Hey everybody! I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated. There's been a lot happening in my life recently. I got a new job, an amazing new boyfriend, and my boyfriend and I bought a house together. Needless to say, there hasn't been a lot of time for writing recently. To be honest, I had this chapter written a long time ago but I didn't have time to go back and edit it until now. I just finally started getting things in our new house organized and I got my new computer set up and ready to write! I would like to thank everybody who has stuck with this story, everybody who has jumped on board recently, and everybody who has sent me messages checking in on me. You're all really amazing people. Hopefully after this chapter I will be back on track and updating a bit more regularly than every two years. I think about this story a lot and I would like to finish it. Without further ado, please enjoy the latest update!

A little over an hour after we got done eating I found myself in the entrance to the hotel lobby in a black t-shirt and the pants that Bentley had gotten me. We thought it was a good idea that I don't dress myself like another pilot because then I might later be linked to the missing handkerchief and ice sculpture. I listened as Bentley explained the new plan to Sly. Instead of tying up Bentley and Murray in the attempt to get the handkerchief, I was going to get the handkerchief by acting the damsel in distress. In the meantime, the Guru was going to bust open the back of the Team Iceland supply truck using guards so that Sly could get inside. Bentley was already getting things started at the hangar.

"Are you sure you can do this, Maya?" Sly asked over the com.

"Yeah, no problem" I replied confidently. I had a plan but it was dependent on these Team Belgium guys not being total assholes. After scouting the area, I found a young Dalmatian gentleman who was around my height and very lean and decided he would be my victim. I was sure that he hadn't seen me yet and so I took a deep breath, mussed up my hair, reached down and tore a portion of my shirt and then worked on making myself cry. My go-to thought in this situation was the thought of my father being in jail and not being able to see him anymore. Usually it took a while for me to think enough sad thoughts for me to start crying, but for some reason at the very thought that I couldn't see my father I burst into tears. I didn't have time to question my emotional state. Instead I covered my face and ran through the lobby towards the Dalmatian.

The young man didn't have time to think or get out of the way as I ran straight into him and he caught me by the shoulders. He seemed shocked at first and I acted as if I'd found a safe place for the first time in my life. When he finally realized what was going on he asked "What is happening? Are you okay?"

His English was slightly broken but still understandable. "I was attacked" I sobbed.

"Attacked?" he parroted me.

"Yes. There was a group of men by the entrance. When I tried to pass them, they grabbed me" I said, acting as if I was trying to calm down. "I barely escaped."

"You are alright now" he said, patting my shoulder as he did. He reached down into his back pocket and pulled out his handkerchief. "This is all I have" he explained as he handed it to me.

"Thank you" I said as I took it and used it to wipe the tears from my face and blow my nose.

"Did you recognize the men?" he asked me.

"No, and I was in too much of a hurry to escape to get a look at them" I said.

"I will tell my fellow pilots to watch for marauders" he told me with a firm and reassuring tone. "We will find the men who attacked such a beautiful lady."

"Thank you" I replied with a nod. I was certainly feeling calmer than I had just moments before. We were silent for a moment and then I tried to hand him back his handkerchief. "I'm sorry, I've made a mess of it" I told him.

"Keep it" he said as he pushed my hand back. "I can always get another one."

I simply smiled my thanks and nodded. "I'll be headed back to my room now. I feel safer knowing that you will keep an eye out for those men."

"It is my honor. Shall I escort you?" he asked.

I was a bit shocked at his proposal and almost shouted "No, that's okay!" After calming down and clearing my throat I continued "My room isn't far from here and I'll be much more careful from now on."

"As you wish" he replied. "Have a good night."

"You as well" I said and I turned quickly to walk back to the room.

"How did you know that would work?" Sly asked as I closed the door and he popped in through the door to the balcony.

"I was counting on him offering his handkerchief because I was a crying mess" I said. "I thought I'd seal the deal by blowing snot all over it." I smiled as I held it out and it was crumpled and disgusting.

"Ugh! I don't want that" Sly said.

"He didn't either, and so I now have a handkerchief… even if it is a bit nasty" I chuckled.

"They're going to know where it came from if it's covered in boogers" Sly argued.

I laughed at his use of the word 'boogers' and went on to say "I planned on heading over to the hangar to help Bentley out if he needed it. I'll wash this out on the way there."

"Fine, let's get going" Sly said impatiently. He looked out the door at something in the distance. "It looks like the Guru's done some damage already. I want to be ready when he busts that truck open."

