Kihonne: Okay, so I suck. I had some issues with one of the scenes, couldn't figure out how to write it, and ended up having to rewrite the chapter in order to figure out a way to make it work without it. But I'm back, and I think I gave you a decent chapter for the wait. I hope. But before any of that, let's do some shoutouts, shall we?
LabGirl2001: Aw, that's sweet. I am trying to do things a little differently than I used to. Fight scenes are great and all, but constant battles get a little tiresome after a while, and it's nice to see the heroes do things other than just beat up bad guys. Not that there won't be any of that – it's just a different perspective I'm trying out with the younger heroes. I'm glad you like it. I hope you enjoy this chapter too.
SzymonS: I'm so glad you liked it. Yeah, maybe Kameron kinda deserved a little bit of punishment for not thinking ahead, though, it's gonna be a rough trip without them. Yes, we got to have Felix in a chapter. I initially planned for him and Blake to both have bigger roles, and even though that didn't work out plot-wise, I did want to try and squeeze him in for a chapter or two. He's a good character (though any child of Liam and Rani is gonna take the cake) and he's nice to include. No, war isn't good for anyone, ever. I really wanted to show that, especially with the Calderans given Seraphina and Skylar's Calderan blood. I didn't really see Kira running off though, to be honest. I could totally see this all affecting her more, since she is more sensitive than most of the others, but Kira's the type of person who actively looks for the silver lining in everything. She'd want to stay and try and put a smile on someone's face than hide away from the bad stuff, which is definitely why she clicked with the kids like she did. Charlotte, on the other hand, has been pretty sheltered from a lot, and unless she can find a solution – like she tried to do – she wouldn't want to be put in such a helpless position. I'm glad you liked the cute scene with Sera and Noah. Not fitting in has always been tough on the girl, and being part of the team's adoptive family means the world to her. With her stay on Earth possibly coming to an end soon, I figured she'd be pretty worried about losing that. The Calderan-Venusian war is definitely more complicated than it was initially described. I won't confirm any theories for now, but you'll just have to wait and see. Sorry again for the late chapter, but I hope you like it!
Wunmi24: I'm so glad you love them! I was pretty disappointed when the shows got cancelled too. It wasn't perfect, but it had so much potential to be a great show.
Kelli0596: Well, I can't really give any kind of answer to that that won't spoil. All I can say is that you should keep reading to find out.
Xxx
Kihonne: Alright folks, let's get straight onto that chapter, shall we?
Ben: Kihonne doesn't own Mighty Med, Lab Rats, or the Elite Force. She only owns this story, any and all OCs (including me) and anything else you don't recognize from the original shows!
Xxx
Ben's POV
"Good morning. I brought Felix with me." Sera greeted, the two of them walking into the Davenship's galley, looking well-rested and eager to begin the day. Sera had opted to go stay at her parents place overnight, wanting to grab a few things from her place and to make sure everything was still okay there after the attack earlier in the week. I suspected that it was also to settle a sense of homesickness for her – I'd seen the look on her face when she'd seen Caldera through the Davenship's viewing windows and could tell how much she had missed the volcanic planet. She seemed to be in a much better mood than I'd seen her in a while, rejuvenated by the trip back home. Felix too seemed in relatively good spirits, I noted. They directly contrasted Emily, who was glaring at the food processor with tired dismay in her eyes. She practically hissed at Sera and Felix as they passed her, before the technopath gave up on the food processor and dropped into a seat across from me. Sera eyed her in concern as she and Felix settled between Naomi and Kira at the table. "What's with you?"
"This ship hates me." Emily muttered, pulling the sleeves of her oversized blue sweater over her hands before resting her head on the covered palms.
"She doesn't like the coffee from the food processor." Kameron supplied from where he was eating his breakfast.
"That's not coffee, that's hot, brown water." Emily scowled. She shook her head. "The food processor can make anything, even those-" she gestured at the pop tart that Kira was attempting to swallow whole, the pyrokinetic pausing when Emily pointed at her, "but it can't make a decent cup of coffee. Figures."
"It's not the end of the world. You'll survive." I chided. She sent me a look. "You will."
"We won't, not once she starts going through caffeine withdrawal." Noah chimed in, the last to join us. "Anyone want to take bets on who she kills first once she snaps?"
"No need. You're top of the list." Emily mumbled. Noah feigned an offended look, while Kira chuckled in amusement.
"Well, that would solve the sleeping arrangement issue." She commented. At the confused looks, she frowned. "I can't have been the only one who noticed?"
"Noticed what?" Sera frowned. Charlotte chuckled a little.
"We did a bed count when we first boarded the ship. Seven bedrooms, either with two single beds or a double. So, fourteen people have places to sleep." She explained. Sera nodded slowly.
"Okay?" She questioned, not seeing the problem. Emily sighed.
"Eight of us, seven parents. Fifteen people." She explained. "Someone's gonna be on the couch in the lounge for the trip back."
Her head perked up immediately and she added a quick "Not it," at the same time as Charlotte, Sera, Noah, and the twins. I shook my head at their childness.
"Why wouldn't Calla include enough beds? It's not like her to forget something like that." Sera questioned, frowning. I sighed.
"She didn't. My team was only supposed to be seven people, not eight." I reminded them. I hadn't considered the sleeping arrangements before now, but I sure as hell wasn't going to be sleeping on the couch. "We'll figure out the sleeping arrangements when we get to that point. Without killing Noah." I added, glancing at Emily.
"At least not until after he helps us finish the engine." Naomi added with a smile. I looked at her in exasperation, but her words seemed to do the trick to get the kids focused on the task at hand.
