Guardians' Tales
Chapter II: Last Minute Cram Session
Era: Tranquil-Mystic Calendar
Cycle: June 21, 2548
Time: 14:53 Galactic Standard Time, 05:10 Resident Time
Star Cluster: HUB
Planet: Resident
Location: High Orbit, Fifty Minutes to Touch Down
Sora's POV
"...Choice..." There's that voice again.
Hey guys, its Sora again. Looks like you dropped in just in time for this little event.
"...Choice..."
The echoing voice? That's been happening for about three months now. I keep having this dream. That I'm falling down this endless black void. Just falling and falling and falling some more. While I fall there's this voice going on about a choice.
"...You will make a choice."
Wait, it's never said this before.
"Life and Death. The choice will be up to you."
Okay, now I'm a little concerned. What is this thing talking about?
"Remember, should you choose poorly, all that you care for will suffer...and die."
What is that suppose to- "...ra..." What now? "...Sora..." I think someone is trying to wake me. "Wake up, Sora!" whoever it was is screaming in my ear now. SMACK!
I jolted awake when my face was suddenly hit by a deceptively soft hand. "It's about time! We've been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes." Xion told me as I looked around the cockpit. I noticed that Selphie was massaging her right hand, guess who woke me up.
"Why?" I asked, completely neglecting one important and impending detail in favor of my stinging cheek. "We still have twelve hours till we get to Resident."
"That's why we were trying to wake you up, Sora." Squall cut in. "The only way to get you to wake up was for Selphie to smack you since she was the closest out of us."
"How hard is your skull anyway?" Selphie questioned while she still massaged her hand.
"Anyway..." Squall said refocusing us. "The reason why we woke you up is because of that." He pointed to the windshield of the Gummi Ship.
I saw a large blue planet, much bigger than our home and covered in much larger continents. If I had to say, where our home world was covered in eightty percent water, this planet was covered in about sixty-five percent with continents of varying sizes and shapes. I'm guessing that's Resident since we were heading straight for it.
"We're going to land in about thirty minutes, Sora." Xion told me. That explains why they woke me up. I guess I slept through the twelve hours I thought we had.
"Do you guys have everything you need for the test?" Donald squawked from the co-pilots seat as he tapped on some buttons to make a course correction and descent vector.
"I have my two Gunblades in my bag." Xion replied.
In case you are wondering. When Squall started living with us, Xion would pester him non-stop to teach her how to use a Gunblade. After a week of constant pestering from Xion, Squall caved and started teaching her how to use his Gunblade. It was a large two handed blade with eight slots on a revolver clip. Xion, of course, couldn't lift it. It was a good thing Squall knew how to make those things or he wouldn't hear the end of Xion's pestering. He made her a shorter more streamlined Blade that was as wide and long as her leg with a smaller six slot clip with two short barrels on each side, no bigger than an inch length wise and two inches width, with a groove leading from the openings for the bullet to travel and rotate along. Why does Xion have two if Squall only made one? Xion was a fast learner when it came to things she was interested in and figured out how to make one by watching Squall. She added a black cloth grip to complement the icy blue grip Squall had made for her.
"I'll have to improvise something if I'm going to survive this test if it's as physically inclined as you said Selphie." I didn't bring a weapon, I had no need to since I didn't have one to begin with. So I just decided to wing it when we got there.
"They should let you choose your weapon when you enter if you don't have one." Selphie placed a finger on her chin as she thought aloud. "But if they don't, you'll have to be extra careful when you're by yourself Sora."
"I will Selphie."
"Are you sure you can't tell us anything more than we'll have to take part in a survival simulation for the test? Aside from having to wear an old shirt and jeans." Xion asked Selphie, I could tell the worry in her voice. She was probably scared of what a military institute might put her through.
Selphie looked at Donald and Goofy before she whispered to me and Xion. "I'm not sure if this is true, but I hear the Headmasters are planning something special for this year's exams." We leaned in closer so we could hear more clearly. "Rumor has it that this year's exam will be a team based one. I'm guessing you'll be graded individually on your performance and how well you can coordinate. Probably in response to the increasing bratty attitude among Resident's nobility."
"Is there a chance me and Sora will be on the same team?" Xion asked in a whisper. I would like for her to be on the same team as me so I could keep an eye on her, but I'm not sure how good our chances are of that happening.
"Hmmm, if it is team based, then the chances of you getting teamed together in a group is pretty low since you would be up against one hundred examinees."
Xion lowered her head in discouragement at the response Selphie gave. "Oh..."
"Don't worry, just keep your chin up and do your best." Selphie tried to encourage us.
The ship suddenly began to shake when we hit the planet's atmosphere. I looked ahead and saw a large gray cloud hovering over an island, probably fifty kilometers wide at least. Donald looked over the co-pilot seat and told us the bad news. "Looks like we're coming in during an electrical storm." That's what I was afraid of, entering a planet's atmosphere during an electrical storm is never a good idea. "You'd better buckle up. We're going to try to navigate through it."
We did as told and strapped ourselves in. Xion clung to my shirt pretty tightly, she never was one for thunder and lightning. Selphie clung to Squall, much to his annoyance. I glanced over Xion's head and saw another ship making a faster descent through the cloud. I couldn't make out anything specific about the ship, only that it was another model of Gummi Ship, probably a military class vessel.
Before I could attempt another look at the ship, the cabin went dark as we passed through the storm. Gray clouds shifted and moved out the way as we cut through them. I looked to our fearless pilots, their faces highlighted by the blue lights of the LED dashboard. Donald was typing furiously and Goofy was making subtle adjustments to avoid the lightning that struck around us. Before I knew what was happening we had passed through the clouds, all turbulence stopping and allowing for a smooth final descent. I looked at the Island I initially thought was only fifty Kilometers wide. This thing was a chain of Islands spanning the course of twenty thousand kilometers.
I quickly glanced back over Xion's head to the ship from earlier. I couldn't see it, but I didn't have to search long to find it since it had already flown in front of us and was heading towards an island near the left end of the chain, the second smallest from the looks of things. I guess that's where the Ferry to SOLDIER is since we were heading there too.
