Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, this thing again. I don't own FF8. I wish I did, but I don't. All I own are my stories, a pencil, some floppy disks, a notepad, a broken stapler, and an empty bottle of orange soda.
A/N: Ok, let the excitement begin! Hopefully...^_^; That's right, this is chapter 3! Hoo-ha! Mwaha! Everyone's baby monsters are revealed! It's a vision of cuteness! Beware! I recommend wearing cute-proof goggles for this chapter. Uh oh! Rival uncute monsters! What will Zell and Co. do?!? Read on and brace yourselves!
Critters: Chapter 3
What will it be? Quistis wondered to herself as Selphie and Rinoa joined her. The little yellow-pink egg shook, cracks forming all across its delicate surface. Then, suddenly, the eggshell was no more. Hundreds of glimmering shards fell to the floor, leaving a small, furry bundle in their place. Quistis was puzzled. She leaned over and poked the orangish ball of fluff. "Ow!" she exclaimed. She withdrew her hand to find a thin, 2-inch purple needle in her finger. "That hurts!" she said as she pulled the needle from her finger.
"I sure hope it's not poisonous!" Selphie said, leaning in for a closer look.
"Me, too, Selphie," Quistis said, shifting her position. The little orange bundle jiggled a little bit and seemed to expand. The ball of fluff and purple needles unrolled to reveal a surprisingly adorable little animal. It was about 3 feet long, from beak to tail. It looked, somewhat, like a rolled up fur coat. Its face had no fur, and was cone-shaped. It had two thick, rubbery feet and curly-Q ears and big, almond shaped, blue eyes. It looked around and squeaked a soft, nasal-sounding, "Quill."
"Awwww! It's adorable!" Selphie said happily, giving Kichi a squeeze. The little 'marshmallow peep' popped out of her arms and inspected the new arrival.
"That's just precious! Look, they're already friends," Rinoa said, puling over a chair and sitting down. "What are you going to name it?"
"Well," Quistis said in thought, "So far, two have been named after the sound they make...might as well keep the trend going. It's name is Quill."
"Quill...quill..." Quill said, yawning.
"Kichi?"
"Quill?"
"Chi?"
"Qui?"
"That's so adorable!" Selphie squealed.
"Chi! Kichi! Chi!"
"Quill!" Suddenly, the orange fluff ball rolled up and ruffled its fur, the purple needles poking straight up. Kichi puffed up like a balloon to about twice its own size. This didn't look like a happy relationship. Selphie picked up the ballooned peep and walked back down the hall. Rinoa decided to check on her egg, leaving Quistis with her monster. "Quill," it said, when it unrolled, and hopped onto Quistis's shoulder. As Quistis stood, another excited squeal came from down the hall. This time, it was Rinoa. Quistis sighed and walked down the hall with Quill draped over her shoulders.
"Look at this mess! It must've hatched when I was gone! Help me find it!" Rinoa said, jogging to her closet.
"What does it look like?" Selphie asked.
"How would I know?!"
"Calm down, Rinoa," Quistis said, standing in front of the bathroom door, "It's in here." Quistis pointed to the shower as a concerned Rinoa ran over.
Sitting in the shower was a blue-green, 3-foot, two-legged alligator. At least, that's what it looked like, at first. It only had its front legs, and was chewing contentedly on the shower curtain, despite the fact that it had no teeth. Its eyes were big and red and its muzzle was short. It had a row of six flopped over spines down its back, and down its tail were tiny, bony spikes. It looked up at the three women and barked a sound like "garp" up at them. Rinoa squealed and picked it up in a big hug. "It's the cutest!" she yelled, running back into her main room. She set it down on her bed and stared at it. "I have a teddy bear named Garp, and that's what it's bark sounds like, so...I'll name it Garp!"
"Garp!" Garp said. It was a match made in heaven...sort of.
The three girls gathered up their brood and headed toward the cafe to show them off. On their way, they bumped into Fujin, who looked to be wearing a blue raccoon hat.
