In a small office filled with various books and paperwork, with an occasional odd mechanical device or prototype gadget on a shelf or table, a man was sitting facing away from the entrance.

A quiet whirring sound got louder as he grabbed a quill, followed by minor mechanical noises as he started writing.

*Kssshhht, ksshhhht*

"Oh what is it now…" he pressed a button on a device, "I am in the middle of something important—"

"Professor Smythe, I have urgent news!"

"Oh, Lalane, it’s you. I told you to call me Noix…"

"He’s awake!"

Barging out of his office, Noix grabbed his blue long coat off the hook and put it on while giving his secretary instructions.

"Cancel all the meetings scheduled for today."

"But Professor—"

"Actually, delay everything for next week."

He stormed out into the hallway without giving her a chance.

"Lalane," he took out a device from his pocket in the middle of the staircase, and then after pressing a button on it, repeated, "Lalane, come in. Do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Professor Smythe," his assistant’s voice could be heard from the speaker.

"Didn’t I tell you— "

"To call you Noix. Yes, you did Professor. Four hundred and forty-seven times now, sir."

The man entered a staircase jumping over a handrail and landing on the bottom floor. He opened a door, almost knocking down some people.

"Excuse me. I’m in a hurry!"

"Sir?" Lalane asked.

"Never mind that. Can you reach Miss Mai and the—"

"Enforcers? Done fifteen minutes ago."

Noix ran up to a metal door with a small glass window, pressing a button on it vigorously.

"Come on, come on, come on!"

"The elevator is broken. I told you that this morning…" Lalane sounded disappointed.

"Eh, well, I was—"

"Busy. I know. I scheduled a repair, but it doesn’t seem to be finished just yet. May I suggest another route—?" before she even finished the sentence, he was running towards the end of the hallway.

"Hey, you!!! Yes you, open that window… Quick, out of the way!"

To the astonishment of those present, Noix just jumped through the window.

 "Maaaaaadneeeesss!"

He landed on the deck of the enormous ship that hovered above the steam of Para City below it. He slid down a ladder into the ship’s interior cramped with machinery.

As he reached for the handle a tall girl, dressed in a green turtleneck sweater and brown stockings, opened the door. On her head was an almost knight-like helmet with two holes for her brown braids and a lifted visor to free her chestnut bangs. Her ankle boots, waist, and both arms were protected by light armour.

Lalane always had her large book with her in one hand, while fixing her glasses with the other.

"Great landing, professor," she commented.

"Thank you," the man nodded, sitting on the pilot seat next to her, "What’s the current situation?"

"He broke out of Lab 1 exactly half an hour ago," she started her report.

"Security?"

"They were all out of commission."

"You mean, he didn’t kill them?" he looked at her in surprise.

"No, he harmed no one but destroyed everything around..."

"Bah, insurance will cover that, but more importantly, if he’s not killing them, then there’s still hope. His current location?"

"We don’t know."

"Does Master know?" the blue-clad man asked while pushing some buttons and flipping some switches overhead.

"I… think? You know he doesn’t like to use your devices," his assistant shrugged.

The man turned on the windshield wipers as well as wiped his own blue shades with a white cloth to remove all the condensed water.

As far as the eye can see, towers of metal reached up for the sky. Completely encircled by tall metal walls set with domes, the city was like no other in the world.

The machines that were running the city were all powered by steam, and it was this steam that was released all around, engulfing almost all of the Vapeur Republic in giant clouds, leaving any potential threats only guessing what lies inside its walls.

The Republic didn’t have a leader in the sense that the other nations do. It was run by people. Everyone had their place, their job. They were like parts of the machine itself.

The professor squinted at first as if he saw something outside, then started searching some compartments.

"Lalane, do you know where the—"

He didn’t even manage to ask while his assistant already handed him a pair of binoculars. Taking them, he looked outside again toward one of the domes to confirm his suspicion.

"Mon dieu, lab one is on fire…"

Moving the binoculars towards the direction of lab two, he abruptly moved them backwards to about halfway between the labs, "I think we’ve found our runaway."

