Twilight Perfection

Chapter One: Police Rescue FBI, she wants a riot! She wants a riot!

"Hey Seph!" The man who said could have been anyone, or almost anyone. He wore perfectly normal red sneakers leading up to a pair of red long pants and a red T-shirt. Of course once you went north of his neck it became hard to define him as "just anyone."

First you had his glimmering red eyes that looked like a pair of sparkling rubies. Then as you went even farther up you discovered that the man had red hair, the exact same shade of bright red as his eyes. Then you finally got to the part that made you want to spit out whatever beverage you had been drinking at the moment. Sticking out from beneath the man's hair were his ears, assuming they belonged to him. They would have looked more natural on a cat. After all they where covered in red fur and flicked back and forth like a cat shaking water off its ears. "I'm back from my trip to the land of Mako and Honey!"

The silvered haired man being addressed by the cat eared one did not look amused. In fact a very prominent scowl played across his face. "Officer Firecat..." The two words left his mouth, with the undertone of a parent telling a child to wash his hands before dinner. The cat eared man instantly recognized the silver haired man's instructions and snapped into a fairly good salute.

"Sorry General Sephiroth. Chief Reconnaissance Officer, James Firecat reporting. I finished my walk through the land of Mako and Honey, Sir!" Sephiroth had come to realize something over the time he'd worked with James: give him a month and he could train a mob of unarmed peasants into an army capable of conquering a small country. Give him till the entire Planet was nothing but a dead husk (which might not be all that long at this rate) and he still would not be able to train proper military discipline into the being known as "James Firecat".

At least James always meant well, and it wasn't like it ever affected his performance in combat, but he would always be an itch Sephiroth couldn't scratch. He gave a small nod to him, and James instantly relaxed from his semi-formal salute. Sephiroth snapped his fingers and a moment later a woman breezed into the room.

She had the body of a dancer, well muscled, but without an ounce of weight being wasted. She wore a white body suit leading to black long pants and then white shoes. Her eyes were neon-green just like Sephiroth's, even if they didn't glow quite as remarkably. Her hair was a lively brown, except for a streak of solid white which parted it in the middle. She selected a chair and reclined into it, her entire body a picture of perfect relaxation. "So General, is it time to cry havoc and let loose the cats of war?" Sephiroth once again bit back a frustrated scream. "Yes and no Mirri, yes and no. Just because James has completed his reconnaissance assignment doesn't necessarily mean that you have."

Mirri (The woman) smiled and reached into a pocket and pulled out a small black data disk. "Please, have I ever failed you before, General Sephiroth? I swear that sometimes you forget that you where not the only soul tempered in the hell that was the Wutai war. Now in my hand I hold the codes for the Shinra Sector one mako reactor."

Sephiroth growled again very slowly. "Remind me why I should trust you Mirri, once you put on the bloody crown of treachery nothing can remove its stain." The woman slowly returned the data disk to her pocket.

"Please General, you should know me better then that. My entire life has been based on defying the expectations of everyone who knew me. My parents told me that I should get into chocobo racing, that the best I could hope for would be to become a jockey. However I packed up my bags and headed for Midgar, and volunteered for the SOLDIER program. I was first class and serving with General Sephiroth before the war was over. Now being a first class made me a lot of money, and a while back I thought that luxury would make me happy. As it turned out however, I was wrong. I've been living with luxury for almost a decade now and I'm bored out my mind. Which meant I had to find something else to do. As I saw it I could either start doing some actual fighting again, or learn how to knit. To be quite frank, knitting really doesn't agree with me. Oh, as if I needed a tiebreaker, I'm not fond of Shinra Blue, it really doesn't look good on me, I prefer white and black. Now, as I was saying, I'm more then willing to help raise some hell. Heck, you want proof of how bored I am? I'm living in Sector Seven because the only time I ever have a 'good' day is when an idiot tries to rape me and I kick his balls up between his ears before I cut them off. So I can either go back to my boring little existence, or I can work with you, General Sephiroth, around you interesting stuff is always happening."

Sephiroth glared one more time at Mirri, but then let it drop. He had known her well enough from their time spent fighting together to know that she wouldn't betray him. She wasn't the type to while away her life in luxury; she just wanted to do that in her free time. "Did you complete both parts of your mission?"

