In the Great Pins of Nebraska, Chris and Nond climb out of the secret hole that had led to the, now deceased, Grandmaster Alx's base. Nond was taking deep breaths, trying to calm down after the whole situation, while Chris was still examining the iron key that the Grandmaster dropped.

  "Let's get back to the ship, I bet Pool and Corry are waiting for us... They may have found something simir to this key." Chris states.

  "What if they aren't waiting for us though? What if they were defeated by the other Grandmaster?" Nond stutters nervously.

  "You really gotta stop being such a downer, Nond." Chris sighs, grabbing Nond's hood and dragging him through the overgrown grass back towards their vessel.

  "I'm not being a downer; it's called being a realist..." Nond mumbles as Chris pulls him inside of the small transport ship.

  The ship's thrusters light up as it lifts off of the ground and away from the grass.

  Meanwhile, in Wyoming's section of the Rocky Mountains...

  A thunderous booming noise echoes throughout the mountain range as a rge explosion erupts from one of the mountains, sending chunks of debris and snow flying in all directions. The transport ship that Corry and Pool had flown in falls down a rge slope as the ground beneath it crumbles from the pressure of the bst. Two figures, Corry and Pool, come flying out of the smoke, soaring in an arc through the air before plummeting towards the ground. Corry screams for his life as the two of them seemingly head towards certain doom, Pool tries her best to keep a straight face, however. She holds her hands out towards the ground, her palms glowing blue. The snow that had coated the ground quickly shoots up in a cold white spire, catching the two teenagers softly. Corry looks around, surprised by what had happened, before realization strikes him and his normal smile reignites.

  "That's the second time today you've saved my life, Pool! I really gotta repay you one of these days!" Corry says, chuckling lightly.

  Pool takes a deep breath and smiles back at Corry.

  "I wasn't too certain that this would work... But I had to try." Pool says softly.

  The snow pilr slowly descends back to the ground, allowing Corry and Pool to step off safely. They were now covered in soot from barely being able to avoid the explosion that was generated from Grandmaster Mara's destructive st resort.

  "Alright, now we just gotta get back to the big ship and give the news to Chris and Nond!" Corry excims, his smile widening.

  "Yes, let's get to the transport..." Pool agrees.

  Out of the blue, another piece of debris soars through the air and strikes Corry on the head with a cnging sound before it ctters into the snow. Corry's face was frozen, he was still smiling.

  "C-Corry! Are you ok!?" Pool asks seriously.

  No response, Corry just keeps staring at her with his big smile.

  "...Corry? Hello? Are you in there?"

  His face unchanging, he slowly tilts backwards before falling back-first into the snow. Pool stares in disbelief before noticing what had struck Corry in the first pce. It was an iron key, about a foot in length, that had "#2" engraved on it. She picks it up, gasping as it was still a little hot to the touch. She uses the water to cool it down before examining it a bit.

  "A key... Number two...? Very peculiar..." She whispers to herself.

  Pool puts the key into the pocket of her sweatpants before turning back to Corry, who was now frothing at his grinning mouth. Pool walks up to him and picks him up, groaning as she did so, he was kind of heavy.

  "I don't understand how Corry is able to do this all of the time..." Pool sighs, trudging back towards the transport vessel, which had nded at the bottom of the cliff it fell from.

  She walks inside, setting the unconscious Corry on a seat. Pool then inspects the control board to try and figure out how to work it before just spotting a button that said, "Return Home". Pressing the button, the ship starts to lift up from the snow and into the cloudy sky. After about 30 minutes, Corry and Pool's vessel arrives back at the Airship. Pool steps out into the hangar bay, pulling Corry behind her, who was now beginning to come back to his senses.

  "Mmgh... Oh hey, we're at the ship? Do you have, like, teleportation abilities I didn't know about??" Corry asks in a woozy voice.

  "No Corry, you were unconscious." Pool says shortly.

  "Huh? I wasn't unconscious!" Corry excims.

  Pool sighs and giggles to herself.

  "Whatever you say." Pool says.

  Corry tilts his head, completely confused. Suddenly, a thought rushes through his head, Corry looks around the room but does not see Chris or Nond anywhere, their transport vessel hadn't even arrived yet.

  "Hey... Where are the others? Chris and Nond?" Corry asks curiously.

  "Hmm? Well, perhaps they had to go a tad bit further than us, so it's taking longer." Pool theorizes.

  Corry looks at her before shrugging his shoulders.

  "Eh, makes sense." Corry agrees.

  Pool nods before pulling out the iron key she had found.

