Bare walls streaked past the train window, becoming a dirty, white blur. The chatter on the train, now white noise. Candace soon started to drift off to sleep when the wall suddenly vanished and the sunlight shone in her face, waking her from her haze. Outside, she could see the massive city of Tetrapolis.<br/><br/>Her mind drifted back about three weeks ago, when Jack found an application website for an international school in the city. They applied and a few days later a man showed up at their door with an odd machine. Their abilities were measured and their applications were accepted that day. She was told she was a level 3 Esper, nearing level 4 with some heavy training, while Jack was measured at level 3 as well, but behind Candace in development.<br/><br/>She lifted the ID card she was given that day, the sun now shining through the transparent parts of it, the rope attached to it trailing down her arm as she lifted it over her head to examine it more closely. District 7 dorms. This is where they will live now. This is their new home. Right in the middle of Japan. How will the people here take to a couple of Canadians with odd powers in this city? She understood that most of the students here were special in some way, but her inexperience with other Espers other than Jack kind of made her nervous.<br/><br/>Jack, on the other hand, was sitting quietly beside her, his familiar blank stare never wavering from a spot on the floor. She was used to this. When he was surfing the internet in his head, he seemed to stare off into space for hours on end, but at least it kept him busy. She found herself staring at the side of his head for a while, then he creepily turned to her, his stare still blank.<br/><br/>"What?" he simply said.<br/><br/>"We're almost there. You coming back to reality anytime soon?" she asked, poking him in the cheek. He blinked, his stare now broken and he looked around like he just woke up. He smiled broadly.<br/><br/>"You wouldn't believe how fast the net is here!" he said excitedly, "It's so advanced. I can barely keep up with the speeds here." Candace raised an eyebrow.<br/><br/>"Really?" She asked, "I know how you like to complain about how slow the internet is back home."<br/><br/>The train started to slow and Candace stood up. Jack was already on his feet and barely came up to her elbow. Lifting their bags on their shoulders they stepped out onto the platform and went to call a cab.<br/><br/>It didn't take them long to find their dorm and get settled. Candace found it a little disheartening to have to be separated from Jack, who ended up living on another floor. With the way the building was built, she could see his window from her's which gave her little comfort should she need to know where he was.<br/><br/>Candace busied herself with a poster on the wall as she waited for Jack to finish changing. She already finished donning her school uniform. She hated skirts. They felt too...open for her. The white tights she wore didn't help much, but they ended at her thigh. She would have to be careful using her powers wearing this. No flying over people today.<br/><br/>The poster said something of a sports festival being held soon. She wished she could have come earlier so they could be involved in it but now she had no idea what would be going on.<br/><br/>"Lookin' good, Candy!" Jack said with a smile. Candace jumped and turned around, seeing him in his uniform for the first time as well. She smiled and roughed up his hair.<br/><br/>"Not so bad youreslf, Jack." She retorted. Upon his release, she put her hands on her hips, "So, what's on the agenda? Classes already?" Jack's eyes went blank for a moment, then he became really excited.<br/><br/>"No. You have to see this!" he said, scrambling for his book bag where he pulled out a tablet of some kind. It snapped to life immediately on a page on a Tetrapolis server.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Cortexwave. The cutting edge technology to connect your mind with the virtual world. Were the words which appeared first. "Welcome to the special announcement for the Sports Festival. This year, a new competition has been added to the list. It is known as Arena ESP. It will be supported by ArcTech's Cortexwave technology and will take place in a virtual arena." The slide changed to show a short clip of the intended arena, a hexagon separated into two halves, orange and blue. "It has already been tested over the past year and has been deemed safe for public use. Teams are to be in groups of five and will compete against each other in the standard elimination format." There was a slight pause, "The preliminaries will be round robin, where the top sixteen schools will be selected. Teams are strongly advised to visit the Arena ESP facility located in district six for practice and calibration prior to the actual competition. The facility is open to the public from tomorrow onwards."</span><br/><br/>"Cortexweave?" Candace repeated, "Sounds like what you can do."<br/><br/>"Sounds interesting! Wanna go see?" he excitedly asked.<br/><br/>"Doesn't this say tomorrow?"<br/><br/>"It was posted yesterday."<br/><br/>"Fine. Let's go check it out." She said, "We might find someone who would help us get our bearings around here." Jack began trudging off down the hall but suddenly stopped in mid stride abruptly, then slid backwards, his one sneaker on the floor squealing in protest as if some invisible force had grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He slid backwards until he stopped beside Candace, who was tapping her foot.<br/><br/>"Forgetting something?" she asked. Jack patted his pockets, then rummaged through his bag for a moment. Candace produced his ID card and held it out to him. Jack took a while to notice she was holding it before he grabbed it out of her hand.<br/><br/>"Oh, thanks." he said.<br/><br/>Another cab ride and another tap of her ID card paid for the trip and they were now standing in front of a large building, ArcTech's logo hanging high above them. Candace noticed lines starting to form to get in, each one people were dressed in the same colored uniforms. Searching the crowd, she found the line with her school's colors, but realized not many were in it. Dragging her friend over, she stood in line and waited to get in.<br/><br/>"This is going to be great!" Jack excitedly said. "I can't wait to see this Cortexweave thing and how it works."