Chapter 810 - 809: A Little Fun in the Form of a Black Cat."

Falling downward from an enormous height, Alex looked at the night sky strewn with bright, cold-pure stars. In such rare minutes he could not help but think that no matter which of the worlds fate had thrown him into, the starry sky everywhere remained equally beautiful. Enjoying the sensation of free fall and the whistle of the wind in his ears, Alex clearly heard everything that was happening far below.

He understood perfectly: this insane day had become an event for the residents of Midgar that they would certainly never forget. And he absolutely could not blame them for it. Any person in the place of the ordinary inhabitants of the Lower and Upper Cities would have experienced the strongest shock and animal fear when two gigantic chthonic monsters had broken free straight from the depths of a Mako Reactor.

Each of them right now was probably praying only to simply survive this night and for this nightmare to end as soon as possible. Heavily sighing at the cries reaching him, Alex slightly turned his head, estimating the distance to the ground. Seeing that he was rapidly approaching the Plate of the Sixth Sector, Alex returned to his original position and did not even think of slowing the fall.

He still had to put on a convincing performance in front of the lenses of Shinra's hidden cameras, convincing the corporation's bloodhounds that the battle with Bahamut had completely drained all his strength. Slightly correcting the direction of the fall toward a dead-end alley, Alex serenely threw his hands behind his head, as if settling onto a soft featherbed.

At the very moment when he practically flew into the narrow passage between the buildings, a dense shadow in the depths of the alley sharply distorted, taking on the graceful outlines of a girl with long flowing hair. On the dark silhouette brightly red eyes the color of fresh blood slowly opened, looking at the falling Alex with an openly tired squint.

A soft female sigh echoed throughout the alley, after which the shadow in the same second expanded, literally absorbing all the surrounding light. Following that, endless black hair burst from the impenetrable darkness, which with a hollow tension wove into a sturdy shock-absorbing net. Alex, falling at furious speed, landed softly right onto this web, which perfectly dampened the inertia, preventing him from punching through the pavement and causing yet another wave of destruction in Midgar.

Feeling the silky softness of the hair, Alex was about to smile, sincerely glad that Zhang Ya had decided to personally back him up. However, his smile immediately faltered when the black strands wrapped around his body in a death grip, turning into a dense cocoon and smoothly lowering him to the ground.

While Alex was carefully being pulled downward, the shadow in the alley again returned to its usual form of a pale girl. Touching the solid surface with his feet, Alex with a guilty strained smile stared at the shadow created by Zhang Ya's silhouette, perfectly understanding what his wife was thinking right now.

"Thanks for the soft landing, my love!" Alex said in the most cheerful and casual tone possible, glancing sideways at the dense cocoon of long black hair that had bound him hand and foot.

"…" Zhang Ya continued to silently contemplate him with her bright-red eyes, expressing with that gaze far more than could be conveyed by any words.

"Well, don't look at me like that! It's all… part of my genius strategic plan," Alex smirked without losing optimism, trying with a struggle to free even one hand from the hair captivity in order to victoriously raise a thumbs-up.

"…" Zhang Ya merely slowly and expressively blinked, after which the black strands squeezed around Alex with such force that he nearly lost his breath.

"Okay, okay, maybe not entirely genius… I couldn't have predicted in advance that Bahamut would show up here! He wasn't supposed to be here according to the canon at all. But listen, you have to look for the positives in everything—at least your husband now has a new pocket Pokémon!" Alex began justifying himself on the fly, having finally extracted a hand and starting to actively gesticulate.

"…" Zhang Ya sighed heavily and deeply, simultaneously loosening the grip and completely releasing Alex from the captivity of the hair.

"Hooray! I knew you'd understand me. And now—a good-luck kiss!" Alex exclaimed with excitement, in the same second jumping up to Zhang Ya's shadow and comically cupping his palms at his cheeks.

"You'll manage without it," came Zhang Ya's calm, cool voice from the dense shadow, after which a pale little hand with neat black nails immediately appeared from the darkness and unceremoniously pushed Alex's excessively pleased face to the side.

Feeling a very cold palm on his cheek, Alex smiled softly and lightly rubbed his nose against his wife's thin fingers. Before Zhang Ya's hand finally disappeared into the dense shadow, Alex carefully intercepted it by the wrist, tenderly kissed the cool skin, and once again pressed his cheek against it. Watching this impulse of her husband, Zhang Ya sighed softly and deftly slipped out of his grip.

