberus barked once more as Vincent squeezed the trigger, destroying the hallway's third (and hopefully final) guardian in an explosion that rivaled its partner's.
As Vincent proceeded through the far door and deeper into the reactor building more and more of the automated signs, and later some of their more heavily armed, less polite cousins (these looked more like giant prosthetic arms and would just as likely slug or grab Vincent as shoot him were he to get close enough), and even some roving robot guards began appearing. Vincent wasted little time fighting these, putting lead into their soft spots as soon as they entered his vision, sometimes even before they finished exiting their hiding spots in the ground. Every so often, he would even run across a security camera someone had thought it prudent to arm with a small gun, and he would shoot it as well. He knew that was how Shelke was monitoring him and his target's process, by hacking into the security cameras, but he was sure she didn't mind. Vincent never thought of himself as extremely knowledgeable about the workings of the female mind, but he figured given the choice between the loss of a security camera she didn't even own in the first place and her husband being put full of bullet holes, Vincent was fairly sure Shelke would choose the former. Whenever he would reach a door, Vincent would reload his gun. He hadn't brought any other weapons but Cerberus, and he really didn't need his only gun empty when he needed to shoot something. Every so often, Vincent would leave the ammo supplies of a guardian intact while disabling the machine and then tear it open and raid it for bullets. Vincent appreciated how well designed his triple-barreled handgun was. Not only did it fire all three bullets simultaneously and accurately for higher power, but was designed so that it could use several different calibers of bullets in order to feed its rather high demand for ammunition more easily.
Reloading his gun was a rather complicated process for Vincent. He had very little fine motor control in his claw, so he was forced to always reload one handed. The process involved snapping the gun downward to push the barrels away from the actual gun mechanisms and then rotating the gun upside down so that the empty magazine would fall out. Then, leaving his index finger inside the finger guard by the trigger to keep from dropping the gun, Vincent would use his middle, ring, and pinky fingers to pull a new clip of bullets from the pouch on his belt and spin the gun backwards, sliding the clip behind the barrel as it passed the fingers which held it. As the gun came right side up again, Vincent would push the handle back towards the barrels with his thumb, stop the gun's spin, and snap the gun backwards, locking the barrels back in place. The process involved a lot of twirling the gun around, and looked a lot like a parlor trick or part of a sideshow performer's act, but for Vincent it was the only way he could rapidly load his gun. He'd actually taught himself to load one-handed in an attempt to impress Lucrecia (it hadn't worked at all), never realizing how important that skill would become later on…
After reloading, Vincent would open the door before him with whatever mechanism it required and proceed onward towards his target.
Vincent's target during this mission was one of Professor Hojo's larger experiments, which he'd apparently stored in the Junon building for the facility director's use for security purposes. Vincent guessed the director was too afraid of the creature itself to deploy it, as the party had never run into it during their invasion of the reactor during the Jenova War. Apparently it had gotten loose sometime in the past week, and some WRO members had been sent to investigate the Junon villagers' complaints of weird noises coming from the old Shin-ra complex and the occasional mauling by an unidentified monster. Vincent had found it earlier and chased it into the reactor before he lost it.
The beast superficially resembled a gigantic human skull covered in flesh with two legs growing of its bottom and two scythe-tipped arms growing from its top. According to the files Shelke had found in Hojo's records on the creature, it was also capable of absorbing raw mako energy and turning it into electrical power. In other words, it spat lightning while near mako. Apparently the creature could also metabolize the stuff and get bigger, if Hojo's speculations were correct. Strangely enough, the mad scientist had never bothered to test that particular ability for reasons that had yet to be discovered.
Thus, it wasn't surprising that Vincent finally found the creature in the one place where it was most likely to go. The mako reactor itself. It must have smelled the stuff after it climbed down the elevator shaft (how it climbed up and down walls Vincent had no clue) and made a beeline for it. It was currently lapping up the various pools of the magical substance that were lying around the machine before moving on to the main course.
Vincent had no intention of letting it do that. The thing had proven hostile before, and it would probably be even more dangerous if it absorbed too much mako. He pointed his gun at it and emptied the clip into the beast. The creature (if Vincent recalled correctly from the briefing, Hojo had dubbed it a "Makorwocky" for reasons only that only he knew) shook its body/head a bit at the fact that it had just felt eighteen bullets enter its side, and then turned to Vincent, in pain, but apparently not fazed at all by the fact that it had been shot. Lightning shot forth from the makorwocky's gaping maw, leaving Vincent little time to get away. Out of the corner of his eye as he nimbly dashed to his right, Vincent saw the tip of his cape grow a new singe mark to accompany the numerous bullet holes there.
