FF8 Tournament

As you might find from this fic, I'm a bit of a Zell fan. On this site I've found a ton and a half of excellent fanfic concerning Zell (Bookworms and Booya comes to mind, as well as Are You Stupid), and have decided to write my contribution.

I'll say this here and now – if you do not like violence or fight scenes, and are into drama and the such – go back and find another fic. My style of writing is mostly in-your-face and violent, and in the world of FullLife and Phoenix Down, this only gives me more opportunity to kick the crap out of random characters (Zell included – I'm not THAT biased).

That said, drama is still a part of this story. Hell, you gotta fill the space between fight scenes somehow!! I'm not sure yet wether or not Zell will have a romance in this one – he always seems to get some in all the fics I've read – but if you wish, I shall include one. By the way, look out for little asteriks around in the fic (*). These are references to FF8 Chronicles, another Fic I'm working on (in other words, if you really wanna get the full deal out of this fic, you're gonna have to read my other works!!)

Right. Introductions over. Time to strap yourself in, slap on some thrash music (Disturbed or Drowning Pool is the best), and get ready to ROCK!

Michael Kenny, Author

*          *            *

Zell sat with concentration etched into his tattooed face, trying to ignore the bruising that he had just received from the Grat he had just annihilated. The injury had been a result of overconfidence and a little too much energy put into the kick – the monster had ducked at the last instant, the tentacle slapping Zell right on the ribs as his kick went flying over it's malformed mouth of a head – before he had blasted it to oblivion with a Firaga to the face.

He was clothed in his regular attire – denim shorts that reached his shins, a black, short-sleeved leather coat over a black, short-sleeved shirt with a red and blue strip crossing the chest. Red and black sneakers adorned his feet, with red socks.

His hair was spiked, something that seemed to just happen naturally. He had no idea why, it just seemed to spike, which was why he kept it short. A black tattoo snaked over the left side of his face, seeming to flow like oil from his left temple and stopping before it covered his face.

His side was a mixture of burning and throbbing, but he ignored it, drawing his focus to his surroundings. His pleasant blue eyes were closed, but the rest of his senses were on high alert, probing his surroundings for another opponent.

The lush greenery of the Training Centre surrounded him, ferns and palms being the main plant life. They covered almost the entire area of the Centre, except for a few small pathways and some clearings devoted for those people wanting some room for a fight. All pathways were brightly lit, encase a student wished to escape to the safety of the corridor – but some of the smarter monsters also knew how to follow these signs, at it was well known that most of the time you were chased out of the Centre – as opposed to quietly sneaking out.

His ears perked as something large crunched it's way through foliage behind him, but the crunching disappeared as the monster walked the opposite direction. The area was rather large – larger then any other Gardens, almost half the size of the whole Garden itself. A willing and determined student could start out in the morning and come back in the afternoon, and had gone through the entire Centre – but not without having to take out some monsters along the way.

Most students also knew to traverse the Centre in twos or in groups – never by themselves. Only SeeDs or Instructors were stupid enough to do that.

So Zell sat, his mind one with his body, alone. His impudence when it came to lone training was highly frowned upon by his friends and co-workers. What happens if you get hurt? Had been the usual argument, but the one that had popped up lately was What if you did some more damage to the Garden?

After the incident concerning the two T-rexaurs*, he had come under much grief concerning his power level. Squall had pleaded a good case for him, but in the end he was told that he could never use My Final Heaven again, unless in cases concerning work or in extremely dire situations. The repercussions for his use of overwhelming strength were a docking of his pay and a home arrest for a year, as well as prevention of Summoning and Magic usage.

That meant he got paid just enough to eat what he usually ate, and wasn't allowed out of the Garden unless accompanied by an official of the Security Committee.

To say the least, his options for entertainment were limited.

And he was getting bored.

