Raven: The International Man of Mystery.
Chapter 1*~The Lost Boy~*
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He watched the waves flow onto the shore, then return back to the sea taking bits of sand and seashells with it. The day was calm and peaceful. It was his first day to the beach. And he was anxious to go back to drifting some place so he wouldn't have to watch those dumb jocks play beach volley ball and 'accidentally' hit him on the head with that damned ball.
He was alone. He missed her and he knew it. But he wasn't about to go crawling back to her with his tail in between his legs. Hell no, not after the massive argument they had had. Shadow was gone too. He left after he was told to never come back. Raven had been royally pissed after his fight with Reese. He had said things he didn't mean and now he was paying the price for his actions.
Time dragged its feet along, and Raven wondered what he was going to do next. Just like he had for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was a couple of months. Two at the least. He had lost count but didn't really care.
Suddenly just as he was sitting a girl knocked into him. She looked to be 22 with long black hair that was confined to a braid and bright, intelligent green eyes.
"Hey! Watch it!" Raven hissed, shoving the girl off of him.
The girl glanced over her shoulder; Raven followed her gaze and saw a group of men with handguns and a shotgun racing towards them. Thank the gods of Zi for the sand, for it was about the only thing slowing them down. Raven wondered why no one was screaming bloody murder yet, everyone was acting like this happened every day.
"Come back here!" one of them shouted.
She grabbed Raven's wrist, got up on her feet, taking him up with her. They started running onto the pavement, er, it was more like she was dragging Raven who trying hard not to fall down. He'd never felt so clumsy in his life.
"Look! She's not alone! She's got an accomplice!"
"An accomplice?" Raven breathed.
A large woman in a bikini that was clearly designed for a skinny supermodel whistled at them, and asked something like if Raven could come over one night. He would have shuddered if he hadn't been dragged.
"Why are they after you?" Raven asked, as they turned a corner and dived behind a large tacky blue dumpster.
"I can't explain now."
Wow, he thought, that was the most she ever said to him to date. Now that he thought of it, his voice sounded awkward to his ears, ah it had been so long since he had heard his own voice. And it gave him a little bit of comfort to at least sound human again.
A bullet sounded into the dumpster and if Raven squinted he could see the silver tip gleaming in the sun light. He looked over at the girl he had only known for less than five minutes and felt the urge to kick her. He was a wanted criminal for crying out! And there she was bringing him into the limelight. He'd bet anything that someone at the beach would have recognized his face any second now. Yup, it was only a matter of time until he was behind bars. Their pursuers rounded the bend and ran right past them, rambling aimlessly.
"They're gone!" cried one of the men.
"Did you see that guy with her?" a guy panted.
"Yeah, no one wears those kind of clothes to the beach. He had on a full body suit."
Raven smacked his hand over his forehead and let it fall down his face. He could tell already today was going to be a long day. He wanted to march right up to them, tap the guy who said that on the shoulder, and when he turned around, knock his lights out.
"That and he looked awful familiar, I think I saw him on TV before. He reminds of that kid who was raised by Prozen into the perfect destroying machine. He had a hand in defeating the Deathsaurer over a year ago! He's wanted by the Guardian Force."
"We're wanted by the Guardian Force!"
Raven mentally cursed; how dare they talk about him like some movie star's failed marriage. Then again he never knew he was so famous. It was kinda nice.
"Ye-eah!" the other man laughed a ridiculously stupid laugh. Raven quietly mimicked his laugh.
"Come on," Raven felt her soft fingertips brush across the palm of his hand.
He turned to see the girl slide against the edge of the dumpster and slip through a wooden gate. Scowling, he followed her.
~*~
She slipped in a thin card key into the slot in the golden key handle and gave it squeeze. The door gave a shrill squeak as she pushed it open and walked in, leaving just enough space for Raven to slide through. The room was dark, curtains closed; apparently the maids had been here earlier and worked their magic. From the looks of things, whoever that girl was, had paid good money for the room.
She turned to face him; her green eyes illuminated the dark. "Raven," she began softly. "My name is Agent Felicity Parker." She held up a glittering badge, light from the hall way danced upon it.
Raven sighed and gently closed the door behind him. He should have known better, Agent Parker was there to lock him up and throw away the key. Oh well, he knew it was to going to happen sooner or later. No use fighting the inevitable.
Agent Felicity Parker smiled. Good, she thought, he didn't freak out or go psycho on her and attack her. Maybe now he'd listen.
"Sit." She waved her hand over a white loveseat.
Raven blindly made his way to the seat; he had nothing better to do. So hell, the five minutes he'd known her was interesting maybe the next ten minutes would be too.
"Are you going to arrest me now or later?" he asked casually.
She flipped on the lights; it burned Raven's eyes. She just smirked at him while he held his hand over his eyes and sunk into the seat.
"No."
He blinked. "No?"
Parker was beginning to lose her patience and willed herself to stay pleasant. It wouldn't be easy because he knew how to push her buttons. She decided she was to going to have to get even with him after she told him.
"I'm not going to turn you in. I have an offer for you," she replied smoothly.
