When Wardes had finally recovered from fainting like, as Zerbst would (probably) say, a total bitch, he seemed quite subdued. More than likely, it was the shock from having seen Ramiel casually destroy a whole mountain with ease.

Ramiel had no issue with this, seeing as it seemed to look down on Wardes as something approximating a very large and ugly cockroach.

He looked around. "Why aren't we in La Rochelle?"

Indeed, they were on a hill slight ways off from the city. From across the valley, the still smoking remains of the mountain could be seen. Louise huffed at him and crossed her arms. "We're apparently no longer welcome in there. Turns out that a thunderstorm's worth of orange ooze can be a pain to clean up, and they weren't very happy about the mountain, either."

Wardes nodded faintly. "I... I see. Well then." He coughed. "How did I get here?"

Louise scowled. "If your familiar didn't like me, you wouldn't be. Face it, Jean-Jacques - you're too heavy."

Ramiel giggled in that same infuriating way, clearly laughing at the slight to Wardes' weight. It seemed quite unconcerned about the lack of shelter for the night, given its inorganic status, and the fact that it had managed to show off quite a bit was even better for its mood.

Wardes stared at it. "Is your misfit army mocking me?"

Y E S

"Not only do we loathe Mr. Wardes' general appearance and existence, but we're thoroughly enjoying every little bit of humor we could derive from mocking him." Snatcher added.

Louise, however, was looking at her familiars oddly. "Um... why do you think he's untrustworthy?" She ignored Wardes' indignant "What!" behind her.

U G L Y

"We just don't like his choice of clothes, his poor facial hair, his honestly stupid looking hair style, his bad breath, his generally stuck up and foppish looking demeanor, the fact that we generally have a bad vibe from him, and also did I mention that I really hated his facial hair?" Kuro stated.

Louise rolled her eyes. "Bad breath I can understand." She once again ignored an indignant "Hey!" from her fiance. "But are you sure his goatee can't be salvaged?"

D E S T R O Y

"Nope, the goatee can't save him." Kuro added.

Ramiel spun around in agitation, aiming at Wardes' facial hair in preparation to just singe it all off his smug, pompous face.

As Wardes yelped and covered his face, Tabitha finished her quiet snickering over his misfortunes. "Mission," she reminded them.

Ramiel made some kind of a disappointed whine, shrinking back down to its shrunken, pocket sized form and slipping back into Louise's blouse with a hum that almost sounded more like a grumble.

Louise crossed her arms, sighing. "Right. Mission. The mission to head off to Albion. And it looks like we can't take a ship anymore either." She turned to Tabitha. "Is Sylphid capable of the flight up there?"

Tabitha nodded. Louise privately somewhat envied the other girl's ability to convey complex emotions with minimal speech, but she didn't want to think about what had caused her to develop them in the first place.

She clapped her hands. "Splendid! Can..." She paused. "My-fiance's-familiar-whose-name-i-know do that too?"

Wardes rolled her eyes. "Her name is Ingrid," he supplied irritably. "And yes, she can. We'll just have to fly, and hope that your familiar won't try to incinerate us all on the way there."

I N D I G N A T I O N

Ramiel's reply was laced with an almost saccharine sweet undertone of pure sass, a smart little comment at the end of its indignant hum that let everyone know that one, it wouldn't try to incinerate. It just would incinerate. And two, the only one under threat of incineration was Wardes if he didn't stop running his mouth.

Louise sighed in irritation. "Jean-Jacques, I swear," she groused, jumping onto Ingrid's back. "If you don't stop maligning my familiar, I'll incinerate you myself." She smiled at the sudden alarm on his face. "I'm sure Mother wouldn't mind, really."

Having a fiance could be such a pain at times.

~~~~~~~~

Wind rushed through Master Cyclonis' short-cropped dark hair as she sped her skimmer through the skies of the Far Side of Atmos, Halkeginia. A very valuable crystal indeed had just come into her possession without permission from its owner, and this brought a pleased smirk to her face. As satisfied as she was, however, she realized she had to be on her guard, for it was only a matter of time until she was caught up with by –

A distinctive horn sounded through the clouds behind.

So they'd found her already.

Inside the airship known as the Condor, young captain Aerrow, leader of the sky knights known as the Storm Hawks, looked down through the front window to see Cyclonis speeding ahead. "There she is!" he cried.

"Dude, she is SO not getting away with this one!" sniper Finn said with a fist-pump.

"Remember, we have to be careful," crystal specialist Piper warned. "That Disruption Crystal packs a punch. If she uses it against us – "

As this conversation took place onboard, Cyclonis had fumbled with the stolen crystal, attaching it to the tip of her staff. She spun the staff back over her shoulder, firing a beam of energy at the Condor. The beam burned right through the floor of the cockpit and out through the roof, causing all of the Storm Hawks to leap to the side, away from the burning energy. With a scream of fright, the ship's Merbian pilot, Stork, ended up leaping into the arms of the Wallopian strongman Junko. Only when he was sure it was not so much safe as less dangerous than it had been did he lower himself to the ground. "She. Did. Not. JUST. Put a hole in my ship!" Stork growled. "THAT'S IT! MAKE HER PAY!"

"Let's go, everyone!" Aerrow beckoned, waving his friends to follow him to the ship's hangar. Weasel-like co-pilot Radarr chirped enthusiastically as he followed.

"Y'know," Finn urged Stork, "if you're really that mad about her messing with the Condor, you should come out and help us take her down."

"Ohhh, I'm fine right here," Stork replied. "See, from in here, not only do I not get burned to a crisp by that Disruption Crystal, but the Condor and I are also at the ready to bail the rest of you out when you inevitably need it."

"Well, we appreciate it," Piper told Stork with a smile, which he returned. "Keep close behind us, okay?"

Stork flashed her a thumbs-up, and Piper, Finn, Radarr, and Junko took off following Aerrow to the hangar.

Cyclonis knew they would be mobilizing to take to their own skimmers. She was ready. So far, they'd tried to take her into custody no less than fifteen times since they'd all arrived on the Far Side, and she'd evaded the grip of the law every single time. This would be no different.