"Vincent," buzzed Shelke's voice through the radio, "The makorwocky is equipped with a thick hide that is derived from the same protein as spider's silk. You will not be able to pierce its skin with your bullets."
"Understood."
Vincent had no intention of piercing its skin anyway. After that last attack, Vincent had decided he really needed to deal with the monstrosity's lightning attack before he got hit with a lightning bolt. Vincent quickly reloaded his gun as he thought of a plan of action.
Three more arcs of electricity burst forth from the creature's mouth, forcing Vincent away from his current position and up into the air. He deliberately jumped toward the creature, hoping it would fall into his trap. It did. The monster took a few steps forward and placed itself directly below where Vincent was about to land. Perfect. Vincent with his full clip of six shots (or eighteen bullets) began unloading. Into the creature's mouth.
BLAM! Vincent saw bits of tongue fly out.
BLAM! A uvula vanished into the makorwocky's gullet.
BLAM! Several of the beast's razor sharp teeth followed the uvula downward.
Vincent shifted his gun a little as he neared landing
BLAM! The creature's left claw snapped off.
BLAM! The creature's right claw snapped off.
Vincent finally spread his legs and planted them on the monster's face as he landed and the creature began to writhe in pain. Specifically, Vincent planted his legs inside the monster's eyeballs. The creature shook and twisted, flailing its now harmless arms about as it tried to get Vincent off its face. Vincent had no intention of going anywhere, though. He twisted his torso backwards and shoved his gun up into the makorwocky's single large nostril (or nose-hole or whatever it actually was). He highly doubted the inside of the makorwocky's nasal cavity was armored.
BLAM! Vincent fired the sixth and last shot in his gun straight upward, directly into the creature's brain. It shook a bit, this time Vincent actually getting off its face and stepping back, staggered around a bit (looking not too much unlike a chicken without a head), and then collapsed.
"Mission accomplished." he radioed back to HQ.
Silence. Then, "Vincent…I just found two things. First, the reason why Hojo never tested the creature's growth ability was that at the time he did not possess a container large enough to hold the creature in its new form. Second…I just learned that the creature is capable of regenerating itself in the presence of large amounts of mako."
Illustrating Shelke's point, a loud roar filled the room from behind Vincent. He turned around to find a completely healthy, and far larger makorwocky standing with its back to the mako reactor. It was now about the size of a medium-sized locomotive.
Vincent didn't usually curse, but he felt a strong urge to right then. He reached for his gun belt to get a new clip of bullets. He felt air, leather, and maybe a bit of pocket lint.
Vincent made an exception to his policy of not cursing right then.
The creature roared again and advanced on Vincent, lightning jumping from tooth to tooth in its mouth, ready to fly out at its prey at any time. Fresh out of options, and staring a rather rapid death that probably involved a lot of volts, ohms, and other fun physics words, something in Vincent snapped.
At one time, Vincent really would not have minded dying. Back then, he had always been wracked with guilt for the sins of his past, and felt no real reason why death should be something he feared. It would, after all, be a suitable cessation and penance for his sins.
Five years ago, inside a crowded theatre in Golden Saucer, Vincent had changed his mind. Vincent had something to live for, and he didn't intend to die while that thing lived as well.
Vincent's desire to live drove him to continue fighting, even despite his low odds of survival. It also drove him to grow a foot taller and sprout fur, sharp teeth, several inches of muscle and a tail.
Miles away, on an entirely different continent, inside the Headquarters of the World Regenesis Organization, a girl no taller than four and a half feet sat in a chair and tried very hard not to squeal. For reasons she still didn't quite understand, Shelke had always thought the Galian Beast was exceedingly cute. It didn't make any sense, she knew, since its primary purpose was to tear Vincent's enemies into very small pieces, or alternately to throw fireballs at them and charbroil them, but nonetheless, she still thought it was far cuter than any tiny kitten, fluffy bunny, or playful puppy. She'd considered the possibility that it was only because she knew that the Galian Beast was Vincent inside, but that seemed unlikely, since she didn't find regular, humanoid Vincent "cute." Handsome, yes, cute, no. Eventually, Shelke had reached the slightly depressing conclusion that the reason she found something like the Galian Beast cute was that something about being raised in an environment like Deepground had profoundly perverted her mental definition of what "cute" was. Whatever the reason, though, Shelke always felt a strange urge to squeal with delight whenever she saw Vincent turn into the Beast. She knew that usually meant he was having difficulty in a fight, but she really couldn't help how she felt…
However, regardless of how she felt Shelke did know one thing for certain. Shelke Valentine does NOT squeal.
