After several hours of running, Cassie gave up and couldn’t run anymore at any speed. She trudged off the track, heaving as her heavy footsteps carried her. Larson was still running and Jax watched as Cassie stumbled over to him. Her deep gaping breaths got louder as she finally got over to the car and fell onto the hood with a small thud.

Jax smiled at her, “I brought some Gatorade, but I don’t know if-”

Cassie shot up and went to the door where she fell inside the car searching for the beverage.

“Where is it!” She asked with an almost animistic tone.

Jax chuckled and told her where it was. Cassie found it and nearly ripped the bottle in half, tearing off the cap. With half the bottle now drank, she moved to sit on the roof of the car. Jax rested beside her legs and spoke while watching out for when Larson stopped.

“Does that stuff do anything for you guys?” Jax asked.

“Yeah, we’re still human, but as Lars puts it,” She set the drink down and frowned deeply, “We don’t have the same functions, properties, and processes.” She said in her best Larson impression with her best Larson expression. Jax couldn’t help but laugh. “Not that I know how true that is, but essentially we’re like that. Lars doesn’t eat very often, and I’m the same way. I can go for almost a month without eating or drinking anything. I just choose to eat because I like food!”

Jax chuckled, “I’d love to find out what food does inside you guys.”

“I don’t know how you'd do that. If you have to cut us up or something, you’ll have to find something that’s tough enough to hurt us.”

“Oh? That’s something you two were curious about?”

Cassie’s head shook, “Not me, Lars is the one curious about how our blood is different from regular humans.”

“I’ll look into it then,” Jax took out his phone and typed something, “If anything, I think you guys could just hurt yourself.”

Cassie cringed, “Pain doesn’t sound too fun.”

“Well, I’ll tell Lars about that then.”

She nodded and resumed drinking the Gatorade as they both resumed watching Larson, “How long do you think he’ll go?” Cassie asked.

Jax hummed, “Maybe another hour or so?”

“I think he could go for another four days.” Cassie joked, “But, what makes you think an hour?”

“‘Cause I can see him now.” Jax stated.

“You couldn’t before?”

“Nah, it was like a blur before. I couldn’t even make out that someone was running. Now I can actually see him.”

Cassie looked back to the track, “That’s cool! I wonder what else you can find out.” Cassie dropped down next to Jax, “Like, it’s really interesting to know that people can figure stuff out without even needing a test subject!”

“It’s all theoretical.” Jax explained.

“You know about that?” Cassie inquired.

He nods, “It’s what I hope to study in college.”

Cassie's feelings were more than obvious by the grimace she made, “Theoretical Science?” She asked.

“Yes," He chuckled at her apparent discomfort "I won’t bore you with the details.”

“No,” Jax looked back at her, “I only looked like that ‘cause science and stuff is hard, but I wasn’t kidding when I said it’s interesting. Like, what kind of stuff does it involve?”

Jax’s mouth slowly turned up into a smile. Cassie was engaging as she leaned closer to him and her face held a certain expectancy. Jax happily began to explain everything to her...

Jax happened to be right and Larson went on for another hour, marking hour six in their test. It was dark now, none of them wanted to remain outside, so they decided to go somewhere brighter and were now sitting in the back of a restaurant while Larson cooled down and drank the Gatorade.

Jax said nothing when they first arrived, he was busy writing and Cassie was bored while waiting.

Her boredom turned into wanting to annoy Larson, “Why'd you run for so long anyways?”

“What?” Larson said, putting the bottle down.

“You heard me. Were you flexing or something?”

His eyes narrowed and Cassie only bit her lip in an attempt to not laugh. Larson sighed and turned his gaze from her.

“Okay,” Jax said, getting their attention, “With this… I think we have two options.” They looked to Jax, “Either Cassie goes for as long as you did… and you both add another two hours-”

“Eight hours!” Cassie exclaimed.

“She could barely take the four she did!”

“It’s either that or we try a theory where you two use each other to launch off.”

“That what you were talking about before?” Larson said.

“Yeah, I was thinking about it when I said you guys might have to launch with something, I figured why not use each other and that way you guys can have an extra push.”

“It’ll be like those things on playgrounds!”

“Essentially.” Jax said.

“That might be a good idea. Instead of trying to use ourselves to get up there. we could use something to help us.” Larson sighed as he rubbed his neck, “Then I guess we’ll have to test that theory right?”

“Well, not really.” Jax stated.

“Why not?”

“Because I know the kind of speed you guys can pick up. From there, I can just fill in some other info and using that, launching off should come naturally.”

“So does this mean we’re going to Pluto soon?”

Jax smiled at Cassie’s excitement, “We shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves.”

Cassie pouted, “Fine, I’ll work a little harder then!”

