New Partnerships

[1st_class_zack]

Zack had never actually had a partnership. He'd had a mentor in SOLDIER, but the ultimate goal was every member to be self-sufficient. Still he liked people and didn't mind working with someone else. As long as they weren't like Sephiroth, putting everything off on him and constantly talking down to him or leaving him completely in the dark, or worst of all going completely insane and burning down the island.

When he learned he had been accepted to the IPD, Zack had been quite excited. It was nearly as exciting as the moment Angeal had announced that he had recommended Zack for 1st.

He'd read that his partner was going to be T-1000. He had heard some strange names in his lifetime, but T-1000 seemed the least like any name a person should have. At any rate, he found himself standing in front of the IPD office in the mid-morning. It was much less any sort of headquarters than he'd ever known. SOLDIER had occupied three out of twelve stories in the Shinra building.

He stood in the doorway, looking over the desk that occupied it. Obviously and thankfully, there wasn't a whole lot of deskwork to be done.

Comments

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

"The island does a lot of wasteful things. But I was dead before, so I'm not complaining." Not that complaining would do any good, either way.

To keep a semblance of surprise, he didn't wait for an affirmative answer – Zack wanted a demonstration of killing, not fighting, and those were two very different things. Fighting was messy, unpredictable. Killing, to him, was a single stroke affair - efficient, precise, without a margin for error. There were no rules in killing, only a target.

He moved without thinking – this was instinct, what he'd been built for - first attempting to get Zack into a headlock, but when met with a surprisingly effective resistance, he quickly changed tactics and grabbed a stapler from the desk, slamming it into the side of Zack's head to briefly stun him, before kicking his feet from under him.

Once he was on the floor, it took the T-1000 a moment to pin him down and pull out his fork, pressing it lightly against Zack's neck. One accurate motion would sever the carotid artery.

He paused, frowning lightly. "I'm guessing we're going to skip the actual killing part?"

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

Zack had been ready for a sudden demonstration of killing. When Austin came after him, he'd dodged out of the way. A stapler to the head was not a tactic he had been expecting; however, and he quickly went down, stunned.

The island definitely wasn't Midgar and as he'd known for some time, his strength wasn't the same. He wondered if a fork could have killed him in Midgar, but then he would have had materia too. And it definitely wouldn't have been a fair fight.

"Uncle," Zack said, very expressively, flailing only slightly so as not to be jabbed by the killing fork. "I should think killing your partner the first day would look badly on your record."

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

"Probably," the T-1000 conceded with a contemplative nod. His record was already far from spotless, and Commander Vimes would definitely frown upon partner forking. He placed the weapon back in his pocket, glancing behind him to see if there was anyone in the area who was likely to misinterpret the situation.

Tackling and office supply assault wasn't the most routine occurrence IPD office, after all.

After making sure there were no witnesses, he got to his feet, offering Zack a hand.

"We're not really suppose to engage in killing in the IPD, unless it's a last resort."

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

"That's a good rule. Killing is...messy." And also brings lots of guilt you have to pretend to deal with later.

He took Austin's hand, more as a sign of 'no hard feelings' than because he couldn't get off the ground more elegantly.

"So... a fork. I never would have thought of that. The stapler was a good opportunity weapon too." He was fairly impressed. "Not bad for a killing machine turned human. Still, I'd love to have tried that back in Midgar." With lots of Materia and a sword.

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

"If it's messy, you're doing it wrong," the T-1000 insisted, pulling Zack to his feet. His kills had always been as clean as the circumstances allowed. The T-800 was the messy one. "But I think it's bad, killing. And against the law." He still hadn't quite grasped what was bad about it – it seemed entirely perspective-based - but humans were generally pretty stern about it.

His gaze flickered to the stapler, "You make do with what you've got." He couldn't produce weapons out of his body anymore, so he took whatever the environment provided. "And if you're talking about fighting in native states, you probably wouldn't have stood a chance." Maybe Zack had possessed super-human powers before, but the T-1000 doubted it equated to what he had been. "I was liquid metal."

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

"It is bad," he agreed.

"A liquid metal killing robot?" Zack laughed. That made absolutely no sense.

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

The T-1000's jaw clenched tightly. For some reason, Zack seemed to think laughing about what he had been was a good idea.

"Are you very eager to get stabbed with a fork?"

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

Zack's chuckles subsided, but he still wore a grin. "I know the stapler move now," he said, crossing his arms.

"So is this what we do in IPD all day? Stand around and threaten each other with folks? I'll need to go procure one if that's the case." His smile stayed in place.

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

The T-1000 responded with a slight smirk. The stapler attack was hardly the only one in his arsenal, and there were plenty more office supplies to abuse, if needed.

"This is usually as eventful as it gets," he admitted. Of course, they were special circumstances, but he could bring those up later. "Unless you find a gundam to arrest. But you would need a weapon, and a fork is a good place to start." If anything, it prompted an eyebrow raise from your opponent, and contributed to the element of surprise. "My last one is probably still stuck in a T-Rex's eye."

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

Well so far IPD had been completely pointless. Maybe he should have seen if the post office needed help like Cloud. Or joined the building crew after all.

"What's a gundam?" He'd have to remember to get to work on making a weapon. Maybe a staff. Maybe he'd make one for Aeris too.

[skybot-snd.livejournal.com]

"Gundam mobile suit." Technical definitions were all well and good, but sometimes directness was better. "It's a giant robot," the appropriate amount of respect still went into his voice.

Zack seemed worried about the lack of activity in the IPD, so the T-1000 smiled, offering a friendly slap on the shoulder.

"And don’t worry, there are plenty of things to do. Like patrol. And paperwork."

[1st-zack.livejournal.com]

"Oh," he shrugged, not understanding. Giant robot suit? But he didn't really care.

The Zack to the shoulder had been unexpected and it jostled him slightly, but he appreciated the friendly gesture. Especially since so far, they had gotten off on a less than friendly start.

"Patrol, I got. Paperwork? Not so much." He could do paperwork, but talk about boring. Apparently though, boring was something the island had in great abundance.