Hey there readers, I'd like to thank you all for the reviews; both positive and negative. I hope you'll enjoy this next chapter, which as a completely different plot to before.
Trapped in the world of Final Fantasy 8
Chapter 4 – Life as an evil grandson
Four months had passed since Mark had escaped the seeD aircraft called the Ragnorak and escaped justice. Since then he'd been living with an old veteran called Nami who had been brainwashed by Mark's inner voice to believing that Mark was his grandson.
Since then Mark had been training to improve his fighting skills, and his spell casting abilities. As his power grew so did the darkness changing him both mentally and physically. He hadn't grown any taller in the last few months but he bulked up considerably.
He was no longer lanky and pale but had grown strong lean muscles over his body and even began to develop a six pack.
His skin was now a dark brown from exposure to the sun. He had dyed his hair a snowy white and had grown it to waist length and usually wore it in a long ponytail and the gashes on his cheeks had finally closed, leaving two horizontal red scars on each cheek.
The old man called Nami had lived by himself before and lived off the large funds he had earned over the years and the Galbadia lottery jackpot he'd won 2 months ago. An amazing 6.3 million Gil! But Mark had convinced Nami not to move. The closer he was to Balamb Garden the easier it would be to get to the seeDs and finish the mission: ruin the sorceress and the commander's lives and then kill them.
It was now mid summer and very hot. The trees and flowers were in full bloom. Birds and insects flew around and above the trees. The rivers and pools glistened and glowed in the basking sun's warmth.
Mark was training with his Devil's light; the medium sized double barrel shot gun he'd stolen from Odine's lab, nearly half a year ago.
He had entered deep within the Balamb forest, waiting for a passing monster for him to use as target practice. Mark heard a brief growl and out of a clump of dark green bushes emerged a Grendel; an ugly little creature with a curved body, shiny green scales, large yellowish claws and burning eyes.
Grendels are ugly little brutes that are distantly related to dragons, though they are much smaller, barely topping 4ft they are reputated to be even stronger than their far larger counterparts.
'RRrrooooaaaahhhh!' roared the Grendel charging forward and attempting to tackle Mark to the ground.
Mark flipped back and in mid air he released four shots, three missed but the forth connected with the creature's shoulder.
The Grendel slashed out at Mark with surprising speed and it connected to Mark's chest, knocking him back several feet and tearing the red shirt he was wearing.
'Fast little bastard…' muttered Mark angrily, aiming his Devil's light at the Grendel that was slowly approaching him. It gave a small snort and smoke pumped from its nostrils, it was about to use a fire type attack!
It blasted Mark with fairly powerful Fira attack, which Mark narrowly dodged and he shot the creature once in the left claw and another in the Grendel's chest, though the second bounced off the hardened scales on its chest.
You're pretty tough…' conceded Mark, grinning like a madman.
The Grendel charged at Mark swinging its claws and trying to take a bite out of him. He quickly dodged and threw a hard punch into the creature's face. Momentary stunned the Grendel collapsed to the floor and Mark stood above it and released six shots at the monster. Each hitting and drawing blood. The Grendel gave a gurgled hiss then vanished into nothingness as it died.
'These little buggers are stronger than they look.' Chuckled Mark, pushing back several stray hairs that had dangled annoyingly in front of his face
Mark heard a faint buzzing noise and an entire swarm of Bite bugs appeared in front of him. Bite bugs are a species of giant beetle; about the size of a human head. They could fly very fast and attack with their razor sharp claws and vampire like fangs.
'Haze Inferno!' exclaimed Mark releasing a ball of concentrated energy at the swarm, obliterating them in an instant.
'Haze inferno?' Asked the voice with a faint amount of humor
'What! I was just finding new ways of using Haze magic, so what ya think?'
'Not bad, why don't you try this…' replied the voice, a flash of knowledge entered Mark's mind and a smile appeared on his face
'Cool idea, but would it really work?' asked Mark looking mildly surprised
'Of course, now focus upon that image and release the magic'
'Haze control!' called Mark and a ball of purplish haze appeared in front of him
'Now morph it into a human or monster image' commanded the voice inside his head.
Mark concentrated on the image and the haze took the form of Rinoa the sorceress. Mark drew back his fist and punched the copy Rinoa in the face. A brief look of pain crossed her face and she returned back to haze form, and then it was blown away by a flicker of wind.
Mark could hear the other presence in his head cackling and laughing its ass off.
'I thought that spell was for mind control?'
