An: There was a small error I only just got around to fixing on chapter titles for this and the last chapter which was originally "Taking Action" and is now "Drawing the Line", the content of chapter 60 is still the same I just bungled the title when I released it back in July, sorry for any confusion on the chapter roster.


Weaving through the crowded streets of Bellwood's city center Alex glanced down at his cellphone scrolling through the chat messages between him and Akira, much like Max had said she'd been pulled aside by one of the junior officers and escorted to Magister Tennyson's office only a few hours after him. As of yesterday afternoon, the two of them had been placed on leave for the foreseeable future, the official story was due to underlining stress.

A good excuse as any and one that covered both of them while they went about their business, speaking of he glanced up from his phone catching sight of 'Fujiyama Teppanyaki' at the bottom of the street, his mind flashed back to the night he took Blake here on their first real date if you could even call it that after having to dip out into the back alley to escape the friends who'd been stalking them for who knows how long and then ending the night off with the two of them pulling an eight-year-old out of a burning building.

'We never did get our sushi did we?" He smiled sadly, pausing by the front door he glanced up at the closed sign and typed up a quick text to Akira telling her he was waiting outside, the restaurant closed on Monday making today their best chance to meet up with the others without the risk of anyone overhearing them, he'd considered using his apartment for the meetup but quickly dismissed it as a no go, if someone was able to bug the Magisters own office then his apartment was probably already a nest of hidden cameras and listening devices.

The click of the lock pulled him back to reality Akira flashed him a small smirk from the other side of the glass before pulling the door open, wearing a teal sweater with black lining and the collar and wrists, with blue denim jeans and grey sneakers. "Owen and V are already inside, we're still waiting on Isaac though." she said flicking her head back towards the interior. 'Great...' Alex lamented, he could already imagine what C had to say to him, as he stepped through the doorway into the restaurant interior, the majority of the main floor was dark, chairs stacked on tables and blinds drawn down the front window granting them some extra privacy.

"-on't even try and defend him Owen he's a fucking idiot and you know it." An all too familiar voice of one Vanessa Mendes resounded from the booths in the back corner, she was a young woman in her late teens with olive skin and light auburn hair that flowed down over her left shoulder a beauty mark resting under her left eye.

She wore a burgundy tracksuit jacket with black lining running down from the shoulder to her wrist and down the right side of her chest, beneath that she wore a ribbed violate t-shirt, the midriff having been cut, granting an unobstructed view of her toned stomach, with torn black jeans and knee-length boots, that she currently had resting on top of the table between them.

"He's also our friend V." Owen said casting a glance towards their two friends as they approached, more importantly, the disapproving look Akira was sending the Latin-American girl across from him, Owen reached across the table pushing her feet off the edge. "And given what we know happened over there, I can't really blame the guy for prioritizing getting them home over calling us." Owen was a tall dark-skinned boy with ebony black hair styled into dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail, a pale scar running down from his upper lip to his jawline.

He wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with a stylized Red and gold AC DC printed across the front the letters separated by a gold lightning bolt running between them with the hem of the white T-shirt he wore below it visible around his waist, below that he wears a pair of cargo pants and black sneakers. The ever-calm voice of reason for their team flicked his head towards Alex causing Vanessa to glance back over her shoulder, upon locking eyes with the Omni ranger she scowled.

"Hablando del diablo, aquí está el pájaro de mierda ahora." Vanessa rolled her eyes and shuffled along further into the booth making room for the new arrivals "Well look who finally decided to wake up." Crossing her arms over her chest Vanessa leaned back into the booth fixing Alex with a fiery glare "Never would have happened if you just stopped that whole lone-wolf shit, honestly half the time I wonder if you're actually trying to get yourself killed."

"Give it a rest V, you and I both know you were the one worried about him the most." The olive-skinned beauty stomped down on his foot below the table, drawing a pained hiss from the larger boy, his face twitched as Vanessa grounded her heel into his foot, her face completely unrepentant with a vindictive glint in her eye as she glared across the table at Owen.

Akira scowled, sliding into the booth beside her old friend Akira drove her elbow into the Latino girl's ribs, Vanessa gasped, a strangled whine passing her lips as she fell back against the seat "Bitch!"' Akira rolled her eyes, caring very little for her friend's well-deserved suffering, now wasn't the time for attitude, pushing her glasses up her nose she shook her head in disappointment. "Can you not antagonize anyone for like five minutes, this is important."

"...I know" Vanessa growled, sitting up she resumed her glare toward Alex "Doesn't change the fact Mr. Death over there needs to know what he did, the disappearing for almost six months that I could forgive, but you come back and don't even bother checking in with us? If you hadn't gone here that night we probably wouldn't have even known you were okay until they dragged you into the med bay on that crash cart."

The olive-skinned girl glanced out of the corner of her eye towards Alex, she knew bringing up that shit was a low blow, but don't get her wrong she cared about the idiot, she might not show it all that often, but she did, which is why he needed to know what that stunt he pulled had done to them and how she wasn't about to let him do it again. "You were balling your eyes out for almost a week when you saw him in that pod, so don't act like you're not even upset." Vanessa snapped at Akira when it looked like she might argue.

"Aww leave him alone V." A voice called out from behind them, the four teens turned as one looked back towards the counter separating the restaurant floor from the kitchen, where a young man with unkempt hazel-brown hair that stuck up at odd angles and sky-blue eyes. From what they could see above his waist he wore a thick boiler suit across his torso and legs with a small utility bag hanging from his left hip attached to the brown belt lopped around his waist, a pair of thick protective gloves stuffed into the loop.

"Isaac?" Akira asked, the bluenet hastily pat down her pockets pulling out the spare key to the front door, glancing between it, Isaac and then past him towards the front door, the back door was barred, and she could swear she locked the front behind them when she let Alex in, so how the hell did he get in?

"How the hell did you get in here fatass?" Vanessa called out to him, both the doors were locked and as far as she was aware Akira was the only one with a spare key.

