Legacies: To Venusia and Beyond - Kihonne (2024)

Chapter 1: Runaways

Chapter Text

Kira's POV

"We're free!" I dropped to my knees, hands in the air and a grin on my face as students filed out of the classroom behind me. Kameron walked around me, giving me an amused look.

"A little dramatic, don't you think?" He asked, shaking my head.

"No." I insisted, smiling at him. He rolled his eyes and offered me his hand. I accepted it and climbed to my feet. "Not everyone likes school, Kam. Some of us can't wait for Spring Break."

"You're just happy that Millennium Academy has a 3-week Spring Break instead of Anderson High's 1-week break." He told me. I beamed at him.

"A 3-week Spring Break, Kameron!" I exclaimed, skipping past him to my locker. "I love private schools."

"I see someone's happy." Charlotte chuckled, walking over to us. Kameron sent her a grin.

"You know how she is." He commented before opening his own locker to grab my backpack. I elbowed him in the ribs before closing my locker and turning around to smile at Charlotte.

"Look, I'm excited for a break from school, alright? I think we earned it, since we didn't have that much of a Christmas break." I reasoned. Charlotte shrugged. "What? I'm right."

"I know. It's just, we might not have that much of a vacation..." She trailed off meaningfully. Kameron and I exchanged looks.

"Emily found something out?" Kameron asked. Charlotte pressed her lips together in a thin line and didn't answer, instead turning around to walk towards the doors. Kameron and I followed her, keeping pacing with the older girl until we exited the school. A nice, dark gray SUV was waiting for us outside, with Noah, Emily, and Sera leaning against it, waiting for us.

"Nice car." Kameron whistled in appreciation at the sight. Noah chuckled. "I didn't realize Calla was paying you enough to buy yourself a new car."

"She doesn't; the car is one of Chase's. Calla let me borrow it to run some errands." He explained. Kameron raised an eyebrow.

"Errands for her or errands for us?" He questioned. Noah smirked.

"Both, though she only needs to know about the ones for her." He replied. We all climbed into the car, Kameron and Charlotte taking the back seats, leaving Sera and I in the middle while Emily and Noah took the front.

"Oh, I told Mrs. Chavez that you went home sick. She probably didn't call home, seeing as Calla probably would have called you by now, but I figured I should tell you just in case."

"Thanks for covering for me, guys." She smiled at us. Kameron leaned forward in his seat.

"Was it worth it?" He asked, looking between her and Emily. The two girls exchanged looks. "Well?"

"Let's get settled somewhere, then we'll talk." Noah suggested. Emily nodded.

"Calla's probably home, so we can't do it there." I reminded them. Charlotte smirked.

"It's okay. I've got a place in mind." She assured us.

Ben's POV

I tapped my car's steering wheel to the rhythm of the rap song on the radio as I waited for Naomi. She'd asked me to pick her up here, since she had to hand in her latest freelance assignment to the news editor. She'd pulled out of school for the semester to make things easier in preparation for the Venusian mission, and had taken to doing some freelance work for the Centium City Daily Report for some extra cash.

I smiled when she finally exited the building. She started walking down the stairs leading up to the news building, bag in one hand and a smile on her face.

"Hey." She greeted as she climbed into the passenger seat, leaning over to kiss me before buckling up. I turned, resting my arm on the back of her seat. "How was visiting your mom?"

"It was good. She hates the mission." I admitted. She smiled apologetically. "I mean, she gets it, but going off planet isn't her idea of 'being safe', you know?"

"Believe me, I get it. My mom kinda freaked out when I went down last week." She agreed. "Dad kept it together better, but I can tell he's not too thrilled about two more of his kids going to Venusia."

"Well, ideally, all four of you come back safe." I offered her a reassuring smile. I knew how much this mission meant to her. It was her brother and sister at stake here. Failing wasn't an option for her.

"Has Calla told the kids yet?" She asked, clearing her throat. I shook my head.

"Not yet. She wants to have that conversation before dinner." I replied. She nodded.

"Any idea who's cooking?" She questioned, sounding apprehensive. I chuckled. "Seriously, I hope it's Leo. or Katherine. Or Kameron."

"Well, it doesn't matter, because I'm taking you out." I told her. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Happy one-month anniversary." She looked at me, mouth opening into a wide, surprised smile. "Don't tell me you thought I'd forget."

"No, I just...I didn't think we were going to celebrate, given everything going on." She admitted, blushing a little. I smiled at her. "Please tell me you didn't get me a gift. I didn't get you anything."

"No, no. Just dinner, I promise." I assured her. She let out a relieved breath. "I just figured, this might be our last chance for some downtime for a while, why not make the most of it?"

She smiled at me. "Okay, that's sweet." She told me before leaning over to kiss me, this kiss lasting longer than the last. "Happy one-month anniversary."

Kira's POV

"I love your apartment." Seraphina said, looking around the room as she sat down on the couch, the rest of us all settling in the Dooley's upstairs living room. It was a pretty nice loft, I had to admit, almost nicer than the Davenport's; between the two living rooms, the massive kitchen, and the hot tub on the balcony, I almost wished that we'd moved in here instead of the Davenport's penthouse.

"Thanks. Papa's kinda got a thing for interior design." Charlotte shrugged, walking back into the room with a bowl of chips in her hands. She placed in on the coffee table before sitting down between Emily and Kameron on the left side of the 10-seater wrap around couch. "He's working late, and Mama's helping Logan and Kate on a sea rescue mission, so we've got the place to ourselves for at least a couple of hours."

"Okay, so what have we got?" Kameron asked, leaning forward to grab a handful of chips.

"So, here's what we know," Sera leaned forward in her seat next to Emily. "We need to get to Venusia, but both Venusia and Caldera are currently protected by barriers blocking geoleap access to the planets. But the barriers don't block ship access, so that's how we're going to get in."

"That seems like an oversight they should have thought about." Kameron commented. Sera shook her head.

"They need to allow ships in for import and trading with other allied planets. The access points are monitored, but we have a few ideas about how to sneak in." She explained. "I have a friend who can get us back onto Caldera."

"Caldera's pretty far from Venusia." I pointed out. "Why not go straight to Venusia?"

"Because if we take the ship Calla had built, it'll take us months to reach Venusia. Our parents may not have months." Noah explained. Emily nodded.

"There's a prototype high-speed cpu design on Caldera that their scientists were testing prior to the war. Sera says they're not done yet, since their research had to be put on hold thanks to the conflict with the Venusians, but I think I might be able to use some Davenport Industries tech to finish it and apply it to our light-speed engine. In layman's terms, I'm gonna use a Calderan computer chip to boost our engine's performance to make us go a LOT faster than we would otherwise."

"You said youthinkyou can do that." I commented skeptically. If she was wrong, it would all be in vain.

"I'm sure. Charlotte and I can do it." Emily nodded certainly. She gave me a reassuring smile. "I wouldn't take a risk like this without being sure."

"Okay." I agreed. Emily was prideful and sometimes a little overconfident in her skill set, but her dad's life was on the line too. She was sure.

"How long do we think it'll take us to get from Caldera to Venusia with the new engine?" Kameron questioned.

"A few days." Emily smiled. I looked at her in surprise. The original trip was supposed to be four months, and now it was just a few days? "There's a reason why Mom was trying to recruit non-human scientists prior to the war; they're good."

"Wait, let's back up a moment. You said the ship Calla built." Charlotte realized. She looked at Emily, Noah, and Sera. "It's done?"

"It is." Noah confirmed. "Calla had me drop supplies for the trip off this morning; I brought Emily and Sera along so they could look at the specs and see if the engines would be compatible."

I felt butterflies form in my stomach. This was actually happening. If the ship was done, we'd be leaving soon. We were actually going to go into space. "When do we leave?"

"Well, I need time to get enough supplies for us, but it'll have to be soon. We don't know when Ben and Naomi's team is leaving." Noah explained. Emily nodded.

"We should be ready to leave by Monday." She told us. The rest of us all exchanged looks, understanding what this meant. By this time next week, we could legitimately be on Venusian soil.

Ben's POV

"Oh, good." Calla looked up from the smoke she'd been fanning away from the stove, her expression turning from a frustrated scowl to a gentle smile when the kids all walked through the door. "You're home."

"Uh oh. She's cooking." Kira whispered dramatically to Kameron. Calla gave her a look, and the pyrokinetic wilted under her gaze. "I mean, yay, more of Calla's incredible cuisine."

"I called Leo and hes bringing take out." The genius CEO assured us. "Sit, sit. I wanted to talk to you guys."

"Didn't school let out a couple of hours ago?" Naomi questioned from where she was sitting at the kitchen counter.

"We stopped for ice cream." Noah explained. Calla nodded.

"You got those errands done, though, right?" She questioned. He nodded.

"I finished it all this afternoon." He assured her. Calla nodded, then raised her chin as Emily tried to sneak up the stairs.

"I said I wanted to talk to all of you." She said loudly. Emily sighed and stopped on the stairs.

"Helix!" She called before turning around and walking down the stairs. The cavapoo came running down after his master, butting into her legs as she reached the bottom.

"What's up?" She asked, crossing her arms. I sighed. Things had been cold between the two of them ever since the attack at the Explority building. Between the secrets and what had happened with Darius, Emily was still pretty angry, and though Calla had apologized and tried to make amends at first, it seemed that her new strategy was just to wait Emily out until she had relaxed on her own. I wasn't sure how well that was going to work, but the rest of us had chosen to stay out of it.

"Sit, guys. Team meeting." I told them. Emily visibly relaxed - Calla was the only one she was mad at - and sat down in the blue chair near the holo-streamer. The others followed suit, relaxing on the couch.

"What's going on?" Charlotte questioned, crossing her ankles and smiling at Calla cheerfully.

"We said we'd keep you guys updated on the Venusian mission." I explained. Immediately, they all turned serious.

"The ship is finished being built and tested and is ready for space flight." Calla explained. "It's ready to take the team to Venusia."

"Who's on the team, anyway?" Seraphina questioned. Calla offered her a smile.

"Well, obviously Ben and Naomi here. Adam and Taylor from the Bionic Headquarters have volunteered, as have Spotlight and Nyx from the NLH, along with Dr. Jazz Krane from Mighty Med 2.0." She explained. Kira raised her hand. "Nyssa Bennett will be staying with her aunt in Canada for the duration of the mission, not with us."

"Thank you. I don't think I could survive staying with her for a week, let alone how long this mission is going to take." Kira sighed in relief. Kameron just shook his head at his sister. "What? She's annoying."

"Whatever you say, Kira." He rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, we're going to be leaving tomorrow morning, so we just wanted to-" I started.

"What?" "Tomorrow?" To my surprise, I was cut off by a number of protests and explanations of surprise.

"Um, yes?" Naomi looked at me, frowning. "We don't want to waste any time on this. If the ship's ready, we should leave right away."

"Yes, obviously." Charlotte nodded, smiling. "It just doesn't feel real yet, I guess."

"I know. Neither do we." Naomi assured them. I smiled reassuringly at them.

"Don't worry, guys. We'll be back before you know it, with your parents." I promised them. They all looked at me, their expressions hard to read. "I promise you guys that this mission is going to be a success. You'll see them, and us, again."

"We better." Emily commented half-heartedly. I gave her a gentle smile.

"Anyway, we wanted to go over a couple of things with you guys." I continued. Naomi nodded.

"Firstly, since Ben and I are both going on the mission, you'll need a new team leader." She explained. She turned to the oldest of the remaining heroes. "Noah, you're going to be in charge of the team in my absence."

"Me?" Noah stared at her. She nodded. "I, uh...thank you?"

"Don't worry; you'll do fine." She told him. He nodded, a thoughtful look on his face.

"As for the rest of you, I'm giving you all one last order." She continued, turning to the rest of the kids. "I don't want you to focus on what our team is doing, I want you to focus on what's most important."

"School." I added. "Enjoying the rest of your school year, and your summer, especially you two, Emily and Charlotte."

"Hopefully we'll be back in time for your autumn break." Naomi added. The kids all exchanged looks.

"I guess this is goodbye then?" Kameron asked, uncertain. I chuckled.

"We'll say goodbye before we leave tomorrow." I assured them. "Liam and Rani are supposed to the last ones to arrive, and they're not getting here till nearly 10 tomorrow."

"Okay. I guess we'll say goodbye tomorrow then." Emily said. Noah stood up.

"Um, is that all? I forgot that I had some stuff to do tonight." He told us.

"Leo's going to be here with the take out soon." Calla told him. Noah smiled.

"That's alright; I'll just eat while we're out. It's to do with my program change application." He explained. Calla nodded.

"Alright. We'll save you a plate." She assured him. He smiled.

"Thanks." He told her before heading out the door. I looked at Naomi, who nodded.

"We should get going too. We have reservations." I told Calla. She nodded.

"I'll see you two tomorrow then." She replied.

Xxx

"This place is nice." Naomi commented, looking around the restaurant after the waitress left to get our drinks. "Where'd you hear about this place?"

"Aroma. She and Tempest came here just after it opened." I explained. Naomi nodded.

"Aroma...isn't she the one with the bubble gum colored hair?" Naomi questioned, trying to remember. I nodded. "Oh yeah. Geminus introduced us. She's an NLH rep for the Coalition, right?"

"Yeah. She's Liv's go-between with Miles. She's nice. Rani hates her though."

"Rani hates everyone." Naomi pointed out. I chuckled.

"Nah, she just acts that way. You'll see what I mean when we're working together." I explained. She nodded thoughtfully.

"It's going to be weird, living in such close quarters with everybody." She commented. I nodded in agreement.

"Which is why I really wanted to do this tonight. We won't really have another chance for a while." I mentioned. She frowned. "It'll be something like eight, nine months before we're back on Earth."

"We can still try and make some time for ourselves on the ship." Naomi insisted. "Sure there's no restaurants, but space sludge in the storage unit is fine with me if it is with you."

I smiled at the idea of the two of us eating whatever astronaut food Calla's guys had packed for us while sitting on boxes in the storage section of the ship while avoiding everyone else. The idea wasn't unappealing, but there was something else bothering me. "That wasn't the part that was bugging me."

"Then what? We're going to be up there for eight months, Ben." She pointed out. I nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we are." I agreed. "Eight months in space, with Adam Davenport." I added. Naomi frowned.

"So?" She questioned. I looked at her.

"Does he know that we're dating?" I asked. She hesitated.

"Not yet. We haven't really talked since the new year." She admitted. "Are you upset that I haven't told him?"

"No, no. I'm not upset." I assured her quickly. She nodded.

"Then I don't see what the big deal is." She told me. I chuckled. "What?"

"You have an overprotective family." I pointed out.

"No I don't." She retorted. I nodded. "No, I don't."

"You do, Naomi." I told her. She rolled her eyes. "Admit it."

"Okay, maybe they're a little overprotective." She admitted reluctantly. I chuckled.

"Leo threatened to kick my ass." I told her. Her eyes widened.

"Did he actually?" She laughed in surprise.

"Well...he tried." I admitted. She smiled, confused. "He started to, got to about 'if you ever hurt her', and then I stood up and he remembered that I can kick his ass a LOT easier than he can kick mine."

"Oh my God." She laughed into her hand. "What did he do next?"

"He just kinda stopped and left the room. It was actually pretty funny." I admitted, laughing as well. She smiled.

"Okay, yeah. I will talk to Adam, make sure he's on his best behavior." She promised. I chuckled.

"Thank you." I smiled as the waitress returned, carrying a beer and a glass of wine. She placed them on the table and left to give us more time. I raised my drink.

"Here's to a successful mission, and to you controlling your crazy family." I teased. She laughed good naturedly at the tease.

"Here's to me trying. Davenports don't exactly do as they're told." She replied, clinking her glass against the glass bottle.

Kira's POV

I had just finishing zipping up my duffel bag when there was a soft knock on my door. I froze instantly, praying it wasn't Naomi. She had told me she'd planned on spending the night at Ben's, so I shouldn't worry when she didn't come back tonight, but that she would come back in the morning before leaving for the mission.

"It's just me." Seraphina whispered, and I relaxed. I quickly opened the door, ushering her inside. "I wasn't sure if you were awake or not."

"I didn't want the lights to wake Calla." I explained, gesturing to the only light source in the room, the tiny fairy lights I'd convinced Naomi to let me put up when I'd moved in.

"Good idea. Noah's gone to finish packing the ship. He took Charlotte with him." She explained.

"Was he able to get everything in time?" I asked, uncertainly. With the mission planned for tomorrow, we had to move our agenda up, but it hadn't left us much time to get everything we'd wanted to do. I'd been hoping to be able to geoleap back to my own house and grab a few things that would be helpful for the mission, but there'd been no time at all.

"I hope so." Sera's answer wasn't all that reassuring, but it was the best I was going to get. "You ready to go?"

"I guess so." I took one last look at my room, then nodded to myself and hoisted my bag over my shoulder. "Let's go."

I carefully and quietly followed her out of my room and into the hall. The door to her and Emily's room was still open, and in the darkness, I could see Emily sitting on her bed, intently petting Helix's fur. Her duffel bag was sitting on the ground at her feet. She was fully dressed in black pants, a dark t-shirt, and a slightly too big dark blue sweater, clearly ready to go but not quite wanting to leave her dog's side just yet.

"Em." Sera murmured. The technopath looked up, startled, then nodded.

"I've got to go, boy." She murmured to her dog. Helix whined in response, jumping to his feet as if to follow us. "No, Helix. I'm sorry, but I can't take you with me. We don't know what those evil Venusians do to doggies."

He whimpered but lied back down on the bed dejectedly. Emily's face crumpled and she dropped to her knees in front of him. "Hey, it's okay. Mom's going to take good care of you." She promised. "And when I get back, I promise I won't leave again for a long, long time, okay? And I'll give you a hundred cuddles and treats, okay? I promise."

Helix looked up at the sound of 'treats' and stared at her for a long moment before leaning close to sniff her. After a moment, he licked her on the face, making Emily's face scrunch up.

"Okay, be good. I love you." She told him, kissing him on the head before grabbing her bag and walking out after us.

As we walked towards the stairs, we passed by Calla's room. The door was slightly ajar, and we could see the pregnant woman asleep. Emily hesitated as she passed the door, looking into her mom's room with a slightly guilty look on her face. She and Calla hadn't been on the greatest terms since Darius had left, but I could tell that lying to her mom and sneaking out wasn't completely agreeing with her either.

I touched her arm gently, and she seemed to shake herself out of it. She tore her gaze away from Calla's room and led the way downstairs, where Kameron was already waiting. He was standing at the counter, writing something on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?" I whispered to him.

"Writing Calla a note." He explained, finishing what he was doing. He folded the piece of paper and placed it on top of Calla's holo-tablet. "So she doesn't freak out in the morning."

"She's still definitely going to freak out." Seraphina pointed out. Emily nodded.

"Oh yeah, even if we survive this mission, she's definitely going to kill us when we return." She agreed.

"Well, it's still polite." He insisted. Emily and Seraphina both looked at me pointedly.

"Well, it is." I reasoned. Emily rolled her eyes.

"Let's just go." She insisted. She gave the room a once over, then took a deep breath and turned on her heel, walking out the door without another word.

Ben's POV

"Wow." Naomi whistled as I pulled up to the airfield that Calla had bought specifically for this mission. Naomi stared up at the grey and blue spaceship even as she climbed out of the car, eyes wide with wonder. "It's huge."

"Well, it has to carry fourteen people across space for months on end." I reminded her, looking up at the ship myself. It was large - 2 floors, about 40 feet long and 30 feet wide - but having gone inside myself, I knew its appearance was a little deceptive. The bottom halves of each of the two long, large cylinders on either side of the massive circular center were mostly made up of the light speed engines, and the largest part of the ship was the bridge. "It feels a lot smaller on the inside."

"It does?" She questioned, looking back at me. I nodded. "Still, it looks huge."

"Trust me, you won't be saying that after a month stuck in there." I told her. She gave me a look.

"You're awfully grumpy." She commented.

"Maybe that's because your sister-in-law woke us up at 3 in the morning for an 'emergency meeting' at the ship." I grumbled. Naomi rolled her eyes and closed the car door before heading for the open ramp that led into the cargo bay of the ship.

"It's probably important." She reasoned as I followed her inside. When I saw that Calla was not in the cargo bay, I stopped next to the ladder that led up to the 2nd floor of the ship.

"I swear, if she just wants to go over the ships controls again because she can't sleep, I'm actually going to kill her this time." I threatened. Naomi rolled her eyes.

"That happened one time, Benji." She sighed. A sudden beeping alerted us to the fact that the cargo bay ramp was slowly raising to seal us in. "Where is Calla, anyway?"

"The bridge is on the second floor." I sighed, grabbing a rung of the ladder. I started to climb up it, but before I could even place a foot on the third rung, the ship suddenly jerked violently, the hum of the engines growing to an audible level as the ship left the ground.

"Are we - are we moving?" Naomi demanded, managing to keep her balance as the ship took off. "Are we flying?"

"C'mon." I quickly ascended the ladder, Naomi following closely behind. Once on the second floor, I led her around the corner and into the bridge, where we were met with the most unexpected sight.

Emily and Seraphina were at the front of the bridge, the former in the pilot's seat while the latter was in the navigator's seat to Emily's right. In the row of 3 seats behind them were Charlotte, Kira, and Noah; Charlotte was in the middle of them, leaning to the right as far as her seat belt would let her in order to explain to Noah how the complicated straps worked, while Kira, also buckled in, was craning her neck to try and look at what Emily was doing at the controls. Her brother was behind her, looking a little grey in the face.

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded loudly. Almost all of them looked back at me, startled by my shout, with guilty looks on their faces. The only one who didn't was Emily, who kept her gaze locked on the controls.

"Hey Ben, hey Naomi. I'd buckle up if I were you." She called back to us, fiddling with the controls. "This is my first time flying a spaceship, and I suspect the roughness of this flight will most likely reflect that."

Kameron groaned at her words, and Kira handed him a small contained, a sympathetic look on her face.

"Uh, you want to explain what's going on here?" Naomi sounded more confused than annoyed, unlike myself who had already realized the kids' reckless, dangerous, and frankly stupid plan.

"We're going to save our parents." Kira told us cheerfully.

"There was a plan in place!" I exclaimed. They ignored me.

"By ourselves?" Naomi questioned. Charlotte nodded.

"We have a plan that'll work faster and better than Calla's. But she wouldn't have let us go, so we took matters into our own hands." She explained. Naomi looked at her, then at Noah.

"I put you in charge and this is what you do?" She questioned incredulously. He shrugged.

"Yeah...not your best decision, Naomi." He told her. She laughed humorlessly at that, shaking her head in amazement at them. Emily sighed.

"Look, your options are simple. Either you can go along with our plan, or you can use the escape pod and bail out before we leave the atmosphere. But either way, we're doing this." She told us, tone serious. I stared at her, then turned to Naomi in disbelief.

"Did we just get kidnapped by a bunch of high school students?" I questioned.

"I'm not in high school." Noah chimed in. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, a bunch of high school students and a college drop out." I corrected myself. Noah scowled, then sighed.

"Fair." He admitted. "Mean, but fair."

"Yeah, looks like it." Naomi replied, answering my question. Seraphina turned around in her seat to face us fully.

"So. Are you with us, or are you against us?" She questioned. Naomi looked around the room, then dropped into the nearest seat, right behind Noah, and began to buckle up wordlessly. Sera smiled when she saw that. The rest of the kids all watched me expectantly.

After a long moment, I sighed and moved past Naomi to sit between her and Kameron, just behind Charlotte. "Calla is definitely going to kill us when we get back." I announced, buckling myself into the seat. Kira beamed in response before turning around in her seat to face the front.

"Oh, it's okay. We left a note."

Chapter 2: Caldera

Chapter Text

Noah's POV

When our parents originally left Earth, their mission would have taken approximately 4 months, with the first week just getting them as far as Caldera. Earth's technology had improved vastly over the last twenty years of so (my grandfather often bragged that the rise of bionic superhumans had led to an era of scientific advancement like no other in human history), but space travel hadn't been one of our highest points of advancement. It just wasn't our strong suit. Even with the hundreds of hours of work and tens of thousands of dollars that Calla had put into redesigning the Davenship for the second trip, it only managed to shave a couple of days off our travel time. Ideally, the engine upgrade or whatever Emily was excited about would be able to get us to Venusia much faster.

That being said, what Calla lacked in speed of travel, she at least made up for in comfort. Clearly anticipating the length of the trip, Calla had personally designed the ship to be as comfortable as possible for the occupants, for which we were grateful.

The ship was kinda in a H shape, but the center of it was a huge ovular section, the bottom floor of which being the cargo bay, which led into a kitchen and dining area on the left side, and a small office on the right side (probably for communications or something), and the two, massive, plasma engines at the back ends of either, both keeping the ship moving and making the bottom half of the ship comfortably warm at all times. The top half of the ship was more clearly for the living areas, with the ship's bridge being the only non-luxury part of the floor. The ladder from the cargo bay to the second floor opened up into a small lounge area just behind the bridge. On either side of the bridge and lounge area was a hallway of bedrooms, which were quickly fought over and divided (the four bedrooms on the left side of the ship were smaller, but had better beds, while the three on the right were larger with bunks, intended to be shared). Obviously, we would have to change the sleeping arrangements once we got our parents, but for now, I was quite comfortable having claimed one of the only single person bedrooms on the ship.

Along with the decent accommodations, Calla had filled the ship with a number of things to keep the occupants from getting bored over the long trip, including food synthesizers that could create almost any food imaginable, a massive bookshelf in the office filled with readings of any genre, a second bookshelf filled with bored games, and other such amenities. Overall, it looked like Calla had thought of everything she could to make this trip as smooth and as comfortable as possible. There was only one problem.

There was only one bathroom.

"C'mon Kameron, I really have to go." Kira whimpered, practically dancing in front of the bathroom door. The entrance to the single, small bathroom was in the lounge area, where Ben, Charlotte, Sera, and I were sitting in front of the massive viewing window, playing one of the board games we found in the office. "Kam?"

She only got a groan in reply, and she sighed before leaning against the wall and sliding down until she was sitting with her knees pressed against her chest. "Sixty seconds, that's all I need." She muttered.

"Yahtzee!" Charlotte suddenly shouted, beaming excitedly as she rolled five of the same number.

"Hey, quiet down." Sera hushed her immediately. "Emily's asleep, remember? She was up flying all night."

"Right, sorry." Charlotte apologized, glancing down the hall as if she expected her best friend to come stalking down the hall any second. I gave Sera a look.

"That's what you're upset about?" I questioned incredulously. "That's her third Yahtzee."

"Sucker." Charlotte stuck her tongue out at me as Ben added it to her score, shaking his head all the while.

"You're cheating." I accused. She co*cked her head to the side.

"How?" She questioned. I hesitated. "I'm not cheating, Noah. How on earth would I cheat?"

"I haven't figured that out yet." I replied grumpily. She smirked.

"Well, let me know when you do." She told me. "Until then, I'm just gonna keep winning, if that's alright with you."

Just then, Kameron finally came out of the bathroom, looking positively green in the face, and clutching a garbage can. Kira shot him a sympathetic look before bolting into the bathroom, closing the door behind her immediately.

"How're you feeling, buddy?" Ben asked sympathetically. Kameron just groaned and sat down on the floor where his sister had been sitting.

"I hate ships." He groaned after a moment, face hovering over the garbage can. "Water or space, they both suck."

"We should have thought to bring your motion sickness bracelets." Kira, true to her word, emerged from the bathroom less than a minute later, looking altogether relieved at having gotten in there. She looked at her brother apologetically. "I should have put it on the list. Don't worry, we'll be on the ground soon."

"How soon?" He questioned. Almost immediately, Naomi's voice came over the intercom.

"Hey guys. I need everyone up to the bridge. We're about to land."She announced.

"On our way, Naomi." Ben replied, getting up. Charlotte pushed herself to her feet, then walked over to Kameron and offered him her hand.

"C'mon. We'll be on the ground really, really soon." He sighed deeply but took her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet. By time we made it to the bridge, Emily had joined Naomi at the controls, dressed and ready to go.

"Good morning." Kira greeted. Emily shrugged.

"Actually, it's like 22:00 earth time." She corrected. Naomi glanced back at us before turning her attention to windshield. Outside, we could see the crimson, rocky planet approaching fast, its red skies already surrounding us.

"Welcome to Caldera." Seraphina murmured, leaning on the back of a chair.

Xxx

We all left the ship quickly, only delaying long enough to get dressed in something better for Caldera (we'd brought our uniforms, but had decided that for the time being, it was best to try and dress a little more subtle) and to receive temperature-controlling patches to protect us from the heat from the hot Calderan sun. However, by time we stepped out of the ship, we realized that we weren't alone.

"Well, well, well. Look who's back." A young man about my age was waiting for us, stepping out from behind an outcropping rock just in front of the landing area that Sera had led us to. One look at him told us he was not a Calderan native; his skin was too white, his eyes a bright green, and his beach blonde hair too ironic for a planet without beaches.

"Felix." Sera beamed when she saw him, immediately pulling him into a hug. I raised my eyebrow at that, wondering who this guy was. Looking back at the others, Naomi, Charlotte, and Emily looked equally confused, so at least I wasn't alone in that.

"What are you doing here?" Kira smiled at the older boy, seeming to know him as well.

"The Calderans were looking for volunteers at the hospital, and Horace thought it would be a good place to do my residency." He explained. He looked past us, a concerned look on his face. "Is Kameron okay?"

I looked over my shoulder to see Kameron on his hands and knees next to the ship's ramp, looking as if he was either going to cry or kiss the ground. "Yeah, he'll be fine. It's good to see you, man." Ben shook Felix's hand.

"Uh, hi. We don't know you." Emily interjected. She adjusted the straps on her backpack, then offered him her hand. "Emily Davenport."

"I'm Felix Benson. I also go by Apollo, if you prefer." Felix introduced him. "I'm Horace Diaz's sidekick."

"Oh, cool." I shook his hand. "Noah Parker. This is Charlotte Dooley, and Naomi Davenport."

"It's nice to meet you. From what Seraphina tells me, you all have an important mission." He looked around at us. "I'll do everything I can to help."

"Thank you." Naomi nodded gratefully at him.

"I hate ships." Kameron announced, walking back over to us. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, I had your ship approved as a medical shipment carrying volunteers from Earth, so no one should question why you're here if you're wearing these." Felix pulled a handful of lanyards out of his bag, each one with Calderan writing on it along with the Mighty Med 2.5. symbol. "As for the plan…"

He trailed off with a sigh. "What's wrong?" Sera stepped away from him, frowning deeply. He hesitated. "Felix?"

"There was an attack a few days ago." He said solemnly. Sera's face fell, her eyes widening.

"I thought your planet has force fields protecting it." Charlotte frowned. He nodded.

"A proton bomb broke through into downtown – it's not the first time." He looked back at Sera. "We managed to evacuate most of that sector, so there weren't many casualties, but the main labs were destroyed."

"Including the one working on the engine upgrade?" Emily's eyes widened. That had been the biggest part of the plan. Everything counted on us getting that engine.

"Yes." To our distraught, Felix nodded solemnly.

"Unfortunately, yes." He confirmed. We all exchanged looks. I could see my despair mirrored on the others' faces, along with looks of disappointed and frustration. Without the engine design, our mission was over. We hadn't prepared for a four-month mission, and even with the extra supplies we'd packed in anticipating for doubling our crew once we found our parents, there wasn't going to be enough.

"The scientists?" Emily asked after a moment. I could see her mind whirling, scrambling to come up with a new plan. She looked between Felix and Ben and Naomi uncertainly. "Maybe we could convince one of them to help?"

"I do have a lead on someone who escaped the ruins alive." Felix confirmed. "I haven't been able to totally track her down though."

"We'll take it. Do you know where she is?" Naomi questioned.

"Somewhere on the northern outskirts. They're really not talking to foreigners right now." He admitted sheepishly. He looked at Sera. "Are you familiar with Dr. Sabiya Seif?"

Seraphina shook her head and turned to Ben. "I don't know Dr. Seif, but I am familiar with the area, and I am half-Calderan. She might talk to me." She suggested. Ben nodded thoughtfully.

"Noah and I will go with you." He decided. She looked like she was going to protest, but Ben didn't give her a chance. "There was just a bombing. If something happens and you're alone, we won't be able to help or even know that you're in trouble."

"Fine." Seraphina allowed.

"What about us?" Kira questioned.

"Don't say go back on the ship." Kameron pleaded. Naomi shot him a kind smile.

"Well, we're here as volunteers, right?" She glanced at Felix for confirmation. "So we'll volunteer."

"There's plenty of non-medical things that you can do to help." Felix added, glancing around. Naomi turned to Ben.

"Meet us at Mighty Med when you've convinced the scientist to help us." She suggested. Ben nodded and gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning to Sera and I.

"Lead the way." He instructed.

Naomi's POV

I stepped away from the wall, pleased when I saw that the bolts we'd nailed into the ends were holding, the wall standing steadily.

After Ben, Sera, and Noah had left, Felix had led us to a camp of survivors from the recent attacks, where help was most needed. Emily, Kira, and Kameron had opted to follow him to Mighty Med (though Kira had promised to come back quickly with some more supplies) and Charlotte had walked away after spending no more than three minutes here, but Kira and I had stayed to help out where we could. In my case, that meant helping some of the other Calderans put up temporary shelters for the survivors to stay in until new caves were dug out and reinforced for living in.

The camp wasn't all that different than Earth refugee camps, with too many people stranded and alone and not enough supplies or shelter to go around. There was barely enough food, most of which looked stale and barely edible, and water was scarce. Almost everyone was living in tents or, for the luckier ones, in small wooden shelters like the one I'd just helped put up. Calderan people were minimalists and could survive on very little – they did live in caves, for God's sake – but even this was…awful. It wasn't even my first time in a place like this – the summer before my first college semester, I'd participated in a Davenport Industries funded outreach program where we similarly helped in a refugee camp in a South African country – but it didn't do much to make it any easier to see innocent people in this kind of situation. And while I was kind of annoyed with Charlotte for leaving as quickly as she did, a part of me understood. She'd been more sheltered by this kind of thing growing up, and I could see the shock on her face before she'd left without a word.

"Lunch time!" Kira's voice called, getting my and the workers' attentions. She was walking around the square in the center of the camp, carrying a basket full of small, silver packages around. Five young Calderan children were mimicking her, handing out silver packages from buckets of their own.

"I see you've invested in child labor." I commented, walking over to her as a line started in front of her. I grabbed some packages from her basket, beginning to hand them out so she could keep her hold on the basket.

"They just started following me when I got back." Kira shook her head with a smile. "And when they saw me pulling boxes off the back of the ATV, they insisted on helping."

"I think they like you." I commented, glancing over her shoulder at a little black haired Calderan boy, probably no older than 6, who kept sneaking glances at Kira. The pyrokinetic laughed at that, smiling at me and the Calderan woman who'd come to grab some food.

"They saw your flying earlier." The older woman – Sydney, if I remembered her name correctly – told her. Kira frowned.

"I wanted to see the mountains better." She commented. Sydney chuckled. "We don't have sights like that on Earth."

"Flying's a rare gift, even for those of us with multiple abilities. It's always popular with the children." She explained before moving on. Kira sighed.

"You know who would also be popular with the kids? Charlotte." She commented, sounding annoyed. I hummed, not wanting to get into this now, but Kira wasn't happy at all. "I can't believe she just walked away like that."

"Not everyone can stomach this kind of thing, Kira." I said gently. She gave me a look. "Look, just focus on what you're doing, not what Charlotte isn't, alright?"

"It's just not right. They need the help." She stressed. She looked past her line of people and at the endless array of tents and huts. "This is so wrong."

"This is war." I said gravely. "It doesn't matter where you're from or who you are…it only leaves devastation and destroyed lives in its wake."

"I wish there was something we can do." Kira sighed, shaking her head. I nodded solemnly. Unfortunately, there was little we actually could do. We could stop a criminal here, even a team of them, but ending an intergalactic war was beyond our capabilities. We weren't soldiers, and there were too few of us to begin with. "I…" I looked over at her when she trailed off. She was worrying her lip, barely paying attention to the people taking food from her. "I didn't really get how important my parents' mission was, not really. Why they would abandon everything when Caldera had its own heroes. And now, it was all for nothing."

"Kira." I placed my hand on her shoulder gently. She shook her head.

"We have to stop them. The Venusians. We have to stop them." She muttered.

"We're not soldiers, Kira." I reminded her.

"But we're not civilians either." She replied, looking back at me. Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What the hell is she carrying?"

"Hm?" I turned to see Charlotte walking back into camp, carrying two, long silver tubes under one arm, and a black box under the other. "Charlotte?"

"Sorry it took me so long; I had to stop at Mighty Med to get Emily's help with the solar panels." She apologized, dropping to her knees next to Kira, releasing the items under her arms.

"Solar panels?" I repeated, confused. "Charlotte, where have you been?"

"I went back to the ship." She explained. She looked up at Sydney, who'd walked over when she saw Charlotte return. Charlotte looked up at the Calderan with a smile. "Where's the most popular part of the camp? I want to set these up somewhere everyone will have access."

"…What are they?" Sydney questioned. Charlotte gestured at the silver tubes.

"Food synthesizers. They'll produce three times as much food as the supplies you're getting, and thanks to Emily, they're now solar powered." She explained before glancing at us. "We didn't need all three of the ones on the ship."

I smiled softly at the girl, a little proud that that was why she'd disappeared. "What about the box?"

"I am going to build an atmospheric water generator." She declared. At Kira's confused look. "It'll produce water from the humidity, give the people some decent drinking water."

"And you know how to do this?" I asked uncertainly. Charlotte nodded.

"Emily and I built one for our term project after Darius and Marcus…well, you know." She explained. Kira stared at her.

"What happened to baking soda volcanos?" She questioned. Charlotte gave her a look telling her exactly what she thought about that idea before turning to the kids.

"Who wants to help me?" She asked, immediately getting a bunch of excited volunteers for her project.

Noah's POV

The trek up into the northern outskirts – though how Sera knew we were headed north even though we'd never passed a city was beyond me – was made in almost complete silence. It was eerie really, the only sounds being our footsteps and the wind blowing across the rocky planet, bits of sand rising with the gust.

"Is it normally this quiet?" I asked after a long time, keeping my tone quiet for a reason I didn't quite understand myself. Sera pressed her lips together before pushing onwards, climbing the rocky mountain just a little bit faster. As we finally made it to the top, I caught sight of a massive crater, deep in the valley below. The rock around it wasn't the strange mix of red, brown, and orange that the rest of the planet was made up of; instead, it was the color of charcoal, the color only returning to normal far away from the center.

"That used to Silica City." Seraphina murmured quietly, staring out at the crater. Ben glanced at me, then at Sera.

"Is that where you grew up?" He asked, gently. She shook her head quickly, though she looked no less upset at the sight.

"No. Mom and Dad preferred a place closer to Mighty Med. And Hapax's cave is ten miles in that direction." She gestured vaguely to our left. "But I…it's our capital city. Felix and I would hang out in the market on weekends when he was up over the summer, and when Mom had meetings with the Calderan Council, I'd tag along to go visit the Dorenbosch kennel."

"The what?" I questioned, staring at her. Ben smacked me in the arm and shook his head. "Oh. I'm sorry, Sera."

"It's...it's fine. C'mon." She turned away from the crater and looked back at the mountain range in front of us, squaring her shoulders purposefully. "So, there should be a cave system in here. The entrance is somewhere on this side, I think. If the scientist that Felix told us about really did escape up here, he'll be in those caves."

"Alright. Let's spread out, see if we can't find that cave entrance." Ben suggested. He didn't wait for a response before walking away to check for a cave entrance.

"He is still really annoyed with us, isn't he?" I questioned rhetorically. Seraphina cracked a smile and responded anyway.

"Well, we did kidnap him." She pointed out, carefully making her way down the side of the mountain to get a better view. I followed her, figuring that if anyone would find the cave, it would be the girl who came from this planet rather than the two idiots from Earth.

"It's been two days. He has to get over it eventually." I rolled my eyes dramatically, and she shook her head, still smiling a little. I grinned back at her before turning to scan the mountain side.

"So, you and Felix seem close." I mentioned. She glanced at me. "I mean, you've just never mentioned any other friends from Caldera before." She hesitated. "I don't mean to pry, sorry."

"No, I...I just don't have any other real friends here." She admitted. I stared at her, stunned. "Keep looking."

"But...how is that possible? You're one of the nicest people I know." With the way she'd adapted to Earth pretty fast, I had just assumed that she'd been one of the popular kids on Caldera. Or at the very least, have her own group of friends that we'd have to try and tell apart while we were here. "You managed to become friends with Emily, of all people."

"She's not that bad." Seraphina rolled her eyes. I gave her a look.

"She can be a right prick when she wants to be and everyone knows it." I retorted. She just sighed and shrugged.

"I didn't really fit in." She explained. I looked at her and she gestured to herself with one hand. "Literally. I look too human to be Calderan, and Calderans weren't exactly the friendliest race to off-worlders before the war. But I look too Calderan for them to treat me like a guest, so..." She shrugged again. I frowned. I'd never really thought about how Sera's human aspects would set her apart from the others here. "It's fine, really. I have Felix, and one good friend is better than a bunch of bad ones who only care about whether or not you 'fit in'."

"Eight good ones." I corrected. She glanced at me. "Hate to break it to you, Storm, but you're stuck with us now."

She smirked. "Is that right, Parker?" She teased. I was about to reply when I heard a shout.

"Over here!" Ben was standing in front of a large looking rock. Sera and I exchanged looks and ran over to him. As I slowed to a stop, I caught sight of the seven-foot-tall crack in the mountain, a dim, flickering light coming from inside. "Found it."

"Careful." Sera cautioned as I went to climb into the cave. "There could be a dragon's nest in there. You should let me go first."

Ben and I stared at her as she walked past me and climbed in through the crack, one hand out as if to ward off any danger that tried to come close. After a moment, I shrugged and followed her.

"I'm sorry," Ben fell in behind us, his pace slower and more hesitant. "You guys have dragons?"

xxx

The Calderan cave system were actually pretty cool. They were nothing like the Centium City tunnels - they were lit up with torches instead of LEDs, uneven rocky floors instead of flattened cement and asphalt - but that only made them more interesting. If these were on Earth, I could definitely see myself taking a weekend to just explore them. Spelunking was a hobby that one of my buddies from high school had gotten me into, and I'd always wanted to take Blake when we were together, but she'd never really be interested in this kind of thing. It had been forever since I'd gone myself, come to think of it. Maybe when we got back to Earth, once everything was calmed down and hopefully the Calderan-Venusian war was over (though how the hell we hoped to accomplish that was beyond me), I could go again. You know, assuming we survived this crazy trip.

Eventually, we started coming across small caves leading off of the main cavern tunnel. Most of them were unoccupied and whatever was living in the other ones wasn't Calderan or human (Sera insisted that they weren't baby dragons, just some scaly lizard-like creatures that were about as common as the earth house spider, but Ben and I weren't totally convinced).

"Maybe we should go back, check a different cavern system?" I suggested as Sera scared off one of the lizard things.

"Hold on...I think I see something down there." Ben insisted. Sera and I glanced at each other but shrugged.

"After you." Sera told him. He nodded and led the way down the cavern. After a few moments, we caught sight of what Ben's superhuman eyes had seen - a warm light emanating from one of the caverns.

"That's not a dragon, right?" I questioned. Sera gave me a look. Ben just shook his head and sighed before stepping into the cave.

Stepping inside, I saw that the light was coming from a small stream of lava coming from a crack in the wall and spilling into a rock-outlined basin at the bottom. There was a small boulder set in front of a larger, but flat, rock, almost like a stool and a table, along with large, flat rocks used to hold small items around the room.

"Hello?" Ben called as we followed him into the cave. It appeared empty to me, but one should never assume anything about alien planets.

"Who the hell are you?" I spun around to see a Calderan woman standing behind me, a pinkish-red plasma ball formed in the palm of her hand, ready to fire at us.

"Um..." Sera trailed off, looking at the woman for a moment, seeming suddenly hesitant. She must remind her of her mom, I realized with a start.

"I'm Noah." I stepped in, getting the woman's attention. "This Ben and Sera. Are you Dr. Seif?"

"What's it to you?" She demanded, stepping forward threatening.

"We need your help." Ben told her. She scoffed.

"I don't help humans." She sneered. Seraphina stepped forward, giving the scientist a good look at her.

"I'm not human." She said simply, raising her chin confidently. Dr. Seif examined her for a moment.

"You're not quite Calderan either, are you?" She hummed. She frowned. "You're that girl, Dr. Short and Skylar Storm's daughter."

"Seraphina Storm." Sera introduced herself, meeting the woman's gaze. Dr. Seif slowly lowered her hand.

"How'd you find me?" She questioned.

"Apollo heard a rumor you'd escaped the attack." Sera explained. The woman nodded.

"Diaz's sidekick. I remember him." She acknowledged. She sighed and walked past us, towards where a black pot was hovering over the lava basin. "What do you want? I'm cooking."

"We need your help." Ben said again. "You were working on the engine prototype, right?"

To our surprise, she chuckled darkly. "If that's what you're looking for, you're looking under the wrong rock, blondie. I can't help you."

"Please. We need that engine. There are lives at stake." I pleaded with her. She turned to face us, crossing her arms.

"There are always lives at stake, kid." She reminded me. Sera sighed.

"You know of my parents, right?" She asked. Dr. Seif hesitated, then nodded.

"Your mother fought for our research to continue during the war. She lost that fight, but a Calderan fighting for something other than an actual fight? That's memorable." She admitted. She looked over at Seraphina. "I respected her. And your father wasn't bad, for an off-worlder."

"They left the planet in order to try and stop this war, peacefully. But they're in trouble, and they need our help." Sera explained. "We can save them and maybe come up with a new plan to stop the bloodshed, but without that engine, it's going to take us four times as long, at least."

Dr. Seif sighed. "I can't help you." She told Sera. Sera sighed in annoyance.

"You said you respected my mother, but you're still okay with letting her die?" She questioned. Dr. Seif narrowed her eyes at the cryokinetic.

"I didn't say that." She growled.

"You ran away, hid in a cave. What else is she supposed to think?" I questioned. Dr. Seif sent me a look.

"We all live in caves, Earthling." She pointed out, sounding like she was trying not to lose her patience. Sera shook her head.

"Doesn't make him wrong." She insisted. Dr. Seif sighed.

"I see you're as fond of humans as Skylar." She commented. Sera didn't answer, but smirked. "I can't help you because I didn't work on the engine. I'm a chemist. I helped design the fuel, not the engine. The prototypes were destroyed."

"There's got to be something you can do." Ben pleaded hopefully. She looked at him carefully. "We came all this way; we can't turn back empty handed."

Dr. Seif glanced over her shoulder. "I did take the surviving plans." She admitted. "It's not much though; they're damaged and incomplete at best. A skilled engineer might be able to scrape something together from it, but as I said, I'm not an engineer."

"Don't worry, we've got two." Ben smiled, almost seeming proud. Dr. Seif looked at him, then at me, and finally at Sera.

"Not all Calderans want a fight." She said eventually before walking over to one of the rocky shelves. She pulled a small, circular tab out from behind an abstract, black statue. She offered it to Sera. "Your mother understood that. This war needs to end."

"We'll do our best." Seraphina promised. Dr. Seif nodded.

"Good. If you're anything like your parents, that should be interesting to see." She observed.

Kameron's POV

Mighty Med was in a frenzy when we arrived, doctors and nurses rushing around the cavernous hospital, going between examination rooms and the large triage center in the emergency room. There were patients everywhere – on top of gurneys, sitting on rocks around the triage center, and even, sadly, sitting around the entrance to the hospital. The hospital staff were clearly overwhelmed, never having faced crisis like this prior to the war in the nearly seventeen years since it had opened.

The moment I'd told Dr. Emery, the Calderan doctor Oliver had put in charge in his absence, that I'd been working as my mother's assistant in the NLH med bay for the past couple of years, he assigned me to help the nurses with their duties. I spent what must have been at least seven hours bandaging minor injuries, calming panicking civilians (especially the kids), and doing whatever else they would let me do without having gone to medical school.

It was much, much later when I was finally told to take a break. I found Emily in one of the back rooms, lying on her back beneath a piece of heavy looking machine. Her hands were raised towards the machine, her fingers moving quickly as if she was typing, but as far as I could tell, she wasn't touching it at all.

"…Whatcha doing?" I asked after a moment, watching her. Her fingers paused for a moment before continuing, her eyes never leaving the machine.

"I'm trying to repurpose this old food machine into an x-ray machine. It doesn't make food anymore, and radiology is backed up like crazy." She explained. I frowned and knelt down next to her.

"Can you even do that?" I questioned skeptically. She snorted. "I'll take that as a yes."

"My mother once repurposed a toaster into a power source for a computer. If she can do that, I can sure as hell do this." She growled. Suddenly, the bottom of the machine sparked near her fingers, and she let out a surprised cry before cursing under her breath. "Damn it."

"Take a break, c'mon." I sat down and patted the ground next to me. She sighed dramatically, but obediently pulled herself out from under the machine. I offered her theViridi BarI'd taken from the rations supply food court. She broke the greenish food bar in half and handed part of it back to me before sniffing it suspiciously.

"What is it?" She questioned.

"I have no idea." I admitted, sniffing it myself. It didn't smell like anything to me, but the greenish-brown shade didn't make it look all that appetizing. "But it is food."

Emily hesitated, then nibbled a little on the end. She frowned, chewing slowly. "Tastes like…burnt broccoli, but with…I think that's peanut butter."

I looked at her, half expecting her to smirk and tell me the truth, but when she didn't, I took a bite of my half. I forced myself not to gag at the peculiar taste. "You are right about that." I grimaced, swallowing. I stared at the bar. "I can't believe these are their rations."

"Whoever made these is an idiot." Emily commented. I raised an eyebrow, then turned over the bar to reveal the Davenport Industries logo on its wrapper. "Thanks Mom. You suck."

"Hey." I scolded gently. Emily rolled her eyes. "You know she's probably really worried about us right now."

"That's why you left the note. To make her not worry." She said nonchalantly. I looked at her and was about to tell her off for being mean to her mom, when there was a knock on the door.

"Kameron? Emily?" Felix's head poked in. He smiled when he saw us. "Hey, I thought I'd check in. You guys doing alright?"

I sighed. "Is it always this bad?" I asked. Emily glanced at me sympathetically. Felix sighed.

"The past year, yeah. It didn't use to be." He admitted, walking into the room. He sat down on a rock across from us. "Horace used to send me here every summer as part of my training. I'd spend it treating idiots who let their roughhousing get too far, hypothermia, and the occasional illness. Nothing like this."

"Hypothermia?" Emily repeated skeptically. "It's nearly 5,000 degrees here."

"A whole 100 degrees colder than it was thirty years ago. Climate change, man." Felix replied. At Emily's continuously confused look, he chuckled. "Calderans are so used to the heat that they get cold really easily. Hypothermia's not uncommon with the elderly or the young during the winter months. The only reason Skylar and Sera didn't have bad reactions going to Earth is because of their powers."

"She is cryokinetic." I mentioned. Felix nodded.

"But yeah, it didn't use to be this bad." He explained. "Now it's just…" he sighed. "Horace has sent so many of us to help, but we're still overwhelmed."

"I wish there was something we can do." Emily sighed. Felix offered her a smile.

