Improvement

Night Seventy Seven

Age 1991

Enforcers Main Building Training Room...

Jackson jumped to the left avoiding a large slash of flames, that flew through the air, as he gritted his teeth. 'This would be a million times easier if they weren't trying so hard...' He thought to himself. The Vice-Captain twisted his body to the side as a large ball of ice flew past him freezing the wall behind him. 'Way easier... I don't know what the hell happened but these guys are fighting on a much higher level...'

"Oh come on!" Kitsune said throwing his hands up into the air. "This is hopeless!' He sighed out as he folded his arms. "We've been at it all day but we still can't hit you." He burst forward slashing his katana out and sending another wave of flames at the Vice-Captain who simply side stepped the flames once again. "See! You're so fast!"

"Well. Try harder?" Jackson said shrugging his shoulders sheepishly.

"Will you actually give us a reasonable solution?" Irene muttered out as she frowned at the man launching her own attack that he spun around dodging it with ease. "We can't hit something as fast as you... Your power allows you to move at lightning like speed..."

The three of them were back in the training room. Jackson claimed he would show them how to better use their Cursed Powers, but then apparently changed his mind, and said he would only teach them if they could get a hit in on him. The problem was that lightning out sped both fire, and ice... He was far to fast for either to ever have a hope of attacking.

"That's not how it'll work," Jackson said smirking.

"But you're just way to fast!" Kitsune said still annoyed. "How can we possibly hit you! This isn't fair!"

"Well. I am the fastest Enforcer!" Jackson said proudly as he gave a bright smile. "Although. You should know that while I am insanely fast, there are plenty of people who are still faster than me outside of the Enforcers." He stated, now giving a serious tone. "You should find a way to overcome someone being able to casually out speed your attacks-" Jackson ducked down as a ball of ice, and fire shot over his head. "And attacking at the same time is smart, if you can coordinate it. Both of you just firing out attacks at the same time is just the same results but from two angles..."

"I really hate you..." Irene sighed out.

"It is to be expected... I mean he is a Vice-Captain. And he is a Storm. He's a Noble of insane power and-"

"Okay! I get it!" Irene said rolling her eyes. "You can stop worshipping our enemy any time now! Seriously..."

"What?" Kitsune shrugged. "He's like me. A Noble from the Sacred Branches, and an Enforcer. Why wouldn't I like him."

"Fanboy..."

Kitsune gave a small shrug as he turned back to Jackson. "Alright... Well. It is as good a time as any I suppose." He brought his sword up to his hand and suddenly sliced into his palm spilling his blood down for a moment shocking Irene and Jackson. A wave of flames covered Kitsune's hand as he pointed his hand towards Jackson holding his palm out to the man as the flames seemed to form a fire like glove on his hand. "Fox-Flare!" He announced as a wave of heat fired out of his hand like a massive orange beam. That made Irene's eyes go wide.

The beam fired through the air ripping the floor apart as it moved faster and faster towards Jackson who gave a small respectful smile seeing how strong the Fox Noble was.

"Impressive. You're getting better and that's a lot of power... But..." Blue electricity crackled around Jackson as he shot towards the left dodging the attack with ease as it flew past him. "Firing an attack in a straight line isn't a very good idea when your opponent can move as fast as lightning... They'll just dodge it." He said trailing off. "Those kinds of attacks aren't very good if you can't get a hit on your opponent, plus they take up a lot of power."

"Well! I had another idea for the attack but... I don't know how to pull it apart yet..." Kitsune said letting out a sigh. "I struggle with getting it to separate. Honestly the laser beam was kind of an accident. The Devil Arm already has that and I don't want to copy that comic nerd so I'm working on my own super attack."

"I know the feeling," Irene muttered out. "I struggle with trying to shape my ice... No matter how hard I try, it always comes out as malformed blocks of Ice..." She muttered. 'Nowhere near the level of North's...' She thought to herself as she gave a heavy frown. 'I'll never reach his level. Even with only a fraction of fathers power he is able to use it way better than me...'

Jackson gave a small sigh as he folded his arms up. "Okay. Look. I'll give you a small piece of advice since both of you are struggling so much." He stated. "The reason you can't hit me is because you are aiming at where I am."

"Isn't... Isn't that whole point?" Kitsune questioned in slight confusion.

"Not when your opponent can dodge," Jackson said shaking his head. "If you see that someone can dodge your attack easily, then you should stop aiming at where they are and instead aim at where they will be." He stated as a small smirk found its way onto his face. "So. When fighting if you're going to hurl massive attacks around, you should study your opponent, and figure out how they are moving and make yourself an opening. Otherwise you'll use up all your power to soon. Light is very good at this able to study someone even without his eyes."

"I get it," Irene said nodding her head. "I see what we have to do now."

"I think I do too," Kitsune said nodding his head.

Both teens raised their arms, and or weapons up, only to be stopped when a loud bell echoed throughout the training room.

"Oh!" Jackson said giving a smirk. "Times up. Sorry kids. I guess you won't get to test out your new attacks out on me. Better luck next time!" He said nervously. 'Oh good... I think they were about to hit me with two massive attacks... Talk about being saved by the bell.'

"Oh come on!" They both shouted. "Just a few more seconds?"

Jackson let out a laugh as he turned away from them. "Well! Come on then. Let's go meet up with the others and see how they are doing. It'd also be nice to take a break. I mean it's been almost a week of you guys pestering us to train you all. It's weird since none of us ever had a chance to train a new recruit... I wonder if we're doing any good."

