A solemn night sky blanketed the world. All Raptor could do was land at the first pitstop, which turned out to be nothing more than an isolated power station in a dry part of the territory. Overhead, a bright white sign and its illuminated hare previewed their point on the map: Hare Raiser Power rotating in all directions, situated on the side of a trafficless road leading to and from New Sumer.
Neither Jessica nor her friends knew what to expect in this remote area, recharging the sedan. In so doing, they found two other vehicles parked in the slots. Distant and parallel to the driver's side, an old couple casually recharged their Mitsubishi microcar. Two batteries over there lay a driverless Makoto sedan.
Within seconds of their touching down, Raptor hopped out of the driver's seat. "Let's be quick," he said. "Shannon, work the charger while I'm inside?"
"Uhh, alright," she muttered. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to see where we stand in the news." He put on a pair of black sunglasses.
"I'll go with him," added Valerie. "Better to stay in pairs, right?"
Pairs...
While Valerie accompanied Raptor, and Shannon stepped out, Jessica stretched over her shoulder to look at Dexter. His eyelids were aflutter. Now that she had a moment to observe him, he very much resembled his high school self, only more mature. Mature even then, at the age where most boys were clueless and hid their faults with machismo before they changed genders. Dex, however, was the right sort of weird...
She thought about his potential reaction after regaining consciousness. Shuttering from his charred stump, she tried to imagine life with one arm. Her shoulders scrunched with every second thinking about it. Nevertheless, better that he was alive.
"Ah—sorry!"
A gasp from beyond the rearview window belonged to an Azarean male in slacks and a collared white shirt. His frightful gaze darted every way, as he skipped past Raptor and Valerie. Raptor eyed the alien with suspicion, muttering, "No problem." The Azarean pressed on, distracted and anxious, with frizzled blonde hair ready to fall off.
Jessica mirrored Raptor's suspicion and observed the alien with eyes wide open. Though he looked nervous, his worried mug did nothing. Gnashing her teeth together, she felt nothing. "Azareans..." She crept out of the car, rounded the charging column, and approached the only other vehicle.
Her board was gone, optimism along with it, but she still had tools. With a few circumvention tools, she could launch that car off into space. "Babel," she whispered. Holographic violet enveloped her arm.
After opening the rear door, the Azarean leaned halfway into the backseat to adjust some kind of interior secret. Jessica glared from his blindside, lifted the Vambrace, and aimed.
Slowly, the space-elf backstepped into the door, widening the gap for a skewed view of the inside.
Her eyes canted back for that brief but clear moment. A small thing lay nestled in the backseat: Red hair, vibrant skin, it was an immaculate curiosity with glowing green eyes that briefly peered in her direction and left nothing but innocence. She had never seen an Azarean baby before.
Suddenly, the Azarean glanced back and flinched. Jessica hid the brace, lips frozen into a purse. The male shut the car door before stumbling into the driver's seat. In no time, the vehicle powered with full beam rotor energy then launched in the opposite direction of New Sumer.
Quiet wind.
There was no suspicion, no pity, and no disgust; just plain old fear. That fear had been justified, if for a moment. Deep down, though not as deep as she would have liked, a levee cracked and spilled anger.
Then her knuckles came down, and she felt the horizon, where the warmth of a rising sun slowly tinged the surface of the world. Its light skimmed into a subtle, rising rim behind the newly formed mountains. Closer, the gold sky glazed the canyons to cast Autumn in her direction. Without knowledge of a life outside the city, the empty country helped distill the sorrow into appreciation.
"Jess."
She snapped back. Valerie was standing behind her.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for something," she sighed.
"Out here?"
Lithely, Jessica angled her gaze above the station. The sign, the white hare, detoxed her thoughts. Foremost among them, the memory of Dexter and the forest returned. "' On the highway out of hell, beware the energizer bunny'."
"What?"
Jessica pointed Homegirl to the sign above. With the other hand, she fastened her goggles. "Zoom in times ten." There, beneath the feet of the surging, electrically charged rabbit, she found her clue. "See those numbers, Valerie?"
