An increasingly confused Rookie pt3

0600 Hrs. Sand Island.

    When Rookie sat up, he was having some slight trouble keeping his eyes open. Then again, waking up at six in the morning is uncommon for him. But he didn’t know that. He just kinda sat there blinking at the door, trying to wake up some more to start the day. Unfortunately, this was about the time Falcon woke up and sat up as well, causing Rookie to slide down her belly, between her legs, and onto the bed. Maybe it was because of his small stature, but that bed was really cozy, and the area between Falcon’s legs was toasty. He was losing his will to stay awake.
    Falcon, on the other hand, was having a lot less trouble staying awake then Rookie. She sat up, yawned, and stretched before looking around for her pilot. With little luck she called out, “Rook? Rook, where you at?” the response she received was a quiet groan underneath the blanket. When she looked underneath the blanket, she found Rookie face down on the bed. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Rook, what are you doing there?”
    “Buuuhhrrrrddd.”
    “Ok. But that doesn’t answer my question.”
    “You sat up. I slipped down.” Rookie was at least awake enough to reply without going into zombified moans again.
Falcon had to let that process a little due to not being fully awake, but once she got it, she nodded and picked up Rookie. On her hoof, Rookie looked to be a limp pile of flesh and cloth, “Rook, wake up.”
“What’s the time?”
“A little after six o’clock.”
“Fuuuuuck that’s early. Why did we wake up so early?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, “Maybe because we ran away?”
“Fuuuuuck, I wanna to back to sleep.” He said while starting to curl himself into a ball, “I shouldn’t be awake yet.”
“You want to go back between my legs?”
“Yes please. It’s warm there.”
She scoffed and bounced Rookie a little in her hoof, trying to wake him up, “I’m joking. Movie and dinner first, then we’ll talk.”
Rookie stared up at her with a mildly confused face, “Huh…?” until he got what she meant a couple seconds later and his face became nonplussed, “Gross.”
Falcon scoffed again and rolled her eyes before bouncing him in her hoof a little more, “Anyways, wake up. Waking up a little earlier than you normally do won’t kill you.”
“But Falcon.” He started while sprawling back out, “I already am dead. I just haven’t accepted it yet. I must be put to rest if I want to accept it. And the place where I must be put to rest is back in bed.”
“Or I could just cremate your body.” She said with a shit eating grin.
“Damnit Falcon. Why must you be such a party pooper?”
“Because you need to wake up.”
Alright, alright,” He said as he sat up and stretched, “I’m up. Happy?”
“Quite.” She smiled.
Rookie sighed and started rubbing his eyes, “So, what should we do this morning?”
Falcon shrugged, “Could go see what the others are up to.”
Rookie thought for a while before shrugging himself, “Eh, I can’t think of anything else. Sure.”
With their half-baked plan approved by the both of them, Falcon placed Rookie back on the bed while she hopped off. Once off, she tilted her wing onto the bed so Rookie could climb on. Once he was on they headed out into the main hangar area to head out. Along the way, Falcon looked to Rookie’s stuff he had on the table by the kitchen, “Should we bring that stuff along as well?”
Rookie shook his head, “Nah. We don’t know if we’re going to be flying today. Better to just leave it there for now.”
“Alright then.” And with that, they walked out of the hangar and into the morning dawn.
Rookie gave a low whistle as they watched the sunrise, “Damn, that’s pretty.”
“I know.” Falcon agreed, “Worth it for waking up this early?”
Rookie was silent for a couple seconds before saying, “Yeah, I guess you could say this was worth it.”
As they were walking, they came upon Thunderhead heading to the runway, so they decided to side up to him and offer a smile and wave, “Hey, you’re up early.” Falcon said.
Thunderhead gave a smile in return, “Yeah, but that’s the life of an AWACS. Have to get up into the sky early to make sure nopony accidentally crashes into one another, or make sure some unknown entity doesn’t get in without clearance.”
“Sounds like you have you’re busier than you appear.” Rookie commented.
Thunderhead shrugged, “Somewhat. Not much is happening at the moment, but on the rare occasion or trouble starts brewing…”
Rookie nodded, “Communication is key.”
They walked together until Thunderhead lined up on the runway and was getting ready to take off. He gave Rookie and Falcon a smile and salute, “See you in the sky if you ever get the chance. Would like to watch you dance some more.” he said before starting to take off.