"You've managed to fix almost all of our broken tech, and repurpose a lot of older stuff. That's helped. And Kameron, I saw you with those kids earlier. That was nice work." He complimented. Emily frowned.

"What did you do?" She inquired. I shrugged.

"There was a little girl who was freaking out because she and her dad were hurt. I calmed her down enough for me to stitch up her leg. It's not a big deal." I brushed it off. Felix shook his head.

"You calmed a patient down so that we could treat her. Being able to talk to patients like that, that's a necessity that a lot of nurses and doctors here are missing. It saves time and pain on both sides, which is vital." Felix insisted. "And that was nice stitch work. It probably won't eve scar that badly. We need more people like that."

I shrugged. "Hey." Emily elbowed me gently. "Take the compliment."

"If you want to help, come back after you save your parents. Preferably with your mom, your dad, and Oliver along with you. We need all the help we can get." He told us before climbing to his feet. "Alright. I got a message from Ben. They should be back in a couple of hours time. You up for another hour or two of work?"

I sighed, then nodded. I quickly swallowed the rest of my rations bar before looking back at the food machine Emily was trying to repurpose. "Good luck with that."

"Thank you." She smirked, taking another bite of her bar before lying back and pulling herself back underneath the machine. "Okay, you done being cranky? Are you going to work with me now?"

Noah's POV

Emily and Charlotte spent a long time going through Dr. Seif's engine plans, mumbling softly to each other as they examined them thoughtfully. Like Dr. Seif had said, the plans were damaged and fragmented, and it was clear that they were having difficulties putting it all together. But after almost thirty minutes, the rest of us were anxious for an answer.

"Well?" Ben questioned, stopping his impatient pacing to look at the girls. They exchanged looks, then quickly turned around to whisper between themselves. Ben threw him hands up in the air in annoyance, sending a look at Naomi. She motioned for him to be patient but crossed her arms with a sigh.

After a moment, the girls turned back towards us, and Emily offered us a sheepish smile. "Maybe." She replied, spreading her hands helplessly.

"Maybe." Kira repeated.

"Maybe." Charlotte confirmed.

"We think we can apply the technology from their prototype engines to our own, which will thankfully save us a lot of time and effort." Emily rushed to explain. "Most of the material we need can be found at Mighty Med or we can take it from the ship itself."

"Most, however, does not mean all." Charlotte added. "We're missing some key components that we can't get here."

"Okay." Kameron nodded. "But you said maybe."

"We did." Emily confirmed. "We're going to improvise. But we think we can make it work."

"Maybe." Naomi repeated. Charlotte pointed at Naomi with a confident smile.

"Maybe." She agreed. Ben sighed and looked at us.

"Well, we've come this far." He decided. "Maybe it is."

Chapter 3: Scavenger Hunt

Chapter Text

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 amusem*nt.

"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, becauseapparently 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 co*ckpit." 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 16kor. 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 amusem*nt.

"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 saveSkylar 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.Ijust 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?"

Chapter 4: Fly Away

Chapter Text

Kameron's POV

"So, I'm supposed to guess what the card says I am?" Sera asked skeptically, hand hovering above the pile.

"Yes." Noah nodded. She frowned.

"But there are hundreds of words in the English dictionary. That could take forever." She protested. I chuckled.

"Well, you're allowed to ask questions to help you figure it out." I explained. She nodded.

"Oh, that makes sense." She said. She took a card from the pile and raised it to her forehead. "Okay, what am I?"

Noah and I exchanged looks. "You're not allowed to ask that." Noah explained as Naomi walked into the room.

"But you just said-" Sera cut herself off, frustrated. "Naomi, they're messing with me!"

"You can ask any question but that one." Naomi explained, smiling as she walked over. "You guys see Ben? Kira just told me he was looking for me."

"He's down in the cargo bay. Whatever it was, it sounded important." I told her. She nodded.

"Alright, thanks." She smiled at us before ascending down the ladder towards the cargo bay. Sera sighed.

"Why can't we go back to Monopoly?" She asked. I groaned.

"Because we've been playing it for two days and if I have to play it again, I'm going to lock myself in that bathroom again." I threatened. It had been two days since we'd left Caldera, and we were still stuck inside the Davenship. We were hurtling towards Venusia at breakneck speeds, but the trip was still going to take a few days. We'd all done our best to occupy ourselves, but everyone was anxious to arrive. Taking turns piloting the ship - it was Charlotte's shift currently - and assigning a chore wheel had helped to distract everyone, but now we were all just...bored. Hence, the board games.

"C'mon now," Noah encouraged, ask a different question."

"Okay...am I big?" Sera questioned. I shook my head.

"No." I replied. She nodded thoughtfully.

"Am I alive?" She questioned. Noah shook his head. "Am I food?"

"Yes." I confirmed. She frowned.

"Am I an Earth food?" She clarified. When Noah nodded, she scowled and tossed the card down. "This is a dumb game. I don't know enough Earth foods."

"I take it they don't haveHeadbanzon Caldera?" Noah asked, chuckling a little at her frustration.

"No, they don't." Sera confirmed. "We have better games, like Kulognia or Calderan checkers."

"I've played Kulognia, and I've decided I don't want to learn any more Calderan games. They're violent." Noah declared. Seraphina rolled her eyes.

"You just need to have a spine for them." She assured him. "Their games are some of my favorite parts about home."

"You're really going to miss that place, aren't you?" Noah asked gently. Sera nodded.

"Earth is nice, and I'm going to miss it a lot too, but..." she trailed off, trying to figure out how to phrase her thoughts, "I am glad that my parents sent me to Earth, because I learned a lot and I gained a lot of good friends-"

"Aw." I interjected teasingly. She rolled her eyes and continued.

"I do wish I hadn't had to give up my home to do so." She finished. Noah nodded thoughtfully.

"At least you'll get to see it when this is all over." He offered. She shrugged.

"Provided we somehow end the war, which we haven't figured out how to do yet." She pointed out. I frowned.

"Won't Oliver and Skylar take you home once they're back, regardless? Or do you think they'll just have you stay on Earth?" I asked curiously.

"They were already sending me to Earth, actually." Sera revealed. Noah and I both looked at her in surprise. "I overheard them talking before I left. They don't know I know."

"You never told them?" Noah asked gently. She shrugged, ducking her head a little.

"I was kinda hoping they were just talking." She admitted slowly. Noah gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Well, maybe they won't send you back right away. I'm sure they missed you." He offered. She nodded, then cleared her throat.

"Uh, could someone else go?" She asked, gesturing at the cards. I nodded and grabbed a card, pressing it against my forehead.

"Am I allowed to ask 'what am I'?" I questioned, much to Noah's exasperation and Sera's amusem*nt.

Naomi's POV

"Hey, Ben, the twins said you were looking for me?" I asked, climbing down the ladder. When I reached the bottom, I turned to ask him what was going on, but stopped short. "Ben?"

He turned around and grinned at me. Behind him, sitting on top of the largest of the crates in the cargo bay, were two plates filled with what looked like mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and steak, along with two beers. "You did say that a picnic in the cargo bay would be okay with you, so long as it was with me." He pointed out with a smirk. "And it is Valentine's day on Earth, so..."

"Well, I did specify space sludge, but I suppose this will do." I smiled back at him before walking over to the crates. I sat down on one of the smaller crates, in front of one of the plates. "This is lovely Ben, thank you."

"I thought we deserved at least one night for us." He explained, sitting down across from me. He took one of the glass bottles. "Don't tell the kids about these, by the way. The drink synthesizer doesn't make alcohol, and they don't know about the stash."

"I didn't know about the stash." I pointed out. He shrugged.

"Well, it was supposed to be seven adults, most of which with powers, trapped on a ship for 4 months with nothing to do. I thought it might liven things up a little." He admitted with a smirk. I chuckled.

"I'm not complaining." I commented. He laughed back. "Happy Valentine's Day, Ben."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Naomi." He told me, leaning forward to kiss me.

Kira's POV

I balanced a couple of water bottles and a few bags of dried apple chips on one arm before knocking on Emily's door with the other hand.

"Hey, Em!" I called cheerfully. She didn't respond, but her light was on, so I knew she was inside. I slid open the door with my spare hand. "Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to play cards or watch a movie or something - oh." Emily scrambled to turn off her Davenwatch's screen, quickly ripping a pair of headphones out of her head.

"Kira!" She snapped. I stopped.

"Sorry, I just wanted to see...was that Darius on your screen?" I asked, certain I'd seen her face before Emily had turned off her screen.

"Get out." Emily insisted, pointing at the door. I raised my eyebrows at her bad mood, and placed the food and drinks down on the desk next to the room's empty bunk.

"Don't be cranky. What were you looking at?" I pushed. She scowled, crossing her arms. "Emily."

"It was just some old photos, okay?" She raised her wrist and the Davenwatch activated, a photo of Emily and Darius at some park, both of them dressed up. "Can you leave now?"

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently. She scowled again and I raised my hands. "Alright. I was just trying to be nice, cranky pants. You've been up here all morning, I thought someone should bring you some food."

I went to leave, but as expected, Emily crumpled under the minor guilt trip. "It's Valentine's day!" She called after me, stopping me before I could leave. I turned to see an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry I'm crankier than usual. I just..."

"You miss him?" I guessed. She nodded.

"It's stupid. I should be over him." She muttered, dropping onto her bunk. I shrugged and sat down next to her.

"It's only been...what, five, six weeks? And it wasn't exactly the most conventional break up. You get to be upset as much as you need." I told her, bumping my shoulder with hers. She gave me a grateful smile. "Seriously, do you want to talk about it? It hasn't exactly been your best year."

"It's only February." Emily muttered. I nodded.

"I know. But between Darius, and Ava, and your dad..." I trailed off. She shook her head.

"Screw Ava. I have better friends than her. And we're going to get my dad back." Emily insisted stubbornly. She looked at me. "Your mom and dad too. I promise."

"I know. But everyone's kinda worried about you anyway." I told her. She rolled her eyes. "You don't believe me? We can take a poll. It'll probably end up being an intervention if we do though."

"No, no. I get it. I'm okay though, really. I just need...time, I guess." She mumbled. I nodded thoughtfully.

"And you and Calla?" I asked. She sighed, sounding annoyed again. "You were kinda being hard on her. Do you guys just need time?"

"I need a little more than just time there." She grumbled. I sighed.

"Emily." I began, but she shook her head.

"No, I know everyone thinks I'm being too hard on her and I'm not being fair, but it's her fault that Darius is gone." She argued.

"It was his choice to leave, Emmy." I pointed out.

"And he wouldn't have made that choice if he felt he had somewhere to go. And we could have offered him that, should have offered him that, but my mother couldn't get past her own prejudice long enough to see that he wasn't our enemy." She looked at me seriously. "He had nowhere to go, nowhere that was safe anyway, and she didn't care."

"She cares, Emily. She just couldn't take that chance." I tried to reassure the girl, but she shook her head again.

"What, because he was the son of a criminal? Grandson of Victor Krane?" She snorted darkly. "Leo is literally the only bionic hero who wasn't created by a super villain. There are plenty of heroes in the world with terrible parents."

"My mother included." I added half-heartedly. Emily looked at me sharply. "Oh yeah, Charlotte and I did a deep dive into our family histories. Turns out, grandma's not dead, just evil."

"...Okay." She clearly wasn't expecting that, but went with it. "And Oliver and Dani are some of the greatest heroes of their generation. And if we're really considering Victor Krane to be father of all those bionic heroes, then Darius is just as much Krane's grandchild as Charlotte is. We don't consider her an enemy. Mom's a hypocrite for not trying to help him."

"That's pushing it a little." A part of me kinda agreed with her - since learning

"Is it, though?" Emily dropped her gaze with a heavy sigh. "We don't even know if he's okay. He could be on the streets somewhere, freezing and starving for all we know."

"Or he's totally fine, holed in a nice, warm, five-star hotel somewhere eating room service." I pointed out. She gave me a look. "Okay, he's probably not doing that, but he is resourceful and as smart as you are. I know that if you were in his position, you'd figure out how to make it work for you, right?"

"I suppose..." She sighed. "I'm just scared for him, Kira. I'm probably never going to know if he turned out okay."

"Then...just picture him safe and happy. If you don't have any proof to the contrary, why can't that be true?" I suggested, putting my arm around her and forcing her into a side hug. She hummed in response and I decided to take the fact that she didn't fight the hug as a win. "As for Calla, what she did was wrong. It was a mistake on her part. But people make mistakes. Even superheroes. Even parents." I told her. I hummed, then added. "Especially parents."

Emily hummed again. After a moment, she spoke. "Are those apple chips?" She questioned, reaching across the tiny room, just managing to grab the edge of one of the bags off the desk.

"Yeah, I found them while going through the cargo storage. We have a lot of dehydrated food." I replied. "I think Calla packed them in case something went wrong with the food synthesizers or something."

"No way these were my mom's idea. Dad was the healthy one, not her." Emily pointed out. She sighed and turned to me. "So, did you come in here for a heart-to-heart, or was there another reason?"

"Oh, I was bored, didn't feel like playingHeadbanzwith the others. And since Naomi and Ben are having a little date on the first floor, I thought I'd bug you." I replied. She smiled a little.

"You ever play chess?" She asked curiously. I shook my head and she broke out into a grin. "Oh, I'm going to kick your ass."

Kameron's POV

"Well? Am I a person?" Seraphina asked. Noah and I exchanged smirks. By some weird stroke of luck, the card that Sera was holding to her head read 'alien', and neither of us were sure of how to answer without misleading her.

"Not a human one?" Noah replied uncertainly, shrugging. She frowned.

"Am I a Calderan?" She asked, also confused.

"Close enough." I allowed. She turned the card around to look at it and scowled.

"Well, that's awfully vague." She complained. Noah chuckled.

"That's a fair critique." He agreed before getting up. "Well, I'm going to go check in with Charlotte. We should be getting to Venusia soon. I'll catch you guys later."

"Bye." "See ya, man." Sera and I replied. Once he was gone, Sera looked to me.

"Are we going to keep going?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Why not?" I grabbed a card and raised it to my forehead. Sera stared at it, frowning.

"...I don't know what that is." She admitted after a long moment. I frowned and turned the card around. It read 'typewriter' in large block letters.

"Neither do I." I admitted, shrugging. "New game?"

"Nah. I actually wanted to ask you about something." Sera clasped her hands together, planted her elbows on the table, and rested her chin on her hands. "When are you going to make your move on Charlotte?"

I stared at her, caught completely off guard by her question. "I...you...you can't just ask someone that!"

"I can't?" She furrowed her brow in confusion. "I don't know everything about Earthling courting traditions, but I do distinctly remember Kira asking you that question after Christmas. Or are sisters the only ones allowed to inquire?"

"No, that's...I don't even like her like that, anyway." I shook my head. Sera gave me a look.

"Okay, that is definitely a lie. Everyone knows you like her. I'm pretty sure even the adults know you have a thing for her." She told me, point blank. She didn't give me a chance to respond before continuing. "Now, you obviously waited because of the whole Matt-Marcus thing, which was a very honorable thing to do, but I it's fair to say that the cooling down period has passed."

I stared at her. "Could you please keep your voice down?" I hissed. She rolled her eyes.

"She's all the way in the main deck. She can't hear us from here unless we shout." She assured me. I sighed.

"You know, I really hate how everyone seems to know about my feelings for her." I grumbled. She shrugged.

"Be less obvious then." She advised. I gave her a look.

"You've been spending too much time with Emily." I accused. She shrugged, not disputing the accusation. "Look, I've just been waiting for the right time, okay? Right now, with our parents in trouble, us on a dangerous mission, it just doesn't feel right."

"That makes sense." Sera nodded in understanding. "But you might not want to wait too long though."

"Why?" I frowned, confused. "Who else is she going to go out with up here?"

"That's not what I mean. When we get back, don't you think your parents are going to take you and Kira back to New York?" She pointed out. "That's an awful long way from Centium City."

I leaned back in my seat. "sh*t." I muttered. "I hadn't even thought about that."

"Really? That's all I've been thinking about, the fact that they're probably going to break up the team when we get back to Earth." Sera sighed. I shook my head.

"We're still going to be a team." I insisted. She shrugged. "We are, Sera."

"That's what Noah thinks too, and I know we'll try, but..." She trailed off before shrugging dejectedly again. "Distance has a way of ruining good things."

"We'll make it work." I told her, though I wasn't too certain myself. After all, the original Elite Force was a prime example of what Sera was worrying about: they used to be thick as thieves, and now, they needed a planet-saving mission to get together. They tried their best to stay close, and it wasn't like they never talked to each other, but Sera did make an excellent point. "You think I should ask her out now? Before it's too late."

"I just think you'll regret it if you don't." Seraphina told me, tone gentle. "Because I don't think this is just some silly little crush anymore."

I chuckled darkly. "It hasn't been 'just some silly little crush' in a long time." I admitted. She gave me a sympathetic smile. I cleared my throat, wanting to change the topic before someone walked in. Besides, my cousin had given me a lot to think about. "What about you? Do you have any 'silly little crushes'?"

Sera just smiled and stood up. "I'm gonna go see if we have any other games up here." She announced, starting to walk away. I scowled good naturedly at her.

"That's not fair!" I protested. She laughed.

"Fair is for humans!" She joked before slipping into her room.

Kira's POV

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." I said cheerfully, moving one of my pieces.

"You can't move that there. The knight can only go in L's, not diagonals." Emily corrected me.

"Oh. Right." I moved the piece back and moved another. "Your turn."

Emily looked over the pieces, then took her bishop in her hand, contemplating her move before making it. "So, you and Charlie did some family history research? You learn anything we need to know?"

"Oh, plenty. My parents told us a lot, but damn, your family has secrets." I whistled. Emily looked at me, brow furrowed. "Did you know your uncle Douglas used to work with Victor Krane?"

"I did, actually. His lab is where he and Mom gave Leo his bionics." She replied. I nodded.

"Did you know Douglas kidnapped the original bionic team? And Leo, and Calla and Jaden?" Judging by her expression, she did not. "Held them at gunpoint even."

"But we like Great Uncle Douglas." Emily protested, grabbing an apple chip from her bag. I nodded.

"I know. He sounds fun." I agreed. She chuckled.

"Okay, so one evil grandparent / great-uncle. What's up with your grandmother?" She asked. I popped a chip in my mouth.

"You heard of Mr. Terror?" I asked. Emily's eyes widened.

"No." She gasped. I nodded. "Seriously? I thought he was a 'he'. It's 'Mr' Terror."

"She took the name after the original." I explained. "But yeah, grandma's basically the supervillain world's godfather."

"Godmother." Emily corrected. She smirked. "Okay, that makes you so much cooler."

"Cooler than Nyssa?" I asked. She laughed.

"I don't know, Nyssa can do magic." She pointed out. I scowled at her and smacked her in the arm. "Okay, okay. You're cooler than Nyssa."

"Thank you." I told her, moving my knight again, this time in the right way.

"So, what about Venusia? What did you learn about it?" Emily questioned, moving one of her pawns. I glanced at the miniature chess board, considering my next move.

"Not much. There weren't many heroes from the planet, but Rodisseus and his family had ancestry there."

"As in Ava, Aaron, and Reese." Emily confirmed. I nodded. "So, they're a planet of shapeshifters?"

"No, actually. The shapeshifting gene was only passed down in a few. Less than 2% of the planet's population. Everyone has powers though - the kinds and numbers of abilities vary between the people, kinda like with Calderans. I told Naomi we won't know what to expect from them when we get there." I sighed. "As for the planet itself, we didn't have much on it aside from some info Venusian Beetles, which are deadly."

"Fun. I didn't love bugs to begin with." Emily sighed. She pressed her lips together tightly. "Hopefully, we'll find our parents and get off the planet really quickly."

"Hopefully. Though I wouldn't mind keeping one of those beetles as a pet." I replied. She rolled her eyes as I moved my rook forwards. I hummed, looking at the board. "Uh, I think I just won."

"No, you didn't...what?" Emily looked at the board, really seeing where our pieces were for the first time. "How did you...that's checkmate!"

"That means I won, right?" I asked again. She nodded, still staring at the board.

"How did you get me in checkmate? You've never played before!" She protested. She looked up at me, eyes wide, and I smiled brightly at her in response.

Naomi's POV

"This is good. I'm surprised the food synthesizers make such good food." Ben commented. "Calla really needs to get into the food business."

"Um, Calla should?" I questioned. "I don't think she was the one who designed this."

Ben chewed once, thinking about it, then his eyes widened. "You are definitely right about that."

"I can ask Leo who designed it when we get back, maybe see about getting one for your apartment." I offered.

"I would never eat out again." Ben told me, dead serious. I giggled a little bit as I placed my utensils on the plate.

"It was a nice meal. Thank you." I said again. I furrowed my brow. "But do you want to know what really surprises me?"

"What?" Ben leaned in, as if about to hear some great secret. I smiled and leaned in as well.

"It's been nearly an hour, and none of the kids have bothered us." I whispered. He reared back with a deep laugh. "I'm serious. I wasn't expecting to get more than five minutes of alone time this entire trip."

"Yeah, well, I may have threatened to throw every single one of them out of the airlock if even one of them bothered us." He admitted.

"Ben!" I exclaimed, even as I laughed.

"I wasn't serious...well, maybe I was." He admitted. "But hey, it worked. That's all I care about."

I smiled, then leaned back in my seat. I sighed. "What's wrong?" Ben asked immediately. I shook my head.

"Nothing. This is perfect." I assured him. "It just hit me that we're not going to get another chance for something like this until we get home. Keeping six kids out of here is one thing, but thirteen other people? It's not gonna happen."

"We'll make it work." Ben promised me, taking my hand. I smiled back at him as he brushed his thumb over my knuckles. "I do have to ask, how exactly are we going to pull this off? Because we haven't really planned on how we're going to pull this off."

"I know." I agreed, letting out a slow breath. Ben looked at me, patiently.

"Is there a plan?" He asked after a long moment. I nodded.

"The plan is...to land, find the team, break them out, get back to the ship, and get off the planet, ideally without the Venusians being the wiser." I decided. He looked at me. "We can work out the specifics once we land, but that's all I've got for now. Unless you've got something better?"

"No, no." He raised both his hands in surrender. "You're the boss, you make the plans. I'm just worried."

"It's not a great plan." I admitted. He didn't respond to that, though I could tell he agreed. "But we won't know what we're dealing with until we're actually standing on the planet. I'd like to at least have a plan we can deviate from, than go there without a plan at all."

"That's fair. Besides, since when does anything go according to plan?" He asked. I nodded.

"Exactly." I agreed. He nodded and took a sip of his beer. "Besides, saving the team isn't actually what I'm most worried about."

"Then what is?" Ben asked, confused. I smirked.

"Explaining to them why they're being rescued by a bunch of teenagers instead of a trained task force." I reminded him. He rolled his eyes. "They're not going to be thrilled with that."

"No, they are not." Ben agreed, seeming almost amused. I co*cked my head to the side. "But don't worry about explaining it to them."

"Are you going to do it?" I questioned. He shook his head.

"The kids are." He decided. I opened my mouth to object - he seemed to get some sort of enjoyment from the idea of it - but he cut me off, shaking his head. "No, no, Naomi. Those kids orchestrated all of this, they're on their own for the explanation to their parents. I'm putting my foot down on this."

I gave him a look. "You're not still mad about the whole kidnapping thing, are you?" I asked, exasperated. I understood why he'd been upset - we'd literally been kidnapped, after all - but the kids had meant well and after Ben had told me that Emily had taken responsibility for it and apologized, I'd assumed that would be the end of it.

To my relief, Ben shook his head. "No, I'm not mad anymore." He assured me. "But that does not mean I'm letting them get out of dealing with the consequences for their actions. They made their beds, they can lie in them."

I chuckled. "If you say so." I agreed. He did have a point. I glanced at my drink, then smiled. "Alright, since we're probably not going to get this kind of peace and quiet until we get back to Earth, I propose a toast." I announced, raising my bottle.

"Alright." Ben raised his beer alongside mine.

"To taking advantage of our alone time while we can." I declared. He chuckled.

"Cheers." He agreed, clinking his drink against mine before taking a long drink. When he was done, he fixed with a confident smirk. "So, speaking of 'taking advantage of our alone time', what do you say we-"

"Hey everyone?"Noah's voice came over the comm."I need everyone on the main deck. We've arrived."

"You've got to be kidding me." Ben muttered. I laughed at his response.

"Next time." I promised him, leaning in to kiss him before breaking away. I grabbed his hand. "C'mon. Venusia awaits."

Kameron's POV

"Whoa." Naomi exclaimed as she and Ben joined the rest of us on the main deck. I had to agree; the view of the large, pale purple planet before us was breathtaking. Caldera had been cool, sure, but in truth it didn't look too much different than images of Mars. But Venusia was so different, so...alien.

"Uh, what are we going to do about that?" Kira questioned, gesturing at the planet. It took a moment, but then I saw what she was talking about - a thin, translucent, bluish barrier surrounding the planet and coming up fast.

"You in range? It's getting pretty close." Charlotte commented, glancing at Emily from her pilot's seat. Emily nodded and raised one hand towards the planet, the other resting on the back of Charlotte's chair.

"What is she doing?" Sera whispered.

"I'm trying to deactivate one of the satellites projecting the force field." Emily ground out between clenched teeth, forehead wrinkled in concentration. However, as we got closer and closer to the barrier, it didn't move.

"You don't have much experience with non-Earth tech, Em. Are you sure-" "Shut up, Noah!" Emily snapped, cutting her cousin off mid-sentence. She was clearly trying her hardest to get this to work, but it was true that she didn't have the same talent with alien tech that she did earth tech.

"Focus, Emily." Ben advised.

"When you tell me to focus, it makes it harder to focus!" Emily snapped at him. Ben opened his mouth to argue, but Naomi grabbed his hand and silently shook her head at him. Emily, meanwhile, let out a frustrated sigh and raised her left hand from Charlotte's chair to her own head, two fingers pressed against her temple as if to help her concentrate.

I was about to suggest we stop before we hit the barrier - it was no more than a dozen feet in front of us by now, when Emily suddenly laughed in delight. We all looked just in time to see a large, triangular section of the planet's force field flicker and disappear. "Punch it, Char!" Emily insisted, keeping her eyes shut as she concentrated.

Charlotte did as she was told, pushing the ship forward faster. As soon as we were past it, safely inside the barrier, Emily dropped her hands with a relieved sigh. "Thank God that worked."

"Don't look too relieved." Naomi advised as Charlotte began piloting the ship down towards the planet's surface. "Getting here was the easy part. Trust me, this mission has only just begun."

Chapter 5: Venusia

Chapter Text

Noah's POV

I looked out the window, watching as Charlotte carefully landed the Davenship in a small clearing amongst the massive trees. The landscape looked nothing like I'd imagined. The trees were about almost 12 feet wide, their leaves dozens of feet above the dirt-covered ground. Every bit of foliage I could see - the leaves on the trees, the grass on the ground, the weird moss thing on the bark - were colored cool and dark shades of purple. And while there didn't appear to be a single living creature out there, I could almost sense that we were being watched.

"This is so cool." Kira whistled, looking at the planet with wide, amazed eyes. She ducked down low, and gasped. "Wait, are there two suns?"

I got closer to the ground, and sure enough, there was a second sun in the sky, hidden by the top of the ship at eye-level. "So, what? Did we land on Tatooine instead?"

"Not exactly, and those aren't suns - they're stars." Emily pointed out. I glanced at Ben and Naomi, then back at Emily.

"Isn't the sun a star though?" I asked, confused. I hadn't been the best science student in high school, but that was pretty common knowledge. Emily laughed at my question, but not unkindly.

"Well, yes. These are just smaller and less powerful than our sun." She explained. She looked at our aunt. "I did some research on Venusia before we left. We should actually probably talk about the planet before we go out there. Caldera was known territory. Venusia, not so much."

"It's just a planet." Kameron pointed out. Emily nodded.

"A planet that's very, very different than ours." She pointed out, leaning on the back of one of the chairs. She sighed. "Alright, first thing – even though the planet's got two sources of warmth, they don't give off as much heat as the sun and the planet is still pretty cold. It's about 5 degrees Celsius during the day. It'll probably drop at night too, so bring warm clothes and equipment."

"Hold on." Kameron stopped her, rushing out of the room. He came back a moment later with a notebook he'd found in the study. He quickly wrote down what she'd said, then nodded for her to continue. "So we don't forget."

"Speaking of nights, the planet has a 28-hour day cycle compared to Earth's 24-hour one. Nights are about 10 hours, days about 18."

"Weird, but manageable." Naomi nodded.

"Animals, insects, and plants: I don't have that much on the living things on the planet, but from what I can tell, at least some of it is deadly to humans. There's a couple of species of bugs that are poisonous, and there are warnings about eating the plants in the old Mighty Med records, so we should be careful. I don't think any of it is poisonous to touch, but definitely don't eat anything out there." She looked round at us.

"Charlotte, that means you." I commented. She scowled at me.

"Let it go." She groaned. Kira raised an eyebrow at that.

"Story time?" She asked. Emily cracked a smile.

"She ate a cookie off the sidewalk once." She explained.

"When I was six." Charlotte added. "Six! It's been nearly 11 years; let it go." She insisted. Ben cleared his throat.

"Guys." He cautioned. "Please."

"Sorry." Charlotte and I grumbled at the same time.

"What about the water?" Sera asked, looking at Emily. "Is it safe to drink?"

"Maybe? I can't be sure until I test some. But we have water purifying tablets that we can use." Emily responded.

"We should bring extra water, just in case." Naomi advised. Ben nodded.

"Anything else that you came across in your research that you haven't already shared?" He asked Emily. She shook her head. "Alright, so what we can take from that is that we should be careful. We don't know much about the planet or its people and we all need to act accordingly, understood?"

"Understood." We all answered him in unison.

"Alright, good. Naomi?" Ben glanced at her and she stepped forward.

"Look, the objective here is to find the Elite Force, and get them out of here safely. We don't know if any of them are hurt, so the goal is to not have to fight our way out." She began, walking past Emily. She reached over Charlotte and hit a button near the control console. A hologram shone out of the back of the captain's chair, revealing a map of Venusia. The planet looked to be mostly made of jungle, with the occasional clearing, city, or massive river. A yellow spot glowed in the northern hemisphere of the planet. "That's where we are. This," Naomi pointed at another spot and it began to glow red, "is where we're headed."

"That's Caelus City, Venusia's capital city." Seraphina realized. She looked at Naomi. "That's where the peace treaty meeting was supposed to take place."

"Which is why we're going to start our search there." Naomi declared. "With any luck, they're somewhere in that city."

"When are we ever lucky?" Emily sighed.

"This time, maybe." Ben offered. He looked at us. "Alright, suit up everyone."

Xxx

"How on Earth did I not notice when you stole my uniform?" I heard Ben demand as I passed by the ladder to the cargo bay on my way to the bedroom. I chuckled - the day we'd left, I'd stored our uniforms and mission equipment in a few of the larger crates in the cargo bay, including Ben and Naomi's.

"Ask for your key back next time someone moves out of our place!" I called before knocking on Sera's door and a moment later, it slid open, the Calderan girl clasping the last of the blue straps on her boots. "Hey."

"Hey." She smiled at me, standing up while testing out the boots. "I have to say, I missed this uniform."

"Me too. Mine, I mean." I replied. If this was our last mission, I was glad to be wearing it (I kinda figured that the parents would try and make us disband our team when we got back, but I also figured we'd all try and do it behind their backs anyway, so odds were fifty-fifty as to whether or not I'd be wearing it again). "Oh, I brought you something."

I held up the light blue ball cap and offered it to her. "Thanks?" She took it, though she looked a little confused. "I don't think they have baseball diamonds here though."

"We're trespassing on another planet. If we get caught, the best case scenario is that they think we're lost tourists or something. Or, if the Venusians look even something like us, they think we're just from another village. But you..."

"Look Calderan." She sighed. She shook her head. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Yeah, I figured this might hide your face enough that if they do catch us." I explained. "Though, still kinda hoping that they don't catch us at all."

"Still, it's smart to be prepared." She brushed her hair away from her face and put the cap on her head before smiling at me. "How do I look?"

I smiled back. "Good. Actually, I think..." I reached up to gently tug the light blue streak in her hair out a little from where it was hidden behind the rest of her hair. "Yeah, it's the same color as your streak."

"Cool." She grinned.

"We're leaving!" Emily called, passing me with a bag over her shoulder. "Hurry up, or you'll be on kitchen cleaning duty when we get back."

"You don't get to make those decisions!" Sera called after her. She stepped out of her room and closed the door behind her. "Let's go save our parents."

Emily's POV

I grimaced as I carefully stepped over a fallen log, using my flashlight to make sure there were no bugs or insects I could be stepping on. I wasn't the biggest fan of the outdoors, especially given how my last camping trip had gone, but being on a different planet made it so much weirder. Sure, walking through a purple forest was an image I'd never forget, but we didn't know what was on this planet, and stepping on something living could prove to be more deadly than gross.

Still, that wasn't about to stop us. The journey to Caelus City was almost a six hour trek - landing that far away from civilization was the only way we could be certain that we wouldn't be seen - so, as cautious as we were, we pushed on. If we kept up the current pace, we'd make it to the city just after midnight here, and then, assuming that the Venusias weren't a nocturnal race, we'd be able to explore and gather information in a mostly quiet city. There were a lot of assumptions to that plan, but it was the best we had, and we needed it to work if we were going to find Dad and the others.

We walked in silence for the longest time, all of us taking the mission too seriously to bother with small talk or idle chit chat. For the first hour of our journey, the only sounds we could hear were the soft buzz of animals in the jungle, rustling leaves, and our own footsteps. Then, Kira finally broke, unable to handle the quiet for much longer.

"So, do you think Mom, Dad, and the others are going to be mad at us for stealing the Davenship?" She was only speaking to Kameron, but the rest of us couldn't help but join in.

"I don't think your parents are going to be mad. They might even be proud." Sera laughed a little. "My dad said that they would take Calla's technology so often that she started writing warning labels specifically for them."

"She used to do that for Uncle Adam too." Charlotte chimed in with a chuckle. "Never stopped him."

"I doubt it stopped Kaz or Dani either." Ben agreed, shaking his head with a smile.

"Wait, is that why Calla locked up all the fun stuff with a secret code that only she knows?" Kameron asked.

"I think you mean the 'dangerous stuff'." I corrected, unable to help myself from grinning. He shrugged.

"It's the same difference." He insisted. "I bet she told Naomi the code."

"It's 0815." I mentioned before Naomi could answer. She gave me a look. "If she didn't want me to figure it out, she should have used a lock and key instead of technology."

"She should be putting warnings specifically for Emily, Kameron, and Charlotte." Noah joked. Naomi nodded.

"Definitely. Big ones, brightly colored, so they couldn't pretend to miss it." She agreed. Charlotte laughed at that.

"As if that would stop us." She declared, bounding forward a few steps to hop up onto a boulder.

"I mean, clearly is hasn't." I agreed with a grin.

It was like the tension had disappeared completely, like it was any of those other minor missions that Mom had sent us on for training. There was still a lot at stake here, but it was like things were normal again. I smiled, following after Charlotte as she joked and teased about what she'd do if she really wanted to use my mom's 'off-limits' technology.

After a couple of hours, Naomi called the team to a halt. "Let's take a break." She suggested, much to our relief. "Fifteen minutes, then head out again?"

"Good with me." Charlotte sat down on a fallen tree log with a heavy sigh. She crossed one leg over the other, massaging her foot. "My feet are killing me."

"I don't suppose we can start a fire? I don't know about you guys, but I'm freezing." Noah added. I shivered in agreement at his statement. Night might have been the best decision to get into the city unnoticed, but without either star warming the ground, it was freezing out here. Thankfully, our suits were well-insulted, built to withstand worse temperatures, but that didn't do much to protect our faces and heads, where we were losing the most heat. Once again, I was incredibly grateful that my suit came with a hood.

"Please?" Sera agreed, shoving her hands in her armpits. Most of us had gloves that protected our hands from the cold, but Sera's were fingerless, doing nothing to protect her digits from the biting temperatures. Kira's suit didn't have gloves at all, or even sleeves for that matter, but her pyrokinesis must have been keeping her toasty, because she didn't seem at all dragged down by the cold.

"We are still a few hours out. I doubt there'd be anyone this far away from the city that would see us." Ben considered. He nodded after a moment. "A small one though."

Kira nodded and raised a hand towards a small tree stump in front of us. It caught fire instantly, lighting up the tiny clearing we'd stopped in. "I can keep it going myself, but I'd rather not waste the energy if we can find leaves or branches."

"I'll do it." Ben offered. He removed his backpack and pulled out an empty, orange water bottle. "Anyone else volunteering to go get water? I think I hear a stream in that direction."

"I'll do it. I have the water-purifying tablets." I sighed. Kameron dropped his bag by Charlotte's feet.

"I'll help." He volunteer. Charlotte smiled and handed him her crimson-colored water bottle. We quickly collected the bottles and made our way towards the stream Ben had heard. It wasn't that far from the clearing, close enough for us to make out the light of the fire. We'd have no problem finding our way back.

"How do we do this?" Kameron asked as I pulled the tablet package out of my bag.

"Like this." I grabbed a light blue water bottle out of his arms - Sera's bottle - and knelt down, dipping it into the water. To my surprise, it was hot to the touch, not enough to boil or scald, but far hotter than I would have expected from the cold planet. I filled the bottle to the brim, then dropped one of the tablets into it before sealing it. "It should take about ten minutes to purify. I'll test it before we go."

"Cool." Kameron started filling up bottles, handing them to me one by one. "Hey, can I get your advice on something?"

"Do it." I replied instantly. He looked at me. "Oh, sorry. Whenever Charlotte asks for my advice, she's really just looking for someone to support her on some reckless idea. What do you need advice on?"

"It's about-what was that?" He sat up suddenly. I frowned, standing up. I scanned the area around us, but I couldn't see anything in the dark jungle.

"What was-whoa!" Kameron suddenly pulled me to the ground as a dark figure lunged out of the trees. It soared over our head, landing a few feet away from us. Kameron and I scrambled backwards, to the edge of the water, staring at it.

It was a black, four-legged creature, almost cat-like in appearance, but with a muzzle more similar to a dog's. Its hair was black with some sort of spotted pattern in it, and its tailed, forked at the end, swished around in front of us. It turned its head towards us and snarled with large, yellow teeth, its ears flattening against its head.

"Run!" I shouted, pushing myself to my feet and taking off.

"I'm with you on that one!" Kameron agreed, chasing after me with the creature hot on our trail.

Noah's POV

Sera was in the middle of telling us a story about how her mom accidentally created a new Calderan desert when a high-pitched scream came from the jungle. We all jumped to our feet in response, surprised.

"Was that Emily?" Ben demanded, dropping the pile of branches that he'd been carrying over to the fire. Charlotte nodded.

"It sounded like it." She agreed, stepping uncertainly towards the edge of the clearing. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and crashed into the jungle near where the scream had seemed to come from.

"That was definitely Kameron!" Kira exclaimed, rushing out into the woods before anyone could stop her.

"Kira!" I called after her, but she was gone. "She's going to get lost!"

"I'll get her." Ben muttered. He glanced back at us. "Stay here; if we separate, we're never going to find our way back."

"What about Emily and Kameron?" Charlotte demanded. Ben hesitated.

"Noah, you're coming with me. We'll find them. The rest of you, stay here." He ordered. Naomi nodded.

"If you're not back in thirty minutes, we're going after you guys." She decided. He opened his mouth up to object. "Not for discussion."

"No. If we all get lost, it's not going to help anyone." He told her. He looked around. "If we aren't back in thirty minutes, keep going to Caelus City. If we can't find each other, we'll at least know where everyone's headed."

"Fine." Naomi nodded reluctantly. "Now go, before you lose Kira."

Ben nodded, then turned to me. "C'mon. Let's find the kids."

Emily's POV

"Guys!" I shouted, limping back into the clearing we'd all stopped in before.

"Emily!" Charlotte exclaimed in relief, immediately pulling me in for a hug. She pulled away a second later, looking worried and confused. "Where's Kameron? What happened?"

I looked past her at Naomi and Sera. Aside from them, the camp was empty. "We got attacked by something. An animal, I don't know what kind. I've never seen anything like it before." I rambled, shaking my head. "Kameron- it-zap..."

"Easy, easy." Naomi placed her hand on my shoulder and made me look at her. "Slow down. An animal attacked you."

"Yeah. It was large, black, kinda like a panther or cheetah but with a dog face. It was big and fast and had huge teeth." I explained. She nodded.

"Then what?" She asked.

"We ran. Made it all the way over there," I turned and pointed in the direction I'd come, "but then we got stuck because there's a small cliff."

"So what did you do?" Naomi questioned.

"Kameron used his powers. He created a lightning bolt and had it zap the ground in front of us, to scare off the animal." I explained. She nodded again, motioning for me to continue. "But he aimed a little too close to us, and part of the cliff wall broke and I fell. He didn't."

"Are you hurt?" Naomi demanded instantly, looking me over. I shook my head.

"I twisted my ankle, but that's it. It wasn't that long a fall." I assured her. "But by time I got back to the top, Kameron and the animal were gone. I don't know where they went. I saw the light and came here. But I don't know where Kameron is."

"It's okay, it's okay. Ben, Noah, and Kira are out looking for Kameron now." Naomi told us. Sera sighed.

"I wish we had comms so that we could tell them that you're alright." Sera sighed. She looked at Naomi. "They're going to be looking for her, with no way to tell that she's safe."

"Ben will come back here within thirty minutes; the last thing he wants is us wandering out there." Naomi assured her.

"And besides, the comms won't work." I shook my head, still worried about Kameron. "There's some sort of weird interference from the force field. All we'd hear is static."

"We'll just stay here and wait." Naomi decided. "Kira and the boys will be back soon."

"I hope you're right." Sera sighed, taking a seat again. She straightened up immediately. "Oh no. What about the water?"

I looked at Sera in despair. "We dropped the bottles by the stream when the animal attacked." I explained.

"That was all the water we had." Charlotte looked at Naomi. She sighed and looked back at me.

"Are you sure the animal is gone? If it is, we can go get them once Ben and the others are back." She asked. I shook my head.

"I'm not sure of anything." I admitted. Sera suddenly stood up.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure it's not near the water bottles anymore." She announced. We all looked at her in confusion and saw her point past us. Turning, we found that the creature was prowling around the edge of the clearing.

"Should we run?" Charlotte asked, uncertain. Naomi shook her head.

"Not with that ankle." She nodded at me before stepping towards the fire pit, keeping her eyes on the creature. It was watching us with wide, white eyes, growling a little. "No running. Maybe it's like a bears and wolves." She suggested.

"We don't like bears either!" I hissed, my voice raising in pitch.

"If you run, they'll attack. You know, wolves are more scared of people than people are of them." Naomi pointed out. "So, if we stay calm, maybe it will go away."

The creature growled again, nearing us. It was lowering itself into a crouch, growling. "I don't think it's going away." Charlotte murmured, gripping my arm as we backed away.

"In that case," Naomi suddenly swung a large branch forward, flames coming off the end of it. She swung it at the creature and it backed away, snarling. "Go away! Get out of here!" Naomi shouted.

The creature backed up again, before lunging at Naomi. She hit it dead on with the branch, which managed to knock it down to the ground for a moment, before it quickly recovered. It went to lunge again, but this time was knocked down by a cryoblast.

"Nice job." Naomi nodded at her.

"Oh no." Charlotte gasped. At first, I thought she was talking about the creature, as it had started to slowly get back to its feet. But then, she pointed past it, and I saw another one slowly walking out from the treeline.

"Okay, now we run." Naomi grabbed my arm, propelling me forward. I tried my best to ignore the throbbing in my ankle as I ran, my friends right behind me.

We raced out of the clearing and into the woods, but without having a chance to grab our flashlights, we were running through the dark, just like Kameron and I had been before. And just like Kameron, I lost Naomi, Charlotte, and Sera in the trees.

Kameron's POV

"Emily!" I called, my throat hoarse from shouting for so long. I'd lost her when she went over the side of the cliff after I'd tried to get that...that animal away from us. My lightning had scared it off, but try as I might, I could not find the technopath anywhere. The cliff didn't seem too deep, but it was too dark to see to be sure. I couldn't know for sure that she wasn't lying at the bottom of it, injured or worse. I couldn't even find a safe way down the cliff, no matter how far along the edge I searched. "Emily!"

The sound of movement, rustling of leaves, and heavy, fast-moving footsteps caused me to turn just in time to see a dark figure coming straight for me. Whoever it was didn't stop, didn't even have a chance to once they'd seen me, and full-on tackled me. We both fell back, over the edge of the cliff. For a brief few seconds, the wind rushed past my ears, then we hit the ground, hard.

I coughed harshly as the breath fled my lungs, the fall basically taking everything out of me. "Oh my god." The girl above me murmured, her voice strained a little in pain. "What just happened?"

"We..." I stopped as she climbed off of me, but I made no movement to get up. "We fell...of a cliff...Char."

"Kameron? Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Charlotte apologized immediately. She dropped to her knees next to me. "Are you hurt? Is it bad?"

"No, I..." I grimaced as I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position. "I mean, you killed me right there, but nothing's broken.

"I'm sorry." She apologized again. She paused, looking up. "I think we got away from them though."

"Got away from who?" I demanded.

"More of those creatures that attacked you and Emily." She explained.

"You found her? Is she okay?" I demanded, relieved to find out that she hadn't been killed by the fall. It hadn't felt like that bad a drop there, but landing at the wrong angle could have seriously injured or killed her.

"She twisted her ankle. Aside from that, she's fine." Charlotte assured me. She hesitated. "But I lost her, Sera, and Naomi in the woods."

"What about Kira and the others?" I asked, getting up. She shook her head.

"They went looking for you. We haven't seen them since." She explained. I nodded.

"We need to find them." I told her.

"We can't even see." She pointed out. I smirked to myself and raised a hand. My palm began to glow until a bright light shone out of it. "Flashlight hands, cool."

"And Kira used to make fun of them." I grinned. I looked at her. "Let's find the others."

Noah's POV

"Running off on your own was a stupid decision." Ben scolded as we re-entered the clearing. We hadn't been able to find Kameron or Emily, so we'd headed back to the clearing. We'd hoped that maybe they'd found their way back on their own. "Naomi?"

The clearing was completely empty, the fire having died out. There was a half smoldered branch lying abandoned near the stump Kira had ignited. "Charlotte? Sera?" I called. Their bags and equipment were all still here, but there was no sign of the girls.

"They're gone." Kira looked around in confusion. Her eyes widened and she turned to Ben, looking scared. "What if whatever made Emily screamed came here and attacked them?"

"Don't jump to conclusions." Ben chided, though he looked concerned. He glanced at his watch. "They shouldn't have come after us yet. Something's got to be wrong."

"What do you want to do?" I questioned. He thought about it, then nodded to himself.

"Let's go looking for them, but we stick together. We don't need anyone else getting lost." He turned to Kira. "Can you create a fireball and hold it for a long period of time?"

"Yeah, that's easy." She nodded.

"Good. Do it. It's dark out, and they left their flashlights. Your fire should be the only light out there, so they'll be able to see it easier."

"Got it." Kira raised her hands, creating a ball of fire about the size of a basketball. She led the way into the jungle once more. Ben and I grabbed the other bags from the clearing before following her. We hung back a bit, close enough to see Kira, but far enough that we could whisper to each other without her overhearing.

"Do you really think we're going to find them? It's dark and we have no idea where we're going or what happened." I murmured, careful not to overhear. Ben nodded.

"I know. But the only other option we have is to head onto Caelus City. I just don't want to do that without knowing they're okay."

"It was your idea." I pointed out. He nodded.

"Doesn't mean I like it." He sighed. "Let's at least try. Twenty minutes, then we re-evaluate our options."

"Alright. Twenty minutes." I agreed. I didn't like the idea of just giving up on the search either, but there wouldn't be much point in searching if Sera, Naomi, and the others were already headed towards Caelus City. We'd be searching in circles for hours.

We shouldn't have stopped at all, looking back on how this all turned out.

Emily's POV

I sighed tiredly as Naomi, Sera and I stumbled through the dark trees. We'd managed to lose those creatures that had attacked us, but we'd also lost Charlotte and our way back to the clearing. We had no equipment, no food, no water, and my ankle was throbbing from the abuse it had been put through tonight. "Naomi, we've been walking for hours." I complained tiredly as the first bits of sunlight (or would it be called starlight on this planet?) started to break through the tree leaves. Naomi sighed.

"I know. I know." She sighed, stopping. I gingerly sat down on a large tree root that was sticking up from the ground. I raised my leg, rubbing my swollen ankle. "We're lost."

"Any idea how to get back to the ship?" I asked, glancing around. Sera shook her head.

"No, we need to head to Caelus City." She insisted. At my frown, she explained. "It's where Ben told us to go if he wasn't back with Noah, Kira, Kameron, and you in thirty minutes. That was hours ago."

"I know. We can meet them there." Naomi agreed.

"But what about Kameron? He doesn't know that was the plan." I pointed out. "He won't know where to go. We'll never find him if we leave."

"Yes we will." Naomi nodded. I looked at her and she sighed. "Calla put tracking chips in the suits."

"She what?" Sera and I demanded at the same time, outraged.

"Emily, given the fact that the reason you are here on this planet is because you stole a multi-million-dollar space ship, you really have no right to object." Naomi pointed out. I scowled, but stayed quiet. "Once we get to Chase and the others, he can use his bionics to track down Kameron."

"But he'll be out here for hours. Exposed, no food or water." Sera pointed out. Naomi sighed.

"It's not ideal." She admitted. "But if we stay out here and look, we may never find him, and we'll just put us in the same position as him. And by time we change our minds and do it this way, he'll have gone even longer without food or water. At least this way, we find him sooner rather than later."

"I suppose." "Fine." Sera and I both clearly felt the same way about the situation, but unfortunately, Naomi's plan was the best any of us could come up with. The ship could probably track him down too, but we were as close to it as we were to Caelus City.

"And besides, this is all assuming that none of the others have found him yet. Everyone knew about the plan but the two of you; he could be on his way to the city now with the others." She pointed out. I nodded.

"Alright. Which way?" Sera asked. She glanced at the sky, then at the trees.

"Caelus City was a straight shot north of where the clearing was. Do we know which way the stars rose and set in?" She asked. I considered it.

"If we want to go north, then we should go..." I looked at the stars, then turned to my left. "That way."

"You're sure?" She questioned. I nodded.

"It's basic science." I replied. She nodded.

"Let's go, and hope the others do the same." She declared.

Chapter 6: Separated Part 1: Evil Bugs

Chapter Text

Kameron's POV

Despite the use of my flashlight hands, Charlotte and I still hadn't found any of the others, or our way back to the clearing we'd all stopped in. The starlight began to break through the trees' purple leaves just as we made it over a ridge, only to find a tree trunk with the letters EF cut into it.

"Okay, you were right; we're going in circles." Charlotte admitted, recognizing the marks I'd cut into the tree trunk just over an hour ago.

"Yeah." I didn't bother with the I-told-you-so. It wouldn't help the situation. "I don't see any sign that anyone's been here."

"Maybe we should just leave." She suggested. I looked at her in confusion. "There was no point in saying anything while we couldn't see, but Ben told everyone to go ahead to Caelus City if we got separated. We'd all meet up there."

