"Trouble in a Small Town"

The creature raised its deform hand and bashed Zell to the side. He smashed into a table and crumpled to the floor. Selfie gasped and cast Cure on Zell. As the green light washed over Zell's body, the creature backed away violently.

"What the?" Squall asked. Suddenly, he remembered when Quistis had taught him about undead creatures.

When fighting and undead creature, the most effective way to defeat it is by using curative spells or items or by holy magic.

He cleared his head again. "Zell," Squall said, "Cast cure on the creature."

"What!?" Zell asked.

"Just do it!" Squall said. Zell reluctantly cast the spell. The creature howled as the green light hit its skin. It sizzled a little. Rinoa looked up with her eyes wide. Curative things could hurt it?

She knew what she had to do. Squall watched in confusion as she confidently walked past him. She pulled a vial from a pocket. He spotted some red substance inside and immediately knew what she was up to.

She threw the vial, containing Phoenix Down, at the creature. It shattered and the down let out an intensive light. I shown with all the life giving powers of the Phoenix and swarmed over the undead creature. The creature screamed in outrage and fell to the floor dead.

Rinoa turned and nodded to the group. They nodded in return and walked out the door. The mission had failed and they all knew it.

"Well," Rinoa said, returning to the conference room. "We'll need to come up with another plan."

Watts came rushing in. "Got some new info sir."

Rinoa turned expectantly to him. "The President arrived safely in Timber. He's going to the T.V. station."

Rinoa nodded. "Okay, Let's come up with a plan."

Zone, Watts, and Rinoa sat down on the floor of the conference room and began talking very quietly.

Oh come on, Squall thought, What kind of organization plops down on the floor to discuss strategy? He looked over to Selfie and Zell. Zell was wearing a very annoyed expression. Squall walked over.

Rinoa turned and said, "Oh good. Just in time. Here's the new plan..."

"Wait," Squall said. "Could we see your contract with our Garden first?"

Rinoa looked to him, then over his shoulder at Zell and Selfie who nodded silently.

"Okay," she said. She felt kind of stung that they didn't trust her and her group. Why did they need proof?

She pulled out a paper and handed it to Squall who snatched it away irrately.

He didn't have to do that, Rinoa thought.

He read over it. Seemingly satisfied, he handed it back to her. He turned to Selfie and Zell and nodded.

"Okay," Rinoa said, "Here's what we're gonna do. We're going to Timber and go into the T.V. Station. We'll look over the situation, locate Dieling, and go from there."

Squall nodded, as did the others. The followed her down the hall. She went into the control room.

"Return to Timber," she told them.

The put the train into motion. Rinoa and the others returned back to her bedroom.

"Well guys," she said, "I'm sorry. We had no idea that the president was a fake."

"It's ok," Selfie said.

Rinoa looked at her and smiled warmly.

"So," Zell said, "What do we do now?"

"We wait," Rinoa said.

She sat down on her bed and began looking through the book Squall had given her. She found and interesting article on a special skill dogs could learn called Invisible Moon. She decided to learn it and teach it to Angelo.

Squall stood over by the door silently brooding. That was some strange creature they had fought. And it was intelligent enough to pretend to be a person. What could that mean?

Zell had taken up to practicing his moves over in a corner. He didn't tell any of them, but he learned a lot of his moves from a tutorial magazine called Combat King. He had read an interesting article on the Dolphin Blow, which cultivated the power of water in a strike.

Selfie decided she would look through Rinoa's perfume to see if she found any she liked. She looked over her vanity and looked in the mirror. Her hair was in disarray, so she began to smooth it out.

Then the train came to a stop.

"Okay," Rinoa said, getting up from her bed, "We're here."

The walked out. The went to the main room of the Base and stopped to see Watts and Zone waiting on them.

"Good luck sir," Watts said.

"Me and Watts are gonna gather information and keep you updated," Zone said.

Rinoa nodded and then turned to them.

"Okay," she said, "So who's going to the T.V. Station?"

Squall turned. Selfie was most likely still shaken up from the train mission, so he chose Zell. While Selfie wasn't in the party, Her GF was junctioned to Rinoa. Selfie went with Zone and Watts to gather information and Squall, Rinoa, and Zell headed off to the T.V. station.

