Chapter 6: What the hell was that?

"Come on! Wake up!" Cho shouted, he was sitting on Nida's chest, fully cloth and ready to go.

Nida stirred underneath the weight with a loud defiant groan, the only thing he got in return was more shoats for him to wake up from Cho. With one swift buck of his hips Cho was sent flying off of him and tumbling to the ground. With the weight gone Nida fell soundlessly back to sleep as if he hadn't been remotely awake at all.

Cho groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head lightly as he pulled himself on to his feet by the side of the bed. With out hesitation he jumped back on top of Nida. "Wake! Up! Come on you promised!" He shouted even louder then before, planting his hands on Nida's chest and shaking him even harder.

If Nida remembered it correctly, this was his day off, his one day to sleep in and be irresponsible. So why was he being awakened? "Eh….it's too early." He mumbled, pulling the cover over his head.

"What? No it's not!" Cho protested, climbing off of Nida before the older boy rolled over and he fell again.

No, it didn't seem like Cho would leave him alone, it was futile to fight against it since he knew Cho would keep pushing and pushing until he eventually got up anyway. "What time is it?" Nida asked sleepily.

"It's 8:30." Nida let out a sleepy yawn, shifting his hands behind him and pushing upright. Cho paused to admire the look he portrayed when just wakening him, how his relatively short brunet hair was in disarray, those chocolate eyes half lidded, the way the t-shirt he was wearing clung to him. He couldn't help but smile. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, Yeah."

! - ! - !

"!" A loud sound forced Zell back in to conciseness abruptly, his eyes shot open and he sprang upright, looking around anxiously. He half expected to see some type of monster, or something bursting trough his wall, maybe even that they had crashed into something

Zell let out a relieved sigh, clinching his chest to steady his racing heart. All he found was that Carbuncle was still sleeping in his lap who now also awake from the sudden agitation, the sound was loud for Zell but even louder for Carbuncle because of his more sensitive hearing.

"What the hell was that!" Zell shouted, rubbing his eyes as he shaking his head to clear away the reaming sleepiness. There was no way in hell he was going back to sleep after waking up like that.

"I have no idea." Carbuncle jumped off Zell lap knowing he was about to get up. With a small yawn Carbuncle faded out of reality and junctioned himself to Zell.

! - ! - !

Of course his first course of action was to investigate, which may have been a problem because everyone else was thinking the same thing leaving the Garden cluttered with curious students. 'Where did it come from?' Zell wade his way curiously through the other students, wondering if their was a place everyone hadn't already searched.

(Some place under us.) Carbuncle suggested. It had been a grinding sound mixed with a loud boom, it flared up quickly and only lasted for about a second but in that small time it had shuttered through the whole structure.

His first thought was that the Garden had crashed in to something, so logically his first destination was check the ring. But what would be a good vantage point?

'The back of the training center!'

(The quad!)

Carbuncle and Zell had two different ideas that came up at the same time.

(Let's go to your idea first.)

Zell began to push his way through the crowd, moving quickly down the circular hall with a lot of apology. During his hurry he nearly ran into Irvine who'd been going the opposite way, who technically wasn't a student but had a dorm here anyway.

"Hey Zell." Irvine gave him a small wave and fixed his hat which Zell almost knocked off.

"S'up."

The first thing Irvine thought to do was as the same thing that was on everyone's mind at the moment. "You know where that came from?"

Zell shook his head. "No"

Irvine seeing that Zell could offer him no answers he returned to his own search, half harboring the thought of a monster being the cause of the sudden upstart. "Well tell me if you do find something out, I'm going to keep looking around." Irvine called back as he continued walking the opposite way, it seemed that nobody knew which way the had sound come from.

It had been so loud that it sounded like it was coming from every direction at once. Naturally when that happens, everyone assumes it comes from the floor they were on since they heard it so clearly. Everyone except for them.

Last time Zell checked the Garden was docked at their old position in Balamb, which was a crater, bringing up the question that maybe something hit from beneath the ring. Maybe they could see it from the training center, or at least thats what Zell hoped as he finally made it to the training area.

There was a much less volume of students here, most of them had already checked around the place and found nothing. Plus it wasn't somewhere you wanted to stay in look in great detail, being idle for to long would be asking for an attack from behind.

Going through the metal doors to the second area of the center he found even less people here. Either from how early it was in the morning or their curiosity had disproved and they moved on. Zell's body seemed to move on auto pilot because his mind was holding a conversation with Carbuncle meaning he wasn't paying attention. Not until he was snapped back in to it by a loud roar from behind. Which he immediately knew as a T-Rexaur.

Doing a quick pivot from years of built speed, Zell lifted his hand and cast an Blizzaga spell, surrounding the reptile in a crystallize mass of ice. It shattered a few seconds later leaving the monster visibly weakened, angered by the spell it charged toward him with it's mouth open wide and an earth shaking roar. Turning it's head to the side trying to catching him with in it's sharp teeth. Zell flipped backwards evasively, avoiding the attack by only a few calculated inches and countering with a strong to monster's jaw before it could draw back.

