Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* FTL Faster Than Light - Theme Song *

*sigh*

'What did I do to deserve such hate?' Rachel thought to herself as she existed the mansion's front doors with the group. 'That little girl was so vicious it's almost scary...'

Currently, the plan was to gather at her house until everyone is ready. And from there, they'll be able to fly over to her dad's cottage in a city called Laurentides, in a neighbouring province.

"Um, so wait, how come you guys can drive motorcycles?" Raven asked in confusion. "I know you can get the license at sixteen and all, but I doubt at least three of you have their license."

"Huhuhu~, you think the law can stop us?" Remi asked with a smug smile.

"Pretty sure they can..." Raven said as she tilted her head to the side.

"Ah- come on... no one's paying attention now," Remi complained as Raven has bursed her bubble. "There are more important matters that the law enforcement has to take care of..."

"And you're abusing that..." Raven shook her head. "How are you fine with that, Jake? I thought you were the dude to always follow the rules."

"Hahaha!" Mike laughed as he mounted his bike. It was mostly Dark with some red here and there. "Jake almost didn't come with us because he was afraid someone would stop us." he finished as he put his helmet on.

"I wasn't scared!" Jake retorted while wearing his own. "I was just concerned for your safety since none of us have licenses, except for Rachel."

"Rachel, you have a license?" Raven asked curiously as Rachel instantly turned red for a moment.

"Ah, haha, yes, I do," she answered while standing near her dear black and yellow bike.

"Is something wrong?" Raven asked as she touched Rachel's forehead to make sure she wasn't sick and was actually fit for riding. 'She was acting weird inside too...'

"Eh? What are you doing?" Rachel asked in confusion while trying to step back away from Raven, her colour turning bright red, again.

"Oh, you seem a bit tired, your temperature isn't that high but it's not good either," Raven said, "Do you want me to drive?"

""You can drive a motorcycle?"" Mike and Remi asked in surprise. Even though they didn't have legal licenses yet, they've been undergoing motorcycle training with Rachel for the past few days. But for all they knew, Raven couldn't drive.

"Hehe, not really," Raven chuckled, "how hard could it be though? Rachel can you teach me what everything does real quick?"

"Eh?" Rachel wasn't sure what to say as everything was going too fast for her, especially with her being so close to Raven.

The original plan was that Mike would have Jake behind him, and Remi would have Raven behind her, while Rachel would ride solo. But now they were going to be together on the same bike? Not only that, but Rachel had to hold on to Raven since she wanted to drive?

'Why am I so worked up about it?' she thought while cupping her rosy cheeks in her warm hands, trying to hide her embarrassment.

She has had a major crush on Raven the moment she saw her in class, a few weeks ago. And up until now, she still hasn't gotten over that crush even though they barely spoke to eachother.

'But she's a girl now! I am not into girls!' She thought to herself. 'Right?'

"Yo, witch!" A cute yet threatening voice called out as Rachel jumped from surprise. "Change that look on your face, I don't like it." Maya narrowed her eyes.

"Maya, enough with that, I'll be real upset with you!"

Hearing Raven, Maya looked down with a serious expression. She knew she wasn't allowed to be this clingy or this rude, but she couldn't hide her sadness at the fact that Raven will be away for a while.

"Eiegh!" Maya was surprised suddenly as Raven hugged her tightly. "I understand... trust me, I do."

"You do?" Maya asked while closing her eyes and returning the warm embrace. She wanted to enjoy every second of it.

"Uhm," Raven nodded as she disengaged and patted her head slightly, "you're not a little kid anymore though, you don't need me by your side all the time, you know."

"But I do!" Maya retorted. She's always never felt truly at ease without Raven being next to her.

She'd feel like a fish outside the sea. Or a bird submerged under the water. Something always felt missing without Raven next to her.

"Shhh," Raven said while putting her index over Maya's tiny lips. "It's just a little trip with my friends, I'll be back soon." she said with a smile and Maya shrugged it off with a sigh.

"Fine..." She wasn't happy about it. 'But if Raven is happy, I should be happy too. *sigh*'

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" A voice called as everyone looked for the source of the sound.

"Um, Joey, don't call me that please..." Raven muttered tiredly.

Mike was surprised to see the captain of the Vikings here, but chose to stay quiet for now.

"Ah, apologies," Joey said as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Anyway, what's the matter?" Raven asked. "And what's up with your choice of clothes?" Poor Joey had only just woken up so was so he was still in shorts, and an oversized shirt.

