Chapter 25.

The

Flames

Among

Water;

Act I,

Part II

ME: Since this chapter is going to be taking off right from the last chapter, sort of, I didn't know exactly what kind of song to choose for it. But once I did, I realized the beat of the selected song fit this chapter perfectly!

Boy, this chapter was a hurdle! And I do mean HURDLE! I went through so many scripts of this whole thing that I actually came THIS close to a migraine! On top of it, I had to write from multiple perspectives and try to make out every single piece of action from my head into real words that made sense! I am both proud and impressed that I made it through this without keeling over into a dead faint. However, I realized some of it is a little crappy and I do apologize for the poor quality!

Please do not throw rocks at me for the chosen selection of music, and I own nothing save my own AU version of one character! And yes, I used some dialogue from Arch Book 5 but I do not own that either! I simply use it for entertainment purposes.

Reviews are very much appreciated, if anybody still reads this story so please enjoy!

"Be heard, be strong, be proud!
I wanna make some noise!

Stand up, come on, be loud!
We're gonna raise our voice!

Come on, come on, come on!

You gotta hear me now!

You gotta hear me now!

You gotta hear me now!"

"Here We Go" – Lemonade Mouth

~X~

Only one thought was in Tuff Luck's mind. That this was not good. This was not good! This was not –

KA-BOOM!

SCRAAAAAAPE! RUMble, rumble . . .!

THOOM! CRACK! Crack!

Tuff's breath hissed through his teeth at the thunderous sounds going on around him. His hands were slick with from where they gripped the Penguin's steering wheel, making Tuff hold on to them all the more tighter each time they fought back with heavy force. He blamed the steam bursting from the pipes surrounding the pilot seat for the aggravating heat rising in temperature. As if he needed heat coupled with every other source of sudden stress bashing at him . . .

He gritted his teeth at the screen in front of him, the underwater world whipping by wildly before his eyes. A small band of fish exploded apart like fireworks at the sight of their sub before it could collide with them.

Cripes, this was bad. At the rate they were accelerating, if they didn't do something soon, they'd all be dead.

With that in mind, he whipped his head around and shouted into the array of speaking tubes, particularly the one labeled "Engine room". "Riley! Riley, can you hear me? What's going on down there?!"

~X~

Riley Luck's head was buzzing as badly as the prolonging and disturbingly loud thrum vibrating into the thick walls of the engine room. If that didn't do it, then the ominous yellow lights flashing against him and the walls and displaying erratic patterns from the valves and the hatches building up from the engine would. A clear signal that the inner clockwork system of it was going cuckoo bananas.

Not that that was the only problem. Oh no.

The cables and the wires streaming from the clockwork generator powering the base of the engine and running all over the floor like copper rivers were growing hotter and more unstable by the minute. The dials found attached to some wires here and there were shaking their measurements so hard it was like seeing an old man having a seizure, the glass frames starting to fog up and crack from the quickly rising pressure within them. The hot, electric crackles and shaking floors had actually provoked him into grabbing an emergency shield and wrench for protection in case any of said hazards decided to take a shot at him. Given, it was hard for him to keep his balance and stand tall since the submarine was swerving in dangerous turns and thumping left and right, making the world turn slant one minute and flat the next.

So far they hadn't gone into any sudden loop-de-loops but the pounding in his head kept him on his toes. Keep back! Keep back! Don't go near that thing! Run, run away! –

The speaking tube popped to life behind him, startling a yelp out of him. "Pssh – Riley! Riley, can you hear me? What's going on down there?!"

Riley panted from the burst of panic now running on a high in his nervous system and pulled down the par of goggles set over his eyes. "What do you think?! It's like the "Man Vs. Machine" thing is going on down here!"

"This is no time for jokes, Riley; I can't control the sub's speed!" Tuff shot back, grunting at some unseen force. Riley staggered as the ground slanted once more to the left, a groan resounding from the outside and the wires shifting on the ground right along with him and threatening to entangle his feet. "If we can't stop now, we might crash into a rock wall or worse, another sub! I don't care what you do, but you have to shut the engine down now!"

"Are you kidding?!" Riley asked him incredulously. "What do you think I've been trying to do? The engine's going into overdrive, I can't even get near it!"

The frustration was clear in Tuff's voice as he growled from the tube, "I don't know just– Just think of something!"

Anything smart or otherwise rude that would've come out of Riley's mouth was cut off with a –

Ka-BOOM!

