Chapter Two

I'm…I'm surprised the floor didn't break. Imagine a pig slamming against a wooden floor. Now imagine that very same pig having womanly proportions and an expression of absolute pain on its face. Yep, you've got it; I'm hungry alright. And well…slightly on the heavy side.

That last bit made me laugh although it didn't last long because my ribs suddenly flared with pain and there was a sort of throbbing burn which made me wheeze. I rolled on the floor until my face was no longer against it and quickly checked if there was drool on my face. This made things worse because the sudden movement of my arm triggered another bolt of pain. To hell with it! I'm going to stand up.

THUD.

"Oh crap," I moaned and curled into a tiny ball. Forget what I just said. I'm going to lie here and sleep instead. With that decision in mind, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and—

"Stand up," an urgent voice whispered in my ear, tugging my aching arm. "Please."

"Tried it. Didn't work," I answered back and pulled my arm away from the person speaking.

"It's going to blow," the voice hissed angrily. "Come on."

My eyes flickered open. "What's going to blow? One of Mom's creations again?" I asked, my head turning to my left and right frantically. The last time my mother tried to cook—

Wait. Why do I have the feeling that I'm being a complete utter idiot again? Oh right. That's because I am being a complete utter idiot again. Ellie would laugh if she heard me saying this statement. Apparently, I'm too smart to be in our grade just because I'm a wee bit older than everyone else and a complete teacher's pet.

Enough reminiscing. I have a bomb to get away from. Heave-ho! I grunted and dragged myself to my feet, accepting the support the man in the banana—I mean, bandanna—had given me. "Thanks," I murmured. We barely made it behind the cover when the big fiery ball of what was supposed to be a bomb went kaboom. I didn't notice it though. I was too busy gaping at the people around me.

Monkey boy? Check. Smallish kiddo with big hat and glowing yellow eyes? Check. Bucket-man with sword? Check. Chick with the orange costume? Check. Guy with the freakishly long and spiky hair?

Well that's four out of five. I dropped to my knees and clutched a part of the harpoon which was lodged on the floor. My knees protested from the treatment—I did just drop them on the floor—reminding me that this was all no dream. Plus, it reminded me that my knees had bruises from PE and therefore should not be subjected to such treatment.

…but to think that after all those years ago…watching my cousin play so enviously…the game which always had sequels and prequels and the sort of –quels not really related but still bearing the name…

One of the vehicle's tower-like parts went free which made me snap my much-abused head. It fell down on the buildings, raining fire everywhere. A shiver crawled through my spine as I thought of the poor people whose lives would be ruined by all this—whatever all this was. I was about to ask the guy who helped me what the heck was going on when I felt the moving ship—well it looked like one—plunge downwards.

"Why is there always falling downwards to a certain death?" Would have been what I said if I had gotten the chance to speak but the ship, rocking about like a drunken sailor, tilted sharply to left, making me cling all the more to the harpoon. What left my mouth instead sounded a lot like this, "Waaahh?!"

I wish I could also say that we had landed on the ground with minimal damage, sporting only flesh wounds that could easily heal and a minor headache that would not last long. Wishes, as history so often likes to point out, don't come true because if they did, something would usually go wrong. Or was it fairytales that pointed that out? I placed my head between my knees and took deep breaths to stop the dizziness from taking over my reasoning. I am getting stupid.

Well look at it this way, I may be getting stupid but at least I was lucky enough to fall off the ship when it had landed. This is opposed to falling off the ship way before that.

I heard someone stumble through the clearing and looked up. The guy with the tail and the funky hairdo walked towards the ship, worry etched on his face. His eyes turned to mine and he frowned. "You were the one who flew with the bomb, weren't you?"

"Yes, but Rebecca's easier to remember," I said cheerfully. "After all, the Girl Who Flew with the Bomb is way too long."

He gave me a grin and said, "Well, I'm glad to see that some of us still have our sense of humor alive and kicking. Name's Zidane, by the way."

I dropped the smile and slowly stood up, "Alive but not kicking." I admitted with a stretch and grimaced, my muscles feeling heavy like lead. "Nice to meet you."

He must have noticed the sudden jerk of my arm as I tried to move it around—it was still hurting to my annoyance—and had offered a small bottle filled dark blue liquid which shone in the dark. Is it just me or does this thing just scream poisonous? Probably just me. I took it and squinted, looking for a label that would tell me what it actually was. Finding not even a single clue, I asked Zidane, "What's this?"

"It's a Potion."

"A potion? What kind? A love potion? A potion for one's warts?" I asked, half-jokingly.

"It's just that…a Potion." Zidane didn't seem inclined to say anything further as he jumped and squirmed his way up a tree. "You drink it to heal your wounds and to stop most of the pain."

"Ok," I said, gave the bottle one last glare, unscrewed the top and chugged the thing down. Oddly enough, it tasted like oranges. My tense body slowly relaxed as the pain ebbed away. "Thanks."

"No problem," Zidane said and slid down the tree. "I have to go now. The others might be around here somewhere."

"Can I come?" Is what I would have asked if I wasn't feeling so scared right now. I gulped and said, "I'd go along but I don't have a weapon with me." Right. I'm such a coward.