He handed them back to the assistant. Bringing them up to her glasses, she saw something peculiar on the wall which bound the city.

"What is he doing?"

"Ah, just his thing..."

A grown naked man with long blond hair was running on the outer walls of Para City.

* * *

Smoke was gushing from the chimney of the steam locomotive as it raced toward the turnout that connected to the second line. All trains heading in the same direction were stopped to avoid possible collisions. Passing them at insane speed, the locomotive let out a whistling warning sound.

In the second wagon, five men clad in black and grey cloaks, wearing different masks, armed with some kind of guns and knives, pointed their weapons toward the passengers.

"Please, don’t hurt us!" a woman embraced her child, pressing its face to her chest.

"Everybody stay in their seats and no one gets hurt!!!" shouted one of the armed men.

"Wagon secured. We are ab—"

"Enforcers incoming from the rear!" reported one standing outside watching the train carriage behind.

"The enforcers…" one of the passengers suddenly had hope in his eyes.

"Shut up!" the man pointed the rifle at him, then shouted to his comrades, "Uncouple their wagons, quick!"

A crouching man watching the back door of the passenger wagon began to fiddle with the mechanism.

At the moment the one outside started to mess with the mechanism, the door opened at the following wagon and a few men in crimson red uniformed long coats with black boots and white gloves appeared.

 "Cover fire!" cried the crouched man in panic.

The one behind him fired a few shots forcing the enforcers to pull back. One of them shouted through a megaphone.

"Stand down! We will use force if necessary! Surrender now and your punishment may be reduced."

"Idiots! This could be the only chance we got! How can you not see that?"

"That is not for you to decide. Throw down your weapons!"

"Tsk! You brainwashed morons," the man opened fire, this time almost hitting one of the enforcers.

"It’s done!" a third man that came out of the front car finished uncoupling and the train carriages with the enforcers started lagging behind.

After firing a couple of warning shots at the trailing part of the train, the dark-clad men were stunned when a young woman jumped, from the roof of the wagon with enforcers, towards them, getting only her crimson coat grazed by one of the men who twitched his gun upwards when he suddenly saw her fly over.

 "One of them made it across!"

"You, and you; come up with me," he grabbed a ladder on the side and climbed up.

Peeking out with his gun at the ready, he tried to aim.

What? Where is she?

At that moment, crackling noise came from inside the car.

"She’s already inside!" he shouted to warn the rest of his comrades.

One of them broke the glass on the door and pointed his gun inside but soon noticed half of the rifle was already cut off. Lifting his gaze up, he got hit by a sword hilt and pulled inside through the opening.

The only man left standing climbed up on the train’s roof rather than back down, now running over to the locomotive in order to uncouple the last remaining car before she caught up to him.

Halfway there, a bullet grazed his ankle and he fell, rolling to the side of the car, barely hanging.

One of his hands slipped, but just before he fell, a white glove caught him.

"Gotcha!"

Noticing her grip on the man loosening, the passengers that were hostages to the armed men minutes ago were now working together to break the window and pull the man inside to safety.

They also improvised some ropes to tie up all the assailants.

After getting down from the roof through the window, the enforcer brushed the hair off her face, revealing her one green eye.

"Good work, ye lot," she pulled a strange-looking hat from her back onto her head, combined with her eye patch now looking almost like a pirate.

"Thank you, miss enforcer," the passengers were relieved and grateful.

"Nothin’ to it. Now, I’ll uncouple this car and trust ye to watch them ‘till me men arrive."

"You are leaving them with us?" the people were a bit concerned.

"Aye. I gotta rush," she headed towards the locomotive.

Getting the car released, she entered the locomotive and addressed the frightened driver.

"At ease. Enforcer Rouge," she pulled out a badge.

"An enforcer… thank goodness."

"How long till’ the wall without slowin’ down?"

"Reaching the collision point in five minutes… but I was planning on braking, you know… not crashing into it."

"Aye. Keep ‘er at full speed ahead," the young lady was opening one of the side doors, by rotating the large round handle.

