Kaira clicked a buckle of her seat belt and smiled over at Reg as they prepared to take off in the new shuttle she had rented. It was much bigger than the last one and had a few rows of seating behind them. She had even requisitioned a seat that would fit Reggie's human form!

"Ready to go?"

  "Well," he began, smiling and patting the seat where a hole might've been if it weren't for Kaira, "considering I have no seat to LITERALLY sink into, and I'm terribly anxious, I'd say yes!"

  "Alright then, seems we're ready to get started then!" She said with a nod, turning to the controls and dancing her fingers across them. The engines thrummed to life and she glanced over the readouts on all the ship's vital systems, doing a quick pre-flight check. "We're going to be flying in low orbit for most of the trip, I'm hoping we can skirt under the sensor nets of their spacecraft, but above their ground based sensors."

  "Well, if we're daring, we can fly under the curtain, so to speak," Reggie said, smiling. "I wouldn't recommend it though, eyesight is more trusty than radar anyway."

  "That and we've got two separate mountain ranges to cross as we go over the US. We'd have to rise up pretty high to get over them, and we'd be spotted in an instant. Better to skirt the curtain up in space where their ships' radar can't read into the atmosphere too far." Kaira replied. "We'll still have to expose ourself on the descent to the meeting point, but that's only one descent and ascent instead of two separate ones over those Mountain ranges."

  "Yes, good thinking." Reggie nodded. "The big question is where to meet the gang. He's waiting on me for a swift message telling where to lead the family. Any suggestions? I was thinking the coast, right on the edge, to make things easy on us."

  "Well I think a beach is as good a place as any. You're the one who has lived there most of your life though, not me, maybe you know a good spot where you've been with the family before?" She asked, still fidgeting with the controls a little more as she spoke.

  "Nothing that isn't crowded and obvious, sadly. Even the parks are surrounded by eyes. The beach is the most secluded, and next-to-no one lives there, or even visits at night." Reggie chuckled lightly to himself. "My dad still doesn't know about you."

  "Heh, I trust he's not one of those jingoistic K'tellian haters like there seems to be so many of these days?" She asked with a slight tinge of nervousness in her voice.

  Reggie shook his head. "No, he's not a hater. He's more...traditionalist?" Reggie shrugged, continuing. "He won't be too keen on my choice of woman, but my mom and sister would probably be more accepting."

  Kaira felt herself shiver a little with anxiety, but she masked it by hitting the docking release. The shaking of the ship as it sputtered free and hovered into the air hid her little shudder perfectly, but she still kept a keenly optimistic expression on her face. "I'm sure that he'll come around eventually after he gets to know me!"

  Reggie offered a smile. "I'm sure he will too, just don't expect it to be instant. I get most of my traits from my mother, which includes the very open mind."

  Kaira nodded and pointed the nose of their shuttle upwards, gunning the engines. The inertial dampeners kept them from feeling anything for the most part, but Reg would still feel a little tug into his seat, which would be much more pleasant this time around thanks to the properly shaped chair!

  Reggie laughed and relaxed a bit. "I've got support on my rump this time! Feels goooooood."

  Kaira suddenly had an urge to crack a dirty joke about supporting Reg's rear, but didn't think it was appropriate and chose to change the subject. "Once we're an hour away we should get in range of a private encrypted vid phone call, so until then we've got two hours of time to blow."

  He nodded in response. "We won't need that. Just a small message sent to his PDA will do. Faster, and MUCH less likely to be noticed among the constant stream of communication, right? I'll still wait for range, though, obviously."

  "That makes sense too, good idea Reg." She said with a nod, turning to look at the viewscreen as the bright blue of the dawn sky began to fade into the darkness of the upper atmosphere. "Until then, why not tell me a little about your family?"

  "Well," began Reg, "I'll start with my father. He's a good man, works in shipping at a warehouse. Well, used to. Done a fine job supporting the family, and since he's coming with us, he has put the house up for sale. He's always been a strict fella, though, and that occasionally grates on our nerves," he said with a chuckle.

  "Understandable. You can tell him that I can pull a few punches with my political stature to get you guys a free place to live though!" She added with a grin, relaxing a little bit as they reached their proper altitude.

  Reggie laughed as he replied. "I'm sure he'd appreciate that, really. He might not show it right away. My mom, though, will undoubtedly be all over you. So be ready for that."

  "I don't think that would be a problem!" She said with a chuckle, leaning back in her seat. "Ahh, now we should be clear to let the autopilot take it for awhile, unless we get a few hiccups on the way."

  Reggie smiled. "That's a plus, we can relax then!" He nodded and leaned back a bit as he continued about his family. "I seriously think you'll love my mom. She'll be more-than-happy to embarass me with baby stories and the like. And my sis is very much my best friend."

  "Heh, sounds heartwarming. Does your mom work?"

  "Naw, she prefers to stay at home and tend to Kim. That would be my sis," he added.

  "How old is your sis anyway?"

  "Sixteen by now. She doesn't work either yet. Doesn't really want to, if I recall."

  "Heh, it's a good thing the cost of living in K'telle is so cheap! They won't have to work, especially if your dad gets a decent job. You might be able to drag him over to the Montalbo plant!"

  "Good idea! Question is if he'd want to work if he lives for free," Reggie said with a chuckle. "After selling the house, living for free would be easy."

  "Heh, Money does eventually run out. I doubt he has enough money to live entirely off of interest! That's in the millions and above range. Even with K'tellian credits being worth more than the US Dollar."

  "True, true, but he'd hold off for a while." Reggie smiled. "Knowing him though, he'll grab a job as soon as he can, so no worries there."

