Even with the pressure on to fly quickly and get to Zane, it was great to be in the air. We were basically alone up there, except for a couple of birds of prey who flew as high as we did, mostly eagles and falcons and that type of thing. They'd come swooping by every now and then, probably super confused by the strange-looking "birds" we were.

With as much altitude as we had, the landscape far beneath us looked like a mural. Strips of land in different hues of green and brown and sometimes gray slowly moved under us. Cars looked like nothing more than ants, and people walking around were barely even specks if I wasn't concentrating on them. One of the perks of being a birdkid was that raptor vision I had. If I focused on something far beneath me, it would sharpen and become clear to my eyes, whether it was a tree, a house, or anything else. I spent a lot of the time we flew doing that, picking things to concentrate on. Nya did the same thing, and every once in a while we commented on something we had seen.

Jay, on the other hand, spent the whole time talking. "Do you think Cole and Kai are doing okay? I know they were mad when we left. I hope they're not too angry still. I don't know what I do if we got back with Zane and Kai and Cole were still mad at us. Do you think they're all right? I hope they're all right."

"I'm sure they're all right," I spoke up when Jay took a pause to breathe. "They're probably still pretty upset, but they'll get over it. The important thing is that they're safe at home."

Jay bobbed his head in a nod, but he looked unconvinced. "I wonder if-"

As he babbled about what Kai and Cole might be doing at that moment, I tuned out for the most part, only paying enough attention to absorb the basics of what he was saying and nod when it seemed appropriate. I turned most of my attention back to looking at the ground, picking out object after object to focus on. A truck, a barn, a group of kids standing in a circle.

I wondered what those kids' lives were like. They looked to be about my age, but I bet that our lives were incredibly different. They probably had parents and teachers and family friends, and they probably had never fought a genetically-enhanced snake-man in their entire lives.

But why should I care about that? After all, they were stuck on the ground, stuck in the boring routine of school and homework and chores, never to know the glory of flight, never to know the freedom of not having adults around, whereas I got to fly where I wanted when I wanted and make my own rules. My life was so much better than their lives. I wasn't jealous. I was sure I wasn't jealous.

I refocused on the group of kids for a moment, about to turn my gaze and find something else to stare at, when something caught my attention. I frowned. The first time I'd looked, all I'd seen was a group of kids standing in a circle. Now when I looked, I saw that there was another kid, a kid who was a lot smaller than the other ones, standing in the middle of the circle, and this kid's looked tense and frightened.

Now, given my track record of a fight-filled life, it could be that I was just paranoid. It could be that I was seeing things that weren't there. I could be that I was completely wrong that there was something bad going on down there.

However, it could also be that I was right.

At that moment, I had a decision to make, one that could turn out in any number of ways, one that I could have spent forever agonizing over. But I didn't spend forever thinking about it. Instead, I just made up my mind.

I turned to Nya and Jay and opened my mouth.

"Not a chance," Nya said quickly, her sharp eyes focused firmly on my face.

I closed my mouth for a moment, frowned, then opened my mouth again.

"Nope, you're not doing that," Nya stated.

"Huh?" Jay asked, looking back and forth between us.

"Meet me at the southernmost point of the Caves of Despair," I told them.

"Wait, what?" Jay said. "Are we splitting up? Why are we splitting up?"

"Lloyd wants to go be a hero." Nya spat out the words like it was a bad thing.

Jay's nose wrinkled. "I don't get it."

I ignored his confusion. All I could think of was that the boy on the ground needed help, just like Zane needed our help, but for the boy on the ground, there was no one coming to help him.

"Oh, oh! Is this like the time we saw that fox hunting that rabbit, and we got in between them and scared the fox away, and we totally rescued the rabbit? Is this like that?" Jay asked.

"Close enough," I stated. "It'll be quick, I promise."

"You know what would be really quick? If we just kept flying," Nya stated.

I frowned at her. "It'll be quick enough. You two keep on flying, keep the course, and I'll catch up with you in like half an hour or something. If worst comes to worst, I'll meet you at the Caves of Despair."

Nya stared at me, then looked away pointedly. She hated this idea and I knew it.

But you can't please everybody all the time. I knew that too.

"All right then," I stated, starting to angle myself to fly toward the circle of kids. "I'll be right back."