Chapter 8 – Delayed Departure

Taoyuan, for all its wonders and convenience for adventurers, did not have a shipyard. What it did have was an aerodrome with storage fees, and a hangar manager who wouldn't check papers too closely when the owner of an offending airship rolled up to pay them. Izley had related a dispute between one governor and a bounty hunter who had both paid for the same airship to be released. The guard had been called after 'She said, he said' had escalated to 'inferno'.

The Kaede ninja-golem that had been sent to investigate the ships with over 10 years of late fees had sketched several ships, big and small. Haruna, however, had been drawn to one particular ship like a fly to jam, which was why she was now standing before the bored warthog-man manager in a (male) human bodysuit.

"So, you a relative of", he adjusted his glasses, squinting at the faded signature, "Altert Limma? Alber Loibma?"

Haruna wanted to avoid the manager recalling what the man she was impersonating really sounded like, so she had talked as little as possible. While the suit's voice had been cribbed from a random bypasser, there could be methods for detecting disguise magics or lie detectors or something. It might have been paranoid, but people really were out to get her. On the way out, there'd been an increased guard presence, and a few rough characters had been spotted prowling round the Galin's house. She had to assume that the bounty hunters' guild was at least as good as she was. Thus she simply nodded.

"Hmph", he snorted. "Well, as long as you pay the fee, it's no chip off my tusk. So if you'll sign here, and here, initials here, I can finally free up the space."

Haruna scratched out something incomprehensible before shoving the bundle of thousand-drachma bills over for the manager to count. At 150,000 drachma she was probably paying double what it was actually worth, which would make it even less likely that she'd be investigated. Or more likely; she wasn't sure.

"Well, it's all there. I'll get a mage-tech to come with you and look her over, make sure it's working. For 10,000 extra we can charge it up fully."

"Agreeable", said Haruna gruffly, placing another ten bills on the desk.

"Thank you sir!" The manager walked round the desk and yelled out of the little office set into the side of the hangar. "Billy! Billy!" A grimy dog-boy in overalls ran up, trying to hide a half-eaten sandwich behind his back. "Got a gent here, needs you to look over that old goldfish in the back."

The dog-boy's ears twitched. "Eh? That thing?" Turning to Haruna, he continued, "I'm surprised, mister – you could buy a new ship for that much." He shrugged. "Well, none of my business. Come on, mister."

There should have been an immense dustsheet to dramatically pull off, or a shaft of evening light illuminating it from one of the skylights. Instead 'Albus' was taken into the cavernous gloom of the aerodrome to a long, bulbous shape in one of the long-term docks.

"Here she is, sir. She should be in working order, she's received yearly checks. It's had some strange mods for a yacht – magic-warded to high heaven, internal bracing, seriously overpowered reactor, weapon mounts; just saying, this seems like a smuggler's ship." A steady look was all the response he received. "Just saying, okay? Here's the totem." The dog-boy handed her a knobbly key. "I'll get to charging her up, won't take more than an hour."

Now her eyes had adjusted (hmm, could she give her skinsuits nightvision?), she took in the eyes, bulbous body, long tail and fins she remembered from the sketch; someone had apparently designed an airship as tall as a three-storey building around one of those bulging-eyed goldfish, adding fins and sticky-out bits as necessary. Floating there silently, it looked both faintly ridiculous and eager to get flying. Haruna loved it.

No matter what had been called, it needed a name now, as befitting its new lord and mistress. She already had a name picked out. 'You shall be... the Great Paru-sama!'*

Climbing the staircase to the entry deck, she stepped down to her new airship, found what looked like a keyhole beside a hatch and touched the totem to it.

Inside, it seemed to be open-plan: a two tier lounge divided the entrance and cockpit, with steps on the right down to what were probably the living quarters.

The cockpit was surprisingly advanced. Flat screens on the wall served as windows for the pilot and copilot, and a host of what she was coming to recognise as magical image projectors were embedded in the dash that ran round three sides of the room. All the buttons, switches and gauges on the controls hinted that she wouldn't be flying the Great Paru-san solo anytime soon; it looked like the deck of an airliner. On the other hand the boy had said it was a yacht; with that Wright Brothers-style rudder stick on the pilot side, it was possible unskilled people could fly it. Maybe.

