Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 18: Rookie’s First Mission

It had been just over a month since Reno’s arrival on the Plate, and he’d finally begun to settle into the routine.

By and large, that meant waking up early for breakfast, followed by two laps around the park – which, he was quite proud to say that he could now manage with only one or two short rests – and then a quick shower, more coffee, and the drive into work. Then it was the morning briefing, the firing range, the training hall, lunch, back to the training hall, and then, if there was still any time in the day remaining, Tseng would take him downstairs to the swimming pool.

He fucking loved the pool. In spite of his slightly less than pleasant introduction to swimming, Reno had quickly found it to be both easy and a lot of fun… once someone actually showed him how not to drown.

Today, however, was not a pool day. Today was Monday, and nearly the end of the day, and that meant yet another trip down to the ninth floor to be poked and prodded and weighed, and told that he was too goddamn skinny. Dr. Ward was on a mission now, and Tseng was the sole target of her displeasure.

Actually… that part of the visits was kind of fun to watch. The rest of it, though, he could do without.

As they stepped off of the elevator, Tseng seemed to brace himself. The redhead snickered softly, earning him a glare from his mentor.

“Ya know… we could just skip this shit.”

“And be hunted down by an irate Mideelian with access to multiple drugs, sharp instruments, and assorted medical equipment?” the senior Turk retorted, raising an eyebrow. His hand unconsciously moved protectively to his left ear. “Though I’ll admit you’ve made a valiant effort, you’ve not driven my completely out of my mind yet.”

Reno laughed and followed him down the hallway to the medical suite. Dr. Ward was waiting impatiently when they arrived.

“Yer late,” she stated.

“I most certainly am not,” Tseng replied, indignantly.

“Oh, really? I told yeh last week, that I needed Reno in here fifteen minutes early today so I’d have time ta draw blood and send it off ta the lab at Midgar General before they shut down fer the night. Yeh are therefore fourteen minutes late, and that means my tests results won’t be in until next Monday instead of this Friday.”

Perhaps it was Reno’s imagination, but he could have sworn that the older Turk paled slightly. Ward smirked.

“Ah… Remember now, do yeh?”

The Turk leader deflated and murmured a somewhat sheepish apology.

“Well… nothing for it now,” the doctor continued. “Let’s have a look at yeh, Reno… On the scale if yeh please.”

The redhead obediently slipped off his shoes and jacket, and stepped up onto the scale. Ward clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

“Yer down another pound and a half,” she reported, shaking her head, “Tseng, yeh have got ta make sure the poor thing is eating right! I have told yeh time and time again, yeh can’t work him as hard as yeh do and not replace all those calories he’s burning!”

Reno groaned softly. “Doc… Don’t get me wrong, I love bein’ able to eat ’til I can’t take another bite for once in my life, but seriously. Tseng shoves any more food down my throat at meals, I’m not sure I’m gonna survive it…”

For the past few weeks, his mentor had been particularly insistent about stuffing him. It was starting to take all the fun out of eating. Plus, he’d never actually believed that a ‘food coma’ was really a thing until he’d been subjected to the phenomenon no less than four times last week. The first time had actually been kind of pleasant… After that, though, it just left him feeling like a useless lump lying on the couch until his body had sufficiently recovered.

He’d always been a skinny little runt. Even moreso as he’d gotten older. And ever since he was twelve or so, he’d existed in a state of near perpetual hunger… He could never seem to get enough to eat. Not that that was unusual for anyone in the Sector Two slums, but it had always seemed to hit him just a little harder than most people he knew.

“I have to agree with him, Justinia,” Tseng interjected. “At this point, it feels like borderline abuse to force as much food on him as I do. He simply does not gain weight.”

The doctor sighed softly. “Well. I have to admit, I am just a wee bit perplexed by it. That’s why we’re drawing blood today. I want ta screen him for parasites and metabolic disorders. Come sit yeh down, my little headache. I’ll make this quick.”

“… Do I gotta do this?” he imploringly asked Tseng. The Turk lieutenant responded by escorting him over to the exam table and physically placing him on it. “Tch… coulda just said yes,” Reno responded, sourly. He knew he was puny… he didn’t need a such a condescending reminder. Tseng smiled faintly.

“Alright. Just try and relax, now,” the doctor said as she set a tray on the table beside him. Reno’s eyes widened in horror.

