Not So Simple Missions Chapter 1
The Introductory Chapter
By Holly Clarke
“So, Stephen, and Rebecca... you haven’t been to the Fire Cavern yet, right?” Quistis Trepe questioned. “Meet me at the gate at 0900 hours tomorrow morning and we can take care of it before the SeeD exam tomorrow evening. The rest of you, I’ll see you when we meet for instructions before the exam at 1800 hours at the docks in Balamb. Got it?”
The class of would-be SeeD’s nodded at their beautiful young instructor and gathered their papers and filed out the door. Quistis smiled to herself. When Headmaster Cid had given her back her instructor’s privileges she was only too happy to take them back, despite the pressure she knew they would bring. And never did she regret it. Teaching gave her a sense of power and responsibility.
Quistis smoothed the top of her crisp blue instructor’s uniform, checked her blonde hair to make sure no strands were out of place, and headed for the cafeteria. She was due to meet Squall, Rinoa, Selphie, Zell, and Irvine in five minutes. She walked leisurely to the second floor elevator, only to be knocked over by a short, spunky young woman.
“Omigod I’m sorry, Quisty!” Selphie exclaimed. “But I thought I was gonna be late... and Irvine said he had something super-important to tell me!”
Quistis noticed the spark in Selphie’s eyes and laughed. It was always fun to hear about Selphie’s and Irvine’s ever flirtatious relationship. It would also be amusing to hear what Irvine’s “super-important” news was. With Irvine, it could be anything from making movie date to getting a new magazine.
“Calm down, Selphie... you won’t be late,” Quistis assured her. “I mean I’m on my way down there... and when am I ever late?”
Selphie giggled. “Yeah... you’re right.” Together they made their way into the elevator and onto the first floor.
Squall Leonheart smiled at the beautiful girl hanging on to his arm. As usual, Rinoa was doing most of the talking. Her innecessary chatter used to annoy Squall to no end. But now, as far as he was concerned, she could do all the talking she wanted. For there was a time when Squall thought her would never hear her voice again.
“Squall are you even listening to me?” Rinoa asked, an annoyed edge to her voice.
“....”
Rinoa exhaled sharply, then tried again. As always, Squall was amazed at the patience she had for him. He knew he had to get his act together. He knew he didn’t deserve Rinoa, but he also knew he couldn’t lose her. She was the only stable thing in his life. So this time he listened carefully even though he knew she wasn’t about to say anything important.
“I was saying that for the exam tomorrow, are we going to instruct the same squadrant or are we seperating?”
Squall smirked. “I don’t know, Rinoa, maybe we should take different squads... having you there might be too distracting for me you know...”
Rinoa batted his arm playfully. “I know you don’t mean that. When you’re on business you don’t seem to even notice I’m there!”
Squall smirked again. It was true. He knew when to act business. The problem was, he wasn’t used to play. Usually Squall tried to keep as busy as possible, it kept him from thinking. He disliked his own company just as much as he disliked the company of others. Actually, he thought, the company of others is actually very preferable to having to listen to my screwed up thoughts.
Well, most of the time.
“Hey Squall, Rinoa, watch this!” Zell Dincht exclaimed from across the cafeteria. He was stuffing hot dog after hot dog in his mouth.
Squall dropped his head and shook it in amazement. Each of them had changed a little after the happenings of ultimecia. He himself had changed the most of everyone. But Zell was still Zell, highly excitable, immature Zell.
“Hey Zell,” Rinoa said, dropping herself into a chair.
“Got here early?” asked Squall.
“Yeah...” Zell replied. “And I got the hot dogs to prove it.” He smiled through his food.
.
Irvine Kinneas carefully placed his new rifle in the corner of his dorm and took his signature cowboy hat from his bed. He placed it on his head and checked himself out in the mirror.
When it came to himself, Irvine was not short on confidence. It was only when he was alone with his gun, when the pressure was on, that his confidence level dropped. That was when Irvine became scared.
He left his dorm, locking the door behind him, and made his way to the cafeteria. Everyone else was already there. He tipped his hat at his friends and stood in front of a chair next to Selphie. He took the chair and turned it around, and sat down with the back of the chair in front of him. “What’s up?” he asked everyone casually.
“We were just talking about the SeeD test tomorrow,” Quistis said. “Or rather, we were going to when you showed up.” She took a glasses case out of her pocket and took out her red-rimmed glasses, sliding them onto her face, giving her the look of the instructor. “Basically, there are 4 squadrants,” she explained. This mission is to stop the new flow of monsters outside of Balamb. Oddly enough, the monsters seem to be originating from somewhere around the train station.
“It’s not an overly difficult mission, and the monsters aren’t extremely powerful, but they are real and can be dangerous, the perfect level for training SeeD’s. The mission is to wipe out as many monsters as we can and find out where they are coming from.”
“So, like, some squads will fight and some will be the computer masterminds, stuff like that?” Irvine inquired.
“Yes, something like that. Squads one and two will have the objective of fighting off the monsters. Squall, you’re to look after squad one. Take mental notes on their conduct and strength, and your evaluation will be noted along with that of their written test. I haven’t decided the order of the squads yet....”
Irvine looked at Squall and smirked. He looked cocky as ever. As much as Squall hated to be a leader, he knew he was good at it, and everyone else knew he was too.
“Rinoa and Zell, you’ve got squad two.”
“Alrighty,” Zell agreed. Rinoa nodded.