In a final farewell gesture, tenderly stroking Alex's cheek, she completely dissolved into his shadow. Looking at his own shadow, which had again taken on absolutely ordinary outlines, Alex slightly cracked his stiff neck, stretched sweetly, and began carefully looking around. Taking a dark coat straight out of inventory space, he threw it over his shoulders and immediately reached into the inner pocket in search of his favorite cigarette case.

Pulling out a thin aromatic cigar, Alex clamped it between his teeth and with a habitual click lit the lighter. Exhaling a dense cloud of smoke, Alex once again cast a critical glance over the dead-end alley. He considered that he needed to do everything possible to make this place look as if an exhausted person had fallen here from the heavens at furious speed.

And barely had this thought flashed through his head when his shadow again distorted, once more taking on the graceful outlines of Zhang Ya. Following that, long black hair burst from the darkness, which in a matter of seconds literally wrecked the narrow passage, turning it into the perfect scene of a catastrophe.

Scratching his cheek with a nail, Alex looked with approval at the brick walls, on which distinct deep chips and dents had appeared—as if someone at enormous speed had crashed into them and bounced off with a ricochet. Lowering his gaze lower, Alex smirked at the visible trash bin, which turned out to be flattened into a flat pancake, as if a heavyweight had collapsed onto it with his entire body.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling another streaming cloud of gray smoke, Alex turned to his shadow, but it had already taken on a completely normal appearance. Shaking his head, Alex brought both palms to his face and slowly ran them from top to bottom, activating masking magic. Before his eyes his face became deathly pale, and distinct dark bruises immediately appeared under his eyes—as if he had not closed his eyes for several extremely long and exhausting days.

"This decor should be more than enough… Now only the simplest remains: to walk out of the alley and in all glory appear before the lenses of Shinra's cameras," Alex said with a predatory smirk, with a habitual motion extinguishing the thin cigar against a fresh crack on the brick wall.

Approaching the very exit from the alley, Alex clearly heard the anxious voices of the townspeople who still could not calm down after the terrifying events that had ended literally a moment ago. Rubbing his palms, Alex lightly slapped himself on the cheeks to finally enter the role of a mortally exhausted person. For greater persuasiveness he squeezed out a couple of drops of fake blood onto his lips and with a light habitual motion smeared it across his chin and cheek.

Strongly hunching over, Alex heavily leaned against the rough wall and slowly trudged forward, emerging from the shadow of the alley. Having gotten out onto the illuminated and lively streets of the Sixth Sector, Alex saw huge crowds of people. The townspeople in panic continued to look into the night sky, pointed fingers upward, and frightenedly discussed the monsters they had seen.

Casting a fading, cloudy gaze over the crowd, Alex walked along the sidewalk, continuously leaning on the walls of buildings and bumping into passersby. He nearly collapsed onto the pavement from every accidental touch, causing dissatisfied grumbling from those he bumped into.

Continuing to stubbornly push through the human flow and completely ignoring the curses directed at him, Alex carefully raised his gaze and immediately looked around in search of the corporation's surveillance cameras. Noticing that he was passing right under one of Shinra's working cameras, Alex bumped into yet another passerby and in the same second collapsed powerlessly right onto the cold ground.

The man with whom Alex had just collided at first wanted to snap cheerfully at the inattentive guy. However, seeing that the latter had lifelessly fallen onto the pavement and was showing no signs of movement, the passerby became strongly frightened. Around Alex lying in the dust a dense crowd of concerned townspeople almost immediately formed.

"Hey, kid, are you okay?!" the man whom Alex had bumped into asked in a careful, frightened tone.

"I'm fine…" Alex answered in a barely audible, mortally tired tone and before the public's eyes began slowly, with difficulty rising to his feet.

Watching Alex slowly rising, the man sincerely expressed concern and immediately crouched down nearby. Helping the guy get up, the passerby was horrified upon seeing his deathly pale, bloodless face and the stains on his lips. Considering that the young man had received the heaviest internal injuries during the terrifying appearance of two unknown monsters, the man carefully supported him under the arm.

