Through his sleep, Alex began to feel a strange but already familiar presence that he had sensed more than once from members of his family. Awakening from this familiar feeling, Alex instantly heard a dense hum of voices in his head. Out of habit, he tried to ignore this noise due to a strong hangover and sharp headache, but very quickly it became difficult for him to restrain the onslaught of the mental call. Millions of souls stubbornly begged for help. From these foreign voices the headache only grew stronger, interfering with normal thinking and finally waking up.
With difficulty opening his eyes, Alex saw before him only blurry outlines of a cute female face and bright green eyes that seemed vaguely familiar to him. Trying to focus on the image and suppress the throbbing pain, Alex blinked slightly, restoring clarity to his vision. And when he was able to clearly see the owner of those fingers that persistently tried to wake him, a short tactical short-circuit occurred in his head.
"You're already awake, sleepyhead. How did you sleep?" Aerith asked with a sweet smile, looking at the awakened Alex.
"What the fuck?!" Alex couldn't help but yell, seeing a very familiar face of Aerith right in front of him.
Alex didn't even realize how he yelled these words on autopilot from the shock of seeing the face. At that moment he simply couldn't figure out why Aerith was in front of him, who, despite his wild scream, continued to smile sweetly, calmly sitting nearby on her haunches and propping up her cheeks with her hands.
Starting to stubbornly massage his temples with his fingers, Alex desperately tried to restore the chronology of events from yesterday's drinking session in the company of his brother Lucifer. The beach in Santa Monica flashed before his eyes, followed by the sly words of his older brother, who said that such higher beings as they could still get drunk using a small loophole in the laws of the Multiverse.
All subsequent events were like blurry frames of a slideshow that were damn hard to remember. And the incessant hum of the Lifestream sounding directly in his head prevented him from thinking normally and only intensified the already unpleasant headache.
Feeling a new attack of migraine, Alex suddenly felt a warm touch. Opening his eyes, he looked at Aerith again, who with a soft smile was gently stroking his hair, as if trying to help him cope with the pain. Looking at the girl, Alex sighed heavily, because now he finally understood the nature of this hum.
He was not surprised at all that he heard the Lifestream. It would have been much more surprising if with all his colossal power he had not heard the living voice of the planet. Aerith, stroking Alex's head, saw that he was suffering greatly, and she sincerely wanted to help him, even if her support turned out to be insignificant.
"Are you feeling a little better?" Aerith asked with a sweet smile, noticing that Alex had finally stopped frowning.
"Yes, possibly. Sorry I yelled. I was just too surprised…" Alex said wearily, habitually starting to fumble with his palms in his pockets in search of a cigarette.
"You didn't scare me at all. But you definitely surprised me… I almost fell on my ass after your scream. And what if I had gotten badly hurt, Mr. Stranger?" Aerith replied with a cheerful smile, propping her cheeks with her palms again and cutely narrowing her gaze at Alex.
"Okay, sorry. My bad… It's just that this continuous hum in my head prevents me from thinking, and the headache only gets stronger," Alex sighed, never finding cigarettes in his pocket and giving Aerith an apologetic look.
"A hum in your head? You really hear it? You hear the Lifestream?!" Aerith exclaimed in surprise, impulsively grabbing Alex by the shoulders and nearly falling on him with her whole body.
Hearing Alex's admission, Aerith could no longer contain her surging emotions. After all, for years she had sacredly believed that she remained the only one who could hear the voice of the planet, and now in front of her sat an unfamiliar guy who heard the voice of the Lifestream in exactly the same way.
Unable to cope with her feelings, Aerith firmly grabbed Alex by the shoulders, nearly knocking him over onto the flowerbed in the middle of the church again. At that moment she felt a whole explosion of emotions — from insane joy to incredible relief. Aerith brought her face close enough to Alex to closely examine his unique rainbow eyes.
Looking at him, Aerith couldn't help but think that her cherished nighttime wish had finally come true and that very miracle she had so strongly desired had happened. After all, now she was officially no longer alone.
Alex, however, was sincerely surprised by such violent enthusiasm, slightly puzzled why she had reacted so violently to the fact of his mental connection with the Lifestream. Carefully placing his palms on Aerith's shoulders, Alex tried to gently push her away from himself, considering how persistently she was pressing against him.
Despite the fact that he considered Aerith super cute, in fact they weren't even properly acquainted yet, and he absolutely didn't want to explain himself again about some unforeseen accident, like an accidental kiss.
