Gavin, despite what others believed, was actually a very fast flyer. Probably one of the fastest there was. But right now, all he wanted to be was faster. He looked down at the ground oh,so far away. This was high, even by his standards.
Gulping down his breakfast, Gavin fastened goggles on his head, and took off. He looped in and out of the highest buildings of the city, doing barrel rolls midair. Slowly climbing higher into the air, the Brit frowned as he blew through the clouds, leaving donut-shaped holes in them. Gavin hovered up in the sky, looking down critically, before taking a shaky breath and dropping
D
O
W
N.
The air whistled past his ears, as he brought his hands close to his body, and gave his wings strong, confident flaps, even though he had to be going close to at least a couple hundred miles an hour.
Even though he was wearing goggles,Gavin's eyes began to water, but he kept at it, flying determinedly, as the air around him began to compress.Come on, you dopey spaff! He urged himself on. You can do this! At the very last second however, the air compression vanished, and the lad, startled, flapped only one of his wings, sending him spiraling to the ground.
Panicking, he managed to pull up, stopping himself from breaking every living bone in his body. Can bones live? Sadly, that also meant slamming through the window of the achievement hunter office, sending glass everywhere, and startling everyone else in the room, which was all of the other achievement hunters and Burnie,Gus, Lindsay and Dan, who was visiting.
"What the fuck Gavin?" Michael screeched, falling out of his chair, and ripping off his headphones. "What?" The bird hybrid asked, though it was hard to look innocent when he was lying on glass shards. "What were you trying to do?" Gus asked, inspecting the gaping hole in the window.
Gavin stood up and inspected his t-shirt. Somehow, none of the glass had impaled him. "I was practicing" he defended, giving his wings a quick shake to check for damage. "Practicing? Practicing for what?" Burnie demanded.
The gears in Dan's head began to turn. "Oh no" the bat hybrid groaned. "Is it-" "It is" Gavin confirmed, shuddering. "What?" Jeremy asked, looking between the two winged hybrids. "Every year, the bird hybrids do this weird ass competition called-" he looked at the other British man. Gavin made a series of squawks and bird noises. "Right" Dan nodded. "Birds of The Feather."
"Wait, wait, wait,wait" Michael stood up, waving his hands around. "One, you can speak Gavin? No one can speak Gavin, not even Gavin! And two, what was Gavin trying to show off for the competition? How good he is at breaking things? Because I'm pretty sure everyone knows that, especially after what happened at the airport."
"Hey, Gavin didn't know that they were real bullets!" Geoff defended, earning himself a few glares and a pleased look. "And Gavin was trying to do the Sonic Boom." There was stunned silence for a second until Gus broke it. "You tried to break the sound barrier?" Geoff's brows furrowed. "No that's a sonic boom. This is The Sonic Boom." Gus and Jeremy both looked baffled. "What's the difference?" Jeremy wondered.
" The sonic Boom is where bird hybrids combine their aura's and their speed to create this massive explosion of color! It's just a myth though" Michael said, waving his tail emphatically. "Not a myth" Lindsay joined in. "I heard someone actually did it ten years back, no one knows who though." Gavin, who was by now sitting at the edge of the couch, flapped his wings lightly. "Hi, how are ya doing?" He asked, holding up his hands, smiling slightly.
"It was you?" Jeremy asked in disbelief. "You sound surprised" Dan grinned, as he sipped some tea that he got from who knows where. Geoff shrugged. "I'm not surprised. If anyone could figure out to completely fuck up the way the world works, it would be you. Or maybe Jack" he added, and said mans voice rose. "Hey!"
"So, can't you do it again?" Gus asked, catching on quick. Gavin shrugged, and gave his usual, easy smile, though anyone who knew him well would see him rubbing two fingers together, a sign that he was nervous. "Gonna bloody well try" he said, fidgeting slightly, before rushing out of the room, hearing his phone going off. "He's really nervous" Dan said, shifting from foot to foot. "He actually got himself sick after eating, idiot." With that, he raced out, chasing after his best friend. Burnie meanwhile, made the universal sign for 'huddle up, ' and the others did just that.
The Birds Of The Feather Competition was high in the sky, but right next to a cliff, so one could watch if one didn't have wings. Burnie had invited Gus, Geoff, Griffin, Millie, Meg, the rest of the achievement hunters, as well as Ryan's wife, Lysandy, Barbara and surprisingly, even Ray. All of them sat on the edge of the cliff, tilting their heads back at the giant stadium.
Gavin and Dan walked over the clouds, gentle flapping their wings to stop themselves falling through them. "You ready for this?" Dan asked, looking at his best friend, who swallowed and nodded, picking up the pace slightly.
"Hey well if isn't Dan the Dumb and Gavin the Gringo!" A deep, masculine voice called out followed by laughter. Sighing, both British men turned around to see a group of falcon hybrids sniggering as one, a huge muscular man, stepped forwards. "Hey Johnathon" Dan answered evenly, though he shifted his weight slightly from foot to foot. "What are you losers doing here?" Johnathon sneered, crossing his arms.
"Elephant hunting" Gavin snarked, and Dan couldn't help laughing at the trait he clearly picked up from his time in Texas. "I hope your not going to try and enter the competition, because you know that my and my birds here have been training for this day all year round." Seeing Gavin's face lose it's color, he spun around and flew away.
Gavin's wings shook slightly, but when Dan's eyes met his, he plastered on his best winning smile, aiming for excitable indifference. "You okay?" Dan asked, eyes searching, and Gavin shrugged, then nodded, still smiling.
