“Practice take off in ten,” shouted Andromeda and we switched seats. I passed my gear to Donny and he passed me his.

“Start the ship. It’s that button there,” I pointed to a small red button on the side of the steering gear. Donny shifted and pressed the button. The Rider came to with a roar of the engines and rockets.

“Now check the wings. Do you remember the switches for that?” I asked.

Donny nodded switching a few switches back and forth. The monitor screen showed him, through a camera their position, and if their flanks were open. Once the wings were at a 90-degree angle with the tarmac, Donny left them be. I didn’t have to check if they were similar this kid knew his math.

“Good now press the gas slowly and start her up. Ease the gears down slowly as you do so as not to stall the engine.”

“Five minutes til lift off!” cried Mann making the signal for lift off.

It made Donny nervous and he almost jammed the brakes on.

“Keep going. Accelerate now,” I said smiling as Donny sighed and switched the last switch on before we picked up speed. He lowered the gears slowly and pushed on the accelerator as we gained some more speed.

“Here we go! Grab the steering mechanism and pull up when I tell you to,” I said. “Pay attention to the tarmac we’re about to reach its end.”

A few seconds passed and Donny grew fidgety.

“Alright! Pull up!” I cried.

Donny grabbed the steering mechanism and pulled forward and into his chest and we departed the tarmac slightly. A few more pulls and we were up in the air flying. He hit the last of the switches which was the landing gear to be retrieved into the Rider. We were up in the sky.

“Yeah! Whoop!” screamed Donny as he traded seats with me. Andromeda had a white-knuckled grip on my chair. She breathed a sigh of relief and sat on my lap.

I chuckled and sat in the pilot’s chair switching on auto. “Good job, kid.”

Donny beamed at me. “Did you see that tho? I am a pro!”

“Not until you can do that in under a minute you aren’t,” I muttered. I didn’t want to rain on his parade though, so I only chuckled and we flew for a few minutes. I banked a left then a right and did a twirl and a bit of aerodynamics for the kid who whooped in his seat.

“Again!” he cried laughing. His wavy hair was standing on end. There shouldn’t be electricity in the cabin. I checked the gauge for cabin pressure and found it a little low.

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I placed it on auto again and rose from my seat. “I’m going to check something. I’ll be right back.”

Andromeda glanced at me. “I’ll come.”

Donny nodded and hopped into the pilot’s seat. “Kay I’ll keep it warm for you.”

I walked out to the cabin and felt a chill go up my spine. I felt as if I were being watched. I searched the cabin but I found no one. I had one last place to search. The space where the fuel pods were kept. I followed my instincts to the small cubicle where the fuel pods were being kept and there I found a Zinnia floating about. I stretched out my hand and let it crawl against my skin.

“How did you come on board?” I muttered as it flew around the room on a strange wind gust that suddenly hit. I saw it then.

“A-Andromeda do you see this?” I asked. There was a hole about the size of an adult male that covered the end wall near the fuel pods. It seemed as if something had burned through.

Andromeda bent over and her shirt rode up. I got a good view of something I shouldn’t have seen without permission. Still, they were really nice…

“Maybe a laser?” she finished. I shook my head and nodded lost. I glanced at the hole. It was a precise incision. I bent over to check it when Andromeda screamed. I turned but the smell of plasma pressed to my temple and clapping was heard behind me.

“Matt, Matt, Matt. I told you we’d find a way to escape,” came Jude’s voice.

“This was my idea, butthole,” came Bartholomew’s voice but where was…

“Hey let me go!” I heard Donny yell.

“Keep quiet kid and keep walking,” came Lana’s voice. I growled but kept facing the front. Donny and Andromeda were thrown in front of me. Andromeda quickly shielded Donny.

“Hands where I can see them, Matt,” said Jude as he did them with rope this time. Bart wrestled with the thirteen-year-old as he tied his hands together. Donny kicked him and tried sitting up but Jude pressed his laser gun to my temple and Donny stopped resisting. Andromeda came quietly. Too quietly.

“Good boy. All of you are going for a walk in the wilderness,” said Jude as he motioned for us to follow him.

Donny swallowed and stopped walking shuddering. “But the Symbiotes? And vampire fiends and Houls?”

He was shaking visibly and I stepped back to shoulder him, while Andromeda squeezed his shoulder. He took our meaning and kept going, following Jude to the back of the Rider where the cargo hold was. The latch had been undone and the night sky was apparent.

Jude walked over to Donny and handed him a backpack. “Survival stuff. I’m not that heartless.”

“Who’s flying the plane?” I asked.

“Johanson,” said Lana smirking. No doubt she slept with him to bribe him.

“Andromeda says he isn’t good in bed. Is it true?” I asked her, smirking. Andromeda giggled. Lana punched me in the nose, sending a gush of blood streaming down my face. I barely flinched unnerving her and she held her laser at Donny’s face again, hand shaking.

“Don’t make me into a killer,” she said smiling deviously.

“Yes, ’cause you’re already a slut,” muttered Donny getting punched in the face as well.

“Deouch!” he cried holding his nose. It too was bleeding.

“Alright. Enough winding the cyborg. I have to sleep next to that thing,” said Jude as he slowly pushed Donny to the edge of the cargo hold.

“No parachutes?” cried Donny holding onto the ledge with his arms as Jude pushed. Giving up Jude motioned for Bart to try, but again he failed. It was Lana who untangled Donny’s arms and shoved him over the edge as I watched. Andromeda was next. I saw that her arms were free. She went on her own. I was next. I was brought through the enclosure.

“Turn him around! I want to see his face when he learns we are fifty feet above the ground and that his buddies likely didn’t make it,” said Lana grinning.

I snarled and turned around. “Donny was just a kid!”

“He should have picked better company,” she said as she snickered waving her gun.

It gave me a split second to move my arms and break the flimsy rope before rushing Jude who was the weakest. I rushed him and jabbed him in the face, His nose made a satisfying crunching sound and he cried out. I followed up with a roundhouse to the sternum, knocking the wind from him. He was knocked into the fuel pods and one fell on top of him, blocking his way up.

“Bart don’t just stand there! Help me!” he cried as he wrestled with the heavy fuel pod.

Bart cried and rushed me but I evaded his hulking form. Sometimes it paid to be little. I felt the plasma beam hit, and I was boiled alive. I dropped to my side screaming. Lana, it had to be. She had shot me with the laser gun. I crawled to my knees but sharp nails dug into my scalp and drug me to the cargo hold.

I was held a few feet in the air, via my scalp, and turned to face Lana, as I knew I would.

“Pity. You and I could have been real good friends,” she said shrugging before letting me go. I grasped for anything to hold and pulled her along. She gripped onto the cargo hold’s rings and shouted for Bart who hauled me off and threw me into the abyss. I tumbled down..down…down until I splashed into an aquatic nightmare.