"Hold on" I said and I quickly ran back to the door to lock it. "Just in case" I said. I didn't want that Dalmatian from earlier to come checking for me for some reason and walk into an empty room.

I ran out onto the balcony with Sly. He held out his hands to me and said "I'll lower you down."

"Sure" I replied as I took his hands and allowed him to help me over the railing and lower me as far as he could without falling before letting me go so I could drop the few remaining feet to the ground. It was unusual to have Sly helping me about while I wasn't somehow injured. As I thought about it I realized that Sly and I had never really done a lot of field work together. He dropped down beside me and nodded my way. My natural reaction was to nod back even though I had no idea why he'd done it.

As we ran over to the river I looked at Sly, who stayed beside me. I started to wonder why we didn't do more work as a team. Part of it, I knew, was that Bentley never gave us anything to do together. He always had his plans laid out and those plans never really included a team with me and Sly. Usually I did solo work and Sly worked with the boys.

When we got to the river, Sly leapt up on top of the wall holding the river back and held out his hands to swing me up after him. I kneeled down and quickly shook the handkerchief out in the river, scrubbing it just a bit to make sure that it didn't look dirty. Once it was satisfactory I pulled it out of the water and squeezed it out. "I think that should do it" I said.

"It's wet" Sly replied as he took it from me.

"Uh-huh" I nodded.

"It's going to be suspicious" Sly said.

"Do you think they're going to care about the handkerchief being frozen or do you think they'll care that there's a Belgian hanky where their pretty sculpture used to be?" I answered.

He opened his mouth to protest but then there was an explosion in the distance. Bentley came over the com "Nice work Guru, the back doors are still holding tight but the top of the vehicle's been blown wide open! Okay Sly, your turn. You'll have to sprint hard to catch up but jumping in through the roof should be easy."

"That's my cue" Sly said as he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the explosion.

"Okay, I'm going to head over to the hangar" I replied.

Sly pulled me into a quick hug and kissed me on the cheek "Stay safe. There are guards everywhere out there."

"I'll be okay" I reassured him with a squeeze. "My old alias was Mirage, remember?"

"Yeah, you got me good back then" he said as he looked up into the sky as if he was remembering the good old days.

"Get going" I finally said, giving him a playful shove. "If you miss that truck because you're stuck here daydreaming, I'll give you a shove into the river that will really remind you of the old days."

"Okay, okay" he said and he turned and leapt onto a nearby boat so that he could climb the mast and look for the truck. I jumped down from the wall and looked around. There were no guards near the hotel, which was surprising, but the first guard was stationed on the bridge that gave the hotel access to the other part of town and the hangars. I groaned because I did not want to deal with the guard on the bridge but when I looked to my left I noticed a second bridge without a guard. It was a drawbridge with the controls out in the open like an invitation. I ran over to the controls and found that they were very simple. There was a huge green button to put the bridge down that was practically screaming my name. I looked around to make sure no one was watching and I hit the button.

The bridge's motor was surprisingly quiet. I wondered why they hadn't posted a guard here but perhaps they thought that the bridge being up would deter people from trying to use it. This bridge, unlike the other, led straight to the ground around the hangars. There were also surprisingly few guards protecting the grounds around the hangars. Some of the guards were on top of the hangars and there were a couple walking the roads between but I was amazed by the lackluster security considering the way the Baron had talked earlier in the day.

I made my way over to the hangar and rapped gently on the door. "Murray, Bents it's me" I said quietly, trying not to alert any nearby guards that I may not have noticed.

The hangar's large door slowly slid open to reveal Murray. "Come on in" Murray said and he stepped out of the way so I could sneak into the hangar through the narrow opening. Bentley was in a windowed room separate from the main hangar. I could see him typing away on a keyboard as Murray went back to work on the plane.

I lightly tapped the window with my knuckle. His head snapped up and he nodded at me. "Do you need any help in there?" I asked. He gestured for me to come in and I opened the door and walked in to join him.

"I'm just about done here" Bentley said. "It's not fully automated, but that can't be helped. I don't have as much time as I'd like and there's already a rumor that we're going to get a visit tonight from a rival team."

"I'm not surprised" I replied. "We've only been here a day but I would say that we've been doing our best to piss off as many people as possible as quickly as we can."

"I think this is an old enemy of ours" Bentley said. Something in his voice made it click in my head.

"Muggshot?" I asked.