Rookie wasn’t able to reply, lest his voice get drowned out by the engine noise, but Falcon was, “See you up there too if we get the chance. And we would love to dance some more for you.”
Rookie and Falcon watched as Thunderhead took off the runway and into the distance for a little while before wandering around the hangars. It wasn’t long before they stumbled upon Archer sitting just outside of a hangar that was presumably his drinking from a barrel of what was most likely jet fuel. When they locked eyes, Archer waved for Rookie and Falcon to come and sit by him. With little else to do, they walked over to join him with Falcon sitting at his side and Rookie being moved to sit on Falcon’s canopy.
“I didn’t figure you two would be early birds. I thought you would still be asleep.” Archer said before taking a drink.
“Oh, normally we would still be asleep by now. We just so happened to wake up not to long ago.” Rookie answered, “I would have gone back to sleep, but Falcon decided against that, because she’s a meanie.”
Falcon giggled, “Oh hush you. We already decided that the sunrise was worth it, right?”
Rookie huffed and crossed his arms, “Yeah. It was worth it…. But still being asleep would have been nice.”
Falcon rolled her eyes while Archer chuckled, “Well you two seem to be fully awake now.” He took another drink. He then looked at his drink and looked to Rookie and Falcon, “You two don’t have anything to eat do you?”
They shook their heads, Falcon shaking hers carefully as to make sure Rookie didn’t slip off.
“Ah. We’ll have to do something about that. Well mostly for you, Rookie. Are you fine with jet fuel, Falcon?”
She shrugged, “Maybe. I never drank jet fuel like what you’re doing. That is jet fuel, that you’re drinking right?”
He nodded, “Yup. JP-5 jet fuel. Is that something you can drink?”
She shrugged, “I dunno. You would have to ask Rook.”
“Rookie?” Archer asked as they both looked up at him.
Rookie hummed and rubbed his chin, “I think it should be alright. Falcon takes the generic stuff, so something like that shouldn’t give her problems. Or too many problems…”
“So… I can give her some jet fuel? You’re kinda the one that has the final say in this one.”
Rookie nodded, “Yeah. I’ll watch and see how she reacts to it.”
Archer nodded and went into his hangar to grab a barrel of fuel. Outside, Falcon scoffed as she looked up at Rookie and said, “It’s as if I wasn’t even here.”
“You were here the whole time? Woah, that’s spooky.” Rookie chuckled.
Falcon scoffed and rolled her eyes. It was just then that Archer returned with a barrel of fuel for Falcon and an apple for Rookie. They thanked him and started eating/drinking with Archer and watching the sun slowly rise. After their first bites and drinks, they both commented on how sweet or good their respective food or beverage was.
Archer nodded and took a drink before commenting, “Yeah. I don’t know about where you two came from, but the stuff we got here is pretty good.”
They kept enjoying their breakfast a little longer before Archer pressed a hoof to his ear, “Yeah…? Uh huh…. They’re right here…. Ok…. Ok…. See you in a bit.”
“Who was that?” Rookie and Falcon both asked.
“It was Edge and Blaze. They were wondering where you two were.”
“Oh. For what?” Falcon asked.
“You’ll see.” Archer said simply before taking another drink.
Figuring they weren’t going to get much more out of him, they went back to their breakfast. The time went by quite peacefully as they watched the sun rise some more, and a little later, watched as Edge, Blaze, and Snow walked towards them. Rookie, Falcon, and Archer gave them a wave as they get near. When the three were standing in front of them, Edge gave Rookie and Falcon a polite smile and nod before saying, “We feel that you two, Rookie and Falcon, have shown good enough behaviour to allow us to release you from our watch. You are authorised to leave the vicinity of Sand Island and will receive an escort when you choose to do so.”
Rookie and Falcon shared a look and raised eyebrows between themselves.
Edge’s pleasant smile didn’t waver as she resumed, “But that’s not quite going to be the case is it? We, the Sand Island Squadron, have approved of your proposal to join the royal guard in protecting Avalon.
Archer grinned as he pat Falcon on the back, “See? Told you, you were likely to be able to join us!”
Rookie and Falcon were grinning near ear to ear. Rookie gave a proud salute to Edge, “Thank you Ma’am. We will try to not disappoint you.”
