Convergence: Chapter 1
Balamb Garden's cafeteria doors opened on a female student's lunch tray with a startling crash as a young, distinctively marked young man with bleached hair flew through them with an uncaring, fervent speed, as if his life depended on it. He skidded to a stop at the counter, panting, his face streamed with sweat. Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, he spoke brightly.
"I got here so early today, y'know? You've gotta have some hot dogs left!" With an amused smile, the woman behind the counter shook her head slowly. "Sorry, Zell, the construction workers from Fisherman's Horizon already finished them. There's always tomorrow, though."
The young man's face fell, and his eyes darkened. "Aw, man! And I was so close too! If it hadn't been for those damn upgraders…" The woman laughed. "Don't look so down about it. I'll tell you what - pay me 300 gil now and I'll keep some hot dogs for you tomorrow." Zell's eyes brightened again. "Wow! Really? Thanks!" He fished in one of his pockets and handed her some Gil notes. "See you tomorr-?!"
A scream from the other end of the cafeteria diverted his attention. An errant cook was desperately waving a chopping knife at the tentacles of a large plant with an open gaping maw. "A Grat!" Zell exclaimed in astonishment. "How the hell did that thing get outta the training center?"
"I don't know." a voice beside him replied, " but we can find out about that later." Zell turned. A young, beautiful woman with dark hair flowing down to her waist stood there. On her right hand she wore a blaster edge, all equipped and ready to go. She wore a blue dress with a tail that swished out behind her as she walked.
"Rinoa? Long time no see! What ya been up to around here?" "A little bit of this, a little bit of that." She replied vaguely, looking at the Grat. "Why don't we beat this thing up first, and then we can talk?" "Fine by me!" Zell said, moving into a practiced battle stance. "Firaga!" Suddenly a substantial area around the vicious plant ignited with intense flamed, blackening the plant's leaves, tentacles, and sending up a horrible stench as the plant screamed. Rinoa aimed her Shooting Star and fired, slicing into the Grat's body. The plant's shriek was abruptly cut off as the disc struck home, ending its life. Several students hurried forward and cast fire spells, ridding the cafeteria of the repugnant remains of the monster.
Zell turned to Rinoa and grinned. "Still got your skills, I see." She shrugged. "That was a pretty weak monster over there. So, what've you been doing lately?" "Not much." He replied. "I've just been studying advanced blades and upgrades, and - hey! Check these out!" He held his hands out toward her, wrists up. She peered at them carefully. As usual, he was wearing his prized Ehrgeiz gloves that he'd used to defeat Ultimecia. Now, though, from the bottom of both gloves emanated a long, wickedly- curved hook blade. "Cool, huh?" "Yeah." She said admiringly. "That's gonna make you a target to stay away from." "I guess so." He laughed, flopping into a chair by a vacant table. "Your turn now. What've ya been up to?" At this, her smile vanished, and her face turned deadly serious. Pulling up a chair and sitting down, she leaned across the table towards him. "We received a message from Cid and Edea." Zell partially leaned forward too, interest flickering in his eyes. "Really? What's it say?"
"Well," She answered, "their SeeD are always on the lookout for anything unusual, you know. Lately, monsters are cropping up in continents that they're not even native to. You remember Dorin, by any chance?" Zell scratched his head. "Dorin. kinda tall guy? Blonde hair, brown eyes?" He asked.
"That's the one." Rinoa confirmed. "We sent him off to Galbadia to help clear up the confusion there of the supposed coup de'tat and to find out more about the rumors in that region. While he was there, he ran into three Toramas and a Gesper. He brought back a fang and a Black Hole to prove it."
Zell's eyes widened as the full impact of the statement struck him. "Toramas? What the hell-? We only found those critters on Esthar!" "That's right." Rinoa answered. "We're not sure what could have happened on the Esthar Continent to drive them off, or even how they got to Galbadia, but we definitely know one thing - it couldn't have been natural."
Zell was about to reply when a bell rang overhead, chiming three times. "Aw, man! I gotta get going! I'll talk to you later, Rinoa!" He sprang up from the table and sprinted through the doors, knocking trays out of several arms as he went. Rinoa opened her mouth to call him back, but she decided against it and sighed. Standing up, she walked at a brisk pace through the still-swinging doors, the hem of her blue garment trailing behind her. He just hadn't understood…
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A red-haired young man with a scar on his face sat crossed-legged at the end of a pier, staring intently into the calmly sparkling water, his fishing line dangling from the end of his pole. Come on, he thought irritably. There's gotta be a fish in here somewhere.