"Wait… You're pressing too hard. And we've only just met. A little more and you'll accidentally knock me to the ground. And for the record: to press against me like that, first invite me on a date," Alex said with a smile, carefully pushing the overly enthusiastic Aerith away from himself.
"Oh, sorry… It's just… It's just that I didn't expect at all to meet someone who can also hear the living voice of the planet. I had no idea that in this world there was someone else like me. And isn't it the guy who's supposed to invite the girl on a date first, not the other way around?" Aerith said with reddened cheeks, desperately trying to justify her impulsive behavior, after which she slightly narrowed her gaze and cheekily poked Alex right in the nose with her finger.
Looking at Aerith, who was coquettishly poking him in the nose to hide her embarrassment, Alex couldn't help but think: would a super cute gremlin appear in his life again, who would stubbornly look for any convenient moment just to be next to him? Reaching into his pocket for cigarettes once again, Alex sighed heavily, because he remembered in time that there were no cigarettes there.
Slowly raising his direct gaze to the ceiling of the church, Alex clearly saw two fresh holes, and at that same moment his eyelid began to tremble strongly, and his teeth ground harshly. He immediately understood that this was another idiotic prank by his older brother Lucifer.
Realizing that he had been cynically dropped from orbit downward, Alex tried with all his might to restrain himself so as not to start yelling curses out loud. Even through the strong headache, Alex clearly realized that all this was Lucifer's dirty tricks, but now it remained only to understand why he had thrown him into this very familiar world.
A moment later Alex forcibly calmed down, because he remembered in time that he had not participated in this grand drinking session alone. Aerith, sitting on her haunches next to Alex, tilted her head to the side in surprise and cutely blinked her eyes, noticing how his eyelid began to tremble at the sight of the hole in the ceiling.
She was sincerely curious why the guy had started getting so angry the second he looked up. Bringing her finger to her lips, Aerith naively thought that perhaps his rage was directly related to the fact that he had fallen from the upper plate against his will.
And at that moment Aerith was in her own way really right — Alex had indeed fallen from above, but she had no idea that he had not been flying from the metal plate towering over the lower city at all. Wanting to help Alex relax and come to his senses, Aerith poked him in the cheek with her finger again.
"Oh, sorry, Chica. I got lost in thought again. Did you happen to see anyone else here besides me? He might have been wearing similar beach clothes," Alex said, shaking his head and turning back to Aerith.
"Hmm… Yes, I did. And I'm not Chica, or whatever you just called me. I'm Aerith," the girl said thoughtfully, jokingly pouting her lips at Alex and stubbornly pointing at herself with her finger.
"Good, Aerith. I'm Alexander. But you can just call me Alex. And where exactly did you see my friend?" Alex said with a slight smile, finally properly introducing himself to the girl.
"Nice to meet you, Alex… And your friend is over there. And honestly, he smells insanely strongly of alcohol," Aerith said with a sweet smile, smoothly pointing her finger behind herself.
The moment Aerith pointed her finger behind herself, a loud snore and incoherent muttering thundered behind her. Leaning out from behind the girl's shoulder, Alex clearly saw Dean absurdly lying in a pile of broken wooden pews. Snoring loudly, Dean lazily raised his hand and scratched his stomach, after which he heavily rolled over to the other side.
He wasn't worried at all about the critical situation he found himself in, his whole appearance making it clear: at the moment he absolutely didn't care that he had been dropped from orbit into someone else's universe without asking.
Seeing Dean's behavior, Aerith quietly chuckled, carefully covering her mouth with her palm. She still sincerely couldn't believe that someone was capable of sleeping so carelessly after falling from a huge height onto hard wooden pews and still managing to remain intact.
Scratching his cheek, Alex sighed heavily, perfectly understanding what would inevitably follow Dean's awakening — namely, first a bunch of stupid questions, then a dense stream of choice insults and furious yells about the desire to personally strangle Lucifer. Sighing, Alex carefully rose from the ground, trying not to accidentally crush the delicate yellow flowers among which he had been sitting all this time.
Rising to his feet, Alex approached Dean, who still had no intention of waking up. Wondering whether he should wake his friend right now or not, Alex suddenly noticed a sports bag lying among the broken boards. Quickly clearing all the debris from the path, Alex pulled the bag out and impulsively opened the lock. Inside he saw their usual clothes, Cain's Blade that should be with Dean, and a short note.
