“All right!” Tia said. She was back to normal. “We’ll just go find a phone. Come on, guys.”

     “One of you has to stay.” Heranna added.

     “Why?” Tia asked.

     “Because that way we’ll be sure that you’ll come back unarmed.” Racule said.

     “And that you’ll come back.” Said Heranna.

     Everyone just sort of looked at everyone else. No one wanted to leave anyone else in the clutches of the villains. Corazon called a huddle.

     “Okay, everyone.” She said. “Make sure that you’re within one meter of me.”

     “Why?” Tia asked in a whisper.

     “Because.” Corazon pulled out the device. Quickly she pressed the button. Everything around them vaporized and turned into a space ship. Twilight Wisher was watching them with a grave expression on his face. “Twilight Wisher!” Corazon exclaimed.

     “I assume that if you used that device the Bandaa have arrived.” Wisher said.

     “No, we just decided to use it for fun.” Dienna remarked.

     “Don’t mind her. She’s always like that.” Corazon explained. “And, yes, the Bandaa are here-er-there, I think.”

     “Then they must have noticed you board.” Twilight Wisher whipped around and set a fast pace. “Come. We must get ready for battle.”

     Everyone followed Twilight Wisher down the hall and into an elevator. The elevator worked in the same way that the device had. It dematerialized and rematerialized everyone in a control room with several doors along the walls. Wisher walked straight over to one of the many monitors in the room.

     “I thought so.” He muttered. “All right,” He turned around to the girls. “I’m going to need one of you to help me, two to man the engine room, and two to man the weapons.”

     “Felicia,” Tia said, immediately taking charge, yet again. “You and, uh, Giselle take the engine room. Dienna, you and Corazon man the weapons. I’ll help Mr. Wisher.”

     “Okay, where’s the engine room?” Felicia asked.

     “Behind the door marked ‘Engine Room’.” Twilight replied. “The same goes for the guns. You,” he nodded at Tia, “Come with me.” Then Twilight and Tia disappeared behind one door and the others went through their respective doors as well.

     “Do you have any idea how this works?” Corazon asked when she and Dienna had planted themselves in the weapons’ cockpits.

     “It looks like the controls on that game, Shooting Star.” Dienna replied. “The one where you’re flying through the galaxy on this weird mission and there are all these enemy ships after you. I scored highest player on that game at the arcade.”

     “Oh yeah, that one!” Corazon replied. “Yeah, this does look like it. I have it on my computer. The direction keys move the gun, Ctrl fires the primary and Alt fires the secondary”

     “Right. ‘B’ drops a bomb, ‘F’ shots a flair and ‘E’ activates the emergency refill.” Dienna replied.

     “And,” Said a voice that resembled Twilights’. “You two have complete control and access to every gun on the ship.”

     “Excellent.” Dienna said with a smile. She wasn’t being sarcastic this time.

     “Uh, Tia.” Corazon said. “If you can hear me, then tell me why you put me in with the weapons.”

     “Because Dienna’s the best at this, and you’re better than Giselle. I don’t think Giselle could hit water if she fell out of a boat. Not that I have anything against her. It’s just that she doesn’t have very good aim.” Tia replied. “Besides, Giselle is much better with her hands and that’s the kind of help that Felicia’s going to need in the engine room.”

     “Oh, okay.” Corazon replied. “I still feel nervous.”

     “Just think of it as Shooting Star, and not real life.” Dienna suggested.

     “I hope you two are ready.” Twilight spoke up. “Because we’re about to take off.”

     “Felicia, Giselle, how are you guys doing?” Tia and Twilight had shifted the transmission to the engine room.

     “This is fantastic!” Felicia exclaimed. “Using the energy of this crystal to power the ship! The radioactive properties of the-“

     “Felicia, we haven’t got time for a science lesson, so will you and Giselle please keep the engines from blowing?” Tia asked.

     “Certainly.” Felicia replied.

     “Not a problem.” Giselle said. Felicia had already explained everything to Giselle.

     “Good, because we’re leaving now.” Twilight Wisher turned off the intercom and told Tia where to sit. Tia sat down and picked up the one-ear headphone that was sitting at the desk. “Just keep an eye on that screen and keep everyone updated, including me, on what you see there. It should give us the status reports. And you should also be able to see the locations of the enemies.”

     “All right. Let’s go!” Tia said.

     “Power up engines to third degree.” Twilight said.

     “Powering up engines.” Felicia replied, as she moved a dial slowly up.

     “Why only third?” Giselle asked. “Why not full blast if we want to get out of here?”

     “A blast from zero to full power would completely knock out the engines.” Felicia replied. “Engines up and running.”

     “Weapons online.” Twilight said to Dienna and Corazon.

     “All systems are green.” Dienna replied. “You ready Corazon?”

     “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She replied.

     “Tia,” Twilight said, “Switch the intercom to international. That’ll allow everyone to hear everyone else.”

     “Intercom is international.” Tia said after pushing a button that said ‘international’.

     “Then here we go!” Twilight pressed on the gas.

     It wasn’t long before Dienna and Corazon got their first taste of action.