I could make out a little more from the other ship now, it looked similar to ours in design except it had a dual barreled canon on the underside and was black with red stripes for a color scheme.
"Say, that's looks like his highness' ship." Goofy said pointing at the ship.
"It IS his highness' ship. I wonder what he's doing here." Donald squawked.
His highness? Does that mean it's a king we're following? Nobody really asked the pilots since Xion was still hiding from the thunder using my shirt and Selphie was just bobbing her head back and forth and humming to herself. Squall was just looking out the window at the smallest island that grew as we approached the Cosmic port on the second largest island.
We touched down not long after and started down the ramp. Just as Donald and Goofy told us we had exactly two hours to reach the Ferry or we would miss the exam. Luckily the Cosmic Port is located ten minutes from the Ferry and a place to eat. We all stopped in and ordered some breakfast. I'll spare you the description, but we learned that the storm wouldn't be letting up and was going to down pour soon. We finished eating and made our way to the Ferry where we boarded with the other examinees. Donald and Goofy told us our things would be shipped to our dorm rooms upon our completion of the exam, the Institute will send someone to the ship to pick them up. Squall, Xion, and Selphie brought their weapons of course.
There were quite a few people here, not enough to fill a cruise ship, but there were around thirty to thirty-five people here, everyone dressed in casual wear, but had their weapons on them. There was one that stuck out to me vividly from my Blitz Ball days.
"Hey, Sora!" The blonde called to me. He wore shorts with his family logo on it and a white shirt with Blitz Ball written in blue with a water background around it.
"Hey, Tidus, what are you doing here?" I knew Tidus from our days as friendly Blitz Ball rivals. He played for the Zanarkand little league and always bragged on how he would make the major leagues and out do his dad Jecht, the best Blitz Ball player in existence.
"My dad enrolled me here. Said it would teach me some discipline." I could hear the annoyance in his voice, but Tidus would be fine. He always groans at first, but given enough time, he would adapt and deal with it.
"Arrival at SOLDIER Island in five minutes." The Ferry man called over the loud speaker. Sure enough we were approaching the Island.
Most of the island was foliage, I'm guessing to preserve some of the island's natural beauty, but we could still see the facility in the distance due to some of its buildings towering over the tree line. We soon came to dock and followed the path to the facility and soon enough we were there, gathered in the courtyard and awaiting an announcement from the exam proctor. Squall and Selphie had already made their way to their dorms where they could watch our performance. Yeah, you heard right, watch us take the exam. Do the upperclassmen just sit around and watch the freshmen run around frantically and laugh? If that's the case then I'd better be on my toes or I may end up on someone's hit list.
Anyway the courtyard was wide and expansive, easily able to accommodate one thousand students. It looked to be the central hub for moving from class to class. The center had a marble fountain, it wasn't too spectacular, but it was enough to let us know that even though it was a military academy it was still a school first and foremost...well that and the walking brooms sure helped alleviate any tension. The rest of the Institute had various well-kept hedges and trees dotted around with flowers to help lighten the atmosphere while we waited. Soon more and more examinees showed up and we numbered around a hundred by the time the last boat showed up. One of the walking brooms came by and handed us blank transparent cards. I'm not certain what they were for though I'm sure it's part of the exam.
Xion and Tidus were right next to me. The thunder storm looming overhead still had Xion spooked, but she did her best to not look scared. Tidus had his hands on the back of his head and a large blue sword on his back, about as wide as Squalls, except had a hook at the end and I could have sworn there was actual water in the sword. If that wasn't weird enough for you then how about the fact that there were actual bubbles radiating off the blade, freaking. BUBBLES! How does that even work?
"Listen up you greenhorns!" A gruff voice called over the loud speaker. His voice echoed through the forest, you could hear birds flying away for a second. We turned to the source to see a man in gray combat overalls, cargo pants, gray combat boots, and a gray short sleeved shirt with a matching hat, just gray everything. The only that wasn't gray was his brown skin and black hair you could tell he was in his late twenties and built like a military man.
"Many of you are probably wondering. 'Who is that and why did he call us greenhorns?'" That wasn't very far off from the truth. "Well I'll tell ya!" His voice sounding of sarcastic joy. "I am Avery Johnson. Staff Sergeant of the UNSC. That's United Nations Space Command for those of you who don't read or keep up with the local news. I should also mention, in case some of you think you can just brush off what I will be saying in the next few minutes, that I am a member of the ODST, Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, aka Hell Jumpers." How does a group get nicknamed Hell Jumper? "If you're wondering about the nickname I'll make you a deal, pass your exam and take one of my gym classes." I saw a small smile form on his lips. "I'll tell you all about it."
"He's the gym teacher?" I said to no one in particular, but I could see that everyone else thought the same too just by looking at some of their faces.
"Now, I will be proctoring this exam. I also designed the conditions of the exam." Oh boy. "But seeing as how I only designed ten different scenarios for you to take your exams, I figured I'd make this interesting for the upperclassmen and the Headmasters to watch." I'm hoping this is going where I think it's going. "This year's exam will be a team effort." Yes! Thank you Cosmos! "Under one condition." Screw you Chaos! "This will be a survival scenario. As a group of ten, you will be dropped into one of ten scenarios since there is only ninety-nine of you, one group will be at a disadvantage. I will let you know now, scenario seven is the toughest of them all. Pray that your teammates are competent and hope to lady luck that you are not the handicapped group or get scenario seven. Any questions?" Sergeant Johnson asked.
No one replied, it was pretty self-explanatory. "Good, now you were given a card when you arrived. Currently the cards are blank. In a moment I will press a button and the card will light up with a number. Two of our current students will be holding a card with the same number. They will be your dorm advisors should you pass the test. You'll make their school year easier if you fail." He half-jokingly added. "You will find your dorm advisors and they will escort you to one of SOLDIER's many simulation rooms for your exam. That is all." With that Sergeant Johnson tapped the pedestal, probably the button to turn the cards on, and walked away from the pedestal. The twenty upperclassmen walked out and spread out around us so the groups wouldn't get cluttered or wonder off with the wrong group.
