The Magic Castle
The Rain outside was pouring down heavily. It was still a couple of days before the tournament began. Nobody even knew who they were facing. All they had received was a blank scroll. Balthier couldn't take the waiting much longer. He was brought to participate in a tournament, not to sit on a bed in the Sega House dormitory. Siting and waiting wasn't something a hero did. That was something for his sidekick to do when he was in great peril, and had to temporarily take over things. He wanted an adventure, after all he was an air pirate, and a damned good one at that. There was a whole castle to go out and explore. Then it hit him- there was an entire castle to explore, and he was going to explore it. There were no rules expressly forbidding exploration of the castle. So that was it, he was going to explore.
"Vaan, get up." He said. "We're going to explore this castle"
Vaan rubbed his head, as he sat up. He wasn't quite as sure about it as Balthier was. But he was still willing to go. After all, he owed Balthier. "Alright, I'll go."
Baltheir picked up his pistol, and made sure that it was loaded. There was a rule about harming other contestants, but monsters could be in the deeper parts of the castle. In fact this, he was fairly sure of. Vaan made sure to pick up his weapon too. They never knew what may lie beneath the castle. Especially considering how old it was. According to Lucretia, it was at least two thousand years old. Which may not seem long in retrospect, but how often had it been in use? Perhaps never.
"Mind if I go with you?" Vyse asked cheerfully.
"Sure, the hero of the story could always use another sidekick" Balthier said.
That bothered Vyse. Sidekick? No way. But he'd tag along anyway, since he had nothing better to do. Zidane offered to go as well, and soon there was three members of the Sega House, and one from Microsoft House off to explore the castle. All of them Air Priates, well except for Zidane. But he was close enough for comfort.
Elsewhere in the castle, Raiden and Snake were planning on something similar, for a much different reason.
"We should get to know our surroundings" Snake instructed. "You never know when something will come up. Especially with the two of them here"
He was of course, referring to Liquid Snake, and Revolver Ocelot. Snake couldn't trust them. He knew they'd be up to something sooner or later. It was just all a matter of time.
"Mind if we tag along?" Big Boss, and The Boss asked. It was strange that they were working together. But they were at one time student and master. There was no reason for what happened in their world to carry over to this one. After all, they were soldiers, and were no longer on opposing sides.
"Bi-" Snake caught himself. He was so used to calling the man who would be considered his father Big Boss. But this man was a lot different. "Jack, Boss. Of course I don't mind. We could use all the help we could get"
Big Boss on the other hand was very confused on the fact that Solid Snake looked so much like he did. He even had a similar code name. It couldn't have all been a coincidence. But then again, there was Revolver Ocelot. Who had the exact same fighting technique of a young boy he knew, who went by the same name. Coincidences were about in the castle. That made it all the more reason they needed to explore it.
"I'm glad to see that we weren't the only ones wanting to check the castle out, David" The Boss said. "It's hard to believe that some of these people are fighters, considering that few of them have done anything to check this place out"
"Yeah" Big Boss agreed. "I wonder if any of them have ever even participated in a war before"
"I doubt it" The Boss replied. "Most of them probably haven't seen an hour of combat in their life"
In yet another part of the castle, another group was trying to find out more about the castle as well. Cloud Strife, Aeris Gainsborough, and Vincent Valentine were out exploring. They wanted to get a good feel for the castle, in case of emergency. That emergency, being Sephiroth.
"Nobody here seems to get what's going on" Cloud said, as if he were a general explaining something to his troops. "Nobody is considering Sephiroth as a threat. They fail to understand him like we do. None of them know what he's capable of. He doesn't care about the rules. He doesn't care about winning the tournament. He'll get himself disqualified just so he could kill a bunch of people. That's the way he is. We need to watch out for Ganondorf too. Link filled me in on him. He's not someone who's going to play by the rules."
Aeris nodded in agreement, as Vincent sat quietly.
"If Sephiroth attacks, we'll have to be the first responders. I'm not even sure Blood and Flame could react in time. It's not like they have tight security measures here." Cloud continued. "I want to know every inch of this castle, just in case".
