Shinra, Heidegger, Scarlet, Reno, and Rude escaped from the door Heidegger had opened, which had a hallway leading to Sector 8. They were going to take a train back to Sector 7 where they'd plan for the next assault.
And they'd better "plan" on giving me my money, or else they'll have one less Turk at their disposal. Reno mused, and walked out to the slums of Sector 8. It was a lonely, miserable place, too industrial for Reno's liking, but to many, this place was home.
"We'll split up here," Shinra explained, "We don't exactly want to go around in a group after what just happened. Guards are going to start coming around soon, so get back to base as soon as you can. Leave no trails." Shinra adjusted the tie he wore and walked away.
The group split and headed their seperate ways, each looking for a way to make it to the train that'd take them to Sector 7. Reno spotted a short, balding man holding a basket. The man approached him.
"Hey there! Wanna buy some Mako? It's only a gil!", the man said, bouncing around happily at the thought of a customer.
"...You SELL Mako to people? You DO know that stuff can poison you, right?", Reno inquired, thinking this guy was a complete loon. After all, Mako was ENERGY. It wasn't exactly something you could sell.
"Of course, but I prefer to let people keep it as a souvenir!" He pulled out what he thought was Mako, and Reno understood instantly.
"That's not Mako. That's materia, moron." Reno sighed.
"Hey-hey, what's materia? Is it edible?" Palmer eyed the materia hungrily, licking his lips.
"Idiot. Materia is created from Mako energy, when it's condensed. They all allegedly contain the wisdom and knowledge of the ancients, allowing anyone who holds a materia to use the power of the Planet to make, well, in a layman's terms, magic. I absolutely can't stand magic either. It's your lucky day though, I know of a friend who does. Let me take a look at your, er, ahem, "Mako Basket"." Reno informed the strange man.
FLASHBACK
"I can't stand magic. Too much hassle for my taste. What about you, Rude?" Reno asked his friend as they sat inside the 7th Heaven Bar in Sector 7.
"...I'd actually like to be able to use some. As support. You never know what could happen." Rude sipped some of his ale and sighed.
"Heh, well, that's true. Still. Can't stand it. But enough talk about magic and mumbo-jumbo like that. I'm getting wasted before we have to blow up that fucking reactor tomorrow." Reno whispered the last part, before chugging the last of his drink.
END FLASHBACK
"Fire and Cure materia. I think he'll like these..." Reno said in a low voice to himself, and handed the strange man 2 gil.
"Thank you sir! Thank you! You won't regret it!" The man bounced away happily.
"...I wish he'd been a bit closer to that reactor..." Reno said and walked onwards, pocketing the materia. He came to an intersection. He decided to head straight, when suddenly, two AVALANCHE Soldiers came out from behind the corners of the building behind him.
"You're one of the Turks, aren't you?" One of the guards said, raising his machine gun and pointing it at Reno's back.
"...You hid in the shadows just to see if you could ambush me. I'm going to take a guess that you have more guards on each part of this intersection ready to surround and kill me, am I right? Cowards." Reno kept his hands in his pockets and turned to the guards.
"How'd you know that? Get your hands out of your pockets!" One of the guards asked. By this time, they both had their guns pointed at Reno's head. They were about 10 feet away.
"AVALANCHE tactics aren't unfamiliar to me. However, you two are no better than those guards I dispatched earlier. I'll show you why it's a bad idea to mess with Reno of the Turks..." He quickly took his hand out of his pocket, revealing his Electric Prod, and pointed it at the guard on the left. From the tip of it shot a ball of light at the guard, which, when it connected, dispersed and formed a pyramid around the man.
"Let's see you break out of that." Reno said, turning and running from the other, non-encased guard. Said guard was currently shooting the pyramid to try and break his comrade free. Seconds later, the pyramid collapsed.
"Was that magic?" The first guard asked, confused.
"No. His weapon must be considerably technologically advanced in order to do that to us, but it was no spell..." The second one said, before they both gave chase to the Turk. Reno took a left at the intersection, noting out of his peripheral vision that two more guards were chasing him, readying their machine guns. Up ahead were two more guards. Reno noted to his right was a pit where, if you looked down, you could see the train tracks. The only thing that seperated people from the fall down was a small metal fence.
