Returning to the Seventh Heaven bar, Alex tried not to think about the fact that they had been followed from the very beginning by an extremely curious Yuffie, who sincerely believed that a worn cloak with a Moogle hood was the pinnacle of inconspicuousness and camouflage. What Alex definitely did not know was that Yuffie had already attributed the color of his rainbow eyes to the effect of some incredibly rare Materia or ancient artifact, which she was now dreaming with great pleasure of swiping from him.
However, on the way back, Alex was occupied by completely different thoughts — namely, the idea of how to finally make Barret replace his monstrous gun-arm with a normal, full-fledged cyber-prosthesis. Thinking for a moment, Alex decided to do as usual: simply force Barret onto the operating table by force. And if he started protesting and throwing his weight around — give him a preventive smack on the head once.
Having approved this perfect plan for himself, he stopped guessing and listened to the quiet conversation behind him. Tifa and Claudia were walking behind him. Tifa, with clear anxiety in her voice, was expressing concern about how radically Claudia had wanted to deal with Johnny. Claudia, in her usual, slightly detached tone, replied that getting rid of the guy was the simplest and most logical way to protect everyone from a person who absolutely did not know how to keep his mouth shut.
At those words Tifa merely sighed heavily, once again worrying about her friend's emotional state. Listening to their exchange, Alex noticed more and more clearly: Tifa already knew the truth that the Buster Sword had actually belonged to Zack, and that Claudia had only copied his personality. Casting a glance at his companions over his shoulder, Alex met Tifa's confused and worried gaze; she frankly did not understand what she should do or how to help Claudia.
"You shouldn't worry so much, Tifa. Actually, Claudia wasn't going to kill Johnny at all. Am I right, Chica?" Alex said with a light smile, trying to defuse the tension hanging in the air.
"I asked you not to call me that! And yes, I wasn't going to kill that blabbermouth. The best way to make someone shut up is to scare them properly. But somebody did that for me," Claudia answered with feigned irritation, lightly kicking Alex in the leg as they walked.
"Really? You truly weren't going to kill him? For a second it just seemed to me…" Tifa exhaled with noticeable relief, looking at Claudia and interlocking her fingers behind her back.
"Really. Do you think I need to kill every idiot who can't keep his mouth shut?" Claudia answered, rolling her eyes, and looked at Tifa with a barely perceptible warm smile.
"No! Ordinary intimidation with your huge sword is quite enough. I think after Alex's parting words our blabbermouth Johnny has learned his lesson for life. Whatever they whispered to him," Tifa said, finally relaxing and restoring her former bright and good-natured smile.
Noticing that the heavy atmosphere between Claudia and Tifa had finally dispersed, Alex smiled slightly and looked away. He thought that he would definitely need to find time and talk to Tifa alone — to tell her what was actually going on in Claudia's head. Especially to calm her with the fact that over time the real memories would return, even if the process would take a certain amount of time. Lighting another thin cigar, Alex exhaled an even stream of smoke, thinking about one thing: after all, he could right now, with a snap of his fingers, heal Claudia's mind and solve all her mental problems.
But then Claudia would stop being the person she had become — and the person she was still capable of becoming by going through many of the hardest trials. Therefore Alex decided to help her cope with future difficulties instead of turning her into a fragile princess passively waiting for her prince. Reflecting on this, Alex suddenly remembered that in the original timeline there had been one rather specific scene when Cloud had to dress up in a lavish women's dress.
And, to his deep regret, he would no longer get to see Claudia in such an outfit — because Don Corneo had most likely long since been sent to the nearest crematorium. At that thought Alex felt annoyance and irritably clicked his tongue, which immediately attracted the attention of Tifa and Claudia walking beside him. Tifa gently patted him on the shoulder, inquiring what exactly had caused such a reaction in him.
Quickly throwing the image of Claudia in a dress out of his head, Alex answered that he had simply been thinking about Barret's unbearable stubbornness; the big guy would surely dig in his heels and refuse to replace his habitual gun-arm with a normal cybernetic prosthesis. Hearing this, Tifa nodded understandingly and also shook her head with a sigh — she knew better than anyone how stubborn Barret could be on such matters.
