Erin pushed a lock of brown hair out of her eyes. She was walking from her
French class to Math. Everyone was talking about the new student, but as
far as Erin was concerned, there wasn't a new student. He hadn't been in
any of her classes so far and it was almost the end of the day. She went
into her Algebra One class and put her books down on the desk next to
Sheila.
"You seen this new kid yet?"
"Nope, but someone said it was a boy with a braid down his back. You know, like Duo."
Mrs. Trowalena shut the door and started class.
"Now, if X plus 22 times 33Y minus 5 equals,"
Suddenly, a tapping on the locked door interrupted her. Mrs. Trowalena opened the door to admit a boy with his long brown hair plaited into one braid down his back. He grinned at the class uncertainly from under a black cap.
Erin poked Sheila in the ribs and said, "It's Duo!"
After reading the paper that he had brought, Mrs. Trowalena said, "This is our new student, Sam Maxwell."
Dylan poked Sheila in the ribs, "Maxwell? As in Duo Maxwell?" he whispered.
"Take the seat behind Erin." Mrs. Trowalena continued, "Please ask her any questions you have."
Half the class was gawking at him now and Sam gave a grin that said he was used to being stared at and rather enjoyed it. "Same attitude as someone else I could name." Erin muttered. Sam gave no indication that he had heard her, but as he walked past Erin on the way to his seat he gave a shake of his head, hitting Erin in the face with his braid. (Duo Maxwell is a character on Gundam Wing, one of Erin's favorite shows. Sam Maxwell was an exact double for Duo.)
"Two can play at that." Sheila murmured with a shake of her head, Sam got slapped across the face with a black braid slightly shorter than his own. Dylan snickered.
"What do you find so amusing?" Mrs. Trowalena asked.
"Oh, nothing. Hehehe," he replied, still laughing.
"Please, do share the joke." She insisted.
"I promise. It's nothing." Dylan snickered.
Mrs. Trowalena sighed and went back to teaching.
Erin went back to her work, but she kept stealing glances at Sam. She had to tell Ahara about this! Where'd this guy come from and why was he here of all places? "Now I know how Releena felt when Heero showed up," she muttered to Sheila.
"I know." Sheila replied.
"You got a crush on the new kid or something?" Jeremy asked from across the aisle.
"Shut. Up!" Erin demanded, clutching her pencil. Suddenly the sound of snapping plastic filled the room and all eyes, except for the teacher's, were turned in her direction. Erin reddened. She began, "Sheila, can I borrow-"
"Here," Sheila said, thrusting a pencil into Erin's hand. "She does that about once a day," she told Sam.
"I broke my mechanical pencil in half again," Erin moaned quietly to Sheila. "Duo-I mean Sam-probably thinks I'm a freak now."
"And that matters because?" Sheila asked. Erin just sighed and said, "You know why."
"You've only seen him once! Don't tell me that you already have a crush on him!"
* * * After Math Class * * * *
"Speak of the Devil," Erin muttered.
Sam stood at the locker next to hers'; apparently trying to remember the combination the school had given him this morning.
"What are you doing here?" Sheila asked as Erin put her combination into her lock.
"Trying to get my locker open, obviously. The combos not working," he stated.
"Neither is mine," Erin said, "Wait a sec. Damn it! Did you leave you locker unlocked this morning?"
"Yeah, why?"
"So did I. Someone switched our locks."
Erin leaned over on tried her combination on Sam's lock. It popped open right away, and Sam had similar results on Erin's lock.
"You didn't see me here this morning 'cause I got here during fourth period." Sam said out of nowhere.
"Do you think I care?" Erin uttered.
"You looked surprised to see me."
"I was. Have you ever seen Gundam Wing?"
"Gundam what?"
"I'll take that as a no. That's weird."
"What's weird about that?"
"Has anyone told you that you look like Duo Maxwell?"
"Has anyone told you that you look like Sailor Jupiter?" Sam countered as he started to open his locker. "That's from another dumb anime show. Ow!" he exclaimed. When he reached for his locker a bolt of static jumped off it and shocked him.
"That's all you can manage detransformed?" Sam remarked.
"What?" Erin asked.
"That's weird," Sam thought to himself as Erin stared at him strangely. "She doesn't even know that she's doing it."
The next day in math class a paper airplane landed on Sam's lap. He unfolded it and read, "Annoying Erin can have shocking results." He snickered. He knew what the sender meant; but who sent it?
"Dylan, what were you writing?" Erin asked. Sheila immediately jumped away from the bare metal on her chair, confusing Sam. However, almost instantly after Sheila jumped away from the bare metal on her chair, a jolt of electricity jumped from Erin's chair to Sheila's all the way to Dylan's.
"Ow! I hate it when you do that," Dylan complained.
"Do what?" Erin asked,
"Shock me like that," Dylan continued.
"That's stupid! I didn't shock you."
"People call you the human bug zapper for a reason ya know."
"Oh yeah, then what is it?"
"Shut up before the teacher catches you!" Sheila exclaimed, shutting them up.
"By the way, Erin, I got this from a friend's sister, you want it?" sam asked as he opened his hand to reveal a perfect replica of Sailor Jupiter's transformation pen.
"Maybe, why?" questioned Erin, doubting that Sam would give her the pen.
"It's the only pen I got and I'd rather not give people another reason to tease me," he explained.
"Wanna swap?" Erin asked holding up a pen with a basketball on it.
"Please," Sam pleaded as he dropped the Jupiter pen on Erin's desk and snatched up the basketball pen. Erin twirled her new pen around her fingers.
"It'd be funny if this thing actually worked." Erin mused.
"Don't you trust me? It does write." Sam affirmed.
"That's not what I meant." Erin growled.
"At any rate, I've never seen it exhibit any magical powers." Sam stated plainly.
"Very funny." Sheila uttered, not at all amused and returned to her work. Sam also returned to the task at hand, but Erin stared at her new pen for a while longer before she continued her class work.
Later, while Sam and Erin were at their lockers, Sam muttered, "I've never seen that pen exhibit any magical powers, but I've never seen it in the right hands."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Erin asked.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Sam responded, blushing madly.
"He is sorta cute when he blushes." Erin told her friend Ahara over the phone. Erin had left a message for her the second she got home from school. Almost four hours later, Ahara finally called back.
"Yeah, yeah. What's this about the pen?" Ahara questioned.
"You will not believe how much he looks like Duo!"
"Yes I would. He's on my bus; remember? Now, back to the pen."
"It's an absolute perfect replica of Sailor Jupiter's! I think the handle's plastic, but the star part is some sort of gold colored metal and the orb in the middle is glass. I'll show it to you tomorrow." The next day, Ahara was impatiently tapping her foot when Erin walked into the Gym.
"What took you so long? Let's see the pen." Ahara said excitedly. Erin sighed and handed the pen to her.
"That crystal doesn't look like glass." Ahara testified. Then out of nowhere Alex ran up to them and yelled,
"Erin, Debbie's trying to kill me again!" Erin looked behind Alex and immediately saw Debbie. Her black hair was streaming behind her as she charged at Alex. Alex quickly dove out of the way and Debbie landed on Erin. In all the action that was taking place, Erin's pen flew out of her hand. Everyone watched in horror as Debbie tumbled off Erin and landed right on top of the pen with all her weight. Sam, witnessing the event from a distance, walked up yawning and leaned against a nearby basketball goal.
