After school let out that day, Zara Vals waited on the outer ledge of the classroom. She held her board across her lap, dangling her legs off the edge of the elevated supernatant structure. Successive layers of the massive classrooms were stacked on top of each other high up into the air, one level for each grade.

[https://i.imgur.com/JXQPDdG.jpg]

Two girls flew by on their boards, glancing her way.

"Isn't that Zara," she overheard one girl say to the other. Isn't she the one who got-"

They both laughed at something she couldn't hear.

Others pointed at her also but were too far away for her to make out their taunts. She could still feel the whipping from the teacher. It burned in her mind, reminding her of the lesson.

[https://i.imgur.com/0g86u2B.gif]

Many of her mates gathered into groups after school, roaming through the air on athletic shoes or boards. Younger kids played tag; older ones put together soccer matches. Maybe they venerated Xavier and Samara, or perhaps they gossiped about Zara.

After the girls, Axel swept by on his board, but this time he ignored her. He didn't want anything to do with her now. It didn't matter much, though, because she spotted Finn coming her way.

Finn moved wondrously on a board as if he danced to the waves of the wind. When he sped by, he encouraged her with a casual wave. She slid off the ledge and jammed her own board under her feet, catching a gust and chasing after him.

She followed him all over downtown Atraville. They wove in and out of the tall spires and supernatant structures of all shapes and sizes, whipped around on gentle gusts of the wind—riding high, dipping low.

Axion scheduled the weather for Atraville as it did for all cities. The people expected temperate and sunny days unless it was a scheduled day of rain, but those were planned well in advance, with everyone given fair warning. The wind, likewise, was carefully controlled due to the gossamer nature of floating supernatant structures. Still, temperature variations around tall buildings created the perfect amount of wind for riding a board.

Riding a board required a good deal of work from her legs, especially with any kind of speed. She couldn't keep up his pace for long. "Finn?" She strained her voice against the wind. "Finn, I have to stop."

He pulled up beneath the port of a tall bank building and landed on a ledge. She sat beside him, their legs dangling over the edge, the ground far beneath them. The steeples of Atraville rose all around them. Roving cars jumped from one place to the next while a long band of trucks moved in single file beneath soft and impotent clouds.

"You've got more protons than me." His smile filled her with tremendous heat, like bombs going off in her chest. "You're my hero. Fake oversized insect? I should be sitting under your feet."

They talked about the teacher, about the school, and about some of the other students, especially Xavier and Samara. Their shoulders touched. Electricity flowed from his body, a delicious feeling. The longer she spent with him the more she liked him, the way his unruly hair flopped about his head and the intensity of his gaze. His dynamism took her breath away.

"You don't get tired," she said. "I couldn't keep up with you on your board. You didn't slow down once. And you won the game so easily. During class, you knew all the answers, but I never see you studying. Is it some drug? Do you have an implant? What's the brand?"

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"Come and see." He slipped off the edge, landed on his board, and soared off into the horizon.

Once again, she tried to keep up with him. The tall spires of the downtown gave way to flat and gray industrial buildings with no windows or doors. A steady stream of trucks roared overhead, going back and forth. Where was he taking her? She wanted to stop. She needed to rest. She wanted to turn back, but she had to know. She couldn't give up now, not while she rode boards with Finn.

He flew beyond the industrial area and into a place strewn with broken concrete, rocks, and rubble. Pieces of bridges and highways still stood in places, back in ancient times before cars could fly. Weeds grew through cracked concrete lots, rusted parts and pieces heaped into piles of junk that reached above trees.

There were rows of houses with their roofs long collapsed and covered with various sorts of greenery, some with trees growing up through the middle of them. An ancient vessel lay on the ground, a long, filthy, and cylindrical body, large stiff wings sticking out on either side. He circled a large dome made of dirty-white concrete, pieces of its shell cracked or missing in many places.

[https://i.imgur.com/2siQIbL.gif]

"Where are you taking me?" she yelled at him. "There's nothing here."

He smiled, his rangy figure landing beside the dome. The place was massive, much larger than it seemed up in the air, and crappier too. Large sections of it crumbling and broken. It was a wonder any part of it still stood.

He slid off his board, tethered it to a nearby stump to keep it from flying away, and announced himself to the door. He walked so smoothly, more like flowing water than a boy. After the door rumbled, rolling upwards, he disappeared into the entrance.

"Finn? Where are you going?"

"C'mon." One arm waved back to her from inside.

"I don't want to go in there." But she did. She tied her board to the same stump as Finn and entered after him. She couldn't let go of him. She was addicted already. She couldn't let him out of her sight.

The inside of the dome appeared worse than the outside. Trash and filth covered everything, all over the floor, with mounds of it piled haphazardly everywhere. She glimpsed dirty and oily machinery in a bad state of repair. She ducked around pipes running up and down, back and forth. The pipes were covered with grime, some broken, liquids seeping out in various places. Massive robots pushed piles of the trash into injection tubes spaced evenly about the sphere. Other robots sifted the material. Five-legged spiders with pincers pulled things out and placed them in various piles.

The center of the place opened up to a vast underground abyss going down into the earth. When she dared to peek over the edge, her eyes were seared by a massive ball of fire, as if a piece from the sun had been captured and stuffed underground.

They stood around the perimeter of the abyss protected by thick transparent aluminum like a sphere half-buried in the earth. There were other people besides themselves scattered around the perimeter of the abyss.

Finn took her hand. "Do you feel it?"

"Yeah."

As soon as she entered, she experienced the jolt, as if her stomach had caught fire. The flame spreading through her body. It didn't burn her up. Instead, her spirits soared, her mind raced, and her muscles strengthened. The energy welled up in her until she thought she would burst open. Her entire being roared. She felt so good, she felt so right, as if every molecule in her body was meant for this. She belonged here and she never wanted to leave.

She didn't need to ask because she already knew. She understood how he aced the game, how he moved so effortlessly, why he never fatigued, how he did everything so well. With this energy, she could do anything too.

This was dark energy. Finn was a darky. And now she was one too.