Yay, second chapter! We get to see if the Turks survive Hojo's creation or not...

Rufus sat at his chair, tapping his pen against the desk. The sound of pounding footsteps made him look up and, smirking, he glanced towards the door that led to the stairwells. The young president grinned, beginning a countdown in his head.

'5…4…3…2…1—'

BAM!

The door suddenly burst open and four figures wearing blue suits dashed in, panting for breath. Rude quickly slammed the door closed again, while Elena grabbed several chairs and propped them against the handle.

"I am gonna kill Hojo!" Reno snarled. His red hair was even more messy than usual, a feat that Rufus had previously thought was impossible to accomplish. "One of his frickin' experiments is in the stairwell and it tried to kill us!"

"And why, Reno, were you four climbing the stairs?" Rufus asked smoothly. Reno sputtered for a second and then flashed a lazy grin, pointing at the newest Turk.

"Hey, Elena was messing with the elevator, so I took the liberty of trying to stop her. But it was too late and—"

"Reno, that's not what happened, you liar!"

Rufus shook his head. "Never mind about that. How did you manage to deal with that…thing Hojo made?"

"Well, it was like this, yo…"

-Flashback-

"We're almost to the top!" Elena said happily. "Fifty-eighth floor! Only two more to go!" She briefly closed her eyes, yawning, but then let out a startled squeak as the other Turks stopped in front of her.

"Ow! Sorry Rude…" the young woman apologized when she bumped into her bald companion. "What did you guys stop for...?" her eyes nearly doubled in size when she saw what was in front of them: a hideously ugly monster, no doubt made by Hojo.

The monster reared back its long, reptilian head, and then spit a large quantity of mako-green liquid at them. The Turks dodged instinctively, but they did not escape the attack entirely.

"Crap! What the hell is this?" Reno spat, lifting up his sleeve. It was covered in a sticky slime that resembled key-lime pie filling.

"Be careful, Elena!" Tseng shouted as a bullet narrowly missed him. "I'm sorry Sir," Elena said with panicky tones, "I'm trying, but I can't work my gun right with all this slime on my hands!"

Rude was having similar luck; the fiend seemed to have some sort of armor plating on its body and his powerful punches didn't seem to have any effect. The monster only seemed to be getting angrier.

"Physical attacks won't work." Rude grunted, looking frustrated. He readjusted his black fighting gloves before attempting another attack. "Have any ideas, boss?"

"If I did, I'd tell you guys." Tseng said. He ducked as the fiend sent another slime-attack their way.

'This sucks…' Reno thought, as he watched his teammates try, unsuccessfully, to hurt the creature. 'This freak has to have some kind of weakness…wait! If it's living in this dark stairwell, maybe it's sensitive to light!'

The redhead pulled out his trusty nightstick which, coincidentally, was equipped with a powerful electric flashlight. He flicked it on and stuck the rod right in the thing's face. It shrieked, backing away, holding its clawed hands in front of its face.

"Yeah, that's right! The power of Holy compels you, demon!" Reno said victoriously. The fiend turned and ran back into the darkness. Reno signaled for the other three to follow him and the Turks ran up the last two flights of stairs, opening the door and thankfully dashing inside.

-End Flashback-

"'The power of Holy compels you?' Reno, you are aware that all you did was shine a flashlight into its eyes, right?" Rufus asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yup," Reno said cheerfully.

Rufus sighed, rubbing his temples. "You four are excused from work until tomorrow. Reeve's fixed the elevators." The president pointed across the room, where the executive was putting the final touches on the button panels, aided by three of his Cait Sith robots.

"You mean we came all the way up the stairs just to be sent back home?" Elena asked. She looked a bit put out that all their hard work had been done for nothing. Rufus blinked at her.

"Would you rather stay and work… looking like that?" he asked, gesturing to their uniforms. He noted, with disgust, that all four of the Turks seemed to be covered with what looked like lime Jell-O, and it was beginning to stain his expensive white carpet.

"Oh yeah…"

Rufus pointed at the newly fixed elevator. "You're dismissed! Reno, you're not allowed to touch the elevator! Tseng, stop wringing out your hair on my carpet, it's staining! Elena, Rude, stop trying to kill Hojo!" He rolled his eyes as they left. How did he put up with those idiots?