“What in the fucking nine hells is that?” he demanded, his voice rising sharply. The needle was huge. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.

“Yeh watch yer language, young man,” Dr. Ward admonished before patting his shoulder apologetically. “I know… it looks none too pleasant. But I promise yeh, yeh’ll barely feel it, and it’ll only take me a couple of minutes ta draw what I need.” She glanced over at the senior Turk. “… Maybe it’d be best if yeh held onta him for me. Just in case.”

Reno tensed as she rolled up his sleeve and wrapped a piece of rubber tubing tightly around his upper arm. As much as he would have liked to, he couldn’t bring himself to look away as she wiped down the inside of his elbow, and expertly slid the massive needle straight into a vein. She snapped a small glass vial into place and untied the band on his arm. The vial suddenly fill with a gush of crimson, and Reno felt his stomach clench in response. Still… he couldn’t take his eyes off of it. They remained locked there as she snapped the tube out again, and replaced it with a second. And then a third. By the fourth, he was starting to feel more than a little woozy.

“You plannin’ on leavin’ me any?” he asked, alarmed.

“Just two more,” Ward replied, calmly. The redhead groaned as number five was filled. On number six, he felt himself falling and the doctor looked up in concern. “Tseng… catch him!” she demanded. That was the last thing Reno remembered.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was lying down, staring up at the ceiling. He moaned softly and turned his head, spotting the doctor.

“There, now… yer alright,” Ward said soothingly.

“What happened?” he muttered, blinking as he tried to sit up. A hand firmly pushed him back down. Tseng’s, he realized belatedly.

“Yeh fainted, that’s all,” she chuckled, fingers gently stroking his hair out of his eyes. “Not quite sure if it was the blood volume or just yeh being less than fond of needles. But yer alright now. Just lay back and rest a minute.”

“We’re done with this shit… right?”

Tseng chuckled. “Yes, I believe we are.”

“I’ll go and get yeh something sweet. A little sugar should have yeh feeling better in no time. Yeh stay put ’til I get back.” She disappeared, but returned momentary with a glass of orange juice, which he was only too happy to drain, and his usual sucker. Also orange. Ward was right… he did feel much better a few minutes later.

“Alright… yer free ta go. Yeh might feel a bit out of sorts for an hour or so, though. Yeh go home, and yeh eat, and yeh relax for awhile. Understood?”

“Yeah… got it.” Reno slid off the table, staggering, slightly off-balance at first, but quickly recovered and let Tseng lead him off to the parking deck and home.

---

By the time they returned to the apartment, he felt perfectly fine. He flopped onto the couch, and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels until he found the local news. Tseng insisted he watch. Kept saying that Turks needed to keep abreast of current events and the public spin put on them. For the most part, he tended to find it bland and uninteresting… but hell, it was only half an hour, and it was followed by dinner. He could think of worse assignments to be given.

He stretched slightly, giving a small yawn. He was beat… Tseng had paired him up with Rude that afternoon, and then turned the twins loose on them both in the training hall. He had a feeling that Rude was going to be heading off to bed early tonight after that. He was giving serious consideration to it himself.

“We won’t be leaving quite so early tomorrow,” Tseng called out from the kitchen, and the redhead vaguely wondered what they’d be eating tonight. Not that he could have done any better himself… but the man’s cooking really was terrible and he didn’t seem to be of a mind to go out tonight. Though, neither, for that matter, was Reno.

“Yeah? That mean I can sleep in?” he asked, snickering.

“So long as you’re ready to leave by eight thirty.”

The redhead looked away from the TV, curious now. Considering Tseng usually made him get up no later than six, that was a hell of a deviation from their usual schedule.

“Seriously?” he asked with a disbelieving laugh. He glanced back over at the screen, which was now displaying the weather report for the week. Rain tomorrow, apparently. “I actually get to sleep in on a work day?”

“Yes,” his mentor replied. “Because tomorrow we will not be going into the office.”

Tseng suddenly had the rookie’s full and undivided attention. They weren’t just deviating from the schedule… it was right out the window.

“So where are we goin’, then?”

“I think it’s about time you got out of the city,” Tseng said, as he continued setting the table. “And as it happens, there’s a minor assignment to be dealt with in Kalm tomorrow. I’ve volunteered us for it.”

“Sweet!” Reno grinned and shut off the TV. “Are we flyin’ there?” He’d been dying for another ride in the helicopter. And, maybe if Tseng was feeling generous… a lesson?

