A/N: Alright… zis Chapter shall have a paragraph-style description for the four main characters (That would be Phoenix, Yuwain, Mack, and Jullianne). Enjoy 'um along with the rest of the story… or face my wrath twitch

Step Three

"Now you must make YOURSELF valuable to the clan in engagements. Try to have all your abilities mastered beforehand (if possible) or master them as soon as possible. Also, if you can, master your prerequisite class abilities, as those can also be valuable. It is important to be so useful that the leader has you come along for almost all engagements, except for ones where the law forbids your particular skills."

Phoenix was reading the next step in his quest for Jullianne to his buddies as if they were going over a battle plan. In a sense, they were, and the stats seemed to be in favor of them.

Phoenix, a dashing young Human Soldier-turned-Hunter, had light brown hair dark brown eyes, and a cute smile. He was tall and fairly well-built from all the engagements he'd been in and all the time as a Soldier he had spent. His comical attitude towards life made him rather likeable to most people. Phoenix was the one who was after Jullianne the Viera Sniper.

Jullianne, the object of Phoenix's affections (or lust…), is a lovely young Viera Sniper, who has jet black hair and dark brown eyes (dark colors go well with Sniper-ness, one would assume). She wasn't particularly strong, but wasn't frail, either. However, she WAS tall… slightly taller than Phoenix, even. She seemed a bit unsure about Phoenix, his little comment to his friends still ringing in her mind.

Yuwain, Phoenix's Bangaa buddy who's a Templar, but soon-to-be a Gladiator (much to his distaste… it'll take a bit of work getting there), rags all the time for mistakes his friend makes, but is highly loyal to him deep down. If someone injures/seriously insults/threatens Phoenix… that someone is a dead man. As for strength… if you thought Phoenix was strong, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Then there's Mackenroe, Phoenix's other friend. The Moogle Gadgeteer who is changing his job to a Time Mage to help Phoenix's newfound clan, Clan Armageddon, Mack is short, being the Moogle he is. Like Yuwain, he would never do anything that would be a deep insult to Phoenix. Sure he'll poke fun at him with Yuwain, but that's only child's play.

Three against one… three clueless guys armed with a book versus one smart Viera armed with her brains.

This is gonna be a good one, folks.

"Master all of our skills, hmmm? Well, that shouldn't be too hard, 'specially now that we've got added funding for weapons. I hear that Armageddon's got access to any weapon they want at bargain prices."

"Nice, kupo!"

"Do you think the bosssss'll let ussss do three-man engagementsss to master our ssskills?"

"I dunno… I should check with him on that. I don't see why not, though."

"Well, we better get some rest, kupo. We don't want to be dead logs for our first day in the clan, kupo!"

(Insert scene change here)

The next morning, Phoenix & Co. headed over to the pub. The Clan Leader, named Dave, had told them to meet there at 10 o'clock to get some more information about clan activities and whatnot. When they entered and ordered the almost-obligatory drinks, they noticed that the clan was already there, chatting away like any other normal group of people relaxing at a pub. Dave noticed they had arrived and stood up, smiling.

"Ah, Phoenix! And these must be your friends! Welcome to the clan!"

He shook the hand of each new clan member, and pulled up three empty chairs to the table so they could sit. Once they were all seated and finished taking a swig of their drinks, Dave gave them an apologetic look, directed mostly at Phoenix.

"Sorry for giving you such a hard time last night. I've slept on the thought a bit, and I've realized that our clan SHOULD have a few more members. I mean, it only makes sense…"

"No problem. We're in, right? We're friends, right? Then the grilling is a thing of the past."

"I'll second that, kupo!"

"Hear, hear."

Dave had a smile on again.

"Alright, good. Now listen up, because I've been doing some planning as well as thinking. To get you guys up to speed, we'll be doing a lot more random clan battle, taking you on clan missions, and I'll be taking you along for any turf battles. Don't worry about white magic," He added quickly, seeing Phoenix's raised eyebrow… none of them, Dave, Phoenix, Yuwain, or Mack was a white mage. "Don't worry. I've done some training as a White Mage, and I know Cure, Cura, Esuna, and Life. The basics, to put it simply. Anyway, any weapon that you need for abilities… you've got it. Any armor for abilities… you've got it. Feather boots… you've got it. Whatever you need to make training easier… you've got it."

"I… wow…"

"Thanksss…"

"We're honored, kupo!"

"By the way, Dave… I've got a question."

"Fire away."

"Yuwain, Mack, and I were wondering if it was possible for us to still do 3-man battles. Y'know… to make the training go by faster."

Dave gave a little chuckle. "Ah, we'll be doing so many random battles that it probably wouldn't be necessary. But if you see an opening, and we're not there, feel free."

"Alright, thanks man."

"Well, I think this concludes the meeting-type thing… let's have some fun now, shall we?"

And so the rest of the morning went by with tale-swapping and ale-drinking at the pub (In Cyril, for those who are curious).

(Insert scene change here)

The following week found Phoenix, his friends, and his clan having battles almost every day, sometimes several times per day. Dave was right… there was no time for their planned 3-man engagements. Already, Yuwain had mastered the required two Warrior Techs and was getting ready to move on to being a Gladiator. Mackenroe had easily mastered the basic black magic skills, had Fira mastered, and was moving on to Firaga. As for Phoenix? He was mastering his Hunter skills like wildfire. Capture had been first on his list (The clans Sage was training to be a Morpher). Then came Advice, Oust, and Addle. Phoenix was currently working on Weapon Attack +.

However, the most important part was that Phoenix was beginning to see a lot more of Jullianne, even if it WAS mostly in engagements. But that was a good thing, since Phoenix was sure she'd be impressed by his usefulness and skills in battle, especially his proficiency at capturing monsters for the soon-to-be Morpher.

Phoenix was sure things were going his way…