His lockdown on his magic had been lifted days ago, and he had thankfully received them, immediately going into the Training Centre to beat down on some Grat heads. The lockdown on his home arrest was to be lifted in a week, as long as he could show the International and Garden Board that he could keep his strength and magic use in check.

Needless to say, he was hoping for the Board to be generous. The surveillance bug that they had planted on him had been cramping his style, following him everywhere, even into the toilet. He couldn't wait for privacy once more.

Something moved to his left. Small and lithe, by the sounds of the footsteps, which were tip-toeing their way across the dirt ground –

Before launching themselves into the air!

Zell felt the breeze change subtly, and he rolled backwards to avoid an attack to the back, coming to his feet and launching a roundhouse kick –

To stop mere inches away from Selphie's innocent face. Standing at only 5' 1", dressed in a yellow, one-piece dress, which left the legs to prying eyes, it was no wonder why she had most of the students falling after her. The fact that she was the second most beautiful girl in the Garden, with her lush green eyes and innocent looks, didn't help. "Hi Zell!" she bubbled, oblivious of the imminent danger she had just been in. "How are you?!"

Zell rolled his eyes and lowered his leg, relieved that his reflexes could still determine friend from foe. For some reason, they had never seemed to click on a relationship kind of way. They had just remained good friends. "Selphie, what are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?"

She smiled sweetly. "No. I just want to take my friend out to lunch! Is that so bad?"

"Lunch?" Zell subtly checked his watch. 13:23. I completely forgot! He smiled down to her. "Sorry about that Selph. I forgot!"

Selphie rolled her eyes and raised a tiny fist, knocking it on his head like one would do to a door. "Hello? Gaia to Zell? How would you forget?!" She sat down and began to trace patterns into the dusty dirt. "It's not as if you've been doing anything else the last few months…except come in here and train, that is."

Zell rubbed the back of his neck, feeling slightly selfish and embarrassed. "Sorry Selphie." He crouched down next to her. "I've been under embargo so long, I've become a little cramped. The only thing I can do to release some stress is to train." He shrugged as if he had no other choice.

She slapped the ground with her fist, like a spoiled child. "But what about your friends?" she whined. "We wanna do stuff with you too! And whenever we want to, you're either in here or in the infirmary, getting over being in here."

He laughed at that, missing the seldom seriousness in her face. "Well, without Ifrit and Bahamut it's pretty easy to get hurt whilst training." He lifted his shirt, exposing his muscle-filled chest. "Look at this! I've been in here five hours, and already I've been slapped a few times by some Grats!"

Selphie looked, awestruck, at his chest. Bruises crisscrossed his ribs, and there was a scratch, which gathered speed from his abdomen till the bottom of his left nipple. Other scars riddled his body, large jagged ones, slim smooth ones, and round circles like bullet holes. He looked like a collage of injury. "Hyne, look at you!"

He looked down at his chest and frowned. "What?"

"I've never seen…" her voice trailed off as she pulled her gaze away from his chest.

He lowered the shirt slowly. "It's nothing, really…I'm not that hurt, it's just some bruising…I'll cast Cure if it'll make you feel better…"

"No. The scarring."

Zell's concern was changed to something that Selphie couldn't read. He shrugged slowly. "The magic only heals wounds, Selph. It doesn't cover the scars…or the memories."

Before she could say anything else, he stood quickly, his face grim. "Did you bring your Flail?" he asked quickly.

"No…I was just going to see how you were…"

"Then get up into a tree or something, cause something big is coming this way right now." As if to back him up, a loud roar was emitted from the trees behind where they were sitting. There was the crackling and rustling of trees and bushes, and a T-rexaur suddenly emerged from the foliage, turning to the two humans and roaring for all it was worth.

Selphie, for all her reputation as an air-head, knew when to run when the opportunity arose, and she took this opportunity like the next train out of Deling. Running for a rocky outcrop, she threw a quick glance over her shoulder to see if Zell was behind her.

He was facing the big monster off!!

Fists raised, his body set to a certain position, he looked up at the dinosaur as if he fought one everyday.

