A few days had passed since the rebels left the HQ in their armored truck equipped with the latest stealth technology this world had to offer, Ethan made progress with the weapons while the rebels had been training in the simulation room with their new electromagnetic shoes. Ethan took a ten-minute break to reset his focus so he used that time to watch the rebels train as he leaned on the wall with his arms folded. 

Ethan recalled what had happened the last few days, So the Colonel told me that we had long past the halfway point to the Mavis Empire and should arrive in two days. We’ll be arriving a day early than planned but that’s because the Colossal we brought along will require more time to get to our destination. Now the rebels have been progressing nicely with their mobility training in their electromagnetic shoes. The shoes were completed 3 days ago which has allowed the rebels to do training in them since then. 

Kunoichi and Ninja were hovering around and balancing with ease in the shoes, Those two have been making good progress with the training, and the energetic duo has mastered the basic mobility of the shoes. They seem to be getting the hang of the intermediate mobility, I’ll have them move on to advanced mobility soon.

The Colonel & Flash were still getting used to hovering in the air and were trying to keep their balance. They’ve made some progress at least, they are now able to hover in the air without falling over. I should be able to move them to intermediate mobility soon. 

Chemic had just crashed to the floor causing a commotion in the room as everyone rushed to her, Chemic is taking longer than the others to grasp the training but that’s not surprising as this may not be her forte.

“Are you ok, that’s the eleventh time you’ve crashed?” Bradley asked worriedly.

I’ll never forget how this man decided at the last moment to join this mission, he probably thought he would be cool if he showed up as we were about to leave the HQ.

Chemic got up and kept trying, At least she is persistent and resilient, plus she keeps Bradley in check when he goes off on his temper episodes. Hopefully, she will be able to master intermediate mobility before the battles begin. Bradley on the other hand is a lost cause, the guy still hasn’t gotten over his fear of heights, but it’s fine, he’ll get over it in battle. Kunoichi swiftly hovered over to Ethan, “What do you think, am I as good as you yet?” 

Not even close. “You getting there, but you’ll need to master the advanced mobility level to even consider that,” Ethan told her. 

“Aw really, and here I thought I was on par with you.”

“Keep practicing and you’ll get close enough to learn the final important lesson about this training. However, since you’re ahead of everyone, could you help me with an experiment?” Ethan asked.

“Oh, an experiment? Hold up, is it those bad ones where anything can happen like I turn into a mutant pig or something?” Kunoichi said as her thoughts escalated.

“What, no. Although I don’t know how your body will react to the experiment,” Ethan said leaving Kunoichi even more uncertain and anxious about the experiment.

“Well, that’s reassuring. Can you promise that I won’t become a mutant pig?”

“Yes, this experiment shouldn’t affect your cells in any negative way. Unless you’re allergic to the elements in the liquid.”

“From what I know so far, I’m not allergic to anything.”

“Then you should have nothing to worry about. Follow me,” Ethan said as he walked towards the elevator. They both entered the elevator and ascended to the laboratory. When they got to the lab, Ethan made his way to his medicine fridge while Kunoichi found Tony on the couch still. 

“Why has Tony been sleeping for so long, he has been like this since we got here this morning?” Kunoichi asked.

Ethan opened the fridge and took a cold syringe that contained neon green liquid, “I sent him on a cyber mission, he should be back soon. Please take a seat Kunoichi.”

Kunoichi sat down on a table while Ethan removed the small needle from the syringe, “Do you wanna know my real name?” 

“…Sure.”

She gestured for him to come closer and whispered in his ear, “It’s Yuna.”

The name tickled Ethan’s ear and caused a chill to spread on his neck, “Yuna, that sounds like a beautiful name, what does it mean?”

“My mom told me it meant gentleness and kindness while my dad said that it meant that was outstanding and superior to others. He stood by that as he made me practice many arts to prove my superiority to my peers.”

“The name suits you well. You’ve been nothing but kind and gentle to me since I met you.”

