Jordan decided to cease his prying and instead, accessed his inventory. With a thought, the information glitched to life on the elevator's surface. Jordan's spear and helmet represented themselves as miniaturized renditions of themselves, followed by short text detailing their dimensions, weight, location and a summarization of their design.

Jordan paused for a moment to let his mind dream about the things that'd one day fill his storage space deep in the skin of the habitat. And was cut short the harsh light suddenly cutting through the elevator's glass.

After summoning the spear to a temporary unit near their destination, Jordan joined Gelos' wandering eye across the descending plains of the D-Rankers' realm. Unlike the lower levels, any signs of civilization were far from sight. No skylines nor people fell under their watchful gaze for the duration of their ascent. Only endlessly winding roads that snaked through forests of young evergreen and oak trees.

Jordan felt the draining force of disappointment swell over him while they rose once again through the ceiling in silence. The elevator pitched into its dull glow the moment the metal panels shrouded around them. Casting shadows that danced across the cabin, mirroring the two shifting their weight and leaning against the glass.

His body quickly felt revitalized as they were erupted from the inner surface. Flooding the elevator with harsh light. Looking around, Jordan could once again see the other five transport veins connected to the titanous support column. Each ribbed with countless elevator shafts that ran their cabins towards and away from the thick, glowing band of metal supports that ran the length of the habitat.

Below, bordering the spire, were two absurdly wide motorways ran parallel to each other. Of which Jordan followed with his eyes. Under the axis, then to the left, through a stony forest towards a large lake before taking a wide berth around it like a stream of hydrophobic fluid. Curving up and around the surface, towards the rooftops and street grids of a city, ahead and to the left of from where Jordan looked in their little elevator.

They rose higher and higher. Above the film of clouds until the roads below them were but a thick wire across the land. With each moment that passed, the centripetal force keeping their bodies pinned to the inner surface of the habitat waned. As the spire overhead loomed to an ever increasing size, the cart began to slowed. And eventually rocked to a hissing halt. Sending Jordan on an ever so slow drift towards the ceiling.

The design standardized within the Powers for the larger Mckendree cylinders called for multiple, segmented modules within the axis. Each interconnected, yet segregated and dedicated for a specific function. The first module held the transportation, industrial and logistics infrastructure that allowed the residents to live with an abundance of manufactured products, and that allowed them free reign across the habitat. The storage facilities, manufacturing depots and the elevator-like system, on which Jordan and Gelos ascended.

The second unit's function was split between the dozens of leviathan-sized panels that strung the axis; providing the inner surface with its heat and day-night cycle. Along with the mountainous climate control systems installed in a repeating order throughout the structure. Humidifiers, dehumidifiers, air scrubbers, electrolyzers, filters and fans. All employed and maintained continuously, in order to influence the inner surface with its weather patterns.

For the citizenry were pressurized modules that repeated along the length of the axis. With the exception of a dozen or so units interspersed throughout, they were segregated by rank. Much like everything else around Jupiter.

With the exception of its moons.

Jordan pushed himself away from the ceiling whilst engaging his mag-boots. Then quickly stepped out of the elevator and into an T-junction. He paused to peer down the axis to his sides, to contemplate riding the rails to the end of the habitat. To window shop the various modules to be found for the different ranks.

After the clacking of Gelos' boots ceased behind him, he shrugged it off for later. Continued on into the short alleyway, and further into an airlock on the right side of the wall.

The sounds within the chamber quickly shifted from the soft hisses of air exchanging, to the harsh whooshes of hydraulics. Then, to the steady, droning cacophony to human existence, once they were granted access. Footsteps, shouts and a blend of voices fell into the chamber at a deafening rate. Along with a soft light that mimicked twilight, spread from corners and cross-shaped lamp posts positioned in various orientations to glow over the ocean of bodies.

[Arrived At Destination: The Void City of Talos]

[November 327th, G.P.Y. 2. Choece, Ganymede. 1057. UGT.]

[Merit: -34]

As if there were some unspoken agreement, the two slowed their pace to a crawl as they left the airlock. Eyes wandering around the new environment like a telescope searching for photons.

