A third and even more powerful punch rocks the ship again, this time separating the door from the pantry and sending it halfway down the hallway. James puts the ship into full steam ahead, throwing everyone back in his seat. Seeing that happen, James starts wildly twisting and turning his ship all over the place.
"What the hell are you doing? I think I'm gonna be sick", Jody says as she hangs onto the seat for dear life while Zoda's frozen body careens all over the cabin, and Gazelle simply magnetizes his feet to the ground.
"Trying to disorient those two back there. If you think you're not doing well, imagine what they're feeling back there, and PLEASE don't say the words 'space station' right now."
As Jody latches herself to the seat, she pulls up the camera again to see if James's wild moves are having any effect on them. While Beastman is bouncing around the back area like a pinball, Falcon is managing to hang on to everything around him to somehow make his way down the halls. "It's not working, James, he's still making his way up here." James punches the console in frustration, and picks up the radio.
Back on the Wyvern, Jack and Monique have done all they can do with the map that Phoenix gave them. There's too many things they don't understand and too many dead ends. They're taking a break, waiting for the crew to come back to lend some more fresh perspectives to the project. They hear a buzzer going off, and when they go to investigate, they find the sound of the alarm coming from the radio console. Monique picks it up, and hits the button on the side of it. "Hello? James? Are you there? (Jack: "You're supposed to say 'over' when you're done talking.") Over?"
"EMERGENCY, WE NEED YOUR HELP, FALCON IS*bang*…"
Static is all that can be heard after that shot rings out, leaving the two of them frozen for a second.
"Did he… say that Falcon was there?", Jack stammers out, freaking out all over again.
"We have to go. Now. Come on, Jack", Monique says to him, as she bolts down the hall. He thinks for a second, but takes a deep breath and follows Monique to the loading dock.
The shot that rang out came from a well-placed shot from Falcon's laser pistol. Once he turned the corner to the hallway pointing to the cabin, he fired the shot past the pilots and right into the main engine drive, which disabled not only the main drive of the ship and a good chunk of the electronics, but also any transmission to the outside world. The four of them are trapped on this ship… with him.
As Falcon starts marching down the hallway toward the other racers, Jody gets out of her seat and points her tranq gun at Falcon. Falcon quickly charges at Jody, deftly moving past each of the darts whizzing past him. The darts fly all over the cabin, as she's just trying to land a hit on Falcon. James ducks for cover, Zoda gets popped with another dart (which can not be good for him), and Gazelle is trying to grab a hold of Falcon to subdue him under the weight of his cyborg body, but the nimble bounty hunter evades them both.
Finally, Gazelle manages to tackle Falcon to the ground, and hold him for a few seconds. Jody tries to fire a dart into him, but her gun simply clicks without anything coming out of it. Gazelle looks around, and finds one of the already shot darts, and jabs it into Falcon's side. Falcon looks a little woozy for a second, but then he turns to Gazelle and pulls the dart out of his body, still very much conscious, and still very much on a mission. He twists his way out of Gazelle's tight grasp, and charges for Jody again.
With no more dart ammo on her, she's forced to resort to her actual laser pistol. She puts a bit of distance between herself and Falcon and points the pistol right at his head. "Captain, don't… move…", she says slowly and with conviction. "I don't want to hurt you, Captain. Don't make me do this."
Falcon's not a zombie. He knows a threat when he sees one, and he freezes for a second, putting his hands up. However, he can recognize that she doesn't want to kill the greatest racer of all time in a mission designed to rescue him. He smirks a little bit and steps forward towards her, ready to call her bluff. Jody takes a few steps back, trying to not have to resort to the nuclear option.
"I said freeze, damnit! Falcon, listen to me!" It's no use, he's now sure she won't do anything, and takes a few more steps towards her. She aims downward and shoots him in the kneecap, dropping him to the ground in agony. Jody gathers up the other three racers and bolts down the hallway of the ship. They hear a groan from the food pantry as they remember Beastman is still in there, recovering from getting shaken like a maraca when James was flying the ship like a crazy person. They stay away from there and hide in one of many bedrooms in the hallway, locking the door behind them.
Jody is in a state of shock from just shooting her racing idol in his acceleration leg, but is managing to have her panic attack quietly, so as not to draw attention to themselves. James taps Jody on the shoulder, making her jump a little bit. Without saying anything, he points to the tablet attached to her belt. She hands it to him, and he pulls up the cameras again. Shockingly, Falcon is getting back to his feet! With a few good stretches, he manages to get his leg working again, even if it is with a limp.
