"Open." Sila commanded Brant, who lay on a fluffy cot inside the Sand Dollar. 

Brant obeyed and opened his eyes. A grin spread across his face as he glanced around the room and discovered the restoration of his vision. He smiled gratefully at the robot, then looked over at Aaron, who stared with a smirk into his phone. 

"Got 'er." Aaron muttered with a chuckle as he tapped the screen and slipped it into his pocket. Then he stepped over to Brant and met his gaze. "So, did it work?" 

Brant nodded. "It did. Thank you very much." 

"No problem. Sila's always got a solution, ain't that right, Sila?" 

The robot nodded its shiny black head. "Certainly." 

Brant squinted at the clock way down the hallway. "I've been here half an hour?" 

Aaron nodded. "Yeah." Then he glanced around and frowned. "Wait a minute, where'd you see that?" 

He silently pointed down the corridor. 

Aaron's brow wrinkled. "You can read that? Wow." 

Brant nodded and rose from his resting place. "Well, in that case, I'd better hurry and get caught up." 

"How're you gonna do that? First off, I highly doubt you've got Ace's skills, and second—" 

"I need something fast." 

Aaron winked. "I've got just the thing." 

******************** 

Brant dropped out of the Sand Dollar's exit hatch on a vivid scarlet and yellow motorbike. The vehicle bounced on impact with the ground, but the springy suspension withstood the blow, and when he landed again, it effortlessly accelerated, snatching him out of the cover of trees. 

Brant sped across the open field at breakneck speed, winding around the towers as he went and not even bothering to avoid the spotlights. Many times, guards spotted him, but he simply rode too fast for them to make any move. 

Soon enough, sniper shots rained down on the bike and rider, and Brant ducked when many of them came close to hitting. He pulled the throttle, but no more speed remained to be gained. One bullet pierced the ground just before his front wheel reached the spot, sending clods of earth flying into his eyes. 

Brant blinked hard to regain his sight, and once he did, he gasped. A horde of guards had congregated not far ahead. Their sprawling forces spread too far for him to steer clear in the distance that remained. His mind raced for solutions. 

After intaking a breath, Brant caused a hefty spear to materialize in his glove. With his remaining hand, he steered as far to the left of the crowd as he could before running several through with the mighty weapon. He dematerialized it for a second to allow their corpses to fall off before swiftly creating another. That spear also soon filled its queue of skewered bodies. 

Finally, Brant settled on a sword instead. With swift strokes, he took heads and limbs off in rapid succession. When the crowd thickened, he added a second blade on the back and spun the twin-bladed weapon in deadly loops. 

Only about five minutes after he'd originally set out, Brant reached the stone building in the center of the field. He leapt off the bike and watched as its momentum hurled it into the wall. Both the wall and the vehicle crumbled on impact. Brant grimaced. I'll have to pay Aaron back for that. 

Brushing it aside, Brant caused a shield to appear in his left hand and kicked the door open. He cast a quick glance around before widening his eyes. A pile of guards pinned Ace and Keira to the ground and beat them with brutal blows. Weapons lay strewn all about the huddle. 

Brant dashed down the long walkway with his sword poised to strike. At the sound of his footsteps, half of the men leapt up and snatched up their guns again. They fired a stream of shots at him, but Brant held up his shield and blocked every one. When the firing intensified and spread out, he merely increased the size of the shield and continued on. 

Once in reach, Brant leapt over with a spinning blade and took out all his comrades' attackers in one sweeping motion. Then he sliced the gunmen down with a second. Finally, he turned back to Ace and Keira. The double-bladed sword disappeared from his hand as he reached it out to help Ace up. 

Brant stared at Ace's bruised face with concern before furrowing his brow at Keira's lack of any visible sign of having taken a beating. 

"You made it." Ace said with a groan. 

Brant nodded. "I did. Just in time, apparently." 

Ace grunted in response and turned to Keira. "Alright, give the jacket back, already!" 

Keira pouted theatrically and shrugged it off. "I want one!" 

"Then get one." the dark-skinned man muttered as he rubbed his ribs. 

Brant inhaled in surprise when Keira suddenly threw herself into his arms. 

"It's good to have you back." she said with a grin. 

The blue-eyed man slowly nodded. "It's good to see again. Now, which one of these doors is the one we need?" 

Ace shrugged. "It's not like I've ever been here before." 

Brant stepped over to the railing and glanced down. "How about you two search the top ten floors? I'll do the bottom ten." 

Keira nodded vigorously. "Sounds like a plan to me!" 

Ace squinted. "How're you gonna get down there, though?" 

"Could I see that grapple gun for a second?" Brant asked with outstretched hand. 

"Or I could just come with you." Keira said, staring up at him with hopeful eyes. 

"You said you work best alone, anyway, Ace." Brant replied. 

"Yep. Have fun." 

"I'm not sure this is fun, but I hope we're successful." 

Ace nodded. "Now, if I do find this artifact, what then?" 

"Let us know immediately." 

