(after shinu's rescue)
Raven was walking through the halls of the Garden, going to one of the training rooms. He had finally finished something that he wanted to test
out in the training rooms simulations. He needed something stronger to fight than what the Monster Range had, but also so that he wouldn't die but would still feel the pain so that he could improve anything. Which included his stamina and also to read a monsters attacks better. He had been working on a program from the simulations for a while, and now that he had some free time he actually had the time to test it out. He was praying on the inside that it would work, and not just end up being a fail. He wasn't a computer wiz, he was good with his new magic and gunblades and that was it so if it did fail it wouldn't be that surprising but the only way to find out was to try it out.

"Creature of immense power reside on this disk, well their data, in the field the would be sure to slay us all. Now we all may have a way to train ourselves against them, without losing anyone to death. If this works, I will show it to Cid and maybe he can have a tech person install it into the system so that they wouldn't need the disk all the time," Raven said to himself looking at the small micro disk in his hand. So much hours of work, in such a small thing. It surprised him what technology could do to things, yet all the same it didn't.

Raven was wearing his battle gear now. He wouldn't to feel like it was a real battle and wearing that outfit helped him picture it better. ON his back was his gunblade, the new model that he had crafted in a shop of Balamb. The blade was a fusion of two rare materials, that gave it incredible durability and strength. This two elements were Mithril and Adamantium. The blade almost looked like the hyperion's for the half that was down near the handle, but then it forked out into two different blades. The inside of the blades were flat but also held numerous energy nodes so that when Raven triggered, dark energy bolts would jump from node to node causing even more damage. The sword though was still double edge so both sides had a sharp edge. The blade was lighter, and took Raven a while to get use to it.

Raven stopped infront of the doorway to one of the training rooms and sighed. "Its now or never"

As he expected, no two men were training harder in the Garden than Raven and Kira. It was the bond the three shared found in their preparation that allowed for great respect. Raven and Shinu were unspeakably connected since the discovery they made together. Either way, respect was there. They weren't the let's do everything together type of friends, but they were a great combination in missions.

For some time now, Shinu noticed Raven work on something. Anyone else and he would have offered his help. Raven was too proud for that though, and Shinu knew better than to butt his head in on his training. No one knew Raven better than Raven and Shinu decided it was best to keep it that way. Today was different though, Raven had an aura about him. A business like stature that he normally had, but for a moment, a lack of predictability. He was up to something, and Shinu wanted to be in on it.

Raven.

Shinu walked into the training room behind him. Most preferred the monster range, but not Raven. He was definitely doing something.

What's going on man? I know you, and I know something's up. I'm in.

"Then prepare yourself for a fight. If you can not stand pain, or like to fight then I advise you to leave."

Raven said to Shinu, but he knew the guy was to stubborn to leave. Raven then closed the door to the training room and walked over to the computer that ran the simulations. He then inserted the small disk to the disk drive in the computer and closed it up and waited for the program. He logged into the simulation system and then activated the program.

"Hope your ready"

Raven warned Shinu and then the before them a creature appeared, looking like a hologram at first but then becoming a solid figure for training purposes. The creature was a huge red dragon. Spikes on parts of its back, and huge black horns on its head. It also sported a pair of huge red wings. This creature was a rare creature only to be found on one island on the far west side of the world.

"A Ruby Dragon.."

And Raven immediately got into a defense position

So he had been up to something. Crazy bastard. That's why Shinu loved having him around though. He needed some danger in his life once in a while. A ruby dragon, Shinu of course was no monster hunter or anything. He wasn't even as well traveled as Raven was. If Raven went out of his way to fight this thing, it was worth fighting.

Shinu stared for a minute, looking at the dragon. Noticing a lighter color, a bit of flabbiness as the under belly. Soft. The deep blood red scales on its back showed no room for error. Aside from his eyes and mouth, it looked like a head on approach wasn't good either. This was going to take some teamwork.

Let's have at it then shall we. I need a second.

The hairs on Shinu's body rose as a shiver went down his spine. His temperature lowered to withstand some fire if he took any, though he wasn't 100% sure if this dragon was non elemental or fire based. From the top left corner, Shiva slowly walked onto the field, a smile across her face as her toughest foe yet was in her way.

