The hallway was empty when Sarah phased in.
Which was good, because preventing raw anger from burning into magic and death was a struggle as it was, if she had MET some of the people responsible for this one of the rescue subjects might get hurt.
That said, her mind was rapidly devolving into a cold rage at this point.
Her armor sparked and Mr. McStabberson was a bit too sharp, but she was focused. "Adam?"
The interface showed outlines of the hundreds of animals in captivity colored brown, the creatures and people detected as sapient as gold, and several stock rooms as green.
Again, because if Adam showed security equipment or personnel, the temptation to toss her bone spike through some walls or equip a sniper would exponentially increase. And she couldn't risk accidentally hitting her rescue targets.
She walked to the gold markers first. Each hallway in Shinra's Science & Research Division was made of metal (To prevent escapees), had multiple checkpoints and secured doors (Now unlocked and opened, thank you Adam), and lacked any and all maps and directions.
Not that any of that slowed her down even slightly. "We ready for patients?"
Adam showed details. <<Use [[Capture]] and I will get them on 'Enhance Self' Tonic, sleep serum, health recovery serum, regeneration serum, and a nice dose of energy serum so their body doesn't try to consume itself in the process.>>
Another door opened thanks to her Boss infiltrating the systems. "I'm not letting this go unpunished, Adam."
An agreement came from her connection, along with data. <<Killing anyone won't bother the worst people, killing the worst people too soon can set off traps and possibly cause the city to self destruct. For now, hit them where it REALLY hurts.>>
Hmm?
Adam grinned! <<Take all of Professor Hojo's victims, all test subjects, all material samples, and wipe his research. I'm already replacing his backup tapes with encrypted copies of the jerk's more incriminating actions, which I'm sure he will appreciate when trying to recover this mess.>>
She headed toward the nearest gold prison cell. "Yeah, I can see that bastard being FAR more angry about losing data and resources than if we killed this whole damned organization." Hell, with her luck killing everyone would somehow HELP the asshole with some strange backup plan or strategy. "How much time do I have?"
Adam mapped out the department. <<No limit yet, the video cameras are all playing back computer generated false data and most people are still being examined for mental corruption. In a few hours, the standard security sweep will find out the doors in this whole department are locked down.>>
Images of MASSIVE slabs of metal came up. <<Since Professor Hojo designed this place to keep anyone in OR out, it will take hours for anyone to break through even if they KNEW how much money the ass wasted on keeping his own people out of his dirty work. Since they won't resort to the really dangerous destructive methods for a while, I estimate you have around two days or so before someone can break in here.>>
She frowned. "What about taking care of these people? And the animals and stuff?"
A wince. <<While some of them have automated water and food sources to reduce maintenance needs, the rest are just used to mild starvation and dehydration.>>
Right, best get to kidnapping/stealing ALL the things.
The first cell opened… And there was a woman tied up to what seemed to be a cross.
Surgical marks all over her very nude body, chemicals being pumped into her limbs via several tubes, and a zoned out look in her eyes. The mess showed that no one had bothered to clean this woman or the room in at least a few days.
A SPIKE of flame was forced silent.
"[[
Capture.]] And Adam, fix her."
<<Confirmed. I'll need to keep her under for this, but she should be fully healed physically in 08h32m55.>>
She glanced at her heads up display, seeing 'Patient Lucrecia Crescent' and a count down timer. "Mother of the baby?"
Adam was reviewing the data. <<One of them, yes. A researcher under Professor Hojo, worked on demon related stuff, mostly on one named Chaos… And uh. Yeah, it's a bad one.>>
The room rapidly emptied as she [[Harvested]] everything. "What a surprise. This is my surprise face." Sigh. "What happened?"
Data. <<Not entirely documented, but I can give the highlights: Possible mind manipulation, 'marriage' to Hojo, potential rape, experimentation and implantation of Eve's cells, her friend tried to help and was killed and experimented on by Hojo, who then left him in a basement to rot.>>
The rage burned as Adam moved on.<<The order is a bit complicated to determine because the bastard keeps REALLY SLOPPY notes, but basically Hojo let her 'help' save her friend by letting her surgically install something called the 'Protomateria' into the man, which might have also connected his existence to demons. Then Hojo stole her baby without releasing her from this binding method and began a whole new set of projects while still randomly testing and recording the dead friend.>>
Slow. Stay calm. "But why though."
