{*while at the lab:

Working through the night, Kageru fixed the broken Knightmon Card. After being fixed, the Knightmon Card became the Teal Card.}

After the group left the Stonehenge base, it immediately occurred to them they knew where they were going but not how to get there.

"Uh, guys ... just how do we intend to get back, anyway?" asked Skulryk.

"You can't have anymore of my sandwiches because Tessie ate my last one," growled Dan indignantly.

"After the ship sank..." trailed off Chartreuse.

"What about that card you used?" asked Bruiser. "When we came back from Fourside."

Kageru shook his head. "I need something digital for us to exit at. A cell phone, or a computer. Unless you know of something to use, it's useless."

"Winters Airport isn't far from here," suggested Narcy.

"We heard you flew here from Threed," commented Ness. "Hey, what about the Sky Runner?"

"That would be a great idea ... if it wasn't broken. I couldn't exactly fix it while I was dead."

"So I guess we fly," decided Chartreuse.

"Do we have enough money for everyone?" asked Lucky.

"Details..." said Kageru. "I have a few thousand Yen ..."

-----

"Guh... what happened?" Siris asked groggily, not at all disturbed by a seemingly random blue bubble surrounding him and his friends.

"Raltise's attacks knocked everyone unconscious, save for Kapeka and me," Harsemhin replied. "Suffice it to say, I believe we are finished with the challenges of Gameworld."

"A greater challenge lies ahead of us, however," Talus mused, staring into the distance, though there wasn't much to look at. The rest of the party nodded solemnly.

Suddenly, it became apparent that the Gameworld costumes were melting away, as was the Gameworld landscape. Siris frowned as his costume disappeared, leaving in its place his normal clothes. "Aw, man. I was starting to like that sword, too."

Indeed, everyone looked about themselves as their outfits gradually went back to normal. Looks of relief flowed across most faces; Penetella was grateful to have his hand back, and Rustopher was similarly glad to be out of his ridiculous costume. Matt, too, breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Just as the costumes were returning to normal, so was the landscape. The dark-skied, fiery battleground was slowly but surely being replaced by a bright beach and rich city. Soon enough, the transformation was complete; the eight heroes were back in their normal clothing and their surroundings quite obviously indicated that they had been returned to Summers. The blue bubble faded, and the group was set lightly on the ground (all but Kapeka who fell heavily onto the pavement).

"Looks like we're in Summers," said Siris, pointing out the obvious. Not far away were the charred remnants of a building: L'Hotel du Summers. It was still surrounded by roadblocks.

"Hey," said Matt, pointing. "Isn't that the Hotel du Summers?"

"Yeah," replied Talus. "Burned down by the nightmare demon. Raltise."

"Ain't we gotta find the othahs?" Penetella asked irritably.

"Mr. Giovanni is right," Harsemhin said. "But we are not sure where the others are. What should we do?"

-----

After counting his money carefully, Kageru led the group into the airport. They approached the nearest ticket counter and started asking about purchasing tickets for a trip to Eagleland.

"Hello sir, how are you today?" The clerk behind the counter smiled widely. It was surprising that her face didn't cramp up.

Kageru spoke up tactfully. "Yes, we would like to buy plane tickets to the mainland."

"Ah, excellent. Our flights leave on the hour, every hour and take you directly to Fourside International. Err... wait." The clerk looked down at her computer screen. "Nevermind the Fourside bit. The airport is out of commission at the moment. Our flights take you directly to Twoson instead. Tickets cost $400 a piece."

"Yes, well..." Kageru looked down at the wad of yen in his hands. "I've got yen. About 30000 yen, actually. Would that be enough to purchase the tickets?"

The clerk suppressed a laugh. Kageru looked at her with an unwavering stare. She stopped laughing momentarily and, deciding to have some fun, proceeded to waste the group's time with a useless suggestion. "Well... we DO have a currency exchange just around the corner. Perhaps you could check to see if 30000 yen'll be enough." The clerk bit her lip, trying her best to stop laughing.

Kageru shrugged and walked around the corner. The rest of the group was standing by and talking while he was gone. Moments later, Kageru appeared around the corner slightly angry.

"So you were laughing because you KNEW that we didn't have enough for a plane ticket?" The clerk started laughing and at the same time slammed a fist onto the table. She was laughing so hard that tears were coming from her eyes. Kageru's expression was one of murder.

"Yes! Haha, I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time." The clerk wiped her eyes and chuckled a bit. She noticed that Kageru was about to rip her head off, so she stopped laughing. The rest of the group stopped talking and looked at Kageru.

"Is something wrong?" Chartreuse looked at Kageru, waiting for him to tell the bad news. "Why don't you tell us."

