An increasingly confused Rookie pt4

0800 Hrs. Sand Island

Mornings just don’t seem to be kind to Rookie. When Rookie awoke, he was feeling incredibly nauseous. So he crawled off Falcon and unceremoniously plopped off of the bed. Normally that would have been fine, but with how Rookie was feeling, doing so was a bad idea and he landed roughly onto the floor below. He dragged himself a little ways before standing back up and making his way to the bathroom toilet. Once there, he hung his head for a couple minutes before dry-heaving.
“Ah, hell…” He muttered to himself before going at it again. It lasted a good couple minutes before he was left hanging his head again. However he then started seeing red specs in the toilet. He pressed a finger to the tip of his nose then looked at it and saw a red substance on it, “Ah, fuck. Nose bleed.”
Now he was spending more time over the toilet letting his nose bleed out until it stopped on its own. Once that was done, he clamored his way to the sink to rinse the blood off his face. The cool water helped wake him up some more at it made contact with his face.
Now with his face rinsed and dried off, he hopped off the counter and went out into the living area where he saw Falcon lying on the couch, rubbing her head.
“Morning Falcon. What’s wrong with you?”
“Severe headache. I think I have something equivalent to a migraine.”
“Congratulations, you have now been educated in what it’s like to wake up with a hangover.” He said as he walked over to the couch to sit at the base of it.
“Well if the party before was fun then it would have been worth it. What about you?”
“Dry-heaving and a bloody nose.”
“Ah.” Falcon looked over the side of the couch at Rookie, “What the hell happened?”
He shrugged, “I have no clue. It was…”
“Weird…” Falcon ended his sentence for him.
“Yeah. Like I knew what you were thinking.”
“And I knew yours.”
“Weird…” They both said.
They both stared at each other for a little bit before Rookie broke the silence, “So is this gonna be a thing now? De we still know what the other is thinking?”
Falcon shrugged, “Dunno. Maybe? What I do know is that I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
“Damn. So no telepathy between us.”
“Why would we need it? You think about me all the time anyways.” She said with a silly grin.
Rookie placed a finger to his lips, “Shhhhhhhh. No one is supposed to know that.”
They both had a good chuckle and sat in silence for a little bit before there was a knock on their hangar door.
“Who do you think it is?” Rookie asked.
“I dunno. The door is in the way.” Falcon said before getting off the bed and opening the hangar door to reveal Rex.
“Good morning Falcon,” He nodded to her, “Rookie.” He nodded to him, “You two ready for training today?”
Rookie looked at himself then back to Rex, “Um. I just have to get my stuff on, then we’ll be. You want to come in?”
Rex shook his head, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll be waiting on the runway with the Sand Island Squad, so don’t take too long. You hear?”
They both nodded and Falcon replied, “We hear. We’ll be there soon.”
“Good.” Rex gave a final nod and started walking away before looking back, “Don’t dissapoint me.”
Falcon waved good bye before closing the hangar door again while Rookie stood up and stretched, “Well, better get dressed now.”
“You sounded a little disappointed or tired when you said that,” Falcon said as she helped Rookie onto the table and watched as he got his gear on, “Think of it as a sudden scramble in the morning.”
“True enough,” Rookie said as he was struggling with his suit, “Always want to be prepared to scramble in a short time, even if one just woke up.”
Once his suit was on, he struggled with his g-suit as well for a little bit, “I’m actually a little excited and scared.”
“Why is that?” Falcon asked, tilting her head.
“Excited because I would be training for high-g maneuvers. While scared because I might black out. And if I black out, who know’s what will happen.” He finished as he plopped his helmet onto his head and was helped into Falcon’s cockpit.
“If you black out, I’ll make sure you’re safe.” She comforted him.”
Rookie smiled a little as they made their way out of their hangar, “Thanks. I know I’ll always be able to count on you.”
Falcon returned the smile, “You make me blush. You’re my pilot, I’ll always keep you safe.”
When they arrived at the runway, they could see the Sand Island Squad speaking with Rex, and Yellow Squad sitting beside the runway; probably to watch them take off. Getting closer, Rex and the Sand Island Squad turned to them and gave a variety of hellos before Rex addressed them.
“Falcon here. Good timing. I’m assuming Rookie is in your cockpit?”
Falcon nodded while Rookie confirmed through the radio, “Affirmative, Sir.”