"Fatass? "Isaac guffawed, shaking a finger towards Vanessa" Maybe four years and twenty-five pounds ago sweetheart." Isaac shoot back moving across the counter he pushed open the staff door into the restaurant floor, brushing his bangs out of his eyes he made his way over towards the four, plopping himself down beside Owen "Sorry I'm late and all but I ran into a few crackerjacks a few blocks back, lost them up a fire escape a little while ago, figured it'd be easier if I came the rest of the way by roof"

Isaac suddenly pointed to Akira "Also Akira, I might've had to jimmy open a window for one of the storage rooms upstairs, locks good and the frame ain't busted but it still left a few tool marks, just in case your parents start asking." Akira pinched the bridge of her nose; she'd have to take care of that before her parents saw it or they might think they'd been a break-in. "Sorry love."

"I'll take care of it." She waved him off

"So, what did I miss before Medusa over there started harping on." Isaac asked flicking his head towards Vanessa, a vein visibly throbbing across her forehead.

"Not much, we were just talking about his colossal fuck-up" Vanessa replied pointing a finger towards Alex while scowling back at Isaac.

"And I was telling you to drop it." Akira warned.

"It's fine guys." Alex replied, eyeing his oldest friend solemnly Vanessa knew where to hit you where it hurt, not that he didn't deserve it for vanishing again as he did. "And for the record she's right, I should have gotten in contact with you guys when I got back, things just got a little overwhelming when we found out Vale had survived the Breach."

"Was it bad?" Owen asked, ben and Rook had told them about the attack on Beacon during that festival, all that chaos and pandemonium, people dying in the streets while those huntsmen fought tooth and nail to push the Grimm back, it sounded eerily similar to the first few days of Earths war with the Incursions.

Alex sighed, shaking his head lightly "Not as bad as what I saw back in Beacon but, yeah." The breach had at least been contained to the downtown area and thanks to the quick response from Beacon and Ironwoods army they'd managed to turn what should have been a few days' worth of fighting off Grimm while they secured and sealed the breaches in the underground train line into a twelve-hour cleanup operation.

Despite that, there were hundreds dead and even more, who'd been wounded in the attack, he could only imagine what the death toll looked like after Beacon, especially with the inclusion of the White Fang forces. "Damn" Owen scowled down at the table, his heart went out to those people. What happened with the Incursions might not have been the same as what they were going through, but he still understood that level of loss, they all did.

"Akira said you were planning on going back again." Isaac shook his head slightly, stubborn thine name is Alex Fissure. Leaning forward his usual cocky smile faded into a thin line "So what's the situation like over there, the prof filled you in on it right, so what do we have to expect?" Isaac looked at him expectantly, Owen and Vanessa, mirroring him slightly.

"You guys are already..." Alex trailed off glanced between his friends and then towards Akira, who stared back at him smugly 'Told you' she mouthed, Alex sighed rubbing his temples "You guys do realize what you're agreeing to right, even if we can find a ship, put a crew together, after all of that we still have to solve how exactly we're going to get there without the Professors, and even if everything goes according to plan and we pull it off, they will probably court martial us the second we step foot back on earth."

"We know" Vanessa replied, the four of them had talked about this at length already, they knew what they'd be getting into and they also knew despite how much the High constables might try and make them accept this false reality they were trying so desperately hard to make real, those monsters couldn't be allowed to just get away with everything they'd done, not after all the blood sweat and tears that had been shed trying to put them down, to just let them walk, was practically spitting on the memory of everyone those bastards had killed. "We went over this in advance, because we knew you'd try and convince us otherwise, while you pull your usual lone wolf shit."

Alex sighed pinching the bridge of his nose "Okay then... from what paradox told me Beacon and a large section of the City of Vale was destroyed during the attack, but from what the Prof said they still seemed to still be hanging on." That was about all of the good news he had right now "Vale is going to be one of our priorities once we arrive, but our main objective is going to be to link up with our people already planetside."

Vanessa nodded "Koan and your girlfriend's Team." The Goth Loli with the scythe, the Albino Princess with the rapier, the Blond Bombshell with the gauntlets, and Alex's Ninja Cat-Girl Waifu..., no offence but she'd practically laughed her ass off when she first looked at their files, oh come on, don't look at her like that the four of them dressed like they were the protagonists of an Anime based on those old grim tales.

"It's more than likely the Psycho Rangers will be targeting them, especially after everything we put them through." And even with the knowledge that Lilly and the other rangers were keeping an eye on them, he'd still like to be there to make sure they were safe himself, fortunately, he'd given Blake his original plumbers badge before heading up Beacon tower, which means they'd be able to track her, and he had a feeling wherever Blake was the others wouldn't be far behind. "Once we've linked up with them, we can focus our effort on the kingdoms, they going to need to know what they're up against and the Plumbers are the best chance they have at fighting them off."

"Except if we do this, we technically won't be plumbers anymore, along with anyone who comes with us." Isaac spoke up, if they went through with this if they defied the orders of one of the High Constables they'd be branded as rouge, "That going to be a pretty big deal-killer for a lot of the Plumbers we know." They'd be asking them to throw away the livelihoods they'd spent years building for themselves for a world they hadn't even known existed until just over a year ago...

"Doesn't matter." Owen spoke up, after what they tried to do to Alex back after the Incursion occupation, let's just say the word of the High Constables was worth about as much as the dirt under their boots, even more so now. "Those people didn't deserve what happened to them, and right now their best hope at ending it has been told to pretend they don't exist, were supposed to be the ones people count on to protect them, so if they're more concerned about keeping the title than actually doing the job they signed up for, we know where they stand."

"Nice speech but before we can even think about putting a team together, we're going to need a ship and enough gear for a mission like this" Vanessa turned to regard their 'Fearless leader' quizzically "And after what you told us about the bugs in the magister's office, we're not going to be able to requisition one or commandeer one of the ships impounded in the evidence lock-up, without the heat being down on us like that." she said snapping her fingers for emphasis.

