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Thirty One - II

Here's the Jackers' theme song! I used some of the same themes as the Project PROB one, just changed them up a bit to sound more demented. I hope you guys like it!

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"So... are you going to explain this?" the Eagle made a loose circle in the air with his finger, gesturing to the group gathered before him. When Juliana remained silent, he continued. "When I said you didn't need my permission for every little thing, I was talking about stuff like using my coffee machine, not taking our most important prisoners out for a walk!" 

"I..." Juliana didn't know why she was faltering. She was a trained liar- situations like these had been drilled into her head since before she even got her PW- but something about knowing her friends' lives could depend on what she said next left her at a loss for words. 

"You're in an interrogation room. The enemy asks you what your name is. What do you say?" Luna Chu demanded. 

The little girl sitting in the chair in front of her continued to swing her stocking-clad legs back and forth, looking down at her clasped hands. She could hear the excited shouts of the other Academy children who had been let out for break, and there was nothing she wouldn't give to join them. Roy probably had the jungle gym all to himself right now. He was probably lording over it, barking orders at the younger students while Hayley did cartwheels across the grass. 

"Princess Juliana Charlotte VanderSchee II of the Kingdom of Arcana, you know I can tell when you're zoning out!" 

Juliana looked up to see Chu standing directly in front of her, her arms crossed over the Order of Chance logo on her black jacket. "I asked you a question." 

"Sorry Commander Chu," Juliana muttered. 

"So... the enemy just asked you a question: what's your name?"

"I'm Ju...Juniper." Juliana raised her gaze and brightened her eyes, doing everything she had been taught would make her look more trustworthy. 

"Hmph," Chu shook her head. "You have so much to learn. Why lie when you don't have to? The best liars often don't lie at all- they just edit the truth. Why put in the effort of taking a whole new picture when you can just crop out the part you don't like?" 

"Just crop out the part you don't like..." Juliana muttered under her breath. 

"What was that?" the Eagle raised an eyebrow. 

"Violet Hewkin is a genius. The whole time they were here, she's been watching us. Learning our patterns and the layout of our base, preparing to escape. I overheard them planning their getaway and realized they need a more secure prison." 

"And what could possibly be more secure than the basement of our most heavily guarded building?" The Eagle was clearly not convinced. "Look, Rave, I love you, but sometimes, you're just... you're not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. So I'd prefer it if you didn't just up and make important decisions like this." 

"Now, that's cold..." Adrian shook his head. "Maybe she just didn't get through a lot of school because she was, I don't know, stuck being wheelchair-bound on a remote island! Miss Raven... can I just say I'm a huge fan?" 

"...thanks?" Juliana managed to say, even though every muscle in her body was cringing at his words. 

"Wait," the Eagle narrowed his eyes at Juliana, somehow seeing her in a different light. "What's your name?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"What's your name? Rave would never just take that compliment." 

"My name is- it's the Raven, obviously." 

"No, stupid, your real name." 

"It's..." Juliana drew in a deep breath, folding her hands behind her back as she discreetly pulled her pearl bracelet off her wrist. "Juliana!" she yelled, throwing the bracelet and watching as it transformed midair into her spear and planted itself in the Eagle's chest. 

"Idiot... I actually liked this Jacked!" he sputtered as he fell to the ground, looking sharply up at Adrian. "Well, don't just stand there, get me another! And for God's sake, find the real Rave!"

Juliana was out of there too quickly to hear him deliver his orders. Running across the sandy ground at top speed, she watched as the line of trees in front of her grew closer. 

"What are you doing?" Hayley yelled as she knocked the guns out of two Jacker snipers' hands with the spiked end of her whip. 

"Improvising," Juliana winced, telekinetically drawing the Jackers' bullets to her forearms so that they bounced uselessly off her gauntlets. 

"Oh no you don't!" she heard a familiar from above her head. Before she could look up, she felt pressure on top of her head and her feet lifting off the ground. The Raven had grabbed her by the hoodie and was carrying her through the air. 

Lifted above the treeline, she looked out to see an Order warship and several jets circling in the distance. Violet was right- all they had to do was make it out of the forest!  Filled with newfound determination, she squirmed out of the loose hoodie, free falling into the treetops before she could activate her own wings. She grabbed at anything that could break her fall, but the rough branches only sliced at her now-exposed face and slipped through the fingers of her leathery gloves. With a great thump, she landed on the leaf-littered forest floor, an explosion of pain shooting from her right foot up into her leg. 

