Wheeler was woken early the next morning by Ma-Ti, who had been up before the dawn. Linka had come from several time zones away, and was trying to catch up on jetlag, so the two of them had slipped out to get breakfast from a nearby bakery; making it back with plenty of time to spare. They were debating how to contact Kwame and Gi; when Wheeler's little brother crept in. "Bro?"

JJ held up his hands. "Sorry, it's okay. I just left my I-Pod behind yesterday, and I wanted to get it before we left. We're going into the City, catch a movie or two..."

Wheeler nodded. "Okay. This is Ma-Ti."

JJ nodded to the boy near his age. "Hi."

Ma-Ti returned the nod.

"Oh and JJ?" Wheeler called. "Your I-Pod is in my room."

"Why?"

"Doesn't matter. It's on my desk."

JJ shrugged, not pushing it. "Okay. I'll try not to be long..." He headed down the hall.

Ma-Ti gave Wheeler a hooded look. Wheeler smiled back innocently.

A few minutes later JJ came back, looking flustered. "Legs. Yoga and there's legs."

Wheeler smirked. "Oh, you met Linka then?"

"She's doing stretches. She's in your room doing Yoga or something." JJ blathered. "What is she; like thirteen feet tall?"

Wheeler laughed. "Get outta here!"

Linka came down the hall, nonplussed. "Don't forget your EePod." She called, and calmly tossed it to JJ.

"I-Pod." Wheeler corrected absently.

The boy caught it reflexively. "Yeah. No. Yeah. No, I'm legs now. I mean, I'm leaving now. Um... have a nice day." He said, apparently talking to Linka's shoes and he let himself out quickly.

Linka looked at Wheeler blandly. "I can see the family resemblance."

"Give the kid a break." Wheeler laughed. "He's fifteen. A brick wall turns him on at this age; and you're doing Yoga-"

"Gymnastics, not Yoga."

"You think that makes any difference?" Wheeler asked as his phone rang. He answered it. "Hello?" He jumped up, suddenly surprised. "Gi? Is that really you?"

Ma-Ti and Linka reacted.

"Ha! Score one for Google! Geeks rule!" Gi whooped, punching the air.

"How on earth did you get this number?"

"I did a search on your email!" Gi explained enthusiastically. "You filled out a few online forms, and you listed this email as one of your contact points; and so I found one of those forms and it had your name on it, so I searched for your name in New York phone books and found your phone number."

"That's... vaguely stalker-ish."

"I know, but it worked, didn't it?" Gi responded instantly. "And I gotta say, I never would have thought your name was-"

"HEY!" Wheeler barked instantly. "We don't talk about that in front of company."

Gi laughed. "Listen, I found Kwame in Taiwan a few days ago; we're on our way to New York. We should be there late this afternoon."

"What?" Wheeler laughed. "Where are you coming from? The moon?"

"We're on a cargo ship!"

"Why?"

"We had some cargo to move."

"Enough that you needed a ship? Did you bring the kitchen sink too?"

Gi and Kwame were the first ones off the gangplank. The others were right there on the dock waiting for them.

"Permission to come ashore?" Gi called cheerfully.

"Permission granted!" Wheeler laughed and gave her a hug as they stepped down. Gi broke the hug and went on to greet Linka and Ma-Ti the same way, Wheeler shaking Kwame's hand. "Ahh! I can understand her at last!" Kwame said under his breath, and Ma-Ti smiled at him. "It was a long trip."

Greetings concluded, they were all left standing on the dock, looking somewhat awkwardly at each other. It was the first time all five of them were together since the Opal Cave. None of them knew quite what to do next.

Kwame spoke first. "So, where do we go from here? Whatever we're going to do, I doubt this is the place to talk about it."

"Yeah." Wheeler waved over at the rows of warehouses. "Gi, there's a Truckers service for cargo. I rented a storage space back closer to the city. Whatever you've brought with you that needed a cargo ship, they'll get it there."

Gi beamed. "Thanks."

Wheeler turned to Kwame. "And I've got a room you can stay in for a day or two. Sorry, but you're going to have to share."

"We've shared a cabin the size of a phone booth for most of the week; we can handle a hotel room." Gi waved that off.

"Need any help with your bags?" Wheeler asked.

Kwame spread his empty hands wide. Gi, by contrast had about five travel bags.

Gi smirked cheekily as everyone saw her luggage. "Hey, I didn't know what I'd need, so I brought everything."

"We'll drop your bags off, get some chow."

That worked for the others, and Wheeler started looking for a cab. "Say Gi…" He said, overly casual. "I couldn't help but notice the morning weather report."

"Oh?" Gi responded innocently.

"Seems there was quite a bit of rough weather out on the ocean last night. And nobody can figure out what caused it."

Gi nodded. "You don't say."

The sun was setting by the time that had all their things squared away, and made their way to Wheeler's favorite diner.

Wheeler had a moment of clarity when the food was brought, by Lena and Libby, both of them giving him a death-glare. But when the plates of food arrived - big cheeseburgers and fries, milkshakes too- Linka, Ma-Ti and Kwame's eyes all bulged out. The meals were almost bigger than they were.

Gi took in the meal and grinned. "Ooh, real French Fries. Back in Japan we have the MacDonald's kind, but still..."

The five of them started to wade into their meals. Ma-Ti and Linka made it almost halfway through before pushing their plates away. It was more food than either of them had seen on one plate, let alone eaten. Gi was right behind them, though a little more cheerful about it. Burgers and fries were something unusual for her, and she was loving the change in culture. Kwame got further than most, but had to concede defeat after the burger alone, leaving the fries. Wheeler finished his meal without a problem and nearly finished off their leftovers too.

As he ate, he noticed everyone staring at him in disbelief. "Um… pass the salt?"

Wanting to stand up for a minute, Linka collected their plates and took them back to the counter.

Lena was right there, waiting for her. "Hi. Listen, it's none of my business, but you might want to warn your friend about Wheeler. He's trouble."

Linka snorted. "Tell me something I haven't figured out for myself."

Lena smirked. "Smart girl. Just sayin', I used to date the man. And so did half the girls on staff here. You might want to warn what's-her-name over there, the way she's looking at him."

Surprised, Linka sent a look over to Wheeler and Gi. "I hadn't noticed."

Lena smirked suddenly. "What's her name?"

"Gi. Why?" Linka asked.

"Oh. Well that's okay then. I'm Lena."