Yuna timidly smiled, “Oh, thank you… you can call me that if you want.”

“…Maybe after the war, I’ll call you by your real name, but since we’re on a mission, I’ll keep calling you Kunoichi.”

“Sure no prob, I’ll do the same… so what does your name mean?”

“Ethan is a second name my dad gave me, he loved it so much that he would call me that when my mother wasn’t around. It means strong and enduring, he also stood by it like your dad stood by your name’s meaning. He trained me to become the best version of myself and because of that I’ve been able to overcome so many tragedies in my life.”

“Wow, you’re name suits you better than mine does. Although what is your first name since you say Ethan is your second name?” Kunoichi asked.

Ethan showed hesitance in saying the name, “That name died along with my family so I no longer use it.”

“Aw come on, at least tell me what it was?”

“…I’ll tell you when all of this is done.”

“That’s not fair, there’s no guarantee I’ll even make it through this battle.”

“Consider it as motivation to survive.”

“Hmph… fine, I guess Ethan will be good enough for now,” Kunoichi pouted.

Ethan chuckled then shook the syringe, “Have you eaten recently?”

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Kunoichi replied. 

“Okay, drink this while I find my secret stash of cookies,” Ethan said as he gave her the syringe then headed towards his hologram table and opened a secret compartment in the table, and grabbed out a bag of cookie delights. He opened the bag and took a cookie out then gave the bag to Kunoichi, “Eat up, you’ll need the food for your body to absorb the liquid energy.”

She took the bag and gobbled a few cookies, “So what’s the purpose of this experiment?”

“Since you told me that you’re unable to channel energy, I’ve been trying to find a way for you guys to be able to use the liquid energy. The best and only way for you guys to use it is by digesting it with your food. Once it’s digested then your body should do the rest by sending it throughout your body.”

“Coool, so how does channeling actually work in your world?”

“Channelling allows us to absorb and manipulate energy to some degree. There are levels to it: Level 1 channeling is one being able to absorb energy and force an internal output of energy. Level 2 channeling is one being able to force an external output of energy from your body. Level 3 channeling is one being able to force external energy manipulation. Level 4 channeling is one being to create something from energy. There is one more level but one believes it’s possible so it is no longer on the scale,” Ethan explained.

“So each level determines how powerful you are, so what level have you achieved?” Kunoichi asked curiously.

“Well, I am a different level for every type of energy. For example, I am level 3 with kinetic energy and green energy while I am an advanced level 1 with other types of energy,” Ethan replied.

“What can you do with level 3 channeling?”

“…Remember when I froze Bradley?” Kunoichi nodded her head, “That was level 3 channeling as I was controlling kinetic energy outside my body.”

“That’s really cool, why didn’t you use it against the Colonel, It would’ve been funny?” Kunoichi said with a wily smirk as she imagined the scene.

“Because it wouldn’t have been fair to her to use abilities she doesn’t have.”

“Still would have been funny,” Kunoichi mumbled.

“That should’ve been enough time for your stomach to digest. Is it okay if I cut, this is part of the experiment?” Ethan said bluntly.

“Whoa whoa whoa! This was not part of our agreement?”

“We had an agreement?”

“Yes, we did. We agreed that nothing bad would happen to me,” Kunoichi protested.

“Well, nothing bad is going to happen to you. If my hypothesis is correct, your body heal itself a lot quicker than usual.”

Kunoichi sighed, “…Fine, I’ll trust you,” Kunoichi said as she hesitantly put out her hand.

Ethan grabbed her hand and held it up as he picked up a knife from his tool desk and sliced open her palm. Kunoichi barely reacted as blood leaked out onto her palm, “Now we wait,” Ethan said as he began a virtual stopwatch.

“Wait? What do you mean wait, I’m bleeding here?” Kunoichi asked as she tried not to panic.

“Humans take more or less a week to heal their wounds naturally, but with this liquid energy, it takes less than a minute. I want to see how long it will take for your kind to heal naturally with this liquid energy in them. If it takes too long I’ll heal you myself.”