Adam showed more data. <<Hojo didn't like the man because he cared for this woman, and the Professor hoped the 'betrayal' of her trying to save Vincent Valentine this way would give useful data and potential methods to control demons. Or whatever the hell the existence Chaos is actually made of.>>
Fuck that guy. "Is her friend Vincent still alive?"
Adam hummed. <<Sort of? He's that vampire almost undead thing I told you about back in Cloud's hometown now. We can steal him on the way out. Next room has the three babies.>>
Sarah stole the door on the way out, leaving the empty room open as she moved to the next cell. "Right, let's make sure they haven't been mutated or something, I am NOT letting Shinra keep possession of… actual… oh shit."
Adam blanked as he examined the clearly faulty data records and the fifty transparent tubes filled with glowing liquid. And children. <<Fuck.>>
That… That was a LOT more than three babies.
Sarah hesitantly stepped in. "Adam?"
He frantically checked it ALL! <<I don't KNOW! This isn't in ANY of the files, not in the secured stuff, not in the encrypted fields, hell, MOST of these kids aren't even marked as test subjects! Just as material replacement with numbers attached!>>
Her hands waved out.
"[[
Capture!]][[
Capture!]][[
Capture!]]... No, fuck that, [[
Capture ALL!]]"
The room flashed and was empty as Adam frantically applied medication. <<Only the three oldest children, Sephiroth Crescent, Genesis Rhapsodos, and Angeal Hewley, are documented in any way, and two aren't even supposed to be HERE! Only Sephiroth is supposed to be… None of this is documented! The FUCK!?>>
Child after child relaxed as they suddenly had access to energy, healing tonics, and psionic sleeping medication. <<I don't even know where they came from! They ALL have Eve's cells, but most of them are NOT handling it well. Without 'Enhance Self', I'd say over thirty of these babies would be dead in a week or less.>>
Her eyes drifted almost unwillingly to the other gold markers. "Then who the FUCK are in those other rooms!?"
Her Boss growled! <<After we free them? No one. I got space for this, I will MAKE room for this, you go free some people.>>
No WONDER there was so much incriminating shit on the servers when the investigators came, by comparison the DOCUMENTED crimes against humanity were NOTHING to what this monster did off the record!
Yeah, no. "Can Eve detect ALL her cells? I'm not leaving ANY for anyone to try doing this shit again."
Adam was still ensuring each baby was settled into their own healing chambers. <<Probably, but I won't risk talking to her until all these people and the others hidden away are found and saved first. Eve would freak out, Gaia would get involved, and all of humanity MIGHT get wiped from the surface in the process.>>
Sarah considered her spike... No, it was clear this was NOT the fault of the majority of this company. Killing millions of innocents for hundreds of evil fucks was not a trade she would tolerate. "Please don't let this next cell be full of more babies."
The door opened.
Apparently Hojo had a LOT of those cross binding restraint structures available, if he was using them for so many people. "Adam?"
Data scrolled passed. <<None are pregnant currently, but several of the ones near the back need cleansing serum to get those drugs out of them quickly. Thank goodness someone turned off the automatic stress systems during the lockdown.>>
She shouldn't ask. "The what?"
Adam sighed. <<Apparently, according to these hidden server notes, torture was taking too many researchers off more valuable projects. So it was automated.>>
Sarah slumped. She really shouldn't have asked.
"[[
Capture all]], help them the best you can. And as SOON as we find any and all of Hojo's hidden traps and counter measures, let me kill the fucker."
Another list of detected identities and healing times showed up. <<Yes Sarah. This batch will take around 15h33m02 or so in total; they are in worse shape than Sephiroth's mother. At least these people are documented better, if nothing else.>>
She slumped against the wall, the now empty room still echoing with pain and horribleness. "The hell, Adam? Was this a breeding farm?"
