The next morning Rude was brushing his teeth in his room, wearing a light blue tshirt and shorts with the logo of Shinra. Even now he was wearing his glasses. People used to joke that he was a vampire and couldn't get out in sunlight, not so far from the truth.
At his early age he was diagnosed with photophobia, the inability of the eye to filter the light properly cause of retina damage. The light normally people used to see was literally hurting him, so he needed his glasses. His room was almost always absolutely dark, with curtains in front of the windows, when he needed to use light it was with filters on bulbs. Even years working for Shinra couldn't help him get rid of his problem. He always had a second pair of glasses with him.
While he was doing his morning exercises, back at his room his partner was sleeping. Rude finished and took a shower; Reno was covering his head with the pillow and the alarm clock being broken in pieces on the floor. Rude was finishing his breakfast while Reno just turned to the other side and tried to forget it was time to get up. His phone reminds him.
"Hey, you're still in bed, am I right?"
"I will die without having enough sleep" red haired passed hand on his face.
"You need to get up."
"Another meeting? Tell 'em I'm sick."
"Not a meeting, but still we have to consider the last events and plan our followed actions."
"I have planned them" with a voice of distress, Reno said. "You lead the end war, I will watch the replay later."
"I am waiting at the usual spot."
Then he hung up.
"In the name of…"
He drops his phone somewhere and in a few seconds his feet step on the dark floor. It took him time to put all of his will to stand up and go to brush his teeth.
When he arrived at the "usual spot" at the Shinra cafeteria, Rude was already there, having his morning coffee and reading the news on a tablet, placed on the table.
Place was luxurious, with dark longboard tables at the bar and before the windows, he never used to sit with a face against the windows. Again his costume was in perfect condition, his hands free hanging on his left ear, and some other people were having breakfast at one of the tables.
"Morning" he said without looking at Reno, who arrived and dropped on the free chair.
"Aha… Coffee, make it extra long." He ordered to the bartender.
"Morning guys, how are you?" Elena and Tseng also arrived and all of them sat together.
"Dying" Reno was feeling physical pain from her voice, cheerful and high.
"You had a hard time tonight, Reno?" Tseng made a joke about his condition.
"Nah. Night was perfect. Morning was hard!"
"Any orders?" Rude was listing the results of the people's behavior, diagrams were moving to the sky, citizens were freaking out.
"President sent us to make a checkup and if needed secure the reactors. He thinks the mutant may hit them in order to damage the Shield.
"Your coffee, sir" the girl behind the bar placed a cup with aromatic coffee and smiled. He placed his head between his hands and probably tried to sleep a few more minutes.
"If I live to see this over" Reno found the cup with closed eyes and yawned "I will take a long vacation."
"Come on, sleeping beauty, we have work to do." Rude closed the news and was ready to go.
Turks were crossing the sky four hours already.
"We will find nothing, it's a waste of time."
"Elena and Tseng reported nothing so far" Rude agreed.
They were circling over reactor 10, found nothing suspicious and ready to move to the next quadrant.
"Reno, Rude, anything?" the voice of Elena came on the radio.
"Nothing. We are going to point to 111,843.
"Copy that."
"Gah, I can feel my hair growing, this is so boring!" Reno protested.
"Focus" Rude scolded him. "I can see the reactor. Entrance is closed, no movement around…
At the next moment the entire reactor was blown away, the chopper was swallowed by fire and Reno managed to move it away before the control system got damaged.
"The hell was that?!" Rude's jaw dropped.
"Guys, are you alright!?" Elena and Tseng were circling not far from them with the other chopper.
"If you can call that alright" Rude answered. "We need to put down the fire before it cuts the connection!"
"I can't land it here, heat will melt the fin." Reno was changing the radio frequency, the connection was collapsing.
Fire tongues long like skyscrapers were reaching the chopper, which was circling helplessly over the reactor. The heat inside made both passengers sweat, and the temperature rose in seconds.
"We must stop it, before the net gets damaged, it will ruin the Shield!" Tseng said. "Move from there, the wind you are making only will make the fire spread!"
"Just don't do this to me" Reno was looking around for ideas, making useless circles again and again.
Then the rod posts, placed all along to the base started collapsing one after another, the net that provided energy to the Shinra castle shuts down.
"Damn it, damn it!" Reno raised the chopper and without waiting for an order turned it south. "Reno to the base, Reactor 10 was destroyed, connection is lost! I repeat, connection is lost!"
No answer.
"Do you copy?"
"No signal." Rude was holding his headphones, checking the radar for Elena and Tsang. "Rush it to the base, now!"
"I will kill this son of a bitch! Only if…"
"I will go after your family, your friends and every single person you have ever known."
"Are they after us?" Reno turned back to check for the other chopper.
"You fly, I will watch for them." Rude pointed forward. "They are following us."
"Nobody's dying on my watch, you hear me? Nobody!"
Choppers landed at the Shinra base safe and sound. By the time they arrived, damages were already noticed by the guards. Six links of the Shield were down.
"We could do nothing, we couldn't stop the fire, even if we landed…"
"I am sure you had no other option" Rufus raised his hands to make them calm down, especially Reno, who was spitting fire since they've come. "Good thing is you escaped without damage. But we already have a loss of energy, around 50 meters of the Shield is not working."
"50 meters…" Reno passed a hand on his face. "He could sneak through a five step loop… Fucking shit!"
"Hey, calm down!" Rude held him in his place, Tseng was reaching to do the same.
"I placed guards and two of the cannons at the missing links." Rufus told them. "Also Akane is on her post, if something is coming, she would sense it."
"…and every single person you have ever known."
Red haired suddenly pushed the hands of his partner and ran through the door.
"Reno?"
"Reno, stop!"
"Where is he going?" Elena was shocked.
"To the front line" Rude got his gun ready and all of them ran after him. "To address the intruder himself."
"This idiot is making himself a bite" Tseng took the left corridor with Elena, Rude and Rufus went to the main door."
"Close all the gates" Rufus called the security. "Not a single person out. If you see Reno, stop him. You knew something about this?" he asked Rufus.
"No, sir, but he was acting odd lately. He said the target threatened him to kill all of us."
"Enough to make him freak out. I guess that's the point after all."
Night was long. All of the available guards were out, watching, no attack followed, but the tension was enough to break anybody. All the agents were called out, collected at the meeting hall.
"He is holding us like a worm on a damn hawk."
"Who do you call a worm, Turk?" Hawk jumped against Reno, who was laying on the coach and covering his head with the newspaper.
Red haired raised a middle finger at the guard.
"This is simply a bluff" one of the Soldiers said.
"Or this is his plan" Tseng never lost his alertness. "The moment we go to bed, he would attack.
"Guards are here for that, aren't they?" Reno said under the newspaper, which made Hawk spit fire against him, from which he heard nothing. "I'm going to sleep, tomorrow will do my job as always. Not going to play this game, I'm sure the sucker is celebrating our stupidity somewhere."
"He have a point" Rude shrugged.
Outside Shield was partly fixed, still a huge hole in it. All the weapons collected in front of it till people were working to fix it.
"If I live to see this over" Rufus rose on his feet "I will have a vacation too!"