Mirri calmly stretched out her entire body, extending her fingers and letting out a small sigh of satisfaction. "This is Shinra we're talking about General, take the paranoia down a notch. A first class SOLDIER asking for some explosives, I signed some forms, they gave me C4. I got it with a 10 minute fuse just like you asked me to. I can walk in, blow the entire place to hell, and show up for work in the morning looking angelic as ever. They won't have a chance in hell to realize that I had anything to do with it."

If nothing else could be said for her, Mirri was never one to be caught lacking in confidence. Sephiroth finally gave Mirri an approving nod. "Take Chief Reconnaissance Officer Firecat along with you in case you need his help. Even if you don't, he should help you create a distraction, I believe you two are familiar with each other. I think between the two of you there should be no problems."

James, lying on the ground, nodded doing a small sit-up in the process. "Of course, just like fireworks." Sephiroth scowled at James again, even if he knew it was a futile gesture. "Fireworks? This is s a bit different, Chief Reconnaissance Officer. These aren't just fireworks, they're beacons. Beacons of raw destruction to show the world that I have returned to it. I expect you both back by 2200 hours, understood?"

James, suddenly propped his shoulders and head up looking at Mirri. At the same time Mirri's eyes finally acknowledged James' existence. Then at the same time "Yes, Sir!" James saluted while he was still lying down horizontally, and Sephiroth wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

----- ----- ----- ---------------

Getting past the automatic defenses was easy. James was in a pair of Shinra hand binders, and Mirri was in the sexless blue Shinra uniform with a helmet on. Mirri's uniform did however have the first class SOLDIER chevrons on the collar, and so none of the guards paid much attention to her. It was not the same when they finally got to the reactor door.

James's ears recovered from the drooping position they had been in up to this point as he looked around making sure no one was close enough to hear. "How come I can't be the SOLDIER and you can't be the prisoner?" Behind the helmet Mirri smiled, she had worked with James before, and had managed to attain the ability to find him funny instead of annoying. "Well for one thing, because I actually am a SOLDIER. Secondly, what do you think they're going to do if you're using my ID, yet I'm standing next to you?"

James did a few quick mental calculations, and his ears resumed their droop. "Could you at least loosen these things, they're digging into my arms!" Mirri pushed him forward through the door without responding. The guard at the far end of the reactors hallways finally said what everyone who had seen them must have been thinking. "What the hell is going on?" Mirri calmly removed her helmet and smiled at the guard. "I've captured an escaped lab experiment. HQ told me to take him to the reactor and wait for Turks to take him off my hands."

The man relaxed slightly and stopped fidgeting with his hands as if he had intended to go for his gun. He sill looked suspicious however. "Why would Shinra want you to take a lab experiment to a reactor to wait for pickup?" Mirri shrugged, a universal sign of helplessness against Shinra's endless red tape.

"Most likely because if there was any place where we wouldn't have to worry about him getting away it would be in a reactor. I'll go notify the rest of the guard if you don't mind?" Mirri's tone of voice made it quite clear that it was not a question. She was a first class SOLDIER talking to a guard, if she told him to jump he would jump. The man nodded and Mirri lead James past him.

As she walked past, Mirri calmly removed the black gloves that came with the blue uniform. Beneath them where a pair of white gloves, with one very different design feature. A feature that Mirri promptly implemented.

She calmly curled her hands into fists, her thumb touching a small portion of the gloves' fabric. Almost instantly metallic blades shot from slits above her knuckles, one for each digit. It was cool, calm, and totally precise.

Her left hand plunged forward driving 5 blades into the guard's chest. At the same time her right hand struck, and five blades slashed through the man's throat. Mirri smiled to herself, just like riding a bicycle: some things you never forget.

James was by that point looking at Mirri in a manner that suggested her behavior was bordering on cruelty to animals. With one quick slash the binders broke apart, and with a very careful maneuver Mirri sliced them apart vertically as well without scratching James arms. With that done Mirri quickly began to disrobe.

She kicked off the heavy Shinra boots to reveal her own white ones. She almost tore off the top of the uniform revealing her white bodysuit, and finally pulled down and stepped out of the lower half of the uniform revealing her long black pants. She let out a satisfied snarl looking at the pieces of the uniform she was no longer in. "That thing must have been designed to double as a survival gear in case of a gas attack. If I never wear that bulky thing again it will be too soon."

