Night One Hundred And Thirty One
Age 1991
The Red Nation...
Rafflesia City...
Underneath The City...
"So... How did it go? Were you able to escape?"
Bright stopped when he heard the voice. "...Yeah... I was..." He nodded.
Bright, the man who for some strange reason seemed to hate Squad Six, was currently underneath the large city that Squad Six decided was their main city. Large underground tunnels, and catacombs could be seen. Walls made of millions of bones, people who long since passed on. These strange catacombs were always here even before they removed that strange metal tower a few thousand Ages ago, back when Rafflesia went by some other silly names. No one knew why these catacombs were here but humans have never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. By Age 1000 these catacombs were reopened, more tunnels dug out, and the pit went even deeper nearly reaching the core of the planet as more and more bodies were dumped here. These tombs were far larger than even the city, and actually stretched for miles reaching other cities such as Oleander, Rose, Daffodil, Dandelion, and Middlemist City... If you wanted to leave and go somewhere these were the places.
Of course you best be on your guard, least you find yourself lost in a grave of bones, and death.
"I'm glad you mapped these all out." Bright nodded speaking to whoever else was in these dark tunnels with him. "These tunnels allow me to easily go from place to place with ease. I no longer need you, or Hero's teleportation though that is still far faster... These tunnels are great..."
"Good..." The voice said again. Cloak stepped out of the shadows nodding her head. Her small arms wrapped around Bright's waist as she stood on her tip toes, and rested her head on the man's shoulder. "I saw on the news today... You released one of those bugs on a person in Rose city... That's where me and my husband live, as well as Squad One, and where you stay..."
"I'm aware..." Bright nodded. The thought of Mr. Snow came to his mind for a second as he ran his own hands over Cloak's hand. "I plan on leaving the folks here alone eventually..."
"Really?" Cloak asked. "I thought you hated Squad Six?"
"...I do..." Bright was silent for a moment as he gripped the small woman's hand. "Don't get me wrong I do hate them... I hate their Vice Captain, and their Captain, that vile woman Katrina... I hate that Red Demon, that bearded man, that girl who can make things move through her... Plus they keep two Bestia Macht with them on their Squad... Than there are those new five recruits... That monster who came back from the dead going by Light, I as well as many looked up to everyone that had been on Okami Otoko's Squad so to see him here and now in that form... Than there is one of those Sacred Branch bastards Kitsune Nine... Nothing like his brother who used to be a good hero... Than you have that Ice Queen and her cursed powers twin sister of North... Honestly I don't have any issues with her. She's cool. But those other two... Row Law... He's... And than there is Ken Red. It's like her and Viper are mocking me... The two of them are powerful Seraphins, and yet neither of them know how they were made. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong... I... I want to help them-"
"Shh..." Cloak shushed the man her grip getting tighter as she hugged him more. "It's okay... I understand... You're doing good. You're going to save the world when you finish this... Just keep pushing forward. Go bigger. Even bigger than you've already done..."
"You're right... Ken and Viper both had Equations when they were made..." He hummed. "Maybe... Maybe it only works on people with Equations... If so that defeats the whole purpose of my goal... I have to believe that someone can become a Seraphin... I can find someone... I can... I can save someone... No more destroyed cities once I find them... Even... Even if I have to kill a million people. It's all okay. Because I'm a hero of justice. A superhero... Right?"
"That's right..." Cloak whispered. "You are... And I know just the person you should target next... I was going to kill him myself... I let him chase me down an alleyway but 'they' got in the way..."
"I see..." Bright nodded. "I know who you're talking about.
Cloak was silent as she moved her hand over his left arm. "H... How is it... Since... Well..."
"I'm weaker." Bright shrugged. "Level One works just fine, which is good since everyone in the Enforcers has seen my level One state. They don't even know I can go level two. I've kept that part secret. But my level two state has become kind of jacked up... Maintaining it is harder...'
"Hmm..." Cloak grabbed his hand and softly moved it to her stomach. "My idiot husband, that Mr. Snow, isn't expecting me back for quite some time..."
"Is he now..." Cloak could make out the smallest hints of a smile even from under the man's mask. "Well I have a bit of time before I have to get back to work..." He said turning towards her.
***
Squad Six Base...