"Whoa! Fujin? Since when do you wear hats?" Rinoa asked.
"Not hat," Fujin replied. She picked up the "hat" and held it up. It wasn't a hat. It was actually a raccoon, sort of. The only real difference was that it was blue and had pink eyes, a white belly, and a black patch around its left eye. "Meet Fuj," Fujin said. The blue raccoon squealed at Selphie, Rinoa, and Quistis, then returned to being curled up on Fujin's head. Fujin shrugged and walked on, getting weird looks from other students as she went.
On the other side of the dorms, Seifer's, Irvine's, and Raijin's eggs had hatched, and were stirring up a bit of trouble for the guys. Seifer was having the most problems, because his little monster, named Chomp, kept chomping on him. It was one of the oddest monsters Seifer had ever seen. It was basically a head, about the size of a basketball. It had large, pointed ears, a stubby, spiked tail, a rather large horn, red eyes, and a very large mouth full of teeth. Those teeth seemed to constantly find their way to Seifer's pant leg. On the other hand, Raijin's little monster was very timid and quiet. It was blue and shaped roughly like a clay jar. Instead of legs, it had four stubby knobs. It had a frog-like head with two lengthy antennae and a tiny horn. Its stubby tail kept it from falling over as it scooted along, waving the tiny flaps of skin that were its arms around. It was blue with green eyes and constantly croaked the sound that inspired its name, "Jubjub". Irvine had the most impressive monster. Standing next to everybody's favorite cowboy was what appeared to be a metal chocobo. It was about 3 feet tall and a metallic silver. It even moved and felt like it was made of metal. The oddest thing about it was that its beak was shaped like the muzzle of a gun, when it was closed. Irvine had named it Uzzi, after dismissing the suggestion of naming it Exeter. Uzzi stood silently next to Irvine, watching Seifer's frantic attempts to get chomp off his coat or jeans and keep him off.
"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Seifer shouted when Chomp chompped onto his arm. Irvine just laughed and gave Uzzi a pat. Raijin tried to help, but got chompped also. After a few minutes, Raijin gave up and walked out toward the cafe, Irvine following shortly after. Seifer just frowned, got a firm grip on chomp, and ran after them.
Just outside the cafeteria, the two groups met up. "Hi Irvy!" Selphie shrieked. Irvine just sighed and kept his distance. The guys and girls took their turns introducing their baby monsters, with several bouts of laughter as Chomp got a firm grip on Seifer time and time again. They were suddenly interrupted by Cid and Edea who brought their newly hatched monsters over as well. Cid's looked like a baby bird with four stubs for legs and no feathers, with a beak the size of its head. Edea had a cat-like monster at her heels. It was very thin and sort of stringy. Each of its feet had two toes, and its creamy fur was laced with vine-like patterns. Its ears were huge and perked forward in interest at the other monster babies. "Isn't it adorable?" Edea said softly, petting the strange cat, "Her name is Chiow. I thought it was such a neat idea to name a little monster after the sound it makes. She's simply precious."
"Yeah, that's what we did, too," Quistis said.
"Mine may not be the prettiest, but you can't say it isn't cute," Cid said, patting the featherless bird monster, "I named the cute little thing Qirk. Looks like you guys have some adorable monsters, too. Raise 'em well!" With that, the couple was off again. Throughout the entire conversation, Chomp was firmly attached to Seifer's right arm.
"Hey! What's up guys? Anyone seen Squall?" Zell shouted as he ran down the walkway toward his friends. "Whoa! Aww, neat! Look at all your monsters! They're awesome! Seifer, why is yours biting your arm?"
"Because Chomp like chomping!" Selphie answered for him, giggling.
"Very funny, red-head..." Seifer pulled the orange, basketball-sized monster from his arm and held its mouth closed. "We haven't seen Squall all day," he replied once Chomp was under control.
"Darn. I've been trying to find him to see how he was doing with that egg..."
"Hey, if you're looking for Squall, I think I saw him go into the training center a little while ago," said a passing student.
