Summary: When an unprecedented attack on their airship results in Jet the Hawk gaining an ability he shouldn't have naturally, the rest of the gang is immediately suspicious, particularly when it becomes clear there's more to it than what meets the eye. Only Jet isn't about to part with it...
Rating: T (for violence, and probably depressing material later on)
Author's Note: Presenting the first chapter of a Sonic The Hedgehog fic that I think will be fairly well-received by those who read it, but like so many things in life, only time will tell. This is a kind of follow up and/or sequel to the oneshot "Flight" I wrote and posted not too long ago, which will take the theme of that oneshot and expand upon it greatly. If you have not read said oneshot, though, you are not required to. The necessary details will be repeated in this work for the benefit of those who have not read it. This takes place after "Sonic Free Riders" and probably "Sonic Colors" as well, and it focuses mostly on the Babylon Rogues, but Eggman, Sonic, Tails, and possibly a few others will appear and/or cameo later in the story. And as with any fanfic, please read and review! :)
"Destined Flight"
1.
Surprise Attack
"Well, that was a complete waste of time."
Storm made the comment innocently enough, and he did it mostly to just try and break the resounding silence that hung within the airship of the Babylon Rogues. Ever since the airship had taken off from Apotos about a half-hour earlier, very little conversation of any sort had taken place, especially between Jet and Wave, both of which were annoyed at the situation, and at each other.
While the rogues fought amongst themselves fairly frequently, Storm didn't particularly like it, especially when it came down to silent treatments like this. Even when he felt such treatments were more than deserved sometimes, Storm knew they worked best when they worked as a team. Not squabbling with each other. So, unsure what else he could do, he finally broke the silence so to try and spur some conversation.
Unfortunately, this was the best opening comment he could come up with.
And neither Jet nor Wave really needed the reminder, and only became grumpier still as Wave tried to focus her attention on flying the airship and ignoring the others, while Jet stood across the airship's bridge with his back turned on all of them. Unaware of the fact that he was only upsetting them more, Storm anxiously glanced back and forth between them, seeing if his comment would get the two talking. When it was clear that it wasn't, the albatross sought to make another comment.
"Kind of a bummer to go to all that trouble to attend a race that ended up not happening," he remarked in his deep, bass voice. "But then again, who knew that it was going to end up getting rained out like that?"
Again, there were no comments made from either Jet or Wave, but Wave's grip on the steering controls, a large steering wheel that controlled the airship's rudder, tightened significantly as she tried to restrain herself from making any kind of retort to that statement. It wasn't worth it. Nor was it her fault, but Jet thought differently, and that frustrated her to no end. But she knew she probably wouldn't have cared about it nearly as much if it wasn't for that one detail, so it wasn't worth it to make the comment. She held her tongue. Helpfully, Jet did likewise, but she could only imagine that Jet was feeling something similar.
Storm continued speaking. "That rainstorm came out of nowhere, you know! Almost a freak of nature, it was. And when it arrived, it just rained, and rained, and rained…"
Jet made a low growl at this, but it wasn't really meant to be directed at Storm. He, too, was only trying to withhold his temper. Like Wave, he also knew it wouldn't be worth it, and knew his temper was short-fused at the moment only because he needed something to vent his anger upon. And neither Wave and Storm would be good for that, because they would fight back. But he knew that he was only going to succeed at this for so long. And Storm really wasn't helping, despite whatever his intentions were.
"…and rained, and rained, and rained until that poor Apotos village was nearly flooded. I suppose you really can't blame them for cancelling the race at that point. They had bigger concerns to worry about. Like flooded basements."
There was still no comment from either Jet or Wave. Storm glanced between them for a moment, before glancing at Jet, deciding to try making a comment that required a response back. "At least they refunded the money we used to pay the entry fees with, right boss?"
It worked. Jet glanced back at the large albatross, and finally relented and spoke. "Yeah," he responded darkly, before glancing over at Wave, "I suppose we do have that much."
Wave tried to ignore Jet's glare, but she was more than consciously aware of it drilling at her back, and before long, she could no longer resist and finally snapped. "Don't you give me that look; I warned you this was going to happen!"
"Warned me!" Jet objected, twisting around to face Wave, having finally reached his breaking point as well, "You just told me we were going to get a little rain! Not a second Noah-and-the-ark style flood!"
The fight was on now. Not quite the conversation he wanted, Storm could do nothing now but watch as the other two rogues argue.
"What I said was that we could get rained out!" Wave retorted, forgetting the steering wheel and whirling around to face Jet, "When it became obvious that the rain wasn't going to just blow over, we should've left then, but no, you had to stick around! You couldn't face facts, and was too convinced that the race was going to happen anyway to leave, and keep us from wasting all of our time, waiting out in a cold rain shower for a race that would never happen!"
