"This is Brand to Malpense. Come in Malpense." She paused, waiting for a response. "Pick up your damn Blackbox, Otto!" The redheaded Alpha sighed and leaned back against the hull of the ship. She pressed the button on the side of her helmet and spoke into it, addressing the whole group at once.

"Okay, guys. That was the last try. No response. We are now at go/no go for launch." She let go of the button and looked around at the rest of the group. One by one she got responses from the others.

Laura allowed herself a small smile for just an instant before turning around to look at the makeshift spaceship behind her. It couldn't actually handle space, but it would come pretty close, seeing as its farthest trip yet had been from the painfully small room she shared with Shelby all the way to the hangar bay, about five hundred feet(or less) away, where it had been assembled from its smaller parts in the past half hour. But now it would be carrying her, along with five others, off the island.

"I'll take that as a 'go' then. But before we leave, I have to clear one last thing from you guys. You know that escaping will mean that if, I mean when, we return, we will most likely be expelled and ordered to be shot on sight." Laura met eyes with everyone. And everyone gave her looks that clearly said: "like I give a flying pile of shit."

She didn't mention that her leaving was worse than theirs. It was actually pretty unlikely that the rest of them would be expelled, but it was different for Laura. She'd made a deal with Nero years ago that if she stayed for the remainder of her term, he would clear her record. If she didn't stay for the rest of her term, she'd never be able to go out in public without being arrested and tried as an adult for treason against the United States.

Like she cared, given the circumstances.

They six of them- Laura, Wing, Shelby, Nigel, Lucy, and Franz- hadn't heard from Otto for two weeks. So she'd had taken it upon herself to conduct her own rescue operation. It had involved strenuous planning from Laura, hours of research from Nigel, thousands of items stolen by Shelby, dozens of people subjected to Lucy's mind control, and many sleepless nights on Wing's part, standing guard by the girls' door. Not to mention the truly heroic feat of Franz keeping his mouth shut about the whole thing.

The most unbelievable part of it was the most crucial part of the ship itself: Raven's katanas. Shelby had gotten them not ten minutes before to top the ship. They would spin as the craft rose, cutting a hole in the ceiling of the hangar bay.

No one had ever escaped before.

Laura clutched the modified detonator like a lifeline. Do unto freaking others, Nero, she thought. She took a deep breath and stepped into one of the six grooves in the side of the hull, and each of the others followed suit. She pressed the button on the side of her helmet again and spoke with an aura of leadership.

"On my mark... three... two... one...-" Shelby cut her off.

"LET'S BLOW THIS ROCK!" she screamed, and Laura took that as her signal to squeeze the detonator. She felt her stomach fall out beneath her as the S.S. Malpense shot into the sky.