Chapter One :: Call to Arms

[Storyteller]

“Right” Seifer said as he steps forward rolling his neck a little.

“The four members that make up the final team are Stanton, Kuroki, Infinity,Michaelangelo, and Jax Ridean. You will not be following the others down into the DotNA compound. Instead you will be heading for the Timber Broadcast Tower. As you might guess it is now controlled by DotNA and they are using it to keep in contact with their operatives around the world. We also believe it may have had some involvement in the coordination of the bombing of Garden”

“We can no longer allow DotNA to retain control of such a powerful asset. Your mission is to utterly destroy the Broadcast Tower. A structural analysis revealed that only three of the four struts of the tower need to be taken out for it fall. Stanton it will be your duty to deploy the necessary explosives to get the job done”

Seifer paused and stepped forward lowering a large black bag off his shoulder. Gently he allowed the contents to tumble out onto the table. It was an assortment of explosives and detonators. All of them of the best quality and the newest design.

“However as some of you might know the Broadcast Tower is located in a highly populated area of Timber.
You are required to evacuate any and all buildings in the vicinity of the tower. No innocent casualties must occur. This is of top priority. Timber is all ready very uneasy about SeeD so you may want to keep your true identities a secret. Lie, Cheat, Steal, do whatever you have to just get those people out of their homes and get the Tower down. Kuroki we chose you for this mission because we thought you will excel at working with the people. Michaelangelo since you are equipped with Curaga don't be afraid to use it, you never know just what these people might need”

“The tower will be heavily guarded and you may use lethal force if the situation calls for it. If the DotNA catch word of what you are doing before it’s done expect them to send out the big guns so be careful about making your intentions too obvious. Infinity your close combat fighting skills and Ridean’s long range will be optimal if such a situation arises. Until the tower is down protecting Stanton will be your highest priority”

“Upon explosion of the tower you will return to the airship and wait for the other teams to return from their missions. You will be able to use the ships communications to reach Mercutio or Lewis if the need arises but it would be best to keep our channels silent if possible”

“Remember, no innocent casualties. Hell no casualties at all if you can manage it”

“I think that just about covers it. Do any of you have any questions?” Seifer finished taking a look around.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian listened mutely to Leonhart's sudden rush of information. What was this about DoTNA again? Wasn't this bombing another one of those Garden feuds?

You got all that, CQ?

/Affirmative./ This was better than writing everything down on paper.

According to what he understood on his own, the guy Amaerick would lead them to DoTNA HQ and he would have to hack their way to the main frame. Once there, he was expected to grant all access inside. He needed to steal all of the garbage he could find in the main server while he had four--FOUR--handy dandy bodyguards protecting him.

'D'arcell must live,' he says? That really meant 'D'arcell will die on his own so don't let the poor dude die.' Hadrian lowered his head to scratch his temple. Am I on a wheelchair or what?

Judging from how he ended the briefing, they were expected to improvise their way out of the hellhole since the walkie-tokie method was all they could advice them. Great plan. There was just one thing. One important thing that he had been itching to know since four days ago.

As soon as he got a chance to ask question, he went for it.

"I got the gist of what we're supposed to do, mostly. But wait a minute..." He lifted his head. "DoTNA?" His forehead creased. "You saying DoTNA bombed Garden? How? I thought they're done for. What the hell happened? We had their leader pretty much in limbo, and now this?" He frowned.

--------------
I might as well post as much as I can since I might not be able to again later x.x

[ST]

Squall arched an eyebrow at Hadrian.

"Yes, DotNA is behind the bombing. DotNA is an organized and very prolific faction within Timber, as well as certain areas of Esthar and Deling. Amaerick estimates their total numbers around seven hundred. Just because we had a few of their top operatives in custody doesn't mean they were 'done for' by any means. They obviously were and still are a very real threat to us.

"From what we have to go on, it seems as if the bombing was both an attack and an elaborate way to get their leaders free. We are positive Waverly Jong made it out. There were some who witnessed her escape into a helicopter. Weiss Jong and Mitch Malone we are not sure about, but they were not found when we were loading survivors into the safety escape pods. We can only assume they made it out as well."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"Ohh...So those bastards still can move even if their head's cut off?" Hadrian sounded surprised. "I understimated them. I mean, they even managed to blow up the Balamb Garden in their state like that. " He rested his chin on his palm. "Either they're that good, or B. Garden's security just sucked." That was rude, more so since he wasn't from Balamb Garden, but he just didn't like the fact that Balamb was thrashed--down to the dirt--by a headless faction when their leaders didn't even managed to accomplish that. He was sure as hell it wasn't because they were out on vacation.

