A/N: HOLA! Here's the next chapter. It's another Deryn/Apocalypsia chap, but the next will be Alek. Hope you like it! R&R!

Disclaimer: All rights go to Scott Westerfeld.

Chapter Five

The sun was just starting to creep above the tree line when the proper military men arrived. They rolled across the field in their all terrain carriage drawn by two lupine tigeresques, pulling up smartly before the line of recruits. The beast's muscles bulged under the leather straps of the carriage rig, and when one shook itself like a monstrous house cat, sweat flew in all directions.

"Well that's pleasant." Apocalypsia muttered sarcastically from her position beside Deryn.

In the corners of her vision Deryn saw the boys around her stiffen. Then the carriage driver set the tigers growling with a snap of his whip, and a nervous murmur traveled down the line.

A man in a flight captain's uniform stood in the open carriage, a riding crop under one arm. "Gentlemen, welcome to Wormwood Scrubs. I trust none of you is frightened by the fabrications of natural philosophy?"

For about 5 seconds, nobody answered. However, after about 6 seconds, Apocalypsia raised her hand in the air and said to the man, "Sir, personally, I think that those tigeresques are rather adorable."

For a moment the man seemed unsure of what to respond. Deryn mentally smacked herself in the forehead and groaned. For once, why couldn't Apocalypsia at least pretend to be normal? Why?

Then the man replied to Apocalypsia, "Well, I'm glad you think so."

After that, when no one stepped forward to admit their fear, the flight captain said, "Excellent. Then you won't mind a closer look."

The driver's whip snapped again, and the carriage rumbled across the broken field, the nearest passing within arm-reach of the volunteers. The snarling beasts were too much for three boys at the end of the line. They broke ranks and ran shrieking toward the open gates of the scrubs.

"Wimps." Apocalypsia muttered in disgust

Deryn managed to keep her eyes focused directly ahead as the tigers passed, but a whiff of them—a mix of wet dog and raw meat—sent shivers down her spine.

"Not bad, not bad," the flight captain said. "I'm glad to see so few of our young men—and women—have succumbed to common superstition."

Deryn snorted. A few people—Monkey Luddites, they were called—were afraid of Darwinist beasties on principle, they thought that crossbreeding natural creatures was more blasphemy than science, even if fabs had been the backbone of the British empire for the last fifty years.

She wondered for a moment if these tigers were the secret test Jaspert had warned her about, and smirked. If so it had been pure dawdle.

"But your nerves of steel may not last the day, gentlemen," the flight captain said. "Before moving on we'd like to discover if you have a head for heights. Coxswain?"

"About-face!" shouted an airman. With a muddled bit of shuffling the line of boys turned itself about to face the hangar tent. Deryn saw that Jaspert was still here, hanging off to one side with the boffins. They were all wearing clart-snaffling grins.

The hangars tent flaps split apart, and Deryn's jaw dropped open…

An airbeast was inside: a Huxley ascender. It's tentacles in the grips of a dozen ground men. The beast pulsed and trembled as they drew it gently out, setting its translucent gasbag shimmering with the red light of the rising sun.

"Sweet." Muttered Apocalypsia. Deryn had no idea what that meant but she decided to ignore it.

Then the boy on the other side of her gasped, "A medusa."

Deryn nodded. This was the first hydrogen breather ever fabricated, nothing like the living airships of today, with their gondolas, engines, and observation decks.

The Huxley was made from the life chains of medusa—jellyfish and other venomous sea creatures—and was practically as dangerous. One wrong puff of wind could spook a Huxley, sending it diving for the ground like a bird headed for worms. The creature's fishy guts could survive almost any fall, but their human passengers were rarely so lucky.

Then Deryn saw a pilots rig hanging from the airbeast, and her eyes widened still farther.
Was this the test of "air sense" Jaspert had been hinting at? And he'd let her believe he'd only been kidding! That bum-rag.

"You lucky gents will be taking a ride this morning," the flight captain said from behind them. "Not a long one: only up a thousand feet or so then back down… after ten minutes of lofting in the air. Believe me, you'll see London as you never have before!"

Deryn felt a smile creeping across her lips. Finally a chance to see the world from on high again, just like in one of Da's balloons.

"To those of you who'd prefer not to," the flight captain finished, "we bid fond farewells."

"Any of you little blighters want out?" shouted the coxswain from the end of the line. "Then get out now! Otherwise it's skyward with you!"

"Humph. I find the term 'little blighter' a tad bit insulting," muttered Apocalypsia while another dozen boys departed.

They didn't run screaming this time, just slunk toward the gate in a huddled pack, a few pale and frightened faces glancing back at the pulsing hovering monster. Deryn realized with pride that almost half of the volunteers were gone.

"Right, then." The flight captain stepped in front of the line. "Now that the Monkey Luddites have been cleared out, who'd like to go first?"

Without hesitation, without a thought about what Jaspert had said about not drawing attention, and with the last squick of nerves in her belly gone, Deryn Sharp took one step forward.

"Please, sir. I'd like to fly."

Apocalypsia Pandemonium watched as Deryn was buckled into the pilots rig by one of the men. For the hundredth time she was struck by the ultimate epicness of the situation. She was living Leviathan! Apocalypsia saw the coxswain lean over Deryn and whisper something to her. Deryn appeared to be rather nervous.

