Ren had been worried when Nora had messaged him she was at the medical clinic and he should call her.

But he didn't expect her to not tell him what was wrong.

"Just, can you come here?" she asked, a bit tensely.

"I'm still working," Ren said.

He didn't hear the unit door shut, and he'd gone out of view of it, not liking to be seen if he got upset. But assuming it wasn't an emergency--he hoped--now he was a little irritated. "Can't you just tell me what's wrong?"

"I just don't want to talk about it over the scroll," Nora insisted.

Ren began to have some idea of what it might be and he went pale. 

"Nora..."

"Ren, please. Listen, Pyrrha's waiting here with me, so if you have to finish the job, fine. Maybe we'll just go back to her house and wait for the kids to come home. Just let me know when you're done," Nora said.

"Nora, is this...I mean, is this about something unexpected?" Ren asked.

"You could say anything would be unexpected," Nora said, vaguely. "Just let me know, all right?"

"All right, but--"

But Nora hung up after that.

Ren was so distracted, he barely remembered Cinder hadn't followed him yet.

He walked back to the dock.

Teach was waiting there.

"Where's Scon?" Ren asked.

"If you want your lady friend," Teach said, "she left. Said something about checking other docks. Also that she wasn't waiting for you to drag your feet."

That sounded just like Cinder.

"Which way?" Ren asked.

"She went that direction." Teach pointed to the far side of the landing pad. "But if she didn't have an ID or pass to be here, she'll probably get thrown out without you. Might want to hurry."

Ren left.

He only realized later that it was odd that Teach had assumed she had neither of those things without them ever mentioning it to him.

He didn't find Cinder anywhere and began thinking she had been escorted out, which he'd have to ask the front desk about if it happened.

Sun rejoined him to look for her and ask what happened, and to say that Blake wanted to help, if they still needed it, and was on her way.

"This is just like the old days, busting the White Fang," he said. "Except it's less personal, which makes it more fun."

"Cinder is so irresponsible." Ren was more irritable after Nora's call. "I can't believe she just walked away. She should know how risky that is for her."

"What can you do? She's always been pretty hard-headed." Sun barely knew Cinder, but he spoke very confidently about this. 

Just as they were going towards the front desk office again, Ren got a call from Shine.

"I wanted to know how it was going," she said, "and if Cinder is there, to tell her we talked to the pilot, and I'm pretty sure he's harmless. Which I always thought."

"Cinder wandered off." Ren was annoyed. "We're attempting to find her, but I think she must have been thrown off the base."

"She wandered off?" Shine at once saw the problem with that that he hadn't. "Why would she do that when she knew how easy it would be for her to get in trouble for it and they'd ask who she was?"

"Yes, it seems very careless," Ren said.

"When did she wander off?"

"She went off after we talked to the one flyer who was on the same routes as Zapato, but he didn't have any information," Ren said.

"And she wandered off while you were talking?"

"I was on the scroll. She got impatient and left."

"You know this because she told you she was going, and you let her?" Shine at once was almost angry with him.

Her tone made Ren realize that it would indeed have been his fault had it happened that way--and he would never have allowed it.

"No, the pilot told me she went off," he said.

"The pilot you were just investigating--" Shine was not usually directly derogatory to her students, but perhaps she had some reason for her tone being really, really salty there. "--about being in on this crime, who you left her alone with?"

"He offered to let her examine his plane..." Ren trailed off.

Why hadn't that sounded problematic to him at the time?

"Dude, is that what happened?" Sun was hearing all this. "That's so kidnapping movie, bro. Why did you let her?"

"He seemed harmless, so I thought he was just trying to be helpful..." Ren said flatly.

"Ren, make sure that plane has not left the base." Shine was all at once the leader again. "And don't let it. Make up some reason for them to check it. If they are trying to kidnap her, that's as good a reason as any to detain them and inspect them further. If they aren't that stupid, then at least we can rule it out and start looking for her other places. See if she did get out of the base--but somehow I doubt they'd stop at just getting her ejected."

"Of course," Ren said, rather apologetically.

"In fact, I'll be there shortly," Shine said. "My sight will work better in those cramped quarters if I'm closer. I can't just portal to her; she could be anywhere in a tight space. I could try to bring her to me, but that won't get them caught, and I feel it's too much interference from me now. Better to just prove it was them."

"Oh, ho, she's the captain now." Sun was loving it. "Just like old times."