While Mirri was busy un-encumbering herself James had calmly taken the fallen guard's assault rifle and flipped off the safety. The door opened and two guards walked through, expecting to see their partner leaning against the wall bored. What they did not expect to see was their partner lying decapitated on the ground. They went for their guns, but James already had his, and was pointed in their general direction.

The two men fell backwards, their bodies perforated by several of Shinra's own armor-piercing bullets. If James was at all put out by his act then he gave no sign of it. If anything he looked expectant, as if guessing but not quite sure if he had solved a particularly hard question his schoolteacher had given him. "How was that Mirri?" Mirri took care to tread on the dead bodies as she walked across them, with James following in tow. "Well I'd have to say, Firecat 2, idiots 0."

James' eyes now finally did sparkle with the happiness of one who has pleased his betters. He tossed aside his spent gun, and took both of the guards' to replace it. Mirri calmly pulled out a small card, and ran it through a slot by the elevator the guards had been supposed to watch.

A green light came on and the door opened with a metallic chime. Mirri walked in and James followed slightly hesitantly as if unsure of the safety of the device. Mirri made one small gesture beckoning James onward and he darted through the door to instantly be at Mirri's side. "I can't believe it's finally time to get the ball rolling. I'm finally gonna be a Seraphim!"

Mirri nodded, as she kept a careful eye on the descending number by the elevators door. "There are going to be two of them outside the elevator. One to the left, one to the right, I'll take the one on the right." Then as an afterthought. "You take the one on the left." Mirri knew that sometimes you could never be too careful with clearly spelling out information for James.

Even if James had already grasped the point, he wasn't the kind to be easily offended. Not that Mirri cared at the moment, feelings came after the mission, not before and certainly not during. With another metallic chime the door opened, and Mirri and James both jumped out, almost in perfect coordination.

Mirri spilled the guard's guts out with a single horizontal slash with her right hand. James on the other hand (he was wearing both of the assault riffles around his chest on straps that the guards had possessed) quickly grabbed the guard's gun. Then with a quick twist he brought the guards gun back, up against his throat. One "CRACK" later James let go of the dieing guard, and quickly checked to make sure that Mirri was okay.

She was of course, and made a quick hand gesture, pointing to the railing of the platform they now stood on. James may not have been much for verbal instructions, but he did have a fairly good understanding of most military sign language (mainly because Mirri had spent a couple dozen hours training him at it) and nodded his assent.

He tossed the gun he held in his hands to the ground, got a running start, jumped landed on the railing balancing there for a moment. Then he threw his body forward again, twisting over in mid air as he fell. Thus he landed in a manner that was most uncatlike, his back against the metal catwalk.

However, what James' jump lacked in grace, it made up for tactical advantage. A human sized robot stood at either end of the catwalk James had just landed in the middle of, and their heat sensors knew he was there. Still lying on his back he grabbed a gun with his left hand, brought it up and fired into the robot directly in front of him. Sparks danced across the robot as James' bullets tore its internal circuitry to shreds. As the robot behind James began to open up with its sentry gun, James pushed off with his right elbow.

He rolled to the left, sending bullets ricocheting off the metal floor where he had lain just a few moments before. Then he finally managed to get his feet under him, and he pushed himself off the ground and into a back flip, in which he spun around, firing before he hit the ground. He didn't stop till the gun he held in his left hand went dry.

The other robot now sparked, and tried to fire more rounds at James, however the damage to its internal machinery was too great. In the end it did not shut down all at once like its partner, but slowly lights all along it went dark until it was just a hunk of scrap metal. James tossed his spent gun off the catwalk into the bottomless pool of neon-green liquid below him.

He then allowed himself a well-earned smirk. "It's all clear down here Mirri, but I need another gun!" A few moments Mirri arrived after carefully climbing down a ladder, the gun and strap possessed by the guard she had killed outside the elevator in her hands. As she stepped onto the catwalk she tossed it to James who slung it over his one bare shoulder. Mirri managed to slip past James on the catwalk and once again the way deeper into the belly of the reactor. In the end it was a rather moot point.