"I can go there alone," Zidane said, flashing me a reassuring smile. "If you need a weapon, we have a couple of swords left from the play. You can probably ask Blank or Marcus for one. Don't ask Cinna though, he's a wee bit possessive when it comes to Tantalus property."

"Right-o!" I said, relieved that I wouldn't have to go to. "Good luck."

Zidane nodded and disappeared into the woods. I headed for the ship.

The air was filled with the busy urgency of a pair of hands which needed to tap something repeatedly and quite quickly. Frankly, it felt suffocating in Robin's opinion but she needed to make a certain visit for Zero and it couldn't be put off any longer. She cleared her throat. "Eric Swallow?"

The typing abruptly stopped. "I prefer the name Havoc." The young man with flashy red hair and a pair of extremely large goggles strapped against his forehead gave Robin a backwards glance. "Eric Swallow reminds me of a…former life. One that doesn't bear reminding."

"You know how formalities are, Havoc," Robin said with a shrug. "Besides, that's the name Zero gave me."

"Zero doesn't really approve of nicknames," Havoc spoke and, with a push of his foot, made the chair swivel. Eyes of a cloudy grey that reminded Robin of Zero gazed back at her with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "What do you want? Straight to the point please. I'm very busy, especially with the Game going on and stuff."

"I need some advice." Robin said and sat on a chair which she had conjured with a slight twist of her hand. "You were an Expendable once…before She had offered you the Change."

"Life as a human was boring," Havoc said and yawned. "You live, you love, you die. That's pretty much it. Their sole purpose in life is to procreate just so their descendants would live to see the world end."

And Zero accuses me of not caring. "I need your help in choosing an SA."

"Special Ability?" Havoc smirked. "Well you came to the right place then! That's the only thing left that interests me in the Game so I pretty much make it a hobby of mine to take note of all the really good SAs out there. Do you have the list?"

Robin nodded. "I'm sending it to your memory banks right now."

The young AI tilted his head. "Thanks. Let me just scroll down and take a look."

It was common knowledge that AIs don't need actual computers to do the work for them. After all, they were born from silicon chips themselves and their brain processes equaled, if not surpassed that of an ordinary machine. Regardless, Eric "Havoc" Swallow still hadn't completely let go of his human past, choosing, for example, to type in front of a computer when he knew fully well that simply thinking of the subject at hand would be enough. An advantage of this was that AIs could simply exchange information without hassle and tend not to forget things easily. There was the problem of security though which was why AIs were generally untrusting people.

Robin crossed her arms. "What do you think?"

"You got some pretty good ones this year," Havoc noted, his eyes unfocused as he went through the list.

"What do you know of ninjas?"

"Draining, requires the Expendable to be in good shape, and has some weird side effects on the Expendable, having Anime-like tendencies being the most notable."

"Summoner?"

"Very draining. It also requires the SA to be administered to the Expendable way before the start of the game as it will affect the plot by quite a lot. You are doing a Final Fantasy, I assume?"

"It was the one she was most familiar with. How about master of the four elements?"

"Another SA with side effects. For one thing, your Expendable's going to get a big arrow on her forehead. Blue, I might add."

"Shapeshifting into animals?"

"Since you're using an FF world, that would fall under the blue mage category so your Expendable won't really get the chance to shapeshift. What's more is that shapeshifting is a very constricting SA as it depends on the world's laws and what animals that world actually has."

"Gotcha." There were many more SAs that were listed but none had caught Robin's eye. She needed one that didn't require too much energy as well as complement Rebecca's personality. So far, she's proved to be quite adept at staying alive. Robin thought and chuckled under her breath. An idea shoved its way to her…brain and demanded to be heard. Well, why not? She told Havoc.

"You know…I think that'd actually work." Havoc said thoughtfully. "The energy level required won't take much out of you plus, the side effects aren't too bad. I say go for it."

Cinna wasn't that bad. Yes, he did look like the kind of guy who'd try to take a peek underneath one's skirt but at least he'd have the decency to compliment on the color of one's underwear before sauntering off to get mauled on by a horde of angry women. That's what I think anyway. Plus, he'd given me a pair of bronze gloves. "Something to match that sword Marcus gave you," the old thief had said grudgingly.

Blank was still busy searching for survivors in the ship so we haven't properly met yet. Marcus, on the other hand, was the guy with the bandanna who had helped me earlier. He's pretty nice too and was real worried for Zidane and the others. The short sword he had given me was just the right weight, except I think my arm's going to ache if I have to carry it any longer than I have to.

A rustle from the woods made the twins, Zenero and Benero, perk up from their posts by the entrance. My paranoia took the better of me because I had drawn my sword from its sheathe. Or maybe I just wanted to try it out. Either way, if a monster stepped out from behind those trees…

Zidane appeared, breathing heavily from exerting too much effort. On one shoulder he carried the mage while his free hand was wrapped around the knight's foot and was dragging the poor guy towards us. His face was deathly pale and stricken, "The princess. We have to go and save the princess."

A/N: Chapter three won't appear as fast as this one, the reason being that I was already finished with this chapter by the time I had posted chapter one and my other fics are suffering from the lack of attention. Questions, comments, criticism, flames, one-liners, two-liners, eye-liners and cookies of a virtual kind are all accepted although the first three are probably the only ones which I will pay attention to. Much love goes to the reviewers.