An Unwanted Invitation - Part 1

* Lost Sky - Fearless [NSC Release] *

***

"Raven?" Maria nudged her gently again trying to get a real response out of her.

"I'm sorry, I'll go outside help some people. Don't worry about me I'll be back in no time." she said as she ran out of the mansion.

She needed to destroy something, anything, 'I hope to anything that can hear to find some monsters out there...'

[Please don't...]

Kayla was feeling the mess inside Raven's mind.

'But I ha-'

[Don't you get why Maya was really angry at you? You're not alone anymore, you have family and friends... People that love you and care about you, please, do you want to see the others sad again?

[Maria, Maya, Axane, and everyone else, they care deeply about you and you know it.]

Kayla was by no means scolding her, just reminding her of some important facts.

"Hey, sorry did we come in the wrong time?"

Looking towards the source of the voice, Raven saw a couple of familiar faces.

Mike, the captain of the soccer team and Draven's friend. Remi and Jake, Draven's childhood friend.

Next to them Raven could see a girl their age, with pale white skin, bright violet eyes, long silky black hair. She recognised her as the new student in her class, Rachel.

Behind his classmates stood Jaimie and Ted, the two familiar S rankers. Next to them however, were a set of three new faces.

A short man with bulky muscles making his business suit look small on him. His olive toned skin was shining under the little light penetrating through the smokey sky. He was wearing vision glasses above his void black eyes, and he had a matching short silkyhair.

Behind him stood a young Japanese looking woman with a slender frame, pale skin, gentle brown eyes, and long black hair that was tied backwards in a ponytail.

Next to her was a tall young man with pale white skin, blonde short hair and sparkling silver eyes. With his suit and sunglasses in his chest pocket, he looked like an everyday FBI agent.

"Sorry for the intrusion Ms. O'Bannon," the short bulky man said as he extended his hand for Raven to shake. "Your recovery speed is really impressive, if I may."

'Well f*CK!' Raven cursed in her mind. 'Their appearance and them three coming with two other S rankers only proves it, they're EDA .'

Seeing that the little girl had no intentions of shaking his hand, the man looked rather unfazed as he returned it to his side again.

"My name is Bell Holland, I'm the local EDA executive, or the current unit leader of the EDA base in Torinto city." he said in a professional manner, "you've already met James Oliver, and Ted Baker. And these two behind me are William Green and Yaski Sorushima."

Hearing all of that, Raven didn't even think about stopping the man from talking even though she couldn't care one bit.

Every thought on her mind was about them finding out where she was. 'Did they track me down? Maybe Camilla's phone? HOW?'

Noticing her stone cold expression, Mike decided to say something to make her feel at ease.

"Hey Drave- err, Raven, we were so worried about you, you know, with all of the fighting and stuff, I hope you're feeling better than yesterday, haha," Mike said as he scratched the back of his head in embracement.

He wasn't into girls, but the thought that Draven was inside that body made his stomach flutter.

"Alright boss, you can see the girl isn't willing to talk for now, give her a break I'm sure she'll come around." Jaime said as the awkwardness in the air was so intense for his taste. "I'll go see Camilla, she's ought to be inside-"

"Where the f-" Raven was so stressed and angry at the moment that she almost lost track of her mouth, "I don't remember this house being yours to barge into like a loose elephant."

"Err... may I-"

"Oi Jaime boy haven't I tought you to ask for permission before you start walking into people's houses?" Camilla called out as she shook her head. Her voice was a mix of disappointment and embracement.

"Camilla!"

"Yea that's me... so what's the plan here Mr. Holland? I don't think you're here for me this time, huh?"

"Correct Ms. Rogers," Mr. Holland said yet in a professional tone, "it has come to our attention that this young lady may be an S ranker and so we're here to offer her early admission to the EDA Rankers' Course."

The EDA Rankers' Course was every ranker's dream, basically a way to get a job and work as a professional ranker for the EDA.

It's somewhat like a police academy, or an army special force training, basically something to test new recruits, but in a higher level... stupidly higher level.

It was known that the entrance exam for the EDA Rankers' Course was one of the hardest to ever exist.

Having early admissions means skipping the exam and not waiting till Raven was eighteen, which was when rankers are usually allowed to try and take it.

For others it was the opportunity of a lifetime, but for Raven, it was a way to bind her and prevent her from enjoying her life.

She's never wanted to be a ranker, not even have powers. However, after the monster incident and how poorly she had performed, she wanted to get stronger to be able to protect her family and those she loves.

But she knew that the EDA will do more bad than good. If they found her to be stronger that normal, she'll be forced to stay with them.

In case she decided to run away or simply refuse, they'd have her family as means of pressuring her into submitting.

"Thank you," Raven said in a low voice, yet everyone could hear her just fine, "I'm not interested, feel free to leave now."

While saying that, she directly stared at the short man, Mr. Holland, who didn't let her reply affect his professional attitude.

'Hm, I'd like to believe that she's goodie goodie and all, but everything about her screams I'M GOING TO CAUSE YOU TROUBLE...' Mr. Holland thought and came with a response in the spur of the moment.

"It's understandable, given the recent events and all," he said as he looked at Maria and the rest of the group who had just arrived. "It'd be a shame to leave such a beautiful family all alone after al-"

WOOOOOSHSHH!!!

Air suddenly became thick with killing intent that threatened to cut everyone's oxygen supplies.

"Did you just threaten my family?" Raven said in a low voice that gave chills to four out of the five EDA rankers.

Mr. Holland seemed rather impressed as he had a smirk on his olive toned face, 'to make me struggle for one breath is a feat so great... you have no idea, or rather, I have no idea what you are made of, young miss.' he thought to himself as he flickered and reappeared to Raven.

Sensing his presence near her and feeling danger, she instinctively formed her golden aura around her fingertips as she thought about slashing at his neck.

In any other scenario she would have used her white aura, but she couldn't do that since she couldn't really control the output yet.

One wrong move and she might bring a new sun crashing down on Earth, annihilating many life forms.

However, even the normal slash attack was a bad choice for the moment.

'I can't- No, he's strong... if I miss, the slash will continue and hit one of my classmates... No, even if I hit- I still don't have enough control to fight like this in close quarters-'

Even increasing her aura was more harmful than good at this point. Up until this moment she had a barrier around anyone other than the five rankers.

But any more and that barrier won't take it, and she'd end up harming if not killing the people she's been trying so hard to protect.

It was for an instant, buy Mr. Holland felt the pressure in the air disappear as his hand was about to strike the girl's neck.

He was aiming at her carotid artery and vagus nerve, as he only meant to knock her out.

His test has been to see if she actually cares about her family even if it meant fighting against a stronger foe, or if she was a psychopath who only cares about power.

'You pass...' he said as he felt the hit connect.

However, it took him a second to realize that what he had hit was the girl's guard, as she has covered her arm in a dense golden aura and avoided a direct hit.

The strike wasn't strong in particular, only fast and accurate so it didn't break her arm or even hurt her at all. Nonetheless it was a surprise that such a small frame could move so fast.

What surprised him the most was that the girl was already a step ahead of him as she was midair with her leg ready to take his head off.

PUUFFF!!

A small shockwave could be felt in the air as Mr. Holland caught her foot midair and retreated backwards with raised hands to signal his defeat.