Tseng gave a soft laugh. “We are, yes. Hence why we’ll be leaving late. The cargo we’re to retrieve from the Sector Six Plate construction zone won’t be ready until then.”

Sector Six was the final piece of the Plate to be completed… and from what Rude had told him, it was close to being done. Shinra Company was planning to start moving the first residents in sometime next year. Apparently, it was big deal, because afterwards, they could start planning Midgar’s expansion beyond the Plate.

“Since when are the Turks in the business of makin’ deliveries?” Reno asked.

“It’s a relatively infrequent request. However, we do occasionally act as couriers for items that are of exceptionally high value or that are highly classified. In this case, it’s both. We’re picking up a new core regulator from the Number Six reactor. The reactor in Kalm is malfunctioning, and the maintenance team needs the replacement part to repair it before the problem gets any worse. Mako technology is classified at one of the highest levels Shinra has because of its importance to the company,” the Wutaiian Turk explained, “It’s something that falls to the Turks, not only because we’re capable of guarding such items from theft, but also because no Turk would ever steal from the company themselves.”

“Heh… never realized they trusted us so much.”

Tseng chuckled in response. “Most of us would never dream of betraying Shinra Company. Loyalty tends to become seconds nature after awhile. But that aside, there’s a reason we’re as highly paid as we are. Industrial espionage simply is not worth the effort. There’s also the simple fact that any Turk who was caught in such a plot would be immediately terminated.”

“… By which I’m kinda guessin’ you don’t just mean they’d be fired…”

“Indeed.”

“Anyone ever actually do somethin’ that stupid?” the redhead queried.

“Certainly not in my time with the company. I’m told that there was one Turk who went rogue long before I was recruited, however, and tried to destroy the research lab in Nibelheim he’d been sent to provide security for. Along with the scientists working there. It didn’t end well for him, as I understand it… though to be honest, there are several versions of that story that have been retold many times over. Frankly, I don’t know which, if any, of them are true.” Tseng shook his head. “It hardly matters, anyway. Whatever might have happened in the past, we are all perfectly aware of what would happen now.”

---

At promptly eight thirty the following morning, Tseng and Reno left for the Shinra Building. Instead of reporting to headquarters, however, they rode the elevator straight up to the rooftop. Tseng ushered the redhead aboard the smaller of the two helicopters, placing him in the co-pilot’s seat. Reno grinned excitedly at complex-looking bank of controls.

“Strap yourself in,” Tseng said, sitting down beside him. The redhead reached for the straps on either side of the seat… and frowned in confusion as he realized that he didn’t have a clue how to do this. The last time, it had been done for him, and if he was being honest, he’d had a lot more on his mind than safety procedures. He fumbled with it for a few moments before he realized that the Turk lieutenant was watching him, an amused expression on his face.

“Tch… How about a hint, huh, Boss?”

“First of all… it’s a five point harness, so you’ll need more than just those two straps.”

Reno glanced down and easily found the other three, now that he knew to look for them. After that, it became fairly obvious how they fit together. The first two came down over either shoulder. Two more fell across his hips, and the fifth came up between his legs, very effectively holding him in place.

“Is all this shit really necessary?”

“While flying normally… no. If we were to crash, however, it’s the difference between walking away, or… not,” Tseng replied.

“… ‘Kay… so since I don’t really wanna die…” the redhead murmured, and tightened the straps until he was very securely tethered to his seat.

“I hope that wasn’t commentary on my piloting skills,” Tseng teased, “I can always leave you here, if you’d prefer.”

“No!” the redhead exclaimed, wide-eyed. “No, I’m good.”

Tseng snickered and fastened his own harness. He pulled on a headset that hung from a clip nearby, and Reno hurried to find his own.

“… So…” the redhead ventured, as the engines started and the helicopter lifted off. “Is there like… an age limit for flyin’ this thing?”

“Company policy requires you be at least eighteen to be certified,” Tseng replied, and Reno groaned, leaning back in his seat. He’d be seventeen in just a few months. That still left an entire year after that before he could fly. He heard Tseng laugh openly over his headset at his reaction. “However… training can begin at any time.”

The redhead beamed and opened his mouth to make the request, but the Turk lieutenant cut him off.

“Yes, we will begin flight instruction in the near future. However… you will be learning learn to drive first, as it’s a bit more practical a place to start. Once you have that suitably mastered, we can tackle the helicopter.”