Once they went under the threshold of this door they entered a large platform suspended above more of the neon-green liquid. On the platform, his backs to James and Mirri, a man in a white lab coat typed away at a control panel. He must have herd James and Mirri's entrance because he turned, and started to let out a scream.

It died halfway through however, Mirri raised her right glove, and clenched her fist again. The five blades in it launched from it and took the man in the chest. He staggered against the railing, and then went over. His body made a rather remarkable "SPLASH" as it hit the surface of the neon-green liquid.

James' ears perked up slightly as Mirri walked towards the control panel. "Nice shot Mirri, or is that 'shots,' cause I'm not quite sure..." Mirri shrugged as she pulled out a small metal box with wires coming from it. However, before she could begin attaching it to the control panel, a very loud mechanical sound filled the air. A moment later there was yet another one.

The source of this sound was revealed as a mechanical scorpion that had apparently been hanging from the ceiling dropped to the floor. It was easily 20 feet tall, and it 'danced' back and forth on four metallic legs, its tail hovering slightly above its body. James' ears drooped practically down to his shoulders.

"Umm Mirri, how am I supposed to kill this thing? I don't think my gun is going to do much good." Mirri instantly returned the metallic box to her pocket and loaded new blades into her right glove. "James, go for the top of the thing, I'll keep it busy down here!" James nodded, and suddenly darted towards the metallic scorpion. Its tail darted forward, trying to drive its metallic barbed point through James body.

James was apparently expecting the mechanical monstrosity to do just that and reacted accordingly. He twisted to the side, and made a small jump, landing just on top of the barbed tail. The tail suddenly sprung upward, and James dropped to his feet, and warped his arms and legs around the tail.

Mirri meanwhile dashed at the scorpion, blades in both of her gloves. With no fear of being stepped on by one of the monsters mechanical legs, she danced between the legs, slashing as she went.

Even if her blades could not cut through the metallic legs the way they did flesh, she left marks with each strike. The scorpion's tail meanwhile was busy attempting to dislodge James, who was hanging onto the tail like his life depended on it. Thus, without its tail to stab at Mirri, the only thing it could do was try to step on her, attempts that Mirri laughed off.

James slowly began to pull himself farther up the waving tail, his eyes hopelessly trying to scan the top of the thing, while his perch waved him back and forth. Mirri meanwhile was still slashing beneath the dancing legs adding even more nicks to the legs, and the nicks were growing deeper. James finally managed to get far enough up the tail, to get a view of the scorpion's body.

James carefully drew his guns, holding onto the tail with only his legs. Then as it waved back and forth again, James let go with his legs. He landed on top of the scorpion's body, and pressed his guns to the very middle of the scorpion's body. He held onto his the triggers, draining both guns completely.

Even that was not enough in the end; the scorpion slowly brought its tail forward, to kill James. Thankfully James did the one thing he had been trained to do in this kind of situation, get out of the way. He did it rather spectacularly this time, by rolling from the scorpion, and this time he managed to land on his feet after the 15-foot fall.

At the same time Mirri danced out from under the legs, while the tail, which was apparently unable to stop on its present course, drove itself through the scorpion's own body. The barbed tail was apparently designed of an even harder material than the scorpion amour.

The resulting electric surge, caused the scorpion to topple to the ground, on the three legs it had left. James looked at it, and his ears went down again. "So um, did I kill that one, or did you? Or did it kill itself?" Mirri shrugged and took a moment to fire off the blades in both of her gloves into the huge pile of scrap metal.

Then she pulled out the small metallic box again, and once again turned towards the control panel. She placed it on top of the panel and began to push a few small buttons. A few moments later, a screen lit up, with red numbers counting down. "10:00" "9:59" "9:58" Mirri nodded to herself and turned back to James. "Okay then, let's makes tracks, we have 9 minutes to get out of this place."

----- ------ ------- ---------------------

James and Mirri dashed out of the building and Mirri checked her watch. "Not bad James, we have two minutes till this thing is so much scrap metal." James beamed under Mirri's compliments.

"Does that mean that I get a…?" In response to his question Mirri calmly reached out and scratched James behind the ears. A deep purr emanated from James' throat.

OWAN: re-submitted to fix scene-break problems, spelling, and grammar. I was really sloppy the first time around.