"What the heck is that pen made of?" Debbie asked, getting back on to her feet. To everyone's amazement, the pen was all right. Debbie had a red mark where her hand had hit one of the points of the pen.
"Dunno, I thought glass and plastic, but..." Erin stated.
"Glass and plastic wouldn't do that to Debbie's hand." Ahara pointed out. Sam nodded,
"Definitely not."
"If it's not glass and plastic, than what is it?" Erin asked.
"Don't ask me. You're the sailor scout." Sam snapped. Ahara looked back and forth between the two.
"Am I missing something?" she asked to generally no one.
"No, Sam's just being annoying." Erin replied.
"Sam, I strongly advise you to get away from anything that conducts-" Sheila recommended, but before she could finish, a bolt of static electricity jumped off the basketball goal Sam was leaning against on to him.
"Aww, damn. That hurt!" Sam cried out and then asked, "Erin, Has anyone ever told you that you have a shocking personality?"
"What do you mean by that?" Erin spat. Just then, the bell rang and everyone headed towards the door.
"Saved by the bell," Sam mumbled. As he rushed out the door, Ahara advised Erin,
"If you get desperate, use the pen."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Erin yelled after her. Ahara didn't reply. Erin sighed and went to class. Erin yawned as she got dressed for PE. At least she didn't have to worry about Sam this period.
"I hope they move the signs back." Erin declared to no one in particular. Out of no where Sheila snuck up on her and asked, "What signs?"
Totally not expecting that, she jumped in surprise and yelled, "I hate it when you do that!"
Sheila ignored the remark and repeated, "OK, anyway, what signs?"
"The signs on the locker rooms. Someone switched them."
Suddenly they heard a shriek and Erin was glad that she was a slow dresser. Then they heard a male voice exclaiming, "Shit! What the hell?"
"Get out! Get out! GET OUT!" Lindsey Domina shrieked.
Almost everyone already knew which locker rooms were which, no matter what the signs said. Almost everyone also knew that they weren't going to be switched back anytime soon either. However, there was one boy that did not know about the signs and that was Sam. Sam ran out of the girls' locker room with his face burning bright.
Lindsey's face was as red as Sam's was because she had had her shirt completely off before she realized Sam had waltzed in. Lindsey was still standing there screaming when Miss Harding came in.
"Go to the gym. You don't have to dress out." She told everyone. The girls grabbed their stuff and headed out the door to the gym.
In the gym, Erin discovered that Sam was indeed in her gym class. Erin was baffled as to why she hadn't seen him before, but then Sheila provided the explanation.
"Oh, yeah, he came to school at fourth period." Sheila justified. Erin nodded and started to remember. The reason she hadn't seen him was because she had gym in third period and Sam said that he came to school in fourth period.
All of a sudden there was a huge commotion near the bleachers. The gym teachers were attempting to get Debbie and Alex out from under the bleachers. It turned out that Debbie cornered Alex near the bleachers, but Alex got away by running under them. Debbie chased after him, caught him and was about to beat the bloody pulp out of him. That was when the teachers came and prevented her. Unexpectedly a distinctly loud creak came from the bleachers. Erin was the first to realize that and yelled,
"The bleachers are collapsing!" Everyone was rushing off, preventing anyone from going anywhere near the bleachers. Debbie and Alex were trying to get out from underneath, but both of them were caught on something. Erin was starting to panic, but then suddenly Ahara's words echoed through her head, 'If you get desperate, use the pen.' She doubted the pen was the real one, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Through all the chaos, she slipped behind the stage curtain, held up the pen high and yelled,
"Jupiter. Star. Power... Make UP!"
Sam saw a bright flash of green light from behind the stage curtain and thought to himself, 'So it was the real thing.' He'd been reluctant to believe it was the real transformation pen even though Lita said so. Now if only he could find the other pilot.
Another figure had been watching and when Erin came out as Sailor Jupiter, Ahara handed her a pair of green sunglasses.
"Probably unnecessary, but.what the heck." Erin said as she pulled them on. Just as quickly as she put them on, she took them off and exclaimed, "What did you do to these?"
"Put them back on!" Ahara ordered. Erin slowly put them on and realized it was a computer.
"Cool! It's a computer!" Erin declared as she zeroed in on the slowly collapsing bleachers. "It looks like the bleachers caving in was no accident. Some cut the supports," she observed, "I've got to get Alex and Debbie out." She raced out from behind the curtain and saw that Sam and Dylan had been holding them up this whole time. Seeing Sailor Jupiter heading in their general direction, they pulled the bleachers from the wall, making a gap big enough for Sailor Jupiter to fit.
"Thanks G-boys," she said as she dove through the opening. Inside, Debbie was still pestering Alex, while Alex was trying to get his shirt uncaught from one of the supports. Erin took a moment to sigh in disbelief that Debbie could die at any moment, but was still having fun pestering Alex.
"Guys! The bleachers are collapsing!" she cried out, grabbing Debbie.
"Who are you?" Alex questioned.
"No time for playing Q and A. Dylan and Sam can hold these things up for only so long!" With that, she grabbed Alex's wrist and yanked predator and prey out of harm's way. Merely seconds later, the bleachers gave way. As Alex and Debbie watched the turmoil that took place, their rescuer slipped in to the shadows and disappeared. Shortly afterwards, Ahara went back to her class and Erin entered the gym in her normal clothing. She slipped back into place by Dylan.
"Good job out there Erin," Dylan complimented. Erin was shocked and asked,
"How'd you know?"
"On your way you called Sam and I 'G-boys'. You used to call me g-boy when you didn't know my name."
"Oh, Yeah.'Cause you look kind of like Heero. You part your hair the wrong way though."
"And Heero doesn't have a scar on his face across his left eye."
"Did anyone else catch that I can morph into Sailor Jupiter?"
"Nope. You really freaked me out the first day of school; chasing me with that darn camera."
"That was fun. Are you going to go to that flight academy's summer program?"
"I might," Alex put in, "I mostly just wanted a little excitement and I'm getting that here."
"I know what you mean." Dylan said, pushing his hair out of his eyes, "I just hope no more super heroes show up."
Later that day Alex was sitting at home watching the tape Malora had sent him. The home video ended and an old episode of "Sailor Moon" came on. He was about to turn it off when it showed a shot of the five inner scouts. One of them was a perfect double for his rescuer, wearing a green and white outfit with pink bows and a really short skirt. From the brown ponytail to the green ankle boots, Sailor Jupiter was a perfect double for his rescuer, except for one thing. The girl had been wearing lime green wrap-around sunglasses, like the girl with the blue hair's blue ones. He went to his computer and typed an e-mail to Malora; I think I was just rescued by a cartoon character. He sat back and waited for her reply. It came quickly.
You WHAT?!
He explained the day's events. Within a minute, her reply came.
Meet me at hartsfield in three hours.
In Maryland Malora yelled to her mother,"I'm taking my bike to the airport to catch the next flight to Atlanta!"
"Okay!" her mom called back, not realizing what she was agreeing to. When she did, it was too late. Malora was out the door and well on her way to the airport.
Dylan was lying on his bed playing video games but his mind kept wandering. It was Friday, which meant he'd go to the flight academy tomorrow for the first session. It was weird, how things had turned upside down so shortly after it opened. "Just a coincidence." He said, but he didn't believe it.
Heart pounding hard, Malora was pedaling at top speed towards the light at the end of the highway. The airport. Suddenly there was a roar like thunder as a single-engine plane landed next to her."
