Chapter 22 – John's New Toy

Lee spent the next two days training his magic skills a little. Though exhausting, Lindy's training had showed him that he was putting too much training into his sword and less into his staff recently. He wanted to be strong in both areas so he decided to start training his mage skills some more. That said, the biggest difference he had now as opposed to before was experience he could learn from, in the form of his father who was more than willing to teach. Also, with John in the mix, their possible training area's increased, as unlike Lee, John was an expert with barrier magic, and he happened to like training in the air. Thus the limits of their sparring area would be the barrier that John kept in the sky above their house, which he also was able to cleverly hide with a bit of illusion magic. Thus what Lee was working on now was midair combat training. Right now, John knew that Lee didn't need any combat training in melee or ground based combat due to his sword training, but to him, it was obvious that Lee's midair combat skills could use some work. In terms of his power's level, Lee was about as high as most could even dream to go, and even more than that, John noticed that Lee's raw speed in particular was top notch, but as for his technique and midair agility, he was if anything, below average. That said, John could hardly blame Lee for this, since he hadn't had much in the way of opportunities to see and learn such skills, for once he did, John was sure that he would pick them up like a sponge to water. That said, his problem was that so far he hadn't really needed to, having gotten by on luck and sheer power alone, but the enemies were getting stronger and those advantages were disappearing. He couldn't rely on them forever so John thought it was time to get serious.

His dad had also taught Lee about casting spells without a staff or incantations. Lee had tried this when Nanoha and Lance originally taught him when he first got his magic but he couldn't do it regularly, even during Lindy's training he didn't get it to work a hundred percent of the time. Chrono and Sakura had been able to on the other hand. For this lesson, he invited Sora and Sarah as well who also needed to learn said skill. They found that now that they had some minor experience with magic, it was a lot easier. They all got it pretty quickly and after a few hours, it was starting to feel second nature. Sora and Sarah also joined them for bits of time randomly to hone their skills as well. Having their father to help them train made it much more productive, for he was clearly an immensely skilled mage, and beyond that, he had a special knack for teaching that they already knew about from their sword training.

All through this training though, Lee was thinking about his impromptu conversation that he had with Fate the night they returned from Fretica. He hadn't told anyone about it, and he didn't even know why he was keeping it a secret either. It wasn't like there was anything to hide, but Lee thought it might have been because he was unsure of the answer he had given. That said, he picked a bad time to let his mind wonder on the subject as a blast of magic came his way. He narrowly avoided it, diving down. John though noticed his son's distraction, "What's up with you Lee, everything alright?" Lee turned to his dad who had flown over to him, "Nothing." John, "Okay, I'll take your word for it, so if you're up for, lets change course a bit. I have a new training exercise for you."

Lee looked at him puzzled. His dad took out two wristbands. Lee, "What are those for?" John, "These are your new training weights, so to speak." Lee looked more puzzled now, "But I am already wearing ten of those." John smiled, "Those are physical weights meant to increase physical ability. These are magic weights." Lee, "What for?" John, "Magic obviously." Lee just looked more confusingly at his dad, so John continued; "I've adapted some of the training style I use for Cross swordsmanship so it could help with my magical training as well. These are wristbands I invented myself to increase my magic's speed, power and overall performance. In other words, they help bring out more of your full potential, which for you could mean quite a lot. What these do is basically put weight on your magic, or should I say stress your magic output. They don't limit it as much as they slow it down. Thus while wearing these, you'll have to learn to use the magic you are able to harness much more efficiently, with the goal of making that your default state afterwards."

Lee still looked a bit confused, so John paused for a moment while trying to come up with an easier way to explain it, "Let's try this. Think of your magic as water coming out of a faucet. Thus, as you are right now in this scenario, you have the faucet fully open and water is coming out normally. Nothing changes, does it? It just keeps coming out at the same rate, never increasing in quantity or speed." Lee nodded, suddenly able to grasp the concept easier. John, "Now what happens if you send the same amount of water through a smaller faucet head? The same goes in but less comes out and what happens to the excess? It piles up behind the opening, ever growing in size and quantity. These wristbands are like the smaller faucet head, limiting the amount of space for magic you can output. Now for the purpose of it all, what would happen if the small faucet head, after holding back all that water returned to a normal size and the faucet was like it was before." Lee was piecing it all together now as he thought of the conclusion, "The water bursts out, now bigger, faster and stronger than ever."

John smiled, "And that is what this training is for. These wristbands are nothing but a hindrance now, but when you finally take them off, your power will be stronger and your control and speed over it will be better and faster than ever before." Lee, "Wow, this sounds like some seriously cheat-y training method though if you think six days is enough?" John, "Actually quite the opposite, for most people, this method of training wouldn't do them any good. It's not that it can be completed in five days, it's that it must be completed in five days, as after that, the risks are too great to continue. Like the pipe, if too much water is held up forcibly for too long, then it will inevitably burst and ALL of the water will leak out or in this case, you could lose your ability to control magic indefinitely, and end up crippled magically, possibly forever. It's the reason that I've been incredibly selective on who I've let attempt it. They need both the drive, as well as the ready potential necessary for it to even be possible, let alone effective. Thus there is no guarantee of the results of this training, even for you, but I believe that you are such a person. From what I've seen, you have the potential, and the raw power, loads of it, but in all honesty, you're just throwing it around for the most part, so what do you say, you up for it?"

Lee didn't even need to think, simply nodding. He knew his father was right, the last few Saren Stone manifestations had been strong, and they were undoubtedly getting stronger, and that was before they took Fate into account. He knew as he was currently, it soon wouldn't be enough to keep himself, let alone his friends and family, safe. John, "Very good. Now of course, as risky as this training is, I've put in some safeguards. I said six days was the max, but to be on the safe side, these bands effects are set to start expiring half a day early, allowing them to safely let the new power flow out and allow you to get accustom to it. That said, life isn't perfect, and so there may be an event that you'll find you need your full power before then, and so you'll want to take the bands off. That said, I want to warn you that while this will restore your full access to your magic, likely from the imposed buildup, it will undoubtedly be much more difficult to control, and so I warn you now, be careful if you do, since with your power, there's no telling what kind of damage it might cause."

Lee nodded again, acknowledging his father's warning, and so took the wristbands and put them on over his normal training bands. The effect was instantons, Lee's whole body visibly stiffened, and what was more, his barrier jacket and staff instantly dematerialized, and he even lost control of his aviation magic, causing him to plummet towards the ground. John on his part was about to intervene before his son ended up a stain on the sidewalk, but it ended up being unnecessary. With a huge amount of effort, Lee was able to summon just enough of his power, force it below him to stabilize his descent, landing a bit harder than he would have liked, but otherwise alright. John though merely met him on the ground where he landed, "Very hard, isn't it?" Lee, "Why did I release my barrier jacket and staff automatically?" John replied, "Because you weren't putting enough magic out to support the transformation. Even if you don't realize it, you put out a small amount of magic to maintain your staff and barrier jacket, and frankly given your natural reserves and Haruno's expected operating capacity, its probably a much higher requirement than an average device. Right now, you are probably only giving off the output of a C ranked mage thanks to those limiters and your inefficiencies in manipulating your magic. The goal of this exercise is, with those bands on and their restrictions in play, for you to be able of actively supporting an output of at least an S ranking." It was finally starting to dawn on Lee exactly how much he had to do in the very small span of time he had to do it. He had of course heard and comprehended John's explanation of the training, but he realized that he had severely underestimated it. Thus with his limited time, he went straight to work.

