Fierce Fox and I ran over the concrete road, arriving at the grey, tin building that was Mission Control.

"We get to go to space again," I said, "like in Astro Knights Island. Except we don't have to fight any aliens and cyborgs or save any princesses. But we do have to save someone, though. This lady named Salerno." I sighed. "... but we won't catch her. She'll go off to find an extraterrestrial species."

"Should we tell them that?" Fierce Fox asked, shrugging. "Like how you saved Greg's twenty bucks in Wimpy Boardwalk."

"I'm afraid the problem is a little more complicated than retrieving a teen's small sum," I replied, shaking my head. "Let's go into Mission Control."

And so, into the control room we went. There were papers scattered on the floor, and large computers everywhere I looked. Screens covered the walls, showing scales, the weather, a diagram of the rocket ship, and a sick crew member on said rocket ship.

Despite the chilled atmosphere, the Space Program had no money, and the only two crew members were doing the work of fifty people.

"Yeah, we need to save this dump." I whispered to Fierce Fox.

"Why isn't anyone keeping an eye on Hatcher?" a voice grumbled. It belonged to the director, who stormed into the chaotic mess with a frown. "He looks like he's about to lose his lunch!"

"Uh… we'll take care of that." I winked at Fierce Fox.

"And who are you?" the director asked, staring at us. His eyes flicked over me. "Hey, your face is familiar. Have I seen you somewhere?"

"Maybe," I stuttered. "Anyway… we'll deal with Hatcher."

Fierce Fox and I left before any more questions could be asked.

I sighed. "Super Villain Island is coming up soon…"

"You mean, the island where…" Fierce Fox grimaced.

"Yeah," My heart thumped. "Let's just… focus on this for now."

Hatcher looked quite green when we saw him inside the ship.

I handed him a little bottle of ginger ale we 'borrowed' from an old astronaut. He burped; his skin returned to a tan colour.

"You guys are lifesavers," he thanked us. "I've never been in space before. I guess I am a little nervous." He sighed. "Could you two do me a favour? I think I, uh, left my wallet in my car."

He handed us his space helmet, leaving the closed, triangular space that was the cockpit of the ship. The door shut behind him.

"Hey!" Fierce Fox yelled, banging on the door.

"Too bad for us," I sighed.

I gestured to a buzzing headset; she sighed and picked it up. Her face became inquisitive as she listened to the conversation. Then she gasped.

"Me?!" she screamed. "I don't know how to- what? Oh no, I don't think the prophesied hero will be able to either."

Fierce Fox listened for a little bit longer, her expressions continuing to change.

"Come," I sighed. "Let's sit down."

We sat on large leather seats. I sat on the passenger seat, while Fierce Fox sat on the driver's seat. Thank goodness, since I could not drive, even in Poptropica.

I stared at Fierce Fox. "Just follow their instructions. If they're not direct enough, I'm here."

She nodded, and tuned into her headpiece. Meanwhile, I tried to relax. But my brain and nerves were too active, and they wouldn't settle down. The rumbling ship didn't really help with that. So I used reverse psychology and thought directly about what was going on.

Zeus wants to kill me, and he's got some kind of ally… but who is it? My blood went cold. Could it be someone else from my world?

"Cripes!" Fierce Fox shouted, zapping me out of my thoughts.

I realized we were in space, and golly was it beautiful. The sky was ink-black, full of twinkling diamonds known as stars. Colourful, rotating spheres float around - planets can be quite spectacular when aliens on them aren't trying to kill you.

I was admiring a spinning galaxy, when an asteroid flew past my screen.

"Asteroids!" the director's voice called out in the ship. "Don't let them destroy the ship!"

I faced Fierce Fox. "Dodge the asteroids. That's all you've gotta do."

She nodded, and gripped the steering lever. With her fabulous piloting skills, she avoided the large asteroids. I was extremely helpful and stared out of the window, trying to collect my racing thoughts. I stared at Poptropica, which looked annoyingly yet comfortingly similar to Earth. It was like a piece of home… a piece of home I didn't need to see.

"Don't pat your backs yet, ladies," the director said sternly. "That first asteroid damaged your fuel tank. Grab your toolkit and patch it up."

So, with that, we were both sent outside. Somehow we were wearing spacesuits, despite not putting any on. Our suits were connected to the ship via a long, grey hose.

"I'll get the toolkit," I told Fierce Fox. I swam through the cool air.

It felt like swimming in water, except less wet. I quickly glanced down at Earth below us, before reaching the toolkit.

Once I got it, I passed it to Fierce Fox, and explained what to do. She swam below the ship, and patched it up. When she was finished, we returned to the inside.