Welp, step 1: find the ignition. She found a hole like the one at the door and slid it in, being rewarded with a slight hum and the screens flickering on to display the inside of the aerodrome.

More images popped up front of the co-pilot's chair, fanning out to display advanced controls that reminded her of Yue's magical dictionary. She could see duplicates of the dashboard's controls already on them – those were likely the important ones. An experimental touch told her they felt like panes of glass, and could be positioned with both hands on the side. That would definitely be Izley's job.

There was another issue. The boy had said he'd be charging for an hour. Haruna found herself wishing for a watch as she wasn't sure how long it had taken to walk over to the airfield, talk with the manager, then enter the ship. Longer than it would take to walk back for Izley, at least. Assuming her bodysuits had approximately the same lifetime as her normal golems, even if she ran, it probably wouldn't last before poofing out, exposing her to the bounty hunters, spies and untrustworthy street urchins that were no doubt looking for her.

'Wait, what was I thinking? There's no problem that can't be solved by correct application of ninja.' She pulled out her artifact from the side-pocket of the heavy coat the skinsuit was wearing and began sketching a design based on her current skinsuit. While the final colouring-in and calling forth seemed to be keyed to skin contact on the pen and the large fingers didn't give much feedback, rough sketches were still possible. She'd do a quick change here and now, then add a weight-lightening feature to run and roof-hop like Kaede. It'd run down its lifetime, but it would get her to the inn she'd left him in far faster. Possibly safer too.

Her musings were interrupted by the *clomp* of boots hitting the deck outside, and quickly, she stashed the pad in her longcoat. Given she was technically stealing a ship with a forged identity, the question was not, 'Am being too cautious?', but 'Am I cautious enough?'

"Hello?", she called, her tenor converted through the suit to the borrowed male voice.

"Alberio Imma, is that you, you old rogue?" asked a gruff voice from the deck. Footsteps sounded, closer and closer to the cabin door as the mysterious speaker approached. "I thought you'd been chased out of Taoyuan years ago, but when I got word that someone had paid the fees on your old ship" – at this, the man opened the door – "I had to see for myself."

Haruna took a moment to appraise the new arrival. Apparently human, no extra ears, fur or tail. Dressed in what looked like a patched-up city guard uniform with extra armour. Salt-and-pepper beard and hair, the beginning of laughter lines in the corner of his eyes. Beaming grin that didn't match up with his grey eyes, which were narrowed just a bit too much to be actually friendly.

'Crap. Why do I keep running into trouble? If he's been waiting ten years or so for him to come back, and he came less than ten minutes after I signed the papers, he must have a hell of a grudge against Alberio-san. Or there's a massive bounty. So – he's most likely an adventurer chasing a bounty or an actual bounty hunter; either way he's faking and waiting for me to drop my guard. I can't use my artifact until I dispel this skinsuit, and if I do the ink really will be all over the page. What do I do?'

She thought back to the few times she'd met Alberio. What did she know? Powerful mage, member of Ala Rubra, able to take on the appearance, skills and abilities of anyone with his artifact... and one of the most aggravating men she'd ever met. He managed to consistently piss off Evangeline, the world-weary 500-year-old immortal vampire who had supposedly seen it all. Well, it'd be in character and she had few other non-messy options. She only hoped she could emulate the master.

"I'm sorry... who are you and what are you doing on my ship?", 'he' said.

The newcomer's face twisted in irritation. "Come on, don't tell me you don't remember me? It was a dark and stormy night..."

'That cover didn't last long. Also, clichéd', she thought.

"...you'd been surrounded by the city guard. I was one of the squad sent to arrest you."

"Nn, not recalling anything. What day was it?"

"Tuesday."

"...still not recalling it. What was your name?"

"Haggar! Haggar Marthstone! Do you really not remember anything? You whipped out a piece of paper from the governor and said we had to back off!"

"I use a lot of paper. Sometimes in the toilet."

"I... they just kicked me out when I tried to bring it up with the chief! Some wyverncrap about "international secrets". I've spent the last decade eking out a living as an adventurer. Because of you."

'Okay, better than I thought. He isn't here for my bounty," thought Haruna. She honestly felt a bit bad for him (hey, residual guilt, how you doing) – he didn't seem a bad sort, and no-one deserved to have to deal with a man that annoying. "When you left your ship behind, at least I had hope you'd come back." He angrily searched 'Albus'' face for any sign of recognition, before slumping in defeat. "You're not Alberio at all, are you?"

