Chapter 8 Tricking, Searching, Inferring, Trampling Down Other People, And Then We Get The Hell Out!
James wasn't sure what to think of the city of Junon. He had what Sephiroth had come to call "Cat Sense" with the intended meaning being he had as much (more likely less) sense in his head as a cat. However James also had a cat like sense of smell, hearing, nightvision, and reflexes.
The town of Junon did not smell very good to James, a sentiment Alex seemed to be sharing by the way he kept wrinkling his nose with each sniff. It was the mako reactors and the pollution, the brief jaunt through the country had only made their scent stronger, like numbness giving way to pain. Of course there was something else worth smelling in the city, fish.
James could eat and digest just about anything, due to an ironclad internal processing system. Apparently Shinra had wanted James to be able to survive in just about any conditions, including having to eat grass. That aside, James did have a particular love for fish. Preferably in the western style of eating them raw and freshly pulled from an ocean or lake, not that you could really get that kind of thing in Midgar.
Thus, right now he was blocking out the scent of mako and focusing on fish, a distraction that Alex sadly didn't have. There were plenty of fish not far from here, fish and... "Those greedy bastards!"
It was not just the non sequitur of the comment that got every eye to focus on James, it was also the color; James rarely swore. James thrust a finger out towards where his keen nose was detecting the scent. "Shinra is disposing of chemicals and other stuff into the water! The oil they use to grease gears with and the like, it goes into the ocean! Those punks are killing off my fish!"
/Your fish Ragabash? A bird in the maw is worth two in a bush. I think similar things of fish in the ocean.\ The others had more constructive comments to make particularly Mirri. "James, I need to take you out in a boat sometime with a few sticks of Tri-Nitro-Toluene to a lake I know of."
"Please Mirri, the last thing anyone needs to do is encourage him." "He's right. I can feel something is wrong with this place. A pain that goes deep because it starts below the surface." James kept his stance, pointing staunchly like the statue of a great general (which was an ironic thought standing next to Sephiroth) cast in stone.
Mirri apparently found the inherent humor in the situation of arguing over fish while they were walking into a town that was in reality little more then a Shinra military base because she began to smile. Sephiroth on the other hand didn't. "Mirri take James and go look for any aquatic entrenches into the base, Aeris, Alex, and I will probe the less eccentric ways in." James and Mirri both saluted before they were off.
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"Did you see that?" The first Shinra guard lowered his gun slightly as he turned to look at his partner. "See what?" "I swear to God, a dog just looked at me."
Even underneath the helmet he knew that the other guard's eyebrows went up. "While I'm sure the new president is glad you're looking after his safety, checking for canine saboteurs is a bit much."
The other guard scowled. "Well I only saw it for a moment, but hell if I've ever seen a dog like that in this town. Didn't look like the mangy half fed mongrels you usually see. Thing walked across that street right there head held high, turned and looked at me! Moment I really meet his eyes; he darts round a building and vanishes. Hell if I've ever seen a dog that big anywhere before!"
As he spoke the guard put down his gun and gestured with his hands measuring out the dog's length. The other guard just glared. "Maybe it was one of those freak breeds they're working on for protection back in Midgar. I hear that the new president has one. People say it's black as night, and that its eyes are just two big black circles, can't tell the pupil from the rest of it."
The other guard picked his gun back up and looked down it as if aiming at the dog he had seen. "That thing had yellow eyes, it was like a wolf!" "Ohh please, what is a wolf doing walking around the town with no one paying attention to it?" The guard just scowled at his partner.
"Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw, I mean you don't see dogs that size walking around, and the thing looked at me! Besides, they say some huge wolf escaped from Shinra's labs recently."
"Right, so one wolf, escaped from Shinra HQ, and then it somehow got out of Midgar. After that it made its way through the wilderness past Kalm. Then it somehow on its own made it past the Midgar Zolom, only way it could do that would be if it could run as fast as a chocobo. Then it made its way to Junon, all without anyone seeing it and tracking it down."
The other guard growled as well. "Well they say a group of terrorists broke out the same time as the wolf, maybe they're helping it." "Yeah, the wolf is so smart that it can tell who's trying to help it and who isn't. Hell, I bet the damn wolf can talk! If you see it again you better shoot it full of holes, I bet the terrorists are using it for recon. But you better buy some silver bullets, too, cause they say the thing that escaped is actually a lycanthrope."
