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Fever	By : RaceUlfson Category: Final Fantasy VIII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 753 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Cheerfully ripped
off from Squaresoft. Not taking any money, tho. Acid Rain contributed mightily
to this chapter, thanks, Sweet.

Fever: Chapter 8

Something you should know
(�Fever� by Peggy Lee)

Quis and I were the same rank but she had seniority, so she
got to pick the third party member. She picked my all time favorite tightass,
Xu. Yaaaaay! This mission was to be a misery like no other!

Xu had no use for men. I dunno what her sexual orientation
is and I don�t need to know, �cuz that�s not what I�m talking about. Xu just
figured out early on that with the possible exception of writing your name in
the snow, a girl can do anything a guy can, and it like �never snows in Balamb.

I was late, as my goodbye with Irvine ran a little longer
than anticipated. Heh. I jumped out of
the shower and pulled my clothes on as I ran, not even stopping to gel my hair.
It would just wilt in the heat, anyway.

True to form, Xu stopped talking to Quistis and rolled her
eyes when I came up. I saluted Quisty and stared at Xu. Gradually the dawn came
and Xu saluted me. �Bout damn time. I
wasn�t Seifer�s whipping boy for years without picking up a few pointers on how
to be a prick.

Rank has its privileges so I called dibbs on flying the Rag.
Quis couldn�t argue, she knows I�m the best pilot after Squall and Nida. The
real advantage of me piloting, other than it taking a week to get anywhere with
Ms. Cautious at the helm, is that Quis and Xu stayed in the lounge so Quis
could brief her and I didn�t have to be in the same room with Xu, Mistress of Snide. Can I say bitchy here? No?
Okay, sure.

I spent my time wisely, checking the maps, going over the
monster reports, eating the world � well, all the energy bars in my stash -
, making up nasty stuff about Xu.
Trying not to worry about Squall and Irvine and Selphie and Rinoa and the whole
mutating into cats thing.

Back a million years ago it feels like now, although I guess
it�s only been a few weeks, Garden got a call from the Biggie Wow-wow of a
group of teensy farm towns along the great Galbadian Desert just north of
Winhill. Seems that Something had been eating the odd cow and chocobo, but had
recently moved up to people and that horked the good citizens off. These were
free villages, like Winhill, and being free they didn�t pay taxes or attention
to Galbadia. Galbadia�s opinion was that if they weren�t kissing Galbadian ass,
they could all be monster chow. Feel
the Love!

Squall is a softy about folk who really need help but he
also caught on pretty quick that most civilians are babies who think every
little booboo is really a crisis that the Gardens should kiss and make better.
Irvine volunteered to go look, as he knows that area real well, and off he went
to find out if the locals were cryin� �Monster� or if there really was one.

Forty-eight hours later Irvine still hadn�t checked in and
Squall sent Quis, Selphie and me to go see why not. It took us another 2 days
to find Irvine�s chocobo, or what was left of it, poor little guy. All Irvine�s
gear, even his rifle, was still packed on it. Something had picked Irvine right
out of the saddle.

If Squall weren�t such a stubborn bastard, Irvine would probably
be dead now. But Squall knows what he can do and he knows what we can do and he
never gives up. That�s why he�s such a great leader. That�s why if Squall
wanted a snack I�d grab the marshmallows and follow him to Hell.

Now in addition to all the rest of the responsibility Squall
has, there�s Irvine and Selphie and the babies on the way and Rinoa dying and
even with all this he remembered that we still needed to hunt that monster down
by Winhill.

I set us down in a spot central to the various monster
sightings and coincidentally not too far from the little cave where we picked
up Squall and Irvine. I figured out the pheromone thing but I�m too taken with
the idea of a Screwaga draw point not to want to check that place out a little
bit more. Pleeeeease let there be a Screwaga spell! Ooooplease oplease, I�d
just use it for the Powers of Good, honest!