'He' shrugged.

Haggar clutched at his thinning hair. "Aaaagh. What am I going to do? The real bounty hunters will be here any minute. They're never happy if you used their contacts for a false alarm, not even if you're a member in good standing."

Okay, things back to being bad. Time to get rid of this complication right now, not least because the timer was running down on her skinsuit. "Actually, I do know the name. I seem to remember rumours he'd been seen hiding out in the Old World. Some city named Jarpan or something."

"That's a name? Wait, hold on – why would you pay the fees for some man's ship? Unless..."

She told herself to breathe normally. Absolutely no tells.

"...you're trying to skip town, aren't ya? Must have a powerful need to be elsewhere. Running from the law or a bounty I bet." His sudden smile spread into a sly sneer.** "That's it, isn't it?"

DAMMIT. The situation was officially in the toilet. Only one last shred of hope remained and it depended solely on the man's intelligence. In both senses of the word.

"I figure you got a lot of money on you to just pay ten years of fees like it's nothing. Now I could take you in for whatever bounty's over your head, but I got the feeling you're not worth it."

Rude. Also, *phew*.

"You're taking the last lure, the last possibility I have for completing my vengeance, so I figure you owe me a powerful incentive to give up." He licked his lips. "Eating crow's always sweeter when it's flavoured with drachma, you know what I mean?"

Okay. Greed. She could deal with greed, never mind his mangled metaphors.

"I want... fifty."

"Fifty drachma?"

"Ha ha funny joke. Fifty thousand, right here in cash and you never see me again."

Very tempting, but slightly too high. She had 40,000 left after the charging fee, and still needed to pick up Izley at the Galin's house.

"All this talk of... flavouring has jogged my memory. Twenty-five thousand, and I tell you what I know about Ala Alba and especially Alberio; I might even have his last location."

That hit home – she could see his eyes widen a bit – but he rallied magnificently.

"Pah! You must think I'm soft in the head or something." Beat. "Forty thousand and the info." Were all adventurers this eager? Then again, ten-year grudge.

"Thirty thousand, the info, and you convince the bounty hunters to look elsewhere. I'll even throw in a ride straight to a nearby friendly village in case of any... unpleasantness." He was wavering. "I guarantee accurate info."

He broke like a particularly fragile eggshell. "Done!" he said, clasping the skinsuit's hand. "Where do I meet you?" "Here, in an hour. I have to pick up my associate first." Haruna could see the little finger of the skinsuit's hand slowly losing its texture. That was a powerful grip. She coughed into a closed fist to hide it. "I'll have to retire this identity – a pity, it was a favourite – so please don't be surprised if I look slightly different the next time we meet." 'Because I don't think I could draw it exactly from memory again.'

"That sounds suspiciously like Alberio's power." Haggar narrowed his eyes again. "You'd better not be trying to trick me. Because I'd know if you were lying; I got my ways. If it were ten years ago I'd have had you in a cell and spilling your guts before you could blink."

'Albus' thumbed out fifteen 1,000-drachma bills (being careful to hide the noodly finger) and handed the bundle to him. "Your bribe, Mr. Marstone." Pointing out hypocrisy was fun. The death glare he shot her was hilarious. "Half now, half when you board. See you in an hour."

The noodle effect was spreading fast. She had seconds left. Haggar seemed set on having the last word...

'Please leave, please leave, please leave', she chanted inwardly.

...but backed down and finally left, closing the door with a clang. Not a moment too soon. The skinsuit lost all cohesion, sloughing unevenly away from her real skin like damp, rubbery clay. Haruna briefly knew what it was like inside a burst balloon. The legs melted onto the floor, shortening her by a foot. The longcoat had been necessary to hide the slight wrongness of the proportions of the legs and arms, the fake shins and forearms elongated to keep it in proportion with the torso and provide appropriate articulation. To her eye, used to drawing humans (and reading lots of wonky-armed doujinshi), it had been glaring, but on a test-walk around the bedroom, Izley couldn't spot any difference. The presence of humans, animal people and everything in between in the city probably helped.