"Hey, thanks!" Zell yelled, then took off for the training center, followed by the rest of the gang, one of which was struggling with a particularly troublesome Chomp.
Inside the training Center, Zell and Co. found Squall sitting by the pond near the back of the enclosure. Everyone ran up to him and started showing off their monsters. Squall couldn't help but smile, until Rinoa asked, "Where's yours, Squall?" Squall sighed and pointed to the pond behind him. Swimming around in the water was what appeared to be a pony. Then, after closer inspection, they found it wasn't a pony. Its head and upper body were like a horse, but its forelimbs were flippers, and the rest of its body was like a dolphin. It had a blue, crystal-like horn in its forehead, and hazel eyes. Its mane was chestnut, its fur white, and its tail fin blue. Seifer started laughing.
"What's so funny, Seifer?" Squall asked, exasperated.
"You got a friggin' unicorn!" Seifer leaned against a tree laughing, temporarily ignoring Chomp who was chewing on his pant leg.
"Ignore him, Squall. It's adorable! Just as cute as Kichi here!" Selphie said, trying to be reassuring. Squall sighed and glanced at the 3-foot-long definition of cute puttering around in the pond. "All right," he sighed, "Nanu! C'mere, Nanu..." Seifer burst out laughing again upon hearing the critter's name.
"Nanu?! What kind of name is Nanu?" Seifer croaked between laughs. Squall sighed as the pony-dolphin returned to him. It whinnied softly and squeaked, "Nanu! Nanu!" up at Squall's friends.
"Any of you guys up for a trip to the beach?" Squall suggested.
"Sure, we could all use some fresh air. Doesn't that sound good, Neeb?" Zell replied, petting the adorable green mass on his head.
"Neeb!" Neeb said.
"All right then," Squall said with a sigh. The group of friends left for the beach, closely followed by their monsters. It was just too cute to be believable.
* * * * * *
At the beach, Selphie and Rinoa decided to build sandcastles, and busied themselves with handfulls of sand. Selphie had a camera set up and was filming all the cute critters as they saw sand and grass and trees for the first time. Chomp bopped along cutely at Seifer's ankles, while Nanu and Neeb played in the surf. Quill rolled into a ball and allowed herself to be rolled and bounced by playful Kichi and Garp. Fuj remained affectionately attached to Fujin's shoulder, and Uzzi loyally followed Irvine's every step. Raijin had joined Selphie and Rinoa, with Jubjub, in building a sand castle, which Garp knocked over. It was a vision of cuteness. The very definition of cute, even.
Suddenly, a group of not as cute Fastoticalons appeared from beneath the sands. Startled baby monsters scattered in all directions. Neeb clung to Zell's head, Quill was wrapped around Quistis's ankle, Chomp had chompped onto Seifer's leg, and Nanu tried unsuccessfully to hide behind Squall's leg. Seifer and Squall readied their gunblades, while Irvine loaded his rifle and Fujin twirled her shuriken into position. The others had forgotten their weapons, so took refuge a safe distance away. "First I'm stalked by T-Rexaurs, now this!" Zell cried in frustration.
"Fastoticalons usually aren't any challenge," Irvine said calmly, "But big groups like this can be dangerous."
"Maybe we should just leave?" Selphie asked from behind a rock.
"No way!" Seifer yelled, temporarily ignoring Chomp.
"Here we go!" Irvine cheered as the pack of Fastoticalons advanced on them. Just as he was about to jog up to greet them with his Exeter, he suddenly noticed his little monster wasn't anywhere near him. He spied Uzzi on a fallen log behind the line of territorial sand-sharks. Damn, he thought, what if the little guy gets hurt? The lead Fastoticalon shrieked and lunged forward at the group. Time for some unscheduled training...
A/N: Okay, so it wasn't all that exciting. But, trust me, it'll get better! I swear! Next chapter: The young monsters' mysterious abilities surface, and a newborn Uzzi becomes a powerful and intimidating foe for the ravenous sand-sharks! And strange occurances lead our heroes to find their precious monsters aren't their little secret anymore! What will happen next? Find out in Chapter Four!