"I was just acting off the information you gave me, which indicated it was just going to be a little rain!" Jet objected, not willing to back down now that he was committed to the fight. "That there was still a good chance the race would go ahead! I trusted your word, Wave, but it let me down! I think I'm entitled to a little disappointment at your failure to relay correct information!"
This was a blow that was below the belt for Wave. "It should've been just a little rain, all of my scans of that storm suggested as such! I don't know how it ended up being so much bigger! The sensors were working and everything! But that's all beside the fact! I'm not the one who needs to take any blame for this! I told you to be open to the possibility that it might have been better to forget the race and just leave, but you and your ego wouldn't even consider doing that for a second!"
"My ego? MY EGO? What about your ego, you purple-feathered know-it-all! You're too confident of your jibber-jabber sciency-stuff to even consider the possibility that you made a mistake and that it should be you who needs to take the blame for all of this!"
"Oh, I am so not having this argument with you, Jet! Facts don't lie, and I knew the facts, like you clearly didn't, so I fail to see why I should have to…"
The argument probably would've gone on for a lot longer, but it was cut short suddenly when the airship suddenly started to list hard to starboard due its steering controls forgotten and spinning uselessly once a draft of wind caught the craft, pushing it aside. All three of the rouges stumbled to one side as the deck tilted below them, then Wave broke away from her confrontation with Jet to grab the steering wheel and quickly right the ship. Once that was done, she and Jet went back to giving each other dirty looks and the silent treatment.
At least at first. But Wave ultimately decided she wanted to get in the last word.
"Why were you so determined to see that race through, anyway?" she asked, glancing back at Jet, who avoided eye contact. "Was it really worth standing out there for hours in a downpour? I know you like races, Jet, but even you have to admit that at the end of the day, it's just a race. And a very insignificant one at that."
Jet knew all of this, and knew Wave was very much correct. But that wasn't the problem. Unfortunately, Jet knew that even trying to explain it to Wave wouldn't help any. So he didn't give Wave any kind of response. Perhaps not caring if she got one, Wave let the matter drop, but it was clear she was unhappy still.
Storm glanced back and forth between them again, wondering what to do now. Usually, Storm would be the first to start a fight, but something apparently bugged him about this particular fight, and he wanted things set straight. "Oh, c'mon guys, let's just forget the whole thing!" he urged, "Wave's right for once…"
"For once?" Wave questioned the accuracy of that statement entirely too predictably. Jet did not regret calling her egotistical, because it was complete truth. That sparrow had quite an ego. Being wrong about anything was simply out of the question to her.
Storm normally would've challenged the statement, starting his argument with Wave, but for once, wisely ignored the comment, and continued speaking undeterred. "…is this one incident really worth fighting over? The only reason we even entered was because we were looking for something to do. So why bother worrying about it? I mean, someday we'll probably look back at all of this and laugh, like that time when…"
"Can it, Storm!" Jet finally snapped, deciding that he didn't have to sit here and listen to this at the moment, nor wanting to. He turned to stomp out of the bridge. "I'm going to sit in my office! Don't bug me unless the world's ending!"
"Fine!" Wave snapped back from the steering controls, "See if I do!"
She didn't even flinch as Jet slammed the hatch to the bridge shut behind him, and instead focused on flying the airship while grumbling various bad names for Jet under her breath. Forgotten again, Storm just stood there, feeling like he should be picking a side of this argument, but was torn over which side to pick. Because Jet was the leader and thereby his boss, Storm was immensely loyal to the hawk and rarely questioned anything he told the albatross. But while he and Wave didn't always see eye-to-eye either, Storm was forced to admit that Wave did know a thing or two about this sort of thing, and usually the sparrow was mostly correct too. Besides, he really didn't see why it was so important to fight over it anyway. Normally, they would've grumbled a little about something like this for a while, but it would quickly be forgotten again, and life moved on like before.
Finally, unable to come to a conclusion, Storm begrudgingly resorted to his last tactic for situations such as this. Hide in the mess hall, eating junk food, and wait for the argument to blow over. Because he figured that no matter what, it was going to have to sooner or later.
But the fearless leader he looked up to so much wasn't so certain of that.
Jet sat backwards in his desk chair in his office, leaning his beak on the chair's headrest as he stared out the large office windows at the world outside. He watched as the airship lazily wandered into a thick bank of fog, but wasn't concerned about it. With the airship's radar and sensory equipment, he knew it could easily be navigated through any fog like this with little risk of crashing.
Besides, he really didn't want to talk to Wave about anything, and she was flying the ship at the moment anyway.