"'Don't thank me, little brother…'" Aerith read aloud, softly leaning on Alex's shoulders while standing right behind him.
"I'm definitely going to kill him," Alex hissed irritably through his teeth, quickly crumpling the paper note in his fist.
"Was that your own brother who did this to you?" Aerith asked with interest, noticing how Alex had gotten really angry again.
"Oh yes. He's quite the grand prankster with us. At least he returned the clothes and cigarettes, and thanks for that," Alex replied in an irritated tone, hastily pulling a pack of cigarettes from the bag.
"And why did he do it? Do you guys not get along at all?" Aerith asked, smoothly squatting down next to Alex and habitually resting her chin on her palm, looking at him with an interested gaze.
"We actually get along great. He's just a rare asshole. And the biggest asshole at that. Probably his petty revenge for me hitting him with a chair yesterday," Alex said thoughtfully, slightly shrugging his shoulders and finally bringing the cigarette to his lips.
Hearing Alex's admission, Aerith opened her mouth in strong shock. She simply couldn't understand why one would need to hit their own brother with a heavy chair at all, and what kind of wild revenge this was — dropping the younger one from above straight through the ceiling. Seeing the sincere surprise on Aerith's face, Alex only calmly shook his head.
He perfectly understood that he definitely shouldn't tell too much about himself right now, including any detailed information about his very large family. Lighting the cigarette, Alex took a deep drag and exhaled thick gray smoke with relief. By this moment his body had fully recovered, and all traces of the heavy hangover had finally disappeared.
Instantly restoring his strength, Alex harshly blocked his mental connection with the Lifestream, completely stopping hearing these endless foreign voices that vied with each other begging him to protect Aerith from her tragic fate. Rubbing his forehead, Alex looked at Aerith again, who had cutely tilted her head to the side and calmly smiled back at him.
Sighing once again, Alex soberly decided that he first needed to wake Dean, clearly explain everything to him, and only then think together about what exactly Lucifer had done and what they should do next. Exhaling cigarette smoke, Alex firmly clenched the cigarette with his teeth and confidently rose from his haunches. Approaching the sweetly sleeping Dean, Alex briefly kicked his partner in the leg.
"Wake up, Choom. We're officially in deep shit," Alex said dryly, stubbornly trying to wake the soundly sleeping Dean.
"You're the one in deep shit… And bring me a cold beer, my head is splitting from this stupid noise. Did we fall asleep in the club again? Let them shut up," Dean grumbled without opening his eyes at all, painfully squeezing his head with his hands from the wild headache that only grew stronger due to the hangover and the extra noise pressing from all sides.
Alex was not surprised at all that Dean was also able to hear the Lifestream, considering his rather interesting relationship with Amara, who after restoring her powers had once again become the Primordial Goddess. Thanks to the fact that it was already very difficult to call Dean a normal person, the presence of a mental connection with the living planet looked quite natural.
Hearing all this incoherent hum in his head, Dean was experiencing even heavier consequences of the hangover. With enormous difficulty opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Alex calmly standing over him and slowly smoking a cigarette. Squinting from a new flash of pain, Dean rubbed his face with his palms and opened his eyes again. This time he clearly noticed a cute young girl curiously peeking out from behind Alex's shoulder.
Seeing that Dean had finally woken up, Aerith waved to him with a warm friendly smile. In response to this sweet gesture from Aerith, Dean only exhaled dully through his nose and out of old habit began feverishly feeling his pockets in search of painkillers to get rid of the migraine. Not finding any pills, Dean sighed heavily, remembering in time exactly who he was now. Taking another deep breath, Dean quickly restored his strength and just as harshly blocked the hum of the Lifestream in his head.
"Phew, finally that damn noise is gone. For the love of the Creator, what the hell is going on here and where are we exactly?" Dean asked in a tired tone, finally getting rid of the remnants of the hangover.
"What you just heard is the Lifestream. And as for where we are… Well… Heh. Just look up," Alex replied lazily shrugging his shoulders and lazily pointing his finger at the high ceiling of the church.
"Lifestream-what? And what does the ceiling have to do with anything?" Dean asked in bewilderment, looking suspiciously at the smirking Alex, and then slowly raised his heavy gaze to the roof of the church.