Continuing to convincingly portray mortal fatigue and exhaustion, Alex leaned with his entire weight on the stranger until the latter helped him reach the nearest building and lean against the concrete wall. Sitting on the cold concrete, Alex lowered his head low, silently listening to the growing noise and the agitated conversations of people hurriedly trying to call an ambulance. Having made sure that more than enough shocked spectators had gathered around and that Shinra's cameras were conducting a clear recording, Alex slightly leaned forward.

In the next instant a dense stream of bright-scarlet blood burst from his mouth with a hollow sound, spattering everything around. Seeing the guy choking on blood, the passersby recoiled in horror and panic, having absolutely no idea what was happening. Even that responsive man who had helped Alex reach the wall retreated a couple of steps back in fear, simply not knowing what to do with a person from whom blood was literally fountain-ing.

But in the next moment an event occurred that finally frightened all those gathered to death. The blood that Alex had spat onto the pavement suddenly flared with bright flame, boiled, and began hissing as it immediately evaporated, leaving only a light smoke. The sight of the blazing, boiling blood in the same second caused a genuine surge of wild panic among the onlookers—people fled in terror in all directions.

Continuing to sit on the cool concrete with his head lowered, Alex made sure that he had squeezed the maximum show-effect out of the scene, after which he slowly wiped the remnants of blood from his chin with his sleeve. With enormous difficulty rising and leaning on the wall, Alex with a staggering gait trudged toward the nearest dark alley.

As he walked, frightened people with wild fear on their faces hastily parted before him, sincerely believing that before them was a victim of some unknown and deadly mutation caused by excessive contact with Materia. Finally reaching the deep shadow of the alley and reliably hiding from prying eyes, Alex immediately straightened to his full height and with a calm motion wiped the remnants of the fake makeup from his lips with the sleeve of his coat.

"And now all that remains is to see how quickly Shinra reacts and in how many minutes it will send its operatives here," Alex said with a satisfied smirk, slightly cracking his neck and with a light motion of his palm returning his face to an absolutely healthy and fresh appearance.

Thinking that the most reasonable thing would be to take a position on the roof and from above observe those whom Shinra would send in search of him, Alex suddenly heard an anxious noise behind him. The panicking townspeople who had loudly called an ambulance were rapidly approaching his shelter. Turning his head, Alex understood that the echo of footsteps was sounding closer and closer. Heavily sighing, he rubbed his forehead with a finger, and his body in the same second was enveloped in a soft, barely noticeable glow.

When the flash faded, a group of concerned townspeople ran into the alley at full speed, led by that same responsive man who had helped Alex get up and lean against the wall. However, upon arriving at the place, the people found not a trace of the exhausted guy. The only living creature in the alley turned out to be a black cat sitting on the concrete, which accompanied the people with an absolutely lazy and indifferent gaze.

Finding no signs of the missing person, the agitated group exchanged glances and rushed further into the depths of the dark passage, completely ignoring the animal sitting by the wall. Running past, none of the townspeople even noticed that on the cat's back a small cute black backpack was carefully fastened, made in the shape of a cat's face.

When the concerned people disappeared around the corner, Alex in cat form barely perceptibly waved his tail and shook his little muzzle in dismay. He sincerely could not understand the logic of these people: first they had fled from him in mortal terror as from the plague, and now they were wearing themselves out trying to find him and provide help. Having no intention of wasting time searching for answers to these philosophical questions, Alex nimbly dashed forward and leaped onto the fire escape.

Calmly climbing the metal steps to the very top tier, Alex in cat form jumped onto the wide parapet of the roof and unhurriedly walked along the edge. Sitting down on the very edge above the very place where a crowd was still noisy below, Alex carefully pulled the miniature backpack off his back and deftly unzipped the zipper with a sharp claw.

Shaking his head, he carefully extracted a thin cigar with his front paws, brought it to his muzzle, and lightly blew on the tip, lighting the tobacco with a small tongue of magic. Clamping the cigar between his cat teeth, Alex dangled his paws and began unhurriedly observing the chaos unfolding below.

"I think they'll need about a couple of minutes to send at least someone here…" Alex said thoughtfully, adjusting the cigar with his front paws and lazily swinging his tail from side to side.

