Hearing a large rumble, Zan's heart marched. Were they under attack?

Turning to see what or who made the noise, Zan saw Jiehong with a splinter group; a dust cloud kicked up from whatever happened. Zan rushed toward them calling out, "Is everyone okay? What happened?"

"We're good!" Jiehong shouted, though Zan wished he hadn't, as the border was so close. One never knew who was listening in, theoretically.

Looking at the scene, try as he might, Zan couldn't understand what happened. "Care to explain?" Zan asked.

"Sorry everyone!" Jiehong said, yelling loudly so all heard. "I was testing out my new exo-suit thing that I bought. I used too high a power setting and so I lost control of it. Won't happen again!"

No one among either the soldiers or the civilians knew what Jiehong was talking about. Zan knew it was because no one here came from a background where technology like that which clung to Jiehong's back or Zan's head was common. To be fair, had it not been for the war, Zan would have remained as ignorant as they. Which wasn't saying much, since, as Zan told himself many times, he still did not know the how or the why of what happened to him and the invasion.

Approaching Jiehong once the worst of the cloud cleared, Zan saw a broken pillar laying in pieces on the ground. Seeing etched carvings on the pillar which took in sun to use its shade oddly, Zan reasoned it might have been something like a sun dial many years ago.

"Did you really need to destroy a piece of the old society?" Zan said, unimpressed with his friend's archeological destruction.

"What? Oh, that? It's nothing. I was testing out my new SPIDER system and lost control. Turns out, 'high power' really means high power."

Ignoring Jiehong's destruction of old sites and hoping the site had already been catalogued somewhere by researchers, Zan asked what he was testing specifically.

"The super-arms, of course! You see the two oversized pauldrons? Inside are the tippy tips of my two mechanical arms. What you see over my back is where the extra coil length is kept, but the actual heads? Inside. I wanted to grab onto something stable. So, I chose the pillar," Jiehong explained.

"And you didn't know how powerful high power meant. Boom. One thing led to another, fallen pillar. About right?" Zan recapped.

"Absolutely. I did think of a use for this, though," Jiehong said.

"What kind of use?"

Zand and Jiehong discussed what it meant. As bold as Zan's plan had been with trusting the indistinct bounds of treaties and border politics, Jiehong's took the cake when it came to a physical version of boldness.

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With Jiehong's suggestion discussed, all which remained was the implementation.

Allowing everyone to find their own hiding spots (within reason), Zan warned the civilians to stay close. Zan displaced the echo-beetle reserved for Jiehong, giving instead to the highest ranked soldier among the civilians; when the threat passed, the civilians needed some way to know to come out of hiding. Zan assigned several from his half of the group to protect them while he and Jiehong and the rest were riding into battle. Jiehong would not need his echo-beetle as he and him would be working closely enough as to render the convenience unneeded.

"Wild plan. It will probably only work with a horse, though. Any ideas on how to compensate?" Zan asked, continuing the tactical discussion.

Jiehong and Zan already were on their way toward the border. With the civilians scattered through the ruins -- a couple here and there, but never more than three to a single collapsed hut -- the only thing left undone was the fighting.

"Jiehong. Zan," the Screen Master interjected. "I have a solution for your speed problem. Simply join your bikes and you will obtain faster speeds than you would alone."

"Wait! What do you mean 'join the bikes'?" Jiehong asked. Zan was confused, too.

Walking them through it, the Screen Master gave them step-by-step instructions on how to join their bikes. It was a simple process. The front of one bike had a tiny latch near the front. Opening and extending that latch, while aligning the latch with the other bike's end bit, allowed for the two bikes to become a single tandem-bike. Small additional connections were required to connect the two bikes, but with Simulacrum's guidance, it was an easy affair.

United as one, the new bike was a much lengthier device than their individual bikes. Four wheels, one body; two handlebars, one curve. Seating himself, Zan felt a surge of energy which wasn't there before. Did the bikes become stronger simply from being united? Zan thought. I would've figured it needed magic before we saw results.

Once he considered the use of magic, Zan shot his attention toward the sky.

Until now, he didn't like looking at the sky. The sky had the airship. The airship wanted him dead. Therefore, the sky was the enemy. For now.

Watching the horizon for the Slipstream, Zan saw a faint outline begin to emerge. His heart stuttered. Finally, Zan thought. Magic. We might have a fighting chance after all. "Keep your eyes peeled on the sky. The Slipstream's coming out," Zan told Jiehong, then the others via the echo-beetles.

"Ready, buddy?" Zan asked, on his half of the bike.

"Ready," Jiehong replied.

Shooting forward, Zan informed colonel Winters they were on their way.

"But we are not going to stay with your guys," Zan told Winters. "We are drawing the airship out. Leading it astray. Once it takes the bait, talk through the echo-beetle. Get the civilians up and bring them to safety."

Winters replied with an angry grumble. "Already, you guys are at it again with the disobedience?"

"What do you mean 'disobedience'?" Zan asked. "You literally did not have a plan. We do. Your plan is to huddle together and shoot some arrows at it. Our plan is dynamic and accounts for the situation."

"That's not the point!" Winters yelled. Then he calmed. "Do what you want. I will be in contact. Gods bless your safety. Over and out."

Zan and Jiehong soon came upon -- and slid on by -- Winters and his men. They crossed the border not long after. When they did, Zan and Jiehong had only been on the road for perhaps fifteen minutes, if that, when the airship took notice of them and began to move its bulbous mass slowly toward the two boys on their bikes.