Chapter 6 – A Taste of Things to Come

The vessel crashed into the sandy shores of Dollet. Squall stood up, as did the rest of the team. The doors flung open and Xu ran out ahead, the rest hesitantly emerging into the war zone. Everyone except Seifer who strode out of the vessel as if he was on vacation.

"Remember! Secure the central square! Good luck!" Quistis shouted over the noise of war.

"Save luck for someone who needs it, Instructor!" scoffed Seifer.

"Oh can the crap and bugger off!" she shouted back.

"Let's move out" mumbled a disgruntled Seifer.

Seifer ran up the beach, his two team members in tow. They reached the stairs that would take them off the beach and up into the town. There were already some SeeD candidates there.

"Good luck you three!" shouted one of the chirpier ones.

Judging by the look on Seifer's face, it looked like he could have killed her, but he resisted. Nothing says bad SeeD candidate like murdering one of your own. They ran up the stairs, two, three steps at a time. They reached the top to find two paths, one of which was blocked by the burning remains of an upturned car. Luckily for squad B, it wasn't blocking their path.

"Look out! Here comes some Galbadian troops!" Zell shouted to Seifer.

"Oh thanks for that, there's me thinking they weren't Galbadian troops!" Seifer quipped.

The Galbadian forces were clad in the usual attire; a blue fabric layer, with metal armour covering the major points of the body. They also wore helmets with three red sights, used for, most likely, seeing.

The squad prepared themselves; Seifer and Squall drew their gunblades while Zell drew his fists.

"Dollet reinforcements!" shouted one of the two Galbadian troops to the other.

"Oh thanks for that, there's me thinking they weren't Dollet reinforcements!" quipped the other soldier.

"Hey look, Seifer, there's more than one of you..." said Squall.

"Ha ha ha, jackass..." Seifer sighed. He jumped into battle, slicing at one of the Galbadians, cutting through their armour, causing them to fall back, clutching at their chest.

The other troop member ran straight towards Seifer who spun out of the way of the oncoming attack, countering it by slicing into the back of the Galbadian troop. He stumbled up to his feet and swung his weapon maniacally at Seifer. Squall jumped in and cut him deep. The soldier crumbled and fell on the floor. He had done it; Squall had killed someone. It was a big moment for him, it'd take a person with a dark heart to kill mercilessly.

"Done and dusted," Seifer said moments after finishing off the other soldier, "feel free to jump in at any point, chicken wuss. Let's see if those pipe cleaners you call arms can actually do any damage..."

Zell bit his tongue; he didn't want to fail his exam for attacking his squad Captain.

Seifer moved on into the town of Dollet. The street they ventured through was full of shops and bars, it was your usual shopping district. They headed through the streets cautiously, well, all but Seifer, who marched through shouting at non-existent soldiers.

"Bring it on! Come out and show me what you're made of! Probably made up of cow droppings! Or something of equal patheticness!"

"Dude, patheticness isn't a word," Zell said to Squall.

"It is in Seifer's world..."
"Well this ain't Seifer's world. If it was, then we'd all be licking his boots, and I don't see no one doing that..."

"Everyone except Fujin and Raijin..." Squall thought.

"Don't leave me hanging!" Seifer shouted. It appeared no one was listening.

Then, suddenly, above them they saw two Galbadian soldiers preparing to jump them. Seifer drew his sword and impaled the one who was going to land on him.

"Seifer's one rule: Seifer's always on top," he said discarding the now dead soldier.

The other soldier landed right in front of Zell. The soldier made a wild swing for his left arm and grazed it.

"Now you've done it," Zell said fuming, "no one messes with my arms! It's on like Donkey Kong!"

Zell, in one quick movement, hit the soldier right in the jaw with an uppercut from his left arm. He followed through with his right fist, landing it in the stomach. As the soldier landed on his knees, Zell lifted his right knee into his face with a dull crunch. The soldier collapsed, face on the cold street.

Zell stepped back, looking at what he'd done, the blood on his hands. It looked like a tear formed in his eyes; his innocence had been snatched away.

"Dude," he said solemnly, "that was awesome! Did you see me there! I was all like 'boom' and 'pow'!"

Squall seemed more taken aback than Zell.

"Great. I did that years ago. Let's keep moving," Seifer said unimpressed. It was likely that he was annoyed by Zell's approach to the situation. He had hoped Zell would have chickened out and run home to mummy.

Seifer ran ahead of Squall and Zell, up to the Central Square. Squall and Zell ran to keep up. When they arrived, Seifer had already finished off a stray soldier.

"You two scout the area," Seifer ordered.

"And what will you do?" Zell muttered.

The Central Square was exactly that; a central hub, with roads leading off to major parts of the city. There were also a couple of shops, an empty café and a hotel. All was quiet, except for a dog which was running around Seifer, who actually hated dogs. There were three paths; one from which they came, one which led to the mountain and another which was blocked off by vehicles.

