”Number one rule… this didn’t happen. You weren’t here and I went on my own got it?” Sam said as he slowly started to flick some toggles. He was moving slowly so his unofficial student Eve could memorize what he was doing. She had a handful of other things to memorize as he flew but he knew it would only take seconds for her and it was a rather long flight even in the jet.

Sam then added, ”Other than that. Listen to what I say and stay out of danger.” he opened the basketball courts. It was night, dead of night to be exact he didn’t give Eve a lot of time to pack but then again this was kind of a rush rob it was a rescue after all. ”Buckle up kid, jet doesn’t have that good of insurance.”

He left Gawain/Maya and Becca a note. He knew he’d get chewed out for this kicked out of the mansion even but there were few people that could get him to the point where he was actually worried for someone. This person never asked for help.

The note read:

Surprise surprise. I needed to borrow the jet. I don’t have time to explain, someone needs my help and I have to go alone. I’m not gonna make the same mistakes my older self made dragging anyone else into this. I’ll be fine…. It’s fiiiiiiiiiine.

P.S. Feed Bruno and Cammie also don’t listen to Serena, I found them that way.

-Ciao Sam!

Two hours earlier

Sam woke to Bruno growling loudly at his closet, he didn’t know what it was at first until he opened the closet but when he did his stomach sank. It was his safe where a high-pitched ringing could be heard. Maybe not the most practical signals but he would have found it in the morning if it weren’t for Bruno. It was an old communication device he had that went off with the push of a button. It would send out your information to it’s counterpart. Sam only used this with one other person so he knew who was trying to contact him.

Rummaging through his safe he found the piece and hit the button to play the message. Sam sat on the ground his stomach-sinking trough the floor as he heard the ragged voice his former master, teacher, and sensei whatever you wanted to call Polemes. Po for short.

Po was in Sam’s opinion the only thing that kept him going for as long as he had during his time with T.A.T. Po was for the most part strict but Sam also knew that like him Po was a prisoner and from what Sam could tell he wanted no part of it which was why Sam was happy when he escaped because Po was nowhere to be seen when he did meaning Sam didn’t have to fight one of the few people he respected. Po being the brilliant tactician that he was used Sam’s escape to hide his own. In fact Po was one of several who used the time to escape. Good ol’ Sam great at distractions.

“N.Z. 0612. Keep away.”

Jumping up and running to his computer and unlocking the file he looked at the prints and cursed. It was a former T.A.T. facility.

Evelyn had snuck around the jet once or twice, but this was the first time she had actually been allowed inside it. Okay, 'allowed' was sort of a vague term. She had been snuck into the copilot seat and was pretty sure if they were discovered they were both going to be grounded forever. If nothing else, Evelyn would have plenty of community service days to make use of. That made it hard to regret what they were doing.

Evelyn let the echoes study what Sam was doing carefully, making notes in her mind as they went. It wouldn't take much to figure out how to operate this on her own. If she was able to get some WiFi eventually, she could look up some more flight SIMs or training modules to assist her. The internet was probably the best part of deaging. If she had been born in this generation to begin with, she could have been a force to be reckoned with long before she had been thirty. She was still determined to one-up her previous life experience.

Evelyn wasn't tired despite the time of night. She was an insomniac by nature, and was ready within minutes of hearing she was coming along. She had a backpack with her, a little bag with bunny ears that was stuffed with the usual supplies: taser, a few obscure chemicals she pilfered from the chem lab, some rope, a knife, her sai. She was careful not to let the other kids OR the teachers find this particular bag for those reasons. It only looked a little like she could murder someone in their sleep with what she carried. Not that she would, but didn't hurt to be prepared for anything.

Evelyn was already safely buckled, and gave her teacher a thumbs up. "Just tell me what to do. Me and the echoes can handle it." There was a difference between Sam's level of confidence and Evelyn's somewhat disturbing lack of emotion. She was quick to do what was asked of her, and the calm came from honestly knowing she was wicked smart and able to deal with what got thrown her way.

”Love the confidence V, might want to show one thumb instead of two. I’m getting chewed out for sure when I get back and if they find out you are here I’m a dead man. Becca scares me.” Sam said shaking his head. The jet started to hum to life as the courts opened and away the went lifting into the sky and taking off.

