Hi everyone, good to have some people review even though it is only two. But I think that idea of creating an ironclad version of Susanoo is a very good idea. I still can't believe that it never occurred to me. However, I will do it in a way that would allow them to actually be able to make it. So watch how this story continues carefully. So now on with the show!

Chapter 4: Further developments

-Half-finished station at the outside edge of the capitol. Esdeath and the Jaegers are currently waiting on a platform with Colonel Crane waiting for their train that would take them to Romari Road.

"I hope that your friends are up to their boasts. It would be a shame for us to have to demolish this station of yours." said Run who was examining the intricate workmanship of the place. (Think of the design similar to the Broad Street Station.)

"Humm. I for one would think that it is not stylish enough. Although, I think that it is good in its own way." Says Dr. Stylish, "Would you all mind if I were to help out with improving the design?"

"No, no. We're fine with everything as it is thank you very much." Crane said gruffly, "I'm having the feeling that your idea of stylish is something off kilter. Something we really don't need if we are to entice people to use the rail lines." Dr. Stylish looked rather hurt on the comment, but didn't press on the matter. Meanwhile, Seryu Ubiquitous was standing right behind Crane trying to get him to talk to her.

"Hey! I heard from the commander that you were in the army! My father was a soldier to the empire! Have you met him?" she yelled cheerfully.

"Hmmm. Well I don't recall seeing your father but I think that he would've been proud to have a daughter like you."

"He died on the line of duty fighting against evil. So it is my duty to enact justice on the evil in the capital like Night Raid!"

"…. If you mean justice that would be killing them on the spot yes?"

"That's right! Justice must be dealt with swiftly on evil!"

"If only the world was really black and white. Then we wouldn't need courts." Crane mumbled.

Seryu wanted to ask Crane what he meant when they were interrupted by a shrieking noise that they never heard of before. Everyone went into attack mode ready to take down whatever it was that was making the strange noise except for Esdeath and Colonel Crane.

"Relax. I really doubt that the whistle would kill you all unless you were stupid enough to fall on the tracks. And please Dr. Stylish get rid of your personal army it's really creeping the workers out."

Some of them were ready to make retorts when they heard a puffing sound that came from a brick warehouse that was a short ways from the station. They turned and had a very good look on what they would be riding. It looked like a carriage that they never seen before, entirely made out of metal with a tube like shape for the body. It was constantly hissing and puffing while giving off so much smoke that they half expected that the thing was on fire. What really shocked them was the fact that it was moving all on its own without the aid of any heavy draft animals.

"What… What is that?! Some sort of new teigu!?" yelled Wave while looking shocked. Beside him Kurome looked on with calm interest.

"Of course not. That my fine fellow is the fruits of the proposal that my friends had me convey to your superior." Crane cuckled amused on their reactions to the train that he and his colleagues were so familiar with back in their world.

They all waited on the platform while the train pulling the private passenger cars of the Jaegers slowly made its way to the station platform that they were waiting at. With the hiss of air the train quickly stopped. From the cab of the strange machine stepped out two men of whom Crain said, "Let me introduce to you General Esdeath my friends and the geniuses responsible for this idea, Maxwell Prosser and Joseph Ashdown."

General Esdeath was taken aback a bit when Crane said that they were the geniuses that came up with this idea that he mentioned in her office. She was half expecting for them to be of the same quirky character type like their very own Dr. Stylish, but what she saw vs what she expected was very different. Both of them were wearing rather odd workman clothes that wouldn't differentiate them much from the workers that were currently building the station. However, she could see in their eyes a certain intelligence that was similar to Dr. Stylish but of a much more humble sort. She was broken out of her musings when Max made his greetings.

"Welcome to the station Jaegers. I hope that it wasn't long for you to wait for us to get things ready for the trial run."