“Good. Hop out.” Rex said with a straight face
Falcon instantly gave a forced smile, “... Excuse me?”
“I want Rookie to hop out of your cockpit. He’s flying with Edge and Blaze. You will be flying with Snow and Archer.”
Falcon continued her forced smile, “But… but… he’s my pilot. He flies me.”
Rex nodded, “Correct, and without being certified, I wouldn’t have allowed him to fly anything else. But I’m making an exception to this one. You two have never flown high-g maneuvers before. So if one of you were to falter, the other would not know what to do to correct the issue. Thus, you two will be flying separately today. And I will be evaluating on how you two do.”
Falcon was starting to freak. The very idea of her pilot flying another plane was foreign. Rookie should only fly with her where she know he will be safe inside her, “But… but…!”
“Falcon, calm down.” Rookie said as he stroked the side of her console, “It will only be for today.”
“But Rook-!”
“No buts! Just do as Rex says and open your canopy. You trust the Sand Island Squad, right?”
“Y-yeah… to an extent….” She mumbled the last part.
“Think of it as a trust exercise. For us, complete strangers, to suddenly show up in their home, they are very trusting. Now is the perfect time to reinforce the fact, while being able to trust them even further as well.”
Falcon looked at them nervously.
“Come on. Open your canopy.” Rookie goaded her a little.
Falcon looked a little longer before letting out a little groan as she opened her canopy and helped Rookie to the ground.
“There we go. That’s a good girl.” Rookie said before giving her leg a pat and a hug before heading over to Edge who carefully placed Rookie into her cockpit. Once safely inside, she blinked her eyes, “This sure is new.”
“Please,” Falcon begged, “Make sure he comes back to me safely.”
Edge gave a soft smile and gave Falcon a reassuring hug, “I will keep his as safe as I keep Blaze.”
Falcon gave a small, hopeful look.
“Alright, everyone into positions.” Rex said after the appropriate amount of time had passed, “Blaze, Edge, Rookie, you three will head up first and I will evaluate you for a time. Snow, Archer, Falcon, you three will head up second. I want all of you at altitudes above ten-thousand feet. If you falter, I want you guys to have plenty of time to correct yourselves.”
“Roger!” Everyone replied before getting into positions.
“Hey, uh Edge.” Rookie said, “I’m really unfamiliar with this layout. What do I press or switch to turn on the turbines?”
“You don’t have to worry about that for now, I’ll take care of it.” She said as she started up her turbines, “Just sit tight and I’ll get us into the air momentarily.”
“Ok.” Rookie simply said before making himself comfortable while looking at all the switches, buttons, and gauges and wondering what they did or were for.
Rex gave them a countdown to launch. Once he hit zero, He, Blaze, and Edge started down the runway quickly gaining speed. Once an optimal speed had been achieved, they took a leap of faith and were completely airborne. After a certain altitude had been met, Rookie heard Rex allowing Yellow Thirteen to overwatch the launch and give the countdown. They continued climbing a little past ten-thousand feet and further away from the island before Rex spoke again.
“Alright, I think we’re far enough away. You guys can start your training now.”
“Roger.” They said.
“Ok Rookie,” Edge started, “I’m going to start turning slowly and steadily getting tighter. I want you to fill me in on how your feeling as we make each turn to see how tight a turn you can reasonably handle. Does that sound fine?”
“Yeah, that sounds fine to me.” Rookie approved.
“Good. I’m starting my turn now.” She said before starting to turn. It wasn’t a tight turn, so Rookie should have to problems with it. During the turn she asked, “How are you feeling Rookie?”
“I feel fine. This is a light turn, so I’m fine.”
“Good. Glad to hear that.” Edge said before turning around and making a tighter turn.
This continued on and on with each turn getting tighter and tighter. Eventually, Edge had reached her turning threshold, “Alright Rookie. This is as tight as I can turn. How are you feeling?”
“I’m… I’m feeling fine. You sure this is high-g?”
“I’m positive. Have you gone tighter?”
“Not really, or I don’t think so. Falcon’s limiters kept me from going too far.”
“Falcon will have tighter turning then I do. So when you two join together, you two should do some practice.”
“Speaking of Falcon,” Rex piped up, “I should go see how she is doing now. I trust you guys have things under control?”
Blaze and Edge nodded in confirmation.
“Good. I will see you three when we meet back up on the island. See ya.” He gave a salute before flying off in a seemingly random direction, leaving the three to their own devices.
