Silver Rose 2
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
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.
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March 8, 3078
Afternoon. Parking Garage. Abandoned Bathroom. 1:22 P.M.
.
"We've gotta go pick up a friend first..." Reno, Headed to ShinRa
.
.
Half an hour ago, I was told by Reno Drannor that our raid on ShinRa would be tonight. I can't object to his reasoning, though; they're sniffing too close to us to postpone this any further. Keeve had to leave, saying the tour had to continue, ShinRa or not, and they had turned a deaf ear before shoving him out the door and calling him a traitor.
It's been kind of quiet since Jinaisim and I came back, even from the former, who's usually the loudest among us. Cloud and Dais have been playing backgammon -- they found a stock of old games in Cloud's hotel room -- for a few hours, both eerily silent. Jinaisim, having worked his ass off for a few days now, is asleep on one of the toilets, his snoring really getting to me by now.
Reno, sporting his reading glasses I've never seen him use, has delicately been working on the explosives, right in the middle of all of us. If one blew, we would all burn and die, probably even before the lot came down around us, but we trust him too much to tell him to take it outside.
And for myself, I've been sitting here staring at the wall, having assembled all the guns at my feet within ten minutes. I could help Reno with the explosives, maybe even go watch Cloud and Dais' slow match, but I just stare at the wall, as if I think that it's going to open up with all the answers to success.
A sudden "Shit!" from Reno, short and small, makes us all tense for a minute -- even himself -- but then he goes back to his tinkering and we relax again. Of course, Jinaisim just snores.
Well, it's a very small extent to which we trust him.
I glance over and see his progress is going quickly. He's got three briefcase bombs as of now, small plastic explosives, and a large one he's working on. We intend to take the truck up to the building on the train tracks, and when we're finished inside, plant that in the bed, put it on auto-pilot, and let the beast go through the front doors to knock out the foundation.
Another one of Reno's reasons is that the annual SOLDIERS' Ball is tonight, where almost all of the elite task force is out dancing and having a good time. Therefore, the only protection ShinRa has will be a few SOLDIERs, Rufus himself, and the rest of the staff. The only person that worries me is their newest Turk leader, who is rumored to be quite the man with a longsword, but I haven't caught a name yet.
No matter, the Masamune'll pick the bastard off without a problem.
Reno smiled and assured me that, with a man we're picking up on our way tonight, we'll have no more problems.
Our original plan was to do this in three days, but tonight should work, or so I assume. There are many underlying things here to do, such as deliver their coffee stock. Cloud is going to be dressed as a worker for the company that stocks the vending machines, and take in their coffee, a brand from Wutai called "Feng Shui Summer," and one that basically runs the market when it comes to mocha and cappuchino.
What we're doing, however, is putting a bit of chloroform in their coffee grounds, particularly the ones for the night workers. And so, we should have a bunch of sleeping guards watching the surveillance system, thus allowing us a clean run through to the top floor, minus the few SOLDIERs, clerks, and receptionists.
We're hoping the new Turks aren't there yet.
The second thing to do is to have Dais wheel Reno -- disguised as an elderly woman who keeps her head under a big sunhat and hunches over because of her osteoperorsis -- in through the lobby to get inside the actual building, and it has to be Reno because the drinking and chain-smoking has given him a rough enough voice.
Once inside, they're going to open fire on whoever they can in the lobby so they can take out anyone coming from above or the main door, a job Cloud will help with when they call him on the two-way.
Once the building is secured from there, Jinaisim and I will, with the grappling hooks I almost dropped at the bombing of the side stairs, launch ourselves straight to the fiftieth floor elevator and ride it up from there.
They forgot to take our 50-70th Floors employee cards.
Idiots.
"Seph."
I suddenly look up. Dais, in the middle of a move, is looking at me with that stony gaze. "You should try to sleep. Relieves the stress. Besides, in dreams, the worse that can happen is a nightmare. Out here, we could all go up in a ball of flame."
Reno looks at him bitterly and snorts. "Hey, these glasses may show that my eyes are getting bad, but I've got the steadiest hands here. No worries while I'm around." This is usually the cue in a good action movie for the bomb to explode, but that's like a nightmare, and that's only when we sleep.
