A Known Road

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

After Diablos disappeared, there was nothing but a blue sky above them, the sound of chirping birds resonated through Squall’s ears, and Sophia’s looks of astonishment at him made him feel uneasy, after a battle with Sin though, all those thoughts became less of a priority for the moment. He fell down on the roof of the ship, holding himself up though in order to avoid falling down from the top of the ship and simply laid there for a few moments, they had survived the attack of one of the most dangerous enemies in all of Gaia.

“That...was extremely...close” Squall said in a sigh as he looked over to Quistis, Zell and Sophia, his teammates would certainly be wondering just how in the world had he gotten a hold of that GF, since it was not one they were granted at Balamb Garden. Once more though, all those questions would come later, as for now, they needed nothing else but heading towards their destination, Timber once more and continuing their trip, in which he knew exactly how it would end, that if, this new world followed what happened in the last.

The ship didn’t take much longer to arrive onto Timber, after all, flying was way faster than taking the train out from Balamb Town. The ship lowered itself onto the hangar of Timber, a rather small, “enslaved” town to the Galbadian Empire. Squall got up from his spot and looked around the place they had gotten too, old, rusty metal bars hung from the roof of the place, dirty floors and stairs lead the way towards the inner city and the buildings didn’t really look renovated at all. Timber didn’t look like a thriving town, but it certainly had one building of importance, the magazine office, Timber Maniacs, had been established there and it gave Timber at least something to look forward.

Squall got off the ship along with the rest of his crew, he looked around and it certainly looked like a town riddled with resistance groups, apparently, they were not very fond of Galbadians, which would be a problem if anyone knew about Sophia. He glanced over at her, his hand moved up to rub his temple as he tried to think of a way to get out of the worst case scenario, though, he was probably just overthinking stuff at the moment.

“Well, we are here...I’ll be surprised if we are still on time for that...thing...after what happened back there” Squall said, referring obviously to the contact they were supposed to meet, as he remembered, the contact had gotten killed after he had told them what they needed to do, the chemical weapon that had been stored on one of the trains and that they had burned down, if he remember well, it had doomed Timber, but probably saved thousands of lives. Was this about to happen once more?

“Let’s go, let’s hope we can still meet that person, whoever it is” Squall instructed his team, heading up the stairs of the station that lead into the city.

EXP: 50

Level : 13 Posts : 47

If it was one thing Asher was not used to feeling, it was being tired. For quite some time, he could literally go nonstop, but lately? He had to take breaks between his teleporting sprees. It was silly, of course - he was still traveling much faster than he would be by Chocobo, but it didn't change the fact that he wanted to be there. Still, if he needed to pause, it was better to do it in a town. Even if that town seemed to be deserted as hell. Timber was a place Asher had visited once or twice, mostly on his way to and from Galbadia proper... but that was before he could teleport across a continent.

Asher was relaxed, mostly just sort of hanging off the side of a roof. After all, it was better to be up high - he could see further, and he liked being able to dangle his feet. He wasn't too far from the station, but that was only because the building he was on was cooking something that smelled delicious, and he was definitely considering popping down for a bite to eat.

That was when he saw them. People he recognized, from the Garden. Squall and Quistis... one who had saved him from his own hubris, and one who had taught him to overcome the stigma that he was an ignorant child. He couldn't stop himself from smiling, heedless to the fact that this was not his Gaia.

Without thinking, he pushed himself off the side of the building, vanishing mid-fall. He popped back into existence only about a foot in front of Squall, whom he immediately hugged around the middle, his monkey's tail moving back and forth in excitement. "Squall! Quistis! I've missed you guys so much!" He exclaimed, mostly because he didn't actually know the other two. Still, it was one of those sight-for-sore-eyes situations, that made the boy far too chipper, and just a little extra-clingy.

He was dressed as he normally would on a regular basis - a pair of cargo pants, belted tightly around his waist, complete with holsters on either hip. His vest was actually closed for once, buttoned mostly because he hadn't thought to unbutton it... but it didn't matter to him. The only thing that mattered was that his tail was bereft of a ribbon - which sucked, but he'd get one eventually. Somehow.

