“Alrighty then,” Paul said, clapping his hands. “Looks like it’s me and Sofia on this one, Tick and Sato on that one.” He pointed to the next bike in line.

Tick wanted to argue, but he didn’t really want Sato any angrier than he already was. He looked to Sofia for help, but she only shrugged, not bothering to hide the smirk on her face. “Uh, great, okay.”

Paul moved toward his bike and sat down right behind the handlebars, but Sofia would have none of it.

“I’m driving, tough guy,” she said, pushing him backward as she squirmed her way in front of him.

Paul held his hands up in surrender as he scooted to the rear of the big seat. “You win, Miss Italy, you win.” He looked over at Tick and mouthed the words, “Help me.”

Sato pulled the last Windbike upright and pushed the button to turn it on as he swung his leg over and sat down in the driver’s position. “Get on,” he said, not bothering to look at Tick.

Tick felt like he’d rather pound his head against the closest tree than get on the back of the humming machine. He hated how the mean kid from Japan was ruining everything.

Mothball must have noticed Tick’s hesitation. “Come, now. Time’s a wastin’, it is.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Tick sighed as he sat behind Sato. The bottom edge of the Windbike had a railing with sticky pads for his feet. “Is this another invention from the Fourth Reality? Wait, let me guess—Chu Industries?”

“Nailed that one, you did,” Mothball answered. “Chu rules a monopoly in the Fourth, he does—practically owns everything. Smuggled these bikes in a few months ago, we did, figuring they’d do right nicely for our little mission.”

“What do we do now?” Sofia asked.

“Watch me very closely,” Mothball said. She gripped the handlebars, then gently lifted, surprising everyone when the metal connecting her handgrips to the bike bent upward. As she did so, her Windbike rose several feet into the air with a slight surge in its humming sound; the top of her head almost bumped into a low-hanging branch.

“Cool!” Paul shouted.

Tick couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Your hands control everything,” Mothball said from above. “Push forward, go forward. The farther you push, the faster you go. Pull back and you slow down or stop, depending how hard ya do it. And ya go up or down by lifting and dropping the handgrips. Easy as breathin’, it is.”

Tick yelped and grabbed Sato’s shirt as their bike suddenly leaped into the air and backward, then lurched forward and came to a sudden stop. A second later it shot forward again and flew around the closest tree, coming to a halt right above Sofia and Paul.

“It works,” Sato said in a deadpan voice.