Sensing a strange catch in Alex's words, Dean slowly raised his head. And the first thing his heavy gaze landed on were two through holes in the ceiling. Just like with Alex before, Dean's eyelid began to tremble slightly from dull irritation. It wasn't hard for him to understand what had happened to them, considering the debris of pews he was currently sitting on.
Slightly squinting from the sunlight penetrating from above, Dean was able to make out through the hole in the roof the strange outlines of a massive metal structure. Narrowing his eyes slightly, Dean clearly saw part of a huge plate that hung like a dead weight far above them. Seeing all this, he felt strong bewilderment. Rubbing his eyes, Dean naively thought that it just seemed that way to him from the hangover.
But opening them again, he once more stared at the steel plate located high above his head. Lowering his gaze, Dean frowned at Alex and pointed a hard finger at the hole in the ceiling with a silent question: what the hell is going on here and where exactly have they ended up?
And before Dean could voice his question out loud, a calm voice from Alex clearly sounded in his head, promising that he would explain everything clearly now. From these words Dean frowned even harder while Alex telepathically transmitted scraps of information to him about what he had just seen.
Hearing the short summary about the upper plate representing Shinra's artificial city, Dean sighed irritably, perfectly understanding why Alex had immediately said they were in deep shit. Feeling a new surge of anger at Lucifer, Dean covered his face with his hands, beginning to massage his skin with his fingers to quickly process what he had heard.
Aerith did not hear this silent conversation between Alex and Dean at all, since they communicated directly in each other's heads. But her attention was still drawn to the fact that Dean also heard the Lifestream. She was insanely surprised that she had suddenly met two people at once who, just like her, could hear the living voice of the planet.
"Your friend can also freely hear the Lifestream?" Aerith asked quietly, carefully rising on tiptoe and trustingly leaning on Alex's shoulder, whispering right in his ear.
"As you can see, yes. And why are you suddenly whispering? Have you started to be embarrassed to be a mischievous gremlin in the presence of my awakened friend?" Alex replied with a smile, smoothly turning his face toward Aerith.
"I'm not a gremlin at all! Stop continuing to come up with strange nicknames for me… And I'm just sincerely curious," Aerith said in an offended tone, jokingly pressing her finger right into Alex's cheek.
"You guys don't mind if we come in without knocking?" a brazen cheerful voice suddenly sounded from the very entrance to the church.
When the unfamiliar cheerful voice sounded, Alex, Dean, and Aerith synchronously turned their heads toward the entrance to the church. A moment later the old doors swung wide open, and two men in strict black suits appeared on the threshold, behind whom a dense formation of fighters in heavy protective gear and with automatic weapons in their hands marched.
Seeing these visitors, Alex scratched his cheek in bewilderment, as he absolutely did not expect to meet them so early, and even together. One of the arrivals had disheveled red hair tied in a loose braid at the back of his head. Next to him confidently walked his partner — a tall man with a completely bald head and wearing sunglasses. Alex quickly remembered these two operatives, whose names were Reno and Rude.
These two were part of Shinra Corporation's special internal division. Their main task was the harsh resolution of delicate problems, forceful capture of people, and the final elimination of everyone who could even slightly threaten the company's position. In the slums they were called by different names: trackers, guard dogs, but absolutely everyone preferred to simply call them Turks.
And seeing these two, Alex instantly stood right in front of Aerith, reliably covering the girl with his body. Dean also frowned gloomily, seeing the weapons aimed at them, and confidently rose to his feet, carelessly shaking wooden splinters from the pews off himself.
"And who the hell are you?" Reno asked in surprise, lounging and tapping his electric baton against his shoulder.
"They're my new bodyguards. And they're very strong. Cool, right?" Aerith said with a gremlin smile, cheerfully peeking out from behind Alex's broad back and slyly narrowing her eyes at Reno and Rude.
"Strong, you say? You definitely wouldn't tell from their ridiculous clothes that they're fighters. More like ordinary tourists who stupidly wandered into the wrong place. Right, Rude?" Reno said in a mocking tone, looking Alex and Dean up and down with disgust, after which he turned to his partner.
"Appearance can be deceiving, Reno. We don't know them at all, we need to be extremely careful," Rude replied dryly, carefully adjusting his sunglasses on his nose.
"Can't argue with that, bald guy. So quickly grab your buddy, your girl scouts, and get the hell out of here. I'm in a frankly shitty mood right now to mess with you," Alex said in a mocking tone, calmly pulling a new cigarette from the pocket of his shorts.
