S_M: I don't own any of these characters... Squaresoft does......how is a square
soft?@_@



Shotguns and Lightning

The next morning Irvine was awaken by loud pounding on his dorm door.

"Come on Irvy baby! Wakie Wakie!"

Irvine buried his head deeper into his pillow, Sometimes that girl's voice is the most
annoying thing in the world. Especially this early in the morning.. He kicked off the
blankets and rose to get dressed. He donned his regular jeans, shirt, duster, and black
cowboy hat. He picked up his shotgun from a nearby chair and left the room, only to be
immediately glomped by Selphie.

Selphie and Irvine tumbled to the ground, with Selphie on top. Irvine grinned up at her.
"Isn't it a little early to be doing this?"

Selphie blushed and swatted at his shoulder, and stood up. Irvine sat up and looked
around, Funny, the halls aren't usually this empty. He stood and brushed at his duster.

"Where is everybody?"

Selphie shrugged. "Dunno, it's a little emptier then usual isn't it?"

Irvine nodded his head in agreement.

"Anyways, there is a new mission, basically there is an activist group in Timber. So, us
SeeDs are being dispatched to get rid of them." Selphie spun on her feet and begin to
walk to the front gate with Irvine in tow.

When they reached the gate, Squall was standing beside Quistis, trying to get Rinoa off
of his arm. Quistis was giggling at the scene as she wrapped her arms around Squall's
waist. Selphie ran up to them to help get Rinoa off. Irvine glanced around for Zell,
expecting him to be practicing moves somewhere nearby, but he wasn't anywhere.

"Damn.", he mumbled.

"Are we ready?", asked Squall. "I'll discuss the mission basics on the Ragnarok."

Everybody walked to the large ship. When the SeeDs were settled in, Squall stood up
and begin to explain the mission to everyone. Irvine looked out one of the windows, not
paying attention at all to his leader. Where was Zell? I didn't upset him that much, did
I? Sure, I told him not to come on missions for awhile, but that wouldn't have stopped
someone like him. He slowly tuned back into Squall, and was listening enough to catch
Zell's name coming from Squall's mouth.

"What about Zell?", he asked.

Squall rolled his eyes, "Zell, has volunteered to lead Squad C, and has already been
dispatched to Timber. He should be there already."

Irvine nodded, "That's all I wanted to know."

Thirty minutes later the Ragnarok flew slowly over Timber to inspect their problem.
Squall leaned over to look out of one of the windows.

"What the hell?! That's not an activist group, that's a fucking army!"

Hundreds of explosions could be seen coming from the town. Irvine looked out the
window also, panic beginning to ebb at his mind.

"And, Zell is in there alone?!"

Now Quistis begin to worry. "He could be killed! We need to take immediate action!
Squad B and C prepare to be dispatched. Squad B, evacuate all civilians you can find.
Squad C, arm yourselves and locate you squad leader."

Irvine was in Squad C, as was Squall. Irvine readied his shotgun and Squall had is
gunblade ready. They exited the Ragnarok and entered Timber through a mist of bullets
and dust. As they peered through the rubble, finding discarded weapons, empty gun
shells, and broken bodies, they two men realized that Zell could possibly be dead. Where
could there friend be?

The search begins.....

"It'll take awhile to find Zell, he could be anywhere." Squall huffed as he attacked
another soldier. Irvine groaned, Where could Zell have gone?! Could this be all his
fault? No, watch it Kinneas, now you're being too damn dramatic. A couple of soldiers
jumped out at them from behind a broken piece of stone, probably from a building. But,
they were easily defeated by Squall and Irvine.

"Do we split up Squall? Or stay together?"

"Split up, if we find him, or not, meet in the Square in three hours."

"OK then, see ya later Squall." Irvine said as he jogged away to begin his search.

Two hours and forty-eight minutes later, neither Irvine nor Squall had found their
friend. Of course, they didn't know if the other had found him.

"Dammit! Time is almost up. Let's see, from this position it'll take me around four or
so minutes to reach the Square. So, I think I'll search a little longer." Irvine continued to
pick up rubble and move pieces of wood. He suddenly heard a muffled cough.

"Zell? Is that you?"

*cough* "Irvine-is that you man?"

Irvine began to dig in the spot where the voice was coming from. He picked up a heavy
piece of rock and uncovered a sooty face.

"How did you get under there Zell?"

Zell snorted and waited for Irvine to lift the rocks that were trapping his legs. "Well,
there were these explosions and BAM! I flew and landed under some rubble. That's it."

"No need to get snippy Zell."

Zell wiped at his face,"Snippy? I don't think so, maybe snappy."

"Irvine laughed. "Fine, is snippy to wussy for you Dincht?" Zell nodded as he latched
onto Irvine's arm and rose.

"Can you get any dirtier Zell? Boy, at least you can get covered by rocks in style, not
just, splayed there." Zell grinned and shoved Irvine down, giggling as he saw Irvine,
splayed on the ground. Zell fell to the ground, clutching his stomach in laughter.

Irvine huffed,"I don't think it's that funny."

"But it is.", came a voice. Zell and Irvine glanced over to see a dirty, grinning Squall.
"You two act like such little kids.", he managed to say before he unexpectedly fell flat on
his face. The had Zell and Irvine in stitches, to see their"serious" leader fall
so...gracefully, would make anyone laugh. Squall pushed himself up and laughed along
with them. It WAS pretty funny.

A loud explosion sounded nearby, startling all three of them. A large cloud of smoke
and dust appeared in the sky, and scream of agony could be heard. Zell winced visibly at
the cries. Irvine helped Zell up and walked over to their leader. They all stood upon a
large pile of rubble, watching even more soldiers stream into Timber.

Squall lifted up his gunblade in defense, Irvine aimed his shotgun, and Zell cracked his
knuckles.

"Let's show this guys what it feels like to get their asses kicked by SeeDs." Zell said, as
they ran into the large crowd of soldiers.