Shelke Valentine ESPECIALLY does not squeal in public.
And so, much like she had many times in the past, Shelke simply smiled, and returned to what she was doing.
The makorwocky looked at the ball of purplish energy where its prey had stood a second ago and blinked in confusion. When it opened its eyes again, the ball too had disappeared. In its place was a moderately large, furry, vaguely lupine creature. It blinked again.
Its food had disappeared into a ball of light…and then a bigger animal had appeared in its place…when things ran away from the makorwocky, everything else in the area usually ran that way too…unless they were trying to defend something. What defended small animals? The mothers of small animals. So the big purple animal had to be the mother animal. Where there were mothers, there were usually eggs. Eggs were good to eat. So if the makorwocky defeated the mother…it could steal the eggs from its nest and eat them.
Vincent, of course, knew nothing of the makorwocky's thought process. All he knew was that the sooner he made the makorwocky STOP thinking, the less people of Junon that would die, and the sooner he could go home. The fact that the makorwocky was simply staring at him as opposed to shooting lightning bolts at him (was it in shock? Frozen in fear? Was it simply stupid? Usually when Vincent went beast, everything around him either started attacking him or running away) was just another advantage he could use. He barreled toward it like a runaway freight car, slamming into the giant monster's leg about the same time that it concluded that he was a mother animal and that it wanted his eggs (?). The makorwocky reeled backwards, thrown off-balance by the surprise attack. It soon recovered however, and electricity began flying out of its mouth at Vincent. Vincent ignored them. Somehow, when he was a beast, very few things actually seemed to bother him much. Bullets, fire, large blocks of stone…not a whole lot worried a seven-foot-tall purple killing machine. Sure, the lightning hurt, and Vincent was fairly sure his muscles would be rather sore when he transformed back, but Vincent was also fairly sure that his claws would hurt the makorwocky a lot more than the lightning was hurting him now.
Vincent ran forward through the lightning and leapt upwards. Once again, he attached himself to the makorwocky's face, although this time it was with his four sets of claws. The beast's thick hide might have been a match for bullets, but it was no match for three inch long claws and about 400 pounds of muscle. Vincent began tearing chunks out of the makorwocky's face, only stopping to leap out of the way when the creature's own claws came flying down at him. The end result was that the makorwocky ended up clawing itself, causing it to roar in pain. Vincent stepped back as it reeled and took a running start to his next attack, leaping upward and throwing all his supernatural strength and weight into a single strike at the monster's face.
Mako reactors are full of two things. Mako, and lots of electricity. Despite the fact that the makorwocky produced large amounts of electricity, only certain parts of its body were shielded from the adverse effects of electrocution. This, unfortunately for it, did not include certain important things like its heart, its stomach, or its brain. The effects, therefore, of being knocked backwards into the mako reactor's center by Vincent's attack, bringing it in contact with several thousand amperes worth of electricity, were, as would be expected, not conducive to the creature's continued existence.
The people of Junon experienced a short brownout as their source of power was briefly rerouted to the makorwocky's body. The power returned when the makorwocky, now thoroughly fried and crispy, slumped over in death, allowing power flow to return to normal.
Vincent carefully walked over to the corpse, nudged it with his foot (ouch! There must have still been a slight current running through it…), then turned to leave. As an afterthought, he formed a small ball of fire in his claw and threw it at the corpse, just in case. He left the burning corpse behind for whatever crew would follow him into the reactor to clean up after him. He considered transforming back into his normal shape, but then thought better of it. Since transforming into a giant monster didn't reload his guns, he'd better go find a stock of ammunition to deal with any more rogue security devices before transforming back.
His voice several octaves lower (which was saying something, Vincent didn't exactly have the most high-pitched voice in the world), significantly more gruff and a lot harder to understand (his mouth was no longer properly shaped for speech, you see), Vincent reported over the radio,
"Mission accomplished. Where should I go for extraction?"