Linka shook her hand. "Linka."

Lena didn't let go of her hand right away. "Do... you spell that with an 'L-y', or 'L-i'?"

"L-i..." Linka said uncertainly.

"Wheeler's been picking his dates alphabetically. He's well past the 'G's. But I'm Lena, so he's up to L-i. I don't mean to imply anything, just giving you fair warning."

Linka snorted. Her estimation of the American had dropped many many points. "Well, I'll tell Gi. But save your warnings for someone without taste." She suddenly flushed as she realized what she said. "Oh, sorry. No offense intended."

"None taken." Lena said easily. "I'll give you a dollar to go over there and pour that milkshake on his head."

"Oh, now you're just being silly. I'd gladly do it for free."

Wheeler had noticed Linka having words with his most recent ex, and suddenly felt a spike of fear. Two or more women having a conversation was never a good thing. At least not for him. Especially when they both laughed.

Linka came back to the table, and picked up his milkshake. Wheeler cringed as she stepped behind him… but she was just going back to her own seat. She sat down, humming the alphabet song, and Wheeler sank a little deeper into his seat as she enjoyed the last of his drink.

The meal was finished; and they were suddenly left with nothing else to do. Gi spoke up first. "So… um, what does everyone think?"

"Well, the fries were a little overdone, but the milkshakes were-"

"Wheeler."

"Right. Sorry."

"What does everyone want to do?"

Linka spoke first. "Does anyone even know where to start?"

Ma-Ti shrugged. "We start anywhere, and then we keep going."

"I don't know. It may be wiser to choose our targets very carefully." Linka put in.

"Whoa! Hold up a minute!" Wheeler interrupted. "We just went from 'pass the salt' to 'choose your target' in about three minutes. Back the campaign up a bit."

Linka sent him a light glare. "Wheeler, I'll admit I'm no expert, but common sense says that we have to start somewhere."

"Hold on!" Wheeler put a hand up. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. Who said we were doing this? This isn't a career. You're not seriously telling me you want to get involved in this?"

Everyone stared at him, Linka and Kwame the harshest.

"If you didn't want in, why'd you help us all get here?" Gi asked.

"I wanted to see you all again. Make sure I wasn't insane and see if… well… if this was really happening."

"Well, it is. We weren't given these Rings for fun Wheeler." Gi responded. "You can't ignore what it means."

"Sure I can." Wheeler said. "All I have to do is remind myself that I already have a full time job. And a family. And a life. And I don't want to get myself killed."

"You selfish coward!" Linka snarled, unforgiving. "Do you think you are the only one with a life? This is more important! If it wasn't, I would not be here! I would be home taking care of my grandmother. But still I am here. Are you really so selfish you would let the world rot so you could stay home?"

Wheeler's face grew notably harder as he glared back. "Listen you ice bitch, I don't know what crawled up your-"

"All right, both of you calm down!" Kwame put himself between them from across the table. "We didn't come here to yell at each other, we came here to make a decision. There are five of us. Whatever we do... I think it best we do it together."

"So, that's it then? We just do whatever's best for Wheeler?" Linka complained.

"Wheeler is not being selfish." Ma-Ti said gently. "Just the opposite. He is worried for his family. For what will happen to his brother."

For a long moment, there was silence.

"My sister has AIDS." Kwame said.

Dead silence. Gi jerked, unnoticed.

"When I left her, she was dying. It may have happened already. I left her there to take up this mission that was put upon me. I used to work at a company my father started. I would have owned it soon; but instead I closed it down; because they were taking part in the destruction of our world. I have sacrificed much, and all of it in the name of this mission. I will understand if you feel you cannot come along. But do not tell me that it is too hard to leave your life behind. I will understand if you feel this is not right. But do not tell me it is not more important."

Silence.

"He's right." Gi said finally. "We have been... summoned to serve this cause."

Wheeler rolled his eyes. "No offense Gi, but this isn't a samurai movie." He said. "We aren't superheroes, and we aren't 'chosen' by God to save the Spotted Owls."

"Why not?" Linka demanded suddenly. "We were picked. Out of seven billion people on this planet, these rings came to us. And I'm not ready to say it was random."

"No." Ma-Ti agreed. "Not random. There was a conscious choice made. Made by a living spirit."

Wheeler rolled his eyes again.

"Wheeler," Linka began. "I am a skeptic too. But you do not get to roll your eyes at this one. You were there. I do not know who or what we were talking to back in that cave. But I know that it was phenomenally more powerful and more ancient than us. And it asked us to save the world. I don't see how I can say no."

"Me neither." Gi agreed.

"Then think it through." Wheeler growled. "How do you think we'll be 'saving the world'? We won't be doing it by putting on puppet shows about the environment for kids and recording the rate of melting glaciers. There are thousands of people doing that already, and have been for decades. Nothing's changed. These rings are powerful. They are powerful tools, powerful weapons. We've been called to fight back. Against people. Against humanity. We're the ones doing the damage, so who do you think we'll be trying to stop?"

Silence as they turned that over in their minds. Linka was notably still.

"He's right." Gi said finally. "We do this, we'll be fighting back. And given the things we can do now... I don't know that we can keep our hands clean."

Wheeler nodded. "So, now that we've got that idea in mind; let's have the conversation over again. Do we want to go down that road? Once we start, we can't hesitate to see it through, because they sure won't. We'll be branded as criminals at best, eco-terrorists more likely, and they'll be right. You can call me selfish if you want, but 'terrorist' is a word that New Yorkers take kinda seriously nowadays, and a word that I don't want my little brother to associate with me."

Silence.

"I've already done it." Linka said. "I destroyed a chemical plant near my home. I sent a tornado through it in the middle of the night. They killed people who got in the way of their greed... and I made them pay."

"And nobody got hurt." Wheeler dismissed that easily. "You keep going, and that can easily change. Does anyone want to cross that line?"

Silence.

Wheeler kept pushing. "Now think further along. We won't be going after the idiots who throw garbage in their recycle bins. We've got the big powers; it's because we need them. We need them because we're going up against big players. They'll push back. They'll have an unlimited budget, a team like an army. They'll have weapons, and training; equipment and resources beyond anything we could hope to match, the support of law, of governments, police..."

"We get it Yankee!" Linka snapped. "The odds are against us. The odds are always against people who try to do what's right."

"And I wonder if you'd be so willing if you weren't already on their radar!" Wheeler snapped back.