"You're surrounded!" One of the guards yelled. Reno didn't care whom. He wasn't staying long anyway. He jumped over the fence and fell...
...Onto the train. "It's better to be lucky than good." Reno said, ducking so he wouldn't be hit by the oncoming train tunnel. He needed to get into the train somehow...
-------------------------------
Reno was missing.
The four Shinra members had managed to all get on the train with little to no hassle, but Reno had failed to appear.
"You didn't see any guards, did you Rude?" Shinra asked.
"...No. I think they were waiting to ambush one of us. Take a guess who." Rude sat down in the train and sighed, adjusting his sunglasses.
"Kyahaha! He won't be around to act like such a jerk to me now!" Scarlet squealed, clearly amused at the thought of Reno dying in a pool of his own blood.
"Gyahaha! One less employee to pay!" Heidegger joined in on Scarlet's joyfulness.
"...Watch what you say. Reno won't like that very much." Rude said calmly, much to Shinra's surprise.
"But Reno's dead!" Heidegger laughed. That laugh even got on Rude's nerves.
"Idiot. He's above us." Rude said. As if on cue, the door to the train slid open and Reno swung into the train from the roof. He closed the door behind him and adjusted his suit.
"Heidegger, I'd better be getting a raise. I don't think trash talking employees is something that said employees have to put up with." Reno said cooly, sitting beside Rude.
"How did you hear us? You were on top of a train!" Scarlet gasped, wide eyed at what Reno just did and said.
"Call it a hunch. Or a cliché. Whatever suits you." Reno took out a cigarette and lit it. "By the way Rude, I've got a little present for you." He took out the Fire and Cure Materias and handed it to his friend. Rude pocketed them without saying a word. "...You're welcome". Reno said, taking a drag from his smoke.
"Now that we're all here...we're going to move up to the next car. This storage car isn't exactly the best living space ever." Shinra said, opening the door on the other end of the train car. It led to a far more suitable train car, which seats on either side of the wall.
Better than sitting on boxes. Reno noted and put out his cigarette, going into the car and taking a seat. The others quickly joined and calmly seated themselves.
"Want to take a look at a map of Midgar with me, Reno?" Scarlet inquired, heading to the computer terminal located on the opposite end of the car.
"Blow me." Reno sat back and relaxed. He already knew about Midgar. There was a giant steel plate located 50 meters above where they sat right now, with support structures to hold it up. On top of this plate was AVALANCHE HQ and the more...civilized areas of Midgar. Most people lived below the plate in the slums of Midgar. Because of the plate, it was always dark in the slums of Midgar. The route of the train they were on now spiraled around AVALANCHE HQ, and at each Sector there would be an ID Sensor to show AVALANCHE who was on the train. AVALANCHE kept records of every single individual in Midgar.
Not that they gave a shit about any of them, unless they had money.
The train came to a stop, and the ID Sensor scanned the Shinra's ID cards (All of which were fake). It sent the info back to HQ, where an AVALANCHE executive saw that all 5 of them were upstanding, normal citizens. Reno and the others exited the train and gathered in a group near the tracks.
"The mission was a success, gentlemen. But don't get lazy now! Tomorrow, we get to destroy Reactor No.5!" Shinra said. "...I hope I didn't say that too loudly." Shinra shifted his eyes around.
I hate people. Reno turned and walked away. Rude soon joined him. They walked west to Sector 7. Sector 7 looked much like many other slums in Midgar.
A shithole.
Their base was a bar called 7th Heaven. As they walked in, they saw Elena, the bartender. She was also a member of the Turks. She had short blond hair and brown eyes, and as she saw the two, her face broke out into a gentle smile.
"Hey you two, how was the mission?" She knew full well what had happened due to AVALANCHE News, but she wanted to know anyway, from their points of view.
"We went in and planted the bomb, got out, and things went boom. Any questions?" Reno inquired, sitting at one of the tables. Rude joined him.
"Heh. Business as usual, Reno. Well, I suppose you deserve some drinks before we get around to planning the next operation. It's on the house. Try not to get wasted though. Blowing up reactors is hard when you're drunk out of your mind." Elena brought out two mugs from behind the counter and set them on the counter, then got a bottle of sherry from the wall behind her and poured it in the cups. The boys got up and grabbed their glasses.
