Chapter 6: Road to the Evil Sorceress I

[Polaris Lyn]

"Just ignore it, we have to go for the heart! If what Vanesse said was right, killing the heart would kill this monster Garden, wouldn't it?"

"I feel like I've heard that voice before though. Is it just me or...? We can't ignore it if it's someone we know..."

Blaze had a point...but so did Jun. Polaris stood still, her lower lip caught in her teeth, and she thought for a few moments.

"Our initial mission is to find Weiss Jong of DotNA," Squall said in his calm, quiet voice, his Lionheart gunblade a beacon in the darkness. It was a bright gunblade, bright enough to illuminate the hall enough so that Polaris could somewhat see everyone. "That's what's most important."

"Tch, Squall! We can't just leave some poor kid all alone in one of these classrooms!" Zell interjected, looking annoyed at the Commander. "Don'tcha remember what Rinoa told you about that loner attitude of yours?!"

"If I remember correctly," Irvine cut in from right behind Squall, "it went something like, 'Squall Leonhart, you're going to be kind and compassionate even if I have to beat it in you!'"

Zell burst into quiet snickers. Irvine was chuckling. In the light of his blade, Polaris could see that Squall had face-palmed himself with his free hand and was shaking his head. At the moment she felt like rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, it isn't our call," Squall said, his voice tinged with exasperation. "The next move is up to you, ladies."

"...As much as I hate to disagree with Blaze," Polaris said softly, "I feel like we should investigate the wailer." She shrugged. "It might be Sorceress Rinoa, for all we know."

That caught Squall's attention. "You think so?" His voice was sharp.

"With all due respect, Commander, not really. I haven't memorized Sorceress Rinoa's voice, and accompanied with the heartbeats, it's difficult to distinguish the voice to be male or female. I'm merely pointing out possibilities."

"Y'know," Irvine said pensively, "if that IS 'Noa, then wouldn't that mean Adel's around here, too?"

[stardust]

Zell scratched his head. "Nah, not gonna happen." He swayed his hand in reason. "If Adel's around here, this place wouldn't be that empty...Trust me, with all my years of experience, I know." He nodded.

Squall moved forward. "Adel wants us--no, you--" He looked at the girls. "....to go to her so that she can kill you."

Stardust's face became austere. "Us? Aren't all the SeeDs a threat to her? Why just us?" she asked. "Of course, is that cuz we're in the Trinity mission..."

"No," Squall cut Stardust. "It's something deeper than that. I don't know what it is too, but her intention was all there the last time she raided the ritual." He stopped walking, keeping his gaze on the ground. "When you were down there in Shumi Village getting the Ruby....What did you see?"

Stardust's lips parted. Confusion crept in her face. There were the statues, their stupid story, and then that whole place. But what about it?

Not knowing what to say, the pink-haired girl was nailed to her spot. That was when one of the classroom door was banged from the inside, and a woman screamed, "Is anyone there?! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

[vanesse]

Vanesse quickly turned to the banging of the door and looked at the others. "I know I'm not a major member of this group, but..." she started. "That sounded like a woman in distress! We can't ignore it." She ran ahead of the group and went to the second classroom to her left.

"HELP!!" shouted the woman inside.

"Hang on lady!" Vanesse assured and started kicking the door. The door wasn't hinged, and was one of those automatic opening ones. She concluded that the woman couldn't get out of the room once the power went out. She kicked the door once again, but it didn't budge.

Turning to the others near the elevator, she called. "Well!?" Her eyebrows went up. "A little help here?"

[Polaris Lyn]

Y'know, if Polaris wasn't such a snob, she & Van would actually be a cool team. It's cos she's emo.

Pol: Stop with the emo!! >(
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"A little help here?" Vanesse's plea was cut off by the sound a blade whistling through the air.

CHAK!

Twenty pounds of an adamantine-titanium mixed alloy, honed sharp enough to shave with, and thrown with extreme prejudice, made contact with the keycard reader on the left side of the reinforced steel door of the classroom. It bit through the thick steel and sank through like a hot knife through butter. Polaris strode up beside Vanesse and yanked out the war-axe with slight difficulty, then raised it above her head and swung.

CHANK! CHANK! CHANK---beeeeeeep!

The keycard reader beeped loudly and slid open with a soft swoosh! Polaris hefted her axe on one shoulder. "Better than a keycard," she told the brunette Opps. "Do you want to go ahead or should I?"

