By the end of the week, the plane is fully repaired - better than repaired, since with Avery's resources it's been improved in some way. Ding seems to have installed a bar in the ceiling of the spare room (since, as a bat, he hangs upside down from it to sleep). He looks out to see if he can find something strange in the neighbourhood, but the strangest thing about appears to be Ding himself. Kip finds and visits several restaurants, sometimes with Foxglove, sometimes with all the Rangers. There are no more surprise visits from future versions of Buck, or anyone else, and Kip can find no hint of Foxglove turning evil (yet). Hex quickly learns how to fly the plane; he's nowhere near Buck's standard, but he can manage to land without major incident (unlike a certain taxi seagull, who goes by the name of Orville). Orville and Ding are introduced; it turns out that they have run into each other once or twice before, generally in mid-air, but neither gained any serious concussion on either occasion.

Avery, with her more severe family obligations, takes longer to learn to fly the plane, but by the end of the week Buck feels that she's ready for a test flight. The newly repaired and shiny plane waits for her to take it up; as with Hex's test flight, Buck will take the co-pilot seat (just in case; during Hex's test flight Buck hadn't had to do anything). Ding, Hex and Kip will take the rear seat, together with the picnic basket; the plan is that Avery's test flight will end in a nice, open field somewhere, and they'll have a picnic there in celebration.

Weather reports indicate clear, sunny weather through most of New Amsterdam.

"Picnics are fun. Though . . . didn't we have a big to-do with the crabs and the whole fish stealing cat-tastrophy last time we went on a picnic?"

Kip has his hat pulled over his eyes and is reclined on his seat, enjoying the ride.

Hex is a bit more cautious this time around, he brings his full complement of knives and juggling balls, in addition to a towel, sunglasses and other beach gear. (Never did get that thimble back from the crabs. =( )
He'll hunker down in the back seat and take a nap while they fly out to the beach.

Ding settles down into his spot, grumbling something about it not feeling right having someone else fly.

"Yes! And wasn't it lovely to meet all those nice crabs?" Avery is, of course, decked out in her best aviatrix outfit, including fashionable goggles. She's nervous but not hesitant as she flies, frequently looking over to Buck for approval.

Avery: Piloting: +1 Roll: +0 Total: +1

The flight is reasonably smooth; takeoff goes without a hitch. There's a bit of bumpiness when the plane suddenly hits a thermal over the road, but Avery has the plane well under control so far.

She's flying cautiously, but competently; climbing perhaps somewhat slower than Buck would.

The goggles keep the wind out of her eyes.

Avery continues to fly the plane.

Kip laughs, but limits his conversation so that Avery can concentrate on flying.

Let's just say its a good thing rats are incapable of snoring, 'cause Hex is out like a light. :)

OOC Note: If Hex were at all worried about Avery's flying, sleep would not be a possibility.

Everything goes perfectly until Avery strays a little too close to the airport.

And there's a human-sized jet just taking off. Ignoring the little rodent plane entirely, the jumbo jet shrugs aside the air, pushing through like an elephant pushing aside a field of reeds. Caught in the slipstream, Avery suddenly finds herself in some trouble, the plane tossed about like a twig in a tornado.

Avery: Piloting: +1 Roll: -2 Total: -1 Target:+3

The plane spins out of control, dragged along behind the rising jet for a few minutes. Hex awakens from a nightmare in which he's trapped in a washing machine to find that the reality is drier but more turbulent. Fortunately, seat belts allow everyone to keep their seats, but they're definitely somewhat shaken up by the time Avery straightens up the plane again.

Their troubles are not, however, over. The jet's slipstream has carried them into a jetstream, which is in turn carrying them rapidly out of the city, towards some towering clouds that scream 'bad weather conditions' to both Buck and Ding.

"No, not tumble-dry!!!" Hex yells with a start. Hex looks around for a moment, gathering his bearings.

"Oh, sorry, nightmare." he shrugs as if that explains everything, then looks out the side window, seeing the beach receding in the distance.

"Umm, Avery, isn't that the beach?" He asks teasingly, pointing at the shrinking strip of sand. (OOC: Hex hasn't looked forward yet, so hasn't noticed the clouds yet.)

Kip taps Hex on the shoulder, before pointing at the clouds.

"Avery, hun? See the big, towering clouds up ahead? That, in the aviation community, is what we like to call a Bad Thing." Ding looks worriedly at the clouds. "We're in a jetstream right now, and we need to get out of it. Lower your altitude and that should do the trick."

Avery attempts to follow Ding's instructions.

Avery: Piloting: +1 Roll: +2 Total: +3 Difficulty: +3

Avery puts the plane into a steep dive almost immediately; the puffy white cloud zooms by their heads, almost but not quite close enough to reach out and touch. As soon as she's below the cloud, Avery straightens out again; and flies directly into a fairly heavy snowfall. Though it's cold, and though it reduces visibility to only a few metres, the wind up here is not nearly as bad as it would have been inside the cloud.

And the Rodent Rangers aren't the only fliers trapped in this contrary weather - there's a small bird over there, in really dire straits. Not only is he trying to navigate in the snow, but his wings are almost frozen.

By now, the Rangers are well out of the city.