While most would consider the Gardens of world 8 to be some of the most important places to be and as such most tend to be.....respectful at best, one Zidane Tribal was just leaning against a stand near the entrance in a casual manner while flirting with some of the female students of the place. He was at the current moment putting on a bit of a show for the young ladies with acrobatic and dexterous feats, mainly dagger tricks and juggling, but in such a way that he would flatter or give small gifts to the giggling watchers.

As he did his little act for the ladies he was well aware a LOT of the male class member were watching him with eyes of green due to how some of the girls he was wooing were sort of their class crushes. But all good things had to come to an end when one of the teachers made his way toward him and the gathered group, thus Zidane caught his daggers once more and put them away before he gave a gracious bow to his wonderful audience and said "Sorry ladies but seems the curtain will have to fall on this little act, I'm glad you enjoyed my show and I hope you beauties do well in your studies."

With that Zidane moved away to another less attention drawing location while the girls went on to class, which was a well enough conclusion for the teacher and caused the man to head back to the Garden. Zidane then started to tap his foot a bit as he waited while thinking 'Where the heck are those two........not like I don't have other stuff to do than stand around waitin'......'

[[Wasn't sure if Simon was supposed to join first because he's the leader, so if I'm supposed to wait I can delete this ^^]]

Voodoo's expression was rather blank as she watched the young man perform his tricks for his little cluster of girls. She wasn't exactly amused as she watched them fawn over him, giggling like idiots and falling for his cheap theatrics. She wasn't interested at all, but she had to hang around. This was the place where she was supposed to meet before a hunt, some kind of Salamander she had read. She wasn't exactly sure why she had signed up to take the thing down, but there wasn't much else she was doing... so, why not?

Her long pink hair was tied into a fishtail braid and hanging delicately over her shoulder. She was wearing a relatively tight white singlet, black shorts and black lace-up boots to match. Capella was strapped in around her thigh as always, and a small brown bag of bullets was strapped to her opposite hip. She was ready for battle, even though she hadn't really had any combat for quite some time. After the war was ended quite abruptly before it began, Voodoo had lost the motivation to train as often as she once had.

Suddenly, the gunner was snapped back into reality from her wandering imagination. The boy's show for the firls had apparently ended, at the emergence of a teacher or some other similar figure of authority. She couldn't help herself from watching him as he moved away from the crowd, and could tell from his body language that he was waiting. Was he the one who had posted the hunt? She could tell that he fit in around here about as well as she did, and this was the place that was designated as the meeting spot. She approached him with relative caution, her hands placed tentatively behind her back.

"Excuse me," she said, quietly.
"You don't happen to know anything about a hunt around here, do you?"

"Considering he seems to be the administrator for these things, I should hope so."

The only reason Zidane hadn't been escorted out at gunpoint by the cadet guard was that Simon had been expecting him. Walking toward the two, he began.

"Well, Mr. Tribal, you know the routine. Payment's confirmed, so, I'm ready to go when you are."

The Salamander Tail. A flaming menace, but, no real threat, according to the bounty. ...There doesn't seem to be any kill like overkill. Since he was on site, Simon was wearing his SeeD uniform. The shield over the back with the Sam Browne belt, the well-maintained military-style shirt and slacks, polished leather shoes... He was definitely a sight to see. A few yards behind him, parked in the shade, was a silver Tempest.

...Then, his gaze fell on Voodoo.

...Strange. The style was so modern, but,t he make of the clothes fit the Industrial Revolution... ...Ivalian? And... ...Natural pink hair?

"The contract failed to mention you, miss."

[As long as each person gets a chance to post once before a person post again, then I don't mind if it goes Me, You, Simon, or Me, Simon You.]

Zidane looked up to see Voodoo walking toward him and as he did he was pleased to see that based on his records she was one of the hunters and so with a grateful bow to her fitting one who know the art of acting, he then said "Ah seems the lead actress of the play has arrived, correct I do know of the Salamander and I am the one who is to handle yours and one others' attempt at killing this one. But before I get into details need to wait for-*spots Simon* Oh there he is.....*whispers to Voodoo* Be warned......this actor seems to have a few too many lines to say....." Zidane was soon proved correct as yet again Simon found it needed to tell Zidane the guy was paid when he didn't care about such things, he handled getting people to know of hunts, get them to the mark, and make sure they get out.......any payment issues were to be resolved by the hunter and payer themselves not him.

So with deep sigh Zidane shook his head when the man started to question Voodo's presence here and caused the young genome to say "She is a recent addition, I felt this would not get a proper ending with only one person doing his part......now be nice and say hello to Madam Voodoo as that is a more polite way of greeting her......oh and Voodoo my name is Zidane don't call me Mr. Tribal like he does......makes me feel old getting called that. Now follow me it isn't too far so we are going to walk, good for you to go on nice walks anyway hehe...." Zidane quickly turned to walk out of the Garden with his tail swaying to and fro like it was moving to a little tune only it knew, when he made it out he quickly went off the beaten path and picked up speed to get to the cave before any monsters spotted them as he didn't want to waste time.

