Chapter 4

A/N:

Wow....for once I'm at a loss for words. Aren't you all fortunate?

~FinalHeavenXIII

Six am. Lamirra growled as she smashed her alarm clock and reluctantly got up out of bed. Yawning, she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of loose khaki pants and a black form-fitting t-shirt. Groggily she brushed her teeth and hair and splashed water on her face.

'Damn. Why the hell does this damn job have to start so frigging early?!' she thought, very irritated at her other boot that refused to be found.

After reaching under her bed and pulling out her missing shoe, she heard a knock at her door.

"Come on in Siko."

The door squeaked open and Siko popped her head through the doorframe.

"Hey? You ready for work?" she looked disdainfully at the mess Lamirra had made searching for her footwear.

"Don't we have time for breakfast?" Lamirra grumbled.

"No. You took half an hour looking for you shoe!"

"WHAT?! OH SHIT!" Lamirra jumped up and ran out of her room.

"Did you get Kite ready?" she shouted from the kitchen.

"Why would I get that bad-tempered bird ready for you?"

"Because I get Quill tacked up for *you*!"

"That's because she wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Oh yeah, that's why she bit me yesterday!"

Both of the girls ran outside and locked the door. Running behind their home the came to their chocobo corrals. Two black chocobos paced impatiently. One had a black tattoo of an angel wing on its beak, the other had a spiral of water with a feather inside it. Seeing their masters hurry to tack them, they knew how late the two girls were.

"Alright, let's go!" shouted Lamirra as she hopped on the angel wing- tattooed bird.

"All ready over here!" replied Nadesiko.

Kicking their mounts, they sped off towards Midgar.

~*~*~*~

Elena sighed angrily as she tried to type into her computer. In the cubicle next to hers, Reno had his music on full blast. Even if it was headphones, it was just too irritating!

Standing up ubruptly, she stomped her way over to Reno. She found him leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk. His white undershirt was completely unbuttoned and his blue jacket was in a pile in a corner of his cubicle.

"Reno! Will you turn those off?! SOME of us are trying to work!"

Reno just looked up at her blankly over the rims of his sunglasses for a moment then focused back on his paperclip chain.

"ARGH! RENO!"

"If you two are finished?" a calm voice sounded from the front of the cubicle. Turning, Elena saw her boss, Tseng.

"Oh! Mr. Tseng! I was just trying to get Reno to turn off his music and work." Elena explained hurriedly, bowing in an apology. Lifting an eyebrow Tseng regarded Reno coolly.

"Reno, stop playing with office supplies and get to work."

In a miraculous act of God, Reno somehow heard his boss, and immediatly turned off his music, put his sunglasses back on the top of his head and began to look the papers in his In Box over.

Tseng looked back at Elena and smiled. "I'm glad that this didn't turn into another outburst. But anyway. Elena, could you go get Rude to come to my office? You too, Reno."

Reno cocked an eyebrow and shrugged. Standing up, he yawned and put his paperclip chain in a desk drawer. Pushing his sunglasses back over his eyes he walked over to Tseng's office.

'What could Tseng want with all three of us? It's normally just me." he grinned lopsidedly at himself. Upon reaching his boss's office, he sprawled out in a chair and stared up at the neatly tiled ceiling.

'Everything's so plain here...' he thought absently. 'All orderly and and straight.'

His best friend Rude entered the office. Reno looked up at him over his sunglasses.

"Hey, Rude. Wassup?"

Rude smirked and looked down at his messy friend. "Obviously not you. Forgot to brush your hair again?"

Reno just grinned.

Soon Elena walked in and occupied the last seat in Tseng's office. Right after her Tseng came in. He sat in the chair at the front of his desk and looked solemnly at each of his employees.

"Now that everyone's here, I might as well begin. But first, Reno sit up."

Grumbling Reno straightened up in his seat.

"Okay, so does anyone have any idea on why we might be here?"

Rude spoke up. "I've heard Reno told you about two new girls that he wants you to hire."

Tseng nodded. "Well I've decided to hire them. They are more than qualified according to Reno."

"Yeah, they're tough, man. Don't mess with 'em." Reno added.

"Thank you, Reno...now, they should be arriving around seven thirty. Right now it's-" he looked up at his office clock. "Right now it's seven thirty. Then I suppose they'll be here soon."

