Seifer Almasy

This sucks. This sucks so bad! Zell and everyone from Tabula Rasa was stuck in this crap city with psychos all around. Now they had to go patrolling and securing the area no matter how out of control things seemed to be getting. At least he had Seifer here. Seifer was loving this. He always loved charging into battle. It wasn't that Zell was too scared, he just had enough sense to know you don't hope for fights.

Zell's expression was a bit grimmer as he returned Seifer's look. At least Seifer seemed upbeat about it all. Zell managed to grin and nod.

"Could be worse, I guess."

If anyone ever wondered why Zell always had a habit of rubbing his hands on his pants before shaking people's hands, they should see him now. He wiped a bit of gross gack off his combat gloves onto a ripped piece of shirt that was lying on the ground.

"You think there's more, Seifer?"

He might as well ask Seifer. The guy was so tall he was a lookout tower compared to Zell.

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"Whole city's worth," Seifer responded casually, though he couldn't see any more in sight. "Best get ready for a lot more action before this is over."

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Zell stood back up and scratched the back of his head. Seifer might be a jerk, but he was really good to have right now. Seifer kicked ass in combat, and back home, everyone knew it. Just as long as he didn't flip out, things should be okay.

"I hope I don't hafta take more of that biotech stuff. That crap's weird."

He took his place behind Seifer and was ready for more patrolling. They were supposed to be going out as equals, and maybe Zell should have higher standing because he was officially on the ITF and Seifer wasn't. But they both knew their places. Seifer was the alpha male. Bastard.

"I'm ready."

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They moved as fast as they could but navigating the tunnels and halls of rapture was becoming increasingly difficult, for more reasons than just how riled up the splicers were. As Ryan felt the noose tightening around his own neck, he tightened his own grip on Rapture, tunnels began flooding and passages caving in as he did anything he could to stop the new invaders pressing too far forward.

And his main weapon for doing so was the city's automatized defenses and self destruct mechanisms.

Seifer's eye caught a floating turret disappear down a passage ahead and, so instead of attracting it's attention, and bullets, he glanced quickly at Zell and with nothing more than a "wonder where that's going" was off, chasing it and trusting the other teen would follow.

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Zell ran off along with Seifer. Zell was curious also, and wanted to know where the turret was going. He braced himself for another fight. Those turrets were liable to do anything.

Seeing a glint of light hit off Seifer's gunblade, Zell wished it was Squall here with him instead of Seifer.

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Seifer had learned enough about the automated turrets to know how to fight them. They normally floated around raining bullets down on anyone that got in their way. The closer the range, therefore, the easier the fight.

So when the turret stepped through a door into a room, Seifer followed quickly sword raised, with the aim of cornering it and finishing it off quickly.

(He hadn't bothered to tell Zell about his plan, of course. Whether his partner caught up in time or didn't was of no concern to him.)

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Zell dashed forward into the room. Seifer had a much longer stride, so he had to work to keep up with the guy. He rounded the corner to see the turret activate and turn to the best target in range. Zell.

"Oh fuuu...!"

Zell had to dive before he could finish that colorful phrase. The end would've been drowned out by the sound of the firing upon him.

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Seifer dodged to the left, while Zell rolled to the right, but he kept on his feet. In such a tight space the turret couldn't back away, which meant he was in gun-blade range.

Before the turret could pick a new target, Seifer had brought the full force of his blade down upon it.

That might not disable it entirely but it was a start.

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Zell had a moment of relief when Seifer bashed the turret with his sword. He decided not to go after it. Seifer's gunblade would do a hell of a lot more damage than his fists even with the metal knuckles of his combat gloves. Instead, he dashed back the way he came. And, sure enough, the thing started shooting again. But, at least it felt like he had a slightly bigger lead on it.

Zell shouted, "Take it out, man!"

It was a bit unnerving trusting Seifer in a battle.

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Seifer didn't need telling twice, he began hacking away at the thing like a man possessed until it fell to the floor, inoperative.

"Now, lets see what you were up to," he said to himself as he studied the technology in front of him.

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Zell didn't stop running until he heard the loud sizzle of electronics failure and the turret stopped floating. No use chancing that a few extra shots would come out before it was done for good. But as soon as he had a chance to rest, Zell plopped down on the floor right near Seifer to catch his breath.

"Findin' anything?"

He looked over at what Seifer was doing.

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"Nice to see you've stopped running now everything's safe," Seifer replied off handedly without turning around, too caught up in his discovery to even put any real heat into the insult. "The turret was protecting these controls. I think this is how Ryan has been collapsing those passageways, a series of bombs designed to breach the walls and flood the chambers if he asks them to self destruct."