"We just want to be ready in case we have to go on another mission," Irene said shrugging casually. "We fought as Viscount Bestia Macht and yet that isn't even that strong compared to the others... There is an Earl which is even stronger which requires a Level Two power to even deal with normally, a Marquees which is Captain level, a Duke which requires several Captains to take down, and of course the strongest level the Prince... A Bestia Macht so strong is requires all Enforcers teaming up to take it down."

"Well then. It's a good thing you guys prepared then." Jackson said waving his hand slightly. "We're gonna be sent out on a mission pretty soon..."

"Really?" Kitsune said raising an eyebrow. A slight smirk found its way onto his face.

"Yeah... Part of Squad Six's job, is to go inspect other cities and check up on them... I mean every Squad has to do that, but Squad Six is usually the ones that are asked. Anyways. We are ordered to head to certain cities that have suspicious activities, and it's our job to discover them, and put a stop to them." He said casually as he exited the training room followed by the others. "Squad Six is usually the more battle oriented squad. We're flexible for most battle situations such as Bestia Macht, or just normal civilians."

"So we're gonna get to do another mission after all!" Irene said nodding her head. "Good... This will be a good chance to show off what I can really do..."

"What's this about another mission?"

The group turned finding Ken, and Hero standing near the entrance to the training room. Ken was dressed up in a set of work out clothing. Hero was just dressed in a casual outfit and seemed to have just been taking a break.

"Yo Devil Arm!" Kitsune said as him and Hero high fived, showing off their amazing bromance as both boys swapped from hating to loving each other. "Where's Light?"

"He went off to meditate somewhere." Hero replied giving a small shrug. "He has an idea for a new attack but he's still working out the vision of it in his head. He asked me to help. We're kind of best friends, no big deal." He bragged.

"What's this about a new mission?" Ken asked again, but with a little more force in her voice as she folded her arms up.

"We're gonna be going on a new mission in a couple of days!" Kitsune announced happily.

"Well. Maybe." Jackson said holding his hands up. "All I said was that Squad Six would be sent out on a mission. We don't know who is going, or how the group will be split up. I do figure that you all will be picked simply so you can see how this kind of mission works."

"Well, what Class is it?" Ken questioned.

"None, at least right now it doesn't have a class..." Jackson replied back. "The mission is unknown. We are simply going to go check out a city, and walk around, and try to find something. It won't have an official ranking until we get back to headquarters and give a full report on what we found. Then you'll get Bells based off how much they think the mission was worth."

"Seems interesting," Ken said slightly sarcastically as she frowned. "Although... I guess I should be glad that we won't have to worry about anything too crazy."

"I dunno... I've seen a lot of weird stuff on scouting missions." Jackson said shrugging. "I once saw a guy devour a Bestia Macht? His jaw unhinged and he swallowed it whole, like a champ. Didn't even have a transformation based Equation... He was an Equip Type. God knows how he did it. Who knows what we'll see."

"Whatever!" Ken smirked slightly as she crossed her arms and tried to look cool. "Whatever it is, I'll solve the problem in an ultra-stylish way. After last mission I'm gonna work even harder than these scrubs."

Kitsune gave a small sigh as his eye twitched. "She's still going on about that..."

"She's been going on about it all day..." Hero muttered out to the Fox Noble. "She still doesn't like that we threw her at the Bestia Macht... And her dreams so weird."

"You're one to talk!" Ken said placing her hands on her hips as she glared at Hero. "After all you joined the Enforcers to become a superhero?"

"Superheroes are cool..." Hero shrugged.

Jackson let out a small laugh at his recruit's antics. "Well, guys. If I were you. I'd get some last-minute training in. It's important to get it done early. Eventually, you get to the point where all you'll be doing is going on missions."

The group all looked at each other for a few seconds as they all gave a small nod.

Jackson gave another small smirk as he reached out placing a hand on Ken's head. "You especially need to do some big training-" He stepped to the side dodging a swipe from the girl as he smirked. Then in a flash, he vanished.

"I really hate him..." Ken muttered.

"He's so cool..." Kitsune said with stars in his eyes.

"I need to go," Irene stated bluntly. "I need to get back to training."

"What? But you've been nonstop training." Hero said frowning.

"So have you?"

"Yeah but I'm the main character I get a pass on trying to power level. It's just to be expected. Or what I mean is I think you're trying a little to hard..." Hero pointed out. "I mean. It's fine to want to improve by a lot right now but don't push it. You should definitely train when you can but don't drain all of your energy, and time on it. You'll burn yourself out to fast, and will begin to lose progress. There is a point where it stops being training and just turns into torturing your body."

Irene rolled her eyes. "It's cute that you worry that I can't handle it. I'll worry about that when I get there." She stated walking past Hero. "I need to get a lot stronger... And fast. I have a goal I want to reach as well." She said with a frown. "There is someone I must get stronger than." She said as her mind drifted over to North for a moment.

Kitsune folded his arms as he let out a sigh. "Ahh, whatever. Let her leave..." He muttered out. "But. Mr. Storm had a point. Who knows when we'll have a chance like this to train again. We should make the most of it, and see how hard our efforts had paid off. Plus. I read that scouting missions can take at the least a week, and at the most a few months... Who knows when we'll be able to get back."

"You're right... Which gives me an idea!" Ken said as a light bulb flashed over her head.

"Oh no... She's coming up with plans now..." Kitsune muttered stepping away.

"She's evolving... We're doomed..." Hero said also muttering. Both boys stepped back as Ken folded her arms and gave them both an annoyed glare.

"Ha...Ha...Ha..." She shook her head as her dull red eyes rolled. "Very funny."

"Well. What's your plan?" Hero questioned despite knowing he was about to regret asking this.

Ken smirked as she leaned in close to both of the boys. "Tomorrow we should challenge some of the other recruits."