CHAPTER 3:

"Okay, I ripped my side open when I slammed the door, and then all my cigarettes blew away in the wind. They went into our neighbor's balcony, so I tried to climb over to get them. I did it and was just about to jump back into our balcony before Mrs. Naratama came out. Her 80 year old ass now thinks I'm retarded because she tried to ask me what I was doing, and I couldn't explain. So she told me it was okay, and to have a very special day. Cloud, can you patch me up?" Reno asked, now in a better mood because of the nicotine, and the fact that Vincent was no longer in the room helped.

Cloud sighed and agreed, saying something about how Reno needed to be more careful, following him to the kitchen to assist him. Removing his now bloody pajama shirt, Reno leaned against the counter, letting Cloud play Dr. Strife, as he so loved to do for those that he cared about. The smell of his own blood brought back memories of the past few days. It had been hellish.

~*Flashback*~

He had been on his way to work, no different than any other day. He must have been knocked unconscious at some point, because there was no struggle and the next thing he knew, he woke up on the hard floor of a very unfamiliar room. He lost no time standing and backing to one corner, taking a careful look at his surroundings. The walls were white, just like the tile floor. There was a wooden table and two metal chairs in sight, and aside from that, no other furniture. He noticed an enormous mirror, taking up most of the wall to his left, and there was a door heavy door with a tiny plate of glass window in the wall farthest from him. Where the hell…? I am definitely not at work. Am I at a police station? That mirror looks like a two-way. Reno was incredibly skilled at noticing minor details. To his best judgment, this was not a police station, and wherever it was, this was not a real interrogation room. Only an idiot would find this believable. This room had a moldy smell to it, not clean like the police usually kept their stations. The table looked more like something that was used in cafeterias, not something a cop would even touch. No, these guys were not professionals. The lights were florescent rods, connecting to the ceiling and covered by sheets of broken glass. Nope, they aren't cops. Cops would have fixed the lights. Reno gave himself a quick exam. He wasn't hurt or dizzy, but did have a bit of cottonmouth. He still had his wallet, ring, chain, keys, and all of his major accessories, but his EMR was gone. Okay, they disarmed me, but didn't search me too well. I still have all of my cash though. Not robbing me is uncommon for any unprofessional goon.

Before he could dwell on it any further, the door opened and a man in a white coat entered. He looked like a doctor, and couldn't have been more than five years older than Reno. He had short black, very greasy hair and an average build, but was wearing glasses. In his hand he held a syringe with a 3 inch needle and a metal handle. He didn't speak but was steadily making his way across the room. It was quite obvious who the needle was intended for.

"What's that, yo?" Reno asked him, not particularly expecting an answer. He tensed, ready to attack if this man decided to lunge at him with whatever that serum was in the syringe. Reno made it a point to never allow anything he was unfamiliar with to be put into him, especially nothing that came from a needle.

"It's just a little something to help you relax." He said, taking Reno's arm in a quick jerking fashion. Before he could pull the sleeve of the Turk's shirt and jacket up, Reno had already slipped his hand free. He cut to the left, slapped the needle out of the doctor's hand, caught it in his right hand, his left hand seizing the man's wrist before plunging the thin metal spear into the side of his challenger's neck, pushing the plunger down, driving the bluish fluid into his veins.

"I don't want to relax." He retorted, before taking this man to the floor with a quick uppercut to the chin and an elbow to the stomach. He fell to the floor and attempted to get up before he started stumbling around. The guy looked drunk, and finally gave up, and just lay back down on the floor. He made a groaning sound, looking up at Reno as he backed away. Reno was not a generally violent man unless he was working, but he did not like being disrespected. He detested when people automatically tried to assume power over him, or came at him without his being aware of their intentions. He fought through his entire childhood against bullies and people like that. As his skills built, he started enjoying being able to walk home at night without being mugged. Defending himself in that manner had become a second nature to them.

Hmm…they were going to shoot me up with something so that I couldn't fight them. Why the hell did they only send one guy? These people obviously don't know me very well. Or maybe they know I can fight, but they don't know where I stand in the mercy department.