/Were you expecting a better alibi?/ CQ miraculously talked like a human for once.

"Any idea how they did it?" Hadrian's annoyance just got worse. "Sir?"

[ST]

Squall bristled visibly at Hadrian's words. He listened to the kid finish in stony silence, before responding with an answer in a very hardened tone.

"We have obviously underestimated their capabilities in the past. So I would advise that you shed your impudent attitude and take this organization as seriously as it should be taken, like the rest of us, instead of making blatantly rude remarks concerning Balamb Garden. I assure you this same thing could have happened to any other place on the planet. These people know exactly what they are doing."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

HAHA I love Squall XO
-------------------------------

Hadrian leaned back on his chair as Squall Leonhart reprimanded him. For a split second there, he sounded like Xu. And for a split second there too, he wanted to laugh. That still didn't answer his question. Or more like, Leonhart was admitting that Garden messed up.

No kidding... He nodded silently, eyes on the table. Inside, he was still annoyed. He was going to risk his life for this mission, wasn't he? How the hell could he not take this seriously? The least thing they could do was....Apologize for their sh*tty defense system because they suck ass...

/Hadrian./

"I...understand," he lied. "My apologies." He was sick of this argument. Everything was done afterall. Nothing could be changed.

"Rest assured." He saluted half-heartedly. "I'll be sure to take this seriously after you told me to." Hadrian smiled. "Also I...I really don't need four people to stay with me inside the mainframe. Appreciate the concern and all...But it looks like Deo will need more support than I do." He looked at the group who was going to the Broadcast tower. "Besides, it's gon' be easier to move inside with less people."

[ST]

"It's not concern." Squall's voice hardened again. Hadrian was obviously trying very heavily on his patience. "It's common sense. I am not about to place the stock of this mission in the hands of one haughty young SeeD. That would make me a fool, and you DotNA fodder.

"And on that note, since you don't know what things are going to be like when you get down there, I don't think you should assume you won't need help. You must not understand the enormity of what you are about to take on, D'Arcell. You will be going into the very heart of this organization. Trust me; you will definitely need a team by your side to live through this. Try not to let that fact bruise your precious ego. It's nothing personal. You're the only hacker. It is immensely more important that we keep you and your laptop intact than it is we send you in there alone so you can feel manly and look cool."

Squall looked away, addressing the rest of the room now. "I'm sure there are more of you with something to add."

[Diego Stanton]

*THWACK*

"...huh? oooh, mints!" Deo picked up the box of mints on the floor in front of him and munched them happily as Squall and Seifer entered the room and began to plot out a mission. As Seifer began to describe the tower mission, Deo's munching slowed and his mouth began to dry out as it dawned on him that he was being flung into a full-fledged seeD mission.

Oh fuck... He had completely forgotten to tell Garden that he didn't want to be a seeD! Now there was no turning back, since his part was essential to the mission.

"ooooooooh," Deo slowly stood up and walked toward the table posessed when he saw Seifer dump out a load of explosions. "Incendiary cluster bombs, no way! Blaze, you would love these they start fires that are unable to be extinguished by water! Oh man, and these ones, Blue Peacock bombs, they explode 10 seconds after being touched! NO WAY! These are so er..--" Deo clammed up as he realized he was interrupting Hadrian and Squall's little squabble about Garden's shitty defense.

Deo raised his hand tentatively. "Uh... if I may, commander sir leader guy... uh..." Deo swallowed and scratched the back of his head when he noticed everyone in the room was staring at him.

"Er... uh.. it's just that I was watching the explosion on the news and from what I saw, I could deduce that the bomb used was an antipersonnel 1.5 D type tertiary explosive that was a detontation rather than a deflagration. I saw that the explosion was supersonic propagated through shock compression, due to the energy release behind it. The propellant must have detonated under extreme conditions. Like... for example the compound nitrocellulose deflagrates if ignited, but detonates if initiated by a detonator. This is what happened in Garden. " Deo put his hand down and stood in heavy silence for a second.

"uh.. In other words, the bomb exploded from the inside of the Garden and wasn't dropped by a plane or anything. I don't know if it was a mole or what, but somebody planted the bomb from the inside. Garden wasn't ambushed, and this was not a surprise attack. The bomb was probably sitting there for awhile and somebody decided to detonate it now, for whatever reason. As for how they did it, I dunno." Deo took another mint out of his box and chewed it.

"I'm not trying to take sides or whatever, I'm not trying to say it was Garden's fault for the bombing. I just... know a lot about bombs and want to share?" Deo shrugged.

