With the sun soon to rise, a majority of the rebels were still sound asleep in the lounge while Ethan toiled in the training room with then unexpected company that was embracing him warmly. He patted her back, “I didn’t mean to worry you, Kunoichi. I was kidnapped by my own body.” Pulling away from his chest, she glanced at him a confused look on her face. “How is that even possible?” Ethan shrugged his shoulders, “Honestly, even I don’t know; my body just instinctively channelled quantum energy and I was teleported in my sleep to the quantum realm.”

“Quantum realm?”

“Yes, it’s kind of hard to explain but it’s basically here and everywhere, but in a different dimension that we can’t see without being in that dimension.”

“Oh cool, can I see it?”

“Uhh… I guess I could show you, but I’m worried you might experience the unpleasant side effects of being exposed to quantum energy.”

“What are the side effects?”

“Dizziness, quantum energy can make one feel vertigo when exposed to it. But I think you might not feel it since you’re not sensitive to energy like channellers.”

“If it’s only dizziness then I think it’s worth it since I’m seeing a whole new dimension, so let's do it.”

Ethan saw her face light up excitedly, preventing him from denying her sense of adventure. “Fine, let's do this.” He grabbed her hand and teleported them to the quantum realm. Kunoichi tightened her grip on Ethan’s hand and clutched his arm with her other hand as the teleportation made her feel unstable. “You okay there, Chi?”

She nodded but kept her grip on Ethan, “I’m fine, just never experienced something like that before, it was so… unsettling.” She looked around and saw the magnitude of the quantum, “Whoa… it feels like I’m in space which is weird, why does everything feel greenish… so many shades of green.”

I assume the reason why the quantum realm and energy is green is that the Great Spirit is green itself. “I can agree that this place does feel like space, like I’m somewhere far just lost in the universe… but it makes sense for it to feel that way since this place links realities together.”

“It does??”

“Yes, apparently the quantum realm is as vast as existence itself, one could go anywhere that exists within the quantum realm.”

“Wow, that’s kinda scary when you think about it.”

“I can understand that, but fear is the last thing I feel when I gaze into the limitless ambience of the quantum realm. It just shows that there are so many worlds out there to explore.”

“Do you want to discover all those worlds?”

“One day yes, but for now I will go where my duty takes me.”

“Your duty, what is your duty?”

“Well, I have to find the missing loved one of my clients and bring them back to my clients.”

“But what if some of them are dead?”

Ethan remained silent for a moment, “… what is there to do, other than delivering the closure to the loved ones, they’ve already thought of that possibility and wish for closure if that is the case for their loved one.”

Kunoichi slightly nodded and looked out at the cosmos of the quantum realm. “I think it’s time we head back before the side effects start kicking in,” Ethan said. Kunoichi nodded at him before taking one last look at the quantum realm. Ethan teleported them back to the lab, Kunoichi’s grip tightened as she felt unstable again. “I’ll never get used to that.” Ethan chuckled, “My first time had me on the ground feeling like I was on a roller coaster so I know how you feel. Why do you sit down against the wall while I train and experiment?”

She nodded and leaned against Ethan who helped her to the edge of the training room and sat her down. Sighing in relief, “So what training will you be doing?” Ethan started stretching his arms and legs, “I want to improve my teleportation speed so I will be training to improve my teleportation.”

“Ooh, that sounds exciting.” Kunoichi watched in anticipation as Ethan walked to the centre of the training room. Circularly moving his hand visibly, a virtual graphic user interface unlocked in Ethan’s lenses. Scrolling and pressing virtually, he set the training room to his selection as something formed out of the training room floor.

Huh? Oh wait, It’s one of the black-sand dummies, so he’s going to fight it? Kunoichi thought. Ethan hid his VGUI and got close to the nano-bot, he threw a swift punch at the nano-bot but it diverted the punch away. Perfect, it’s ready. Relaxing his muscles and taking a deep breath then exhaling, Ethan channelled quantum energy from his glove. In a blink of an eye, Ethan vanished in a radiance of green, leaving Kunoichi in awe as he swiftly came out of the quantum realm, Ethan tried attacking the nano-bot from behind but made contact with nothing but air. “Huh? He missed? Was it on purpose?”

