Now things get interesting.
“Hey Ajax! Ajax?” Kana sighed, “I really need some way to contact her.”
The AI’s avatar appeared in a flash of light, “You called?”
“You know we need to figure out a system to call each other when needed if this relationship is going to work,” Kana frowned.
“Well if I need to talk to you I can always appear whenever and wherever I please. Every ship, including the civilian fleet has holoprojectors.”
“Well I still have no way of taking to you. Do you have a communicator or something? COM patch? Cell phone? Hell a pager would do. Why do I know what a pager is?”
“Well if you just ask I can show up. I’m linked in with all the ships in the fleet. Makes getting some alone time a bit hard but hey.”
“So you’re just… everywhere in fleet at once right now?”
“Yup. I’m actually going over the Admiral’s morning schedule him, talking with Chief O’Brian about how to perfect the engine flare for the mission next week, teaching a lesson about astronomy to the Eternity’s fifth grade class, consulting with the environmental AI on Rama II about more efficient water allocation for crop growth, managing the ship’s reactors, taking inventory of all our weapons and ammo, and making sure that your friend Takeya is getting enough sleep at night. And that’s just the first few things on the list. I’m pretty much everywhere.”
“Uh, huh,” Kana said blinking.
“Meh, you get used to it after a while,” the AI shrugged, “I barely even remember what was like to be in one place at one time.”
“Lucky you.”
“So what’d you call me for?” Ajax smiled.
“Oh, uh, I think I figured out what happened to the Icarus.”
“What?! Really? That’s been one of the major naval mysteries of the last 30 years. I mean, they know what happened but what no one has been able to figure out is how the Icarus survived.”
“Well, I think I found out how.”
Kana turned a pulled a file back up on screen. Various camera views and data along with names of a few individuals flew across the screen.
“Someone made it down to the Engineering section and stopped the ship’s core from overloading. I think their original goal was just to delay it long enough for the shuttles to evacuate the ship but then something else happened to change that. Probably the shuttle pods started getting attacked or something but needless to say, they got main power back online and reactivated the weapons system.”
“Wow.”
“But here’s the thing. There were only like seven people on board who had the engineering degrees and computer skills required to do that. The two commanders of the ship, the Chief Engineer and his three assistants and a pilot. I don’t know which one did it yet but I’ve been scrolling through footage looking.”
“Wait, engineering was flooded by high levels of Gamma Radiation. So whoever went in there-”
“-Stayed there.”
***
Starry Skies reentered her room at the Shadowbolts HQ. The structure was located on the complete opposite side of the city. Far enough away so that they would have as little interaction with the Wonderbolts as possible.
The Shadowbolt flopped down onto her bed and sighed. She spread her wings out under her and smiled. A knock at the door got her attention. She grinned slyly and stood up and opened the door.
Charger stood before her.
“Well?” he asked.
“Let’s get this party started,” Starry Skies smiled. She pulled her shirt up above her head and tossed it as Charger stepped into the room.
“Top or bottom?”
“Top,” she said stripping the rest of her clothes off.
***
“I hate this!” Dane screamed.
“How the fuck did I get dragged into this?!” Jett yelled. The pair bolted through the streets towards the HQ. Jett still wore his mask and Dane ironically was still blonde. Behind them, flying high above were Misty, Surprise, and Fleetfoot.
“I don’t know!”
The pair continued running towards the HQ.
“Wait a minute!” Jett yelled, “Why are you chasing me?!”
“You helped hide him!” Fleetfoot grinned.
“So you’ll be joining him!” Surprise finished.
The door to the HQ was in sight. They were almost there.
Dane reached it first and commenced to hit the door as hard as he could in desperation.
“Let us in!” he screamed. Blaze peaked around a curtain and looked outside.
“Sorry,” she shrugged, “I owed Misty a favor.”
Jett blinked and turned, “Oh fuck this. You’re on your own Dane.”
“Wait what?!” Dane screamed and turned to Jett. He gave a salute and vanished.
“Wait, where did you go?!” he yelled.
Jett sighed, “I discovered a month ago I had a built in cloaking device. Don’t know who built it but it does come in handy. See ya!”
Dane turned. The three girls had landed and were slowly walking towards him.
“Fuck,” he sighed.
As a cartoon styled skirmish, complete with the dust cloud and the random face that would pop out of it every now and again, began, Jett had walked down to his hanger. Slowly but surely the once dilapidated hanger had turned into a futuristic wonderland. The old grey walls were replaced with high tech glossy white plating. The old machines had been replaced by 25th century technology hand crafted by the android. The doors were upgraded, the runway repaved, and the planes were all upgraded to 25th century level or appearance. The whole place ran on an advanced ARC Fusion reactor controlled by a powerful molecular computer.
Jett reappeared in the hanger in front of the doors leading to his bunk area and laughed as he listened to Dane’s screams.
A voice got his attention, “So this is the place you’ve built huh?”
Jett turned and pinged the mystery person, running the facial scan to match the voice print.
“Oh hey Gin, what are you doing here?” he asked.
The bartender walked over, “I never would have figured you were one for long term relationships. Especially the committed kind.”
“Why would you figure that? I never said I was against the concept.”
“Yes you have,” she sighed, “Or at least you may not be able to remember it.”
