Alright, this is one of the harder chapter's i've written, based off the fact of Raven's personality. So far, she's seen as a cold-hearted ice queen (hence the chapter title) who has a 'might is right' mentality. But still, I do like the way that i've set up her character for romance situations, though believe me, while not evverything will be revealed about these two in these two chapters, this and the last anyways, when it is I don't think you'll be seeing this coming.

Annyways, read on!


Chapter 71 - The Ice Queen

Nico groaned as he finished taking down his Tent, returning it to his Void Storage with a few manipulations of his right Bracer. The rest of the equipment had already been packed up by the time that little 'incident' started, so there wasn't much work for him to do on that field. He wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed by this fact, though.

On one hand, it relieved him of much of the workload. When Lucy and Raven had their spat, both had decided it would be fine to use their powers. Lucy had been using her nature powers to shield him from the stray attacks the two launched each other, but on the other hand they had started within his Tent which was NOT something Nico appreciated. Fortunately, their fight soon got taken outside while Nico managed to repair some of the Damage to the Tent. Sadly, despite his efforts, the Tent had been damaged beyond repair, and would need replacing by the earliest convenience.

Despite this though, Nico looked around to the rest of the Spec Ops Agents, whom were watching the two girls fight each other with varying expressions of amusement. He couldn't help but think back on what had happened back in the now destroyed Tent, something that sent a healthy pink hue onto his cheeks while he briefly caressed his Helmet where his lips would have been.

Seriously, what was happening with his barriers lately? Why the hell did he do all that stuff? Nico was stronger than this, he'd been dealing with Lucy's advances for years now. She had little to no power over him unlike the many other men and women that she'd screwed. In more ways than one mind you. Therefore, he should have been able to halt her advances again this time, too. So, what changed? What was going on with him now?

Then, there was the fact that he'd, for the first time ever, shared a secret of his with someone else, a personal secret that related to what he was trying to hide more than anything. Biko had said that he should trust her, those two words having more of an impact on him than a morale-raising speech. The being must have known something he didn't, since Nico hadn't any clue on why he said what he did. Still though, despite his anxieties towards the prospect of Lucy knowing some of his secrets, Nico couldn't help the slight elation that rose within his chest. Elation at not having to hide something from those he cared for.

It honestly threw him off how much he LIKED not having to keep something from somebody. True, it could be said the same for anyone, but Nico didn't like keeping secrets from his comrades. The reason he did so anyways, was merely out of necessity, fear and distrust in others, a distrust he felt was well-earned considering what he'd seen in his many years as a Spec Ops Agent.

Plus, Lucy and him kissing…

'Oh goddess, that kiss was…' the male thought, looking down. He was glad once again that his helmet could hide the now crimson hue on his cheeks, he'd never live down the humiliation if others saw how much a kiss from someone he cared for affected him. Neptune and Compa were both amazing kissers, one of which even had been looking on the internet for things like that (her internet privileges had been long since limited BTW – to her dismay.) The other had more of an innocence to her kisses, a purity that not many people possessed.

But, Lucy? She was in a whole world of her own.

True, the Armoured male researched how she found her 'specimens' as she called them, and what she did to them, but experiencing that stuff first hand, if only partially, was not something he had expected to happen in his lifetime. Hell, this entire journey with Neptune and Co, was not something he'd thought he'd be joining in the past. Still though, he didn't regret coming on this journey, not one bit, and that was something that worried him.

His thoughts were broken when he glanced to the side and saw Isaac walking up to him. His helmet was down, so he could see the man's slight smirk of amusement. Already, he knew what the man was going to say before he began to open his mouth, as his eye narrowed into a fierce glace. "Don't you-!"

"So, what's the story there? You got those two all hot and bothered, so I assume it's to do with that VERONICA's crush on you."

"Goddamnit, Isaac! What's with it and adults saying that girls like me?!" Nico growled, unable to help his rage and frustration at the seemingly universal fact that adults seemed to enjoy teasing him about how girls seemed to want a piece of him, like he was some sort of ladies man.

He was NO ladies' man, damnit!

Isaac let out a bark of laughter at Nico, aware of his apparent 'luck with the ladies' as he gave a toothy grin towards him afterwards. "That's not what your colleagues FALCON and CYBORG say. Even showed us the notebook listing the names of all the girls you've charmed." He remarked, chuckling. Honestly, it impressed the man that Nico had so many girls vying for his affections. As a happily married man, he knew what it was like to deal with women. Hell, even before his marriage he had woman issues, at least till he met the love of his life.

Nico looked down, his eye narrowed in anger at the mention of that accursed notebook. 'I'll rip them a new one after this!' he raged in his mind. The two had once shown him that notebook one mission when he tried to say that, after another near-battle caused between Lucy and Raven, that he wasn't a so-called ladies' man. It was one of the most embarrassing things he'd gone through to date, and he almost ripped the notebook apart.

That time, he did, and they just got a new one.

The two glanced to Lucy and Raven, who now were wielding weapons based from their individual elements, an Icy Katana for Raven, and a wooden Axe with vine-like patterns around it for Lucy. Their respective powers flew from each collision, destroying parts of the clearing. "Those two are definitely going at it…" the man mused with a sweat drop. Nico lowered his head, groaning as he agreed with him.

This was what happened if Lucy ever got this far with him and Raven found out about it. Those two were complete opposites in personalities, so putting them together like this was bound to cause tension between them. Their powers also seemed to be opposite to each other, practically EVERYTHING about them was like this. However, there was a reason why the two were paired together.

Despite their animosity, when they worked together, things worked wonders.

"They're going at it pretty hard, huh? Looks like someone should stop them." Ivan muttered, waking up to them with a knowing look in his eye. Aiden followed behind him, and unbeknownst to Ivan had a resigned look as if he knew something was going to befall them. Nevertheless, Ivan chuckled in Nico's direction, not too caring for what may happen to him in the future. "That means you Nico, by the way."

"Me?!"

At Nico's outcry, the trio of men nodded in synch. "Only those who are ladies' men are able to quell squabbling vipers called women." This made the teen sweat drop as his sole eyes gave a deadpan look to them. Cowards, the lot of them. Though, he figured that even they wouldn't want to get near them when the two were using their powers, normally the two never resorted to using them in their spouts. Their reasoning was their own, Nico would not say.

In the end, Nico gave a low sigh, knowing that it fell to him to deal with the two duelling vipers. He was glad that his secret helped him but majorly in battles, otherwise he'd be dead already. Standing tall, Nico looked over to the two girls fighting, and noticed that they were about to clash once more.

Now or never.

"Alright, hold up you two!" Nico's yell caught both girls off guard, as just about they were to meet for their next collision and slash fest, Nico appeared between them with both Hidden Blades deployed, blocking their attacks. The result, was a shockwave to expand through the desolated clearing while a crater formed beneath their feet. Nico's legs almost buckled under the combined weight, but he remained firm.

His eye bore into Lucy's own first. "This is not exactly the time to be fighting each other, we have a mission to perform, remember?" Lucy blinked, before she frowned and reluctantly disabled her powers, knowing that Nico was right. Despite her desires to piss off the nobility by purposefully being late, she knew that it wasn't a wise move in the long run. It didn't mean that she had to like it though, but at least Nico wasn't forcing that out of her.

Though, seeing him take charge of a situation like this… it opened some doors in her mind.

Now that Lucy had calmed down, Nico then glanced to the other girl, Raven blinking behind her Mask at the look of intensity and finality in his eyes. "Look, we can save this squabble another time, perhaps." He stated, giving her a knowing look with his lone visible eye. Raven's eyes narrowed behind her mask, already realising what he wanted, so she slowly dispersed her powers as well, her sword vanishing out of existence as Nico continued. "Right now, we're practically in dead zone territory, this is where people who wanna die would argue with each other. Why not save this for when we have our job completed."

Seeing that his words had their intended effects on the two girls, Nico lowered his arms, the Hidden Blades dispersing with a SCHING! Sound as he levelled a sigh from his lips. He hadn't been up for long, but he was already feeling drained. Was it through that roller-coaster of emotions before? This, or maybe a combination of the two? He was willing to go with the last one, honestly.

Once she regained her composure, Raven looked to their surroundings, wincing behind her mask at the damaged they had caused. Their fight must have gotten intense if this was the result of it. The worse thing was, they were holding back on their individual powers, which were FAR more powerful than their current levels just now. They only held back because A: they weren't thinking too clearly thanks to the bloodlust controlling them, and B: there were witnesses here. Witnesses that didn't know their secrets. Well, Aiden and Ivan had seen them use their powers briefly, but never to the extent of this mission. It was always in minor ways that they wouldn't be noticed that their powers came forth, like cooling hot metals or magically finding herbs to make healing items.

Nico had been right to handle their fighting before this could get any worse.

In any case, they indeed had to get moving. By her calculations they had lost more than an hour's worth of valuable time thanks to this recent spat, something that gnawed at her nerves in irritation. Turning on her heeled boots, the woman began to make her way towards the direction Leanbox was in. "Very well. We shall head out immediately. We must report the mission a success, as well as our findings. Has the evidence been gathered?"

Aiden nodded in response when she asked him that question. This morning, while camp was being put away, Raven had put Aiden in charge of gathering the evidence. This had meant taking one last look through the Mines, cataloguing what they found through various photographs, recordings etc. Not something pleasant, but it had to be done, so Aiden did his job professionally. There was enough evidence in his Inventory to incriminate the entire Overlord religion, significantly damaging its reputation if given to the right people.

With that, Raven nodded as the Party finished their preparations. They made to take formation, which consisted of Raven at the front, Nico and Aiden at her flanks, while the remaining three were behind them. From a bird's eye view, thy would look like an arrowhead or something. It was the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for Spec Ops who have to travel by foot in the cases of when their transports are destroyed, to travel like an arrowhead so they could support one another.

Guts, who was behind him, tapped his armoured finger on Nico's shoulder, getting a backward glance from the younger male. "I commend you for stopping them. A weakling would have shied away from such a call." He stated, making Nico nod in agreement. Remembering how in their little Questioning session earlier, he learned that Guts detested weaklings. He figured tat had been the case beforehand though, since Guts seemed like the type of character who didn't abide by the rules of the weak-minded. He was more of a soldier, a warrior, than a politician.

Afterwards, the Spec Ops Agents were off.


Cold.

Cold places, those were her favourite places for the young Ice-wielding Spec Ops Agent as she led her team through the forest. They traveled fast, like ninjas jumping through trees. They were like blurs, almost gliding through the air only to bounce on any nearby tree branches that were stable enough. For large men like Guts, this proved more difficult due to his size, frame and the lack of sturdy branches, but being a professional, Guts knew how to compensate for this.

The heat didn't bother her as much as it used to anymore, thanks to her prolonged exposure to it. However, despite her resistance to the heat, Raven longed for those colder areas in Gamindustri, where the chills would wrap around her in their embrace and welcome her home. Like that one ice queen she knew from that child's film, the cold never bothered her anyways. In fact, it was safe to say that Raven LOVED the cold, more so than anything else. It was soothing, it was calming, it was practically her livelihood.