"I don't think we're going to need to." Alex replied, recalling the list of codes the magister had given him just before they departed "The magister gave me a list of security codes, for one of the sub-levels at Mount Rushmore" Isaac cocked a brow at his friend's words, Rushmore was one of the older bases from way back when. Last he heard most of the higher facilities had been decommissioned leaving the base as little more than an observation post or fallback position in the event of another invasion.

"That place hasn't seen any real activity in over a decade, what could be there that might help us." He pointed out, though Akira was quick to throw her own two cents into the conversation.

"Might not be as active as it used to be, but there must be a reason why he gave Alex those codes." Akira interjected. "There must be something there he wants him to have." Whatever was being kept at the base must have been important or she doubted he'd have just given them the codes if there was nothing there. "Plus, the base is run by a skeleton crew made up of mostly technicians and scientists, we could slip in check out what's down there and be out of there before anyone notices." Akira pointed out to the resident engineer

"There's also a functional armory and Motor pool there." Vanessa piped up, earning a curious look from the Omni ranger, she smirked in response "Remember that disciplinary hearing that got me pulled from missions for a few months last year?"

Isaac cocked a brow at her "This about the time you kicked your C.O in the bollocks."

Vanessa flushed in embarrassment "I...may have overreacted."

Akira jabbed her heel into Isaac's shin drawing a sharp yelp from the taller boy. "Hey Itami, was cool about the whole thing, that shithead Soi was the one who made it a problem." Akira added, she'd been there when it happened, they'd been part of the unit based just outside of the capital city on Nazeer-4, the plumbers had been asked to aid the local government in dealing with an insurgency group made up of the remnants of an old warlords army.

They claimed to be trying to bring down the new 'Fascist' democratic hierarchy and restore the 'people's republic' when that same republic had been ruled by a murderous dictator who'd been ousted and imprisoned five years prior. Long story short while out on a patrol the cap lost his footing in a river crossing and ended up taking V and another trooper into the drink with him and when they landed his hands had ended up... where hands shouldn't have been, and her friend had acted on instinct.

Captain Itami had been pretty chill about the whole thing, second Lieutenant Soi Telvari on the hand hadn't needed to hear anything else to report her for assaulting a senior officer, they'd known the guy for less than a week, but by then his thoughts on having a couple of 'Primates' on his base were well known by most of their unit, it pissed her off to no end that a guy like that had managed to become an officer, but there wasn't much they could do about that at the time.

By the end of it, no charges were filed but she and V had to be reassigned back to earth, Itami and a few of their other squadmates had been there to see them off, the former apologizing profusely and promising them Soi would be dealt with, a week later they got word that stuck up prick had been transferred to one of the most remote outposts in the Arkaria system.

"Anyway." Vanessa picked up, forcing the memories of that incident to the back of her mind "While I was posted at Rushmore I took a poke around on my off time, most of the base has been converted into storage space, I swear there must have been at least a dozen rooms there filled with weapons, armor, vehicles, field rations, meds, just about everything you'd need for a mission like this." Granted some of those weapons and vehicles were probably close to a decade old but it was still more than up to scratch for what they'd need.

"Most of the gear there is probably only obsolete by a couple of years compared to what we're working with now." Alex nodded slowly in thought, most modern plumber ships and weapons could be tracked and identified by the IFF tags hard-wired into their systems, a built-in boobytrap so that if someone tried to steal one of their ships or a case of weapons, once they got around to removing the tracer their hardware would fry itself.

It was one of the measures the plumbers had put into place around a year back to stop their equipment from being stolen and sold on the black market, older equipment that was quickly becoming obsolete was slowly being filtered out of circulation, catalogued and sent to remote storage sites while they waited to be decommissioned and from Vanessa's words Rushmore seemed to be one of these locations, if that was the case, the codes Max had given him may very well be the keys to one biggest stockpile's of Plumber equipment on the planet.

"That's all well and good but I think we're all forgetting the fact that we don't exactly have a portal to get there" Owen piped up, if Paradox wasn't going to be able to help them and with the portal still under lockdown back at base, then they were essentially stuck here. "The old portal is on lockdown, and the prof isn't going to be able to help us make the jump, so even if we did get the gear, a ship and the people for this, we don't exactly have a way to get there."

Alex gritted his teeth, that was probably going to be the biggest issue they had, he could take a look into the grid archives and see if the rangers of the past might have something they could use, there were stories of Rangers crossing over from different worlds to answer the call for aid in the past but more than often than not those travelers had come under very specific means and circumstances, there was no guarantee they'd find something, there was always asking Ben if they could use Alien X, but that opened up an even bigger can of worms.

"I might know someone that could help us." Issac spoke up, drawing the table's full attention.

"This is serious Fatass" Vanessa scowled, they didn't have time to waste on a bunch of shifty junkers from off-world who claimed to have pulled some great prize from a derelict freighter or ancient battlefield, they'd more than had their fill of that back when they were scrounging about for weapons and spare ship parts to arm the resistance.

"I am being serious." Isaac argued

Willing to give her friend the benefit of the doubt Akira asked "Okay, then who?"

"Professor Hokestar"

Akira blanched "Isaac!"

Alex facepalmed "Don't tell me you bought into one of his scams."

Owen shook his head lightly in disappointment while Vanessa stared at him in disbelief "Por el amor de Dios..." She sighed "I know you're not all that bright sometimes but come on man don't tell me you actually bought into the crap that guys been spewing."

Isaac pushed past their disproving looks "Guys, I know the man is a total windbag around eigh-ninety per cent of the time but trust me on this I've seen the thing myself, called it a warp field generator." The Professor was a well-known con artist, but he made a point of keeping an eye on the old codger, mostly because of an incident with him selling Florauna berries to some of the people in Undertown a couple of years back, but also because every once in a while the man actually had the odd Perl of an idea, speaking of which if they had a few minutes he wouldn't mind asking Hokestar about that project of theirs.

