I'm trying to write the story I had originally intended.
I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 8 characters, but the newbies are mine.
To warn you, this is starting to get gory, or at least getting really violent.
The Rinoa bashing is revving into overdrive. I promise it's unintentional. Or at least, it started that way...
~
Chapter 26
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Laguna squinted his eyes so that they were only just barely open, the sun setting in his view would otherwise have painfully blinded him with afterimages.
"Yes, we're as sure as we can get without actually going," Squall rolled his eyes at the suddenly overprotective Estharian President, "Just why are you suddenly so solicitous?"
Laguna chuckled, "Well, we did just get the Gardens rebuilt and refurbished, and Esthar Garden is only just completed, I suppose I don't want to lose any of the instructors. Well, not any more than we already have lost."
"Then shut up and let us go," Max snapped, the apparent temporary truce evidently over, "The more time we waste reassuring you we know where we're going when we don't the more time it will take for us to find where we're looking, and the more likely we are to lose Doomtrain's assistance, as well as Eric's, which will decrease our chances."
Laguna looked at Max strangely, "I definitely don't remember you talking so much when you were younger."
"Of course not," Max snorted, "I'd had damage done to my throat. It hurt too much to talk, so why bother?" He then stalked off as Laguna processed the new information that really wasn't new, and Squall quietly turned to follow to Ragnarok, where all of the others were waiting.
~~
"Sir, we think we may have pinpointed their location," the soldier in front of Caraway was nearly visibly quaking in his boots, they'd all heard what had happened to the last division of messengers, and weren't eager to learn if the same would happen to them should their information prove incorrect.
"Well, spit it out," Caraway growled, turning his chair to face the soldier that had just entered the room.
"We found an energy signature that resembled that of the Ragnarok," the soldier began, "and it seems to be heading North from what may be the Esthar airport, but when we project the possible path if they do not veer, there is nothing in the path that they couldn't reach sooner by going South, sir."
"How is this pinpointing their location?" Caraway drawled at the soldier.
The messenger coughed nervously, "Well sir, we can't pinpoint there they will go to, but we at least know where they came from. And we think that there is a slight possibility they could veer off to go to the Trabian Garden, or perhaps to the village of the Shumi, or even perhaps to one of the Chocobo forests in the area. We just aren't sure why they would go to any of those places, sir."
Caraway thought quietly for a moment, "Send troops to the Garden, to the entrance to the Shumi village, and to the known Chocobo forests, but also keep and eye on the areas that might be in the straight trajectory, and try to match it or catch them," Caraway turned his chair back around
The messenger relaxed slightly as he took that for a dismissal, leaving the room as quickly as he could to relay the new orders. Maybe he'd be able to keep his job for longer than the three weeks the previous division had held on for. It would certainly be a new record.
~~
Upon reaching the peninsula found on the map Max had been unintentionally pointing at, the Ragnarok was landed, and the whole group disembarked.
"Well, what do you know?" Irvine tipped his hat back slightly, "Never thought it would actually mean something."
Right in front of the shoreline was a small metal structure, almost invisible on ground, and quite invisible during flight.
"Wonder how long that's been there," Maria mused, "Or even better, I wonder how we get in."
Quistis shook her head at the paneling on the door, "It's some strange electronic system; does anyone here know what the code to it might be? Or even how to activate it to try to use the code?"
The Guardian in Zell's body shook her head, "I cannot help, his memories are not surfacing, and I have no technology skills."
Seifer rolled his eyes, "Really, neither does he. All he ever does is whack the machine with his fists."
"I'm game," Maria walked to a panel of the wall, and swung her right fist into it. As she held her fist gently to herself, muttering about how it wasn't fair that Zell could make it look so easy, a panel fell open from the shockwave.
"Um..." Seifer chuckled, "So maybe it's not such a bad idea after all."
"Its not like hitting things always works," Squall rolled his eyes as he studied the panel, "But we have to give Zell credit, as a last resort, it truly does work."
After looking for a bit at the panel, they found themselves just as stumped as before, "Pity we can't try that trick again," Seifer growled at the panel, "But there's too much fragile stuff that would get fried from the impact."
"Not to mention it would fry your skin," Xia sat on the ground near the panel, leaning against a wall, "And it would probably also alert whoever is inside that someone is trying to get in without proper clearance."
"She was always using this weird, overly chipper song as her passcode, if she wasn't supposed to use words," Max tapped his shoe on the ground, "I hated it, so I never bothered to learn or memorize it. Pity."
