Summery of Chapter Four: An old enemy reawakens
Disclaimer: All original FF characters are not mine as much as I would love them to be. All characters that I have made up are mine exclusively, unless I give permission for them to be used.
FFVIII: Dynasty
Chapter Four: Enemies Past, Enemies Future
The team gathered near the elevator, bleary eyed and grumpy as their sleep had been interrupted.
The elevator doors slid open and Commander Leonhart stepped out. He gazed at them with narrowed eyes, studying them.
"Alright, you lot had better wake up properly, you have a tough battle ahead of you."
"Sir?" Storm asked.
Squall sighed. "Norg has woken up and is demanding that Balamb Garden be given back to him. Although he financed the Garden, we cannot let him be in charge as he hasn't got Garden's best interests in mind. What I want you to do is go down there and fight him. Damage him enough and he will retreat back into stasis. Just don't kill him by accident, I'm pretty sure he doesn't deserve that."
"But Dad er… Sir, won't Norg just wake up sometime in the future again?"
"We will be shipping him off to his own people as soon as we can. Really it should have been done twenty years ago. I guess people just forgot that he was there. Anyway, he has gotten stronger in all his years of stasis so be careful."
"Yes sir!" they all said at once. They watched as the Commander got back inside the elevator and headed up towards his office. They talked whilst waiting for the elevator to come down again.
"So, guys, we learnt about Norg in the History of Garden class, right? So we know his strengths and weaknesses," Storm mused.
"Yeah, I remember." Kai frowned. "If I'm right, he has two orbs that support Norg with magic."
"Red." Rheo added.
"Yes, that's right. They change colours but when they are red they support him." Nina agreed.
"So we have to stop them changing colour by hitting them?" Jon interjected.
"Right." Storm nodded. "What else do we know?"
The elevator reached their floor and they got inside.
"He doesn't like wind magic," Kai said.
"Ok, Kai, you have wind spells, right?"
"Thirty-eight Aero spells and fourteen Tornadoes."
"Use Tornado spells first, then if you run out of those use the Aeros. Damn, I should've asked Dad if we could borrow Pandemona for a while. Nevermind. Who has which GF's? I have Ifrit."
"Shiva." Jon said.
"Cactaur." That was Nina, who was looking uncomfortable squashed in the back of the lift.
"Cerberus." Kai said.
"Quezacotl." Rheo said quietly.
"Right, Quezacotl won't do much good Rheo so you just concentrate on hitting it. Kai, you might want to use Cerberus straight away. Three instead of one should get the job done quicker. Nina, Cactaur might come in handy, use him. Jon, don't worry about Shiva, she probably won't affect him too much. Has everybody got a good defence against status attacks junctioned?"
Everbody nodded and Storm thought to himself that he had a pretty good team. The elevator doors whooshed open and they stepped out.
Storm led the way, trying to be silent. He waved his team forward and pressed a finger to his lips, motioning for them to be quiet. He didn't want Norg to be alerted before they were in position.
He made out a dark lump ahead in the gloom. It had cables trailing out of it and he had to step over a few to get to Norg's pod. At the moment the pod was sealed. They gathered at the front of the pod.
"Now what?" Nina whispered.
"This," Jon said as he walked arrogantly over to the pod. "Knock knock," he said, rapping on the pod.
Jon jumped back as the pod snapped open. Norg looked down at them, an evil expression on his face.
"Fushufushu… WHO'S THERE?"
"SeeD, Norg. We are here to put you back to bed." Storm grinned wickedly.
"Burubushu… I see your FATHER in your FACE… Fushushushu. HE could NOT BEAT me… Fushu… You cannot BEAT ME."
"Enough talk Norg. Kai!"
Kaijin stepped forward and spun her staff around her head before thumping it on the ground. A deep rumble came from deep within the earth, at the very gates of hell as Cerberus charged through them. They heard a faint roar as the beast of Hell sent its magic towards them. They felt a tingling sensation as the Double and Triple spells found their bodies.
Kai started casting Tornado onto Norg who in turn charged his orbs up. One of them turned yellow and Rheo quickly stepped forward to slash at it with each of his daggers.
