Chapter 6: Road to the Evil Sorceress I

[Lily]

Jun was always bad affected whenever she was afflicted with poison status but the fumes that was emitting from the monstrous fish was particularly lethal. It reduced her to a useless lump with hardly any strength to raise her weapon or cast spells. Looks like she needed some better protection to her status defense.

Despite its formidable poison-fumigating abilities, Polaris quickly finished the fish off with a flurry of mean moves which made Jun glad that she was on the same side as her.

The sudden appearance of Squall, Irvine and Zell made all of that a blurry thing of the past. Something had to be wrong here.Eeee yet so exciting. Three of them!

If the Headmaster had approached them alone, it would already be cause for concern as most of the time Xu who gave the orders to them. But three of the most highly ranked in B-Garden? It raised each and every alarm bells she possessed internally.

Grabbing the antidote from Blaze's offered hand, Jun took a measured gulp before passing it on to a dumbstruck and frozen Jaime, gently nudging the Opps to respond. All the while her eyes were trained on the famous trio, noticing that the Headmaster looked a little different from his normal expressionless self.

"What are our orders to salvage the disaster, Headmaster? As I assume that's what we're being summoned for..." Jun asked with a respectful but questioning glance.

Dammit stop beating so loud you worthless bloodpumper.


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Jaime took the antidote from Jun hesitantly, and after a small, rationed swallow screwed it back, all the while staring fearfully at the walls. She wasn't prepared for this when she opted to join the SeeDs.

Biting her lip, Jaime inched closer to Van while gripping the handle of her whip tightly. With a soft touch on her friend's arm, Jaime handed the antidote bottle to Van with a small, forced smile.

[vanesse]

Vanesse gazed at the three middle-aged men in front of her. They were the heroes of the previous sorceress war. It was almost surreal standing before them. Her reverie was cut by Jaime when she handed her the bottle of antidote. Wow, just now, I didn't feel like I'm poisoned. Vanesse drank the bottle either way.

Saving some from the rude pinkhead, she handed the bottle to her.

[stardust]

At the sight of the three most respected men in Balamb Garden, Stardust quickly saluted and assumed her good SeeD mode stance. Just the fact that the top members of Balamb Garden were here to deal with them meant that the situation they were in might be worse than what they had expected. Stardust took the bottle from Vanesse and drank all of it. Everyone had probably drank the bottle already. She threw the bottle away afterwards.

[ST]

"It's bad enough that this place looked like someone's insides," Irvine muttered, scowling at the place. The three men waited till the girls had taken in some of the antidote.

"When I said disaster, I didn't mean the look of this place." Squall calmly started. "The Trinity Sword was taken away from us....As well as Rinoa. She was caught in her most vulnerable moment by Sorceress Adel when we were doing the Trinity ritual. Without her and the gems, the Trinity sword would be powerless. " His face turned austere.

"If you're looking for this, then you don't need to worry," Zell interrupted from behind him, revealing the three gems in his palm. He threw them in the air and caught them again with his free hand. "We managed to salvage these from the ambush."

"Sorceress Adel and her minion are making their way inside Balamb Garden right now as we speak. Rinoa and her are at the top floor," Irvine explained afterwards, pointing up."That's where our main target lies."

"Right. For now, we mustn't let them hold on to the Trinity sword for too long," Squall spoke."We've tracked the two possible whereabouts of the sword. It is either with the DotNA leader named Weiss, or with the genetically altered girl that they call Odendria."

"Roger." Stardust nodded. "But where will we find them?"

"The other group is already out to search for the girl. We locate Weiss. The two are supposed to be managing the entrance of DotNAs into this place, but as to their exact location, we have to look for them. We are to meet with your other teammates underground once we retrieved the sword."

"Questions?" Zell asked.

"I suggest that you trust your own instincts. I trust the instinct of you young SeeDs," Squall cut him once again, stabbing the edge of his gunblade on the gunk covered floor. "Now, If you were Weiss, where do you think you would be?"

