psychobunny410: Dude, thanks for the review. And yeah, there is something in there. Something...strange. Read the chapter to find out!

jazzfire: Hmm, interesting idea...

Luna of Elera: I'm glad you like it so far.

Ballroom Troubles: Part Three

"W-what was that?" squeaked Rinoa.

"I don't know... But I do know that Zell and Seifer will never hear the end of the fact they just squealed like little girls," Irvine said evilly, chuckling slightly. By now, they had gotten used to the darkness, and the faint light from the stars allowed them to generally see who was moving, although the idenity of that person was difficult to distinguish. Irvine had his hat to helped tell him apart, and Squall was the only one leaning casually on the wall. Other than that, it was kind of hard to tell the three girls apart.

"Irvine, we have to focus on getting out of here!" said Quistis. "I don't want to be stuck here forever."

"Okay, okay. Jeez, don't be so uptight."

"Let's get back to my original plan," said Selphie. "We need to gather up unimportant things to throw at the windows so someone gets us out of here."

"Why don't we just stay here?" suggested a bored voice. Everyone turned in the general direction that they thought that Squall was in, meaning that in reality they ended up facing a wide variety of places.

"What?" said Rinoa said. "How can you say that?"

"Well, in the end, someone will come looking for us. And being in the dark isn't hurting any of us. Why waste silverware by throwing it at windows when we could just accept this absurd predicament and get some sleep?"

"You may want to stay here, but I want to get into a nice warm bed," said Rinoa. She started to slowly walk around, looking, or rather feeling, for the tables. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Y'know Squall, you're pretty brilliant and all when it comes to planning stuff and leading stuff, but I don't wanna spend my life in here," said Selphie. "Or even a night. I'm gonna get out."

"Yeah, dude," Irvine added. "I had some major plans for tonight."

"Irvine, for the last time, you can't drive from Dollet to Deling in under three hours! The cops will arrest you, and I refuse to pay more bail for you than I already have. Plus Garden will not be thrilled with it," Selphie said, exhasperated.

"But Sefie, I have a bet curcuit on Garden Square. I could win a lot of money! The odds are excellent! And then I can rub my winnings in stupid Zell's face, seeing as he's the one betting the most against me."

"You're not supposed to bet within Garden walls!"

"Yeah, not in the open. Behind the scenes, though, with some well chosen code names..."

"I was wondering why you had a site on flower prices."

"Hey, it's a great cover."

"Yeah, the biggest 'macho man' pretender ever having a flower site isn't suspicious in anyway."

"What do you mean, pretender?"

"Irvine, Selphie, please..." said Quistis wearily. "It's been a long night, and you're making it even longer."

"But Quistis..." two voices whined in unison.

"No, don't even argue. Just get some stuff together to throw."

"Seifer... What is that?" whispered Zell. "I keep punching straight through it."

"I don't know." Neither of them said it, but they were both thinking it. It was the poltergeist. Seifer tried to make a bold retreat, but the very solid door and wall made that plan impossible.

"Seifer, the poltergeist is here," Zell whispered, trying to make himself very flat against the wall, but failing because Seifer was already doing that exact same thing.

"Well, it can't be real," he tried to reason, pushing himself away from the wall. He reached out to grab at whatever it was, but it just glided out of the way. He frowned.

"See, it's scared of us!" he said with a lot more confidence than he felt. Zell chuckled nervously, although he did not move an inch from the wall. Seifer took another step, and suddenly the poltergeist rounded on him, moving in with barely visible fangs.

Seifer, in a moment of desperation, threw Zell into the path of the white monstrosity that was slowly creeping toward them, and ran to the other side of the room, throwing himself behind a pile of crates. Zell, too shocked by this sudden move to defend himself in anyway, was shoved headlong straight at the white mass. He recovered before he connected with it, though, and fell to the side. The white mass moved jerkily to hover over him, and he quickly jumped behind the crates with Seifer, landing on him.

"You're absolutely right, there's nothing there," muttered Zell sarcastically, trying to regain his balanced.

"Shut up," Seifer hissed. "And get off my lap."

"Trust me, I'm trying," Zell grumbled, finally getting himself balanced enough to remove himself from the awkward position. Seifer chanced a glance at the mass, and saw that it was still there.

"Okay, supposing that thing does exist, how do we get rid of it, or get out of here?" he questioned. Zell frowned, deep in thought.

"Uh...I don't know," he admitted. Seifer sighed.

"It's gonna be a long night, isn't it?"

They'd managed to gather together an odd collection of items to throw at the windows above them. Each and everyone one of them had gathered on the balcony, with the exception of Squall, who was still bonding with his wall.

"Should we really be throwing some of this stuff?" asked Quistis as she looked at one of the crystal vases of Garden's. "It might not be disposable, or replacable."

"Then Garden can bill me," grumbled Irvine, picking up a fork. "Godspeed, oh aerodynamic fork."

"How do you know it's aerodynamic?" asked Rinoa curiously. "Learning isn't really your thing."

"That was actually more of a prayer," Irvine said, pulling his arm back, then thrusting it forward, releasing the fork with all the strength he could muster. However, he did not have the arm strength of Zell. Therefore, the fork managed to fly three feet into the air, then tumbled downward and crashed into the ocean below them. Selphie looked at Irvine, annoyed.

"Smooth," she said sarcastically. Irvine grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, I meant to do that," he said, leaning against the railing and tipping his hat casually, trying to look cool and in control. None of the three women were particularly impressed by this display, however.

"I bet even I could throw better than that," Selphie said, picking up several forks. She carefully sighted the window above them, and threw the forks. One actually managed to hit the window. She looked smugly at Irvine. "Oh yeah."