Dead silence.

"What's he talking about?"

"Linka's on a watch list at the airport, as a suspected eco-terrorist." Wheeler explained. "If we all decided to let this Mission go and forget about this, Linka would be the only one who couldn't go home so easily, so of course she's in favor of charging in." He glared at her. "It's easy to make the bold statements when somebody has a gun to your head."

Kwame put a hand on Linka's shoulder. For a microsecond, it looked like she was going to take a swing at him.

With a tightly controlled voice, Linka returned fire. "All those 'powerful people' we would be crossing? Most of them are based in America, and they provide most of the stuff that New Yorkers seem to live off. Like enough food to feed a family of five on every plate in every diner. I wonder if you would be so quick to ignore the calling if you didn't have so much wealth to lose."

Cold silence. Wheeler and Linka were glaring furiously at each other. Gi was shrinking back from both of them, trying to go unnoticed as their Rings glimmered dangerously in response to their anger.

Ma-Ti broke the silence first. "I can hear every animal; I can feel the life of every plant. I walked through the jungle of my home; and I felt the... energy moving from prey to predators, and then from predators to the grass, and then from the grass to the insects, and then from the insects to the birds... I can feel the whole web of it." He shivered. "The world is so much bigger than us alone. And the whole of it has just asked me to protect it."

Gi nodded. "I agree. How do we turn d-"

"Gi. That is the third time you've agreed with whoever happens to be talking." Linka interrupted. "What do you think?"

"What would happen if we said no?" Gi suddenly asked, as if she had been waiting for permission. "If we can give the elements direction; by the will of the One who chose us... then what if we said no? Would Gaia take action herself? Wheeler's right, we're the one species doing damage. If Gaia decided to save herself by sacrificing the one part of her that's destroying everything..." She shrugged.

"I can't believe Gaia would wipe out humanity so coldly." Ma-Ti said firmly. "When she showed us the world... humans were right there too. She cared about us as much as she did about everything else she showed us..."

"She doesn't have to wipe us out." Gi said. "The most recent studies say that soon the human population will demand the resources of two Earth's. We've been able to make it work by artificially increasing the infrastructure. Forcing farms to grow more, forcing food to stay edible much longer, fishing huge amounts of fish out of the oceans. But we know that's only doable for so long. We're too many. Gaia could kill three quarters of us... more than that... and Humanity will go on just fine as a sustainable species."

That thought chilled them. For some reason, they all looked out the window at New York. Down the road they could see huge buildings, built by men. It suddenly seemed very small to them. Each and every one of them had tasted the kind of power that would fight armies. Linka could send a tornado down that street. Gi could probably raise the ocean and drown Manhattan if she wanted to. Kwame could drop any skyscraper with a quake, collapse any subway tunnel he chose, Ma-Ti could make animals attack, few though they were in the City, and Wheeler could burn a whole borough to nothing... And each and every one knew that what they had was a fraction of what existed...

"Maybe by doing this, we can... I don't know. Make our people worthy of survival. If we do nothing, things will continue as they are. The Earth will not tolerate that forever. And now we know it has a choice in the matter. Self preservation is a powerful instinct. I get the feeling that we are the last ditch effort to have everything work out. But if Gaia does something, our people may not survive. And if neither we or She does anything, we will still end. And possibly take many living things with us."

The mood around the table was that this mission terrified them; but they would do it. Except for Wheeler. Nobody knew what he would do. Everyone glanced at him.

Gi spoke, gently. "Wheeler, you love your home, just as I do. New York is on an island. They say that the ice caps and the glaciers in Greenland will be gone in a decade. And when they are, they say that the ocean will rise seven meters. That's enough to destroy New York. Millions of other places too."

"Gi, you don't have to sell me on how important it is. I get that. It's just…" Wheeler looked ill. "I care about the world. I really do. I watch the news and see oil slicks and forests burned down and... It makes me sick. I want it to stop. But... god, this is too big. I'm not even twenty five. I don't want the life of every living creature in the world to depend on me. I don't even have pets. It's just too much."

Silence. Most of them were thinking the same thing; though Wheeler the only one to say so out loud. None of them had ever sought glory or power... and now to be summoned by the living soul of the Earth, given power over the elements, and the mandate to save the world... It was intimidating. It was frankly terrifying.

Kwame spoke. "Look, we came here wanting to sort out what we all thought. We've given each other some things to think about. There's no great rush, we can take a few hours. Let's sleep on it, meet again tomorrow; see where we are."

After the intensity of the conversation, everyone was ready to take a break, let things cool off. They all nodded to each other, started to head off toward the hotel, or Wheeler's apartment.

Kwame caught Linka's arm. "Go after Wheeler. Make amends."

"Why?" Linka retorted. "He was hitting back at me just as hard."

"I agree. But he was the one who paid for our rooms, your plane ticket, Gi's storage space… He's been pretty generous in as far as he's gone, to say nothing of the fact that if we do decide to do anything, we're going to need everyone. I would rather we not do this as enemies."

Linka was letting the adrenaline fade; cooling off from her anger. She knew she had gone too far. And so had he. She wanted to make things right too. She looked past Kwame and saw Wheeler turning a corner. "I handle it." She promised Kwame, and sprinted off after him.

Wheeler did not go home. He had instead gone toward the warehouse district. Once Linka had realized he was going elsewhere, she had resolved to follow him, more out of curiosity and a desire to avoid an awkward conversation for a while than anything else.

When she came to the warehouses, Linka was worried. She knew the sort of place. The feel here was similar to some parts of Moscow she had wandered through by accident. What Wheeler referred to 'the wrong side of the tracks'. The fact that he was coming here alone after dark had her worried. For the first time it dawned on her how little she knew about him; about any of them.

She found it hard to believe he could be buying drugs here... but still she sidled in closer as he entered a destroyed and burned out warehouse. Looking around as she crept closer, she saw that the other warehouses in the row were at least a storey or two higher, but this one had apparently burned down long ago. Only the lowest level was still standing, and even that had more than a few breaks in the walls. She peeked around the corner and felt her jaw drop.

It was beautiful. The outside was burned and long dead and forgotten, but inside the lot, there was a garden filled with flowers, vines that crept over everything... it was an oasis out of a fairly tale; the sort of place where magical beings lived.

Wheeler was there tending to the flowers, and to Linka's surprise, so was JJ. The younger boy was moving back and forth with a paint tin in one hand, and a brush in the other. The paint was glowing.

