A/N: Hello guys! Just a few things here before we begin... First of all, this is my first FF VII: Advent Children fic and I realize that the game and the movie are a very tough act to follow so I'm a bit nervous as to how this fic will turn out, so bear with me!
So this fic features a Reno/Tifa pairing and a little Cloud/Tifa also. Some OOC... A/U...
Again, sorry if this totally sucks but I hope you will read and review anyway! Thanks :)
Race You To the Top
CHAPTER ONE: The Hitchcock Assignment
The young man sat at his kitchen table eating a solitary breakfast of fried steak and eggs. He sawed through the charred piece of meat and stabbed his fork through it. He dunked it deep into a glob of ketchup before popping it into his mouth. The small, black and white TV he'd found in the junkyard and ressurected was his only companion and right now the daily news was blaring about the same old stuff; ten car pile-up on the I 87 out of Midgar, armed robbery at Chaz's Liquors, a blizzard heading for the mountains. The usual.
He finished his breakfast and sat back in his chair, satisfied. He listened to the anchor man talking about how there had been a rash of gang wars in the slums. Interestingly enough, the gangs didn't refer to themselves as gangs. No, they were rebels. The anchor man introduced a member of the street team who was reporting from Midgar.
"Good morning, Kent." the street reporter said, "I'm Michael Standish and I'm reporting live from Midgar. I'm standing on Freemont Street where an apparent gang fight took place just last night, around 9:30." the camera shot a panoramic view of the filthy street that resembled an alley way, really.
"The fight broke out after the leader of one gang, known as the Night Stalkers, exchanged heated words with the leader of the other gang, known as the High Ballers." the reporter held up two mugshot photos. "The leaders of the respective gangs have now been identified as Merrick Hitchcock and Hanlon Porter. These two men are no stranger to crime or violence. Both possess a lengthy rap sheet and a familiarity with assault and battery and breaking and entering."
The young man was about to shut off the television when his pager went off loudly, vibrating against the wooden table. He picked it up and looked at the number. It was someone requesting a job, he gathered from the numbers that had been displayed on the screen. He had a code known by whoever needed his services. He required each prospective client to leave an untraceable phone number by which they could be reached and the code number 1114 immediately proceeding the telephone number.
Pulling out his cell phone, he turned the volume on the television all the way down. He punched in the number the client had left and waited for an answer.
"Hello?" a deep male voice spoke softly.
"You have a job for me?" the young man asked.
"Yes." the voice replied, "I need someone taken care of."
"Okay, here's how it works. You give me the name of the assignment and then we negotiate a price, okay?"
"The assignment's name is Merrick Hitchcock." the voice said.
Merrick Hitchcock. Where have I heard that name before? The young man looked back towards his television. The anchor man was back and this time he had an insert beside him of the Midgar gang leaders' mugshots.
"The leader of-"
"The High Ballers."
"Yeah, that." the young man paused, "Okay. 150,00 gil."
The voice paused. "80,000."
"125."
"90."
"100 thou, take it or leave it."
"Fine. Drop off?"
"There's a mail box on 23rd and Cleveland. It's got a picture of a red unicorn on it. Leave the gil there, divided into 2 bags, 2:00."
"I want it done today. You have until midnight."
"Consider it done."
The voice sighed, exasperated. "You better be worth it."
"Trust me, I am."
On that final note, the young man flipped his cell phone shut.
Long ago, he'd once had a name that his mother had given him, but he'd long since left it behind. To the world he was now known as Reno. Simply as Reno, no last name was necessary. He immediately began his preparations for the job at hand. He stood up and went to his room and got onto his computer. He sent the phone number to his friend, Tseng, who ran traces for him to see if the clients were legit and not part of some undercover sting operation.
Tseng was at his home, sitting in front of his computer as usual, when a message box appeared. He'd received a message from Reno. It was a telephone number that he wanted a background check on. Tseng cracked his knuckles and pulled his long, black hair together at the nape of his neck and secured it with an elastic. He ran the number through the database and traced the cell number to a carrier known as Titan Atlantic.