Edge nodded politely, “I’m sure you two won’t. But you aren’t a royal guard quite yet. You two will need to undergo some initiation courses.”
“Initiation courses? Like what?” Rookie asked.
“You will undergo formation flying, light recon, and mock dogfighting. We will be doing formation flying today and soon. So I would like you two to be ready for that after you finish your breakfast, ok?”
Rookie grinned and gave another salute, “Yes Ma’am!”
Edge gave a nod, “Good. Once you two finish up and you, Rookie, get your gear on, meet us at the end of the runway and we’ll get started.” She gave a warm smile and left with Blaze to the runway. Snow stayed behind to give his congratulations.
“Hey, congratulations on getting a shot at joining us. Make us proud!” He said with a big grin before heading off to the runway.
Archer finished off his fuel and stood up, “I should be headed over there myself. See you in a few.” He said before heading into his hangar to throw away his empty barrel then head back out to the runway.
Rookie and Falcon were left to grin themselves silly with excitement. Despite being in another world, they had the chance to do something they know they could do.
“Come on, we should finish quickly. We don’t want them to wait too long.” Falcon said before starting to chug the rest of her fuel. She was done before Rookie could completely finish his apple, so he ate it on the way back to their hangar. Back at their hangar, they tossed away their empty barrel and apple core before Falcon went to the table and let Rookie off so he could toss on his stuff. Once it was all on, Falcon helped him into her cockpit before heading back out to join the others on the runway.
On the runway Blaze got everyone into a 5-man formation, “After take off, Edge will lead. I will watch, Ok? Start your engines and we’ll go on three.”
After his announcement, Rookie mumbled to himself how he was surprised that Blaze could talk after all before starting Falcon’s engine and doing a couple pre-flight tests. “One…” they were ready for this, they could not fail. Not now, not ever. “Two…” Their adrenalin was starting to build as they were focusing. Everything was starting to become crystal clear. Sounds were crisp and clean to where they could pick out who was where by the sound of their engines even if it all blended together to someone who was watching. “Three…” They were in full sync with the other four, starting to head down the runway at the same time, pick up speed at the same rate, and start to fly with them. They continued their formation until they reached a proficient altitude before they broke apart with Blaze splitting off and letting Edge organise the group.
“Snow, you will be my wingman. Archer, you’re the element leader. Rookie and Falcon, you two will be his wingman.”
“Roger!” Everyone replied before getting into formation. They flew around like this for a while longer before Archer, Rookie, and Falcon split off for some practice with Archer. Soon they were switched over to Snow, and then Edge. After a while with each of them they got into a four-man formation with Rookie and Falcon trading spots to be the Element leader, and the Flight lead’s wingman. To mix things up, Blaze rejoined the group to be a five-man formation again so Rookie and Falcon were subject to trading places again into the different positions before finally splitting off with Blaze to practice with him for a little while. All in all, the practice lasted the rest of the morning, and well into the afternoon.
“Good. Let’s go back to Edge for debriefing.” Blaze said as he made his way to her with Rookie and Falcon in tow.
“Good.” Edge said once the trio rejoined with her, “You two seem to know your formations and what to do. You two also showed an excellent ability to adapt to a different person’s flight pattern and keep in formation through. Congratulation.”
“Thank you, Ma’am. What will we be practising next?” Rookie asked.
“Next, you two will undergo high-g training. I heard you two have never done high-g maneuvers before and you, Falcon, you never had your limiters disabled. We will be doing that next. However it will have to wait until tomorrow. It’s a little too late for that now, and we’re expecting Rex to be here soon.”
“Rex?” Rookie and Falcon both asked with Falcon continuing, “You mean the leader of Avalon is coming here?”
Edge nodded, “Correct, so please behave yourselves.”
“Don’t worry, we will! We don’t want to disappoint him or anything, right Falcon?”
“Right!”
“Good. You two are free to do whatever you want now. Just remember to get to bed early enough so you two will be up for training tomorrow.”
“Ok, we will. Oh! Quick question! Where’s Thunderhead? We were going to meet up with him if we got airborne today.”
Edge pointed him out, or at the general direction he was in.
“Thanks.” The two thanked her before flying off to meet up with Thunderhead.
It didn’t take long for them to be able to see Thunderhead, and a little less to fly up to his side, “Hey, Thunderhead. How you doing?” They both asked.
