When Axel entered middle school, Dan was the first friend he made. Despite making many friends in middle school, they all shifted to different high schools. However, Dan was the only one, who despite having the option to go to any high school he wanted to go to, chose to specifically go to the same school as Axel.
The reason was simple. They were friends. Nothing else to it.
When they met first, and began learning more about each other, it became evident that their interests were so similar a physiatrist might think they were the same person only based on their thoughts.
"Dan!" Axel exclaimed as he saw this mountain of a friend after such a long time. Technically, he had seen this brother of his just yesterday, however, with the memories that Axel currently had, Dan felt like a memory that had long since faded, yet left a distinct mark in his mind.
Waving his hand and waiting on the inside was Dan, his fat jiggling with every pass of his hand.
"Axel! Why did you not come to school yesterday! I was worried dude! You didn't even pick up your phone."
"Ah…"
Axel closed his eyes for a moment to go through the memories of the original Axel and recalled that yesterday those greedy money-hounds had come into the house and began demanding the property contract for the house.
Soon after his parents had left, these guys, who had put on the amiable faces of being family in front of his parents, became greedy hounds, only trying to gain as much profit as possible. They instantly snatched the property documents of Axel's house as collateral only 2 months after his parents had left with their money.
This was only possible because Axel was weak-minded and coerced into signing the papers of the house over to them. Forcing people into anything was pretty much impossible due to the satellite technology that the federation had set up. Almost no criminal had been able to escape after breaking the law; be it a minor, smoking in a no-smoking zone, or homicide.
Thankfully, before he handed everything else over as well, Uncle Lee had intervened and stopped Axel. Naturally, those greedy pigs would not return what was already given, and therefore, Axel and Lily were homeless without Uncle Lee's help.
These greedy idiots now had their eyes set on the house Uncle Lee had temporarily lent to Axel and Lily, however, no matter how much Axel had tried to explain to them, they would still not listen to the simple fact that the house still belonged to Uncle Lee, and Axel was just living on it.
It took nearly 4 hours to get them to leave, and because of the fatigue that followed this craziness, Axel was too tired to go to school, and ended up missing it.
'I really need to build up my body.' Axel thought to himself.
"Nothing. Let's go, we are getting late." Axel said and he patted Dan on his shoulder.
"Was it those uncles and aunts again?" Dan said with his eyes narrowed as suspicion filled his mind.
Normally, Axel would deny everything and move on with life, but that was the old Axel.
"Yeah. They keep irritating me."
"You want me to handle it? I should be able to scrape together enough funds to handle this matter." Dan said after a moment of shock at Axel's truthful response.
Dan was actually someone whose father was really rich. In fact, his father, Mr. Kodak could not only cover this loan his parents had taken from their family and friends ten times over like it was pocket change.
However, Mr. Kodak had a strict policy for his only son; Dan. No matter what, Dan would have to earn his living for himself until he proved himself worthy of being the successor of the company. This was a rule he had made before Dan was even born, to prevent himself from creating a spoiled brat that would lead the company to ruin.
Naturally, he still made Dan work in his own company, and gave him an incredibly large salary compared to the other workers at his level, with over 1000 credits per month being at his disposal after working for 5 hours a day every weekday after school.
Considering the salary, he received from 'Interning' at his father's company, he was clearly at the very least 5 times richer than Axel, who only received 400 credits per month, for doing nothing.
However, this gap not only in personal wealth, but also in family standing did not stop them from being friends, even after they found out about each other's families.
In fact, Axel's family had met with Dan's father a few times as well. But they decided not to disrupt their son's relations by asking Dan's father for money, and instead took money from their own family and friends to fund their activities at the border.
"No need. At least, it's fine for the time being." Axel brushed off the topic, since he did not want to be in debt to Dan's father. Furthermore, his parents would be returning in a few months anyway, with enough money to rival even Dan's father.
Just what kind of business would take so long and earn so much money? The answer was actually rather complicated.
'Bexite' was an element that was recently discovered in the China zone. This mineral was later found to be present in only 29 zones all across the federation, with the China zone having 4 locations, the Soviet zone having 5, the Saharan region having 5, and the American region having 6, making up for nearly 70% of the locations this mineral was found.
This mineral, was a completely new element that had never been recorded in the 8800 years of civilised history. But what made Bexite truly important was the fact that it could be broken down in nuclear fission, to form energy, and then the waste materials could be left alone for a few years. In these years, it would slowly reform from nuclear waste to an unstable nuclear element that could be used for fission once more.
Essentially, it was a source of waste-free unlimited nuclear energy!
Something like this naturally would attract the attention of countless zones, and Axel's parents found a business opportunity in this. Under the federation, no zones were allowed to wage wars against each other, but sabotaging, stealing and then smuggling from another zone could never be stopped, despite the satellites, since even the best satellite could be 'put for maintenance' by the respective zones to allow for such 'happy accidents' to occur.
And this was exactly what his parents did. Due to the great risk involved, they did not explain anything to anyone, and Axel himself also learned about the truth only after they had died. This was the reason they took nearly 10 years to return, so that they could build a better life for Axel and Lily. Since these were all top-grade military secrets, it took Axel a long time to uncover the truth.