He sighed. <<No, these were Shinra Researchers. Turns out the women were needing more 'Remedial Reconditioning' on average than the men. Mostly because Hojo is a sexist asshole and felt women were more disposable, so they got the worst jobs and the most morally horrible ones.>>
Sarah glared. "Which made them actually protest, which got them locked up here?"
Adam highlighted the next room. <<Let's get the rest, this one was marked as 'Remedial: Final Stage' so hopefully the other people are in better condition when we save them.>>
Right, she can fall apart later. Save people now.
Forcing herself to burn some of that thick rage for passion, she stood tall. "Let's save some people and rob an asshole blind."
Fucker would probably ignore being stabbed or having everyone die, but at LEAST he would rage and scream when he can't do his evil shit anymore.
A thought had the nearby dividing walls and hallways marked for a final [[Harvest]] later. Monster Hojo didn't need ANYTHING when she was done here, much less a roof over his Gaia Damned head!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Aerith flinched again. Yuffie was concerned. "Everything… Alright?"
She apparently was holding back tears. "Big sis is VERY angry."
Shit! "Did she not get to the babies in time?"
Aerith shook her head. "I don't know, she's blocking me and Gaia and Eve out of talking somehow."
Yuffie blinked.
Ah. Her adopted big sister is so angry that she decided to put the Planet on hold.
Because that was something someone could do, somehow. Huh.
She fidgeted. "Should… Should we go to your mom? She can do something, right?" Yuffie's dad was awesome, but he always said her own mother had been the best parent when she was alive, and Aerith's mom seemed pretty cool. Right?
The littlest girl nodded from Yuffie's shoulders, hugging her robber sister's head. "We got to tell them big sis is angry, and they can NOT make her more angry. Especially worm guy."
Oh yeah, that moron was still wrapped up in ropes, wasn't he? Apparently his team mates thought it was safer helping him use the bathroom while tied up rather than releasing him or something, because of his history of saying stupid stuff.
Yeah, they deserved a warning. "Let's go talk to the adults then, I can just steal you away later."
It was a sign of how concerned the little girl was that she just nodded.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Thank Gaia that Sarah found and researched Plasmids before coming here.
Adam examined the twelve mothers (Three currently pregnant), the fifty nine babies (All sleeping much better now that they had proper psionic healing and more comfortable systems), several dozen men and women 'lab samples' and the SO MANY 'detained' researchers.
The mothers were apparently aquired through human trafficking from the slums. And while Adam saved ALL the babies involved (Although it was FUCKING CLOSE with the other nine children that hadn't been born yet, as pregnancy did NOT appreciate harsh conditions), he was going to ensure no FURTHER people were 'aquired' this way in the future. Period.
Sarah sent another batch of animals, all just normal creatures thank goodness. Nothing like the talking wolves or whatever, all these animals were being used for drug tests and surgery practice and DNA collection and so forth. Easy enough to send to sleep and heal up while letting her Warehouse learn a whole bunch of healthy local species for Sarah to use later on.
Instead of worrying about that, Adam was carefully matching up children and parents, which was working well for MOST of them so far. Poor Genesis and Angeal's parents were documented as 'expended resources', but many of the other babies were easy enough to pair up with the sleeping adults.
Not that all of them would be wanted. It was rough on both children AND their parents when rape was involved, and there would be some separate and secret conversations with Sarah to ensure that each child would be wanted before trying to force a relationship on either adult or newborn victims.
But ALL would be cared for. If nothing else, Eve was feeling ecstatic because she could feel some sort of connection to ALL these people as Sarah sent them off to the Warehouse, minus the researchers. Eve was perfectly happy to ignore the researchers.
Thanks to these people having her cells combined with them, to her? All these women and babies were family now. Nothing else mattered but making sure they were alright, and both Adam and Sarah were fine with helping out with that plan.
As for the male subjects, apparently no adult men survived being exposed to Eve's genetics unfortunately... Thankfully the boys made it at least. No, these men were more standard lab subjects than Eve's people.
