Alright, alright, you guys convinced me. I'll continue the story. Happy?

Otto, being the idiot he is, threw himself out of a Shroud in order to save HIVEmind and stop Chief Dekker, and now it's my job to bring him back to life. i lost several hours of sleep wondering how to do this, but i think i finally have a solution.

Second last chapter. Allons-y, Alonso's!


Otto Malpense was going to die.

The thought struck him like a lightning bolt as his friends disappeared from sight. He was going to die. At least he had told Laura how he felt. That was something.

The silence was unnerving as the Shroud plummeted towards the ocean below. There was no sound, except for a faint whistling of the air flying by. For a second, all Otto could do was stare outside.

Otto forced himself away from the door. It closed with a thunk, and then everything fell silent. He stumbld towards the cockpit of the shroud. He had six minutes, and he had probably wasted thirty seconds already.

"Focus, Malpense," he told him self, quickly climbing the ladder into the cockpit. Sure enough, HIVEmind was there, in a silver case, looking confused.

"Otto," he said. "It appears we are dropping towards the ocean at terminal velocity. Would you care to explain?"

"We're in a shroud that Dekker locked down. We have no control and about five minutes until we hit the water," Otto explained hurriedly, rushing around the cockpit trying to find everything he needed.

He had his Blackbox. There was a transmitted on the Shroud. There were some fiber-optic cables. A screwdriver. He had everything. Otto set to work.

"What are you doing, Otto?" HIVEmind asked from the box as Otto hurriedly unscrewed the back to the Blackbox and began twisted a fiber-optic cable around inside of it. He then ran that cable to the box HIVEmind was contained inside of.

"I'm getting you out of here," Otto replied with determination on his feet. He looked up for a second as the screaming for of Dekker flew by outside the window. getting back to his work, Otto started unscrewing HIVEmind's case.

"Could I help in any way?" HIVEmind asked.

"Can you connect to the Shroud's systems?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Then no," Otto said, finally opening the casing and twisting the optic cables around inside, making sure to disconnect the electromagnetic impulse so at least he had a bit of control over the fan. "How about now?"

"Yes," HIVEmind said. Otto smiled.

"Brilliant," he said. "Set up a wireless link to the other Shroud. Quickly."

As he said this Otto was already using the second fiber-optic cable to connect the Blackbox to the Shrouds core so he could transmit HIVEmind into the other Shroud.

"Otto, we have reached twenty-five thousand feet," HIVEmind said calmly. "And the connection is established."

"Give me a minute," Otto grunted. Then he thought for a second. "Actually, then seconds will do." His hands were flying over the wires of the Shroud. Finally he found the one he was looking for and connected it.

"Alright," he said. "Theoretically, this should transmit you up into the other Shroud, where they could take you back to H.I.V.E. If it goes, wrong, though, your data will be scrambled into the air— lost forever."

"It is a risk I am willing to take," HIVEmind informed him. "What about you?"

"I wont make it," Otto said silently. "That was my sacrifice. I'm killing myself to save you."

"Otto, I cannot let you—" HIVEmind began, but he was cut short as Otto pressed a button on the Blackbox. HIVEmind's face dissolved and the blue lights in his case flickered out.

Otto was on his own. He checked the altimeter. Fifteen thousand feet to go. Fifteen thousand feet separated him from the bone-crushing impact that was waiting.

Fourteen thousand feet. Otto was about to sink to the floor when something caught his eye. It looked like a grappling hook, attached to a long rope. And idea started to form in his head. It was completely insane and would probably end in a painful death. Otto grinned. He loved these ideas.

Knowing his time was limited, he rushed forwards, grabbing the rope and jumping down into the cargo bay. He would need a lot more rope, plus about four Sleepers, a cannon, a grappler, some sort of bar or and a harness. The sleepers were easy to find, tucked away in a cabinet on the wall. He pulled the out and started to disassemble them, one eye on his work and the other one scanning the interior of the Shroud for what he needed. There— propped against one wall, what looked like an AAI gun with a long, with barrel. Just what Otto needed. Part of him wondered why you would keep an anti aircraft gun inside of an aircraft.

