Kimera Assault
Cloud and Tifa were walking quietly towards Haruna's shop, knowing it was still the middle of the work day. Of course, after Rufus' effective attack on company storage, on every floor, they had been sent away to do other things for the day. Both Reeve and Scarlet had been bemused by this sudden shift in the state of affairs in the building, Vincent had been a cross between amused, exasperated, and annoyed, and all the other Turks had hightailed it to other places in the city for the day. The problem was, Cloud and Tifa had nowhere else to go except Haruna's. Or maybe Aeris' place or the Church.
Hex was on Tifa's shoulder this time as she peered around curiously, and Tyra was at Cloud's feet, trotting along happily, as she knew where they were going now. The blond boy wasn't sure why something felt wrong there just then, but he still felt a wrongness, even though nothing of huge importance had ever happened there before. Well, other than that meeting with Fuhito. Despite said meeting, that hadn't felt anything like what he currently felt like, and the only thing he could think of was that the Lifestream was trying to warn him of something.
"Tifa, I think something's wrong," he commented finally. They weren't too far from the store by then, so he kept his voice low.
"Should we go to the house instead?" she asked in a thoughtful tone.
"...I don't think that would help, one way or the other," he answered with a furrowed brow. "Like...you know, damned if you do, damned if you don't?"
"No good answer?" Tifa reiterated, and he nodded. The girl sighed. "Well, I guess we keep going and see what happens. I wonder if Aeris is there—if she is, maybe that has something to do with it?"
"Maybe," Cloud sighed faintly. "Which would be annoying, but possible."
That produced a chuckle, but as they got within view of the shop, screaming started further up the street—down by the entrance to Haruna's shop. The two traded alarmed looks, then ran in that direction, which wasn't easy against the flow of people running away from the disturbance.
When they were closer and the area had cleared, Cloud could see several rather large bugs similar to legged Headhunters—if any of his memories were right, they were probably Kimera Bugs, which had been old Lab escapees that had then bred in the sewers. But that then left the question of why they were right at the shop...And apparently attacking Aeris as she laid on the ground, seemingly dazed, as that large, placid Jumping crouched over her and a shield lit around both it and Aeris, protecting them.
As they watched, a blond girl in the Academy uniform tried to attack the one closest to Aeris and the Jumping. Because Kimera Bugs were so large, it was easily able to swat her and send her flying down the street—and right into Cloud, who yelped as he caught her and tried to re-balance himself so he didn't fall over. When he looked down at her, he had to just blink a couple times as he processed what he was seeing—wasn't she Yufi? How was she blond haired and blue eyed? Or was he wrong...?
"Cloud!" she gasped, then heard Aeris yelp and turned to look, as did Cloud. Aeris had managed to push herself up part-way in the time it had taken for him to process the girl's new look (yes, Yufi, otherwise she wouldn't have recognized him), but was now blocking one of the Kimera Bugs' legs on her staff. Yufi looked back at him and said urgently, "Throw me so I can land on the lead one's back! Then I can stab the back of its neck and kill it!"
"Is that safe?" Tifa asked apprehensively, then flinched slightly as Hex cast with a Materia shard—and an ice slick spread across the ground under the Kimera Bugs' feet, causing them to slip and collapse to the ground with angry and alarmed shrieks.
"We don't have time to argue!" Yufi answered with an annoyed look at Tifa, then returned her gaze to Cloud. "Nero could throw me, so I know you can, too!" she added to the blond boy.
He sighed faintly, then nodded and agreed, "Fine, but you'll have to deal with it if it doesn't work out."
"Deal," she agreed, so he caught her wrist, stepped up beside her, and spun hard, pulling her with him, then released her when he was facing the Kimera Bugs again. She flew through the air as she drew her kunais, and landed on the largest Bug's back, stabbing it with the kunais to stay on it. As it began to rear back to throw the sudden extra weight, she twisted, pulled one blade free, and stabbed the back of its neck, like she'd said. The Bug dropped to the ground in what felt like slow motion, but the other Bugs produced another shriek of rage.