Thunderhead gave a pleased smile as he looked over to them, “Hey, I’m doing good. Not much happening today. Now I’m just keeping an eye out for Rex and Yellow squad.”
“Yellow squad? Who are they?” Rookie asked.
“Yellow squad is another squad in the royal guard. Normally they’re here, but they’ve been out doing something for the past few days. They will be coming back today and most likely with Rex.”
“Oh, well that should be exciting. Right Rook?” Falcon asked.
“I dunno…. It should be fine I guess. Just a couple plane ponies looking at me and not a city’s worth.”
“You’ll be fine. Besides, you’ll have me this time.”
“True… true….”
“Hey uh…” Thunderhead sounded a little fidgety, “Mind doing your little ‘practice’ session again? It’s nice to watch and will pass the time until Rex and Yellow squad gets here.”
“Sure!” Rookie and Falcon happily agreed before splitting off from Thunderhead and shooting straight up. They didn’t go as high this time before falling back down. And when the swooped out of their dive, they kept a slow but mesmerising pace for their practice. But it was enough to put a pleased look on Thunderhead’s face, and that was good enough for them.
Their session lasted a short while before Thunderhead looked away into the distance, “Ah, that should be them now. You should go greet them.”
Rookie and Falcon came out of an aileron roll and started circling him as he was talking before they responded, “Alright!”
Thunderhead pointed in a direction and said, “They’re that way. I’ll tell them you’re on your way to greet them.”
With a salute, Rookie and Falcon headed off in the direction as indicated.
“You know.” Rookie started, “No one ever told us what Rex looked like. Or even what Yellow squad looked like.”
Falcon shrugged, “Eh, just look for the plane that looks different or more impressive. That should be Rex.”
“True enough…”
They didn’t take long before they could see six planes in the distance headed their way, “That’s a bit much…” Rookie noted.
When they got closer, they could make out their color schemes. And sure enough, one of them looked different. For Rookie, the odd colour scheme out looked a little familiar to him so he spouted, “Greetings glorious Yuktobanian commissar!” complete with accent!
They could hear see some of the planes, including the one presumed to be Rex, chuckling to themselves. With a short discussion between them, Yellow squadron split off to head to Sand Island while Rex stayed behind, “You must be the two recruits I’ve heard about from Edge. And sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m Belkan.”
Rookie froze. His joke was shattered. No, it could be salvaged. Just had to change one small detail, “Greetings glorious Belkan commissar!” Flawless.
That seemed to have done the trick as Rex gave a more hearty laugh, “Oh yeah. You two are going to be interesting.” He said as he flew up to their side allowing Rookie to get a better look at him.
“Hey, what kind of plane are you?” Rookie questioned as he maneuvered Falcon around Rex to try and figure out what he was, “I see you have forward-swept wings. The only plane I know of that had forward swept wings is a Berkut, and you don’t look like a Berkut. Especially because your tails are… angled… inwards….”
“Something the matter?” Rex questioned.
“No… no…. You’re not supposed to exist. No…! You’re not supposed to exist!”
Rex raised an eyebrow as he looked over to Falcon who offered a shrug before he figured out what the problem was, “Oh, right. The adfx thing. Yup. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I exist.”
There was a slight pause before a sharp inhale could be heard in the radio. Fortunately, Falcon had the foresight to turn her radio off so Rex didn’t have to suffer the outburst coming from a now disturbed Rookie.
“What’s his problem?” Rex asked to an irritated looking Falcon.
Falcon sighed, “Sorry, he’s had some problems dealing with a certain adfx in his dreams. An adfx-01 to be more precise. That reminds me, what type are you? An 01 or an 02?”
“I’m an 02. How do you know this?”
“There’s a game where we come from that has both variants, and the final boss flies an 02.”
“I see.” Rex nodded his head slowly and thought for a second before asking, “What color was it?”
“I think it was white with… a single red wing.” Falcon said as she soon flashed a rather irritated look.
Rex rubbed his chin in thought to what Falcon had told him before catching her irritated look and asked, “Something the matter?”
“Oh, Rook overheard that you were the 02 variant. Now he’s going off on how “cheatyface” it is to have a unique ECM pod, a TLS, and burst missiles all on one plane.”