"Bored..." Hero, and Kitsune both said letting out loud and heavy sighs that echoed across the large room they were in. It was filled with many tables, and an annoyed looking Hannah who was seated at one of the tables looking various papers over and signing them.
'Captain Katrina assigned all of us to this, and yet I'm the only one actually doing any work...' She thought to herself, her frown growing larger as she chucked several pencils at Hero. It seemed his reflexes got a lot better though because his head cocked to the side dodging them all.
Hero flicked a ball over at Kitsune who caught it and unfolded it. The words 'You suck' were written across it. Kitsune didn't respond writing across it and flicking back to Hero who caught it. There was a mini picture of a fox with nine tails, decked out in full samurai armor, wielding two katana's that instead of having blades, had two hands that were flipping off the reader and a little word bubble that came out of it that read 'No you' in colorful ink...
"Damn that's actually kind of impressive..." Hero muttered from under his breath having the smallest inkling of respect for Kitsune's drawing. He quickly ripped it up though than used the heat based powers from his right arm to ignite the shards insuring nothing survived.
Kitsune just gave him a sad stare and shook his head. "Jerk..." He sighed.
"Nah."
Before either boys could discuss what those words meant the phone began to ring. It was a simple land line attached to the wall and kind of old fashioned looking. They didn't really have any crazy high tech gear in this city, so it was either talk through radios or landlines which were expensive. Neither of the boys were even given a chance to answer it though, no matter how much fun that would have been, as Hannah grabbed it putting it up to her ear.
"Hello. Hannah Law, from Squad Six, Gold Badge Rank Enforcer. How may I help you?" She asked curiously. "Uh please slow down... Oh... I see... Hmm... I mean I think you have the wrong... Well... I uh... Hmm..." Hannah simply let out several hums as she leaned back and nodded. "I see... Hmm..."
"She's humming a lot." Kitsune noted.
"She does that when she's considering things." Hero sighed.
Kitsune let out a 'hmm' of his own as if to test the sound as he leaned back in his chair and placed both his legs on the desk still not bothering to do actual paperwork. "Hey..." He finally said giving a large frown. "Devil Arm why did you become an Enforcer?"
"Superhero. Own comic. Save the girl? We've been over this."
"No I mean why did you really?"
Hero mulled the question over for a few seconds but shrugged. "I wanted to save everyone in front of me. But mostly the comic thing... I really want a comic... Like... Now... Please... How about you?"
"What?"
"Why'd you join the Enforcers?" Hero asked throwing the question back at the Fox teen.
"Samurai Enforcer is a cool title."
"Okay but why really?"
This time it was Kitsune's turn to let out small hums as he nodded his head. "I... My brother Jin was strong. One of the best Enforcers... I want to be strong like him... He was my Hero..." Kitsune reached up feeling a small necklace he had. The one he had gotten from his brother so long ago.
"Hey idiots." Hannah said turning to both the boys as she placed the phone down. "I gotta an 'emergency' for you two. A little mission just you two will be going on. It's secret to so you can't tell the other's I'm sending you on this mission."
"More Bestia Macht's?" Hero asked.
"Worse..."
"Dear God... I'm in."
"Me too..." Kitsune nodded.
"Good... The two of you are both needed for this mission." Hannah nodded a serious tone in her voice. "This could be your most dangerous task yet."
***
Rafflesia City Park...
"God damn it Hannah you lying prick!" Hero said saying several curses that were not fit for human ears while Kitsune stared with unamused eyes at the 'mission' they had been sent out on.
Both boys knew something was up when they arrived at a large park filled with several people. Up in the trees was the reason they had been called out. A young woman with long brown hair, and bright brown eyes could be seen, hidden behind a pair of round glasses. She looked oddly familiar. She was pretty high up and her arms were wrapped around the branch she rested in as she gave a panicked and scared look.
"Help me!" The woman in the tree cried out.
Hero let out a sigh as he raised his right arm up. "I got this."
The woman let out several more panicked cries when she saw the massive clawed arm radiating heat and sound as it reached up for her.
"Maybe let me handle this one..." Kitsune said placing his hands on Hero's shoulder. His tails, and ears ignited as all nine tails formed into his much larger tail. "Cool flying powers go!" He announced as his large tail began to spin faster, and faster and he shook slightly lifting up off the ground and raising up just enough. It took a few awkward seconds as he wobbled and slowly made his way to the woman. He gently wrapped his arms around her holding her tightly as he softly picked her up and landed on the ground.