The man handed her a yellow roll of cloth. Apocalypsia recalled that it was the panic flag that Deryn stupidly decided not to use. Then Apocalypsia realized that she needed to be with Deryn. If she was not with Deryn, Deryn would die. If Deryn died Apocalypsia would get sent home. If Apocalypsia got sent home, she would have to go to school tomorrow. And that was not happening. (Partly because she hadn't done her homework yet.)

But, then Deryn began ascending. Apocalypsia sighed in frustration, and then looked around. She noticed a glinting from behind the hanger tent. I don't remember that from the book. What is it? Wondered Apocalypsia.

To get a closer a closer look Apocalypsia extracted herself from the line of boys. The recruits were just standing there like a herd of lazy meeses (A/N: btw that is supposed to be a miss-spelled pluralization of moose on purpose), staring in open mouthed awe at Deryn in her Huxley. After moving a few steps, Apocalypsia saw that the glinting came from another Huxley that was held down by a single huge man. Apocalypsia quickened her pace as she headed for the Huxley, a mischievous smile spreading slowly across her face.

As she walked, she formulated a plan. However, because her mind was busy with a plan, she did not notice the massive rock that lay in her path. Then Apocalypsia managed to trip on the rock, and roll head over heels into a massive mud puddle, which caused a rather magnificent splash. Yes, she's just that skilled.

Standing up, Apocalypsia shook herself much like a dog does after falling in a vat of liquid.

"Okay. Note to self: Do not think while simultaneously walking." Apocalypsia muttered to herself.

When she reached the man she said in her most innocent voice, "Excuse me, sir?"

"Ye—" the man didn't even get to finish his word, because by that time Apocalypsia's fist met his face. He then fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, out cold.

Apocalypsia grabbed the Huxley's tentacle before it could drift away. She then leaned over and grabbed a long piece of rope that was laying, discarded, on the ground. She ran over to the Huxley's pilots rig and lightly sat down on the seat. Apocalypsia pulled her lethal Arabian dagger from her backpack and began sawing as hard as she could at the thick Huxley cable that connected her to the ground.

Apocalypsia looked up from her work for a moment, only to see that some of the men were running towards her. Apocalypsia sawed even harder. Then the Huxley caught an updraft and began to rise. When she was about fifty yards up the men began to reel her in. The cable was almost cut through so Apocalypsia gave it one last good hack, and it broke, sending her shooting up in the air.

Then realizing that nothing held her to the rig except for her own balance, she attempted to strap herself in. when she was done, (the attempt was pretty much a failure) she unwound some of the rope and tied it to the rig. The Huxley drifted lazily on updrafts, until she was just a few yards below Deryn. She then shouted up, "Yo! Mr. Sharp!"

Deryn looked down. The look of shock, confusion, annoyance and fright on her face made her look much like Regina—well Kara now—when Apocalypsia snuck up and flying tackled her at school.

"Wha—whe—how—agggggggghhhhhh!" shrieked Deryn.

"Asphrelumba!" greeted Apocalypsia. (A/N:Bramblepool understands that. I don't. It's apparently a reference to something)

Deryn fell into an open mouthed silence.

"Ummmmmmm… Deryn?" asked Apocalypsia. "Are you ok?"

Deryn didn't respond, just stared at her with a gaping mouth. "Yo Deryn! Earth to Deryn! Deryn to Earth! Barking spiders! Come on! Wake up already!" Shrieked Apocalypsia, waving her arms back and forth.

Then Apocalypsia took one of the rocks she had taken from home, and hurled it at Deryn's head (don't question her methods). However, because Apocalypsia cannot do anything, the rock fell short, and only managed to nudge her foot. Still, that was enough to get Deryn's brain functioning.

"How did you get here?" asked Deryn.

"Magic." Replied Apocalypsia in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No, seriously. How did you get here?" insisted Deryn.

"It's best not to question my methods." Replied Apocalypsia, as she leaned forward to stare at the ground below.

"Fine then." Said Deryn crossing her arms. "If you won't tell me then I don't want to know."

"Okay." Said Apocalypsia shrugging her shoulders.

After a moment's pause Deryn asked again "Please?"

"No." replied Apocalypsia firmly.

"Hmph."

After a minute or two of slightly awkward silence Apocalypsia asked hopefully, "Ummmmm, Deryn, do you think you could maybe, possibly tie this rope to your harness?" She held up the rope. "Yeah, um, I'm just sort of, you know, not attached to the ground or anything, and I would really prefer not to just drift around hanging off of a Huxley for the rest of my existence…"

"Oh fine then. Toss the rope over." Deryn hmphed.

"Yayz! I'm not gonna die! Well you know not in the super near future… but anyway, Yayz!" cheered Apocalypsia as she tossed the rope which she had earlier tied to her own harness at Deryn's face.

Once she was secure, Apocalypsia pulled yet another rock out of her backpack, dropped it and watched it as it fell. (A/N:I just realized that that was similar to when Bovril dropped a strawberry stem -Bramblepool) When it finally hit the ground, Apocalypsia exclaimed loudly to Deryn, "Whoa! That rock I dropped made a crater!"

Deryn looked down, and when she a saw a distinctly crater-less ground she yelled indignantly, "Hey! You lied! There's no crater!"

Seriously? Thought Apocalypsia. "You are so gullible!"

"Yeah? Well you're a ninny!" retorted Deryn.

Then Apocalypsia pulled out her final rock, took careful aim, and hurled it at Deryn. The rock hit its intended target, Deryn's forehead, and she was out cold.

A/N: Don't judge. Hope you like the chapter. Next one will be super extra-long and will go back to Alek and me, uh…I mean….Kara…..right…..

Anyway, Review!