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Zell could tell that Seifer hadn't even put any effort into that insult, so it was easy to brush off. There'd been much worse.

"Cool. Maybe we can get a hacker over here and get it deactivated for good. We shouldn't screw with it in case we blow the whole place up."

They had actually messed with some important controls during missions back home, but there were experts around here.

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"Maybe," Seifer replied. "The overrides probably only possible from Ryan's office."

That would be how he would set it up, anyway.

"But we should be able to find the bombs themselves," he continued, allowing himself to get carried away with his thoughts. "If we're smart, we can use that against Ryan."

"These doors here and here can be sealed," he explained, pointing at the map on the console. "If we can find and activate the bombs placed here and here, we'll drown this entire area, which will take out most of the splicers and give us a clean run to Ryan himself."

OF course they didn't know who would be in that area with the splicers, whether little sisters, or civilians or other explorers from Tabula Rasa, but Seifer wasn't going to let that stop him.

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Zell stood up to see the map Seifer was pointing to. It was a decent plan excepting for...

"...we can't just drown everything in that sector! There might be innocent people there! Hell, half our team might be there right now for all we know!"

Geeze, it was an idea, but sheesh. Seifer couldn't possibly be serious about it.

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"Most of our team are behind us, you know that," he replied briskly. "If one or two get unlucky, it's unfortunate, but how many will the splicers kill if we don't take advantage of this opportunity?"

"You can either be a boy scout or a soldier, Zell, not both," he added as he stared straight into his companion's eyes. "What's it going to be?"

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Zell looked back at Seifer in shock. This..what he was suggesting was so cold-blooded! His friends could be down there! Innocent people! Children! And the Little Sisters who were just poor girls from orphanages!

Zell looked a bit fearful, but he shook his head.

"No innocent casualties. It's even a SeeD rule. We can't kill innocent people, Seifer. We can't do it!"

Zell's rising fear was the fact that he was going to have to talk Seifer out of this. Seifer never listened to Zell. It was only recently when he had showed the older boy he could fight well too that he even really paid any attention to him at all. This would be so much easier if Squall was there. But nobody had Zell's back on this one.

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Seifer gave him a a long hard look and then shook his head, once.

"You can't, maybe," he said. "Just stay out of my way."

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Zell exclaimed, "No! You can't do this!"

Seifer was the better fighter. Both of them knew it. But it didn't matter. Zell could not just let him go through with his crazy idea. So, he did something dangerous. He got in Seifer's way just after being warned not to.

"I won't let you."

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A moment passed and then, slowly, Seifer drew his blade.

"Ah," he said softly, with a predator's smile, "but you see, Squall isn't here, or the Instuctor or any of your other little friends."

"You're a good fighter but we've sparred often enough that we both know how this is going to end if you try and stop me by yourself," and his smile froze as he raised his voice. "Back. Down. Now."

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Zell stood his ground.

"I have a responsibility to protect innocent lives, Seifer. A SeeD will uphold his duty, even if it means heading into a losing battle."

He might've just guaranteed he'd get cut up. He wondered if Seifer would finish him off. He didn't know.

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"You were warned," Seifer replied simply, as he swung his blade. "If I have to knock you out to make sure we can beat Ryan, then I will."

He'd sparred Zell enough to know the best way to fight him, you just didn't let him come close and you kept up the attack with enough force that just defending against it took up all their energy.

The cramped surroundings that had helped him destroy the turret, made things more difficult against Zell. If Zell gave up ground, he could pursue but if Zell tried to counter, he had nowhere to drop back to. But he did have the superior reach and he was hoping to use that to completely restrict Zell's movement and stop him advancing, to use his blade to flick out to meet a limb as soon as any of them moved, while his body was held back out of reach. And all the time he would move from side to side, feet and hands working furiously as he tested Zell's guard from all angles, he knew he had Zell beat on stamina and was hoping to make the fight as high energy as possible so that if it wasn't over quickly, Zell wouldn't be able to live with the pace. It would be a death by a thousand little cuts.

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Zell was glad he and Seifer had sparred before. He could get past the intimidation factor much more easily. He kept his mind on fighting and matched Seifer's high energy pace. Seifer's gunblade wouldn't be the only threat in the room. Zell flashed out some quick kicks and jabs.

Seifer slashed out, and Zell tumbled underneath then spun a leg out to try and trip him up. It didn't work, but he pressed forward and made him retreat a bit. The battle hadn't gone anywhere, but there was some token relief in making the guy move away from him.

