A Long Shift

The door of seventh heaven swung open, the glaring sun outside obscuring the figure in the doorway. Taking a step forward, Zack entered the establishment, a trail of dust falling from his clothes as he picked a twig out from his hair. A piece of vibrant green vine was wrapped around his ankle, on the same foot upon which he limped on towards the nearest seat. "I don't get paid enough" Zack mumbled as he took a seat, looking about for a familiar face before placing his head down on the counter, letting out a long tired sigh. "Tiffs. I'm going to need something, a strong something...two of them"

Tifa raised an eyebrow at the state of Zack as he plodded in. There was a story behind this, she was sure of it. She motioned for one of her staff to take over the counter and grabbed a bottle of rum and two glasses then sat down opposite Zack and poured them both a drink. "So what's up with the new look? You been arguing with shrubberies again?"

"Turks, I've been arguing with Turks" Zack said as he lifted his head to view Tifa, it had been a while since he'd seen a friendly face. "I've been running favors for Tseng, this last one was a trek down a jungle cave, as in a big hole, with a jungle on the walls...and lizards, lots of lizards" Zack felt himself starting to drift so he simply waved his hand and rubbed his temples. "Needless to say, it wasn't the simple trek I was promised" Shaking his head, dust and debris shook lose, dropping to the ground in a gentle clatter. "Anyways, how are you cowgirl?" Zack asked as he picked another loose twig from his massive head of hair.

With a quick swipe of her hand, Tifa brushed the assorted rubble from the table into a napkin and handed it back to Zack as a souvenir of his trip. "same old stuff, drunks, monsters and Sephiroth, you know how it is. What was so interesting in this cave anyways?" As explanations went. his was pretty terrible. Even for Zack

Taking a glass from the table, Zack downed the rum quickly, followed by an exaggerated cough. "Well, *cough* it's not pineapple juice" Zack muttered to himself before receiving his souvenir from Tifa. When asked what was so important about the cave he had been sent to, Zack's ears seemed to perk slightly, as if remembering something suddenly. "Well, I was supposed to get some sap from a tree with tough rock like bark." Zack said, quickly flashing a vial from his pocket before shifting to show his leg, the ankle which had been tightly wrapped by a bright green vine. "Turns out it was surrounded by sentient, regenerating hydra like vines, which explains this" Pointing to his ankle, Zack watched as the vine seemed to tighten slightly.

Tifa grabbed a small potted plant from the window ledge next to them and bent down to Zacks ankle, quickly grabbing the moving vine and sticking one end of it into the soil next to the bright red and very plastic flower. The vine seemed to be highly offended by this and began to writhe frantically in its new home before Tifa poured her rum into the pot, subduing the being almost instantly. "Fixed your little ankle tag problem and got the kids a new pet, from the looks of it!" Tifa grinned mischievously at Zack "So what does the tree goo do?"

Zack watched as the vine quickly settled down, although by the way in which it tightly wrapped itself around the plastic flower, it still had some residual attitude. "Just make sure to tell the kids to be careful what they feed that thing" Zack said jokingly as he reached down and rubbed his rather sore ankle. Zack looked up as Tifa asked about the tree saps function, shaking the content of the vial between his fingers. "Not quite sure, Tseng went on about it in the report, something about its ability to bond with organic and inorganic materials, probably something to do with the Turks reconstruction efforts" Looking back at Tifa, Zack fiddled with the vial for a few moments before leaning on his arm. "There was supposed to be a follow up mission, Tseng had a partner in mind but I actually dropped by to ask if you'd be interested in joining. I figured you could use a break from the bar and I'd rather work along someone I trust."

Tifa grinned as Zack asked her to join his mission. "SURE! The only thing I do outside this bar recently is buy potatoes and pay bills. Just let me grab my... she patted her pockets to check she had her phone, keys and gloves. She did. "nope, I'm good to go." She finished her drink on one quick gulp and looked at Zack, waiting for him to get up and lead the way

Zack's eyebrows raised in surprise, he hadn't expected Tifa to be so up for the task, especially with the little details he had. "Umm, wow, ok. Well I can contact Tseng for a briefing, here, we can walk and talk." Standing up, Zack shook himself free of some remaining dust in his hair and patted himself down. "Let's get a move on then" Taking out his cellphone, Zack text a quick message as he made his way out the door. A few moments later, a ping resounded from Zack's phone, causing him to check the message and smirk. "'Head to the nearest airship dock, you and any prospective partners will head to the stationed red ship' I think he means you cowgirl"

Tifa coughed and flapped her hands in front if her to dissipate the cloud of dust emulating from Zack. Walking closely behind him as he went out of the bar, the instinct from years of looking after children kicked in and she found herself reaching out and patting the dust from his shoulders until she realised what she was doing and stopped herself "I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from. Carry on." As Zack read out his message, she raised an eyebrow "A big red ship? Don't they have something a little more conspicuous to fire us into hostile territory in? Because, y'know, wouldn't want to miss out on making a grand entrance. Where are we going anyway?"

Zack could only smile as Tifa assisted him, he had always admired the tenderness she showed others, particularly children. This smile turned into a chuckle as she mentioned the airship's color, with good reason. Arriving at the dock, the airship in question stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other silver and gray crafts, Zack's phone going off in his hand. "We're here, however I don't suppose we're going for stealth with the whole Clifford the big red dog color scheme are we?" Zack said, making his way to the ship's ramp. "Actually Mr. Fair, that's exactly what you're going for, and I would leave the quips aside for the moment, you'll be entering Raven territory." The mention of the Ravens brought Zack a mix of disgust and annoyance, displayed on his face in a rather disapproving frown.