"Where'd you get this stuff anyway?" Wheeler asked.

"At the store." JJ told him, in a 'well duh' voice.

"Oh. Right." Wheeler chuckled, pulling weeds.

"The best thing is, it glows in the dark, but it dries almost clear in the light, so nobody will know it's here until after dark." JJ was painting designs and colors in luminous paints over the few still standing walls, lighting up the area behind the plants.

"It's non-toxic right?"

"Yeah."

"I like it. You get the artist thing from Mom y'know. She would have loved this."

Linka knew immediately that she was intruding on something personal, and tried to slip away quietly. In the dark she nudged something, but didn't see what.

JJ spun. "Someone's here!"

Wheeler was up in a second, shoving his little brother behind him and grabbing the shovel in one hand. "Avery? That you?"

Linka bit her lip. This was going to be awkward.

Wheeler made a fist with his left hand. "I know you're there. Get where I can see you or you'll find out what a hot dog in a microwave feels like!"

Linka jumped out from behind the wall in a second. She knew he could do it.

"Legs!" JJ blurted. "I mean, Linka!"

Wheeler looked quietly furious. Linka couldn't meet his gaze.

JJ sent his brother a glance, looking annoyed. "I didn't realize that you brought your girlfriends here."

"I. Don't." Wheeler growled.

JJ looked confused for a minute, then got it, and turned back to Linka. "Oh." The boy sighed. "Well, that was a nice little private family spot we had once."

"Yeah." Wheeler snorted. "Pull up the ladder JJ. She found our clubhouse."

"I won't tell anyone, I promise." Linka said.

JJ glanced at Wheeler. "What do you think?"

"I think it's getting late. We should head on home before the Gangs come out and play."

The awkwardness didn't fade too much on the way back toward Wheeler's apartment, Linka and Wheeler didn't say anything to each other, JJ walking between them. "Linka." JJ said. "I want to say sorry about this morning. I uh... didn't react well."

"It's okay." Linka told him. "We were both taken by surprise I guess."

They made it to the apartment building and paused. "JJ." Wheeler said. "Head in. Linka, walk with me a minute."

JJ let out a low whistle. "You're in trouble." He said to Linka.

The woman smirked. "Guess so."

JJ unlocked the entrance. "Good meeting you again."

"Good meeting you." Linka called after him, and the door to the building closed. Leaving her alone with Wheeler.

Wheeler started walking. Linka didn't know where he was going, but she followed. Neither of them spoke for a while.

After several minutes, Linka couldn't take the quiet any longer. "I'm sorry about that." She said finally. "I wasn't spying. At least, I didn't mean to. When I followed you from the diner, I was actually planning to apologize. I uh… went too far."

Wheeler nodded. "We both went too far. I'm sorry about the way I jumped up and down on you. Well, on everybody."

Linka nodded. "When I saw JJ… I knew that I shouldn't have been there, and I… I didn't want to intrude. Sorry."

Wheeler was silent a moment. "I've never taken anyone there before. JJ had to find his own way there. I… That patch is something… personal."

"I understand. I have private places too. Places in the forest off the trails that nobody knows about."

Wheeler nodded. "It's important isn't it? Having your own place. When dad got his orders, I had to be the parent, and the tough guy, and the best friend…" He gestured over his shoulder. "JJ took it really hard when mom died. He's only just getting himself back together now. When I was left in charge… It was hard, keeping frustration quiet, being patient… I couldn't let it show. Not while I was at home. That warehouse is sort of…"

"Like my forest." Linka said. "Any time I don't want others around… I go out. And then up."

"Yeah."

Linka wondered for a moment what would happen if she was back in her forest, and suddenly found this brash American stumbling around looking for her. It was not that thrilling a prospect. "I am very sorry I interrupted you." She said sincerely. "But it was a beautiful Night Garden. I've never seen anything like that before."

There was a long silence as they walked. Linka noticed that any time they approached an alley, or a street corner, Wheeler would walk ahead of her a bit, looking up and down it, putting his body between her and the dark alleys of New York.

"My mom..." Wheeler said finally. He cleared his throat. "My mom had a problem. She was an addict. She got clean when she found out she was pregnant with me, relapsed after my little brother was born. The stress of having me as a son." He quipped, smiling awkwardly. "We found out... tried to get her clean again. She, um..." He swallowed.

"You don't have to-" Linka started to say gently.

"She had a cousin or something; he was in a street gang. They hang around this area." Wheeler rushed out. "She got the drugs from him, but she loved us. She would never bring them in with her, never bring the syringes and stuff into the apartment. So she would get her fix at the Gang's hangout... and they used to hang out in that Warehouse. One time... I don't know. Either she used too much, or she got given a bad batch... But she didn't come out of it. There was a cop. O'Malley. He was a good guy. He came and got me and my brother when Mom... when she died. He told me where and how. I went to the warehouse the next day, made sure the place was empty..." His voice turned to steel. "And then I burned the whole damned building down."

Linka blinked a little at the ferocity. Thinking of Ruby; she knew she probably would have done the same thing. In fact, she already had.

"There was nobody inside, I checked." Wheeler said quickly, explaining it away. "There was nothing in it really. The place was just gathering dust and being used as a dump for the junkies and their dealers. And I was engineering major. I knew how to make sure it wouldn't spread to other buildings… I thought it would make me feel better, destroying it. And... It didn't even help a little bit. The Warehouse was abandoned anyway; nobody really cared about the place. Not even the DemonZ. Smart money says they would have done it themselves eventually, just for fun. So I go back there, fix it up. Mom liked flowers, so I try to..." Wheeler trailed off.

Linka put a hand on his shoulder, but didn't say anything. There was very little to say. Nothing that would help anyway. Linka understood that; knew better than to offer empty platitudes that he had no doubt heard already.

Wheeler glanced up at her. "I never told anyone that before." He said finally.

"Why tell me?" Linka said in a very small voice.

"I don't know. We've got this common thing, and it's kind of a big deal." Wheeler smiled softly. "I know what you must think of me. I don't blame you. But what I have left, I want to keep."

Linka nodded. "I understand. I do."

"Do you think I'm short sighted to want that?"

"Yes. But I cannot fault you for it."

Wheeler smirked. "Well... at this point I'll take it." He suddenly thought of something. "Hey! This is no way to throw a party. Want to see something cool?"