“So,” Edge started, “Now that you’ve had high-g training, would you like to practice with it a little?”
“Practice? Like control you?”
“Mhmm.” She nodded.
“A-alright! Sure! You’re gonna have to let me get used to your controls first. I’ve never flown an F-14 and… you can figure out the rest.”
Edge giggled, “Yeah, I think I get your point. Take your time with the controls. Maybe later if given the time, we can teach you more about us F-14’s so you will be fully certified.”
Rookie took hold of Edge’s joystick and started experimenting with it, along with her throttle, “That would be nice. What would also be nice is if I got to learn how to repair and maintain you guys.”
“Oh yeah. Archer said something about that. I’m sure he would greatly appreciate it too. I think we all would, right Blaze?” Edge asked looking over to Blaze who gave a simple nod.
Rookie took his time getting used to how Edge maneuvered and controlled. It was certainly much different then how Falcon controlled, and that was not taking into account of the different set up. However getting used to the controls wasn’t too hard, so he was soon flying Edge somewhat effectively. To really be able to control her effectively, he would have to get in sync with her. And he knew just how.
“Hey Edge. Mind if I try something?”
“That would depend. What is it that you want to do?”
“Mind if I dance with you?”
Edge giggled, “And why do you need my permission to dance with me?”
“It’s what I do with Falcon to practice aerial maneuvers. You and her control differently, so I’m not really in sync. Does that make sense?”
“By being in sync, you would have a greater understanding of our capabilities, and be able to use them to maximum effectiveness.” She said taking Rookie a little off guard, “So what should I expect in this dance?”
Rookie blinked a couple times, “Um… it’s pretty much just pulling maneuver after maneuver in quick succession. Though to start it off, we would fly up to 30,000 feet or higher before stalling back down to 10,000. Then doing the maneuvers.”
“I see. Snow mentioned you doing something like this.” She then nodded, “Sure.”
“S-seriously? I mean, we would be going into a stall for a long distance.”
“Rookie, I trust you enough that you will do the right thing, and warn me if you believe something is going amiss. Think of it as a trust exercise.” She gave a warm smile.
Rookie was speechless for a couple seconds before saying, “W-wow! Thank you. Thank you Ma’am. I’ll try my best.”
Edge kept her warm smile, “You will do your best. Now, let’s dance together.”
“Roger.” Rookie said before flying Edge high up into the atmosphere, “When we start falling, I want you to close your eyes and open them back up when I say so.” He said as they were getting close to their intended altitude. Just as they were reaching it he said, “Alright, now take a deep breath in and hold it while closing your eyes.” As Edge was taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath too but let his breath out as he lowered the throttle, “And now we’re going into a stall. You can breath out and normally now, but keep your eyes closed.” Edge did so as they were starting to fall. As they were falling, Rookie was wondering what song would fit best. Classical? Most likely, but what? He’ll have to think about it later, though ‘Green Bird’ should fit well enough. “Almost… almost… and now, open your eyes.” When they opened their eyes, the picturesque chaos was there once more.
“Is this what you see when you and Falcon practice?” Edge’s question surprised Rookie.
“Y-yeah. I guess that means you can see it too.” Edge’s response was a simple hum. Once they were getting close to 10,000 feet, they pulled out of their dive and started dancing among the frozen chaos. Like before, but with Edge this time, they started out slow. Slowly but surely getting faster and doing riskier stunts and maneuvers. The frozen scene stayed still this time and they continued until they finished with a backflip in the middle of the scene before it all disappeared, leaving the empty sky and Blaze a little ways in the distance.
“I think we have achieved synchronisation.” Edge commented as they were starting to fly over to Blaze.
“Yeah, I think so too. Besides that, how did you like the dance?”
“It was certainly new, not being the one in control. But exhilarating when we were starting to pick up momentum.”
Rookie blushed, “Heh, thanks.”
“Your welcome.” Edge said as they flew up to a lightly clapping Blaze, “So shall we head over to see how Falcon and the others are doing?”
“Actually, could we head to a town or something so we can pick up some food for myself?”
“Oh, certainly. Hornet isn’t too far from here, and it has a store we can go to. We’re probably going to be getting items in bulk so let me radio someone to help with that.” Rookie was wondering why bulk and why the help, but then realised that going back and forth was impractical and there really was no place in Edge’s cockpit to hold any groceries. “Edge to White. Come in White.”