Jordan slowly magnified his vision as his eyes trailed ahead. Past the countless Galilean's clacking away or drifting over the gray paneled walkways in seemingly random directions. He craned his neck overhead, where the sight was mirrored on what was the ceiling from his perspective. Hair and scalps wandering or clustered around small shrubs and patches of grass. Extending to the far side of the module some five hundred meters away. To either side of Jordan, the sight was replicated again on the far walls. Forming a cross section of heads that pointed to the center of the octagonal capsule. Roaming adjacent to the sparse portholes and trap doors leading into the various establishments.

Once his eyes were satiated, Jordan nudged Gelos before highlighting the location in augmented reality. The porthole illuminated at once in a radiant glow. Past the drifting and helplessly scrambling bodies in the center space, above and to the left of their location. Next to the ceilings walkway, about sixty meters away.

Before he squatted to jump, Jordan noticed a trio of young E-Rankers perched on a lightpost in the line of sight to their destination. Throwing them looks that ranged between disgust, confusion and anger. Even as they launched from the walkway and drifted past. Jordan vacantly returned their gazes in turn. Committing their faces to his digital memory.

He had no intention of interacting with them. Be it socializing, befriending or fighting. Still, having the ocular ability to never forget a face was something Jordan decided to make full use of.

Almost halfway to the other side, Jordan could no longer ignore Gelos looking over his shoulder for was was now the third time. On closer inspection, his skin was a small shade paler. Moist with sweat. His fists would unclench slightly after finish his short scan. Then quickly contract again just before the next glance.

"Relax, would you?" Jordan chuckled in his most gentle, reassuring tone. "Bullying people weaker than you is not only dishonorable, but it requires no skill. No effort." He snorted out another chuckled. Turned to him with a friendly grin. "Picking on us would only put them in the same situation. Or, someone with higher rank will probably bully the bully."

After Jordan's words, Gelos physically relaxed by a degree. While his hands were unclenched and the life seemed to return to his skin, he was still cautious about his surroundings. Looking at anyone who became aware of their presence with a watchful eye. Up until the moment he eased into the porthole.

Jordan followed a second later. Pulling himself in, feet first, he swung his legs around to the wall adjacent to the porthole, where his mag-boots slapped loudly against the surface.

"Welcome to the Talos Community Training Center." A mechanical voice suddenly announced.

Gathering his bearings, Jordan found himself in an egg-shaped foyer that, along with a cohort of individuals sizing them up, boasted an assortment of digital and augmented paintings that stretched along the curved wall space end-to-end. Gelos was already drifting on ahead of him. Past the small crowd and into a solitary corridor ahead. Riddled along each face were large trap doors and consoles that cheekily highlighted their status upon approach.

After drifting inside the nearest capsule after Gelos and taking a look around the place. A loud pop echoed through the room.

Turning about, Jordan saw Gelos recovering from a clap and assuming his lectors stance; albeit while slowly cartwheeling in the center space. Feet poised together with his index finger held before his face, poised up high.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Alright!" He beamed excitedly while clapping again. "What's your longest time on the float?"

"Few hours, I guess." Jordan shrugged. "Why?"

Gelos gave himself a warm chuckle as his body rotated his face out of view. "Transit's too long for us to come and go everyday. So, we stay here until we build up enough Merit to use some proper transport. I'm thinking a week, at most."

'A week!?' Jordan winced as he took a glance at the pack bouncing around on Gelos' back. While it visibly contained more than Jordan's own, he doubted Gelos had enough to sustain himself for a week. Especially after the mental memories of Gelos gorging his face on two dinners flashed in his mind. 'I give it two days, tops.' Jordan snorted to himself.

"First, comes training." Gelos continued after affirming the timeframe with himself. By now he had drifted to the far wall and pushed himself back. He was approaching Jordan, pointing towards his arms with his lecturing finger and speaking in a warm monotone. "Now tune your boots to Ganymede's pull."

"Remember our lessons from yesterday?" He asked once finished.

"It's elementary physics, Gelos." Jordan rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh. "Get to the point."