He glanced up as someone behind him let out a loud whoop of triumph. "Yeah! I got one! Look at it, ain't it a beauty?"
A dark-skinned man with close-cut black hair held up a bright red fish, laughing as it flipped this way and that in his big hand. "RAIJIN!" A grey-haired girl with a patch over one eye admonished the excited boy. "YOU ALWAYS CATCH FIRST! MAKE SEIFER ANGRY!"
As if to prove her point, Seifer hurled down his fishing rod to the deck angrily. "That's it!" he declared forcefully. "It's the fifteenth time in a row you caught a fish first, and I always leave with nothing!"
"You keepin' count, ya know? Come on, Seifer, it's not my fault that the fish like my rod better, ya know?" Raijin protested, holding up his hands placatingly. "Sides', I use better bait than you and Fujin!"
"WHAT BAIT?" Fujin asked Raijin suspiciously. "Well, ya know, I actually use a few patches of skin from a monster." "What monster?" demanded Seifer. "Um.. I don't know. I use a different one each time. Depends on what I meet away from town, ya know? Try some anyway!"
Raijin bent down to a green box of fishing tackle and pulled out a few purplish strands of dry monster flesh. He handed them to Seifer. "Here ya go." Seifer held up the strips of flesh and visibly paled. "What are these, Raijin? Geezard guts?"
Raijin shrugged. " Yeah. I got them from a little trip to the MD Level in Garden. Don't wanna use em'? Your loss." Muttering disgustedly, Seifer attached one of the pieces to his hook, and cast, sending the hook flying over fifty meters away.
"Whoa!" Raijin yelped. "How much string do you attach to that thing?" Seifer shrugged nonchalantly. "Enough. Now shut up and let me fish." With that, he concentrated on the end of his line, watching intently as the current in the harbor slowly pulled it back to him. Fifty meters. forty meters. thirty meters…
Suddenly, the rope gave a very hard jerk on his hand. "Hah! I got one!" yelled Seifer triumphantly. The rope gave another fearfully hard jerk, nearly yanking him off the dock into the water.
"Jeez! This fish is big, whatever it is." He began to pull as hard as he could, veins popping in his neck as he strained his muscles against his catch. The rope speedily came back and up to him, and out of the water popped a hideous dirt-colored mini-shark, bearing bright orange fins in several places on its body.
"WHOA!" Seifer, caught off guard, fell over in surprise. "Hey!" Raijin lifted a two-handed staff from where it had been lying on the dock and struck the creature a mighty blow with the end of it, stunning it. Seifer, meanwhile, had climbed to his feet and removed his long silver gunblade from the inside of his white coat. He whirled, and came up with a back-handed stroke that arced toward the fish's head. As the gunblade struck, it fired. When the point touched the creature's slippery flesh, the fish exploded in a small burst of flames, exuding the foul stench of charred flesh.
"That was surprising." muttered Seifer, and then he grinned smugly at Raijin. "But at least I got the first catch!" Raijin, however, was frowning. "What was a Fastitocalon doin' up here? They're supposed to be in Galbadia, Trabia, or somewhere else!" That, and they never come near towns, villages, or anything, ya know?"
Seifer sobered instantly and scratched his head for a moment, lost in thought. "Yeah," he confirmed. "You're right. But there are rumors of this kind of thing happening everywhere now. There are Toramas in Galbadia, Malboros around Centra - you know, out-of-place things like that. I heard someone even found a Funguar on Cactuar Island. People say it's not really something natural either." "Something blew up in Esthar, maybe, or some kind of new contraption those guys built backfired?" Raijin asked.
"Nah." Seifer replied. "Same thing would've happened here then. There're supposed to be Anacondaurs in Esthar now." Before Raijin could answer, another Fastitocalon leaped up from below the dock and snapped at him. Seifer, looking almost bored, lopped its head off with his gunblade. Raijin snorted. "That's gonna get annoying real soon."
