"NO!" Hope cried.

Without hesitation she folded her wings back and dived after them like an arrow fired from a bow.

Aska wasn't afraid as he fell, his jacket flapping wildly in the wind. Not for himself at least. He had accepted long ago that dying in the line of duty was a possibility. His only fear was for the city and its people. Whatever this thing was he could only pray that the rest of the police, his brothers and sisters in arms, could find a solution.

Wanting his last thoughts to be good ones he willed himself not to think about that. Instead he tried to think about the day he and Chage had freed Hope. Of all the things he had done that was the best. The memory of her soaring away into the sky comforted him.

Just then he felt a hand close around the back of his collar and a sudden jolt of inertia as somehow, impossibly, his fall abruptly decelerated.

What the?… Can it be?…

He turned his head slightly and his jaw dropped in astonishment.

Hope had observed how her falcon friend caught prey by climbing to a great height and then diving down at it in a stoop. While the loss of life saddened her (not that she held it against the falcon, it was only acting as nature intended), she was amazed by the speed and precision it was capable of. Now she sought to use the same technique, not to take lives but to save them.

With her wind resistance decreased she easily caught up to them. Wind howled in her ears, her hair and dress billowing as she reached out with both hands and caught hold of their collars.

Now came the difficult part. She had to open her wings just enough to slow their descent but not halt it. Stopping it completely would have broken their necks.

Hope carefully brought her wings partially up, creating a slight drag. She also felt the inertial jolt as their fall was slowed but not stopped. In that precious instant before their fall could speed up again she extended her wings fully to create additional drag. She couldn't carry both Aska and Chage but she didn't need to, merely ride the air currents while redirecting their momentum.

She did exactly that. Their speed was further reduced as she pulled up in a steady arc that turned their fall into a horizontal glide that carried the three of them out over the rooftop of a smaller building.

Chage and Aska managed to hit the gravel surface rolling, bringing their momentum further down and finally coming to a halt. Hope touched down on her feet in front of them.

The two officers got to their feet, shaken but unharmed. For a moment they just stared at her.

Finally Aska said, "Hope? Is, is it you?" Neither he or Chage had changed much in the four years that had passed since they had last seen her, but Hope looked exactly the same, as if she hadn't aged a day.

"If this is a dream then I don't want to wake up" said Chage with a delighted grin.

She smiled. "It's not a dream. I'm here" she said in the sweet, beautiful voice they had first heard on that day all those years ago.

Smiling happily, both officers hugged her. She returned the hug.

"Thanks for saving us" said Aska. "It's so good to see you again."

"Yeah" Chage agreed.

"It was the least I could do after everything you did for me" she replied.

"How did you know to come here?" Aska queried.

"I had a vision, a premonition of something terrible happening to this city. It showed me that you were in danger" she explained.

"But how did you find us?" Chage asked. "It's a big city."

"My parents guided me to you" she replied.

"Your parents?" Aska repeated in puzzlement.

"You mean like… uh…" Chage said unsurely. He cast a quick glance upwards.

"Yes."

"Whoa" he said in amazement.

As happy as he was at the reunion Aska knew they couldn't spend anymore time talking. "Hope, do you know what's going on here?"

She shook her head. "No. On my way here I saw many people with the same sickness as those who were chasing you but I have no idea where it came from."

"We have to contact headquarters" said Aska. "First we should get to the hover car. Once we're inside and in the air they won't be able to get to us."

"Let's go then" said Chage confidently.

Fortunately the building they had landed on was considerably older and smaller than most, with a number of balconies they were able to climb down. There was even a fire escape they were able to use to reach the street.

Hiding in an alleyway Aska cautiously looked around a corner. The hover-car he and Chage had arrived in was on the other side of the street. He couldn't see any of the infected people.

"The coast is clear" he whispered. Chage and Hope nodded.

They rushed over to the hover-car and scrambled inside. Just as they entered, the front door of the building they had fled suddenly burst open and a mob of mutants came pouring through.

"Chage, get us in the air!" Aska yelled as the mob charged them.

Chage leapt into the pilot's seat and fired up the thrusters. The hover-car lifted into the air just as the mutants reached them. A few jumped at them, scrabbling at the air futilely, but they fell far short. Chage manoeuvred the vehicle to a secure position, making sure nobody could jump onto it from above and then set the thrusters to stationary hover.

"Nice work Chage" said Aska as he slid into the adjacent seat. "Now let's contact the chief and see if we can get some idea what's going on here."

He looked over his shoulder at Hope. "You'd best stay out of sight. The chief's a good man but right now the fewer people that know you're here the better."

"I understand" she replied, withdrawing to the back of the vehicle.

Chage tapped a few keys on the control panel and the chief's face appeared on the communications screen. He exhaled in relief when he saw them.

"Thank God you boys are all right."

"Chief, something's going on…" Aska started to say.

"I know" the chief cut him off. "Let me show you something that'll answer your questions."

He piped through the broadcast he'd seen a few minutes ago. Chage and Aska watched in fury.

"That sick freak" Aska snarled, his fist clenched.

The chief's face reappeared on-screen. "We were able to trace his transmission to an abandoned factory."

His face was again replaced, this time by an electronic map of the city with a blinking red dot showing the location of the factory.

"Since you boys are closest I want you to go there immediately. Find this guy and see if he has a cure for the spores."

He did not need to say that there was no guarantee their quarry would still be there when they arrived. It was the only lead they had to go on.

"I'm going to gather every remaining officer and try to contain this insanity before it consumes the whole city. Contact me when you find anything."

"Yes sir" said Aska.

"And hurry. Times running out."

With that the chief ended the transmission.