"Need a lift?" a familiar voice asked. Malora nearly fainted. Standing in the doorway that was revealed by the lowering ramp was Alex.
"What are you doing here?"
"Sam called Dylan and me and asked if we'd like a ride in his plane. Dylan was too involved in Final Fantasy 8, but I accepted."
"After I agreed to come up here and rescue you before you got into any more trouble." Sam stepped out of the plane.
"D-D-Duo?" Malora stammered. This time she did faint. Alex sighed and picked her up.
"Oh, Shit! She's heavy!" he said, heading for the plane. He was halfway up the ramp when Malora awakened. She yawned and then blinked a few times. Suddenly she realized where she was and who was carrying her.
"You idiot! What are you doing? Put me down!" She screamed at Alex.
"Is she always such a bitch?" Sam asked.
"Generally only when..." Alex started, but cut off when Malora tackled him. Sam disentangled their limbs and pulled Malora off of Alex by the roots of her platinum blonde ponytail.
"Quit it and get in the plane."
"Alright Duo." Malora said, sighing.
"I suppose it's useless trying to get you and Jupiter to stop calling me that."
"Who's Jupiteeeeerr?" Malora asked as the plane suddenly lifted off and she went tumbling toward the back wall.
"Buckle up!" Sam called cheerfully.
"Now he tells me." Malora muttered as she buckled in. "You do have a pilot's license, right?"
"Of course."
"I didn't think they issued them to fourteen-year-olds." Malora said tartly.
"The licensing bureau thinks I'm sixteen." Sam replied.
"How'd you manage that?"
"You don't want to know."
"Yeah, I do. At any rate, this beats hitching a ride in a luggage compartment."
"Alex was right."
"About what?"
"You did need rescuing." Malora stuck her tongue out at Sam. Alex rolled his eyes an quietly sang,
"Baby when the lights go out..." A foot connected with the back of his seat. "He'll show her what it's all about..." Malora unlatched her seatbelt just as the plane started to land.
"Whoooohhhhhh!" She tumbled toward the nose until she hit Sam's chair with a wham. The plane landed with a thump.
Erin yawned. What was that noise? It sounded like an airplane had landed behind the house. She looked up from the book she'd been reading to see a single engine plane parked in her backyard. "What the Heck?" She ran outside followed closely by Sheila, whom was spending the night. She threw the door open just in time to hear Sam say,
"Damn it Malora you messed up my landing."
"It's not my fault that you decided to land just then." She retorted. "Where are we?"
"Erin's house."
Sheila was the first to recover from her shock. "May I ask why?" she said, pulling open the door, "Alex what a nice surprise!"
"Malora? I thought you were in Maryland!" Erin exclaimed.
"Four hours ago I was. I'm trying to find somebody who's dressing up as Sailor Jupiter and dragging people out from under collapsing bleachers." Malora said, staring accusingly at Erin.
"Oh yeah, the girl Alex says rescued him."
"What do you mean Alex says? Weren't you there?"
"Actually, I had just finished a picture of Duo and I was in the bathroom hair-spraying it."
"Hair-spraying it?"
"Yeah, it keeps the pencil from smudging."
"If it wasn't you, then who was it?"
Erin shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe Sailor Jupiter. Come on in, as long as you're here."
"Can't. I've got to get Malora home." Sam answered.
"I don't have to be anywhere," Alex said, "but I should probably go with Sam."
"Okay. See you tomorrow at the flight academy."
The next morning...
Dylan woke up at seven thirty the next morning when his bed began shaking violently. "Derek, Dalton get off! It's too early for this."
"Mom said to wake you up or you'd miss your first class."
"It's Saturday! I don't have school!"
"The stupid flight academy, duh."
"Oh, shit." Dylan sprang out of bed and ran to the closet. "Mom, come on! I'm supposed to be there at eight!"
He got there exactly at eight. There was an inspector checking people off as they arrived. "Hernandez? Over there." He gestured toward a group of six kids, Erin, Sheila, Sam, Alex, a boy with his dark blonde hair cropped close to his scalp, and a girl that looked almost more like a Gundam pilot then Sam did. Her blonde hair was combed in to spikes that framed her face, the back trimmed as short as the boy's. A young woman led them into the building where they watched a video illustrating use of the simulators. After the show she led them through the doorway into the next room.
"If we catch you misusing them, you're out. Now time to see what you can do. This is just a basic, Level One battle sim, and we don't expect you to do well. The teams are as follows, Squadron A, Sam, Sheila, Alex, Dylan, Krissy, Jak and Erin." They filed into the simulation room. Krissy whistled.
"I haven't seen equipment like this since '528' blew." She whispered.
"Since what?" Dylan asked.
"Never mind..."
Erin remained silent about the look she'd seen on Sam's face when Krissy spoke of 528. What was it? Some sort of code word? She sighed and jammed on her helmet. The other students followed suit.
"Enter squadron name." The ever-cheery computer chirped.
"528." Krissy said.
"Jade wind" Dylan added. No one objected.
"Green for take off." Almost as soon as the sim started, missiles were flying towards the planes. East, west, north, south, up and down Dylan dodged explosive projectiles coming at him from all sides, pausing just long enough to fire a missile of his own at the plane tailing Krissy.
"Thanks, Dyl! Change course, NOW!"
He pulled right, narrowly avoiding another missile. All around him, planes were exploding while others were spiraling toward the water, leaving a ghostly trail of smoke behind. Suddenly, there was an unusually large explosion to the west of him. "What the..."
"Jak got himself blown up, but he took three enemy fighters with him." Krissy calmly informed him.
Suddenly Erin voice came over the COM unit. "Where's the fire button?" Dylan heard Krissy sigh, and the plane prepared to ram Erin exploded.
"Thanks, Valkyrie!" She called.
"No prob." Krissy replied. "Dylan, pull up!"
He pulled the nose up so sharply he did a backward loop, but he prevented the imminent collision with another student's plane. Switching to an open band, he called out: "Rose squadron leader, what the Hell are you doing?"
"Trying to evade that!" A familiar figure that appeared to be levitating with no outside assistance tore though the air.
"Jak, what the heck are you doing?" A new voice came in. "528 Jadewind, what the Hell is going on?"
"Hey Sam," Dylan said, "I'm not sure, but that girl, Brittany, the one that got Jak pissed off? Wasn't she in Rose Squadron?"
"So you mean he thinks I'm that bitch?" the girl shrilled.
"Dylan! Watch --" Krissy called over the com unit just as a missile destroyed his plane. "Out." she finished.
Dylan pulled off the helmet and shook his head. "That simulator is too realistic for comfort."
"Next time pay more attention to your plane and less to flying demon boys." Krissy said as she pulled off her helmet. "I got blown up a second later."
"Why do you call him demon boy?" Dylan asked.
"I don't know, just a feeling, I guess."
"Have you ever noticed your quote 'feelings' are ridiculously accurate?"
"What do mean by that?"
Erin, who'd been listening to the whole exchange, cut in before he could answer. "You dodge bullets that haven't been shot. You warned me when we were on opposite sides of the airfield and you couldn't possibly have seen what was going on."
"And you're implying..."
"Cut the crap, Krissy. You know very well what we're implying." Dylan answered.
"Psychic powers don't exist."
"How 'bout this, we drop the matter for now, but if you're right about Jak you'll at least consider the possibility of ESP."
"Fine, but I find that about as likely as Sailor Jupiter showing up."
