Chasing the Cup


A Final Fantasy X Fanfiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X, Squaresoft does. I do, however, own most of the characters in this fic.




Chapter 1

"Duck!"

"What the-OW!"

That was the second time today that Calli had been hit in the head with a blitzball. The first time hadn't been too bad, she'd simply been blinded by the sun and missed a pass from Zenny. But no, this time was much, much worse. Their klutz of a forward had tried to pull off a Sphere Shot, and instead of going towards the goal ( like it was supposed to ), it veered off course and decided to say "hello" to her head! And now here she was, lying on the beach, and totally pissed. While holding the back of her head, the seventeen year old blitzer turned to face Luzin.

"You...are..so..dead!", and with that said the always hot-tempered Calli charged the poor, unsuspecting Luzin...even if he did out-weigh her by atleast fifty pounds and was atleast six inches taller. Nonetheless, he found himself trying to hold off the one-hundred and ten pound, five-foot seven inch fury they all called "Captain".

"Hey, hey! I'm sorry cap'n! Chill!", Luzin cried in vain. Like most people who knew Calli, he knew that it would take a lot of struggling to get the girl to calm down. "You guys? I could really use some help here!" Luzin looked to his teammates for assistance.

"C'mon Cal, he said he was sorry." Zenny stepped foward and with a little help from Takev and Nikki, they finally managed to pry their captain away from Luzin.

"Grr...I know..." She really hated when her temper got the best of her. It'd been happening a lot more recently since the village council had refused to help them get to Luca for the upcoming Blitzball Tournament. Instead, they gave them all jobs...so they could 'earn' their way. As of earlier that week, not only were they the Saoraki Warhawks....they were the fiend hunters of Saoraki. The job wasn't all that tough. Most of the fiends around the village were low-level and easy to take down. "Sorry I lost my temper Luzin." She gave him a sheepish grin and scratched the back of her head.

"S'okay cap'. I'd be kinda mad too if I got hit in the head with a blitzball...twice." He laughed and grabbed Calli in a headlock, then proceeded to give her what the old timers called a "noogie".

"Hey! You're messin' up my hair! Lemme go!" She struggled to get free, but to no avail she couldn't break his hold.

"Haha! You call that mop of your's hair? You always look like you jus' crawled outta bed!"

Okay, now she was just getting aggravated...Luzin's armpits smelt worse than some of the fiends they fought! Smirking slightly, she lifted her right foot. "I do not!", and with that said she brought her boot clad foot down onto his sandal clad one. Immediately he let go and began to hop around on his left foot.

"What'd you do that for?!" Luzin cried as he sat down and nursed his foot.

She simply shrugged while trying to hide the smile that wanted to come forward. "I told you to let go, and you didn't.", she paused to contemplate an idea before speaking again. "You're armpits were pretty rank, too. You guys wanna take the rest of the day off, and meet back up later for patrol?"

Everyone responded with enthusiastic "yeah's" and started making their way back to the village, even Luzin, who was limping instead of walking. Calli and Zenny stayed behind long enough to collect the equipment before walking down the path that would take them to Saoraki.

Saoraki was one of the many small villages located throughout Spira. It was roughly the same size as Kilika or Besaid, before the defeat of Sin, that is. It wasn't poor by any means either, the council just consisted of too many cheapskates and old fashioned Yevonites, who thought it was better for the young blitzers to actually take on some responsibility. It just so happened that the village was having problems with fiends, and what better way for the Warhawks to learn responsibility?

"I can't believe we got suckered into hunting fiends just to be able to go to Luca!", Zenny suddenly exclaimed. It wasn't normal for him to erupt in a fit of anger. Nope, Zenny was pretty much the opposite of his sister. While both of them had the same brown hair and green eyes as their mother, their personalities were quite the opposite. Calli was short and hot-tempered like their father ( or so their mother says ), and he was slightly taller and quiet like their mother. He only spoke his mind when absolutely necessary and rarely resorted to physical violence, accept where fiends were involved.

"Yeah, it bites. But what else can we do?", Calli sighed in response. It wasn't like the gil they needed for the voyage to Luca was gonna just drop from the sky. Now that she thought about it, they would need new uniforms, too. As of now they just practiced in their normal clothes, which for her it meant wearing pair of black, baggy capris, a white tank top, and a pair of old scuffed up boots. The rest of the team was in pretty much the same shape. Even if they were good enough to practice and fight in, there was no way they could show up in Luca looking like some amateur blitzers.


They continued on in silence until they finally reached the entrance to Saoraki. The town was quiet, as usual. One thing about Saoraki, nothing interesting ever happened there. Atleast, not until Lady Yuna came to town after the defeat of Sin . People often wondered why someone as famous as her would ever want to settle in a place like Saoraki. Most of the villagers figured it was because she wanted to raise a family away from all the hustle and bustle of the city. Of course, now that she'd been there for twenty years, it was back to it's usual, boring self.