“Why would I ever say that?”
“Really?! How can you still be Jett Halsey and not remember anything that made you who you are?!”
“What are you talking about?”
Gin sighed, “Look kid. The first time I met you, you were limping home holding your arm after some football players had beaten you up at school. That was actually when we first met that bastard upstairs. We were all in bad places but we made our little family work. Now I can accept that you’ve lost your memory but the fact you just up and reversed your personality is something I find difficult to believe.”
“Well, uh, I don’t really know what to tell you. I’m still the same person.”
“Or maybe your old personality is just sealed away with your memories. There’s no way you just up and decided to get a girlfriend without some massive personality split.”
“Well I did,” he blinked.
Gin frowned, “Boy there is seriously something fucked with your head. There’s only one person in the entire universe that I could see you remotely getting together with and it is certainly not that purple haired creep.”
“Well then who is it?” Jett asked getting slightly irritated.
“She’d kill me if I fucked this up by telling you. Needless to say, this wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out. This time it’s you who’s messed up your plan and not us; now fix it soon before things get really out of hand!”
Jett reeled back, “Whoa, what are you talking about?”
“We’ve watched you fuck up our experiments all across the eons but the one time we try to fix things you go and throw it all back in our faces! NOT THIS TIME!”
The bartender vanished in a flash of light leaving Jett confused. He looked around the hanger. Everything was in place from the old fashioned planes to the modern shuttlecraft. The hum of the reactor was still present.
“What the fuck was that?”
He ran out of the hanger back up the stairs towards the HQ. Dane was nowhere in sight, probably for the best. Jett ran up the building and entered and ran towards the Cafeteria.
Gin was at the bar talking with Blaze as she mixed some drinks.
The bartender turned, “Oh hey Jett, what’s up?”
He started fumbling over the words, “I, uh, what, um, were you just?”
“Whoa, slow down there cowboy. What are you trying to say?”
“Were you just downstairs in the hanger bay with me?”
“No,” she said perplexed, “Why?”
“Yeah, she’s been up here with me the whole time,” Blaze blinked.
“Uh… never mind. I just, uh, you know what forget I said anything. See ya later!”
He ran back down to the hanger.
“What the fuck was that?”
He headed over into his apartment. He entered the kitchen when another voice caught his attention.
“You know, you always were clueless. Even all those centuries ago. I guess some things will never change,” the voice sighed.
Jett turned, “Okay who the fuck are you?! Because you are certainly not Dane!”
“Oh please. I can see it. Clear as day. Everyone can see it. What we don’t understand is how a fucking supercomputer like you could be so STUPID!”
“What?”
“CLUELESS. EVERYONE CAN SEE IT. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP AND FOR ONCE, STOP MESSING THINGS UP!”
He vanished in a burst of light.
Jett blinked, “Another one? What the fuck is going on here?”
Jett left and ran out of the room towards the machine shop in the hanger. He ran up to a computer.
“Play the last minute of security footage from inside the kitchen.”
He carefully listened as he heard himself talk to the… nothing.
“What? What?!” he growled, “This is getting annoying as all hell!”
He stood up and headed back into his apartment and turned into his bedroom. A third voice got his attention.
“What’s wrong? Was I not good enough?”
“Oh for the love of-”
“Well? Was I not good enough for you Jett?” the Spitfire asked.
He sighed, “What are you talking about? Whatever you are.”
“Oh that’s right, I forgot. You’re stupid as all FUCK! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU? WHAT DOES THAT GIRL HAVE THAT I DON’T?!”
Jett backed away from the figure. The door behind him closed. The apparition slowly walked towards him.
“WHAT HAS SHE DONE FOR YOU THAT I HAVEN’T?! I’VE KNOWN YOU FOR EONS, HALSEY! WE’VE BEEN EVERY SPECIES IMAGINABLE AND NOW YOU DECIDE IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU?!”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“OH THAT’S RIGHT, YOU DON’T REMEMBER. I’M GETTING REAL TIRED OF YOUR SHIT JETT. WE’VE BEEN TOGETHER FOR MILLENNIA!”
“What do you mean?”
“YOU’LL SEE HALSEY. AND IF YOU THINK I’M GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY SO EASILY YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!”
The Spitfire again vanished leaving Jett stunned.
“What the fuck was that about?”
Jett left and ran out of his apartment back up the hanger area.
***
Spitfire moaned, “I hate having to see family.”
She sauntered back onto the compound and walked through the front doors with a tired look on her face. Suddenly Jett bolted past her.
“Hi Spitfire. Hope your day’s going better than mine has!”
He ran down towards the rooms.
“What the hell is his deal?” Spitfire asked rubbing her head.
Jett bolted over toward Fleetfoot’s room and banged on it rather violently, “Hey open up in there!”
“Shit, who’s that?” Surprise asked.
“Jett,” Misty said.
“What’s he doing here?” Fleetfoot asked.
“JETT HELP ME!” Dane yelled.
The door opened. Fleetfoot stood with her arms crossed.
“Sorry Echo but I need Dane for a moment.”
Dane himself was strapped to a chair looking rather effeminate.
“Uh…”
“Dane, I need you to run a quick diagnostic on me.”
Misty began unstrapping him.
