At the entrance of a very tall building in Manhattan, a luxurious black car was parked, from which Natalia was walking out. She was elegantly dressed and carried an air of superiority to everyone else around her. However, despite how important she looked, she didn’t have any bodyguards with her, and just stood in front of the building while looking slightly up at the name on it. The King building, headquarters to the Global Alliance Corporation.

She removed the dark sunglasses she was wearing, revealing her pair of deep blue eyes, and looked even higher up at the building with a calm expression. A man wearing a suit walked out of the building, went over to her and said, “Lady Laroy? You are expected at Research and Devolvement, please allow me to take you there.”

Natalia looked back at the man for a second and simply nodded without saying anything. Everything inside the building spoke of its owner’s opulence, from the shining floors, full of intricate patterns on it, to the glittering decorations on the tall walls, and even the lights hanging from the ceiling that highlighted all the parts that should be looked at. Only the most important people in the world would ever get access to just its entrance, many less would even be invited by anyone to and even be guided.

Natalia walked by the hall without looking at anything in it, seemingly unimpressed by all the expenses that had been placed on it, bothering only to follow the person in front of her.

When they got on to an elevator, the man stood stiffly by its door as it was moving, while Natalia kept looking at him, eventually asking him, “Is the security always so lousy in this building?”

The man was shocked for a second, not expecting a seemingly important guest to say such a thing to him; however, he answered, trying not to break his polite appearance. “We keep the strongest knights in here, despite the fact that a few Dukes are not in the building at the moment, several Marquis Knights are here, myself included.”

“Is that so? Then explain to me how an armed homeless person is walking around in your building,” said Natalia as she took a step towards the doors of the elevator that were about to open, pushing the man to the side

“What are you—”

As soon as the doors to the elevator opened, Natalia caught a knife between her fingers that flew in from the long hall in front of the doors.

The man didn’t even see the knife that came in flying with such speed and strength that it left a gust of wind behind Natalia. He didn’t see when she moved her hand to catch it either, but he quickly recovered, pulling a gun out from his suit and shouting towards the halls, “Who is out there!?”

Then he moved to call in backup, realizing that someone able to do that within the building could be dangerous for a lot of people, especially to those invited over by the higher ups.

“Wow! I was hoping that all that fighting with shit criminals on the streets of some shit city in your shit exile would make you slow Natty, but not a scratch! Not even a surprised look!” said a man from the back of the dark halls.

Just as the Marquis was going to pull the trigger in the direction of the voice, Natalia pushed his weapon down and warned, “Stop. Shooting at him would likely get you killed. I’ll handle this homeless man.”

A creepy, high pitched but not loud laugh was heard from the man in the halls after she said that.

Just as she was taking her steps out of the elevator, another elevator dinged and opened its doors next to the one she came from, and same as for her, another knife flew out of the dark halls into that other elevator. However, before the knife could hit anyone inside of the elevator, she threw the knife she had on her hands in the direction of the already flying one, hitting it on the side and making it hit a wall instead, while the one she threw bounced and landed again on her hand.

“Lord Nossa, I can see that you let yourself in,” said Cleavon after he calmly walked out of the elevator, then turned to look at the stunned man in the elevator Natalia came out from. “You don’t have to call in security, the man in the hall was invited here after all.”

The man in the dark halls finally moved and the lights in the hall turned on, revealing his appearance. A tall man with tanned skin, he didn’t have a very big build but he wasn’t skinny at all either, he had messy dark hair, a pair of deep blue eyes and a smile with slightly yellow teeth that didn’t reach the eyes as he was lazily walking forward.

“It’s good to see you again, Natty,” he said as he was walking towards them.

Natalia on the other hand coldly answered, “Marcus.”

Her cold reply wasn’t too unexpected to Marcus, since Natalia was one of the most upright one out of the Knights, and so far she had fulfilled the requests of the Corporation to the best of her abilities, believing herself to be doing what’s best. That being the case, she wouldn’t have too much respect towards someone like Marcus, a wild beast that could hardly be controlled.

Cleavon chuckled seeing that the two Imperators had already ‘greeted’ each other, “Well now that we’re all here, let’s all head over to the laboratory. Mister White, you can go back now, I’ll take it from here.”

The Marquis ranked ‘Mister White’ snapped out of the shock he had at seeing how calm everyone was over having supersonic knives flying at them and gave a shaky salute towards Cleavon, “Yes sir! I’ll-I’ll go back to my duties.”

The elevator doors closed, leaving behind the three people in the hall looking at each other.

“If you’ll follow me now, and keep the murdering intent low, I’ll show you something that you will like,” Cleavon said while giving a slight smile towards the Imperators.