Kwame clicked through the channels one by one. "I don't understand how I can understand the television too."

Gi was still scanning around on her computer. "Whatever Ma-Ti does, he does to you and not to everyone. It's input, not output."

"I suppose so."

Gi was studying her screen carefully. "Did you send Linka after Wheeler?"

"I figured that if anything was to be resolved at all, the one thing we should make sure of tonight is that we all stay on speaking terms."

Gi chuckled. "Do you think Wheeler likes her?"

Kwame nodded. "Yes."

Gi looked over, surprised. "Well, as long as you've taken the time to properly think it through..."

Kwame looked back at her, equally surprised. "I'm sorry; did I... are you..." He fought to find the right words. "I didn't think that you two were close..."

"We aren't really." Gi admitted. "He's a flirt. It's not hard to imagine that it's just how he is. At least with women."

Kwame nodded. "Did... back in Japan, you had to leave your family behind. Was there anyone else?"

Gi flushed. "No. Nothing really serious. One or two guys I knew were interested in me... and they were good guys. But... I don't know. It felt like... like I was waiting for something."

Kwame looked up, interested now. "What were you waiting for?"

Gi laughed. "I had no idea. Drove my parents nuts; watching me set aside one thing after another. I was just... uninspired. Uninterested."

Kwame gestured at her. "Could have fooled me, the way you were poring over those books, that computer..."

Gi smiled. "I have a lot of catch-up learning to do."

"Gi, none of us are experts." Kwame pointed out.

"I know, but I want to know everything I can about this. It's sort of what I do. Do my research first, y'know?"

"And?"

"This is truly terrifying." Gi said. "Y'know, on the internet, everything is connected. You start looking up one thing, you follow a link, and you see a whole other topic… I always knew that you could start anywhere and find anything else. But I never realized how… universal that was before. Greenland is taking the worst of Global warming, with the glaciers vanishing. But the thing is that all the factories that make them melt, are over half a world away. They are suffering entirely from what people they don't even know are doing."

Kwame nodded. "There's a reason we were picked from all over the world Gi. This isn't a problem for 'someone else' to fix."

"Listen to this." Gi pointed at her screen. "74% of the world's poultry is produced in factory farms. 36 US States are expecting water shortages within two years. More than 90% of people in America over the age of five have traces of chemicals used in plastics. Humanity is now consuming 20% more resources than the earth can produce. 32 Percent of the population breathes polluted air. Somewhere in the world, a child dies of hunger every five seconds. 150,000 Tonnes of plastic gets dumped in the ocean each year by the fishing industry alone. The average US home receives 1.5 trees worth of junk mail each year. "

Kwame nodded, a little overwhelmed. "Where do we start?"

"I don't know, but I think that Wheeler was right. We may be the bad guys."

Wheeler was growing more impressed by this girl with every passing hour. He'd tried this once; nearly gotten fired, and the girl in question was shaking like a leaf by the time they were in position.

But Linka calmly walked across the beams and girders like she worked construction herself. She seemed completely at ease when simply hanging in mid-air.

"Oh, this is nice." Linka said approvingly. "I like it up here."

Wheeler grinned. "I come up here as often as I can. During work, during lunch. Best view of the city."

"It's impressive." Linka admitted. "Like the whole world tried to cram itself onto the island."

Wheeler chuckled. "And of course, the crowning achievement."

Linka looked over. "What's that?"

Wheeler pointed, and Linka looked. She saw the New York Skyline, reaching out in every direction, no walls or fences blocking her view. "What? What am I looking for?"

"Wait for it."

Linka looked back out over New York as the colors of the sunset washed everything in glorious red and yellow fire, until the sun sank a little further below the artificial horizon, making for an incredible variety; sky on fire, early twilight across the buildings...

And then New York lit up with a million lights on every building, practically within seconds of each other, the night sky inverted, a thousand twinkling stars coming up from the ground against a fire-bright sky. They were in the air, among the skyscrapers; and Linka laughed. It was like being on the mountain in Australia. It was magical. It was such a... pure moment.

Wheeler had seen it before. His gaze was on her. It was the first time he had seen her with her guard down. She looked... younger; softer... with the intensity taken away; Wheeler was suddenly aware of how beautiful she could be. He knew she was beautiful; but with joyfulness in her expression and her movements...

Linka looked back at him, still beaming. There must have been something in his face as he watched her, because the walls came back up a little. "It's a beautiful city."

"New Yorkers say that this is the greatest city in the world. It's hard to argue with when you're up here." Wheeler said. They were sitting, knees brushing together in close quarters...

Linka was suddenly hyperaware of how close he was. "And... when we come back down to earth?"

"Then we try and take some of the magic back with us." Wheeler hummed.

Linka looked down. He was holding her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles.

Linka flushed a bit and looked back out over the skyline. "I... oh god I can't believe I'm saying this." She took a breath. "I thought you liked Gi."

Wheeler smiled. "I do. But I'm flexible. You'd be surprised how well I can organize my time given the right motivation."

Linka swatted him; a little harder than she needed to.

Wheeler laughed and let the tension of the moment fade. "Okay. I do like Gi. She's nice. But the fact is; I wouldn't have told her about mom."

"So why me?" Linka asked, not for the first time. "We DO have this common thing. And it IS a big deal. But Gi's in the group too."

"Gi's a great girl. And she's fun. But she's... naive. I get the feeling that nothing really bad has ever happened to her. Or her family."

Linka sobered at that. She knew exactly what he was talking about. "That's not a bad thing."

"It's not a bad thing at all. But... you and me Linka: We're survivors. Kwame too. We're the hard luck cases. Maybe that makes it tougher for us; but I think it makes things that happen to us more worthwhile. More..."

"More real?" Linka put in.

Wheeler looked back at her. "Yeah. We live in the real world. You and me are something real."

Linka gave him a straight look, not breaking eye contact. She realized that Wheeler did not know her story, and when he'd told her about his mother; he'd not pressured her to return the favor. He had revealed something; and she understood him a good deal better now. There was something in him that reminded her of herself. With his parents gone, he had taken over the support of the family. Just like her.

And then Wheeler leaned in and her train of thought derailed instantly. Their lips were milliseconds from touching, and Linka leaned back expertly, leaving him leaning out a bit too far across the open space between their respective seats. Wheeler straightened up sharply to catch his balance, with as much dignity as he could muster. "Sorry. I thought..."