"Just for now, when my students are threatened, I'm still a teacher," Shine said, "and a protector. Beyond that, I can't help you. You should know that by now. By the way, I brought Oscar here for some extra instruction, and I'm sure he's interested to know this also."

Oscar must have heard the whole thing, because he at once said, "We should hurry over there. Maybe I can help too."

He wasn't a huntsman yet, but he was close enough to one to be on the base without needing much more than a basic acknowledgement from the guards.

Shine hung up and rushed back into the café.

"Sorry, but we have to go." Her tone told Wally it was bad.

"What happened?" Royal asked.

"Well, to put it simply, I think Cinder may have gotten herself kidnapped--or arrested perhaps. Only I think if it was that, Winter or Raven would have told us by now," Shine said. "And Ren didn't see it till I said it."

"That seems a little weird for him," Wally said. "Are you sure she's actually missing?"

"It's been nearly 30 minutes, from the sound of it, Wally. Frankly she would be too hard to miss if she was looking for them," Shine said.

"Wait, who would do that?" Royal was confused.

"There's some sting going on at the base," Shine said. "You didn't know about it, I take it."

"I have no clue what you're talking about." Royal was clearly surprised. "Why didn't they tell me? Wouldn't that affect me too?"

"You were a suspect," Wally said. "But good news, you're clearly innocent--you've been with us this whole time, so it couldn't have been you."

"What?" Royal said.

"I never thought it was you." Shine was getting her purse and nodding at Oscar to just start walking. "But I didn't think it would blow up this far."

"So Cinder is here?" Oscar finally made a remark about that. "Why was she in town?"

"It's a long story, Oscar, and it's not that important," Shine said. "Just that she was trying to figure out who's been stealing shipments.

They were outside by now and headed towards the base, looking for a good spot to portal from.

"Ren was helping her look into it, and I guess they went to the military base instead of the shipping yard, so that must have been a bust. We never thought they'd be so desperate as to try to harm someone just on suspicion.... Which makes me wonder if she was recognized by whoever it was."

"Someone at the military base is smuggling?" Royal asked. "Or just stealing?"

"Could be both," Shine said. "And it's high time we let Winter and Raven know about this. I can't believe we didn't do that already. Of course, I thought there would be time to do it later."

"Yeah, we didn't have a real case yet," Wally said in his best crime investigating voice. "But now if someone's missing, that's more serious. These people must be really set on not getting caught."

"Normally, taking someone hostage is not something they'd do if they were most worried about not getting caught. It seems to me that their goal is to escape, and they need leverage," Shine said.

"Cinder is not the best hostage," Oscar said intelligently. "Not enough people even know she was here or who she was, and how would they prove it? Anyone could claim they found her."

"Ren would know," Shine said. "But it's true, they must think the chances of getting anything for her would be small."

"Let me get this straight, these thieves have been around our base stealing the whole time?" Royal said.

"Yeah," Wally said.

Royal rubbed his head. "Okay...look, I don't know what to make of this, but one thing does come to mind. Air pirates. They've been known to steal our ships before, rarely, but it happens.... With Atlas no longer being around to catch them, it's probably easier for 'em. Could they be working at the base? I thought all our personnel were military people."

[That's how black markets work. I didn't even know that till after I wrote this.]

"Better get Winter to find out if this other guy was," Shine suggested.

"I'll call her," Oscar said at once. "Just because, if you do it and someone sees, you know...it's going to look weird that you were involved."

"Good thinking," Shine approved.

"This just turned into a full blown mystery instead of a slight case of theft," Wally said.

* * *

The woman at the front desk received a tip off from one of the guards at the gate and called Calico.

"The huntsman who was poking around hasn't left yet, and he just headed towards the office, with another one, a Faunus. They were on their scrolls also. I think we've been compromised."

Curses met this remark.

"All right, Annie, we'd better just take what we got. Better some of it than none of it."

"They'll be looking for your ship now," Annie replied flatly. "Better ditch it. I'll give you clearance to take off with a different one now, before they put this place on lockdown. You have minutes at most before they get Schnee and Branwen to do that."

"Blast it...fine. Which ship?"

Annie studied it. "The Regina 5XIV. Another Atlas ship. You know the guy who flies it. And so will they."

"Oh...so you want us to make it look like--"

"Yes, and hurry up. And any of your 'extra' cargo too. If you're caught, they'll have proof of worse than petty theft."

"Roger that. And you?"

"I'll stall. They can't prove I knew anything about it. Then I'll meet you south of Argus."

"Right."

* * *

Once at the base, which took one portal, so less than 5 minutes, the group of would-be rescuers looked for Ren and Sun.

