“You know, you could just ask me nicely to build a glider for you,” Richie replied, cocking an eyebrow. “I could always do with a crash-test dummy for my toys.”

As much as Richie would have liked to have spent the entire trip tinkering with the ship’s equipment, time proved to be more restricting than he had first thought, and an hour before their arrival he had to make sure all of his equipment was up to scratch for the battles which would soon take place. The time was not completely lost, however, as the abundance of new alien technology that he had gotten his hands on had given him a significantly greater insight into advanced propulsion systems, and in what time he had spare he had restructured the inner workings of his glider. With the addition of a few small pieces of vulcan technology, Richie’s glider was now far more stable than it was before without having to modify the shape or the weight distribution of the device. His quick tests proved that it had been improved significantly, and the softer whir of his glider made him grin ear to ear.

Richie fiddled with his gauntlet for a while, pressing buttons and running his fingers through the air where tiny holographic panels hovered, checking the calibration of his glider and the condition of his equipment. When he was content with the results he slipped his helmet on, the seal around the neck hissing softly as it connected to the main body of his flight suit. Lights flickered along the inside of the visor and a HUD containing his vitals, fuel, and all sorts of other useful pieces of information appeared in his field of view.

He was distracted, however, by the sounds of metal clanking against metal as a figure walked towards him. Richie turned, spotting the white-gold coloured female figure as she stood next to him, a fire in her eyes that was completely unlike the woman he had seen only a few hours before. She wore a tighter bodysuit under her clothes made of a green material, likely to help protect her body if she ever tired, but she walked barefoot and seemed to have acquired a red scarf. It suited her, Richie thought.

“Good mood?” he asked, looking to Allison.

“Better than ever,” she replied, her eyes narrowing and a small smirk appearing on her face. “Do you think we’re all ready for something like this?” Allison asked, although nothing about her tone or body language implied that she was feeling uneasy.

Richie smiled although his smile hid it. “We’ve all done strange things and pulled through. I think we’ll be fine.”

The rest of the party gathered around them soon afterwards. Natasha had donned her armour, a simple but effective human design, and had almost every weapon she could carry strapped to some part of her body. Weapons both human and alien, ranged and melee, were attached to her in some way. Most might’ve thought it silly, her obsession with weaponry, but Richie knew her well enough to know that she could kill someone a thousand different ways with each weapon she held. Meanwhile, Skull-Man, the unkillable superhero, just became harder to kill. His new suit was intriguing, capable of self-regeneration, and Richie reminded himself to take a sample of it once this was all over. Red Dragon, meanwhile, looked calm and stoic in his bright red costume, ready to take on the world. It was quite respectable.

Walter didn’t seem to be among the group though, and even as the room filled up with vulcan soldiers and engineers Richie couldn’t see him. He frowned and glanced to Allison, mouthing Walter’s name, but she too scanned the room and saw nothing. She shrugged in response, and then turned to Zakarr who announced his presence to the growing group. Finding him would have to wait until the briefing was done, she thought, although silently scorned him for missing the meeting. Zakarr announced the teams, handpicking the humans who would take on key roles in the fight to turn the tide, and was quite interested in hearing exactly what teams Zakarr had organised.

Allison expected Richie to groan when he heard he would have to fight alongside Skull-Man again, but instead he held up one of his arms to Skull-Man expecting a high-five. “I guess we’ll see how well that suit handles against alien tech,” he said, his smile still hidden.

Allison was surprised to find out she would be fighting alongside her recently-elected teacher, Prince Zakarr, and also Red Dragon, all of whom she had met within a short space of time back on Earth. She was very interested in seeing how well they all functioned as a team rather than opponents, and was even more excited to try out the skills she had learned practicing with the alien prince. Her entire body seemed to tingle with a spark of energy she hadn’t felt in a long time.

A single Vulcan soldier stepped forwards, saluting Zakarr before moving towards Natasha. “Miss. We’ve prepared one of the boarding shuttles to take the first party towards the prison. If you’d like to follow me, please,” he said, slowly leading the woman off to the shuttle bay where several ships had gathered. Many were armed but one was tiny, likely designed to hold only one or two passengers.

By it stood a human man, a wide grin on his face as he saw Natasha enter the room. He waved, welcoming her over. A box the size of a large chest sat beside him, hovering gently on alien machines, and it kept close to him even when he walked over to greet her. “Looks like we’ve been stuck together on this mission. It’s a pleasure.”