Linka felt her heart racing and her face twisted spitefully, suddenly angry. "I know what you thought. There was only one thought in your head Yankee and it wasn't one I'll say out loud."

Wheeler flushed and dealt it right back at her. "Listen sister, you can bring down the Iron Curtain for just a minute all right? I didn't mean to offend. Yes, I think you're attractive. Any man with one eye open would."

Linka flushed. She wasn't used to getting compliments like that.

"But you don't have to get pissed at me. I've been brushed off before." Wheeler was still going. "All you have to do is say you're not interested."

"I am." Linka said suddenly; unplanned, unexpected, even by her.

Pause.

"You are?" Wheeler repeated, as though he misheard.

Linka scrubbed her face with her hands. "Hell." She whispered to herself, and looked up at him. "Wheeler... I'm not staying. This is happening, and it's real; and it's where I'm meant to be. I can't wait for you to grow up."

Wheeler felt his face harden. "I see." Wheeler leaned back in his spot, embarrassed, derailed. "Well, this is awkward."

Linka looked down, feeling worse. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. I didn't mean to embarrass anyone. I just wanted to... There's nothing like any of this back where I come from. Nobody's ever..." She looked down. "Sorry."

Wheeler shook his head. "Not your fault."

Linka felt sick. She had followed him to make amends; and now...

Embarrassment gave way to anger. This had never happened to her before. Growing up in a small town, she knew everyone in her circle; knew everyone who had been interested... she had never been taken by surprise romantically. She didn't quite know how to handle it.

Looking around, Linka felt worse. How had she missed this? A romantic picnic on top of the world as the city lit up around them? That move must have worked on a dozen girls as Wheeler 'worked his way through the alphabet.'

Quietly furious, Linka got to her feet, balancing carefully. "We should go. Now."

Wheeler didn't argue. The moment was over and he knew it. "Yeah."

Linka hooked her legs over the large girder she sat on and fell backwards off it, flipping over to land in a neat crouch a level below on the gantry; just as she did with the trees back home.

Wheeler watched her drop with no small amount of awe. "Damn." Just then, his cell phone buzzed. "Hello?"

"It's me." Gi called. "Is she with you?"

"Uh… yes?"

"So. What are we doing?" Kwame asked as Linka and Wheeler came into their hotel room.

"Don't look at me, you called the meeting." Wheeler commented.

Kwame sent Linka a quick look. Everything all right now?

Linka couldn't hold his gaze and looked down. No. Worse than ever.

Kwame did not press it. "Actually, this meeting was called by Gi."

Everyone turned to Gi expectantly. Gi actually looked nervous. She ducked her head a little; not used to being the center of attention.

"There's a blog I follow. I have the text of it downloaded to my iPhone, and it immediately backs it up to a second partition on my email sever. It does this with everything, incoming calls, texts, voicemail, emails, blogs, news, tweets..."

Linka's eyes were glazing slightly.

"I managed to wreck two phones on the beach while I was surfing." Gi was explaining. "Sand, salt, water, theft... So I rigged a system where I get an instant offline, offsite backup..."

"Gi." Wheeler interrupted. "Can we get all that again in non-geeky dummy-talk?"

Gi looked a little embarrassed at her babbling. "Sorry. I follow a bunch of blogs. One of them is a Ranger station in Alaska. I've never met the guy, but he has wildlife photos, things like that. He posted a message, saying that there's some oily slick on the coastline, and on the water. Crude oil. Quite a bit of it."

"In ANWR?" Wheeler repeated. "Is that unusual?"

"I don't know. There's plenty of oil there, but it's all down underground... I have no idea if it's normal for a bit of it to come up to the surface, but that's not why I'm curious. What's strange is that the story was deleted from his blog exactly one minute later. I get an immediate update, and it gets an immediate backup to my email. Anyone following the link will find the entry missing. But I already had the full text copied."

"So... what? He deleted the entry."

"No. He didn't. The delete had a different router IP. It came from the server his blog was based on."

"Someone killed a report on a blog?"

"Remember after the big Spill in the Mediterranean, there was a huge public outcry about the environment and about how the Corporation could get away with it because they owned everything? They handled the PR by ending a lot of controversy about Nature preserves, just like ANWR." Gi explained.

"The Amazon too." Ma-Ti put in. "But a week later they had the border of the Rainforest redefined to be a few thousand miles smaller than it was and they kept the loggers going anyway. Nobody noticed, because they could honestly say they weren't logging the Amazon."

"So, if they were doing something illegal over in ANWR, they'd be the only ones who could get away with it."

Silence.

"It's as good a place to start as any." Kwame said finally. "How do we get to Alaska?"

"There might be a problem getting me on a flight." Linka piped up. "By now my passport will have been flagged. Probably my name too."

Ma-Ti raised his ring. "I can talk you past the ticket agent."

"And Alaska is in America. We won't need a passport." Wheeler added. "But we'll never get a flight this time of night."

"Tomorrow then." Kwame agreed, looking to Wheeler. "Does this mean you're coming?"

"I haven't decided yet." Wheeler said evenly. "Family and work, all that."

The millisecond it was out of his mouth, Wheeler felt bad, using family and work as his reasons. Kwame stiffened, and for a moment, the two of them almost seemed to square off. The moment passed fairly quickly and Kwame nodded.

Awkward silence.

Gi closed her laptop firmly. "You know what? I can do this in the morning. I'm about six times zones off as it is."

It worked. The moment of tension eased. The others all stood, getting ready to split up and go back to their respective places for the evening.

Gi sidled up to Wheeler. "Everything okay with you and Linka?"

Wheeler shrugged and headed out without a word.

Gi started to go after him, when Ma-Ti put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't poke the bear."

Gi smirked. "Yeah. What is up with those three?"

"They're too much alike." Ma-Ti said. "Linka left her village, her friends, and her family just when they needed each other most. Kwame left his sister as she lay dying, and his co-workers after ruining the business his father had built on his way out. Wheeler will have to leave his brother, and JJ is trying desperately to get over the feeling of being abandoned by both his mother when she died, and his father in the military on the far side of the world. Those three are biting at each other because they are the same. They have sacrificed much for a mission they do not understand."

Gi suddenly felt three feet tall. She had left behind her surfboard and not much else. Her parents had been pushing her out of the nest for over a year... she never realized how much the others had given up. "It explains Wheeler's reaction; I guess... He won't be coming, will he?"