"Hey, just cause I said I saw a dog is no reason to make me sound crazy."
-----
James picked up a small rock, and then with a skillful throw, he tossed it out to sea. The rock skipped a couple of times, and then sunk. To be fair it wasn't just a few skips, James was actually very good at throwing stones. It took almost a full dozen skips before it finally did slip below the surface.
Mirri watched on with a mix of pride and interest. "Jeeze James, how do you do that kind of thing?" James calmly selected another rock from the beach going over it carefully. "Well it's sort of a collection of things. You have to find just the right kind of stone. You need one that's mostly flat, but just the right amount of incline. Then you have to wind it up with the sort of twist in the wrist. At least I guess it is. I mean seriously Mirri, I can do anything well! Skip stones, swing a scythe, shoot a gun, carry a tune, dance, sing, hell you should see me flip a coin across my knuckles!"
There was a long pause and James nodded to himself, there were a few things in life which he believed in. One of them was that the people who made him may not have been exactly pure of heart, but they weren't particularly angry with him. Nor was he particularly angry at them, everything in life was a circle and what went around came around.
Granted sometimes the circles required a little jumpstart from the people who took part in it, but it all ended up even one way or another, no need to worry about it. In any case, the people who had designed James had apparently been cut from a different cloth then those who made Sephiroth.
Hojo believed in taking raw material and making something with it. The people who made James believed in rolling a perfect product right off the production line. No need for a child, a subject born to reach maturity in days was what they made. Why work on beating the humanity out of a child, when they could make something living, and yet un-human, thus giving it no empathy to break?
More to the point, there had been one crippling flaw which people couldn't help but notice about Sephiroth, he wasn't happy. Quite a few people speculated over why he vanished, but a central thesis of the thing ran that if you were going to make a killing machine, you should had to make it happy when it did its job. This was about the same time that those scientists who had been studying various types of drugs came to understand how they affected the brain.
More to the point, they had studied how they could create the natural release of chemicals through unnatural means. They had extensively studied the chemicals that determined if a person was happy or sad. Since modifying the brain to release a flow of chemicals to make James happy every time he killed would be too difficult, they did the next best thing.
Every so often James got a random blast of "Seratonin" it was possibly the only chemical term he understood, it was the chemical that produced happiness. Had there been sufficient length between these blasts of happiness, James might have suffered from bipolar disorder.
Thankfully he dodged that bullet quite nicely, because of some studies done on people whose minds had been thoroughly messed up by drugs, the doctors had discovered down to the watch tick the length between doses that would cause withdrawal. So James was in effect the ultimate hippy, coasting from one all natural high to the next, not that coasting was the right word for it, "gliding" would have worked better.
James' mind came in only two shades "Happy" and "Less Happy". The snipping of various parts of his brain, or redistribution of their function made it so he simply couldn't feel sad. Since this was an all natural event (even if it was the equivalent of a brain naturally producing THC) his brain didn't get damaged, unlike actual people who attempted to reach his level of nirvana.
Each blast of happiness had to be as strong as the first; otherwise he would turn into a zombie just waiting for his fix that was never quite enough. But the effect was as strong each time, and it was timed to the second for James' convenience. He was a well trained cat, no reason to worry, his food would be provided for, he simply had to do his tasks, his brain would provide rewards. All in all it was very impressive.
The one down side was that at times he would turn into one of Skinner's Pigeons. He didn't quite know what got brought his treats, so when one happened he would make note of it. Then at times he would repeat that behavior, and wait. This trend was only reinforced by the fact that sooner or later he did get his reward if he spent his time doing the same thing over and over again.
Suffice to say, these ticks could show up at the wrong time in the wrong place, but James wasn't worried about that. In fact James was almost never worried about anything. Sometimes when going over the notes for James' construction Sephiroth told James that his "parents" must have been experimenting on themselves to find what they where trying to reach with James.