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris thought for a moment. Weiss, the leader of the DotNA faction, was incredibly strong, incredibly smart, and hell, powerful all around. And if the Commander was correct, then he was also in charge of letting DotNA soldiers in...that narrowed down the amount of places that he could be.

< There's obviously the main entrance, which is on the first floor and is as far away from Adel as possible...or the second floor classrooms, the entrance we use to dock FH...closer to Adel... >

Polaris hefted her war axe over her shoulder, balancing it easily as she turned her attention to the Commander and SeeDs Kinneas and Dincht. "I believe that Weiss may be at the second floor classrooms, introducing DotNA soldiers via the Fisherman's Horizon dock entrance. Permission to investigate and apprehend, Commander?"

[ST]

Irvine responded to Polaris's question. "The second floor entrance....could be worth checking."

"You think so?" Squall answered, though his face was neutral. "That might be a good place. Nice thinking. We should look in it if all of you have no complaints."

"It wouldn't hurt to check the Main Entrance first," Stardust suggested, crossing her arms. She thought it would be more efficient to throw in more options--just so she could. "Weiss might be thinking that we wouldn't be looking in it because it's too obvious. Also, it's closer to where we are."


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Aight! Everyone can throw in their two cents! XD And to my ebil STs, go on, Squall and the hunks are in your hands!! >.O XD

[Blaze Sanaku]

"I think we should go for the FH dock too," Blaze spoke up, "Defenses are weaker there. But how did Adel get into the Garden anyway? I mean.. there was no warning or anything."

"Well, as you girls have probably noticed, the power is out. We were unable to make announcements over the PDA, although we tried to get to you as fast as possible. It's a good thing you were all together." Squall stated, professionally as always.

"Oh... of..of course," Blaze stammered. She stared at the floor, her face reddening.

A crash was heard far off in the distance. Irvine looked towards the sound and cocked his rifle. "We need to hurry," he said.

[waterlily43]

"I'm rather inclined to agree with Stardust. It might be better to check the main entrance first since it's closer to where we are now." Jun spoke up, and then another thought hit her. "Besides, the second level entrance is kinda hard to reach isn't it? Only when we dock at Fisherman's Horizon can it be easily accessible? And even if Dotna is able to find some contraption to reach it if they make too much noise it'll be easily detectable."

[Myacu]

Hearing what the others had to say, Gemma quietly said," "Why don't we split into teams? Each with long and short range fighters, as well as strong magic casters. That way regardless of where Dotna enters, we'll at least be prepared."

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris shot Gemma a sidelong glance. "I think that would be a negative," she said in the same even, soft voice. "If the others are searching for the girl, chances are they're already covering one of the entrances. Which was why I recommended going up to the second floor...but...majority rules."

She turned away from Gemma and refocused her attention to Vanesse and Jaime. "Vanesse, Jaime, you two are the deciding votes."

Zell rubbed the back of his neck. "Tch! Well, I don't wanna sound rude---"

"Too late for that," Irvine cut in.

"Shut up, man!" Even in his thirties, Zell Dincht still possessed the same youthful personality and brash comebacks. "I'm only saying that the longer we stand around, the more DotNAs are gonna get in here. Isn't that right, Squall?" The martial artist shot the Garden Commander a questioning glance.

"Understandable," Squall said quietly, "but you've gotta think about the consequences if we guess wrong."

"Tch!" Zell shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck again.

[vanesse]

Vanesse looked at the girls with a blank expression. Given that she knew nothing about Balamb Garden, she didn't know where to look. The only place she knew was here, the main entrance, the top floor office, and the cafeteria. But somehow, Mr. Dincht was right. They were in a hurry.

"I don't really know. I've never been to the second floor," she said, shyly. "If the other group will be searching around here in the first floor then maybe we can check the second floor?"

"Squall can always phone the other group," Irvine said, patting Squall's shoulder and smiling at him. "Right, commander?"

Squall just sighed. "So we go to the second level entry, then?" He asked the girls one last time. "Any objections?"

Stardust just shrugged and looked at the other girls.

