The end of Spring Break had come and gone. For days, she entertained the thought of playing her role as a Salvager mage. Although she was hunched over her desk in the classroom, mindlessly copying the professor's notes, her mind was still in the park cleaning ice cream from her scarf while Stryder gave her a rundown of the role. If she could be honest, his "lore dumping" lost her, and realized she hadn't retained ninety percent of the information she received. The only details she could recall were that she's supposedly the last Salvager mage for some reason, and that she should take on small rescue missions to earn extra income.

Skye scoffed. If something like Jade's issues were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the intensity and duration of a rescue mission, she'd prefer calling that a one time thing and being done with it. She had plenty of adventure to last a full day's work in a car's engine compartment; plus, she preferred not being in another person's mind. Just as Skye was about to completely write it off, a stray thought caught her attention. If I had the money, I could do so much more than wish I had enough to buy the whole food pyramid in one shopping trip. As the thoughts progressed, she went from daydreaming about the essentials to the more luxurious; a bigger garage, enough money to hire a team, with enough money leftover to pay her tuition without taking out student loans. I could just fix cars for the rest of my life and not have to worry about the more pressing matters! I'll own a dealership, then we'll see who'll be raking in the dough without wanting for anything!

As the professor droned on, so did her own worries as they slowly crept to the forefront of her mind. Her daydreams gave way to a crucial realization: she'd have to go on adventures at all in order to even have that money. Maybe she'd ask Stryder for clarification later, but only if he didn't lecture her to death over it again. She looked down at her lap to see her silk scarf draped on one of her knees since she couldn't fit it in her pocket.

"Remember, Skye. Don't just do it for the money, do it out of love."

Yeah, sure, Stryder, love. She had love, all right. For money. Then again, who didn't?

Skye perched her head in her hands, yawning. Money is always tempting. She let her mind wander again. My electric bill's looking a little higher than usual, come to think of it. The indecision was eating away at her; adventures were considered a gamble all on their own, which she hated just as much as, if not more than, adventures. She'd probably have to fight to survive whatever monster lied in wait in some poor civilian car or something, like in Jade's situation. Each time she had a worry or an irritant, the thought of monetary gain would swoop in and reassure her that the benefits would outweigh the risks in the long run. Fed up with the indecision, she planted her hands in her desk, stood up, and yelled, "fine, I'll do it!" She had a classroom full of eyes staring in her direction. She sat down and nervously laughed to herself. "I-I mean, I'll answer the next question, Professor. I got a little excited there. Sorry."

"I like your excitement! I'll be sure to ask you a real doozy for this next module coming up in just a sec." He went back to his lesson like nothing happened, and the same could be said for all the eyes that turned back to their notebooks and cell phones. That was a close one, she sighed internally. Fine, she'd do it, she'll go on one mission - the highest paying one, and that would be it. She'd have her money for a while, and then use that to start her dealership fund while she paid for a few weeks' worth of groceries. She was such a genius.

When she went home after class, she walked in on Klaus, Jade, and Stryder talking in the kitchen over a pile of papers on the table. With a drop of her bookbag, the trio looked over at the mage. "Oh, hey, Skye! Look at these! Job requests!" While Klaus was enthusiastic, Skye only thought of picking one, preferably the one that rewarded a high amount of money. "I'll start reading off a few. Here, this one says a mother and her kids have been lost in Lorcan Creek for a couple of weeks? She's offering two hundred sparklers for it. Stryder, what's the conversion on that?"

Stryder tapped away at his calculator. "One hundred USD."

"Pass," Skye waved behind her shoulder. She could get one hundred and fifty from a tire change. She filled a clean glass with tap water and drank it as she listened to Klaus read off another request.

"O-okay then," he cleared his throat. "Wanted: Monster spotted in Lunaris. Awarding five hundred sparklers for those who eradicate it."

Four hundred dollars after conversion didn't sound so bad. It wasn't as high as she had hoped, but they were getting somewhere. She waved it off again, caught her breath, and refilled her glass. She should really bring water to class while it's hot out, she thought.

Stryder picked up another letter and read from it. "So, how about this one? 'Help! Our Garmsby Village gatekeeper has gone missing! Offering two thousand sparklers for those who can find him. Visit the village gate for additional details.'" The next thing the trio knew, Skye was coughing and choking at the sink, almost dropping her glass into it, stuck between swallowing her drink and spitting it all out. "Oh, no! Breathe!" Stryder ran to her aid and pat her back. "Don't die on us now!"