  "That's what matters anyway! Get them a good place near you and everything should flow from there!"

  Reggie nodded, still smiling. "So, what about your family, besides your father of course?"

  "Well, I have three sisters and two brothers, but I never really keep in touch with most of them. They're pretty solitary. But I am still pretty good friends with my Dad and aunt Satoria. Most of the time my siblings keep to themselves."

  "Well, what can you tell me about your aunt, then?"

  "Ahh, Satoria is wonderful. She's an identical twin, her sister is named Tamista, and they're both singers at heart. They have their own little duet and they do songs for a few local K'tellian techno groups. She lived in the same house with us and was like a mother to me."

  "That's amazing! Do they do any shows around where we live?"

  "I'd have to ask her, she spends most of her time with my Dad. You like techno, Reg?"

  Reggie nodded. "I do, and it'd be nice to see your family do what they do best."

  "Heh, you know my grandfather used to be able to communicate with and program computers with his mind. He would just lay his hand on a console and open his mind to it, and out would flow music from the speakers. He could turn his thoughts into data for music files, and made some incredible songs that way. He was good enough to even have some of his music published by human record labels! He called himself DJ Tanis."

  "So there's another one I have to listen to. Any other musicians in your family I should know about," he asked with a laugh.

  "Heh, Tamista's old DJ name is Cosmic Wing, but she never published to humans so you wouldn't have heard of her. My Dad has experimented a little with being a musician but he never had a talent for it. He's much better at being a green thumb."

  Reggie chuckled. "I never would figure him for a musician, honestly."

  "Would you believe me if I told you that he's the one who turned all of K'telle from a toxic polluted desert wasteland into what we have now, and he did it with only help from a few f us in the family?"

  "Well, of course I'd believe you, but that's still amazing!"

  "Back when it was just 27 of us together as four families, we had found a large stash of stolen gold bouillon in a wrecked freighter, and we used the money from selling it to buy enough seed, fertilizer, and water to transform that barren desert into the beautiful grassland that we have today. We worked together as a family to psychically plant and tend it all, and maintain the biome until it could support itself."

  "That's incredible," he whispered, almost to himself. "A desert to an oasis, in a way."

  "Granted it took several months to pull off, and that's not even mentioning that it was a toxic waste dump even before that! Back before I was even born, Ares used this part of Japan as a toxic waste dump. Spent nuclear fuel, chemical toxins, noxious gasses, solid garbage heaps, it was all here. All 27 of us had to work together to get THAT stuff out!"

  "Ew...I can imagine it didn't smell all that good, now did it?"

  "We had to raise bubble shields around ourselves as we worked, otherwise it would have burned the skin right out of our noses! That stuff was lethal, not even Grimers and Muks could live there!"

  "Now THAT is bad, when even THEY avoid the area." Reggie shuddered slightly, thinking of it. "Well, I humbly thank you and the rest for your work!"

  "Heh, no need to thank me, trust me! We all benefited from it."

  A sudden beep on the control panel caught Kaira's attention and she suddenly sat back up and looked to see what the problem was.

  "What've we got, Kaira?"

  "Small cluster of US warships above us on patrol. We're starting to get close to the West coast now. They're not turning to intercept us though, so I think we've gone undetected."

  "I'd hope so...last thing we need is to get blown away."

  "Three battlecruisers and a carrier, flying on a parallel course to the shore. They're probably keeping an eye out for ICBMs or large ships heading toward their airspace, so their sensors probably aren't calibrated for small shuttles." Kaira said, relaxing again. "We'll be over land in a few minutes."

  Reggie sighed and reached over to stroke her arm. "We'll be fine, I think. We've made it this far, haven't we?"

  "Heh, we escaped larger human fleets than this before after all, and with no ship to fly too!" She replied with a laugh, lying back again and taking his hand.

  "Y'see? We'll be fine, Kaira, you watch." He smiled and gripped her hand, then chuckled. "My sister would so be making fun of us right now."

  "Reggie and Kaira sitting in a tree, blah blah blah you know all the rest." She said with a snicker.

  He chuckled and continued, "And, of course, kissy noises."

  "Heh, I wonder if it'd make her squirm if we kissed in front of her?" An evil grin crept across her face as she spoke.

  Reggie laughed loudly this time. "We should try it!"

  "As long as we made sure you're dad wasn't around to get pissed about it." She said with a chuckle. She turned when her eyes caught a glance of the screen, and she smiled and pointed at the Earth below them. "Look Reg, there's California below us!"

  The shoreline was dark now, the sun had just set here and the lights of Hollywood glimmered below them.

  "Not much longer, now," said Reg, fidgeting slightly. "Just a few more hours."

  "About an hour and a half. So far I'm not getting any signs of their ground based sensor nets picking us up, but I'm going to put most of the shuttle's vital systems in grey mode to make us harder to detect, just in case. Hope you don't mind it getting a little chilly in here?"

  "I'll pass on the chance to get all mushy and just say 'yes'," he laughed. "I'll live. You gonna be okay?"

  "Not gonna let a little high atmosphere chill get to me!" Kaira said with a little dramatic flare of comically exaggerated pride. "It'll take more than a couple negative degrees to make this K'tellian slow down!"

  Reggie laughed and nodded slowly, applauding. "Good show, good show! I demand an encore!"

  "Well, if my public demands it!" She said with a laugh, and then leaned back and pretended to steer the ship with her feet.

  Reggie laughed again, shaking his head. "We're all gonna die, but that's perfectly fine!"

