"Open up, here comes the choo-choo train!"

Jett stared at Moxie, thoroughly unimpressed. This wasn't how he wanted to have his breakfast. Or dinner. Or whatever meal this was, because with no windows or clocks around, it was near impossible to tell what time of day it was.

The spoon waggled in front of his face, forcing him to go cross-eyed as he eyed it. It held a good-sized glob of gray lumpy stuff that he couldn't identify. He suspected it was supposed to be food of some sort, but frankly, the goop Troit had served to the trainees looked more edible than... whatever this was.

He turned his head away. "Not hungry."

His stomach immediately disagreed. Loudly. It didn't care if the spoon was full of nuclear waste; it wanted whatever it had to offer.

"C'mon now, let's park the train, all right?" Moxie said, losing some of the playful coo in exchange for a hint of impatience. "You need to eat."

Jett sighed, then tugged lightly against his wrist restraints. "Then let me eat."

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" The spoon tapped against his nose, smearing some of the gray stuff on it. He shuddered. It was cold. And smelled a bit like sour socks. His stomach lurched against its confines, trying to grab onto the cold sour sock slime. You traitor.

"I can feed myself," he said. He narrowed his eyes.

Moxie pulled the spoon away, giving him a flat look. "Oh sure. I untie you, you feed yourself, then you try and stab yourself in the eye with a spoon. I'm sure -"

"I'm not going to do that!" Jett interrupted her, horrified at her suggestion. Spoons weren't made for stabbings. How would that even work? Rather than impaling, it's be easier to just scoop it out. Ugh. Why was he even trying to figure this out?

"Forget about it," she said. "Raven said not to undo those belts unless he was here, and I happen to think that's a great plan. It would've been better if we had a padded room and a strait jacket , though. It would do you a lot better than that freakish white suit. Heh." She smirked, and moved the spoon back into his face. "Maybe I could make some adjustments to your flyer suit?"

Jett stiffened, eyes widening. "Don't you d – mmfgh!"

Moxie shoved the spoon into his open mouth, smiling brightly. "There we go, we've parked the train! Good baby!"

Having no other choice, Jett swallowed the stuff. Even though it was soft and mushy, it didn't taste all that bad. It had been sweetened with something, with hint of cinnamon and some other spice he couldn't identify.

"Okay, one more. Ready?" Moxie dug up another spoonful. "Here comes the choo-choo train!"

"Just stop," Jett pleaded, leaning his head back as far as it could go. He sagged in resignation. "I'll eat, okay? Just don't do that... that train thing."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not a baby!"

She smirked. "That's where you're wrong. You're like, the biggest baby I've ever met."

"I am not!"

"Yes you are."

"No! I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Just stop it!"

"Aw, is baby getting annoyed?" Moxie tapped the spoon against his nose for the second time, eyes dancing with glee.

Jett growled, and snapped at the spoon. He managed to catch it too, clamping down on the metal with his teeth. With a jerk of his chin, he yanked it from her grip. Cold sludge slid down his throat as he swallowed, but he still refused to loosen his hold on the utensil.

Which meant he had to sit there with a spoon sticking out of his face. He managed to level a glare at Moxie for all of two seconds before he started to feel stupid. Too bad for him, he was committed now. The only proper thing he could do as a man was to stubbornly hang onto what was left of his shriveling pride.

Moxie stared at him for a long moment in silence. Then she threw abruptly her head back and laughed hysterically. If there hadn't been a chair to stop her, she would have fallen onto the floor. She lay helplessly against the chair back, shoulders shaking with every guffaw.

A scowl scrunched up Jett's face. He quickly grew tired of this scene, so he spat out the spoon. It hit his thigh before sliding off onto the bed. "Where's Raven?"

"Ahaha, what?" Moxie sat up in her chair and wiped at her eyes.

"Raven," Jett repeated. "Where is he?" This girl was of no help whatsoever. Why couldn't Raven be here instead? At least the Talon flyer wouldn't play stupid games and try and feed him inedible crap.

"How should I know?" A shrug. "Am I his babysitter, too?"

"Moxie..." Black eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Whoa, what's crawled into your diaper? Just chill out, all right?" She rolled her eyes, then leaned forward to retrieve the spoon from where it had fallen. She held it up, eyed it over with a grimace, then plunked it back into the bowl that had somehow stayed on her lap during her episode.

"He had something to do," she sighed. "He'll be back, so don't get your panties in a twist. Now, you gonna eat this or do we have to wait for Raven to pour it down your throat?"

