Chapter 1
Tseng looked over his list one more time. Before he got started on assignments, he would have to know a little more about his recruits.
"Elena?" Tseng looked over to the blonde, who promptly handed him a file. "Okay, so first… Kia Ford?"
A young girl nodded and stepped forwards, she had waist length, dark brown hair, which was tied up in a ponytail, and brown eyes. She looked slightly fragile, but capable of taking care of herself at the same time.
"Specialising in curative and ice materia? Correct?"
"Yes sir." She replied timidly.
"Right…" Tseng said scanning the list again. Out of all the recruits he had, only Kia seemed to be a master at materia.
"Fletcher? Ruby Fletcher?" Tseng asked, watching as another young girl stepped forward. She was quite a lot shorter than anyone else in the group, with pale grey eyes and shoulder length hair. She looked less nervous than Kia, but still quite unsure of herself. She smiled at Tseng.
"You favour a short sword, no?"
"Yes, sir." She nodded.
"Interesting… sword wielders are usually male. Are you experienced?"
"Yes, sir. I've practised for 6 years." She said, nodding once again.
"Ok… next… a gunner? Camille Andrews?"
"Yes, sir." Another girl stepped out. She was short and slightly stocky, with long, curly, blond hair and blue eyes. She smiled brightly.
"You're a gunner? Do you have any preferences?"
"No, sir, although I tend to work better with a pistol of any sort."
"Right, ok." Tseng nodded at her and she smiled again. "Another sword wielder? He looked over at the group and a young male stepped forward. He had brown, shoulder length hair, and seemingly black eyes. He looked over a Tseng, deadly seriously.
"Joey Harrison… long sword. Looks like you've had a lot of experience."
"Yes, sir." Joey said quietly.
"Kyle Williams?" Tseng addressed the next male in the group, who grinned at him, his nervousness clearly visible in his dark brown eyes. He ran his hand through his spiky blonde hair. "Another gunner… two pistols. Hmm, okay."
"Sir." Kyle nodded his head.
"Okay, nearly there… Anthony Walker?" A reddish-brown haired youth stepped forward. He was the tallest of the group, and was very well built. "A fist fighter?"
"Yes, sir."
"Only one of the group… makes a change… okay last but not least, Phoenix?"
Tseng looked at the black-haired youth Elena had been staring at before. He did look back, but never directly into his eyes. "We have no other information on you… care to share?"
"What you want to know?" Phoenix said. He had the sound of someone who was putting on a polite tone.
"Well, weapon of choice? We need to know at least basic info on all our new recruits."
"I dunno…" Phoenix said, shrugging his shoulders. "Gimme any weapon and I'll probably be able to use it."
"Have you had any experience with weapons?"
"About as much as you could hope for." Phoenix told him bluntly.
"How old are you?" Tseng asked him.
"25."
Tseng stared into Phoenix's eyes, as though daring him to look at him straight back. But he never did. He stood, looking at the floor, waiting for Tseng to finish the questioning.
"Right… that's enough for today. All of you arrive here at 1500 hours tomorrow. And bring your weapons with you… and just to let you know, there will be a physical."
Tseng watched as the new recruits started chattering among themselves, and Phoenix rolled his eyes, heading out of the room before anyone else.
"Sir?" Tseng looked to see Elena standing next to him. "Don't you think there's something… odd about that Phoenix guy?" she asked him.
"Yeah, there is…" Tseng looked as the rest of them began to file out of the room.