The clay walls of the tunnels were damp with old rainwater, illuminated by seeds Kernel placed into them and made bloom with their glorious bells, the muddy floors seeping into their shoes and dirtying their clothes. The drill seeds don’t travel very long, only about one hundred feet before shrinking and drying out on the ground, but Kernel keeps pushing more and more seeds as the old ones die in a constant stream so there was no risk of stopping. Cairo keeps behind them, shrouded in his blue Shine with his hand touching the muddy walls. Once they reach a certain distance, he pulls the moisture out of the soil, freezing it into a thick ice wall that blocks the path behind them.

Rezuk marvels at the ice, laying his hands upon it and letting the cold wash through his palms. “How do you do that?”

Cairo smiles. “Its my Shine ability.”

“Shine… what is that? I-I mean I know it exists now, but how does it work? How do you do something like this? It seems… extraordinary…”

Cairo looks over at Ludo. Ludo stares back at him and nods.

Cairo smiles at him, and back at Rezuk. “Y’know, Ludo’s the one that asked to bring us with you.”

Rezuk tilts his head at him as they continue to walk. “Yeah, I figured that. I guess the question is… why?”

Ludo looks back. “Well, we’re friends now.”

Rezuk grins and looks down.

“I can’t just leave my new friend,” he continues, “Plus, I think training together would be better than me training alone.”

Rezuk nearly breaks his neck at how far he tilts it. “Training?”

“Yep,” Cairo responds, “I’m going to be teaching you both how to control your Shine.” He rubs Rezuk on the shoulder. Rezuk looks at him and grins. 

“So, how far are we to the drop sight, Kernel?”

“Erm…” Kernel chokes, scratching the chin under his mask. “Well… Yuh see we haven’t been goin’ v’ry fast. Erm… Probably a… a mile?”

Ed scrunches his brow at him. “A mile? Surely you jest. We’ve been walking for nearly 10 minutes, Monsieur. We weren’t even dropped off a mile away.”

Kernel rubs his head and flicks another seed into the ground. “Look, we’re underground end I dunnuh my lefts n’ rights tuh begin wit.”

Everyone stares at him with creased brows.

He pauses and turns back to them. “L-look! If yuh wanted uh guide, bring Jenga out! They’re much better than me at that.”

“It’s not hard to just go in a straight-”

“I know it ‘aint hard!” Kernel snaps, “I… I’m just not gud at it, ‘kay?”

Cairo sighs and nods, grasping the last puck in his coat between his hands. Everyone steps back as the final figure expands forth from the blue light. They are a Steampunk, a species of amphibian-like humanoids with external dorsal fins, gills and tails. This one’s fins were slicked back to the side of their head, almost like globs of wet putty. The hair they wore was similarly slicked back and short, somewhat greasy with an excess of gel and what seems like saltwater. Their pupils were dilated, nearly taking up the entirety of their iris with a long scar moving horizontally over their eye line. They wore a light brown leather jacket with a black undershirt and a black choker that sat below a large ring piercing they had on their thick lower lip. Their tail was short and stocky, only hanging about a foot down from their already short stature. 

“Cairo…” they murmur, “I told you not to let me out ‘till we were back.”

He sighs, “I know, but we’re lost.”

They grumble, smacking Kernel on the back of the head and sticking their hand deep into the clay after the seed stops spinning. They quickly nod, directing Kernel to place a seed at a very specific angle where it begins to dig through. The pattern continues, directing the entire party through sharp twists and turns in the soil until they reach a part where the clay turns to topsoil. With a quick punch, Jenga breaks through the top of the ground, scooping out a sizable hole in the ceiling which they pull themself out of quickly. 

The light that poured from the bright red sky creased Ludo’s eyes as he pulled himself out last. Reflections from the glossy sheen of the giant metal spacecraft didn’t help much, but as his eyes adjusted he could see it standing proudly on the dead grass. It was- for lack of a better term- a rust bucket. Its metal coating appeared to be waxed on the surface, but no amount of waxing could patch the rusted holes in its disk-like shell. The blue glass dome that sat on top of its cockpit had one large crack going straight down the center that looked hap-hazardly patched with tape that peeled at the edges. The hull of the ship looked to be sawed directly in two separate places, creating large gaps in the otherwise perfectly disk shaped ship, with no more than soldered scrap metal keeping the air inside from leaking out. 

Ludo’s scales stood up, his eyes squinted, and his mouth twitched. “What the fuck is this mess.”