"What'er'ya doin' out here, instead of at the Garden?" He asked, a small, cheeky grin on his face, as he finally let the other SeeD go, taking a few steps back so he could look them all over. Hands were pushed into his hips, just above his weapons, and he stood almost defiantly here. "Field trip?" It was mostly a joke - SeeD field trips were never field trips. They were just missions in which they got to go to the field. Field trips rarely had the threat of death looming over them.

( Wc - 500 )

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

After going through the Sin attack, through the apparent change of world and reset of time and through all of these nitpicky stuff that had been going on, Squall thought there was nothing, nothing that could surprise him at all, oh how wrong he was. Upon arriving at Timber and walking through the rather damaged ground and walls of the station he was at, something that he had no idea would ever happen, happened. A young boy rushed towards him, and before he could react to it, the boy had hugged him around the middle of his body, but not only that, he had also called him by name as well as Quistis, the thing is, he had no memories of who that might have been.

“Do I...know you?’ Squall spoke reluctantly as he patted the boy’s back during the hug, his eyes were wide and his expression was clueless, even for the young SeeD this sort of thing was unexpected and it had certainly had an effect on his temporal ability to react to situations, after all, he was trained to react to battle situations, stress inducing events, not boys hugging him out of the blue and not remembering who they were.

“Shh..first...who are you...and we are on a trip with Balamb’s music band” Without knowing the boy, or at least without remembering him, his best bet was to continue with the lie they had built in Balamb Garden within Cid, the four of them had picked out instruments from Balamb’s music band in order to sneak in within Tmber, the thing is, they didn’t have much time for chit chat, they had already been delayed by Sin attack and were probably late to meet their contact. He walked past the boy while signaling the rest of his group, Zell, Quistis, and Sophia to follow him into the city, towards the appointed meeting spot.

EXP: 36

Level : 13 Posts : 47

It was a perfectly sensible thing to do, hugging old friends. There would be more hugs as time went on, of course...

As soon as Squall figured out who he was.

The gentle pats on his back didn't make much difference when Squall asked the most basic of questions. The one that made Asher pout, clearly hurt by it. Then again... this was a different Gaia. Of course... the question he had yet to ask himself was where was this Gaia's Asher, if not in Balamb Garden? It made his head hurt to think about it. He'd just assumed that if most things were the same, that some of the things he'd done on his Gaia transferred over to here. The remainder of his group - including Quistis, looked just as put off and uncertain by his sudden act of affection.

Still, he backed off the same as before.

"Yes! You know me..." He paused, nibbling on his lower lip. Did they, though? "Sort of! I... oh buh." Squall was already leading the expedition around him, clearly in some kind of hurry. He gave over a cover story - something Asher was used to doing, too. Clearly, Squall didn't recognize him even a little. Silently, Asher looked down at himself. This... was not the way it was supposed to go. He just needed to find a way to show Squall that he wasn't loony - then maybe he'd stop and listen.

It struck the smaller monkey-boy that he did have a way to show who he was. He huffed for a moment, patting at himself, until he remembered. Slipped in a 'secret compartment' ( read: a bullet clip holder he didn't use ) on his belt, was his SeeD ID.

"Wait!" He called after them, though it hardly mattered if they stopped or not. Asher was a quick little bugger, that wouldn't change no matter what Gaia he was on. He sped around in front of them, holding up a hand in front of Squall. "I can prove I know what I'm talking about. There's just some weird stuff goin' on and I don't know how to explain it all. Yet. But I'm working on it! Here!" He said, finally, lowering his 'Halt!' hand, and offering the other, where his ID bore all of his relevant information, and probably the only 'professional' picture that would ever be made of young Asher. He even managed to look respectable.

He didn't mind that his tail was still swaying a little bit. This way, Squall would at least understand that he wasn't completely crazy. "My name is Asher. I'm a SeeD, too."