  Suddenly the ship shook a little, and Kaira yanked her feet back and bolted up to see what had happened. She made a big sigh of relief when she saw the cause. "Just atmospheric turbulence! Not my fault!"

  "Good cover-up, I'd say," said Reggie, still smiling. "Good scare though!"

  The ship shook again just a bit, this time when Kaira wasn't even touching the controls. "There, look! I told you!"

  Reggie laughed again. "I know, but I'm allowed to pick on you!"

  "Hey, be careful, you'd better be able to take it as well as you dish out then, shorty!" She replied, reaching over to tousle his hair.

  He smiled and placed his hands on her offending hand, holding it in place as he relaxed. "I can, trust me on that," he said, smiling.

  "No protests about how unfair that joke is since Mewtwos are inherently taller than humans?" She asked, suddenly shivering as the cabin started to get noticeably cooler.

  "No, not yet anyway," he said with a chuckle. "No doubt if you use that against me often enough, I'll mention it."

=============================

  "You ready for the descent now? This is where things could start going wrong." Kaira asked, nervously looking down at the East coast on the screen.

  "Ready as I'll ever be. He should be at the beach already..."

  Kaira nodded and reached over to the controls again. "It all comes down to whether or not their sensor net decides to tag us as a threat or not. We'll be picked up before we ever get close to sea level, so we'll need to touch down, grab your family, buckle them in, and fly off as fast as possible."

  Reggie nodded slowly. "I'll rush them as soon as we see them

  "The most direct route back home will takes us straight back over the bulk of the US, but any detours would add hours that we can't afford if we're being chased." Kaira said, concentrting on the controls as she flew them down. The Earth quickly began to grow upwards toward them with a frightening speed.

  "I won't mind picking states out again. I'll just have to do it faster," he said with a slight wink. "I just worry about WHAT will chase us."

  "Best not to think about that." Kaira added quickly. "We should be entering the range of their scanners.....nnnnnnnnnnnow."

  "Let the games begin," Reg whispered to himself, watching for any sign of his family.

  Kaira flew them downwards through a bank of clouds and then the beach came into view. Once they were close enough to see properly, she flew them along parallel to the beach and stared carefully at the screen, scanning the sands for any sign of the family. "Keep your eyes peeled. I don't want to turn on our sensors, since that will make us a bigger mark."

  "I gotcha. I'll know 'em when I see 'em...just gotta watch closely."

  They flew on like this for a handful of minutes before a small group of humans sitting conspicuously on the beach came up on the viewscreen. Kaira jabbed her finger up at the screen and shouted. "There! Is that them?"

  Reggie nodded slowly, keeping his voice down as if it helped, "That's them. Mom is even in the bright pink shirt I asked her to wear," he said with a chuckle. "That thing scars my retinas even at night," he said, laughing.

=======================

  Kaira immediately slowed them down, the lights on their shuttle illuminating the little crowd of family on the beach. Tickling her fingers across the controls, she extended the landing gear and downshifted to stationary hover drive to guide them down. Once they had touched down she straightened her traditional white sash and gestured to Reggie to go grab them. "Alright, I unlocked the airlock, go get them! Remember, no time for greetings until we're off the ground, the longer we linger the more time the authorities have to scan us!"

  "Trust me, I know. I'll just be a few seconds at most." Reggie leaped out of the craft, not hesitating for a moment to meet his family. They were already running towards the craft, Reggie hushing them before they began excited greetings. Within moments they were back on the craft, his mother close behind, followed by his father and sister. "We're good, go go go!"

  "Strap yourselves in quick everyone, I'm not going to hold back now!" Kaira called back, and then slammed the engines straight to max as soon as Reg was in his seat. The sudden acceleration shoved everyone into their seats forcefully and Kaira had to use her powers to tap all the various controls at once to re-lock the door, re-pressurize the compartment, raise the landing gear, and gun the engines all at once in a manner of seconds.

  "Wow! I hadn't expected this," cried Reggie's sister, glee obvious in her voice. Reggie laughed in response, gripping the sides of his seat.

  "Hope you're quite the flier, Miss," called the father from behind Reggie.

  "One of my hobbies, sir!" She replied, turning them upwards to rapidly gain altitude. The starry night sky filled the screen and the engines groaned from being maxed so suddenly. The G's got a little intense as Kaira accelerated them against gravity, but nothing seemed to be going wrong yet.

  "I'm sure we'll be fine, Ron," began his mother, "she got our son out here, after all." She seemed surprisingly calm compared to the rest of them.

  Kaira monitored the sensor readout intensely, not even paying attention to the viewscreen at all. She needed to keep an eye open for any human ships on intercept, and for several minutes everything was clear. "Wow, not a peep out there yet. It's like they're completely ignoring us! Not even a radio signal to hail us."

  "They DO have to hail us before attacking us, right," asked Kim, tapping Kaira's shoulder. "Also, can I ask what you are? I've never seen anything like you before!"

  Reggie chuckled, looking towards her. "Shall I answer, or do you wanna do the explaining?"

  "You can take it Reg, my eyes are glued to the sensor screen." Kaira said with a laugh.

  Reggie nodded and turned to face his sister. "Yes, Kimberly, she is a K'tellian."

  "You're busy though," said Kim, "so I'll wait. But I do want to ask your opinion on things..."

  "Kaira," interjected Reggie. Kim nodded and repeated the name a couple times.

  Kaira nodded a little and as they slowly neared their target altitude, the G forces faded away and the inertial compensators took control, letting everyone could relax. "That's my name, but you can wear it out if you want!" She joked, not tearing away her gaze.