In more ways than one.

It had been only 10 minutes into their journey, and they were headed to their next camp site. It would be a long journey, since the next ideal camp site was hours away according to the Holomap of Leanbox that Nico had downloaded. Apparently, he'd found the time to have his Bracers download thee schematics for the lands within Leanbox, like he had said he'd done in Lastation. With that information, he had been able to see that they wouldn't reach a viable camp site that satisfied their time requirements until nearly mid-day.

Once he'd given his report, they decided to take a rest there anyways, but travel at a reasonably fast pace yet with enough drive that the situation warranted.

But Raven wasn't worried about any of that, none of those actually registered in her mind as possible problems with their journey. Instead, her mind was focused on what Lucy had almost done to the male back in his own tent. Just the thought of seeing her try to corrupt the one man whom was close to her, more than anyone else, made her want to freeze her solid from the inside out. Raven couldn't care less about Lucy's past conquests of the male gender, not even if they were her male subordinates FALCON and CYBORG. If Lucy went for them, Raven wouldn't have bat an eyelash when she blatantly flirted. The redhead was someone who went for anyone she fancied, be it man or woman. One might say she was an omnivore. Bisexual didn't aptly describe her enough in her eyes, so she went for the other option: Omnivore.

But when it came to Nico, THAT's when she drew the line.

Beeping sounds echoed through the vicinity, breaking her from her thoughts when an alarmed shout came from the man she had been thinking about himself. "Alert, enemy Abnormal approaching the clearing ahead of us! Distance: 5.4 Km, Size: Medium, threat Rank: B!" He yelled, listing off statistics that his Bracer's HUD showed him while they tree branch hopped.

"VERONICA!"

"Yeah, I sense it!" Lucy yelled back, closing her eyes and reaching out with her powers. She felt the nature around her, listening to the buzzing chatter the plants, trees, bushed and animals had been doing. This was a power that only she possessed, in a limited sense she could listen to 'nature's voice' to let her know what her surroundings were like. Sometimes she could make them tell her what she wants to know, but that took a lot of focus. However, that wasn't always the case…

Focusing on the current task at hand, she listened to Nature's voice, and it told her what she wanted to know. She opened her eyes and shouted to the others, her demeanour no longer that of the seductive Lucy that they were used to, but that of VERONICA, the Spec Ops Agent second of Team RAIL. "It's a Scorpion Abnormal: a Susanoo!" she informed them all, making various reactions form on the others' faces.

Isaac groaned in annoyance when he heard THAT name come out of her lips. "Ugh, THAT Abnormal… I so do NOT like fighting those things, they keep trying to grab me in the ass!" he whined, remembering the last few times he fought that type of Abnormal. It was a class of subspecies abnormal, belonging to another race of similar ones called 'Borg Camlann' and considered WAY more annoying than their main species counterparts. Not only did they have greater strength, at the base anyways, than their opposites, they were also much more resilient to damage. The man looked to the side when he sensed bloodlust and deadpanned when he saw the dark grin forming on Guts' face at the thought of fighting this particular Abnormal. "Don't get me started on You, pal! You seem to like smashing those bugs in for no goddamn reason!"

"Bugs should be squashed by predators, it's the law of nature."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?!"

While the two Leanbox natives argued, well one more so than the other, Aiden glanced at the skies above and asked in one word with an almost robotic voice. "Orders?"

"Take flight and see if there will be any reinforcements. I'd feel better with multiple sources telling me we will have a single opponent. Let me know if there's any changes, and I'll request your support ONLY when necessary." Raven stated without even glancing at him, to which Aiden nodded wordlessly before his backpack deployed its wings and he took flight above the trees.

While she said this, Guts hummed for a moment, before he decided to speak up. "Me and Isaac will scout the surroundings, keep any surprises from interrupting your fight. That way you don't have to worry about us, thus go all out."

Her next words were directed to the others. "CYBORG, I will open our assault against the Susanoo by destabilising its balance with an Ice sheet. You pepper its legs with your Bionic Arm's cannon mode. Keep it from regaining balance. VERONICA, you attack its Tail, make sure to damage it enough that its effectiveness is decreased. DEATHSTROKE, go for its shields, use anything you can to break them for the same reasons." Her orders were brought into their minds and registered with practiced ease, a notion that the trio were eerily familiar with thanks to them having worked together repeatedly.

"Yes, Leader!"


The Susanoo: a massive, scorpion-like Abnormal. Its size was that of a 1½ story building, with black, stone-like skin. Its legs numbered at four, two at the front and two at the back. They ended in 5 toed feet with their ankles covered in glowing pink fur. Their legs had armoured scales all over them, with the kneecaps having armoured scales shaped similar to demonic skulls. Out the back, was a massive, long tail that ended in a double-edged blade-like tip. A glowing pink energy ran down the middle of the blade tip, adding to its intimidating factor. It had a large, bulky and armoured upper body, with what looked like a ring around the base of its neck where its glowing pink hair flailed about like they were bushy tails. It had a distinctly masculine face, with hollow pink eyes and mouth. Its arms ended in 2 large shields which had mouths filled with sharpened fangs, spikes protruding out their backs that ended in glowing pink tips.

It was merely stomping around the field, searching for prey to feed off of, when…

Trouble struck.

From the wilderness to its right flank, a blast of blue energy hit the ground beneath its feet, creating a long sheet of ice that quickly threw it off balance, due to it being caught by surprise. Its legs flailed about like they were trying to dodge bullets, almost tap dancing as they set to regain balance.

An act that would end in futility when a series of Lightning bolts made impact with its 2 right legs, forcing it to lose the fight to retain its balance thanks to the impact. The Susanoo roared as it fell to the ground, stabbing one of its shields into the ground for support. Its tail flailed wildly like it had a will of its own, striking the surroundings in wide arcs in a vain hope to hit whatever had gotten close to it.

"IVY SURPRISE!"

A feminine voice called out and, from all around its vicinity, many long vines suddenly erupted from the ground. Each one was covered in many blade-like barbs, flailing wildly I the air like Tentacle appendages do when they're severed from the rest of their body's. They each began battering away at the Abnormal, slicing away at its scales and armour.

From the spot that the ice blast originated, Lucy burst into the clearing, her Cleavers drawn as she spun in a constant circle. Her Cleavers swung true, slicing through the Tail but not deep enough to sever. She cursed at this. 'Shoot, looks like I didn't pack enough of a wallop…!' she thought, before using her powers to make a wooden arm grow out the ground, far from the Ice sheet, and grab her before receding. This resulted inn her escaping the thrashing Tail's attack range, to the Susanoo's fury.

Upon landing on the ground, Lucy had the arm split itself into many pieces, pieces that floated in the space above her head while rearranging themselves, becoming long spiky Javelins. Each one was as long as an average human, with tips that looked like they could pierce even silver steel made weaponry. With a sly smirk, Lucy threw her arm forwards. "Catch!"

The Javelins, upon her will, all shot forth towards the Susanoo's Tail, slicing through weakened areas made by stray lightning blasts. Most of them missed the Tail, embedding on the ground around the Abnormal or its hind legs, but some managed to hit their mark. From those, as well as the ones that hit its legs, the beast roared in pain and anger.

Having had enough of this attack, the Susanoo quickly smashed its Tail onto the ground, hard enough to cover it in a cloud of Dust. The lack of visibility made Ivan jump out of hiding and shift his Bionic arm into Rifle Mode, unloading a barrage of bullets into the cloud. "Ugh, that fucker! Its concealed itself!"

Raven soon barked orders, keeping hidden within the wilderness so she could keep her element of surprise. While the beast knew that an ice wielder was nearby, her exact location wasn't a certainty. She probably had the power of surprise for one more attack before the beast would clue in to her location and she'd have to come out of hiding. "Cease fire, CYBORG, switch to defence tactics." She ordered.

"Roger!"

Ivan switched his Bionic Arm to Blade mode, holding the weapon in a defensive stance while pulling out a Combat knife from one of the sheathes on his left leg. His eyes peered into the dust cloud, searching for anything to indicate an attack, down to the tiniest specs of movement. They had mostly lost the element of surprise at this point; however, they'd managed to damage the Abnormal slightly before they did so, thus they should have an easier time defeating it.

Surprise encounters like this weren't uncommon on Spec Ops return journeys. It was almost like the Abnormals and other Monsters could smell the weakness on them, and would henceforth come out of the woodworks metaphorically, hungry for their flesh. It happened to all of them, Spec Ops, Guild Agents, even adventurers and civilians. The last one was the worst though since they lacked the skills to fight them off… leading to some pretty brutal death scenes. One poor pair of twins travelling home from a trip to another village had been attacked by a massive, ravenous rabbit monster, one ending up being bashed onto the ground by her feet repeatedly while the other got split in half before joining her twin in its belly.

Again, nasty.

A faint sparkle was all that Ivan got as a warning no sooner had he thought that, and he had to get on all fours to avoid a long, purple beam that would have annihilated his entire upper body. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, the beam banishing the dust cloud to reveal a pissed off Susanoo. Its Shields were growling angrily at him, one of them steaming to show which one had been the cause of the beam. "Shit, that nearly fried me there!"

Lucy, seeing that their opponent was back up, quickly began calling on her powers. From her flanks, several wood pillars erupted from the ground, shooting towards the Susanoo. The creature's Tail swung in 2 arcs, batting them away before they could hit, but that was what Lucy wanted. The pillars split into many smaller ones upon impact, circling around and slamming into the Abnormals' side.

They shattered on impact thanks to their size, but they did do their job of distracting it for Nico to join into the fray. The said Spec Ops Agent ran out into the clearing with his Plasma Launcher and Plasma Cannons ready, unloading on the Abnormal without mercy. Purple Plasma explosions dotted its front while Nico focused on damaging its Shields. He made sure to keep at a fair distance from it, knowing that if he got too close, those Shields would take a chunk out of him.

Didn't want to have that happen.

Though, it soon became apparent that his efforts were practically worthless when the Susanoo suddenly shot its right arm forward, the shield it ended at suddenly stretching itself with its maw open wide. 'Shit!' Nico cursed as he rolled to the side, his Plasma Cannons receding into the shoulder guards. This saved them from being damaged by his emergency barrel roll, but it stopped his barrage on the Susanoo's shields, allowing it to twist its body in preparation for a spin. "Shit! Lucy, Ivan, jump!"

His shout, combined with the fact that he didn't use their codenames to save time, registered in their minds. Both teens quickly did that when they saw what Nico had seen, nonetheless. Not a moment too soon either, for the Susanoo had already spun a complete 360 degrees with its Tail extended, creating a wave of purple energy in its wake. The initial attack was dodged, but the air blast blew both of them towards the forestry at the opposite side of the clearing. Fortunately, Lucy managed to have the forestry form a net made from plants, vines, bushes and other parts of nature to catch them. They dropped to the ground safely, her landing on her feet while Ivan landed on his backside.

