It felt weird being out in the sun again all the time. For the first few hours, I stayed under the deck of the ship, staring out the window. But after a while, Ty dragged me up and got me to look at the ocean.
He hated the ocean. Or just deep water in general. I'd tried to teach him how to swim when we were younger, but he wanted absolutely none of that. I'm not exactly sure what I expected when I first arrived at the base; but it wasn't a run-down old long forgotten port.
As if he read my mind, the Captain said, "This is the closest port to the base; you'll get off here and head east. You'll know it when you see it."
There weren't many coming from my town; which was Stillwater Heights, for future reference. It was just me and Ty. The other teens were mostly from other towns or villages. Stillwater Heights must've been the last stop or something.
There was apparently a mile between the port, Port Colwald, and the Sky Army Base. There were maybe a dozen of us getting off the ship; I didn't know anyone except for Ty.
I leaned closer to him as we walked. "Great going, genius." I muttered to him.
"You didn't have to follow me." He replied.
"Yeah, I kinda did."
"Adam, I can take care of myself. I'm only doing this to see the world."
"It's dangerous in the military, Ty!"
"Not anymore! The squids haven't actually made an attack on the base in what, two hundred years?"
"Still, you've only been able to see for like a month, and you're already running off to fight."
"Damn, I would've thought you'd be all over this, dude, I mean it's reckless, dangerous, and bold. Seems like your kinda gig."
I rolled my eyes and punched his shoulder lightly. "Whatever. I guess we should just make the most of this mess..."
"Oh, man..."
I looked up to see Ty staring ahead. I blinked in confusion and followed his gaze. My eyes grew wide. While I was walking, I had been staring at the ground; I hadn't even noticed us climb to the top of the hill. The hill plateaued at the top, and I saw a great castle-like fortress. It looked like something from medieval times, but it was big and bright. It looked almost golden with the sun shining behind it, although I know the rocks it was built from were only stone. It was a pretty place; I almost wanted to call it majestic.
Across from the base, a forest stretched out. I didn't know where it led, but I could see a path heading inside with plenty of human footprints along with horse prints leading away. Apparently it was used often. There was a cobblestone road leading down from the base to the other side of the plateau, where the hill went down again. The road turned into a street that branched off into other little roads, forming a small village.
"The village is called Farpoint." I overheard a boy say to his companion. "My older brother told me so. It's named after the founder of the base, I think."
"Really? What was his name?" The other boy asked.
The first boy stared at him incredulously. "I dunno, maybe it's Farpoint."
"...Oh."
"Anybody know what to do?" A kid called out.
"I guess we just walk in." I said. I glanced at Ty, then nodded ahead and we both started walking. A few of the others murmured amongst each other, but they all eventually followed.
Upon walking in through the big archway built in the wall, I found a courtyard-like area. There were three doors. Two of them were on either side, and were just small, normal doors. The last was across from the archway and behind a nice-looking fountain in the middle of the courtyard. This door was big and oaken; both sides propped open. Either it was always open, or the base as expecting someone.
Just as this thought occurred to me, a young woman poked her head around the door. She was about average height, with friendly brown eyes and long blonde hair. She wore a white collared shirt tucked into a long red skirt, with brown boots. She must have been a leader of some kind; only the leaders were allowed to dress out of uniform. She smiled as she saw us and quickly counted how many there were. "Fourteen, not bad." She said, half to herself. "Welcome to the Sky Army." She greeted. She had a cheerful voice, sounding rather excited. "My name is General Amanda Griffin, I'm the leader of the Star Division. That's science, for your information. You can looked around how you like later. Pair up with someone among you."
Ty put an arm around my shoulders and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Everyone paired? Good. This will be your roommate until one of you dies, is decommissioned, or is promoted to some form of leader; good luck with that, it's very difficult. Trust me, I speak from experience."
Ty and I exchanged glances. We both knew neither of us had any chance of becoming a leader. We just wanted to be soldiers, nothing more.
"Now, first go to your assigned quarters - which I will give you in a moment - and change into your uniforms, which will be in the dresser. Then all of you go to the training hall."
"What should we do there, miss?" A girl asked.
"Don't call me miss, call me sir or General." Amanda said. "And once you get there, just wait. It'll become pretty obvious." She smiled a little. "I'm not supposed to say this, but no matter how intimidated you are, just do as your told. Anyways, so you two there, you're room 213. You, 233. You, 221." She read off all six until she got to Ty and I last. "And you two, room 244. Yes, I memorized that. Cadets have to be able to do that." She hummed and smiled a last time. "Good luck recruits, and the training hall is that way."
