Chapter 1: New Faces, New Mission

[Polaris Lyn]

I don't believe I've said this, but sweet, even-tempered Polaris has had her axe strapped to her back since she was re-introduced to the mission.

---

Polaris realized with a small smile that if looks could kill, Rayden Sharpola would have been currently reduced to spattered bits of gore staining Balamb Garden's tastefully-decorated interior. As it was, looks did not fatal capabilities, and it was the only reason that Rayden was still among the living.

As it was, Polaris was having a hard time breathing, let alone thinking such morbid-yet-funny thoughts.

Then Jun said something about making a run for it, but at the rate people were closing in, Polaris highly doubted such escape was possible.

And so...it was desperate times, after all.

In one smooth motion befitting someone of intense blade training, Polaris reached behind her and pulled her war axe from its sheath--a two-foot-long gleaming silver menace with a wicked edge sharp enough to shave with--and slammed it into the cold floor, the blade biting into the ground and sending bits of marble flying up at the crowd around them. The mass of people in front of her, Jun and Rayden fell back, forming a wide berth, and Polaris pulled her weapon from the ground, shooting the crowd a glare dark enough to rival the scowl Jun had just very recently given Rayden.

"Next guy who comes within a foot of Kuroki or myself is going to find my new baby shoved upwards between his legs," she growled, and before anyone could test her on her threat, she had sheathed her war axe, grasped Jun firmly about the wrist, and steered her straight into the cafeteria.

"...and that," Blaze finished in her usual loud voice as soon as Polaris and Jun walked through the doors. Ignoring the protesting line, Polaris walked right up to Blaze.

"You're a hungy hungry hippo today," Polaris remarked.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Blaze's demanding voice reached Hadrian's ears and his eyes lifted from his cellphone.

"....thathathat.. some of that, thathathathathat... and that." The bandanna girl insisted, pressing her finger on the glass panel over and over again. Hadrian blinked, finding himself biting his tongue to not laugh at the lady.

How can something so lithe eat like a...

"....hungy hungry hippo today." Another girl squished through the line to join her. Hadrian blinked and noticed the raving line behind the girls. The people were obviously wanting to get their free food. That was when something registered on his head.

"Oh shyznit!" He stood up from his seat.

"I'M SORRY EVERYONE!!" A female clad in white apron hustled towards the stand to join him. "I had a minor supply problem! Sorry for waiting!" she announced, shooting a frown at Hadrian's way.

"Hey Shirley, sorry..." He scratched his head, faking a smirk. Casting a final glance at the girls in front of the stand, he grabbed some egg rolls on the display.

"Hehe...Here's your chef! Thanks for waiting." He put the egg roll on his mouth and waved at the people in front, mainly at Blaze and Polaris.

"I'm TERRIBLY sorry about that." The silver-haired chef named Shirley apologized. "What is it that you want again?" she asked Blaze and Polaris. It didn't take long till she finally handed Blaze and Polaris their respective orders, even Jun's. "NEXT!" The waitress called out as the petite SeeDs moved out of the humongous line to find a table.

[miyavi]

Sho let out a low whistle. <Whatta line.> He frowned, miffed. It was very likely that by the time he would make it to the front of the line, the food would either be cold, or <Hyne forbid> gone. This would require some careful handling.

<Ah!! Sho, you tricky, tricky man...> Grinning, he sauntered to the end of the line and leaned in close to the female SeeD standing in front of him.

"Hey, did you know...?" he whispered. Then he straightened.

The female SeeD blinked, comprehension dawning upon her pretty features. Sho tried not to snicker. <Jackpot.>

She tugged on the sleeve of the girl in front of her, and whispers erupted, loud, excited, and then someone lost their head and shrieked, "QUISTIS TREPE IS IN THE FRONT LOBBY SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS!!!" Shrieks pierced the air, both male and female alike, and there was a great rush out the doors to hunt down the glorified SeeD with the long blonde hair and blue eyes. Soon the cafeteria had been emptied save for Sho's teammates and a lanky cadet who had, like Sho, been near the back of the line. He hurried forward, and Sho ran after him.