"Yeah, right." Emily nodded, sitting up properly. She rubbed a hand over her face briefly, then nodded. "Okay, yeah. I'm awake. We have work to do."
"Em and I were up for most of the night trying to set the engines up as much as we can." Charlotte announced, also perking up. "And we did get most of it done."
"Well, half done." Emily corrected. "But it was the more difficult half, so the rest should be easy."
"I'm sensing there's a 'but' coming." Kameron observed. Charlotte nodded reluctantly.
"Yeah. We're missing a few parts." She admitted. "Most of them we can either make do without or improvise with what we have on the ship, but there's still three that we need."
"First, this navigation chip." Emily removed her Davenwatch and placed it in the center of the table. As soon as she placed it down, a hologram showing the chip in question. "The bad news is that it's a specialty item, so we probably won't be able to buy it anywhere around here. The good news is that up until a few years ago, they were pretty standard in most Calderan ships."
"How is that good news if they stopped using them?" Kameron raised his hand as he asked his question.
"Because it means that the shipyard outside of town should be chalk full of them." Felix answered before Emily, Charlotte, or Sera could. "It's where the Calderans dump the ships that are too old or too damaged to fly anymore."
"Digging around in old ships for parts? Sounds fun." Noah commented, smirking. I nodded at Charlotte. "You in?"
"You know it." She smirked back. Naomi nodded.
"I'll go with them." She said, glancing at me. "Keep them out of trouble."
"I resent that." Noah commented, half-heartedly. Charlotte snorted.
"Nah, she's got a point." The younger girl admitted before going back to the matter at hand. "The second part, on the other hand, should be easier to get our hands on. There's a part we need for our motherboard that looks like this."
She waved her hand over the hologram and the image changed to a different type of computer chip. "It's a very specific part, but from what Sera's told us about the Lahar Village Bazaar, we should be able to buy or trade for it there."
"I'll take that one." I volunteered before glancing at Sera. "You know the way?"
She nodded. "It's not that far."
"I'm coming too. It's too specific a part; we need to be sure we get the right one, and I'll know what to look for." Emily added. I nodded.
"Wait, how are we supposed to pay for it? I doubt they take visa here." Naomi pointed out.
"I have some money stored away that I don't mind using it." Sera volunteered.
"We'll pay you back when we get back To Earth." I assured her. She shrugged, not particularly caring.
"What about the final part?" Kira questioned. Emily nodded and changed the hologram into what looked almost like a small wheel, but with a diamond design cut into the sides. "And that is?"
"Well, I'm not going to get overly technical on you, because apparently not everyone appreciates learning about how this technology works." She sent a glare at Noah. Judging by the lack of surprise on his face, he must have said something when I wasn't around and didn't seem to regret his words at all. "Basically, it's a paper weight for turning lava into magma – because that's something Calderans call a paperweight for some bizarre reason – but with a few adjustments, I can make it so that it turns our earth fuel into a form that's more compatible with the new engine upgrades."
"How?" Kameron questioned, frowning in confusion. Noah raised a hand before she could answer.
"Don't. You'll just be even more confused." He told the boy. Emily shook her head.
"It'll take time to explain the science to you anyway. It's complicated, even for me. The point is, the engine upgrades are useless to us without it." She explained before sighing. "The problem is-"
"You say that a lot." Kira interjected.
"-that it's a one of a kind piece." Emily continued as if the pyrokinetic had never spoken. "One of the Calderan elders has it – it was some sort of retirement gift, apparently."
"So, we're stealing from an old lady?" Kira asked. Emily looked at her.
"What? No! We're heroes, not jerks." She shook her head. "Sera?"
"I already got in contact with her last night." Seraphina explained. "She said she'd be willing to let it go if we send someone to do a couple of chores for her."
"What kinds of chores?" Kameron asked. Sera shrugged.
"She didn't say." She replied. The twins exchanged looks.
"Guys, she's a little old lady. It can't be that bad." Naomi rolled her eyes. Felix chuckled.
"I'd go with you guys, but I have a shift in about an hour." He told them. "But when it's over, I'll come back and finish the rest of those upgrades to the engine for you, Emily."
"I knew I liked you." The technopath smiled at the healer. I stood up.
"Alright. Come back here when you get your part." I told the others. "With any luck, we'll be on our way to Venusia before nightfall."
Naomi's POV
"This place is so cool!" Charlotte grinned widely, spinning around to try and see as much of the ship yard as possible. I chuckled a little at her excitement. I could see why she'd feel so at home here - there were spaceships as far as the eye could see, all varying in age and degrees of visible damage. This was probably like candy store for engineers like her, full of the unexpected.
"Eye on the prize, Charlotte." I cautioned. She sighed and stopped.
"Okay." She agreed reluctantly, rolling her eyes. "But we are so coming back here after we save everyone."
"Why don't we just take one of these ships?" Noah asked, confused. "It'd probably be easier to repair one of them than change our engine entirely."
"Em and I talked about that, but the engine design that we're using is so new that it's unlikely that any of these ships has it already." Charlotte answered, ducking under a ship's bow, resting her hand on the metal siding. "So we'd be in the same position we are now, but with a damaged ship that might not be big enough for everyone to fit inside."
"Alright, why don't we split up?" I suggested, looking around. Odds were that most of the ships would have the chip in them, but I didn't want to waste time by going one by one. "We each take a ship, and the first one to find what we're looking for...is pardoned from bathroom duty for the remainder of the trip."
Noah paled. "Has anyone been in there since Kameron?"
"Nope." Charlotte popped the P, clearly liking the terms. "Which is why I'm going to win."