What was this? First a diaper, now panties? It took real talent to manage to insult someone with every sentence, but Moxie somehow seemed to manage just fine. It took a lot of effort for Jett to shove down the irritation and cooperate with her.

Ah, who was he kidding? Her threat about Raven was more than enough to convince him to cooperate. Besides, once this was done, she'd go away and leave him alone. Hopefully.

"Just get it over with," he muttered.

To her credit, Moxie fed him properly with no further games or comments. If he didn't know any better, Jett would have suspected that she felt bad for being so mean earlier. But he did know better. He wasn't that stupid.

His suspicions were proven correct when she took away the dishes and came back with a fluffy pink washcloth. She plopped herself down on the edge of the bed, all the while beaming brightly at him.

"Now," she cooed, "let's get you all cleaned up, okay? Jettsy Wettsy."

What? He recoiled, but she reached out and grabbed onto his shoulder with a surprisingly strong hand. With the other, she smeared the wet washcloth across his face.

"What are you doing!?" He twisted away, but sadly, there wasn't anywhere he could go. This was not fair at all! "Hey, stop it!"

She took her time, being careful with the healing cuts on his face while making sure to do a thorough job. The whole while, she babbled nonsense at him as if he really was a cute baby. It made him want to cry. To scream. Or just run away, really far away.

Sadly, he did none of those things. Instead, he sullenly sat there, glaring at her with all the unhappy misery he could muster. She didn't seem to notice. Or care.

Once she was satisfied that all remnants of dinner had been cleaned away, she produced a tube of ointment and began to rub it into the scrapes on his face. Though they had scabbed over, they were still quite tender.

"There, that wasn't so bad, wasn't it?" She patted his head.

"Yes. Yes, it was," he said through clenched teeth.

She stood, gathering the ointment and damp washcloth, and gave him toothy smile. It was the kind of smile that told him she knew that she had thoroughly irritated him, and that she had done so entirely on purpose. "Why don't you have a little nap? Maybe you'll feel better when you wake up."

"Would you go away if I did?"

"Nope, don't think so." She snickered as she left the room, not even bothering to hide her amusement. Jett heaved a sigh, and wished that he could rub his aching head.

He heard dishes clatter lightly down the hall, followed by the sound of running water. That was when the entire house shuddered around him. The walls trembled, the floor shook, his bed heaved, and all the lights died at the same instant.

He sat in the dark, frozen and wide-eyed, hands gripping onto whatever part of the bed frame they could. Deathly silence settled in, heavy and oppressive.

Then, from the kitchen: "Well, that's just flippin' great."

Jett swallowed, turning his head towards the sound. "Um, what did you do?"

"Nothing!" Moxie shouted back. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" he retorted. As if a tied-up guy could do anything. He was about to tell her just that, when the front door down the hall exploded open. A beam of artificial yellow light flashed across the doorway to Jett's room.

"We gotta move," a very familiar voice calmly stated from somewhere nearby. Jett had never been so happy to hear it. Now that Raven was back, he could chase Moxie away and bring some normalcy back into the equation. Right? "War machines are in the city."

What? Jett blinked. Did he just hear that correctly?

"War machines?" Moxie repeated, full of disbelief. "You kidding me?"

"Nope. They're on the other side for now, but I have a feeling this whole place is going to be flattened in a very short amount of time."

"You're actually serious."

"Of course. Did you think the explosion and power outage was caused by a stampede of midget dinosaurs? Don't be silly."

"I wasn't-"

"We need a car. You know where we can find one?"

Moxie made an annoyed sound. "Yeah. But we're going to have to take the back streets to get there."

"Not gonna work. There's Kairg flooding in by the hundreds. Doesn't this city have an underground maintenance system?"

"What? There's the sewage and water drain-"

"That'll do. Figure out the route. You've got five minutes."

"Me? You want me -?" Moxie's voice rose in pitch, before she cut herself off with an angry huff. "Fine. You gonna pack up the baby, then?"

"Of course." Raven sounded rather cheerful. "Did you get him to eat?"

Jett gaped into the darkness. He couldn't believe this. Didn't they know he could hear them loud and clear? They were just one room over, for crying out loud.

"Yeah. He fussed a lot, but I got him fed. Thanks for dumping that on me, by the way."

"Oh you're quite welcome. He seems quite fond of you, you know."

"Hn. Sweet talk all you want, sweetheart. I left his diapers for you to look after. I ain't going anywhere near that mess."