( Wc - 446 )

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

To say that this encounter was weird would put it mildly, Squall himself was not dumb and he knew this world was different from the last, but this person, wohever it was, he had not meet in the previous Gaia. And he had been attentive there, he had taken part on dangerous missions, he had spoke to Cid, he had adventured more than he would like to admit, and this kid, he had never once appeared to him. Yet, here he was, SeeD ID and all, and he knew their names, he knew the nature of their trip (at least, he probably knew their cover story) and above all, he looked in distress by Squall’s short comings. What in the world was happening?

“You are a SeeD?” Squall said in astonishment, he looked like a kid to him and the fact that he was a SeeD at such a young age simply blew his mind, it had taken him close to 8-9 years to finally be accepted as one, and this...person (he did not want to mention the monkey tail on the kid’s back) was already one at this young age. Regardless of his ID, Squall still could not remember anything about the boy, but upon inspecting the ID he showed, he at least felt comfortable enough with him being one of their own.

“You can prove it? Well, I will admit, this is not the only...abnormal situation going on here...” Squall said as he looked over to Quistis, Zell and Sophia, he didn’t know how they would feel with a kid around their group, especially on their current mission.

“Asher, huh? Quistis, Zell, and Sophia, I do believe that, for now, he should come with us, it would be dangerous to leave him by himself in this place, he is, after all, one of us” Squall said, he didn’t fully understand what Asher’s conection with the old Gaia was, and he was not ready to explain it to the rest of his squad, so he tried covering up by showing concern for a fellow SeeD, one thing was certain though, they needed to find their contact in the damaged town of Timber.

EXP: 36

Level : 13 Posts : 47

“Ya-huh. I’ve been a SeeD for a few years now. Sort of.” He wasn’t going to point out the large bunch of time missing since his graduation. Still, it looked like this Gaia’s Squall at least accepted that part about it. It wasn’t as though there were an abundance of rogue SeeD ID’s roaming around the world. Or at least, he certainly hoped there weren’t, otherwise this whole situation was going to land him in a steaming pot of trouble. He wasn’t sure what would happen, if Squall, Quistis, and the others decided he was somehow forging it. Ah well…

“Absolutely! I usually work on my own, ‘cause I can get places really fast, but I was heading to the Garden…” He frowned a bit at that thought, as it dawned on him where he was going. He was going to this Balamb Garden. Where they might, much like this Squall and Quistis, have no idea who he was. That thought left him unsettled – he didn’t know if he wanted to go back to a place that he thought of as home, if no one else thought it was his home, too.

It was a scary thought.

He gave Squall a little grin. “I may be small, but I’m feisty. Don’t worry, I won’t hold you back. I can help, I swear.” Granted, he didn’t know what the mission specifics were, but he could at least do that much. He’d help Squall, Quistis, and their friends out in whatever situation they were in, prove he was a SeeD, and maybe that would convince them more than any ID. He belonged here. Maybe not on this Gaia, but… somewhere.

Rubbing the back of his head uncertainly, he nodded. “Lead the way. Just fill me in on the situation if you can.” No, Asher was not good at context clues. If Squall wasn’t able to explain out in the open, that was fine – Asher would just tag along and shoot what he was told to shoot. Being a SeeD was never easy, but even Asher could follow orders, most of the time.

( WC - 376 )

Admin Posts : 229

Current Event: Bad Moon on the Rise
Current BGM: Blue Fields

First Sin, now this strange unknown member of Seed. Things were different in this place, WAYYYYY different. And yet, getting here didn't feel any different than it did before, trains left from Timber to Galbadia daily and yet the tickets that you had been provided with (courtesy of the SEED Musical Tour) didn't leave till tomorrow evening. Sophia seemed to be happy with this for some reason, probably because it'd give her time to talk to her contact in Shinra.