[Jax Ridean]

The moment Jax heard the word's "Eponine" and "replacement," the rest of Squall's speech fell upon deaf ears. He couldn't believe that even in such a state of emergency, they were going to provide him with a new airship...The thought of gripping the soft leather of the control handles was making his hands start to tingle a bit...

"Just get out of the sky and unnoticeable as quickly as you can."

Like a twitch, Jax's arm immediately shot into the air. Realizing at that instant how idiotic he looked, he quickly dropped his arm. "Um.." He cleared his throat once. "I just felt that I should ask, particular considering past encounters with a very large...and um.. angry dragon....If whether or not we are to expect any kind of aerial interference. Hostile or friendly."

[ani]

Hadrian

It's not concern, it's common sense, Hadrian. Just like how we got B. Garden's pieces snorkeling somewhere down the coast because we can't be bothered to think deeper and rely on common sense. You got it, Hadrian? We're too damn fly to care. We're closet safety queens till death do us part.

Hadrian lowered his head and listened to Deo's grand interpretation of the incident. He was refraining himself from laughing at Leonhart's mechanical response. That straw reached the peak of his annoyance to the point that it was genuinely funny to him.

Now I would refrain you for making more snide comments and make my hair grayer than it already is. Babe Rinoa wouldn't like it and would dump me for Sefer. Hell no.......Yeah, hear it from Commander Leonhart.

"Like... for example the compound nitrocellulose deflagrates if ignited, but detonates if initiated by a detonator. This is what happened in Garden." Deo rattled on professionally.

"Nitrocellulose defla-what?" He looked up. Atleast Deo, an obvious outsider, was able to formulate "how" the thing happened. He was saying that the bombing was done from the inside? Hadrian only saw it in the screen, but he thought it was missiles. Or maybe both? For what purpose? Diversion? These superiors of them should cut it out with their common sense way of expecting this group would already know what was going on. How did the bombing exactly happen?

"Hey, hey, Deo...How sure are you about that?" Hadrian spoke again from his seat. "A powerful bomb's inside Garden for so long and it never got detected? If that were the case, wouldn't that imply another mole?" He looked at Squall and Seifer. "We're getting there, we're gradually figuring out how the bombing happened."

~*~

Stardust

Amidst the small discussion about the bombs, Stardust turned her head to where Jax was. He was saying another thing. "I just felt that I should ask, particular considering past encounters with a very large...and um..angry dragon....If whether or not we are to expect any kind of aerial interference. Hostile or friendly."

Angry dragons? Did he mean Weiss's Bahamut?

"And I have a question too," she spoke afterwards. "If Weiss Jong is missing....How sure are you that DoTNA would not anticipate our counterattack now that they know that Reese Amaerick knows their hideout."

/All these talks are giving me headaches!/ Diwata whined. /Don't make it worse./

But she wasn't, or did not mean to. She was just tired of this neverending encounter about the DoTNAs. Unlike with Adel, she was indifferent with this mission though she chose to tag along for the ride.

[Blaze Sanaku]

YES!!!! Stardust is not on my team!!! Blaze resisted jumping into the air and pumping her fists.

/teehee~~ but Hadrian, Zacke and Reese areee/ Deathstrike giggled.

UGH! Blaze let out a very exaggerated sigh when it was revealed that her task was to 'protect' Hadrian. In her mind, she could hear him gloat about it. 'You're my bodyguard! You have to protect me! Keeping me alive is your NUMBER ONE priority!! Let me record you protecting me!' he would say.

Blaze smirked when Hadrian accused Balamb's defense of being weak. She loved the way Squall got riled up about it. Ahhh she felt so free now that she felt nothing for Squall. No matter if he was the commander, he was just another idiot boy.

Completely ignoring Deo and Stardust's comments, Blaze threw her hand up. "Commander, once seeD D'Arcell completes his task, is his life still our number one priority? I feel that once D'Arcell finishes his task, his life is of less importance than before and we should be able to direct our fighting skills, of which D'Arcell has none, to more pressing matters." Blaze threw Hadrian a haughty smile.

[ST]

Squall patiently, albeit distractedly, listened to each of their comments. In his mind, he was still mulling over everything Deo had said. It was very possible that the bombing had been a detonation. Still...

"We cannot rule out anything at this point in time, so yes, there is a very real possibility that Garden was sabotaged from the inside. It has only been a few days, and we are only just beginning to understand what exactly happened that night." Squall locked eyes with Hadrian. "So just as you say you are figuring things out -- so are we." His tone was cold. He held the hacker's eyes for a moment, his eyes full of warning, before turning to Stardust.