She could hear a commotion outside. It didn't sound violent, but there was a certain air of annoyance to the speaker that was familiar to her. Very familiar. It seemed the Barbells were out of the drunk tank and possibly filling her new friend in, which meant she really had to get going. She hurriedly completed her skinsuit sketch of a Kaede, slapping 'invisibility' and 'adhesion' underneath the lightening feature. It'd run the lifetime down even faster but it literally could not be helped. Or could it? Simple items lasted almost indefinitely and she didn't need the disguise if she was invisible; eking out a few more minutes might make all the difference. She rubbed out the head and arms, leaving nothing but the ninja-suit, which she hurriedly summoned.

Now this would be tricky; this time there would be no convenient crowd to open the door and provide cover. Her only hope was that they'd be too preoccupied continuing the argument to notice the hatch opening and closing by itself. Fortunately (for her) the argument had increased in volume and was moving away. Seems her new passenger had the grace to stay bought.

After removing the totem from the console she dressed quickly and snuck out, opening the outer hatch quieter than a teen creeping in at 3 AM***, or tried to – the hatch was appropriately sturdy for an airtight aircraft and needed a fair amount of strength to unseal. All she could do was yank down the lever that dogged it as firmly as she dared, and hope it wouldn't make a sound.

'On three... Three!'

*klung* *scrEE*

Haruna bit down on a frustrated scream as the hatch screeched open. She still had to close and lock the damn thing too. She could hear the sound of the Barbells running back, but only two sets of feet. They must have decided against detaining the old ex-adventurer in favour of the bigger prize.

Quickly dogging the hatch and shoving the key in, she only had time to hope the lightening was in effect and jumped up as high as she could as the bounty hunters clattered onto her deck.

The last thing she saw as she soared towards the rafters were their red faces as they rattled the door. Slapping her palm on one beam, she discovered her ninja-suit lowered weight, not mass when her arrested momentum nearly broke her wrist. Gritting her teeth, silently cursing selective magical physical laws as she awkwardly clambered up, she just had time to spot the small shape of the tech turning up with the security guards to escort them out, the bounty hunters no doubt swearing eternal vengeance.

Haruna's smile at this happy sight faded as she thought about her next moves. Now she had to smuggle Izley and their luggage back on board, within the hour, without alerting any lookouts. On top of that, she then had to wait for a passenger to show up and oh yes, learn to fly. It would be tricky, to say the least. She snorted, amused at her own grumbling. 'Well, I wanted adventure, excitement and derring-do, why am I complaining when I got it?' she thought, hopping towards a handy skylight.

Izley checked the bags he'd already checked 5 minutes ago, just out of boredom. Definitely not because he was worried what could happen – her costume (he refused to call it a skin-suit) had an hour's lifetime which would not run out at just the wrong time. The bounty hunters would not be alerted thanks to their contacts with the town guard. And his new employer would never, if she felt like it, level the city with that giant purple "Eva" construct if threatened.

The sudden tap at the window broke him out of the worrying he was not doing. Opening it, all he felt was a faint breeze and a light thud on the floor. His whiskers could tell that the mass of air displaced was girl-sized. The small, sooty footprints left on the carpet were also a clue.

"Two questions, Izley", whispered the empty air. "One, is everything ready? Two, Are we alone?"

"Yes to both."

"Abeat."

A soot-smeared, dishevelled and wind-blown Haruna popped into existence. She tried to brush some of the filth on her school uniform off, but only smeared it around.

"Not a word, Izley."

"I was simply going to express my relief at seeing you unharmed and uncaptured."

She briefly side-eyed her partner/minion before shrugging it off. Hopping over the rooftops had started out cool but quickly turned into a bit of a pain – the first few times she overshot and nearly splattered herself on the side of a house. She couldn't spare the time to redraw the artifact either. Thus the near-literal crash course in weightless physics. Next time, she'd just outright draw a Sailor Moon costume and damn the copyrights.

Speaking of pain, she massaged her throbbing wrist. OW. That was good and wrenched.

"Third question – do we have any healing potions?" Of course she'd have to injure her right hand.

"Not on us, but we could pass by the market..."

"Crap. We literally have none of the time, Izley. I accidentally sorta picked up a passenger in the form of one of Kul-Nel Sanders' old enemies, I was close enough to lick our old friends the Barbells and I sprained my drawing hand. Also, chimneys are very dirty. And not in the fun way."

"You have a plan?"