Rex nodded slowly, “Will it make things better if he knew that I only have my ECM pod with me?”
Falcon turned on her radio, “YOU CAN’T TOUCH ME! WHY? BECAUSE MY ECM POD DEFLECTS FREAKING BULLETS! HOORAY!” she turned it back off.
“I don’t think that will change much.” She said.
“So we’re just going to have to wait until he calms down?” Rex asked.
Falcon responded by nodding her head, “Yeah. He should calm down soon though.”
They flew around together for a short while before Falcon finally said, “I think he’s calmed down now. He isn’t saying anything.”
“Alright. Put him on the radio. I would like to talk to him.”
Falcon nodded and turned on her radio, “Rook? Rex would like to talk to you. But before that, I would like you to apologise to him for your outburst.”
Rookie sighed, “Hey uh, Rex. Sorry for the outburst. Seeing an actual adfx, and an 02 variant at that, was completely unexpected.”
Rex shrugged, “It’s alright, you’re forgiven. Just please don’t do that if or when some big revelation happens.”
“Yeah, sure. Anyways, you wanted something?”
“Yeah, I have some questions for you. I guess to start, where did you two come from?”
“Where did we come from? Hmm, that’s a good question. I guess the obvious one is that we aren’t from around here. We come from a place called the United States of America.”
“If you look on my left wing, you can see our roundel. We belong to the USAF. The United Stated Air Force.” Falcon added.
Rex took a look at her roundel and nodded slowly, “Noted. Certainly a place that doesn’t exist where I come from. Now, what about getting here? How did you two get here?”
“I… I’m still unsure about that one. Falcon?”
“We were flying with our flight, then we flew into some thundercloud.”
“Right, then a flash of lightning and we were here… and Falcon was out cold.”
Falcon blushed and rubbed her head, “Yeah… kinda scared us both with that.”
Rex nodded again, “So you two got caught in a flash of lightning, and the next you were here, to sum things up?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Falcon said.
“Ok. So, now that you’re here, what are you immediate and long term plans?” Rex continued questioning.
“Shit.” Rookie said, “I guess our immediate plan is to join the royal guard. It’s all that we really know about in this world. And our long term? Shit, I dunno. We’ll probably be crossing that bridge when we come to it.”
“Would working in the Royal Guard count at a long term goal?” Falcon asked Rookie.
“Yeah, probably. Depends if we get in though.”
“Alright,” Rex said, “I guess my final question is, where are you two intending on staying?”
Rookie answered, “The Sand Island ponies are letting us stay in an empty hangar they have on the island. Besides that, I have no clue. I guess I would worry more about where Falcon would stay, since I can just sleep in her cockpit.” which made Falcon giggle a little.
“Looks like you two have some things to think about for the coming future.” Rex said as he looked to the horizon, “The sun is starting to set, and I have no more questions. Let’s head back to the island.”
With a quick agreement, the trio flew back to the island and land for the day. When they had landed, Falcon helped Rookie out of her cockpit and onto the ground where Rex was able to confirm that there was a new human in Avalon. Albeit, a rather peculiar one. When Rookie removed his helmet, Rex offered a hoof for a shake that Rookie hesitantly took the tip of and shook. With a quick nod, Rex was off to speak to the Sand Island squadron, leaving Rookie and Falcon to their own devices. Until two plane ponies that were with Rex earlier approached them.
“You two must be the ones we heard and saw earlier.” One of them that sounded like a male, said as he looked down at Rookie, “Gotta say. We don’t really get many humans here in Avalon. From what I hear, any that do appear kinda disappear into the forest very quickly. So for you to show your face and stick around is quite an achievement.”
Rookie kinda just stared up at the two with wide eyes, unsure of what to say or do. While he was getting stared down by two plane ponies that he didn’t know, at least he was accompanied with Falcon, so he wasn’t a nervous wreck. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being intensely watched however, “Uh. T-thanks, I guess….”
The male pony chuckled a little at Rookie’s nervousness, “Ah, you’ll be fine. Anyways, I would like to introduce myself, Yellow Thirteen,” He bowed his head a little before motioning to the other pony beside him, “And my wingman, Yellow Four.”
“A pleasure to meet you.” The pony said with a female voice, a pleasant smile, and a slight bow of her head as well. When Rookie’s eyes met hers, he was washed with the sense that she was deeply analysing him for whatever reason. It was a little unsetting.