Just as quickly as Reno took out the doctor, three more men came into the room, and this time none of them were wearing doctor coats. These three were a bit bulkier than Reno was, and they were dressed in more fight-worthy clothing, loose pants and combat boots. They didn't take it slow either. The three of them rushed Reno at one time, but he had taken multiple opponents before and he could do it again. He fought them, and fought them quick. It didn't take long before each of them was unconscious. Reno wasn't sure, but he thought one of them might be dead. None of the three men had fought him with any type of specially trained fighting techniques. They threw punches and kicks blindly, like thugs, unorganized and wild. Reno was not the best hand-to-hand fighter on the planet. He preferred to use his EMR and other Turk issued weaponry, but he was good enough to overcome these three with only moderate effort.

Not leaving much time to compose himself, four more men entered, each charging at Reno in different patterns, two went for kicks, both high and low, and two went for punches. He dodged and was fighting them off well, having to use much more exertion than with the last three, but he found himself holding is own. He had landed most of his own attacks on them, and had dodged most of theirs. For a moment, it looked like he was going to beat them, until he noticed more men out of the corner of his eye. Three more entered, and each of them had some kind of a stick in their hands. They were long, metal, and had a "U" shape toward the end of them. Reno had thought they were some type of batons, until one of the men pushed a button on his and it started to make a buzzing sound. A blue ray of electricity zapped between the ends of the U. Those are EMRs. They're weird looking, but that's what they are. Reno momentarily forgot about the other four men he was fighting and tried focusing on the three that were armed. He had managed to attack one of them and twist the rod out of his hand, thrashing him with it, and turned on the others when the initial man was indisposed. They were tricky though. Each time he went for one, some of them would switch off, passing the rods back and forth amongst each other. It became harder and harder to dodge, because one man against six just had too much to focus on. Before he knew it, dodging was impossible, and the electric end of the rods caught him in the leg, sending him to the floor in a momentary flail of blinding pain.

These hurt at least 10x more than the EMR that Reno often used at work. He had been shocked before, but not like this. He thought that this must be what getting the electric chair feels like. It burned so deeply, and felt like every part of him was being hit by red hot nails, shot out of an industrial nail gun. There was no way any normal electric rod would hurt that bad, they had to have tweaked theirs somehow. The way this felt was just not natural. This was lightning in a stick! Once on the floor, the assault didn't stop. They continued to shock him ever time he moved to get up. He was sure that one guy even shocked him for thrashing while he was being shocked by another guy. Reno clenched every muscle he could control when he felt the offending rods touch his clothes, subconsciously trying to repel the jolts. He groaned loudly each time he was seared, but refused to cry out. Finally the shocking stopped for a split second, and Reno felt a sharp little sting in his thigh, extracting a small yelp from his mouth. He looked down to see the end of another syringe pierced into the leg of his slacks, the hammer all the way down, and the muscle relaxers quickly navigating their way through his veins. As the room began to haze over and spin, Reno reached his hand down and pulled the needle out, looking at it for only a moment before muttering to himself, "Hey…" Blackness.

His eyes opened again, and blurry vision centered in on his new surroundings. He had been moved. This room was smaller. There was no mirror on the wall, and no table. The only thing in the room was the chair that he seemed to be tied to. Reno's neck was stiff as a board, from having his head down the whole time he was out. He couldn't hear anything, but noticed that this room had a different smell to it. It was a damp scent, and he quickly figured out why. The floor had water on it. Not a lot, but enough to slip and crack your head in. The drugs he has been injected wore off rather quickly, once he had actually opened his eyes and started looking around. He was seeing and thinking more coherently. Reno tightened his wrists and pulled lightly. He was bound by plastic, and by the feel of it, he had been fastened down by zip ties. Who are these people? They can't afford to use cuffs or rope? Zip ties? That's just stupid. Score one, Reno.