"I'm listening," Raven placed his hands on the back of his head, closed his eyes, and stretched his legs.
OK maybe he wasn't really listening to her, but Raven still was quite curious as to what she had to purpose. But whatever, he'd keep his cool, hear what she had to say, then kill her. Yeah, that sounded good. He'd have fun killing her too.
"What would you do if I told you the bounty on your head was gone?"
"I'd ask you what were you smoking and if I could have some," he replied with a smirk.
Felicity scowled at him. "Ha ha ha. Very funny. NOT. I'm dead serious, Raven. I have something for you."
His curiosity had gotten the best of him; he opened one eye and watched her pull out a pendant necklace out of her orange board short pocket. She cleared her throat and held the silver chain just inches in front of his nose.
"What is it?"
The pendant was a large male symbol; it was half the size of the palm of his hand. And looked rather impressive for some reason or another. He opened his other eye and met her green ones. Why exactly was she giving this to him? She was the Feds and he was a criminal. He didn't understand.
Felicity rolled her eyes at his confusion. To think, she had heard all these different things about Raven, like he was smarter than all hell, which she had no doubts he was. He could kill someone just by looking into their eyes. That wasn't true. He was just as human as she was. As odd as that seemed.
"Take it," she growled.
Raven looked at it as though it was a snake about to attack him.
"Take it," she repeated.
With such childlike innocence that surprised the Agent, he said, "Why?"
"You are the International Man of Mystery. That's why."
His once cold purple eyes grew wide. "The What?!"
She sighed. "The International Man of Mystery. Raven, that's why you're here. You're now apart of our organization. That is, if you want to be, if you accept, the bounty on your head will be just a memory of the past."
"WHAT?!" he shrieked, jumping out of the loveseat causing it to fall backwards taking him with it.
Raven jumped up from behind it, unfazed, he couldn't believe his ears. He must have been losing his mind. No, Agent Felicity Parker did not just invite him to join the GBI (the Gygolous Bureau of Investigation). No, that's not the symbol of the International Man of Mystery, the one given to only the most skilled of men. Not even his worst enemy, Van Flyheight ever got accepted to join the elite and he was the hero of Zi!
"Calm down, Raven. Do you want the whole world to hear? Well what do you say?"
"I'm a what? You want me to what? What?!" from the bewildered look on his face, her words did not sink in the way she had thought they would. Instead, they seemed to be driving him crazy, or finally making him insane.
"Yes or no?" she repeated in total annoyance.
Raven sighed and sat down on the love seat that was still on it's back, his pupils still hadn't returned to their normal state. But his skin had a healthy glow to it. "Why the hell not," he said finally after a long pause.
Felicity smiled. "Great!" she placed the pendant necklace over his head and it fell down to his chest. He looked rather strange with the bright silver pendant shinning brilliantly against his dark purple body suit. He was in shock, she decided. Oh well, at least that was the end of his cocky attitude for the time being.
"Alright, you need a name."
She glanced down at her watch; the time was 3: 34 in the afternoon. The representatives from the Guardian Force would be there in exactly twenty- five minutes. So they would have to act fast.
"I have a name..."
"No, Raven won't work. You do realize that you need a name?"
"No."
"And why not?"
"Because I'm just fine with my name. It's the only name I have..." his voice trailed off.
Felicity let out an aggravated sigh. "Raven! Your not helping! You need a name, an Agent name. Because in case you've forgotten your one of us now. And as such you need a last name too."
"I haven't forgotten," he hissed. "I just--haven't gotten used to it yet! Bite me. "
~*~*~
He didn't particularly understand what exactly was going on. Apparently, there had been three brutal murders of government officials on both sides of the border. One common link between these officials was the fact that they each had a high degree of power during the war. Each scene was covered with blood. The body was mutilated, but there was also another carcass. The shockingly recognizable battered remains of a bloodhound. The blood that sprayed the scene and the surrounding area belonged to the bloodhound.
One group took credit for these horrid murders, six if one counted the bloodhounds. Their name, ironically enough, was the Bloodhound Gang. They were very proud of what they had done, no remorse at all.
The Guardian Force was even involved for it sent two representatives from both sides of the border to meet with Agent Felicity and him at her hotel room. He'd begged her to tell him who exactly the representatives were but she said she didn't know. Some help she was. Raven just prayed it wasn't anyone he knew.
There was a knock on the door, Felicity stood up and opened the door. Raven realized she had changed her clothes; she wasn't wearing a pair of orange board shorts and matching orange string bikini top with white windbreaker. Now she was conservatively dressed; with blue jean Capri pants and black T- shirt with that same white windbreaker. Her long dark hair was no longer confined into a braid, now it was hanging below her butt. He guessed she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention.
In walked in two young men, one blonde and the other with spiky black hair. The blonde was taller and spoke first. "How do you do? You must be Agent Parker, my name is Lieutenant Thomas Richard Shubaltz."
Thomas held out his hand and Felicity shook it. While Raven's jaw fell; no wonder she didn't tell who they were!