From the bottom of the ship a staircase descends, letting out piles of steam and squeaking like a dying rat. They're bent and dented at the bottom, as if they were retracted too late and hit the ground or a tree as it passed through. The hand railings also seemed wobbly, but they held firm as an earthman slid down them like they were on a children's playground.

The earthman’s skin was a fine rosy tone, complimenting his long and curly dirty blonde hair that hugged his shoulders. Upon his upper lip was a big handlebar mustache that tilted upwards to match the exuberant glow his smile emitted. His demeanor shouted louder than he did, nearly bouncing up and down like a spring as he rushed up to Ludo, taking his hand in his right and shaking it profusely. The coldness of his hand was not what he expected, but looking at it he figured out why- the thin and sturdy metal shimmering in the dawn light, squeaking slightly as he shook.

“Howdy ho, Ludo!” He clambered, “So wonderful to finally meet you!”

Ludo raised his brow and looked back at the rest of his new crew, who all nodded their heads, say for Jenga who was too busy lighting a cigarette to care.

“...You must be Dante, I take it?”

“You betcha! I’m glad you decided to join us, I promise you won't regret it.” He continued to shake his hand vigorously, far past the point where Ludo’s arm lost most feeling. When he finally releases his hand, he gestures for Ludo to step forward onto the ship behind him. He hesitates, but everyone else- say for Rezuk- follows him onto the ship without another word. They both stand silent at the base of the stairs, Rezuk biting his nails and Ludo scratching the back of his head. Peering at each other, they take a solemn nod and venture forth onto the decrepit vessel. 

The inside wasn’t much better. Metal paneling was absent from the walls, exposing electrical circuits and insulation- there were even rusted holes in the walls that let in sunlight. Lights hung from the ceiling with no regard for safety, swinging about from their thin electrical wire like jungle vines blowing in the wind as they walked past. All the turns they took felt to get tighter and more cramped, almost as if the hallways were compressing more and more until Ludo stumbled into a low hanging bar, sending a dull pain through his skull. Most of the crew sat loose in one large crew quarters under the cockpit, with a ladder in the center leading up into it, and down to the engine room below. Inside the cockpit stood Dante and Jenga, the former bouncing up and down excitedly pressing buttons while the latter sat with their chin in their palm and with the butt of a cigarette burning in their mouth. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ludo questions.

Dante swivels around and bubbles to his feet. “You see, my new partner, we’re getting ready to head into space! To our first real destination!”

Ludo stares at him impatiently. “You can’t expect this thing to possibly fly.”

Dante tilts his head. “Oh, how do you figure? We came from Zarlac in this very vessel!” He pats the dashboard- a large panel full of different colored buttons without labels and switches all seemingly flipped at random- and one button pops off it, rolling slowly on the floor until it hits Ludo’s feet.

He picks it up and holds it out to Dante. “Look, you can’t be that unaware. If this ship takes one more flight- or even hits a bad gust of wind- it’ll send us straight into the vacuum of space. Kaput.” He swipes at his neck with his hand.

Dante, pouting slightly and tapping his chin, begins to pace around the cockpit. Jenga turns around in their chair and lights a new cigarette, peering deeply at Ludo while sucking down the fumes, which exit through their gills like a steam vent. Ludo catches their glance, but they continue to stare, their face unwavering in its slight disgust. Ludo's lips curl and sweat begins to dribble down his forehead as his eyes move around. Jenga sighs and stomps the cigarette out on the floor.

“We have an order for the parts needed coming in on Olivia,” they answer, “Should be here in a day or two.”

Ludo silently releases his air. “Olivia? Is she another crewmate”

Jenga raises their eyebrow and tilts their mouth down. “Crewmate? No, Port Olivia.”

“Port Olivia?”

Jenga sighs, “Yes, Port Olivia. Home of Mama Dirigible, most powerful Planet-Hopper in the cosmos?”

“I’m not caught up with the news.”

Jenga growls at him. “Maybe you should, we don’t need a dull mind on our trips.”

Ludo’s brow twitches. “...Ow…”

“Tch.” They turn back and begin to press a few buttons.

Dante’s eyes illuminate and smacks his fist into his palm like a gavel. “Of course! Yes, we shall wait for Port Olivia, but not here.” He prods Ludo playfully with his shoulder. “Lets go stop in on Meilin. I bet she would love to see you again.”

Ludo’s muscles stiffen and he takes a slow step back. “Uh- s-so soon?”

“Why not? She is always happy to see us when we stop by-”

“She’s always happy to see you,” Jenga sneers, “You and Ed.”

“Oh calm down Jenga,” Dante assures, “Besides, Ludo has been out of her life for so long, I bet it would be nice to see her again.”

