Don't Play With Fire (Turks FFVII)

VII) Plate Drop

"Missed me!" Reno taunts, sliding under Cloud's sword with ease. I follow him to the control panel, ducking past a round Rude shoots to block Cloud from pursuing us.

"You're next, #$%^&*^!" the gunman shouts, firing back at the chopper. Reno laughs.

"Sorry, losers! Gotta play for keeps today. No time to screw around."

"Well, maybe in a little later," I tease, catching Reno's weapon when he tosses it to me to focus on typing in the code Tseng gave us earlier.

"Don't tempt me, Kat," he laughs, glancing up when an automated voice comes from the panel.

"Plate separation authorized. Awaiting confirmation."

"Yeah, yeah. Coming right up," he murmurs.

"Hey!" I shout, raising my gun when Cloud begins to race toward us. He hardly seems to care when I squeeze off a few shots that just barely miss. When Reno reaches for the confirmation button, I shove his rod back into his hand.

"Oh no you don't!" he cries, whipping around to parry a swing from Cloud's enormous sword. "Not while I'm working!"

The soldier stumbles from the force of the blow, sliding back several feet. Something changes in Reno's eyes and I suppress a laugh. Oh, this is about to get fun. I knew working with my best friend could never be less than interesting.

"Press it!" Cloud dares.

"Shall I do the honors?" I ask, knowing full well what Reno has in mind.

"Nah. Let's get rid of these sore losers before we blow the joint."

Cloud's friends join him, watching us. This time, I can't help but snicker at the tone of Reno's voice, the same one he always used to taunt the slum rats before we stole their stuff for ourselves.

"Now, now... You ain't got nothin' on us. No one gets in the way of Reno and the Turks."

"Not Kat and the Turks?" I tease under my breath. He scoffs, shooting me a sly glance.

"You are the Turks, Sweetheart, and I'm the leading man."

With that, he sparks the materia on his rod and shoots toward the trio in a flash of blue light. I step back, freeing my knife from its sheath on my hip before running at the girl. She rolls away from me, fists raised. I quirk an eyebrow, listening to the gunman cry out when Reno gets a good shock on him. Cloud stumbles back as the woman sizes me up.

"Careful, he's quick!" the soldier warns.

"And her?"

"Why don't you see for yourself?" I ask, voice calm despite my pounding heart.

Pressing her lips together, she swings one of her red boots toward my face, following with two quick punches. Fortunately, she misses as I duck under the kick and her fists. I take a quick breath before swinging at her with the knife, using my forearm to stop her next kick and get a good cut into her leg. She grits her teeth, bouncing back and staring at me hard with her soft brown eyes. Raising an eyebrow, I size her up. What a rack. Bet she's the apple of every slum man's eye.

She hurries to hit me again, but this time, I catch her arms and try to pull her down with them. Gods, she's strong. With a cry, she pulls free and gets a solid hit on my jaw, knocking me backward onto the ground. I roll out of the way of her next hit, getting onto one knee and firing off two shots. My face stings. One misses, but the other lands on her collarbone. She grits her teeth, stretching out a palm and washing her body over with swirling green light the erases the blood off her skin. Of course she has materia.