"Dude, you suck at landings. Might wanna improve your body so you don't get off with your fiancé the ground."

"Ugh, shut up!"

Nico rolled his eyes, having did a N#o from the M#t#ix by bending backwards till he was barely above the ground. Time had felt as slow as a turtle when the Tail had passed over him, before resuming when it passed and he stood tall once more. hefting his Plasma Launcher in a standard rifleman position, Nico aimed it at the beast and resumed fire towards its face.

Like he expected, the creature blocked with its shields, so the male made a few quick hand gestures where their leader could see them. In her hiding place, Raven realised what he was trying to tell her, and nodded to herself. She clapped both hands together before separating them, channelling her powers and forming a large Ice Javelin, easily able to go through a person's head. She then gripped it in her right hand, rearing it back before chucking it from her hiding place.

Thanks to the position it was in, the Susanoo didn't see this attack coming and thus, got both its arms impaled from the side while its shields were in that position. It let out a shrill screech in agony, feeling the biting cold dig deep into its internal structure. The cold would work its magic and slow the Abnormal down, while also locking its shields in place so it couldn't use them to protect itself.

Left it wide open for their next attack.

"SAMURAI DRIVE - DEMON CLAW!"

"POLLEN DRIVE – BEYBLADE ONSLAUGHT!"

"PHANTOM WAVE!"

"CYBER DRIVE – LIGHTNING BLADE!"

All but Nico activated their Drive Skills, the teen not willing to risk using his thanks to it using Demonic Energy, which was still unstable at the moment. Nevertheless, thanks to him being a DPU his Skills were stronger than their human versions, so his could still keep up with them.

With their Drive Skills active, the Spec Ops Agents quickly launched their attacks at the weakened Abnormal. Raven went first, then Lucy, Nico, and Ivan. Raven jumped from her hiding place, as she ran at the beast and formed blades of energy from her newly drawn Odachi. She used her Skill to slice away at one of its legs, rendering it useless to the Abnormal.

Lucy summoned her Beyblade and had it split into many, hurling them at the Abnormal from multiple flanks. Each Beyblade dug into its armour, grinding away at it like cheese on a cheese grinder with the sounds of metal being cut audible from them. She then jumped into the air, raising her hand to the skies and recalling every Beyblade, combining them back into a larger version of the original, before throwing it vertically downwards at the creature and watching it slice away at the Susanoo. It had barely blocked her in time with its Tail, which constantly thrummed with its energy as the two forces grinded away at each other.

Ivan roared as he charged at it closing the distance easily as he entered a slashing fest at its legs, weakening its stability to the point where the Beyblade gradually gained ground on its opponent. A low growl tore through the Susanoo's throat while it tried to stab him with its legs, or at least pin him under one of its claws for later-killing. However, the teen with the robotic arm was like a fly, constantly dodging its attacks by a hairs' breath while slashing away at the interior of its legs.

Nico used this distraction to send his PHANTOM WAVE towards it at a diagonal angle. The wave flew true, colliding with its shields in a large explosion. An explosion that damaged both its shields as well as destroyed Raven's Ice Javelin, freeing its arms from its captivity, although that would ultimately be pointless with how utterly wrecked they looked. Burn marks, pieces of its scales missing, it really didn't look too good.

Apparently, it too realised the severity of its situation as it made a loud shriek, a blood red mist enveloping it. The mist layered itself over the Susanoo, its wounds closing up but not healing, and those pink areas gaining a crimson red hue. Its eyes shined brightly while they focused their gaze upon the Party of Spec Ops Agents.

Said Agents all regrouped with each other, glaring at the beast which returned the favour. A heavy, ominous sensation overlapped the atmosphere, an ominous sensation that could only come from a fight to the death. Something that Spec Ops Agents danced with on the ballroom for shits and giggles... also duty, that was important, too.

"Looks like its activated rage mode." Ivan remarked, his Bionic Arm shifting into Cannon mode once more. His weapon thrummed with electrical energy, eager to be released upon its victims. "That just means this fight just got a little bit more dangerous." he added on, but in the end, he couldn't help but add a little bit of humour to the mix. A sly smirk formed on his face at the end of his sentence. "Guess its just another day for the Spec Ops." For Some reason, they heard some strange music playing in the background when he said that.

Things pulled them back into the focus of battle when the Susanoo let out a mighty shriek at them, prepping to charge as Raven began speaking orders, ignoring the man much to his dismay. "The enemy is in rage mode, that just makes it less likely to make calculated attacks. Its on its last legs, this being proof. Show no mercy, strike its weak spots till it goes down." She yelled to them all, swiftly manifesting a large volley of spikes from thin air. She sent them towards the Susanoo which, in rage mode, used its tail spin to blast them to bits. However, she wasn't dismayed as she made a hand gesture with her off-hand, and the shards of Ice that fell from the Spears all turned to explosives, detonating around the Abnormal.

While it shrieked in anger and pain, the rest of the Spec Ops yelled "Roger!" in unison before charging in with their weapons ready. Nico switched to his Plasma Claws, jumping past its right side and delivering a series of claw slashes to that space, landing behind it and avoiding the Tail by flipping over it.

Lucy followed his lead by using her Dual Cleavers to finally slice off its right front hind leg, making the Abnormal fall onto its right side. She then spun around, a faint misty aura coming from her as she manifested a giant pillar of wood above her head, one she held her hands up so that they looked like they were holding it like a battering ram. She reared it back and, with a sly smirk, slammed it into the creature's head, dazing it.

When it tried to get up, the Susanoo was bombarded by enemy Lightning blasts, curtesy of Ivan who circled around its opposite side, unloading on it like there was no tomorrow. Switching it to Blade Mode, Ivan activated his LIGHTNING BLADE Skill and slashed at its legs, releasing countless sparks through the creature's body to make it howl in agony. To their fortune, the attack resulted in the paralysis status effect, as shown when sparks constantly radiated around it while it struggled to move. "Yes! Damn, I'm good!"

"This is the end!" Raven bellowed as she leapt high into the air, using her powers to allow her to jump over 10 meters. She then held her hands out and a massive arm formed from ice at her right side. The arm consisted of a shoulder, a bicep, elbow, a forearm, hand and a massive fist. With this arm, Raven made it repeatedly bonk the beast on its bead, pummelling it into the ground with no mercy given.

Only when she was sure it was dead, thanks to the Particles that she faintly made out from her makeshift vantage point, Raven dismissed the arm and saw that there was no more Abnormal. A low sigh escaped her lips, her powers working their magic and calming her racing heart till it was beating at a steady rhythm.

The cold was something she was used to, from the earliest days of her childhood. Goddess, how long ago was that? The days of childhood were nearly a blur to the woman, something that both irritated and relieved her for several reasons. She didn't have... the best childhoods, since she was once from a village that was deep within the Lowee Mountains in the north. They were a tribal people, who lived off hunting and killing Monsters for food, clothes and money from the main Capital.

But... there was one aspect of her past she would always remember, the image of the one person she idolized. Someone whose beliefs she embodied today.

Nevertheless, ever since that person came into her life, she had learned much. Information that most of humanity didn't even know of. It was why, when Nico showed his DPU Powers for the first time, she didn't react as surprised as the rest of them. She had learned of them from that person.

That person was also the one who installed the love of the cold in her.

Cold always calmed her, it was her friend, ally, and sole confidant when she was at her most vulnerable for goddess knows how many years. At least, till she stumbled across something she would consider a sacred treasure of hers till the end of creation.

She landed on the ground before her team, turning to them to inform them of the battle's ending. "The enemy has been eliminated. We may proceed on with our previous course…" she began to say, unaware of something approaching from behind her.

Up until it was a second till the too late mark.

"Raven, look out!"

Her eyes shrunk behind her Mask when she heard Nico's cry. She twisted around to find that the Abnormal they were fighting was still alive, if barely with only one claw left with the rest of its body almost completely gone. She managed to avoid a direct hit, but the claw did managed to slice through her left forearm's underside, electing a hiss of pain from the woman as she landed clutching her forearm in an attempt to stem the pain.

Nico quickly acted, pummelling the last of the Susanoo till there was nothing left of it with his Plasma Cannons. When they receded into his Shoulder pads once more, the male regrouped with the injured Raven along with the rest of the Agents. "Raven, are you alright?! Did it get you?!" he yelled in concern.

While it looked touching that he was concerned about her, Raven merely shook her head as she began to apply her powers to her wound. "I am fine. The Susanoo only managed to graze my arm." She replied, hissing as her ice powers froze over her wound, acting as a makeshift scab that took over the entire forearm's underside. It would only be a temporary measure though, and all of them knew it.

"You guys must move, a horde of Viperwolves, 20 in total, have heard the sound of combat and are on their way!"

"Best listen to him, kids! We can hold them off for you, but not for long!"

Aiden and Isaac's voices pushed through the silence, and their eyes widened with their teeth clenched. "Shoot! At a time like this?!" Ivan cursed, his Bionic Arm steaming from having to fire so many Lightning rounds. The teen checked it over, clenching and unclenching the mechanical fist, before cursing under his breath. "Fuck, my Arm's overheated. Won't be able to fight much with it on the frizz like this."

"Good thing Raven froze the wound. It'll keep them from detecting her scent." Nico stated as he and the others each took out of their respective storage methods, a couple healing Potions before downing them, revitalising their bodies. Their built-up stress faded away with the cooling liquids that ran down their throats, their bodies using the liquid to heal their injuries and aches from the battle.

But now was not the time for rest, they had to flee lest they turn into monster food.

Glancing to Raven, the DPU furrowed his brow before he grasped her by the back of her knees, and under her arms, picking her up bridal the best idea considering her personal hate for the male gender, but if it was him he figured she'd cut him some slack.

"What do you think you are doing, DEATHSTROKE?!"

'Yep, she's mad...' the male thought as Raven glared at him behind her Mask for this. Normally, her glare could give seasoned veterans nightmares, with the feeling of their manhoods being poised to be destroyed via a hammer and chisel. Add in the intimidating features of her mask, and that glare was strengthened by a 1000. But to Nico, it was merely the first time she had raised her voice in the story, since nobody had gotten this close to her before. They were too afraid of what she would do to them if they tried. Though, there was that one Agent who got too arrogant and tried to seduce her... he wasn't all together these days.

Even with all this though, Nico went and ignored her, looking to the others who each had a unified expression of shock and disbelief on their faces. It was like they were saying together 'Balls of steel' or something. "I'll carry her, that we she won't slow us down." He stated simply. The others nodded after coming out of their stupor, Lucy pouting in jealousy as they bolted for it.

In his arms, Raven glared heatedly at the teen, her eyes almost shining with her emotions right now. Plus, there was an abrupt change in the temperatuure, if the slight specs of frost forming on the wilderness around them were any indication. But, despite this, she was thankful that she had her Mask on... since it expossed the cherry red blush of embarrassment and... joy... on her cheeks.

'That idiot...' she thought, eyes slowly closing as Nico carried her off to their destination. 'He doesn't realize the effect he has on me... even after all this time...'


