The Fourth Test

Night Twenty Seven...

Age 1991

"Thank God they gave us a two hour break." Hero sighed resting in the nice comfortable air conditioned room now that the third test was over.

"I need a shower..." Ken sighed.

"A Samurai like me did the best!"

Emma hummed reading a book and Shelly laid on the ground practically unconscious. Light was rapidly poking Hero cover the head again and again trying to get his attention and Irene was just kind of sitting there...

Hero's eyes lit up slightly as a loud buzzing sound echoed throughout the entire room. "Here we go again..." He mumbled as the room once again began to rapidly spin and change. Most people didn't even bother to try and stay standing since they had been on the ground so they simply accepted their fate.

Thankfully the room didn't change all that much this time as it simply grew large and a ten feet wide, and twenty feet long black metal block slowly raised out of the ground in front of everyone. A man in a black business suit with round glasses, emerald eyes, and black messy hair could be seen sitting on the massive iron block.

His eyes slowly stared at all the people who were in the room. There was only about half of them left from the previous tests up until this point. The man slowly stepped off of the black block landing on the ground with ease as he stood up.

Everyone was silent as he gave off this aura of power, and silence. "Good evening..." He said finally looking up at the rest of the group. "My name is Ward, one of the Four Mighty Beasts of the Master. I will be here to help with the forth and final test." He said in a cool tone.

"Four Mighty Beasts?" Hero asked quietly.

"They're the highest rank of an Enforcer besides the First Squad Captain..." Irene said quietly. "The Four Mighty Beasts of Master Storm... They are not technically an Enforcer for they work directly under the Master. They are some of the highest ranks an Enforcer can get... I'll achieve that rank and show him I don't need his help."

"Neat. I take it you're still mad Irene?"

"You're really observant aren't you Hero..."

"No need to get snappy. It's not a cute look on you."

Ward let out a sigh as his eye twitched. "Please stop talking." He called out making Hero, and Irene jump. "This test was selected by the Sixth Squad Captain, Captain Katrina. It is a very simple task, much like the simple woman who picked it. When I call your name please step forward and hit this iron black as hard as you can with your power."

"That's it?" Irene asked.

"Nice!" Ken and Hero announced.

"That's it." Ward nodded. "While you're waiting please remain silent." Emma and Hero both let out innocent whistles not meeting the mans eyes. Ward pulled out a sheet of paper he had in his pocket and unfolded it in a casual manner which was surprising from his serious look. And with that he began to call out various names.

And boy was it boring!

You would think seeing all these various cool superpowers being fired off would be cool, but it seemed that most of the people who were here, weren't all that strong as most of them were unable to even scratch the metal block. It must have been extremely thick or something?

Ward let out a sigh as yet another person tried something but was unable to dent the block of ice. "Max." He called off reading the next name off the list.

Hero leaned forward interested in seeing this.

Max walked towards the black block as he raised his hand up. He stuck two fingers, and a thumb out making his hand into a pretend gun similar to the way kids would do. An orange flash of light began to seep out of his hand as steam rose off of it. A metal bracelet could be seen on his right wrist. It must have been the place where he kept his Equation So he was an Equip type.

Lava began to bubble out of his finger tips dripping down onto the metal floor and heating it up as the lava formed into a small bubble spinning faster and faster as it began to generate a tremendous amount of kinetic force getting faster and faster, and faster.

Finally Max said one phase as he cocked his hand as if it was a gun.

"Boom." He said calmly.

The ball blasted off slamming into the black box and exploding in a hail of force. Everyone stared in shock as the box began to slowly dent and get caved in as the intense heat, and massive force proved to be to much for the metal. Slowly the heat and glowing died down showing a massive hole had been drilled into the things side.

"Not to bad..." Ward muttered. He clicked a button on a remote he pulled out of his shirt causing the box to sink into an opening in the floor. A few seconds later an undamaged one rose up. "Next." He called out as the test continued on.

"Wow." Hero said scratching his chin. "He's pretty strong I guess."

"No kidding." Irene muttered. "He's-"

Both teens froze as someone behind them cleared their throats. The two teens slowly turned around seeing Ward standing behind them.

"Irene Glacious..." He sighed reading the list. "You better know what you're doing North... I could get into a lot of trouble for this..."

Hero attempted to pat the girl on the shoulder but she slapped his hand away as she walked towards the block of iron. Irene took a deep breath as she raised her hands up. Flickers of ice began to slowly come off of her body making everyone whisper.

"An ice based ability..."

"I... Ice..."

"Her powers are like a Bestia Macht."

