CHAPTER 2 – The Fire Cavern

Squall had never seen so many Bomb enemies in her life as she had today. The Fire Cavern was full of them, as well as Red Bats and Buels. She actually thought the Bombs looked cute, but the Red Bats and Buels were ugly as all hell.

"The low-level GF in this Cavern is called Ifrit—that's iif-reet, not if-rit, okay?" Instructor Trepe told them as they made their way through. "He's fire-based, so Shiva is going to have to be the GF of choice, as well as any ice-type magic attacks."

Squall had junctioned—assigning summon-type Guardian Force monsters to a bracelet-like device used to bring the GF out of dormancy—Shiva to herself, with Quezequatal junctioned to Selphie. She hadn't known that Shiva would come in handy, but had generally assumed that the Instructor didn't want to use a GF, or had one of her own.

They were walking along a long strip of rock that lead to a circle-like area. Lava was on all sides and in the center of the circle. The heat was immense. Squall had unbuttoned her blouse, revealing the undershirt that was covering her bra. She looked over and saw that Selphie and Instructor Trepe had done the same.

"Is that where Ifrit is?" Selphie asked, pointing to the circle.

"Yes," Instructor Trepe answered. "He'll try to taunt you, force you into doing something stupid. A few Garden Faculties died being placed in bad situations by that monster."

"Don't worry, Instructor," Squall smirked, "we'll take care of him."

They continued on toward the circle. When they reached it, they stopped and waited. They waited the better part of five minutes until a spout of lava came up from the pool and then a creature that was about three human beings tall, with horns and fur and gnarled teeth came out of the lava pool.

"Well, well, well," the deep voice called, a mocking tone. "Three human females. This should be quite a challenge."

"You're damn right it'll be a challenge," Squall said, drawing her gunblade. "One that I'll be happy to give you!"

She ran toward it, jumping just before hitting the edge of the lava pool. She landed on his shoulder, then jammed her gunblade directly into its shoulderblade. She dug deep into it, then was pulled out off of Ifrit and thrown directly at the lava. She only hoped something would happen before she died...

And she was right.

Some kind of force field appeared directly underneath her, allowing her to step onto the rock and rejoin Selphie and Instructor Trepe.

Weird...

"That all you got?" she mocked Ifrit.

"All I've got? I'll burn you to death!"

"Bullshit!" Squall raised up the Junction Device on her left wrist. "How's about it, Shiva?"

"Shiva?"

A sudden white light came from the Junction Device, then a good portion of the cavern was covered in ice. An ice pillar extended just in front of Ifrit, with what looked to be a young woman about Squall's age inside. The pillar broke, then Shiva stood in front of Ifrit, staring at him.

Ifrit started laughing.

"This is Shiva? This impudent little girl? Ha! I could melt this little wench with my pinky toe!"

"That so, Ifrit?" Shiva asked, raising her hand and creating a large trail of ice going forward from her. Ifrit was frozen in his tracks. "Because I'd say this little girl just froze you."

Squall nodded to Shiva, then returned her to the Junction Device. The ice stayed, keeping Ifrit in a frozen prison. She walked over to him.

"You've got two choices: Join us and never have to fight Shiva again, or lose to her and we capture you and give you no choice but to join us."

"Fine," he growled. "I shall join you."

Squall brought up her Junction Device, pressed the CAPTURE button, and waited for Ifrit's essence to be imprinted onto the device. In seconds, Ifrit was hers.

"Good work, Squall," Instructor Trepe said, patting her on the back. "Now, let's get back to the entrance to the Cavern before the time runs out."

"We're still timed now?" Selphie asked, falling to her knees. "Man, this is just too hard... I grateful you only have to do it once..."

"Let's just go, okay?"

Squall collapsed against the gate to the Garden once they returned. Selphie did the same, while Instructor Trepe just passed the two exhausted girls by.

"You two get into your trainee uniforms and meet me by the Garden Directory, okay?" she said, not even stopping.

"Yes, Instructor," both Squall and Selphie said, breathless.

