"All right," Cole stated, rubbing his hands together. "Let's run down the list. We've got Big Boy."
"Check," Kai agreed, looking to the table where their homemade bomb sat.
"We've got the jar of nails," Cole said.
Kai shook the jar up and down to make a satisfyingly loud series of clinking noises. "Check."
"We've got the tarp, and all the cooking oil, and the wires," Cole listed off.
"Check, check, all checked off," Kai said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Ooo, taking down the Serpentine is gonna be so cool. We rock. I just wish we could've dug a pit. Oh, and put poisoned spikes at the bottom!"
"Where would we have found poison for the spikes?" Cole asked, then he said quickly before Kai could say anything, "It doesn't matter. We didn't have time. We'll make do with what we've got. We just have to fly carefully and figure out where the Serpentine."
"Then we can put the nails on the roads and put out the tarp, the oils, and the trip wires," Kai agreed. He smirked. "All we have to do is not get caught."
"That would be bad," Cole stated.
Kai laughed.
"Is it night now? Or is it at least close?" Cole asked, switching topics.
"Uh-huh. It's close. Here, I found some of your darkest clothes," Kai explained, holding out a bundled bunch of clothes. Cole held out his hands and Kai dropped the bundle into them, adding, "I've got my darkest clothes too. Once we get changed, are we heading out?"
"Yup, so let's go do that," Cole affirmed.
The two of them got changed and began packing up their supplies into bags.
"We should take Big Boy," Kai said, packing the jar of nails into his bag.
Cole made a hesitant sound. "I don't know about that. We aren't supposed to actually run into any Serpentine, we're just setting out the traps. We don't need any explosives."
"But just in case we do run into some Serpentine, we should make sure we can fight them off. So we should take Big Boy," Kai suggested.
Cole thought about that. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt. After all, it won't go off until I set the timer. We could bring it."
"Yeah! Let's bring it!" Kai enthused, watching Cole pick up the bomb and tuck it away into his backpack.
They both picked up their bags and settled the bags against their bodies, then headed for the hall window overlooking the canyon.
Kai opened the window all the way, then clambered up to sit on the ledge, his legs dangling over the drop into the canyon. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He was both extremely thrilled and somewhat anxious, making it hard to concentrate. But he needed to stay focused. This was for Zane. This was to protect his family who he loved.
Taking another deep breath, Kai jumped out into space, snapping open his wings and soaring up out of the canyon. As always, flying made everything better, made the whole world seem brighter. Rising into the sky, Kai didn't feel like a mutant on a dangerous mission against freaks who would stop at nothing to capture or destroy him. Instead, Kai felt like everything was perfectly in place.