Irvine
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Centra Crater,
Centra
If there was anything worse than the blistering heat, it had to be the fact that he didn't have his hat.
He kept forgetting that he didn't have it on. The cadet's uniform was bad enough – the collar itched – and he didn't really like the fact that he was the squad leader. Business like being squad leaders and commanders should be left to people like Squall Leonhart and Quistis Trepe (hell, perhaps even Seifer Almasy), but certainly not Irvine Kinneas.
He scratched at his neck. The damn mission just had to be in the desert. Just how long were they supposed to be crouching here beside a boulder, burning to a crisp in the midday sun? It wasn't like he needed a tan. I could just ask Zell to summon Ifrit and get the same results, he thought wryly.
"Irvine?" Startled, he turned to look at the girl who had addressed him. What was her name again ... Lisa? Something like that. Well, it wasn't his fault that he wasn't really a cadet from B-Garden. Though she was a pretty thing, with those hazel eyes. She was nervously fingering her weapon – it was a staff of some sort – while looking off into the distance. "Do you see anything?"
He realised he was holding the binoculars. He handed them to her, feeling somewhat foolish as he shook his head. His other squad-mate was fiddling with his crossbow, intent on tightening the strings. The girl was the only one with a close-ranged weapon. Irvine had a feeling that that was not going to be a good thing.
"Are we supposed to just sit here?" Jared asked, looking up at Irvine's scrutiny. Irvine tapped the receiver he had plugged into his ear and shook his head.
"We're supposed to wait for orders from mission control. You heard what Quisty said."
The tow-headed young man flicked him a glance. "Must be nice to be able to call her that."
"You're not one of those Trepies, are you?" he asked Jared suspiciously. The heat was addling the other guy's brains. He was probably thinking he was sleeping with the instructor to pass the exam. Typical. He gave a nonchalant shrug at Jared's glare. "Hey, just asking – no need to get ticked off."
"Those Trepies are idiots," Jared muttered, shaking his head. "I mean, Instructor Trepe is great and everything, but it's not like they're gonna be any good if they just moon over her." Maybe he was an ex-Trepie. Yeah, that had to be it.
Irvine nodded his agreement absently, going back to scanning his surroundings. "You see anything, Rina?"
The girl gave him a slight frown. It didn't make her look any less nervous. "It's Rissa, actually." She passed the binoculars to Jared. "There're two of those Jelleyes out there – they're directly in our path. Well, unless you want to go the long way past those boulders." She paused, grasping her staff. "I've never fought one."
"No surprise, considering the fact you've never been out of Balamb before," Jared said. "Makes one wonder how you accumulated all those credits – from written exams and assignments?" She opened her mouth and he cut her off before she even said a word. "Never mind. There are three of them actually.... No, make that four. And throw in another one for good measure."
Irvine raised an eyebrow at both the information and his behaviour. "There's a Jelleye conference goin' on or somethin'? Those monsters usually wander alone, or maybe in pairs, sometimes."
He was about to add more when the receiver in his ear crackled, and he heard a voice – Nida's? – saying, "Squad C, move out and secure the perimeters, repeat, Squad C, move out."
Finally, he thought, and signalled his squad. "Come on, guys. Time for some action."
Irvine blasted the first Jelleye with Exeter, watching as the oddly-colourful form crumpled, fell, and disintegrated as it hit the earth. Jared was releasing another arrow, looking somewhat disgruntled that the monster didn't die at his first shot. Rissa was still hitting another one with her staff, and Irvine noted that while she knew how to use her weapon, she wasn't exactly an expert fighter.
"What do you have junctioned?" he asked.
She looked panicky. "What?"
"GF!" he said, exasperated. How come Squall always knew who had which GF junctioned? How come I didn't think of asking earlier? "Which one?"
"Carbunkle," she replied, finally managing to fend off the Jelleye, and moving out of the way just as Jared loosed an arrow at the monster.
Carbunkle? Who's the genius who gave her that?
"I have Leviathan," Jared said, loosing another shot, "but compatibility is very, very low."
"I hope at least one of you is good at paramagic," Irvine said, wondering if he'll ever live it down of his friends found out that he was having trouble handling a few Jelleyes, for Hyne's sake. For all he knew, Quisty was laughing at him from the command center right then.
