Raphael wakes up wearily with tiredness in his next yawn. It takes him just a few mere moments to remember the previous bunking situation from last night. He looks over, seeing Miyra still in his bed. Miyra is still sound asleep from what he can see, and she isn't going to wake up unless someone forces her.
From the amount of light that is coming through Raphael's purple blinds, he judges that it is well early in the morning. He sighs and spins around away from Miyra to face the other side of the bed and begins to rest his eyes, too tired to get up and start the day.
Suddenly, while Raphael is still resting his eyes, he hears his bedroom door open. He opens his eyes to see Sherah standing in front of his doorway with a pair of communication glasses in her hands. She seems relatively calm at first, until she walks over to Raphael's bunk bed and slaps him across his face, which happens after he has risen himself into a sitting position.
“Why in the universe are you two sleeping in the same bed!?” Sherah roars, letting out her anger on Raphael. “How dare you take advantage of her like that! She's a Taurus, so she has no brain power and you know it. She's a back water little village girl and you used her for a sleeping buddy! You have no right to call yourself the Guardian if you act like....”
Before Sherah can finish her rage-filled speech, Miyra's fist flies by Raphael's face and hits Sherah in her mouth. Raphael looks behind his shoulder to see Miyra is now overcome with rage from what Sherah has just said about her. She pushes gently by Raphael and slides out of the bed. With anger in her eyes, she speaks out to Sherah. “How dare you insult my intelligence!” screams Miyra, putting an emphasis on the word 'dare'. “Just because I'm a Taurus and am incredibly strong because of that, that doesn't give you the right to put those kind of claims on me! Also, me and Raphael were not doing anything wrong, we were just sleeping in the same bed for certain reasons....”
Sherah shots her head up in anger before Miyra can finish her statement and grabs her by her shirt collar. She then pushes Miyra to the side and into Raphael's clothes cabinet. Before Sherah can even breath a word at Miyra, Miyra knees Sherah in her unprotected gut and headbutts her. Sherah recoils in pain at the lightning-quick assault. Miyra then does a shoulder tackle into Sherah and plows her down to the ground a second later.
Raphael sits on his bed with a look of astonishment on his face. If anyone had walked in at the moment where Miyra had punched Sherah, they would say that Miyra had started the fight. Raphael knows that is wrong, and that Sherah had started this. She is starting to get out of control.
Raphael leaps out of bed when he realizes that the time for thought is over. He runs over to the dueling pair and grabs Miyra's arms and pulls her away from Sherah with all the force he can muster. By the time Raphael has gotten over to Miyra, June is already in the room, as she was concerned about what all the yelling was about.
June knows that she needs to assist the situation in some way. She runs behind Sherah and locks Sherah's arms behind her back with her own before Sherah can go after Miyra.
The entire room is in an uproar of screaming threats between Miyra and Sherah in a matter of moments. Raphael and June are doing everything in their power to keep the two forces from getting within fighting distance again.
Eventually, Miyra ceases struggling. Raphael says “Are you calm, Miyra?” and she gives him a nod. Cautiously, Raphael releases Miyra's arms. Miyra then turns to Raphael. In a quick glance, Raphael can see that Miyra is now sure of something. What it is, however, he does not know. Miyra looks at Raphael for what seems like an eternity to him, but is just a few simple seconds. She then turns away from him and walks out of the room's open door and then down to the bottom floor.
Sherah, on the other hand, is still struggling. No matter how hard she struggles, June doesn't lose her grasp on her. Sherah repeatedly screams at her, saying “Let me go!” in varying tones. Every time that Sherah yells at her, June screams “No!” back at her.
Since Miyra has already left the room, Raphael shuts the door and tells June to let go of Sherah. Reluctantly, she releases Sherah. Sherah shoves June back with her elbow and then gets up. “So, you sicked your right-hand Taurus on me, huh? You're despicable...!”
