My old life is gone, and I feel as though I have stepped into a dream of remarkable wonders and terrors. Such fanciful creatures have I seen! Such remarkable vistas! I find that my birth name no longer fits, small as my world was small. Mundane as my world was mundane. And so I must adopt a name more fitting to a magical realm the likes of which Oberon and Tatiana would inhabit. But I am no lithe fae, nor am I a beauty in any way. And so I shall adopt the pseudonym of that great jester, that shrewd and knavish sprite: Robin Goodfellow.

-From the journal of Robin Goodfellow, formerly Professor Fred Blake

Theseus caught the girl as she crumbled, the gun simply stunning her. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time, and he could hear the voice of someone else in the house. He slung the girl over his shoulder, hesitating only a moment before taking the pizza bag as well. It was a rare luxury to have actual pizza, and the girl would probably like some food when she woke up. He hurried across the street to what appeared to be an RV shaped vaguely like a bullet train. Unlike most RVs though, it only had one door in the back, heavily reinforced with star steel. It was that door he hauled her through, tossing the pizza bag on the floor. He set the woman down much more gently, freeing up both hands to crank the seal on the door in place, hauling on the wheel until with a hiss the seal engaged.

“Lets get out of here before something else goes wrong. All systems online and in the green?”

“All except the rear blast shields, those are still glitchy from our descent into atmosphere, but they’ll hold well enough.”

“Good.” Theseus practically ran to the pilots seat, flipping switches and powering systems up in rapid succession. He started off easy, rolling down the street like a normal RV, leaving behind the quaint two story house and the unconscious pizza delivery man. This was going to be a shit storm in the local media, but they would be well away from here by then. “Satellite jammers still working?”

There was a moments hesitation on that one, and he glanced up towards the ceiling, an eyebrow raising. Robins voice was hesitant when he spoke. “They seem to be. You aren’t planning on taking off in daylight, are you?”

“As soon as we get out of town. It’s dusk, and it’s overcast. We should be okay.” Theseus felt a small knot of doubt in his stomach, but he wanted to put this town and its people far behind him. He glanced at the woman laying on the floor, letting out a sigh. The mess he had made. He just hoped she would eventually forgive him.

He knew he wouldn’t forgive himself. Kidnapping... shit. He really needed a beer. Well, he would down one once they were in hyperspace he’d indulge, nothing to run into in hyperspace. As his father had said before, only damn idiots would drink and drive.

Funny, Theseus didn’t remember that stopping him from lifting off once or twice while somewhat less than sober. Their mother had raked him over the coals the one time he scraped against Galaux station while drunk. Luckily they didn’t stick them with the repair bill. Although he was certain he had seen that scrape still there the last time they were in port.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“It’s risky, we should just drive until it’s dark out.” Robins form flickered into being, sitting in the copilots chair. It was fake, of course. His hologram couldn’t actually sit anywhere, and his rear didn’t quite line up with where the chair really was.

“It’s risky to stay on this planet. We just kidnapped someone, they’re going to be looking for us. For her. And while we can pass as a truck or RV, I don’t think we’re exactly inconspicuous. Would you rather go when people are looking for the weird RV that passed through town right when someone was kidnapped?”

Robin frowned, looking over to the unconscious woman. There was no doubt now that she had bonded with the key, but this still didn’t feel right. “I’ll concede the point. Judging by what I picked up on the ride in there should be a dead zone about half an hour out of town. Just a couple farm houses. I’ll do my best to jam the satellites but we won’t have long to break through atmosphere and get the hell out of dodge.”

“Is that really the saying?” Theseus looked back to the road, the houses already starting to spread out. They just had to make it half an hour out of town.

“Pretty sure it is.” Robin shrugged, a smile flickering across his face. But it was quickly gone. “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh? I hate it when you say uh oh. What the hell do you mean uh oh?” Theseus glanced at his brother, then spotted something through his form on the monitor set to show a rear view of the ship. “Ah shit.”

A cop car, its lights on and siren undoubtedly blaring, even though they couldn’t hear it through the thick hull of the ship.

“Perhaps they’re trying to pass us?” Robin suggested weakly.

“Not bloody likely.” Theseus’s hands started to move rapidly over the control boards, bringing up systems as they picked up speed, the cop car doing the same to keep up with them. The smallest of the computers started to babble, still picking up the local police radio.

“-in pursuit of a silver RV, no license plate.” The calm voice said over the radio.

“Told you so.” Theseus said grimly. “Start the jammer now, we’re lifting off.”

“Are you crazy? We’re still in town!” Robins holographic form disappeared though as he took over certain computer systems, starting the jammer, bringing up life support and climate control.

“This is only going to get worse the longer we stay. Right now it’s one cop car, you don’t want to wait until there’s two or three, or worse, a helicopter! I don’t want us to wind up on national news!”

He gripped the thrust lever, watching the dials and lights on the control board. Some stayed red, but they weren’t ones he was worried about, not right now. The important ones flicked to green one after another, and he took a deep breath. He was going to be in so much trouble.

“Prepare for lift off.” Theseus muttered mostly to himself, and slammed the thrust lever forward, the ship lifting off the road and ascending rapidly into the sky, stubby wings unfolding from the sides as they headed up through the cloud cover.

Behind them the cop car swerved and came to a stop, nearly crashing into a fence on the side of the road. The officer stepped out of the car, staring up at the ship with his mouth hanging open.