The world went right sideways once again. Riley's foot lurched out and thumped against a lone dial as he fell forward, causing a fragment of glass to fly out as the wires on the floor rose like metal waves. The engine's light pattern scrambled like it was the one having a seizure as steam hissed out of the valves at scalding clouds of smoke.

Ignoring the awkwardness of his near-split position on the floor, Riley spoke as clearly as he could with a cough. "I-I see what I can do." He practically stumbled onto his feet as he limped over to the engine, making sure to rescue his shield from where it got entangled in wires and slip his goggles back on.

He noted the remaining steam wisps with a grimace and sighed heavily. This morning was off to a hell of start.

Ah well. Riley Luck vs. Engine; Round two.

~X~

Cassie Matsyendra didn't know what exactly she was expecting she woke up that morning.

Although, more specifically, it wasn't morning, she had woken up just a bit after midnight.

Even more specifically, she didn't wake up on her own; she had been rolled out of bed when her comfortable dark world of sleep was suddenly lurched sideways up – And onto the cold, hard floor, she might add. – And then right side up once again.

She would've already cursed the unpredictability of the ever-turbulent sea waves outside the submarine for the newfound bruise on her elbow had it not been the strange groans and disturbing distant booms resounding through the wires and clockwork cables hanging above in her bedroom ceiling. Obviously, she was no mechanic, but even she knew that when a sub was making sounds like that, something was not right.

Her suspicions were confirmed when, while stepping out of her room, Riley Luck just barely missed barreling into her, losing a few tools that went flying from the toolbox as he rushed right past her without even pausing to explain, instead panting about "Nothing ever staying fixed in this sub!"

She had rushed/stumbled to the helm as best she could with randomly jerking floors, found Tuff lurching against the controls like he was being electrocuted, got a whirlwind-paced but lengthy explanation – Along with some rather colorful Quillotian swears that she didn't even know existed. – That Cassie could barely process all at once. She got enough for it to simmer down to one point; the Submarine's engine was malfunctioning and they needed to get to surface A.S. !

Which brought her back to the current rush of thoughts flying in her head and the directions barking them to her ears from the speaking tubes. "Cassie! Open steam valves three and six!"

Cassie's tail whipped behind her as she ran to the modules holding the said valves, baring patterns of lightning and spores on the fin, before Cassie latched on to them, pulling one at a time with a grunt and crank. "Mmph! I've got them!"

"Good! Now pull the pressure lever on the far left side of you!" She turned on her heel and sprinted, locating the very far up lever just two heads above her. It took her two costly jumps and two even more so dodges from the crates and boxes sliding around her before her hand could grasp the handle and pull it down hard. "Done!"

"How soon until we can safely resurface the sub?!" Tuff's voice rattled, the floor slanting hard right and careening everything that wasn't nailed down to the wall with a blood-chilling groan, Cassie clinging to the pressure lever as her feet almost dangled below her from the sudden change of floor alignment. Everything else clattered against the metal wall like kiddy play-blocks.

"I still need to equalize the pressure!" Cassie responded, touching ground on her tiptoes once the plain was even. Glancing at some the trembling pipes and trying to make no mind of the silent boom against the walls outside, she stated, "But it's hard to get to them all at once with the sub jerking around like this! I can barely stay on my own feet for more than two seconds!"

"I know, I know!" Tuff gritted out from the metal pipe. "The submarine's speed is going out of control; it's taking me everything I got just to keep us from taking a nosedive in the nearest trench!"

Cassie bit her bottom lip for a moment of thought before starting, "Maybe I should go to help Riley, maybe –"

"No!" Tuff cut her off firmly. "Riley can handle whatever's happening down there, don't worry! I need someone to help me to get this sub topside before anything else bad happens!"

Cassie couldn't help but make a rude sound, rubbing at her still sore elbow. "Tuff, I really don't see how this could get any worse!"

"Well, I don't know like- OHCRIPES!"

Once again, Cassie's world lurched from underneath her.

A bone-jarring groan echoed. The lights dimmed. The room grew dark.

Cassie let out a silent scream as her feet were thrown up along the legs, hips, waist and upper body connected to them from momentum.

Her tail glowed like a beacon, dots small and large popping as lightning crackled unconsciously to her flaring emotions.

Her hands flew to her head as she felt herself fly. No, not flying, she was falling, falling, falling, back into the dark. Right back into the dark water where her air was gone, her side was hurting and she couldn't swim or move or scream –

THUMP!