“Heh… so when’s my first driving lesson?” Reno asked with a grin.

Tseng shook his head. “As soon as I double check that my life insurance is paid up…” he responded, dryly.

Reno grinned and turned his attention to the scenery that whizzed by as Tseng directed the craft out toward the far edge of the Plate. The city looked amazing from so high up… and he couldn’t help but be a little shocked by the amount of it that he had yet to see. He and Rude had been continuing their tours of Midgar on the weekends – minus the being arrested part – and even so, had only managed to explore a few sectors. There was still so much left!

The Plate suddenly dropped away as they swung out over the unfinished portion of Sector Six, heading for the reactor at the Plate’s edge, and Reno caught a brief glimpse of the slums below. Wall Market may have been the sector’s most notable feature, but it was only a tiny fraction of what was down there. Tucked in against the city’s central pillar, the redlight district was dwarfed by the rest of the area.

A very long time ago, it had been a small village, and many of the old structures were still standing. Sector Six was easily the nicest of the slums… owing largely to the revenue generated by Wall Market itself. But of course, most of those who worked the Market could never have hoped to live in the sector proper. Those homes were for the people who owned the businesses that flourished in Wall Market, investors in Corneo’s ventures, and anyone else who had somehow or other come by the gil to afford it. It was the elite district of the slums, if such a thing could exist in a place like that.

The reactor suddenly loomed before them. Reno had never actually realized how gigantic the things really were. He’d only ever seen them from below – and very briefly upon his arrival on the Plate. They rose up above most of the buildings surrounding them. The Number Six reactor looked especially huge, given that most of the nearby structures were still incomplete. They set down on a small landing pad on one of the upper levels of the reactor, and Tseng shut down the engines.

“Let’s make this quick, shall we? The reactor staff tend to be extremely busy and dislike interruptions to their work day.”

Reno nodded and followed him out of the helicopter and towards the large door in the side of the building. A man waited just inside, arms crossed over his chest and impatiently tapping his foot on the floor.

He was forty-ish and broad-shouldered, with a bushy mustache and blond hair the peeked out from beneath the white hardhat he was wearing. Honey-colored eyes watched the pair closely as they approached.

“The reactor foreman,” Tseng softly informed his protege before they were within earshot of the man. “He has to sign off on all equipment transfers personally.”

“About time,” he said brusquely in lieu of a greeting. “Come on. You’re part’s been waiting in the secure locker down the hall for ten minutes now. The sooner you take it off my hands, the sooner I can get back to helping my team figure out what this Shiva-forsaken piece of junk is doing.”

“Problem?” Tseng asked.

“Strange readings on some of the pressure gauges for the intake system. We’ve been trying to figure it out all morning. If we don’t get a handle on it soon, we’re going to have to scale back production and run a full diagnostic. The Company is not going to be happy if we have to do that.” He snorted softly and added. “And my wife isn’t going to be happy, either, if I end up working late again tonight.”

“We won’t keep you, then.”

He nodded and started down the hallway. “Today bring your kid to work day, or something?” the foreman asked, nodding towards Reno.

“Our newest recruit,” the elder Turk replied. The other man’s eyebrow rose.

“Him? Kid can’t be any older than my little girl,” he scoffed. Tseng chuckled while Reno scowled indignantly. Bad enough people thought he was just a kid… now he was getting compared to a girl?! They reached a large door, and the man slide his security ID through the lock. “Well… There she is. One brand new core regulator.” He held out a clipboard to the Turk lieutenant. “Sign here.”

Tseng quickly obliged.

“Need a hand with it?”

“I think we can mange from here. You have more pressing matters to attend to,” he replied.

The foreman gave them a farewell nod, and headed off down the hallway, leaving the pair of Turks to their task. The regulator seemed to consist of a long metal cylinder about as big around as Reno’s thigh and nearly as tall as he was. At one end was a large gauge, and several valve handles that had been painted various different colors. The other end separated into two curved tubes branching off in opposite directions. It rested on a wheeled dolly, which Tseng tilted back and began to push back the way they’d come. Reno ran ahead to haul open the wide cargo door in the side of the aircraft.

Once their delivery was securely strapped into the back, the two Turk returned to their seats, and Tseng had them airborne moments later.

“Heh… Next stop, Kalm?” Reno queried, somewhat excitedly, and his mentor nodded.

~end of chapter 18~