Ski Weekend

"President Reeve has given us a 3-day weekend off," Tseng told his subordinate Turks. "He’s made us hotel reservations at the Icicle Inn."

"Hopefully he made hospital reservations for Reno," Elena remarked with a sly grin.

"Hey! I resent that!" Reno hissed at her, slumping in his seat with his arms folded. "So…I let AVALANCHE beat the crap out of me in Sector 7 last year? Doesn’t mean I’m the injury-magnet you guys make me out to be."

"Reno…" Rude said plainly. "The last time we took you skiing, you broke your toe trying to put your boots on."

"Aw, come on… You all know I was faking it ‘cause it was too cold, and I wanted to spend my time at the bar instead."

"You don’t have to come if you don’t want to," Tseng told the young Turk.

"I’ll come…" he said, half to Elena. "…if anything just to show little miss smarty-pants here that I can handle the slopes."

Elena scowled and stuck her tongue out at him.

"All right, children," Tseng broke up the exchange of insults. "We’re flying there by Shinra helicopter tomorrow morning. Have your stuff ready and meet at the roof-top by 0800."

= = = =

The laughter Reno heard behind him was nothing out of place given that he was in a very social environment of the ski resort. He ignored it but was soon a victim of a sudden, playful hair-ruffling.

He ducked and swatted his assailant away. Turning around, he heard the laughter he’d previously ignored. He came face to face with the good-natured pranksters both sharing a hearty laugh.

"Damn! Not you!?" Reno snapped.

Cid and Cloud from AVALANCHE had him boxed in by the ski boot rental counter. Since the demise of the original Shinra company, members of AVALANCHE and the Turks had struck a somewhat uneasy truce.

Cloud stepped forward and clapped a gloved hand on Reno’s shoulder, holding out his other hand for a friendly shake. "C’mon, Reen…you’re not still mad at me for the Sector 7 incident, are you?"

Reno didn’t take the man’s hand, and instead turned back to the boot rental counter. "Size 9," he said plainly to the attendant.

Cloud slipped up alongside Reno and nudged the Turk aside, addressing the clerk. "Forget giving him boots…" he said, "…just put some casts on his ankles now."

Reno forcefully shoved Cloud away. Cid just laughed, fully aware of Reno’s reputation. The Turk grabbed his boots and walked off, not even honoring the duo with any parting words.

The four Turks convened in a courtyard so they could ride the ski lift together. Reno had a pair of tinted goggles up on his forehead where his sunglasses usually were. Rude still wore his shades as always.

Everyone except Reno had a pair of skis. The young, fiery haired Turk had decided to try a snowboard this time. Tseng was the first to comment.

"Reno, just because you play the snowboard game at the Gold Saucer doesn’t necessarily mean you can do it for real."

"He just wants to break something," said Elena. "Should’ve booked him that hospital room after all."

"You wanna lose some weight, Elena? I’ll start with your teeth…!" Reno cocked a threatening fist back.

Tseng stepped between them, pushing a restraining palm into Reno’s chest. "Come on. This is a vacation. Let’s just have some fun."

"I was…" Reno said as the others headed off for the lifts.

Elena and Tseng, of course, took a lift chair together which left Reno with Rude. As usual, the bald man was not up for conversation.

At the top of the mountain, Tseng and Elena went off together while Reno spied a restaurant / bar. "Hey, Rude! I need a drink. Let’s go to the bar."

"You can’t really snowboard, can you, Reno?"

"What!? I can too…!"

"Then why do you want to putz off to the bar instead?"

"Hmm. I wanted to warm up inside, but I accept your challenge, Rude. Come along. I’ll show you the master at work. Just try to keep up with me." Reno slid his goggles over his eyes and headed off to the nearest slope.

"Reno!!" Rude called after him. "That’s an expert run!!" He took off on his skis after his friend.

Reno didn’t hear his partner’s calls to him, yet he realized his mistake on his own. His youthful agility and sharp reflexes kept him out of trouble as he sped down the mountain. He remained fearless and cocky as ever, beating the mountain’s every twist and turn. He got to the bottom without falling even once.

Several minutes later, Rude caught up to him at the bottom, snow stuck all over his outerwear from the multitude of spills he’d obviously taken on the rough course.

"What took you so long?" Reno harshly demanded.

Rude stayed silent and patted more accumulations of snow off his jacket.

"I’m going to the bar now, whether you are or not." Reno headed off to the bar at the base of the mountain.

He ordered a stiff drink that burned his insides out of their numb state. He didn’t intend to get drunk just yet because he needed a clear head to enjoy snowboarding. Much to the young Turk’s dismay, Cid and Cloud entered the bar as well. They flanked him, sitting on either side of him on adjacent bar stools.

