“This is a terrible idea.” Fawkes sank beneath the embankment and groaned.

The Volcanic Plains stretched out before them. Crisscrossing lines of dusk light escaped through the edges of the Floating Peaks in the distance hiding both the sun and the northern Outlands. A storm brewed to the east that stretched out to the Endless Sea. Only the litany of airships blocked their view of Evarus’ landscape—each with four main masts centered around a ship deck creating a diamond-like structure of sails.

Sadie kicked a clump of blueberry-scented moss at him. “Coming from the king of terrible ideas.”

“You’re joining the pirates once we get your Mom back, right?” Jiyu asked. “Too bad. Outlaws are better.”

“Maybe a catboat instead,” Fawkes said. “Might even be able to buy one.”

“Nah, there!” Jiyu pointed to an airship moored so close to the burning red prairie grass of the plain it could catch on fire with a strong gust of wind. “Want to show off some of your pirating skills?”

A cannonball-sized lump formed in Sadie’s throat. She wasn’t a pirate. Not even close. She needed Fawkes to save her butt from being eaten by giant scorpions and lost a lopsided fight—if you could even call it that—to a random girl who was the only reason she had money to buy a decent sword. Without her, they’d probably still be trying to sell the jade eggs. Maybe this was a bad idea.

But she couldn’t stop now. Sadie nodded. “That one then.”

“That one!?” Fawkes tried to argue, but Sadie and Jiyu were already working their way down the hill from Hicto to the Police and Investigation Guild airship. He ran after them. “Sure, let’s steal a PIG airship. Might as well take a Wereskulls and Whack-A-Dungeon airship while we’re at it.”

“Why would we need three airships?” Jiyu asked.

“When did you become such a baby?” Sadie stopped them behind an airship and held her lips. A group of players from another guild stopped near the bow to laugh at something.

While waiting for them to move on, Sadie awed at the cyconium craftsmanship of the airships in the sharp edges of the side slicers, front lances, and intricate figureheads on the bows ranging from a dragon to a rooster. The ship in front of them needed an alignment (or was just badly crafted). Its top-down balance was off and could easily turn over with the wrong sharp maneuver in a battle, and the wing sails didn’t reach out wide enough to stabilize or rotate the ship properly.

“Think of it as like the ultimate prank,” Sadie continued when the group of players passed. “A PIG airship getting stolen—”

“Commandeered,” Jiyu corrected.

“Right. Commandeered out from under their nose will be all over forums and recap videos for weeks.”

Fawkes crossed his arms. “We’re not supposed to mess with regs. That’s like the number one rule of Brink.”

Now he sounded like Gate. “Pretty sure PIGs don’t count considering they’re on Ben’s payroll. Besides, we’re commandeering. Borrowing if it makes you feel better.”

“Doesn’t mean we can just go stealing.”

“You literally just helped me ‘borrow’ this sword. And since when are you Captain Rules-Follower? What about all the times you stole from my bases?”

Fawkes stared dumbly at her almost like he’d forgotten what he did entirely before recognition returned to his face. “Okay first, neither of us were Brink then. I thought we moved past this already?”

“We haven’t moved past anything!” She jutted a finger at him and then stepped away before she kicked his ass for real.

Why was Fawkes so adamant when the Fawkes she knew skirted the rules at every opportunity? But now he doesn’t want to steal an airship from the PIGs of all guilds? Doesn’t scream Fawkes vibes.

A sinking feeling ate at her stomach. If Ben paid PIGs to report to him and do his bidding, maybe he paid individual players to report back to him too?

“Whatever. We need transportation, and it’s two to one.” It’d be days to the colosseum without an airship to cross the plains. “Want to spend forever boarding around?”

“Besides,” Jiyu said, “Who gives a shit if we make PIG members mad?”

Fawkes scrunched his nose as her turned to look at a group of PIG members descending from the hills laughing and patting themselves on the back, likely from handing out nonsense fines. “I still don’t like it.”

“Well then you can leave,” Jiyu retorted. She put an arm around Sadie. “In the meantime, we have people we need to find.”

Sadie liked Jiyu more by the minute, and the annoyed look on Fawkes’ face added bonus points in Jiyu’s favor. She threw her arm around Jiyu to match. “So you in or out?”

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Fawkes rolled his eyes while leaning his head back. “Fine. In. But when this goes badly, remember—I told you so.”

Jiyu laid out a plan while Sadie continued to focus on Fawkes, watching for any indication of deception, though it was hard to concentrate with the lack of sleep catching up to her. He may have eventually agreed with them, but she couldn’t shake the suspicion. Maybe Gate was right all along. He kept a straight face as he contributed to the plan, but she wasn’t let him off the hook that easy.

They snuck back to Hicto for a quick supply up and descended the hills out of sight of the airships. At the bottom, the burning grass reached up to Sadie’s neck.

Jiyu handed each of them a spicy pork bun. Cooks used the burning grass for the dough providing limited fire resistance. “Sorry, it’d be better if we had modded clothing instead, but this is the best I can do right now.”

“Way better than nothing.” Jiyu had also assured Sadie that resistance items still worked outside of the game. Sadie downed the bun causing her mouth to tingle from the heat. “Thanks for buying for me.” If only she could access her old account to transfer loons, she’d be rolling.

Jiyu flashed a smile. “Anytime. You’ll pay me back helping to find my mentor.”