"It's not over yet," Cloud sighed.
"What a bother," a familiar-not-familiar voice sighed, making him turn to look—at two more blond girls who wore the Shinra Academy uniform. One was older than them, maybe around fifteen, and the other looked like she was around thirteen. "I just wanted to shop for some nice cloth for clothes, and instead, we have to do some monster extermination," the younger girl commented.
"At least these aren't Behemoths," the older commented, drawing a gun. "Why in the world do they seem to be after that girl, though?"
Cloud returned his gaze to the Kimera Bugs and Aeris, and found the Jumping protecting the girl from attack on one side as Yufi shielded her other side and Aeris fought a third. The other Bugs were approaching—
Haruna was suddenly slicing through a couple of those Bugs—the one nearest Aeris and one which had been about to join the fray—with her katana, and another Bug by Aeris fell as it was shot by the older blond girl beside him and Tifa. He sighed as he saw three more Bugs literally jump over Haruna and the now three bodies of Bugs, drew his combat star, and pulled one blade free as he jumped forward. With force, he hit and cut down two of them, and found a third beside him falling as the thirteen-year-old blond girl hit it so hard with her fist that she crushed its skull.
Another Bug fell to another bullet, courtesy of the older blond girl, and Tifa downed the one Yufi had been holding off by hitting it from behind. Yufi and Tifa both turned and hit the one the Jumping had been blocking off, and Yufi, Tifa, and Aeris all turned to hit another as the Jumping paused in something like confusion. After a moment, Cloud found another target, as did Haruna, and they, with the two older Academy girls, advanced on the last of the Bugs which were above ground, quickly eliminating all but one, which jumped into the sewer.
"Well that's annoying," Cloud sighed—only for an annoyed bark and whine to sound from inside the sewer. Taking another look around, he realized Tyra was down there, so closed his eyes in exasperation and sighed. When he opened his eyes again, he found the thirten-year-old Academy girl (who had brown eyes, he realized), eying him in curious confusion, so he pointed down at the damaged manhole the Bugs had come out of and said, "My dog's down there for some reason, so I have to go get her."
The girl began laughing and agreed, "I'll go with you, then. Just in case."
"Be careful, Elena," the older blond (whose eyes were blue, he noted), said. Then, his brain froze as he compared the older Elena he knew with the girl beside him and realized they were a match.
That produced a 'what the fuck?' moment for him as the younger girl waved the older off and replied, "Don't worry, I'm the top Academy combat student, Maria. I'm not going to be taken down that easily."
"Whatever, I don't really care, but if there's more Bugs down there, Tyra is probably going to be where they are," Cloud answered, then jumped down, landing on the debris from the broken hole. Taking a quick look around, he realized there was a trail leading away from there, and tipped his head at it, wondering if it was for real or a setup for a trap.
Then, something furry landed on his shoulder, making him yelp in surprise, and Elena's voice commented dryly, "Looks like your friend's pet raccoon decided to join us."
"Hex," Cloud sighed. "This wouldn't be the first time she's helped me, but her landing on my shoulder like that was kind of..."
"Shocking?" Elena asked in amusement. "I'd have been, too. So...do we trust the obvious trail or try another?"
Cloud tipped his head to the side for a moment, then called loudly, "Tyra!" He got back an alarmed bark from a path further down the one which had been laid, but unless he missed his guess, it turned off from the trail at a crossing sewer pipe. "Partly follow it, I guess? Really, though, did one decide to carry my dog away when they couldn't grab Aeris?" He began heading in that direction, first moving to the walkway along the side of the path (he still didn't want to walk in sewer muck if he didn't have to), followed by the blond girl.
"Aeris is that brown haired girl?" Elena asked curiously. "It's a bit odd that she's here now and had been involved in the same Behemoth attack in the Slums which I was a few months ago, though..."