Cloud is nodding slowly, but I'm not quite sure what to, even when he mutters something and takes his own move, some silent look of victory sweeping over his face. I never knew how to play that game, so I don't know what just happened. It's only when Reno seconds the comment that I should sleep that I stand and walk into the room with the cot, even as he tells me that it's going to be the biggest night of my life.
The thing that pains me is that Aeris may not even be seeing this night.
-=-=-
When I'm woken up, it's by Rude, who I now realize has been gone this whole time. Reno mentioned something about him doing some work with his family tree or something, but it must have skipped my mind.
He grins at me. "Forgot I was here, didn't ya, Punk?"
I roll my eyes and sit up, rubbing my side. "Maybe if you spoke up a bit more, you'd be missed a bit more, cold bastard."
"Aww, that's no kind of a greeting to give the guy who's going to make tonight work."
I bite back a smile. "No, but it's the kind of a greeting to give a guy who routinely fucks up breakfast because he failed home-ec three times over." I give him my best sing-song voice when I crow out "Preeeeheeeeeat!" and he socks me hard in the chest, still smiling.
"Why'd I need to get up anyway?" I inquire, moving my hand up a rubbing my chest, hard. Guy packs a punch, that's for sure.
He jerks his thumb toward the main room. "We're taking off in twenty minutes or so. Reno wants a word."
I'd known it was something like that just from the way he was tensely speaking, but his eyes catch a second glance from me, and I nod seriously, standing and brushing past him. I slept in my coat so I'd be ready to go, and I -- by habit -- pick up the Masamune as I walk out. Game-time.
I find Reno outside smoking a cigarette, watching Dais and Cloud in the back of the truck while Jinaisim is behind the wheel, doing everything he can to bring it on the edge of either tipping of exploding. Reno doesn't talk to me immediately, but he does hand me a cigarette, lighting it without looking in that way only he can, flinching when the truck tips up on two wheels, stalls for a moment, then sets back down...only to have Jinaisim shoot it forward again.
"I met Jinaisim while I was in the Turks, before you signed on, Seph. I did undercover bodyguard work for him, even saved him from that Kala bitch a few times. Guy grew on me like one of those songs that never really gets out of your head from the first time you hear it, y'know? Like...I never thought of him as a friend, but soon we were out at the bars, doing karaoke together, sometimes winding up the next morning in the same bed." He gives me this look.
This look to take it as he says it.
"That lousy prick, though, he grew on me as much as I grew on him. Soon, after I got over Tseng's death -- don't look at me that way, it's not like that -- I think I fell in love with the bonehead. Klutzy bastard that weaseled his way into my life, then never really left. He lived with me while the Dreams were on tour. Didn't know how small of a world it was, did you?" His voice is soft, like an orphan just recalling fond memories of his real parents.
He smirks. "But, enough about who I'm fucking, this's about who you're fucking." I feel Rude twinge behind me, and I do the same, something that seems to only make Reno's smile widen. "I still haven't found anything about Aeris, but my guess is that she'll be somewhere in the ShinRa Building, more than likely in Hojo's secret lab."
I know the one; Hojo has this clusterfucked room atop the building disguised as a ventilation shaft. He keeps his best specimens in there. Or, rather, kept. I take a drag from my cigarette and nod. "Yeah, I had a feeling."
"From the research Rude did --" Yeah, that's where he was. Researching Hojo and Reno's friend. "-- Hojo's specimens are still alive and well, and available on immediate command. And these are little fetuses with three fingers, these are the big ones they keep locked in the basement. I've seen these fuckers, they could swallow Rude whole.
"And that's why I just told you what I did. Tonight, I may be the only one dead, the only one that comes back, or we all could be dead. Infinite possibilities tonight, that's no secret. But there's one of Hojo's you're going to meet...and you won't be pleased, I know that for sure. He's the Turk leader, and he's damn good from what Rude tells me. I can't really say anymore...because I know you'd want to stay behind."
As if the conversation is over, he walks away. I don't call him back. If it has Reno spooked, it's as bad as he says it is, if he's not just softening it up for me. He stops the truck with a wave of his hand and leans in, saying something to Jinaisim, then backs away as the ex-husband of my personal metal goddess spins it around and puts it in reverse until they get to the bathroom doors.
