[I was worried about the previous chapter, I was stuck with it for a little while. But good to hear it worked out okay! I'm anxious about this chapter, too. It was sort of a boring scene where they just explained, going on and on. I broke it up and added as much as I could to make it half-engaging. Not sure if it worked, though…
Hee, yay, my very own cookie! :takes Saiph's cookie: Thankies! Lol, that's okay, I'm strange, too. It's all good!]
"Hey, Zone, we're here."
It was early the following morning, and Zone and Watts were awake. They had just completed a simulation of the upcoming mission, and with a timed watch, it came to 3 minutes. Which was good, for they only had 5. Adorned with a mini microphone clip and a hearing piece, Watts was ready to begin the early portion of the operation. They had just reached Timber, but Rinoa was still fast asleep.
"Hmm…well, there's no use waking her up before it's time," Zone said.
"I ain't waking her up even if it is time," Watts interjected.
"I guess you'll just wait in Timber until the SeeD's arrive. If they give the correct password, call us up and we'll pull in immediately. Till then, you're stationed in Timber. We'll be out on the rails until further notice."
Watts nodded and made his way off the train. "Man, I could be waiting here forever."
Zone laughed. "Yeah, probably. Later." Zone closed the door, and the train pulled away.
"Hey! That's not funny!" Watts yelled, though he knew they couldn't hear him over the train's noise. Though many trains came in and out of Timber, lucky for Watts, he didn't have to wait very long until the one carrying the SeeD's finally arrived. It was almost the noon hour when a train came in and a group of three people stepped off and made their way towards him.
"Oh, the forests of Timber sure has changed!" Watts said. This was his fourth time saying it. People were beginning to think he had lost his mind.
The tallest man, seemingly the leader of the group, spoke up. "But the Owls are still around."
Taking his eyes off the scar on the man's face, Watts beamed brightly, thinking that the man had to be hardcore to get such a injury, and hoped he wouldn't be maimed. "Welcome to Timber, sir. Come with me, sir." Watts made his way to the next platform, speaking into the mic he was given earlier. "They're here, Zone. Come pick us up."
"Roger. We'll be there in under 2 minutes."
Looking behind him to make sure they were following, Zone walked up the steps and down the end of the platform. "Please, please, this way, sir!"
Sure enough, the locomotive arrived, and the four of them go into the Forest Owls' Base. Zone was already there in the room waiting for them. "So, you guys are SeeD's?" He asked. He somewhat expected them to be in uniform, and not in civilian clothing.
"I'm the squad leader, Squall. This is Zell, and Selphie," the scarred man named Squall said rather bluntly.
"Nice to meet ya. I'm the leader of the Forest Owls," Zone said.
"So, let's get on with it," Squall said, looking around the train, already losing his patience. "What do we do?"
Zone looked at him oddly. They sure do go straight to business. They don't even know who they're working for! "Just take it easy. Here, let my introduce you. Looks like you already met Watts." Zone nodded over at Watts, who waved. "I guess it's just our princess, then."
"It's the princess' nap time, sir," Watts said, figuring if she wasn't up already, she was surely still asleep. She still was the day before, and the day before that. Seemed like sleeping in was her habit, and no one was brave enough to wake her, anyway.
Zone felt a stomachache coming on, and squatted down, clutching his stomach. Aw, man, off to a bad start. "Ahh, man…" Zone looked up at Squall. "Hey Squall, sorry, but could you go get the princess? She's in the last room, up those stairs. Some of our other guys are in the room on the way. Ask'em if you get lost."
Squall looked at him in disbelief. "…Were we hired to run errands?" Squall asked somewhat angrily. "Well?"
Definitely a bad start! "A-are you angry?!" Zone asked. It looked like he found someone else that made him afraid just as much as Rinoa did.
Squall was silent for some time, probably thinking to himself. "This is the last time for this kinda thing."
Zone merely cried out in pain, and a frustrated Squall went up the stairs and into the last room.
The train screeching to a halt to pick up the SeeD's had woken Rinoa up, and as she finally pulled herself up into a sitting position, she found the stranger from the night before in her room. A nice surprise from just waking up, and she wondered how long he'd be standing there. "Hey…You're…!" Rinoa trailed off. She never did catch his name. "You know, from the party…So…does that mean…You're a SeeD!?"