Zelos on the other hand, was out looking around the castle for much different reasons than everyone else. All the hunnies, of course. And there were plenty of them at that.
"KOS-MOS, Yuna, Rikku, Jill, Peach, Sarah, The Boss, Zelda, Ada, Aeris, and Lara. All of those hunnies will be mine by the time I'm through here" Zelos said to himself, with a certain amorous quality to his voice. "So many Girls, and so little time"
Eleven was fewer than he had hoped for, but it was enough to keep him satisfied for now.
"I'm not even sure which one's my favorite. But how could I pick? Of course, there's also the lovely Lucretia"
Seemingly from out of nowhere, Duke shouted "You can't have Lucretia! She's mine. Besides, what girl would want you, when they could have me?" He had been standing on the stairwell above, listening in on Zelos' conversation with himself, along with HK-47.
"Ho-ho, do I sense a certain bit of jealousy in your voice?" Zelos said. "After all, what girl would not want moi?"
Also, seemingly out of nowhere, Kratos Aurion spoke. "I can think of at least one Zelos."
Lloyd and his father were on the stairwell below.
"Oh whatever do you mean?" Zelos asked.
"He means Sheena, Zelos" Lloyd said, not realizing that Zelos was being sarcastic.
"That Sheena chick, I bet she has taste in men!" Duke bellowed.
"Why would she want to eat men?" Lloyd asked to himself.
"Commentary. I think we've found a meatbag dumber than you." HK-47 reported.
"Who?" Lloyd asked. "Wait... what's a meatbag?"
"Addendum. I know we have."
Lloyd sat for a moment, very confused. This wasn't uncommon for him.
"Hot damn! Someone dumber than me!" Duke said, excited. "Wait a minute! That wasn't nice, calling me dumb! I thought we were friends!"
"Commentary. Friends with you? Hahahahahahaha"
"Then why do you follow me around all the damn time?"
"Answer. Because I don't trust you to be alone with anybody."
"Oh, well that makes sense." Duke said. "Wait a minute! I should shove your head up your shiny metal..."
But before he could finish his sentence, Lloyd made another dumb comment.
"Maybe it's a bag of beef or something. But I don't see any beef around here. Do you Zelos?"
"No Lloyd. I don't." Zelos responded. "But I do see one green eyed monster over here, wanting his pick of my hunnies"
"My eyes aren't green!" Duke said. "And I ain't no monster!"
"Ha!" Lloyd said. "Even I know that Zelos is using a metaphor to describe you"
Kratos and Zelos were both impressed. Even HK-47 was impressed, despite how unimpressive of a feat it would be for the normal person.
"He means that you're happy monsters, because green is a happy color!"
And they were no longer impressed.
"Commentary. Let's leave, before my data banks are corrupted."
With that, Duke and HK-47 left.
In the lower levels of the castle, the Air Pirate crew found a door with a lock on it. One that they had all come to suspect held boundless treasures behind it. After all, behind locked doors, are the best things. Every great treasure hunter knew that. Why lock a perfectly good door, just to be locking it?
"Well, let's go in, shall we?" Balthier said.
"It's locked" Vyse said. "We'll need to find the key"
"Not to worry, I'm an excellent Locksmith" Balthier assured them, pulling out his gun, and blasting the lock off the door. "See? All you need is the right tools".
The four of them entered the previously locked door, wondering what could be behind there. They found themselves in a rather curious spot in the castle. It looked a lot more like a dungeon than anything else. It was a bit dark, with a couple of torches conveniently lit in the passageway. It was magic that had obviously kept them lit. But it was still curious that they were there in the first place. Almost as if someone was meant to be down there. But with the lock on the door? Well obviously, someone had a key. But still. Someone knowing what they were looking for would've brought their own torch. It was just another quirk of the castle.
At the end of the passageway, they found another door. This one wasn't locked. But that worried Balthier more than anything. Anything worth keeping, you'd lock every door you could to keep it from being taken. Or... you'd place a trap to stop them from getting too close. So either the item wasn't worth it, there was a trap behind this door. Before long he'd find out which it was.