Norg sent a Water spell Storm's way but he quickly cast Shell. The water surrounded him and he couldn't breath. He started seeing black spots in front of his eyes before the Shell spell drove the Water magic away. He ran towards Norg to do his Renzokuken limit break. He slashed at Norg a few times before falling back, not even able to do a final attack as he was weak.
"Careful, he is strong," Storm managed to croak.
Nina cast Cure on her team leader before reaching down deep inside, calling Cactaur from the depths of her mind. She felt the familiar prickling and smiled, bringing him forth into reality.
Cactaur leapt into the air and started flinging needles at Norg, who screamed as he was stung in thousands of places. His job done, he retreated back into Nina's mind. She felt a faint satisfied feeling within as Cactaur settled down again.
Norg cast a spell on Jon who fell to the floor. Storm kept an eye on him, concerned. However, Jon was soon on his feet, twirling his nunchucks rapidly as he charged up his limit break. "Time Strike!"
Jon kept twirling his nunchucks until they were a blur. Fire formed around him quickly and he gathered it in front of him. When it was a giant ball in front of him he suddenly pushed forward, sending the massive ball of fire straight at Norg.
But Norg wouldn't go down that easily. He next struck out at Kai, but she had reflected herself so Norg's spell headed straight back at him.
Norg sent a dispel at Kai and her Reflect spell disappeared. He then built another offensive spell up and sent in towards Kai. However, Nina got in the way and the Death spell took her out instead.
Storm ran over to her and used a handful of Phoenix Down's to revive her. She got to her feet slowly.
Norg hit Rheo with a sleep spell, just as an orb turned red. "Kai, Esuna!" he yelled as he attacked the offending orb. When he next looked at Rheo, he was shaking the sleep spell off thanks to Kai's magic.
Storm hit Norg with Holy. "Nina, limit break!"
Nina knelt down and took aim at Norg. "Clear Vision!"
She blasted away at Norg using armour piercing ammunition, stripping away pieces of his pod. This somewhat lowered Norg's defences as well as causing him damage. The orbs stopped functioning which meant that they could not supply Norg with anymore magic than he already had.
"Buruburushu… NO! You RUINED my POD!"
"Oops! Kai, I'm going to cast Aura on you!" Nina yelled.
"Ok!"
Kai glowed yellow after Nina cast Aura on her. "Iceheart!" she cried.
Shards of what appeared to be ice twinkled in the air. Kai twirled Starsteel around and the ice zoomed towards Norg, sticking to him in layers upon layers. Finally Norg was completely encased in the stuff and he couldn't move. He was effectively frozen in stasis.
Kai shrugged and said, "That should last a few days."
"I hope so. Dad will have to move fast to get him out of Garden. Apparently he is classed as a criminal by his own people, so he will be put into their equivalent of jail." Storm said. "Good work guys."
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Sykes and Angela were waiting for them when they got back to the rotunda.
"Hey! You could've let me come!" Sykes moaned as he playfully punched Storm in the arm.
"You aren't SeeD yet Sykes. Hey Angela! What are you doing here? You should be in bed."
"I couldn't sleep after I heard the announcement so I went and hunted Mother down and she told me where you were. I was worried so I waited here to see if you would be ok. Then Sykes came along and asked me what was up."
"What were you doing out of the dorms so late Sykes?" Kai asked.
"I… Uh, nothing."
Nina looked at him shrewdly and noticed a leaf in Sykes' hair. "Training Centre? Tut tut Sykes."
"Secret." Rheo said smiling.
"Oh ho, you had better not have been in the Secret Area with someone. You're my date Sykes."
"I wasn't! Honest! I was just killing some grats!"
Storm decided to rescue Sykes from his torment. "They're messing with you Sykes." He burst out laughing at the look on Sykes' face. "But seriously, don't let me catch you outside the dorms again after curfew. That goes for you as well Angela… Angela? Where did she get to?"
"And Jon." Kai said.
"Dammit!" Storm yelled angrily. "If they are together right now, I'm gonna… I'm gonna…"
"Shut it Storm. I'm off to bed." Nina said and walked off.
Rheo shrugged and walked off towards the dorms.