Valerie crushed her eyelids at the sign. "What numbers? The graffiti?"
"Exactly." Jessica rotated back to the canyons and removed her goggles. Her shoulders suddenly shuttered, and Homegirl couldn't help but notice. Thus, Valerie trod beside and gave a pat.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong, Jess?"
Turning, Jessica revealed white teeth between her peach lips.
"Where, in the hell, did that smile come from?"
"They're coordinates."
"What is what?"
"The numbers, Val! They're longitude and latitude. Basic geography. Babel..." The Vambrace made Valerie back away.
"Still not used to that."
Jessica input the numbers. "Babel, how close are we to these coordinates?"
"Close. 1.992 kilometers."
"Then we have our rendezvous! Raptor better hustle his ass." Jessica sauntered back to the car. Valerie followed.
Raptor was already beside the vehicle, laidback in a conversation Shannon. Upon their re-entry, Raptor powered the rotor and began a steady drive down the road.
"I know where to go," Jessica told him.
"Is that a fact? You're not throwing me a fast one?" he said.
"I've got coordinates."
"Where in the hell did you pick up coordinates?"
"Your brother."
After a silent gawk at the backseat, Raptor's attention to the highway took after Jessica's instructions, though he glanced from the window to her seat with a leer of reluctance. Jessica eyed him, too, an act that quickly made her skin twirl. He still looked like an older, rugged version of Dexter.
The next mile carried them past a few crags, during which the sun had all but risen into a full sphere. "Slow down," Jessica cooed. They drove on the cusp of two roadside canyons when Raptor lightly depressed the fuel pedal, the same moment the road began looping. Vaults and walls of rock and shadow then enveloped them. "Stop!"
Everyone jerked forward in their seats, Valerie and Shannon grabbing Dexter lest he swung.
"Jess, what are we looking for?" Shannon said.
"Look there, girls." Jessica pointed beyond Raptor's window, to a cavity carved in the side of the canyon. The hollow cut its way through thick rock, at which Raptor winced.
"That looks thin," he said.
"This is the part where you drive through it."
"There are no roads leading to the coordinates," Babel commented. "Global positioning points to another canyon through the hollow, and yet, my scans indicate nothing. There is no mass."
"I can't tell if Jarvas there is encouraging me or not," Raptor grunted.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Just trust me, dude."
"When you put it like that..." Within seconds, they passed through the crack and immersed themselves in shadow, their only source of light filtered from the crag above.
"Holler if you see anything," said Raptor. For a while, nothing but rocks enveloped their cruise into the inner cavity. A dark trail carried them until the faintest light rays revealed a distant terminus.
"What is that?" Valerie pointed ahead.
A dark aberration in the rays. Relative to the crack in the canyon, the anomaly grew in size, a literal UFO until its silhouette clarified. For absolute confirmation, Jessica had to wear her goggles. "That's an airship," she said.
"Don't fuck around, Jess!" snapped Shannon.
"I'm not..."
Shannon and Valerie leaned forward for a better view when Raptor stopped the vehicle. He turned off the headlights and tried to control his breathing. "Keep calm. They probably haven't seen us." As he looked back, a debate clearly raged behind his eyes. There was no escape.
"The airship's vector indicates an interception course," said Babel.
Jessica crunched her teeth. "Of course, it does." She magnified her lenses, calculating their chances of escape if they launched into the sky. But then she caught wind of something uncanny. "Enhance." On the curvature of the airship's nose was a white rabbit.
"It's getting a lot closer!" Valerie shrieked.
"Can't we just ditch this place?" said Shannon, strapping her seatbelt.
Raptor squinted for a better look, then carried his squint to Jessica. "You seem too calm."
The airship had disappeared, but the engine drone persisted.
Moving.
Tremoring.
Following the sound of a metallic crunch, the entire car jerked. Large claws clamped down around them. The interior rumble evoked their groans and wrenched their casual drive into an aerial prison. Then, following a weightless moment, their seats fed back like a theme-park ride. Shadows outside collapsed under reemergent sunlight. They were being towed across the sky.