That was the only possible explanation for the things James had been given the ability to do. Or maybe those scientists had actually been thinking in James' best interest (which was clearly more then could be said for Sephiroth's creators) because James could do just about anything he wanted to do well enough. Or maybe they just wanted James to have an active social-life whatever that meant, it was clearly something Sephiroth had never had.
Granted according to Sephiroth, who spent a lot of his time explaining to James exactly what he was (and James did try to pay attention) from having gone over the scientists notes. He said James was "Sterile" one of the many words that Sephiroth had used which had gone over James' head. Even more confusing was something about the causes of his sterility.
It wasn't anything wrong with James' body, it was just different. It didn't quite dot all the 'I's and cross all the T's chromosomally with normal humans. James had come to grips with one piece of it, he didn't have to worry about whatever he did with Mirri. Granted this being Mirri, it was already more or less self regulating, Mirri pointed the way and James followed.
"Think you could skip one out to hitting that rock?" James followed Mirri's finger, saw the rock she was pointing at, it was a good distance out. He arched his arm back for a good wind up, followed through with a nice wrist flick. "Splish" "Splish" "Splash" "Spish." The stone kept dancing across the waves heading out towards the rock, it came closer and closer. It was only one more now... the rock almost sank beneath the waves, but found some hidden strength (possibly from the way James was flat on his back urging the stone onwards) and it slammed into the much larger rock.
James' stone shattered into bits of dirt followed by a cheer from James. However, something bad started happening almost to the moment after James' stone hit the rock, for one thing, the rock moved. It was small, but as rocks were not particularly known for their mobility, it was quite noticeable, particularly when the motion was towards you.
It was followed by another more noticeable motion, as the spire came closer. As it did James felt as his if entire insides had suddenly turned very cold. "Umm... Mirri, didn't Seph say that animals could be mutated by exposing them to mako? Because I think that Shinra might not have been so great about keeping that from getting in the water also..."
Mirri quickly came to understand what James meant as the giant spire came forward. It was not just a spire, more of it emerged from the water, the spiked shell of a monstrous turtle. It stood perhaps 20 feet tall on great long legs like giant stone pillars, slowly but inexorably moving closer.
Its mouth held no teeth, nor did it need any: it was big enough to swallow either of them whole, which it clearly intended to do. James stopped looking for another flat stone to throw and started looking for where he had put down his scythe. He soon found its metal blade shining in the sunlight against the sand, and then he turned to face his foe.
The giant turtle came eye to eye with a being much smaller then himself, but just as determined. "I can eat you." James spoke the words slowly as he gazed into the things eyes. Sadly, the turtle must have been having similar thoughts, because it continued its unstoppable movement towards James.
It never reached him. James put his feet to the ground somehow forcing the sand to give traction beneath his sole. James launched himself and landed on the turtles shell without managing to skewer himself on one of the spikes. The turtle's head twisted to the side slightly, not able to see or harm James but knowing he was there.
James drove his scythe into the turtles shell and quickly discovered that the only thing he was close to achieving was blunting his weapon. The turtle was unable to reach James to harm him, and James was unable to pierce the turtle's amour to harm him. There was a pause between the two of them as they just stood there, unable to kill each other. Thankfully James was not all alone even if he was surrounded by water and a very upset turtle who wanted to kill him just because James skipped a rock into him.
----
Mirri loaded blades into her gloves and held them perfectly steady, her shot had to be perfect. She still launched all 10 just in case her aim was a little off however. It wasn't, the blades that came from her middle finger's slot on either hand slammed into the huge thing's eyes.
Mirri smiled to herself as the monster let out a wail of pain, it was simply a matter of aiming in the right place. The thing very quickly began to collapse into the water, the four legs folding under it. The monster was not nearly as strong as it looked just like most foes she had encountered.
James was a very adept swimmer as it turned out, and he knew when the getting was good. Executing a perfect swan dive he left the things back and entered into the water creating only the smallest splash. A few moments later, James' head reemerged as he pulled himself out of the water, and back onto the beach.
He looked disheveled beyond imagination which was an impressive feat for James who normally looked if not disheveled, at least far from formal. He hadn't kicked his shoes off, and he had somehow managed to hold onto a sopping wet hat in his right hand along with his scythe in his left. He began to dry himself off in the method preferred by cats of every pelt, with Mirri keeping her distance.