Soon Alex, Claudia, and Tifa left the closed territory and returned to the streets of the Slums. On the way to Seventh Heaven Tifa calmed several worried residents, explaining that Johnny had managed to escape from the Grunts' hands. They merely nodded understandingly: in Sector Seven everyone knew this clumsy and overly talkative idiot who was always finding problems out of thin air. And absolutely everyone was certain that very soon this idiot Johnny would get mixed up in something even more large-scale.
Listening to these conversations, Tifa merely smiled tensely, not even trying to deny the obvious. As soon as the situation with Johnny cleared up, calm settled over the Slums again — people had been worried, because such raids could at any moment affect someone among them. Finishing the conversation with the neighbors, Tifa said goodbye to everyone and led Alex and Claudia to the bar, where the rest of the company was already waiting for them. Still on the approach to the doors of Seventh Heaven they heard Dean's angry, irritated voice as he never stopped cursing his luck under the pealing laughter of Biggs and Wedge.
Entering the bar, Alex first of all saw Dean himself, enthroned in the epicenter of a mountain of torn wrappers and card duplicates. Opposite him sat Biggs and Wedge, whom this card maniac had apparently forced against their will to help him open new boosters. At the neighboring table Aerith and Jessie had settled, observing with sincere amusement how Dean's face changed every time he drew yet another duplicate.
Barret, for his part, was sitting at the bar counter next to a beaming Marlene, who was holding a new plush Cactuar toy in her hands. At the appearance of Alex, Tifa, and Claudia everyone present immediately turned toward the entrance. Jessie, casting a glance at Alex, instantly noticed the silly Moogle hat on his head. He looked so strange and at the same time cute in it that Jessie simply could not hold back her laughter.
"It suits you insanely well! You're such a cutie in that hat!" Jessie barely managed to squeeze out, trying with all her might to stop laughing.
"Yeah, a real charmer in that ridiculous kids' hat. And this is what the guy who was still going on yesterday about how we shouldn't attract unnecessary attention looks like," Biggs added with a venomous smirk, in no hurry to tear open yet another booster.
"You're just basically jealous because absolutely everything suits me. I'll look gorgeous in any clothes," Alex parried with a light smirk, leaning with leisurely grace on the edge of the table next to Aerith.
"Damn pretty boy. Just die already!" Biggs spat with feigned annoyance, having no way to dispute Alex's excellent looks.
Alex didn't even need to answer Biggs: a dry cough from Dean sounded nearby. The latter indicated with a highly expressive gaze the still-stuffed boxes, making it clear that no one was getting up from the table until every last booster had been gutted. Biggs and Wedge could only sigh fatalistically. They themselves often dabbled in this card game. But after today's "slave labor" of opening card boosters, both of them had lost any desire to touch decks for the next couple of years.
Chuckling at their hard lot, Alex stretched slightly and took a small injector out of his backpack — the movement was so deft that only Aerith, who was sitting closest, noticed it. Meeting her gaze, Alex put a finger to his lips, letting her know that she should pretend she had seen nothing. Aerith squinted slightly and nodded understandingly, already guessing exactly what he had in mind.
With a light smirk Alex playfully poked her neat little nose with his finger and headed toward the bar counter. Sitting down between Claudia and Marlene, he didn't manage to utter a single word before Tifa had already placed a freshly prepared cocktail in front of him. Smiling gratefully at Tifa, Alex met Barret's gaze; the big guy nodded in his habitual stern style, silently thanking him for the plush Cactuar for Marlene.
For Barret such a warm gesture toward his daughter was far more important than all the successful diversions against Shinra. Still smiling, Alex took a large pack of bright multicolored candies out of his coat pocket, held it out to Marlene, and told her to make sure to share with her friends. Seeing the whole mountain of sweets, Marlene beamed and hugged Alex around the neck with all her heart.