"I got ten." Tidus said as he looked at the green image on the transparent card. "What about you Sora?"
I reached for my card and noticed that Xion had a seven on her card. I looked at mine and saw the same thing. "Seven. Same as Xion." I replied, my relief palpable.
"Ah, man." Tidus half pouted. "I guess, we're rivals again huh?"
"Looks like it." I chuckled. "Good luck on your exam."
"Just pray you aren't the group with nine members." Tidus replied as he took off towards his advisor.
I looked around for me and Xion's advisor and saw a number seven held over a girl with long brunette hair. I already saw a group forming near her and the blunette next to her. "C'mon, Xion, let's go meet our group." BOOM! "Before it starts to down pour." She nodded meekly as we moved towards them.
Aqua's POV
"Johnson certainly did a good job of putting the freshmen on edge." The brunette next to me said. She wore all black. A black tank top with matching leather gloves. Black shorts, much like mine, with a long black drape that fell to her ankles and black and white sneakers.
"At least he didn't try to treat them like military recruits, Tifa." I replied.
Right now there were four of our advisees and two more on the way. The two of the four in front of us were my little sisters, Kairi and Naminé, in accordance with the dress code they were wearing old clothes for the transmutation later, nothing special just some shorts and an old white shirt. Nam brought a plain staff to use, no blades, no maces, just a plain old wooden pole. Kairi plans to let her fists do the talking I'm guessing.
The other two were obviously male. One had silver hair down to his shoulder blades. He looked like he kept it well cut since it wasn't in his teal-green eyes. The other was...different. I guess no one told him to bring old clothes since his clothing was rather elaborate, but still simple.
He wore a long sleeved hooded cloak that had platinum colored, or some kind of gray, trim on the opening of the sleeves and cloak. The back of the cloak had outlined in aqua blue stitching, I know I'm puny, that outlined a forest with a creek running down the center. The cloak opened enough to show that he was wearing rather simple clothes. From what I could tell he was wearing a black, sleeveless V-neck and faded sapphire blue jeans with a black pull belt and platinum buckle that had a downward facing crescent with two ribbon like detailing carved into the surface. A platinum colored drape, just as long as Tifa's, that appeared to be sewn into the hem of his jeans. He had the cloak over his head to conceal his face for some reason, and his hands were hidden in his sleeves since they hung a little longer than his arms. I also glimpsed the hilt of two swords on his side. They were slanted to a point and had sapphire blue cloth that crossed up one side of the hilt with a platinum dangling chain on the bottom of the hilts seven links shaped like black wings that had platinum outlining along the edges and connected by a black wire.
"Hey there!" A short spiky brunette boy waved to us with a raven haired girl clinging to his shirt, probably his girlfriend. The poor thing must be scared of the storm. Hopefully our last four show up and we can get inside.
"Hey you two. You must be our other advisees. We're just waiting on the last four and then we'll head to the simulation room." I said in my most welcoming voice. I looked up and saw two groups already heading to their designated rooms.
"That's cool. So have we introduced ourselves yet?" The spiky brunette asked.
"Not yet Spikes. We want to wait till everyone's here so we can do it all at once." Tifa replied. She jumped in the air to get the attention of anyone who was straggling behind. Now four of the groups had moved on to their rooms. If we're last then we're last, no use whining about it.
I saw two more heading towards us both blonde. One male, the other female with misty blue eyes and had her hair in a topknot ponytail. The boy looked a lot like the brunette, even his cerulean blue eyes. Why would he leave his brother to find us? Maybe they got separated in the crowd.
"Hello." The girl greeted in a cheery manner. She seems nice enough and looks about Kairi and Nam's age. Hopefully between the three girls we have here, they can mellow Kairi out a bit.
"Hi. We'll start introductions in a sec, we just need to wait for our last two members." Tifa replied then she looked around and it all sank in as the last three groups had already left.
I saw another male walking toward us, he was Caucasian with shoulder length spiky brown hair and brown eyes. Like the cloaked figure, he too didn't wear any old clothes, instead he wore black. A black unzipped over jacket, I saw a golden dragon wing on his back when he turned slightly. His jeans, shoes, and shirt all of which held gold stitching along the sides. He seemed pretty distant, maybe he's shy or something. He had a long sword on his hip encased in a blue sheath with gold lining that moved and curved up it in a sort vine like pattern. The hilt of the blade was a darker blue, like the midnight sky, and had the same curved pattern as the sheath except it held a silver color instead of gold. The guard was in an angelic winged shaped design. In the center of the hilt and on the pommel were multicolored gems.
"It seems that you are the nine man group." Tifa replied with a chuckle. "Let's just hope the only number seven you get is on those cards. I hear this exam is much tougher than what we went through when we were freshmen."
"Well come on, we can do introductions on the way to the room follow me, we are assigned to the main gym near the northeast coast." I ushered them to follow while Tifa just tossed the sign to side. One of the brooms will get it later.
"So let's start with us, your lovely and beautiful dorm advisors." Tifa boasted while she walked backwards. "I'm Tifa Lockhart, age eighteen, and street fighter extraordinaire. I've yet to meet someone who take me on hand-to-hand."
"I'm Aqua Kokoro, age seventeen, and a Keyblade apprentice to one of the Headmasters." That seemed to catch some glances. "I won't say much about it now, but just know that a Keyblade is a very power weapon that is not to be taken lightly."
"So who are our fine recruits?" Tifa asked as she bent over slightly and placed her fists on her hips.
Kairi was the first to respond. "I'm Kairi Kokoro, age fifteen, and I wouldn't mind going a few rounds with you Tifa." You're gonna regret that Kairi. Tifa's been known to make some of the college level boys cry.
Tifa just replied with an amused smile. "Heh, you pass the exam and we'll spar as much as you like."