Continuing to sit on the very edge of the roof of the multi-story residential building, Alex lazily swung his tail from side to side, from above observing the unceasing bustle on the streets of the Sixth Sector. In his head he slowly counted the seconds, estimating exactly how much time it would take Shinra's analysts to send a capture group after his soul.

Time dragged extremely slowly and boringly. Only when the thin cigar in Alex's teeth had burned exactly halfway and a couple of minutes had passed since his "fall" did a glossy black car with tinted windows appear on the street. Shaking the accumulated ash from the cigar with a paw, Alex tilted his fluffy muzzle to the side and noticed how the car smoothly parked at the curb—right opposite the crowd of agitated onlookers.

Narrowing his attentive cat eyes, Alex made out how a very familiar and colorful trio sedately climbed out of the car's interior: Reno, Rude, and Elena. The moment this trio appeared in public, the townspeople in the same second frightenedly parted to the sides, freeing a wide passage for the operatives.

Leaning forward a little to better make out what was happening below, Alex sincerely could not help wondering: was the staff of Turks in such a gigantic corporation as Shinra really so meager that this unfortunate trio was sent to investigate every single incident in the city?

However, barely had this ironic thought flashed through his head when Alex annoyedly slapped himself on the muzzle with a paw. He timely remembered that it was precisely Reno and Rude who most often crossed paths with him personally, and therefore—would be guaranteed to be able to identify him by the slightest finicky details.

"Hmm… Maybe I should mess with them a little before finally making tracks?" Alex said thoughtfully in cat form, tilting his muzzle to the other side and with light excitement observing the operatives bustling below.

Smoothly walking along the parapet, Alex in cat form lazily swung his tail from side to side, moving exactly parallel to the trio walking below. Soon Reno, Rude, and Elena reached that very place on the pavement where just a few minutes ago Alex had supposedly been vomiting burning blood. Sitting down on his hind paws, Alex-cat slightly leaned forward, looking down with interest.

He saw how the silent Rude crouched right in front of the scorched spot. Narrowing his eyes behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses, Rude stretched out a hand in a black leather glove and ran his fingers over the distinct burn mark on the concrete. Collecting a little fresh soot, he lightly rubbed it with his fingertips and brought it to his very nose. Inhaling the concentrated smell, Rude jerked his head and grimaced, sensing far from the most pleasant aroma in his life.

Standing behind his back, Reno could not hold back and loudly burst out laughing upon seeing how sharply his partner's usually impenetrable face had distorted. Listening to Reno's mocking laughter, Rude calmly rose from his crouch and without extra words brought the fingers smeared in soot right up to his partner's face. Inhaling the sharp stench, Reno in the same second went into a convulsive cough, excitedly waving a hand in front of his nose.

"What the hell, Rude?! What is this disgusting crap?!" Reno shouted chokedly, hastily covering his nose and mouth with the high collar of his jacket and staring at his partner with irritation.

"This smell strongly resembles sulfur… And something else, very strange. We definitely need to take samples to understand in the lab what we're dealing with," Elena said businesslike, slightly twitching her nose and quickly wiping the remnants of soot from her fingers with a handkerchief.

"You take care of that yourself! And we'll go with Rude for now and check that alley where our SOLDIER buddy ran off to," Reno responded with a predatory smirk, taking a step back and immediately spinning on his heels.

"I'll quickly take the samples now, and we'll check everything together!" Elena insisted, crouching and already pulling a small glass flask from the inner pocket of her jacket.

Without waiting for Elena to finish collecting samples of the pleasantly smelling soot, Reno first unhurriedly moved toward the alley in which, according to the statements of eyewitnesses, Alex had hidden. Sitting on the edge of the roof, Alex in cat form saw where Reno and Rude were heading, and in his head in the same second a mischievous plan flashed. Jumping off the parapet and nimbly running to a ledge that opened right into the alley, Alex immediately slapped a paw on the stone, activating magic.

Following his gesture, the heavy metal fire escape below silently slid down to the very ground, and on the wall and railings several "bloody" fingerprints appeared that were hard to notice if one did not specifically peer. But Alex was absolutely certain: the perceptive Turks would definitely latch onto this clue.

Narrowing his cat eyes, Alex leaned forward and with a smirk observed how Reno swaggeringly entered the dark passage, hands behind his head. Entering the dense shadow, Reno only pretended to carefully look around and search for clues—in reality he was simply depicting vigorous work activity. In recent days he had practically had no time for elementary sleep, not to mention the possibility of simply returning home and changing clothes.