At first, Lee had to struggle just to fly, and couldn't keep it up without taking a break every few minutes. According to John, this was normal since flying was considered something only really usable by A level mages, with those of B rank or lower not having enough magic to use it for any length of time effectively, though in Lee's case his problem was just in the quantity and quality exerted, since he still had his normal magic capacity, just limited in how he could access it, which was why even limited as he was now, he could still fly a bit. That said, after a bit, Lee started to get used to it to the point where he could manage to fly without using up all his focus and power. But while he was flying, the only thing he could do was make a simple and small ball of magic the size of his fist to shoot at his father, and those two actions alone took his total concentration, anything more would once again send him plummeting to the ground. But the part of this training that honestly affected him the most wasn't even the output restriction, but its speed. He felt his magic reacting slower than usual, and even his shot speed was slower. It took him almost hald the day to even get to the point where he could fly fast enough to avoid his father's attacks, and it wasn't until towards the end of the session that he was finally able to cast a single real spell, and it was only his GLOWING SHOOTER. That said, the difference between a refined spell and a basic ball of magic was immense, which made his GLOWING SHOOTER just strong enough to get his dad's attention if it made contact. That said, like his other magic, its speed was still restricted immensely, both for forming the spell as well as its actual speed when fired. Thus, Lee realized that before he could seriously even attempt to spar with his father, he needed to get at least the speed of his magic up to par, and so spent most the rest of the training session focused on nothing more than to make his magic draw out quicker and shoot faster.

While he was training, Sarah and Sora asked about the training but John said that the current weights he had developed were too risky for anyone below SS. He had, after all, developed them originally for himself, and the very few people he had let try them were all of similar level. That said, he apparently was trying to create a safer set that could be used at lower levels, but they weren't quite done yet. He had been busy, but he said given their current situation, he would try to get them ready soon. That said, he was originally planning on letting Nanoha try after Lee was done, who in all honesty John knew was around as strong as Lee, despite having not said anything about it due to her clear preference to not advertise it, but Nanoha actually turned him down, though in all honesty John wasn't that surprised at this either. Unlike his children and their friends, John had a pretty good idea of the reason Nanoha was so touchy about not advertising her real abilities, and had seen the report of the one incident that probably prompted it, and so understood what she was going through, and so also said nothing of it to his group of charges.

That said John knew it was only a matter of time before the truth of Nanoha came to light. It wasn't like everyone could be that oblivious after all. John had seen, both in person and on the surveillance, he had been conducting of them fighting Fate and the Saren Stone manifestations. In fact, Nanoha might have been trying to hide it, and she was very good at hiding her inner strength, even to a sensor type mage, but it was clear that she slipped up sometimes, even if only slightly. Whatever the reason she had for hiding her true abilities, it was clear she held her friend's wellbeing high above them, and so even if hesitant, a few times she had shown more of her real powers than normal, especially in that fight with Fate when Sora had just come into the picture. Lee and the rest probably could feel some of it after she defeated Fate, who had been overwhelming Lee and Chrono together single handedly at that point, in a single attack, and come out of it not just relatively unscathed but barely breaking a sweat. That time, Nanoha had seemingly played it off with some excuse, probably about the dangers of her using stronger magic, but if they had known more about magic at the time, they could have seen some flaws with that reasoning. Then there was the whole thing about them learning what Nanoha and Lance had done when they were 9 and had saved multiple worlds, and then subsequently being told that Nanoha and Lee were basically equal in strength, and Nanoha's obvious attempts to downplay that. In any case, this was the kind of situation that John thought was best to let itself play out naturally. He had only known her personally for a short time, but just from how much trust his children had in her, John knew that he could trust her to use that power when the time came if a time when she could no longer afford to hold back ever did arrive.

Back to the present though, by the end of the day, Lee was finally able to fly almost normally as he could while not transformed, heal his minor damage magically, and could use GLOWING SHOOTER at the same speed as when he wasn't transformed and BREAK IMPACT to almost the same level. He could almost do a weak version of his SHINNING BUSTER as well, but it took too much time at his current magic gathering speed to work. Unlike the other two attacks which were one shot burst attacks where he only needed to make a surge of magic once, a Buster-type attack required him to create a constant flow of magic and maintain it. In his current state, he couldn't do it fast enough. He also couldn't transform yet either, as it just took too much concentration and energy. His father had been right, Haruno did have a rather high bar for its use, making him appreciate the ability of his partner just a bit more than he already did, which was saying quite a lot.

That said, as far as Lee had gotten in the one day, it was also clear that he was pushing himself, and his father didn't let that slip by, and so he told Lee that they would be taking a break for the next day. Lee, "Why though? I thought that I was making good progress." His father answered, "You are, but it's also true that even before we started this new training method, you've spent the last few days constantly training. Simply, you need a break and frankly, so do I. Also, I have some errands to run that I was hoping you would accompany me on as well. I invited Sarah and Sora but it seems that they have started to train their magic together and said they were too busy. So unless you have anything better to do, we'll leave tomorrow morning. Meet in the park at 9 O'clock sharp okay." Lee, realizing that he himself didn't have any such plans simply agreed, wondering about the errand his dad wanted him to help him with. That said, he could still get some other training in tonight, the non-magic kind at least. Thus, he continued working on his Ki regulation training as John had gotten to calling it. Between the Enchanted Sword technique and continually training RETASETSU, his control was showing signs of improving on that front as well.

The next day, Lee ate breakfast in a hurry and ran to the park. He had to use SHUNPO because he was late and still arrived 15 minutes after nine, and with the bands on he couldn't do a proper teleport. To his surprise though, John was sitting next to Sakura on a bench. John though immediately stood up upon seeing Lee approach, "Sakura has agreed to help us. The errand that we're going to do is in a different dimension that is far outside the range of a single long range teleport, and I am guessing that you still can't teleport that far anyway due to the cuffs, as well as setting up a relay to multiple safe points takes a good bit of time under normal circumstances, so Sakura here said she would make us a portal for you so you can get to where we are going." Sakura, "I'm glad I can help you." John turn to Lee, "This will be good experience for you. Our destination is the motherland, Mid-Childa, home to the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Headquarters. It's basically the capital of the largest known federation of planets in the universe. I have some General things to take care of their and I thought that you may like to see it, the part of my life that I had to keep secret from you and your siblings until now. Think of it as 'Bring your son to work day'."