Not much after did Tseng say those words than two girls burst through the office door. They were both breathing heavily. One leaned against the doorframe for support. The woman with chestnut hair and blonde streaks spoke up.

"Do you have any-" she took a moment to catch her breath. "Any idea how stupid the design of this building is? We got lost twice!"

Tseng was caught off-guard by her bright green eyes. A green as light as that was not common in eyecolors.

Regaining her breath, the other girl straightened. "Yeah, and whoever agreed to building it was a moron."

Tseng was once again caught off guard. This woman's voice was so beautiful, he almost gasped in surprise. But he was not like that. Instead he looked at them both with cool, couculating amber eyes and stood.

"I'm glad you're both on time. Now we can begin with our day."

Reno groaned. "Dammit, I forgot! Today's training day, huh?"

Both of the girls stared at him. "What?" they asked in unison.

"Training day." Elena offered. "We all go to the gym at the top of the building and test our skills."

Lamirra and Nadesiko stared at each other. "Aw, shit..." the brunette complained. Lamirra stared at Reno. "Gee thanks, Reno. Were you waiting for this day so Tseng could hired us then?"

Reno opened his mouth to reply when Tseng cut him off. "Actually, I decided to hire you on this day to test your fighting ability. In this way, we can decide what kinds of missions we set you on."

"Oh..."

~*~*~*~

Upon reaching the gym, Lamirra gaped. Before her was the biggest training facility she had ever seen.

all of the walls were made up of huge mirrors, so you could catch you flaws in fighting. Scattered throughout he giant gym were punching pags, sway bags, and training dummies. The end half of the room was covered with a blue pad.in the first corner to her right Lamirra noticed a drinking fountain, a soda machine and a vending machine filled with nutrients bars.

Elena walked up to Nadesiko. "Shinra wants to keep its employees fit, or at least those who need to be, so we're scheduled for training days once a twice a week. Those currently on missions are excluded of course."

"Wow. I had no idea they would build a gym on this scale..." Nadesiko stared in awe.

"Let's head over to the shower room. We need to change before we begin." Tseng said from behind them.

They walked across the gym to a gray door at the end. Opening, Tseng motioned the three girls to another gray do on their left. "This is the girls locker room. Elena will explain things to you in there." with that, he, Reno, and Rude walked into the door on the right.

Entering the room, the two girls saw eight gray lockers. Four on each side.

"There are only allowed to be a maximum of eight Turks." Elena explained. Motioning down the lockers, they saw a big area with aqua tiling and eight silver showerheads.

"That's our shower room obviously. After training we're required to take showers. Health laws, you know." she showed then their lockers. Inside each locker was a single-pieced black form-fitting suit. To Lamirra, they looked like wetsuits that covored your hands and feet. Each had a small, red, circular moniter rimmed in silver on the right side where your heart would be.

"These suits moniter our condition, you know. Heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, life signs. They're pretty neat."

Each girl put on her suit. Nadesiko marveled at the freedom of movement. Lamirra flexed her hand and tried jumping. She felt no restriction whatsoever.

"These suits are amazing!" Nadesiko exclaimed.

Elena nodded. "Yup. But I suggest tying your hair in a ponytail." she looked at Lamirra, who was busily braiding her hair. Once she was finished, they walked out into the gym to meet the guys.

When they saw the men, the too girls nearly gasped in surprise. Their male companions were wearing the same outfit as they, and they were in great shape.

'Damn, he is fine!' Lamirra thought as she eyed Reno.

She was also surprised at how fit Tseng was as well. He looked more like the buisiness man type than a, well...Reno-type man.

Lamirra glanced at her friend. Nadesiko was shamelessly staring at the men. Lamirra snickered.

'It's so much fun to watch her like this.'

Reno was the first to notice them. When he turned he smirked.

"Hey! Not bad!"

Tseng looked disgusted. "Reno, would you give it a rest? We're here to train."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say 'Oh Mighty One.'"

"Do remeber, Reno, that I have most of your CDs. Last time I checked, I have the authority to refuse to give them back."

"Alright! Alright! Geeze, you're so harsh!"

They got to work right away. After stretching and a few warm up punches, Tseng looked at his new Turks.

"You seem to be in good shape. I'd like to see what you can do." he led them to a a training dummy. It was shaped like a standing person."This is the average weight and shape of a fit six foot man. It should have the same feel as though you are hitting a person. Don't worry about knocking it over. It's wire to the floor so it will sway, but not fall. Show me what you can do. Nadesiko, if you please?"