It was cold...

It was wet...

It was lonely...

But that didn't register in her mind right now.

No, not right now, or ever if she had anything to say about it.

A young child cradled the corpse of an older man, someone who shared the girl's facial features. Likely, it was a parent of hers, or a relative, as she looked down with her hair hanging over her chest. She was silent, motionless, even in the cold of the mountains. She was surrounded by corpses, both human and non human alike. Snow fell gently on the remains of a slaughter fest, yet the girl made no movement to even indicate that she registered their presence.

Everything had been taken from her.

Her home

Her family

Her life

Everything had been taken from her, there was nothing left for her.

She didn't know how things could have turned out like this.

She didn't know at all.

"My, now this is an unexpected surprise."

The sound of a woman's voice was registered in the child's ears. No, that wasn't right. It was more like the voice forced its way to be recognized by her numbed senses. The voice carried age experience, wisdom and power tat belittled how young it sounded. Like a teenage hottie with the mind of an elderly person. It was a voice filed with the desire for control, dominance and aggression. It was something that just HAD to be noticed just for instinctual survival alone. The child had heard of such voices before, voices belonging to the women of her tribe, her mother, and...

Slowly, her head was raised, though it looked like the child would rather just gaze down at the old man's face for eternity, remembering better times, if it was possible.

Looking behind her, she saw something standing there, a figure shrouded by what looked like a mini snow-storm.

The child knew about snowstorms, she'd seen many of them in her young life. Snowstorms in Lowee weren't that uncommon, they were almost weekly. Thus, her tribe had learned how to weather such storms.

But... But this one, this one swirled around the figure calmly, almost pacified by the woman's presence alone.

All she could see from the figure through the storm, was a long Katana, long hair, and the sensation of staring at a hungry predator, her being its next meal.

"And who are you, young one?"

"Me? I am..."


Raven's eyes slowly opened, her mind returning to the land of reality. She blinked several times to adjust to the sudden influx of light, an irritated hum escaping her lips.

'That dream...'

It took a while for her to get feeling back into her body, but it happened at long last. The woman slowly sat up once she felt her strength return. She looked down at herself to see that she was half naked, her kimono dress, skirt, stockings and boots being beside her on the sleeping bag she was resting in. Her chest was covered by a set of bandages, making them look smaller than they really were, as well as to dissuade perverted pigs from thinking they were massive watermelons unlike those of a certain Leanbox CPU. Fortunately she still had her underwear on, which consisted of a pair of skin tight black shorts, something that was way more practical than panties.

Memories came back to her, making Raven hold on to the side of her head, a groan escaping her lips. She remembered getting hit by that Susanoo, which should have been destroyed when she pounded away at it like she did. She'd froze the injury to stem the bleeding, before she was carried away in Nico's arms. Still, as pissed as she was about it, Raven couldn't help but think about that Abnormal. How the hell did it survive those attacks? Did it have some abilities not previously recorded? She guessed it doesn't matter now of all time, since all evidence points to the fact that they've moved on from that fight.

This evidence was the fact that she was inside a Tent, lying on a sleeping bag and not being chowed down on by any hungry Viperwolves. She assumed thy'd made it to their destination if they were camping, as evident by the surroundings around her. The woman could smell something cooking outside, likely something that had been caught by one of her subordinates or perhaps some of the rations they kept in their respective Inventories, or Void Storage in Nico's case. Looking at her injury, Raven saw that, to her satisfaction, that her powers had properly mended it to the point where only a long, thin scab had remained. As long as she didn't have to reopen her wound, she would be fine in a couple hours. Beings like her tend to heal faster than others, after all. Though, this process is significantly slower if the wound was inflicted by an Abnormal for some reason.

Raven was always a person who looked at the facts, she wasn't someone who had time for emotions. She did have a heart made out of ice right now, in more ways than one.

Her thoughts were broken when she heard the not-so-subtle sound of flaps being opened. She looked to her left, and saw that it was her second in command coming into her tent. While she didn't always get along with her subordinate, she did have to admit that she would have preferred a female to see her like this rather than any pervert, though this one was a bit of both, honestly.

Looking towards her, Lucy's eyes brightened as a small smirk took place on her features. "You're awake! Phew, we were getting worried you went to the other side or something." She remarked, walking up towards her and kneeling beside the sleeping bag. When Raven glanced at her, Lucy nodded and answered her unasked question, a skill developed only through a long time of knowing someone. "We managed to get away from the horde of Viperwolves. A bit of a close call considering the 'luggage' we were carrying..." she couldn't help but give a jab at Raven with that comment, one that earned her an irritated glare. Her Mask was off, so she could show the full extent of her glares again. "Sorry-sorry, had to do it." she apologized, but a quick look to her amused gaze showed she didn't mean it. "Anyways, we managed to get to the next camp spot in record time, a full hour ahead of schedule. The boys unpacked, set the traps, set up the campfire and are now sitting around it, waiting for our fearless leader to return to us."

Once Lucy became silent again, having finished her report of what happened while she was out, Raven looked down at the sleeping bag that still covered her lap. She frowned to herself, her crimson eyes deep in thought before she looked back to her second. "Any casualties?" she questioned.

Lucy shook her head. "None. Ivy and Aidy almost got lynched by Nico though, they kinda showed those other two the little notebook of theirs that has all the girls tat Nico unknowingly charms to him." she explained with a chuckle, as well as n amused roll of the eyes. "Though it was more Ivy than Aidy since he just wanted to have some peace and quiet, but got roped into it by Ivy."

The black haired swordswoman rolled her eyes as well as those two's antics, well, more Ivan's than Aiden's. She had worked alongside them to know what they were like by now, and out of the two of them, she would have to say she preferred Aiden to Ivan. A least he always had a professional demeanor, whereas the other one was a bumbling idiot.

Though, she didn't miss the way that Lucy referred to their tag along as 'those two', either. It was one of the things that she respected about the redhead. Despite being a terrible flirt, both by reputation saying otherwise. She only trusted her, Nico, Aiden and Ivan so far, next to nobody else was trustworthy in her books. It was what separated her from the usual filth that Raven would castrate on a daily basis.

Really, it was male hormones that may potentially doom the human race, not the Monsters or the Abnormals.

"I see. How long will we have before we head out?" Raven questioned. This setback would not impede her from getting this mission over and done with as soon as possible. She'd make sure to get the job done, even if the Clients weren't those she was particularly fond of. Though, in this case she felt like she would have to do some research before accepting the next one. There was politics at work here and she didn't like the fact that her subordinates, her siblings in arms, were being used as some ploy for someone else's gain.

She'd make sure to have all the information at hand, so she could accurately judge the situation and make the best calls for her subordinates. She wouldn't allow them to be manipulated for someone else's agenda, no, that was most certainly not allowed. If anyone DARED try to use them like that and she found out about it, then nothing, not even the law, would stop her from getting even with them.

That was what a leader was meant to do, and that was what she had been taught, both by her father, and... her...

As if sensing her thoughts, Lucy lost some of her positive demeanor, her eyes darkening as she turned serious. "We should be leaving in about half an hour. The Viperwolves lost our scent, but Nico reported that he did some scouting and found packs of Thanators through this area. If we want them to avoid us we should be as prepared as possible to leave when we can." She then released a tired sigh, hanging her arms by her sides. "But honestly, I doubt we can move right away, especially in our current condition. We're tired, hungry, and still needing to recover from that Abnormal attack. Nico did some investigating on it, since he'd scanned it when it was being pummeled, and found some interesting information about it."

"I see. Bring him here, i'd have him explain this himself."

Lucy nodded, standing up and making to leave the Tent. She knew why Raven would ask that she bring Nico here, instead of commanding the info to be given from her. Nico explained things in a way that was more logical than how she'd say it, plus the two got along way better than the two of them ever did. 'Though, I guess that is a given, since we're practically opposites though...' she thought to herself, while leaving the Tent and Raven too her own thoughts.


10 minutes later, Raven looked to the entrance to her Tent after sensing a familiar presence entering. She didn't show it, but her ice cold heart warmed slightly when she saw that Nico was there, passing through the flaps to walk to her side. She had already gotten dressed in her normal outfit, her Odachi strapped to her waist while she stood at the center of the Tent. "You summoned me?"

"I did. Come, sit with me." Raven replied, just as curtly as Nico had stated his own sentence. The male nodded, his eyes blank thanks to his Armour, which was still equipped, having split its helmet's face apart. The two sat opposite each other on the grass-covered ground, sitting cross legged with Nico's back facing the Tent's entrance. "I hear you got some information about the Abnormal."

The male nodded in response, glancing at his right Bracer as he proceeded to activate it, showing a screen that displayed a diagnostic of the Susanoo. "Yeah. It was a quick one, since the Abnormal was disintegrating, but I did manage to gleam sort of an analysis. You know that Abnormals have unpredictable natures, right? Well, when I looked the scan over, I noticed something odd about its structure."

As he explained this, a thought occurred to him. This was probably the first time they had been alone together in the entire story. There had been so much going on, what with his journey with Neptune and the others, her Spec Ops duties, they never really had much time to talk. Honestly, that kind of bummed him, since she was one of the few people he could converse with normally. In fact, he looked forward to those times, since Raven was NOT like those fangirls that his adoptive mother used to set him up with someone 'to give her grandbabies'.

Raven said nothing, her eyes drawn onto the schematics. At least, that was what it looked like to the male, but nonetheless, she just wanted to hear what he had learned. The teen soon got her wish when he continued to speak. "Turns out these guys are evolving, changing. That Abnormal managed to find out how to use its energy to enhance those mouths of its, so it could repeatedly devour the ground around it, allowing it to burrow. That was what it did at the last moment of your attack, burrowing underground then resurfacing near you."

"I see..."

The warrior woman hummed in thought cupping her chin as she thought about this information. She remembered that there were some Scorpions that had the ability to burrow beneath the sand, to where the moisture and temperature was optimal to their needs. Some even waited in these burrows to ambush prey to take them by surprise. Considering the Susanoo was a sub-species that was reminiscent of a Scorpion, it could make sense that they had that ability. Though, with how he said his analysis, Raven assumed that they lacked the ability beforehand. It made sense, considering that Susanoo and the other variants of its species had shields instead of pincers. It could be safely assumed that they were learning more about their surroundings, something that wasn't uncommon.

There have been instances where new Abnormals are created from old ones, an evolution of sorts. Where some Abnormals transform or mutate into a stronger form. It wasn't uncommon, and when they did happen, Spec Ops were sent to scout out the abilities that the new form could possess. These forms could either be completely different from their last, or they could just be the same as before. Either way, they tend to have abilities that they didn't have previously.

This was one of the many differences between the Abnormals and other Monsters.

"We should watch out for any other Abnormals in the area." Raven stated, after thinking over this information for a moment. She glanced behind him and noticed that nobody was at the flaps, something that she honestly... felt kinda glad for. "If an Abnormal has evolved recently, maybe there are more. I won't take that chance."

