Chapter 6:Road to the Evil Sorceress II

[ST]

Stella

You have been flung a little bit further from your team to a less populated corner. The dust from the explosion still lingers in the air and cloaks it with powdery white.

A blurry form appears in the dust and bullets start flying at you from his direction. You try dodging the shots and returning fire, almost gets hit by one. Suddenly the Dotna solider simply collapses and hits the ground. A boot grinds his face into the ground, and Seifer walks over his still body towards you.

"You didn't get shot did you?" Seifer asked gruffly, a frown etched in his face while his looks you over, stopping when he's satisfied. "You don't have time to be standing around girl! You should get back to the rest." He says with a pat on your shoulder.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone

The Pulse Ammo explosion has caused most of your team to scatter in different directions, many suffering from contusions, bruises and various injuries. You can feel your HP dwindling. The Dotnas are relentlessly fighting on, and the backup team that came to your aid a few moments ago seems to be having a little difficulty in resisting them.

Waverly stands in the middle laughing at all of you, intending to further deplete your HP by grating on your nerves. She raises her crackling photon gun to one of the pillars in close proximity to you.

"Don't worry, it is loaded. I'll be merciful and send all of you to hell right now." Her obnoxious laugh gets louder.

"No, Miss Waverly! We might get hit too!" A Dotna quickly advises her.

"Shut up!" She barks, preparing to squeeze the trigger...


The powder-coated floor vibrates violently. A train with a ghostly face travels at steaming speed out of nowhere, knocking Waverly out of the way. Her photon gun is jarred out of her hands from impact. The train continues knocking many of the Dotnas down before disappearing completely.

"I don't feel so good..." Waverly whines, her face tingeing with green.

"Doomtrain always does his job." Xu's voice wafts through the air. "Did you really think SeeD backup would be so weak?" The Headmistress turns and nods at the reinforcement SeeDs behind her. Several of them began casting Curaga spells to heal all your injuries.

"Go on... we'll take it from here. You have more important stuff to do..." Xu says with a reassuring smile.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian could almost laugh out loud at Waverly's stupidity. Xu was right on time for bringing in more reinforcements--just as what he was expecting from Balamb Garden. Not only that, it seemed like he wasn't going to spend all day whining about his injured bleeding hand. Thank Hyne for Curaga. They got to move on, all right, and find that girl. Question was...where to?

"You guys," Selphie shouted at the others. Hadrian almost forgot about her--almost. "The Training Center! I can't believe I didn't notice...Run to the Training Center. Just trust me on this one." After that, she waved at Xu and sprinted to the direction of the center, crossing the throng of SeeDs and DotNAs.

Blinking, Hadrian shook his head and followed her lead. He knew that when he got to the TC's hallway, it was like entering another transverse colon again.

What kind of repugnant things are we gonna see in there this time, I wonder...

[Stella]

Stella looked up at Seifer for a moment still in a daze from everything going on. She coughed slightly as she nodded and stood up slowly. First thing she did was check to see that her pistols were still with her. With a nod she looked back to Seifer.

"Thanks, I'll go find the others then" she said quietly before moving past him to find the other SeeDs she had been teamed up with.

[waterlily43]

Rayden exhaled gratefully. The calvary had arrived, and with perfect timing. Not only was that Waverly's annoying laugh wiped out, her ridiculous plan to crumble one of the pillars had been too.

"Thank Hyne for small miracles." He muttered, looking up to see Stella emerging from somewhere else. "Stella babe where have you been? Shouldn't go wandering around! The tourists here aren't very friendly." He smirked, kicking at a fallen Dotna's corpse.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

On the way to slip past through the battling SeeDs and DotNAs, Hadrian caught sight of Rayden--then Stella, looking like she was drained with energy--or to him she looked like that. With this chaos going around and all, Hadrian concluded that it might be too much for a lady. Besides, she was the only girl in their team besides their superiors. They should really look out for her.

"No time to chat Rayden boy," Hadrian cut in between them suddenly taking Stella's hand and pulling her with him. "I'm taking your girl!" His brows lifted and he grinned as he looked at Stella, then to Rayden. "We gotta go!"

Some DotNA was heard shooting bullets from the throng of the battling SeeDs, and Hadrian's pace quickened. Ahead of them was Selphie who was almost out of view.