"Oh, I just heard you're going on a trip, and I was wondering if I could join..." he said while trying to hide his embarrassment by fidgeting with his fingers, but to no avail.

Looking at Mike, Rachel, and the others, they all nodded as they didn't mind having Joey join them. If anything, Mike seemed more excited.

"Ok, so I'm guessing the plan is to go to Rachel's house, make sure everything is ready to go, and then leave from there?" Raven asked.

"More or less," Mike said, "the reason we're going to Rachel's house now is because we wanted to introduce the new you to the team."

Suddenly realising that she was intending to keep her identity as a girl a secret, Raven couldn't help but wonder if this was ok. 'Everyone saw me on TV... those who already know me have probably recognised me the moment they saw my fight against that S ranked monster. Maybe one of the others even, for all I know... *sigh*'

"We'll pack everything tomorrow then leave shortly after, "Mike finished with a smile.

"What team by the way?" Raven asked.

"Why, the Black Knights, of course!" Mike said enthusiastically.

Raising her eye brows, Raven couldn't help but feel a soft, yet proud, smile escape her lips.

Focusing back to the task at hand though, she looked at Joey. "Ok, Joey you can go pack whatever you need from your house, my mom *cough* Maria I mean, will pack some clothes for me and bring them in tomorrow." She was slightly embarrassed to call Maria 'mom' in front of her friends, because then questions will be asked.

"We'll all meet in Rachel's house at... I don't know, say 6PM? and then leave at 6:30PM." she said. "How does that sound?"

"Perfect!" Mike said with a grin.

"Ah- I'm ok with that too!" Rachel said while trying to ignore Maya's dominating presence.

The little girl herself was pressing her lips tightly and while frowning at how everything was going south for her. She knew that Rachel wasn't to be left alone with Raven.

But she didn't want to make Raven feel like she was constrained so she decided to let it side. Forcing a smile for Raven's sake, Maya waveed goodbye, and went inside for a quick nap.

Seeing that, Raven could only sigh and smile at how cute Maya was while being concerned for her. But she knew that one way or the other, Maya needed to learn that she must be able to work alone, without Raven guiding her.

'It must be because of the connection we share...' Raven thought back to Lady Luck and her dark deeds before a frown made its way to her face.

Trying to shake the thought out of her head, she was determined to take Maya and her family for another trip when she comes back. 'Maybe just a quick one to the mall or something would be nice.' she thought to herself as she didn't want to make them feel left out.

...

With Joey preparing to go home to pack his stuff, and Maya away, Rachel felt a little bit more comfortable as she went through every lever, button, and handle on the motorcycle for Raven.

"Hm, I see..." Raven muttered to herself, trying to remember everything. Thinking about it for a moment, she wanted to use her Appraisal skill, but since that was a System Skill, and the system was currently updating, she couldn't.

"Well, let me try this manually..." she thought as she mounted the bike and put a helmet and some dark protective gloves on.

Touching or looking at every handle and button to make sure she knows where everything went, she nodded her head unintentionally as a signal for herself that she's ready.

Rachel realised that and smiled warmly before glancing the mansion's door to make sure Maya wasn't observing her.

Little did she know, Maya was actually watching from her room's window. But instead of being mad or upset, she was just... sad.

She felt useless as if she wasn't part of Raven's life anymore. Shaking her head and focusing back at observing Raven, she forced a smile in hopes of changing her mood. 'Fake it till you make it...'

'Alrigh, so first, turn on the engine by rotating the key to the right.' Raven thought to herself while going through these steps. 'Press the front breaks and clutch handles together, then follow that with press to the ignition or starter button.' She was basically trying to imitate everything that Rachel had taught her in the past few minutes.

VRROOOOOM!!

The motorcycle was louder than what she's expected, but nothing extreme. It was a beautiful sound, in a way.

'Now, shift the left pedal down, and boom, now it's in first gear' Raven instructed herself with a smile. 'Release the front brake handle. Start releasing the clutch slowly while accelerating at the same rate...'

...

After a couple of minutes of playing around the wide parking with the bike, Raven was comfortable and confident with her ability to drive it safely.

"Alright, hop on, princess!" she said to Rachel as she patted the backseat in excitement. True, she could fly. But feeling normal again felt refreshingly great!

On the other hand, Rachel was thankful no one could see her rosy cheeks inside the helmet as she held on to Raven tightly.

'So, she likes motorcycles, huh?' Maya wondered while resting her chin on her open palms.