As they were walking by the halls and taking the few turns that Cleavon took, Marcus gave a comment towards Natalia. “Calling me an armed hobo, how truly heartless. You know I have a lot of money and properties, right?”

Natalia scoffed. “Most of those you took by force from people you likely killed.”

“They should’ve been stronger if they didn’t want to have everything taken from them,” answered Marcus before laughing, “that’s just how things are for this line of work, right Natty?”

Natalia decided to ignore him, knowing that Marcus just wanted to annoy her and didn’t really want to have a chat with her.

They soon reached a wide steel door with a scanner on one side, one on top of the door, as well as cameras on every single angle that could lead to it. Cleavon stood in front of the door and let first the top scanner read him, then he walked over to the side scanner to place his hand on it. A slight beep was heard and the door opened to the side, revealing the thickness of it as well as the lights inside the room.

The room was tall and about as big as the entrance hall of the King building, it was full of weapons and other kinds of devices placed randomly on tables and a few others hanging from the walls.

“Imperators, highest of higher ranks on the most powerful armed force of the world: The Peace Knights. An army created by the Global Alliance Corporation using technology only ever imagined, which gave them the edge over any kind of army and weapon in the world,” said dramatically a man that was walking from the far side of the room, with his arms spread open, “countries fall to the hands of the Imperators… worlds get conquered by their might...! And here I have them in front of me, to have them bring everlasting peace and prosperity to the world of the Global Alliance Corporation,” finished the man while placing one hand to his chest, spreading the other one to the side and giving a deep bow towards the people at the entrance.

Said action would’ve looked elegant, however, the person doing it was dressed with a plain black t-shirt, white shorts decorated with animals, and slippers on his feet. The only saving grace of this person is that he is a good looking man, well groomed, with an overall fine short hairstyle on his black hair, and a clean shave on his face. His light brown eyes were looking back with slight contempt at the people that had gone in.

“This here is Doctor Jeremiah Hobbs, the person behind the Knight armors, heavy mass weapons, Hobbs Energy fields and many of the other technological advances that placed the Global Alliance Corporation in the lead of humanity,” said Cleavon while presenting the man with one of his hands.

“Hey Jerry,” said Marcus with a slight grin on his face.

Hobbs saw that and got slightly annoyed, “Don’t call me ‘Jerry’, you’re standing in front of a God. Even your strength comes from me.”

“Sure buddy, whatever you say,” responded Marcus now with the grin on his face showing even more.

Hobbs’ check twitched a little seeing the dismissive attitude from Marcus, but decided not to say anything else. Instead he turned around, picked up a tool from one of the tables and started inspecting it with a serious face. He mumbled something to himself, closed his eyes and then shook his head before putting down whatever he was handling back on the table.

“Doctor Hobbs…?” said Cleavon looking at the actions of the man.

Hobbs simply raised one finger up without turning around to look at them. “I would rather have someone from one of the armies of supposed geniuses that those fools send me from every other university handle giving soldiers their toys, instead of me being here, doing this for you, being disrespected,” he put his hand down and turned around, “however, the importance of that portal out there makes it so that no mistakes can be made, so I’ll put up with your annoyances for now.”

Marcus whistled after hearing what Hobbs said, “Jerry seems to be a very serious man.”

Before the doctor could say anything, Cleavon put his hand out towards Marcus in a motion as if indicating him to settle down. “Please don’t mind him Doctor Hobbs, they understand the importance of the situation, which is why I’d say we should move forward with the gearing up.”

A heavy sigh came out of Hobbs and then said with some tiredness in his voice. “Very well, let’s not waste time,” he signaled with his head in the direction of the back of the room, while still looking at the people at the entrance, “Come then, there’s still plenty of research to be done and I’d like to get to it quickly.”

As they walked to the back of the room they could see several containment tanks out of which only two of them were illiminated, holding in them what looked like metal plates floating, each one different from each other and each one with intricate shapes to them.

“Are those materials floating in it? Doesn’t seem like there’s an actual liquid in it,” asked Natalia.

“Yes, they’re held within a dense Hobbs Field to ensure they’re in the best of conditions, these are, after all, masterpieces,” answered Hobbs with some pride in his voice.

“Is everything named after you here?” asked Natalia with one eyebrow raised.

“Of course. I’m not like those nobodies that give a mouthful to their creation and discoveries, only to be forgotten. Besides, this lets the common man understand the importance of what they’re talking about,” answered Hobbs with contempt.

“So what exactly do we have here?” Cleavon asked as he looked closer at the tanks.