“Whatever horrible term you put on me, that doesn't change the fact that the only thing that me and Miyra did was sleep in the same bed. Now, what did you come into my bedroom for in the first place?” asks Raphael now that the room has become much quieter.
Sherah thinks about Raphael's statement for a second before speaking, seeing no reason to get mad currently. “Lendlock called me this morning. He said that the UHG has finished filing your application and are ready for your initiation. You're to report to the UHG main hall in two hours, so you have some free time.” Sherah's eyes suddenly become cold for reason's unknown. “Use it wisely....”
Raphael then realizes that this fight must have affected Miyra in some way and that she had left the room in a bit of a scoff. “Everyone, stay here,” he says. “I'm going to go see if Miyra's alright. If she sees Sherah right now, that might start the fight back up.”
Reluctantly, Sherah nods her head. She wants to see Miyra again so that they can continue their duel, but she knows that she can't disobey a direct order.
Raphael leaves Sherah and June in his room and shuts the door behind him. He glances at the bottom floor before going to the stairs and notices that Miyra is staring out of the living room window. He grunts to himself and walks down to the living room. When he gets to her, he places his hand on her shoulder and asks “Are you alright, Miyra?”
Raphael can tell by the tone of her voice that Miyra is slightly depressed because of the fight. “Yeah, I'll be fine...” answers Miyra before turning around to see Raphael. “but that's not what's important right now. What is important is that I think I know what's happening to Sherah. Judging from how quickly she overreacted earlier, and because June had attacked her in your defense yesterday, I seriously think that she is being possessed by a Demu!”
“Possession?” Raphael's mind goes blank when he hears the word 'possessed' “The Demu can do that? I thought that that's only limited to spirits and creatures similar to them?”
“Not quite, Raphael.” Miyra pushes past Raphael and walks towards the entryway to the den. “Demu are actually souls that have been given artificially-made bodies. That is actually one of the main reasons the UMA hasn't won the war yet. Whenever a Demu is killed, his or her soul is sent back to hell and is given a new body in a few months up to a year, after that they are sent right back onto the battlefield. Anyway, Sherah is showing signs of a possession, and since she is basically the Key's adoptive parent, she would be a prime target for possession.”
Once Miyra has said that Sherah is June's adoptive parent, Raphael remembers that he never asked anyone about June's past. He knows about the origins of the war and how June is connected to it, but he doesn't know anything about how June got dragged into it. “Hey Miyra,” Raphael interrupts her to ask his question. “how did June get into this war?”
“Honestly Raphael, I have absolutely no idea...” admits Miyra. “I had never even met June before our flight to your world. Once we get Sherah cleansed of the Demu, you should ask her. A possessed person cannot be cleansed until they are completely possessed. If you try to cleanse them before they are totally possessed, the Demu that is possessing them can speed up the possession at extraordinary speeds, possibly causing fatal injuries to the person and making the possessed person much more powerful. If we want to cleanse Sherah, we must wait this out until the Demu has her fully possessed. Once the Demu has fully possessed her, no more power can be released into her, thus making her less of a threat.”
“The Demu's target is probably June, so we need to keep around the clock watch on June and Sherah. As for June's protection, I have an idea.” Miyra explains “I'll get a battalion of UMA soldiers together and convince Sherah that they are a group of soldiers that I've hand-picked to make sure that June stays safe. I'll call them the JPB, or June's Protector Battalion. If all goes as planned, when Sherah gets fully possessed, the JPB will be there to sedate her or bring her down in some other way so that we can cleanse the Demu from her system.”
Miyra's facial expression has changed as she spoke, going from dead serious to slightly calm. “Well anyway, enough of that.” she says with a smile. “From what I could hear from down here, you're going for your UHG reception today. That's great! Do you know what time you're going?”
“Sherah said that it would be in two hours, so I've got some free time.” says Raphael back to Miyra. “Do you feel like doing something while we wait?”