"I'm Squall, the squad leader. There's 2 others with me."
Overly excited, Rinoa jumped up and hugged Squall tightly, almost causing them both to fall right over. "YEEESSSS! SeeD is here!"
"Take it easy," Squall said uncomfortably, pulling the girl off him.
Having her feet properly planted back on the floor, Rinoa looked at Squall ecstatically, offering a handshake, which Squall returns. "It's just that, I'm so happy! I've been sending requests to Garden forever, but nothing…" Thinking about how she was able to speak to Cid, Rinoa continued. "I'm so glad I spoke to Cid directly!"
"Oh…So you were looking for the headmaster at the party?"
"You know Seifer?"
"…Yeah."
"Well, he's the one who introduced me to Cid. Cid is such a nice man. I really didn't think SeeD would come out to help a measly little group like us. But after explaining out situation to him, Cid gave the go ahead right away! Now that you guys are here, we'll be able to carry out all kinds of plans!"
"Uh…"
"Yes?"
"I'm goin' back to the others."
"Ok, let's go." Rinoa nodded, and began walking out with him. "Umm, Squall. Is 'he' here?" Squall didn't reply, and Rinoa became more specific. "Seifer."
After an even longer time, Squall spoke. "…..No. He's not a SeeD."
"…Oh," Rinoa said, feeling let down. She walked over to her dresser, but then takes a couple steps towards Squall again. "Oh yeah, my name's Rinoa. Very pleased to meet you Squall." With the introductions over, Rinoa decided to comment about the previous night. "SeeD members dance quite well, don't they?"
Squall brushes it off as part of work, and Rinoa felt let down once again. So you were doing it to me on purpose. "Ohh…So it's work related. That's too bad…" You should learn to dance because you want to, not cause you have to.
Noticing him staring at Angelo, who walked into the bedroom from her closet, Rinoa smiled and kneeled down her. "Here, let me introduce you. This is my partner Angelo," Rinoa said, talking as if Angelo was a person. She wondered if Squall liked dogs. Angelo didn't seem to want to bite his foot clear off his ankle, and that was always a good sign. "Angelo is really smart! Here, let me tell you…"
Rinoa went on for quite a while describing all the things Angelo was able to do. "Smart, huh?" Rinoa cried out, then spoke to Angelo. "I have some important work to do now. Be good, Angelo."
Rinoa then stood up, and the two went back to the main car.
"This is Zell…" Squall said, introducing her to the blonde man, "…And Selphie." Squall motioned over to the brunette.
Rinoa smiled brightly and nodded at each of them. "Hi everyone! This way." Rinoa led the way to the strategy room, and once everyone was inside, Zone took charge.
"Just stand anywhere you want. This is a full-scale operation. Our resistance, 'The Forest Owls', will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh? It all started when we got a hold of top-secret info from Galbadia."
"I got the info, sir," Watts said, wanting to at least get credit, especially in front of the SeeD's.
"There's a VIP from Galbadia coming to Timber," Zone continued, brushing off Watts' interruption.
"Super V-I-P!!!" Watts said, and Rinoa hit her forehead. She loved the guy to pieces, really she did, but she felt if he continued with his random comments the SeeD's would really just up and leave.
"The guy's name is Vinzer Deling! Our archenemy, and the President of Galbadia," Zone proceeded, neglecting to take notice of Watts words, though not knowing that if he did, Watts would stop. So Watts rambled on yet again.
"Vinzer Deling is a scoundrel!!! He's a dictator, not a president. Not even popular in Galbadia, sir!"
Having enough, Rinoa finally spoke up rather strongly to give Watts the message. This was not what they were rehearsing yesterday. "President Deling is taking a private train from the Galbadian capital."
Letting out a sigh of relief for Rinoa cutting in, Zone happily went on. "Our plan is to…"
But if it wasn't Watts that would be causing delays, it just had to be someone else. "…Blow it to smithereens with a rocker launcher!?" The girl in the yellow dress, Selphie, said.
"Ah…" Zone said, not sure of how to take the girl's hostile look at dealing with the situation. "Not quite…"
"So get to the point!" Zell yelled. "Just tell us what to do!"