Sam’s phone started to ring and he sent it to voicemail then threw the phone a seat or two behind him trying not to think about it. ”I don’t have time to memorize the layout normally I need a few days to get everything down and a few hours of recon but I don’t have time. I’m hoping this is all a false alarm but my teacher might be in trouble.” Po was defiantly in trouble he also said teacher coldly.

While Sam grew up being trained by Po their relationship was a difficult one both being forced to interact with each other probably didn’t help and any time after T.A.T. after the last year or so before he came to the mansion… okay it might have been a year for Sam now but Po it was closer to thirteen years or fourteen. How old was he?

”You’re job is pretty easy. Do what you do, memorize those documents. I have electrical layouts, plumbing and building layout. I also have a few more bits of information about the facilities under it as well. Again, this what?” Sam asked looking for one of his earlier rules.

”When you get that done I’ll school you a bit on flying long as you promise not to fly without me or someone I know can fly got it?” Sam said curtly ”I’ll stop teaching you this stuff if you can’t follow the rules. Even if I bend them doesn’t mean you get to right?” Sam asked hoping she’d give him the right answer again.

The bunny caught his eye when he turned his head because his phone was ringing again. ”You packed clothes in that right?” Sam asked again hoping he got the right answer again. It would be at least two days he just assumed she knew what he meant when he said back a bag mission time.

Evelyn gave Sam a look. "I don't want to have a run in with Becca anymore than you do. That whole 'pregnant girlfriend of my x' is just some weird time warp stuff I try to stay out of." She focused instead on the mission, listening carefully to what she was expected to do. Memorize layouts? Check. She was pretty sure she put a notebook somewhere in her backpack...

[Concern. Serious.] She didn't need the echoes to pick up on most of that. They were going to rescue someone, obviously that meant Sam had been concerned enough to go and take the jet. [Mixed emotions. Confusion.] That part was probably stranger. Evelyn tried to pinpoint what would cause that reaction. Oh, the word teacher? She didn't know as much about Sam's past in this body as she had in the past, but there was enough information floating around him just on a daily basis to know it had been darker than he let on.

Ah, she found her notebook, right when he commented on the backpack. "Clothes? Sorta." She managed to tuck an outfit folded tightly in among the other supplies. A pair of socks was next to the taser as she lifted the notebook free. "This didn't happen," she recited. She had a fresh page of the notebook ready for work.

"And I promise not to fly a jet without Sam or someone who is a qualified instructor. Hey, I break rules for other adults, not my teacher." She lifted her chin a little, trying not to look annoyed. She respected some adults, and Sam was one of the rare ones. She wanted to feel like she could be trusted when it came down to it.

It was weird to hear that Eve had dated Gawain she was a kid and well, heck. He was a kid now as well so it didn’t’ seem that weird. No the fact that Gawain had a pregnant girlfriend was weird. They sold protection. That shouldn’t happen. He kept his thoughts to himself as he navigated the skies making sure to hit international waters as soon as possible. The jet had stealth capabilities but it would have been hard to get to New Zealand if he had to survive a dogfight in the air first. Not to mention ‘lil V’ next to him. He didn’t want her to have that forever ingrained in her memories the first time he took her flying.

When she said sorta Sam smirked, ”Sorta huh?” Sam asked trying not to laugh. ”Next time I’m hoping I can give you a packing list. Rule of thumb, clothes, navigation tools, water purifying tablets and a knife.” he knew he shouldn’t be telling the kid to carry a knife in her bunny backpack but he had a feeling if he looked through there he’d find some more questionable things so he didn’t bother. He had to focus on flying for now.

”There we go.” Sam said when he heard her promise. ”Got to cover my ***” Sam said swearing in front of her and not really thinking much of it, she heard it before she had the word memorized. ”The staff will know I taught you if you take the jet for a test drive. Not everyone is as cool as me.” Sam said with a little laugh at his own joke.

”Alright this part of flying is boring” Sam said as he was reading the navigation tools. They were heading in the right direction that was all that mattered.

Evelyn was already mentally forming a checklist. She really wished she could label things like this in her brain. Heck, that would be the best thing ever. Just, folders. Pull open one labeled 'flying', and sort through what she had in there. Or 'packing', and the reminders would pop up. She wondered if she could teach the echoes to do that with time. She was certainly willing to try if she could.