"I do, I call it, 'jump across roofs till we reach the Aerodrome'. Which I now know sucks, but it's the best one I've got. I think I can manage some magic rings if I wrap my wrist..."

"Hold it. You can make magic rings, plural, with any effect... at will?"

Haruna's eyebrow rose, just barely, above her glasses.

"I created paintings you could walk into, a whole harem of men, women and beastmen that looked realistic down to the pores, turned your fur white and changed species with a stroke of my pen. Why is that what surprises you?"

"Because, o employer of mine, if you insist on pushing me further towards the wrong side of the law, I might as well minimise the damage; the guard confiscated several items in the past whose effects would make this considerably easier," said Izley. Her mouth fell open a bit, but then her grin returned full-force.

"Izley, we'll make a minion out of you yet!"

"Please. Don't."

Three rings were created for each of them in as many minutes. Haruna slid the first and second onto her right hand with her undamaged left. There wouldn't be many more of these today, not if she wanted her hand to heal. It struck her that needing to be able to draw was a pretty large failure point of her artifact, and a possible reason why, even though Melda's father had recognised the Imperium Graphices, the world hadn't been taken over and become an art gallery – it was fairly easy to amputate someone's ha- NO, nonono that is not going to happen, stupid Barbells were not going to go that far. She locked that thought up in a bank vault. With Kryptonite.

Right now she and Izley were wearing Rings of Plainness: it made them seem completely unremarkable and just another face in the crowd. It was a stronger version of disguise glasses, an adventurer's tool that had nevertheless been banned in Taoyuan when the previous governor had been pickpocketed by a female gang member. The Megane gang had been dealt with swiftly by sending out a scent tracking team.

Their defence against that was the Ring of Continuous Cleaning, based on another banned item that had been cooked up by a travelling mage-peddler. Innocuous enough, but the inconspicuous amulets he'd sold that "gently scoured the skin and eliminated all body odours" caused a massive crime wave and (thankfully) telltale outbreaks of psoriasis as the city's criminal underworld smelle- er, caught on to an opportunity.****

The third one, well, that was being kept for emergencies. The specifications were as well-defined as she could write with an aching wrist, but it was not something she wanted to depend on for long; Izley's description of the scene when the magic of the creator of the original ran out was vivid.

The Galin's mansion was on the same side of the river as the aerodrome; right now they were running through the back streets towards it. It was a strange feeling – after the attention, notoriety and adoration of the aristocrats, no-one was paying attention to them.

It wasn't that far to run, but physical education was not her favourite subject, and she was already tired, being left gasping after the first minute. Her minion's long legs, meanwhile, were eating up the pavement. Glancing impatiently back at her flagging form, he transferred their packs to his front, swung her up onto his back and simply carried on.

Haruna did not yelp at the cavalier treatment. She would deny that forever.

Then Izley flinched when she wrapped her arms round his neck and squeezed just a bit too hard, squishing her boobs into his back. He then chanced a look over his shoulder and saw her sly grin at having taken points back. Wench. It only widened as she saw his discomfort, but softened a bit and became more gleeful as she straightened up in the 'saddle' to kick his sides.

"Forward, my loyal steed. Hi-ho Izley!"

"I will throw you off."

They made it to the entrance of the 'drome with minutes to spare, but the street running around it was swarming with, as Izley informed her inbetween catching his breath, was half of the Taoyuan Bounty Hunter's Guild. With the addition of her two favourite people glowering outside the gate, bringing down the standards of attractiveness just by standing there.

"Aww, they did that for me?" Haruna murmured. "It's incredible what people will do when they're in love!"

Izley only rolled his eyes.

She, meanwhile, was looking out for Haggar. In the rush, she kinda sorta forgot to plan for taking an ex-bounty hunter past his former friends. Worst came to the worst, she could just cause a distraction with a few Giant Aniki… drat. No, there was a much better idea… ach, busted hand. OK, finding plan C.

A few minutes later, Haruna was discarding F and grasping for something non-artifact-based for G when Izley tapped her on the shoulder. Their passenger was running up to the Barbells.

"Hey, Barrat, Urbell! Good, you're here. Have you seen the latest communiqué?" he gasped, trying to catch his breath. "They've found that bitch who framed you holed up in one of the Galin's taverns! Governor's put in a request to raise the bounty to 100,000 Drachma."

