Disclaimer: I do not own any of the things involved here, except for John Call. He's sort of my alter-ego.
The Chronicles of John Call
Chapter 1: R-Day
Squall Leonheart stood overlooking the entrance to Balamb Garden with his hands clasped strongly behind his back, and his eyes scanned the crowd in front of him.
"Man, these new candidates just keep getting smaller and smaller!" Zell Dincht said next to Squall, bent forward to peer into the crowd, "I don't think any of them are taller then me!"
"That must be a relief for you then," Irvine Kinneas said as he leaned against the railing on the side of the stairs, "I'll bet you couldn't teach a class that was taller then you."
Zell spun indignantly to glare at the taller man, "Oh yeah, and I got real scared when going up against huge monsters and even larger sorceresses! You remember Adel? She was huge! And if I can handle her, then I can handle a few Plebes too."
Irvine snorted and turned his gaze down on the milling mass of candidates, many of them shouldering their footlockers and suitcases of personal equipment. None of them wore a uniform though, so it was easy to pick out the SeeD cadets and SeeDs that patrolled the candidate ranks as they tried to form some semblance of order.
One of the candidates ran into another one, making that candidate land flat on is back, something crumpled in his pack. Jumping up furiously, the candidate confronted his offender with a raised fist and very harsh words. In seconds, two SeeD cadets were on the two before the confrontation could get any worse.
Squall's permanent glower deepened, and he was about to walk down to handle the situation himself, but a hand caught his shoulder. Quistis Trepe stood behind him and said quietly, "Let the cadets handle it."
Squall hesitated and then nodded, "They could use the practice," he said and went back to standing with his arms clasped behind his back.
Irvine and Zell snickered loudly at the exchange, but were quiet when Quistis turned her attention to them.
A loud bell tolled out across the grounds of Balamb Garden, and a hushed silence began to fill the campus.
After the tenth strike of the bell, Squall nodded to Zell who shouted loudly, "Attention!"
All of the cadets and candidates quickly snapped to attention, as they had been taught to do. Squall picked uneasily at his SeeD dress uniform, but walked out to the edge of the stairs to give his speech.
He hated speeches, he always thought that actions were far superior to any words, but he knew that it was always expected of the Headmaster of any Garden to a rousing inspirational speech on R-day.
Using a small spell that amplified his voice he said, "Welcome all of you to Balamb Garden! You have come to answer the call to join an organization that has a short, but very rich legacy. My name is Squall Leonhart, and I am the Headmaster of Balamb Garden."
He paused for a second to gather what he would say next, the only thing that could be heard in that moment of silence was the hallow clag as a chain hit a flagpole. The cadets and candidates were still silent.
"In order to stay here, you must pass a two part exam to be taken in one hour. The first part will consist of a series of physical challenges in the Garden's Training Center. The second is a written exam which will test your academic ability. Should you fail either of these tasks, you will be asked to leave. Good Luck!"
He cut off the amplification spell and turned to Zell, "Take them to the Training Center. I'll be along to join you in just a second. Have them leave their stuff down in the entrance, they're not in Garden yet."
With that, he turned and walked back into the Garden.
"Why couldn't he just do that himself?" Zell asked Irvine, who shrugged.
Zell turned to a few of the SeeD cadets and relayed the orders that Squall had given him, and everywhere bags were thrown off of shoulders and suitcases were set down.
One candidate attempted to keep his backpack with him, but a cadet quickly told him, "Leave it. No one's going to steal it."
The candidate looked uneasy, but he consented and dropped it onto the rest of his stuff.
Smiling Zell said, "Alright all you grunts! Follow me!"
Irvine shook his head and walked in with Zell, "Calling them grunts won't get them on your side, you know," he said.
Zell shrugged, "You think I care?" he ran a hand through his spiky hair, "You think any of them will take unarmed combat training?"
Irvine smiled, "Not as many as will take sniper training."
They passed past the main gate and waved to the old man who sat at reception, he had been there ever since the Garden was founded. He was probably Cid's cousin or something, but no one ever talked to him except when they wanted to play him in a card game.
Zell glanced over at Irvine, "You care to make a wager on it?" he asked.
Irvine smiled and pulled off the cowboy hat he always wore, "Of course. How about 200 gil?"
Zell winced as he figured how many hotdogs that was, and then he figured how many he could buy if he won and shook Irvine's hand.
The two SeeD commanders turned right at the elevator, toward the Training Center and the SeeD candidates turned with them. Many were muttering soft comments to their neighbors and looking up at the vaulted ceiling or at the sparkling fountain that surrounded the elevator shaft. One particularly loud candidate wondered what kept the roof of the Garden up, and was quickly told to be quiet by one of the SeeD cadets.
As the group moved into the training center, the air began to become noticeably heavier and the group began to become more anxious to move forward. After a door slid open, they came into a wooded area and in a clearing stood Squall Leonhart, his arms crossed over his chest.