"Yes, it's a pleasure Lieutenant," Felicity turned to the shorter one. "And you must be the representative from the Republic."
The black haired youth nodded and slowly removed his sunglasses revealing a pair of gray eyes. "Indeed. The name's Lieutenant Van Flyheight," he smiled a charming, boyish smile that could make any girl's heart sing.
Raven thought he'd die of heart attack in the next five seconds if things kept up at the pace they were going. His mind screamed at him to pay attention and not act so, so Ravenish.
He noticed his enemy's eyes wander to him and willed himself to remain calm. It wouldn't be easy but he'd try. He'd come too far to screw up now.
"Have a seat. This way," Felicity said pleasantly, when the two Lieutenants were seated in the white couch opposite of the couch she and Raven were. She shot Raven a warning look, the last thing she needed was for him to screw things up. He just nodded dumbly.
"Who's he?" Thomas inquired with traces of annoyance and promptly received an elbow in his ribs. "Ow! Van! What'd you do that for...?"
Van grinned sheepishly at them. "What my partner meant," he glared at Thomas. "was, who are you, Agent?"
Raven didn't know what else to do; he blinked. "M-my name?"
Van nodded, his lips in a thin line. "Yes."
The International Man of Mystery gulped and discreetly glanced around the room for any ideas. Oh sure Felicity had pestered him for a name but dropped the subject when she filled him in on the case. He glanced at the watch on Van's wrist, well aware of the precious minutes that were ticking by.
"Quik... Agent Quik Silver!" he practically shouted.
To his great relief, Van smiled. He had bought it, thank god. Agent 'Quik Silver' forced himself not to glare at Van, pounce on him and strangle him with his bare hands.
"Now," Van quickly sobered. "Unfortunately, we didn't come here to be good uh, hotel guests. Let's get down to business. At precisely 11 a.m. yesterday morning Guardian Force HQ received a transmission, it was titled to everyone working on the Bloodhound case. It went like this, 'It has come to my attention that you all are interested in the doings of the Bloodhound Gang, unfortunately only time can tell. Do you want to play? If so, meet us at the old Studies for Ancient Research in the Empire at ten p.m. tomorrow evening.'
They're making a mockery of us. Like this is some kind of game to them, they're just showing how powerless they've got us. How they've got everyone on both sides of the border dumbfounded, I think our best bet is to take them up on their offer and then give 'em a damn good dosage of justice."
Raven glanced at Felicity, who was reading and rereading the paperwork. Was this really what the GBI did? He wondered, he had no idea. Dealing with criminal/serial killers wasn't really his idea of a 9 to 5 job, but he guessed he would have to get used to it.
"I assume you already did a checkup on the Studies for Ancient Research facility?" Felicity finally asked, not taking her eyes off of the paper.
Van nodded, his lips still in a fine line. "Yeah, ends up the Emperor was planning on resurrecting the facility to solve the job crisis in that area of the Empire. But all communications were cut off about a week ago."
"It's most definitely a show of their superiority, but I bet we can bet them with the tact force we have assembled," Thomas said fiercely.
"No," Raven said. "We need to infiltrate their lair."
Thomas growled and bared his fists. Obviously he didn't agree. "What? No, our best plan of action is to take them by storm. Do exactly what they think we're not going to do. Bring in the cavalry and forcibly pull the plug on the whole operation. Ba boom, problem solved."
"Your wrong, Shubaltz. That's exactly what their think we're going to do. We infiltrate their lair, hold the Big Cheese hostage and then bring in the cavalry," Raven replied with deadly calm, staring Thomas square in the eye.
The thought of having the put up with both Van AND Thomas made his stomach turn, as if putting up with his archrival wasn't bad enough. He had to be stuck with stupid Shubaltz, could his luck be any worse? Most likely.
Van folded his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and muttered things to himself and nodded his head several times. He opened his eyes and said, "I agree. That's our best plan of action."
The younger Shubaltz looked like he had been slapped across the face, which made Raven smirk. "What? You can't be serious, Van!"
"He's right, Thomas. Infiltrating their lair is our best plan of action. The worst that can happen is that we get caught while taking them by storm we endanger the surrounding community, the valueable information, the bloodhounds and ourselves. We can't afford to the risk that much. We are apart of the Guardian Force, we protect the peace and the people."
"If you're the Guardian Force," Raven began thoughtfully. "then why are you involved in this? It's not like it's your job to protect politicians."
He didn't know why he was doing it, why he was actually being nice to Van Flyheight. The very same Van Flyheight who made his blood run cold and did the impossible; defeated Raven. He could never forgive for that. No one defeated Raven and got away with it. But what about Quik? If anyone defeated 'Agent Quik Silver', did they live to tell the tale? He didn't know. He just did not know anymore.
"It's the zoid parts that had been found scattered around the scene, zoids are apart of our job description," Van replied as if it was obvious.
Felicity frowned; no one had told her about the zoid parts and she was the head of this whole operation, everyone was to respond to her. How did those lil' youngins from the GF possibly get a hold of that kind of information without her knowing? There must have been a leak somewhere.
"Really and where did you hear this?" she inquired quietly.
