Hanging out with the Turks
The big change to my schedule came when Hojo suddenly came to my cell, handcuffed me, and drug me off to some portion of the Shin-Ra building. I stood there in this chamber, with my clothes on, yes my friend Yumiko got me my clothes back and even bought me some clothes herself, and well back on topic.
So I stood in this chamber, it was pretty huge, it wasn't until Hojo spoke over the intercom did I realize where I was and what I was supposed to do. "Human Mutation Project, specimen one testing obvious mutation of the growth of wings. Test one will include the method of take off other than known measure of gliding from high places."
I got scared because I never actually flew, only hovered, since my capture, and when Hojo modified my wings he made it harder to pump my wings and harder to alter my direction. "Hey!" He didn't hear me, and started the, I now realized, wind tunnel to give me a soft breeze. "RETARD!" He noticed me now, I learned that I could get his attention when I called him a retard or any other synonym, which he was, and I yelled at him. "You fucking idiot don't you know that I don't exactly know how to take off!" He glared at me his eyes narrowing through the thick lenses, kinda looking like a pissed off little elderly lady only, well a middle-aged man, I glared at him right back, and I had a huge amount of hatred for his existence on my side.
"Number One, you will fly, no excuses." Hojo said before turning up the wind speed a little bit.
I don't know how I knew the wind speed just from feeling it but I knew that he set the speed at a steady fifteen miles per hour. I shifted my wings, a thing I started doing when I was nervous, and ran forward a few steps before jumping and started pumping my wings. I gave a brief prayer to Bahamut, who I began to consider as my patron deity since I started praying to near daily, as I started to fall closer to the floor. I pumped my ungainly, only since Hojo "fixed" them, wings harder and rose up to about ten feet from the floor, about another ten feet from the ceiling, and I heard Hojo clicking on the intercom, since he was recording this.
"Good Number One. Now changing wind speed from twenty-five point fourteen kilometers per hour to forty-eight point twenty-seven kilometers per hour." He clicked it off and I felt the wind increase to thirty miles per hour. I pumped them even harder trying to stay within the distance markings I was at when I took to the air and I actually started to sweat, that dumb fuck, you really screwed up my wings with your titanium plating of the bones.
I had to yell at him, I just loved to and it was fun, this one time I actually got him to turn a deep beet red, and even Nanaki laughed at him. "HEY DUMB FUCKING SHIT!!" He glared at me again, and he was starting to get the vein pulsing in his fore head, which meant deep beet red Hojo was coming up next. "You made my wings too fucking heavy with your titanium!" He didn't say anything, he just turned up the speed and I tried something that I only tried once, and that was to get into Reno's copter. I pumped up to the roof of the room and spinning around to face the little room Hojo was in I dive-bombed the room. Hojo's expression was priceless, it was between the expressions of "oh shit" and "holy fucking shit" and, when I broke into the room glass flying everywhere and landing calmly in the center of the room, it got even funnier. "Did you not listen to me, Retard? You made my wings too awkward, I'm lucky I even got that maneuver to work."
Hojo looked at me fear spreading across his features, well he called the Turks again, and Reno was the one who rushed into the room. I was quite surprised to see him rush in, but I ducked under his attack with the riot prod he carried in his sleeve, and I admit I took some pity on him since I knew his moves, but he did manage to sneak a pair of cuffs on my hands which was alright with me, my arms are pathetically weak. I still had four appendages on my side, and I had my more powerful appendages ready to fight, but I was going against a trained professional. Needless to say after a few minutes of trading blows and keeping Hojo quiet by slapping him with a wing every time he started to say something, I lost, Reno got a good kick in to where it knocked the wind out of my lungs causing me to fall to the floor gasping for breath and that's when Hojo put cuffs on my legs and using a top and bottomless box pinned my wings to where I couldn't move them. I growled at Hojo not hiding my hatred, while Reno was hauling me to my feet, I resisted him, but was more focused on trying to kill Hojo.
Reno looked over my shoulder, "Damn, what did you do to her Hojo?"
Hojo stood up brushing off his lab coat, "I merely fixed her wings after the incident with the copters and now this ferocious specimen only wishes to attack me."