"Those arms of yours have a lot of mass," he said, as if following along a script. "A lot more so than natural ones, no matter what they're made of. So, depending on how fast you can accelerate your fists, your punches can produce. A. Lot. Of force. However, in an environment with weak gravity, that mass is a double-edged sword. Punch too hard, and your arms will be swinging you instead. And it only gets worse when weapons are involved. Most of the time, anyway." He chuckled softly while shrugging with his hands. "I'll teach you how dodge with minimal movements, which requires reading your opponent. And how to use your opponent's momentum against them; your own for yourself. When to stick close to the ground and when to abandon it. How to move light, stay low, and strike fast. Like that one boxer from Luna said: Fly like a drone, sting like a railgun."

Without a word, Gelos activated his mag-boots and held his foot out as he approached. After gaining his footing, he backed away from Jordan and gestured for the former to attack. While their boots were tuned to match Ganymede's attraction to their bodies, allowing their bodies to be thrown from the surface with enough force, the tech was limited in the sense that the ferrous soles held a meagerly limited range.

Jordan cautiously stepped towards him and threw out a powerless jab. As if his life were suddenly threatened, Gelos lunged forward towards Jordan's feet. Before Jordan could react to the warm claws around his ankles, he saw Gelos' back tilt upwards, followed by the heels of his boots rising overhead to slam into his shoulders and hook around his neck.

With Jordan's head locked in a pair of musty ankles, he began to topple backwards. Gelos' suddenly legs tightened. Yanked Jordan's body forward just a degree, while Gelos' crunched up to almost stand on his shoulders. Sending them both tumbling into a backflip from the added rotational force.

Whilst crouching on Jordan's shoulders, Gelos formed knives with his hands and jabbed the combined fingertips into the crook of Jordan's neck and jaw. He then clenched his ankles tighter as he pushed off from Jordan's shoulders with his legs, reached out for the floor with his arms, and tucked his body violently while releasing his grip.

The bleached walls coiled and tumbled in Jordan's line of sight before a hammer seemed to conjure from thin air and slam into his side. After two more such impacts, Jordan felt his back sliding against the curved walls. And Gelos' wide grin receding away from him.

Cursing under his breath, Jordan grasped at the walls with his hands until the magnets took hold and slid him to a halt. Once he finally righted himself, he approached Gelos again with half a mind to give retribution. But instead only scoffed and put forth the effort to not pout. "Showoff."

After the demonstration, Gelos instructed Jordan on striking under low gravity conditions. As Gelos mentioned, powerful swings like hooks and haymakers caused him to either drift laterally, spin or bounce in place. While swift jabs and uppercuts allowed him to remain relatively still or momentarily cement his feet to the ground, allowing him to follow up with additional strikes.

Jordan felt a slight sense of dismay at the lack of power behind the punches he was relegated to. He failed in an attempt to console himself with the fact that the hardness of his hands would deal enough damage on their own. And resolved to practice the form until even those strikes were something to be feared.

After Gelos' solitary lunch, the training continued until shortly after nightfall. Jordan emerged from the community center mentally exhausted, yet dry as a bone and still physically fit to participate in a Sun Run.

The disparity between life with and without respirocytes was something he'd never adapt to. He feared.

After roaming through the floating city of Talos, the weary Galilean and his cheeky Martian companion stopped before a trapdoor aptly labeled: No-Smell Hotel.

Like the community center, the establishment was constructed for the Merit-less such as them. After pulling themselves into yet another egg-shaped foyer, they were guided into one of three corridors, where a wall of honeycomb capsules stat for them to take residence in.

Despite height and orientation making no difference, the two chose the capsules along the upper left corner, and tucked themselves in feet first. It was spacious enough for Jordan to fully extend his arms out before him. But was otherwise bare of anything save a light and small fan to prevent C02 from accumulating around their heads.

After rough first nights sleep on the float, Jordan continued his training by putting together strings of jabs and uppercuts. Eventually working his way around to throwing kicks into the mix by lunchtime.

After spending five minutes watching Gelos stuff himself, Jordan grew bored and decided to explore the full functionality of his eyes.

He was more than knowledgeable of their standard functionalities. In addition to the ocular abilities afforded: The macro and micro zooming capabilities, infrared and ultraviolet filters, the increased functionality from being synchronized to his other hardware. The ocular scanner also served as the centerpiece of his communications system. And acted as a personal server, containing hundreds of petabytes of onboard data storage housed.