He finished the work on the sleepers and rushed to the AAI gun, quickly stripping out the innards and throwing them carelessly on the floor. Almost without thinking, he was counting in his head: ten thousand feet…. Nine thousand nine hundred… nine thousand eight number and fifty…

His eyes raced around the cargo bay. He needed rope. A lot of rope. Fifty thousand feet of rope. Against one wall, he saw a thick coil of climbers rope and ran over the it, yanking it off the wall and tying it to the first coil of rope, the one that had a grappling hook on it. Otto knew it wasn't fifty thousand feet—twenty thousand at best— but he had hopes that upon seeing him fall, his friends would have descended in their own Shroud to try to find him.

In his head, the seconds ticked down. Five thousand…. Four thousand, eight hundred… the Shroud was falling faster now. He had a minute seconds at best. His eyes flew over the objects in the shroud until he found the two last parts of his design: a grappler unit and a short metal bar. He quickly opened up the grappler unit and pulled out the winch mechanism. His hands flew, using the last of his rope to attach the winch to the metal bar and the metal bar to the AAI cannon barrel. This would, in theory, pull him up.

Ten seconds left. Otto, acting with a frenzied urgency now, hit the button to open up the Shroud's ramp. It clanked open, far to slowly. Dragging the device over to the opening, Otto made the mistake of looking down. He had five seconds left. Five seconds to live.

He pressed the button on the nearest sleeper gun and it fired, simultaneously setting off the other sleepers and pushing his grappling hook up at incredible speeds. Otto looked up— better than looking down— and was hugely relieved to see the rope flying towards the little black dot that was a Shroud.

There wasn't time to wait for it to attach. Otto hit the button on the grappler, and it began to turn the bar, pulling in the rope. Otto held his breath. The line went taunt. That meant it was now holding on to Shroud above him.

And then his Shroud hit the water.


Laura had sunk down into a sitting position on the floor of the Shroud and dissolved into tears. Covering her eyes with her hands, she curled into a little ball cried, sobs shaking her body. She was never going to see him again. The last image of him played through her mind. Him, standing completely still in the Shroud, his expression completely blank but his eyes so full of grief they punctured her heart. He had sacrificed himself for her.

Shelby leant down, but couldn't think of anything to say. She was too grief stricken to think, still in shock that her last glimpse of Otto— the last she was ever going to see of him— had happened just a moment ago. A flash of blue caught her attention, and she looked to the side of the cockpit to see HIVEmind blink into existence on the monitor. If A.I's could look sad, this one sure did. His wire-frame head was bowed and his mouth was slightly frowning.

Wing stood, stock-still, arms folded behind his back, jaw tightly clenched. He had just lost his best friend. His first friend. He would never forgive himself for not being there when Otto needed him.

No one noticed the slight thunk that came from below the Shroud, so lost in grief they were. Even Raven and Nero, who had seen and felt their fare share of deaths over the years, were deeply upset.

"We need to leave," Raven said softly. Outside the window, the ocean was suddenly lit up with fire.

"That would be Mr. Mal— Otto's doing, I presume?" Nero said, deciding he could call the boy by his first name, out of respect.

"H-he s-saved HIVEmind and b-blew them up as well," Laura hiccupped, before breaking down into more uncontrollable sobs. Raven showed no emotion on her face, but she held her katana's so tightly her knuckles were white.

And then the hatch leading from the cargo bay popped open. No one but raven noticed a head poke up, before a body followed. She smirked as she recognized the person.

"What are you smiling at?" Shelby demanded. "Is something funny?"

Raven pointed behind her back as Otto spoke up. "Did someone die or something?"

Wing spun around, surprised. His eyes widened even more as he saw Otto standing there, a lopsided grin on his face. His hands were raw and he was limping slightly, but he was very much alive. Wing started forwards, but was beat by Laura, who ran towards Otto and threw herself into his arms, pressing her lips against his violently.

"Well," Shelby said, watching the two kiss. "It's about time."


What did you guys think? to far-fetched? I couldn't think of anything else.

I contemplated leaving the story here and letting you guys imagine what happens next, but I've decided to write an Epilogue, that will probably be really short and really fluffy, mostly focusing on Otto and Laura, but if you want another couple in there, drop a review, and i will happily involve them.

Thank you guys for reading!