Closing his eyes, he summoned Cerberus, and the world shimmered as he felt himself fade into the Guardian's realm. The three-headed GF appeared, casting Double and Triple on all of them and abruptly disappeared. Jared had managed to dispose his Jelleye, still looking somewhat annoyed. Irvine took another shot at another of the mosters – this one staggered, but didn't disappear, and he yelled at Rissa, "Cast something, will you?"
The girl gave him a frightened glance. "What?"
"It's a fly monster – try Aero or something!" He muttered something foul under his breath, suddenly missing Selphie very, very much. He took another shot, only partly noticing that Rissa hadn't cast anything. He turned to look at the girl again, and that seemed to shake her out of her panic.
He watched as the greenish hue of magic sparked around her, and just before she released the spell, he had the presence of mind to add, "And I think Holy might work, too!"
Rissa spared him a distracted glance, causing her spell to miss, and the displaced gust of wind from the Aero spell caused Jared to miss as well. Jared yelled something inaudible her way, looking disgusted at Rissa's flustered apologies before giving up on using his crossbow. Jared finally ignored her as he concentrated on his own summon.
Irvine shook his head. He was squad leader for less than half an hour, and things were already bad.
Irvine cast a Scan, hoping that Rissa had the sense to pay more attention to her magic this time. Another miss might cause Jared to turn on her. Wouldn't exactly be a very bad thing, but Quistis will certainly have his head.
The thoughts abruptly fled as the information from the Scan was fed straight to his mind. He had to wince at what he received. High-level – much higher than he had expected, with surprisingly high resistance to physical attacks. He raised his rifle and fired again, while Rissa had collected enough of her wits around her to attack with three successive Blizzaras.
Irvine had had managed to fire a few more rounds and cast a half-hearted Holy – magic was just not his stuff – before Leviathan appeared. Talk about low compatibility; that probably took maybe twice or trice the time he needed to summon the same GF – and Leviathan's Tsunami attack washed all the monsters away.
"Good thinking," Irvine said, nodding at the other man. Though it took too much time. Should've just stuck to magic.
Jared gave a slight grin, looking somewhat shaky. "We don't have high-level magic like Flare or Holy stocked," he said, second guessing what Irvine was thinking."We're just low-level cadets, remember?" He walked towards where a Jelleye had fallen, and picked up a magic stone it had dropped and toyed with it for a moment. "Man, that GF just doesn't like me."
"Leviathan doesn't like anyone. Except maybe Squall." Irvine turned to glance at the dejected-looking Rissa. "Hey, c'mon, that was a mistake anyone could've made."
She shook her head sadly. "Instructor Trepe's sure going to ask me why I got distracted in battle." Irvine opened his mouth. "And no, it wasn't your fault." He closed it back abruptly.
Irvine scratched the back of his neck, looking away.
Damn. I hate being the leader. Now what I'm supposed to say? Heck, I was supposed to remind her of that before we attacked, not during the attack – that was very bright of you, Kinneas – and I guess I was supposed to tell them to junction spells to their Elemental Defence junction to counter the Jelleyes' elemental attacks. Squall would've thought of that.
Come to think of it, I probably should've tried using another route. Do they take marks off for these sort of things?
Sefie's gonna kill me if I don't pass the exam.
I hate being the leader.
Discordant laughter rose at the back of his mind. "Not everyone is made to be a leader, Irvine Kinneas."
He whirled around. "What did you say?"
Both of his squad members were looking at him strangely. "Neither of us said anything," Jared said slowly.
Damn it. I knew the heat was getting to me.
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Author's Note
Quifer? What's a Quifer?
Just kidding.
I would dearly like to say that this fic was started because I have a story to tell, and it's not about pairings. But I can't really say that, because sometimes I get sidetracked by those kind of things too, and I've been known to prefer certain 'ships over others. Though I can tell you that if it is a Quifer, (or is it Quiefer? I can never spell that.) my muses haven't indicated so yet.
( It would be nice, though, if we could just do away with the pairings and just read whatever's good, don't'cha think? )
And many thanks to everyone who has reviewed!
