Nearly one hundred klicks away from the hidden bunker, a hulking steel vessel rested at the end of a long scar that had been torn into the forest by its forced landing. The hull of the ship had been battered pretty heavily by its landing, dents and gouges covering the vessel. On the bridge, a trenchcoated man stood, leaning at a ten-degree angle to offset the ship's list to port. Outwardly, one would think that he was completely unconcerned with the damage to his ship. However, everyone who knew him well enough could see that he was so worried that it was virtually eating at him from the inside.

Even though he had been one of the more seriously injured members of the crew when the Mayship had crashed, Johnny had refused any treatment until everyone else on the ship had been given the proper care and attention to their own injuries. Johnny frowned for a few seconds, looking at the paper he held in his left hand. The damage report was short, simple, and sobering.

The port engine was damaged, but fixable. Replacing the ruined turbine blades would be the most difficult part of the work, but it was required if the Mayship was to become airborne once again. Most of the remaining damage was cosmetic, except for the gaping hole in the starboard side of the cargo bay, where a missile had managed to slip through the layers of defences set up by many years of hard work and trial-and-error.

Johnny looked at the note once more, then shook his head, placing the scrap of paper in one of his coat's pockets. Turning from the deserted bridge, he walked aft, heading towards the ship's mess hall, which currently doubled as the first-aid station. Johnny paused at the mess' door when he noticed that someone, probably April, had covered the door's circular window with something, likely to keep the younger orphans aboard ship from seeing anything that would traumatize them.

Nodding to himself at the forethought, Johnny quietly entered the large room, quickly closing the door behind him. As he did so, June, who had taken charge of the wounded, virtually materialized beside him, checking Johnny's right arm, which was immobilized by a splint and sling. Five seconds later, Johnny was bapped over the head with a roll of gauze, as he had been fidgeting, much to his crewmember's displeasure.

June didn't light into him however. All she did was shake her head as she readjusted the sling to take in the slack Johnny had created. As she did so, June looked at Johnny, who, to her eyes, looked about as exhausted as humanly possible. "You want to see her?"

Johnny shook his head, looking at the one area that June had surrounded with privacy screens. The floor there had lost its varnish, simply because of the sand that had been used to make sure that the floor did not become too slippery from the blood. "Not until she's awake. How's she doing?"

June grimaced. "Hard to tell. She's stopped bleeding from the deeper wounds, but she's still unconscious. I just hope she'll be okay."

Johnny nodded. "Same here." He then turned and looked towards the other beds in the 'ward' most of which were unoccupied. "So, how's everyone else?"

June thought for a few moments, then nodded to herself. "Minor wounds, mostly. A few bumps and scrapes from your decision to corkscrew us out of one hit, Feb has a concussion, and Janice is missing a few whiskers due to a close call with an open door that decided to close itself. Otherwise, we're all okay, and everyone else except Janice and myself has already started work on the engine."

Johnny, slightly relieved by the information, nodded to himself. "I think I'll go and give them a hand. After all, even one good arm can help with basic repairs."

And so, twenty minutes later, Johnny found himself holding a lug wrench in his good hand, feet braced against the damaged engine's turbine housing, and cursing under his breath as he tried valiantly to turn a single, stubborn bolt that, no matter what he did, would not rotate. Seriously tempted to just bash the tar out of the tenacious bolt, Johnny sighed and looked up at the clear skies overhead.

Five seconds later, the skies were not that clear, and Johnny was shouting for everyone to get to the ground and cover their ears. He took his own advice, dropping the wrench, running to the end of the wing and dropping the fifteen feet to the forest floor, where he took shelter behind a solid-looking tree before covering his ears.

Fifteen seconds later, a massive pressure wave tore through the area, knocking over smaller trees, sending objects flying (Johnny would later swear that he saw his wrench being launched through a large pine tree), and actually forcing the Mayship ten feet further into the trees, many of which were uprooted or snapped off near the ground as several hundred tons of metal alloys encroached upon the soon-to be firewood.

For almost ten seconds after the pressure wave passed them, a swirling maelstrom of disturbed air buffeted the Mayship and its crew, preventing anyone from moving for fear of being swept off of their feet. Eventually, the air calmed, and the crew members who had been working with Johnny appeared from the places they had used as cover from the blast. Johnny, partly shaded from the setting sun by the overhanging wing of the Mayship, looked south, towards the immense mushroom cloud of black and grey smoke that rose far into the air.

"Wow. I've never seen something that large." Sephy stood beside Johnny, and, having decided that it was safe to watch the massive cloud continue climbing towards the heavens, she did so.

Johnny nodded at the young girl's words, then frowned. "I have. It's not something you want to see every day, is it?"

Sephy shook her head, her large eyes still transfixed upon the cloud. "No. It's scary. Reminds me of that woman in red who was with us."

Johnny nodded to himself, then picked up a toolbox that had been knocked over. "Hmm. She is a scary one, but I think that's just her way. You know, like how April is always there when you have a nightmare and you need to talk to someone."

Sephy began to pick up several smaller objects that had fallen out of the tool box, tearing her gaze away from the spectacle as she figured that her duties took precedence. "Or like how May is completely hopeless in the galley, and has been threatened with death by both June and Leap if she wrecks another pot?"