Ethan picked up the bag of cookies and ate one then offered Kunoichi some, she opened her which confused Ethan at first but then figured out the meaning behind the gesture as he took a cookie and rested it on her lips then slowly slid half of it in. Their eyes met as she bit down on the cookie, their gaze never broke as she munched on the cookie.

“Ahem!”

They both looked towards the couch and saw Tony lying on the couch with his head up and glaring at them with a displeased frown on his face. “Of course, you’re back now out of all times,” Ethan said as he returned a displeased look at Tony.

“Uh-huh, I hope I wasn’t interrupting something there,” Tony replied with an attitude. 

“Yeah Yeah, how did the mission go?” Corruptión slipped out of Tony slithered toward Ethan and formed back into a cube in his hand. 

Tony lifted his back and sat upright on the couch, “It went well, we encountered anti-agents but they were nothing to Corruptión. After infiltrating Nano Industries, we found out that Nano Industries runs the entire shelter. They own all the enterprises in the shelter and have information on all the citizens in the shelter. They even registered all the aliens that were randomly teleported.”

“That’s perfect for us, do a cross-check and see if our missing people are on that list of aliens. If some of our missing people are found here in this world, we will find them after this mission is completed,” Ethan said as he tossed Corruptión at Tony. 

“Corruptión also discovered that the Nano Industries have a portal that connects their HQ to HQs in other dimensions.”   

“I expected that, how else would they be able to move between dimensions? What I want to know is how many dimensions are they connected to?” Ethan asked.

“The data says that they have HQs in 4 different dimensions and still expanding. They’ve been gathering resources from every dimension through their HQs, they're working on a project but it was not stated what the project was,” Tony replied.

“So they’re working on a project, I wonder what could it be, could it be related to this quantum phenomenon? We’ll have to investigate it once we’ve finished our business in this dimension,” Ethan said as he tried not to think or worry about Alyssa. 

“Okay then. In the meantime, I’ll do the cross-check on the data,” Tony said as he laid back down on the couch.

Kunoichi could see that something was bothering Ethan, “You seem to have a lot on your plate, although you don’t show it.”

“Yeah, I just realized how much I have to do just take one step in the right direction.”

“At least you’re going in the right direction. Try not to exhaust yourself, I know you have a lot of pressure on you. Some thrive in such pressure like you, but make sure to rest your body and mind; otherwise, fatigue will kick in at the wrong time in battle.”

Ethan looked at Kunoichi and saw something about her that made him feel nostalgic as he slightly grinned, “You remind me of my therapist when I was in juvie. She was nice, she took care of my mental health even though it was deteriorating rapidly. She read me like a book sometimes like you.”

“…When I was a teen, I wanted to become a psychologist so that I could understand other people better and help them with their mental struggles. Since I never got the chance to do so, I read a lot of psychology books and it has helped me to understand & read people,” Kunoichi said.

“Well, that explains a lot. It’s a shame you never got to be one, but if it makes you feel better, you can be my therapist. I’ll burden you with my demons one day,” Ethan said.

Kunoichi had a warm feeling in her chest as she smiled, “Sure, I’d like that…”

Something was bothering Ethan as if he was forgetting something then he noticed that the wound on her hand had healed and stopped the stopwatch, “8 minutes more or less, that is very slow but that makes sense since you can’t channel. My hypothesis was correct, your bodies can use the properties of the liquid energy to boost its only healing capabilities.”

“Can it heal any injury?”

“Yes and no, it all depends on how lethal the injury is. Your bodies won’t be able to heal lethal injuries in time so I’ll do it when necessary,” Ethan said.

“… Be honest with me Ethan, do you really think we can win this battle against the entire Mavis Empire?”

Ethan thought carefully about how to tell her the truth, “…To tell you the truth, yes I do believe that we can win this. However… I don’t think we’ll get through this without some of us dying.”