"He will." Ma-Ti said with quiet certainty.

Gi looked at him sharply. "Did you...?" She gestured at his ring.

"Change his mind?" Ma-Ti finished for her. "No. He knows. He understands how important this is. Wheeler has a strong sense of... Loyalty. He wants to be loyal to us, and to his brother. A choice that Linka and Kwame have already made; but he cannot bring himself to follow their lead. But he will."

Linka sidled over to Kwame quietly. "You want me to switch rooms with Gi?"

Kwame looked up. "Why?"

"Well, I figured if maybe..."

"Maybe we should split into the two people who are mad at Wheeler staying in the hotel, and everyone else in his spare room?" Kwame asked shrewdly.

Linka laughed. "Yeah. Something like that."

"He'll come with us Linka. I don't think it's a good idea for there to be divisions in the group."

"Get rid of Wheeler, there won't be any."

"Linka."

She held her hands up. "Okay! I get it! I'll handle it." She said. "Tomorrow."

The next day, JJ followed along behind his friends on the way to a movie, and started up his I-Pod. It launched straight into a new file that wasn't there when he left home... and it was his brother's voice. JJ actually turned to see if Wheeler was there, but as he kept talking, JJ almost forgot where he was.

"JJ." Wheeler said. "I didn't want to do this at all. And I really didn't want to do it this way. But after mom and then dad... if I had to do this in person, I'd lose my nerve. You'd ask me to stay, and I would." Wheeler sighed. "I have to go, little brother. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love you."

JJ left his buddies without a word, sprinting toward the train station.

"I know that this is the exact opposite of every promise I've ever made you bro, and for that I am sorry. But the circumstances have changed in a way that I honestly couldn't have seen coming if I had Parrot's crystal ball."

Luck was with him, and a train going the right direction was pulling into the station. JJ pushed his way into the queue, fed his ticket into the turnstile and didn't even wait to get it back before sprinting for the train.

"You have to promise me something, and unlike me, you have to come through. You have to promise me that you'll remember how much stronger you are now, and how much braver you are now. You have to hold on to that, and understand that you don't need me to look after you nearly as much any more. To be honest, you were always the more grown up one between the two of us. I can think of a long list of women who'd be happy to confirm that."

The subway moved fast, but somehow JJ knew it wouldn't be fast enough.

"If I didn't think you could handle it, I wouldn't be doing this. Nobody and nothing could make me abandon you. And you have no idea who I'm talking about when I say that. For purposes of legality, you are too young. So Polly's going to be the adult for a while. But you've got the bank cards; you've got my account numbers. I never told you, but after Dad left I made it a joint account. Construction site work can be risky. I know you'll do right by me, and by dad, and by yourself JJ."

Two stations later, JJ's train stopped, and he bolted again, charging for the stairs, running down the streets toward his building.

"I hate that I'm doing this to you. But some things have to be bigger than what you want. We of all people know that life can be unfair. Not often do I feel like a coward little brother, but I do right now. I hope you'll understand how important it is… how important it must be, if I'm doing this to you. Again."

JJ fumbled with his keys, dropped them, picked them up, got the door open, and took the stairs three at a time, lungs burning, legs burning, trying to get to their apartment.

He threw the door open…

And nobody was there. Their apartment... his apartment... was empty.

JJ collapsed, exhausted and miserable on the couch.

"Goodbye JJ." Wheeler voice finished on the recording.

"Goodbye." JJ whispered back, pulling the ear buds out, and throwing his I-Pod across the room.

For a long moment, he just sat there.

KNOCK KNOCK.

JJ stood, limped to the door, and opened it.

Wheeler was there with a duffel bag over his shoulder. He threw the bag down and yanked JJ out of the apartment into a fierce hug.

JJ yelled something obscene into his big brother's shoulder and hugged him back. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Wheeler choked back. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave like this. I couldn't say goodbye to you that way. I'm so sorry."

JJ broke the hug. "But you're still leaving."

"I have to."

"WHY?"

"Me and my friends. We have to save the world."

"Oh." JJ sniffed. "Is that all?"

"Would I leave home for anything less?"

Much later, Wheeler came out of the building, looking exhausted. Linka was waiting, leaning against the wall next to the door. She didn't say anything.

Wheeler glanced around. "Where are the others?"

"Still trying to figure out how to get us to Alaska on such short notice." Linka said.

Silence.

"What did you tell JJ?" Linka asked.

"That… I was offered a job, and it involved you. That was enough for him."

Linka snorted.

"I told him it was important, but it required travel. I told him I would be back, but I didn't know when."

Linka chuckled. "Huh. It's almost exactly what I told my grandmother."

Silence. Linka hefted her backpack. Wheeler did the same with his duffel bag, and the two strode off.

"That I-Pod went with JJ yesterday morning. I know, because it was in your room, where I was staying." Linka said finally. "We arrived the day before he took it, and you haven't been near it since he left with it that morning when he met me and Ma-Ti."

Wheeler didn't say anything.

"You already knew you were coming with us, and you had everything set up for your brother before we even picked up Gi and Kwame at the dock didn't you." It was not a question.

"Yeah." Wheeler said quietly.

"Why on earth did you go through whole 'we shouldn't get involved' speech if you were already packing a bag?"

Wheeler shrugged. "Just felt like somebody needed to say those things. If I had to be the bad guy, then so be it." He looked at Linka. "This is gonna get worse before it gets better. And I thought that maybe we should all think about that before we left."

Linka took that in. "Then why didn't you tell me? Up on the skyscraper? Why didn't you tell me you were on board?"

"Same reason you didn't just relax and go with it." Wheeler said. "If I had told you that I always intended to come along, would you have suddenly been… Because however it would turn out, we're more or less stuck with each other for a while."

Linka was silent for a long beat. "I really don't know what to make of you sometimes."

"I get that a lot."

JJ was standing in the building stairwell, looking out the window, as his brother walked off with a beautiful girl he didn't know. Deep down, JJ always knew it would probably turn out that way, no matter what Wheeler promised when dad left...

There was a hand on his shoulder. Polly was there, looking out the window with him. "He wouldn't leave, unless it was important."

"I know." JJ said, but he didn't really mean it.

Polly sighed. "If you promise not to tell anybody, we can have pizza and ice cream tonight."