“Well, I did have an idea of something that we could do....” says Miyra as she looks past Raphael and out the living room window. “I haven't really seen your neighborhood and I have been curious about seeing more of your world outside of your home. Do you want to take a walk? I still have my decoy device on me and it has a second decoy set in it, and we can bring June with us too!”
“If that's what you feel like doing, I'm good with it.” says Raphael as he looks towards the stairway to the second floor. “Just let me grab June and we'll be off then.”
“Going outside? You have to be joking!” yells Sherah at Raphael. She is now considerably calmer than earlier. “After what happened with that HEC black fire master, it would be way too dangerous to let June leave the base!”
Despite June's new-found resistance, she does not mutter a word against Sherah's better judgment. This time. Seeing no other way, Raphael decides that the only ones that are going on this walk are going to be him and Miyra. “Alright...” he says while shrugging his shoulders. “I suppose I have no other choice then, I'll see you later....” Raphael walks out of his bedroom door and down the stairs to his living room.
Raphael and Miyra now stand in Raphael's front yard in the rising morning sun. Miyra looks towards the sky with a hand shading her eyes. “Ah,” she says. “it feels nice to get some sunshine once and a while. So, where to first?”
Raphael looks down the street past the intersection and decides that he is going to show Miyra around the circular neighborhood that he lives in. “Follow me.” he says cheerfully before walking down his driveway and to his left down the street with Miyra following right behind him.
Miyra speaks about the battle they had yesterday as she walks by the intersection. “Hmm, it looks like they already cleaned up his remains. That sure was fast of them.”
“Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the more secretive factions of my nation would want to clean up the remains of a battle with a Demon and a bunch of alien creatures as fast as they can.” says Raphael as they pass the previous battle scene. After which, they don't speak about the battle again for a very long time.
Raphael's mind starts to wonder as they walk through his neighborhood. He starts thinking about random things as he walks, not even noticing what is happening around him. Suddenly, he is jogged awake by Miyra, who is telling him to stop. He stops in his place and looks down to see a family of ducks passing through the road. “Let's just let them go by.” she says as she kneels down to look at the passing ducks.
Time passes by as Miyra and Raphael watch the ducks wonder by. After the ducks have passed and Raphael and Miyra have started walking again, Miyra answers an unasked question of her past. “I grew up on the planet Yomino, which is home to the Taurus people. My family lived in the wooded part of the planet, living off the land and doing what we could to help others. Their trade was animal training and breeding. I've learned to love all types of animals, no matter their size or use. Later on in my life, I started to get interested in machinery, and since my world didn't have much in engineering opportunities, I decided to get in touch with the nearest UMA recruiter and get myself signed on with the UMA. I've been working as an engineer ever since.”
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Raphael is listening to Miyra, but he has this odd, nagging feeling that someone has been following them as they walk. “You said that your a Taurus. Does that mean anything special.” he asks while looking over his shoulder down the road.
“Raphael, there are twelve different zodiac races in the universe, all cataloged through the zodiac system used on world's close to yours. There are Taurus, Cancer, Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, and they all have their own unique powers. My race has incredible strength and enhanced eyesight, to the point that we can almost see through light walls, but only silhouettes of the things behind them. The Taurus race is characterized through their secondary colored strands of hair and their foggy white pupils. Also, one of the zodiac races has gone extinct, but no others besides them.”
Raphael's eyes suddenly flash as he looks behind him down the road. Far down the road, five heavily-cloaked men suddenly come into view. They're heads are completely hidden behind their hoods, showing little to nothing of their face. Raphael's breathing becomes hollow at the sight of them, he almost instantaneously can tell that they are some type of Demu that he has not seen or fought before.
His head immediately flicks back around and faces forward. Miyra looks at him quizzically. “Is something wrong, Raphael?” she asks with concern in her voice.
Raphael quickly regains his composure and tells Miyra “Don't look back, don't run, just keep walking....” which makes Miyra become even more concerned, but nonetheless, she does as Raphael has asked.