A few of the candidates began to mutter about having a live forest inside of a building but stopped as Squall's blue eyes began to wash over them.
"This part of the challenge is extremely dangerous," the SeeD commander said, "You must get to the other side of this training center without being knocked out by the various monsters that roam around here. Should you get into serious trouble, an instructor will step in and you will be told to leave. Good Luck."
Zell pulled a pair of metal gauntlets out of his pockets and put them on, while Irvine gathered a shotgun out from under a tree, where he had placed it earlier. Squall and a few other instructors like Quistis moved into the woods, and the SeeD cadets left as well.
To the candidates they began to realize what they were expected to do, and thought it was a race and began to run off into the woods. A few candidates began to talk amongst themselves and began to form little groups who moved off into the woods together. A few knew that they were expected to face monsters while in the brush and began to search around for weapons, coming up with only sticks and rocks.
About a quarter of the SeeD candidates decided that it would be better for them if they stayed alive and made to leave. As each one did, a SeeD cadet asked them their name, and crossed it off of the record.
One candidate named John Call watched all of these groups with interest and then began to stroll of casually into the woods. John was a man of average height and build, but had the look of some one who was overly confident which could be seen by his stride, it was more of a swagger. His face was angular, but his nose was more bulbous then pointy. His eyes seemed vauge, as though his thoughts were else where.
A short way ahead there was a fork in the road, and he halted to look both directions. Both curved out of site ahead, and he figured that both would lead him to where he needed to go, so he took the right path.
He quickly discovered that he should have taken the left path, because the right was overgrown and had a small lake in the center of it. Cursing to himself silently, John moved back toward the main path but halted as he heard movement in the undergrowth a head. He peered cautiously a head and was rewarded with a face full of goo.
There was no other word to explain it, but it HURT. Having the stuff in his eyes didn't help either and John was forced to wipe the stuff out of his eyes before he could even stand up. Rage filled him, and he stood up to address his attacker. He was surprised to see a large Gnat standing in front of him.
The gnat was not the small insect that shared it's name, but was rather a larger combination of a fly trap and a pitcher plant that could move. Laughing at his stupidity, John moved forward and grabbed one of the gnat's long branch like arms. The thing shrieked and tried to spit more goo at him, but John avoided it easily. He instead flipped onto his back and threw the thing over his head, and it landed into the pond. It flailed and then sunk beneath the murky water.
John sighed at the burning sensation that still prickled across his skin and he moved into the direction of the fork again, only to hear another sound in the underbrush. John glanced off to the left of the path expecting to see another gnat, but was shocked to see a very large T-rexasuar glaring at him out of beady eyes. John froze, and instantly recalled reading about T-rexasuars: They can be lazy if you don't present yourself as too easy prey, and don't like water.
John turned and ran, just as the T-rexasuar lurched for him, the monster's jaws missing John by only a few feet.
John jumped feet first into the swampy water and began swimming away from the shore as fast as possible. The T-rexasuar roared in frustration and tried to snap at John as he swam away. Eventually the thing gave up and walked away, and John decided to keep swimming toward the other end, where he was supposed to go.
He swam for a few strokes and then stopped to listen. Nothing moved in the forest around him, though a few roars from the T-rexasuar could be heard in the distanced. He pulled himself out of the water with a heave, his clothing making a wet slosh as he hit the forest floor.
He kept moving through the forest, but halted when he came into another small clearing. This one had dying grass around it and a few fallen trees around the edge, and something about it set John's nerves on edge.
He was wet and shivering, and very uncomfortable, especially when the breeze would move through the forest. Then he realized what was making his nerves prickle: there was never a breeze indoors.
He spun and looked behind him: there was the T-rexasuar again glaring down at him with beady eyes. His own eyes widening, John turned and began running deeper into the forest, but he truly knew that he could never out run the giant beast.
The ground vibrated loudly as the beast chased after him, and John scrambled over a large log, and kept running. The beast loped easily over it and almost caught up to the running candidate when John switched directions running to the left. The giant dinosaur was caught of balance and tried to snap at him, but ended up running into a tree. It took the thing a few seconds to turn back around and take up the chase again.
When it looked to see where the candidate had run, it could not see him. Annoyed the beast growled and began searching around the area for a sign of its lost dinner. Giving up, the beast turned and walked back toward the entrance. There were an unusual number of students in the training center today; maybe he could get a meal out of one of them.
John crept out from under a log carefully; he was hoping to avoid notice from that huge beast. Finally certain that the T-rexasuar was gone, John moved into the open and started toward the rear of the Training Center again.
After he had left, Irvine Kinneas dropped out of a tree holding his rifle casually in one hand. Watching after the young candidate he propped a rifle against a tree and wrote on a clipboard, Candidate # 56 is quick on his feet and firm in his mind. He also has the great ability to use the environment to his advantage. Escaped T-rexasuar. Then he moved off into the forest to make sure that the T-rexasuar did not actually hurt anyone. It was easier then filling out letters of condolence and all that messy paperwork that went with it.