Dylan and Erin exchanged a startled glance. Any final traces of doubt had just been erased from their minds.
"Damn it! Who the Hell let that pest get in?" Sam muttered, taking off his helmet.
"Demon boy again?" Krissy asked.
"If you're talking about Jak, yeah. I didn't know it was possible to program in flame throwers."
"Where's he getting the graphics files from?" Dylan asked.
"I Dunno. Probably another simulator." Sam replied.
"Like the D&D sim you installed?" Krissy asked. "See? There it is." Krissy was scrolling through a list of file is one window while rapidly typing in code in another. "Alright guys, pull on your helmets!"
Dylan did so, and immediately the Vehicle Profile screen came up. "Kick ass! It's a Gundam! Someone's been doing some high class hacking herself!" then it switched to the Team Profile screen, which extracted another exclamation from Dylan. "You've got to be kidding, where'd you get those files?" The screen displayed his teammates as Death Scythe Hell, a Gundam he couldn't identify, and Sailor Jupiter.
"They were kicking around in an adventure game. I figured I could put them to better use. C'mon, let's kick virtual demon ass!"
Sam also did a double take when he saw his teammates. However, unlike Dylan he recognized the Gundams. Krissy's was known as '528' after the colony where it had been constructed, and Dylan's had no current designation. He was supposed to be finding pilots for them. "Got to be a coincidence." He muttered.
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Oh, those Gundams just happen to look like a couple that are going to appear in the next season, that's all."
"So you do know about Gundam Wing!" Erin said triumphantly.
"'Course he does, he's Duo!" Krissy snapped.
"Crystal, shut up!" Sam growled at Krissy, who stiffened at the sound of her given name.
"What makes you think my name's Crystal?"
"Just a hunch. Whoa!" The simulator had started while they were arguing and Sam barely managed to dodge a fireball.
"Erin, attack from below! Krissy, come at him from the west! I'll take the east! Sam, take the north!" Dylan yelled into his com unit.
"Who made you boss?" Krissy muttered, but she circled around to Jak's west anyway.
"Shit!" Jak muttered. Gundams were hurtling towards him from the north, the west and the east. He dodged a hail of bullets and a scythe just in time to be zapped by a crimson laser beam. Hoping to escape the relentless attack, he dove down only to find himself in the path of a lighting bolt. Now 'dead' the screen went black, and he pulled off his helmet.
With their foe defeated, everyone else came out of the simulation just in time to hear the announcement for the start of the tutorials. Sam stood up, saying he needed to pick up a couple people. The other three pulled on their helmets and started the first tutorial.
Krissy had finished the practice non-combat sims and was trying to get into the advanced battle simulations, but they were better protected then the other sims had been. She wondered why.
After landing the 'plane' about a hundred times, Dylan could come down without the slightest bump in any weather. Now he was working his way through the most difficult landing sims, so-called 'worst case scenario' simulations. These consisted of trying to land without the landing gear, in zero visibility, with only one engine, etc. He was trying to outrun a tornado when a missile came out of nowhere, causing the plane's tail to part company from its fuselage. Without the balancing weight of the tail, he went spiraling toward the ground. The earth came closer and closer, but with one desperate wrench of the controls he pulled into a controlled descent and proceeded to land with a thump. Unfortunately, so did the tornado. Then there was a chirp, and a mechanical voice announced "end of simulation."
"Why does it end there?" Dylan complained.
"They didn't count on anyone getting past the missile." Krissy replied absently. Then she pulled off her helmet. "You got to the end of it?"
"With massive tail damage, but yeah."
"You're better then I thought." Krissy said. Dylan thought she looked mildly impressed. "Let's see which one of us can do better on this one." She pulled up the toughest simulation she could find, other then the impossible one Dylan had attempted before. Just she reached for the start button, the smell of burnt wire floated across the room. Dylan winced. You didn't have to be a psychic to guess what had happened. He turned, and sure enough the steering wheel by Erin's console was partially shattered.
"Well, at least replacing it is easy." Sam said, making a mental note not to annoy Erin near expensive machinery. "We'll go get a screwdriver." He grabbed someone's rubber rain coat and dragged Erin out by her hair, using the raincoat to block the static that, even blocked partially by the raincoat, made his hair stand on end. Jak slipped out of his seat and quietly followed them out of the room.
Sam and Erin were about halfway to the garage when a voice said, "It's 'bout time I got you two alone." They whirled around to see a figure step out of the shadows. It had the same clothes and facial features as Jak, but his glasses were gone and his skin was bright red. He had a long hairless tail swishing behind him but it was curiously not pointed.
"What do you want, Demon boy?" Erin asked. The air around her crackled dangerously.
"I have orders to kill you!" He said, diving toward Sam. Sam rolled out of the way and Jak crashed into the wall.
"Jupiter...Star...Power... Make... UP!" Erin yelled, transforming into Sailor Jupiter. Sam pulled out his handgun and there was a click as he released the safety.
"Alright already! Please don't kill me!" Jak pleaded.
"Why not?" Sailor Jupiter inquired, "You tried to kill us. What are you anyway? A demon?"
"Well... yes and no. Technically I'm a demon, but I'm not evil! Look at my tail!"
"I guess you might prove useful." She said grudgingly.
"You bet! Now go get your screwdriver." He resumed his disguise. Erin slipped into the restroom to de-transform, and Sam continued on his way to the garage, shaking his head as he went.
After the three of them had been gone 20 minutes, Dylan was sent to see what took them so long. Unfortunately, no one had told him where the garage was. He walked through the empty halls until he came to a door that seemed to lead outside. He paid no heed to the rectangle of white plastic on the floor, or to the rusty nail sticking out of the door. He pulled the handle. Locked, but there was a card reader next to the door. He swiped his student ID. It asked for an authorization code. Three letters. He typed the first three letters that came to mind, D, U, and O. The door slid open, revealing row after row of small jet-powered aircraft, mostly single-seaters like they used in the sims, but there were a few two seaters, also. The stairs were rolled right up to 1217, beckoning him. He walked up and opened the door. He climbed into the seat, not paying attention to anything but the silver key that was still in the ignition. He grasped the key and turned it. The sudden roar startled him, causing his elbow to slam hard into a button. "Auto pilot engaged," flashed across the display in lime green letters. The plane lurched forward, crashing through the aluminum hangar door.
A crash shook the school, sending Erin flying across the garage. "Somebody's crashing awfully big cans!" She yelped.
Sam winced. "That sounds like the air hangar door. I'll see what going on, you go get Krissy." He was gone before she could object.
She raced back to the simulator room and yelled; "Krissy, come on!" Krissy was already on her feet.
"What's going on?"
"Dang if I know!" Sam mentioned the air hangar."
Krissy was out the door and heading toward the opposite end of the building. "They sent Dylan after you, but no one told him where the garage was! Shit! I knew that pest would be trouble!"
Erin fell into step beside Krissy. "So he went to the air hangar by mistake?"
"Most likely."
As they drew farther away from the simulator room, it got warmer, as if a door had been left open somewhere. Krissy stopped in front of a set of double doors that were wide open, the normally dark hanger flooded with the sunlight which was pouring through the hole. Sam was looking over a jet similar to the one which had parked in Erin's backyard.
"Krissy, catch!" Sam called, tossing Krissy a key. "Get in YP89030, I'll take Erin in Z3091! I don't think she'd let me go Mach 2 anyway. "Z3's were sleek two-seaters that lacked the acceleration power of the YP's, but were still much faster than his own single engine XP.