When the hell did she run so fast? he thought, gripping Stella rather tightly as they dashed. "Hey, you okay? You don't look so good back there." He gave a one quick glance at Stella behind him.


-------------------------------
Rayden >.O Don't let him run away like that haha XD And someone control Seifer and Quistis again XD

[Stella]

Before she knew it Stella was being dragged along behind Hadrian her hand gripped firmly in his. She blinked a little her head still feeling a little dizzy from the explosion. Everything was happening at once.

"Yeah.." she paused and took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm good"

[miyavi]

Training Center...okay.

Sho managed to push himself to his feet. He had crashed into a wall, one that was bone-covered flesh, and his spine was fucking killing him. A stray Curaga, however, casted by a random SeeD, refueled him almost immediately, but that didn't stop him from feeling tired. Curative Magic healed the body, but that didn't necessarily mean it refreshed the fighter. Mental fatigue, coupled with lack of sleep, was starting to do a number on the martial artist.

"Training Center," Sho mumbled, dimly realizing that his shirt was a ripped mess and he was covered in dust and blood. "Yeah...okay...gotta move."

He moved forward, a bit sluggish, but he forced the mental exhaustion out of his mind and he was soon jogging. He caught a flash of bright red hair and marked Hadrian as his target; he couldn't lose sight of the guy. Rayden and Stella were running along with him, and Sho sped up, trying to make his way to them.

"Miyavi, are you alright?" Sho glanced around, and Quistis Trepe was keeping pace easily beside him, her blonde hair caked in blood and hanging down her shoulders in a crimson-gold waterfall. Beyond that, however, she was coolly composed, her features calm, her blue eyes focused ahead of them. Her whip was taut between her hands.

"Fine, ma'am," Sho said softly, and Quistis smiled slightly.

"Good man," she murmured, patting him once on the shoulder. "Catch up to Selphie while Seifer----Almasy and I deal with these DotNAs and let the others catch up." She glanced behind her.

Sho glanced behind her, too. Seifer was walking through the battle like he was strolling in the park, striking down the occasional DotNA and making his way towards a broken part of the wall. He reached down and pulled out a bedraggled figure, tall, lean...brown-headed. Jax.

Seifer pulled the man to his feet, and began shouting.

Quistis sighed. "That man has the sensitivity of a log," she muttered, before stopping and making her way over to Seifer.

Sho glanced after her, then looked ahead. Hadrian and the others were almost out of sight. He sped up.

[Diego Stanton]

Just in time, Xu arrived with a hoard of seeDs to fend off the dotNA. He felt the warmness of relief just seep through his body as the seeDs began to spread throughout the garden, taking down black grats and soldiers. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

It was then that he noticed that everybody was gone. Deo just stood there looking around anxiously. No red hair, no blue hair, no sea of blonde hair. Where did they go??? With no time to decide what to do, he decided to to go by instinct: run in some general direction.

Dodging the clashing of swords and people falling to the floor left and right, Deo ran as fast as he could, leaping over fallen bodies and getting his hair cut by stray sword swings. He finally skidded to a stop when he saw Selphie, Hadrian, Sho, Rayden and Stella running straight at him.

"There you are!" Deo gasped.

---

hahah just pretend Deo went the short way to get to the training center and the others went the long way XD

[ST]

Seifer, Quistis, and Jax met with Deo as the whole group caught up with each other. Soon, they reached the base of the Training Center. The green shrubberies and palm trees surrounding the whole area were all dead. Some nasty thread-like slimes were hanging from the high ceiling together with some eggs (or they looked like egg) attached on the metal rails and ceiling. The place looked like a breeding nest.

"What took you all so long?!" Selphie scolded them, turning to face the group with a hand on her waist.

"Well excuse us Ms. I-know-something, we had to make sure you slip away with less DotNAs trailing your asses," Seifer replied grumply, earning a scowl from Selphie.

Quistis sighed. "Can't we just be thankful we got out of there alive?"

Hadrian scratched his cheek. "Y-yeah...I sure am thankful." He smiled apologetically, something he rarely did unless there was someone special in front of him.

