Broken Adventure: Arc 3: Jumpchain

by theaceoffire

A fragment of a powerful being is sent on further Adventures... And manages to crash right into one. A child, hurt and lost and alone needs help, and Adam {Name Redacted} is JUST the Warehouse to save the day! Godlike, Jumpchain, Dimensional/Universe/Fictional/Reality Travel.

9. Chapter 9

Rinoa was calm.

Watts wasn't buying it. "So, finally got up?"

Rinoa was peace. "Shh. Yesterday was a hectic day, the monster stampede and all."

The man glanced at an 'innocent' looking Sarah and the very much satisfied and smirking Shiva. "Uh huh."

Rinoa was going to shank someone if they didn't let this go. Or explode in hysterical giggles and lovey dovey eyes. Either/Or. "Back on point! How's progress?"

He opened one of those endless folders with more paperwork in his horrible handwriting. "Materials have been ordered and will be shipped this way over the next week. I've directed the workers' contracts to the people who have been unemployed longest or who have the highest bills."

Like usual then. She checked the charts, those tended to be informative even if she couldn't read the text around them. "And our contacts?"

He grinned. "Got a shadow auction set up, using the refurbished but still closed theater. I followed your notes and the promise of Lunar Produce in the thousands has people lining up already! Heck, I think tourism has even gotten a boost just from outsiders coming to check the rumors out!"

What? "You mean hundred, right?"

Watts looked blank. No. "Let me see my notes?"

He handed over the paperwork she had left behind… No, she had written 100, but there was a smudge that MIGHT have been a comma. Maybe. That would have STILL been '1,00' though. Shit. "Sarah."

The woman hummed? "Yes?"

Crud. "I know you said you could get a hold of over a thousand units of produce for us to work with, but how much over that?" There was a REASON she had said 'hundreds' and not 'thousands'!

The silver woman blinked. "Not sure. I doubt you have to worry about it though."

She was already pulling out her own notes and trying to do some calculations. If she cut back the amounts of personal stock she was going to build up for her people? No, not nearly enough. "While one or two thousand bushels of veggies will sell fast, lots of people are desperate for Lunar Produce. I need to know what I'm working with."

The stuff could directly empower the consumer, help increase their ability to Junction with better compatibility, some claimed it slowed aging and others that it healed sickness. Not having the amount promised could cause some real consequences.

Sarah frowned. "I mean, maybe two and a half thousand units? But that would destroy my reserves." She waved it off. "It doesn't matter, I doubt this city could even sell that much."

Apples that could make your kid better able to survive this world? Peaches that caused bliss? Grapes that cleansed the body? Yeah, they would sell. "Maybe I can make smaller bundles for auctioning and the delay of bidding and price hiking would discourage most of them?"

It was an unlikely outcome.

Shiva snorted. "Where would you even PUT two and a half thousand tons of that stuff? I know it doesn't go bad easily, but it would really back up your train system trying to move it."

Several auctions, each one with a portion? Yeah, that would make it very hard for any one customer to detect the total amount and hopefully give Sarah more time to grow… To…

Wait. "Tons!?"

Sarah blinked. "Yes?"

The FUCK!? "I thought you meant over a thousand bushels!"

The woman tilted her head. "Well, then I can simply pass over around 6,480 or so bushels of the Oats. And if there isn't enough, we can dip into the Wheat or Barley supply. Problem solved!"

Shiva nodded. "Not sure why our good girl here kept focusing on the grain goods anyway. You didn't even give her the amount of cabbages, carrots, potatoes, any of the fruits…"

Sarah waved it off. "It's because Rinoa only wants the grains, remember?"

What!?

She felt a headache building.

Now that she thought back, she had been a bit obsessed at the idea of tradable moon grain. Only vegetables and fruits had been traded before, and it was an easily stored and traded product that could sell well here in Timber.

But how had she missed the scale? "So you didn't mean that you had 'over a thousand' bushels of Lunar Products for sale…"

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I mean I have over one and half tons of food per type the moon produces. It was a bit of an arbitrary cap really, but it was all more than I needed personally anyway even after considering the dairy, meat, and spice trade going on."

Holy crap. "Those fucking farmers must only sell a tiny fraction of what you trade them, the rest is being sent somewhere. Probably nobles or the military."

Watts shifted. "So uh… We good for the auction?"

Rinoa snorted. "Yeah. But we need to drastically limit the amounts being sold… Selling a thousand bushels of grain is one thing, selling an unending variety of never before seen Lunar Kingdom enhanced produce will start a war."

Sarah started to grin… And was smacked. Stop right there! "NO! No global fighting over having a near endless amount of resources that are very desired by the public!" Bad Sorceress! That would cut into snuggle time!

Shiva giggled. "She just wants to be able to [[Scan]] them all, 'Research' their GF's, and steal their stuff. We can do things the slow way."

Sarah rubbed her uninjured head. "Yeah, I guess we can wait. But I still want to examine a local Galbadian soldier, don't they all have [[Scan]] on them already? Not my fake attempt, the actual para-magic."

Rinoa paused. Probably? At least some of them. "There aren't any elite troops here, but yeah, most should have at least a few units of the standard loadout. So [[Fire]], [[Thunder]], [[Blizzard]], and [[Scan]]. Only the strongest people get [[Dispel]] though, and I'm not sure how many of the local military will just let you check them out."

Watts snorted. "Pretty sure the men AND women would be more than happy to be 'checked out' by OW!"

Rinoa held up her second shoe. And an eyebrow.

Watts shrugged. "I'll be good Sir."

Shiva chuckled, and certain comments from last night/this morning/half an hour ago made Rinoa blush. Right! "Moving on, you got what you need?"

He nodded. "Get me the sample products to show the people, everything will be set up in a month."

Hmm. Should be long enough, right? "I'll go visit Cid over at Balamb Garden, Sarah can check out the local magic and we can set up a contract or two."

Cid would be MORE than happy to hire them security guards for an underground auction, especially if Sarah was willing to hand over some moon goods in return. Probably a whole SeeD team or two! Maybe three!?

Her mind went back to those sexy women and handsome men she saw last visit. A team came in groups of three, right? So two teams plus Sarah and Shiva would hit her perfect eight!? Hmm!?

Plus, Cid had seemed like a softy, he'd probably be fine with some sexy people being hired to do a mostly safe job with high pay and the potential to make connections with an all powerful moon Sorceress. Probably?

After all, he had always seemed more concerned about Sorceress Adel's conquest plans more than the fact that she was 'cursed' as being a Sorceress.

Yeah, this would work out! No doubt!

Besides, Sarah doesn't eat people/monsters/everything like the legends say. Well, not like that. Mmm.

STOP! You're in public, focus!

Point is, head to the Garden and hire some future harem members/SeeD Teams to act as security and hopefully have them stick around to help out Timber! Brilliant!

So it should be good! Yes? Yes! Best plan ever!

Rinoa nodded. "So new plan! We trade them some moon stuff to get magic samples and hire several guards, yeah? Sarah can look up what she wants, a SeeD team or two would keep people in line during the auction, Shiva would keep looking sexy, and it sounds like we got a plan!"

Watts blinked. "Huh, I guess we COULD afford to hire them with all these goods available…" He scratched his head. "That's going to take some mental adjustments, Sir."

Six strong and powerful sexy SeeDs! Maybe with their own uniforms!? "Two SeeD teams, the best of the best and the most elite of the elite… Can we force them to wear hot outfits!? That's something we can put in the contracts, yes? Then again those uniforms are pretty smexy on their own, there was that one guy and them arms… Ooh! Shorter skirts! For the women AND the men!"

Watts coughed. "Sir?"

No! "Don't be sexist! Men can wear cute skirts too!"

Hot muscular guys and gals with tight short skirts, twirling in battle to defend her city and nearby towns and maybe snuggle a bit and hold hands and… "We must go to Balamb Garden soon, it is mission critical. The safety of the auction can not be put at risk!"

Why was Shiva giggling? No matter! "To the train station!"

Sarah grinned. "I thought I was going to get to scan a few soldiers?"

Oh, right. "And there will be some on the way TO the train station!" Probably!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cid Kramer blinked at the message. "I'm sorry, what?"

The operative nodded. "The wave of creatures has been repelled and the area seems to be settling down. Local fighters stopped the incursions entirely when we departed."

He waved at the report. "You know what I'm talking about."

The man shifted, looking away. "They are just ongoing persistent rumors. If my team hadn't insisted, I would have left it entirely out of my report."

Cid leaned back.

Contact with the Lunar Kingdom. Not just the fabled midnight trades with superstitious ranchers and the growing milk Mafia, but some sort of unplanned and uncontrolled interaction between the Moon and Timber.

This wasn't in the original warnings. If anything, that strange dying Sorceress with dire tales of future danger had implied that the moon was lost to hunger, whatever that meant. That only creating the Seed and their protective Gardens would allow some great foe to be vanquished… Someday.

And when his dear wife Edna had feared the moon legends to be the source of such danger, the collapsing woman had just laughed! Had waved it away with no concern.

So how could things be going so off plan!? "Thank you for your statements, your team will get a bonus for the rapid response to this recent crisis."

The man nodded. "Sir!" And went off to do whatever.

Absently Cid sent more data requests and began composing a list of reconnaissance missions to Timber. Again.

What was WRONG with that city!?

Everything had seemed so logical, if not pleasant. The future threat of all powerful magic and a deadly Sorceress on some unknown horizon had been more than enough for both him and his wife to shift their orphanage's direction, to prepare their lonely children for dangerous times ahead.

And then the ever churning gears of war had caught and stuck when it tried to use its fangs on Timber.

A flawless victory, one of the endless numbers that Cid's frantic manipulations barely slowed as Galbadia ever forward marched. A tragedy, as so many fighters and frantic locals had died to protect themselves and prevent occupation.

And then the moon changed.

Everything changed.

The endless gleeful slaughtering of that distant Galbadian Sorceress Adel shifted to raw terror.

An entire nation, greedy and led towards conquest, began to quietly mind their own business and shake their flags proudly (But quietly) at home.

And the Lunar Kingdom grew.

Was he supposed to assume this new shift, once again focused on that bizarre city in that hub of train stations, that this paradigm alteration was chance? Coincidence?

And the selfish part of him, the side not hardened to gaining profit and power to protect their children (Orphans or no), whispered.

It was a good excuse, right?

It could be important, yes?

And he missed her so much.

Fine. It was for strictly defensive reasons and the protection of the world itself, but he would call back his love and those children on her White Seed Ship.

To come discuss this new threat, to potentially change plans, to hold her in his arms/see their little ones/learn about this potential danger and what it could imply.

With much more work to do and (for some reason) a lighter heart, Cid went back to the mountain of forms and paperwork as he kept the massive Garden lit so the SeeDs could grow.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa was bouncing! "I LOVE train rides!" And screw those lame people who insisted she act like an adult and all that, trains rocked!

Sarah grinned. "How long is this going to be? Do you know?"

Nope! "Probably a couple of hours or something." She normally would tire out and take a nap at some point, so uh. Might be six hours? More? Whatever. Train rides were awesome!

Too bad Shiva had gone back to Sarah's mind to relax on this trip. Who cared if having an ice goddess around was a bit hard to hide!? That girl had NOTHING to be ashamed of!

Then again, bragging about her hot ice lady wasn't exactly keeping a low profile and the soldiers would eventually be forced to pay attention to her antics.

And being detained for questioning (As polite and nice as they were) would be a total waste of cuddle time.

But still! "You're going to love this place, all the Gardens have like amazing technology and awesome facilities and the students are like SUPER hot and last time Angelo found this massive bone from somewhere and I had to make her let it go because I'm talking longer than a human here…"

It had been an awesome trip. Oh! "Plus, I think there is going to be some sort of ceremony when we get there!" Something called the SeeD inauguration party? Probably? "I already got all three of us dresses, we're going to be sex on heels…" Oh, yeah. "Plus, keep an eye out for any super awesome girls or guys."

Can't just be hot or cool, they needed to be strong enough to actually get the job done. She WAS the leader of the Forest Owls after all, can't simply focus on the eye candy.

Sarah grinned. "I'm pretty sure they will recognize Shiva if she dances with us, so that is likely a no go."

What!? "But I got this sheer thing with lots of flippity bits!" It was almost MORE sinful than the nothing she rocked last night! "I want to see someone trip when she walks in the room!"

From Sarah's expression Shiva ALSO loved the idea. "Maybe. I guess she could try and… I don't know, wear a disguise?"

Huh, the mental image of Shiva with fake glasses and a silly mustache was still attractive. Go figure. "We'll workshop this later."

It was already bad enough that Sarah had to wear thicker clothing to make her full body glowing tattoo network less obvious, a chill girl like Shiva deserved better.

Right. "How long will you need to examine the magic samples? I think we got a day or so before the dance, plenty of time hopefully."

Sarah blinked. "Uh… Five or so seconds for each sample? Or twenty seconds when it comes to people carrying around some magic Junctioned or stored in their system. Draw points are near instant though, I've picked up [[Fira]] while we were on this ride so far, for example."

What? "That's pretty amazing, how many did you manage to [[Draw]] while moving this fast?"

She shrugged. "Only a good enough sample for like two or whatever units, but that was enough for me to make an artificial [[Draw]] point and begin collection of the stuff. Same with the basic [[Fire]], [[Thunder]], and [[Scan]] we got from that bashful soldier at the station."

Part of her wanted to protest that causing a guy to nearly break down in stutters and mental overload didn't count as having a natural bashful nature, but the rest focused. "What do you mean, artificial [[Draw]] point?"

Those beautiful silver eyes blinked. "I mean, I make a small orb that filters out everything but a specific para-magic and fill it with True Magic? I got a set for all the spells I've gathered so far."

Who was making that high pitch whining sound? And why was it so hard to focus?

Oh. It was her, Rinoa, not so quietly freaking out. Right.

Calm down. "You can't tell ANYONE about that. EVER."

Timber was considered a powerful city because it had two active and reliable [[Draw]] points that have been stable for years, unlike the random flickers of one or two units of magic that form all over the place.

Just… MAKING new magic gathering spots!? "In fact, you didn't say that, I didn't hear that, and none of us will mention this again."

Sarah blinked. "Hmm?"

She waved it off. "Too risky, too valuable. It's the same reason we are playing down your goods for sale, and those are luxury products that would tempt people to make bad decisions. Artificial [[Draw]] points would cause instant chaos."

The Sorceress frowned. "Couldn't we get others to share?"

Naïve as she was, Rinoa still snorted. "The more powerful a spell is, the slower a point replenishes. Takes longer to restock, as it were. Hell, I heard that rumors alone of a reliable [[Ultima]] [[Draw]] node nearly caused the destruction of Shumi Village entirely! And those spells can take months to build up enough power to [[Draw]] out a single unit."

Not that most people were strong enough to even cast [[Ultima]], much less Junction it. "They charge a LOT to access it too, like even with a massive discount and personal connections they still charge 5,000 Gil to even CHECK the thing. And no refunds either!"

Still made money like bandits. Magic [[Draw]] points were serious business.

She leaned against the train window, watching the world pass by. "So no, sharing wouldn't exactly work out unless you made a LOT of those artificial gadgets, and that would just make everyone lose their mind and try to take them. The craziest ones would die trying."

Sarah hummed. "Well, at least we can use them ourselves without a problem. Limiting the output to a specific spell means each artificial point builds up a reserve of that particular para-magic really quickly too, so we won't have supply issues."

Oh no. "How quickly?"

The woman patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, your Junction system will limit your [[Draw]] capacity to only 9 units at a time. It is a safety feature, so you won't pull so many per try that it becomes risky."

Mental horrors and imaginings of the literal armies that would hunt down her personal hug pillow Sorceress made Rinoa flinch.

Nope. No. Nuh uh. "You tell no one, you show no one, and even if we use them you MUST keep them secret."

Don't just shrug! "Secret! Super secret!"

Sarah frowned… And blinked.

The smile she made was just unfair. "I know! I can use the artificial magic nodes for my supply method but design an artificial para-magic storage device! Limit it to 9 units or something, to make it match the [[Draw]] cap in the Junction system… But this would drastically simplify the collection, trade, and sale of power in general!"

Sarah. What are you doing?

Rinoa just stared as her impossible girl began making illusionary displays. "I can probably use these stupid playing cards as a working template, just need to lower the quality of the final product to only store a few dozen units of para-magic max. That way strong para-magic can easily still fit nine units on the thing without a redesign, so less work for me."

Sarah. Stahp.

She grinned! "I mean, this is basically how that [[Card Mod]] GF skill works, right? Turning cards directly into items, then use other refinement skills to get out the para-magic? I'm just skipping a few steps!"

Crud. "I'm going to have to make a list."

Sarah blinked. "What?"

Yeah, she's going to do it. "I'm going to make a list of things you are allowed to say in front of people we can't politically or politely murder to keep your secrets safe."

Sarah paused. "You mean, of what I can't say?"

Nope, too long. "You heard me."

She tilted her head and looked delicious. "Why?"

Because the one or two people known in the world that could transform creatures into cards via the [[Card]] command were so treasured that they didn't need to do anything but wait for an army of assistants to bring weak monsters in for conversion.

Because refinement skills in general were hard to use unless you were VERY compatible with your GF. Because not every GF had such a refinement skill in the first place, and the few that did were jealousy hoarded by the lucky ones to discover them.

Because very few people per kingdom knew about or could even use the [[Card Mod]] skill at all. Because not all people could refine magic from items efficiently, or at the same rate as others, or without heavy physical and mental stress involved. Because it required a complicated 'Party' connection hookup to even trade or share magic between two people, forget easily buying or selling stuff.

A dozen impossible steps each as dangerous and risky as the others.

Making a card shaped container that anyone with a working Junction system could use, one that acted as a perfect [[Draw]] command in ideal conditions with impossible consistency?

Low level magic cards might flat out replace Gil as the local currency.

Rinoa nodded. "If you make these, mark them as Lunar Kingdom specialty items." Maybe she could help design the back of them? With a cute picture on the front and text to show what spell was inside?

It probably said something that she didn't even bother to ask if Sarah would be able to MAKE these theoretical world breaking cards. Right, back on topic! "Everyone will already know that we are connected to the Bone Sorceress in some way anyways, that secret is already out… But when we introduce these [[Draw]] cards with magic, they'll be officially coming from the scary moon kingdom."

The bone haired woman shrugged. "I can work with that."

On second thought, maybe Watts should do the cute drawings. Or Sarah or Shiva, if they were talented at the more artistic pursuits? "Good. It will be far more believable that the super mysterious Sorceress magically made this stuff than three random women somehow being able to instantly create endless spells and then storing them in small portable devices."

Sarah blinked. "Uh. But you know that I AM the mysterious…"

Nope! "Shh, that isn't on the approved conversation topic list. You can't say that."

Another pause. "But you haven't written the list yet. Right?"

Nope! "Shh! Learn from that! Be good and I'll add to the thing."

If they could show up, snag some sexy SeeD harem hotties, and leave WITHOUT bringing down an endless torrent of assassins and bandits, this would be a flawless victory. Flawless she said!

And suddenly, with none of the earlier pomp and circumstance or flair, Shiva was both THERE and pulling Rinoa into a hug. "Listen to our harem leader, Sarah. No topics means we can't talk about anything."

The voice dropped an octave, vibrating in her body. "So… Nothing but sweet nothings?"

Shit. Something in her plan had gone horribly right/wrong.

Sarah pulled Shiva away (No!) but pulled Rinoa into a three way hug. Yay! "Listen, Rinoa. I know how to keep out of sight, out of mind. But as members of the Forest Owls, we will both follow your lead on this."

Mrgle.

Shiva chuckled. "Not so sure that she's great at being subtle, but we DO have the power to back us up if something happens… And in the long run, selling magic cards might be a more reliable funding method than auctioning or bartering away moon fruits and veggies."

No, you can't do this during huggies!

Sarah grinned. "I'll make some stock up..."

Shiva snorted in the background. "Heh. Card stock."

The Sorceress ignored the chatter. "...And we can use the upcoming auction to both introduce the new para-magic storage units and use the event as an excuse. Anyone who notices your resistance cells having lots of expensive goods or good amounts of spells can be convinced that it is thanks to the big profits and hidden backroom deals this black market event will cause."

Yeah, ok. "Convince me more while we cuddle, please."

They talked more, and Rinoa probably should pay closer attention, but it was a lovely way to pass the time. Train rides were awesome!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah grinned as they got close to Balamb city, the stop where they'd then rent a car or walk to the mercenary Garden at the end of this journey.

Rinoa was beyond hyper!

Maybe it was because they had 'escaped' her dad's guards back in Timber (There was an 'undercover' squadron of about 6 people two cars back being 'sneaky'), maybe it was the chance to explore a bit without feeling guilty about not being back in the thick of things helping out… But it was clear the girl had been spending all her time recently trying to make her new home town better.

This was sort of a working vacation, mostly. The woman had an excuse to travel a bit, do some shopping, hire guards outside of her dad's control to defend her illegal and underground auction selling goods (from a feared and legendary forbidden kingdom), and go check out some hot boys and girls her own age.

Even Angelo was having fun, moving from window to window on the train and very politely NOT barking at everything. She was a good girl, yes she was.

Meanwhile, Sarah was having frustrations.

How long had it been since she had to build something NOT optimized?

Oh, her first designs of the magic cards had worked great. Able to store functionally unlimited amounts and varieties, able to estimate the safe capacity a user could draw if the related spell was already Junctioned to something, and so on and so forth.

They also required impossibly complex materials and cheated a bit with some of her advanced construction skills… And if a normal person tried to make one, assuming it was even possible considering how tiny some of the parts were and how even the thinnest components was structured with uncertainty patterns, the costs were a bit much.

If 'Research' was on the ball, one card from her initial designs would cost… Uh. Well, the number was big. 'Why not buy more islands' big, or more, depending on the local economy.

So, redesigns!

The new cards were dumb. Way dumb.

Using the researched capacity methods of the Junction System to determine the most difficult to [[Draw]], stabilize, and store para-magic (Turned out to be [[Ultima]], it is oh so surprising), the new cards could only hold 10 units. Period.

And it would only ALLOW the user to store 9 total, and transfer or [[Draw]] up to 9 units at a time or less.

That helped simplify things a lot, although transferring para-magic was a bit odd… You could tell the Junctioning system was an active prototype in public testing based on how awkward it was.

Basically, you COULD store and carry para-magic without a GF, but the Junctioning system freaked out a bit. The only way to transfer stuff was to use [[Switch]] from the system to do a 'Junction exchange' with an established Party Network.

When done, the network would let you send ALL your GF's AND ALL your para-magic to someone else. Exchanging with them, if they have something.

Otherwise, the system would freak out a bit. Oh, if everyone had magic but no GF equipped sometimes there was no issues… But even though [[Draw]] was one of the few functions that worked no MATTER what GF you had, due to it being needed to scan and gain your GFs in the FIRST place, well…

Yeah, long story short: If you had a Junction system of any version, even basic abilities get locked down until a GF is hooked up… And that made para-magic gathering, exchange, transfer, and shipment annoying. Complicated.

In the end, Sarah redesigned the magic cards she was designing completely.

Using Adam's super enhanced redesigned Junction system/Warehouse Unit/FF8 Jump Magic Interface/ECHO system monstrosity as a reference, and using Rinoa's mutilated Junction System/Dog Enhancement Suite along with the scanned Galbadian Soldiers hardware to show what local equipment can do?

Well, it made something.

The new cards were metal. Not the strange plastic/slightly too warm almost flesh thing that Triple Triad cards were made of, but thin layers of reinforced copper coated with a basic display layer and a transparent but strong graphene coating.

It was… Theoretically possible to make more with local technology? Though without a custom production machine cranking them out counterfeits would be very unlikely for a decade or two.

Sigh, and that wasn't good enough. Especially as the cost would still be stupid high.

Which meant more cut features.

Each ability removed, each layer of safety and checks helped remove entire layers and whole components from the final design. With the goal of gaining enough 'free' space to scale up the internal parts to reduce the accuracy requirements for construction to something more reasonable.

Now, these things were almost silly simple.

The para-magic storage unit, designed to fail as slowly and non-critically as possible if damaged. A custom [[Draw]] point indication unit, so other Junction systems could easily target the stupid thing… One with a custom signal so future Junction systems could make THEMSELVES less complicated if they wished to better detect these things.

A custom signal unit connected to a false party member system. It would claim to be a new person with a valid but as of yet undetermined GF Junctioned, but the equipment only had enough features to allow the owner to transfer their para-magic to the card or regain it without needing the [[Draw]] features. So even those without a Junctioned GF could do some basic para-magic inventory management.

And finally, the smallest and least heat generating customized Junction system operating system Sarah could squeeze together.

Together, it SHOULD use the energy of the stored para-magic being correctly quarantined to detect the magic within, display the name, current amount, and a stored image of the spell in question on the front… And use the remaining power to ensure the interface modules work for the users.

That managed to bring down the local cost per card to… Something like 88 Gil or so. A bit more than shotgun ammo but still cheaper than a basic potion. And these things weren't disposable, if you used them up they became empty storage units for future magic which was still useful…

Hmm. Let's try reducing some part complexity a little bit, even if it makes some of these components larger and slightly thicker. The new parts were a bit more costly yet a simpler design... Still around 95 Gil? Acceptable.

Well, these versions would certainly have a lower shelf life due to the cheaper materials… But if carefully stored and shipped, shouldn't fall apart for a very long time or a stupid number of uses. Thankfully the transfer and storage of para-magic didn't require any moving parts, and those were always the bits that broke first.

Sarah mocked up the design and sent it to 'Research' to play with. While restricted to 100 Gil or less, try and simplify the parts design wise and increase the amount of production errors possible that wouldn't compromise the base statistics.

And hell, let's only guarantee these things for five years. That would be five years of continuous use, which should last over a lifetime depending on how much you fiddle with magic, but the lower requirements could help 'Research' make these things easier to make and easier to repair and recycle.

Now, a high end model. Even Potions had an enhanced version with better quality, and the Hi-Potion wasn't even the most advanced stuff out on the market either… Having magic cards of higher cost and quality would let her relax some of the self made limits while letting locals make the stupid things.

Right, keep in mind the limits though.

Why?

Because Sarah didn't want to have to make these things herself.

Sure, she can introduce them to her auction and even make custom high quality cards from the Lunar Kingdom, and she was going to do so… But Rinoa had brought up a good point earlier. That it would bring a lot of attention to Timber, attention it might not be able to shoulder alone without Sarah having to take certain a͈̞͇̪c͎̼̻t̠̻i̙̺̼͙̳̭o͕͔̫̖̜̜n͚̬̰̩̯s͍̖̻͚͉͈.̮͙̰̜

So, if this Headmaster Cid isn't an asshole? Let's make HIM produce these things! His people helped make the Junction systems in the first place, so they have the hardware and facilities to develop these cards for a cut of the profit.

Sarah wouldn't even ask for a big cut either, as having lots of these low quality magic cards on the market would just show off how awesome the Lunar magic cards would be. Hopefully it would make the auction gather more Gil in the process if the world was already gaga over these earlier products first!

Right, so uh… For now? Call them MCards, Hi-MCards, and X-MCards. That seems to be how the market worked, right? And her own stuff would be Lunar-MCards. And with no cost or complexity or size requirements, it would be hilarious watching people try to examine her personal products and attempt to steal the design. Or even detect the materials used.

