Revelation

The next few months Jun and Ann worked as hard as they could. Working solo and being temporartly hired by agencies is not easy, especially if you're not famous. They trained, made leaflets, posters, even a website. They would ocasionally go and pass leaflets to people on the street. They even got a few jobs.

"How's the work going Jun?" - Lili asked.

"Hi Ann!" - Maki greeted.

Maki and Ann became best friends. They would play together, go out on walks and visit the other Cursed children. They went to play in another room and left Jun and Lili alone.

"It's going well. Little by little the requessts we recieve become more."

"That's great! There is something I want to tell you..."

"What?"

"...I raised my rank. Now I'm plased 134992 th!" - she said and smiled.

"Congrats! You are now ranked higher than me."

"Which rank are you?"

"I'm 134993 th."

"That's just one below me! And you didn't have as much missions as me."

"It's prbably because that time I got all the credit for defeating that mole Gastrea."

"You might be right."

Din-din! The computer informed for a recieved message.

"What's that?" - she asked.

"It's a website I made. Here I recieve job requests."

"This is pretty convenient. I should tell boss about it. She was really pleased by you and said that she might hire you again."

"Here's the adres." - he gave her a leaflet and opened the request.

"What does it say?" - she was curious.

"It wants me to join a group of Promoters and go outside of the protected area to eliminate a verry dangerous Gastrea. The reward is good, too...OK! I'll accept it!" - he replied with Yes and recieved the date, time and place.

"Are you sure it's going to be alright? I have a bad feeling about it." - Lili said with a worried face.

"It's going to be fine."

The group was departing it four days at 9:30 in the morning from the place where Jun and Ann trained. For those four days they got ready. Prepared a lot of ammo and bought some candy, for themselves and the children that lived there.

=== The morning of the departure ===

"Let's go Ann!"

"OK! Let's go!"

They left the house early in the morning, before the sun even rose. They were walking fast but Jun was a bit worried. Not only Lili but his grandma told hin to be carefull because of a bad feeling. He understood his grandparents are worried because he's going outside but Lili, who led him on a mission with her, there was no reason for her to be worried. Ann felt that and comforted him.

"It's alright. I'll protect Jun from danger!"

"Yeah, I know you will..." - he stroke her head.

When they reached the place a few other Promoters and their Initiators were there. Jun and Ann sat a bit far from them and waited. They noticed that the Cursed children that lived nearby were attracted by the commotion. They were looking from afar what's happening. Jun took out the bag with candy and took a few for thenselves and gave the reat to Ann.

"Ann, go there and treat them some. I took some for us, so it's fine."

"Did you take from my favorite with cherry?"

"Yes, I took five of the cherry flavored."

"Ok. I'll go!"

She stood up and went to them. At first they were cautious but soon the children took the candy and started talking with her.

Now that I think about it, isn't this the place where I met Ann for the first time. - he thought.

It was really the same place. The last members of the group were comming. Among them was a face Jun hoped he never saw. It was Bern Volt. When he saw Jun he frouned and asked outloud.

"What is an amateur like you doing here?!"

"I'm in the group like you. And if I remember, my time was better than yours."

When he heard that Volt's face became red but because there were a lot of peoplr, some were even a higher rank than him, he held back and angryly left.

"Haah...guys like him always die or break first." - the voice of a woman said that behind Jun.

He was startled and quickly turned around. There was a tall woman in tight clothes and with long dark hair.

"Wow! Easy there, I won't bite you!"

"I'm sorry, I was surprised. Who are you?"

"I'm your employer."

"You are?!"

"Yes."

"What did you mean by that you said about Volt?"

"Guys like him only act big, because they think they are the best. But they are the worst. Some of them don't know when to quit, even if they don't have a chance, they fight and die. The others like him, once they step outside and see the hell that surround us, fall in despair and never go to battle again. That's if they survive on the way back."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. It's time to begin. Call your Initiator!" - she told him and left.

"Ann! Come here, we're going!"

She said goodbye to the other girls and returned. The woman Jun talked to explained what they have to do and sent them out. They moved in a dence group, everyone was cautious. On the way they encountered a few stage 1 and 2 Gastrea but they defeated them quickly. They reached theplace. As thy were hiding, their target appeared. A stage 3 mixed shark and bull type Gastrea. When it wasn't paying attention they attacked at once. Volt rushed before everyone and striked it with his blade but only made a small cut. That enraged the monster and it started swinging it's head, trying to stab someone with it's horns ar bite them with it's teeth. It's hooves were stomping and kicking with great force. It even made rush attacks at some people. The battle was intence and tireing but the Gastrea was defeated. There was no one bitten but there were a lot of injured people. One of them had his arm dislocated and another's ankle was sprained but the one in worst condition was Volt's Initiator. Even though they have amazing regenerative powers, if the wound is too deep or serious they would need medical help and a lot of time to recover.

"Thce. Getting injured so easyly." - said Volt.

Everyone was unhappy about his remark but Jun knew he was partally right. Last time he went out there were way more Gastrea and even one that did surprise attacks from below. He and Ann were unharmed but he knew that the teamwork here and the strenght of the people here is far less than last time.

