Hey, I'm back!!! Sorry for the delay, I had to go on a family vacation as soon as I got back *bangs head against wall* Camp was great though!!! There were some (okay, one in particular) very cute guys there. Anyhows, no one likes to listen to this shit, so on with the story….
"Seymour is here too," Tidus said. We all sat around the kitchen table, faces gloomy and butts sore from our trip to the mall. "This complicates things."
"And," I added, "we have band practice tomorrow at noon."
"That complicates things further," sighed Auron.
"And, if you want to get really depressed," Robbie said, "we complicated things even more with that whole rpg convention b.s."
"How?" Ana queried, raising her eyebrows.
"Marcus is going to ask questions about it. And Marcus is our only ride to band."
"Don't forget about me," said Tidus. I rubbed my sore ass.
"Oh, I didn't forget," muttered Robbie under his breath, "this golf ball sized lump on my head made sure of that."
"It's not my fault," Tidus protested. "In Zanarkand we drive on the other side of the road."
"Thanks for telling us that now," groaned Ana, rubbing her bottom.
"We can't be bickering now, we have important issues to attend to!" Auron cut in. He gave a meaningful look at Wakka.
"What are we supposed to do?" I groaned. "We have an arch-nemesis from a video game running wild in Hot Topic, the only one of us who knows how to drive thinks this is jolly old England, none of us are going to be able to sit properly for at least a week, and the smartest one out of the ten of us is blue, furry, and speaks about himself in the third person!"
"Why is Kimahri the smartest one?" asked Ana.
"Kimahri? I was referring to Robbie," I replied sarcastically.
"He's the smart one because the brudda tries not to mix with us!" Wakka exclaimed, hitting himself in the forehead.
The doorbell rang.
"You get it," Ana told Robbie.
"Why me?" Robbie whined.
"Because, if it turns out it's Seymour at the door, and you die, we'll be a step ahead instead of a step back," Ana said.
"Fine, fine, I'll get it," said Robbie, holding up his hands in an "I surrender" gesture.
It was Hannah at the door. "Hi guys," she said, walking in and sitting on the counter.
"You have impeccable timing," Lulu remarked. I could tell she was getting pissed off.
"What'd I walk in on this time?" Hannah wondered. At this point, the doorbell rang again.
"Shit," I groaned.
"Who would that be?" wondered Hannah.
"Maybe it's Marcus," I said, half trying to convince myself.
"I'm not getting this one," said Robbie.
"Neither am I," I chimed quickly.
This was followed by a chorus of variations on "Not It". It went on for a while until the doorbell rang again, and we decided there was only one fair way to handle this.
"Okay, on the count of three, we all run for the door, and whoever gets there first throws it open. No lagging, it's not fair. Okay, one…two…three!"
We all dashed for the door. Wakka threw it open, then quickly rejoined the group. We hovered in a big clump a meter or so away from the threshold. Anyway, you know how in scary movies this kind of thing happens, and it always turns out to be a false alarm? Well, in real life, no such luck.
We were looking at Seymour, who had just waltzed right over to my house, like he knew where it was the whole time. He actually looked rather bored.
"What do you want, Seymour?" Tidus cried sharply.
"Oh, nothing violent," Seymour assured us, "at the moment. I come now purely to inform you that I am here, and that on this world, I am twice as strong…" he laughed, "Maybe I will finally be able to help you see things my way."
"The day I give in to you is the day…" Auron started.
"Tidus wears pink boxers with little hearts all over them!" Ana finished. Tidus turned a deep red.
"Yuna wasn't supposed to know about those," he muttered under his breath at Ana. Seymour laughed. It was so loud it seemed to come from two people at once.
"Before I depart, allow me to introduce you to my new best friend," he said, gesturing behind us. I spun around, afraid to know what it was. Sure enough, another Seymour, dressed slightly differently stood on my back porch, visible through the sliding glass door.
"Well, that sucks," I said matter-of-factly.
"Oh yeah," said Wakka.
"Well, it's not good, that's certain," Yuna said.
"You big meanies!" Rikku yelped. "I don't like you any better here that I do in Spira!"
"Well, who would?" said Tidus.
