Scene 5:

In which we find out why "it's" on fire, and meet Reno.

Fire in the Lab

"How could it possibly be on fire?" Kael asked as the two scientists hurried down the corridor, "It isn't even plugged in!"

"We're not sure, sir," The lab assistant replied, "It's just most definitely in flames now."

"Technology shouldn't do that," Kael said helplessly, "What could I have done wrong!" He accidentally bumped into a passing Turk in his hurry. "Sorry," he said, turning back to wave his apology, but not really seeing them. "Was it just spontaneous?" he asked the woman, turning back, "Was there any warning at all?"

"Hey!" the red-headed Turk complained, turning to follow them.

"There wasn't," the lab assistant replied breathlessly, "It just made a weird noise, then burst into flame."

"Hey! You think you can get away with running into me, just because you're a scientist?" the red-head demanded as he followed them, "You're not that special. I'm Reno, of the Turks. Are you even listening to me?"

Kael turned to turned to face him, hurrying backwards now, "Can you chase me down and get angry later? I don't have time for this now."

Reno blinked as the scientist turned back and hurried over to a door on the right hand side of the hallway, where he swiped a card through the card reader. The door opened, and Reno stepped back involuntarily as smoke snaked out the top of the doorway. Inside, aids were rushing around crazily, searching through lab notes and trying to put out the fire. Kael and the aid rushed into this chaos headlong, with Reno cautiously following.

On the lab counter in the center of the room, a complicated piece of equipment sat, spiting flames out of it's right side and it's center. A brown haired man in his 30s came over to Kael with a clipboard. "Sir, we've reviewed the data, and could find no reason for this development," the man shrugged helplessly, "We're double checking everything, but…"

"It doesn't make any sense," Kael complained, "To start such a violent flame, there should be a massive input of energy. I could understand if I'd miscalculated and it overloaded while running. But… It wasn't even plugged in! Where did that energy come from?"

"Looks pretty bad in here," Reno observed, "You think you could use any help?"

"Thank you for the offer," Kael replied, turning to him, "But I think we've got it…" he blinked in surprise, "covered?"

He could see it, standing behind the Turk, something was moving. Reno felt something behind him in the same moment and spun.

"The processor's right behind your shoulder!" Kael called to him hurriedly and Reno moved.

Seconds later, his arm was elbow deep in the chest wiring of a Shinra robot. The room was silent as Reno pulled out the core processor with a twist of his wrist, the clawed hand that had been reaching for him loosing to gravity and falling in jerky motions.

"Man, Professor," Reno quipped shakilly, "Give a guy some warning." Kael held out a hand for the processor, which Reno handed over happily.

"A detection shielded attack robot…" Kael muttered after studying it for a fes seconds, "Why is Hojo letting something like this wander the halls? It could have hurt someone!" He threw the processor unit at the robot in disgust and turned away.

Reno watched in mild amusement as the tiny projectile caused the robot to overbalance and fall woodenly backwards. When he turned back, Kael was inspecting the machinery on the counter, which some of the aids with fire extinguishers had managed to put out.

Looking at the impact section, Kael nodded and straightened. "Ladies and Gentlemen! We have our answer." He pulled a small metal shell out of the hole with tweezers. "Our invisible friend shot a tiny impact missal into our project. Which exploded and set it on fire. We did nothing at all." He smiled, "I'm sure that was quite enough excitement for one day, so, now that we know what went wrong, we can wait to fix our prototype till tomorrow."

Nodding at a worried looking radiation shielding specialist, he continued, "The shell we created was sufficient to take the brunt of the impact, and only a few of the components around the impact area were damaged. The rest of the instrument's fireproofing survived the much less dramatic head of the fire itself and the rest of the machine remains intact."

After a pause, a cheer went up from the assembled scientists, who started to clean up and file out of the lab. Kael turned to the 30 year old scientist, "Lock up for me, will you?" The other scientist nodded, and, after thanking him, Kael turned to leave the room.

Reno followed him out of the lab and down the hall a little ways, catching up as he stopped to open another door. "Hey," the Turk said quietly, "Thanks for helping me out back there."

Kael smiled at him and nodded, "Don't mention it." He walked over to his desk and sat down.

Reno trailed after him into the room and looked around. Then his eyes widened. The room was full of sleek, compact technology. The Turk started to wander around the room, barely trying to disguise his interest.

Kael watched him walk around calmly.

"What is this stuff?" Reno asked as he passed the fourth set of shelves.

"I do a lot of my own tinkering in here," Kael explained, standing, "Without the assistants or deadlines I have in the lab. it's my hobby, I guess you could say. And having everything so compact helps in some of my experiments."

Reno stopped three shelves down, "Woah!" He picked up a sleek, silver colored, rifle shaped object.

Kael meandered over as he was looking at it.

"This doesn't look like lab equipment," the Turk murmured, looking the object over. He turned to Kael, smiling impishly, "What does it do?"

Kael gave him a serious look, then smiled back, "How about I show you?"