Night Eighty Six
Age 1991
The Train...
'Man...' Hero thought as he stared out the window of the train as it moved through the train at a fast speed. 'A lot of stuff has happened now that I think about it... I wonder how this mission is gonna fail... And I'm stuck with Kitsune, and Light. And Irene and Ken who are both very weird now... Wonder what's up with them?'
"-and that was how my family led the great revolution to the Emperor's forefront in an attempt to claim the throne for ourselves!" Sera announced. "Any questions?"
"What I wasn't listening?" Hero said just coming to as he shook his head turning away from the window of the train.
"Fascinating." Irene nodded.
"I already knew this story as a member of the Twenty Sacred Branches." Kitsune bragged.
"An incredible tale." Light announced.
Emma let out a small hum for a second as she also nodded her head. "Great tale."
Lucy just hummed staring with a blank expression on her face and not saying anything since she's a weirdo.
"Wait? So your family tried to steal the throne of Red?" Ken said with wide eyes. "How the hell is your family still able to be trusted?"
"We aren't!" Sera announced. "There's a reason I had to ask to receive a letter!"
"Seriously! What did I miss exactly?" Hero questioned blinking in confusion. "Sera just started talking and I just tuned her out."
"As a Noble family of the twenty sacred Branches, it is my duty to try and make a grab for the throne!" Sera announced. "But... Only the strongest of the Twenty Noble Branches are allowed to be the Emperor. Because of that I am honored bound to raise up in power, by becoming an Enforcer. Then and only then will I be able to be Empress Sera right after my mother who is the current Empress!"
"Seriously what did I miss!" The drone on Hero's head began to click loudly saying it would tell Hero.
However Hero didn't speak drone so he had no idea what Droney was saying...
"Shut up Hero!" The entire group yelled.
Nick let out a sigh as he lowered himself down in his chair. "How did I get stuck with babysitting duty..." He watched as the eight recruits those being Hero, Irene, Ken, Light, Kitsune, Sera, Emma, and Lucy, all quickly broke out into a viscous fighting.
Over on the other side of the train, Dawson stared out the window as it roared down the tracks. There was an awkward silence between the two Reserve members on their Squad as the train made several loud roaring sounds.
"My best friend... His name is Jackson Storm. In a situation like this, he would normally say a joke to break this silence..." Dawson said slowly as his animalistic yellow eyes gave off a predatory glow. "I don't know any jokes though... I find it funny watching Hero and Kitsune be in pain though so if you want me to make you laugh I guess I could punch one of them in the face? They piss me off a lot so I'd like it to."
Serenity gave a small smile as her cold, and hurt blue eyes seemed to shine for a second. "Your friend sounds nice..."
"Yeah... He is." Dawson muttered. "Jackson is... Well, he is a strange Noble. Then again everyone in this Squad is weird... Like Ken, or Irene, or Kitsune... Or Hero?"
"Hero... He's that boy over there correct..."
"Yes, Ma'am," Dawson said giving a nod.
"He's the opposite of you... Just me being near him is enough to make him break out into a smile... That boy wants to be happy. Even if he is feeling something else he'll let my power wash over him and smile. He's filled with so much hope it threatens to blind even me."
"Hero's a brave boy. He's been through a lot. I think... Honestly, I'm not to focus on Hero. I feel like he has a good handle o his dream. I'm worried about the others. Mostly Ken. She's a Seraphin which isn't good... If she ever snaps and turns into a beast like that Viper girl I have to be the one to put her down..."
Ren let out a small laugh as she gave a light smile. It seemed to be a real smile this time as a small giggle escaped her lips. "I'm a bit jealous of you Mr. Blight..."
"Of me?"
"You have so many people around you... You get to do so much... Being a Reserve member on Squad Seven it is actually rare that I get to go on a mission... Squad Seven is the greatest back up, Squad. Because of that fact, it is made up of several different units. Some groups in Squad Seven are more battle orientated. Others are more medical and support. Due to my Cursed Powers, I have a strange outcome in missions so I am rarely given the chance to go on big missions like these..."
