Three. The magic number. I don't know why, it just is, ok? Also, ignore the fact that the second statement is a fragment... please. Thanks! :D

Before Lucy realized it, the captain had come up beside her, looking at the orange and yellow flames as they burned in the city.  "It won't be long now," he said, almost as if to himself; he then turned to her and spoke in a more direct voice, hair falling to his forehead after the sudden shift, "Lucy, I'll need to take the shuttle-bug if you can prep it for me now."  And with that, he turned and went to the lower deck.

Lucy had never known the captain to be in such a hurry, he was usually very laid back and never really gave direct orders like that.  She stood there in shock for a moment, both from the fires and from the sudden change in her captain's mannerism.  "ASAP, if you would please!" came the shout from below, jolting her to her senses yet again.

"Yes, of course!" She ran down the stairway and opened the door opposite hers.  It was here that the "shuttle-bug" - thus named because it was a small aircraft and also for its four wings, two on each side, which flapped quickly to keep the aircraft aloft - was located.  She moved all the junk-mostly just old metal scraps and tools - to the side and checked the fuel gauge.  Usually it was kept at full fuel, especially since this was the only aircraft which they owned which wasn't the actual ship, and thus acted as the escape boat should anything horrible happen to them.  Well, something that was horrible, but not too horrible.  It wouldn't do them much good if they all exploded in a giant fireball, now would it?

She quickly scanned the room for the fuel canisters, and, upon finding them, was relieved to see that they were still full.  Without so much as a second thought, she uncapped them and started draining the canisters into the fuel containers in the sides of the craft.  She had just finished fueling and checking the vehicle when the captain came into the room.

"Is she ready?"

She turned and saw him, two bags in hand, full of clothes, if the sleeve hanging out of one them was to be any sort of an indicator of their contents.  She suddenly wished that he didn't have to go; in fact, she didn't even know why he wanted to go; she had never seen him in such a state before.  He was still in his evening best, which wouldn't do well for him, especially since his chosen mode of transportation didn't have any sort of canopy, let alone a fully enveloped flight deck.  It could pretty much just hold all four of them, and that was it.

"Well, wish me luck! Oh, and if anyone asks, I was at the dance when the explosion happened."  The captain stated his last orders as he hopped into the cockpit and pulled the lever to open the hatch in the room, immediately causing the wind to rush up into the room, throwing around papers, small doo-dads, and, worst of all, Lucy's hair.  She held it back as she shouted to her captain.  "You know that thing won't make it very far!  Why do you have to leave?"

The captain just laughed and shouted as he turned on the ridiculously loud engine, "That is for me to know, and for you to find out, though, I can assure you that I am innocent of whatever they decide to accuse me of doing."  And just like that he waved, pulled another lever, and fell from the room opposite hers into the air over the burning metropolis.

Without so much as a second glance back, Lucy exited the room, pulling the lever to close the door, causing her hair to come down in a complete rat's nest, but she had other problems to worry about now.

She had no idea what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to do it, or even if she was the one left in charge.

At that point George came down from the main deck.  "You alright, Lucy?" he asked a voice which was much nicer than his usual voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came her stark reply.

"We were wondering if you had any orders.  Finnian and I ain't ever been one for making orders, just taking them.  Think you could figure this out for us?"

Her voice was cool in her response, "Yeah, just give me a moment to think."

"Okay, I'll be up here with Finnian and these other guys then."  George turned to leave.

It took Lucy a second to catch on to the second grouping of people in his last statement.  She ran up the stairs.  "Other guys?"

When she reached the main deck, she saw a group of men, all dressed up in some sort of uniform.  All of them red, and, from the looks of it, military of some sort.  The usual captain's hat was a dead give-away, along with all the emblems and medals on their chests.  They were talking with George and Finnian about something, but Lucy couldn't hear the conversation over the sound of the wind.

"What's going on here?"  Lucy tried not to sound too scared as she walked towards the men, walking quickly, but making sure that she didn't look like she was rushing.

"Ah, we were just looking for your captain, miss-"  the man in uniform paused to show that he was waiting to hear her name.

"Lucy," she spat out curtly.

"Ah, yes,"  the man ignored her tone of voice, and put on the nicest smile she'd ever seen.  "We've been tasked with bringing in your lovely captain for some questioning at our headquarters located not far from here."

Lucy took a deep breath before saying what she had to say, trying to steel herself before their eyes.  "I'm afraid that my captain was at the guild hall.  He had a guild meeting tonight, and he wanted to be early tonight."

"I remember your captain never being on time, let alone early."  The officer raised an eyebrow, though still kept the same smile.  Apparently he knew the captain, for in fact, he was always late, wherever he went.

"He knew this one was going to be an important event."  She could tell that he wasn't buying it, so she threw in something extra.  "There was also a certain woman whom he was excited to see."  That changed that that military-dog's expression.  The smile momentarily fell from his face, leaving a slightly confused look, and then it returned to his face, just like a dog to its vomit.

"I see.  Well, this does change things.  I will be back in some time.  Just a few things I need to double check on when I get back," and with that, a small nod, and a hand motion, he and his guard boarded their small jet aircraft, jetbikes, she believed they were called, a relatively new technology, and flew off her deck.



(Hiya!  Sorry about the day delay, but a full day of work and being with family kinda stole my day.  Anyway, I decided to try write or die, an online app which helps with the writing process "Putting the prod in productivity" as they put it.  If you want, check it out here: http://writeordie.com/  I ended up writing 1106 words in only thirty minutes, which I think is a record or something.  If I were doing nanowrimo, that would have been over halfway done, yeah!

Anyway, I hope today's part was exciting and stuff.  Hopefully you all will have a great labor day weekend! yeah!  If you guys ever have any comments or questions, let me know, I'll be happy to answer any and all (for the most part ;) ) Laterz!)