Suddenly no fewer ten more of the hideous creatures hurtled out of the water directly at Seifer, Raijin and Fujin. Raijin howled in shock as the teeth of one sank into his arm. "OW!" He shook his arm vigorously, throwing it onto the dock. Fujin killed it, throwing her shuriken and cutting it in two. Raijin smashed another's head, sending the rest of the body back into the water. Meanwhile, Seifer sliced three of them in half, and burned two more with an explosive swipe from his gunblade. Raijin held out his arms towards Fujin. "Triple." He intoned. Fujin, making use of the power-up, cast three Thundaga spells at the remaining Fastitocalons, frying them.
The trio sank to the deck, breathing lightly. "INVIGORATING." remarked Fujin. "Yeah." Raijin agreed, opening a water bottle he had taken from the box and taking a short draught. "So, what now?" "I don't kno-" started Seifer, and then stopped at the sudden shaking of the whole dock. "Um. guys, what's this?" Fujin and Raijin rose to their feet. "BAD FEELING." voiced Fujin, glancing around nervously. "RAIJIN?" Receiving no reply, she turned to him.
His face was ashen, and he looked terribly afraid. He lifted a shaking finger and pointed out to the sea. Fujin followed his gaze, scanning the horizon with her eyes. There seemed to be nothing unusual about it. Then, she realized what Raijin was pointing at. The water. It was roiling angrily, splashing about. With a suppressed shudder, she realized that it was not filled with only fish; it was alive with thousands of creatures. As the three watched in absolute horror, full-fledged Fastitocalons began to rise, row by row, until the horizon was quite literally filled with an army of the hideous fish.
"Damn!" Seifer swore, gripping the hilt of his gunblade so hard his knuckles paled. "They stretch for miles! Hey, you!" He roared at a nearby civilian. "Get a message to Balamb Garden now! Tell them we need some SeeD in Balamb, and right now!"
The civilian's face was pale, but he resolutely nodded. "Get moving, man!" Raijin yelled at him. "We have no time! We'll hold em' off as long as we can! Now go!"
The civilian took off like a disc shot from a blaster edge. "RAIJIN! WATCH!" Fujin bellowed as the first row of monsters leapt.
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Moderately small fires burned everywhere around the path Squall was walking on. Lava seethed through the rest of the cave, and steam rose everywhere. Perspiration ran in rivulets down his face as he walked forward, holding his incandescently blue gunblade in front of him. The bright light that seemed to be emanating from all around the cavern illuminated his bored expression. The Fire Cavern wasn't anywhere near as good a place to train as it had been a while ago, when he was much weaker and did not possess such a quality gunblade. The only reason it was even worth coming to this place at this level of power was the heat.
Under any time, place, or situation, it might prove useful to a topnotch SeeD to have high heat resistance - to ward off Fire spells, if nothing else. Other than that, it was pretty much useless. The only monsters this cave possessed were Buels and Bombs, and he had gone past that level of monster a long time ago. Squall sighed. He was getting restless. Over the long years of almost endless fighting, in the days of the time compression threat or even a normal SeeD mission, he had grown almost unsurpassable in levels of strength, skill and battle sense.
Now, with the world in a state of peace, he was considered without equal. But, as a runner must have a race to run, a fighter must have an opponent to fight, and Squall was the greatest, left without a challenge, with the possible exception of Seifer Almasy - the only other wielder of a gunblade in the current era.
Squall sighed again pensively, absently cutting another Red Bat out of the air as it swooped toward his face. He was almost at the end of the path now. All in all, a disappointing trip, even for such a mediocre place as the Fire Cavern. He heard the shrill scream of another Red Bat above, and looked up, bringing his gunblade close to his chest. It proved to be unnecessary though. The dark shape outlined in the firelight fell, hitting the ground hard - and shattered into a thousand pieces. Squall frowned and reached out toward the pieces. When he touched a piece, he quickly drew his hand back with a muffled exclamation. Ice! That bat was frozen! Cautiously he reached out again and picked up another piece. It was rapidly melting from the huge amount of heat in the cave, and as he watched, it slowly dwindled down to nothing.
A noise of stone on stone startled Squall, and he glanced up sharply. Ahead was a faint blue glow, the glow that emerges when cold ice is present in a hot area. Squall held the Lionheart out in front of him and moved forward slowly.