“But it’d be good to get Cassie to run at full speed for at least four hours.” Jax added.

Cassie groaned.

“And you better.”

Cassie glared in Larson’s direction, but he ignored her and kept drinking. Jax just smiled at them and they relaxed for the rest of the time they spent there.

…

For the next week, they spent six hours every day after school getting Cassie’s stamina up. Larson and Jax worked on the conditions they would have to consider once they were out in space. Including how they would even move once they were out there.

In the time that Cassie was working, she decided to try something out and during the weekend she spent the night at Larson’s place along with Jax who was taken aback at first by the rift space.

“Okay, you guys. I don’t think we should waste anymore time on this. Cassie can get up to four hours pretty decently, so we should try it! Plus, since school’s out, we can go to an Elementary school and try using those merry-go-rounds.”

Cassie nodded as she let Roman onto the floor. She crouched down and asked him to come to her, he did so slowly but still came eventually.

“You hear that? I won’t be here to take care of you, but Jax said he’ll take good care of you okay?” Roman barked at her, Cassie giggled and gave him a small treat before standing normally.

“At least you weren’t joking when you said you were going to train him.”

“Of course I wasn’t! You underestimate me too much.”

Larson scoffed, “This was one case. I’ll come back to you if you can keep that up for the rest of the time we’re stuck together.”

Cassie huffed but went past him to the door. She had her phone in her hand and stood in the doorway.

“Just come on, let’s do this already! Onto Pluto!”

…

The school was empty leaving them to do what they needed to. Cassie put her earbuds down her shirt so they wouldn’t fling off, but still put them in her ear for the moment.

“Okay, now you guys should run as fast as you can for four hours.” Jax explained.

“And I’m the person who has to do this on my own.”

“Just because I’m not all brute strength like you.” Cassie complained.

“Still, hopefully I can get enough strength off the ground to get into the air.” Larson said.

“I think you’ll be able to.”

“Really wish I could have more than just a ‘you think’.” Jax gave him an awkward chuckle. Larson and Cassie went over and grabbed onto the somewhat warm metal of the merry-go-around. “Now don’t slow me down!”

“I won’t, but you count us down and from there, I’ll be seeing you in space!”

Larson gave a small chuckle but gripped the bars tighter and got himself ready.

“Three, two, one!”

Once more, they went for four hours straight and by this point, Cassie was running out of stamina. Larson could feel that as they began to lose their speed they worked so hard to get and yelled for her to jump.

“But we’re not at the right speed!” She yelled back.

“Just jump you idiot!”

Cassie growled, “Fine!” Cassie waited until she was in the right direction and jumped. When she did, she felt a sudden jerk to her body. However, she didn’t have time to think about that as she felt herself rising in height. She couldn’t see much as she her vision was soon covered with the clouds.

Cassie covered her face as Larson explained to avoid anything hitting her eyes and then she began to slow down. She lowered her arms and was amazed at the sight around her.

“Wow…” Now in space, she slowly spun around. Cassie took in the vast universe around her. “I can’t believe it worked.” Her head shot back to look behind her and there she saw another object hurling towards her.

Cassie reached her arms out and they were grabbed by Larson. His sudden force knocked her back a bit, but they gradually began to slow down. They floated at a small distance from one another and spoke after a moment.

“It worked!” Cassie said.

“Obviously…" Larson looked around, "But I think we’re a bit off.”

“That’s fine! The hard part was getting out here. We can get to Pluto easily now!” Cassie said spinning happily; she then looked to Larson, but couldn’t stop herself from spinning. “By the way, what was that jerk I felt?”

Larson stared at her confused for a second before he realized what she was talking about.

“Oh, we weren’t going fast enough, plus I doubted your ability to jump far enough, so I pushed it as hard as I could once you were about to let go.”

Cassie tried to keep her gaze on his while her spinning slowed.

“So I was off thanks to you!” She accused

“You’re here because of me!” He retorted. Cassie laughed and turned her body in the direction of Pluto. Larson came beside her and saw it as well. “Either way, let’s get going.”

…

Jax stared out for a little bit, the loud squeaking of the merry-go-round caused him to remember what he and Larson talked about.

“I’m not sure how this is gonna work, but I’ll give it a shot.” He was about to call Larson when he got a call from his mom instead. He grunted and went inside his car before answering the phone. “Hey mom, what’s up?”

“Hi sweetie, I wanted to call you because those books you wanted came in.”

“Good, thanks for telling me. I’m still gonna be out for a little bit, but I’ll swing by the house and pick it up.”

“Okay, I’ll leave it on the porch for you.”

“Thanks mom!”

“Alright, see you for dinner.”

“Yeah, see you.” Jax hung up the phone and figured he’d pick the books up before trying to call Larson and Cassie. “Alright, things seem to be coming together perfectly!”