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Seifer cursed underneath his breath as Zell forced him back. Once he'd given up that space there simply wasn't any further back he could go and the moment he started fighting with his back against the wall he would have to give up the mobility that made him so dangerous.

So he advanced instead, stepping boldly into Zell's reach with a furious chest level blow aimed at regaining that arm's length that kept Zell from being too much of a threat.

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For one split second in time, Zell took in the cold picture of Seifer stepping in and intending to end things. Then have his way.

No way in frickin' hell!!

Zell stood his ground and swung his left fist out hard.

Clang!

Zell swatted Seifer's gunblade aside with the metal knuckles of his combat glove. A spark jumped off from the impact. But this wasn't done.

With the momentum of his charge, Seifer was still moving foreward. Zell swung his right fist in a mean upward arc. It collided with the bottom of Seifer's jaw as Zell executed a textbook uppercut. But this still wasn't done. Following through further, Zell spun his body and kicked hard right into Seifer's stomach. Seifer then staggered backwards, stunned from the Zell's flurry of blows. To finish the fight, Zell stepped up and punched his former bully right on that gunblade scar he was so proud of, right smack in the middle of his forehead.

As Seifer crumpled to the ground unconscious, Zell said, "Who's the Chicken Wuss now, you bastard?"

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If we can find and activate the bombs placed here and here, we'll drown this entire area, which will take out most of the splicers and give us a clean run to Ryan himself.

Zuko is on his way back to regroup with the others when he hears a familiar voice, some distance off. It's quiet, but he can just make out what Seifer is saying. His eyes narrow as he stops, then continues forward in near silence as he listens to Zell's reply. What Seifer's planning to do doesn't surprise Zuko, but it's definitely not right.

He stays hidden once he has them in view, watching to see what will happen and ready to step in if need be. But it seems Zell will end up with the upper hand this time, and as Seifer falls unconscious to the ground, Zuko steps into view.

As he does so, he takes a look at the map Seifer was referring to and his eyes widen slightly. "Well, I guess I should thank you," he says flatly to Zell. "If he'd gone through with it, I would have drowned. And I wouldn't have been the only one of us who did."

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"Zuko!"

Zell was surprised to see Zuko pop up out of nowhere. With all of his attention on Seifer, he hadn't noticed him.

"I'm glad I stood up to him. All he cares about is glory. If only he gave a crap about other people..."

Zell shook his head as he turned back to Seifer. The big guy was just unconscious. He'd pull through fine.

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"You did the right thing," Zuko replies, looking down at the unconscious Seifer. "I was starting to wonder whether I might have to give you a hand, but you did okay on your own. And you just saved a lot of lives."

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Zell nodded. He felt really appreciative for Zuko to tell him that.

"Let's try and get the hell outta here, Zuko. I want to get back to our base. Think you could help me drag him?"

Zell looked down at Seifer. Zell was 5'6" and Seifer was over 6'. There wasn't any way Zell was gonna haul Seifer too far on his own.

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Zuko is silent for a moment, considering his ability to carry Seifer on his own, slung across his shoulders. He thinks he could have probably managed it for a short way, but they've got kind of a walk ahead of them, and Zuko's swords would get in the way anyway.

"Sure," he says, and moves to heave Seifer's top half upward, hooking his arms beneath Seifer's armpits. "Get his legs?" The option to simply leave Seifer lying there does occur to him, but Zuko can't do that to even him. And besides, once Seifer comes to, there wouldn't be anyone to stop him.

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Zell took Seifer's gunblade, then helped Zuko lift Seifer by the legs.

"Rrr! It'd be nice if someone could tell this guy bein' huge isn't always good."

Zell remembered Zack carrying him out of the jungle all by himself when the Squall's battle with the dinosaur did go so well. Zuko and Zell hauled Seifer away from the area. Things were goin' pretty good until....

"Aw hell...I think those are more Splicers!"

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Zuko stops even as Zell mentions the Splicers, his head tilting slightly as he listens, tries to figure out how many and where they're coming from. "Come on, let's put him over here," he says, leading Zell over to where they can put Seifer in what will hopefully be a kind of out-of-the-way place. It wouldn't be good for them to get caught with their hands full by a group of those things.

A heartbeat after they've relieved themselves of their burden, Zuko's swords are smoothly drawn and separated. It's a good thing he's still got enough ADAM in him.

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Zell to a fighting stance as well just before a rush of Splicers flooded the room! Zell nailed on in the face as it rushed him. The combination of its momentum and Zell's punch sent it crashing hard to the ground, but there were more.