Seifer's brooding features faced Hadrian, then moved to Deo, to Sho, to Jax, and then to Stella. "Tch," He turned away. "Few more minutes out there on your own and you could've crumbled," he spat, clearly underestimating the SeeDs. "You should see yourselves back there...like lost lambs who have no idea what the hell they should do." He smirked, his tone mocking. "And you're the ones chosen to beat Adel? Don't make me laugh!" His smirked died. "You damn well must do better than that if you wanna get out of this mess alive." He pointed his gunblade to the SeeDs, before slashing the air to get the blood out of its blade and sheathing it on his side. "Best of the best...bah!"

There was an awkward silence in the place before Selphie started. "Moving on..." she grumbled, eyeing the hot-tempered blonde. "I noticed that the grats have been rampant all over Garden, and since that's the case, don't you think it's just logical to check out what's happening in the Training Center? The cause of the monsters' outbreak might be here!"


Guys

As Selphie blabbers on in front of you--Seifer and Quistis beside her, you notice charred imprints on the bloody floor behind your three superiors. The footprints seem to extend way further inside the Training Center.


Stella

Your attention isn't glued on Selphie at all. Your eyes lurk at the vivid transformation of the lush Training Center to a dead forest similar to an obscure breeding ground of something. As you look further to your far right, you see a body splayed on the ground just behind a rock--from the look of his uniform, he seems to be a SeeD. Whether he's alive or not is still in question.

---

"Now that it's settled," Quistis clasped her hands, catching the SeeDs' attention. "Maybe it's time we explore this area. Stay alert everyone."

[Myacu]

Rather than listening, Jax simply gazed lovingly at Ravaner which he was cradling in his arms.

I can't believe I almost lost you


In fact, he couldn't quite believe he had made it out of there. Jax replayed what had just happened in his mind.

_______________________________________________________

...All of a sudden someone roughly grabbed his arm and Jax felt himself lifted up to....be face to face with Seifer.

Who was looking extremely pissed off.


Before Jax could even say anything, Seifer began to shooting off a stream of insults and commands at the same time.

Not being cured yet, what little HP he had remaining barely managed to keep him standing. Stumbling back to lean against the wall, he could barely make out what Seifer was saying.


"For fucks sake you call yourself a SeeD!"


As Jax stood there weakly, his mind began to wander and he wondered how everyone else was doing. In truth he felt guilty and ashamed for not looking out for the others, but a certain person wasn't making it any easier either.


"--even that girl could hold her own!"


There's a huge vein popping out of Seifer's forehead...


"You just thank your sorry ass that I was here. Are you listening to me SeeD?"

That's pretty unhealthy...

"I Said, Are You---"


The noise was getting irritable.

"WHAT!"

Jax had yelled back with such great force that he had begun coughing again.

Seifer muttered under his breath "Pathetic..." However, he suddenly stopped when he noticed a dark stain on Jax's hands. He sighed, "Shit, here...its only a Cura but it should keep you alive from here to the Training Center. That is if you don't pull anything stupid."

Rivulets of cool blue energy engulfed Jax, the long tendrils of healing light wrapped themselves around his chest, arms, legs, and his earlier pain lessened to a mere sore. He nodded his head in gratitude.

Seeing that his companion was in stabilized condition, Seifer, brandishing Hyperionin in attack position, roughly barked, "You ready? Then don't just stand there, move!"


Jax was about to follow him, when he realized that he was feeling extremely light.

Suddenly it dawned upon him.

Where the fuck is Ravaner?


Turning 360 degrees, Jax sprinted back and began frantically searching for the rifle. He was scouring the area, searching under pieces of rubble, behind broken ledges, moving faster that his health would allow, when he heard---

"The fuck are you doing Ridean! Where the hell are you going!"

He turned and saw the angry form of Seifer, running back towards him, killing off several Dotna with one brisk swipe of Hyperion.

He grabbed Jax by the shoulder. "You! How many times do I have to rescue your ass! Get out of here!"

More Dotna soldiers were advancing on them.

Roughly pushing him off Jax yelled back, "There's at least six more halls before we reach the Training Center! If I don't have a weapon I'm dead anyways!"


Finally, in the next few seconds, Jax spotted a flash of silver to his near left. Plunging his hands under the white boulder, he triumphantly pulled out Ravaner. "Found it!"

Seifer glared at him, "Fine, now go!"


*Cue to Jax's Theme*


Jax slung the rifle back over his shoulder and began sprinting towards the Training Center with Seifer not to far behind. Four Dotna were blocking their way to the exit. Loading Ravaner, Jax felt his body surge with a crimson energy.

