I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or any of the characters except James Hunter
When I entered Garden, I headed straight for the Infirmary to see how the two duelists were doing. I spoke with Dr. Kadowaki, who said that they should be fine.
"It'll probably leave a scar, but nothing worse than that," she said.
"Good. I'd have a talk with those two, but it wouldn't do any good. They're always at each other's throats. Never did figure out why. Well, I'm off to check in with Headmaster Cid. Mission accomplished and all that. See you later." I left the Infirmary and went to make my report to the Headmaster.
Later that day, I reported to the Lobby for the primary briefing for a mission that also happened to be a final exam for the senior students, Squall and Seifer among them. I didn't hold out too much hope for Seifer, since he had already failed the exam on two separate occasions. He had a chronic problem with obeying orders, I had heard. Fortunately, I wouldn't be dealing with him during this exam. He was leading Squad B, and I was heading the Intelligence Squad.
The Headmaster began speaking. "This is a priority mission. Seventy-two hours ago, the Dollet Dukedom was invaded by the Galbadian Army. Our mission is to clear the Galbadians out. Remember that a withdraw order takes absolute precedence over everything else. For those of you who are in this attack for your field exam, good luck, obey your superiors, and uphold Garden's reputation. Move out. That is all." We headed for the Garden cars that would bring us to Balamb, where we would sail to Dollet from.
Once my Squad was assembled aboard the transport, I stood to make a detailed briefing for our specific role in the mission. "All right. Our mission is to scout out the area initially and provide intell for the other teams. You will not, repeat not, go beyond these parameters. Clear?"
A chorus of "Aye aye, sir."
"Good. Selphie," referring to one Selphie Tilmitt, an energetic seventeen-year-old girl who had just transferred from Trabia in the north, "you and I will be the send the withdraw order to the other Squads. Now, I think Squad B is going to be the toughest, because Seifer has a tendency to take his squad away from its assigned position. Way away. That's one reason I'm going with you. The rest of you, gather intell, then stay put. When the recall comes through, return to the transport. Selphie and I will be along shortly. Understood?"
"Affirmative, sir."
"Alright. I'm going topside to take a look around." I climbed the ladder to upper hatch and watched as the ships hit the beach. One of them must of had a hot dog at helm, because instead of avoiding a wall like the others, it crashed right through and over it. "Show-off," I muttered. Then it was our turn. "Come on, move out!"
We hit the beach and quickly headed for our assigned position. I pulled my rifle off my shoulder and climbed a building, searching for a good spot from which to snipe the enemy. I settled into a prone position and aimed at an enemy soldier. I breathed in, let it out, and squeezed the trigger. There was a flash of coherent light, and my target dropped dead, headless. This dissuaded other Galbadians from attacking, so I rejoined my squad.
"Okay, people, the enemy has been driven back to the hills. Now we wait for recall." One of the scouts dropped off a light post.
"Sir, there's no sign of Squad B. They've left the Central Square."
"This is news? Well, nothing we can do about it now. We'll find him when we have to." I listened to my headset. "Speak of the devil. They just ordered us to withdraw. Selphie, come with me. The rest of you, return to the ship." We picked up our gear and took off after Squad B. "Nida was right. No sign of them. What do you think, Selphie?"
"Bodies lead that way, Sir." she said. "Up to the Comm Tower."
"That's what I thought. Well, no helping it. Let's go."
Just past some wounded Dollet soldiers, we found a dead monster known as an Anacondaur. "Dead." I said. "Looks like Seifer's Fire Cross attack. They've been through here, all right. Let's keep going." We hurried up to a cliff overlooking the Tower, and discovered most of Squad B.
"There you are!" Selphie shouted. Then promptly tumbled down the hill. "Where's the Squad leader?"
Squall pointed. At the Comm Tower, of course.
She sighed. "This job sure is tough." She leapt off the cliff.
I shook my head. "Always hyper. Come on, Squall. But let's go around. A SeeD must have some dignity and judgment, after all."
We came to the base of the tower just as the door opened. Three soldiers ran out, screaming. Followed, of course, by Seifer.
"Cowards." he said, and went back into the tower.
"Heyyyyy, Captain!"
"Come on, let's go." Squall said. We entered the tower and took an elevator.
"This is cool!" Selphie said.
"Don't get too excited, or you'll fall." Surprising, coming from Zell Dincht, the other member of the squad.
"Like I'm really going to..."
When we got to the top, we found a Galbadian officer working on the tower.
"What do you think you're doing?" Squall asked.
The Galbadian was startled. "Likewise, MISTER. Wedge, take care of these twerps!" I looked around puzzled. I didn't see anyone. "W-Wedge? Well, I seem to be done here, so... I'm leaving! MOVE! MOVE IT!"
Just then, Seifer showed up, and knocked some kind of control device out of the officer's hand. "Sorry to crash the party."
"Are you CRAZY!?" The officer attacked, firing some kind of machine gun at us. I dodged out of the way, drew a semiautomatic pistol from my belt, and began firing back.
I stifled a yelp as a bullet struck me in the chest. If it weren't for the fact that my heart was in a slightly different position from normal, the hit would have been fatal. As it was, I was knocked briefly out of the fight. By the time I returned to the battle, the soldier that the officer had been referring to had appeared.
"Wedge! Where were you? No pay for you this month!"
"Should've stayed home." He charged me, knocking my laser rifle out my hand with his sword and driving me to the metal floor.
As I lay stunned, I watched as Zell hit Biggs with a devastating hand-to-hand combo while Selphie wrapped her nunchaku around his legs and pulled him down. Off to the side, Squall was engaged in a sword battle with Wedge.
I staggered back to my feet, picking up my rifle, just in time to be filled full of holes by Biggs, who was recovering from being pummeled by metal gloves.