"And don't go easy on me because I'm Aqua's little sister."
"Don't worry, I plan to be much worse." Oh here we go.
"Um..." Nam piped up. "I'm Naminé Kokoro, Kairi's younger twin sister, and I like to draw."
"We've got an artist do we? I hope you do better that you sister. She can barely draw stick figures." Yeah, I can be pretty bad at-wait. What? Did she just throw me under the bus in front of my sisters.
"Oh shut up, Tifa. At least I do better with crafting AND I can cook!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what about our peppy blonde?" How does Cloud put up with her?
"I'm Terra Branford, age sixteen. I can do a little magic and I like chocobos." Definitely the reserved one of the group.
"I'll take you to the stables sometime. We could use some volunteers to help raise the chocobo there." Her face lit up when I mentioned the stables, I honestly thought she was going to squee for a moment. I can't wait to see how she reacts to our dorm Overseer. "You'll have to pass the exam first though."
"I'll definitely pass!" She exclaimed. I'll keep her love for chocobos in mind if her grades start to slip.
"And what about our clingy fraidy cat?" Tifa teased the little girlfriend.
"I'm Xion Hikari, age fourteen. I would like to be an actress-" BOOM! Goes the thunder. She squeaked and tugged tighter to her boyfriend's shirt. "And I can't stand thunder."
"Don't worry Xion, we're getting close to the gym, it's sound proof when the simulation starts so you won't hear a thing." I got to hand it to Tifa. She can be nice sometimes, you know, when she's not being a sarcastic brawler.
"I'm sure your boyfriend will protect you from the thunder." I tried to reassure her. Though I wasn't expecting her next response.
"Boyfriend?" She looked at me like I had grown two heads or something.
"The brunette you're clinging to." I replied with a puzzled look on my face.
"You thought Sora was? OH no, no, no. He's my older brother." Older brother?
Kairi and Tifa started laughing at me. "Nice one, Sis!"
"Yeah, Aqua! Ha, ha, ha. Way to make things awkward!"
"How was I supposed to know?!" I replied very strongly.
"You could have asked." Kairi replied still laughing at me.
"Will you two stop it already?!" They seemed to stop laughing though I could see they were still giggling. "Anyway!" I shot them one last glare before addressing the siblings. "You want to be an actress Xion?" She nodded her head. "I know a really good teacher on campus, I can recommend her for your classes if you'd like."
"Thank you, Miss Kokoro." Man she is cuteness incarnate.
"Please, just call me Aqua."
"Okay, Aqua."
"Since your sister already told us your name Sora, would you like to introduce yourself?" Tifa replied still snickering.
He flashed this really goofy grin before he replied, this must be our goof ball. It made us chuckle a bit, even the hooded guy and I could tell Kairi was trying not to snicker. Though the one with the long brunette hair was definitely not laughing. "Sure, I'm Sora Hikari, age fifteen. I would like to be a pilot, but the jury's still out on that."
"Hopefully you'll reach a verdict once you start taking your classes." Tifa replied. "Next?"
"I'm Roxas Gainsborough, age fifteen. I was asked to attend school by one of the Headmasters and I want to be a professional photographer." So he's not Sora and Xion's brother? They look so alike though.
"Nice! You and Naminé should work together. Maybe you could model for each other."
"Tifa!" I exclaimed. I could see both Roxas and Nam's face turn red from the idea. "Don't say things like that!"
"What? It's not like they weren't already thinking-" SMACK! That was my fist colliding with Tifa's head "OW!" She was crouching on the ground rubbing her head now.
"Anymore comments?" I asked still holding my fist up.
Naminé's POV
Aqua can pretty scary when she's annoyed. You could see her smiling, but the corner of her lips were straining and her eyebrow was twitching. Is it just me, or is there a vein sticking out of her forehead?
Aqua's POV
Tifa rose to her feet soon afterwards, still rubbing her head, and looked back to Roxas. "So how's your sister, Roxas?"
"She's fine Tifa. She opened a floral kiosk on campus here and recommended I come to attend school after the Headmasters scouted me." He scratched his left cheek with his index finger.
"She's right about that! If you need to learn anything you can find it here. I'm sure you'll find a good photography class, Roxas." Tifa punched him in the shoulder to emphasize her point.
He rubbed his shoulder in response, trying to stop his muscle from spasming. "Thanks, Tifa."
I looked at the silver haired boy to let him know it was his turn. "Next up is you."
"I'm Riku Fair, age sixteen. I'm just hear because my brother thought it would give me some perspective." So the silverette is mister smooth huh?
"Your brother wouldn't happen to be Zack Fair would it?" He just nodded at my question. "Looks like we have another ladies man, Tifa."
"Great. Just keep it in your pants kid. We don't need another Zack at this Institute."
I saw Riku's face turn bright red. "W-what?! I'm nothing like that lunatic!"
"Oh, touchy, touchy." Kairi teased.
"Quit it!" He's quite defensive about this. Zack really has a rep, even back home.
"And what about mister anti-social here?" Tifa pointed to the long haired brunette.
"I'm not anti-social. I just prefer to keep to myself for the most part." His tone was very different from what I was expecting. Despite his disposition, he had a very kind tone to him. I get the feeling he's not the trusting type though, since there was a bit of an edge to his words. "My name is Shinryu Verus, age fifteen. I want to be a biologist and the Institute has the best program for it."
"Well you came to the right place for it. Our biology teachers are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about that stuff." I replied with a smile in an attempt to get him to drop his guard a little.
"Good." Talk about simple and to the point.
"Anyway, it's time for our mysterious stranger." Tifa said as she slowed down until she was walking in front of the hooded boy. "How about taking off that hood and letting us see your mug, eh?"