Without waiting for a response, the younger girl scampered off to the nearest ship, wasting no time to find an entrance. I laughed a little before walking over to a different ship. This one looked a bit similar to my dad's private jet, but with much smaller wings and some sort of turret where vertical stabilizer should have been.
"How the hell do these things get off the ground?" I muttered to myself, walking around the base of the ship in search for an entrance. It wasn't hard to find - there was a panel at the bottom of the widest part of the ship left wide open, a ladder descending from it. "Score one for the good guys."
I ascended the ladder quickly, using my Davenwatch as a flashlight as I entered the dark ship. The inside was a long, mostly empty corridor. I could see thick panels on either side of the corridor, the kind you could pull down to use as a seat, but aside from them and a few empty-looking crates, there wasn't much in the corridor.
"Okay, if that was a gun turret, then this is probably the cockpit." I mumbled to myself, looking towards what I figured was the front of the ship. Walking towards it, I could see a smaller door, mostly hidden by shadows. It was ajar, with a little light filtering through. Stepping inside, I saw that the light was coming through a viewing window, but more importantly, I saw the control console. "Oh no."
The console was utterly destroyed, parts having been ripped out at all ends of it. It looked as if whoever had been in here first had stolen anything that looked like it could be useful and left the mess for someone else to deal with. "Damn it." I muttered.
I glanced out the window and saw Charlotte making her way from her first ship towards another one, a mildly annoyed look on her face. Concerned, I turned around to leave the ship.
"Hey!" Noah called to me just as I finished climbing down my ladder. "You find one?"
"No. My engine's been stripped." I replied. He frowned.
"You too?" He questioned, surprised. I nodded, a little surprised. "What about Charlotte?"
"I saw her heading that way." I nodded in the direction the girl had gone, towards the largest of the nearby ships. Noah nodded and led the way over there. "Charlotte?" I called as we approached the open door of the ship, just a few feet off the ground. There was a box lying on the ground near the entrance, probably to give the shorter girl a boost into the ship given that the entrance was about 5 feet off the ground.
"Give me a sec!" Her voice echoed through the ship. A few moments later, she reappeared in the doorway. "Someone else was here first. Both this one and the first ship I checked had their control consoles demolished by what looks like thieves. They took almost everything useful."
"Ours too." Noah replied, offering her a hand. She waved it away and hopped down to the ground.
"I'm short, not useless." She replied, rolling her eyes. She looked around and sighed. "I'd be willing to bet that every one of these ships have been stripped for parts too."
"Yeah, probably." I agreed. I shook my head. "We still have to check. Maybe we'll get lucky and they missed one of the ships."
"Maybe." Noah didn't sound too certain. I nodded towards the rest of the shipyard.
"C'mon." I encouraged. With a lot less enthusiasm, we all made our way through the shipyard. We tried checking a few more ships, but like the others, they'd all had their control consoles stolen from.
"Hey, did you hear that?" Charlotte questioned, pausing mid-step as she'd started climbing up a ladder.
"Uh, no?" Noah looked at me questioningly. I stopped as well, but didn't hear anything. I was about to ask Charlotte what she was talking about, when I finally did hear the sound of voices. They were quite quiet, but they were there.
"We're not alone." I murmured to Noah. He nodded and stepped away from the ship.
"I can speed over there, catch them from surprise." He offered. I shook my head.
"They're probably Calderan civilians." I reasoned, even though I was itching for my weapon myself. "They probably don't mean any harm."
"Probably." Charlotte repeated uncertainly.
"Stay on guard." I instructed. "Don't attack unless they do but be prepared for anything. Be cautious."
They both nodded and started to follow me as I cautiously led towards the source of the noise. Coming over the hill, we finally caught sight of the source: three Calderan teenagers, dragging along a hover-cart filled with ship parts.
"Hey! You're the ones who've been stealing from the ships!" Charlotte shouted, practically rushing down the hill. Noah and I stared at her.
"Does caution mean nothing to her?" I muttered.
"Apparently not." Noah shook his head before racing after her. I jogged after them as they made their way down the hill.
"It's public property!" One of the Calderan boys, the one wearing a pale green shirt, argued immediately. "It's free to take, and besides, no one cares about this stuff."
"We do." Charlotte argued.
"You're not even Calderan. You're just one of those volunteers." The boy in the red shirt pointed out.
"We have more right to this stuff than you do." The Calderan girl added.
"Whoa, whoa, we don't want to fight." I quickly cautioned. "We were just looking for a specific part."
"It's a navigation piece, kinda looks like this." Noah raised his Davenwatch and used it to show them a hologram of the piece. The red-shirted boy glanced back at the cart, towards one of the many buckets. "You found some, right?"
"Who says that we did?" The girl questioned, crossing her arms.
"The fact that almost every ship in this yard would have had one in them." I challenged. "I'm guessing they're all in that bucket over there."
"And if they are?" She asked. "They're ours, now."
"We just need one. Please." Noah pleaded with the girl. She glanced back at her friends, and the boy in the green shirt stepped forward.
"We'll sell you one for 16 kor. Or for 3 pieces of Zandoran tech." He offered, smirking. I hesitated.
"How much is that in American?" I whispered to Noah. He sighed.
"We don't have any money." He told them.
"Then you're out of luck too." The girl said.
"C'mon, man, what do you need all of them for anyway?" Charlotte questioned.
"We're going to sell them at the market tomorrow." The boy in the red shirt replied. "We're going to use the money to get us tickets to Zandor."
"Emmanuel!" The girl snapped at him. He shrugged.
