Chapter 10 - Second Raid (I)

Marcus's heart dropped as he heard the words.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" He asked, walking to the door, unlocking it.

"A colleague of yours recently passed away in a gate-related event am I correct?" The officer asked, looking down at his notepad.

"Yes sir,"

"Well, recently we investigated an abnormal gate reading. The location led to the house of this colleague of yours. Over there we found her father who was said to live with her to be missing."

"Is that so," Marcus muttered,

"Due to these odd circumstances, we seem to think you may be next to be targetted and wish for you to help cooperate with us in connecting these dots as these on."

Marcus stared at the officer in confusion, "What do you want me to do?"

"Is it alright if we station a few officers around the area to keep an eye on the situation? We will also require you to send weekly reports on any abnormal events that may happen.

Marcus's eyebrow rose as he heard the conditions.

"No, thank you," He replied without hesitation, entering his house and shutting the door behind him.

The officer stood there speechless. He had not expected the protection to be rejected so quickly.

Letting out a deep sigh, he took out his phone tapping a number,

"Uh sir, he declined the offer." He spoke, leaving the complex, "Understood, I'll withdraw all officers."

The phone beeped as he put it back into his pocket and drove away in his slick black hovercar.

The following week passed with no issues. Marcus went to work as per usual and came home to see no more officers attempting to contact him.

----

Finally, the day of the big day arrived. The second raid in history.

Sarah's phone vibrated on her bedside table, her usual alarm had been set to silence in order to avoid creating any obvious noise.

With the sun barely risen up the horizon, she grabbed her bow, wore her armor, and tiptoed out the front door, closing it gently to prevent it from slamming.

When she felt like she was in the clear, and looked at her phone and ran down the stairs.

'Where you guys at?' She texted the group chat.

'Outside. Waiting.' Fable texted back.

'K.'

She ran outside and looked around.

"Over here!" A shout came from a red hovercar parked a few meters away.

"wow, it's the newest model. Whose car's this?" She whistled hopping onto the back, placing the bow into the trunk.

"Who do you think?" Rein muttered, tilting his chair backward and glaring at Fable, "Mr. Richboy and his fancy spendings."

"It's not like you're much different," Fable rebutted, steering the car back onto the road, towards the direction of the gate.

"Of course I'm different," Rein huffed, "I'm more humble,"

Silence filled the car before everyone burst out laughing.

The joyous atmosphere continued in the drive as jokes and advice circled around.

"Are we there yet?" Sarah asked, yawning as she leaned forwards, looking at the scenery outside.

"Just arrived," Rein replied, turning left, where in front of them stood a giant white portal. "That's the gate," He announced, stopping the car at a nearby car park.

There was only a handful of people already waiting by the gate. The 100m vicinity of the portal had been lined off with police beams. Ready to taze anyone who passes.

"Has anyone tried going in there yet?" Sarah asked, bewildered at the size.

The gate stood over 10 meters tall, looming over most buildings in the area.

"One or two troublemakers. They've jumped over the police beams and bolted inside, or so I've heard. But, as you can see. Noone's managed to clear it yet."

"I see," Sarah muttered looking around.

"Don't be nervous, You've got us." Fable smiled at Sarah, holding her hand.

"N." She blushed and nodded.

There was still a full hour until the designated time of the meet-up. However, as the organizers of the event, Fable and Rein were required to help set everything up.

"Sir Fable. Sir Rein." A deep voice called out from within one of the staff tents.

A burly-looking man with arms the size of tree trunks came walking out with a small clipboard in one hand.

"There's been reading that there are 3 other gates within a 15km vicinity. We've also begun to get some fluctuations appearing in those readings so it's best if we can get them cleared as fast as possible." She explained, handing Fable the clipboard.

"How serious are they?" Fable asked scanning the information given.

"Not as serious as this one. It should be fine for a few days. At most, about a week."

"Okay," Fable nodded, handing back the clipboard.

"Sir, the news station is here as well. They want to give a live broadcast on the raid. The man added before leaving.

"Are they coming into the gate with us?"

"No sir, just going to record the outside of the gate."

"That's fine then," Fable nodded, looking around.

"Let's go get changed into our armors," Fable nudged Rein, as they both headed back towards the car.

"You guys just wait here, We'll meet up with you guy when the actual time for the raid comes" Fable called out to his group of friends as he and Rein grabbed a large bag, entering portable changing rooms set up.

----

Time flew quickly as hordes of people flocked to the area. All waiting to begin the raid.

Within the Elori apartment, Marcus at on the living room couch, eating a plate of bacon and eggs. The television was turned on with the news channel displayed.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Please quiet down." A voice called from a loudspeaker, "Our planet's second-ever raid will begin shortly. Please quiet down!"

The chatter quickly stopped as a man standing on a hover platform entered the vision of the news camera.

"As many of you may know. My name is Fable Scarn. Ranked S Paladin. I'm here to lead us all to a safe victory in today's raid!" Fable's voice echoed through the crowd. "If we are all ready, let us go in!"

Fable jumped down his platform directly in front of Sarah and grabbed her hand into the gate.

"Sarah?" Marcus exclaimed, standing up, his plate falling to the floor. The television had clearly just shown the face of his sister when it zoomed into Fable entering the gate holding the hand of a girl looking eerily similar to his sister. Although it was a split second of footage as everyone else charged into the gate right after him, Marcus would recognize his sister anywhere.

"Sarah?" He knocked on his sister's bedroom door. No reply. He turned the doorknob and peeked in. No one.

"No way!" He slumped to the ground. She had told him she wouldn't go. She promised him.

"I have to go get her," He muttered about to activate his [open portal] spell when he remembered the officer who came to see him a week ago.

"Damn it." He grunted, making his way back to the couch, staring intensely at the tv, his leg tapping impatiently on the ground. Even if he did end up using the spell. His gate mission would ultimately allow him to save no one. The only thing he could do was sit, wait and trust.

----

Back at the gathering spot of the gate. The staff members were staring at the gate reading when an unexpected spike arose.

"Somethings happening!" One of them shouted, waving the rest of the workers to gather over at the reader.

The spikes were rising at an abnormally high rate.

"G-guy." a small voice called from the doorway of the tent. "Why is the gate trembling like that?"

The 10m white gate was indeed trembling, each tremble becoming larger than the previous one,

"I don't know, but this is the highest reading we've ever gotten!" a staff member replied,

All of a sudden, the white of the gate instantly turned blue as the trembles stopped simultaneously.

"I-it stopped trembling, guys. The only problem is. I think the gate just turned blue." one of the staff members spoke out in fear.