"I know what you're gonna say, it's all smoke and mirrors or whatever, but Alex I swear on me Gran's grave, the thing was able to move a Smoothy shop from this earth to another." Did it sound crazy, oh absolutely, but he knew it was true he'd seen it with his own eyes. One minute they were in Bellwood, the next a desert wasteland straight out of Mad Max, then a city that looked like it walked off the covers of one of those steampunk posters.

Alex stared at Isaac for a long minute, mulling over his friend's words, and yes while Isaac tended to be a bit of a wild card at times, he knew he wouldn't risk it if he wasn't certain, not with the stakes as high as they were right now. "Do you think you could convince him to let us take a look at it." It was a small chance, but anything was better than nothing right now.

"I know he's in Undertown right now" But given his... he was going to say quirky nature, which could change at the drop of a hat. "But we'll have to go now though, you know what he's like we let him be on his merry way there's no telling when or where we might get the chance to talk with him again." Alex hummed in agreement.

The man knew how to disappear, he'd give him that much at least, given all the snake oil and knock off's he'd sold over the years it was probably par for the course, so if they wanted to find him, then they better get moving while they still had time "Akira, V." Alex said drawing the two girls' attention to him "We're taking a trip down to South Dakota." Rising from his seat Alex gestured towards Owen and Isaac "Isaac, get in contact with the old professor and convince him to share his one-of-a-kind piece of tech."

"Owen and I will make an inquiry" Isaac winked "You and the ladies just focus on Rushmore."

"We'll take care of it." Owen replied more seriously.

Vanessa slapped Alex's shoulder as she passed, twirling a small metallic fob on her keychain as she made her way towards the back door leading out into the alleyway "Come on My Baby isn't too far so we can be there and back before nightfall."

Alex's eyes widened at the mention of V's 'Baby' "Maybe it'd be better if we just took a bus, it'll only be a couple of hour-."

Vanessa's head snapped back towards him eyes narrowed dangerously "You got something to say about my Baby Fissure?" Akira hid her smile behind her hand as Alex quickly tried to navigate through the minefield he just found himself in, although Alex did have a point, while V's 'Baby' might have been her pride and joy, in no way was it what you'd consider normal means of transportation... or something you'd expect to see your standard teenage girl to fawn over like it was a puppy.

/

Leaving the restaurant behind the three of them managed to catch a bus heading east through the bustling city streets leaving Bellwood's nightlife district behind, Alex leaned back in his seat staring out the window as they passed into the beginning of the industrial district and after the little spat with Vanessa back in the restaurant he'd made the executive decision that it was probably for the best if he stayed quiet before he said something that might risk pissing her off more than he already had.

"Here we are." Vanessa noted as the bus rolled to a stop, stepping out onto the sidewalk Alex stared up through the chain-link fence in front of him up towards the row of three warehouses a matching two rows behind the first, 'Langstroms Shipping' written in bold Red letters across the side of the structures, he knew the place well, these same buildings had played a key role during their fight against the Incursion Empire, acting as Home to one of Bellwood's Main resistance cells, it was from here they'd planned and carried out over a dozen raids on Incursion Patrols, Prison Transports and Supply Depose.

Alex smiled softly "Either of you had the chance to talk to Jackie and Hanna?" Alex asked, he hadn't heard from the sisters in a while, even before ending up on Remnant the first time around. "How have they been doing?"

Jackie's family owned most of the buildings on sight and after the war ended had let them use one of the warehouses as a favor, so they could store some of their more 'Exotic' personnel items that couldn't be seen in the public eye.

At first glance the lot looked to be deserted, which was more than perfect right now, while the people of Bellwood might have grown more accepting of the presence of extra-terrestrials over the last few years, there were more than a few who were still cautious of trusting their otherworldly visitors and what they were about to do could still set off some alarm bells if they saw it.

Akira smiled recalling a text she got from Jackie a little while back when the new school year started "Hanna just started fifth grade a little over a month ago, and Jackie's started her last year in college." The blue-haired girl turned back to face him, walking backwards alongside Vanessa "Speaking of Jackie you will be happy to know she and Ryan finally moved out of that dinghy apartment, they have a place up in the suburbs now."

"Long time coming if you ask me" Vanessa piped up "How she could stand dealing with that creep of a landlord for so long I'll never know." That girl had to have the patience of a saint, Ryan even more so, if it was her stuck dealing with that guy day by day she knew she would have decked him at least a dozen times over already.

Passing through the side gate into the lot the three made their way across the tarmac and between the second and third warehouses on the first row, towards the warehouse at the very center. "You thinking about dropping in on them before possibly dropping off the face of the earth for what might be the last time?" Glancing up at the large industrial doors barring their entry she lead Alex and Akira around the left side towards one of the side doors. "Hanna was asking about where her big bro had disappeared to, little brat misses you."

Alex looked away rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment "If we have time... we could swing by, say our goodbyes" Vanessa hummed nodding to herself as she drew her own copy of the warehouse keys from her jacket pocket as arrived at the side door, it took a moment and a few muttered curses as she jiggled the handle slightly to get the lock to turn fully, pushing the door open Vanessa stepped through into the near pitch-black interior and immediately turned her attention to the alarm box a red light flashing in silent warning.

"Mierda" Vanessa sighed, pulling open the cover she quickly typed in the disarming code before slapping the cover shut in frustration "I thought Isaac said he fixed that lock last week."

Alex shook his head lightly as he stepped through beside Akira the blue-haired girl flipping a series of light switches on the opposite side of the door bathing the warehouse interior in artificial light. Alex stared out over the interior, the left side of the warehouse floor having been converted into a two-story barracks, the lowest level sporting a full kitchen nook a fridge and two smaller freezers occupied the back wall, a stove and kitchen sink sitting back-to-back in the granite-topped island between them and a set of black dining room table and chairs.

A spiral staircase connecting the first Level to the one above, much like the first the space was built to accommodate at least, a dozen individuals though after the war that number had been cut down to Six, with three sets of bunk beds pressed against the warehouse wall beside which sat a long desk occupied by several monitors and tv screen showing round the clock footage of the space outside the warehouse, traffic cameras across the city and both BPD and Plumber com channels, sat against the railing on the far right and back of the upper level two dark green couch and a single recliner, each angled towards the flatscreen tv and consoles besides the entrance to the stairs, a dark brown coffee table sat in the middle of them.