"We're not doing anything wrong, Sonja. There's no harm in telling them. Everyone's trying to get off planet, anyway." He pointed out. I sighed.
"Look, we really do need that part. It's for an important mission." I told them. They hesitated. "Is there anyway we can make a deal?"
"I have an idea." The green-shirted boy spoke up. "You ever play Kulognia?"
"Kul...what?" Charlotte frowned. Sonja rolled her eyes.
"Really, Elijah?" She questioned, sounding annoyed.
"We've been out here all night. I could use a break. Besides, it'll be fun." He reasoned. He looked back at us. "You win, you get the part."
"And if you win?" I asked. He thought about it, then glanced at the hologram.
"Then we get your Earth tech. The one that makes the hologram." He decided. He glanced at his friends. "We could probably trade it at the market for something."
"Alright." Sonja allowed. She nodded and turned to us. "How about it?"
I looked back at Noah and Charlotte. Charlotte nodded excitedly, but Noah was a little more hesitant. "Alright..." I agreed slowly, hoping that Kulognia wasn't something incredibly dangerous. "We'll play you."
Ben's POV
"This is impressive." I commented, looking around. The Calderan bazaar reminded me of the street fairs that Naomi and I would go to every summer – booths as far as the eye could see, the air filled with excitement and abuzz with the sounds of people negotiating and trading. There were booths of all kinds – I could see some selling food, others selling technology, some selling junk, and some filled with items I didn't know how to categorize.
"Yeah. I used to love coming here with my parents." Seraphina replied, a small nostalgic smile forming on her face for a brief second before fading. "They used to be better though. Now, it's all about getting whatever supplies your family needs, since no one else is selling it."
"Well, let's find what we need quickly." I suggested. "That way we can get off this planet and get your parents back safe as soon as possible."
"Yeah…where's Emily?" The Calderan-Human paused, looking around in confusion. I looked around as well, not having realized we'd lost the technopath in the crowd. Thankfully, she stood out amongst the identical Calderan people, and we easily spotted her standing by a light pink booth down the main path between the booths.
"Found her." I told Sera before pushing through the crowd to meet up with her. "Hey, don't wander off."
"Look at this!" Emily shoved a piece of technology in my face, grinning widely. "It's a magnetic-gravity repulsion manipulator!" At my confused look, she rolled her eyes before continuing in a rushed, excited voice. "It creates portable anti-grav field anywhere you use it, and it doesn't even work off electricity. It stores solar radiation in it to power it. It can recreate Kieran's powers, but it's so much more powerful, and you can turn it on remotely, so you don't even have to be near it, and-"
"Whoa, whoa." I cautioned her. She scowled at me.
"It's cool." She insisted. I chuckled. "Charlotte would appreciate this."
"I'm sure she would, and if we have enough money to get it after we've bought the motherboard piece, then we'll come back and get it." I promised her. She beamed. "But can we focus on the job at hand?"
"Right, sorry." She shook herself. "It's just, it's not every day you get access to a bunch of alien tech."
"I know." I nodded sympathetically. She nodded back and immediately set off amongst the tech booths, looking for the motherboard piece. I spent the next couple of hours trying to coral the girls and keep them within my line of sight; Sera may not have looked exactly like the rest of the Calderan women, but she looked similar enough for me to lose her in the crowd, while Emily, despite her best efforts to stay focused, kept getting sidetracked by the Calderan and other-worldly technology.
"Em." I sighed, catching sight of her examining a piece of technology at a booth after looking for her for ten minutes. I understood her fascination with the tech – her excitement was on par with Naomi's love for photo art galleries and Kameron's reaction to discovering that Centium City had its own superhero museum – but I'd hoped to be out of here by now. Emily and I were drawing a lot of attention from the people, and I wasn't sure how much I liked that.
"No, no. This is it. This is the part." She told me, grinning at me. "We found it."
"Are you sure?" Sera questioned, materializing beside me. Emily nodded.
"It's exactly right." Emily confirmed, bobbing her head. I noticed the trader watching Emily with narrowed eyes, a scowl on his face. I cleared my throat and his attention locked onto me, his scowl not changing in the slightest.
"How much?" I questioned, pulling out the small bag of charcoal-black coins that we'd grabbed from Sera's place.
"We're not taking kor anymore. The announcement was made weeks ago." He growled, sounding annoyed. He sent me and Emily a glare. "Not that you off-worlders ever listen."
Emily shifted uncomfortable, subtly zipping up her sweater as if it could protect her from the look he was giving her. "They just arrived as volunteers a couple of days ago." Sera explained calmly. "They didn't know about the announcement. I didn't even know about the announcement."
The trader fixed her with an appraising look. "You're Storm's girl, right?" He questioned. She nodded.
"Yes sir." She agreed. He huffed.
"Another alien sympathizer." He commented, shaking his head. "Caldera was better off when we focused on our own people."
"Well, we would like to help the Calderan economy." Sera offered, purposefully ignoring his tone. "Is there any chance you could make an exception for the kor? We have enough, I'm sure of it."
He shook his head. "Nowhere is accepting kor these days. Can't buy food with money no one's taking." He replied. Sera sighed and his gaze softened. "I'm taking trade though. High-price items, durable clothing, weapons."
"Uhm…" I trailed off as we all checked our pockets to see what we had to trade. None of us had brought anything worthwhile – we hadn't even considered that no one would take our money. "Give us a second."
"I've got my Davenwatch, a swiss army knife, and a few extra screws from the ship." Emily offered as we turned around. I frowned.
"Should the ship have extra screws?" I questioned. She shrugged.
