The computer beeped, and a prerecorded voice played.
"State. Name. Please." It was Scarlet's voice. Why she had recorded each word individually was anyone's guess, as this would be the only instance you'd ever hear the computer verbally ask for your name and password. She sounded as manic and disgruntled as ever.
"Sephiroth."
"State. Password. Please."
"Honour and chocolate."
"Confirmed. Welcome." The computer beeped again and I was in the personal database that held the records of everyone living in the city.
Zack gave me a suspicious look. "'Honour and chocolate'?"
"The first is something I hold dear. The second is something nobody would guess." I justified.
"Huh. Sooo... Now I have the Great Sephiroth's username and password, eh?" It'd take a real fool to miss the lines of mischeviousness that formed in his expression.
"Try it and they'll never find all the pieces of your body."
Zack paled. "Threat taken, sir."
I hammered away at the clunky keyboard. "I don't even like chocolate..." I muttered to myself.
"So... Why are you trying to find Aeris' personal file?"
"She said she merely couldn't tell me her secret, she never disallowed me from finding out for myself."
"How come you didn't try this before?"
I glowered at the computer screen, envisioning many painful things happening to Zack. "Do you mind? I'm trying to concentrate."
"Yep, that's his car alright," I pointed out to the boys. We took Rude's car, which was a deep blue car of average condition, neither rusting out nor a picture of cleanliness or perfection. If he didn't let Reno ride in it so often it would probably be spotless. I was crunching First Plate takeout bags under my black work shoes.
"That's Tseng's car?" Reno asked incredulous. "I'm going blind looking at that thing. He must wax every inch of it twice daily." The car we were following was jet black and looked like it was rolled out of the factory just yesterday, it didn't have a scratch or blemish anywhere.
We tailed him from a few cars back, circling down the central structure and into the slums. Tseng parked his car well away from any signs of human life, probably to avoid someone damaging it in an attempt to steal it. Made it harder for us to find a place to stop out of sight, too.
After a couple minutes he got out of the car carrying a large plastic bag with what looked like clothes inside. A tawny brown sleeve was hanging out of the bag. Tseng walked back towards the train graveyard very casually, and we followed him a good distance away, staying well out of sight. Of course, staying out of sight meant that we couldn't keep a constant eye on him every step of the way, and before we knew it he was escorting a small form obscured by the pale brown trenchcoat it now wore.
"Reno! Watch out!" I called in a panic.
Reno nearly crumpled in reaction to a sharp sting in his back. Rude beside him was on his knees aswell, and he saw a dart sticking out of his back. Reno turned to see me running towards them in a panic before I fell to the ground too. The world turned to mush and then everything went black.