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Chapter 31: A Change of Plans

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It didn't quite register to Teisel that Aero was alright until he groggily opened his eyes to find himself propped up against Pic's shoulder with her staring at him in concern. All the while, Pic held him, rubbed his back, and repeatedly instructed him to breathe. Teisel didn't even realize he'd blacked out until his hearing faded back in enough to hear her exclaim, "I can't believe you just let him faint, Pic! He was already disoriented enough when I left!"

"Aero...?" Teisel tried to articulate, but the words all came out slurred together. "...You're alive?"

Aero hesitated for a split second before giving him an awkward pat on the shoulder the way Pic had told her to. Teisel was so overwhelmingly large that he barely even fit on the boy's lap and all but dwarfed him. She would have laughed at the sight of them if the circumstances hadn't been quite so unfortunate. "Yeah," she said as she forced a grin. "I'm back. I'm okay. Pic just had the radio tuned to the wrong channel."

As much as she tried to assure him that everything was fine, Teisel choked up and seemed to crumple in Pic's arms. "I'm sorry," she heard him sob into Pic's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, Teisel. Relax." Aero tried to reassure him.

Teisel glanced back up and vehemently shook his head as he pulled himself to his feet. "No it isn't," he insisted. "I told you that I considered you guys family!"

Aero completely lost Teisel's train of thought there. "This isn't what I've been thinking it's about at all, is it?" she asked as she tried to make sense of his incoherent ramblings. "You're telling me you're upset because you think of us as family...?"

"I do think of you as family...but I...I just realized now that I've been taking you guys for granted anyway," Teisel admitted. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and prop himself up against the walls of the cavern, staring at the footrest on their motorhorse. He felt like looking either of the other Bright Bats in the eye would just upset him even more. "It took almost losing one of my teammates to realize that none of you are invincible. Some part of me just assumed that since I'd already lost my whole family, I'd met my traumatic death quota, and the rest of you would always be alright in the end. I'm an idiot." He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and glanced over in Aero's direction. "Do you remember the day we got into that fight?"

"What, you mean that time when you went to the police station to try to fix my family?" Aero asked. "That was months ago, Teisel. You admitted you were wrong. You apologized. I'm over it."

Teisel clenched his fist and shook his head. "I'm not."

He didn't need to elaborate any further. "...You told Aero not to take her family for granted, then you called us your family and took us on a mission that almost involved us getting shot down by police." Pic summarized. "Technically, this is the second time you've put Aero's life in danger, but I decided not to count the trip to the police office because you hadn't categorized her as family at that point."

"Thanks for the reminder, Pic." Aero sarcastically remarked. "I'm sure Teisel loves having his own hypocrisy rubbed in his face like that."

"You're welcome." Pic replied with a satisfied grin as Aero shook her head in frustration and Teisel tried to hold himself together. "Do you think he was still awake when you told me your dad died just now?"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Teisel suddenly snapped to attention. It felt like his heart had actually wrenched up in his chest for a split second. He hadn't a clue whether expressing any kind of condolences would even be appropriate in Aero's situation or not, which certainly didn't help calm him down at all. "Aero, are you...how are you feeling right now?"

Aero pondered the question longer than she felt comfortable pondering it and looked over at Teisel. To any outside observer, it would have seemed like he'd been the one who'd just lost a parent instead. "Honestly?" she asked. She carefully studied him to gauge whether it would be even remotely sensible to tell him the truth while he was so distraught. "I don't know. I thought I'd be more relieved than this," she finally responded, "but I've got this weird sinking feeling, like I'm forgetting something."

Teisel took a few shaky breaths and thought hard on what to say next. "Look, maybe we should head back to town. Take a..."

Aero's eyes shot wide open, her face turned pale, and she took a step back. "No!" she cut off the phrase with a horrified expression on her face. It was as if Teisel had just suggested she light herself on fire.

"I didn't mean anything by..."

"It's Muguet!" Aero elaborated before he could even ask her what was wrong. "My mom. Muguet Goodwin. That's it! That explains everything...for a minute, I forgot she was still a threat. And if she doesn't know the chief bit it by now, she'll know by the time we get there, and she'll have already contacted the authorities to pin this whole fiasco on me. I know she will, and she'll go out of her way to make sure I don't get away with it...there's certainly enough evidence to give me a motive, and..."