"Huh?" He replied as he reached his hands up to his hooded head, which now I could tell he was the same skin tone as Sergeant Johnson just a little lighter, like cocoa, and his arms had tribal markings of a platinum hue. "I'm not wearing my-" Trust me, you are wearing it and I think he released it now. "..." He patted his head for a second before he finally said something. "Ooh." I can tell just by his tone that he's gonna be an eccentric one. "I completely forgot I had that on." He had a very slight accent to him, I could barely hear at points. I think earthlings called it Caribbean? Anyway, the first thing I noticed was his dread locked hair. It was black as his cloak and had...Gray streaks? They weren't many in number, but it looked like someone who was just in the opening stages of the transition. His hair was corn rowed on the top and sides of his head, but fell into several individual strands of dreadlocks as they reached the curve of his skull and tipped off with platinum clips that held various nature motifs and came to a point. His hair fell to the mid of his shoulder blades and have seven strands dangling over his face and stopping at the bridge of his nose and upper cheeks on the outer sides, still spaced evenly so he could see through his black framed, sapphire lens sunglasses, the arms of his sunglasses sporting crescent discs that covered his ears.
Oddly enough he had scars on his face, a long diagonal cut from the top left side of his head to the right side of his chin and two small horizontal gashes on his left cheek, he must have been in some fight to leave a scar like that. His eyebrows were arced at an angle with two shaved cuts going through the outside edge of each peak and his teeth were like that of a wolf's, long and sharp. Finally he had two necklaces, a platinum necklace that fell to his collarbone, it was simple in its design only having three small rhombus links with an elongated version connecting the next set. The second, a beaded necklace attached to a thin black rope that hung two inches lower than the chain. The beads were few in number and alternated between two blues and one gray along half the length of the necklace. In the center was a platinum wolf's head giving a side profile. The wolf's head had various black accents along the finer grooves and detailing with sapphire gems embedded in the eye.
"Holy dreadlocks mon." Sora exclaimed. I guess he's never seen dreadlocks before.
"I get that a lot." He replied with a nonchalant chuckle.
He lifted his head and removed his sunglasses to clean them so we could see more of his facial features and the first thing I noticed was his platinum iris. "Are you blind?" I instantly covered my mouth. That was very insensitive.
"Don't worry, Aqua, I'm not offended easily and yes, I am blind. But thanks to my spiritual powers, I can see just fine and in a few different ways." He replied very calmly and kept a very welcoming smile on his face.
"What kind of powers." Terra asked, her curiosity piqued. Most people with a magical background are always interested in learning new spells. A spell to cure blindness would be handy to learn.
"One thing at a time Miss Branford. I have yet to tell my name." He replied with a playful wag of his finger. "My name is Isaac Gospel, and I have a small problem. One of the staff here told me that I could find a solution if I came to the Institute"
"What kind of problem?" Riku asked.
"Hmmm, that's a little personal and we haven't passed the exam yet. If we do, maybe I'll tell ya more. Anyway, I'm here because I'm here and I like music and telling stories. That's about it." Simple life style.
We eventually reached the main gym. A large arena that could be molded and reshaped through a Computer AI and Aurora Unit 313 thanks to the Galactic Federation and Encom. The building itself was the size of a football stadium, the football where you actually use your feet to kick the ball. We entered to see the arena pit with stadium seats around the ring on a high wall.
Sora's POV
"This place is enormous!" What? It is. Okay maybe not as big as a Blitz Ball arena, but still large enough to leave an impression.
"This will be your examination room." Aqua told us. "Here you will be given your test and we will watch from the seats. If you finish early enough, then you can consider yourselves SOLDIER students."
"So when do we begin?" The guy called Riku asked.
"Momentarily recruit."
"What was that?" Xion asked.
"That would be me." A man suddenly materialized in front of us. He was wearing a black suit with red neon lights streaking about his shirt and pants. He had a cold and calculating expression. "I am called Commander Sark."
"And I am called Tron." Another man materialized in front of us, this one had blue neon instead of red and looked a little friendlier. "And you must be team seven?" He questioned us with an almost childlike curiosity.
"You got that right, Tron." Tifa replied to the neon sign.
"Ah, Miss Lockhart. I didn't know you were given the responsibility of dorm advisor." The red one, Sark, stated.
"The Institute must have recognized my responsible nature."
"Or they had no more juniors who would volunteer." Tron teased our would-be advisor.
"Hey!"
"Ha, ha, anyway it seems that we have the nine man group here."
Sark made an amused humph before he said. "That is...unfortunate."
"Why is that unfortunate?" Shinryu asked. I soon wished that he hadn't.
Sark closed his eyes and glowed for a moment. He opened his eyes shortly after and return to normal amounts of neon glow. "It's simple Mister Verus. You have survival scenario seven."
"What?" I replied and it seemed I was the only one who felt like we were in for a tough time, except maybe Roxas and Riku, they seemed a little on edge. Xion was still recovering from the thunder storm.
The red head, I think her name was Kairi, turned to me and said. "We have scenario seven you goof."
"I heard red, and why are you taking this so well? There is only nine of us and Mister Hell Jumper back there said that we would be screwed even if we had a full group."
"They always say that about exams. It's just the teacher's way of getting us to take it seriously." ...She had a point.
"He wasn't lying." We turned to Isaac, who had the most nonchalant look on his face. Well as calm as one can have when they have scars. I'm not sure I want to know how he got those.
"And how can you tell Isaac?" Riku asked him, a smug look on his face, even with his sunglasses on.
"Just another advantage of my sight. So when do we start?" He is really quick to change topics. Does he have a short attention span or something?
Tron glowed once again before addressing our robed dorm mate. "Mister Gospel, I was wondering why you and Mister Verus were the only ones not in basic clothing. You two were exempt from the transmutation." What does that mean? Are we getting a uniform or something? "The test will start when no one has any more questions. I will explain the circumstances and then you are on your own."
"I don't have any questions." Shinryu said.
"Me neither." Riku followed.
"I'm good to go." There goes Terra and to spare you a bore, everybody said the same thing.
"Very well, here is the scenario. You will be dropped into a zone. Maybe separated or grouped depending on the variables, and you must make your way to a downed ship and seal yourselves in it until help arrives, in this case, the end of the exam." Tron explained.
