“Hey night light. What’s the occasion?” Elijah asked as he began to make his way outside the hanger. He waved Sunny over as she ran her victory laps and once she noticed she made sure to change course over to his direction.

“Heeeeeey! Lumi! IT WORKS IT WORKSITWORKSITWORKSITWORKS!” Sunny shouted with glee as she grabbed Elijah’s wrist and jumped up and down.

“Good job.” Lumi said, amusement clear in her voice. “But I called for a reason you know.”

“Reason can suck it!” Sunny cheered before releasing Elijah’s arm.

“What’s up Lumi?” Elijah said.

“It’s time. Pack your shit and meet me on landing zone 1 in an hour.”

“Wait, what about the parts we still need for the GM?” Sunny cut in.

“You can have all that forwarded to the Academy.” Lumi sighed before continuing. “More importantly, make sure that the GM is ready for transport and your maintenance crew is picked out.”

“What do you mean ready for transport? Is the Summoning Fob no good?” He asked. “Also, what crew?”

“The Fob should be okay though you’re not going to be allowed to use the GM for the entrance exam. As far as crew goes, because you’re entering with your own VG you get a personal hanger and maintenance crew.”

“Sunny and Zaza are no good?”

“I didn’t want to presume. If they’re cool with it then I’ll let mom know, that makes it three more hands she needs to find rather than five.”

“Wait, if mom is handling it then why even ask me about sorting it?”

“It’s been a month little j how many friends have you made on base?” She asked him.

“A few…” He said, not even convincing himself.

“Name them.” she said.

“Uhhhhh…Adam?”

“Family doesn’t count.”

“…”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Everyone’s so busy here though.”

“Sunny!”

“Present!” She exclaimed.

“How many friends have you made on base so far?”

“Oh, all the friends. There’s Zaza who is just great. Then there’s Joey in hydroponics, he sneaks me fruit sometimes. There’s Stacy and Blake and Francine, they’re the patrol rotation in my living quarters section. There’s Mic in the cafeteria. Boss-boss in maintenance. Alex in security. Potts in -”

“Thanks sweetie, I think you’ve proven my point.” Lumi said cutting her off.

“Didn’t have to be a dick about it.” Elijah muttered. “Anyway, what are the rules about my work kit?”

“You think they’ll let you take a Railgun an assortment of knives and a sidearm to a school?”

“...Yes?”

“...Why would you think that little j?”

“Could I really do more damage with any of that than I could with a GM?”

Lumi went silent at his statement, it’s not like he didn’t have a point but it still sounded wrong. Plus none of them could draw on their vast schooling experience being home schooled and all.

“Fine, try what you want.” She relented. “But any trouble you bring is on you.”

From there Elijah quickly called Esperanza over and explained the news. She quickly agreed to joining up with him as part of his maintenance crew once Lumi assured her that she’d be paid at her SSS rates and maintain her benefits. The clean up of the area went smoothly as Esperanza used Salvia to crate the spare parts, cores, and various diagnostic equipment into the shipping container that the GM had arrived in and soon the three of them were waiting topside, their bags packed.

“Hey anybody seen Adam or Nadia?” Elijah idly asked.

Sunny spun left then right, Smart glasses chiming.

“I one hundred percent expected him to criticize or situational awareness by casually revealing himself.” She said.

“No, just me this time.” Nadia said as she came up the stairwell behind the group.

“So what’s gonna be the deal with you now that I’m off to a fancy education center.” Elijah asked.

“Well given your already unique situation I need to be present to answer any medical questions and provide your medical history, purple stuff excluded.” She explained. “They’re also going to want to take all sorts samples and run all kinds of tests. I don’t know how Yukio Arai was handled but your genes are incredibly valuable. We’ll be firmly but politely refusing.”

“And if they press the issue?”

“Then we stop being polite. No one wants another Mayflies incident.” Nadia said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “In the meantime you’re going to need to read this.”

Elijah took the tablet offered to him and gave the screen a quick glance. It appeared to have a list of required reading for new Academy students, various technical manuals regarding Vain Glory functions and a school guidebook and code of conduct. He thought back to when Evona had told him about the “Stack of tomes almost matching Saif in height.” and glared at Nadia.

“You couldn’t have given this to me a bit sooner?”

“Oh hush, that new trick of yours makes something like this trivial and besides a good deal of this you’ll already know from hands on experience.” She replied.

“Still doesn’t make it any less tedious. Zaza, if they get here while I’m deep diving into this just manhandle me on board will you?” He asked her.

“Fine fine.” She replied with a shake of her head.

Elijah Focused his power into the tablet and rather than attempt to control the warmth building in his skull he let it wash over him.

[Hello World.]

[Read to me.] He sent as he drifted off.

Sunny watched as Elijah’s eyes glazed over and frowned at him in frustration. Just another thing that made her brother stand out in such stark contrast to her. She turned to Nadia and decided to try and make conversation. Anything would be better than stewing in short term envy.

“Stuck baby sitting us for a bit more Auntie?”

“If that’s how you’d like to see it dear. You’re all an absolute treat, I just wish Lumi and Jack could have been here as well but Lumi is far too busy these days and Jack too young to be dragged across the globe from hostile nation to hostile nation.” She said wistfully.