None the less Squall would need to keep an open mind about all this, the last time that you had been in this situation you had arrived via train. The Turk Contact of Sophia's had met you at the train station and had hired you on to do the sabotage mission. Sophia would take off leaving you and Asher along with Zell and Quistis. The latter two would leave claiming that they intended to finalize the accommodations for the night leaving the overly energized monkey boy along with the rather glum team leader.

At this point it was up to the two precisely what they did, though if Squall did want to investigate the changes to the world he had two choices. The first of which was to follow Sophia to the meeting point with her contact, though this might waste time considering what happened the last time you had been in Timber. The second was of course the more dire of the two options, Squall could head to the same train loading bay as he had in his memory, and find out whether or not the Galbadians in this world were doing the same thing, if indeed they were then he could stop them before the Timber incident ever happened.

Choice Event

Monkey around with Asher
Stalk Sophia
Investigate train yard

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

“Well, it appears we will be by ourselves for now, Asher” Squall said as he saw the rest of his team move out from their current position, he really didn’t know how to handle the current situation, but his memories from the previous world at least gave them an idea on where to start.

However, if he destroyed those trains again, Timber would be doomed once more and they were still there. The only way he would be able to do so once more was if he somehow timed some sort of explosive or if Asher had another idea.

“I do not know how to explain this, but it would appear as if you too, are from a different world, am I wrong?” Squall started as he started to walk towards the train station, the same one where Galbadia had had those cars with the chemical weapons he destroyed in the previous world.

“Come with me, if the events from my other world are the same as they are here...the Galbadian Army is hiding some trains with a chemical weapon, or more accurately, with The Blight” yes, it appeared that’s what it was, after finishing his assignment in Midgar and Galbadia on his previous world, he had known what that thing was, and it appeared that’s what Galbadia had done, they had weaponized that black goo and doomed Timber to the effects of that thing.

“If the events are the same, we will need to make a decision, we can stop the Galbadians from doing...I don’t know what with those weapons...which is my belief Balamb Garden would be targeted...or we can find a way to destroy/disable those things....either way, we might not have much time”

Even though Asher was a complete stranger, Squall needed to trust him, he was the first person in this world who might have an idea on what was going on, on why he had “transferred” to this place and why events might have changed. It appeared as if it was not time travel, but more as if a different timeline.

Investigate Train Yard.

EXP: 34

Level : 13 Posts : 47

"Mhm!" He agreed, still doing his best to be as cheerful as he would normally be if the circumstances weren't weird. "That's okay, I'll keep you safe." He teased, nudging the older boy in the arm with his own elbow. Then, as if completely needing the opportunity to shut that down, Squall made a very simple, and very accurate observation. That Asher was, indeed, from a different world. How he knew was far beyond Asher's comprehension. As far as he knew, there was no way for someone to just tell when a person was a world-stepper.

"I... yeah. Yeah I am." He said, his voice a quiet whisper. He was going to ask how he knew, but Squall further elaborated by explaining his plan to go investigate something that was one way in his own world. "If we're both from another world... how is it you don't remember me?" He asked, curiously. "I mean, I have all my memories of you - you saved me from a giant freaking T-Rexaur in the Garden when I thought I could take one on my own." A lot had changed since then. Wars that Asher had participated in, quests that he'd taken part of.

The Blight...

His eyes narrowed on Squall. "The Blight is on this world?" He asked, his voice suddenly serious. He felt his own Blight squealing in delight at the prospect of joining with its joint consciousness. It took an incredible amount of willpower to keep it suppressed, to ignore the squirming voice that told him the best thing to do would be to find out how to let the Blight loose.

As far as Asher knew, he was the only source of the contagion on this world. If he wasn't...? Well, that was both a good and bad thing. Good, because he wouldn't necessarily be the reason this world was infected. Bad, because the freaking Blight was there. The boy hesitated, as Squall pressed on, heading towards the trains. Did he really want to let himself get close enough to the Blight to reach out to it?