"Great," Seifer rolled his eyes, "That does a lot of good, helps us so much, so why again did we bring you?"
Max just glared at him.
"Guys, we don't need to start fighting now," Selphie was turning a slightly greener shade of her usually healthy peach, because by this point, the skin covering Eric's frame actually did rip as he moved, and the sound of the flesh shredding and the scent of the blood- or whatever it was- slipping down his skin was decidedly grossing her out, "We don't really have the time for Max and Seifer to rip each other new airholes. Eric's getting more and more disgusting to look at with each passing second, no offense."
"None taken" Eric's voice whistled through the holes that had developed along his throat and mouth as he spoke, "Even I am finding this unbearable."
Max shifted his glare from Seifer to the metal panel and after a bit, in a slight fit of anger, he stepped in front of it and started what appeared to be randomly hitting buttons and tweaking knobs.
"What are you doing?!" Irvine yelped at him, just as he stopped.
"It wasn't as random as it looked," Max muttered, "I've seen her use a panel like that before. The passcode was valid as long as you hit every button once only, and tweaked each switch, pulled each lever, and pulled every cord only once as well, but you had to get all of them, and do so in a certain amount of time, and couldn't pull from the same row or column twice in a row."
"You're kidding," Maria was flabbergasted, "That's almost pathetically simple, yet unbelievably difficult at the same time!"
Max shrugged, "If it makes it any better, I taught her that trick, though it doesn't seem to have worked in this case."
Just as the others were about to agree that it had not worked, one of the metal walls lifted from the ground to disappear into the ceiling, opening a path into the small structure.
"Or you spoke too soon," Seifer joked, "Wonder why there was such a lag?"
"Who are you people, and what are you doing here?" An oldish woman stood in the door, slightly frightened, yet determined to have answers, "Are you here to take back the young lady?" She spotted Max, "Oh, there you are! Miss Aura warned me you might be on your way soon," She disappeared into the building, "Follow me, she had a gift for you."
"I'm not entirely sure I want to," Max muttered, though he was following, "The last gift she gave me hurt entirely too much."
~
I can't help but think the story's dead/dying/whatever, but I still have to get this done, or I'll feel really bad about not finishing it.
I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 8 characters, but the newbies are mine.
To warn you, this is starting to get gory, or at least getting really violent.
The Rinoa bashing is revving into overdrive. I promise it's unintentional. Or at least, it started that way...
~
Chapter 26
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Laguna squinted his eyes so that they were only just barely open, the sun setting in his view would otherwise have painfully blinded him with afterimages.
"Yes, we're as sure as we can get without actually going," Squall rolled his eyes at the suddenly overprotective Estharian President, "Just why are you suddenly so solicitous?"
Laguna chuckled, "Well, we did just get the Gardens rebuilt and refurbished, and Esthar Garden is only just completed, I suppose I don't want to lose any of the instructors. Well, not any more than we already have lost."
"Then shut up and let us go," Max snapped, the apparent temporary truce evidently over, "The more time we waste reassuring you we know where we're going when we don't the more time it will take for us to find where we're looking, and the more likely we are to lose Doomtrain's assistance, as well as Eric's, which will decrease our chances."
Laguna looked at Max strangely, "I definitely don't remember you talking so much when you were younger."
"Of course not," Max snorted, "I'd had damage done to my throat. It hurt too much to talk, so why bother?" He then stalked off as Laguna processed the new information that really wasn't new, and Squall quietly turned to follow to Ragnarok, where all of the others were waiting.
~~
"Sir, we think we may have pinpointed their location," the soldier in front of Caraway was nearly visibly quaking in his boots, they'd all heard what had happened to the last division of messengers, and weren't eager to learn if the same would happen to them should their information prove incorrect.
"Well, spit it out," Caraway growled, turning his chair to face the soldier that had just entered the room.
"We found an energy signature that resembled that of the Ragnarok," the soldier began, "and it seems to be heading North from what may be the Esthar airport, but when we project the possible path if they do not veer, there is nothing in the path that they couldn't reach sooner by going South, sir."
"How is this pinpointing their location?" Caraway drawled at the soldier.
The messenger coughed nervously, "Well sir, we can't pinpoint there they will go to, but we at least know where they came from. And we think that there is a slight possibility they could veer off to go to the Trabian Garden, or perhaps to the village of the Shumi, or even perhaps to one of the Chocobo forests in the area. We just aren't sure why they would go to any of those places, sir."