He looked down at himself, his ankles were zipped to the legs of the chair, and his thighs were zipped to the seat. He felt one zip around his waist, attached to the back of the chair, but his arms were only tied to one another. They are just asking for it. Reno told himself, in his cocky way. He sighed and slowly moved his hands up the back of the chair, twisting his hip to the right as much as he could. His index finger was just out of reach of his pants pocket on the front. If only he could stretch just a little more and he would be able to get it. His arms couldn't go any farther though, unless he wanted to dislocate a shoulder. But then, he had an idea. This particular thing was always the problem when he got up out of his desk at work. The pockets of his pants were loose, and when he moved just right, his keys and all of his change would fall out. So if he could just move a little bit more…

Reno tensed and moved his toes against the floor, twisting and making the chair jump, every so slightly. He heard a reassuring jingle coming from inside of his pocket. He tried again, and felt his keys slide a little closer to the hem, just inches away from freedom where his hands were waiting eagerly. One more try. He jumped the chair as hard as he could and felt his keys tumble out into his hand. He couldn't help it as a smile crossed his lips. His hands fumbled with his key ring, until he found what he was looking for, a little red pocket knife that Rude had given him from some weird First Aid thing he had gotten in the mail. He snapped the tiny blade open and set to work, sawing at the plastic that held his wrists together in such an uncomfortable position. Each time he moved, he could feel the plastic dig into his skin. The zip ties were tight, but he had to do this to get loose.

After what seemed like forever, the plastic tie snapped free. Reno brought his arms back around to his front, rubbing the friction burns on his sore wrists, before cutting the rest of the ties loose and rising from the chair. He stumbled a bit. His legs were asleep, but walking around the room quickly made the feeling come back. Now, he was going to have a peek out the window and devise an escape plan.

Before Reno could do that, the door opened and three men stepped inside. They instantly noticed Reno was free and the man in the middle, twice as big as Loz began barking orders at the other two.

"How the fuck did he get loose?! I thought you searched him, didn't you?" he yelled.

"Sir, we-" one of his assistants started.

"Shut up! Just go get him." The man pointed toward Reno, as if his two assistants were dogs that were too stupid to find him without direction.

Reno was ready for them this time, because they didn't have electric prods. One man ran at him, while his boss yelled "Get him and search him." Reno threw off his jacket, which was making it too difficult for his cramped shoulders to properly move. The man caught him easily, slamming his back into the wall. He went to throw a punch, but Reno ducked and he smashed his fist into the wall, letting out a howl of pain. Reno darted to the side, but the other man caught his sleeve and tore the hem out of the shoulder. A few buttons came loose and scattered across the room as well. The rest of it came off as he sidestepped around the smaller of the men and caught his fist with the remaining fabric twisting his arm behind him. Reno used this moment of his vulnerability to kick the man in the back, releasing him as he pummeled into his two associates.

The leader became infuriated, his muscular arm shoving his useless subordinates to the side.

"Stand over there, I'll fucking handle this. I swear to God you're both worthless! Remind me to kill your asses dead later!" He was red in the face as he drew a handgun from his belt. Reno stopped dead in his tracks, still in defensive stance, but not moving an inch. The man pointed it directly at him before demanding answers.

"How did you get out?!" spittle flying from his mouth as he shouted at the smaller man in front of him. Reno had to guess that this guy was high-strung and possibly on steroids, because he didn't even give Reno an iota of a second before snapping yet another order.

"Take your pants off, Turk!"

Reno's eyes grew to the diameter of a golf ball. Had he heard this guy right?

"Excuse me?" he said, cocking an eyebrow, now very confused and slightly afraid. Oh my God! I think this freak is coming onto me! What am I going to do? I can't take him. Hitting him would be like punching into a brick wall. He has to be 300lbs of pure muscle. Oh shit. Shit-fuck. Ass. Damn. Shit. Hell. He just yelled at me to take off my pants. That's prison-talk. I'm about to be the helpless victim of a prison rape.

"You heard me, drop them!" This guy could not stop yelling. What the hell was his problem? Just because he was the size of a goddamn city bus did not mean he could just make people do whatever weird shit he wanted on a whim.

"No way, man!" Reno replied. "I'm not about to get naked in front of a fuckin' pervert, yo! The only way my pants are coming off is if you come over here and fight me for them!"

The big guy chuckled for a moment, before raising his handgun and firing. The sound of the bullet ejecting filled the room with a loud BANG before Reno even registered what happened. All in a fraction of a second, he stumbled back against the wall. His hands went involuntarily to clutch his side as blood spurted out from between his fingers. He looked down at it, feeling hazy again, like he was in a dream. Though it didn't hurt yet, Reno had never been shot before, and feeling this brand new feeling, and seeing himself bleed like he was, fear quickly overcame him. He had just been shot, and getting shot meant getting killed to his now panicked brain. He had gotten hurt so many times before, and could usually remain calm, but the adrenaline pulsing through him like a jackhammer made it impossible to be even the least bit relaxed. Shock took a violent shove into fear.