Lee had to admit, he was more than a bit curious about it. Of course by now, he had seen a bit of it both on the ASURA and on Fretica, and his father had given him a detailed explanation of what the Time-Space Administration Bureau was, but he still had a hard time getting his head around the scope, and thus what John's place in it was. This was especially true now that his father had gotten his promotion to General, which was apparently one of the highest possible positions a member of the TSAB could achieve. He had even tried to work out the scale of the amount of people that by his father's account must be under his command, but it made his head hurt when John said that it encompassed more than the population of the entire Earth more than 100 times over. The scale was just beyond his imagination, though John did state that only a very, very small fraction ever reported to him directly, and that there were an almost incalculable number of subdivisions even in his one section that took care of the ultimate command structure. In any case, he would be able to see it for himself in a moment as John was telling Sakura to prepare the portal and handed her the coordinates for her device to translate. She chanted, "0000-0000-0000-0055-8795 Mid-Childa main west gate, OPEN" Just like their journey to Fretica, a wierd magic circle appeared vertically in front of them, with Lee seeing a slightly fuzzy image of a large building in the center of it. John, "And with that, we're off." John walked through the portal, quickly followed by Lee.

They reappeared in front of the large building they had seen from the other side. Lee could now see that it was in the middle of a wall, which extended as far as the eye could see to each side. John though simply turned to the portal from which they had just existed to address Sakura on the other side, "Thanks Sakura, you don't need to keep it open, we're coming back a different way." Sakura nodded and with that, the Portal disappeared into thin air. Lee though took a good few moments to look around. This was after all only the second time that Lee had ever been to a planet other than his own, and all that happened within the last week. What was more, unlike that time, this time he was clearly in a place that Lee would define as distinctly alien. Just from a quick glance around him, he saw structures and technology that he couldn't even imagine being from Earth like those weird floating semi-transparent screens he had seen a few times now, which were literally everywhere he looked. It was an entirely new sensation for him. John gave him a few minutes to let it work its way through his system, but they did have a schedule to keep so he did interrupt his son's observing, "As exciting as this all is, shall we get going?"

They entered the building for Lee to find that it was much like an airport. There were security checks, scanners and more, though Lee could only recognize them as such from their use, as the actual objects themselves were outside his wheelhouse. Lee though was starting to think that like an actual airport, it was going to take forever when his father motioned to him to follow him. They went up to a door that said "OFFICAL T.S.A.B. Officers only. They entered to find another, considerably smaller Security check station, with significantly less people there. By the time they got into a line, there was only one person ahead of them. That said, the real event happened when it was their turn. When the guard asked for identification, the security guard's eyes widened as he realized he was in the presence of a General after seeing John's identification, and as fast as humanly possible assumed a deep bow, "I apologize deeply for not recognizing you sooner sir. Please go ahead." John simply waved it off, telling the agent that it was to be expected as it had yet to be officially announced publicly even if he was already listed in the system as he walked through. No one questioned it though since besides his identification, John was sure that news of General Ferro's retirement had already spread through the ranks and was common knowledge, and the fact that he was also well known as his immediate second in command was also public knowledge.

Lee was about to follow when he was stopped by the guard, "Name and Ranking please." John though just turned around at this, "And this here's my son Lee and unfortunately he isn't part of the T.S.A.B., at least not yet, but I'm hoping that won't be a problem today, will it?" The guard made another hasty apology and let Lee through. They continued through the building to a registry desk for Lee since even under John's authority, he was still officially a regular civilian. Thus he was signed in and given an I.D. card, which he noticed said, "Special Guest. General Level." John explained that everything for entry into T.S.A.B. headquarters was super-regulated for obvious reasons. Thus he needed some kind of ID for identification and basically stated that he was admitted under the direct authority of a General. John semi-joked that if Lee got into any trouble, he could probably just show that card and any TSAB agent in the vicinity would probably start worshiping him at a minimum.

They exited the check-in building, which Lee immediately found was actually located quite high up, with the inside of the walled city actually being recessed quite a bit, thus giving Lee quite a bird's eye view. It just stretched out in every direction beyond the horizon, with Lee sure that it had to be several times the size of even as massive a city as Tokyo. When he told his father this though, John almost laughed, "More than just a few times actually. It's actually a good 10000 times bigger than Tokyo if not larger, taking up much of the continent, and is significantly more concentrated in most districts as well. The T.S.A.B. has so many departments, divisions and offices that they needed a complex this big just to serve as a general Headquarters for it all, not to mention the innumerable number of mages the T.S.B.A. had. Each of the Sections also has a bunch of dorms for Mages on standby here at headquarters as well as the many separate training academy's residential sections, at least for the five that are here at headquarters, which is actually a miniscule amount of the total academies under TSAB jurisdiction, so that also took up a lot of room. Then there are the normal people who lived here since even with all that, this is still a city. And for all that, less than two percent of all TSAB personnel are actually stationed on this planet, and in truth almost half of them are in the other cities that are on Mid-Childa that the TSAB created, though this is the only one that has the designation as Main Headquarters. In truth though, there are a large amount of other TSAB bases and cities on other worlds, not to mention a few very large artificial satellites, that the TSAB also stations people on, and that's before you even account for any of the on-world offices and bases the TSAB maintains on affiliated worlds." Once again, the sheer scope of the TSAB was once again giving Lee quite a headache, so he simply accepted his father at his word.

Having said all that, as John had already stated, they had a tight schedule today, and so John simply grabbed Lee's shoulder, teleporting them both to the front of a huge building with many weird ships going in and out of it, much to Lee's facination. "First on our agenda for today, my Crew is moving into my new ship, the ARTEMIS. It's a proto-type flagship for a new class of ship in general, clean off the belt. This is supposed to be the most modern ship currently in the T.S.A.B. and I get to captain it. The ASURA, faithful as she's been, is actually one of the oldest models in the entire of Section 5, with the TSAB actually in the process of phasing out its entire ship class over the next 10 years, and so from what I hear it's going to be dismantled. It also didn't hurt obviously that you yourself did a good number on her, and combined with its age it really isn't in solid enough condition anymore to keep on active duty. They only repaired it to operational condition because its replacement isn't planned to be ready until next year when it was originally planned to be retired. But enough about that, we should alert the staff that we've arrived. I believe that they are expecting us." And so they entered, John immediately heading to the desk to confirm his arrival. The secretary made a call and just a few minutes later, a muscular looking man came in.