[ST]

Once the keycard reader was activated, the door slid open and instead of seeing a woman, a monster came out, opening its fang-filled mouth and charging towards Polaris and Vanesse. It was aquaeous, not slimy, but it didn't have a definite shape. Its screech filled the long corridor.


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Anyone can post here! No rush XD Oh, and I knew I said it's supposed to be the cafeteria lady, but I thought about it, and she'll actually just be a liability to the group, and can be a burden >__< It just hit me, just when my Ebul STs signed off. Sowee.

[Polaris Lyn]

Something that DEFINITELY wasn't a lady came charging out the door before Polaris finished her question.

"ShRIEEEkkKKKKkk!!!"

Polaris jumped, crashing into Vanesse and making the other girl fall down to the left of the doorway, their bodies falling towards the flesh-floor. Polaris twisted away from the other girl, not wanting to fall on the poor Opps member and risking injury to her, letting out a muffled shout as she fell wrong onto the ground, her weight landing on her awkwardly-placed left arm and twisting it.

Goddammit...

Polaris rolled away from Vanesse and to her feet, shaking her left arm to ward away the pain and lifting her war axe with her right hand. She was tired, dead-to-the-bones tired, and as the monster screeched angrily at them, she also realized that the lack of sleep had edged her brain into a sort of fuzziness. She wasn't used to continuous action without rest. She was a stealth operative, dammit; her specialty was in hit-and-run tactics, not continuous battle. No rest left her sluggish, although it was difficult to tell because she never let it show.

That's right, don't let it show...

The monster was shaped somewhat like a slug, and in the bright glow of Commander Leonhart's gunblade, it looked like it was made of water. But it had a mouth, that was definite, a gaping hole filled with long fangs.

Ka-chak, BOOM!

Polaris jumped, startled, the sound of Irvine Kinneas' Exeter echoing in the empty hall, and a concentrated round of pellets slammed into the aqua-flesh of the monster, buckshot spraying holes into its skin. It was aimed above the mouth, a standard fatal headshot, Polaris thought absently...except it didn't work. The buckshot simply passed through the monster, exploding into the flesh wall behind it.

"Well, isn't that a bust," Irvine commented casually, as if he were commenting on the weather. "The damned thing is invincible to physical attacks." He glanced around. "That makes about 99.9% of us absolutely useless."

"..." Commander Leonhart said, then, "Zell, strategy?"

"Uhh, bust its ass with magic instead?" Zell looked blank.

"Wonderful. Great. Fantastic plan," Irvine drawled, turning to Zell. "Never would've thought of it."

"...Don't use Ice magic."

"Why not?" Zell blinked, looking at Squall.

"Because I just did. And it didn't work." The Commander looked like he hadn't even moved from his spot, let alone cast a spell, but there was a group of icicles digging into the wall behind the monster. On top of THAT, the monster looked like it had gotten taller.

Squall had a neutral expression on his face. "And I think Ice makes it stronger."

A silence as the monster stood, immobile.

"Well," Irvine suddenly said, breaking the silence, "isn't this just a kick in the crotch?"

[Jun]

"If Ice makes it stronger...maybe Fire makes it weaker." Jun commented outloud. Too bad l don't have any.

Undeterred, she unleashed a strong Ultima at the monster. It only shimmied to one side, the Ultima just grazing a bit of its surface. The aqeous thing shrieked even louder, making it known that it was provoked to a rage.

"Great...now it has pms as well..." Jun muttered shaking her head.

[Blaze Sanaku]

"I TOLD YOU GUYS NOT TO GO FOR THE CRYING NOISE!" Blaze practically shrieked. It didn't even matter that Commander Leonhart was in her presence anymore, Blaze's 'I told you so' attitude always got the best of her.

Listening to Jun's advice, Blaze held her ground and began conjuring up a gigantic firaga spell. Flames licked the tips of her fingers as she set the monster on fire. For a moment, it looked as if the fire spell had worked. The fire fully enveloped the monster, but instead of taking the monster down, the fire seemed to adapt to its body. Instead of a giant blob of aqueous solution, the monster was now a giant ball of fire.

"Great.." Blaze muttered as she backed away from the intense heat the monster was giving off.

[MyacuGemma]

The monstor seemed to be adapting itself to whatever magic hurled at it. Gemma stared with wide eyes as the creature now conjured itself into a blazing inferno. Trying to elude it's path, Gemma was caught off guard as it spewed out a massive Flare spell on her.