Raven could feel the temperature in the room start to lower when Shinu began summoning. Raven knew what he was summoning since it was his most common one and also probably the one that he had the most control over. The Ice Goddess, Shiva. Raven couldn't help but to grin a little also, this would even out the playing field dramatically seeing as these creatures where weak to ice element and also the rare holy elemental attacks. Shinu had made the right move even if it was just a guess, but like Raven was going to complain. That is the only way anything would be found out in this world and that was guessing.

Raven saw how the dragon seemed to step back a little from the ice goddess. This beast was smart, one of the smartest creatures on this planet, it probably had the intelulect of one of the guardian forces. The dragon then roared out at the goddess, the sound probably could have been heard through out the garden if anyone was paying attention. All of the sudden the dragons head reared back and Raven noticed that it started to collect energy in its mouth. It soon lifted off of its front legs as the energy gathered got larger and larger. "Breath!," Raven yelled out so Shinu could hear. "Don't let that hit you! Even though this is a simulation you will still feel extreme amounts of pain, even Shiva will!," It was to late though, the beast had already gather all of the energy and began to fall back onto all four legs.

Raven started to sprint as fast as he could towards Shinu and Shiva. He had already pressed the trigger of his gunblade to activate the energy nodes, and his sword was beginning to collect energy as well. Raven knew in the back of his mind that this attack would harm the dragon, but it would protect them form the breath attack of the Ruby dragon. AS he slid in front of shiva and shinu, Raven released the trigger and swung his sword in a wide upward arc in front of him. When Raven was doing the the dragon released its breath weapon, a huge pillar of energy was pouring out of its mouth right at the three. A huge creasent shaped beam of dark energy though cut the breath in half, causing it to hit the walls on either side of the group before slamming into the head of the Dragon, causing it to stumble back.

Saving my ass like always huh? Well I have done some training myself. Transportation please Shiva!

Shinu jumped high, giving her the time she needed to finish the move he'd only recently learned. He was prepared to try it he felt, only one way to find out...

A slender board made of ice was landed on by Shinu's feet. He'd taught her how to make him an ice board. Shiva's hand reached out froze the entire ground of the training room, causing the ruby dragon to have stumble just a bit. As it tried to regain its balance, Shinu rode quickly towards it. Raven't feet were now encased by ice boots with sharp spikes at the bottom to give him traction so he wouldn't run into the same problem as the ruby dragon.

Shinu slammed hard into the head of the off balance dragon, sending it back a little. Its head was so hard that the tip of Shinu's board was sent rotating. He spun out of control into the wall before falling off of his his board. With a groan he got back up and put his feet back on the board. He was now quick and agile, ready to defend himself so Raven didn't have to all the time. The head wasn't the way to go, he'd have to take a different approach. His full on attack was nothing more than an embarrassment.

Raven just shook his head when he saw Shinu try and go head on, literally, with the Ruby dragon and failed. Its black horns provided expectional defense against any shots to the head. Even luciens guns wouldn't do anything to it. Raven knew that shinu would learn from his mistake, so he decided not to say anything to shinu. Plus this was a simulation so they had nothing to worry about. Raven then ran at the Dragon from its side, the ice boots that had been formed on ravens normal ones gave him perfect traction on the icy surface so he need no worry about sliding. AS Raven was approaching, the dragon heard and sensed the warrior and turned in a full circle, trying to bash Raven with its tail. Raven saw it coming out of the corner of his eye and jumped into the air to dodge it, but the Dragon was now facing him and swung at Raven, raking him with his claws which cause Raven to fly back into the wall. Raven felt huge pain shoot through his chest, but there was no wounds of any sort, he had misjudged this Dragons smarts.

Raven stood up agian and just growled low. He had been sos tupid to let that happen, it wasn't like him at all, but he wouldn't let it happen again.

Two mistakes in a row, one by him and one by Raven. Very uncharacterstic of the two of them. Normally they were quite more adept. Shinu thought for a moment...

They'd been taking turns. They had the advantage in numbers and were attacking one on one. Shinu and Raven both knew better than that, it was time to work together. They'd been on a couple of missions together already and were expected to be leaders. Leaders who were now recklessly charging and failing.

Shinu ran and jumped on his ice board, now ice surfing sideways on the walls to get the dragon to follow him. As it charged at Shinu, a large ice shard smashed him from below, toppling him over. Shinu slid towards it, sharply turning and coming to a stop. The thin ice on top flew into the eyes of the dragon, causing it to flinch back in pain. As Shinu tried to flee before he got hit by the tail, he yelled out!

All you Raven!