[Jun]

"I have no objection..." Jun said without noticing the slight, barely detectable petulance inflecting her voice. Her face was practically a blank sheet. If the Headmaster thought that second floor was more likely to harbour either of the Dotna leaders, so be it. She had said her piece and it was enough for now. Besides it wasn't as if the first floor was left uncovered. Hooray for communication devices.

Nobody can accuse me for not putting in my opinion.

"None from me as well." Jaime said meekly, thinking that even if she had other ideas, their destination had been set. And she didn't.

[ST]

The crashing sound from earlier was heard again, and this time, it couldn't be ignored. Squall, Irvine, and Zell armed themselves, and looked at the direction of the sound.

"It probably came from the entrance of the dorm, come on, we gotta hurry." Squall announced, and hurriedly ran to follow the noise, Zell following closely behind him.

"Remember to stick together," Irvine reminded before turning around to follow Squall and Zell.

[stardust]

Nodding, Stardust armed Ciceronian and quickly hustled to follow Squall and the others' lead. There were a lot of twist and turns in the hallways than usual, but the sound they were following helped them find the exit. Reaching the exit of the dorm, the main lobby of Balamb Garden boomed before her, and it was actually worse than the view inside the dormitory halls. The once wide, and pure pristine white interior of Balamb Garden now looked like an inside of an organism complete with its nervous system, running along the whole area. There were actual nveins running along the hallway, and Stardust didn't know if the liquid running through it was bile or blood or something else. Stardust looked up and saw that the ceiling resembled the same tone of smooth muscles, and there were tissues and juices coming out of the floor whenever she steps on it. Balamb Garden was no different from a living, breathing organism now. Adel was going too far.

Another deafening crash resounded in the area and the whole team finally saw where it was coming from. It was coming from the main elevator of the second floor. There were a couple of black Grats--that had the claws of a praying mantis--feasting on it and breaking the special glasses of the elevator in--sheer force--with their antennae. Noone had ever broken Garden's bulletproof glasses before, but the impact the monsters was making had already created a dent in the special glass. The monsters were extraordinary, and it was evident from the incredibly loud sound of their antennae banging through the glasses. The elevator looked like a stretched intestine from a distance.

"The elevator!" Stardust exclaimed.


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YAY XD Feel free to make Squall and the others fight with them!

[Polaris Lyn]

"Sickkkk!" Zell shouted, but the eagerness for battle was evident in his voice; before anyone knew it, he had pulled his gloves on and leaped up to perform a spinning kick that hit one of the mutated Grats right near their antennae. It caught the attention of the monster, and it squealed, turning around in a sort of half-waddle half-spin.

Zell glanced back at the SeeDs over his shoulder, grinning. "Grats are blind, I don't know if you guys noticed that," he told them, shrugging. "They have no eyes. They go by the feeling of their arms - notice the length? They're extremely sensitive to echolocation - that explains the squealing. They use echolocation to figure out where the enemy is, and to 'see' their surroundings. For these guys, I was guessing it would be their antenna, and I guessed right. You always gotta remember to take an opponent down with his weakness before you even get to the down and dirty of an actual duel---"

"Zell! Right!" Squall suddenly shouted, moving past the martial artist to meet the oncoming black Grat.

SKINCH!!

"Skreee!"

BAM!!

A short gunblade explosion later, and the Grat was bleeding its guts out onto the pulsing floor, black goo staining the red meat of the floor. And the Commander wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"I know that you're Instructor of Battle Strategy and you know the monsters in the TC like the back of your hand, but could you not give a lecture now?" Squall sounded slightly exasperated, and Zell grinned.

"No problem, Commander!"

"Watch out," Irvine said in a casual drawl, and there was the sound of the Exeter being loaded. "Three more are coming...I'm guessing there are about a dozen or so just around the immediate perimeter."

Squall nodded, his features set in a grim line. "SeeDs, set up," he commanded the girls, "and follow our leads. We need to take out this immediate threat before moving forward."

Polaris nodded to the older man, hefting her war axe in her slim, strong hands. It was an immense honor, she knew, to be working alongside THE Squall Leonhart.