"The city is still occupied by soldiers," Rinoa said, "So be ready to fight."

Zell and Squall nodded.

"We need to restock our magic," Squall said.

Rinoa nodded as well. The walked off of the train platform and headed straight. They decided to take their time to look around while they were there. It was possible that they may not be coming back to Timber. They didn't tell Rinoa this of course.

The came up on a building that said Timber Maniacs.

"What's this?" Zell asked.

"It's a magazine company," Rinoa said, "They publish articles from aspiring authors."

"Let's look inside," Zell said. They went in. A lady in white stood at a window in the front. She admitted them through. They went inside and looked around. Squall noticed the Fight Series, a magazine that he had already read every article of.

They went into a small room to the left. Inside, Squall sensed a Draw Point, a natural space where magic gathered. He drew from the point, gaining several Blizzaga spells. It was the strongest of the Ice magic other than Shiva's attack.

After that, there was nothing else useful inside the building, so they left. The walked on a little ways more. The walked down the stairs toward a pub called the Aurora Pub. According to Rinoa, they had to pass through this pub to get to the T.V. station.

They got to the bottom of the steps and stopped. Two Galbadian soldiers were harassing a civilian. They took something from him and then shoved him to the side.

"Heh heh," one soldier said, "These country hicks are too easy."

"Hey!" Rinoa said.

They turned to look at her. They drew their swords and began to approach. Rinoa extended her arm, revealing a weapon unlike Squall had ever seen. She pulled back a tab like a bow and then released it. A blade flew out and struck the shoulder in the neck, killing him. The blade returned to Rinoa's wrist.

The other soldier ran forward, but his charge was cut short by a bolt of lightning, courtesy of Zell. The soldier fell dead. Squall walked over and found a card laying on the ground.

"What's this?" Squall asked.

"It's a Triple Triad Card," Zell said.

Squall shrugged and went into the pub. Inside, the man that had been harassed by the soldiers was sitting in front of the exit door.

"What're we gonna do?" Rinoa whispered to Squall. He was tempted to swat at her for being so close to him. It was kind of annoying.

"I think we should give him his card back," Squall said, "That might prompt him to move."

She nodded and took the card from Squall. She went over to the man.

"Excuse me," she said.

"What!?" he asked irritated. He had a bruise forming on his brow. Squall could see why Rinoa and her group were wanting to get rid of the soldiers.

"Is this your card?" Rinoa said, showing him the card.

"Yes," he said, "but how did you get it?"

"Found it outside," Squall said.

The man looked as if he were about to cry. "Thank you," he said.

He took the card and moved out of their way. He sat over at a table looking at the card. Squall wondered what it meant to him. It was just a game card after all.

He shrugged and walked out the door. Rinoa and Zell followed. He walked forward and went up a flight of stairs. They stopped in front of a Giant outdoor screen. Red symbols were being displayed, scrolling down the screen.

"What is this?" Rinoa asked.

"This is being broadcast over all of the frequencies," Squall said.

"I don't like it," Rinoa said.

They went to turn when Watts suddenly came running up the stairs.

Rinoa turned to him.

"Sir," he said, "Securities super tight in the T.V. station. It's practically flooded with guards."

"So we can't just charge in," Rinoa said, "Okay. We need to come up with another plan then."

Squall crossed his arms and looked down over the edge of the stairs. He was visibly upset.

"What is it?" Rinoa asked.

"Nothing," Squall answered, "We're SeeDs. We'll act according to your orders."

"How sad," Rinoa said, "Act on my orders? What an easy life it must be to follow other's commands?"

"Oh, and what about you!?" Squall shouted before he knew it.

"Yes?" Rinoa said.

"Nevermind," Squall said.

"No," Rinoa said, "the least you can do is finish it. This is an order from your client."

"Okay," Squall said, "How serious are you? Really? You plop down on the floor to discuss strategy. Sure, you have the technology, but you're sloppy about how you go about it. How do you think we feel working for such an organization?"

"Squall man," Zell said, "Lighten up."

Squall realized he had just exploded on Rinoa. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You know what," Rinoa said, "I thought all of our problems would be solved when we hired SeeD, but maybe we were better off."