The blow forced the monster to stumble backwards with quaky steps and looked as if it would lose it's balance before it caught it self. With a deep growl it turned around quickly, wiping it's long tail at Zell and striking painfully in the side of the head. Despite his major growth in defense since the last time he fought one of these, a blow to the head that strong still hurt like hell.

"Damnit!" Zell was sent to the side until he lost balance and fell to the ground, rolling to a stop. The monster didn't hesitate to run at him with it's mouth open wide, in almost a flinching motion Zell lifted his hand and cast a Blizzaga spell from the ground, encasing the T-Rexaur completely in ice.

Zell stumbled to his feet, closing the small gap between them with a few steps before he drew his arm back and threw a punch at it. With one strike the ice shattered, taking the body with it. "Man that hurt." Zell stepped over the shards, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit. From there it was only a short walked to the secret area, he found Squall already there looking peering the railing.

"Squall?" Zell stood beside him, taking a small glance at the concentration on his face. "Guess we had the same idea." Zell placed his hands on the railing and leaned over, stretching as far as he could until he almost fell.

Squall grabbed Zell by his shirt collar and pulled him back before he did. "See anything?"

"Nope." Zell shook his head.

(Maybe it's on the other side.) Carbuncle suggested.

'Yeah, what was your idea again?'

(The quad.)

"Carbuncle thinks we should check the quad, Wanna come?" Zell asked.

Reasonable enough, Squall nodded an agreement and began towards the quad while Zell turned to take took one last look.

! - ! - !

The fastest way out of the Training center was to go out of the second entrance.

Squall proceeded with a sense of alertness, cautious for any monsters that may have tried to attack him.

He felt a shift in the air behind him, causing his sense of alert to flare up and his mind to scream at him that this could only be a monster. With out hesitation, Squall to a step forward, drew his gunblade and turned around toward the disturbance with his sword outward.

He was relieved to find Griever there. "Griever?" Squall returned his gunblade to it's place, taking a second look around so that nothing else would surprise him. "Where's Ifrit?"

"Outside, looking for the cause of some sound. I'm sure you heard it." Griever started fading out of reality as he junctioned himself with Squall seeing no reason to stay apart.

Great, if Ifrit was outside they could finally know what the cause of the sound in question had been.

! - ! - !

The wave of students that had investigating the first floor scattered and disbursed after having no luck, now just going about their day and talking about it amongst themselves. Squall moved patiently across the circular path towards the Quad, waiting for Ifrit to return with some type of information. He'd come looking for him or at lest for Griever eventually, until then there was no use worrying--- (

Squall! Move!) Griever shouted, With tuned reflexes Squall steeped to the side unknowing of the threat, he saw as this strange monster brush narrowly over his shoulder, clearly it had been aiming for his head.

Looking at it he could see that it was something he'd never seen before and obviously couldn't identify it, a wolf like creature with an almost a dark purple fur that could just faintly be recognized as not being black. It's eyes were accented with red pupils, it was a strange creature. 'What is that?' Squall looked at it surveyingly, wondering where it had come from.

(I don't know…..) Griever didn't quite know what it was either, and he thought he'd fought just about every type of fiend there was.

It lunged at him with an audible snarl, Squall lifted his sword ready to attack but to his surprise it changed in mid air. Shifting shapes from the wolf body into a large black spike that moved much faster then the monster did before. Squall flinched and stepped to the side, just barely letting the spike graze his head and slice through a strand of his hair. 'What!'

It stopped just short of the crowd that had developed behind them.

With great agility, the black monster dropped into a pool of water upon landing and the original wolf form sprang out. Slashing Squall with it's claws and landing behind him. 'It's fast.' Squall turned around, whipping the sword with him and slicing in to the wolf as it lunged at him again, knocking it back. Quickly regaining itself it charged at him again with great speed, instead of jumping it crouched this time and slid along the ground.

With out missing a step it changing back in to the water like form that came at Squall like a cast shadow. Thin but long blades shot up from the shadow that made it's way be night Squall. The tip of one grazed the side of his leg, the next spike that came up was just a few inches to far and sliced across his chest. Squall tilted his head back and avoided a fatal blow from the same spike, diving to the side and out of the way of the water form of the monster with no other way to go.

Squall rolled on to his feet and in one fluid motion he threw his gun blade in to the center of the shadow. The black liquid jump upward from the injury in a splash like motion, sliding out from beneath the blade and reforming back in to the wolf that immediately lunged at Squall again. 'Am I even hurting it! It's too fast!'

Pushing his way out from over the crowd of people, Zell jumped into the fight latterly, grabbing the wolf by it's neck in mid air before it could make it half way to Squall. "What the hell is this thing?" Still falling from the high jump he pulled it down and drove his knee in to it's head before threw it to the ground. It landed hard, breaking down in to the liquid form again on impact.

"Zell look out!" Squall called, reaching for his sword still planted in the ground. It splashed upward into a long blades with 5 prongs that came right at Zell who was still falling.