Another batch of creatures, this one mostly mice, came in for processing as Adam kept watch.
Most of the normalish animals would actually be [[Harvested]] for materials later, the ones that were not pets stolen by the division for research or for punishing coworkers. But Sarah still collected them all for scanning because she knew Adam might get useful data out of such a wide variety of creatures.
That and they were leaving NOTHING for Hojo after this.
Side note? The Science & Research Division had a MASSIVE budget. Just the heavy material used for walls, barriers, security doors? All that junk was the good stuff. The VERY good stuff.
Aside from the doors connecting the rest of the building to Shinra's Headquarters, Sarah was harvesting it ALL. And the overly expensive and high quality material was so strong that the widening gap left behind her hadn't collapsed yet despite all walls, wiring, floors, piping, tubing, and so on and so forth being [[Harvested]] for later use.
Sarah had stopped grabbing chunks of the laboratory a while ago and was now moving from the top floor downwards.
From highest security level down to 'lowest' (Despite the so-called low security being more defensive than the stuff the Shinra Military Departments used themselves), she would ensure no people, animals, or prisoners were hidden away and after each level down Sarah would pause and consume the floor above.
It ensured nothing was missed, if nothing else.
The clouds made it a bit dark, but thankfully Adam was ensuring the rest of the facility wouldn't lose power or water pressure or electrical transfer rates despite the growing pit in the top of the massive building she was slowly devouring. The distant walls were helpfully providing at least some light thanks to the red warning strobes left behind as the rest was vanished away for material.
Anyway! After a tiny argument, Sarah was no longer going to evaporate all of Midgar City. Or [[Harvest]] it all. Or even most of it, at least not yet! So she calmed down a LOT, and Adam was really proud of her!
But Shinra might have to waste a LOT of money just to try and make this building stable enough to tear down and begin replacing it.
Oh no! What a tragedy. It is to lament.
Another step had his Jumper wave upwards.
"[[
Harvest.]] And fuck you again, Hojo."
Yeah.
Adam glanced at the numerous healing pods in the Warehouse, all attempting to save children, people, and even some of the 'bad guys and gals' themselves from a slow and painful death.
Agreed. <<Fuck you, Hojo.>>
Sarah sighed and fell on a clean shorn section of wall. Far above her was the night sky, while on all sides were the walls to the building, like an impossible ice cream scoop had just hollowed out the entire place. "Shit Adam."
Yeah. <<I got to admit, it's really tempting to just kidnap the fucker and have 'Research' examine his brains.>>
She perked up! "Can we!?"
Sadly. <<No. Things he considers unimportant and not worth remembering could be vitally important to us. Like off site and off the book research locations and so forth.>> That said…
A bright red target showed up downstairs in one of the holding cells. A much nicer cell than any captivity his own test subjects received. <<But just because we can't kill him right now, doesn't mean we can't take some preventative steps. A bit of insurance that he won't be as big of an issue in the future.>>
She glared at the marker. "For example?"
Adam growled. <<It's much harder to get away without legs. And he is right handed, so doesn't need his left arm for security measures or checkpoints.>>
Her grin was vicious.
"[[
Harvest.]] [[
Cauterize.]]"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The security guard flinched at the strangled scream from the closed cell. "Fuck, that guy is creepy."
His partner nodded. "Professor or not, at least THIS scream was less angry? He'd been saying some foul shit since the team dragged him in there."
He held in his contempt. "Dick deserves it. I had a brother suffer under one of his 'lab accidents'. An awful lot of those, by my count."
The other checked for listeners as the scream twisted into whimpering. "Heard those accidents might have been more than just that too."
He checked his gun. "Why do you think I volunteer to 'guard' this garbage? If he tries to get out, we get the first shot."
A blink. "You too? I thought my team were the only ones who were looking forward to a 'breakout'."
He couldn't help snorting. "There's a REASON why his cell is the most 'defended' in Shinra right now. Management might think rainbows shat out his ass, but we know better."