"Leave me alone," Reno told them. "I don’t feel like drinking with you."

"Then race us," said Cid.

"Unless you’re hiding out in here because you’ve injured something already," added Cloud.

Reno pushed his empty shot glass aside and got to his feet. "All right. If that’s how you guys want to play it. But *I* get to pick the course."

= = = =

Reno faced a double challenge: The one where he had to race the AVALANCHE duo; and the one he set up for himself…picking the course.

He had to pick a course challenging enough to hopefully shake Cloud and Cid, but not one so difficult that he’d only make a fool of himself. His best choice was the expert run he’d had amazingly good luck on during his last run. Where’s that Luck Plus materia when you need it, he thought to himself.

"You’re sure about this, Reno?" Cloud asked regarding the Turk’s choice of trails.

"Not up to it, Cloud?"

"Ha! Piece of cake!"

Cid nudged Cloud in the ribs. "Remember, this is an every-man-for-himself race, and we ain’t teaming up against the Turk. See ya at the bottom, Cloud."

They took off in unison, all three on snowboards. Cid’s weight helped him accelerate a little faster than the others. Cloud initially lagged behind, confident that his experience and skill on the board would propel him forward later.

Reno out-maneuvered Cid on a curve and never looked back. His concentration was focused on the rough trail. He jetted over a jump and nearly rammed right into an obstacle that hadn’t been there the last time. He slid to an abrupt halt, as did the others trailing behind him.

A crustacean-like creature larger than any of them stood before them. It was a Stilva, one of the more unusual creatures that inhabited the arctic region.

Reno released his feet from the snowboard and fished his nightstick out from inside his jacket. He looked over to Cloud, who had his short broadsword, the Hardedge, drawn.

"Don’t tell me you carry that thing everywhere you go?" Reno asked him.

"And you carry *that* everywhere you go, so we’re even."

The Stilva squealed, eyeing what it was hoping would be dinner. The three men took up battle positions. It lashed out at Cloud with a hard-shelled leg which deflected off the Hardedge.

Cid was without his a spear, but he had a few sticks of dynamite to try frightening the creature off with. Several exploded under the land-crab’s body, hardly nicking its exoskeletal body.

Reno’s nightstick’s electric charge was hardly effective against the beast. Cloud had Fire materia equipped in his weapon, but he primarily attacked with the blade.

The Stilva took a step back and cast its inborn magical ability. Trine hit all three guys at once, a powerful magic that would likely incapacitate ordinary folks.

Reno fell to the ground, but Cid and Cloud were too busy trying to drive the beast away to worry about the Turk. In all reality, though, Reno had allowed himself to drop to the snow in order to build up his strength for a limit technique.

The Turk had traditionally worn a mere Bronze Bangle, which held no materia. However, he did have four green materia orbs in his pocket which he kept specially for one of his deadliest limits. Each orb flared to life…Earth, Fire, Lightning, and Ice. The auras of each orb merged cooperatively, enhancing one another as Reno stood and twisted his body to the left holding both hands around the materia by his hip.

A field of blue energy surged around his hands. "Chaos Burst!" he roared, firing his hands forward, wrists together, fingers spread out like claws. A jet of radiating energy shot from his hands and collided with invisible force against the Stilva’s head.

The monster staggered back, the flare having made contact long enough to fry its brain in its head. One leg collapsed, then another, and finally the creature was dead from severe heat trauma to the brain.

Reno clutched his materia and fell to one knee. Cid and Cloud looked at him, both utterly stunned.

"G*d d*mn!" said Cid. "What the $&*@# was that!?" Cloud reached a hand down to help the Turk back to his feet.

Reno pocketed his materia. "Ugh… That…that was a limit technique you never want to be on the receiving end of."

Cloud could see the sweat on the Turk’s face from the energy it had taken to execute the limit. He roughly pat Reno’s shoulder, mostly to be sure he had the strength to keep on his feet. "So? You up to finishing the race?"

"Of course." Reno was already retrieving his board. "Though, if I recall, you two were lagging behind when we got interrupted."

To be fair, the racers lined up their boards end-to-end in the order they’d been in prior to the Stilva’s appearance, Reno up front followed by Cid then Cloud.

It was also the order they finished in, Reno far ahead. He slid to a halt and waited a few seconds for the others to catch up. He laughed, raising his goggles. Neither Cid nor Cloud were sore losers about it.

"C’mon! I’ll buy you a drink, kid!" Reno put an arm across Cloud’s shoulders and headed towards the bar.