John moved from tree to tree feeling for every breeze every movement around him. Ever since the T-rexasuar had left him alone he had already run into a small swarm of large looking mosquitoes that he had had to beat away with a stick (they were called Bug Bites) and ran into two more gnats that he had punched into a pulp. The result was John's own personal exhaustion as well as two very large bug bites on his neck and one on his chest and several acid burns from the gnat's acids and a gash under his eye from walking into a stick which now burned with the sweat from his face.
Finally he saw a yellow glow up a head and began to move quicker, but something stepped in front of him. It was another candidate, but rather then move toward the light he faced John.
"Well I see you've made it this far, but I'm sorry to say you have just failed the test."
John was stupefied, "Why?"
"Because I'm going to make sure you don't finish it."
Confused, John asked, "What do you mean?"
The candidate rolled his eyes, "I'm going to knock you out so you don't finish the task given to you. That way you don't get into Garden."
John began to study the boy then, and noticed that he was a fairly large boy with broad shoulders and was extremely heavy set. In his fist was a very large stick that looked as though it had been ripped off of a tree recently.
"Quit fooling around, we can both finish, it's just right there…"
The larger boy took a step forward and brought his stick up smoothly and began to advance on John.
Looking around for some way to get past the boy John picked up a slightly smaller stick and held it awkwardly. The grin on the larger boy's face was one of pure glee, "This should be fun!" he said and began to slash at John with his big stick.
Moving very poorly, John managed to keep the stick away from his head and his body but didn't block the stick as it grabbed his leg, forcing him to fall backwards. The big stick fell down toward John's face and John managed to place his own stick between him and the large staff, but his stick shattered on contact. Good thing for John, it deflected larger stick enough to where it got stuck in the mud next to John's head.
Seeing his opponent temporarily off balance and in a frenzy with anger and pain, John lashed out with his two broken sticks and managed to catch the candidate on the side of the head.
The large boy staggered back dropping his stick and putting his hand to his head. Charging forward, John struck again and again until the boy toppled over backwards, bleeding from many bumps and scrapes on his head.
John kicked him one more time and staggered toward the bright yellow light, his head throbbing and he could feel the blood pulsing through his ears.
Zell glanced out from around the a tree as the boy left the area. He looked down at the big boy who was groaning and moving around on the ground. Zell hated bullies. He had a few bad memories from his time at Balamb and also while he was a boy at Edea's mansion, although those memories were sketchy. Regardless, Zell did not like bullies.
Next to Candidate # 56, he wrote Shows incredible resolve and is extremely resourceful.
Zell scanned through his binder and under Candidate # 143 he wrote Bully. Prefers to eliminate his competition rather then out compete them.
Squall Leonhart stood from where he was leaning from against a log that was bathed in yellow light. A very bloody boy stepped out from the foliage and scrambled on his hands and knees over to the light where he stopped and gasped.
Then he stood up and seemed to take notice of everything around him for the first time. He noticed the Headmaster looking at him with a raised eyebrow and gulped, then he snapped to attention after several very deep breaths and said, "Candidate Call reporting to the Headmaster for the first time as ordered."
Squall said, "You are the first candidate to arrive, Mr. Call. Have you seen any others?"
John was about to tell the headmaster about the big kid who had attacked him in the thicket, but decided not to because when he was about to bring it up, anger filled him to where he could bairly talk.
"No one sir, since you cut us loose," he said with a slight quaver in his voice.
The Headmaster caught the quaver, but let it pass, instead he said, "I expected more to show by now. What kept you?"
John inhaled to answer, but as he did a crashing was heard just through the underbrush behind the Headmaster. John's eyes widened and he quickly reached for a stick or something with which to defend himself, but he relaxed when a small group of Candidates walked into the clearing, they were carrying a few sticks and stones, but their clothing was all torn up, as was John's clothing.
It was a group of four, two male and two female, and they all had the wide eyed look of someone who had just stepped off a roller coaster.
"Congratulations," Squall said flatly, "You have completed the first part of the Entrance Exam. The next part will be a writing portion."
As the different remaining Candidates tumbled in one at a time or in small groups, it seemed like a significant number had been knocked out of the entrance just by the gnats and bug bites that frequented the area.
Just as the time limit for passing the test was dwindling to a close, the very large boy staggered out of the thicket, bleeding from the ears. His eyes were fogged over but they focused when they saw John sitting up against a log.
In the end, almost fifty Candidates remained.
Squall turned to the Candidates as the SeeDs all reported that all candidates were present and accounted for and said, "You all are accepted into Balamb Garden. This is just the beginning though, it only gets tougher from here. Tomorrow you will take a writing portion that will determine where your class assignment will be. Thank you, you are all dismissed to the infirmary and from there to the Quad, where you will receive your room assignments. Whether that assignment is permanent or only temporary is truly in your hands. Welcome!"
The weary Candidates now Cadets all applauded heartily despite their exhaustion, and were cheering as they were lead out of the Training Center.