Chapter 6.

The group moved through the busy, noisy and fairy open streets of the now modernised Deling City. The Galbadian government was working on turning Galbadia into a technology-ridden continent, much like Esthar, and to a certain degree they were succeeding, replacing construction materials, using different colours and developing their own forms of the technology that Esthar had. Suffice to say, Deling City was a little bit of a better place. Places were a lot brighter and a little wider. They had even applied anti-gravity to public transport in an attempt to un-clog the streets and also built an outer highway all the way around the city perimeter to try and reduce congestion in the inner city.

Irvine was being his usual flirtatious self, whether it was Selphie or other random girls on the streets. Quistis was just casually walking along, talking to Zell about various things. He was listening quite contently while walking and polishing the titanium dusters on his gloves with a rag. Squall however, after managing to get Selphie to give him his knives back, was walking about ten paces in front of the rest of the group.

"Hey Selph, did I mention how funky you looked with those knives? They suited your dress"

"Hey, whaddya know, dangerous while still lookin' sexy!" She said, slapping Irvine gently on the arm. "You think I should go get some?"

"Most definitely, if you can afford it" he replied.

Selphie then ran ahead to catch up with Squall

"Squall! Hey Squall!" she screamed while running up to him

He turned around and looked at the yellow-clad girl.

"Mmm?" Came his response

"Don't suppose you'd show us the shop where you got those knives? Me and the gang wanna do some shopping"

Squall placed his gloved hand on his forhead.

"Whatever…follow me"

Squall and Selphie waited for the rest of the party to catch up then started walking back to the shopping center/mall.

Squall lead the group into the shopping mall where he had previously bought the remedies on his belt, and also the new knives.

"This is the place" Squall said lazily, hand on one of his hips and the other pointing up towards the weapons shop. Selphie dived towards Squall and pulled him into a hug, knowing he would probably get Ms.Hyper into a strop if he didn't hug back, he hugged back.

"Thank you Squalllllll" she said before pulling away from the hug and belting towards the escalator that lead up to the second floor. Squall just looked on, shook his head and walked after her.

"She's crazy" said Zell, speaking Squalls thoughts aloud.

"Hey, you don't need to tell me" agreed Irvine, smiling, almost in admiration.

"I guess I should say whatever… but it hardly seems worth it" said Squall, pretty much mocking himself.

"Hey polar, make sure you don't freeze in there" called over Quistis, Squall looked over at her. They made perfect eye contact for a second until Squall averted his attention to the store he saw behind her. It was a cuddly toy shop with a large furry polar bear toy in the window. Squall looked back at Quistis and shook his head, she merely grinned and walked on.

After riding the elevator, only to be greeted by Selphie swinging her arms then running into the shop, Squall walked over to one of the pillars holding up the large neon sign of the weapons shop.

"Hey Squall, you coming in?" enquired Irvine.

"I've already been there once, why would I need to go in there again"

"Your call ace" called Irvine as he walked into the shop. Squall leant against one of the pillars and concentrated his mind on many places that weren't in the mall where he was standing.

Squall thought back to the moment Rinoa told him she would be leaving Garden.

He and Rinoa were standing in his dormitory, or at least, his old dormitory before he had it renovated.

"I'm leaving Squall, I've sorted things out with my father and there's a good chance I can get a job in Deling City"

"Huh…"

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I think its time we should call it off and go our own separate ways, I'm a military generals daughter, you're a mercenary, we don't match"

"Huh…"

"Please don't be like this…its pretty painful for me too"

Squall walked over to the window, opened the blinds and looked out over the passing terrain, Rinoa approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I've gotta go pack, I'll be in my dorm if you need me"

"Whatever…"

Rinoa backed off a bit, hurt by Squall's last comment.

"I hope we can still be friends, get in touch, and please don't be mad"

Squall slapped his hand to his forehead to snap himself out of the memory. He ran the same hand he slapped his forehead with through his hair, in a gesture of comfort and continued leaning against the pillar and looking up at the large plasti-glass roof of the mall.