"All clear!" Zell shouted.

As soon as that was said, two Galbadian soldiers pounced from behind the abandoned cars. With one swift movement, Squall eliminated the two guards.

"Maybe not!" Zell shouted.

They checked and rechecked three more times, until they were satisfied there was no one else.

"Go away, dog," Seifer barked at the poor animal, "now all we do is standby, how boring, and I know boring, I once saw one of those one woman monologues."

"They're enough to put you off women for life, am I right?" joked Zell.

"What he hell are you trying to say?" Seifer asked angrily.

"Dude, there was no malice in what I said, chill out," Zell said trying to cool off Seifer, "although, you got a little too offended. Trying to hide something?"

"Ok, that's it! My foot, your ass!" Seifer shouted, standing up and raising a leg.

But as Seifer approached a cowering Zell, a dull roar rang from further in the city. It appeared Dollet had started a counter attack on the Galbadian forces. Gunfire continued to ring out.

"Sounds like it's starting..." said Squall.

"Duh, you think," mocked Seifer, "bloody dog. Go! Shoo!" Seifer waved his gunblade at the little dog, who just sat there and looked at him.

"Dude, you're not scared of dogs, are you?" Zell asked.

Seifer glared at him, "of course not, what kind of baby is... Oh my god it just licked me!" Seifer jumped five feet into the air as the dog innocently licked his hand.

"Ew, gross!" he whined, wiping his hand on Zell, "and I don't just mean the dog," he followed this with a mocking laugh at Zell.

Minutes passed without anything happening. The most exciting it got was when the dog stepped towards Seifer, who proceeded to freak out and scream like a girl. Actually, that would be offensive to girls.

"Come on you Galbadian soldiers! Show me what you're made of! Probably made up of cow droppings. Wait, have I used that already?"

Squall and Zell nodded.

"Damn. Whatever. Come and show me what you've got!" Seifer taunted to the invisible foe.

"And I'm stuck here with dumb and dumber," he motioned to Squall and Zell, "you can work out who's who between yourselves."
"Dude, I'm dumb," Zell said.

"You're right there..." Squall said back.

"And then there's this stupid mutt, who has done nothing but sniff me! What good are you?" Seifer shouted at the canine.

Almost immediately after Seifer shouted at it, the dog ran off to the other side of the square and started to howl. Galbadian troops were heading their way. And lots of them.

"Crap!" Seifer whispered as he ducked behind the fountain.

Squall dragged an oblivious Zell behind a low wall.

"Dude! What the..." Zell was stopped as Squall placed his hand over his mouth. He raised his other hand to his lips and signalled to Zell to be quiet.

Zell pulled away Squall's hand and whispered, "what the hell are you doing?"

Squall mouthed, "Galbadian troops."

"Oh yeah, of course. I didn't think you did it for some other reason. I certainly didn't get my hopes up..." Squall told him to be quiet again.

The Galbadian troops headed down the road leading to the mountains. When all was clear, the squad stood up.

"Where the hell are they going?" asked Zell. They all looked to the mountain. The only thing up there was the abandoned Radio Tower.

"What the hell is that?" Zell asked, despite me just saying it was the Radio Tower. Really, does anyone listen?

"That is our next destination!" Seifer said, pointing at the Tower dramatically.

"But, we're not supposed to..." Zell said meekly.

"Aren't you bored? Shouldn't we take liberties?"

"I thought we could play twenty questions. I've got a great one!"

"Is it 'dog'?" Seifer asked.
"Ok, Seifer's go!" Zell said, beaming.

"Ok, two words, rhymes with wadio wower," Seifer said, uninterested.

"Squall..." Zell said, turning to the quietest of the three.

Squall looked at Zell, and then to Seifer, "I stand by the Captain's decision."

Zell stood there, open mouthed, lost for words.

"Well done. Want some action, do you?" Seifer smirked.

"I want to test my training. I didn't get this scar for nothing," Squall said, pointing to his head, "although they won't fight as dirty as you."
Seifer gave out a single laugh, "you'll thank me when the time comes."

Seifer left for the mountain road, Squall following.

"You coming?" Seifer asked a stationary Zell.

"But this is an exam. Life changing!" Zell said, his voice cracking.

"Fine. Don't come. I don't need any girl scouts on my team," Seifer turned round and carried on up the mountain.

"Excuse me!? Girl scout?" Zell chased after the other two.

"So, what are we doing?" Squall asked his Captain.

"Well, we, Squad B, are to secure the Radio Tower. Let's move out!" Seifer marched ahead of the other two.

"He's an asshole," Zell said to himself as they headed up the mountain.

Squall couldn't help but wonder if following a sociopath into dangerous mountains was the smartest idea. He'd heard worse ideas, such as Seifer being made Captain in the first place.

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Here's your next slice of pie.

Next week they're gonna start getting longer. But until then, enjoy this!