Authors note: There's a character in this who was introduced in the first fanfiction story I wrote: FF7: Indigo Children called Jasper. His relationship to Reno is explained here without you needing to read Indigo Children if you don't want to.

(Some bad language in here, sorry, that Reno's got a mouth like a sewer)

(STORY 2)

Robot Wars

1

Metalitron

Reno had finally cleared up the layers of encrusted dirt that had slowly been building up in his flat; he had forgotten that the carpet was a beige colour. He had forgotten he had a carpet at all, under that junk that had been there for so long. He didn't tidy up because he was sick of the mess or odd smell that hung in the air, oh no, he had a much better reason to clear it all up. He had got through to the quarter-finals in Robot Wars and up until now he had been able to use Rude's garage to tinker with 'Metalitron', his winning robot. Rude had finally thrown poor little Metalitron out into the wide world after almost a year living beside his lawn mower and motorbike. Reno did not have a garage and for the first few days was distraught at what to do about the robot. He had even called up Barret; since the beefy black man was already looking after his eight year old son, Jasper, he thought he may as well ask if he could keep an eye on Metalitron for a week or so until he thought of something better. All he got as a reply was a string of obscenities.

Once he had cleared the living room he was glad to see that it could house his battle-'bot perfectly.

It was a warm Sunday late mid morning and for once he was out of bed, kneeling on the floor on an old sheet with the innards of Metalitron spread out around the room, waiting to be tweaked and re-tuned ready to be put back inside the thick metal casing with a skull-and-crossbows painted onto it, courtesy of Elena. She was a pretty good artist for a Turk.

"I still don't understand why it needs to be a skull Reno, can't it be something attractive!" She had whined; but finally she shut up and painted the damn thing, so Reno couldn't complain.

He wore his faded black jeans that were a little too long in the leg and dragged on the floor as the redhead walked, his top was a white sleeveless vest-top that was neither tight nor particularly loose against his toned body. It was all stained in grease, oil and other more mysterious substances that Reno would rather not guess as to what they were. He nearly didn't hear his PHS ring over his music being played at full volume as he tinkered with the rotating blade mechanism. He turned the volume down and sighed, answering it

"Hullo?" He held the phone between his shoulder and ear to keep his hands free to fumble with the mechanism as he spoke.

"Reno! Where in hell are you, ya fuckwit?" Came Barret's voice down the phone, Reno furrowed his brow and put the mechanism down, taking the PHS in his hand.

"At home…Why?"

"You're s'posed to be taking Jasper out today!" He yelled down the phone.

"Shit. I forgot." He was supposed to see his son once every two weeks because the goody-two shoes AVALANCHE members thought a father should have contact with his son, even if the father in question was the least suitable person for parenting ever. He had seen him the Sunday before last for the first time outside of a mission and today was meant to be the next father-son bonding day. They hadn't really hit it off as father and son yet, Reno didn't understand the minds of kids and Jasper, like most people, didn't understand the mind of Reno.

"I dunno what he wants to do, I took him to the pub last time and he didn't seem to enjoy it much. Are you sure I really need to see him?" He moaned, he was having too much fun with Metalitron, 'Why can't kids be like robots?' he asked himself as Barret swore down the phone at him about his responsibilities and to wear a condom next time he was with a woman if he didn't want to look after his own kid.

"Yeah, yeah Barret. It's just that I'm really busy right now." He stood up; arching his stiff back and sauntered over to the open plan kitchen area.

"Doin' what?" Reno sighed as he took a cold beer out from his fridge; Barret really wasn't going to let him off.

"Robot Wars quarter-final preparations if you must know."

"Robot Wars! That's fine, robots are kids toys anyway, kids like robots, he can help you." Reno almost choked on his beer; he swallowed and replied in a strained voice

"It's a bit more complicated than kids play Barret, there's sharp things and stuff." Yeah, that sounded good, Barret would surely object to a kid being near sharp things.

"I can drop him off at your place now." With that he hung up, leaving Reno open mouthed in disbelief and annoyance.

True to his word there was a knock at his door ten minutes later, Reno sighed and stood, going over to the door and opening it. Barret almost pushed the small boy in and barely said a hello.

"I'll pick him up at around eight. Cook him dinner would ya? See ya later Jasper!" From the scowl on his sons face he could tell that he wanted to be there as much as Reno wanted him to be, which was not a lot. The boy had red hair with hints of brown within it, his eyes were the same blue-green as his fathers and those twin red curved lines near the eye and cheek bone were prominent against the boys pale skin.

"Alright twirp?" Reno asked as he closed the door, Jasper shrugged and walked behind his father as he returned to Metalitron.

"I was good until I came here." He dumped his little rucksack down and collapsed into the blue sofa that Reno had pushed back to make room for the robot.

