//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The SOLDIER meets the Wonderbolts // Story: Final Fantasy: Zack's second chance // by Freelancer //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The SOLDIER meets the Wonderbolts “So... what exactly do you and your team do?” Zack asked as the two of them walked, stretching his arms above his head to get the blood flowing. The action prompting a grin from Spitfire. “We’re mostly aerial performers, so we do mid-air stunts and those kinds of things,” was her reply, nodding to the massive cloud stadium they were approaching. “Although we’re also slightly involved with the Equestrian military... but you didn’t hear that from me.” Zack simply smirked and lowered his arms, his eyes taking a glance down and admiring the design of Spitfire’s uniform. It wasn't anything like those of SOLDIER, but it still spoke of skill and authority. As they came to the main entrance, Zack noted two armored pegasi guards on either side of the door, both with stunning white coats, golden plates, and sharp blue eyes... which instantly locked on Zack as he and Spitfire approached. “He’s with me, guys,” Spitfire offered, gaining only a single nod from the guards in acknowledgement. Once they were a decent distance down the stadium entrance passage, Zack flicked his gaze over his shoulder, eyeing the shadows of the guards that laced the doorway. He admitted they looked dependable enough for guard duties, although how they would fare in a proper war he wasn’t so sure, they had after all just let a none-equine creature walk past them without a question or second thought. “So those are Equestria's mainstream military then?” “Eh, yeah, pretty much, but the Cloudsdale guard aren’t anywhere near as well trained their royal guards are,” Spitfire shrugged without breaking stride, flicking her mane as she took the lead in front of Zack. “We only keep them around so fans don’t come and disrupt our training.” Zack simply smirked and released his grip on his sword; this strange world of talking ponies was truly one of peace and tranquillity by all accounts. Eventually he and Spitfire emerged into the massive expanse that was Cloudsdale stadium, the brilliant white cloud structure impressive even by Zack’s terms. Most of the stadium's centre was empty of anything; it was, to put it bluntly, more or less a giant hole in the cloud which was rimmed with the ten meter or so wide ring. The empty space did however contain what looked like obstacles and training tools, including hoop shaped clouds, curving cloud tunnels, and what looked to be markers. “This is where we individually work on our speed and dexterity… but I wouldn’t expect too much today, since we’re all pretty hung over,” Spitfire explained with a grin, nodding towards the various floating cloud arrangements. “Our routines we usually practise together as a team in open sky.” “Good old training,” Zack said with an amused smirk. “Nothing like it to leave you feeling sore and strained.” Spitfire lost her composure for a second and let out a rather filly-like giggle. “We try not to work ourselves to the point of pain, just because we perform so often; we’re actually performing at the Grand Galloping Gala in a week and a half.” Zack raised a curios eyebrow at the name. “It’s a royal gala the princesses put on every year,” she went on, her eyes suddenly darting to the opposite side of the field. The other Wonderbolts were already gathering and chatting. “I’ll explain the details a little later on… you wanna come meet the decent members of my team?” “Sure,” Zack smirked. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… As they had both expected, everypony stopped talking and locked their eyes on Zack as the two of them approached the huddled group... although Zack wasn’t sure if they were looking at him, or rather his sword. Most of the group were wearing the same uniform as Spitfire, except for one storm cloud grey stallion, who was instead simply wearing a green cap and nothing more. “Uh… morning guys,” Spitfire started, immediately drawing the attention, that had been on Zack, to her. “This is my friend Zack Fair, he’s knew around here and I’m housing him… so for the time being he’s part of the team in a way, alright.” “Spitfire’s bodyguard I guess you could say,” Zack put in with a quick dose of quick improvisation, folding his arms over his chest. “I’m a former member of SOLDIER, a group of human-jenova elite shadow units who fight for Shinra.” With a quick glance down Zack saw Spitfire grinning up at him, clearly impressed at his quick thinking. Naturally, every other pegasus in the group just looked blankly at him and each other with utter confusion, none of them knowing anything about what humans were, let alone jenova or Shinra. Eventually, however, before either Zack or Spitfire could talk again, the grey stallion stalked forward from the cluster of ponies, running his gaze