Hobbs smiled with pride and walked over to a console in front of the tanks, he pressed a few buttons on a screen, which made it so a layer of glass covering the tanks slowly lowered to reveal better the color and patterns of the metal pieces within the field.

“These here are The Imperator Armors! Each one a masterpiece of technology, with no expense spared neither in money or design!” excitedly exclaimed Hobbs as he spread his arms out towards the tanks.

He then pressed a few other buttons on the console that made it so the floor behind where they were standing parted, revealing a platform with some glowing lights on it, followed by several robotic arms that popped out from the sides of the platform, each one different from each other in length and shape.

“Now! Time to get you into those armors!” exclaimed Hobbs with the same joy as when he was presenting the armors.

“Hold on!” said Natalia hurriedly, noticing that the process of wearing those armors wasn’t as simple as putting on a shirt.

Hobbs looked at her with one eyebrow raised, having not expected anyone to interrupt him, much less stop him in the middle of a process.

“Before we do anything, I’d like to know what you’re going to do, and how those things are going to affect us,” calmly asked Natalia now that the doctor was looking at her.

Hobbs scoffed at being questioned like that. “And why would anyone doubt the means and tools of the Corporation, and much less my means and tools? If I tell you that it’s the greatest thing ever, you nod and allow me to do my thing!”

Natalia raised her eyebrows while looking at the doctor.

However, before anything else could be said by either one of them, Cleavon said, “I would also like to know, Doctor Hobbs.”

Another sigh escaped from Hobbs as he lowered his shoulders. “Fine, I’ll illuminate you, even if it wastes my time.”

He took out a phone from his pockets this time, pressed a couple of things on it and a screen showed up in midair, clearly detailing the parts of the armors on it. He then pressed another couple of things and some parts were highlighted.

“I’ll skip the parts that you wouldn’t understand and go right to where you’ll benefit from it.” Hobbs then removed some of the details and zoomed in to the pieces that he left.

“The Imperator Armors were created with the sole purpose of fitting a particular Imperator, from the person’s body shape, to the skills and even the psychological and mental state of the person; so not only are they made to enhance your physical body, they’re made to fit in as well with your personalities.

“They will ‘fuse’ with your body, making it seem as if the armor is a part of who you are, as if it was meant to always be there.

“It will also handle other bodily processes to ensure you’re always in top shape and ready for combat, so even sleeping can be skipped for days and you wouldn’t even notice it; however, while the armor’s energy can keep you going for a while, it cannot feed you, so you still need to eat full meals from time to time.”

Having heard the explanation so far, Marcus furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, asking Hobbs, “So you mean to tell me that while we’re wearing those, we’ll only be left with one of life’s pleasures?”

Hobbs looked questioningly at Marcus.

“You know, eatin’, shittin’, and fu—”

“Can the armors be removed?” asked Natalia with one hand on her chin while looking at the screen.

Hobbs ignored Marcus and looked back at the screen, “Yes, yes, of course. I understand that you’re also human,” he lowered his voice “I think…” then continued normally, “so you’ll only have to be brought back here and it’ll be stripped away. Why you would want that after wearing it, however, is beyond me.”

He put away the screen now, and looked back at the two Imperators. “Alright, no more wasting time,” he pointed at a set of clothing floating on another tank, “go put those on and come back to me. I’ll be getting ready.”

Hobbs Stopped suddenly while he was going to a helmet and a set of gloves, and instead turned towards the people walking. “Oh and, do not wear anything that’s not those suits. So no jewelry, no socks and” — he sharply turned to look at Marcus — “no knives!”

Marcus clicked his tongue.

Hobbs continued walking to where the equipment he was going to wear, which was right in front of the platform with the robotics arms, while Cleavon simply walked around that platform, curious about its design.

While Hobbs was moving his arms with the gloves firmly in place and wearing the helmet, the Imperators came back.

“We’re ready, how should we go about this?” asked Natalia.

Hobbs looked at the people wearing the skin tight suits, making sure everything was in place. The suits were black, going from their necks down their feet, with some metal bits that looked like buttons around where vital organs would be. A set of those metal bits was also going from the back of their necks all the way down their back; and on the whole surface of the suits, it looked as if circuit board designs were printed on it, making them look somewhat like machines.

“Hey Natty, don’t look at my package, ok?” said Marcus to Natalia while chuckling.

Natalia grunted and had a slight cheek twitch, which caused Marcus to laugh this time.

The robotic arms started moving as Hobbs was moving his arms as well, then he turned to look at the two people waiting for him. “Good, everything seems to be ready to go. Who wants to be first?”