Ren had already called Winter, who was not happy to be finding this out as late as she was and promised they'd talk about that later.

But she ordered that the ship, the Monarch's Avenger, as it was called, be detained and searched.

Some more personnel from the base met up with Ren and Sun on ther way back there.

But they found Teach loading items into it.

He seemed very astonished when they asked to search these boxes and the cargo hold, but he allowed them to.

By now, Oscar and Royal, as they were also on the base, were heading that way also.

Shine and Wally were waiting outside. Oscar would let them know what they could do to help once he had a better idea of the situation.

He and Royal (who incidentally had figured out already who he was and was itching to ask him questions about himself, but of course, had to wait for a better moment), found the right dock just as the investigating regular workers were finishing up.

Ren and Sun couldn't understand how Teach had nothing unusual on his ship after that.

Not even less goods than he should have had.

"I'm...sure he can't really be innocent," Ren said.

"Dude, what if front desk lady changed the numbers or something?" Sun actually had a good idea. "That would be just like movies where they hack everything. Or like Watts did in Atlas."

"Technically it was Mantle more than Atlas, but I see your point," Ren said. "If so, we can't prove anything."

"Unless we find the goods," Sun said.

Oscar and Royal heard them talking.

"I'm sure that guy had something to do with it." Oscar's old "something was off" senses were tingling.

"Teach? He's kind of a loner, I thought," Royal supplied. "I've never spoken to him much. I know everyone, but he's never been real friendly, except with Jack Calico--he works in loading, so that fits. I don't see him much around here, though. I've seen them on the same shift maybe. Always thought that they were friends. The guards at the gate said they didn't see anyone thrown out, right?"

One guard had said that, a nice enough man. The other, a woman with a more hard expression, had said nothing and only tapped on her scroll.

"Which means she's definitely still here." Oscar was smart enough not to say Cinder's name out loud where anyone could have heard him. "I know her, all right? She wouldn't have gone down easy if they tried to take her by force. They must have tricked her some other way.... Something's off about this place too. Hmm..."

He closed his eyes and held his hand out.

His Semblance had developed over time to not just telling the truth, but also, at times, sensing it. He was getting better at knowing if people were lying to him--or themselves.

It wasn't quite as precise as Robyn's Semblance, though, and still subject to second guessing, unlike hers, but he was getting more confident with time.

He was sure Teach wasn't being totally honest when he said he hadn't seen anything strange since Ren left.

But something about Teach was off more than that. He opened his eyes.

There was a large shadow behind Teach...or was it on him?

Oscar saw it clear as a road sign for a moment.

Then it seemed to recoil as if it knew he was watching and pulled out of sight.

"Whoa!" He jumped back, startled, and kind of freaked out.

"What?" Royal asked.

Teach looked at him strangely, surprised, Oscar thought.

"Confirmed, he's definitely not what he seems," Oscar squeaked, then got a grip. "I mean, we've gotta.... He's not.... We should check the other ships."

"What?" one of the other personnel said.

"We should check the other ships." Oscar was now sure of it. "I mean, the stuff could be anywhere. It's the smart thing to do."

Teach glared at him, but only Royal saw it. Ren and Sun weren't looking that way.

"I guess you're right," the personnel said. "That would be the procedure anyway, at least in this area. Zapato, your ship is close, isn't it?"

"Well, I was going the same way as this one," Royal said, "so yeah, but I haven't been to it since yesterday. Check my time card."

"We can't always rely on that if this whole thing is real, but of course, we have no reason to suspect you," they said.

Teach had his scroll and was typing something.

Suddenly a voice came over the intercom.

"All personnel, please report to the front gate. Intruder alert."

"Uh, oh, sounds like they may have caught the culprit after all," said the other guys. They ran toward the front.

Ren and Sun ran after them.

"Wait, guys, wait!" Oscar called, but sirens went off, and his voice was drowned out.

"You think that's them at the front?" Royal asked.

"No way, that was way too convenient timing," Oscar said. "What do you want to bet your ship won't be there when they come back?"

"Those scoundrels. You think they'd really steal it?" Royal said.

Oscar gave him a look. "Did you say they could be air pirates?"

"Oh...right...stupid question." Royal slapped his forehead. "Well, let's go check on it before they get the chance."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Oscar said.

"They can't be there yet if they're stalling. Say we get in there and take it away so they can't?" Royal ran to where he'd left it.

Oscar typed out a message that Shine and Wally should meet them at the same spot--and that he'd seen something really weird.

