If there was one thing Vincent did not expect that day, that would be himself getting absorbed into a videogame, where he would be given a background and a weapon, meet Quistis, Squall and Seifer in person, and attend SeeD classes..
Ok, he would admit these were more than one things, but who cared? The important thing at the time was that Vincent expected the game to keep it's linear storyline, and that all would be peachy. So, when he saw the screen show Fernir's and Valefor's names, GFs, or rather, an Eidolon from Final Fantasy 9 and an Aeon from Final Fantasy 10 respectively make their appearance, he was at a loss.
He definetely did not expect for the life of his for these GFs to appear as Materia stones, or at least what Vincent suspected to be Materia stones.
Materia were the primary combat boosting source of Final Fantasy 7. They gave you access to spells, special combat abilities, upgraded your statistics, even allowed you to summon creatures – and that's what Vincent suspected the stones that made their appearance in a drawer under his desk to be for. The one stone was a light emerald color, while the other one was possessed a livid lavender.
Vincent reached his hands at the stones, one for each one, and felt the most amazing thing. The stones practically.. reaching at him, similar to a baby in it's craddle trying to climb it's way out. They were pure energy, he knew it, and an energy the imported teen was going to use at the best of his capabilities.
The green stone was feeling rough to the touch, and emitted a 'wild' emotion, as if it could tear Vincent apart if he was not careful, while the purple one was smooth, a perfect sphere of tranquil thoughts and serenity. Vincent sighed, reaching for the two stones with his mind, talking to them, yearning, as they longed for his appearance.
The two stones dissolved into colorful threads of pure energy, colors that would even make a rainbow full of envy. Vincent sighed, the knowledge given to him making him understand that he would feel weird after the junctioning process, and started chuckling. A chuckle that evolved in a fully fledged laughter, with Vincent being alone in the classroom. The junctioning tickled.
He tried to quiet down, in case Quistis, or, worse, the Trepies or the Disciplinary Comitee or whoever was outside the classroom, and muffled his laughter. He could feel the alien presences snooping around his brain, aiming for a nice place to settle in his memories, or the left side of his brain, or wherever, and acknowledge him as a worthy owner. He did not know why he could do that, or if he should, but decided to leave it at that. For some reason, which was unknown to him, Guardian Forces had something to do with his brain and mind.. But he could not remember what. It was something that, as Squall quoted lately in the game, 'was worth the price'. Or something like that. Vincent's mind was hazy for a moment there, before everything cleared up once again, his sight, balance and awareness returning, and he felt his muscles bulging slightly, an effect of his GFs junctioning magic spells through his statistics.
He knew they could probably do that, but he was not expecting it the effects to be so drastic. Vincent felt as if he could take on the whole world, and, as a side bonus, not even possess the need to smoke a cigarette.
He smirked, once again admiting to himself that he was going to like it here, and got up in order to leave the classroom.
Moving throught the Garden corridors, meeting almost noone, other than the occasional SeeD cadet here and there, who didn't even spare him a second glance, Vincent finally reached the bridge leading to the elevators. There, on the balcony railing, was sitting a young man, who wore beige pants and a green sweater, the color reminding him of Fernir's GF stone, who glanced at him. Somehow, Vincent knew that that man was waiting for him and him alone. Indeed, the more Vincent approached, the more tensed the man looked, until, finally, he leaped off the railing, and stood in front of his path. "Hey." He greeted, and raised a hand in a friendly gesture.
Vincent nodded his greetings in response. "Uh.." The man spoke again, before making up his mind. "Listen, my brother gave me those Triple Triad cards, but they are not my thing. Would you.. You know? Happen to want these?" As a matter of fact, the cadet (for he was a Garden student) reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of illustrated square shaped cards, which he offered to Vincent.
"Sure, I could use these." Came the reply, as he reached for them, pocketing them in his pants' pocket.