When Alex's brazen words sounded, Aerith couldn't contain her emotions and cheerfully snorted with laughter, carefully covering her mouth with her palm. Rude silently raised his hand and slowly ran his fingers over his smooth bald head, from which the rays of the sun penetrating through the fresh holes in the ceiling amusingly reflected.
Seeing this picture, even Dean chuckled slightly. Reno looked at his partner and barely held back a laugh, considering their long-standing friendship. At this time Alex was tensely thinking that some events clearly didn't add up, considering the rather early appearance of Rude and Reno. Raising his direct gaze to the ceiling, Alex slightly narrowed his eyes, activating magical vision, and immediately noticed that the mako reactor in Sector 5 was still intact and undamaged.
Frowning at this discovery, Alex smoothly leaned toward Aerith and quietly whispered in her ear that if a brawl started now, she needed to immediately hide. Hearing Alex's warning, Aerith quickly nodded her head and confidently raised her thumb, showing that she knew perfectly well what to do.
Seeing that Aerith had understood everything correctly, Alex turned to Dean and slightly raised his chin, silently showing that a tough fight was coming now. Dean understood everything without words and once again shifted his gloomy gaze to the armed Shinra squad.
"Aerith, for such a rescue you'll eventually have to pay seriously," Alex said, calmly shoving his hand into the pocket of his shorts.
"I think one good date for you will be quite enough. And for your friend… Well, I'll buy him a drink," Aerith said with a sweet smile, lightly tugging at the edge of Alex's shirt.
"And here I am working for ordinary food again. Miracles, that's all," Alex said lazily, pulling a thin bundle of metal threads from his pocket.
"To go on your date, you first need to get out of here alive at all," Reno's brazen voice sounded, who rudely interrupted their conversation.
Alex shifted his gaze to Reno and gave the brazen Turk a cold mocking look. Tangling his fingers in the thin threads, Alex slightly moved his palm, and a barely audible metallic ring sounded around him. Pulling the strings, Alex smiled widely, clearly showing: the group of idiots from Shinra could boldly try to do at least something.
Reno slightly narrowed his eyes, intently looking at Alex's raised hand in white gloves with a strange symbol, which seemed to be pulling invisible bonds in the air. Rude, standing nearby, instantly sensed the threat, frowning behind his sunglasses and immediately waving his hand sharply.
The Shinra Grunts obediently stepped forward and aimed their automatics at Alex and Dean. But before the Shinra Security Officers could open fire, Alex slightly moved his fingers. In that same instant the heavy weapons in the Grunts' hands were neatly sliced by metal threads — only empty plastic handles remained in their palms.
Seeing that their automatics had been cut, the Grunts immediately grabbed their service pistols and opened rapid fire on Alex and Dean. All the bullets flying at Alex and Dean collided with dry ringing against the iron threads and fell to the floor, being neatly cut into two parts.
Reno and Rude looked closely and finally managed to notice the barely visible metal threads that densely contoured around Alex, Dean, and Aerith. Narrowing his eyes, Reno looked intently at Alex's face, which he had arrogantly ignored before, and fixed on the unnatural, shining color of his rainbow eyes.
"You're a SOLDIER? I don't remember anyone like you in our secret database," Reno asked, frowning and intently watching Alex's every movement.
"You almost guessed right, I am a SOLDIER. Only we are SOLDIERs of the zero generation," Alex said with a smile, lazily moving his fingers.
"Nonsense! There is no zero generation of SOLDIER! Confirm it, Rude," Reno snapped angrily, categorically not believing Alex's words and sharply turning to his partner.
"I can't claim the opposite. Much from the company's archives is still unknown to us… And it seems the situation here is much more serious than we initially assumed," Rude replied, frowning, tightly clenching his fists and clearly understanding that this time he would have to enter a tough fight himself.
Hearing Alex's words, Dean turned his head and frowned at him with a silent question: what kind of nonsense was he spouting now? Alex answered Dean with exactly the same look, silently making it clear that he was simply spitting out the first nonsense that came to his mind for the sake of a joke.
Shaking his head, Dean thought about what these SOLDIERs were and why these two idiots in black suits had reacted so violently to it. Deciding that he would need to ask Alex in detail later about the structure of this strange world, Dean reached into the pockets of his beach shorts and was able to feel a heavy silver knuckle duster that had materialized there literally a moment ago.