Erin looked confused. "What's the rush?"
"You seen this new kid yet?"
"Nope, but someone said it was a boy with a braid down his back. You know, like Duo."
Mrs. Trowalena shut the door and started class.
"Now, if X plus 22 times 33Y minus 5 equals,"
Suddenly, a tapping on the locked door interrupted her. Mrs. Trowalena opened the door to admit a boy with his long brown hair plaited into one braid down his back. He grinned at the class uncertainly from under a black cap.
Erin poked Sheila in the ribs and said, "It's Duo!"
After reading the paper that he had brought, Mrs. Trowalena said, "This is our new student, Sam Maxwell."
Dylan poked Sheila in the ribs, "Maxwell? As in Duo Maxwell?" he whispered.
"Take the seat behind Erin." Mrs. Trowalena continued, "Please ask her any questions you have."
Half the class was gawking at him now and Sam gave a grin that said he was used to being stared at and rather enjoyed it. "Same attitude as someone else I could name." Erin muttered. Sam gave no indication that he had heard her, but as he walked past Erin on the way to his seat he gave a shake of his head, hitting Erin in the face with his braid. (Duo Maxwell is a character on Gundam Wing, one of Erin's favorite shows. Sam Maxwell was an exact double for Duo.)
"Two can play at that." Sheila murmured with a shake of her head, Sam got slapped across the face with a black braid slightly shorter than his own. Dylan snickered.
"What do you find so amusing?" Mrs. Trowalena asked.
"Oh, nothing. Hehehe," he replied, still laughing.
"Please, do share the joke." She insisted.
"I promise. It's nothing." Dylan snickered.
Mrs. Trowalena sighed and went back to teaching.
Erin went back to her work, but she kept stealing glances at Sam. She had to tell Ahara about this! Where'd this guy come from and why was he here of all places? "Now I know how Releena felt when Heero showed up," she muttered to Sheila.
"I know." Sheila replied.
"You got a crush on the new kid or something?" Jeremy asked from across the aisle.
"Shut. Up!" Erin demanded, clutching her pencil. Suddenly the sound of snapping plastic filled the room and all eyes, except for the teacher's, were turned in her direction. Erin reddened. She began, "Sheila, can I borrow-"
"Here," Sheila said, thrusting a pencil into Erin's hand. "She does that about once a day," she told Sam.
"I broke my mechanical pencil in half again," Erin moaned quietly to Sheila. "Duo-I mean Sam-probably thinks I'm a freak now."
"And that matters because?" Sheila asked. Erin just sighed and said, "You know why."
"You've only seen him once! Don't tell me that you already have a crush on him!"
* * * After Math Class * * * *
"Speak of the Devil," Erin muttered.
Sam stood at the locker next to hers'; apparently trying to remember the combination the school had given him this morning.
"What are you doing here?" Sheila asked as Erin put her combination into her lock.
"Trying to get my locker open, obviously. The combos not working," he stated.
"Neither is mine," Erin said, "Wait a sec. Damn it! Did you leave you locker unlocked this morning?"
"Yeah, why?"
"So did I. Someone switched our locks."
Erin leaned over on tried her combination on Sam's lock. It popped open right away, and Sam had similar results on Erin's lock.
"You didn't see me here this morning 'cause I got here during fourth period." Sam said out of nowhere.
"Do you think I care?" Erin uttered.
"You looked surprised to see me."
"I was. Have you ever seen Gundam Wing?"
"Gundam what?"
"I'll take that as a no. That's weird."
"What's weird about that?"
"Has anyone told you that you look like Duo Maxwell?"
"Has anyone told you that you look like Sailor Jupiter?" Sam countered as he started to open his locker. "That's from another dumb anime show. Ow!" he exclaimed. When he reached for his locker a bolt of static jumped off it and shocked him.
"That's all you can manage detransformed?" Sam remarked.
"What?" Erin asked.
"That's weird," Sam thought to himself as Erin stared at him strangely. "She doesn't even know that she's doing it."
The next day in math class a paper airplane landed on Sam's lap. He unfolded it and read, "Annoying Erin can have shocking results." He snickered. He knew what the sender meant; but who sent it?
"Dylan, what were you writing?" Erin asked. Sheila immediately jumped away from the bare metal on her chair, confusing Sam. However, almost instantly after Sheila jumped away from the bare metal on her chair, a jolt of electricity jumped from Erin's chair to Sheila's all the way to Dylan's.
"Ow! I hate it when you do that," Dylan complained.
"Do what?" Erin asked,
"Shock me like that," Dylan continued.
"That's stupid! I didn't shock you."
"People call you the human bug zapper for a reason ya know."
"Oh yeah, then what is it?"
"Shut up before the teacher catches you!" Sheila exclaimed, shutting them up.
"By the way, Erin, I got this from a friend's sister, you want it?" sam asked as he opened his hand to reveal a perfect replica of Sailor Jupiter's transformation pen.
"Maybe, why?" questioned Erin, doubting that Sam would give her the pen.
"It's the only pen I got and I'd rather not give people another reason to tease me," he explained.
"Wanna swap?" Erin asked holding up a pen with a basketball on it.
"Please," Sam pleaded as he dropped the Jupiter pen on Erin's desk and snatched up the basketball pen. Erin twirled her new pen around her fingers.
"It'd be funny if this thing actually worked." Erin mused.
"Don't you trust me? It does write." Sam affirmed.
"That's not what I meant." Erin growled.
"At any rate, I've never seen it exhibit any magical powers." Sam stated plainly.
"Very funny." Sheila uttered, not at all amused and returned to her work. Sam also returned to the task at hand, but Erin stared at her new pen for a while longer before she continued her class work.
Later, while Sam and Erin were at their lockers, Sam muttered, "I've never seen that pen exhibit any magical powers, but I've never seen it in the right hands."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Erin asked.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Sam responded, blushing madly.
"He is sorta cute when he blushes." Erin told her friend Ahara over the phone. Erin had left a message for her the second she got home from school. Almost four hours later, Ahara finally called back.
"Yeah, yeah. What's this about the pen?" Ahara questioned.
"You will not believe how much he looks like Duo!"
"Yes I would. He's on my bus; remember? Now, back to the pen."
"It's an absolute perfect replica of Sailor Jupiter's! I think the handle's plastic, but the star part is some sort of gold colored metal and the orb in the middle is glass. I'll show it to you tomorrow." The next day, Ahara was impatiently tapping her foot when Erin walked into the Gym.
"What took you so long? Let's see the pen." Ahara said excitedly. Erin sighed and handed the pen to her.
"That crystal doesn't look like glass." Ahara testified. Then out of nowhere Alex ran up to them and yelled,
"Erin, Debbie's trying to kill me again!" Erin looked behind Alex and immediately saw Debbie. Her black hair was streaming behind her as she charged at Alex. Alex quickly dove out of the way and Debbie landed on Erin. In all the action that was taking place, Erin's pen flew out of her hand. Everyone watched in horror as Debbie tumbled off Erin and landed right on top of the pen with all her weight. Sam, witnessing the event from a distance, walked up yawning and leaned against a nearby basketball goal.
"What the heck is that pen made of?" Debbie asked, getting back on to her feet. To everyone's amazement, the pen was all right. Debbie had a red mark where her hand had hit one of the points of the pen.