That… wasn't a terrible ploy. It looked like plan H had arrived. Now all she had to do was-

"Izzat so? Then where were you while we were waiting here, an' why didn't you claim it? Hasn't stopped you in the past."

-hope they didn't see through it immediately. Damn. They were depending on someone who, by all impressions, couldn't lie to save his life, not least to people who knew him. Double damn. Time for something stupid and risky. She motioned to Izley and whispered in his ear. He looked thunderous, but more whispered instructions and he simply slumped. Whiskers drooping in defeat, he handed Haruna something from the pack.

"I really hope you know what you're doing", he said.

"Oh I don't. But you don't have any better ideas, do you? Ring on, then wait for the signal."

Haggar was still earnestly trying to convince the Barbells that he came to them – personally – for backup and would share the bounty three ways. She could see he was about to lose their interest, but they had stopped scanning the street, turning to one side of the gate to loom and leer over the soon-to-be ex-bounty hunter.

Which was Haruna's cue to walk casually through the crowd, saunter behind their back and turn Urbell's nervous system into hot barbed wire with her stolen lightning club. When it failed to do the same to Barrat immediately after, she resorted to a Ku Fei special and immediately kicked him in the back of the knee. Dodging out of the way of his falling body, she gritted her teeth and heaved the club underhand, hoping it would work this time. Partly by luck, partly by aim, the shaky left-handed swing connected… with his groin.

She couldn't quite hide the wince as she heard the zap, even as she exulted at the application of sufficient force to the deserving.

She grinned cutely at the stunned Haggar. "Haggar, right? Thank you for flying Paru Air. Enjoy the trip!" That was Izley's cue to pop into existence, hoist the man over his shoulder and push the Ring of Phasing back on his finger, disappearing once more with his new cargo.

All this had happened in less than six seconds. While most of the NPCs bystanders were frozen, the professionals were not.

She had played with those wire mazes you passed a wand around without touching it and activating a buzzer. Placing a ring on the ring finger of her left hand with her injured right hand, while every other bounty hunter in the street was running towards her, weapons drawn and spells charging, was like that, except she was also balancing a broom on each hand while falling off a building.

Of course she did it firs- seco- firs SECOND time, she was awesome like that and wasn't trembling her dexterity was not to be sniffed at.*****

She vanished, people yelling for her head all around her.

The new world Haruna was in was kind of boring. All colours were faded to near grey, sounds were muted to undersea garbles…

...and she was sinking gradually. Not fast, but it felt like the cobblestoned street was as substantial and stable as wet beach sand. She lifted one foot experimentally; it lifted out easily, but the other began sinking faster.

Thank Kami she had remembered to specify the ability to breathe.

She was about to push through the grey figures clustered round her until she remembered that this phasing likely had a very limited lifetime and that would be a very good way to exhaust the effect further. Ending up halfway through a bounty-hunter was not the way she wanted to go.

It was frustrating, but she had to wait to slip through a gap in the scrum of four or five hunters arguing in front of the gate, before dashing into the aerodrome as fast as her shaking legs would carry her.

One or two other dull figures had obviously had the same idea. They were also obviously fitter and not walking atop a paddling pool of custard. (Honestly, some of Hakase's experiments…) They were pulling ahead, fast.

Ahead of her, standing out in glorious full colour in this world of grey, Izley and Haggar were running, hand-in-hand. Drinking in this near-cinematic gift, her fertile, treacherous brain immediately went there: Hand-in-hand, desperately trying to reach safety for a new land, no, a world of their own where they can consummate their forbidden love, no, the older, more experienced one shows the pleasures of… Reluctantly, she had to throttle her libido back when she found herself wondering what the birth of their children would look like. 'I mean, magic healing exists, it's got to be possible for one of them to carry...' She pulled her attention back to concentrate on breathing, wiping away the small trail of blood from her nostril. She couldn't help the dopey grin, though.

Izley felt his hackles rise; he could feel his employer's leer, and didn't need to guess at what she was thinking. Haggar seemed to be concentrating on keeping pace, not knowing what lewdness was being imagined behind him. Ignoring the slightly soiled feeling, he put on a burst of speed. 'To get there ahead of the hunters', he told himself.