When he had moved forward about three hundred feet, the monster hidden in the rock came crashing out to meet him. "RAWWWRRRR!" it roared in a hideous voice. It was blue, with a slightly yellowish front and a huge mouth filled with more than its share of teeth. A Snow Lion. Squall held up his hand, preparing a spell. "Aura." he spoke, and several beams of light came spiraling down to wrap him in their embrace, infusing him with a soft golden light.
Before the Snow Lion could attack, Squall almost literally flew toward it and launched a full-blown Renzokuken attack, striking it ten times with hugely powerful strokes. The Snow Lion bellowed in anger and fear, becoming colder and colder each second as its wounds bled ichor freely. "Not enough, huh?" Squall gritted through suddenly chattering teeth. "Then try this! BLASTING ZONE!"
The Lionheart burst into a rainbow colored mass of energy, which grew rapidly every second, until at length it shattered a portion of the cave roof. Grasping the hilt, Squall clenched his teeth and brought that awesome energy down on the beast. White light flared across the cave in every direction, making it impossible to see for a few instants.
When the light died down, there was no Snow Lion. The attack had utterly annihilated it. Squall turned and hurried away, avoiding all encounters with enemies he saw. He would go to Balamb Town to find a clue as to how that Snow Lion had managed to make the trip from Trabia to this continent, and then report to the others.
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Five Bite Bug's-eye targets fell in rapid succession as Irvine Kinneas, using the Exeter one-handed, picked them all off with pinpoint accuracy. Selphie Tilmitt, on the other side of the training area, swung her nunchaku at a nearby Grat, bashing in its mouth and killing it. She ducked as a badly aimed swing from another Grat passed over her head.
"Hey, Sefie!" Irvine called out from three hundred yards away. "I'm up on you by four hundred points! Ready to give up?"
"Yeah, right!" She called back. "That's only four monsters! Now watch this and cry! ULTIMA!" She held out her hand. In the middle of a seeming congregation of five Grats, a fluorescent ball of bright green light appeared. As the Grats turned toward it, it rapidly expanded, exploding in a horrendously large and loud blaze of pure energy. When the light had returned to normal, the five Grats were gone. In fact, the Ultima spell had killed three other Grats ten feet away from those Grats as well. Selphie turned to Irvine with a smile on her innocent face.
"I win. Want a rematch?" she asked sweetly.
"No." Irvine grumbled. "Lost too many times already." "C'mon, Irvy, I'll even let you win if you want." she begged coyly, her soft brown eyes pleading. In spite of himself, Irvine smiled. Her look was irresistible. "Fine. But we only go to ten." She nodded, laughed, and impulsively hugged him. "Thanks, Irvy!" "No prob."
Ten minutes later, a grumbling and confused Irvine was sitting down on a rock with his head hanging dejectedly. "Aw, come on, Irvine! I only beat you by one monster this time!" laughed Selphie, her eyes bright.
"It's no fair using that Ultima spell - it kills way too many monsters." Irvine mumbled. "I'm still better than you because I've got more talent. You use spells." "Don't be such a sore loser, Irvy!" she chirped, giving him a playful whack between the shoulder blades. Irvine sighed. "Sorry, Sefie, but I'm not exactly rolling in strong spells. You know that."
A faint bzzzzzztttt sound suddenly reached their ears. "What's that?" Selphie asked, craning her neck to try and get a view above the foliage. Irvine's eyes widened, and then he grinned.
"That's our next contest, Sefie! The one who gets the killing blow on the Granaldo wins!" She turned her head toward him and smiled widely. "You're on."
Irvine leapt to his feet and sprinted off through the brush, Selphie hot on his heels. Irvine was the first by a crucial three seconds to arrive, skidding to a stop right in front of the gigantic bug. He held up his hand and yelled. "Aura!"
Selphie, coming to a stop three meters ahead of him, followed suit. Irvine triumphantly raised the Exeter and pumped some Fire Ammo into it. "Eat this!"
A deceptively beautiful ball of rainbow-colored fire emerged from the end of his shotgun, moving in an arc towards the monster. When it struck, it flowered into several multihued balls of bright flame, reducing the big bug to a mere pile of cinders.
"Yeah!" Irvine held up his arms in triumph, and laughed at Selphie's suddenly sour face. "Dumb luck!" she grumbled. Irvine threw an arm around her neck. "Welcome to my world, Sefie!"
"Cut short the arguing, you two!" spoke a voice from behind them. Quistis Trepe's face was deadly serious as she looked at her fellow SeeD partners.