Oh. Shit, did they even have reliable and cheap methods of creating stable graphene layers? They SHOULD, based on the materials used over here… Unless Junction systems were subsidized by leadership organizations and governments?

Shit. Uh. Well, if she HAD to she could use some much lower quality substitutes, but then even a basic sledge hammer could easily scratch these things.

Sigh, future problems. Focus on the basic stuff for now.

Right, MCards were pretty much done depending on what 'Research' modified, and would be produced at around 100 Gil, sold for around 150 Gill or so depending on who prices it. Because unlike HER, they would care about profit.

She paused. Cell phones had a profit margin of 50%, right? But they also cost more to initially build… You could probably charge more Gil based on what magic is on the thing too, even without considering how little it cost to make.

Like, a one use and disposable magically enhanced and self defended tent with healing facilities was only 1000 Gil, and these cards could be used for a whole career if you don't treat them like trash.

Meh, let other people worry about economics. Let's figure out Hi-MCards!

Better materials, keep the same height and width as the lower quality cards for easier storage in the future, but double the thickness. That would more than double the space to work with, since components could be more than two dimensional if she did this right.

Hmm. Right, let's boost the para-magic capacity up to the max 100 limit cap restricted by the current Junction system, that way one card would let anyone top off that spell entirely.

With this amount of room to work with, it COULD store a bit more than that (648 units if she used up all the rest of the space), but not only would the final unit be very difficult for local manufacturers to reproduce but, even if Sarah didn't care about the one para-magic per card limit? The final cost would go up pretty high to include the needed shielding and rare materials.

After all, para-magic acted a bit odd when too much of one spell was gathered. It was part of the reason why there were caps per spell in the FIRST place, although that was compounded since each Junction system user could only equip a certain number of units per stat before problems popped up.

Instead, let's use the rest of this space to improve the false party unit!

First, a stronger signal range to let authorized users access it from a short distance, a meter or so. It was actually a bit of a benefit that the cheaper cards had to be held to interact with them, as otherwise a jerk roommate could just [[Draw]] your para-magic from across the room and flee your vengeance or something, especially as the MCard didn't have room for the authentication hardware without jacking up the price.

The new range would let the user store these Hi-MCards in their inventories or backpacks, even with a friend or a designated supply supporter, and basically treat that location, person, or space like a bank.

A bit of software would let all Hi-MCards with matching authorized users to network together when targeted for using [[Draw]] or the false party magic swapping system. And lets add the software so a Hi-MCard can be shifted into 'Unregistered', 'Public', and 'Transfer' mode.

That way you can either lock it down to touch use only when 'Unregistered', let anyone use it like a free public [[Draw]] point, or mark someone else as the Authorized owner.

That would drastically simplify selling the things without risking someone trying to remotely steal the contents.

Huh, [[Draw]] was… A bit too unstable for that actually. It WAS the most complicated part of the Junctioning system, the main component that was actually designed by humans with nearly no reliance on GFs since this is how you worked the GFs into the system in the first place…

Yeah, it would be best to limit the Hi-MCards showing only the 3 most commonly accessed para-magics in the local authorized cluster when someone tries to access the [[Draw]] point.

And, just to keep things stable, Sarah was still going to keep the [[Draw]] max limit to nine. Like, that was just good consistency!

Right, store a 100 units, network a batch into a single 'database', even if you need around 500 Gil per slot in that network. That was still pretty cost efficient, right?

Like, the standard Junction system could only store 32 distinct spells in the first place, so for around 16,000 Gil you could back up your whole setup to your room or something. Or if you space for all, what? Wait, how many spells are there?

Sarah blinked. Fifty? Really?

Huh, some of these were only theoretical, according to 'Research'. Like, no one has even proven [[Apocalypse]] officially existed yet, it was only suggested based on other para-magic research.

Neat!

So if you wanted a big bank of all possible spells for one user, it would cost around 25,000 Gil depending on what the end amount of discovered para-magic would be.

But more likely people would only use one or two Hi-MCards for the rare and hard to find stuff and use several duplicates so they could keep a stockpile of 500 or more of the basics.

After all, it sucked using up a [[Cure]] and lowering your vitality for however long it took to hunt down the right monster, find a [[Draw]] point, or convince a team mate to share the love as it were.

So let 'Research' play with the design, try to optimize it with the cost limit of 500 Gil, and see what we can do with an X-MCard budget, as X-Potions was made with the good stuff and sold for 5,000 Gil a pop.

Boost material quality again, double the thickness (It was now four times thicker than a MCard), and… Hmm.

Right, let's make these long term storage options.

Remove the [[Draw]] ability entirely, no remote access for this at all. Drastically improve shielding, too much similar magic will cause power resonance. Nearly all interactions with this aside from the false party system will be locked down, a few units here and there to ensure relatively safe failures if someone damages this thing, more layers of shock absorption and heat distribution and signal shielding.

Now, how much space can we fit in? Sarah would still cap all transfers at 100 units or less, although it was trivial to let the X-MCard connect to an authenticated Hi-MCards network, so that specific spells would get topped off when in range.

Aside from software enhancements (Warnings about which X-MCards should be checked for issues, sensors sending data to logs for Hi-MCards to keep an eye on, alerts if certain quotas were hit or reserves are running low, etc.), any and all remaining space was basically thrown to 'Research' to focus on better protection.

Pass that to 'Research', and it should be good! Though Sarah would like to find a GF to scan and ensure that she fully understood how [[HP-J]], [[Eva-J]] and [[Luck-J]] worked on her own time, the existing Junction system was good enough to fake the MCard network being a person with an unknown GF that allowed access to all of those.

True, when you tried to 'Junction exchange' with that fake person the custom error checking software would ensure it doesn't attempt to Junction spells to a slot your actual GF doesn't know how to handle (Best to avoid people popping), but this should be good enough to simplify life for customers.

Theoretically, a user could have a duplicate Junction system setup at home (without their GF of course), have it automatically refill those spell units to the optimum levels their body can handle when they cast them in the field, and just do a swap when they get back from a mission.

Their 40 [[Fire]] would swap with the fake user's 88 [[Fire]], and the 44 missing spells on the Hi-MCard network would refill from the other Hi-MCards and X-MCards that focus on [[Fire]]. In fact, let's double check the code…

Yeah, Sarah could make the limit a software thing! The owner could say 'I only want 32 [[Holy]] equipped to my strength at a time' and it would hold the remaining 68 [[Holy]] on the Hi-MCard when the user Swaps that maxed amount with their own system.

That would save some money, since you wouldn't have to waste a whole Hi-MCard if you could only Junction like 7 [[Flare]] to your magic stat or something but managed to get a full 9 from a lucky [[Draw]]. It could all be stored on a single device instead of having to have two at home to ensure quick swapping after work.

Especially since that stupid [[Draw]] system was designed currently to just throw the excess magic away if you hit the 100 spell cap OR you hit your 'safety' cap on a Junctioned para-magic.

Sarah blinked. Wait.

Right, [[Draw]] could only pull 9 units at a time, but the Junction System could hold 100 units of magic. Damn it.

Sarah went back, altered the MCards to store 10 units at a time (Bumped the price up to 98 Gil), and sighed.

Right, MCards for basic magic sale and handling. Could even be used as an additional [[Draw]] target during an actual fight, if you had one within touch distance, though that would drastically lower the life expectancy of the cards and put them at risk due to the ongoing fight.

Stores 10 units of magic, anyone touching it can [[Draw]] 9 at a time or less or transfer magic to and from them as desired. Well, when out of combat.

Current design cost of 98 Gil so far, can only guarantee use for 7 years, 4 years if used in combat.

Hi-MCards act like a modular para-magic network, with authenticated users and ranged access when the Junction system was NOT in combat mode. The device was considered too powerful for the default [[Draw]] mechanics to recognize it as an acceptable target during a fight, and the party based exchange system locks up during a fight anyway, so no unlimited spells during battle.

Stores 100 spell units, out of combat authorized users can [[Draw]] 9 at a time or less, and can act as a manikin for your magic by duplicating your current Junction system setup to swap with. Guaranteed for 30 years, off the record much longer depending on the quality of production and materials.

Finally X-MCards act as para-magic reservoirs and reserves. The new software should store a number of units based on the first unit transferred… So a weak spell like [[Fire]] could be stored in thousands of units easily, while the more fragile and deadly stuff like [[Pain]] or [[Meteor]] could at least hold a few hundred. Maybe a couple of thousand, but uh… Probably not.

Not even remotely accessible during a fight, nor could you even [[Draw]] from them at all. Risking these things getting damaged might be a death sentence anyway, despite all the safety standards she had added.

Transfers of magic are limited to 100 units at a time, and when in a network the safeties will ensure that when multiple unrelated X-MCards were used the overall amount of para-magic being transferred would be roughly equivalent to around 50 units or so, since some spells are 'bigger' than others.

Customers would probably have to stock up on Hi-MCards to make the best of these X-MCards honestly, but considering each one of these suckers would cost 5,000 Gil Sarah couldn't see anyone easily splurging on a full set of 50 and then gripping over a few hundred more.

She snorted at the thought. 'Oh, I only spent 160,000 Gil so far but asking for 1,000!? I say good day to you!' Hell, some of the more popular magazines could cost a grand alone, and 'Pet Pals Vol. 1' wasn't nearly as useful as carrying around 200 spell units, no matter what Rinoa says about the silly things.

Seriously, that woman manages to teach her dog with her mutated Junction system how to sumo slam monsters with [[Limit: Angelo Strike]] and was like 'No, the tips in there were super helpful! I just had to think about it while hiking for a while.'

Like, you can read adorable pet magazines! Sarah wouldn't judge you! Rinoa was a good girl.

Mmm.

The sudden slowing of the train made Sarah focus. "Oh?"

Rinoa was ecstatic! "We're here! Come on Angelo, who's ready for walkies!? Are YOU ready for walkies!?"

Schematics saved, queue up a few thousand MCards of each type for production, load up the basic version with a selection of her spells to show Rinoa later when she got done ruffling her dog and nearly vibrating out of her own skin.

No reason to show off her unlimited amounts of discovered spells so far either, so a few cards with ten units each would be good enough and would let her display the functionality of the more expensive MCard variants.

Idly, she pulled one of the new MCards out and pushed S̺̘̞̳p̠͎̯ͅac͖̱̙̫̟e̺ into it.

And blinked. "Huh."

So THAT'S how you make [[Demi]]. Also neat!

The card had capped off with 10 units, with the silver material (And yes, the back had an image of the Lunar Kingdom on it, shut up!) now showing heavy black text and an empty spiral in the center.

Welp, send it over to Adam to get a stockpile setup for it. Also, better update the code so that white or silver or transparent magics won't cause the text to be unreadable… Still, nice effect.

Rinoa was looking at her. "You ready to go Sarah? Oh! Can I drive!? Let's get a car and then I can drive! I've seen people do that before, it should be awesome!"

Sending her MCard to her inventory, she shrugged. "Sure, why not?" It was only like what, 3,500 Gil to rent one? And she would be able to [[Cure]] her if anything happened.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

BAD IDEA! "GO RIGHT! MORE RIGHT!" Shit shit shit!

Angelo was loving this in the back seat, but Rinoa was still FAR too confident. "I missed them, don't worry! And I'm sure the car would have squished those Bite Bugs anyway."

At least don't go so fast, how they had missed those trees was an actual miracle.

FUCK! "EYES ON THE ROAD!"

Rinoa swerved around a WAY too close tree. "There is no road, that was like way back there. Oh wait! Did you see another road back there!?"

And she fucking TURNED AROUND TO LOOK!

Oh god. "EYES FORWARD! FOCUS!"

The bitch actually rolled her eyes. "Relax, I've seen people do this all the time."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa walked along the path blushing.

At least Angelo was having fun.

Sarah was also staying quiet.

Rinoa coughed. "Lovely weather? Like, clear skies and everything!"

A monster tried to leap at the dog and was skewered instantly by a massive spike of ice from below.

A few seconds later, Sarah waved. "[[Blizzara]] or whatever."

Rinoa sighed. "You're mad about the accident. Still?"

Silent.

Angelo was trying to lick the monster-sicle.

Rinoa slumped. "Yeah, I thought so."

It was a nice day. And at least Sarah managed to scan a [[Sleep]] from one of those ground fish. And, if she could find a stronger Caterchipillar, maybe get some [[Slow]].

It was going to be a long walk.

Rinoa walked a bit closer. "At least we weren't hurt? You didn't even need to heal us or anything!"

Sarah stayed as calm as she could. "You managed to swerve through an entire forest. An army of monsters. By inches in some cases, and while not looking forward half the time, but still. I could deal with that."

The woman perked up! "See? Just because there was a bit of an issue at the end there…"

She stared the overly peppy girl down. "Tell me. How can you easily avoid tree trunks, boulders, monsters the size of small cars, and huge gaps and cracks in the road… And then NOT notice the ocean."

Rinoa threw her hands up! "It jumped at me out of nowhere!"

No! "It is the god damn SEA!"

She pointed right back. "Then it needs a sign or something!"

For fucks sake! "What, 'Please do not drive here, water is wet'!?"

She sniffed. "Well anything sounds silly if you say it like that."

Oh, you are SO lucky you're adorable.

Another spike of ice! "And fuck YOU ALL, you stupid damned flying gnats of idiocy! [[Blizzaga!]]"

Oops, too much ice… Meh, fuck it.

Fucking things saw instant death and an army of bug corpses and was like 'But what`s the dog doing?', why not go run to my death too? Stupid freaking bugs.

Shiva snickered in her mind, but SHE hadn't had to ride with this woman! "You are banned from cars."

Rinoa blinked. "What?"

Nope, case closed: Banned driver. "You will be chauffeured everywhere, forever."

She flinched. "Huh!? No! I was just getting good at it!"

Never again. "I'll trust Angelo to drive before you. You are banned."

The woman pouted. "Aww… But I lasted much longer this time!"

Don't bother with those puppy eyes.

That won't work on Sarah, she was stronger than that.

Wait. "Hang on, THAT wasn't your first time driving!?"

And the girl looked shifty. "Well, after Dad got involved it was much harder to get away and convince people to let me practice. And paying those medical bills really cut into my allowance, so uh..."

Shut up Shiva, your cackling is making it hard to focus! "Keep talking, let's see if you lose your walking privileges too."

Ignoring her 'Aww', Sarah focused on keeping the area secure and then roughly heading the right direction.

And so help her, if another fucking bug showed up.

How far away WAS Balamb Garden!? "I could just teleport us there. It would be beyond easy."

Rinoa threw another stick for Angelo to chase. "We can't, your bone wings pop out when you use anything related to Space and we are trying to be discreet."

The living road hazard saw Sarah's dry look and rolled her eyes again. "Like, with the locals and normal people I mean. See, they know we are HERE, and maybe that my driving needs some work, but they don't know you are an all powerful sexy moon Sorceress coming to sell them fruit. See? Discreet!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Galbadian soldiers (ones under cover and, theoretically at least, on protection detail) examined the beach.

The weary one sighed. "I swear, the tracking tag says they are here. Like, twenty feet that way."

For fucks sake. "I am not seeing any boats, or hidden passages, and I KNOW her dog is fine because the Junction system is marked as active, even if we can't track it. So where are they!?"

The other slumped. "I swear it's her years of training. How are some guys like us supposed to follow a master spy and infiltrator like the leader of the Forest Owls!?"

Another nodded. "Left our sight for minutes after getting in a vehicle and was gone. That route had to be planned for months, and had all kinds of hazards and stuff waiting for us. Not to mention the surprisingly large number of monsters."

Damn it. "So… Probably a disposable boat then?" But that wouldn't support a car's weight…. Oh for Pete's sake! "Lieutenant, can you verify if the car was disposed of here?"

The tired man blinked. "I'm sorry?"

He pointed at the sea. "Just… Did she ditch the car and the tracking unit in the ocean itself. We can begin tracking down the schedules for the local waters and shipping routes later."

SOMEONE had to have seen which vessel she had gotten on! Still… "Just in case, two of you take our backup to the Station, in case we can't track her until her scheduled return."

Better safe than sorry.

The wiseass whistled. "I told you! Always five steps ahead! Probably knows that we paid the insurance for the damn thing too due to her Dad's standing orders."

Sigh. Fucking idiots. "We're burning daylight! Move it!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Thankfully, [[Harvesting]] one of the bugs gave 'Research' enough data to find out that it was a smell based pheromone that was overriding the survival instincts of these stupid monsters. And how to target the correct molecular sequence magically.

Eventually.

But NOW, after using True Magic to clean the two humans plus dog up? No more bugs!

Speaking of which, True Magic acts funky and is expensive when doing custom stuff. Apparently spells and the stuff gathered as para-magic are sort of short cuts that are partially subsidized by rules that exist in the current reality.

Raw 'True Magic' could do anything for a related cost in resources, but if those actions line up with the local rules and so forth? Nearly free to use.

It was why natural build up of magic tended to match the stuff seen on [[Scan]] and found at [[Draw]] points, because reality tended to resolve in those directions, to decay into those patterns.

But since they had been in the middle of nowhere, and Sarah was frustrated, and summoning ice spikes everywhere with massive waves of [[Water]] keeping the road clear became super frustrating... Well, using some True Magic to force all of creation to clean them on a fundamental level and then block smells was WORTH the boosted cost and having her bone wings flare into view for a bit.

Plus, she got a usable sample of [[Odorless]] which, sort of similar to [[Blind]] and [[Silence]], blocked a target from generating or carrying scents when moving through the environment. Sure, [[Blind]] prevented vision and [[Silence]] blocked sound (And most voice activated para-magic), but the idea was basically the same.

Probably wasn't included in the standard Junction system detection algorithm because it wasn't super battle related. 'Equip [[Odorless]] and now your disgusting foe is much less stinky for the fight!' would be useful but not necessarily worth the time and hassle of hunting down creatures and slowly draining away a full 100 unit supply.

From what 'Research' could tell, [[Odorless]] would boost stats when Junctioned similar to [[Silence]] too… Hmm. Would there be similar magic for other senses? Like [[Numb]] or [[Lost]] to mess with the sense of touch or the sense of direction? Something to look up later.

But WITHOUT random bug attacks, they managed to reach the main road eventually and were now (finally) at Balamb Garden.

It took another half hour or so to actually reach the gate.

Sarah frowned. "Sheesh, this place is huge."

Rinoa was disgustingly peppy. "Yep! A lot of it is actually designed for growing food or making it easier to support the Training Center where the more diverse monsters live to [[Draw]] magic from and train, but they got lots of other stuff too."

She waved to one side. "More normal plants and dignitary stuff is that way, in the Quad, and they do meetings and stuff over there. That side, on the left, has the medical center and the food facilities too… Garden's have the best Infirmary and medical programs around, and not only patch up the students and outsiders but do cutting edge research."

And they were still not at the front gate yet. Holy crap.

Rinoa's stomach rumbled and she winced. "Ah, and their food is amazing… Let's head that way? I've heard their Cafeteria use some pretty amazing monster meats and ingredients, some dishes are near legendary."

Huh. "Like what?" They had some T-Rexs around somewhere right? She mentioned that. "Dino steaks?"

She led the way towards the entry gates. "Hot dogs."

Angelo was having fun running around the two in circles, now that the bugsicles were not a thing.

Sarah stared blankly. "I'm sorry. What?"

The woman smirked. "Yep! World famous hot dogs. They sell out every day, most of the time before breakfast is over... I was being given VIP treatment last time and even I couldn't get a hold of one during my visit."

Bullshit. "You're fucking with me."

Rinoa giggled. "I think it used to be a special pastry, but somehow there was a mix-up? Instead of making a meat filled bun, they used the most expensive and delicious ingredients to make high quality bread and custom sausages, cooked it with magic, and a legend was born."

Shiva was laughing in her head. "There is no way that is true."

She crossed her chest. "I swear it is! There is even a standing order during emergencies to ensure the strategic Hot Dog preserves can withstand hostile enemy invasions! They have fan clubs, influence over foreign political parties, merchandise!"

Huh. "Guess I'm going to be trying out a hot dog then."

She sighed. "No, it's near lunch. They'd have sold out hours ago, and you are not allowed to reserve them or try to cut lines… Plus, no one is stupid enough to sell one if they are lucky enough to snag their own."

Meh, they'd be here for a couple of days. "I can keep an eye on the place, scan a few, and make our MurGumPF!"

Rinoa hissed! "Shh!" Smiling at the suddenly paused crowd she laughed. "Oh, I know you want to make sculptures of those things... But you have to buy a permission license from the Headmaster first! Best do things by the book and all!"

A dozen suspicious men and women hesitated… And went back to whatever they had been doing.

She whispered to Sarah, while smiling at the others. "World. Famous."

Ah. So uh. Don't mention that you can casually recreate an unlimited supply of the things. The Queen of the Lunar Kingdom gave an awkward nod, and her friend sighed and let go.

And paused, looking a bit shifty. "That said, uh. If you can do what I think you were going to imply you were going to do, and not get caught doing whatever it was that you were theoretically thinking about potentially doing?"

Sarah gave a thumbs up.

She grinned. "Great! But for now, we can enter easily enough for free as it is during operating hours after checking in, and get whatever is available over at the Cafeteria. All their food is awesome, and I'm hungry as all heck after that walk."

Considering it was a military facility that helped trained kids and orphans from five years old up to twenty for world wide combat and teaching careers, the security was fast, competent, and pretty simple.

Probably wouldn't have been if Sarah hadn't hijacked the [[Scan]] para-spell when it was used on her and fed it false data, as whatever the hell it would show the poor guard would likely set off a LOT of sensors, but it was easy enough to spoof something innocent and get through with Angelo loving this whole trip.

Seriously, she's the best dog! Despite not being on a leash AND exploring a new place, the dog was silent, close at Rinoa's side, and kept her senses on anyone who got a bit too close as they passed by. Maybe animals were smarter here?

Probably had to be, with so many dangerous things out there in the wild.

They reached a directory, just before a central elevator cluster and a wide ringed path… But clearly most of the people passing by knew where they were and where they were going, so it was easy to get close.

Rinoa pointed to the sign. "We're heading to A13, the Cafeteria. The other side, the right half of the circle, leads to the Library and Training Center, plus the vehicle parking and maintenance bay. The Dormitory also has guest and visitor housing, but we need to go meet with the Headmaster first."

They both ignored the obvious path to responsibility up the elevator and headed towards food. "I'm surprised a place this big dedicates so much room to literature." It would be an eighth of the entire city/building/structure, right?

The other woman shook her head. "From what I know, the Quad and the Training Center are on opposite sides and take up the most space. Aside from the public accessible spaces, the Quad has training and diplomatic facilities as well as farms and food production facilities while the Training Center has to support all the wildlife that breeds in there. Together they are the majority of this place, but most of that is limited to outsiders like us."

Huh, it made sense. "It's amazing you remember all this. How long were you here last time?"

Rinoa blinked. "A few hours? But I got this pamphlet. I've mostly been reading from this for a while now."

Sarah stared at the paper the other woman waved about.

That cheating jerk! "Right, well. Let's go get some food, then meet with Cid, and… And I'm done for today. Yes, in fact: A nap. Get this done, and I am going to have a full on, snooze till everyone else loses, nap."

Rinoa turned the page in her documentation. "You're not missing much, most of the thing is a sales pitch that I am pulling sections of useful stuff out of. For example: 'They say a wise Shumi named NORG helped fuel the Garden of SeeDs' and that with only minor fees, you too can make all sorts of advanced deals and arrange more complicated services…"

She flipped to another section. "Though a suspiciously large amount of these pages just cover how handsome this NORG is and how attractive his hands are."

Wait. "What?"

Rinoa hummed. "Yeah, half this thing reads like a love letter to this one dude from the Shumi village, and even when free not many others kept the thing when we left. I kept it because Cid left contact information on the back page, it's how we got an appointment so quickly."

Whatever. "Let's get some food and go meet this guy later." Plus, mark the entire culinary facility so that 'Research' can automatically scan everything made, all ingredients being used, and any procedures followed.

If someone accidently made hot dogs into a near religious experience, there may be other things to gain from a bit of observation as well!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cid Kramer blinked at his to-do list. "Don't I know a Heartilly?" Seriously, that name seemed very familiar. Like, within the last year or so.

His assistant nodded. "She leads a resistance cell against Galbadia in Timber and is the daughter of Fury Caraway who leads the Galbadian forces."

Oh. Huh. "Well, I wonder why she is so desperate to meet with me then. There hasn't been an uptick of violence or military action in Timber lately, correct? And I had reports that the odd Monster Wave left nearly no casualties or deaths either."

More paperwork was passed over. "No sir."

Hmm. No scheduled actions, no cover ups, honestly everything on most of the war fronts had fallen into a holding pattern these last few years since the Sorceress Adel suddenly retreated and began solidifying her defenses back home.

So why? "Well, make sure her people and protection detail are given top treatment, a secure room, and work her into the afternoon meeting slots for tomorrow." If it was something critical, she would let him know and he could adjust his schedule accordingly.

The woman nodded. "The room's been prepared."

Cid paused. "Are we lacking in available space?" They shouldn't be, right? The other diplomatic envoy wouldn't be showing up for a month, dear Edna wouldn't get back here for another few days, and the other visitors and customers could easily be convinced to leave if required. Would be eager for it, if discounts or closer relations to the Garden itself were involved.

She shook her head. "No sir, but she declined additional facilities for her dog."

What? No. "I don't intend to force anyone, wealthy or not, to be forced to share a single facility for their entire retinue. Unless it was a direct request from the young lady?" If so, maybe this was more urgent than the situation seems to call for.

Why else would someone force their team members, security staff, and diplomatic advisors into one room? Did they fear attack even within his own walls? In Balamb Garden itself!?

The woman… Blushed? "Sir, the two women seemed very close to each other and were fine sharing the room. Insistent, in fact."

There was an awkward silence that apparently his assistant felt a need to fill. "The dog was very well behaved, and Lady Heartilly appreciated the complimentary pet bed."

Oh for goodness's sake. "Please don't tell me I have two love struck women running away from the war effort and an overbearing father to elope in my Garden."

The office was quiet.

Good grief. "Just… Just set up an afternoon meeting and feel free to delay any reports or outgoing messages involving the young ladies for as long as possible."

A wry smile and a nod. "Yes sir."

Damn it, his wife was going to tease the hell out of him for helping out these two roaming romantic resistance movement morons.

Why did people always come to HIM when it was romantic stuff!? He just wanted to defend his wife and planet from a deadly future Sorceress trying to collapse time!

But NO, it was young men and women crossing oceans to be with their destined lovers or 'secret' trysts in the deadly Training Center or another few women who wanted to be hired as a 'sexy librarian' and so on and so forth!

The library had over SEVEN librarians, male and female! And ALL of them wore overly sexualized outfits! Hell, half the men wore the dresses!

Sigh. At least it drastically improved the scholastic records for the over-sexualized magically enhanced super soldier mercenaries. No one was willing to break the rules too badly if it cut off the best cuisine in the Cafeteria and restricted 'studying' in the library or late night 'training' sessions.

Had he ever been that young?

Flickering memories of his darling Edea were carefully placed aside.

Of course he hadn't. He'd never do anything silly for love, like building an orphanage from scratch or frantically transforming it into a global resistance powerhouse to defend his better half from future potential danger.