"That…that makes sense." I nodded. I looked around. "Do you have any idea what direction that would be?"

Charlotte's face fell. "I don't know." She admitted. I sighed.

"Then what do you want to do?" I asked, frustrated. We were lucky to have not run into anymore of those creatures in the night, but we couldn't be sure we wouldn't find any, or even more dangerous animals. Alone, just the two of us, was dangerous, and we needed to figure out something soon, or this was not going to end well for us at all.

"I don't know. This is why I don't go outside when I don't have to." She complained. I furrowed my brow at her words, amused.

"Okay, Emily." I snorted. She gave me a look. "You convinced Leo to take you zip-lining and rock-climbing last summer, and didn't you use to go to the ranch your mom works on for riding lessons? You like being outside; you're just tired and thirsty."

"Fine." She sighed in defeat. "But that doesn't change the fact that we still don't have a plan on how we're going to find Caelus City."

"Well…" I looked around, trying to get a good understanding of our surroundings. Now that the area was bathed in a soft, pink light (probably a reflection off the leaves or something, given that they basically covered the sky), I could see that we weren't that far from a tall cliff. "Maybe if we get to higher ground?"

"I think there's a path over there." Charlotte pointed to a small series of rock ledges, almost like stairs leading up the side of the cliff. "That's convenient."

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Not unless you're in Turkey." I decided, shrugging. Charlotte led the way up the rocky stairs, keeping on hand on the cliff wall just in case she slipped.

"Turkey?" She asked after a moment., keeping her eyes glued to the rocky stairs. I watched the horizon, wondering what happened to the animals during the day. Maybe most of the planet was nocturnal?

"Trojan Horse? Troy? You heard of it?" I suggested. She nodded.

"Yeah, but that's in Greece." She pointed out. I chuckled. "It is. I know my Greek mythology, Kameron."

"Yeah, well I know my geography. Troy's in Turkey, which was part of ancient Greece at the time." I pointed out.

"Well look who is still the secret genius." She teased. "How do you know that stuff, anyway? You didn't even taken geography this year."

"The League had a big mission in Greece back in the day. I wanted to know more about it." I shrugged. "You ever been?"

"Greece, or Turkey?" She shook her head, not waiting for my response. "Nah, but Em and I have plans. We're going to go backpacking across Europe either this summer, or next. You?"

"Not yet. But there's this superhero pilgrimage thing that all sidekicks and new heroes have to go on before Geminus will let them join the League. Something about giving us a real understanding of what it means to be a hero, or something like that. Athens is, like, third on the list of places we're supposed to go to." I explained. I still wasn't sure the whole point behind the pilgrimage, but Mom and Dad both agreed with Alivia's rule, so it must have been important. Or it was their way of getting the summer to themselves. One or the other.

"Maybe I could convince Em to push our trip off. We could try and time them out so we could go together." Charlotte suggested as we made it to the top of the cliff. She stepped aside so I could step safely off the steps. "Or would that be weird? Or not allowed? I don't want to intrude on some sacred superhero thing."

"No, no. That would be cool, actually." I grinned at her. She smiled. "Yeah, we could totally do that. It sounds fun."

"Cool." She smiled back at me. After a moment, I cleared my throat after a moment.

"Uhm, we should probably…" I trailed off. She nodded, shaking herself.

"Yeah. Uh…" She turned around to survey the area, then frowned. "Actually, does this look familiar to you?"

I looked around. The area did look kinda familiar, but so had the area we'd been in an hour ago, and the area before that, and before that. "All of this looks the same to me. I can't tell."

"Wait, you can fly, right?" Charlotte looked up at the thick leaf cover. "Why don't you fly up past the trees and see if you can see the ship, or Caelus City."

"I'm sure we're too far away from anywhere to see it, but it can't hurt." I shrugged. She backed away and I leapt into the air. I soared into the air, sticking close to the nearest tree so even if I got turned around up there, I wouldn't lose where Charlotte was.

But as I burst through the leaves, a swarm of bugs leapt out of me, apparently disturbed by my sudden appearance. They were big for insects, each about the size of my hand, with blue scales and large pincers. They surrounded me and lunged, but I fended them off by creating an electrical field around me. A few made it through and lunged at me, but I swatted them away with ease.

I looked around, trying to see anything that I recognized. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the city or the Davenship, but there was a fairly large clearing not too far from us. I could just barely make out what looked like the remains of a fire pit in the center of it.

"Well?" Charlotte questioned as I landed. I shook my head.

"No city, no ship. But I think I can see where we stopped earlier." I explained, scratching the back of my shoulder. She brightened up instantly.

"Maybe we'll be able to orient ourselves and figure out which way we need to go in from there." She replied. I nodded.

"Let's go." I agreed.

"Which way?" She demanded. I pointed with one hand, still scratching with the other. "Alright. C'mon!"

I chuckled a little to myself as she enthusiastically started off in the direction I'd indicated, following shortly behind her.

Charlotte's POV

Once Kameron had pointed us in the direction of the clearing, we'd taken off in the direction at a steady pace. Well, steady-ish. I'd basically wanted to run in that direction, but Kameron had asked me a couple of times to slow down, pointing out that we didn't want to run into any of the animals from last night. I guess he had a point, but walking quietly through the woods when our friends might need us wasn't exactly my favorite thing in the world.

The clearing probably wasn't all that far, but between Kameron's slow pace and the difficulty of moving through the trees, it was taking us forever to make any progress. After 30 minutes, we reached a stream though, with some very familiar, colorful water bottles lying abandoned nearby.

"Hey, look!" I exclaimed, leaping over the tiny stream. I bent down and picked up a crimson-colored water bottle. "This one is mine! Is this where you and Em filled the bottles?"

Kameron hummed in response, kneeling down next to me. I frowned. "Kameron?" I asked. "Is this where you and Em were attack?"

"Uh...yeah. Think so." He agreed tiredly. I looked at him, concerned. I was usually pretty chatty compared to most people, but Kameron wasn't the quiet type himself, and he'd been rather quiet for the majority of the journey here.

"You okay?" I asked. He nodded heavily. "You sure?"

"Headache, thirsty." He replied. He saw my look and gave me a soft smile. "Probably dehydrated. Pass me Sera's bottle."

"Here." I grabbed the light blue water bottle, one of the only ones filled with the cap on. He took it gratefully and took a few quick sips, grimacing. "Is the water clean?"

"Yeah. Stomache's just off." He told me. "Another symptom of dehydration."

"Is sweating a sign of dehydration?" I asked critically, leaning forward to touch his forehead. It wasn't warmer than it should have been, but his skin was covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. He tried to pull away from my touch, but grimaced as he moved his shoulder. "You're hurt!"

"It's just a bug bite, Char. It's fine." He grumbled. I rolled my eyes.

"Let me see." I instructed. He rolled his eyes and turned around obediently, unzipping his uniform's vest. I pulled it down his shoulders before pulling his shirt down from the shoulder he'd been scratching earlier. I sucked in a breath when I saw the bite he'd mentioned - it was much larger than I'd expected, almost the size of a dime, with two rings of red around it. "Kam?"

"Hmm?" He craned his neck to get a better view of it himself, and though he couldn't see all of it, he paled from what he did see. "Oh."

"Emily said that some of the bugs here were poisonous." I reminded him. He nodded. "Does this look poisonous to you?"

"It doesn't look good." He admitted. I moved to sit in front of him, now very worried.

"What do we do?" I asked him slowly. He hesitated.

"Um...anti-venom." He blinked, taking a deep breath. "Uncle Ollie made on that works on almost everything."

"Do we have it?" I asked hopefully. It wouldn't do us very much good if it was sitting in Mighty Med on Caldera or Earth. To my relief, he nodded.

"Kira and I had some in our bags." He mentioned. He looked at me eyes wide. "If the team is heading to the city, they wouldn't have left any equipment behind."

Unfortunately, he was probably right. "What about the ship? Is there more on the ship?" I questioned. He nodded.

"There was too much to bring with us." He replied. I nodded, formulating a plan in my head. "Charlotte, that's a 3 hour walk. If the bite is poisonous, we don't know how long the effects will take to really hit. It could be..."

He trailed off, not wanting to say the word 'deadly' out loud. I nodded in understanding. "I know. But I don't have a better plan. Do you?" He shook his head. "Then it's what we're doing. We'll go back to the ship, get you that anti-venom, then figure things out from there. Alright?"

He sighed. "Alright." He agreed. I smiled and stood up.

"Alright. If the clearing is in that direction, and this is where you and Emily stopped for water, that means the ship is...in that direction." I decided before offering him my hand. He sighed and accepted it, slowly getting to his feet. I quickly gathered all the water bottles into Emily's bag, which had thankfully been left behind. I let Kameron lead the way, matching his pace as we started on our path back to the ship. I just prayed we got there in time.

Kameron's POV

I could feel Charlotte's eyes on me as I stumbled over a tree root I hadn't noticed jutting out of the ground at my feet, but I didn't bother commenting on it. I could tell she was worried by the way she kept encouraging me to talk to her and checking up on me. I really wanted to tell her that she was overreacting, that the bite was barely worse than a mosquito bite and we should focus on finding the others, but I knew it was more than that. I could feel pulses of heat coming off the bite and into my very cold body and it hurt a lot. I was pretty sure I had a fever – though it was impossible to tell if the chills I had were fever-born or just from this planet's ridiculous climate – and my stomach churned and ached liked that time I got food poisoning in the fifth grade.

"Pretty sure my uncle got bit by a Venusian Beetle when he was our age." I responded when Charlotte began to prod me about bug bites and poison. "Those are poisonous."

"Is that from this planet?" Charlotte asked, slowing down as we climbed a tall hill. It was vaguely familiar, so I figured we were going in the right direction, but I didn't remember it being such a difficult climb before. Maybe that was because it had been a downhill climb that time around, or maybe it was because my vision was blurring and the ground didn't feel all that steady underneath me this time. "Kam?"

I didn't answer her until we reached the top of the hill, not trusting that I'd be able to keep my nausea at bay. "Yeah." I eventually answered once my stomach had settled a little bit. "It was from Venusia."

"Could it have been the same kind that bit you?" She suggested. "Do you know if the anti-venom worked on that bite, or if they used something else?"

"Different bug, something else." I grumbled as she led us along. "If it were the same bug...it would have killed me already."

"That's...comforting, I guess." Charlotte mentioned. I nodded faintly. "You ready to keep going?"

"I-" I started to reply when I felt the nausea rise up again. Unable to fight it, I barely managed to stumble a few steps away from Charlotte before I hit my knees and expelled everything that was left in my stomach.

I sat there, dry heaving for minutes after I was done before I felt Charlotte place her hand on my shoulder. "I'm dying." I groaned, wrapping one arm around my stomach without making any effort to get up.

"Not on my watch you're aren't." She scolded, not unkindly before wrapping a hand under my arm. "C'mon. We need to keep moving."

I didn't give her much help as she pulled me to my fight, but she didn't complain, not even when she put my arm around her shoulders and supported me as she walked us along the path. "Char?" I mumbled, closing my eyes for a second as a wave of lightheaded-ness came over me.

"Kam?" She replied. I felt her head turn as she glanced at me before she continued on.

"If I don't...you know." I began, but I felt her shaking her head again. I opened my eyes to see her glaring at me.

"No. We're not talking about that." She insisted, pushing us on with more intensity. I managed to keep up the pace with her, but just barely.

"Char, please." I murmured. She sighed.

"What, Kam?" She muttered, her voice quivering just a tiny bit. When I didn't respond, she let out a quiet breath. "What do you need from me, Kameron?"

"Can you tell Kira and my mom and dad that I love them? And tell my parents I'm sorry I couldn't save them?" I asked her. "Please?"

Charlotte sighed heavily, closing her eyes tightly for a moment. "Alright." She agreed quietly before opening them once again. "But it doesn't matter. You know why?"

Despite how I felt, I managed to smile a little bit. "You won't let me die?"

"Damn straight." She replied, giving me a confident smile. "You're not getting off this team that easy."

Charlotte's POV

When Kameron had asked me to pass messages onto his family, I'd forced some optimism his way, refusing to let him think that. But now, almost three hours later, I couldn't even do that.

He'd started flagging really badly about a couple of hours ago, and even with me carrying most of his weight, we still weren't making as much progress as I'd hoped. We should have been back at the ship by now, but it was nowhere in sight. Which meant that either we hadn't traveled as far as we needed to, or we'd gotten lost somewhere along the way and were heading in the same direction. Given Kameron's condition, I wasn't sure which one terrified me more.

I could feel him burning up next to me, unnatural heat emanating from his almost limp body. He was still conscious, still walking, but his movements were slow, clumsy, almost making it even more difficult to navigate the rough terrain, and he'd mostly given up responding to my questions. Every once in a while, he'd mumble some sort of response, but it was never coherent enough for me to understand and he never repeated it when I asked him to.

"C'mon. Not much farther." I lied, not even totally sure if he could hear or understand me at this point. I blinked back tears, trying not to think about the possibility of us not finding the ship in time, or at all. With each passing second, that was seeming more and more likely, and I could feel my heart clench at the very thought. "You're going to be fine, okay? Just...just hold on." I choked out, my throat tight.

He didn't respond.

After several more minutes of pulling him along, I had to stop. I'd essentially been carrying him for hours now, and even though I knew we had to keep going, my legs were burning too bad from the effort to take another step.

"How're you doing, Kam?" I murmured as I gently lowered Kameron down next to a tree. I pursued my lips when I saw how pale his face was. His eyes were closed and though I should have been relieved by the fact that he was still clearly breathing, the rattle I could hear in his lungs scared me down to my core. "Kameron!" I shook him, hoping to wake him. His eyelids fluttered and he mumbled something under his breath, but I couldn't get him anymore conscious.

I took a slow, shaky breath. "Okay, we need a new plan." I muttered. The thing was, there were no better plans. Finding the ship was our only option, and I couldn't find it anywhere! The trees were too tall, the foliage too thick, the lighting too dim to see through.

I looked at the tree Kameron was sitting against and followed its tall trunk with my eyes until I saw the leaves at the top. Maybe...

I couldn't fly like Kameron could, but I'd always been good at climbing trees when I was a little kid. Hardly the same thing now, but if I could get to the top, I could see if the ship was anywhere close. There were risks - not only was it going to be a difficult climb, but I had no idea if those bugs from earlier would be nesting in this tree too.

I glanced down at Kameron, then made up my mind; it was just a risk I was going to have to take.

I moved around to the other side of the tree so that if I fell, I wouldn't land on Kameron, then looked up at the trunk. "How exactly am I going to do this?" I muttered to myself.

I stepped up to the trunk, but before I could begin to scale it, or attempt to scale it, I heard a sound coming from the direction Kameron and I'd been heading in. I froze when I heard it, having never heard something like it. It was like trill sound, but super deep.

I backed up to stand in front of Kameron and formed a laser sphere in my hand. It didn't sound like the monsters from last night, but it sounded like it could be just as dangerous or worst. Whatever it was, I was gonna give it one hell of a fight. I tensed as whatever it was got nearer, the sound of its deep trills growing louder in sound, until it leapt out from the bushes.

I blinked in confusion, nearly dropping my hands in shock when I saw the foot-tall creature leap out from the bushes.

It was like a weasel, like an actual weasel, but with a rough, brown hide and 6-inch long tusks, looking far too large for such a tiny creature. Hanging from its mouth, between the two tusks, was what looked like one of our emergency packs.

The weasel-thing sniffed at us, let out a deep, deep growl, then rushed past us into the bushes once more.

"Wha...?" I stared after it, confused before looking back in the direction it had come from. If that had been one of our emergency packs... "Okay, c'mon." I bent down and pulled Kameron to his feet.

"Hmmm?" He hummed in confusion, not raising his head as I pulled him along.

"We're almost there." I think, I silently added. I led us both through the bushes and up a long hill. I could have cried when we reached the top though, for there it was: the Davenship, sitting there in the clearing below, surrounded by plenty of those tiny weasel things. "Please be friendly, please be friendly." I muttered to myself as I walked Kameron down the hill towards the ship. The creatures scattered as we approached, apparently more afraid of us than we were of them. I placed my hand against the scanner on the side of the ship and the door to the cargo bay slowly lowered itself, causing the rest of the the weasels to flee. As I pulled Kameron inside, a couple ran past me, coming from inside the ship.

I didn't have time to think too much about how they'd gotten in as I dropped Kameron as gently as I could onto the floor of the cargo bay. "I'll be right back." I rushed past him to dig through the medical supplies containers. I sorted through it for a moment before pulling out one of the spare medical kits.

"Okay, okay." I raced back to his side and hit my knees next to him. I ripped open the medical kit and started going through the various vials and medical supplies until I was left with two that I didn't recognize. One of them had to be the right medicine - Kameron had said there would be a cure in the medical kit, and I knew none of the other stuff was it - but I didn't know which one.

"Kam, which is it?" I turned to him, but he was completely unconscious now, barely breathing. "No, no, no. Please, Kameron, wake up. Wake up and tell me which one to give you. Kameron!" I shook him roughly in hopes that it would rouse him, but he didn't so much as groan. "No, please, Kameron. Kameron, I don't know what to do. I don't know which is the right one."

When he still didn't respond, I looked back at the two vials. There were labels on them, sure, with names and what the dosage should be, but I didn't know what the names meant and unlike medicine at the drug store, they didn't have a convenient list of things that it treated.

"Um..." I glanced between the two, then made a decision. I ripped open two of the syringe packages in the medical kit and filled each with the correct dosage of the vials. "Both it is."

Thinking that it would work quicker if injected closer to the heart, I plunged both of the syringes into his chest. "Please don't die." I murmured, closing my eyes tight as I pressed down on both plungers at once. "Please don't die."

Kameron's POV

When I opened my eyes, I found myself staring up at the pulsing fluorescent lights of the ship cargo bay, something soft underneath my head. I screwed my eyes tight as the bright light assaulted my eyes and gave myself a few moments to adjust to it before opening them again.

Turning my head slowly, I saw Charlotte walk in from the left engine room carrying a brown, ugly-looking weasel thing with large tusks.

"Go, shoo!" She told it, ushering it out the cargo bay door and out into the Venusian jungle. Once it was gone, she wiped her hands in satisfaction and pressed her hand against the interior panel. I pushed myself onto my elbows as as the door closed.

"What was that?" I croaked, my throat feeling like it was coated with sandpaper. She spun around, relief flooding her face.

"Kameron!" She rushed towards me, dropping to her knees at the last minute before hugging me tightly.

"Whoa!" I gasped in surprise as she basically pulled me into a sitting position.

"Sorry." She apologized quickly, pulling back. She was grinning brightly, eyes filled with unshed tears of joy. "Sorry, I just...you're not dead!"

"Yeah, I gathered that." I chuckled, wincing at the pain in my throat. She leaned to the side and grabbed a water bottle off the top of one of the storage containers before handing it to me. I accepted it gratefully, taking a few gulps of it before replacing the cap. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She smiled back at me. I looked around at the quiet ship.

"So, we made it back." I observed. She nodded. "Can I ask, why am I on the floor?"

"You passed out before we got here, and I wasn't going to carry you up the ladder." She explained before glancing behind her at the medicine kit. "Listen, I...I wasn't sure which medicine to give you." She told me apologetically before showing me two of the vials. "I gave you both. Figured that way, you'd still get whichever one was the cure. But I'm not sure if the other one is bad."

I looked over the vials and shook my head with a small smile. "That's the cure." I nodded at the one on the left. She nodded.

"And this?" She asked, sounding uncertain.

"A tetanus shot. Kinda glad I was unconscious for that - those hurt." I chuckled. She laughed in relief.

"Oh thank God. I was worried I'd given you Dengue Fever or something." She admitted. I chuckled again.

"I promise, nothing on this ship can give you Dengue Fever." I assured her. She nodded. "Well, at least none of the stuff that I brought. What was that thing you were carrying?"

"Some sort of wildlife. They don't seem dangerous, but they got into the ship while we were gone." She explained. I frowned, confused. "They bore a hole into the left engine room."

"That's not good." I commented. She shook her head.

"No, it's not. But we'll figure it out. At least you're not dead." She offered me a smile, squeezing my hand gently. "Thank you for not dying on me."

"Thank you for saving me." I replied. She smiled.

"You owe me one." She teased. I hesitated, then decided...screw it.

"How about dinner?" I suggested, my heart racing even as I asked the question. She stared at me, eyes going wide.

"What?" She asked, caught completely off guard. Okay, not a good sign, but there was really no going back.

"I just survived being poisoned by a deadly bug on an alien planet. I figured, if today's not my lucky day, I don't know what is." I explained. She nodded, still staring at me, her mouth slightly ajar. "Can I pay you back by buying you dinner?"

"I..." Charlotte pressed her lips together before smiling. "Yes."

"Yes?" Now it was my turn to stare at her. She nodded.

"Yes." She repeated before hesitating. "Provided my papa doesn't kill the both of us when we get back."

I grinned at her. "It's a date." I replied. She smiled.

"It's a date." She agreed. I nodded, then looked around.

"Now, we just have to find the others so we can go home." I commented. She nodded.

"Actually, I think I have an idea about that." She replied with a mischievous grin.

Chapter 7: Separated Part 2: Meet the Villagers

Chapter Text

Sera's POV

Hours of walking later, and it still felt like we were making no progress. One of the stars was nearing the top of the sky while the second was just beginning to start making its descent from the top of the sky, making it around midday, according to Emily. We'd walked all night and all morning, trying to get back on track towards Caelus City. We'd gotten lost in the middle of the night, but Emily was sure she'd found the way using the two massive stars as a guide. Naomi nor I'd had a better sense of the direction in which we were heading, so we'd gone along with it, hoping, praying, that she was right.

"Do you think any of the others found Kameron?" I wondered out loud as we made our way through the trees. The sky had changed from a soft periwinkle color to a stronger shade of mauve since the day had begun, the faint, purple light breaking through the leaves in a pretty fashion. Under any other circ*mstances, I'd be struck with awe at the sight – I'd been stunned by the beauty of Earth's nature and its ecosystem, but this blew that out of the water – but I was too focused on our mission to pay too much attention to it.

"Probably. He just has that kind of luck, you know?" Emily replied, stumbling over a fallen log. I offered my hand to help her, only for her to push it away with an appreciative smile and a slight shake of her head. She grimaced as she continued but didn't make a single complaint. She hadn't complained all day, to both my and Naomi's surprise. Her ankle, still badly sprained from last night, had to be killing her, and she wasn't usually known for keeping quiet about annoyances or pains like that. But she'd stayed mostly quiet throughout the day about it, not saying a word about it.

"If they haven't, we can track him using his suit's tracker." Naomi added, giving me a reassuring smile. I nodded.

"I know. Just worrying." I mentioned. "I hope the others made it to Caelus by now."

"Well, I'm pretty sure Kira's with Ben and Noah. Noah had the map on them, and Ben had the compass, so I'd be willing to bet that they're there, together. Hopefully, Kameron and Charlotte are with them." Naomi reasoned. I nodded.

"Yeah, hopefully." I agreed. I glanced at Emily, who was leaning against a tree. "I think we should take a break."

"No, we're making good time." Emily insisted. Naomi hesitated, seeming to agree with me. "I don't want to spend another night out in these trees. Do you?"

"Fine." Naomi agreed reluctantly. "But if you need a break, you speak up."

"Will do." Emily saluted her teasingly before starting to push forward. I'd started to follow her when, suddenly, a sharpcrackhit my ears. I stopped instantly, spinning around towards the source of the noise, though I could tell it was a bit of a distance away.

"What's wrong?" Naomi hissed, pulling out her blaster instinctively. "You hear something?"

"That way." I nodded towards the source of the sound. "It sounded too far away for whatever it was to see us, but it sounded large." I heard anothercrack, almost immediately echoed by a third. "I think there's more than one." I added, making my judgement off the frequency of the sounds and how loud they were getting. I looked back at her, then at Emily, who was leaning heavily against the trunk of a tree, her blaster out. "They're definitely getting closer."

"How far?" Emily questioned.

"Hundred feet?" I guessed. Emily glanced at Naomi.

"What do you want to do?" She asked uncertainly. Naomi hesitated, then glanced at Emily and nodded to herself.

"You two stay here." She instructed. "I'm going to go check it out."

"What? No!" I protested. Emily nodded.

"Sera's right. Splitting up is why we're in this mess!" She agreed. Naomi sighed.

"I know, and I agree. Splitting up? Terrible idea." She agreed, kneeling down while she pulled out her second blaster, quickly double-checking its load. "But Em, if that thing turns out to be dangerous, you can't run, and that can turn out really badly if it turns out to be a dangerous creature. Alternatively, things could go really wrong if it is a dangerous creature and we don't check it out. Splitting up is the only option."

"What if you get lost?" I argued. Naomi smiled and waved the blaster before re-holstering it.

"The plasma my blaster shoots are blue, right? Now that practically blends in with the sky on Earth, but here, where the sky is purple..."

"It'll be two different colors. It'll be like a flare gun." Emily realized. I hesitated, having never heard of a 'flare gun', but Emily seemed pretty on board with the plan. "My blaster shoots green plasma."

"Exactly. Once I've determined whether or not what's following us is a threat, I'll shoot into the sky. You shoot yours once you see it, and I'll follow the light back to you guys." She explained. She sighed. "I wish we'd thought of this last night."

"It was kinda chaotic, and it would have alerted the creatures to where we were." I assured her. "But that brings up a good point - what if whatever it is turns out to be dangerous? Is shooting the sky a good idea?"

"Obviously, I'll shoot it first." Naomi explained. I gave her a concerned look and she sighed. "Alright, fair. If you hear shots but don't see them, and I don't shoot up a flare within 20 minutes, then go onto Caelus City without me. Track me like we plan on tracking Kam."

"But-" I began to protest, but Emily cut me off.

"Cool. Have fun killing the monster." She told her aunt, taking a seat on a large root nearby. Naomi rolled her eyes and bid us farewell before marching off towards the source of the sound.

As soon as she was gone, I spun around to confront Emily, furious with her. "Are you really that flippant? You can't seriously expect that we'll leave without her!"

Emily rolled her eyes, leaning back on the root to rest her back against the tree. "Of course not. If she's not back in ten minutes, we're tracking her down and dragging her ass to Caelus, monster or no monster." She placed her blaster in her lap, then brought her hands up to place them between her head and the tree trunk. "Sometimes it's just easier to agree with them to their faces and then do whatever the hell you want once they're gone."

I stared at her for a moment. "I don't know if that's crazy or genius, but it's definitely what Kira would call 'chaotic'."

She cracked a smile at that. "I prefer to think of it as all three."

Naomi's POV

I glanced around, taking care of where I stepped, not wanting to alert whatever creature was following us. Now that I was closer, I could hear what Sera had - movement, multiple creatures, large enough to be of concern for us. I couldn't quite see them yet, but I was getting close.

I had both my blasters out, ready to fire, but I hoped I wouldn't have to use them. I could probably handle whatever creatures were following us - now that it was light enough to see and the initial panic of last night had faded, I was fairly sure I could at the very least scare the creatures off - but I didn't want to waste too much ammunition on them. My blasters' plasma cartridges were full, but they only held so many shots before they'd have to be recharged and I couldn't be sure I'd get a chance to do so before rescuing Bree, Chase, Jaden, and the others. I'd have to be certain of my shots and to use as little as possible, just to be safe.

I stopped suddenly, hearing one of the creatures move very close by. I pressed myself up a tree trunk and glanced around it. I could see a couple of animals sniffing at the ground. They weren't the same creatures as last night - these were pale brown, not black, built more like deer, but obviously heavier-set, and they had odd-looking snouts that reminded me sort of pig. It was certainly an odd sight, but they also didn't seem too dangerous. Still, I couldn't be sure.

I raised my weapon, intending to shoot near them, not at them, to scare them off. They didn't look like predatory animals, but just in case they were, it would be better to get rid of them than let them follow us. But before I could shoot, I heard a noise come from behind me.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Sera's POV

"She's been gone too long." I decided, still pacing in the dirt. Emily sat up properly, pulling her leg off the nearby root.

"It's been fifteen minutes." She pointed out before sighing. "I know she said to wait twenty, but she should have been back by now. Or we should have at least heard a shot."

"Exactly." I agreed. She stumbled to her feet, wincing when she put weight on her bad ankle. "That looks bad. Are you sure you didn't break it?"

"Nah. It's just worse because we've been walking all night." She let out a slow breath, carefully adjusting her weight from one ankle to the other. "I'll be fine. Let's go find Naomi."

I looked around, then smirked. "Hold on." I told her before walking up to the base of one of the trees. I looked until I saw what I was looking for her, then raised my hand and blasted a shot of ice straight up. I jumped back as a branch fell from the leaves, landing on the ground in front of us with a heavy thud. I smiled to myself, picked it off the ground, and held it out to Emily. "Walking stick." I explained when I saw the confused look on her face. She let out a soft laugh and accepted it.

"Let's go." She replied, gesturing for me to lead the way. We began to walk through the trees, taking it slow both to accommodate for Emily and to ensure that we didn't walk into any surprises. However, as we got nearer to where Naomi had been headed, I began to hear a surprising sound.

"What is it?" Emily demanded, picking up on my surprise. I frowned and glanced at her.

"She's...talking to someone." I frowned. I couldn't tell who she was talking to - either they hadn't spoken or were basically whispering - but she was definitely talking, and loud.

"Maybe she found the others!" Emily grinned and picked up the pace. I sighed and followed her, but once we got closer, it became evident to both of us that she was not talking to one our friends.

"...just lost, really. My ship crashed a few miles away." She was saying, her voice unusually loud. I nodded in the direction that her voice was coming from and Emily and I carefully made our way through the trees, keeping low to avoid being seen.

"Oh no." Emily hissed at one point, dropping down very suddenly. I pressed myself up against the nearest tree and dared to look past it.

Naomi was standing in a clearing, her hands raised and her weapons missing. Surrounding her were three, tall, pale-skinned people: two men who were holding spheres with silver, almost glowing, blades, and a girl with what looked suspiciously like a machete. One of the men had deep blue hair with what looked like purple streaks throughout it, cut short, while the other was completely bald. The girl, or at least she looked like a girl, stood between them, her light blue and purple hair in milkmaid braids (a style Kira had introduced to me only a couple of months before). They all appeared to be wearing some dark-colored armored vests or tunics over gold shirts. If I had to choose one word to describe them, I would say they were warriors.

"sh*t!" Emily hissed, eyes wide from where she crouched. I motioned for her to come my way, where she'd be less likely to be seen. She crawled over to me and pressed her back up against the large trunk. "Those are Venusians!"

"I know." I muttered, trying to come up with a plan. Naomi was captured and there were three of them. Between us, we only had one weapon, and Emily was injured. Running wasn't an option, but I didn't feel confident about our chances against the three of them. Even if we won that fight, if any of us got hurt, we were miles from any real help. "We're outnumbered..."

"Surprise attack?" Emily suggested. "Take them while they don't know we're here?"

"Search the forest." The girl ordered just then. "There's no way she's alone."

"I am, I swear." Naomi protested, taking a step towards her, only to have a spear shoved in front of her face. The girl ignored her.

"Go." She ordered her men. They nodded and started towards the trees, while the girl aimed a blaster, one of Naomi's I was sure, at our friend's head. "Don't try anything, and they won't be harmed."

"There is no 'they'." Naomi growled.

"They're looking for us." I hissed. Emily closed her eyes.

"sh*t!" She cursed.

"We could...um..." I panicked.

"You should run." She murmured. I looked at her sharply. "I can't outrun them, and Naomi's caught. You can get away and get help. Find Ben."

"No way, I'm not leaving you guys." I refused. She gave me a look.

"Sera." She said sternly. I matched her gaze.

"Emily." I insisted. We both flinched as the sound of footsteps got closer. "We should surrender, then escape later. We're stronger together."

Emily glanced towards the trees, where the Venusian soldiers were getting closer and closer by the second. She swore again and started digging through her pockets for something. Before I could ask what she was doing, she literally tackled me.

"Hey!" I instinctively exclaimed as she shoved me down. I felt her hand slap across my neck as I tried to get her off of me.

"Hey!" Another set of hands pulled her off of me, and suddenly, we were both being pulled apart by the two Venusian soldiers.

"Look what we found." One of them chuckled to the other from behind us. They started pushing us through the trees, back to Naomi.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I hissed at Emily. She glanced at me, then at the soldiers pushing us forward and didn't respond.

We were shoved into the clearing, where Naomi and the girl were waiting. Naomi's eyes widened in shock and confusion when she saw us. It was the Venusian's eyes that caught my attention more, however. While they weren't all that different from human's or Calderan's in shape, their coloring was incredibly unique. They were sort of multi color, a swirl of blues and whites behind the pupil that reminded me of the toy marbles my dad had bought me when I was younger.

"Alone, huh?" The girl mused, giving Naomi a look before looking over us. I felt my heart skip a beat in my chest when I realized how dangerous this could get. I may not be as identical to my Calderan sisters as my mother is, but I was still very clearly of Calderan blood. Even if they went easy on Emily and Naomi, this would not go well for me. But to my surprise, she only examined me for a moment before moving onto Emily. After a moment, she turned to the two men.

"My father's going to want to see them." She decided, turning to them. One of them aimed their sphere at me.

"Get moving." He ordered as the girl, clearly the leader despite appearing to be closer to my age than Naomi's, started to lead the way. The soldiers kept a steady pace behind us, not directly so but close enough that running wasn't an option, while the girl stayed a bit ahead.

As we walked, Naomi glanced at us. "Where's Sera?" She hissed, keeping her voice down. "Are the others with you?"

I frowned at her. "Um...I'm right here?" I responded, as confused as she looked.

"No, no, no. You're Kira." Emily whispered, glancing over her shoulder to see if the soldiers were listening in. Satisfied that they couldn't hear her whisper, she ducked in a little closer. "Cybermask, makes you look like your cousin. Didn't think they'd be so nice to Calderans." She explained in a rush.

"So that's why you tackled me." I hummed. She smirked a little.

"That's genius, Em." Naomi complimented, but the technopath's smile faded.

"You say that now; the mask won't last forever." She warned. Suddenly, one of the soldiers pushed me from behind.

"Quit whispering!" He snapped. We made the rest of the trek in tense silence, Naomi sending angry glares at our captors, Emily trying to keep up without putting too much weight on her bad ankle, and me wondering just how long this mask had bought us.

Xxx

We walked for nearly an hour under the cold, Venusian sun, all of our captors silent the entire trip. But eventually, just as we broke through the thick foliage, we saw where the soldiers were taking us. A little way in front of us, past a river, sat a tiny village, a little under 2 dozen cabins and small wooden houses all sitting in a circle with a tall post sitting in the middle.

The girl led us up to a plank bridge that led across the slowly moving water. "Watch your step, the water's cold." She warned, not unkindly, before leading the way across it.

We were watched from the moment we entered the village, a few Venusians stopping what they were doing in the circle to stare as we approached. One of them rushed into the house directly opposite of the village's entrance, and quickly emerged with another Venusian man.

"Father!" The girl greeted with a smile, increasing her pace to meet up with him in front of what I figured had to be his house. The two soldiers grabbed us from behind, stopping us from moving as she went to speak with him.

I watched him carefully, trying to get a sense of how dangerous he was. Clearly, he was in some sort of position of power here - otherwise, we wouldn't have been brought to him. Perhaps he was some sort of village elder, like the ones we had back home? He did appear to be older than the soldiers who had captured us, but they all seemed pretty young so maybe I was off. He didn't dress like an elder, that's for sure - his clothes, consisting of a gold, sleeveless shirt underneath a black vest, along with black pants, and a gold bracelet around his wrist, and his hair, purple with blue wisps in it and cut into a short mohawk, all seemed too out of place for an elder.

Eventually, he and the girl stopped speaking and they approached us, his grey-swirl eyes now looking at us critically. He looked between us before addressing Naomi, correctly guessing that she was our leader. "My name is Jeremiah Jewel. I am the leader of this village. Jillian here says she and her hunters found you in the woods, about to kill afawglet."

"A...fawglet?" Naomi asked, unsure of what he meant. She frowned. "You mean that animal?"

"It's a nearly dead species. They're protected." Jillian explained, giving Naomi such an offended look that I could only be reminded of the time that Emily made the mistake of insulting the color pink in front of Kira.

"I wasn't going to kill it, just scare it off. We didn't know what it was." Naomi explained quickly. Jeremiah nodded thoughtfully.

"How are we supposed to believe that, when you lied about the number of accomplices you had? Who are you really?" He demanded sharply. "We don't take kindly to poachers here, or off-worlders for that matter."

He thinks we're here for the animals, I realized. "We're scientists." Emily piped up before Naomi or I could come up with an explanation. I nodded quickly, following her lead.

"Biologists from Malmarn." I added, feeling that more details would make us seem more legitimate. "Our ship was damaged in a meteor shower and we were forced to land here on our way home."

"We crashed a few hours south of here." Naomi added. "I explained this to your daughter."

"And yet you lied about your compatriots." He noted. Naomi nodded, adopting an apologetic look on her face.

"They approached me with weapons, I was scared they would hurt my friends. This is their first space journey. I'm responsible for them." She lied before looking at Jillian. "And I'm sorry for threatening the creature. I didn't recognize it and thought it might be dangerous. But I really was only trying to scare it away. I wasn't going to hurt it."

Jeremiah looked us over, skeptical, while we tried not to fidget. He'd called Jillian and her companions hunters. Maybe this wasn't a military camp. If we were lucky, really lucky, we might just be able to walk out of here.

"You're scientists?" He questioned.

"Well, I am. Dr. Natasha Rose." Naomi offered her his hand, but he didn't shake it. She lowered it awkwardly before glancing at us. "And these are students learning the field."

"Emma Chase. She's Olive McLean." Emily added, following Naomi's lead and not giving him our real names. "Biologists-to-be."

"Hmm..." Jeremiah considered it, then looked at Naomi. "How'd you get through the barrier? It's around the entire planet."

"Professor Slime," I layered on the spite in my voice for extra effect, "had all our ships installed with his own tech, which including phasing cloaks. He's gone, thank the skies, but the ships are still in rotation. Ours still had the tech, I guess."

He looked at me and I had to force myself to breathe, praying that he'd believe me. Enough of it was based on the truth – Professor Slime had imposed his technology all over the planet during his nearly 80-year dictatorship, and I knew phasing technology was on the list because of my classes with Hapax. I just hoped that I'd been convincing enough to make them believe.

When Jeremiah didn't say anything at first, Naomi cleared her throat. "We were heading to a city south of here to see if we could catch a ride on a cargo ship or something back to our planet." She lied. "We'll be happy to leave and not bother-"

"Tie them up." Jeremiah ordered and suddenly, the soldiers grabbed us from behind. I was pulled back, my hands forced together as the soldier tied a thick rope around them.

"Hey!" "You can't do this!" We protested. After my hands were bound, I was pushed to sit in front of the post in the middle of the clearing. Emily and Naomi were sat down as well, before the three of us had our hands further tied to the post.

"I want to believe you." Jeremiah began.

"Then do so! Let us go!" Naomi protested, struggling against the restraints.

"We are at war. We can not afford to take chances or accept information lightly." He told us, his tone stern. He raised his chin. "You'll stay here tonight. In the morning, one of you will take me to your ship. There's a supply ship coming in tomorrow evening; if I'm satisfied with what I see at your ship, I'll ensure that the three of you have seats on the caravan heading back to Caelus City."

"And if you're not satisfied?" I dared to ask. He fixed me with a cold look.

"Then I'll personally escort you to the Venusian High Council." He assured us. I felt a chill run down my spine, and I wondered if that was what had happened to our parents.

Naomi's POV

Unfortunately, it was very clear from the start that escape was not going to be easy. The rope bindings were tight, but not overly so, so they would be easy enough to escape given some time (and, if time wasn't something we had, Sera could break through them with her strength or freeze them until they were fragile enough to break through easily), so the one thing we really needed was opportunity. But with Jeremiah's guards watching us constantly, and us sitting in the middle of the small but busy village, it didn't seem like we were going to get a chance to make a break for it. Stealth was essential here, given their weapons and that they clearly knew the woods better than us.

I couldn't help but think that Sera and Emily should have just left without me. That'd been my intention back in the woods - I knew Sera would have been able to hear my voice with her heightened Calderan-senses - but I hadn't counted on them being captured too. I wasn't sure if it had been intentional or not, though I suspected the former. And while I appreciated their effort to stay together and understood the logic behind it, it did make things trickier. Alone, I might have been able to convince the village leader of my intentions or would have been able to wait until I had a good opportunity to escape, but with them here, it would be so much more difficult. I just hoped it wouldn't be impossible.

"Hey, Em? Any idea how long that cybermask will last?" I asked, trying to figure out exactly what I had to worry about. I made sure to keep my tone low in case any Venusians were listening. They didn't appear to be - aside from the guards, most of the village appeared to be going about their day as usual - but I didn't want to take any chances.

Emily raised her head, leaning it against the post. She was quiet for a moment, then hummed to herself. "It's at 68% now, so...5 hours, 26 minutes, give or take."

"Give or takewhat?" Sera asked rhetorically, surprised by Emily's very specific number.

"24 seconds." Emily responded anyway. I could just picture Sera rolling her eyes at her.

"Why'd you even have the cybermask on you, anyway?" Sera hissed, fidgeting in her restraints. "And why was Kira's face already programmed into it?"

"I don't like not having something tech on me at all times, and we weren't bringing our Davenwatches. Also, you're welcome." Emily retorted defensively.

"That doesn't explain the Kira already being programmed into the mask." Sera argued.

"Well that is between Kira and I, isn't it?" Emily snapped. I let a breath out through my nose, losing my patience with them.

"Quit it! Now is not the time for fighting." I warned.

"She started it!" Emily protested, sounding all of five years old. Sera sighed.

"No, she's right. I did. I'm sorry, Emily, I am grateful for the mask." She apologized with a deep sigh. "I just..."

She trailed off, but Emily nodded in understanding. "I know." She offered softly. "It's okay. We'll get out of here before it dies."

The 'before they find out you're Calderan' went unsaid, but we all heard it anyway. I didn't know what they would do to Sera if they found out, but I knew it wouldn't be good.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Sera murmured. I sighed.

"It's not going to be easy, given that we're being watc-" Emily's elbow suddenly connected with my ribs, cutting me off.

"What do you want?" She said loudly, before I could question it. Turning, I could see Jillian approaching us with a small box in her hands. She'd changed out of her armor and undid her bun so that her hair, a nice mixture of blues and purples, hung down just past her shoulders.

"No need to be so defensive." Jillian pointed out as she continued to approach.

"You'll have to excuse her. She doesn't like being tied up." Sera apologized sarcastically. Emily shot her a smirk before scowling up at the Venusian.

"What do you want?" Emily repeated her question. Jillian opened the box and lowered it so that we could all see inside. It was filled with what looked like rolls of fabric and cloth.

"You were limping earlier." Jillian noted. "I'm guessing you rolled your ankle. I thought you might want it wrapped. It's got to hurt."

Emily looked at her for a moment, then glanced at me uncertainly. I nodded slowly. "Just wrap it. Nothing else." I decided. Emily nodded, still seeming unsure but following my lead.

Jillian knelt down in front of Emily and unlaced her boot before carefully working it off. I grimaced sympathetically when I saw how bad the swelling was. Emily sure downplayed the severity of it. It didn't look so bad that a ligament could be torn, but I definitely wouldn't have been keeping the pace that Emily had on it. "Polu," Jillian swore (or at least it sounded like the Venusian equivalent of a swear), "how long have you been walking on this?"

"Since we crashed." Emily lied, wincing as Jillian began to tightly wrap it. I watched her hands as she did, wanting to ensure she was doing as she said she was and not doing something weird to my niece.

"I know it doesn't seem like it, but we're not the enemies here. Ever since the war started, we've had to be careful with outsiders." Jillian explained as she worked, glancing at us. "Calderans have invaded before."

"They have?" Sera looked at her sharply. Jillian frowned, but nodded.

"A few months ago, a Calderan soldier was arrested in the city." She explained. "Ever since, things have been twice as tense as they were before."

"What happened to the Calderan?" Sera questioned. Jillian shrugged.

"No idea." She replied nonchalantly. Sera looked like she was about to demand more information, but Emily subtly stopped her with a hand on her knee.

"Just because Calderans invaded doesn't mean we should be treated like prisoners." She pointed out, looking meaningfully at Sera when she spoke. Thankfully, Sera took the hint and quieted down, though I knew she couldn't have been happy about it.

"We have to be careful." Jillian simply replied as she finished wrapping Emily's ankle.

"Is that what your father says, or what you think?" I asked softly. Jillian stopped what she was doing and looked at me sharply.

"My father is doing what's best for our people." She told me, glaring at me. I nodded, but she continued. "We already saw our first village destroyed before the barrier went up. Do you really think we're going to take chances with this one because a few off-worlders didn't like our security measures?"

"I understand. You must protect your people." I responded quietly. Jillian went to get up in a huff, clearly upset.

"Wait." Emily called, stopping her. Jillian paused and looked back at her. "Thank you."

Jillian nodded once. "I'll bring dinner in a few hours." She replied stiffly before walking away.

"At least they don't plan on starving us." Emily commented dryly once Jillian was out of earshot.

"My mom's in Caelus!" Sera hissed.

"At least we guessed right about one thing this trip." Emily commented. "Our dads and the other parents should be with her."

"Hopefully." I agreed. "Alright, I have a plan. Well, part of a plan."

"What percentage of a plan?" Emily asked. I rolled my eyes, recognizing the old movie reference (Calla had instituted an 'old movie' night once every couple of weeks around the same time that I'd moved in with them and Emily had just loved those weird superhero movies with the talking tree).

"We wait until Jillian brings us dinner, break out of these bonds, and take her hostage until we can escape into the trees." I decided. "We'll be cutting it close with the mask, but I think it'll work."

"I don't have anything better." Sera admitted. Emily glanced between us.

"You want to take a hostage? Um..." She trailed off before letting out a sigh. "I really wish I had a good argument against that right now."

"We're not going to hurt her, and they won't attack if we have their leader's daughter." I explained. Emily nodded slowly.

"Alright. I...IthinkI can maybe disable their weapons." She offered after a moment.

"You can?" Sera looked at her in surprise. Emily nodded at the guards standing nearby. They were talking to each other quietly, a little more relaxed than you would think of two guards. Neither was paying attention to us, but they each held a large sphere in their hands with a plasma blade on the end.

"The plasma spheres have some sort of power bank, in the lower base, I think. They can shoot as well as stab." Emily explained, co*cking her head to the side a little as she used her powers to get a 'read' on the tech integrated with the weapons.

"Your powers work on their tech?" I asked. She nodded.

"Enough that I can sense it. I don't think I can control it, but I do think I can deactivate them." She replied.

"Insane." Sera shook her head, impressed. Emily smirked.

"Alright. That's what we'll do. Be ready when Jillian comes back." I ordered. The girls both nodded and were silent for a moment.

"Okay, seriously, why were you and Kira messing around with the cybermasks?"

Sera's POV

While we'd all hoped that dinner would be served sooner rather than later, it was a long time before Jillian, or anyone else in the village for that matter, interacted with us in any way. The guards seemed uninterested in us, more focused on discussing either of their chances with some woman named Julia. Naomi, Emily, and I talked at first, first about our theories about how the others were faring, then more about the plan for the rest of the trip. I tuned them out about then - everything they were coming up with would have to be rehashed anyway once we met up with the others - and started looking around the village curiously.

It was odd to see how...normalthe village looked. I could see a couple of adults talking to a group of children just beyond two of the houses, one of them drawing something out on a large slate of wood that was leaning against the side of the house. It reminded me of Hapax's classes, his lessons taught inside his cave and the important things scratched into rock plates. There were a group of Venusians bringing in cut logs from the woods, setting them up near the wooden houses. It soon became clear that they intended to replace the temporary shelters with sturdier, better protected log cabins like the rest of the village was made of. An hour or so after Jillian bandaged Emily's ankle, we saw a group of hunters bring in prey that, from what I heard, was to be cooked and distributed later in the evening amongst the entire village.

"These are just like the camps back home." I murmured mostly to myself. Naomi looked over at me though.

"They've been hit hard by the war too." She agreed. I shook my head.

"If their people are suffering, then why don't they end this?" It didn't make any sense to me at all. "Why'd they break the peace treaty if this was going to hurt their people as much as ours?"

Naomi was quiet for a long time before finally responding. "War isn't simple, Sera." She murmured quietly.

"It's just so...so wrong." I murmured, shaking my head. I was angry at the Venusians, so very, very angry, but these were children and innocents suffering here. They didn't deserve this anymore than the children and innocents back home. Naomi nodded quietly, agreeing with me. "We have to stop this."

"Hey, I hate to be that person, but...is that something we can even do?" Emily spoke up, glancing between us. I looked at her.

"Excuse me?" I questioned.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to help. I do, but…this is a war, and we are children." She pointed out. Naomi let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Oh, are you justnowrealizing that you're way in over your heads?" She asked. Emily and I both looked at her and she paused, realizing how that sounded. "Sorry, Benji's been rubbing off on me."

"We can tell." Emily commented. Naomi rolled her eyes, but Emily continued. "I'm just saying that we have to be realistic about what we can do. Saving our parents, that's possible. Ending a war? I'm not so sure."

"We can't give up." I argued. Naomi nodded.

"She's not saying that. No one's giving up. Emily's just trying to be realistic. Like I said, war isn't simple, neither is ending it." She explained. Emily nodded in agreement. "But right now, that isn't our priority. I'm not saying it won't become our priority," she added quickly before I could object, "but we need to take this step by step. We save the Elite Force, then we focus on the intergalactic war. Alright?"

I sighed. "Fine." I agreed. Saving our parents was important, I knew that. I just hated seeing people suffering.

"Hey." Emily murmured gently, elbowing me for effect. I looked up at her and she was giving me a sympathetic smile. "I didn't mean that the war couldn't be stopped, just that we might not be the right people for the job. Our parents might be."

"You think they can end this?" I asked softly. She smiled.

"They've done the impossible before." She reminded me. She started to say something else, then paused when she saw a group of the hunters from before beginning to take trays of food to the individual cabins. Most of the people were inside now; there were a few stragglers in the circle, but the center of the village was quieter than it had been all day. "I think it's go time."

"I think so too." Naomi agreed. "Sera?"

"Watch your fingers." I warned as I released a small burst of icy mist from my fingers. It coated the ropes around our hands, making them slippery, just enough that I was able to work my hands through them without too much damage to my hands. I froze the ropes around Emily and Naomi's hands next, being careful to limit my movement as much as possible to avoid getting caught.

"Alright, be ready." Naomi warned. Almost as if on queue, Jillian walked out of the house where they'd been preparing the food, balancing three plates on top of a long wooden board.

She walked up to us and knelt down in front of me. "How am I supposed to eat if my hands are bound?" I asked innocently, as we'd planned. Jillian gave me a skeptical look.

"Don't try anything." She warned before nodding over at the guards nearby. They were new guards - the ones from earlier had been replaced an hour or so ago - but they seemed no better armed than the ones from before. She looked me over again, then carefully placed the tray on the ground next to us. She leaned in to untie my hands at the base of the post, and when she did, I acted. I twisted my legs around hers, using mine to pull her off her feet. Naomi and Emily both pushed up from the ground in one fluid motion, the older of the two swiping Jillian's sword right out of its sheath on her hip. She grabbed Jillian's arm before the Venusian could untangle herself from my grip and pulled her back to hold the blade against her neck.