I deepened my growl and yelled at him, "Yeah fucking right! You didn't fix my wings you made them actually worse! I can barely hover!"
Reno quirked a brow at my statement as he tightened his grip on me, as I tried to tackle Hojo, turning is attention to him as he pulled me tight to his body trying to keep me from getting away. Hojo glared at me and told Reno, "Dispose of this specimen, it's too weak."
Reno reacted then, "Now hold on! If you didn't keep her locked up in that test tube then she wouldn't be so weak, it's you own damn fault!"
Hojo was beginning to turn red in the face, "If you think you're so smart Turk then you make the specimen stronger!" He then stormed out, with me trying to kick him in the shin and groin.
Reno waited until Hojo left before addressing me, "Well, girl, you got me some easy work days. Thanks."
I looked at him wondering what he meant, "You're welcome, I guess."
Reno then took me by the chain between the handcuffs on my hands and took me down to the 64th floor, which due to my maniac playing of Final Fantasy VII I knew as the employee lounge and gym. The sight of a Turk scared most of the employees out not to mention seeing me a chained up specimen got the room deserted. "Okay, girl, I'm letting you loose, you run you get a shock from my prod. Okay?"
I looked at him, "Do I look that stupid?"
Reno shrugged, "I don't know, you're the one who dive bombed Hojo." I gave him a brief huff and he started to undo the cuffs on my legs, then he went to my wings, and then my hands. I rubbed my wrists, while looking at him waiting for him to say something, and shuffled my wings a bit and refolded them against my back. "Okay, you're gonna run on the tread mill for five minutes, then I want you to do fifty pushups."
I crossed my arms and just gave him my deadeye stare, where I only need to blink once a minute, and said, "I don't think so."
He mimicked me, "I think so, and I say so."
"Try me." I then extended my wings to their full extent to look fierce, 'cause you know a seventeen year old with giant dragon wings standing in front of you can scare most people, not to mention I was about an inch or so taller that Reno.
Reno has a smirk spread across his face, "Oh, scary. Look you either do as I say or I'll do what Hojo said."
I sighed, Reno and I were just too much alike, "Here's the deal, I'll do the five minute run, but I won't do the pushups."
Reno rolled his eyes, and sighed, "And here comes the part I won't like."
I gave him the finger only to then flick him in the forehead with it, which then gave me a few curses in my general direction, and added, "I want some flight time, not in the wind tunnel but in an actual normal wind setting, you know where I'm not fighting the wind."
Reno glared at me rubbing his forehead where I flicked it, and replied, "No."
I quickly turned on the puppy eyes, "You can tie my foot to the roof to keep me from flying away. Please! Pretty please!"
I noticed a change in Reno's blue-green eyes, and he admitted defeat. "Fine, but I call all the rules, got it?" I nodded happy to have defeated Reno, so I could get what I wanted, and he pointed at the treadmill. "Get on that, and run for five minutes." I jumped on the treadmill, refolding my wings, and clipped on the safety key, old habit, nearly fell of one without the safety key clipped on. I put the speed at a light jog for me, but alas Reno didn't think that was fast enough and pushed the speed up to a full tilt sprint for me. I ran, while Reno the lazy slob went to one of the recliners, set an alarm, and fell asleep. I know I could've stopped running, but I figured, well more hoped, that Cloud or someone related to that group would hopefully be coming soon and I would need the endurance anyway. I had a stitch in my side after the halfway mark and Reno was still sleeping, I was thinking about throwing the MP3 player one of the employees left behind, but after checking the song list and listening to some of them, I pocketed it, but the empty water bottle left behind was a different manner. After weighing it in my hand, while still running, I chucked it. It hit the wall ricocheted and hit Reno right where I flicked him, he shot up with a snort, throwing the bottle with this action. I used my wing to bat it away at the last second, which from the sound of it hit him in the forehead again and grabbing the bottle he threw it at me, and I blocked it with my wing, all the while keeping up my pace.
The bottle wound up landing on the floor, Reno had a large red spot on his forehead, and I was unscathed, so I couldn't help myself from saying, "Hah! Victory hath been claimed by me!"