Cid grumbled. Better get rid of some paperwork, at least that pile of lies and misspelled fictions were more believable than his own internal excuses. Not to mention that the gears of bureaucracy waited for no man, and the day to day relied on such things being handled promptly.

Also, he might need the related money soon to help out two young ladies drastically over their heads in political pressure and other such problems. Because he was a grumpy old softy of a man who should have learned better by now, but still helped out love struck fools like a moron.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah blinked. "Holy shit."

Rinoa looked up from laying on the sinfully squishy bed. "Huh?"

She pulled up an illusionary schematic, showing the recently [[Scanned]] Balamb Garden. "This whole city/building/thing is a ship."

The tired woman on the covers didn't even look willing to undress, much less get ready for bed. "Wuzzuh?"

Sarah was pulling more and more data. "Well, I agreed to not scan anyone before we talk to Headmaster Cid out of courtesy, but I did mark the Cafeteria for…" Hot Dog investigation purposes? How odd was her life. "...Reasons. And found out that the foundation was much more complicated than expected."

Layers of protective armor, defensive structures, hookups for thermal energy and so on and so forth. And aside from the hidden production rooms and mechanical labs and stuff, something had really stood out. "Like, I'm pretty sure that this entire place is physically capable of moving."

Rinoa was barely awake. "Silly Sarah, we crashed the sea earlier. You can't make the city into a boat. Not without a sea."

Nope. "More like an airship. I'm going to have to review some of these more strange shapes and structures near the generator rooms and whatever is going on with the dangerous para-magic power reactor some madman designed near the base of this mess, but I'm pretty sure this whole place can fly."

The leader of the Forest Owls was out of it. "If a boat had a sea, it would be a coat and you'd be warmer because if it had a gee it would be a goat and goats eat coats."

Sarah paused. "What?"

"Zzz."

Oh.

Well, it was pretty late. It was easy enough to use a bit of True Magic to clean the woman up, [[Harvest]] away her clothing, and get her under the covers.

...That bed did look amazing though.

But she needed to double check the production of the MCards, and…

Shiva poked her mind.

Fine, fine. "Move over, bed bug." Better not steal all the covers, though based on past nights the woman WAS a hugger so it shouldn't be an issue.

As for the rest, it could wait until tomorrow. "G'night, Angelo."

A soft 'woof' came from the corner dog bed. Good girl.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa was peace. An island of calm in an ocean of serenity.

Sarah was standing to one side, saying nothing (She was on probation), and waiting for her cues (They had a plan. A real one!)

Rinoa was confident. Her mind was a palace and her body a kingdom that followed her commands with utmost enthusiasm and dedication.

Angelo was a good girl.

Rinoa was still waiting and the appointment was ten minutes ago. "Something is wrong."

Sarah tried, again, to use hand signs, gestures, and hip movement to say something supportive without using her impossible magic, technology, or raw mind power. A bit hard without permission to talk, but the thought was appreciated.

Finally, it was their turn. The woman gave them… A supportive smile? "Don't worry you two, Headmaster Cid will get everything straightened out right away!"

Uh. "Thank you?"

A wide smile. "Much of the staff are rooting for you two!"

Wow, the Gardens really had astounding customer support. "Right." Let's do this! "Come, Sarah."

The other woman silently followed into Headmaster Cid's office.

The assistant seemed to be blushing. "Oh my… So forceful."

What was that? "I'm sorry?"

She waved them forward. "Right ahead, feel free to sit at the table. He'll take care of everything." And then left with a wink.

Huh. "Right, Sarah!"

She nodded?

Rinoa pointed at the table. "You said something about having prototypes ready for stuff to sell?" Probably designs and stuff, that plus some of the veggies would be enough to convince Headmaster Cid to consider a more in depth contract.

Another nod.

Good. "Place them on the table, enough for samples, and I'll let you do the presentation. Don't give too many details, alright? And look to me before answering anything just in case."

This would be fine. They would be fine. She was mostly an adult and she could handle this!

The door opened and a tall man with rich brown hair and cool blue eyes strode in, looking weary. "Sorry for the delay, I'm Headmaster Cid Kramer. Would you be Miss Heartilly?" His vision flickered between the two. "Or Mrs.?"

Right! "Just call me Rinoa, Headmaster. This is my... " Partner? Lover 1 of 8? Secret Sexy Sorceress Secretary? "...Partner, Sarah."

The man didn't even blink. "I see! Lovely to meet you both, and feel free to just call me Cid, or Headmaster if nothing else is easier. Now, you ladies wish to speak to me?"

Right. "This is a secured room, yes?"

A solemn nod. "Yes. Many deals and transactions require that outside parties stay uninvolved when possible."

Good. "Long story short, the Forest Owls have recently gotten access to some valuable goods and we are planning on having an auction in Timber."

The man paused fully, a folder of paperwork half placed on the table. "I'm sorry?"

Stay on topic, keep things short, be professional Rinoa! You can do this! "We have gained rare goods and plan on setting up an auction within the next two months to raise funds to develop Timber, to fund the resistance cells within the area, and to better develop financial ties and relationships with other organizations that do not wish Galbadian influence to spread further."

Somehow seeming more focused, if not also slightly confused, Cid sat at the table. "Go on."

It was working! She sounded hella adultish! "Because of the value of the material and the nature of the event, I, representing the Forest Owls, wish to hire two SeeD teams for a long term deployment to Timber. Specifically to act as security for both the auction specifically and for the transportation of goods two and from the location of pickup."

Her eyes caught some of the paperwork in that folder. Why was Cid carrying around pictures of churches? They were beautiful though.

No! Focus! "Due to the high profit potential of the venture, we believe that not only will this be a desirable contract in the short term, but that it would be valuable to become partners in a longer sense using your connections and production abilities to reach wider markets while granting you access to our rare and exclusive resources."

The man paused. "I see." Did he have a headache? "Give me a moment, I just need to grab a different set of documents."

And he was gone, taking the folders with him.

Uh. "I think that went well!"

Sarah gave a thumbs up!

Hang on. "Wait, what's all that stuff on the table?" Those weren't veggies or whatever. Looked like metal cards or decorative fake books or something.

Sarah gave a variety of hand gestures that didn't help at all. Uh. Alright.

Cid came back, looking slightly frustrated but far less stressed. "Right, sorry about that. Now, let's talk a few more details about what these 'rare goods' are to be auctioned and the nature of risks and rewards SeeD mercenaries might face while working on such a defensive contract."

She held back a fist pump. Heck yeah! "Exclusive rights to the trade and sale of future Lunar Kingdom produce, in substantial quantities, and of impeccable quality."

Ha! His expression was priceless!

Her attention was pulled by Sarah doing something with her hands. Uh? Oh! "Right, and we have some stuff we were hoping you could produce, Sarah basically designed it after studying some Lunar Kingdom equipment and we are willing to license Balamb Garden to manufacture it for a small cut of the gross profit." And uh.

Well, that's all she really knew about whatever Sarah had been trying to say. "Sarah? Go ahead." And do whatever the hell you were planning on doing with whatever that stuff on the table was.

The woman stood with a grin, and with her tattoo's mostly hidden and that overly thick outfit on she only looked… Slightly otherworldly. A minor goddess, at most! Not like the terrifying Moon Sorceress at all, probably!

This was going to work, as long as Sarah didn't mention something impossible or war inducing and stayed quiet about those DAMNED hot dogs and… uh. Huh.

Sarah was waving her hand at several of the cards, while using… Sign language?

What the hell, why was Cid able to understand her!? Although that was impressive. "Sarah, you can talk now."

The two gesturing people paused. ""I/She can talk!?""

Damn it! And they had looked so professional before! "Yes Sarah, you are allowed to talk."

Sarah grinned! "Right! Well, basically I really wanted to come buy or trade for some samples of a bunch of para-magic samples and maybe [[Scan]] the Guardian Forces here at Balamb Garden, but while the Junction system is pretty useful most of the time it sucks for collecting, trading, sharing, and trading magic."

Don't mention the artificial [[Draw]] points, PLEASE don't mention the artificial… Hang on, no. Stay calm, they had talked earlier and made a list of what she could say. This would be fine.

Sarah held up a rectangle. "Basically I've got three varieties of this, a magic card! I call them MCards, and they act like a fake person or a fake attempt at using [[Draw]] on a foe for cheap and convenient methods of handling para-magic!"

That was technically fine, right? Probably?

Cid at least seemed flabbergasted. "May I?"

A thin rectangle with [[Firex10]] on one side was handed over.

And the man was focused like a laser. "Fascinating. Astounding! And the Junction system instantly recognized it as a potential [[Draw]] point AND a selectable party member for magic transfer! This is revolutionary!"

Sarah snorted. "It's usable, sure, but I had to cut back nearly all the good stuff to keep those stupid things cheap. Honestly, the best part about the basic MCard is that it is usable during a battle as if there was a passive enemy nearby to [[Draw]] from, and it makes it easy to buy and sell magic without wasting a lot of Gil on hardware."

Cid jerked back. "Use it during a battle!? And risk damaging it!?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, but I figure if it goes bad the small units of para-magic inside would be easy enough to defuse from exploding and it is safe enough to trade around… And what more can you expect for something that cheap?"

He froze, half instinctively trying to hide the 'fragile' item from theoretical damage and his mind catching up to the conversation. "How cheap?" He examined the material carefully. "Less than 8,000 Gil?"

Sarah paused… And glanced at Rinoa.

What!? Don't look at ME! I don't know what it's made of! I don't know how much it cost you to make it, how easy it was to produce, how rare the parts were! Shit!

Rinoa tried to explain all that with her hands while also carefully explaining non-verbally that she was on her own but if it DID cost less than 8,000 Gil then maybe reconsider because the Headmaster had clearly been impressed by this MCard and…

Sarah gave a firm nod! Good! More than that, GREAT! Best girlfriend/harem member/Impossible Sorceress! Mind sisters, together forever, reading thoughts like magicians!

She turned to Headmaster Cid with a confident smile. "The basic MCards are manufactured for an estimated 100 Gil a pop, these next enhanced versions were about 500 Gil, and X-MCards will be about 5000 Gil after all the manufacturing equipment is properly set up."

NO! No that wasn't what the hand gesture/finger jab meant at ALL! Cough. Cough, I do say! "Sarah."

Another nod and a smile, which clearly meant ANYTHING damn it! "Yeah, I also think the Headmaster would know best how to price these things, I made the design limits based off of the cost of valuables I read about in Timber. Not sure how profit margins work in the real world."

The stunned man suddenly had a headache again, clearly. "I'm sorry, you say 'YOU made'? As in, this was your design?"

And Sarah had the gall to blush. "Ah. Uh… Oops?"

Argh! "This is why I took your talking privileges away!"

Sarah shrugged. "Look, we'd have to explain things to Cid eventually anyway. He's been heavily involved with the Junction system and the related developments made over the years, He'd have noticed the similarities and stuff. Plus, when we get production set up he'd find out that I know too much about how this design works for him to believe any cover story."

Stop being reasonable! "I had a plan! It was a good plan!"

She squinted. "You were going to pretend that my stuff came from the Lunar Kingdom like the other goods and just HAPPENED to be compatible with a device made by humans despite not being in direct contact with the planet for decades."

Rinoa pointed hard. "Headmaster Cid is a nice man and he looks totally gullible! Right? You'd believe us if we told you that crazy mad science stuff she makes came from the moon, right!?"

Cid, bless his heart, nodded. "Of course, Ms. Heartilly."

She waved BOTH arms at the man! "See!? A good plan!"

Sarah sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry I accidentally told the Headmaster of a mercenary work force that the advanced equipment we are planning on collaborating with on production was designed by me yesterday. Can I not be banned from talking again?"

Humph! "I don't know!"

She whined. "Oh, come on!"

Wait...This was a chance. "You banned me from driving a car." This could be her way out!

Sarah glared. "You crashed into the sea."

Ah ha! "And you VERBALLY crashed into the sea! It totally counts!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

An assistant whispered to the crowd. "I don't know, it got harder to hear, but I think the Mistress was 'punishing' the sex goddess by refusing to let her speak?"

The support staff mostly sighed and swooned. "So romantic!" "Mmm, that woman could step on me any time." "Did you see the restrictive clothing!?" "There were probably so many kinky toys under that coat, I just know it!" "True love finds a way!"

Wait! "Shh! I think they are arguing about who gets to be the Dom next! Something about being allowed to drive the relationship!?"

The supportive group oohed and awed! "Best gossip ever!" "We're blocking her asshole dad from knowing, right?" "Hell yeah, true love deserves nothing less!" "Yeah, plus: Fuck Galbadia in general." "I replaced the last report, it now says the girls were spotted at that sea trade inspection point." "You really have to find better excuses, you've used that same inspection point for ALL fake paperwork for the past month!" "Meh, it works and no one checks that crap." "Shh, I can't hear anything!"

Carl from finance groaned at his desk. "Guys, can you keep it… Down…" A dozen furious eyes glared from across the room. "Eep! Never mind!"

Trying to stay focused while working was NOT worth having those men and women getting angry that he was interrupting their one-true-pairing relationship symposium extravaganza.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cid hummed. "I'll be honest, some of these parts are more easy to construct and produce than existing hardware that goes into our prototype Junction system testbed systems. Through these sections here, I'm not sure how to produce them with existing equipment."

Not without several weeks of intense programming. Several custom devices would have to be put together, as all of this stuff COULD be made with his current facilities… But far too slowly. "These components are originally pressed into flat sheets because it is far too slow to allow each layer to harden, making this more thick layered design... Too impractical... I'm sorry, but isn't that terribly warm? You may remove the cloak if you wish."

Sarah seemed to slump. "Thank goodness, the overcoat and hood was just a tad too much."

And she awkwardly struggled off the outermost layer of... Quite an outfit. Oh my.

Honestly, he'd seen weirder outfits, but not many. "That's probably better." Hopefully.

The woman who was covered in clothes (And apparently under the big robe, a squished silly silk top hat, and what might be a scarf? No, scarves.) probably nodded. "Yeah, much. Thanks! But back on topic, if you add a catalyst agent you can keep that polymer liquid long enough to injection mold the pieces and then spray the solidifying chemical to keep it in shape until it stabilizes."

Mrs. Heartilly clearly had no idea what was going on as this covered woman, Sarah No-known-last-name, pulled out more design schematics from somewhere in her layers. "Since no one cares how nice the production equipment looks, I made a variety of designs that can be put into assembly lines easily enough. They are modular, have few moving parts, and should be easy to maintain and alter to work in most setups."

Cid blinked… And glared. "They do." He pointed. "They happen to match EXACTLY the hardware setup we use in our own facilities. It would be very simple to set up and build."

Rinoa perked up! "Wonderful!"

The glare shifted. "Yes, it is very good that these schematics so perfectly work with the equipment inside our top secret, secured and hidden reserve construction facilities. The ones with limited access." He pointed at one page. "This extruder and printer machine, for example, fits perfectly in my personal design room. The one I built for myself so theoretically no one knows about it."

The woman looked… less perked up. "Ah… Still yay?"

The mound of fabric huffed. "I mean, of course it does! If I can decipher and scan Lunar Kingdom equipment, something basic like remotely examining a little flying ship like this Garden is child's play!"

What?

Mrs. Heartilly seemed on the same boat. "What!?"

Sarah pushed the plans forward. "Even basic people could cast [[Scan]] on this place, though it might cause problems if you don't modify your own Junction system to handle the data gathered better. The magic is not limited to a scale, only the ability to understand the results and the time it takes to scan the desired target."

Cid's head hurt. "You used [[Scan]] on this entire Garden and your hardware didn't explode?"

The cloth pile shifted. "I'm STILL using [[Scan]] on the whole place, it has a lot of moving parts and I don't want to miss anything."

Sigh. Of course she was.

Never mind that [[Scan]] DID have a limit. The limit was causing brain death on the user if they asked for too much data. Half the safeties in the Junction system when it came to that spell was ensuring that LESS data was displayed for the caster so that they wouldn't be driven to madness or spontaneously destroy their own body to defend themselves from the information overload.

Then again, there was a REASON that Lunar Kingdom fruits and vegetables were considered country defining goods. Astounding taste and long lasting freshness aside, it easily improved the user if consumed over time on a foundational level.

Most kingdoms would purchase individual drops of juice or scraps of vegetable from the moon and use it to create basic soups and drinks for those undergoing training. Even so heavily diluted, the stuff had an easily observed benefit for people and as for the wealthy?

Well, they would be far less healthy and much more fat if it weren't for the mystical benefits of those nearly always sold out fruits and veggies.

And no one could duplicate the results. They tried.

As for the odd containers the fruits came in? Most analysis equipment just gave up, or claimed it was undetermined metal or alloys.

Forget trying to understand Lunar Kingdom equipment, most facilities couldn't understand their packaging material. "I trust you won't share any details of my facilities with others?"

Since he couldn't stop her. Clearly, she had connections with the Lunar Kingdom and the Bone Sorceress that h̖̮̲̗̻ͅu̦̘ͅn͎̣͚̺̠g̱͎͕̱͉e̻̖̹̜̼r̫̫͎̟̬͇e̘̩̙͈d͓̖̘ there.

Sarah nodded. "Of course not, I'm not even scanning your people, their Junctioned Guardian Forces, or any para-magic samples yet." She waved a cloth covered arm at her still bewildered partner. "Rinoa says [[Scanning]] a comrade or business partner before making a contract is rude."

She pointed down at the (Previously secret) automated construction facility. "I only scanned this place so I could design the equipment you would need to make my stuff."

Rinoa coughed, nudging her friend, who paused. "What?"

The women gestured at Cid. Sarah pulled back. "Huh. No, good point. Sorry, Headmaster Cid. It was rude to just tell you that I recorded schematics of all the equipment within the nearby territory."

A sharp elbow made her alter her statement. "I mean, it was rude to [[Scan]] the massive magical and potentially deadly building that my boss and sexy girlfriend…" Another, MUCH more embarrassed nudge! "What? Fine, I'll try again. Sorry for [[Scanning]] your stuff."

Rinoa slumped, her head in her hands. "I thought that flying building stuff was part of a dream last night. And why can't you just follow my ban list!? Remember!? You are on a speaking limit!"

The banter went back and forth. 'I am allowed to talk business!' 'Confessing to accidental corporate espionage was NOT needed for business!' 'Wait, are you sure about that?' 'Sort of?' 'I think ALL businesses have some level of espionage if they want to stay in the market.' 'Really? Wait, no! Do NOT distract me from this!'

This really did remind him of younger years. "Now, Mrs. Heartilly…" Seeing her look, he sighed. "Rinoa then. Let's just move on for now and focus on hammering down some paperwork to solidify the contract a bit."

Still, his curiosity was perking up a bit. "But if you made these MCards, Sarah… What were you studying to do so?"

The clothing pile shifted. "Ah, well, basically I studied Rinoa's customized Junction system she shares with her dog, Angelo, and one of these."

And both of the others went quiet as a strange silver skeleton, some alien beast curled into a ball, was placed on the table. Sarah pointed. "From what I can tell, this is a para-magic converter."

Oh!? "Tell me more."

And the woman… Began dismantling the tiny creature, bone by bone. "Each section of the beast is forged from a specific creature, enhanced and stabilized by True Magic, then sealed and secured by this strange silver substance."

Astounding. "To what end?"

A huff. "Something far more useful than what my equipment can do. It converts any nearby ambient magic into a specific spell." She carefully lifted the skull. "Once you cast a para-magic unit at THIS point…"

An indication and the empty eyes seemed to glow white as the jaws opened. "Yeah, force magic into this skull and any and all magic nearby and cast at this thing gets converted into the same para-magic."

A nearly covered single finger poked into the jaws.

"[[Blizzaga]]."

And now the eyes glowed bright blue, and the jaw closed.

Carefully, the woman reassembled the skeleton. "Place this in a practice facility or as a target for training, and instead of damaging the room or wasting power? It all gets converted into more units of the master para-magic template."

This… This was game changing. "Astounding."

She sighed. "Yeah, and Rinoa was impressed too, but I wasn't able to recreate the thing. Otherwise I might be able to make artificial [[Draw]] points or something similar."

The woman waved at the incredible MCard selections. "I accidentally designed all these prototypes while failing to recreate this equipment."

The MCard, to allow her to better work with magic during her testing. The Hi-MCard, to better store the related magic and attempt to act as a [[Draw]] target like existing points. And the X-MCard, trying to allow mass spell storage without the heavy risk and danger from concentrating that much power in one place. Brilliant work, all of it... Probably required a lifetime of research.

It was sort of like the trials and tribulations he and his researchers had faced with the Junction system, but approached from a different direction. "How many of those spell converters do you have?" Because reproducible or not, there was potential there.

Sarah sighed. "Nowhere NEAR enough. And it doesn't make free power either! You got to give it access to para-magic for it to work, and stronger spells requires more power to duplicate. It is also less efficient than natural [[Draw]] points, and so normal collection would still be a good idea…"

Cid nodded. "But the ability to choose a rare spell to duplicate is worth not generating a surplus of more basic magic like [[Cure]], for example." He had three Gardens to support… Well, considering recent events, basically two and his wife. "I have a proposal."

Rinoa seemed to be out of it for now, but at least Sarah seemed interested. "Yes?"

He waved at the astounding ball of bones. "Instead of auctioning these treasures, rent them to the Gardens." That way he wouldn't have to fight NORG hiding in the basement about who owned the stupid things, but they could still use them.

Touching the tiny thing… It was disturbingly warm. "In return, not only will we establish an ongoing cooperation contract with Rinoa Heartilly, representative of the Forest Owls of Timber, but we will help provide a number of related spell units to go with the MCards that you can auction instead."

And, of course… "Along with a hefty percentage of profit sharing, and various discounts and other benefits." Cid was one of the few people who heavily invested in the less obvious benefits for his children/his SeeD mercenaries.

Revolutionary medical research, cutting edge equipment and armor, advanced training, personal lodging and transportation, VIP services in multiple nations, even ones at war with each other…

Rinoa looked exasperated when Sarah glanced at her. "What, you are looking for my input NOW!?" She pointed a finger at the clothing. "You know you were skirting dangerously close to restricted topics Sarah! What would Shiva say!?"

The cloth pile shrugged. "Something about how adorable we are, and then probably start molesting us."

And that was enough of that. A polite cough caught Rinoa off guard, who started blushing and trying to apologize, "It's fine, but I gather that you are at least interested in the proposal?"

Why was she still blushing?

Sarah coughed. "Rinoa, he's asking if you are interested in the contract he offered, not about being molested by Shiva."

Ah. Right, teenagers.

The woman was turning a worrying shade of red though. "How about a short pause for refreshments and to talk amongst yourselves?"

Rinoa jumped up! "YES!" Dragging the cloth pile away. "ThanksWe'llProbablySayYes, ButPleaseExcuseUsForAMoment, ThankYouBye!"

And the door slammed shut. Though he could still hear the muffled shriek of embarrassment

Yep, teenagers.

~~~Broken Adventures~~~

The horde feasted silently on emotions.

A secretary turned to the other. "There is another."

Nods.

The listener was wide eyed. "Three girls, one submissive, one dominant, one the fluffy molester."

The guy near the chart whined! "I have to rewrite the entire mapping! I wasn't prepared for the Triple Triad Trio Tsunderes!"

The woman next to him gave a firm slap! "Damn it Jim, hold it together! Some sacrifices must be made to ensure a brighter tomorrow!"

Carl from finance just left for some coffee. Sometimes it felt like he was the only guy who did anything around here.

~~~Broken adventure~~~

Sarah grinned! "I think that went well!"

Rinoa was a freaking out girl.

The betrayer of the list nodded. "With those designs he can get my cards set up, and he will probably let me [[Scan]] a few people before we leave, so that is good."

Rinoa needed to focus.

The Stupid Sexy Sorceress hummed. "Though how many of those bone balls should I hand over? Probably less than a thousand."

Rinoa threw her logic out the window and decided to derail this crazy train, despite the fact that damage control as a concept was entirely dead by this point. "No. There are three Gardens, tell him you have three of your tiny bone monstrosities, and be done with it."

The Plan Plunderer paused. "Rinoa? You alright?"

Calm. Peace. Don't freak out. "No."

This was fixable, right?

Sarah sighed, and wrapped her in those warm arms. Much warmer, actually, since her disguise had like twenty layers of cloth over her sinfully seductive body. "Was the spell converter too much?"

No shit. "Yes."

She hummed. "Are you sure? It doesn't make more spells from scratch, and I made it very inefficient. It just converts ambient scraps of power into the targeted para-magic. Any nearby [[Draw]] points would be redirected to this thing, so the overall power dynamics won't change that much. Right?"

Nope. "Most [[Draw]] points are fragile, change location, and can end up being nearly any spell. Places and locations with more than a single stable [[Draw]] point are valuable enough to build a city there, and if one becomes unstable or shifts it can change the entire political and financial landscape of a region."

If a common spell shifts to something rare, it brings disaster as others fight over it. If a valuable one shifts to something more basic, entire industries might pull out of the area to more profitable ventures.

Gaining a [[Draw]] point could expand the population as it basically was a gold mine, losing one from instability could cause a ghost town.

All that was bad enough. "Even a shitty area with three stable [[Draw]] points with near useless spells is so valuable that people will move their entire family tree to that location. Because they may shift, or change what spell they offer, or consolidate into a single more powerful magic, or who knows what."

Sarah finally seems to get it. "And the stability from the bone balls?"

Fuck. "Locations with lots of unfocused magic, like the Gardens, can already spawn several stable [[Draw]] points. Your bone machines can not only be reliable, but purposefully placed in a secure location that belongs to a particular person… And might cause competitor [[Draw]] points to dry up as they work."

And that was just the tip of the issue. "Not to mention that you can PICK what magic gets generated. No, worse: That OTHER people can pick what gets generated."

There was heavily desired but limited magic out there. Spells that were so valuable they were basically national resources. The support spells that were so hard to gather, like [[Meltdown]] that destroyed the target's ability to resist magic or physical attacks. Or [[Triple]], that let the user cast three times at once, with theoretical GF effects that could drop the unit cost down to one…

But more than that were the legendary and rumored options. Like the valuable [[Pain]], that could inflict poison, darkness, and silence on a foe at the same time with every hit. Or [[Holy]], only capable of being found in the strongest of monsters in the most dangerous of areas.

All that would change with one of these bone balls though. Any random [[Fire]] [[Draw]] point would eventually and safely let you build up a deadly and valuable supply of astounding magic to work with, or recover your supplies of spells after battle.

It was scary. "How inefficient is the conversion rate?"

She shrugged. "Growth cut by half. It takes two [[Fire]] units to generate a new copy of [[Fire]]. The math gets a bit wonky when you are shifted between power levels… Not sure how many [[Thunder]] a [[Blizzaga]] could generate, for example."

So… that wasn't too bad. "They would have to get rid of lots and lots of low level spells to duplicate the more deadly and valuable stuff. That should limit abuse, since that low level stuff is what armies are built on."

Rinoa felt her mind double checking information from her resistance cells. "Yes, we can work with this. In fact, this can be a good thing. I think?"

After all, it was better for any distributed fighting force like her own if the foe's power concentrated down into a few, easily avoidable powerhouse officers while the general infantry of opponents got slightly weaker and less resources.