“Uh, why?”
“Because I think something’s wrong with me and I don’t trust myself to diagnose anything at the moment.”
“Okay, okay. Let me see here.”
A scanning beam went over Jett’s cranium.
“Well nothing’s wrong with you as far as I can see. And we androids are very precise and accurate with our scanning.”
“Oh, uh, well alright then,” Jett stood up with a frown and started heading towards the door, “As you were ladies.”
Jett rubbed his head and stumbled out of the room.
Dane looked on, “Just hold on a minute girls. I promise I won’t run off.”
He stood up and walked after him. He ran out of the room and closed the door.
“Hey, something bothering you?” he asked.
“No, nothing. I was just, uh, feeling a little weird.”
Dane blinked, “Yeah… feeling a little weird. Why not tell me what really happened?”
“Really? Just like that you can tell?”
“I have known you for a several years now.”
“Fine, I started hallucinating or at least I thought I was. I kept seeing these weird apparitions of you guys.”
“Us?”
“Yes. You, Gin, and Spitfire. It was kinda creepy.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah…”
“Well, uh, maybe you’ve just been working a little too hard. I mean you’ve basically assimilated that hanger downstairs faster than a group of Borg drones. Why not take a day? Maybe spend some time with Spitfire if you know what I mean,” He nudged the android.
Jett sighed, “Dane, I’m already in a committed relationship with Starry Skies. And besides, we have a Date tomorrow anyway.”
“Well I think you should take a day off regardless. Go outside, get out of future land. We live here now so you might as well get acclimated to it.”
“Oh is that what you’re doing? Speaking of which, you mind explaining that ship?”
Dane turned red, “Uh, what ship?”
“Don’t play shit with me. Any twelve year old with a telescope can see that new star up in the sky. So tell me, explain it.”
“Well, uh, funny story about it really,” Dane said rubbing his head, “It kinda got sucked here with us. Funny huh?”
Jett frowned, “Uh huh. You haven’t done anything irresponsible with it, have you?”
“Hey, just because I am a little promiscuous sometimes doesn’t mean I’m irresponsible with a piece of high tech military equipment.”
“Yeah not buying it. Elaborate.”
He sighed, “Fine, we only have access to a limited number of systems. Life support, propulsion and maneuvering a limited amount of engineering. The original plan was for you to get onboard and fly us out of there but things went differently and here we are.”
“Good.”
“So you’ll get some sunlight tomorrow?”
“Yeah, yeah, I have some books stored I wanted to read.”
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some angel girls to get back to.”
He disappeared back inside the room.
Jett shook his head and walked off towards his apartment. He walked out of the hallway. On his way out he failed to notice Spitfire hiding behind a corner covering her mouth. She blinked as her gaze followed the android.
“Stupid fucking Jett,” she cried.
***
Things started to get different. Spitfire and the team were more occupied preparing for the Gala as well as staying prepared for the variety of shows coming their way. Jett had to continuously keep the planes in working condition, a feat that was no small challenge considering he was the only person who knew how they worked. He witnessed almost every single way possible to break the planes he built from making a turn hard enough to snap the tail off to someone deciding to load fuel injectors into the engine and fracturing the engine. Everyone was busy.
Dane had been given a job as Jett’s assistant and Gin as a bartender/cook. The following week Jett had his eye mask removed. His irises though remained a charcoal black, giving him a rather disturbing look. Dane was still confused about it but figured they would be back to normal soon enough. Jett himself was rather busy at almost all times of the day. During work he would typically be occupied repairing planes or working on some piece of tech. During his free time however he spent almost no time with anyone on the team. All of his spare time was devoted to his new girlfriend, Starry Skies.
Contact with his friends had steadily declined. The only person he had steady contact with was Dane and that was just a purely work relationship at that point. Slowly the three aliens began to acclimate to life on an alien world.
Though not everything was perfect in paradise. Spitfire took on a colder attitude towards almost everyone. Her temper was set to a hair trigger and she would not hesitate to unleash her wrath on anyone or anything, especially Jett…
She typically showed up for training every day with bloodshot eyes and one nasty attitude. It didn’t take a genius to realize something was seriously wrong with her. However no one dared to consult her about it lest they risk getting shot or beaten to death. And no one, not even Dane, dared to get in her way when she went off on a tangent yelling at Jett for being late with a repair or supposedly not fixing something correctly.
It was an event like a car accident or a battle of epic proportions. It was horrible to watch but no one could look away or stop listening. Dane and Gin grew restless watching the relationship deteriorate between the two. It had been three weeks since Spitfire had returned from her meeting with her father and another fight was underway.
“All I’m saying is that you should stop pushing these things so hard! You’ve already snapped the belts on five of these planes this week!” Jett yelled.
“Then maybe you should either stop making shitty repairs or get better tech and fix the problem!” Spitfire yelled back.
“I can’t give you better tech because it’s on that ship! This is the seventeenth time I’ve had to explain it to you!”
“Then take a fucking shuttle and get me some better planes!”
“I’ve already broken enough rules as it is! Giving you anymore technology would be in violation of the ETP Directive.”
“Then repair the damn planes correctly!”
“Stop breaking them! You fly these things like they’re jets!”