Ah qinx it, my estimation was off again… I need to moderate my mental scale of the training room and the quantum realm so that I get it right. Let's try this again. Ethan teleported in front of the nano-bot and launched a spinning heel kick forcing it to lift its elbow to block the attack this time as a loud sound of clashing bone and metal echoed in the room. Great, mental scale adjustment is successful. Now we can focus on teleportation speed. I should set the bot to tell me its reaction speed for every attack and my teleportation speed; the quicker its reaction speed is, the faster my teleportation speed will be. Opening his VGUI and setting the configurations, Ethan was ready to start again. Vanishing quickly, he appeared to the left side of the nano-bot and threw a quick hook punch, the nano-bot steered its forearm firmly against Ethan’s hook punch blocking it completely. “2.75 seconds; 800 milliseconds!” the nano-bot announced. Wow, that was really slow. Basically, 3 whole seconds to teleport, I'm going to have to move faster in the quantum realm if I'm going to improve my teleportation speed. 800 milliseconds is terrible, the bot isn’t even trying with that reaction time. The goal is to reduce the teleportation time to 1 second and the reaction time to 100 milliseconds; But to achieve that, I need to be at my peak. I will need to naturally or instinctively channel from my glove and move swiftly in the quantum realm like I was still in the battle… I will also need to figure out a way of channelling two energies at the same time amid battle, that will be tough… For now, let's focus on the teleportation goals; time is of the essence.

Ethan attacked the nano-bot head-on but was blocked once again. “200 milliseconds!” Remember, fight instinctively, Ethan… I know, Quinn, I know… Ethan moved fluidly as he attacked the nano-bot with a jab hook combo and a kick, each of which was blocked before he teleported. “Average, 179 milliseconds” Showing up in mid-air behind the nano-bot, he threw a jumping roundhouse kick at it but without looking, the nano-bot raised his arm and blocked the kick. “1.75 seconds; 200 milliseconds!” Ethan had already teleported in front and landed a backkick on the nano-bot’s face causing it to tumble back. Kunoichi beamed as she clapped her hands excitedly. Wow… in just a few tries he has improved his teleportation speed by a whole second and has managed to land an attack on the dummy. Coool... 

“1.30 seconds; 50 kilometres per hour!”

Ethan didn’t even hear Kunoichi’s cheers as he was in the zone, solely focused on reaching his goal. My instincts were correct, waiting until the last moment of the kick to come out of the quantum realm left the nano-bot no time to react and block the kick. Now that we have a strategy to land an attack, let's focus more on improving speed. Ethan quickly dashed toward the bot and jumped as he threw a roundhouse kick, using his hover shoes to boost its speed; the nano-bot barely blocked it with its arm but Ethan countered by swiftly shifting his body to throw a side kick with his other leg. The nano-bot managed to block the kick with its firm palm then countered instantly with a swift sweep kick aiming at the leg that Ethan was balancing on; Ethan sprung off his feet and flipped backwards in mid-air to dodge the counter. He then sprung off his hand and teleported as he landed on his feet in the quantum realm before instantly dashing toward the nano-bot launching an axe kick at it as he came out of the quantum realm. The nano-bot moved to the side dodging the kick and was countering with a hook punch; With a swift reaction, Ethan blocked the punch with his elbow but caused him to stumble back to regain his balance. “1.25 seconds; Average, 122 milliseconds!”

Good, we’ve reached our usual speed in our normal state; Let’s see how far our maximum speed will reach. Ethan squatted and vanished from the nano-bot’s sight. With a reaction time of 105 milliseconds, the nano-bot raised its forearm firmly to block Ethan’s boosted kick as he came out of the quantum realm, Ethan quickly switched to his other leg and sprung it up with an energy boost from his hover shoes for a front kick easing into a back kick, both of which were blocked and diverted. “1.07 seconds; Average, 106 milliseconds!” YEAHH! Let's switch it up…His movements and attack style became more erratic & wild as he used his hover shoes for not only increased speed and power for his kicks but also for a wide range of mobility allowing him to be more acrobatic and agile. Ethan went ballistic using the air as a platform to bounce off in attacking the nano-bot with a flurry of fluidly wild kicks & punches.