"Time to work my magic." he said to himself. He put a headset on and adjusted the mic to be at his mouth.
"Titan Atlantic, may I help you?" a woman answered.
"Good morning, Miss. This is Ron Carlton from Charter Wireless calling, how are you today?"
"I'm well Mr. Carlton."
"Good to hear that! Well, I won't take up any more of your time with small talk. The reason for my call is that we have a customer here who is complaining that he is receiving two separate cell phone bills, one from us and one from you good people over there." Tseng leaned back in his swivel chair, "We believe that this customer may be a victim of identity theft, so we need to verify some information with you to make sure he is legit, okay?"
The Titan Atlantic teller paused. "Okay. What did you say the number was?"
"Oh, yes, it is 551341238 and the area code is 2301."
"Okay, let's see... Our records have the name Lex Hitchcock as the account holder's name."
"Okay, ours do as well."
"And, um, the address is 1852 Sentinel Drive in Midgar."
"Yes, we have this as well."
"Social security number on file is 087-23-0031."
"Great! Well, it seems as though we have the same client, Miss. Unfortunately he must have signed up for two separate contracts without realizing or remembering that he had!" Tseng laughed, "Thank you for your help!"
"You're welcome."
Tseng shut off his headset and typed the social security number of Lex Hitchcock into the Department of Social Security's database. Yes, it was government access only, but Tseng was an uber hacker... an incredibly sneaky one. He'd hacked into the entire governmental mainframe in two months and managed to evade the authorities with ease.
"Let's find out what you're all about, Lex." Tseng muttered as he pulled up the file on the client.
Lex Hitchcock was twenty-four years old and did in fact reside in Midgar. His parents were deceased, he'd had a divorce one year ago, he had a checking account at Lincoln National Bank, a savings account... He also had a brother. Merrick Hitchcock.
"Looks good, Reno." Tseng said, sending a message back to his friend.
Reno tapped his finger on his right mouse button while he waited for a response from Tseng. The message box popped up on his computer screen and he opened it. Looks good, Reno the text read.
Reno smiled. He loved a good hit.
Tifa Lockheart loaded her sniper rifle in it's foam-lined case and snapped it shut with care. She almost always sniped on an assassination job. She liked it because it was quick, clean, and didn't require her to get close to the target. Plus, she was damn good at nailing those killer head shots. Just in case the target didn't offer her a good shot, she brought along her favorite K-bar and slid it into its sheath. She then strapped the knife to her ankle and covered it with her pant leg. Cutting people was almost as much fun as blowing their brains out.
She threw a black, wool sweater on over her white tank top and threw her straight, black hair up in a ponytail. She slipped black leather gloves onto her hands and finished doing up the laces on her black boots. She looked down at her naval watch and noticed that it was already 10:30 p.m. She had one hour and a half left to complete the job. It was more than enough time for her.
She put her nightvision goggles inside her pack and grabbed her rifle case before heading out the door. Midgar was hot and muggy during this summer season and she must have looked rather odd in a wool sweater and long pants, but she paid no mind to it. She had a job to do and the more she blended into the darkness of night, the more cover she had.
She had spent the earlier portion of the day mapping out the perimter and surrounding area of the target's last known location. She had even taken a few hours to shadow the target and learn some of his habits. According to her calculations, 10:45 would be an ideal time to take the target out. She stood in front of Saint Agnes' church and waited for a few pedestrians to pass her by. Almost noiselessly, she slipped inside the old, stone structure and began walking up the stairs to the belfry.
Saint Agnes' hadn't been used much lately. Every now and then, some faithful came to pray for their lives, but people mostly stayed away from this place in Midgar, especially at night. It wasn't the safest place in the slums. She immediately began assembling her rifle when she reached the top of the belfry. She screwed the night vision scope onto the top of the rifle and looked through it. Perfect.
She then screwed a silencer onto the barrel of the rifle and fired a test shot at an apple tree about 100 meters away. An apple fell from the branch and she smiled to herself. She was a hell of a shot, that was for sure. Suddenly, her watch began beeping. It was 10:45 already. Time to get serious.
