A slight sunbeam made its way over the horizon and drew sparkling spots on the snowy scenery. The few falling snowflakes looked like fiery gems as the sunlight hit them and time after time the first birds began to sing to welcome the new day.

But Nin only had eyes for Ahito who still was in a coma.

The girl hadn't slept very long. It had still been dark outside when she'd woken up and made her way to the treatment room. It hadn't been too hard to find the way through Arch Academy – despite the fact that Nin had got lost for at least three times.

Eventually she'd found the room with the transparent glass door where the Snow Kids' unconscious goalkeeper was wired with the numberless machines that kept him alive and his condition steady. Again the blue-haired girl looked at the monitor where Ahito's heartbeat and pulse was recorded. It was almost normal.

Taking her black gloves off, Nin took away the clammy flannel from the boy's forehead. With the right hand she opened some drawers on a small side table and felt around for a clinical thermometer. Some seconds later she found one. It looked a bit different than the ones she knew but it was easy to handle. With skilled movements she stuck it onto Ahito's neck and waited until the little device gave off a beeping sound.

One look on the little instrument was enough for her to see that the goalie's fever had decreased. Nin smiled. "You're already getting better", she whispered, filled a glass with water from a basin and wetted his chapped lips after removing the breathing mask from his face. As she wanted to put the glass down to Dame Simbai's desk, a cold hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.

Shocked she turned around.

Her eyes met Ahito's.

Ice-blue met warm anthracite.

The sick boy's look was glassy and tired and a bit disorientated but he seemed to know what was going on. He focused on Nin and said something. Although his words were only a strangled whisper they sounded loud in the bare room: " … thank you …"

"For what exactly?", Nin asked hesitantly.

"You … brought me … back to the Academy … right?" Ahito gasped for air. Obviously speaking or just being awake was quite exhausting for him. "Where's … Thran?" A coughing fit shook him and his already sickly looking skin color turned even paler. Grimacing in pain he curled up on the bedside when a siren on one of the machines in the room went off like crazy.

Nin had to correct herself: Now she was shocked.

If she'd known where Dame Simbai kept her sedatives and syringes, she could've helped Ahito but that moment she could only –

"HELP!" The shout had to be heard in the whole Academy. At the same time Nin spotted a shelf with two cabinet doors. One of them was vitreous – maybe plastic or Plexiglas – so she could clearly see a bunch of little syringes which were neatly strung in some destined attachments.

Hectically the girl rushed over to the cabinet, pulled its doors open and aimlessly grabbed one of the injections. As she retreated, her arm hit something heavy and upset it so it fell off the shelf. In the nick of time she caught it out of the air. In a reflex Nin looked at the sign that stuck on the vial: 'Barbiturate'.

"Strike it lucky", she sighed relieved and drew up the syringe until it was half-full. The machine's beeping crescendoed as if it desperately wanted to call attention to Ahito who had begun to quiver uncontrollably.

With her left hand Nin grabbed Ahito's upper arm and tried to hold it down – which was almost impossible as the goalkeeper had amazing strength in his arms – while with her right one she clasped the syringe to not let go of it by no means. She began to sweat.

Suddenly three other pairs of hands pinned the boy down on the bedside. One of them held his right arm stretched so Nin could eventually reach the crook of it. Systematically she jabbed the needle into Ahito's skin and injected him with the sedative.

One last time he tried to free himself from the firmly grip. Then his breathing slowed down and his muscles uncramped.

The hands let go of the now sleeping patient. Nin stumbled backwards. For the first time she was able to have a look at her helpers: Dame Simbai and Arch. Of course. And the short, grey-haired man who had brought her to her room the evening before. If she remembered correctly, his name was Clamp.

Arch was the first one to recover his voice. "What happened here?", he asked and looked daggers at Nin while Dame Simbai put the breathing mask back on Ahito's face and checked his data on a computer monitor. Generally speaking everything was ok.

"I don't know", the blue-haired girl answered almost despairingly. "He … he woke up when I wanted to examine him and … and then he suddenly went crazy!" She breathed deeply, then went on with calmer voice: "I think he had an epileptic seizure so I gave him Barbiturate."

