"Either we have the wrong address Lena, or there is a carnival out there desperately missing a haunted house," Reno commented, casually leaning his tall frame against the parked SUV. "I'm personally leaning towards the 2nd option."
Elena couldn't help but agree at his comments, well maybe not the last part. But she could definitely see this being the setting of a horror novel. The grey brick building had definitely seen better days. It seemed to have difficulty just standing there but simply refused to give in to its unforgiving fate. Wooden boards blocked all the windows and the main door. It must have been abandoned for years for it to have gotten to such a bad state. But the petite Turk knew they had the right building. She wasn't very thrilled with what this meant for their investigation.
Crossing her arms over her chest looking a bit irritated, Elena walked back to Reno who was now in the middle of a cigarette.
"Shinra has been getting temporary employees out of this building for months and no one from the company bothered to look the agency up? Or even go visit the place in person?" Elena asked, exasperation evident in her voice.
Reno just shrugged, "That's what happens when a company becomes too powerful. It starts to think of itself as untouchable, invulnerable. Shinra couldn't even grasp the concept of anyone on this planet having the balls to go against them."
At his statement, Elena's eyebrows rose to new heights. Where was this Reno wisdom coming from? As if on cue, Reno shrugged his shoulders, "Meh, it's something I heard Tseng say once."
Of course, Elena thought. She should have known.
Flicking his finished cigarette onto the street, Reno motioned with his hand the universal gesture for after you and Elena found herself walking up the uneven stairs first and to the boarded front door. At the door she cocked an eyebrow at him, basically saying she wasn't going to pry those boards off herself.
Reno understood and after the initial slump of his shoulders, he quickly grabbed one of the boards and yanked. Immediately, he staggered backwards and almost fell because the board gave way with much less resistance than expected.
"I guess the nails are in about as bad a condition as the rest of the building," Reno muttered. He continued with his task and in mere minutes, the front door was opened with an exaggerated, eerie creaking noise.
"Ooh, spooky!" Reno giggled evilly, his blue eyes absolutely alight with glee as he looked in.
He positively oozed juvenile delight. Looking at him, Elena could just picture what a menace this man must have been as a child. On second thought, he was still a menace as an adult so she didn't have to imagine much.
Taking the lead, Elena carefully walked into the building, noting the dilapidated state of it all. Some furniture was left behind, some had been vandalized. Old, yellowed papers littered the wooden floor as if whoever left this place, left in a hurry. From what she could tell, this place used to be an office building with the decor and furniture suited for practicality rather than good taste. Everything was in shades of grey and what was once white but all in all, empty.
The two Turks carefully explored the first floor area silently but found nothing of note. Just more garbage.
They found the same thing on the 2nd floor. The lack of human presence was becoming unnerving to Elena. If Acta 3 was connected to this place, why wasn't there any evidence? Her initial uncomfortable feeling was quickly giving way to full blown concern. If Reno was alarmed, he didn't show it as he kept picking up one object after another for inspection. It wouldn't have been so annoying if he didn't let every item fall to the ground with a loud thud.
On the 3rd floor is where they finally found some evidence of human activity. For one, it was cleaner and more organized. It wasn't until they made their way to what appeared to be the office of whoever used to run the place that they realized in just how much crap they were in. For on the big metal desk there was a single, pristine white envelope sitting there as if waiting for them. It must not have been there long because it was the cleanest thing in this damn place.
Without a word, Reno and Elena exchange a concerned look, both their weapons automatically coming out. No good had ever come out of finding an envelope sitting pretty on a rusty desk in an abandoned building.
Guns in front of them, both took cautious steps, brown and blue eyes scanning the room for any sign of a trap. Reno was the first to approach the large desk while Elena kept sweeping the room with her gun, in case.
Carefully, he tucked his gun in the back of his belt and grabbed he letter.
Opening it, Reno read just one word, "Boom."
At the same time he was reading, the door slowly swung shut and Elena noticed a peculiar looking device latched on the door.
Oh great, she thought, that kind of boom.
She ignored everything as her mind tried to come up with an efficient exit strategy. The timer screamed less than a minute left. Crap, they wouldn't even be able to make it back to the front door!
"Reno! We need to jump out of a window right now!" Elena all but shouted. The red head finally looked up and quickly noticed the not so subtle ticking high-tech.
"Well, shit, we should have expected that."
They had two options which were the only two windows in the room. Each took one window to look out and both ways didn't offer much in the way of a cushiony landing. Elena and Reno both stood still, each debating how they were going to get out this alive as the precious seconds ticked by.