– POP!

Glass shattered. She hit against the ceiling or was it the ground? Sharp, budding pain burst from her temple. She shouted to the blackness. What in god's name did she just hit? Her bangs stuck to her cheek, hot but wet.

Just as before, the lights reverted back on, just in time for Cassie to see the ground before –

THUD!

She heard something crack. Her neck? Her elbow? Her body felt numb from the pain humming in her brain. She groaned.

The floor was moving. Or was it the roof? She didn't know. Had she heard something smack hard against the sub outside? She didn't know.

She just didn't know . . .

~X~

The muscles in his arms screamed as Tuff wrestled the steering handle to the right. The Penguin's instant urge to flip to the left didn't go down without a fight. The shocks to the circuitry bit back at the turning gears of the controls like a pack of firecrackers but it gave way soon enough.

The upside down world turned right side up, ceasing any fear of deadly capsizing. The machine still surged ahead, slicing through the waters regardless, making him cringe. Geez, they could not catch a break tonight!

Ignoring the tight constrict of the safety harness from where he had set it only a minute ago, he turned to the speaking tube leading to Cassie. "Sorry Cassie, the currents outside made the sub nearly do a loop-de-loop! I got it back under control though!"

BAM! SCRAAAPE!

The pilot's seat rocked in place, shaking Tuff against the restraints of the harness. ". . . More or less." Tuff muttered sheepishly. "But we still need to open more pressure! Go to Pressure Tank 3, it's the third lever on the back wall! Got it?" Silence.

Tuff frowned. "Cassie? What's wrong? Didn't you hear me? Pull the third lever! We need to the pressure tank opened!" More silence.

Something bad started to grate on his nerves, something completely unsettled by the lack of response. "Cassie, I'm not kidding around here! We're gonna crash into a boulder or something if you don't hurry!" Still nothing.

Tuff felt panic welling up inside him. Why wasn't she answering? She was with him just a second ago, before the submarine had nearly done a flip and he had heard some kind of crash – OH. No.

He made no mind of the blinking light labeled "Air Chamber 2" on the dashboard as he shouted into the Engine Room tube. "RILEY! Riley! Get to the control room NOW! Stop what you're doing and get to the control room now!"

~X~

Riley ducked to avoid a cloud of hot steam blasting into his face. His goggles were fogged over from the few lashes of steam that licked just above his forehead as he yanked them down to his neck. "WHAT?!"

The tube screeched at him although it was a megaphone. "You heard me! Get to the control room now and help Cassie!"

Normally Riley would've jumped at the chance to be near a pretty female like Cassie, – Especially if his brother was berating him for it like a bad habit. – But right now, Riley's main concern was the quaking engine that was warming up hot as an oven. "What do you need me up there for? Cassie can handle pulling levers and junk just fine! If I leave the engine alone now, it's gonna pop like a cherry!"

"Cassie isn't responding to me, Riley! I heard a crash when we the sub almost keeled over and now she won't talk to me! Something's wrong, I just know it!"

"Maybe she just too busy trying to get us to the surface and just tired of listening to your nagging!"

"NAGGING!? I don't nag! I – You – Just get to the control room now, Cassie could be hurt!"

Riley's foot caught on a stray wire and fell flat to the ground, bashing the heck of his chin. "GRrf! You're being paranoid! Look, I'm busy down here; Cassie's a big girl, she can take care of herself!"

"RILEY –!" Riley held up a hand to stop the tube's shaking; Twenty-four years of experience on the Half-Shark's behalf knew that particular tone was just the catalyst to a really, really big rant. With the submarine acting up the way it was, that was something he was not in the mood for right then and there.

"Alright, alright! I'm on it!" Tossing his trusty wrench and shield aside, he stood up . . . Only to once again trip on a stray cable that slithered around his foot, this time bashing his elbow like a hammer to a nail. Riley rubbed at the now tender spot with a grimace. "Grr . . . Geez, what a fine kettle of fish this is." He growled to himself, since Tuff was no longer listening.

Despite his surroundings, despite the endless random tumbles from the left wall to the right, Riley couldn't help but be somewhat annoyed by his brother's newfound bossy attitude. Of course, he was a bit demanding in the past but this was just on a new level of pushy. Seriously, didn't he see that Riley had his own problems to deal with?

