Oh, that poor car! It was a shambling hunk of scrap now. And it looked so beautiful! He doubted Earth energy could bang out THOSE dents.

Matt began trudging towards the car, hands in his pockets. In the distance he saw Helena keeping a close eye on him. Good thing, too. Considering this damn curse mark, he was waiting for the next big bad luck streak to come swooping-

"Matt!" Helena suddenly shouted, pointing up. "Look out!"

Matt turned around and glanced up, shielding his eyes. It was just enough to notice the flaming F-14 streaking down right at him, pilot long ejected.

"OH THIS IS JUST STUPID!" he snapped, as the plane smashed into the ground, the massive wreckage careening towards the Firebird.

Alasea spun around at Matt's shout, and her eyes widened with shock as the plane hurled to the ground some distance away.

She flung up one hand and channeled instinctively, throwing up a barrier between her and her friends, and the the destroyed jet as it came rushing forward, flinging metal and asphalt and flames towards them. The main body of the wreckage smashed against it, nearly dislodging her from the street. The wreckage smashed apart and divided, passing them by. Part of it clipped the side of the Firebird and sent it skittering down the street.

X hesitated for a moment; he really didn't know how to do this. Then he heard Sylvontis's voice from within the sword. The sword quickly coached him on how to fold his own energy to enhance his jumping.

X's eyes snapped open.

"Let's go!" He yelled as he began to leap from building to building.

"Do not worry about that, Geetz. While NightShade's palace is indeed large, locating Gatz should not be much of a problem. You and Gatz are both Servitor Units, are you not? Your similar models will allow us to locate him easier," Relayia said. "Seril, since you have been with Gatz the longest out of all of our kind, I shall need you to prepare the location spell. You will go with the Riders on the rescue operation."

"Yes, your Majesty," Seril said, bowing slightly. "Who will go with the Ancients to fight against NightShade's minions?"

"I will send some of the Bronze Dragons. I will also allow the use of the Dragon Soul Summoning."

Seril's eyes, much to the surprise of the others, widened in shock and abject horror. "No! You can't be serious, your Majesty!" she shouted, standing straight up while her eyes flashed wildly with color. "Do you know what you're saying!?"

===England===

Aram ran down the street, following X as he sprinted across rooftop to rooftop, barely managing to keep up while wearing his enchanted plate mail. All that training in the Nightmare Realm paid off, he thought wryly as he made his way to the docks.

Helena had started screaming as the plane hit the ground, kept on going through the whole wipeout, and even now she wouldn't stop, even though she was now ragged for breath.

The aftermath of the accident rang loud in Alasea's ears, and as she lowered the barrier, she looked around at the destruction. The street had been rent apart by the crashing jet, leaving dark gouges in it. Bits and pieces of flaming debris was lodged into the street, sidewalk, and surrounding buildings, and the remaining fuel burned hotly. The Firebird was a mess, but at least it looked relatively intact.

Upon seeing Helena, she grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her a bit and lightly slapping her on the cheek to get her attention. "Helena! Its okay, its over! Calm down!"

Her screaming cut to shuddering, frantic gasps. "Matt!" she managed. She broke off from Alasea and ran towards the wreckage. "Matt!"

Alasea also ran with Helena towards the wreckage, calling for Matt. "Matt! Where are you!?"

Helena stopped in front of the flaming husk of the plane. Her arms thickened with strength and scales as she tore into the wreckage, stripping away plates of metal and tossing them aside with a clatter.

It's simple. Simply mold it by compressing it into your legs. The strength in your legs will be multiplied tenfold, letting you jump farther than ever.

X touched down on a building near the water, looking around he carefully surveyed the surroundings. Then he stopped.

Motioning Aram he called, "Here! I found the dock!"

"Oh, I hope he didn't get hit by that," Alasea whimpered, looking over the wreckage a safe distance away from Helena and the debris.

Looking about, she figured she could do something about the fires, at least. Knowing they were started by the plane's fuel, she didn't dare use water. Instead, she channeled, drawing the fire into a single point, causing the flames to drift through the air until they converged into a single point.

Then, with a quick motion, Alasea banished the flames outright. "There, now the place won't burn down around us."

===England===

"Alright!" Aram called, rounding the corner. Sure enough, there was a dock, with a fair number of intact ships in them, though they were unlike anything the medieval warrior had ever seen before.

He made his way down to the docks, motioning for X to come down and follow.

X hopped down. It was at this moment he wished he had his old armor. It's readout could have pinpointed the fastest ship at the dock. He was going to have to do it the old-fashioned way this time.

"Race?" he asked, a grin slowly forming.

"... race to what?" Aram asked, sounding perplexed by the suggestion.

It wasn't like Helena would be harmed by the flames, but now that they were gone, she worked faster, tearing the front of that plane to shreds. "Where is he?" she said out loud. "Where IS he?"

"Right here," a voice mumbled underneath a particularly large chunk of aircraft. "Please get this off my chest."

"Matt!" Helena's claws ripped away, digging through the cockpit equipment itself to reveal Matt, surrounded by the remnants of a crackling energy. "Oh God, Matt! Are you okay?"

"I'm in extreme pain, if that's what you're saying," Matt chirped.

