The Airship bzes through the skies at high speeds as its residents prepare for the coming battle against Grandmaster Keller, all but one... Nond was sitting down on the floor in the cargo bay, looking at one of his guns when his watch beeps. He doesn't pay any mind to it at first, until more beeps start to come from the device. Hearing the frantic noises, he slowly lifts his arm to peer at the watch, to which his eyes widen in shock. There were different colored dots appearing around Keller's signal dot, and they were all beginning to move. Nond stares, fbbergasted at his watch before shoving his gun back into its holster and speeding off down the hall. In the training chamber, Chris and Corry were sparring, this time Corry was using a foam sword instead of a real sword for obvious reasons. Pool was sitting against the wall with a jug of water, making the water rise out of the jug and back inside, repeating the process multiple times.

  "I've got you this time, Chris! Just try and block this!" Corry shouts pyfully.

  "Bring it on, buddy!" Chris says, returning the joyful attitude.

  Corry begins spinning with the foam bde before unching himself toward Chris. Chris gets into a ready stance before swinging his foot around for a roundhouse kick, knocking Corry's sword out of his hands.

  "Aw crap-!" Corry shouts, caught off guard by the attack.

  Nond runs into the room, waving his arms over to the others.

  "Guys, you gotta-" Nond starts before Corry's discarded sword strikes him right between the eyes, knocking his gsses clean off of his head.

  "AUGH- A-Are you ok, Nond!?" Corry yelps, running over to Nond.

  "Never better..." Nond mumbles, sounding somewhat annoyed.

  "I feel like a situation like this has already happened in the past..." Chris sighs.

  Pool's attention was drawn when Nond had come into the room. She gets up and walks over to him, along with Chris. Chris picks up Nond's gsses for him and hands them off to the peeved scientist.

  "I think you dropped these-" Chris says casually.

  "Gee, thanks." Nond mutters, brushing off his gsses before setting them back on his face.

  "What were you saying before?" Pool asks calmly.

  "I was saying... That Keller has begun to move, and I think he's got more of those giant airships with him." Nond states.

  "How many?" Corry inquires.

  "Take a look for yourself." Nond says, holding his arm up to them.

  Corry, Chris, and Pool all lean in to take a look at the dispy on Nond's watch. Pool gasps lightly to herself, Corry gulps and tugs at the colr of his sweatshirt, and Chris recoils slightly out of shock.

  "That's... a lot..." Corry mumbles.

  "Can we destroy that many?" Pool asks, somewhat disturbed.

  "We'd basically be flying into our own execution!" Chris excims.

  "You know, I think this is the first time I've heard you two actually sound concerned about something." Nond says in a false tone of surprise.

  "Quiet, you!" Chris shouts.

  Pool clears her throat to get the attention of the others and repeats her question.

  "Will we be able to destroy that many ships?" Pool asks again

  "This ship is so big, and surrounded by all of those ships? We'd be goners if we went in there head-on." Nond says matter-of-factly.

  The crew seems to think among themselves before Corry's eyes light up.

  "Hey, this big ship came with a bunch of smaller vehicles like the amphibious thing and the small transports... I think there may be some fighter jets too!" Corry expins.

  "We have jets?" Nond asks.

  "That's so awesome..." Chris says slowly, a devious grin forming on his face.

  "What is a fighter jet?" Pool inquires.

  "They're these things that can also fly through the air, but they're a lot smaller than a ship like this, so we should be able to weave through the ships and get to the Grandmaster's ship, easy as that!" Corry excims joyously.

  "Have any of you flown a jet before?" Nond asks seriously.

  "Nope, I'm just gonna wing it!" Corry says innocently.

  "As expected." Nond says casually.

  "I have some experience because of Techway." Chris says, crossing his arms.

  "....Techway has jets too?" Corry says shortly.

  Chris remains silent, closing his eyes.

  "Then I guess we just gotta hope for a miracle... A very scarce miracle-" Nond sighs hopelessly.

  "We're gonna have to keep the main ship far from the airspace, we don't want it to get damaged in the crossfire, but that might mean someone will have to stay back with MAPI." Corry says.

  "I'll stay... I don't suppose I'll be of much help in a flying metal ship." Pool says softly.

  Corry smiles lightly and pats Pool on the head, causing her to puff out her cheeks in embarrassment.

  "Thanks for the sacrifice, Pool. I promise that we'll come back in one piece." Corry says reassuringly.

  "Y-Yes, right..." Pool stutters sheepishly.

  "Anyways, we all need to keep up our training, we probably don't have time for proper jet lessons, so we'll just do what Corry's gonna do and wing it." Chris states.