Pretty soon, they reached the ship's dock… and had to wait for Haruna to stumble up three minutes later, grinning like a demon at them. She was flushed and panting from the running, and nothing else. Fortunately, security seemed to be holding the bounty hunters back. Unfortunately, by their gesticulations they seemed about ready to climb over the top of the guards, and damn the consequences.

All three climbed the gantry in a hurry, bracing themselves to dive through the door when Haruna noticed something. The deck was solid – actually solid. "People, *hahh* bad news. *Haah* I think I got my *haa* *kehough* money's worth. It's warded *hahh* 'gainst phasing." "What?" sputtered Haggar.

"She means we're going to have to dephase and open the outer hatch, but that opens us up to fire, metaphorical and literal. The first one to do it will have to weather a storm of attacks. How good are you at dodging, Mr. Marthstone?"

"Um- I have a basic shield-"

"Augh, I'm an idiot", groaned Haruna.

"What?" / "Really."

"If it's actually solid, we can physically open the door." She tapped the handle, finding it as substantial as ever. "Yep. Alberio must have pissed off one too many princesses in his time." Seeing Haggar open his mouth to ask the inevitable question, "Save it. Questions later, open door now." She screwed her face up, as if remembering the taste of some bitter medicine. "Er... Please?"

In the real world, the hatch creaked open, spells flew, but it was too late. The door slammed shut and they were inside.

One general desummon and hurried disengagement later, they stumbled into the cockpit, Haruna flopping in the pilot's chair.

She really wanted to take a moment, but moments were in short supply. Reinforcements had arrived from the Guild and had stunned the guard, letting in a swarm of mismatched fighters.

"Hurry!" Sticking the totem in the dash, it lit up. "Izley, please tell me you have at least a passing familiarity with magical flight interfaces buried in your character sheet."

"My what? Er, no. I've never left Taoyuan."

"Learn by doing, then. Figure out which one's 'undock', 'open dome' and most importantly 'go'. Any order." She glanced at the rear-view screen. "I think they're climbing up the gantry now", she said, voice controlled. "Find 'go' yesterday."

"Ah- Bu-" Haggar was doing a good impression of the Great Paru-sama's lookalike, but his expression firmed up as he settled on the most pressing question. "You- you can't fly?"

"Can you?"

"Uh- I have flown sometime in the past..."

"Good, you're hired. Help Izley and give me some more controls I can use."

"...as a passenger." he finished lamely.

"You're still hired. Help."

They searched the screens anxiously, blasts of magic making the ship bob and sway about like a cork while fists and weapons hammered at the locked outer hatch.

"I found something that says... 97%?"

"Magical charge, I bet – move on."

Some more fumbling popped up the pilot's interface, a small panel hovering at the side of the chair. Good: it looked fairly simple. Bad: none of the functions were labelled. Then she spotted an icon of a dome. "Yesss!" She stabbed it triumphantly. The buffeting from the barrage ceased, but the battering and clattering continued.

"OK, found the shields!", she said brightly. That still meant that the hunters at the door were locked inside with them, but – details. She touched another icon of an upward-pointing arrow with a small circle below, flashing red. That had to be important.

The ship lurched upward. "What was that?" shouted Izley. "Wait, it flashed up 'Disengaged, clear of dock' and now says 'Stick Live' in front of three, no, four numbers!"

Sure enough, when she gave the flight stick in front an experimental side-to-side wiggle, the ship wobbled in kind. "Oooh, sensitive. Don't worry, girl, I'll treat you right." The screens showed the Paru-sama floating free above the charging gantry.

"Stop perving and start flying!" snapped Izley.

"Alright, alright..." Then she had an idea. A wonderful, awful idea. Her smile grew a bit manic as she buckled up. Izley immediately strapped himself in. Haggar, not being up on current events but savvy enough to know it was going to be rough, followed suit.

She stabbed the shield icon, then immediately yanked the stick hard to the left with her good hand. The ship spun like an electric drill.

Feeling her stomach try to escape through her mouth, she forced it back into neutral, then brief opposite lock when it continued its roll, stopping with neck-wrenching suddenness at a drunken 40-degree angle.

"Ooogh… did anything leak out? Like my eyes?"

"What the hell were you -urgh- thinking, girl?!"

She had to swallow before she could reply properly; spewing would ruin her carefully cultivated image of breezy confidence. Her glasses were clinging on by one leg as it was. Ugh, that taste at the back of her throat was horrible.