“Well maybe if you weren’t so stupid you would see we’re on a stunt team here!”
“I’m not a damn idiot!” Jett yelled, “These are propeller driven craft! The G’s you keep pulling would be enough to kill a normal person and are far beyond what these things were originally designed for!”
The rest of the team stood outside the hanger waiting and listening. Dane sighed. The tarmac was loaded with the team and other support staff.
“What the hell happened?” he sighed.
“What are you talking about?” Fleetfoot asked, “It’s been this way forever now.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he stood up, “Back in Sol they were the best of friends and practically inseparable.”
Gin walked up with a cold beer in her hands and downed it all in one chug, “What do you think happened?”
Misty walked up, “I guess it is kinda obvious.”
Dane sighed, “He’s dating someone on the other team and the only person who really cares enough to get mad about it is Spitfire.”
“So it all comes down to this,” Gin said tossing her bottle, “A woman’s scorn. Only it’s not exactly Jett’s fault.”
“Yeah, I guess you can’t really blame him. Though I really want to fucking tear his eyes out for making her put us through hell every day.”
“He lost his memory,” Dane said, “He’s suffered damage like this before but I would have figured he would have regained it by now. But then again he did have access to a hospital last time.”
“What happened last time?” Misty asked.
“He was shot in the head. And this time he broke the sound barrier crashing head first into the ground. I guess it’s no surprise,” Dane said, “Still it does take effort not to go up behind him and hit him with a baseball bat or push him head first over the side.”
Everyone laughed.
“It probably would make all our lives easier if he got his memories back or at the very least broke up with Starry Skies.”
Fleetfoot blinked, “Wait, why don’t we do that?”
“Why don’t we do what?” Gin asked.
“Get them to break up!” Fleetfoot began rubbing her hands together maniacally.
“No we can’t do that,” Dane sighed rubbing his head, “It took this long and him losing his memory for him to even decide to get into a relationship with anyone. Believe it or not this is as close to real humanity he’s ever gotten.”
“Besides,” Gin said, “He’s happier this way.”
“That’s debatable,” Dane replied quickly.
A loud noise got everyone’s attention, “You see this?! This was your plane before you decided to pull that I don’t even know how many G’s it was turn.”
“That’s a pile of fucking garbage!” Spitfire yelled.
“Because you snapped the wings off with that turn and crashed the remainders of it into the fucking ground! Just because you have new planes now doesn’t mean they’re indestructible!”
“If anything they’re made of fucking tissue paper created by an incompetent tech!”
Silence. Silence was never good. It typically meant someone was going to say something or had said something that was going to be regretted later on.
“You know what? I don’t care anymore,” Jett said opening up the hanger doors, “Fix the fucking planes yourself!”
The crowd of people parted rather quickly.
Dane ran up to him.
“Don’t touch me,” Jett said as he walked off the compound into the city.
Spitfire walked through the crowd. Though most of the other couldn’t see it through her aviators, Dane detected tears on her face. He glanced over in Jett’s direction. Jett’s left hand flexed rather threateningly. He got the message.
He ran to catch up with Spitfire, “Hey…”
“Hey…” she said sadly.
…
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No but I get the feeling you’ll pester me until I do.”
“So…?”
“Not now… just… later,” she sighed.
“Alright. Just call me when you need me,” he said, “I’ll be back.”
He turned and ran off the compound towards Jett.
“What do you want?” Jett asked stopping just on the edge of the city.
“What happened today?”
“What happened?! WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED?! She’s fucking crazy, off her rocker; out of her fucking mind is what she is! Do you know the kind of shit she puts me through every single fucking day?!”
“I have an idea,” Dane sighed.
“Really? I don’t think you fucking do since she fucking loves you and hates the very circuits and servos I’m made of! Do you know the kind of shit I deal with? She fucking snapped the wings off her plane pulling enough G’s to more than KILL a normal person! Oh but wait, we’re fucking stranded here on some alien world with no fucking way off!”
He suddenly grasped his head, “My brain needs a cool down. I’ll be at a bar or something. Don’t come looking for me.”
Dane knew better than to push it, “Alright fine. I’ll talk to her, see what I can do. Alright?”
“Whatever. She’s batshit crazy now. Call me if you get anywhere because I probably won’t be coming back here tonight,” he sighed.
“Why?”
“Probably stay with Skies tonight. Rather be there than here,” he rubbed his head.
Dane crossed his arms, “Oh so now you decide to fall in love.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh if only you could actually remember things instead of being an amnesiac.”
“Whatever man, see you later.”
“Alright.”
Dane turned and headed back into the compound.
“It used to be a whole lot simpler,” he sighed.
***
“Warning, reactor overload in progress. Three minutes forty six seconds to detonation.”
“Danny! Come on!”
“Yeah just go on ahead. I’ll get there!”
“You better be right behind us!”
“Alright! Computer, how many shuttles have launched?”
“Two Shuttles and Three Esca-”
“What the hell was that?”
“Weapon impact.”
“From what?”
“Two gunships approaching 7:00.”
…
“How long until they get here?”
“They already are… Shuttle 23 destroyed… Escape pod 7 destroyed… Shuttle 15 destroyed…”
“Danny come on!”
…
“Computer, exactly what’s wrong with the reactor?”