Rude, who entered after him, quickly cast a glance over the gloomy alley, trying to understand where Alex could have disappeared to. Even on the way here they had received a detailed emergency report from the surveillance department and thanks to the recording knew exactly whom they had been ordered to find. Reflecting on the fact that the familiar guy with whom they had previously crossed paths under extremely strange circumstances had somehow managed to transform into a colossal fire monster, Rude could not help finding what was happening complete surrealism.

While the duo swaggeringly looked around, Elena ran into the alley out of breath, on the go tucking the sealed samples into the inner pocket of her jacket. Finding herself on the spot, she immediately began professionally scanning the space and instantly detected a distinct, still-fresh palm print on the wall near the fire escape.

"Look, there's a fingerprint and palm print here!" Elena exclaimed, quickly running up to the fire escape and carefully touching the bloody trace on the bricks with the tip of her finger.

"So what? Don't we already know that our SOLDIER buddy went exactly here?" Reno responded with a lazy smirk, slightly turning his head in her direction.

"What if he didn't go further into the depths of the alley at all, but climbed up?" Elena insisted, expressively pointing a finger at the lowered metal ladder.

"There's logic in that. Right now he's heavily wounded and exhausted, which means he'll be looking for shelter to wait out the raid at height," Rude said, adjusting his sunglasses and raising a thoughtful gaze to the very roof.

"Eh, fine… Let's climb up. In any case we need to continue making the appearance that we're sincerely looking for him," Reno exhaled with a deathly sigh, reluctantly approaching the first step of the fire escape.

Not ceasing to sigh heavily, Reno first climbed onto the next tier of the fire escape. Jumping over the metal railing, he in the same second noticed on the wall yet another distinct bloodied palm print and again sighed in dismay. Looking down and briefly informing his partners about the find, Reno continued to stubbornly climb the humming metal steps higher and higher.

Stepping through flight after flight, the tired Reno thought only that at Shinra he was paid catastrophically insufficiently to engage in such a marathon in the middle of the night. However, having climbed another tier and stumbled upon yet another "bloody" trace, Reno suddenly caught himself thinking: this was his ideal chance to get even for those two times when this guy had beaten him up.

Predatorily smirking at the pleasant thought of a long-awaited rematch over Alex, Reno picked up speed, intending to jump out onto the roof as quickly as possible. Noticing that his partner had sharply dashed forward, Rude and Elena exchanged glances and also accelerated their step, loudly shifting their feet on the steps. Jumping out onto the flat roof, Reno with a sharp click pulled his telescopic electric baton from behind his back and slightly narrowed his eyes, immediately scanning the space around.

But all that appeared before his gaze was a black cat lazily sitting on a wide stone parapet, near whose paws a barely extinguished thin cigar lay. Approaching closer, Reno picked up the remains of the thin cigar and, grimacing, instantly recognized it. After all, in all of Midgar he knew only one single guy who had the habit of smoking exactly such rare cigars. Fully realizing that Alex had already made tracks, Reno with annoyance tossed the burned-out butt aside.

"Find anything?!" Rude, who had jumped out onto the roof after him, asked, quickly catching his breath, and immediately began carefully examining the perimeter.

"Only this cat and the remains of a cigar. And that means our SOLDIER buddy has already managed to successfully make tracks," Reno answered with deep irritation in his voice, with a click putting the electric baton back behind his back.

"Maybe he's still hiding somewhere here on the roof?" Elena, who had caught up, inquired, casting a probing glance over the roof and looking for potential places for shelter.

Looking at Elena, who with enthusiasm had begun methodically examining the roof, Reno thought that if he at least for show did not pretend to be looking for traces, an inevitable tedious series of lectures and a devastating report about his negligence would follow. Having not the slightest desire to remain without a bonus next month, Reno once again sighed doomfully and began depicting vigorous searches.

Continuing to sit on the stone parapet in cat form, Alex from above observed the trio of Turks going out of their way in search of any clues. Swinging his tail from side to side, Alex tried with all his might to maintain an imperturbable muzzle and not smirk looking at this circus. Slightly yawning, he rubbed his eyes with a fluffy paw and suddenly felt a heavy, intent gaze upon himself.

