In a Quiet Town
Chapter 2: Caught
Yuffie sat alone in her room, flipping through the channels on TV… not that there was much to watch anymore, what with most of Shin-Ra’s television studios being destroyed by Meteor. All that was left were a few “local” channels, if you could call public access from Rocket Town local. The picture was barely visible, and the sound was continuously interrupted by the loud growl of static. But there wasn’t much else to do. Reno had confined her to her room on pain of death until he said she could come out. Then he had disappeared into his own room, and she hadn’t heard a peep from him since. At last, she couldn’t take it anymore. She got up and walked into the hallway, and knocked on Reno’s door.
“What?!” a voice snapped from inside.
“Reno? It’s me…”
“You have five seconds to get your ninja-ass back to your room,” Reno replied.
“Oh come on, Reno… I said I was sorry!”
“One!” Reno shouted.
“Will you just open the door?”
“Two!”
“Reno! I’m bored!”
“Three!”
“This isn’t fair, Reno…”
“Four!”
“Well, can I at least go and get something to eat? I’m starving to death!” she called, becoming more and more exasperated. She waited for the count of five, but it never came. Instead, the lock turned and the door swung open to reveal Reno, clearly still in a bad mood from the earlier incident.
“Starving to death?” he snorted, “Yeah, that’ll be the day… Fine then… You can bring back lunch for both of us.” Narrowing his eyes, he handed her some gil. Yuffie snatched it and ran off before he could reconsider.
She returned ten minutes later with sandwiches and drinks from a nearby shop. Reno took his lunch and moved to close the door in her face.
“Reno! I don’t wanna eat by myself… You’ve kept me in that room all alone for half the day,” she said, giving him her best pout. He scowled at her for a moment.
“Alright, you can come in… But don’t expect me to be pleasant company,” Reno replied sharply.
“When are you ever pleasant company?” Yuffie asked with an innocent smile. Reno moved to shut her out of the room again. “Aw, come on Reno… I was kidding. Jeez, can’t ya take a joke?”
“Not when the most sensitive area of my body is still… tender…”
Yuffie snickered and shoved her way into the room before he could object. She settled herself on the bed and began to eat. Reno sat down at the small table on the opposite side of the room, as far from the ninja as he could get.
“So when are we gonna get out of here?” asked Yuffie, “This place doesn’t have so much as a Sense materia.”
“Yeah? And just how did you come to that enlightened conclusion?” Reno mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“Ewww… Grossness. Gawd, don’t you have any manners at all?”
“No,” he replied before swallowing. Yuffie threw a pickle at him, laughing as it bounced off his head. Reno shrugged and plucked the pickle from the floor, flicking off a bit of carpet fuzz and taking a bite.
“You’re disgusting,” Yuffie said, rolling her eyes.
“Thank you,” replied Reno, “So what makes you think there’s no materia here?”
“No materia shops… No one carrying materia… And everyone I talked to told me to look for it in other towns.”
“Well, it might surprise you to learn that just this morning I followed a guy with a Summon materia to the mayor’s house… He mentioned something about putting it in ‘the vault’…”
“A vault? Full of materia?” Yuffie’s eyes widened, “Where’s this house at? I’m paying it a little visit tonight.”
“No, you’re staying here tonight. I’m paying it a visit,” Reno corrected, “I’m going to find out what’s going on and then we’re heading home so I can report to Reeve. Got it?”
“But… but… A vault full of materia!” Yuffie cried.
“You’re not going,” Reno stated calmly.
“Oh yeah? How are you gonna stop me?”
———-
“Bye Yuffie,” said Reno, “Don’t wait up!”
He smiled sweetly at the ninja, who was squirming frantically, trying to loosen the ropes that held her in the chair.
“Reno! This is so not fair!”
Reno just waved and headed for the door, electro-rod in hand.
“Let me out of these ropes, you creep!” she yelled. Reno stepped out the door, ignoring her protests.
“Hey! What if you need help or something?!” Yuffie asked, a last ditch effort to get him to take her with him. Reno shut the door behind him as he left the room.
“RENO!” Yuffie screamed at the top of her lungs. The door opened, and Reno stepped back inside.
“Yuffie, would you just shut up? You’re gonna disturb the whole hotel.”
“Oh yeah? In that case, let me go with you or I’ll start screaming. What do you have to say about that? Huh, Turk-boy?” she said. Reno smirked in response, glad he’d been prepared for just such an emergency. He reached into the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out a roll of duct tape. Yuffie watched him as he tore a piece off.
“Don’t you dare!” she warned, though she doubted she seemed particularly threatening tied to a chair. Reno grinned and slapped the tape over her mouth. “Mhmmm! Mmmph mmm!”