Putting the knuckle duster on his right hand, Dean slightly moved his shoulders and neck, briefly warming up before the fight. Aerith, standing behind Alex, curiously peeked out from the side and looked extremely interested at the guy upon hearing his statement. But for some reason it firmly seemed to her that Alex and Dean were not SOLDIERs at all, and that all of Alex's words were simply skillful lies.
"Alright, idiots, time waits for no one… Well, except for me. And first we'll remove all the extra extras," Alex said in a cheerful tone, smoothly moving his fingers and beginning to pull invisible metal threads, never taking his lazy gaze off Reno and Rude for a second.
As soon as Alex finished speaking, he sharply pulled his hand toward himself, and the metal threads instantly closed around each Grunt that Reno and Rude had brought with them. And before anyone in the hall could understand what had happened, Alex briefly moved his fingers. All the Shinra Security Officers flew apart in different directions, crashing noisily out through the broken windows and open doors of the church.
Outside, the dull sound of heavy bodies falling immediately sounded, followed by a painful groan. Reno and Rude looked around in surprise, noticing how all their armed support that they had brought had simply flown out onto the street. Aerith immediately clapped her hands cheerfully at how skillfully and beautifully Alex had dealt with the Shinra Grunts without spilling a single drop of blood.
But what really pleased her was the sour expressions on Reno and Rude's faces, who had suddenly been left in absolute solitude. Dean, standing next to Alex, couldn't help but make a dull comment that Alex was just a show-off. Rolling his eyes at Dean's jab, Alex lazily moved his fingers, immediately rolling the metal threads into a ball and putting them in the pocket of his shorts. Cracking his knuckles, Alex pulled a second heavy silver knuckle duster from his pocket and lazily put it on his right hand.
"We're officially done with the idiots. Now the main assholes are next. I'll take the chatty one, and you take the bald one," Alex said in an enthusiastic tone, turning to Dean and openly pointing his finger at the frozen Reno and Rude.
"Why the hell should I fight the bald one, and you get the chatty one?" Dean asked, frowning and stubbornly staring at Alex.
"For the love of all the saints, fine! Then I'll take the bald one, and you take the redhead. Does this distribution finally suit you?" Alex replied in an irritated tone, barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes again at this grumbling.
"Whatever, I'll still take the bald one. Only what the hell am I supposed to do with him?" Dean said, waving it off and looking suspiciously at Rude, who once again mechanically touched his shiny bald head.
"I don't know, you can polish his bald spot to a shine. Or just kick him in the balls, your choice. Only, Dean… For now we do without corpses, we don't kill them," Alex replied in a carefree tone, not missing the opportunity to laugh at Rude once again and timely reminding Dean that they needed to be extremely careful in this world for now.
While Alex and Dean were cheerfully chatting, completely ignoring the two Turks, Reno and Rude decided to attack first. Rude swiftly ran forward and powerfully pushed off a stone column upward, jumping toward Dean. Jumping high enough, Rude deftly spun in the air, delivering a circular kick to Dean's head.
Reno instantly used his built-in technologies and in one instant appeared right next to Alex, fiercely swinging his electric baton. Reno and Rude simultaneously delivered their sudden blows to Alex and Dean. Seeing Rude's leg in front of his face, Dean only smirked mockingly and delivered a sharp counter blow.
Dean punched straight into the sole of Rude's foot, forcing him to tumble backward, performing several forced somersaults in the air. Landing on the old wooden floor, Rude slightly stumbled and felt sharp pain in his leg after Dean's powerful blow, even despite the fact that he had skillfully used inertia to dodge. Before Rude could fully come to his senses, Dean was already silently next to him.
"Boo," Dean said dully, slowly blinking his eyes, and his sclera instantly turned completely black in that same second.
Seeing how terrifyingly Dean's eyes had changed, Rude instinctively stepped back, feeling mortal danger with his whole body. At the same time, Alex lazily dodged the fast blows of the electric baton that Reno was vigorously swinging. Reliably holding Aerith in his arms, Alex deftly avoided every lunge of the redheaded Turk, who with each unsuccessful swing became more and more irritated.