Rude was silently looking at him. Putting on the most uncomplicated cat face, Alex immediately meowed, making it clear with his entire appearance that he was the most ordinary street cat. Rude, for his part, slowly approached the pretending animal and crouched nearby, unblinkingly staring straight into his pupils. Seeing this persistent, scanning gaze, Alex immediately restrained himself so as not to roll his eyes out of habit. Having searched his part of the roof, Reno in the same second noticed that his faithful partner had strangely frozen in front of the black cat.

"Hey, Rude! What the hell are you stuck there for? Since when did you become a fan of cats?" Reno asked with a caustic smirk, approaching them and slightly leaning forward.

"Just the color of this cat's eyes is quite unique. Look for yourself," Rude answered in a calm tone, without extra ceremony picking Alex up under the front paws and turning his muzzle toward Reno.

"Well, the cat has rainbow eyes, so what? If even a yard cat has them like that, then this color isn't all that unique," Reno shrugged, brushing a glance over the black cat's eyes and shifting his gaze to Rude.

"Oh, what a cute kitty! Look, he even has a little backpack on his back! I wonder who his owner is?" Elena intervened with a sincere smile, running closer and leaning over the cat in Rude's hands with affection.

"Why does a cat need a backpack at all? Is he going to open it with his paws or what?.. Hey, little one, you didn't happen to see a guy with the same eye color as yours here, did you?" Reno asked with a mocking smirk, leaning right up to the cat's muzzle.

"I don't think the animal is going to answer someone like you," Rude said in an absolutely calm tone, giving his partner a light smirk.

"Is that so! Maybe then you possess a unique skill of conversational speech with animals?" Reno rolled his eyes, folding his arms on his chest and staring at Rude with mockery.

"I can… Watch how it's done," Rude answered with an impenetrably serious face and confidently nodded his head.

Looking at his partner's excessively serious physiognomy, Reno slightly raised an eyebrow, having absolutely no idea how Rude intended to conduct a conversation with animals. Elena also showed lively interest, fleetingly thinking that Rude probably had some new experimental Materia hidden that allowed understanding the language of beasts. Even Alex, continuing to convincingly pretend to be an ordinary yard cat, perked up and prepared for the performance.

Continuing to hold the black cat up in the air, Rude slowly turned him toward himself with his muzzle and again began silently, intently peering into his cat eyes. Looking with interest at Rude through his sunglasses, Alex patiently waited for something worthwhile to happen. However, time kept dragging, and the imperturbable Turk simply continued to play a staring contest with him.

Alex in the same second lost both his excitement and the remnants of patience. Yawning widely, he looked at Rude with a gloomy gaze, sincerely hoping that this absurd hypnosis session was about to end. But when even after a minute nothing had changed, in Alex's cat head an ideal funny idea immediately matured.

Slightly wagging his tail in anticipation, Alex unhurriedly raised a front paw. Seeing this gesture, Reno and Elena in their sinful hearts thought that Rude had indeed somehow miraculously managed to establish mental contact with the animal. But what happened in the next instant almost made them collapse onto the concrete from laughter.

Raising his paw, Alex with a draw and a sharp sound brought it down precisely onto Rude's shiny bald head. Receiving an unexpected and ringing slap to the back of the head, Rude instinctively loosened his grip, giving Alex complete freedom. Sharply pushing off with his hind paws from Rude's chest, Alex springily jumped backward, easily flying over Reno who was convulsing with laughter. Finding himself behind the redhead's back, Alex mid-flight extended sharp claws and clamped onto his elegant jacket in a death grip.

Reno immediately started twitching in place, straining with all his might to shake off the insolent cat. In that same moment a deafening and distinct sound of tearing expensive fabric rang out over the roof. Having torn Reno's jacket into shreds, Alex pushed off from his shoulder blades and deftly landed precisely into the arms of the stunned Elena, with a swing burying his fluffy muzzle right into her chest.

From such an open gesture Elena completely lost her composure. Feeling the cat's hot breath on her skin through the thin fabric of the white shirt, Elena embarrassedly and piercingly screamed, immediately impulsively pushed the black cat away from herself, and hastily covered her chest with her hands. Deftly landing on the stone parapet, Alex sat down and slightly narrowed his rainbow eyes.