The man nodded in approvement, and waved as he ran off. "Take care of them!" He yelled, and disappeared behind the corner. Vincent smiled at his new possession, knowing that if he played his cards right in the literal fashion, in the long term that would prove a really good move of his. He shrugged, though, realising that he still had to take the Fire Cavern test, and that the 'long term' would depend on him passing.
So, he punched the elevator button, causing the steel doors to spread wide, entered the booth, and moved on the ground floor, where he recognised – or at least, he thought he recognised - a rather obnoxious voice cheering. "Woo-Hoo! Thanks! That directory thing will prove really useful!" Tilting his head to the side, Vincent saw Squall chatting with a rather short girl with hazelnut hair, beautiful emerald eyes in a SeeD cadet uniform – chatting as a figure of speech, since the girl did the talking and Squall did the nodding and muttering 'whatever'.
He walked the stairs off the elevator stand, and moved past them, towards the cafeteria. Vincent remembered that the girl's name was Selphie, that she was a part of the main game gang, and a rather good spell caster.. A rather trivial information, that would surely come in handy in it's practical sense.
Walking down the corridor, Vincent entered the rather loud room, where SeeD cadets and SeeD alike enjoyed their lunch. Moving in line, the teen noticed Seifer standing next to a vending machine along with his 'disciplinary committee', otherwise known as Fujin, a platinum haired girl dressed in a blue suit, much similar to a sailor's, in Vincent's opinion, and Raijin, a massive giant with dark, tanned skin, dark hair, and with muscles on top of muscles. He wore an open vest that showed off his massive chest, and a thick necklace of brown orbs around his neck.
"SEIFER, DRINK?" asked the girl, moving a hand to ensure her eyepatch in it's place as Vincent stood in the line and glanced around. Fujin had a unique way of speaking, he noticed. She was not loud, per say, but not inaudible as well. Her voice was thick and metallic, crystal clear even with the students making noise as they went about in their business. Raijin spoke of something, perhaps idiotic, because soon after he closed his mouth, Fujin kicked him in the shin, hard enough for people to turn at the noise produced.
Many of them winced, and others smiled their sympathy for the huge man. Vincent could not afford to care for the duo, or Seifer in anyway. Not right then, at least, not when he had to feed himself.
"Can I help you, hun?" Spoke the woman, who leaned forward, trying to make him comfortable with his order. Needless to say, the woman, who was in her early sixties, with way too curly hair and a huge mole in her left nostril just made Vincent want to run for his life. Instead of doing just that, however, he tried not to stare at her nose, and ordered a hot dog, a salad and a beverage, which wrote "Pop Fizzure" on it with bright blue colors.
"You're lucky, hun." The woman said. "It's the last hot dog." She said smiling, as she placed the object in question on the tray, along with a green salad.
Vincent was rather confident with his order mainly for one thing – the lunch was on the house, with him being a SeeD cadet. The same did not go for the actual SeeD, however, making him hope that he would not have to pay too much every time he ordered. Not bothering with the thought, he picked up his tray of food, thanked the kind old woman, and sat on the nearest table he could find. He placed the tray on the table, his claymore, the Harbringer, on the chair next to him, and sat down.
The raven haired teen noticed that noone seemed to care about the sword, as if it was something normal for a five foot long weapon to be there, right next to him. Considering actual SeeD were there, he supposed it was not too much of a hassle, but weren't SeeD para-military? Weren't they supposed to be prepared for anything, along with an armed fellow of theirs gone berserk, or mad, or whatever? Vincent supposed that it was their actual training and life hardships that made them ignore some facts. His stomach growled again, and he decided that enough musing was done for a while. It was time to dig in and enjoy himself.
Vincent was halfway of devouring through his salad, and was just unwrapping the hot dog, when a small, muscle-bound cadet with brilliantly blonde hair and a tribal tatoo on the left side of his face dashed inside the cafeteria and stood in front of the cafeteria lady, panting and heaving. "A-any.. Hot dogs.. Left?"
