I'm so sorry I haven't uploaded in months. Life hates me so I had to put this on hold. I HAVE 7 OF THESE COMPLETED...
I shall update once a day or all at the same time. Depends. Now take this 100% new chapter and enjoy~!
Chapter 12
Mark of Mastery
Ray sat in the office of the Council along with a still recovering Gary. They were called to the meeting due to the fact that they were both technically the Number 1 codemaster, although Ray was only by proxy.
"The existence of these Virus Cards is now well known around the guild of codemasters. Though lately whenever one appears, it disappears just as quickly. We need to find out where they're coming from. Ray, we're sending you to the Code Matrix with a few top rank codemasters to find the source."
"Why do I need backup? Not that I'm denying it. I'd just like as much information as possible before the operation."
"The league obviously has spies around the matrix so it won't be investigated. There's a reason we've waited this long to use this option." The black cloaked master elaborated.
"Plus there's the chance that Ashton is leading the defense of the Matrix." Gary added. "And your grasp of X-Mode is shaky at best."
"That hurts dude." Ray replied in mock agony.
"Ray. Can we count on you to retrieve the information and return it here to us?"
"You can count on me! When is my time of departure?"
"You sound as if this is not your first operation." The yellow cloaked master mused.
"There are things in my past I'd rather leave untouched."
"We knew of your background, but not much was revealed to us. Hopefully, you excel far beyond our expectations. You leave from your GCS at dawn. Your team is waiting outside to meet you."
"Understood." Ray bowed to the council and walked out the door.
Like the council said, 5 codemasters stood outside. They wore their armor, but had decided to remove their helmets.
"So can you guys tell me about yourselves? I'd like to know who I'm fighting with."
The man in red armor scoffed.
One of the other men held up two fingers in a salute. "I'm Sean. I'm a long range gunzerker and I don't hate your guts."
Ray gulped. Sean was muscular to a fault. His slightly spiked auburn hair complimented his gray wife beater. The others did have pretty unwelcome stares pointed at Ray.
"The one that dissed you was Dean the Destructive, then there's Fred the Fearless, Goh the Genius, and Herald the Desert Wolf."
The men in red, green, blue and yellow armor all nodded as their names were called in said order.
"This won't end well..."
Ray was called into his guidance counselor's office that day during 5th period.
"You haven't skipped school this much since Sophomore Year. Raiden, if you miss any more days, you could be held back from graduating even with your overachieving GPA." The guidance counselor stated in a serious tone.
"Crap. How many more days can I miss?"
"0..." He replied sternly.
"Can I validate my absences or something?"
"If you can validate your multiple days away from school, I can give you those days back."
Ray nodded and headed back to class.
Sarah pulled him to the back to talk. They were in the middle of a project so it didn't stick out as much as it should.
"You have an attendance problem."
"How did you?"
She held up her gauntlet. "I called you while you were in the office. Heard the whole thing."
"You need some lessons on personal space." Ray rolled his eyes. "How am I gonna fix this?"
"Just use Code Excuse."
"Code what now?" Ray was lost.
"Here." Sarah took his arm and clicked a paper icon on his gauntlet. "Code Excuse automatically excuses all absences from school while you're a codemaster. I thought you used it when you went on your first date with Ralph. And all the others..."
"I didn't know what that was for so I left it alone."
"You have much to learn, young Padawan."
"One more Star Wars reference and Felix finds out about the fan fiction you wrote about him and Ralph."
"You wouldn't..."
Ray pulled out his phone. "'Their tongues danced the forbidden tango behind the Niceland Condominiums. Ralph had his overbearing stature towering over Felix's sleek form.' Shall I go on?"
Sarah was quiet for the rest of the class.
The next morning, Ray was met at the terminal to the Internet by the 5 codemasters that would be backing him up. They all wore bright gold bands on their arms. What he thought were their personal symbols were etched into the band.
"Morning, fellow masters."
"Pfft..." Dean scoffed. "You don't even have your Mark of Mastery. How can you call yourself a master?"
Ray assumed he was mentioning the bands on their arms.
"Poser..."
"Let's get going." The former prince of darkness ignored the obvious challenge to his pride and boarded the monorail. There was no need for infighting amongst them.
After a few minutes, Ray decided to break the ice.
"So what is the Mark of Mastery?"
Sean volunteered to explain. "It's the test that determines whether or not you're a true codemaster. The only requirement is that you master the weapon you were given and make it your own in all senses of the word."
Codemaster X told him about that, but not what it meant.
"I assume you've all done that."
Each of them nodded.
"The cool armband is just gravy."
When they reached the Code Matrix, each of the codemasters that accompanied him pulled out golden cards.
The room was huge with multiple entrances to a huge shopping like area. The Code Matrix sat in the center, humming a gentle time, almost as if it was content. What was weird was that the area was barren of all digital life.
"Arm yourself, Ray. The fight begins now."
They all donned their armor and Ray pulled out his X-Mode card, but dropped to his knees as he was overcome with intense pain. Sweat pooled on his forehead as his X-Mode card flashed back into his box.
Sean took his position in front of Ray as multiple Dark Shards and game characters poured from all the other entrances and charged them; some familiar, some not so much.
