Chapter 3: The Challenge
"There's no way you can do this," Stella shouted at me as she attached a communicater to the helmet of my armor, since I could not remove the armor myself and I already had my hands tied behind my back. I laughed a bit, "Don't worry about it, there is no fiend that can pierce my armor, I'll be fine," I said heading for the elevator. "Where am I being put down any way," I asked as Stella came over to work the elevator. "Somewhere on Besaid Island, we can't pinponit the exact location of the sphere right now so we're gonna put you down near the coast," she explained hitting a few buttons and the elevator hummed into motion.
"Still, you sure you don't need a weapon or maybe I could convince them to at least let you use your hands," she fussed. I laughed again, "Look you don't need to worry, just trust me," I said finally convincing her. The elevator reached the deck. We walked out into the open air and were hit with a blast of wind. "That the island there," I asked spotting it quite a ways down and just off to the side of the ship. "Yea, but..." I didn't let her finish I ran towards that side of the ship and jumped, curling into a spinning ball after my feet left the ship. I could feel myself falling faster and faster towards the ground. Man, if I were alive this would still hurt, even with this thick of armor, I thought about three seconds before I smashed into the sands of Besaid Island. I pulled myself out of the ground a few seconds later and looked around, I'm sure everyone on the island saw me falling, time to move out, hopefully that distracts the other sphere hunters, I thought about to run off but was stopped by my communicator.
"CHRIS ARE YOU THERE," I heard Stella yelling. "Yea I'm fine, the landing barely tickled," I replied smirking at a scof I heard from Joe. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING," she then proceeded to yelll at me almost making me go deaf in the process. "I'm sorry but it was going to take you another few minutes to land and I didn't want to wait, but have you pinpointed that sphere yet," I asked hearing Stella then let out a strange noise of frustration and walk off.
"Yea, sorry no luck yet, I need to be closer to the island first," Joe said as I spotted another airship. "Yo, Joe, who has a red airship with a picture of a fiery bird on the front," I said into my communicator, not taking my eyes off the airship. "What, oh dammit, those Gullwings beat us to the area again, listen up newbie," he said sounding far to superior, "you gotta beat the Gullwings to that sphere otherwise you're not joining the team and you gotta give me all your gil!" I started running toward the airship and then realized something, "Hey when did my gil become part of the bet, and don't call me a nebie, I could kick your ass any day of the week pal," I yelled at him, realizing that I had no clue where I was going. "I said I would decide what you had to do for me later, and I'll call you what I want till you're part of the team, oh and if you want to know which way to go it's down that path and to the right," he said obviously now being close enough to tell that I was lost. I ran in that direction and bumped square into someone. I fell abckwards did a little roll and ended back up on my feet and I saw... Rikku and her black garbed friend.
"YOU," they yelled in unison. "Umm, hey look a chocobo," I yelled and they actually looked as I ran off. I did a frontflip while running in order to look behind me and I saw that they were gaining fast already. "Which way dammit," I asked loudly. "Straight towards the village," Joe yelled back through the communicator. I saw the village but the path was winding and it would take to long to walk down. I stopped and turned to face Rikku and her friend. They stopped about ten feet away. "What's with your hands being tied," Rikku asked very quickly. "Hyper thing aren't ya, my hands are tied by chocie, it's a test, now who's your friend there Rikku," I said trying to get a name so I wouldn't have to call her a friend anymore, and who knew, maybe it would bring back a few memories. Her friend just stood there, "She's Paine," Rikku finally said after a few seconds. "Rikku," Paine scolded her. "What," she asked innocently, "hey, what's your name bub?" I just backed up and jumped down the cliff and slid all the way to the bottom and ran straight for the village.
"Head straight when you enter the village, it's somewhere near the temple." I heard Joe say. "Your helping me even though if you do your probably going to lose the bet," I said which made him actually think and now he stopped giving me directions. Great now if I get lost I'm done,oh well I'm persistant, I thought running straight into the village. I ran toward what I was sure was the temple but stopped when my eye caught something shiny on top of the temple. I looked closer and saw that a bird on top was holding a sphere so small it could be held between two fingers. "Yoink, gimme that sphere bird," I yelled jumping at it but of course as birds do it panicked and flew off. I bounced myself off the roof where it used to be and chased after it. The bird flew fast but not any higher then the tops of the trees. I continued bouncing off trees and whatever I could to keep up. I saw Rikku and Paine out of the corner of my eye and yelled as I jumped by, "Hello, I'm gonna get the sphere, bye!" I jumped and almost got in front of the bird, I need to get in front of it so I can grab the sphere, I thought pushing forward in a manner so that I felw directly underneath the bird, with my back turned. I reached out and grabbed it. "Gotcha," I said as the bird released it and flew off. Immediately after it did so however I felt myself fall about twice as fast as I should have been. "What the..." but I couldn't finish since I was now sliding along the ground. "Ouch, that must have hurt," I heard Rikku say from a distance. I struggled but managed to get to my feet.
"Picking me up anytime would be good Joe," I yelled into my communicator. "On the way," he replied, then I heard him grumbling. I stood at a stalemate with the Gullwings for a few seconds then I saw something. "Look out for the Chocobo," I said pointing with my foot right behind them. "Like we would fall for that twice," they said standing there. I then laughed as a chocobo trampled them and then proceeded to fall into a lake. "Dumb chocobo," I heard Paine grumble as I ran off to go catch my ride.
Gotta love those random chocobo attacks. My excuse for the chocobo running them over and falling in the lake is that it had chocobous dumbitus, which is a disease that chocobos can catch when they hang around a stupid person like Tidus, or possibly Wakka. Anyways please review, I appreciate suggestions and comments so Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaase review.