With slight glances of his head, Raphael can see more and more of the cloaked men appearing out of the corners of houses and out of the nearby forest. His mind goes white as he attempts to think of some way of getting him and Miyra out of the situation that they are in. More of the cloaked Demu are showing up by the second, and they are not going to give up following him and Miyra no matter what either of them do.
Suddenly, Raphael has an idea. Using his recently modified communication glasses, he quickly phones in Yen. “Yen,” he speaks into his glasses. “I need you to create a portal a mile ahead of me, and I need it now. As soon as I go through the portal, shut it behind me immediately. Is that clear?”
Yen gives Raphael a stern agreement before going to the portal room. As soon as Yen goes radio silent, Raphael looks up to see that more cloaked Demu have appeared in front of him.
With their extraction point cut off, Raphael knows that he needs to work his way around the Demu in some way. Before Raphael can even find an alleyway for him and Miyra to use, the Demu have completely surrounded him. Raphael and Miyra, completely unarmed, stop in their tracks.
The Demu watch them in complete silence, not moving a single one of their still muscles. Miyra looks around and around at the enemies that have now surrounded her and Raphael while he does the same, but Raphael is not looking at the Demu per se. He is looking for a way out. “Raphael, what's going on?” asks Miyra in desperation.
“Just stay calm,” he orders Miyra. “I'll find us some way out of this....”
Raphael's eyes dart back and forth, trying to calculate some way of escape, eventually finding that the only way out is through the enemy Demu....
Before Raphael can attempt to move towards the encompassing Demu, they all threw off their cloaks, revealing thin, anorexic-like bodies covered in black chainmail. On each of their arms are twin, four-pronged metal claws. On their faces were fitted iron knight helmets that hid their face's completely.
They stand still after dropping their cloaks for only a moment, and then leap into the air. Miyra screams “Leapers!” right before Raphael grabs her hand and starts running towards an opening into a house's alleyway. Raphael looks behind him to see that the Demu have literally started to leap off of the air in all different directions. Although the Demu Leapers did concern him greatly, he knows that he has to keep moving if he wants to keep Miyra and himself safe.
Halfway through the alleyway, Raphael suddenly hears Miyra yelp and feels her hand slip away from his. When he turns around to see what is wrong, he sees that one of the Leapers has grappled Miyra to the ground and is slashing her repeatedly with it's claws. Raphael sprints over to her while flicking out his armblade. He slashes his armblade katana across the Leaper's chainmail clad rib cage and kicks him off of Miyra. He then flicks away his armblade and picks Miyra up in his arms. Seeing as the Leapers are now streaming into the alleyway between the houses, Raphael immediately takes off down the alleyway into the house's backyard.
Once Raphael is in the backyard, he notices that there is a massive fence surrounding the backyard, and since Miyra is now too wounded to make it over the fence, he realizes that his options are incredibly scarce.
Miyra, still woozy from the wounds that she had taken from earlier, begins to speak as she sees the Demu Leapers appearing over top of the house that is connected to the yard they are in. “Save yourself, Raphael.” she says in a silent, weakened tone. “They'll kill us both if you don't abandon me.”
“No!” Raphael screams in defiance. “I'll never abandon you! I will never abandon any of you! Ever since I became the Guardian, every-single-one of you has become my personal responsibility!”
Miyra is amazed at Raphael's dedication to his friends. “My goodness. Raph....” Miyra looks towards Raphael with a look of amazement in her eyes. She can now see that all of the lore for the Guardian is true. He is a completely selfless protector that would give his life for his friends.
Raphael watches as the Demu Leapers slowly surround him on all sides. Past their thick, metal helmets he can see nothing but pure, hollow evil in their eyes. Their eyes are hollow, bleak shells that lead to nothingness. He can sense an evil coldness coming from them as they slowly begin to enclose on him. “Nooooo!” he screams as they completely envelope him in their cold, metal claws....