Once he had managed to transfer a good deal of the wetness form himself to the sand around him (and in return transfer sand to himself) he finally stood up and put his hat back on. The hat however was still soggy and was easily lifted off his head by his ears which where currently perked straight up.
His eye twitched widely, which was oddly in tune with his normal oddities. "Those..." James paused again as the entire right side of his face twitched at once. "Shinra... they're running an electric current..." James suffered from another twitch but it was slightly less noticeable, all things considered.
"Through the water. Felt like..." James' hat got whipped off his head by that twitch, it was quite a doozey. "4,000 volts. My god not only polluting the water, but they're turning this place into the world's biggest fish fry. If I hadn't been made resistant to
electricity I might have died in that stuff."
James had another twitch as electricity that was in his body surged again. Of course only James could handle the mater of his own demise so calmly, while still suffering from the effects of coming close to it. Another twitch causing his eye to go wide. Mirri slowly turned her eyes to a giant structure rising out of the water.
"James, I think I see where your electric current is coming from." Yet another twitch, in a part of her mind Mirri hoped that James hadn't suffered any additional mental oddities due to the electric shock.
"There's no way in I'm swimming back out to that thing Mirri. Right now I'll just be glad if socks don't stick to me for the rest of my life. Ohh yeah, and if I can get my ears to stop standing straight up that would be good to." Mirri looked at the huge structure that led upwards into the sky, knowing it had only one possible destination. "No James, I don't think we're going to swim. I have another idea entirely to go with. For now let's head back to the others."
----
So are we going to use my plan?" Alex padded across the beach, nosing the sand slightly testing it's firmness as he went. The Silver Fang nodded to the Black Fury and then to Alex. "Yes, from what Alex tells me the elevator up is always guarded. We could take the guards, but the elevator leads into the middle of the base, and then it's Shinra HQ all over again. That's exactly what we want to avoid at the moment. If we can get from here to the other cotenant without making a major blip on Shinra's radar, we'll be in good shape for being forgotten for a while. But if we leave a trail of dead bodies in our wake over here as well Shinra will keep focusing on us."
The Child of Gaia's voice sounded much like the Ragabash's except without the respect for the Silver Fang. "So we only have to break into a Shinra base. Get onto a Shinra boat along with the President, and spend the entire trip across the ocean without being seen by anyone who works for Shinra." The Ragabash however responded in kind. "It'll be a snap."
He made the appropriate human hand motion to go with his gesture. "Seph..iroth can do anything when he sets his mind to it." The Silver Fang's eyes where locked on Alex. "I saw you leap onto the Midgar Zolom's back. Do you think you can make this one?" Alex carefully pawed the sand, and then looked at the structure. It was at least a 30 foot jump and he would need to be around 15 ten feet high to grab hold one of the supports.
He snorted into the sand. /I can do this. The jump is nothing particularly difficult.\ The Silver Fang nodded to him. "Okay then. Once you get up there, shift to human and try to find a guard uniform for camouflage. Your goal is to deactivate the Shinra security system that monitors the base. If you can turn that things power off for about five minutes we can take the guards, use the elevator and be out without them realizing it."
Wandering around inside a corrupted Caern, Alex seemed to be accumulating a lot of experience at it recently. /How shall I inform you when I have accomplished the mission?\ Alex had his first doubts when it came to this mission after what the Silver Fang did. He reached into a pocket on his artificial coat (the pocket was the only useful part of the artificial coat that Alex saw) and pulled out another collar.
This one however was not made of silver, no spikes and clearly had an opening and closing device, not that Alex liked the prospect of it around his neck any more. /Tell me again why I have to do this?\ "Because you're the only one besides me who can make that jump, and your eyes don't glow green. In any case, this thing was designed for James; it has a two-way radio built into it. I'll be able to tell your general direction and hear you through it. Once you do complete the job, turn human and speak into it, if you have any problems about working the controls I can instruct you. Think you can handle it?"
/I am a disciple of Fenris, I will fulfill my duties and not quibble over how I do it. That kind of thing is for Red Talons, the Get of Fenris will win at any cost to themselves.\ The Silver Fang nodded as he fixed the thing around one of Alex's legs (rather then the neck Alex noted approvingly) and made sure it was tight. "Right then go to it."