What was that thing? It hadn't looked like a normal Grimm.

Royal got to his ship, which appeared empty when they saw it.

"Good, we're in time," he said, taking out his key to the door--which was electric of course. The door also had a regular key on it, but most pilots elected to just use the handheld one.

He clicked it, and the hatch opened.

His plane was bigger than the other one, which meant it was slower, slightly, but better equipped for fighting and for storage.

Oscar got a strange feeling when he opened the hatch and stepped close.

"Hey, there's stuff in here, all right," Royal said, frowning. "And I'm sure it's more than I left there."

He moved closer.

"Wait!" Oscar said.

Royal, to his credit, did pause.

But it was too late.

Long arms, like worms, rose out of the space in the hatch.

"What in the h---?" Royal didn't usually swear, but he did now.

It was fitting this time, because they did look like they were from hell.

Oscar thought the arms were like the ones inside that disgusting Avarice Grimm they'd fought, only they had more fingers.

They grabbed at Royal, and Oscar snatched him and yanked him back, unlocking his spear and thrusting it out at them.

The arms phased through the spear.

"What the...?" Oscar blinked.

"So do you see those too?" Royal said in a weird voice. "That's...like the other ones. The big gorillas.... Not this again."

"Don't touch them, they might drain your energy," Oscar warned. "This is bad. This is really bad--ah!"

He yelled as something fried him from behind.

Royal turned in time to get hit with a rod.

"Whoops," Calico said, smirking.

"Nice." Teach stepped into view. "I guess they found our little friends. We should just let them eat them."

"Yeah, it's a shame about Zapato, but he's seen too much now, unless we fried his memory," Calico agreed. "Better let Annie know there's a change of plans. And Mary."

"They'll be fine. We've gotta jet." Teach climbed into the front of the plane.

* * *

Cinder came to, not sure how long it had been, with most of her body still numb from being fried.

Her face was stinging a little, and she realized that was because she was lying on something pretty uncomfortable.

She struggled to turn herself over and tried to sit up.

Then she found her arms weren't just numb form shock, they were also tied behind her back.

Craning her head, she saw it was rope.

How cheap. What? They couldn't get their hands on the real dust-powered cuffs? Those were harder to get out of than rope!

Then again, she should be glad they were cheap.

Leaning against the wall of wherever she was, she started hitting her arms to try to get the feeling back, and they began to really hurt. But that was fine. That meant they were alive.

She was in a pretty small, dark space, with crates around her.

She'd been tossed in some cargo hold, maybe.

And it looked bigger than that.

Maybe the back of one of the flying ships that took numerous passengers and cargo also. One of the military ones, no doubt.

She shifted her weight. It was flying pretty smoothly, but it was flying, she could tell.

That didn't bother her. She was fine with planes, of course, and well used to the speed of them. But it did indicate that she'd probably left Argus and was being taken to who knew where.

She recalled some of what happened.... They were going to sell her to some revenge-crazed group of people who had nothing better to do with their time, of course.

Kind of like she'd been when Salem found her...

Right...karma...

"Is this because I didn't come clean?" she muttered. "Are you punishing me?"

No answer.

What did she expect?

Would Shine think to find her here?... But would she be able to do anything? She might portal to her...but if she did that, would it be too hard to explain?

One thing would lead to another. Raven couldn't exactly claim she could do it, if Raven even would have tired.

No, better not to count on that kind of help.

But even if she could get out and jump, she didn't have a landing strategy...

The only thing for it was to beat the two fools and fly the plane herself and hope they didn't come to.

Or...kill them...

Cinder shook her head. That wasn't going to help her now, but what would? Her cover had to be blown by now.

In that way, what was the point of even trying?...

She looked down.

But whatever her fate, it was not her nature to just give up trying to escape, and she would rather face the inevitable with her hands free and her ability to fight still intact, if it came to that, than just wait for it to take her.

Straining, she formed some glass in her hand, sharp, and started to work it through the rope.

It took a while to get the rope to fray enough for her to pull it apart, but at last she did.

Rubbing her feet till she could feel them again, she stood up, just barely, in that cramped space.

It was wider towards the front, so she was indeed in the very back of the passenger area or hold.

There was a lot of loot here. How much did those pirates steal?! It had to be a ton, literally.

Gripping the glass knife in her hand, she tried to pick her way around the stuff to find the front.

Her shoes were too loud. She finally yanked them off, slipping them into her pocket.

This was so weird.... This was what this felt like?