Pic kicked at the dirt under his feet as she listed all of the things Dr. Goodwin might have done to box her in if she decided to go back to Teomo. Now he had two emotionally unsteady teammates to worry about. "Aero's right. It's not a good idea to take her back into the city." he explained to Teisel. "Honestly, she probably should have left Klickelan Island ages ago because of the amount of control her parents have here, but that's irrelevant at the moment."

"W-what are we supposed to do, then?" Teisel whimpered after an uncomfortable silence.

"You're the strategist!" Aero roared as she anxiously paced the cave. "Go strategize or something!"

Teisel slunk to the ground and cradled his head in his hands, massaging his forehead. He could feel a serious headache coming on, among other things. Focusing on formulating a plan to get Aero someplace safe for the night was out of the question. It felt as if his brain were in shock from all of the trauma. "I...can't." he admitted. "I can't do it. Not now."

As Aero and Teisel both hysterically argued over whose responsibility it was to figure out what to do about getting Aero away from Klickelan, Pic clamped his hands over his ears and focused on a spot on the wall of the cavern. Even though he knew more shortcuts in Teomo City than many lifelong residents twice his age, he knew absolutely nothing about any other island in the world. The only times he'd even left Klickelan at all had been once when he'd accidentally wandered onto a barge as a little boy, and just a few days ago when he'd accompanied the Bright Bats to that rocket crash memorial.

"Volnutt Island!" Pic exclaimed as the most obvious course of action smacked him in the oftentimes incredibly dense noggin. "Let's go there!"

"Oh, right!" Aero nearly shouted. "Roll's got a ship, too, and if she'd be willing to take me on as an apprentice, then I wouldn't have to worry about coming back here until about this time next year!"

"Well hurry up and call her, then!" Teisel exclaimed. "It may be two in the morning, but this is an emergency!"

Aero deadpanned and replied, "I think I left my phone back at the base with all my stuff!"

"Well, we can't exactly run around all night..." Teisel grumbled. "If only there were some other ship we could use to just get you over there and then bring you your stuff when it isn't so dark out..."

"Teisel, you have a ship." Aero pointed out. "We left it up on the bluffs when we went on that picnic last month, remember?"

"Okay." Pic declared. "I'll drive."

"What?" Aero balked. "Have you even piloted an airship before?"

"I don't think either of you should be driving right now." Pic insisted. "I'll take you to the island and we can hide out in the lab until morning."

Once the three of them were ready, Pic, Teisel, and Aero started their trek through the canyons. Pic drove the motorhorse while the others hung onto the back. They were all completely silent. There was a lot to think about.

The Drache was right where they'd parked it, up on the bluffs near the north side of the island. The gangplank was still open, and Pic rushed ahead of the group to check the ship's condition. "Come on," he instructed as he glanced around the cabin to make sure there weren't any Reaverbots hiding out in there. He climbed into the driver's seat and gestured for Teisel and Aero to sit down in the back and shut the aperture behind them.

Aero looked almost catatonic. The gravity of the situation had sunk in completely, and instead of the frenzied mess she'd been several hours earlier, she seemed to be completely rooted to the spot. Teisel didn't look much better, but it had been a rough night for him, too.

"No windows." Pic remarked as he gazed at the array of monitors, switches, and levers in front of him. "No cup holders, either."

"Why would you need a cup holder right now?" Teisel asked in complete confusion. "Could you just hurry up and start the engine so I don't have another nervous breakdown?"

Pic glanced from one end of the control panel to the other and carefully studied the whole thing before he finally pressed a green button near the upper left quadrant. A storage compartment popped out of the of his seat and revealed a few bags of potato chips they'd forgotten to take with them on their picnic.

"Pic? Get out of there." Teisel ordered. "You can't drive this thing."

"You can't drive it either. You couldn't even take the motorhorse back out from the museum."

Teisel stood up and leaned over the back of the captain's chair. "Pic, if you can't figure out the controls you aren't going to be able to get us anywhere." he explained. "If Aero doesn't get off this island, there's a good chance she'll wind up in jail...or worse. You know more about her mom than I do. Use your imagination. What I do know is that I've used this machine for years, and Aero needs to get away from Klickelan as fast as possible. Please, just let me try this time."

"T-Bonne, are you insane?"

"Get up and stand back behind this chair." Teisel instructed, completely brushing it off. "Give me one of those back rubs again while I'm driving, something tactile that I can focus on. I don't want to start thinking about anything other than getting Aero to that laboratory. Understand?"

Pic just stared up at Teisel for a few minutes. Finally, he spoke up. "You used to be afraid to even get in this airship. Why risk a meltdown now? This isn't about feeling useless again, is it?"

