Chapter One: Lessons

"The discovery of Aether was a massive turning point in the war, pushing scientific advances ahead by several decades in some respects and crippling others to the point of nonexistence. What was then known as "The Manhattan Project" was officially scrapped in light of the safer, more controllable destructive capabilities that Aether presented. The seemingly self-renewing material generated energy unlike any man had ever discovered and, when enough energy passed through it, it not only changed state, but also became capable of producing near incomprehensible levels of destruction. Obviously this was a major concern to scientists and officials leading up the newly dubbed "Project Aether" and thus forced the need for a whole category of new materials and technology.

This sudden boom in industry and research created such a lift in technology that it completely raised Old America out of what was called, at the time, "The Great Depression" and put them at the forefront of the world's' industries.

The first, and perhaps most necessary, advancement was derived, after much trial and error, from the action of treating molten steel with liquid Aether. This process is now known as Glazing, and it has recently been discovered that it can be done with any metal and it will have almost the same effect. We don't know exactly why or how this happens, but at some point during the Glazing of the metals, the Aether seems to either fuse to, or completely change the source material. After the Glazing process is complete, what is left is now called Ellenium and used in almost everything you can imagine.

Ellenium is easy to manipulate, though incredibly strong. More importantly however, it has something of a cancelling effect on the excess energy that Aether tends to possess, thus lowering the potential of spontaneous explosions and the like. It also completely stops Aether from transcending to a plasma state, as it does when it is overheated, therefore making the substance even safer to use.

Initially found on and near Greenland in a solid state, Aether is actually easier to use in the form of a gas or liquid. As a gas, Aether seems to have something of a propagating effect on itself, requiring any machine using it to have vents to release the excess Aether, which brings us to our experiment for the day."

The teacher, Marcus, adjusted his goggles and stepped away from his podium, managing to look like a mad scientist as he did so.

Stepping toward his students, he said, "Today we'll be going over the concept of using the vented, excess Aether as an additional power source, something that has been mentioned, but overall considered unnecessary. " He smiled and all the students laughed as he swirled his finger next to his head in the universal sign language for crazy. "I disagree with that, I believe that it is totally necessary! Think of all the excess energy that could be put to use," he shouted passionately to his class.

The class murmured in agreement and Marcus smiled proudly at his students until a low voice rose above the clamor "It's ineffective to use the excess Aether." Shaking his head, he said, "I suppose you believe that there's no need to reuse energy when so much can be produced?"

The voice spoke again, still with a reasonable amount of anonymity, "Nonsense, you can always use more energy. It's ineffective to do it because you would either have to create a device explicitly based around using the excess energy a traditional device creates, as opposed to something you could simply attach to a preexisting device," the voice stopped for a moment, "Or you'd have to make every device that uses the excess energy almost double in size which would be...inefficient...not crazy."

Marcus smirked a little and said, "If you'd care to show yourself and explain maybe I'd be a little more inclined to listen to you."

"Surely."

A young man rose from the center of the room and walked to the front of the class and wrote a complex equation on the board and at the end of it, a single number.

"0"

"What is this?" Marcus asked, puzzled at the jumble of numbers and letters.

The young man said, "This is an equation based entirely on the propagation effect that Aether has upon itself when it is charged with energy."

Marcus focused on the board a little and said, almost to himself, "That makes sense. That explains quite a bit. I don't suppose you have a solution?"

The man smiled darkly and said, "It would be futile for me to point out a flaw if I didn't have a solution, don't you think?"

Marcus motioned to the table and the boy said, "First off, my name is Erick. Second, if you would all accompany me to the test chamber?"

Everyone stood and followed Erick, curious as to what he had to show them and soon the room was almost empty of students.

All the way in the back of the classroom, one student sat with his head down and turned toward the window. None of the other students noticed this student with his head down and turned off the light on their way out.

His brown eyes on the horizon, the student barely noticed as the door reopened again a few minutes later, the intruder closing and locking the door.

Hearing the click of the lock, the student, Daniel, looked up curiously. The room was dark, the rows of desks empty and he realized that he had lost track of time again and class had ended.

Packing his things, Daniel stood and began walking to the door when he heard footsteps behind him.

Turning to catch his stalker, he saw nobody behind him and scratched his head curiously. Shrugging, he turned around and something jumped forward at him. Panicking, he clapped his hands together and the contacts on the inside each of his hands triggered each other, sending a shockwave of energy outward at his perceived enemy.

The contacts on each of his hand were a very basic self-defense weapon that he'd had to build during his very first semester of Weapons and Defense Systems. They fit on the inside of your palms and actually were very versatile little weapons. Rather than being programmed to do one thing, the contacts responded to external stimuli and programmed themselves on the fly based on the need and emotion of the user.

With a punching motion, the contacts absorbed and amplified the kinetic energy from the strike and increased the strength of the punch by increasing the user's kinetic energy.

With a cutting motion, the contact picked up the flows of the air currents around the user's hand and makes a very thin, very sharp wave of energy.

With a clap, the contacts amplified the sound of the clap to the point of having physical presence and the shock wave was strong enough to send the user's target flying at least five feet, depending on the strength of the clap, and thus Daniel's assaulter flew back and into the desk behind her, knocking the desk over and going down with it.

After a few seconds, Daniel realized what he had done and said, "Who are you?"

"Your girlfriend, you asshole," the voice said.

A gloved hand shot up and Daniel ran forward and grabbed it and as he was holding it, an ungloved hand came from his left and slapped him.

"That's for shooting me," She yelled as she pulled him closer, "this is for wearing the contacts," and she kissed him gently.

Smiling a little, she pulled him down to her and hugged him as tight as she could.

Standing at five foot eight, Liliana was taller than most girls her age and had bright pink hair, mimicking some of the other girls from the campus. Making her stand out more, she wore so much Aethertech, the leading brand in functional fashion, that when she was using all of it, she seemed to be a moving, talking steam cloud.

With her pink hair and fashion obsession, she completely drowned Daniel out, except for his height.

Standing at six foot, Daniel dressed mostly in dark colors and the lab coats that the rest of the students in the Aether Weapons Design major were required to wear, though his was adorned with a black stripe around his waist that set him apart from the rest of his classmates. Black hair and an apathetic expression more or less kept him off of everyone's radar and though he had friends, he wasn't what you'd call popular. He made no waves and barely stood out at the college he went to. He was considered smart enough to grasp the classes and he knew he did well, but he never wanted to shine and therefore never pushed to stand out.

Liliana touched his cheek and said, "You know your class went to the Weapons Test Chamber right?"

Liliana was in Daniel's homeroom and was actually the Class Representative so she tended to know where classmates in the homeroom were. He frowned and said, "I thought everyone left me behind for next period again."

She shook her head and he said, "So what should I do?" She shrugged and said, "The right thing to do would be to head to the chamber." He shrugged back at her and said, "Nah, I'll be fine."

"Haven't you skipped class a few times already?" Liliana asked.

He nodded and said, "Its ok, Marcus likes me, I'll be fine." Liliana shrugged and grabbed his arm and hugged him close as they walked out of the classroom and asked, "What do you want to do now?"

Thinking for a moment, he said, "How about lunch?"