"So you the new General for section 5 then," he said in a scruffy voice. "Damn right I am," John replied, almost equally forcefully, but in a sort of playful way. The man loosened up, "Oh good, you don't seem to be one of them strict, formal, workaholic types. No offense to them, but I can't stand all this formal crap I have to deal with day in and day out. Oh yeah, before I forget, I'm the chief mechanic for T.S.A.B. headquarters Bay 3, Allen Watson. I was told to meet you personally." John, "And I'm Johnathan Cross, very good to meet you. And let me tell you I know what you mean on the formality front, I forbade most of it on my previous ship. It makes me feel all old and such." They were caught laughing like life long friends when Allen finally caught a glimpse of Lee in the back, "And who is this Cross?" John, "This here's one of my prides and joy, Lee." Allen looked at Lee for a second. "Oh, I've heard about this. So this is supposed to be Mr. Miracle Mage? Not at all how I pictured him honestly, but books and covers and all that." John though looked a bit surprised at the assertion, "Where did you hear about him? That was relatively recent." Allen, "Actually, it was General Grayson who told me when he had your ASURA towed in here. I told him he had to tell me the juicy details if he wanted me to keep it hush hush and put a rush on it at the same time, especially since I had to move another ship out the hanger to get it on a workstation that fast." John, "Oh, well then, I guess it's alright, just try not to spread it around, I'm trying to keep it quiet for now. That said, this is in fact the super mage in question who so far has destroyed a battle ship and an additional whole base and created a Dimensional Shift, and all while we were just trying to find out his Mage Level." Allen laughed, "I like the kid already. Just don't destroy my favorite hanger, okay?" Lee nodded saying that he wouldn't demolish the good man's hanger while looking more than a bit sheepish.

Allen, "Okay then, lets get down to business, the ship. Your timing happens to be optimal, we were performing the finishing checks on it for preflight and they should be ready for by the time we get there. A note, this thing is brand spanking new, never moved by its own engines before, so while all the engines have obviously been tested, the ignition with the whole system assembled has never been turned on, we left that all for you to do. Thought it would be fun to get a perfectly new ride, you know, and some people are superstitious about that stuff. If, in the unlikely event you find some minor problem, as this is a proto-type, please alert us so we can fix it. Otherwise, we will never know how to put this baby up for general use. And so, without further ado, let's go check her out."

John looked excited at the prospect of being the first to turn on the ignition, stating to Lee that it was considered good luck for the ship's first captain to do so. They left the office and followed Allen through the building, passing numerous ships in various states of either being constructed or fixed, it was hard for Lee to tell. Looking closer, there were teams of workers on each one. There seem to be hundreds if not thousands of workers tinkering with the ships. More impressively, the majority of them were floating in mid-air along with the ships, though John pointed out that this was due to an anti-gravity field being produced by a machine since aviation magic, while it could be performed by any mage C level and up, was immensely tiring and magically exhaustive until you got to the A level, and roughly around the AA level for it to be fully negligible, as at that level between one's natural magic output and the amount of magic they generated naturally from their linker core was enough to theoretically keep them flying indefinitely, at least in terms of magic output. Thus the gravity field was used since mages of such levels were the vast minority, even here at Headquarters.

Allen led them to an elevator and placed his card to the reader for security purposes, followed by punching in a passcode and finally an eye scan, followed by making a small orb of magic that was scanned as well. "This is a top security lab it's in for development so it has top security obviously." The elevator went down a quite a few levels before it finally stopped. When they exited, they finally laid eyes on what they had come for. In front of them, there was a huge docking station where am equally huge ship was stationed. It was easily 5 times as long as it was tall, and overall it was clearly a size larger than the ASURA. It was light steely blue in color, and the front of the ship was designed with two parallel barrel-like sections, which ended in points that were a nice ways apart so there was an empty space in between. There were also four large cones on the back which Lee assumed were some kind of thrusters from what little Lee knew of rockets back on Earth. John though looked like a kid in a toy shop, "Wow, what a beauty."

Around the ship, there were at least a few hundred people doing some kind of last-minute check-ups to make sure everything was okay. That said, but a few minutes later, every one of the work crew staff receded and landed beside the ship except for one that approached them, saluting to John, "Benjamin Dyer, Second Head of project ARTEMIS, a pleasure to meet you. I am proud to say that we have just finished the final check-up of the ship and everything comes up code green. She is ready to go." He bowed and left to talk with his workers. Allen, "That's Ben, he always seems to be too busy to talk to. Not the most sociable person here but he is a mad genius when it comes to inter-dimensional anything. He is a big help to have around this joint. But now for the fun part, let's give this ship a whirl, shall we?" They walked past the crew, who bowed to them as they entered the ship through a very small service door. Lee was told that a standard TSAB combat ship only had five physical entrances. One was a service door or a door someone used when no one was on the inside and was thus only unlocked when there was no one inside the ship and all other doors were locked, such as right now. The second was a door on top for flight mage scrambling, a drop door on the bottom for quick ground mage scrambling/releasing of smaller crafts for ships with an interior bay, followed by a door on either side if the center of the main body for docking connections that were the most frequently used doors on most ships. The only other way to enter a ship was to connect to its teleport relay, which had to be confirmed from the inside for security purposes.

They entered to find everything spotless. Lee for his part felt a little intrusive on this new ship but his father said that he should feel at home on it as long as John was helming it. Allen thus started the tour of the ship, giving them explanations of its new features ect… It's mage quarters or the rooms where regular crewmembers stayed in were modified, sized up slightly using new some new space expansion technology, most of these details going right over Lee's head, though he understood some parts such as the crew rooms being improved for more comfort. Each one now had a couch; small coffee table and computer station as well, something the ASURA apparently did not. There were now three mixed-use halls plus a private meeting room instead of just one main hall like the Asura, feasible due to the ships increased size. It also had a separate simulation room apart from the on board training facilities so that you could practice what to do in non-battle situations and other things. There were also now two separate training rooms, both bigger than the ASURA's and a larger control room for them. They also had spectator seating (another new thing) so that crewmembers could watch and learn or just to have an exhibition match, and the rooms scanner system, now also connected to the ships much larger one, under John's influence, was raised so that it could handle up to a 5 billion power level and that the rooms simulator, combat system and regenerator had all been improved to handle significantly higher levels of magic than the standard, apparently something that John had requested when he had been advocating for a replacement for the Asura.

Despite the fact that he had only learned that he would be a General a few days ago, apparently the ARTEMIS was always going to be John's ship. He had only learned the full details of this though the previous morning when he had made a trip to see how General Ferro was doing, learning in the process that even without his current health problems it was always General Ferro's intention to make John the next General in the very near future. In that vein, he had requested that this ship be prepared for John in preparation of that. Thus the fact that it was pretty much done to John's specs wasn't coincidence, since it was always General Ferro's intention to retire before the end of the year. In any case, this meant that not just the training rooms, but many of the ship's specs ended up coming off of John's wish list and had been in development specifically for him for years, a sentiment that wasn't lost on John. He knew that General Ferro had always liked him and trusted him, as he did him, but still even John was a little emotional at what Ferro had set up for him. After all, how often was one effectively gifted a whole warship. He could only imagine the strings his General had to pull to set something up like this after all.

In any case, they continued on. Next were the more important living quarters. John had designed them himself back when he had been making his replacement ship request. That said, he had meant most of them as somewhat of a joke in order to advocate for at least improved living quarters over the abysmal standard that most ships had for general crew. But as they said, aim for the stars, you might get the moon and all that. Thus, when he was shown that they had basically followed his specs to the letter, he was more than a bit surprised.

