"So, this is what they were talking about." Ilius looked around the room. A bunch of older boys stood playing, watching, and challenging each other in duels. Ilius and Alan stood there watching them while trying to stay out the way. A few of them must have heard about the incident on the shuttle. They looked at Ilius and turned away, muttering things about a third Ender. What in the world is an 'Ender'?

"Hey, Ilius. Look at this." He pointed to a computer game, similar to the one at home. "You've played this, haven't you?"

Ilius shrugged. He's played most of the games here at home except the holographic one in the corner. "Sure." The older boys were playing it, making it a biohazard caution…for Alan. Ilius began to walk over.

"Ilius, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. I just want to see." It was the game where you commanded your own fleet of ships. He remembered playing it with his father back in Michigan. It wasn't so long ago before he learned how to play it. He almost forgot. "You shouldn't do that," he said. The boy looked down at him, and turned back to the game.

"Stay out of my way, launchie. I know what I'm doing."

"The other fleet will flank you on all sides, and you'll…"

The boy looked at him again, just time only looking at him. He switched back to his game again before stepping back. "Since you want to teach me, you do it."

Ilius stepped up, a little surprised, but ready to put him into his place. He put his hands around the controls and quickly moved his fingers across the controls, fixing the other player's problem quickly and accurately.

"You've played this before?" The boy asked when he finished.

"With my dad." He stepped back to let him reset the game. "If you outflank the other fleet first, you'll win."

The boy looked at him. "I tried that already. I was trying something different." He turned back to the monitor and didn't say anything else. Ilius looked at the jacket he was wearing and noticed that it had some kind of lizard on the back. It almost looked like a dragon.

"I didn't know you could do that," Alan said, meeting him.

"It's an easy game," Ilius replied. "Anyone could have figured that out."




If Ilius wasn't mistaken, this was school only without the nuns and ridiculous Catholic school uniforms. There were videos of bloody battles of both the distant past and recent. Unlike being in St. Francais Academy, this was far from the curriculum he was once set in. Marine blood was spilled and their bodies were obliterated.

They talked about tactics all the way from ancient Roman history, through the times of the early twenty first century and beyond. Math was actually a subject, along with reading certain texts. He liked it better than school on earth. Not only what they had to learn, but the things that went on in the 'secret' village of virtual messaging.

MR. SWEAT BOMBS IS PRESENT.

-ANONYMOUS

Ilius looked at the message on his desk and looked at his instructor. Right under his arms were two sweat spots that leaked through his uniform. He looked back at his desk.

DON'T LET HIM SEE YOU SNEAKING MESSAGES LIKE THIS ONE.

-GOD

Ilius ignored them. The minds of three year olds were in his class. Wonderful.