"True..."

The two strayed into a moment of silence, pondering their own individual concerns. For Nico, he couldn't help but feel a sense of discomfort settle into his gut, like an animal caught in a trap or something. He felt a tightness in his throat, making speech increasingly difficult. This wasn't something he had dealt with for a while, a moment where the two of them were alone together. Maybe it would have bee easier if it were with someone as talkative as Neptune, or as adorably innocent like Compa, someone as tomboyish like IF... yeah, the idea has transferred over already. Raven never was one who expressed much emotion, at least outwardly.

It wasn't like she couldn't though...

'Nico... I have a question for you.'

The presence of his demon persona appeared in his mind, and Nico almost fainted in relief. Finally, something he could focus on to clear this awkward tension! People may say he was running from the real issue, but he would just flip them the bird. 'Oh, hey Biko. You've been silent for a while. Something wrong?'

'Nothing is wrong with myself. I only wish to know how much you trust this woman.'

... Now wasn't that a weird question to ask. Nico couldn't help but wonder where Biko was going with the direction he was taking this conversation towards. 'Uhhhh... I'd ask why, but its probably better if i just answer anyways. Well, to be perfectly honest i'd trust her as much as the other girls, maybe more.' he replied evenly, but towards the end, his response slowly got more and more emotional. That time that he kissed Lucy, VOLUNTARILY kissed her, it... opened some things up to him that hadn't been realizing up until now.

Like just how much conflict there was raging within him when it came to them.

One side of him, the side that wanted to believe in the bonds of friendship or some shit like that, wanted him to just open up to them and let them in on every secret he has hidden. The side that wanted him to ask for their help like a freaking wuss, not trusting his ability to handle this on his own. It wanted him to just tell them everything, see what their reaction would be and get the happy ending like those in fairy tails.

That side however, was being heavily contested by his pessimistic, battle and reality hardened nature. The side of him that had seen the true state of the world, the side that had stared too long into the abyss that it had begun staring back at him. The side that had become cynical and fucking tired of dealing with people's shit. That side, the one that he had been shrouded in for so many years before joining Neptune on her quest, and dealing with the girls' antics. In a sense, travelling them seemed to be slowly changing him, but into what he didn't know.

He honestly wasn't sure what to think about that, not anymore.

Meanwhile, Raven had some things to think about of her own... and try as she might, they all revolved around the male before her. She couldn't help but remember the scene where she stumbled across earlier, with Lucy on top of him and forcing herself onto him... to which he wouldn't fight back. She forced herself to stop a shudder of dread that crawled down her spine at the thought of Nico being 'corrupted' by that hussy! Nobody should corrupt him, let him remain pure!

Raven hated many things about the world, she hated men, she hated weaklings, she hated the way that instant ramen took 3 minutes to cook int he microwave, she hated when people tried to tease her, she hated those who were disloyal to their comrades on the battlefield, she hated the rare times that she forgot to sharpen her Odachi, and many more. She was telling the truth last night when she said she had a lot of dislikes, as well as the fact that she had few likes in this fucked up world.

Nico was one of those, or to be more accurate, his 'purity'.

He'd never been involved... in that way, with any girls over the years she'd known him. He'd always remained focused on his job, his beliefs, his life on the battlefield. One could say that, like the legendary hunters of a certain Moon Goddess, he was the male version of a maiden, a Bachelor, and that was something she would often admire about him. She would sometimes see how he'd take Quest after Quest just to avoid talking to other people, like a lone wolf, though it also served in avoiding the slutty hussies that tried talking to him. She'd heard his adoptive mother wants him to get laid already to expand the family, as she saw it, and despite her intentions, Raven couldn't help but resent his mother for that.

That guy, wasn't it alright for him to remain free?! What's wrong with that?!

Images assaulted her mind of seeing various girls clinging onto Nico, both from her past memories of him and of the times she saw him with that party. At first he had casually played it cool, keeping a level facade, but thanks to the constant hammering his defenses have begun to wither recently. Now that she was thinking about it, Raven couldn't help but, for the first time in a while, feel strong emotions in the form of worry and confusion.

Raven was never good with emotions, she didn't like them. She didn't understand them. Her heart was as cold as the powers she commanded. She didn't understand why people wanted to be so close to each other. Warmth was not something she was overly fond of, one could say that she heavily disliked it. She disliked warmth with a passion. She only got used to the warmth of being around people, including embers of the gender she despised with a passion, she never got used to it.

So... this warmth in her chest, whenever she thought of what those women-those hussies- would do to get close to that one man, it was the worst one of all.

"Um, so..."

His awkward, unsure voice broke her out of her thoughts as Raven looked to him. She mentally thanked the deities, which was something part of her laughed at the irony of, that she managed to keep her calm and cool facade up. Though, if she were honest she would hope that Nico would see through it, like he did with so many others. It was a talent of his, reading people and looking through whatever Masks they put up to fool the common soul. "Looks like your injury has healed, eh?"

Looking down at her arm, which his gaze was focused on, Raven looked at the scab that was covering the wound, before turning her head back to him to give a nod. "Yes, yes it has. It healed while I was unconscious, but that is to be expected, is it not?" Let it be said that Raven could tell he was being awkward around her, and while her inner warrior wanted to scold him for it, to show her that strong spirit that lay within him, but she couldn't say that without feeling like a total hypocrite. Another one of those emotions that she detested so much. "After all, you know what I am, and what Lucy is yourself."

Nico chuckled at her response, rubbing the back of his head as he nearly accidentally deployed one of his Plasma Claws. He barely stopped himself from doing that and looking like a total idiot as a result though. "Yeah, that's true." he remarked, remembering those times well. It had come as a shock to him when he found out their secrets, secrets that only he knew of. They hadn't told anyone else, not even their two teammates Aiden and Ivan, despite considering them comrades. Only he knew their true secret, only him alone, and that honestly made him feel flattered in a way. Although, it also concerned him at the same time. "Though, it seems that you haven't told anyone else yet, considering those two still don't know."

He shouldn't be the only one they should open up to, they had comrades to confide with as well, unlike before.

Though, these two weren't the only members of Team RAIL that were keeping secrets either, secrets that pertained to some past events that had happened to them.

The woman shook her head vehemently. "They may be my trustworthy subordinates, but I will not share my past with them. Them and I will keep to the relationship of fellow soldiers-in-arms. Its more comfortable for me that way..." She started off strong, then trailed off at the end. She missed the slight flash of understanding in Nico's eyes, though.

She has always been like this, Raven was never someone who was versed in socializing with others, that fact had been more than established by this point in the story. She also had that 'the strong survive and the weak die' mentality thanks to her past, too, which further alienated her from the rest of the Agents. Some did try to hit on her a couple times between missions... a decision they soon regretted and by soon he meant the next millisecond. Plus, a large portion of the Spec Ops Agents were men, too, her hated gender. That probably limited her options for people she could converse normally with further.

"Anyways..." thanks to the short talk earlier, Nico began to feel some of his confidence returning. It didn't look like Raven was going to chew him out for what happened with Lucy, so that took a large weight off his shoulders. He had assumed she would be furious and try to gut him with her Odachi or an Ice attack, but apparently he was mistaken. "Its been a while since we could talk like this. Things just have been hectic for a while, what with the Abnormal Dungeons in Lastation, and the politics in Leanbox. Plus, with Neptune's quest to restore her memories..."

He trailed off there, and Raven clued in. Her eyes, though difficult to see, softened ever so slightly at the increasing ease Nico found himself taking towards her. It proved to be infectious though, as she soon felt the same way, her previous thoughts being pushed to the back of her mind, not to be pondered on for a while. "Yes, it has indeed been a while since we last got to talk, just the two of us." she admitted, and if she were honest with herself, she didn't like that fact just as much as he did. "Though, I have a feeling talks like this are going to be harder to come by as time moves on. With things getting complicated by the day, I fear we may never have these talks for a LONG time yet." she said with a wince, clutching the hilt of her Odachi which felt strangely heavier for some reason.

The fact that she, a man hater to the core, as well as someone who doesn't show much emotion, could be affected so much by not talking to someone was almost pathetic to her. To the point where she could laugh in self-deprecation if she were capable of such. She liked talking to him like a civil person, she liked the intelligent conversations that they'd have, talking about topic that have com up from the Guild Websites, their pinions on certain Abnormals, or even their... radical views on the politics of Gamindustri. Nico was the only person she could act like this around, he was the only one who could get past her frozen heart.

This wasn't always the case. She used to see Nico as someone who was just like the others, a mere man who had no place than beneath her radar, not worthy of a shred of the attention she gave him today. There was a time when she looked down on him like all the other men she had encountered, saw him as nothing but a bug that she could stomp, though it would be done with a 14 foot pole since she wouldn't want to stain her heels on his flesh.

She remembered the first time she encountered the one who would affect her this way, though back then she would never have foreseen it.

(Flashback)

Her heeled boots tapped constantly across the floor as she walked through the corridors of the Planeptune Guild Building's Spec Ops sector. She headed towards the Briefing room, having 'accepted the invitation' to an Urgent Quest. Raven had to scoff at that notion as she walked, her Odachi's shield repeatedly bobbing up and down with her movements. These things were Mandatory, there was no need to sugarcoat it for them. They were Agents, Agents meant to handle the toughest of Monsters, the Abnormals. They should NOT be coddled by the weaklings that don't even stick their necks out. Just argue over political debates like they were above everyone else.

That's just how people, especially men, were she guessed.

A low frown escaped her lips, unseen by the hideously intimidating Mask that she was wearing right now. She didn't break stride when she passed by a bunch of Basilicom staff members walking by, carrying documents in their hands. They were both men, so that also played a part in them not registering on their radar. The two men did glance her way, and her ears picked up what they were saying quite easily, as they made little attempts to hide their words.

"That's her, the one they call SAMURAI."

"She looks the type, and I hear she's someone who'll castrate you just for looking at her weirdly."

"Shut it, she'll hear you and do the same! Don't you want to go out on dates still?!"

Raven's frown increased in potency as she heard their frantic footsteps to indicate that they were leaving. '[ft, not even worth my time. Weaklings should die, the strong survive.' she thought to herself, loosening the grip she had on her Odachi before continuing on her way to the Briefing room.

This new Urgent Quest, she had suspected it was about the rising amount of Viperwolves lead by a Thanator that was sighted in the Virtua Forest a short time ago. They hadn;t attacked anyone yet, but their numbers had grown significantly large, enough to cause concern for the Nation. Social Media, civilians (or the weak as far as she was concerned) the Guild Website, news about such a cluster of Abnormals had reached across the entire Nation. It honestly didn't surprise her though, the Abnormals have been known for their wild and unpredictable behaviour, so why make a fuss about it?

Well, maybe she could rephrase that as a pack of Abnormals can do a serious blow to the world if left unchecked. In addition, there were some Abnormals what were more intelligent than others, so what could stop them from gathering a large enough force and assaulting SEGA, planeptune's Capital? In that sense, she could see why the weakling masses would be considerably fearful of them. Though to her, she saw them as nothing more than prey.