His brother was STILL recovering. Fucking Hojo.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked. <<Huh. He had a surgically embedded gas canister in his right leg. Some sort of bioslurry with an explosive charge.>>
Sarah's grin froze. "What?"
He examined it. <<No, we're good, but apparently he could smash his leg in the right place to release a VERY nasty retrovirus. It would destroy the limb, but his body shows chemical markers… The man would survive the experience.>>
She pulled up the data. "Well, fuck! Who the hell would insert a grenade into their own body to fuck over other people!?"
Adam wanted to shrug. <<By [[Harvesting]] it directly, he couldn't activate it in time. And it doesn't have a deadman's trigger, so any other surprises in his body shouldn't have one either. Probably.>>
Sarah waved an arm, vanishing another set of walls. "What is he, a bond villain!? Fuck, I bet he has a gold shark somewhere or a hidden nuclear secret base shaped like a skull or something."
Yeah, he's nuts. <<Hence why I want to observe him and not just kill the guy. Crazy people have crazy contingency plans.>>
She glanced at the countdown timers. "Well, I took all HIS shit, but I'm still pissed at Shinra in general. Any ideas? Messing up one building doesn't feel like much."
Hmm. Maximum impact with minimum work? Right. <<Let's go rob the armory. Take all their military's equipment and any reserve Materia.>>
Sarah grinned as her minimap updated. "Right! I heard mastered Materia is crazy expensive, they won't just shake off THAT stuff missing!"
True, now where the hell was that junk stored?
Adam paused. <<Holy shit.>>
Sarah was carefully [[Harvesting]] thin layers of the remaining walls of the Science & Research Division down to paper thin levels without letting the now massive and empty cavern collapse. "What?"
He wanted to smash his skull into something. <<Shinra stupidity.>>
She sighed. "Oh boy. Let me have it."
A few dozen images were displayed. <<These were the 4,322 secured facilities for Materia storage and supply for the Public Security Forces. They ranged from so secure that people who were NOT us couldn't get into the joint… To so exposed that passerbys could steal a few on their way to work. And they did.>>
Sarah blinked. "Neat!"
He highlighted the NEW massive chamber with a tube delivery system. <<To speed up the Material retrieval and distribution process while simplifying procedures… They consolidated ALL Materia storage to a bunker under this section of the city.>>
She winced. "All in one place? For ALL departments and research divisions AND the security groups?"
Adam showed her statistics. <<The original design would require five minutes or less for anyone at these 533 locations to access any approved Materia permitted to that person's ID card. While slower in individual situations, over ALL it would be an efficiency booster.>>
She sighed. "They cut corners?"
The new design. <<They cut corners. Current wait time is four hours for unscheduled Materia Requests, and they had to set up a custom 'Standard Materia Loadouts' package designed for manual delivery to soldiers, officers, and general security. It is very common for Researchers with low clearance to wait two or three days for any needed Materia if it is a busy work day.>>
Her eyes followed the pattern underground. "And uh. ALL their materia is down there?"
Adam hummed. <<Around 74% of it, yeah. Can drop down to 46% when supplying a military operation or bounce up to 84% when they come back, but 74% is the average amount of Materia belonging to Shinra secured down there.>>
Sarah's eyes sparkled. "Holy. Shit."
More details. <<Half the sensors and alarm systems don't even work, because of big issues during deployment that required several rapid hot fixes and modifications to ensure Shinra continuing operations. And after it was sort of working, many weren't willing to break stuff to finish repairs or attempt to return to the design specifications.>>
She opened a separate display listing the massive Materia types 'in stock'. "Shit, some of this stuff isn't SOLD to the public. Or even used internally because it's still being studied!"
Yep. <<And there are LOTS of reserve mastered Materia down there too.>>
His Jumper glanced at the open air building shell around her. "Compared to that, THIS place costs nothing to rebuild. Hell, would Shinra even be solvent if we stole that!?"