Alex got a running start and managed to build up a fair amount of momentum even on the sand (his feet after all were designed to give good traction through snow) he channeled his spiritual energy and leapt. It was not straight up as in with the Zolom, but once again the results where the same. Alex flew through the air and almost slammed face first into a ladder leading up to the platform.
He wrapped his paw around it holding onto it, and in that precarious position he shifted. His thinner, more dexterous human paws proved far more adept for moving himself along the ladder. He made sure the collar was still fastened around his leg and began to make his way up the ladder. It was slow going as Alex wasn't experienced at this kind of thing, but he made progress and never once was he in any danger of falling. He kept climbing until the rest of his pack where nothing more then specks of dust.
Finally after what seemed an eternity he managed to come to the end of the ladder. He pulled himself up, and for a moment his eyes where drawn to the human flying machine. Not that Alex blamed the human for creating something like it. Humans were always trying to find ways to do with their machines what animals could do on their own.
It was not a bad attempt at wishing to fly, Alex had heard that it even worked. However the thing was still a complete human waste, what kind of people had time for this kind of thing? They had short lives, they should be bedding their mates rather then trying to fly. There where plenty of things to be enjoyed, but humans seemed to have built up an iron wall against that kind of thing.
The Silver Fang was the best example Alex had ever seen of this principal, the Silver Fang would never be happy. Alex knew what it was to be happy, he was happy after he killed Wyrm servants, and he was happy when he went arm in arm with the silver light and ran with the wolves.
Sometimes Alex wondered (not for a particularly long amount of time) if ability to deny oneself happiness was the thing that separated Cetra and humans from animals. If such then the Ragabash, being completely unable to deny himself the ability to be happy, was by far the smartest animal Alex had ever seen.
He wondered what another wolf would say on the subject of whether the Ragabash was human or an animal. He spoke the human language and walked up right, but Alex had seen other animals walk upright. As such only the matter of speaking the human language separated the Ragabash from being an animal, since this ability could be attributed to his upbringing Alex settled with the Ragabash as an extremely smart (or stupid depending on one's point of view) animal. Possibly somewhat like what might happen if you gave a wolf, no make that a dog the ability to speak human.
In fact that was a wonderful "analogy" as the human word went. He was fairly sure if the Black Fury threw a stick the only question the Ragabash would ask himself would be if he should return it in hand or in his mouth. Alex then scolded himself for allowing his mind to get away with him, and shifted back to his more natural form, people would pay less (or want to pay less) attention to him in that form.
He padded over to a door that clearly lead into the base, and clearly wasn't much in the way of a worry to Shinra. To open it all he had to do was get up on his hind legs momentarily and push a paw against a big button. The door slid open, and Alex ambled through as if he owned the place.
The smell of human was strong in this place, but it was also old, he didn't detect and humans currently living in this place. He raised his head and took another sniff this time searching for the smell of machinery instead of humans. It was to the left. He padded down the unoccupied hallway turned left and came to another door. This one looked far more important, and it lacked and convenient buttons to open it.
However it did have a slot that Alex had begun to recognize. It was a piece of machinery having to do with "cards" that would open the door. Alex had come to spend quite a lot of time dealing with goblins who specialized in deactivating the technology humanity was constantly using as a crutch. He closed his eyes and held up a paw before the slot. A moment later a shower of sparks danced across the door, and it slid open, most likely never to close again.
-----
The voice was almost a snarl at first. "I'm in the center of this weave, tell me how to cut the strand you wish." Sephiroth closed his eyes visualizing the controls. "There should be a red lever next to the large screen, pull it as far down as it goes." There was another pause as Sephiroth held the small receiver up to his ear making sure he could hear anything Alex said.
The only thing he could hear was what sounded like various lupine profanities. "In case you didn't know Silver Fang, I have little experience with the things you humans call 'colors'. I can't see them in my true form, and though I can distinguish them like this, I can hardly tell which one is 'red' just by the sight of it." Slapping his forehead in frustration was beneath Sephiroth's dignity, but his hand flickered before he caught himself and settled for an exasperated sigh; he should have seen this coming.