Dais and Cloud hop out and the three disappear inside, then emerge a few seconds later with the large bomb held between them, muttering -- probably "Keep it straight, dammit" -- as they go about it, but they finally get it loaded onto the back and throw a tarp over it.
I walk back inside, passing Reno and Jinaisim as they hustle to get the explosives ready, and, glancing back, I finally realize how dark it is. It must be at least eight-thirty, half an hour into the ball. I pick up as many guns as I can, Rude taking what I can't grab, and walk back outside, past a murmuring group -- Cloud, Dais, and a newly-arrived Jinaisim -- huddle over the large bomb, discussing any flaws they see.
I take the guns and load them into the trunk of my car, only leaving one assault rifle on the dashboard for Jinaisim, who's riding with me, and putting the Masamune in a sheath I sewed onto the side of the seat.
Just as I pull back from the car, someone punches me in the arm. Just as I figured, Jinaism is standing there, decked out in camo. I point at him lazily. "We're not going into the forest. We're actually going somewhere quite the opposite. What the hell's with the camoflauge?"
He gives me an even look, serious all of a sudden, then flips out the Turk shades he probably swiped from Reno, puts them on, and poses. "Makes me look good." He turns around and bends down, wiggling his rear end at me. "Don'tcha think, Sephy-kins?"
I plant my boot firmly in his ass and he rockets up with a yelp, but both of us crack a grin and chuckle.
I've come to accept these guys as my family for now. Reno's the brother to argue with playfully, Jinaisim's the uncle that never seems to leave, Rude's the tag-along friend of Reno that no one really minds, Cloud's the one we all pick on, and Dais is the older blood-brother we look to for advice. We never really said we were a team, but we've grown together. As they say: When forced together for prolonged periods of time, a bond shall form between two or many hearts.
It's about this time that Reno accidentally slams his finger in the door of the truck, then opens it and pulls it out, hopping around and swearing up and down.
Well...klutzy hearts they may be...but we still love that guy.
When we're all standing there, Reno biting another finger to even out the pain, Dais claps his hands and jumps in the bed of the truck with the bomb, sunglasses still on, and gives us a strange grin. "Let's roll!"
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
.
.
.
March 8, 3078
Afternoon. Parking Garage. Abandoned Bathroom. 1:22 P.M.
.
"We've gotta go pick up a friend first..." Reno, Headed to ShinRa
.
.
Half an hour ago, I was told by Reno Drannor that our raid on ShinRa would be tonight. I can't object to his reasoning, though; they're sniffing too close to us to postpone this any further. Keeve had to leave, saying the tour had to continue, ShinRa or not, and they had turned a deaf ear before shoving him out the door and calling him a traitor.
It's been kind of quiet since Jinaisim and I came back, even from the former, who's usually the loudest among us. Cloud and Dais have been playing backgammon -- they found a stock of old games in Cloud's hotel room -- for a few hours, both eerily silent. Jinaisim, having worked his ass off for a few days now, is asleep on one of the toilets, his snoring really getting to me by now.
Reno, sporting his reading glasses I've never seen him use, has delicately been working on the explosives, right in the middle of all of us. If one blew, we would all burn and die, probably even before the lot came down around us, but we trust him too much to tell him to take it outside.
And for myself, I've been sitting here staring at the wall, having assembled all the guns at my feet within ten minutes. I could help Reno with the explosives, maybe even go watch Cloud and Dais' slow match, but I just stare at the wall, as if I think that it's going to open up with all the answers to success.
A sudden "Shit!" from Reno, short and small, makes us all tense for a minute -- even himself -- but then he goes back to his tinkering and we relax again. Of course, Jinaisim just snores.
Well, it's a very small extent to which we trust him.
I glance over and see his progress is going quickly. He's got three briefcase bombs as of now, small plastic explosives, and a large one he's working on. We intend to take the truck up to the building on the train tracks, and when we're finished inside, plant that in the bed, put it on auto-pilot, and let the beast go through the front doors to knock out the foundation.
Another one of Reno's reasons is that the annual SOLDIERS' Ball is tonight, where almost all of the elite task force is out dancing and having a good time. Therefore, the only protection ShinRa has will be a few SOLDIERs, Rufus himself, and the rest of the staff. The only person that worries me is their newest Turk leader, who is rumored to be quite the man with a longsword, but I haven't caught a name yet.