"I'd like--" the cadet began, and Sho tapped his shoulder.

"Huh?" The cadet turned around, and Sho sidestepped him, effectively cutting in front. "H-hey!!"

Sho smiled winningly at the cafeteria lady. "Good afternoon, beautiful lady!" he greeted. "Might you, perchance, have some delicious Trabian tofu stir fry and a protein smoothie?"

The cafeteria woman smiled beningly and handed him his order, and Sho nodded his thanks before turning around and accidentally bumping into a small figure with dark hair.

<Oh. Crap.>

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris stumbled forward a step, nearly spilling her jasmine tea and her egg drop soup. She caught her balance quickly and looked over her shoulder at her assailant, and caught a glimpse of brown eyes and a face half hidden behind blue bangs and a hood that for some reason was pulled low over his head.

Sho Miyavi.

The other new SeeD.

He was, currently, looking at her as if he had never quite seen a woman before. "Aa," he began, "sorry." His voice had an accent to it, <Galbadian, maybe?> and he looked trully apologetic about bumping into her, not like that one burly SeeD who, under the guise of complimenting her and Jun, had tried to get a handful of...ahem, chest.

"It's okay," Polaris said quickly, more intent on stopping Blaze from going wild and clawing his eyes out than actually forgiving the guy. She was sure Blaze hadn't forgotten about his wisecrack when Xu first introduced them.

[Blaze Sanaku]

So I guess that guy's not the chef... Blaze smirked when the guy suddenly yelled, "Oh shiznit!"

She, Jun and Polaris had just gotten their orders when Sho crashed into Polaris.

"sorry," he said, but Blaze wasn't impressed.

"In a hurry to go pee?" she asked Sho, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Next time watch your step." she said forcefully and took Polaris's arm in a deathgrip to steer her away from him.

She plopped down in an empty seat at the table Jun and Rayden were at. Ravenously, she tore open the wrappers on her sandwish and ate like she was ripping the flesh from a dead animal.

"That new guy's asking for it," she said in between mouthfuls.

[Polaris Lyn]

"According to you, every guy is asking for it, Blaze." Polaris took a spoonful of soup in her mouth and felt the warmth settle in her stomach. "There is rarely a man whom you feel doesn't deserve your scorn. He did apologize."

But Polaris knew that apologies weren't good enough for Blaze. They never have been.

[ST]

Everyone

A few hours later, after all of you have finished with your eating, resting, bathing, training, dozing off at the library or visiting in the infirmary (ahem) etc, the P.A system crackles to life, announcing the end of your free time.

"Will the members of Team Trinity please report at Headmistress Xu's office immediately? Thank you."

As you arrive at her office, you notice two guys standing in front of her desk. One of them was rather familiar with his red-haired mullet, goggles and vintage bomber jacket.

The other is tall and lanky, and some of you might recognise him as the guy who was the food supply problem at the Gourmet stand.

Xu moves from her seat behind the desk, to the front and starts to introduce them.

"I know I said earlier we are expecting one last SeeD but I am pleased to announce that Gone Vacc has agreed to rejoin the mission. Welcome back, Mr. Vacc." Xu says with a pleased smile.

"Your newest member is Hadrian Xavier D'arcell. Mr. D'arcell is an expert in hacking and infiltrating. I am sure he will be an asset on team Trinity." She pauses, gesturing for Gone and Hadrian to take their seats.

"Team, you will be picked up by an airship as soon as this briefing is over, where you'll be taken to Shumi Village. To refresh your memory, you must present the scroll to the village chief. He will perform the ancient ritual and unseal the entrance to the underground city where the Ruby is hidden.