"Davenwatch, hair ties, and this friendship bracelet Kira insisted I wear." Seraphina offered, holding up with woven pink and blue bracelet with a sheepish smile. I didn't have anything that I could really trade – just my Davenwatch and half a granola bar.
"Give me the watches." I sighed. I took them and turned to the trader. "Three Davenwatches. They're Earth communication devices."
The trader looked at me, unimpressed. "That's it?" He questioned. I sighed.
"It's all we've got, man." I admitted. He raised an eyebrow, then looked past me at Emily.
"Winter's coming up – people are going to start needing warmer clothing soon. I could make a good trade with that sweater." He replied. Emily froze at his words. "I'll take the sweater and the communication devices."
"Is there anything else we can give you?" The technopath asked immediately, crossing her arms in front of her chest. I sighed; she was the only one wearing a sweater of any kind. I didn't really get why she'd brought it – it was far too hot here for it. Yet, she was strangely attached to it.
"Emily." I said warningly. She looked at me pleadingly.
"Ben." She murmured. I stared her down.
"You can buy a new one when we get back. The motherboard is more important." I insisted. She bit her lip, eyes big and pleading.
"Ben." Sera pulled on my arm. I turned to her, and she nodded at Emily. "It's Darius' sweater."
I sighed. "Of course it is." I muttered. Figures that the one thing that Emily wouldn't want to give up was the one thing the trader wanted. Emily sighed.
"It's fine. Like Ben said, I can buy a new one." She mumbled, disheartened. She bit her lip, then in a vey quick motion, pulled off the sweater and placed it on top of the booth. "I'm gonna…go see what's over there."
"Em." I called, but she was already walking away, heading for a booth far enough away.
"Attached, isn't she?" The trader seemed amused as he reached for the sweater. I placed my hand on it before he could take it.
"Wait." I sighed irritably. Emily was going to heartbroken if she lost this. "I think I have something else."
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a gold coin about the size of a quarter. I hadn't even considered trading it, and I still didn't want to, but I figured the trader would take it. I placed it on the table and looked at the trader impatiently. "What is it?" He asked, looking unimpressed.
"Aftershock." I announced loudly, and the voice recognition activated. A gold hologram appeared, an image of the letters NLH appearing above the coin with a ring spinning around it. The words 'servientes in nominee iustitia et pax' were engraved in the ring. The trader raised his chin, looking at it curiously before looking at me. "I'm a member of Earth's New League of Heroes. That's an ID chip that all heroes are given. One of ours tried to sell it online and it nearly went for 30,000$. I don't know how much that is worth here, but it's more than I make in a year back home. It's gotta be worth a lot here."
"This for the chip? Deal." The trader agreed too easily. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a second piece of technology off the table.
"This too." I added, not giving him a choice in the matter. I swiped the sweater off the table, along with the motherboard chip Emily had said we needed and stalked off to find the young genius.
"What is that?" Sera asked, catching up with me. She nodded at the second piece of tech I'd grabbed.
"It's an anti-grav thingy." I replied, remembering what Emily had said earlier. Sera nodded, though her brow was still furrowed. "We don't actually need it. I just wanted to get my trades' worth."
"I think you still got ripped off." She told me, apologetically. I nodded.
"Oh, I definitely did." I agreed as we finally found Emily, standing near a food booth. She was looking at the food uninterestedly. "Here." I told her, shoving the sweater into her arms, not unkindly. She stared at it, startled, before looking up at me with still watery eyes. "I am not going to be the one stuck on the couch once we save your parents."
"I…what did you trade?" She blinked, caught off guard.
"His NLH ID." Sera supplied before I could brush it off. "I didn't know you had that, actually."
"We all do." I admitted. I really shouldn't have been so bothered by giving it up – we had hundreds back at the base and heroes were always losing them – but Alivia had given it to me the day I'd graduated from being Optimo's sidekick and become a hero, and it had a lot of sentimental significance to me.
But if I'd let Emily trade away Darius' sweater, she would have cried and been heartbroken for the rest of the trip. That was the last thing any of us wanted.
"Thank you, Ben." Emily told me, giving me a tiny, not so sad smile as she hugged the sweater to her chest.
Yeah, I'd made the right choice.
"C'mon, let's go. Maybe the others are back already." I sighed.
Naomi's POV
Much to our utter relief, it turned out that Kulognia was a Calderan sport very similar to soccer. Well, the goal was to try and kick a ball (in this case replaced by a particularly round boulder that was a little bit bigger than a soccer ball) into a score zone. After that, the similarities kinda ended.
"Whoa!" Noah stumbled back, away from a hole in the ground as bright red lava bubbled up from it, nearly scalding his toes. "That's lava!"
"Uh, yeah?" Emmanuel looked at Noah in confusion, not understanding his surprise. He frowned. "You do know that if you get hit by any of that, you'll lose a point."
"I think I'll lose more than a point." Noah mumbled. Charlotte chuckled in amusement.
"So, all powers are on the table?" She questioned, walking over to the boulder. Despite its weight, she moved it around with ease, as if it weighed no more than a feather. She pulled the boulder back with her foot before kicking it up, the boulder landing on the top of her foot. She grinned. "This is going to be fun."
"I'm glad somebody thinks so." Elijah commented, glancing at Sonja. She shrugged.
"Let's just get this over with. Where are the dragons?" She questioned, looking around. Charlotte dropped the boulder.
"The what?" She demanded. Emmanuel sighed.
"They're an important part of the game." He explained before bringing his fingers up to his mouth. He whistled loudly, but to our relief, no dragons appeared.
"You know, I think we can play without-" I started, but Sonja was already shaking her head.