Gi sidled up next to Kwame, who was hunched over a thick printout. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm reading all this research you put together last night. You're right. It's terrifying." He gestured at the Departures board. "It's a long shot, getting us all there, but you found exactly five seats on the flight to Alaska. Now is that a coincidence, or is that Gaia helping us along? Is it even within her power to do that?"

"No idea." Gi didn't seem worried at all. "But that's where we're starting right? Investigating ANWR?"

"Yeah. But Gi… what if there hadn't been five tickets to Alaska? What if there had been only three? What if five had opened up to the Amazon? Do we take that as a sign that we go there instead?"

Gi was silent a moment. "I don't know. Do you think we should have?"

"No. But…" Kwame rubbed his eyes. "What if we're starting in the wrong place?"

Gi patted his shoulder gently, then sat down next to him and held his hand. "I don't know, but I do know that we can handle it."

"Think so?"

"If we couldn't, Gaia would have sent the Rings to someone else."

"I suppose so."

She was still holding his hand. They both noticed at the same time and broke apart awkwardly.

Gi spoke first. "I'm sorry about before. When I was going on and on about how my family threw me a big send-off and all."

Kwame snorted. "I should be apologizing to you. I was the one that lied."

"I can't really blame you for that." Gi admitted.

"Gi, you don't have to be embarrassed about having a happy loving family, just because there are people out there that don't have one at all any more."

Gi looked up at him. "You've got us."

Kwame smirked. "I have two of you at each other's throats, I have one that operates on so many levels it makes me look like an idiot child, and I have Ma-Ti." He gestured over at the boy, who was currently staring at a half eaten donut with a disturbing intensity, lost in some kind of trance nobody else could figure out. "Who knows what to make of him? To say nothing of the fact that I'm trying to organize them into doing something that is by no means easy; and it's hard to know if any of us will be speaking by morning."

"In other words, a typical family unit. You don't give yourself enough credit Kwame. We trust you." Gi finished. Pause. "You think I make you look like an idiot child?"

Kwame felt like he'd been caught for some reason. "Well… yeah."

Gi smiled amazingly. "Why, thank you." She looked up. "Well, would you look at that?"

Kwame followed her gaze. Linka had returned to join them… and Wheeler was indeed with them. Duffel bag over his shoulder, passport clearly visible in his hand…

And they were both laughing. They were actually getting along.

Gi grinned. "Told you so."

Wheeler came up to join them and mock-saluted Kwame. "Reporting for duty sir!"

Playing along, Kwame returned it. "Well then, The Team is Set." He said.

Wheeler checked the Departures board for the third time that hour. The numbers hadn't changed. Wheeler sighed. He couldn't put it off forever. He pulled out his phone and dialed. He waited. Till finally, someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi dad. Are you on a mission or something?"

"If I were, my personal phone would not be with me. Or would at least be switched off."

"Right." Wheeler agreed. "Listen... um. You remember what you said; the day you told us you had been given your orders?"

"Wheeler? What's wrong?"

"Just tell me dad. You remember?"

"I remember telling you and your brother that I loved you both. I remember promising that if you needed anything, I would do whatever I could to provide it. I remember telling you that I wasn't running away from you two, or abandoning you..."

"Yeah." Wheeler said softly, feeling alone in the universe, despite the fact that he was in the middle of an airport. "But the thing is... the thing I remember most about that conversation; was when I yelled at you. I never said how sorry I was about that."

"You were angry. I told you I was leaving home. I went through the same thing when my dad got shipped out."

"Would you stop being so damn understanding old man? I'm trying to tell you something here!"

His father chuckled. "I'm sorry; please continue."

"I yelled at you. I said that you were leaving us to go fight some war that had nothing to do with us on the other side of the world."

"You had a point." His father admitted.

"Yeah, but you told me that the world was a place where you could build a bomb in one country and take it to our country; so what goes on in the other side of the world did have to do with us. And that it was something you had to do." Wheeler took a breath. "I didn't understand then. But I do now. Lately... I've had some things to think about. About how the world is connected a lot more than I thought. And I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry I gave you grief about it before. Because now there's something I have to do."

"Wheeler." His father sounded very concerned now. "Come on, you're starting to worry me now. What's going on?"

"Polly's been really good to us dad. And she loves JJ. She's gonna take care of him while I'm gone. And if we talk about it for long you'll talk me out of it. JJ's covered. He's strong. All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm sorry, but I've got to do this."

"James-"

Wheeler disconnected the call, turned off the phone, and tossed it into a rubbish bin.

"Wheeler!" Called a thick accented voice. "You ready?"

Wheeler turned with a smile. "Coming Linka. Right behind you every step of the way."

The blonde smirked. "Eyes up a little higher, Yankee!"

Gi came back to join the group at the same time. "Are we sure we want to use Wheeler's credit card? Five plane tickets to Alaska are not cheap."

"Oh, we could probably get a discount." Wheeler quipped. "Just tell them we're Planeteers."

"We're what now?" Gi blinked.

"Well sure, if we're going to be heroes, we need a hero name."

Linka just looked at him. "And 'Planeteers' is what you came up with? Were you a Mooseketeer growing up?"

"It's Mouseketeer, and no I wasn't."

Gi sent Kwame a look. They may be getting along, but it was going to be a long trip.

AN: I know, I never mentioned ANWR in the first chapter, but to be fair, I never mentioned anywhere else. This is set in the not-too-distant-future, so it fits. Also, there aren't too many nature reserves that have oil resources within. I have never been to Alaska, I know little about ANWR but for what a bit of web search can tell you, so forgive me if I get my facts wrong.

Kwame is sort of taking his 'natural leader' role. Nobody elected him, but nobody put him in charge in the cartoons either. He just fell into it.

I said that I hated how Wheeler was a moron in the cartoons, so I changed that to make him the voice of dissent instead. The one who argues the other side, instead of the one who has no clue.

I played up Wheeler's goodbye more than the others, mostly because I wanted to get them all together in one place a little faster. They all had their responsibilities, but Wheeler was the last one to leave home, so he got the biggest hardest goodbye.

Plus, it is simply waaaaaaaay too much fun to write Wheeler and Linka together.

Read and Review!

AN: Take Two: Correcting some grammar and spelling. Apologies for saying they were going to Texas. I changed my mind about their first mission halfway through writing this chapter the first time around, and thanks to the wonder of corrupted word files, I had to use an older version to rewrite. Missed one of the changes. Hey, it happens.