over Zack’s hulking form like Angeal had done when he had been a new recruit. “Well, I’m Coach Stormwing… and just to say it now, I ain’t ever seen anything like ya before Zack,” the stallion remarked dryly as he walked in circles around the SOLDIER. “Look like some hairless minotaur to me... but... if you’re a friend of Spitfire’s, I guess…” An annoyed snort from a certain blue stallion suddenly turned the conversation his way; it was rather obvious to Spitfire that Soarin was yet to recover from his dislike of Zack from the night before. “Do we really need him around coach?” Soarin grumbled. "he's probably gonna scare off the fans." “You know, you're attitude could use an adjustment,” Zack said flatly, returning his glare. “Alright you two, that's enough,” The tension between the two of them died a little when Spitfire stalked over, looking far from pleased with either of them. Grudgingly, Zack backed off, and Soarin did the same. Neither said so much as a word to each other, but rather traded glares of disdain, the rest of the Wonderbolts not entirely sure if they wanted to stay around the two enemies for much longer. “Alright you lot,” Stormwing cut in at last. “You’ve all got training exercises to do so get up there! And Soarin, that includes you.” In an instant the other Wonderbolts were up and away, or rather as far away from Zack and Soarin as possible. After a few more moments of glaring, the blue stallion at last gave in to his coach’s words, and with a final sneer joined his teammates, leaving Zack, Spitfire, and Stormwing on their own. “Uh… he really has a nerve sometimes,” Spitfire snorted, casting an annoyed glare up at her vice-captain as he began a set of sprints. “Sorry about that, Zack.” “It’s not your fault,” Zack shrugged in reply. “Sorry about getting wound up in front of your team.” “Soarin’s the lead stallion in this team, Zack, has been since he got promoted to vice-captain couple years back by my predecessor, so it might take some time for him to get used to you. Don't get me wrong, he's a good kid and a good flyer, just... a bit hard-headed.” Stormwing chuckled from behind them, causing Spitfire and Zack to turn and face his aged face. “Personally, I’m kind of glad there’s somepony around who can knock some sense into him for once.” Zack smiled at Stormwing, guessing that if Angeal had somehow been reincarnated as a stallion, then Zack was pretty sure he was looking straight at him. With a final smile, Spitfire left the two males to themselves and flew off, the veteran SOLDIER watching her go and suddenly feeling strangely like a fish out of water. “She’s a good girl too, that one,” Stormwing chuckled, his deep voice tearing Zack’s gaze away from the mare to find the old stallion was staring at him. “So tell me, Zack, what exactly can you do?” The question caught Zack somewhat off guard, causing him to unintentionally reach back and scratch his neck. “Well I can fight to say the least… why do you ask?” “Because I only let the best of the best on my team, kid, so if you’re going to be travelling around with us, and introducing yourself as our captain’s bodyguard, I need to know you’re worth the extra expense and attention. I don’t have anything against you Zack, so don’t take it personally or anything, but if you want to be associated with us in any way I need to make sure you’re something worth being proud of, we don’t let just anypony hang around with us Wonderbolts.” If it were anyone or anypony else they probably would have felt insulted by the stern words, but not Zack, if anything he felt excited. Stormwing was putting forward a challenge to see what he could do. “You want to see what I can do?” Zack grinned wickedly, reaching back and removing his blade with a light metallic 'ting'. “Alright… but I’ll need a few targets.” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… “You sure you want all these?” Stormwing asked, inclining his head to the six clouds he had prepared. They were arranged in front of them around the stadium, all floating two meters or so above the cloud floor, and spaced roughly ten meters apart. “You asked to see what I’m capable of,” Zack replied with a smirk, his Buster Sword firmly grasped in his hands. “So sit back and enjoy the show.” The aged stallion sat on his hinds and went quiet, the signal Zack guessed for him to start. In a flash, Zack was running forward, the SOLDIER covering the ground between him and the cloud in a matter of seconds, a feat made easy by his superhuman hybrid speed. As he neared the first cloud he swung his blade far out in ready, two words filling his mind as he channelled the energy through him and into his blade. “Firaga blade!” As the two words took over his mind, the blade of his sword ignited. Shifting his weight, Zack swung the weapon in an arc through the cloud without breaking stride, the curving motion leaving a momentary trail of red fire in its place as the