Soon enough, most of the water decided to go into the correct pipe while she could spit out the rest. She caught her breath and turned to the trio, who had closed in on her to make sure she was okay. While their eyes were soft and worried, her own, though teary, were as sharp as her grin. "That's the bitch," Skye's statement had the trio exchange glances. She moved past them and picked up the job request from the table, reading it for herself. "That's gotta be one thousand, nine hundred USD, right?" She reread it again and again, chuckling as she glanced at her team. "This is the one. All right. Where do we start?"

"Wait, you're serious? You'll really do it?" Stryder was almost bouncing with excitement. He cleared his throat and forced his body to calm down, but the same couldn't be said for his breathing. "This is great! Your first real mission! And it's not something you just wandered into! To get into Aetheridge, you need a Portal Zone."

Skye and Klaus exchanged confused glances. "When we went to that other world the last time, all we had to do was go through Jade, right?"

"That's for entering an individual's Parasite Palace, not Aetheridge's overworld," Stryder clarified. "There's a Portal Zone in the local swamp down the road." Stryder strode out of the door, closing it behind him before the others could object or agree. Maybe that's why that swamp is federally protected, Skye thought. Ready or not, an adventure was calling her, and it was unfortunately time to stop leaving it on read. There was about almost two thousand dollars riding on this mission, after all.

As the sun dipped behind the trees, orange rays of light lit the way for the quartet. Jade stayed close to the others, and had to grab Stryder's hand as her breathing quickened. The stench of swamp and the familiar squishiness of the moss and mud brought back memories of being thrown clear after taking that corner too fast. As she began to spiral, Stryder let go of her hand and said, "we're here."

To Klaus and Skye, it was a normal, albeit small clearing in the middle of the swamp. The only peculiar thing about the clearing was the placement of two boulders sitting side by side, giving at least ten feet of space in between. These boulders weren't seen anywhere else, unless in Rossfield, where the highlands and mountains were home to thousands of boulders just like these two. "Jade, would you do the honors, please?"

"Huh? Oh." Jade moved the collar of her sweater aside, letting her core glow a faint blue, becoming brighter as the seconds passed. Soon, the whole front of her body as well as the trees reflected a vibrant, almost sea blue as her arms stretched to their full wingspan. She closed her eyes, as if to focus. Klaus was about to ask what she was doing, but was hushed by Stryder. The wind picked up around the group, blowing the leaves about like there was a small tornado along the ground. The winds became gusts, the light glowed brighter, and with the opening of her eyes, a beam of light shot out from the core on her chest.

The beam hit an invisible barrier between the two boulders; the boulders glowed purple as the beam clashed with the barrier, tearing apart the space to reveal what looked like a portal. Jade's beam of light began to fade, and the air became still again as the blue aura from her Badge disappeared. The boulders were still glowing purple, and the portal hung in the air as if it was waiting for them.

Stryder ran up to the portal, and held his hands out for Skye and Klaus. "You coming, or what?"

"Woo! Adventure!" Klaus wasted no time approaching him and clasping his hand, so tight that Skye could've sworn she heard his bones crack.

"Let's get this over with," Skye bemoaned, grabbing his hand. Jade had already gone ahead, it seemed. The three of them stepped into the portal hand in hand, being flung to an alternate world. "Hey, Stryder? Does the reward change based on the stock exchange every day?" Stryder's eyes suddenly darted left and right, and left again. While Klaus seemed like he was having the time of his life, letting go of his escort and choosing to "fly" by himself, Skye was whispered her answer. "Oh, for fu-"

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As quickly as they entered, the quartet arrived in the alternate plane. The portal had opened a few feet above the ground, forcing Klaus to faceplant in the grass and Skye to land on her backside. "-sake!" Her arms were crossed in irritation. She watched Stryder land on his feet with ease. "I better hope the investors don't do some stupid shit because I need to pay my electric bill by Friday." Jade walked past the group, choosing to stare off into the distance at what appeared to be a landmark. "What am I looking at?"

"Home," Jade spoke, under her breath. She turned to Skye with teary eyes. "Up there is the gate protecting Garmsby Village. Welcome to Aetheridge."

Skye took a moment to stare at the gate. It looked like the village was walled off and guarded by one guard. She couldn't get a clear picture with her Salvager Scarf glowing. That reminded her. "I'm glad we're here, but how do I accept a request again?"