She pointed to the right inside the base, and watched us expectantly. Were we supposed to move? Everyone waited nervously for someone to take the first step into the base. I glanced at Ty and shrugged, before I walked into the Sky Army base. Amanda, who had been watching closely, smiled a little and nodded at me. I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time I would see the leader of the Star Cadets.
Ty jogged up beside me as we headed to our quarters. It was small; two rooms. The first was a sort of living area with a simple couch and television. There was a stove, refrigerator, and pantry in the back, and a door leading to a bedroom. Upon walking in, we saw a bunk bed against the far wall and a dresser. It was quite an ordinary room, very dull, very boring. I would have to make it more interesting in the future.
I sighed. "Damn, why do we have to wear some stupid uniform?"
"I dunno... It's pretty boring too, ain't it?" Ty pulled the uniform out of the dresser and held it up. It was all grey and black; looked pretty dull.
I sighed again and sat down on the bottom bunk. "We're in a fit mess, aren't we..."
Ty smiled sadly. "You didn't have to follow me."
"It doesn't matter. I wasn't doing anything productive anyway." I hesitated, then I stood and pulled out a uniform of my own. "I think it's about time I made myself useful."
The uniform was rather difficult to move in and I very much detested it. But as I wore it, I sort of got used to it and we eventually found ourselves in the training hall with the six other groups. The training hall was big; and empty. It was a massive room, probably fifty meters long and at least that much high.
The ceiling was open, letting in birds. The ground was grass; soft and good for taking falls. There were refers everywhere and even a few flowers that miraculously hadn't been trampled. I would later discover those flowers were enchanted, so they couldn't be trampled in any way, shape, or form.
In the very center of the room was a large pool of water, with all types of parkour around it. Jumping parkour, ladder parkour, sprint-jump parkour, even ender-jumping. It was at least a twenty-foot drop, but recruits would fall in the water and get out to try again.
On the back left corner of the room was a rock climbing wall. It was just as tall as the room itself, and it didn't look like any of the recruits that would climb it had harnesses in sight. On the back right was a track ring, with red pavement and a whole lot of footprints. On the front right of the room was a sparring area. There were many different, ten foot by ten foot sections cut off within it, where recruits would clash with wooden swords to practice. On the front left of the room was a long distance training area. There were areas for throwing knives, throwing axes, archery, javelins, and more.
"Okay... Now what?" Ty asked.
"I guess we wait." I replied, and so we waited.
It was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I expected a few minutes, maybe twenty. But we were there long enough to watch the sun rise up into the high point in the sky, and then sink back down. We were all quite a bit hungry by sunset, when the sky grew orange and purple and the stars started to fade into veiw.
"Let's just leave! Whoever was supposed to get here obviously forgot." A boy said.
I shook my head. "No, we should stay. This is probably a test or something."
"What if we end up here overnight? Look, let's at least get some food and then come back!"
"I wouldn't advise it." I said, looking at him.
He glared at me and huffed, his jaw setting. "Who put you in charge anyway?"
"I'm not in charge." I said mildly. "Nobody ever said you had to do what I say." I shrugged. "Go on, get yourself some food if you like. But if you get in trouble, you should take my advice next time."
The boy hesitated, then he sighed and sat back down. "Who is this guy anyways..." He muttered.

"How bad is it, Amanda?"
Amanda hummed, holding up a fragment of glass in the light. "They're actually not that bad. This one kid took a leadership role. He's the one wearing sunglasses, I think you'd like him."
"I don't really like anybody." The man she was speaking to leaned his back against the lab table. The rest of the Cadets were gone from the lab, out eating dinner in the mess hall.
"You like me." Amanda pointed out.
"It's impossible not to like you, you're like a plague." The man said, almost distastefully. "Once someone gets near you, they're drawn to you. Have you invented something that makes it impossible to dislike you?"
"It's called the power of speech, Lawrence." Amanda said. "It's a wonderful gift, and one very underestimated."
The man let out a 'hmph' of agreement.
Amanda continued working on her project for a moment, then she glanced at the clock. "They've been there for six hours." She said. "If they haven't given up yet..." She sighed. "Lawrence, maybe this isn't the best idea."
"They need to learn that life in the military isn't some game. It isn't gonna be easy, and it isn't gonna be fun."
Amanda rolled her eyes. "You and your protocol..." She hummed. "You know... Lawrence, you um... You aren't getting any younger..."
The man groaned. "Not the apprentice thing again, Amanda."
"Well what happens if you get killed?" Amanda asked. "Do you really want Tom to take control of the base? Do you really?"
"I really don't, but as soon as the right kid shows up, I'll choose an apprentice." The man said. He straightened up with a huff. "I guess I'll go break them in."
"You just don't want an apprentice because you know they'll remind you of her."
The man winced visibly at the word her. But he made no response as he strode out of the lab and down the corridor.