Beyond the obviously improved standard quarters for regular personnel, it had three special quarters. The first was like a large apartment. It had a living room, two bedrooms, bathroom, computer station, living room and kitchen and closets. This was for any special guests that were invited on the ship. The second had a larger living room, office, private study, kitchen, large, luxurious bathroom with large Jacuzzi tub and two bed rooms, one of them was a master bedroom with a large mirror, bathroom connection, large lamp and bedside table complete with a large walk-in closet and a computer station. This room was designed both for and by Amy, since John had expected her to come with him to his next ship back when he was still the Captain-Commander, but since she advocated to come with him, it worked out just as well. In truth once again, it had mostly been them having fun when talking about what they would want on a new ship and wrote down whatever they could think of. John still couldn't believe that they had actually put in the Jacuzzi tub though…

The final room was John's and it was the biggest. Allen, "We followed your diagram exactly to the letter, but I personally don't know why you wanted some of the stuff you asked for." They entered through a rather large office with large desk and big chair and it had a full computer set up, minus the screen since it just appeared, and the other works, but through a door behind that was the real General's living quarters. It started with a huge living room, the opposite wall, which was at least 15 feet high was a giant window looking out of the side of the ship. There were four couches in a square in the center and in the middle; there was a large coffee table. There was a large TV screen, which John had requested since he thought they looked classy despite the intangible screens being more convenient, with a row of large chairs in front of it and there was a circle of large armchairs near the window as well. Then, if you went through the door on the right, there was a full kitchen exactly like the one in their house, minus the windows. There was also a large dining room and no less than 6 bedrooms. One master bedroom with a king-sized bed, large TV screen and walk-in closet. Two guest bedrooms with full beds and smaller TV's and a regular closet and dresser. The real surprise was the last three bedrooms. They looked just like the bedrooms Lee, Sarah and Sora had at home, down to the closet design and dressers and everything. John, "For my family of course, though I admit I'm impressed with the level of detail they put in from the pictures given the short notice. I only added that request after I heard I was getting a new ship a few days ago." Allen, "The smaller stuff like this is easy, honestly, it's the various systems and power management that take the most time after the exterior hull and interior framing. Interior design is actually the easiest part overall." There was also a private study, 2 luxurious bathrooms like Amy's though they both had more practical showers in place of the jacuzzi tub. That said, beyond everything else, to Lee's great surprise, there was a perfect replica of their family dojo to scale, with the sole exception of the windows. John, "Got to keep in shape and it just wouldn't feel right without it."

Lee was super impressed when Allen flagged them, "One more room to go." He led them to the office where they entered and went to John's nameplate on the desk. He flipped it opened to reveal a button that he pushed. A piece of wall just disappeared to be replaced by a door, which they entered. Inside, it was like a mini control room of some kind. It had some kind of computer thing with 7 floating screens, a separate, private teleport bay, and a room with a large screen taking up all of the front wall and a weird looking kind of steering wheel with a strange physical touch computer screen beside it. Allen, "The private Command center. From here, you can take manual control of the entire ship including the piloting. The screen beside it will give you the other options. It can also be voice controlled if you set it to. This is the Private General Control room, customary on any General's private vessel. Hope you like it and with the computer room, you can see most any security camera of the ship inside or out. The teleport bay here is also as good as the main one and is linked directly with any device the general registers with the system, in other words yours. Those registered can access this teleporter from the outside without any other equipment, so be careful who you give the keys to and all that." John looked amazed at his little secret base on his own ship, "I already have a use for this room. Yes, this will be a fine place to hide from Amy when I need a break from the paperwork." He trailed off into more thought. But then Lee had a thought, "But if all you need to do is hit a hidden switch, won't Amy find it eventually?" John paused for a moment, but then Allen clarified, "You don't need to worry about that. The switch won't work except to a registered user." Lee, "But then why have a hidden switch at all." Allen smiled, "Because its classy."

The final part of John's Special Quarters was a second entrance door not from his office. It was actually something that even John admitted that he had never seen before, an automatic portal, which took the form of an actual door. It could, with a registered device, access and be accessed from almost anywhere in the ship that had a registered doorway so the general and other authorized parties could move around the ship quickly. With this special portal door, he showed them the new updated medical bay that was twice as big as the one on the ASURA and was able to support most full medical needs like a regular hospital, which apparently meant that the ship also qualified for medical duties as well in emergency situations. The new Teleport Bay, which had been expanded, had a new interference guidance system to allow teleportation into very minor dimensional shifts like what Lindy had done, a system that had just been developed, so the ARTIMIS was the first ship to ever be equipped with it. That said, like Lindy it was one way, so Allen warned to use it cautiously, and it wasn't nearly as good as Lindy at getting through, so it was really for getting through minor interference more than anything.

When Allen had shown them everything else, he brought them to the brains of the ship, "Okay, time for the big one." He put his hand on a panel and a large door opened. "This here is her Bridge. If need-be, this room can run anything on the ship down to toilet flushing, though why you would need to do that is beyond me. There is a collapsing top deck for easier wartime commanding and two barrel-cannons. That is one of the true purposes for the two-barrel spoke front of the ship beyond the balance dynamics. They are actually Magic Compression Cannons. And they're upgraded from your previous ship, being class 5 cannons instead of class 4. Each one is powerful enough to destroy a larger asteroid in just one shot."

Allen suddenly looked a little sullen, as if he was about to drop the other shoe, "There is one last thing I need to tell you, but it's under secrecy level red so be careful whom you tell this too. I actually personally would ask that you didn't tell anyone about it, as I doubt you will even ever find a chance to use it, but as it's here I have to at least tell you." He suddenly glanced over at Lee. It was obvious he felt uncomfortable talking about it in front of him. John looked a little worried, "I'll certify that Lee can hear it, so nothing will come back on you. So, what is this top secret info about my ship?" Lee listened on curiously.

Allen, "If I had a say, I would have thrown away this data along with the parts before they got within spitting distance but the higher ups said it was necessary. This is the biggest secret of the ARTEMIS. This is the real reason for the double separated barrel on the front as well as the oversized stabilizers. This ship has a Magical Energy Cannon that has been codenamed The Light of ARTEMIS. This cannon is like no other. Below the deck of this ship, there are Magical Compression Tanks about the size of a large truck. Taking into account the amount of power that can be placed in a single Cartridge, or Mage enhancer, imagine one 1000's of times bigger and 10 times as compressed. And there are two of them on board." John wasn't getting it, "So What do these Compression devices used to start the cannon have to do with the Magic Energy Cannon's danger? Don't most ships have some form of M.E.C.'s?" After finishing the sentence, John's eyes opened to realization. "You don't mean to say that the-." "That's right, they're not a power source like on the ASURA. They are the ammunition which it fires," finished Allen in a low voice. John, "And what are the levels of each cartridge?" Allen, "As I said, they are about the size of a truck versus something the size of a film cartridge. They said that it was around 2,500 times as big and 10 times as compressed." John looked at his ship, then looked at Allen in fury and yelled, "How can they put something like that on any ship, let alone mine. What if one accidentally went off."