Two giant boulders rolled back and forth along the path. There was only a split second in which someone could jump from one path to the other without getting crushed. The item was obviously very well guarded. Whatever was beyond this, had to be good. But getting to it... would be difficult.
"Vaan, I want you to go to the other side, and bring the item back". Balthier told him.
"Shouldn't you do it?" Vaan asked.
"Of course not. The hero of the story can't die yet. It's only just begun" Balthier replied with a smile on his face.
"Then get Vyse, or Zidane to do it. I'm not doing it. No way!"
"I wouldn't feel right stealing the item they worked hard to get" he explained. "You on the other hand, I would have no qualms about."
"Well forget it." Vaan told him
Balthier was rather upset, but quickly Zidane volunteered to do it instead. Balthier, Vyse, and Vaan watched as Zidane managed to slip between the cracks, and make a run for the end. They then watched him go downstairs to get their treasure.
"I'd thought it was impossible" Balthier said.
"Nothing is impossible" Vyse corrected him.
"Then you have a lot to learn my friend. Many things are impossible"
"Impossible is just a word we use to make ourselves feel better about failing"
Balthier shook his head. The boy was naive. Nothing is impossible? If only that were true. He did have to admit however, that sometimes impossible was used in exaggeration. This may have been one of those cases.
Before long Zidane came rushing back, jumping across the boulders. But there was no item in his hand. Had it already been taken? Or was it something else...Balthier had a bad feeling about it.
"Where's the treasure?" Balthier asked.
Zidane shook his head. His tone of voice suggested that getting the treasure was going to be harder than they thought. "There were all sorts of traps up ahead. I couldn't get very far".
More traps? That was a good piece of news. The more traps, the better the treasure. That's how it always was. The only question was... how to get to it. One thing was for certain, they were leaving empty handed today. They'd have to come up with a plan of action to get past all of those traps. There just wasn't any way for them to get past the traps.
"I think we should head back to the common rooms. It's getting late" Balthier said. "A hero needs his rest."
As they turned to head back, Balthier wondered what treasures might lie beyond the traps, and what other treasures the castle may hold. While the tournament was meant to be the main focus, a heroes story needs a little filler now and again. He'd be back for the treasure, and he'd certainly do his best to find more.
Snake, Raiden, Big Boss, and The Boss were walking down an empty hallway. They weren't sure where they were headed, because they weren't handed a map to the castle. All they knew, is they were going to find something at the end. What it was- was the question.
"So who are you most worried about facing in battle?" Raiden asked the other three.
"I'll have to go with Master Chief" Big Boss said. "Though I'm sure I could take him, he's got heavy armor, and certainly knows how to use a gun."
"Samus Aran. She's a bounty hunter I hear" The Boss told the others. "She's got body armor too, and a variety of weapons that look dangerous."
Solid Snake shook his head. "Master Chief and Samus? I'm not worried about them at all. Mega Man is the one we have to worry about. He's a robot, so he's probably trained in combat situations. He's going to have better sight, and hearing than any of us. And his blaster probably has good range. How about you Raiden?"
"I don't know, but I'd hate to have to face any of you" he replied. "But Cloud said to watch out for that Sephiroth guy."
"Sephiroth?" Big Boss laughed. "The guy still uses a sword to fight. We've got range, and he doesn't."
"Don't underestimate your opponent" The Boss warned. "Even if he uses a sword. What'd Cloud say about him?"
Raiden recalled what Cloud had said, and looked straight at Solid Snake when he gave his answer. "He said that Sephiroth was genetically engineered to be the greatest soldier known to man".
Snake was stunned for a moment. Genetically engineered to become the greatest soldier known to man? That sounded a lot like the Les Enfants Terribles Project. It sounded like... him. He couldn't say anything about it to Big Boss, or The Boss. Neither of them would understand. Even if they could understand, he couldn't tell them anyway. It'd create a time paradox, as Lucretia had explained. But he wanted to talk with Raiden about it later. He hated having only Raiden to turn to, but who else was there? Otacon wasn't here. Meryl wasn't here.
