I flushed red with embarrassment when I was past him as I felt my anger cool. It was always like this when I had an outburst and let my mouth run away with itself. I typically came out of the experience feeling like I was an ungrateful idiot that was complaining about being helped by a ‘Super.’

My goodness, he had stopped me from face-planting. I should be grateful. However, what made me burn with annoyance was that it was all for his precious points. Never an ounce of sincerity in his actions or any look of … genuine ’interest’ as I’m only a ‘citizen’ to them.

I checked around the vast vaulted station with its glowing white walls that gave off natural light to the hallway. All around the walls were statues of Supers past and present in heroic poses. It looked as if they were guarding the hall against who knows what.

From the second track that led into the hall, I heard a whooshing sound as a bullet train suddenly appeared out of now where. I knew this was only an illusion as the station inertial dampers had enabled the train to break in a fraction of a second from well past the speed of sound to zero velocity.

With my hair relaxing from the activation of the dampeners, I looked with interest to see the new arrivals. A flash of red and blue light indicated that the safety field was deactivated. The solid transparent doors along the train rolled open. This revealed a whole menagerie of people eagerly clamoring to exit the train from the tens of doors all along the platform.

My first reaction was to sigh deeply as I had forgotten that it was that time of year with all that was going on with my brother leaving.

Looking at the horde of well-dressed ‘Super Cadets’ with excited expressions plastered across their faces, I wondered how many family fortunes were being drained for this glorious start of their super training. They all were in the smartly tailored starting super suits that were the uniform for first-year cadets of the two academies.

Chatting excitedly, I saw groups of glamorous body sculptured, young-looking people exit the train with overconfident strides as if they were ready to take on the world. Which I guess was what they were here for.

With a slight stumble to my steps, I paused for a few moments as I wanted to see some of the latest fashions in body sculpting from all across the federation. Before they became fully initiated supers with their godlike bodies, I had to take this opportunity to do some people-watching. It had always been my ambition to leave this city in the stars and just be with the everyday citizens of the federation. However, sadly, this was not to be as my brother had won – in my opinion. Though these rich people would not represent a cross-section of society, the very top of what was available to people with money to burn, watching this group would feed my curiosity.

With interest that was hidden by my indirect look, I thought as I examined the crowd as they began the long walk around the platform:

Thank goodness the classical body looks are back this year. Last year's look was way too experimental for my conservative tastes. I remember feeling horrified at the sight of distorted body parts that looked like they belonged in an exaggerated cartoon rather than on real people. It was a welcome change to see the new crop of academy initiates looking more like the rest of us. Thank goodness, at least their bodies quickly changed when they were initiated into the academies. This year they will not be such an eyesore for the first day before entering into the academies.

Like a frozen deer, I was still standing, staring as the group walked toward me with their luggage floating behind them like packs of obedient dogs. In my frozen state, the first group reached me rather quickly. One of the glamorous-looking women with a well-toned body was in front of the others and looked at me with a mischievous smile. I looked around to see who she was smiling at, and to my embarrassment, I saw that I was the only one in her focus.

I let out an audible groan as I could have rehearsed the scene that was about to take place.

These rich … could be so predictable.

With an extravagant wave of her arm, she gestured to me with a benevolent expression as if she was doing me, a mere citizen, a great favor. Loud enough for all to hear, she spoke in, “Don’t worry, citizen, I’m in a hurry. My evil plans will have to wait another time.”

I rolled my eyes as this game was played out by the ‘super’ rookies approaching me. With gritted teeth, I was about to answer as it would only get worse if I didn’t nip it in the bud. However, before I could speak, one of the male candidates declared, “Be of good cheer, citizen, I will protect you from any evil, nefarious plans … this woman hatches.”

When he had finished his declaration, he looked at the other candidates around him and said as if I didn’t exist, “How exciting to have my first superhero action just when we got off the train.”

By now, he was just passing me, and he condescended to address me again with flowery language, “Oh citizen, remember this day as you have met one of the great up-and-coming superheroes.”

The people around him all sniggered and cheered in equal amounts at his declaration's absurdity and grandstanding nature.

I quickly moved out of the stream of foot traffic as I wanted no repeat performances of this same old routine. While I walked quickly to hide beside a striking statue in an alcove, I watched the rookie candidates pass in relative peace.

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My sure guess was that the first woman that spoke to me was heading to the supervillain academy while the man was off to the superhero academy at the top of the city. I shouldn't blame them as they only acted out their stupid immature fantasies, which they were all excited about. The world was now at their feet as they had become the elites of the elite. With the money their families had paid to get them to this city in the stars, they were already the cream of the wealthy in the federation. I knew that many of them would have competed with hundreds of family members to get this opportunity to be raised to a ‘Super.’ Each and every one of them would feel as if they were the center of the universe, and now, with the ‘powers’ bestowed upon them by being in this city, this feeling would be exasperated tenfold.

