Business As Usual:

Chapter 4

By Miyamashi

Miya's Note: Sorry about the cliffhanger in the last Chapter. I knew that this section (Chapters 3 & 4) would take me a little while to right, so I though that cutting it into two parts would give you something to read while I finished. Better to update more frequently with shorter chapters, IMHO.

My favorite part of this chapter is the first part with Rufus. I'm really, really proud of how I did on that section.

To pewp: I'm glad that I made you laugh. Don't worry about the advice. No hard feelings. In fact, I appreciate it. Even if you don't think that you can write, that doesn't mean that you don't have some good tips to offer! Plus, I'm sure that you'll improve. It just takes a lot of practice. Being an artist, I'm sure that you know that fact! Oh, and since you're an artist, do you have any pictures up on the web? I'd love to see them! You can find mine at miyamashi . deviantart . com (without spaces, as it won't let any links come up! ARRRGH!), as I consider myself an artist before a writer as well. (I draw constantly. I only write when I have a story that I feel like I really need to tell, which isn't often, because most of my fanfic ideas get trashed the second I remember how much WORK and TIME it takes to make one of these blasted things!)

To Mashimaro-Byul-012: I'm trying to update as quickly as possible, so that I don't let you guys down. I hate it when I start a fic and don't finish it, and if I procrastinate, I won't. Like I said, sorry about the cliffhanger.

To Gothic Yokai: [Ch.2 Review] It's okay! No need to grovel! I'll consider making a Lime, just for you! [Ch.3 Review] I really don't know where I pulled the name Dale from. I checked out your story "Bring Me a Soda," and it was pretty good. I left you a review, in case you didn't see it. I'll have to look at some of your others.

"So, what's the plan, Dale?" Reno joked in a vain attempt to calm himself down.

"Hopefully, if we work quickly, we can get the Vice President out of harm's way before the traitor ever even shows up. If we're lucky, that'll confuse Pulitz and give us a clean shot at him."

"Don't be so sure. He's a sneaky bastard."

"Our biggest problem is going to be the ninjas. They're going to use stealth, and if we're going to beat them, we will have to as well."

"Is it just me, or does this sound like a cheesy action flick, with all the ninjas and stuff?"

Rude ignored him. "You go and find the V.P. and take him somewhere safe. I'm going to try to pinpoint Pulitz's whereabouts. " He handed Reno a headset. "This will keep you in contact with me, and with Tseng, who is in his office, watching for any suspicious activity on the computer, as well as monitoring the city's security cameras."

"Definitely like a cheesy action flick," Reno said as he put the headset on. "Testing, testing, one, two, three?"

"Reno, are you ready?" asked Tseng from his office in Midgar.

"I guess I have to be," replied the redhead before flashing a thumbs-up at Rude, who fitted his own headset and flipped open a laptop, and rushed into the depths of the city.

"Good luck," said Rude into his microphone.

"So far, so good," said Tseng into his headset as he looked into his computer monitor. "I don't see any suspicious activity so far."

"Same here," came Rude's voice.

"Reno, how are you doing?"

"Fine so far. I've worked my way down into the city's lower levels. Didn't want to take any chance of being seen."

"Good. You've remembered your training."

"I can't help it. You guys practically brainwashed me."

Tseng chuckled, and he could hear Rude give a snort on the other end of the line.

"Watch your backs, you two."

"Can do, Dot-man."

"Roger."

Rufus Shinra was standing, watching the workers from Junon's topmost layer, when he heard a zinging sound from behind him, followed by a sickening splatter-thud. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw something fly by, and then the headless body of a guard fell beside him.

It took a moment before what had happened sunk in.

Another zing, this time from the opposite direction, and a second body fell to the ground. Rufus felt something hit his back, and soon, the warm wetness of the guard's blood seeped through his jacket, shirt, and hair, resting on the skin on his back and neck.

He moved quickly and suddenly, ducking down and pulling the pistol from the first guard's hand as a third zing came, rustling his bangs as it passed only inches in front of his face.

Thud.

Rufus dashed as fast as he could, out of the open area into an alley, where he crouched behind a corner.

Zing. Splatter. Thud. Zing. Splatter. Thud.

Only a couple of guards left.

The blonde peered around his corner to see a shuriken whiz through the air and return to its owner, who sat, waiting, watching, in the window of an abandoned building. He aimed and fired, and the shuriken's owner slumped lifelessly onto the window frame.

"Shit!" Rufus cursed under his breath as gunshots began to ricochet off of the corner. He heard footsteps coming quickly towards him, and he stood and ran down the alley, hopping a fence at its end. Soon after, he heard the wires of the fence creak a second time.

He was being chased down.

"Holy shit!" Rude cursed loudly, abandoning his laptop and racing in the same direction that Reno had gone minutes before. "Reno! Reno, do you read me?"

"What's wrong?!" came the reply, but it wasn't Reno. It was Tseng.

"Trouble on camera six! Reno! Turn back immediately!"

Reno didn't answer.