The guards reacted instantly, raising their spheres to point them at Emily and me. The blades of their spheres began to glow for a moment, then the color died all together. Looking at Emily, she had two fingers pressed to her temple and one hand outstretched towards the guards and their weapons. "Stand down!" The guards ordered, despite the technopath having disabled the ranged abilities of their spheres.

"Release me!" Jillian demanded, glaring at Emily and I from where Naomi was holding her.

The commotion was loud enough to bring the attention of the people from within the buildings, Jeremiah Jewel himself bursting out of the biggest of the houses in a rush. His eyes narrowed when he saw what was happening.

"If you hurt her, I will destroy you." He threatened.

"We don't want to do that. We're just going to walk away." Naomi told him. She glanced at us and jerked her head towards the bridge. Emily and I slowly started to back away towards it, keeping our eyes locked on the soldiers. Two more emerged from the house alongside Jeremiah but were unarmed. To our surprise, no one else drew a weapon against us. "If you let us leave in peace, we won't hurt your daughter."

"I'll kick your ass." Jillian threatened.

"Shh." Naomi silenced her before continuing to address the village leader. "We'll let her go once we're free. Do not follow us, or you won't like what happens."

"You first." I said to Emily. She nodded silently and stepped onto the bridge, one hand still outstretched towards the weapons. One by one, we made it across the bridge without an issue.

"They're following." Emily said to Naomi, still focusing on the bridge. Sure enough, the two guards from before were crossing the bridge, but they weren't moving so fast that they were a problem. "You were right about them not attacking the village princess."

"I'm not a princess!" Jillian snapped. "But you can be sure that if you hurt me, my father's going to raise an army against you."

"With what weapons?" Naomi challenged, tightening her grip. I looked at her in surprise. "The only weapons we saw all day were the hunter's machetes, and the two spheres the guards had. They switched weapons when the new ones took over, you didn't notice that?"

"No." I admitted. Naomi nodded, pausing when Emily stopped her and motioned for her to move to the left to avoid stumbling over a fallen log as we broke through the tree line.

"I did. I'm going to guess that aside from the hunting machetes, you guys don't have too many weapons, do you?" She questioned, looking down at Jillian. The girl's silent scowl was all the answer we needed. "Alright."

Naomi suddenly released Jillian and pushed her away from us. Jillian started forward to attack, but Naomi held her at bay with the machete.

"Go home, Jillian." She warned. "Turn around and walk away."

"Why are you doing this? Why-" Jillian stopped suddenly, staring at me. I frowned, confused, until I saw Emily's grimace.

"We did say we'd be cutting it close." She mentioned.

"You're Calderan." Jillian realized. I sighed and pulled the now dead cyber mask off my neck where Emily had attached it.

"We should go." I told Emily and Naomi without paying Jillian any more attention.

I turned to follow Emily deeper into the trees. Then, I heard a sharp gasp from Naomi. I didn't stop to find out what was wrong, instead spinning around immediately, creating a shield of ice as I moved. A blast of energy coming my way instead hit the ice shield, leaving me unharmed. Jillian stared at me, surprised by my actions.

"Don't." I warned Naomi, who'd started towards the girl. I jerked my head at Emily, and to my surprise, Naomi followed my lead, walking over to Emily's side. I looked back at Jillian. "I understand you're trying to protect your home. But we mean you no harm. Go home."

She took a step towards me and I raised my hands, releasing a wave of ice. Jillian flinched back, raising her hands to protect herself as the wave charged towards her, but I'd never intended on it hitting her. Instead, the wave rolled upwards in front of her, freezing and solidifying into a thick wall that prevented her from following us. She looked at it, startled, and I took that as my chance to follow Naomi and Emily into the trees.

Naomi's POV

We left Jillian and her village in our wake, moving as quickly as we dared through the trees. I didn't think that her people would follow us, even after finding out that Sera was Calderan - their number of weapons, basically confirmed by Jillian's silence, would make hunting us through the woods difficult. Their machetes were impressive, but long-range weapons would be more useful, and I suspected they only had the two.

Eventually, we felt it was safe to slow down. We'd been running for nearly an hour now, putting as much distance between us and the village as possible. "Okay, okay." I motioned for the girls to take a break. "I think we're safe."

"We had good timing with that escape." Emily cracked a smile, hands on her knees. She elbowed Sera playfully. "Nice handling of Jillian, by the way."

"Thanks." Sera smiled back at her. "How's your ankle?"

"Not so bad." Emily stretched it and I winced at the audible crack. "Swelling's gone down, and the rest did it good. I hate to say this because we took her hostage, but that Jillian knows how to wrap an injury."

"It's not like we hurt her. And she was close enough to find her way home." I pointed out. I did feel kinda bad for doing that to the girl, especially since she seemed to be a genuinely nice person, just trying to protect her home. But it was the only way to escape without anyone getting hurt. "Okay, now how far are we?"

"Well..." Emily looked around, using the giant stars in the sky to guide her. She turned a little, then pointed in the direction we'd been running. "If I remember the map correctly, and if I'm right about how far the village was from the path, we'd been taking...we need to continue going in this direction. We should hit a big river in a few hours I think, and that'll lead us into the city."

"That's a lot of 'ifs'." Sera pointed out. Emily rolled her eyes.

"I'm not wrong." She promised our friend, beginning to walk in the direction she'd pointed out. "I know exactly what I'm-ah!"

Suddenly, Emily disappeared from view as a sinkhole opened up beneath her. "Emily!" I shouted, running up to the sinkhole. It was fairly large - even if Emily hadn't stumbled upon it, Sera or I would have certainly - but more worryingly, it was incredibly deep, leading into what looked like a cave system.

"Are you okay? Say something!" Sera shouted. There was a moment where we heard nothing, then:

"Why does this keep happening to me?!" Emily's shout sounded more annoyed than hurt. I dropped my head in relief.

"Are you okay?" I called down. I couldn't see her, the cave below too dark.

"I'm fine. I landed in a mud puddle, but I'm not hurt." She replied. "I hate the environment."

"And environment definitely hates you." Sera laughed.

"I think I see an exit. Give me a minute!" Emily called up.

"No! Stay where you are!" I ordered. "You could get lost!"

"Yeah, sure." Emily's response was dismissive, distracted.

"I'm serious, Em! We'll find a way to pull you up!" I shouted before looking around. I glanced at Sera. "Maybe we can find a vine or something?"

"Uh, Naomi?" Emily called up, her tone no longer annoyed or distracted. "Don't pull me up. You guys need to come down here."

"Why? What's wrong?" I demanded, turning back to the sinkhole. She whistled up at us.

"You'redefinitelygoing to want to see this."

Chapter 8: Separated Part 3: Caelus City

Chapter Text

Ben's POV

I glanced at my watch, checking the time for the umpteenth time before resting my head back on the tree I was sitting up against. It was cold out, not as biting as it had been last night, but it wasn't as if we'd had a chance to warm up since. It hadn't been so noticeable when we'd been moving, but now that we were just sitting here, waiting, it was impossible to ignore.

We'd spent the entire night walking through the trees, using Noah's map, my compass, and torches made by Kira to keep us from getting lost. We'd finally arrived early in the morning, much later than we'd initially intended but before the first star could rise.

Below the edge of the treeline was a wide valley where the city stood. It looked like a small city from Earth, but instead of the glass-walled skyscrapers and skylines of massive towers that I was used to, it was mostly built of large townhouse-like buildings with a structure in the center that reminded me vaguely of a Gothic Victorian style palace (Naomi had taken an architecture class during her 1st year in college and I guess I picked something up while helping her study). There were no guards in sight, but we could see the Venusian natives beginning to start their days. That's when we realized one significant obstacle: we looked nothing like the Venusian people.

Every single one that we could see had blue and purple hair, and with Noah's brown locks and my and Kira's blonde ones, we would stand out like a sore thumb. Then Noah came up with a surprising plan.

"Well, I found this in Emily's bag." He'd announced, pulling a small container, similar to a contact lens case, out of his cousin's blue bag. He flipped it open to reveal a small computer-chip like device.

"Oh, is that one of the cyber cloaks." Kira had exclaimed, grinning when she saw it. I glanced at her.

"How do you know what a cyber cloak looks like?" Calla hadn't included it in their training because shed felt that there would definitely be a repeat of 'the Winter Formal of '15'. She'd refused to explain what is was but cited it as the main reason why giving the kids access to the cybermasks would probably be a bad idea. Kira had giggled softly at my question.

"Oh, that's between Em and I." She'd replied simply. I decided it was better not to ask and turned to Noah.

"There's two of them, right? They come in pairs." I'd questioned, having used them with the League before. He grimaced.

"Em probably has the other one. She likes messing around with tech like this when she's working on stuff, kinda like a stress ball." He'd waved his hand dismissively. "But I figure, I can use this one to do a little recon."

"Recon for what?" Kira had asked, sounding a little distracted. She was rubbing her shoulder with one hand, a concerned frown on her face.

"What's wrong?" I questioned immediately. She shook her head.

"Nothing. What's the recon for?" She repeated her question, focusing again.

"We need to know if any of the others beat us here or not." I'd explained. Noah nodded.

"Even if they aren't here already, getting a bit of a sense about the layout and maybe find out some information about where our parents are being held would be a good idea." He added. He glanced at me. "Em did an update on the cyber cloaks' invisibility option before we left, so why don't I use that to get past the guards, then blend in with the crowd and see what I can find?"

"Fine. We'll wait here." I'd decided after some thinking. "Be back here in two hours and no later, or we're coming in after you."

That had been one hour and fifty-two minutes ago and so far, there was no sign of him.

I glanced over at Kira, noticing that she'd been quiet for a long time. She was still sitting behind a fallen log, one knee pulled up to her chest, but she was staring distractedly into the trees behind us, scratching at her shoulder. "Is there something wrong with your shoulder?" I asked, frowning at her. She stopped scratching when I said that but didn't look away from the trees.

"No." She answered, though she sounded a little uncertain herself. When she didn't elaborate, I sat up to give her a once over.

"Kira?" I pressed her. Her lips twisted down into a frustrated scowl.

"We need to find Kameron." She said. I sighed.

"We will, Kira, but first-" I began. Her head snapped back at me and I stopped short, surprised by the mix of emotion in her eyes. I couldn't tell if it was worry or fear or anger, but it wasn't a look I expected to see on little Miss Sunshine.

"No, now." She insisted. "He's in trouble, we need to find him."

I licked my lips, reconsidered my words, then gently asked, "what sort of trouble?"

Her shoulders dropped. "I don't know." She admitted, worry bleeding into her voice. "But he's in trouble, and we need to find him. Right now."

"Okay, and how do you propose we do that?" I asked slowly. She faltered at my question. "Kira, I'm not dismissing your worries. If you say he's in trouble, I believe you. But we can't help him if we can't find him, and the only way I know how to find him is using Chase's chip. If you have a better idea, we'll talk about it, but right now, I think the best way to help Kameron is by continuing on the current plan."

She nodded, leaning back against the log. I could see her knee bouncing anxiously. "Okay." She mumbled softly, beginning to rub at her shoulder again.

"He'll be okay." I added softly. She looked at me, worry shining in her eyes. "He's tough, and for all we know Naomi or the others are with him. Whatever trouble he is in, he can handle it."

"I hope you're right." She sighed.

"I'm sure he is." Kira and I both jumped as Noah seemed to materialize before us. He smirked a little at our reactions. "Sorry."

"No, you're not." I grumbled, getting to my feet. "What did you find?"

"Are Kameron and the others here?" Kira added, leaning halfway across the log. He shook his head.

"Not yet, but to be fair, we made pretty decent time all things considered." He reminded her. She nodded though she seemed to deflate. "I did find out one important thing about Venusian fashion though."

"Venusian fashion?" I repeated, looking at him. He nodded.

"Mom always said it was important to pay attention to fashion trends. And apparently," he knelt down and started digging through his bag before pulling out two blue and purple wigs "wigs are in this season."

"Why are wigs part of their fashion?" Kira asked, raising her hands in time to catch the longer of the two wigs.

"Why do girls wear heels even though they hurt? Just because I pay attention to fashion doesn't mean I understand it. Here." He handed me the second wig. I pulled it on, adjusting it as he continued, pulling out a set of black cloaks from his bag. "I also grabbed these - our clothes might make us stand out a bit too much."

"Smart thinking." I commented. Kira nodded, patting the top of her long, purple and blue wig.

"Does it look alright?" She asked. I nodded and glanced at Noah. He smiled and tapped the cyber cloak chip, now resting against his neck, and his hair, clothes, and eyes suddenly transformed into those of a Venusians. "What about the eyes? Ours don't look right."

"Yeah, but you both have such pale eye colors that I think we'll be fine. Just don't go staring into strangers' eyes." He advised as we began to make our way down the hilltop and into the valley.

"So, what did you find out?" I questioned, buckling the front of the robe to hide the blue of my uniform.

"Not much. There's no sign of non-Venusian life at all down there, neither our team or the adults." Noah explained. "So, do we just wanna hang down there until the others show up, whenever that may be? If we hang out in the woods, they'll never find us."

"That is such a stupid plan." Kira grumbled, frustrated. I nodded.

"Well, given that this was initially supposed to be done by an invasion force of our world's strongest heroes, I very much agree. This is a very stupid plan." I announced. "But stupid plans seem to be our thing, so why not? Yeah, let's do that."

Kira's POV

We entered the city without much difficulty; no one seemed to notice three random 'Venusians' entering the city, or perhaps it was so common that it wasn't worth paying attention to. The city seemed awfully busy. Perhaps it was some sort of holiday or even weekend (I wasn't sure if they had weekends here, but perhaps they did). There were kids playing in the dirt streets, passing a flat, triangular item between them in a grassy area, and adults talking each other as they headed for a more populated part of the city. I watched as a group walked into a large, heavily decorated dome-like building.

"They're a religious people." Noah hummed to Ben and I as we passed by. "I heard some kids saying their parents were dragging them to something called 'Ishus' later and I saw a man in a long, gold cloak enter before everyone else."

Ben hummed in response as we walked past the building. "I think most people are heading down that way. Don't know why though." He commented, nodding towards a larger group of Venusians. We all started to follow after them, but I stopped when something suddenly hit the back of my legs. Turning, I found a triangular item at my feet. I picked it up just as one of the Venusian boys ran up to me.

"Here." I handed it back to him and he smiled.

"Hey, you want to play with us?" He asked. I glanced around, realizing that Ben and Noah were already gone. "Hello?"

"Sorry, I just lost my friends." I apologized. He nodded.

"I'm Julian." He introduced himself.

"Jaime." I lied. Sera's planet was known for everyone having similar sounding names and on the off chance that Venusia was the same, I didn't think my own name would be a good idea.

"Well, cool to meet you, Jaime." He replied, smiling at me charmingly. I rubbed my shoulder absently, smiling back. "You new around here?"

"I'm visiting from another village. My friends and I came here to look for work." I lied quickly. He nodded. "And I seem to have lost them."

"Maybe I can help you find them." He offered just as one of his friends, a girl with mostly blue hair, came running up. "Oh, Joni, this is Jaime. She's new in town."

"Cool. Nice bag." She complimented. I glanced at my bag, which was only partially hidden underneath my cloak. The Davenport industries logo was somewhat visible. "Where you get it?"

"An off-world trader." I replied. She looked at me expectantly. "I don't remember the name."

"Oh." She looked disappointed. "It's cool. Wish I had one like that. Mine broke not that long ago and I need to buy a new one."

I glanced at the bag, then at her. "I think I could maybe help you with that."

Noah's POV

"I don't see her." Ben sighed, looking through the crowd. "Or maybe I do, but I don't know. All these blue and purple haired people look alike."

"I think they should be called blue-nettes and purpl-ettes. You know, like brunettes, but for blue and purple hair" Kira declared, sliding in beside me. Her arms were hidden underneath her cloak, but it was clear that she was carrying something. "Sorry, I got distracted talking to some kids."

"Just stay close. I don't want to lose you in the crowd." Ben scolded her, though I could tell he was relieved. "What's in your arms?"

"Turn around." Kira told me. I did as I was asked.

"I swear, if that's an animal, we're not keeping it." I told her sternly as I felt her unzipping my bag.

"Look, I brought home a hurt squirrel one time, and if Emily and Kameron can have a pet in the penthouse, I don't see why I can't." She argued. "But relax, it's just my supplies."

"Why do you - where's your bag?" Ben questioned. I turned to see that Kira was indeed missing her bag and had just dumped all of her stuff into mine.

"Oh, I traded it to some kids." She explained. At my and Ben's exasperated looks, she smiled and held up three paper slips. "You see where everyone's heading? That's a food sharing market, kinda like a buffet. I traded my bag for three tickets and directions."

"You...bought us lunch?" I chuckled. I wasn't going to argue - the rations we'd brought hadn't been particularly appetizing - but it did seem odd. Kira shrugged.

"I guess, but since a lot of people are going to be there, I thought we might be able to ask around about our parents, see if anyone knows anything."

"We'll have to be careful, but...it's not a bad plan." Ben admitted, much to Kira's joy. "Nice job."

"Thank you. Follow me." She twisted around and began to lead us towards the market, a bit of a spring in her step.

"She seems less cranky." I commented, half under my breath. Ben glanced at me. "You have to admit, ever since I got back from my recon trip, she's been off."

"She's got it in her head that Kameron's in trouble. I think it's a twin thing." He explained back. I nodded thoughtfully.

"Think he's alright?" I asked. He pressed his lips together in a thin line.

"I hope so." He replied before shaking himself and catching up to Kira, who was quickly losing us in her haste towards the market. "Kiki, slow your roll a bit. Stay together."

Xxx

"This is surprisingly good." I admitted, taking another bite of my food. Sera had once made us all a traditional Calderan meal as a treat, a meal that had tasted like burnt asparagus, rubber, and spicy onions. It hadn't agreed with any of us, except for Charlotte who'd surprised us all and delighted Sera by asking for seconds, and I'd mostly expected the Venusian food to taste very much the same. That proved to be a false assumption that I wouldn't make twice. I didn't recognize any of the food on my plate, but it reminded me of cold vegetables, a fish of some sort, and, believe it or not, peanut butter. It was no match for my dad's cooking, but it was still better than anything Calla had cooked for us while I stayed with her, so that was something.

"That was good." Ben agreed, leaning back in his chair. He rested his head on his hand, thinking.

"What's up?" Kira questioned, still eating.

"Just wondering about the others." He scowled. "It's what, midday now? Past it? It was a three hour walk from where we split up, and it's been half a day since we should have arrived."

"We got lost." I pointed out. "I mean, we only got here a few hours ago ourselves, and we had the map and stuff."

"Yeah." He agreed, still thinking. "Still, they should be here soon."

"They'll likely come here." I reasoned. "Food cooking outside, a crowd of people? Even if they don't enter the city, they'll want to know what's going on and maybe even stock up on supplies. This does seem like the place they'd go to."

"Maybe." He agreed. He looked around. We were sitting at a table in the middle of the eating area, with Venusians sitting around us and chatting about their days and stuff. Listening in on them, you could hear a variety of topics, ranging from work (one complaining about getting extra work from someone named Jessalyn) to fashion (what was up with these people and wigs?). If you were looking to overhear town gossip, this seemed like the place. "Alright, I say we hang here for a while longer, see if we overhear anything that might be useful."

"Alright." Kira got up. "In that case, I will be right back. I'm going to go find the little lady's room. Thank god the Venusians have bladders." And with that final charming statement, she walked away to find the bathrooms. I turned to Ben once she was gone.

"We should grab more food, put it away for the others." He mentioned. "We have all the supplies with us - odds are, no one's eaten all day and won't eat until they get here."

"That's a good idea." I agreed. "We could use the smaller bags to carry it, so it doesn't spill into the rest of our supplies."

"Kam and the girls aren't gonna love that." He chuckled, pausing briefly, his eyes locking onto something behind me. I went to turn but he flicked his fingers, motioning for me to stay. "Don't."

I looked at him in confusion but didn't turn around. "What's up?"

"Guys wearing armor. Looks like they're guards on their lunch break. It's fine; I don't think they're here for us." He murmured quietly. I heard the chair behind me scrape across the ground. "So yeah, I don't think Kam's going to like it if you ruin his bag like that."

"The kid can suck it up." I replied easily, keeping my tone light. I went back to eating, trying not to tense up. My disguise was foolproof - at least, until the battery died, but I thought I had a few hours before that would be a problem - but Kira and Ben were wearing wigs. Not exactly the best disguise in the world. Thankfully, the guards paid us absolutely no attention, beginning to talk as they ate.

"Hey, think you can take my shift tomorrow? Journee's been nagging me to take Joel shopping. Kid needs newskoragain." One of them was saying.

"Can't. I got doubled up at the Court tomorrow." The other replied. The first groaned.

"You too? MyPolu, how long are they going to be pushing these extra hours on us?" He sighed. His friend chuckled darkly.

"Blame thosedumhuvieoff-worlders. I'm half considering just stepping back tomorrow and letting the community have their way with them." He replied. I stopped, my spork-like utensil half up to my lips. Ben and I met each other's gaze.

"Yeah, well, Lord Jax and the Council's word is law." His friend grumbled.

"Doesn't mean we have to agree with him." The second sighed.

Were they talking about my parents? Or the others? What did they know about them?

Suddenly, Kira re-entered my line of sight, standing at the edge of the eating area. She didn't approach though, and one look at her pale face and a piece of paper clenched between her hands told me that something was wrong. "C'mon." I told Ben, keeping my tone low and leaving no room for argument. I got to my feet, grabbing my plate and utensils. Ben followed my lead, keeping care to not walk too fast or to do anything that would attract attention.

"They're going to-" Kira started the second we were within earshot, but Ben shook his head, silencing her, and taking her by the arm. He led her away from the eating area and into a quieter area.

"Alright, what's going on?" He asked her. She shakily handed us the piece of paper.

"They're going to kill her." She murmured. I looked at the paper, confused. It was a flyer, half in English and half in Venusian, but I understood the gist of it. It was advertising a protest at some place called 'The Caelus Court'.

"Calling for the death penalty for the Calderan warrior." Ben read. He looked at us. "The Calderan warrior."

"So, either that's Skylar, or Sera has seriously pissed off a lot of people in a very short amount of time." I muttered.

"I found it on a bulletin board near the bathrooms. There were a couple of people my parents' age talking about it." Kira explained, her words coming out in a panicked rush. "They were saying how she's a war criminal who came here with an attack force and how keeping her alive here is 'an insult to those who have given their lives to stop the Calderans'. They're going to kill her Ben, tomorrow."

"There were guards saying how they were considering letting the people do it." I glanced at Ben. "Skylar, and the rest of our parents, could be dead by tomorrow."

"Jesus." Ben breathed, shaking his head. "Alright. We need to move faster than we'd initially planned."

"The others aren't here yet." Kira reminded him, scratching her shoulder anxiously.

"We might not have time to wait." Ben decided. He let out a breath, then nodded. "Alright, we'll give them the rest of the day to show up, and if they don't, then we'll have to act without them. We'll use the protest tomorrow as a diversion to break the adults out."

"It won't be easy." I mentioned. Ben nodded.

"I know. But I don't think we have another option." He replied. "We break them out tomorrow, with or without the others."

Ben's POV

I spent the rest of the day hoping, praying that Naomi would step out of the trees. Or if not her, at least somebody from our team. Someone who could help us, because I didn't love the odds of the three of us being able to break the Elite Force out of this Caelus Court place they were being held. But as the day wore on, that hope began to wither. By time we had to retreat to the trees - Noah's cyber cloak was dying - and find somewhere to spend the night, it was clear that we were going to be on our own the next day. We made camp far enough away that Kira was able to make a fire without alerting the Venusians to our location. Noah had been practically buzzing with nerves and even though Kira's worries about Kameron had lessened ('I think he's okay' she'd said after a few hours, sounding relieved) and her nervous habit of scratching her shoulder had stopped, I could still tell she was anxious about the next day, so I'd offered to take the first watch in order to give them a chance to rest up.

"Please, Naomi." I murmured to myself, looking up at the dark sky. I needed her here, to help with all this. Neither option was great: either I wait for the others and risk letting the people kill Skylar, or I go in with two heroes with minimal experience, one of which only being fifteen years old, and try to rescue them ourselves with no backup and no way to even tell the others our plan. I was between a rock and a hard place, and without the others here, without Naomi here, that wasn't going to change. But by time the first of the planet's large stars began to rise on the horizon, there was still no sign of the others.

And so, we found ourselves wading through the angry crowds in the morning, Noah sporting a new wig and cloak stolen by Kira prior to the protest. The atmosphere of the Caelus Court - a large courtyard in front of a heavily protected building near the tree line at the far North end of the city - was tense and hateful, people chanting 'Kill the Calderan' in unison with each other.

"My god." Kira shrank back against me as we were jostled by the crowd we were trying to get through. "They really hate her."

"She's a warrior from an enemy planet." I murmured regretfully.

"They called them here though. I thought they wanted peace." Noah ground out somewhere behind me. I couldn't see him – he was using the last of the cyber cloak's battery to keep him invisible – but I could just picture the angry look on his face.

"Clearly, that's not what they intended." I replied. "Let's just focus on getting the team out, then we can deal with why they were brought here."

I began to push through the crowd vigorously, Kira falling in behind me so she wouldn't get swept away by the crowd. We eventually reached the front, where the guards were clearly struggling to keep the people at bay. While that was a little scary when you thought about that many people wanting Skylar dead, it was exactly what we were relying on.

"Kira, you ready?" I glanced back at the girl. She nodded and ducked her head, focusing for a moment. Before long, I heard the angry shouts turn into cries of surprise as the trees at the edge of the city burst into flames.

The guards were momentarily distracted, and that's all the crowd needed to surge forward, to try and charge into the building the moment the guards lowered their defenses. We lunged forward with them, but unlike the others, we had an invisible man on our side. When the guards went to push the protesters back, Noah sped into them, knocking them to the ground. The protesters fought their way forward, getting the attention of the guards, while Kira and Noah caused more distractions with her fire and his unseen attacks.

Amidst all the chaos, Kira, Noah, and I managed to sneak past distracted guards and into the massive building. "In here." I felt a hand grab my arm, then I was pulled through the closest door. Once inside, I realized it was some kind of file room. Noah flickered back into visibility before us.

"That's the last of the battery." He announced. I nodded.

"Alright, step one's over. Step two: find the adults." I decided. I looked around. "They have to have a computer system here, right? I don't suppose any of you know how to hack into that kind of stuff?"

"My great-uncle Douglas taught me basic hacking stuff. I'm no tech expert, but I can make do. Hopefully." Noah replied.

"Hopefully is better than knocking down doors until we find them." I muttered. "Alright, computer room, any ideas on where we'd find it?"

"Well..." Kira frowned, raising her hands towards the door. "Computers generate a lot of heat, right?"

Noah and I exchanged looks. "I guess?" Noah shrugged. Kira nodded.

"We follow the heat." She decided. I nodded.

"Alright. Stay close." I ordered. I slowly cracked open the door and looked outside. The hallway was empty, the rest of the guards having gone outside to deal with the protesters. "Follow me."

I carefully led them through the hall, keeping pace with Kira who was using her powers to try and track the biggest source of heat. It was a trick that Kaz had used on a mission we'd been on before, so I knew it was reliable, but also required a lot of concentration to give an accurate reading.

Unfortunately, the moment we reached the end of the corridor, I knew she was going to lose it.

"It's close. Left side. I can tell." She hissed to me. I nodded, looking around the corner.

"Yeah, I'm guessing it's the room with two guards in front of it." I sighed. I glanced at Noah, then at Kira. "Alright, Kira, you and I will handle the guards, then keep watch. Noah, focus on getting to that computer and find where they're keeping the adults. Got it?" They both nodded in understanding. "Alright, go!"

I lunged forward first, using my strength to propel myself from the ground into the air. I tackled the nearest guard to the ground before he could raise his weapon, and I landed a heavy punch to his jaw. I heard the other guard shout in surprise and saw, out of the corner of my eye, him raise his spear like a blaster, but Kira took care of it before he could. She sent a large ball of fire, about the size of a baseball, towards him, forcing him to duck in order to avoid being burnt. I hit the guard underneath me again and stood up to help Kira, but instead ended up watching as she hit the guard hard enough to knock him backwards. He hit the heavy metal door and sunk to the floor, unconscious.

"Oops." Kira looked at him wide-eyed, then at me. "I didn't mean to hit him that hard."

I couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction. "You did good, kid."

"Nice job." Noah's voice died in the wind as he sped past us, into the computer room. We followed him in and found him standing over a high-tech computer consol. He already had it activated and was looking through the complicated writing.

"Uh, it's not in English. I thought most planets used English now?" He questioned. Kira shook her head.

"Most planets use one of five basic languages in order to keep things simple, but only two of them are from Earth." She reminded him. She looked over the writing with a frown. "This doesn't look like Mandarin either though."

"Can you do it or not?" I questioned as I dragged the two unconscious guards into the room. If he couldn't get into the security system, I had a back up plan that involved searching the building, but it carried much more risk and could take a lot longer. I nodded at what I figured was a closet. "Kira, the door?"

"Yeah." She nodded quickly, rushing to open it for me.

"I think so. Just give me a minute." Noah replied. He began typing at the computer at high speed, pausing every now and then to try and figure out what the symbols meant while Kira helped me lock the guards in the closet. She went to help Noah with the computer, while I kept watch on the door.

"Ah-ha!" Noah exclaimed a few minutes later.

"What happened?" I called over my shoulder.

"Well, I can't read the writing, but I think I found the map of the building. And this cell area is three times as guarded as the rest of them." He announced. I nodded.

"That'll be where they're holding them." I declared. I glanced over my shoulder. "C'mon, let's go."

I turned and started down the hall just as another set of guards appeared, stepping into the corridor. "You really want to do this?" I questioned, beginning to charge at them.

Before I could even reach them though, one of the guards raised some sort of remote and pressed a button on the side of it. The moment he pushed down on that button, a high-pitched scream filled my head, drowning out everything else in the room.

I hit my knees in agony, my hands clutching at my head, unable to so much as move with the scream bouncing around my head. Vaguely, I was aware of Noah and Kira also screaming and the guards closing in on us. I was just barely able to raise my head in time to see one of the guards raise his weapon and bring it down towards me.

Noah's POV

I opened my eyes to the sideways view of a tiled floor and the remnants of a sonic, high-pitched scream still echoing in my head. I couldn't stop the high-pitched whine that escaped my lips as I rolled onto my stomach and slowly pushed myself onto my knees. To my left, Kira was one step ahead of me, already sitting on her knees with glowing cuffs encircling her wrists, while Ben, on my right, was just starting to wake up himself. We were all sitting in a dark room, with guards standing in front of the doors behind us.

As I started to get up, I felt an odd pain in my arm. Looking, I was shocked to see a needle mark in the crook of my elbow. "What did they give me?" I groaned. Kira shook her head.

"Took a blood sample. Couldn't stop them." She muttered. I scowled and pulled at my own restraints, feeling them vibrate in response. I could tell immediately that they were like our power-blocking cuffs back home; my speed was gone, as were Kira's fire and Ben's strength.

"Earth natives." Another voice hummed. I looked up to see two Venusians, a man and a woman, in golden clothes enter the room while trailed by a number of guards. "Like the others. I take it you're here for a botched rescue?" The woman questioned.

Kira opened her mouth to reply, but Ben cut her off. "Don't." He groaned, pushing himself up on shaky arms. "Don't."

"Who are you?" The Venusian man questioned, ignoring Ben. This time, Kira didn't make any attempt to speak, listening to Ben. "Why are you here?"

Ben and I sat up properly, copying Kira's position in solidarity. The woman examined us, then smiled to herself before turning to her partner. "Has your Earth contact reported in yet?"

He glanced at us, then slowly raised his chin. "Not yet." He answered cautiously. He turned to address us. "I take it you have something to do with Miss Krane's disappearance."

I had to stop myself from looking at Noah and Kira in surprise. We'd suspected that Lexi's benefactors had had something to do with our parents' disappearance, but I hadn't suspected it would be so easy to confirm it.

"I repeat my question," this time, the woman pulled out a glowing silver blade and held it under Kira's throat. "Who are you?"

Before any of us could decide whether or not to give her an answer, another Venusian woman in a long, black apron entered the room. "Lady Jaya, Lord Jax." She greeted with a nod. "We have the results of the prisoner's blood. Two of them are indeed familial matches to the other prisoners.

Other prisonersechoed in my mind. "I see. Thank you." Jax nodded at the Venusian, who nodded and left.

Ben let out a long, audible sigh. "My name is Aftershock, I'm a member of the New League of Heroes of Earth." He announced, glaring at the two Venusian leaders. "We have come for the Elite Force. Believe me, we are the best-case scenario, and you won't get another chance to hand them over so easily. If you do not release me, my companions, and the Elite Force immediately and allow us to leave in peace, the NLH will send an elite invasion force to retrieve us. If that means fighting and beating you, they will. We take care of our own."

Jax looked at Ben scrutinizingly. "Is that so?"

"It is." Ben didn't even blink. "On the other hand, if you let us go free, without any trouble, we'll leave you in peace. It's your choice, but I wouldn't advise incurring the wrath of the greatest superhero organization across the universe."

I held my breath as Jaya lowered herself so that she was crouching in front of him, her blade still resting under his chin. "I do not fear the New League of Heroes." She told him, smiling arrogantly. She raised her chin upwards to address the guards behind us. "Search the city and the surrounding areas. They wouldn't have come alone. Kill anyone you find."

"No!" I lunged at her, only to be pulled back by two guards. Jaya rolled her eyes at my outburst and stood up.

"Should we kill them?" She asked Jax, who shook his head.

"They might be useful to us." He decided. He waved over a few more guards. "Take them away."

"You'll regret this!" Ben growled as we were dragged to our feet and pulled away. They roughly pushed us down a couple of hallways until we reached a guarded metal door. They opened it up, revealing a set of stairs leading into a dark room. They shoved Ben in first, the older boy barely keeping himself from falling down the stairs, and just barely being able to keep Kira from face-planting when they shoved her in next. They pushed me in next and unfortunately, with so many on the stairs already, my hands bound, and the shove not exactly being gentle, I stumbled and fell. Ben tried to grab me like he did Kira, but I weighed a little more than the 5'4 girl and we both ended up tumbling onto the cold, hard ground at the base of the stairs.

Kira came rushing down the stairs after us, but when a voice called "Noah?", it wasn't hers that spoke.

I looked up instantly, having not heard that voice for months. "Mom?"

Chapter 9: The Rocky Road to Venusia

Chapter Text

SEPTEMBER 2038

Chase's POV

"No, you're definitely cheating." Dani was mid-accusation when I walked out of the main deck and into the lounge area on the viewing deck. She, along with most of the others, were in the booth near the large viewing window playing Yahtzee. Oliver was the only one absent, having just relieved me from a six-hour-long shift of flying the ship.

"You can't cheat at Yahtzee, Dani." Bree pointed out, rolling her eyes as she handed the dice to Jaden. She glanced over at me as I approached the table. "Do you want to play? We're only one round in, so you can just go twice."

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" I shrugged, not having planned on going to bed just yet. Kaz slid over to give me room. "We never play at home."

Jaden smirked, rolling the dice. "CeeCee still hates the game?"

"Yeah. One day, she is going to tell me the story behind that, I swear." I replied, shaking my head. He chucked, glancing at the dice before choosing a few to save. "Emmy loves it though. You know she has a secret game under her bed? She, Charlotte, and their friend Ava play when Calla's not home."

"Are you serious?" Kaz laughed out loud, eyes bright with amusem*nt. "That's awesome. The biggest 'secret' either of the twins have is Kam's so-called secret love of romance novels."

"Of course it is." Skylar smiled, glancing at me. "It's her birthday today, right? Emily?"

I nodded, glancing at my Davenwatch, which was still set to Earth time. "Seventeen-years-old as of 3 hours and 16 minutes ago."

"I'm sorry you had to miss it." Bree gave me a sympathetic smile. Seraphina, Kameron, and Kira were all summer babies, o we should return home their birthdays pass, but Emily, Noah, and Justine would all have celebrated theirs while we were gone. "I'm sure Calla will do something special."

"I know, and we already talked about how to make it up to her." I replied. "There's a pet-friendly student dorm in Cambridge. It's more expensive than the regular student dorms, but Calla and I are going to splurge and get a suite there so she can take Helix with her."

"Oh, she'll love that." Dani grinned. "She's about as attached to that dog as Kameron is to Josh."

Kaz suddenly laughed. "Oh, I totally forgot about Josh. How do you think Calla is going to react when she realizes that Josh isn't a guinea pig?"

I looked at him, confused. "He's not?" I asked.

Kaz shook his head. "Josh is a tarantula, man."

I stared at him for a long moment. "I am not responsible if my wife kills you." I declared, just as the ship suddenly shuddered violently, as if we'd hit something hard.

"What the hell was that?" Bree questioned, bracing herself against the table.

Skylar slid out of her seat, rushing towards the main deck. "Oliver?" She called as we all followed her. "What was that?"

"I don't know!" Oliver shouted as we ran onto the main deck. He was at the helm, frantically pressing buttons as the ship rattled again. "I think we were just shot."

"By who? We're in the middle of deep space, Oliver. No one is shooting at us." Kaz argued as I slid past him in order to get a better view at the scanner on the left of the helm's controls.

"Someone is shooting at us." I confirmed. Kaz's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"I stand corrected. I apologize." He offered. Oliver nodded.

"Thank you, I appreciate that." He replied calmly. Bree rolled her eyes.

"Who's shooting at us?" She demanded, looking at me.

"No idea. Move." Oliver didn't have to be told twice, sliding out of his chair the moment I spoke so that I could take control of the ship. I gripped one of the control sticks in my right hand, the left swiping through the scanners to try and determine exactly what our situation was. Behind me, the others were all abuzz, asking questions of both Oliver and I to try and figure out the situation. I tuned them out, taking in all that the scanners were telling me.

"Alright." I cleared my throat, getting their attention. "Four unidentified ships on our rear, two on the left and two on the right. Skylar," the Calderan woman straightened up when I said her name, "the defense systems are in the stern. Kaz, Dani, turrets." All three of them ran off to their assigned stations. "Jaden, you're on comms. Everyone else, sit down, strap in, and shut up. I need to focus."

It was pretty blunt, but I didn't have time to be nice. Thankfully, the others all had the sense to follow my orders without argument.

"Ready."Skylar announced a few moments later as I pulled on a headset.

"I see them."Dani added."Cool ships."

"Identifiable?"Jaden questioned from his seat across the room. I could just make out the window he'd pulled up on his screen; it looked like the Coalition's intergalactic database of ships.

"They're...dark? I don't know. Sorry, Jay."Dani apologized.

"Hey, Dee. First to hit their target gets to pick next year's vacation spot?"Kaz suggested. I rolled my eyes, using one hand to bring the radar up to eye level. I could see the four ships closing in on us. They were all smaller than our ship, likely single-man crafts, but they were wicked fast.

"Skylar, defenses?" I demanded as I pulled up on the controls, increasing our altitude in hopes of getting out of their immediate range of fire. If I could get Dani and Kaz into positions where they had clear lines of fire, we might be able to get rid of them.

"Front shielding is at 89%, rear shields are at 67%."Skylar announced just as another blast shook the ship."Make that 56%."

"Alright," I paused for a second, mentally calculating the power of the ships' blasts, "pull power from the front shields – they're firing on us from behind. But just take what you need - I don't want the front shielding to drop below 60, you hear me?"

"Copy that."Skylar confirmed."Won't last long if we can't take these guys out quick though."

"You mean like this?"Kaz called, sounding triumphant for a second. Then, with an annoyed curse, he added,"Never mind; that did not go as planned."

"What happened?" Bree questioned from where she and Oliver were seated, both looking particularly frustrated by the fact that the most they were able to do to help was put on headsets and listen in on the others.

"They're shielded. It's gonna take more than single shots to take 'em out."Kaz explained, his voice strained, the sound of him and Dani firing in the background.

"Ships that size don't typically have shielding." Oliver mentioned, sounding surprised.

"I bet you're glad Douglas suggested the weapons systems now." Bree commented. I didn't have a chance to voice my agreement as I swerved and dodged with the ship, trying to avoid the blasts from the ships, but they had the advantage of numbers.

"Guys!" I shouted, gritting my teeth as we took another hit.

"Front at 61%, rear at 62%."Skylar warned. I cursed.

"Take reserve power from the frontal weapon systems." I told her, not having many other options for her. "Dani, Kaz, stop screwing around and get rid of them now."

"Hey, do you want to switch places?"Dani retorted before suddenly letting out a delighted laugh."Ha! Finally!"

"You shot one down?" Oliver asked hopefully, grinning.

"Nope, but I did break through the shielding."She exclaimed.

"And now I'm gonna finish him off."Kaz added.

"Not if I do it first."Dani argued. A moment passed, and suddenly the entire ship shook from the force of a violent explosion. It was immediately followed by something heavy hitting us from behind. I didn't know what it was exactly, but it was enough to knock us off our current trajectory, despite my efforts to stay on track. The lights on the deck began to flash red, warning of serious damage having been done to the ship, and an alarm began to echo through the entire ship.

"If one of you missed and hit our own ship..." I warned. For a number of reasons it should have been physically impossible for them to do that, but Dani and Kaz had proven many times in the past that anything was possible for them if it were chaotic enough, so who knows?

"We didn't miss!"Kaz protested.

"Yeah, but we did make the enemy ship explode."Dani added, tone sounding unexpectedly concerned by what should have been a triumph.

"And why is that a bad thing?" Oliver questioned.

"Because the explosion threw the other ship into us. It crashed through our shields, Chase."Skylar warned. I glanced over at Jaden, craning my neck to try and see his screens from here. Mine told of damage and warned against continuing this space battle, but his would have the specific details on how badly we were hurt.

"Jaden?" I called, turning my attention back to the sky. One of the remaining ships had flown ahead and began targeting us from the front. Unfortunately, this ship was never meant to be a warship and Skylar had taken what was left of the power for the frontal weapons.

"Severe damage to the left engine and several internal functions." Jaden announced. "Not to mention, the left side's shielding is completely done."

"If we take a hit there..."Skylar trailed off as I continued to try and dodge the incoming attacks. With that kind of damage and only one of the attackers out of the picture, there was no way we were going to walk away the victors of this fight.

"Understood. Jaden?" I glanced over at him. "Is the hyperdrive operational?"

"It is." He confirmed after a moment. I nodded.

"Alright. If you're not strapped in, I highly recommend it." I instructed, hitting a button on the right control stick, then pulling back on both of them. "Brace yourselves!" I shouted before punching both control sticks forward, sending us hurtling into uncharted space.

Kaz's POV

I let out a breath as the ship finally slowed to what felt like a normal speed. The sound of the enemy firing on us were long gone, as were the sounds of the ship's alarms. The lights in the turret were still that ominous red, but without the screaming alarms, they seemed to lose some of their edge.

I took a moment to steady my breathing, letting my stomach settle a little – I'd never liked the hyperdrive because of the way it made my stomach flip, though I supposed we didn't really have a choice in using it to escape the attackers – then adjusted my headset. "Is everyone alright?" I asked, flicking the switch for the microphone. I frowned, confused when I didn't even hear static come through the headset. "Dee? Oliver? Anyone?"

The line stayed dead. I pulled of my headset, concerned, and quickly slid down the ladder from the turret into the viewing deck. To my relief, Dani was already below, one hand still hanging onto a rung of her ladder. "Are you alright?" She demanded, wide eyes scanning me for injury. I nodded and gestured at her. "I'm okay. My comms are dead though."

"I turned off the comm system." Chase announced, suddenly appearing behind us. Dani and both jumped, neither of us having seen him in the dim light.

"Jesus!" I swore, my heart beating out of my chest. "Don't sneak up on that people like that, man!"

"Sorry." He replied, pulling out a flashlight. He flipped it on, shining the beam onto the floor. "Better?"

"Marginally." Dani replied. "Why'd you turn off the comms?"

"We don't know how much damage we took. I want everything unnecessary off until we figure out how screwed we are." He explained. Dani and I exchanged looks.

"Sorry about that." "Our bad." We both apologized at once. Chase waved it off.

"Not your fault." He assured us before nodding further down the hall. "I'm gonna go check out the engine, see how badly things are damaged. I'll meet you on the main deck in a few."

He didn't wait for our response, too focused on his task. I turned to Dani and gestured towards the direction Chase had come in. "After you," I offered. She smiled and rolled her eyes before beginning to lead us back to the main deck. "So, just to be sure we're on the same page, I did win, right?"

"What?" Her brow furrowed, confused. "No, I won. I shot him down."

"I'm fairly certain it was my shot that blew him up." I argued. She shook her head.

"No, it was mine." She insisted. I narrowed my eyes at her, still thinking I was right. "Okay, I wanted to go to Paris, where did you want to go?"

"Disneyland." I replied, surprised she hadn't been expecting that. She gave me a loving, exasperated look. "It's the last summer before the kids start their superhero training, Dee. I want to make it special."

"By going to Disneyland?" She asked, laughing a little.

"We go to Paris every four years." I pointed out. She shrugged.

"Well, if you didn't want me to love it so much, you should have proposed to me on Splash Mountain instead." She pointed out. I half-shrugged; she had a point. "I think there's a Disneyland in Paris."

"Deal." I grinned as we walked onto the main deck. Bree was in the pilot's seat now, keeping her eyes straight ahead while Jaden looked over the scanners. Oliver and Skylar were over at the comms station.

"Hey," I greeted as Dani and I walked over to them. "What're you doing?"

"Chase didn't have time to put coordinates into the hyperdrive, so we're trying to figure out where we ended up." Oliver explained.

"And where we are is light-years off course." Skylar muttered.

"How bad is that?" Dani questioned, her tone serious. Skylar sighed.

"I know it was his only choice, but..." She muttered before leaning back in the chair and looking up at us. "The hyperdrive was already installed in the ship, but we were never going to use it."

"Because it drains too much in fuel." I nodded, remembering how relieved I'd been when Chase had explained that at the start of the trip - I really hated hyperdrives. Skylar nodded.

"So, we're light-years off course with a lot less fuel than we'd originally planned." She confirmed.

"With a severely damaged engine and life support system." Chase announced, stalking back in.

"The life support is damaged?" That distracted Bree from flying. Chase nodded solemnly. "But we need that to breathe."

"Calla installed a back-up system as a precaution. Rightly so, apparently." He explained. "But it's not strong enough to fully replace the original – it'll only last twelve hours. The engine won't even last half that, which, by the way, we're gonna have to shut off in order to repair."

"So, we have to land." Jaden sighed. He looked at Skylar. "And you just said our fuel wouldn't last."

"How off course are we?" Chase questioned. Skylar shook her head.

"If we don't use the hyperdrive, it'll delay our arrival by three weeks, which we thankfully have just enough supplies for." She replied. "If we do use the hyperdrive, we can make it there in the same amount of time, but we risk running out of fuel mid flight. And if that happens..."

The 'we're screwed' went unsaid, but we all knew it. "Alright." Chase rubbed his forehead. "Alright, either way we have to land for repairs."

"And then?" Bree pushed. Chase looked at us.

"And then we'll vote on whether or not we risk the hyperdrive. Something like this should be a group decision." He assured her. We all exchanged looks.

"So, where are we supposed to land?" I asked the obvious question. "I don't see any planets out the window."

"There's a planet, about five hours from here." Oliver announced, looking over the star charts Skylar had pulled up. "Benzia?"

"Uninhabited, but oxygen levels are pretty close to Earth's." Skylar mentioned. Chase nodded.

"Let's just hope the engine lasts long enough for us to make it there." He glanced at his sister. "Want me to take over?"

"No, I'm more refreshed than you." She offered him a smile. "I've got it."

"Okay, now that we've got a plan, can we talk about what all that was?" I questioned. "Who were those guys?"

We all exchanged looks. None of us had an answer, but we all knew now that this trip was not going to be as simple as we'd initially thought.

Chase's POV

"Pirates, really, Oliver?" I heard Bree laugh as she zipped between where Oliver was working on the engine and where I was sitting at the life support control system. The wiring between the life support systems and their power source had been damaged beyond repair, so I was trying to reroute how they took the power. If I couldn't get it, we'd risk them malfunctioning mid-flight, but I thought I finally had a handle on it.

"Pirates?" I echoed my sister, shaking my head. "That's your theory?"

"Do you know how many patients we got this year alone because their ships were attacked by pirates?" Oliver argued. "Like, 8."

"That doesn't sound like a lot." Bree pointed out.

"It is for pirate attacks." Oliver informed her. "It's like, twice the intergalactic average, and-huh." There was a pause. "Chase?"

"Yeah?" I got up when I heard his tone. "What's wrong?"

"How much fuel did you say we had left?" He questioned.

"76%." I replied, frowning.

"That's what I thought you said. We might have a problem, then." He announced. "We're down to 73%."

"That's impossible." I told him, walking over. He wordlessly handed me the tablet with the information on it. I studied it for a moment - it did say 73% now, though I was sure it'd been 3% higher before – and then jogged up the platform into the ship, through the cargo bay and into the engine room. My fears were immediately confirmed. "sh*t."

The massive engine (the part that was only accessible from the inside anyway) filled up most of the room, leaving just about a 2-foot wide path from one end of the room to the other, a path that was now slick with a thin layer of translucent, amber liquid: fuel.

"What's...oh. That's not good." Oliver realized, he and Bree coming up behind me.

"What's going on?" My sister asked, unable to see past us with the doorway being as narrow as it was.

"There's a leak in the fuel tank." I explained. Her face paled when she realized the implications. "Bree, you go let the others know andwalk, don't run.The last thing we need is your speed kicking up sparks. Oliver and I will handle the spill."

"Okay..." She didn't move at first. "Are we going to have enough fuel to finish the trip?"

"Bree, go." I encouraged. She nodded and didn't delay any longer, slowly making her way out of the ship.

"Do we have enough fuel?" Oliver prompted. I glanced at him, the calculations already spinning around my head.

"Let's focus on dealing with the spill." I told him. "Then we'll see."

Kaz's POV

"I think it was pirates." I nodded to myself, sure that I was right. The others all exchanged amused looks. Jaden, Dani, Skylar, and I were standing around a rock formation fairly close to where we'd landed while we waited for Oliver, Bree, and Chase to finish working on the ship. We would have offered to help, but frankly, we'd probably just be in the way. "Oh, c'mon, Oliver's always talking about the pirate attacks in space."

"I'm still struggling to believe that there are actual space pirates." Jaden chuckled to himself. Skylar rolled her eyes.

"It just means someone who attacks and invades other ships. No eye patches or hooked hands or whatever you're picturing." She told him before turning to me. "And Oliver talks about pirate attacks for weeks after they happen. I don't know why you two find them so fascinating..."

"Because pirates." I insisted. "I'm serious."

"We know." Skylar and Jaden said in unison.

"Hang on, I think he might have a point." Dani held her hand out to stop them, smirking a little. She glanced over as Bree jogged over to us. "Hey, the boys done fixing the ship yet? Can we go?"

"No. We have a problem." She announced.

"We know. We were attacked, possibly by pirates." I replied easily. She pointedly ignored me.

"What's wrong, Bree?" Jaden asked, crossing his arms, and looking at her, his brow furrowed.