"Uhhhaaaa!" Zell pulled his head back and flipped backwards, narrowly sliding pasted the blades so closely that they grazed his shirt. He sent a kick into the black blades, pushing himself down to the ground. Squall came from behind, slicing through the thick black spikes and watching the halves still intact retreat to the ground. The shadow on the ground changed back into the wolf, only to be cut in half with an overhead slash from Squall, and it's body quickly faded with it's defeat.

"There is something weird going on!" Zell said, nearly shouting as he looked around at the crowd.

"For get it. Come on, let's go!" Squall waved him towards the Quad, now running towards it as fast as he could. What ever that sound was had to come from below, and maybe they could see it from a different angle.

(That monster, it came from behind you, could it have come from the training center?) Griever asked.

'No, I've never seen anything like it, it was too quick, too dangerous. No one would willing put it in a place where beginners trained, there's no way to run from it.' Squall told him, moving quickly down the stairs to the Quad's entrance.

"Squall!" Rinoa called, seeing him from the stage in the middle of the Garden's wing. She jumped down from the platform and ran towards him, giving him a quick worried hug. "I just heard that a monster attacked you, are you alright?" She asked.

That sure got around fast, how odd. "I'm fine, I don't know how it got in though." Squall said, walking over to the edge of the quad and looking over the railing.

"There may be more of them, if there are those things could hurt a lot of people." Zell said, leaning over the edge as well, finding nothing unusual.

"Whatever monster you guys are talking about, it's probably connected to the loud noise...uh where did that sound come from?" Rinoa walking back over on to the stage and sitting down on the edge, hoping to get some type of answer from them past her own knowledge.

"Somewhere under us." Zell said, resting on the left side of her while Squall sat on the right.

(It could be the shelter under the garden.) Carbuncle suggested.

'Hey, you right! The shelter's under us.' "It could be the shelter." Zell relayed.

As if on que a clicking sound emitted from below them, it was loud enough to come through the thickly layered ground. "Hey wait…that came from towards the elevator." Rinoa noticed that sound was stronger in one direction and since it was come from underground it could only be coming from source. She climbing off the stage and heading hastily towards the exit, Squall and Zell clearly did the same.

The three broke out in to a run through the curved main hall in to a sudden crowd of people that had gathered to investigate the new sound. They pushed through the people, making there way up the short flight of steps to the elevator where Squall stopped to tell them to stay back until farther notice. The three of them stepped inside and headed down.

On the way down Rinoa had a thought. "You know, it might not be the shelter, remember where NORG was? What about there?" The idea just popped in to Rinoa's head, she quickly pressed the button before they passed the floor.

"Your going to check it out?" Squall asked.

"Yeah, I'm just going to look around, if it's anything serous I'll go get some help." Rinoa promised him as the elevator doors rolled open.

Squall knew she could take care of her self, he doubted that anything serous was their anyway.

! - ! - !

Rinoa looked around the darkened room cautious, the only illumination was the dim glow of emergency lights. 'The power must have been cut down here.' She thought to herself, walking toward the pod NORG used to reside in.

"What is that?" She heard a small clicking sound just like the one she heard before up stairs, there was definitely something down here.

She looked toward the Pod, noticing the top was open and something with dark and furry was climbing inside. Must be a monster. "Hey! You!" She shouted, aiming the projectile on her wrist.

It seemed to jump at the sound of her voice, it's body changing and expanding in to a liquid that seeped through out the pod that had helped NORG in battle, turning the whole machine and the three orbs it had completely black. The machine roared to life once again with a low hmm, targeting Rinoa.

'I better get some help on this one…..' She looked toward the elevator and saw that wasn't back yet, she was trapped until it returned. The broken orbs on the side of the machine began to illuminate, instead of casting magic spells as they had before large beams fired from them. A red light flashed on all three of the orbs, firing out 3 thick red beams that melded to one wall.

The large ray reflected off the metal walls, coming right towards her though somewhat dulled. There was no place to move to, the attack was too large to avoid. "Ah! Shell!" A pink shell curled around Rinoa's body but had no effect. The red beam turned out to be a physical attack.

She bit back a scream of pain as the beam devoured her body, it felt like steel, smashing her from all sides and forcing her to the ground. Finally the beam faded away allowing Rinoa to get to her feet with an extended arm, "Protect!" A blue shield shined over her front side.

This time a blue light shined through the black orbs as a beam began to charge, giving her an opportunity to attack. "Flare!" She thrust her hands forward, sending a wave of red energy over the machine. An explosion came from center of the controlled machine, sending a strong shockwave outward from the force.

It nothing to detour the attack, the three orbs fired, the beams mixing together in one massive blue light that came directly for her, in an instant it completely surrounded her, hitting her with magic damage that was shielded somewhat by the shell spell she cast earlier.

With her arm shielding her face from the bright, burning light she was able to here a sound. The distinct sound of the elevator returning.

Rinoa endured the attack, backing away to the elevator and opening the door with the press of a button as soon as she got the chance. 'What was that thing?' She didn't do much this time, but when she came back she wouldn't go so easy.