"But…"

"I’m getting out on the next curve, just above the wall. Ye’ll ‘ave plenty of time to slow down before the station," she turned towards him, "Ye think ye are up to the task?"

"I’ll try my best," he made an awkward attempt at saluting like an enforcer.

"Good lad," she smiled.

After a short swoosh, the door opened and she peeked out, grabbing onto the locomotive’s metal stairs and stepping on them with black boots. Her red curly hair covered her face since she was too slow to grab her hat, as it flew away carried by the wind and was now on its way down into the lower parts of the city.

"Lady Rogue, you’re not gonna jump, are you??"

"That’s the plan! Don’t slow down, or we may be too late if we already ain’t..."

* * *

"The train with Miss Mai on board is closing in on the target," the green-eyed assistant was reporting what she heard over the co-pilot headset.

"And we will be there shortly after. I just hope it won’t be too late," the blue-clad man was rotating a miniature ship's steering wheel.

"What are your speculations?" Lalane asked.

"I think he’s headed for Lab 2."

"That’s where we keep the sword," she made some sense out of it.

"The Zehnhander, " Noix whispered.

* * *

Even though the train ran at full speed, it had problems catching up to the man running on the huge outer wall, jumping over occasional guards and turrets alike.

Rose Rogue de Mai was counting seconds before the point of the strongest centrifugal pull.

"Now!" she had the timing set for herself, jumping up with all her might.

Up in the airship, the duo held their breath as from their perspective, a small red dot looked like it was flying through the air, finally landing on the wall in front of the naked man.

"Stop!" she unholstered her weapons, pointing the Éclair towards him.

The blond man had no intention of stopping, he was running straight toward her.

She aimed at his leg and fired.

"Got ye!" she said too soon, as the bullet hit but didn’t even graze him. Deciding to raise the bar, she focused on her sword. Even though he was still out of her reach, she slashed horizontally.
An invisible force followed after her blade, aimed at his legs, cutting the air as it flew at him.

The man quickly jumped over the slash as if he knew it was coming.
Missing him, it hit one of the metal pipes behind him, releasing a high-pitched whistle as the steam started coming out of it.

The man ran past her, raising her cape and hair.

Mai turned around and swung her blade, creating a small void in space that retracted immediately.

The small implosion drew everything in a certain radius inwards, including both Mai and the man.

He pierced the metal floor with his fingers, holding on to it to avoid being pulled in by her attack. The floor bent but kept him from falling onto his back. He turned around, his blue eyes meeting her gaze for a brief moment, before he started his sprint once again, bending the metal floor from the force.

Knowing full well that she can’t catch up to him, Mai took out a small radio and pressed a button on it.

"This is Captain Rogue of the Enforcers. Mission failed. I repeat, mission failed."

* * *

Upon reaching Lab 2, the blond man first stopped in front of a large metal gate, then looked around, noticing a round glass window high up from his position.

The window was too high to reach for anyone except a few people in the world. He was one of them.

Jumping so quickly to leave an indent on the metal floor, the blond man went flying through the glass without a single scratch as the shards of glass deflected off his skin.

He landed inside the fifth floor of the laboratory, breaking a lot of equipment inside the room via his violent entrance.

Forcefully bending any door or barrier with his bare arms, he made his way through and towards a large dome-shaped chamber in which center magnetically levitated a giant sword by the name of Zehnhander. He started walking towards it.

Moments after him, Noix and Lalane entered the chamber.

"Don’t do it!" Noix yelled, reaching out with his hand.

"Let him. I’m here now," a dark-haired man wearing a black kimono appeared next to them.

"Whoah," Lalane jumped, not noticing when he arrived.

"Master, what do you mean; ‘Let him.’?" Noix was frustrated, "You said it yourself… ‘The future after this point is unreadable’. There is no way of knowing what may happen!"

"If you don’t have faith in him… then have faith in me that I can stop him," the long-haired man spoke with a calm expression, not opening his eyes.

The naked blond man reached for the sword, grabbing the hilt with his hand as everyone held their breath.