She hated having to rely on others to help find Mom. Maybe she could have done it on her own given enough time, but she didn’t have an option with the deadline. Could he see her now working with others? She hoped not, and she hoped he wouldn’t harm Mom if he did. Assuming he did have her and Mom hadn’t escaped on her own from the start. Once they reached Vidar, she’d know for sure.

“Remember, slow and steady,” Jiyu said.

Fawkes crossed his arms in a huff apparently upset at anyone else controlling the conversation. Sadie cough-swallowed a laugh and let Jiyu lead the way.

The burning grass swished with flames as they snuck along the edges behind the airships. Even with the fire resistance active, every brush strung and burned her skin. Exobits dripped down the side of her pants from a lash, and her health bar inched lower. Sadie gritted her teeth, nearly biting her tongue, to prevent herself from making any noise; she managed to maintain her pace behind Jiyu.

Magma threatened to erupt as they hurried across the molten rock terrain. Every step pushed pockets of bright red magma into a bubble like a massively dangerous squeezy ball. One burst behind Fawkes and filled the air with sulfuric fumes. Luckily, the erupting magma mostly missed them.

Sadie slowed and stepped more carefully even as she felt the stings increasing. Her health bar was still over seventy-five percent, but no use to go too fast and die from magma. Though less embarrassing than a scorpion skewered death ten seconds after arriving. With each step, she felt less apprehensive about stealing an airship from the PIGs and shifted gears to cussing them out for placing theirs the furthest away from the hills.

Insanely annoying and painful, but it meant no patrols would be able to reach them in time from Hicto. They only had to deal with the guild members closest to the ship.

After a tense ten minutes that felt more like an hour, the PIG ship towered over them. Nodding at each other, they string forth from the burning grass.

Jiyu fired off two rounds of icy-hot within seconds taking out the three guards on the ground—two starboard-side, one at the stern. The ship’s alarm bell shrieked in the air almost immediately. “How do they know already?” Sadie asked, looking around. Were they that bad at sneaking?

“Ask questions later, just go!” Fawkes charged forward screaming at the top of his lungs while Sadie and Jiyu rolled left to the side of the airship furthest from the hills. They equipped their boards and rode to the top as surprised shouts rose from below among laughter from the other guilds.

In the distance, a squad of PIGs sprinted down the hill, and a few had the presence of mind to pull out their boards, but they’d be too late.

“Watch out!” Jiyu cried, but Sadie topped to the ground before she could react.

Cords from a bolas wrapped around her legs. Jiyu fired providing cover as Sadie rolled behind a railing on the poopdeck. Sparks flew as she cut away at the cords with all her might. The cutlass felt lighter with every slash, and she was unsure if it was caused by adrenaline or leveling up.

Sweat dripped down her back, and with a final thrust and loud grunt, the cords snapped free. She leaped to her feet to join the fight. Jiyu kept two guards pinned at the bow with rounds of icy hot from one gun occasionally broken by a charged laser fire from the other.

Sadie marveled at her skill and wondered if she’d ever consider defecting to the Pirates. Better her than Fawkes.

“Don’t just stand there!” Fawkes yelled at her as he topped onto the deck from the port railing. A PIG tried to follow, and he swung his axe behind with only a single backwards glance knocking the PIG back over the side railing. It happened so fast that she almost didn’t catch him moving. Despite its size, he wielded his weapon gracefully and without wasted movement. She had no doubt he could have taken everyone out through stealth if needed.

A knot formed in her chest at how far ahead they both were in skill. How much better she needed to be if she ever wanted to rescue Mom, get this stupid key, and stop cyberspace from imploding, much less join the pirates. She catapulted over the railing to the quarterdeck and grabbed control of the helm, a large round disc hovering horizontally.

As Jiyu succeeded in freezing and tossing the two PIGs she pinned, three more sprung from the cabins. Fawkes blinded one into another, sending them both over the railings.

A map of Evarus formed below Sadie’s feet and feeds surrounded her giving unobstructed views past the four sides of sails, lances, and slicers. She selected “yes” on a prompt asking if she wanted to raise the anchor. As soon as the anchor dislodged, she jerked the wheel upward as hard as she could.

The airship’s bow pointed upward too quickly sending everyone backwards. Sadie scrambled to regain control of the helm and right them before they began to overturn. Jiyu took advantage of the confusion and landed a hit on the remaining PIG. Fawkes yeeted the incredibly angry dude over the edge who called out “Screw you, Fawkes!” as he fell.

The ship wobbled its way up and out to cheers and uproarious applause drowning out any shouting from the PIGs. A few PIGs attempted to follow on boards, but they couldn’t rise fast enough to match an airship.

She found the touch of the controls and steadied the ship into a controlled ascent. Once stabilized, she entered their destination into the autopilot: Mech Colosseum. She stepped back from the helm letting autopilot take over and heaved in a breath of air.

They did it. They took an airship right out from under the noise of the Police and Investigation Guild with only a few hiccups. A true pirate’s feat. Maybe she’d live up to Mom’s reputation after all.

Jiyu and Fawkes joined her on the quarterdeck, and her elation dissipated on sight.

Fawkes.

Before she traveled any further with him, or slept on the same ship, she needed answers. Real ones. Storming up to Fawkes, she pointed her sword tip into his chest.