He made a face of comical exasperation and raised his voice to an oddly high pitch, wagging his finger in a telling-off fashion. Anyone who saw him could only assume it to be a bad impersonation of Tuff. ""Riley, stop the engine! Riley, go check on Cassie! Riley, stop goofing off and let me be a big ol' worry-wart pout-fish in peace!"." A really bad impersonation.

He blew air through his lips as he leapt back onto his feet. "Do this, do that! I've always gotta be doin' something! I'm gonna be running the coffee maker like those stupid gerbils by the time I'm done!" Hopping over the jungle of wires and cables like he was playing hopscotch as he went on, Riley made it to the doorway in one piece and made a grab for the latch –

THUD!

GROOAAAaannn . . .!

Clack– BAM!

"WHOA!" The door swung outward as the ground slanted to a hard right, smacking hard into the doorframe with a metallic screech and yanking Riley out right along with it and swinging him out like a pendulum into the hallway. His toolbox flew out of the room and smashed against the wall, exploding and spilling its contents all around the floor. ". . . Provided we're still breathing by then." He mumbled to himself.

Making mind not to step on an especially sharp screw, Riley let go of the hatch door and dropped into a wobbling stance set between the ridge dividing the wall and floor. Praying that the ground would stay the way it was, as asymmetrically awkward as it was at the moment, he staggered onward.

The door to the engine room swung limply, the hinges squeaking with each meager swing. A set of claws quietly clutched the corner of it from behind, freezing it in place. A sea green eye peeked around it, making a quick scan of the hall for any more occupants. Water dripped onto the steel floors, making tracks as drops slivered to the wall and as their owner silently spun around the door, reached for the doorframe and pulled himself in. The door followed soon after with a hollow clank.

~X~

Something thick and hot stung at her eye, making it hard to see. The concussion she was having hardly made it any better, making everything blurry. The ground kept spinning and her stomach was starting to flip right along with it, the nausea hitting her hard as her blood flowed under her nose.

Cassie's voice was a weak groan as it came out of her mouth. The same bruised arm from before was noxiously sore and the flickering lights were dizzying to her senses. Broken glass littered the floor, her fingers skimming over them and granting them superficial cuts. Was her tail throbbing? Was it cut again? No, it was fine. She was hallucinating. Where was Vince? She was hurting all over . . .

A blur of bright orange out of the corner of her clear eye. It blew by but came back an instant later. A pounding of feet on the floor before a pair of sandals stopped before her. "Cassie! Cassie, are you alright?"

She didn't answer. Cassie turned her head up, the sharp hammering protested, making her squint. Warm, familiar hands, sweaty and calloused, grasped her shoulders and hoisted her up to her knees from where she'd fallen. "Geez, Cassie, your head! Where are ya bleeding from?"

Oh no, her blood. She tried to push his sweaty but careful hands back but he held firm. Out of the dizziness, she saw a small, sharp-toothed smile. "Cassie, relax, it's okay; I can handle little stuff like this. Let me see." A small poke to her temple. A whimper came out but not Riley's. ". . . Yeesh, lotsa blood . . . Oh, hey! It's just a little cut! It's just bleeding a lot that's all. Here, hold on."

A shallow rip made her ears twitch. Something soft and smelling like laundry soap brushed against her head and under her nose. A moment later, the cloudiness went away and the world was clear; Riley, sporting his own collection of bruises and cuts on his body, grinned at her in spite of the chaos going on around them and his, now one-sleeved, bright yellow green shell-patterned shirt. "There we go. That's a little better, huh?"

Cassie took the dark blue stained sleeve and pressed it to her head. "Thank you, Riley . . . But why are you up here? You should be in the engine room –"

Riley stopped her with a small wave. "Ah, y'know Tuff. He was worried about you so he sent me up here to check up on ya. And I have to admit, it's a good thing he did."

Cassie was grateful for that, truly. But with the danger they were in, there was hardly time to be so callous. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine now. Just get back down there before anything else happens."

Riley blinked at her. "Like what?"

WHUD!

Cassie was thrown backwards, her lips loosening a scream. Riley shot toward her with a hand stretched. His tight grip spiked around her wrist. Raw fish and cologne filled her nose as he pulled her in close to his chest. A sudden twist of his body then up was down and down was up, and they slammed hard into the sub wall. Pressed against him, Cassie could hear Riley's chest hum with a deep grunt of pain. "Forget I asked.".

Cassie gave him a weary smile. "What did we hit that time?"

Riley shrugged. "Can't be any worse then being smacked back and forth like a tennis ball." He had to be right. After all, what could really be worse?