Ty heard him coming first and looked up as he walked through the door. I, who had been sitting by the side of the parkour course boredly, looked up with one eyebrow raised. I looked the man up and down. He was maybe in his late fifties or sixties. He had black hair, peppered with greying bits. He wore a uniform customary to the leaders, only he didn't seem to like dressing out of uniform like Amanda. He wore an amulet around his neck; gold around the outside with an amethyst in the middle. He had a sword at his side and very sharp green eyes; so green they seemed almost like they weren't real. I could already tell I didn't like this guy.
"Attention." He said sharply.
None of us moved. We didn't really know what exactly he wanted us to do. He stopped walking in front of us and watched us expectantly. "ATTENTION." He snapped suddenly. Ty jumped and stood up quickly with the others, snapping to attention. I, however, remained sitting.
He shifted his piercing glare on me, and I buried whatever intimidation he wrought inside. He didn't scare me.
"Did you not hear me?" He asked.
"No, I heard you." I said. "I heard you loud and clear. To be honest, if you'd been any louder, I think I might've gone deaf."
Ty looked at me in shock. "Adam..." He said warningly.
The man glared at me. "What's your name kid?"
"Dahlburg." I said.
"What seems to be the problem, Warrant Dahlburg?" The man asked.
"I just don't think it seems very unbecoming of a leader to make his recruits wait for orders for six damn hours." I told him.
"Unbecoming of a leader?" The man locked his hands behind his back. "Well, I'll tell you what, Dahlburg, you become Commander someday. You can do it your way."
I rolled my eyes. How dull...
He noticed me and huffed. "Very well." He pulled out his sword. Several off the kids jumped, their eyes growing wide.
I just groaned. "What are you going to do, kill me?"
"Don't ask stupid questions." He stuck the sword's tip into the dirt and walked back to the rack of practice swords. He grabbed two and tossed one to me suddenly. Caught off guard, I fumbled it and dropped it. He rolled his eyes as I stood, holding it by the dull wooden blade.
"Here, step up the the front." The man instructed.
I raised an eyebrow in surprise and did as he said, taking my time. All the while, Ty watched with worry.
He held the sword up. "I'll tell you what, Dahlburg. How about me make a bet?"
I smirked. "Yeah alright. Sure."
The man hesitated. "If you disarm me, I'll give you and everyone in this room the rest of the week off."
At the doorway, a boy stood watching. As he heard this, he raised an eyebrow and stepped into the room.
"But if I disarm you... You and everyone in this room has to run laps until I saw you can stop." He cocked an eyebrow. "Have we got a deal?"
The boy at the door's eyes widened and he stepped out of the room again. I glanced beside me at Ty and the others. Ty shook his head almost imperceptibly, but I shook my head at him. He gave me a wary look, and I shrugged. I looked back at the old man.
"You're on."
I had barely finished speaking when he hit me in the side with the sword, moving faster than I expected someone of his age could, and shoved my to the side. But before I could fall, he hit me again in the back, and then kicked the back of my knee. My leg buckled and I fell to one knee with a shout. Before i could do anything, he grabbed the sword out of my hand and looked eat the other recruits.
"Get running." He ordered.
They all groaned and jogged miserably over to the track.
I started to get up, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see the very same man who just kicked my ass holding out a hand to help me up. My eyes narrowed and I stood up on my own, brushing myself off.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked frustratedly.
The man smirked and looked away. "Commander Void." He said. "And you will refer to me as sir, or I will make you run so many laps your legs fall off."
"Whatever." I rolled my eyes and turned away, walking over to the track to start running with the recruits who were know glaring daggers at me. "Sir."
The boy at the door watched as the recruits all ran until it was long past sunset, and the lanterns in the training hall were all lit. Void watched them run as well until they were all just about to pass out. Finally, he called for them to stop.
"Alright. That's enough."
As soon as he spoke, the fourteen collapsed collectively into heaps of heaving humans.
Void stared at them for a moment, before he turned and headed for the door. He stopped by the boy. "Keep the troublesome running all night." He said.
"Wh- all night?!" The boy asked incredulously.
"You heard me. Is there a problem, Cadet?"
The boy blinked. "No, sir! It's just... Yes sir." The boy sighed and walked into the hall as the recruits walked out. He grabbed my arm, pulling me back suddenly.
"Hey, what the-?!"
"Sorry, dude, Commander's orders."
I looked at him in surprise. "What?"
"Get running."
"What?!"
"I'm sorry man, but if I don't do what he says, I'll be running in your place! Now get running!"
I groaned and took off again, going slower now that that old man want watching over my shoulder. This odd boy, who wore a dark blue turtleneck and black jeans, had me running for what felt like an hour before his conscience finally got the better of him.
"Okay, knock it off, I can't stand it anymore."