“Squad three is the messanger squad, who will take information from squads one and two to squad four. They also must be expected to face some small battles along the way. Selphie, that’s your department.”
Selphie smiled.
“And Squad four is the information squad, who will go find the source and go straight to it. They will compute what is wrong, and if battle is involved, they will handle it but call for help on the radio if the fight is too extreme or if there are a series of fights. All squads will then report to help.” Quistis removed her glasses and replaced them in their case. She then smiled. “That’s it for business.”
Irvine eased his arm around Selphie’s shoulders and half-smiled.
“Oh, yeah...” Selphie said, “you had something to tell me?”
“Welllllll,” Irvine said lazily, “I just wanted to know what you were doing tonight.”
Selphie giggled. “What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, a few video games, I’ll kick your ass and then a bite to eat?”
Selphie grinned. “Cool. You’re on. But personally... I think it’s your ass that’s gonna get whipped.”
Irvine snaked a hand through her hair and smiled for real. He liked that things with him and Selphie were far from serious, that they could hang out and have fun, but still flirt with other people. And he liked that she could have fun doing mindless activities, like brain-dead movies and video games.
Zell finished the last of his hot dogs and stood up. Everyone followed his lead.
“Well, I’ve got one more class to teach,” Quistis sighed, looking at her watch. But I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
Everyone else had less important matters at hand and headed to their rooms.
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Rinoa Heartilly knocked on Squall’s door and bit her lip. No matter how much she knew he cared for her, she sometimes still felt nervous around him when he wasn’t expecting her. Sometimes Squall just wanted to be alone and wasn’t shy about expressing that.
She used to feel nervous around the others, too. Almost inferior to them. Even though she had gone through all the events with them and proved she could handle all the things that they could, she wasn’t a SeeD or even a member of a garden, like Irvine. But then Cid recognized hers and Irvine’s hard work and appointed them as top-notch SeeD’s, like Squall and the others.
Squall opened the door abruptly, interrupting Rinoa’s thoughts. He smiled and Rinoa immediately felt better. She walked in and sat down on the floor, in front of his new television, trying to figure out what he was watching. Squall took a seat directly on back of her and put his arms around her. She leaned back into his chest, smiling contentedly, the TV long forgotten.
“You’re in a good mood,” said Rinoa.
She could feel Squall shrug. “Tomorrow’s gonna be busy, and I won’t get to see you much.”
She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Squall Leonheart, did you just say something sweet?”
He smirked. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.”
Rinoa laughed. “Tomorrow’s mission shouldn’t be hard though.”
“Not at all.... but it depends on how good the SeeD candidates are. If they suck, the mission’s gonna be a pain in the ass.”
Rinoa nodded. “Yeah. But enough about that...”
Squall took the hint and turned Rinoa around to face him. Then their lips met and words were no longer needed.
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“Die!” Selphie yelled at Irvine’s video game character. Her character launched fireball after fireball at him until Irvine’s man lay motionless on the screen.
“In your face!” Selphie yelled. She leaned in until her face was only inches away from Irvine’s. “Thats four times in a row, baby!”
Irvine cupped her face in his hands, not to be romantic, but to playfully push her away from him.
“Can’t take the heat?” Selphie asked.
“No, can’t take you being so friggin' annoying,” Irvine shot back.
Selphie giggled. “Well, maybe you - “
She was cut short by a knock on the door. Irvine jumped up to get it.
Selphie looked around him to see who it was. Some.. girl? Not just that, Selphie realized, but a pretty girl.
“Later, Paige,” she heard him say, and he shut the door behind her.
“Not gonna introduce me to your friend?” Selphie asked casually.
Irvine raised his eyebrows. “Sephy... are you jealous?”
“No!” Selphie denied.
“Paige is a friend. Although I must admit she’s pretty hot.”
Ouch. That one stung. But Selphie smiled anyway. “Oh, really....” 'Gee,' she thought. 'That was clever, Selphie.'
Irvine kissed her quickly. “Yeah, she is... but then you know you are too.”
“Keep goin’...” Selphie said with a giggle. She loved to banter with Irvine. Yeah, sometimes she was jealous that Irvine was such a flirt, but she’d get over that. She had to.
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Zell spent the night in the Training Area. Of all the group, Zell trained the most. It kept him sane, and he really enjoyed sweating his problems out. At the moment he didn’t have any real problems, just a general sense of dread. He had a premonition of something to come and it didnt feel good.
Zell heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He whipped around to see six Grats coming towards him. Six? He thought. Better take ‘em out with a GF. Zell called upon Infrit and closed his eyes, waiting for Infrit to answer his call. The Grats tried a sleep spell, but fortunatly Zell had taken the precaution and junctioned himself to protect himself from sleep spells.
He felt the power on Infrit fill him. He opened his eyes and finished the summon.
Infrit arrived on a big ball of Hell Fire and wiped the Grat’s out with the blow. Zell felt, as always, a little wave of exhaustion from calling the GF but recovered quickly and set out to look for more enemies.
Lately Zell had felt a little left out of his friends as well. They all seemed to have things to do, all except him, all he ever had to do was trained. He never seemed to have any special responsibilites and he didn’t have anyone special to fill the space where the boredom now lay. He felt a little put out with the empty spaces in his life.
Oh, well... nothing a few more fights couldn’t cure. He spotted three Grats and ran toward them, ready to sweat out his problems.
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