On the other end of the line, in the WRO Headquarters:
"What in the world did he just say?"
"I have no idea. I think it had something to do with the 'wares' being 'excellent'."
"No…I think he said something about 'accolades for shoes.'"
"None of that makes any sense, you two!"
"Well, yeah, but…let's see you come up with anything better!"
"Umm…well…"
Shelke lifted up her helmet to watch her three fellow technicians argue about Vincent's statement. It was always amusing to watch the three of them argue. Those three technicians had been with the WRO since its formation, and, while they were the best of friends, they also very rarely could agree about anything. Their playful banter was completely without ill intent of course, and that made it fun for both the participants and the observers. She sincerely hoped that one day she would find even more friends that she could be as close to as those three were to each other. For now, though, she was content to focus her attention on a single, very special friend.
"He said he was done with his mission and asked where he should go to be picked up." She curtly informed her colleagues, then lowered the helmet again, leaving the three to shift their argument to about how she could possibly understand Vincent's garbled beast speech. In all reality, Shelke didn't know how she could understand him. It wasn't like she had practice or anything (not even Shelke conversed regularly with Vincent in his beast form, that would be just silly). She just made the best guess about what she thought he said, and it always turned out to be right. In any case, it was more important that he understood her right now anyway, since he had just asked her a question.
"Vincent?"
A growl.
"Your extraction point is in front of the inn in Junon village."
Shelke could feel Reeve and the other control room staff staring at her through her helmet.
"That's not the extraction point…" she could hear several people muttering.
Shelke smiled (still a rare occurrence, though noticeably less so of late) at them and continued speaking. She felt a little guilty, she'd probably get an earful from Reeve later for making one of their helicopter pilots wait at Junon for the three hours Vincent was down in the reactor for no reason, but today was a special day when Shelke thought she had every right to do something ridiculous.
"I have arranged for a chopper to meet you there. It will take you to the next location where you are required."
Vincent immediately dropped out of beast form, and nearly dropped the magazine of bullets he'd just torn out of a security turret out of shock.
"Wait…no one mentioned that this assignment had a second phase."
Shelke's grin grew to proportions that only Reeve and any other staff that had been with the WRO for at least three years had ever seen before. She'd worn it on a day exactly three years ago, and on a day about two months before that.
"That is incorrect. Are you familiar with a place known as Edge of Edge?"
There was a long silence.
"…No…"
"As its name would suggest, it is a restaurant located on the outskirts of Edge. They recently hired a chef who apparently prepares very excellent curry. I thought it would be a good idea to verify this report."
Vincent did drop the clip of bullets this time.
"W-what?"
"I will rendezvous with you there."
Vincent's jaw dropped even wider.
"Wait…you can't possibly intend…I'm still wearing my…"
"Shelke out."
The radio did not indicate that communication had been terminated, but nothing Vincent said got a response from Shelke after that.
After a few seconds, Vincent recovered his composure. He sighed and then made a noise which surprised everyone still listening to the other end of the radio. He laughed. Perhaps he would need to cancel that lesson on the meaning of the word "romantic" after all.
Shelke raised her helmet, stood up, and began walking towards the control center's exit.
"Wait! Shelke!" Reeve's voice called out from behind her.
She stopped. "Yes, commissioner?"
"What are you doing? The mission has not yet concluded, your duties…"
Shelke slipped off her left glove, revealing a very simple gold ring.
"Commissioner, when I put this ring on, I took on some other duties besides those to this organization. Vincent is entirely capable of taking care of himself, and the other operators can guide him out of the reactor just as well as I." She donned her glove and turned around. "Excuse me. I have things I must do in my room before leaving."
Reeve was speechless. What in the world had come over…suddenly he understood.
"I see. Perhaps an exception to the normal regulations can be made today."
"Thank you, Commissioner."
Shelke walked out the door. There was a certain pink dress that Shelke needed to change into. There was also a little blue box with a little silver demon charm inside it that she'd also need to fetch before she headed out. She knew she had to hurry, the helicopter that was going to bring her to Edge would arrive in…19 minutes. She should probably run.
Shelke almost laughed as she broke into a brisk jog. She was fairly sure that Vincent had been wondering if she'd forgotten what day it was all those times he'd paused today. She hoped someday he'd learn.
Shelke never forgot ANYTHING.