"The fuel tank is leaking." She announced. Instantly, the relaxed atmosphere evaporated.

"Oh no." Dani glanced at me before looking at Bree. "How screwed are we?"

"I...don't know." She admitted. "But I suspect we won't be risking that hyperdrive now."

"So that's three more weeks before we land on Venusia." Skylar sighed. Jaden grimaced, but nodded.

"Three weeks, it's not the end of the world. The kids will understand why we're a little late." He reasoned, though he sounded as disappointed as the rest of us felt. He glanced back at Bree. "I think we'll get back after Noah's exams though. You think CeeCee will be okay with him moving in with her for a week or so before we get back?"

Bree nodded, but Skylar sighed. "It's not the kids I'm worried about. Sera could benefit from spending time with kids her age. But…" a pained expression crossed her face, "the longer it takes us to get to Venusia, the longer the war will go on and the more people that will die."

I sighed, not knowing what to say to that. I'd known that there'd been a war on Caldera and I, of course, had been worried about Oliver, Skylar, and Sera, but any time we talked, they made it sounds like it was a distant thing and that they were okay. Like it was happening on the other side of the planet and white it was sad and awful, they were okay. It was too easy to pretend that they hadn't been in the thick of it, watching the people they care about die.

"Skylar, I'm sorry." Jaden apologized to the Calderan, eyes sad. She nodded and licked her lips, clenching her fists. She took a deep breath, then turned to Bree.

"Is there anything the boys need? I'd like to get off this planet ASAP." She asked, her tone too even, too controlled. Bree hesitated, obviously not wanting to say no.

"Well, they kicked me out, but you can..." The speedster suddenly trailed off, eyes lifting to the sky. With a sharp breath, she pointed past Skylar at the pale green sky. "What is that?"

I followed her gaze, turning. For a moment, I couldn't see what she was talking about - sure, the sky was a weird color and there were a couple of birds flying in the distance, but that wasn't anything to get worked up about. Then, I realized; those weren't birds.

"Ships!" Skylar called unnecessarily as the ships sped toward us, slowing as they approached. "Dani, go get Chase and Oliver."

"Got it." Dani nodded, about to run off towards our ship when suddenly, the bottoms of both ships, now hovering in front of us, slid open. Out pour a dozen or so aliens, pale-skinned with blue or purple hair, carrying shields and spears.

I didn't recognize them, but Skylar straightened up immediately. "Venusians." She explained quickly to the rest of us before raising her hands slowly. "Hello there! We're the Elite-"

Skylar cut herself off, ducking just in time to avoid getting shot in the head by a blast coming from one of the Venusian's spears, weapons I did not even know could shoot until they all started shooting at us. We all immediately ducked for cover, using the outcropping rocks to shield us from the incoming series of blasts.

"We're here for the peace treaty!" Skylar shouted. If the Venusians heard her, they certainly gave no indication, choosing to instead continue showering us in waves of plasma blasts.

"Why are they attacking?" Bree demanded, trying to get a good view of the enemy without making herself too much of a target. "We're trying to stop the war!"

"I don't think they care, honey." Jaden commented, sitting on the ground next to her. His head was ducked as he pulled a small blaster out of an ankle holster I did not even know he had.

"Calla gave you a new toy?" Dani called from where the two of us were hiding behind another rock. Jaden chuckled, clicking off the safety.

"She didn't completely trust that things were going to go smoothly. Guess she was right." He called back before twisting around the rock, firing a couple of quick shots at the Venusians. The two blasts, light blue balls of energy, flew towards the Venusians. At first I thought they were going to miss - Jaden didn't have time to aim properly and as such, his shots went wide - but to my surprise, the blasts changed trajectory midair, locking onto two of the Venusians and slamming straight into their shields. "Thank you, CeeCee."

"This is going to put a real damper on the peace negotiations." Dani commented, craning her neck to try and get a better look. I chuckled, crouching partially above her.

"I go high, you go low?" I suggested. She smirked.

"Let's go." She replied, pushing herself off the ground, swinging her arm back, and throwing a ball of electricity along the ground towards the Venusians like a bowling ball. I flew into the air and sent a wave of fire towards the nearest three Venusians. I didn't manage to really scorch any of the Venusians, but I did get them to stop shooting for a moment and to back off. We were outnumbered almost 2-to-1, so getting them on the defensive instead of the offensive was the best play.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the important to remember that we Venusians surrounded by a blurry circle, most likely Bree speeding around the Venusian, while Jaden was still shooting from his spot behind the rock. Meanwhile, despite the shooting, Skylar had managed to get close enough to one of the Venusians to grab hold of his spear, and the two were currently grappling over it.

"Who are these guys?" Dani demanded, managing to hit one of the Venusians right in the chest, knocking him to the ground. But before she could really knock him out, two more took his place, targeting her. She dropped behind one of the outcropping rocks, then went to send another ball of electricity at the Venusians. She stopped mid-throw though. "Kaz!" She called, pointing. Following her gaze, I saw another Venusian ship approaching, this time from the other direction, and heading for our ship.

"Chase! Oliver!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, sending another wave of fire towards the Venusians, who were still shooting at us. Our ship wasn't that far, but there was no way they could hear me from there, and no way that I could reach them to warn them, even as Venusian fighters descended from the bottom of the newest ship.

"Kaz!" Dani shouted again, tone hardening, and I ducked instinctively. A shot went over my head, missing me by inches, and I was forced to turn my attention back to fight in front of me and away from the newest batch of enemies.

Chase's POV

"Well, we aren't going to be able to use the hyperdrive now." I grumbled angrily, shaking my head. The fuel tank had been an easy enough fix, thankfully not being too badly damaged, but it had already lost a significant amount of fuel before we could.

"How screwed are we?" Oliver asked, pausing in wiping up the fuel spill to glance over his shoulder at a muffled sound coming from outside, most likely Kaz, by the sounds of it. He was probably messing around, trying to pass the time until we were finished. Thankfully, that was going to be really soon. Oliver had managed to clean most of the spill in the time that it'd taken me to fix the fuel tank, but we were still going to need to wash it down first. The last thing we wanted was a fire in here.

"I don't want to jinx it...but if nothing else goes wrong, we'll still make it. Three weeks late, but we'll get there." I stood up as the sound from outside got louder, transforming from muffled bangs to something almost familiar. "What are they doing out there?"

"It's just Kaz and Dee." Oliver dismissed it. I shook my head.

"No, it's not." It sounded a bit like the sound of their blasts, but there was something else there. Oliver stood up, frowning, but with me between him and the door, it wasn't like he could do anything. "I'm gonna go check it out."

I squeezed out of the engine room and started towards the open cargo door but stopped short when I saw what was going on in the distance. It looked like the others were engaged in a firefight of some kind, facing off against at least a dozen enemy combatants. I could hear the sound of the battle more clearly now and realized that the weapons the enemies were using - sticks with blaster options, apparently - sounded almost exactly like the sound of Kaz's fireballs. More pressing, however, was the issue of the half a dozen blue-haired attackers approaching the ship. I ducked instinctively as they began to fire into the ship, and backed towards the engine room, throwing my shield up.

"We have company!" I shouted, mentally cursing myself for not picking up on the fact that we were in danger. I was the one with bionic hearing, I should have recognized that the sounds of their blasts were different than those of Kaz's, but I'd been too pre-occupied with the fuel tank.

Oliver was behind me in an instant, but I was blocking the door. "You want to move so that I can fight?" He questioned, sounding confused as to why I hadn't moved.

"You want to risk one of those shots hitting the floor or the fuel tank?" I shot back. He hesitated, realizing where we were standing. As it was, my shield was only able to block a portion of the room from the attackers - Venusians, if I was correct.

Not for the first time, I cursed my shield for being so small. Its size made it easier to use, especially in motion, and it was significantly more powerful, but there were times, like this, that I did miss the bubble-like force field I used to have.

"Alright, but it's gonna get a little chilly." Oliver warned seconds before a wave of ice pushed past me. It bit into my side a bit, but most of the attack blasted past the shield to hit the nearest attackers. The one on the far left took the full brunt of the hit and was pushed to the ground by the force of it, while the one directly next to him was only knocked back a couple of steps. The other attackers kept coming, gaining ground every second. "This isn't going to work."

"You don't say." I commented, pressure making me sarcastic. I had various ideas on what to do, but most of them were only half-made plans that I was sure wouldn't work anyway. I couldn't fight back without dropping my shield, but that would leave the engine room wide open. Oliver could create an ice barrier behind us to protect it, but that would take time, during which the Venusians would be over top of us, or create one in front of us, but that would trap us in engine room. That didn't leave us with a lot of options, so I decided on the only one that had a shot of working. "Alright, on three, hit them with a giant wave. We need to push them back."

"Why wait 'till three?" Oliver chimed in. I smirked.

"Three." I announced, dropping my shield, stepping to the side, and using my telekinesis to push the attackers back, all in one fluid motion at the exact same time that Oliver sent a giant ice wave towards them. I grinned as our combined attacks sent the attackers flying backwards, some of them even being flung clear of the ship.

"Don't you dare." Oliver growled, raising his hand towards one of the remaining Venusian soldiers, who had managed to keep hold of his spear. The soldier glowered at Oliver, wary of his powers.

"For the glory of the New Venusian Republic." He growled before firing. Oliver blasted him at the same time, deflecting the shot and knocking the weapon out of the Venusian's hands. But the shot had already been fired and I watched as it flew towards the engine room. I raised my hand, telekinetically throwing a storage box at the shot in hopes of stopping it. But it was too late; I watched, helpless, as the shot flew into the engine room and landed in the middle of the fuel-wet floor.

Kaz's POV

"There's too many of them!" Jaden hissed as I landed next to him. I didn't answer, instead raising my hand to send a blast of fire at the incoming attackers. Jaden took the opportunity to reload his weapon, grimacing. "Thanks. I'm almost out though."

"Yeah, I hear you." I muttered, briefly glancing back at the ship before returning my attention to the fight in front of me. The Venusian soldiers were boarding the ship at this moment, with Chase and Oliver trapped inside, but we were too overwhelmed here to help them.

"Are you kidding me?" Dani cursed in annoyance suddenly. I looked towards her in time to see one of her lightning balls hit one of the Venusians. But instead of sending him flying or knocking him out like it would 99% of the criminals we'd faced on Earth, nothing happened. He didn't even slow down.

"I think it's absorbing your electricity." Bree pointed out, voice echoing slightly as she sped by me and lunged at the nearest Venusian. I scowled, sending another wave of fire towards the Venusian, accompanying it with a few fire balls. Jaden was right; there were too many of them already, and with at least another half dozen inside the ship with Chase…we were outnumbered 3 to 1, with limited ammo and Dani's powers (which were arguable more powerful than any of the rest of ours, sorry Skylar) unable to do much against them. I certainly didn't like those odds.

"Well, that's just great." Dani landed on Jaden's other side and glanced at the older man. "I don't suppose Calla gave you a second weapon?"

"Don't worry about that. Go help Oliver and Chase!" Skylar called from where she was fending off two Venusians at once. She continued to fight against them, using her agility to go between one and the other rather quickly. "Your powers work better in close quarters anyway."

"On it!" Dani called, giving me a confident smirk before pushing off the ground and hurtling towards our ship. I had to rip my attention away from her as the Venusians kept coming. Suddenly, something in atmosphere changed. I couldn't see what, but I sensed it the moment it happened. I turned instinctively towards Dani, wanting to stop Dani before she got too far.

I turned just in time to watch in horror as our ship explode, a ball of fire and smoke replacing the high-tech ship and debris raining down on us. I dropped, covering my head as machine bits and ship parts came hurtling down at us. As the debris, still flaming, hit the ground, I raised my eyes in horror to where our ship had been; in its place was a wall of smoke, the ground around it singed.

"Oliver!" Skylar's horrified scream broke through the battle as it came to a sudden stop. Even the Venusians seemed shocked by the explosion. I stared in horror, unable to move my eyes off the still smoking wreckage. Oliver and Chase, they were just in there. They…they couldn't, they…

And then, slowly, agonizingly so, the smoke started to clear. And something in the center of the crater started to take shape. My heart stuttered and restarted as I recognized the blue glow of Chase's shield. A shield he could only use if he were alive. And if he survived, then Oliver had to, right? Right?

"They're-" I shouted, hoping to reassure Skylar and the others, but before I could get more than a single word out, the Venusians began firing on us once more, taking advantage of the situation. I ducked as one of the shots nearly took off my head, using one hand to send a fireball in my attacker's direction as I tried to locate Dani. She'd been flying towards the ship when it'd exploded, but I didn't think she'd been close enough to take the brunt of the blast.

It only took me half a moment to find her, but it still felt like half a moment too long. She was lying half on her side on the ground between me and the ship's wreckage, with a Venusian warrior standing over top of her. To her credit, she looked to be threatening him with what appeared to be a still-flaming piece of debris in spite of the fact that he had his weapon pointed directly down at her.

"Dee!" I shouted, raising my hand as I ran towards her. I took control of the flames and sent them flying into the face of the Venusian above her. He screamed, dropping his weapon instantly as his hands reached for his face. Dani grabbed the weapon with one hand, aimed and shot, hitting him right in the chest. By time I made it over to her, he was unconscious. "Dani." I murmured, kneeling.

"I had that." She ground out through clenched teeth, eyes screwed shut as she reached for my hand. I gently pulled her to her feet, concerned when I saw the pain on her face and the way she was clutching her left side.

"Let me see." I adjusted her free hand so that she was leaning on my shoulder as I gently pried her hand away from her side. Almost immediately, blood started pumping through a massive rip in the side of her uniform, and I clamped my hand down on it, trying to stem the flow. Dani let out a choked cry as I did, hand tightening on my shoulder.

"It's bad." She managed. I shook my head.

"I've seen way worse." I lied, mind whirling. The wound was big and, by the looks of things, deep, too much for me to deal with here, without medical supplies. The others were all still caught up in the fight - it was a miracle, really, that we weren't being attacked right now - and there wasn't a medical facility for hours. "It's gonna be okay. We just need to...figure this out."

"Guys, duck!" A voice shouted over the sound of the battle raging around us. I dropped to the ground, pulling Dani with me just as three massive balls of ice went flying over our heads. I followed them with my eyes and watched as they hit an incoming Venusian in the chest, knocking him back. I raised my free hand, putting a wall of fire between him and us.

"Ollie." Dani murmured breathlessly, voice weak. Sure enough, Oliver and Chase, both miraculously unscathed, came running up behind us.

"You're okay." I would have smiled at him under any other circ*mstances. Oliver's eyes slid from me to his sister, worry written all over his face.

"But you're not." Oliver knelt down to examine Dani's wound. He looked up at me, face pale. "She's losing too much blood."

I glanced at Chase. "Go help the others." I told him. The faster we could deal with the Venusian threat, the sooner we could get Dani some help. But Chase didn't move.

"I think it's too late for that." He said grimly. I looked up and, just past the fire that shielded us from the Venusians, I could see the others. They were heavily outnumbered, with Bree standing over an injured Jaden (a leg wound by the looks of it, not nearly as serious as what Dani was dealing with but enough to keep him down), and Skylar pinned by four Venusian warriors, a fifth aiming a spear directly at her throat.

"I think we've had enough casualties today, don't you?" The Venusian woman asked, keeping her weapon steady as she looked over at the rest of us. "Surrender."

Chase's face was an expressionless mask as he stared down the Venusian woman. After a moment, he finally spoke. "We need medical attention for two of our teammates."

"No." Dani protested weakly, head moving against my shoulder. Her eyes were closed, her face chalky. I pulled her fully into my lap, one hand clutching her wound, the other on her wrist. The Venusian woman glanced at Jaden and Bree, then at Dani and the rest of us before nodding.

"Jin." She called to one of her soldiers, the one nearest to us. "Take the injured prisoners to our outpost in Hexadoc, then transport them to home base." She instructed before turning back to us. "The rest of you can come with me."

I pulled Dani closer as the Venusian warriors approached. We definitely weren't going to be getting home as quickly as we thought we would.

Chase's POV

The Venusians, as it turns out, weren't the chattiest of people. They'd originally separated us, first into two groups - Kaz, Dani, and Jaden in one ship and Bree, Oliver, Skylar, and I into another - then put us in separate holding cells. I spent days, maybe weeks, pacing my cell, worrying about the others and trying to figure out what the Venusians wanted from us.

Eventually, I'd been brought in for an interrogation. They'd started by asking me about Caldera and their defenses, which I expected, but then had moved the conversation onto Earth. They were careful not to ask anything too specific – just simple questions about the planet's defenses, and then seemingly meaningless ones about the state of the planet. I, of course, hadn't answered any of them, well not seriously anyway. I'd hoped some flippant, sarcastic responses would aggravate them enough to show their hand, but unfortunately, the only thing I'd been able to decipher from their responses was that the sole reason they'd kept us alive was to be a "backup" for something. It was also heavily implied that they wouldn't need all of us for whatever it was, but I couldn't be certain that wasn't just the interrogator trying to frighten me into giving him the information he wanted (I didn't). But all of it made me wonder, what did they want with Earth? Was it their next target after Caldera, or were the two somehow connected as part of a single plan?

After the interrogator had left, frustrated that he could not get any answers from me after hours of questioning, I was brought to a dungeon of sorts. To my relief, it seemed that I was the last to arrive; Bree, Skylar, Jaden, Kaz, Oliver, and Dani were already locked inside, alive.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that we were all together, we weren't able to figure a way out of here. We'd made several escape attempts, desperate to find a ship and get the hell off this planet, but none of them had panned out. The farthest we'd made it was just outside the gate, where we were met by about half a dozen guards and a strange sonic weapon that made my ears ring just thinking about it. It'd been months of trying to make it out, trying to make it home, and we'd yet to come up with anything that would work.

"Don't you miss it when we had villains that spelled out their entire plan?" Dani asked, cutting me off as I proposed yet another theory as to why the Venusians had abducted us. She was mostly recovered from her injuries, the one bit of good news we had in here. "It was so much easier back then."

"Yeah, well, villains adapt. They learn from each others' mistakes." Skylar commented, pacing like normal. She glanced back at the ceiling. "You know, I still think the vents might be a viable option. They're big enough."

"We still don't know where they lead. It could be a dead end into a furnace or something." Bree pointed out from where she and Jaden were sitting one of the cots at the back of the room. "Besides, unless those things go directly outside the gates, we'd still need to fight our way out. I don't think filed-down spoons are gonna be all that helpful, do you?"

"If only we could use our powers." Oliver sent a pointed glare at one of the small, flat circles on the ceiling. In the first month of our captivity, we'd discovered that they let out some sort of signal that interfered with our powers. I'd be impressed with the technology if it wasn't being currently being used against me.

"I mean, we could try to deactivate them..." Jaden mentioned.

"Yeah, no. I got electrocuted the last time we tried to deactivate them." Kaz reminded him bitterly before softening and glancing at me. "Kinda wish we'd brought Emily along. With powers like hers, we would have dealt with these ages ago."

I snorted. "She probably would have agreed to come too, if only to not have to eat Calla's cooking." I admitted, smiling darkly. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from above the door at the top of the stairs. I frowned, glancing at the tiny window (barely a foot in diameter, too small for any of us to escape through) in the corner. "It's too early for it to be dinner." I thought aloud – dinner and breakfast were usually thirteen hours apart, at the same time every day, and that wouldn't be for hours.

We all stood up, ready for whatever was coming, when the door swung open and, to our surprise, three figures were pushed in. Two of them got tangled with each other and ended up landing at the base of the stairs, while the third, the smallest of them, stayed near the top as the door was slammed shut behind them.

I didn't recognize them initially in the dim light, but Bree gasped as she neared them. "Noah?" She demanded.

I looked at her, confused, but there was no question about who responded back with an equally confused, "Mom?"

I stared at the pile of limbs at the bottom of the stairs, stunned that my nephew, along with Ben "Aftershock" VanOver were lying in our cell. It was rare that I could be made speechless from surprise - you learned to expect anything and everything growing up the way I had - but even I couldn't formulate words when the smaller figure, Kira Broadman of all people, came bounding down the stairs a moment later.

To be fair, I clearly wasn't the only one taken by surprise. Kaz barely had time to react before his daughter leapt over Ben and Noah, still crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, and threw herself into his arms. Dani was equally stunned, eyes wide as saucers as she approached her daughter. She kept glancing between Kira and the rest of us as if we had some sort of explanation for this, but none of us knew what to say.

Jaden was the first to react really, stepping forward to help the boys to their feet before pulling Noah aside. "Oh, Bug." Bree murmured, pulling her son into a hug. I glanced back at Oliver and Skylar, shocked, but they looked as bewildered as I felt. "Wait," Bree suddenly came to her senses, pushing Noah back to hold him at arm's length. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Um…" Noah trailed off, glancing at Ben and Kira before turning back to his parents. "We're here to rescue you?"

Chapter 10: Jailbreak

Chapter Text

Kameron's POV

"Try it now!" Charlotte's shout came from the lower deck. I hit a button on either side of the helm's controls. Instantly, the main deck lit up, the controls coming to life.

"It worked!" I called unnecessarily - she would have seen the lights turn on in the engine room. I heard the sound of her shuffling around down there, probably cleaning up from her work, so I set about re-activating the scanners. The holographic map of the planet appeared above the helm but instead of showing the trees and the cities, it showed patches and splotches of color representing temperature.

"Alright, I secured the power cord to the escape pod." Charlotte announced, wiping her hands on a cloth as she walked onto the main deck. "That should get us another hour, hour and a half of power."

"I still can't believe those things ate through the engine." I shook my head. She shrugged, leaning on the back of my chair.

"Earth has termites, Venusia has...whatever those were. But thanks to them, this ship isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We're gonna have to find another way home."

"Let's start by finding by the others." I suggested before nodding at the map. "You said you needed this for your idea?"

"Yeah, so I was thinking," she stepped to my left so I could see her smiling confidently, "you know how the planet's really cold, but the people are supposed to be a tiny bit warmer than normal humans?"

"Yeah, but if you were thinking of using the thermal scanner to try and pick the others out, that won't work. The animals here are about the same temperature as humans, we won't be able to tell the difference on the scanner." I pointed out. She smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"The same temperature as humans, yes, but the same temperature as pyrokinetics? Or Calderans, or cryokinetics?" She questioned. I leaned back, realizing where she was going with this.

"We can track Kira, Sera, Skylar, Oliver, and my dad." I grinned at her. "Wait, why didn't we do this to find them when we first landed?"

"Em and I tried, but we couldn't find them on the radar. But," she added quickly, before I could read too much into that piece of information, "they easily could have been masked by other signals or by being underground or inside a building with thick enough walls."

"Alright," I nodded, hoping she was right, "let's see if there's anything that stands out."

Turning back to the map, I could see that the planet itself was bathed in blue-green hues, with specks and splotches of yellow and light greens scattered throughout. I could easily see the main cities, lit up in large blobs of yellow and light orange.

"I'm not seeing any warm ones that stand out." I frowned, worried.

"Kira could be underground, or if she already made it to Caelus City already, her thermal signature might be blending in with the Venusians. It could easily be hidden in the signatures given off by mass groups of people, like in Caelus City. I'm sure Kira's alright." She lowered her voice gently, glancing at me. I nodded. She was okay. I knew she was. "But you see that?"

She was pointing at a small speck not that far off from Caelus City. Unlike most of the specks representing animals or possibly Venusian people, this one was pale blue, verging on green, and although its movement on the map was extremely slow, it did seem to be moving in the direction of the city. "Thirty bucks says that's our Sera."

"And those two nearby specks," I pointed at two spots of yellow clustered around the blue one, "they could be animals, or they could be some of the others. Only two though."

"Could be that they're so physically close that the computer doesn't recognize them as multiple signatures. Or, they're in the city." Charlotte suggested.

"You're being awfully optimistic." I commented. She shrugged.

"I just like having a direction to go in." She admitted. I nodded.

"The sooner we can get back to the original plan, the better I'll feel." I agreed. "Even if we do have to make a few changes, like becoming ship thieves. Alright," I glanced up at her, "why don't I start packing some supplies, and you do your thing and find a way for us to track the signature even after we leave the ship?"

Charlotte's smile faltered a bit, eyebrows knitting in concern. "Are you sure you're feeling up to it?" She asked gently. "You were pretty sick yesterday."

"I'm up for it. Almost back to 100%." I assured her. She looked me over skeptically. "I'm okay."

"Alright. In that case..." She glanced back at the ship. "I have an idea of how we can get there a lot faster."

Noah's POV

"Um..." I trailed off, glancing at the others before turning back to my parents. "We're here to rescue you?"

Every adult in the room simply stared at me, which yeah, that was a fair reaction. We weren't exactly winning any 'Hero of the Year' awards any time soon.

After a few seconds of staring at me like I was absolutely crazy, my mom slowly drew her attention to Ben, who immediately raised his hands in surrender. "This whole thing was their idea," he told them calmly, instantly throwing us under the bus, "they should be the ones to explain."

"You know, you're being really passive-aggressive about this whole kidnapping thing." Kira muttered to him. Skylar's head snapped towards her, having overheard her.

"I'm sorry, did you just say, 'kidnapping thing'?" She questioned. Ben nodded, crossing his arms. Kira flushed in embarrassment.

"Well, you always said that if we're gonna do stupid stuff, we should bring a responsible adult so we don't die." She argued weakly, looking to her parents for support. Dani's eyebrows shot up at her daughter's explanation.

"So, you kidnapped one?" She clarified. Kira nodded slowly.

"You never told us that it had to be a willing one." She muttered defensively. Kaz sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"That's on us for not anticipating that loophole." He sighed, sending Ben an apologetic look.

"Can we back up to the bit where you said, 'we came to rescue you'? Did I hear that correctly?" Chase questioned, looking at us.

"Yes." Kira nodded.

"No." Chase sounded horrified. "This is an alien planet."

"We've noticed." I replied. Mom gave me a look. "I should just stop talking now."

"Is Kameron here?" Kaz sighed, looking at Kira. Dad's eyes widened.

"Oh god, tell me you didn't bring Justine." He pleaded with me.

"Yes about Kameron, no about Justine." I said quickly, answering for both of us. I glanced at my parents. "I'll do stupid stuff with my own life, not my little sister's."

"Good man." Dad squeezed my shoulder, looking somewhat relieved.

"Charlotte, Emily, Seraphina, and Naomi are also here." Ben added. The other adults all exchanged worried looks.

"Well, at least Naomi's with them." Mom suggested, sounding somewhat hopeful. "She'll keep them out of trouble."

"Actually...we all kinda got separated." Kira admitted. Chase immediately turned on Ben.

"You lost them?" He demanded. Ben reluctantly nodded.

"We were attacked by some of the wildlife." He explained. "But they're tough kids, they know how to handle themselves."

"Nature is not exactly my daughter's best friend." Chase argued, worry turning into anger. Ben nodded.

"I'm aware, but she and Kameron were together when we all got separated, and they're a surprisingly good team. The rest of the girls should all be together too, so they'll take care of each other." Ben added for Skylar and Oliver's sake. "Not to mention, everyone is wearing mission suits with trackers. It's not ideal, but once we're out of here, we can use that to find them."

"Mission suits?" Mom questioned. She looked over Kira, Ben, and I, eyes narrowing when she saw the EF on my belt buckle. "Calla made those?"

"No, she wouldn't." Skylar shook her head. She glanced at Chase, but he didn't look so certain. "There's no way she's supportingthis."

"Well, she did make the uniforms." I admitted.

"Why?" Oliver questioned.

"Lexi Krane attacked the city." Kira spoke up. Everyone looked at her, surprised. "She and a bunch of your old enemies did, anyway. And the League was busy dealing with something, so we handled it...well, we mostly handled it. Lexi and Darius kinda went AWOL, but then again, is Darius even a real bad guy?" She looked at me expectantly, and I shrugged. "Whatever. We caught all but, like, one and a half villains, and that's like a B- on a test, so I think that counts as handling it."

By that point, everyone in the room seemed entirely speechless, staring at Kira as if she had three heads. "Or in other words, there was an emergency situation, we had no choice but to let them go on missions, and Calla felt they'd be better protected with suits." Ben cleared up. "And before you get angry about that, there wasn't much of a choice and we made sure they were trained and capable of handling it."

"That's supposed to make us feel better?" Oliver questioned. "They're children."

"The twins are the youngest on the team, and they're the same age you all were when you went on your first missions." I argued. Mom gave me a look.

"We trained longer than a couple of months." She warned before turning back to Ben. "And why couldn't the League handle Lexi?"

"In Liv's defense, there was a big witchcraft thing last year that we're all still cleaning up. She wouldn't have had the manpower." Dani explained. Mom looked at her. "Hey, I'm not defending Calla's decision, just Liv. Calla shouldn't have sent defenseless kids out there."

"Training them was better than them going out and fighting on their own." Ben explained. "You know how they are; they would have gone behind our backs."

"I mean, we already did." I commented, earning a glare from my mom. Kira chuckled.

"Doubly so for Noah." She added. Dad paused.

"What do you mean by that?" He questioned. I sent Kira a glare. "Noah?"

"Can we talk about it later?" I asked, turning back to him and Mom. Mom put her hands on her hips, looking at me expectantly. "Seriously, it's not immediately important and you have the entire ship ride home to yell at me for dumb decision making."

Mom and Dad exchanged looks. "Alright." Dad agreed slowly. "But only because I suspect there's a lot of things on that list."

"Oh, you have no idea." I assured him, patting his arm.

"This was still dangerous." Skylar pointed out.

"I don't disagree." Ben told her. "I've been telling them that since they kidnapped me."

Kira groaned and Kaz chuckled. "Cool it with the passive-aggressiveness, Aftershock. They're in trouble, trust me." He turned to his daughter. "Anything else we need to know?"

Kira considered it for a long moment before answering in a very cheerful voice, "Charlotte made out with Marcus the Robot."

Kameron's POV

"Whoa!" Charlotte laughed into my shoulder as we flew through the trees, pressed up against me as we maneuvered our way through the alien forest atop the skinny, metal hoverboard.

"I still can't believe you stole one of Calla's hoverboards!" I laughed as we curved around a large tree. She laughed again, tightening her grip around my waist.

"It was just sitting there when we were stocking up on supplies! I figured, why not?" She explained. "Calla said it wasn't working yet, but Emily and I figured we could get it to work for us."

"Well, you were half-right! You just needed a little bit of help." I chuckled as we reached an outcropping of rocks. I increased the power of the electricity I was sending between the hoverboard and the ground and the board raised a bit higher. We leapt off the edge of the rock outcropping, flying higher through the air before 'landing' a foot above the ground before continuing on our way. We tore through the trees at breakneck speeds, cutting down the trip time by at least half. "This was a great idea, Char!"

"Figured it would be better than walking. Faster too - we've already cut travel time down by half." She commented. "Now, faster! We've got friends to find!"

Seraphina's POV

"So, this is Caelus City." I hummed, observing the city from the safety of the trees. From here, it looked rather impressive, similar to some of the pictures I'd seen in my history book back on Earth.

"Yes." Naomi confirmed. She glanced at her niece. "And this Court we're looking for is..."

"On the other side of city." Emily confirmed, looking up from the holomap projecting from the disk-like device in her hands. "We should head around the North-East river, avoid getting too close to the city. We don't want to accidentally alert any guards that..."

Crack!Although the sound was too quiet for Emily or Naomi to catch, it drew my attention right away. I looked over my shoulder, tensing.

"Someone's out here." I hissed to them. Naomi raised her sword. I turned, raising my hand in the direction the sound had come from, while Em backed up to give us a chance to attack. I heard another crack, indicating how much closer the person, a guard most likely, was moving. I raised four fingers at Naomi, then dropped one, then another. The moment I twitched my last finger, Naomi lunged forward, twisting the blade at the last minute to knock the figure just coming out of the trees onto the ground, then aiming the blade at his throat. I, meanwhile, sent a blast of ice at a second figure emerging from the trees. She dodged to the left, hitting the ground by the roots of a nearby tree before I recognized her.

"Ouch." Kameron said, more offended than hurt, from where he lay on the ground with Naomi's sword still pointed at his throat. "This isn't my week."

"I'll say." Charlotte agreed, still next to the tree. She slowly got to her feet, hands raised. "Are we good, or are you gonna try to freeze me again?"

"Sorry." I apologized instantly, Emily helping Kameron up behind me while Naomi grabbed the bags that had fallen off when she'd knocked him down. "We didn't realize it was you."

"Obviously.It's fine." Kameron assured us, accepting the bags from Naomi. Emily patted his shoulder before walking past me to hug her cousin tightly. "Glad you guys are okay."

"Likewise." I said sincerely, hugging him. I pulled away and glanced between him and Charlotte. "How'd you find us?"

"Thermal map." Charlotte explained briefly, pulling away from Emily before pulling one of two bags off her back and handing it to her. "We went back to the ship. We resupplied."

"Nice." Emily whistled, digging through the bag until she found what she was looking for: food bars and water bottles. She tossed one to each Naomi and I before tearing open the wrapper of her bar and digging in. "We haven't eaten." She explained between chews before nodding at the long, metal board sticking out of one of Kameron's skateboards. "Is that the hoverboard? You got it working?"

"Yeah. Figured it was faster than walking." Charlotte explained. I frowned and she smiled. "It's Calla's prototype hoverboard."

"Why didn't we take those instead of walking the first time?" I questioned, taking a sip of my water. We probably would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we had.

"The girls only thought to steal one." Kameron replied before looking around. "So, where's Kira? And Ben and Noah?"

We all exchanged looks. "They've been captured by the Venusians." Naomi finally said, much to Kameron and Charlotte's horror. "They're alive though, and we know where they, and the Elite Force, are being held."

"How do you know?" Charlotte demanded. Emily pulled a device out of her pocket, the small rectangular piece of technology resembling one of my Dad's outdated phones that he used to let me play games on. Emily hit a button on the side of the device and a pre-recorded message came from it."...additional threats who may be attempting to do the same and bring them to the Court for prosecution. Three off-worlders have breached the capital. Locate and capture additional threats who-"

Emily cut off the recording. "It's been playing on a loop on all communication channels for a couple of hours now." She explained. "We weren't sure who the three were, but if you two are here..."

Kameron began to pace, rubbing the back of his neck with two hands and swearing under his breath. "This isn't good." He told us. Charlotte nodded.

"That's one way to put it." She took the communication device from Emily. "Where'd you get this, by the way? It's not one of ours. Neither is that holomap."

"We, uh, we found some stuff." Emily admitted. Kameron paused, noting her tone.

"What kind of stuff?" He questioned.

"Tech like these, amongst other things." Naomi replied vaguely. Before Kameron could ask for a better explanation, she raised a hand. "We can deal with the other stuff once we've figured out how to rescue the others. One crisis at a time."

"Crisis?" Charlotte repeated, looking at us. When neither Emily nor I responded, she paled. "Oh, yay. Must be serious."

"Actually, I think we can use some of that 'other stuff' to our advantage." Emily piped up. We all looked at her. "I have a plan that might work now that there's more of us, but it's risky."

"Well, I hope that plan involves stealing another ship, because ours is done-zo." Charlotte announced. I looked at her, surprised. "Venusian Weasels, don't ask."

"O-kay. Good thing my plan did involve stealing a ship. But first," Emily rubbed her hands together, "you're gonna wanna see something."

Xxx

One at a time to avoid making too much noise, we led Kameron and Charlotte back to the sinkhole Emily had originally fallen into. Once safely at the bottom, I motioned for them to be quiet, then brushed away the curtain of vines covering the large crack in the rock wall and crawled through onto the tiny rock ledge, just big enough for the three of us. The ledge extended off to the left but shrank in size until it was only big enough for one person and barely that.

"Whoa." Kameron whispered breathlessly, staring out at the sight before us. I nodded, glancing at it myself, looking over the dozens, if not hundreds, of two-man fighter jets in the secret underground hangar. When Emily had initially found them, I'd been stunned at the size of the armada. It was so different than the larger cruisers that had been attacking Caldera for the past couple of years, and so much more threatening.

Charlotte looked at me, as if to ask a question, and I motioned for them to follow me back into the bottom of the sinkhole, where Emily and Naomi were waiting.

"That...that's a lot of ships." Charlotte stuttered, shocked. I nodded.

"We know. And guess where their destination is." I suggested. Kameron frowned.

"Caldera?" He guessed. Emily nodded.

"Caldera..." she agreed, before adding. "And Earth."

Kameron and Charlotte stared at her, eyes going wide. Charlotte seemed at a loss for words. "How...how..." She stammered, a pained look on her face. "No."

"Yes." Naomi replied, grimacing.

"But they're at war with Caldera. No offense," Kameron quickly apologized to me, "but why would they be set to attack a planet they're not at war with?"

"And how do you know they're headed for Earth?" Charlotte added sharply.

"We don't know the why, but it is their destination. Did you see where the ledge narrows?" Emily asked. Kameron and Charlotte nodded. "If you follow that, it leads above what looks like a mission control. We had to be careful because there were guards, but eventually we managed to get access to their computers, along with all the information on the ships. Including their GPS coordinates."

"Venusian's use GPS?" Kameron questioned.

"I'm sure they call it something different, but yeah. And they all have both Earth and Caldera coordinates as their intended targets." I explained.

"Okay, but... which will they attack first?" Kameron questioned. "Actually, not important. Let's just destroy the ships."

"That won't work." Naomi told him. He looked at her, confused. "We don't have time."

"I'm an electrokinetic and she's a technopath. I'm sure we could figure out how to blow this place up quickly." He argued, arms crossed. Charlotte shook her head.

"A hangar this size, with the amount of fuel that's gotta be in those ships...if we blew it up, the damage it would do to the planet would be catastrophic. We could kill innocent people."

"Not all the Venusians are bad. We saw that." I nodded at Emily and Naomi. "That's not an option."

"What about deactivating them? With your powers, it wouldn't take as long as destroying them individually." Charlotte turned to her cousin. Emily nodded.

"I could, and it wouldn't, but it also wouldn't be permanent. It would buy us days, a week at most. But it is part of the plan." She admitted. Naomi looked at her.

"How risky is this plan of yours?" She questioned. Emily considered.

"Riskier than my normal ones." She admitted. Charlotte nodded.

"Okay, I'm in." She declared. I looked at her in surprise; Emily hadn't even told us what her plan was. "What? Crazy Emily plans tend to work out for us."

"Do they?" Kameron asked skeptically. Emily crossed her arms, mildly offended.

"Well, no one's died yet." She argued. He sighed.

"We really need to raise our bar for success." He muttered. "Yeah. I'm in too. We started this rescue mission doing crazy stuff, might as well end it the same way. Besides, if we die doing this, then Calla can't kill us when we get home."

"That's the spirit." Emily grinned, patting his shoulder before turning to face all of us. "Okay, so here's the plan..."

Noah's POV

"So, let me get this straight..." Skylar paced in front of us, rubbing her forehead to ward off a stress-induced headache. Mom, Dad, Kaz, and Dani were all leaning against the wall, looking as tired as Skylar sounded. Ben, Kira, and I were sitting on the beds (which were really just these thin, hard pads with equally thin blankets) while Chase and Oliver worked on removing our handcuffs. "You stole a ship from Calla…"

"Yup." Kira popped the P, smiling as Oliver finally managed to release one of her hands.

"…you snuck onto Caldera, snuck onto Venusia, attempted to travel across an alien planet with limited knowledge on what lived here, without even knowing what the people looked like…"

"I mean, they don't exactly have PicPost here…" I muttered half under my breath.

"…allowed yourselves to get separated with no way to track each other down, infiltrated the Venusian capital city with just the three of you, and then attempted to break into what you were told was their most heavily guarded facility." Skylar finished. Ben cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"I mean, they were planning onkilling you, Skylar. We couldn't do nothing." Ben pointed out as Chase finished with his cuffs. The Calderan sighed and stopped pacing as the bionic genius moved onto my cuffs, using a twisted wire to try and pick them.

"And before that...actually, don't tell us that story." Skylar decided. "Not yet. I'm pretty sure that the image I have of you all being good and smart and not making Kaz-like decisions is a lot more comforting than whatever the truth is."

"That's certainly true." The Kira agreed, rubbing her wrists as Oliver finished with her. "Thanks, Uncle Ollie. Too bad our powers still won't work."

"Too bad." Skylar deadpanned. She looked at Kaz and Dani. "You two aren't gonna say anything?"

The Broadmans exchanged looks. "What do you want us to do, send her to her room?" Dani snorted in amusem*nt. Mom sighed.

"I think Skylar's right; we can wait for the rest of the story until we're more prepared to handle it." She suggested. She looked at us. "Is there anything we need to know now that's relevant? And not about anyone's dating life?" She added quickly when she saw Kira perk up.

"Uh, yeah." I rubbed the back of my head with my freshly released hand. I nodded gratefully to Chase as he removed the cuff on my other hand, then turned to my parents. "Don't be mad."

"Any madder, you mean?" Dad corrected.

"Yes." I cleared my throat. Well, might as well get it over with. "I have bionics. Superspeed, if I'm being specific."

Mom and Dad both froze when I said that, staring at me with wide eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time. "You…have superspeed." Dad eventually said, slowly as if he was still trying to understand what I'd said. I nodded.

"Yes." I responded in an equally slow voice.

"Explain. Now." Mom demanded.

"I have superspeed now." I repeated, before quickly rushing to add. "I'm an adult now, so…like if I wanted to get a tattoo, I wouldn't exactly need permission."

"This is so very different from a tattoo." Dad told me, angry. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I wanted to be bionic." I said plainly. Mom clenched her fists, then unclenched them.

"Douglas, Davenport or Calla?" She questioned. I frowned, not understanding at first. "Which member of our family am I going to be killing for this?"

"Me, I guess? This was all me. No one else had anything to do with it." I lied instantly. They looked at me, not at all buying it. "I'm not an idiot. I can figure out how to make a bionic chip."

"It takes more than an idiot to figure out bionics, Noah. Ben, who did this?" Dad questioned. Ben shrugged.

"He's been sticking to his story." He replied. "It wasn't Calla though. She was pretty shocked when she found out, to say the least."

Mom turned to Chase, an annoyed look on her face. "In that case, I'm going to kill one of our fathers when we get home."

"It wasn't them!" I insisted, but before I could come up with a more convincing argument, the entire room suddenly shook violently, as if something massive had exploded above us. Dirt fell from the ceiling as the room settled, all of us struggling to keep our balance.

"What the hell was that?" Oliver demanded, looking up at the ceiling.

"Not sure. Be on your guard." Chase ordered. He looked at Ben, Kira, and I. "Is this the others? Part of some plan?"

"God, I hope not." Ben answered, but the look in his eyes told me that he was fairly sure it was.

Seraphina's POV

In the time I'd come to know her, I'd learned three very important things about Crazy Emily Plans.

One: they were extremely to the point. Somewhere along the way, she must have realized that most of the team either didn't understand or didn't care for the science often involved in her plans, so she kept her instructions simple and direct: do this, shoot that, don't die. Easy to remember, easy to follow.

Two: they were certainly unconventional. Attempting to guess at what was going on in her crazy little head was a waste of your time. But her out-of-the-box thinking often gave us a leg up against people, especially those who were dumb to underestimate us based on our age.

Three: they weren't exactly subtle.

"AAAHHHH!" Emily, Naomi, Kameron, and I screamed inside the tiny, too-cramped co*ckpit of the fighter jet we'd stolen as Emily drove it downwards and into the side of the massive, fortified building where our parents and friends were being held.

Between the weight of the small, but sturdy ship, the speed at which we were nose-diving, and the extra power Emily was diverting to our engine and shields, we succeeded in smashing through the side of building, busting into a hallway on the first floor. It was a rough landing - if it could even be called a landing instead of a crash - but the fact that we were all packed in so close together prevented us from being jostled around too much. Still, Charlotte, who was off on a side mission of her own, was going to be the only one of us without bruises later.

"Go!" Naomi ordered the second the ship was stable enough for us to move. Emily snapped her fingers and the co*ckpit window flipped open, allowing us to jump out. Emily immediately activated the freshly charged cybermask, disguising herself as a Venusian just as guards began tumbling into the room. Naomi, Kameron, and I ducked behind the ship, using it to block the guards view of us as we darted down the nearby hall to our left. By time I looked over my shoulder, Emily was gone, having blended in with the panicked Venusians running away from the crash site.

"Sera!" Kameron's call pushed me forward, racing after him and Naomi. The guards hadn't seen which way we'd gone, and many of them would still be investigating the crash itself, so we at least had something in our favor. We only had two halls to go; if we could make it to our destination before we were met by too much resistance, we could build our defense in front of the holding cells and get the rest of our team and the Elite Force to join in the fight.

Unfortunately, things rarely go our way, especially when we're doing something that was arguable chaotic. By time we made it to the end of the first hallway, we found ourselves faced with a wall of guards coming our way. Instinctively, I ducked behind the nearest barrier, using it to shield me from the incoming blasts from the guards' shooter-spheres. Kameron followed suit, hiding behind one on my left, while Naomi half-hid herself in a doorway on our right, somewhat better protected than either Kameron or me.

I pulled out one of the plasma guns that Kameron and Charlotte had brought with them from the ship, took aim at the nearest guard, and fired off a couple of quick shots. Both of them went wide, to my annoyance, but at the very least, the second shot hit another guard, making him stumble a bit. I scowled; I was a much better shot with my actual powers than I was with these weapons, but the Venusians had increased their security measures after capturing the others and were now using some sort of technology to block any and all powers from being used within a certain distance of the building. Without our powers, all we had were these blasters and Naomi's sword (a weapon I fully intended to borrow when all this was over), and needless to say, I was less than thrilled about the idea.

I fired a few more times, missing each and every one of them, much to my annoyance. Meanwhile, Kameron and Naomi were at least hitting their marks, even if the guards' armor was protecting them mostly from the blasts. They were making some headway - they were at least keeping the guards from overwhelming us, despite outnumbering us 12 to 3 - but it wasn't great.

"Hey!" Kameron called as another one of my shots missed. I spared him a brief glance, deciding to keep most of my attention on the fight. "Aim lower!"

"Lower?" I questioned, confused. I was aiming at their chests!

"Yeah. You keep lifting your hand when you fire. Aim lower, and the blow will still hit." He suggested, firing again. I watched as his shots hit a guard in the shoulder, then chest, and figured I'd give it a shot. He was hitting his targets, so he clearly knew more than I did.

I took aim, this time aiming at the guard's crotch, and fired my blaster. The shot went high again, just like the others (that damn recoil), but instead of missing, this one hit the guard square in the head. Without a helmet to protect his head, he dropped like a sack of rocks.

"Yes!" Naomi called, grinning as she continued to fire. "Sera, keep doing exactly that! Kameron, aim for the heads!"

"Already trying to, but thanks!" Kameron called back, firing again at the guards, but this time focusing his aim just a bit more. I grinned before aiming again; I was really starting to get the hang of this thing.

Kameron's POV

Once we realized that headshots were going to be the only way we were going to get rid of these guards - the typical targets like the enemies' chests were too well protected and were only slowing them down - we started focusing the majority of our shots there. It wasn't easy, since their heads were much smaller targets, but it was working. Just barely.

We managed to take out three of the guards by now and were keeping the others at bay with sharp hits to the chest. I figured, eventually we'd be able to get rid of all of them, but the thing was, we didn't have eventually.

"More guards will be coming soon!" I called to Naomi just as she managed to knock out a fourth guard. She nodded breathlessly, ducking back into the doorway as an incoming shot got just a little too close for comfort.

"I know!" She called back, not commenting further. I motioned in annoyance at the hall behind the guards, trying to communicate my plan to her without having to say it aloud.

"Naomi!" I called again after a moment, ducking as a shot just narrowly missed my head. I shot a few more times to ward the guards off, but they were gaining ground.

"Not yet!" She insisted, firing again. I grit my teeth in frustration, leaning heavily against the barrier. I took a breath, then leaned back out across the barrier, firing rapidly at the incoming guards. I managed to clip one of them in the side of the head and two more in the shoulders, but none of the blows were enough to take any of them down.

"This is taking too long." I growled to Sera as I dropped behind the barrier again. She nodded, taking another shot. I winced as this one barely managed to hit a guy's shoulder. "We're about to be overrun."

"I know." She agreed, turning behind the barrier. She glanced at me, worry in her eyes. "We don't have another choice."

"If we go now-" I began, but she shook her head, cutting me off.

"If we go now, we'll just be delaying our capture. We have to follow the plan." She told me before turning to fire again. I followed her lead, shooting at the nearest guard once more. I knew she was right. The plan was...insane, but if we could just hold out long enough, it would work. The only problem was, at this rate, I wasn't sure how much longer we were going to be able to hold out.

"Ah!" My head snapped to the left just in time to see Naomi hit the doorframe hard and slide to a sitting position, clutching her left shoulder. Sera and I both fired at the guards nearest to her to try and give her some space.

"Naomi!" Sera called in concern, glancing at her.

"I'm fine!" The older girl ground out, glancing over her shoulder, and firing with her good shoulder. I craned my neck to try and get a look at the injury. I couldn't see it well from this angle so I couldn't be sure, but it didn't look too serious.

I was about to go check on her for real, but before I could move, the lights in the hall flickered for a moment. Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation run through my arms and into my palms. Closing my fist then opening it, I smiled when a spark of electricity flew from one of my fingers to the other. A quick glance at the grin on Sera's face told me that her powers were back as well.

"Was that Emily?" Naomi questioned, firing as she used the doorframe to push herself up onto her feet.

"Yup. We're good to go!" I told her. She nodded.

"Alright. Kam, you're up!" She ordered. "Sera, cover him!"

"Got it!" My cousin called before lunging out from behind the barrier. She raised her hands and spread them towards the guards before they could fire another shot, sending a wave of ice towards them. I took advantage of their distraction, leaping into the air and flying past them, sending blasts of electricity at them as I went. I didn't look to see if I managed to take down any of them but trusted that Naomi and Seraphina could handle them until I got back.

I turned the corner at high speeds and came face to face with two more guards, standing in front of the stairs I knew led down to the holding cells. I landed directly in front of them, a ball of electricity forming between my hands before my feet even touched the ground. I shot it at them before they could fire, managing to hit them both with the single electricity blast. The blast was enough to throw them back, the one on the left smacking into a nearby barrier, knocking him unconscious. The one on the right was just thrown back a few feet, his armor protecting him somewhat from the blast, but a second shot quickly took him out. I bent down, swiping the set of keys off his belt, and turned towards the stairs. I jogged down them two at a time, towards the heavy-looking door at the bottom, but before I could even try to unlock it, the door burst open. Oliver tumbled out, a look of surprise crossing his face when he saw me.

"Oh, hey Uncle Ollie. Fancy seeing you here." I grinned at him. I heard Kira let out a laugh before she ducked under Oliver's arms and ran out of the cell to meet me.

"Good timing. I appreciate getting my powers back." She flexed her hands, flames dancing around her fingers. I grinned at her before turning to my parents, who were following my uncle out of the cell. Behind them, I could see Chase, Bree, Jaden, Skylar, Ben, and Noah, all looking unharmed.

"Are you okay?" Dad questioned immediately, scanning me with his eyes. I nodded and smiled at him and Mom.

"I'm good, but we've got to go." I told them, turning around, and leading the way back up the stairs. "Sera and Naomi are taking care of the guards."

"Alone?" Ben questioned, sounding exasperated.