Xu, for all her rank and expertise, doesn�t enjoy the dirty
reality of SeeD work. She likes neat, military style precision strikes where
she can fire long-range weaponry and not get splashed by the effects. A slog
through sand and what all on a hot desert morning was not her idea of fun, and
her naturally cloudy disposition went straight to murky. I was starting think
that maybe Quis didn�t like her either and that�s why Xu got picked for this
job. Or maybe Quisty was mad at me
about something and picked someone with stiff britches to rain on our parade.

�Do we have any intelligence on this alleged creature?�

�It�s not alleged when it damn near killed one of our best
SeeDs!� I said.

�We have no idea what attacked Kinneas. Does he?�

Quistis sighed. �Irvine said he never saw it.�

Whatever smart remark Xu was gonna make to that was
interrupted by something that made my skin creep. My hair literally lifted up
into the crest I usually wore, even without gel. I could feel�

Something�

�Run!� I yelled, making tracks for the rocks.

I think Quis could feel it, too, since she lit out after me
like I was on fire and she was catching. I scrambled up the rock face and
turned on an outcropping to check on the others. I reached down and pulled
Quistis up beside me, but Xu was still in the canyon, mouth swinging open like
she was an advertisement for blowjobs, staring at me.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. �Xu! Run! That�s an
order!� I glanced over to Quis.

Quistis unfurled her whip. She was drinking the air, trying
to get a scent track on whatever it was, but the wind was going the wrong way.

I knew Xu was in danger, I could feel it. There was a sort
of vibration that was making my hair stand out like I was a spooked cat, which
I guess I was. I looked back down to Xu, hoping to see her halfway up the
rocks.

She was still standing where we�d left her, only now she was
laughing.

�I�m putting this in my report,� Quistis growled.

�You do that. I�m gonna go kick her ass.� I charged back
down into the canyon after the laughing fool. �What part of �run� did you not
get?�

Xu straightened up. �You puffed up like a chocobo and ran
off. � She made a cockatoo crest motion with her hand to her forehead. �You looked ridiculous.� She started to
laugh again.

Xu may be only a second rate Seifer but she still managed to
piss me off. I could feel my crest coming up again, and my hands balling
into fists. Xu took another look at my new �do and doubled over, cackling like
a hen. Just in time, I remembered Squall wouldn�t like it if I punched her into
next week.

I caught Quistis� sandalwood and beeswax scent on the wind
and distracted myself by turning to check on her. Quis was coming back to join
us, a little angry and maybe a little embarrassed at having blindly followed
Zell the Goof�s orders. The danger vibration came back.

�Quis! NO!�

The sand shifted under Quistis� feet and down she went. I
didn�t have time to find out where she went, because It was on me and Xu
like Norg on a gil.

I blocked a rush that nearly took me off my feet. No
freakin� way! I couldn�t see it, just
feel it � it was like being hit with a sandstorm. . It came back at me from the
other side, as unbelievably fast. I threw myself backwards and rolled, trying
to get out of the eye of the storm of blows.

I came up spitting
sand. I still hadn�t seen the damned thing.

Xu shouted, �It�s invisible!�

Ya think?

It hit me again, and now I know what the road feels like
when they use those chain asphalt-stripping things on it. The monster took me down and traveled over
me like the Galbadian Army doin the can-can. Then � poof! It was gone.

I lay there, sunk in the sand and feeling flat. I called up
a Heal, hoping Kadowski wouldn�t have to rebreak all those bones later. I
hauled myself to my feet, scrubbing a cat box worth of grit out of each eye and
trying to catch my breath.
.
�Where is it?�

Under other circumstances, I would have enjoyed the fear in
Xu�s voice. Okay, no, I can�t really think of any circumstances where I�d like
that. But it was nice the snotty attitude was gone.

I sneaked a peek at her and winced. Along with her attitude,
about half her face was missing. That had to hurt, and it wasn�t gonna heal
pretty, either. I cast Regen on her, the best one for avoiding scars, even if
it did heal slower.

�Don�t cast!� Quistis said.

Too late. The
pinkish flames licked over Xu and settled in.