"Later." Sykes said.
"Alone again." Kai said nervously.
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Jon and Angela had gone to the Secret Area in the Training Centre.
Angela leaned forwards to look over the wall, down at the scenery below.
"Hey, don't do that. You scare me 'cause I think you're gonna fall."
"Haha, I won't ever fall. Wow, look at all the pretty lights."
"Yeah." Jon stared at the beauty in front of him. "Not as pretty as you though."
Angela giggled and blushed a beetroot red. "You're just saying that."
"No, it's true."
"Hmm. Hey Jon?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened to that Malboro? The one that my Dad got mad about? Storm refuses to tell me."
"Well maybe I shouldn't tell you if your brother doesn't want you to know."
"Jon!" Angela whined. "I am your date for my party. But something bad could happen… Something that would stop you being my date…"
"Aw, Jeez. Alright I'll tell you."
"Yay!" Angela exclaimed before hugging Jon.
Jon's brain short-circuited for a moment. "Ahh.."
Angela laughed again and let go. "Come on Jon, tell me."
"Ok, so we were in Winhill on a contract to get rid of a menace. The menace turned out to be a Malboro. Of course we were prepared for a few status attacks so we were ok except for Storm. He didn't have anything to protect him against berserk so he totally went nuts and started hacking off all of the Malboro's tentacle thingys. By the time we managed to calm him down there were tentacles and blood covering the whole town square. And you know how badly their blood sticks. I had to throw the clothes I was wearing away in the end."
Jon looked at Angela who looked decidedly green. "Sorry."
"Ugh, that's gross." Angela said.
"Well, you wanted to know. Besides, its just one of the many things that SeeD have to deal with."
"You're right. I suppose I shall have to get used to it."
"Come on, we had best be off to bed. You look cold."
Angela raised an eyebrow. "Bed?"
Jon almost tripped over. "Ah, separately."
Angela's laughter was music to his ears.
----------
Storm and Kai had moved to the second floor balcony. Neither of them were in a mood for sleeping.
"Jon had better not be with Angela right now." Storm said.
Kai frowned. "To be honest, it's none of your business what Angela or Jon do."
Storm gaped at her. "I'm her brother dammit! And he is my best friend."
"So you should trust them."
"How can I? Its instinct Kai! I can't just not feel protective over my little sister. And you know Jon and his reputation with women."
"Oh come on Storm! Haven't you noticed how Jon has calmed down a lot in the last six months? That is when he fell in love with Angela. You being male probably didn't notice."
"Love? Ha! I doubt it. And how could I notice something that wasn't there?"
Kai suddenly felt very angry with Storm. "You know what your problem is? You don't notice things. Not even when they are right in front of you!"
"What the hell do you mean?" Storm asked, even though he thought he knew.
"Nothing." Kai turned away.
"Please tell me." He waited for a response but only heard noises. "Are… Are you crying?"
"No!"
"Look, is this about the party?"
"You know damn well its more than just the party!"
Storm froze. He knew alright. The tension had been there from the start, when she and Rheo had moved from Galbadia to Balamb. He had really wanted to ask her out back then but she was vulnerable, getting over the deaths of her parents, Fujin and Raijin. They had died in an airship crash during a mission for the SeeD in Galbadia Garden. So he didn't feel comfortable asking her out then. A few months later she had started dating a guy from Balamb Town. She had eventually split up with him but by that time her and Storm had been great friends. Neither of them had wanted to ruin that friendship. However, something had broken, come to a head. Now Storm had to fix it.
He shifted, embarrassed. He had to work out how to phrase what he wanted to say next. In the end he just decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
"Kai?"
The answer was stern. "What?"
"Kai, would you… um, like to go to the party with me? Be my date?"
She whirled around and glared at him. "No."
"What? Why?" He was genuinely shocked.
"Because I don't want you to ask me because you feel obligated to."
And with that, she rushed away, leaving Storm feeling stunned.
I prefer this chapter so much compared to the last one! Even included what happened to the Malboro for those of you who have asked. The explanation about Kaela WILL come soon but the next chapter is Angela's party! Enjoy and review =D