“That’s… huh, that’s interesting names. I would be Second Lieutenant, Rookie. And this,” He pointed back to Falcon, “Is Falcon. She came from where I came from.”
“Hello.” She said simply. Rookie could see that her eyes were going over the ponies in an analytical manner, similar to how Yellow Four was looking at him.
“Rookie, huh?” Yellow Thirteen said, pulling Rookie’s gaze back to him “Just how long have you been flying?”
“Um. About nine months, give or take a couple.”
“Oh!” Thirteen blinked, “So you have that name because you really are a rookie.” He grinned as he continued, “Well, if you’re feeling up for it some time, you could join us for a while. I could teach you while under my wing.”
Rookie hummed as he thought over the proposition. He was already getting trained by the Sand Island Squad, but getting further training by the Yellows surely wouldn’t hurt. They were different planes as well, so they probably used different tactics. Speaking of planes…, “We’ll see. That is a tempting offer, but we’ll see. Hey, mind me asking but, what kind of planes are you?”
Thirteen nodded at his answer before continuing, “Ah, you’re fine. We’re Su-37 Terminators. Does that answer your question?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Rookie nodded. He suspected as much. They looked like Flankers, but seemed a little different until his suspicions were confirmed that they were Terminators…. Oh, they were Terminators… well fuck.
While Rookie was off in Lala Land, Thirteen extended a hoof that shook Rookie out of his stupidity, “We should talk again. Right now, it’s getting a little too late.”
“Uh, sure. It is getting a little late.” He said as he took the tip of Thirteen’s hoof and started shaking it. As they were shaking, they suddenly heard a quiet whir, like that of a minigun getting spun up.
Looking over, the two could see that Falcon and Four were engaged in an intense staredown. The whirring sound came from Four, who was angled just subtly enough to point her cannon straight at Falcon. Falcon, on the other hand, was standing in a particular way as if getting ready to leap to the side, or more likely, forward at Four. Rookie and Thirteen shared a look and Rookie said, “Separate the two before the cold war goes hot?”
Thirteen nodded, “Agreed.”
With that agreed upon, the two stood in between the mares to try and break their line of sight from each other. They were succeeding for the most part, “Come on Falcon, let’s go to the hangar. It’s getting late, and we need sleep.”
Falcon grunted as she moved away while keeping her eyes glued to the two ponies that were walking away, specifically Yellow Four for a short while before completely turning away and walking with Rookie back to their hangar, “I don’t trust her.” She said.
“Judging by how she was looking back at you, I think the feeling is mutual.”
“Be careful around them.”
“I will, I will. Yellow Thirteen seems like a decent enough guy to be around at least.”
Falcon just grunted again as they made their way back to their hangar. Once there, Rookie stripped off his flight gear and Falcon placed it back on the table for tomorrow. However, on their way to the bedroom, Falcon asked, “Rook. when was the last time you took a shower?”
“Um… two days ago? Why?” He said with a raised eyebrow.
Falcon leaned her head down and took a couple sniffs of him, “Ech, you need a shower. You’re taking a shower before bed.”
Rookie gave her an odd look, “A shower? I think I’ll be fine. Besides, I think the showers here are a little too big for me.”
“Then I can take a shower with you. I kinda need one anyways.”
Rookie spun to face her and raised his hands, “Woah, woahwoahwoahwoah. I don’t need a shower. I’ll be fine. No one is going to die if I don’t take a shower.”
“Nonsense! You’re taking a shower!” She said as he tried scooping him up.
Rookie dodged out of the way, “Falcon no! Stop! Stop, or else!”
“Or else what…?” She said with a raised eyebrow.
Rookie and Falcon stared at each other for a little while.
1930 Hrs. Sand Island.

Blaze and Edge were walking together on the sandy shores of the island, taking in the twilight and the stars that shone. Their walk together was peaceful, with little noise except for the soft lapping of the water over the sand. They soon found a spot to sit and lean against each other as they watched the last minutes of the sun disappear over the horizon.
“I wish moments like these would last forever, don’t you, Blaze?” She asked nuzzling his cheek.
 He smiled and hummed in agreement before returning the nuzzle.