A/N: Ok, let the excitement begin! Hopefully...^_^; That's right, this is chapter 3! Hoo-ha! Mwaha! Everyone's baby monsters are revealed! It's a vision of cuteness! Beware! I recommend wearing cute-proof goggles for this chapter. Uh oh! Rival uncute monsters! What will Zell and Co. do?!? Read on and brace yourselves!
Critters: Chapter 3
What will it be? Quistis wondered to herself as Selphie and Rinoa joined her. The little yellow-pink egg shook, cracks forming all across its delicate surface. Then, suddenly, the eggshell was no more. Hundreds of glimmering shards fell to the floor, leaving a small, furry bundle in their place. Quistis was puzzled. She leaned over and poked the orangish ball of fluff. "Ow!" she exclaimed. She withdrew her hand to find a thin, 2-inch purple needle in her finger. "That hurts!" she said as she pulled the needle from her finger.
"I sure hope it's not poisonous!" Selphie said, leaning in for a closer look.
"Me, too, Selphie," Quistis said, shifting her position. The little orange bundle jiggled a little bit and seemed to expand. The ball of fluff and purple needles unrolled to reveal a surprisingly adorable little animal. It was about 3 feet long, from beak to tail. It looked, somewhat, like a rolled up fur coat. Its face had no fur, and was cone-shaped. It had two thick, rubbery feet and curly-Q ears and big, almond shaped, blue eyes. It looked around and squeaked a soft, nasal-sounding, "Quill."
"Awwww! It's adorable!" Selphie said happily, giving Kichi a squeeze. The little 'marshmallow peep' popped out of her arms and inspected the new arrival.
"That's just precious! Look, they're already friends," Rinoa said, puling over a chair and sitting down. "What are you going to name it?"
"Well," Quistis said in thought, "So far, two have been named after the sound they make...might as well keep the trend going. It's name is Quill."
"Quill...quill..." Quill said, yawning.
"Kichi?"
"Quill?"
"Chi?"
"Qui?"
"That's so adorable!" Selphie squealed.
"Chi! Kichi! Chi!"
"Quill!" Suddenly, the orange fluff ball rolled up and ruffled its fur, the purple needles poking straight up. Kichi puffed up like a balloon to about twice its own size. This didn't look like a happy relationship. Selphie picked up the ballooned peep and walked back down the hall. Rinoa decided to check on her egg, leaving Quistis with her monster. "Quill," it said, when it unrolled, and hopped onto Quistis's shoulder. As Quistis stood, another excited squeal came from down the hall. This time, it was Rinoa. Quistis sighed and walked down the hall with Quill draped over her shoulders.
"Look at this mess! It must've hatched when I was gone! Help me find it!" Rinoa said, jogging to her closet.
"What does it look like?" Selphie asked.
"How would I know?!"
"Calm down, Rinoa," Quistis said, standing in front of the bathroom door, "It's in here." Quistis pointed to the shower as a concerned Rinoa ran over.
Sitting in the shower was a blue-green, 3-foot, two-legged alligator. At least, that's what it looked like, at first. It only had its front legs, and was chewing contentedly on the shower curtain, despite the fact that it had no teeth. Its eyes were big and red and its muzzle was short. It had a row of six flopped over spines down its back, and down its tail were tiny, bony spikes. It looked up at the three women and barked a sound like "garp" up at them. Rinoa squealed and picked it up in a big hug. "It's the cutest!" she yelled, running back into her main room. She set it down on her bed and stared at it. "I have a teddy bear named Garp, and that's what it's bark sounds like, so...I'll name it Garp!"
"Garp!" Garp said. It was a match made in heaven...sort of.
The three girls gathered up their brood and headed toward the cafe to show them off. On their way, they bumped into Fujin, who looked to be wearing a blue raccoon hat.
"Whoa! Fujin? Since when do you wear hats?" Rinoa asked.
