While dashing through Garden the tag players and their entourage picked up a couple of stragglers in the form of Boomer and Spark, both of whom had experienced the retro ageing effects of whatever force was out there.
     “Come back here!” Seifer cried as he was tagged three more times. “When I get through with you there won’t be much left!”
     “You’ll have to run a heck of a lot faster if you plan to catch us!” Boomer smirked, hopping onto Alex’s shoulders. “Yah mule! Yah mule! Mush! Mush! Mush I say!”
     She slapped Alex in the butt, and the mage bolted forward, holding onto Boomer’s legs as he picked up speed.
     “I think the world is against you today sweetie,” Irvine said, patting Seifer’s head before tagging him and running off.
     “And another one kicks up dust,” Spark remarked, keeping pace with Seifer, who turned his head to glare. “Hey, I’m on your side,” he said, waving his hands defensively, “my sis tagged me, and I’m chasing her.”
     Seifer grinned, waving his right hand in a spell casting manner. “Watch,” he said, skidding to a stop and placing his palm to the ground, “Van... REHL!”
     A sheet of ice spread across the floor and down the hall in both directions, creating an instant ice rink. Those running were caught completely off guard and slipped before falling and sliding down the hall.
     “High five!” Spark and Seifer said, smacking hands in mid air. The ice on the floor dissipated almost as quickly as it had formed, and the two strutted down the hall to exact their revenge.
     “Prepare for the tagging of your life,” Seifer said, approaching Alex, who as under Boomer and on top of Selphie.
     “Can we do that once I’m out of traction?” Alex groaned, twitching slightly from under a pile of bodies. “One word comes to mind right now... ouch.”
     “Yes, wait, and don’t move,” an adult male voice said from the air.
     “We’re not alone, are we?” Irvine asked, sitting up and setting his hat back on his head.
     “Detecting multiple phase outs,” Celia said, her eyes glowing green as she read the dimensional fabric. Six people in dark suits and wearing green visors phased into the hall, all set on capturing the group of pint sized SeeDs.
     “Stay put kiddies and nobody gets hurt,” one of the people said, taking a step towards the children, all of whom were on their feet and taking on defensive stances. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. It’s up to you.”
     “We choose the hard way,” Boomer said, summoning a globe of raw energy into her hands. “Hey Spark, you ready?”
     “As I’ll ever be sis,” Spark replied, sliding his shades on with one hand while lightning crackled around his free hand.
     “Get ready to go,” Boomer said to the others without turning her head.
     “But Boomer,” Selphie protested, “we can’t leave you behind.”
     “Just go,” Spark hissed, “you get away. Find your friend. We’ll stay and provide covering fire.”
     “What are you kids doing?” another of the suits asked.
     “Just giving you a taste of the hard way,” Boomer said, spreading her arms wide, multiple energy globes leaping from her hands. “Plasma Bomb!”
     “Thunderous Blast!” Spark cried, hurling his hand at the people, a large net of electrical energy joining Boomer’s attack to create quite the distraction.
     “And now to jump!” Alex cried, opening a warp gate directly beneath them. They fell into the swirling colors of the vortex, leaving Boomer and Spark alone to provide cover and the time they needed.
     As the vortex closed and the smoke cleared the agents captured Spark and Boomer, slapping some power dampening bracelets on them. The two captured pre-teens simply bowed their heads in shame and sighed. Had they bought their friends enough time to escape?
     “This is crimson fox reporting in,” the apparent leader spoke into his watch, “we have two of the kids, but the others caught a warp gate out.”
     “Crimson Fox, this is Auburn Eagle,” a female voice replied, “detecting phase out near the Balamb Mall. We’re sending Baker team in for the catch.”
     “Roger that Auburn Eagle. Crimson Fox out.”
     “So what are you going to do to us?” Boomer asked, flailing her legs as she was draped over someone’s shoulder. “Put me down this instant! I’m not a sack of potatoes ya know!”
     “We’re going to try to help you in our own special way,” the leader said, smirking.
     “And how do you intend to do that?” Spark asked as he was hoisted off of his feet by his armpits by two of the agents.
     “That is a secret,” the leader said with a smirk, a wink, and a wag of his left index finger. “Now, let’s blow this pop stand.”
     The agents and their captives vanished into thin air moments before Washu and Meltdown turned the corner into the hall.
     “How odd,” Washu commented, “I thought I heard voices.”