"Was she?" Cloud asked in bemusement. He honestly hadn't known she'd been involved in a Behemoth attack. Ever. "She lives in the Slums, but the lady who runs the fabric shop has sort of been helping to take care of her for awhile. Her mom works there now, and I guess she helps out to get a little extra spending money."
"Huh," Elena muttered in thoughtful surprise. "Small world, then, I guess."
"That's true," he agreed, turning off the laid path at the one he thought he'd heard Tyra bark from. "I still have the strange feeling that this is a trap, though—and Kimera Bug nests are usually pretty big. We maybe saw a fifth of it on the surface."
"...Why do you even know how big a nest would be?" Elena asked in shock. "I've never even heard of them before, let alone seen them!"
"I had the dubious privilege of seeing the Science Department's records of them," he replied in a sour tone. It was close enough to the truth, anyway—he'd seen their records in that future when Reeve had dug them up.
The thing was, he didn't think the break-out which had actually released them had happened yet—and shouldn't have for another two years. They weren't out just then because of a break-out, then...Which left them having been released on purpose for some reason. His mind flashed back to their attack on Aeris and he had to sigh. Hojo had probably sent them to get her. How much control of them did he actually have? The records implied very little, so unless something had changed...
Jenova had changed. It was very possible that if the full force of her will had taken refuge in him, that same will could impose itself on monsters in the Labs. Like the Kimera Bugs. And if she wanted Aeris, or wanted her dead, then her will could very well make them do it, and Hojo wouldn't have cared—he'd have gotten something he wanted either way, by testing the Bugs (his experimental results) or by gaining control of Aeris again.
"...So, according to those records, what can we expect from a trap?" Elena asked, tone tense but steady.
"Getting swarmed if we step into a large enough space," he offered simply. "They're more intelligent than most other insect monsters, but they're not really manipulators, and the traps they'd come up with are fairly simple in its own right. No less deadly, but simple. These tunnels and pipes are too small for more than four to attack us at once, and even that would be pushing it, and they know we have the advantage if there's only four, so they won't until or unless they can get us into a large enough space so dozens can attack at once."
She gave a thoughtful hum, then commented, "So if we can't avoid a space like that, we're going to be in for a tough battle. Did the raccoon—Hex?—make that ice slick?"
"Yes," he agreed. "Apparently, Materia agree with her."
"Then I'll be glad to have her help with crowd control," the girl pointed out.
Cloud felt Hex preen, so commented, "After seeing some of the things she's done, I'm good with that, too. We're probably going to need it." As they came to the next intersection, he raised his voice again to call, "Tyra!" Again, he got a bark, so followed it down the path it led, and Elena followed him.
"How do you know so well which way to go?" she asked curiously. "I'd have had to guess."
"...Since I found her in the Shinra Company vents to begin with, I think I've kind of honed that sense of 'where' she is in places with multiple paths," he admitted, and the girl snickered.
"Lead on, then," she agreed, still sounding highly amused. "So, you are with Shinra Company somehow?"
"I'm the Turks' engineer. Which we don't talk about in town and out of uniform," Cloud answered dryly. "Because I'm also a contact for an undercover agent, and there are things I have to do and people I have to deal with who can't know that."
Elena gave another of those thoughtful hums before saying, "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Who would suspect a child of having important data, after all? And if you know that girl—Aeris—I'd guess the fabric shop's owner is the agent?"
That made him sigh and reply, "I can't officially answer that. Just trust me when I say we're dealing with some really nasty people who can't know any of that."
"What happens if they do?" she asked curiously.
"Then chances are, the agent, myself, and several Turks will end up dead in very short order," the boy answered flatly, and she winced. They came to another crossing path, so Cloud called, "Tyra!" again, and got another bark, that time closer—and accompanied by snarling and faint shrieking.
He picked up his pace, heading straight through, followed quickly by the girl, and soon after, they reached the end of the path above the room which looked like it had the release of the water down into the Slums. A good half of the large space was a grated floor above the water reservoir where it was held to be filtered (though he didn't think much filtering got done), and to the far side of the space was the 'valve' releasing it, creating a definite flow in that direction. Above them was the network of pipes and beams forming most of the support system for the Upper Plate, which had plenty of holes in it for Kimera Bugs to hide.