"You have two hours to complete the exam." Sark added.
"Good Luck and may the Goddess smile upon you." They said in unison.
With that Tron disappeared and our dorm advisors leapt off into seats. "Good luck you guys!" Aqua yelled back to us.
"If you pass, we'll take you out to eat!" Tifa added.
We were then engulfed in light and suddenly my body felt all tingly. Like I was being dissolved in a vat of spring water. Next thing I knew I was in a small clearing in the middle of a forest I had never seen before with the sun having long since set below the horizon. The stars could be seen in the night sky as well as a harvest moon.
I heard a rustling in the bushes next to me and I instantly dropped into my best boxer stance, let it be known now that I have no idea how to box, simply being in this stance gives off an intimidation factor...assuming that whatever I was fighting was indeed intimidated.
"Whoa, easy there, Sora. I'm on your side." Skulking out of shadows came Riku, the silver haired pretty boy. I lowered my intimidating stance since I knew we were on the same team.
"Any idea where we are?" I asked. I tried to look around for the others, there didn't seem to be anyone else coming. I really hope Xion's okay.
"Not a clue. I guess the computer sent us to different areas. I found you by accident when I just picked a direction and went for it." He pointed at the direction he came from to reinforce how divided we were.
"Lucky me." I replied sarcastically. "I don't like the idea of moving through a dense forest alone at night."
"Especially considering we don't know what could be lurking inside it." Thanks Riku, I completely forgot we could be killed at a moment's notice.
I took a few steps to the left to see if I could find a path. "Yeah...for all we know there could be a Behemoth hiding behind these trees-WHOA!" I fell face first into the dirt.
"Looks like your big feet are the most dangerous thing here." Riku joked.
"I just tripped over some...thing..." I looked to my foot to see a severed hand clutching something. I would've lost my breakfast at the mere sight, but for some reason dried blood and tendons don't affect people the way you'd think. It was still disturbing, but I could handle it.
"What do we have here?" Riku knelt down and took whatever it was the hand was holding and pried it from its grasp. It was a gray disk no bigger than my palm and had four buttons on the corner of it. "Looks like a locater."
"A locater to what exactly?" I asked rising from my feet and brushing the dirt off my arm.
"Good question. Let's find out." He tapped a button on the side and the thing lit up with a map and a single arrow pointed northeast with the number ten next to it. "Looks like a map of the forest and whatever that arrow is pointed to is about ten kilometers from here."
"Maybe it's the ship we're looking for. I doubt that hand was placed there randomly with this map." I theorized.
He furrowed his brow as he thought over my idea. "That makes the most sense, but we should look for the others before we draw any conclusions."
"Okay, now we just have to figure out where to look." I looked around the area again while Riku paced to the other side of the small clearing we were in.
"They can't have been teleported far from us." I heard him say.
I saw a small path through some bushes to our left. It was next to a river that flowed in the direction of the arrow, we looked to be on the west side it. "I found a path. If we follow it we're bound to run into the others."
"Good idea. Everyone is gonna need to drink sooner or later."
"Well Riku, I know we already introduced ourselves, but the names Sora Hikari. Let's look after each other this year." I flashed my goofy grin and extended my hand.
He just smirked and with an amused humph. He took my hand and shook it. "Riku Fair, nice to meet you, Sora."
Kairi's POV
Tron sure wasn't kidding when he said we could be separated during this exam. I found myself moving through a forest in the middle of the night with no one from the group to keep me company. Not a problem, I'm a big girl now. I can handle myself if things get rough. I had already been walking for a good ten minutes now.
'I wonder how Nam is doing. She should be fine as long as that staff doesn't break. I'm more concerned about whether or not she was paired with someone. I'm sure Isaac, Shinryu, and Terra can handle themselves. Terra's magic aside, Isaac and Shinryu look like they've seen their fair share of fights.' I tend to think to myself when I'm alone. It helps calm my nerves and allows me to think through a problem. 'Those others are the ones I'm more concerned about. That Xion girl had a pair of gunblades on her hips. I couldn't get a good look since she was clinging to that Sora guy the whole time. If she has those, she probably knows how to use them, but I'm still skeptical. Riku looks like he's smarter than the average person, he'll probably try and regroup with us before he does anything. Sora and Roxas? Roxas seems a little timid to survive on his own and Sora looks like the type to leap before he looks.'
I know it's mean to analyze people I've only just met, but if I'm going to prove the Celestials are behind the colonization attacks, then I need to know who is going to help me and who is just going to hold me back.
Snap!
I whipped my head towards the direction of the noise. I didn't even notice I was being followed. "Whoever you are, you'd better come out now or I'm going to pummel you into oblivion." A little bit later a squirrel emerged from the bushes with an acorn in its hand. It gave a confused glance, tilting its head to the side before stuffing the acorn in its mouth and running off to the side. "It's just a squirrel." I lowered my guard and turned around only to meet with a twitching bag of patchwork and a random cleaver for a left foot. The blade resembled that of a scythe in actual design, but it was chip and rusted.
I jumped back and assumed my fighting stance only to have two more drop behind me. I couldn't see too well on account that it was very dark and the only light was the harvest moon overhead. The sack looked like it had the face of a twisted court jester, purple clown hat and all. The two behind me had their blades replacing their right arms. They all looked like they were held up by strings almost like they were puppets or something.
"And here I was thinking I would be fighting exotic wild life." They meandered stiffly towards me. I could hear the clunking of wood as they took each strained step.
I lounged towards the one in front of me since he was moving the slowest and punched him right in his stomach only to connect with...nothing.
"Wha?" I didn't have time to process the discovery before it turned and back flipped, bringing its bladed leg down on my head.
I back stepped the attack and went for the other two. One lazily began to twirl with its blade at me as I got within a meter of it. I jumped over it and did a flip kick to the back of its head, this time I felt something solid, very solid, and I heard the sound of wood splintering. Whatever these things were, human was the farthest thing from it. The third jester twirled at me just as I landed, this time he got up to full speed and the sound of the blade cutting through the wind was enough to tell me they knew how to use those appendages, albeit clumsily.