"Oh no. They're already there," Tseng murmured as he brought up camera six on his computer. "Where's the Vice President?"

"I don't know. I didn't see him anywhere," Rude replied breathily, his voice erratic from the run and the panic.

Reno threw his loudly crackling headset to the ground as the radio interference in the area made it useless. He backed against the wall and opened the door slowly to the light of the construction area.

'Now I just get the V.P. out of there and into a safe place. Then, I go meet Rude and we figure out the plan from there. Easy enough,' he thought to himself. He peered around the doorframe.

"Damn."

All of the guards were dead, their bodies littering the ground, making the industrial city-top all the more desolate. The last of the ninjas from Wutai rushed quietly into an alley.

Reno snuck into the construction site, scanning the bodies for any sign of the Vice President.

"Well, at least I may not be too late," he said, following the ninja.

As he jumped the fence at the alley's end, Reno had to dodge a shuriken throw from the ninja as the man turned to face the sound the redhead had made. Reno pointed his electro-mag rod at the enemy, encasing him in a pyramid just as the shuriken rounded back. Trapped and unable to use his hands, the man could only stare as his own weapon came toward him, breaking through the pyramid and lodging itself into his forehead.

Reno leapt over the body, dashing faster to catch up with his other foes.

Rude heard a crunch underfoot as he ran out of the door and into the open construction area. He didn't stop to see what it had been.

The sight before him was one of crimson-covered steel and concrete. The bodies, all of them without heads, were from SOLDIER. No sign of Reno or of Rufus Shinra.

His headset crackled as Tseng tried to contact him.

"Which way did he go?" Rude asked himself, scanning the area for any sign of Reno's whereabouts. There was none. He picked up a discarded gun from the ground next to one of the bodies as backup. The only thing that he could do then was to go back the way he came so that he could talk to Tseng. He ran back through the door, gun in hand, over Reno's now-broken headset.

"…g…can…..ear…?"

"What? Rude, you're still breaking up."

"Tsen…an…r…me?"

"Damnit!"

"…eno…gone………Shin…"

"C'mon, Rude. Get back into range."

"Tseng……..e's gone….ninjas……no sur..vors…"

"No…" Tseng's fist hit the desk. "I shouldn't…he was only a novice…"

The only sound was heavy breathing and the clamor of footsteps as Rufus ran as quickly as his body would take him. He could feel himself getting quickly tired. His breaths came in short rasps and his chest burned like he had inhaled flaming napalm.

A shot ripped through his left arm. Rufus glanced over his shoulder as he ran, firing off the last of his bullets. Still running, he threw the gun at the man behind him, and another shot buried itself into his shoulder.

There was a scream from behind him. Rufus began to force himself on faster, but was stopped suddenly in his tracks by a barrier around him. He heard a shot, and it felt like the world went in slow-motion as a bullet cut into his back and the barrier flashed and disappeared.

Pulitz laughed as Rufus fell to the ground. "So, you're a Turk now, Kiribani. Figures that I would be the one to make your mission fail."

Reno stood stock-still.

"You couldn't even get the barrier around the right man. You've always been a sloppy failure, and you always will be."

"I wasn't aiming at you," was the reply. "It wouldn't have done any good. You were already ready to fire, and it only takes one finger's space to pull a trigger."

Pulitz aimed his gun at Reno's head. In the dim dusk lighting that was growing steadily darker as the minutes passed, the redhead could only see his former boss' shadow, but, in his mind's eye, could imagine the expression that Gerome Pulitz was wearing: Triumphant, cocky, and with a maniacal glint in his eye that had met face-to-face with Reno on many occasions.

Pulitz pulled the trigger.

The gun clicked, but nothing more. "Bang, Kiribani. You're lucky I've decided to let you go. Of course, you'll probably wish I'd killed you when word gets out about your little muck-up."

And, as Pulitz began to walk into the shadows, Reno ran up behind him and touched the electro-mag rod to his back. The traitor screamed as electricity racked his body. For what seemed like an eternity, Pulitz's body jerked and convulsed, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Finally, the body dropped into a lifeless heap on the concrete.

"Bad move, Boss," Reno spat. "You should have killed me."

Reno strode over to where Rufus lay, stepping over Pulitz as if his corpse was a particularly repulsive pile of dog shit.

"You had better not be dead," Reno growled threateningly at the blonde's figure on the ground before him. He knelt down next to the Vice President, listening closely as the man's breaths came in short, ragged gasps. He looked at the bullet hole, and noticed that it hovered menacingly behind Rufus' heart. " And if I hadn't put that pyramid around you to slow the bullet down, you would be…"

As if on cue, Rude came running down the path. Reno was silent.

"Is he dead?" asked the taller Turk.

"No, but we need to get him out of here. How did you find me?"

"I searched."

"Tseng, do you read me?"

"Rude?"

"I've got Reno and the Vice President, and we're coming into Midgar as we speak. Have a doctor ready."

"What…but…? Very well."

And the channel closed.

Miya's Note: Oooh, the excitement, no? Tell me what you think! Chapter 5 should be coming soon!