"No, there they are." She assured us, nodding towards the rocky hill nearby. Noah, Charlotte, and I all looked up, expecting to see giant, fire-breathing dragons descending from the sky.
"What are you looking at?" Elijah questioned. I turned to him, confused, but he was kneeling down to pet a small, scaly creature that had crawled out the cracks in the ground. It was scaly, but a far cry from the dragons we had been thinking of. It kinda looked like a black, scaly squirrel, if I was being honest.
"Oh my god, that's a dragon here?" Charlotte asked, eyes going wide. "Kira is are so going to hate that she missed this."
"Skylar always did say that some of their words had different meanings than they did on Earth." I commented to Noah. He chuckled.
"So, what do these little guys have to do with the game?" He questioned as two more joined us. Charlotte dropped to her knees, holding a finger out to the creatures to sniff.
"Oh, you have to avoid being hit by them, or you'll lose a point. Normally, there'd be a lot more, but this'll do." Emmanuel replied.
"Hit by them? These little guys won't-oh!" Charlotte yelped, jumping back as the dragon-squirrel opened its mouth and a small stream of fire burst from its scaly lips. "It breathes fire?!"
"Kira is really going to hate that she missed this." Noah commented.
"So you guys get how to play?" Elijah questioned.
"Uh...we have to get this," I gestured at the boulder, "in there," I nodded at a tiny area between two larger, outcropping rocks, "and avoid getting burnt by the 'dragons' or the lava spouts."
"Basically. Alternatively, if we get the ball in your score area," Emmanuel gestured at our 'net', which was just a small area between a rock and Noah's sweater. "We get a point. First team to three points wins."
"Seems simple enough?" Noah replied, not seeming all too certain about that. I shrugged.
"Yeah." I replied. It couldn't be all that hard, right?
Xxx
It turned out to be much harder than we'd anticipated. While the game itself was simple enough to understand, these kids were insanely good at it.
"Hey!" Charlotte protested as Emmanuel literally soared over her head, landing right in front of the boulder that she'd been chasing. The Calderan boy just sent her a smirk before kicking it over to Elijah. Noah lunged in between them, using his superspeed to try to get the boulder back in our possession, but stumbled when one of the dragon-squirrels darted out towards the boulder. If he hadn't stopped short, he would have kicked the tiny thing hard enough to punt it into the air. Unfortunately, his hesitation was enough to allow Elijah to take the ball.
I'd volunteered to play the position of goalie, and thus was the only thing standing between Elijah and the boulder. I raced forward, intending to block his view of the goal area, but suddenly, something heavy slammed into me at superspeed. I landed on the ground, dazed, recovering just in time to see Elijah kick the boulder into our goal area.
"You guys might want to up your game." Sonja suggested, standing over me. I sent her a glare and her gaze softened, however slightly, as she offered me a hand. "C'mon."
"Thanks." I told her, accepting it and allowing her to pull me to my feet. She rolled her eyes before walking back over to her team.
"Well, this game sucks." Noah decided sullenly.
"We're only one point behind." Charlotte chided, though she seemed a little disappointed herself.
"It's fine, guys. We'll get the next one." I assured them. "Just keep your eye on the prize, and we'll be fine."
Xxx
I raced ahead, keeping pace with the boulder as I kicked it towards the Calderans' goal area. Noah had sped forward to tackle Emmanuel before he could try and take the boulder away from me – taking a page out of Sonja's book, evidently. Charlotte was currently distracting Sonja by basically pinning the Calderan girl between herself and an active lava spout. It was only Elijah and I, and I wasn't about to let one of those squirrel-dragons get in my way this time.
Unfortunately, Elijah had other plans. Instead of coming forward to try and block my view of the goal area, like I had with Sonja, he'd backed up. I'd decided to go for it and raced in with the boulder, only for Elijah to disappear in front of me. I stopped short, surprised, but quickly recovered, not wanting to get distracted from my shot. However, before I could take the shot, the boulder moved in front of me, rolling to my left. "Hey!" I called, charging after the boulder. I hit something – or rather, someone – I couldn't see and managed to knock Elijah off balance there, but he'd already gotten the boulder away from his team's goal area. Sonja, having gotten away from Charlotte, raced after the boulder, stealing the boulder away while I was still occupied with the now visible Elijah.
"Not so fast!" Noah sped forward, abandoning his job of guarding Emmanuel in order to try and take the ball away from Sonja. She smirked and sped past him, managing to keep the boulder rolling at the speed she was running, towards the net. Noah went to follow, as did Charlotte, but Emmanuel got to them first. The Calderan boy slammed into Charlotte from behind, pushing her forward and right into Noah's path. The speedster hit her full of, the two of them tumbling to the ground almost comically.
"Are you okay?" I demanded, racing over to them. In the background, I could hear Elijah and Sonja congratulating Emmanuel excitedly as he scored behind us. Charlotte and Noah groaned as they slowly untangled themselves from each other, clearly feeling that hit.
"Okay, it's on." Noah growled, gritting his teeth as he pushed himself to his feet.
Xxx
Apparently, a frustrated Noah was an athletic Noah; the speedster raced ahead of us, a fiercely determined look on his face as he charged after the boulder. He sped forward faster than I could see, his body becoming a blur in front of us, but apparently not too fast for the Calderans. Sonja sped forward, blurring towards Noah at the speed of light. I couldn't quite see what happened, but suddenly, both were on the ground, Sonja on top of Noah, and the boulder rolling off towards the Calderans' score zone.