Thus with him rushing them and also making good use of his experience from being at this for a fair amount of time, the trio reached the entrance to the Fire Cavern without getting attacked en-route and Zidane stood near the cavern entrance and said "Now then inside is the Salamander tail.....it took up home where this world's Ifrit was living so there is going to be a lot of lava for it to hide in and attack from.......so please.......don't fall into the molten rock, this is not meant to become a tragedy okay.." Zidane frowned a bit at the thought then waited for the two to ready themselves.

Voodoo was a little taken aback at how polite this boy, the one who identified himself as Zidane, had been once they were introduced to one another. Her preconceptions after seeing him show off in front of the girls before were not completely erased, but she was pleasantly surprised by the way he was treating her. She couldn't help but smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you! And you too, mister...?" She asked, wanting her to-be partner's name.

And with that, Zidane bounded off towards their location. Truth be told Voodoo didn't know much about the hunt, only that they were hunting some kind of firey salamander. She had experience in dealing with monsters from Ivalice, as her training often involved eradicating wild beasts from all over Rozzaria. This hopefully would not prove too challenging, though it was true that she had been out of practice for quite some time.

"Lava... don't fall in... got it!" She said with a smile to Zidane. She pulled her gun from it's place on her thigh, making sure that it was fully loaded before they entered the cave to find this monster.

[[okay sorry for any spelling mistakes but im uber tired so yeah ]]

Huh. Fire Cavern, huh?

Even in his time, the fiends here hadn't been especially threatening. After all, the cavern was the site of a cadet test. ...It'd been a long time since he'd even thought of the place. He had to really wonder what could be so dangerous. Or, if it wasn't that dangerous, why this "Zidane", or, whoever employed him, was so willing to pay so handsomely. If he kept taking jobs like this, he could retire at thirty. Still, better safe than sorry.

Pulling a small buckle from his pocket, the front bearing the Balamb Garden seal, Simon placed it in an empty slot on his belt. From nowhere, a synthetic voice rang out.

"BUILD UP!"

Hexagons of light, like a honeycomb, formed around Simon, and, in short order, each shape developed a segment of his armorsuit under it, until the blue-and-black hardsuit was completed, helmet and all. The shiny, vinyl-like surface of the armor glimmered in the dim light of the earthly fire around them, the path ahead tinged slightly yellow by the LEDs in his optic band. Taking a cue from Voodoo, his own shotgun materialized, taking the place of his right hand and forearm.

"Simon Crowley, miss Voodoo. I apologize for my earlier rudeness. You tend to get straight to the point, when you do this sort of thing for a living."

Looking down into the cavern, Simon chuckled, softly. Thought it'd been some time, he still remembered the first time he'd come down here. ...It's funny. Before, he'd been in a near-psychotic haze, seeing the cavern, and anything in it, as something to be decimated, destroyed, enslaved. ...Now, he wondered why he'd given it all that focus, back then.

"500 Gil says that this 'salamander' is in Ifrit's lair. Deepest, hottest chamber in the cave."

...Why was it ALWAYS the deepest cavern, or the highest tower, or the most overgrown part of the forest, or some other such nonsense?

Zidane was starting to like the Voodoo girl if only because she seemed to be like him with her care free spirit, but eh work on making friends with her would have to wait as he already watched both her and Mr Gab go into the cavern. Shaking his head slightly at the thought Zidane quickly rushed in and caught up with the duo before saying "Ya the bet wouldn't be all that interesting since I gave away the answer....I said it was in the place where this world's Ifrit use to life...aka......the summon's lair..........anyway pretty smart place to pick for a monster. One way in......a LOT more lava than solid rock......and yet still a cave ceiling to do drop in attacks too......home field advantage goes to it..."

As Zidane talked to the two most of the monsters that thought about attacking knew better than to try as they knew when they are outmatched when it came to fighting with such a trio, but the real danger was the ungodly high heat and the smell of sulfur and brimstone. Just after the group have gotten through the less volcanic area did the heat crank up to an unbearable temperature as Zidane was starting to sweat a bit, he wiped a bit of sweat off his brow and then said "Man this place is hot as the fire shrine of Gaia..........okay another thing to watch out for.......Heat exhaustion.....I'll make sure to be extra alert just in case..." Zidane wasn't trying to sound like a downer but he did want these two to know this was not just another beast, it knows how to fight and WILL try to kill them if they are not careful.

By then it was only a few more minutes before they reached the very area Zidane said the beast would be located at, it was a large cavernous place with a giant lake of lava bubbling and churning with the only land being a good sized strop of rock that extended out into the middle of the lake and ended with a ring of solid rock around a small deep pool of molten rock. Looking around Zidane was a bit nervous and just barely heard a hiss before he yelled "GET DOWN!" he quickly jerked the two other hero's down just before a whip like strand of flames shot over them. When it was over a pillar of rock that was near where they stood had a glowing orange line through it for a few moments, it then toppled over as if sliced in half as Zidane then said "......Whelp it knows we are here.....good luck on finding it though the thing likes to hit from the lava and fire doesn't stand out too much in lava....just fight as hard as you can and don't be ashamed if you need me to pull you out if you get in over your heads..." With that Zidane helped the two up before he vanished as he used his vanish spell to get out of the sight and move to a better place for him to watch, the two heroes left in a place with a creature that tried to just lop their heads off.

[Next post I'll have the creature show itself, this is just the final set up post before the fight.]