MR-222’s Spaceport, departure station.

“...”

The officer held up the records of the person he was checking, his eyes alternating between the files and the real person standing in front of him.

The girl in the picture attached to the digital records carried a rather rebellious expression, which further heightened the ferocity of her looks. With the scar on her face, she looked rather villainous.

However, the same girl was currently standing in front of him, smiling sweetly.

The officer tilted his head in puzzlement; the girl’s records was quite clean, but something was nagging him in the back of his mind, as if something was wrong.

After a few moments of deliberation, he shrugged his shoulders, “...looks good to me. Go ahead; enjoy your ride.” In the end, he decided that he was not paid enough to do a full check on the girl and simply granted her passage. Of course, this act of negligence would definitely get him fired and punished severely in the future. ”Next!” The officer cracked his neck and shook his tired shoulders as he called for the next person.

Just like that, Enigma and his friends successfully boarded the spaceship headed for the mainland.

The Seven Spectres quickly found their seats.

For the sake of being inconspicious, Enigma had chosen to buy normal tickets instead of first-class ones though he could easily afford them.

”Woah, look at this view! Everybody looks so small,” exclaimed one of them. Since it was their first time on a spaceship, they could not help but look around in wonder and excitement.

The view from the large panel windows allowed them to look at the scenery outside. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the spaceport, the inside of the spaceship was rather empty and quiet.

Aside from them, there was a few other civilians inside the ship. Seeing the youths who were excited for their first space trip, the other passengers who were mostly the elderly could not help but smile at their antics.

”It’s good to be young,” remarked an old grandpa.

“How cute,” his wife added. The old people could not help but reminisce about their first space trip; they were once as excited as those youths.

Suddenly, the intercom buzzed and the pilot’s voice could be heard. “Dear passengers of Spaceship 2233, we are now preparing for take-off. Please take your seats and wait for the flight attendants to execute the safety procedures.”

A flurry of flight attendants walked out from somewhere with perfect smiles on their faces. Nodding slightly to greet the passengers, they immediately went to work.

The Seven Spectres obediently sat in their seats, waiting with anticipation. It was their first time riding a spaceship so they were not familiar with the procedures.

”Please put your arms here, and press this button,” the flight attendant instructed. 

The first one to receive help from the attendants was Amara. Curious, she placed her arms on the designated armrests without complaint. Once the button was pressed, a cross-shaped seatbelt immediately locked her in her seat. 

Once the flight attendant confirmed that Amara was secured in her seat, she pulled out an IV bag filled with a mysterious liquid from a compartment below the seat and attached it to her arm. On Amara’s other arm, another IV drip was placed.

“This button is for the tranquilisers, this button is for nutrition shots, this button is for the bathroom, and this one is the call button for the flight attendants,” the attendant patiently explained to them the use of each button affixed on the armrest. “And this red one enclosed by glass is the emergency button. In the case that the ship is attacked or in danger, the passengers can press it to release the seatbelts.” As she was saying that, the flight attendant pulled out a medium-sized disposable bag from another compartment on the seat, handing it to her. Simultaneously, the rest were also given one by their flight attendants. “Please don’t hesitate to use this,” she says, smiling amiably.

After twenty minutes of preparations, all the passengers were finally tucked into their seats, waiting to start their journey. The pilot received the ‘ready’ signal and once again sounded the intercom. “Now taking off. The ship will arrive at Earth 1’s Royal Airport in five days. Passengers, have a good rest and good night.”

Just as the pilot finished speaking, the ship began to shake.

”?!”

“What’s going on?!”

”The passengers over there, please calm down! The take-off can be a little rough and nauseating, but it will pass!” 

“Gueh—?!”

”Ug—“

Sounds of retching could be heard from the group. Luckily, they had already received ‘vomit bags’ from the attendants, preventing unwanted accidents from happening.

While the rest were busy vomitting their guts out, Enigma and Amara who were less affected could not help but marvel at the scenery outside. It had only been a few minutes since the spaceship took off, but they were already far enough to see Planet MR-222 in the horizon. Both of them had seats near the windows facing the planet, so they took the chance to admire the sights fully.

Watching the spaceship becoming firher and further away from the planet, a slight feeling of sadness invaded Enigma’s heart.

Though MR-222 was not the most comfortable place to grow up in, he still spent a little over a decade of his life there. Now that he was finally leaving it, he could not help but feel a little sad.

”Goodbye, MR-222...” he murmured.

Enigma closed his eyes, memories flashing in his mind. Faces of the people he knew who were still living on the planet appeared, making him wonder if he would ever have another chance to meet them again in his lifetime. Perhaps, when everything is over, he might take Mystery back to the backwater planet; perhaps show her around and introduce her to Lucid. 

“We’ll come back again, won’t we?” Amara looked at Enigma with a small smile. She had spent her entire life on the planet. Now, she was leaving. She felt both excited and scared at the same time. What if their plan fails? What if they—no. Amara mentally punched herself. There was no way she was going to let doubt cloud her mind. Still, it did not change the fact that she was beginning to miss the place she grew up in.

”What, homesick already?” Enigma offered her a half-smile, teasing her.

”What’s with that, that’s so unlike you; it’s creepy.” Amara stuck out her tongue, replying to Enigma’s teasing. Though she was unused to the way he was acting, she was glad that Enigma was opening up to them more than he ever did in the past decade that they had known each other.

Enigma ignored her remark and turned his head to scan the rest. Dean was dry-heaving into the vomit bag, muffling his screams. Meanwhile, Belle, Lukas and West were already knocked out from the tranquilisers. Joy, on the other hand, had already recovered from the initial nausea and was playing around with the zero gravity.

”How free,” Amara mumbled, also looking at the girl. They were a few seats apart so Joy had not noticed their attention on her.

 The spaceship was quiet. After admiring the scenery for a while, the two energetic youths became bored.

”What do you want to do when we arrive at the mainland?” Amara off-handedly asked Enigma. “And I’m not talking about ‘the plan’; I’m talking about literally the first thing you’d do.”

”Hm...” Enigma paused. He never gave any thought on that matter. All he had in his mind was how he would enhance his powers and save Mystery. “What about you?” Since he was unable to provide an answer, he simply threw back the question to the girl.

”Me? Hm...” Amara tilted her head, thinking. “Take pictures, I guess.”

”How generic.”

”Shut up. What would you do?”

”I guess... see if I can remember anything from my time with Mysty. Maybe look for our house.”

”Ah! Speaking of houses, we still haven’t discussed about where we should stay when we get to the mainland.”

”Oh, you’re right.” Enigma instinctively raised his wrist to use his bracelet, but half a second later he realised that he was unable to use it. The spaceship had blocked the use of internet. It was mostly for safety reasons as the spaceship was a military-made ship and the higher ups did not dare to take any chances in fear that a hacker from an enemy force might take advantage of the connection and hack into the ship.

”We’ll just have to figure it out when we get there, huh.” Amara sighed. She hoped that they will be able to settle their housing issue as soon as possible. Being homeless was not something she wanted to do on the mainland where they would have their fresh starts.

”...”

”...”

”...This is too boring!” Amara sighed exhasperatedly. “There’s nothing to do, might as well go to sleep.”

”I agree.”

The two exchanged nods, and finally pressed the tranquiliser button, sending them into deep sleep for the next twelve hours.