Being in Alex's arms, Aerith smiled cheerfully and tightly hugged him around the neck, sincerely considering this fight a fun attraction. Feeling growing irritation, Reno sharply changed the trajectory of the blow and impulsively swung his hand to the side. Seeing this feint from Reno, Alex technically raised Aerith high above himself so that she wouldn't accidentally get hit, slightly tilting his own torso back.
But the electric baton still slightly caught the edge of his red Hawaiian shirt, tearing off a small piece of fabric. Alex immediately frowned in irritation when his favorite beach shirt was torn. Raising an irritated gaze to Reno, who smirked smugly upon noticing his opponent's irritation, Alex sharply raised his leg and kicked the Redheaded Turk quite hard in the chest.
Managing to put the electric baton in front of himself at the last moment, Reno still fully felt the crushing power of the blow, beginning to slide backward at full speed across the wooden floor of the church.
"Not cool, redhead. And that was my favorite shirt. I usually carefully washed it from other people's blood, and you took and tore it. That's very not cool," Alex said in a cold dry tone, carefully placing Aerith on the wooden floor next to himself.
"Oh, big deal — some cheap shirt. Want me to buy you exactly the same new one right now? Or rather, as buy… I'll show unprecedented generosity and personally throw it into your fresh grave. You know, so it's not so обидно in the afterlife," Reno said in a cheerful brazen tone, cheekily waving his electric baton and deciding to tease his opponent even more.
"You really are funny… I even like that. Only I've hated cheap clowns since childhood. Especially redheaded ones," Alex said dully, looking at Reno with a completely empty, dead gaze.
"Not my problem, SOLDIER," Reno replied carelessly shrugging his shoulders, demonstratively not taking Alex's threat seriously.
Alex looked at Reno with a cold, mocking gaze, and then took a deep breath, noisily exhaling a dense white cloud of steam. At that same moment powerful lightning discharges furiously sparked around Alex's body. Seeing this, Reno immediately became seriously alert and hastily assumed a combat stance.
In response to this, Alex smiled widely and instantly disappeared from his spot. All the redheaded Turk managed to hear was a deafening sound similar to a thunderclap, after which wild pain followed in his back. Reno didn't even understand how his feet left the ground, and he rapidly flew straight toward Aerith.
And before he could collide with the frightened girl, Alex, enveloped in lightning discharges, had already appeared in front of him. Reno again failed to notice how his opponent was moving, as he immediately flew high upward. Aerith froze in place, blinking in surprise with her big green eyes. She didn't manage to see anything at all as Reno began to be thrown around with a whistle from side to side, and his body was continuously followed by a bright trail of lightning.
In the next moment Reno crashed heavily with a loud thud onto his back against the old wooden floor, hoarsely spitting out blood. Raising a surprised gaze to the ceiling, Aerith noticed Alex, who was calmly standing upside down on a beam and gloomily looking at the beaten Reno. Narrowing his eyes, Alex calmly pushed off the beam and began falling downward, leaving a sparkling trail behind him.
But before he crashed into the groaning Reno, Alex suddenly noticed strange gray creatures resembling ghosts that densely surrounded Aerith in a ring. The girl began desperately trying to drive away the gray Whispers that had suddenly appeared around her from nowhere. And before Aerith could fight them off, the gray Whispers impulsively began dragging her to the far, abandoned part of the church.
"Alex, help!" Aerith screamed loudly when the gray creatures began forcibly dragging her to the other end of the church.
Alex immediately corrected his movement right in the air, sharply pushed off a stone column and rushed after Aerith, who was being rapidly carried away by the Whispers. Dean also instantly stopped beating Rude upon hearing the girl's desperate scream. Seeing her being dragged away by gray ghosts, Dean headbutted Rude in the bridge of the nose and immediately ran at full speed after Alex.
To be continued...
(While I was writing this chapter, I realized I hadn't seen a single FF fanfic. Well, I think I had, but the Author rushed through the plot so quickly that it was more like an AI had written it, and the Author had simply copied it and said, "Here's the chapter, eat this crap I'm giving you." The plot flew by in 10-15 chapters, I think I don't remember it very well. But in fact, I didn't understand a thing. The events just kept jumping from one to the next, and that was it. Okay, those are my complaints as a reader. Now, on to the plot. Hmm... Who are the Gray Whisperers? Well, they're the protectors of Canon. I'll explain in more detail in the next chapter. Anyway, as always, I'll gradually reveal the events and lore of the world. And now, time to eat. Peace, love, and who's that behind you? It's me, Mario.)
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