Watching his beloved daughter hug Alex, Barret felt his right eyelid begin to twitch madly. Trying with all his might to maintain a semblance of calm, he clenched his fist, barely restraining the desire to punch Alex right in the jaw. Releasing Alex, Marlene immediately jumped off the chair and, grabbing the Cactuar together with the sweets, joyfully raced outside to her friends. Leaning on the bar counter next to Alex, Tifa could not hide a warm smile, seeing how happy the little one looked.
"Thanks, of course… But if you hug my daughter even one more time… I'll personally break your nose, I swear," Barret forced out in an irritated tone, threatening and waving his fist right in front of Alex's face.
"Barret, stop already with the overprotective daddy act! Marlene is just happy that she's making new friends," Tifa interceded with a sigh, beginning to scold the giant who had again taken up his habitual threats.
"I'm just warning you! And I did say thank you… I have nothing against our newbie giving something to my little angel. But that still doesn't mean I'll let just anyone hug my baby!" Barret tried to contain his boiling irritation and as a fat period slammed his palm thunderously on the counter.
"Oh, what a grumpy daddy… Barret, what will become of you in the future when Marlene brings her first boyfriend home?" Jessie drawled with a sarcastic smirk, deciding with pleasure to pour even more oil on the fire.
The moment Jessie's words sounded, complete, ringing silence settled over the bar. But instead of the expected instantaneous shout Barret suddenly fell sharply silent. He frowned heavily, clenching his giant fist with such wild force that the crack of his joints was clearly audible in every corner. Noticing how catastrophically Barret's facial expression was changing, Tifa cast a furious glance at Jessie, asking with her entire demeanor: "Why did you even blurt that out?!"
Jessie, for her part, merely stuck out her tongue childishly, putting on the most innocent expression, and nimbly hid behind Aerith's slender back. Biggs and Wedge, knowing perfectly well how such flashes of anger usually ended, lightning-fast grabbed their chairs and scooted closer to Dean so they wouldn't accidentally get caught by the shockwave. Alex, perfectly understanding Barret's wounded feelings, lightly ran a finger along Claudia's side, drawing her attention.
Feeling the unexpected touch, Claudia shuddered and awarded Alex an irritated glance. Without saying a word, Alex merely waved his hand expressively, asking her to move to the neighboring chair before Barret exploded from a fit of rage. Giving Alex a light kick in the leg for letting his hands wander, Claudia nevertheless moved. As soon as the place was free, Alex also backed up to a safe distance.
Even Tifa took a couple of steps to the side, absolutely not wishing to be in the epicenter of the impending wrath of the overprotective father. And the moment everyone managed to retreat to a safe distance, Barret finally lost control of himself. In his head terrifying pictures flashed: a grown-up Marlene brings some bastard home and declares with a smile that this is her fiancé.
And the brighter his inflamed brain painted these pictures, the more impossible it became to restrain the boiling rage. In that same instant Barret let out a deafening, furious roar and with all his might brought his fist down on the bar counter, leaving an impressive dent in the sturdy wood.
"This will not happen! She will always be my little angel! Whatever bastard approaches her — I'll personally shove my machine gun up his ass and stuff his guts with lead! Just let them try to even get close to her — I'll tear them all to pieces!" Barret roared, continuing in a frenzy to pound his fist on the unfortunate bar counter.
Watching Barret in a fit of rage smash the bar counter, Tifa mentally calculated how much the restoration of the damage would cost her. Money was already tight as it was, and it had become even worse after they had had to hand over the last free funds as payment for Claudia's work. Noticing her doomed gaze, Alex gently touched her palm with his finger and let her know that he would fully pay for the entire rampage arranged by the leader of Avalanche.
Tifa was about to refuse, but Alex joked that he was here, actually, almost a full-fledged co-owner. At those words Tifa laughed quietly and nodded gratefully, deciding to accept his help. By this moment Barret had already cooled down a little and stopped pounding the wood. However, no one still risked approaching the giant closely — especially Jessie, whose long tongue had provoked this attack of the overprotective father.
