Disclaimer: Starship and any known characters mentioned are not mine.


Ella woke with a start, swatted the clock next to her, still bleary eyed she wandered out of her bedroom and into the small sitting room and into the hallway before realising she still had her pajamas on. Up was starting to wear off on her; she groaned and quickly showered and dressed before making sure she had the right clothes before traipsing down the one of the science labs. A small explosion could be heard from within the lab, she knocked before entering. The room was filled with hazy smoke from the recent explosion; through the smoke she could see the figure of Clayton Lenker, middle aged with white hair, thick rimmed glasses and a lab coat. He caught sight of Ella and beckoned her over; she grabbed a pair of safety goggles.

"What are you working on today?" She asked as another cloud of smoke surrounded them.

"Examining the water that the Rangers brought back from when they went to the lab." Clayton replied adding another slither of metal.

"I see, you're using the metal to see what the robots are made of?"

"Yep, if we find that out, then we might have a shot of finding out how to destroy them. Isn't it a bit early for you to be up?"

"It's 7am. It's not early."

"7?! Last time I checked it was 5.30!"

"Well, it's normal for you to get up at absurd hours. I better go wake Junior soon."

"Could you bring him by sometime today? We can organize these lessons." Clayton said, running his hands through the frazzled hair.

"I will, how's 1?"

Clayton nodded, "if I'm not in here, then just come in, I'll keep it unlocked for the both of you."

"Thank you!" Ella called over her shoulder as she walked out of the lab, placing the goggles on the side as she went.


Junior woke up to a knocking at his door, he rolled out of bed and winced as a sharp pain hit his side. He padded over to the door to see an alert Ella. Opening the door wider to let him in, he wandered into the bathroom. Pulling his shirt off he looked at his bruise. It looked better than last night but it still hurt like hell. Pulling off his trousers he took a quick shower and put his pajama's back on before darting to his room to change properly. Scanning through the wardrobe he had no clue if he had to wear everyday clothes or the uniform.

"Ella, do I wear the uniform or anything I want?"

"Anything you want. You're not on schedule today."

"Thanks," He called as he pulled out a navy sweater and black jeans. He dressed as quickly as he could not wanting to keep Ella waiting.

"Ready? She asked as Junior came rushing into the room, carry a pair of black converses.

"Nearly, just need to put these on. Do I look alright? I don't want people to sneer at me." Junior asked biting his lip slightly as he pulled on one shoe.

"You look fine. No one's going to sneer at you."

"You're not wearing uniform today, I just realised." He said looking at Ella, she wore a black and white checked shirt with a black leggings along with a pair of white low tops.

"I don't have anywhere to be today. I have to give you the tour. Which it pointless, half of us never had it when we were training. Ready to go?"

"Yup, although I don't want to attract attention to myself when we get there."

"You probably will, but it usually dies down after a day or so."

They walked in a comfortable silence, similar to yesterdays, to the diner. Junior started to walk slower as they approached the oak door.

"You'll be fine. Up's normally in here before us, so he'll probably have a table for us." Said Ella, nudging Junior forward.

Wishing he was somewhere else, Junior walked in to the diner, it was a beautiful room, wooden tables were placed strategically around the room with matching chairs. A couple of chandeliers hung on the ceiling and to one side he could see the cooks serving up. Whispers followed Junior as Ella pushed him forward. He picked up his plate and helped himself to a couple of croissants and orange juice.

"Up's over there", Ella whispered, nodding to the corner of the room. Junior made his way over quickly to the corner where Up pulled out two chairs for them to sit at.

"Having fun?" Asked Up.

" No, I hate the attention." Junior replied as Ella joined them, ignoring the seat Up pulled out and sitting next to Junior.

"You still on about last night Ella?" Up asked smirking at her.

"Yes, that box was heavy; if you hadn't of distracted me it wouldn't have fallen on me."

Junior listened to their conversation, tearing off parts of his croissant as he did. He watched as people came in the room in groups for four or five. A larger group caught his attention. There had to be at least eight of them, the girls were giggling as the boys stood behind them. Maybe his sister would fit with them when she came up here.

"...Junior?" Up's Southern voice brought him back to the table.

"Yeah, sorry."

"What was wrong last night? You were in pain. Ella said you hit your side but I don't believe that."

Up's eyes bore into Junior's and he looked away. Maybe he could Up and Ella. They were the ones who helped him and the only friends he would make. If you would call them friends, he'd not known them 24 hours ago.

He sighed and stared at his orange juice.

"I didn't hit my side. I got hit. I snuck outside while you two were sorting out that room and I got hit."