Ward frowned as he watched the girl get to work. "Strange... She has an ice based power much like North... I know that their twins but they're commoners... When a Noble from one the Twenty Sacred Branches are born, an Equation is born along side of them that will have to do with the family. Because of this all Nobles have an Equation since their both and their powers will be similar. An example is all the Nines having Equip types involving flaming fox spirits, and the Storms having a caster type involving lightning. However this is only true with Nobles. Commoners are not born with an Equation and must find one in the world. Just because one sibling has an Equation does not mean the other sibling will be able to bond with more, further more for both siblings to get the same type, and have similar abilities, is practically impossible... This is indeed an interesting development..."

Irene slowly raised her hand up touching the iron block as the ice covered it. "Break away." She said calmly as it shattered into a fine dust.

"She completely destroyed it!"

"They said her last name was Glacious right... Isn't there a powerful Enforcer with that name?"

Over with the group Hero let out a hum. "I guess she's pretty strong. Maybe I shouldn't pick on her anymore."

"I assume I passed." Irene asked.

Ward didn't answer her as he looked down at his notes. "Emma Vibes." He called out as Irene walked back to the group.

"Go Emma!" Shelly called out.

Emma walked off nervously towards the metal box as she held up her weapon. The chainsaw roared to life as she closed her eyes. A white aura began to seep out of the blade getting faster. "Moonlit Vibrations." She said calmly. She slashed the weapon up sending out a blue slash which cut into the side of the metal box leaving a deep gash in it.

"She damaged it to?"

"What's with these people..."

"Alright Emma!" Shelly yelled.

Ward once again switched the boxes out as he called out the next few names. By now there weren't to many people left who were still waiting. A few more people managed to cut the box but no one to the extent of Irene yet. Then again she turned it into a fine powder.

And then...

"Kitsune Nine." Ward called out.

"What?"

"A Nine..."

"Like Jin Nine?" Everyone stared at Kitsune who slowly raised up his sword going into a stance.

"So..." He said blinking a couple of times. "I just hit it as hard as I can?"

"For the most part yeah?" Ward shrugged.

"Okay."

"We might wanna get down..." Hero said slowly moving back and dragging the tiny Ken, and Shelly with him.

Kitsune stepped forward and in a flash was suddenly behind the box as he slashed out his sword. A line appeared on the box as it exploded and the wall in front of him also exploded sending out a line of flames.

"What the hell!" Ken yelled with wide eyes.

"Oh yeah Kitsune is pretty strong." Hero said rubbing his head. "He's dumber than a bag of rocks, but his power was so high that our Master was impressed." Hero shrugged. "He's fast, strong, and really knows how to swing that sword."

"Well that was a big blast.." Ward said in a blank tone. Despite haven been in the blast range he wasn't even fazed or harmed. He clicked another button as the broken room began to slowly fix itself and another box was placed down. "Next up is Shelly Kaen."

Shelly let out a small gulp as she walked forward. She squeezed her eyes as she stood in front of the box and began to calm herself down. She placed her hands in front of her cupping them together as a small ball of pink flames formed in her palms.

The flames were a bright pink and flowed more like water than fire, and seemed to almost bubble. It was like a big bubble of pink flames. Shelly moved her hands forward by a small bit as it slowly floated forward and splashed against the box. It slowly sizzled and began to melt not stopping as the box got shorter and shorter until eventually there was nothing left.

"What just happened?" Hero asked hiding behind Emma.

"Her ability." Emma said giving a small smile. "Shelly has one of the most devastating powers I've seen. Those flames don't actually burn rather they eat. Anything it touches is converted into a gasoline like substances allowing the flames to expand more which then convert whatever it touches into more gasoline. Anything that is even grazed by those flames is done for. The flames won't stop until they devour whatever they touched leaving nothing behind. She's usually cocky but lately she's been down from fear of falling the Enforcers test."

Hero shuddered slightly. "And I was making fun of that girl. Damn. She could have literally killed me!"

"Yep!"

Ken also shivered slightly. "I regret being mean to Shelly now."

"I thought that would have been a little harder." Shelly bragged making Hero and Ken jump when she suddenly was standing next to them.

"Light no last name." Ward said boredly still not showing emotions.

"Looks like I'm up!" The blind kid announced swinging his massive gun around causing the group to jump back as he had his finger on the trigger. Light didn't even bother walking up to the box as he just raised his gun up firing it. A golden beam of light shot out spinning around and slashing into the giant box splitting a chunk of it off. "Did I hit it?"

"Somehow yes!" Hero nodded.

"Hero Law." Ward called out as a new box appeared.

"Well looks like I'm up." Hero walked towards the box as he raised his arms up. Max took notice.