“Axillary power systems failed to activate after the first explosion. Fire suppression and damage control were not switched over to the main power grid. Destabilization of fusion reaction in underway. Overload in Three minutes.”
“… I can do that…”
“Danny get your ass to the hanger deck!”
“Sorry guys, but I think I forgot something down in main engineering. I’ll be back. Keep everyone inside the ship until I give the okay signal!”
“What? What the fuck are you talking about?!”
“Just keep all the shuttles and pods inside and ready to launch! I’ll be back.”
***
Dane closed the door behind him. Spitfire’s office had a nice view of the valley floor below. Itself it was dimly lit. A picture of a certain camping trip sat on her desk.
“Alright. Talk,” Dane said.
“About?” She asked.
“Anything, everything, whatever comes to mind first.”
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“No? Alright then I’ll start. I think you’re emotional, impulsive, angry, and highly unstable. I think your work load recently has only added to the stress. That along with the fact that you will be forced to work with a team you don’t like led by a sister you appear to hate only adds to the situation. And what makes it worse is that your father seems to be instigating all of this. I also think that despite the fact that you’ve returned home you’re not happy because there’s competition. I think all those bottled up negative emotions are now being ven-”
“ALRIGHT ALREADY!”
Dane stopped.
“Yes, I’m angry! Yes, I’m jealous! And yes, I regret a lot! I’m jealous of that bitch who stole Jett away from me! I regret making him angry at because of it! And I’m pissed at myself for not making a move SOONER!”
Dane smiled. His smile expanded into a wide grin and soon he was downright laughing.
Spitfire gritted her teeth, “What the fuck is so funny asshole?”
Dane clapped, “Well done Spitfire, well done. You know, I always knew there was something up about you back then. Even when you said you liked Jett I figured you must have hit your head on something hard to fall for that asshole. And even if you did I figured it was just a passing thing like the fucking flu or something. But all this? Never in my crazy fucked up head did I ever consider that I would end up on an alien world populated by angels and demi gods and ruled by Titans themselves. And never in my right mind did I ever think that god would ever have a big enough sense of humor to drop an angel on that socially awkward bastard. Congratulations, you now have my blessing.”
Spitfire blinked, “… None of that helps my situation at the moment. And until then I’m going to keep making everyone else’s lives miserable involuntarily because of it.”
“Maybe not now but I’ve done the calculations and there is an 83.239858475 percent chance he will break up with her at some point in time.”
“So again, how does this help me?”
“While I do have the qualifications to be your therapist but it is neither my job nor my desire to get into your head. However a word of advice: CONTROL YOURSELF. You’re venting everything onto your friends and family.”
“My family?” Spitfire cocked her head.
“Yes your family. Normal people would have stopped putting up with your shit a long time ago but they’ve stuck around because they know something is wrong with you and their waiting for you come out and talk about it.”
“How do you know this?”
“You know every time someone asks that question I have to bit my tongue. How do you think I know this?! I actually talk to people.”
“So what do you think I should do?”
“You want my advice? Get a hobby. Vent it on something else. Just not on your team and certainly not on Jett. You’ll only drive him away more if you continue to be a hard ass to him.”
Spitfire sighed, “Alright. So what should I do for a hobby? I mean when I was younger flying was my hobby and now it’s my job.”
“Jett’s pretty good at ass kicking. Take up a few martial arts lessons with him. I’m sure if you just asked he’d say yes.”
“Really? After that last conversation?”
“He just needed to cool down. Figuratively and literally.”
“Well, uh, what should I do then?”
“Well I know he’s pretty good at Kung Fu, Kendo, Karate, and some ninjutsu,” Dane blinked and then grinned, “Try kick boxing.”
“Wait what? Why would I do that if he’s not good at it?”
“Something you could learn together.”
Spitfire blinked, “Oh, uh, alright then.”
“Well nice talking with you girl,” Dane said and turned to walk out of the office.
“Wait. Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“He said not to go looking for him but I have an idea of where he went. I think he’d want to talk face to face rather than over the phone anyway.”
“Oh, uh, alright then.”
“Nice talking to you Spitfire,” Dane said as he left the room.
Spitfire let out a huge sigh.
***
Dane started walking out of the compound. He smiled. That was it. That girl really was infatuated with his brother! That last conversation sealed it for Dane. He now was one hundred percent sure now. He needed to be if he was going just hand his best friend over to someone like that.
Now all he needed to do was find the bastard. Unfortunately that would be easier said than done.
Dane himself soon wandered into the city and disappeared just as soon as Jett walked out of it.
His was still a little bit angry at his boss but it had subsided a bit to where he could talk to her without wanting to downright stab her to death with a katana. Now it was beat her to death with a Bō staff angry. Still though, he felt like he could hold a conversation with her at this point.
By now everyone had dispersed from the hanger and was off doing god knows what.
He strolled onto the compound and headed toward the cafeteria. He entered and sat down at a table and removed a pad from his pocket and began going over inventory.
“New stabilizers for Echo’s plane… Landing gear for Lightning Streak… New Engine for Soarin’…” he stopped at the next name on the list, “… New EVERYTHING for Spitfire-I-God why does she have to make things so difficult all the time?!”
