[November 346th, GPY 2. Bronio. Choece, Ganymede. 0902. UGT.]

[Merit: 211]

"What are we doing?"

Jordan turned on his heels to face Gelos with exhausted eyes before gesturing to the obstacle course laid out before them. "I'm testing my new implants." He sighed impatiently for what was now the third time.

They'd ran into each other a just fifteen minutes prior, in the lobby of their apartment building. Gelos had just finished tending to his breakfast when he saw Jordan, waltzing out of the building with the bounding steps of purpose, and whimsically followed after. Pestering Jordan with inquiries of his intentions as they traversed walking paths within their residential complex.

The exact answer had been given to Gelos the first time he'd asked, rounding the lake. Yet, the Martian insisted on asking a second time after they'd diverged off the path heading towards the city, to instead enter the residential training fields. Then again once they'd arrived.

"And what about after?" He asked anxiously.

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it." Jordan mumbled under his breath as he approached the first obstacle. "No one asked you to follow me out here."

If Gelos had a retort of any kind, it went unnoticed by Jordan as he approached the first obstacle. An inclined wall of metal bars arranged horizontally that Jordan was meant to weave his body through, up and over, up and down to the other side.

Sliding between the first set of bars, Jordan felt his muscles tense and quickly relax as the ribs beneath shifted within his chest cavity. Contorting and collapsing unnaturally and on top of one another to facilitate his elongating spine flexing between the bars like a length of rope or string. Giving his chest a strange, amorphous feel to it as he weaved through the obstacle almost effortlessly.

Moving through the next few obstacles: a simple low crawl, rope climb and a some vaulting obstacles, were as seamless and effortless as they'd been in his youth. If not more so. Allowing him to catch a glimpse of Gelos' mortified expression from of Jordan's superior display of flexibility.

Halfway through the course, Jordan came across an obstacle known as Jacob's Ladder. A structure akin to its namesake that stretched all the way to the distant ceiling of the habitable layer. Each beam-like rung grew further and further apart until even the tallest individuals were forced to jump in order to reach the rung above. And then further and further apart still, until not even the most augmented transhuman in the Powers could even come close to reaching them without propulsion.

Standing on the seventh rung of Jacob's Ladder, Jordan stretched as he naturally would to reach the rung above. And while doing so, felt his spine decompress before uncomfortably elongating, stretching until the skin of his legs and torso pulled taut. Thus extending his range by a few centimeters and enabling him to reach the next rung with the aid of a short hop off the platform.

Cresting the rung, Jordan paused at the summit of his limits to look out at the habitat around him. At a height of ten meters, he wasn't near high enough to look down on his home or the other apartment buildings in their sunken-sandbox-style complex. But the winding trails, perimeter roads and mirrored surface of the lake stretched below him like a miniature world made for dolls.

He got a true sense of scale, taking in the views. From the ladder extending above him, obscured by a veil of clouds; to the rolling hills and city skylines in the distance, everything Jordan saw made him feel insignificantly small. All but negating the excitement gained from his improved body.

Climbing down the next couple of rungs until he was around six meters from the ground, Jordan decided to test Randy's claims and leapt from the ladder. He and the structure behind him initially parted ways. Violently. Before lulling relative to each other and easing back towards a reunion. Eventually smacking at Jordan's back before he landed on the ground with a thunderous shock that stung sharply at his ankles and soles of his feet.

Jordan limped off the course, cursing the forces of Coriolis under his breath as he approached Gelos' position.

Once there, Jordan completed his self-examination with a quick test of his flexibility. He put his feet together while bending forward at the waist until his gilded palms effortlessly rested flat on the ground before his toes. He held the position for a second, craning his neck high in order to look at Gelos' queasing expression before bending backwards at the waist to place his palms behind his heels and cartwheeling his body upright with a persistent grin of satisfaction on his face.

Gelos seemed more sickened than impressed throughout the entire exercise and now, he looked outright pale. Giving Jordan growing concerns that the former would reunite with his breakfast. Which were quickly squashed as he impatiently repeated his questionings. "What's next?"

"Well, I don't know about you." Jordan shrugged. "But, I intend to train until Law returns. Everyday if I can."

"Training's good and all." Gelos nodded with a flair of disinterest. "But I'm not gonna miss out on exploring during this little hiatus of yours. I found some good spots to feast at while you were getting spliced."

"Where?" Jordan turned, a sudden zeal burning deep in his artificial eyes.

"Bronio." Gelos gestured around them with both hands. "All around us."

