Airborn
- Uh-oh—Crumlin's got both Matt and Kate. He reeks of fish soup, but he's not down yet.
- Crumlin woozily forces them to walk toward the front via the keel catwalk; they meet up with old Rhino Hand, who is also noticeably fighting off the sleep serum.
- Suddenly cloud cat drops down onto the catwalk in between them and Rhino Hand.
- Crumlin recognizes the beast he's been trying to make into a wall trophy for years, and sloppily shoots his pistol at it as it lunges at them. Not a great idea. He misses the cat, but hits Rhino Hand in the neck. Looks like they're down to five pirates now.
- Not for long, though—the pirates are promptly reduced to four (well, three if you count the one locked in the engine car as incapacitated) as the cloud cat goes after Crumlin with a vengeance. Maybe it's because he reeks of fish soup, or maybe its because she recognizes him, but let's just say Crumlin won't be making a comeback anytime soon.
- Meanwhile Matt and Kate haul butt toward Bruce, who is supposed to meet them in the port cargo bay.
- Bruce has only managed to shut down one of his engines, so Matt is worried about him—maybe his leg got the best of him.
- Nope, it's worse than that. They find Bruce crumpled on the floor, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
- Before they have time to even process Bruce's death Szpirglas starts to exit the engine car nearest them, having restarted the propeller himself. Matt orders Kate to run, and he desperately tries to beat Szpirglas to the hatch in order to lock him outside the ship.
- Matt doesn't quite make it though, and Szpirglas shoulders his way through the hatch, propelling Matt backward.
- Matt climbs up to the axial catwalk, dodging bullets as he goes. Szpirglas follows him, cursing angrily.
- Matt grabs a wrench from an open locker and hurls it at Szpirglas's head. Ouch. He also manages to hit him with the rest of the contents of the locker, including a pot of patching glue that splashes all over his face and gun.
- Luckily the glue clogs Szpirglas's gun, so that's a moot point.
- The only way to go is up, so Matt heads up to the aft crow's nest.
- When he climbs out onto the exterior of the ship he's momentarily blinded by the bright sun—and when his eyes clear, he's able to see the cloud cat emerging out of the forward observation hatch. Well isn't that perfect.
- Matt turns around and sees Szpirglas emerge, holding a nasty looking knife.
- Matt's pooped and there's nowhere left for him to run. He decides that whatever happens, all he cares about is his ship and the people on it.
- Szpirglas reaches him and shoves him into the air.
- Matt goes flying, and he has a strange sense of serenity about it—it feels natural to die this way, in the same way as his father.
- There's a small part of Matt that knows he needs to survive though, so he aims for the ship's tail fins, and hits them hard. Holding on for dear life in a horrific skid, he manages to grab a metal strut and abruptly jerk to a stop. Umm, ouch.
- While trying to figure out what to do from there (he can't hold on forever), Matt sees an incredible thing happen: the cloud cat jumps off the top of the airship. It's left wing doesn't unfurl fully (just like when Kate's grandfather saw the creature plunge after its birth), but it manages to start flying.
- Matt feels a sense of euphoria from watching the cloud cat finally take to the sky.
- Then Matt sees Szpirglas coming for him. Again. This is one seriously determined pirate.
- Szpirglas starts to pull the classic stomp-on-your-fingers maneuver to force Matt let go of the strut, but he's so numb to the pain he just hangs on.
- With a great one-liner, ("You'll never break all of me" [20.57]) Matt summons up his strength and kicks out Szpirglas's legs.
- The pirate manages to right himself by grabbing a safety line, but just as he goes to finish off Matt they see dozens and dozens of cloud cats flying around them.
- One of the cloud cats—Matt can't tell if this is on purpose or not—strikes Szpirglas in the shoulders with its rear legs, and the pirate falls to his doom.
- Matt's first thought is about Szpirglas's poor little boy. He can relate.
- On his plunge to the sea, the cloud cats go into a feeding frenzy—it's time for Szpirglas to contribute to the circle of life.
- Matt somehow summons the strength to grab the safety line Szpirglas was using and haul himself up the side of the ship.
- Before Matt lowers himself into the crow's nest hatch he sees the cloud cat he and Kate discovered being assimilated into the group of them. That's a nice, tidy ending for her, at least.
- There's no time to enjoy his triumph, however—the airship is heading straight for the solitary mountain peak on the island, and Matt knows there's no one at the controls.
- He dashes into the control room and hears the captain's voice in his head, issuing the orders to steer the ship away from doom. Putting the Aurora in a hard tilt and a steep climb, he narrowly misses the peak.
- Then he hears the captain's real voice, giving him a heading…
- And when he turns around, there is Captain Walken, the first officers, Kate, and Baz—all triumphantly grinning at him. They've taken care of the last of the pirates, and the captain asks if Matt had taken care of the others. Yup.
- Captain Walken says that Kate has filled him in, and then calmly instructs Matt to carry on flying the ship.