With their Dai in the sky flying off in hot pursuit of the Warbat that snatched James, the Gazelle-mobile zooms through the forest with Gen at the controls. Gen is linked up to Dai telepathically, and controlling which way Gazelle steers, while San sits between Zoda and Gazelle, enjoying the ride and learning more about each other.

"So, if you can speak Earthling English into our brains, how come you didn't do that in the store with us?", Zoda asks. Their powers confuse and intrigue him, and he wonders if he can learn them for his own future plans.

"When we enter this state of projection, we're using every bit of our mind's power to explore not only any place we desire, but also certain parts of the minds of others. We're currently looking through the 'language' part of your mind and using what we find there", San says.

"Wait, so you can read our minds right now?", Zoda asks as he tries to clear his thoughts.

"Yes, and I'm sorry, but we can not teach you how to astrally project. I'm not sure if you are human or not, but we were never able to teach the Chinese who first arrived on Shinar to do it, so it appears as though you're out of luck."

"Haha", Jody says to Zoda in a mocking tone, while he gives a little snap in frustration.

"Don't be so quick to judge this purple man", San says. "He does have some good in his soul, and he is worthy of being trusted."

"That doesn't sound like something I'd have", Zoda says.

"Yea, are you sure you're not confusing him for Gazelle down here?", Jody says while pointing down at Gazelle.

"Oh, he has as much of a pure soul as I've ever seen", San says, while Gazelle does a happy, little rev. "However, the purple one will prove himself someday. You can expect that."

Jody and Zoda look at each other with eyebrows raised, trying to see if she's serious right now. "So, you are all racers, correct?", Gen says from the steering platform.

"Uh, yea", Zoda says as he tries to recollect his thoughts. "Have you seen us compete before?"

"Only what San is showing me right now", Gen says. "It looks very enjoyable. Is this what that feels like?", he asks as he messes around with the steering control, making the craft shake a little bit.

"I mean, you're not that far off", Zoda says as he makes sure he doesn't fall out. "Just do that little shake when you're next to someone that you wanna take out, and you're in business."

"Fascinating", Gen says as he heads towards a patch of trees. Jody looks like she's about to take control away from him, but he speeds up to throw her back into her seat before swiftly dodging each and every tree in his way with ease. "Now I… am a racer", he says to himself, just loud enough for the others to hear it.

Zoda looks like he's just seen a ghost, while Jody manages to pick herself back up pretty quickly. "Hey, just because you don't have any tangibility on this planet doesn't mean the rest of us don't", Jody says, a bit angrily, which seems to catch San off-guard. "I'm gonna take over the controls, you just point me in what direction to go."

"Actually, I don't think you need to do that", Gazelle says from below. "He navigated those obstacles about 82.1% as efficiently as I would have. Not quite cybernetic efficiency, but about on par with Jody's skills during her rookie season."

"I see… alright then, I guess you're ok to keep going", she says while still being a bit unsure about letting him man the controls, but having a good feeling that Gazelle would jump in if things get hairy. "How close are we getting to this Warbat thing?", she asks, getting a nod of approval from Zoda.

"Is that what that thing is called? How strange", San says. "Dai has him in his sights, but we're still many kilometers behind."

"I don't think that's the official name", Jody says. "In fact it might not have an official name, but that's just what Zoda's been calling it.

"Wait, that's not their official name?", Gazelle asks. "Is Zoda just making them up?"

"No, it just looks like something I've been researching", Zoda says, looking genuinely excited to talk about something he's interested in. "See, the Japanese came up with these things called Kaiju in the mid-20th century, and they're stories about giant monsters being brought to life with radiation and science and stuff like that. All very much up my alley."

"Well, that's only a little bit worrying. You haven't had any success with that stuff, right?", Jody asks, not expecting an answer.

"Wouldn't you like to know, copper?", he says back to her with a smile.

"Yes."

There's a little pause, as he isn't expecting an answer to that question.

"Oh. Well, I… won't tell you."

"That seems rude", San says to Zoda.

James wakes up with a huge pump on his head, and a throbbing migraine. As soon as he starts moving, he reaches down into his pocket. Thankfully, his migraine medicine han't fallen out on the journey over there, and he takes a couple, maybe out of instinct more than anything, since migraine pills probably don't cure head trauma.

He looks around and he's in a giant nest, big enough to land the ship that he flew here on. On the other side of the nest are three smaller versions of the thing that carried him here, but smaller versions of that are still about the same size as James. They appear to be eating something else that their momma probably brought for them to eat. Scarily enough, the thing being eaten is still alive, at least for a very small amount of time.

James feels around his body, looking for his pistol, but can't find it anywhere. All he has left on him is his utility knife, which he pulls out while beginning to look for a way out of this nest. The walls of the nest are just jagged enough for him to climb up along the top ridge of it. However, one of the baby beasts turns and notices their lunch is getting away. They slither over towards him and try to leap up towards him, but no dice, he's just high enough to be out of their reach.