"I think this leads to the library" Big Boss said.
"Hmm that's strange, I don't think I heard anything about a library here" Raiden responded.
"They haven't told us much about this place to start with" Snake said.
He was right. Blood and Flame didn't really tell any of them much about the castle. All they really knew was where the common rooms were located, and how to get to Lucretia's bend. Outside of that, they knew that they were free to go about the castle. Well except for the 10th floor. That was off limits. But Snake was going to explore it the first chance he got. He'd just have to be careful.
"Yep, the library" Raiden said, pointing to a room containing what looked like hundreds of thousands of old books. Most of them dusty, few of them had probably been off the shelf in a century.
An odd looking man was standing before the four.
"May I help you?" the man asked
"We didn't even know there was a library here" Raiden said.
"This library is free to all who live within the castle. A couple of people have already found it." he said, motioning to two people reading through books.
The first was Alucard, who Snake, Raiden, and Big Boss all recognized from their own house. He was sitting at one of the many large tables in the library, reading through a book entitled "Dark World Encyclopedia".
The other... was Sephiroth, who was oddly pacing back and forth reading over a copy of a book on genetics. It was almost mesmerizing how he paced back and forth. It was also very creepy, as it was with almost everything Sephiroth done.
"Oh, and I'm Jin Uzuki. I'm the librarian here."
The four decided to take a seat at one of the tables, and talked quietly.
"Here." Snake said.
"Here what?" Raiden said.
The kid was still young. He didn't understand what Snake meant when he said 'here'. But Big Boss and The Boss, they knew what he meant. Even though neither of them knew Solid Snake well, they understood exactly what he was thinking. They had become closer to Snake in their short stay in the castle, than Raiden had in all his time knowing Snake.
"He means that this will be our spot" Big Boss explained. "This is where we'll meet to discuss things privately. Things we don't want other people to know".
Raiden understood. Especially with Ocelot and Liquid around. But he wasn't sure that this was the best place. People would probably come here often... but maybe that made it the best choice of all. Nobody would ever question why three people from Konami House were going to the library. It was so simple, and yet so brilliant at the same time.
We've done enough exploring for today" Snake said. "I really want to know what's on that 10th floor though."
"Best to not think about it much" The Boss advised him. "We'll find out, when we find out"
With that, they all headed back to their common rooms.
Cloud, Aeris, and Vincent made their way to the infirmary, on Clouds suggestion. It seemed that Cloud wanted to make sure there was adequate medical professionals in the infirmary. When he walked in, he was rather surprised to see a rather young looking doctor, and six nurses.
"Hello Mr. Strife. I'm Dr. Derek Stiles. What have you come to our clinic for today?"
"I'm here to make sure your medical facilities are adequate."
"I assure you they are Mr. Strife. We're ready for any medical emergency."
Cloud wasn't completely satisfied. The doctor seemed young. And if Sephiroth seriously injured someone, they'd have to act quickly. "You" he said pointed at the large busted woman with red hair. "What do you do?"
"Do NOT call me YOU" she said in an English accent. "I'm Jessica Albert, and I'm a damned good Mage. Now ask me again, and you won't be receiving any treatment when I decide to burn you"
Testy. Fierce. Cloud wasn't too sure about her. "How about you?" he asked the next one, wearing what looked like a karate outfit.
"Oh me?" she asked. "I'm Miranda. And I heal people."
The smile on her face indicated that she at least had a good bedside manner, unlike Jessica. "And you?" he asked the white haired woman in blue.
"I'm Alice" she said. "And I'm also a nurse here. I help treat the wounded."
She seemed a bit shy. Wasn't a quality that Cloud particularly looked for in an infirmary. "How about you?" he asked the red haired women in a strange outfit.
"I'm Nel Zelpher" she said, twisting his arm. "And I assure you that our medical facilities are adequate. If you have a problem with them, take them up with Flame and Blood. Got that?"
Another feisty one. Cloud wondered how they did their hiring. "And you?" he asked the girl in the pink top, and skirt.
"M-me?" she asked. "I'm Sophia Esteed. And I heal people too. But don't make me mad, or I won't treat you!"