Johnny just nodded, frowning to himself. "Uh huh." Glancing again at the mushroom cloud, he felt a chill wash over him, causing him to shiver for a few seconds. Sighing to himself, he began to make plans to head towards the blast site.

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Less than fifty yards from where the bunker had once stood, Dizzy and I-No lay, side by side, on top of a large, cool mound of earth. Exhausted, covered in bruises, and sore over every square millimetre of her body, Dizzy felt more dead than alive. However, the familiar presence of both her guardians prevented her from slipping into unconsciousness, though her battered body would have gladly sone so.

Undine was the first to comment on the devastation wrought, which was unlike her. #Wow. Did they ever hear the term 'overkill'?#

Necros' response followed shortly afterwards, though it did not hold his usual conviction and sense of power. Dizzy just assumed he was also awed by the destruction around them Yeah, they did. Right before it blew up in their faces, killing them.

Undine spluttered for a few seconds, then gave up and laughed. After recovering from the laughing fit, she decided to manifest, allowing herself to get a better look around her. Necros did the same, and, with both guardians assisting her, Dizzy slowly sat up. Ignoring her pounding migraine, the hybrid first looked for anything hostile. However, reality intruded swiftly as her right arm warned her off of any sort of movement. Looking at her arm, Dizzy was surprised to see that her forearm had been laid open to the bone by a piece of shrapnel no larger than her pinky fingernail, though, due to her mixed heritage, the gaping wound was not bleeding, and was slowly sealing itself.

Carefully, and almost writhing in pain sometimes, Dizzy washed her injuries in water Undine summoned, followed by bandaging her worst injuries with several of the surgery kit's gauze wraps. Dizzy was inwardly glad that she had the foresight to bring the kit along before everything went to hell. She then looked at I-No, who, while apparently uninjured from the blast, was quite unconscious.

Deciding to check for injuries, Dizzy reached out and carefully tried to roll I-No onto her right side, in order to check on the witch's known injuries. Quietly, so quietly that even Dizzy had a hard time picking the comment out, I-No spoke, sounding more like a scared child than the confident and deadly woman that she was. "Please... not again... stop hitting me... please..."

Dizzy paused, her fingers less than an inch away from the older woman's skin, surprised at the comment. As Dizzy tried to figure what to do, I-No turned away, still unconscious, and revealed that her only injuries were the ones that had been inflicted upon her much earlier. As Dizzy examined I-No's slowly healing wounds, she noticed a pale, white line, as wide as her thumb, running down the witch's back, and disappearing underneath the leather clothes I-No always wore. Dizzy sat back on her heels, stiffening her tail slightly so she could effectively 'tripod' herself. Looking at the visible scar, and thinking of the whispered comment that likely came direct from I-No's subconscious, Dizzy decided to reopen a conversation with her two guardians.

'Well, I guess we know something about her past now. Sounds like she went through some stuff that's pretty similar to what we went through.'

Necros' response was bluntly snide. So? Why didn't she fight back? From what we do know of her, she's perfectly capable of laying waste to a small city in twenty minutes, and she looks like the first one she'd total would be her own.

Undine's response was more thought-out than Necros', earning her a mental smile. #Maybe it's because, like Dizzy, she didn't want to hurt anyone, and only wanted to be accepted. Only, unlike Dizzy, she didn't fall into the 'clutches' of someone like Johnny, who actually tries to understand us.#

Necros once again responded, though with much less derogatory content than the last time he had been invited to offer his opinion. Hrrmph. Well, at least she's unconscious. I say we leave her to rot and just head off. Probably save us a lot of stress too.

Dizzy interjected, her mental voice basically carrying all the power of the word of god. 'Well, unlike you, I think we're going to take her along with us. We may move more slowly, but I think we'll need her help a few more times. Besides, she saved our lives at least twice now.'

Undine's voice carried her smirk too, causing Necros to grumble vigorously. #Which, according to Necros' math skills, means she still owes us for tossing us off the Mayship the last time.#

Well, think about it! There's three of us, and only one of her. She endangered each of us once, and has only saved our collective skin twice. Therefore, she still owes us one.

'Well, I think that we should help her, just so she can square away whatever Necros feels she owes us. All opposed? Necros, put your hand down. All in favour of helping her? Thanks Undine. The 'ayes' have it.'

Dizzy stood up, then tested her right arm to see how it was doing. Moving her hand hurt just enough to warn Dizzy from doing anything strenuous, so she collected the two satchels loaded with the supplies they had taken from the bunker. Carefully settling the satchels across her back, Dizzy then looked back at what remained of the bunker, watching the black smoke climb steadily into the air from whatever was still burning inside the shattered concrete shell.

Sighing to herself, Dizzy then picked up I-No's guitar, which she also slung across her back, then looked at I-No herself, who seemed to be just beginning to reacquire something approximating consciousness. Dizzy helped the semi-conscious witch stand, then, by letting I-No use her shoulders as a brace for an arm, Dizzy managed to somehow half-drag herself and I-No away from the bunker, still heading north.