Scythe Wind


His head was whirling, almost like a slot machine.

Demolition Ammo


He felt a supernatural speed empower him, and he released a flurry of bullets towards his targets. Continuing to blast away at them, Jax only stopped until he realized that they had all fallen.


Stopping to flash a cocky smirk at Seifer, Jax motioned towards the blonde as they ran to join the others.

_____________________________________________________

A loud shout, brought Jax back into focus.

"You damn well must do better than that if you wanna get out of this mess alive," Seifer was saying as he pointed the glinting blade of Hyperion at them, but from Jax's position, it seemed as if it were pointed directly at him. If not, the scowl was at least.


However he remained silent and cast his gaze to the floor.

And then...he saw it.

Dark stains on the floor behind the officers...they appeared to be footprints.

Concerned by what he saw, he nudged the person next to him and muttered, "Hey...look at that."

_________________________________________________
sorry it's so long...the middle is just filler ;D

[miyavi]

Sho noticed it too. They were footprints, dark marks against the pulsing red meat-floor of the Training Center...black against the pulpy red.

Sicko...

The footprints looked like they were...branded into the flesh.

This place just keeps getting sicker and sicker...

[waterlily43]

Jax and Sho seemed to have noticed something. It wasn't long before Rayden saw it too.

"Footprints? But those sure aren't ordinary ones. Cos none of us leave anything like that when we walk..." Rayden commented with an arched eyebrow.

Looks as if someone walked through here with red-hot irons for shoes.

[Stella]

Stella stares at the body blankly for a few moments and then without a word heads over to it slowly. While she walks she draws Lyric holding it out pointed at the crumpled body. Getting closer she tries to asses if it is SeeD or something else. It wouldn't have suprised her at that moment if the body suddenly turned into a T-Rexuar shooting Firagas out his bum. Seemed like anything could and would happen tonight.

"Hello?" she said softly to the body as she got closer keeping her shinning gun trained on it.

[ST]

I just noticed o.o Nice banner you got there, Myacu!!!! XD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Whoever left those prints, it's obvious that he wants us to follow it," Hadrian said, putting his hands on his pocket. "Let's just go."

Seifer stared at the boys in front of him then to the prints before shaking his head. He grunted and placed his hand on the hilt of his Hyperion. "Stay sharp, I'm not going to say that again." Turning on his feet, he started to stride further into the Training Center.

"Sureee...." Selphie said sarcastically and followed. "C'mon boys, unless you're chickening out that is," she kidded and chuckled.

Hadrian felt like rolling his eyes.


Stella

As you get close enough to see the face of the person lying, his hand quickly moves to coil on your ankles. He grips on it hard enough, and you can feel him shaking. "P..please....help me...." he says as you finally see his face. He has a young-looking face, like a cadet, his expression is nothing but scared--almost to the point of hysterical. He looks like he's been battered pretty badly and there's blood on the sides of his mouth.

Before you ever get to do anything, you hear someone call behind you. "Stella?" The voice of Quistis Trepe is unmistakable. "Is something wrong? What are you doing?" You seem to cover the body from the instructor's view. She turn to face you while the guys behind her continue moving on.

[Stella]

Stella straightens up some and holsters her gun, looking over her shoulder at Quistis.

"There seems to be a wounded cadet here, ma'am" Stella responded stepping aside to reveal the man on the ground asking for help. Quistis rushed forward kneeling beside the wounded SeeD.

"It's going to be all right" she said to him softly. An aura of magic radiated around the blond woman for a moment as she cast a healing spell over him, his wounds looking better almost immediately. Quistis helped the cadet to his feet and looked over at the group.

"Here you make sure he keeps up Stella, keep him safe" Quistis said handing the young man over to her. Stella nodded giving him a once over, pretty sure that he could walk. Qusitis turned and jogged to catch up with the others.

"Try to keep up" Stella said to the cadet giving him a small smile.

"Of course" he said with a lopsided grin back, his dark hair falling in front of his eyes. She let herself smile wider realizing just how cute he was.

"I'm Stella" she said as they headed back for the group.

"Rodrick" he responded introducing himself as he stared ahead at the others.

"Well Rodrick, it's all action all the time around these people. Be ready for it" Stella said with a wink as the caught up to the group.




---------

ooo cuuuute boy, does Ray ray have some competition?