Be on your guard. This is the final leg of your mission and the most important. But I have confidence we will come up tops this time. We already have the other two jewels. You have come this far, you cannot fail."

Xu pauses again. You have the distinct impression that there's a lot on her mind, her voice strained and heavy with stress.

"If you have any questions raise them now. If not, you're free to go. I wish all of you good luck."

[Blaze Sanaku]

Oh Hyne... Blaze inwardly groaned. Not GONE.

She looked at the new member as well. It's the wannabe chef. She almost laughed.

She waited for Xu to finish speaking before saying, "yeah I have a question. Once we get inside the underground city, where the hell is the ruby supposed to be?"

[gone]

There were some things a person was just totally hooked on. In Gone's case it was the company of violent females with no sense of humour what so ever. What could he say? The girls were hawt. They were a desert and he was an oasis. Or should that be the other way around? Or did that even make sense? Did he even care if it did? No. Not particularly, no. There were far more interesting things to care about.

Like, um, whether or not he had fed his rat. His rat definitely needed some food. It ate like a pig, but it wasn't you know, cause it was a rat. Nezumi still needed to eat though. Gone wasn't quite sure how thinking and caring about that though was more important than caring about whether or not his 'met-ee-pour' was correct. Or even a metaphor.

Xu was talking again. Yeesh, it was like every time he saw the broad she was yabbering about something. And people said he talked too much and never had anything intelligent to say. Well how could he? When he had to listen to people like her bore the 'smarts' right out of his noggin. Seriously. It wouldn't kill her to just not talk one of these times.

Then again, she could be one of those weird robot things and talking could be like the thing she had to do in order to not, explode. Cause yeah, no one wanted to explode. It maybe seemed like an interesting idea, but like whoa, was so not fun when you actually thought about it. Body bits flying everywhere. He really didn't want to made into stewing meat.

He yawned, opening his mouth as wide as he could and happily curling his in like a cat did. Just because he could. And because it looked fun. And hopefully it would annoy someone. Yeah, it had been like hours since he had annoyed someone. And that just wasn't very fun. He was BORED. Bored!

Che! Did Xu just smile at him? Like really really really smile? Was the sky falling?! Was he naked!? Cause you know he was usually naked in his nightmares. Well he was naked in his 'good' dreams too, but that was an entirely different naked.

He grinned loudly, well if a person could grin loudly, he did. It was a Gone thing, he decided. Grinning loudly. And everyone would just have to live with it. Oh right, why he was grinning loudly. Well that was really very simple. It was because of Blaze, standing there all scowly as usual and practically groaning at him.

There was really only one thing to do in a situation like this.

With an evil laugh as his soundtrack, Gone practically leapt over to Blaze and scooped her into a bear hug, twirling her around for good measure.

"I knew you would miss me the most!" He cooed, winking obnoxiously at her.

[Blaze Sanaku]

LMAO

---

It must have happened at the speed of light because Blaze was absolutely not prepared for what Gone was about to do. She barely had time to react as he lunged toward her and lifted her off the ground in a crushing hug.

WHAT THE?!??!?!!

Blaze immediately stiffened as if she had been petrified, then let out a stream of extremely loud and incoherent curses and had to practically had to pry Gone's arms apart to make him let go. Once free she rammed her foot into the back of his shin which made him fall flat on his back. Her shoe flew down and embedded itself square in the middle of Gone's chest, pinning him to the floor.

"I swear to Hyne... Gone...." Blaze's eyes flashed dangerously. She could barely even talk she was so furious.

[gone]

There was cursing like a sailor. And then there was cursing like Blaze. Which was probably ten sailors put together and then some. No one swore quite like she did. Not that it affected him in the least. Quite the opposite in fact. The fact that she was cursing him so much only made him grin wider. He felt positively delighted at the fact he riled her so much. It was like Christmas in a... screaming kicking girl.