Adam wasn't sure? <<Maybe? Remember, they own nearly everything. If they say they are fine, then that is all that matters. MOST nations run with massive debt after all. But! The important part is how long it would take to resupply these resources… Any potential military action would be delayed by years, if not longer.>>
It was a LOT of Materia to fight distant wars, after all. And there was enough down there that you could glue the crystal orbs together and make walls and a house out of the stuff, no problem. Sheesh!
She nodded. "Right, we'll take all that AND check the slums for more trash and go kidnap Cloud, Tifa, and the adults. I think I made my adopted Dad worried when we shut Aerith and Gaia out of the network."
Yeah, but Adam wasn't going to let them feel their rage on this. <<They'll get over it.>>
While Sarah began making her way over to the Materia Storage Facility, Adam kept an eye on security and began examining the crazy shit Hojo had hidden in his leg grenade.
Serious mad science mungo gumbo here, best have 'Research' ready to handle it in case something similar shows up elsewhere.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Tifa was bored. "Can we go back to training now?"
Cloud shrugged. "Maybe? I can't, my cleaning teacher left and melted the ground over there."
He waved at the followers of Master Zangan who were attempting to make the pit of liquid rock safer for future trainees. Because an angry woman with burning bones really left a mark on the training ground when she wanted to, apparently.
She pouted! "I can do that too one day! Right Master Zangan!?"
The old man gave a sad sigh. "I'm sorry, my disciple. It is unlikely."
Tifa blinked. "What? Why not!?"
He waved at the molten pit. "By the time I was strong enough to liquify stone, I was too powerful to limit myself to a small hole like that. Melt a few acres? Sure! This level of control?" He sighed. "In the end, we are all but students."
Cloud nodded. It was probably easier to make a big hole anyway, because bigger was better.
Tifa huffed. "Well, I need to practice punching stuff. All the big rocks just crack and the small one's shatter, how am I supposed to make a statue like this!?"
The old man livened up! "Indeed! We shall work on our control as Martial Artists! Constant hard work earning small but continuous gains, we seek to improve ourselves through constant struggle!"
Cloud held his hand up. "Can you constantly struggle that way? Mom and my house are this way, and I don't want them to be struggled into a lava hole."
His friend's master nodded. "Indeed! Come, Disciple Tifa! We struggle in THIS direction!"
Cloud idly ignored the pair that began making loud bangs and pops in the background as he got closer to the cleaning crew. He WOULD learn how to clean up after Tifa saved the day! Eventually.
He would learn ALL the cleaning secrets!
The muscled guy was frowning. "No, it's not actually melted. Something seems to have burned away the bonds holding the material together. That is actually liquid stone, but it's only at room temperature. And it doesn't act right."
The grandmother-like figure hummed. "Try and freeze a small portion. Hopefully that will stabilize the material without causing a bad reaction. Maybe if we…"
A loud CRASH interrupted the group.
Ms Tesbit thwacked one of the taller men with her cane. "And who exactly is watching Master Zangan right now?"
He rubbed his leg. "Yes Ms. Tesbit! Sorry Ms. Tesbit!"
Three hand signs had two of the younger helpers run off towards the sounds of explosions and what sounded like Cloud's best friend cackling.
Good, sounds like Tifa was feeling better!
He ignored the argument starting up in the distance with the patience of long practice and shuffled closer. "Can I help?"
Ms Tesbit smiled at him, with a bit of the fond exasperation she showed to the others. "Of course, young man. Here, help with the shovel connected to the Ice Materia. Once my boys make sure this won't explode into steam or spew vaporus rock everywhere, you may help dig the hole."
He lit up! Cloud LOVED digging holes! "Can I have a BIG shovel?"
She waved him off. "Likely when you're older. Brendon! Don't stand so close when testing material damaged by unknown energies! You don't have so many fingers that you can afford to lose a few!"
Cloud watched with eager fascination as one of the larger guys winced and acted MUCH more cautiously while shoveling. Cleaning was awesome! HE wanted an ice shovel!
But like, way bigger. And maybe with a gun on it! He could dig holes AND fight at the same time!
He would become the biggest magical hole digging and combat cleaning boy EVER!