"Well... What changed today?" Dawson questioned raising an eyebrow. "Why'd you get a chance today?"
"I'm not sure. Lady Sif is a weird woman."
"You can say that again..."
The two Enforcers let out a small laugh.
There was a massive screeching sound as the entire train began to shake. Dawson peered out the black window seeing the darkness was suddenly broken from the light of the cities, artificial lighting. The train slowly began to come to a stop as the loud screeching got louder.
They had arrived at the city...
"Alright everyone we-" He stopped as he stared back at the train blinking a few times. All the recruits were dog piled on Nick who had a sad look on his face.
"Help... Me..."
***
A few minutes later...
The group of Enforcers stepped out of the train as the metal gates to the city slowly swung open.
"Whoa... Very different from the other cities!" Hero said with wide eyes.
Chrysanthemums was certainly not like any of the other various cities... For one it was still pretty cold. There was a large layer of snow that covered everything. It wasn't a blizzard like the rest of the world, but compared to the other cities this one was freezing cold...The artificial lights were also vastly different from any others... These ones were a bright purple, lighting the entire city in a purple glow and giving it a spooky look. Next was the buildings... They were all small. Not as tiny as the buildings found in a town but still much smaller than any of the ones found in other cities. They were also bunched together. The entire thing felt tight and closed off and several of the buildings actually went over each other stacking up higher and higher. Everything looked to be made from a cold dark metal causing it all to look darker than it actually was. At the back of the city was a massive golden looking building. Like every city, it was owned by a Noble and chances were that the massive golden mansion belonged to the Nobles... The entire city just looked poor until you saw that building.
"Yeah... This definitely isn't creepy..." Ken said letting out a sigh as she rolled her eyes.
"Scared?" Irene smirked.
"Shut up ice girl."
"Why does half our Squad hate the other half?" Light asked. "And the other half loves the other half?"
"One of the lesser cities..." Dawson said letting out a heavy sigh. "It is sad but unfortunately some Nobles barely care about the people in their city. The end results are what you see now. A closed-off dark place. Out of all the cites, Chrysanthemums is the one with the highest rate of crime... It should be easy to find the problem... If we are lucky it'll only take us a month or two."
"Oh boy..." Ken said rolling her eyes once more. "Hero hold me."
"No."
"I don't like these people." Kitsune said folding his arms. His arms trailed down gripping the handle of his blade for a moment. "They give Nobles like us a bad look..."
"Our hotel is up ahead..." Sif muttered out quietly.
"We're staying at a hotel." Hero asked.
"Yeah. A few of us are going to be staying in the Nobles home as well. We believe he will be the next to be targeted so it is our duty to keep him safe."
"Neat."
The group followed the Captain as the walked through the city. They got several strange looks which were completely justified. It was rare to see an Enforcer in a city like this... Much less A Captain, a Vice-Captain, Two Reserves, and an insane Eight recruits. They were packing some serious heat right now...
The group walked for about another five minutes going through the cold, dark, scary city, getting lots of nasty looks, before finally stopping at a tall marble white building. This was the second biggest building in the city second only to the massive golden building. This building stood at nearly 5794' feet reaching high up into the sky and brushing the pitch black sky. It was almost half the size of the Squad Zero building in Oleander.
It was a beautiful white color lined with snow. It stood tall and had no windows or anything really to speak of save for a metal door.
Sif slowly pulled a golden badge out with the words 'Enforcer' written on it. The metal door opened immediately.
"In every city, that isn't Oleander we have what we call the Marble pillars. They are basically fancy buildings for Enforcers, and Nobles to stay in, if they aren't in their own city." Dawson stated. "Behave and don't piss off the Automaton's..."
"The what?" Hero questioned.
"The Automatons... They are highly advanced robotics that listens to the current Emperor. They are made by the Emperors Equation so they work sort of like mini Cursed Powers that can fight Bestia Macht, though it takes around a hundred to even take down a Viscount which is why we still rely on Enforcers. That and it takes a lot of energy out of the Empress to create even one. It takes her about a year to make twenty of them. When an Automatons reaches its breaking point and can no longer battle they are sent here to work as butlers. Careful as they are highly susceptible to getting pissed off and while they might not be in 100% shape they are still packed with weapons..."