He balances himself along the top ridge of the nest, trying to look for the branch this nest is resting on so he can start climbing down. However, while he's not looking at the inside of the nest, one of the little beasts pulls away a few of the sticks in front of his walking path, and he tumbles back into the nest with a thud. Suddenly, he has these little monsters quite literally nipping at his heels, trying to get a bite out of him. He leaps to his feet and tries to swing at the little Warbats, but it only makes them angrier. He sprints to the other side of the nest and tries to climb it again, but this time, they pull him back down into the nest. He manages to fend them off with the utility knife, slashing at one of them, and incapacitating it. But the other two are closing in on him.

A shot rings out. Everyone freezes.

One of the monsters drops like a rock, dead on the nest. Before James can turn to see what fired the shot, something tackles the other one, quick as a flash. He tussles with it for a second before finishing it off with ease. He turns back towards James. His eyes are barely visible under his massive alligator mask, but he can tell he's looking at James with disdain. This is his target, Beastman.

And he's coming right for James.

Beastman lunges at James in a flash and pounces on him before he can even realize what's going on. Before he can even say anything, Beastman takes James to the ground and has his knife right up against his neck. "State your business…", he says in a cold voice. James stammers for a second, but Beastman presses the knife in closer. "State… your… business…", he says one more time.

Whenever James gets into these kinds of situations, time seems to slow down for him. He's able to think through exactly what he needs to say to get himself out of sticky situations. He only has a few seconds to come up with his answer before Beastman carves him up. He takes a deep breath, which is hard to do with a knife right on his throat, but he knows Beastman doesn't want to kill him, not yet at least. He knows he's curious as to why another human's here. And that'll buy him enough time to get him out of this.

"Whoa, whoa, Beastman! Same team, same team! The boss sent me, Black Shadow!"

The utterance of Shadow's name makes Beastman pause and look at James with skepticism. "You work for Black Shadow? Really?", he says, seemingly not believing him. "Then why did I see you fly in on your ship? They wouldn't let me land my ship here", he says, pushing the blade against his throat.

"I got clearance! We're here to get you outta here. There's been a change of plans", James says back, scrambling to not get his throat cut.

Beastman seems confused, but pulls back his blade a little, ready to listen to what he's saying. "Go on…"

James exhales a little, finally feeling safe enough to do so without the point of a blade being jammed in his throat. "There's been a change of plans. The planets falling apart faster than the brainiacs thought. There's something inside the planet just eating away at the mantle, and making the surface above it collapse in on itself", James says, trying to sound like he's relaying a message from someone smarter than him.

"But, the scientists already knew about the planet collapsing. They said it wouldn't be a problem until we're well off this planet."

"Well, some dumb smart person forgot to carry the two or something, because this planet has maybe four months left before it collapses in on itself and this whole thing turns into a big fireball with you in the middle of it. We can't have that, so we're getting you out before that happens, and finding another, less-crumbly planet to put the base on."

"But how'd you get clearance to bring your ship here, if the planet's even MORE unstable than we thought? I had to airdrop from space and try to land on something hard, and you get to just park your ship here like it's no big deal?"

"Because if we get out of here right now, we'll be on the planet for a day or so, and you'd be on it for months. The planet should be solid enough to hold a small craft… for now. Also we have backup to pick us up, if need be."

"We? There's multiple of you people here?"

"Yes, Beastman", James says, sounding a bit exasperated, like he's trying to get an uncooperative child to listen to him. "That's how search parties work. Now are you coming with me, or do you wanna do all this work just to get scorched to a crisp in a few months?"

Beastman thinks for a second, and hesitantly sets down his knife, seemingly accepting his story for now, although he doesn't look entirely convinced. "Okay… I'll go along with you for now, but I've got my eye on you. Let your team know you're here."

James nods and pulls out his comm device to get a hold of the other racers. "Hey Jody, you there?", he says, putting the call on speaker so Beastman can hear the call as well, letting him in on the conversation to make it seem like he has nothing to hide. When James says Jody's name, Beastman's eyebrows shoot up and he gets intrigued.

"Oh hey, James, you're not dead. Fantastic", Jody says, which makes James roll his eyes a little. "So you remember those little guys who made the map? Yea, they can astrally project, fly, and are currently tracking you down. One of them is on his way to your location, and we're following him."

"Oh. That's… weird. Should I be worried about them?", he says, looking at Beastman, who's pointing to his gun, wondering if it'll be necessary.

"No, they're chill, they're just helping us find you guys. I'm just letting you know so you don't freak out when you see one in the air floating towards you guys."

"Is that him?", Beastman asks as he points into the sky, and sees Dai floating in the air, waving down at the two of them.

"Yep. That's him. And that's exactly as weird as I was expecting it to be."