Oh, good, one of you is still conscious…

The storm releases its hold on the surrounding area, continuing its war path across the entire world, the sky becoming a bright blue. Evelyn lays on her back and her eyes open and look up at it. As sleep leaves her the memories come back and she springs up, letting out a pained groan. The smoke from her now crashed airship filling her nostrils, having to abandon ship, crashing through tree branches that slowed her descent to something less fatal. She stands up and takes her helmet off, her hair matted with sweat that she gives a look of disgust to, turning to her now burning ship with a frown.

“Sorry, girl… I couldn’t get you out this time.”

The sound of airships coming closer silences any mournful words. Evelyn skates towards a nearby bush and practically dolphin dives into it to keep herself hidden as her pursuers land. A group of storm chasers file out of five airships, weapons drawn as they spread out, moving towards the wrecked ship.

“Careful! They’re Breathers so they could still be alive!” One of the men up front said.

“So that guy’s the leader…” Evelyn thinks to herself as she takes a few stones in her hand and checks her skates. Flipping a switch, the inner machines of her modified skates spring to life, spinning the wheels rapidly. “Overdrive.”

The veins in her legs bulge out and glow the same teal hue as Adrian. She springs into action, keeping up with the spinning wheels underneath her with ease, she jumps. Throwing the handful of stones in her hand. They soar through the air and reach their target, pelting the man who spoke in the back of the head, sending him face first into the ground. Before the others can even turn to react she hits the ground and in a blink dashes after them. A knee, an elbow and a heel kick thrown in succession against three different men in an instant. They hit the ground with a thud and Evelyn skates around the path of gunfire. She rolls towards a tree and roaches to gain even more speed. Zooming up it and kicking a thick tree branch up with her as she soars through the air. The gunfire continues, trying to keep up with the fast traget, Evelyn drop kicking the twirling branch at her attackers. The three remaining men crumble under the weight of the object and meet their comrades on the hard ground. Evelyn tucks midair, flipping the switch off on her skates, landing on her feet with the grace of a cat. She rests her hands on her hips and admires her work with a small smile. A groan can be heard coming from one of them, the one she had kneed in the stomach and Evelyn rolls over to him.

“Oh, good, one of you is still conscious.” She said, slamming her skate down next to his head with a thud, getting a small yelp out of the man. She leans down with a grin. “Wanna tell me why you guys tried to kill us?”

“It- it was just an order, a job, nothing personal I swear.” he responds.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s not what I asked.” She waves off his pleas “Why?”

“Mr. Valcadin, he gave the order, we were told to kill the Breathers. That’s all I kn- know! I-I swear just-”

Before the man can finish, Evelyn drop kicks him into silence. Evelyn rests her hand on her chin and thinks for a moment, before it’s inturpted by Adrian’s voice, who emerges from the tree line. “WHAT THE HELL?!!”

Evelyn turns her head to him with a small smile. “Adrian! You’re back!”

“You crashed the ship?!” He responds, grinding his teeth.

“Well someone had to fight them off! And I’m okay by the way!” She yells back, now mimicking her friend’s anger.

Adrian drops to his knees, then on all fours. “This can’t be happening… My- My Garnu cards…” He said. He slams his fist into the ground repeatedly.

Evelyn rolls her eyes. “Thats what you’re worried about? It’s just some dumb carboa-”

Adrian springs up and grabs Evelyn by her suit’s collar, cutting off her sentence with his own. “Don’t you dare!! You stupid gorrila girl! You know how much all that was worth?! Thousand, Ev! Thousands!!” He says while shaking her.

Evelyn pushes him off “Dude! Chill!”

“I told you joining up with the storm chasers was a bad idea! It doesn’t matter who or what we are now, once a ravaged, always a ravaged. That’s how they see us. When will you get it through your head!”

“You can’t say shit! You moronic cave man! If it wasn’t for you attacking that Thunderblade they wouldn’t have known anything!! You ruined the plan and now we have nothing! I hope the plate was worth it!”

“At least it’s progress! The storm isn’t going to give us any answers! It only takes!”

“Oh right, because wildly looking around for people who might be Thuderblade is so much better! You’re insufferable!”

“And you’re a bitch!” 

Evelyn jumps on him after hearing that and the two roll around on the grass. Adrian pulls her hair while Evelyn tears at his ears. They have this pulling contest for a few more moments before Evelyn gets off

“Alright, Alright, enough!”

“You started it!” Adrian replies before the two fall silent.

“So now what?” Evelyn said.

“We tried to do things the ‘right’ way, now we’re doing it our way.” Adrian says with a smirk.

Evelyn gives him a look “And our way is…?”

“What’s the best place to make money?”

“Uh, Gemshore probably.”

“Exactly, we get enough money to replace our airship, then we start flying without the storm chasers, like we always did.”

“Meathead, it takes a squadron of airships to make it deep into the storm, let alone the eye itself.”

“Moron, then we’ll employ some with the leftover cash.”

Evelyn thinks about Adrian’s response for a second. “Guess it would be cool to be the boss… But we don’t even need to buy a ship” She said poiting behind her at the storm chaser ships. “We can just steal one of these. Besides, Storm chaser ships are supposed to be easily modified, with things breaking easily in the storm and stuff.”

“Even better, supe up one of these, buy back most of what we lost, the recruit some more.” Adrian says as he glances at the ships, the storm chaser insignia brings back the memory of the other insignia he saw. “Oh yeah…”

“Wha?”

“There was a ship buried in the ground while I was in the storm. Saved my ass but… There was a weird insignia on it.”

“Weird how?”

“Like I never saw it before, this crow on top of a snake.”

“That is weird. Maybe an independent group?”

“Probably? It didn’t look spray painted on or anything like that.”

“Well, one problem at a time, like seeing which one of these is the coolest.” Evelyn says as she makes her way to one of the airships, preparing their voyage to Gemshore.