[A Few Hours Later]

A knock was heard at the door as Alex sat up and opened it to see Raven there.

"Time to go kid. How'd you like the new outfit?" Said Raven.

"I like it a lot. Thanks Sensei." He said as Raven nodded before Alex hooked his sword onto his back and left the room as the two began to walk down the halls.

After a few minutes of walking, Alex would hear a conversation just up ahead as he looked up and saw Mei down the hall seemingly in a conversation with someone else.

It was a girl with long, dark brown hair and tanned skin along with a black jackal mask covering her face as the mask had yellow eyes and white pupils with yellow markings around the eyes, gray markings on the nose, lightning shaped markings above the eyes, and an ankh in the middle of the forehead.

She wore a white coat over a black shirt and a dark blue skirt as her outfit had gold in various areas, and was complimented by her long black nylons.

As he got closer, it seemed as if this woman was annoying Mei as the Herrscher gave off an expression that clearly showed that she wanted to be anywhere else than there at the moment.

The group reached the duo as Raven would move in between then.

"That's enough Jackal." She said, revealing the masked girl's name as she sighed.

"You certainly know when to spoil my fun." She said before looking to the side and spotting Alex.

"My my. You must be that boy that Raven mentioned a while back." Said Jackal as she walked around and examined him much to the boy's uneasiness.

"You, know me?" He asked.

"I told her about you when you first arrived." Said Raven as she introduced the two." Jackal this is Alex, my disciple. Alex this is Jackal, one of the Serpent's top scientists."

Alex nodded and would turn to face Jackal and bowed a bit.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Jackal." He said.

"Manners huh? You certainly turned out differently than your teacher here." She said, making a crude remark at Raven.

"Judging from your tone, I assume you have something important to say." Said Raven as Jackal nodded.

"Indeed I do. Unfortunately, today's meeting has been called off. The Sire had some sudden business that he had to attend to immediately." She said as Alex blew a fuse in his head.

'Seriously!? The hell was I even brought here for then!?' He thought as Jackal kept speaking.

"Be that as it may, he did leave me with some important info before he left. Our technology managed to predict that an impending Herrscher Eruption will occur very soon. Seeing as Project STIGMA recquires us to capture every Herrscher out there, this mission is paramount. Simply find and subdue the Herrscher and take its core." She said, mainly focusing on Mei and Raven as the two nodded.

Alex, seeing as he felt he no longer had a reason to be there, turned around to walk away but he was immediately stopped in his tracks as Jackal put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait one sec little boy. I have a message that the Sire wanted to relay to you." She said.

"And what would that be?"

"Simple. He wants you to join the mission."

Alex immediately moved her hand aside and turned to face her.

"He's crazy. Absolutely not I refuse."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice. The Sire gets final say."

"Okay and? I don't give a rat's ass about that! I ain't helping his practically genocidal plan! Let alone ever team up with that goddamn hack!" He shouted, pointing directly at Mei when he said the word Hack.

Mei kept a neutral expression when reacting to the insult though Raven could tell that it definitely stung her a bit.

"The Sire is well aware of your current disdain for the Herrscher however he accounted for this. Simply put, he isn't asking you to make amends with her. Just as long as you two can work together, then it'll be fine." Said Jackal.

"Oh really? Well then tell that Sire of yours tha-!?"

Before Alex could continue with whatever more insults he could've potentially said, Raven hastily moved behind Alex, placing a hand over his mouth to stop him from talking as Jackal merely chuckled.

"Feisty one aren't ya?" She said.

Before Alex could move Raven's hand and retort back, a slight vibration accompanied by the sound of electricity spread throughout the halls as an unknown voice was heard.

"Attention, everyone. A Honkai Eruption has just occured at the Southeast Asian island city of Coral just a few minutes ago. Schicksal has deployed their Valkyries. It's time to start our mission."

[An Hour and a Half Later]

The trip over to the location of the eruption in a private chopper was a bit odd as while Alex and Raven engaged in some small talk here and there, Mei stayed off to the side, keeping quiet.

Whenever Raven tried to get a response out of her, it'd usually be short and to the point.

It also didn't help that whenever Alex and Mei would make eye contact with one another, the boy would always shoot hateful glares in her attention while Mei just sighed and shrugged past it.

Eventually, the pilot would inform the trio that they were now above their destination as Alex carefully peeked outside to take a look.

Despite obvious not wanting to be here at all, he had to admit that the city of Coral looked pretty nice with all the buildings surrounding a large body of water with a bridge right in the middle of it.

Raven would move next to Alex as she too also looked out.

"Looks nice doesn't it?"

"Yeah it does, though it feels a little too cold for some reason."

"Probably the Eruption's doing."

As Alex looked out, he moved his attention to the bridge and saw two white figures moving along it.

Since they were too high up, Alex couldn't really tell who they were however he looked just ahead of them and saw that they were right in front of an incoming group of Honkai Beasts.

'Damn. They're in trouble.' He thought.

Before the boy could ask the pilot if they could jump down now, Mei would suddenly open the door wide as she jumped off without any hesitation or warning as after falling for a bit, would manage to land and take down the group of Honkai Beasts in one fell swoop.

"The heck is up with her?" Asked Alex as Raven simply shrugged.

"Seems like she's eager to get right to work." She said.

Very soon the two got the go ahead to drop down as the two would hop out of the heli, barreling down to the ground and land on the bridge where Mei had landed just a few seconds ago.

Raven would walk up to where Mei was as Alex took a second to regain his composure after jumping from a high altitude.

Once he did, he looked ahead to see Mei and Raven engage in a conversation with two Schicksal Valkyries, ones that Alex himself was also familiar.

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Chapter 2: Complete