"Oh thank you!" The woman cried out large tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Kitsune's waist. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Off to the side Hero could be seen fuming slightly. "She thought my powers were scary..." He sighed.
Kitsune tried to do his coolest samurai pose, which was also his biggest weeb pose as he flashed the woman a large smile. "Not a problem Ma'am. I am a brave and Noble samurai, as well as a proud Enforcer of Squad Six. It's what I do."
"Why were you in a tree...." Hero asked flatly a little jealous that he wasn't the center of attention. Being a superhero was his thing! "And why the hell were we called out to you?"
"O... Oh... I am... Well... I'm a bit of a worry wart and panic quickly..." She laughed. "S... So when I was up in the tree I panicked and called the Enforcers right away to come save me. As a kid I used to never want to get out of bed because I always felt like any second the ground would open up and I'd just die..."
"Wow... Okay but how?" Hero asked frowning.
"With my phone of course!" She announced cheerfully pulling out a large flip phone.
"Oh my God it's not attached to a wall! What kind of black magic is it?" Hero asked backing up slightly.
"That's a phone from the city of Rose." Kitsune noted nodding his head. "I had one to way back when I lived there but it broke sometime during my training with the Master and I never bothered to return back to Rose City... Are you from Rose?"
"I am. My husband Jack bought me the phone." The woman nodded giving them both a smile. "You can call me Key Frost."
"Key Frost? Frost... Frost? Frost!" Kitsune said with wide eyes.
"You know the name?" Hero asked.
"Jack Frost is one of the big Nobles from Rose city. Not as big as one of the Twenty Sacred Branches like the Nines, Storms, Pendragons, Lancelots, or Aka's but still big!" Kitsune said with wide eyes. "Why are you here ma'am? And why were you in a tree? I see why they sent two Enforcers to get you down though... You're a pretty big deal if Jack's your husband."
Key let out a small giggle. "Honestly I'm not that big of a deal." She smiled. "As for why I was in a tree... I got... Really, really, really lost..." She sighed. "Like... Really... I've only been to this massive city a handful of times... I was wanting to be here for the trial... And also the catacombs."
"Catacombs?" Hero questioned raising an eyebrow. "We talking spooky skeletons that are scary, Catacombs, or the, we stone places that people also call Catacombs?"
"Uh... The first?" The woman shrugged unsure about his weird question. She reached to her neck and Hero realized she had a large camera which she showed both the boys showing off rows of hallways lined with bones. There were so many they formed the walls, the roof, and even the floors. There was easily millions of them. Maybe even a few billion. It seemed to just be endless thousands of hallways, some go left, some going right, some going straight, some having slopes up, and slopes down. "Typically when a body is to badly damaged by a Bestia Macht and shatters its thrown down here. The Catacombs used to just be under this city but it got so large and was filled with so many more bodies it's under several other cities, and is the default dumping ground of corpses, unless the persons will, or family, stated they wanted something else to happen to their body. for nearly 1000 Ages its been used as a dumping ground."
"Cool..." Both boys said with wide eyes.
"Guess it's a good thing Reaper didn't find this..." Hero joked. He finally shook his head as a smalls smile crossed onto his face. "Hey uh... You look familiar? And I know next to nothing about Nobles, since I hate all Nobles, so I definitely don't know you because of the Frost thing?"
Key gave them both a smile. "You don't recognize me?" She asked raising an eye brow. "You two are the ones who saved me."
Realization hit Hero as he recalled the woman in the alleyway. "That's right! We saved you from Big Nose!"
"Yep!" She laughed. She let out a small sigh as her smile faded. "Sevrey Long... They say he's killed nearly ten woman now... Thankfully... I think he's gonna get what's coming to him..." She smiled.
"Ominous."
***
Meanwhile...
"Servey Long..." The judge announced staring the pink haired man down. "I find you Guilty and sentence you to ten life sentences. You're to be shipped to Nightshade Prison, the Prison Nation where you'll rot out the rest of your life with the rest of your kind."
Servey sneered as his hands shook. "Y... You're making a huge mistake you bastard..." He hissed.
"Am I?" the judge said giving a half smirk. "Because I don't think I am..."
None of the people in the room noticed the doors which opened by a tiny crack.
And they certainly didn't notice the small white bug which flew into the room and landed on Servey...