Flipping over a rock and landing on the balls of her feet, she spun round and yelled over the boulder at Zell. "Run, you idiot!"

The dinosaur looked over to where she called, and Zell watched as she ducked timidly down, out of sight. Good. She's out of the way. "I'll be fine!" he called back. "I try to fight one almost every day."

That said, he balled his fist, the knuckles within the gloved hand cracking. Stepping in close to the giant reptile, he smashed his fist into where he thought its stomach would be, the hand seeming to bend the hard scales in with the blow.

The T-Rexaur seemed coughed, like a cat would, then roared in pain, it's bellow echoing around the confines of the training centre.

*          *            *

In a control room, on the other side of the world, a person siting in front of a terminal pressed a stud on the control panel in front of him. A tiny microphone flipped out of his terminals screen, and he talked clearly into it. "Sir, the subject is about to begin. Would you like to see the results of the fight?" Listening to the garble of information being processed through his earpiece, he nodded to no one in particular. "Very well, sir."

*          *            *

Zell pulled his fist out of the dent he had made in the huge creature, and spun-kicked it into oblivion, the leg he attacked snapping easily like a twig from a tree. The gigantic monster boomed to the floor, dust rising as it's collision took a few trees with it.

Dusting his hands, Zell turned and began to walk to where Selphie hid. "come on! It was nothing!!" he called, before turning around slowly.

The monster had risen shakily to it's feet, it's massive head rolling from side to side as it tried to shake the chocobo's from it's vision. Zell spat on the floor, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Whoops. Guess I didn't finish you off, huh?"

Drawing the magic within him, his entire body clenched, his muscles tightening like vices on his bones as the cold energy settled in his chest. Raising his left arm, he pointed his palm towards the still dazed creature, his fingers fanning out. Almost as an after thought, he wrapped right hand around the wrist of his left, to provide support. His hand began to smoke as the air around it grew cold, and he tried to set himself in preparation for the kick.

His hand blasted the Blizaga attack at an incredible speed, the attack blasting the dinosaur's chest into big, meaty chunks. The back-kick from the blast blew Zell back, his feet skidding on the floor as he tried to retain some balance. He finally stopped when his back slammed into a boulder, stopping his trajectory.

Shaking his head, the release of magic still a little overwhelming thanks to month of under use, he looked up to see Selphie staring down at him, wide-eyed and mouth gaping.

Smiling sheepishly, he waved up to her.

*          *            *

"Well, how's it going?"

"Sorry, sir. You missed the battle."

"Missed it? How long did it take?"

The man at the terminal checked the time. "About two minutes sir. In his last battle with a T-Rexaur he had taken ten minutes and fifty-three seconds, with magic usage. His strength has risen tremendously since then, thanks to the embargo on his magic and GF's."

The other man stood silent for s second. "What do you think? Should we contact him?"

The man at the terminal was about to reply, but suddenly realised that his superior was talking to a man on a mobile unit. The other man listened to the unit intently, before turning it off with a press of a button. "Keep up the good work. Don't let him out of your sight." And with that, he was gone.

*          *            *

Zell sat in the cafeteria, sipping a soda, and trying to wave Selphie off. "Would you stop staring at me like that!?" he muttered, taking a swig of cola.

"I can't help it!" Selphie said, sitting on a chair and leaning precariously on it's edge, moving as close forward as Zell would allow. "You took out a T-Rexuar all by yourself!"

Zell swallowed his cola and placed it on the table in front of him, rubbing the can's edge. "I used magic…it was no big deal…"

"Yes it was."

"No it wasn't."

"Yes it was."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

He looked at her with barely veiled annoyance, before grabbing her head and planting it under his armpit, curling his arm around her neck. "It wasn't, wasn't, wasn't, wasn't, wasn't!!" he muttered, laughing, as he gave her the biggest noogie he had ever given her.