Across the opposite side of the warehouse sat five cages, each one holding their individual weapons and gear, their Proto-tech armor and helmets standing in clear glass cases at the center of the room, the deep burgundy red and slightly leaner frame of his Alpha Division Armor standing out in contrast to the bright white and bulkier frames of the other standard-issue plumber suits.

"There's my Baby" Vanessa swooned, jogging her way through the living quarters and towards the large craft resting at the very back of the warehouse, it was a large oval-shaped craft that slowly narrowed out into a tail towards the bottom a set of duel heavy blaster cannons mounted at the tip, with a set of small ailerons extending out from the sides, though the most unique thing about the craft was that its canopy stretched back over the roof of the craft, it was primarily silver in color with a pair of dark purple stripes around the edge of the canopy and the sides of the extended gangway leading into the ship.

Of all the things V could have spent her money on it was a Firespray gunship, it was funny in a way, despite the whole Queen Bitch of Fuck You Mountain act, she put on most of the time, she couldn't deny even she had a bit of a dorky side to her she'd practically leapt into after finding out the same ship from Star Wars actually existed.

The teen leaned across the cool surface of the ship almost as if she was trying to pull the craft into a bear hug, rubbing her hands in soothing circles across its hull she whispered "Extrañaste a mami? Porque mami te extrañó." Pulling back from the ship, she turned to face the others, her smile fading back into her usual scowl. "What?" She asked after seeing their expressions.

Alex raised his hands up in a silent sign of peace though that hardly stopped Akira from voicing her thoughts "Nothing" Akira waved off innocently while Alex looked away in an attempt to hide his poorly concealed sniggering "Nothing at All."

Vanessa narrowed her eyes at the blue-haired girl, flipping her the bird as she made her way around the edge of her ship towards the gangway leading inside "Get strapped in while I get ready to take off." Following V up into the cargo hold, he and Akira sat down at one of the seats lining the walls, strapping themselves into their seats. The two donned a set of headsets that would link them with Vanessa while they were in flight. Vanessa herself made her way up a ladder in the center of the room and into the cockpit above, closing the entrance hatch behind her Vanessa slipped into her own chair donning her own headset and began the bootup sequence for her ship.

As the engines rumbled to life multiple screens flashed to life across her console giving her a fuller readout of her ship's systems, the one directly behind the yoke granting her a view of the front of the craft from one of the exterior cameras, nodding to herself she typed a quick command into the panel on the arm of her chair pulling up the camera in the cargo hold revealing her friends, activating the ships comms she asked "You guys all strapped in?"

"Were good V." The Omni ranger replied giving a thumbs up to the camera, nodding Vanessa reached up to one of the consoles above and flipped a small switch the light above it flashing, glancing back towards the screen in front of her she watched the warehouse doors slowly open. Easing the yoke forward Vanessa slowly guided her ship through the opening and into the lot outside, the warehouse doors sealing shut behind them, slowly increasing thrust the ship lifted off the ground and up above the warehouses, flipping a switch on her console Vanessa pushed forward on the yoke once more the ship beginning to dip forwards into a standing T position.

The internal gyroscope engaged and a shudder passed through the ship as the interior began to rotate to match the position of the ship, as the canopy slowly rotated into place in front of her granting Vanessa an unobstructed view of the deserted streets of the industrial district and the skyscrapers occupying bustling city center off in the distance, V typed a quick command into her chair deactivating the camera feed in front of her, reaching down she took hold of the thrust and slowly shifted it forward the boosters roaring to life as they began to climb higher and higher into the air, far above the tallest skyscraper and through the clouds.

Levelling out the craft V turned her attention to the nav computer and began typing in the coordinates for the plumber base "Nav computers set" She re-laid back to her passengers "We should be entering the airspace around Rushmore in a few hours, so you guys should get comfortable" She paused for a moment in thought "I think I left a bag of Doritos back there while I was working on her earlier in the week, feel free to have at it if you guys get hungry."

"Sure" Akira droned, picking one of the Dorito chips out of Alex's hair, said bag of Doritos, having fallen into the conveyor controlling the gyro above them as they took off and subsequently burst open after being caught in the gears showering her and Alex in a red pepper flavored mist. Plucking her glasses off the bridge of her nose Akira sighed cleaning the lens off on one of the clean sections of her shirt.

This was going to be a long flight.

/

Cassie shifted in the pilot seat, rolling her shoulders lightly a series of satisfying pops greeting her, they'd been in the air for almost twelve hours now, glancing over her shoulder to the seat behind her, she spied Weiss curled up on her side in the chair sleeping soundly Cassie's jacket draped over her shoulders, her heels resting beside her weapon and luggage tucked away under her seat.

She'd dozed off a little after they took off from their last stop, the tension from spending the last few days dodging Atlesian air patrols combined with the relief that came after they finally made it out of Atlesian airspace had sapped her of the rest of her strength, turning her eyes back towards the sky ahead of them Cassie scanned the horizon with a keen eye.

Keeping them off the radar and out of sight of a few other aircraft they'd passed by as they crossed over into Northern Anima hadn't been easy, but as they'd made it further and further inland the presence of the Atlesian military began to grow more absent, not that that was any reason for her to relax outside of the kingdoms, even in the air, a lull in concentration could be all it took for something to sneak upon them.

Sighing to herself Cassie stared out over an almost endless lake of crystal blue water a series of borders and small islands floating hovering off in the distance. Lake Matsu and if she was reading her charts correctly they had maybe a little under an hour left in their trip, glancing back towards the Schnee Heiress she called out softly. "Weiss... Weiss~" She watched Weiss shift slightly in her chair, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Yes~" She yawned brushing a few loose strands out of her face. "Is something wrong?"