"Not hat," Fujin replied. She picked up the "hat" and held it up. It wasn't a hat. It was actually a raccoon, sort of. The only real difference was that it was blue and had pink eyes, a white belly, and a black patch around its left eye. "Meet Fuj," Fujin said. The blue raccoon squealed at Selphie, Rinoa, and Quistis, then returned to being curled up on Fujin's head. Fujin shrugged and walked on, getting weird looks from other students as she went.
On the other side of the dorms, Seifer's, Irvine's, and Raijin's eggs had hatched, and were stirring up a bit of trouble for the guys. Seifer was having the most problems, because his little monster, named Chomp, kept chomping on him. It was one of the oddest monsters Seifer had ever seen. It was basically a head, about the size of a basketball. It had large, pointed ears, a stubby, spiked tail, a rather large horn, red eyes, and a very large mouth full of teeth. Those teeth seemed to constantly find their way to Seifer's pant leg. On the other hand, Raijin's little monster was very timid and quiet. It was blue and shaped roughly like a clay jar. Instead of legs, it had four stubby knobs. It had a frog-like head with two lengthy antennae and a tiny horn. Its stubby tail kept it from falling over as it scooted along, waving the tiny flaps of skin that were its arms around. It was blue with green eyes and constantly croaked the sound that inspired its name, "Jubjub". Irvine had the most impressive monster. Standing next to everybody's favorite cowboy was what appeared to be a metal chocobo. It was about 3 feet tall and a metallic silver. It even moved and felt like it was made of metal. The oddest thing about it was that its beak was shaped like the muzzle of a gun, when it was closed. Irvine had named it Uzzi, after dismissing the suggestion of naming it Exeter. Uzzi stood silently next to Irvine, watching Seifer's frantic attempts to get chomp off his coat or jeans and keep him off.
"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Seifer shouted when Chomp chompped onto his arm. Irvine just laughed and gave Uzzi a pat. Raijin tried to help, but got chompped also. After a few minutes, Raijin gave up and walked out toward the cafe, Irvine following shortly after. Seifer just frowned, got a firm grip on chomp, and ran after them.
Just outside the cafeteria, the two groups met up. "Hi Irvy!" Selphie shrieked. Irvine just sighed and kept his distance. The guys and girls took their turns introducing their baby monsters, with several bouts of laughter as Chomp got a firm grip on Seifer time and time again. They were suddenly interrupted by Cid and Edea who brought their newly hatched monsters over as well. Cid's looked like a baby bird with four stubs for legs and no feathers, with a beak the size of its head. Edea had a cat-like monster at her heels. It was very thin and sort of stringy. Each of its feet had two toes, and its creamy fur was laced with vine-like patterns. Its ears were huge and perked forward in interest at the other monster babies. "Isn't it adorable?" Edea said softly, petting the strange cat, "Her name is Chiow. I thought it was such a neat idea to name a little monster after the sound it makes. She's simply precious."
"Yeah, that's what we did, too," Quistis said.
"Mine may not be the prettiest, but you can't say it isn't cute," Cid said, patting the featherless bird monster, "I named the cute little thing Qirk. Looks like you guys have some adorable monsters, too. Raise 'em well!" With that, the couple was off again. Throughout the entire conversation, Chomp was firmly attached to Seifer's right arm.
"Hey! What's up guys? Anyone seen Squall?" Zell shouted as he ran down the walkway toward his friends. "Whoa! Aww, neat! Look at all your monsters! They're awesome! Seifer, why is yours biting your arm?"
"Because Chomp like chomping!" Selphie answered for him, giggling.
"Very funny, red-head..." Seifer pulled the orange, basketball-sized monster from his arm and held its mouth closed. "We haven't seen Squall all day," he replied once Chomp was under control.
"Darn. I've been trying to find him to see how he was doing with that egg..."
"Hey, if you're looking for Squall, I think I saw him go into the training center a little while ago," said a passing student.
"Hey, thanks!" Zell yelled, then took off for the training center, followed by the rest of the gang, one of which was struggling with a particularly troublesome Chomp.