The insults rolled off him like water off a duck. Yeah, like water off a duck. Unfortunately for him though, her kicking him didn't roll off him like water. Or go through him like he was maybe a ghost or something. Oh what he wouldn't do to be incoporeal right now. Like that would be really nice.

Instead it felt like a bulldozer had run into his shin. A bulldozer with like adamantium reinforced mover thinger in the front. He yowled. Like a girl. Like a girl who wore bright pink dresses and put flowers in her hair. And he hopped, once. then he fell backwards and prepared himself to die. Because surely, something that hurt that much, had to be murderously death causing.

But death, the cheerful being that it was, chose not to visit him right then. Instead a foot visited him. Well more like visited his chest. Which suddenly deflated with a whoosh. Yeah, bye bye oxygen. So, he couldn't breath and was in unimaginable pain, but he still managed to grin smarmily up at Blaze.

"I swear to Hyne... Gone...."

"I love you too, Pookie!" Gone said, practically giggling as he looked up at her, trying not to stare at her breasts, although they were uh, more noticable from this vantage point. "How's 'bout you let me up now? I gotta give Stardie some hugging loff too."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian stood near Gone, hands behind his back and practically scanning his teammates. Let's see...A blue head ranger, a pink head ranger, rocker ala goldilocks, two chinese dolls, and a... There wasn't already 3 minutes passed and the one SeeD that he came here with was being a victim of violence already. A raving lunatic. He stood up straight and looked at Blaze, pinning Gone on the floor with her foot.

"Whoa...Are they allowed to do that here?" he said, mainly to himself, looking around to see if someone was going to find it wrong. Xu was just shaking her head. To be honest, she looked a little preoccupied--too preoccupied in Hadrian's opinion. Balamb sure was a bit different from Trabia. He was going to like his little stay here.

"Nice team we got here..." he mumbled, feeling himself grin--awkwardly.

[stardust]

He might as well could wear a helmet too. Stardust stared at the newest newcomer, wondering why on earth was up with his body suit.

/Hater.../ Diwata said. And this banshee on acid... But what she hated more was the grating voice of Blaze when Gone glomped her. She cast an annoyed look at Blaze. It was just a glomp, she didn't HAVE to freak out about it. Though, Stardust must admit, she was thankful she wasn't the one he first noticed.

"I love you too, Pookie!" Gone chirped, looking practically invulnerable from being pinned down to the ground by Blaze. "How's 'bout you let me up now? I gotta give Stardie some hugging loff too."

Stardust's face turned sour. "How about you NOT, you masochist!" She almost forgot how it was like having this crazy redhead of a pilot here.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze was contentedly digging her sneaker into Gone's chest when she noticed where he was staring at.

"UGH!" Blaze recoiled her foot as if he had electrocuted her. She crossed her arms over her chest as if saying 'stare there just ONE more time and I'll..."

"How's 'bout you let me up now? I gotta give Stardie some hugging loff too," Gone grinned as if he didn't feel pain.

Blaze turned her back to him, "be my guest," she said dryly.

"ENOUGH!" Xu finally had the sense to shout at the 'elite seeDs' "Do that in the ship or on the plane but not here, not now, not in this office. Am I clear!?"

Xu almost lost her composure. Almost.

[waterlily43]

Jun wasn't much paying attention to Xu, much less the two figures standing in front of her desk. The gourmet lunch was still stuck half-way between her chest and stomach which made her really queasy.

Looks like the combination of peking duck and mayonnaise washed down with wheatgrass juice doesn't go well at all... She thought, thorougly regretting her radical choice.

It was only at Blaze's outburst and violent antics that she realised one of them was Gone. As usual he was provoking the worst in Blaze, and looked like he was going to do the same for Stardust.

"Gone Gone Gone..." She said, approaching him with a half amused, half annoyed grin, while crossing her arms at the chest. "Why is it that when you're around there's bound to be commotion? Unless you're really like Stardust says, a masochist." Jun finished with a smirk.