Final Fantasy Frontier 55

Realizing that Andrew was only evading his attacks, Rude leaped away to create some distance before punching the ground, creating a shockwave of golden energy that accelerated and grew larger as it traveled, homing in on him.

'Is that the Earth Materia...?' wondered Andrew, effortlessly leaping over the shockwave and manifesting a pistol as he noticed the President trying to slink away.

Suggesting he might be dealing with the real President Shinra, Andrew's six-shot burst impacted a shield comprised of innumerable tiny hexagons that had been invisible before his bullets struck it. At the same time, Rude leaped in the air to meet him, hands raised over his head as he attempted to hammer Andrew out of the sky.

Instead of repelling Rude or evading him normally, Andrew briefly blipped out of existence before rematerializing after the man passed his position. Then, with a distinctive white and gold javelin in hand, he made a beeline for the President's barrier, surprising the man by shattering it like glass as he attempted to enter a hatch underneath his chair.

"Stop!" shouted Tseng, pulling Aerith in a way that suggested he intended to leverage her status as a hostage, but Andrew was already halfway finished saying, "You wanted to turn me over to Hojo for experimentation? Let's see how you enjoy being experimented-"

As Andrew reached out to grab the President's face, the latter pulled out a golden, deagle-like pistol and emptied the clip. To his horror, Andrew didn't even attempt to dodge, only moving his head slightly when one of the bullets nearly struck him in the eye.

With the President still pulling the trigger even after his clip was emptied, Andrew grabbed the man's face hard enough to indent his bones. At the same time, he funneled fire-elemental energy into the President's head as he would a weapon, causing his skin and eyes to glow red and then white as the bones beneath heated up like metal in a kiln. He may have survived if he could channel the energy out of his body, but as he was too much of a coward to undergo the supersoldier treatment he pushed on others, the President's head abruptly melted.

'I might have gone a little overboard...' thought Andrew, watching as the President's body melted into a pool of molten flesh and bone, combusting his bulletproof suit like flash paper and spreading across the cold marbled floor to form a shiny black mass similar to obsidian but more pungent than sulfur.

Utilizing his Wind Materia to repel the smell of burnt/melted flesh, Andrew turned to face the wide-eyed Tseng, sporting a mask of calm as he asked, "I guess this places Rufus in charge? You may want to release my woman and confer with him before I'm forced to take further action..."

Hearing Andrew refer to Aerith as 'his woman,' a grimace marred Tseng's face. Despite this, he released his hold on Aerith, ordering Elena to do the same before stepping away to make a call with a fairly futuristic-looking cellphone.

Earning an incredulous look from Elena, Aerith approached Andrew and asked, "Are you okay...?" with a look of concern. She was an empath of sorts, so she could tell Andrew was just as shaken as everyone else when he melted the President.

"I'm fine..." assured Andrew, hugging Aerith's head with his left hand and pressing his forehead to hers to communicate his emotions more directly. He was certainly taken aback by the results of his 'experiment,' but he did not mourn the President's death. Adolf Shinra was unquestionably a great man, but the tragedies he wrought during and after his rise to power were much too numerous to overlook, much less abide. He 'had' to die, as there simply wasn't a system in place to hold him accountable any other way...

"President Shinra would like to speak with you," said Tseng, referring to the newly appointed Rufus, not his father.

"Tell him I'll be more than willing to chat when he brings me the head of Hojo, publically ousts his father as a tyrant, and tries both of them post-mortem for their crimes," declared Andrew. "Then, and only then, will I be willing to discuss a future where Shinra continues to exist and potentially prosper beyond the next three to five years..."

As Rufus could hear Andrew's ultimatum over the phone, Tseng held it up to his ear, carefully listening to what his new President had to say before setting the device to speaker mode.

"Transactions must be two-sided," said a smooth baritone voice, adding, "I am prepared to agree to your 'conditions,' but I need some assurance, something substantive to ensure you won't betray and continue to target my company in the future."

"How about I give you an example of the forces you're fucking with by blowing up a nearby mountain?" countered Andrew. He vaguely recalled that Rufus had a change of heart after the Meteor incident, becoming the chief financier of the organization working to repair the planet, but that was only 'after' his city was destroyed and Shinra's reputation decimated beyond repair. In other words, he needed to be 'humbled' before serious negotiations could occur.

"..."

Deciding against calling Andrew's buff, Rufus replied, "Then a promise will suffice. Assure me that you will work alongside Shinra after we meet your demands, and I can have Hojo's head presented to you within the hour. It will take longer to satisfy your other ultimata, but we can start by cutting Mako production by 20%, increasing to 50% over the next twelve months as we discuss and research 'alternative' power sources..."

As it wasn't his decision to make, Andrew turned to Aerith to see what she had to say. When she saw this, understanding he was leaving the decision to her, a smile blossomed across her face as she telepathically stated, 'So long as he remains true to his word, this is a much better alternative than blowing up the Reactors. Shinra may have funded Midgar's development, but the hopes and dreams of millions are what built it. I don't want to see their efforts destroyed...'