She laughed and screamed; fighting desperately to disengaged his kung-fu grip. He let he god, but not after scuffling her hair as she ducked for cover. "You meanie!" she yelled, giggling from behind her chair.

He stuck his tongue out at her and swigged the rest of his soda, before smashing the can flat with his head.

"Hey, kids. What's happening?" A Galbadian drawl announced over the hustle and bustle of the cafeteria.

Zell turned to see Irvine stride his way over, a tray in his hands. Dressed in yellow leather, wide brimmed hat and riding boots, he looked the perfect image of a cowboy. With clear grey eyes, perfect features and long hair pushed back into a ponytail, he wasn't bad with the ladies either. To say his home-run rate with the ladies was the largest in all three Gardens was an understatement.

Zell gave him a quick finger-to-forehead salute, before polishing off the rest of his hotdog.

Selphie smiled as she saw him coming, then wiped it off as he sat down next to her. "Kiss." She said simply, presenting her cheek to him.

"Mwa." He said, pecking her lightly.

She giggled and set back into her T-burger. They had been going out on and off for ages now, ever since they had defeated the Sorceress. The incident with the Instructor files** had hampered their relationship a little, what with the slander that had been put on Irvine's name. The fact that he could not use magic, not even to summon, had been overwhelming bad for his reputation…for about a day.

"So what's up, man. You been in the Training Centre again?" Irvine said, unwrapping the paper on his T-burger and munching down on it.

"Yep." Zell said, picking up another hotdog, his second from a platter of five.

"He took out a T-Rexaur, all by himself." Selphie muttered through a full mouth.

"Really?" Irvine said nonchalantly, barely rasing an eyebrow. "Well, that's something, huh?"

Zell smiled. In front of the chicks, he was as cool as Shiva – but as soon as Selphie walked away, Irvine would be all over him. How long did it take? Did you use magic? Did it hurt you? What moves did you use? Damn, I wish I had been there! I could take one on myself too, you know…

"So what does it feel like to finally be able to leave the Garden in a few days?" Selphie said, smiling as she finished off the rest of her T-burger.

"It'll be a Hyne-send!" Zell said drastically, snapping open another can of soda and guzzling down half the contents in one swig. "The first thing I'm gonna do is go see Ma. She'll be worried sick about me!" He slammed down the rest of the can and crushed it on his head again.

Irvine looked slightly disgusted. "Can you not do that in my presence, thank you."

Zell looked genuinely confused. "What?"

The surveillance bug buzzed over his head, taking a close up of the ring on his head where he crushed the can, and Zell waved it away, as if it was a fly. "Friggin' thing…" he muttered. Because of security issues concerning the surveillance unit, he couldn't even do any of his Instructor duties. And he had almost crushed it several times when it came to going out with Angel Lee…
*          *            *

The man at the terminal yawned. "How come the kid gets to socialise whilst I have to watch him every second of the day?" He yawned once more. "This is such a dodgy job…"

"It's better then most jobs, Ferx. You've had it better then most of your colleagues."

Ferx turned slowly in his chair, looking up at his commanding officer. "Sorry sir…" he muttered.

"Although I do sympathise with you, Ferx. The subject isn't the most exciting specimen that we've had the pleasure to study…but then, you won't be monitoring him for much longer."

Ferx smiled slightly. "You can quote me on his sir; I, for one, will be relieved."

The commanding officer smiled. "We'll be contacting his superior tomorrow, to lift the embargo. Make sure that you're final report will be finished and ready to submit with all the other reports tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

The commanding officer turned and walked out of the room, the door closing quietly behind him with a 'shish'. The man at the desk resumed his vigilant watch on Zell Dincht, reassured that the Esthar people would contribute to his sacrifice.

*          *            *

(*) Read FF8 Chronicles – Zell's Day. He whoops ass, and gets a whooping himself.

(**) Read FF8 Chronicles – Irvine's Day. Everything shall be explained – and all the gun fans will get a kick outta that fic!