"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground."
~Theodore Roosevelt

The number of superpowers and the technology to stop the super-humans-gone-haywire was astounding. A speedster named Allen Peters had a resistance proof, shatterproof, and phase proof cell. He was running in circles when we passed him.

In another cell was a 'Dual' as Caleb called her. Immediately I recognized one of her powers as Phytokinesis since she was making her plants grow insanely large.

"That's Evelyn Vickers. Don't let her calm demeanor fool you," Caleb whispered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Wait for it in three... two... one... now." An electric shock went through every plant, turning them to ash. Evelyn cackled and began to regrow her plants.

"Besides being... harsh with her plants, I don't understand why-"

"She used to trap people with her plants and then electrify the plants with said people."

"Oh..."

"Yeah. Like I said, don't let her calm demeanor fool you. Let's keep going." I followed Caleb down the hall. He showed me another superhuman with something on his head similar to what I'd worn when encountering Shane.

"This is Miles McNabb. He has telepathy. Problem is he can't shut it off. He's harmless with that contraption on his head, but the moment he takes it off, every single thought of every single person in here goes into his head. Some of it's pleasant, most of it's not. Felicity, my sister-in-law, is creating something for him to allow him in public without hearing all the thoughts of the people around him. He was going crazy when we figured out what was happening, but he was more of a danger to himself than others."

"How long will that device take to help him?"

"No idea. We have to keep tweaking it. It's almost there, though." At that moment, Miles waved at Caleb, who waved back.

"Can he not hear us?"

"No, but the guards allow him out whenever he asks just so he can talk to people. The other inmates here are so beyond help that they don't care about talking to people."

"What about Shane?"

"He's an... interesting case. When he talks, it's to get under people's skin and manipulate them into doing what he wants. I don't like the interest he took in you. I knew he'd be intrigued by a new person, but not to the extent he did. Watch out for him when he's released, okay? I know Chad will try and keep him at bay, but he can't be everywhere at once, and Shane is sneaky, which I'm sure you figured that out."

"Definitely."

"What do you say we-" Caleb stopped when his phone started vibrating. He answered it. "Hey... awesome, be there soon!"

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Some friends of mine. Can we stop by your apartment before we head to lunch? I need to show you something."

"It's in my apartment?"

"I swear you're going to love it. Promise."

I smiled. "All right, I trust you."

The two of us left the prison and hopped into our ride, which happened to be the craft that transported me to the planet when Dylan and Chad kidnapped me. Caleb took the driver's seat while I sat in the co-pilot's one, staring at all the buttons and wondering how on earth everyone knew how to fly one of these.

"You want to fly it?" Caleb asked, flicking some switches that caused the engines to roar to life.

"Do you like living?"

"Yes."

"Then, no, although I'd like to learn one day."

"Give me a day you're free, and I'll take you out to the range. You're going to learn sooner or later, so is Viv. It's part of your training. Everyone has to learn how to fly in case of an emergency. You won't have it for a while, though. People need to reach a certain point in their physical training first because that's more important. When you go on your first mission, about ninety to ninety-five percent of people will know how to fly the ship if something happens to the designated pilot, so there is a very, very minuscule chance you'd ever have to fly. But it's a good thing to know."

"When did you learn to fly?"

"I was fifteen. I learned to fly sooner than I learned to drive, but you have more room for error in the sky. You make a left turn without looking up there, and you're probably not going to hit anything. Make a left turn without looking while driving, chances are you're going to hit something."

"That strangely makes sense."

Caleb took off. We didn't say much on the ride back to base, but that was okay. I enjoyed watching the landscape because, as similar as it was to Earth, it was also vastly different. There were your standard green trees, but then you'd have trees with white trunks and pink or blue leaves. There were ordinary birds like sparrows and cardinals, and then there were birds bigger than me that reminded me of pterodactyls. When I brought this up with Caleb, he said, "They're related. Before the war broke out on our planet, scientists were cloning DNA of extinct animals. They were pretty successful, although some of their experiments did wreak some havoc. One of the idiots decided to clone a T-Rex, a Spinosaurus, and a Gigantosaurus."

"They obviously haven't seen Jurassic Park," I said.

"We had our own version of that movie believe it or not, and they saw it, which gave them the idea."

"Glad to know idiots exist here too." Caleb chuckled as the conversation died, and I continued to marvel at my surroundings.

Thirty minutes later, we reached the city. We were almost to the base when suddenly, an alarm blared through the cabin.

"What is that?" I asked worriedly, gripping the armrests.

"Not good. Hold on, I think we're under attack." Caleb flicked some more switches on before radioing to the base. "Stark Fort, this is Caleb Queen. My alarms are going off and think we might be under attack."

"Roger, Mr. Queen, we're sending fighters now to assess the situation. We're picking up unidentified aircraft on our radar, so please take evasive action. Do you have anyone else on the craft with you?"

"Lilly Snow."

"Did you just-"

"Yes, I did. Now please get those fighters up!" Turning to me, he added, "You strapped in?"

"Oh yeah," I said, glancing at my white knuckles. With that said, Caleb swerved the ship to the left and up. The alarms stopped, but as we went upside down, we got a good look at what- or should I say who- was behind us. Five fighter jets trailed us and were rapidly gaining.

"How the hell did they get this far inland?" Caleb muttered, turning the ship to the right. "And where is backup?"

"Caleb Queen, this is Enja Moralez. We're here to help you," a voice came on over the mic. "Please veer downwards, and we'll get the enemy crafts in our sights."

"If I go down, they'll have a clear shot at me, and this ship isn't as agile as the rest of yours," he argued, taking evasive maneuvers to get his alarms to shut up again.

"That's a risk you're going to have to take!"

"Damn it!" Caleb growled. "Hold on!"

The ship nosedived, the ground swiftly approaching. I watched on the radar as three enemy ships disappeared; I assumed they'd been shot down by our allies. At least, I prayed they had been. I don't know how long I could handle being in an air battle. I'm not one to get queasy, but this was getting to me.

Caleb pulled the ship back up, bringing us farther away from the buildings and the ground, which I appreciated. It was much more nerve-wracking being close to the ground than being in the open air.

"Three bogeys are down. Two remain, and they're right on top of you," Enja said. "You need to- Caleb, look out!"

Before either of us could react, an enemy plane came down at us, firing two projectiles, and hitting the top of our craft. The electrical circuits started going haywire as Caleb frantically tried to regain control of the ship, which was quickly losing altitude. We were flipping over repeatedly, and I knew deep down that no matter what Caleb did, nothing was going to stop this hunk of metal from crashing into the ground.

Terror paralyzed me. I couldn't think of any way Caleb and I would get out of this alive. If and when we inevitably crashed, the ship were collapse around us.

I wasn't ready to die yet.

I wasn't ready to leave Vivienne or my family or my pets or even Caleb and Dylan for that matter.

"Brace for impact!" Caleb shouted. That's when a piece of debris flew the windshield, and that was the last thing I saw.