The only one who couldn't care less about Barret's flash of anger turned out to be Dean: he merely looked up from the cards for a moment and shook his head with a satisfied smirk. But the one who truly sincerely understood Barret's feelings was Alex — he himself was raising a whole five little gremlins.
True, unlike the overprotective Barret, Alex could arrange things so that not a single guy would even have the thought of approaching his daughters. And he wouldn't even have to strain himself: his little gremlins themselves wouldn't pay attention to any idiots, and his wives would certainly not allow such characters near his little princesses. Sighing heavily, Alex sat down next to Barret and understandingly patted him on the broad shoulder.
"Big guy, I understand you perfectly. But instead of stuffing your machine gun up the ass of every idiot who starts circling around Marlene… wouldn't it be better to first thrash him with two normal fists?" Alex said with a smirk, not reducing the friendly pressure.
"You're at it again with your prosthesis. What the hell do I need it for? I've got my baby, and that's the best way to get rid of all those bastards," Barret muttered gloomily, demonstrating his impressive six-barreled machine gun instead of a right arm.
"And what if I add one little fact to that? Once you put on the prosthesis, you'll be able to properly hug your daughter with both hands. And at the same time still stuff bastards with lead and break their noses with both hands," Alex whispered with the most tender and tempting smile, his voice ringing like a true demon, which in essence he was.
"Let's say… I wouldn't refuse to properly hug my baby. It all depends on what exactly you've prepared there," Barret said, turning to Alex and heavily leaning on the smashed bar counter.
"Thanks for turning around. This way I definitely won't miss," Alex delivered with a predatory smirk, lightning-fast taking the hidden injector out of his pocket.
"What the fuuuu…" was all Barret managed to mutter when the needle of the injector precisely stabbed him right in the neck.
The moment the injector needle stabbed into Barret's neck, his eyes instantly glazed over, and his entire body immediately went numb to such a degree that he instantly felt complete paralysis. Calmly extracting the needle, Alex placed the empty device on the smashed bar counter. In that same instant Barret crashed from the chair onto the floor with a thud, staring at the ceiling with a completely motionless gaze. Everything happened so quickly that no one in the bar even managed to figure out what was what before Barret was already lying helplessly on the boards.
Realizing what had happened, Tifa widened her eyes in shock and began frantically demanding explanations. Instead of answers to the stream of her questions Alex leisurely approached his backpack and took out a dense package. The moment he unwrapped the cloth, the finished cyber-prosthesis appeared before those gathered, amazingly similar to Barret's real second arm. Quickly figuring out where everything was heading, Barret's friends exhaled in unison and with enormous relief.
"Well, why did you all relax? Maybe you'll help already? Drag this big guy onto the table. Or do you seriously expect me to operate on him right on the floor?" Alex said in a lazy tone, casting an expressive glance over everyone present and laying the cyber-prosthesis on the counter.
Hearing Alex's words, Biggs immediately clapped Wedge on the shoulder so the two of them would lift the unconscious Barret. Approaching their leader, Biggs and Wedge warily examined his glazed gaze and the empty injector lying on the bar counter. Both of them were insanely curious what kind of wild junk Alex had pumped into Barret to make him black out so instantly. Beginning with enormous difficulty to lift the giant's carcass, Biggs and Wedge puffed, trying to tear someone so heavy off the floor.
Seeing their sufferings, Jessie immediately bounced over to help, assisting in lifting Barret to his feet and dragging him to the table. Even Tifa vaulted over the bar counter to support her friend. Alex, meanwhile, calmly pulled up another table and began laying out everything necessary for the operation on it.
Observing this bustle, Claudia turned on her chair and leisurely leaned her back against the bar counter, wanting to watch what would happen next. Even Dean put aside the endless opening of boosters and, clutching a bottle of beer in his hand, turned to the others. With great difficulty having dragged Barret to the table, the group of four somehow hauled him up and laid him on the wooden surface.