"How do you know about Muggshot?" Bentley asked.

"Well, I heard you guys talking about him over the com and I asked Murray about him. He told me that he was a member of the gang that you guys took on before you went up against the Klaww Gang" I replied.

"He was a nasty character" Bentley said. "A bulldog. He was the runt of the litter when he was little so his only friends were movie characters, most of them mobsters. Because of his messed up childhood he spent the rest of his time working out so that he could be like the brawling gangsters from the movies he watched. He was arrested in Mesa City after Sly beat him so I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he wanted revenge."

"Hmm…" I said and I looked at the screens of his security setup. There were two screens, each with a picture of the sewers below our hangar. They must have been the only other way in besides the front door.

Bentley took a break and rolled out into the main hangar. "I'm almost done in there. If you could stand watch while I finish getting the systems on-line that would be great."

"Fear not brainiac chum" Murray said dramatically. "You'll be safe while my fists are on… duty?"

He sounded a bit confused when he said that last word. I wasn't sure if it was because he was trying to find a word that would work or if he didn't know whether or not 'duty' was appropriate in that context. A laugh escaped my throat. Bentley went back into the hangar control room and went back to work on his modifications. Outside of the hangar I could hear a distinct stomping sound headed towards the door. Moments later, the doors were forced open to reveal a huge, muscled, purple bulldog. His upper body was huge and his lower body was tiny in comparison.

"Greetings Trog-O-lid-ites" the huge dog said. "Didn't think I forgot about Mesa City did ya? I figure you jerks let me smash up your aero-plane and we're even."

'Mesa City?' I thought. My mind very quickly put the ideas together. This was Muggshot.

"You and what army dumb-guy?" Murray asked.

"Army?" Muggshot asked, sounding confused. "Oh yeah. Ok boys, I paid you off good enough, time to crack some skulls."

Murray roared and put up his fists, ready for a fight. He looked at me and I nodded. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"I see the Cooper Gang has added a little girl" the huge bulldog said as he glared at me. "As if there weren't enough girls already."

"I'll make you regret that" Murray said as he charged forward and plunged his fist into the pitbull's stomach. Muggshot was actually unaffected. He didn't even move. His allies began pouring over his shoulders and Murray gave me a look like he was a bit lost.

"I could take it all day, lightweight" Muggshot said to egg Murray on.

"You can't hurt Muggshot with your fists. You have to find something bigger to hit him with" Bentley said.

I looked around the hangar for anything we could use as a weapon. Behind me, Murray was taking out thugs left and right, but he couldn't hold out forever. I was thinking of things that we could pick up but then I noticed the crane track on the ceiling. It led straight out the hangar bay doors and when I turned around there was an engine block loaded on the crane already. Murray was closer to the controls than I was. "Murray, use the crane!" I shouted over the madness that was ensuing inside of our air-hangar.

"Got it!" he shouted back and he ran over and hit the button on the control. The crane moved surprisingly fast, and the engine block was propelled straight into Muggshot's midsection.

"Oh!" Muggshot yelled in pain but he remained where he was, still holding the doors open.

"What, is this guy made of steel or something?" I asked as I ran up next to Murray. "Keep them off of me, I'll use the crane."

"Got it" Murray replied as he leapt back into the fray.

I used the controls to pull the crane back and once it was all the way back to where it had started I pushed the button to propel it forward again. It took three more hits before Muggshot finally went down. I was starting to feel like the fight would never end.

"Oh! Right in the Solar Plex-E-is! Don't think this is over, meatball. Ya' not untouchable. This is just the beginning of a really bad day" Muggshot said menacingly. My jaw dropped as he stood on his fists and walked out using his arms instead of his legs. It was now very clear why his lower body was so small. He never used it!

"Muggshot wasn't making idle threats" Bentley said over the speaker from the side room. "I'm reading multiple hostiles moving through the sewers toward our position. Fortunately my security devices are almost on-line. I'll just have time for a quick test. Murray, if one gets through my traps you'll have to take him out."

"I'll help" I said as I stood by the inconveniently placed sewer entrances right next to our plane. 'Who the hell designed this place?' I thought as I shook my head.

"You take the right and I'll take the left" Murray said. I nodded and we took our positions.

