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

"Cancel all the meetings scheduled for today!" Noix said in a hurry.

"But Mr, Smythe—"

"Actually, everything for the rest of the 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 frothy seven times now, sir."

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

"Excuse me. I’m in a hurry!" he bowed ever so briefly and continued running.

"Sir?" Lalane asked over the radio.

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

"Enforcers? Done fifteen minutes ago," she said proudly.

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's disappointed voice could be heard from the small device in his hand.

"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..."

* * *

"Hey you!!! Yes you, open that window…" Noix was instructing a very confused and baffled passerby, shouting to get everyone in the hallway to move to the sides "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 were 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 armor.

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?"

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

"Security?"

"They were all out of commission," Lalane said with relief in her voice.

"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..." Noix took a deep breath, "Then there’s still hope. His current location?"

"We don’t know," she added with a heavy sigh of defeat.

"Does Master Anciel know?" the blue-clad man asked while pushing some buttons and flipping some switches on the ship's control panels overhead.

"I… think? I couldn't really ask him. You know he doesn’t like to use your devices," Lalane 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 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 and 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 toward the direction of lab two, he abruptly moved them backward to about halfway between the labs saying excitedly, "I think we’ve found our runaway."

He handed them back to Lalane, who brought them up to her glasses. She saw something peculiar on the wall which bounded the city.

"What is he doing?" she asked, not quite understanding what she was seeing. A grown naked man with long blond hair was running on the outer walls of Para City.

"Ah, just his thing..." Noix smiled.

* * *

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 frightened passengers.

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

"Everybody stay at 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 whispered full of hope.

"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 that moment 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?" shouted the man desperately back at the enforcers.

"That is not for you to decide," they answered firmly, "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. Stop the train!"

"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," 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," the man let out a sigh of relief.

"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…" the man watched her with a mix of amazement and disbelief.

"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??" the driver asked once more not believing what she was going to do.

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

"Yes ma’am," the driver closed the door after her and then continued to put coal into the engine, making the train almost run out of its rails as it entered a curve. Just behind its chimney, a female head with an eye patch appeared, holding on for dear life, but not even blinking with her one eye in the face of danger.

She checked if her weapons are still attached. An automatic Éclair on one side and a custom rapier on the other.

"Yer still with me, my loyal companions. Good. I just hope I don’t have to use ye…"