Lee was confused now and so he asked his father, "So what is so bad about these large bullets, doesn't that just give the ship more power? Isn't that a good thing for a warship?" John looked over at Lee with a look of complete distrust in his new ship, "Lee, I am only going to say this once, it isn't my ideal conversation. Some mages use a Magic enhancer called a Cartridge in their devices for boosts of power. I know what you are thinking, that isn't their real power in all but your wrong, and a normal cartridge is just a different form of their own power, like an attack, that a mage uses. The 'bullets' so to speak are like cartridges and their device is this Cannon. One is 2,500 times as large and 10 times as compressed. Since a normal standard cartridge contains roughly a 5 million-power boost, multiply the compression makes each unit worth 50 million times 2500 times the mass along with the depression rate of the attack for being compressed and suddenly, released, it would equal about 75 billion-power level when all is set and done. That is more then 25 times that of your strongest attack. And since magic power is measured exponentially, I imagine that it would be enough to wipe out an entire whole dimension if fired incorrectly and they expect me to keep it on my ship." Lee came to reality as he thought about what this cannon really was. Allen, "Of course, if fired correctly, it would only destroy a single planet and cause a minor Dimensional Shift." John, "Exactly. I don't want a weapon and ammo on board capable of such raw, unnecessary devastation. What possible use could I have for that?"

In an effort to cheer John up, Allen told him the rest, "Well to be honest I agree with you. I get strong ships are a good thing, but there has to be a practical upper limit, and I agree this is magnitudes above that. Thus, if it is of any consolation too you, as there was only myself and the Crew chief who knew about this cannon and worked on it, I did a little tinkering to hopefully put your mind at ease. 1st, I had a 10th level Reversion seal placed on each Cartridge so until that is removed, those chunks of metals can't do nothing, even if the ship explodes and the second is that unlike the original plan with a standard three-person lateral firing mechanism, I altered it to something that I feel is more secure. It is set so that only you can fire it, and only you, absolutely no one else can with zero exceptions. I have made that change irreversible without literally taking the ship apart, so even if the ship is transferred to another crew, they'll be shit out of luck. It will need this key," he handed John a case with a silver key in it, "to both break the seals on the ammo and fire the cannon." He waved his hand over the captain's chair and two keyholes appeared. "These are the three locks. The first one releases the seal on the first shot and the other one releases the second shot. After either one has been unlocked," he tapped them both," a third key hole will appear," a third, red keyhole appeared over the first two in mid-air. "This is the final step. If you insert that key into that lock and turn it to the left, the cannon will fire BUT if you turn it to the right, the entire ship will self-destruct using the cartridges as detonation charges. I will leave what to do with this key up to you, as only you can unlock any of this and only with that exact key. There are no others and I made it in such a way that it cannot be duplicated. I really was tempted to destroy it before giving it to you, but rather than risk being made to create another, I thought it best to make just the one." All the locks disappeared into thin air again.

John looked at Allen for a second, then took a deep sigh, "Thanks, that makes me feel better again. Now I can freely love this ship again." Allen was relieved to hear his work was appreciated, "Okay John, start her up. This ship is equipped with the latest in aviation assist AI. If you set the ship to 'A' level command, you can control everything from the captain's chair." John walked over to his Captain chair. When he sat down, a screen appeared, "Ship owners' device, MYSTIC FURY detected, main computers, booting, systems starting, going into immediate standby, waiting for further instructions." A bunch of intangible screens appeared in front of John; each one confirming different aspects of the ship's different stats and conditions. Also, all of the screens at the different stations turned on and the different lights started flashing. After a few minutes that were filled with all sorts of beeping and whirring and other mechanical and computer noises as it went through its startup procedures, the ships computer spoke, "All systems are green, engines are at standby, ready for launch." Another screen labeled "Docking Controls" appeared in front of John. He then spoke into the panel and it could be heard through the speakers on the outside of the ship, "This is General Cross in private combat ship ARTEMIS going on freelance test-flight 001." He waited until the hanger director gave him the all clear, meaning that no one was in the way. Suddenly, small hover engines under the ship started up and the ship started to hover, though surprisingly Lee barely felt it inside the ship, something about standard shock and force absorbers according to Allen. John then pressed a button on the panel labeled "open gate." The hanger gate opened in front of them. 2 small engines in the middle of the 4 main ones started up according to the screen next to John. The ships computer confirmed its status, "Primary engines are all green." John, "Release all docking measures. Ready." Lee and Allen got into two of the crewmembers' seats. "GO!" He slammed a green button on his chairs armrest. The ship started moving forward at a steady speed. It was out of the gate. "Activating 'A' level controls." A plane-like steering wheel came out of the floor along with a panel with breaks; throttle lever and a bunch of other stuff. John took the wheel and pulled back to make the ship rise, still parallel to the ground. When it was clear of the city limits, John stopped the ship in mid-air. "Activating main engines," the 4 large engines started up. After a minute, the ship's computer responded, "main engines are ready." John, "Okay, brace yourselves." He pressed a blue button on the armrest. All the displays disappeared. "Main controls online."

John shoved the throttle up to half of the max. The ship shot forward through the atmosphere, though Lee did note that the sci-fi movie he had seen seemed to had gotten it right as he did see the exterior of the ship heat up a bit from leaving the atmosphere. Before Lee realized it though, John had the throttle up even higher; they were speeding through space at high speeds. Lee was in total awe and shock observing the different planets as they passed them, especially given the fact that a few months ago something like this only occurred to him as science fiction. After a few minutes though, Allen looked up from the diagnostics logs he was perusing, "Good, pre-dimensional systems all check good. Now we just need to test the Dimension Drive and were all good." John already assumed as much as he started the procedure to do just that. "Okay, Dimension-drive, fully functioning." On the outside of the ship, it was glowing. "Good, 10 seconds to dimensional warp." A large white circle appeared in front of the ship. "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" The ship shot through the white circle and for a moment, it felt like what Lee could only assumed was the sensation of going at light speed. But it was over just as soon as it started as they soon entered what Lee was told was the Dimensional Sea, different from the dimensional shade, it was a place that surrounded all other dimensions, or more accurately contained them. Allen, "And the Dimension-Drive is all green. That's pretty much it form the formal first run tests. We can head back now."

John moved to turn the ship around, but then paused, having an interesting idea, "Just a minute, I have one more thing I want to do." He looked at Lee, "Come over here Lee." Lee walked over. To his surprise, his dad got out of his chair, "We Generals don't usually drive, even if as the captain of a ship I had to learn how, but in any case, you take the wheel. Besides, I want to register you in the system anyway so we can kill two birds with one stone." Lee looked shocked but at his father's insistence, "Um, but don't you need some kind of fancy training and stuff to pilot a whole ship? I mean I'm still years away from getting my junior motorcycle license, let alone anything like this." John, "Ah, don't worry about it too much, just trust me." And so Lee, very apprehensively, sat hesitantly in the Chair where a screen labeled "registration" appeared almost instantaneously. The ship's computer suddenly popped up a message, "unidentified user. System lock."