  "This is what hit your head, Corry. It seems to be a key of sorts." Pool expins.

  Corry takes the key and looks at it from all sides, taking a bit to examine the artifact.

  "Huh... That's weird. Why's it got "#2" on it?" Corry inquires.

  "I don't have the slightest clue, but perhaps it means something. It came out of the Grandmaster's base after all." Pool states.

  "Then we'll hold onto it, let's just wait for the others to get back for now." Corry says.

  MAPI comes scampering down the hall and into the room, jumping like an excited chihuahua.

  "Welcome back! Did you defeat the Grandmaster? I can help you heal up!" MAPI spouts.

  Corry and Pool look down at their AI friend, smiling down at her.

  "Not to worry, MAPI. I wasn't hurt in the slightest." Pool assures MAPI.

  "I'm a little banged up, but I think I'll be ok, it could have been worse. We did defeat the Grandmaster though, we got this key from the base." Corry expins.

  MAPI examines the key, her eyes gleaming a bright blue as she scanned the artifact.

  "Hmm.... This contains an encryption key, half of one at least. The code is incomplete." MAPI states.

  "An encryption key?" Pool asks quizzically.

  "Like, a password or something?" Corry asks.

  "Yes. I don't know what it would be for though. Perhaps it has something to do with this Grandmaster Keller person." MAPI suggests.

  Corry and Pool look at each other, thinking.

  "Maybe Chris and Nond found something like this too, the other half of the code maybe." Corry says, shrugging his shoulders.

  "We'll just have to wait and see when they return, I suppose..." Pool sighs.

  An unknown location, the Nunavut edge of Hudson Bay.

  The sounds of multiple people can be heard bustling through a rge array of hallways lit up by bright floodlights, all of them wearing Techway uniforms. There was a rge runway in this seemingly underground headquarters, several airships lining the ground. A technician can be seen walking away from one of the ships and down a hall. He keeps walking, greeting fellow Techway members as he passes them before stopping in front of a door. The man knocks on the door before speaking.

  "Grandmaster Keller, sir! Maintenance has been completed on the grand fleet; it is recommended that we depart soon!" The technician announces through the closed door.

  There was silence for a bit before Keller's voice rings through.

  "Understood. Gather the other crewmembers and have them get to their posts. I will join you shortly." Keller states.

  "Yes sir!" The man excims before marching back down the hall.

  Inside of Keller's room was a small office and a bed. Keller was sitting at a chair, his hood off, revealing dirty blond hair that was cut down extremely short on the back. His hair was much more supple around the top of his head, though it was still quite short. There was a pair of red goggles on his desk, lying right in front of the Grandmaster. He takes out a radio transceiver and holds it up towards his mouth.

  "Alx, Mara, come in." Keller calls out.

  There was no response.

  "Grandmaster Alx, Grandmaster Mara, I said come in." Keller restates.

  No response. Keller's breath seems to hitch in his throat for a bit before he grits his teeth, screaming loudly. From outside the room, passing employees can hear the shrieks and yells as things get thrown around violently inside the room, all of them beginning to steer clear of the door to avoid the Grandmaster's wrath. Back inside of the room, all of Keller's stuff was thrown aside, some things even broken beyond repair. The walls were cracked, and the only thing left standing was a panting Keller. He looks at the floor and picks up the red goggles, pcing them over his eyes. He throws his hood back over his head, obscuring his features once again.

  "Those ingrates... If they did anything to my colleagues..." Keller mutters.

  The man looks up with a scowl, the goggles powering up to generate the bright red glow that was seen before from under the hood.

  "I won't py nice anymore. If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself apparently." The depraved Grandmaster growls...

  Back at the Airship.

  Chris and Nond's transport vessel finally begins to pull into the hangar bay. Corry, Pool, and MAPI were already in the room, awaiting their arrival. Chris and Nond exit the vehicle once it was safely nded, walking towards their friends.

  "Told you they were ok." Chris grunts.

  "R-Right, sorry I guess..." Nond mumbles.

  "Welcome back, you two! The Grandmaster is defeated, yes?" MAPI asks.

  Chris smirks, crossing his arms.

  "Oh yeah, he's not coming back from that." Chris states arrogantly.

  Nond gulps, looking away. Corry walks up to Chris, holding up the iron key.

  "Did you find anything like this, you two?" Corry inquires.

  Nond looks over to Corry and gasps. Chris's smirk shifts to a serious look as he pulls out the key with "#1" on it.

  "Yeah... I was hoping you'd have something like this too, to expin what this thing is." Chris says.

  TO BE CONTINUED