Ch. 5- Living in a Fantastic Way

Tuesday, April 2

Heading out of their home's door, the Python twins descended from the porch, with Alex still being angry at his brother. He didn't speak a word and pushed John's shoulder as he walked through the pathway of their small garden.

They readied themselves on the pavement, crouching and charging up their energy, before setting off through the neon filled streets.

Reaching the Cornflower city took about 5-10 minutes or so.

They materialized by the road just in front of the school's entrance along with other students, seemingly as if they had teleported. Entering the school grounds, they headed to the entrance and went to their class.

Not a word spoken between them, again.

Man...He's scaring me. John thought, giving him a worried look. Just how much he changed since yesterday. I gotta be careful.

Their second day at school began with an astronomy class. They entered the classroom along with the students and each sat at their assigned desks like the day before.

Sitting in his usual place, by the window, Alex held his cheek and rested his elbow on the table, looking out through the window with a bored yet kind of depressed face.

I'm always better than him. He thought. Can't he just realize that and praise me a little instead of being a douchebag. Seriously, I'm always being nice to him...Why does he have to be like that? Idiot.

Sitting in the desk beside him, John could see through the reflection of the glass window, his brother's face, knowing full well what he might be thinking. He felt a little urge to talk to him before class, but the bell rang all of a sudden the moment he opened his mouth and inhaled.

The teacher came soon after that, "Hey children. How was your first day yesterday?" she asked, carrying a bunch of books.

Luna and the Rhodes twins followed her into the room then stood in the doorway for a moment.

"Wasn't eventful, obviously." replied Alex with a sulk.

John looked at him with a surprised expression before facing the teacher. "Hehe..Don't mind my brother, ma'am," he giggled nervously, and said, "I-It was actually informative and fun,"

"Hey ma'am." said Luna with a wave.

"Oh hey! Didn't see you there, sorry. Now come on, get inside,"

Luna and the Rhodes twins went to their desks and sat.

"Alright. I haven't introduced myself. My name is Beatrice Junex, and I'm your astronomy teacher.

"As you may all know, it is reserved for grades 9 & 10, otherwise known as 1 & 2 of Junior high, but you can choose to major in it for your senior years."

Wait. Junex? Why do I feel like I heard this name before? thought Luna with furrowed brows, actively reviving her memory.

"So! How about you children? I want to know the name of each one of you, starting from you," she pointed at Luna.

"Oh. Me? Sure. My name's Luna Triton," she said awkwardly in haste.

"Triton? Whoa. You must be the daughter of the megacorp chairman, Zack Triton." She mumbled. "Forgive me for asking, my noble young lady, but..You don't happen to be Rysluva's daughter, do you?"

"Yes. Are you related to her?"

"Why yes. Of course. I'm her half-sister."

Luna gasped, her eyes widening, "Which makes you my aunt?"

"Probably." She shrugged.

"Whoa. Luna...You lucky girl!" said John loudly.

"Oh. Don't get the wrong idea though. I won't be merciful to anyone," Miss Junex gave a sweet little giggle.

"So did you ever meet mom?" asked Luna.

"No. Not exactly."

Luna raised her brow in question.

Looking at her for a moment, she sighed, "Well...We did meet sometimes, but right after she got married, I never really met her again."

"Were you close?"

"Yeah."

"Then why she never mentioned you to me?"

"I guess she forgot about me. And I never really bothered to talk to her again,"

"Aaand why's that?"

"We got into some conflict before she left me." She stared down for a moment before looking back at Luna, "So what happened to her?"

"I don't...Really know," Luna frowned and looked down. "She was out on one of her weekly expeditions to space, but never really came back. Some say that her ship was attacked and she was killed along with her crew,"

"That's sad. I'm sorry. It must be traumatizing to lose your loved one,"

After a moment of silence, her face turned annoyed like usual again, "Ugh. It doesn't matter. She never cared about us anyways. All she wanted was plunder and riches, and she got what she wanted,"

"Don't say that. Even if it happened at such an early age for you, that you don't care since you never spent much time with her, she's still family,"

Gripping her hands together, she looked down with a bit of sorrow in her eyes. "I-I understand. Thank you,"

Miss Junex smiled at her and blushed. Such a magnificent child in a prestigious academy. You'll achieve great things.