"Alright, hold still and don't move," Alasea ordered, moving up to Matt and kneeling down next to him. She began gathering up her energy for a Delving. "Helena, can you get the area around us cleared up a bit? I need to see Matt damaged anything in this crash."

"...to see which one's faster..." X mumbled under his breath.

"... that's a little cheap," Aram said wryly, glancing sideways at his companion. "You'd easily beat me since I'm in this armor."

"...what? I meant race the boats!" X's eyes suddenly took on a more skittish look, "But we should probably get out of here before whatever that was comes back."

"Race the boats...?" Aram muttered as he wandered off, to find a decent one. "How am I supposed to even use one of these, anyway?"

"Here, lemmee see." X said as he hopped into a sporty looking boat and looked at the controls. Once again he wished he had his visor with him. The display would have provided an automated user's manual, making the work simple beyond measure. What the hell had he been thinking, getting rid of that? And for what, a few pieces of cloth?

He stared at the controls for a few minutes, but try as he might the controls made no more sense than they had moments ago. A jumbled, confused mess; mocking him. Aware that Aram was watching him from behind, X grew embarrassed. After all, wasn't he supposed to be the tech guy?

As he awkwardly stared at the mechanical behemoth, X's mind wandered. He'd never been great with technology. No formal training, no expertise, none of that. In fact his only experience with complicated technology was...

...his armor. It hadn't stood out before now, but it was all very queer all of a sudden. He was unable to work a simple boat motor, yet he'd been able to construct a fully functional set of powered battle armor (glitchy though it was)? At the time he hadn't questioned it, he had simply sat down and before he knew it the job had been finished.

But, no. X wasn't the technical wiz. That had been Silvanus's honor. Silvanus was an old friend of X's. They'd served in the war together and their friendship had dated back even slightly before then. He was a genius; a technopath some would even say. X had always been secretly jealous of Silvanus's abilities. In fact, he'd built the armor as a way try and replicate Silvanus's skill...

...

Something very strange happened in that moment, as X remembered Silvanus. The strange jumble of levers, buttons, gears, and gadgets took on a new appearance. Every intricate function, every interweaving connection, the very fabric of the ship itself was made plain to him. Not only could he visualize the innermost workings of the ship in perfect detail, it all seemed as simple as child's play to him. He couldn't explain how he understood, he simply did, as though this machinery was as simple a child's jigsaw puzzle.

With a few swift motions, the boat sputtered to life.

"Yeah," X replied, "I think we can make this work."

"Alright then. I'll go get some supplies for the trip," Aram said, motioning behind him before heading back to do so.

"...yeah. You go do that..." X agreed absent-mindedly.

What was going on? That machinery may as well have been a foreign language, but he suddenly understood them clear as day. Was this related to the Queen's power? No, it didn't feel like that. This wasn't her dense, smothering aura. His mind suddenly flashed to the recent battle with Kyoka. What was it Aram had claimed? There were large gaps in X's memory about that battle. One moment he'd been imprisoned in Kyoka's illusion and then he'd been fre--no, wait. That wasn't right. Something was missing in that memory...

He remembered. He saw himself lose his temper, rebel. He remembered an immense burst of power. Why had he forgotten that? His mind flashed back to the end of the War. His memory of that was similarly fuzzy. Had he forgotten that too?

And still, his mind reminded him, that didn't address his original question. What had just happened... it was like that. Like his sudden powerup, but it wasn't exactly the same.

What was wrong with him?

"Okay." Helena began clearing the aircraft as much as possible. She tore off a chunk of plane covering Matt's lower body - he had been pressed into the earth thanks to his shield.

Alasea settled the weaves of her Delve into Matt, ignoring how it'd shock his systems with the startling cold that it brings. After a moment of Delving, she stopped. "You don't seem to have anything broken," she murmured, setting up a healing weave. "I'll just take care of what damage you do have and then we can get out of here."

===England===

It wasn't long before Aram returned and loaded the supplies onto the boat. With that accomplished, he sat down and began to strip himself of his armor, knowing it'd be completely useless while at sea.

X shook himself out of his brooding state.

"So where're we going?"

Looking up from where he was removing the plated boots from his feet, Aram reached over and pulled out a map of the oceans he had found in the town.

"I don't know how I know, but we need to go to this spot here," he said, pressing a finger down at one spot of the map. "I just know that right here is where we'll find the Island of Holy Darkness."

"Thanks."

Helena huffed a sigh and sat down on the pavement. Her arms returned to normal as she shook her hands, like they were asleep and she was trying to get them active again.

"You okay?" Matt asked her.

"What? Yeah." She drew back some hair. "Alasea protected me."

"...Yeah. I can get us there, I think."

X began to work the controls on the boat. It was rough at first, and the boat jerked for a few minutes, almost tipping it. Soon enough though, X managed to grasp the feel for the controls and in short order had managed to generate a smooth ride.

His mind wandered back to Silvanus for a moment, and the boat started to drift off course. X jerked to attention and corrected it, but as he did so he intuitively felt the urge to make one minor adjustment to the ship.

He began unscrewing plating and plucking and tampering with all sorts of gears and wires and machinery.

"We really can't go anywhere while that Stand's affecting you," Alasea noted, sitting down to catch her breath. "But we need to get out of here before the cops and god knows what else gets here. I think they'll have noticed this."

===Off England's Coast===

"What are you doing?" Aram asked, looking over curiously at X's work.