"Hmm." Jordan nodded as a greedy grin shrouded his face. "We'll have to find the 52 best spots on our level and peruse them all, I suppose."

"And what about your brother, Arthur?"

"Yeah…" Jordan snorted contemptuously. 'About Arthur.'

Befallen by a sudden curiosity, Jordan fell silent as he searched his brother's name through the Streaming Service's archives.

After a seconds pause, the cascade of cards glitched into life and settled in the grass around him. Arranged in a clockwise fashion from oldest to most recent. Each one of them, from his first Campaign, ten months ago; to the last one, nearly three months ago, featured his lanky elder brother toting a long-handled spear with a prominent, curved blade.

Causing Jordan to let out an inadvertent yelp of surprise.

"Ahahahah!" Gelos immediately began snickering wildly from behind Jordan. "Didn't know you could sing!"

"Yeah, go fuck yourself." Jordan sneered as he accessed his messages to read what his brother had sent just after flatlining.

[RSVP: 1 week stay. Jordan Astros, +1. Seville District, Portunia.]

[Sponsor: Arthur Astros.]

[Respond: Y/N]

"He wants us to visit him." Jordan muttered with forced surprise. "On the surface."

"Us? Gelos asked. "As in you and I?"

"Me, plus one." Jordan nodded. "One weeks stay in Portunia."

Gelos fell silent for a moment as he presumably accessed the local maps. "It's a big place." He finally gasped in awe before excitedly asking. "What're we waiting for?"

"We're waiting, because I'm apprehensive." Jordan snorted. "I'm apprehensive because I know exactly what's gonna happen the moment my brother and I see each other. Nigh endless arguing. But." Jordan heaved out a deflated sigh. "But, I can't deny that we'd learn a lot from the trip."

Gelos walked up to Jordan with a sympathetic look and rested his arm on his shoulder. "Sometimes, you just have to bite against the pain and endure."

"Yeah." Jordan sighed as he reluctantly agreed to Arthur's invitation. "I suppose."

***

Exiting their apartment building the following morning, Jordan was greeted by an digital arrow materializing into view before dancing around in his peripherals. Beckoning him to the edge of their sunken residential complex. To the very edge of the elevated highway.

Wordlessly, the two crossed their homely sunken sandpit and ascended a set of stairs off to the side of the tunnel leading to Bronio. Where the angry, ringed eyes and the eyebrow-shaped intake scoops of a wedge-faced vehicle sat. Staring menacingly at Jordan and Gelos as they approached, overlooking its compact frame with wide eyes.

"What?" Gelos wrinkled his face as if he were surprised by Jordan's awe as the door unsealed and rose above the roof of the car like an elbow cocking backwards. "First time seeing a car up close?" He grinned before ducking himself inside.

"It is." Jordan grunted while ducking down into his seat. Taking a good look around the cabin in the process, before nodding to Gelos with an awestruck grin.

While the exterior was bright, sleek and sporty, the interior held a darker palate, and was lined with stitched-leather bench seats on either side of the doors. With a telescopic table extended from the floor in the center; complete with empty cup holders.

The moment they secured themselves, the doors fell into their locked position just before the car swerved hastily onto the road and accelerated madly. Pushing Jordan and Gelos deep into their seats and reducing any further conversation to wild cackles as they sped up the inclined highway.

The speedometer augmented onto the windshield sputtered and dropped as the car followed a bend in the road, orienting them in the direction of the spin before accelerating again. Forcing Jordan into his seat once more and lurching the curved landscape around him until the scattered daylights on the ceiling melded into a single stream of burning light before abruptly shifting to darkness.

The screaming hums of the electric motors howled around the tunnels like enraged animals as they continued accelerating further and further. Rising higher and higher through the habitat at 119 meters per second by the time they emerged in the mid-levels. A vibrantly arboraceous realm that endlessly extended past the windows at their sides.

"So, what's he like?" Gelos off-handedly asked. Possibly after growing bored of the endless trees and winding roads within view. "What's he actually like." He corrected. "Without your brotherly bias."

"Well, I was seven when he left New Bran." Jordan absentmindedly explained. Not willing to avert his gaze from the winding maze of relatively thin trees. "The Arthur I knew was very intelligent. Perhaps too much." He snorted. "He knows he's smart, so he looks down on everyone else. He's truly a know-it-all."

A loud screeching filled the air before Gelos could even begin to reply. Inviting a sense of vertigo to come about Jordan before his body violently lunged forward into his restraints. Digging them into his skin for just a second before the car to violently accelerated back up to speed.