"How much did you inject him?", Dame Simbai wanted to know.

"Not much. He'll sleep for about three or four hours now."

"You did good work." The medic smiled again at last. She seemed to be serious about what she said. And she seemed to believe that what Nin had done was the best possible solution. For her and especially for Ahito.

The girl looked sad though. "You don't know what's wrong with him, right?" Still slightly nervous she turned the used syringe around in her hands. A little rest of the yellowish sedative shimmered inside it.

Dame Simbai's smile vanished. Now she looked like a worried mother whose child had tumbled and was now bleeding from a small wound. "No …", she admitted and shook her head. "We've already run several tests with him but without any results …"

Clamp put an end to the not so nice theme by looking at his watch and reminding the attendees that training should start in about ten minutes. "I'll make the computers ready!", he announced and ran off. Almost relieved Nin hurried to follow him.

As she passed the glass door she looked back once again.

Arch and Dame Simbai were discussing something. It was about her and how she had helped Ahito but the girl didn't really listen.

Ahito.

The desperate look on his face when he had had no idea what had been happening to him came to her mind. He was completely clueless, knew nothing about his illness. Nobody knew anything about it. And nobody could help him. He just didn't deserve that!

I'll help you, Ahito.

Without really noticing it Nin had left the treatment room and had followed the sound of Clamps steps to another room she didn't knew.

The warm light from a large ceiling lamp and the sunlight that fell in through some narrow windows out-shined each other. Most likely the Snow Kids' training session would take place here as Clamp was already working on a desk-like console. The machine looked exactly like the one in the cave with the holo-trainer where she had found Ahito. With many cables and buttons and no instruction sheet.

Some benches with orange pillows stood against the wall. The Snow Kids had sat down on them and were waiting for their training to begin. Most of them – like D'Jok, Micro-Ice, Mei, Mark and even Rocket and Tia – were chatting about anything and everything and didn't pay much attention to Nin when she came in and sat down next to Thran.

The Snow Kids' defender had taken a seat a bit offside and was staring at the empty middle of the room where a big bright square was silhouetted against the little darker floor. This morning he looked even more tired and leached out than the evening before. He was worried to death about his brother. The picture of Ahito laying unconscious on the bedside … he had hoped that he wouldn't have to see his twin like this ever again.

"Ahito woke up."

The new girl's voice was like a silken thread of hope he clung to. Like a light ray in complete darkness that led him out of this complete emptiness inside him. Instantly he was wide awake. "How is he? What did he say?"

Nin smiled – for the first time in the last few days. "He asked for you. And he's fine now." It was better for Thran not to know the part with the epileptic seizure so she kept it a secret. "You should visit him after training."

The boy nodded thankfully.

Yuki, who overheard the conversation, beamed with joy and hopped over to Micro-Ice and the others to break the great news to them. It took the Snow Kids a moment to realize what Yuki had just said. Then they cheered. Rocket even stood up and wanted to leave for the treatment room to see Ahito but was stopped by Arch and Dame Simbai who suddenly came in.

"As I can see, Nin has already told you what happened."

D'Jok's face fell. He hadn't known that this information was from the new girl and not from Yuki. Why was some stranger better informed than Ahito's relatives? "What does she know about it?", he snarled. "She's only some sort of … junkie girl!"

"WHAT?!" Nin clenched her fist and slashed at the striker with her cheeks coloring red in anger as she realized what the boy had just said. "How dare you idiot call me like that!"

Rocket and Mark each grabbed one of Nin's arms and – noon too soon – debarred her from punching their teammate. Mark struggled to hold her. "Whoa, take it easy, girl!"

"Shut the fuck up and let go! I'll kill that bastard!" With a jerk she pulled her right arm away but was held down by Clamp again immediately. "Take your fingers off me, NOW!" Her ice-blue eyes sparked and seemed to freeze the others. Without further troubles Nin was now able to squirm free from the relaxed grasped and made her way over to D'Jok.

