A Dark and Stormy Night

Part 1

 Zack cheered, "Let's go, Spikey! Let's go!!"

"You know I'd probably go faster if you were carrying something," he glared as he shifted the bags on his shoulder.

"Oh! Thanks Spikey I almost forgot!" Zack grabbed two bags and started skipping across the parking garage.

The lights flickered above them, "Why do we have to leave so early?" Reno grumbled, "I haven't even finished my cigarette yet." He stumbled with the bag over his shoulder, he cursed as part of his cigarette dropped on the ground. He bent to pick it up, his disheveled hair flopped in front of his eyes blocking his view, and his bag slipped off his shoulder.

He made a few choice words, "Oh! Come on, this is fun!" Zack chirped as he grabbed Reno's bag and flung it over his own shoulder.

"Thanks," Reno said as he smoothed back his hair and tried to put his cigarette back together.

"You're welcome!" Zack marched along enthusiastically. "Where are your other bags by the way?" he looked back at him.

"That's it," Reno said barely paying attention to anything but the cigarette in front of him.

Zack and Cloud stopped, "What!?" Zack asked, "What's even in here!?" He started rummaging in Reno's bag, pulling out a pack of a cigarettes, and then another, and another, and another, and another, until he realized there was at least half a carton, "Dude!!! How much do you need!?!?" Reno shrugged his shoulders, "We're only going to be there a week!!"

Reno stopped and his eyes widened, "I'm gonna need more cigarettes! Are we stopping by a gas station on the way out?"

"Reno! You don't need that much!" Cloud said shocked.

"Dude, you're gonna die!!!" Zack wailed.

Reno shrugged, "I figure I'll be stabbed in a bar fight before the cigarettes catch up," the two halves of the cigarette finally joined together somewhat, "Finally," he mumbled as he relit it. The movement from his mouth loosened the bond again and it dropped on the floor, he cursed, and reached to pick it up.

Zack stepped on it before he could reach it, Reno glared up at him, "I'm not gonna let you kill yourself!" Zack said, "You're my friend! And if I have to, I'll protect you from yourself!"

"An intervention?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah! This whole week you're not gonna have one cigarette!"

"What!?!?" Reno yelled.

"You can't do that Zack. With how many cigarettes Reno smokes a day, going cold turkey would be catastrophic," Cloud said.

"Hmm... You're right, Spikey," Zack laughed, "Good thing you're here! I might've done something crazy like dump all his cigarettes through the manhole cover on 5th Avenue!"

Reno roughly grabbed his bag from Zack and hugged it close, glaring straight into Zack's soul, "You do it and you die," he hissed menacingly, before slinging the bag over his shoulder and walking to the meet up point.

Zack and Cloud cringed as they saw Reno walk off. "Probably shouldn't have said that within earshot," Zack rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Especially now that if they go missing he'll blame you," Cloud said, "But don't worry, he knows you mean well."

They heard footsteps running towards them and the sound of hysterical bubbling laughter. They looked to see a man in a white lab coat running around the parking garage with three guards running after him. The man was pretty fast, outmaneuvering the guards he jumped towards Zack, "Ha-ha! Cookies!! Ha-ha!" he laughed inches from Zack's face before jumping off and running in circles around a column, two of the guards stopped exhausted, but the last one made a ditch effort. Cloud and Zack watched as the man was taized, hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes, and being drug by his ankle back to the main building.