To get the Valid's flying van out of the courtroom wasn't going to be easy, though. 

     It looked like every law enforcement officer from a hundred miles around, federal, state, local, international, whatever, had all showed up. 

     The Valid's SUV had no cloaking device, although it was heavily armored. 

     Which was good because the second the SUV flew from the courthouse to rise above everyone's heads...

​     BAM!

     They got hit by a grenade shot from a grenade launcher!

​     Dang!

     It rocked the SUV and got it spinning.

     Everyone was strapped in, so no one had to bounce around inside of the van. Shawnacy kept her focus on the controls. 

     Once she got the SUV straightened out, she headed north.

     Niki turn to Trevor. "So the Azure lets us out for a single unrestricted morning to do what we want, and you immediately go out and get yourself arrested?" 

     Trevor shrugged. "Someone ambushed me from our hall closet," he replied. "I mean, what the hell?"

     "You were invisible?"

     "Yeah!" 

​     "And you didn't catch any surveillance around your house?"

     "I didn't detect anything, no."

     "You shouldn't even have gone home," Estelle said. "You knew that's the first place they'd..."

     "Okay! Okay! Fine. I screwed up. I just wanted to...I just needed to...After three years, I figured...I wanted to go home. Not that it was ever much of a..."

     "They got your sneakers and your L-K, too," Niki said. "You're going to have to complete the rest of the mission without them."

     "Thank you so much for reminding me."

     "So where are we headed?" Niki asked.

     "To Naturia," Estelle replied.

     "And what's a Naturia?"

     "It's a continent that's also a living being. It was supposed to be the sixth talon, but then...last year...it's complicated. I don't understand it all myself, to be perfectly honest with you."

​     "The six of us are going to take on an entire continent?"

     "Not this time," Noel explained. "No, this time we're to retrieve something from the center of the continent."

     "You're going to love this next part," Estelle said.

                                                        CONTINUE