~~~~~~~~

The actual flight itself to Albion was... a mood, to be honest. Wardes was in a bit of a snit, constantly peeking over his shoulder and at Louise's chest. Louise wasn't certain which option was more irritating; the possibility that her fiance was blatantly ogling her like some common Zerbst, or that he'd let himself be distracted by her familiars. The occasional snickers from Sylphid's direction did not help, either.

In fact, Louise was positive that Tabitha was irritating them both on purpose. Quiet laughter from another flyer should not have been audible mid-flight unless wind magic was involved.

And her own familiars was brooding up a storm, too, and wasn't that just the perfect cherry on top of the cake.

Ramiel, of course, was still indignant as all hell just from the sheer humiliation of not being able to actually properly fly, unlike many of its former siblings. Or even jump for that matter. So the fact that it had to be carted around in a pocket like some sort of toy… well… suddenly incinerating the ugly weirdo flying alongside them seemed quite like the perfect idea for some stress relief. Shame that the angle was all wrong for it to do so easily.

Louise thunked her head into her fiance's back. "How much longer, Jean-Jacques?"

A long-suffering sigh told her that Wardes was as fed up with the journey as she was. "Hopefully not that much longer."

Louise groaned. "I wish something would just happen. I can't take this mindless boredom much longer..."

The Universe, the Laws of Murphy, the Ancient Chinese Curses, they heard, and they obeyed with glee. Then a flying cycle crashed into Sylphid, freaking everyone out.

"Madam," Tabitha said calmly. "Stay."

"I DON'T HAVE TIME!" the girl barked. "Now GET OUT OF MY WAY or I'll – "

Out of a thick grey cloud sailed an airship, black flag proudly displayed on its mast. Following it was some sort of aircraft made of metal.

Louise smacked her forehead with an audible smack. "Founder, what did I ever do to you?"

"It's a Gallian sloop, no clue on what the other one is," noted Wardes. "Most likely returning from Albion. It's pure coincidence we ran into them, I think."

Louise groaned. "Pirates. It had to be pirates. Any chance they haven't noticed us?"

"RIDERS!"

"Zero," noted Tabitha's voice in her ear. Louise twitched.

"Right," she growled, whipping out her wand, "They're getting a thunderstorm on their backs."

"Louise, wai--"

"NO SUDDEN MO--"

With a shriek that was as full of relief at finally being able to do something as it was full of the fury of god, Ramiel unfurled from within Louise's shirt in a burst of shredded cloth, taking on a spiked, rotating, and ominously glowing configuration that none-too-subtly thwacked Wardes in the head a few times as it lined up a shot.

Unfortunately for Ramiel, and somewhat fortunately for the poor pirates, Louise's sudden yelp of surprise and subsequent flinch away from Ramiel's sudden burst of movement jostled the angel around a slight bit and threw the sudden beam of hellfire off course, merely striking (and obliterating) the prow of the ship instead of destroying the whole thing outright. The same couldn't be said for the Condor, or the Storm Hawks, or Louise's shirt, which was now just barely hanging on by a few loose threads and completely bared her entire chest to the world.

The resulting shriek of fury proceeded to deafen poor Wardes even further.

"RAMIEL!!!!"

Ramiel, wisely, decided to shrink down contritely so as not to risk Louise's fury further.

Wardes, unwisely, attempted to calm his fiancee down with compliments. "You look very lovely, my dear Louise."

All that accomplished was giving Louise an outlet for her mortified rage.

"Jean-Jacques, do NOT tell me you were just ogling me like a common Zerbst!"

From the side, Cyclonis watched in awe as the vehicle that carried her nemeses was reduced to nothing in mere moments. A slow grin crossed her face, growing wider and wider. She finally turned her attention away from the brilliant emerald explosion in the sky, addressing the pink haired girl that saved her; "So. What did you want? I'm listening."

Tabitha paid no mind to the arguing pair. Well, perhaps a little mind. Well, she certainly wouldn't mind paying Louise more mind. A faint blush on her cheeks, she forcefully turned her attention on the wounded pirate ship, letting Sylphid hover a reasonable distance away from it.

"Surrender," she declared, letting the wind carry her voice to the probable pirates. One thing she did know was that if you had superior firepower on your side, it was a very effective deterrent towards anyone attempting something.

With no small amount of satisfaction, she watched the ship gingerly hoist a white flag.