  Kim laughed and said the name a few more times, just because she now had 'permission' to use the name. Reggie simply smiled as his mother reached past his father to mess with his hair. "Why do you always cut it? If you'd let it grow, it would look so much better on you!"

  "I missed you too, Mom," laughed Reggie. "Dad, how have things been?"

  "Just an FYI" Kaira injected quickly, "Only 5% of K'tellians can even grow hair on their heads. We've got a thin layer of fur instead. Imagine a housecat with big blond locks and you'll understand!"

  "That," Reggie began, "was a fairly frightening image, Kaira. Thanks for that." Kim and his mother were already laughing.

  "It was the most sensible metaphor I could think of at the time, the funny was only a side-effect." She said with a chuckle. "Don't let me interrupt your conversation with your dad though."

  Reggie chuckled. "Go on, Dad."

  "Things have been hectic, Reggie. I'm sure you know why, what with the coming war, the smuggling, and your sister chasing random guys like she can't find better." The last statement brought a retort from his sister that was certainly questionable, but Reggie laughed with his father nonetheless.

  "What about you, Reg? How've you been faring?"

  "I've been doing real good! I'm making decent money, got a nice condo, I walk everywhere to keep my health, AND I've got a real gem of a girl!"

  "Heh, you and your flattery Reg!" Kaira laughed, finally relaxing from the sensor panel as they reached their goal altitude and autopilot took over.

  "Speaking of which," said Ron, "who is this lucky girl?"

  "I'll show you when we land, okay?"

  "Sounds good."

  Kaira couldn't help but chuckle at this, figuring it was probably a good idea to avoid possible rage storms when they could get attacked at any moment by angry UN ships out of nowhere. She turned on the audio notifier for the long range sensors and sat back in her seat. "We should be clear for awhile now. You said you had some questions for me, Kim was it?"

  Kim immediately hopped in her seat. "Yes, yes I do! I wanted to know your side of the story about this whole thing." Kim nodded, brushing her long brown hair back. "We hear on the news how terrible you--the K'tellians, I mean, are. Or, supposedly how terrible they are."

  "Really? I'm not surprised. After all that Ares did 90 years ago, I can't blame people for being afraid of our psychic powers. If it weren't for the advent of psychic powers, a single one of us could wipe out whole armies with nothing but their mind. That's why all the propaganda is flying around, people are afraid of what we COULD do, even though we keep saying we wouldn't do something like that!"

  Kim nodded, a smile on her face amazingly. "But how would we be able to take your word for it? I'm sure you understand how hard it would be for us to believe that right away."

  "That's the rub, and the reason why we have negotiators! Unfortunately, it seems the negotiators could stop things from breaking loose."

  "I hope you don't think too terribly of us, though, Kaira."

  "I know we don't think down on you," the mother chimed in, "you saved our hides, and kept us close to our son!"

  "Hah, no worries! If I didn't like humans then I wouldn't be such good friends with Reggie here! Just take a little advice from me, when we go to K'telle, stay away from the city named Belicia. That place is a big nest for anti-human sentiment. Thankfully I can say that this attitude isn't a prevailing majority view though."

  "You serious," asked Kim. "We're not hated entirely?" Apparently it even came as a shock to Ron, noted by a soft grunt at Kim's words.

  "Granted one of our four leaders isn't too keen on humans, which means the state itself takes on its own anti-human agenda, but the other three keep him in check most of the time and represent the more tolerant majority."

  "This is a relief," called the mother, "I was half-expecting to be hated almost anywhere we went."

  Reggie looked over at his mother, smiling. "You won't be totally liked either, but it's just like at home: you have bullies and you have friends."

  "Exactly. The worst you'll get in Sativa, where I'm taking everyone, would be a weird glance once in awhile from visiting Belicians, or maybe one in a million native Sativans."

  "We're very grateful for this, Kaira," said Ron. "Any way we can repay you?"

  "I expect no monetary rewards. But you can visit often!" She said with a chuckle.

  "I'm sure we can do that easily enough," he replied with a nod.

  Suddenly Kim stood up and looked at the back of Kaira's head. "I've always wondered what this was for," said Kim as she began to stroke the 'tube' connected to the back of it.

  Kaira suddenly flushed a brilliant crimson over her face and purred involuntarily, her soft-spoken voice almost musical, and she instinctively twitched a little.

  "Ahhh...please, that's kinda sensitive. My spinal cord is in there, so the nerves are pretty easy to mess with."

  Reggie fell into a big fit of laughter as Kim sat back down apologizing. Ron and his wife simply looked at each other, perplexed.

  "Our species was, well....genetically engineered, and back then the technology was pretty primitive. You see a Mewtwo's first neck is kinda spindly, and our heads are pretty big. They were having a hard time dealing with the weight problem, so they gave us a second neck to hold our spinal cord so the original neck could be solid bone and muscle to handle the weight. Stupid yes, but we have moral reservations against doing genetic manipulation too much on our own, for obvious reasons."

  Ron and his wife both nodded, Reggie still laughing quite loudly as Kim made faces at him. "I see," said Ron. "I admit, I hadn't expected to learn so much from this encounter. But I suppose that's just me being old."

  "Well I always was a scholar during my younger days, and our schools do teach pretty rigorous anatomy courses!" She replied with a nod. "But in the future Kim, I'd like to politely request that you ask before touching! If you had pinched my second neck hard enough, it would have been painful beyond words."

  Kim nodded sheepishly, shrinking in her seat. "Sorry, Kaira. I'm too curious for my own good."

  Reggie replied, still laughing, "Got that right!"