"Well that's funny, I was about to say the exact same thing. Great minds think alike." Reno smirked, sitting cross-legged in front of the robots carcass and picking up the rotating blade mechanism again.

"Watch TV or something, I'm busy." He threw the boy the remote control that was next to him and turned his attention back to the robot. Jasper caught the remote and turned the TV onto kids channels, which Reno didn't mind, he spent most of his time flicking between kids TV, porn, and the game show channel whenever Takeshi's Castle was on, which was most of the time.

"What are you doin' that for anyway?" Jasper asked with a little contempt in his voice. Reno shrugged

"It's fun. I've got hold of a mini chainsaw blade that I'm thinking of attaching." He grinned gleefully, Jasper rolled his eyes.

"You know; my friend Toko's older brother is in the quarter-finals of Robot Wars." He muttered, eyes now fixed on the TV; Reno snapped his head up in interest. OK, so kids weren't totally useless.

"Really? What's his robot called?" Jasper narrowed his eyes in thought

"Um, Battle Bitch or something.." Reno nodded; that was the team who he was most concerned about, they were good, too good. He licked his lips and lodged the information in the back of his mind so he could think up a plan if necessary.

The rest of the day was spent in much the same way, Reno and Jasper tried to ignore one another as much as possible. Reno couldn't help but ask a few key questions regarding 'Battle Bitch' as the plan in his head matured throughout the course of the day. Jasper watched the single DVD Reno owned that was rated below 18 and Reno managed to attach the rotating blade and it's mechanism to the Robot and had already started to improve the electronics and motor connections.

"Reno, I'm hungry and Barett will be back in an hour and a half. What's for dinner?" Reno looked up, a little stunned, his sweaty face had streaks of oil across it and his hair was even more dishevelled than usual.

"Er…Pizza?" Jasper shrugged. He didn't think Reno ate anything other than pizza, they had had pizza last time. Reno painfully got to his feet, stretching out his cramped muscles as he searched under all the metal parts scattered everywhere for his phone.

Pisa Pizza's was on speed dial, so he got through quickly, by now he was a well known customer so the guy on the other end of the phone gave him a free bottle of coke with the order.

"It'll be here in no more than twenty minutes. Hey kid, can you time it? If they are a minute late we get a free voucher." Jasper rolled his eyes and muttered some annoyed words under his breath. Reno was more than displeased when the pizza came in nineteen minutes; he paid up and took the hot boxes through to the kitchen table.

"Twirp: in here, I don't want cheese glooping all over Metalitron." He searched his cupboards for a cup, but found none clean so took two bowls and poured cola into them, giving one to Jasper who sat opposite to him. Jasper shot his father a despairing look and drunk awkwardly from the bowl, unable to stop some pouring down his chin.

Barret came fifteen minutes late, Jasper rushed out to the big man, hugging him tightly, Reno lit up a cigarette using his blow torch before going over to the door, he ruffled Jasper's hair and false-smiled down to his son.

"See ya twirp. Thanks for the info on Battle Bitch." He said through his cigarette before closing the door and returning to his robot. Jasper had told him exactly where 'Battle Bitch' was, and as much as he pretended to hate screwing over his son's friend's brother; he had planned a meeting with Battle Bitch that involved some heavy duty Turk-acquired ammunition.

A week passed by and the Friday before the big contest came quickly. He had worked full time on it, missing a day off work on Thursday to ensure he had it completed in time. On Thursday evening he had persuaded Rude to come with him to the allotment shed where Battle Bitch was being kept. He had swiped a small timed bomb from the weapons department and brought some handy wire cutters with him as well, to ensure the job was done properly. He cut the main electronics to pieces before tying the bomb to the insides of the brightly painted robot that had a massive axe hanging at its side. He salvaged the axe and timed the bomb to go off in fifteen minutes, a broad grin on his face the entire time.

"That's what you get for thinking you can beat a Turk at a war." Rude raised a brow at his friend's childishness, but he was also a Turk, blowing stuff up gave him a buzz.

They watched the shed go up in a huge ball of fire from Reno's car, the glow of the fire illuminating the allotments around it.

"It's so beautiful" Reno sniffed in a joke-emotional tone. Rude even took his dark shades off for a moment to admire their work. The redheaded Turk quickly started up the engine of his car and sped off before people started to look out their windows to see where the loud bang came from.

To Be Continued…

Authors note:

(Some followers of a certain UK sitcom that aired on Channel 4 a few years back may see a few similarities between this and the episode named METTLE. So some of these ideas belong to the god that is Simon Pegg (and of course the lovely Jessica Stevenson). I also thought that Reno belonged to Spaced more than FF7, so I made my dream come true, yay!)

Please review if you read it. Cheers!