Cloud just wanted to shake his head. Were Blood and Flame really prepared for this tournament they planned on hosting? They invited Sephiroth, they must've known what he was capable of. Not just Sephiroth, Ganondorf, and just about everybody in Sony House for that matter. "And you?"
"Locrian Sergent Tear Grants. I'm here to assist the wounded, the sick, and the injured using spells, and medicines on the advice of Doctor Derek Stiles"
The last one seemed competent enough. Cloud wasn't satisfied, but he wasn't going to anger the staff anymore than he had to. "Alright, I guess you're adequeate enough for now. Aeris?"
"I'm Aeris Gainsborough. And if you need any assistance..." Aeris started
"She'll help you." Cloud said. "Now we'll get out of your way."
"Alright. Hope to see you again soon" Dr. Stiles said.
"I'm sure their staff can handle it Cloud." Aeris assured him.
"You shouldn't worry about Sephiroth. If he does anything, we'll deal with him" Vincent said. "I do find it strange however, that she has that name."
"Lucretia, you mean?" Aeris asked.
Vincent nodded. He remembered that name well. But it was a totally different woman. A woman more of science, than strategy.
"Alright, let's get some sleep." Cloud said.
"Alright, let's mosey!" Aeris said, teasing.
Cloud laughed, and was in a lighter mood. The nursing staff may not have been impressive, but they had a good number of people on staff at least. It'd be a long drawn out tournament, if they didn't.
As HK-47 and Duke were about to enter their common rooms, the stairs started moving again. They did this fairly randomly, and there was no way to predict how they'd do it. It had scared Duke the first few times. HK-47 on the other hand found it entertaining. Zelos, Kratos, and Lloyd on the floor below were also rather surprised by the sudden movement.
"Hey, what's happening here?" Zelos asked.
Then, something that had never happened before, happened. The stairs turned into a slide, and everyone on them, including Duke and HK-47, slid down them. The first o the bottom was Zelos. Lloyd landed on top of him, followed by Kratos, HK-47, and finally Duke. Zelos was at the bottom of the pile when Duke landed, and that was not a feeling Zelos would soon forget. They all stood up, and walked towards the edge of the room they were now in. There were flowers blooming in the room, and a sign saying "The Gardener"
"Flowers? I hate flowers!" Duke said. "They're useless, they're stupid they're!"
But before he could finish, a beautiful woman walked into the room. It was Grune, the gardener. She was a beautiful woman, wearing a green dress, that showed a little bit of cleavage.
"Oh my, that looked like fun" Grune said, in her carefree voice.
"Trust me, my flower, it wasn't" Zelos said.
"Oh, you look upset" she said to Duke, who still surprisingly hadn't noticed the beautiful woman in the room. "You just need a hug"
With that, Grune gave a big bear hug to Duke, squeezing his body against hers. Duke rather enjoyed this, especially since Grune had a nice body.
"I stand corrected. Flowers are wonderful"
Zelos didn't like that Duke was getting all of the attention, especially when he was in the room himself. Grune seemed to notice this however.
"Oh Zelos. You don't look like you're having fun" she said. "Do you want a hug too?"
"Well..." Zelos said. "I mean, I could do without one, I mean I'm Zelos after all. But now that you mention it..."
Before he could finish it, Grune hugged Zelos just as she had hugged Duke.
"I think I've found the woman of my dreams!" Zelos said.
"Commentary. This meatbag woman doesn't seem very intelligent. She likes Duke, after all"
"Oh hello, little robot" she said. "Do you want a hug too?"
"Answer. No meatbag. I would not. I would however like to Grind your corpse up into pieces. That would be much favorable"
"Oh, that sounds like fun" Grune said.
"Excuse me, Grune is it?" Kratos asked. "Could you tell us how to get out of here?"
"Oh. You want to leave? Theres a door over there" she said, as she tilted her head sideways.
"Thanks." Kratos said. "We should get going."
"Okay. See you later!" Grune told them.
"I sure hope so!" Duke said. "Whooo boy, she's a fine one!"