No matter, the Masamune'll pick the bastard off without a problem.
Reno smiled and assured me that, with a man we're picking up on our way tonight, we'll have no more problems.
Our original plan was to do this in three days, but tonight should work, or so I assume. There are many underlying things here to do, such as deliver their coffee stock. Cloud is going to be dressed as a worker for the company that stocks the vending machines, and take in their coffee, a brand from Wutai called "Feng Shui Summer," and one that basically runs the market when it comes to mocha and cappuchino.
What we're doing, however, is putting a bit of chloroform in their coffee grounds, particularly the ones for the night workers. And so, we should have a bunch of sleeping guards watching the surveillance system, thus allowing us a clean run through to the top floor, minus the few SOLDIERs, clerks, and receptionists.
We're hoping the new Turks aren't there yet.
The second thing to do is to have Dais wheel Reno -- disguised as an elderly woman who keeps her head under a big sunhat and hunches over because of her osteoperorsis -- in through the lobby to get inside the actual building, and it has to be Reno because the drinking and chain-smoking has given him a rough enough voice.
Once inside, they're going to open fire on whoever they can in the lobby so they can take out anyone coming from above or the main door, a job Cloud will help with when they call him on the two-way.
Once the building is secured from there, Jinaisim and I will, with the grappling hooks I almost dropped at the bombing of the side stairs, launch ourselves straight to the fiftieth floor elevator and ride it up from there.
They forgot to take our 50-70th Floors employee cards.
Idiots.
"Seph."
I suddenly look up. Dais, in the middle of a move, is looking at me with that stony gaze. "You should try to sleep. Relieves the stress. Besides, in dreams, the worse that can happen is a nightmare. Out here, we could all go up in a ball of flame."
Reno looks at him bitterly and snorts. "Hey, these glasses may show that my eyes are getting bad, but I've got the steadiest hands here. No worries while I'm around." This is usually the cue in a good action movie for the bomb to explode, but that's like a nightmare, and that's only when we sleep.
Cloud is nodding slowly, but I'm not quite sure what to, even when he mutters something and takes his own move, some silent look of victory sweeping over his face. I never knew how to play that game, so I don't know what just happened. It's only when Reno seconds the comment that I should sleep that I stand and walk into the room with the cot, even as he tells me that it's going to be the biggest night of my life.
The thing that pains me is that Aeris may not even be seeing this night.
-=-=-
When I'm woken up, it's by Rude, who I now realize has been gone this whole time. Reno mentioned something about him doing some work with his family tree or something, but it must have skipped my mind.
He grins at me. "Forgot I was here, didn't ya, Punk?"
I roll my eyes and sit up, rubbing my side. "Maybe if you spoke up a bit more, you'd be missed a bit more, cold bastard."
"Aww, that's no kind of a greeting to give the guy who's going to make tonight work."
I bite back a smile. "No, but it's the kind of a greeting to give a guy who routinely fucks up breakfast because he failed home-ec three times over." I give him my best sing-song voice when I crow out "Preeeeheeeeeat!" and he socks me hard in the chest, still smiling.
"Why'd I need to get up anyway?" I inquire, moving my hand up a rubbing my chest, hard. Guy packs a punch, that's for sure.
He jerks his thumb toward the main room. "We're taking off in twenty minutes or so. Reno wants a word."
I'd known it was something like that just from the way he was tensely speaking, but his eyes catch a second glance from me, and I nod seriously, standing and brushing past him. I slept in my coat so I'd be ready to go, and I -- by habit -- pick up the Masamune as I walk out. Game-time.
I find Reno outside smoking a cigarette, watching Dais and Cloud in the back of the truck while Jinaisim is behind the wheel, doing everything he can to bring it on the edge of either tipping of exploding. Reno doesn't talk to me immediately, but he does hand me a cigarette, lighting it without looking in that way only he can, flinching when the truck tips up on two wheels, stalls for a moment, then sets back down...only to have Jinaisim shoot it forward again.
"I met Jinaisim while I was in the Turks, before you signed on, Seph. I did undercover bodyguard work for him, even saved him from that Kala bitch a few times. Guy grew on me like one of those songs that never really gets out of your head from the first time you hear it, y'know? Like...I never thought of him as a friend, but soon we were out at the bars, doing karaoke together, sometimes winding up the next morning in the same bed." He gives me this look.