Prey were supposed to be hunted, hunted by the predators.

That was the way of living that she fought for. She lived in it, she breathed in it, it was her everything, her livelihood, her purpose, the reason why she fought. Her sword was a sharpened fang, eager to sink itself into the flesh of her enemies. To compare, it could be considered a rival to the infamous Murasame Swords made in ancient times, bathed in the blood of those its blade has sliced through with no hesitation by its wielder, it didn't discriminate. It was essentially the essence of her entire philosophy, her ideals, and why she chose to be a Spec Ops Agent of the Guild instead of an Average Agent.

Nobody she had the (dis) pleasure of working with could understand her beliefs, and thus they refused to work with her unless absolutely forced to. That was fine with her, she didn't need any weaklings to slow her down or to dull her sword's blade. To her, only the strong were meant to be acknowledged, those who were weak were beneath her notice.

If they were men, then all the more reason to not acknowledge them.

After all, do people acknowledge ants before squashing them with their boots?


Finally, she arrived at the briefing room. Upon the sliding open of the door, she immediately scowled behind her Mask, her cold heart crackling within her chest when she saw several men in gangster attires standing by the podium. They looked to be chatting nonchalantly, not showing any of the professionalism that being a Spec Ops required. One said something she didn't bother listening to, electing laughs from his equally simple-minded buddies.

The black haired woman resisted the urge to smite them down with her Odachi, knowing that it would be counterproductive to do so herself. 'Let the Abnormals feast on their remains for neglecting their training, those weaklings...' she thought to herself, before scanning the room to see if there was anyone else. Maybe a female warrior, so that she didn't have to deal with the brunt of men's stupidity.

However, fate seemed to be wanting to mess with her today, because she only saw one other Agent at the far back of the room, looking like he wasn't listening to the conversation. A snort of disgust escaped her lips at his lack of professionalism, sleeping before a briefing was hardly something a Spec Ops was expected to do.

Apparently though, the previously mentioned gangsters, like the apes they were, had this 'huh?' expression on their faces that resembled said animal, when they heard her snort. It was like they didn't even notice that she was here, something that utterly infuriated her to no end. How could such idiots be Spec Ops?! O wait, that's right there were assholes who got into their ranks through money and families. It happened everywhere, something that she knew that many disapproved of.

"Huh?! How the heck did we miss a beauty like that?!"

Another snort escaped her, this one she refused to hide. Least one of the brain-dead idiots knew he was stupid.

"Who cares, lets go chat her up! Maybe we could have a quickie with her before we kick butt like we always do!"

"Hah, i'm down with that!"

Their comments were making it increasingly difficult for her to stay her hand, as the three men walked towards her with sickening smirks on their faces. Arrogant they were, in assuming Raven would let them touch her with such intentions. When they were close enough, to the point where they would be in range of a quick draw from her weapon, Raven made to grasp it with her right hand, while one of the men tried to speak to her. "Hey there, little lady? What's say you and us fine gents here get to know each other for-"

Just before she could strike though, or before the man could finish as he proceeded to try and grab her by the shoulder, a hand reached forth and grabbed his arm by the wrist, stopping it in mid reach. The grip was strong, firm, and unrelenting, much to the shock of the men. "Huh?! Hey, let go, let go!" the man yelled, trying to wrench the arm free to no avail. The other two of his buddies tried to help him, only to somehow get knocked flat on their asses with pained yelps.

Raven, however, looked at the one who had stopped her from slicing off her offender's arm. She merely raised a brow, her Mask preventing anyone from seeing this, as she saw that it was the same boy from before. 'Was that man... feigning sleep this whole time?' she wondered, glancing towards where she had last saw him at the back of the Briefing room. However, all she saw was a faint spec of dust there, telling her all she needed to know.

Now that he was closer, Raven got a better look at him. The Agent seemed like he was someone of a young age, maybe his early to mid teens. Yet, he moved with such speed and precision that matched the older, more experienced Agents she had seen. His form was clad in black chainlink mail, from under his chin to the toes and feet of his hands. There were also brown armour plates on his body: the chest, the arm and legs. His hands are armoured gauntlets with the bracers merged into them, while his legs below the knee are armoured boots, and on his shoulders, are large shoulder guards, all these plates being orange in colour. On his face is a mask that was black on the right side and orange on the left, with a single eyehole that showed his left eye.

It was his right arm that held the gangster's wrist in an iron grip.

No words were spoken as the new arrival twisted the man's arm 180 degrees, before thrusting a knee upwards into his elbow, a resounding CRACK echoing through the room. Now, it would take a lot to surprise her, but judging by the audible crack she heard from her would-be assailant, Raven guessed the man's arm had been broken. He would be unfit for duty for at least a couple weeks, by estimation, not like she cared though. He got his just deserts, in her opinion as he cried out in pain, falling onto his ass like an idiot while cradling his arm, tears running down his features.

Now the disgust with this one reached an all time high.

Looking towards the Agent that had stopped her from slicing that man (much to her annoyance), she saw that he hadn't even looked at her and just returned to his previous spot at the back. She hardly saw him move, a testament to his speed, which was something of noteworthy importance. However that was simply speed, it took more to be counted as 'strong' in her eyes than just speed. He probably used it to run away from fights or something along those lines. That was what she assumed, considering her experiences with male Agents weren't that positive.

Once she found a suitable place to sit, crossing one leg over the other while doing the same for her arms, Raven awaited the briefing to begin, not paying any more attention to the other Agents.


The Briefing was short, concise and straight to the point. Something she appreciated, since she could spend as little time with these bumbling idiot Spec Ops- no, these idiot BRATS, as possible. She couldn't even call them Agents anymore, not with how they acted. They constantly fumbled about, not paying much attention to the briefing and being a general annoyance. It looked like the provider for their assignment agreed with the blackette's thoughts if the expression she had on her features had been any indication at the time. Hell, even after the Briefing they were all dismissive of anything that wasn't classified to them as important, which was practically the whole event.

Throughout the whole briefing, Raven noticed that she (as expected) and that other Agent were the only ones who paid attention to the assignment. Now that she had seen a bit of what that Agent could do, she had noticed that he only looked like he wasn't listening, but in reality he was putting on a front, a Mask, to hide the fact that he was actually committing each detail to memory, just like she had. In her opinion, the team for this mission consisted of only her, and this other Agent. Those other men were not Agents in her eyes, but primitive dogs with no leash.

As for that other Agent...

Raven didn't know what to make of him so far, only that his speed was commendable and that he could hold someone in a vice-like grip. She didn't know of his abilities, why he wore that Armour or kept his face concealed behind a Mask. None of it. Which meant she would be wary of him for the duration of their mission. She did admit though, that compared to the rest of them, that this Agent had a greater chance of surviving in this dog eats dog world of theirs.

Once the Briefing was over and done with, Raven and the others all traveled out of the Basilicom towards the transport waiting for them outside. Their transport, unlike Leanbox's M577 Armoured Personal Carrier, was a Militarized Transport, a futuristic vehicle that was similar in technology to the Vultures that were in development. This was a Transport armed with a single Machine Gun, but only traveled at slow speeds. It would be a long time before they got to the Virtua Forest like this. It would have been faster to have ran there, however there were Protocols to follow.

Of course, the Gangsters tried to make themselves look cooler than they really were in front of her, while keeping a wide berth from the Agent that had broken one of their mates' arms. They had a healing potion on hand, and to Raven's displeasure it was an expensive one that functioned just as well. It healed his arm, and he was once again able to go on active duty. Her earlier hunch about them coming from rich families had been correct after all. Though, there was a constant surge of KI from the other Agent that suppressed any thought of going too far.

Thus she had to endure this for a while.


Finally, after one of the most mentally challenging ordeals she had faced yet, the Transport finally stopped moving, a speaker within the Transport coming online. "Alright, we have arrived." The Driver spoke through the speaker. He spoke in a quick, tense manner, probably due to having felt her rising KI even from his spot in the driver's seat. Raven smirked behind her Mask, glad to see that she still had it. Those gangsters just didn't get the ability to shut up, did they? They even resumed their attempts when they saw her slowly unsheathe her Odachi on their asses, something that pissed her off to no end.

She hoped that they either turned rogue so she could kill them, or they get eaten by the Abnormals, she really did.

When they all disembarked from the Transport, the other Agent had a few words with the Driver, while the gangsters kept on whooping for joy, loudly proclaiming that they were going to get some action today. Meanwhile, Raven pushed their annoying rambles to the back of her mind, and reached out with her senses.

'I can sense the pack of Abnormals, deep within the forest itself... they don't seem to be too active at this point, however that can change the moment they get a whiff of our scents...' she thought to herself, before she heard heavy footsteps from behind her.

Swiftly drawing her Odachi, Raven instinctively made to slash the person that tried sneaking up on her, only too see a faint flash of purple as what looked like an energy claw was deployed, one that blocked her Slash. She noted that the energy claws took the form of 5 purple Scythe blades, which crackled away against her Odachi's edge. Looking to the cause while hiding her surprise at the response, Raven's masked gaze locked onto the gaze of the Agent that had helped her earlier. "You..."

"I have finished advising the Driver to keep an eye out, he should be aware of the mission and the necessary risks. In addition, I have sent a Recon Drone, covered in natural resources like mud to hide its scent from the Abnormals. It has returned approximately 3.434 minutes ago." the Agent stated blankly, with a matching expression on his face. Or what she could see from his Mask. He didn't even look bothered that she had just tried to slice him apart just now, more focused on the more important topic of completing the mission.

Retracting her Odachi, Raven nodded her head in response to his explanation. It was fortunate that she seemed to have at least one professional here, those others could hardly be called such due to their callous demeanour. She then turned on her heels and barrelled her way inside the forest, leaving the other Agents in the dust figuratively speaking.

She didn't need them, she didn't need anyone to slow her down. Nobody would reach her Skill with a sword, not that Agent and CERTAINLY not those Gangsters.


Rave made her way through the forest, and found herself going trough the bushes towards a small clearing, just big enough for a one on one fight. It was at the very end of the dungeon, consisting of small platform elevated above a ring of grassland and flora. At the back, she could see the Leader of the Abnormal Monster packs, the Thanator, resting with its back facing her. A slow, sly smirk formed on her lips as her instincts eagerly awaited the feeling of shredding through its flesh to the bone.

The Thanator was a lean and agile cat-like creature, its musculature pronounced and impressive, providing power for protracted runs and leaps. It had an elongated snout with its teeth being shown outside of the lipless mouth. From behind it, came its thin Armored tail. An impact from the tail was strong enough to defend against other Thanators, she knew since she'd seen one fight another Thanator for territory. What a freaking fight that had been. The creature's senses are so highly developed that, depending on atmospheric conditions, it can detect prey up to thirteen kilometers away.

Hence why hunting them was a rare treat for her.