Observing as a spectator, Kunoichi was left in wonderment marvelling at how Ethan trained. H-He just keeps improving, not only is his teleportation speed improving but his fighting style is improving as well… The way he uses his mobility in his fighting style is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, are we humans even capable of reaching such heights? Like 106 milliseconds is unreal for a human… Seeing this is so motivating, although it can also be discouraging, realising that this is a level you can’t reach no matter how hard you try… Luckily for me, I see nothing but hope right now. A wonder standing before my eyes, showing me that I can achieve more, I still have so much to learn from him… Just from watching him, I can tell he has a high ontointelligence. He has just learned how to control quantum energy and already he has found ways to use it in his fighting styles; that is not something you are born with, it has to be instilled in your brain over time. For it to reach this level, Ethan must’ve toiled endlessly for his mind to be this unshakable in its mindset. How long did it take for him to become this way? How many times did he have to fail to succeed? The more I think about this, it makes more sense why he chooses to work over sleep; he’s just trying to improve himself to reach a desired version of himself... Although he also has some trauma preventing him from sleeping, I feel that only half of it while his mindset is the other half… When this is all over, I hope he’ll allow me to study him.

“0.97 seconds; Average, 101 milliseconds!”

The announcement snapped Kunoichi out of thought and noticed the air around Ethan was distorted by the heat he was emitting from over-exerting himself, he breathed heavily as steam came out his mouth. He grinned amidst his aura, taking a deep breath and releasing it then chuckled, “That's an achievement unlocked in my book. What do you think Chi, have I improved a lot from the start of training?”

Her eyes lit up as she nodded excitedly, “A lot is an understatement, you’ve done nothing but improve this whole training session. Your fighting style is so reckless but you make it look so natural.”

Ethan chuckled and scratched the back of his head, “Oh, thank you. I try to be very unorthodox with my fighting style, it's a habit I’ve gained from fighting technology you could say.”

“Well, I pity the technology that had to go up against you. If only the Colonel was awake and here to see that, she would’ve gone full combat fanatic mode. Good thing you didn’t use your special shoes in your sparring match against her, that fight would’ve ended a lot quicker and badly for the Colonel.”

“Exactly why I took them off. If the Colonel is a combat fanatic, I’ll be sure to invite her to my next training sessions.”

“She would definitely love that.”

“In any case, I’d say my training for now is complete since I’ve reached my goals for this session. We should get some more rest, I woke up earlier than expected so I should finish the lost hours.” Ethan began walking to the elevator while Kunoichi followed. “Well I barely got any sleep since I was worried about you,” Kunoichi pouted. Ethan awkwardly chuckled, “My bad, I’m sure you know it wasn’t intentional.”

TING

“Yeah I know, I should’ve known you were alright since Tony wasn’t concerned at all. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“There’s no need to apologise, it’s natural to worry about someone. Tony knows I can handle myself in most situations, while you don’t know that yet which is why you have every right to worry.”

 “You must be pretty capable if your best friend can sleep soundly while you’re missing.”

TING

“I guess so, although I’m not as capable as I would like to be,” Ethan mumbled while they walked out of the elevator into the lab, Ethan dropped himself on the couch while Kunoichi settled next to him. “Will you be able to sleep without my lap this time,” Kunoichi said as she smiled. Ethan looked away sheepishly, “Yes, I’ll be fine this time on my own.” Kunoichi giggled at his sheepishness, “Well that’s a shame, at least now I can borrow your shoulder to sleep.” She laid her temple on the edge of his shoulder and closed her eyes to rest. Ethan’s body stiffened as he took a moment to process his situation, unfamiliar with what he was feeling, his heartbeat was so audible to him that he was concerned even Kunoichi could hear it from his shoulder. Sweet nanny of Valice, Ethan, calm down, she’s just a girl like Jessica, no need to burst a blood vessel, so just breathe man… Ethan inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled, Kunoichi hid her smile and held back her giggles as she felt Ethan try to calm himself down with his breathing.

With his heart finally toning it down, Ethan just sat there and looked at the ceiling. She is surprisingly comfortable around me and so am I with her, this stuff rarely happens with me so it’s a weird but pleasant feeling. Is this what they call vibing with someone? For a moment, Ethan hesitated at first before finally giving in and ignoring his anxiety as he rested his head on Kunoichi’s and closed his eyes.