Her eyes watered as the heat from the flames seared through her body and Gemma gritted her teeth to prevent herself from crying
out in pain. She hadn't junctioned Fire to her element defense and was left received the full blow of the spell.


Finally as the final flames smoked away, Gemma felt light-headed as her energy rapidly dropping and her knees gave way from under her. Violently coughing, she yelled out to the others, "Use non-elemental magic!"


As for herself, Gemma hastily checked her health level.


It had dropped by 57%.


Upon realizing this, she quickly reacted to heal herself. But all she had left was a measly Potion.


With no other choice Gemma gulped down the icy liquid and felt her body slightly restored so that she can stand up once again. However, her health level was below 50% of the normal.


They had barely left a mark on the monster. And it was growing stronger. If she didn't heal herself soon, Gemma would soon need a Phoenix Down.

[Polaris Lyn]

Gemma was down, and she didn't look like she was planning on getting back up anytime soon. Polaris rolled her eyes as she stood in the half-shadows and raised her free hand, her palm already glowing with the power of a Regen spell. The gentle light of the Support-Mag spell surrounded Gemma's body in an orange corona, making her look like the gelatin monster that Blaze had set on fire.

"We're sorry for not listening to you, Blaze," she told her best friend in a dry voice, shifting her gaze to the infuriated brunette. "Tell you what, next time we have to choose between moving forward to defeating an ultimate evil and saving an innocent soul, we screw over the innocent soul. Would that make you happy?"

"..." was all Commander Leonhart said.

[vanesse]

Vanesse scolded herself mentally at the brink of her stupidity. She really fell for it. But what could she do? She wasn't that heartless. Any normal person would go to where a cry was heard to offer help. That was just the way it must be. Or was it a "should be"?

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Vanesse couldn't help but utter at Polaris's hurt shoulder eventhough the girl had already gone up and started fighting the monster. It had to hurt. Vanesse felt the impact when they hit the ground, and Polaris almost became like a cushion for her. She pulled herself up, feeling extremely bad, especially when Blaze screamed at them. 99.9% percent of it was directed to her. She knew it.

"Curaga," casted Vanesse on Polaris as the girl reasoned towards Blaze. She better not talk to Blaze for a while, or she'd get the heat too. "I'm sorry, Pol. I'm really sorry." She bowed her head and ran towards Gemma to help her up.

"Are you okay?? I'm sorry, I was stupid to go there," she whispered to Gemma in one breathing. "I shouldn't have gone against orders."

The now blazing monster doubled its size and seemed to have gotten powerful. It lifted its arm, preparing to shoot a huge fireball towards the team.

[stardust]

The monster looked more sinister than it was earlier. Stardust followed Vanesse with her eyes, then moved it back to where Polaris was.

"All because of a bimbo," Stardust spat, making sure Vanesse heard her sentence. The girl seemed to pretend not to hear it.

"She went against orders, and you followed! That's that," Stardust added before Blaze could even answer to Polaris. "We're not a damn rescue organization here. We're SeeDs, we do what we're told. Is that too complicated you can't even understand it!?" Her tone rose. "We couldn't afford to mess up. Especially now!"

/Stardust! This is no time to argue! The monster...!/

Irvine looked at the girls. "Whoa there ladies," he interrupted. "We'll deal with that later." He paused, his tone turning firm. "I want someone who has an ice magic to cast it on the monster. I have an idea!"



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I promise I'll post for the others tomorrow XD I'm gonna be so busy tonight and tomorrow x.x I can't even write this on my dj haha

The mood here is more serious than the other thread XD I just noticed lol

[Polaris Lyn]

Wheeeeeeee! Polaris-Stardust friendship hug timmme~!!! XD
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"We couldn't afford to mess up. Especially now!"

"Whoa there ladies, we'll deal with that later." Irvine Kinneas was using his leader voice now. "I want someone who has an ice magic to cast it on the monster. I have an idea!"

"I sincerely hope this is better than your last idea," Commander Leonhart muttered, "because that one sucked."

"It was a good idea!! We just didn't execute it properly!"

"Irvine, since WHEN is it a good idea to make fun of Seifer's nonexistent mother? And no, 'I wanted to test his skills against mine' is NOT a good excuse."

"I didn't think he'd be so touchy about it..."

"Irvine. Seifer. Orphan. You. Dumbass."