What interested Jordan more, at this point, was the software installed within. Besides the Merit and Campaign programs, there were hundreds more that were dedicated to arts, cooking, construction, entertainment and even fighting. Each organized by category under a separate tab accessible by thought.

Jordan scrolled through the list of applications under the fighting tab until he found what he was looking for.

[Shadow Soldier: Analyze an entity and animate their combat prowess as an AR Shadow Soldier.]

After a short download, Jordan uploaded his campaign against the knight to the software. Then took the time to search for any other campaigns involving spears or Saturnian Knights. After twenty minutes and fourteen data points, Jordan felt his belly bubbling with excitement and hopped up to continue training.

Much to his dismay, Gelos halted him, insisting that he wanted to spend the remainder of the day sparring. Which Jordan felt safe in mistaking as bullying.

As Gelos spent the entire evening without giving a single pointers.

Jordan proceeded to practice striking on the morning of the third day. Focusing more on the legs, which proved to be much more difficult compared to punching. Kicking from low-to-high would ground his feet like with uppercuts. Though, without a target, he only hopped in place and drifted lazily above the surface. Any kicks angled from the side made him drift laterally, as did hooks. He surmised that he could still work out a decent impact. Which, with a target, would cause him to bounce backwards after the impact.

The areal kicks used in his fighting style that involved lateral spins worked almost flawlessly. After working out the ratio of strength to launch speed, Jordan felt comfortable bringing his legs back into the mix. Which eased a weight off his chest he hadn't known was there. Still, without a target, Jordan was left spinning like a top from his aerial maneuvers. By lunch, he concluded that his only hope for striking with his lower body was getting lucky with kicks from the air, or getting in a knee from the clench.

After another solitary lunch, Gelos lounged about on the float. Lazily snacking away while Jordan finally started up his new software.

After a short greeting, a replica of the knight made of a mass of black smoke, glitched into being a few meters before Jordan.

Without warning, the shadow crouched low before pouncing forward. Spear extended.

Jordan subdued his panic and allowed the shadow knight to continue on its assault. Standing still as tree as the digital spear arced through the air and implanted into Jordan's chest.

His heart pulsed in fear as he looked down and saw himself impaled once again. However, instead of the numbing pain and warm fluid, he only felt his heart. Battering away inside his ribs with enough intensity to powderize them to dust.

The shadow knight faded out of existence and quickly reformed in its original place.

Jordan felt his lips curling up into a wide grin as he settled into his stance. Excitement bubbling away in his artificial stomach. The shadow knight was effectively fourteen people; fourteen spear bearers, including a knight, melded into one. An opponent he intended to learn everything he could from.

'Let's make this count.'

***

"A week was too ambitious." Gelos poked his head of his capsule with an exasperated groan. "I didn't pack enough food."

"Or, you did." Jordan laughed from the depths of his artificial bowels. "You just lounged around eating all day, instead of training."

Gelos grinned mischievously. Reducing his eyes to gray, devilish slits. "The master shouldn't work as hard as the student."

"Regardless." Jordan rolled his eyes and sighed. "You'll be better prepared next time."

"And you!" Gelos scoffed as he pulled a single hand from his capsule. To point at Jordan in an accusatory manner. "Must be nice. To barely have to eat."

"It's not at all that great" Jordan snorted. "I love food more than people, honestly. Now, I'm afraid that I'll get fat if I eat everyday. Or explode from energy overload."

"What's it like?" Gelos turned to him. "Having an enhanced digestive system?"

"It's just." Jordan shrugged hesitantly as he turned away in search for a proverbial answer written on the wall. "I haven't felt hunger in days. And I haven't had it long enough to have gone hungry. So."

"Hmm." Gelos nodded to himself. "I wonder if the knight has the same type of system."

"Anyway." Jordan turned back to him with a renewed expression. "We're leaving tomorrow?"

Gelos smiled wide and shook his head. "Tomorrow, we do a field test. We'll see if we can push some buttons. Earn ourselves some points."

"Push some buttons." Jordan snorted out another laugh. "You mean fuck with people? Troll them. Piss them off until they wanna fight us? That's your plan."

"Ahahaha!" Gelos let out a dumb sounding laugh as he shrugged with his hands. "If that's how you rationalize it. Whatever makes the boat float."