~X~

Two large, beady black eyes gaped right at him, long whiskers as thick as fishing rods tweaking as a bushy muzzle of fur behind a bowling-ball sized nose sniffed, making a cloud of bubbles rise in the seawater and a fog appear against the weak barrier of glass.

Tuff felt all the blood drain from his face, his own sea green eyes irises wide and twitching from the quickly rising wave of panic that bubbled within him. He wasn't sure if his heart stopped beating, but the roaring in his ears told him otherwise. The sound of the psychotic gauges and dials on the dashboard fell on deaf ears.

A Sea Otter. Mother of God, it was a Sea Otter looking at him. A real, friggin', SEA OTTER.

Of the hundreds of creatures they could've run into by mistake, of the thousands of monsters that could've bumped into by accident, of the millions of problematic animals they could've met instead, why for the love of all that was holy did they have to crash into a SEA OTTER?!

One would think that sea otters wouldn't be such a problem, given the fact that their ancestors were as small as housecats and just as playful. In fact, in the past, they were stated as relatively harmless. But that was before the magic of the Archipelago and good old-fashioned evolution kicked in; turning them bigger, turning them faster, turning them meaner.

Admittingly, Tuff had never seen one in action before in he and his brother's eight years out on sea. But as a kid back home, he heard numerous stories about how these monstrous mammals could easily grab a fully-grown submarine, smash it with a boulder on their stomachs like it was a walnut and make a snack out its crew-members in just three bites.

Tuff had desperately hoped that perhaps, if he prayed to whatever entity was up there hard enough, that Riley and he wouldn't be unfortunate enough to end up near one of these colossal monsters.

. . . . . . . Now looking back, Tuff should've prayed harder. Otherwise their hazardously speeding submarine never would've rammed straight on into the fuzzy back of the gargantuan Sea Otter who had been sleeping obliviously on a bed of coral and seaweed. The said Otter who was now starting to lick his lips with his surfboard-sized tongue at the tasty morsel only inches in front of him.

Tuff gulped down the boulder that had been bloating in his throat. 'Okay, Tuff. Okay, don't panic. Don't panic. Don't lose control. Remember, these things can smell fear. Just try to calm down and think.'

He looked down at the controls. His knuckles were white on the steering handle and his arms ached from the tension locking the muscles together. He let out a shaky breath. Ever-so-slightly, he pulled the handle back slowly. The submarine let out a light groan as it began to move back in reverse. The Sea Otter blinked at him, curiously watching but doing nothing to impede him.

Okay, so far, so good. Even with the Sub as crazy as it was, the reverse maneuvers were still working fine. If he kept backing away at the pace and did nothing to provoke the Otter, it should be almost smooth sailing from here –

VMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm . . . .

Everything stopped. The pipes ceased their bursting steam. The dashboard fell silent. The lights clicked off. The Sub stopped dead in mid-float. Tuff blinked. And everything in his upper body dropped straight down into his stomach with a flip as his heart stopped.

Oh, bull-shark.

~X~

The heart crystal was dull yellow, all but swallowed his large but careful fingers. Very weak light shrouded enough of his face to make his eyes gleam jade in the dark of the now dead silent engine room.

His snout sniffed at the numerous cracks scattered on its surface. Streggers, this crystal must've hit its stride decades ago. It was a wonder it was still in one piece! Then what could've made the whole submarine act up like this . . . ?

His claws scraped against the metal ground of the inner engine until their sound was interrupted by a skitter. Picking it up, it was a crystalline sliver, shining as dimly as the one in his hand opposite.

He quickly compared the two. He frowned. Oh, okay, that explained it. This crystal had a hairline fracture the near size of his little finger. Or rather the tip of it, really.

He smiled. It wouldn't be much, but he did have something that could keep this old scrape of rock together for a little while longer . . .

SCRIIIIIP!

~X~

Tuff had never felt so paralyzed in his entire life.

His chest had stopped, making his breath halt in his lungs and make him dizzy. His month went dry making it feel as though it were as sandpaper. He could actually feel his heart pounding in his hands as he gripped them around the steering wheel so tightly. Raw fear fueled that wild buzzing in his head screaming at him to Run Run Run! Get out of here! Get out! Swim Away! Get away from this monster! Don't just sit there! RUN! But Tuff couldn't move.

He couldn't even stop thinking, even though all he could actually process was just Oh, NOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODNOTGOODOHTHISISSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONOTGOOD!