Tifa looked through the scope, right through the kitchen window of the target's home. She saw him enter, right on schedule. He placed his coat and bag on the floor. She didn't have a great shot here, so she continued to watch and move her rifle so that the crosshair was always right on the target's forehead. The target went towards the living room. Great-she would be able to take him out there. The picture windows would give her the perfect view she needed to deliver the fatal headshot.
Without warning, the target turned and went back to his front door.
"What the hell?" she uttered to herself, confused.
Following the target through the scope, she watched him open the door. A familiar looking redhead stepped in and began to struggle with the target.
"Reno?!" she cried out, abandoning her scope and sprinting down the stairs as fast as she could.
That bumbling idiot was going to screw everything up! How could he expect to just walk through someone's front door and kill him and walk away? Didn't he know that things didn't work that way? Tifa's lungs were on fire when she reached the target's house. As usual, Reno was trying to take the target out with his little electric stick thingie.
"What the hell are you doing?" she shouted at him.
Reno looked up, shocked. The target lay at his feet, a gash on his forehead.
"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled back, "This is my assignment! Get lost!"
Tifa rolled her eyes. "I bet he's not even dead."
"Well, not yet." Reno said, retracting his electric rod. "I like to take it slow some times."
Tifa bent down and whipped her K-bar out of it's sheath. "I don't."
She advanced towards the target, who was beginning to regain consciousness.
"No!" Reno shouted, stepping in front of her, "C'mon, Tifa, this was my target! You have no right to just barge in here!"
"You sound like such a baby, y'know?" she said, "You're supposed to be a cold-blooded killer! Start acting like one!"
Reno glared at her.
"And for your information, I was called by a legitimate client to handle this target for him."
"What?" Reno was incredulous, "I was called by the client! It's my freakin' client, Tifa! He's paying me 100,000 gil!"
Tifa smirked. "Well, I'll be damned. It appears that we were both called by the same client and negotiated the same amount of gil to take out the same target. Guess the client wanted to see the best man, or in this case woman, win!"
Reno's eyes grew wide. "Tifa!"
"Ahhh!" she screamed, lunging toward the target with her knife in her hand.
The target came to just in time to avoid the stab from the twelve-inch jungle knife. He was to his feet right away as was Tifa. Reno whipped out his electric rod and accidentally smacked Tifa in the head with it.
"Dammit! Reno, you moron!" she kicked him.
"Ahh, quit cryin!" He lunged toward the target and clubbed him in the head.
The target took a few decent hits, but finally managed to grab a hold of Reno's wrist. He punched Reno in the stomach and followed up with a swift kick that sent him flying back.
Tifa smirked. "Let me show you how to get it done!" she shouted at Reno, charging towards the target with her knife in hand.
The target cried out when Tifa's knife made contact with his skin. She plunged it all the way into the target's side and he went down to his knees, blood trickling from the knife's hilt.
"Now we end this." she whispered.
The target, feeling the sudden burst of the willpower to live, jumped to his feet and drew the knife from his side. Blood poured from the gash, but he ignored it and charged towards Tifa with a triumphant cry.
Tifa, surprised at the target's resilience, tried to dodge the knife but felt the cool sting of the steel as it slashed through the flesh of her arm. She grabbed the wound and tried to regain her composure, but the target slashed again and almost opened up her stomach. If she hadn't jumped back, she was sure her intestines would be lying in a pile on the floor.
"Damn you, Reno!" she said to her competition, "You ruined everything by showing up here! I never allow the target to get a hold of my K-bar!" her eyes were wild with anger.
"Oh, shut up and kill the guy!" Reno said, turning to the target. "Women. They try to blame everything on us!"
"Argh!" Tifa cried. She furiously tackled the target to the ground and wrestled the knife from his hand.
She somersaulted over to the door and got to her feet. She froze. The target had somehow gotten a gun and was pointing straight at her. She breathed heavily; her hair fell in front of her face. She stole a quick glance over at Reno. When he tried to make a move, the target brought the gun towards him.
