Akane Hinata

Akane? Huh. She was one of the ones who Resurrected wasn't she? No wonder I had no clue she was behind me until she let off her bloodlust. All the sudden the mechanical door slid open and in came a elegant looking girl with long dark hair and blue eyes. I hate to admit seeing as she knocked me out but she was really pretty. It was almost as if her beauty was putting me in a trance. I might be jumping the gun here but maybe that has something to do with her ability, or I'm just a sucker for black haired women. " Turn around. " she said bluntly " Sure thing. " When I turned around I heard the cuffs make a noise and they fell off." If you so as even think about escaping or trying to kill m- actually you'll be dead before you even think it. So don't. " she said as she gave me a glare. " Sorry to disappoint, I don't really have any plans to try and kill you, that wouldn't be very gentleman like of me would it? " " Shut up and walk. " As we walked out I could feel the stares of a bunch of Rankers. It seemed like they didn't expect me to comply so easily, I didn't want to either there was something swelling up inside that was getting me excited, almost like I can't resist fighting. I went with my better judgement though, and decided to comply for the time being.
After awhile of walking, she brought to a room with only a table and two chairs, much like an interrogation room. Sitting across from me was the Jeong guy. " Let's make one thing clear Ryker. I need you. " The sentence caught me off guard seeing as how earlier he seemed way too cocky. But I don't know the sentence kinda made me feel appreciated, no one's ever really said anything like that to me before. " Why do you need me? " " Usually protocol would have you thrown away into an isolation cell, but I see potential in you Ryker, the potential to do good. I can tell you want to, you've just never had the chance, that and well, we're losing. We're losing the war against the Imp's more and more Rankers die each day and it seems like there's no end to these things not only that but the Imp's seem to be getting stronger and stronger. Ryker I want you to Join squad RR comprised of the strongest Rankers, a squad of 10 people, the role you play in this squad is Game Changer. Your identity will be kept secret seeing as we pinned Johnnys Dang's murder on you, so your public enemy #1. You will wear a special-made mask so no one can see your face. You won't contribute to the squad directly all though. You'll most likely be going on solo missions checking out Imp lairs for artifacts and weapons. " " You know I'm only 15 right? I have absolute no clue what your saying Jeong. Artifacts? Weapons?" " My fault Ryker, you see our Ranker weapons are made out of these Artifacts that come from these Imp lairs and sometimes powerful Imp's can drop weapons or highly potent artifacts. RR is tasked with taking out these Imp lairs and recovering artifacts and weapons. In special cases like the one you experienced RR will be deployed to specific areas if there's a Rank-Z or a full on invasion in an area by the Imp's. " " Hm, interesting although I'm confused on what you meant by I won't contribute to the squad directly." " Like I said Ryker, your role is Game Changer, I plan on you going on solo missions like squad RR which is destroying lairs, securing artifacts and weapons. But you'll be doing it alone, usually the squad does it in pairs of 2-3 depending on the lair. But I also have another role for you Game Changer. In case that the squad is overpowered somehow, we'll send you in as backup, I believe you can be the single most powerful entity even among the Imp if you're brought up properly. Hence the name, Game Changer. " I don't know why, but that plan alone had me fuming with excitement after hearing that, smiling devilishly from ear to ear. " When do I start!" It's not even like I was a fighter inherently but there's this feeling inside that I can't keep inside, and that was rage. " I'm glad you're so eager, but before we can send you anywhere we need to get you ready for actual combat, I don't wanna sound rude but I believe you killing that Rank-Z was a fluke. " I hate to admit it but I think he was right. I don't think I could muster up that power-up in a regular situation, my true power only comes out in life threatening and or facing a powerful opponent. But I do believe I can get stronger harnessing my own power instead of relying on whatever was incrested in this mark on my forearm.
"Okay Ryker, let's get to it first things first, I wanna assess your abilities and see how strong you are. " " Okay, and how do we do that? " " The assessment chamber, you'll be put through a multitude of test, testing your endurance, speed, strength, and energy power." " What's energy power? " " Think of energy power as like mana from a fantasy novel, the more mana the more powerful the magic is, same goes for energy power, the more energy, the more power you have when firing off things like what that Rank-Z was firing at you. But energy power doesn't necessarily have to be used in that way either, you can use it to strengthen your body, or use it to form a shield aura around yourself to negate energy attacks. But aura shields can be cut through when you imbue your weapons with enough energy, another way to get through an aura is using energy-less attacks like a punch for example. No matter what though spreading your aura around your body is a must in a fight, the thing is your fight with the Rank-Z you had so much energy that a dense sloppy aura spread around your body automatically so that just proves your energy power is through the roof, regular Ranker's have trouble even maintaining a regular shield aura. So if you can gain more control over your EP and condense your aura shield it'll become thicker to get through and it'll be tough for even A-3 Imp's to get through it. " " Hm, alright I think I get the jest of EP, so how do I measure how much I have." " It's quite easy actually. We have an artifact that'll determine your power on a scale of 1-10. The average Ranker will get about 2-4. " So we walked to the assessment chamber, and I was told to just put my hand on the artifact and it would appraise my EP level. So I put my hand on the glowing stone, it tingling a bit. All the sudden a spark of energy started bursting out of the stone, and violently shaking back and forth until the rock exploded. " I think I broke it haha. Does that normally happen Jeong? " He looked at me cautiously and said "No, no it doesn't Ryker. " He told me that what occurred has only happened 4 times and all 4 of those times including me were done by the Resurrected, he said by far though mine was the most violent of the 4, dhe said usually only the burst of energy comes out then it explodes. He said it was because of the manner of my EP. Jeong then explained how normally EP flows like river but mine was like a raging fire, he said he'd never seen anything like it.