= = = =

Reno awoke the next morning after a pleasant night of dreams. Before going to bed he’d spent time in the hot tub after hours of snowboarding, helping to relax any muscles that otherwise would have been sore.

He and Rude headed off to the lodge’s dining hall to meet up with Tseng and Elena for breakfast. They got there first and ordered their food even though the others weren’t there yet.

Reno was fiddling with packs of sugar on the table when he heard Tseng’s stern voice behind him. "Not a word out of you, Reno!"

Reno was a bit startled and turned sharply towards the Turks’ leader, who was hobbling over on crutches. Reno couldn’t help displaying a crooked grin. "What the hell happened to you!?"

"I said, not a word!" Tseng growled as Elena pulled out a chair for him.

"Take it easy," she stroked Tseng’s back affectionately while he sat down and rested his forehead in his hand, covering his view of Reno’s sideways smirk.

The red haired Turk looked under the table, and there wasn’t anything Tseng could do to hide the cast on his right foot and ankle from view. Reno looked up at Elena with inquiring eyes.

"He broke his ankle."

"Shut up, Elena!" Tseng rubbed his temples wondering just how he was going to explain this to President Reeve.

Reno grinned mischieviously and sipped his coffee. "Well, then…am I finally relieved of being the butt of jokes around here?"

Tseng didn’t look up. Elena slid his crutches under the table and pecked him on the cheek before sitting down. "He won’t be down long," she said. "You know how it goes. Once the bones knit, and elixir will finish the job off quickly. Less than a week, and he’ll be ready to ski again."

"I don’t think so, Elena. I’m too old for skiing." Tseng got over his initial embarrassment and sat up straight.

"You guys happen to run into Cloud and Cid at all?" asked Reno, changing the topic.

"What!?" gasped Elena. "They’re here?"

"Two of ‘em. We kicked a Stilva’s ass, then I kicked theirs in a downhill race." Reno blew on his finger nails then rubbed them on his shirt in show.

"Is that what that was all about? We heard noise, and saw flashes of materia bursts."

"I used my limit after we were hit with Trine. Y’know, those boys aren’t half bad."

"Good," said Elena. "’Cause here they come now."

Before Reno could turn his head, a pair of hands firmly but playfully clasped over his shoulders and gave him a little shake. "How you doin’, Reen?" asked Cloud in high spirits. Before Reno could reply, Cloud craned his neck to one side. "Uh-oh… Pay up, Cid! Pay up! What did I tell you!?"

Cid muttered a few curses and fetched out his wallet as Reno turned quizzically to the duo. Fishing out a hundred gil, Cid looked down at Reno’s feet. Tseng turned his head shyly away.

"Hey…wait a minute!" grumbled Cid. "Those your crutches Reno?"

The young Turk looked under the table. "Oh? No…they’re Tseng’s."

Cid started laughing at the Turks’ leader closed his eyes, fingers pressed to his forehead to curb a developing headache. "*You* pay up, Cloud! Ha, ha!!"

Cloud’s eyes narrowed as he dug up the wager. Reno turned to them. "Hey! What’s this!? You guys put money on whether or not I’d get hurt?"

Cloud grinned. "Yeah… Seems I lost, though. Just hasn’t been my weekend, huh?"

"Pull up some chairs and join us," said Reno, whether or not the other Turks wanted their former enemies so near.

Cloud punched Reno in the arm before sitting down. "You’re not half bad, you little brat."

"Ha! You know I saved your butts from that Stilva up there."

"Yeah?" asked Cid. "But who saved the world from that $*@#& Sephiroth, huh?"

"You guys would make good Turks. ‘Specially you, Cloud. Anyone who can kick my butt like you did in Sector 7, Gongaga, and all those other places deserves to join us."

Cloud shook his head. "Sorry, guys. I don’t want anything to do with Shinra. Except…I’d like a rematch on the slopes with you some day."

Reno beamed as his ego was sufficiently inflated. "Is that so? Now who’s got the score to settle!?"

"Right now, Reno. What do you say?"

"All right!" Reno finished his coffee and stood up. "Let’s go then!" He and Cloud left the dining hall to fetch their gear. "And this time no mercy. I technically still have to pay you back for Sector 7."

Elena cuddled closer to Tseng. "Maybe we should book him that hospital room now," she joked.

"Reno or Cloud?" asked Tseng. "If I know them, only one is coming off that mountain in one piece."

THE END

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

As usual, the characters and places referenced in the above story are copyrighted material belonging to Squaresoft, Ltd. This original story is © 2000 and is intended only for entertainment and is not for making money. I would like to thank Athena for granting permission to use Reno’s limit break in this story, as it is her creation. Published in T.A.G. #114 and submitted to several web pages.