"All those participating in The Bird's Of The Feather Annual Competition, please enter through room 14" a voice droned over the speakerphones. Gavin took off, just a brown and gold blur. He took his number, three, and waited.
Slowly his green eyes trailed up, just in time to see contestant number one do an astonishing number of barrel roles, and even though he wasn't the one doing them, he felt sick. Look, it's okay if you can find a way to put it off he thought, eyes darting frantically. Then they fell on the last hybrid to go, number fifteen.
The rest of Rooster Teeth cheered as number fourteen left the skies. "I liked number five the best" Lindsay confessed to Michael who grinned and shook his head. "Nah, number three was better." Geoff, who was sitting next to Griffin and Millie, looked up. "So, is Gavin last then?"
"Number Fifteen, your up!" A Crow hybrid walked in to find the British man huddled in a corner, muttering complete and utter Gavin. Sighing, she walked over to him, and gave him a shake. "Number fifteen?" He looked up. "Your up."
Swallowing nervously, Gavin flew out of the stadium into the air. He studied the course for a minute, before taking off. Phase One.He takes off, swerving through the obstacles at high speed just as he did during her practice earlier. His friends whoops it up as before, and he is on top of his game—until he swerves a bit too early and slams into a pillar. The error sends him yelling and careening into the arena wall; right where the three Falcon hybrids are.
"Nice work Gringo" Johnathon sneered. Gavin blushed slightly, but pushed forwards. Phase Two Off he goes, flying up at an angle and circling a cloud to set it spinning as in practice. Two others in a nearby bank of three get the same treatment. Meg smiled and pointed "Look! Phase Two is working!" And the others smiled, happy that something was working out.
Gavin gets the last cloud turning, but a wayward clump smacks him in the face and sends him tumbling. The cloud drifts out of position as he describes a graceless head-over-heels backward flight, and he stops just in time to compose himself. Now blushing furiously, he looked down at the people oh so far away. "There's only one chance for this" he told himself, giving himself a brisk shake. "You gotta do it, and you gotta do it right, you drippy spaff."
Up he goes, quickly flying high into the sky .Several spectators in the stands gasp, and he continues his ascent while the wind tries its best to peel his face off. Millie, who was sitting between her father and mother, leaped to her feet, cupped her hand around her mouth and yelled. "Come on Gavin! You can do it!" He could only see her, but sill. he got the basic idea, and it was the thought that counted.
Meanwhile the rest of Rooster Teeth that were on the ground, looked up at Gavin worried. So worried, that they didn't notice the ground shaking slightly, until a large chunk fell away, right where Millie was standing. "MILLIE!" Geoff shrieked, horrified. He tried to reach out, to grab her, but he was too late, she was already over the edge, and let out a shrill scream.
Her scream drifts up to the still-climbing Gavin, who slams on the down, he realizes what's happening instantly. "Hold on, Millie!"He shouted as he dropped through the stadium " I'm coming!" He dives, Millie screams, and Geoff covers his eyes , not wanting to see what happens next.
If the wind was trying to peel Gavin's skull clean before, now it is toying with the idea of turning all of him inside out. There is one difference from his practice session, he now dives with both arms extended, not just one. Ahead of his fingers, the rounded wave front begins to form just as before. Millie's eyes widened, and she gasped. Every single Rooster Teeth member and their guest's made sounds of happiness, and Geoff ripped his hands away from his eyes.
The rounded wave began to elongate, and Gavin felt like he was in a stretcher, slowly being pulled apart. He shut his eyes, as one of his hands grabbed Millie's, and the other went under her back. It still wasn't enough, he needed to get back up without the impact of almost breaking the sound barrier killing both of them. His eyes, watery and unfocused, somehow managed to clear long enough to see the ring made out of rocks.
He braced himself for the feeling then . . .
On the ground, Rooster Teeth had lost sight of Millie and Gavin, and Geoff and Griffin were in near hysterics. Everyone was leaning over the ledge,trying to see, then suddenly, they saw it.
A single circle of color, red,orange,yellow,green,blue,violet and gold interlaced with one another in one amazing show of aura. Gavin's Aura. Of course the British prick's aura would be more than one color, with him always changing whatever his favorite was.
It seemed obvious now, but at the time, it took a streak of those exact colors, dropping Millie safely on the ground, for them to understand. But it took seeing Gavin, with all the colors seemingly coming out of the wings, for them to realize. "He did it! He fucking did it!" Michael screamed, leaping to his feet, tail swishing in excitement. The others could only watch in shock and confusion, as their British Idiot make the impossible happen.
When Gavin landed, he nearly went deaf. The crowd roared it's approval, and Dan tackled his friend into a hug. "You did it. You bloody did it" he muttered over and over again, and slowly the shock faded and Gavin realized. I did it, I bloody did it. And he couldn't help it, he let out a high pitched squawk and his eyes started watering from how happy he was.
Some time passed before Gavin and Dan landed, but when he did, he was wearing a golden crown inlaid with jewels, decorated to look like feathers. "Guess I'm the true mad king now, Ryan" he teased, and the cow hybrid laughed.
Geoff pulled the other hybrid in for a hug, followed by Millie. Seeing the slightly jealous looks he was being given, Gavin sighed. "Come on you spazz's bring it in." They all smiled, and hugged, before Ray stole Gavin's crown and took off. "X-ray! Nuh!" Gavin screamed, before taking off after him, while the others started laughing.