Quis ran over to us. She was filthy and her hair looked like
she�d been spinning on her head, but I didn�t see too much blood or any
obviously broken bones. �I cast Scan and it attacked me.�

�It�s not here now,� I said. �Didn�t seem to mind Heal��

�What did Scan show?� Xu was holding most of the skin to the
right side of her face on and she was still all business.

�I couldn�t target the creature properly. I don�t know��

My hair stirred again and my skin felt like ants were
marching over me. �It�s coming back!� I
snarled, and bounced into a kata, preparing to kick its ass this time even if I
couldn�t see it � I could hit it if it was hitting me, right? Riiiiight?

And I did, yep. I
musta, like, gave it a Dutch rub or an Indian burn or something. Maybe got a crumb in its eye, because it
just clipped me awinding. I fell over on my face, eatin� enough dirt to crap a
cinderblock. Ptooie!

Xu screamed and I heard something horrible � bones breaking
and meat tearing. Oooh, that�s not
good, even if it is Xu. Eeeuwwww!

I rolled up in the
blast of sand, my skin scoured pink, and saw Quis struggling to get Xu out of
the way as it turned � I could see it! Well, not it� the bubble in the
sandstorm where �it� was.

Targeted, baby. I cast a Cura on myself and it folded over
on itself like a cracked whip, coming for me.

�Pick Xu up! Get to
the ship and get Xu healed! I�m gonna
lure it off!� Haste on myself this time and away I went, the thing right on my
ass.

I had it targeted� run
run run run CAST on it, Slow, didn�t work, run run run run CAST again, Slow
again, maybe it took, dunno, I can still hear that sound in my head that it
made, like glass being ground up in the garbage disposal as it was catching up
to me.

I had thought it was earth, but maybe it was air? I stopped dead and watched it roll towards
me like a cloud of razors and let Quez do her thang � perception shifted and
the monster was smaller but still big compared to Quez. She gathered herself and it slammed her hard,
rocking her so hard I thought she was a goner, but then the familiar kerBLOWIE
smashed into the center of that miserable shitbag of a monster and it fell to
pieces. I gathered my wits as Quez went
back to lick her wounds� and saw the sand and rocks start to swirl again.

Fuck me dizzy, it
wasn�t dead! Running!

Run run run run, what do I cast � it sure didn�t like
electricity. Triple! Now run some more� run, ow!, stumble down
the ravine, I left enough skin there to make a little baby Zell, and cripes,
there�s Irvine�s Screwaga cave!

It was moving slower over the sandstone, unable maybe to
draw enough ammunition to move itself along more quickly, what the hell was
this thing??

It was partially visible in the eye of its razorstorm �
chunks of glass now, where Quez had fused the sand. Maybe that was part of what slowed it. Triple cast � Thundaga, three times right in the puss. See how you like that, Mr.
Scouring-pad-monster!!

I blasted it into chunks of liquid molten glass and knocked
myself back against the wall as it lashed out at me with that very substance.

Ow. That maybe was
not a smart move�

Next spell, because
oh, it did not like magic, no it didn�t, my baddest ass Ice spells, down its
throat, and you could hear the glass crackling as it swirled itself around
trying to get at me.

And I dodged quick out of its attack, just some bad scrapes
that time. Cast heal on myself, it couldn�t move fast enough anymore to roll
over me, I got just another gash down my ribs and I think that one cracked,
damn that hurt, and now� perfect set up � dodge between those flying chunks of
frozen, brittle glass and jump on it with the Big Bad Limit break. Go to Heaven, asshole!

Wham! I hit it with
all my chi focused and it hurt me pretty bad but by Hyne�s left nut, the
monster staggered back and all of the chunky frozen shit flying thru the air
hit the dirt, wham!

I staggered back myself � say, y�know, that hurt pretty
bad. I dragged myself to the cave.

It couldn�t get in� whatever reason, I don�t know, but the
monster couldn�t come in after Irvine or Squall, so it followed � that I would
be safe.

I didn�t stay to see if it just waddled off like a
disgruntled duck or what. I had to get
healed up or I was out for the count.

Aw� crap�

I�d cast my last healing spell on myself earlier�

Okay. I�ll just lay here and bleed�.that�s good too.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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