And in the middle of the room's floor, Tyra was standing proudly by a pile of Kimera Bugs, tail waving happily, and Cloud and Elena were both left stunned as they tried to figure out how Tyra had killed all those Bugs herself. Then Cloud remembered her poison bite, and if it was the 'strong' poison version, it was highly likely it would have killed them fast. By Fuhito's alarm after she'd bitten him in Wutai, it probably was the 'strong' poison version, which would explain why no living ones were immediately around her just then.
"Did she kill them all?" Elena asked in amazement.
"No," he answered dryly. "She did get—it looks like probably around a third of what was left, though, which should leave us about half the nest. And her and Hex to help. Her poison seems really effective against them."
"...Since when do dogs have poison?" she blinked.
"Since they're Lab escapees we were allowed to keep," Cloud answered, glancing over at her with a raised brow."
After a long silence, Elena sighed and said, "Fair enough. Well, let's get this ambush over with, then."
She then walked calmly out into the middle of the room, so Cloud sighed and made sure his combat star was on his arm securely, then followed her, catching up quickly as Hex, still on his shoulder, perked up to peer around curiously. Very often, the raccoon's gaze went upward, and Cloud knew her senses for danger were better than his (at least, he hoped they were), so his assessment of the holes in the beams and pipes above was probably right—that was most of where they'd be attacked from. There weren't any below them, but there were three routes out of the room, and any or all of the three could also have Bugs in them, even the one they'd come from.
It was around when they joined Tyra in the middle of the room that Bugs began dropping down from above—and over half of them ended up Confused so they attacked each other, leaving the other half of the first wave for Cloud, Elena, and Tyra to fight. That was also the first time Cloud saw Tyra conjure and somehow throw what essentially looked like Ninja stars made of light at the enemy, and saw her do something other than just bite and poison an enemy. In fact, of the ones she bit, about half got badly poisoned while the other half got it normal strength, and on those ones, she used something that came out looking like a kind of sickly purple slap...which killed them faster than the strong poison.
The second wave of Bugs mostly got Blinded or put to Sleep, so Cloud and Elena worked on the Blinded ones first while Tyra started biting the Sleeping ones, both children turning to attack a couple Bugs which tried to drop down right between them. That was a definite no-go, and apparently they both agreed on that point by their simultaneous response to the attempt to separate them. When a wave of Kimera Bugs surged out of the paths out of the room, that was when Tyra made both humans go cross-eyed—
An Earthquake shook the ground, throwing them down as the Bugs shrieked and fell to the ground with extreme damage.
Both turned to stare at the puppy for a long minute before Elena asked in a deceptively mild tone, "I'm guessing she's never done that before?"
"Nope," Cloud agreed simply, then pushed himself back to his feet as Hex also picked herself up off the ground and scrambled back up to his shoulder. "Can you put them to Sleep, Hex? That way, we'll be able to kill them one at a time while they're not able to do anything—it's fast and painless that way."
Elena rose as Hex tipped her head to the side for a moment like she was confused, then turned to look at the badly injured Bugs. After a moment, they all fell asleep, so he and Elena worked their way around the room, killing them.
When they finished, Cloud sighed and said, "I'll let the Turks know they should send someone to clean this up before it gets into the water and makes the whole area unlivable with disease."
"Good idea," Elena agreed. "Now...How do we get out of here? I don't think we can go back up the manhole where we came down—the Bugs destroyed it."
"Come on," the boy sighed faintly, having a pretty good idea of where another manhole would be. They'd have to make their way back to the shop on the street, not in the sewer. Which was probably a good thing, since it would let them air out the stench.