"No, just figured you'd want to be awake for when we arrived" Cassie informed her "Were not that far off of Mistral, another half hour and you should be able to see it on our final approach." Unbuckling her belt Weiss stood up padding across the metal floor she leaned across the control panel glancing out over the Mistral sky a small smile spreading across her features, she was almost there.

"Thank you Cassie, for everything." Weiss said looking toward the older woman in gratitude. "I doubt I would have made it this far on my own"

Cassie smiled back at her "Don't sell yourself too short, you'd have found a way with or without Cam and I's help."

Weiss opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by the shuttle's radio crackles to life, what sounded like a woman's voice calling out over the static. "May... c.n Any..e he.. us w. ...d ..lp!"

"What was that?" Weiss asked, staring down at the radio in concern

"I don't know." Cassie responded leaning forward she began typing away at the controls trying her best to clear up the incoming signal the best she could "Gimme a second here I think I can boost the signal enough for us to hear what's going on." Weiss nodded taking a seat beside Cassie in the co-pilot seat watching on silently as Cassie did her work.

After a few moments, the radio came to life once more, only this time the voice that came through was far clearer... and filled with terror. "Mayday, mayday!" The woman called out "If anyone can hear us please respond, we are a small passenger flight, and our Huntress is down!" Weiss gasped she and Cassie shared a worried glance. "Please if anyone is out there we need help, we aren't equipped to deal with this!"

A contemplative look passed over Cassie's face "Weiss?" Cassie called out to her young charge, if she'd been out here with the other they'd have already located the source of the signal and been off to help them, but it was just the two of them, they had no idea what they might be flying into and huntress in training or not after everything her young charge had been through to get this far, she was hesitant to force her into a life-threatening situation.

"The Grimm hit us 400 klicks north of the southern shoreline!" Weiss' eyes widened at the sound of an explosion and the Mistral Pilot gasped in panic "Get them off us! If anyone can hear this- Ah!" The radio cut off bathing the cockpit in silence, Cassie's hand tightening around the stick she closed her eyes taking a slow breath in through her nose.

"Weiss" She began drawing the Schnee heiress's full attention "I'm not going to pretend we didn't just hear all of that, and that I want you to know that I am fully capable of tracing that signal." Weiss opened her mouth to respond "But." She stressed, cutting the Schnee heiress off. "I also want to say we don't know what's happening out there, this ship doesn't have much in terms of weapons a pair of modified cannons and a missile pod at most, if we take the risk to go help them there is no guarantee we will make it to them in time, or if we do that we'll have enough here to stop what is happening"

"What are you trying to say?" Weiss asked hesitantly

"Normally I'd have already tracked the signal and be heading there now but we have a straight shot to Mistral in front of us, we could be there and hook up with Adam and your team in the hour." Cassie explained "You've been through a lot just to get this far, and if we go help those people you'd be putting all of that and your life at risk, so I need you to tell me what you want to do right now."

Weiss stared back at Cassie blankly, it should have been an easy choice they should help those people, she was a huntress-in-training and Cassie a Power Ranger, and yet she found herself at odds, she was so close to Mistral so close to the family she'd been torn away from almost a year ago 'If we picked up that signal, someone else probably did as well' a selfish part of her whispered in the back of her mind. 'This isn't what it was like back at Beacon, there'll be no one there to help us if things go wrong.'

'And no one to help them if we don't.' Weiss reaffirmed herself, icy-blue eyes shining with determination she turned to Cassie and gave her reply "They need our help, so we're going to help them."

"Alright then." Cassie said banking the shuttle towards the southern shoreline their engines roaring to life, a series of floating boulders and miniature islands held aloft by large Gravity dust Crystals coming into view in the distance. Typing away at the console Cassie engaged the ship's radar and pulled up their comms broadcasting on an open frequency "Unidentified Mistral craft this is Echo-Two-One-Niner we have received your distress signal and are on route to your position."

Their only response was a series of static and garbled noises, getting worried Cassie called out again. "Mistral craft this is Echo-Two-One-Niner, please respond" Again only silence, Weiss and Cassie shared a worried glance... were they too late.

The radio burst to life "E-Echo-Two-O-One-Niner, this is flight Oasis-two-five we're reading you." The Mitral Pilots choked out sounding as if she were on the verge of tears. "We...w-we thought we were alone out here." A moment later their radar pinged to life, Weiss gasped "There" she said pointing down at the display towards two blue dots that appear in their upper left corner surrounded by several smaller red dots.

"Oasis-Two-Five we have you on radar and are closing in on your position." Cassie said flipping a few switches on the x control board overhead, on the exterior of the ship a pair of missile pods emerged from a hatch on the roof while a pair of cannons extended from two openings just beneath the nose of the shuttle "What's the situation like down there, what are we up against?" Cassie asked steering her ship between the miniature islands as they closed in on the mistral aircraft.

"Wasps!" Was their frantic reply a small explosion echoing in the background of their channel, Weiss stood up from her seat moving from the console towards the window she peered out the window in the direction of the radar pings scanning the space between the various floating islands in search of the distressed Mistral airship. "We were passing over the lake when they came out of nowhere, dozens of them, our huntress went down with Franklin's ship, it's just me and Percy now, they're not looking good how far are you out."

"We're coming up on you now, Oasis-Two-Five, check your six." Cassie asked as their ships skirted around one of the larger islands, Oasis-Two-Five and their partner coming into view, from what she could see two Mistrilion airships the left airship was heavily damaged, their white sails tattered with plumes of smoke billowing out of the various breaches in its upper deck and aft, the second hovered off its starboard side, their vessels pursued by in her opinion the mother of all hornets and her vial brood. "Weiss, strap in!" Cassie called out to the Schnee heiress as she punched the ship throttle forward.