"Huh, that was mere luck," Irvine muttered darkly. Selphie just laughed as they all started to pick up more things to throw. Fifteen minutes later, however, they were starting to run out of things to throw. They'd managed to hit the window several times, but no one answered. Selphie hefted the crystal vase, and looked up at the window.

"Okay, here it goes," she said, pulling her arm back and carefully aiming for the window.

"Choke, choke!" shrieked Irvine as she was about to throw. Selphie, startled, stopped in mid throw. The vase wobbled, but she didn't drop it. She turned to face Irvine, annoyed.

"You do realize this vase is our last chance of escape, right? Ruining my shot doesn't help you in anyway."

"Or so you think," Irvine said, winking. "But I have a wonderful idea for getting out of here, and it doesn't require your barely acceptable arm strength."

"If mine's barely acceptable, what's yours?" Selphie muttered.

"Tsk, tsk, you won't get my help this way."

"I don't need it."

"You're gonna regret saying that. My idea is the best ever. In fact, it's stunning, if I do say so myself. It's the absolute epitome of - "

"If this has anything to do with you playing your guitar I will strangle you. I also threw it over the side of Garden this afternoon."

"...But the problem with genius is it's fleeting, and my idea is gone. Please, proceed," Irvine said, quickly changing tactics and bowing toward her mockingly. Selphie just snorted, and pulled her arm back. She sighted the window, and threw it with all her strength. The vase crashed through the window, and Selphie shrieked in delight.

"Whoo-hoo!" she shrieked. There were angry murmurs above them, which everyone assumed were violent curses, and a person leaned out the window.

"Watch where you're throwing your junk!" snapped a voice, throwing the pieces of the vase over the side. Everyone threw themselves to the side of the shards, trying to avoid the shrapnel. The person, who sounded female although you never could be too sure about these things, started to leave, but Quistis called desperately after what they assumed was a female.

"Hey, wait!" The person came back.

"Quistis? Is that you?" called the person.

"Xu! Please, you have to help me. We're caught down here in the ballroom, and we can't get out!"

"How did that happen?"

"It's a long story, okay? Can't you just get down here and help us?"

"All right, I'll go find Cid and explain the situation."

"Thank you so much," Quistis said in relief. They all laughed, glad it was soon to be all over with.

"Seifer, stop snoring before I beat you with the spatula I just discovered I'm sitting on," snappped Zell, irritated with the way Seifer had so easily fallen asleep.

"Why?" he grumbled, pulling his trenchcoat tighter around himself because it was so cold in the boiler room, which seemed rather ironic although they didn't find it that funny.

"Because it's - " Zell stopped suddenly, and looked at the door. "Did you just hear that?"

"The sound of a knob turning? Yeah," Seifer said, wide awake all of a sudden. "What god blessed me with this?" he wondered aloud.

"Here, Fido, come here boy!" called a voice, a male voice. The two looked at each other, confused. "Aw, there you are! And look, you got tangled up in your sheet again! Here, let me get that off."

The two of them sprang up, and came face to face with Jordon Cadmus and a rather large anacondaur.

"Oh - " began Zell.

"My - " added Seifer.

"GOD!" they finished together.

"You idiot!" snapped Zell, looking ready to strangle Jordon. He looked up, startled by their sudden appearance.

"Whoa, what were you two doing back there?" he wondered, curious.

"That doesn't matter! You scared us!" Suddenly, something else occured to him. "Hey, you were the one that let that anacondaur into Garden!"

"Um, now see, there's a great explination for that. See, I was... uh, um... oh." He stopped petting his monster's head as the implications set in. "You're not gonna tell, are you?"

"Jordon, we have to," Zell said. Jordon frowned.

"If you do that, I'm telling everyone you and Seifer were alone in the basement!" he snapped, looking at each of them. They stared, shocked. "You let me get Fido out of Garden, and don't tell anyone, and I won't mention this little incident to anyone, okay?"

"He's got us," Seifer admitted. "It's a deal."

"Excellent." Jordon shook each of their hands, then walked out of the room, Fido trailing behind him in his sheet. Seifer and Zell raced for the door, determined to see the light of day again.

"Quistis, are you still in there?" called Xu, much to the relief of all invovled.

"Xu, thank god you're here!" Quistis said, running over to the door. A moment later there was a sickening crunch, and the sound of something flesh-like hitting the marble floor. "Ouch," she hissed, "That was a wall."

"Ouch," murmured Rinoa sympathetically the they followed Quistis's lead, although they avoided running and walls. The five assembled together at the door, and waited with baited breath as Cid ambled over to the door. There was the sound of a key entering the lock, then metal hitting metal. Silence fell.

"Damn key always sticks," grumbled Cid. "Let's see if I can... No, wait, that might break it.. Huh, what if I turn it like this, then twist it... No, maybe I should pull it out and put it back in... That's not right either..."

Squall charged the door just as Rinoa did. They collided into each other just as Cid opened the door, and the two of them tumbled out into the open hallway, tangled up in each other. Rinoa landed awkwardly on top of Squall, and the two of them looked up in shock at Cid, who was standing over them. You know about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, right? Think of his nose, and you've got a good idea as to how Squall and Rinoa's faces looked right about now. Cid just chuckled.

"Geez, hang a sock on the door or something when you're gonna do that," he said, laughing. Squall quickly pushed Rinoa off of him, and stood up, his face getting redder still, which he managed to do with ease.

"Uh, sir, I can explain - "

"Oh, you don't have to," Cid said cheerily as he winked, walking into the room. Xu followed him, and the five friends started down the hallway, glad to be free. Suddenly, there was a shriek from the room behind them.

"My VASE! Oh, my precious, my precious!" Cid wailed at the top of his lungs, which was really high for an older dude. The five looked at each other, and came to the same agreement.

"RUN!"