He had been changed by just the little he'd taken in. He wasn't even sure he really qualified as a normal Genome anymore. But this... was all just a risk he'd have to take to try and help a fellow SeeD. His first instinct... kill the Galbadians. If they were all dead, no one would be there to set off the weapons, or to start whatever grisly process for Balamb that Squall suspected they might do. Asher's own experience with Manifest Zero was an unfortunate one - it ended in Dollet becoming the Glass Beach.

"I'll follow you." He said, simply. If it came down to it, they'd make a decision once they had a full layout of the situation.

(wc- 474 )

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

“I cannot answer that fully Asher...” Squall began as they walked towards the train station, he had experienced this before, but events had obviously changed. Back in the other world, Sin had not tried an attack on Balamb, or at least not that he could remember, he had traveled by train to Timber and not by plane, and he had never met Asher before “...back in my world, it was. It became a problem, a dangerous one at that, Galbadians were the main culprits...they appeared to be experimenting on humans with it” Squall clenched his fist, remembering that Sophia had been kidnapped, most likely for that reason.

“I’m sorry I have no memories of you kid, but I really don’t understand what’s going on, so I have simply gone off and done what I know how to do best...follow Headmaster Cid’s orders” This was a true statement, even if he wanted to know what was happening, there really wasn’t anything he could do by himself, and Cid didn’t seem any more surprised about this either, so his answers were not going to be found in Balamb, but Asher...he was in the same situation, so, even though he was not a fan of working in a team, his best course of action was probably to stick to him, the kid seemed to have an odd affection towards Squall anyways.

“Those are the ones...” Squall pointed at some train cars parked in the tracks, they could have been passenger cars for all he knew, but they were at the spot he had last seen them. He noticed Asher sudden change of tone and behavior though, the mention of The Blight seemed to have affected him more than Squall would have thought, but he wasn’t one that would ask personal questions, however, he needed a bit more info on Asher if he was going to be working with him.

“The Blight was in your world as well? Just what the hell is that thing...”He said, referring to The Blight of course, just how many problems could some black goo create and, more importantly, where did it came from, now that he thought about it, Squall knew next to nothing of the thing and wasn’t sure of what it was capable of...other than molding into perfect copies of other people...remembering his assassination mission on President Shinra.

EXP: 39

Level : 13 Posts : 47

He stifled an unhappy noise. Squall couldn't answer the question, any more than Asher himself could. It had been silly to ask - but that's all he could do right now. Ask, and hope that an answer would be made apparent. It would be nice to think that it was Squall that was different, and he would be perfectly accepted in Balamb. Perhaps this Gaia's Asher was still doing something at the Garden?

More hopes. Hopes that were baseless, but hopes that were all he had left.

"Yeah, same. The Blight..." His insides practically wrenched themselves in turmoil. He couldn't tell Squall about his own infection. Doing that would be... disadvantageous. He recognized it, just as his Blight did. "It was all over my Gaia." Which wasn't a lie. It was just not a full truth. He didn't want to explain how jealousy had lead to his contamination and eventual damnation.

As far as Squall's decision to follow orders? Asher let a small smile tug at his otherwise solemnly straight lips. "That's why I was going to go to Balamb. That's what makes the most sense. Balamb... it's home, you know?" If nothing else, he could figure out if that held true. There was a simple longing in his voice. He felt that same hollowness that he'd felt shortly after the events in Vector. If he could have a place that was home... maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

They reached the train cars, and Asher nodded, looking at them. His question about what the Blight was made the genome nibble on his lower lip, and the slow sway of his tail came to a stop. He didn't know exactly what it was. But he knew that using it on people? That could only end badly for everyone. "Something that can go really crazy, really fast." He said, softly.

It might be easier to point something out. "On my Gaia, Midgar was the city that was doing the experimenting. They hired SeeD to help liberate Dollet, which was under Galbadian control." He explained, keeping his voice as even as he could manage. He was keeping his own Blight a secret - but sharing what else he knew wouldn't hurt.