I dodged between its peg legs and came face to face with the first puppet, its bladed leg poised to strike me again, but this time I had a plan. I quickly pivoted off my left hand, propelling my feet into the air for a swipe at its joint. I struck my target with ease as the sound of torn stitching echoed in my ears. When my legs struck the ground I immediately jolted up and dove for the free falling blade. I gripped the lose stitching, finding that there was indeed wood underneath. 'These are puppets? That would explain the hollow spot in its stomach.' I thought as I soared towards a tree.
I struck the tree, feet first, and somersaulted off it, back flipping over the limping leader and bringing its leg down on its head. I sliced through the stitching and wood and watched as the leader fell in half. His insides were comprised of maggots and what could only be described as liquid saw dust and... Darkness? 'I'm fighting a demon puppet?'
I looked up to find that the other two had circled around me and had me in a pincer maneuver and were meandering very slowly towards me. 'If they're trying to be intimidating, they're failing miserably.' They whirled up and began to twirl at me. I ducked down low and brought my newly acquired blade over my head to block the incoming blades. The two dolls collided with each other's blades and recoiled with a loud clang. I did my own version of their ballet routine and spun on one foot, putting all my strength into the move and cleaving them in half.
I lowered the blade into the ground and let it skid to a halt. "Well that was easy." I tossed the rusty blade to the side and continued through the forest for a good ten minutes until I came to a river. It seemed to flow northeast and I appeared to be on the west side. From what I could tell it was a good fifteen meters wide.
I placed my hand on my hip in a sort of relaxed thinking posture. "Hmmm. Assuming we didn't get scattered over the course of a few dozen kilometers, we should eventually bump into each other if everyone finds this creek." I looked in the direction the creek was flowing. 'This creek seems to go on for a while. I wonder where it lets out.' I started walking down the creek with the hope that I will bump into someone. Mother always taught me to look for water if I ever get lost in the woods.
Roxas' POV
'How do I end up in these situations? I come to school here at SOLDIER because my older sister is running a flower shop on campus. I get put in a group with a bunch of people who look like they grew up street brawling and now...' I look towards the petite blonde next me, her hair curled over her shoulder. 'I'm walking with the prettiest girl I've ever seen in the middle of a forest with Goddess knows what, prowling about.'
"You should try to relax a little, Gainsborough." I heard her call my name. "It's just a simulation, we aren't in any mortal danger." She has a very sweet voice. She seems to take after Aqua more than Kairi, but seems to be a little more reserved than Aqua.
"Thanks, Kokoro, but I don't do too well in forests. I have bad memories from when I was younger." I repressed the memories trying to worm there way back into my mind. I really don't want to remember those three.
"Then don't think about that. Just think about the test and finding the others. We can't have been separated very far." I certainly hope not. I only trained in swordsmanship. That doesn't do me much good without a sword. "Any idea where we should start?"
"Um... In this situation we should try to find a body of water that we can drink from. Sooner or later we're bound to bump into the others."
"Then let's go, Gainsborough." She told me with a bright smile.
"Okay, and please, call me Roxas."
"Then call me Naminé, Roxas."
Terra's POV
I was walking along a rocky coast by a creek with Sora's little sister, Xion. We had fallen into the simulation in the middle of a forest, and I mean literally fallen. I landed on my butt, that was very painful, and Xion landed stomach first on my lap, if she hadn't I probably would've been stabbed by one of her gunblades.
We had been walking for around twenty minutes with no sign of the others or any clear dangers. I used a simple illumination spell to give us a little light, even with the moonlight overhead there are still patches of darkness we should be wary of. I'm glad it's not thundering now since Xion has been on the lookout ever since we dropped in, she is very capable despite how she acted earlier.
"Hey, Branford?" I heard her call my name.
"Please, call me Terra." I replied with a smile.
"How hard do you think finding the ship is going to be?" I looked at her to see her hands placed behind her head.
I looked towards the sky while I thought aloud. "Depends on how much this simulation is based off of the Sergeant's military career and how hectic it was."
"Being in a group nicknamed the Hell Jumpers, I don't think it will be a walk in the park." That's an understatement, and we don't have time to search this whole forest if that bird's eye view we had is any indication. The forest area itself was wide and expansive, like an untamed continent, free of any influence by society. Though I did notice a faint flickering light to the northeast, judging from where the moon was in the sky.
I brought my attention back to the ground and examined our surroundings again. I felt like there was something lurking in the woods, something fearsome, but unnoticeable. "I'm not sure I want to know why they are called Hell Jumpers, but you're right about this being a difficult situation."
"It feels like we're being watched, even though there is nothing around to stare at us."
I'm surprised she noticed that. "You feel it too?"
She looked off into the distance "I had a lot of practice when Sora use to play Blitz Ball with me in the ocean. You'd be surprised how much being in deep waters improves your prospective once you've been disoriented."
"I bet, but to answer your question, I think it will probably take us half of the testing time to reach the ship. I noticed a flickering light to the northeast. It was faint, but it could be the ship."
"At least we have a clue. For a simulation that's supposed to be difficult, you'd think they would make the objective hard to locate."
I stopped dead in my tracks when she pointed that out. 'How did I not notice that?' I can't believe the thought hadn't occurred to me before. "We need to get moving, Xion." I quickly grabbed her wrist and took off running as fast as I could. "Now!"
"What's the rush, Terra?" I heard the concern in her voice clear as day. I didn't look back since I was preoccupied with building up speed, but I could imagine she was struggling to keep up with me.
"We can't afford to be separated like this, that's what." I jump into the air and dragged Xion along with me as I started to fly.
"Whoa!" She somehow managed to climb up my back and wrapped her arms around my neck. "How are you doing this?"
"Magic." I replied quickly and refocused on my flight path.
"I didn't know magic could do this."