Closing her eyes, she listened to the gentle stirring of forest animals around her. A frog's croak, an insect's hum, a snake's hiss. Considering the reputation of the woods, almost all of these were poisonous. She raised her palm, hoping a quick laser blast would scare any curious creatures away, before remembering that she had destroyed her blasters in her fight with the Raven. Oh, great.

"Hey, fellow birdie, where'd you fly off to?" the Raven crooned in a singsong voice as she flew right over Juliana. One good thing about these woods was that their thickness made it nearly impossible to find people. 

She thought too soon. As she struggled to stand up, a sharp pain still pulsating through her ankle, she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. 

"There she is!" A group of three Jackers charged through the undergrowth, guns in hand. Juliana raised her left gauntlet, deflecting the first one's bullet as she kicked the gun out of his hands, sending him flying into a nearby tree. As the other two approached, she felt her right leg buckling beneath her. She could already barely hold her weight up, let alone withstand the agile movements a hand-to-hand fight would require. 

Hiss. 

Juliana turned around to see a snake coiled up beneath a tree. An idea began to form in her mind, but before she could implement it, one of the Jackers fell face-first onto the ground, nearly knocking her over. As his head hit the forest floor, she caught a glimpse of the silver ninja star buried in it. 

"Duck!" Henry Hewkin yelled. Juliana instinctively obeyed as he fired his powerful laser gun, shooting a hole straight through the second Jacker's skull. 

"We got you, kid," Violet smiled, retrieving her ninja star with one flash of the electromagnet attached to her glove. 

"Mom? Dad?" Juliana turned around to see an incredulous Chase staring at the Hewkins. "My helmet detected motion and I saw you guys and... wow!" 

"Oh, I don't think we ever told you," Violet laughed. "Those nice pearl earrings I wear to church are actually ninja stars." 

"And I've got a shirt button-laser gun. And really, really good aim," Henry added. 

"I've got poison dart shooters," Chase proudly held up his hands. "And really, really average aim." 

"The Order's got a ship here- it's that way, I saw it from the air," Juliana pointed. "I think I might've broken my ankle, so unfortunately I don't see myself doing a lot of walking today." 

"Good thing that's not the only mode of transportation currently available to you." Hayley effortlessly dropped out of a tree, the coils of her whip following close behind her. 

"Are you suggesting... oh, I've already disobeyed the King once this mission." Juliana pressed a button on her gauntlet and watched as her brilliant red wings unfurled. Catching her reflection in a puddle of water that had collected on the low ground in front of her, she smiled. This was what her dreamy six-year-old self, with her sketchbook and red crayon, had dreamed of. 

Jumping over the now calm snake, she took a few running steps before taking off. "Follow me! I see the ship!" She broke through the treeline, shooting toward the shore as the others fought off Jackers and venomous animals alike beneath her. 

"There you are." 

Juliana turned her head to see the Raven closing in behind her. 

"You're not going to make it to that ship before I do. You know why? Because you're only human, and I'm something more. I'm stronger, faster, and now I have a fancy suit, too. Give up, princess. You don't stand a chance." 

The Raven's words weren't empty threats. Juliana could hear the flapping of her wings getting closer even as she increased the speed of her own flight to maximum, barely able to hear anything over the sound of the wind rushing in her ears. She stared down the PROBJet circling above the ship- her target- heading straight for the main hatch in its side. 

She could easily use the remote control in her gauntlet to open the hatch just as she approached it, but the Raven would follow her right in. Remembering that the Jet also had a nearly invisible service hatch on its underside for loading and unloading larger goods, Juliana began to formulate a plan. 

"Wherever you go, I can go, but faster!" The Raven taunted as Juliana pressed a button on the gauntlet, opening the Jet's main hatch. In the last second, she diverted from her path, doing a steep dive toward the open sea. At the same time, she pressed the button again, closing the main hatch and opening the service hatch just in time for her to fly up into the belly of the Jet. The Jet shuddered as the Raven rammed into it at full force before free falling into the ocean.

An exhausted Juliana rolled over on the floor of the PROBJet, lazily closing the service hatch as she watched the others board the ship through the window beneath her. 

"Oh, my dear young lady, you are going to be in so much trouble." She heard Luna Chu's disapproving voice above her as the pain in her ankle intensified, pushing her over the edge of unconsciousness. 

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