"It... was not a good fight for anyone involved. SeeD took heavy losses - the Sorceress Blue and her General, Belzera... they did a lot to try and wipe us out." A wistful smile touched his lips. "I was fighting with those two directly, with the help of one of the SOLDIERs that had come with us to supervise. Anyways... Midgar..."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Midgar released the Blight, and it all went to hell from there. End of the day? Midgar wiped Dollet off the map to try and contain what they'd started. I know that stuff is... it can't really be killed, as far as I can tell. Just contained. And if you die because of it? You come back... as one of them."

The rest of the information he had was not going to be put out for tonight.

"What happened? When you had to do this on your Gaia?" He asked, gently. If he had a little more information, he might be able to contribute meaningfully. But he didn't have that history - he didn't want to be the reason history got repeated.

( WC - 568 )

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Squall listened intently to Asher’s story, what had happened in his Gaia was not much different than what happened from where Squall came...the Glass Beach, he knew that place, he knew about the SeeD losses on that faithful day...he knew. Was this man from the same Gaia he had come from? Or maybe, his Gaia had suffered the consequences of an old Gaia as well? It was all very confusing and the answers didn’t really seemed any closer than where he was before leaving Balamb. He stopped for a second, the moment Asher asked what happened with The Blight after he had sabotaged the Galbadian trains.

“You know...your story doesn’t seems very different than mine...Dollet...the Glass Beach....the war, our losses...they all happened in my Gaia as well...tensions between Galbadia and Balamb were very sensitive...and President Shinra appeared to have been copied by the Blight...I went on a mission to assassinate him...it turned out that thing was something called Manifest ZERO...if I remember correctly” He stopped for a second, he ran his hand through his hair, just remembering that faithful day in Midgar was a challenge for him.

“In the end...we destroyed it...and this girl...a scientist called Arianna stored the thing on one of her vials...I have no idea what she did with it...but she did not look very balanced when we met her” He sighed “As for what happened in Timber...the last I heard was they were quarantined...we probably doomed the town when we blew up the trains...but it was for the greater good...who knows what Galbadia would have done...considering what happened in Dollet..” Squall let out one last sigh and shook his head, he wasn’t sure how Asher would react, but there really wasn’t anything else to tell him, at least not about the blight.

EXP: 30

Admin Posts : 229

Current Event: Bad Moon on the Rise
Current BGM: Blue Fields

The train yard was now going to be your first stop, if indeed things on this Gaia were going to repeat then this would be the place where the Timber Outbreak occurred. Just as suspected there were Galbadians soldiers all around this train yard, in fact it was almost exactly how it happened before.....to this Squall's memory would be the key. He would identify the particular train that he had climbed upon before by its colors and the white sheets spread over the cargo. It had not left yet which meant that he would have a chance to stop this before it ever happened.

Choice Event:

Infilitrate the train quietly
Run head on and attack

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: A Known Road
Current BGM: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Squall let out a sigh as he noticed the Galbadians around along with the train he had infiltrated back then. It meant The Blight was here and they had weaponized it into missiles that were probably aimed to destroy Balamb, after all, tensions were tight between Balamb and Galbadia after the Dollet incident, however, he did not know if, in this world, they had the same problems they did back in his Gaia. Squall glanced at the monkey boy, he wasn’t sure just how strong he was since he had never seen him before, so it made him try to avoid a full on frontal attack, instead, using his looks, he could make an infiltration move a la spy movies before sabotaging the missiles.

“Well Asher, we have got ourselves a problem” Squall began “That train over there contains rather powerful missiles filled with weaponized Blight...last time we did this, we had to bail as soon as we sabotaged them...and Timber ended up in quarantine...but today, I do not think we have the time to get my team members back in time before anyone discovers that thing has been blown” He scratched his chin and shook his head.

“My idea is to use your looks...and I’m assuming you are pretty fast...in order to sneak behind enemy troops, disable them and then let us sabotage the system on the missiles...maybe preventing them from exploding or even preventing the aim of these devices...” He sighed and shook his head for a second “Unless you think the Galbadians will be smart enough to check them before firing them...if that’s the case...we would need some sort of timed bomb...to at least give us some time to get the hell out of here’

Squall wasn’t very happy with the way things were going and was afraid his actions would doom his teammates, it was true he didn’t really show emotion or care towards others, but deep within him, he knew he could trust them with his life, they were like family to him and the thought of releasing the blight upon them was really eating him alive.