"Dunno, I thought glass and plastic, but..." Erin stated.
"Glass and plastic wouldn't do that to Debbie's hand." Ahara pointed out. Sam nodded,
"Definitely not."
"If it's not glass and plastic, than what is it?" Erin asked.
"Don't ask me. You're the sailor scout." Sam snapped. Ahara looked back and forth between the two.
"Am I missing something?" she asked to generally no one.
"No, Sam's just being annoying." Erin replied.
"Sam, I strongly advise you to get away from anything that conducts-" Sheila recommended, but before she could finish, a bolt of static electricity jumped off the basketball goal Sam was leaning against on to him.
"Aww, damn. That hurt!" Sam cried out and then asked, "Erin, Has anyone ever told you that you have a shocking personality?"
"What do you mean by that?" Erin spat. Just then, the bell rang and everyone headed towards the door.
"Saved by the bell," Sam mumbled. As he rushed out the door, Ahara advised Erin,
"If you get desperate, use the pen."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Erin yelled after her. Ahara didn't reply. Erin sighed and went to class. Erin yawned as she got dressed for PE. At least she didn't have to worry about Sam this period.
"I hope they move the signs back." Erin declared to no one in particular. Out of no where Sheila snuck up on her and asked, "What signs?"
Totally not expecting that, she jumped in surprise and yelled, "I hate it when you do that!"
Sheila ignored the remark and repeated, "OK, anyway, what signs?"
"The signs on the locker rooms. Someone switched them."
Suddenly they heard a shriek and Erin was glad that she was a slow dresser. Then they heard a male voice exclaiming, "Shit! What the hell?"
"Get out! Get out! GET OUT!" Lindsey Domina shrieked.
Almost everyone already knew which locker rooms were which, no matter what the signs said. Almost everyone also knew that they weren't going to be switched back anytime soon either. However, there was one boy that did not know about the signs and that was Sam. Sam ran out of the girls' locker room with his face burning bright.
Lindsey's face was as red as Sam's was because she had had her shirt completely off before she realized Sam had waltzed in. Lindsey was still standing there screaming when Miss Harding came in.
"Go to the gym. You don't have to dress out." She told everyone. The girls grabbed their stuff and headed out the door to the gym.
In the gym, Erin discovered that Sam was indeed in her gym class. Erin was baffled as to why she hadn't seen him before, but then Sheila provided the explanation.
"Oh, yeah, he came to school at fourth period." Sheila justified. Erin nodded and started to remember. The reason she hadn't seen him was because she had gym in third period and Sam said that he came to school in fourth period.
All of a sudden there was a huge commotion near the bleachers. The gym teachers were attempting to get Debbie and Alex out from under the bleachers. It turned out that Debbie cornered Alex near the bleachers, but Alex got away by running under them. Debbie chased after him, caught him and was about to beat the bloody pulp out of him. That was when the teachers came and prevented her. Unexpectedly a distinctly loud creak came from the bleachers. Erin was the first to realize that and yelled,
"The bleachers are collapsing!" Everyone was rushing off, preventing anyone from going anywhere near the bleachers. Debbie and Alex were trying to get out from underneath, but both of them were caught on something. Erin was starting to panic, but then suddenly Ahara's words echoed through her head, 'If you get desperate, use the pen.' She doubted the pen was the real one, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Through all the chaos, she slipped behind the stage curtain, held up the pen high and yelled,
"Jupiter. Star. Power... Make UP!"
Sam saw a bright flash of green light from behind the stage curtain and thought to himself, 'So it was the real thing.' He'd been reluctant to believe it was the real transformation pen even though Lita said so. Now if only he could find the other pilot.
Another figure had been watching and when Erin came out as Sailor Jupiter, Ahara handed her a pair of green sunglasses.
"Probably unnecessary, but.what the heck." Erin said as she pulled them on. Just as quickly as she put them on, she took them off and exclaimed, "What did you do to these?"
"Put them back on!" Ahara ordered. Erin slowly put them on and realized it was a computer.
"Cool! It's a computer!" Erin declared as she zeroed in on the slowly collapsing bleachers. "It looks like the bleachers caving in was no accident. Some cut the supports," she observed, "I've got to get Alex and Debbie out." She raced out from behind the curtain and saw that Sam and Dylan had been holding them up this whole time. Seeing Sailor Jupiter heading in their general direction, they pulled the bleachers from the wall, making a gap big enough for Sailor Jupiter to fit.
"Thanks G-boys," she said as she dove through the opening. Inside, Debbie was still pestering Alex, while Alex was trying to get his shirt uncaught from one of the supports. Erin took a moment to sigh in disbelief that Debbie could die at any moment, but was still having fun pestering Alex.
"Guys! The bleachers are collapsing!" she cried out, grabbing Debbie.
"Who are you?" Alex questioned.
"No time for playing Q and A. Dylan and Sam can hold these things up for only so long!" With that, she grabbed Alex's wrist and yanked predator and prey out of harm's way. Merely seconds later, the bleachers gave way. As Alex and Debbie watched the turmoil that took place, their rescuer slipped in to the shadows and disappeared. Shortly afterwards, Ahara went back to her class and Erin entered the gym in her normal clothing. She slipped back into place by Dylan.
"Good job out there Erin," Dylan complimented. Erin was shocked and asked,
"How'd you know?"
"On your way you called Sam and I 'G-boys'. You used to call me g-boy when you didn't know my name."
"Oh, Yeah.'Cause you look kind of like Heero. You part your hair the wrong way though."
"And Heero doesn't have a scar on his face across his left eye."
"Did anyone else catch that I can morph into Sailor Jupiter?"
"Nope. You really freaked me out the first day of school; chasing me with that darn camera."
"That was fun. Are you going to go to that flight academy's summer program?"
"I might," Alex put in, "I mostly just wanted a little excitement and I'm getting that here."
"I know what you mean." Dylan said, pushing his hair out of his eyes, "I just hope no more super heroes show up."
Later that day Alex was sitting at home watching the tape Malora had sent him. The home video ended and an old episode of "Sailor Moon" came on. He was about to turn it off when it showed a shot of the five inner scouts. One of them was a perfect double for his rescuer, wearing a green and white outfit with pink bows and a really short skirt. From the brown ponytail to the green ankle boots, Sailor Jupiter was a perfect double for his rescuer, except for one thing. The girl had been wearing lime green wrap-around sunglasses, like the girl with the blue hair's blue ones. He went to his computer and typed an e-mail to Malora; I think I was just rescued by a cartoon character. He sat back and waited for her reply. It came quickly.
You WHAT?!
He explained the day's events. Within a minute, her reply came.
Meet me at hartsfield in three hours.
In Maryland Malora yelled to her mother,"I'm taking my bike to the airport to catch the next flight to Atlanta!"
"Okay!" her mom called back, not realizing what she was agreeing to. When she did, it was too late. Malora was out the door and well on her way to the airport.
Dylan was lying on his bed playing video games but his mind kept wandering. It was Friday, which meant he'd go to the flight academy tomorrow for the first session. It was weird, how things had turned upside down so shortly after it opened. "Just a coincidence." He said, but he didn't believe it.
Heart pounding hard, Malora was pedaling at top speed towards the light at the end of the highway. The airport. Suddenly there was a roar like thunder as a single-engine plane landed next to her."
"Need a lift?" a familiar voice asked. Malora nearly fainted. Standing in the doorway that was revealed by the lowering ramp was Alex.