I dropped back to the ground in agony, barely keeping hold of my rifle.
And that's when the Elvoret popped in, blowing the Galbadians out the way with a blast of wind magic. It also blew Squall, Zell, and Selphie against the comm tower, were they fell, dazed. As the thing moved in for the kill, I slowly pushed myself to my feet again.
"Not… yet,… you… piece… of… slime…" I raised my rifle, preparing for my Limit Break. "Omega Shot!" The devastating beam burned through the Elvoret. Just before it died, I drew the Guardian Force Siren from it, the cast Curaga on the entire group.
"Yuck," Selphie commented, seeing the remains of the Elvoret as she staggered upright. "Squad B Captain?" Seifer turned to her. "We have a message, sir. All troops are to withdraw by 1900 hours. Assemble at the shore!"
"1900 hours... That's only thirty minutes! Squad B, head for the shore. Thirty minutes till we leave without you." Laughing, he took the elevator down.
"What's with him?" she asked.
"Why don't you ask him?" Squall responded.
When the elevator came back up, we took it down to the ground level. We faced a problem when we got out, however: a large, four-legged attack robot. "This isn't good!" I yelled. "That's a RoboSharp model attack bot! Run!" We ran, but it landed right in front of us. "Typical," I said, disgusted. "Eat this! Omega Shot!" My laser rifle started charging to power setting not normally available, then discharged, hitting the RoboSharp with an enormous energy blast.
"Let's get out of here!" Zell shouted. No argument there, I thought. When we rounded a corner, however, the thing was back, coming up behind us. "What the? I thought we busted that thing up!"
"Forget it," Squall said, "Let's run!" We ran. When we got back to the cliff, we just missed having it land on us. We managed to avoid one encounter with it by moving quietly down the path, but it faced us again on a bridge.
"Renzokuken!" Squall tore into it with his limit break, finishing with a shout of "Rough Divide!" The finisher dropped it in the dust, giving us a chance to escape.
We charged through the town, racing for the ships that would get us away from this thing. We hit the beach and leapt over a railing to get to the transport. Zell, Selphie, and I made it alright, but Squall hit hard, landing on his back.
"Squall!" I yelled. He jumped to his feet and started running, but the robot was too fast. At the last moment, he jumped forward...
And the RoboSharp was hit with a storm of bullets from the transport. Instructor Quistis Trepe had seen the danger and manned the turret. Squall climbed into the ship just the RoboSharp gave an electronic death cry and slumped to the ground, thoroughly smashed. We headed back to Balamb, our mission complete.
When we returned, the other members of the Disciplinary Committee, Raijin and Fujin. "How'd it go?" Raijin asked.
"Man... all they did was get in way. Being a captain ain't easy."
"SAFE?" Fujin was a woman of few words, but forceful ones. Seifer looked to the sky in exasperation. The three headed for the Garden car.
"Typical." I said. The instructor disembarked last.
"Where's Seifer?" she asked. Squall pointed. She shook her head. "Good work. Be back at Garden by sundown. You're free till then."
We headed after Seifer to the car, but when we got there, they were just leaving in it.
"Not AGAIN, man." Zell sighed.
"Might as well walk it," Squall said.
"No need. I have enough Gil to rent a car. Personally, I'm headed straight back to Garden. I'm bushed." I rented the car and we drove back to Garden.
"I'll see you later. Probably at the party." I strode off muttering. "Parties. I hate parties." I headed back to my dorm room to relax. No need to change, since I was already a full SeeD. I planned to make a perfunctory appearance at the party and then leave. I hate parties. I hung up my weapon and catnapped until it was time for the dance. If there's anything I hated more than parties it was dancing. Fortunately, I only had to be there briefly, so there was little chance I'd be shanghaied into such a thing.
At the dance, I simply leaned against a wall and sipped at a glass of wine, observing everything through narrowed eyes. I preferred to observe things from the outside, which was one reason I became a sniper. I was mildly amused when Squall was dragged onto the dance floor by some non-SeeD girl, apparently a visitor.
"Typical." I muttered. "Entirely typical. Trust Squall to get into strange situations." I sauntered casually over to a window, checked to see that no one was watching, and flipped over the window sill, and rappelled down to the ground. I'd heard that there was a mission the next day, so I wanted plenty of sleep.
Just as I entered my room, however, I saw Squall leaving his. This was unusual, since Squall had never, to my knowledge, broken curfew. On a whim, I decided to follow him, quietly, to see what was up. I brought my rifle, because I thought he might be heading for the training center, which had live monsters. You make a mistake, you die.
It turned out to be a good thing that I brought my weapon, because he was indeed heading for the training center. When I got there, I saw him meet up with Instructor Trepe. ? I thought. What is going on here? I shadowed them to the "secret area" in the training center. When they got there, I heard Quistis launch into some kind of boring soliloquy about having lost her instructor status. Oh. Typical. I made sure to leave before they did, so as to avoid being spotted. I was forced to reveal my presence, however, when I heard some one yell for help. I stepped out of the shadows and ran after Squall and Quistis, and found that a Granaldo and three Raldos had escaped and were attacking a teenage girl.
"Squall! Quisty!?" the girl looked surprised. While Squall and Quistis dealt with the Raldos, I went for the Granaldo.
"Omega Shot!" The attack vaporized the monster.
Two teenagers that looked somewhat like SeeDs appeared. "It's not safe here. Please, let's go."
"Alright." The girl replied. The two escorted her out of the training center.
Who was that? I wondered. Before Squall or Quistis could say anything to me, I left to return to the dorm. When I got there, I hung up my rifle and went to sleep.
Note: Thanks for reviewing my story. I'll try to get new chapters up as often as possible.