He shook his head. His voice cracked a little as he replied, "I don't want to lose any more family than I already have."

Pic finally nodded and allowed the two of them to switch places. The redhead glanced over his shoulder at where Aero was curled up in the back. He tried to figure out whether she was shivering or if it was only his imagination. Whatever it was, he didn't want anything bad to happen to her, either. He could only hope that Teisel would be able to last the fifteen minutes it would probably take to fly out to Volnutt Island, for all of their sakes.

With Pic gripping his shoulders as if his life depended on it, Teisel stared at the display in front of him. He'd spent so many years behind the controls of various Draches that he almost immediately found himself mentally hurtling through time, half expecting one of the Servbots or Bon to radio in until he felt the pressure on his shoulders start to intensify and snap him back to the present. "Thanks, #28," he said as he started up the engine and the monitors in front of him glowed a soft green, presenting him with various views of Klickelan Island's topography.

Pic felt the blood drain from his face. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Of course, it was too late by then. The Drache was already up in the air. All the teenager could do was watch Teisel and try to figure out which warning signs to look for before the old guy had a chance to space out or do something completely insane.

To Teisel's relief, he wasn't completely overcome by the urge to crash the Drache into the nearest landmark. While the persistent notion that he'd probably been trying to either kill or maim himself in this very vehicle almost a year ago didn't seem to want to leave him alone, with Pic keeping him tethered to the present, he clung to the thought of Aero escaping her mother's wrath alive and focused entirely on his goal. Back when they were on the motorhorse, while the three of them were riding through the bluffs looking for the Drache, he kept trying to imagine what kind of things Dr. Goodwin might have been capable of. He had a feeling his mind had probably blown things out of proportion, even though he'd had a taste of what Aero's father was like, and even though Aero had told him that her mother was worse. Still, he didn't want to take any chances. Not after putting her and Pic in danger so recklessly.

He didn't even realize he'd landed the Drache until the gangplank was open, the engine was off, and Pic had let go. "Come on, T-Bonne," he said. He helped Aero to her feet and grabbed three bags of chips from the storage compartment. "You aren't going to sit there all night, are you?"

"...I did it?" he uttered with a completely dumbstruck expression on his face.

"You did. Good job." Pic replied with a smile as he led Aero down the gangplank.

Even though he doubted it was healthy, Teisel lingered in the cockpit for a while longer and finally allowed himself to take in the view of the lab and the launchpad and the Flutter on the display panels. It was time to let the old memories pull him back in.

The next morning, Aero awoke to find herself snugly tucked into the futon in Teisel's old gaming room, clutching one of Bon Bonne's stuffed animals. She couldn't even recall the three of them making it to the lab in the first place, but there she was. It was odd, to say the least, waking up in a room that looked like a museum exhibit about one of her friends. Especially since Teisel didn't look like he'd aged very much over the last ten years. That cranked the weirdness factor up to eleven.

She couldn't sit around contemplating how Teisel had managed to look forty back in his twenties for very long. She needed to go see Roll...after she'd had her morning coffee.

When she walked downstairs and into the kitchen, she noticed that Pic had already put some coffee on. The young man was seated at the table and sipping from a foam cup. She also noticed that he'd used the bulk beverage dispenser from the memorial, because the machine was plugged in, percolating, and from the look of it, filled to maximum capacity.

"Coffee's on," Pic needlessly remarked.

"Yeah, I can see that," Aero responded as she poured herself a cup, "but why did you make three gallons of it?"

"They must only use this building for public events now." Pic surmised. "I couldn't find a normal coffee pot...or normal mugs...or any sign of real people living in here."

"That still doesn't answer my question," she muttered. She took a swig of coffee. It was passable. "I suppose now that you've made this much coffee, a better one would probably be, 'How are we going to get rid of all of this coffee you made?'"

"Aren't you and T-Bonne addicted to this stuff?"

Aero resisted the urge to chuck her cup of coffee at Pic. Instead, she just sat down at the table and proved his point.

Since Teisel was nowhere in sight, Aero and Pic figured he'd find the coffee eventually and headed for the stack of crates where Roll had docked the Flutter. After a good ten minutes of knocking, Art answered the door in his robe and slippers. He hadn't even taken the time to put on his glasses. "Oh, it's you guys," he said. "You could've just called if you wanted to see Grill, you know."

"Did you just wake up...?" Aero asked.