The Thanator had ten sensory quills that sprout from sections of armour plating that encircle the rear of its skull. The function of the quills is still a mystery, but it has been hypothesized that they may be tied to an internal mechanism of prey location; possibly echolocation or another sensory pinpointing system. The quills also flare up and produce a more menacing appearance. The plates themselves were cartilaginous in nature.

It also had an Armored neck and back, a massive distensible jaw, and twenty-three centimeter long sharp teeth. The Thanator had burnished black skin, with hints of dark purple here and there. Its ten external sensory quills are coloured bright red and yellow. The upper lip folds back for maximum tooth extension. What was more interesting, was that Thanators were approximately 20 feet (6 meters) long. It has six long legs, and two sets of Opercula on each side of its neck. When sensing for prey or for threats it can raise its front body and two front legs, standing on its four back limbs as it sniffs the air.

All this knowledge made Raven feel all the more alive, in her eyes anyways.

This was one of the more exhilarating parts of the hunt for her, the ability to creep up on prey while even the slightest error could prove to be potentially fatal. This was something Raven enjoyed more than castrating men day and night, more than fighting vicious beasts that could and would tear into her without mercy if she let them. To hunt was to become one with nature, to have it mask your scent and hide you from other Predators. To hunt meant analysing everything in your surroundings, utilising every sense at your disposal.

THIS was what she loved about her Quests, her hunts.

Her warrior side would take a backseat for the Huntress within her.

She had always gotten a cold heart, especially after what happened to her Tribe, but the sensations she got from hunting and fighting strong warriors seemingly brought her emotions back to the surface, out of the confines of her icy cold heart. To her, those two things were worth living for, worth fighting and killing for.

She could remember when she was a child, her family consisted of an entire tribe of people who lived in the Lowee Mountains, a Tribe who lived and breathed in the snow, hunting wildlife and monsters for their hides. They didn't rely too much on outside help, they preferred to stick to themselves. She could remember what it felt like when she achieved her first successful hunt, how elated her mother and father were when they heard how their daughter had succeeded in being as strong as the other tribeswomen.

To them, they had to live by the book, and that book said that you have to be strong and wise to be able to survive the climates, as well as the difficult life planned for you by fates. Their lives were involved with hunting, killing, and protecting their borders from any Bandits looking to make a quick raid. They were strong, unified, and had almost a family-like close bond. To Hunt with others was to trust them with your life, trust that they will cover your back while you covered theirs.

Shame that didn't happen... not for a long time, for her.

As she crept closer, making sure to repeatedly check her footing, Raven could feel the tension in the air, her ice cold heart softly and gently beating to reflect the calmness in her being. She could feel her body working overtime to provide the heat she required to keep warm, yet controlled it to the point where she wouldn't be detected by the rest of the Abnormals. On her travels, she had seen that they had been sleeping in a separate area, one far enough away that reinforcing the Thanator would take a slight time frame, yet still close enough to hear any calls of distress. This would be her perfect hunting ground, her time to show what a Hunter could really do...

Finally, she found herself in an ample position to strike at the beast's head. It softly snored, its breath being released from its shout with a calm inhale/exhale system going on with its chest. She could see it steadily rising and falling with the way it was sprawled on its side. Its Quills were flat against the creature's skull, an indication that it hadn't felt her presence yet. Slowly and softly, she drew her Odachi, careful not to draw any attention to her presence here. She'd go for the kill herself, one quick strike to the head and then it would be all over via beheading. She'd then confirm her kill, then return to the Transport for the journey back.

She got ready, reared herself back, before in a blur Raven blasted out of the clearing, a flash of KI shooting through her eyes. A brief millisecond before her Odachi's crimson blade could slice its head off, the creature's eyes shot wide open before it rolled out of her blade's line of attack, rolling onto all fours, or in this case all sixes, before glaring at her. It hissed angrily at the interruption of its nap, Quills rising and flaring in response to its anger.

In response, Raven slowly got into her battle stance, her blade gleaming menacingly in the sun. Her instincts told her that she wouldn't have made that first strike at the last moment. She'd felt something when she was about to strike, something that screamed at her to dodge at the last second. She'd been right to trust her instincts, as when it had dodged her she had almost gotten her abdomen sliced through by its claws. Judging by the irritated glare it was sporting, as well as how it seemed to curl its right claws into the ground, the black haired Spec Ops Agent quickly concluded on what happened.

"You... you were baiting me, weren't you?"

It wasn't uncommon for Abnormals to have varying forms of intelligence, not uncommon at all. By any stretch of the word. However, it was always difficult to tell apart the intelligent ones from the dumb ones, since there were so few signs that indicated as such outside of a battle. However, to Raven's misfortune she seemed to have gotten stuck with one of the smarter ones, to openly bait someone like it had done meant that it had experience in hunting prey as mentally efficient as herself, and had come out on top stronger for it.

Perfect.

A sly smirk spread across her lips from behind her Mask, before Raven charged forwards in a blur. The Thanator hissed as it tried to bite down on her when she was close enough, but she managed to sidestep it at the last moment. She then twisted on her toes and went for a slash down its form, but the beast performed a rather elegant manoeuvre to dodge it: by stabbing its front claws into the ground and spinning its rear around so her blade barely missed its flesh.

It made to pounce on her, but Raven raised her Odachi and blocked its strikes, its claws and fangs wrapping around the crimson blade. The impact plus the collision made her slide back a good 3 metres, but Raven managed to hold firm, her Odachi shaking slightly before she launched a kick to its ribcage, forcing the Thanator to jump backwards to get some distance.

Raven held her Odachi in a combat stance, the crimson blade beginning to glow with the activation of a Skill. "DEMON CLAW!" she yelled, her Odachi now having several energy blades shaped like a Claw. She then dashed towards her prey, flipping into the air and spinning like a sausage to slash downwards towards her prey.

In response, the Thanator, instead of letting her hit it, dodging or blocking, it head-butted her in the stomach, catching Raven off guard as she was sent flying backwards. She righted herself in mid air, landing on the ground and sliding to a halt with her Skill deactivating. 'Tch, that wasn't something I expected...' she thought to herself, getting to her feet until she noticed a maw closing in on her. Quickly she ducked, going on all fours to avoid the lunge that the Thanator had been able to launch towards her. Its massive form flew over head, in which case she scored the first hit aside from that head-butt, by throwing her Odachi into a reverse slash above her. Her blade cut through one of its hind legs, much to its surprise as it howled in pain at the damage.

Pressing her advantage, Raven swiftly got to her feet, twirled around and dashed towards her prey, intent on activating another Skill before it could recover. She decided to go with HYPER SLASH, crimson Energy crackling along the blade, though the colour varies depending on the blade's colour, as she cut a single slice through one side of the enemy, before she twisted on her heels and came back to repeat the process for the other side. For the last strike, Raven then jumped up and came downwards with a vertical slash, creating another slash mark, withal three exploding in unison.

The Thanator roared, anger and pain waging war within it thanks to the damage it was dealt. Raven jumped back before it could tear her head off with a claw slash, landing on the ground in a crouch. She stood tall and readied her Odachi, her eyes narrowed like a hawk's behind her Mask. So far, this fight was going in her favour, if she got herself a couple more good strikes, she was sure that the Thanator would be defeated swiftly. Then, she could go back home and forget about having to work with those-

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Her thoughts, composure, and the enemy were shaken out of whack, when a massive, loud, beastly roar suddenly rippled through the area, causing waves of tremors to go through the ground beneath their feet. Raven managed to retain her balance by crouching and stabbing her Odachi into the ground as a makeshift walking stick, but the weakened Thanator however, fell onto its side, stumbling while it tried to get back up.

Nevertheless, Raven didn't focus on that. Instead, her thoughts went to the roar just now. 'Wha-What the heck?! What was that?!' She shrieked in her mind, her normal composure thrown off the rails completely by this new development. She took a few hasty breaths, before another thought struck her, one that made her eyes go wide with not shock, but realisation. That was a prospect she feared more though, because she realised only ONE creature could make such a loud roar that it could shake the earth like this. 'Wait, that roar! It couldn't be, could it?! Could one of them migrate to Planeptune from Lowee?!'

No, that shouldn't happen, it shouldn't be possible for monsters to switch environments like what she was assuming. Normally, monsters stayed within their own environments unless they were amassing to raid any nearby human settlements. It had been that way for as long as Gamindustri could remember, that was what the general consensus was. However, Raven remembered that the roar belonged to an Abnormal, and Abnormals didn't exactlyu have good behaviour records.

'Still, if one of THOSE is here...!' She couldn't help but frown as her cold heart began to crackle, ice beginning to roil around it like an encroachment. 'I am not as equipped to deal with one.'

Turned out though, that her fears were to be proven correct. Could she not be right for once? A part of her couldn't help but think that as something large, fast and orangish yellow burst out of the wilderness, flying overhead and colliding right into the Thanator. Said Abnormal let out a startled cry of surprise as it fell down, engaging in a wrestling match with its new assailant.

A fight that it soon lost, due to both fatigue and its injuries, when a maw grabbed onto its neck from above and twisted, causing an audible cracking sound to echo through the air before the beast fell to the ground dead. The victorious monster let out a victorious roar while its wounded, weakened prey dispersed intro particles that were absorbed into it, satisfying the new monster's hunger.

Rave quickly got herself on guard though, getting into a ready stance as she eyed the new arrival that dared interrupt her hunt. The beast was large, easily the size of a Van at least, with the length of one as well. It moved on all fours, with the front arms also being considered wings, thanks to the built-in webbing and finger bones tucked in. Its front arms ended in 3 toed paws, while its reverse jointed hind legs ended in long claws. From the base of its spine, was a long tail that ended in a thin, stinger-like tip. It had a elongated neck, with a grey skull shell over its tiger/dinosaur-liker snout. Its beady, golden and slitted eyes narrowed at the other prey as it stepped towards her, like a tiger on the prowl through the wilderness.

She knew this beast, it was one from the Lowee Mountains, one of the regular monsters her Tribe was forced to avoid unless in a large enough group to take it out:

A Tigrex.

A flying wyvern-type Abnormal that maintained A primitive, predatory behaviour with the characteristics of a tiger and a dinosaur. Prone to violence, it possesses incredible ferocity thanks to its four limbs, claws, and jaw. Inhabits a wide area, it has even been spotted hunting other Abnormals in the mountains.

That was the general consensus when it came to these beasts, but Raven knew more about them than that. As a quadrupedal wyvern, its wings have evolved into forelegs, which allows it to run at very fast speeds. Though it possesses a pair of adequately-developed wings, it is rarely seen flying in a traditional sense. It is in fact more prone to gliding from location to location. It has a powerful set of lungs which gives it the ability to produce extremely loud, concussive roars which can physically damage nearby objects. Hence why the ground shook when it roared. Unlike many other Abnormals, the Tigrex does not wield any specialised abilities. Rather, it relies on its sheer brute strength to bring down opponents.