"Keep your positions until Ray is able to move forward!"
"The kid didn't need to come along." Dean growled, annoyed.
Ray stood inside his mind once more. Jack was also there holding a golden card. "Looks like it's my turn to mix it up."
Codemaster X walked up next to him. "I have called him to forge your Master Weapon. He is an important part of your journey and you must acknowledge him as such."
"I trust Codemaster X so I'll allow this, but I take control again once we're out of this, got it?"
"You gotta give me more credit than that. I'm not that evil."
"Says the guy that almost stole my body in 7th grade."
"You gotta learn to share." Jack joked and tapped Ray's shoulder.
"Just try not to scratch me up too badly."
Ray stood to his feet, holding his weapon card, his X mode card long forgotten. His eyes, normally cobalt blue, were bright red. "Try to keep up..." Ray crushed the card and his katana dropped into his open palm.
"Big talk for-"
The man was silenced as Ray dropped 5 Dark Shards without moving. Our so they thought. He then proceeded to mow a path to the Matrix without moving from his position on the steps. "Let's go, ladies!"
As they fended off the few possessed characters left to reach the center, Ray asked Sean, "What are we searching for exactly?"
"A location." Sean reached into the Matrix and scanned it with his gauntlet. "Hopefully the location of wherever the Virus Cards originate from."
More characters poured out of the terminal as they finished purging the ones they started with.
Ray handed Sean a virus card he plucked from one of the baddies. "This should speed things up. Scan for a concentration of darkness that matches this."
Sean slid the card through his gauntlet and the location to what he assumed was the base uploaded into his gauntlet.
"Get to the train. I can handle this." Ray threw his katana into the air and charged it full of electricity. The path they created was solidified by the excess lightning.
"What is he doing!?" One of the masters barked.
"I'm missing something..."
Xander dropped in through the ceiling holding his hammer and smashed a few baddies away. "I gawht ya Monado for ya!"
Ray held out his hand and caught the card. "Card Fusion! Katana and Monado! Master Weapon, Katado!"
Ray's katana cracked back into a card and clashed with the Monado. A new weapon was forged from the union.
It had the Monado's overall build, but the glowing blade in the center was replaced with a steel blade charged with electricity. The outside was also jet black and ultra sharp.
The codemasters along with Xander reached their transport as Ray ran between them and the enemy. The path was non-existent now and the room was crowded with enemies.
"I control the power flowing through my blade. Your finished!" The blade opened and flung the group back with a shockwave.
The tram left him alone with 1000 different villains and Dark Shards. "Ashton! You're done! The location of your Virus Card base is exposed. We'll be coming."
The ex-master dropped from the ceiling. "No matter. You'll fall here and we'll catch them before they reach the Council."
"Wanna bet?"
"Charge!"
Ray began hacking and slashing his adversaries to pieces. The Dark Shards imploded on impact with the mighty weapon and the characters disappeared back to their own games once their stamina dropped to 0.
After a long and drawn out fight sequence, (let me be lazy once during this fic) he stood before Ashton.
"So here we are." Ray sighed. "You could have been something great, but you chose the path of darkness."
Ashton transformed into the Shadow Wrecker. "My path was decided a long time ago. No one can save me now."
"If that's your choice... I've made mine!"
Ashton held his hand out and absorbed the fallen Dark Shards. He began to radiate darkness and his hair flashed dark red. "I'm far beyond you now. Give up!"
Ray held out his weapon. "I won't let myself down."
They dashed at each other, their movements shook the room. Just the force of fist clashing with steel was enough to cause the walls to crack.
Ashton's dark aura kept the blade from slicing through his massive fists, but it wasn't enough to keep Ray at bay.
The codemaster deflected the mighty blows of his adversary and dodged a swift, unexpected kick to his face.
He was tiring out quickly and his body was screaming for him to stop, while Ashton seemed ready for Round 2.
"I have to drive him back. Even if it's only temporary."
Ray held his blade out and put every ounce of his strength into it, causing it to glow blue.
"Thunder Climax! Xross Cleaver!"
Ray stomped the ground, trapping one of S. Wrecker's humongous feet in the tremor, then he threw a slash straight through the torso of the beast, successfully powering him down.
The weapon cracked back into a card and dropped to the floor with a thud. It was pure stone. Ray's eyes dulled back to their normal color as well.
"You won't win next time..." Ashton coughed up a bit of blood and limped out of the station through one of the other tunnels.
Ray was too drained to give chase and crashed on the wall.
His armor faded away as he caught his breath. He couldn't feel anything and Jack was unresponsive.
'Did he use up all power trying to prove something to me?' Ray was slowly coming to terms with his other side actually wanting to change.
Normally, he would chalk this up to him just going wild, but there was minimum damage to the surrounding area. This was not a normal occurrence when Jack took control.
"I'm a jackass..." Ray let out a hearty laugh. "He only wanted to help me this time and I was such an ass to him."
He looked at his right arm where a yin yang design graced a golden band.
"When Jack wakes up, I'll let him know I forgive him." Ray looked to the ceiling. "It's the least I can do."
Ray picked up the sleeping code weapon and headed for home.