Van blinked and cocked his head to one side. "It was in the reports I got from the both the GBI and the FBI."
"The Feds told you? Why wasn't my force notified of this?" she was beginning to hate the Feds and the Republicans more and more, but mostly the Feds. Then again everyone hated the Feds.
"Gee, I got no idea. I thought you knew."
She glared at him, sure he was nice to look at but the kid was as dumb as a bag of nails. Hard to believe he was the same kid who defeated the Deathsaurer two times running. The legendary Deathsaurer, damn, that kid must have had some real talent.
"Well what do you think? Does it look like we know, genius?" Raven snapped.
Van frowned helplessly, why did everyone at the Gygolous Bureau hate him? What did he ever do to them?! By the way they acted one would think they were still at war or something. Most of the officials in the Bureau today were in it during the war and probably still despised the Republicans but in quiet. There's only so much peace could do.
"Well sorry, no need to bite my friggin' head off. Shesh, just shoot the messenger why don't ya?!" Van hissed.
~*~*~*~*~
"Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and mmmoooooonnnnneeyyyy! Boys will laugh at girls when they're not fffffffffuuunnnnnyyy. And these girls like these boys, like these boys like these girls. The girls with the bodies like boys with Ferraris..." Van sang happily along with the radio as they sped through the highway.
Raven folded his arms across his chest, and attempted to shield his ears from the god-awful noise by hunching his shoulders, in the back seat. While Van drove (which Raven found a hazard because he was too into the music to even pay attention to the road) and Thomas in the passengers seat. Van was driving a black convertible with the top down. Agent Felicity Parker wasn't with them; furious of the fact information was being withheld from her, she had grabbed her purse and paused in the doorway.
"Silver, your going to have to go with these two representatives," she had stated firmly despite Raven's silent protests. "I hope that's not too much of a problem," she added to Van and Thomas.
"Oh don't worry about, Agent Parker," Van had said brightly, flashing that boyish smile once more. "We were just going to get our zoids. Agent Silver is more than welcome to come with us."
And so here was Raven, forced to endure his mortal enemy's horrid singing and act like he didn't care. The sooner this trip was over the better. They were going to retrieve their zoids...Raven suddenly remembered something; after his fight with Reese, he stormed off to get something to eat and when he returned his Genobreaker was gone-he was completely zoidless! Should he reveal this..to his enemies? Was it wise? Suddenly Raven felt more vulnerable then he had in the past couple months.
"If we get a ticket for playing the music too loud, Van, I'm going to hurt you," Thomas was saying.
But Van was too busy bobbing his head to the next punk song that played. "What?" he said minutes later, sounding like a complete idiot. "I said-oh forget it," Thomas said with a defeated sigh.
"What?"
In one smooth calculated motion, Thomas flipped the music off and glared at Van, who just let out a horrified gasp.
"Whatdya do that for?" Van asked as if it wasn't obvious.
In the back seat, Raven smacked his forehead. There was no way that that guy beat him years ago, no no, that could not be right. There had to be a mistake; the guy driving the car could not be the same one who defeated him and the Deathsaurer.
"Hey Silver, do you have a zoid?" Van asked suddenly, apparently having given up on the music. His dark eyes looking at Raven in the rear-view mirror.
Raven's purple eyes darted up to the mirror almost automatically; his warrior instincts were kicking in. "No, I do not."
Both members of the Guardian Force looked surprised. Which gave Raven a little happiness.
"Why not?" Van asked in shock.
Why didn't he have a zoid? Raven thought. He knew he'd have to make something up quick if he didn't want them to become suspicious.
"Because I don't," came the reply.
"That doesn't explain much," snorted Thomas. "Come on spill it, Silver, why don't you have a zoid? I could have sworn everyone in the GBI were very good zoid pilots. I take it they don't trust you with one?"
Raven narrowed his eyes, his hands balled into fists. "No!" he shouted before he stop himself. "No, that's not it. I am very qualified for piloting a petty zoid to say the least." And that was the truth. "It's just that my zoid was -er-stolen. Yeah that's right."
Van made a faint whistle. "That must've sucked. What kind of zoid was it?"
"A.." why didn't these stupid answers come easier to him! "...." he said the first thing that popped into his head. "A lightening sykes"
A Lightening Sykes?! Raven's mind screamed at him, he hated Lightening Sykes' why in God's name did he have to say something that stupid?! Raven fought the urge to beat himself senseless. ~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note: hey everyone it's me, Mi Chelle again. I know you guys haven't heard from me in a while that's because I got lazy.. Im so sorry!! Well, what do you guys think about this story? Ive been working on it for some times, fixing it making sure it's up to my very high standards. Oh, I just remembered; in the beginning when I was first writing this story I thought it would be just for it to be a joint fic so I asked another author (who shall not be named) sent her of what I had so far and she never wrote back. Since I haven't been on ff.net for some time, I don't know if that author placed it on ff.net or not. So I just wanted to point that out just in case. But this is only chapter one, I hope there will be a chapter two. Tell me ok? R & R Well, Later Days!