     “Could have been the wind,” Meltdown said, “we should get back to work, though, since I doubt being a kid again is as much fun as it sounds.”
     “Yeah, you’re right. Work is good. And the sooner we finish, the better. Race you to the lab!”
     Washu tagged Meltdown before running off, leaving the mechanic to sigh before running after her.

     A short distance from Balamb Mall a dimensional warp opened. The one main problem for those within was the twelve feet of air between them and the ground.
     “Oh bloody hell!” Celia shrieked as she was dumped out into thin air before plummeting into a large snowbank.
     “Oh hell! Oh shit! Oh crap!” Alex muttered as he fell head first into the snow. “How can this get any worse?”
     The seven SeeDs soon fell out of the warp gate, all landing on top of Alex and Celia, neither of whom were able to move out of the way in time.
     “Forget I asked,” Alex moaned from the bottom of the pile, “I only experience pain like this in my nightmares. Ooooh, my back.”
     “My breasts... are crushed,” Celia muttered from somewhere in the pile.
     “I’m uninjured,” Zell proclaimed from the top of the pile, “It’s a miracle!”
     “Allow me to remedy that,” Seifer growled, sitting up and grabbing Zell by the collar while rearing his right hand back to knock the blond senseless.
     “Get offa my back,” Quistis said, straightening up unexpectedly, which caused Seifer and Zell to topple over into the snow. “Much better,” she commented, scratching a snarl out of her hair.
     “Well, we made it to the mall,” Rinoa said, dusting herself off and shivering. “Should have snagged a jacket before jetting.”
     A flash of light came from the bottom of the pile, and a hand reached out holding a black trench coat with red crosses on the shoulders and a dragon on the back.
     “Use mine,” Alex said as people moved off of him.
     “Won’t you be cold?” Rinoa asked, sliding the coat on.
     “Nah, I’ll be fine,” Alex replied, hoisting on the leather coat that Spike had sent him for Christmas. “Even in this state I can still ‘port stuff.”
     “Just not very well,” Seifer added, standing up and brushing snow from his hair. Alex shrugged.
     “They’ve locked onto us,” Celia said, her eyes glowing green. “Unless we move soon they’ll be right on top of us.”
     “Oh, but we’re already here,” an eerie voice wafted through the air. “Alexander West, a.k.a. Alex the destroyer.”
     “And now some of my past catches up to me,” Alex grumbled.
     “Celia Chere Briggs, a.k.a. The Belle of the Fireball.”
     “I had hoped that would never be mentioned again,” Celia sighed.
     “And Seifer Almasy, the Knight of the Fire Cross.”
     “Who reformed,” Irvine, Alex, Celia, and Rinoa shouted.
     “We want you and the powers you possess, and we’ll do anything to get them.”
     The last words were hissed as multiple people in black suits phased in, weapons trained on the kids. “We already have William the Bloody, Boomer the Destructive, and Spark of Flame.”
     “Spark of Flame?” Selphie asked, “Isn’t that oxymoronic and pointless, like burger of cow, or wave of water?”
     “Less talk, more run,” Zell said, picking Selphie up and running towards the mall. “RETREAT!”
     “Come back here!” the lead agent shouted, “Stop in the name of Leon Inverse!”
     His cries were met by the silence of open air and the hustle and bustle of a mall filled with people.
     “They’re gone chief,” one of the other agents whispered to him.
     “Then go after them!” the leader growled.
     “Yes sir!” several people said while saluting. Three agents ran off towards the busy mall, leaving the lead agent to fume to himself.
     ‘They won’t get away,’ he thought, watching his troops enter the mall, ‘they’re as good as ours. And once Mister Leon gets his hands on them their fates are as good as sealed.’

<music: ‘Dancin’ Doll’ - Iczelion>

     “Are they following us?” Quistis asked as the entrance doors hissed shut behind them.
     “Haven’t had time to look back,” Squall replied, turning his head to answer Quistis and look out the window. “Yup, they’re following...”
     He didn’t finish his sentence since he collided with a large woman in a floral print dress whose arms were laden with packages and therefore couldn’t see them. Packages flew, covering Squall as he landed on his back.”
     “Sorry ma’am,” Zell said, offering his hand to the woman, who was also on her back.
     “You should be, you hooligans,” the woman huffed, slapping Zell’s hand away before struggling to her feet. “Running in the mall, knocking over old ladies. Security!”