Squall's trainee uniform had gone through what she liked to call Shibiru's Hotness Adjustment. What that meant was that Shibiru had made her skirt shorter, shortened the sleeves to her blouse, and had cut off the top couple of buttons, meaning that she'd always be showing cleavage, no matter what she tried to do.

I look so stupid in this uniform, Squall thought as she stared at herself in the mirror.

"You look so cute in that uniform!" Selphie shouted, hugging on her from behind.

"Yeah, if I wanna go pick up boys in it!"

"I bet Shibiru likes it."

"I know he likes it. He's the one who did this to my uniform."

"Oh, sorry."

"Well, at least it covers up my ass. That way my panties aren't showing all the time," Squall turned around and looked at herself from the back. "I guess it's time to go meet back up with Instructor Trepe."

"Yep. Race you there?"

"You're on, girl!"

Squall and Selphie broke into a run, every so often tripping each other up, trying to get ahead.

Instructor Trepe wasn't at the Directory once they arrived. Shibiru, on the other hand, was. So was Seifer, and a student that Squall had always thought was kind of stupid, but was a really good fighter: Zell Dincht. He was as tall as Squall used to be, had short blonde hair in a crew cut, and had a lightning tattoo on the left side of his face.

And almost instantly, he and Shibiru got into a fight over who should go with Squall and Selphie.

"I know Squall, she works better around me!" Shibiru shouted, pushing Zell into the Directory.

"She's been a girl for ten hours! She doesn't 'work better' around anybody!"

"And Selphie's on the Garden Festival Committee, just like me!"

"That just means you both know how to have a damn good party, that doesn't mean shit for a battle!"

Selphie elbowed Squall in the arm. "Hey, those two are fighting over us!" she whispered, an excited look on her face.

"Yeah, but Shibi's still cuter."

"Zell's not bad."

"True. He's got a tight little butt that looks really cute."

"Who do you think's got the bigger dick?"

"Hm... definitely Shibi."

"How come?"

"Because, when I was a guy, I heard a lotta bad things about Zell in the gym locker rooms all the time."

"Wait, the guys knew?"

"From their girlfriends—all of whom he tried to screw."

"Oh."

"Hey, Selphie, do you know whether or not we still have to take gym once we become SeeD members?"

"No. Shouldn't you?"

"Well, I never really thought about it until just now."

Suddenly, Instructor Trepe's voice shouted, "Students!" causing Zell and Shibiru to stop their senseless shouting at one another. "Are you five ready yet?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. "Good. Here's the team assignments: Squall, Zell, Seifer—Squad C under me and Xu. Shibiru and Selphie, you're both to report to Squad A under Okaido."

"See ya later, Squall," Selphie gave Squall a little hug.

"You, too. And take good care of Shibi, okay?"

"Hey, I can take care of myself," Shibiru said, cracking his knuckles. "I do have the quickest sword-reflexes second to you, sweet stuff."

"Yeah, but I'd rather my best friend not come back to the Garden and tell me that my boyfriend died—understand?"

"Okay." Shibiru leaned over and gave Squall a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, sweetie."

"For what?"

"Calling me your boyfriend."

"You're welcome."

Shibiru flashed her a quick wink, then followed Selphie to Okaido—a SeeD member who'd been there for about six years.

Squall refocused her attention on her other two teammates—Zell and Seifer.

Zell was a seventeen year old preteen who preferred to fight with his fists. He kept his sleeves rolled up, his pant legs too, his hair was always either slicked back or crew cut. He had an illegal Z-Board, which the Garden Faculties would be quick to confiscate. He always kept GF junctioned—he supposedly had a very powerful GF known as Diablo, but that was known only to him—and never liked to use them unless he didn't have a choice. He was a capable fighter, but not somebody you'd wanna have as a friend if you were a delicate, fragile girl like Squall.