PeAcE oUt ~*Mi ChElLe*~
Chapter 1*~The Lost Boy~*
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He watched the waves flow onto the shore, then return back to the sea taking bits of sand and seashells with it. The day was calm and peaceful. It was his first day to the beach. And he was anxious to go back to drifting some place so he wouldn't have to watch those dumb jocks play beach volley ball and 'accidentally' hit him on the head with that damned ball.
He was alone. He missed her and he knew it. But he wasn't about to go crawling back to her with his tail in between his legs. Hell no, not after the massive argument they had had. Shadow was gone too. He left after he was told to never come back. Raven had been royally pissed after his fight with Reese. He had said things he didn't mean and now he was paying the price for his actions.
Time dragged its feet along, and Raven wondered what he was going to do next. Just like he had for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was a couple of months. Two at the least. He had lost count but didn't really care.
Suddenly just as he was sitting a girl knocked into him. She looked to be 22 with long black hair that was confined to a braid and bright, intelligent green eyes.
"Hey! Watch it!" Raven hissed, shoving the girl off of him.
The girl glanced over her shoulder; Raven followed her gaze and saw a group of men with handguns and a shotgun racing towards them. Thank the gods of Zi for the sand, for it was about the only thing slowing them down. Raven wondered why no one was screaming bloody murder yet, everyone was acting like this happened every day.
"Come back here!" one of them shouted.
She grabbed Raven's wrist, got up on her feet, taking him up with her. They started running onto the pavement, er, it was more like she was dragging Raven who trying hard not to fall down. He'd never felt so clumsy in his life.
"Look! She's not alone! She's got an accomplice!"
"An accomplice?" Raven breathed.
A large woman in a bikini that was clearly designed for a skinny supermodel whistled at them, and asked something like if Raven could come over one night. He would have shuddered if he hadn't been dragged.
"Why are they after you?" Raven asked, as they turned a corner and dived behind a large tacky blue dumpster.
"I can't explain now."
Wow, he thought, that was the most she ever said to him to date. Now that he thought of it, his voice sounded awkward to his ears, ah it had been so long since he had heard his own voice. And it gave him a little bit of comfort to at least sound human again.
A bullet sounded into the dumpster and if Raven squinted he could see the silver tip gleaming in the sun light. He looked over at the girl he had only known for less than five minutes and felt the urge to kick her. He was a wanted criminal for crying out! And there she was bringing him into the limelight. He'd bet anything that someone at the beach would have recognized his face any second now. Yup, it was only a matter of time until he was behind bars. Their pursuers rounded the bend and ran right past them, rambling aimlessly.
"They're gone!" cried one of the men.
"Did you see that guy with her?" a guy panted.
"Yeah, no one wears those kind of clothes to the beach. He had on a full body suit."
Raven smacked his hand over his forehead and let it fall down his face. He could tell already today was going to be a long day. He wanted to march right up to them, tap the guy who said that on the shoulder, and when he turned around, knock his lights out.
"That and he looked awful familiar, I think I saw him on TV before. He reminds of that kid who was raised by Prozen into the perfect destroying machine. He had a hand in defeating the Deathsaurer over a year ago! He's wanted by the Guardian Force."
"We're wanted by the Guardian Force!"
Raven mentally cursed; how dare they talk about him like some movie star's failed marriage. Then again he never knew he was so famous. It was kinda nice.
"Ye-eah!" the other man laughed a ridiculously stupid laugh. Raven quietly mimicked his laugh.
"Come on," Raven felt her soft fingertips brush across the palm of his hand.
He turned to see the girl slide against the edge of the dumpster and slip through a wooden gate. Scowling, he followed her.
~*~
She slipped in a thin card key into the slot in the golden key handle and gave it squeeze. The door gave a shrill squeak as she pushed it open and walked in, leaving just enough space for Raven to slide through. The room was dark, curtains closed; apparently the maids had been here earlier and worked their magic. From the looks of things, whoever that girl was, had paid good money for the room.
She turned to face him; her green eyes illuminated the dark. "Raven," she began softly. "My name is Agent Felicity Parker." She held up a glittering badge, light from the hall way danced upon it.
Raven sighed and gently closed the door behind him. He should have known better, Agent Parker was there to lock him up and throw away the key. Oh well, he knew it was to going to happen sooner or later. No use fighting the inevitable.
Agent Felicity Parker smiled. Good, she thought, he didn't freak out or go psycho on her and attack her. Maybe now he'd listen.
"Sit." She waved her hand over a white loveseat.
Raven blindly made his way to the seat; he had nothing better to do. So hell, the five minutes he'd known her was interesting maybe the next ten minutes would be too.
"Are you going to arrest me now or later?" he asked casually.
She flipped on the lights; it burned Raven's eyes. She just smirked at him while he held his hand over his eyes and sunk into the seat.
"No."
He blinked. "No?"
Parker was beginning to lose her patience and willed herself to stay pleasant. It wouldn't be easy because he knew how to push her buttons. She decided she was to going to have to get even with him after she told him.
"I'm not going to turn you in. I have an offer for you," she replied smoothly.