He led the way to where he thought the manhole would be, and sure enough, it was there, so the two climbed out, Cloud going first to move the manhole cover out of the way, then had Elena pass Tyra to him before she followed them out. Hex had ridden on his shoulder the whole way, which had made things easy, so once he could cover the manhole again, he did, and the group headed back towards the shop. By the time they got there, everyone had gone inside, or so they assumed, so the two stepped inside with the pets.
Sure enough, Tifa, Maria, Yufi, and Haruna (and Kurosai on the top of one shelf, the Jumping, and Elmyra) were all there, so Hex gave a happy squeak and jumped from Cloud's shoulder to Tifa's. Maria greeted Elena, and Yufi jumped on him to hug him tightly—and whisper in his ear, "I told them my name's Claudia. Tifa just looked really amused by that."
"Does she know who you really are?" he asked softly in amusement.
"Maybe?" Yufi answered in mild confusion, still attached to him. "She's met me the way I used to look, and she's a Turk, so..."
"She just cooks for them," Cloud pointed out. "But she still might have recognized you anyway, that's true."
"Also, since they asked about how similar I am to you, I said I'm your sister. I don't think the shopkeeper believed me," the girl added.
"Why would she when she knows me and knows I don't have a sister?" he replied, feeling like he wanted to laugh—hysterically—about Yufi claiming to be his sister.
Yufi let him go and gave him a completely annoyed look, then went over to the Jumping to pet it. Aeris slipped up beside him and tucked her arm into his as she said, "Thanks for your help earlier. What was with those bugs, though?"
"They're Lab products," he answered, and she winced.
"Hojo trying to trap me again..." she sighed, leaning on him as she gave his arm a squeeze. She then released him and joined Yufi beside the Jumping—which was apparently now named Zeal.
Haruna leaned on the shelf beside him and commented, "This is two years too early for that to be from an accidental—for as much as anything in that company is 'accidental'—escape. And Aeris was definitely a target. How did things go down below? Tyra obviously wasn't hurt, and neither was Hex. You and Elena look fine as well, unless I missed something."
"We're good. Tyra caused a quake and her usual poison, as well as a few other things. Largely, it meant they couldn't attack her. Because Hex came along with us, she did things like Confusing and Blinding them so we had more of an advantage. There may be a lot of them, but they aren't very strong, and they're only marginally more intelligent than other similar monsters, so it wasn't that bad, even with the 'trap' they led us into. It probably would have been worse if we'd followed the trail they'd laid instead of Tyra's barks."
The Wutain looked amused by that, but said, "I'm glad things went well for you."
Since he'd been thinking about the sisters, who were elsewhere in the shop, looking for fabric, he asked, "So, Elena will be that new Turk, but what about Maria?"
"She'll be the Turk named Emma, probably soon after this. Elena might even get a code name this time, if she gets in with us sooner. She wouldn't be staff, though, so we definitely have to wait until she's fourteen to hire her, so by default, Maria will be hired as Emma before Elena will be."
"...They're the only ones in the Turks who are related to each other, aren't they?" the blond boy asked dryly.
"Yes, I think so," Haruna agreed thoughtfully. "It's more common for someone else in the Company to be related to a Turk, or to a SOLDIER, or whatever, than it is for people who are related to join the same department. Speaking of relations, how in the world can Yufi pass as your sister?"
"She met someone who gave her a makeover, is my best guess," Cloud sighed. "I'll have to see if any of the other Turks know what this is about. Looks aside, though, she introduced herself as my sister, right?"
"If she ever meets Fuhito here, I'd have to say the two of you were living in different homes until she came out here at your parents request to go to school," Haruna answered. "In a way, she gave herself the perfect cover."
"And because she's blond with blue eyes, probably even he won't think to look more closely," the boy agreed. "I'll explain the details to her when we get back to the building."
"As you like, as long as you aren't detailing anything about me yet. I can be working for the Turks without directly being one, especially in a case like this," the Wutain told him, and he nodded.
"Cloud, come meet Zeal!" Yufi grinned, landing in front of him, seizing his wrist, and dragging him over to where the very large rabbit sat and patiently let them all pet it. Or her, as he now knew.