"We had to make a few changes to the plan." I explained, now running as the sound of combat got louder.

"Where are Emily and Charlotte?" Chase demanded from just behind me.

"Em was Phase 1, so she should be getting out of here soon. Char's off handling Phase 3. You were Phase 2, by the way." I explained, skidding to a stop as we turned the corner. While it looked like Sera and Naomi had managed to take out a few more of the guards, more had clearly come to join the fight, and they were now defending themselves on both sides.

Thankfully, I didn't have to tell anyone to go join the fight; after what must have been months trapped inside that holding cell, it seemed the members of the Elite Force were antsy for a fight themselves. Bree sped forward first, turning into a blur of color as she darted between guards, taking two out with relative ease. Dad and Oliver followed immediately behind her, blasts of fire and ice taking out the nearest guards while the rest of us met Naomi and Sera in the middle.

"Damn!" I whistled, impressed as Skylar tackled a guard from behind and nimbly took him down to the ground with very little effort. "I wish I could do that."

"Believe me, it's harder than it looks." Mom mentioned, sliding up beside me. She nodded at two nearby guards. "Tag team?"

I grinned and created a ball of electricity in my hand as a response. Mom smirked, doing the same, her ball slightly bigger, somehow brighter, and practically crackling with pent-up energy. In perfect unison, we threw our hands out at the guards, hitting them both in the chest with the blasts.

"What exactly is your plan to get out of here?" Chase demanded, not looking at us as he telepathically threw a guard into the air, two fingers pressed against his temple. Before any of us could answer, the entire hall shook suddenly, momentarily distraction everyone.

"That's our queue." Naomi announced. She shoved her blaster into Jaden's hands. "Hold this." She told him before digging through her bag.

"What was that?" Noah questioned, giving me and Sera a confused look before speeding towards the nearest guard, using his momentum to take him out.

"Emily." Sera replied with a shrug as Naomi pulled three metal balls, about the size of golf balls, out of the bag. Chase, who'd turned around to probably question the 'Emily' part, stopped short when he saw them.

"Whoa, hey." He cautioned. "You shouldn't be playing with those."

"What are they?" Jaden questioned, firing a bit at some of the guards.

"Davenbombs, the kind Calla designed for demolition purposes." Chase explained. Naomi nodded.

"Don't worry, we got the vibrational kind. Hey, Oliver, you mind putting a wall up between us and them?" She glanced at the older cryokinetic, who nodded and turned back towards the guards. He swept his hands out and a wall of ice began to build from the ground up, creating a barrier between us and them. Naomi, in the meantime, turned back towards the wall and tossed the Davenbombs at them, the small devices sticking where they landed and beginning to blink rapidly.

"Back up!" Sera called, raising her hand at the Davenbombs, coating them in a layer of ice themselves. The rest of us backed against the ice barrier that Oliver created, the sound of blaster shots chipping away at the ice on the other side not exactly easing anyone's nerves. After a moment, there was a flash of light and, with a quake that shook the entire hall, the wall came apart, bricks crumbling to create an opening out into the streets.

"That tiny layer of ice protected us from the bombs?" Bree sounded skeptical, even though it'd happened right in front of us.

"C'mon!" Naomi motioned for us to follow her right before leaping over the broken part of the wall. We all followed her out into the streets, ignoring the looks coming from confused pedestrians as we raced away from the Caelus Court as fast as we could.

"The bombs use vibrations, not explosives, to take down walls." Chase explained to Bree as we ran. He looked back over at us. "Where's Emily?"

"We'll meet up with her." Naomi's response clearly didn't sit well with Chase, but it would have to do for now. Looking over my shoulder, I could see that some of the guards, having broken through Oliver's ice wall, were beginning to follow us.

"Guys!" I called over to them, hesitant to attack the incoming guards. These were public streets, with onlookers close enough to accidentally be caught up in the commotion. Fire was hard enough to control as it was, and I didn't want to hurt any innocent people.

"On it!" Bree and Noah called at the same time. They exchanged looks, then both sped backwards to deal with the guards.

"This way!" Sera led us down a side alley, heading away from the main streets. She glanced back at the others. "We just have to get out of the city."

"And then what?" Skylar demanded just as Noah sped back up to the front.

"Took out the first few, distracted the rest." He announced. Bree sped up a moment later.

"And I made a point of being seen by the guards heading in the other direction. They were too distracted to see where you guys were going, so that should buy us enough time to escape." She added. Noah looked at her in surprise.

"Oh, that's a good idea." He complimented. She gave him a nod, keeping pace with the rest of us. "Where are we headed?"

"Through here." Naomi explained, ducking behind the last building at the end of the alley, the cobblestone ground beneath our feet being replaced by grass. I could see the tree line of the Venusian jungle further ahead. And above the trees, I could see a spaceship coming in, slowing its flight as it approached us.

"I've got it." My Mom announced, raising her hand, and creating a ball of electricity in it. I quickly stepped in front of her, waving my hands to disrupt her aim.

"No, no, no. That's Charlotte! That's Charlotte!" I exclaimed before she could fire on our friend.

"We hope." Sera added, uncertain. I gave her a look.

"It's Charlotte." I repeated firmly as the ship landed just in front of the tree line, a door on its side dropping open to function as a ramp into the ship. Out of the tree line emerged a lone figure, who raced out to meet the ship and hopped up onto the ramp. I grinned as we got closer, recognizing the figure, now waiting in the doorway for us, as Emily.

"C'mon!" I insisted, pushing forward faster. To my surprise, as we got close, Emily pulled out her blaster.

"Behind you!" She shouted, aiming and firing. I hopped up onto the ramp and looked over my shoulder to see that the guards had found us once more and were converging on our location. "Hurry up!"

"Everyone inside!" Chase ordered, leaping onto the ramp alongside Jaden. Jaden turned and began to help Emily hold off the guards while the others scrambled onto the ramp and into the ship as fast as they could.

"We're good!" Emily shouted as Oliver climbed on last. She, Oliver, and Jaden backed away from the ramp and into the belly of the ship as the ramp began to rise, the two armed heroes continuing to fire on the guards until the door was closed. I felt the ship jolt underneath me as it began to take off.

"Now," Emily let out a sigh of relief, turning to grin at us, "that's what I call a rescue plan."

Noah's POV

We just barely managed to get out of the Venusian atmosphere in the end. Emily had used the same trick she had before to create a hole in the shielding that surrounded the planet and while this time she was helped by her father's telekinesis, we also had a number of armed ships following after us, firing at our small and admittedly vulnerable ship.

"Char!" Emily gasped out, eyes screwed shut as she focused. As soon as the triangular shaped hole grew large enough, Charlotte complied and hit the hyperdrive, sending us hurtling through space. Emily dropped her hands in relief, leaning against the back of the pilot seat.

"Are you okay?" Chase questioned in concern. Emily gave him a small smile and nodded before looking over at the scanners.

"Now, I don't read Venusian, but...I don't see anything following us, so...I think we're good?" She mentioned.

"They're most likely regrouping." Dad advised, turning around to look at all of us. "Now, are we going to talk about how reckless you've all been and how you are most definitely grounded for the rest of your lives?"

I winced at the anger in my dad's voice, as did a few of the others, but to my surprise, it was Sera who stood her ground.

"Right after we talk about the Venusians, and how we're going to stop them from invading Caldera and Earth." She decided. I looked at her in surprise, as did Ben and Kira.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ben questioned, looking between her and Naomi. The older girl nodded solemnly.

"We figured out their plan of attack while you were detained." She explained. "They're going to attack Caldera and Earth."

"But we have no idea why." Emily added. A few of the adults exchanged looks.

"We might." Mom sighed. I frowned, confused. "Guards talk, and we had nothing to do but listen."

"Why are they doing all this? People are going to die!" Kira exclaimed, shaking her head.

"Because if they don't, they'll die." Kaz explained. All eyes were on him as he explained. "They don't have another choice. Their planet is dying."

Chapter 11: A Long Overdue Apology

Chapter Text

Chase's POV

I sighed, rubbing my eyes as I made my way up the stairs. We'd landed in the Davenhanger late into the evening, late enough that finding enough Ubers had been enough of a challenge. When the only options were the self-driving ones, I hadn't even hesitated before agreeing.

The others were either down on the main floor of the penthouse, or in the lobby, waiting for the second elevator. I could hear Emily and Charlotte in the living room, talking quickly in low voices about the Venusian ship they'd stolen and how they wanted to take it apart and study it as soon as this was all over. Jaden was on the veranda, leaving a voicemail for his mother (he and Bree had both agreed to wait until morning to call Justine, not wanting to wake her in the middle of the night). Meanwhile, my sister was continuing to interrogate Noah about just where he got his bionics from in the first place (it had been four days now, and the eighteen-year-old seemed no closer to giving up the information than when we'd first learned of his new abilities).

I paused when I reached the second door on the right, then, as quietly as possible, pushed it open. Instantly, there was a burst of bright light as every light in the room switched on. I dropped my eyes and red echoes of the light burned into my retinas. "Jesus, Cal," I muttered, rubbing my eyes even as I felt Helix jumping up at me, whining in excitement before brushing past me to run out the door.

"Chase?" I opened my eyes at the sound of my wife's voice. She was sitting up at the head of the bed, hair askew and eyes, dark with bags underneath, wide in shock and disbelief. She was wearing a large tank top over a swollen belly (pregnant belly, I reminded myself, still processing the news Emily had told me our first night on the Venusian ship), along with a pair of loose-fitting leggings. She was holding her Paragun, a weapon I hadn't seen her use in years, loosely in her hands.

I didn't think I'd ever seen something so beautiful.

I opened my mouth, ready to make a bad joke about being home or an apology for scaring her, but the words just wouldn't come. Instead, all I managed, in a tone that sounded as rough as I felt, was, "Hey."

Calla gasped sharply, inhaling deeply as her eyes brimmed with tears. In one clumsy motion, she threw our comforter off her and stumbled off the bed towards me. I caught her arms as soon as she was within reach and pulled her close, dropping my forehead onto her shoulder. All at once, I could feel the weight of everything that had happened lift off my shoulders, the entire world feeling so much lighter. Only two words were running through my head: I'm home.

After a moment that felt far too short, Calla pulled back. She cupped the side of my face with one hand, rubbing her thumb across my cheek, the other hand still tightly holding my arm. "Emily." My wife murmured desperately, eyes searching mine for some understanding of what had happened.

"She's downstairs. She's safe." I promised instantly, and I saw Calla's shoulders drop in relief. "Everyone's okay."

"Okay. Okay." Calla breathed harshly, clearly fighting tears. I couldn't blame her; if I'd had any more energy left in me, I knew I'd be doing the same. "Chase, I thought-"

I nodded in understanding when she broke off, shaking her head. I pressed my forehead against hers. "I'm okay," I promised her, my eyes boring into hers. "I'm home."

She nodded, leaning into me before pulling back again. I didn't let her go far, still holding her hands gently. "What happened?"

"The Venusians," I told her grimly. Her expression darkened and I sighed. "We should talk, the whole team. It's not over."

"Oh god." She murmured, shaking her head. She was silent for a moment, processing, and then she looked back at me sharply. "The kids are okay, though? They're not hurt, they didn't get themselves killed?"

"Not this time," I promised her. The but they could have went unsaid. Calla nodded, her breathing slowing.

"Okay. They're okay." She nodded once to herself, collecting her thoughts for a moment. Then she gestured past me towards our dresser. "Hand me my robe; I'm going to kill them."

Kira's POV

"I'm so glad to be home." I practically whimpered in relief, dropping face down onto the couch in the middle of the Davenports' living room. The cushions were soft and inviting, a far cry from the stiffness of the only two beds on the Venusian ship we'd flown back here. While it had been thankfully a short trip - four days as opposed to the 4 months the Davenships would take - the journey had been uncomfortable and cramped.

I heard my mom chuckle above me. "You know we live in a completely different state, right?" She asked teasingly.

"This counts," I argued weakly, rolling over slightly to look at her. Mom shook her head fondly before heading to the kitchen to find something to eat. Sera was by the front door with her own mother, arguing quietly about something I couldn't quite catch. Uncle Oliver was watching from not too far away. I could hear Ben, Naomi, and my dad talking over by the fireplace, just out of my line of sight, trying to decide whether to call Aunt Alivia now or wait a few hours until morning. Kameron stretched out next to me, equally exhausted, just as Emily let out a happy squeal.

"Helix!" She cried in relief. I raised my head in time to see her envelope the Cavapoo in a tight hug, clearly having missed him dearly. For a moment, despite the imminent threat on the horizon, everything felt at peace. Unfortunately, that feeling only lasted a moment.

"Emily Bree Davenport! Charlotte Rose Dooley! Noah Patrick Parker!" Calla started shouting before she even made it to the main floor. We all shrank back instinctively as she called our names, clearly incredibly upset with us. "Seraphina Jaime Short-Storm! Kira Alivia Broadman! Kameron Oliver Broadman!" The CEO stormed down the stairs, face twisted in worry and fury equally. If I hadn't been one of the ones in trouble, I might have laughed at her demeanor; any other fairly pregnant woman wearing nothing but a tank top, leggings, and a dark blue robe would have been more amusing than threatening, but then again, this was Calla Davenport. "Naomi Wendy Davenport! Benjamin Horatio VanOver! Sit your asses down on that couch!"

"Yes, ma'am." Noah sat down quickly, looking incredibly nervous. I sat up as Sera and Charlotte sat down next to me, while Emily squeezed in between Noah and Kameron, clearly trying to use the two taller boys as human shields. The other adults spread out around the room, some (Chase, Bree, Uncle Oliver, and Aunt Skylar) standing behind Calla in support while others (like my parents and Jaden) were in the kitchen.

"We're absolving Ben and Naomi on account of our children kidnapping them," Dad interjected quickly from behind us before Calla could lay into them. Ben threw his hands up in relief.

"Finally, someone who is on my side about it!" He complained. Naomi gave him a look, even as she sat down on the edge of the couch.

"Your middle name is Horatio?" She teased. Before Ben could argue, Calla interrupted him.

"SO not the point!" She exclaimed, exasperated. She rubbed her face with her hands before looking up at the other adults. "Thank you all for not being dead." She turned back to us, hands clasped. "Do any of you understand how easily that could have happened to you? How easily you could have all been killed?"

"We already got the read the riot..." Seraphina tried to argue but trailed off as Calla's sharp glare turned onto her.

"Oh, feel free to continue it," Bree told Calla, giving us all a hard look. "We're not done ourselves."

"You're not?" Kameron gulped. Bree sent him a stern glare of her own.

"You really thought all you were getting was a five-minute lecture?" She questioned. He shrugged.

"I was hoping?" He admitted.

"No!" Oliver shook his head. "We were waiting until we had rooms to send you to!"

"Running away? To an alien planet we know nothing about aside from the fact that their people may have killed your parents? Are you kidding me? Did you even have a plan?" Calla demanded, staring at us. No one spoke up. She let out a harsh breath and rubbed her face again before continuing. "None of you are this stupid! You HAVE to make smarter choices! You just have to!"

"Calla..." Chase said softly. She turned to look at him and he mimed taking a breath. She rolled her eyes - although I could see the hint of a fond smile on her lips - before taking a deep breath and turning back to us.

"You can't just do whatever you want." She told us in a more controlled, yet still angry, tone. "Actions have consequences and you could have been killed."

"We couldn't sit by and do nothing!" I tried to argue, starting to stand. The looks I got from every adult in sight sent me straight back to the couch.

"Yes, you could have. We had a plan. One that wouldn't have endangered your lives." Calla insisted before taking a deep breath. "This was not your problem to solve. You need to let the adults handle these things. You are not prepared for them."

"I am an adult, for the record," Noah interjected.

"Are you?" Calla questioned before Bree or Jaden could speak up. "You may be eighteen, but you are certainly not acting like an adult." Calla glanced back at Bree, then over at Jaden behind us. "I take it he told you about school?"

"I...I was gonna wait until things cooled down?" Noah hunched his shoulders, looking sheepish. Jaden sighed and walked out of the kitchen.

"We can talk about school later. Unfortunately, there are more pressing matters than if he failed a class or something." He decided, sounding frustrated. Calla nodded.

"Sure, I mean, he didn't fail a class. It's kinda hard to do that when you're not enrolled in any." She mentioned passive-aggressively. Bree and Jaden both looked at her, confused, then turned to Noah.

"What does that mean?" Bree questioned. Noah flushed in embarrassment; this was clearly not how he wanted this conversation to go.

"There are more pressing matters?" He tried. Emily spoke up before Calla could ask what those were.

"Mom, I know we worried you, but we're all okay." She pointed out.

"Emily, I didn't even know where you were." Calla insisted, giving her daughter a tired look.

"We left a note!" Kameron protested. Behind us, I heard Dad clear his throat. I turned to see him looking at a piece of paper stuck to the fridge.

"'Gone to go save Moms and Dads. We'll be safe.'" He read out loud, shaking his head. "'Love you, Kam, Kira, Noah, Sera, Em, and Char.'"

"Not good enough," Calla informed him, much to Kameron's disappointment.

"Look, I know you're angry, and that's perfectly fair," Naomi spoke up for the first time. Calla glared at her. "That being said, Noah did have a point. There are more pressing matters to discuss right now."

"Such as?" Calla scoffed.

"Alien invasion?" Charlotte offered up. Calla looked at her in disbelief.

"An alien in-" Calla turned to look at Chase incredulously, stopping entirely when he gave her a frustrated nod of confirmation. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

"Afraid not," Ben confirmed. Calla stopped and rubbed her eyes.

"Of course, aliens are invading. Of course, that's happening." She sounded incredibly stressed out, and I felt a pang of guilt. While I still firmly believed that we did the right thing in saving our parents, worrying Calla so much had been the last thing I think any of us wanted. I resisted the urge to go hug her, knowing that right now, it wouldn't be appreciated.

"Alright, go to your rooms, all of you. Go to bed." Chase stepped forward. Emily stared at him in confusion.

"No, Dad! We have to talk about this now, not tomorrow!" She protested. He nodded.

"I agree and we are going to discuss what we are going to do." He agreed. "But you are not a member of the Elite Force and this is beyond what you can safely handle."

"You're not superheroes yet." Skylar reminded us, walking into my line of sight, and passing an apple between her hands. "It's too dangerous for you to get any more involved."

"Also, if it wasn't clear, you are grounded," Bree added. We all started to argue.

"You can't leave us out of this!" "You need every hand you can get!" "We can handle this!" The adults let it continue for maybe 30 seconds before deciding that they were done.

"Enough!" To our surprise, it was Dad who shouted. We all turned around to see him leaning with both hands against the kitchen island. "Enough. Look, we are all tired and we are all a little on edge after being stuck together in such a small space for so long. Nothing is happening tonight anyway, so just go to bed."

"But Dad-" Kameron stood up. Dad pointed to the stairs, an unusually stern look on his face.

"We will talk about this in the morning. Now go." He insisted, his tone leaving no room for argument. We all exchanged looks, then sighed.

"Fine," Emily muttered, pushing past her mother on her way up the stairs. Sera and I followed shortly behind her, followed by Kameron, Charlotte, and Noah, the latter two muttering complaints under their breath as we filed up the stairs. Before anyone could actually go to their rooms, Emily held open her bedroom door and gestured for us to join her inside.

"Please tell me we're not actually sitting this one out?" Seraphina questioned hopefully, leading the way in. Emily scoffed and rolled her eyes as we all filed into the bedroom. Noah closed the door behind her.

"Hell no." The seventeen-year-old retorted, turning to her TV. She tapped a finger to her forehead and the TV on the far wall came to life. It showed the background of a streaming service for a second before the screen changed to show the living room below us. "MISS has security cameras everywhere. We're not sitting out of anything."

Ben's POV

As soon as the kids had gone upstairs and we heard the sound of a door closing (true, they probably were all bunking in a single bedroom out of some teenage rebellion, but I think the other adults were just happy they were back under the Davenport Tower roof), Skylar turned to Kaz. "You can't seriously be considering them get involved?"

"No!" He looked at her like she was crazy. "I was just tired of the arguing. We'll deal with them individually in the morning; it'll be easier and maybe they'll be more reasonable once they've had some sleep."

"Good." Skylar nodded in agreement. Calla looked around.

"Okay, now, what on Earth, or I guess Venusia, did I miss?" She questioned, giving us each a once over. "You all look terrible."

"The peace treaty was a trap. We were abducted." Skylar shook her head. Calla nodded before taking a seat on the couch.

"I got that much. But why?" She questioned, frowning. "They have a chance for peace, and they aren't even willing to come to the table? They could have demanded everything they wanted. The Calderans didn't even get a chance to hear their demands."

"Not everything they want," Jaden replied from where he had sat down at the kitchen table. We all looked at him. "Caldera's not the only planet on their hit list."

"Earth." Calla realized in horror. She looked around. "Okay, start at the beginning. I know your ship disappeared before it ever made it to Venusia."

"We were attacked maybe a week and a half into the trip. They separated us and brought us to Venusia to meet with their 'High Council'." Bree explained, sitting down on one of the poufs by the TV.

"I assume that's their group of political leaders?" Calla guessed.

"They're being led by two Venusians named Jax and Jaya. We never met anyone else from the Council." Oliver confirmed. I nodded.

"That's who spoke to me, Kira, and Noah," I mentioned. I frowned. "They took blood samples from us."

"Yeah, us too." Oliver frowned, glancing at the rest of us. "I can't be the only one who thinks that was weird, right?"

"Kaz and I have a theory about that," Chase commented, standing near the couch with crossed arms. "But let's get on the same page before we go into that. They didn't just take our blood; they interrogated us."

"They wanted to know about Earth," Dani commented, frowning in deep thought. "I remember they asked a lot of questions about the planet."

"If they're going to invade, they'd want intel on our defenses and military. That makes sense." Calla thought aloud. Dani shook her head.

"Yes, but that's not what I meant. They asked about our military, the NLH, and our weapon systems, but they also asked about our planet. The soil, the climate, types of foliage and biomes." She paused, eyes lighting up with understanding. She raised her head sharply to stare at Chase and Kaz. "I think I know why they took our blood."

Kaz nodded, while Chase's face hardened. Now that someone else had come to the same conclusion as them, it was clear that they hadn't wanted to be right. "You care to fill us in?" Naomi questioned, looking between the three of them.

"Venusia is dying," Kaz said simply. I nodded.

"Yeah, you mentioned that before. What exactly does that mean, dying?" I questioned, leaning against the back of the couch behind Naomi. I looked at the other heroes and superhumans. "How can a planet die?"

"I forget sometimes how young you are." Calla gave me a sympathetic smile. "Lots of things can kill a planet. Climate change nearly destroyed our home until we got our butts in gear a decade or so ago. I take it something similar is happening to Venusia?" She phrased the last sentence as a question, looking at her husband curiously. To her surprise, he shook his head.

"I don't think so. One of the stars that heat their planet is dying." He explained. He glanced at the others, most looking confused. "My bionics picked up on unusual activity with their star during our escape, so I scanned it and ran a diagnostic as soon as we were on the Venusian ship."

"So their star is dying?" I confirmed. He nodded. "I guess that would explain why it's so cold there."

"Actually, it's probably too warm. Stars expand when they're dying and increase the temperature." Skylar commented thoughtfully, thinking about it. She frowned and glanced at Kaz and Dani. "Okay, I get how Chase figured that out, but how did you two get there?"

"I mean, asking about Earth's biomes and climate and stuff? They were probably trying to see if our planet would be livable for them." The electrokinetic reasoned, co*cking her head to the side as she thought it over. "I mean, those are some of the first questions that zoologists have to consider before releasing animals into the wild."

"You know, there are days I wonder what would have happened if we'd walked into Mighty Vet instead of Mighty Med." Oliver joked softly to Skylar. Dani rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you joke, but Liv will eventually agree to my side business idea." She warned. Kaz smiled briefly before continuing.

"The blood samples were probably to compare our two species. You can learn a lot from DNA." He reasoned. He glanced around at the rest of us. "Yes, believe it or not, Dee and I are good at our jobs."

"And thank goodness for that," Calla assured him with a small smile. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Okay, how certain are we that they're going to attack Earth? Is it just a theory? Is it imminent? Do we even know where on Earth their point of first contact will be? Or when?"

"They have a hundred ships ready to attack. Or at least they were ready; Emily and Kameron disabled as many as they could before we rescued you guys." Naomi spoke up, nodding at the adults. "Em thought that it would take them the better part of a week just to get them up and running again."

"Emily and Kameron disabled the ships?" Jaden confirmed. Naomi nodded and Jaden looked down at his sister. "The kids know how to do that?"

"Yeah, can we talk about the kids for a minute?" Bree questioned. She shook her head. "What the hell happened while we were gone?"

Kira's POV

"What the hell happened while we were gone?"Bree demanded, looking sternly at Calla.MISS' security cameras gave us a full view of the living area and everyone inside of it, the audio crystal clear.

"Why on Earth were they going on missions? Why did you train them?" Jaden added, clearly annoyed with his sister. I grimaced. I hadn't realized that Calla would get in some trouble for that.

Calla, on her part, didn't seem apologetic. "The day after you guys left, the city was attacked. Some of our old friends decided to take advantage of your absence." She explained. She looked around. "At first, I forbade them from missions or acting as a team. I had no intention of training them."

"I'm guessing they didn't exactly like that answer?" Aunt Skylar guessed. She exchanged a look with Uncle Ollie. "Seraphina had a habit of trying to play hero behind our backs."

"Go Sera." Emily teased, nudging the half-Calderan girl with her elbow. The two of them were lying on their stomachs on Emily's bed, Helix snuggled in close to his owner while Noah was sitting next to Sera with his back against the wall. Charlotte and I were settled on Seraphina's bed, with Kameron sitting on the floor between our legs. His pet tarantula, Josh, was sitting on his lap, the pet's cage just a few feet away.

"They made it pretty clear that they weren't going to back down. I could ground them, lock them in their rooms, but they'd still try to take those risks." Calla shook her head, then looked pleadingly at the others. "I understand that it's not what you guys wanted for them. It's certainly not something Chase and I planned for Emily, but I'd way rather train them for the worst-case scenario than get a 3AM phone call from a hospital somewhere."

"I don't get it." Mom shook her head in disbelief. "That doesn't sound like our kids."

"It doesn't?" "It doesn't?" Both Dad and Kameron said at once. Mom gave Dad a look.

"They ask permission for everything, even though we've never forced them to. I mean, sure, Kira could spend more time working on her homework and less on video games, and Kameron does have a habit of getting himself into trouble more often than we'd like, but lying? Secrets? Outright defiance? That's not like them." Mom reasoned. I shrugged, not entirely disagreeing with her. We had a pretty open communication family - sometimes that meant we knew things we weren't supposed to, but it also meant there was a lot of trust. My stomach twisted as I remembered all the secrets they had apparently been keeping from us this whole time.

"Are you saying that it's like our kids to do that?" Chase questioned, immediately coming to Emily's defense.

"I mean, it's not unlike our daughter to do that," Calla mentioned. Emily scowled at her mother through the screen. "I'm sorry, guys, but it's all of them. They feed off of each other. It brings out the best in them, but it has also brought out their worst."

"I disagree with that assessment." Naomi chimed in. The other adults looked at her. "They make each other better. They're a good team."

Chase sighed and looked at Calla. "You said 'old friends'. Now Kira mentioned Lexi and someone named Darius?"

"Wait, you told them about Darius?" Emily stared at me, eyes wide. Behind her, I could see Darius' old sweater hanging off the back of her desk chair (Charlotte had swiped it when she and Kameron collected more supplies from the Davenship, much to the older girl's relief).

"I said that he wasn't a real bad guy," I assured her. "Nothing awful."

Emily looked at me for a long moment before turning her gaze back onto the screen.

"We will talk about Darius later, you and I," Calla told Chase before nodding. "But yes, Lexi reappeared. Along with Reese, Marcus,and some guy named Catastrophe? Apparently knew you guys?"

"Oh dang, Wallace and Clyde." Dad shook his head, glancing at Mom and Uncle Ollie. "That takes me back."

"Wait, Marcus? Actually Marcus?" Bree looked at Chase in shock. He shook his head in disbelief.

"He just won't stay dead." He muttered.

"Well, he better this time," Charlotte grumbled. I patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"There were a few others as well. The kids of your old enemies. Experion's son, Megahertz's, a few members of the Roddiseus family." Naomi added.

"Lovely. What did they want?" Mom questioned suspiciously.

"World domination, probably. But they started by trying to take out our tech companies. Davenport Industries, Blizzard Corp, Explority." Calla listed. "We thought that they were working with the Venusians. At least, that's what they claimed."

"They wanted Earth defenseless. That's why they lured us away." Jaden decided. Chase nodded.

"It seems so." He agreed. He sighed. "We need a plan. According to Emily, the Venusians had both Earth and Caldera in their systems. We don't know which one they're going after first."

"Can we force their hands? Make them attack a specific target so we're prepared to defend it?" Calla suggested. "It would be easier to mount a defense if we don't have to split up our forces."

"They had more targets on Earth than Caldera. Eight cities here, only one there." Emily spoke up, although the adults couldn't hear her.

"They have a specific target in mind for Caldera. Defending it would be easier than the various targets they have on Earth." Chase decided. Apparently, great minds did think alike.

"Okay, so we take the fight to Caldera. Then what?" Ben questioned.

"Take out their leadership." Skylar decided. "If we can get rid of Jax, Jaya, and whoever else is on that Council, we could destabilize things enough to drive them off."

"If you take out their leadership, they'll become martyrs. The war will never end." Naomi warned her. Skylar sighed.

"I don't think that's going to change, no matter what we do." She sounded so sad, so full of defeat. Seraphina seemed to deflate on the bed, hiding half her face behind her crossed arms. Her eyes were glassy, heartbroken. Emily glanced at the other girl, frowning. Then, not having a better idea for how to cheer our friend up, lifted Helix and placed him on top of Sera's back. The dog seemed briefly confused by the sudden relocation, but eventually lied back down and nuzzled into the half-alien's back. Sera, on her part, bit back a small smile.

"It'll at least give us a fighting chance." Mom had always said that Uncle Ollie was the optimist of their group, and today was no exception. "We can go to the League, and ask for help. We can call Liv tonight."

"And the Academy. They'll help, you know they will." Jaden added.

"I have a few thoughts on how we can handle the Venusians once we're on Caldera," Calla added. Emily perked up at that.

"She's going to Caldera, but we're not?" The genius protested.

"What do you want to do about the kids? We can't just leave them here." Oliver pointed out. "And we're not taking them to Caldera."

"You should," Noah grumbled. Bree turned to look at Jaden, as if hearing her son's complaint from the other floor.

"You know what I think? I think we should drop Noah off at your Mom's." She decided, raising her chin. "I'd like to see him get anything past her."

"Wait, what?" Noah stood up, staring at the screen with an unreadable look on his face. Jaden nodded in agreement.

"That's a good idea." He agreed. Calla glanced at Chase.

"I do think some time apart might do the kids some good. All of them." She told him. "Emily could stay with your parents."

"No!" Emily protested, sitting up fully. Mom and Dad looked at each other, thinking.

"Please not Alan or Jordan, please not Alan or Jordan." I found myself muttering under my breath.

"We'll bring the twins back to New York in the morning. We could maybe convince Jordan to watch them?" Dad suggested. Mom shrugged.

"Alan's also an option. We can't take everyone and leave the world defenseless anyway." She agreed.

"C'mon!" Kameron protested.

"Crossbow still owes me a couple of favors. I'm sure she'd be happy to keep an eye on Seraphina for us." Skylar said to Oliver.

I grabbed the TV remote off of Emily's desk and hit the pause button. The silence hung heavily in the room as we all processed just what our parents were planning.

"They're going to separate us?" I whispered, my heart dropping.

Chase's POV

"For the record, I don't think that separating the kids is the answer." Surprisingly, it was Ben who spoke up in the kids' defense. He shook his head. "They're headstrong, yes. Reckless, definitely. But they are good at this. Keeping them out of the fight and away from each other is not the way to handle this."

"I appreciate your opinion, Ben, but you're not a parent," Calla told him simply. "Keeping them safe is our biggest priority. Allowing them to form a team in the first place was a mistake, and I'm sorry."

"It sounds like you didn't have much of a choice. We understand." Skylar assured her. Dani nodded.

"It's not like the twins are that far off from starting their training anyway." She agreed.

"Okay, once the kids are safe and out of the way, what do we do then? Just head up to Caldera with every bit of backup we can find?" He questioned. I nodded.

"More or less." It wasn't the best plan - we'd have to narrow down the specifics once we looped Adam, Leo, and Alivia in - but it was a good start.

"Okay. Look, we're not going to save the world over the next few hours, and I wasn't kidding when I said you all look awful." Calla told us, only half-apologetically. Kaz frowned at her.

"Yeah, well, you look..." He trailed off. Calla turned to look at him. "I know better than to insult the pregnant lady. Congrats, by the way."

"Thank you, Kaz." Calla rolled her eyes fondly at the pyrokinetic. "What I meant though, is that you all look like you could benefit from a good shower, some decent food, and some sleep. So I will call Alivia and Leo and order some take-out. You guys go shower and get whatever you need. Beds, clothes, whatever you need.Nuestra case est su casa."

"Thanks." Kaz sniffed his shirt and grimaced. "Ooh, you are not wrong about that shower."

"Yeah, I think I'll join you." Dani agreed, stretching. She started to head for the stairs, only stopping when Calla called her back.

"Dani?" She questioned. The younger woman stopped at the bottom of the stairs, Kaz only a couple of steps ahead of her. Calla co*cked her head to the side, eyebrows raised at her old friend. "Josh the Guinea Pig?"

Dani laughed softly and shrugged. "You love us." She replied before heading up the stairs. Calla shook her head as the others all followed suit, some heading for the two bathrooms upstairs, others off to find something to change into after having been stuck in our mission suits for months now. I, meanwhile, walked over to Calla. She pulled me towards her, resting her forehead against my abdomen. I ran my hands through her hair.

"You okay?" I murmured gently. She shook her head.

"They scared me. All of you did." She muttered. I sat down on the couch next to her, taking her hands into mine.

"I know. I'm sorry." I apologized, squeezing them gently. She shook her head.

"You shouldn't be apologizing to me. You did absolutely nothing wrong." She told me, analyzing my face with her eyes. "Chase, are you sure you're okay? Seven months in a cell...I can't even imagine."

"It wasn't the most restful place, that's for sure. But I'm okay." I assured her. She nodded, although she still looked skeptical. "I'm home, Calla. Back with you, and Emily...and Baby Number Two."

Calla smiled sweetly at that and pulled my hands onto her stomach. "I don't know if she'll kick for you. She does sometimes when she hears your voice, but she's not as active as Em was. But Horace checked and everything's normal."

"She?" I repeated, even as I made a mental note to double-check everything with Horace. I frowned. "Wait, when she hears my voice?"

Calla laughed slightly. "I had Tasha send me a bunch of my and Leo's old videotapes, the ones from when we were investigating Marcus the first time. I've been playing those, and some of the videos from when Emily was little for her. She seems to like them. And yes, it's a she." She pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to come home to."

"No, it's..." I couldn't help the smile on my face. "This was a good surprise."

"Yeah?" She smiled at me hopefully. I nodded eagerly.

"Look, I know we're nearly...a certain age." Calla's eyebrows raised when I nearly admitted how old the two of us were. "But we spent years trying to have a second kid. How could I be anything other than happy about it?"

Calla nodded, smiling as she looked down at her belly. "Good. I'm happy too."

"I..." She looked up at me sharply when I trailed off. "I do have a concern, however. Caldera."

"I'm not staying behind." She said instantly. I gave her a look. "Absolutely not, Chase."

"A war zone is no place for a baby." I reasoned. She shook her head.

"A war zone is no place for you." She argued. She squeezed my hands tightly. "We are a team. We do not separate."

"We do if it's in everyone's best interest." I pointed out. "Calla, it's far dangerous for you to be out there."

"Hey." She cupped my chin with one hand, forcing me to look her in the eye. Her gaze was blazing. "I nearly lost you once. I'm not okay with you going back to Caldera. I'm not okay with you joining a war. I'm not okay with any of this, but it's the right thing to do. But I am not staying behind while you take all the risks."

"Calla-" I began, but her eyes started to tear up. "No, hey. Calla."

"What if you don't come home next time?" She dropped her hand and her gaze, even as the tears threatened to spill. I squeezed her arm gently, forcing her to look back at me.

"I will always come home to you," I promised her, staring into her eyes. "I swear it on our marriage, on our children, on everything, okay? I will always come home to you. But I need you safe so I have something to come home to."

Calla held my gaze for a long time. Then, finally, she nodded. "Alright. Fine."

I let out a relieved breath. Calla could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be, but the idea of her being on Caldera in the middle of this mess...it was too risky. She and Emily needed to be here, safe before I could ever focus on helping others. "Maybe Emily could help you out in Mission Command?" I suggested, trying to change the topic. "It'll give you a chance to keep an eye on her."

"Yeah." To my surprise, Calla scoffed at the idea. "I'm already the worst mother ever. I don't think she's gonna wanna help me too much."

I frowned. "You're not...she doesn't think that." I dismissed it. Calla gave me a look. "Because we're grounding her? Calla, all parents do that."

Calla pressed her lips together in a thin line. "What did she tell you about Darius?" She asked. I frowned; this was an odd change of topic, but okay.

"Uh, Kira mentioned him, actually. Said he was 'half a villain' whatever that means." I'd tried to get more details about that from Emily when she joined me in the co*ckpit on the flight home, but she hadn't wanted to talk about it. Every time I tried to ask about anything I'd missed, she changed the topic to the ship, or Venusia or Caldera. All the kids had been like that, avoiding any type of non-mission-related conversation. Hmm, maybe a break WOULD be a good idea for them.

"I don't even know about that part anymore. What I do know is that he was our daughter's boyfriend." I looked up at her in surprise. Emily wasn't the type to date often, and she hadn't been seeing anyone when I'd left. "And he lied about who he was and what he could do for a long time."

"What did he do?" Horrific theories of ways he could have hurt Emily flooded my mind. She had clearly changed a lot since September, and at first, I thought it was her growing up, or even being mad at the situation. But if that little punk had so much as laid a finger on-

"Nothing." I stopped short at Calla's response. I stared at her, not understanding. "He never hurt her, might have even helped her when we were dealing with Reese and Lexi. He might have just been a kid caught up in something he couldn't get out of."

I nodded, still not quite understanding. "Then what happened?"

Calla sighed and looked at me, shaking her head. "Emily trusted him, but I couldn't. I turned him away."

I frowned. That was not like Calla. She was warm and welcoming, always had been. "Why?" I asked, confused.

"Darius is Lexi and Sebastian's son, Chase." She told me, tone grim. I stared at her, processing. Of all the betrayals we'd experienced over the years, Sebastian had been one of the worst. I'd trusted him completely in the beginning, only for him to try and take us out. "He's Sebastian's son, and he lied, and things were getting too dangerous. Emily hasn't seen him since the attack and she blames me for it."

"That's not..." This was a lot to process in one night. I rubbed my face, thinking it over. "You were trying to protect her. You did the right thing."

"Unless he actually was just a kid with bad parents. I don't know if it was the best judgement call, or just old wounds re-opening themselves." She shook her head, sadly. "I don't know."

"Hey." I took her hand again, resting the back of mine against her stomach. She looked up, a worried look on her face. "You're a good mom. You did what you thought was best for our kid. That's all you can do."

"Mm-hmm." She nodded distractedly. "Emily will forgive you. She just needs time."

"I hope you're right." Calla agreed, glancing at the stairs. "Because she is none too pleased with me right now."

Kira's POV

"I can't believe they want to separate us!" Emily exclaimed, pacing her room in frustration. "How could they do this?"

"I can't believe this." I agreed, leaning back against the wall in shock. Every part of this was awful; we were all going to be separated, not able to see each other until who-knows-when, my parents were getting even more involved in the Calderan-Venusian war, and weren't able to do anything.

"I can't sit by and do nothing. Not if our parents are joining an intergalactic war!" Noah's voice was just barely below a shout.

"Stop!" Sera hissed suddenly. We looked to see her gesturing for us all to be quiet. Confused, we all stopped talking at once, just as the sound of footsteps hit our ears. My and Kameron's parents passed by our door, talking quietly about using the 'good shower' in Calla and Chase's private bathroom. We heard the bedroom door click open and closed, shortly followed by the bathroom at the end of the hall that the rest of us had been sharing."We can't talk about this here," Seraphina whispered.

"We can't exactly wait. It sounds like we're on our way out of here in the morning." I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. Charlotte sighed.

"We're not okay with this, right?" She checked. Every single one of us shook our heads. "Alright, I have a plan, but if the parents find out..."

"We'll be grounded for the rest of our lives?" Kameron guessed. Seraphina shook her head.

"They'll never let us see each other again if we disobey them now." She pointed out in a hushed voice. Emily nodded.

"I'm not okay with our parents joining a war. And frankly, I think we have a better chance at stopping this than they do." She reasoned. She looked around. "I know it's risky, I know that there will be consequences, but we can deal with that when the time comes. Right now, I think we need to figure out a way to help."

"If anyone disagrees," Charlotte said after a long moment of quiet, "Speak now. You won't get another chance."

Ben's POV

"The kids have been awfully quiet," Naomi observed, sipping at her coffee. It was morning now, but still early. Naomi and I had been up all night with Calla and Chase, trying to organize as much backup and weaponry as possible. The two geniuses were on the couch, looking over something on Calla's holo-computer. It had been decided that Calla would stay behind and try to help from Mission Command, although it would limit her to only being able to send more support. She was frustrated by it, clearly, but somehow Chase had convinced her.

Bree and Jaden were in the kitchen, reheating some of the pizza Calla had ordered a few hours ago. Even just a couple of hours' sleep had done the two of them a lot of good. They had just gotten off the phone with Justine, Noah's younger sister, and after reassuring her many times that they were okay and safe, had finally convinced her to try and focus on her studies. A large family vacation had been promised to her in exchange, I was pretty sure.

Kaz and Dani were still out like lights, having claimed the two singles in Noah and Kameron's room fairly quickly after realizing that the kids were all going to sleep over in Emily and Sera's room. Oliver was nowhere to be seen, presumably having finally taken Calla's advice (orders) about taking that shower, while Skylar was on the phone with one of her friends from the NLH, trying to get as much backup ready as possible for the mission.

"Probably exhausted from the trip." I reasoned, taking a bite of cold pizza. Naomi made a face at the food and I shrugged. "Don't judge, Shutterbug. Cold pizza is a delicacy."

"You're such a weird guy." She teased lightly, putting her coffee down. "Okay, I'm going to go raid Calla's weapons' vault. There were a couple of toys that the kids neglected to grab that'll come in handy on Caldera."

"Good idea," I commented, just as the front door slid open. Leo and Katherine, looking about ten times more refreshed than anyone else in this entire apartment, burst in.

"Where's she?" Katherine demanded, forgoing any polite small talk.

"Emily's room. They've been there all night." Chase explained, giving his stepbrother a little wave in greeting. Leo let out a sigh of relief as his wife stormed up the stairs.

"Now I know how my Mom felt when you guys went on missions." He muttered, following her up. I made a mental note to give my mom a call in a couple of hours, once I knew she'd be up. She worried too much about me on a normal day, let alone after I'd been straight-up MIA for the past three weeks. Naomi chuckled, then walked up to the fireplace. She frowned when it didn't open immediately.

"Hyperlift, open." She announced. Nothing happened. That surprised even Calla and Chase.

"Hyperlift, open," Calla repeated. Again, nothing. "I was down there like 2 hours ago. It's not broken."

"MISS, open the hyperlift," Chase instructed. No response whatsoever. "MISS?"

"Why isn't MISS working?" Bree questioned, frowning. A moment later, Leo came walking down the stairs, a worried look on his face and a piece of scrap paper in his hands.

"'We had an idea. We'll be safe.'" He read the note aloud."'Love you, Kam, Kira, Noah, Sera, Em, and Char.'"

Chase, Bree, and Jaden all stared at Leo. Calla, on the other hand, dropped her face into her hand. "You've got to be kidding me."

"There is no sign of the kids up there," Leo confirmed. He looked around. "They're gone."

Chapter 12: Invasion Part 1

Chapter Text

Kameron's POV

Sneaking out of the Penthouse had actually been a lot easier than any of us had expected. A huge part of it was probably not luck, but rather a result of everyone in the apartment being completely drained from our trip home. The ship we'd borrowed (or stolen, depending on who you asked) had been tiny, with only a couple of beds and a single bathroom, so it had left most of us more strung out and exhausted than not. Emily had snuck into her parents' bedroom and returned a little while later with a large, silver blanket she claimed was her grandfather's old 'invisibility cloak'. I hadn't quite believed that it would actually work (I mean, c'mon, even the Davenports have their limits) until we successfully snuck right by Calla while she was dividing up the pizza she'd ordered onto plates. We weren't able to go through the front door or Mission Command without getting caught, so we'd had to sneak onto the veranda and fly down, much to my sister's displeasure.

"How can a superhero be afraid of heights?" Charlotte teased as we entered the bus depot downtown. It would have been impossible to borrow a car from the garage without getting caught, so we'd had to walk all the way down here.

"Do you knowhow many people die from accidental falls each year?" The younger girl protested, glaring at her. "And I got you down in one piece, didn't I?"

"Okay, guys. Enough." Although even I had to admit that it was funny to get Kira mad (mainly because it was so hard to rile her up in the first place), we did have a few things to figure out first. "Emily, where are we going?"

"Haven't figured that out yet." The technopath admitted, shrugging. Seraphina, Noah, Kira, Charlotte, and I all stopped at once. Emily turned around to face us. "What?"

"I thought you said you had a plan?" Noah questioned, narrowing. She nodded.

"I do!" She insisted. "Well, part of a plan, anyway."

Seraphina sighed deeply. "Of course you do." She muttered, raising her head to the sky. "Some days I can't tell if you're just reckless or actually crazy."

"Which part of the plan have you figured out?" Kira inquired. Emily grinned.

"We're going to save the people of Venusia." She announced. Seraphina stared at her for a moment before turning to us.

"She is crazy." She informed us in a falsely bright tone before collapsing onto a nearby bench. "What?"

"No, Emily." I frowned at her, not comprehending what was going on in that funky little brain of hers. "It's Caldera we're trying to save. And Earth."

Emily shook her head. "No, guys. Don't you understand? The Venusians don't want war. Look at what we saw in that village!" She turned to Sera. "Those villagers were just as bad off as Calderans. They're just trying to protect their home."

"They're trying to destroy mine." The Calderan reminded her, although, to my surprise, she didn't look nearly as angry as I thought she would. Seraphina seemed to be considering Emily's words, trying to find the solution in them instead of getting defensive.

"Jax, Jaya, and their council are trying to destroy Caldera." Emily corrected, scowling at their names. "But the people? The villagers? They're just trying to make it through the day."

"Your point?" Noah questioned. Emily gave him a look.

"My point is that if we give them an alternative, a way to survive that doesn't involve killing millions of people, they'll take it." She insisted. She closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"You have a lot of faith in them," I commented. Kira gave me a look. "I'm not wrong. How can you be sure they wouldn't rather take over Earth?"

"They care about each other." Seraphina, surprisingly, was the one to speak up. We all looked at her and she sighed, shaking her head. "We saw it. That village was fast to rebuild and they were clearly a community, not just a bunch of people who lived near each other."

"Individuals can be greedy, but groups of people? They'll fight for whatever their common interest is, and right now, that's survival. If we can give them that, without losing Caldera or Earth in the process, that's how we win."

"At the very least," Noah said, considering the idea, "it'll reduce the number of Venusians fighting against us." Emily nodded eagerly. "Okay, I'm down. How do we save the Venusian people?'

"No idea." Emily admitted. I chuckled in disbelief. "Hey, I said I had part of a plan!"

"Emily, this isn't part of a plan; it's a concept." I pointed out. She sighed.

"Look, if the Elite Force go to Caldera, do you really think they'll just stick around for one mission? Then what, abandon Caldera? None of them are capable of that." The genius insisted, eyes sad and worried. "Best case scenario, they stick it out until Caldera and Earth win, which could be months or even years. Worst case..." She trailed off, unable to voice it out loud.

I looked at my shoes. Mom and Dad wouldn't just leave Caldera if it was in danger. Not if it meant leaving innocent people to die. Not if it meant abandoning Uncle Oliver and Aunt Skylar. I couldn't blame them; they loved Oliver and Skylar, and neither of them had it in them to walk away from people who needed help.

"So how do we save Venusia?" Kira asked with a sigh.

Kaz's POV

"I don't know if I'm more angry at the fact that they ran away again, or proud of the fact that they thought to leave a note." Dani admitted, looking over the note. "I mean, I wouldn't have left a note."

"Yeah, but you were a rebel." I reasoned. She snorted in amusem*nt.

"I drank breakfast smoothies every morning, was on the varsity soccer team, and spent my spare time working at a hospital." She reminded me. "What on Earth is your definition of a rebel?"

"Could you take this seriously?" Bree snapped at us, pacing around the room. She was impatient, desperate to find the kids, and unhappy that we didn't have a real plan to find them.The rest of the team, sans Calla and Chase, were gathered in the living room. The two geniuses had left a few minutes ago to try and access Mission Command from the tunnel system.

"Bree, it's not like they left the planet." A quick call to Adam Davenport had quickly confirmed that all the Davenships were where they were supposed to be, nor had anyone at the Academy seen the kids. The Venusian ship we'd stolen was still in the Davenhanger downtown, being prepped by AJ for our flight back to Caldera. "We'll find them."

"Eventually." The speedster grumbled. "How long does it take Calla to get MISS up and running anyway?"

"I mean, probably more than 8 minutes." Jaden replied, trying to lighten her mood. I could tell he was pretty stressed out though, glancing at the clock above the stove every few seconds. I had to admit, I wasn't thrilled that the kids had just taken off like that. Kira and Kameron were the youngest of the group and, if I had to admit it, were probably the worst off in a fight. Kameron had never been the biggest fan of actual conflict and had struggled in his self-defense classes in New York as a result, while Kira was just a little too eager to impress sometimes, always getting herself in a bit more trouble than she could handle. Then again, Dani, Oliver, and I had been more or less the same, not knowing what to do in a fight and general recklessness, and we'd turned out fine, right?

Besides, panicking would not bring the kids home nor help us find them. We could punish them when we find them.

"I can't believe they'd do this." Bree insisted, almost shaking in her anger. "We'd never do something like this!"

Leo, who was leaning up against the wall above the unlit fireplace, co*cked an eyebrow at her comment. "Yeah, you would neverhave run away to do something extremely dangerous, and possibly likely to get you killed, and leave nothing but a note. That NEVER happened with you, Adam, and Chase."

Bree stopped pacing to frown at him, trying to remember what he was referencing. Evidently, she did, because her face cleared for a moment before she rolled her eyes. "One time! And the note was Adam's idea. Besides, that's not the point. Noah knows better."

"They all do. They're just too much like us for their own good." Oliver commented, shaking his head. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Is it too much to hope that's one of the kids?" Jaden asked, only half joking. Oliver opened the door and Alivia McLean walked in, red hair in a long braid behind her back and wearing her dark green uniform. Her serious expression softened when she saw us, a faint smile on her lips.