  Kaira smiled and relaxed a little more, and her tail began to swish contentedly back and forth. Since Kim was sitting behind her, that big soft tail was right there within reach and a bit tempting as it twitched across the smooth steel floor. "I can't believe we haven't had a lick of resistance yet, let alone a single transmission!"

  Reggie stopped laughing and gave Kaira's shoulder a pat. "Personally, I'm grateful for it. We can do without another dangerous outing."

  His mother immediately looked at him. "'Another', you say?"

  "Oh God," was his only reply, followed by a laugh.

  "What do you mean by 'another', Reggie?" His mom had a smile on her face, clearly goofing with him in that motherly tone.

  "Well, do you remember the news story about that big battle a week ago when the human armada tried to attack the K'tellian space station and failed?" Kaira asked, suddenly taking on a rather nervous tone of voice. "Well, we were kinda flying around up there, Reg and I, when that particular turn hit the fan, and ended up right in the middle of the fighting."

  Ron sat wide-eyed for a few seconds before being the only one to respond. "I always knew you could handle yourself, but Christ, the odds of that happening at all..."

  Suddenly Reggie was cracked lightly upside the head. "You're CRAZY, young man! I told you you can't go crazy until you're thirty!"

  Reggie laughed at his mom's sudden 'attack', rubbing his cheek.

  "Should I tell them about the jump too?" Kaira asked softly.

  Reggie smiled and leaned towards her. "They wouldn't know the significance of it, and it might get me attacked again, so I say to go for it."

  Kaira laughed a little and nodded. "Well, needless to say we didn't get out of the battle without taking a few hits, and we were forced to abandon ship. I used my psychic power to make an air bubble around both of us, and used that as a shield too to jump ship and fly down through the atmosphere."

  "Well, doesn't THAT sound exciting," cried Reggie's mother, half-slapping him, half-patting his back. Ron gave her a small glare.

  "Maria, I'd rather you NOT encourage that."

  "Oh, I'm not! Not yet anyway, and Reggie has a bodyguard anyway."

  "He is intact here after all!" Kaira said with a chuckle, reaching over to tousle Reggie's hair.

  Reggie laughed again, 'fixing' his hair. "BOTH of you are ruining my perfect 'do!"

====================================

  "If you live so far, why would you want to pick us up anyway," asked Ron.

  "Well, Reg and I both figured that the US is probably going to get involved in the war against K'telle soon, and if we didn't bring you over soon, he would lose contact with all of you, possibly permanently if the war goes badly. This way, at least the family is together." Kaira replied.

  "That's very thoughtful of you, really. Have you ever thought of moving out of Sativa," asked Ron, suddenly curious. "Why do you stay?"

  "Well I was there when Sativa was founded! I was there helping when the city itself was being built, and I've lived there ever since. You could say I'm really attached to the place. And if you meant why didn't I move with Reg to the US, well I doubt I'd want to be away from my own family, and I doubt there are too many humans in the US right now who are too big on my species." She replied matter-of-factly.
  "Why would you move to the US with Reg anyway," Ron asked, chuckling slightly.

  At that moment, the control made a very disconcerting insistent beeping, and Kaira swiveled around and stared at the sensor readout. Her blood chilled a little in her veins and her tail froze in place. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh cap."

  Kim raised an eyebrow as Reg leaned over. "That's never been a good thing to say," said she.

  "What've we got, Kaira," asked Reggie shortly after. "Doesn't sound good, whatever it is."

  "You remember those patrol ships we passed under on the way in Reg? Well apparently they want a little word with us. Only they apparently want to use plasma cannons instead of words." She replied , starting to sweat a little. "They're heading right for us."

  "Jeez, whatever happened to hailing someone before shooting them?" Kim voiced her agreement as Reg looked around. "This thing have guns?"

  "They probably read our K'tellien IFF signature and decided that they don't need to ask any questions. We don't have any guns, no, but we do have speed!" She said, and then gunned the engines to max again. There was another jolt as they were shot forward before the Inertial Compensators kicked in.

  "How does it go, then," asked Reggie's mom, tapping her chin. "Oh yes! PUNCH IT," she yelled as the ship picked up speed.

  A little colored indicator appeared on the side of the screen and then began to tick down slowly to indicate the Kaira was using up the afterburner energy now. It was going down pretty slowly but it was clear to everyone that would eventually run out. "We're outpacing them for the moment, but we won't be able to keep the lead for long. So I want everyone to tighten their buckles and look under their seats to familiarize yourselves with the flotation devices, just in case!"

  Ron tilted his head quizzically. "Flotation devices? That's assuming we survive the fall should there be one. Maria!" He called to his wife, who seemed to be enjoying herself.

  "This is exciting, I think. Reggie wouldn't trust just anybody, and his bodyguard seems to be very able! So enjoy the ride!"

  "Mom," laughed Kim, incredulous at her mother's attitude. Reggie simply held on to his seat.

  The blood was beginning to drain from Kaira's face though. The afterburner indicator was ticking down agonizingly slowly, and suddenly a message flickered on her readout. She bent down to read it and then got a lump in her throat. "I just got a text only hail from them. 'We know you're smuggling illegal goods, either submit for immediate arrest or be destroyed.' is what it says. Apparently they're just as skilled at jumping to conclusions as the propaganda makers!"

  "Feels weird being an illegal good," said Kim quietly.

  "Funny, I never thought I'd hate the US," Reggie said, also quietly. He tapped his legs nervously, unable to do much else.

  "I've got an idea." Kaira said, suddenly perking up considerably. "Reggie, do you remember when we got up close to the Blue River to get that extra boost of speed during our flight?"

  "Ho Lord, do I ever. Do it!"