"Damn it!"

There were a lot. For the moment, all Zell could do was hold his own against them. He was dodging wrenches and blasts of electricity and cold as well.

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Springing into action, Zuko uses his swords in conjunction with the power he's gotten from the resources in Rapture that somewhat resembles Firebending. It's almost like being back home, even though this fire ability doesn't feel the same as his own, not at all.

There are a lot of them, and he uses every resource at his disposal, his broadswords flashing and bringing out sprays of red with every splicer he hits. He flings a fireball at one as he runs up the wall to flip over another, aiming a sweeping blade at it as he goes. He never stops moving, breathing out flame at yet another Splicer, and all the while taking care to pay attention to where Zell is so Zuko doesn't accidentally hit him.

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This fight was pretty hard! Zell hadn't been on any of the ADAM stuff today, but he figured it was time. Luckily, Zell was used to using items in the middle of tough fights. He fished out a Wrench Jockey tonic and used it in the midst of being pushed back by the onslaught. Wrenches were a popular weapon in Rapture, but wrenches weren't required for this tonic. It simply made you fight better.

As soon as the tonic began working, Zell pushed forward. It was more like fighting at home! Zell dished out a Punch Rush on one especially annoying Splicer and sent him flying back into another one with a mighty Mach Kick. But the problem was that there were a lot of Splicers who were all hopped up on different plasmids and tonics, and more were coming despite all the damage Zell and Zuko were dishing out. A wrench came down hard and connected nastily to Zell's left shoulder. The attack was immediately answered with a right hook to the enemy's face, but the damage had still been done. Thankfully, Zell also had one of those ADAM-powered first-aid kits. He got it out as he dodged a bolt of ice.

"Gah! We've gotta get the hell outta here!"

Zell went to pop open the kit to heal himself, but then he hesitated. Instead of going with his first impulse like usual, he took a moment and put some quick thought into the situation. An idea came to him. Zell rolled and tumbled out of the fray and took a few steps back. It hurt like hell on his shoulder, but it worked. He popped open the first-aid kit, and healed Seifer.

[OOC: From here: Seifer/Zuko/Zell]

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The last thing Seifer remembered was his stomach dropping as he realized Zell had blocked his blade and was on top of him. It was becoming a depressingly common occurance, that split second when suddenly things spun out of Seifer's control when he'd previously thought everything was going fine.

It seemed unfair that all the effort he put in, all the training he did, never seemed to matter when it came to the crunch. No matter how hard he fought, it seemed he just couldn't stop failing, even in situations where failiure wasn't an option. Now even Zell was taking him down in single combat: and if there was anything that told you you were struggling it would be that.

He groaned as he woke up, not entirely sure where he was at first until suddenly his eyes shot open as the memories came back and he reached out for his gun-blade as he pulled himself back onto his feet.

There was chaos everywhere, fire and weapons flying around in some kind of battle that Seifer couldn't really follow, a bolt of ice whipped past his ear and he swung out his blade to defend himself, wounding an incoming splicer who he was then able to finish with a wicked downward blow.

That... was somewhat comforting. He obviously wasn't completely useless just yet and so he charged forward recklessly, attacking the nearest body with the full force of his blade. He didn't really know what was going on and he was still dizzy somewhat from the blows but he was willing to bet the splicers were the enemy and he had something to prove about his effectiveness in battle. Seifer fought until he won, it was the only way he knew how, so when he lost he just had to fight harder.

Edited Date: 2011-08-15 12:37 am (UTC)

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Zuko doesn't have the option of stopping to react to a suddenly conscious Seifer. He's had to redouble his efforts as Zell went to revive him, and Zuko is still fighting, counteracting ice with his own fire and swinging his broadswords with fury and precision.

He hurls into a barrel jump to avoid a Splicer's reach, then follows through with his swords to catch another as the first is the target of a fireball from his foot. At least now, there are three of them fighting instead of two.

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Zell rejoined the battle with a badly hurt shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he hoped he had done the right thing. Seifer would be sure to never thank him. That went without saying. And his shoulder really could've used that healing. Too bad there had only been one.

Zell pushed forward and supported Seifer and Zuko where he could, landing punches and kicks where he could. He ignored the pain like he was trained to and fought. To Zell's dismay, another group of Splicers entered the fray.

"Oh man! Not more!"

A Splicer nearly took Zell's head off with a nasty wrench swipe, but Zell reared his head back then headbutted the thing and kicked it away from him.