"Alien abductions, guys? Really? I swear, you go looking for trouble." She told us, not an ounce of heat in her voice. She quickly gave Dani a tight hug, followed by me, Oliver, and Skylar. She smiled at Jaden and Bree for a moment, then frowned.

"What's wrong? Where are Chase and Calla?" She questioned, immediately picking up on the mood.

"Mission Command. The kids deactivated MISS and ran off, again." Skylar informed her. Alivia sighed.

"Of course they did. Three weeks on a hostile alien planet wasn't enough for them, was it?" She shook her head, then glanced at us. "I'm going, to be honest with you guys, I'm seriously reconsidering letting them begin their training this summer. Being a superhero requires responsibility and from Calla's reports, I'm concerned they're not ready."

"We can talk about that." Dani replied, nodding. I nodded in agreement.

"I definitely don't want them starting their training if the League is getting involved in the Venusian war." I agreed. I glanced at Skylar and Oliver apologetically. "I'm sorry, guys, but there's a huge difference between fighting a bad guy and fighting a war."

"We get it. Sera's not coming home to Caldera either; it's far too dangerous." Oliver told us. He glanced at Alivia. "Skylar's gonna see if Crossbow could watch her, or we're gonna leave her here with Calla and Chase. They've already agreed."

"That might be a good idea. I have a feeling it's going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation." The Irish hero replied. She looked around. "I understand the plan is to force the Venusians to attack Caldera, but what then? From Naomi's explanation, it sounds like there's an army of warships. Do we even have enough spaceships to handle that?"

"We do not." The fireplace behind Leo split in two as the hyperlift brought Calla and Chase back up to the main floor. Calla was holding her holocomputer in her arms, an annoyed look on her face, while Chase shouldered a large duffle bag.

"Thank goodness you got MISS up and runnin'." Katherine sighed in relief, starting to get up off the couch. Chase shook his head, gently placing the bag on the ground next to the front door.

"Not exactly." He admitted. Calla sighed in frustration.

"MISS isn't deactivated at all. She's working perfectly fine." She said, in that too happy tone that told me she was well and truly pissed off. "See Emily is smart, and knew that it would take me all of five minutes to get MISS back up if she deactivated her. So you know what she did instead? She forced a massive update through her system, and until MISS is done downloading that, she's offline."

"How long is the update going to take?" Bree questioned, frowning.

"Hours." Chase sighed. "And before anyone suggests just rebooting MISS, if we do that while she's still updating, we risk corrupting her entire system."

"So how do we find them?" Dani questioned. Calla sighed, taking a seat.

"We wait. Our best chance at finding them is through tracking Noah and Charlotte's bionics, but without access to the Bionic Network, that's impossible." Calla explained. Alivia frowned.

"Your entire Bionic Network is only accessible through MISS?" She questioned. "That seems...risky."

"Someone tried to hack into Davenport Industries' servers a few years back. He ended up corrupting a software update I sent to every bionic hero." Calla explained, frowning at the memory. Chase and Bree both reacted in kind, the former scowling angrily while the latter shuddered at the thought of it happening again. "Trust me, not something we ever wanted happening again. Housing the entire Bionic Network in MISS' servers which can only be accessed through a few, heavily, heavily, protected consoles with unique access points provides the most protection possible for their bionics."

"It did result in me losing some access though," Chase admitted. "Including being able to track or even control other people's bionics."

"So we have to wait until MISS' update is done to track them." Alivia sighed. She looked around. "You have a better sense of our timeline than I do. Can we wait for that?"

"No, we can't. We need to get to Caldera now." Skylar admitted in annoyance.

"We'll find the kids." Ben spoke up. We looked over at where he and Naomi were sitting at the computer desk. So far, they'd been quiet, letting us handle the situation. "You can't afford to leave anyone else behind. We'll find the kids, make sure they're okay, and bring them home in one piece."

Alivia nodded. "Thank you, Aftershock." She agreed. She looked at us. "Are you guys okay with that?"

"Yeah, thanks, Ben." Chase nodded. I frowned; I didn't like the idea of leaving without knowing the kids were safe and, frankly, being able to say goodbye. Given how our last intergalactic adventure had gone, this wasn't sitting right with me. But we also didn't have another choice.

"Alright, here's the plan. Ben, Naomi, and I will stay here. As soon as MISS is able, we'll track the kids' location. Meanwhile, I'll help coordinate things from Mission Command." Calla explained. Chase nodded.

"The rest of us will fly to Caldera using the Venusian ship. It's faster than anything than anything we have here on Earth." He informed Leo, Katherine, and Alivia. "It should only take us a few hours."

"Then we somehow convince our leaders to drop the forcefields." Skylar continued. "The Bionic heroes will geoleap to Caldera, and take along any members of the League who are available."

"We have 43 heroes ready to go." Alivia sounded apologetic, but seeing as that was nearly 90% of the League, I was pretty surprised she was sparing that many. "I have to leave a few behind. Just in case."

"We know. Thank you." Skylar told her sincerely. Alivia nodded.

"Alright, then what? How do we prevent the Venusians from wiping us out with their ships?" She questioned. Chase kicked the bag at his feet.

"That's what this is for." He assured her. He paused, then looked at Calla sadly. "We have to go."

"I know." She nodded solemnly. She sighed. "Okay, I hate this. We understand that. Good." She didn't wait for our answers. "You are all coming home after this. All of you. If any of you gets killed out there, I will spend every dollar I have to build a machine that will bring you back to life, so I can kill you myself, and with our track record, we all know how that's going to go."

"So basically, our options are survive, or you'll start a zombie apocalypse?" Dani questioned. Calla gave her a thin smile.

"Glad we're all on the same page." She stood up. "I love you. Be safe."

"Come here." Chase pulled her in for a tight hug. After a long moment, he pulled back. "I love you."

"I love you too. Come home safe." She instructed. He nodded and she stepped back with a heavy sigh. "Alright, go. Save lives."

Kameron's POV

"Your dad said that Venusia's sun, star, whatever was dying, right?" Kira asked. The six of us were sitting on the benches at the bus depot, trying to figure out our plan. I was a bit worried that our parents would find us, but Emily seemed pretty sure that we would be fine for a few more hours. Without MISS being able to track Noah and Charlotte's bionics, and with all of our devices and Davenwatches still sitting in Emily and Sera's bedroom, it would be a bit harder to track us down than normal. "Could we replace it?"

"Repla-what?" Noah stared at her, blinking in confusion. Kira nodded.

"Like make a new one." My sister clarified. When that got her even more confused looks. "Oh c'mon, it wouldn't be the craziest thing Davenport Industries has come up with!"

"Yeah, no. That's beyond even my parents." Emily admitted. "That would be a nuclear fusion-type of thing, and I can't name any company that's still researching that field. I'm sure there are, but none big enough to have the resources to make a new star on short notice. That would take years, and the Venusians don't have that."

"What about...uh. Oh! Did your parents ever tell you about Davenportia?" Charlotte suggested, sitting up straight. "Dad told me that Grandpa Donny built like domes on the moon to let people live there."

"Uh, I think Mom mentioned it once. Said it didn't work out." Noah reasoned. "Something about a giant hole in the side of it."

"Well, that would kinda suck." I mentioned. When no one commented on my statement, I raised an eyebrow at them. "Suck? They're on the moon? There's a hole?"

"Oh, we understand the pun, we just didn't find it funny." Sera replied. I rolled my eyes.

"You suck." I commented. Then what I said hit me and I had to laugh.

"I mean, it could buy us time if the Venusians agreed to it. But it's a short-term solution at best." Emily reasoned. "When stars die, they expand. It's why the temperature is rising on Venusia - the star is literally growing and getting closer. It'll eventually engulf the planet and I don't know if there's any material we could build that would be able to withstand that and keep everyone inside from literally burning to death."

"So that's Plan B." Noah decided. He thought about it for a minute. "Could we find them a new planet? In a way that doesn't involve war or invasion on another civilization?"

"I don't think that'll work." Sera sounded doubtful. "Planets are all very different, but different species need very specific things to survive. Certain water and hydration levels, climate types, biomes, and even the soil and animals would have to agree with their biology. Some species can survive under different conditions, like Calderans, but most can't."

"Venusia and Earth are just similar enough that they can survive here." I realized. "That must be why they're targeting Earth too. Caldera's absolutely nothing like Venusia - it's all rocks and dirt and intense heat, while Venusia is cold and full of trees and plants. I mean, we're still a bit warmer than Venusia and we don't have nearly the same amount of foliage, but compared to the billions of different planets in the universe, we might be the closest."

"Foliage?" Kira repeated, staring at me, before shrugging. "Whatever. It's just a shame that we can't just make them a new planet."

Emily froze at her words, then slowly turned towards my twin, her face a mask of shock and excitement. "Kira, you're a genius!"

"Definitely not, but I'll take the compliment." Kira replied, beaming. Noah, on the other hand, looked entirely thrown off.

"Hold on." He stopped Emily before she could explain. "You're saying that a new sun is out of the question, but a new planet isn't? How does that work?"

"Oh, we're not going to make a new planet, that would be ridiculous. Also, probably impossible. Probably." She seemed to genuinely consider the possibility of that event for a moment, before shrugging. "But no, I think Kira is onto something." She turned to Charlotte, grinning. "AJ's Amazon project!"

"You think we could repurpose it?" Charlotte caught on right away, while the rest of us were left confused.

"Does anyone else remember the time Calla called the Amazon guy out for bad business practices online?" Noah questioned. I chuckled; Dad had found it hilarious when he'd read about it online, while Mom had been pretty proud of her.

"Who's the Amazon guy?" Sera questioned. Emily and Charlotte, meanwhile, were looking at us like we were the crazy ones.

"Not that Amazon!" Emily rolled her eyes.

"AJ wants to save the rainforest. We've been killing it for years, but it got really bad a few years back." Charlotte explained, smiling brightly as the gears turned rapidly in her head. "It's technically a biological regenerator, which means it can fix the damage done by pollution and deforestation."

"But," Emily grinned. "If we can repurpose it, it can terraform. Create life and planets and a climate and biome we choose." She had this light in her eyes, but I couldn't tell if it was excitement or madness. "I can't believe we never thought of this. We could change the world with this."

"Let's start with saving one world, and move on to the rest after. Besides, that won't work." Seraphina sighed. "We can't just go and take another planet. Just because a planet seems uninhabitable, doesn't mean there aren't species living there. I mean, Caldera looks uninhabitable from many species' perspectives. And some civilizations have claims to other planets, not just their own."

"Do we need to figure that out though?" I asked, frowning. Sera gave me a 'Are you dumb' look, so I clarified. "I mean, all we have to do is showthe Venusians that there's another option, right? Their planet's not going to die today."

"Our parents keep telling us to leave the 'adult things' to the adults." Noah mused, smirking a little. "And this all sounds a bit political to me."

"It's in everyone's best interests that the Venusians have a planet they can survive on. If we can show them and the Calderans that is possible, do you think that would be enough?" Charlotte asked. I glanced at Sera, who was working it over in her mind.

"Not all of my people would, but...I think enough of them would." She nodded after a long moment. "I don't know about the Venusians though. If we could get one of them on our side though..."

Naomi's POV

"You know, I'm starting to understand why Douglas put tracking chips in all of his kids." Calla commented, still staring at the main console in Mission Command, chin resting on her hand. I glanced at her, then at Ben.

"You're joking, right?" Sometimes I couldn't tell. She shrugged.

"Mostly." She replied with a heavy sigh. I chuckled softly, then glanced at my Davenwatch. It had been 3 hours since Bree, Chase, Leo, and the others had left for Caldera. Given how fast the Venusian ship was, they were probably about halfway through their journey to Caldera. As strange as it seemed to be thankful for anything Venusian, their incredibly fast ship was probably the only reason we stood a chance. Without it, reaching Caldera before the Venusians wouldn't have even been an option, and I don't know what would have happened then.

Actually, we probably wouldn't have even reached Earth before the Venusians, and that...well I didn't want to imagine how that would go, with the majority of the Elite Force off-planet and the remaining heroes likely unaware of the threat until it was too late.

"I'm going to call my parents." I said suddenly, standing up. Ben looked up in surprise, but Calla kept her eyes on the console. "They're probably worried sick."

Before I could head upstairs, the console came to life, lights flashing all over its flat surface. A distinctly robotic, yet feminine voice, announced, "Update Complete."

"Oh thank god. Call Tasha and Davenport in a bit." Calla instructed. "MISS, access the Bionic Network. I need chip locations, ASAP."

"Of course." A holographic image of the planet Earth appeared on the screen before us, with several bright blue lights appearing across it. Most of the lights were concentrated just off the Californian coast, with a few spread out across the United States. Ben and I exchanged looks; the Network was only designed for Earth-based operations, so if the kids were off-planet already (which I suspected was their plan), we wouldn't be able to find them.

"Narrow on just Noah Parker and Charlotte Dooley." Calla instructed. Most of the lights disappeared, except for two. The hologram changed, this time showing a roadmap. The two lights were right on top of each other, nearly overlapping, and slowly moving West across the map. Calla looked at it for a moment, then raised her hands in disbelief. "Did they steal a car?"

"You really think they'd steal a car?" I questioned.

"I mean, they stole you guys. And a spaceship." She retorted. "Two, actually!"

"They're probably on a bus." Ben reasoned, trying to reassure the worried mother. "Miss, are there any bus routes from Centium City that seem to match their route?"

"Certainly. There are three." Three glowing lines - one red, one yellow, and one green - formed on the map, which grew until it showed a large map of the country. The kids were nearly out of Illinois, heading into Iowa.

"Okay, well they're probably not stopping Nebraska, and I doubt they're going Wyoming." Ben quickly eliminated two of the options. "The last one's headed to California; maybe they're trying to see if there's another Davenship." He looked at Calla. "Is there?"

"Unfortunately, yes. That's going to take them a day and a half just to get there. What are they thinking?" She muttered.

"Probably that you'd catch them faster if they flew." I reasoned. She gave me a look. "I'm serious. Noah's not proficient enough with his abilities to speed everyone across the country at once, and he hasn't built up the endurance yet to handle multiple. It would kill him. And neither of the twins have super strength, so flying everyone that kind of distance would be too much. That leaves commercial flights or driving."

Calla sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Are you guys sure about going to get them?" She gave us the chance to back out. "I can have Donald or Douglas meet them in Mission Creek."

"No, it's alright. Let's..." Ben studied the map for a moment. "Alright, I have an idea. MISS, buses like that normally have scheduled stops? Can you show them, please?"

"Certainly." She agreed. Several dots appeared on the route to California, while the other routes faded away. Ben looked at it for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay, we'll get Spin or someone from the Academy to drop us off here." He pointed at the next spot on the map. "When the bus arrives, we'll pull them off of it. We'll grab a hotel for the night, then drive back later. It'll keep them out of trouble for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow. Unless you want us to keep them there for a couple of nights, get them out of your hair."

"Don't tempt me." She muttered. "No, bring them home. We'll lock them in their rooms if we have to. No technology."

"Alright." I nodded, despite wanting to argue. This whole argument about whether the kids were ready or not didn't make sense to me. Yes, they were young and naive and a little reckless. And yeah, some of their plans were...well, Emily Plans. But they weren't going to learn from sitting in their rooms. Not to mention, there wasn't a single member of the Elite Force who hadn't made their own mistakes over the years. If they weren't given the opportunity to learn, they just wouldn't.

Kaz's POV

"Please tell me Calla plans on keeping the Venusian ship for examination." Alivia commented as we stepped into the Mighty Med on Caldera. "I'd love to get this type of tech for the League. A week-long trip turned into 5 and a half hours? That's amazing."

"Dr. Short!" A voice interrupted Chase before he could reply. A twenty-year-old boy with beach blonde hair and pale skin jogged towards him, wearing pale green scrubs. He grinned when he saw us. "You're alright. That's good."

Oliver smiled at the kid warmly. "Thank you. Every one," He turned mainly to Chase, Bree, Jaden, Leo, and Katherine, "this is Apollo. He's Horace's sidekick and one of the best medics in the hospital."

The hero brightened at the praise. "Is Seraphina with you?"

"She's on Earth. She's safe." Skylar assured. She glanced at us. "I'm going to go meet with the Council, let them know the plan."

"I'll go with you." Alivia offered immediately. She looked at Dani and I. "We'll let you know when they agree to shut down the forcefields."

"Shut down the forcefields?" Apollo echoed, eyes widening. He looked at Oliver, Dani, Skylar, and I in horror. "What's going on?"

"Things are about to get bad. Call everyone on staff, we need them here." Oliver led Apollo away, beginning to make preparations for the hospital. No matter how things were about to play out, we were going to need Mighty Med to be fully prepared.

xxx

While Skylar and Alivia tried to convince the Calderan Elders that the best plan we had was to make Caldera even more vulnerable than it had ever been during this war, Dani and I had set to work. It had been a while since I'd put my medical skills to work - between Horace at Mighty Med and Alan and Dani at the NLH, I had rarely been actually needed as a doctor, which honestly, I was okay with. Saving lives in the OR was awesome, don't get me wrong, but the attraction in high school had mostly been the 'super' lifestyle. Even then, I felt at least a little satisfied with how many patients I'd been able to help before Skylar checked in.

"Hey." Dani was the only member of the team in the main lobby when I arrived. "Calla called Chase."

"Tell me she found Kira and Kameron." I sighed. She nodded but also shrugged.

"They tracked them down. Ben and Naomi are on their way to get them." She assured me. She sighed, leaning against the rock counter. "Do you think Alivia's right?"

"About what? I mean, probably, but about what?" I replied. She gave me a look. "About the kids and their training?"

"Is it too soon? I mean, they're only fifteen." She reminded me. "I mean, Kameron only realized that we were Santa Claus last year."

"We are?" I questioned. She raised an eyebrow. "I think he knew, Dee. He was just trying to get more gifts. Look," I leaned against the counter next to her. "Do we really want to keep them from becoming heroes? It was the best thing that ever happened to us. And it's not like we'd be locking them in a cage match with Megahertz. All superheroes start as sidekicks now."

"Yeah, but...I don't know. I just..." She trailed off. I frowned at her.

"What?" I pressed. She sighed and turned around to look at me fully.

"Was it, really? The best thing that ever happened to us?" She asked. I stared at her, shocked, but she quickly corrected me. "I love having powers, I love being a superhero, I love our lives. Every part of them. I have very few regrets. But, then again, we got our powers and then we spent the next couple of years dealing with Roddiseus and then, well, you know, and then SHIRT. Things got crazy."

"Okay..." She was hardly wrong. "Okay, maybe it was rough for a while, but I don't get what that has to do with the kids. Are you worried about telling them about, you know?" Certain words and names were banned from the house, and I wasn't about to break them just because we were standing on an alien planet.

To my surprise, Dani shook her head. "No. Well, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. Just...I wanna let them be kids a bit longer. I mean, they're clearly finally hitting the rebellious teenager age. I want to see them worrying about things like studying and girlfriends and getting caught sneaking out of the house to meet their girlfriends when they're supposed to be studying."

"Yeah, at least one of them is going to be doing that." I agreed. She chuckled.

"They're teenagers, they're going to make mistakes and do dumb things. I'd just rather those dumb things not happen on alien planets." She reasoned. I nodded thoughtfully. She wasn't...wrong. The kids loved their powers and loved using them, that was clear, and delaying their training would be a disappointment, yeah. But long term...well, some of my best memories from my teenage years weren't the superhero ones. They were doing dumb and silly things with Dani and Oliver, as well as Skylar, Jordan, and Alivia. None of them were tainted with the fear of us dying or villains coming after us.

"Hey." Oliver greeted, walking into the lobby. Chase was shortly behind him. "What're you guys talking about?"

"The kids." I replied with a shrug. Chase nodded in understanding.

"Calla's not going to let anything happen to them." He promised.

"I mean, they literally escaped your apartment twice now in three weeks." I pointed out. Dani nodded.

"They also kidnapped a superhero. Our children literally committed a felony while in her care." She reasoned. Chase gave us a look. "But totally, full trust in Calla. She rules."

Thankfully, Skylar, Bree, Jaden, and Alivia came to join us before Chase could start to defend his wife. "They've agreed to the plan." Skylar announced as they walked in. I looked at her, surprised. It had taken a few hours, yes, but I honestly hadn't been sure they'd go for it. "They don't like it, and if this goes wrong...well, their exact words were 'there won't be people left to disappoint'."

"I see they understand the universal rule of disappointment being worse than anger." Oliver commented. Alivia nodded, and held up her Davenwatch.

"One of their remaining military officers is on standby. Call your Bionic Soldiers, and tell them to get ready. We need them here ASAP." She told us. Chase and Bree nodded solemnly, the latter pulling out her own Davenwatch to make the call. I turned to Dani.

"I guess there's no backing out now." I muttered, wondering just what was going to be waiting for us when we took those forcefields down.

Kameron's POV

"Bathroom!" Kira shouted, practically leaping off the bus as soon as the doors opened up. We'd been on the bus six hours by this point, withthe only bathroom on board reeking of such a stench that even Noah hadn't dared go near it. My sister had been bouncing up and down in her seat for the past half-hour, desperately waiting for our first rest stop. Eventually, we pulled off at a small rest stop area. There wasn't much - just the small diner that Kira had torn off into, a convenience store, a gas station, and what looked like a car rental place.

"She has a tiny bladder." Charlotte observed, stepping off the bus behind me in time to watch my sister race into the small diner we'd stopped in front of. I chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, I know." I agreed lightly. Emily, Noah, and Sera filed off the bus after us, followed by a few more passengers. We still had a ways to go, and knew it was going to be a long night, but it was nice to be able to get off, stretch, and get some fresh air.

"We have to be back on the bus by 1:30." Noah reminded us. He glanced at the diner. "Think we can get some real food in that time?"

"Sandwiches, probably. It doesn't look busy." Charlotte reasoned with a shrug. "Honestly, I don't care. I'm hungry."

"I'll take anything. We should have brought snacks." Emily complained as we started towards the restaurant. She looked over at me. "Hey, you're sure about your part of the plan, right? Kira didn't seem sure."

"It'll be fine." I promised, speeding up to hold open the door for Charlotte and the others. "I'm more worried about getting any of the Venusians on board with our plan."

"The villagers we met were desperate to protect their people. We just need to convince one of them." Sera insisted once again, looking around for an empty table. Suddenly, a voice cleared behind us. Noah, Emily, Charlotte, Sera, and I all turned to see Ben leaning against the wall next to the front doors, looking wholly unimpressed with us.

"Convince who to do what?" He mused, raising an eyebrow at us.

xxx

"How much trouble are we in?" Kira asked as she and Naomi sat down at the table with us.

"6 feet under. You're goners." Naomi replied with a thin smile. "What were you thinking?"

"That if our parents go to war, we might never see them again." Emily was blunt, but sincere as she looked pleadingly at her favourite aunt. Naomi looked at her sadly, as if not knowing what to say. Ben, on the other hand, sighed.

"You guys," He sounded tired. "I know you care, but this is ridiculous. You can't keep stealing tech and kidnapping people."

"Look, it was wrong to trick you. We're sorry. We really are." Sera told him. "And yeah, it's not okay we keep going behind our parents' backs. But we're ready to accept the consequences if it means saving lives."

"It could get you killed." Naomi reminded us. Charlotte considered that for a moment, then shook her head.

"Actually, for an Emily Plan, it's actually pretty safe. All things considered." She replied. Emily frowned at her. "Oh c'mon, your last plan involved torpedoing a building with a spaceship."

"And it worked like a charm." The technopath argued. Ben looked at Naomi.

"That part was a joke, right?" He questioned. She grimaced and didn't reply, much to his despair.

"We're going to try saving the Venusian people from their dying planet, so they don't have a reason to fight." I explained. "No reason to fight means no reason to have a war. We just have to get something from Mission Creek first."

Ben and Naomi exchanged looks for a moment, then Ben nodded."Okay, look, here's the deal." He told us. "I promised your parents I'd bring you home safe."

"And if we refuse to go?" Emily challenged. He gave her a look. "No offense, Ben, but I care about this far more than disappointing my mother."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you going to let me finish?" He asked, his tone overly controlled. Emily sighed and slumped in her seat. "As I was saying, I promised I'd bring you home safe and in one piece. I'm starting to realize that might mean working with you instead of against you."

"Wait, what?" We were all shocked by that. Ever since we'd left Earth the first time, Ben had seemed pretty against us. He shrugged.

"Look, you're not bad at this. You definitely need a lot more training. And someone other than Emily making the plans-"

"Hey!" Emily protested. Ben ignored her.

"But you're clearly going to get involved either way. So, the best chance I have at keeping you all safe is to go with you, apparently." He sighed. I smiled; it was clear that he was reluctantly going along with this against his own better judgement, but at the end of the day, he wason our side. "Now, what exactly is the plan?"

We all exchanged looks. This was the part he wasn't going to like. "We're going to steal some tech and kidnap a Venusian." Kira replied. Ben stared at her for a moment, then rubbed his hands over his eyes.

"Of course that's the plan." He muttered before standing up and walking away from the table, and out of the restaurant. The rest of us, Naomi included, watched him go in confusion.

"Where is he going?" Charlotte asked, looking at Naomi. She was turned around in seat, staring in confusion at the doors Ben had just disappeared through.

"I don't..." She trailed off, then shook her head and turned back towards us. "That's not the point, guys. What are we stealing? Who are we kidnapping?"

"Some of AJ's tech for his Amazon project. We're gonna give terraforming a try." Emily explained.

"And we're going to try and convince one of the Venusians from that village that held us captive to give us a chance. If we can show them we can give them a chance at survival, then maybe they'll be willing to consider a peace treaty after all." Seraphina continued. "So not really kidnapping."

"I just wanted to see his reaction." Kira said, frowning and looking apologetic. "I didn't think he'd leave."

"Neither did I." Naomi told her, sending another confused look over her shoulder. "Look, the whole Venusian, that's a problem."

"We'll be careful." Noah assured her. She gave him a look.

"No, you won't." She scoffed. "But that's not what I'm talking about. How do we get a Venusian? They're either on Venusia or they're about to attack Caldera. The only ship that had a chance in hell of getting us there in time landed on Caldera an hour ago."

"It landed? They got there okay?" Emily asked quickly. Naomi gave her a soft smile.

"Chase called Calla as soon as they landed. They got there okay." She promised her niece. "Now, how exactly do you plan on getting a Venusian?"

"Oh, we're going to them." Charlotte explained. Naomi raised an eyebrow at that.

"You can't exactly geoleap to Venusia. They have forcefields." She pointed out. I nodded.

"Kira and I know a guy. Well, a girl." I replied. "She can get us there, no geoleaping necessary."

Naomi looked at me for a moment, then sighed. She pulled her wallet out of her jacket pocket and dropped a few bills down for the waiter. "Alright, c'mon. Let's go find Ben."

We all followed her out of the diner, but to our surprise, it wasn't all that hard to find the superhero. He was sitting in the front seat of a green mini-van, parked a few feet from the entrance. He rolled down the window when he saw us. "Get in!" He called, sounding mildly annoyed. We all glanced at each other, immediately suspicious.

"Where are we going?" Emily questioned, crossing her arms. He sighed, hands on the wheel.

"Mission Creek, apparently." He announced. We all glanced at each other and grinned before filing into the back of the minivan. Naomi climbed into the front next to him. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before buckling her seatbelt.

"You love them." She teased him slightly. I saw him roll his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Seatbelts, Kameron." He reminded me sternly. I chuckled, buckling myself in next to Charlotte. "Alright, I hope you all have strong bladders. We're not stopping until we get to Denver."

"Tell me he's joking." I heard Kira whisper to Sera in the backseat from where she was sitting with her and Noah. I couldn't but chuckle, laughing even more when I felt my sister kick the back of my seat.

Kaz's POV

Our timing couldn't have been better, or worse, depending on your perspective.

We'd ended up only having some of the force fields taken down, to try and force the Venusians to attack a specific area. We'd chosen an uninhabited area of the planet - just far enough from the refuge tents and Mighty Med to avoid any accidental casualties, but close enough that medical help wouldn't be impossible for those that needed it. We'd set up tents and centers a mile or so from the unprotected area, distributing the Bionic Soldiers and superheroes from the New League of Heroes amongst them. Teams were made based on abilities, trying to make sure that no team was left on its own. Horace had come along with the rest of the New League of Heroes and had wasted no time in setting up triage tents and organizing resources amongst them.

We'd initially thought that we'd have a few days before the Venusians attacked. We'd been wrong.

Just before dawn, the satellites had picked up on a mass of foreign ships coming towards us. There were nearly 60 of them, in various sizes, but not quite the warships I was expecting. Still, without a real idea of their weapon systems, they might as well have been the Death Star. By time the Venusian ships neared our atmosphere, every one of the heroes that had come to fight were on the battlefield, nervously and anxiously awaiting the fight.

"Everyone check in." Chase ordered over the comms. I couldn't see him from where Dani and I were waiting, surrounded by other heroes and Calderan warriors.

"Ready at Mission Control." AJ's voice came in loud and clear. He was at the Calderan War Room, a hidden cavern deep underground where the Calderan elders and military leaders had been running their defense. He was overseeing the forcefields and our (few) long range weapons.

"Ready at Mighty Med." Horace replied next. In the background, I could the sounds of Apollo and Dr. Emery giving orders to their fellow doctors and nurses.

"Team Two, ready." That was Bree. She and Jaden were at the far end of our cluttered mass of fighters. I could hear Adam's voice in the background, speaking to someone. I thought it might be Citadel from the sound of the fainter voice, the older hero having come out of retirement for the mission. Skylar had made many friends during her time at Caldera, all those years ago, and the few surviving heroes had all felt the need to come fight on her behalf for her planet. It had been touching, really.

"Team Three, ready." Speaking of the Calderan. She sounded determined on the comms. In the background, Barry, Crossbow, and Oliver were consulting with the bionic heroes assigned to their team, reminding them of different people's abilities.

"Team Four is a go." Dani and I spoke into our comms simultaneously. I looked around at our little ragtag crew. Liam and Rani, along with a few spellcasters that had joined the League last year, were staring up the sky nervously, while the bionic heroes we'd been assigned were anxiously speaking between themselves. I could see Spin try to reassure another bionic hero, the young man seeming to be the only one here ready for the fight.

"Team Five is ready." Alivia confirmed. She and Lily weren't that far from us. I could just barely make out Alivia's red hair, almost blending in against the Calderan sunrise. Alan and Melody were with her, as were Kieran and Taylor Daniels.

"Team One is ready." Chase confirmed. "Alright, it's any minute now."

"Okay, okay." I nodded to myself. "Okay."

"We're going to be okay." Dani murmured, taking my hand. I looked at her, but she was staring up at the sky along with the others, scanning it for any sign of a threat. "We're going to be okay."

I wasn't sure who she was reassuring me or herself. "When this is over, we're pulling the kids out of school." I decided. That got her attention. "Not for a long. A week. We're taking them on vacation. I don't care where...well, maybe not somewhere quite as hot. But somewhere. We can ground them after. But first, vacation."

"We're taking the kids on vacation." Dani agreed. "We're going to go home. We're going to go on vacation."

"Oh god." Liam gasped as the first of the Venusian ships broke through the clouds. They were faint.

"AJ!" Chase shouted. Suddenly, a faint glow rushed over the sky, right under the Venusians ships.

"Forcefields are back." AJ told us needlessly. Bob, standing next to Spin, looked over at us nervously.

"That means they can't blast us, right?" He confirmed. I nodded, just as something dropped from one of the first Venusian ships. Many others followed, dark flickers in the sky, as the Venusian soldiers descended upon Caldera.

Chapter 13: Invasion Part 2

Chapter Text

Dani's POV

You'd think, having fought against shapeshifters before, this would be a walk in the park for us.You would be wrong.

Sure, putting the forcefields back up after the ships had entered the atmosphere, but before they fully passed through the shields was a good idea. It kept them from raining hellfire down on us from the skies and wiping us out entirely. But that just meant that their soldiers would attack from the ground, and there were a lot of them. Not only that, but shapeshifting wasn't their only trick.

"Ah!" One of the bionic soldiers, a guy named Donald III, cried out as he took a plasma blast to the shoulder, coming from the pointy end of one of the Venusian soldiers' spears. Another Venusian was on top of him right away, aiming right at his throat with a spear.I blasted the Venusian with a bolt of lightning, knocking the soldier back several feet, then spun around to shoot at the one who'd initially attacked Donald III. It transformed, shifting into a black swarm that brought me back nearly 20 years.

I fell backward as it descended on me, surrounding me until I could no longer see the Calderan sky. I raised my hands, sending electricity out in all directions. It crackled loudly as it made contact with the swarm, the individual beetles that made up the swarm catching fire with each one I hit. It wasn't enough to kill the Venusian shapeshifter, but enough to break a hole in the swarm. I flipped my legs over my head, rolling over my shoulder as I went through the hole and landed in a crouching position. Before the swarm could recover, a sudden wave of energy hit the swarm, crashing it into so strong that it felt like an earthquake.

The blast was strong enough to knock the swarm out of the sky. It transformed as it fell, once again turning into a tall, pale-skinned, and blue-haired warrior before hitting the ground, hard. I looked up past him to see Donald III standing behind the Venusian, breathing heavily, energy still swirling around him as his concussion blast died away. We shared a mutual nod before I launched myself off the ground and into the air.

We were outnumbered. That much was plainly obvious from the skies. For each of our fighters, be it a superhero, Calderan, or bionic hero, there were at least four Venusians, all armed and ready to fight to the death if needed. I'd lost track of Kaz almost as soon as the battle had begun, the two of us pulled away by the waves of soldiers crashing into us. I tried searching for him up here, but there were too many people on the battlefield for me to single him out.

The battlefield was a mess. I could see our people, struggling to fend off the incoming Venusians. There were some from both sides, lying on the ground, not moving. I couldn't tell from here who they were. I just prayed that they weren't the ones I loved. I could see a fast-moving blur zooming in and out of the crowds.I could see a spotlight blazing from one end of the battlefield, an equally large beam of shadows twisted around it, combining as they collided with a wave of Venusian warriors. A couple of blurs sped in and out of the fights, too fast to identify from the ground. Closer, I could see heat vision lasers going wide into the air, nearly taking out another figure, flying too far away for me to tell for sure who it was. I wondered briefly if it was Kaz or Ollie, but was quickly distracted when I caught sight of a friend, clearly in need of help as four Venusians surrounded him from all sides.

"Hey! Smurf-Heads!" I shouted, soaring towards a group of Venusian warriors. I shot a bolt of lightning down at them, managing to catch one of the Venusians in the lower back. He dropped to the ground with a scream, out before he hit the dirt. The three other Venusians managed to avoid the blast, but it was just the distraction Chase needed to take back control of the fight.He twisted his hands, the forcefield he'd put up around himself shrinking into the size of a basketball. He shot it out at one of the Venusian warriors, hitting him directly in the chest before the bionic hero spun around to deal with another one of the soldiers. This soldier lunged at him with her spear, only for him to quickly deflect her blow with his forearm, followed by a quick punch to her gut.

The remaining Venusian tried to come at him from behind while Chase was fighting his ally, raising his spear above his head as he darted towards my former Mission Leader. I flew closer to try and intervene, but Chase had the situation handled. He ducked as the Venusian he was fighting tried to hit him in the face, then grabbed her arm and used her momentum to push her into the other soldier. The two of them hit each other hard. Chase then raised a hand and a rock pile nearby began to suddenly float towards them. He covered them in the heavy rocks before either of them could recover, not quite crushing them but definitely keeping them out of the fight until someone could uncover them.

"Smurf-Heads?" He questioned, giving me a skeptical look even as he breathed hard, clearly a little winded from the fight. I shrugged, landing in front of him.

"I never got the hang of the nickname thing. That's more Kaz's department." I replied. "You good?"

"Thanks to you." He replied, deactivating his bo staff. I shook my head.

"We're in over our heads. We're outnumbered." I told him. He nodded.

"I know. We need a way to even the playing field." He muttered. He paused for a moment, looking at the rock pile. Then, he looked past me, towards the mountains in the distance.

"I know that look," I commented. "You have a plan."

"Help me find Katherine." He ordered. I nodded without questioning it and took off into the air in search of the bionic hero.

Seraphina's POV

We made it to Mission Creek in record time. The bus would have taken us nearly 2 days to get there. Even Emily admitted that we would have been cutting things extremely close (assuming she was right about how long it would take the Venusians to recover from what she and Kameron did to their ships). But with Ben, Naomi, and Noah driving, alternating when they were tired, and going throughout the night, we managed to get there the next day.

That being said, it had felt like a very long ride. Partially because it was a full day sitting in a minivan (according to Emily, this is something we should tease Ben about, as it is the ultimate 'dad car'). We'd tried to make as few stops as possible to save time, even eating in the car. Although I had to admit, it was my first time trying fast food and after finishing the cheeseburger Noah had suggested, I was starting to understand the appeal.

Eventually, 24 hours, 2 calls made on Naomi's Davenwatch, and 9 bathroom breaks later, we arrived in the Davenports' hometown. It was very different than Centium City; houses instead of skyscrapers, two-lane roads instead of packed 6-lane ones, and the smell of the beach filling the air instead of the stench of garbage and gasoline.

"Alright, we're here," Ben announced, pulling into the parking lot in front of a small white building with the Davenport Industries logo on it. It was surprisingly close to the shore, the ground disappearing just a few feet behind the building.I frowned as we all stepped out of the car.I'd assumed that we'd be heading to a lab of sorts, but there was no way a full lab, or even a small one, would fit in the building.

"This is the mainland entrance to the Bionic Academy," Noah explained, catching sight of my confused gaze. He shrugged. "Looks unimpressive out here, but I swear it's cooler on the island."

"I'll take your word for it," I replied.As we approached the building, I could see two figures standing by the door. One was a fifteen-year-old girl with long, black hair and stormy-grey eyes. I recognized her instantly as Nyssa Bennett, Spotlight and Nyx's daughter (and Kira's sworn enemy, if you asked the pyrokinetic). Next to her stood a tall, round-cheeked boy with short, messy black hair. He was holding a large green backpack in his hands as he chatted with Nyssa.

"C'mon one rabbit! I'll even provide the hat!" He was saying as we reached them. Nyssa rolled her eyes and turned to us.

"The only reason I am still here is because you said something about stopping a war?" She questioned, holding out her hand. "And I believe I was promised some money."

"Yeah, yeah." Kameron sighed, reaching into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet and handed her a couple of bills. She waited, raising an eyebrow. Kameron sighed and handed her another bill, which she gladly accepted.

"Cool. So who is ready to go?" She questioned. Emily smirked.

"Hold on." She turned to the boy. "Were you able to get into the vault?"

"Well, I tried to use the code you gave but, uh...I forgot." He admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"Frank!" Charlotte half exclaimed, half groaned. She looked at Emily. "Told you this would happen."

"Relax. I just pulled the door off the hinges. Mom's not gonna be happy with me when they get back." He grinned, holding up the backpack. "I shoved it all in here."

"Atta boy, Frank!" Noah grinned at him, reaching for the backpack. As soon as it left Frank's hands, Noah nearly dropped it, the weight apparently too much for the older boy. "Geez!"

"Don't break it!" Emily exclaimed, staring at Noah as if he'd done it on purpose. He glared at her, even as he struggled to hold it off the ground.

"It's a little heavy." The younger boy laughed a little as Ben took the bag from Noah and heaved it over one shoulder. Noah gave him a look.

"You don't have to make it look easy." He grumbled. He caught sight of the amused look on my face. "It's not funny."

"It's a little funny," I replied, earning smirks from Emily and Kameron.

"Thanks, kiddo." Naomi gave Frank a side hug. He smiled. "I think that's all we need. Go enjoy your video games."

"I intend to." He replied. He turned to head into the building, then paused. "Wait. Everyone is going to be okay, right?"

I glanced at the others, not sure what to tell the younger boy. He clearly had someone important on Caldera right now, but I wasn't sure what the other adults had told their kids about what they were doing. "Yeah, totally." Charlotte nodded, giving him a reassuring grin. "Your dad is practically invincible, and your mom can literally walk through her enemies. They'll be fine."

Frank nodded, smiling back at Charlotte. "Okay. Cool. See ya guys. Tell everyone I say 'hi'."

We waited for the fourteen-year-old to walk into the building and presumably head back to the Academy before turning to Nyssa. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Who am I bringing where?" She asked, crossing her arms. Naomi spoke up before Emily could answer.

"Back up a little. How are we going places here? I know that the bionic soldiers' geoleap range is pretty high with all those updates, but you can't geoleap and we don't have any of the geoleap bracelets with us." She pointed. Nyssa grinned.

"I made my own spell." She announced smugly. "A wormhole spell. Got the idea from an old comic book I found in the League's archives."

"This is yourspell?" Ben questioned. He looked at us, then at her. "I was under the impression this was one of Nyx's."

"Why does it matter? It'll get us to Venusia and Caldera." I reminded him. He looked around, then sighed.

"You've tested this, I assume?" He questioned. Nyssa glanced at us, then nodded.

"Sure." She lied. Ben pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Your parents are going to kill me when this is over." He muttered before nodding and dropping his hand. "Alright, who is going with who?"

"You can take Charlotte, Ben, and I to Caldera first," Emily told Nyssa. She glanced at the rest of us. "It'll be easier to set the machine up from there, and I think we might need the help of one of Caldera's scientists anyway."

"Emily Davenport, admitting she might need help. Never thought I'd see the day." I commented, impressed. She rolled her eyes, despite smiling back at me.

"Who's coming with?" She asked, turning to the rest of us.

"I will." "Me too." Kameron and Noah both volunteered. Ben nodded.

"Alright. Just create the wormhole for us though. Then you're going to take Kira, Seraphina, and Naomi to Venusia." He ordered. He turned to Naomi and I. "Are you two sure you can convince one of the Venusians to go with the plan?"

"Yes. They'll do anything to save their people. We just have to show them that's what we want to." I insisted. Naomi nodded.

"It's a good plan, Ben." She agreed. He sighed.

"Alright. Stay with her. No stupid risks." He told me and Kira sternly. His gaze then softened and he leaned forward to kiss Naomi a kiss on the cheek. "Be careful, please."

"We will. I promise." She smiled at him. "We'll see you on Caldera."

Nyssa took that as her cue. She took a few steps away from us, then raised her hands out in front of her. Her face screwed up in concentration, she muttered the words, "Creare ostium."

A small ball of energy, swirling both black and white, formed in front of her. I almost spoke up to say that there was no way we were going to be able to get through there - it was no bigger than the palm of my hand, after all - but then it started to grow, the energy swirling around it hypnotically until it was 8 feet in diameter.

"Whoa." Kameron gaped at the wormhole. I couldn't help but agree - it was pretty impressive. Ben eyed it, approaching cautiously. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was nervous.

"Alright." He nodded, taking a deep breath. "Let's go."

He adjusted the straps on the backpack and then walked through the wormhole without any further hesitation. He disappeared as he entered it, presumably arriving on Caldera. Kameron grinned.

"This is so cool!" He exclaimed, practically running after Ben into it. Charlotte and Emily exchanged looks, then followed them. Noah was the last to go, giving us all one last look before disappearing into the wormhole. As soon as he entered it, it disappeared, and Nyssa's hands dropped.

"Alright, now Venusia." Naomi turned to Nyssa, then frowned. "Are you good?"

Confused, I looked over at the witch-in-training. She did look a bit paler than before, and I was sure the sweat on her forehead hadn't been there before. Nevertheless, she nodded. "Yeah." She breathed. "Just took a bit more energy than I was expecting. I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" I asked, concerned. She nodded, a determined look on her face.

"I'm good." She promised, raising her hands. "Here we go.Creare ostium."

A second wormhole opened up in front of us, just as big and mysterious as the last. I took a deep breath, then took a step forward, praying desperately that this would work.

Emily's POV

Nyssa's wormhole had let us out right inside the cavern system that made up the Calderan version of Mighty Med, just out of sight of any doctors, nurses, or even patients. Ben quickly led us into a nearby cave, filled with shelves and boxes half-filled with dwindling supplies. "Alright, you can work in here." He told us, closing the door tightly behind us and gently placing Frank's backpack on the ground. I immediately dived into it, pulling out the various components my cousin had packed for us. "What do you guys need?"

"Let's see...Noah, that scientist from before, Dr. Seif?" Charlotte looked up at the bionic speedster. "I don't suppose you can find her again?"

"Uh, sure. But why? She's not an engineer." He pointed out. I nodded.

"We know. But she is a chemist. She'll have a better understanding of the chemical components than we do.I want her help making sure that we're programming this right." I explained. He nodded.

"She liked Sera more, but I'll see what I can do." He told us, giving us each a nod. He walked out past Ben, then we felt a rush of wind as he sped off to find the Calderan scientist who'd helped us our first time on Caldera. "Ben, watch the door. Kam, we could use your hands."

Dani's POV

Finding a single bionic hero in a sea of fighting heroes and warriors was not an easy task, by any means. Unfortunately, there hadn't been nearly enough comm sets to go around, neither the Academy nor the NLH ever having this many fighting heroes at once before. They'd been handed out mostly at random, with the exception of team leaders like myself, and Katherine hadn't made the cut. I soared high above the battlefield, trying desperately to track down Katherine Dooley, but only seemed to find hero after hero in trouble. I saw my teammate Surge, fending off two different Venusian warriors at once, while Logan Krane fought another two nearby. Thankfully, I didn't have to get involved; the two seemed to be working well enough together that they were holding their own, even if they weren't taking down their opponents as easily as they'd liked. I did have to help Frostbite out. I found her completely surrounded, just like Chase had been, using ice walls to protect herself on three sides while sending rapid-fire blasts out the opening.

"Melody!" I shouted, diving down. She caught sight of me, then, using a move we'd done a hundred times over the years, threw her hands out. She sent a wave of frost in all directions, momentarily blinding the Venusian soldiers. I sent electricity crackling towards them, the shockwave hitting the Venusians. Three of them screamed as the blast shocked them, sending them into unconsciousness in seconds. But the fourth managed to leap back at the last second, just barely avoiding my electrical charge. He raised his spear at me before I or Frostbite could stop him, sending two plasma blasts from the sharp end of it toward me. I spun midair, trying to dodge them. The first one went wild, but the second caught me in the shoulder.

"Ah!" I cried out, the sudden searing pain sending me crashing into the dirt below. I landed roughly on the ground, clutching my injured shoulder. The Venusian soldier tried to take advantage, take me out while I lay stunned, but Melody was on top of him first. She shot a ball of ice at his knees first, causing him to stumble, then sent a cloud of icy mist his way. It engulfed him before he could take another shot at me, briefly obscuring him from my sight. When the cloud faded away, the Venusian was frozen solid, still in a fighting position.

"Are you okay?" Melody asked, helping me to my feet. I nodded, still grimacing at the pain in my shoulder. I knew I was lucky though; the shot had only grazed my upper shoulder. Sure, the surface wound left behind was agonizing, but that close to my head and neck...well, it could have been much worse.

"Have you seen Katherine?" I demanded.

"Dooley?" She questioned, shaking her head. "No, but I think I saw Leo earlier." She gestured vaguely towards the north. I nodded gratefully and took off into the air once more. I powered through my injury, breathing as deeply as I dared as I fought to focus on the battle at hand.

Eventually, I caught sight of Katherine amongst the fighters. She wasn't with Leo anymore, the two of them likely having been separated the way Kaz and I had been early on. She was fighting alongside the Scarlet Ace, the two women back to back. Lily was using her telekinesis to send her signature Scarlet A shurikens back and forth at the Venusians she was fighting. They were faster than her, deflecting the blades with ease, but she was holding her own fairly well. Katherine, on the other hand, was fighting a Venusian warrior off with one of the enemy's plasma spears, though where she got it I had no idea.

"Hey!" I shouted as I pressed the base of my palms together, a long blast of electricity bursting from the space between my fingers. I hit one of the Venusians fighting Lily right in the back. He collapsed, causing his friend to spin around in shock. Lily took advantage of his distraction, spin kicking him in the head, and knocking him to the ground. A second kick was all it took to incapacitate him. Katherine, meanwhile, managed to get her spear under her opponent's feet, tripping him. Lily raised her hands at the Venusian and used her telekinesis to send him flying through the air, landing too far away from us to continue being a threat.

"We had that," Katherine told me as I landed in front of them. Lily frowned, noticing the way I was gripping my shoulder once more.

"You're injured." She commented worriedly. I shook my head; this was not the time.

"Chase, I found her," I said into my comm set before pulling it out of my ear with my good hand and holding it out to the bionic hero. "I've been looking for you."

Katherine frowned but accepted the earpiece and slid it into her ear. "Chase?" She questioned. Lily turned to me.

"Geminus?" She asked. I shook my head; I hadn't seen Alivia since the battle had begun. Meanwhile, Katherine listened intently to Chase's plan. I could see from the look on her face that she wasn't a fan.

"But what 'bout the others?" She questioned. "We can't geoleap with the shields up. They'll be cut off." She listened for another moment. "We'd 'ave to surrender."

Lily and I exchanged confused looks for a moment, not sure of what the plan was. "Fall back?" Lily questioned, looking at Katherine. She bit her lip for a moment, deciding whether she had faith that whatever Chase's plan was would succeed, then nodded at us.

"FALL BACK!" Lily and I shouted simultaneously, cupping our hands around our mouths to try and project our voices better. We weren't heard by many, but those that did caught on pretty quickly, echoing the cry across the battlefield. Our teammates were quick to retreat, whether it be from their trust in our leaders' strategizing or genuine fear, I did not know.The Venusians, confused yet unwavering, pressed on, taking our actions as a sign of their victory, while a few truly brave heroes tried to fend them off with walls of fire, ice, rocks, or energy shields.

"What does he want you to do?" I called over my shoulder, even as Lily and I started to back away. I raised my hands at the incoming Venusians, sparks flying out towards them in an effort to ward them off. Katherine glanced at me, a flicker of nervousness appearing on her face before disappearing behind a determined glare.

"This." She declared, kneeling and placing both of her hands on the ground, palms flat. A deep rumbling filled my ears as the ground began to shake beneath us. It started weakly, but steadily began to grow in strength, causing both sides of the fight to pause and listen. I stumbled forward as the shaking made the world unstable, while Katherine's eyes remained focused, unblinking, and staring ahead of us.

The rumbling was growing in volume as well, turning into a grinding roar. Suddenly, I saw it; faint cracks forming on the ground a few feet ahead of us. I backed away from the cracks, unable to take my eyes off of them as they grew. The land separating both sides of the battle started to separate, splitting apart. From within the crack came a warm glow, flickers of fire leaping up as a river of lava sprouted from the ground. The Venusians leaped and stumbled back in shock, shocked and horrified, as the gap continued to widen until there was a 20-foot gap between us.

Lily, Katherine, and I all stood there for a moment, silent. I'd known that Katherine had earthquake-related abilities. I'd heard about them anyway. But this was the first time I'd ever seenthem before. This was...magnificent. "Okay," I said when I finally found my voice, "Lils, we really got to find some way to convince Alivia to poach some of these guys from the Academy, man."

"You couldn't afford me," Katherine replied smugly, standing up with crossed arms. I opened my mouth to retort something snarky when a familiar voice entered my head.

"Dani, get to the med tent, NOW." Ollie's voice verged on panicky. "It's Kaz."

Seraphina's POV

The moment I stepped out of the wormhole, I found myself surrounded by massive tree trunks, the sky above me masked by the dark purple foliage native to Venusia. The temperature difference was immediately noticeable, the low daytime temperatures of the alien planet a very far cry from the comfortable heat of the Californian sun.