Nodding in affirmation, Andrew kissed Aerith's forehead before returning his gaze to the phone and stating, "We have a deal. So long as you bring me Hojo's head and demonstrably prove Shinra's capacity for change, I'll arrange to have you meet with the leaders of the Interworld Alliance. But, as you lack the qualifications to represent this world, it will be up to Aerith as the last surviving Cetra to determine if Shinra is qualified to function as an 'intermediary' for interworld trade..."

Though it took several seconds, Rufus eventually responded, "This planet was the Cetra's long before humans walked its surface. It's only right that one born of both human and Cetra represent it..."

"Then you have an hour," said Andrew, tapping his wrist and adding, "I'll wait here," even though Rufus had no way of seeing it. In response, Rufus said, "Tseng..." in a notably serious tone, prompting the raven-haired Turk to disable the speaker setting to hear what his boss had to say in private. Seventeen minutes later, a gaunt, aging man with long black hair styled in a ponytail entered the Executive Office, his eyes veiled by circular shades and sporting a white lab coat, waltzed into the room.

Seeing the strange scene, the perpetually grimacing man, none other than Hojo, asked, "What's going on here?" before glimpsing Aerith and adopting a creepy smile as he remarked, "Ah, I see you have captured the Ancient. Excellent."

In response to the Hojo's words, Tseng held up his cell phone to allow Rufus to state, "He's all yours," over the loudspeaker. This left the raven-haired researcher confused, but he quickly understood that he had been had when Andrew appeared before him instantly, gripping his throat and raising him off the ground with his right hand.

As Andrew had completely cut off his airway, Hojo thrashed and kicked violently, strangling sounds emanating from his throat as he fumbled for something in his pockets. Unfortunately, Andrew still had one free hand and a tail to prevent the man from grabbing whatever he believed might save him. Then, even though Hojo deserved to suffer considerably for the atrocities he had committed, Andrew tightened his grip until he could feel the man's spine, pulpifying his trachea, surprisingly resilient muscles, and the arteries feeding oxygen-rich blood to his brain.

Though Hojo's body went limp fairly quickly, Andrew maintained his grip until he could place the man's corpse into his Item Box. Cadavers were regarded as objects, so Andrew hoped that by 'containing' the man in his Item Box and dumping him in another world, most of the 'contingencies' Hojo prepared to surmount his death should be negated.

Turning to face Tseng's cell phone, Andrew stated, "There is a friend of ours being held in Hojo's lab, codenamed Red XIII. We will be taking him with us as we leave. As for your forum with the leaders of the Interworld Alliance, I will contact you through this man after you publicize your new office and issue a statement acknowledging your father's, Hojo's, and, as a result, Shinra's crimes..."

Seeing a transparent window appear before him, Tseng explained what he saw before accepting Andrew's friend request. After that, Andrew advised the newly appointed President to dispose of Jenova and to be wary of the imminent appearance of a certain legendary SOLDIER. Sephiroth was the one who killed President Shinra in the canon timeline, so there was a high chance Rufus would share his father's fate if he got in the way. As for why he didn't try to place Jenova into his Item Box, it was because each of her cells was alive and could act independently of one another. Andrew didn't need to try it to know he couldn't store her, and he also wasn't confident that he could defeat Sephiroth at his current level. Thus, until Sephiroth goaded them of his own accord, Andrew wanted to focus on mastering a few Materia while making arrangements to pull the cockroach-like bastard from the Lifestream, averting his encroachment outright...

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"Ho-lee shit. Now I've seen everything..." said Barret, staring with his mouth hanging open as Rufus publically denounced his father's, Hojo's, and Shinra's policies during a press release.

Pouring cold water over the situation, Cloud, a young man with a lean, remarkably toned build, luminescent green-blue eyes, and notably spiky blonde hair, his body garbed in a modified version of a 1st Class SOLDIER combat uniform, pointedly remarked, "This complicates things. Now we have no way of knowing when and where Sephiroth will appear..."

"That's not entirely true," contended Andrew, appending, "We know his penultimate goal is to get his hands on the Black Materia. We also know his true body is sealed away, recuperating in the Nothern Crater. So long as we can deny him access to the Black Materia, annihilate his true body, and separate his essence from the Lifestream, his ambitions will fade into memory."

"But what about the 'clone' meant to appear in the Shinra Building?" asked Cloud, arguing, "I doubt Shinra will attempt to dispose of Jenova outright, and even if they did, Sephiroth wouldn't allow it. We should be there to try and stop him..."

"If that's what you want to do, then do it," said Andrew, shrugging as if it didn't concern him. He had made it transparently clear that he was just a supporting actor, so he would do his best to facilitate whatever course of action the group decided. However, as the 'Whispers' present in the game had stopped appearing the day he arrived, at least according to Aerith, he wasn't too sure that Sephiroth would even appear. His presence appeared to have a stabilizing effect on the timeline, so while Aerith and Cloud still retained memories of events that transpired in a parallel reality, there was a reasonably high probability that the alternate timeline Sephiroth's plans had already been derailed...

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