Rinoa rolled her eyes, this time angry at the SeeD's. She found them all unimpressed by their efforts, which now looked like disorganization due to all the interferences, and they spent so long planning this. "Shall we begin?" Rinoa said, going on as if unaffected by their attitudes. Everyone turned their attention to the model that was laid out on the table.
"First, I'll go over the model. The yellow train on the top right is our 'base'. We're riding in it right now. Right next to it is the 'dummy car'. We made it to look just like the president's car." Pointing over to the next train on the other track, Rinoa carried on.
"Their train has three cars. First there's the 'locomotive' followed by the '1st escort'. The red car is the 'president's car'. Deling should be inside. The last car is the '2nd escort'." Rinoa pointed to each car as she mentioned them.
"Once we get on this one, we begin the operation. Our ultimate goal is to seize the president in his car using our 'base'. That means, we'll have to switch our 'dummy car' with their 'president's car'. We'll use the 2 switch points leading up to Timber to carry out this operation." Rinoa started up the model, and the trains began ascending, the said cars coming across the switch points, showing the switch take place.
"Ok, now I'm going to explain the procedures in seven steps. We'll get on the roof of the '2nd escort' by jumping from our 'dummy car'."
"The '2nd escort' car is the only one that is equipped with sensors, sir," Watts said uncertainly, hoping Rinoa didn't mind him saying so.
"A high tech officer is onboard. I'll talk about the sensors later," Rinoa said, saying wordlessly to Watts that it wasn't necessary, but wasn't going to have a fit over it. "We can move across the roof of the 'president's car' without worrying too much."
"Deling hates the company of his guards and being surrounded by sensors, and keeps them away from his car," Zone said, clearing up the reason why they wouldn't have any trouble so none of them would take up time asking why.
"We have to complete the uncoupling before the 1st switch point. If we don't..." Rinoa trailed off, the ending obvious to anyone who wasn't insane or under the influence of something.
"BOOM! ...Game over, right?" Selphie said, using her hands to exaggerate the explosion.
"…Yeah," Rinoa said slowly, completely overtaken by how much Selphie loved to blow things up. Is it really normal for someone to have such affection to detonations? "So we'll have to move fast. I'll explain the uncoupling process later," Rinoa said, adding that to the growing list of things she had to explain.
"After the car is uncoupled..." Rinoa lost her train of thought with the many times that they had to stop. "We'll have the 'dummy car' and our 'base' move in. At this point, our train and their train will be linked and be moving together." The model trains started to move again as Rinoa started it up, and after the first switch point, the cars were indeed all hooked and moving as one.
"This is the last uncoupling. The process will probably be similar to the last one. If all goes well, we should be able to escape with the 'president's car'. After that, we'll return to our base and prepare to confront Deling. We have exactly 5 minutes to complete the 7 procedures. If we fail, our train will collide with theirs at the switch point and it'll be over. Don't forget that."
"5 minutes…?" Zell repeated, still unsure about the time limit. "You sure that's enough?"
"According to the simulation that we ran, it should take only 3 minutes to complete the operation. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?" Zone said, almost as if saying that they didn't complete it under that time, they weren't much better than plastic models, and wasn't worth the money, especially with the way they've been acting. Though, of course, if that did indeed happen, they would all be waiting to be scraped up from the railroad tracks this time tomorrow.
"Of course! Too easy!" Selphie said confidently, probably catching on to what Zone really wanted to say.
Rinoa looked over at Squall, who hadn't actually said anything the entire time. "Ok, now let's talk about how to avoid the sensors on the '2nd escort'." Rinoa glanced over at Watts, finally his turn to speak. "……Go ahead, Watts."
Clearing his throat, Watts talked cheerfully, glad he was able to talk without being out of turn. "The guards have a 'sound sensor' and a 'temperature sensor', sir. Any sound will trigger the 'sound sensor' so move across very quickly, sir! The blue guard is carrying this sensor. The 'temperature sensor' will go off if you remain stationary, sir! The guard in red is carrying this one, sir."
Using their own blinds in the room they stood in, Watts used them as his own props as he explained more. "When a guard opens the blind," Watts paused, opening the blind, "That means he is checking the sensor, so be careful! The range on these sensors is equal to the length of one window. So keep an eye on the window below, sir."
"…So exactly how do you avoid 'em?" Zell asked.