General Esdeath made a cool gaze on him and said, "I do hope that what you are proposing would make up for the time that we spent waiting for you today. It would be rather bad if you wasted our time for nothing."(veiled threat, they were planning on doing the tournament that day, but had to push it later due to the train test)

"Of course now step this way to the passenger car. Oh and before I forget, please place your teigu into the baggage car."

Everyone was going to protest that when Joe stated, "It is for safety reasons. As you know we are conducting a test run of the rail line and you all apparently are a bit nervous of our little creation here. It would be bad for everyone if a teigu user panicked and I'm sure that everybody all wants to stay alive. General Esdeath is the exception since her teigu is with herself at all times and has a level head. But don't worry the baggage car will be right next door to the passenger car and when you all managed to get accustomed to this experience you will all be able to ride with your teigu."

Everybody had to agree with Joe that they all were rather nervous of the big, black, smoking, moving thing that was running without an animal pulling it. And it also made sense that if a teigu user were to panic a lot of people around that person would probably die as a result.

So everyone including Kurome piled their teigu to the awaiting porters at the baggage car. There was a bit of trouble to get 'Koro' to separate from Seryu, but a promise of eating 5 death row criminals and ordering not to eat the porters later they managed. After that everyone went on board one after the other with General Esdeath being led by Colonel Crane at the head. Then it was Dr. Stylish followed closely by Seryu, then Run went next of which Kurome followed but not before she brought her big bag of candy with her. Finally, it was only Wave and Bols, but both of them were waiting for either one of them to go next because both of them didn't want to be the next person to go on the train.

Finally it was the order for Bols to go next by General Esdeath that settled the issue and allowed them to sit down and examine their passenger car. It was rather luxurious with the upholstery and cushioned chairs that were in it. There was a book shelf on one side of the wall and a small bar with a bartender at a corner of the car.

"As you can see. This here is the lounge of which you all could relax and enjoy some entertainment when we are on our way to Romari Road. The next car is the baggage car where some supplies and your teigu are located. Behind us are the Dining and sleeper cars for any journeys that would require more than a day of travel to get there. But for now, please settle in and enjoy the ride." said Max.

He then went out to tell the conductor to prepare for departure. In the meantime everyone settled in. Esdeath sat in a chair that gave a view of the outside windows to see how fast the train can get with Crane sitting at her side. Bols, Seryu, and Wave sat at one of the tables and started a conversation about the train and the general going on of the capital. Kurome and Run sat down at the bar, the first to get snacks and the latter reading a book he got from the bookshelf. While, Dr. Stylish sat down with Joe to talk about the technical stuff about the steam locomotive.

"I have to say; even though the thing is such a horrendous looking machine it is something that has never been seen before in the empire. Tell me, how exactly did you all managed to get the idea?"

"It's rather simple really. When you heat up water it turns into steam. If you can contain that steam you generate pressure. Then all you have to do is to find some way of using that pressure to drive the wheels and you get a steam train. However, I do find it rather odd for a doctor as you to be in a police group such as the Jaegers."

"Why yes, it would be rather odd for such a stylish man as myself to be in something so ugly as a police group. But you as you can see everyone here owns a teigu I myself included. General Esdeath needed teigu users to do combat with Night Raid and so here I am, even though I'm more suited for the support role than actual combat."

"So if I'm remembering it correctly, your teigu is the one that looks like a pair of gloves. Can you please shed more light on what the thing can do?"

"Why certainly. My teigu perfector increases my speed and precision of my hands. It allows me to heal any injury short of death so it is a very useful teigu for a stylish man like me."

"Huh, if it was used for engineering purposes. Then that would mean much better machining precision and parts, which would in turn mean less friction and increase efficiency." Joe mused. "Where can we get one of those? It would be very helpful for our manufacturing facilities if we had one."

General Esdeath looked over to Joe and answered, "Unfortunately, perfector is the only teigu of its kind. So unless Dr. Stylish dies you're not going to be able to use it let alone get it. And even if the teigu was available there is the chance of rejection."

"Oh…and here I was hoping that we could use one for our engineering department." Joe sighed crestfallen.