"The Jong siblings know that Amaerick is alive, but that is all. They don't know we are using him against them; and I don't believe they will expect that, either. However, in the end, I don't really care what exactly they expect. We will not sit on our hands and wait for them to sink another Garden."

Squall finally addressed Blaze. "I don't care what happens to D'Arcell once he completes his duties. Just don't let anything happen to his laptop."

[Zacke]

Zacke had silently watched the conversation between Hadrian and Headmaster Leonhart, finding himself becoming more and more annoyed with the hacker the more he opened his mouth. He couldn't believe how utterly disrespectful Hadrian was being -- and not just to Leonhart, but to Balamb Garden as a whole, and all of the people who had been lost in the bombing.

I can't believe so much of this mission rests in the hands of this little prick.

Zacke listened to Blaze voice her question, and found that it eased his frustration a little. At least he and Blaze were on the same page about Hadrian. Thinking about what happened to the last person they both decided to hate, he felt a little bit better about this whole ordeal. At least if he had to deal with Hadrian, he didn't have to deal with him alone.

[Lawric]

Lawric stared at the plate of cookies in front of him, but he wasn't really looking at them. His mind was completely absorbed by everything being said by the people around him.

Leonhart and Almasy conducted a standard briefing. Deo discussed his thoughts on the nature of the bombing. A few of the others threw in their questions and concerns. It felt surreal to him, to be sitting in the midst of this, to be part of this meeting. We're just a little vigilante group... We're not SeeD. We're not soldiers. He glanced between his three roommates, his mind racing as he struggled to come to terms with what they had now become a part of. He tried to imagine Van and Jaime infiltrating the DotNA compound, and found that he could not. And Deo... blowing up the Broadcast Tower? He glanced over at his friend.

This was getting very serious, very fast. And none of them seemed extremely shaken by it. But then, he reminded himself, his companions had all been through very much in his absence. Maybe they had become a little more hardened, a little more conditioned to the mercenary type of life.

Still... as much sense as it made, it was a bizarre and unwelcome realization. With the reward money from Garden, Jaime finally got to open up a restaurant, and it was a project they were all enjoying. They had been living back at the apartment, just like before. He had been seeing a psychiatrist, trying to work the whole death and rebirth thing out of his life. He'd even taken Jun out once and shared a lovely evening with her. Things had only begun to return to something like what they had been before all of this, and he had been enjoying it. And now, in a flash, his entire world was changed. Again. He felt as if he'd just been thrown into a vat of ice cold water.

He passed Jun an anxious sideways glance, and found her to be listening intently to Leonhart, her demeanor completely serious and stoic. Completely different from the Jun he had seen at the Ball, the Jun he was used to. A soldier. He looked away and felt all of his doubts morphing rapidly into fears -- which only brought on an acute sense of shame. He was probably the only person in the room who really did not want any part of this. The stark differences he felt in himself made him even more alienated from everyone than he already was.

Coward.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"The Jong siblings know that Amaerick is alive, but that is all. They don't know we are using him against them; and I don't believe they will expect that, either."

Opinion doesn't even hold water. You're getting old. Hadrian stared at his commander.

"However, in the end, I don't really care what exactly they expect. We will not sit on our hands and wait for them to sink another Garden."

That just means DoTNAs Would be expecting us, doesn't it?

"I don't care what happens to D'Arcell once he completes his duties. Just don't let anything happen to his laptop."

Mpft.

Hadrian's light smile didn't fade though inside his annoyance had turned into amusement. Wasn't Leonhart telling them to keep him and his laptop intact just a while ago? And now, it had become 'just the laptop.' Was it something he did?

CQ, was it me?

/Due to previous behavioral pattern, Corpora Quadrigemina has analyzed that you are initially showing manifestations of a "crazy wiseass" for the 104th time in my service./ the GF said. /Based on previous experiences, Corpora Quadrigemina requests that you cease such behavior before repercussions are dealt./

Hadrian cleared his throat to stop the outburst of laughter. All he wanted was a formal explanation on how DoTNA outsmarted Balamb Garden. Didn't they have rights to know everything? Since they were the ones doing this 'request of service' afterall. It wasn't his fault they couldn't explain themselves properly.

So in other words, CQ... Balamb Garden was screwed by DoTNAs and they didn't even know how they did it. How many charades did he have to go through to get that out of Leonhart's mouth?

In that case, I'll go find it out for you....old man.

"Don't worry, I won't die on you, Blaze." Hadrian nodded at the girl. Looking at her reminded him of another upside to this bodyguard crap. It didn't even touch his mind, but thanks to her... "Let's work hard now, bodyguard." He threw back the haughty smile she chucked at him.