"Oh my… GOD! You…fucking…SHOT ME!" Reno screamed, for the first time since he had been captive here, he didn't know how many hours or days ago. He looked up at this monster of a man in both shock and anger, as his knees buckled and he slipped to the floor. He looked down at himself again, and the panic made the blood only gush out faster. Then the pain started. There it was. It burned like fire and it pulsed like something was trying to escape from it. Reno hunched over, still grasping onto his newly opened wound. He contracted every muscle in himself as the rushes of oain started to throb through him, timed with the beats of his heart. He kicked his leg out against the tile wall, holding his breath and trying to keep from embarrassing himself by screaming again, but it only made it hurt worse.

"GODDAMN IT!" He rolled slightly, and then steadied himself as he heard the leader speak again to his dogs.

"You can leave now. Your services are no longer needed. I can take it from here." He said, with a thrill in his voice.

"But sir, are you-" the taller of the two started.

"I said OUT!" he bellowed, cutting off whatever it was the man was going to suggest. They both quickly hurried out of the room, closing the door behind them.

"Now, where were we?" he asked, stepping closer to the bloody Turk that lay on the floor in front of him. This had only been the second time he heard this man speak without yelling. It was a relief because his head started to hurt. The man kneeled down and pulled Reno to his feet, where he stood, very unsteady.

"I remember now." He stated, as he lifted his victim by the bloody waistband of his pants, effortlessly tossing him across the room and into the wall. He repeated this, over and over, throwing Reno around as if he were as light as a simple toy. He changed up his routine by randomly throwing both kicks and punches to the already battered Turk.

"This is what you get! You had to act like a big shot! When I tell you to do something, you fucking do it, do you understand?!" He screamed, as he pinned is prey to the ground, with an anvil of a hand pressed onto Reno's stomach, fingers digging ever so slightly into the open gunshot blast. Reno whimpered as the man dug a strong grip onto the waist of his pants and with a quick yank of his machine of an arm, tore them completely free from his legs, snapping even his leather belt in two. He threw the now shredded material away from him, making the buckle of what used to be his belt clank and skid across the floor. Reno's eyes widened once again, as he was all too awake at the moment, lying on a dirty, wet tile floor, a bloody mess, in nothing more than his plaid boxer style underwear. Could he get anymore pathetic?

"I can't have you escaping again." He growled, now getting within two inches of Reno's face. "And I am NOT a PERVERT!" He had been fumbling around in his pants cargo pocket as he spoke, and with this last word, he brought his fist down hard into the left side of Reno's chest. He let out another yelp as he realized what the man just did. His gaze went down again, to see yet another needle puncturing his skin all the way to the hilt, the syringe wrapped tightly in this monster's fist, pumping yet another dose of muscle relaxer into his system. He made sure Reno was still conscious as he added,

"Especially not for a piece of shit Turk, like you. Lights out, until I can think of what else to do with you."

He awoke from being unconscious yet again, sore, stiff, tired and once again, tied to a chair. It was cold now, and he realized he was sitting in this room, soaking wet in nothing more than a pair of underpants. His socks and shoes had even been taken. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to look up. Reno just wanted to look at the floor until he fell asleep again, but he could feel the presence of another person there with him, and the reality of it presented itself when a huge hand twined itself into his hair, giving it a rough yank, snapping his head back so that he had to look into the face of his predator. It did hurt, but instead of making a sound, he only drew in a sharp breath, blinking a few times before gathering his bearings.

"Hair pulling? That's it? That's your season ticket? Hair pulling, that's just great. What's next, name calling? Wedgies? Or maybe you're going to tell me I'm a doody-head and throw a dodge ball at me." Reno taunted, feeling just a slight burst of defiance.

"I'm going to get answers from you, Turk." The man stated. "I'm Koeft, the new commander of KPS. We have brought you here because you and your poor excuse for a company, Shinra, are responsible for the fall of 2/3 of our men, including my brother, the former commander, Kesht."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Reno replied. Before he could blink, Koeft already pulled out one of the electric prods Reno hated so much, flicked it on, and smashed it into his skin, sending another white, blinding electric pain through Reno's already heavily bruised skin. He left it there for 10 seconds before removing it.