The good news was the crew was putting on autopilot (only now, guys?) so we didn't have to drive anymore. The bad news was it was going to take a few hours, and we would have to do something hard once we arrived at the moon.

Fierce Fox and I discussed serious things like the prophecy. Just kidding! We talked about silly little things, to keep our minds off the future. Like our favourite islands, for example - Fierce Fox said hers was Super Power Island, because of the powers - and I told her my favourite was Mythology, though ironically I was a big supporter of science.

And then I told her a bit about my mother, my school, Marcus, and other stuff. We were… just having a normal conversation. It was nice.

"Wish this could last forever," I told her, leaning against the side of the ship.

"No thanks," Fierce Fox grumbled. "How long does it take to get to the damn moon?"

I laughed. "I think it's even longer in my world."

Fierce Fox sighed. "You're so cheesy, you know."

I just giggled. "Hey, so are you."

Finally, we arrived at the moon. Bad news? We had to take the lunar lander down.

And let's just say I was not good at the lunar lander. Fierce Fox was, unsurprisingly, so we landed easily. We climbed off the lunar lander, and set foot on the grey, stony moon.

"One small step for man," I quoted. "One giant leap for mankind."

Fierce Fox rolled her eyes at me. I shrugged, and pointed to the PASE Moon center.

We entered through a heavy door, and passed an airlock. The inside of the building was white and well-kept, circuity lining the walls.

Fierce Fox and I entered a room called the barracks. Admittedly, I didn't know what barracks were, so I had to look them up.

The barracks was this room about three levels. One level had bunk beds, the others had information and research. In other words it was like a dorm room.

Fierce Fox and I hopped up a ladder, coming to a computer. Using some pro hacking skills, we managed to open the vehicle bay doors. After that, we headed to the vehicle bay. It was basically a giant laboratory, stuffed full of… well, vehicles, and batteries that made the ones in my world look like toys.

I admired the sleek, grey walls, trunks of items, and various machines. There were also quite a lot of platforms and solar panels.

Fierce Fox and I worked together to move the solar panels in the correct position, so the sun would come down and splash on them. The energy would move over to the rover and charge it up.

Once that was finished, we climbed aboard. I sat next to Fierce Fox, admiring the cool little rover we got to drive around.

"Alright," I said. "I know where Salerno is, but because of physics and stuff, we still need to get the tracker."

"I'll get that," Fierce Fox offered. "I… need to make it up to you for yelling at you on Wimpy Boardwalk…"

"It's okay," I told her.

"Nah, I want to," Fierce Fox replied, smiling. "Just tell me what to do."

She's really changed a lot, I grinned. I'm glad I've got her.

I arrived at the greenhouse. It was a semi-sphere shaped building, covered in glass windows. Inside, plants were growing everywhere, piles of food and objects lying around. Oh, and there was no gravity. Vents shoved out hot steam, which I needed to cover up with corks.

So, carrying a cork under my arm, I flew up to the first vent, and blocked it with the cork. I repeated this with the other corks (kinda boring... but not as boring as the bonus quest), and finally, I could go to the top.

I waited for Fierce Fox to arrive. She soon did, and I noticed her irises were purple, because she needed to enter somewhere later on.

I gave her a nod, and led her past the corked vents, to a section at the top. It was full of suitcases; Salerno was hiding behind a collection of suitcases, wearing a blue spacesuit.

"Come out Salerno," Fierce Fox ordered. "We've come to take you home."

Salerno swam out, her hair a mess, bags under her eyes. But the energy in her eyes was like fire. "I can't go yet. Not when I'm so close to finding the last alien structure!"

"How can you be sure they were built by aliens?" Fierce Fox asked, raising her brow.

"Carbon dating showed the artifacts to be older than the moon itself!" Salerno cried. "They were 'placed' here!"

"There must be another explanation," I spoke up.

"They're radioactive," Salerno replied. "If only I had the geiger counter, I would have found the last one by now."

"I really think you should come with us." Fierce Fox insisted, and I nodded.

"Never!" Salerno cried.

She smashed the airlock open, and flew out the window. However, she dropped her keycard. We couldn't grab that, since we were busy trying to avoid being pulled out of the airlock. Finally, it closed, and things stopped flying around.

"She got away!" Fierce Fox grumbled. I slid along the smooth floor, and picked up the keycard.

"Oh, we'll see her again," I replied. "Very soon. To the Foxes at Manchester mobile!"

Fierce Fox groaned at that name, while I chuckled. We raced out of the greenhouse, and climbed into said vehicle.

Fierce Fox flipped around her lighting staff, and pointed it at Salerno, who was driving away in her own rover. Fierce Fox stepped on the accelerator, and we chased after Salerno. We drove for a little bit, before pulling over at another building.