After a couple seconds Rookie heard a yawn and a female voice, “White to Edge. Need something?”
“Yes. We would like you to carry some supplies over from Hornet to the Island.”
White yawned over the radio again, “Can’t you get Black to do it? He would be more eager to do it.”
“True, Black would be more eager, but we have fragile cargo ourselves and Black might get too eager…”
White sighed, “Yeah, I guess. I’ll wait by the store for like usual.”
“Thank you, White. We’ll see you there.”
“Who’s Black and White? And why White instead of Black?” Rookie asked.
“Black and White are two C-2’s we have on call when our usual method of getting supplies is unavailable, or we need something that wasn’t supplied. Why White instead of Black? Well, Black is an eager pony. Very eager. I’m just worried that he might be too eager and accidentally hurt you.”
Rookie grimaced, “Ah, ok. I think I get your point. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
They flew for a small while before a coastline started appearing over the horizon. A little later, Rookie could see that it, if this was Hornet, then it looked a lot like some beach resort. And much to Rookie’s deep displeasure, there were a lot of plane ponies. A lot of plane ponies… When Blaze and Edge landed, a number of the plane ponies waved to them, and they waved back before Edge started opening her canopy, but Rookie stopped her.
“No no no no no! Please no!”
“Hmm? What’s the matter?”
“There’s a lot of plane ponies, and the thought of getting stared at by all of them will probably give me a heart attack.”
“Alright. Would it be better if I let you out when we reach the store?”
“... Yeah. Yeah I think that would be alright.”
Edge nodded before they continued on to a building that seemed to be the store before letting Rookie out. Once he was out, he quickly dashed into the store.
“Blaze, could you follow Rookie while I talk with Pops?”
Blaze nodded before walking into the store to look for where Rookie was, which was just beside the entrance before walking with him through the store so he could pick out what he wanted. Meanwhile, Edge went to the counter and greeted the MiG-21 that was there, “Hello, Pops.” She said with a pleasant smile.
“Edge!” He waved to her, “How ya doing? Blaze walked off with some human that ran into here. Know anything about that?”
She nodded, “Yeah. He’s our new recruit.”
Pops raised an eyebrow, “New recruit? A human? Who is he gonna fly? What’s his name?”
Edge nodded, “Yes, the new recruit is a human. As for the other questions, ask him. Just a warning however, he’s a little shy.”
“Noted.” Pops nodded before whistling over to Rookie who quickly looked over to him, “Hey, come here. I got some questions for ya.” He waved Rookie over. It took a little nudge from Blaze, but he complied and walked closer to Pops. Once close enough, Pops chuckled and said, “You can calm down, I ain’t gonna hurt ya. You look tense enough that someone might mistake you for a living statue.”
Rookie chuckled a little and seemed to loosen up a little, “Sorry. A lot of plane ponies here. You wanted something?”
“Yeah, what’s your name? I don’t want to have to give you the name little guy.”
“Ah. My name is Rookie, Sir. Second Lieutenant Rookie.”
“Rookie huh? How long have you been flying?”
“Nine months.”
“Nine months! You really are a Rookie!” He gave a hearty chuckle, “Heh heh, sorry if that laugh offended you. So, who do you fly?”
“Um, I have my own plane. An F-16C. Her name is Falcon.”
“An F-16. I see.” He nodded, “So you’re Air Force, huh?”
Rookie nodded, “That’s correct.”
Pops nodded again, “Alright. You may want to be careful who you tell that to here. If you look around, a lot of the planes here are Navy and a number of them don’t like Air Force. You should be fine right now, you’re with Blaze and Edge.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep note of that. Though I don’t think I’ll be around here much. There are too many plane ponies. No offence.”
“None taken. Anyways, that’s all the questions I’ve got. You can go back to browsing. If you find something you want, feel free to take it. Just don’t take everything in here, otherwise you’ll be paying for it.”
“Um… thanks? Why free?”
Pops waved a hoof dismissively, “A multitude of reasons. Go on, grab what you want or need.”
Rookie nodded before walking away with Blaze again to browse the store some more.
“He seems like a decent kid. Where did you find him?” Pops asked Edge.
“He just suddenly appeared out of thin air a little ways from the island a several days ago.”