He starts walking down the hallways looking at all of the closed bedroom doors that could be hiding these pilots he's looking for. He grabs the first door and yanks it upwards despite it being locked and forces his way inside to search the room. Luckily, the racers are in the sixth out of seven bedrooms down the hall, which will buy them some time until backup arrives. Falcon finishes looking through the first door, and comes out to force open the second one, methodically searching through each bedroom, hoping to corner them.
James pulls up the outside space camera, and can see the back-up ship floating towards them. They're still a little ways away from the ship, but it's close enough that James can plan around it. He gets Gazelle's attention, and points to the ventilation shaft. Then, he points to the fifth bedroom's dresser on his camera, and then starts moving his arms up and down. He's trying to tell him to extend his arms through the vents, come out of the vent in the next bedroom over, and make enough noise in that bedroom to get Falcon's attention. It takes Gazelle a second to understand his impromptu form of sign language, but he nods once he gets the message. Gazelle needs to be super careful with this operation. Not only does he need to not make any noise while he's going through the vents, but he also doesn't have any cameras in his hands, so he'll be doing this totally blind.
However, he doesn't waste any time; he stretches his arms out carefully and unlatches the vent. Then his arm goes into the vents, searching for the path that will lead to the next room over. He keeps searching for a place that would lead to the neighboring bedroom, but it's not just a straight path between the rooms. There are bends and angles that make everybody flinch whenever he touches something. James keeps an eye on the cameras, not just to see if Falcon is getting any closer, but also to look into the vent from the bedroon to see if they can see Gazelle's arm. Luckily, he manages to bump into the vent gate of the fifth bedroom, and after a bit of finesse, manages to open it from the inside. His arm keeps stretching into the bedroom until it grabs a hold of the dresser door, which he opens and closes with a little bit of force.
Falcon pauses his search as he hears the door hitting its wooden frame. The pilots see him listening for something, and Gazelle seals the deal by grabbing the wardrobe and shaking it a little bit, simulating the sound of people nervously fidgeting inside of it. This is enough to start getting Falcon to go over to the bedroom in question. Gazelle gently reels in his arm back through the vent just as Falcon reaches the bedroom. James unlocks the decoy door as Falcon pulls it up, so that the door isn't broken like the other ones are. Once Gazelle pulls his arm all the way back in, James silently tells Jody to hold onto Zoda and wait for his signal, then he takes Gazelle and they head to the door as quietly as they can.
The two of them wait until Falcon is deep in the bedroom, far away from the door. Then James turns to Gazelle, and signs to him again to hold down the door that Falcon is behind. Gazelle nods and they're ready.
James presses the buttons at the same time, making their door open and Falcon's door close and lock in one swift motion. Gazelle hurries to the door and holds it down just in time for Falcon to charge into it, shaking the craft once again. Meanwhile, James hurries over to the airlock right in front of their bedroom door, just in time to see Jack and Monique's ship rolling up to theirs. He calls Jody over to get the airlock set up with him, and the two of them hastily set up the connection point for Jack and Monique's ship to connect to theirs.
After a brief pause in Falcon's aggressive attempts to get out, Gazelle can suddenly hear him charging up. He hears that dreaded "FALCON…", and braces against the door, trying to keep it from collapsing. He punches the locked door and it pushes out a bit, bonking Gazelle in the head a bit. He holds firm on the door and stays braced on it, waiting for the ships to connect. Right as they latch together, Falcon punches the door again, making it warp around Gazelle's frame. He's basically keeping this door from collapsing on him, but it's taking its toll on his body.
Once the ships are connected, James directs Jody and Zoda through the airlock. But then, James turns to his left and sees Beastman, limping his way around the corner. If he hurries, he can subdue him and throw him on board the ship to collect his bounty. However, back to the right, Gazelle's starting to fall apart. Some of his exterior panels are flying off, and some sparks are shooting off his body. He thinks for a second about this choice, and he thinks about what Jody had told him. Now's not the time to think about bounties; that can happen later.
He sprints over to Gazelle, and after one more intense Falcon Punch, James pulls Gazelle off the door, and his near 300-pound frame almost collapses onto James's shoulders. James has to nearly drag Gazelle to the airlock, and help him through it. He briefly looks over to Beastman one last time before the door flies off the frame and hits the wall. No more time to mess around. James locks the airlock behind him and the damaged cyborg, and they get onto the ship.
Not a moment too soon, as Falcon gets to the door, and is about to punch his way in, but seeing them about to detach from the airlock, he thinks better of it, and doesn't punch a hole in the side of the ship. Instead, he puts his hand on the window of the airlock. His mangled, bloodied punching hand. If he's willing to do that to himself, then James can only imagine what he's willing and able to do to them as Monique undocks from the ship and heads back to the Wyvern.