Max leaned forward watching Hero with a look of interest. "I wonder... Just what kind of power will you use Hero... Will you blast it away? Slash it? Use blunt force? Or maybe you'll use an element to your advantage by-"

Hero wrapped his arms around the metal box and used all his might raising it up. He opened his jaws and bit down tearing a chunk of metal out of the box which he gulped down. He bit down again ripping more and more pieces out as he began to devour the box not even bothering to turn his power on and just started eating it.

"Oh he's eating it... I didn't see that coming..."

"What the hell..." Irene, Shelly, Emma, and Ken all said staring at Hero.

"Imma be honest." Kitsune said scratching the back of his head. "I forgot he can do that..."

"As did I..." Light said blankly staring in the direction of where Hero was. "Go big Bro! Eat it! Eat it!" The entire room stared in slight horror as his teeth ripped off chunks of it off.

Nearly five minuets passed before Hero breathed out pulling his arms down as he collapsed on his butt. The box was no longer to be seen and Hero's gut was now massive as he let out a burp. "I think I did pretty good!"

"What the actual fuck did I just watch?" Ward mumbled in his expressionless tone. "How do I grade that? This is a whole new meaning to 'my dog ate my homework' that's for sure..."

"Do I pass?" Hero asked. His stomach glowed red as he used his power to activate the furnace in his gut melting the metal down for use later. He would use it to form his claws and feathers another time, this also made his stomach go back to normal size.

"Sure kid... Why not. Just promise you'll never do that in front of me ever again because that was gross... I pity your trip to the bathroom later."

"Mine was better." Kitsune said flatly.

"Mine to." Shelly nodded.

"You did better than me?" Emma offered.

Hero let out a sigh as his eye twitched. "You guys are mean... Not you Emma you're cool."

"Ken Red."

"Looks like he saved the best for life." Ken said walking towards the box. She was in fact the last one up and shocked everyone as she began to unbutton the top of her shirt making a few people uncomfortable and a few people happy.

"Why is she doing that!" Hero asked covering his eyes in an attempt to be modest and not stare at her.

"I don't know!" Shelly yelled her face becoming red as she covered her eyes as well. Shelly peaked out behind her finger tips still watching Ken with interest.

Emma reached out covering Kitsune's eyes who became very interested in Ken's test. "Perhaps it's a part of her power?"

Ken further shocked everyone when she literally stabbed her hand into her chest breaking through the flesh and bone as she coughed up some blood much to everyone's horror. Ward watched her intently waiting to see where this was going. The blood trailed down her body as she ripped out a large black spike.

"What... Is that... No..." Ward folded his arms as his eyes followed Ken's every movement. "What is she... If she was a Fallen One like that power suggest she'd already be dead... She must not be human. She's one of 'those' things isn't she... What exactly did you make this time Mr. Hyde..."

"Hey Mr. Glasses?" Ken asked cocking her head to the side and giving him a cute look.

"Yes?" Ward asked not questioning his weird nick name.

"Fox destroyed this room earlier and that was fine? Is it okay if I do the same? I'm suppose to go all out after all." She asked innocently.

"If you think you can then go for it."

"Good..." Ken said still smiling.

She closed her eyes and began to walk towards the metal box. Flickers of ice coated the floor shocking everyone.

"Another ice based ability?" Irene muttered.

Hero frowned as he watched Ken move forward. "Not exactly..."

"What?"

"It's complicated... Man. If I knew she was a part of that Program I would have asked her about that lab." Hero sighed.

"What?"

The box began to slowly freeze over as Ken reached out stabbing the spike into it. She raised her left hand up as it glowed with a black energy making Ward's eyes go wide.

"No doubt about it..." He hissed. "That's a-"

The beam fired blowing through the wall and blasting a hole straight through the back wall allowing the sweeping cold into the room and kicking up a massive dust storm as the box was completely blasted apart.

"So... How did I do-" Ken froze as the dust settled and she saw Wards hand was inches away from her throat glowing with a green energy intending to take her head off.

However his hand was stopped by Hero who was standing next to him holding onto it with his transformed hand.

"Come on now." Hero smiled. "No need for that. After all you're the one who told her to go all out aren't you?"

Ward was silent not saying anything as his green eyes bore into Ken's silver eyes. Finally he ripped his hand out of Hero's grasp as he turned away. "Let's move on with the last test..."

"Oh thank God I thought we were dead!" Hero collapsed back as he let out a sigh.

"What! But you stopped his attack?" Ken asked still shaking from nearly being decapitated.

"No I didn't..." Hero shook his head. "He stopped the moment I touched his wrist. If wanted to he could have kept going and ripped my arm off, and your head in one attack. He chose to stop the attack..." Ken shuddered slightly as Hero's eyes continued to watch Ward walk away. "That man... So that's what an Enforcer can do..."