Warning: This might be a very long chappie!

Third Person POV

Rourke immediately began his work in the volcano. A mercenary pulled a rope on a canon that was pointed upwards. The ash that had encircled the group was struck by a bomb that was shot up at an alarming rate.

Boulders of all sizes came throwing down in a smoky heap. He climbed a rock and stared up at the ceiling, which was now lighting up his only way out.

"I love it when I win." Unbeknownst to the commander, the rescue team were hot on his trail and they entered the tunnel at high speed. With a wagon secured to the ground, a lever was pulled and a hot air balloon in the shape of a rocket was released.

"Okay, here's the plan," Milo called out. "We're going to come in low and fast and take them by surprise." "Well, I've got news for you Milo.
Rourke is never surprised and he's got a lot of guns," Audrey added.

"Great, well do you have any suggestions?" "Yeah, don't get shot!" Vinny shouted. The hot air balloon was all set. Underneath it, the tank containing the princess was hooked onto a very strong metal chain and they were lifted out of the second truck.

"There they are!" Madeleine shouted and pointed. "We've got company!" Rourke yelled. Shots were discharged every which way. Rourke's troopers aimed at the rescue team and sought shelter when needed. Rourke was busy getting into the hot air balloon by scaling a ladder.

"Holy smokes! You told me he only had guns!" Milo cried out, leaning back to dodge a bullet. "What I said was, he's never surprised," Audrey remarked. Vinny stabilized himself by pressing his palm against the pad whilst being shot at. His vehicle launched a blue lightning flare at the wagons below, causing an explosion.

Flashing a grin of surprise, he glanced at the Atlantean rider adjacent to him. "Okay, now things are getting good." "Vinny! Heads up! We can't let them reach the top of that shaft" Milo yelled, appearing from behind.

Milo was ambushed suddenly, forcing him to fly away, but he intended to ride alongside him. Amidst the chaos, Mrs Packard appeared to be living it up by snapping pictures with her camera.

Milo caught up to Vinny again. "Vinny, new plan. You and me, we're going to be decoys. Audrey, Maddy, Sweet, fly up underneath that thing and cut Kida loose," he ordered. "We're on it," Sweet gave a thumbs up. The rescue team implemented their new plan, heading towards the hot air balloon.

"Lieutenant!" Rourke snapped. Helga immediately aimed her weapon and fired. Audrey was hacking away at the chains beneath the basket with Sweet's saw. "I thought you said this thing could cut through a femur in 28 seconds!" Madeleine yelled at Sweet who was holding the container upright. "Mads, less talk, more saw!" he snapped.

Even though Rourke had the biggest gun he had, the lightning strike that took it out of his hands rendered it useless. He gave Vinny a glare, and Vinny gave the commander a salute.

When she ran out of bullets, Helga dashed her C-96 in frustration as Rourke said "Looks like somebody's working overtime," he pointed down to Audrey, Madeleine and Sweet. Helga immediately untied a portion of the balloon's machinery, sending the metal device crashing into the vehicle which exploded in flames.

"Come on girls, time's up," Sweet grabbed a hold of Audrey's overalls and the collar of Madeleine's nightgown, pulling the girls to safety. "Alright Milo. This is it, any last words?" Milo rubbed his hands together, taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I really wish I had a better idea than this!"

He gripped the controls and steered his vehicle towards the balloon, jumping off and clinging to a loose line of rope and his vehicle crashed into the balloon. "We're losing altitude. Lighten the load," Rourke demanded. Helga tossed over a metal canister with ease. "That's it. Unless someone wants to jump," she said, unaware of the disloyalty that was brewing behind her.

"Ladies first," grinned Rourke and he threw Helga over the side. The lieutenant cried out but managed to grip onto a bar. Using gymnastics-like skills, Helga swung herself back into the basket. Rourke grunted as he was kicked in the face by his now ex-accomplice.

"You said we were in this together!" she kicked him twice. "You promised me a percentage!" she kicked him thrice. On the fourth attempt, Rourke caught her foot. "Next time, get it in writing," Rourke spat and threw her overboard once more.

Helga screamed as she tumbled to her demise. Rourke cupped the side of his mouth as she flailed about, searching for something, anything, to grab a hold of. "Nothing personal!"

Milo broke a rope, grunting in effort as he finally figured out which one was the right angle. With another slash to his right, he swung down, the commander turning around just in time to see him coming. The two crashed and Milo's grip on the rope loosened, sending them both over the edge.

They landed on a lower platform, near the engine, meaning the fan that helped them stay afloat, was dangerously close. Milo gulped as he looked down at it before looking back up at the commander who was stalking towards him menacingly.

"Well, I have to hand it to you, kid.
You're a bigger pain in the neck that I would've ever thought possible." Desperately, Milo staggered to his feet, throwing a weak punch. The commander caught it in disbelief before using it to punch him, sending another towards his stomach.

He was launched into a metal fencing that was thin enough to come apart at the force, sending him dangling in the air, the metal clogging up the fan as Rourke bent down between two panels. "I consider myself an even-tempered man. It takes a lot to get under my skin." He paused before leaning forwards excessively, causing Milo to flinch backwards.

"But congratulations, you just won the solid-gold kewpie doll." Milo managed to secure his toe on a very thing and fragile looking piece of metal. There was only so much further he could fall without having anything to save him, he stepped onto it carefully, releasing the fencing and glancing down at the container, sending a silent prayer.

Way down below, Lieutenant Helga Sinclair grunted inelegantly, her hair a mess and her clothes were singed, scuffed, and teared, but all that mattered to her was that she could still feel the weight against her lower back.