He never recalled being this scared. Not even when he and Riley were nine and their cousin dared to climb up one of the tallest and most rigorous trees in their garden back home, ending with himself being so terrified he couldn't climb back down by himself. No, this was way worse.

They were stuck in the middle of the cold, dark ocean with a now powerless submarine that was probably worse for wear due to the constant thrashing and crashing, trapped in the claws of a rather hungry looking Sea Otter who was now probably looking for a good snack after his interrupted nap. Most likely them just to have an appetizer.

This, in Tuff's opinion, was a definite twisted, messed up, "Fish-In-A-Barrel" situation.

What could he, Riley and Cassie do? He couldn't just turn them around, he couldn't tell Riley to power the weapons to shoot at this thing, he couldn't tell Cassie to open the Pressure Tank that they so desperately needed to have opened.

They couldn't do anything. They were stuck. They were trapped. They were dead.

And all Tuff could do was just stare in mute horror as the Sea Otter grinned and opened his mouth, revealing rows of Daggit-sized teeth and –

VvvvmmmmMMMMMMMMMMM . . . !

Cassie's frantic voice burst from the tubes. "TUFF! Tuff! The sub's online again! I just threw the lever for the Pressure Tank! We can surface now!"

Tuff snapped out of his trance. What?! He glanced down. "Pressure Tank 3" flashed bright blue repeatedly on the controls.

Riley's voice practically shook the tube as he shouted, "Hello! Earth to Tuff! Come in, Poutfish! WHAT are you doing?! Drive! We NEED to MOVE, NOW!"

Tuff's body went on Auto-Pilot. He re-gripped the steering handle and yanked them back hard. Metal quaked and pipes thrummed at the sudden explosion of stabilized power sent coursing through the clockwork and hydraulics within the walls. For the probably millionth time that night, Tuff lurched in his seat as they shot forward with a –

CRACK!

WHOOSH! VMMMPT-VMPT-VMMMMMMMMMM . . . . !

The Sea Otter's muzzle once again smashed comically against the screen, causing a crack on the glass and a cloud of dark red that made Tuff very nearly bite his lower lip, before quickly sliding off and disappearing into a haze of tides, bubbles and sea walls.

The world turned into a rapid tunnel. Beeps and sirens stormed from the control panel around him. Force built into a jarring crescendo that threatened to snap his safety harness in two. Cassie and Riley's exclamations of shock from the rattling tube beat into his numb ear with no chance of response.

Tuff couldn't shout. He couldn't scream, he couldn't cry, he couldn't think, he just had to keep them all moving from the walls, from the Otter, from the danger, from the –

BWOOOSH!

Sharp yet dull pain ricocheted in the lower parts of his skull from behind. Tuff saw stars floating on water as the Penguin went airborne, breaking out and flying a foot above the ocean's surface for a solid two seconds. Landing with an equally stupendous splash, the submarine bobbed in place for one, two, three, four precious moments of silent panic before finally settling in the tepid waters.

Tuff's eyes glazed at the large ripples smacking against the screen. That crack on the bottom of it didn't look so bad. The buzzing in his head wouldn't shut up about it though. That's not supposed to happen! That shouldn't be there! Get out of that seat! Get out, get out, get out . . . .

A softer, higher-pitched voice floated into his ear. "Whoa . . . That was some ride! I don't think I'll be forgetting that anytime soon . . ."

Gruff, boisterous chuckling bounced into the air almost right after it. "You said it! That sure as hell woke me up! I thought we were actually flying for that last second there, WHOO! Man, how'd we even get up here in one piece? Better yet, how'd we lose power like that outta the blue?"

"You got me, Riley. But whatever the case is, we're alive and we're all still here, right Tuff?"

Tuff didn't respond even as the prolonged silence made their voices intermingle with his name. The pain in his head was annoying but bearable. Not the worst thing he's ever had really had.

He finally let go of the steering handle with aching knuckles, snapped off the safety harness so they no longer constricted his chest and fell back against the pilot's seat with a sigh. The danger was gone. Riley and Cassie were okay. It was late. Time to get some sleep.

With a shut of his eyes, Tuff automatically fell into a deep of sleep as his insomnia would allow him to take.

ME: Aww . . . Enjoy the nap, Tuff. Ya earned it – WAITAMINUT . . . . . Isn't there some STRANGER in the engine room?

. . . . . . . Ah, well 'til the next time!