A timid voice behind him got his attention, “I don’t mean to…”
He whipped around, aiming his now black irises at the speaker. Spitfire.
“Oh…” he said monotonously, “Just you… I’ll need to manufacture a new plane for you if that’s what you’re asking about. As for the others, most of the-”
“That’s not what I’m here about,” she said, “I, uh, I wanted to apologize.”
The android stood up and pocketed the device, “You wanted to apologize?” he asked with skepticism.
Spitfire looked a bit pensive, “Yes, I wanted to apologize for acting like such a bitch to yo-”
Suddenly the android’s energy weapon was pointed at her head.
“Who are you and what have you done with Spitfire?! You better not be one of those changeling things because I swear to god I’ll spill your brains all over the fucking walls.”
Spitfire raised her hands, “No! No, it’s me! Seriously, just run a DNA scan or something!”
He blinked and lowered his weapon, “Alright. But you’re still acting off. Why are you not screaming at me like always?”
“It’s because I actually want to apologize. I had time to think and cool down and I talked to Dane a little bit and… I just don’t want you to be mad at me all the time.”
He cocked his head, “Okay… But I’m going to need you and your team to stop pulling off these ridiculous moves at least until I can build planes that can handle the punishment. The one’s I built were never designed for the stuff you want to do with them.”
“Alright. I think I can manage that,” she smiled.
“Good.”
“So… friends again?” she asked hopefully.
Jett blinked, “My impulsive attitude has worn down a bit so I can at least think rationally and am able to view the benefits that a friendly and amicable relationship would have between us in contrast to the violent and destructive one we’ve been sharing for the past several weeks so yes; friends.”
“Uh, okay. Friends,” she held out her hand. Jett grabbed it and shook.
…
“So… anything else you’re here for?” Jett asked rubbing his head.
“Well yeah, uh, I was wondering if, uh, well um, if you wanted to get together some days and do a kick boxing class or something like that.”
“Kick boxing? Hmm, I haven’t done that before. Sure, why not? I think I can load a program up or something onto a holopad.”
“Oh, uh, alright then. So when do you want to start?”
Jett blinked, “Uh, now if you want to. I just need to run down to my hanger and grab a few things and prepare the program and download it from my net. Should only take half an hour at the most.”
“Oh, alright then. See you in a few then?”
“Yeah,” he turned and started walking for the hanger area. Spitfire let out a sigh of relief.
***
Dane wandered through the streets of the city. Surprisingly for such a populated city it was located in the oddest of places halfway up a mountain side located on a plateau of land with little to no tall high rises. In fact the only thing that really exceeded the five story mark was the massive fortress that Dane still had little idea as to its purpose. Still though, the population of the city was exceedingly large for such a small piece of land at such a high altitude.
The real magic of the city came in the fact that not all of it was completely visible. Behind the main part of the city that was exposed to the outside was the rest of it. The mountain side had been extensively hollowed into giving much more space for the city to expand.
Dane looked up at the ceiling in wonder. Clusters of luminescing crystals littered the ceiling providing a sort of beautiful light show that scattered all across the city. There were even some buildings emerging down like stalactites in a cave. Of course they were only accessible to a few people considering their location and the difficulty required for reaching them but that’s another story or two or three…
But back to the snowball. He’d run to every single pub/bar, legal or illegal or even underground and still no sign of his brother. The only place left to look was this sector of the city. And by this sector left he meant the other 67 percent of it. A lot was packed into this part of the city, most notably the city’s entertainment district. Clubs, bars, casinos… other places… drugs… girls… boys… some difficult to tell unless they strictly told you… appearances could be deceiving… note to self: never ask that brown haired girl- I mean boy by any feminine designation again unless you want that image burned permanently into your ocular cells…
“Really asshole,” Dane mumbled to himself, “You just had to say a bar. You couldn’t be any more specific than that?! This city has like a thousand different bars and pubs!”
He continued walking through the city. He never really needed to physically search each bar or building and ask if Jett was there. All it really required was a simple materials scan of the structure. If he was in there then the scan would detect a group of elements not native to this planet organized in such a way as to resemble an android. But so far, no dice.
“Next time, he is activating his transponder whether he wants to or not,” Dane grumbled.
The streets were crowded with all sorts of odd characters. Most were wearing sunglasses. Though a certain pair of amethyst colored shades worn by a certain neon blue haired girl did catch his eyes as standing out from the rest but other than that nothing else interesting had really come up.
“At this rate I’ll at this all day,” he sighed.
“You’ll be at what all day?” A voice asked. Dane looked up. Echo Fleetfoot was hanging upside down above him, her wings keeping her aloft in such a peculiar position.
“Oh hey snowflake,” he said, “What’ve you been up to this fine day?”
“Well,” Fleetfoot said flipping herself over and landing on the ground in front of him, “I left the compound after our beloved captain threw a screaming fit. Didn’t really want to be around the rest of the day after that. So I came here, blew a few thousand on blackjack tables and decided to fly around doing nothing for the rest of the day until I ran into you. So what’s up?”
“Meh, just searching for Jett. I managed to calm Spitfire down and confront the root of the problem and- wow I sound like one of those TV therapists. Who’s even writing this right now? Meh, well anyway, I wanted to get the two of them on some kind of working relationship but the thing is he said he was going to a bar only there are hundreds of those in this city alone so I’m having a little trouble finding him.”
