Fatal Crossover From Hell
Chapter Four: Learning to Play Together
Reno didn't give the silver-haired man a second look as he began picking the lock to room three-seventy. The old motel door lock came undone without much fuss, Reno slid to the side before giving the door a push. He noted that Vicious was on the other side, hand on his katana.
The door creaked loudly as Reno pushed it inward. He motioned to Vicious that he was going in and moved quickly, kneeling in the doorway with his weapon drawn. A strong odor was the first thing that the two men noticed, followed quickly by the amount of clutter.
"Love of GOD what died in here?" Vicious growled, walking into the room after Reno stood.
The red head started searching around a messy desk, throwing open drawers and looking behind it. "It smells like photo developing chemicals. Gives off a rotten egg smell." He started dragging a fireproof case from behind the desk.
Vicious cocked an eyebrow at the other man. "How did you know that?"
Reno shrugged, another grin on his face. "Photography minor in college."
The bird must have felt Vicious' agitation, it hissed at Reno. "I mean, how to find that fire-case." He peered at the red head's lock pit kit from over the shorter man's shoulder. "ShinRa?"
"Told'em not to put the logo on the equipment…" Reno muttered, but didn't exactly answer Vicious. The case popped open and Reno began skimming files.
Totally disinterested in the files, Vicious started flitting though mail that had been slid under the door. "Turk?" He asked after a while.
"Yeah."
"How's that pay?" Another collection letter from Red Dragon hit the floor.
"Not bad, only really crappy thing is the constant moving around, there are jobs that mean I don't see home for weeks." Reno tossed a pamphlet over his shoulder onto the discarded mail pile. "Great benefits though, 401K, Vacation, the works."
"Union?"
"You know it." Reno lit a cigarette. "They'd be fucking us otherwise. The union dues are worth the full vision and dental."
Vicious stopped reading. "You get dental?"
Cocking his head, Reno also stopped reading. "You don't?"
That earned a snort. "Not union, cheap ass bastards."
"Red Dragon then?" Reno commented with a laugh. You all were in negotiations for months man, what's going on? Why not just strike? That's how we got our vacation upped."
Rolling his eyes Vicious snatched up the mail from the desk. "They offer a stock option that is out of this world. That and the membership cards with the company have a lot of discounts. Still, I would trade that for dental." He growled again, even more put out with the Turk then before.
As he fingered through more bills he came across a bunch of photographs. All the pictures showed blurred, half unintelligible, images. "Well someone else didn't minor in photography…"
Reno folded some paperwork, sliding it into his front jacket pocket before walking up to look at the pictures. The light haired man handed them over. "It could be the film… where'r the negatives?"
"Do I look like the doctor?" Vicious snapped. "How the hell would I know?"
"Snippy much?" The red head responded, dumping a file of brown strips to the desk over the photos. He picked them up, turning them over in the light. "Well that's-" he squinted, "this isn't…" He picked up a photograph. "It's the image, not the camera…."
Vicious grabbed another strip and held it up the same way Reno had done. He wasn't trained, but even he could tell that the image itself was wonky. "So he's a shitty shot?"
Reno pocketed some of the images and the negatives. "Then why is nothing but the figure blurred in all of these?"
"You're the one with the prissy major, you tell me."
Reno glared at the Red Dragon member. Vicious was predictably unfazed. "MINOR in photography."
The two looked around the room more, finding very little to go on. The only other thing of any value was a scribbled map, the letters "MH" were clearly written in red ink. Picking it up Vicious turned to leave. Stopping he looked over his shoulder. "You coming?"
"Only if I can skin that sonofabitch when I get the camera." Reno responded, following Vicious out.