Art stepped back to let the two of them in. "I don't think Roll and Grill even went to sleep," he admitted. "After I found out from Data what that crystal actually does, they went into full-on mechanic mode and holed themselves up in the R&D room for the rest of the night. You're not gonna believe it when I tell you guys..."

"That's not why we're here," Aero cut him off. She hoped that he and Pic couldn't tell how uncomfortably jittery she'd become from her nerves and the caffeine rush as she racked her mind for the right words. "I need to talk to you and Roll about doing me a massive favor. Mostly Roll. It involves her business. We...uh...I ran into some trouble last night."

"Uh...okay?" Art blinked. "I guess you should just head to the R&D room. It's at the bottom of the ladder in the bridge. Roll's probably put a fresh pot of coffee on down there."

"No thanks on the coffee." Aero stated as she walked past him to find the mechanics. "I think I've had enough."

Roll kicked back in her seat with a grin. "There! It's ready!" she exclaimed just as she and Grill heard the sound of footsteps up by the helm. "Come on down!" she shouted, thinking it was Art with breakfast.

Unfortunately for their voracious appetites, it was only Aero and Pic. "Oh hey!" Grill exclaimed. "Did you and T-Bonne get the last card key?" The moment he noticed Aero's expression, he frowned and added, "Did something happen?"

"Yeah." Aero tersely replied. "We got it and something happened. Roll, are you by any chance offering weapons development apprenticeships?"

"Wait, what?" Roll blinked. "Why?"

Aero took a deep breath and readied herself to explain the whole story, but Pic beat her to the punch. He rattled the details off as if he were recapping a movie. In fact, he didn't give Roll so much as a chance to process the information, or even pause to take a breath between his sentences. "Aero's parents are ridiculously abusive, and now her mom probably thinks she killed her dad, so she needs to get off the island. Her parents work for the government, so there's a good chance the regional police and the Digger's Guild would take her mom's side, and she figured that since the two of you have worked together before, you could give her a job and housing for a while during her evacuation. If you want my opinion, she probably should have left this island a long time ago, but, well, here we are."

"Gonzo Goodwin's dead?" Grill repeated. "You didn't really kill him, did you?"

Aero stepped back in shock. "What?! No! Of course not! The Roast Beefs and the Lightning Crusaders ganged up on him out in the wasteland when he tried to chase us down with another one of those Anti-Rider Crusader machines!"

"The ARC-2's been destroyed?!" Roll balked. "He still hasn't given me the back-end payment for that thing yet!"

All eyes were suddenly on Roll. "Are you telling me the ARC series is YOUR doing?! You've been selling the Teomo City police force weapons to hunt me down!?" Aero suddenly roared as she instinctively grabbed a monkey wrench off the nearest pegboard. "If I weren't desperate to get out of this forsaken archipelago I'd bludgeon you to death with that piece of junk you just made out of..."

"Easy, Aero! Put down the wrench!" Grill suddenly shouted. He grabbed her by the arms to keep her from going on a rampage in the middle of Roll's lab and lifted her off the ground to keep her from charging at the unfortunate mechanic. "I doubt Roll had any idea what the chief was going to use that machine for. I doubt she knew what he'd be using either of them for." He turned toward Roll. "You didn't know going into this that Gonzo Goodwin and the Teomo Police were about as corrupt as you could possibly get, did you?"

Roll slowly shook her head. "I honestly had no idea," she admitted. "I'd have been glad to take you on anyway, but I suppose now I really don't have much of a choice. I feel really bad about all this, Aero. If I'd known the police chief wasn't going to actually use that machine for reasonable law enforcement, I probably would have turned down the offer."

"Probably?!" Aero roared. "He called that thing an Anti-Rider Crusader for a reason! What kind of reasonable law enforcer orders a street sweeper with CLAWS?!"

"He told me they were for repairing downed telephone wires!" Roll defended. "How was I supposed to know he'd try and use it as a weapon?!"

Aero sighed and shook her head. "Look, I'm sorry. I think I've had too much stress and too much coffee for one morning. Getting out of Klickelan's the priority here, and I can't let this get in the way of that. I might as well just take your word for it and assume you never meant to sell my dad a WMD."

"If it helps any," Roll offered, "I feel so bad about this mix-up that I'd be willing to pay you for your apprenticeship if you decided to stay for a little while longer. I've been getting a lot of orders piling up, and working with your friend Grill showed me that I could probably use an extra hand around the Flutter. We can leave as soon as Russell finds and activates the Klicke Lafonica!"