Suddenly, a blast of pure, white flame blows up from where Raphael had been. The Leapers that had surrounded him are all sent flying back by the immense blast, some on fire from the holy explosion. Raphael stands in the center of the fire, completely enveloped in it. The only sign that he is even there is that of a black silhouette with shining white eyes.
The remaining Leapers let out a rabid scream at Raphael's new form, the holy flame berserker form. They lunge towards him with their claws pointed towards his silhouette, but to no avail. As they launch themselves at him, the flames that had enveloped him suddenly reach out towards the Leapers as they go through the air and grasp a hold of them in mid-leap. As the Leapers stand suspended and struggling in the air, Raphael's eyes suddenly flash and set all of the Demu in his fire's grasp ablaze. They scream in their feral tones as the fire stretches across their entire bodies, until they have become burnt to a smoldering crisp.
Once the Leaper menaces have been dealt with, Raphael's silhouette examines the surrounding area. Seeing no enemies remaining, the white flames that had enveloped Raphael slowly start to die down and the white shine that had taken over as Raphael's eyes disappears, making Raphael's normal eyes appear once again.
The flames die out and Raphael stands completely still, his eyes shut. He sighs once his berserker form goes out and hunches himself over with Miyra in his arms. Sending himself into his berserker form, any of his forms, in fact, would always tire him out once it has died down. With the strength that he had left, he forces himself back through the alleyway that he had went through before, almost unable to lift his legs at all.
Once he has trudged himself through the alleyway, he looks down the street to see that the portal that he had called in for had certainly appeared. While still breathing heavily, he looks down at Miyra and asks “Can you walk?”
Miyra, her eyes barely open, nods to Raphael and says “Only if you give me a shoulder to lean on on the way to the portal....”
Raphael lets loss Miyra's legs and then uses his free arm to pull Miyra's right arm over his shoulder. Wearily, they both walk towards the portal that seemingly lays ever so far away.
A UMA medical support team is standing ready at the portal entrance. By the time that Raphael has arrived at the portal, his stamina has already recovered, so he is able to support Miyra easily. Once they have reached the portal entrance, the UMA medical team rushes out with a gurney towards Raphael and Miyra. They quickly take Miyra and place her on the gurney. The leader of the medical team motions for Raphael to follow as they go through the portal, and Raphael does just that.
After a brief check-up and a quick x-ray of his body, Raphael is given a clean bill of health by the medics and is sent on his way. Before leaving the med-bay of the bunker that he wasn't shown the day before, he decides that he should go see Miyra, since she is probably in a lot more pain than he is and has taken a lot more damage than him.
Miyra lays in her bed, giving a slight groan as Raphael comes into view. “How's she doing? Is she going to be alright?” Raphael asks to Chiot, who is examining Miyra's nanobot charge.
“She'll be fine. All she took was a few easy healing scratches and one serious one that hit an artery. Although she took a slight beating, the nanobots healed everything, she's just a little sore from the nanobot side-effect.” says Chiot as he pats Miyra on her shoulder.
“Good. I'm going to need her at her top-form as the day's go by. Did she tell you what she thinks is happening to Sherah?” asks Raphael as he stares at the patches that are strapped to where her previous wounds were at.
“She told me what she thinks is happening in little bits and pieces before you came in. Something about Sherah getting possessed? Well, I can tell you that she isn't acting normally or rationally. Only time will tell, though, if she really is being possessed by a Demu.” says Chiot as he lifts himself from his crouched position. “You're probably going to need someone to go with you to the UHG interview and tests, so I'll go with you for that.”
“Alright, that sounds good, but can we go get something to eat first? I haven't had anything to eat since I woke up.” says Raphael as Chiot pushes past him and he follows right after. “Plus, I think we still have more than an hour left before the testing.”
“No problem kid, we'll pop by the cafeteria before we head to the portal room.” says Chiot as him and Raphael walk out of the infirmary and into the corresponding hallway. “As you said, you haven't eaten anything all day, so getting something to eat before heading to the UHG main building is a very good idea.”