"Tidus," Auron warned.
"I mean, the tacky haircut…"
"Tidus…"
"The girly laugh…"
"Tidus!"
"The whole midriff-hanging-out thing…"
"TIDUS!"
"I mean, you could use a diet. Maybe that Slim-Fast thing they were advertising when Rebecca was plugging in the video games…"
"Tidus, you fool…"
Zap! Tidus was on the floor, knocked out by a thunderga cast by the now extremely pissed off Seymour. Rikku shrieked and jumped back from the lightning, cowering behind Yuna. "Holy crap, who pissed in your Ovaltine?" Robbie exclaimed. He soon joined Tidus on the floor after a blizzaga.
"I suggest the rest of you remain silent, unless you want more of the same!" Seymour exclaimed. Rikku whimpered. Hannah blinked, wide-eyed beneath her glasses. Most people would have been finished in this situation, but not me, because my friends have the best timing ever. Just then, Marcus pulled up in the driveway. He came over to the front door, where we all cowered back from where Tidus and Robbie laid. Of course, Robbie was snoring, and his drool was probably warping the wooden floor. I made a mental note to make him clean it up later.
"What the hell…" he said. Seymour scowled at him. Marcus raised one eyebrow, but thankfully remained silent.
"Just remember," Seymour said, turning to leave, "by no means have you seen the last of me. This is the beginning." Both Seymours walked away from the house, and disappeared, right into thin air.
"What was that?" Marcus asked, looking suspiciously right at me.
"Well, uh, you know those, uh, Jehovah's Witnesses," I stuttered. "They just get crazier and crazier every time."
"Since when did Seymour become a Jehovah's Witness?" Marcus asked.
"Well, Auron's a vegetarian," Ana said.
"Auron is a vegetarian?" Hannah sounded surprised.
"Would somebody mind telling me what's really going on here?" said Marcus irritably.
"We should tell him," sighed Auron. "We're going to need all the help we can get."
"These guys came out of my Playstation," I said sheepishly. "And apparently Seymour followed them, and found some way to, like, clone himself or something."
"I want to know what's really going on."
"That's it."
"What's it?"
"What I just told you."
"You expect me to believe that…aah!" Marcus leapt back as Lulu lazily threw a thunder spell at him.
"Do you believe us now?" She growled.
"Um…yes."
*******
"Each one of us must take an apprentice and teach them enough to fight a Seymour. We need double the power, as he's somehow managed to double himself." Even Auron sounded anxious and worried. "I believe Rebecca has the most potential at my brand of swordsmanship, I'll take her."
"Hard as this is to believe, I think Robbie may have magic talent, so he's mine," Lulu groaned.
"Kimahri take Ana. She will be very good with spear," Kimahri said.
"Marcus, since you're all into machina and stuff, I'll take you," Rikku said.
"Great, I'm an apprentice to someone younger than me," groaned Marcus.
"Plug it, you big meanie," Rikku retorted.
"Anyone like sports, ya?" Wakka wondered.
"I love sports!" Hannah said, "and I'm good!"
"Sweet, I'll take you, then," Wakka said.
"I'll take that guy from this morning, Sam," said Tidus.
"Here, I'll go call him," Ana offered, getting off her chair and taking the phone into the hallway.
"Wait, we need a summoner, don't we?" asked Marcus. "Can you do it without a fayth?"
"Normally, no," Yuna replied. "But I believe that, in this world, it is possible. I can feel the fayth everywhere."
"Really, now?" muttered Robbie.
"So, who's it?" asked Hannah.
"Don't you have music practice tomorrow?" asked Yuna.
"Shit! I forgot about that," I swore.
"Well, I'll give you a lift," offered Marcus.
"Taken," said Robbie.
"Wait, why?" I asked Yuna.
"I'll come with you and see if I can find someone there."
Ana came back into the room. "Sam says he'll do it," she announced.
We had peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches for dinner. Marcus and Hannah went home after that, and we all took showers. Thankfully, this was much less eventful than the day before. Soon, we were all in bed (or in sleeping bags) and passed out. I couldn't sleep, but eventually exhaustion overtook my anxiety and I did fall asleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.