  "There's only one downside. We're gonna pass through UN controlled space to get there. There are lots of ships up there, and we might have to find a way around or even through their formations." Kaira said, beginning to turn the nose of their craft upwards into the blackness of space.

  "Any sort of cloaking feature on this thing? Or any way to 'fake' cloaking?"

  "Well, no cloaking field on it per se, but I know how to make a psychic cloak. The thing is that they already know we're here. The most it'd do is make them have to manually target us and decrease their accuracy. But that may be just what we need to skirt through alive!" She replied. "We should have just enough afterburner power to get us there."

  "Any shot is a shot worth taking," said Reggie, swallowing his own fear as best he could. "Just gotta be ready for a rough ride."

  The lights of distant ships filled the screen as they passed into the purer darkness of space, and Kaira closed her eyes and began to concentrate her powers on cloaking their shuttle. It was much harder, considering the significant size difference between a shuttle and a person, but she managed to handle it. The glowing blue of the Blue River in the distance flickered onto the screen and suddenly Kaira tapped the controls to summon up a pair of plastic manual control sticks to grasp.

  Kim stood up as best she could, pointing out at the  Blue River. "Is that what I think it is? I never thought it could look so pretty..."

  "If you think it's pretty now, wait until we get up close!" Kaira said, unable to smile at Kim's enthusiasm. It was a good tonic to her nervousness as she stared at the new sensor readouts of the UN fleet. She felt her stomach sink again when she saw how many there were. "Hoo boy.."

  "Damn, that's a lot of ships," said Reggie. "One challenge after another, I suppose."

"She's gotten this far," said Ron, making an attempt to encourage Kaira, "she'll get us back home." He had his own fear, of course, but felt it necessary to hide it as best he could.

  "Guys, I'm going to put the ship's systems on grey mode again. The point of the cloak now will be to make it harder for them to lock onto us with their weapons, and if we reduce the energy signature of the ship's systems that'll give them even less to track us with. It's going to get really cold in here, really quick, and I'm going to pilot us on the screen alone, so it's gonna be even bumpier." She said, tapping controls telekinetically at a furious pace to deactivate nonessential systems.

  Everyone hushed, waiting to see what would happen next. Kim resorted to biting her lip nervously as her mother fiddled with her hands as well.

  The UN fleet didn't seem to even notice them at first as they approached. Proud olive drab painted steel loomed on the mighty vessels as they approached, but none of the ships moved. None fired their weapons. None powered their engines, and it was deathly quiet as Kaira began to steer them in between the warships at full afterburners. The meter on the side of the screen was getting dangerously low now, hitting the red part at the bottom, and Kaira's knuckles turned white as she gripped the manual control sticks tightly.

  Ron's mind wandered a little bit in the dead silence. He began to think about Kaira, ironically. He never thought highly of the 'Two's, seeing the news would do that. But this one didn't seem too bad, he thought. Reggie DID choose her as a bodyguard, after all.

  He almost chuckled at the thought. His son had a bodyguard? Who woulda thought...but she was doing a lot for Reggie. Maybe there was more behind this?

  Kaira suddenly felt a sneeze coming on and tried desperately to suppress it. She was concentrating too hard to be able afford that, but the tickle in her nostrils didn't stop. She drew a few deep breaths and even snorted a little, but none of it helped. Just as they were about to pass through a very tightly packed formation of patrolling fightercraft the sneeze broke free. It was a particularly nasty sneeze too, it made her hands jerk a little on the manual sticks, and this disturbed their course enough to make them skid right across one of those fighters with a pronounced shriek of metal on metal.

  Everyone was once again dead-silent, but wide-eyed. After several quiet seconds, Maria spoke up. "God bless you, Kaira."

  "We're all gonna need it, hold on!" She shouted.
The fighter that they had nudged immediately turned and opened fire, and a few small laser bolts struck their hull. The impacts were enough to light them up on the whole armada's sensors for a fraction of a second, and all those lumbering capital ships immediately began to turn and charge their plasma cannons, filling the screen with an eerie electric blue glow.

  Reggie screamed some expletives as the screen lit up and his mother commented on his language. shortly after, she looked at the screen and repeated Reggie exactly.

  The next few breaths that Kaira took were visible clouds of vapor as the cold of space began to creep through into the cabin. She slammed the sticks side to side, weaving wildly to get them out of any path that the enemy ships might have extrapolated to fire into. It worked too, a few seconds later a bunch of boiling plasma bolts rocketed through space where they would have been. The blinding flash of blue made their screen temporarily dim automatically to avoid damaging their eyes.

  "Nice move," commented Ron as he gripped his seat. "I think we might need a lot more of those!"

  Those plasma cannons weren't their biggest problem, the fighters were right on their tail, and another volley of wildly fired laser bolts streaked past around them. The fighters were firing blindly, hoping to expose them with another lucky hit or two. Thankfully that round missed, but Kaira knew that there would be plenty more. It was at that moment that the afterburner energy finally gave out and the shuttle began to decelerate a bit.

  Kim panicked slightly, patting her legs. "We're slowing down, we're slowing down!"

  "There's only one thing left to do now, I'm gonna have to overdraw the power cells to get us the rest of the way, and once we drain it completely we'll let the Blue River's acceleration take us the rest of the way! We'll have to make the descent back into the atmosphere on manual unpowered steering alone, but it's the only other way I can see!" Kaira shouted, yanking wildly on the controls. The air in the cabin was now getting cold enough to make exposed sting a little.

  Maria began shuddering, holding her arms close to her body as Kim followed suit. Reggie was still gripping his seat as Ron looked on, trying to mask the fear inside.