Charlotte and I both chased after it, the younger girl taking the lead. Elijah was nowhere to be seen, which was concerning on its own, while Emmanuel was standing in front of the score zone, not about to let us get a point. Charlotte glanced back at me, then nodded her head at the boy. I nodded back, having come to the same idea at the same time.
"Hey Emmanuel!" Charlotte shouted, as if his attention wasn't already on her. She abandoned the boulder altogether, instead leaping at Emmanuel. He hadn't been expecting that kind of aggression from the bionic human, and so was too stunned to try and stop her from tackling him to the ground. As she took him down, I ran after the abandoned boulder. Before any of the others could get to me, I took aim and kicked the boulder towards the score zone as hard as I could. The boulder rolled straight towards the score zone...
Then, it stopped, right before it could cross into the zone and score us a point.
Elijah reappeared, standing with one foot on top of the boulder. "That was a good try." He admitted. "But not good enough."
"I will tackle you." I threatened. He chuckled, then quickly kicked the boulder past me, just far enough out of my reach. I spun around, intent on running after it, but it was already in Sonja's possession.
"Noah!" I called, beginning to sprint after the Calderan girl. Noah sped after Sonja, but the girl stopped short, the bionic speedster going right past her. She passed the boulder to Emmanuel, who'd somehow gotten away from Charlotte. Instead of helping him out, Sonja turned around and sped at me. She slammed into me before I could get out of the way, and the two of us hit the ground roughly.
"Not so fast." Sonja teased, making no effort to get off of me. I rolled my eyes and worked my knee under her stomach before kicking her off of me.
It was too late though; by time I was standing, Emmanuel had passed the boulder to Elijah, and the green-shirted boy kicked the boulder into our score zone. Charlotte, who'd been running towards the boulder with all her might, made a valiant effort to try and stop it, leaping into the air, but only succeeded in hitting the ground and eating dirt, almost a foot away from the score zone.
"Yes!" Emmanuel shouted. I looked over to the left to find him and Noah sitting in the dirt, my nephew's face covered in dirt.
"Ugh!" Noah groaned, flopping back down to the ground.
"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered, rubbing my temples. That was 3 - 0. We'd lost, miserably so.
"That was embarrassing." Charlotte complained.
"It wasn't that bad." Elijah walked over to her, offering her a hand up. "I had fun."
"I'm glad someone did." Noah grumbled, walking over to me. He turned to me. "What do we do now? We can't get to Venusia without that piece."
"Wait, you're going to Venusia?" Emmanuel questioned, suddenly suspicious. He looked at his friends before turning back to us, narrowing his eyes. "What kind of mission do you have there?"
I glanced at Charlotte and Noah. "My parents are there. They were kidnapped on a peace-keeping mission." Noah explained. "Along with Dani and Kaz Broadman, Chase Davenport, Oliver Short, and Skylar Storm."
"Wait, your parents are part of the Elite Force?" Elijah asked, surprised. "Didn't they stop the Resistance when they tried to take over Caldera?"
I frowned, unsure of what they were referencing, but Charlotte nodded eagerly. "You mean the one Scarlet Sandler was a part of? Yeah, they did, along with a group of robot girls." She agreed before turning to us. "After the whole Marcus thing, I made Papa and Calla tell me all their stories; I wasn't going to get caught kissing another android."
"You kissed a robot?" Elijah grinned. Charlotte nodded.
"I wouldn't recommend." She replied, though she smiled back at the boy. He turned to Sonja.
"C'mon, Sonja. They're trying to save Skylar Storm." He insisted. She sighed.
"Alright." She agreed before speeding away. She reappeared a moment later, holding a tiny chip between her fingers. To my surprise, she offered it to me. "It was a good game."
"Thank you." I told her, then the others. "Thank you."
"We should go." Emmanuel commented to his friends. "If we want to get home before it gets dark."
"Alright." Sonja nodded. She nodded at us. "Good luck."
"Be careful out there. I suspect things are a lot more dangerous there than they are here." Elijah advised. I glanced back at one of the lava spouts, where two of the dragon-squirrels were fighting over a small, black rock.
"I hope you're wrong but thank you." I told them again. Elijah offered us one last smile.
"Come back when you're done, and we'll give you a rematch." He smiled one last time at us before jogging after his friends.
"Alright." I turned back to Noah and Charlotte. "Let's go save the Elite Force."
Ben's POV
When we got back to the ship, it was completely empty, the others yet to return and Felix having left us a note to let us know he'd been called in for a half-shift at the hospital and would be back when it's done.
Sera had left as well, wanting to grab some extra supplies from her parents' place before we left for the rest of the trip. I'd almost offered to go with her, but she had insisted that she wanted to go alone.
"Sera back yet?" I looked up from my tablet as Emily walked back into the kitchen. She was wearing the sweater again, her hands and cheek black with soot or oil from working on the engine.
"Nah, I think she's taking her time. She's homesick, I think." I commented. Emily nodded, walking past me to the sink to clean up.
"Hopefully seeing her parents again will help. It must suck coming back here and not being able to stay or see anyone you care about." She commented. I hummed. "Though…Noah said she doesn't' have many friends around here."
"Well, she's probably going to come back to Earth when this is all over. I don't see Oliver and Skylar wanting her to come back here when the peace treaty's been taken off the table." I commented. "You might get rid of Noah and the twins, but I think you're stuck with her for a while."
"That's alright. I like having her around." She admitted. "Though I could do without the snoring."
I chuckled. "I know, Naomi and I can hear it from our room." I admitted. She cracked a smile as she finished washing her hands. "I was serious about not giving up our room, by the way. Geminus is going to kill me when we get back, so I'm sleeping in the good bed."