"What the hell did you pump him full of? It feels like he became five times heavier!" Biggs said with a sigh, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
"Just a mixture of immunosuppressants and neural stabilizers… Ah, yes. Barret is still conscious; it's just that his body has completely shut down," Alex said in a carefree tone, taking off his coat and rolling up the sleeves of his black shirt.
"If Barret is conscious, doesn't that mean he'll feel all the pain?" Tifa asked in a worried tone, sincerely worrying about her friend's condition.
"What exactly about my words 'Barret's body has shut down' was unclear to you?" Alex answered with a weary sigh, turning to the worried Tifa.
"So he's seeing and hearing us right now?" Jessie inquired, peering with curiosity into Barret's motionless eyes.
"Something like that. I think right now he's cursing me out in the most colorful way possible," Alex said with a smirk, walking around the table and standing on the side of the gun-arm.
"Then why does he even need to stay conscious? Wouldn't it be simpler to put him to sleep so he doesn't understand anything?" Aerith asked, standing behind Alex's back and peering over his shoulder on tiptoes.
"I need the feedback from his brain to the new prosthesis. Essentially he's receiving a new living arm. And I need to see precisely how his central nervous system reacts to the fusion," Alex explained in a calm and confident tone so that everyone would drop the extra questions.
Hearing Alex's explanations, Aerith nodded thoughtfully, pretending that she had understood every single word. The others also nodded with an extremely intelligent air, although in reality they had only a vague idea of what was being discussed at all. Alex himself merely shook his head, turned to Aerith, and asked her to back him up with healing magic — it was necessary to cauterize the wounds right during the surgical manipulations so that Barret wouldn't simply bleed out. Aerith immediately nodded and readily clenched her magical staff.
Cracking his knuckles, Alex asked everyone to take a step back, leaned over Barret, and with a broad, predatory smirk looked him straight in the eyes, raising a thumb. Even without reading the giant's thoughts, Alex knew perfectly well what a wild stream of the juiciest curses was currently racing through his helpless head. When everyone had retreated, Alex with a deft motion disconnected the machine gun from the old prosthesis and began carefully examining the construction.
Seeing how crudely and roughly the mechanism had been attached to the forearm, Alex couldn't hold back and expressively rolled his eyes. Turning on music for himself for the mood, he proceeded to the procedure of dismantling the old fastening, carefully exposing the muscles, vessels, and nerve endings. The moment Alex lightly cut the flesh and exposed Barret's muscles, Tifa and Jessie instantly turned away, absolutely not burning with the desire to look at these bloody details.
Wedge instantly turned pale as a sheet and frantically covered his mouth with his palm, fighting the rising nauseous urge. And only Biggs showed endurance and decided to help: he stood nearby and began handing Alex the necessary tools while Aerith pointedly supported the process with her magic.
While everyone's attention was fixed on Alex and his surgical manipulations, no one in the bar noticed how from the street Yuffie in her usual worn Moogle cloak pressed herself against the window glass. She was flattening her nose against the glass with all her might, trying to make out what the hell was going on inside.
"What are they even doing in there? Damn, I can't see anything… There was some kind of arm flashing, I think? And they were talking about some prosthesis… Are they performing a real operation right in the middle of the bar?.. Awesome, how cool!" Yuffie muttered eagerly, pressing herself right up to the glass, trying to make out every detail of what was happening in Seventh Heaven.
Trying to figure out what the bustle in the bar was about, Yuffie greedily swept her gaze over the premises from time to time until her attention caught on the cybernetic arm lying on the counter. The moment she saw this technological masterpiece, Yuffie flared with excitement — she immediately had an unbearable desire to burst inside and interrogate what this thing was and what it was intended for.
Already calculating ways of penetration, Yuffie suddenly felt that she had almost been spotted and instantly darted around the corner, squatting down. Pressing her fingers to her temples, she began thinking tensely. Importantly, she had already managed to find out: the people hanging out in this bar were also part of Avalanche, for contact with which she had come to Midgar in the first place. What Yuffie had absolutely no suspicion of was that this particular group was a rather specific, radical cell.
