The weather is perfect as the Plane approaches the island of Hawaii. Bright, sunny, not a cloud in the sky; there's surf on the beaches (but beware, there may be sharks as well, and they are not always picky eaters); there's people (human and rodent) out to enjoy a relaxing holiday in the sun. There's not a hint of trouble to be seen.

Yet.

Buck knows a good Chinese restaurant; alternatively, there's always the beach, or one can go sight-seeing.

"Hawaii! The sun! The food! The coconuts!" He wings down toward a young man surfing, flying into his face and almost certainly scaring him into a wipeout. "And oh, the humanity! Hey, dude! Watch out for those sharks!"

Buck pilots the plane towards Oahu, aiming for Waikiki beach and the international marketplace.

"I'm going for eggrolls and kimchi. Anyone else want in?"

The young man jerks back reflexively as Ding flies almost into his face, losing his balance and yes, wiping out. He does manage to keep hold of his surfboard, though, and heads out to find another good wave, muttering under his breath about stupid bats flying in people's faces.

Ding: Alertness: +4 Roll: +2 Total: +6
Hex: Alertness: +2 Roll: +1 Total: +3
Kip: Alertness: +3 Roll: +0 Total: +3
Buck: Alertness: +3 Roll: +4 Total: +7 (wow!)
Avery: Alertness: +0 Roll: -1 Total: -1

Buck pilots towards Oahu, when he notices another craft in the distance, almost invisible in the bright sky. It's a rodent-sized powered craft - of which there are maybe a dozen in the world (most people, if they really need to fly, will pay a seagull or pigeon). It's carrying one pilot, no passengers (unless they're hiding under the seats); a propeller-driven craft, but from the way the left engine is skipping it looks low on fuel. (Which implies that it is not battery-powered). Ding can see the plane (and that it contains only one person) but hasn't noticed the skip in the left propeller; Hex and Kip can simply see the plane, and are in no position to count the number of people onboard.

"Hey! Is that another regular sized plane? Wonder who it is."

Kip shades his eyes with one paw, gazing towards the aircraft.

"I don't know, but from the way that left prop is skipping, it looks like whoever it is might be in a spot of trouble."

Buck turns the plane onto an intercept course.

"Long range aircraft like ours and that one are rare as hens teeth. Most folk prefer to simply hop on a human jumbo jet, or charter an albatross or something. You'd think I'd remember if I ever saw that plane before, huh?"

It's immediately clear to Buck that the other pilot is desperately trying to reach the beach (as opposed to ditching in the sea). It's touch and go for a few moments, but the other plane makes the beach a mere few metres above the waves. The landing, while competent, betrays poor piloting skills (that pilot waited far too long before deploying landing gear).

Buck recognises the plane by reputation; Avery recognises the plane because she's been in it before. It is the Screaming Eagle, originally built by Ultra-Flite Laboratories in an attempt to provide true luxury transport for the richest of rodents (e.g. Avery's family) and a very fast cargo service for anyone, and presumably sold off when Ultra-Flite went under (demand was a lot lower than they'd expected, and they ran out of funds).

Avery bounces excitedly. "What a wonderful surprise! The Screaming Eagle! I haven't seen Geegaw since I was little!"

The canopy of the Screaming Eagle opens, and the pilot steps out into view. Avery immediately realises that this pilot is not Geegaw Hackwrench, ace of the skies. It's hard to tell who the pilot is at this distance, and with her helmet on; but it is possible to tell that she is, well, a 'she', unlike Geegaw. Like Geegaw, she is a mouse. She waves at the Rangers, and watches to see whether they will land.

"Huh. Glad she landed okay. Thought it might be bad for a second there."

Kip waves at the figure.

"We should go see if she needs help. And the beach looks great!"

"Beach it is, but I still want my kimchi and eggrolls."

Buck circles once, before bringing the plane in to touch down on the sand a small distance away from the Screaming Eagle. He can't help but show off a little.

Kip jumps out and helps anyone else out that needs it before heading for the figure on the beach.

"Hi! You need some help?"

Hex climbs down out of the plane, but doesn't really move too far away from it. He nervously looks about, as if expecting something else to show up.

"Hi!" says the girl, removing her helmet to reveal a vast quantity of long blonde hair. "I haven't seen your plane before, homemade model, right? Electrically powered, I bet you get incredible range from a battery. Unless you were the guys who flew over the airport back in New Amsterdam, I tried to follow them to say 'hi' but they got caught in the jetstream and were out of radar range before I could get into the air and so I tried to estimate the direction only I think I got it wrong and now I can't work out if it's less likely that there's two planes like yours or that I've coincidentally found the same plane as the one I saw going overhead two days ago and by the way do you know where I can get fuel here, I've got a variable carbarettor so anything that burns would be fine but ethanol would be best because it has a great power to mass ratio?"

Ding wings down to a landing close to the others. Well. At least he tries to. Sand + not very good at landing in situations NOT upside down + bat equal a small flurry of sand and a lot of sputtering and swearing as Ding climbs out of the small crater in the sand that he tumbled into.