“Well it’s not like making the trip is short or cheap. I miss Jack and Aunt Blanche too but I can’t exactly afford a cruise to the Lunar colonies.”

“What? That can’t be true.” Zaza cut in. “Surely you’re getting paid for all the work we’ve been putting in?”

Sunny paused. Was she getting paid? In truth she leapt at the chance to help her brother and had glossed over the details her mother had provided. She told the others just that as she casually checked in on her various Accounts. To her surprise and delight her work account was in fact flush with currency.

“Oh. Welp, I guess I know what I’m doing next holiday.” She said.

Soon their ride came into view, A working plane so to speak rather than the private affair that had ferried sunny here. As it’s configuration shifted to descend vertically onto the landing area Sunny couldn’t help but think of the plane’s anti laser coating, the laminated birch interior and wasteful superconductive aluminum exterior that made up the main body, and if what she saw of the interior through the gaps in the wings was correct, a power scheme suspiciously familiar to ones used in Vain Glories. Was the Coldsnap cargo plane powered by a VG core? Before It could reach the ground Sunny felt a familiar push in her mind.

“You shouldn’t let your thoughts drift off like that so often dear.”

“MAMA!” Sunny practically shouted. Was shouting something that could happen in telepathy? She mused.

“Yes, it certainly can. Let Lumi look things over with the loading crew and cargo before everyone comes aboard.”

“Kay.” Sunny simply responded.

“What’s wrong with your brother? All I’m getting from him is some sort of high pitch whine.” Bianca asked.

“He picked up a new trick. His power is reading the school books directly to him at whatever ridiculous speed it works at. He’ll cycle through them all until he’s memorized them or we snap him out of it.” She hoped her jealousy wouldn’t come through their link.

“And this is safe?”

“At least as safe as carrying a gun around in a foreign country or deciding to use a busted weapon platform as a snipers nest. Auntie N and Adam tested it pretty thoroughly.”

Bianca sent love and amusement over the link as the plane landed.

======================

Elijah blinked slowly as the world came back into focus. The change of scenery was jarring but nowhere near as jarring as the mountain of crap that cascaded around him as he moved his head. Water bottles, pens, bags of chips and peanuts, trail mix, jerky, a few sealed MRE packages, a stress ball, tiny bottles of booze and what looked like several origami animals.

This was fine he decided as he opened a packet of jerky and began to snack on it.

“Oh shoot.” The woman in front of him said.

As he looked up he saw a hand holding a paper humming bird outstretched in his direction. Attached to said hand was a familiar face framed by familiar almost neon blonde hair.

“Hello Jenny.” Elijah said.

“Hah! Pay up sucker.” An immensely pleased sounding voice crowed somewhere behind him.

Elijah began to neatly stack the stray items on the empty seat next to him as Jenny helped. Soon he noticed two more people approach. The familiar grey eyes and medium length black hair of Benaiah and an impressively tall woman with long black hair and blue eyes. She seemed familiar but he couldn’t place a name to the face.

“So long time no see, what brings you here?” Elijah asked.

“I’m glad you asked!” Jenny exclaimed before jumping up and taking position on the left of the giant woman. “Jenny!” She shouted dropping to one knee.

To the right Benaiah sighed and knelt much less energetically before letting out a limp “Benni.”

“Penny!” The woman in the center exclaimed while bringing her arms in and flexing.

From behind him he heard a few people clapping as the light of someone taking a photo flashed out out.

“We’re here as your support crew!” Jenny explained, still knelt in her pose.

“The pay is really good considering this is on paper a simple mechanic gig.” Benaiah said.

“We’re the best team to keep you safe.” Penny said. “And Lumi is a known pilot so sneaking her in is right out.”

“I am brimming with confidence.” Elijah said with a smirk.

Jenny and Benny stood and brushed themselves off before Penny continued.

“C’mon your ma’s in the cargo hold waiting on you.” She said.

“Lead the way.” He replied before unbuckling his seat belt and following them. As he turned around he noticed Esperanza Smiling at him, origami animals poised and ready to go on the tray in front of her. Nadia was also all smiles, phone out no doubt having either photographed or recorded the hole event. Sunny ran up to him throwing her arm around his shoulders and snapping a selfie before putting her phone away and continuing to keep her arm around him as they walked.

Soon they arrived at a bizarre pair of doors with three dial locks down the center. Before anyone could do anything about them they twisted on their own and with a series of clicks the doors swung out revealing Bianca Winter, eyes glowing bright blue standing in front of a row of three shipping containers.

“We’ll wait out here.” Jenny said as Penelope and Benaiah each took a door and closed them once Sunny and Elijah had walked through.

“Holy fuck. Mom, why the hell is the plane so huge?” Elijah exclaimed. Looking around it felt as if he could Deploy his GM and have it stand upright with room to spare.

“Oh this is one of Chris’ side projects. Ultra Liminal might dominate shipping for now but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for competition who are more comfortable with terrestrial based enterprises. Adam and Sunny have done a good job filling me in on everything that’s happened in the last month but I want to take the chance to talk while there isn’t a crisis looming over our heads.”

As they got closer Bianca closed the gap and embraced her children.

“Group Hug!” Lumi shouted, pouncing on them from where she had gone unnoticed in the shadow of the containers.