[Pack clothes, navigation tools, water purifying tablets, and a knife. Different knife options available in the school as follows: steak knife, butcher knife, pocket knife, hunting knife.] She wondered if the hunting knife would have been a bit much. She would have to go back to that storage room sometime to test it. If she could get maybe a small camping knife, that seemed more logical. And some flint. The flint would be more useful than a taser at this point... [Butter knife. Cheese knife.] She refocused the echoes so they were taking in the flight controls.

His actions were easy to study. He moved the steering, there was a slight shift in the jet. Some of the navigation panels would take some research to understand entirely, but altitude, cabin pressure, many of those didn't need much notice. "You can always just tell them I learned it on the internet. That's where I learned to make Mototovs and fireworks anyway. Oh, and I hacked through Mirror's IP for that. If the government hunts anyone down, I'm blaming Maya." She looked innocent on the outside, but there were some devious thoughts under the surface.

She perched a pen on her paper, a little Japanese ballpoint with a cute bear on top. "So, I memorize the layouts. Do I have an earpiece? Direct you through the maze?" she glanced out the window once when the clouds cleared, and couldn't resist pressing her nose to the glass. "Oh, the ocean!" It was ten times prettier up here than on any computer screen she had seen. "It's so....big. I....that was dumb. Sorry," she sat back and looked a little embarrassed. She was trying to prove how adult she was, but this was her first time in an airplane that she remembered. The world looked much different up here.

Sam smirked as he righted the plane and kicked in the coordinates to the GPS and engaged the autopilot once they hit the ocean. ”You got to give them a bit more credit.” Sam said shaking his head, ”They know me. They know you.” Sam said. ”I bet I got a dozen messages now by Maya/Gawain all thy need to do is a roster check. If you can suddenly fly and know where the jet is?” Sam shrugged. ”Not a big deal but. Kinda is ya know?”

Once the autopilot was engaged he stood and cracked his neck. ”That is wicked though, I remember when Maya was so nice and polite.” he laughed, ”Real shame she suddenly got into explosives.” he walked into the aisle and started to stretch. Something he did when he was nervous or anxious.

”Memorize the layouts, you get a earpiece and you get to direct me through a maze. And. Even more important we both get home to the mansion safely.” Sam said smirking as he touched his toes then stood when he heard her.

”Never apologize for being awestruck Little V.” Sam said as he pointed on the horizon slightly of course. ”Sticking to the ocean, heading towards New Zealand, if we went that way we’d hit the U.K. when the sun dims I’ll show you how to get a heading using the stars.” Sam said stepping back and resuming his stretching ”I still get hit with the awe on occasion.”

Sam warned her, but he also joked with her. That was what Evelyn enjoyed about being his student. He would make sure she was serious when she needed to be, but he also knew how to keep her on task. When you were dealing with a seven-year-old with advanced powers like hers, pointing them in the right direction was necessary.

[Anxiety.] Evelyn watched his body language, trying not to judge, but the echoes did that anyway. He cared about whoever they were rescuing. Evelyn would have straightened up more, but she was already on the edge of her seat, ready to do her job. She wanted to do this right. She took being Sam's student seriously, and wanted to continue being someone he was willing to teach. There wasn't room for mistakes in her mind. And she wished she could makes the echoes understand that. Could she get them to pay attention better? How do you fix an already perfect memory.

"Memorize and guide you. I can do that. And safety. I can do that too." She knew her powers, and knew they could handle what was asked. Memorizing was easier than a lot of things.

The feeling of awe, the ocean, the new surprise: that was something she hadn't been prepared for. "What sort of things do you feel awed over?" Evelyn found it hard to imagine him being surprised by anything.

The icemancer just smirked when he thought about the things that were truly moving for him. Some things a kid didn’t need to hear. Especially one that has a perfect memory. It took Sam a moment to think of something schoolyard appropriate and then spoke, ”Wait till you see the sunset.” he smirked, ”After that you can see every star in the sky. Everyone.” ”Just two of the things that I awe for.”