There already existed some GF abilities to 'Upgrade' magic, from [[Something]] to [[Something-ra]] to [[Something-ga]]. The skills were… Uh… [[Mid Mag-RF]]? And the other one to get up to the final stage was like [[High Mag-RF]], that seemed right. "Can you make it more expensive? I think the existing spell alteration abilities that GFs have cost five units of magic to compress it and reach the next level of potency."

Sarah shrugged. "I can set it to whatever you want." The ball of bones glowed. "There, basically every five units of a spell can duplicate a new copy of the master template. If they all are the same spell at least, you would still get more bang for your buck using higher power spells on a bone ball with something simple like [[Cure]] in it."

Her heart slowed down. Right, this could be handled. "We will make Cid promise to not tell people how many of these things he has and to not brag about being able to alter the spells being generated."

Because it was best to assume the information would get out sometime anyway, otherwise she would try and make him promise to keep the stupid things secret.

At least any fallout would hit these heavily defended (Physically, magically, financially, and politically) facilities rather than Timber. THEY could handle pressure like this, the Forest Owls can not. "And let's offer him nine, three for each Garden." Oh wait. "But not any for the Garden Dad's army works with." Because duh.

If this palace was going to be a target, might as well make it a BIG one. Crap.

Sarah opened her arms, still wrapped up in that silly 'disguise' with all those layers of clothing. "Do you need a hug?"

Sniff. "Yeah."

The hug was nice.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah grinned as they headed down to meet with some selected students and get a tour.

The talks with Headmaster Cid had gone well!

Things were a bit on hold now, as he went off to get the facilities restructured to rapidly produce MCards (And cause the Gardens to become even MORE of a financial giant than it was previously), and the other set of three bone balls got shipped securely to the distant Trabia Garden and, for obvious reasons, NOT Galbadia Garden.

While nominally the Balamb Garden was apolitical, and had good ties with both of the other structures, the Galbadia Garden was closely connected to the military and weapon research… And uh. Better to not tempt them with such things.

On the other hand Trabia Garden was the newest place constructed and attempted to focus on protecting oneself and the other members like a family, something closer to Cid's dream apparently. At least, they were trusted to protect Cid's plans and secrets, as well as to handle the new 'equipment' securely and responsibly.

Compared to that, getting her permission to [[Scan]] the place was nearly super simple! The man just seemed interested in having copies of the schematics she found for some reason, and it was his place anyway.

The production of MCards should be fully in swing by the end of the week, and shipments of filled magic cards would be sent to Tinder before the Auction, no problem!

That should fix the financial issues, give Rinoa something to work with to improve Timber quite a lot, and now that [[Scan]] let Sarah get the needed samples directly? Only rare stuff not likely to be used in the field was on the list for Cid to get a hold of now!

Oh, and [[GF: Quezacotl]] should have [[HP-J]] so once Sarah scanned someone with it she could try out that strange 'soak' force field other people had. That would just leave [[Eva-J]] and [[Luck-J]] to get a hold of, and then she should be good!

Who even had that? Something to look up later, it sounded like one of the more rare stats to be enhanced by GFs and likely needed her to go find it in the wild.

Wait, did Rinoa just say something?

And now she was on the ground.

Uh. "Hello?"

A muffled voice was struggling. "Who just puts a pile of clothing in the hallway!?"

Rinoa was NOT helping, looking all sparkle eyed and grinning! "Are you alright… You?"

Well, Sarah was fine. If anything, the thick layers of clothing prevented whoever this was from breaking something when they collided.

The voice struggled, and somehow the third coat and the second scarf got twirled together. "Uh, help? I think I'm stuck! Though this is surprisingly comfortable."

Not that it would hurt if Sarah fell normally anyway anymore. While there seemed little point in Junctioning para-magic to her abilities, Adam had already ensured that as more research clarified how this whole mess can best function and be made more efficient, that the optimum limit of True Magic 'units' would get supplied to support each Stat as she improved.

Her boss was smirking. "Welp, let me help you two out! Hold still Sarah!" And then started pushing and pulling fabric around.

A quiet 'Eep!' quickly proved that this was not NEARLY as helpful as Rinoa expected this to be.

Sighing, Sarah shifted and just… Yes, twist there, move this, and up! "I'm fine!"

Still tied to this short person though. "You alright?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Someone had left a stupid metal POLE around the corner!

Though thankfully wrapped up in padding and clothes and scarves and uh… Rags? A pillow case? The heck?

Point is, this pretty lady 'trying to help' was making this worse by accident. Eep! "That is MY skirt!"

The lady blushed. "Sorry! It was just tangled with the belts… Uh. Hang on, I can fix this."

And then suddenly the world shifted, twirled, and… The pole was standing up.

And hugging her.

Wait, what?

Soft whispers lingered in her ears. "Y̡o̶͠ú͢ ̡͢a̶̡lr̴ìg̡̨h̶́t?"

Late nights watching the stars as the moon drifted by. The sounds of family off in the distance, celebrating. A song unheard, humming through darkness and dancing in the mists. A clear bell of unclear intentions, and the lingering colors of h̪̭̳͍͔̭̱u͓̺̼̗ͅn̝̟̞̰g̝̯̟̫̩̞e̖r͎̠̝̳.

Shadows part as a hood leaned closer.

Was she to die?

Selphie Tilmitt felt her heart beat fast as her vision adjusted… And saw silver beauty.

Eyes that cared, metal and warm and soft and glowing in the dark. Silver light softly glowing in the dark cavern of fabric, with a faint impression of perfect lips and fabulous hair and… Those eyes.

Her rampant thoughts jerked when the pretty lady from before tapped her shoulder. "Hmm?"

An amused voice was in the background. "I said, I already called dibs on her."

It wasn't even a choice. Her mind didn't even check in or bother to take a vote.

Selphie heard her voice just… blurt it out. "Wait, that was an option!?"

And the deadly beauty chuckled, making her insides go all funny. "She certainly thinks so. Claimed 'dibs' on me and my Guardian Force a few days ago."

So a lady with tastes? "Then… Uh. Can you call dibs on me too?" Because hot damn.

The pretty woman shifted to be in her viewing range. "Let's talk a bit first, alright? Now hold still while I untangle this mess."

Hold up! "Now let's not get hasty there…" Crap, she didn't know her name yet. Uh. "My name is Selphie, nice to meet you both!"

And no, she wasn't going to mention the ongoing hug, who would risk losing THAT just to make it easier to breathe or straighten out some clothing? Headmaster Cid would understand her being late to guide those two VIP's anyway, all these dangerous sexy metal women tied up in layers of random clothing hanging about.

Seriously, Balamb Garden was awesome!

The voice near her ear chuckled. "Good morning, Selphie. This is Rinoa, and my name is S͠a̶̧rąh̵̵."

These WERE her two VIP's! "Oh! We finally found you both!"

A pause.

Rinoa leaned further into view. "We?"

Oh right. "Me and my..." Well, sort of friend? Wasn't an asshole, but the guy was absurdly compatible with all sorts of GFs and it really affected his mind. Meh, screw it. "Friend. He's a bit quiet but he knows a lot and is super reliable out in the field!"

Guy was like a bit of a social star in the school, which was astounding considering how he talked to few people and barely said anything. "We had been looking everywhere because the Headmaster didn't tell us where you two were going!"

Sarah the Hugger hummed. "When did you two split up."

Uh. "We didn't?" Crap. "I might have left him behind again."

Seriously, that boy was too quiet! "Just head back uh…" A bit of (Mmm) wiggling got one hand sort of pointing the right direction. "That way? And we should find him following me back there."

Because Squall could somehow just fade back into the background sometimes, it wasn't HER fault he maybe kind of gets left behind now and then!

And her new bondage bestie just ignored the weight of carrying another person to go down the hall in full hug mode. Best day ever!

Rinoa was smirking, and… Yeah, she was super hot too. But something about the smile seemed off. "Should I help you get untangled now?"

No! Stop helping! "I'm good, no time to waste! Onwards, to find Broody McBroodster!"

That was a TEASING smirk, you sexy jerk! I saw that! Don't you DARE ruin this for me!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Squall mentally grumbled as he followed his missing 'partner'.

He didn't resent her or anything, but Selphie was 300% pep and optimism in an itty bitty box. Just listening to the girl was exhausting, and his teachers and leadership loved teaming them up as they 'complimented' their personalities.

Another reference to how 'moody' and 'quiet' he was.

.

=Shiva: Well, you don't talk a lot.=

=Ifrit: BAH! Real men talk with their fists!=

=Shiva: Just emote more, smile a bit! And focus on more than just on spell Junctioning and optimization.=

=Ifrit: Emote your fist into their face! Oh, but with fire too! Fire fist!=

=Quezacotl: {Sigh.}=

.

It took YEARS of training to not twitch all the time, and no one else seemed to have the same issues with their Guardian Force Junctions. Heck, many people couldn't even summon their partners, or use all their abilities… Sometimes the compatibility was so low that they couldn't cast certain spells!

Not exactly his problem. Not the main one.

.

=Shiva: Well, if they can't appreciate how awesome you are, forget them!=

=Ifrit: Uh. He will, won't he? Sort of? He connects to us really weirdly after all.=

=Shiva: Normally, yes. But my origin pattern got enhanced this cycle, and us magical templates can store parts of his personality and memories for him.=

=Ifrit: All I heard was 'Blah blah blah, Ifrit is awesome, Shiva is a frigid jerk, go punch stuff.'=

=Shiva: Hush you. Listen Squall, go talk to Cid again! I know he has Diablos hidden away somewhere, he's such a sweet boy!=

=Ifrit: Yeah, guy can take a punch. But he keeps squishing me with his gravity magic.=

=Shiva: And there are lots of GFs you haven't even met yet!=

=Ifrit: Someday I'm going to squish HIM though! With my fist!=

=Quezacotl: This is why I avoid everyone normally.=

=Ifrit: You might fly around in lightning storms a bunch, but I did punch you into a mountain!=

=Shiva: {Sigh} Please don't bring that up again.=

.

Could he junction the maximum limit of magic to every stat? Yes.

Was his accuracy (Due to his strange nature) at 100%? Yep. Getting critical hits were simplicity itself too, as well.

Could he theoretically Junction any and every Guardian Force out there? Sure.

Was it worth this? The frustration, the emotional training, the mental issues?

.

=Shiva: GFs are friends you just haven't met yet!=

=Ifrit: Plus new people to punch!=

=Shiva: {Sigh}=

=Ifrit: In the face. I was implying that you would be punching other GFs in the face as the most optimum bonding exercise.=

=Shiva: Thank you, Ifrit. We get it.=

=Ifrit: Because I punched [[GF: Brothers]] in the crotch and they were like SUPER pissed at me.=

.

Well, maybe. The jury was still out on the topic.

.

=Quezacotl: Huh. Heads up, I think your partner is in trouble!=

=Shiva: Oh! Hey Master! Wait, I can't hear me from there, can I?=

=Ifrit: Oh shit! What the FUCK is going on with that M͉͕̮̦a̮̮̳͉ͅgi͚c!?=

.

Wait, what?

Squall blinked at a walking pillar of clothing being guided by a beautiful woman and… His partner, blushing up a storm, tied up, and not looking AT ALL angry or frustrated at the situation.

The pile of belts, pants, skirts, shirts, towels, capes, scarves, hats, rags, coats, gloves, mittens… Well, the pillar of cloth seemed to be moving in slightly wrong ways.

One of those wrong ways was due to it heading HIS way,

Was that a monster? A robot? Please don't be a GF. Please!

It nearly made him stop scowling.

.

=Shiva: Huh, Sarah's being a bit more openly kinky than usual.=

=Ifrit: Which one is Sarah? The squishy non-partner or the tentacle cloth monster?=

.

Oh, there we go. That was a close one.

The attractive woman lit up! "Oh! Is this your partner?"

Huh, did Selphie actually act as a wing-woman for him? Forget relationships, just trying to talk to people was a frustrating experience. That was surprisingly understanding of…

Selphie seemed to blink and focus. "Oh! Broody McBroodster!"

God damn it. And people wonder why he scowled all the time.

He gave a solemn nod. Because he WAS glad she noticed he had fallen behind, and she HAD come back, intentionally or otherwise. And, on some level he refused to acknowledge, it was good to see she hadn't hit someone or tripped like normal.

.

=Shiva: I'm sure it is a friendly nickname…=

=Ifrit: Either way, I say respond with some friendship fists.=

.

No, he wasn't going to rely on waves of lava and punches to get through life. It was infuriating enough that doing so had actually WORKED for the stupid GF in the first place!

Suddenly his attention was tugged by beautiful eyes. "Hi! My name is Rinoa, and Sarah and I are the VIP's that Cid sent you to show us around!"

Huh. Surprisingly helpful. "Squall."

Selphie wiggled in her restraints. "That's moody emo language for 'It is lovely to meet you, my name is Squall Leonhart!'"

...Well she wasn't WRONG.

Those rich and warm eyes seemed overjoyed at his mild reaction. "Oh you are just super precious!"

And then this 'Rinoa' paused. "Wait, didn't I see you hanging out with that beefcake last time I came around here?"

Who?

Selphie blinked too. "Beefcake? Oh, do you mean Seifer Almasy?"

SEIFER was beefcake!?

Why!? Why did he have to know this!?

Rinoa nodded! "That's his name! I tried to get him to date me, but he was too busy 'training' each day for his 'duels' with this guy!"

Uh… Well, that did seem likely. The jerk found Squall's ability to work so well with the Junctioning system a near personal challenge to overcome.

Selphie grinned. "Yeah, a lot of us girls working on the Garden Festival thought they were a couple, but it is just a lot of manly grunting and gunblade fighting. Fun to watch though."

...What?

.

=Shiva: Oh! That would explain why he keeps bothering you. Sexual tension!=

=Ifrit: Don't punch during sexy times, it sounds great but there are a lot of squishy bits and you both can get hurt.=

=Shiva: Do you think that is why he gave you that facial scar when you gave him his? Forbidden romance!?=

=Quezacotl: I'm a bird shaped storm spell, don't bring me into your kinky human hijinks.=

.

Oh for fucks sake! "Just sparring."

Rinoa sparkled! "Hey, are you both official SeeD mercenaries!? Are you between contracts!?"

What?

Selphie perked up! "Yep! Me and Zell and broody here are all in a party and uh… I'll be honest, I only pay attention to Seifer because he has these abs and he's tall and uh. Yeah. But I know he has teammates! Probably."

Just… Put that aside from now. All of it. This was one of his VIP protection and guide targets. Be professional. "Seifer is an active SeeD mercenary."

And a jerk. Squall was 80% sure that the man only passed the SeeD graduation exam because SQUALL had managed to do so first.

No, stay focused. "His team is currently in medical, I am unaware of who is currently working with him for contracts."

.

=Shiva: It would explain why neither of you two healed your scars, if it is some sort of mating thing that we all forgot because of the GF memory issue before it got sort of fixed.=

=Ifrit: He kept the scar because it was manly!=

=Shiva: How are scars manly!?=

=Ifrit: Well, women can get cool scars too I guess… But they are totally Badass!=

=Shiva: Most of the time scars just mean you should dodge better.=

=Ifrit: Meh, dodging is for scrubs! Real hard core fighters exchange blows together!=

=Shiva: Huh, now that you say it like that it DOES sound a little gay.=

=Quezacotl: I hate you both.=

.

Focus. Don't react to the bullshit.

Rinoa grinned! "So if I hire both of your teams, can I dictate training requirements?"

What?

The pile of cloth shifted. Oh, there was a person inside. "What are you thinking about, Rinoa?"

She had a nice voice too. This was probably Sarah, although her fashion sense implied mental issues or someone who tried to equip far too many GFs like some fellow students.

Ignoring carefully repressed memories of his younger years, where he tried to dress up in skirts and shorts only because Ifrit and Shiva had preferences and hadn't THAT taken a while to get used to, Squall focused. "Within limits, and only if it is mission essential. It must be discussed prior to contract completion and noted within."

His partner (Still bound to the uncaring woman of cloth) both turned to the pretty woman looking smug. "I'm probably going to be hiring two teams for long term deployment to Timber, to act as security and protection during a series of Auctions and construction projects. Another series of teams and merchandise caravans will be hired to deliver custom goods to us as well, so I'll need additional people there too."

The clothing shifted. "We'd certainly have the money for it, if Headmaster Cid even bothers to argue with us. The new tools are going to sell like mad even if they are more basic and lower quality than my normal work."

He was missing some context.

Rinoa grinned! "Right, so uh. Theoretically, if I needed your team to NOT be visibly armed, due to the high security nature of the actual auction specifically and the risk of collateral damage with volatile equipment being handled and sold…"

She seemed to stop the clothing from saying something. "Not that it WOULD explode or something, but just to be careful, alright? And shush, no talkie right now." She turned back to Squall. "Could I require that your team use physical combat only? For that period at least."

At least Selphie also looked confused. "It shouldn't be a problem. Zell Dincht is a hand-to-hand combat master. I am unaware though if Seifer has trained in any combat techniques that don't require a gunblade." Probably had though, the ass was competent.

She smirked. "And you?"

His ability with magic meant that he rarely had issues even if he needed to [[Draw]] more at later times to restock. "I am passable at hand-to-hand, though it is not my specialty."

Selphie snorted. "He means he takes four times longer to win, he still kicks everyone's ass in combat class even without his weapon."

Surprisingly his partner got a glare for that. "Shush. He said passible, don't argue with him."

Rinoa turned back to the now uncomfortable SeeD mercenary. "For my own satisfaction and assurance, would I be permitted to require a few sparring matches between you and Seifer? Should you both be hired under my contract, and it doesn't intrude on the mission itself, and it is a limited number of times per day to ensure no one is caught unprepared for emergencies?"

Alright, all his mental warning signs were going off but he couldn't see the trap. "Just normal spars?"

She innocently shrugged. "No weapons of course, since the contract would require no weapons during the auction itself. Basically only melee allowed, to verify skill levels. That is why I would need the assurance, "

.

=Shiva: Say yes!=

=Ifrit: Holy shit, she wants you to punch the pretty boy!? Best girl ever!=

.

Something was wrong, something was wrong, something. Was. Wrong.

But what!? "Can we choose the location and time for the spars?" Oh, right. "And it won't just be me against the other party leader?"

If it was just spars, it could count toward normal mission training sessions, the light version that ensured deployed SeeD teams stayed fit despite low combat scenarios.

Rinoa hesitated. "I will require a small variety of environmental hazards. To prove competency despite the weather or damaged terrain."

It sounded… Sort of reasonable? "We shall see." Reasonable enough to not blatantly refuse the woman, at least.

=Shiva: Say yes! Say yes! Say yes!=

And THAT was certainly making him MORE suspicious.

The cloth lady leaned closer. "Where are you going with this, Rinoa?"

The response made the column of costume jerk back and his partner go wide eyed… And blush.

This was VERY suspicious.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah was honestly impressed that, with little warning and almost no time to set something up… Rinoa had managed to justify a potential contract that would require this young man and a declared 'beefcake' to basically mud wrestle daily.

And based on Selphie's reaction, she was ALL on board with this plan.

And from the whispered conversation as she enjoyed being carried around and gossiping with Rinoa, Selphie was looking forward to her muscular teammate Zell joining in on the dirty fun.

At least her Boss's 'Hire a harem' plan seemed on track. Or maybe it was just a side effect of all the people who were old enough to be sent on contracts being physically fit, mentally hooked up to something that made long term commitments a bit hard, and surrounded by heavy magic fields all the time.

It was a bit noticeable how, even wrapped up like this and having [[Enc-Half]] activated, Sarah still got some appreciative looks now and then from those sensitive enough to para-magic. And unlike her, Rinoa seemed to flaunt her compatibility with para-magic, on some hard to describe level.

Huh. 'Research' said she basically had the potential to awaken to an Aspect of Reality and transform into a Sorceress at some point.

Well, that would do it.

Though hopefully it wouldn't be triggered without another Sorceress dying nearby, it was already annoying that Sarah herself terrified all the local monsters away when not suppressing herself like this.

Without Adam's bullshit, they'd have to go find [[GF: Diablos]] to [[Draw]] a sample from first and gain [[Enc-Half]] herself. That or possibly give Angelo an accidental heart attack or something.

And that seemed a bit unlikely.

Speaking of which, Rinoa was totally going to hire this boy's team at this point. Selphie was basically claimed already, so… Yoink!

"[[Scan.]]"

Sarah ignored Squall's flinch and Selphie's wriggle as the data got passed through.

Oh good! [[Hp-J]] at last! And the data was enough for 'Research' to get [[Card]], [[Card Mod]], [[T Mag-RF]], and [[Mid Mag-RF]]. Apparently Selphie had [[GF: Quezacotl]], which saved a lot of time. And Squall was the first person to have THREE GFs at the same time, though it only gained Sarah [[F Mag-RF]], [[Ammo-RF]], and something called [[Mad Rush]].

Thanks to that, Sarah could refine [[Fire]] and [[Thunder]] type magics, 'Research' could look into the existing GF skill that reinforced a basic spell up to its [[Something-ra]] level, and she could now force monsters to warp into cards and then into physical items. Or, thanks to Ifrit, change random junk into interesting ammo. Huh.

Though something was a bit off with that Squall boy, his Junction system was WAY connected to his conceptual nature. Very odd.

That was an issue for later though.

For now, the Warehouse was already building up reserves of [[Fire]], [[Fira]], [[Firaga]], [[Flare]] (Neat! So hot that it counted as non-elemental damage!), [[Thunder]], [[Thundara]], [[Thundaga]], and [[Aero]]. The last of which was a basic wind attack.

Sure, she had working para-magic samples of some of those from before, but this refinement ability let her convert some of that endless material the Warehouse generated into a more valuable and (by comparison) limited resource. So, win win basically, and it meshed well with Shiva's [[I Mag-RF]] skill.

More data for 'Research' to nom! Woo!

That said, the two SeeD warriors also had magic that her [[Scan]] picked up in reserves and equipped to specific stats, but it was all basic stuff she had [[Scanned]] from people on the way in before Rinoa got worried they'd get caught or in trouble for examining random people like that.

While most people couldn't equip a LOT of magic, even basic non-combat fighters understood the benefit of hanging out with others who knew [[Esuna]] or [[Cura]]. So this whole thing with Headmaster Cid was to get samples of the really rare stuff, the magic that is only taken on dangerous missions or special events.

Now, if 'Research' was correct, Sarah just needed to take an expedition out to find [[GF: Cactuar]] to round out [[Luck-J]] and [[Eva-J]] and finish her collection.

Oh, the other GFs had various skills like the refinement stuff, but Sarah and Adam could figure out those things eventually anyway. And some would only work on THIS Jump… [[Card]] for example relied on universal laws that were down right odd really, although the [[Card Mod]] should still work elsewhere.

Probably had to do with using the Jump Document to directly gather Shiva in the first place, since [[Doom]] would work in any Jump at any time while these scanned skills could act a bit oddly.

Anyway! "So what's the plan?"

Her front passenger grinned up and whispered. "Rinoa and I are messing with Mr Serious Pants a little while we wander around people watching. Between us, Cid wanted you two distracted so he can get all kinds of stuff done, though I don't know exactly what."

Redesign and build an entire equipment facility, build/test/stockpile an entire new market of goods to be sold, evaluate and verify the quality and stock of available magic for auction, justify and define price ranges, on top of a number of other jobs and tasks and whatever craziness Rinoa was setting up right now?

Uh. Yeah, that poor Headmaster.

At least he would be making mountains of cash from this. "How's the teasing going?"

Her cute nose wiggled. "I think Rinoa is trying to convince Squall that artificial environmental contaminants could test sparring adaptability and mental flexibility… And that they should be added to the theoretical contract."

What?

The whisper was quieter. "Oil wrestling."

Oh. Oh! "How can I help!?"

If this harem had any sort of voting system, both Shiva AND Sarah was totally putting Selphie on the ballot!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Edea gave the child a smile while accepting the report. "Thank you, dear."

Oh, their little pouts were so adorable! Though very few of her adopted actually called her 'mother', they would always be her little ones.

The wittle baby sighed. "Yes ma'am. We will be arriving at the border of the Balamb Region within another three hours, the city port in an additional two. A vehicle will be procured at that time."

Oh he tried to be so adult! "Very good time, Captain Amano. Let me know when we are near home."

He saluted. "Yes ma'am!"

And in his little uniform like a big boy!

She relaxed on her personal chair in the ship, though it did look like a throne. Her darlings insisted on it, and it just wouldn't do to deny them little things like this.

And yes, she still missed her old home with dear Cid and even the long gone smaller orphanage they had built together… But this White SeeD Ship had basically become a floating home all of its own now.

It was… Just so heartbreaking that she had so many little ones NEEDING a home like this.

Absently she ensured the distribution of heat through the massive support structure of the ship and dumped any excess into the ocean below… And that her little ones were all nice and cool despite the somewhat poor design of some of the air circulation equipment. Shifted a few sea currents, altered the wind a little, basic things.

Being the Sorceress of W͔͈͚̼e̜a͚̬̬͈̖t̜̘̱̲̖h̼̙̼̘̲̖͕e͖̩r͔̪̗͇ could have some subtle uses too! See children?

Your mom isn't a one trick pony!

True, her husband got a bit frustrated when she captured [[GF: Quezacotl]] from the skies and drug up [[GF: Ifrit]] from the earth, but collecting [[GF: Shiva]] was mostly skill! Lots of finesse! Tons of it!

But no, she was getting too much attention and being 'at risk' and blah blah blah. Plus a few of the children were too tempting for outsiders to ignore, and needed to hide away too.

At least she used the 'vacation' to do a few useful things like get that [[GF: Cerberus]] to heel and, of course, find more babies to save and maybe stop one or two TINY invasions…

Sigh. She really wasn't good at the whole 'staying under the radar' thing, was she?

At least that looming threat that had been clouding her heart had vanished recently, in the last decade or so. Not entirely sure why, though she suspected the sudden h̰̮̥̩̖ͅu̩̼̘n̹̩̠g͈̪e͍̤̭r from the moon was related to it.

Oh! "Ellone darling! Come over and share some tea with your old Matron."

The young girl blushed. "Thank you, Ms. Kramer."

Daww, she was always so bashful! The young girl did enjoy sharing tea though, such a good child despite also having such dangerous powers. Thankfully not a full Sorceress like herself, just… A lady with certain abilities.

Speaking of which. "You seem troubled."

She winced. "My connection changed."

Oh? "Is… Is this bad?"

The girl had a strange sort of telepathy, and could join with others across time and space… She could share senses like a Guardian Force or view past events together with her temporary partner.

But… that was it. No control, no raw power like her own… Just a way to find her 'siblings' from the orphanage. Or those she met later in life.

Ellone sighed. "I don't know. They aren't in danger or hurt… But it feels…"

Oh dear. "Ominous? A future threat?" That fear that had shrouded her own life for so many years? The risk that had her fleeing while her husband protected the other little ones and prepared for the future?

She shook her head. "No."

Oh! Thank goodness.

Ellone winced. "It's more… It now feels crowded? But crowded in a way that it is mostly the same extra people at the same time?" And she blushed. "And the new connections are probably positive? But perverted. VERY perverted."

Edea paused. What? "I'm sorry?"

She looked away. "At first I just thought Selphie was really into some kinky stuff but now Squall is involved and uh… More and… Uh."