'Not really, I simply created an illusion in his mind and you did the same thing, you created an illusion in the outside world. An allusion of the sorceress' the voice told Mark.
After that Mark spent the rest of the day fighting low level monsters to raise his level and stats.
It was about mid afternoon when Mark returned to Nami's house battered, bruised and pockets full of gill that had appeared when the monsters were defeated. He had a bleeding lip and several cuts on his red shirt and body.
Outside the house was a sleek black seeD limo.
'Excellent…' chuckled Mark to himself, he'd forced his "grandfather" to make a call to Balamb asking that Mark could enroll at Balamb Garden. Now because Mark was nearly 17 now he had to be tested to see if he had any potential as a seeD before being admitted. If he passed.
Mark opened the door and walked along the brightly colored hallway and paused briefly to before entering the front room.
Inside was the old veteran, who Mark had brainwashed some months ago and the other was a tall young man, dressed in a full length brown jacket and wearing cowboy style hat and boots.
'This is my grandson, Mr Kinesis' said Nami pointing towards Mark.
'Please to meet ya Marcus' said Irvine, stretching out his hand for a hand shake, Mark shook his hand with a crushing grip and then said
'I prefer to be called Mark'
'…I've been sent here by commander Leonheart to see if you have enough skills to join.' Said Irvine
'So basically your gonna fight me? We'll this won't take too long.' Grinned Mark
'We'll see Mark, I've been told that you use a gun as your preferred weapon, we'll set up various targets and see how good you are and if you know how to use magic we'll see how strong and how good your aim is.' Said Irvine
'Fine by me' shrugged Mark
About ten minutes later Irvine and Mark were standing in the large yard outside Nami's house. Irvine had placed various targets on the fences and nearby trees. Easy enough shots.
'Ok then Mark I want you to shoot each target once and try to get it as close to the bulls eye as possi…' said Irvine, but was stopped in mid sentence as Mark shot every target in rapid succession. Each shot from his gun hit the very center of the bull's eye.
'Piece of cake…' said Mark indifferently, fluidly re-holstering his gun and slipping it under his belt.
Irvine's jaw dropped from his hinges and his eyes bulged.
'That was totally awesome!' exclaimed Irvine
'Not really, it was an easy enough shot Irvine' replied Mark with a shrug.
Irvine looked as if he wanted to say more, but thought better of it. The guy was very skilled, no doubt about that. But something seemed unsettling about him, something familiar.
'Alright I want you to hit all those targets again, using a basic long range spell; you know like fire, blizzard and thunder.' Said Irvine taking a few steps back to allow Mark enough space to cast his spells, without the risk of getting hit himself.
'Fire sphere…' muttered Mark and his hand took ablaze. This fire was strangely colored. It was black and flecked with dark blue.
Mark flicked one of his fingers and a small beam of fire shot out and pierced the target board. It was slightly to the right of the bull's eye.
He retracted the fire and let loose beams of ice, thunder and gravity, which almost always hit the bull's eye.
'Damn this guy is good' thought Irvine
'So is that good enough?' asked Mark turning towards the young seeD.
'Definitely!' said Irvine 'You've proved yourself good enough to join Balamb academy'
Mark nodded and said 'cool…' and walked towards his house. 'I'm gonna go get my stuff, won't be long.'
Half an hour later Mark reappeared carrying two large suitcases and a black ruck sack on his back (A/N Duh!)
Soon after the seeD and the criminal were driven in the sleek black limo to the beautiful school of mercenary training; Balamb garden.
Even though Mark wasn't especially emotional, he was awed by the splendor of the floating school, suspending by a golden halo and the whole building seemed to glow casting the surroundings in a soothing light.
'Beautiful…' he said under his breath.
'Welcome to Balamb garden Marcus' smiled Irvine, adjusting his large brown cowboy hat.
'I prefer to be called Mark' he responded indifferently.
The car stopped outside the pearly gates, Mark and Irvine stepped out and after taking out the luggage the limo sped off to the car park.
'Come on I'll take you to see the commander and headmaster' stated Irvine, helping Mark with one of the suitcases.
'Alright let's go' responded Mark, following after the cowboy wannabe.
The mission had truly begun…
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Looks like Mark under the disguise of Marcus Greenwood has infiltrated the garden as a wannabe seeD in training. In the next chapter Mark will meet Squall and the head master Cid Kramer, will he be admitted into Balamb Garden or will he turned away or perhaps Squall will recognize the demented teen? There's only one way to find out! READ ON!
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Next chapter – Meet the Lion once again