Reno looked at me then at the clock, obviously a little disgruntled and adjusted the timer, "You earned yourself another minute girl." He leaned his head back to fall asleep again.
"So what's it like to be a Turk?" I asked, I was feeling ornery and well Reno could sleep while I was flying.
He looked at me and casually asked, "Where did the MP3 player that was on the treadmill go?"
"I asked first." I replied kinda figuring he would notice the silver technology's missing gleam.
"It's a job, pays the bills, and buys the drinks, so on and so forth." Reno said and he looked at my cargos, "So where did the player go?"
I reach into one of my various pockets, and dangled it in his general line of sight, "Are you happy now?"
"Oh, so you did take it. Nice job you snuck a theft past a Turk, you've got some potential."
I looked at him while keeping track of time, "So do I get to keep it?"
Reno shrugged and went to fall back asleep; "If they left it behind they must not care for it, so I say keep it if ya want it." He then went to sleep and left me running on the treadmill, and I kept running until the alarm went off. I tugged the key clipped on me stopping the treadmill and jumping over the front end, ignoring the burning pain in my legs and waited for Reno to wake up. Well, he ignored the beeping pretty close to his ear, and I improvised. Pretty much, I cycled through the songs on the MP3 and found the perfect one, One Winged Angel featuring The Black Mages, I pumped up the volume to full blast and put the headphones on his ears and hit the all mighty play button. Reno jumped up about three feet and yelled loudly, "What the fuck?!" When he jumped the headphones fell out and he looked around almost like he just heard a gun go off.
I smirked and had to appease my inner smart ass, "Good morning Star shine the Earth says hello! Now, where are you taking me flying?"
He looked at me his eyes narrowing, "Did you run the whole six minutes?"
I rolled my eyes as I turned the volume down to a decent level, "Yes. Now time to keep your end of our bargain." Having said that, and restarted the song, I escaped into the world of Nobuo Uematsu's music.
Reno turned off the alarm and put the pair of handcuffs back on me, as I jammed out to the music, he lead me to some Turk controlled portion of the building near the roof. I noticed this strange smile on Reno's face as I was rocking out to the song, which involved me softly singing along, I didn't know what that smile meant then, but I learned later, but it pertained to something from our first meeting. When my song ended, I turned my attention to our surroundings, I found us in a large hangar that lead directly to some copter pads and it was wide open. Reno lead me over to a pad raised off the roof itself, and after uncoiling the rope he had draped over his shoulder tied an end around my ankle and the other to a large metal loop on the side of the pad. "Have fun girl, I'm gonna catch those "z"s you made me miss"
"Just so you know my name's Shiro." He gave a sound of acknowledgement and unfolded the lawn chair I just now noticed. I didn't care, aside from the tether, I was as close to freedom as I was going to get, until Cloud and the other came but that was still some time away, and this would allow me a chance to rebuild the muscles in my wings and get used to the extra weight in a real life scenario.
I extended my wings to their fullest extent and enjoyed the warm sunlight on them then with a small jump and a bit of pumping I was airborne. I went up to the full extent of my tether and then gliding around and testing maneuvers. During that time I thought about what I was going to do when it came to the time for Aerith to die and so on and so forth. (Just so you know, I swear by Bahamut's Mega Flare that this is true: I DID NOT CRY when Aerith died, I ACTUALLY LAUHGED. She completely deserved it, I mean she knew Sephiroth was going after her and yet she left the safety of the group and decided to run off and pray by herself, playing the game.)
These are my thoughts. "Okay, I'm really in Final Fantasy VII. I'm not dreaming and my mind has recognized most of the people here. So, I estimate I'm at the period of time when Cloud's just getting to Midgar and just joining AVALANCE, if not a few weeks earlier. That means Reno will get the crap beat out of him soon, and they'll come searching for Aerith or Aeris, whatever her name is. So, to get everyone's trust I might need a little insider information, because I know Nanaki'll come for me. At least, I hope, I think we're good enough friends for that. I'll just have to try to help rescue Nanaki and Aerith from the cell on the next floor up! I just happen to know someone who might know that to, and I don't loathe her existence! Yumiko, well I'll need some help that only you can give me. Okay, on the subject of me knowing all the events about to happen, I'll just keep my mouth shut and try not to act like a fan girl." After that my thought processes stopped and I sang Garth Brook's Friends In Low Places, while flying around, and well a really funny thing is that after I ran for those six minutes it was a hell of a lot easier to fly. Reno woke up when the sunset, and I think he was trying to be funny by yanking on the rope tied to my ankle, I yelped when my foot was pulled down and my altitude dropped about three feet.