The ship suddenly came to a hard stop, so much that Lee actually felt it a bit, and at the same time all the screens around him and across the whole bridge seemingly turned off. John though knew what to do, "Administration panel." A screen appeared before him. He entered a password, and then pressed a button on it and the ship started up again. In sync with this action, the screen in front of Lee changed which prompted the system to speak again, "New Pilot registered, please enter I.D." Lee entered his name and then the screen disappeared. The system, "Administrator, please input security level, password and rank for New Pilot Lee Cross." John thought for a moment, and then said as he pressed the buttons, "Rank, General Guest/Associate. Security clearance and level, Rank is Full Administrator, Password-," he paused and a small screen just big enough for his hand appeared in front of him. John, "Lee, place your hand on the screen." Lee did so and the screen lit up for a bit. Then the computer said, "Confirmed signature of Adminster rank authorized private-pilot Lee Cross. Now finalized into the System, Welcome." Everything went back to normal and as he felt Haruno around his neck light up and blink for a moment before, out of nowhere, Haruno projected a floating screen showing some sort of identification information appeared that his dad said was his I.D. and security clearance for the ship. Basically, it was a sort of key to the ship. That said, what was most surprising to Lee was the fact that Haruno could make one of those weird floating displays, as he ahd never seen Haruno do that before.

John though didn't give him much time to think about it, giving him the rundown of his new credentials, "Effectively, you can do anything I can with this ship. I entered you as a top-level Administrator able to do basically anything except supersede me. Basically, you are logged with my privileges and ranking on this ship's system." "Um, is that really okay." John, "Don't worry about it. It's not like you're planning to take it out for a joyride or anything, right?" Lee at this just nodded. Allen for his part didn't see anything wrong with it, even going so far as to say that the TSAB itself didn't actually even have an official minimum pilot age. In any case, he started to show Lee some of the basic controls. As it was currently set up now, it wasn't nearly as difficult as Lee had thought. Almost all the complicated stuff was being done automatically, though that did limit the operations of the ship significantly to mostly mere basic flight controls, so all he needed to know was how to turn and the speed and brake controls. Sort of like a videogame. Of course, this was the reason that Allen and John would let a total beginner attempt to fly a ship, given that they had gotten so sophisticated that they basically did fly themselves. Also, at the level of automation that was set right now, the system would prevent any action Lee would do that could harm the ship or anything else. Thus, Lee grabbed the wheel and turned the ship 180 degrees and started heading back.

He drove it through the dimensional gate that was still open and back into Mid-Childan Space. He then flew the ship, a concept that was starting to sink in that he was actually doing, back into the hanger and docked it as well with the help of the various assisted pilot features, though noticeably this time it was in the main hanger as opposed to the higher security bay they had started in. It was only after the ship had landed that Lee got up though, "Damn, that was fun. Never thought I would drive a spaceship before a motorcycle." John, "I'm just glad that I could give you a fun time. But I think you may also have a future as a space pilot if you wanted too." Allen laughed, "Maybe. Next time though let's see how he does without the training wheels." Lee and John started for the exit. Allen had to stay on board to collect the data from the computer though from the various tests that they had performed. Lee and John used the main docking entrance to exit the ship this time. When they got off and back to the hanger on the outside of the ship, they were greeted by John's Crew who had arrived during their quick test flight. That said, while the rest of the crew simply saluted their General, one overly perky girl ran over to them directly, "All members here and accounted for Cap-i-tan sir." John replied, "And good to see you too Amy, though I said not to call me that in public." Amy just sheepishly grinned at him. John pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the behemoth of a warship behind him, "This is our new ship and may I be the first to say it is impressive, but I'll let it speak for itself so for now, I'll just say look forward to it…"

After John greeted his crew, he told them that they were to move in and were to each log themselves into the system. He then asked Amy and a few others to come with him for the higher-level officer registration with the ship's systems. Meanwhile, John asked Lee to go onto the ASURA, which was now parked beside the ARTEMIS, and collect all his packed stuff and put it in his New quarters on the ARTEMIS. And so, Lee entered the ASURA and gathered all his dad's boxes. Luckily, he was able to carry it all in one load by moving it magically, something he only realized when he saw that a few others were doing the same. That said, he also realized that he was moving quite a bit more than them, his father having larger quarters and thus more room for stuff, and so was wondering how he was going to get through the entire of the new ship with all of when he remembered that his dad had made him as good as an administrator. He then took out Haruno, "Can you patch me into Dad's private teleport bay?" Haruno, "Accessing, one moment please." He waited for but a moment before a white circle appeared under him and all the boxes he was bringing. Haruno, "Activating teleport."

He was teleported conveniently into his father's private control room. Upon exiting said control room with the boxes in tow, placing them down in the living room area of his father's new quarters before he got started placing his dad's stuff where it said to on each box. That said, it only dawned on Lee after he started that this might be a lengthy and tedious process, with Lee starting to think that this was the real reason that he was asked to come along. It took him the better part of 3 hours to unpack it all but he finished around 2 in the afternoon, with John only arriving during the last half an hour to sort some of his own packing out, having been bogged down with the large amount of work that came from transferring ships, and soon had to leave again. That said, he was able to at least tell Lee that they had the on-board cafeteria set up and serving lunch already, and so Lee decided to at least go get something to eat. To speed things up, he used the special portal door that he had access to use and connected it to the cafeteria. He told himself to thank his father later for giving him full access on the ship, as it was much more convenient than having to walk through the dozens of people all moving onto the ship which made the hallways more cramped then they already were.

He came out of a door in the cafeteria and got a bite to eat, meeting up with Amy as he got on line who invited them to eat together. Amy started a conversation, "So what do you think of this new ship?" Lee, "I wouldn't know what to compare it to but to me, it looks awesome. Have you seen your room yet?" Amy, "No, I was just about to head there after I finished eating. I have been swamped with work because I just became a Captain Commander. It is a lot of paperwork and desk stuff that makes you feel sick to your stomach. I think I finally understand some of your father's pain, and to think I used to call him a procrastinator" Lee told her about the other aspects of the ship that he had heard about from Allen. After lunch, Lee used the Portal door to get them right outside of Amy's room, much to Amy's surprise, who while having access to the feature herself hadn't used it yet. The door disappeared behind them when Amy commented on how convenient it was.

That said, that was nothing compared to her reaction when she saw her quarters, for she was nothing short of ecstatic. It was so much bigger than her one on the Asura. That room was just that, a small room and separate bathroom with just a cramped shower, toilet and sink, and even that was considered a luxury on a combat ship since she didn't have to use the communal facilities. This one had a few separate rooms plus a luxury bathroom which combined Amy mentioned was larger than the apartment she apparently grew up in. More than that, she was surprised and elated when she realized that it had everything she wanted, even the joke items that she remembered putting down on a request form almost three years ago with John when they were bored on some random assignment, right down to the Jacuzzi tub, "I know I asked for one, but I never thought anyone would take it seriously…" She started moving her stuff in right away. Lee helped her a little as well as he had nothing better to do.

