Monday couldn’t come by fast enough.

Seth’s mom had spent a good hour in his closet after dinner, trying to find suitable clothing for him to wear to the interview. He didn’t mention that the person on the phone had said wear comfortable combat attire. That would open a whole slew of trouble that he really didn’t want to explain to his parents. As far as they were concerned, Seth was a normal boy who spent a lot of time reading books at the library.

In his parent’s eyes, he was a loner and normal. Seth didn’t bother to correct that perception as it was mostly true. They didn’t know about his master nor his fighting capabilities and Seth was happy to keep it that way. If he had told them, his parent would be worried half the time and he didn’t want that.

Seth had spent his Sunday researching the Federation, just like his Master had advised. It always helps to brush on the information that he knew and see if there was anything else he could discover to prepare himself.

The Federation was started a couple hundred years ago. At that time, it was the cities in charge of themselves.. The city-states oversaw their own economies and government. The governments had a lot of freedom to implement whatever policies they wish in their cities. While this led to issues such as corruption, it also meant that they had to be responsible for defending themselves against external threats.

It wasn’t surprising back then if a city-state one day just vanished off the map. Beast, rifts, and other city states could be counted as one of the reasons why a city was suddenly destroyed. If a city was in danger, they were left to fend for themselves. There was no such thing as reinforcement from afar.

There was communication and trading between city-states, but it was considered quite limited. The roads were dangerous, and technology hadn’t advanced enough to allow long distance communication from anywhere on the planet. There were small alliances between cities, but nothing so major that could affect the balance of power. At least that was how it was until a certain group of people came along.

One day, a certain person decided they had enough of the squabbling between cities. They thought that if all the cities were to ally themselves, pool their technology and resources together, the better it would be for humanity. Gathering like-minded allies, he went about to complete his goal.

To cut a long story short, after going through an arduous journey and several hazardous battles, they completed this task. That was how the National United Federation was born, but most people these days just call it the Federation.

The motto of the Federation was “for the continuation of humanity” and they did what they could to match it. Officials from every city were sent to the Federation headquarters to discuss policies that would benefit humanity. Policies, resources, and defensive projects were just some of the matters discussed. Cities were still left to mostly govern themselves, but if any issues occurred, the Federation would pool recourses from other cities to solve it.

The Federation was also responsible for creating the R.T.S-the Rapid Transit System. Two large mechanical rings that ran perpendicular to each other and intersected each other at the center. It was the main form of traveling between cities as monsters would easily tear up wayfaring aircrafts. If necessary, rapid deployment of military troops could be sent to reinforce cities in trouble. This was arguably the greatest invention of the Federation to date.

There was a Federation branch near the center of the city. Seth was already making his way there after school. He was wearing clothing that his mom had deemed “suitable” for the interview. A white-collar tee-shirt and a beige dress pants. Clothing that Seth wore for exercise was hidden in his backpack. He had stopped by his master’s hideout at the park to bring out his weapon of choice.

A wooden stick.

Once a tree branch, now fashioned into the shape of a sword. This was Seth’s main weapon during training and the one he was most comfortable with using. Master had taught Seth how to handle different types of weapons in the past, but the sword was what Seth became the most familiar with. Once he had chosen his main weapon, Master had Seth learn chi reinforcement.

Chi reinforcement was the method of inserting one’s chi into an object to make it stronger. It was the most basic of techniques. Once mastered, more advance techniques could be employed. Master had Seth train on branches acquired from the park. Piles of destroyed tree branches were created before Seth got the hang of the technique. When Seth had gotten use to reinforcing branches with chi, Master had found a sturdy tree branch and cut it into a weapon that Seth could train with.

Not that it wasn’t eye catching enough already. Carrying a wooden weapon down the street as he made his way to the Federation Branch building had earn a few stares along the way. He could only imagine what would have happened if he went around carrying a sword. The police would have stop him several times over. An actual sword would be preferable for training, but swords weren’t exactly cheap or on the market for a student. In the end, Seth made do with what he had.

Seth did carry a pocketknife for emergency. A habit due to listening to the paranoia of his master, which had been proven true. Pocketknives were much more available on the net, but they were quite flimsy as evidently could be seen with the battle with Mr. White. Not that Mr. White was your standard opponent to be fighting against. A good knife would cost him a lot more then he could afford and it would be quite difficult for him to hide.

Seth finally saw the Federation building after ten minutes of walking. It was a grey two story building. It wasn’t tall, but what it lacked in height it made up in width as the building covered nearly the entire city block. At least that what Seth could see. According to the information that Seth had dug up, supposedly behind the building was a field reserved for Federation usage only. Not that Seth was able to see it as the building covered his entire view.

Seth saw two guards overseeing the front entrance. There was no one going through, but the two men were still alert. Both were decked out in military gear and wore brown camouflage clothing. They carried a rifle in their hands and had already their eyes on Seth.

A unfamiliar boy carrying a wooden sword? You might as well paint a tag on Seth that scream SUSIPCIOUS.

Now was the moment of truth for Seth. If it was a trap, then he would be detained immediately. If not, then he would soon discover the reason why he was called here. He didn’t believe that the Federation would call him over for just an interview.

After releasing a breath of nervousness, Seth steeled his resolve and walked towards the entrance.