She was still armed. Reaching behind her, she weakly grasped the handle, pulling it out from her trousers as she turned around. She gasped for air, finding this angle much easier to breathe with, despite her broken rib cage. "Nothing personal," she said, hoping the ammo she was about to launch would carry her message onwards.

With one last tug of effort, she pulled the trigger, needing two fingers to do so. It took out the biggest balloon there and Helga got the last laugh before her hand dropped completely. Rourke smashed open an 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY' box and pulled out an ax.

Milo had questions, why any emergency on a hot air balloon would require an ax being the main one, but it turned out to be the least of his worries when it dawned on him that the ax was in the hands of a madman. He scurried down the chains, and then down the containment unit before his feet hit nothing but open air and he was forced to stop.

Rourke followed after him, falling debris and ash only adding onto his terrifying demeanor as flames created lightning that made his features appear sharper. "Tired, Mr. Thatch?" Rourke asked as Milo scrambled from his left, to his right, clinging onto a different face of the cube, when he realised it wasn't the only face he was seeing.

The window was still frozen over, but Kida's eyes could still be seen, growing brighter than Milo last remembered them. "Well, that's a darn shame!" Rourke swung down again, his ax breaking the window as Milo dodged with a small apology whispered towards Kida.

Blue mist crawled from the hole created, his entire face glowing blue. As the ax was pulled from the window, dislodging even more glass, the crystal rang and Milo paused, it sounded suspiciously like his name.

Before he could scramble onto a different side of it and continue there game of 'see who gets tired first', his eyes locked onto Kida's again. The pupils suddenly dilating. Did they flicker to the glass, or was that his imagination? Either way, his reactions were already kicking in.

"Because I'm just getting warmed up!" Rourke said through gritted teeth as Milo grabbed a shard of glass, being careful not to cut himself with it, something told him it wouldn't end too well on his end if he did. He began to climb up, allowing the commander to grab him by the throat, easily hoisting him above any sort of ground as he smirked, bringing his ax back for the final blow.

Milo grabbed the commander's hand, doing his best to continue to breathe, and with the other hand, he brought down the shard of glass quicker than Rourke even began to move the ax, slicing into his skin as though it was paper. Scattering up the chains, Milo desperately wanted to feel solid ground again.

Rourke grasped his forearm, the ax falling to the floor just like all his other options were. He looked up at Milo, scowling fiercely as he began to climb up after him. His veins turned red and his skin blue, slowly the crystal began to take effect on his whole body, overriding any sort of genes that fought back as they began to crystallize.

Rourke roared, sounding four dimensional as his eyes turned yellow. Milo grabbed the fence, but his weight only tore it in half, he stumbled forwards as the fan began to rotate again, not wanting to loose his head. (Don't lose ur head~)

Looking down,he spotted the commander - frozen just after his cry for help, yellow eyes staring up at him desperately and yet lifelessly.  "Thank heaven," Milo said, closing his eyes in a moment of relief.

It was a moment cut too short as a glowing blue hand grabbed the very same bar he was clinging onto. The commander's blue skin had cracks, where the yellow in his eyes came out in beams. His movements were stiff, and they were only getting stiffer, as if he was fighting to keep moving, but his physique wasn't helping him for once. He shrieked again, this time the fan getting the better of him. Milo turned away, grimacing at the very idea of it.

There was a bright light, yellow mixing with blue in an explosion and the chains snapped free. The one balloon left had caused them to steer towards the right, and thankfully too, it meant that they landed on the side of the volcano and didn't have to fall to the floor.

They rolled down the bedding of soot and ash. They tumbled for a little before finally stilling on an upturned edge. Milo's head slammed back into the metal and he groaned, rubbing it stiffly as he rolled his shoulders, looking up as he did so. "Oh, great!" He yelled when he saw the explosion was headed towards them.

"C'mon, move!" With a final push, he sent Kida over the edge, jumping after them before taking cover behind as the explosion finally went off. Vinny, Sweet and Mole flew down, landing as the jumped off to help assess the damage.

Cracks spread across the floor, bright orange staring into their eyes as heat began to rise. Mole practically vibrated on the spot, flapping his arms uselessly before he finally got his words out. "The volcano! She awakes!"

"Hey," Vinny said as he held up a stick of dynamite. "I had nothing to do with it." His eyes widened and he quickly reached over to put the flame out before it made the situation impossibly worse. Everyone began to remount their vehicles.

"No, wait. We got to get her back!" Milo yelled, grabbing into a chain and hook. He quickly added on the rest, not realizing he had paused. "Or the whole city will die!" "And if we don't get out here, we'll die!" Audrey yelled as Sweet jumped off their shared ride to snatch the chain off Milo, not liking the slow pace he was moving at.

"It's the only way to reverse this!
Just do it!" Audrey threw Vinny and Madeleine the hook, who quickly threw it down the other side of the vehicle, Audrey jumped to reach it, hooking it onto itself. She reached upwards and Vinny helped her up. Milo jumped onto the back and they began to fly off.

The hook snapped. Vinny grabbed Audrey around the waist, stopping her from leaving as Milo had already done so, already three steps ahead of everybody else. Grabbing the chain and avoiding the cracks, looping the chain around the metal cube and attaching it to itself again.

"Go!" The second it began to move, and only when it began to move, Milo moved to jump onto Kida's container, clinging on for dear life. As Vinny flew, the chain dancing and Milo nearly falling off numerous times, he began to appreciate the adrenaline. It was the only thing keeping him together at this point.