  "I'm sure it'll be pretty easy to figure out... It's simple physics after all." Nond says, seemingly assuring himself.

  "That's the spirit, Nond. Now let's get back to work, we gotta fight the man himself soon." Chris says seriously.

  Corry, Nond, and Pool all nod in unison before both Pool and Nond walk back down the hallway. Corry picks up the foam sword that had hit Nond in the face and smirks at Chris.

  "You up to continue?" Corry asks in a pyful tone.

  "Is that even a question?" Chris chuckles, returning the devious face.

  The two boys get back to their sparring session, throwing attacks and dodging left and right. Nond on the other hand was now on his way toward the b, looking at his guns again.

  "I guess I should really get an upgrade on these things... They don't have the firepower of Techway weapons, so I gotta be able to match the power of the enemy." Nond says to himself.

  When he enters the b, MAPI was curled up next to Nond's computer. Nond sits down on his chair and rolls over to his workbench. It was messy and unorganized, covered in all sorts of metal parts and design graphs. Nond takes both of his Proto-Pistols out of their holsters and sets them down on the table, the noise waking up MAPI as she hops to the floor before climbing up on top of the desk to look at Nond.

  "What are you doing?" MAPI asks curiously.

  "I'm upgrading my weapons... I'm thinking I can just put these two together into one firearm and maybe add a few more modifications, we still have a lot of that mystery metal from the warehouse." Nond states.

  "Hmm... Would you mind if I helped you with this?" MAPI offers.

  "Thanks for that, I think I'll take you up on that offer." Nond says with a small smile.

  With that, Nond begins dismantling his Proto-Pistols and gathering the parts from the inside. MAPI uses small blue sers that emerge from her eyes to cut and weld pieces of the two guns together to create half of the frame that would be used for the brand-new weapon. Nond begins hooking up wires and metal parts inside of the frame while MAPI cuts out pieces of the mystery metal and molds them into different shapes that Nond uses to build new components with the tech he already had on him. At st, Nond puts two internal batteries inside of the frame, connecting it to everything to make the weapon operational. MAPI welds more metal together to create the other half of the frame and attaches it to the rest of the contraption. With a few more modifications, the new weapon was finished. Nond raises it proudly over his head with a triumphant smile. It had a slightly longer barrel and a scope for more precise shots, but overall, it looked mostly the same as the two Proto-Pistols

  "With this... The Dual Pistol is complete!" Nond shouts gleefully.

  "Happy to have helped you!" MAPI chirps.

  Eager to test out his new weapon, Nond rushes down the hall and back toward the training room. Chris and Corry were resting now, exhausted from their training and ready to rex before the battle against the Grandmaster before Nond ran inside with the new gun in hand, much to Chris and Corry's confusion.

  "What the heck is that thing?" Chris asks.

  "It looks like a new gun!" Corry shouts excitedly.

  Nond smiles at Corry and Chris before holding the gun up to some targets at the end of the room.

  "That's right! This is both of my guns in one, let's see how much better it is!" Nond says joyously.

  "He built that thing in such short time...? God, that guy... He really is incredible sometimes." Chris says, chuckling lightly to himself.

  Nond peers through the scope of the gun, aiming carefully at the targets in front of him... Before he finally pulls the trigger, a rge bolt of blue energy shoots from the barrel and blows a hole through the first target. Corry ughs joyously, amazed by Nond's newfound power in his marksmanship career. Nond begins bsting out the other targets in quick succession, hitting all of them with pinpoint precision. When it was all done and over with, Nond blows smoke out from the tip of the barrel and twirls the gun in his hand before trying to fit it in one of the old Proto-Pistol holsters, to which it obviously barely fit.

  "O-Oh, right, I should probably get a new holster, ehehe..." Nond chuckles nervously.

  Corry and Chris begin cpping, which catches Nond off guard... Why were they cpping? Was his invention really so good?

  "That was spot on, Nond! You really got your work cut out for you!" Chris shouts encouragingly.

  "With you on our team, we have much more of a chance of beating Grandmaster Keller!!" Corry celebrates.

  They were praising him. Nond stands and stares at his friends... It felt good, knowing that they had so much faith in him. It was time he had some faith in himself.

  Nond gulps and walks up to Chris and Corry, a serious look on his face. The two boys look at Nond confusedly, noticing the stoic look on his face.

  "What's up, Nond?" Corry asks.

  Nond's mouth twitches a bit, hesitance beginning to fill him up again... He shakes his head and brushes it all aside, finally putting his own willpower in full control.

  "I'm ready... Ready to take down this Grandmaster jerk!!" Nond says determinedly.

  TO BE CONTINUED!!