Their small, subtle movements were in their own sync with each other as if they had done so many times before. Slowly but surely, their actions got them looking face to face. Slowly leaning in, pursing their lips, for the moment when their lips finally-
“HELP!” God damnit.
Blaze and Edge hurriedly separated from each other and tried looking as if they totally weren’t about to kiss, before looking behind them to see what the commotion was. What they could see, was Rookie sprinting full tilt down the runway with an irritated Falcon trotting right behind him.
“CRAZY MARE IS AFTER ME!”
“YOU’RE TAKING A SHOWER!”
“NO!”
“ROOOOOOOOOK!”
Blaze and Edge shared a look before Edge asked, “Should we help one of them?”
Blaze shook his head, “Nah.”
Edge shrugged before moving closer to Blaze, “Now, where were we…”

1945 Hrs. Rookie and Falcon’s Hangar.

To say Rookie was displeased would be a slight understatement. After five minutes of running around, and ten more minutes of Falcon convincing him to remove his clothes, he was now sitting in a large shower with Falcon sitting behind him and attempting to lather him up.
“Rook, could you please stand up.”
“I don’t wanna.” He said with a pout.
“Rook, you’re acting like a child. Please stand up.”
He let out a huff.
“The sooner you comply, the sooner you can get re-dressed.”
He was silent and unmoving for a little while before grudgingly standing up.
“Thanks you.” Falcon smiled before applying some soap and lathering him up. He really didn’t like it, especially once Falcon ran a tip of her hoof over a certain area.
“Heyheyhey! Let me wash that area, please.” He said hopping a little away from her.
She shrugged and let him wash himself, “You shouldn’t be so tense, just because you’re naked. I’m not going to do anything.”
“Yeah, well that’s because you’re always naked.” He said, finishing up before walking underneath a jet of water to clean off the suds from his body.
“There, you’re clean. Now was that so painful?”
“Yes.” He said simply as he got out of the shower and dried off, making Falcon roll her eyes.
Once dried off, he tossed his clothes back on and left the bathroom to go into the bedroom where he waited at the foot of the bed for Falcon to come in and help him up. It was roughly 15 minutes before Falcon walked in. Once they were in bed, they got into their position like last night before they closed their eyes and their conscience to slowly slip away until they were once again asleep.

????Hrs. ?Area B7R?

Once again, just like last time. Just like every other time, for a long time. Rookie was once again flying the arid skies, and over the curving mountain range. However this time, and last time, he was comforted a bit; knowing he was flying with Falcon. A more animate Falcon. On the flip side, he was also filled with a sense of dread. He was able to cleverly run away from The Demon Lord last time, but he doubted he would fall for the trick again this time.
“Rook?” Falcon asked
“Hmm?”
“What are we going to do this time? We got lucky last time, but… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die again.” her voice and body shuddered as she was saying her last sentence.
Rookie sighed and pat her console, “I don’t know. I really don’t know. But I’ll get us out of here alive. I promise.”
Falcon stopped her shuddering and smiled a little. Their little moment was interrupted however by a very unwelcome voice.
“If you don’t want to die, then how about you actually grow a god damn pair and fight back.” It was The Demon Lord.
A chill ran up and down Rookie’s spine as he looked out the sides of Falcon’s canopy, “Go away. We don’t need your belittling. Where are you anyways?” He said as he was unable to find him so he looked to Falcon’s radar. Sure enough he got a signature that was… right over them?
“Look up.”
Rookie and Falcon were hesitant to, but they did so anyways. Above them was the adfx flying upside down as if the pilot were to look at them. But the canopy looked to be tinted to the point where it looked completely black. They couldn’t see anything inside, not like they wanted to know what was in there anyways. Further down on the wings where they would have been painted a dark blue, they too were black. Along with the tails. It looked like the Demon Lord that he knew and loved, but the black made it look wrong, twisted, a cruel mockery.
Rookie and Falcon didn’t look at it much longer before they turned to try and fly away. They didn’t get very far when the alarm started blaring again, which turned into a different alarm to notify that a missile had been sent their way. Some flares tossed out and the missile was successfully diverted, but they only had so many in stock and would run out eventually.
“Come on Rookie, you’re better than this.” Another missile, another set of flairs, “Are you seriously cowering from me? A simple adfx-01, when you just met an 02?” Another missile, but this was dodged, “Turn around and fight!” another missile and some more flairs.