"Well then, that's settled." Grill declared. "Roll was just in it for the money, and you don't have to worry about getting out of the Ambagry Archipelago anymore. If I let you go, Aero, will you promise not to break anything or attack anyone?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm good. I'll be fine."

Grill slackened his grip and walked over toward the workbench. "Okay then. So in other news, Roll and I just finished construction on these modified jump springs, and we figured we'd let T-Bonne have 'em since he found the source material out in the ruins. Knowing him, he'd probably have fun with something like this."

"What, for free?" Pic asked.

"Item development's always free of charge for friends," Roll said with a smile. "It's the upgrades that'll cost you an arm and a leg!"

"Good to know..." Aero muttered under her breath.

"Did he come along with you, or did he decide to stay back on Klickelan?" Grill asked.

"He drove us here in his old ship."

Aero did a double-take. "Seriously? I thought you said you were driving!"

Pic shook his head. "The controls were weird, so I let him take over. He actually got us out here without completely losing it. I was surprised." He paused. "Come to think of it, I don't know where he went afterward. He wasn't in the lab when I woke up."

"Alrighty then," Grill declared as he stretched and headed toward the ladder. "Let's go find him and make sure he's okay out there. If he really piloted his ship to get here, he could probably use jump springs right now."

Pic found Teisel as soon as he noticed that the old man hadn't closed the hatch on the Drache when they'd left the night before. He was curled up in the pilot's seat, fast asleep. Pic reached over the back of the chair and poked him. "Psssst. T-Bonne. Wake up," he instructed in an unsettling whisper.

Teisel bolted upright in a cold sweat. "AHHHHHHHHH! PUT OUT THE FIRE! PUT! IT...huh?" He suddenly deadpanned when he noticed Pic staring at him, completely unfazed.

"Bad dream?"

Teisel just sat on the edge of the captain's chair as his mind caught up with everything. "Pic, did I really fly this ship to the rocket site last night, or was that a dream, too?"

"That was you," Pic replied. "Roll said yes. Aero got out of Klickelan Island because of you." He reached out to take Teisel's hand and pull him to his feet. "Let's go."

"What, outside?"

"Yes. You've been sitting in here all night, haven't you? Grill and Roll have something for you, and I made coffee."

Teisel smiled. "I could probably use a few cups..."

"Trust me. We have enough coffee to last us a week."

Grill and Roll were waiting by the Flutter. "Hey T-Bonne!" Grill exclaimed. He held a pair of green armored boots out for Teisel to take. "Roll, Art, and I were able to use that crystal you found in the ruins to make these jump springs!"

As Teisel looked the jump springs over, Roll piped up. "They're a little different from the ones I usually make. At first, we had no idea what that crystal was supposed to even do, but then Art showed it to Data. Apparently, the Ancients used to install them into their armor to allow them to perform feats that would normally be impossible by way of standard physics. This one lets you do a double jump! Not only does it increase your jumping ability like a normal pair of jump springs, but it also lets you take a second jump in midair!"

"Since you're into motorhorse racing, I know you'll definitely have a lot of fun with this," Grill added.

Teisel let it sink in for a few moments before thanking Grill and rushing into the lab to go grab a coffee and equip his new jump springs. As he bounded out the back door a half an hour later, completely wired on caffeine, leaping back and forth over the roof of the lab, and laughing like a complete lunatic, Roll smiled and said, "I'm glad that went over well."

Grill nodded. "Let's just hope Max and Russell found the elevator. The sooner you guys can get moving, the better."

When it started to get dark and they still hadn't heard from Max, the gang began to get worried. Grill tried to call him a few times from Roll and Art's living room, but he just wasn't picking up his phone. "T-Bonne, can you take your ship back to the island and try to find those guys?" he asked. "Aero needs her stuff too. Phone, charger, ID...at least one of us needs to head back to the city to get it."

"I don't think I could pull that off two nights in a row," Teisel admitted from his spot on Roll's couch next to Aero. Pic was perched on the armrest, Art was in the kitchen brewing up a pot of tea, and Roll occupied the armchair near the corner of the room. "Hey Roll, do you think you'd be able to fly a Drache?"

"A what?" Roll blinked a few times. She'd heard that name before, but she couldn't quite place where.