"Our mission is done, let's go." - one of the men sad.

Just as he was going to head back with the others an incredibly strong gust of wind blew.

Craaak!

A giant bird type Gastrea landed and squashed one of the men. It was way bigger than the previous one. It was a stage 4 Gastrea. Most of the people got scared, especially the injured that couldn't move well.

"Everyone in formation! We'll manage to defeat it if we..." - one man began but was interrupted.

"There's no way in hell we'll be able to defeat this thing!"

"WAAH!"

The injured and some of the scared ran towards the city. There were only five Promoters left. A tottal of ten people. Volt did just as the woman said.

"We'll attack! Get here and help me!" - he shouted at his injured Initiator.

The girl was in pain but did what she was told to.

"Wait! You can't defeat it alone!" - Jun shouted.

Volt didn't hear him. He was about to swing his sword when the Gastrea's wing hit him. He was sent flying and crashed in a tree. There was a loud cracking sound, Volt's left hand was broken, eben the bone was oking out of his flesh. His right ankle was bent in a strange way. His Initiator looked at him but before she can do something the monster used it's leg to slam the girl at the ground, she screamed in pain. The Gastrea bent down towards her, it bit her shoulder and threw her in the air. The next momment it was chewing the girl slowly. Everyone was horryfied and understood that the only way to get back alive is to work together. Some distracted it and others got to Volt and picked him up. Thy were about to head to the city when another pair got defeated by the monster.

"Go back! We'll distract it! Hurry!" - a man shouted whhile leaving Volt to Jun. He and Ann headed to the city while helping Volt. They advanced quickly because she was holding volt and he was taking care ot the Gastrea that came after them. They soon reached part of the people that ran away. A loud explosion was heard and the stage 4 Gastrea headed their way, it had defeated the others. It reached them in a moment and landed with a crash, breaking most of the trees.

I guess we'll have to fight. We have to protect the people here! - jun thought.

"Ann! Let's guh!"

A sharp pain in his leg stopped him. He looked and saw Volt, who was now on the ground, piercing his leg two times with a pocket knife.

"Waah!" - the boy shouted.

Volt got up guickly and started running as fast as he could towards the city.

"Stay here and slow it down! While it's eating you I'll be already in the city!"

Jun fell to the ground in pain. The others also ran away, leaving Jun and Ann with the Gastrea.

"Ann! RUN AWAY!" - he shouted at her.

The city was just a hundret metres from there. Even if it costed him his life he wouldn't let her die here. He stood up on his uninjured foot and was about to get his gun ready when he noticed something. Ann was shaking, not from fear but frm anger. Not even once since he met her, he saw her eye colour change. Not even when they fought that mole but now her eyes were blood red. He felt how angry she was.

"I KILL!" - she shouted angryly and glared at the Gastrea.

When she did that, the monfter flinched and moved a step back but then attacked. Ann jumped before it's attack landed and kicked it further away from Jun. She then dashed towards it and attacked with her fist, this time. Jun swas standing still, amazed by how much more power she had. He heard rustling behind him. From there Lili and Maki appeared.

"Jun! What happened?! Where's Ann?"

"She's there. Why are you here Lili?" - she said and pointed towards the place Ann was fighting.

"I had a bad feeling so I came with a first aid kit. You weren't bitten, right?"

"No, this wound is from a knife."

She didn't say anything more and started treating his wound. The battle between Ann and the Gastrea was getting more intence. The gastrea was trying to run away. It hit Ann and tried to fly away but the enraged girl jumbed with much more force and ripped it's wing off. Now the monster couldn't escape. The battle became vicious, Ann was attacking like a rabbid beast.

"What's wrong with Ann?!" - Lili asked.

"Yeah, she's scary." - Maki added.

"I don't know. She was verry angry, she even said 'kill'. I never heard her talk like that."

"There might be a problem. Do you bring any medicine shots with you?" - Lili asked and finished his treatment.

"Medicine shots?"

"Yeah, the one we give our initiators. You didn't bring any?"

"I never gave her any. I didn't even knew about them."

"WHAT?!" - she screamed.

Crash! Boooom! Splash!

With one last hit the Gastrea was defeated. They all stared at the direction, waiting. Soon the silhouette of Ann appeared from afar but Lili saw something steange, a feeling of danger creeped inside her and Maki.

"Maki! Battle possition!"

They both got instantly in possition.

"What are you doing?!"

"FOOL! Didn't you read anything?! If an Initiator doesn't take the medicine, she'll tourn in a Gastrea faster!"

Those words struch Jun. Because he thought he'll learn in action he never read the books. His father's Initiator didn't get along with hin and his father didn't told him anything about his work but now he remembered. Occasionally his father would bring a metal case with capsules in it.

So that was the medicine...

When Ann appeared from the forest she asked:

"Lili, Maki-chan? What are you doing ere?"

With her eyes still blood red, her clothes ripped and stained with blood, she stood there. Looking confused, why were they pointing weapons at her. Jun felt awful when hi saw it.

"We're sorry, Ann..." - said maki with tears in her eyes.

The reason was because Ann's right hand had transformed. It was dark, scaly and had five fingers with long, black, razor sharp claws.