  Kaira masterfully tapped the holographic controls with her mind, and as she finished the overdraw commands the afterburner bar surged up to 25% again and their speed kicked back in. The holographic panels began to flicker and fade as the power drain began. They finally passed out of the inside of the human formation, which was now in chaos as fighters scrambled and kept firing blindly. But just as they managed to pass through, another few stray bolts struck them again, and Kaira cried out in sudden pain and winced, letting go of one stick and grasping her head as if she had been hit in the head with something.

  Reggie very nearly leapt at her, but composed himself, reminding himself that his father was present. "You okay, Kaira?"

  She stammered a little and forced her hand back down to grip the stick again, still wincing. "Psionic disruptors....I think I lost part of my brain...the cloak's d-down." She stammered, still concentrating on the Blue River, which was now clearly visible as a gigantic blue energy vortex instead of a distant blue line of glow.

  "Almost there, Kaira, hang tight!" Reggie leaned forward, almost willing the ship to go faster.

  A huge boom shook the ship and a huge gout of flame shot out from the door to the engine room in the very back, lapping at a few empty seats and missing the family. It injected a much needed dose of heat into the cabin, but that was the only really good thing that it did! The viewscreen began to flicker and the controls got rigid in Kaira's hands.

  "Those cap ships are locked onto us now, a plasma bolt hit us right in the ass!" Kaira shouted in panic. "A few more of those and we're done! We just need to make it a little bit closer!"

"Just a little further then," called Reggie as his mother and father looked behind them, wary of what just occurred.

  The Blue River swelled up in the viewscreen, that torrential energy storm of bent dimensional power. They all felt a slight tug as its effects began to kick in and draw the ship forward, and another loud rattling boom echoed through the shuttle as another plasma bolt melted through the rear hull and caused a breech. The door to the engine room slammed shut to prevent total depressurization, and the indicator bar for the afterburners immediately hit zero as the engines were blown off. But they wouldn't need it now, they were in the River's grasp and picking up speed. A few more plasma bolts whizzed past behind them as they accelerated, and then the viewscreen totally blacked out.

  "What just happened," asked Kim.

  "We lost the viewscreen, of course," replied Reggie.

  "Besides the obvious, Reg."

  "That last hit blew most of the engines off and took the power core with it. We're hurtling through space in a dead, fragmenting shell of steel, to put it frankly." Kaira said, letting go of the useless controls and unbuckling herself.

  "So what does that mean," asked Maria. "Are we jumping through space?"

  "Well, without structural integrity fields the shuttle is gonna break into several hundred pieces as we accelerate. And without vector control we'll get pulled down into the Blue River, where the shards of steel will be instantly vaporized by the chaotic dimensional energy. So yeah, we're gonna have to jump." She said with a bizarre smile of someone who knows the odds.

  Kim unbuckled herself first, everyone following suit after. "How are we going to survive this," asked Ron, tucking his glasses into his pocket. "The atmosphere will burn us alive!"

  Kim unbuckled herself first, everyone following suit after. "How are we going to survive this," asked Ron, tucking his glasses into his pocket. "The atmosphere will burn us alive!"

  Kaira gestured to them to gather up around her. "Remember how I said I could make a bubble to hold the air in around us with my psychic power? Well I can harden it into a full energy shield that can protect us from the re-entry burn. But as I'm sure Reg will testify, it's not a smooth ride!"

  "Well," began Maria, "A rough ride is far better than being blown to bits, wouldn't you agree dear," she asked, turning to Ron, who nodded his agreement. Reggie quickly approached Kaira and put his arms around her, partyl using it as an excuse to hug her. It had been a while, after all.

  Kaira smiled and returned the hug quickly, not keeping it for so long that it would seem inappropriate, and as everyone gathered she concentrated hard on forming the air bubble. The hull of the shuttle began to creak and groan as their acceleration began to shear the metal apart. "Ok, ok, just stay calm, I've got this under control!"

  Kim was clearly panicking despite the words, though she was doing her best to contain it. Reggie patted her arm to help her keep under control as Ron and Maria approached Kaira, ready for anything.

  A moment later a slightly luminous, transparent film of energy appeared around their group, contracting to grab all the air in the ship, and the artifical gravity fizzled as the hull began to buckle and tear, leaving their group to hover up off of the floor a little and watch as the shuttle simply disintegrated around them, ripping apart into chunks of scrap tritanium and beginning to tumble toward the vortex of blue energy.

  Maria and Ron both looked in pure awe as they watched their ship break apart, yet they remained alive.

  "I'm beginning to notice a trend in the last couple of ships we've flown, Kaira," said Reggie with a small chuckle.

  "You know if we were flying in a K'tellian warship instead of all these small shuttles it would be a different story altogether!" She said, loving how he could joke even in situations like these. The chunks of tritanium debris slid off of her shield and fell into the river, and Kaira steered them up away a little so they wouldn't get sucked in. As they passed parallel to the River now they would all have a clear view of space and the ships fading into the distance behind them.

  Kim was now tightly holding Kaira's waist, burying her head in Kaira's side. "Are we safe yet? Can I open my eyes?"

  "Probably not if you're afraid of heights!" Kaira replied, staring down at the Earth below them.

  Kim slowly opened her eyes, relaxing her grip by quite a bit. "Well, better than being shot at."

  Kaira pointed back at the fleet fading in the distance into nothing but little points of light. "They'll never catch us now!"

  "Good, good." She glanced around slowly, shivering a bit. "Can't say I've ever been in space before. This is one heck of a first time." Reggie laughed, nodding.