"What are you doing here?"
"Sam called Dylan and me and asked if we'd like a ride in his plane. Dylan was too involved in Final Fantasy 8, but I accepted."
"After I agreed to come up here and rescue you before you got into any more trouble." Sam stepped out of the plane.
"D-D-Duo?" Malora stammered. This time she did faint. Alex sighed and picked her up.
"Oh, Shit! She's heavy!" he said, heading for the plane. He was halfway up the ramp when Malora awakened. She yawned and then blinked a few times. Suddenly she realized where she was and who was carrying her.
"You idiot! What are you doing? Put me down!" She screamed at Alex.
"Is she always such a bitch?" Sam asked.
"Generally only when..." Alex started, but cut off when Malora tackled him. Sam disentangled their limbs and pulled Malora off of Alex by the roots of her platinum blonde ponytail.
"Quit it and get in the plane."
"Alright Duo." Malora said, sighing.
"I suppose it's useless trying to get you and Jupiter to stop calling me that."
"Who's Jupiteeeeerr?" Malora asked as the plane suddenly lifted off and she went tumbling toward the back wall.
"Buckle up!" Sam called cheerfully.
"Now he tells me." Malora muttered as she buckled in. "You do have a pilot's license, right?"
"Of course."
"I didn't think they issued them to fourteen-year-olds." Malora said tartly.
"The licensing bureau thinks I'm sixteen." Sam replied.
"How'd you manage that?"
"You don't want to know."
"Yeah, I do. At any rate, this beats hitching a ride in a luggage compartment."
"Alex was right."
"About what?"
"You did need rescuing." Malora stuck her tongue out at Sam. Alex rolled his eyes an quietly sang,
"Baby when the lights go out..." A foot connected with the back of his seat. "He'll show her what it's all about..." Malora unlatched her seatbelt just as the plane started to land.
"Whoooohhhhhh!" She tumbled toward the nose until she hit Sam's chair with a wham. The plane landed with a thump.
Erin yawned. What was that noise? It sounded like an airplane had landed behind the house. She looked up from the book she'd been reading to see a single engine plane parked in her backyard. "What the Heck?" She ran outside followed closely by Sheila, whom was spending the night. She threw the door open just in time to hear Sam say,
"Damn it Malora you messed up my landing."
"It's not my fault that you decided to land just then." She retorted. "Where are we?"
"Erin's house."
Sheila was the first to recover from her shock. "May I ask why?" she said, pulling open the door, "Alex what a nice surprise!"
"Malora? I thought you were in Maryland!" Erin exclaimed.
"Four hours ago I was. I'm trying to find somebody who's dressing up as Sailor Jupiter and dragging people out from under collapsing bleachers." Malora said, staring accusingly at Erin.
"Oh yeah, the girl Alex says rescued him."
"What do you mean Alex says? Weren't you there?"
"Actually, I had just finished a picture of Duo and I was in the bathroom hair-spraying it."
"Hair-spraying it?"
"Yeah, it keeps the pencil from smudging."
"If it wasn't you, then who was it?"
Erin shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe Sailor Jupiter. Come on in, as long as you're here."
"Can't. I've got to get Malora home." Sam answered.
"I don't have to be anywhere," Alex said, "but I should probably go with Sam."
"Okay. See you tomorrow at the flight academy."
The next morning...
Dylan woke up at seven thirty the next morning when his bed began shaking violently. "Derek, Dalton get off! It's too early for this."
"Mom said to wake you up or you'd miss your first class."
"It's Saturday! I don't have school!"
"The stupid flight academy, duh."
"Oh, shit." Dylan sprang out of bed and ran to the closet. "Mom, come on! I'm supposed to be there at eight!"
He got there exactly at eight. There was an inspector checking people off as they arrived. "Hernandez? Over there." He gestured toward a group of six kids, Erin, Sheila, Sam, Alex, a boy with his dark blonde hair cropped close to his scalp, and a girl that looked almost more like a Gundam pilot then Sam did. Her blonde hair was combed in to spikes that framed her face, the back trimmed as short as the boy's. A young woman led them into the building where they watched a video illustrating use of the simulators. After the show she led them through the doorway into the next room.
"If we catch you misusing them, you're out. Now time to see what you can do. This is just a basic, Level One battle sim, and we don't expect you to do well. The teams are as follows, Squadron A, Sam, Sheila, Alex, Dylan, Krissy, Jak and Erin." They filed into the simulation room. Krissy whistled.
"I haven't seen equipment like this since '528' blew." She whispered.
"Since what?" Dylan asked.
"Never mind..."
Erin remained silent about the look she'd seen on Sam's face when Krissy spoke of 528. What was it? Some sort of code word? She sighed and jammed on her helmet. The other students followed suit.
"Enter squadron name." The ever-cheery computer chirped.
"528." Krissy said.
"Jade wind" Dylan added. No one objected.
"Green for take off." Almost as soon as the sim started, missiles were flying towards the planes. East, west, north, south, up and down Dylan dodged explosive projectiles coming at him from all sides, pausing just long enough to fire a missile of his own at the plane tailing Krissy.
"Thanks, Dyl! Change course, NOW!"
He pulled right, narrowly avoiding another missile. All around him, planes were exploding while others were spiraling toward the water, leaving a ghostly trail of smoke behind. Suddenly, there was an unusually large explosion to the west of him. "What the..."
"Jak got himself blown up, but he took three enemy fighters with him." Krissy calmly informed him.
Suddenly Erin voice came over the COM unit. "Where's the fire button?" Dylan heard Krissy sigh, and the plane prepared to ram Erin exploded.
"Thanks, Valkyrie!" She called.
"No prob." Krissy replied. "Dylan, pull up!"
He pulled the nose up so sharply he did a backward loop, but he prevented the imminent collision with another student's plane. Switching to an open band, he called out: "Rose squadron leader, what the Hell are you doing?"
"Trying to evade that!" A familiar figure that appeared to be levitating with no outside assistance tore though the air.
"Jak, what the heck are you doing?" A new voice came in. "528 Jadewind, what the Hell is going on?"
"Hey Sam," Dylan said, "I'm not sure, but that girl, Brittany, the one that got Jak pissed off? Wasn't she in Rose Squadron?"
"So you mean he thinks I'm that bitch?" the girl shrilled.
"Dylan! Watch --" Krissy called over the com unit just as a missile destroyed his plane. "Out." she finished.
Dylan pulled off the helmet and shook his head. "That simulator is too realistic for comfort."
"Next time pay more attention to your plane and less to flying demon boys." Krissy said as she pulled off her helmet. "I got blown up a second later."
"Why do you call him demon boy?" Dylan asked.
"I don't know, just a feeling, I guess."
"Have you ever noticed your quote 'feelings' are ridiculously accurate?"
"What do mean by that?"
Erin, who'd been listening to the whole exchange, cut in before he could answer. "You dodge bullets that haven't been shot. You warned me when we were on opposite sides of the airfield and you couldn't possibly have seen what was going on."
"And you're implying..."
"Cut the crap, Krissy. You know very well what we're implying." Dylan answered.
"Psychic powers don't exist."
"How 'bout this, we drop the matter for now, but if you're right about Jak you'll at least consider the possibility of ESP."
"Fine, but I find that about as likely as Sailor Jupiter showing up."
Dylan and Erin exchanged a startled glance. Any final traces of doubt had just been erased from their minds.