"Hey, Duke. Leave your hands off of my girl." Zelos told him.
"What does everyone see in Grune?" Lloyd asked Kratos.
Kratos face palmed himself. "Isn't it obvious?'
Lloyd thought for a minute. "Yeah, I guess she does seem nice, doesn't she?"
"Well yeah..." Kratos said, surprised that Lloyd answered in such a way. Though his son didn't understand why Zelos and Duke were interested in Grune, Kratos was actually happy that his son wasn't more like them.
Before reaching the stairs again, they saw another sign. This time it said "Item Creation" This was something Kratos was actually very interested in. "Let's go in here for a moment Lloyd".
Everyone else seemed to follow them. Two people were there, creating items. On the left, there was a young man, with blonde hair, and a green cape. He looked a lot like a magician. On the right, there was a young woman, with light blue hair, and was very scantily clad. It didn't take much to guess which one Duke and Zelos stared at.
"Well if you aren't the cutest girl I've ever seen!" Zelos said. "Wow. This place is crawling with hunnies"
"Tee-hee" Jeane said. "nobody's ever called me cute before"
"What a shame!" Zelos said. "The guys on your world clearly have no taste"
"Damn right" Duke said. "You're a real babe! Just like Grune"
"Oh, tee-hee. You've met Grune?"
Duke and Zelos spent the never few moments staring at Grune, while Kratos talked with the young man.
"So what exactly do you do here?" Kratos asked.
"I'm Klein, and that's Jeane. We both create items imbued with magic upon peoples request. We also allow people to create their own items from scratch here. Though most people aren't too good at it."
Kratos was very excited at he prospect. Items would be useful in the tournament. He wondered if he could find some of the materials necessary to make some items that he wished to make. He thought better than to ask Lloyd. He figured that the best person to ask was Klein.
"Mana leaf huh?" Klein said. "Jeane could probably help you better than I could"
Kratos was surprised at that. Jeane didn't sound, or look very intelligent. She reminded him a little of Grune in fact. Though, somehow they were very different. Grune seemed oblivious to things, while Jeane seemed to just have a plain carefree nature about her.
"Excuse me, can you tell me" he started.
"Mana Leaf?" Jeane asked. "Tee-hee. I think you can find it in the forbidden forest"
"Jeane is the magic expert at he castle. She knows more about magic than anybody here." Klein explained. "Though you probably couldn't tell by the way she was dressed. The ESRB had a field day over that."
"ESRB?" Lloyd asked.
"Doesn't matter" Klein said. "They can't touch us here."
"Thank god for that!" Duke bellowed out.
"Of course, it wouldn't be fair if they told all the lovely ladies how they could dress" Zelos followed through.
"Query. How ever did Zelos get into Konami, the smart house" HK-47 said flat out.
"Zelos is really smart!" Lloyd said.
"Commentary. I don't feel that you are the best judge of intelligence, meatbag."
Though HK-47 was right about that, Zelos HAD ended up in Konami house. All of a sudden the rain stopped. It was nighttime by now though.
"We should get back to our Common Rooms" Kratos ordered. "You need a good nights rest Lloyd. Don't.."
"I know. I know. Don't do this, don't do that. I'm not going to get into trouble!" Lloyd said.
And with that, they all started up the stairs that had inadvertently lead them on a tour of the 1st floor of the castle. Everyone else was slowly returning to their common rooms. Everyone... except Sephiroth.
"Zelos." he said.
Zelos turned around. "What ever could you want with the invaluable Zelos?"
Sephiroth smiled. "I just thought... we ought to introduce each other. I can tell, after all, you're a man who likes to be on the winning side of things"
Sephiroth was right about that. Zelos liked winning more than anything. Why choose the losing side if you don't have to?
"That's just something for you to think about" Sephiroth said. With that, Zelos entered the Konami Common Room.
"The weak strive to get weaker" Magus said, standing behind him, ready to enter the Namco Common room.
Sephiroth only smiled at the wizards attempt to insult him. He then headed towards the Sony common room himself, ready to look over some of the books he had brought back from the library. It was going to be a long night.
By Cloud and Squall