The brunette stepped forward, and got in a fighting stance. First, she did a few jabs and mid kicks, but as her pace got faster, she put in more punches, more kicks, and more intricate evasive manuevers. She ended it by flipping over the dummy and kicking it in the low back.

"Good. Now, Lamirra."

Lamirra hopped forward. Starting straight off she punched and kicked like crazy. The dummy never had a chance to stand back up. Flipping over, ducking, spinning behind, Tseng was amazed by her speed. He looked at the hand held computer he held. Her breathing and heart rate were fast, but according to his screen, none of her body was tiring. Finally, at his signal, Lamirra stopped. Looking back at his monitor, he could tell that none of her muscles were tired.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Tseng asked, attempting to keep his cool tone.

"It's the way I was brought up. Me an' Siko, together we're practically unstoppable. I'm with the fighting, she's with the magic. When you get an element-resistant dummy, you should see what she can do."

Tseng nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we were getting a dummy that durable. It was originally for Elena. She can't fight, but her sniping is amazing. That's why on missions she normally doesn't move in any closer than fifty meters. According to my charts, it should be coming in in a week. But until then, I want to focus on other things. Lamirra-"

"Mirra." she interrupted.

"...Mirra, we have something for you to try out." Tseng led her to the blue matted half of the gym. He opened a blue door and went in. After a moment, he brought out what looked like another dummy like the one before.

"Mirra, this is an android. It was created to fight hand-to-hand for training. It has robotic muscles, an artificial pulse, the works. Normally, we just use sparring, but from what I can see you do, I don't want any casualties. Now, are you ready?"

Lamirra gave Tseng a bored look. "Ask me when I'm not ready."

Nodding, Tseng turned on the andriod. The entire gym went quiet.

Taking her stance, Lamirra waited for the robot to attack. When the attack never came, she charged. She saw the robotic muscles in its leg tense, readying to spin behind. Lamirra did a hand spring over the robot before it could move, crouched and kicked. The android fell, and Lamirra was all over it. She pounced on it, punching over and over in the face. It finally threw her off and against the mirrored wall. As she recovered, the android waited. Lamirra decided to outwait it. It worked on normal humans. Why wouldn't work on an artificial one?

Lamirra's plan worked. The robot charged, and Lamirra ran as well. With split second timing, she ducked and rolled, barreling into its shins and tripping the robot again. Regaining her footing, Lamirra ran at it. Already the android was up and threw her over its shoulder by a well-placed palm in the stomach. Lamirra jumped up as fast as she could, but was too late. It ran up and punched her square in the jaw. Lamirra flipped back and landed cat-like on all fours. She wiped a trickle of blood off her lip. Jumping up, she ran at the android and elbowed it right where the ribs would end. It caught itself from falling and punched with the left and the right. Stopping both punches with her hands, Lamirra grabbed its wrists and slammed her head into its. The dazed robot couldn't react quick enough to stop Lamirra from spinning behind, crouching and kicking out; first in the low back and then in the neck. It flew high into the air and Lamirra jumped and kicked out. it flew across the gym and skidded on the mat.

The robot sat up and stared, just as a normal human would.

'Hmm...well if it reacts the same as a person would, I wonder if...' she beckoned it forward with a micking index finger.

The robot jumped up and ran at her. After exchanging blow after blow, punch after punch, Lamirra was getting tired. She knew she had to end it.

Sensing the same thing, both Lamirra and the android hand-springed backwards until they were both at opposite ends of the blue mat. Lamirra smirked and charged. The android did the same. A few seconds before impact, Lamirra crouched low and as soon as the robot was right above her, she propelled herself upward and a powerful uppercut. She and the robot flew high into the air. Lamirra landed skillfully and straightened. Her opponent fell to the ground with *thump*.

She glanced over at her onlookers, all but Nadesiko were staring in awe. Walking over to Tseng, she lightly punched his jaw.

"So. Did I pass?"

Nadesiko grinned smugly as Tseng said nothing. "That's nothing. You should see her when she's angry."

~*~*~*~

A/N:

Well I guess she wants me to make a speech...okay then Four Score HOLE IN ONE!!! ^_^; I'm a dork...anywho thanks for the reviews...if we have any...::shrugs:: I haven't checked.

~Too Human Lately