Stretching Sam went back to his phone and ignored the phone calls from the mansion staff he started to look through his encrypted email. Two responses from a point of contact he had saved two years ago. The room and the van were ready upon arrive. Sam nodded his head, then went back to his seat and proceeded to close his eyes. ”Gonna be a long flight. Hopefully you can keep yourself busy, Let me know if you see any ships or planes. We should be hidden but I’d like to be awake for it just in case.”

-----

A several hours passed and his eyes opened on their own almost like he just got done closing them a second ago. It was easy to sleep when he was in mission mode mainly because years of training taught him it was important to get it when you could, no telling when the next time he would get to relax and shut his eyes. Sam could be said about food. He pulled some jerky from his bag and offered it up to Eve.

”You get some sleep yet?” Sam asked curiously checking the radar. One blip was at the edge of the screen so he adjusted the jet till they were off of it all together. Sam didn’t want any more complications. Po could handle whatever T.A.T. threw at him until Sam could come in with a rescue.

Evelyn did not sleep. When Sam relaxed, the seven year old quickly went to work. To her, sleep was just an unwanted distraction. She took her notebook, the blueprints, and started tediously sketching vague outlines of the facility. Removing anything unnecessary, this gave her a very basic diagram. She could still use the information on the blueprints if trouble came up, but she had plans for her newly drawn piece. She started explaining as soon as she heard Sam behind her.

”If you need directions through the facility, I can use this to track you! I should be able to work out what turns your taking and draw the path to make it easier to process.” It was clearly the most accurate drawing a Seven year old had ever drawn on a jet using color pencils and a bunny notebook.

She was tapping a pink pencil when she registered the question. She glanced at him and blinked.

”I... don’t normally sleep. I just... I relive memories in my sleep, and it’s... Do I need to?” for the first time she looked torn between wanting to do what was asked of her and her pure revulsion toward sleeping.

She had her diagrams ready. Everything was memorized. There wasn’t any more preparing she could really do. But, the playbacks.... the very idea made her feel like she was chewing on a lemon.

The icemancer smirked when she showed off her drawing. Part of him felt bad for brining her, knowing that there were untold dangers here. No, she’d be fine she’d be offsite and safe where no one would expect her to be. Sam leaned in to inspect the drawing. ”Looks good kid. Keep in mind you will be walking me through it, meaning you can only go as fast as I go.” he left it at that not sure what he’d run into while he was there. There had to be something to keep Po under control Sam was sure he could handle anything.

Sam waited to respond till after he sat back down in his captain’s chair and kicked his feet out and leaned back in his sleep. ”Only if you are tired, never can be too sure when you get to sleep next.” he said as he placed his hands behind his head and watched the horizon for any danger. He was out longer than he wanted, the location of the sun told him it had been a few hours.

”Eve, do what you need to stay sharp then. If something doesn’t work for you let me know yeah?” he asked knowing the feeling of not wanting to sleep if she relived everything it made more sense why she would want to avoid it. More reason to keep her out of trouble.

”There’s jerky in the bag. Never can be sure when you get the next meal right?” he asked rhetorically.

Evelyn nodded as Sam spoke, pointing at the diagram and using the back of her pencil. ”That’s why I drew this, so I can stay with you and still be out of trouble. Say, you want to get to this storage room,” She picked a spot off to one side that looked like it was set up for supplies. ”I would walk you down the main corridor, tell you to take this right...if you ran into trouble you could loop down this path and I could find alternate courses and update myself as you go. Like, PacMan. Okay, PacMan is a bad analogy. Please don’t get taken out by ghosts.” she momentarily regretted the statement.

Watching him relax made her eyelids feel heavier. It did sound nice, not being fatigued. But, the playbacks... she stole a glance at the food and took some jerky instead. Eating she could handle.

One piece became a couple, followed by other snacks. Then she was looking out the window watching the sun, eyes fluttering shut unwillingly. Like any insomniac, she was out cold when sleep hit, curled up in the seat holding her notebook, pencil rolling off to the floor. She had the childlike ability to sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever.

In her head, the reboot started, memories of a training session beginning. Hands held sai, throwing toward the target, and her arm twitched slightly as her muscles responded to the memory.