     “Oh hell,” Seifer sighed as mall security began to come their way. He grumbled a curse as the doors hissed open and the troop of agents joined the chaos.
     “We so totally don’t have the time for this,” Selphie said as she began stacking up the woman’s packages. She reached into the pocket of her dress, took a couple of chocolate bars, and stuck them on the packages before handing them back to the lady. “Happy Holidays,” she called as she took off running with the other eight in tow.
     “Happy new Year!” the other eight chimed as they ran past.
     The woman simply blinked as security and the agents past her, jarring her packages so that the chocolate bars fell into her arms.
     “What’s this?” she asked, looking at the chocolate bars and their gold foil wrapping. “Balamb’s Best? Well I’ll be.” She then called out to the nine kids, “Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!”
      The group of somewhat younger than normal SeeDs ran through the mall at breakneck speeds in order to avoid capture by the people chasing them. However, dodging customers and avoiding store displays has a tendency to take a lot out of anybody, including those who should have enough energy to spare.
     "I can't run much longer," Alex huffed as he skidded to a stop and turned to face their persuers. A magic circle formed around his feet, a mystical wind blowing his ponytail about in tangled webs. He formed a globe of darkness between his palms and held it above his head before shouting, "Shadow Wave!"
     His shadow vanished as the globe spit forth blades of darkness. These passed harmlessly through solid objects, but when they struck somebody's shadow that person found themselves caught, since the blade pierced their astral body and held it in place.
     "Nice move," Seifer said as he and the other SeeDS turned back around to pick up the straggler.
     "I thought it was," Alex said, blowing on his fingernails.
     "But can't that spell be broken by..." Rinoa began to ask, but was cut off when a blinding flash of light filled the mall.
     "LIGHTING!"
     Alex looked at his friends before running. The others took the hint and followed, the ducking, dodging, and weaving through stores and the main thoroughfare beginning anew. Glancing at how the tall displays worked together in harmony, Squall leapt onto the top of one, and from that one to another, thus avoiding much of the chaos below.
     "Hey guys, this is the only way to travel," he said as he bounded over their heads.
     "Hold up there Leonheart," Seifer said as he bounded onto a chair, then onto a table, and from the table onto a nearby display. He then joined Squall in hopping over the chaos.
     "Ray Wing!" Alex said, jumping upward while catching a magical breeze. He sailed along near Seifer and Squall while Celia and Rinoa joined him in the air. The three swooped down and gave Irvine, Zell, and Selphie a bit of an airlift while Quistis jumped up onto displays and followed the lead of the others.
     "Follow them!" one of the men growled to the others as they fanned out in order to catch up and capture the age reduced SeeDs.
     “This would be a hell of a lot faster if we had some wheels,” Seifer commented when he almost missed a foothold.
     “Slight... problem... with... airborneness,” Celia panted as she began to lose altitude.
     “I don’t think these smaller bodies have the same magical reserves as our normal bodies,” Rinoa said as she also began to lose altitude.
     Selphie looked up to the ceiling, making a mental note of the metal gridwork that made it up. “Monkey bars,” she said, nodding towards the ceiling.
     “Think you can lob us up there?” Zell asked Celia, nodding towards the ceiling as well.
     “Couldn’t hurt to try,” Celia replied, swinging Zell like a trained trapeze artist. She released, half expecting to find him splattered on the floor a minute later. When he didn’t plummet to the floor she looked up to see him hanging from one of the bars, a cheesy grin on his lips. He gave her a thumbs up, and a moment later Selphie and Irvine were on the bars as well.
     “That cures that problem,” Rinoa said as she regained altitude, “but what do we do now that they’re catching up?”
 Those who were near her looked back to see that the group of people in suits, as well as mall security, were gaining ground. Selphie burst into tears and wailed, “They’re going to catch us and experiment on us and we’ll never see Garden or freedom ever again!”
     “Somebody do something,” Zell cried as one of the people jumped up to try to catch hold of them.
     “I’m trying to think of a plan,” Alex said, a globe of light forming in his hand. This he hurled into the fray while screaming, “Lighting!”
     The globe exploded with a blinding flash, causing several people to fall over or run into other people or objects. The SeeDs returned to the floor, where they went into a huddle while confusion ran rampant in the mall.
     "We’re running out of mall to run through,” Squall said, pointing at a dead end they were nearing.