"Do not speak unless you are spoken to!" He yelled again. Goddamn, this guy is a total lunatic! What is his problem? That really fucking hurt so bad I almost peed myself.

"When you dropped the plate over the Sector 7 Slums, our organization was devastated. Nearly 100 of my people were crushed to death in the accident, including Kesht, who was never recovered by the remains of us. We have reason to believe that he is alive, and he is in captivity, held by your people, Shinra."

The rest of the few days he had been captive were a blur of questions, shocks, beatings and being switched rooms. Reno had no answer for anything Koeft asked. He had been given no information about anything to do with the KPS. He had barely even heard of KPS, and as many times as he tried to tell Koeft, it didn't help. Nobody believed him. As such, Koeft became easily irritated and trigger happy with the electric prods. By the time Reno thought up his next plan, he had gotten electrocuted so many times that the rods started getting stuck inside of his scorched flesh, forming burning bloody punctures where they touched.

Reno had no idea what time it was when he was finally untied and fed. He had been sat in the far corner of the room and while being guarded by armed men, he had a pan full of god knows what tossed on the floor in front of him. Reno hesitantly looked inside and saw what looked like crusty old noodles, spoiled shrimp, and frozen vegetables. He looked up at the man that had presented him with this gruel, eyebrow raised.

"You want me to eat that shit, yo?" he asked. The man only replied with a grunt. All right, this is ri-goddamn-diculous. Nobody alive would eat this, but damn I am so hungry.

Reno looked around the room and snapped his finger in the direction of the weakest looking armed man, the man that was almost his size, and just happened to be one of Koeft's personal assistants.

"Hey, you there… Princess, how about you go get me a double-quarter pounder? This is a real clever joke, but I'm not putting that crap into my mouth."

"No. That's what you get. Either eat that or go hungry." He said, in his spiteful way of speaking. Reno automatically didn't like this guy at all, from the first time he laid eyes on him.

"Okay then. But I do have to take a dump. Where's your bathroom?" The man just looked around, pretending he didn't hear a word Reno had said. Give me the cold shoulder, will you? Well, it looks like this guy needs just a little bit of motivation.

"Fine, if you let me go to the bathroom, I will personally tell you everything that I know. It will delight the shit out of your boss. I know that for sure." He gauged the man's reaction. He seemed interested, but still said nothing. "Or, I could just shit right here." Reno said, as he went to crawl around the room, pretending to look for somewhere that looked pleasant to go to the bathroom. "You might as well go get some toilet paper for me, since-"

"All right!" he snapped. "If I take you to the bathroom, as soon as you are done, you tell me everything."

"Deal, but let me put my jacket on. I don't want your guys checking out my package or anything." Reno smiled.

"Get him up." The small guy commanded, as two of the men lifted him to his feet. He was handed his wet shirt and coat, allowed only a moment to put them on before being lead out of the room, one man on each of his sides. It's going to work. I have to time this just right and I might be able to find my way out of here. They lead him down the long, soggy hall, his bare feet splashing into the puddles. He could see the bathroom looming ahead. He couldn't have used it if he wanted to. Not eating or drinking anything in such a time had made it impossible to even feel like he needed to go. He would probably be constipated later. A smile crossed his face as he decided that this was it, this was his time. They had just passed a left turn a moment ago.

"Ahh, shit a spider!" he shrieked, pointing a finger toward the corner. Lucky for him, his companions were stupid, they both looked in the direction of the imaginary spider as Reno broke to the left, taking off in a full sprint down the left corridor. He knew that they were right behind him, but he was fast and springy. This place was a maze, and after a few turns, he was lost. There was a man on the loud speaker making an alarm. He said that he wanted the 6th sub-floor blocked off. So that's where he was. When he found the stairs, he was going to need to go up. He had been running around this floor for what he thought had to be at least 15 minutes, without being caught. As he went into a turn, he saw two men waiting in the corridor, their backs facing him. Down at the very end of the same hall was a door marked 'Stairs'. Ah sweet! The stairs! Now, how the hell am I going to get past them? He thought to himself as he scratched the back of his head, fingers lightly brushing over his hair tie. He pulled his hand back, looking at it, the wheels in his head cranking, forming a plan. On his thumb, a thick, silver ring shone in the light. He stared at it for a moment, then cut his eyes over to the side of the hall opposite the stairs, seeing that there was one more guard on that side. Finally, an idea hit him.