“Really?” Pops raised an eyebrow, “Out of thin air just like that? And not too long ago. No wonder he’s shy. He’s as green as you can get, heck the only category he isn’t new in is the fact that he finished flight training if he’s been flying an F-16 for nine months. Otherwise he would have been a genuine nugget.”
“Yeah.” Edge said simply as she and Pops watched Rookie wander through the store picking out items he would like with Blaze there being silent support if a plane pony happens to walk by.
They keep watching in silence until Rookie had chosen what items he would like to bring back to Sand Island. With the items picked out, they started gathering them up in bulk and bringing them out to the C-2 that had arrived a little earlier, and started filling her up. Once full, Edge helped Rookie back into her cockpit for the flight back home. But before flying off, she turned back to Pops and waved to him, “Bye Pops. See you some other time.”
Popes smiled and waved back, “See ya Edge, Blaze. Take care of the kid will ya?”
“We will. good bye!” She smiled back before flying off with Blaze and White in tow. Their flight was spent mostly in silence, with the only noise being turbines running and White yawning occasionally. Once they reached the island, they notified Thunderhead that they were coming if for a landing. After approval and landing, they only saw a couple Yellows, apparently the others were still busy practising. Edge helped Rookie out of her cockpit and escorted him to his hangar where she helped with getting White ready for unloading that didn’t take too long.
“Is there anything else you would like some assistance with?” Edge asked as she watched Rookie start to carry out some cans and place them off to the side of his hangar.
“Nah, I think I got it. If I need help with something, Falcon should be here soon, or White can help.” He replied.
“Alright then. Have fun.” She gave a smile before walking off with Blaze.
“So,” White started, “You’re the fragile cargo they were talking about.” She yawned, “No wonder they called for me and not Black.”
“I guess so. I heard he was hyper, so that would probably be why.”
“No. You don’t understand. He’ll stay up for days carrying stuff around. Ask him to do something? He’ll do it, little to no questions asked.”
“Oh… really hyper then, huh?”
“Really hyper. And unfortunately likely that he would accidentally hurt you”
“Ouch…” Rookie said as he continued unloading White. His labour took a good while to get everything out of White. Into the hangar was another thing, but that shouldn’t be too hard. He didn’t want to keep White around longer than she needed to. However, after he brought out the last item and closed her up, he saw that White had fallen asleep. So he went up to her nose and nudged it with a foot, “Hey.”
White grumbled and shifted a little before going back to sleep.
“Come on White, I don’t think sleeping right there is a good idea.” He said as he nudged her nose again.
This time, she reached up and pulled him down to snuggle him against her chest while still sleeping.
“I feel a sense of deja vu coming on, but why… It can’t possibly be that I’ve been pulled into a hug as the pony was sleeping. Nope.” He waited there for a couple minutes before wiggling to try and get out with no luck, “Damn. She’s as heavy a sleeper as Falcon…” A couple Yellows wandered by and snickered at his situation, causing him to go red in the face, “Shut up….”
His situation of being in a sleeping White’s grasp didn’t last as long as Falcon’s, as White soon gave her signature yawn and blinked some of her wariness from her eyes before looking down to see what she was holding on to. When she saw and confirmed that it was indeed the human named Rookie that she was holding, she let him go and slowly stood up, “Sorry. I have a tendency to fall asleep when unloading.”
Rookie stood up and dusted himself off, “It’s alright. I had this happen to me before.”
“Oh, really? With who?” She tilted her head.
“My F-16 named Falcon. She should be here anytime soon. You’re free to meet her if you want, but if you have some place to be, then I don’t want to delay you.”
White nodded before turning away, “Thanks for the offer, but I have to go make sure my brother didn’t destroy anything on accident…”
“You didn’t tell me you had a brother.”
“I didn’t? No, I did. It was Black…. Oh, I didn’t tell you Black was my brother. Yeah, he’s my younger brother. Does that clear things up?”
Rookie nodded, “Yeah, I understand now. Have a good flight!” He said, waving her off
“Yeah, you too. However you fly.” She waved back before going and taking off the runway.
After seeing her off, Rookie turned back to the supplies he got from the store and started hauling them into the hangar first, and then over to the kitchen where he started organising them and putting them away in the cupboard. As he was starting to put the things away, he heard the sound of some people landing, so he headed out of the hangar to check. Outside, he saw that Falcon, Rex, Archer, and Snow had returned. Falcon was looking a little sheepish as she spoke with Rex before coming over to Rookie.
