| GCB Fanfics: The Fanfiction Project |
August 17th, 2003 - Continued"The Sweet Sixteen Party"It was kind of odd to call this a sweet sixteen party, as only eleven people were in attendance. Alucard was in some dark corner of the training center, brooding. Aeris... No one knew where Aeris was except Bowser... And perhaps another. Ryu hadn't been seen by any of the contestants since his match. Magus, deep in thought, had refused Crono's requests for him to come along. And Sephiroth was, as usual, nowhere to be found. It wasn't even a party, either. Neither of the contestants that remained was a real party animal. Maybe that wasn't a coincidence... Maybe it was because the party animals hadn't taken this tournament seriously enough. No one was here for the fun, not anymore. Things had been ugly from the beginning, and even Tommy Vercetti, who'd taken this tournament as a vacation opportunity, was now dead serious, almost all the time. Only Bowser still remained the same, annoying, and obnoxious self that he was before the tournament. And to most of the tourney's players, this wasn't viewed as a good thing. This is almost too much of a reminder... Squall leaned up against a wall, near the entrance of the Hero's Haunt. His head down, he took occasional sips from a white wine glass, and generally seemed to be disinterested at all going on about him. It was not lost on Squall how similar this was to one of his past experiences. Obnoxious guy trying to talk to him... Check. Crowds milling around, but not real excitement... Check. If Aerith had been here to play Selphie's part, and try to get him into a conversation or some job, the similarities would be complete. This was just another SeeD party to Squall Leonhart, and he knew it. I don't know why I bothered to come here again. I'm busy at Balamb, I'm actually enjoying myself there... So why am I here? Cause Rinoa, Zell, and Selphie all thought that this would be a nice change-of-pace activity for me to do. Remind me not to listen to them again. Squall wasn't enjoying himself. He was a fighter, a mercenary, sure. But that competitive drive, to fight, and to win... That wasn't in Squall. Until he had met Rinoa, he really hadn't had a reason to do the things he did... He just had done them, done what his superiors ordered, and not think about whatever was going on. He hadn't been big at taking the initiative... He had never wanted to lead. But he had been forced to on countless opportunities. There was a meaning to the fight, then. To defeat a sorceress that endangered the world. But now... What was the meaning here? To gain glory among some petty fools that only know how to kill and how to win? That wasn't Squall's way. In fact, he would have left already... If one mantra hadn't been hammered into his brain so much as he was growing up. Never give up. Always finish what you've started. Squall would finish this tournament as long as he could go. But he wouldn't sell his soul to get to the top, like the princess had done. Unbeknowst to Squall, three other swordsman were watching him from afar. "You think we should invite him over here?" Cloud shook his head at the red-haired swordsman, Crono, who had just spoken up. "That's just his way." Crono shrugged. He couldn't understand why you'd want to forsake all discussion, and brood to yourself all day... But apparently, it was a popular fashion among some tourney members. "He always seems so serious all the time, though... I wonder how he can deal with that, never having what seems like fun." "Some people don't need fun." It was Link who had just spoken up, after being silent for a little while. He stared at Crono, with a level gaze, but without any emotion. "It's people like him who do the best in this tournament... People who can devote all their time to being a better fighter. People who don't treat this like a game." Link was almost taken aback at Crono's response to this. The red-haired hero simply laughed. "You sound just like Magus. It seems like no matter what happens tomorrow, I'll have someone trying to get me to take this more seriously." Link's gaze hardened, as he looked down at the floor, away from Crono. "Magus..." He whispered harshly to himself. Link thought himself to be so similar to Squall. But when you looked at it, they were polar opposites. Link's ability to read people had always been his weakness... And this year, it was as bad as ever. He should take my advice. Stupid kid... Someday he'll lose to someone he should beat. Samus Aran, Tommy Vercetti, Mario, and Solid Snake had finished their poker game for the night. The games seemed to be getting progressively shorter, as the players decided they were needed elsewhere, or were just plain bored of the game. Poker didn't have a novelty that could last for two months. And the players were finding that out. Snake walked over to the bar immediately after the game, and sat down on one of the stools. He pulled a cigarette out of the case he had in one of his pockets, and took a smoke of it. "You do know that's unheathy, don't you?" Snake grunted, as Samus Aran approached him from the direction of the poker table, where she had been cleaning things up. "You sound like Otacon." "Who?" "Otacon. He's sort of my business partner. He's always trying to get me to quit." "You should listen to him." Snake grunted again. He slowly took another sip of his drink, and then turned back to Samus. "I don't think you came here to discuss my unhealthy smoking habit." Samus sighed for a few seconds, trying to buy time. Of course she hadn't come to discuss his smoking. She had come because she wanted to convince him to do something... Something that would alleviate the boredom that she could see he was going through. Problem is, the segueway that she would have to make into her discussion topic would be a lot less easy, now. "...You always seem to know exactly when I'm trying to get you to do something, don't you?" "Sure. Part of my job." "Alright, I'll come clean. You know that whole situation with Cloud's girlfriend being kidnapped, right?" "Of course." "...I think we should do something about it." Snake was silent for a few seconds. He appeared to be thinking... But it wasn't long before he sighed. He still couldn't see the wisdom in getting involved with this. This wasn't their world. It wasn't like she would be killed by the turtle that was imprisoning her... She would just be sent back to her world after having to endure discomfort. Life would go on. "...There's no point." "What do you mean?" "Let me explain something about this dimension, Samus. This is an artificial dimension, not one created at the beginning of time. This was created by an extremely powerful... being who wanted to run a tournament. It's completely irrelivant to our real lives. We won't die permanently here, unless the magics that govern this tournament go entirely off base. We won't be brutally injured for the rest of our lives. This is simply a competition. Nothing here matters except whether you win or you lose. And no matter what that koopa does, nothing will happen." Samus looked at the floor. He had made so many good points... And she couldn't refute any of them. Maybe he was right... Maybe this wasn't anyone's fight, and would be totally taken care of within two days. But then Snake spoke up again. "There is one exception to that rule." Samus looked up at him again, interested. She'd known how long Snake had studied this. She knew his intellect... And she knew this was important. "The silver haired enigma, as we all like to call him. The one called Sephiroth. He has power beyond anything that I have ever seen before. He is the real one to worry about here. I can't waste my time on a nothing that is merely doing this for fun. Bowser couldn't kill a fly." "A... fly?" "Expression on my world. It means he's not violent at all... He doesn't kill anyone. He only hurts them. He's a mere bully." "So give me a choice, Samus... Should I go after the bully, or should I go after the one that has the power to win this tournament, and turn this dimension into a tool for his use?" "Both." "...You're never going to learn, are you." Sonic the Hedgehog watched from afar. He wasn't interested in the petty squabbles of this tournament... Let the girl stay in Bowser's hands for all he cared. She'd be safe, all would turn out fine for her. "I just need that emerald." Sonic hated what he was doing. He hated that he was using people to get what he needed. He felt this to be a great blow to his integrity. But he knew it was needed. Because the silver haired one could not get the emeralds. And if all went wrong in Sonic's plan... He could get the one that Bowser owned. It was too delicate a plan for Sonic's liking. Snake and Sonic both thought the dimension stood on the edge of a knife, ready to fall if something went wrong. Sephiroth knew that it did. And he wanted to make that something go wrong. Next Entry Back |