I let out a gasp of relief and immediately fell to my hands and knees on the track, trying to catch my breath. My lungs were burning, my legs killing me. The temperature had lowered to about forty degrees or so in the mid-spring air, making my lungs feel like they were going to collapse.
The boy suddenly sat beside me, holding out a water bottle. "Serves you right." He said as I took it and chugged the entire thing. "You don't mess with the Commander. First of all, it's the dumbest thing you can do. Secondly, he's a mean old man and he will not hesitate in teaching you a lesson. In the future, I'd advise you'd take this as a wake up call. Commander Void is all about discipline."
I sighed as my breath started to slow to a regular pace. I was so out of shape. "Why the hell is he so mean?"
The boy chewed his lip thoughtfully, then glanced at the door as though he were afraid Void would be there, watching. He looked back at me and leaned a little closer even through we were the only ones in the Hall. "I don't know." He said finally. "But I know somebody who would."
I blinked. "Who?"
"The daytime librarian. You won't see him now, obviously, considering it's..." He checked his watch. "Two in the morning, but you could ask him tomorrow."
I nodded. "Thanks, I'll do that..." I said. "Er... Who are you exactly?"
"Oh, I'm just a Cadet. First year. Just started in the Academy in the fall."
"I couldn't care less about your rank, what's your name?"
The boy blinked. "Jason Provst."
"I'm Adam. Where you from, Jason?"
"Er..." He coughed awkwardly. "Let's just say I'm not from around here."
I chuckled. "Me neither." For a moment, he had an almost hopeful look in his eye, but then I elaborated and it disappeared. "I'm from Stillwater Heights, it's miles aware from here."
Jason smiled a little. "Yeah..." He sighed and stood up. "Alright, well... You should go get some rest."
I sighed and nodded. "You're probably right." I slowly stood up. "I guess I'll see you around."
He nodded. "Hey, if you ever need anything, just lemme know, okay? I'll be in the lab like twenty hours every day, so chances are you'll probably find me."
I smiled crookedly. "I owe you one."
He tipped his head in response before leaving the hall. I wasn't too far behind, limping ever so slightly. I got a little lost looking for my quarters in the dark; the base was bigger than I thought. It took me a half hour to find my way, and I was almost there when I heard shouting from down the hall.
I picked up the pace and looked around the corner. It was Jason, and apparently he had enemies. I would later learn that lots of Cadets didn't get along with other recruits, due to the fact they were constantly waking everyone up with their explosions and loud contraptions. I would later know a boy with a metal arm who actually liked these enemies, and would come up with fun ways to prank them and scare them away from the lab.
"Back off four eyes. If we should even call him that." A boy with blonde hair said.
Why would they even call him four eyes? He didn't have glasses. He seemed to think of this too.
"How moronic can you get?" Jason asked. "You do realize that the term four-eyes is used on people who have glasses, don't you?"
"So what d'you want us to call you?" The blonde asked. "Glowstick?"
"Do you think he'll start glowing it we snap him?" His brunet companion asked.
The blonde smirked. "Maybe."
Jason stared at them with an emotionless expression, but his bright blue eyes started to glow softly; almost like a glowstick.
I ran out from around the corner. "Hey, leave him alone! What the hell is wrong with you people?!"
The two looked at my in surprise. "Why don't you just mind your damn business sunglasses!" The blonde snapped.
I glared at him. "Look, how about you just let him go? It's late, just go to bed."
They exchanged glances, both knowing they wanted to do something entertaining. I knew how bullies thought. After all, my brother was one of them. I sighed. "I'll tell you what." Their attention returned to me. "If you let him go, I'll..." I looked around, and noticed the door to the air hanger. Apparently we were on the top floor. I looked at them again. "I'll steal a biplane."
Jason's eyes widened and they shone brighter. "Adam, don't!"
"Aww c'mon Jason my middle name is Sky." I smirked at him encouragingly, although I really had no idea whatsoever of how to fly a plane.
"I seriously doubt that!" Jason said, rolling his eyes
The boys just laughed. "I like it!"
"Yeah, c'mon, Sky Boy! Let's see you fly!"
I sighed and ran through the door. It was a long room, with a runway. There were planes lining the sides; all to seat two or three people. I picked a red biplane a few meters long and climbed into the pilot's seat using the wing. I pushed my sunglasses up onto the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath. I'd played a plane simulator game with my brother once. I mean, we both crashed and died over a dozen times, but... I knew where the ignition was. The plane's engine rumbled on, and after pushing a few more buttons, it started rumbling.
I sighed. "We'll call it even, then Jason, right?" I called out to him.
"Sure!" Came his rather sarcastic reply.
I smirked and pulled the brake back, and the plane started slowly forward. "I am going to die." I said confidently.