"Damn it! Who the Hell let that pest get in?" Sam muttered, taking off his helmet.
"Demon boy again?" Krissy asked.
"If you're talking about Jak, yeah. I didn't know it was possible to program in flame throwers."
"Where's he getting the graphics files from?" Dylan asked.
"I Dunno. Probably another simulator." Sam replied.
"Like the D&D sim you installed?" Krissy asked. "See? There it is." Krissy was scrolling through a list of file is one window while rapidly typing in code in another. "Alright guys, pull on your helmets!"
Dylan did so, and immediately the Vehicle Profile screen came up. "Kick ass! It's a Gundam! Someone's been doing some high class hacking herself!" then it switched to the Team Profile screen, which extracted another exclamation from Dylan. "You've got to be kidding, where'd you get those files?" The screen displayed his teammates as Death Scythe Hell, a Gundam he couldn't identify, and Sailor Jupiter.
"They were kicking around in an adventure game. I figured I could put them to better use. C'mon, let's kick virtual demon ass!"
Sam also did a double take when he saw his teammates. However, unlike Dylan he recognized the Gundams. Krissy's was known as '528' after the colony where it had been constructed, and Dylan's had no current designation. He was supposed to be finding pilots for them. "Got to be a coincidence." He muttered.
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Oh, those Gundams just happen to look like a couple that are going to appear in the next season, that's all."
"So you do know about Gundam Wing!" Erin said triumphantly.
"'Course he does, he's Duo!" Krissy snapped.
"Crystal, shut up!" Sam growled at Krissy, who stiffened at the sound of her given name.
"What makes you think my name's Crystal?"
"Just a hunch. Whoa!" The simulator had started while they were arguing and Sam barely managed to dodge a fireball.
"Erin, attack from below! Krissy, come at him from the west! I'll take the east! Sam, take the north!" Dylan yelled into his com unit.
"Who made you boss?" Krissy muttered, but she circled around to Jak's west anyway.
"Shit!" Jak muttered. Gundams were hurtling towards him from the north, the west and the east. He dodged a hail of bullets and a scythe just in time to be zapped by a crimson laser beam. Hoping to escape the relentless attack, he dove down only to find himself in the path of a lighting bolt. Now 'dead' the screen went black, and he pulled off his helmet.
With their foe defeated, everyone else came out of the simulation just in time to hear the announcement for the start of the tutorials. Sam stood up, saying he needed to pick up a couple people. The other three pulled on their helmets and started the first tutorial.
Krissy had finished the practice non-combat sims and was trying to get into the advanced battle simulations, but they were better protected then the other sims had been. She wondered why.
After landing the 'plane' about a hundred times, Dylan could come down without the slightest bump in any weather. Now he was working his way through the most difficult landing sims, so-called 'worst case scenario' simulations. These consisted of trying to land without the landing gear, in zero visibility, with only one engine, etc. He was trying to outrun a tornado when a missile came out of nowhere, causing the plane's tail to part company from its fuselage. Without the balancing weight of the tail, he went spiraling toward the ground. The earth came closer and closer, but with one desperate wrench of the controls he pulled into a controlled descent and proceeded to land with a thump. Unfortunately, so did the tornado. Then there was a chirp, and a mechanical voice announced "end of simulation."
"Why does it end there?" Dylan complained.
"They didn't count on anyone getting past the missile." Krissy replied absently. Then she pulled off her helmet. "You got to the end of it?"
"With massive tail damage, but yeah."
"You're better then I thought." Krissy said. Dylan thought she looked mildly impressed. "Let's see which one of us can do better on this one." She pulled up the toughest simulation she could find, other then the impossible one Dylan had attempted before. Just she reached for the start button, the smell of burnt wire floated across the room. Dylan winced. You didn't have to be a psychic to guess what had happened. He turned, and sure enough the steering wheel by Erin's console was partially shattered.
"Well, at least replacing it is easy." Sam said, making a mental note not to annoy Erin near expensive machinery. "We'll go get a screwdriver." He grabbed someone's rubber rain coat and dragged Erin out by her hair, using the raincoat to block the static that, even blocked partially by the raincoat, made his hair stand on end. Jak slipped out of his seat and quietly followed them out of the room.
Sam and Erin were about halfway to the garage when a voice said, "It's 'bout time I got you two alone." They whirled around to see a figure step out of the shadows. It had the same clothes and facial features as Jak, but his glasses were gone and his skin was bright red. He had a long hairless tail swishing behind him but it was curiously not pointed.
"What do you want, Demon boy?" Erin asked. The air around her crackled dangerously.
"I have orders to kill you!" He said, diving toward Sam. Sam rolled out of the way and Jak crashed into the wall.
"Jupiter...Star...Power... Make... UP!" Erin yelled, transforming into Sailor Jupiter. Sam pulled out his handgun and there was a click as he released the safety.
"Alright already! Please don't kill me!" Jak pleaded.
"Why not?" Sailor Jupiter inquired, "You tried to kill us. What are you anyway? A demon?"
"Well... yes and no. Technically I'm a demon, but I'm not evil! Look at my tail!"
"I guess you might prove useful." She said grudgingly.
"You bet! Now go get your screwdriver." He resumed his disguise. Erin slipped into the restroom to de-transform, and Sam continued on his way to the garage, shaking his head as he went.
After the three of them had been gone 20 minutes, Dylan was sent to see what took them so long. Unfortunately, no one had told him where the garage was. He walked through the empty halls until he came to a door that seemed to lead outside. He paid no heed to the rectangle of white plastic on the floor, or to the rusty nail sticking out of the door. He pulled the handle. Locked, but there was a card reader next to the door. He swiped his student ID. It asked for an authorization code. Three letters. He typed the first three letters that came to mind, D, U, and O. The door slid open, revealing row after row of small jet-powered aircraft, mostly single-seaters like they used in the sims, but there were a few two seaters, also. The stairs were rolled right up to 1217, beckoning him. He walked up and opened the door. He climbed into the seat, not paying attention to anything but the silver key that was still in the ignition. He grasped the key and turned it. The sudden roar startled him, causing his elbow to slam hard into a button. "Auto pilot engaged," flashed across the display in lime green letters. The plane lurched forward, crashing through the aluminum hangar door.
A crash shook the school, sending Erin flying across the garage. "Somebody's crashing awfully big cans!" She yelped.
Sam winced. "That sounds like the air hangar door. I'll see what going on, you go get Krissy." He was gone before she could object.
She raced back to the simulator room and yelled; "Krissy, come on!" Krissy was already on her feet.
"What's going on?"
"Dang if I know!" Sam mentioned the air hangar."
Krissy was out the door and heading toward the opposite end of the building. "They sent Dylan after you, but no one told him where the garage was! Shit! I knew that pest would be trouble!"
Erin fell into step beside Krissy. "So he went to the air hangar by mistake?"
"Most likely."
As they drew farther away from the simulator room, it got warmer, as if a door had been left open somewhere. Krissy stopped in front of a set of double doors that were wide open, the normally dark hanger flooded with the sunlight which was pouring through the hole. Sam was looking over a jet similar to the one which had parked in Erin's backyard.
"Krissy, catch!" Sam called, tossing Krissy a key. "Get in YP89030, I'll take Erin in Z3091! I don't think she'd let me go Mach 2 anyway. "Z3's were sleek two-seaters that lacked the acceleration power of the YP's, but were still much faster than his own single engine XP.
Erin looked confused. "What's the rush?"