Caraway thought quietly for a moment, "Send troops to the Garden, to the entrance to the Shumi village, and to the known Chocobo forests, but also keep and eye on the areas that might be in the straight trajectory, and try to match it or catch them," Caraway turned his chair back around
The messenger relaxed slightly as he took that for a dismissal, leaving the room as quickly as he could to relay the new orders. Maybe he'd be able to keep his job for longer than the three weeks the previous division had held on for. It would certainly be a new record.
~~
Upon reaching the peninsula found on the map Max had been unintentionally pointing at, the Ragnarok was landed, and the whole group disembarked.
"Well, what do you know?" Irvine tipped his hat back slightly, "Never thought it would actually mean something."
Right in front of the shoreline was a small metal structure, almost invisible on ground, and quite invisible during flight.
"Wonder how long that's been there," Maria mused, "Or even better, I wonder how we get in."
Quistis shook her head at the paneling on the door, "It's some strange electronic system; does anyone here know what the code to it might be? Or even how to activate it to try to use the code?"
The Guardian in Zell's body shook her head, "I cannot help, his memories are not surfacing, and I have no technology skills."
Seifer rolled his eyes, "Really, neither does he. All he ever does is whack the machine with his fists."
"I'm game," Maria walked to a panel of the wall, and swung her right fist into it. As she held her fist gently to herself, muttering about how it wasn't fair that Zell could make it look so easy, a panel fell open from the shockwave.
"Um..." Seifer chuckled, "So maybe it's not such a bad idea after all."
"Its not like hitting things always works," Squall rolled his eyes as he studied the panel, "But we have to give Zell credit, as a last resort, it truly does work."
After looking for a bit at the panel, they found themselves just as stumped as before, "Pity we can't try that trick again," Seifer growled at the panel, "But there's too much fragile stuff that would get fried from the impact."
"Not to mention it would fry your skin," Xia sat on the ground near the panel, leaning against a wall, "And it would probably also alert whoever is inside that someone is trying to get in without proper clearance."
"She was always using this weird, overly chipper song as her passcode, if she wasn't supposed to use words," Max tapped his shoe on the ground, "I hated it, so I never bothered to learn or memorize it. Pity."
"Great," Seifer rolled his eyes, "That does a lot of good, helps us so much, so why again did we bring you?"
Max just glared at him.
"Guys, we don't need to start fighting now," Selphie was turning a slightly greener shade of her usually healthy peach, because by this point, the skin covering Eric's frame actually did rip as he moved, and the sound of the flesh shredding and the scent of the blood- or whatever it was- slipping down his skin was decidedly grossing her out, "We don't really have the time for Max and Seifer to rip each other new airholes. Eric's getting more and more disgusting to look at with each passing second, no offense."
"None taken" Eric's voice whistled through the holes that had developed along his throat and mouth as he spoke, "Even I am finding this unbearable."
Max shifted his glare from Seifer to the metal panel and after a bit, in a slight fit of anger, he stepped in front of it and started what appeared to be randomly hitting buttons and tweaking knobs.
"What are you doing?!" Irvine yelped at him, just as he stopped.
"It wasn't as random as it looked," Max muttered, "I've seen her use a panel like that before. The passcode was valid as long as you hit every button once only, and tweaked each switch, pulled each lever, and pulled every cord only once as well, but you had to get all of them, and do so in a certain amount of time, and couldn't pull from the same row or column twice in a row."
"You're kidding," Maria was flabbergasted, "That's almost pathetically simple, yet unbelievably difficult at the same time!"
Max shrugged, "If it makes it any better, I taught her that trick, though it doesn't seem to have worked in this case."
Just as the others were about to agree that it had not worked, one of the metal walls lifted from the ground to disappear into the ceiling, opening a path into the small structure.
"Or you spoke too soon," Seifer joked, "Wonder why there was such a lag?"
"Who are you people, and what are you doing here?" An oldish woman stood in the door, slightly frightened, yet determined to have answers, "Are you here to take back the young lady?" She spotted Max, "Oh, there you are! Miss Aura warned me you might be on your way soon," She disappeared into the building, "Follow me, she had a gift for you."
"I'm not entirely sure I want to," Max muttered, though he was following, "The last gift she gave me hurt entirely too much."
~
I can't help but think the story's dead/dying/whatever, but I still have to get this done, or I'll feel really bad about not finishing it.