Continuing to reflect on tactics, Yuffie arrived at a conclusion brilliant in its simplicity: she just needed to walk in with pathos and immediately lay out who she was and why she had come. In her head this option looked so logical and flawless that she decided to do exactly that. But before entering she still wanted to observe the process a little more and see how everything would end.
Tossing another coffee bean into her mouth and crunching it, Yuffie pressed herself to the window again, not even realizing that a pair of attentive green eyes was staring right at her at that moment. Claudia, sitting at the bar counter, once again noticed the strange girl in the worn Moogle poncho and frowned for a brief moment.
Having no idea who this even was, Claudia decided for now not to raise a fuss so as not to distract Alex in the middle of the operation. Having spent almost half an hour carefully and without unnecessary damage separating the old machine-gun fastening from Barret's forearm, Alex exhaled with relief — the most tedious and unpleasant part of the work was behind him.
Cleaning his hands with a damp towel, Alex picked up the new cyber-prosthesis and pressed it to the prepared forearm of the Avalanche leader. The moment the high-tech device touched the exposed muscles and nerve endings, Barret's powerful torso shuddered slightly. Fortunately, Alex had programmed the prosthesis in advance so that it would itself conduct neural micro-welding with the body's tissues, sparing the jeweler's and painstaking work of sewing every nerve by hand.
"Is he definitely okay?" Tifa asked carefully, clenching her fists at the sight of how Barret's body jerked.
"Yes, everything's under control. Right now the prosthesis is automatically fusing with the nerve endings. The impulses went through, that's why the body trembled," Alex answered, continuing to confidently adjust the cyber-arm so that it would sit in the joint as if poured.
"And will a lot of time be needed for full healing?" Jessie inquired, carefully peering out from behind Tifa's shoulder and diligently looking away from the stained floor.
Instead of a direct answer Alex simply pointed a finger at Aerith standing nearby, who throughout the entire process with an extremely concentrated face continued healing Barret's arm. Seeing that the cyber-prosthesis had finally and tightly seated itself in the joint, Alex took out his phone. Pulling a cable from a special port on Barret's new arm, he connected it to the smartphone to take the neural response readings and, if necessary, perform precise calibration.
Having made sure that the response was simply ideal, Alex nodded to Aerith, letting her know that magic was no longer required. Realizing that her work was finished, Aerith dropped onto a chair with relief and began wiping sweat from her forehead. She hadn't even suspected that continuous use of healing spells was such exhausting and heavy labor. Seeing that everything was over, Tifa immediately handed her a glass of cool drink, not forgetting to thank her from the bottom of her heart.
In response Aerith merely smiled brightly, assuring that it hadn't been hard for her at all and that she was only glad to help. Checking the final parameters, Alex was one hundred percent certain: if Pilar saw this cyber-arm and its internal filling right now, he would without hesitation get into a fight for the right to drag it off for himself and cover it with a thick layer of pure gold. Recalling Pilar, Alex smirked slightly, thinking about the brother of his cute green-haired little gremlin Becca.
At that moment Biggs bounced over to him and, peering curiously at the phone screen, tried to make out the orderly rows of running digital data. Having finished the full diagnostics, Alex disconnected the cable, set the phone aside, and took out of the bag another injector together with a pack of immunosuppressants.
Returning to the table, he stabbed the neutralizer needle right into Barret's neck. Not even a second passed before a wild, angry roar burst from the big guy's throat, and he swung his new cyber-arm with all his might right at Alex's face.
"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Barret roared, sincerely trying to turn Alex into a cutlet.
"You better hold onto your panties, Big Guy, and swallow a vitamin," Alex said with absolute calm, blocking the crushing blow of the enormous limb with just one finger, after which with a precise flick he tossed the tablet right into Barret's gaping mouth.
"Cough-cough… What kind of junk did you feed me, you bastard?!" Barret spat, coughing and glaring fiercely at Alex.
"Immunosuppressants. You'll have to take them for a couple of days. This kind of 'chrome' puts a wild load on the brain until the nervous system finally adapts," Alex waved it off in a lazy tone, tossing Barret an entire pack of the medicine.