Fierce Fox used her purple eyes to get us in, while I used the keycard. We were faced with a bunch of conveyor belts. Using levers to change their position, we passed them.

Well, we had to use them quite a lot, since there were many platforms we needed to get onto. After that, we exited the crystal white, technology-filled room, and entered another laboratory. Quite a few labs on this island.

I ignored my urges to admire the awesome lab, and instead focused on retrieving the geiger counter. Fierce Fox pushed a pole onto a platform, so it created a slide.

I leaped up that slide, and shoved that geiger counter down it. It landed on the rover, which the director had kindly signalled for us.

"Finally, we've got the edge!" the director exclaimed. "Maybe you can find the fourth artifact and draw her out of hiding."

I nodded, and Fierce Fox and I climbed onto the rover. Using the geiger counter, we drove south to a strange purple stone, which was embedded deep in rock. I placed the rover's hook over it, and Fierce Fox drove it out.

The stone lifted up, and let out a shining, purple light, like a beacon.

"What is that thing?" Fierce Fox asked.

"You'll see," I answered. "Come on."

We followed the purple beacon, which led to a section where it crossed over with a red beacon. Fierce Fox pulled over, and we stood under where the beacons crossed. A pile of moon-dirt was under our feet.

"Well, this is where they cross," Fierce Fox mused. "What now?"

Salerno ran over, carrying a shovel. "You did it!" She frowned. "You're not still going to take me home, are you?"

"Well, as long as we're here…" Fierce Fox answered, and I nodded.

Salerno grinned, and began digging. Suddenly, the ground shook, and we looked around in panic.

"What was that?!" Fierce Fox cried.

Then, the ground opened beneath us, and we dropped down into glowing, purple light.

When my eyes opened again, I picked up on a bronze, circular, open door, with weird alien designs.

Fierce Fox, Salerno and I passed the door, and then came to a section of pictures, on strange, purple walls. They showed drawings of dinosaurs and spaceships coming to alien planets, which was quite odd.

"Look at the picture," Salerno breathed. "They've been waiting for us."

We continued, and arrived at a wall full of alien symbols that looked like hieroglyphs (and would also appear on Mission Atlantis).

Salerno sighed, "I don't know if this is safe. But it's too late to turn back…"

I swallowed. My eyes settled on a robot creature, whose back was bent over. It was holding a circle, which had a deactivated portal.

"There's a switch over there," Salerno pointed to the right. "Go see what it does."

I nodded at Fierce Fox. She raced over to a pink screen, with more hieroglyphs. She pulled the switch, and the portal activated.

"I think it's a portal to their world!" Salerno gasped. "I've got to go through!"

Fierce Fox started, "It's too-" But I interrupted her.

"Good luck, Salerno," I sighed. "Find the aliens for us."

"Thank you," Salerno nodded. "I'm glad you understand. Goodbye, and good luck, girls. Send my regards to mission control."

Then she leaped into the portal. A large, diamond-blue beacon sucked her away, in a flash of light. Fierce Fox and I watched for a little, before my Poptropican stopped and gave me a glance.

"What happened?" the director's voice buzzed out. "I haven't been able to reach you. Do you have Salerno?"

"She's gone." Fierce Fox answered.

"But we'll hear from her again." I added, winking at Fierce Fox.

"Alright… then," the director replied. He sighed. "Let's just get you two home."

"You did good, kids," the director said to us, once we arrived at Mission Control. "Thanks for trying to bring her home." He turned to me. "Though you said she'd be contacting us. Are you sure?"

"Yep," I answered. I pointed to a large screen. "Have a look."

The director turned to the screen, and there was an incoming message. One of the guys answered it. It showed Salerno, with a bunch of aliens in the background. She waved a poster saying, 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED'.

"She did it!" the director exclaimed. "She really did it!"

Then, a man wearing a tuxedo entered the room. It was Director McNabb, the director of the space program.

The director raised his brow. "Director McNabb!"

"I'll tell you what she did," Director McNabb replied. "That heroic woman got people excited about space again. The president just called and promised whatever money we need to keep the space program going." He grinned at us. "And for you two, a special commendation."

He handed Fierce Fox the medallion, and me a free pass to visit the rocketship anytime. I wasn't sure if I would use it, but I guessed I could give it to someone else. That seemed pretty good.

Mom was crying. Dad put his arm around her. My eyes were heavy; my little body couldn't stay up much longer.

"It'll be okay, Pat," he soothed.

"But you… that woman…" Mom sobbed. "Harold…"

"It's all in the past," Dad waved a hand. "Don't worry. My focus is this family now."