She had a moment of wondering how Oscar might have felt when he was taken to the Zeppelin.... Of course, that hadn't been her fault.... Still, she hadn't cared about it.

That same feeling of just waiting for the axe to fall, being surrounded by enemies, not knowing who might walk in at any moment to do something terrible to you...

Perhaps this wasn't the wisest thing to think about, because it made her more jumpy than before, and then she heard movement.

Her skin prickled like it did when Grimm were near.

Remembering what she'd seen on Teach, she was prepared for something gruesome to be in the back of the ship.

It struck her that this seemed bigger than the one she'd looked at before, and that was odd.

She turned around the last row of crates, and, to her chagrin, found the back of the ship instead of the front was there.

Also people were there.

She lunged at them before they could see her.

But then one turned and caught her wrist with an ease that was surprising.

It was that pilot!

"What the--?" He seemed astonished to see her, but she didn't think of that.

"You!" Cinder was livid. "Of course, I knew it! I knew this was about revenge."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Royal asked. "Put that shank down, will you?"

"Why would I do that?" Cinder attempted to yank herself free--and discovered, to her annoyance, that he was a lot stronger than he looked.

"Wait! Cinder, it's fine." Oscar was up on his feet now.

Cinder had hardly looked that way, thinking her other captor was just sitting on the floor, but to her shock, she saw it was Oscar, and he was holding his hands up.

His friends would have known that was his "please don't kill that person" gesture. 

"It's okay," Oscar reiterated. "We're not here to hurt you."

Cinder gasped, as well she might, and dropped the "shank".

Royal let go with evident relief.

"Oscar...what are you...?" Cinder actually didn't act annoyed to see him.

Oscar, much to Royal's shock, walked up to her and hugged her.

Oscar could do this without feeling awkward, at least as much as anyone else would have with Cinder.

Cinder was much too stunned to stop him--she was just gaping. "But...how are you...on this...? What is this? I know this is not a rescue--I was still tied up. And all that is stolen, right? How did you get on it?"

"We got captured," Oscar said. "We just woke up now and managed to get free, and I was just telling Roy, that if you were here, you'd probably be awake and trying to escape, unless you were hurt, but you seem unhurt."

"Oh, I'm fine." Cinder was not quite as fine as she wanted to sound; she was still sore all over from being zapped, but that was nothing. "Can you...let go now?"

"Sorry." Oscar stepped back. "I kind of didn't want you to kill him." He rubbed his head sheepishly.

Cinder almost smiled but then checked herself.

"Well, I'll hold off for now," she said flatly. "But how did you get captured so easily?"

"How did you?" Royal might have been salty about the knife thing--or he was salty about being captured.

"I..." Cinder faltered. "Well, you won't believe it, but I saw this...this thing."

But they looked like they believed it.

"A claw?" Oscar said.

"Yes...wait...how did you know that?" Cinder narrowed her eyes.

"Uh..." Oscar scowled. "Come this way."

Cinder didn't want to come that way, but she followed him as he went behind the line of crates that was almost right against the wall.

"See, we woke up with these things around us," Oscar said, moving aside what appeared to be a kind of screen across the back.

Cinder saw that the cargo hold was not actually filled. Instead, there was more of it in the back that was covered by this screen.

And along that, all along the wall like fingers of death, were Grimm creatures.

One of them reached towards them like some kind of worm.

Oscar hit it with his staff, and it recoiled.

"Freakiest thing I ever saw." Royal was looking a little sick.

Cinder thought she was going to be sick, but she choked down the impulse.

"What are they?" she asked.

"You don't sense it?" Oscar said. "It looks like--"

"Avarice, but don't they grow in that...thing?" Cinder finished.

"I thought so too, but they aren't in it now. Maybe they just live in it, the way the other things seemed to work around it, and in fact they just live in anything that would hide them." Oscar had his professor voice on--but a little shaky. "Anyway, we woke up with them clawing at us, but somehow we weren't dead. I think I was protected by..." He held his staff. "...the grace. Royal must have been too. I guess he doesn't have much greed."

"Heh," Royal laughed nervously.

"Hold on." Cinder frowned and turned toward him. "The Irasci didn't affect you either. What is the deal with that? Are you impervious to Mind Grimm?"

"If I am, so much the better," Royal said. "I can't explain it. Also I'm not immune--I was a little snippy with those Irasci, and I'm not sure how these things affect you. They make you greedy? Is that it?"

"It's...well, it depends on the person," Oscar said. "It can be greed or lust."

