Yep. Mountain outposts are difficult to defend from kaiju without ongoing magical support, not every Paladin patrol is a convenient few hours' flight from a base, and sometimes missions run longer than expected or flights aim to chase down a fleeing monster or inclement weather strands flyers.  Short of bringing in a helicopter (which does sometimes happen!) it's not always easy to get the patrols into a base every day. So there's at least a bit of "in case of emergency" wilderness survival training for anyone who might end up in the Rockies.

At any rate, after this summer's training, if Isabella wants to join the Paladins when she graduates, it's not quite a guarantee but it's a pretty safe bet they'll take her. 

Neat. It's nice to have a plan.

Later that year, there's a news announcement that Pax Corps is expanding resurrection capacity again and is planning to open a facility in Chicago. The items that turn diamonds into People Not Dead Anymore (both the past-sixteen-days variety and the hundred-sixty-year variety) will only be present twice a week on rotation, but this is still expected to make over a thousand weekly resurrections accessible to the Midwest US region.

Yaaaay is there a party about this she wants to go to a party about this.

If she wants to travel, there's several parties in Chicago, including a huge public one and a relatively smaller, more formal one that's semi-restricted; it's easy enough to get an invite to the second one for friends of Pax Corps, and as a prior intern, Bella qualifies. 

There are a couple much smaller unofficial gatherings in the Phoenix area, put on by people generally in favor of Not Dying rather than by Pax Corps or its affiliates. She may or may not hear about these by word of mouth. 

Yeah, you only live a couple times, she'll fly to Chicago and see who else thinks this makes it party time. Can she bring a plus one?

Yep!

Woo! Off they go.

And there's a big party! With lots of Important People!

Networking time. Both on his own behalf and as a unit with Isabella who, for all that this was her idea, is not actually at her ease in crowds of strangers.

It's not all strangers! 

Nora's gotten a style upgrade of her own; her outfit is positively regal, now, and her wings are a bright green with shades of yellow at the feather-tips and the faintest hint of iridescence on the feathers. She waves at Isabella and Xander from near the hors d'oeuvres tables. 

"Hi Nora, you look stunning! This is my twin brother Xander."

"Oh, thank you! You too — Xander, did you help with this, it's breathtaking —" 

"I did! Over many months of painstaking trial and error I slightly improved on what a Paladin class stylist did in... a couple hours. Yay me."

"He re-worked the earrings, most significantly."

"Well, they flatter you delightfully. You ended up with the Paladins after all, then?"

"I interned there and it seems likely where I'm headed, yeah."

"That's wonderful news!" And conspiratorially, "How long until the world acknowledges the innate superiority of combat thrones?" 

"It'd have a maneuverability disadvantage."