[The next day, Celest Throne 1703]
Classes at the Tungfest intergalactic academy took place as they tended to. Unlike the school periods during Earth's prime years—before its destruction and space travel, classes at the academy took place everyday, and attending classes were compulsory. How would a student graduate to become a super soldier—an asset to the empire if they could not be disciplined enough to attend all their classes?
School for the day ended once the academy's overarching AI announced so, and the students either flew themselves by public shuttles, private shuttles, and those whose cities where pinpointed on the B- tube—a teleportation technology were made to use it to get to their respective locations.
The coast was clear. Ardlan was by himself walking through the hallway, he had on his hands, something rather rare, a cosmic energy textbook, yes, in text form. Stone tablets, parchments, vellum, papyrus, all obsolete by the twentieth century and eventually paper and leather, everything was digital in this age.
He had gone to the library to search for archived chips that might contain information not normally seen in the internet, and witnessing his enthusiasm, the librarian thought to hand him a copy of a cosmic energy textbook.
How cool is this? he thought, and then there was a pull on his arm. He turned, surprised. It was Domitia.
"Let's B-tube to Loris, Aelius is waiting on ahead." She spoke before catching notice of the textbook in his hands. She read the text, and then smiled,
"You are rather serious about this." She teased.
"I have been terrible at cosmic energy manipulation for so long, and I want to change that. Especially if I want to stand a chance at being a super soldier, and also defeating that Wepéné guy."
The two got to the B-tube located at one of the many edges of the academy, fixed in its transparent walls.
The B-tube was like a massive dark hole from which large and dense spinning metals sprouted from. Upon sensing the movements of individuals, the dark hole beamed a white light within itself.
"Loris, Ganymede." Said Aelius.
"Loris, Ganymede." The AI system repeated and recognized.
The white light within the tube projected itself upon Aelius, and instantly he was gone—like he was never there.
Domitia stepped forward, and she too was teleported. And so, it was Ardlan's turn. He stepped forward, and his environment changed almost instantaneously.
The chilly distant walls of the academy changed to a beautiful terrain of perfectly combined greenery and futuristic infrastructure. People zoomed above and so the vehicles and some infrastructure.
"Loris," Ardlan said looking at the sky above. The dome's was set to imitate the skies' of earth, in that there's a bright sun although not as bright as not to be gazed at directly, and its blue clouds.
Ardlan had only been to Loris once despite living in Ganymede, and upon looking at the sky, he subtly wished that he and his mother had moved here. Bued never mimicked an Earth atmosphere.
He then spotted the twins meters away, hovering with their AG boots, and staring down at him. He soared to them, and the duo led him forward.
They drifted out of the city and into the outskirts, where the buildings were smaller and the crowds had thinned.
And then, a sharp contrast to the environment and to the structures around stood a jutting reddish brown building with purple vines growing about it.
"Ohh."
"Impressive, isn't it?" Domitia asked with a smile, she loved his expression of amazement.
Their abode resembled a cuboid stacked beneath a triangular prism, with wide, rectangular gaps that left it oddly exposed. It wore its eccentricity like a badge.
It made Ardlan all the more curious about their parent(s).
They soared to its apex, and a light encompassed them all and instantly they were within the building.
White. The sitting room was white, it was like Ardlan had walked into a decontamination room.
"Welcome, who is our guest?" Lexrum their home's AI asked, its soothing masculine voice echoed through the walls and roof.
They ignored their AI's question and began walking to a nearby door.
"Come," Aelius said, and Ardlan followed. Then they appeared in a room much smaller than the living room, with its walls filled to the brim with items, particularly artifacts.
Domitia walked to a section of the wall, placed her hands into one of the boxes and brought with her two aged-looking moss-green rings.
"We had this growing up. It was meant to help with reaching our energy manipulation prowess faster as it passively siphons atmospheric cosmic energy, slowly streaming it into our bodies."
"We had it on for a year." Aelius Interjected.
"Hmmm…" Ardlan squinted, activating his contact lens and initiating a minute invisible holographic scan on the rings.
"Jade energy rings." He said aloud.
"I'll equip the two, it should make things faster, I have like a month?"
"Week, your next opponents could be as strong as Wepéné, he's not the only formidable one."
"Right."
Then came the ugly silence.
"So…. I suppose I'll take my leave now. I'll find the nearest B-tube." Ardlan said, turning away.
"We have one, we can't teleport externally to it, but it should get you to Bued." Domitia commented and then led him forward.
They both got to the living room right at the position they had been teleported to from the apex.
"Just stay here. Lexrum, take him to Bued."
The apex of the home opened and a spinning sphere of light hung and then rained light below onto Ardlan.
"Bued, Ganymede." Lexrum said with a calm mechanical tone, and instantly, Ardlan was gone.