"Oh, so you're channeling Fujin now?"

shuwaaaaa~

The sound of Gravity magic descending made Irvine and Commander Leonhart blink and turn to the monster, just in time catch a final glimpse of a pale-skinned wraith with red-violet eyes. Obsidian vanished, and the aquaeous monster shivered, the compression of air and pressure stunning it for an indefinite amount of time.

Polaris rolled her eyes at Stardust. "Stardust, just shut it," she said dryly. "Nobody cares about your stupid, random bitching, especially me. 'Boo hoo, my name is Stardust Infinity and my life sucks! My team is a bunch of lowlifes! I can't do anything but BITCH BITCH BITCH about everything! Wahhh!! I can't even do the reasonable thing and FIGHT THE HYNEDAMNED MONSTER! I just have to whineeeee!' Go wail about your pointless life to someone who gives a damn!"

[stardust]

HAHAHA XD NEW CANDIDATE FOR FRIENDSHIP HUG XD
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Stardust watched Polaris blabber in front of her with a raised brow. Her eyes lowered. Instead of exploding in annoyance, the revolting impersonation Polaris did just looked stupid to her. It was her mess. It was just right she cleaned it up.

"Well you seem to care enough to think about it and randomly bring up "my life" here." Stardust's Ciceronian disappeared. "Too bad I don't give much of a damn to do the same thing for you. Don't act like a damn brat that you are just cuz you were told off!" she spat rudely.

"Enough of this!" Squall's tone got stern, catching Stardust off guard. "Is this how you ladies address each other here?" He approached the girls, his eyebrows starting to clash. "Don't taint the impression I've gotten from you the first time I've dispatched you for this mission." He frowned. "We have too much at stake here, and we had too much casualties to be fooling around each other now." The commander looked at Stardust. "Polaris's and the girl's intentions are pure, so therefore I'm letting it slip. They're not at fault." He chucked his eyes to Blaze next, right on time when he said the last word.

Stardust's jaw clenched. "I..I'm sorry, commander." She lowered her head, avoiding Squall's eyes. If her superior told her to shut up, she would shut up.

"Now we move on. I don't want to hear any jargon from here on," Squall said sharply. He sheathed his gunblade and thrudged along the dark hallway.


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Someone control Irvine and Zell XD

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris' face was expressionless, her eyes shadowed as she only half-listened to what Stardust was saying. Something about her being a brat, and then the Commander cutting into the pinkhead's diatribe.

Bitching, bitching, bitching...at least she used something other than the word "lowlife". That's an improvement.

Stardust muttered meekly and lowered her eyes, and if Polaris thought she'd feel any triumph, she was gravely wrong. She only felt tired, physically and emotionally spent, and she felt like her body was going to break down sometime soon. It was all too much---Hadrian's prank, Stardust's intensive bitch sessions, Vanesse's naivete...Polaris was used to control, and quiet. It was exhausting, having emotions, too much of a bother. And it was something she simply couldn't discard, but only hide.

Polaris' eyes were dark. It was easy, so easy, to just not listen, to just withdraw into herself, something she had trained herself to do over the years as a SeeD, and it had been a grave mistake to believe that opening up to people would lead to anything good. Being cold and unfeeling wasn't a result of her crappy family life---no, it was the cold, hard truth, a reality that was being proven in front of her face at that very moment. Letting people get to her was pointless, and it was inconducive to life itself.

Polaris burrowed deeper inside herself, shied away from Stardust's barbs, from Vanesse's gullibility, from Commander Leonhart's orders and rules and conducts, and even from Blaze's fiery loyalty. Her mind was made up, her useless emotions caught in her bloody, mercenary's hands and shoved in an unbreakable steel cage.

These people are idiots. Useless bags of flesh, good for nothing more than to be offered as lambs to the slaughter we call the Sorceress War.

Inside her mind, beyond her conscious thoughts, Obsidian shivered. He was incapable of not knowing her thoughts, and incapable of changing them. And most of all, it disturbed him deeply when he realized that her thoughts sounded eerily familiar...almost like Adel's.

...can't believe I've been caught along in such a farce...this is the way to freedom? This is nothing more than a group of squabbling children...maybe I was wrong...no, not maybe...I am wrong...and Adel...Adel had it right all along.

In her mind, the spirit that was Obsidian clenched his jaw. Something in Polaris had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
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Dun dun DUNNNNN! Oh my, interesting turn of character!!