“Well maybe I can help you out. I certainly don’t want to be the first one back at base after that Hurricane Spitfire. So yeah… I’ll help but… it’s gonna cost ya,” she said with a sly grin.
Dane sighed, “How much?”
“Oh, it’s not money I want,” she grinned, “However…”
She removed a folded piece of paper from her pocket and shoved it in Dane’s face.
“What is this?” he asked.
“It’s a contract,” she smiled, “You’ll owe me one favor of my choosing at the time of my choosing for helping you with this.”
“Give me this,” he snatched it from her hands and started reading it, “…includes but is not limited to: Loans? Massages? Manual Labor? Technical Help? And other Physical Activities? Just what are you trying to pass over me here?!”
Fleetfoot floated into the air playfully, “Nothing… So do you want my help or not?”
“Fine.”
“Ah, ah, ah, sign first,” she held up the document again, “Unless you want to manually search the rest of this district, above and below ground. And even for you I’m sure it would take hours at least.”
“Give me,” he sighed and wrote his signature on the paper, “There you happy now?”
“Yes,” she said pocketing the paper.
“So where should we start looking?”
“Hmm, how ‘bout back at HQ?”
“What.”
“Yeah, I got a text from Spitfire half an hour ago. Jett returned and started working up some martial arts program or something.”
Dane twitched, “What?”
“Yeah, whoops?”
Dane growled, “Why you little double crossing, diabolical, deceptive little-”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“Are you getting some kind of perverted sexual pleasure out of my insults?”
“Are you kidding me?! I love it! Go ahead! Hit me with your best shot,” she grinned.
He gritted his teeth, “You know what- no. I’m going home.”
“Aw you’re no fun.”
“I know. Goodbye Echo.”
He turned and started walking back towards the base.
Fleetfoot frowned, “Curses. Well at least I did get him to sign the contract…”
***
Dane sighed. Well this was great. Not only did he waste most of the day away but now some girl had his signature. All for information he probably could have figured out himself. Just his luck.
He was still in the entertainment district and was almost out when something caught his eyes. It was something quick, in his peripheral vision, almost out of sight; something so miniscule and small that a normal person probably wouldn’t have noticed it and if it were not for pattern analyzing algorithms Dane himself probably would never have seen it either but…
He glanced to his right. Across the street, on the far side of the sidewalk was… Jett’s current girlfriend. Only she wasn’t with Jett. Dane turned and focused in for a closer look. Sure enough it was her: Starry Skies. And there was a man at her arm. Taller than Jett by at least 6 inches and certainly more muscular looking though that part mattered little.
The man was at least in his late teens/early twenties at best estimates. With a goatee and a sort of Mohawk styled hair he looked almost like a character out of Jersey Shore. Who was he? Was he her brother? Likely, especially in this society where the only real way to tell if people were related was if they were twins or not; other than that it was next to impossible. The guy could easily be her cousin as well. Maybe he was a member of her flight team. He certainly had the look. But Dane wasn’t one to judge to harshly.
Suddenly the guy leaned down and kissed the girl right on the lips. This wasn’t just some friendly kiss either but a full on Frenchie with tongue and everything. Even across the street Dane could hear their moans. He pulled away and the Starry Skies licked her lips and gave him a rather seductive look.
Dane cringed. His face went from shock to confusion to enlightenment to rage all in the span of a few milliseconds. She was… cheating on him! For any other person this would certainly be a big deal but any other person would be able to get back up on the horse and move on. But this was Jett. The paranoid Schizophrenic with an inferiority complex. Something like this, handled the wrong way could completely shatters whatever remaining faith in the human race he had; permanently. Moreover, Dane was downright pissed off! She was cheating on his brother with that guy?! Sure Jett was far from perfect but really?! Do women just let their hormones and impulses run them in this world?! He frowned. Actually the only real difference between here and home was the lopsided level of technological advancement.
His first thought was to run over there and beat both of them to death. He had already formed One hundred and eight different ways of doing it before he realized that killing people probably wouldn’t be the best choice of action. Moving the fantasies aside he calmly continued down the road though the coin in his pocket was an appealing projectile weapon. All in theory of course. Or maybe not…
***
Spitfire’s roundhouse kick came fast and swift. Jett met it with the soft padding attached to his prosthetic, cushioning the blow not for his sake but more for Spitfire’s. No need to her to break her foot on a hard metal arm.
Sweating she lowered her arms. The training mats down in the exercise room were covered in sweat; all of it Spitfire’s.
“Wow, that’s some workout,” she said her wings fluttering.
“Yes, yes it is. It was never really designed for people with wings but it does seem to have a general resembling to more ground based martial arts of those tanks in human clothing that make up a third of your population.”
“Well I guess the term tank rightly describes them,” she smiled, “Say, I have an idea. Why don’t I teach you some of our martial arts?”
Jett cocked his head, “Uh, what do you mean by that? Because your martial arts are based on the use of your wings and involve heavy flying attacks; things I cannot effectively utilize in a fight.”
“I don’t just know avian martial arts. I do know a few ground based ones that you could incorporate rather nicely with some of the things you already know.”