"Here they come" Bentley said. I understood that we would only have to intervene when Bentley couldn't stop them but just a few moments later I heard Murray punch something. "Sorry, guys" Bentley said. There was a clank from inside the sewer entrance that I was watching. I looked down into it to see a couple of thugs starting up the ladder to the top. At this moment, I also realized that I didn't really have a way to fight them. I didn't have a lot of physical strength like Murray. For a moment, I wracked my brain and then I remembered what the Guru had been trying to get me to do. I could make my own lightning without needing a source if I could just focus and stop worrying about the consequences.

I looked down at my hand and focused on pooling energy into my palm. Sparks shot between my fingers and slowly a small ball of electricity was formed. As the first of the thugs stuck his head out of the opening, I struck him in the forehead with my hand. Electricity jolted his body and he fell back down into the sewer. The other thugs looked up to see what had knocked him down and when they saw me their jaws dropped. My ball of electricity had engulfed my hand as if it was a glove. I shot an evil smile down at the thugs on the ladder and slowly reached down towards the metal of the opening. There was a scramble to get off of the metal ladder but most of them were too slow. I gave them a couple of seconds and then I placed my hand on the metal opening, electrifying both the metal tube that made up the sewer exit and the metal ladder that they were on.

The ones who were unfortunate enough to be stuck on the ladder were now trapped there by their own muscles contracting and keeping their hands closed around the bars of the ladder. I kept the setup electrified for about half a minute before the drain of power from my body started to make me tired. When I finally stopped, several men fell straight off of the ladder and onto the ground. Further down in the sewer I could hear some of them trying to escape back through Bentley's traps, which didn't work out for them, and some of the others attempted to gather their fallen comrades before they too ran back into the sewers to brave the sewer traps.

"Good job, Maya" Murray said with a smile. "The Guru would be proud."

"Thanks, Murray" I said with a smile as I sat down, using the slightly raised opening as a temporary seat.

"It's not over yet" Bentley said. "It looks like more are on the way and they're packing explosives."

"It can never be easy" I said with a sigh. I got back up and looked down the sewer entrance again.

"We'll just do the same thing we did before!" Murray said excitedly.

"Bentley, do you have this whole security thing down now?" I asked. I thought the devices were supposed to prevent them from coming through.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it" Bentley replied. "Here they come, get ready."

There was another series of crashes now accompanied by occasional explosions coming out of the entrance to the sewer. A minute or so had passed and none of them had gotten through yet.

"We're half way there" Bentley said over the loudspeaker. I wondered how he could know we were exactly half way through the thug supply, but I didn't question it. Another minute went by and this time nothing passed Bentley's security measures. "We got 'em" Bentley said shortly after the underground noise stopped. "Nice work you two."

"Muggshot will need a lot more than muscle to intimidate us" Murray said with a nod in my direction.

"Looks like he's got muscle and mortar fire" Bentley replied. He was clearly seeing something we weren't. "Maybe it's time I brought in some back-up… just hope she's monitoring the ham radio frequencies."

"What's going on?" I asked as I looked at Bentley. Before he could answer me, there was an explosion outside of the hangar.

"Just stay put. It looks like Muggshot hired a few tanks as well" Bentley said. "Penelope's coming in with her RC chopper to take care of them."

"First thugs and now tanks? You guys really pissed this Muggshot character off in the past, didn't you" I said with a shake of my head.

"You could say that" Bentley replied over the speaker.

"Well, is there anything we can do?" I asked. I hated the idea of being trapped in this bunker while thugs attacked it with tanks.

"Penelope's here" Bentley replied. "Just hold tight. She has the situation under control." The explosions outside of the bunker stopped and it was a couple minutes before Bentley said "She took care of them. Okay Team, we're all set up for the ACES semifinals. Once Sly arrives at the team hangar, we'll prep the plane and suit up for competition."

I looked up at the clock above the door to Bentley's side room. It was around midnight now. I hadn't realized how long all the fighting had been going on. "The competition doesn't start until ten. I'm going to get back to the room and get some sleep."

"I agree" Bentley said. "Sly especially should get some rest. We don't want him flying on no sleep."

"I'll meet you back at the room" Sly said to me over the com.

"Murray and I will stick around here to keep an eye on the hangar" Bentley said. "I want to be sure that no one else tries to destroy our plane."

"I hope the two of you plan on getting some sleep" I said.

"Don't worry about us. We'll take turns keeping watch. Why don't we all meet back here at nine?" Bentley replied.

"Sounds like plan" Sly said over the com.

"I'll see you guys in the morning, then" I nodded and I gave a small wave before heading out of the hangar and out into the night.