She knew this because, again, of her Tribe's many recorded encounters with this species. One of them had been said to have devoured her great-great-grandfather at one point in time, and that was when he was still in his prime. Their line always did have the gift of longevity in their blood. While others fell from their prime in their 30's it would be when they were in their 80's to 90's for her bloodline to lose their prime.

Nevertheless, all this knowledge did was assure her that this would be a tough fight indeed.

Thus, she waited for the beast to make its first move. Once it did, she planned to activate her SAMURAI DRIVE Skill to help empower her enough to get out of the way in time-

BOOM!

Someone else came flying out of the wilderness, from another direction compared to the Tigrex. It shouted in surprise at the intrusion, though the blur that came into the battlefield didn't care as it aimed a flying kick to the side of its head. It then used it as a springboard to jump away from it before the Tigrex could cut it in half with its wings, flipping repeatedly through the air before landing by Raven's side.

"Apologies for arriving late, I got distracted with some pest control." A masculine voice came from the new arrival as it stopped to stand by her side, getting into a guarded stance. "I noticed this thing was hunting our prey, likely tracking it from the blood its already shed to get to this point, so I followed it here."

Raven resisted the urge to groan at the thought of a man saving the day, but then something struck her as odd. The voice the masculine blur used felt familiar to her ears, like she had heard it briefly before. She tried to remember when it was that she heard it, but couldn't get a good read on it. It just was so blank, so monotone and robotic that any thought of it being considered a human's voice was considered idiotic.

Wait...

Blank,

Monotone,

robotic,

familiar...

Slowly, the dawn shone on her mind as realisation danced across it like an Irish tap dancer. She glanced towards the new arrival to confirm her suspicion, and true enough it was that same Agent from before. The one in the Mask and Armour. What was his name again? Raven didn't remember ever asking about his name, probably because she didn't see him as anyone worth acknowledging back then.

Well, she had no choice, now.

"Appreciate the assistance." she stated simply, nodding to him. He wordlessly nodded back, as the Tigrex gave a loud roar to get their attention back. It charged at them like a raging bull, moving on all fours and unlike what its size may say, it definitely wasn't slow by any means. The two barely dodged it in time, landing on opposite sides.

Afterwards, the two shared a quick glance, and like magic the two understood each other's intentions. There was a saying that eyes were like windows to the soul, the path to finding out what they were thinking. In fact, the eyes do provide lots of information about another person's emotional state. When people are sad or worried, they furrow their brow, which makes the eyes look smaller. Yet when people are cheerful, people correctly call them "bright eyed." That's because people raise their eyebrows when they're happy, making the eyes look bigger and brighter.

In that moment, both of them saw that they each had one thing in mind:

kill, this fucker.

Thus, with that out of the way, the two Agents dashed towards the Tigrex, which charged back...

(Flashback: END!)

Raven brought herself out of that memory of hers as she returned to reality.

"The day we met... its amusing to think of how I was once..."

She remembered that fight with the Tigrex all too well. She remembered how it lasted for practically 4 days straight, for it would flee the scene when they damaged it significantly enough so its wounds could heal. Then there was its speed, agility and monstrous strength to consider. It was a beast that was meant to be a killer, a beast that hunted prey without discrimination. Plus, their teamwork back then wasn't nearly as good as it was right now.

Nico raised a brow, humming thoughtfully as the same memory came to his mind. "Yeah, weren't you about to castrate those Gangsters who'd hit on you every chance they got? They targeted you more so than any other Agent with how callously you disregarded them as worthless bugs." he remarked, frowning in remembrance. Now that he thought about it, those guys were the exact same ones he knocked the fuck out when he saw them harassing IF in the beginning of the story. Huh... small world.

The black haired swordswoman nodded as she scowled, her eyes shining with angry fire behind them, churning just below the surface. "They say that Eyes are windows to the soul..." she muttered under her breath, getting Nico to look at her.

"I guess so..." he admitted, and he knew this was true since there was a lot you could tell about a person by looking at their eyes. However, what people generally don't realise was that if the eye is the window into the soul, the pupil is—quite literally—an opening into the eye. The pupil acts like the aperture on a camera, dilating or contracting to regulate the amount of light coming into the eye.

People all knew that pupils get smaller in the light and bigger in the dark.

This was known as the pupillary light response.

In an article published by a couple Planeptune scientists, they argue that there's a lot more to the pupillary light response than, well, meets the eye. They claim that the size of the pupils tells a lot about the emotions and intentions of their owners.

According to the researchers, the pupillary light response isn't just a mechanical reaction to ambient light. Rather, as one shifts their gaze from one spot to another, our pupils adjust their size in advance to the amount of light one may expect to encounter at the new location.

Consider working at a computer: Most of the time, one's gaze is fixed on the bright screen, so the pupils are contracted. But every now and then, people glance down at the keyboard, when they need to reposition our fingers. The Planeptune Scientists claim that the pupils begin to dilate even before the downward eye movement begins. Because the pupillary light response is relatively slow—about a quarter of a second—anticipating the amount of light at the new location improves vision once our gaze gets there. (All of this, of course, operates below the level of consciousness.)

The pupillary light response is only one reason why the pupils change size. They also dilate when people were aroused. The body has an alarm network called the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body to take action whenever people detect a threat—or an opportunity—in their environment.

Encounter a bear while walking through the woods, and one's autonomic nervous system goes on alert. Their heart and breath rates increase, sweat forms as the muscles tense up, and, among other bodily reactions, the pupils dilate. The autonomic nervous system prepares the body to take action against the threat—perhaps scampering up the nearest tree.

Psychologists in Planeptune, hell even across the four Nations, consider pupil dilation to be an honest cue to sexual or social interest. That's because pupil size isn't under any voluntary control. Let's say one is trying to fake interest as a co-worker recounts every play in his or her weekend golf game. One can force a smile. One might even remember to crinkle the corners of their eyes, to make that smile look real. But their tiny pupils will reveal their lack of interest.

Arousal increases pupil size irrespective of the amount of ambient light present because optimal pupil size involves a trade-off between two factors. The first is visual acuity, or how well one can see the details of whatever they're looking at. In this case, one needs "Goldilocks" pupils—not too bright and not too dark, with just the right amount of light coming in. Thus, the pupillary light response is important for visual acuity.

The second factor is visual sensitivity, or how well one can detect something that's in the environment. If one wants to really see what's out there, they will need to have their eyes—especially the pupils—wide open. This is where the connection between arousal and pupil dilation comes in.

Psychologists consider pupil size in terms of the two functions of vision—exploration and exploitation. When we're exploring our environments, we're on the lookout for threats and opportunities, so we're in a heightened state of arousal. Visual sensitivity is most important in exploration, so our pupils are wide open, taking in as much visual information as possible.

In layman's terms, the eyes are a major part of looking at a person's emotions. That was a dynamic that helped Nico and Raven establish the trust and respect for one another that they had today. They were both killers, they were both Agents who operate upon their own ideals. Sometimes they clashed, but that was part of idealistic natures. They always understood each other through an exchange of blades, and resulted in their current relationship. They were comrades, siblings in arms, warriors. Nico would trust her to watch his back, and vice versa.

"I've always been curious, but when we fought that Tigrex..."

Nico brought himself out of his musings when he heard Raven speak. His eyes cast their gaze into her own, and as he had just been explaining to the readers, he could see that her eyes showed hesitation and slight nervousness. Why was that though? What made her seem so nervous all of a sudden? This wasn't the Raven he knew, the Rave he knew would never let her emotions get the better of her like this. Although, since they were alone, perhaps she feels like she could lower her guard around him a little. He'd noticed that a couple months into their comradeship her behaviour towards him had changed. She'd become lighter, kinder, more respectful and sometimes she even smiled at him.

"What did you think of me when we first exchanged glances?"

Raven finally asked the question after getting the courage to do so. It wasn't what she really wanted to ask though, what she really wanted to ask was to do with what Lucy had done this morning. With the kissing and all, but like an idiot she had chosen something else. Raven never was good with emotions, not since what happened to her, or ever really. She never was a social-type of person. She preferred the cold than to the hot, she preferred to walk in large snow fields other than grassy plains. She liked things that most people found uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, Nico thought about her question, and after a few moments he gave her an honest answer. "I saw someone who was like a powder keg waiting to erupt." Nico finally spoke, making Raven look at him in surprise, not expecting him to answer with THAT of all things. She remembered having a short fuse that day, after having to deal with cat calls, wolf whistles etc, she had been looking forward to getting some rest when the Urgent Quest Alert came to her phone. Yeah, she had NOT been a happy camper. "I thought that you were someone who wasn't to be trifled with, as well as someone who found displeasure in working with incompetent assholes."

Now THIS made a slight upturn of her lips happen, the right corner of her mouth twitching ever so slightly. "Yeah, you hit the nail on the head right there, Nico." she responded in mirth, her eyes shining with it while Nico chuckled as well. The awkward atmosphere from before had all but faded away from the two, leaving two super powered teenagers to talk to each other like they had no problems at all.

While they talked, sometimes chuckling or outright laughing, Raven began to think to herself in the darkest corner of her mind.

Her heart, which was coated in a shell of ultra hard ice, a heart which didn't express much emotion, if at all.

That was the kind of heart she possessed.

Raven was a cold woman, down to the core. She believed in the strong surviving and the weak dying. She could kill without mercy, and in pretty gory ways as well. One such example was one time when a man tried to force himself on her, she did the splits and bashed his balls with an uppercut, nearly crushing them with the amount of force applied. That guy was still in the hospital, last she heard, getting surgery done on his penis.

The woman was not someone who expressed emotion, save for anger, rage, jealousy, hatred and envy.

And yet...

What were these strange feelings swirling within her chest? These warm, uncomfortable feelings fluttering like butterflies in her gut.

These feelings that cropped up only when it concerned one man, the man sitting opposite her whom she was enjoying a normal conversation with, instead of decapitating him or worse.

What were they?

She didn't understand, not one bit.


Chapter end!

By GODS, this is the LONGEST chapter yet! practically 20K words!

To me, Raven is a character whose not so good with her own feelings. No, that character trope has been dealt with a couple times like in teenage school romance anime or action anime like Shakugan No Shana. Thus, I've decided to take a special twist to the trope that I don't think people will expect, though I have hinted at it several times throughout this chapter.

I hope people will like the characterization I've chosen for her, though. She has now gotten more character development, as well as deeper insight to her 'might makes right' personality. Also, the character she was based off of, the mother of Yang in RWBY, also had similar mindsets and powers over Ice as her, but i'm changing her past to something that can suit the Hyperdimension Universe. Also, because the Raven in RWBY hasn't fully shown her backstory, although things have been implied about it.

Probably going to skip the other two for a while longer. Not sure completely yet, but so far these two heroines, Lucy and Raven, have had their characters explored to some depth these last few chapters. Now, we can get to the next part of the mini arc, Nico returning to Leanbox's Capital MICROSOFT and finding out IF has all but vanished.

Then there was Count Mott, who appeared a couple chapters ago. He will have a role to play, minor or not I won't say yet. But you probably won't see this one coming, even though I've hinted at something sinister with him.