"Um…" Watts thought the fact that they were sound and temperature sensors, that what you had to do for each was self-explanatory. "Basically, run or stop, depending on which guard is below you."
"That's about it for the sensors," Rinoa said, hoping to relieve Watts of any nervousness he might have been feeling with the question. "Next, let's talk about how to uncouple the escort cars."
"Question...!" Selphie said, raising a hand. "How can you uncouple the cars from a moving train?"
"Umm…" Rinoa said. If you just waited, it would have been explained. "We can't uncouple the cars directly."
"Instead, we'll have to temper with the control system that manages the coupling. If we temporarily disable the circuit for the connection, the car will uncouple automatically. To disable it, we have to enter several codes," Zone voiced.
"...And we have the codes," Watts uttered. "Well…Rinoa has them, sir!"
"I'll be in charge of relaying the codes to Squall." Rinoa looked directly at Squall. If he wasn't going to pay attention to everything else, he best had to now. "Squall, you'll slide down on the side of the train using a cable and enter the codes into the system. Now, I need you to listen carefully. Each code is made up of numbers between 1-4 and has 4 digits: 2341 is an example. You have to be quick and precise. You'll have about 5 seconds to enter each code. Otherwise, the code will change and the past entries will become invalid. So like we said, we have to enter all the codes to disable the connections."
Rinoa returned her gaze to the rest of the group. "After we uncouple the cars, we'll wait for the others to operate the rail switch. Remember, we only have 5 minutes to do everything, so make sure that you're prepared. Ok, let's try practicing entering the code. Enter 3 codes and you'll be finished." Rinoa handed Squall a keypad that looked like the one he would be dealing with out on the mission.
After relaying to him various different number combinations, some of which he did get wrong, Squall felt himself prepared and handed the keypad back to her. "You got it?" Rinoa asked, taking it and placing it on the table. "In the real thing, there's a strict time limit leading up to the switch point. Don't forget that. Umm...that's all."
Delighted that the meeting was finally adjourned, most of the group stretched.
"By the way..." Selphie said, figuring now was the time to ask, "This model's nice but the president's car looks kinda shabby.....Why is that?"
Rinoa froze. She had hoped no one would bring it up.
"Yeah, Rinoa made it. That's why. We bought everything else at the gift store," Watts answered.
"Oh…" Zell said, noticing it too. "I thought some kid made it. The paint job sucks, too."
"Oh, shut up!" Rinoa shouted, quickly thinking up a reason for it. She wasn't going to admit she stayed up late at night making it if that was how they were going to be like. "I made it look like that on purpose. It represents my hatred towards Deling."
"Hatred, eh...? Yeah...right." Zell didn't believe her for a second.
"It's one of the...ugliest things that I've ever seen in my life," Selphie said, disgusted. "You must really hate him."
Rinoa mouthed dropped in complete incredulity, and she looked at Squall, wondering if he was going to join in on bashing her as well. They certainly didn't learn manners at the school of theirs, or at least mild criticism. Honestly! It isn't that bad! How rude could these people be? It's just a train! Don't you have more important things to be worrying about? "Are you guys finished!? Enough about the model! Can we get on with it now!? Do you understand?"
"Yes," Squall said simply.
Though he didn't say anything, Rinoa was sure he was agreeing with his teammates. He may have been cute, but that was all he had going for him as far as Rinoa was concerned at that moment. If he had something to say about it, he should have just said it. It wasn't stopping Zell or Selphie. Might as well trash her in her face then in his mind. "Let's decide on the party!" Rinoa said, still pissed off. She didn't want to be with any of them at just now.
"Gathering information is my specialty, sir!" Watts said. He didn't want to be near Rinoa when she was mad. Rinoa looked at him with skepticism.
"OuuuucHHHHH...... My stomach!" Zone said, squatting back down and holding onto his stomach. Rinoa knew he got stomachaches when he was nervous, but she wondered if he was faking it this time just to get out of it. Before she could say anything the train jerked harshly, signaling they were approaching the President's train.
"We're moving again..." Rinoa said distantly, looking up at the ceiling as if she could see through metal. "I'll go take a look. Talk to Watts when you're ready. The sooner the better." Still angry, Rinoa walked off and went outside onto the roof of the moving train.