“Night Yuffie!” he said cheerfully… and disappeared out the door.
‘Oh, just you wait til I get my hands on you, Reno… You are sooooo dead!’ she thought.
———-
Reno crept along the fence outside the house. The moon shone brightly in the sky, and he clung to the shadows so as not to be seen. Guards patrolled the grounds in pairs at regular intervals, some units accompanied by very unfriendly-looking dogs. He’d have to be careful. He slipped silently across the yard, reaching the wall of the house without incident, and crouching behind some trash cans as the guards walked past. Just as he thought he was safe, the dog that padded menacingly at the side of one guard caught his scent.
Eyes widening, he sunk farther into the shadows, having nowhere else to go. The dog was pulling its handler straight toward his hiding place, barking and snarling loudly. Reno’s hand tightened on his electro-rod. He could fight his way out, but that would ruin any chance he had at getting into the house tonight… Still, it was better than being eaten alive by that guard dog.
He prepared to attack when suddenly the trash can to his right clattered to the ground, a small white cat sprinting across the lawn… and in the progress capturing the dog’s attention. The dog proceeded to chase it, dragging the man holding its leash along for the ride. The other guard followed, trying to help regain control of the animal.
“Good kitty,” Reno said under his breath. He took the opportunity to pry open a window and slip into the house unnoticed.
He found himself in what looked to be a large parlor. He quietly closed the window he’d entered through and began to look around. Even in the dark, he could tell that the room was richly, and rather tastefully, decorated. He crept into the hallway, wondering where this so-called vault could be. It would make the most sense for it to be in the basement, and so he began to search for staircases.
‘Where is it?’ he thought as he searched through the kitchen, finding no entrance to a lower level, ‘A house this big has got to have a basement…’
Eventually, he found himself back in the parlor he’d started from. He sighed in frustration, leaning back against the edge of the fireplace. Suddenly, something behind him shifted, and with a soft click, a panel in the wall next to the fireplace popped open. Reno peered behind the panel and found what he’d been looking for… stairs.
‘Of course… the secret passage leading to the basement would be in the first room… Shiva forbid I don’t search the entire damn house before finding it right where I started…’ Reno silently ranted as he stepped into the dark passage, closing the panel behind him. He patted his pockets, eventually finding his lighter and flipping it open. The small flame from the lighter cast just enough of a glow to get him safely down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a light switch. He clicked it on and saw a large metal door, a steel lock holding it shut. Reno smiled to himself and pulled his lockpick from a pocket.
‘Gotta do better than that to keep me out,’ he thought as the lock surrendered to his expert touch. He set the defeated lock aside and pulled the heavy door open. The interior was brightly illuminated and he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light. And then his jaw dropped.
“Dear Holy,” he whispered, awe tinging the words. He had never in his life seen so much materia amassed in one place. It all sat neatly on shelves, all sorted by type and, he discovered upon closer inspection, by level of mastery. The shelves stretched on, he guessed, from one end of the house to the other, row after row of the faintly glowing stones.
“What the hell could anyone want with this much materia?” he wondered aloud.
“Wouldn’t you like to know…” answered a cold voice from behind him.
He pivoted, narrowly avoiding a blow to the head. The owner of the voice cursed loudly as Reno swung back with his electro-rod, striking his attacker in the chest and sending the man reeling backwards from the jolt of electricity. Suddenly, a sharp kick to the back of his knee sent Reno sprawling to the ground, knees and palms grating painfully against the concrete as his weapon slipped from his hand. He grabbed for the electro-rod, fingers coiling around it, and tried get up to strike back, only to have his arm twisted painfully behind his back by the second assailant before he could fully recover. His weapon was wrenched from his grip, and a knee came down on the small of his back, pinning him, as his free arm was twisted behind him as well. He struggled to get lose.
“You had to open your big mouth, didn’t ya? Couldn’t just stick the little twerp with the needle while he wasn’t looking…” the man said to his accomplice as he fought to hold Reno down.
“The hell’d he hit me with?” the other muttered as he approached. Reno felt the sharp prick of a needle in his bicep and a few seconds later, he passed out.
———-
After what seemed like hours, Yuffie had finally managed to get one arm free. She stretched desperately, in an attempt to reach the knots that held her securely to the chair, silently cursing Reno. Suddenly, she felt the chair tilt a little too far and she fell over, shoulder colliding sharply with the floor.
“Mmmph!” she yelled, the fact that the profanity was utterly unintelligible making her angrier still. But the new position did give her the angle she needed to reach the knots, and after a little manipulation, she was free. She carefully peeled the tape away from her mouth and stood up. Grabbing her weapon, she headed out the door.
“I’ll teach you to leave me behind, ya dumb Turk,” she muttered.
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