"I'm listening," Raven placed his hands on the back of his head, closed his eyes, and stretched his legs.
OK maybe he wasn't really listening to her, but Raven still was quite curious as to what she had to purpose. But whatever, he'd keep his cool, hear what she had to say, then kill her. Yeah, that sounded good. He'd have fun killing her too.
"What would you do if I told you the bounty on your head was gone?"
"I'd ask you what were you smoking and if I could have some," he replied with a smirk.
Felicity scowled at him. "Ha ha ha. Very funny. NOT. I'm dead serious, Raven. I have something for you."
His curiosity had gotten the best of him; he opened one eye and watched her pull out a pendant necklace out of her orange board short pocket. She cleared her throat and held the silver chain just inches in front of his nose.
"What is it?"
The pendant was a large male symbol; it was half the size of the palm of his hand. And looked rather impressive for some reason or another. He opened his other eye and met her green ones. Why exactly was she giving this to him? She was the Feds and he was a criminal. He didn't understand.
Felicity rolled her eyes at his confusion. To think, she had heard all these different things about Raven, like he was smarter than all hell, which she had no doubts he was. He could kill someone just by looking into their eyes. That wasn't true. He was just as human as she was. As odd as that seemed.
"Take it," she growled.
Raven looked at it as though it was a snake about to attack him.
"Take it," she repeated.
With such childlike innocence that surprised the Agent, he said, "Why?"
"You are the International Man of Mystery. That's why."
His once cold purple eyes grew wide. "The What?!"
She sighed. "The International Man of Mystery. Raven, that's why you're here. You're now apart of our organization. That is, if you want to be, if you accept, the bounty on your head will be just a memory of the past."
"WHAT?!" he shrieked, jumping out of the loveseat causing it to fall backwards taking him with it.
Raven jumped up from behind it, unfazed, he couldn't believe his ears. He must have been losing his mind. No, Agent Felicity Parker did not just invite him to join the GBI (the Gygolous Bureau of Investigation). No, that's not the symbol of the International Man of Mystery, the one given to only the most skilled of men. Not even his worst enemy, Van Flyheight ever got accepted to join the elite and he was the hero of Zi!
"Calm down, Raven. Do you want the whole world to hear? Well what do you say?"
"I'm a what? You want me to what? What?!" from the bewildered look on his face, her words did not sink in the way she had thought they would. Instead, they seemed to be driving him crazy, or finally making him insane.
"Yes or no?" she repeated in total annoyance.
Raven sighed and sat down on the love seat that was still on it's back, his pupils still hadn't returned to their normal state. But his skin had a healthy glow to it. "Why the hell not," he said finally after a long pause.
Felicity smiled. "Great!" she placed the pendant necklace over his head and it fell down to his chest. He looked rather strange with the bright silver pendant shinning brilliantly against his dark purple body suit. He was in shock, she decided. Oh well, at least that was the end of his cocky attitude for the time being.
"Alright, you need a name."
She glanced down at her watch; the time was 3: 34 in the afternoon. The representatives from the Guardian Force would be there in exactly twenty- five minutes. So they would have to act fast.
"I have a name..."
"No, Raven won't work. You do realize that you need a name?"
"No."
"And why not?"
"Because I'm just fine with my name. It's the only name I have..." his voice trailed off.
Felicity let out an aggravated sigh. "Raven! Your not helping! You need a name, an Agent name. Because in case you've forgotten your one of us now. And as such you need a last name too."
"I haven't forgotten," he hissed. "I just--haven't gotten used to it yet! Bite me. "
~*~*~
He didn't particularly understand what exactly was going on. Apparently, there had been three brutal murders of government officials on both sides of the border. One common link between these officials was the fact that they each had a high degree of power during the war. Each scene was covered with blood. The body was mutilated, but there was also another carcass. The shockingly recognizable battered remains of a bloodhound. The blood that sprayed the scene and the surrounding area belonged to the bloodhound.
One group took credit for these horrid murders, six if one counted the bloodhounds. Their name, ironically enough, was the Bloodhound Gang. They were very proud of what they had done, no remorse at all.
The Guardian Force was even involved for it sent two representatives from both sides of the border to meet with Agent Felicity and him at her hotel room. He'd begged her to tell him who exactly the representatives were but she said she didn't know. Some help she was. Raven just prayed it wasn't anyone he knew.
There was a knock on the door, Felicity stood up and opened the door. Raven realized she had changed her clothes; she wasn't wearing a pair of orange board shorts and matching orange string bikini top with white windbreaker. Now she was conservatively dressed; with blue jean Capri pants and black T- shirt with that same white windbreaker. Her long dark hair was no longer confined into a braid, now it was hanging below her butt. He guessed she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention.
In walked in two young men, one blonde and the other with spiky black hair. The blonde was taller and spoke first. "How do you do? You must be Agent Parker, my name is Lieutenant Thomas Richard Shubaltz."
Thomas held out his hand and Felicity shook it. While Raven's jaw fell; no wonder she didn't tell who they were!
"Yes, it's a pleasure Lieutenant," Felicity turned to the shorter one. "And you must be the representative from the Republic."