Stryder turned to the Salvager mage, giving her an exasperated look. "Where were you yesterday when I gave you the spiel about your new responsibilities?" Clearly, I was off somewhere else. Sorry, buddy. "No matter, you're still new to it after all. You accepted the request as soon as you stepped in the portal with the letter. Without it, the mission can't even start, so don't lose it."

The quartet made their way to the gated village. It was a two mile trek, but at least it wasn't a walk through haunted woods or a desert region. The path could've used more shade, though, but that was just Klaus. Before the heat could become too oppressive, they found relief in the shade of the tall walls that surrounded the village. "Halt! State your business!" the lone guard's armor sounded like tin cans being scratched together, even with smaller movements such as flexing his arm to guard the entrance with his spear. Looking through the entrance as Stryder was redirecting his teammates a few feet away, Klaus caught a glimpse of children running about the village streets having fun, and townsfolk of all other ages carrying supplies and equipment.

"Just a sec!" Stryder called out, getting his teammates into a huddle. "Now listen up, the guard is serious business. We need to be tactful and careful, or else we'll never get our lead. So, Skye, I'm going to need you to-"

"We're looking for knucklehead who went missing." Skye had practically shoved the letter into the guard's face. Stryder began gesturing in exasperation. Klaus chuckled as he high fived Jade, who was trying to stifle a giggle.

The guard took the letter and read it, humming as his eyes skimmed left to right, looking up at the young lady and back down at the paper. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot as she waited for him to stop analyzing and to start talking, lest she walked into the village herself for answers anyway. After a few minutes of her eyes burrowing through his armor as much as his eyes glued themselves to what could've been every word of the page, he handed the letter back to her. "Sorry, kid, these eyes aren't what they used to be." That explains it, she thought. "So, you're the Salvager that accepted the request. I thought I'd never see another Salvager again - this whole time I thought Lady Raina was our very last one."

Jade sighed, holding her arm as she looked away. Stryder patted her back as he too averted his eyes.

"Arturo's a young'in, he doesn't know what the hell he's doing every day, much less every hour. He said something about heading to Lorcan Creek for something or other, and just went off without so much as a by your leave. I hadn't been to Lorcan Creek in a while, but I've still got this here map. This map's about a hundred years old, but the forest shouldn't have changed that much in the last century."

"Wait, why not just have a team scope it out and make a new map?" Klaus objected.

"My boy," the guard answered. "We just so happened to be in the middle of one of those tasks when Lady Raina departed from this world. Lorcan Creek is full of monsters, the second you step in there, you may as well have served yourself up on a silver platter. That's why when Lady Raina died, we were so sure we'd never get the other half of the map finished. Now that a Salvager is here, maybe this'll help you out."

He handed Skye the second half of the map of Lorcan Creek. She and the others who looked from behind her back did a side by side comparison of the old map and the new map; not much had changed, but the boundary looked like it grew. If that was true, Lady Raina certainly wasted no time in trying to get this map completed. "Thank you, sir. I wonder what Arturo was trying to accomplish by going into those woods," Jade mused.

"I dunno, he's a treasure hunter at heart, so he could've caught wind of some sort of rumor. That kid doesn't realize he's thrown himself into the lion's den."

With a map and a half in their possession, and being pointed in the direction of Lorcan Creek, the quartet set off to find this Arturo person. They approached the entrance of the creek; looking inside, it was dark, and there was a chance they could've gotten lost without any of the maps. "This doesn't seem so bad." Skye commented. From the outside, a roar shook the earth as flocks of birds erupted from the treetops, disappearing into the sky. "Well, would you look at that, he's already dead. Mission accomplished, let's go home."

Stryder grabbed her scarf, effectively stopping her from walking away, and he didn't have to look at her to do it. "Nope, you made your bed, now you get to lie in it. We're going in to save Arturo, or do you want your government to shut your lights off?"

Skye sighed, grunted, and turned to the direction of the forest. "Fine! If I die in there, I'm taking you downstairs with me."

"Fine by me," Stryder deadpanned.

Entering Lorcan Creek, the quartet followed behind Skye, even though she knew just about as much about the forest as they did. The team remained on high alert as the light dimmed the further they walked in. Skye had her eyes on the map up until it was too dark to read. "I can't see anything in this light. Figures."

