--Chapter 2: My name is Mark--

After school, Mark left Zell and went to the dorm room that was assigned him. Students were given rooms on campus when they enrolled but were allowed to spend the nights and weekends off campus if they wanted. Of course they had to be back for classes the next day or Monday.

During the week he was in the dorms, on the weekends he 'got away' to the small apartment he kept in Dueling City.

He sighed as he looked around the sparsely furnished dorm room. There was a bed, a desk and chair, computer (provided by the school of course), lamp, television, closet and bathroom. He kept very few, if any, of his possessions here. Glancing to the wall he spotted his gun blade, the weapon he had shown the most skill at using during the weapons entrance exam.

Taking it from its hook on the wall, he removed it from its holster, the cold metal gleaming in the harsh fluorescent lighting of the room.

After taking a few practice swings, he returned the blade to its holster and moved toward the door, weapon in hand. His destination was the Training Center, the only place they were allowed to use their weapons outside of open combat and in class training.

The Training Center was a secured building attached to the campus by a walkway with sliding metal partitions designed to stop an escape. Inside the Training Center were monsters that roamed the open plains of the planet, hunting anything that came into their view. There were monsters of various skill levels here, with the most advanced and deadly being the T-rex.

Wandering aimlessly through the center he came across few lower skilled monsters, they could sense his energy and kept away.

Finally after half an hour of wandering he found a monster worthy of battle, a Grendel, an ugly creature that was classified as being a smaller type of dragon. It was rumored that they could, on occasion, be more powerful than some of their bigger counterparts.

Mark smiled as he engaged the two Grendels in front of him.

The battle was short but violent, the Grendels dying quickly at the hands of Mark. One of the Grendels, just before it died managed to strikeMarkin the shoulder with a claw, the blood flowing onto the claw as the creature died.

Mark grimaced as he pulled the talon from his shoulder. Re-holstering his Gun blade he moved his hand to stop the blood flow.

Turning towards the exit he saw the girl from the courtyard staring at him as he moved towards her.

As he passed her, she stopped him with a hand on his good shoulder and spoke.

"You're hurt," she said, concern evident in her eyes.

"It's just a flesh wound, nothing more," he replied as he gently pulled away and towards the exit.

He was stopped again as she moved in front of him, hand placed firmly on her hips. Squall sighed and looked at her for truly the first time. She had raven black hair, skin the color of porcelain, eyes a deep warm brown, and lips the color of red roses. She looked like a fallen angel.

"I saw your fight, that Grendel got you good," she said as her eyes flashed with worry.

Sighing again, he tried to reassure her, even as the blood flowed around his fingers and into his shirt.

"Look, I have a medical kit in my dorm room; I'm going to fix my shoulder up there. Plus, it's nothing, don't worry about it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to dress this before I bleed to death."

With that he pushed pass her and out the doors towards his quarters, she followed him out of the Training Center but left him to his own devices as she left for the cafeteria.

As she walked along with a smile on her face, she was unaware of a pair of eyes following her all the way to the cafeteria. They left her once she entered.

When she arrived, she looked for her 1st friend at Balamb Garden, a cheerful girl named Selphie. Spotting her friend sitting at a table, she made her way there.

"Hi Selphie," she said as she sat down.

"Hi Rinoa, what's up?"

"I just ran into the strangest boy I've ever met. He took on 2 Grendels and in seconds killed them, and then one of them wounded him before it died. Then he tried to leave the Training Center for his dorm room and not the infirmary."

"Don't worry bout it, lots of people keep medical kits in their rooms, most of the time hey don't want to go to the infirmary. What'd he look like, I may know who it is," she replied with a grin. "Is he cute?"

"Very! He's taller than I am, about 6'1", dark hair, storm gray eyes, scar across the bridge of his nose," Rinoa replied.

Selphie's eyes grew wide as she realized whom Rinoa was talking about, and what it could mean.

"I know who that is, he's a lone wolf, and his only friend is some guy named Zell. No one knows anything about him, not even the Headmaster. But, just so you know, his name is Mark Gray."

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(Ha! Mark I told you I'd get you back, fear the power of my control over the Grendrels!)

Mark: Whatever. I barely got a scratch, and you call that revenge?

The author flushes then gets angry

(Just what till next time! Just you wait!)

Mark: Screw this...I'm out of here and in case you've forgotten (turns to readers) P.S send long reviews

(Hey that's my line!)