ShinRa Manor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Iris settled back on her heels, taking a few snapshots of their Hojo and Smoochy masterpiece for her own safe keeping (though she'd get a copy of the video from Reno too, later, since she needed that in all sorts of ways). She felt tired, but… happy.

In an ugly, wrung out sort of way.

She'd done her work in setting the charges they were using to burn the mansion to the ground and Reno was off adding, he'd said, a few special touches. Since, of the two of them, he was the explosives expert, Iris let him be.

Tseng (any Tseng) hadn't replied to their selfie yet. It had been a bit.

From most of them, she could wait.

From the one here, though, she needed to contact him. Iris didn't know Sephiroth or Cloud's minds well enough to feel them at great distances.

But she knew Zack's mind—any Zack—enough to know exactly where he was and he was close. They were running out of time.

She huffed out a breath, set her elbows on her knees, looking up at their handiwork, and then hit the speed dial for the boss.

[NOTE: Second verse, same as the first. Talk of torture, actual murder, torture, and blowing up a building in it.]

Comments

[ponytailedturk]

And lo, the boss answered, his voice tightly clipped, as always, some minor strain in his tone that would be noticed only by those who knew him exceptionally well.

"Tseng."

[intraspective]

Did it count if some of her knowing him was borrowed from her knowing other Tsengs too?

"Iris," she returned. "I need you to get the Turks to something and I need it done yesterday."

No fun preambling here; this was all business.

[ponytailedturk]

Well. That was...

Tseng's brow furrowed.

"How many will it take?"

Several were on assignment already. He was mentally reassigning them as they spoke.

[intraspective]

It was definitely not his-Iris who was calling?

"At least three," she said, after a pause. "I'd suggest at three teams of two, but three is the minimum."

She didn't want to get anyone killed because she wasn't disclosing enough.

"There's three targets that need to be eliminated as soon as possible. One, everything relating to Professor Gast's life and research in Icicle destroyed. Two, Professor Hollander's research in Modeoheim. Three, every bit of Hojo's research on genetic mutation, but specifically anything to do with Sephiroth or JENOVA. Most of that should be in his lab."

Tseng could even do that himself, if he wanted.

Iris wasn't asking for much, huh?

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng paused for another few moments.

"Reno, Rude. You're going to Icicle. Rosalind, Iris. Modeoheim. I'll brief you on your assignments along the way."

And yes, he would be taking care of Hojo's information, himself. He refused to let anybody take the fall for erasing such valuable information for the company in ShinRa's very own stronghold.

"Your report will include your reasoning for these hits," he informed Iris, a moment later.

[intraspective]

Iris' grin was fierce. She didn't have to go to Icicle! YES.

It was a small thing, given everything else that was going on, and her littler self didn't have the totally justified hatred of the cold that she did, but it still made her happy.

"Yes, of course," she said, and because Iris was confident in this plan, more than she'd been for a long time in… anything, really, she added, "it's going to change everything."

[ponytailedturk]

"That currently means very little to me, Iris," Tseng noted, sounding faintly bemused. "But I imagine it will."

Or it wouldn't. It really did depend on how changing a timeline entire affected him.

[intraspective]

Just wait, Tseng.

She laughed.

"It will, I promise," she said blithely, standing and stretching. Gods, but the more she thought about it, the happier she got, like delight was shivering its way through her soul. "You won't ever wear your hair down."

The abrupt switch to Wutaian would, she hoped, make it clear that she wasn't talking about wearing it down in the shower or shit like that.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng paused for a long few moments at that.

Processed it.

Frowned and bowed his head, remembering every run-in with himself on that damn island.

"I see." Another pause. "Then I had best get to work."

[intraspective]

"Yes," she agreed. "And I have other things to finish up too."

Iris loved him just a little for being willing to take her word on this, before he got a report on anything from her.

"Our report will get to you in a few hours."