“Rook, do something! I’m almost out of flairs!” Falcon cried.
“Yeah ‘Rook’, do something. You don’t want your precious F-16 getting hurt again, do you?” Another missile and the last set of flairs, “Come on, shoot me, hit me, FIGHT ME YOU FUCKING COWARD!”
There comes a time when too much stress builds on a person, and they finally break. Rookie, though wishful, never intended on ever fighting back. Until recently, until The Demon Lord started mocking and verbally abusing them. Rookie has finally had enough.
“Hey Demon Lord. Catch.” He said before performing a half-kubit, locking on, and firing a couple missiles towards The Demon Lord.
The Demon Lord, despite getting caught by surprise, was able to turn and dodge fast enough for the missiles to harmlessly pass by behind him, “Holy fucking shit! You actually grew a fucking pair! I’m so proud of you! No seriously!”
“Rook, are we actually going to fight him?” Falcon asked.
“Yes, we are. I’ve had enough of him.” He said simply before turning to engage The Demon Lord once again.
The Demon Lord wasn’t done taunting them however. They seemed to be giving The Demon Lord a harder time, but their missiles never could hit him, “Come on you two. Is this the best you’ve got? You thrive, absolutely thrive in chaos! But when you’re fighting just one simple plane, suddenly you’re tasked with something impossible. What gives?!”
“We don’t have to answer to you.” Rookie said.
“Don’t give me that. You can do better, I know you can! You’re just like me!”
“We’re NOTHING like you!”
“Bull shit! Think of this, you’re a merc fighting a war that doesn’t concern you, for a country you probably don’t even belong to. You’re not doing it for money, for fame or fear, or even power. You’re doing it because you want to fight. You’re doing it because you want a challenge!”
“You don’t know that!”
“Yes I do. Ace difficulty, played with only the starting aircraft? You dominated the shit out of anything in your sights. That little ‘dance’ you did yesterday? Not even a scratch. Face it, you’re just like me. You want to fight. You need to fight!”
“I don’t want to fight you.”
“Oh?”
“I want to kill you.” Rookie said as he was entering a trance like state, then suddenly blacking out.
“Rook, I don’t feel right. I feel… I feel….” Falcon said before she blacked out as well.

>Merge Mode: Activate
>
>Conscience Merge: 100%
>
>
>Soul Merge: 50%
>
>
>Expected boost to performance: 50%
>
>Warning: irreversible damage will occur in approx. 10 min.

“What. The. Fuck…?” The Demon Lord muttered as the F-16 he was watching fly in a straight line suddenly begin to glow a white light and move again.
The F-16 that was Falcon’s body shook and rubbed it’s head before speaking in an ambiguous voice, “Who… who am I?
“I’m wondering the same thing.” The Demon Lord asked as he flew beside the F-16.
The F-16 snapped it’s head to The Demon Lord and gave it a death glare, “Demon Lord….” it said with venom almost dripping from the very vocalization of his name, “Who am I? TELL ME!”
The Demon Lord, seemingly unperturbed, responded, “Who indeed. Who who who… Hmm. You’re a glowy son of a bitch I’ll tell you that.” there was a pause where the F-16 could feel that The Demon Lord was getting an incredible grin before he continued, “I know~. You will be Angel One.”
The F-16 now named Angel One raised an eyebrow while still fixing him a glare, “Angel… One…?”
“Yes. Angel One. Our fight will be glorious. Angel and Demon, two bitter rivals fighting to determine the victor.”
“We’re not rivals, we’re enemies.” Angel One growled, “Speaking of which, you’ve lived long enough.” It said before slowing down to get a lock on The Demon Lord and firing.
The Demon Lord laughed as he tossed out some flares and sped up to re-engage Angel One, “I like you! This fight well be remembered for centuries to come!” He said before continuing his laughter.
Their dance of death seemingly went on forever, that was only about ten minutes. Angel One was giving The Demon Lord a much, much harder time and had seemingly managed to outmaneuver him, only to find their missile miss the target a couple seconds later. The Demon Lord, though finding himself to finally be out matched and unable to get a lock on for long, still proved to be a dangerous adversary by pulling off evasion tactics flawlessly
Their fight only ended when Angel One was starting to get a headache at the end of the ten minute mark, and their vision darkening as they were headed back to the waking world.