Chapter Three – Meetings with Old Friends Pt. 3
I look around at all the rubble near the somewhat small Garden and ask myself, since I couldn't remember, 'Did they ever rebuild Trabia Garden?' Squall answered that for me, "Trabia Garden, hit by missiles six years ago, rebuilt a year later, five years of happiness, destroyed six months ago by order of the Sorceress. I hope Selphie is alive still," he says and moves on through the gate. Rinoa followed him and I after her. Once we were over and gazed around at all the destruction, we knew it was bad, very bad. People were walking around, chatting, keeping up that high and cheerful spirit Trabia always had. We walk up a little and spot Selphie's friend against the same fountain when she spotted us, she smiled and waved us over.
"Hey guys haven't seen you in like, six years. You never came to Trabia's Reopening party; you always seem to catch this place in ruins. But anyway good to see you again. Here to see Selphie? I bet you are, she's passed the graveyard to the right and in the gym. Since the missiles again and Irvine from a few years back, she's been training nonstop. I hope she's okay. Anyway, hope she's happy to see you," she says and walks off.
We all exchange glances and nod solemnly. We head off and move through the graveyard and into the gym. This building inside was a very nice gym. Big workout equipment for all your muscles, big blue padded track, punching bags, wooden bars on a post for punches and where to stop your hand for blocks, and computer fight simulators that create real beings and you set difficulty to your level of skill and will fight until either human or lifelike computer wins. Oh, and the monster training area was on the other side of the track, behind a thick looking steel door. Selphie was fighting against three simulations, fist and feet moving at a great pace. She was built and fought very well; she was winning against them. I glance at the computer levels for each fighter and they were all on Very Hard. That was about five levels down from the hardest. It was all very impressive that she could do that and against three even! See, on these things, there was Very Easy, Easy, Novice, Intermediate, Above Average, Strong, Advanced, Super Advanced, Hard, Very Hard, Hardest, Unstoppable, Godlike, and the two not many people could do, Invincible, and Immortal.
When she won, the simulations disappear in defeat. She glances over at the three of us and a bright, normal looking smile from her spreads across her face. She jumps up in the air and runs over to us throwing her arms over Squall, then Rinoa and gives me a little extra long hug. Her hair was longer, mid back length, tied back into a tight ponytail. From her middle scalp, two red bangs about an inch out from the middle line hang down. Same blue eyes scan each of us and she nods smiling. She was dressed in very short white shorts, a dark navy spaghetti strap tank top on her upper body, a pair of light tan knee high leather boots, and one black holster around each calf housing the brand new, black and silver 9mm handguns with unlimited ammo. They were both very new and very expensive.
"Hiya guys, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" she asks and sits down on the wooden bench and wipes some sweat off. She swigs some water and I answer her first, "Well Selphie, first of all, where did you learn all of that? You look better than me, I could never take very hard mode well, let alone three. Anyway, we're here on account of the Sorceress no one has seen, we want you to help us on an assault and destroy mission against her. We need your Selphie with us, our cheerful and always happy Selphie with us. Interested?"
She thinks for a second and responds, "Well, first off, those three very hard mode characters are more of a warm up, then I fight two invincible, and one immortal. After that, I work out for about two hours then jog twenty laps around the track, twenty forward, and twenty backwards. I go home, eat and go to bed, Wake up early the next day and continue the same thing. I was planning on going to find you guys, see if you wanted to go after the Sorceress like what most of us were trained to do. Anyway, I would love to come, get back at that woman for attacking Trabia Garden again. Anyway, how about we leave in two days so I can say good bye to everyone and get a little more training in," she says and walks off. Squall and Rinoa walk off and I sigh softly and start a good pace jog around the track.