It made plenty of sense, wolves were colorblind. He paused for a moment, marshaled his thoughts and spoke again. "Think of James, anything about him should suffice, eyes, hair, clothing, ears..." There was another pause on the other end of the line punctuated by a small snicker.
"The Ragabash, ah, now I 'see'... that should do it. I should warn you, there is no one in this Caern, it is rather unsettling, as if they are preparing a trap..." Sephiroth returned the receiver to his pocket, he wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but forewarned was forearmed.
Sephiroth turned to the other three who where gathered around him and gave them a small nod confirming success. "We're ready to go. Apparently the base must have already been mostly emptied to welcome the new president. Mirri your on, two guards." Mirri was the embodiment of relaxation, even standing up her entire body was without the slightest tension. "No problem, dead or should I just knock 'em out?"
Sephiroth took a quick glance at Aeris against his will before he answered. "No need to kill those two flunkeys. With any luck after they tell their story to Shinra they'll be busy looking for us in the city while we're on the other side of the world." Mirri nodded and turned to Aeris smiling and winking to her. "Okay Aeris, since you don't have any siblings and neither do I feel free to consider me your big sister. Now prepare to witness flirtation 101, pretending to sell yourself."
With that Mirri went around the side of the house and began to make her way towards the guards. Her voice carried back to them, and it left no questions at all. "Hey boys your friends at the barracks sent me, they told me you've been standing up so long that you disserve a chance to lie down..."
A few moments the later the sound of two helmeted heads being smashed against each other resonated and the group finally went around the house and into sight. Mirri was calmly dusting off her hands over the unconscious bodies of the two Shinra guards.
-----
When the elevator opened Alex was waiting for them, as himself. Thinking that last statement made no more particular sense to Aeris than speaking it out loud would have. He was himself regardless... fine he was waiting for them on all fours with fur. It was a rather cut and dried way of saying it, but there it was.
Alex nodded to them as best as his current anatomy would allow and turned using his nose to point in the correct direction. /The way out is that way, it still has the smell of humans, not like in here, no excess of gunpowder.\ Sephiroth had started fingering Masamune again in the elevator, but then he had ample reason to. "Have you checked to see if there are any guards between us and there?" Alex flicked his tail upwards, coupled with what he "said" it probably meant follow. /None, they're all gone to some moot. Well almost all, there was one in the room over looking the controls, I dealt with him before I contacted you.\
Aeris noticed that a small trickle of blood that was dripping down Alex's muzzle. Alex must have noticed what Aeris' eyes where fixed on because his tongue quickly licked up that blood. Alex looked like he was going to lead the way but Sephiroth took over for him, and pointed in a different direction then Alex was pointing.
/Why should we go that way, Silver Fang? It goes further in to this labyrinth.\ Sephiroth didn't break his stride. "Because unless they've rebuilt the base, which I doubt, my way leads back to the quartermaster's office. I do have a plan for how we can get out of here undetected."
Mirri instantly grasped Sephiroth's point, but those two had been together the longest. "Ohh god, I thought I was never going to have to wear blue again..." "So did I Mirri, so did I..."
----
Aeris found it odd to be wearing a Shinra uniform. It was odd, but then she could have been worse of. Alex seemed to take wearing the thing rather unhappily and Mirri was downright annoyed. "You know General, I'd suggest that you wear one of these also, and let me be an officer, silver hair and green eyes have a way of setting off alarm bells."
Sephiroth unlike the other four was not dressed in a simple blue sexless Shinra guard uniform. Instead he was wearing the red uniform of a Shinra officer. He had taken precautions to tuck (and it looked rather painful to Aeris or at least uncomfortable) his long silver hair into the collar of the thing just about the rest of it hidden under the hat that went with it.
Sephiroth made sure it fit and then nodded to himself. "If the rest of you will follow me, I think we should have no trouble with getting on board the ship. Let's march."
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OWAN: I admit it. I crave attention. Unless we start getting more reviews, we'll probably just move on to our next story. My thanks go out to Demonsurfer, our most consistent source of reviews, but if no one else reads it, I can't help but feel that I'm wasting bandwidth. So, tell your friends to read and review, please.
Reposted both to fix some errors and to reveal deleted scenes