The cafeteria lady shook her head. "Sorry, hun. We're all sold out."
The man, whom Vincent mused that must have been Zell Dincht, another gang member he would officially greet later that same day, hunged his shoulders down. "Damn. Already? Ok then, I'll try again tomorrow.." He whined, and turned to leave.
He walked past Vincent's table dejectedly, and, the second he walked out of the room, Seifer, who was still standing by the vending machine, put on a sinister grin. "He's speeding." He commented, loud enough for everyone but Zell to listen. "Let's go arrest that student for violation of academy regulations, shall we?"
"AFFIRMATIVE." Came Fujin's response, while Raijin punched his fist in his other hand's palm. "Hell yeah, ya know!"
The trio ran off Zell, who was still on his own world. A lot of the students in the room laughed, forgetting that they had been in the same predicament as Zell's, that is, being bullied by Seifer and his passe, more than once.
Vincent wondered if he and Squall were the only ones who would not back away from Seifer. After all, Vincent had faced worst opponents so far. Taking his first bite onto the really tasty hot dog, Vincent realised that Seifer was to be a villain later in the game. What was he to do? After all, beating your high school bully is not the same as beating a lost man wielding a gunblade and lots of fire spells.
Vincent shrugged, already full with the sausage delight and the salad. He wiped the sauce of his mouth with a napkin, and, grabbing the beverage and his sword from the chair, and left the cafeteria, this time to meet Quistis at the Garden entrance.
Indeed, there she was, clad in a high-collared orange zip-up vest, a similarly colored skirt, leather gloves, and long black boots. A belt ran from her upper left hip down to her lower right, and hooked to it were her item pouches and a coiled whip made of a long chain, with a rather nasty looking blade on it's tip. "A'hoy," he greeted, and tossed the now devoid of liquid can in a nearby trash bin.
"Sure took you long enough, Vincent." Quistis commented, to which Vincent smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, didn't do it on purpose. As you may know, quod me nutrit me destruit." Vincent was glad that his latin was not as rusty as he wanted them to be. He had taken it as a class two years ago, and some things, like that line remained in his brain. Truth was, he only remembered it because that line was tatooed on a beautiful actress' abdomen along with an 'X' back in his world, but he guessed that piece of information was irrelevant at the moment.
Qustis smiled sweetly before gesturing theatrically with her hands. "That's cetra," She commented. "Didn't know you were into those. Hm.." She brought a hand to her chin, the actor's grace never leaving her. "Whatever feeds me destroys me.." She translated. "What in Hyne's name were you eating, Vincent?"
It was Vincent's turn to smile sweetly. "A hot dog." He responded honestly to which Quistis nodded.
"With all those calories, those things indeed destroy you. They are a delicacy though, aren't they?"
They looked at each other's eyes for a second, before laughing as hard as possible under the morning light.
Sooner or later, their laughter subsided, and Vincent was in his right mind to question Squall's whereabouts.
"He said he was low on spells. He is apparently at the training centre, drawing." She replied, as she sat on the road barrier.
"Drawing? Squall? I'm sorry, Instructor. Squall just doesn't strike me as the artistic nature."
For a moment, Quistis looked as if she was about to stick her tongue out, but she just opted to nod at Squall, who had just made his appearance.
"Well, since we are all here, how about we take off?"
Vincent nodded along with Squall.
Tonight, they would fight a fire demon called Ifrit.
How was that? Up to your taste, I hope. Anyway, not much to comment, really, other than techincal bits. Squall is level 8, Quistis is level 10 (She is an Instructor for a reason, remember? I decided that's going to be it. Haha.), and Vincent? Well, our protagonist is halfway to 8. He is more power than experience, and, as you probably know, experience can sometimes mean more than a big sword. Anyhow, I'll update sooner or later (Pretty vague, don't you agree?), and then you will be able to rejoice again.
If you're reading this, it's time for you to hit the 'Submit Review' button, chums.