"Why the hell would they have deadly killer robots be the butlers in places like these?" Ken questioned with wide eyes.
"It's fancy." Kitsune announced.
"Nobles are weird..." Hero sighed.
"Well... Let's just say that the current Empress is kind of an asshole and leave it at that..." Dawson muttered out. "Just be calm and... Try not to spill anything... Last time I was here Jackson slipped and split some tea and we were fighting off those damn robots for hours..."
"I'm starting to think that the Nation Of Red is screwed up..." Ken said slowly.
"That's an understatement." Sif hissed.
"Is it really that bad?" Emma asked.
No one answered her as she shook her head.
"Oh my..."
The group of Enforcer entered the building instantly being hit with a wave of heat. All the snow on them evaporated vanishing into steam. The inside of the building was illuminated by a golden light. The inside looked like a scene in every generic Noble mansion. It was massive and filled with several fancy decorations.
Several metallic-looking knights all dressed in odd looking butler outfits that walked back and forth. They made several loud clicking sounds as they turned to look at the group. Each one of them looked... Well, beat up? They had large dents in them, and were missing limbs like arms, legs, fingers? They had holes in them and some had sparks flying out of them. One was actually on fire...
Others looked better but not by much... They had several pieces of scrap metal sticking out of them and molded into their body.
Like they had just had rusty metal thrown over their holes and cords taped on.
"Geez... These things do not look safe?" Hero hissed lightly. "This is like something the Master would make..."
One of the Automaton's turned to look at the group. It made a clicking sound. Then its upper half exploded into a hail of flames and scrapes making Hero jump into Light's arms as he stared with wide eyes.
"What the hell!"
"Oh yeah sometimes they explode," Dawson said giving a shrug. "It's okay. They mostly do it away from people but just be careful next to them."
"This seems very unsafe!"
The other Automaton's instantly tackled the lower half of the one that blew up and began to rip its lower half into pieces as they began fighting each other for parts.
"W...What are they doing!" Ken said with wide eyes as she jumped into the arms Of Nick. Even Irene, and Kitsune stared with wide eyes.
"Well... It's dead, so too the Automaton's that means it's spare parts." Nick said casually. "It is their circle of life. Isn't nature beautiful."
"No!"
Another Automaton walked up to the group as it gave a small bow. A small piece of paper slowly popped out of its chest as it handed it to Dawson.
Dawson looked it over then looked back up at the group. "Me, Sif, Nick, Ken, Hero, Sera, Lucy, Emma, Kitsune, Irene, Light, and Serenity. That's a lot of us..." He muttered out. "Lady Sif what do you want to do? How many rooms and who sleeps where?"
Sif gave a small yawn. "I don't care... Just get three rooms." She said waving her hand.
Dawson gave a shrug. "Three rooms. Each room has two beds..."
Wait... Two beds three rooms... Three times two..." Kitsune muttered out counting on his fingers.
"Six Kitsune... It's six." Hero sighed.
The fox teen let out a gasp as his eyes went wide. "But there are seven of-"
"Eight Recruits, and four high ranking Enforcers so twelve..." Hero corrected.
"Twelve of us!"
"Not my problem," Sif said rolling her eyes. "I choose Nick as my roommate." She stated. "If anyone else even tries to partner up with us I'll kill you. Dawson you're with Serenity, the rest of the recruits fight to the death for the last two beds."
Hero sighed shaking his head for a moment. "Well... I guess we're sharing a bed-"
"No." All the girls all said.
"I tried."
Kitsune sighed rolling his eyes as he reached into his wallet pulling out a black credit card. "I'm rich. I'll just buy a-"
"And I'll be taking that." Hero said snatching the card. "Good news guys! We all get rooms with this credit card I stole from Kitsune!" He announced sliding the card onto a random robot as it glowed and shook slightly. "And it accepted."
Kitsune shot the boy a dirty look for a moment as he took his credit card back. "Seriously... You bought eight rooms for all eight of us!"
"Oh so now you can count."
"You're an asshole..."
"I know."