Airborne
- Just when Matt is about to lose his cool, Kate pops out of a cupboard clutching a frying pan. She heard someone coming, so they've got to hurry.
- They manage to sneak away and start the laborious process of furtively casting off landing lines.
- Through the walls of the passenger quarters they can still hear the partying pirates—it doesn't seem like the sleeping-soup has kicked in at all yet.
- They get all the lines safely cast off and are heading back to the stern when they see the cloud cat, aboard the Aurora. Not good…
- She must've been drawn to the smell of the fish soup.
- They dodge her pretty easily, but it's still a bad development. A wild creature with sharp claws and an instinct for survival is not something you want to have on a ship full of people and delicate bags of air.
- Back in the auxiliary control room Bruce isn't looking so hot, but he's gotten all his lines cast off as well.
- Matt and Bruce carefully plan their launch procedure, and when it's all hashed out they pull the lever that transfers control to their room.
- The last step is to cast off the final stern line. Matt jumps down into the sand and struggles with the knot. His only option is to untie the end that's wrapped around a palm tree.
- He's halfway to the tree when the rest of the pirates come sprinting out of the woods.
- Matt yells for Bruce to take off and not to wait for him.
- The ship starts rising, and Matt gets the line freed at the very last moment.
- Matt runs to the ship and jumps for the landing gear, but misses. Thankfully the trailing stern line is running past his face after he lands in the sand (how graceful), so he grabs it and holds on for dear life.
- He climbs up the rope and Bruce helps him in. Phew.
- The ship isn't climbing fast enough though, and the pirates on shore are grasping at the few lines still dangling off her, so Matt insists they drop more ballast even though it's against procedure. Now they're really rising, and fast.
- Kate is hard at work getting the engines going, and Bruce vents a bit of air to slow their rapid ascent.
- Matt turns the ship out toward the water to put as much space between them and the island as possible, and they've done it.
- Now that all four engines are going full steam, they need to get the heck out of the control room before the pirates come get them.
- Their plan is to hide in the cargo hold until the pirates fall asleep and then emerge to save the day, but that's thwarted when two pirates intercept them along the keel catwalk on the way there.
- Quickly, they all duck into the cargo hold. Matt tells Kate and Bruce to hide—he has a plan. (This kid is just full of plans.)
- Matt makes some noise to lure the pirates further into the hold, and when they're right over the landing bay doors, he pulls the lever to open them. That's two pirates down, and only six left to go. Good work, Matt.
- As they're contemplating their next move, the ship starts to turn. Szpirglas must've re-assumed the controls.
- Matt remembers that Szpirglas doesn't eat fish, which means he'll have avoided eating the sleeping-soup—so they can't override the controls, and they're going to have to stop the engines manually.
- Matt and Kate split up with Bruce so they can get the job done quicker. In the engine car she helps Matt find the shutoff valve, and then flits off to go do the other one. She's a go-getter, that Kate.
- Matt sticks around long enough to make sure the engine is going to stop, but then he looks up and a pirate is coming down the ladder into his engine car. Fiddlesticks.
- Matt's only option is to climb out onto the roof of the car, which is beyond dangerous—he has no safety lines and the propeller is still turning, threatening to suck him into its lethal blades.
- He makes it onto the roof and jumps for the ladder on the side of the ship. The dang pirate is right behind him, grabbing at his legs. Matt kicks away his gun, and grabs an oilcan that's within reach to squirt into the scumbag's face (that was convenient). The pirate loses his grip on the ladder and falls heavily back into the engine car.
- Matt shuts the hatch door and locks it. Maybe the pirate will just decide to take a nap in there.
- Then Matt feels the cold nozzle of a gun held to his head…
- He's been found by Mr. Crumlin.