     “I can open a portal there,” Celia said, “we need to be moving fast, though, since it’ll be a small one and only open for a flash.”
     “We could snag some blades from that sports shop,” Zell suggested, pointing at a display of roller blades at a sporting shop.
     “Not enough time,” Alex said, pointing to the people, who were regaining their sight.
     “Anything up that chaos powered sleeve of yours?” Seifer asked.
     “Just a couple of small power rings,” Alex replied as he slid his hand up his sleeve and pulled out a chain of power rings that glowed golden. “Ok... more than a couple, but they’re not at full potential.”
     “Hurry up,” Selphie cried, waving frantically.
     “We don’t know what’ll happen,” Squall said.
     “It couldn’t be any worse than our fates if we’re captured,” Seifer said, grabbing one of the rings. The ring slipped around his wrist and shrank a bit before releasing the chaos energy contained within. A flash of light engulfed Seifer for a moment, and when that died away he was wearing inline skates, padding, and a helmet.
<music: 'Velfarre 2000' - Bazooka Girls>
     “Guess we go with chaos power,” Rinoa said, slipping one of the bracelets on as well. She, too, quickly gained an upgrade. The others were quick to upgrade their outfits and in a matter of moments they were off again.
     As they approached the wall Celia skated into the lead, her hands glowing as a portal opened in the wall. The vampyress was the first to dive into the swirling vortex of colors. Squall and Seifer came next, followed by the others. Zell had to dive to keep from being left behind, the bottoms of his blades barely clearing the event horizon seconds before the portal slammed shut.
     The men ins suits skidded to a stop in front of the wall, all wondering where the pre-teens had vanished to since they arrived after the portal had closed.
     “Get me a tracer lock on where that portal ends,” one of the men barked, “post men where the exit point is.”
     “There’s a problem sir,” one of the other men said.
     “And that is?”
     “There is no plotted exit point. They could be anywhere.”
     “Bloody hell.”

     Somewhere, in the middle of a forest, in some remote section of Terra, in some ancient ruins, the universe hiccupped, belching forth nine people on roller blades. They landed in a large pile of bodies, their extreme sports gear vanishing upon impact. Once the dust settled they took stock of their situation.
     “The world hates me,” Alex grumbled from under the bodies. “That’s all I can say.”
     “Mommy,” Zell groaned as the weight shifted onto him.
     “I take it back,” Alex smirked as Zell continued to curse his luck, “my luck is improving for once.”
     “So where the heck are we?” Squall asked as they untangled themselves.
     “Define where,” Alex said, calling up a mapping program on his wristband, “This place doesn’t even register on the map.”
     “Well, the good news is that it’s tropical,” Rinoa said, slipping off the jacket that Alex had loaned her.
     “The bad news is that this is a source of dark power,” Celia said, her eyes glowing green yet again. “But I sense Spike and two others here.”
     Energy blasts struck the ground near them, and they looked up to see a small group of agents with weapons trained upon them.
     “Surrender and we may go easy on you,” their commander said with an evil smirk.
     “Since when have we ever done things the easy way?” Celia asked, slipping her materia from her pocket. “Dark presence from the darkest oceanic depths, I wake you from your eternal slumber. Hear my call and lend us your aid. Hydra!”
     A giant waterspout erupted from the ground between the SeeDs and the agents, dying away almost immediately to reveal a sea dragon of incredible power.
     ‘You summoned me mistress?’ the sea dragon asked, turning ocean colored eyes on the vampyress.
     “Give us a bit of a diversion, will you luv?” Celia asked, adopting Spike’s British accent.
     The dragon nodded, turning its head towards the band of agents. Hydra smirked, if one can picture a dragon smirking, reared his head back, and belched forth a ray comprised of lightning and ice energies. The agents threw themselves to the ground out of fear, the nine pre-teens splitting up to dash around their attackers and into the ruins.
     “Damn!” the commander growled as their catches ran into the maze of ancient and decrepit buildings. “The boss isn’t going to like this.”
     “Or the excuse we’re going to use,” one of his subordinates added. “How do we explain the dragon?”
     Hydra chose that moment to vanish into thin air, leaving the smell of the ocean and a small cloud of snow in his wake.
     “Simple. We don’t,” the commander replied, his glasses sliding down his nose as he picked himself up from the ground. “We do, however, capture those brats and take them to our leader.”
 

go to next?
return to the insanity?