"One of my family's little drone ships," Teisel explained. "They, uh, bring up too many memories for me to handle, at least most of the time. Normally, Aero drives the one we brought over...but since she can't risk going back to Klickelan, and since Pic doesn't know how to work that kind of machinery, and since Grill doesn't even physically fit in a Drache to start with, that really limits our options for going back to the main island. You don't really need a lot of space for it the way you would with something like the Flutter. Just drop me off in the city and pick Max and Russell up with the stuff when we're ready. Do you think you could do that?"

"Of course," she agreed. "Just let me know when you want to head out."

"Sooner would probably be better." Aero stated.

Teisel nodded and stood up. "Well, I guess this is it, then. Good luck out there, Aero," he said as he gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I'll miss having coffee with you in the morning."

"Yeah. Me too. Thanks for helping me get here," Aero replied. "I wish my parents could have felt the same way about their family as you feel about yours, but hey, what can you do? Really, though...you've been great. Keep in touch, alright?"

"You bet." Teisel said with a grin. He turned toward the ladder to the bridge level. "Alright, Roll, I'm ready when you are. Let's get this show on the road!"

Roll dropped Teisel off just outside the Wasteland Gate and instructed him to call her on Aero's phone when Russell was ready to go. Teomo City seemed unusually quiet for the late afternoon. Of course, the fact that the police chief had gone on a rampage, torn up most of the harbor district, and died the night before probably helped with that. There were a lot of police cars out on the streets, and the few civilians he spotted along the way didn't seem to want to be bothered. It felt very different from the lively, overly-friendly Teomo City that had somehow managed to put him off only a few days earlier. He couldn't even find Sprocket running around. Or any of the stray dogs in town, for that matter. It was as if the city itself had completely shut down.

Thankfully, as he made his way through the marketplace, he heard Max shouting his name. "Hey! Yo! T-Bonne!" he exclaimed as he sprinted over to where his strategist was wandering back to the base and wondering how one guy completely losing his mind could cause the whole city to go into lockdown. "I can't believe nobody's pulled you over! Hurry up and put on your goggles!"

"What? Why?" Teisel recoiled. He unhooked the goggles from his belt and pulled them on over his eyes anyway.

"Haven't you seen the news? Aero's wanted for masterminding a bank robbery and murdering her dad. They even let me off the hook for going underground without a license because of all the drama! I mean, I had a perfectly legitimate reason for going down there, but yeah. I'm off the hook. The cops are out looking to drag the three of you in for questioning, though. Pic's good at blending in when he needs to. They haven't even put a name to his face yet, but a big guy like you with freaking red eyes is gonna stick out like a sore thumb. Never mind the whole newspaper article or anything. Geez, T-Bonne, what were you thinking getting red? Nobody picks that color anymore..."

"...It was what was on hand at the time?"

"No offense, but you'd probably look weird with different eyes anyway." Max postulated as the two of them briskly walked past a cluster of parked police cars and tried to look casual. "I guess with all that going on, you guys didn't get the card key?"

"We did, actually. We got it."

"But they said nothing of value was stolen!"

"I don't think the people running the place knew what the thing was. Seedy Leigh and some other bikers were the ones who really took Goodwin out. Aero's going to go and live on the road working for Roll, but we need to get her valuables out of the base, and the Flutter can't leave until Russell gets to the Klicke Lafonica with Data. Did you guys find the elevator? What were you doing in the ruins, anyway?"

"Heh...about that...er...I was just leaving the hospital. That's the legitimate reason why I was underground without a license. Russell broke his legs. My friend Troy and I got him out of the ruins. He's not going to be able to cover for ya, dude."

"B-b-b-b-b-but...WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HE BROKE HIS LEGS!?"

"Not so loud!" Max hissed as he dragged Teisel off into an alleyway. "There are cops everywhere and you're a wanted criminal again!"

Teisel felt his face turn red. "Sorry."

Max sighed. "If Aero's got to get out of here fast, we can't go looking for another digger. I hate to have to be the one to say it, but you're the only one of us who can step up. If we've got the three keys and you've got a digger's license, you've gotta do it. If not for Roll, then for us."

Teisel glanced through his goggles at his boss. "You know, for a while, I thought we lost Aero when the chief's mech blew up," he admitted. "It felt like losing another little sister I never realized I had, and it made me understand that I might have been taking you guys for granted all this time. It'll never happen again on my watch. Now that I can say for sure that the four of you are just as important to me as my first family was, I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure you all stay safe."

"So that means...?"

"Yeah," Teisel replied. From somewhere deep inside him, he dredged up a nervous grin. "Let's do it."

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