"Yo! Shiro! Time for you to go back to your cell!" Reno yelled up at me, untying the rope from the loop. I smirked and while he was holding on the rope, and it wasn't connected to the loop, I jerked my leg up and he rose about a foot off the ground. Then he tugged me down about six feet for that, so I landed in front of him with an indignant huff.
"I was just having fun." I said as he untied the rope from my ankle, and readied my hands for the handcuffs that were to follow.
"Well, if you have that much energy, then tomorrow you're running twelve minutes on that treadmill." He replied moving to put on the handcuffs, a standard procedure in my transportation as it seemed.
I looked at him my jaw down at the floor, "No! Man, this'll suck!"
He shrugged and tugged on the chain between my hands. "C'mon, Hojo will be mad if you're not in your cell by you're curfew." I let him lead me back to my cell, Nanaki and Yumiko looking at me with interest, and my handcuffs were removed and Reno left, only after telling Yumiko that he'd pick me up after I'd had my breakfast.
Yumiko waited until he was out of sight and earshot and asked, "So what were you doing with Reno?"
I shrugged, "I pissed off Hojo again, and he assigned him to give me strength training. Oh, and I got an MP3 player!" Yumiko looked at me, considering if I told the truth or not, which I did, and she trusted me.
"You shouldn't piss Hojo off like that, he holds your life in his hands." She told me concerned for my well-being.
Nanaki added in his two cents to the matter, "I agree with her. You should really be more careful around Hojo."
I couldn't help but smile at their sympathy, "I'll try, and I can't guarantee if he pisses me off though." I shuffled my wings into a more comfortable position and entered what I called my room, not cell, and lay down on the bed on my stomach, my legs and wings aching. "I flew, and ran, too much." I let my wings drop to touch the floor on either side of the cot, and snuggled into my pillow, but Yumiko didn't let me get off that easily.
"You were allowed to fly today?!" She asked excited, and eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, Hojo wanted me to fly in a wind tunnel, the retard." I commented shifting my wings again to keep the blood from feeling like it was pooling in my wings.
She looked at me, "There's a wind tunnel here?"
I nodded, kicking off my boots from the edge of the cot. "Shin-Ra does, and they apparently have a lot of uses for it, but yeah after my incident of pissing Hojo off enough to call in the Turks, Reno made me run for six minutes and then allowed me to fly at the copter pads on the roof."
Nanaki asked a question that I knew one of them was going to ask, "Why didn't you fly away while you had the chance?"
I chose to use his Hojo given name because I was the only one he trusted with his real name at Shin-Ra, sure he might have gotten used to Yumiko, but he didn't trust her like he did me. "Three things Red, one I wouldn't leave you, two I can't out run the copters, and three I was tied to the roof." Red nodded and Yumiko left me to sleep, and I slept for some time.
When I woke up Yumiko had already dropped off my breakfast, but it was cold and looking around I noticed a note left behind. It was a short note saying if the food was cold when I woke up then I was to look under one of the lids of my food to find a glowing green fire materia, but the thing is I had never used materia before and only had inkling of knowledge of how to use it but I tried my best following Kadaj's example from Advent Children. I learnt something about my cloak when I tried to do it, it was impervious to materia, so I rolled my sleeve up and fused with the materia. It was totally awesome! It felt like you suddenly know everything, and like it was flowing through your veins and with a tiny bit of focus I had a small flame on my fingertip and it didn't burn. I felt very much like Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, and making my hands flaming heat sources I held the plate waiting for the food to head up, and then ate, took a shower, and waited for Reno. That's how three weeks went, wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast, get picked up by Reno, work out until lunch, come back for lunch, fly until dinner, eat dinner, and fall sleep after talking to Nanaki and Yumiko.