"It worked." Naomi whistled in amazement. I turned to ask Nyssa how close she managed to get us to the Venusian village. Immediately, I could tell something was wrong. Nyssa was pale in the face, with almost a green tinge, and a layer of sweat across her brow. "Nyssa?"

"Huh?" The girl raised her head, startled, and suddenly swayed. Kira grabbed her as she started to fall, slowly lowering the other girl onto a massive tree root sticking out of the ground. "Whoa. Sorry, just...lightheaded."

"That was too much for you," Naomi murmured, frowning. Nyssa didn't argue with her, instead focusing on her breathing. After a moment, she tried to get up.

"I'm o...No." She sat back down after only rising an inch, one fist pressed against the mouth. "Not okay."

"Put your head between...just lean over," Kira muttered, annoyed even as she gently pushed Naomi into a better position. The pyrokinetic looked at us. "How are we going to get to Caldera now?"

"I'll be fine. I just...need a minute." Nyssa insisted weakly. Naomi crossed her arms, thinking. I sighed; we had no other way off this planet other than Nyssa. Her magic was the only thing I could think of that could bypass the Calderan or Venusian shields. The only other magic user I knew of was Rani Shore, and she was already on Caldera, fighting alongside my parents. Contacting her would be damn near impossible, let alone seeing if she also had a wormhole spell.

"Are you sure?" Naomi questioned, sounding uncertain. "You just need time."

Nyssa nodded weakly, still looking like she was one fast movement away from losing her lunch. Kira sighed. "If it was really just too much magic at once, she should be fine in a little while." She reasoned with a shrug.

Naomi nodded and removed her backpack (she and Ben had come prepared for this, while the rest of us probably should have thought to grab a bag before leaving the penthouse). She pulled out a water bottle and handed it to Kira. "Alright, you two stay here. Sera and I will go find the Venusian villagers."

"What? No! You can't-guys!" Kira protested, stepping away from Nyssa. "You can't leave me here!"

"We can't leave Nyssa on her own." I pointed out. Kira looked away, upset. "C'mon. Didn't Kameron say that your mom taught you both basic first aid?"

"I mean, she said something about bleeding and bandages. I don't know; I don't pay attention when adults try to teach me stuff." The younger girl argued. Naomi gave her a look. "Remember the last time we split up on this planet? We all nearly died."

"I know, but we don't have a better choice. We should be close to the village." Naomi reasoned. "We won't go too far without you."

Kira sighed, then looked over at Nyssa, who was looking downright miserable where she was sitting. Kira groaned. "Fine." She muttered. "Just...be careful."

I nodded at her, then turned to Naomi. "Let's go."

Dani's POV

I raced into the med tent, desperately seeking out Kaz and Oliver. It was filled with injured heroes being triaged, some being loaded into invisible ambulances belonging to Mighty Med.

"Kaz!" I exclaimed when I caught sight of him lying on a stretcher near the back, my brother standing over him. Kaz was unconscious with a terrible-looking burn across the left side of his head, just above his ear. Oliver's hands were pressed down on Kaz's hip, a wad of bloodstained gauze underneath.

"We were outnumbered." My brother murmured breathlessly, keeping his eyes locked on Kaz's face. I didn't look at my twin as I leaned over my husband, one hand on his wrist, checking his pulse. It was thankfully there, weak but stronger than I'd thought it was. "There was just too many of them."

"Ollie." His tone caused me to look over my shoulder at him. I could see the concern stretched across his face, the guilt in his eyes. I could also see how his mission suit was covered in soot, a wide yet shallow-looking cut across his chin. "It wasn't your fault."

My brother didn't respond, instead adjusting his hands on Kaz's hip. My husband groaned as the weight shifted, head rolling across the top of the stretcher. I instinctively ran my hand through the hair on his uninjured side. "It's just me and Ollie. It's okay." I murmured, hoping it would comfort him a bit. He didn't wake, but his pale face relaxed slightly. "We can't handle this here."

My mind was already racing, trying to come up with a plan. If we could get Kaz to Mighty Med, he'd be okay. He'd be okay...he had to be okay.

"Ambulance." My brother told me, nodding at an incoming transport. I could see my old friend Benny at the front wheel, the rest of the vehicle completely transparent. Between Oliver and I, we managed to get Kaz into the back of the ambulance with relative ease. "I'll stay here," Oliver said reluctantly, switching positions with me so that I could put pressure on Kaz's wound. "But Dani..."

"Updates every 5 minutes," I promised before he even had to ask.

"Thanks..." He nodded, biting his lip worriedly. He took a shaky breath, then stepped back. "Good luck."I

gave my brother one last nod, then pulled the ambulance door closed. Benny wasted no time driving off, the world turning to a blur of reds and oranges as we soared across the alien landscape. I looked down worriedly at Kaz, whose face was twisted up in pain again. "You're going to be okay," I muttered reassuringly, trying to force myself to believe it too. "You're going to be okay."

Seraphina's POV

Naomi began to lead us through the trees, taking the path of least resistance towards a low valley. "Do we know where the village is?" I asked after a few minutes. Naomi didn't verbally respond but instead pointed at the sky. I followed her gesture with my eyes and caught sight of what she was leading us to a cloud of smoke coming from just beyond the trees. It could be coming from the village we'd encountered on our first trip to Venusia. We'd given Nyssa coordinates for the village, but without any idea of how close she'd actually been able to land us, it was impossible to be certain that it was the village we wanted. For all we knew, it could be a different village, or even coming from Caelus City.

That being said, we didn't have a better idea, and we needed to do this now.

Naomi and I continued walking through the jungle, careful and hyperaware of every noise the cold planet made. It was eerily quiet on the planet, not a single sound of animals moving. It had been like this when we first landed on Venusia too, but now that I knew about what was happening to the planet, I wondered what had happened to the animals and insects that surely must have used to live here. Were the animals we found before the only ones left? Had there been less resilient life on this planet, now perished or hiding?

I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of twigs snapping nearby. Naomi and I both dropped down low, heads snapping in the direction of the sound. Naomi motioned to one of the large trees and I carefully stepped over to it, pressing myself against it, not wanting to get caught. Peeking around the side of the tree, I could see a small group of Venusian hunters, surrounding what looked like a freshly killed animal. They were all younger, seeming to be in their teens, with long blue or purple hair. One of them wore her hair in milkmaid braids. I recognized her instantly as Jillian, the girl we'd met at the Venusian village barely a week and a half ago.

I made eye contact with Naomi, then nodded at Jillian. Naomi nodded, then leaned up against a nearby tree. I formed a small piece of ice in the palm of my hand. Careful to not get caught, I waited until the hunters had turned away from us, presumably to head back to their village. I tossed the ice at them, hitting Jillian in the back of her right shoulder. She spun around instantly, eyes scanning the jungle for signs of intruders. I held my breath nervously, unsure of what she was going to do next.

"Go on ahead. I'll be right behind you." She told her friends. One of them nodded and handed Jillian his spear. She watched her fellow hunters walk out of sight with the prey, then turned around to face the trees. Naomi and I stayed where we were, wanting her to make the first move.

The girl began to slowly, carefully, step through the trees, keeping her eyes locked ahead of her. "Is that you?" She called, uncertain. "Calderan?"

I took a deep breath, then stepped out of the trees, my hands held above my head. "I want to talk."

Dani's POV

"Get Horace and Apollo, now!" I snapped at a nearby nurse as Benny and I wheeled Kaz's gurney into Mighty Med. I kept one hand glued to his hip, the wound bleeding heavily through the gauze. "C'mon Kaz, just a little longer," I muttered under my breath as Benny secured the gurney.

"Dani?" Horace called, rushing in, his sidekick shortly behind him.

"He got stabbed by one of their spears. It's at least 5 inches deep, maybe more. He's lost a lot of blood, but I don't think it hit the femoral artery." I reported, eyes not leaving Kaz's face. "Head injury caused by a plasma blast, likely from the same weapon."

"Alright. Give Apollo some space." I felt hands on my shoulders, gently but insistently pulling me away. I resisted for a moment, not wanting to leave him, but eventually, logic took over and I reluctantly allowed Horace to pull me back and Apollo to get in between us. I held my breath as Apollo did a quick examination, eventually tossing away the bloodied gauze and covering the wound with his hands. His eyes, narrowed in concentration, glowed yellow for a brief moment, a similar glow coming from the palms of his hands. I watched in amazement as the skin under his hands began to knit together, repairing itself until the only sign that my husband had ever been injured was the gaping hole in his uniform and the blood-stained, yet smooth and unblemished, skin underneath. Apollo heaved a heavy sigh, then moved onto Kaz's head. Within seconds, the burn was healed, although he ended up with a 4-inch chunk of hair missing.

"He'll be fine. He should still take it easy." Apollo warned me, turning back to me. I bit my lip for a moment, then pulled him into a tight hug. He chuckled a bit in surprise.

"You are my favourite person," I informed him. "Whatever Horace is paying you, it's not enough."

"I'm an unpaid intern." He mumbled awkwardly. I pulled back and gave my former mentor a stern look.

"No, he isn't!" I exclaimed in disbelief. Horace grinned sheepishly. "You paid us! And we were half as useful as him."

"We can talk about salary. In the meantime, you have earned a break, my boy." He nodded at the hallway. "Go."

Felix didn't argue, looking a bit drained himself. I gave him one last grateful smile before looking over at Kaz. He was still unconscious, but he was already getting some of his color back. "Dani," Horace called my attention back to him. He gave me a reassuring smile, then nodded at the same hallway Felix had gone down. "Go clean up. I'll stay until you get back."

I went to argue, then caught sight of my hands. Kaz's blood still covered my fingers. My stomach churned with that realization. "Yeah..." I murmured breathlessly. "Yeah, good idea."

I set off down the hall in search of a bathroom. "Apollo is the single greatest addition to the League of all time." I declared telepathically, reaching out to Oliver. "Kaz will be okay. Won't even have a scan to show for it."

"Thank god." I could hear the relief bleeding into Oliver's voice. "I'll let the others know."

"What's happening out there?" I'd heard from one of the bionic heroes there was some kind of ceasefire, but they didn't know much more than that. I tried the first door on my left, only to find that it was someone's office.

"Both sides are regrouping," Ollie told me as I moved on to another door. Another office."Triaging wounded...collecting the dead. We don't know how long it'll last."

"How many did we lose?" I asked with a heavy sigh, pausing.

"Eleven." The number felt fortunately low and all too high at the same time. He hesitated before continuing. "Mostly Calderan warriors, but three from the Academy and two from the League. Tempest and Hornet."

I sighed. Barry had brought Hornet into the League a few years back, shortly after the 30-year-old had gained his poisonous sting abilities. He'd been funny, and great to work with. Tempest had joined back around the same time I did. I'd liked him, even after our very brief relationship had ended. I'd considered both to be friends.

"Okay." I nodded, focusing once more. There'd have to be time to mourn them later. If we didn't want to add more to the list, then we'd have to focus on the battle at hand first. "Alright, I'm going to clean up a bit. Once Kaz is awake, I'll come join you guys there."

"Good idea. See if you can actually convince him to stay at Mighty Med." Despite his request, I could tell that, like me, Oliver knew that would be a pointless endeavor. I looked around, a little frustrated with how difficult it was to find a bathroom here. There were signs of course, but most were written in Calderan. Skylar had tried to teach us once in high school, but...well, I'd never been the greatest student.

I walked the halls, glancing into the different caves that made up the rooms in the Calderan hospital. Eventually, after a few wrong turns into a few offices, I found a door at the end of the hall that was made of steel, not the copper iron of the other ones. Hoping that meant it wasn't yet another office, I grabbed the door handle and tried to open it. To my surprise, the door wouldn't budge. It wasn't locked, but there was something heavy holding it closed. I heard shuffling from inside. "Hey! Is someone in there? Is that a bathroom?"

There was no response aside from the sound of whoever was inside cursing. I sighed and stood up straight.

"If this door doesn't open in the next 3 seconds, I'm electrocuting whoever is inside," I warned. There was a pause, then the door swung open.

"We can explain." Kameron stood in front of me, a guilty grimace on his face. Behind him, messing around with a small machine, were Emily and Charlotte. Ben stood behind them, shaking his head. I stared at them for a moment, stunned. How on Earth did they get here?

"Are you kidding me?" I demanded, staring at them. "Are you kidding me?"

"Look-" Emily stood, starting to explain.

"I don't want to hear it," I told her, cutting her off before she could. I turned to Ben. "What the hell? You were supposed to bring them home."

Ben opened his mouth to explain, possibly to apologize, but Charlotte spoke up first, cutting him off. "We kidnapped him again." She admitted apologetically. Everyone stared at her, seemingly stunned that she'd confess so quickly. "We're sorry. We couldn't just sit by and do nothing."

"You didn't..." Ben stared at her, frowning, before turning to me. "They didn't kidnap me."

"Dude, you don't have to be embarrassed. It's alright." Kameron assured him. Emily laughed.

"He should be embarrassed. What kind of superhero gets kidnapped by teenagers twice?" She chimed in. Ben gave her, Charlotte, and Emily a stern look.

"NO, guys. I was not kidnapped." He directed the last part at me. I sighed. I didn't have time to deal with this.

"Where are Kira and the others? Do not lie to me, Kameron." I instructed. He hesitated.

"Not on Caldera." He assured me. "It was, uh... a two-part plan...Mom, is that blood?"

"It's..." I glanced at my hands. "It's fine. It's not mine." He didn't need to know whose it was.

I thought quickly, trying to figure out what to do here. This was the last place I wanted the kids right now. I was grateful that it seemed that at least Kira and some of the others were on Earth, but it was far too dangerous for Kameron to be here. Not with the way the battle was going. They'd get involved, they'd want to fight. Images of Kaz in the ambulance flooded my head, and I made a quick decision."Ben, in the hall, please."

The younger superhero stepped past me into the hall. Kameron went to follow, but I quickly shoved the door shut. I stepped back and quickly locked the metal door from the outside. "Mom? Mom, c'mon!" My son shouted, banging on the door. I shook my head.

"I can't let you get involved, Kameron. It's too dangerous." I told him apologetically. I really didn't like doing this. Protecting your kids shouldn't mean having to lock them in rooms. But after nearly losing Kaz, and with the battle not going the way we'd initially hoped...I couldn't risk Kameron joining the list of fallen heroes from today. I looked around desperately, then caught sight of one of the bionic heroes from the Academy. "You!" I called her over. "Your name?"

"Amy." She replied. I nodded.

"What's your thing?" I questioned.

"Superstrength." She answered instantly. I smiled.

"Perfect. You see this door? You're now in charge of this door. This door does not open. Nobody leaves this room." I ordered. "If anything happens to Matchhead and I, you put these kids on a ship and you bring them back to Earth. You got it?"

"Yes, ma'am." She nodded. I smiled gratefully.

"Thank you." I squeezed her shoulder, then glanced at Ben. "Come with me."

"I wasn't-" "I don't want to hear it." I cut him off before he could continue to try and defend himself. "You're here, we're outnumbered. Might as well make the best of this bad situation." I started to walk off before stopping. "And Emily's right; you gotta stop letting the kids kidnap you."

"I wasn't kidnapped!" He argued, chasing after me.

Emily's POV

"She locked us in," Kameron growled in complaint as Charlotte and I finished our adjustments to AJ's invention. We were almost done; we'd reprogrammed the software to generate genetic codes instead of repairing damaged ones. Now, we just had to make sure that we'd programmed the different sensors and the correct codes to create the type of life we wanted, rather than risk accidentally making half-baked lifeforms or the wrong type of plants. "And there's someone guarding outside."

Glancing over my shoulder, I could see the faint shadow of someone standing in front of the door, probably whoever Dani had spoken with before walking away. I looked over at Charlotte. "Good idea, covering for Ben. He shouldn't get in trouble for the one time he willing helps us."

"How are we going to get out of here?" Charlotte questioned, leaning back on her knees. "None of us have super strength."

"Don't need it." I reasoned. "We just have to wait."

"Wait?" Kameron turned to me, looking like I was crazy. "Wait for what?"

Suddenly, there was a loud thump against the door, startling Kameron and causing him to jump. I smirked knowingly as we listened to the muffled sounds of scuffle outside the door. There was a shout, then another thump, then silence. After a moment, there was a quiet scraping noise. The door clicked, then swung open.

Noah stood outside, looking a little confused. Behind him stood a Calderan woman, with long brown hair. She looked exactly like I thought Skylar would look at 60 years old. She also looked pretty confused.

"Who busted us?" Noah asked.

"My mom. What happened to the guard?" Kameron asked, stepping aside to let them in.

"Locked her in that closet." Noah jerked his thumb at a door across the hall. "Are we in trouble? Where's Ben?"

"Oh, definitely, but I'm not letting that stop me," I replied. Charlotte nodded.

"Ben's with Dani. We kidnapped him, by the way." She informed me. Noah nodded slowly, catching on instantly.

"Cool." He agreed. I looked at Dr. Seif.

"Did he fill you in?" I questioned. She nodded, sending one last concerned glance at the door across the hall.

"He did." She replied, turning back to us. "You're trying to save our planet by saving our enemy?"

"We're trying to give them more options than war." Charlotte corrected, standing up. "Beyond that, it's up to them."

"You're relying on their goodness, on their ethics?" She questioned, giving us a look I couldn't decipher. Kameron nodded.

"The NLH has never encountered a whole species that is inherently evil. The Venusians want peace, same as us." He insisted. "We just have to make that an option for them."

She looked at us appraisingly, before smiling wryly. "You humans are growing on me."

"Does that mean you'll help us?" I pressed, desperate.To our immense relief, the Calderan nodded.

"Like I told Storm's girl, not all Calderans want to fight." She told us. "This war needs to end. How can I help?"

"I'm not sure I'm programming the chemical compounds correctly. I know a lot of this is biology and neither of our expertise, but at least we can get that right." I told her. The scientist nodded and knelt down, taking a look at the machine. Noah looked around the room, then at the door.

"Look, if we're busted...they're outnumbered out there, guys." He told us. "It's bad. They need help."

"You think one of us can make that much of a difference?" Kameron asked, sounding uncertain. Noah shrugged.

"I don't know about that, but I can't sit here and do nothing." He replied, shaking his head. "I'm going to go see where I can help."

"Me too." Charlotte decided. I bit my lip, not liking this.

"Kameron, stay," I said quickly before the younger boy could volunteer as well. I gave him an apologetic look. "I don't have any weapons on me, and Caldera's a little short on tech. I might have to bring this out there to show the Venusians and I could use the backup."

"Yeah, of course." He nodded at me before looking at Charlotte and Noah worriedly. "Be careful. We can't lose you."

"You won't," Noah promised before disappearing in a blur. Charlotte went to race after him but paused at the door. Then, to my surprise, she darted back into the room, grabbed Kameron by the front of his mission suit, and quickly pressed her lips against his for a short kiss. She pulled away after a couple of moments, while both Kameron and I stared at her in shock.

"Just in case." She said by way of explanation before running off. Kameron stood there, looking as dumbfounded as I felt, the stunned expression on his face slowly transforming into a wide, open-mouthed grin. I meanwhile, could not have been more confused if I tried.

"What did I miss?" I demanded, bewildered.

Seraphina's POV

Not all that surprisingly, 'talking' wasn't the first thing on Jillian's mind. She raised her spear at me and sent a blast of plasma coming my way. I crossed my raised arms, a shield of ice forming between us just in time to protect me from the blast. Naomi darted out from behind the tree and grabbed the spear with one hand before Jillian could react. The Venusian girl tried to elbow Naomi in the face, but Naomi was prepared for it; she caught Jillian's arm mid-attack and spun around, throwing the younger girl over her shoulder. Jillian landed on her back roughly, Naomi successfully tugging the spear out of her hands.

"We just want to talk." I insisted. Naomi held the spear upward, like a walking stick, out of Jillian's reach but not threatening her with it either. The Venusian girl glared at us from the ground.

"The hell you do!" She snapped.

"We don't want to hurt you!" Naomi insisted. Jillian rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"If I wanted to hurt you, I would have when we escaped your village." I reminded her. She glowered at me, but even she couldn't deny the fact that I'd chosen a pretty nonviolent method to deal with her in the end.

"What do you want?" She demanded. "You already attacked Caelus City. Was that not enough for you?"

"We were trying to escape. They had our family locked up." Naomi explained.

"They were going to execute my mother. We had no choice." I reasoned. She scoffed. "I don't want to fight."

"Then what do you want?" She asked again.

"To end the war." I stepped back and motioned for Naomi to do the same. Jillian looked between us cautiously, then carefully climbed back to her feet, her eyes never leaving ours.

"Let me guess. Now that Caldera's realized they're outmatched, they want peace." She laughed darkly. "Cowards."

"We've always wanted peace. We thought you did too." I insisted.

"We do!" She sneered.

"Not your leaders." Naomi pointed out. "Jax and Jaya sabotaged the attempts we made at a peace treaty."

Jillian frowned. "That's not true." She told us. "You're lying."

"Think about it, Jillian. Why would a single Calderan come to your planet, knowing that you're at war? And why would they be accompanied by humans from Earth rather than other Calderan warriors?" I pointed out.

"She was a spy. She got caught." The other girl insisted. I shook my head. "C'mon, why would the Venusian Council sabotage a chance at peace? Your people started this war!"

"No, they didn't. The Venusians...Jax and Jaya did." I had to remind myself that not all Venusians were my enemy. It was hard - we'd spent so long seeing the Venusians as a faceless enemy, determined to wipe us out for our resources. After all, why would one Venusian differ from another? Now that I knew the truth, that they were people with individual hopes and dreams and fears and needs, I couldn't in good conscience condemn their entire species the way I once did. "They got greedy. They knew that we didn't have enough resources to help you and still survive ourselves, so they decided to take everything for themselves. They-"

"What do you mean, to help?" She cut me off, looking confused. I frowned; did she not know? Did they not know?

"Your planet is dying, Jillian," Naomi said softly. Jillian stared at her for a moment.

"No, it's not." For the first time, she seemed...uncertain. Like she wasn't sure if we were lying or not.

"Yes, it is. And you know it." I murmured. She shook her head, but less certain, more...afraid.

"Climate change happens on all planets. People survive." She insisted, shifting on her feet. Naomi shook her head.

"Not forever they don't. It's affecting the whole planet. You've seen it." I realized that she must have seen the signs. The Venusian Council could only keep it a secret for so long. "Things are warmer. Plants are dying. Animals are disappearing. It's been changing you too, hasn't it?" I pressed. Charlotte and Kameron had voiced a theory in the car, confused by some of the mixed messages we'd gotten about the planet. "Venusia is supposed to be a planet of shapeshifters, and yet there are almost no shapeshifters left. Less and less of you are being born with abilities, aren't you?"

She looked away. "Our abilities are changing. We're evolving as a people." She insisted.

"Because you have to. You wouldn't have survived this long otherwise." Naomi realized. It made sense. All species adapt to survive and evolve if need be. Like bugs developing a resistance to pesticides, or animals slowly adjusting to different temperatures. It was survival at its very core.

"What's it to you?" She questioned, glaring once again.

"You can't adapt to war, you can't evolve to survive it," I told her sadly. "Neither can my people. We can become warriors, soldiers...but if this war continues, it's going to wipe out both our people."

"So, what? We're just supposed to surrender?" She asked rhetorically, angry. "You just said it yourself; our planet is dying. We needthose resources to survive. We can't just roll over and give up."

"What resources? Fuel? Metal? Food?" I questioned. That was the top things they'd wanted during the initial trade agreements, years ago. Jillian nodded. "That'll buy you time, sure. Let you build better structures, maybe even domes to hide in. But it won't last forever. What if we could give you something more permanent?"

"Like what?" She retorted.

"A new planet. One that's all your own, where you can restart, without having to worry about the world ending." Naomi offered. "We can help you with that, help make sure you have a home that meets every one of your people's needs."

"Please." Jillian rolled her eyes again. "You don't have another planet for us to take."

"We can help make one that works for you. We have the technology." I insisted.

"We found your ship, the one you abandoned. Our technology is far better, and we can't even do that." She replied dismissively. I nodded.

"Transportation? Especially intergalactic travel? Yeah, no question you guys have a better handle on it than either Caldera or Earth." I agreed. "But when it comes to climate change, Earth knows what it's doing. They learned how to, the hard way after their planet dealt with terrible climate change. But their planet isn't just okay today, it's thriving climate-wise. We have the technology you need to survive."

Jillian seemed to consider that for a moment, then shook her head. "Even if I believed you, even if I trusted you, Venusia is my home. I can't just abandon it. No other planet will be like home."

"Respectfully, I disagree," I told her before Naomi could intervene. Jillian looked at me like she wanted to argue, but I didn't give her the chance. "I wasn't born on Earth. I wasn't even raised there. In fact, until 8 months ago, I hadn't even been on their planet more than a handful of times. But I love it. I love the planet and the nature they have and the animals that roam it. But more importantly, it's the people. My family is there, my friends. It's my home now, as much as Caldera. I'll always love Caldera, but if I had to choose..." I shook my head. "I don't know what I'd choose. But I do know that you can make anywhere your home if the people you love are there."

"Where's your father, Jillian? Is he fighting for Venusia right now? On Caldera?" Naomi guessed. When Jillian didn't respond, I knew she was right. "So are Seraphina's parents. My brothers and sister are. Emily's parents are there. Our family is there, and I don't know who is coming at the end of this. Maybe none of them comes home. The only chance we have at protecting them, and the only chance you have of protecting your father, your village, is peace. And this is how we get it. This is how we all survive."

Jillian seemed to consider our words for a long moment. I could see the internal debate going on in her head, trying to choose between seeing us as the enemy and finding a new way. After a long moment, in a hesitant and uncertain voice, she said, "I'd need proof."

"Proof?" I gasped, momentarily overwhelmed at the idea that she'd give peace a chance. She nodded.

"Proof." She repeated. "I need to know that this isn't a trick if I'm going to bring it to my father."

Naomi and I exchanged looks. Maybe this could work after all.

Dani's POV

"Horace could use some help at Mighty Med." I tried in vain as Kaz, Ben, and I made our way across the rocky terrain towards the command tent. In the far distance, I could see the lava river Katherine had created, still separating our two armies. The Venusians were out of sight on the other side, but I knew they were still there, waiting.

"I'm fine, Dee." Kaz insisted, giving me a reassuring smile. "Felix fixed me up. I'm good."

"I know. I just...be careful." I insisted as we reached the tent. Kaz pushed his way in first.

"Kaz!" "Thank goodness." I heard a few of the others call in relief before I followed him in. Chase, Bree, Jaden, Alivia, Skylar, Oliver, Adam, and Leo were inside, gathered around in a circle. No one appeared to be seriously injured, but I could see various scrapes, cuts, and small burns on them and their uniforms.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." The pyrokinetic brushed away their concerns. I sighed.

"Guys," I got their attention before pushing the tent flap all the way back to reveal Ben, reluctantly following behind us. "Look who got kidnapped again."

"I did not get kidnapped." He insisted yet again. The reactions from everyone else ranged from surprised to annoyed.

"I swear to God, Ben," Jaden muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I did not get kidnapped!" The superhero continued to argue. At this point, we all chose to ignore him.

"Where are the kids?" Skylar questioned with a heavy sigh.

"From what Kameron told me, it sounds like most of them are still on Earth. It's '2 part plan' apparently." I shook my head, then glanced at Chase, Leo, and Katherine. "Kaz, Emily, and Charlotte are currently locked in a closet at Mighty Med. One of your guys, Amy? She's gonna make sure they stay there and if things really get bad, she'll fly them back herself."

"Why not just send them home now?" Bree asked, frowning.

"I'd rather not send them home without one of us going with them, but he wouldn't leave." I jerked my thumb at Kaz. "If we try to send them home without the proper supervision, they'll just steal the ship and get into more trouble."

"What makes you so sure?" Alivia questioned. I smirked.

"Because if you tried to send me home at that age without the proper supervision, I'd just steal the ship and get into more trouble." I pointed out. Oliver nodded.

"She's not wrong." He agreed. Adam chuckled.

"Remember when we thought Frank was gonna be the difficult one?" He smiled smugly at Chase. "I think you owe someone an apology."

"Sure. I'll apologize to Rio when I see her." Chase retorted before turning to Ben. "I guess you're helping here now?"The young superhero nodded, giving up on trying to convince us that he hadn't been kidnapped by our teenage children. "Let's catch you guys up to speed."

"The Venusians have been regrouping. They haven't tried to cross the lava river." Alivia explained. Kaz frowned.

"Why? Can't they turn into swarms and fly?" Kaz questioned. Leo shook his head.

"I was just saying, I don't think they have as many shapeshifters as we thought. Only a few transformed during the first wave." He pointed out. Alivia nodded.

"I think he's right. Very few were using any abilities. Most were relying on their weapons." She agreed.

"And yet, the fact that we have powers is giving us no advantage here," Bree muttered, frustrated.

"There's too many of them." Chase agreed, frowning. "They know that. It's why they aren't sending any of their shapeshifters over the river. They'll lose the only advantage they have."

"Okay, so, how can we use that to our advantage?" I questioned. Skylar went to respond but was interrupted by Rio bursting into the tent.

"Guys! We have a problem." She warned us, beckoning us to follow her. She led us out of the tent and to the far west end, walking parallel to the lava river. She didn't need to tell us the problem; we could see it before we reached where Lily, Rani, and Katherine were waiting.

"Is that the Venusian army?" Ben demanded, eyes wide when he saw the large, dark mass making its way towards us from the distance. It was still at least fifteen minutes out, but clearly, the Venusians had found a way through the mountain valleys and worked their way around the river.

"Yeah," Rani confirmed. She didn't bat an eye at Ben's sudden appearance on Caldera nor at Kaz's unfortunate new haircut. "A couple of bionic scouts confirmed it. It's their whole army."

"Alright. I guess we're in for Round 2." Alivia nodded. She turned to Lily. "Get the others. Work in pairs. If we can watch each other's backs, maybe we've got a chance."

"Right." Lily gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before running off, grabbing Kieran and Crossbow on the way.

"Battle stations. Everyone be careful." Chase instructed. I nodded and turned to Kaz.

"I'm okay. We need to do this." He told me before I could begin to try and convince him to stay here. I nodded.

"Alright. But we stick together." I responded, leaving no room in my tone for argument. He nodded and turned to Oliver.

"Let's stick to the sky," My brother suggested, looking between us. "If they can't take advantage of it, we might as well."

Seraphina's POV

The wormhole Nyssa created opened up at the top of a large cliff overlooking a massive canyon, the Calderan sun high in the sky above us. Nyssa dropped to her knees, head bowed as she struggled to slow her breathing. I knelt down next to her, concerned.

"Are you okay?" I asked, gently pulling her dark hair out of her face in case she needed to be sick. She nodded breathlessly.

"Peachy." She muttered, all her usual exuberance gone. She'd seemed better when Naomi, Jillian, and I had reached her and Kira, but now that she'd made yet another wormhole, she was worse than before. "But uh...you guys are finding your own ride home."

I nodded in understanding, patting her back reassuringly. Behind me, Jillian looked around at the red terrain and orange skies. "So this is Caldera."

"This is Caldera," Naomi confirmed. Kira gasped suddenly, taking a step toward the cliff's edge.

"Look!" She pointed past us. I stood to follow her horrified gaze, then froze. Below, fighting next to a river of lava, were the two armies. One, a sea of blue and purple, dwarfed the other in comparison. I could just barely make out some from the smaller army flying above the heads of their allies, a blur making its way to the front just as the two armies collided. "We're too late."

"No, no we're not." I refused to believe it. The battle on the ground had begun though; lights flashed on both sides as plasma, cryo, fire, and heat vision blasts hit their targets. "We just...Emily and Charlotte need to get out there. They need to activate their machine. If we could just show them that it works..."

"Sera..." Naomi trailed. I spun around, staring at her.

"Call Ben!" I implored her. "Call him. He needs to get Emily out here. They were supposed to finish by now."

"I don't think calling Ben will work." Kira worried. I frowned, but before I could ask what she was talking about, she pointed at the battle. I followed the gesture until I saw him flying above the crowds, his dark blue Aftershock uniform standing out starkly against the reds and oranges of my planet. I watched as he darted into the fight, colliding with a Venusian fighter nearby. I now realized that it wasn't just one blur making its way through the crowd anymore, but two. Noah was there as well.

"They've joined the fight?" I didn't understand. What happened to the plan?

"Guys," Kira was edging away from us. "My parents are down there...my brother might be...I have to go."

She didn't wait for permission, instead turning on her heel and beginning to make her way down the mountain behind us. I shook my head in disbelief. "We had a plan!" Everything was riding on this.

"What was the point in bringing me here?" Jillian demanded, turning on me. "I thought you said you had a way to save my planet. I didn't come here to watch our people destroy each other."

"I..." I was speechless. Had we been too late? Had the machine not worked? What had happened?

I was speechless. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Where wasEmily?

"There!" Naomi shouted, reading my mind. She pointed down below. At the base of the cliff were two lone figures, slowly trying to make their way towards the battle. We were too high up to be sure of who they were, but once I saw that they were struggling

Just beyond the fighting crowds were two lone figures, slowly making their way towards the battle, but struggling with something they were dragging with them.

Emily's POV

"They should be able to see from here." I decided, dropping my end of my cousin's backpack on the ground at the base of what looked like a massive cliff.Once we'd realized how deep into the battle the two armies had come, we'd had to make a choice: wait it out, then show the invention to the Calderan elders and Skylar, or test it out in the middle of the fight and hope, pray, that it was enough to stop the fighting. The second option was risky, and dangerous, even by my standards, but if we waited...well, we'd seen a few of the dead they'd brought back to Mighty Med. If we waited, who knows how many of our loved ones would be joining them.

I glanced behind him at the battle raging not too far from us. Going along the bottom of the cliff had kept us moderately hidden as we got closer, the two of us now standing close enough to hear the shouting, the plasma fire, and to identify the different fighters. "Stand guard," I told Kameron, dropping to my knees and starting to dig through the bag. "I need to finish setting up."

I began to pull the different components out of the bag, all too aware that I was racing against the clock. I needed to get this done fast, faster than I knew I was able to. I put the pieces together with my hands, using my powers to start powering it up. I worked quickly, speedily assembling the machine until finally, the screen - a physical one, not a hologram one like I was used to. The Davenport Industries logo appeared in the three red circles that made up the Borromean Rings flashing once before being replaced by a loading screen. Planetary biometrics and climate analysis...1% it read in small, blue lettering.

"Em!" Kameron suddenly shouted. I looked up in time to see a Venusian warrior charge our way, spear aimed at Kameron's chest. Kameron and I both threw our hands out at the Venusian at the same time. I deactivated the spear, preventing him from blasting either of us, while Kameron sent a ball of electricity his way. The blast caught the Venusian in the chest, knocking him back several feet. He didn't get up.

We didn't have time to celebrate, however. Our fight had drawn the attention of other Venusians, and our location was now compromised. While I'd worked, I hadn't noticed the battle getting closer and closer to us, the sea of fighters almost on top of us now. Kameron took one look at it, then at the fallen Venusian's spear. He grabbed it quickly, then spun around to toss it to me. I caught it with both hands, startled. Did he expect me to fight? This weapon was rudimentary, nothing like anything I was used to.

"How long until it's up and running?" He demanded, bracing himself.

"Three percent," I muttered to myself, sensing it without having to look. "Not soon enough."

He gave me a short nod, quickly pushing down the fear I'd seen on his face before replacing it with a determined look. "Okay. Okay." He flew into the air, spinning slowly to face the incoming crowd. He soared down at the two of them, sending electrical blasts their way. One of them managed to avoid the blast but, instead of going back after Kameron, he came charging after me. I raised my spear just in time to block him from bringing it down on my head. I then quickly sidestepped, spinning around to try and hit him with the spear from the side, but he deflected it with ease.

I swung at him again, this time trying to sweep his legs out from under him, but once again, he managed to deflect it. He followed up quickly by shooting the sharp end of the spear out at me, narrowly missing my ribcage as I darted backward to escape. He swung the spear at me from the left and I raised my own spear in defense, but to my surprise, he spun around at the last second, slamming the butt of his spear into my side.

"Ah!" I shouted in both pain and surprise, the sudden blow knocking me to my knees. He kicked me in the back from behind before I could recover, sending me sprawling into the dirt. I rolled over as quickly as I could, just in time to see the Venusian kick my spear, my only form of defense, out of reach. I crawled back as he advanced on me, desperately trying to come up with a plan. But I had no weapons, and Kameron was gone, completely out of sight. "Wait! Wait...you don't want to do this." I tried reasoning with the Venusian, but he ignored me, raising his spear above my head. I closed my eyes, crossing my arms over my face.

To my shock, the final blow never came. After a moment, I cracked open my eyes. The Venusian stood over me still, his weapon still raised, but for some reason, he didn't seem to be able to move. I crawled backward a little, staring up at him, expecting him to attack me at any moment. Suddenly, he was lifted off the ground, the spear still held tightly in his hands. With a surprised shout, he went flying across the battlefield, as if thrown by an invisible hand.

Behind him stood my father, two fingers pressed to his temple while the other hand remained outstretched. As soon as the Venusian was gone, he dropped his hands and ran towards me, grabbing me by the forearms and pulling me to my feet. "Dad-" I began, only for him to cut me off before I could say anything.

"Are you okay? Are you okay?!" He shouted at me when I didn't answer quickly enough. I nodded, shrinking back. I didn't think Dad had ever yelled at me like that before. Even when he'd gotten upset at me on the Venusian ship, it had been a lecture, no shouting involved. But I'd never seen Dad like this before. His expression was...afraid, almost. I nodded quickly, not trusting my voice. He took a deep breath, then continued in a more controlled (albeit still very angry) tone."You could have been killed, Emily. What the hell were you thinking, coming here?"

"We have a plan." Dad's expression softened slightly when he heard the shakiness in my voice. "To stop the war."

"Emily..." He warned, still angry.

"The war, Dad. Not the battle. To stop the war." I insisted. He needed to understand that this was it, that this would fix things. He glanced over his shoulder, the two of us watching as more Venusians turned on us. He pushed me away from him, putting himself between me and the enemy.

"Stay behind me." He ordered, raising his hands. A giant plasma ball formed around us, shielding us from the Venusians. I glanced nervously over my shoulder at AJ's invention.Planetary biometrics and climate analysis...61%

Seraphina's POV

"We have to get down there." Naomi decided, shaking her head as we watched the battle progress below. Kira had joined the fight by now; I could see her flying towards two other heroes flying midair, most likely her parents. Chase and Emily were below us, using Chase's shield to fend off an incoming wave of Venusians. "Sera, c'mon." She told me before starting to jog down the side of the mountain. I stayed where I was, staring out at the battle.

"Your people are going to lose," Jillian told me, backing away from me. I was glad that we'd left her spear behind because she looked ready for a fight. "I don't know why you bothered trying to trick me-"

"I didn't trick you." I turned on her. "Our plan will work. We just need more time."

"If time's what you need, I'm afraid you're out of luck." She smirked and nodded at something behind me. I turned in time to see two Venusians, in the distance, setting up something on the ground. I stepped closer to the cliff's edge, trying to see what it was.

"Is that a bomb?" I demanded worriedly. It was set up a fair distance away from the fighting, but depending on how powerful it was, it could still do a lot of da-

"Ahh!" I screamed in pain, dropping to my knees as a sudden, violent screeching hit my ears. Jillian didn't seem bothered by the noise, as if she couldn't even hear it, but I couldn't focus on anything else but the high-pitch screeching.

Emily's POV

"Dad!" I cried, clutching my hands over my ears in a futile attempt to block out the horrific, agonizingly loud screaming in my ears. I couldn't see, couldn't focus through the pain, the sound taking up my entire world. Nothing else mattered but making...it...stop.I panicked, reaching out desperately with my mind to any piece of technology I could take asylum in. Something I could control, something that could overpower the screeching.

I found AJ's machine first, its energy pulsing out at me like a beacon. I forced my mind to focus on the energy, on the hum of its engine, on the electricity running through it as its sensors finally hit 100%, just in the nick of time. I sucked in a desperate breath, took hold of the machine with my mind, then screamed as it came to life.

The ground began to rumble and shake, a roaring filling the air and drowning out the sound of the screeching. I felt a strange tickling under me as grass began to sprout from the previously lifeless terrain. I managed to pry my eyes open, the screeching still echoing in my head, in time to see saplings growing from the ground at breakneck speeds. Before my very eyes, one sapling grew from a single seed, expanding in height and width until its trunk was the size of a basketball. Leaves fluttered down from above as they formed on the branches, decades' worth of plant growth happening in the span of seconds. The lava river nearby sizzled as the molten magma transformed, cooling and changing until it was replaced with a fast-moving, fresh-water river. Then, as quickly as it had all started, everything stopped.

The world around me was silent, even the screeching disappearing altogether. I slowly sat up, not quite remembering when I'd fallen in the first place. The world around me was very different from the Caldera I'd first landed on; instead of the red, desert-like terrain, I was sitting in a small, tropical forest. I could still see the red mountains in the distance, but for now, I was sitting in my own personal oasis.

Everything else had stopped too. I could see my Dad, sitting but otherwise not moving to get up, a few feet away from me, hands still hovering protectively over his ears. The Venusian warriors he'd been holding off with his forcefield, the other members of their army, our army from Earth...everyone had stopped to stare in amazement at the jungle that had seemingly randomly appeared before them.

'What is this?" One of the Venusians demanded, raising his spear with a wary expression on his face.

"Salvation." I snapped my head to the side to see Sera and Naomi running towards us from out of the trees. I didn't know where they came from, but damn was I happy to see them. "This is your chance at peace."

Seraphina's POV

"This is your chance at peace." I declared, stepping through the trees. As soon as AJ's device had activated and the screeching had stopped, I'd torn off past Jillian and raced down the mountain. I hadn't stopped to see if the Venusian girl was following, too concerned with making sure my friends were alright. By the time I reached the bottom, both armies had stopped to stare in amazement at the miniature jungle Emily had created with the invention.

Neither group of fighters seemed to know what to do as they processed what had just happened. I didn't have much time - as soon as they came to their senses, they'd be back to fighting. I ran past Emily, who was still recovering on the forest floor, and leaped up onto a nearby rock so that I could be seen by as many as possible. I quickly scanned the crowd for familiar faces, breathing a sigh of relief when my gaze landed first on my parents, trying to push their way through the crowds to get to the front, then on Noah and Charlotte, then Ben and the twins. "Do you want this? This war? The fighting? The dying? Do you actually want this?" I demanded, looking between both sides before shaking my head. "I don't. I'm sick of it. You have to be too. But there is another way."

"This is a Calderan trick." One of the Venusians growled, stepping forward. Before he could raise his spear, however, there was a rush of wind. Suddenly, Noah was standing in front of me, staring him down.

"I dare you." The bionic speedster growled. I shot him a grateful smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Emily slowly making her way over to her dad.

"Look, you're fighting for your own survival. I understand. That's what we've been doing for the past few years too. But we can help each other." I insisted, gesturing at the terraforming device. "We can't save Venusia, but we can help you build a new home, one that has everything you need. All you have to do is put your weapons down. We could be allies, we could help each other, instead of trying to destroy one another."

"And what's in it for you?" One of the Venusians jeered.

"Peace," I repeated. "A chance to rebuild our home too."

"Why should we trust the Venusians?" One of my own people, a dark-haired man I recognized as Elias, the man who used to run the meat market before the war.

"Because we want peace too." I looked over my shoulder to see Jillian coming out from behind the trees. The Venusian crowd parted as she approached, a tall, older-looking Venusian with a mostly purple mohawk and a black vest over a gold top, pushing through to greet her. She smiled at him but addressed both sets of people. "My village was destroyed in this war, as I know many of your homes were. I know I'm not the only one who's tired of the fighting. The Calderans don't have to be our enemies."

"Sit down, child." A tall Venusian man made his way through the crowd.

"Lord Jax," Jillian greeted, but without the level of respect I was expecting. She turned back to the crowds, ignoring him for now. "Our leaders would have you believe that the Calderans are monsters who kill for the sake of satisfying their bloodlust. And yet, twice now this Calderan," she pointed at me, "has had me at her crosshairs and could have easily taken me out. Instead, both times she opted for a more peaceful resolution. If we have an opportunity to do the same - to choose peace over war - and to save our own people at the same time? We'd be fools not to jump at it."

"I said, sit down," Jax growled, taking a step towards Jillian, only for the Venusian with the mohawk to step in front of him.

"Do not threaten my child." He warned his leader, his tone dangerously controlled. He looked back over his shoulder at our group, searching for someone. "Skylar Storm! You are the Calderan who came to our planet, claiming to look for peace?"

My mother pushed her way out through the crowd. She sent me a warning look, then nodded. "I am." She replied, sounding cautious. Jeremiah nodded, then jerked his head at me.

"Does she speak for your people?" He questioned. "Is this...solution something the Calderans are truly prepared to offer?"

Mom looked at him for a long moment, clearly caught off guard by the fact that a Venusian, any Venusian, would consider peace as an option. To my immense relief and surprise, she nodded. "My daughter speaks for us today." She agreed. I sucked in a breath, not realizing I'd been holding mine. "If your people are open to peace talks, so are ours."

Jeremiah analyzed her face for a moment, then turned to his own people. "Fall back to your ships. Bring our dead and injured with you." He ordered. A woman standing behind Jax started to argue, but he raised his spear towards her, shutting her down. "The Venusian Council is allowing their greed and their pride to make decisions that are not in our people's best interest. You no longer speak for us, as far as I am concerned."

When no other Venusian objected to his words, he nodded at a couple nearby. "Escort Lord Jax and Lady Jaya back to our ship." He ordered. The two soldiers disarmed the Venusian leaders before they could object, and then used their own weapons to force them to start walking. Jeremiah looked back at us, glancing between my mother and I. "I will personally lead a group to discuss a potential peace treaty. We will meet at dawn, here, if that is acceptable."

"It is." Mom nodded. He looked back at me one more time, then at his own daughter.

"Perhaps there is a way our people can find peace after all. If our children can, we should at least try." He declared. I looked over at Jillian, the two of us sharing a smile.

Emily's POV

The days after the battle on Caldera passed by in the blink of an eye.

True to his word, Jeremiah Jewel had led a team to the Calderan Oasis (one of the Calderan children we'd met before, Sonja, had come up with the name and it had pretty quickly caught on) to discuss a peace treaty. Skylar and Seraphina had both met him there, along with two of the Calderan elders, and Geminus, who'd volunteered to be a third-party overseer as a representative from Earth. It had taken days before either side was completely happy, but in the end, both the Calderans and Venusians walked away from the negotiation table satisfied that their people would be able to live in peace for the foreseeable future.

We'd spent a couple of nights in Mighty Med, helping out around the hospital or building temporary shelters for those displaced by the war, all while under the careful watch of our parents. Things had been good. They felt like they were getting back to normal and for the first time since September, I could go to sleep at night knowing that everyone I loved was safe.

Unfortunately, those peaceful days were gone as quickly as they'd come. All the bionic and superheroes who'd come to Caldera to fight, our team included, headed back as soon as it was clear the peace treaty would hold. I was grounded from the moment Kieran geoleaped us into the penthouse, being sent up to my room (now fitted with a mechanical lock instead of the old electronic one I used to have) as soon as my mother was satisfied that I was in no way physically injured. Every one of my electronic devices had been confiscated and with MISS under extremely strict orders to run every request of mine past Mom and Dad before complying, the chances of me getting out on my own again were pretty much nonexistent.

I wouldn't have minded the grounding all that much, really. I mean, no electronics? I can live with that. Having to do my homework at the kitchen counter? Annoying, but also admittedly fair. Hell, I even kept myself from complaining when Mom put power dampeners in Mission Command to keep me from trying to upload a new update into MISS' systems.But what I could not get on board with was Mom's new 'no contact' rule. Kira, Kameron, Seraphina, Noah, Charlotte, and I had all been forbidden from contacting one another, with each of our parents enforcing it in their own way. Every phone call I made, every email I sent, every keystroke was monitored closely by MISS, who'd been put under very clear orders to run any request I made by Mom and Dad before complying. Charlotte and I were still able to see each other at school, so we had each other in that sense, but I hadn't heard a word from the others since they'd been forced to move their things out of the penthouse.

Charlotte was under a similar house arrest, not even being allowed to contact Kameron (I still hadn't gotten the full story about what was going on between the two of them, but I did know that she was pretty sad about not being able to see him) except for a single time, on her birthday. They'd had a short, supervised phone call in her living room, which she told me all about the next day at school.

Apparently, his and Kira's training had been delayed because of our actions, and now, much to their dismay, they wouldn't begin until next summer. Kira was supposedly particularly upset about the fact that Nyssa's training had not seen the same delays, and the young witch-in-training was set to go to Europe during the summer as part of a 'superhero pilgrimage' type of thing. Kameron had heard rumors that both Jillian and Seraphina, now being hailed as heroes by their own people, had been offered the same chance, though he didn't know if any of them had taken it.

Noah was back in Los Angeles for now, working for my uncle at his restaurant. That would be the case until Noah went back to school in the fall; from what Dad had said, it sounded like he'd applied for and been accepted into a film school for the upcoming school year, though I wasn't sure what he wanted to do with a film degree. Perhaps I'd have to ask him, assuming my parents ever let up on this grounding.

The only bright side to our return home was that everyoneat the NLH had bought our story that we'd kidnapped Ben the second time. He wasn't helping there, the older boy really trying to make it clear that the second trip had been his choice, but given how much he complained about being kidnapped the first time, no one was really buying it. Despite his objections, he'd gotten in no trouble whatsoever by the League for assisting us, which had been my hope all along.

For 2 months straight, I'd been unable to talk to my friends, and it was killing me. I'd been so happy before Mom had brought them all into our home, but now...well, I thought about them every time I walked into the living room and found one of the twins' video games, or whenever I woke up and saw Sera's bed, still sitting against the wall opposite of mine in the bedroom. I missed them, more than I was willing to admit.

I sighed, bouncing my knee impatiently as I sat in the waiting room at Mighty Med 2.0. Mom had gone into labor early, around 3 AM this morning. Everything was supposedly fine - Dad had made sure one of the interns working for Dr. Diaz had come out to let me know that - and before long, I was going to get to meet my baby sister. But for now, I was alone.

I sighed, glancing at my Davenwatch. Normally Mom made me keep it in the kitchen, but since she and Dad were a little busy right now, I'd been put in charge of calling my grandparents and the rest of our family to let them know. With the timezone differences, I was still waiting for Great Uncle Douglas to message back.

I sighed again, adjusting my position in the chair. They really needed more comfortable seats here. Maybe if Mom ever stopped being mad at me for running off, I could convince-

My Davenwatch suddenly pinged, drawing me out of my thoughts. Three more pings followed. Frowning, I unlocked the device and looked over the notifications. Their content had been sitting up straight in seconds, my heart racing excitedly.

You have been added to 'Elite Force 2.0. group chat'

Nova23 has joined the chat.

Dr. Electro has joined the chat.

The Enforcer has joined the chat.

Sp33dRacer has joined the chat.

I didn't need to guess who was behind those screen names. I grinned as three dots appeared on the holoscreen, only to be replaced by a message a couple of seconds later.

Nova: Does anyone have any summer plans?