"We jump into the adjacent building, it's the only option," Reno stated matter of factly.
Elena's brown eyes widened in alarm as she ran across the wide room to join Reno at his window. She quickly assessed the distance and her alarm grew.
"That's impossible, it's just too far." She didn't need to add that with her smaller framer and thus shorter legs, she wouldn't make it. Gangly on the other hand would have no problem. Tall lucky bastard, Elena added to herself bitterly.
"I'll catch you," Reno grinned with a wink. "I'll go first."
Without waiting for a reply, Reno opened the window to its full extent and swung one leg over. Elena turned her head to look at the time left and saw 34 seconds. At this point in time, there weren't any real alternatives left. Like they said, beggars who are about to be blown up can't be choosers.
With almost effortless grace, Reno pushed himself off the window sill and positioned himself so that he was crouching. With what looked like no effort, he pushed himself off and was airborne instantly.
At the last second, Reno covered his face with his arms ensuring they took the brunt of the impact from the glass and easily landed with a roll. He didn't spare a moment registering his new injuries as he immediately returned to the window expecting Elena to be already waiting to jump. To his horror, he saw her still standing where he had left her. She was hesitating. She couldn't help it, with everything that happened. She was looking at him with something akin to wariness and Reno saw it. He saw that split second moment where her trust in him wavered for just a bit. Seeing that was like having a knife go through his gut. But he had to shake it off and stay focused, for her sake.
"ELENA!? Are you insane? Jump, you crazy woman!" he yelled at her furiously. Now was not the time to think things through. Reno had already positioned one of his feet on the window sill, his left arm propped against the window's upper edge and extended his right arm out, just waiting to grasp Elena.
With a huff, Elena dispelled her doubts and with one last look at the bomb's timer (12 seconds), she jumped. Now under any other circumstances, she loved heights, even enjoyed the feeling of falling. But in this precarious situation, she couldn't for the life of her find a single thing to appreciate.
As a Turk, you got training for every and any situation. It was exhaustive and grueling, but it prepared each Turk for the most dangerous of situations. Oddly enough, she had had a class for just such a situation. She knew how to position herself on the window, she knew how to maximize her jump reach. But Elena could already tell that the distance was just too far no matter how much she tried. Regardless, she had to jump and so she did.
Their hands connected easily but the force of her jump had her swinging fully into the very solid building. The whole side of her body and head slammed forcefully, overwhelming her with waves of pain. She saw spots and for a bit, her grip on Reno's hand loosened. Automatically, his grip tightened in response and he started pulling her up without hesitation. He had felt her body connecting with the brick wall but oh well, couldn't be helped right now. Without much trouble he was able to lift her up. He thanked his lucky stars that she wasn't Rude, that was for sure. Having had to lift Rude a couple of times on missions made you appreciate the little people, quite literally.
Just as he was about to fully get Elena inside, their time ran out and a loud explosion was heard, quickly followed by flames and debris. The chunks of stone and brick was mercilessly thrown at them, especially Elena. The force of the blast also pushed her into Reno and he onto his back with the petite blonde right on top of him. This time, the breath was knocked out him. Instinctively, Reno wrapped his arms around her, one hand holding onto the back of her head and the other around her back in a protective gesture. He waited until all the fury of the explosion subsided to relax his hold on her.
"Elena! Can you hear me?" He craned his neck to get a closer look at her but when she didn't immediately reply, he quickly grew concerned. He noticed a couple of cuts on her face but nothing serious.
"Laney!" he practically yelled, his grip on her strengthening.
"Ugh," Elena managed to utter. "Why are you yelling in my ear?"
Reno's head hit the ground in relief, a crooked smile appearing on his face. He was glad Elena was annoyed, that meant she was alright.
Meanwhile, Elena lounged comfortably on his chest, waiting for the buzzing in her ears to stop. She felt his arms around her and further snuggled closer to his chest. She had almost forgotten that they had almost been killed mere moments ago, that's how safe she suddenly felt. Oddly enough, she felt sleepy too.
Reno felt her go limp a bit and realized she was struggling against unconsciousness. "We need to get you to the infirmary Lena. More than likely you got a concussion."
Elena scoffed weakly, "I don't think so."
"Oh really?" Reno answered. "I think you hit that wall even harder than I thought."
With a wrinkle of her nose Elena slowly asked, "What wall?"
Oh crap, Reno thought.