19 Oleander City

Night eighteen...

Age 1991...

"Whoa." Hero said raising an eyebrow. "This wall is way better than the one in Dandelion and that other city I was in. It's so warm."

"No kidding..." Max muttered. "This thing is huge... I suppose it makes sense though. You'd need something sturdy to hold back the Bestia Machts after all..."

The two of them now stood in front of the massive metal wall. It was huge and went around the entire city of Oleander keeping the monsters out. It appeared to be made out of a weird red metal and had heat coming off of it. The wall was warm to the touch and any snow around the wall was melted away and for the first time, they actually felt heat, and didn't feel any cold. It was weird. They even saw green grass. Something rare in this world. Even in other cities, the artificial lights failed to keep the snow out, but here it was different. It was so nice. It was just so warm. And pretty... Steam constantly rose up as the ice was melted before it could touch down, and then quickly evaporated into more steam. It was clear Oleander wasn't a normal city.

"Wow... I wanna live here!" Hero said with stars in his eyes. "So nice."

"It's pretty cool right! I wish the base I am normally stationed at was this warm." A voice called out getting the two boy's attention. They both turned and saw a man standing in front of a metal gate that was in the wall. The man wore a full-body black suit, with a large full-body vest, and a helmet that covered his head keeping his entire body hidden and unseen. He also held a large gun in his arms that was extremely big, and very cool looking, and the words 'Enforcers' could be seen across the front of his outfit on his chest. He also had a small plastic badge on his chest which had a six on it. "Oleander is one of two cities like this. The other one is Rose City, the Nobles city. I'm Ace by the way! It's always nice to see new recruits trying out to be Enforcers. I'm a Blackcoat for Squad Six. We work with the Enforcers and help them out." He announced happily.

Hero stared at the man for a moment. "Oh? Are you an Enforcer to? You said you worked with them?"

"Err... Well... Uh..." The man seemed to stutter for a moment as he fidgeted nervously. "I mean sort of... You could say that... I guess... Well. I'm like... Uh..."

"He's not," Max said calmly. "He's nothing more than a mere guard dog set up to be slaughtered and by time for the real Enforcers to get here." Max stared the man down making him shrink down slightly. "This guy is nothing impressive and doesn't have a Cursed Life Technique. He's someone who was never able to get an Equation to pick him. Forced to remain weak forever."

"That's a mean thing to say." Hero said annoyed. "They risk their lives just as much, as an Enforcer. In some ways even more. So what if they can't kill a Bestia Macht, at least they put in an effort."

"It's true." Max shrugged. "The Enforcers are like a real-life superhero group. They defend the Nation from the Bestia Macht to the best of their abilities. It's only natural many kids would dream of joining them however only a tiny percentage of the population can use Equations. Because of this, they have a special group for normal humans. They give them big guns, which wouldn't do anything against a Bestia Macht, since only Powerful Anti Bestia Macht weapons, are the only things able to harm them, and they place them outside of cities to make them feel useful. They can't send them out on any missions since an entire squad of heavily armed normal humans could be slaughtered by a single Baron level threat in seconds. This man is not an Enforcer. He's just someone pretending to be important. They're called the Blackcoats because of their armor. They are usually sent out all over the world in order to find Equations that can possibly be bonded to people, as well as Bestia Macht Nests, and The Key Fragments. However in an actual battle they're useless and as such are nothing more than cannon fodder."

The man seemed to fidget nervously for a moment uncomfortable about the situation. "Well even if he is completely useless, and worthless, and would only slow a person with an Attribute down, and would be useless in a fight against a Bestia Macht, you shouldn't say it to his face." Hero folded his arms as he frowned at Max. "You should say it behind his back when he isn't listening. That way he doesn't know you're being rude to him. And he'll still have some self confidence and won't feel sad. Besides. I've seen a blackcoat in action. They aren't as worthless as you're making them out to be."

"You guys are kind of mean..." Ace muttered. "I mean... Sure we can't fight Bestia Machts but we can stop other people from getting-"

Max raised his finger pointing it a Ace. It began to glow white-hot as steam started to come off of it. "And if I was a real enemy you would now be dead." Max shrugged. "So you've already failed at your job. Open the gate let us in so we don't have to see you anymore."

Ace let out a sigh and seemed to mutter a few choice insults from under his helmet as he grabbed a small metal chain. He tugged on it as a section of the wall began to raise up opening up and allowing them to finally enter the city.

"Sorry..." Hero shrugged.

"Careful not to cause any trouble," Ace said sarcastically dropping the chain once they enter into the city. "Man I really hope those two aren't assigned to the Squad I work for..."

The two boys ignored the tiny man's, threats as they looked around the city. There was no snow in sight. And the buildings were huge. Strange metal objects with four rubber wheels moved down the road. They were like trains but didn't have tracks. The buildings seemed to go all the way into the sky, and at the very center of the city up in the air was a massive flaming ball of light. The artificial light. It was much bigger than any other artificial light and it seemed to hum with power. It gave off some heat but it didn't feel like is should be enough to stop the snow entirely. What exactly was stopping snow from reaching this city then?