"Lust?" Royal might well have looked weirded out.

"I mean, lust for things, like power or food or fun," Oscar said quickly. "Sorry. Not the romantic kind. I mean, I guess it could be that kind, but--"

"Oscar, shut up." Cinder didn't want to hear this. 

"Can I ask how you know all this?" Royal asked. "I mean, was there a book on it?"

"Yeah, actually," Oscar said. "But also Shine is an expert on the 7 deadly sins, and they were kind of the 7 deadly sins."

"You lost me again," Royal said.

"They're bad," Cinder summed it up impatiently. "I feel okay though."

"I heard that your resistance has gotten a lot better," Oscar said. "But long term exposure.... Still, I don't hear anything. They're not as powerful if you don't hear it. That's gotta be the only reason those pirates were able to not kill each other. And these things just let go of us once I hit them with this and ordered them to. They aren't that powerful...yet. But I kept thinking of Bartleby and those Apathy. This feels like part of the scam."

"They make you want stuff, you say?" Royal said. "What if the pirates are using them as some kind of...incentive? I bet if you were selling this jacked stuff to some less than scrupulous people outside the cities, they'd pay more if you had these creepy things there to give them some encouragement."

Oscar glanced at him, impressed. "That's pretty smart, Roy."

"Why are you on such familiar terms?" Cinder asked tersely.

"Oh, he said I could call him that," Oscar said.

"My tutor used to call me that," Royal said. "And this kid here is a born tutor if I ever saw one. It's like a joke."

"You think this is the time for jokes?" Cinder said.

"At least one of us has a sense of humor," Royal shot back.

"I just got kidnapp--" Cinder paused, because of course, they had as well.

They looked at her like they knew it was too hypocritical.

"And how do we get out of here? I assume you had a plan," Cinder moved on.

"I'm not sure how long it's been, but the others were supposed to be looking for us," Oscar said. "I'm sure they know we're gone...but my scroll is gone."

"No surprise they didn't leave it," Royal said, "and chucked it outside the ship, no doubt. I can't believe those b-----ds stole my Regina. No one steals the ship."

Cinder rubbed her arms. "So you're my rescue, huh? I'm not particularly impressed."

"I'm sorry," Oscar said repentantly. "I know, it was dumb to get caught."

"It was my fault," Royal said readily enough. "I shouldn't have run in there like that. You were right, Prof. But it's the situation now, and we have to make the best of it. Now, I keep parachutes on the ship, but they're in the front. If they're still there, we might get off, but then we lose these chumps and the cargo too. I say we just take the ship back. There's only two of 'em that we know of. We can handle that many."

"Do you have weapons?" Cinder asked. "Why do you even have your spear, Oscar?"

"Oh...I think they didn't see it," Oscar said. "Lately it's been almost unnoticeable. Shine's sword never appears till she needs it--maybe it's like that."

"You become more like them all the time," Cinder said.

"Aw, really?" Oscar was touched.

"I meant weird," Cinder said.

"Still."

"Huh." Royal glanced from one to the other. "This is the first time I've ever seen you act normal to anyone. Other than Miss Likstar. I take it you two are actually friends?"

"I..." Cinder stopped.

"Sure we are," Oscar said. "I mean, technically, she never did anything to me, so it was a little easier to ignore it."

"Oscar!" Cinder snapped.

"Sorry, was that a secret?" Oscar said.

"By now, not much is," Royal said. "Whatever, I just thought it was cute, but this is not the time for socializing."

"Why does everyone call me that?" Oscar muttered to himself.

"So we just sneak up there and take 'em out?" Royal suggested. "Better do it before we hit turbulence."

"Oh, yeah," Oscar winced.

"Wimp," Cinder said. "I can fight in turbulence."

"In glass heels?" Royal said, like she was crazy.

"Yes!" Cinder was insulted.

"Do women try to make things harder for themselves?" Royal shook his head. [Excellent question with women's clothing items.]

"I think we should hurry. The farther away we get from Argus, the harder this is going to be, and then we can't radio them," Oscar said. "Easy, right? I mean, the last time I hijacked a plane, it...kind of went well."

"Amatuers," Cinder said.

"Are you proud of that?" Oscar asked her, kind of wryly.

"Just don't crash it," Royal said. "This ship is pretty much all I got, and I'd really hate to replace it. Plus, the insurance premiums..."

"Let's just do it." Cinder was tired of talking. "Come on."

She moved to go back the opposite way.

Oscar cast a look at the Grimm wall uneasily.