Emily turned around, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry you had to trade your ID coin for me. I hope you don't get in trouble because of it." She apologized. I shook my head.
"Nah, everyone loses theirs all the time." I assured her. "But I did help six teenagers sneak off to space on a dangerous mission, so I'm pretty sure she's going to kill me either way."
"You could tell her we kidnapped you." Emily suggested, trying to be helpful. I shook my head again. "Why not? She can't be mad if you didn't have a choice."
"I, a proven superhero with nearly six years of field work under my belt, was kidnapped by a bunch of teenagers with about six months' worth of training. Yes, she'll definitely believe that." I commented sarcastically. "I pretty much accepted my fate the moment we left Earth's atmosphere."
"I'm sorry." Emily apologized again, taking a seat across from me. "We didn't really think about whether or not you'd get in trouble. We just…actually, it was my plan. I just thought that we'd be better off with the whole team there than just us. We are six teenagers with about six months' worth of training, after all." She explained. "But we should have asked a little better and not made you go. Especially since it might be dangerous."
"It wasn't very well thought out." I acknowledged. She nodded, fiddling with the sleeves of the sweater. I sighed. "That being said, I do think it was smart of you to take Naomi and I with you. And as annoyed as I am to have been kidnapped," I emphasized the word, and she smiled apologetically at me, "I'd rather be here to try and keep you all alive than be on Earth and hear that this all went tragically wrong and we lost all of you."
"We would be screwed without you guys." Emily admitted. "I'm still sorry."
"I forgive you." I assured her. She smiled. "But you so owe me, kid."
"Why does Emily owe you?" Kameron asked, walking into the room. I stared at him. "What?"
Emily turned around to see Kameron, and her eyes went wide. "Oh, wow." She commented. "What happened to you?"
"Oh, this?" Kameron looked down at himself. He was covered head to toe in dark green slime, ash, and what looked like tiny black scales. "Mrs. Sariah, the lady you sent us to do chores with, had me milk her dragons for her."
"You had to milk dragons?" Emily repeated, staring at him. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What does their even milk taste like?"
"Believe it or not, acorns." The boy replied cheerfully. He turned and reached into his bag before pulling out a small wheel device. "This is the thing you wanted, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Emily took it with two fingers only, nose still wrinkled in disgust. "Thank you."
"No problem." Kameron replied. I cleared my throat.
"Uh, you can go shower, if you want." I suggested. The smell coming off of him reminded me of rotten fish, and that might have been an understatement, and possible and insult to rotten fish.
"I let Kira go first." He told us before walking past us to the sink. He smirked at us over his shoulder. "She had to clean the dragons' pens."
Ben's POV
"Emily!" I called, stepping into the left engine room from the cargo bay. It was a dimly lit room, mostly taken up by the giant plasma engine with very little room to maneuver. In response to my call, something metal clanged a couple of times, drawing me towards the back of the room. I found Emily perched on top of the engine, bent over two open panels with a look of concentration on her face. "Here." I said, offering her a bottle of water. "How's it going?"
"Almost done." Emily accepted the bottle gratefully. "I already finished on the right engine, should be done here soon." She looked up at me with a smile. "I'll be done in a few minutes. We should be off planet within the hour."
"Alright. We're all outside saying goodbye to Felix when you'e done." I told her. She gave me a thumbs up before tucking the bottle under her arm and continuing to work. I turned around and started to head outside. Charlotte and Kameron were in the cargo bay, sitting on top of two crates while chatting.
"So, I asked Felix to look around and he managed to find one of these." Charlotte was saying, holding up a pair of small, faded gold wristbands with black beads on either end of them. "Seasickness bracelets. Thought it might help with the trip."
"Yes." Kameron's face broke out into a grateful and relieved smile. "You are amazing, Charlotte. Thank you."
"Don't mention it." She replied, smiling back at him. "I just didn't want you hogging the bathroom the entire trip."
I chuckled as I left them to their conversation, heading out of the ship. Felix, Sera, Naomi, Kira, and Noah were all standing around the front of the ship, gathered around Kira for some reason.
"Please?" Kira was begging. There was something in her arms, but I couldn't quite see past Noah.
"No, Kira." Naomi said with tempered patience.
"No, what?" I asked, pushing through. I sighed when I saw the black, scaly squirrel in Kira's arms. A few of them had followed Naomi, Noah, and Charlotte back to the ship, and the pyrokinetic had been attached to them ever since.
"You can't keep the dragon, Kira." I told her sternly. She pouted. "I'm sorry Kira, but we can't bring a dragon on the ship."
"I'll feed it." Kira promised. Sera made a face.
"Yeah, those things eat more than Ben, Kameron, Charlotte, and Noah combined." She pointed out. Kira sighed. "Why don't you ask your parents on your way back? They let Kameron have a tarantula - they might say yes to a dragon, or maybe even a dorenbosch."
"What is a dorenbosch?" Kameron asked, confused, as he and Charlotte came out to join us. Sera considered the question for a moment before answering.
"Have you ever met your parents weird friend named Gus?" She asked. The twins nodded slowly. "Like him, but with more hair."
"What?" Noah asked, confused. Sera shrugged. "No, I actually need an explanation for that."
"No time." Emily's voice came from the ship. She was leaning against the cargo bay doors, arms crossed and a smile on her face. "Who's ready to go to Venusia?"
Kihonne: Alright guys, what did you think? Good, bad, in between? I would love to hear what you all thought!
Anyway, to make up for the series of non-updates, I'm giving you guys an actual double update this time around. The new chapter should be up by time you've finished this one, so I hope you all like that one too!