After we sorted out everything with my EP we decided to move to the endurance test which seemed a bit one-sided they pinned me against that Akane girl to see how long I could last in a 1 on 1 match. I might have been physically stronger then her but she was much more skilled with her EP and had much more combat training than I did at least we weren't allowed to use our weapons though. You know even if I was outmatched in every way possible I couldn't help but feel excited about this. They started a count down from 10 and when it hit 0 we would fight, 10,9…. I knew I would have to take the defensive if I wanted to win, charging at her would be suicidal, yeah 5…. That's my plan stay on the defensive until I see an opening 4…. No problem right 3…. Here we go. 2….. Stay calm. 1…. I can win this! 0…. FIGHT! From the start I expected a barrage of attacks so I braced myself and took a defensive position and waiting for the onslaught of attacks…. They never came though when I looked up from my defensive position she was just standing her ground, hand on her hips, montioning towards me to come at her. Could she had known that playing the defense was my plan all along? It made me angry to think that she thought I was such an inferior opponent that she wouldn't even take the time to attack but better yet I had to go get her. Fine. If she wanted me to attack I would, I focused my EP into my legs and bound toward her, in an instance I cleared the distance between me and her and reared my punch back and let my fist loose. She dodged my attack caught my arm pulled me in and gave me the most painful knee to the stomach in my entire life. I sat there both knees on the ground collapsed coughing on my own spit. But before I could recover she was already on me unleashing those barrages of attacks I expected at the start one punch and kick after another I couldn't track her attacks they were too fast and relentless. She finished her flurry of attacks with a kick that sent me flying into the wall leaving an indention of the outline of my body in the wall. I peeled off the wall and fell onto my face. She was overwhelmingly strong. Maybe I should just use my crest power, I mean I probably could use it in this situation seeing as she was strong. No I can't. I have to win with my own strength. I stood back up struggling to muster the strength to. " Stay down. " she said. " Naw I'm good, I'm gonna beat you. " " Suit yourself. " and with that she lunged at me instantaneously throwing a kick my way, I blocked it and grabbed onto her leg and tossed her into the wall and ran at her full speed acting like I was gonna throw the same punch before, she fell for the bait at the last moment I spun my body around and threw a 360 kick which hit her in the rib, so I thought turned out she blocked it at the last moment. I couldn't let up, I threw a flurry of different punch and kicks which none of them landed she was swiftly dodging and blocking all of them. I threw a left jab, she caught it and which she retaliated with a palm strike to the gut, I didn't go flying back this time though. Last second I grabbed both of her arms before the strike landed and now I had her she couldn't move I pulled her close to me and repeatedly starting head butting her. This was it. I had won! All the sudden I found myself face first in the ground with a broken arm. I tried getting back up but Jeong stopped the match there.
It was my complete loss, almost every "full proof "strategy I came up with in that match were completely seen through. My broken arm healed relatively quick, it only took 5 minutes due to my Ranker abilities. That fight really made me realize my lack of combat experience. I have the power now I just have to utilize it and mold it into a weapon I can wield. I guess for what it's worth though I did relatively good seeing as my lack of experience. Jeong let me take a rest in the break room until the next test after that ass whooping. I was sitting on a couch and laying my head back with my eyes closed. I felt a cold chill on my neck and when I opened them Akane was standing there with a cold drink pressed against my neck. " Here take it, sorry for breaking your arm, I miscalculated the amount of strength I was using. " I had a kinda surprised expression on my face because I didn't know she was capable of saying something in a non-degrading tone " It's okay, you gotta do whatcha gotta do." " You know for lacking finesse and experience you didn't do half-bad, taking the defensive wasn't a bad strategy but it was predictable, because you were facing a stronger opponent." " Yeah I guess you saw right through me huh? " " Not everything I didn't expect you to sacrifice your body like that to grab hold of me, any normal person would have submitted right there or taken the blow. Then again you're not normal, I heard you're like me. A resurrected. " " Yeah I guess I am. So how'd you get your Ranker powers. " " There's not much of a story, an Imp Portal appeared in the city. I thought I died until I woke up, and realized I had the power to stop it. How about you? " " Pretty much the same story. " " Hey, I have a question. " " I probably have an answer, go ahead. " I said puzzled. " When you were you know dead or whatever happened to us did you see something or hear a voice. " So it wasn't just some illusion while I was dying, she also saw it. " Yeah I did actually, it was a man's voice telling me to fight!" " Hmm curious. " she said. " What did you not hear that? " " Well I didn't hear a man, it was a women for me, and she just told me to get up and stop looking so pitiful, so I did. " " Have you asked the others about what you heard and saw, I mean I don't personally know them but I know about them. " " There not the most friendly, so I keep my distance from them, I don't know, sometimes I get the feeling there powers are changing them more and more everyday. Even I feel like my powers are warping my mind sometimes. " " Scary thought, but there your powers for a reason Akane, don't let them change you. " I knew what she was talking about though, ever since I've gotten mine I've had the urge to fight, I can't suppress it, deep inside me there's not a single human emotion recognizable besides rage. " Thank you Ryker, I didn't like you at first but now that I see you up close while I'm not trying to murder you, you're pretty cute. " She said with a smirk. I would be lying if I said she wasn't the prettiest girl I've seen, so her compliment caught me off guard and made me blush. " Yea- uh thanks, you too I guess. " " Hahaha, you're too easy Ryker, I look forward to working with you, I'll see you around. " And with that she walked out of the break room. " Akane huh." I said aloud.