Stumbling slightly from the jolt Weiss dove into the co-pilot seat, hastily pulling on her seatbelt, the roar of the shuttle's engines cutting through the air as it banked down towards the pursuing swarm of Lancers, pulling the trigger on the stick the shuttles cannons burst to life unleash a quick burst of energy bolts towards the swarm, and two of the missiles from their pod the first burst of bolts peppered the Queen lancers body its bone-white carapace barely holding up against the barrage of fire, a stray shot severing its upper right leg an antenna causing it to screech in agony while several of the drones surrounding the queen were cut down by the remaining bolts or obliterated by the missiles, their bodies dissipating into dust as they fell through the air.

"We see you Echo-Two-One-Niner." The mistrial pilot gasped and what sounded like cheers of joy echoed in the background as the Queen and her swarm broke away from the two Mistrilion Airships retreating behind a line of boulders and miniature islands." They're breaking off, Percy they're-" Suddenly a large explosion enveloped the already damaged aircraft its engines bursting into flames, the airship dipped down violently fire spreading across its hull. "Gods, no, no, Percy!" The Mistrilion pilot screamed in anguish.

"No!" Weiss and Cassie cried out in horror as the airship collided with one of the passing islands exploding into a fiery ball of wood and steel that fell towards the waters below. Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, the swarm emerged from the left turning its attention away from the Mistrilion craft and towards its attackers, blindsiding their shuttle a small barrage of stingers bouncing off its steel hull jostling Weiss and Cassie in their seats, Weiss ducked down with a startled yelp as one of the Signers lefty a spiderweb crack across the window to her left.

Overcoming her shock Cassie banked the ship right pulling them down into a dive, a heads-up display popped up on their screen revealing the swarm and their Queen hot on their heels. Engaging their comms once more Cassie called out to the remaining Mistrilion airship. "Oasis-Two-Five, there focusing on us, now's your chance to make a run for it."

"What!?" The Pilot gasped still reeling from the death of their friend. "B-But w-what about-"

"We'll be fine, just go." Cassie barked back

A moment of silence passed over the com channel, before the pilot gave their reply "Understood, just please... stay alive, we'll be waiting for you back in Mistral."

Despite the danger, Cassie smirked "We'll see you there." The radio went silent and taking a chance Weiss glanced out the side window watching Oasis as it limped away across the lake making a break for Mistral.

"What now?" Weiss asked, the shuttle jerking slightly to the side as a fresh barrage of stingers glanced off its hull.

"I don't have a shot from here." Cassie sighed banking the ship to the right and skirting around the side of one of the boulders in an attempt to loop around and bring the swarm back into their crosshairs, with little to no effect despite the size of the Lancer queen it was just as nimble as its smaller counterparts

Weiss glanced back over her shoulder towards her weapon and suitcase a plan quickly forming in her mind. "I have an idea!." Trying to focus on flying Cassie had little time to argue, unbuckling her seatbelt she stood up using the co-pilot seat as an anchor she edged her way back toward making her way back towards her own drawing Myrtenaster from its case. She knelt down, plucking up the dust phials inside and slotting them into the revolver cylinder before snapping it closed.

The ship jerked once more, the Lancer queen sending her warriors forward to ram the shuttle with their own bodies in an attempt to drive it into one of the passing islands, Cassie pulled the stick to the side. Weiss gasped grabbing onto the chair and hugging her weapon and case of dust to her chest as the ship dipped into a barrel roll, its wing catching a handful of Lancer's and launching them into the island in their place. "Well, whatever it is you have in mind better do it fast, I'm running out of tricks here." she said as the ship levelled out once more.

Dispelling her gravity glyph Weiss made for the hatch leading down into the cargo hold below, pulling it open she looked back towards Cassie. "When I give you the signal open the rear doors." A firm thumbs-up was Cassie's reply. Dropping down into the hatch, Weis braced herself against the ladder as the shuttle took another sharp turn, the few crates inside shifting to the side straining against the bindings holding them in pace.

Using the crates as an anchor she made her way across the cargo hold, pushing off the final crate with a small aura filed hop she landed at the cargo door a gravity Glyph forming beneath her feet, locking her in place. The intercom system inside the cargo bay came to life "Cut it a little close there Weiss if we're going to do something now is the time."

"Do it" Weiss called out, the cargo doors rumbled open wind whipping in through the opening Weiss's ponytail billowing out behind her as she faced down the swarm, rotating the cylinder on Myrtenaster to a phial of Wind dust, as the lancer drones began to close in on the opening she swung her weapon into an arc unleashing a gust of wind that blew the swarm away from the opening.

Selecting a phial of fire dust Weiss brought her sword up in a fencer salute, summoning three smaller glyphs that hovered around her shoulders and firing off four small fireballs towards the drones each landing their mark knocking the miniature horrors out of the sky, though the victory was short-lived as more arrived to take their place.

Narrowing her eyes Weiss slid her finger along the flat side of her sword a small spark of flame ignites across the edge, rotating the revolver cylinder back to the phial of wind dust, a small hurricane formed above its guard, the winds spiraling up around her blade the flames coating its edge twisting off in a spiral behind them climbing higher and higher towards the tip of her rapier, pulling her weapon back Weiss takes aim at the swarm eyeing the Queen at the back protected behind its drones.

Thrusting her sword forward she unleashed a cyclone of flame that tore through the air towards and out the back of the shuttle the suction pulling in several of the drones, their bodies crashing together inside the spiral of flame creating a thick cloud of smoke that billowed out behind them, the lancer queen burst through the smoke intent on joining the battle at last.

Weiss flicked Myrtenaster forward the glyphs hovering above her shoulders spun to life unleashing another barrage of fireballs, though these ones were far small than her predecessors, the fireballs struck the lancer queen but did almost no discernable damage. Weiss glanced down at her weapon noting her last attack had exhausted a large amount of her fire dust, what she had left could be used to deal with the remainder of the drones, but the Queen?

Said Grimm reeled its body back exposing its own stinger, the sines surroundings its lower jaws and upper face shifting forward as it prepared to fire, Weiss's eyes widened, and the former Schnee heiress thrust her arm forward summoning a series of barrier Glyphs to shield herself and the ship, the smaller set of spines peppered the barriers Glyphs making Weiss grit her teeth as she struggled to maintain them.

