"It's so great to see you again, Kira," Aviva greeted her friend as she put her bag on the center table.

"Great to see you too, Avi," Akira smiled as she took out her cat, who was meowing in curiosity. "I'm glad you guys were around to get me. After all, there was no way I was going to be Donita Donata's mannequin."

"I can understand that, Akira," Martin agreed, his arm around her shoulders. "I ended up in that situation once. And believe you me, that's something I never want to go through again."

"Well, that's already happened to me," Akira sighed, putting Kana down on the table. "I've been... well, basically rented off on a few occasions. Though it was mostly to be Donita's mannequin or Zach's test target."

"WHAT?!" Aviva and the brothers shouted.

"Kira, why didn't you tell us about that?" Aviva demanded.

"My mother didn't allow me to," the noirette explained. "She said I deserved it for not being like her and Zach and constantly sabotaging Zach's robots when they had animals inside them. Just like when the bros and I were kids. She'd also give me a good slapping around whenever I got away from Zach or Donita. Nothing that would leave a scar, though, since that would keep Donita from using me."

"At least you're safe with us now, Akira," Chris countered. "We'll all make sure they and Gourmand don't get a hold of you. We've gone through more than enough of that already."

"Hey!" Koki exclaimed impatiently. "As much as I'd love to trade sob-stories with everyone else, we need to figure out what our next adventure will be!"

"Right," Chris agreed. "How about we let Akira pick. Should we go to the Indian rainforest, or Brazilian rainforest?"

"Have you tried going to one of the deserts here in North America?" Akira asked. "Like, on purpose instead of by accident. I know about that one because Avi's been telling me about your adventures for a while now, though I only ever got pictures of her and the guys."

"That's true," Aviva agreed. "And the only reason we left was because we needed more supplies."

"Besides," Akira added, "There's a lot more to snakes than just pit vipers. It's high time you learn the importance of the kingsnakes and how powerful they can be. Besides, I hear Zach's been planning on using them to make ropes; and Donita's hoping for a royal snakeskin belt, if you know what I mean."

"Oh yes, we do," Chris nodded grimly. "Jimmy, take us to the Sonoran Desert tomorrow!"

"And don't worry about snakebites this go 'round," Martin added. "Kingsnakes have no venom, and they hopefully don't come as big as pythons or anacondas."

"They don't," Akira confirmed, bringing it up on her tablet to show a picture of a Mexican black kingsnake. "They may grow up to around 7 feet, but they're constrictors, not venomous snakes. They normally only get to be as wide as my arm, too."

"Sounds safe enough," Koki shrugged. "We've gone through more than enough deadly animals and situations for me."

Martin raised an eyebrow at the comment from the dark-skinned woman. "If this is about the Gila monster incident, you thought that up all by yourself."


The next day, the Wild Kratts and their new arrival immediately headed off to the Sonoran Desert, where a certain jet suddenly came into the Tortuga's line of sight.

"Hey guys," a redhead boy reported on the screen from the cockpit. "We got trouble." An image of a red V-shaped jet flying within three miles of the camouflaged Tortuga, which was searching for a place to land in the desert.

Akira's eyes narrowed, suddenly shaking in anger. "That little rat. That doesn't belong to Zach!"

"What are you talking about, Akira?" Martin asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.

The black-haired girl sighed, the fire slightly receding from her aquamarine eyes. "That was originally a jet dumped at an aircraft boneyard that I found a few years ago, before Zach dropped out of college a year early. It was recently dropped there when I got to it, and was still in relatively good shape. I managed to work on it in my free time along with Avi, and was ready to make it my own. But I hadn't realized Zach got a cargo plane of his own from our mother, along with a few other things. When he joined the other villains, my jet vanished not long after; my security programs were pretty broken at the time. Now I know exactly who took it from me."

"I remember that jet," Aviva remembered. "You wanted to make it look like an 'A' from the top to show that we made it and no one was supposed to steal it. Of course Zach didn't get the memo there. He painted it red so we wouldn't recognize it, and it wasn't even finished yet when he stole it, so we couldn't put in the specialized solar power panels or hover thrusters. It was just a normal jet."

"Sounds like it's a double mission, then," Chris stated. "Protect the desert kingsnakes from Donita and Zach, and to help Akira get back her plane. Jimmy! Land the Tortuga when Zach's far enough away and get us ready to pull this off!"

The redhead saluted as he signed off the screen. "Roger that."