"Well, I sort of don't have enough money to cover our expenses. Apparently, 30000 yen is only about 347 dollars. Not enough for even one plane ticket." A collective groan was let out by the group. Christina got up.

"Hey guys..." Christina began talking shyly.

"Well, there is an alternative, young man." The clerk leaned over the counter and started talking to Kageru and the rest of the group. "You see that man over there? The one wearing the bird hat? He's a pilot. Perhaps you could talk to him."

"Guys..." Christina raised her voice slightly but was put off by being ignored by everybody. Ness noticed her but didn't say a word.

"Why?" Chartreuse took charge of the situation.

"Well, as I already said, he's a pilot. He could probably ferry you guys over to some place really cheap."

"Excellent." Chartreuse walked off towards the pilot and started talking with him. Christina sighed and kept her suggestion to herself.

"Well then young man, I can probably ship you over to Eagleland real cheap." The pilot was a man in his sixties. Chartreuse's youthful personage didn't give away his true age. "Of course, it'll probably be a rough flight. Just look at my airplane." He motioned out the window, pointing towards an old aircraft. Surprisingly, the wheels were very shiny. "Also, we'll probably have to land on something soft, like dirt, but still, it'll do."

"Right." Chartreuse agreed that the plane'll do. "Now, how much will it cost?"

"Well, I'm planning on going to Japantown someday and they use yen, so if you have any yen, I'll gladly take it. Say... 30000?" The old pilot looked steadfastly into Chartreuse's eyes.

"Very well. Kageru, pay this man. We're going to... where?"

"Dusty Dunes Desert, young'un." The pilot grinned happily. He smiled broadly once he received the yen. He ran outside and started prepping the plane for a flight. Within a few minutes, the plane was ready; he motioned to his passengers to board the plane. After a few more minutes, the entire group was on board the old plane. The engines were fully running. The reverberations from the engines caused the entire airframe to shake. "Well, here we go!" The old pilot took his place in the cockpit and started to taxi out onto the runway. He narrowly avoided a commercial airliner already out on the runway, but still, things were good. After getting to the end of the launch runway, he released the brakes causing the whole aircraft to leap forward suddenly. It gained speed and eventually it was airborne.

In the back of the plane, Chartreuse was sitting on an old box. Christina sat opposite of him sitting on another crate. The seats on this plane were torn out a long time ago in order to provide the old pilot with enough money to purchase the custom rims on the plane.

"Well Christina, I forgot to ask you what you wanted back there in the airport." By now, Winters was just a speck on the horizon. "Anyway, now that we have time, what did you want?"

"Well... I just wanted to tell you guys that I had my credit card here. We could have used it to purchase the tickets. But I guess that that's way in the past now, huh? Besides, we don't have to worry about customs now, I guess." Christina shrugged slightly.

Chartreuse looked at her blankly for the moment. His blank stare was broken with a grin. "Well, I guess that it IS in the past. Oh well, this is probably a whole lot cheaper. I suppose." The plane started shaking violently but eventually, the shaking stopped. The rickety plane was barely holding together. This was what they had to look forward to for the next couple of hours.

Ever cautious, Dan poked his head into the cockpit.

"So..." He said, his uneasy smile showing braced teeth. "How long have you been flying?"

The pilot bobbed his head up and down to cause the plush wings attached to his red baseball cap to flutter. Dan raised an eyebrow. “About all me’ life...” he said happily; suddenly, however, his face turned deadly serious. “Ever since...the war...”

Dan’s eyes perked up. “The war!? Which one?”

“America and Japan, acourse.”

America? What on Eagleland was that? “Oh man, this guy is seriously insane!”

The old man turned around. “Eh, boy?”

“I mean, oh sir, what’s your Christian name?”

“Philo. At least, it was...before the war...”

”OK. Well, I’ll be running now!”

“Wait! I always give kids who visit me in the cockpit wings!” He threw Dan a pair of plastic airline wings. Hoping to appease the man who controlled his destiny, Dan pinned them on his shirt, and as he closed the pin he came to a sudden horrible realization.

“Who’s flying the plane?”

“What plane?”

“THIS ONE.”

“The copilot. Wait...” Philo rushed for the controls as the plane dived downward, barely righting it. “I could never trust that copilot...”

Minutes later, Dan was relating the story to the rest of the group.

”...and there wasn’t even a copilot’s seat!”

"Well, I'd believe it." Christina looked outside through a small window in the rear section of the plane. It started getting stormy once again. "Perhaps he's good enough to get us through this storm."

"Don't you worry, missy!" Philo was standing in the back of the plane looking out the window with her. Everybody's jaw dropped when they saw him back there. "Don't worry, I've got things all taken care of. My co-pilot is taking care of things."