"Sherry. Christ, I hate Midgar. Terrible booze." Reno complained. "We should all go to that resort place sometime...Wutai, I think it's name is. Should be a good time unless something bad happens, like...oh, I don't know, running into a horny pimp who's trying to hang Elena upside down or something."
"Heh, that'd never happen Reno!" Rude took his seat again and began sipping his drink.
Heidegger, Scarlet, and Shinra had finally arrived, and ran in through the batwing doors.
"I'm making a new bomb tomorrow. It'll be a remote-controlled one, so that you don't have to escape in ten minutes. We can't just walk right in like the other one either. They're going to really tighten security in every reactor. Luckily, they probably think we're going for No. 2 or No. 8, as they're next to No. 1. But remember, we're blowing up Reactor No. 5." Shinra explained.
"I'm going with you tomorrow, sir!" Elena saluted to Heidegger, who nodded.
"Are you sure, Elena? We need someone to look after the bar." Heidegger told her.
"Kyahaha, don't worry! Reno said earlier that the Turks should have been the only ones there, so let's let THEM handle it! There's no passcodes needed to enter anywhere in Reactor No. 5. I looked up all the security in the No. 5 reactor via hacking the train's terminal, and all there is is a touch-sensitive system to open doors. They should handle it just fine." Scarlet explained.
Shinra approached the pinball machine and hit the left flipper button. The machine and a little bit of floor surrounding it lowered down to the next floor, Shinra with it. Reno and Rude simply jumped down the hole. Heidegger and Scarlet simply waited for the elevator to come back up. Down there was Shinra HQ, a one-roomed hellhole that had a big T.V. and a computer, but little else. The reporters on the television (Shinra had turned it on before Reno jumped down) were informing the people that terrorists destroyed Reactor No. 1.
"I need my pay, old man." Reno approached Shinra.
"Here then." Shinra tossed Reno a bag, and inside he found 1500 gil.
"This is pitiful. Line up the next job for 3000 or else you'll be out of a Turk." Reno said.
"That's for both you and Rude, by the way. You'll need to split it." Shinra told them, grinning.
"I am THIS close to quitting right now. Stupid old man." Reno turned and took the elevator back up, shoving past a confused Heidegger, Scarlet, and Rude. As he was about to walk out of the bar, Elena came from behind the counter.
"Are you leaving the Turks? I thought you were braver than that! Don't you remember the promise you made?" Elena asked worriedly.
"Whenever you're in danger..."
"I can't keep that..."
"...I'll come to your rescue."
"...The promise, I mean."
"I promise."
"So you're leaving, just like that? Don't you remember what you told me 5 years ago, in Nibelheim?"
"How could I forget?"
FLASHBACK
"I'm going to join AVALANCHE. I want to become stronger."
"So you're leaving town then?"
"Yes."
"Just like Sephiroth. The great and
(one winged)
powerful Sephiroth..."
"I might not ever return here, Elena."
"I know. ...Can you make me a promise?"
"What?"
"Promise if I'm in trouble, that you'll come rescue me. I want to experience that at least once..."
"Whenever you're in danger, I'll come to your rescue. I promise. God that sounded cheesy."
"Thanks, Reno..."
END FLASHBACK
"...I'm sorry." Reno told her, and turned around to face Elena.
"Heh, don't worry. You'll be sleeping down in HQ tonight, by the way. Scarlet's going to make us some new ID cards. Have a nice sleep." Elena went back behind the counter. A few minutes later, the whole group of Shinra executives emerged.
"By the way..." Reno asked, "Where's Tseng?"
Shinra gave him a dirty glare. "He quit the Turks and ran off to Wutai. Haven't heard from him since. I thought you knew that." Reno shrugged.
"Oh well. See ya tomorrow guys..." Reno went down to HQ, and walked over to one of the walls. He leaned back against the hard, metallic surface, and fought for sleep.
He got his wish.
Tomorrow would be a big day. They'd be destroying
(the promise)
another Reactor, after all. All to save the Planet.
Sometimes Reno wondered if it was even worth it.