Around 4, Lee heard an announcement by his father, "We will be launching in 40 minutes, please prepare for the ARTEMIS's first official departure. Thank you." Lee had to be impressed, as big as the ASURA and ARTEMIS were, he had thought that it should have taken much longer to just change ships, but Amy actually told him that this was pretty standard, "Besides, we had all the last few days to pack up the ASURA, so all we needed to do was actually move everything onto the ARTEMIS, though most of it will have to be fully unpacked later since I'm sure we just put it in the storage bay." In any case, after John's announcement, Lee could almost palpably feel a shift in the general mood of everyone on board. People were running around the ship, trying to get to their stations, preparing for their first official launch. Lee himself got a message from his dad to go to the bridge, saying that he needed him to do a favor for him, and so Lee did.

John turned to Lee as he saw him enter the bridge, "Ah good Lee, you're here. I thought it would be a good moral booster if you piloted the ship." Lee, "Really, again? Are you sure that there aren't any regulations against this?" John, "Not that I can think of, and besides I'm a General now, so don't sweat the minor things. Besides, I doubt anyone here is going to complain, right guys?" The entire bridge crew turned around, grinning, "No Sir! We would be honored to take orders from the captain's kid." And so Lee relented, even though he was nervous. He got into the chair and his dad showed him what each of the screens was for and what to look for on them and Lee learned it pretty quickly since it was actually much simpler than he gave it credit for. As John explained, as the captain with a crew on board, he didn't really pilot the ship or do any of the complicated stuff, but more directed it, which was much easier, with the dedicated bridge crew taking care of the actual specifics.

After everyone entered his or her station, Lee started the pre-flight sequence like his dad had said to. He found it relatively easy to do them, given that it was really just reading off a checklist that literally appeared in front of him, with other people doing the hard parts and simply confirming that they were taken care of. In fact the only real action he did was press a button that apparently unlocked the actual propulsion systems, starting the ship up. A crewmember was confirming everything out loud, "Hover system all good, preliminary engines ready. We're good to go at any time Captain Cross." Lee was taken aback at being called Captain Cross, but went with it. He hit the green confirmation button and the actual pilot launched the ARTEMIS out of the gate. They made the ship rise until it was out of city sky limits, "Preparing to fire main engines." A crewmember confirmed, "Starting main engines. Power output at 60%. They're in the green." Lee, "Good, then lets move out."

The ship left Mid-Childa's atmosphere quickly enough, and flew a good distance into space before the final part of their launching could take place, "Okay, activate Dimensional Drive and head for the Dimensional Sea". Upon his command, they activated the dimensional drive and same as before, they exited the large white portal and found themselves in the strange dimension of swirling lights. In any case, after he was done, his father turned to him, "Nice job Lee, well done. I'm being honest, you should consider joining the T.S.A.B. when you get older, if for no other reason than you look good in the captain's seat. That said, I'm already prepared to bet that the council is already plotting some way of getting you to join given your natural power and combat aptitude, but we'll hold off on that discussion for another time. In any case, now that were cruising, why don't you let Amy take over? It looks like she's itching to get into that chair." Lee relinquished control of the ship to Amy who wasted no time at all situating herself comfortably in said chair as she started looking at all the new features.

John led Lee to the larger training room and set it to aerial combat simulator. He knew he said that Lee could take a day off, but he could see Lee had some pent-up energy from the excitement of the day and frankly training was always a good way to relieve it. The new ships simulator was much more advanced than the ASURA's. This one actually altered the space in the room to match the simulation unlike the ASURA, which just did a hologram and was constrained to the size of the room. Thus on the sky setting, it actually be a facsimile of being in the air. They could fly as far as they wanted in any direction and not hit the room's wall unless they purposely charged to the absolute boundaries of the room, though given its maximum expandable size that was unlikely. They entered and Lee resumed his training with the magic weights. That said, he realized why his father said that taking some time off was important, as with the rest he had gotten from not training, he felt that all his magic was feeling much smoother than it had been, even with the weights on. He was able to fire his GLOWING SHOOTER at near full speeds finally and was finally able to erect a shield, which would enable him to charge in with a defense against his father. He was still unable to use SHINNING BUSTER but his flight speed was roughly back to normal again, and beyond that he was able to use the even more powerful FLASH BURST, though it took a while to create, as it still needed an incantation. John said there were a few attacks that were not possible without an incantation by design and that this was probably one of them. They trained for about a few hours while waiting for the ship to get into the Earth's Dimensional Space, though apparently the dimensional currents, though Lee was still a bit shaky on that subject, were very much in their favor, since John said that even on a good day, it could take almost double their current estimated time to get between the Earth and Mid-Childa, and even longer when they had to go a roundabout way which was why Sakura had been a great boon with her portals on their trip there. Between that though and the given the time difference, they would be arriving just after their normal dinner time.

When they arrived, they took the teleporter down from the ship through the main teleport bay and ended up where they had started. They headed home as it was around dinnertime and decided to call it a day. Lee was supposed to be using today as a resting day but they ended up training out of boredom anyway on the way back anyway. When they got home, dinner was just being put on the table. Mary walked over to them, "Oh good, your home. I was worried you were going to be late for dinner so we held off for a bit." John, "Me, late for your dinner. Nothing in any universe could keep me from any of your home-cooking and believe me, there have been many attempts."

They sat down to eat. In the middle of dinner, Sarah asked Lee, "So what was the errand you did with Dad?" "We just went to pick up Dad's new ship. He even let me drive it a bit but the real reason he wanted me along was to move his stuff from the old ship to the new one for him." Sora entered the conversation, "Why do you Lee, who doesn't even have a driver's license yet get to drive an inter-dimensional warship before me?" John replied, "Because he was the only one who bothered to come, obviously." They all laughed, even Sora who couldn't come up with a comeback. Lee stayed up for a little bit chatting with his siblings, then went for bed, very tired, ad so he allowed himself to fall asleep early if for no other reason than to prepare for the training ahead.


Authors Note:

Exposition! World Building! I honestly had a lot of fun with this chapter. Mostly, I just wanted an excuse to introduce the TSAB some more, as they are integral to the plot moving forward, and I was already giving John a new ship, something I decided to do to accentuate his promotion to General. Thus, outside Lee's new training regiment, this chapter is all about exploring the scale of the TSAB, the world that it's based on, and just general setting for the center of the Magic side of things. Up until now, I've purposely left a lot of that a bit more ambiguous, because else I felt that it would drag down the earlier plot. That said, I also know that some people who've read this story feel that I've spent too much time away from the main plot, and in terms of word count, they may be right. That said, in terms of actual in universe time, its been less than a week, a shorter time between stone sightings than other's that have already been shown, so I don't see a big issue with it. Also, the fact that John was a mage and the reveal of the existence of the TSAB and everything that came with it I felt was a large enough even to justify this extended sidebar.