"Well, judging by how quickly our overprotective daddy is swinging his fists right after blacking out, I'd say he doesn't need these tablets at all," Dean inserted with a laugh, leisurely sipping beer and throwing his legs onto the neighboring table.
"The fact that he's a blockhead doesn't free him from taking the medication… Take them strictly one tablet every hour. For a couple of days you'll be rocked by strange sensations on the right side of your body, but it'll pass quickly. Your brain is right now trying to figure out where a full arm suddenly came from in place of the stump," Alex explained with a shrug, laying out the entire essence of the rehabilitation for Barret.
"So he's completely okay now?" Wedge inquired, examining Barret's new cyber-arm with delight.
"Something like that… And now give me something ice-cold to drink already. Performing operations like this in the middle of a bar is one hell of a pain," Alex summed up with a smirk and began quickly wiping the traces of blood from the table before they could completely dry.
Hearing Alex's request, Tifa immediately handed him a glass of cool lemonade and gently took the rag from his hands, giving him the chance to finally rest. Sitting down on a chair, Alex took a lazy sip of the citrus drink and sighed heavily. He had already forgotten how exhausting it was to perform this kind of operation by hand, without using healing magic.
Taking another sip, Alex shifted his gaze to Barret, who with a frozen expression was continuously examining his new prosthesis. He kept clenching and unclenching his fingers into a fist, as if still not believing his own eyes. Wedge and Biggs were poking the cyber-arm with their fingers at full speed, sincerely amazed that outwardly the limb differed in absolutely no way from living human flesh.
Clenching his fingers tightly once more, Barret finally fully realized what exactly the return of a second arm meant. In that same moment he burst into a deafening, happy laugh at the mere thought that now he would be able to fully, with both hands, hug Marlene. Hearing that laughter, Wedge and Biggs clapped their leader on the shoulder in unison, showing full support.
Jessie, on the contrary, joyfully cried out that such an event simply had to be celebrated in a big way. Claudia, sitting off to the side, swept an even more intrigued gaze over Alex, once again becoming convinced of the incredible things Alex was capable of. And while everyone was sincerely rejoicing together with Barret, the doors of the bar swung open with a loud bang. On the threshold appeared a girl in a worn Moogle poncho.
"While everyone is admiring ordinary miracles… Onto the stage steps the mega-beautiful and most beautiful kunoichi from Wutai! I have arrived in search of rare artifacts and for the fight against evil villains! I am the one who brings justice and laughter to every corner of this world! And my name is Yuffie Kisaragi!" Yuffie proclaimed solemnly, striking an incredibly pompous pose, with an effectual motion throwing off the poncho and aiming her open palm at the dumbfounded patrons of the bar.
"Who the hell is this? Hey, is this weirdo your friend or something?" Dean immediately spat, instantly destroying the entire epic atmosphere that Yuffie had so carefully been building, at which everyone present merely silently shook their heads.
"I'm not a weirdo! I'm the super-cute and mega-beautiful kunoichi Yuffie Kisaragi!" Yuffie cut off in an even louder and more pompous tone, spinning toward Dean and sharply thrusting her arm already in his direction.
"Well… Okay…" Dean drawled with a shrug and immediately buried himself back in his cards, absolutely not wishing to have any dealings with such a weirdo.
"Um… Maybe you should sit down first?" Tifa asked carefully, trying with difficulty to figure out what was even going on.
"Oh, really?! Then I'll have a lemonade too, please!" Yuffie blurted out with an instantly blooming cheerful smile, lively slipping deeper into the premises and completely ignoring the puzzled atmosphere hanging in the air.
To be continued...
(So, I decided Yuffie should show up sooner. And the reason was also that I had this crazy plan brewing in my head again, about my next appearance at another Mako Reactor. Hehehe. But that's all for later. So, we continue with the story, as usual. And about the other plot matters. All of that will happen. Yeah. And now I'll go eat and then play, since it's my free time. Peace, love, and a ninja making a swoosh.)
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