People were out and about, doing their shopping and what-not. Some were standing around chatting, or gossiping about things the two blitzers cared nothing about. Ol' Zeke was ranting and raving to one of the council members about how a wild chocobo had raided his patch of Gysahl greens. The look the farmer was giving them as they passed was one of suspicion. He really didn't suspect that they were the ones who'd led the chocobo there, did he?

"Calli! Zenny!" Both of the teens turned around at the sound of their names being called. It was none other than Calli's childhood friend, Rina. It so happened that Rina was also the daughter of Lady Yuna and the council Chairman, Bickson, a former blitz player for the Luca Goers. It was difficult to believe that her father was one of the biggest assholes of the village. She didn't look or act like him. Instead she had long, blonde hair, the bluest eyes that anyone'd ever seen, and had the same feminine grace as her mother.

She was also the most sought after girl in the entire village, much to Calli's dismay. She didn't know when her feelings had started to change, but the change had caused her to distance herself from her best friend. Sure, they still talked and sometimes hung out, but usually Calli just pretended to be more interested in blitzball or fiend hunting.

The look on Rina's face told them both that aimless chit-chat wasn't on her mind, however. "Rina, what's wrong?" To Calli's relief, Zenny had been the one to speak first.

"There's a fiend, a big one, blocking the path to the waterfalls!"

The two blitzers just looked at each other. "Should we get the others?", Zenny asked.

"Nah, she said it was just one fiend. I think we can handle that.", they nodded in agreement and dropped their blitzball equipment to the ground. They took off at a run, leaving Rina trailing behind them.


"Whoa! That's a...big..fiend!", Zenny exclaimed. In front of them stood one of the most dangerous fiends known to all of Spira. A Great Malboro. Atleast the two of them had the advantage of attacking from behind...for now.

"Yeah. Okay, this is what we're gonna do. First, we'll attack at the same time. After that, we'll have to take turns. While one of us distracts it, the other will attack. Watch out for it's Bad Breath attack, too. Got it?"

"Uh-huh. Let's get this bitch!"

They drew their weapons, Calli's being a worn out long sword and Zenny 's being a double-edge...without the Firestrike or Icestrike abilities. The council was too cheap to even give them decent weapons to fight with.

"Ready? 1...2...3!", they both ran forward and with swords at the ready, they each delivered a deep enough slash to the back of the Malboro so that large amounts of it's greenish looking blood spewed forth. Zenny leapt backwards to avoide the splash, while Calli dodged to the side and rolled so that she was now crouching in front of the monster. Now that she was distracting it, Zenny could attack again. This time, he buried his sword inside the monsters back, almost to the hilt, before pulling away. "Switch!"

While he ran in front of the Malboro, Calli ducked under one of the fiends flailing tentacles and rolled into a crouch behind it. With her being the quicker of the two, while Zenny was more aggressive, she was able to strike more than once. The wounds inflicted by Zenny were still bleeding quite a bit, so it wouldn't be too long before the fiend weakened simply from blood loss. She figured if that was the case, she may as well contribute by doing a little slicing and dicing. She charged foward and swung the sword like one would swing a baseball bat. The hook-like end of the sword caught the Malboro in the side, and as she followed through with the swing, it tore it's way through the fiend's flesh. That's when she felt it. She'd struck the gland that produced the venom for it's Bad Breath attack. They both had to get out of there before the gas leaked out into the air around them.

"Zenny! We gotta get out of here!" She ran around to the front of the now-dying Malboro and took hold of Zenny's shirt. Gas was already starting to leak out of the monster's mouth and other places on it's body. And it wasn't until they turned around to run that they noticed the ledge they were so close to. Looking back at the fiend, then back to the ledge, they both knew there wasn't any other way out of there. So, without any hesitation, they lept over the edge and dove into the pond below.


"How in the hell did one of those get here? Aren't they found in places like the Calm Lands or somethin'?", Zenny was pacing back and forth in front of his sister. After defeating the Malboro and jumping into the pond they had eventually made it back to the village. Both of them were soaked to the bone, their boots made funny squishing sounds when they took a step, and...they stunk. Villagers had literally cleared a path once they'd gotten a good whiff of the two blitzers/fiend hunters. And now, thanks to two very big bars of soap, they were finally allowed into another part of their home...besides the bathroom.

"Yeah...and the Calm Lands are very far from here. There's no way one of those things could have er..migrated or whatever, from there to here.", Calli sank back into one of the three lounge chairs that were situated around the living room. Ever since they'd returned from their little adventure, she'd been troubled by the fact that such a large fiend had found it's way to their village; and the fact that Rina had been the one to find it only made matters worse. What had she been doing outside the village all alone anyways? Sure, Rina was a smart and strong-willed...but she wasn't a fighter.

"Do you think there's more of 'em out there?", Zenny plopped down rather ungracefully into a chair that was adjacent to hers. Both teenagers were tired and simply wanted nothing more than to sleep.

"...I dunno. Let's call a team meeting tomorrow and discuss it with the rest of the gang.", she paused long enough to let out a yawn. "If there are more larger fiends lurking around, we're gonna need all the muscle we can get."

"Yeah...", Zenny shot a glance towards the battered swords that were laying on the floor. "...especially with the crappy weapons we have."