Aiden went upstairs to check on Erin. She hadn't been out of their room since that morning, she had said she wanted to be alone to think. He opened the door to see her on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He closed the door behind him and laid down next to her.

"Hey." He said.

"Oh, hey…" She said quietly, as if she were just woken from a trance.

"You okay?"

"Just thinking…"

"About what?"

"How to actually do something about the Marked."

"I don't think there's much we can do…" He said, stroking her antennae.

She suddenly sat up as she got an idea. "Unless we can deactivate them all at once!"

He sat up slowly and looked at her. "I don't think that's possible…though, if Blade could do it, so could we, I suppose…"

Erin smiled and corrected him. "Actually, the way Blade did it is that he simply activated a few and those few said the activation code to other Marked and so on, it spread like a disease. The way we're going to do it is that there's a large satellite tower nearby, it's like a universal radio. I can set it to the frequency of Irken and Vortain hearing and just transmit the deactivation code!" She then looked down in thought, remembering something. "That is, if the tower is still working… It hasn't been used in over 20 years…"

"But it's worth a try." Aiden said, gaining hope.

Just then Cten knocked on the door. "Umm, Erin? Aiden? I got something to say and you're not going to like it…"

"What?" Erin asked, worried.

Cten teleported into the room. "I can sense more activated Marked on the planet, and they don't seem anwhere near deactivating."

"Crap…" she muttered. "About how many?"

"Their numbers are growing very slowly and they're scattered around the planet, but about five are on the planet so far, two are near us…another one just arrived about 20 miles away, so that makes six…"

"But…wait…shouldn't they have deactivated themselves…?" Aiden asked, a bit confused.

"Apparently not." Cten said, just as clueless, and she had studied the Marked when Red had homeschooled her and her sister.

"I was planning on leaving for the tower in the morning, but instead we're leaving now. Char and Mecca are coming with us, since they know how to fight." Erin said, once again taking charge.

"I can fight!" Cten argued.

"But you need to stay here and protect the others." Erin said. "You, Hunter, and Light are in charge." She turned to Aiden. "Aiden, go start packing things we'd need for ten days walk, it'll be five days there and five days back. Pack things like food, water, and other things we'll need, but not so much that it'll weigh us down."

He nodded and ran off to pack.

"Walk?" Cten asked.

Erin nodded. "…They destroyed our Voots…"

"Ooo, look at you, the technopath. You can sense machines." Cten mocked.

"Cten, now's no time for you to be a bitch." Erin said, glaring at her. "Go get Char and Mecca, we're leaving in ten minutes."

Cten rolled her eyes and teleported away.

Ten minutes later, Erin, Char, and Mecca were at the door and Aiden walked up with four packs and handing one to each girl then putting one on his own back.

"Okay, guys, this is going to be dangerous. No matter what, do not provoke a Marked to fight, it will kick your ass and/or kill you." She said, glaring at the sass-masters Char and Mecca. "Just deactivate it. Do you guys know the words?"

Char nodded. "I made sure to memorize them."

"Me too." Mecca said.

"Do you all have weapons in case of an emergency?" She asked.

"I got my sword." Char said, motioning to it tied around her waist.

Mecca, the Asian gangster, showed her kunai and a few shuriken.

"I have a lot of different weapons." Aiden said.

"I figured you would, Aiden." Erin said. "I have my gun, though it can be several different weapons. Sort of like the gun version of a Swiss Army Knife." She said, motioning to her gun that looked like any other plain handgun. "Let's get going, it'll be a long walk. It should be that direction," she pointed, "give or take a few degrees to the south."

The three others nodded and followed her out the door.