Dan nearly started crying when he said this. "But... you don't have a copilot..."

"What! What happened to him?!" Philo looked around, bewildered. "Are you telling me that we're under attack and that he's been killed by those dang Zeros?!" He started running around in a small circle. It was surprising that he didn't trip over any of the clutter strewn around in the back of the plane. "He was the best darn bombardier that I've ever had the chance to fly with!"

"So you're telling us that a bombardier is flying this plane?" Kageru stood up and looked directly at the old pilot. "Bombardiers are for bombing, not for flying! You have to help the bombardier!"

"Help the bombardier?" The old pilot nearly lost his nerve. "But I'm the bombardier!"

"Then go fly!" Kageru's former argument was turned in on itself because the plane suddenly lurched to port. Every person in the back of the plane fell onto the wall. The assorted objects in the back of the plane crashed through the flimsy plane walls. A stray crate hit the engine, causing it to catch on fire.

"Cripes! We've been hit!" The pilot ran into the cockpit and took control. He had the plane dive towards the rough seas. The engine burned off all of the fuel it contained, leaving that engine nothing more than a flying hunk of metal. He was trying his best to keep control of the plane. His mastery of flying helped him immensely. Bolts of lightning flashed throughout the sky. One bolt hit the starboard engine, effectively disabling it. The propeller feathered slowly to a stop. The plane started banking to port; the old pilot tried his best to level the plane out. He succeeded.

Vincent looked outside and assessed the situation. Looking at the starboard engine, he noticed that it was leaking fuel at a tremendous rate. "We're not going to make it, huh?" With these words, each and every person's heart fell into their stomach. Some handled it better than others: Chartreuse gulped slightly but maintained a steady face while Lucky fainted from the shock.

"Heck no!" The old pilot shouted back as loud as he could. "There's some land over there. I think that... MY GOD IT IS! It's Toto! I'll set the plane down right over there!" The old pilot's eyes hardened; he was determined to land the plane in one piece.

The starboard engine finally died after a bit. They were almost over the land but they didn't have enough power to make it. The pilot let the plane down in Toto, hitting the side of the docks. It slid into the water. The entire front section of the plane was totally obliterated. The rear section where the passengers were was alright except for the fact that it was flooding with seawater. Ness quickly took charge.

"Guys, follow me!" Ness climbed out of the gaping hole on the port side and jumped on to the dock. "Hurry!"

Each person in the group followed suit. They jumped onto the dock and looked at the plane solemnly. The old pilot Philos couldn't have survived the impact.

"Poor guy..." Christina tried her best to hold back her tears but a few escaped.

"Yes... poor guy." Chartreuse was trying his best to cheer up the group. After all, they did have a job to do. "Perhaps that was the way he was supposed to go. You guys, I know that I may seem heartless, but we've got things that we need to do. We've really need to get to Fourside."

"And how would we do that?" Narcy looked directly at Chartreuse. "There aren't any boats left in the harbor so we can't sail to that city."

-----

The answer to Harsemhin's query came rather quickly; and from the sky, no less. Kapeka pointed into the air toward what seemed to be a falling airplane.

"Harse, look!" she shouted. The group of eight watched as the aircraft, which seemed to be missing an engine or something, plummeted toward the surface. It fell out of the vision range of the party of eight, crash-landing in a such a location that it could not be seen directly from the beach. Talus immediately began running in the direction of the fallen craft, his comrades quickly following suit. He was about to explain this behavior, but decided it unnecessary as everyone probably understood the silent assumption that the sudden airplane crash had something to do with the entire mess.

Talus's party approached the location where they suspected the plane to have fallen; as they grew closer to the area they noticed another group of people which they instantly recognized.

---

"Well, we could drive there," Skulryk began. "But we don't exactly have any cars or anything..." He trailed off. "Hey... look." He pointed in the direction of Talus's party, which was quickly converging with his own.

"Fancy meeting you here." Talus mused, grinning, as he ran up. Chartreuse raised an eyebrow.

"Where in the world have you guys been?" He eyed them suspiciously. "And how the heck did you end up here?"

"It's a long story." Chione muttered as she came to a stop. Siris came along beside her. Narcy blinked.

"Oh, hey Luna! I didn't know you were here." She nodded in Chione's direction nonchalantly. Chione took a step back. Siris gazed wide-eyed, mouth agape but unable to utter a word. Talus' face was screwed up in a moment of extreme confusion. Then all at once they erupted.

"Did you just say Luna!? Let's get this --"

"-- straight, my name is Chione. Let me spell it out for you. For the last --"

"-- time, who in the heck is Luna!"