Various people all dressed in various robes, and shorts, and jackets, all moved through out the city. They seemed oddly excited. There was also more peopled dressed the same way Ace had been. The Blackcoat people.

"Why are they so happy?" Hero asked curiously.

"Two reasons," Max explained. "The first are the Twelve Captains. They are almost never together in one place but this is one of the few times where you can see them all since they will be here to scout out new recruits for their Squads. The second reason why is they get to watch the final recruit event. Over the years the Enforcer entry tests have always varied but they always have one thing in common. There is five tests. And the fifth and final tests always ends in combat. The other four can be vastly different. This is because four Captains from the Enforcers are randomly picked and are allowed to pick the test for this exam."

"Weird..." Hero muttered. "You know a lot about this group huh? I mean I always wanted to join the Enforcers. That's why the master trained me, but I never really bothered to learn about them I guess. But you sure do know a lot."

"No I really don't. You're just an idiot."

"Hey! I'm street smart. I've just never been on a street before... Well that's not true... Dad and I were pretty much homeless and on the run constantly so now that I think about it I guess I've been on a lot of streets. I must be a genius."

Max shot Hero a dirty look for a moment before he turned back and began to scan the city. "We just need to find the Enforcers building..." He stopped as he stared at one of the buildings in the distance.

It was far taller than any of the others. Most of the buildings brushed the sky, but this one went beyond the black smog clouds themselves and it was impossible to see the top. It seemed to be made out of solid gold and had blue lights all across it. Streams of lava poured down it falling into a mini mote around the building and a massive Golden Gate, with a straight-up diamond fence was around the building. The front of it was also be covered in huge wooden signs that were impossible to read and it had massive black tinted missile proofed windows. Lightning also seemed to just crackle off of the strange building and it gave off such a weird aura. Nobody else seemed to even notice it though.

It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that was probably the building...

"Do do you think that's it?" Hero asked casually.

Hero was far from a genius...

Max sighed and began to walk towards the building. Hero followed after him.

"You know," Max commented casually. "I still don't even remotely understand you."

"Hmm?"

"You're just flat out odd." Max shrugged. "So many mysteries. Even a Genius like me is having a hard time figuring it out. I look forward to seeing where you'll end up."

"Do you now-"

"Give me your money!" A man jumped out pointing a gun at both teens. "Right-"

Max raised his hand up as the gun melted, and in an instant punched the man sending him across the street where he crashed and landed unconscious. Him and Hero walked forward and Hero stepped over the guy not bothering to check on him.

"I do." Max continued as if nothing happened. "I wonder. Why do you want to join the Enforcers? Money? Fame? Power? The group gives that all."

"That's a dumb question." Hero said rolling his eyes. "I wanna be a super cool hero! One the ladies will go crazy for. And I'll have a cool catch phase that all the kids will know. 'You've been disarmed' which is funny because of my power. And they'll make action figures of me, and I'll be put on boxes of cereal, and I'll get my own t.v show that will have a famous actor playing as me. That's why I want to be an Enforcer!"

"Oh haha. Funny joke." Max rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless... I fight to improve. I have one goal. I want to show this world blood does not matter. In a world where your family name means everything I wish to show them that someone who does not have a name, and grew up on the street can be great too. I'm going to be the first commoner to become the Emperor. I'll start with the position of the First Captain the highest rank of an Enforcer. Then I'll make this world see me. Once I become the Emperor I'll save this Nation. I'll go further and save this world. I'll hold all the worlds problems in my hands and solve them all. No matter what. Because I'm a genius."

Hero threw his arms behind his back as he let out a small hum. "I just want to be a super cool hero."

"...What? You weren't making a joke?"

"None of those noble goals, bull crap. I just want to be a super cool superhero. There's this really cool comic I read a lot called Super-Mega-Ultra Man. My dad gave it to me a lot when he found them. He's a hero at night, and a banker at day. I wanna do that but in real life minus the banker part and the hero part all the time."

"..."

"He has this cool power."

"..."

"His right arm is this cool weapon he uses. I guess it's like a Transformation type Equation."

"..."

"And he has this cool cannon power he has. He calls it the Mega Beam."

"..."

"And he does this cool thing where he yells 'just call me, Super insert what he's doing here, Man and I always thought that was cool because then you're like a superhero with like a billion names which is cool, so I started to do it to in real life."

"..."

"And-"

"I get it! Shut up about stupid superheroes for five minuets!" Max's eye began to twitch as he turned away. "And here I thought you were special. To think I actually thought you were like me. Someone with a Noble goal. No. You're just a child playing pretend."

"I don't like you." Hero threw his arms behind his back as he gave a half shrug. "If you care so much how about this. I want to find someone."

"What?"

"I want to find someone." Hero said again. He reached up for a second looking up to the black sky above. "A pretty girl with silver hair, and those bright silver eyes."

"Ahh... So... You want to get laid."

"Yep!"

"Of course you do..."

"I guess I also want to find my brother, and figure out about the lab we grew up in. I guess it would be kind nice to learn about to? Maybe find out who my real dad, and mom is. Sometimes I remember my mom but it's all blurry."

"I hate you..."

"I hate you to."