"Any last words?", she asked gritting her teeth before her fist hit his face …

"What the hell …?"

Another hand had cupped around hers and stopped it in its track. This hand was much bigger than her own ones and way stronger. The girl looked up just to meet Arch's calming and good-natured glance. "Calm down", he said authoritative.

Nin didn't but after all she lowered her hand.

The Snow Kids' coach turned at D'Jok and his facial expression changed to some sort of criticism. "Nin's a very talented medic and our guest", he disabused the red-haired boy, "so don't you dare to call her like that again or otherwise I'll let Mark play in your position today, understood?" Arch's voice was calm but threatening. There was no doubt that he would suit the action into his word and even D'Jok knew that he had maxed out.

"I'm sorry, Coach", he replied submissively.

Arch raised his eyebrow.

"And I'm sorry … Nin."

The girl's eyes were as icy as a glacier. "I hope so", she growled and turned away.

Arch relaxed. So this problem was fixed … for the moment. "Let's start training now." He immediately had the Snow Kids' attention. "This is the last training before our match against the Cyclops this afternoon. It's the last qualification game for us and we have to win it to get into the Galactik Football Cup again and therefore I want you all to be absolutely concentrated." He made a short dramatic pause. "I hope you got that. We'll make some last team training now so off into the holo-trainer with you! Mark, you stay."

For one moment Mark wanted to complain but he didn't. He had always been a substitute and would always stay one. And from time to time he was allowed to play – even if all of the Snow Kids' strikers and midfielders were ok. The reasons weren't always obvious but … well … Arch knew best. He went to one of the benches and sat down, waiting for his employment.

Nin took her place next to him and clasped her hands in front of her.

Arch and Dame Simbai had positioned in front of their computers and looked at the screens while Clamp pressed some buttons on his console and formed the holo-trainer. Black and white pixels formed up around the Snow Kids, who stood on the light square in the middle of the room and set up a big metallic looking cube.

In amazement Nin watched the monitor to see how Clamp set up the pitch and the opposing team and how the Snow Kids outdid them in no time.

She forgot almost everything around her and only focused on the training. This was way cooler than she had imagined! Maybe the Snow Kids' life wasn't that brainless and fatuous after all …

On the pitch

"Goal!" Micro-Ice danced some kind of jig and high-fived with D'Jok who had passed him the ball which had given him the chance to score. "Three-nil!", he said while holding up three fingers and hopping around a Cyclops player who already looked really pissed off.

Rocket congratulated the Snow Kids' youngest player for the fantastic shot. Then he spoke into his headset: "One more! We'll get them four-nil!"

His teammates cheered. "Go Snow go!" The shout echoed all over the green glass pitch. It was Ahito's shout of encouragement. And it gave the Snow Kids back their hope and bravery each time their last man said it. Even if it wasn't really needed right now.

D'Jok lined up at the kick-off point and waited for the ball to be shot out of the ground. He was face to face with a chunky defender of the Cyclops who had five of his teammates on his shoulders so they made a high tower of greenish creatures. It was the only way for them to be able to reach the ball because the Cyclops were too small and not agile enough to jump that high. Not even with their Flux.

With a pneumatic sound a white football whizzed up into the air. D'Jok jumped after it and stepped on the sixth Cyclop's shoulders to get the ball. The Cyclops-tower fell in when the red-haired striker pushed off. A bunch of green creatures collapsed to the ground and struggled to get back on their feet like some helpless bugs.

Not paying attention to the funny looking spectacle D'Jok kicked the ball with his heel so it fell to the ground in front of Tia's feet. Covered in the Breath, the white-haired girl struck out and shot it directly into the Cyclops' goal. Their goalkeeper didn't even have the chance to move his fingers.

Tia stood with her hands on her hips and smiled at Rocket.

Her friend smiled back.

Then the time was up. Training was finished again and the holo-Cyclops were defeated. Like the pitch they disappeared in a flash of green pixels leaving the Snow Kids in a light room.

The match this afternoon neared.

Mei brushed a wisp of hair out of her face. "This will be a lot easier than I expected."