Xetig had light brown skin, bleached blond hair gelled into coolness, and asian eyes hidden by fully reflective sunglasses. Currently, he was emperor of the universe.

Ahead, in the blackness, 3 points resolved into featureless, colorless spheres. Peering closer, he could felt a giddy exhiliration as the Zoom-O-Matic 10,000™ showed him the view.

OzzieDude, C4tfish4, and _brYce plowed toward him, airboards misting trails across the twilight-blue surface. Twilight-blue trails – should have been invisible – but he grinned anyway; they were sharp and dreamlike, spiderweb fractals casting bright wide shadows behind, dividing darkness from darkness, air from air from air, and for a second he paused.

Then, not-quite-automatically, the arials kicked in and it began.