He reached into his hair and pulled out the rubber band holding it back, and at the same time, stuck his thumb into his mouth, using his saliva to loosen the ring. Once that was off, he spit it into the same hand now holding the rubber band. A sly smirk crossed his cheeks as he almost laughed at himself for being so smart. He positioned the band on his thumb and index finger of his left hand, and held the ring in the center of the band with his left hand, pulling it back into a V shape. A slingshot. He had made a slingshot. He stretched it back as far as he was comfortable stretching, and took aim at the man down the hall. I only have one shot here. If there is a such thing as God, he'll cut me some damn slack and make this work. He waited just a moment, keeping both eyes opened, until his double vision created one image. As soon as that happened, he let go, watching the heavy steel ring soar through the air, dashing down the hall before it made contact with the guard's temple. The man made a weird kind of grunting noise before stumbling into the wall and falling on the floor.

At the sound, the two guards closest to the stairs ran across the hall to the aid of their comrade. As soon as they passed the corridor that Reno had been hiding in he took off at full speed toward the stairs. Not noticing the huge puddle ahead, he slipped, falling flat on his back and head, sliding at gail-force speed toward his destination. He slammed hard into the wall before forcing himself to his feet. Wrenching the door to the stair well open, he headed for the set heading up. His foot had barely touched the first step before he felt himself being yanked back. His back slammed against the metal door, hitting his gunshot wound on the handle, and finally understood what had happened. It was Koeft. Koeft had been waiting for him, knowing that he was going for the stairs to make his escape. Koeft lifted higher, his fist gripping the front of Reno's jacket. Reno struggled, landing kicks and scraping his toenails against Koeft's bare, sweaty torso.

Koeft lifted him as high as his arm would allow before slamming Reno down back first onto the concrete floor of the stairwell. He gave the Turk not a moment to catch his breath before pinning his legs with his own powerful, camouflage clad ones. His fist wrapped itself with grasp around his captive's neck, underneath the collars of both his shirt and jacket. Reno gasped and involuntarily brought up his hands, pulling at Koeft's forceful grip. The breath was being choked off from reaching his lungs. It hurt like hell, and he thought for a moment that his brain was going to explode inside of his skull. Instinctively he used a tactic taught to him as a kid. He clenched his back teeth, closing his mouth and leaning his head up, tightening all of the muscles in his neck, trying to gasp in just tiny breaths of air. This had been intended to make the strangulation do less damage, but it had no bearing against Koeft's grip. His vision was starting to blacken and his heart pounded in his brain. He could barely make out Koeft telling him something about how he was becoming too much of a liability before he was once again unconscious.

~*Present Time*~

Reno smiled to himself. That was when his friends had come for him. He woke up to much happier circumstances.

"Cloud, did you ever get that bullet outta me, yo?" he asked. He would have liked to have seen how big it was.

"Reno, there wasn't a bullet in you. Koeft must have been a really good shot, because he just cut you with it. The bullet went right through. That's why your wound is so long and deep. You should have known when you didn't succumb to lead poisoning. He didn't want to kill you. He just wanted it to hurt. It looks like you got knifed more than shot. It must have tore since you were moving around so much."

Reno shrugged as Cloud finished the last bandage. He had been stitched with fishing line, as well as bandaged, "Just to be safe this time" according to Cloud. Rude brought him a new shirt as soon as Cloud covered the area with gauze, to prevent bleeding through on any more clothes.

"I've got to get to work now. Where's Tifa?" Cloud asked. "She's not outside with Vincent, is she?"

"No, man. Vincent left a wile ago, where were you?" Rude noted.

Cloud shrugged, reminding Reno once again to be careful before he got his coat on and walked out of the house, Tifa following shortly behind.

"That boy needs to get his priorities together and the sooner, the better. I'm tired of seeing Tifa like that" Rude grumbled.

"Yeah, what a little Judy." Reno agreed.

End of Chapter 3.