"So..Do you have any hobbies, Luna?" she asked.

She lifted her face slowly, "I...Like reading books?" she said, unsure what to reply—though that was her hobby, she didn't think it was.

"Oh great." She exclaimed. "You must be smart then. And what kind of books?"

"Every kind. Fiction, literary and educational,"

She nodded happily before turning her attention to the rest of the class, asking the next one, and so on. She walked in between the desks as she heard them out one by one.

Some were willing to tell their hobbies, like John and Pico being video game enthusiasts while others like Pika and Alex were more towards sports and fitness. Those delinquents who came to class—3 or 4, less than the first day, as they gradually disappeared—didn't care much and only mentioned their interests, which were too common for their age.

After everyone was introduced, she returned to her desk and said, "Alright everyone. Our first lesson will be more like a revision of last year's actually.

"Open page 22 of your textbooks,"

Everyone pulled out their Astronomy textbooks from their bags and opened the said page.

"Now, can anyone guess in what galaxy we're living in?"

John raised his hand.

"Yes John?"

"The Silky Way galaxy?"

"Indeed."

Alex glared at him in jealousy. Hmph. Thinking you're the boss around here? Don't get cocky. Just wait till we're done with this shit.

"As you can see in figure 3.1, we live in the Euphoria system, otherwise known as Electron by the negatives, which contains 8 main planets with different types of inhabitants and an estimated 132,786 minor ones. It's one of many planetary systems that have been discovered in the last two centuries or so.

"In ascending order, the planets in our solar system are; Dweller C-051, used primarily for mining by fire-humans. Muspell, planet of fire. Elvia, of forest and dark elves. Electro, of electricity. Nidavellir, of dwarves. Demi, of half-human animals. Jotun, of giants. And lastly..Nifel, where the ice-humans and possibly frost giants live.

"In 1281 AE (After Electro), a similar galaxy in the local group known as the Milky Way was discovered by famous negative astronomer Albert Magenta. Of course at the time, it was called Reptsayr or the Mystic sail or canvas and it's group was referred to as the Irto or marble catch.

"After meeting with fellow earth astronomers in the subsequent decades, he came to know that our galaxy's group is called Coma 1 instead of Vitidik La, a collection of galaxies some 40-50 million light years away from the Local group. Their exoplanetary system is known simply as the Solar system, and since we were a bit similar, our galaxy was called the Silky Way, previously named Ubsidreok or the light spear due to its thin structure like the neighboring Needle galaxy.

"The Milky Way and Earth can be reached nowadays easily using our advanced spaceships that use Neutron's 'godly' energy, aka neutral energy, enabling FTL travel at godspeed, with current spaceships covering a 40 million light years journey in 4-5 months time only."

A student lifted her hand, "Uh..Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Dr. Magenta was a negative, so does that mean negatives do have some knowledge after all? I mean we all thought they were barbaric and mentally retarded, who love nothing but violence,"

"Well. Magenta is a region that has a little rest among all the negatives. Its people are a little more...Peaceful, and live in the middle east, near the Great Neutral Wall, away from all the chaos of the far east."

"Oh. But are they really as smart as us?"

"Of course. Some of the oldest known sciences that have been adopted from ancient Neutralians and earth-humans alike, like mathematics and astronomy that we have today, we owe them to the middle-easterners. They're the ones who enhanced them first before we took them,"

She nodded, "That's interesting,"

"Hard to believe negatives have any of our traits, to be honest," said Alex.

"Yeah. And you don't have any of them either," John chuckled with a smug face, taunting him.

Alex turned his face to him, his eyes widened in aggravation, about to jump from his seat, "Oh really? Why don't you shut the fuck up, you—?"

The teacher advanced in between the desks again, "Enough, Alex."

After looking at her for a moment, he sulked and turned back to the window, staring out at the bustling city with a bored face.