"Here, let me," Jade reached a hand out. After being given the map, her eyes started to glow as if they were headlights. While Jade was at it, Stryder looked like he was focused. A light sparked from his chest, but he grunted and clutched his chest. "Oh, Stryder!" Jade went to his side as he knelt from the shock he endured. "Maybe I should do it, instead. You good?"

"I'm fine," he grunted. "Do what you need to do."

Jade focused as she closed her eyes. Her Badge glowed, and soon she was enveloped in a bright light. Her form shifted, elongated, and sat close to the ground. When the light faded, she revealed herself to be a civilian car that reminded Skye and Klaus of sedans that were produced and sold in the 1990's. Her metal was Seattle Silver, her headlights were long and somewhat thinner than most of the present day's cars, and her body was somewhat boxy. Her headlights shone the way forward. From an outside observer, she was a normal car through and through. "Hop in," Jade beckoned the others with a voice that came from the speakers. "There's no way I'm letting everyone walk around here like free range dinner."

"A-a living car!" Klaus shouted. "I shouldn't be so shocked, but- but a living car!"

"That's the power of us vehicular folk," Stryder chimed in. He gazed at Jade's form with a thin smile, although his eyes seemed somewhat envious as well. When he shook his head, the envy backed off. "Come on, let's go get Arturo."

Jade's vehicular form strode through the forest. With her high beams illuminating the maze of trees, the team could remain safe inside. Stryder was in the driver's seat reading from the map, using the cabin light to let him see it. He gave her every instruction; go left, go right, keep straight, make a U-turn, and so on. Now that nighttime had crept up on them, it was totally dark outside of Jade's lights. All Skye could see was her own reflection in the window, and a reflection of Klaus sleeping while he was sitting up. Nice to know he's not creeped out, she thought.

She thought of opening the door to protect Jade from the outside, but brushed the thought away. What if opening the door invited monsters to reach in and grab her by the leg? Not the kind of night she wanted, that was for sure. Speaking of monsters, she hadn't seen nor heard a single one, even though she and the others heard a loud roar earlier that day. As a matter of fact, she hadn't seen any wildlife aside from a fair amount of fireflies, plus the ambience provided by a legion of crickets in the chorus.

"I think we should continue this in the morning. Nothing good can come from investigating in the middle of the night where anything can happen." Jade spoke quietly through her speaker system.

Stryder yawned, stretching his arms. "I agree with you. Look at poor Klaus," he looked back at him, sound asleep. "Let's resume this in the morning." Skye's mouth was agape. There was no way they could turn back now - for one, they were in the middle of the woods. Who knew what was waiting for them on the way back. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, her Salvager Scarf began to glow a bright turquoise. The air around Jade took on a blue ambiance, and when Skye looked out of the window, a strange circular symbol showed up in the ground. "Looks like it's a Salvager Warp."

"A Salvager what now?" Skye questioned.

"Go on, think about where you want to be the most right now." Stryder encouraged.

"Rich, owner of my own business.." Skye daydreamed.

"I meant physically," Stryder clarified, exasperated. "Now hurry it up, there's monsters here that'd consider us a buffet."

Don't get your panties in a twist, madam. Skye snarked internally. Skye wanted nothing more than to be home, sleeping in her safe, totally not magical bed. She was tired of the humidity of the forest and wanted to be back in a climate controlled environment that wasn't a car, though she had to admit that Jade did a great job at keeping the air cool. Her eyes were closed, picturing herself at home, and the more she imagined it, it really did feel like she was home again. "Skye," Stryder tapped her shoulder. "Um, Skye?" Skye waved him off; if she was going to be in her happy place, she was going to enjoy it all she could before being eaten by monsters. "Skye, open your eyes."

"What? What do you-" she looked around, and had to get out of Jade's backseat to take in where she was. She was definitely standing in her neighborhood, and staring down a driveway into a familiar garage attached to a familiar house. There was a blue glow coming from the ground of her porch that would have made for a substitute porch light for how bright it was. She was wide eyed, her mouth was once again agape. She gestured in disbelief with her arms, looking back and forth between her team, her house, and her scarf. Stryder walked past her, a sleeping Klaus in his arms. Jade picked Skye up and carried her inside.

That night, Skye learned that Salvager Warps transport those mages and their teams between worlds, and locations within a world without the need of a Portal Zone. She also learned that while many more can be acquired down the line, her low level meant that she could ever only put down one at a time. The last thing she felt for the night was relief that she could sleep in her own world instead of having to sleep in the wilderness.