OOC - Topic on hold for a few days. My pet is dying and its heartbreaking. UPDATE - She died. I'm ok now. Topic is all go again.

The mention of the Ravens pricked Tifa's attention. "The same guys with the..." she mimed the outline of their distinctive head gear with her hands "...those things? This should be a tad more interesting than just poking trees. OH OH OH! Does this mean we get to go in disguise?" She couldn't help but giggle as she imagined Zack trying to contain his hair under one of those helmets

OOC- My heart goes out to you Tiffs, I hope you feel better soon.

Zack watched as Tifa mimed a helmet, chuckling at the scene, as well as the realization of how awkward the headpieces really were. It had been a while since he'd been in a position to wear anything in it's resemblance, raising his hands up to his head in fear for his massive hair. "I'm sure the uniforms you'll find on the ships will be less than stellar, but Zack, as a former SOLDIER operative, you'll be noticed on sight. As for Ms. Lockhart, it'll be best if you both matched, making your way towards their databanks and disabling it from within undetected." Zack could only frown as he imagined the amount of work it would take to fix the inevitable case of helmet hair to come. Opening one of a string of lockers, Zack removed one of the makeshift Raven suits, noticing how similar they were to his own suit from his early recruit days.

Tifa grabbed the uniform and inspected it cautiously, it had obviously been "worn in" by someone and with a very careful sniff she deduced it had mercifully been washed between owners. She pulled it on over her own clothes only to find that it didn't quite fit her frame and she was left with no option than to swap jackets with Zack while he wasn't looking and roll the sleeves up. Before he had a chance to realise that his jacket would be a little snug, she hurried to her seat and fastened herself in "Hurry up, mister. We haven't got all day"

Zack placed the uniform back in the locker as he looked to his phone, a message had been received with schematics on their intended location. "At least we aren't going in blind..." Zack mused as he turned and picked up the uniform once again, pausing for a moment as he wondered if it had been that small before. Quickly changing into the outfit, Zack tugged at his pants gently, it seemed that particular region was a bit of a tight fit. "This is exactly why I started wearing custom, they never get the sizes right" Another brief tug and Zack took his seat adjacent to Tifa, the engines stirring as it slowly lifted into the air and off towards their destination.

Tifa relaxed into her seat as they took off, for about 30 seconds and then her mind began to wander. Her eyes scanned her immediate vicinity and found all manner of flashing lights and buttons in her reach. She took a sideways look at Zack to see if he was watching before her hand reached out to press a very attractive looking button with a symbol on that she was unfamiliar with, wondering what it did. Suddenly a loud siren sounded and Tifa instinctively sat on her hands and tried to look innocent and wondered how she could blame this on her travelling companion

It had been some time since the brief alarm scare, just before takeoff, that had made the ship's crew panic, scrambling to find the fault in question. Noting how dangerously close the button was to his traveling companion, Zack had decided to keep an eye on the cowgirls movements, despite her innocent facade. Zack could feel as the rumble of the ship began to soften, as well as the whir of its engines, making his way towards a window as he noticed the ship seemingly squeezing dangerously close between a narrow canyon far off from the city. Nestling itself upon a makeshift port, dangerously close to the edge of a rather long drop, the ramp opened to reveal an enclosed portion of land, high above the ground, surrounded by rock and ending in a tunnel of fresh steel. Placing the helmet upon his head, Zack sighed as he turned to Tifa and held a thumbs up, walking down the ramp as bitter memories of SOLDIER, the Turks and the Ravens themselves began to flood back from obscurity.

Tifa waited patiently as the ship landed, very purposefully not touching anything. After the juddering of the engines had came to a halt, she slowly rose from her seat and stretched her arms out above her head, loosening her stiff muscles from sitting still for so long. She slowly turned to Zack and was about to say something but noticed that he wasn't there, suddenly everyone seemed to be in a hurry and taking her cue, she hurried along too. She caught up to Zack adn asked "Ok, we're here. Now what?"

Zack turned to see Tifa, fully dressed in Raven attire and smiled softly. "Now we try to be very careful. I'm not too worried about fighting, they may be physically strong, but we've come against far worse. I'm more worried about what we might do if this gets out of hand." Seeing as the tunnel was the only access point available, Zack put a hand on Tifa's shoulder and smiled brighter. "We should head in. Odds are we're going to depend on you to set this off cowgirl" Zack said, handing Tifa a small rectangular object from his pocket. "It's a kind of bomb, I found it in the locker I opened with a note. It should take out their entire system once we're done, but it needs to be set up manually, and you have far more experience with this sort of thing." Walking back slowly, Zack's eyebrows showed a sense of worry. "It's nonlethal, and I think we should operate on the same terms. These people, enemies or not, their minds aren't their own, they're warped. As much as I dislike SOLIDER, I at least had a choice, so let's tread carefully and make combat a last resort."

Tifa took the device from Zack and confidently made her way to a small control panel fixed to the wall. On the way she took the chance to look it over and it suddenly dawned on her that she had no idea how to use it, but Zack was right, she had done this sort of thing before and with any luck it shouldn't prove too dissimilar. "why don't these things ever have instructions on them?" she muttered under her breath as she attached the device as best as she could "...well, it looks about right to me" She held her breath and pressed the small button on the front which, thankfully, began a countdown timer and hurried back to Zack "Piece of cake!" She exclaimed, with her fingers crossed behind her back