"So... someone put a hit out on me, huh?" the target asked, "Let me guess... Lex?"
Reno and Tifa nodded.
The target, otherwise known as Merrick Hitchcock, began laughing scornfully. "Well I guess he should've sent more than you two idiots to do the job. Lex... always looking for what's cheapest."
"Hey!" Reno growled, "I resent that!"
"Not as much as I do." Tifa insisted.
"Doesn't matter anyway." Merrick said, "You two won't be able to get your money since I'll be sending you both to hell!"
The first bullet went off. Tifa dove to the right and rolled behind a desk. Merrick continued shooting at her. Reno, siezing the few seconds he had, whipped his electric rod out and slammed it into Merrick's arm. The gun clattered to the ground and Reno kicked it towards Tifa.
Tifa saw the gun sliding past her and she scrambled to grab it. She wheeled around and shot Merrick in the knee cap. He went down with a cry.
Before Tifa got to fire a second shot, Reno whacked Merrick again with his rod, this time it made contact with the base of his skull. Merrick's eyes widened in shock. Reno and Tifa watched silently as the target's pupils dilated completely, engulfing the blue of his eyes with black.
Merrick shuddered once more before Tifa fired her second shot to his chest. He fell to the ground and moved no more. His blood had already began to pool around his corpse.
Tifa stood up and limped over to the body. She tossed the now empty gun on top of him and spit. "That's for calling me cheap." she quipped.
Reno smirked. "Yeah, baby! Who's cheap now? Huh?" he pumped his fist in the air after withdrawing his electric rod. "I did good, huh?"
Tifa snorted. "You?" she wiped the blood from her K-bar onto one of Reno's coat tails, "It was all me, man. You just got in the way."
Reno made a face when he saw what she'd done to his coat. "You bitch!" he cursed, "I just had this dry cleaned."
"Get over it!" she hissed.
"On second thought," he began to walk towards the door, "I'll just buy a new one with some of the 100,000 gil I got from eliminating the target!" he nudged the corpse again with the toe of his shoe.
"You really are a moron, you know?" she reeled on him, "First, you come all up in the target's house-through the front door, no less-and ruin a perfect head shot! Then you freakin' cause me to lose my K-bar to the target. Then you almost get me killed!" she threw her arms up, "And to top it all off, you wanna take credit for my kill? I should kill you, Reno! But it wouldn't be worth it because your life is worth shit!"
Reno was about to respond when the sound of sirens broke through the air. He glanced out the window and saw the telltale flashing lights of approaching police cars. He looked back to where Tifa had been standing, but she was already gone.
"Dammit." he said to himself, and took his leave out the back door and slinking through the shadows.
When he reached his apartment again, he immediately stripped and went to take a shower. The bruises and wounds he'd sustained in the struggle at the target's house welcomed the warm water as it flowed over his flesh. He winced a little. The water at his feet had been stained red with blood.
How was he supposed to pull off a successful job with that damn bitch Tifa Lockheart in his way? This wasn't the first time they'd encountered one another while on a job. He wasn't sure if she was being hired to eliminate targets legitimately, or if she was simply listening in on his phone line and stealing his jobs.
He frowned. He wasn't going to let her beat him. He was going to be the best mercenary out there and he'd be damned if he lost the top spot to a rude little witch like Tifa Lockheart!
Meanwhile, back at Tifa's apartment...
Tifa had just finished showering and brushing her teeth before changing into her pajamas and sliding into bed. She had dressed the wound on her arm-it had required seven stitches-and had taken a shower to help ease the muscular discomfort.
As she lay in the darkness, her mind reeled from the chaotic events of the Hitchcock assignment. How the hell could the client have hired a moron like Reno to kill his brother? She almost laughed at the thought of Reno pulling out his damn electric rod.
She was convinced that he was listening in on her calls and following her to the targets' locations and making a piss poor attempt to steal her kills! Well, she was the best mercenary out there and she would die before she let a complete idiot like Reno take that from her!
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A/N: Still a work in progress! Review?? Pretty please?