All three exclaimed in unison. "Just what are you talking about!" Narcy took a step back.

"Hey, sorry. You just reminded me of someone I knew...you look pretty similar to her, at least..." She trailed off. Siris, Chione and Talus stared at the ground. A brief, embarrassing pause followed. Then Siris looked up.

"Hey Char, who exactly is that, anyway?" He said irritably, motioning to Narcy, the cause of all the trouble. Chartreuse raised an eyebrow.

"You mean you don't know? I'm surprised." He said. Siris' brow furrowed, as he dug into some fleeting memories.

"Oh jeez, that's Narcy?" He exclaimed, putting a hand to the side of his temple in shock. "Does this mean that..."

"That I'm alive? Indubitably!" Jeff wheezed. Dan rolled his eyes.

"So anyway, what's up with you guys?" A dark cloud fell over Talus' face.

"Raltise is waiting for us aboard the SS Thed, his own personal luxury yacht. It's parked in the northern harbor of Fourmoon. This is it; we have to take him out now before the Nightmare Rock's destruction is complete. This may be our last chance."

Narcy placed her hands on her hips. "Well I don't suppose you have any bright ideas." She said, rolling her eyes. Talus grinned, shoving a newspaper in her face. She grabbed it in both hands and read. "Super Ultra Mambo Tango Foxtrot Speedboat Deluxe on exhibit in Toto. The fastest ship to sail the seas comes to Summers! Interesting reading material you got here, kid. So how do you plan we steal it?" Talus' grin widened.

"Are you kidding? What we have here is probably a collection of the most powerful people on this planet, not to mention two of the four people who saved the world from total destruction a few years back. I'm sure we can do a little thing like hijack a ship."

"Great. So what's the plan, oh wise one?" Siris muttered, folding his arms across his chest. He cast a sideward glance at Chione, again noting how similar she looked to Luna. He was broken from his reverie by a sharp pain in his leg. Talus had kicked him in the shin irritably.

"Cool it for once. Now really, we don't have a lot of time left. So I think the subtle approach is out." Ness' eyes widened.

"So you're saying we just go in there, guns blazing, take out a few guards, magically learn how to pilot the ship, and jet?" He stared incredulously.

"That's the idea." Talus said through pursed lips, his eyes closed, arms folded across his chest. "Unless you have a better one." Ness looked at the faces about him. Each one seemed to be deep in thought, trying to ponder some alternate solution. It was then that Penetella slapped Talus' back heartily.

"Son, I like yo' style!" He exclaimed. "Any sucka whose darn foolish enough to pull off something like that's got Penetella's seal of approval! Now enough with this jibba-jabba, let's get ourselves a ship."

----

"Don't let anyone through, under any circumstances." Mr. Fork glared menacingly at Chief Strong. "The exhibit isn't open yet, and we don't want anyone taking a sneak peak inside our lovely boat. Get it?" He pressed himself close to Strong's face. The police chief sweated profusely.

"Aye, sir. I've got it. Not a single soul. You got my word." Mr. Fork nodded sternly in reply, and stormed off back to the Museum. Chief Strong muttered to himself, stamping his foot murderously. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a familiar red baseball cap approaching him. He looked up, smiling amiably. "Ness! What brings you here?"

Ness smiled back, looking up at the towering police chief. "Nothing much, just heard about the exhibit and all. It interested me, you know?" Chief Strong frowned.

"Little homework project, eh?" He chuckled. Ness grinned.

"Nah. See, I need to get to Fourside so I was planning on stealing it." The nozzle of a Colt .45 nestled itself in the back of Chief Strong's head. The smile faded from his face. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see a woman in a labcoat behind him, cocking the weapon. He raised his hands cautiously in the air, staring at Ness in perplexity. "Sorry, Chief." He said. "No hard feelings, and all. We sort of need it right now. We promise to return it, I swear." He brushed past the chief, stepping over some red and white striped roadblocks. Seventeen other individuals filed past the hostage police officer and up onto the boat. Strong was in a state of shock.

"Now, just don't do anything stupid. I mean, you want to live to play EarthBound again, don't you?" Narcy grinned. Chief Strong swallowed slowly, nodding his head. "Very good," she said as she withdrew the weapon and ran to the ship as well. Chief Strong turned around as the speedboat pulled out of the harbor.

"Wait!" A voice behind the Chief shrieked. He turned around to see Mr. Fork running across the docks, waving his arms frantically as the boat sped over the horizon, to the west. As he reached the police chief, still staring into the tranquil waters, he let his arms go limp in defeat. Then he turned to Strong, glaring furiously.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know they could step over roadblocks?" He muttered in reply.