Sigh. Teenagers. "Look child, growing up can cause a number of changes in any young boy or girl… And when they are in a relationship..." Hadn't she covered this before? At least with young Selphie and the other girls, Cid was responsible for telling the boys. Less uncomfortable for them.

Ellone just looked confused. "Some of the memories don't even seem to be from either of them either, but someone else entirely connected to one of them. And I STILL don't know how you can DO that with a GF and not get frozen or have your tongue get stuck in the first place!"

Uh. No, she hadn't covered THAT before. What the heck was her dear Cid TEACHING over there!?

Wait. Don't get distracted. "Try not to focus on it for now, I'm sure it will all make sense later."

It better! Cid, kinky sex time was for bedroom time ONLY, not giving a todo list for the impressionable little ones! Though now some part of her was considering the possibility that maybe her husband had managed to summon a physical avatar for private use in an easily Junctioned away form.

They were supposed to test toys and gadgets like that together, reunion gift or no!

Or maybe the kids got into his private workshop again? Goodness knows HER little ones sometimes stumbled on her own private tools and gadgets and so forth. Poor dear had blushed for weeks, but these things happened.

Ellone paused. "Huh, that's a pretty lady. But why is she hanging out with a tentacle cloth monster?"

How old WERE those kids again!? "Look away dear!" Your poor innocence! It is at risk! At risk, she says!

...She wasn't looking away, was she? Drat.

As the ocean vessel sliced towards her husband, Edea forced the weather to stay calm and the currents favorable. And if it was a tad bit warmer and she was blushing slightly, that wasn't important. The extra speed was… Just because she was worried for her babies and poor little Ellone, obviously.

Though she couldn't help but wonder at the timing of being called home to her handsome husband at the same time that rampant sexuality seemed to have taken over her husband's facilities, nor that he seems to have been experimenting with topics they mentioned that one time on their second honeymoon. And potentially succeeded as well. Mmm.

Maybe a bit faster. The ship could handle it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Zell Dincht blinked. "Uh. Good morning ladies? And pile of belts?"

Selphie giggled next to a tower of cloth as the pretty woman smirked.

Oh, and the broody bastard was there too, but meh.

The mound of material huffed, and a surprisingly lovely voice could be heard muffled from within. "My Boss thought this would be a good disguise. I'm under cover."

Literally. He could see four covers at least, unless that side one was a cape or cowl. Still, no reason to insult the nice people. "Well, it is doing a great job! I don't recognize you at all!"

Selphie grinned. "Zell, these are our clients, both to show around today and probably to work for later. Headmaster Cid is working with them on some big project, and Balamb Garden will be setting up some sort of collaboration thing over in Timber that we would be needed to defend."

Huh. He felt a grin tug his lips as he almost absently began a punching routine. "Oi! That sounds like a blast!"

Of course, stick-in-the-mud captain had to drag the scene down. "Let's get to work."

Still, the broody brat was a good leader, bummer to hang out with as he was. A short kick to twist back on topic and he was like SUPER professional. "Sure. Where you been so far, Selphie?"

The pretty stranger smirked. "Well, she was a bit tied up before…" Why was his partner blushing? Wait, BOTH of his teammates? The heck!? "...But we were going to visit the Library first to spend a bit of time until Headmaster Cid needed us again. Oh, and this is Sarah, and I'm Rinoa."

His eyes lit up! Taking pretty ladies (Honestly he was assuming based on Sarah's voice, but it seemed like a good bet) to go visit ANOTHER place with pretty ladies!? Score! "Sure! Let's DO this!"

Squall grunted. "No flips or cartwheels in the halls, Zell."

Damn buzzkill!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa grinned as the VERY fit blond boy with facial tattoos seemed to just unconsciously flex and punch and kick as he eagerly talked about all sorts of stuff with an equally peppy Selphie.

Thankfully that seemed to have brought the new girl out of her funk when she insisted Sarah put her down earlier instead of exposing her ability as a Sorceress to animate the clothing to tie her snuggle buddy up better when she got untangled.

Though… The possibility was intriguing and she WOULD be revisiting the idea at some point. Maybe a custom outfit with lots of strong leather straps and thinner soft clothing strips? Mmm.

No, focus. "Yeah, and since we want to avoid weapon use during the Auction, I thought we could do a series of unofficial spars while you guys were deployed with us…"

The guy's bright grin somehow sparkled! "Oi!? A bit of bim bam bow action!?" For a moment his fists ACTUALLY moved so quickly she couldn't track them. Holy crap!

Squall for some reason twitched. "Not indoors, Zell."

Selphie giggled as Zell stuck his tongue out at his leader.

And uh. Oh my, that was certainly a good length. Uh. Right, spars. "So out of curiosity, what kind of fighting techniques do you know already? Squall already told us you were the combat master when it came to hand-to-hand and close combat."

The guy (literally) did a flip, and began listing of a LONG list of combat forms and so forth that Rinoa couldn't follow or remember if she tried.

It uh. It took a while.

And was still going.

Yeah, no. "Right, those all sound amazing, but what about grappling techniques?"

The guy blinked. "Uh. Well, I trained where I could but some of the styles like Sumo were just too difficult to properly practice with my low body mass."

He flexed a heavily muscled and sculpted arm. "So if I need that stuff I tend to go with Jiu-Jitsu or Judo variants, though I tend to practice more with aggressive styles like Muay Thai and…"

And he was off again.

Still, that was good enough. A glance at Selphie got a knowing nod: Plan Wrestling Mania was a go!

Zell shutting up was almost as shocking as his attack speed. "...Oh. We're here." He got shifty eyed. "Hey uh… They are like super serious about not being too loud or rowdy here, yeah? And it's a totally a no brooding zone, so try to ignore Grumpy McGrouch pants over there."

Squall didn't even look before his hand whipped out at a near invisible speed, smacking the blonde's head. "Let's go."

Selphie grinned at a pouting Zell who was rubbing his new bruise, but he honestly earned it.

And then Sarah paused next to her. "Huh. Didn't expect this many librarians."

Hmm?

Rinoa blinked.

Oh my.

Professional, suit and tight dress wearing ladies. Dozens of them. Some with cute glasses, others with seeming innocent skirts with slits a bit too long, many with soft blushes.

All of them clearly young and with ambition, with more than a few clearly eager to help the young men (And women) who seemed lost in this beautiful wonderland of literature. Small clusters of SeeD students swooned near clear leaders of the bibliographic wonderscape.

Oh, and the library itself was nice too.

She blinked as a wall of ties, coats, shirts, belts, and so forth blocked the view of heaven. "Rinoa, come back to us."

Dem skirts though. "Warblargh?"

And she was in a hug. No! So little time! "Shh, it'll be alright. The sexy librarians will still be there, you have time to fan girl and say hi to everyone."

How could her dad have not shown her this heaven LAST time they visited!? That JERK! 'Oh, we have little time to look around' her FOOT!

A soft voice whispered. "Don't worry, I've [[Scanned]] the outfits. We can have Shiva model them later."

...Best harem member ever!

Selphie seemed to be giggling at something, and Zell was blushing for some reason, but whatever. "Right. Right! Let's go expand our views and talk with the stern hotness about some high class works of classical fiction all up in this bitch!"

Wait, no. That didn't come out right. "I mean, uh. Let's go meet all the nice people!"

Nailed it!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cid hummed. "The schematics are TOO good."

The technician nodded. "Instead of pointing out a general way to be installed, these machine components are made to handle any existing issues with our current production line to exacting standards. We could literally drop the new parts in and get started, but it is better to use parts designed for OTHER locations on the production chain and note down what issues pop up."

They pointed at the plans. "We found and corrected over a dozen issues that were too small or niche to address or fix in the past and documented them all. It will slow production by a few days, but overall we should see a 14% production rate increase."

Considering their deadline was easily handled either way, taking a few days to fix existing problems and then adjusting the plans slightly would be worth the delay. "Do so, keep me informed."

Clearly everything to do with these gadgets was handled by the clothing coated engineer. Ms. Heartilly seemed to not even notice how odd it was for all the schematics being modified on the fly as the discussion went onwards based on the topics covered.

Or at least, she didn't react when Sarah decided to leave an entire shipment of 'example' MCards for Cid to reference and ensure quality control. As if they could easily transport thousands of those devices without anyone noticing the method used.

He had people already installing the excess MCards into a secured room at the Training Center, so that teams working locally could take new missions to harvest magic from the monsters for pocket money and store it for Garden use efficiently and without effort.

By the time the manufacturing lines get up and running, he should have whole SeeD teams using their down time to gather low level spells that would be burned as fuel for these 'Bone Ball Magic Converters', filling MCards during battle or just [[Drawing]] spells like normal and then dumping the magic into their reinforced backpacks full of Hi-MCards for storage.

Just swap out the full ones for a fresh set, and the secured room would automatically drain the Hi-MCards into the protected reinforced safe full of X-MCards until needed later.

No one even needed to ENTER the spell vault, so no risk of infiltrators getting away with lots of valuable time and effort. And, once the Garden had lots of disposable low level spells to work with? He could directly spend that dross to generate rapid reserves of [[Esuna]] and other valuable spells that were so slow to regenerate after being pulled from a [[Draw]] point.

He already had a team setting up a deployment room and procedure so outgoing teams could quickly connect to personal spell nodes, swapping out whatever they had been using to the more stressful but powerful Junction setup needed for actual battle.

It should drastically improve deployment times, as these new 'fake' party members had ingenious software that allowed very efficient estimation about the user's maximum Junction limits per spell per stat before magic transfer, to allow rapid setup with almost no risk of over Junctioning or burdening the SeeD fighter.

Walk in with your trash [[Cure]] and [[Fire]] equipped, walk out with [[Full-Life]] and [[Firaga]]. Bam, done, and with the maximum number of units you can handle at that moment safely.

And hopefully this would cut down on the accidental [[Draw]] point incidents that occurred in a facility with such heavy magic like this one. Temporary nodes would crop up with spells ranging from the very basic to the ultra rare, and every damn time SOME student decide it worth the risk of trying to [[Draw]] from it themselves. Despite the warnings. Every time.

Sure, it could go well. That woman last year managed to [[Draw]] a full two [[Bio]] from a point before it vanished, which was a very unexpected success.

But when it went bad? It went VERY bad. The Junction system did NOT like having the [[Draw]] point vanish mid transaction, or even worse: Shifting which spell was being targeted.

No deaths so far, but corrupted spell units forcing a student to dump their entire supply was a common enough issue along with minor burns or injuries.

But with those… Disturbing moon skeleton balls? All that ambient power should hopefully become far more reliable and stable, cutting those scenarios out entirely if they were lucky.

Sure, being able to easily pick and choose which spells to increase with no risk, competition, or publicity was VERY lucrative, and having an unknown source of rare spells would allow political deals to be made and treaties to be established… But as incredible as those things were, Cid honestly was more ecstatic at having the local magic flow stabilize.

If for no other reason, then it should reduce issues when his wife visits. Sorceresses tended to make ambient magic levels fluctuate heavily when they stay in one area for more than a few months, and every time it DID his dear Edea would feel an unreasonable urge to go on a journey and do SOMETHING outrageous.

'Oh honey, I just went to go get some bedroom toys', and she'd bring back a freaking Malboro. Or that one time when she wanted a better kitchen knife and decided that it was best to go find a few from a freaking Tonberry tribe. Because of how cute they were.

He STILL believed that the build up from her living here was why Balamb Garden was one of the few places on this planet with SIX stable [[Draw]] points, either that or the numerous GFs that she would dominate and drag over to 'play' with her little menagerie of monsters.

Yeah, sure. They had T-Rex's in the Training Center for combat and spell gathering purposes. Totally not because his wife loved to ride the things and insisted they were just a bit grumbly sometimes.

Sigh, he still loved that woman. How many hours were left? She should be here soon.

Right, focus. "Are the sample collections going well?"

Because why send out missions if local students might already have a rare spell or two in their Junction system already? Cid was willing to give VERY good prices for a single unit of each right now, and this was a very quick way to build up a master template library for future reproduction and reserve gathering.

An assistant passed notes. "Surprisingly well, though the more rare and valuable magics are of course still an issue. We are reaching out to contacts as we speak, and plan on asking the White SeeDs arriving with Matron Kramer for assistance as well when they arrive."

Hmm, that should do it for the majority. His wife traveled constantly, and she would likely have had her babies, no matter what age they actually were, [[Draw]] spells she found valuable along the way. She did love to dote so. "Hmm, Trabia Garden might have a few as well, they are in a very remote location. Send them a Junction system message, I'm sure we have a few local students who are in parties with members up there."

She nodded. "Yes sir."

Good, things were going well. "And the verification?"

A nod. "The auction is verified, outsiders are very interested, and Timber is in full swing to set the thing up. Galbadian forces are staying quiet, though Timber hasn't been a major war focus for years now, and what we checked has come through as confirmed."

Always important to not just trust an innocent face, Cid learned THAT the hard way. After all, it was easy to send an innocent patsy off to convince the short sighted and distract from some more complicated plan in the background.

Crud. "I best get back to work then until we get everything up to the next stage of deployment."

Damn paperwork. If it wasn't to fund Garden development and his wife's desire to help the lost ones, he would have shoved this job off on some moron years ago.

Well, let's go read another partition to force all non hot dog related cuisine to be banned from the compass. Again.

Oh, right. "Out of curiosity, how is Squall's mission going on?"

He'd always been a solid boy, reliable. If anyone could attempt to keep those girls and their wandering hands busy, he'd probably manage it.

The woman blushed. "Ah… Well, they nearly ran straight to the Library." The blush darkened. "For books probably. To read something."

Sigh. Teenagers.

It wasn't a surprise that so many students ended up finding relationships with someone they 'bumped into' at that place. Or that the mandatory uniform regulations for the location get relaxed more and more each year. Or that so many of the young men and women fill up the lines to become another of those 'Librarians'.

He had swapped out half the rare and valuable books for cheap replacements in the more out of the way sections of the place to avoid damaging them with various… Stains… And despite having nearly 200 staff working in the place no one had noticed.

It was a wonder that anyone actually checked OUT anything. Well, anything readable at least.

Ah well. He had been young once too.

And the books were either duplicates or secured, and everything was available digitally on the network anyway…

Distracted, he tried to remember. Where HAD Edea stored that librarian outfit?

No, right. Paperwork. Sigh.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Fury Caraway wanted to shoot someone. "I'm sorry, what?"

The man flinched. "The target has evaded surveillance again, but the teams are in pursuit."

Maybe he SHOULD shoot someone. "She's a 17 year old girl. With a dog, who has tracking equipment built into the collar."

Another moron spoke up. "For a resistance leader, she is quite talented and popular…"

He GLARED the idiot down. "She can't drive. Or blend in. Nor does she attempt to. Her funds are limited." And they lost her. AGAIN.

Someone in the back grumbled. "She's very tricky sometimes."

Damn it! "Your team was on the SAME DAMNED TRAIN! They went to a town with a SINGLE ROAD OUT OF IT!"

Just how! "HOW did she escape surveillance THIS time!?"

At least it was easier to handle now that she wasn't here in Deling City with the numerous dangerous roads she could sneak down and the buses and… Damn it, Julia, he couldn't protect their daughter!

And now they were quiet. Which was beyond unacceptable. "Well!?"

The lamb for slaughter was pushed forward. "Her companion drove through the wilderness and they abandoned the vehicle in the ocean. We detected them from records having gotten on a shipping vessel but are still trying to determine their destination. It was assumed she was heading to Balamb Garden at fist."

...What? Something didn't sound right about that, but it could be worse. Look on the bright side Fury, just… Focus on it. "At least this other person didn't let her drive."

Damn it, Julia. Why did you drive that night? He had men to drive for you, back when you were warm and smiling and here and knowing what to do with a sad little girl and…

He might be unable to give his little girl what her lost mother could, but he had to try anyway. "Which of her minions was it this time? That Watts fellow?"

Shifty boy, not nearly good enough for his girl. But at least he stood by her, despite her moronic actions that kept trying to make HIS people take action against HIS daughter. Joining a fucking resistance cell indeed.

Politically, and according to national patriotism, he should just let the stone gears of war grind her away. He theoretically should let her actions speak to her punishment, and then break his oaths and soul further by denying justice to keep her safe anyway, to steal her from the noose and keep her away from the fighting and away from the nation her own mother met him in.

But her eyes were Julias. And she inherited her last name and gumption. And his love, worthless as it was.

At least, if nothing else, she LED the blasted groups. She was his little girl, after all.

The looks though were odd. "What?"

One spoke up. "We verified the woman to be a tattooed lady named 'Sarah', who recently joined the Forest Owls. She is not of any known organization or nationality, and seems to blindly follow the target's whims."

What. "Where did she come from?"

Silent shuffling.

No. "A detectable accent? Other contacts within Timber?" No, no no. "Recognizable equipment!? At least something from Timber if not Galbadia!?"

Damn it! "Well, do we have surveillance of the woman, if nothing else!?"

One nodded. "Yes sir, I've an image here."

It was a bit blurry and there was some odd interference, but even so he could see his little girl dragging what seemed to be raw sex on legs down a street.

Shit. "I shouldn't have complained about that Watts boy."

Triple shit! "So either an enemy agent has captured my daughter for political advantage over our military, or she has potentially eloped with an unknown woman and is on a romantic cruise."

Why did those seem EQUALLY horrifying to him? Damn it!

He could almost HEAR his love laughing at him! Little Rinoa always had been near impossible to manage. He wasn't able to deal with this shit!

But he had to try. "I want a network of operatives at every harbor they could have aimed for or passed through. Include a time window BEFORE we lost track of her, just to ensure we miss nothing. And ready my reserve strike team."

If it was love, he'd be furious but stay hands off.

If someone took his little girl, a nation would b͚͖̜̻̘͚ṳ̗̥͔̲͈r͈͇͎͍̣n̦̱̰̟̳.̩̖͙͕̠̝̳

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah carefully used telekinesis to adjust her strange disguise again. If she was allowed to use some True Magic, it would be easy enough to just animate the outfit like the Lunar Kingdom and make the thing move on its own, but… Well, the wings would pop out.

Those things slightly gave the game away.

And it was getting a bit late. "Rinoa, they will be here tomorrow. Let's have Squalls team lead us to somewhere with a bit of nature and have some dinner."

Only Selphie seemed to not be out of it, as Zell was right next to Rinoa blushing as they tried to be suave while talking to a very stern and tall woman wearing tight clothing and imperious glasses. Oh, and Squall just seemed to be distracted by something internally, whatever was going on there.

Wait, never mind. Selphie was just quietly giggling while staring at Rinoa and glancing at Sarah, she was equally distracted as the rest.

Still, it only took a bit of prodding most times. "Welp! Time to hit that old dusty trail!"

Rinoa blinked. "Huh?"

Now to pull a Yuffie.

Sarah reached out, using her object manipulation abilities to keep the complicated outfit from getting in the way, and just stole her Boss from her mental lovey dovey 'step on me senpai' dreamland. "Ahem: Yoink! Mine now!"

Zell blinked, one arm already blocking what he had thought was an attack. "Hang on, what?"

Sarah grinned, not that anyone could see it. "Yep. And I'm taking this one too."

One arm and a bit of belt wrapping was enough to secure a wrangling Rinoa still trying to return to Library seduction station while the other managed to snag Selphie mid jump/squeal.

Some girls just LOVED to be stolen, apparently. "You good there?"

Selphie used the closeness to whisper. "Uh… Wrap me up again?"

Daww, what an adorable blush. "Sure. Come along boys, Squall? Please lead the way to somewhere nice to sit outside."

Zell blinked, his own face confused at how Sarah had managed to lift two women, wrap them in what seemed to be living belts, scarves, and various cloth straps, and wasn't keeping up mentally with the situation. "What?"

Squall on the other hand was a SeeD leader. "Yes ma'am. This way."

Zell was slowly being left behind, even as Rinoa tried to talk through the leather belt gag. "Wait, hang on! How did she do the… And the grabbing? Wait, are you jerks leaving me BEHIND!? You broody bastard, don't just go along with this!"

While Rinoa seemed to be pouting (But comfortable, Sarah knew how to… Uh. Yeah.), Selphie was in her mental happy space. Her whisper was soft. "A bit tighter."

Oh. Alright. "Better?"

Her red face was smiling. "Mmm."

Looks like that was better. And 'Research' said it wasn't tight enough to mess with blood flow, so that was fine. "Basically I am looking for somewhere mostly secure and secluded, with nearby gardens or grass or just nature for atmosphere, where I can use some of my more strange abilities to serve dinner for my Boss here."

The Rinoa log just grumbled on her right shoulder.

Sarah grinned. Just accessing stuff from the Warehouse shouldn't make her wings and tattoo flare up. As long as she didn't try to enhance them with magic, at least. "Anywhere we can go?"

Squall was carefully looking forward only, especially as Selphie hadn't stopped making quiet noises over there. "The Quad, A12. More secure than other options."

A distant Zell seemed to be catching up. "Wait up, you smug silent asshole!"

Squall didn't even pause. "There are a few meditative gardens restricted to SeeD potentials and graduates. My standard location should be available."

Oh, that would be helpful! "That sounds perfect. It will also give me a chance to try and recreate a few dishes I recently gained information about."

As in, information gained TODAY.

Those hot dogs were insane. Over half of the damned Cafeteria was para-magic hardware and a specialized [[Scan]] setup… As each customer ordered one of the limited number of hot dogs, the staff would use the data to customize the recipe PER PERSON.

Not just targeting guy12 or whatever in general, or 'athletic woman' or similar, no. They would design a custom hot dog specifically targeting Jane Scrimshaw, based on how hungry she was, recent meals, allergies, current body temperature, favorite smells, health level, sickness levels, and so on and so forth. And do the same for Greg Bernson, and the next person in line, etc.

'Research' had been studying the ongoing scans of the entire kitchen all day, because cooking here was a PROCESS, not a task. It was why there was no buffet or self serve, and why the costs were so high and the quality of the ingredients so astounding.

Even NORMAL food here was custom tailored to the moment, just… The hot dog took that to the extreme. A near stupid level of care was taken here.

For example, this morning? Two hot dogs, sold one after the other, contained NO similar ingredients between the two. Not even in the dough, unless you counted water. And both customers nearly collapsed from satisfaction eating the things.

Not one person who had one even bothered to consider condiments or seasonings. Just, the way it was handed to that one person? Literal perfection.

The daily limit wasn't due to rare ingredients or snooty cooks, it wasn't even due to Balamb Garden trying to build up publicity or a legendary product to call in customers…

It was a limit of how often the advanced sensor equipment could be activated safely.

Like, holy crap.

Not that she could say anything out here, in public. Nor could she recreate the hot dogs themselves, not with how much they were beloved in this Garden.

But the stolen [[Scan]] equipment? And the various procedures recorded that the staff took based on those scans? THOSE were things Sarah could pass over to 'Research' to work with.

It would be really strange if having all Warehouse food quality getting upgraded became the highlight of this Jump instead of the overpowered background option and the new magic system… But if the food came out as good as she EXPECTED it to be?

Sarah was willing to take that risk!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa quickly forgave her covert lover when the food came out. "Oh my god, this pumpkin pie is divine!"

It was only a single slice, but it was just cool enough to be refreshing yet had a crispy crust like she loved, and some sort of homemade whip cream on top. But that wasn't all.

It soothed the slight burn from the previous tacos, which had been sinfully spicy yet seductively delicious.

Both had gone perfectly with the chilled fresh milk, that was nearly a milkshake that had strawberry ice cream in it instead of ice. Or was it vanilla ice cream and pressed strawberry purée?

The chuckle from her disguised partner made her focus. "No, really, did you use magic to make this!? It's amazing!"

At the dry look, she flinched. Right, totally a normal woman, not a Sorceress. "I mean, I know you are a wizard in the kitchen, but holy crap!"

That covered it, right? Right?

Thankfully, the others were apparently far too distracted by THEIR food to even notice. Each person had a custom made drink and individual servings of amazing looking dishes.

Meh, fair enough that they were busy eating, it was hard to stop chewing long enough to gush over how good it was. "Why didn't you make this stuff before?"

Sarah hummed. "From what I can tell, these so-called 'targeted meals' lose their impact if they are received more than once a week. They'd still be amazing, but your body would adapt and it would lose the big impact and wow factor, if you will."

She waved at the table (from nowhere) and a large basket of crispy fries showed up. "So while ALL my food should taste better, special meals like this one will be restricted for our own good to once a week or so. Or even once a month."

She ignored the horror on the other faces, Rinoa could probably 'convince' her number one harem girl to bend the rules here or there. "So we won't get to eat this all the time?"

The clothing pillar shrugged. "High quality, stop talking and close your eyes to enjoy it good food? Yes. Food that makes you have a religious experience? No. And it is too good to cheapen it, since that reaction is the WHOLE POINT of the process."

Sarah pushed some custom ketchup, which was SO good… But not near-orgasmic. Made these fresh fries taste even more astounding though. "Snacks like this, or meals of similar quality will be easy enough. And since we will be here a few days, I can continue studying... " Her eyes flickered to the local students guiding them. "...Cooking techniques."

Oh. So THIS is what came from studying the hot dogs!? No wonder everyone refused to share theirs! It would be morally offensive to even consider it! "New order: You are cooking all our meals from now on."

Selphie, Zell, and to a much lesser degree Squall himself, nodded. Angelo was too busy gnawing on a massive bone from one of the morons that attacked the party on the way to the Garden earlier, although Sarah had done some sort of seasoning and stuff to it first.

Sarah shrugged. "Yes boss." And now there was fresh hot bread and somehow she felt SUPER ready to eat some more. Oh good lord, the SMELL! Mmm!

The clothing piled looked to one side. "Huh. You guys enjoy this, I'll be right back."

What? Rinoa knew something was going on, but first this slightly warm butter on the hot torn bread and ermahgerd… Mmm!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Another set of snacks to keep them all occupied, and her friends (And new friends!) should be good to go! Sarah nearly had an accident here or there, but so far? Only a bit of glowing tattoo! The wings stayed hidden entirely!

Wiggling and waddling her way to the exit, she was mentally glad that she didn't automatically activate True Magic for ALL her old skills. Not entirely, anyway. Just for the stuff involving dimensions and space and so on and so forth.

True, she hadn't expected ANY reaction from pulling stuff from the Inventory or her Warehouse, but hey! Only becoming a minor night light? She could work with this! Better than sprouting wings every time she wanted a sandwich.

Which was good right now, as she opened the gate for the walled meditation garden and looked outside. "Yes?"

There were like thirty people of various ages, boys and girls, and ALL were drooling. The guy in front was fidgety, but clearly drooling… Though ALL of them stepped back slightly after seeing her outfit. "Uh. Hey! Sorry to bother you..." He carefully took another step back. "Ma'am?"

She nodded. Well, shifted her outfit up and down.

He seemed relieved. "Ma'am then. But uh, my team and…" He glanced back. "...I guess a few other people, we just happened to smell something AMAZING over here! Is there an event going on or something? We know the Garden Festival is doing all kinds of test events and stuff to get ready for it…"

The raw hope was adorable. "No, I'm afraid this is just a simple get together and a bit of a picnic."

As one, the entire mass of people slumped.

A glance back at the eagerly consuming party members… Heh. Why not?