Raphael gives Chiot a grunt of agreement as they walk down the hallway, make a left, and are right at the cafeteria. Since it is relatively early in the morning and most people at the bunker are either sleeping or on active duty, there is no one in the cafeteria besides the person who dishes out the food.
Chiot motions for Raphael to move ahead of him and says that he can order whatever he wants. Raphael walks up to the display window as the lunch-man says “Good morning commander! What would you like?” Raphael examines the food on display and is stuck in between having the Alfredo chicken and pasta, the chicken Parmesan, or the Steak with mushroom sauce. He notices as he is looking over the food that this isn't standard military food, this stuff is high-class luxury food.
Not wanting to waste any time, Raphael orders the Steak with mushroom sauce on the spur of the moment and gets his food in the matter of a few seconds. Raphael grabs his tray of food off of the counter-top and walks to his seat while Chiot orders his food, coming over to where Raphael is sitting with a plate of food moments later.
“So Chiot,” asks Raphael as he cuts his steak in half. “what do you know about the UHG, like, what's it's purpose and stuff like that?”
“Well...” stutters Chiot as he thinks about that particular organization. He hasn't been asked something about the UHG in quite a while and his knowledge on them is limited, so he has to think over the facts he knows about the UHG for a few seconds. Eventually, Chiot speaks up. “The UHG was created in the year 20,000 A.O., which was when the UMA started to notice that the multiple gods of the universe were granting certain people abilities to fight the Demu. I mean that people were gaining the ability to use magic and the power to fly and people were becoming naturals at all sorts of things. Seeing as the UMA didn't have any elite organizations in their midst, the UMA formed together the Universal Heroes Guild to bring together the gifted from across the universe to fight together against the oncoming waves of Demu that were plaguing the universe. The organization has been a beacon for the gifted heroes of the universe ever since.”
By the time Chiot has finished speaking, both him and Raphael are both finished their meals. Raphael takes a glance up at the clock on the cafeteria wall and notices that they only have a few minutes before the UHG tests are meant to begin. “Oh, it looks like we only have ten minutes before we're late. Come on Chiot, throw away your trash and we'll get going.” says Raphael as he lifts himself from his seat and grabs a hold of his tray.
Chiot nods in agreement. The two of them dump their trash in a nearby trash can and leave the trays on the lid of the said trash can. They then exit the cafeteria and then go straight towards the portal room.
By the time that they have entered the portal room, the portal techs are ready and waiting for them. “The coordinates to the UHG main building have been logged into the portal machine and we'll start up the portal generator on your go, sir.” says the head portal tech in the room to Raphael and Chiot.
Seeing as they are running out of time and need to arrive at the UHG main building shortly, Raphael tells the head portal tech as soon as he finishes speaking to open the portal.
“Yes, commander.” obeys the head portal tech before turning his attention away from Raphael and to the portal machine's computer monitor. It only takes him a single button press to start up the portal generator.
Just like before, the portal generator begins to spin, creating a massive portal it's own size in the matter of a few seconds. “Good job... uh, what's your name, if I may ask?” asks Raphael while pointing a finger at the portal tech.
“My name is William H. Marinth, sir. I'm the head portal tech assigned to your division.” says the portal tech before flashing his UMA badge and continuing to speak. “I'm the best portal tech in this company and lead all the other portal techs, along with providing them with their necessary training....”
“That's fine enough, Marinth.” says Raphael, interrupting Marinth, since the time limit to get to the UHG tests is growing short. “As much as I would like to hear your personal information, me and Chiot have some very important things to do right now, so we must leave before we run out of time.”
“Understood, good luck on your tests, sir.” says Marinth before giving Raphael a firm hand-to-forehead salute.
Raphael thanks Marinth and then motions for Chiot to follow him. They both walk through the portal into the gold-encrusted chamber that lies before them.
And thus, Raphael's trial's began....