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Zuko was firing flames off somewhere to Seifer's left and Zell was behind him but they were badly outnumbered even so. Splicers were crawling across the ceiling and appearing out of the shadows, firing weapons and shouting crazed cries.

"Stay behind me," he shouted as he advanced, because even after the fight with Zell he was still fresher then either of his companions were.

He pulled the trigger on his gunblade as he swung at a splicer firing ice towards Zuko, decapitating it. And then he charged straight at the new group arriving, hoping to pin them down and trusting that Zell and Zuko could take care of any still left alive behind him, if only Seifer could hold off the new arrivals for long enough to let them do so.

He felt a wrench smash against his shoulder and an ice ball tear at his leg, as the splicers gathered on his position and tore at him like frenzied animals but he was dishing out much worse than he was receiving and he wasn't going to stop, no matter how battered he got. He wasn't going to let a single splicer get past him.

Seifer was unpleasant in a great many ways, but what he wasn't was a coward.

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The Splicers are still coming, and even with the three of them they can't keep this up forever. What they need is to get out of this area, into somewhere hopefully safer.

Seifer gets ahead of them, calling out an order, but even Zuko isn't stubborn enough to try and challenge authority at a time like this. He picks off stragglers with efficiency, focusing all his energy on getting all of them out of this alive.

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Zell was following in Seifer's wake. The guy was pushing forward more than Zell probably would've. He was takin' hits left and right, but it looked like they were gonna make it out of there!

Zell had the urge to help him, but there really wasn't much room with his gunblade slashing around in the tight quarters. Zuko had the rear, so Zell took a moment to catch his breath. But he kept an eye on Seifer. If the Splicers got him to stop, Zell intended to step up and support him.

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It was funny how quickly plans changed in battle, Seifer had only wanted to hold off the new comers long enough for Zell and Zuko to recover and deal with the Splicers they were already fighting but instead they'd followed after him, turning his rearguard action into the vanguard of a push.

He understood the wisdom of it, though, a joint attack by the three of them, bursting through their enemies as one, would scatter the splicers and leave them free and clear in the passage on the other side.

It didn't quite suit him, he wanted to fight until either he was dead or all his enemies were but he understood it and sped up his attack, slashing away at one splicer and another, body and blade thrusting forward as he tried to gain himself the space to move. He stumbled from his wounds at first but sped up as he pushed them back until the splicers close to him backed up for a moment to pick him off properly.

He paused for a moment to allow Zell and Zuko to join him and then he charged, his gun-blade slicing through a splicer that choose that moment to drop from the ceiling and then decapitating one in front of him. He was dimly aware of battle on either side of him but he kept moving, kept running, through the splicer line and then away from then, through chambers, passageways until he was well clear, in open space, back towards the rest of the group from the island and any surviving splicers were just a whisper in the distance.

And then he stopped and turned to see how Zell and Zuko were doing.

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Zuko isn't keeping track of how many Splicers he's killed. Later, he's sure, he'll have time to actually think about what he's done, what he's become, the killer he's sure his father always wished he would be. He knows, on some level, that it's not the same as killing normal people, but Zuko doesn't think it feels much different. He hopes he never has to find out for sure.

Either way, he doesn't have time right now to dwell on it, and right now he's employing that razor-sharp focus he'd used to hunt down Aang for so long, slicing and blazing his way forward through the continuing Splicer attacks. There's no room now for anything but action.

He doesn't stop, not until they're well clear, and it doesn't take him long at all to catch up with Seifer. He doesn't know what to say to the guy, the anger still burning inside him, but quieter now. Instead, he turns to make sure Zell's clear.

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Zell took a moment to kick a burly Splicer in the jaw. Being on the ADAM stuff, he was able to go from having his left foot in the air to spinning around to finish it off with his right. Not wanting to stay too far from the others, Zell caught up again. He briefly looked up to Seifer for orders. It was too chaotic to do anything else but follow his lead.

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Nobody was saying anything, which meant Seifer could fill the silence with a reprimand about how Zell had ruined his plans, or a smug comment about how dangerous the splicers were and how lucky they'd both been that Seifer had saved them.

But he didn't want to. He still felt the pains from both Zell's blow and the battering he'd took from the splicers and he still felt somewhat cowed by how poorly he'd fared against a man he'd never thought as anything but an inferior. And so the smirking arrogance that normally came so easily for him, was a struggle to reach for.

In the end all he said was "We need to get back to Barnes," in a gruff voice as he holstered his gun-blade and started moving and then he focused entirely on the passage ahead, not even checking to see if Zell and Zuko were still with him.

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