I just smirked at her comment. "Only if you learn the right spell. But we don't have time to be impressed by that. We have to find the others and get to the ship fast." I kept flying along the river bank. My thought? If I keep moving, I'll eventually bump into someone. Not the safest plan, but it's better than wandering around on foot.
"But why do we have to hurry? I know we're on a time limit, but we should have plenty of time to find everyone and form a plan."
I looked over my shoulder at her as best I could while keeping my eyes on the path. "Think about it Xion. We have two hours to find a crashed ship in the middle of the woods. We are told we could be separated at the start of the test and they drop two of the three dainty looking girls from the sky so at least one of us could see where it was. And to top it off this is a simulation set up by a military soldier and supposed to be the toughest of them all." I saw that she connecting the dots and when her face lit up with concern and fear it all became apparent.
"Finding the objective isn't the test."
"It's getting there that's the real challenge." I suddenly heard a low thumping in the woods to our right, like the footsteps of a large animal and it was always followed by the scraping of rocks and dirt. I looked to the side to see the silhouette of a large hulking creature running on all fours in the forest. It was obscured by the trees so I couldn't see it well even if it were daylight. "Get your Gunblades ready Xion. We've got company on our right."
"On it." I felt her shift on my back the distinct ring of her blade as she withdrew it from her hip. "Can you keep steady for me?"
"I'll do my best." I replied. Luckily there seemed to be no obstacles before us.
Xion's POV
I aimed my gunblade, flicking my wrist and pulling a notch on the side to shift the blade so it was adjacent to the hilt to resemble an extremely long barreled revolver. Terra was keeping on a straight and steady path like I asked. I could see the creature next to us, its silhouette anyway, and aimed my blade at its head. If this is like a simulation then a well-placed headshot should drop it instantly, like a first person shooter.
I felt the wind on my face and guessed the velocity at which we were moving forward. The creature was about twenty meters away from us so I had to be careful where I shot. If I hit its body, which looked like it could withstand a tungsten round, then I could piss it off and make it come after us. I aimed a little forward and pulled the trigger, both short barrels on my gunblade erupting in flame as the hammers struck the casings and discharged the bullets towards the creature.
The creature visibly twitched and slowed. "Yes! I got it Terra!" I exclaimed before I heard a booming roar from the creature. It veered towards us and broke through the foliage and into the pale moonlight. I really wish it had not.
"W-w-what is that?" I asked with fear in my voice, my gunblade still trained on the hulking behemoth.
Terra shifted around so she could see behind us and looked at the creature. Its low hanging head and bulging muscles on its body, making it stand at twice our height on four legs with a large spiked fin along its spine and two, drapes? Yes there were two white drape like mantels on its back, with black trim, on either side of the fin that flapped wildly as it charged behind us. Its teeth were bared and very sharp with its blood red eyes leering at us. I noticed that one eye was bleeding, probably from my bullet earlier. The scary part is that it was glowing and looked to be slowly regenerating.
"A King Behemoth?!" Terra exclaimed. "That's overkill, even for a military entrance exam!" She flipped over with me closer to the ground as she put her hand forward and it began to glow. "Flare!" A big orb of pulsing orange hot light formed away from her hand and flew towards the behemoth.
I looked behind us and notice that we were approaching a waterfall. "Terra!" I exclaimed. She looked back and saw the approaching waterfall. Her eyes widened in shock before she looked back at the ball of fire she had just created before it hit the Behemoth head on and caused a massive explosion. The shockwave hit us hard and knocked us out of the air.
We stumbled and rolled along the rocky ground as she continued toward the cliff by the waterfall. I managed to stop just before falling off, but Terra rolled over the cliff and grabbed onto the side. I saw her hands slipping from the moist rock. I quickly scurried to her and grabbed one of her hands before she fell over the side, the drop was easily two hundred meters high and the waterfall pooled into a pond close to fifty meters wide.
"I got you Terra." I grunted. I felt a little pain in my side from the landing. I think a rock or something may have jabbed me in the side.
"Thanks, Xion." I began to pull her up when I felt the ground rumble to our dismay. I craned my neck slowly in the hopes that my fears were unfounded when I came face-to-face with the Behemoth, its razor teeth a mere inch from my face. Half its body was exposed muscle and skeleton. Its blood pouring from its wounds and flailing veins that spewed blood out like a hose, coating my face in it and staining my and Terra's clothes red.
I felt Terra shift below me as she stared at the Behemoth. I'm sure she was thinking we were dead. Even I thought that too. "Hurragh!" The behemoth blared in my face. Pushing its opened mouth forward and engulfing my head. I thought it was going to bite my head off and swallow it whole, its mouth was so large.
To my relief it pulled back. To my everlasting nightmares it rose slowly on its hind legs and pulled out a hilt from its back. There was a spinning buzz saw with an open center attached to the hilt. Its skin beginning to regenerate like its eye.
"Shoot it in the eye, Xion!" I heard Terra yell at me. "Shoot it before it kills us!" I raised my gunblade quickly and pulled the trigger repeatedly. The first few shots bouncing off the thick armored hide of the Behemoth. "Focus, Xion. You can do it if you focus." I tried to calm myself, but the Behemoth brought its buzz saw down on us and I closed my eyes anticipating the inevitable.
That was when something happened. I opened my eyes and saw the King Behemoth moving in what appeared to be slow motion. I looked to Terra and saw her mouth opened like she was yelling at me, but she was also moving in slow motion. It wasn't just the Behemoth and Terra, but the water and the trees. The whole world was moving in slow motion and I had no idea why.
I didn't dwell on it too long as I was brought back to reality with the slow distorted sound of the Behemoth's buzz saw coming towards us. I leveled my blade on the Behemoth's eyes and fired, both barrels firing at the eyes and both bullets hitting their mark.
The world went back to normal time and the Behemoth wailed in pain as it stepped back in shock, swinging the buzz saw wildly and striking the ground at my feet. I pulled my legs up as it struck the ground and scattered rocks and debris into the air. It then stepped forward and brought its large clawed foot down on my leg. I winced in pain and went over the ledge with Terra in tow.