“Hmm, seems reasonable enough. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours right?”
“No more of a, ‘You’re my friend and I figured we should do something together,’ kind of thing.”
“I see. Well that should be enough for today. You do have a tour to plan and that fancy rich people’s party of yours and such, and I have planes to upgrade.”
“Yeah I guess…”
“Hmm. Well I’ll see you later.”
“Hey wait!”
He turned around, “Hmm?”
“Would you and Dane like to come with us?”
“What do you mean?”
“We go on tour in two weeks so this place will be empty for the better part of a few months. You guys would basically be the only people here since the rest of the crew would just have the time off.”
“I don’t know… We do have those planes to upgrade; plus we need to figure out what to do with that ship in orbit.”
“Well we don’t have a space program so there’s nothing else really up there that you have to worry about.”
“I know, but we can’t just leave it there…”
She offered a friendly smile, “Come on, it would be fun… Plus I don’t think that ship of yours is going to be going anywhere.”
He frowned, thinking it over, “Alright I guess… I’ll have to talk to Dane about it and Starry Skies first though.”
Insert Breaking Glass Picture here.
“Oh, uh, alright then. Just come talk to me if you two decide to come with us, alright?”
“Sure. See you later then.”
He smiled and walked off out of the room. Just as he was around the corner and in the hallway Spitfire heard the faintest, “It feels great to be friends with her again.”
***
Dane ran. He caused quite a scene when he ran past a car going at least 63 kilometers per hour. But this was important. He had to tell Spitfire about this.
He ran towards an intersection and jumped to avoid a passing truck, flipping over it and continuing on back towards the HQ.
How was he going to break this to… anyone really?
For Spitfire it may be a mixed blessing. For one her crush would be single again. On the other side it would probably be a particularly messy breakup that would require a lot of things to be rebuilt.
For everyone else… well… there was an old storm shelter under the base so… hide?
Lost in his thoughts he approached the base and slowed down to a jog. He bolted through the front doors.
“Hey anyone know where Spitfire is?” he shouted to anyone in particular.
“Last I saw her she was finishing up in the exercise room,” Jett responded from the bar.
Jett. Oh this wasn’t going to turn out well. A certain image captured by a watchful observer android went through his head. Ouch.
He walked down to the exercise room. Spitfire was up on the boxing ring removing the wrapping from her hands.
“Oh hey Dane. Did Jett talk to you yet?”
“Did he talk to me about what?”
“Hmm? Oh nothing, never mind. I’m sure he’ll get to it. So what’s up?”
“Oh, uh, well, how do I approach this delicately?” He sat down cross legged on the floor, thinking. Spitfire blinked and hopped over the ropes and sat down in front of him and stared at him.
“So what is this subject that you want to approach oh so delicately?”
“Well, um, how do I say this? Uh, well, I do think I happened to be in the right place at the right time for this kind of thing to happen. Yeah that was it. Um-”
“Oh for the love of- Get to the point already!”
“Starry Skies is cheating on Jett!”
Dane quickly covered his mouth and turned around. Spitfire was silent. Her jaw had hit the floor. What? She was cheating on Jett?! Her Jett?! Oh no. That bitch was not going to break his heart and get away with it!
Spitfire calmly stood up, ignoring Dane who still had his hands over his mouth, and walked over to her gym bag and removed a .44 caliber custom magnum from the bag. It had a barrel located around the lower chamber and the entire gun had a special enchantment on it, courtesy of the royal guard captain, that gave it almost no recoil when fired. She removed seven bullets and loaded all seven chambers and cocked the hammer and turned to leave.
Dane finally grew a pair and quickly stood up, “No! No! Don’t do that!”
A disturbing dark flame emanated from the girl, “Why shouldn’t I?”
“It’s a surefire way to end up in prison for one! Second, you should really think about this!”
“Think about it?! What’s there to think about?! She’s playing him like a fuckin piano!”
“How we can fix this situation for one?”
She pocketed the weapon, “I’m listening.”
“We could tell him, have him not believe us and then have things get worse. Or we could just shut up about it and see if he finds out on his own. In which case he kills us for not telling him.”
“Bit hypocritical there.”
“I never said he was rational.”
…
“How did you find out?”
“What?”
“HOW. DID. YOU. FIND. OUT.”
“I saw her sucking face with some other guy with a Mohawk. That’s how.”
“Hmm… There’s just one thing though.”
“What?”
“No matter what we end up doing, this gun,” she pulled the revolver again, “Is going up her ass.”
“Yeah sure whatever you want. We just need to figure out how to break this to him and still have a happy ending for you.”
“W-what? For me?”
“Listen, if anyone’s gonna woo that guy it’s you so get that through your thick fucking skull that you’re the only game for him in the entire fucking universe. Now we just need to figure out a way for him to figure out just what the fuck is going on without having our lives end.”
“You’d really think that… if she was out of it I’d even have a chance?”
“You already know this. He’s a genius intellectually but he’s emotionally retarded. He just needs to figure things out for himself.”
“Yeah I guess…”
“Just let me do the hard computational work and I’ll come talk to you when I’ve come up with something. Until then… don’t tell Jett, don’t talk to him about anything related to it, don’t even look the slightest bit mad when he goes on a date.”
“No promises on the last one.”