It would be full of chat speak and emojis and have a truly horrific video of what they'd done to Hojo, but it would underneath the ridiculousness of it, be detailed and tell him everything he needed to know.

Everything he wanted to know, well, that was a different story…

[ponytailedturk]

"Excellent. Tseng out."

He had mission specs to draft up.

[intraspective]

Iris took a moment to just… breathe. Get her giddiness under control. It wasn't, very, but she tried.

Then she went through her contacts to call another Tseng, who she hadn't sent the selfie to.

(So it hadn't been all Tsengs, not really.)

This one deserved to hear it from her.

[turk_mailman]

This Tseng, when he answered, lacked... something... that the usual Tsengs carried in their professionally clipped tone. He sounded tired. Older, beyond the years he'd already lived. And he had lived.

That was perhaps the most damning thing about him. He'd done so very much living.

"Tseng."

Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

The reactor hadn't had any interesting papers but the conversation between Sephiroth and Genesis had been... interesting. Something to think about later.

Mostly, she and Reno had kept the fuck out of the way.

"And… that's the report sent," Iris said, looking down at Reno, from where she was lounging in a tree. "Complete with video."

It was a good report. At least, she thought so.

Tseng was not likely to appreciate their artistic flair in it, though he might in the video.

"Everyone's far enough gone now that 'less we're dumbasses we ain't going to get caught by them." Which was good. No need, or want, to get caught by either SOLDIER or questioned by other Turks. "You want to book us a portal out of here?"

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

"Can do, Rookie," Reno replied, leaning back casually against the trunk of that very same tree. "But if we end up playin' friggin' croquet for another three godsdamned years, I swear..."

He was pulling out his PHS to call up Portalocity anyway, yes.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

"If that happens, we're just going to take over that world," she said, though she was making a face at the thought of it. "Like, we already had them eatin' out of the palms of our hands."

A beat.

"Can we not, though? Think you can get us to, I don't know, one of their stop over worlds? That should be neutral enough that they won't send us through hoops."

Iris wasn't even going to try suggesting they portal straight back to the island. The gods only knew where they'd end up if they tried that.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah," Reno laughed, "let's not, yo. I'd rather spend a few weeks in that world made of candy again."

And that place had been... not great.

At all.

It took him all of a minute to place the call, and a few moments later, the portal opened before them.

"After you, Rookie?"

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

Iris shifted, considering the portal and the angle of it.

Could she? Oh yeah.

"And this way," she said cheerfully, "it's all your fault."

Then she twisted and swung herself down off the tree branch and straight through the portal with a laugh.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Reno just rolled his eyes, smirked, and sauntered on through after her.

He, for one, was interested in figuring out the damage from here. Was half expecting ShinRa to wage war on the Turks all over again.

Maybe that'd be worth the cost.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

The world she stood up in—having totally nailed her landing—was…

Well.

Iris shaded her eyes.

"Well."

Rows of luggage, conveyor belts, and not a single other soul in sight. Or to her mind.

"Huh."

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

"Oh yeah," Reno drawled, "this is way better than croquet world, yo."

He didn't like it already.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

"Are we at least back in the present time?" Iris demanded. "Did we at least get out of the past?"

It was amazing how low her standards were for Portalocity these days.

"Ain't nothin' with a mind I can reach here."

And she had impressive reach.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

"Right time," Reno reported after a moment taken to check his PHS. "Seconds are even tickin' away the way they're supposed to again."

So, that was nice.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

That was nice, wasn't it? It was, at least, a step in the right direction.

"Okay," Iris said, planting her hands on her hips and surveying the world. "Then we've got to figure out where we can get fro—"

She hadn't been planning on it, but… that was her collapsing like a puppet with her strings cut as her mind abruptly overloaded.

Re: Outskirts of the Reactor, Nibelheim, Gaia, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

And that was Reno swearing, suddenly and loudly, as he launched himself forward to catch her.

"Rookie? The hell?!"

Minor cause for concern, collapsing Rookies.