"I had to shake off a few over-eager admirers before we could leave."

And it looked like the would-be boarders were currently rolling and tumbling all over the hangar, but one was slowing to a stop in mid-air before beginning to fly back. Magic was bullshit. She quickly hit the shields again and levelled off, giving the stick some proper respect, and was amused to see the flying bounty hunter briefly imitate a bug on a windshield.

"There, that should give us breathing room. Izley, any progress on the egress?" "Nothing here that explicitly opens the dome. I think you have to ask for permission to leave."

"Good! We've already got it! Now we just wait." Having reseated her glasses, Haruna tapped her fingers impatiently on the pilot's chair. It was a tell, but she could not give a damn right now. The line between 'thrilling escape from jumped-up charges' and 'being an actual criminal resisting arrest' was blurring. "Except… We can't really wait. Even if they can't get through the shields, that's asking for them to bring in something heavier that can. And I do not want to risk a third close call that adds even more charges. It's not good for business." She turned and smiled at her minion and erstwhile passenger. It was a good smile – wide, cheerful and very eager. Lots of teeth. Looking closer though, it was just a little too wide for their nerves. "Izley, Haggar, question. Have any of you ever seen Star Wars?"

At the lack of reaction, she sighed. "Seriously? Classic tale of good versus evil? Death Star trench run? Han/Lando?" Blank faces all round her. "All right, all right. Heathens. Anyway, I think this stripe here is the throttle, and this is the afterburner..."

The ship's nose was pointed towards the front gate. Haggar put two and two together immediately.

"Stop her stop her stop her!" Seeing Izley's death-grip on his seat, Haggar fumbled with his flight harness, but it was too late. The long-dormant engines throbbed with power as she redlined the main thrusters. The front gate of the dome, opened almost wide enough to admit a ship of their height and size, but definitely not tall enough, approached with frightening speed as she weaved erratically through the few ships in their path, sometimes missing by centimetres.

"Ahahahahaha! Number 14 in 'Things I've always wanted to say': Keep your hands and arms inside the carpet, weee're…

The half-open gate filled the screens as hunters and security flung themselves out of the way…

Izley screwed his eyes shut. They were going to die, he just knew it…

Haruna flicked the rudder stick just enough to roll them roughly on their side.

The thin metal doors burst apart with a horrible bang as they bounced off the airfield before somehow righting themselves. She hit the boost and the Great Paru-sama stabbed into the sky.

"...outta here!"

*Yes, she really called it after herself. I'm groaning too. "Ca~non." Oi, out of my comments to the readers.

** "No more alliteration!" Can't help it, people only truly know it when you're a poet. *ducks, runs*

*** Given she lived in a dormitory around some of the loudest girls in the school, this was less of a feat than she thought.

**** Soon after, the mage began selling improved versions that cleaned and released a pleasant and more importantly distinctive flower scent. Prison concentrates the mind wonderfully.

***** Hey, away from the keyboard. Leave the blatant Mary-Sue self-inserting to your own work, not your actual soon-to-be-reality! "It's just one line!" Which quickly becomes two, then ten, then no-one will read this… Hands. Off. ...don't pout at me. "I'm not pouting. Hack."

"Three years."

I know.

"Three. YEARS. Going on four."

I know.

"In the time it's taken you to complete this chapter, your friends and family have had children and they've learned to talk. Multiple children. The frigging semi-official Negima sequel has had over a hundred chapters, then became official. You're unbelievable. You're no author at all."

Please, by all means I deserve your scorn, it's nothing I haven't berated myself for, except for one thing: I did eventually finish. This inspiration may be only temporary and spurred by lack of access to my internet addiction, but it's here. I won't waste it.

The chapter, though? What about the chapter?

"I won't deny, it's something. Laughs, thrills, revenge, barnstorming... Sucks that you disabled me, but it was a pretty obvious weak point. Thanks for the service, by the way."

Aww, do I see a blushy little smile? I do.

"You can't prove a thing." *cough* "Anyway. What are you going to do with Haggar? You've just activated an Alberio-seeking missile. And I think you've set me up with my very own nemeses. The Barbells aren't going to forget this."

We'll do what I (and you) have been doing this entire story – figure that out when we come to it. Seat-of-the-pants is the only way this fic flies.

On that note: Next: Wide Blue Yonder!