Tattoos

The gravity was 5 times stronger then normal and the children were no longer sitting cross-legged. Now, they were collapsed on their backs, only able to breath and blink. Anything else seemed like too strenuous of an action to be worth the energy it would take to accomplish it.

Two hours later they were able to comfortably move a finger, and after two hours more they could move a hand.

After 4 hours they could move an arm, and after 6 they could sit up.

The body of a child was the easiest to shape, hence their unusual speed in growth within the last two weeks.

Starting at 10% increased gravity, they had made their way up to 500%, an improvement that only slightly satisfied Aiden.

Unfortunately, they had to attend school. Though Aiden would be unable to learn anything thanks to his substantial knowledge of the world gained during his time as a system, his sy longs still had to learn everything and he was not willing to be separated from them for so long.

Besides, Gaia said he needed to go to school. Something about not interacting with society enough and that he would turn into an emo hermit if she didn't force him to interact with others.

Whatever that meant.

Suddenly, Aiden was stuck with a wonderful idea.

If they couldn't stay within the array, then they could just take the array with them!

Standing up, Aiden quickly deactivated the array after warning his siblings. If he had not told them in advance, they probably would have shot into the air and hurt themselves due to the sudden changes in required force needed to keep themselves upright.

Running out of his room, his footsteps were completely silent. Though he did have a bit of trouble containing his speed, he knew it would be fixed in due time.

Opening the door to his bedroom, he ran over to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Only half of the 10 shelves were filled with books, the other half contained boxes of various things.

Sliding a container off the shelf, Aiden set it on the floor and opened the lid.

Inside was a large variety of colored in a multitude of colors. One third was black, another third was different shades of red, and the rest were seemingly random yet still organized by color.

Grabbing two bottles of black ink, he put away the box and grabbed the cup of different size brushes next to it and ran back out the door.

Passing through the hallways, he said Gaia sitting behind her desk in her office, shaping away on a Holo-Keyboard, humming quietly to herself.

Alex's bedroom door was open and Aiden couldn't help but show a look of disdain when he looked glanced inside.

It was as if a tornado had damaged. Magazines and clothing was haphazardly strewn about the floor. In the left corner there was a large bed in the shape of a red car, the sheets pulled over one corner and left unmade.

In another corner the drawers to his dresser were opened, his clothes could barely be considered as folded thanks to Alex not putting them away properly after digging through them.

The tv was lit up, the racing game paused.

Everything was always car themed when it came to Alex. Especially red cars.

Aiden kept walking.

Though Ava's door was closed, he didn't have to look inside to know it was neatly kept.

One corner held a huge pile of stuffed animals, mostly black, pink, blue, purple and white,

Her curtains were dark but her walls were bright. Posters of her favorite singers hung on the wall, at least half of them being K-pop groups. A large shelf held her books, most of them picture books but many others were logs- logs of all the things she has heard, intentional or not.

Increasing his speed, he soon arrived back at the training room.

Walking in, he shut the door behind him and walked over to Alex. "Take your shirt off." He said and sat down on the floor, opening the glass ink bottle with brass lids and lining his bushes on the side.

"What? Why?" Alex asked though he still began to remove his shirt.

"I'm going to draw a Gravity Increasing Array on all of us. That way we can train during school hours as well." He replied casually.

Alex let out an unpleased growl. "But we already train every night! Why do we have to do it at school too?! Class is already hard enough, why do you have to make it harder!" Despite his words, he had already sat down with his back facing his big brother.

Both Alex and Ava looked up to their big brother and trusted him unconditionally.

Though they might not agree with everything, they knew that Aiden meant the best for them.

Plus this was something that they could do for him easily. Though Alex complained, he didn't truly mid. It was just that he had to get back to his game within an hour or else his tv would turn off, assuming he was not going to return anytime soon.

"We must not waste our time. If we increase the gravity on our bodies through the day," Alex flinched as the clod top of the brush touched just above his left shoulder blade, "then we can spar when we get home to adjust to our strength. We can train while we sleep as well and won't have to waste time sitting here when we could be doing something else."

Ava nodded in understanding but Alex didn't move, afraid of making his brother mess up. Not that he needed to say anything.

They could feel his agreement anyways.

A long, curved line was drawn across his back, above staring on his left shoulder and ending on the right side of his torso.

Dipping the tip of the beautiful red brush with golden engravings into the ink, the design on the child's back soon was covered in it's entirety.

Largely resembling a clock with individual circles on the outside containing Roman numerals in each one, a series of complicated lines and dots connected them.

Setting the paintbrush down, Aiden began to trace the lines, staring with a small dot in the center of the big circle, tracing it to the (1) and back. Then following a different path, his finger reached the Roman numeral (2), leaving a train of mana in its wake.

Aiden continued the process until numbers one through five had a soft glow.

Making three turns around the large circle, he followed the path back to the center and raised his fingers.

After a small flash of white light, the ink sank into his body and disappeared.

"You can summon the array back out whenever you want to as well as control the gravity level on your own. Don't slack on your training just because I let you handle it. There will be random inspections."

Alex was excited, running the the large mirror on one side of the room, he summoned the array.

"Wow! I look so cool! Just like the bad guys I'm the movies. You know, the ones that smoke cigarettes and blow stuff up? Awesome!" A smile blossomed over his face, one that probably wouldn't leave for a week.

Aiden ignored his little brother, turning to Ava and saying gently, "Are you ready for yours?"

Ava nodded lightly without hesitation, removing her own shirt.

Neither Aiden nor Alex made a reaction or tried to stop her.

After all, what was there to hide? First of all they were five. Second of all they were siblings. What had they not already seen? They were so close with each other that there was practically nothing about one another that they did not know.

Alex and Ava even knew that Aiden lived as a system for a long time. Thought they might not understood everything that Aiden had told them, they understood the implications of what would happen if they told everyone.

After all, although they were 5, they had the intelligence of a 14 year old and. The only thing that was child-like about them was their bodies, emotional intelligence and maturity.

After an hour Ava put back on her shirt. {I'll go grab the standing mirror for you, big brother} Aiden heard Ava's voice echo through his mind.

"Thank you," Aiden replied aloud.

A few minutes later Ava walked in with Gaia on her tail holding a large mirror with an into its bronze frame.

"What are you up to now?" Gaia asked, suspicion clear in her eyes.

"Portable Gravity Increasing Arrays." Aiden replied simply.

After a pause Gaia asked "how are you going to put one on yourself?"

"Easy," he answered "I'll just use my tail."

"Ah," Gaia nodded in understanding, "that should do."