When she fell asleep after eating he thought silently to himself hoping there weren’t actual ghosts working for T.A.T. he had seen them before and was capable of freezing them for a moment he didn’t think he’d have the right tools to combat them. Ice didn’t work so well on things that couldn’t feel. The icemancer shifted his gaze from the horizon to Eve who was twitching in her sleep. Part of him wanted to wake her up like he did for Bruno but he didn’t if sleeping was hard for the kid it probably was best to let her sleep for now.

The sky shifted to a darker magenta as the sun started to set they had been flying for some time meaning now was okay to wake Eve up, the sun was just about to drop out of site from their heading. ”V, wake up kid. Shows about to start.” he said pointing to the horizon.

”Sun is setting, you can already see some of the stars and we are about an hour or so from the landing point from there I got a car that will take us to our base of operations.” Sam said with a smirk, ”Now it might not be all that impressive if you can relive it like you do but for those of us without a perfect memory. Just awesome to see it.”

[Evelyn caught the snowball, eyes blinking and blue taking over her irises as she held the cold sphere. She looked up at him, almost confused. "I...there have been things that have been fun. But, I don't...I don't play."] Someone was talking, shaking her awake. Evelyn found herself looking at her hands where the snowball had been, blinking at the cold texture her brain had held seconds before. She was with Sam, but Sam was talking now. And she was in the Jet.

The jet... She shut her eyes, pressing her hands to her head and trying to reorient her body with reality. "An hour from landing...car... the facility." It was like hooking different tethers down to where they were, until she glanced out the window to see the sunset. Oh... "No...It is still impressive." She shook the last cobwebs of the Playbacks off, and started reaching into her mind for the information on their tasks.

The last hour went swiftly, until they finally started to land. Evelyn pressed her nose to the class, watching the trees grow closer as they started into a wooded area. She had tucked her supplies back into her bag, and held it on her back. There was a small thrill of excitement, but she kept it out of her face. This was a mission, she was here because she could help. But she was also a child and watching a jet land was so frickin' cool.

Glad she had some appreciation for the setting he decided it was time to land the trees shook from the force of the engines as he lowered into the clearing. He logged the jet’s location (even though he didn’t have to) just in case something happened Maya and Becca would know where to find the jet. He wasn’t worried for Eve but the kid would be smart enough to know to come back to this location if he didn’t come back. He didn’t want to verbalize it but he did. ”If something happens and you don’t hear from me after the mission starts I want you to come back to here.” Sam said pointing to the ground as he unfolded a large tarp and willed some ice clones to form to help him cover the jet.

It was still obvious what the jet was from the ground but if someone happened to fly over or check with a satellite it would just look like overgrowth. ”Make sure you talk to Becca, or Maya. I know Maya is the worst but they will make sure you are safe if I can’t.” he said smirking then giving her the thumbs up, ”If… but this isn’t my first rescue so I’m defiantly not worried.” he said laying a little to give Eve some confidence. He shouldn’t have brought her it was against everything he stood for. Kids needed to be just kids, however Po’s life was in danger and he owed his old teacher.

Once he had his supplies and the jet was hidden enough he hit the button on the underside of the jet and the ramp closed. ”We ready for a hike?” he whispered now. It didn’t matter because they just landed a jet but it was good to get her in the right mindset. ”One mile.” Sam said pointing up in the sky trying to find the right star to guide them. He was just acting now, he already knew his heading from landing the jet but it was a good habit to show Eve. ”Southern hemisphere. Different stars meaning that one there.” he crouched to her level and pointed it out. ”That ball of gas is the one that will tells us which way is north and the van is north.” Sam reached into his bag and removed a small flashlight and offered it to Eve.

”Not afraid of the dark right?” he asked hoping no was the answer. She could use the flashlight if she wanted but he was hoping she wouldn’t so she could see that using natural lighting from the sky you could maneuver in the woods. Eyes adapted.

Sam walked into the tree lines making sure he was quite a chill permeated from his body allowing him to see everything around them. Even without light they no one was going to sneak up on them and no one did. They made it to gray sprinter van and he found everything he asked for. Well worth the money. There were a few televisions hooked up to a wireless feed of the warehouse he was going to leave Eve a mile or so from the facility he was going to enter obviously the televisions weren’t working properly because they were out of range but should kick on as soon as they got closer.

”This is your battle station Eve. It has everything you could possibly need. Bullet proof and break-in proof.” he smiled, ”Ready to roll?”