“Hey Roooooooook… hiiiiiiii….” She said with a sheepish grin, “How are you? How was your thing with Blaze and Edge? Glad to see you made it back safe… yup!”
If Rookie’s eyebrow could go any higher, it would leave his face all together, “Alright Falcon, what’s up?”
“Noooooothing…” Her sheepish grin remained, “Just… had a swell time with the others!”
“Falcon…” He gave her a stern look, “What happened...?”
Her face was starting to crack as she said, “I… may have not known how to start my turbines… or use my elevators… or rudder… or a lot of other things for that matter…”
Rookie was stunned. Was this true? Was it just a dream? Was he finally able to laugh at something that wasn’t him? It was! “Bahahahahahahahahaha!”
Falcon blushed furiously, as she watched her pilot have a laughing fit, “Rooook! Stop iiiiit! It’s not funny!”
“Yes! Yes it kind of is!” He responded before laughing some more.
Falcon pouted as she waited for Rookie to finally calm down, which was achieved after a couple of minutes.
“Alright… alright. I think I got it out of my system.” Rookie said before standing up straight, “So, are you able to fly without any assistance now?”
Falcon tilted her head back and forth, “Yeah. But not as well as when I’m with you. I’ll have to practice some more. Though I can at least fly well enough without my limiters, so there’s that.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear.” Rookie smiled.
“Yeah. Shall we go practice it?”
“Sure. But I have to put some things away first.” He said thumbing behind him into the hangar.
“Oh?” Falcon blinked, “What kind of things? And where did you get it?”
“After our training and practice, we went over to a store in Hornet to get some food and stuff for me, and fuel for you.”
Falcon smiled, “Hey, you went out in public! That’s good to hear. How was it?”
It was Rookie’s turn to look sheepish and scratch the back of his head, “Actually, I kinda stayed in Edge’s cockpit until we got to the store. There were a lot of planes there. Like, a lot more then I would be comfortable with.”
Falcon giggled and rubbed his head with the tip of a hoof, “Well, you didn’t have a heart attack at least. Come, let’s put this stuff away quickly so we can go practice.” She said as she headed into the hangar.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll show you where it is.” Rookie said jogging in behind her and showing her where the stuff was. With Rookie’s directions, and him assisting as well, putting the things away took much less time than it would have if it was just Rookie. Before long, all the groceries were put away and Rookie was helped into Falcon’s cockpit. Once they left their hangar, Falcon made her way to the runway, but Rookie stopped her before she got too far along.
“Hold on. We haven’t practiced this much, so we’ll still need someone to watch over us.”
“Oh, right.” She stopped and looked around to see who they would want to watch over them, “Who should we look for?”
They watched Rex start to pass by before Rookie said, “I was thinking Archer, but Rex probably has more experience with this and will be able to help us more if something happens.”
“Yeah, that does seem like a good idea.” She said before trotting over to Rex, “Rex! Hey Rex!”
Rex stopped walking and looked over to Falcon as she was approaching, “Hmm? Need something?”
“Yeah.” Falcon said, “We wanted you to watch over us while we practiced high-g maneuvers so if something happens or goes wrong, you’ll be there to quickly correct it.”
Rex slowly nodded, “I’m glad to hear that you’re looking for someone to watch your back while you practice, but what do you mean by ‘we’?”
“‘We’, would mean me and Falcon, sir!” Rookie said.
“Ah, Rookie. Of course. Yeah, I can watch your six while you practice. Just a heads up, it’s getting late so we won’t be up there for long, alright?”
Falcon grinned and saluted, “Yes sir! Any time spent practising, is time well spent!”
Rookie gave a salute as well, but Falcon’s opaque canopy prevented Rex from seeing. But he probably figured that Rookie was doing and thinking the same, “Right then. Let’s go get ourselves set up on the runway.” Rex said as he headed back to the runway with Falcon and Rookie in tow.
Once on the runway, Rookie and Falcon took front and center with Rex in the wingman position. Rookie then radioed Thunderhead, “Rookie to Thunderhead, come in Thunderhead.”
He didn’t wait long before he got a reply, “This is Thunderhead. What do you need, Rookie?”
“I would like clearance for Falcon, Rex, and I to lift off.”
“Roger. You are cleared for lift off. If it isn’t much of a problem, mind telling me what you’ll be doing once you get up here?”
“Yeah, sure. We’ll be up there in a second.”