Inside the training Center, Zell and Co. found Squall sitting by the pond near the back of the enclosure. Everyone ran up to him and started showing off their monsters. Squall couldn't help but smile, until Rinoa asked, "Where's yours, Squall?" Squall sighed and pointed to the pond behind him. Swimming around in the water was what appeared to be a pony. Then, after closer inspection, they found it wasn't a pony. Its head and upper body were like a horse, but its forelimbs were flippers, and the rest of its body was like a dolphin. It had a blue, crystal-like horn in its forehead, and hazel eyes. Its mane was chestnut, its fur white, and its tail fin blue. Seifer started laughing.
"What's so funny, Seifer?" Squall asked, exasperated.
"You got a friggin' unicorn!" Seifer leaned against a tree laughing, temporarily ignoring Chomp who was chewing on his pant leg.
"Ignore him, Squall. It's adorable! Just as cute as Kichi here!" Selphie said, trying to be reassuring. Squall sighed and glanced at the 3-foot-long definition of cute puttering around in the pond. "All right," he sighed, "Nanu! C'mere, Nanu..." Seifer burst out laughing again upon hearing the critter's name.
"Nanu?! What kind of name is Nanu?" Seifer croaked between laughs. Squall sighed as the pony-dolphin returned to him. It whinnied softly and squeaked, "Nanu! Nanu!" up at Squall's friends.
"Any of you guys up for a trip to the beach?" Squall suggested.
"Sure, we could all use some fresh air. Doesn't that sound good, Neeb?" Zell replied, petting the adorable green mass on his head.
"Neeb!" Neeb said.
"All right then," Squall said with a sigh. The group of friends left for the beach, closely followed by their monsters. It was just too cute to be believable.
* * * * * *
At the beach, Selphie and Rinoa decided to build sandcastles, and busied themselves with handfulls of sand. Selphie had a camera set up and was filming all the cute critters as they saw sand and grass and trees for the first time. Chomp bopped along cutely at Seifer's ankles, while Nanu and Neeb played in the surf. Quill rolled into a ball and allowed herself to be rolled and bounced by playful Kichi and Garp. Fuj remained affectionately attached to Fujin's shoulder, and Uzzi loyally followed Irvine's every step. Raijin had joined Selphie and Rinoa, with Jubjub, in building a sand castle, which Garp knocked over. It was a vision of cuteness. The very definition of cute, even.
Suddenly, a group of not as cute Fastoticalons appeared from beneath the sands. Startled baby monsters scattered in all directions. Neeb clung to Zell's head, Quill was wrapped around Quistis's ankle, Chomp had chompped onto Seifer's leg, and Nanu tried unsuccessfully to hide behind Squall's leg. Seifer and Squall readied their gunblades, while Irvine loaded his rifle and Fujin twirled her shuriken into position. The others had forgotten their weapons, so took refuge a safe distance away. "First I'm stalked by T-Rexaurs, now this!" Zell cried in frustration.
"Fastoticalons usually aren't any challenge," Irvine said calmly, "But big groups like this can be dangerous."
"Maybe we should just leave?" Selphie asked from behind a rock.
"No way!" Seifer yelled, temporarily ignoring Chomp.
"Here we go!" Irvine cheered as the pack of Fastoticalons advanced on them. Just as he was about to jog up to greet them with his Exeter, he suddenly noticed his little monster wasn't anywhere near him. He spied Uzzi on a fallen log behind the line of territorial sand-sharks. Damn, he thought, what if the little guy gets hurt? The lead Fastoticalon shrieked and lunged forward at the group. Time for some unscheduled training...
A/N: Okay, so it wasn't all that exciting. But, trust me, it'll get better! I swear! Next chapter: The young monsters' mysterious abilities surface, and a newborn Uzzi becomes a powerful and intimidating foe for the ravenous sand-sharks! And strange occurances lead our heroes to find their precious monsters aren't their little secret anymore! What will happen next? Find out in Chapter Four!