fluffy white target was vaporized. The next two clouds he rapidly cut down in a similar brilliant fashion, only with the first he used Thundaga blade, and the second Blast wave. As he approached the fourth cloud he decided it was time to start showing off a little bit; in the space of a heartbeat he drew on his SOLDIER skills and summoned an orange aura of power around himself. Coming within striking distance of the cloud, he unleashed his Chain Slash, performing a flurry of lethal sword strikes on the cloud in less time than it took his grey stallion observer to blink. With power now surging through every cell in his body, Zack moved onto his second last target, bringing forth the devastating technique he had gained from Sephiroth, the Octaslash. Faster than any normal creature could realize what they were seeing, the SOLDIER delivered seven swift sword strikes to the cloud followed by a massive downstrike, resulting in the sixteen equally sized fragments floating off in individual directions. Now only one target remained, and now it was truly Zack’s time to shine. The amount of pure power surging through his veins was unbelievable, and he wasn’t about to waste it on some standard, unimpressive technique. Lining himself up perfectly, and with a quick glance to make sure the area was clear, Zack jumped into the air, encased in an orange aura of power as he hurtled upwards to the maximum height of the cloud stadium, the voice of his best friend Cloud ringing in his mind. "The power of SOLDIER." “All right, here comes the big one!” Then, sending every last ounce of energy into his blade, Zack swung it in a mighty arc, unleashing a barrage of destructive flaming hell with the motion. A moment later, a chores of explosions filled the stadium and shook the entire structure on its foundations. Once the flames and smoke had cleared there was no longer anything left of the cloud, plus it was evident Zack had also created a rather large hole it the stadiums rim as well. With ease the SOLDIER landed, and quickly went to admire his handy work, looking over the new hole's edge at the green world that lay below. “Wonder if I woke anyone up down there?” he chuckled to himself, turning around and coming face to face with a rather unusual sight. The now landed Wonderbolts and Stormwing were all standing a short distance away, all of them slack jawed as they tried to understand how Zack had, with apparent minimal effort, just summoned a rain of meteors... all of them except a certain unimpressed blue stallion, that was. Eventually, Spitfire slowly trotted over and joined him at the rim of the hole, looking cautiously between him and the cloud crater from behind her flight goggles. “Um… what exactly did you just do?” “It’s a skill called Meteor Shots,” Zack replied simply with a small shrug, his might blade still grasped in his left hand. “It’s a good technique for dealing with clusters of non-flying enemies.” Spitfire was silent for a few moments before replying. “Ok, so let me get this straight,” she said, pulling her goggles free of her golden eyes and pushing them up to her ears. “You just casually jumped forty meters into the air, and threw down a volley of meteors?” Zack just grinned and cracked his knuckled, feeling a little embarrassed under her unfaltering gaze. “Yeah… I guess I did.” For a moment the pegasus was completely silent again, and then a massive grin spread across her face as she shook her head in amusement. “Well, I gotta give it to ya Zack, that’s... pretty impressive, not to mention it was bucking awesome to watch if I do say so myself… so what do you reckon coach, can he stay?” The two of them broke into chuckles before looking back at Stormwing with inquiring glances, and as it were, so did every other member of the blue uniformed team, all wondering the same obvious thing. For a moment the old stallion did nothing more than bite his lip, before he at last let out a sigh and answered. “Alright Spitfire, he can stay and be your bodyguard… but for the sake of Celestia's royal plot, make sure he doesn’t go destroying anything else!” Zack went to thank him for his generosity, before he got the chance, however, he found himself locked in a tight embrace by Spitfire, the golden mare having her hooves wrapped affectionately around his torso while she laughed happily. In reply Zack just grinned, shook his head and hugged her back, thanking the goddess he had a friend like her in this strange new world. “Well it seems you won’t be getting rid of me anytime soon,” he chuckled, rustling her fiery mane with his left hand, and ignoring the few murmured laughs from her teammates... and the rather loud grumble from Soarin. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Notes: I’m going to ignore the DMW limit break system from Crisis Core, just because it’ll be confusing to anyone who hasn’t played, so limit breaks will be used at will by Zack here and there.