The Ultimate Rescue

Chapter XVII

ELLE

Music: Intermezzo from Gradius V

Sam waits until after we board the hovercraft but before taking off to do a quick head count. He counts up to nine people when including himself, which is the correct number, so we're good to advance.

"So, what's next on our list of destinations?" I ask Sam, scooching closer to him at the control panel. Avery, becoming creeped out by this move, scoots an inch away from us. Using the hand not in Sam's immediate field of vision, I flip her off. You'd think our friends would be a bit more considerate of our relationship's subtleties, or at least have grown used to it by now. Nope.

"As always, I have no clue. Lemme look at the map for a moment to figure it out, damn it," Sam replies, sighing. He then pulls up the map and looks at it for a whole three seconds, then announces, "I've decided we're going to Nevada next." It's the closest location to where we're coming from, so it makes sense to me.

"Well, that took a long time for you to decide," I snort.

"Shut your yaps, Elle," Sam snickers.

The two of us start giggling and lightly nudging each other. Avery scoots even further away from us, Mia lets out a sigh and covers her eyes with the top of her sweater, and Luke rudely asks us, "Is this really necessary to do in front of us?"

"Suck my big floppy dick, Luke," is Sam's response.

"Well, can you at least let Heath or I pilot this damn thing for once? I haven't gotten to do it since the last weekend trip we took--" which was a month ago-- "and you've been hogging it ever since we started this mission!"

Sam opens his mouth to give his reply, but Avery beats him to the punch. "Luke, right now, Sam needs to be monitoring the hovercraft for when it gains all of its files back. Once it's fully restored, I'm sure he'll let other people have a turn with flying it." Sam, Heath, and Luke typically take turns flying the hovercraft from place to place on our trips and/or missions. In combat scenarios where we're using the hovercraft, it either flies solo (when it has its A.I, which it doesn't now) or Sam takes control.

"That wasn't the excuse I was going to give, but that works too," Sam shrugs.

"Besides, Nevada isn't very far from here, so it's not like you'd get much time with it anyways," Avery adds. Luke sulks and worsens his body posture, but seems to give in to his denied request.

"I have a question," Shanna says, likely in an effort to change the subject. "If the illuminati and homunculi are aware of us going after them, why haven't they made greater efforts to take us out?"

"That's a good question, Shanna," I reply. "Maybe they want to focus more on the spread of their conquest?"

"I doubt that," Heath replies. Luke and Skylar nod along with him.

The conversation continues among us for the next few minutes, and we get so wrapped up in it we don't notice when a notification pops up on the hovercraft's monitor that a "location of interest" is in the area (which is usually how we know when to stop). It takes Sam saying, "We're here," to bring our attention back from our friendly debate.

And none of us can believe our eyes when we see that Sam has landed us in front of... an amusement park.

LUKE

Music: Sweet Land from Pac 'n Roll

How weirded out would you be if, while on a hunt to prevent the illuminati from taking over the world, you stumble across an amusement park in Nevada named "Illuminati World"?