  "How do you like it?"

  "It's exciting, Reg, but that goes without saying."

  "A bit quiet though, you can't hear anyone screaming out here!" She joked, starting to steer them downward a little now.

  "Ah, that old saying. I remember that," said Maria, obviously very interested to be floating--and breathing--in space.

  "I must admit, this isn't like anything I've done before," chimed Ron, smiling.

  "Well it's not every day that one gets to fly around in space without a ship!" Kaira said with a chuckle, pointing down at the Earth. "Look, we're already almost there!"

  Reggie laughed, then quited his voice to a whisper. "I'll never get tired of this, you know that."

  "Well at least your life in K'telle is never dull eh Reg?" she replied with a chuckle, pulling them away from the River now and starting to head down towards the Earth.

  "Soooo not my fault," he laughed, giving her a playful pinch on her elbow. The closer Earth got, the closer the family huddled to Kaira, a mix of fear and awe taking them over.

  As the Earth rapidly grew closer and closer, Kaira aimed their trajectory carefully so they would arrive at K'telle. She had to concentrate silently for a few moments, and in that time flames began to lightly lick across her shield, making beautiful orange lights dance around them and a loud rumble echo around them

  Reggie was ready to scream, a wide smile spread across his face already. He just had to wait for the intense entry and he can let his excitement go...

  Her concentration finally was broken by the rumble growing into a roar, those tongues of flames growing into a huge orange wreath of burning fury around them. The air inside their shield began to noticeably heat up, though that was a thankful change from the freezing cold of before. "Here we go!" Kaira yelled excitedly.

  Reggie immediately opened his mouth wide, screaming at the top of his lungs. Soon, his entire family joined the 'chorus' as the flames engulfed the bubble. For Reggie, this was something he couldn't get sick of. But for the rest of the family, it was the first time in space altogether, and their fearful screams gave evidence to this. For some reason, however, their fearful screams fueled his excitement.

  She gave an emphatic "WHOOO!" to go along with their shouts, holding her arms out like wings as they blasted through the atmosphere at incredible speeds, thanks to the momentum from their river flight. They cut right through the outer layers much quicker than before too, streaking past the clouds. She had to use her power to start slowing them down lest they smash into the Earth like a comet!

  The family continued to scream and Reggie, being the goof he is, reclined as best he could given the circumstances. He even made a show of yawning, though his eyes remained wide-open with excitement and glee.

  The grasslands of K'telle finally appeared as they decelerated and approached the ground, and Kaira pointed down at the massive shimmering steel city surrounded by trees. "Look, there's Sativa!"

  Reggie smiled and 'stood' up. "Are we there yet?" Kim laughed and punched Reggie in the arm as Ron and Maria continued screaming.

  "Almost!" She yelled over their screams. They decelerated more and more, just barely coming to a stop above the grass in front of the city, and gently set them all down on the grass, panting a little and smiling. "There. Now we're here."

  He immediately jumped a good two to three feet into the air, then began running around at full speed as his parents simply lie on the grass.

  "HOW can he still be moving after that," cried his mother, laughing heartily.

  Ron laughed as well. "That comes from my side, I'm sure," he said as his wife gave a weak slug to his shoulder.

  Kim began chasing Reggie simply to get the remaining excitement out of her system as he began to weave, shaking up his path.

  Kaira settled down into the grass to rest, looking a little pale, and watched with a grin. "Whew....at least some of us have energy left! I'm nearly tapped after that."

  Reggie laughed and jumped over her, Kim close behind screaming at him to slow down. Maria simply shook her head. "How long have you put up with our Reggie now?"

  "A couple weeks, roughly. He sure is something, huh?"

  She grinned and nodded. "I missed his energy. His sister could never keep up when they were both home. She tries. Almost a competition with the two." Maria tapped her chin a couple times. "It seems, though, that the time apart has brought them closer."

  Maria then smiled, almost an evil grin, but clearly happy nonetheless. She lowered her voice enough to keep it between her and Kaira only. "I know, by the way." There was a small chuckle in her voice.

  Kaira's eyes widened a little and she looked at Maria with a little nervousness in her eyes. "Well....I uhh..." She stumbled, not knowing quite what to say.

  Maria smiled a motherly smile this time, raising a hand, then pointing at the now-approaching Reggie and Kim. Reggie and Kim both collapsed next to Kaira and Maria respectively.

  Reggie was just about to open his mouth when his mom clamped his mouth shut softly. "Shut up, dear," she said with a hearty laugh. Kim apparently got quite a kick out of it.

  "What'd I miss," Reggie asked as his mother signalled for him to keep his voice below Kim's utter laughter.

  "I know about you and Kaira. Don't think I haven't tried any of that secrecy stuff around my parents!" Maira smiled. "I'll talk to your father. You know he won't be...as open."

  Reggie nodded slowly as Kim quieted down. "Mom told you to shut up..." Kim said, wiping a tear from her eye.

  "Do you think we should leave while you tell him? Kaira whispered to Maria.

  Maria shook her head. "I'll tell him later. Reg should expect a call tonight."

  Reggie cringed inwardly at this, not exactly willing to know what his father had to say.

  Kaira nodded and then spoke louder. "Well everyone, you guys ready to get your new place?"

  Ron nodded as Kim almost yelled 'yes'. Reggie looked over at Kaira.

  "Any idea where they can stay? I don't think I have the room for them."

  "I told you goofball, I already arranged a new condo for them near yours in Sativa!"

  "Oh yea, that's right. My bad," laughed Reg. "Well, the sooner we get 'em home, the better. I'm sure we can all agree that we need rest."

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