Keira cleared her throat. "If these guys are smart enough, they can track us by our communicators. So I'd suggest we set a time, like every ten minutes or something, that we turn on and check for messages." 

Ace nodded and glanced at his watch. "Alright, every ten minutes, got it. Anything else I need to know?" 

Brant bit his lip. "I'm not sure how kindly Dove would take to an uninitiated man touching his artifact, so I wouldn't risk it, if I were you." 

Ace rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man. Guess if I find it, I'll just sit around and wait for you to show up." 

Brant took the grapple gun from Keira's hands. He grasped its handle in his fingers and hooked his other arm under her legs to pick her up. "It's your call if you want to risk it or not, Ace. At any rate, have a successful search." 

"Yep." 

With that, Brant hopped up onto the railing, shot the hook up at the overhanging chandelier, and descended to the bridge spanning across the eleventh floor. The muscles in his right arm strained as he gripped the gun and supported Keira's weight, along with his own, in one hand. 

Once his feet hit the ground, he let Keira go and put the gun into her hands to retract. The guards standing on all the stories they'd dropped past now peeked over the railing and fired down. Brant generated two massive shields in his hands, one to cover himself, and the other for Keira's protection. The moment she finished pulling the line in, they moved across the bridge to seek cover. 

********************* 

Baird stepped out of his quarters into the suite's common area. Getting any writing done on the go like this was an accomplishment enough, but he'd somehow pounded out an entire three chapters. 

Chariya, Hannah, and Wendy sat in armchairs around the coffee table, the fourth chair occupied by a bearded soldier. The princess' eyes focused on the writing tablet in her right hand, her left occupied with a wiggling pen. The Danlashian's attention was fixated on her phone. Hannah, however, shot Baird a silly grin, which he returned with some muffled laughter. 

Finally, he stepped up and cleared his throat. "I'm going to make some tea. Does anyone else want some?" 

Wendy looked up from her phone with her blonde eyebrows drawing nearer together. "Who ever thought putting bloody bitter leaves in hot water was a good idea? Why ruin the water?" 

Baird gave her an amused smirk. "If that's how you look at it, I can see your distaste." 

Chariya glanced up long enough to give Baird a quick smile. "If you could make me some, that would be delightful. Thank you." 

Baird nodded. "Of course. And you?" he said, meeting Hannah's eyes. 

"I think I'll get some hot chocolate, but I'll make it mahself." she said, rising to her feet. 

Wendy grinned. "Now, that's a bloody good drink! Would you mind making me some, Hannah?" 

"Sure thang, darlin'!" 

"Thanks, sweetie." 

With that, Hannah followed Baird into the kitchen, and they both prepared to make their drinks. 

As Baird dropped a teabag into one of the cups, he peeked out at Chariya again, raising an eyebrow as he did. Then he turned to Hannah. "Do you know what the princess is writing? She seems pretty focused on it." 

Hannah nodded. "She's writin' up some sorta document, I think, like a constitution or somethin'." 

"Constitution? For whom?" 

"I'm not exactly sure, 'cause she didn't tell me much, but I think she's drawin' it up for a new Kemaria. She mighta felt convicted when Brant once started talkin' 'bout havin' a rebellion with no endgame in sight." 

"Oh, I see." Baird said with a nod of his head. "What is she planning to do about her father, though? He's a loyal supporter of Alconte." 

Hannah shrugged. "I honestly couldn't tell ya. I never know what she's gonna do." 

"Well, you don't think she would have her own father deposed, would she?" 

"Again, I have no idea. I do gotta say, she seems to care a whole lot more 'bout ideas than people, if that makes any sense." 

"It does." Baird replied as he spooned some sugar into his cup, "She focuses more on the chessboard than the intricacies of any particular pawn." 

"Yeah, exactly!" Hannah said enthusiastically, "Nice metaphor, Mr. Author." 

Baird chuckled and gave the girl an exaggerated bow. "Thank you, thank you." 

Hannah giggled and stared at Baird with a wrinkled nose for a couple seconds more before tapering off. Then the two continued making their drinks in an uplifted silence. 

******************** 

A/N: ...And Brant is back in action, guys! I'm this close from making it a double update, because I'm really excited to unveil where this goes, but I'll restrain myself. It's a busy time of year, I know, and I feel like I'm the only one who has free time. 😂 

(And it's not like Saturday is THAT far away.) 

Anyway, please remember to vote and comment if you liked this chapter. It really helps me out. 😁 

I feel like whenever I've asked anything about the story until recently, it's been character-related. But I guess now I'll ask, what've you thought of the action so far? Any favorites? 

And for our random question, name all the movies you've seen in the past week or so. 😆 

(Gee is this easy for me. The only one I've seen was Star Wars: A New Hope, which I just watched for the first time in years tonight! Seriously, I'd managed to forget how awesome of a movie that is, and I was just blown away all over again. No regrets, and I'm probably gonna try to rewatch it before we have to return it.) 

Well, that's it for me until tomorrow morning. (Or if you're reading this some time later, whenever you decide, lol.) Have an awesome day, and I'll see you in the next update!