Jett choked on his on spit. Heat flamed along his ears. Now this was just getting out of hand. The Kairg were invading the city, and this was what they were talking about? Everyone was going to die.

"I can hear you!" He shouted into the dark.

Light flashed down the hall, then it shone full into his face. He squeezed his eyes shut against the blinding light.

"Look who's awake," Raven's voice was full of amusement. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Get that light out of my face," Jett hissed, so far past annoyed, he was ready to start clawing out eyes.

"Guess that's a no." At least Raven set down the flashlight on the far dresser, away from Jett's poor face. The flyer came over and immediately began undoing the wrist restraints. He moved with such calmness that Jett started to wonder whether this situation was even real. Maybe he was dreaming. Or hallucinating.

Had Moxie slipped something into his food?

"Are the Kairg really here?" he asked hesitantly.

By now, Raven had finished with one wrist, and leaned over to finish with the second. "Yep. They've got a really nasty machine stomping all over the Troit headquarters right now. I saw a couple more heading this way as well."

Finally freed, Jett pulled in his hands and rubbed at sore wrists. They'd been bandaged beneath the restraints to protect his skin, but they still felt bruised.

Why here? Why now? There hadn't been a machine sighting for a couple of months. It seemed weird that they'd pop up out of nowhere. And in a city, of all places. The destruction would be horrific. Devastating.

He closed his eyes, sucking in a deep breath. So many people would be out there, fleeing, fighting, dying. And yet, here he was, hiding away in a dark room.

Nope. This wasn't acceptable.

He slid from the bed, his feet landing on soft carpet. For a second, he felt the soft texture beneath bare feet. Then his legs buckled and he just about got the chance to feel the carpet with his face. Fortunately, he caught the edge of the bed on time, and managed to remain somewhat upright.

"Here." Raven pushed some clothing into his hands. "Put those on."

Even with the terrible lighting from the flashlight, Jett could tell by texture alone that these clothes were not what he was hoping for. "Where's my suit?"

"I have it," Raven answered. "And I'm keeping it for a while. Put those on, or go half naked. Your choice." With that, Raven slipped out of the room like a wraith. If it weren't for the light to show the obvious, Jett wouldn't have known that he'd left.

Left alone, Jett set to getting dressed. A t-shirt, pants and sneakers. Nothing fancy, but it all fit surprisingly well. There was also a hooded sweater, which he pulled on over the shirt. It felt strange, considering he'd been wearing a flyer's suit for so long, but he wasn't given any time to dwell on it.

Raven returned just as Jett finished. He gave Jett a once over and gave a sharp nod in approval. "Good. Grab that flashlight and come along." Then he left the room for a second time, disappearing into the dark.

Jett made a face. Still, he did as he was told. His legs were still shaky, and he felt weak all over, but he would be lying if he didn't admit that it felt good to be moving around. He must have been stuck in that bed for longer than he realized.

Moxie and Raven stood in the kitchen, looking over a map laid on the table. Raven held another flashlight, directing its beam onto the map, while Moxie tapped at a couple places on its surface.

"Here," she said. "That's in an alley a block away. We can go around the back – not many people go that way, so we should be fine. If we follow the main line this way..." She traced out a path on the map, "we should be able to pop up here, right in the middle of the parkade. There'll be all kinds of cars ready for the taking."

"Very good," Raven said. He flicked the flashlight's light beam to Jett, managing to catch him square in the face. Again. "You ready, kid?"

Jett lifted a hand to protect his eyes. "Stop doing that."

"He's ready," Moxie smirked. She grabbed the map, rolled it up, and stuck it into a backpack. Then she slung the pack over a shoulder. "So am I."

"Lead the way." Raven pointed the light towards the main door, which was just off the kitchen. The door lay flat on the floor, having been kicked clear off its hinges. Just beyond the door-shaped hole was a small porch facing a dark, quiet street.

Jett stared.

Moxie brushed past him, giving his hair a pat as she went. "C'mon, baby. Follow me."

"I'm not -"

"You heard the lady," Raven said from behind, and gave Jett a shove to get him moving. "Now follow her, and keep up, otherwise I might just get tired of lugging your suit around..."

You jerk, Jett thought darkly. Keeping his thoughts to himself, he hurried after Moxie. After a a few seconds, he couldn't help but cast a glance back. Raven was right behind him, holding the strap of a large pack slung over a shoulder with one hand, while the other wielded the light. He wore a long, tattered coat over his flyer's suit, and it had a huge hood which he had pulled over his face.