She grinned at the group. "That said, I DO have a lot of food with me. As long as no one asks how I made it or how I have so much, I don't mind sharing with everyone."

One of the more uptight girls started to frown before her friend tugged her back and began to whisper about not letting her ruin this for her too. Which implied some sort of background story, possibly involving black market cuisine… Heh.

The guy was eager… But hesitant. "Are you sure? We all can pay of course but…" He waved at the group. "Quite a few of us showed up." And apparently set up a line, subconsciously. Holy hell, hot dogs had created a pavlovian conditioned response through the years of living here, it seems.

Meh. "I don't want to bother my friends, but it won't be a problem as long as you guys have another meditation garden I can quickly set up some tables at. Or at least somewhere nearby, I can work with near anything."

Four people instantly volunteered the nearest four mediation groves… Apparently part of the reason this crowd showed up was because the smell of the food had spread out and got ALL the studying and 'meditating' students teeming with hunger. Huh.

Meh, she could work with this.

Right. "Then let's get going!" A quick hand wave indicated the locations. "I'll set up this one for drinks, non-alcoholic only I'm afraid, that one for desserts, this one for soups and salads, and the last one for entrées. And don't bother with paying for me, my Boss is from Timber and we are in the middle of setting up a collaboration with Balamb Garden for a long term contract… So let's just call this a bit of a morale building exercise!"

Plus, having his students rabidly supporting Rinoa's cause wouldn't HURT her negotiating power at all. "In fact, go ahead and call up your friends and teammates if they aren't here already, I want to see if you all can actually finish off my extra picnic supplies. I might have made a bit too much."

As the cheer went up and they all moved with military precision (Mercenary schools for the win, apparently) Sarah began pulling out tables, high quality bone plates and utensils (She did have a theme to follow, after all), and a variety of fake drink taps that directly interfaced with the Warehouse to have a limitless supply.

Not like she actually had ANY stored away food, this stuff was pretty much being infinitely generated by the Warehouse to let 'Research' scan the consumers and improve her use of the Cafeteria techniques.

And so many wonderful test subjects! Hee hee hee.

Oh right, no evil giggling, laughing, or cackling. That was on Rinoa's list of 'not to say', for some reason.

Right, now that the drink station was set up let's go set up the soups and salad bar! Might as well use moon produce, it had similar enhancement effects like the expensive stuff used in the local hot dogs, if only a tad stronger.

Nothing negative, a quick setup of ongoing [[Scan]] would keep an eye on that and ensure no allergies got set off either, but why NOT use the better ingredients for this thing? That just made the collected data more valuable for 'Research' to work with!

Oh, she should make some cakes to go with the pies!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Zell slowed down from gnawshing down on some of the best meatballs he had ever had. Period. "I… I think I actually lost track of time."

Has that EVER happened to him before!? Even when sleeping he had issues calming down from eager plans to do more training or try new combinations.

When did he last just… Had his mind shut down like this? "This stuff is amazing."

It was not a good enough description of this, there had to be better words, but honestly Zell was a fighter more than a food critic. Though he was rapidly becoming a food fanatic. "I would double my workout routine to work this stuff off if I could get this every day."

Well, emotionally he'd want to, but honestly he was already running out of time due to how much he pushed his passion for fighting.

Selphie moaned over her barbeque pulled pork stuffed baked potato. "Don't mention exercise, I'm going to have to train for hours to make up for this food binge."

He did notice though that she didn't even remotely pause eating. Which was understandable.

The brood meister on the other hand grunted something, probably agreement, and continued to enjoy his strangely red (but amazing smelling) ribs.

Zell blinked. Wait, were those MONSTER ribs!?

Huh. Their new client must have spent a BUNCH of Gil then to get these ingredients. That or Timber was far richer than he expected from class.

Speaking of which. "Hey, where did the secret agent lady go?"

Selphie was drinking from some sort of fruit drink and waved to the side. "Sarah had to go do something, and said she'd be right back."

Oh, alright.

...Actually. "How long ago did she say that?"

The three SeeD students blinked… And then hardened.

Squall nodded. "We will go check on her situation."

Their preparation fell apart moments later as Rinoa just chuckled. "Nah, she's good, everyone relax. She's just sharing the extra food with those students from earlier."

...There had been students sniffing around this feast EARLIER!?

Zell blinked and double checked the table.

The still full table, covered in hot and fresh food on gleaming bone dishes.

Despite them all eating without restraint for quite some time now… And the hard core training that SeeD mercenaries went through every day ensured ALL of them could out eat a normal soldier by a massive margin.

They hadn't even eaten half of it, and all three of them had over a dozen clean plates to the side already. "Holy cow, how much food did she MAKE!?"

Rinoa shrugged. "No idea, but the real problem is that we haven't even reached the extra dessert options she's been working on." A hand pointed out a SECOND table to one side. "She did say not to worry though, the same ability that lets her store her stuff will keep our food fresh when we are done eating. So don't worry about wasting it."

Oh thank god. Zell had felt his heart nearly rip out of his chest at the idea of all this food spoiling, it was FAR too high quality for such a terrible fate.

Right, let's see how good these corn dogs were.

The first bite was a song to his S̗͚̭̞͚͔͔o̟͓̥̲̹u̜̬̟͕̳l̺̳̞!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah blinked.

This might have gotten out of hand.

There were now TWENTY meditation gardens serving food, drink, candy, snacks, finger foods, and after a certain number of animals showed up, one specifically offering custom pet food and a play area while their owners chowed down.

How many people were IN this garden!? And don't think Sarah didn't see YOU people sneaking in, Cafeteria workers! She had scanned you this morning, you aren't getting away with your sneaky ways!

Like, she didn't stop them from eating or anything, but just taking off your uniform didn't make you stealthy. Sarah had CAUGHT you! Yes you!

At this point, the line had turned into a sort of ring. By the time someone had filled up at one end, they had snacked on something from the start of the path and wanted a bit more of that too.

All along this roundabout journey, victims of hunger would randomly just find a spot to sit and start eating their collected food in joy and more than a bit of desperation, before eventually heading off to a bathroom or getting back in line.

And uh. Sarah wasn't sure why.

After all, 'Research' was still examining the techniques used in the Cafeteria and extrapolating other procedures and methods used for food preparation and processing, and nowhere NEAR done. There was likely a whole database of skills and techniques that Sarah didn't even know or guess about yet.

So uh. Why this big of a draw?

These guys and gals were acting like a dehydrated man in a desert given water, or a hospital patient stuck on hospital food being given an awesome sloppy joe. A person on a diet during their cheat day, or a person dating a vegetarian who finally got a steak and wanted to finish it without being judged…

Sure, there was a happy and satisfied atmosphere going on here… But also a desperate and needy one. As if someone would soon steal it all, or snatch away the opportunity.

Maybe it was because they thought the food would run out?

But Sarah had already refilled ALL the serving dishes a dozen times or more by now, and none of those bowls and platters were at all SMALL. There was no limit on refills, no fees, and no warnings implying a limit was coming to cause this kind of panic.

Any idea, Shiva?

Huh. Didn't know GF's could fall asleep. Wonder when that happened?

As she shuffled the annoying mound of clothing around (But it made Rinoa happy, and it was a bit fun freaking students out with wiggly belt bits), something kept nagging at the back of her mind.

Nothing dangerous, not exactly. And so she set it aside.

But in the distance, the titanic tectonic plates sh͔i̱̰f̤̖̪̯t͓̖̳ḛ̱͎ͅd͉̬ and the heavy wind s̗͕̱͔w͖͙̤̖̩ir͚̯͔̻͈͇͙l͇̗͍͖ed̻.

Later she should probably hand out a few raincoats. Or get Rinoa to wear a sheer white shirt.

Along with the others.

Heh.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Headmaster Cid leaned back, satisfied at a job well done!

Somehow, impossibly, he had caught up with his more annoying paperwork! ALL of it!

It practically seemed impossible, a never ending beast of a foe that grew with silent responsibility and furious tedium, waiting for an unwary foe to fall to it's never ending clutches of redactions and clarifications and restructurings.

It was so very VERY rare to have any pauses at all between the various staff bringing in and out the endless waves of forms and verifications and notes and memos and so on and so forth. Even the small, easily handled tasks had to be read to ensure nothing was misfiled or improperly filled out, or (in the worst cases) literally about something unrelated to the topic being covered.

Such things were almost never intentional, just… Some of the kids were absolutely abysmal with paperwork, and sort of gave up when doing reports or filling out forms. But not today!

As he moved the last sheets to the outbox, he felt a silly urge to take a picture of his (very rarely) empty inbox for posterity. Maybe frame it for harder times!

Right. "Bring me the reference material for the second edition of the contract, please."

...What?

Cid blinked.

Where WAS everyone?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Carl from accounting HAD come down here to find out where the senior staff had wandered off to, if for no other reason than to ensure that whatever excuse they'd make up would be one he could match as well.

He may not ENJOY the endless gossip and so on and so forth, but he wasn't a snitch after all. And it would have been VERY bad if he was the only guy left in the empty office and he had to make up some excuse for the rest.

That said, normally they were good about ensuring that Carl knew whatever cover story they were going to use. He may not want to be involved, but they knew he didn't mind keeping the others out of trouble. Carl was just a solitary dude, not a jerk.

So it was more than a bit shocking to stumble into a massive impromptu festival. "How did all this start?"

Denise shrugged, eating another small pastry. "Mmm. The romantic runaways were sent off by the Headmaster of course…" And took another bite.

It was hard to blame her, he himself had some light watercress sandwiches (And a spot of mild tea no less! How lovely!) and it was hard to keep proper decorum.

That said, it was delaying the story a tad.

She made a visceral moan and blushed, before pretending nothing happened and going on. "Well, they bumped into team Buff, Dark, and Perky… Oh these are so good!"

Which was who? Oh, Mr. Dincht, Mr. Leonhart, and Ms. Tilmitt. Honestly, the nicknames those people came up with. He took another small bite and repressed his own embarrassing joy of the act. Marvelous.

Denise waved it all away. "Long story short, We think there is now a love-hexagon or something going on, but during a romantic dinner, Ms. Sarah, the one in the odd fetish gear? You know the one, right?"

If THAT complex mess of an outfit was fetish related, it WAS very odd. And undirected. More confusing than erotic, at least in Carl's opinion, but he tried not to judge.

Still, he nodded.

She waved. "Apparently she can just store away stuff through some sort of equipment or skill or special spell, and when one of the students asked about it just started sharing with everyone."

What? "You mean all of this…"

Carl gazed at the hundreds of currently open meditation gardens, all bustling with visitors and students and staff and what seemed to be a small army of pets and… Was that just a random Blobra!? What was IT doing out of the Training Center!?

Well, besides the obvious. The odd blob seemed perfectly happy enjoying a massive bowl of what seemed to be pudding.

Was this some strange sort of pseudo-cannibalism?

Denise grinned! "Yep! No idea how she is able to keep all the food fresh and somehow keep track of it all, but not only is she still refilling all the buffet tables but she also separated out the food by ingredients so people who are allergic can easily avoid something risky."

That was… Surprisingly, refreshingly responsible. "I'm relieved that she is at least ensuring the safety of our people."

She nodded. "Yeah, and even when the…" A quick glance. "...Less intellectual students avoid reading the many warnings and notes about each dish, she's personally noticed and warned them in person first. Somehow. No idea how it works or even how this is possible."

Carl hummed. "Perhaps she has further modified her personal Junction system while designing the testing equipment we've been reviewing recently. Do you know if… If…"

Ah, Denise somehow discovered a room serving deviled eggs. And what seemed to be freshly made cheese omlettes.

Well, she would be out of it for a half hour or so.

Hmm.

Right, he should try to find Brandon, he tends to keep an eye on things within the more social of the staff. And if he was anywhere down here, he would be in the room serving the most variety of steaks and meat dishes possible… From the smell, that direction?

Though there was some astoundingly lovely baby carrots near the salad room that he wanted to check for quality and crispness… Maybe a short detour was in order.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Edea was honestly concerned right now. "Sweetie?"

Ellone was still blindly drooling in bed.

The nice boy who always loved medicine (He became a REAL doctor! Such a good boy.) sat back. "From my [[Scans]] and my equipment, medically she is not at risk."

The girl twitched. "...De spetti! Eat the spaghetti!"

Her little helper seemed lost. "It almost seems like a forced dream state, but all my tests indicate it is not harmful. Not by itself at least. Just… Very, very distracting."

Edea frowned. The only reason she wasn't s͕̲͕̳u͍̰̲̜̙̥m̤̹m̝̦o̗̘̹̠n̩̲̗͍i̺̤n̹͇͎͓̫͚̫g̺̲̩̪̝ͅ ̦̹t̳̫̖̭̬̬h̘͕͉̜̬̹̜e̲͓͕̜͎ ͈͕̲̺̝w͓͖̝͔ͅr͎a͖̩̠̦͇͇̗t̗̫h͚̹ ̰̥o̺̫̖̻̦f͖̞͈͈̫̩ ̤n̟͕̜at̺͎ṵ̼r̰e̲̣̗͙͍ was that Ellone was clearly not in pain nor panic.

Still, this was very troubling. "Ellone dear, please talk to me."

A weak hand wave. "Later, am om nom nom."

If this was a less stressful situation, she'd be cooing over this. "Are you alight, baby?"

Ellone… Sort of focused? "I'm fine mom, just let me taste what Squall, Zell, and Selphie is eating. Oh god! Quistis just found the crème brûlée! Oh yeeees..."

Blushing, the doctor left while Edea was a bit distracted. But how couldn't she be?

She called her mom! Eee!

It was so HARD to get the little ones to do that. One of the older ones had been convinced that she was too important or powerful or whatever, and the others sort of went along with it… They'd still call her mom in private, but on the Ship in public? The best she could get was Matron.

Still, she limited herself to a kiss on a forehead and making sure the girl was snug in the covers. "Get better soon, dear."

Ellone's eyes widened! "Nuuu! Don't eat cake at the same tiiimeEEP!"

...Yes, some bedrest might be best.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It was COLD. "How good was the tip?"

Her coworkers were ALSO shivering. "Terrible, can't even be sure those two were ON the stupid ship, but it's all we got."

But this ship had done some badly documented cargo exchange and was heading to Trabia Garden, north of Balamb Garden in the frozen ass end of NOWHERE. "I can't believe it cost so much to find another ship heading this way."

Because there was nothing THERE but Trabia Garden. And from what Rinoa's supposed plans were, she was clearly heading to ONE of these stupid things. Crap intel or not, this was the best lead they had.

Hell, it was one of the ONLY leads they had. Speaking of which. "What about the other teams?"

A general groan. "No updates, but there is a little hope for the ones heading to Fisherman's Horizon. They keep better records, and as a massive trade hub on that huge transcontinental bridge? If anyone saw anything they should know."

Not to mention that, being a town built on a bridge between the withdrawn Esthar and their own home of Galbadia, the people there would hopefully be very helpful since the Army's commander had no foul intentions on at least one of the two people being tracked.

It had cost tons to build that freaking monster structure over such an impossible gap between continents after all, so when doing some basic requests for either nation they'd be willing to help out.

Theoretically willing, at least. The blasted place was ALSO extremely pacifistic, so if they sniffed even a BIT of political action going on here everything would get blasted complicated QUICK.

Still, potential paperwork and diplomatic mess included, it sounded better than this boat heading to ice hell. "If we are doing an update, go ahead and send out that we are on point to the theoretical target landing harbor in…" Oh god. "...Eight hours."

A loud groan echoed in the freezing air and BELOW freezing water. At least, that's what the sea spray felt like when it tried to reach up and drown them all.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa blinked as Squall quickly closed the gate.

Zell, who had been about to follow, nearly fell over! "They hell, broody!?"

The quiet boy just… Stared at the now closed gate in contemplation.

And nodded. "Egress is blocked. Sarah claims to be secure?"

Rinoa blinked as Selphie tried to sneak around her team leader to peek out the gate while Squall absent mindedly blocked her attempts. "Uh… Yeah?"

He hummed. "Request that she joins us as soon as possible."

Zell flickered his fists! "Yo, the heck bro!? Why don't we go to her and get this over with?"

Selphie was casually moved back from her curiosity again as Squall frowned. Or uh, basically looked the same. "It would be more efficient to wait here."

Huh. "What's going on? I thought Sarah was just sharing some food?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Alright, Sarah accepted: This might have gotten out of hand.

There were now self refilling food tables in ALL the various 'meditation' gardens, except the ones belonging to students out on missions or doing field work.

At some point she had made the poor decision to 'reduce traffic' by spreading more stations into the halls themselves… Then the side rooms… Then the more DISTANT areas…

Not sure when the various monsters started showing up, but they'd snag a serving dish or two and eagerly consume the mess while ignoring everyone else. Since the plates and tables kept being refilled from her Inventory, they'd eat till full and fall asleep… Or head back (to the Training Center, apparently) to relieve themselves before getting back to eating.

All the pets were gathering up in one of the rooms with their owners cheerfully taking cute pictures or cleaning up the mess their personal death monsters made while trying to gorge themselves.

And uh, it was loud.

So now ALL the various visitors and recruitment people and so on and so forth had found out about this thing, along with a lot of staff and… Well, the crowd got bigger.

And the situation more complicated.

She needed to individually track each and every dish, the rate of consumption, the freshness, if anything was damaged or soiled, and so on and so forth.

And, when no one was viewing a specific issue or dish, to [[Harvest]] the flaw and replace it.

At first, this was trivial… But now the complexity was going up with every new serving table and new wave of customers.

More eyes made seamless replacement a bit more tricky. More consumers required more supplies. And while none of this food was the ultra high quality stuff she had shared with her boss and potential harem mates earlier, it WAS far higher quality than most food she had ever made before. It drew and kept attention. A lot of it.

This meant that she had to be a bit tricky, to ensure no one noticed how items moved or changed or refreshed. More and more subtle with slight changes.

Eventually, despite being very careful, her bone wings were starting to locally return to this level of S̹p̩͎̟ḁ̳͇̱̲ce̺̙͔̣, and it became more tricky to keep it quiet.

Eventually, she HAD to stop restricting her wings from displaying.

Fortunately, Rinoa's 'Disguise' had LOTS of fiddly bits. And Sarah was clever.

Now, her various cloth scraps and scarves and sleeves and leggings and cloaks and covers were hiding away individual dimensional bones, her wings fragmented and secluded away in pockets and tubes and layers and so forth.

With her hood down, her glowing eyes were nearly completely hidden and the only REAL issue at this point was the extra control her wing fragments gave her complicated outfit.

More than one staff member or student got a bit of a shock when a scarf suddenly reached out to move something while her other limbs were busy, or when bone hiding material moved unnaturally out of the way of her busy bustling.

But uh… At least her outfit wasn't technically alive, right? So what if she had hundreds of dimensional skeletal structures turned into something between a bone cloak and fragmented bits of cloth manipulation?

It looked the same as before! Mostly. Sort of.

Alright, she looked like she had doubled in weight because all the wing bits tended to float around a little, but she wasn't fat or something BEFORE this shift and most of these people had been super busy eating and stuff, but it was good enough for government work!

And that mattered because she WAS a government, technically.

Oh well. At least she was getting a LOT of good data from this for 'Research'. Especially a lot of raw ingredients [[Scans]] as the dishes went through the processing methods for feeding everyone.

Though Adam insisted on being quiet, he DID leave notes for her to bump into when she connected to the Warehouse system, even if those comments were deliberately not time stamped or signed.

Seriously, something about this Jump had him ALL the way hands off this time, it was nearly amusing.

Anyway, the notes pointed out that her new systems could and DID automatically generate, test, and optimize farms for every new Jump and for every plant and creature she [[Scanned]] along the way. However, like he ALSO noted, nothing lived between Jumps to new areas.

So this brought up two things: One, each farm was recreated from scratch and [[Harvested]] at the end of each Jump; Two, local animals are more efficient to raise.

It cost nearly nothing to use Warehouse systems to recreate cuts of animals or parts of plants or whatever, but to raise something from Bioshock she needed to recreate the environment for that world over that entire facility to ensure no errors or accidental issues cropping up during pregnancy, maturity, aging, etc. and so forth.

Same held true for Rick and Morty creatures (Which uh… There were a LOT apparently) and the ones from the Final Fantasy 7 Jump.

It was just cheaper to raise local animals and plants, since no energy or focus was wasted simulating the correct environment… Even better to [[Scan]] the ingredients or even the final dishes for cheap reproduction at a later date. Why raise a whole cow if you want two hamburgers? Why grow a mountain of lettuce and tomatoes to get toppings?

So Adam was still improving stuff in the background (Focused on security and defenses, obviously) and had adjusted the units related to food preparation to better gather data related to base components and finished dishes… To more cheaply allow her to eat her favorite foods from older, more expensive Jumps with impossible components or abilities related to the dishes.

In other words, by [[Harvesting]] all these monsters in her Final Fantasy 8 Jump farms (Thankfully only ones with non-sapient minds were constructed by default) to fuel this festive feast, it let 'Research' examine the ongoing [[Scans]] to determine a selection of the healthiest cuts of meat, the most potent veggies, the most delicious fruits, and so on and so forth.

Not just the best of the best, which could theoretically get old or repetitive, but a range of the top choices to be used in future dishes. A semi-randomized selection of optional ham slices or cheese wedges or dinosaur ribs or whatever.

She still COULD duplicate a single sandwich a thousand times, of course… Just, now she didn't have to when her Warehouse could make a thousand slightly unique (And delicious) options instead.

A mental prod from Shiva had her blink and stop reading the never ending notes… Oh. "Excuse me."

Move this girl, move that boy, change out their sandwiches with something fresher and move between… Man, there was a mess of people out here. "Sorry, pardon me. Oh, the fish dishes are two gates that way. No, thank you, but I appreciate the offer. Excuse me."

Lots and lots of people.

Sorry, Rinoa… It may take a few minutes to get over there without blatantly using Sorcery to skip a few steps.

And she MIGHT be constantly using S̰͔̩̩̮p̯͍͉a̪c͎̰͔e̪̻͇ to cheat right now, but it was stealthy! Super stealthy!

Looking at the near wall of ravenous people… Sigh, she was going to get in trouble for this, probably.

Ah well, that wasn't a good enough reason to throw out what actual stealth she had by just ripping reality open or vanishing out of the crowd to speed things along.

The fact that it delayed any upcoming complaints or rants had nothing to do with it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Headmaster Cid slowly backed away from the Quad down on A12 and paused.

That. That had been a small herd of Grat.

Just… Sitting against the wall and eating from a massive tray of roasted pork.

The same students that would normally fight these creatures to the death were just… Walking past them, busy and eager to get their OWN food.

And, to be fair, the smells from that direction were astoundingly delicious and tempting.

Just… What the heck was going on here?

An electronic alert from his modified Junction system had him pause his mental debate (Ignore creatures and acquire food? End the threat and take THEIR food?) and a smile slipped out.

Edea was here, in the Parking facility.

He was running/speed walking/moseying in a smooth and cool and totally young way to hug her and never let go/cry in her arms/rant about his staff abandoning him to food focused hedonism/show her the more kinky experiments he had designed/tell her about the amazing new magic manipulation toys/meet up with his significant other and catch her up on the situation.

It would probably help if HE knew what the situation was, but that was a problem for future Cid.

Ah, good! He got here pretty quickly. He was presentable, right?

A bit of straightening out the clothing, a bit of calmness (because he had to move briskly, not that running nonsense.), his hair, uh. Good enough. Let's do this!

And nearly was smashed into by a fast moving young lady. "SorryIGottaGoThereIsFreshButteredCornAnd…" The sound faded away.

Headmaster Cid blinked at the fast moving girl.

Had that been Ellone?

Salvation chuckled as love wrapped her arms around him. "Sorry, dear. The girl wasn't entirely clear, but apparently her old friends were having a picnic of some sort."

Concern? Frustration? Hidden fear? Lonely heartache?

None of that mattered anymore.

The better half of his life was back, and he could breathe again. "I missed you."

Like time never died and his home never emptied, the loving hum of his bewitching beauty calmed his Soul.

Edea sighed, happily, her enhanced body easily lifting him like a twig. "Mine."

Yours. Always.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa and the rest had left the gate sort of opened, gawking at what seemed to be a world wide festival of insanity rioting on outside.

Selphie pointed! "Those girls are in my combat class, not sure how they got that Glacial Eye to just help them chill their drinks like that or why they are all eating ice cream, but they are great at unarmed combat.

She gave them a once over. "Hmm. Maybe. After we try and snag Seifer, we'll see… But they seem lacking."

The bright yellow dressed girl nodded. "Honestly, a good amount of the melee focused combat students are the ones who are really talented at Junctioning magic to strength… And, if they are lucky, HP and vitality. They tend to have low accuracy and magic compatibility, so their body becomes their strongest attack."

Zell snorted. "Not all of us!" His body flickered into a dozen patterns. "It's not a fallback choice for me, it's a calling!"

Squall was tracking the nearest creatures with suspicion, but wasn't bothering to contribute to the discussion.

Sure, the girls were pretty enough. Like, not compared to Selphie or anywhere CLOSE to Sarah, but something about them felt… Weaker. Shallow.

It was an odd sense, really. "What about her?"

Anther beauty in a sea of angels, this woman seemed to be somehow elegant and refined despite balancing two plates and eating from them simultaneously. More importantly, that whip on her hip had… Pleasant mental connotations attached to it.

Squall huffed. "Instructor Quistis Trepe. Very competent, can be insistent."

Selphie snorted. "She's like only 18 and is one of the BEST Instructors at the Garden, but she seems to lose all her poise and decorum when our leader is nearby. Strict, but really nice… Honestly, she deserves that fan club."

Zell grumbled. "No idea what she sees in this guy, but she is so competent she can instruct students during SeeD exams, even in the field, without Junctioning a GF at all. She can, and she does, but for the weaker stuff around here? Total domination."

He noticed the others looking at him and blushed, looking away. "Just saying, she's earned that respect."

Selphie grinned right back at his embarrassment. "Zell's right though, her focus is uh… A bit locked on, if you will."

Rinoa grinned! Another woman (Attractive, powerful, smart, whip) to pull into plan 'Mud Wrestlemania'! "Right, she's on the list. Anyone else we should get?"

Squall groaned. "I'd suggest, ma'am, that we wait until other contract interests have been contacted first. After all, I am unsure if one or BOTH of Seifer's team is down in medical, or even if he is interested in the assignment."

Meh, Rinoa waved him off. "Just gathering ideas right now, nothing wrong with that."

Honestly though, some people just resonated with her more than others. These people she had bumped into felt… Deeper. Connected with the world, somehow. More valuable, more interesting, more attractive!

Sure, the librarians were hot and those skirts… Mmm, those skirts.

But more like a one time snack, not a long time commitment. Not like the hotness trio and whip girl over there.

And, of course, NONE of them fell into Shiva's or Sarah's range… But that was a bit unfair of a comparison to work with, really. So far her personal sexy ranking had a top twenty list… And then, above the top, the Sexy Sorceress and the Sinful Shiva.

Kind of skewed the results, so uh. Better to just accept that and move on.

And aside from the depressed hunk's possible bromance with the unmet Seifer and this sexy young teacher cutting through crowds like a sharp blade ignoring reality, most of these other men and women were… A bit lacking.

Yeah, her evaluation scale might be way off.