"Typical…if it was me, I'd already be in, and out by now" Squall thought aloud, referring to Quistis, Selphie, Zell and Irvine. At that point, he looked to his left and saw three girls, of respectable beauty slip into view, he took a quick glance at the three of them then averted his eyes back to the skylight. Three girls, of similar age to his own started walking towards him.

'Crap' he thought mentally, they continued to walk, looking at him quite intently leaning against the pillar of the weapons shop with his arms now crossed in front of him. As they got closer, he turned his head towards them and made contact with one of their eyes, trying to play it cool as the three girls approached, they crossed in front of him, still gazing at him, at this point he was gazing back and a grin started to fill his features, then when they looked away, he started checking them out In their mini-skirts before tearing his head away from their direction and again placing his hand on his forehead.

"Dammit, now I'm becoming Irvine"

It was at this point that Irvine came out from the shop, instantly spotting the three girls who had just passed Squall and then a confused look filling his face. He then dipped his hat down around his eyes, and directly looked at the girls, raising one eyebrow higher than the other.

"Well, excuse me ladies, have we met before?"

Selphie then burst out of the store grabbing Irvine by the arm,

"Come on cowboy, lets go kill things" She then dragged him away, over to where Squall was leaning. Irvine chanced one last look at the girls to find that they were pointing and laughing at him, he went bright red before removing himself from their line of sight. Squall grinned at him before turning to Selphie and asking,

"Two questions, one, did you get all you wanted, two, where are Quistis and Zell?"

"Yeah, I got a pair of those funky-colorific knives, and to my knowledge, still in there making some purchases" Irvine then piped in with.

"Yeah, I grabbed me a new set of pistols a la imported from Esthar" he then reached into his coat and pulled out a pair of what could only be described as see-through guns.

"Pretty nifty huh? Active camouflage weaponry, been dying to get my hands on a pair of these" He then flicked two switches on the handles and the weapons became perfectly visible.

"I also managed to get a pair of these, Selph, hold my coat." He said, taking his coat off to reveal a harness with numerable slots, filled with numerous types of weaponry, ranging from throwing knives, guns and even grenades. Selphie nearly fell to the floor because of the weight of the coat, Primarily because it also had a harness attached to it, with numerous types of machine gun on the inside breast. Irvine then turned around, to reveal another five slots on the harness, each holding weaponry that stretched all the way down his back, he pulled two silver weapons from the two side slots on the harness and placed his weight on them on the floor.

"You know my standard weapon, the valiant?" Squall nodded although he disapproved of the amount of weaponry Irvine was carrying.

"Meet it's younger brothers" Squall nodded obviously approving of Irvine's choice of weaponry, although preferring close quarters himself. Irvine however, placed the guns back on the harness and took his coat back from Selphie and placed it back over his shoulders, with ease.

An audible cry of joy was heard as Zell bounced out of the shop, seemingly minus his gloves. Quistis exited not long after him with a quartet of new whips attached to her dress. Zell ran over to Squall and held out his hand.

"Hey Squall, shake my hand" Irvine and Selphie just looked at him oddly, then at Squall and nodded, giving Squall a hint to shake his hand to see what he was up to. Squall tried to take the hand, but an invisible barrier was blocking him from actually touching the skin.

"Let me guess, more camo technology?"

Zell grinned and nodded his head before visible flicking something with his finger and making a glove of energy appear around one hand.

"Total energy weapon, tested and safe too, read about them in magazines, only found a pair to buy today."

"Well, that's lovely, now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm hungry, so lets head into he city to find a nice restaurant to eat in.

"Uhh…can I drop some of this gear off at the car first?" Asked Irvine

"Sure" replied Squall, who then lead the rest of the team back to the entrance of the mall.

Ok, well that was fun to write, especially the bit where Irvine took off the coat. Very matrix style if you ask me. Anyways, R&R much appreciated and thanks for reading.