The black haired youth nodded and slowly removed his sunglasses revealing a pair of gray eyes. "Indeed. The name's Lieutenant Van Flyheight," he smiled a charming, boyish smile that could make any girl's heart sing.
Raven thought he'd die of heart attack in the next five seconds if things kept up at the pace they were going. His mind screamed at him to pay attention and not act so, so Ravenish.
He noticed his enemy's eyes wander to him and willed himself to remain calm. It wouldn't be easy but he'd try. He'd come too far to screw up now.
"Have a seat. This way," Felicity said pleasantly, when the two Lieutenants were seated in the white couch opposite of the couch she and Raven were. She shot Raven a warning look, the last thing she needed was for him to screw things up. He just nodded dumbly.
"Who's he?" Thomas inquired with traces of annoyance and promptly received an elbow in his ribs. "Ow! Van! What'd you do that for...?"
Van grinned sheepishly at them. "What my partner meant," he glared at Thomas. "was, who are you, Agent?"
Raven didn't know what else to do; he blinked. "M-my name?"
Van nodded, his lips in a thin line. "Yes."
The International Man of Mystery gulped and discreetly glanced around the room for any ideas. Oh sure Felicity had pestered him for a name but dropped the subject when she filled him in on the case. He glanced at the watch on Van's wrist, well aware of the precious minutes that were ticking by.
"Quik... Agent Quik Silver!" he practically shouted.
To his great relief, Van smiled. He had bought it, thank god. Agent 'Quik Silver' forced himself not to glare at Van, pounce on him and strangle him with his bare hands.
"Now," Van quickly sobered. "Unfortunately, we didn't come here to be good uh, hotel guests. Let's get down to business. At precisely 11 a.m. yesterday morning Guardian Force HQ received a transmission, it was titled to everyone working on the Bloodhound case. It went like this, 'It has come to my attention that you all are interested in the doings of the Bloodhound Gang, unfortunately only time can tell. Do you want to play? If so, meet us at the old Studies for Ancient Research in the Empire at ten p.m. tomorrow evening.'
They're making a mockery of us. Like this is some kind of game to them, they're just showing how powerless they've got us. How they've got everyone on both sides of the border dumbfounded, I think our best bet is to take them up on their offer and then give 'em a damn good dosage of justice."
Raven glanced at Felicity, who was reading and rereading the paperwork. Was this really what the GBI did? He wondered, he had no idea. Dealing with criminal/serial killers wasn't really his idea of a 9 to 5 job, but he guessed he would have to get used to it.
"I assume you already did a checkup on the Studies for Ancient Research facility?" Felicity finally asked, not taking her eyes off of the paper.
Van nodded, his lips still in a fine line. "Yeah, ends up the Emperor was planning on resurrecting the facility to solve the job crisis in that area of the Empire. But all communications were cut off about a week ago."
"It's most definitely a show of their superiority, but I bet we can bet them with the tact force we have assembled," Thomas said fiercely.
"No," Raven said. "We need to infiltrate their lair."
Thomas growled and bared his fists. Obviously he didn't agree. "What? No, our best plan of action is to take them by storm. Do exactly what they think we're not going to do. Bring in the cavalry and forcibly pull the plug on the whole operation. Ba boom, problem solved."
"Your wrong, Shubaltz. That's exactly what their think we're going to do. We infiltrate their lair, hold the Big Cheese hostage and then bring in the cavalry," Raven replied with deadly calm, staring Thomas square in the eye.
The thought of having the put up with both Van AND Thomas made his stomach turn, as if putting up with his archrival wasn't bad enough. He had to be stuck with stupid Shubaltz, could his luck be any worse? Most likely.
Van folded his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and muttered things to himself and nodded his head several times. He opened his eyes and said, "I agree. That's our best plan of action."
The younger Shubaltz looked like he had been slapped across the face, which made Raven smirk. "What? You can't be serious, Van!"
"He's right, Thomas. Infiltrating their lair is our best plan of action. The worst that can happen is that we get caught while taking them by storm we endanger the surrounding community, the valueable information, the bloodhounds and ourselves. We can't afford to the risk that much. We are apart of the Guardian Force, we protect the peace and the people."
"If you're the Guardian Force," Raven began thoughtfully. "then why are you involved in this? It's not like it's your job to protect politicians."
He didn't know why he was doing it, why he was actually being nice to Van Flyheight. The very same Van Flyheight who made his blood run cold and did the impossible; defeated Raven. He could never forgive for that. No one defeated Raven and got away with it. But what about Quik? If anyone defeated 'Agent Quik Silver', did they live to tell the tale? He didn't know. He just did not know anymore.
"It's the zoid parts that had been found scattered around the scene, zoids are apart of our job description," Van replied as if it was obvious.
Felicity frowned; no one had told her about the zoid parts and she was the head of this whole operation, everyone was to respond to her. How did those lil' youngins from the GF possibly get a hold of that kind of information without her knowing? There must have been a leak somewhere.
"Really and where did you hear this?" she inquired quietly.