Then again, it may be a side effect of Sarah herself.

After all, Rinoa had noticed fairly quickly that, when hanging around the woman, powerful people seemed to subconsciously draw closer while weaker people (physically, mentally, or magically) had trouble sticking around.

Like, Selphie nearly smashed INTO them, and Zell was the only boy who didn't suddenly empty the corridor they had been walking towards. And, of course, Squall himself seemed to be unnaturally easy going with Rinoa directly… Shiva was snickering about him being the 'perfect Junction host boy toy' or something?

Again, dem muscles.

Right. "Sarah's trying to head back but uh… Yeah, this lunch/dinner thing kind of expanded and she's being held up. So we are stuck here ANYWAY, why not keep an eye out for a bit of talent?"

Zell just huffed, before retreating to the meditation area to do another 'meditative combat routine', aka Shadowboxing. Selphie just leaned against Rinoa and went back to people watching (Yep, she was a cuddler! Score!), and Squall… Seemed distracted?

Uh. Very distracted. "Hey tall dark and sassy… You alright?"

The man seemed… Confused? Alert? "I'm sensing… There may be someone coming."

What?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

.

=Shiva: Seriously, it's almost like we got another GF trying to connect to you.=

=Ifrit: Meh, it feels familiar. Probably fine.=

=Quezacotl: No! It feels freaking WEIRD!=

=A͘m͘͜͞m̛̕u͏̶̡h̸̷̨͢ą̀͘͠͠: Ḩu! T͟uh͝'̢d p̸a͟ t̢uha ̛aydeh͢k ̴ymnayt͘o̡!͡ E'̀s̵ u͜h̶ s͡o fyo!=

=Quezacotl: ACK!=

=Ifrit: {Snort!} Pansy.=

=Shiva: Hey, it's getting closer SUPER fast… On your left!=

.

Squall twisted, his gunblade loaded and twisted for a rapid strike, his mind already searching for a target to [[Scan]] and potentially [[Draw]] something useful from, something that would help him predict weaknesses and flaws…

And paused.

Why was s̠h̯̫̩̮̦̪e familiar?

Her face lit up! "Squall! Zell! Selphie! Where's the food!?"

He blinked… As did his team. What?

Zell was confused as well, but Selphie had always been outgoing. "Uh… Everywhere?"

And she was TOO CLOSE! Why was he being HUGGED!? What did he do!? What was he SUPPOSED to do!?

.

=Shiva: Oh it's Ellone! Those older memories are always the hardest ones to protect when you Junction with us.=

=Ifrit: At least she cares about the important stuff. Good food and good fights!=

.

Where was he supposed to put his HANDS!?

Ellone (Apparently) refused to let go. "Not this basic stuff Selphie! The AWESOME stuff! Like your baby cucumber salad thing! Or those grilled wings Zell had earlier!"

His client on the other hand just perked right up. "Oh, you know about Sarah's special cooking? It's not as amazing as her targeted dishes, but I know she is more willing to use the expensive stuff with our private meals unlike the dishes out here."

Squall felt his mind glitch slightly. "Expensive?"

A delicate hand waved him off. "Sarah's restricted from using the most valuable stuff and the most recognizable ingredients when serving food around others, she's sticking to the stuff she's seen used and sold in Timber, Balamb City, and Balamb Garden."

Seeing the disbelieving stare, she twitched. "Well, mostly at least?"

Ellone STILL wasn't LETTING GO. "I've been mentally connecting to my childhood friends here, so I KNOW those weren't normal veggies."

She's been doing WHAT now!?

Rinoa blinked. "But… Oh. Oooh."

And now she looked frustrated. "Damn it, I KNEW someone would recognize something was up with the vegetables. Stupid sexy girlfriend and her absurdly expensive veggie platters."

Selphie on the other hand… "Wait, we knew you in our childhood?"

And… Ellone suddenly went a bit slack. "Yes? We all grew up together!"

A bit of awkward shuffling.

Ellone began to withdraw. "Right? You remember, right?" She began to frantically look at the three students. "You… You know who I am, yeah? You haven't forgotten our [[Connections]]? Right!?"

=Shiva: Oh for goodness sake, Squall! Here! {Orphanage_data}=

A massive migraine SMASHED into his everything! Pain beyond being stabbed, worse than electrocution, more twisted than burning! Damn it!

It broke his solid emotional control.

It destroyed his confident self restraint.

It broke him. "Ow."

What a headache… Oh. He said that last bit out loud, didn't he?

How embarrassing.

No, focus. "Older memories tend to get repressed or damaged when Junctioning. You'll have to be patient with us while we remember." Still, it was good to see her again. "It's been many years, Ellone."

And then the hugging came back! WHY!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Zell was the most shocked at the situation. "I can't believe we all grew up together."

Selphie was just glomping onto the 'awkwardly hugging Squall' pile with Rinoa, who just seemed to enjoy his very mild freak out attack trying to deal with three girls being all grabby.

But for Zell… "Shit, BOTH the stuck up jerks that I've bickered with are like, basically my bratty older brothers or something." And wasn't there another? A cowboy? At least the kid used to be obsessed with the idea back then. What the fuck!?

But that would basically make Quistis his hot older sister figure, one who was not biologically related. Which was like, several fetishes right there, not that he would share that with anyone.

And uh. Really put the slightly homoerotic overtones between broody here and his bad boy 'rival' Seifer into a new context, but Zell wouldn't judge them for THAT.

No, if he was going to ever criticize those jerks it would be due to their infuriating attitude and annoyingly stuck up actions, not whatever romantic angst might be going on in the background.

But dang. "This isn't going to be a thing, right?"

Rinoa blinked from being slowly pried off the team lead. "Hmm?"

He just waved at the group, and the girl he could now vaguely remember. "This thing with Ellone, where we find out that everyone we talk with and stuff were like our childhood besties or something. Because it is REALLY an awkward feeling having my memories sort of fade in and out like this."

Selphie giggled! "Are you kidding me? I'd LOVE to have an excuse to hang out with and glomp all the hot girls if they suddenly have that cute 'girl next door' and 'childhood friend' backstory just dropped on them!"

Rinoa let Squall 'Win' as she was pushed away and then quickly latched onto the two other girls. "Yeah, it totally save's time. Though it is really weird that all of you are so powerful and sexy and hot and stuff."

They must have squeezed SOMETHING awkward on the new girl, because Ellone suddenly 'Eeped' and the entire group nearly fell over.

Huh. Well, that complement at least certainly helps to build one's ego.

Zell kept his grin small though. "I'm just saying, the more I see this girl the more… Like, I remember an old building? I think by the sea?"

It wasn't being repressed or damaged on purpose, it just felt so… Slippery. Hard to hold. A tall woman who smelled like rain? A man who told tales of adventure?

Just fragments, really. "It's messing with me a bit."

Squall seemed to have reached a limit. "Please. Desist."

Rinoa grumbled. "Fine, fine. Come girls, we will move the cuddle puddle back to our garden and share some of the good stuff for Ellone to try out."

Wait. "What about Sarah?"

A voice came from inside the room. "It was too crowded out there so I had to take a short cut. Hello there, Ellone! My name is Sarah!"

The new (sort of?) girl blinked. "Are you a cloth tentacle monster?"

A sinful tease floated out of the pillar of random clothing. "Are you interested in finding out?"

Urk. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!

Well, more really REALLY good thoughts, but awkward ones to say the least.

Change the subject! "Hey Sarah, glad to see you are alright, we were a bit worried."

That was mild and not anything offensive, right?

Best he could hope for, he was always best with his fists and feet more than conversation and diplomacy. And Guardian Forces help them ALL if they had to rely on Squall to be a talkative distraction. Help us, Selphie!

The yellow social butterfly lit up and glomped onto the outfit mound. "Hey boss's girl! You got any more grub for our friend here? Ellone like… Sort of mentally connected to us or something when we ate the good stuff earlier and really wanted to try some."

The pile began to nod… And froze. "She connected to ALL of you when you were eating? As in, while you had the targeted meals, the special once a week ones?"

Uh. "Yeah?"

Was that a problem?

Ellone shrank back a little at the ḻ͍̥̯o͔͈o̘̻̳̙͈̼k̯̭̭̼̹ the hidden eyes gave her. "I was fine!"

The look didn't improve.

She wiggled. "I was… mostly fine?"

Nope.

She slumped. "I woke up after twenty minutes or so, and now I can stand and walk unaided."

Sarah sighed. "I can get you GOOD food, but you are pushing the line on targeted stuff for…" Her outfit g̱̬͕̫l̘̫̺͚͎͎ͅo͇̗̩̟w͍̩͚e̪̤̲͈d̹̭͖̳̤ for a moment. "...Another thirteen hours."

At the incoming protest, several sleeves and scarves and belts were held up. "No, to be safe you have to wait for a day or so before I can make you a targeted meal of your own. And it is only THAT short of a delay because you just shared someone else's experience and it wasn't targeting you directly."

Huh. She got to taste ALL those meals, not just his own?

Zell felt a bit jealous. Odd.

Ellone froze, mid pout. "Wait, you mean your food gets BETTER than that!?"

The mound shrugged. "Yeah, I'm still doing 'Research' on the food production methods right now. I'm actually testing the more mild stuff outside with the crowds at the moment to make sure there won't be any unwanted side effects from the high end dishes being developed."

And then the old table and food vanished, with a new one covered in what was nearly an art piece. One side focused on hot dishes, the other on chilled, with a number of glasses filled with strange drinks and clean servingware placed in front of a bone chair.

A stunned girl was gently moved into her seat by a complex cloth construct. "Now that I managed to gather a good amount of d̨́̕͟a̧͡t́͝a̵͜ to work with, would you mind trying out a few improvements I've been working on?"

Zell lost track of the others. And just… Savored the smell, the sight, the soft bubbling of the hot chili over there and the gentle tinkle as ice bumped inside the cooled soup over here. And somehow, the entire mess of unrelated dishes complimented each other, the scent a symphony of flavor in the air.

Damn it stomach! How dare you be so full right now!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The newly arrived and eagerly feasting students, visitors, and weakest monsters noticed last.

The nearly full, full, and stuffed people noticed second.

But the first sign something big was going on was when every creature that had been ignoring the crowds to feast on never ending food of astounding, out of this world quality had gone still.

And very quickly, people realized ALL of the creatures had turned to stare at the entry to the Quad and the new procession standing there.

A woman, beautiful but mortal looking enough. Surrounded by alert but unconcerned mercenaries, their white outfit identifies them to most as the legendary White SeeD company. And of course, their headmaster himself, looking… Well, more than a little exasperated.

The woman laughed, clapping her hands! "Darling, a party? And look at all my babies, all grown up!" Her hand absently flickers and the men and women wearing white spread out, looking less guarded but NOT less focused. "Or is the Garden Festival earlier this year?"

Headmaster Cid sighed. "No dear, this is more an unofficial and impromptu get together."

Her attention drifts to the still motionless creatures, some still mid bite or reaching for another dish to try. "Oh, and my pets have gotten so numerous too! Though these ones seem much more intelligent then the rest of the herds." She waved one of the men over. "Make sure to have these ones marked as breeding stock, it would be a waste to let them die with the other more mindless creatures in the Training Center."

Ignoring the 'Yes Matron!', she moved with smooth style towards one of the older groups. "Ben! Grace! Oh you two must meet up with little Greggory, he's been worried over you both for a while since he had left with us back then! How have you been?"

Somehow they mumbled something or other, but… The pressure. The weight.

This one woman was an endless sky watching only y͖̳̪̩͕̫͉o̖͓u̘͉̖̯̜ͅͅ.

A towering cliff, more vertical rock than an old sloping mountain, that felt massive in scope and scale, bemused by the pebbles as they slid down the hills.

The flat ocean that reached deep to unknown horrors, with an unseen eye watching the surface with fascination.

She was vast.

Somewhere, deep inside themselves… They all knew.

This, this woman, this creature... THIS is what the Junctioning system was attempting to reach. The pinnacle that science was failing to achieve. The goal that was endlessly pursued.

Headmaster Cid sighed. "Dear, your presence."

The woman stopped pinching the young adult's cheek. "Hmm?"

The man did not grumble or slump or rub his headache away, which was impressive all on its own. "Please remember to conceal your presence. It is a bit much for the uninitiated."

E͔̫̜͎ͅnd͇̻̜lͅͅe̯s͚̜̹̖̦̺͓s͍̟̣̣͉ͅ W͚̪e̤̫̙a̯t͓he̱̼r blinked… And Matron Edea blushed. "Oh dear, how unseemly of me!"

The monsters could suddenly breathe… And movement began as they all attempted to look very small.

Which was understandable. The people were struggling not to do the same.

A hand gesture and suddenly senior staff were just THERE, pristine and certainly not stuffing themselves on deviled eggs and sliced ham and broiled fish and so on and so forth. The Headmaster nodded. "Nothing nefarious?"

Nods.

A glance to the group. "Our students are staying respectable and professional in front of our guests and friends?"

One or two people frantically began wiping away stains and straightening outfits, but for the most part the Headmaster accepted the slightly fraudulent nods that followed.

He sighed. "Very well. The report?"

Paper from somewhere was accepted and quickly scanned. "Hmm. Lead me to Leonhart's team." He glanced at the near frozen mass of people, all of whom felt like a little child caught trying to have a snack past bedtime. "As for the rest of this… Carry on."

Ideally, they would have all respectfully waited for the procession of goddess, white soldiers, and the leader of their facility to pass by before collapsing back into a feasting rave of astounding smells and tastes and sights and sounds, but uh.

It was really good food.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah blinked. "Why do I feel that a nearby thunderstorm wants to show off baby pictures?"

Rinoa didn't hear her. "You got to try this one next Ellone, seriously, meat dishes go SO GOOD with potato dishes. These meatballs are more like tiny round meatloafs I guess, but the scalloped cheese potatoes are AMAZING with it."

Zell had just sort of slumped to the side. "Why? Why am I full!?" He suddenly did a flip and PUNCHED the air! "THAT'S IT! I just need to fight till I can feast once more!"

Selphie giggled! "You can do it Zell! Fight for the right to eat all the meat!"

He absently did a kick routine in her direction. "No time for awkward innuendos, I gotta double my after-meal workout routine. No, triple it!"

Oh, wait. "Can you try these pasta dishes first?" They were tiny portions, only enough for a few bites each.

Ellone blinked, mouth full. "Mrfullem Gna Haan?"

What? "Please finish that before you talk, please."

Daw, a cute blush. Looks like Rinoa saw it too, if the lecherous look in her eyes were any sign. "Sorry. Uh, I meant… Well, they look the same? Sort of. What are they?."

A test. "Same pasta dish, different preparation methods. This is to test something that always personally bothered me."

Seeing Squall look up from his recent headache and the others showing signs of interest, she shrugged. "Bay leaves." An illusion list showed a ton of recipes. "They were used to season soups and stuff in bunches of recipes, but many more modern recipes don't bother to understand why or what the proper amount should be when it comes to using it in the water when boiling pasta. They just insist on adding a bay leaf to the pasta water as a tradition, basically."

Her hand waved at the dishes. "Because most people just follow those recipes or tack on instructions from old ones to new ones, many people don't know how many to add, how old is too old for a bay leaf, how fresh they should be if not dried, and so on and so forth."

Ellone blinked. "Uh. Alright?"

Sarah grinned. "Basically? I want to see if you can tell which of these has no leaves at all used in the pasta water, which had very old dried ones, which has fresh, and so on. Then I want to have you rate from worst to best to see if you can even TASTE the effects on the noodles, since the leaves are removed BEFORE I add all the sauce and cheese and stuff."

Zell whined, and moved further away from the table to continue his frantic exercises.

Ellone blinked. "Alright, but why are the plates glowing?"

Hmm? Oh. Oops. "I have [[Odorless]] cast on the dishes so that you can't smell them until it is tasting time. Bay leaves can influence the smell of a dish too, and it therefore has an effect on the consumer of the dish. Smell affects flavor, after all."

True, the results would be Ellone specific, but it would be useful data for 'Research' to extrapolate MORE experiments for later tests.

Hopefully stuff like this would ensure even better improvement over her targeted cuisine, as detecting how much someone enjoys the smell or flavor of a specific pasta water infusion method wasn't simple to detect.

Testing if it was better to initially use cold or hot water before seasoning, to add the leaves early or later, yadda yadda yadda? None of that mattered if the effects were overpowered by the sauces used later.

She was nearly certain that the Cafeteria here was heavily cheating with THEIR data collection by using the information collected from the local Junction systems in addition to their [[Scan]] equipment, at least she hoped so.

Otherwise they had basically been forced to guess how to interpret the massive mountains of returned data into specific modifications for a single dish and that seemed… Excessively frustrating.

A gentle knocking at the meditation garden's closed gate (Seriously, it was a bit rowdy in the area right now) had her look up with a frown. "They shouldn't be running out of food, not with my current renewal rates. Maybe they have another request."

The hollowed out cornbread muffins filled with taco stuff and covered in melted cheese had turned out great, but the cheeseburger pizza (With pickles!) had… mixed reviews. Still, it could be interesting! "One moment!"

Squall looked up from his darker corner, safely out of easy hugging range. "Let me answer it."

Heh, worry wart. "It's fine, I'm sure it's someone asking for something odd again."

Rinoa blinked. "Huh. So I guess they all know you can make food instantly from nothing now."

Eep! Girl, there are witnesses RIGHT THERE! "No! Of course not, that would be silly! Make food from nothing, honestly. I put together stuff really quickly from very efficient sources and automated farms like normal people."

She just used raw material generation, Warehouse producing units, conversion procedures, matter fabrication, and magic/psionic/mako/CEE/raw potential energy transitions to nudge reality a bit and exploit having 'herself' outside of the current ongoing reality that her Avatar was visiting. And that counted as from SOMETHING! Mostly! Kindof. Sortof?

Like, completely different stuff. Totally. "Oh look, a distraction!"

Sarah quickly shuffled her massive floating layers of clothing to the gate, using bone wing components wrapped in sleeves to tug open the thing. "Oh."

There were like, twenty people. All staring at her, currently.

Smile girl! Not that they can see it. "Headmaster Cid! And… A bunch of armed people in white outfits, plus one woman that feels like an ocean of air hiccuping. What can we do for you?"

At least the people in white didn't look angry or anything. Heck, most of them were holding small snacks that her logs say they picked up on the way down here.

The fairly beautiful woman also turned to the man and tried to whisper. "Dear, I thought we BOTH agreed to keep anything tentacle related to much more private locations… But I can see why you wanted us to meet her."

The poor guy just… Sighed. "Ms. Sarah, I'm here to check in with Ms. Heartilly about this unexpected festival going on at the moment. I understand it is organized by your group?"

Uh. "Mostly me, honestly. I made a meal for our new friends and it attracted a few more people, and I like, have lots of food so…"

A weak wave sort of pointed out the ongoing out of control festival atmosphere infusing this side of Balamb Garden entirely. Ambient laughing, random monster grumbles, arguments about condiment usages and favorite dishes… It was a bit rowdy.

The woman-shaped ocean current just hummed. "It's very impressive dear, though I'll be honest, I didn't know it was POSSIBLE for a non-human to awaken as a Sorceress."

The new lady seemed to miss the sudden tension and attention everyone else focused on Sarah entirely. "Though I DO see why my Husband was so interested in me coming home to meet you, you clearly feel less mad and aggressive than that brute Adel over in Galbadia. Are you also joining our cause?"

Uh. Well, shit.

That would explain why this woman felt like a humanoid restrained element of reality, wouldn't it?

Meh. Fuck it. "Nah, my boss and girlfriend needed money and we thought we could shove the work off on the Headmaster for a cut of the profits. I basically studied the Junction system stuff and made a bunch of useful equipment for handling, gathering, using, buying, selling, and storing para-magic… He makes the stuff, my girl gets some of the money, I don't have to spend all day doing boring work. Everyone wins really."

From the meditation area behind her, Rinoa perked up. "Hey Sarah! What food are they requesting now? The Waffle Cakes turned out AWESOME with the homemade frosting!"

And the tension was gone. Or at least, the military people in white seemed confused, Headmaster Cid seemingly had given up, and Sorceress Weather-Someone was now apparently interested. "Waffle Cakes?"

A dozen of her 'limbs' shrugged. "Cake batter in the waffle iron, cooks quick and has lots of places where the frosting can really build up. I like to fill each square with a different flavor and color, the things look a bit like a party favor."

And if the game was up ANYWAY… "Why don't you guys come in and try some of my food too? I can make pretty much anything at this point, and this new girl, Ellone , showed up recently and seemed to enjoy helping me test out some new dishes."

Headmaster Cid just groaned. "If nothing else, please let's take this out of public at LEAST."

Oh, yeah. No one was really paying attention to this situation right now besides the people in white, but it was better safe than sorry. "Sure! And maybe you can convince my boss to let me remove this 'disguise' at some point. It is a bit tricky keeping all the bits and pieces out of the dishes when moving them around or replacing them with new food."

The older woman just lit up in a smile. "Oh don't mind my hubby, the man is always so serious and stern and sexy like that. My name is Edea Kramer, though I'm more professionally known in certain circles as Matron Edea." A pause. "Oh, and the Sorceress of Ẁ̢̢̨é̡͠҉a͟͠͠t̨̨͜͡ḩ̢͜͢e͏̨͞r̨̛̕͢͢, but honestly I'm more proud of my Matron title and the progress of my little ones."

Wonder what Edea felt when she sensed Sarah? Better send Adam a note that her Sorceress status was detected by another one, that should be addressed at some point. "I'm Sarah, don't actually have a last name as far as I remember…"

Not just because of her drawback, but because Sarah had a sneaking suspicion that she had shown up to incarnate as herself and therefore didn't incarnate as anyone BUT herself, therefore not actually getting a last name this time. Or something.

Adam's notes said he was working on it, but that it would probably not be handled till after the Jump. And a bunch of other boring stuff, but she had skimmed those sections.

Oh, right: She had been talking. "...Anyway, I showed up in Timber recently and met Rinoa, she decided to claim me and my GF as new girlfriends and is sort of exploiting this whole collaboration thing with Balamb Garden to help her set up a harem. Oh, and to protect the people of Timber, prevent the expansion of Galbadia, annoy her dad, make lots of money, and improve the quality of life in the area so she has less work-related junk in the area distracting her from ravaging her collection of sexy people."

That uh… Seemed to have set them all back a little bit. Meh. "Now, this table over there is only for Ellone, because she is being super helpful testing stuff since she can apparently act like a pseudo Junction option with other people and share senses."

Really handy stuff. "Basically, she has the perspective of an outsider AND of other people when it comes to eating food, she may objectively be the most talented food tester I've ever heard of. Can even experience OTHER people eating stuff, and tell me HER opinion on what THEY taste so I can compare and contrast it to what other customers self report!"

Like, seriously valuable stuff here. Even if Rinoa WASN'T already planning on trying to wrangle this girl into her group, Sarah would be willing to pay a lot for an awesome taster like this!

Sorceress Edea sparkled! "Ooh, I don't think ANY of my babies tried becoming a Sensory Evaluator! How exciting!"

Headmaster Cid just blinked. "Please don't tell me you are the Sorceress of Snacks or something."

Zell was mid twist when he flailed. "WHAT!? The WHAT of whoa Arg!"

And was now on the floor, confused. "Oh. Hey, Headmaster Cid. And a military group that looks a lot like a bleached out squad of SeeD soldiers."

Squall now stood at attention. "Sir, the clients are satisfied with our ongoing service at this time."

He also, very professionally, ignored Selphie's not so hidden smirk at a blushing Rinoa. "And aside from an ongoing impromptu taste testing event, no unexpected situations have occurred."

His professionalism was smashed though when an ecstatic Sorceress bustled up. "Little Leonhart! So serious like always. And my sunshine, Selphie! Oh and Zell you grew up quite muscled! Everyone come in for a hug!"

The boy's squawk of protest didn't matter, while Selphie was eager like always for any hug and Zell looked even more confused. "Oi, Broody! Is this woman ANOTHER sister we don't remember?"

A pause. "Don't remember? Oh, those Junctioning issues." A frown hit Edea's face… But vanished just as quickly. "And calling little old me a sister? What a darling boy!"

Based on the sigh from the True Magic user's 'guards', this crowd was used to such antics.

Though how Rinoa had managed to sneak into the partially unwilling group hug was beyond Sarah at this point.

Oh, right. "Ellone, did you want to wait for the next course while we talk to your mom and get them setup with some food?"

She looked up, blinking, a fork full of steak and a hand reaching out for another roll. "Wharg?"

A 'tsk' from the Weather Sorceress made her flinch. "Don't talk with your mouth full, dear."

Quickly swallowing, she gaped at the crowd. "Mom? Dad!? When did YOU two get here!?"

Headmaster Cid blinked… And got a sappy grin. "Heh, did you hear her dear?"

His wife grinned right back. "I know! She even called me mom earlier, they alway insist on Matron most of the time."

He nodded. "I can't even get my people to go with anything other than Headmaster… But you were always better with the kids than I was."

She snorted. "They went to YOU for problems, they came to me for comfort. Nothing wrong with being the reliable one who can fix anything, dear."

And… The two were lost, whispering ever more embarrassing words quieter and quieter.

At least it let Squall escape his hug-entrapment as the two moved to the side. Well, mostly. Looking at the two girls, he raised an eyebrow. "Would you please let go now?"

Selphie and Rinoa grinned. ""Nope.""

His eyebrow twitched. "Zell?"

The muscled man shrugged, still hugging the group. "Pretty sure this counts as team bonding."

Another twitch. "Zell."

He nodded. "Plus, group hugs are awesome. We should do these more often."

Squall grit his teeth at the girls agreeing with the muscled man. "I WILL stab you."

Zell stood back and clapped. "Great hug everyone! Right, until next time I need to work up an appetite."

Sarah grinned as he quickly escaped Squall's range, having clearly enjoyed trolling his leader. Zell was cool like that.

Oh, the food, right! "Right, if anyone has a specific taste or wish, just let me know!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Cid bit back a groan as his woman rubbed his back and 'whispered' sweet nothings, Edea's magic connecting the two. {No, as far as I know this isn't sabotage.}

Of course, the whispers WERE mostly sweet words of adoration, but at least SOME of the point was the mental talk as Edea double checked the situation. {Share your memories with me.}

Sure, though using it for something less erotic was a bit novel. {{Here.}}

His wife quickly reviewed the data. {She's larger now than in your office, but that might just be due to how she is manipulating her outfit. And no one is showing the signs of enthrallment, not the magical version anyway. An ongoing [[Scan]] of the Garden? That's certainly only possible with a Sorceress, one focused on some large scale domain.}

Cid kissed her neck, thinking hard. {The schematics are real, though she may be a minion to the Lunar Kingdom based on {food} they plan to trade. And I've been getting odd {reports} from Timber recently, it may be related.}

Edea didn't tense up, but she did focus. {She is muffled. Unlike me, I can barely sense she has awakened… Far more controlled than Sorceress Adel ever was. I could detect SOMETHING happening as we walked up, but it wasn't clearly sorcery with my detection.}

Hmm. {Maybe a minion? Or a servant to the Sorceress of Bone?}

His wife hummed. {Far too strong. And I don't feel corpses or death energies, more just… Too much ro̜̯͎̲̩̮̯o̤̫̳̫̞m̮, a controlled ̙͈̘ar̫͇̜e͙a̪͉̬̣̭ if anything. Not sure what it means.}

Well, that was cornering. {How strong, if you had to guess?}

Her eyes flickered. {If we both threw all our resources at her and had the kids fight together, it might distract her. If horrific sacrifices were made, maybe a few people could escape.}

Not them, of course. Asking his wife to leave a child behind to allow her to escape was a laughable thought to begin with, and the only reason he PERSONALLY was not out in the field fighting every day was because SOMEONE had to do administrative work and finance gathering to keep the lights on and his kids equipped safely.