Narrowing its eyes at the human's struggles, the Lancer Queen beet its wings faster and began gradually closing in on the ship, before flicking its tail forward and firing off its remaining stinger at the huntress in training, seeing the sheer size of the projectile and knowing her barriers wouldn't hold against it Weiss did the only thing she could do, acting on instinct she threw herself to the floor of the cargo hold, her Glyphs dissipating the lancer's spear-like stinger passed overhead lodging itself into a stack of crates behind her.

Weiss breathed a sigh of relief at narrowly avoiding impalement at the hands of the Grim, though the moment was short-lived as the fleshy sinew attached to the stinger pulled taught, and with a violent tug, the bindings holding the stack of crates in place snapped sending the cargo sailing through the air towards the open door and former Schnee heiress.

Weiss dove toward the wall of the cargo bay, her hand reaching out for the hydraulic pistons that control the door, a crate caught her in the leg, Weiss's body flipped mid-air and for a second she caught sight of herself sailing towards the door and the open sky outside. Her eyes wide a panicked scream tore itself from her throat as she reached out in desperation with her free hand, her fingers curling in a similar fashion, the Arma Gigas glyph spinning to life in front of her its armored hand burst forth from the glyph grasping its summoners arm.

"Weiss!" Cassie called out to her over the intercom.

Weiss screamed as she hung from the back of the airship, the wind whipped across her face forcing her to turn her head away to shield her face it was from here she got a good view of the lake below, more importantly, the inanimate object that nearly cost her life sailing down towards the water below a trail of multicolored particles left in its wake. "W-Wait a second." Weiss gasped as the Arma Gigas arm finished reeling her back into the ship, planting the tip of Myrtenaster into the metal floor Weiss fell to her knees a reinforced Gravity Glyph forming beneath her to lock her back in place, tilting her head up toward the remaining crates, she glanced back over her shoulder towards the pursuing Lancer Queen

"Weiss are you okay" Cassie called out to her in concern "That was too close, come back up we can try something else."

"Not yet" Weiss breathed "I have an Idea." Raising Myrtenaster towards the crates an unorthodox and almost certainly crazy plan beginning to form in her mind, she spun the cylinder on her weapon slotting the fire dust into place a small flame bursting to life on the tip of her sword. "I need you to find somewhere that can box it in right behind us."

"...Are you crazy!" Cassie called back to her in alarm.

"Just trust me" Weiss argued back

Back inside the cockpit, Cassie shook her head in frustration as she stared down at the camera feed in the cargo hold, she'd already figured out Weiss's plan the second she saw her looking back at the crates, but as much as she wanted to protest dumping their highly explosive cargo into the face of a pursuer that was in her opinion, so close it could mount their shuttle, they were short on ideas right now. "Fine" Cassie sighed, her eyes scanning the surrounding islands for anything they could use to trap that thing.

Cassie spotted a pair of adjacent islands connected by a series of land bridges creating a small canyon between the two 'That'll do' steering the ship towards the hovering landmass, Cassie called back to Weiss "We're coming up on a pair of islands, are you ready "

"When I give the signal speed up." She called back through the intercom, Weiss stood up pointing Myrtenaster towards the crates, the flame shot forth from the tip of her weapon multiplying into several identical flames that struck the straps holding them in place within the second the straps snapped freeing their cargo, curling her fingers in an all too familiar fashion a trio of velocity glyphs formed beneath the crates, the ship shuddered as they glided between the islands its wings scraping against the walls of both a trail of sparks spitting into the air behind them, the Lancer queen closing in on the ship preparing for another barrage.

"Now" Weiss cried thrusting her hand forward the Velocity glyph spun to life launching the crate forward with the force of a cannon flying out into the open air towards the Lancer queen, their shuttles engines roared to life their ship pulling ahead, Weiss spun on her heels selecting the last of her fire dust an elemental glyph formed in front of her unleashing the largest fireball yet.

It shot forth towards the crates of dust and ammunition, the lancer Queen barely having time to bulge its eyes before the Fireball met its mark, a massive explosion engulfed the canyon behind them the shockwave nearly knocking Weiss off of her feet. Grabbing the wall for support, Weiss stared out the back of the ship towards the cloud of smoke behind them, her eyes widened as the Lancer Queen silhouette began to emerge... except.

Its body tumbled through the air, chunks of flesh carved out of this body the majority of its legs reduced to jagged bloody stumps, black ichor flowing freely while its tattered and torn wings hung limply by its sides, Weiss watched on as the lancer Queen crashed into the canyon wall behind them tearing through the land bridges as it fell, tumbling through the air towards the lake below them, dissipating into ash just before it hit the water.

The shuttle burst free from the canyon climbing back up high into the sky "Yeah!" Cassie cheered over the intercom while the cargo door began to lumber closed "Weiss, you did it!"

A small shuddering breath left the Schnee heiress, stumbling back against the wall behind her she slid down this surface onto the floor relief that their fight in the air had finally come to an end. "You okay down there?" Weiss looked up towards the intercom a small smile coming to rest across her features.

"I'm okay." Weiss breathed her head lulling back against the wall behind her. "I just think I've had my fill of excitement for today."

"You and me both" Cassie replied, a relieved sigh leaving the pink ranger "Come on back up, the skies are clear and Mistrals a stone throws away, I imagine we'll have quite the welcome." Weiss nodded back good naturally, standing up she sheathed her weapon and made her way across the cargo hold towards the ladder, pausing at the foot of the ladder for a few moments, her thoughts drifting back to the friends who would be waiting for them in Mistral

"I'm almost there... I'm almost Home." she whispered, before beginning the climb.


An: And thus, the journey begins, with Alex and his team setting out on their first mission to secure the means to return to Remnant and face down a few old enemies who may be very surprised to find him alive and well, meanwhile our favourite Ice queen/Best Girl has survived her battle in the skies above Anima with their way ahead clear and arrival to Mistral and in all likelihood a very grateful crew and passengers awaiting their arrival amount other things.