"It wasn't past curfew; you can do what you like if it's before curfew. But you should've told us Junior. Who did it?" Up's voice was thick, Junior still didn't look at him.

"I can take a wild guess at who it was. Was it John and Marcus?"

Junior nodded and looked at Ella, she didn't look upset or angry at him, she wasn't even looking at him, she was looking at the door. Junior looked over and saw the said two people. They were still with the group from last night.

"Ella, please don't do anything."

"Who're they Junior? I recognise two of them. They cause a lot of trouble on site." Up asked, also looking over at them.

"John Herkly and Marcus Fean, they used to go to my old school and make my life Hell. I don't know who the other three are though."

"I wouldn't worry about them here. All the professors have given them a warning at least once. I don't know who the other one is though. I'll have to find out. Do you recognise him Ella?"

"No I don't. Maybe he's new and decided to hang around with the wrong crowd. Oh! That reminds me, Junior, we have to go to Clayton at one."

"Who?"

"Clayton Lenker, the professor who we can hear downstairs in the lab. I went to go see him this morning; he wants to meet you so you two can set up your private lessons together. He's working on something you'll find interesting."

"Oh right. Okay. What's he working or can't you say in a public place?"

"He's working on this water experiment. Last time we sent some Rangers to the lab were Astro-Boy was building his robots they managed to get some water samples that have a different pH. Clayton was reacting the water with different metals to see how it reacted. The water doesn't have any effect on the robots and some of the equipment and weapons they use. What he's trying to work out is if we figure out what metal the robots are made of, we could devise a weapon to defeat them." Ella explained, Up was listening as he ate, occasionally throwing looks over Junior's shoulder to where the five boys where sitting.

"Are you two going to see The Dragon today?" Up asked, shovelling the last of his cereal in his mouth.

"Yeah we could do. Where is he? He normally sits with us."

"Over there. I'm going to see if he bring me some toast over."

"No, Up don't." Ella hissed at him.

"Oi! Dragon! Can you bring me some toast over?!" Up shouted across the room. Ella shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Do you have to be so loud in the morning?" Ella groaned.

"No, I'm just hungry. You want anything else Junior?"

"No thanks, I'm okay." Junior said before gulping down the last of his orange juice.

"If you're ready Junior, we can before it all kicks off with Up and Julius?" Ella asked Junior, who nodded in return. They went over to the cleaning area and placed there cutlery and dishes into the dishwasher and left the hall. Once they were outside, Junior relaxed a little and leaned against the wall.

"It wasn't that bad." Ella said, joining him.

"I know I just hate attention and people staring."

"It won't last long, you'll sister will get it when she comes up here."

Junior laughed, "She'd like it though. She's quite popular at school and everyone loves her."

"And you weren't?"

"Not really, we had a lot of differences at school; she was always being asked out by guys, had a lot of friends. Whereas I wasn't really that popular."

"Want to walk and talk, instead of leaning against this wall?"

They took off walking round the Academy, avoiding most of the people who had left breakfast early.

"How are you and Erin really close then? I always thought brothers and sisters hated each other."

"I think it was only recently. We were around 14 and she was having a really hard time at school, with her work and she was being bullied a lot, this was before she was popular. She didn't tell mum or dad about it though; I remember one night I was in my room going though some Chemistry work and she knocked on my door and came in. I'd never seen her so upset, she was crying and had a black eye. I told her to go speak to mum and dad about it, but she was scared too. She told me what happened and asked me to cover for her. I promised her I would. She handed me a container of her makeup and asked for my help to cover it. Then, every morning before we went downstairs she came to my room and I would help cover her eye. Over that time we became closer and then the bully was expelled, I don't remember what for though."

Ella was quiet for a moment, "I'm sorry about what happened to Erin. And if John and his little crew hurt you come see either Up, Julius or me."

"You're like a golden trio aren't you?" Junior said, smirking at her.

"Not really. They seem to think we are, but we're really not. Do you still want to go see the fighting class? I think all the new ones have to go and see it, it's a demonstration type thing, involving fire of course."

"No doubt he'll ask you to go and demonstrate."

"Up can do it, I still haven't forgiven him from the box incident."

Junior laughed, "What actually happened?"

"I was up the ladder and it was the highest shelf. The ladder wasn't stable so Up had to stabilise it with his foot and he was talking. I had hold of one of the heavier boxes and he started laughing at his joke, moved his foot and the box fell on me which made Up laugh harder." Ella said, rolling her eyes as Junior changed his laugh into a cough. Ella checked her watch "Come on, we don't want to miss this fighting thing that starts soon. We better start going."