“Let’s do this...after we are done, Asher, our priority is to find Zell, Quistis and Sophia and get them out of here with us...” Squall took out his gunblade, looked ahead towards the Galbadian soldiers and nodded to Asher, he would be the first one to get in, after all, he looked agile and sneaky enough to take out the most Galbadians without alerting any sort of added security.

Level : 13 Posts : 47

He pulled a sour face as Squall said the words weaponized Blight. There was no such thing as weaponized Blight – it was just evil. No matter how ‘controlled’ ShinRa or Galbadia thought it was, once they unleashed it… this world could be just as good as dead. Asher knew firsthand what happened when people tried to weaponize Blight. As far as the whole situation was concerned, now, Squall’s previous knowledge was coming in quite handy. Asher tilted his head – he wasn’t giving Asher much to work with.

So they had to sabotage the missiles, do things to distract and stop the troops, get Quistis and the others back…

Okay, so this was a tall order.

“Use my looks…?” He asked, uncertainly. They were going to infiltrate… with his looks? He looked down at himself, as though he was concerned about having sprouted a new appendage or something. Then he realized what it was the older SeeD was implying. The fact that, despite his Blight, he just looked like a pale kid, his once-brown tail that unnervingly deep shade of black. He was right about the fast thing… but…

His breath stilled, as Squall readied his gunblade – an inspiration, really. He knew better than to use the gun portion of his own K-Assassin gunblades… if this was designed to be as quiet as possible, he couldn’t shoot anyone.

The nod Squall gave him was met with one from Asher… before he started forward, careful to stop moving quickly. He didn’t want to panic anyone, or anything, as he approached the first two guards that were quietly chatting about what they would do when things were said and done. Asher started sniffling a little bit, sounding as though he was on the verge of tears.

“Can you help me…?” He asked, uncertainly, keeping his voice somewhat whiny. One of the guards gave him a once over, while the other tightened his grip on his gun. “I’m lost.” He added, sniffling again for good measure. The first guard lifted his hand to the other, so that the tension in the other’s grip would fade. ”C’mere, kid. Where’s your mom…?” He asked, his voice holding some measure of compassion.

Since taking the Blight, Asher’s predilections are not as gentle as they once were. Once he was close enough, he sniffled one last time, before looking up at him.

“She’s dead. Say hi to her when you see her, kay?” He asked, and his body became a blur of motion. Asher was a flexible little beast, and though he preferred guns, he wasn’t a total dunce when it came to hand-to-hand combat. One balled fist flashed up into the first guard’s throat, though the monkey was still moving. He used that same hand to snatch on to the man’s shoulder, launching himself upward, foot coming to connect with the jaw of the second man. Momentum remained constant, but his grip didn’t waver on the other guy’s shoulder.

He practically backflipped, though that one arm remained a single connector. Once he was in front of the first guard again, he brought both feet into his chest kicking off of him, knocking him awkwardly into the second. Asher was flying backwards, away from them, but he seemed to vanish from the air, completely – warping into existence behind the two of the now-stumbling, choking, and otherwised injured men.

His momentum from the kick-off hadn’t been lost when he teleported, so when he crashed into the both of them, his hands on either of their heads, it was with all that same inertia. They toppled, and their helmets cracked underneath the ferocity of his attack. Neither of them moved. Reaching down, he snatched them both up from the back of their uniforms so as to drag them back to where Squall was waiting.

“Two down. Do you remember how many people were guarding this thing?” He asked, knowing the same trick wouldn’t work on any more of the guards – they’d wonder why he hadn’t been stopped by the front guards. He glanced back at the cargo train, and started back for it, moving quickly and quietly.

( WC - 715 )