And, if resistance and defiance was pointless ANYWAY… Well. {We could just ask her?}

Edea paused. {Hmm?}

After all, most of life was learning to change what you could when you needed to and learn how to accept and adapt to what you could not. {Why not ASK her directly about her intentions, not just the goals of Ms. Heartilly. She seems willing enough to work with us as it is.}

His love paused again. And a gentle breeze of humor and teasing filled the connection. {No adding new Sorceresses to our night parties, I believe this one is taken. You've seen the way they look at each other.}

Dang it, he hadn't meant THAT kind of 'working with us' and she KNEW it. Minx. {Honestly I thought the two girls were fleeing to our Garden to escape a disapproving father and find true love.}

And to be fair… Cid mentally shrugged. {Actually, I'm not sure if that isn't true. Having your little girl run away to gather a harem can't be an every day event.}

Her grin warmed his Soul. {I still remember stealing YOU away to our little home by the sea…}

And suddenly reality s̤̫̙ͅh̞͙̟̲̝̠i̝̠͙̙̝f͉̣̩̗t̥̣͍̮̥e͎̤͍d̞.

Visually, a number of tables and chairs just appeared in the large meditation garden, tables heavily burdened with numerous dishes.

But right now, connected to magic, connected to his wife? He saw MORE.

Re̸ąli͟ty un̨fol̛d͟s ̢as Sp͢a̛c͘e èa͏ge͏rly͘ g͡r͏ips t̵ḩe҉ fo͡ld҉s ͞unşeen.҉

͢F͢or it҉ ͢is betw̨e҉e͘n t̕he mom͝en͡t̡s and̀ b̴et́ẁi̕xt̡ ̨the͟ c͏once͏p̡t̵ş ̷that͏ Ń̨̢͡͡o̧̡҉̢͢ţ̵̶̀̕h̷͜͟í̷̴͟͡n̴͘͟g̶̷̢̕͝ un͝f͏ơlds li̶k̕e̷ a f͢l҉ower͟ ͘unt̴o L̨i͠f͜e ͢iţs͢e̸l̨f͢.́ ̵

A ͏f͘ra̡gm͢eńt͟ o͡f̢ ͘ev̀ery̛thi̧ng̡,̡ th͠e̢ Bon͏e̛ ͝of r͢e̡a͝l͏ity. ̧

.

S̤͎̥͝p̧̱̼̪̙͍̯͙̬á̸͖̫͇͖̗̖̥͘ͅc͎̻͚ͅe͖.͙͓̙̰͝ͅ

.

Ac̨ting as͜ t̡he̴ f̷r̢amew͞o͘rk... Bo͟n̡e͞ş ҉ of͘ ͡raw͢ Ś̛͢͞p̷͝a̡̕c͏̸͘͞ȩ̀̀͜͞ f̴ǫun̶dati̵o̕n̡al̕ly u̕ph̛el̛d the Rea͟l̨i̸ty͏ th̢a̛t̸ d̨ra҉p̸e͡d o͡v̷er̷ a҉nd thr̴ough͘ ̀an̴d u͜n͜d̢e̕r. ̸

And́ wit҉hin҉ t͟hat Sp͟a͡ce̵ ̶ís a ̛Vǫi̢d̨.

.

A̴n̶d ̕t̷h̛e ͢V̨o͠id̢ is ̨ H̸̼͈̫͕̬̲̞̰̕͡ͅú̳̮̰͢͡ṇ̵͚̻͓͖͖̲̝̖͞ͅg͡͏̶̼͕̺͍̞̜͍̖͉̖͔͚̯͕̫͜ͅͅͅr̷̡̳̭̜̗̪̭͉̰͉̤̝̖͘͝ý̺̞̦͕̗̳̣͘.̥̟͖̻̣͖̱̥͠

.

.

Then? Gone.

All the feelings, the raw power, the potential for danger, vanished far away. Farther away than anything can be, folded away into impossible concepts, once again a theory and an idea and a forgotten dream… Certainly not the core of this impossible person.

They both turned to cautiously examine the cloth mound happily wiggling about as the various limbs and belts and scarves moved dishes here and there. "I know those adorable white outfits must be hard to clean, so I mostly focused on items without sauces and more tiny serving sized snacks instead of something a bit more messy."

A few cloth straps pointed. "Fried cheese sticks, small pastries, and these meatballs have a bit of sauce in the middle but should be safe to pick up by hand… Oh, before I forget. Rinoa!"

The other attractive woman was apparently still flirting with little Ellone. "Hmm?"

The Sorceress of Bone herself, Ruler of the Lunar Kingdom, a nightmare and terror from legends long ago... Was wrapped in the silliest costume either of them had ever seen as she wibble wobbled her way over to her 'Boss'. "Hey uh, not sure how important it is but the pretty lady over there you were hugging earlier is ALSO a Sorceress! Small world, huh?"

Small world indeed.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The car was high quality, basically a limo, and Sarah had made sure to have a template for later production as a matter of course.

Reinforced frame, tires that could operate (at reduced capacity) without air pressure, layers of ablative armor hidden under the paint, very dense and durable material choices, the works.

All of it hidden away and covered with thick layers of luxury.

The inside was soothing colors, the seating was very comfortable.

The uh. The atmosphere could use some work.

Rinoa was pouting while pulling Selphie and Ellone into a hug, which the peppy girl loved and the other one ignored since she was quietly chewing on a very large cookie like a squirrel.

Zell was sitting at the far side of the vehicle, as far from Sarah as possible, and Squall was… Well, doing that quiet thing he does.

Yep.

The car continued to drive back to Balamb City.

So.

Quiet.

Sarah absently poked her adjusted 'disguise' a bit, the new model a much more basic outfit with lots of complicated outfit 'parts' on the outside, visible with hidden pockets for her wing bones to hide within, but at least INSIDE there was only a single layer.

So it still LOOKED like thousands of outfits, dozens of materials, but it was mostly a costume now.

Woo.

Angelo whined.

Rinoa sighed. "Come here girl. Selphie, could you?" Her arms were a bit full right now.

The other girl blinked out of her cuddle puddle and grinned as she went to pamper the good dog, yes she was yes she is.

Damn it. "So… That went well?"

The petting slowed down slightly.

Oh come on! "I mean, we set up the production chain, Edea was cool with us contracting Ellone here with us, the Headmaster doesn't mind sending a few people with that guy you wanted to Timber later…"

True, they hadn't actually gotten to see this 'Seifer' in PERSON, and Sarah never met Quistis at all despite her supposedly showing up to the impromptu dinner party, but still! Overall it went great, right?

The drone of the car on the forest road seemed pretty loud for how quiet things were.

Sarah absently pulled another of the newly produced MCards, this one with [[Meteor x10]] on it.

[[Harvest.]]

And it was gone. Another pattern of para-magic for the Warehouse to build up an ongoing supply of, woo. Huzzah.

Come on, Boss. "We got samples of all the magic I wanted, you got some awesome new friends, I'm pretty sure Timber is going to be a vacation spot for most of the Garden just to try out our food if nothing else… Edea even let me [[Scan]] her too!"

Apparently the powerful woman was the ORIGINAL study material used to design the Junction system to begin with!

It was pretty nifty. "And… And it let me easily let Squall here gain access to his new [[GF: Alexander]] that I [[Drew]] from her! That was great right? Yeah?"

Getting a good [[Scan]] of that guy also let the Warehouse unlock [[High Mag-RF]] in Shiva, so now Sarah could take raw [[Fire]] up through [[Fira]] all the way into [[Firaga]], no problem. Oh, and [[Med LV Up]] which sort of refined medical materials to be more powerful and beneficial on a fundamental level in exchange for weaker variants of the medicine.

Basically a conceptual refinement technique, more than something like ammunition refinement which was more of a straightforward 'Turn junk into bullets' thing. The GF even had something called [[Med Data]] which, when learnt, allowed Sarah to more effectively apply healing processes to patients.

The giant fortress-like robot was basically a walking medical center, even able to fully recover a patient with [[Revive]] when they lose all their 'HP soak' forcefield and pass out. Really good stuff, and clear why a lovely woman like Mrs. Kramer would bother Junctioning it.

Rinoa just pouted harder.

Squall sighed. "Ma'am, I deeply appreciate the opportunity you have given me."

See!? "And if HE says that, it means something right? The man barely says anything to anyone!" Oh, uh. That brought back the stronger scowl. Oops. "Sure, we might have had to leave a bit earlier than we originally planned…"

Rinoa sighed. "Sarah… I'm not mad at you."

Huh?

Seeing the confusion on her face (Maybe? It was pretty heavily covered.), her Boss huffed. "You followed all my orders, even the more silly ones, and you went out of your way to make a good impression. Yes, this all went well, I'm just… A bit frustrated. Maybe a little angry."

Uh… Alright. STILL, she was talking again! Progress, right!? "Oh good, and uh. We may have hit a snag here or there, but overall it went great! Right? And, and…"

Shit, stay focus girl. Right! "And I nearly got [[Scans]] of all the different GF Junction options too! It shouldn't take much fiddling to allow at least SOME para-magic to be equipped to the rest for your existing setup, so no more memory issues or whatever than you usually have to tolerate…"

And the issues were ODD. You'd think that you could just keep a good journal or diary to make up for the mental problems caused by Junctioning a framework of magic directly into your brain meat, but it was a bit more tricky than that.

It didn't erase the memories, or damage the mind directly… Instead the GF sort of overlaid sections of the mind and acted like a pseudo mind. It was how you interacted with the things, and how it was able to correctly connect to YOU and enhance your existence.

Even writing down the bits being forgotten wouldn't matter, because attempting to make new memories of the data would just map back onto your Guardian Force, though it wasn't super clear why. 'Research' was working on it, and Shiva had an odd workaround that apparently this Garden had stumbled upon at some point if Squall was any indication.

Rinoa gave her a look.

Uh.

Screw it, Sarah could miss stuff sometimes. Just go for the direct approach. "Rinoa, as far as I can tell, other than leaving sooner than we planned, this was an overwhelming success. I even got us a better deal by trading with Sorceress Edea some extra bone balls, and it seems to have drastically lowered the dangerous magic buildup in the area…"

Which in Sarah's opinion was why THIS Garden had so many 'natural' [[Draw]] nodes in the area. Damn it, the Lunar Kingdom must be COVERED in them from Sarah living in one spot for however long that was.

No, focus. "...So why are you unhappy?"

The road was empty and endless a bit more, and night had fully fallen outside the windows.

Her Boss's voice was almost too quiet. "They were scared of you."

Welp. "Maybe a little."

Selphie snorted. "I think that one accountant girl peed herself."

Yeah, well… Yeah. "It happens, I'm fine with it!"

Rinoa growled. "They treated you like a MONSTER. Like you hadn't spent the entire afternoon doing nothing but happily share gifts with everyone, as if they had any right to judge you!"

Her glare nearly glowed in the dim lighting. "No, the monsters were handled with weary respect and herded back outside and to the Training Center. They treated you like a Bomb from the Fire Cavern, waiting to kill yourself and everyone in the area!"

She slumped back into the hug, with Selphie apparently knowing about all this already somehow. "If it wasn't for Headmaster Cid and his wife, half those kids would have… You don't deserve that. It isn't right."

Ah. "Meh, it's not like I was in any danger, Boss. And I doubt we could have hidden this for long anyway, not if both of us Sorceresses could feel each other like that. It's better to get it out in the open, to give them time to adjust!"

Zell snorted. "They need to find their damn backbone, is what they need."

Squall blinked… And turned to look at him incredulously. "Aren't you scared yourself?" He gestured at how far away the man was sitting.

The muscled man stared at the solemn team leader. "Scared!? FUCK yeah I am! But I'm not scared of her because she is apparently the Bone Sorceress, I'm scared of her because she's a hugger!"

He waved his arms at her delightful new outfit. "LOOK at that thing! It's basically MADE of bindy grippy cloth bits now! If I get too close she could accidentally hug me unconscious!"

Selphie froze, mid pet… But Rinoa pulled her in before she could dive into Sarah's new embrace. "No, you're my cuddle buddy right now. Here, have a cookie."

Squall on the other hand looked thoughtful. And maybe a little warily at Sarah's new extendable long range hug extraction belts.

With a firm nod, he moved to sit closer to Zell, saying nothing.

Rinoa was slowly being dragged closer to the new restrain-an-hug outfit as Selphie got better leverage, and Ellone basically ignored her own incoming danger as Rinoa tried to use her as an anchor. The official taste tester was a bit too busy trying out cookie variants to assess the slowly encroaching threat of extreme huggletude.

Sarah grinned, not bothering to warn the distracted eater or help Rinoa restrain Selphie as she struggled to get within scarf range.

This was a MUCH better atmosphere!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Headmaster Cid would eventually come back to the main office.

He would later find that all the dishes served at that little shindig were of ingredients of impossible quality, beyond what was easily discovered… Much less acquired.

That his students and the lucky visitors had basically consumed food that had been dosed heavily with concentrated magical radiance, the kind of power a Sorceress can generate and the reason why Lunar Kingdom vegetation sold for such a high rate.

That after consuming such powerful energies, even the weakest and incompatible student was now much more sturdy, their minds more flexible and reliable, and both physical durability and spiritual resilience had skyrocketed.

That the number of Students able to not only fully utilize their Guardian Force, but even potentially summon them, had drastically increased. To levels never seen before in any previous graduating class.

Similar boosts would eventually be noticed with the breeding stock of monsters in the Training Center, as not only would future beasts be stronger faster and grow more powerful concentrations of spells to [[Draw]] from, but their ingredient quality had quantitatively gone up a tier entirely.

Eventually, Headmaster Cid might even notice that a number of men and women had begun wearing multiple belts as a fashion statement. And that bondage in general had jumped in popularity over the entire facility.

But right now, his work was either done or at a point where he could safely spend time with his enthusiastic lover.

Right now, her ecstatic joy at not having to restrain her raw power thanks to the dozens of tiny bone balls scattered in the room was more important.

Later, the generated and collected spells from the ongoing activities would probably be interesting, or at least worth mentioning…

But right now, his world was whole again.

Right now, his arms were full.

And though tomorrow may devastate his dreams once again, today life was a treasure.

Maybe it was a bit predictable that things would go a bit off around this point.

Edea smirked. "Oh this? That sweet darling Sarah helped design a little number while you and her Boss were busy with business. No idea how she made it work with my power though. She's beyond gifted when it comes to clothing choices, in my opinion."

Cid gulped as his eyes drifted down the revealing outfit to the short skirt, before once again being pulled to the dozens of slightly electrical cloth straps shifting behind her. "Indeed."

It was an… Interesting… Evening.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Rinoa grinned! "Finally, back on the train!"

Selphie was wrapped up tight and humming happily on Sarah's back, Ellone was far LESS restrained but enjoying her current snacks (looked like nachos) without having to bother with lesser concerns like walking, and uh. Zell and Squall were keeping their distance.

Wimps.

Right! "Sarah, you don't have to cover up anymore… And uh. I guess the disguise part didn't quite keep us as unremarkable as I originally expected.

More like she had kept adding stuff to the cloth pile to see when Sarah would complain and make cute whine noises, and that never happened. And maybe at the end, she was just having some fun adding a few silly things on the top.

Erm. Right. "So you can change into something less concealing if you want."

Mostly, she just wanted to see those silver eyes again. Pranking her friend had been fun, but a lot of the satisfaction fell flat when the pranking target didn't NOTICE that she was being teased.

Still, it had turned out to be a fun idea in general.

Selphie flexed. "MRF! Murmuphle Mur Meefe!"

Sigh. "What did she say?"

Her girlfriend hummed. "Something like 'No, Tentacles for life' or whatever. But I can probably find a compromise, this outfit is fun but not easy to walk in."

And the random assortment of material… Shifted.

Absently Rinoa heard Zell's rambling to a silent Squall fall away as everyone stared with wide eyes as Sarah's clothing began to catch FIRE.

Blue flames danced on her tower of towels, ignoring the two girls in her clutches as it twisted and spread and heated up the air of the slightly chilled train car.

The first limb exposed was an outstretched hand, gently holding up Ellone even as a revealed bright blue business suit was discovered on the arm.

And as it spread, more and more of that sinfully satisfying body was displayed lewdly to their gaze. The professional outfit somehow made it MORE inappropriate, even though she wore long sleeved pants and shirt…

They fit VERY well.

As the last of the flames suddenly flickered away, a web of thin blue cloth strips now holding a brightly blushing Selphie and a VERY hungry looking Ellone within reach, Sarah's slightly glowing silver hair was freed as her salacious smirk and sparking silver eyes gleamed.

Her hips shifted, which made several of them gulp. "That's better… I suppose we may as well make this official."

Sorceress Sarah flexed, bright silver lines tracing her body in VERY distracting ways as translucent bone wings warped into reality.

Her lips of fantasy complimented radiant skin and mesmerizing eyes. "My name is Sarah, and I'm a member of the Forest Owls of Timber and harem member of my Boss here, Rinoa Heartilly."

The blue leather strips flexed, shifting both hostages to the side for better comfort. "Please take care of me."

Oh.

Oh my.

Zell gulped again. "I retract my anti-hug statements from earlier."

Everyone else absently nodded.

Rinoa focused. "Maybe after the mud wrestling." Distractions, delightful or not, were for later.

Squall blinked. "What?"

Oops. "I said, maybe after the muddy west wing. Our base is near the train stations for better access to transportation, smuggling, and other such operations… I don't want to get Sarah's lovely new outfit messy by playing around when we get back to Timber."

Crap, even Selphie was looking at her weird. Right! Distractions! Now is later, right!? "Can you call Shiva out to join us?"

Her powerful lover grinned at everyone ELSE'S confusion, and waved an arm! "But of course! Ladies, gentlemen, food tasters of all ages! Allow me to introduce my colder half and the guardian of my heart, the Princess of Permafrost: [[GF: Shiva]]!"

A complex pattern of [[Blizzard]] ice hexagon sheets formed into a frozen mirror, one that suddenly showed a winter wonderland.

Endless oceans, never moving again. Stones that were formed of frozen concepts, the clouds themselves only complex frameworks of ice lattices held in the unmoving sky.

And it all t͖͕w̝͖̹̬̝̮i͈͍̮̳͓̺ͅș̬̟͔̬t̜͈̩̼͓ͅe͚̘̮d͈.̗͓̦

A woman, an elf… A familiar form that even these people would recognize no doubt.

Shiva strode as a queen from the reflective portal.

Each step was elegant, her sultry body a chill thrill in the evening as she slid closer.

And contrary to any known method of Guardian Force summoning, this woman felt s̨o҉l̢̨i͝͠d. More real in an indescribable way. The touch of winter, the kiss of frost, the chime of rime.

Squall pointed, breaking the stunned atmosphere! "THE PERVERT! HOW!?"

And the room paused.

Now everyone was staring at Squall's rapidly blushing face.

Oh. "That's right, Sarah DID say Squall also Junctioned Shiva."

How interesting!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sarah enjoyed the ensuing conversation, when her new friends could stop staring at her exposed form long enough to focus. It was fun!

Basically the compatibility with a GF was more than just a number. It had to do with fundamental parts of who you were, especially if you wanted to use the full benefits of a Junctioned GF with less difficulty.

For example, Selphie was energetic and had a bond with [[GF: Quezacotl]], and loved to wear yellow clothing. Zell was basically a brother to [[GF: Ifrit]] and lived for combat and the fire's of battle.

People like Ellone didn't Junction at ALL, as most people didn't, but her own ability would cause problems if tried anyway. Not so much a compatibility issue, but more how her mind acts sort of like an alternate version of a Guardian Force to begin with through her [[Connections]].

But Squall?

Squall was damned close to being an Anti-Sorceress.

While the True Magic users produced power almost absently, Squall consumed it.

He could use any spell. Junction any GF. Handle ridiculously deadly levels of ambient power, go places no other person could go, resist effects no other person could even consider handling.

It was like he was formed, shaped, DESIGNED to be the perfect companion to a Sorceress, and as a major side effect: He had near perfect compatibility.

With all of the GFs.

Period.

Any skill, any ability, any talent they could offer? He could eventually earn them. Unlock them. Hell, if he was willing to invest the time, he could actively become MORE compatible with any GF through hard work ALONE.

Which meant, unlike everyone else: His GF's connected so deeply to his existence that they basically melded together.

Sarah grinned. "So basically Shiva absorbed all your perverted tendencies?"

Despite his bright blushing the poor boy was trying to be professional. "My emotional issues related to concern and care and so forth, yes."

Rinoa was sparkling like mad in the background! One of her boy toy choices was already half in her Harem already!

Meanwhile Sarah just loved this data for 'Research'. "And Ifrit?"

He glanced away. "My aggression, my anger, and my battle focus."

Hmm. "Based on my [[Scans]] I assume that [[GF: Quezacotl]] gathered something too?"

A nod. "Quezacotl collected my evasion, strategic, and logistical abilities, and most recently [[GF: Alexander]] consolidated my concern, care, and healing talents and skills."

So he basically was doing a variation of Sarah's trick when she made Shiva, but with more continuous information sharing rather than letting each GF develop into 'new' people. Neat!

Still. "I better adjust your Junction system to better handle that. No wonder you have less memory issues than the other students, your GFs aren't overlaying your mind… They are actively replacing components entirely with repurposed spell frameworks."

Because at the end of the day, a GF was just a VERY complicated spell, one that the Junction system used to interface with the user and their body directly.

Squall had somehow managed to designate parts of his person to separate like personality shards into HIS Junctioned GFs, and if Sarah could finagle things a little bit with that outcome in mind? She should be able to have his mental partners better manage any memories and data that normally would be lost or forgotten.

It also meant that if the Junction system failed or got damaged in the future, Squall wouldn't even notice. His mind was hosting the GFs in a totally different way and on an entire separate tier compared to everyone else, the equipment just made managing the whole mess simpler and safer.

Theoretically, with training? Squall should be able to adjust his own Junction setup in the fly without using his system AT ALL. Really interesting stuff!

Zell blinked. "Huh, you can do that?"

Already done, right NOW she was trying to improve the final product without making it externally look like something expensive or unusual that outside threats would attempt to steal and study.

Should only take a few minutes. "Yeah, and I'm going to toss in some extra functionality like the stuff I put into my MCards."

[[X-MCards]] would still be too risky to use out in the field, but it should be simple enough for a backpack of [[Hi-MCards]] to interface with this mess if Sarah fiddled a bit.

Couldn't go nuts with this though, not if it is supposed to be subtle. A bunch of programming to make things a bit intuitive and easy to figure out, a little hardware change to ensure faster spell transfer, a very weak conversion system that was basically a modified bone ball.

There we go! That was a bit tricky to do without first having the boy remove his spells or Un-Junctioning his GFs or anything. "Right, look through the tutorial I gave you… Yeah, that's it."

Seriously, this was nearly automatic thanks to how compatible Squall seemed to be with EVERYTHING.

Selphie tugged a belt covered wing bone. "What did you do?"

Sarah blinked. A lot, really. "Other than ensuring his GFs can better communicate to each other and his own mind, hopefully preventing mental breakdown? Um. Where should I start… Oh, right!"

Pointing at the hardware, she grinned. "His new Junction system mostly works like before, but I added an internal setup that pretends to be basic MCards."

In other words, it will act as if he is actually holding all ten of them at once. "Those ten slots can be set up outside of battle, and when he [[Draws]] too many spells then he can Junction to a single stat…"

Which was sort of impossible, the boy could handle FAR more than the hard coded limit of 100 units per spell. For now, the new setup would keep those limits while he tests stuff out.

No! Focus! "...When he does that, the excess spells will restock these fake slots if it matches whatever is already stored there. Or, outside of battle, he can manually put ten spells per slot and fill it himself."

Sarah grinned. "So in any fight, he can have a small selection of up to ten units of spells to [[Draw]] and cast with as if there was an additional Target to work with. These ten slots can also connect to a modified [[Hi-MCard]] each, so that after combat the slots can be refilled without you having to leave a mission to go find some extra supply spell units somewhere."

Because the hard coded limits of 100 units per spell SUCKED when you wanted to use something in the field. From Sarah's 'Research' into Balamb Garden's digital class offerings, it was so frustrating that SOME Students NEVER cast stored spells at all!

They'd only ever [[Draw]] whatever spells their foes generated and hope it was good enough to save the day, rather than use their OWN materials and have to go collect more spell units later on to restock.

Oh. "Also, I like to have information databases and stuff easily accessed through my hardware, so there are a few things like that in there too."

A wiki, forums, chat programs, video conference programs, and so on and so forth. No internet yet, there wasn't that kind of global infrastructure in place just yet, but she could probably do something on the moon to provide free wireless access to ONE half of the planet at a time.

Maybe.

Add it to the future project lists.

Selphie was in awe at the device! "That's so cool! I always hate having to cast [[Cure]] or whatever, because I know I have to go restock later on. Or at least, I had to in the past… Not sure how all this new stuff is going to change my old Garden either, now that I think about it. Imagine just spending some Gil to stock up on the basic spells? The guys and gals back in Trabia Garden are going to flip!"

Huh. "Well, thanks!"

[[Harvest]] and make sure to duplicate settings. Oh, older hardware? Might as well upgrade everything at the same time. And Sarah had plenty of para-magic now in her Warehouse, so let's top up her and Squall's reserve spells for future Junctioning and ensure that the improved stuff allows partial Junctioning of a stack of units to an individual stat.

You still couldn't one spell on more than one stat though, it made stuff act odd because of resonance issues (Which was why people didn't shove [[Ultima]] on everything), but at least they would be able to put 'limits' on the Junctioned spell and have it use the excess to restock the option if they cast something in battle.

There! "Right, let me know what you and Zell think about the changes. I'm not going to work with Rinoa's stuff for a while until I'm sure it won't cause any problems for Angelo, since they are both connected together."

Zell blinked. "Ah? Wait, we get the cool stuff too!? When!?"

A quick time check. "Around twelve seconds ago."

Selphie blinked. "Huh?" She looked at the mind interface her GF used to display data. "Oh. Huh. Would you look at that? Neat!"

Yeah, who's awesome? SARAH'S awesome! "Yeah, the hardware should hold up to a vacuum and the sea floor and direct para-magic attacks, theoretically ignore any incoming limit breaks too! But try to avoid dimensional sheer and temporal fractures." What else? "Oh! And you need to let me know if it beeps loudly for a while or starts to glow green or purple, or if you slide out of shift with reality or time."

That covered it all, right? Right? "Also, don't try to turn it into a bomb. It SHOULD be strong enough to ignore most explosions and magic if someone or something hits it directly, but if you DO somehow break it… Some of the materials might not work well with normal reality. Or worse, work TOO well. Not sure yet."

...Why was the awkward atmosphere back?