She went to walk off. She turned around to look at him and said, "We going to go in the T.V. station after Dieling leaves and make our own broadcast. It may not be finishing the president, but at least it's a start."

She walked down the steps and then turned back to Squall saying, "We are serious. So serious, it hurts."

She ran down the stairs. The turned to follow them, but suddenly the large T.V. screen blinked and came on. You could see people such as directors moving around. The stepped out of the way and a blonde man stood behind a podium.

"People can you hear me, can you see me?" he said, "This is the first live broadcast in 30 yrs. How exciting!"

He thrust his arms out. Then he paused a minute. "Excuse me," he said, "I seem to have lost my composure. We present to you, President Vinzer Dieling."

He walked off. Then a middle aged man walked up. He had dark hair with greying streaks.

"People of the nations," he said, "I'm am President Dieling. It is true that Galbadia has been at war with some countries for quite some time now, but I seek to amend that. I wish to introduce the Ambassador of Galbadia."

All this just to introduce an ambassador? Squall thought.

The was a loud noise. The president stopped for a minute. Sensing it was okay, he continued. "The ambassador is the Sorceress."

Sorceress! Squall thought.

Suddenly there was another loud crash. Selfie had come up the steps by then and stood beside Squall and Zell. On screen, you could see guards running past the camera. Suddenly, a guard flew back into the room.

A blonde guy rushed into the room, sword drawn. Another guard approached and he cut him down.

"Seifer!" Selfie said.

Two guards grabbed him from behind. Seifer elbowed one in the face and kicked another that was approaching. The guard hit the camera knocking it sideways.

Suddenly, a woman came onto the screen.

"Get back" she said, "You're only going to provoke him."

"Instructor Trepe?" Zell asked.

Another guard came slowly walking up.

"I said get back," Quistis said.

She looked at the camera that was still on. "Timber team, if you can hear me report to the T.V. station now. I need your help!"

Squall looked at Selfie and Zell. They nodded and the group ran up the stairs. They passed over a bridge hanging high above the town. They burst through the double doors of the T.V. station and immediately caught sight of them. Seifer was holding the president, his sword pressed against his throat. Quistis turned to them.

"He broke out of the disciplinary room, injuring many in the process." she said.

"You...Stupid IDIOT!" Zell screamed.

Zell please, Squall thought.

"Be quiet," he said.

"Instructor, I know," Zell said, "You're going to take this idiot back to Garden and.."

"Shut up! No!" Squall said. He knew Zell had just blown it for them all.

"So," the president said, "You're all from Garden."

"Nice going, Chicken Wuss," Seifer said.

"You know, if anything happens to me," the president said, "there will be immediate retaliation on Garden."

"Shut up," Seifer said, pressing the blade of his sword into the man's neck. He started backing away and disappeared around a corner. Quistis ran and followed him. Squall, Zell, and Selfie followed as well.

Seifer rounded the corner. Suddenly, there was movement behind the curtain. A slender figure emerged. She was wearing a strange looking helmet.

"Such a scared little boy," the sorceress said.

"I'm not...don't call me a boy," Seifer said.

Quistis came in suddenly. She looked at Seifer, completely ignoring the sorceress. The sorceress immediately felt the strong pulse of feelings coming from the woman toward Seifer. She was going to be a problem. She raiser her hand and a golden orb flew from her hand. Quistis went to approach Seifer, but the orb hit her in a blast. Quistis' control left her and she was forced down to one knee.

"You don't want to be a little boy anymore?" the sorceress said.

"Shut up!" Seifer told her. He looked down to Quistis who kneeled unmoving. What had the woman done to her? He went to back away.

The sorceress knew what she had to do. She brought out his feelings of hatred toward Squall and she brought out his feelings of insecurity. He had to think that she was the only one that believed in him.

Squall and the others came rushing in. Anger lit up on Seifer's face. The sorceress knew they were about to attack. She lifted her hand. A heuge blast of power flew out from her, forcing them back.

"Wave goodbye to your childhood," the sorceress said, "and join me."

Seifer released the president who ran away in cowardice. Seifer waved his gunblade to the people who used to be his friends and followed the sorceress behind the curtain where they disappeared.