With their clearance green, they started up their turbines to get ready to take off. Rookie let Falcon take off on her own this time, and was pleased to see that he did not have to intervene to make sure everything was done properly. Same goes for take off, as he was able to sit back, relax, and watch as the runway started to quickly pass by them, and eventually water as they had taken off. Upon reaching the proper altitude, Rookie radioed back to Thunderhead.
“Hey Thunderhead, you wanted to know what we were going to be doing?”
“Yeah. Mind telling?”
“Sure. Falcon and I will be practising high-g maneuvers. It would be like last time, but the turning will be tighter. Much tighter.”
“But.” Rex interjected, “As much as you two are eager to be pulling off high-g turns all over the place. You will need to first see how much you will be able to take, Rookie. I don’t want to hear that you’ve died because your head wasn’t able to get enough blood after too much time had passed. And like earlier we’ll be at, if not above, 10,000 feet.”
“Yes sir!” Falcon and Rookie said before they starting climbing up to the indicated altitude.
As they were climbing, Rookie radioed back to Thunderhead, “Anyways, you can come watch if you’re free.”
“I think I will, thanks. It’s late, so I’m not as busy. I’ll catch up with you soon.”
“Catch up to you soon too.” Rookie said before cutting off the conversation to continue the climb.
Once their minimum set altitude was met, Rex broke away enough so he wouldn’t accidentally collide with them as they started their practice.
“Alright.” Rookie said as he took a deep breath and a hold of Falcon’s controls, “I’m ready for this. Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Falcon confirmed.
“Ok. Here we go.” Rookie took another deep breath before pulling back hard on the joystick and very quickly found himself flying upside down and barely hanging onto consciousness.
“Hey Rook. Rook, you alright?” Falcon asked as she righted herself.
“Bluh…. I… I think so. Hold on….” He said before shaking his head and letting the blood come back, “Alright, I’m better now. So, I guess I can take your tightest turn, but just barely. I don’t think I’ll be able to fly for long with turns that tight, so we’ll have to find a compromise. I’ll keep this in mind however that we can to this tight of turning maybe once or twice before letting me recover. Anymore and we risk having some problems. Which means you will have to manually limit yourself. Think you can do that?”
“Yeah, I think I can. I don’t want you to accidentally die on me because of some stupid reason.”
For the next ten or so minutes, Rookie and Falcon were testing various turning angles to find the most optimal angle where they could still turn more tightly than with the limiters in place; while making sure Rookie isn’t in danger passing out too soon when turning for a somewhat prolong period of time or multiple times. By the time they had found the most optimal angle, Thunderhead had arrived in their vicinity. So they started practising. Falcon so she could fly better herself, and Rookie so he could get used to the g-forces. It wasn’t long before their practice led them into a dance once more. This time, Rookie knew what classical music would have gone good with their dance. Some ‘Ave Maria’ would go quite nicely. Their dance session was eventually cut short by Rex.
“Alright guys, it’s about time we landed and got some rest.”
Rookie and Falcon groaned their disapproval at their fun getting cut short, but gave nothing else as they waved and said their goodbyes to Thunderhead before following Rex back to the island. Once they landed, Rex gave his evaluation of their performance, some tips, and and a couple warnings to not get too careless. With that all said and done, they split off and went to their respective hangars for the night. Luckily for Rookie, as fleeting those moments are, he wasn’t forced to take a shower tonight. So he just took off his stuff and placed them where they would normally go before snuggling with Falcon for the night once more.

???? Hrs. ?Area B7R?

Once more, Rookie and Falcon found themselves flying over the rounded mountain range. They were still unsure of themselves, despite having something that could beat The Demon Lord. Should they use their apparent ability and possibly have a chance, or not to and avoid any possible risks that may come with it. It was a powerful ability, but they suspected that there would be some backlash to it, like when they woke up.While they were thinking to themselves, The Demon Lord appeared on radar, making Rookie and Falcon change their focus to him.
“We meet once again, you two.” The Demon Lord said as he flew into visual range, “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a special weapon of my own to mix things up a bit. Rookie, you should know this one very well.” He ended with a dark laugh.
And the special weapon Rookie knew very well. On the back of the ADFX was a big, bulky object that cause cold dread to run down his spine. The object in question was a TLS, “Good god. Seriously man?!”