That was a good idea, Jett thought, that Raven disguised himself. But what about himself? He didn't have any hat or hood to cover his face. However... it dawned on him that he no longer wore his white suit, but ordinary street clothes. With the bandages still wrapped around his head, there was a good chance that people wouldn't even pay him a second glance.

Huh. Raven was a pretty smart guy.

"Did you forget that we were in a hurry?" Raven's voice came from right beside his ear, low and with all the menace of a panther.

With a yelp, Jett jerked away. "N-no!"

"Oh, I see. Are you tired, then?" Raven's presence loomed right behind him.

"No," Jett gasped. He forced his rubbery legs to move faster until he was at an unstable trot. Moxie was quite a distance ahead, and he hurried to catch up. Yet despite the increase of speed, Raven remained glued to his back.

"Hmm," came the thoughtful sound. It terrified Jett, filling his mind with all the torturous training methods that Raven had used in the past. It was the same sound the flyer made when he was contemplating how to adjust Jett's training to increase the results.

Jett managed to catch up to Moxie not even a minute later. He was a panting, wobbly mess. She glanced at him, raised an eyebrow, then looked behind him. Gulping, Jett followed her gaze. Raven was a few yards back, strolling towards them as if taking a nice afternoon tour around the block.

Jett gaped. Hadn't Raven been right behind him this whole time? But... but...

"Everything all right?" Raven called out. Oh look, the man even sounded concerned.

As if you didn't know what you just did. Jett spun on his heel, deciding it would be better if he just ignored him. He kept to that thought with a dogged determination, even when he got the nerve-wracking sense that the flyer was looming right behind him once more.

Needless to say, he had no problem sticking close to Moxie. The streets were oddly silent and dark, with no signs of human activity. He attributed it to the fact that they were on a narrow back street, one that saw little use during even the busiest of times. Even so, he would have thought that he'd at least hear something going on. Maybe the machines were still too far away?

A lean dog trotted along the sidewalk, tail tucked between its legs. It whined as it passed them, but made no attempt to come any closer. Jett watched it go, feeling somewhat bad for it. It made him think of Ravia. Wherever she was.

He hoped she was safe. And that Flint was with her, keeping her company. Maybe her little ones had stayed with her, even though they had all grown up by now.

Wait. Jett slowed, and rubbed at his forehead. That didn't seem quite right. Hadn't - ?

"Here it is," Moxie exclaimed. Jett blinked away the sudden bout of confusion, and watched her crouch down beside a round manhole cover set into the center of the street. "This is the one. Raven, let's see if those muscles of yours are just for show."

With a slight curl of the lips, Raven leaned down and hooked a couple fingers into one of the three openings in the manhole's cover. He merely grunted and shifted the heavy lid up and sideways before letting it clatter onto the concrete.

All three of them leaned forward to look down at the newly uncovered opening. A small set of steel rungs trailed down one side before disappearing into the void. A void that currently issued a a warm, humid stench.

Jett covered his nose, eyes watering. The ground trembled beneath their feet, and something rumbled in the distance. A sudden image of being trapped in collapsing underground tunnels filled his mind. He took a step back. Whoever thought this had been a good idea should be kicked into that hole. Headfirst.

"Ladies first," Raven gestured, a shining example of the perfect gentleman.

"Children first," Moxie countered, grabbing Jett's arm and yanking him forward.

Jett stumbled, catching himself a split second before he fell into said hole. Headfirst. "Wait! You can't-"

"Good point," came Raven's approving voice. Then he planted a foot on Jett's butt and shoved.

With a rather high-pitched shriek, Jett pitched forward and disappeared. He managed to snag one of the steel rungs after a few feet of free fall and come to a sudden stop. Dangling one handed over a pit of death, Jett glared up.

The jerks! Two heads leaned in, barely visible against the gray sky above. One of them directed a flashlight beam down, its blinding light stabbing into his eyes once again. He squeezed shut his eyes.

What he had done to earn this cruelty?

"C'mon kid, hurry it up. War machines, remember?"

Oh thanks. So helpful. Jett felt like crying. Or sobbing. He didn't dare to make a sound, though. There was no way he could allow Moxie even more fuel for her little nickname game. He'd never hear the end of it.

"Any day now, baby. Climbing's not so different from crawling. You should be able to figure it out."

And there she went. Why did he have to meet all the weirdos? Couldn't he meet someone who was normal for a change? Jett groaned, and started climbing down.