"I've heard from other teachers that you're a little short-tempered when it comes to your brother. Seems you two don't get along too well. I believe I should change your places,"

"Hmph. Whatever," said Alex.

Walking back to her desk, she continued explaining, "Now let's focus on our planet, and its origins. Before Electro came to existence, it was called Neutralia, inhabited by the neutrals. It was like Earth, full of nature, animals, mountains, lakes and rivers, before it was nearly wiped out by Neutron's apocalypse. A calamity known only as the 'The Great Neutron Explosion'.

"Neutron is a bomber-class Diamond guardian. The most powerful guardian of all whom we knew. He unleashed his biggest, most destructive bomb that wiped life off this planet.

"After Prota and Anta emerged, this desolate wasteland, a vast desert, was revived. And with that, electricity killed nature. That is the reason why you will rarely see forests or animals around.

"Our planet is nothing but desert, however, some places do, in fact, have nature, most of which have been taken over by modern Neutralians. Examples of natural habitats are the Cyan province in Sapphire, and the two provinces of Indigo and Violet that form their own region. Modern Neutralia is also an established region that is located in between those two provinces, near the Neutral Wall.

"There are also many islands discovered, and some of which have been occupied, by the Navy region, that survived the apocalypse and are still standing, full of nature,"

"What about Cornflower city?" asked John.

"Ah yes. It's also one of the only remaining natural locations, however, it's the only one in this region. Thankfully, it also supplies a lot of pure water to the neighboring regions like Azure and Cobalt.

"So! Any questions?"

"Ma'am?" asked Luna.

"Yes."

"How many earth-humans are there in Plus?"

"About 63 million. They began coming around the 1310s, and have been helpful merchants and scientists,"

"Were they brought by us? Or did they already possess advanced tech?" asked John.

"Apparently not." replied Miss Junex, "They have struggled for years, having many problems of their own. However, ESTA made it possible for them to travel and seek help from us here. As a result, we experienced an influx of Terran immigrants in around the 1340s as more and more began to come here,"

"Weird," said John. "But I haven't seen a single Terran so far,"

"They tend to not live among us so they won't get zapped, however, even if they do, they wouldn't be noticeable since they look like us,"

"I have heard that their common hair and eye color is black, while ours is azure blue," said Luna.

"Yes. That's true. But remember that Jevkarians also have black hair and eyes,"

"Ah. You mean Cobaltians?" Luna said.

"Jevka—What?" asked John.

Miss Junex explained, "They're a race of the positives, usually referring to those of Cobalt or Night origins."

"Hmm. Now I get it,"

"The word 'Jev-kar' is of ancient Neutralian origin, meaning 'Metal-Shadow',"

"Some of them have darker blue hair and eyes though," said Luna.

"Wait." said John after realization, "Does that mean I'm a Jevkarian?"

"Well yes. If you're from Night,"

"I'm from Python, who's said to be one her grandchildren,"

Miss Junex paused for a moment, looking a bit surprised.

"Hey...Ma'am? Is...Everything alright?" asked John slowly.

"Yeah. I'm just astonished. Your family has a great (and terrible) legacy, that's all,"

"Does that include betrayal?" asked Luna.

"Oh. You seem to know about it."

"Nothing new, to be honest." She crossed her arms and smirked.

"Yes. We have to put our differences aside. After all, even if Jevkarians seem to not agree with Peace, they do help their nation a lot compared to others,"

That last one made John worry about his origins for a short while. He forgot about it quickly as he noticed his brother glaring at him.

"What are you looking at?" murmured John.

"Tch." Alex looked away with his usual annoyed expression.

I wonder what he's thinking. thought John.

Looking at the open textbook on her desk, Miss Junex said, "Alright everyone. Let's begin," she turned around, took the marker and started writing on the board.

Ten minutes passed, with the students writing in their notebooks after her, when the bell rang abruptly, signaling the end of the period.

Packing their bags, and heading to their next class, the students were leaving to the locker rooms as they have electro-martial arts.

Miss Junex carried her books and walked to the doorway, saying, "Don't forget to study everyday. See you next week,"