Everyone else in the Jaegers felt bad for the engineer and wanted to console him when the car suddenly jerked forward.

"What was that!?" Wave yelled while getting into a full guard stance while everyone else tensed up. It was at this point that Max returned and saw the pose that Wave was doing.

"Did I miss anything? Cause just letting you guys know that we are on our way to Romari Road."

They stared at him for a moment before realizing that they were in a moving car attached to a train. Of which Wave sat down with a face turning red with embarrassment. It was at that point that two other people entered the cabin behind Max.

"General Esdeath, let me introduce our other members of Union Transport, IDX. Mr. Rufus Mitchell, head of our human resources and financial departments. And Victoria Roebling, head of personnel and planning; who is also the Post Master General of our Mail Service." stated Colonel Crane.

"Charmed to meet our patron for this little endeavor. I hope that so far it has satisfied your expectations?"

"I have yet to see if this thing actually meet my expectations, but I think that we should hold that verdict until we reach our destination."

Esdeath then turned her attention to Victoria and asked, "Although, I have to ask. What is this mail service that Crane speaks of that you are in charge of? How is it any different from the courier service?"

Victoria huffed, "The difference between us and that joke of a courier service is that we deliver mail for everyone. Not just the Nobles and the rich businessmen, but to the lower classes as long as they can pay for postage. Which is rather cheap in comparison on what those people are charging."

Esdeath nodded since she had heard some complaints on the high prices for the courier service due to the corruption that she hates to admit exists. But those people know better than to make her pay ridiculous prices on messages that she wanted sent.

"However, I can see you have a gun. Do your mail people also have a habit of being armed just for sending mail?"

Victoria was shocked at that, "Don't you know that sending mail is a hazardous occupation with all the bandits around? Sometimes letters would have money in them and sometimes they don't. Not to mention the possibility of one of the letters containing information that could be used to get money. So it gives them more than enough reasons for them to attack our mail people, so obviously we had arm ourselves and learn to fend them off."

They were interrupted from their conversation due to the commotion of the other Jaegers who were currently looking out of the windows.

"Wow! Look how fast we're going!" Seryu exclaimed.

"I don't think that a horse could be able to get this fast without tiring themselves out." Wave added.

The others made silent agreement on that matter since from the looks of it. The speed that they were maintaining was impossible for any animal to do without tiring themselves out. General Esdeath took a while confirming the view and asked, "How fast can this thing go?"

Colonel Crain answered, "Well the average speed that a horse can maintain would be around 10-17 mph if you want to go long distance. For our train we can maintain an average speed around 50 mph with a maximum speed of 70 mph. That is with a full load of 17 cars of passengers or cargo."

Esdeath did those figures in her head and realized that in terms of speed and cargo capacity the train fully defeats the horse.

"So far what I can see is very promising." General Esdeath hinted.

Colonel Crane smiled and said, "Believe me. When the test is over, you'll be very impressed."

-they eventually get to destination in record time. Everyone is impressed, they go home, yadda yaddah. O.k. time to go back.

The members of the IDX were sitting in their headquarters reviewing the day so far.

"Well, it is good to know that they were impressed by our capabilities. But what is also very impressive is that they never caught on with our other activities or our true colors." Colonel Crane said.

"Yeah, I was rather surprised that our reason to arm our mail personnel actually was bought by them." Victoria replied, "This would help considerably when we turn the tables on them."

"I know that you would like nothing better than to fight against them right now, but we still need to muster our forces and continue with the rail network."

"I do like to note that the teigu perfector is something rather handy for Max and me." Joe piped up, "It would help us very greatly on some ideas that both of us would like to try."

"Alright, when we get the chance we will try to get it. But for now it remains with the Jaegers. Until then, we shall do the best that we currently can."

And that is it for this chapter. Lots of stuff hinting what I will try to get this story to go. I will try to post the next chapter quickly but for now this is PhantomGuardian signing off.