Ludo looks around nervously before leaning in to Dante, kneeling in order to match his height. “Dante, you do know what we were, right?”

He smiles and nods.

Ludo cautiously stands up. “Then doesn’t it seem like a bad idea?”

He raspberries and shakes his hand. “Psh Naaaah. It's been a long time, people and their emotions change. Plus, we’ll only stay until Olivia gets here.”

Ludo squints. “What are you talking about? If Olivia is a port town, how the hell does it “get here”?”

He chuckles, “Oh you’ll be surprised. Jenga-!”

“Already on it. Course set for North-side Sunport.”

Shivers took over Ludo as the ship began to rumble- floor panels nearly bobbing out of place from the vibration. As the ship ascends Ludo collapses to his knees, pressure building heavy on his shoulders. Dante bobbed in his chair daintily while seemingly flicking switches at random and Jenga sat still, almost as if nothing was happening to them at all. Moving forward was like whiplash all over Ludo’s body as he gets thrown to his back, nearly falling down the open hole where the latter protrudes. Below deck, Rezuk was planted face down on the ground as the rest of the crew held the bars of the bedframes firm, getting pressed harder and harder into the cold metal as the ship accelerated. 

The area around the prison was located in a large desert valley surrounded by giant plateaus of red rock and tall mountains covered in snow. The safer route, an ascent past the tips of the mountains, would take far longer than the route Jenga and Dante took, which was directly through the thin gaps in the mountains no more than 20 feet long, far too narrow for the ships clearance. 

“Jenga,” Dante called, “Roof to port.”

They nod, pulling a large lever that hung above their head. Ludo felt no force, but had his eyes locked wide open as the outer part of the ship spun like a dial, with the dome- now revealed as a full sphere- staying in perfect position. On inspection of the craft as a whole, it seems that the outer shell- where the small, nasty corridors were and where the jets blasted- was designed to detach and rotate around the center circular cockpit, where the engine and crews quarters sat. With Dante’s order, the entire ship had essentially rotated a full 90 degrees without as much as a tremor. 

The navigation through the mountains was another challenge, however. Dante and Jenga twisted hard at the wheels and levers, narrowly avoiding jagged cliff sides and wild birds as they fluttered through the sky. Chips of platinum paint flake off the external shell as it scrapes against the rock, shaking the core like a bingo cage. The ship rotated in all directions as they flew it, even collapsing in on itself slightly in order to fit through a particularly small gap in the rock. Below deck the crew hobbled all over the place, Rezuk particularly losing his balance at evem the slightest shift in elevation. 

“End of the ridge ahead. Dante, take-” Jenga starts, but is cut off when the cliffside clips the ship, spinning the shell around like a top. Jenga’s head violently slams to the side, and their face becomes red with anger, looking at Dante who’s eyes were glued to a small communicator embedded into his metal arm.

They bark at him, and he jumps up slightly in his seat, switching off the screen and taking a lever back in his hand. The ship straightens out and speeds up, soaring through the last gap in the rock into the open air. They sailed calmly, the open air gently pulling them along its chill breeze over the large, barren expanses of Bor’s sandy surface. 

Jenga tightly grips the wheel and turns violently to Dante.

“What the hell was that?” They seethe.

Dante pouts slightly. “Just telling Meilin we were on our way.”

“Motherf… You can’t leave her alone for an hour?” Jenga rubs their temples. “God damn.” They stand up, flicking a switch which illuminates a bright orange light above the panels, before walking past Ludo’s hobbly legs and down the ladder to the crew's quarters. 

Dante sighs and looks back at his arm. Ludo stabilized himself on the chairs as he approached him, looking out the window to the vast expanses below. As he peers down at Dante, he notices his arm again, the incricate craftsman ship brought joy to Ludo's brain, but was complemented by the uneasyness of staring at a disabled man's prosthetic. 

“Mind me asking what happened?” Ludo cautiously asks. 

Dante taps the screen off and smiles up at him, his face as bright and innocent as the sun. Carefully he lifts his shirt sleeve, revealing a set of screws which he carefully undoes with his nails. When they come undone, he pulls off his arm. Ludo stares at the small hand that protrudes from the stump of his arm, the lack of fingers leaving him at a loss for words as his jaw hung ajar.

“Congenital limb malformation,” he answers, “Birth condition.” He screws the metal arm back onto his body and flexes his robotic fingers before standing up and patting Ludo on the shoulder. 

“Welcome to the crew Ludo,” He smiles, “It’ll be good to have you around.”