Van blinked and cocked his head to one side. "It was in the reports I got from the both the GBI and the FBI."
"The Feds told you? Why wasn't my force notified of this?" she was beginning to hate the Feds and the Republicans more and more, but mostly the Feds. Then again everyone hated the Feds.
"Gee, I got no idea. I thought you knew."
She glared at him, sure he was nice to look at but the kid was as dumb as a bag of nails. Hard to believe he was the same kid who defeated the Deathsaurer two times running. The legendary Deathsaurer, damn, that kid must have had some real talent.
"Well what do you think? Does it look like we know, genius?" Raven snapped.
Van frowned helplessly, why did everyone at the Gygolous Bureau hate him? What did he ever do to them?! By the way they acted one would think they were still at war or something. Most of the officials in the Bureau today were in it during the war and probably still despised the Republicans but in quiet. There's only so much peace could do.
"Well sorry, no need to bite my friggin' head off. Shesh, just shoot the messenger why don't ya?!" Van hissed.
~*~*~*~*~
"Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and mmmoooooonnnnneeyyyy! Boys will laugh at girls when they're not fffffffffuuunnnnnyyy. And these girls like these boys, like these boys like these girls. The girls with the bodies like boys with Ferraris..." Van sang happily along with the radio as they sped through the highway.
Raven folded his arms across his chest, and attempted to shield his ears from the god-awful noise by hunching his shoulders, in the back seat. While Van drove (which Raven found a hazard because he was too into the music to even pay attention to the road) and Thomas in the passengers seat. Van was driving a black convertible with the top down. Agent Felicity Parker wasn't with them; furious of the fact information was being withheld from her, she had grabbed her purse and paused in the doorway.
"Silver, your going to have to go with these two representatives," she had stated firmly despite Raven's silent protests. "I hope that's not too much of a problem," she added to Van and Thomas.
"Oh don't worry about, Agent Parker," Van had said brightly, flashing that boyish smile once more. "We were just going to get our zoids. Agent Silver is more than welcome to come with us."
And so here was Raven, forced to endure his mortal enemy's horrid singing and act like he didn't care. The sooner this trip was over the better. They were going to retrieve their zoids...Raven suddenly remembered something; after his fight with Reese, he stormed off to get something to eat and when he returned his Genobreaker was gone-he was completely zoidless! Should he reveal this..to his enemies? Was it wise? Suddenly Raven felt more vulnerable then he had in the past couple months.
"If we get a ticket for playing the music too loud, Van, I'm going to hurt you," Thomas was saying.
But Van was too busy bobbing his head to the next punk song that played. "What?" he said minutes later, sounding like a complete idiot. "I said-oh forget it," Thomas said with a defeated sigh.
"What?"
In one smooth calculated motion, Thomas flipped the music off and glared at Van, who just let out a horrified gasp.
"Whatdya do that for?" Van asked as if it wasn't obvious.
In the back seat, Raven smacked his forehead. There was no way that that guy beat him years ago, no no, that could not be right. There had to be a mistake; the guy driving the car could not be the same one who defeated him and the Deathsaurer.
"Hey Silver, do you have a zoid?" Van asked suddenly, apparently having given up on the music. His dark eyes looking at Raven in the rear-view mirror.
Raven's purple eyes darted up to the mirror almost automatically; his warrior instincts were kicking in. "No, I do not."
Both members of the Guardian Force looked surprised. Which gave Raven a little happiness.
"Why not?" Van asked in shock.
Why didn't he have a zoid? Raven thought. He knew he'd have to make something up quick if he didn't want them to become suspicious.
"Because I don't," came the reply.
"That doesn't explain much," snorted Thomas. "Come on spill it, Silver, why don't you have a zoid? I could have sworn everyone in the GBI were very good zoid pilots. I take it they don't trust you with one?"
Raven narrowed his eyes, his hands balled into fists. "No!" he shouted before he stop himself. "No, that's not it. I am very qualified for piloting a petty zoid to say the least." And that was the truth. "It's just that my zoid was -er-stolen. Yeah that's right."
Van made a faint whistle. "That must've sucked. What kind of zoid was it?"
"A.." why didn't these stupid answers come easier to him! "...." he said the first thing that popped into his head. "A lightening sykes"
A Lightening Sykes?! Raven's mind screamed at him, he hated Lightening Sykes' why in God's name did he have to say something that stupid?! Raven fought the urge to beat himself senseless. ~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note: hey everyone it's me, Mi Chelle again. I know you guys haven't heard from me in a while that's because I got lazy.. Im so sorry!! Well, what do you guys think about this story? Ive been working on it for some times, fixing it making sure it's up to my very high standards. Oh, I just remembered; in the beginning when I was first writing this story I thought it would be just for it to be a joint fic so I asked another author (who shall not be named) sent her of what I had so far and she never wrote back. Since I haven't been on ff.net for some time, I don't know if that author placed it on ff.net or not. So I just wanted to point that out just in case. But this is only chapter one, I hope there will be a chapter two. Tell me ok? R & R Well, Later Days!
PeAcE oUt ~*Mi ChElLe*~