This look to take it as he says it.
"That lousy prick, though, he grew on me as much as I grew on him. Soon, after I got over Tseng's death -- don't look at me that way, it's not like that -- I think I fell in love with the bonehead. Klutzy bastard that weaseled his way into my life, then never really left. He lived with me while the Dreams were on tour. Didn't know how small of a world it was, did you?" His voice is soft, like an orphan just recalling fond memories of his real parents.
He smirks. "But, enough about who I'm fucking, this's about who you're fucking." I feel Rude twinge behind me, and I do the same, something that seems to only make Reno's smile widen. "I still haven't found anything about Aeris, but my guess is that she'll be somewhere in the ShinRa Building, more than likely in Hojo's secret lab."
I know the one; Hojo has this clusterfucked room atop the building disguised as a ventilation shaft. He keeps his best specimens in there. Or, rather, kept. I take a drag from my cigarette and nod. "Yeah, I had a feeling."
"From the research Rude did --" Yeah, that's where he was. Researching Hojo and Reno's friend. "-- Hojo's specimens are still alive and well, and available on immediate command. And these are little fetuses with three fingers, these are the big ones they keep locked in the basement. I've seen these fuckers, they could swallow Rude whole.
"And that's why I just told you what I did. Tonight, I may be the only one dead, the only one that comes back, or we all could be dead. Infinite possibilities tonight, that's no secret. But there's one of Hojo's you're going to meet...and you won't be pleased, I know that for sure. He's the Turk leader, and he's damn good from what Rude tells me. I can't really say anymore...because I know you'd want to stay behind."
As if the conversation is over, he walks away. I don't call him back. If it has Reno spooked, it's as bad as he says it is, if he's not just softening it up for me. He stops the truck with a wave of his hand and leans in, saying something to Jinaisim, then backs away as the ex-husband of my personal metal goddess spins it around and puts it in reverse until they get to the bathroom doors.
Dais and Cloud hop out and the three disappear inside, then emerge a few seconds later with the large bomb held between them, muttering -- probably "Keep it straight, dammit" -- as they go about it, but they finally get it loaded onto the back and throw a tarp over it.
I walk back inside, passing Reno and Jinaisim as they hustle to get the explosives ready, and, glancing back, I finally realize how dark it is. It must be at least eight-thirty, half an hour into the ball. I pick up as many guns as I can, Rude taking what I can't grab, and walk back outside, past a murmuring group -- Cloud, Dais, and a newly-arrived Jinaisim -- huddle over the large bomb, discussing any flaws they see.
I take the guns and load them into the trunk of my car, only leaving one assault rifle on the dashboard for Jinaisim, who's riding with me, and putting the Masamune in a sheath I sewed onto the side of the seat.
Just as I pull back from the car, someone punches me in the arm. Just as I figured, Jinaism is standing there, decked out in camo. I point at him lazily. "We're not going into the forest. We're actually going somewhere quite the opposite. What the hell's with the camoflauge?"
He gives me an even look, serious all of a sudden, then flips out the Turk shades he probably swiped from Reno, puts them on, and poses. "Makes me look good." He turns around and bends down, wiggling his rear end at me. "Don'tcha think, Sephy-kins?"
I plant my boot firmly in his ass and he rockets up with a yelp, but both of us crack a grin and chuckle.
I've come to accept these guys as my family for now. Reno's the brother to argue with playfully, Jinaisim's the uncle that never seems to leave, Rude's the tag-along friend of Reno that no one really minds, Cloud's the one we all pick on, and Dais is the older blood-brother we look to for advice. We never really said we were a team, but we've grown together. As they say: When forced together for prolonged periods of time, a bond shall form between two or many hearts.
It's about this time that Reno accidentally slams his finger in the door of the truck, then opens it and pulls it out, hopping around and swearing up and down.
Well...klutzy hearts they may be...but we still love that guy.
When we're all standing there, Reno biting another finger to even out the pain, Dais claps his hands and jumps in the bed of the truck with the bomb, sunglasses still on, and gives us a strange grin. "Let's roll!"