I peered at them passing by as they chatted to each other with raised voices and wondered which of them would have the money to invest in their powers and truly become the top supers. One thing that was sure about how this city worked was that the authorities would make them pay for every ounce of power they gained. Each of the jubilant young people would drain vast fortunes as they pumped their money into the cost of ‘supering up.’

Stamping my feet with impatience for the line of uniformly dressed candidates to pass, I looked at my hand screen and saw that my list of tasks was getting larger.

I thought nothing will happen while I’m stuck here. However, I’m not going to push by all of the raw recruits to save some time. The task list will have to get longer. It's not like I’ll ever finish it anyway, especially with my brother gone. That’s life ….

When I put down my hand, and the screen faded as the back of my hand returned to its normal skin tones, I saw that the coast was clear. With a quick scan of my surroundings, as I checked for any lurking want-to-be supers, I walked briskly toward the vast exit of the train terminal.

My sensible shoes made a clipping noise on the marble-like surface of the floor in the long hallway that led to the exit. Passing several groups of chatting people going in and out of the train terminal, I would have to pass through several large security shields that were the final barrier to the internal space of the city.

As I approached each barrier, I couldn't help but think about the strange and complex world of quantum mechanics. It was as if these barriers were somehow connected to the very fabric of spacetime, bending and warping it to create a localized field of resistance that only allowed certain particles to pass through. In fact, it reminded me of Einstein's field equations, which describe how the presence of matter and energy can warp the curvature of spacetime. The blue blocks of viscous air felt like a manifestation of this curvature, creating a localized distortion that we had to push against in order to pass through.

And if anything were to happen, if the city needed to be isolated for some reason, I could only imagine what kind of energy and force would be required to break these barriers, effectively sealing off the entire city from the rest of the federation.

Once past the final safeguard, I exited the large open plaza in front of the train terminal. This allowed me a view of the glorious and unique internal space of the city. I saw the super candidates had all stopped on the grand ramp leading into the building behind me. Like everybody that saw the wonders of the ‘City in the Stars’ for the first time, they stood around with open mouths. Each of them was looking and pointing as they talked to each other about the vast grand panoramic magnificent vista in front of them.

For a moment, I stopped and tried to see the scene through their eyes. The thick blue shield surrounding the city created an eerie glow, illuminating the dark void of space with a singular sun in the distance. I stood on the edge of the city's circumference, allowing me to observe the entire twenty-mile diameter of the flat-shaped spheroid city. The view was partially obstructed by the hovering habitats and buildings, which appeared like floating islands from a distance.

The smaller floating islands had tubular structures that interlocked them in place, while the grander ones were a sight to behold. These floating habitats had hundreds of levels filled with impressive skyscrapers and lush green parks. The tall spires of the buildings appeared like quilts fanning out from a porcupine covering the top of the floating habitats, while the bottom of the vast islands had buildings hanging off them, providing much-needed accommodation for the city's vast population.

The sheer scale of the floating islands was breathtaking, and I guess that she couldn't help but marvel at the intricate interconnecting structure that held them all together. The whole array was like an open network of buildings and interconnecting tubes within the vast spheroid, with the blue shields hovering in space, providing a sense of security and protection for the bustling metropolis. It was an awe-inspiring sight that made me feel lucky to be a part of such a magnificent creation.

The girl who had commented early about her ‘evil plans was looking back over her shoulder. I thought - for a moment - she was looking at me at first. However, her eyes were not focused on me but far away. Glancing behind me, I saw what she was gaping at. She was open mouth while staring at the superstructure that filled her field of view. Behind the train station’s building was a curved wall that went up and around the rear quarter of the city. In this structure were the city's utilities' primary power plants. Its curved wall was potted with hanger bays where floating supply trains traveled in and out as they flew around the city. The generators were linked to matter manipulators that produced all the commodities for the self-contained city in the stars. In addition, there were large spaces used for hydroponics to feed the city’s population.

I heard her say loudly as she pointed to glowing yellow wavey lines in the endless space beyond the city shield shell, “What is that?”

One of the super cadets told her in a supercilious tone as he instructed her, “Those, my dear lady, is the reason why we are here.”

I rolled my eyes as he started to give a detailed explanation of how the wavey fields of energy gathered a particular spectrum of strange radiation from the star. I knew more than he did that the yellow plains of energy that extended into the space around the city were an energy trap that absorbed the radiation we called ‘superiorum.’ Then sent, it into the vast banks of subspace capacitors for city usage.

All of this is to change the human body into more than our ancestors ever thought was possible.

As if on cue, I was reminded of the power of the ‘supers’ as one of the flying idiots flashed over the top of the platform as if he was a burning torch. This got a clap of applause from the gaping cadets. With some of them openly declaring they wished for the elementary fire power.

Shaking my head, wondering how pretentious the supers could be, I moved away from the stairs as I knew that this super was just showing off to the new batch of cadets.

Typical was my only thought.