The pair exchanged mutual looks of confusion before wordlessly agreeing to continue their seemingly forced silence. Each of them turned to instead look out at the synth-wood cabins scattered throughout the young forest. Their amber lamps burning like beacons even in the morning light.

The surface level proved to be more than Jordan could have imagined. Ahead and to the left of where they were headed was a sprawling city of stone and winding roads that seemed to grow from the lake it surrounded like a mold. While ahead and to the right were two districts of spherically amorphous buildings that loomed all the way to the curved horizon ahead. Divided by wide lanes, on which corner stores, malls and other commercial structures were placed.

After passing a noticeably dull, castle-like building, the car slowed to a speed suitable enough to navigate the curving roads and continued through the suburbs. Turning down seemingly random roads until it eased itself into the driveway of one of the seemingly indiscernible houses in the neighborhood.

"Mmcht. He's not even here to greet us." Jordan sucked his teeth as the doors unsealed.

"I'm in the lounge at the end of the hall." Arthur's curt voice radiated from the car's interior in short reply.

Jordan sneered to himself. Storming through the door, he passed through a wide, hemispherical room with blind eyes. Into a large arterial corridor that split at the edges to afford entry to rising and falling staircases and continued forward along the length of the house to an egg-shaped, wood walled chamber with large windows and an assortment of ugly furniture on which to sit on.

Leaning on a bar in the corner was Arthur Astros. Standing nearly two meters tall, even with an unstraightened posture. Shooting stern, blue lasers at Jordan from behind a pair of round-rimmed glasses. He was covered in a blue vest, with white formal clothes underneath. The sleeves buttoned down to his wrists.

"Pleasure to meet you." Gelos stepped forward to bow as soon as he made eye contact with Arthur. "My name is Gelos."

"Welcome to my home, Gelos. I am Arthur. Your friend's elder brother." He quickly bowed before turning to Jordan with a condescending grin. "Didn't think you'd have any."

"You're one to talk." Jordan snorted before he gestured around him. "Big house for one person."

"Hmphf." Arthur simply replied.

"Is that why you called me here? To talk shit?" Jordan spat.

"No." Arthur blatantly lied. "One of the reasons I called you here is to understand why you keep going out there and getting yourself killed."

"Well." Jordan shrugged amiably as he found a seat on a red recliner with an ugly pattern of inlaid stitches resembling vomit. Or worse. "People flatline in the Powers. Everyday," he said. "Then, they wake up a few days later. Improved. How you feel about it happening to me isn't my problem. After all, how many times have you flatlined?" Jordan shot an accusatory jab at his brother with his chin.

Arthur lazily pulled his glasses from his face and a handkerchief from his chest pocket to aggressively clean them for a few moments before placing them back on his face and curtly saying. "That's irrelevant. What I really want, is to see that spear of yours."

"Why?"

"To appraise it."

'More like steal it.' Jordan snorted to himself. "No."

"Summon it here!" Arthur ordered in a sudden parental tone.

"For free?!?" Jordan scoffed in mocked surprise. "What do I get out of this, exactly?"

Arthur impatiently raised his brow before replying as if it were obvious. "A weeks stay in my home?"

"Didn't ask for that." Jordan waved away the offer. "Something more along the lines of training, sounds about right."

"No." Arthur droned slowly.

"No deal, then." Jordan shrugged with his hands.

Arthur hopefully raised his brows. "I'll let you raid my pantry as well."

Jordan grinned madly like he'd been waiting for this moment since he'd agreed to the invitation."Hah!" He cackled triumphantly. "I've already eaten this week!"

Gelos became heartbroken at Jordan's words. Letting out a soft whimper from the other side of Arthur that selectively went unheard by either of the Astros children.

"Ugh." Arthur sighed in frustration before recleaning his glasses; causing a satisfactory grin to come about Jordan's face. "What; besides training, do you want, Jordan?"

"Information," Jordan curtly replied.

"What kind of information?"

"About using spears." Jordan chuckled.

"Fine." Arthur sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. "I'll teach you the theory. Nothing more. Just." He sighed again, this time in a more deflated manner. "Just bring it here."

"Okay." Jordan eyed him suspiciously before complying. Summoning the weapon to Arthur's residential storage unit. And not a meter closer.

"Good." Arthur smiled in sudden satisfaction as he leapt up to seat himself on the bar. "While we wait, I'd like to teach you a few things."

'Great.' Jordan rolled his eyes as he fell backwards into his seat. Desperate for it to swallow him whole. 'Here we go again.'