"You little, insolent bastard! Do you even realize how much this jacket costs?!" Reno shouted at the top of his lungs, in furious rage waving the item of his wardrobe that was torn on the back.

"Meow!" Alex responded peaceably, slightly tilting his muzzle to the side and cheerfully waving his tail.

"What 'meow'?! What are you meowing at me here?!" Reno exploded with curses, whistling through the air with the torn jacket.

"I think that 'meow' meant that you should take your complaints and go as far as possible," Rude said with an absolutely imperturbable appearance, thoughtfully rubbing the injured forehead after the cat slap.

"And this cat is also a crazy pervert!" Elena still embarrassedly exclaimed, continuing to convulsively cover her chest with her hands.

"Big deal! So the cat buried its muzzle in your chest, so what?! He's just a dumb animal! You better look at my jacket and at Rude… Pff, and what the hell is that?!" Reno irritably blurted out, continuing to wave the shreds in front of Elena's nose, and along the way pointed a finger at the partner standing nearby.

Staring at his partner, Reno could no longer hold back and again loudly burst out laughing. At that moment even the jacket torn to shreds stopped bothering him. Hearing Reno's deafening laughter, Elena turned her head and immediately tightly covered her mouth with her palms, straining with all her might not to break into hysterics. The two of them stared with all their eyes at Rude's shining bald head, on which an ideal, clear imprint of a cat's paw now proudly displayed.

Rude himself absolutely did not understand why they were so openly mocking him, and only gloomily shifted his gaze from one to the other. Taking a deep breath, Elena with difficulty got a grip on herself, pulled a compact mirror from her pocket, and held it out to her partner. Taking the mirror, Rude leaned forward a little and managed to examine in all details the bright cat "seal" right on his bald head. Carefully touching the imprint with his fingers, Rude raised an eyebrow in puzzlement and turned toward the parapet.

However, the black cat was no longer on the stone ledge—none of the Turks even noticed at what exact moment he had managed to evaporate. Meanwhile Alex was literally drowning in loud laughter, nimbly jumping from roof to roof in his flexible cat body. Such an uncomplicated shake-up with the Turks had helped him excellently relax and release tension.

Having jumped onto yet another roof, Alex made out the familiar café located on the open observation deck. Closing his eyes, he sensitively felt that their entire company was still there. Understanding that they were waiting for him, Alex springily jumped down and rapidly ran up the stone steps. Jumping out onto the observation deck, Alex leaped onto the roof of the coffee shop and ran across to the opposite side.

Leaping onto the terrace, Alex heard the agitated voices of his friends coming from below, who were arguing in turn about how he needed to be urgently found and pulled out of trouble. Smirking cunningly, Alex jumped off the canopy, landing elegantly right in the center of the table—right in front of the entire company.

The moment he effectively jumped out, absolutely everyone instantly paid attention to the unexpected visitor. Casting an expressive cat gaze over those present, Alex first of all looked at Aerith, who slightly narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side, as if immediately seeing through his disguise. Tifa, Jessie, and Yuffie sincerely surprised at the appearance of the guest and synchronously thought how cute this fluffy little one was.

Biggs and Wedge with unconcealed interest began examining the black cat with the backpack. Claudia did not react to the bustle at all, only continuing to stand silently aside, leaning on the railings and folding her arms on her chest. Dean, for his part, immediately recognized Alex and broke into a wide smirk, perfectly understanding what kind of show was about to begin. And only Barret frowned heavily at the sight of the cat that had suddenly appeared on the table.

"Hey, get out of here! We don't have any food for you here," Barret grumbled in a gloomy tone, casually waving off the black cat.

"Do I look like a starving animal to you or something?" Alex asked expressively, raising his eyes to Barret.

"A talking cat?!" Wedge screamed with a wild squeal and from the unexpectedness instantly crashed onto his back together with the chair.

To be continued...

(Wow, this has to be the nicest day since this damn autumn started. It rained in my city, and my pollen allergy eased a bit, and I could breathe normally. Hooray. As for the plot, we're moving in the right direction. Hmm, and I hope it rains again tomorrow, and in fact, for the rest of the week, so I won't suffer. As always, all questions should be directed to my secretary, who has cute paws. And I'm off to cook and play Bioshock. Peace, love, and I have cute paws too, pat-pat.)

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