Seifer, however, was a different story. Very handsome, awesome in a fight, and always willing to do whatever necessary to show anybody up. He had a scar running diagonally across his face, inflicted upon him by Squall that very morning. His white trench coat was something that everybody hated to see, because Seifer Almasy was the head of the Disciplinary Committee—ironic, considering discipline was something that he lacked. He always hung out with two lackeys—Fujin and Raijin. Most people assumed that those two were lovers, when Fujin actually had a crush on Seifer. Seifer, like most guys since Squall's change, had a crush on Squall.

"Squad C!" Instructor Trepe interrupted Squall's inspection of her teammates. "Listen up! You'll be a team under my and Xu's command—but Seifer will be your field commander."

"What?" Zell whined. "But he's a total freakin' asshole!"

"So you'd rather lead, Chicken-Wuss?" Seifer got in Zell's face to ask the question.

"I'd be a helluva lot better than you!"

"Shut up!" Squall shouted, trying to end the bickering. "Just let the Instructor talk!"

Both young men silenced.

"Thank you, Squall," Instructor Trepe said, bowing her head. "As I was saying, Seifer will be your field commander—and before you say anything, Mr. Dincht, it's because Seifer is the oldest of you. None of you is any more ranked or positioned than the other, yet field command is always bestowed upon the eldest for missions such as these. Once you achieve official SeeD status, it will be Headmaster Cid who decides your team commanders.

"Now, you're actual mission will be detailed to you once we reach the boat. We'll be taking a Garden Car to Balamb, where the boats are anchored. Xu will be delivering your objectives once we get there. Squall?"

"Yes, Instructor?"

"I assume you know how to drive?"

"Of course, Instructor," Squall got red-faced. She'd be driving? With two guys in the car to gawk at her? She'd rather have Shibiru there with her—at least he'd tell her when he was staring at her ass.

"Good, because you're the driver of the Garden Car, let's move."

Seifer muttered, "Great, the hot chick is driving us to the boat."

Squall smoothed her short skirt before sitting down in the Garden Car. She started it up, waiting for Seifer, Zell and Instructor Trepe to hurry up and get in the damn car. They all got in, then it was off to the nearby town of Balamb.

Balamb was very small—just basically a street with some houses, a gas station. An offshoot to one side took you to the train station, while the other offshoot took you past the hotel and then to the dock.

Squall took the one to the docks.

A Garden Boat was moored at the dock. With two SeeD members standing guard outside of it.

"SeeD member Quistis Trepe, also instructor. Squad C," Instructor Trepe introduced them.

"Xu is waiting for you, Quistis."

"All right." She turned back to her team. "Let's go."

Squall followed Zell and Seifer and Instructor Trepe into the boat, where Xu was indeed waiting for them.

Xu was a young girl—not months older than Squall. She'd graduated early, which was something no one else in Garden had accomplished. She had shoulder length black hair, was only an inch or two taller than Instructor Trepe, and was definitely a tough fighter. Like Zell, she preferred to fight with her fists.

"Seifer, Zell, and Squall. Two overcompensating guys and a girl who doesn't even know how to act like one yet," Xu said as they entered the boat.

"I know more than most people think."

"Is that why you cut your skirt so short?"

"No, Shibi did that."

"Shibi? Shibiru Hakashi?"

"Yeah."

"Great..."

"What?"

"What's my little brother doing to you?"

"Shibi's your little brother?"

"We're twins."

"Oh..."

"Look, he's not really that bad, once you get past his assholiness."

"I know. That's the only reason I like him."

"Wait, he was talking about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I went to visit him this morning after Homeroom, and he was talking about a girl that he liked. I didn't know he meant you."

"He either meant me or Selphie."

"No. I'm pretty sure he meant you. You match exactly what kind of body he was talking about."

"Oh, great. Does he talk to you about the bodies of all his potential girlfriends?"

"Not really. I guess you're special."

"So, how come he's not in your squad?"

"No family members in SeeD Trainee squads—that includes squad leaders and squad members."

"Oh."

"Well, you're gonna treat my brother nice, right?"

"Of course, after all, his sister can kick my ass."