The Demon Lord had a good laugh, “So you remember well! I figured since you two have your own thing, I might as well have mine. I will be using it you know, so if you want a chance to stay flying, I recommend you use you little ability.”
“Are you seriously giving us no choice?!” Falcon screamed, “That ability could kill us! Not only here, but in the real world as well!”
“Hey, you want to beat me? Then you gotta take some risks.”
“Did you not hear what I just said?! WE COULD DIE FOR GOOD!”
“And did you not hear me? Gotta take some risks. Here, I’ll give you a 20 second head start so you can start up your ability, or run away once more. I hope you use your time wisely....”
“Rook…” Falcon asked Rookie worriedly.
“This guy is insane. I don’t like it, and I know you don’t either, but we must if we want to get rid of him.”
“But we might-...!”
“Shh, I know.” Rookie said as he pat Falcon’s console, “I know. We can only hope that we beat this guy in time before something happens to us.”
Falcon was silent for a couple seconds before taking a deep breath, “Ok, we’ll do it. If only to finally beat him.”
With their final agreement they started focusing; going into a trance, then blacking out…

>Merge Mode: Activate
>
>Conscience merge: 100%
>
>
>Soul Merge: 75%
>
>
>Expected boost to performance: 75%
>
>Warning: Irreversible damage will occur in approx. 7 min.

Falcon started glowing like the time before. A couple seconds later her head shook and her eyes opened. But instead of the one being in control being Falcon, it was Angel One. And Angel One seemed especially pissed this occasion as it turned to The Demon Lord and charged, “You went too far this time, Demon Lord!” it said as it fired a couple missiles
“Angel One! My friend! How do you do this time!” The Demon Lord said as he performed a barrel roll to prevent getting hit by the missiles, and from colliding with Angel One.
“Piss off! You gave us no choice! Now I’m going to take you down because of it!”
“Such strong words! I hope you can back them up. En guarde!”
Their dance was a little different this time. Angel One was flying a little more cautiously when not flying head on because of the TLS that The Demon Lord had equipped this round. Angel One was also getting a little pensive. Why wasn’t he using the TLS when he said he would? Was it just for intimidation? Could it not actually work?
Angel One’s question was to be answered when flying behind The Demon Lord and just about to fire a couple more missiles, but The Demon Lord performed a Kulbit and was now behind him. Looking back, Angel One could see a light start to shine from the TLS and started breaking to the right. However he was a little too late, and the TLS fired a pink, chemical laser that while it missed the main target, still got its wing and cut away a good amount.
Angel One grunted through the pain, but still had a good amount of wing cut off and was starting to roll out of control, down to the ground. To the Demon Lord, it seemed like a kill, but the dust from the supposed crash sight, hid a battered Angel One. Angel One struggled to sit up and was successful for the most part. When the dust settled, Angel One glared up at the Demon Lord.
“Looks like I won!” The Demon Lord gloated as he flew overhead.
“You won eh? Alright, have your prize.” Angel One gave a dark smirk as from behind one of the mountains, a bright orange object started flying towards The Demon Lord.
“Aww, you shouldn’t have… wait, what the fuck?” The Demon Lord said as he quickly turned to dodge the object that was flying at him, “Was that a fucking cruise missile?!” His answer soon came when the missile exploded. It was a much larger explosion then expected, and the Angel One’s HUD got a little fuzzy, “WAS THAT A FUCKING NUKE?!” The Demon Lord yelled.
“Why yes. Yes it was a fucking nuke. Now have some more.”
“You’re going too far Angel One! I’m going to turn you into-...” He stopped his sentence suddenly when on their radar, more appeared. A lot more. A lot more then should be needed. Just behind the mountains, they appeared. Waves upon waves of cruise missiles. And they were all aimed directly at Demon Lord. “Too far Angel One! Too god damn far!”
“Too far? Oh the fucking hypocrisy when we said being forced to use our ability was too far! But no, you said we had to take the risk of possibly dying for real, just for your entertainment! We have had enough, now taste the fucking irony!” Angel One started with a dark chuckle. As the missiles were getting closer, Angel One’s chuckling got louder. By the time the missiles started exploding, Angel One was full out laughing.
The more the missiles exploded, the brighter and hotter the area became. Brighter, and brighter until Angel One could only see white which soon started darkening to black as Rookie and Falcon started waking up. Maybe using nukes was too much. Or maybe it wasn’t enough, considering the fact that using their ability could, as stated before, kill them for real.