He had calmed down a little, but he was still annoyed at the sparrow for all of this. And he still blamed her for giving him faulty information as the reason why they ended up wasting so much time standing around for an Extreme Gear race that ultimately got rained out…but he had to admit he wasn't really that torn up over missing the race. Remembering what some of their competition looked like, it probably wouldn't have been much of a race anyway. And he also had to admit that both Wave and Storm were right to say it all wasn't worth it, because it really wasn't. All annoyances and fault-finding aside, Jet knew that at the end of the day, life would go on.
But that wasn't what he was upset about.
What he was upset about was the fact that he had been hoping the race would've distracted him from this rather peculiar mood he had been caught in as of late. And as such, he needed something to vent his frustrations on, and as much as he didn't like to admit it, this was the best he could do.
He hated it, too, because the only reason it was even taking place was because of a longing kind of mood he'd been stuck in, where he longed for something he knew he couldn't have. He'd already tried, and only ended up embarrassing himself.
He knew now that he had gotten into this mood off and on for almost the entirety of his life, but it wasn't until recently that he figured out what it was that he longed for, and why. Before then, he had always managed to shrug it off one way or another. He even suspected that part of the reason he even got into Extreme Gear was because of these moods, because up until recently, riding Extreme Gear had been enough to soothe it.
But now, much to Jet's dismay, not even Extreme Gear seemed enough to dissuade the now constant and unshakeable mood. It only pushed it out of his center of attention momentarily, before it would be back again in full power. All because he had gotten a taste of what he really wanted. A taste of a very specific form of flight that, had it been possible, would've been powered by nothing, save Jet's own body. No airships, no Extreme Gear, just Jet and the air.
It was an exhilarating idea to contemplate doing.
Assuming it was possible, of course.
It had all started only a few days previous while they were on their way to Apotos in the first place. They had nearly gotten caught in yet another, different, thunderstorm and the airship had gotten struck by lightning. The bolt had pierced one of the airship's fuel cells of helium, the gaseous substance that kept the airship afloat, so Storm and Jet had to go out and patch the hole before they sank while Wave worked to keep the airship from entering the storm.
While they were out there, Jet had, in a stupid moment of disillusionment due to already being in this particular mood beforehand, thrown himself off the side of the airship in a reckless and thoughtless attempt to achieve self-sustained flight and satisfy the desire once and for all. An act that would've ended with his untimely death had it not been for the safety line and harness he had thankfully been wearing stopping his fall. But his attempt had failed, something he should've known well in advance and used to stop himself with. But he hadn't. And as a result of his actions, both he and Storm had ended up hanging upside-down off the side of the airship until Wave found them and pulled them in.
And to add further embarrassment to the whole event was the fact that even Storm knew it was obvious that Jet had purposely jumped off the side of the craft (instead of slipping and falling like he had lied to them), and that Wave had found the whole event immensely funny. Even now, days later, she would still giggle at the memory of the event, which only made Jet that much more annoyed at her. But above all, Jet was annoyed at himself for letting himself get caught up with something so impossible that he allowed himself to do it in the first place. And as a result, had managed to get a taste of the sensation he had for so long unknowingly longed for. Because of it, the feeling of longing for it was now constant and unshakable.
His mind, apparently not having learned its lesson, wanted him to try again.
But what good would that do him? He already knew the outcome. He'd fail. It was physically impossible for him to achieve self-sustained flight without some other device to aid him. He had been stupid enough to try it once. He was determined to keep himself from trying it again, hence why he so desperately wanted something to distract himself from it.
To say nothing of the fear that he might allow himself to get caught up in the euphoria of it all and suffer another lapse of judgment without warning and try it again without even thinking about it, as he had done the first time. But there was no telling when that could happen, if it'd happen at all, and if it did, there was the distinct possibility that there would be nothing to stop him from getting himself hurt that time. For his own safety, he needed to find some way to combat this feeling and at the very least keep it at bay.
But to his frustration, he hadn't found the solution he needed yet. At times he felt he could barely keep this desire of flight bottled up in him now, much less to do it long term.
He probably needed help. But who could he possibly talk to about it? Wave and Storm wouldn't understand. Wave would just look at it scientifically and state how impossible it was, thus completely missing the point. And Storm was too simple-minded to be able to think deeply enough to understand why it was such a big deal. And there was no way Jet knew of to get them to understand without giving them the same chance to experience the same sensations he had, and that was not only dangerous, but wouldn't work unless they were both in the right mindset, and as Jet seriously doubted they had ever longed for something like this before, he knew it would be nearly impossible.
And it left him in a foul mood as a result. Worse, he knew it was beginning to rub off on the other rogues as well. He and Wave had been snippier and at each others throats more often than usual, and Storm had likewise been unusually sullen and quiet, probably not liking how little unity there was in the gang as of late, which just went to show how bad it was getting. This particular fight about the cancelled race in Apotos was just another bullet point on the growing list of evidence. Jet knew he couldn't let this go on, or their whole group would fall apart. Or Jet simply lost it, whichever came first.
He was literally addicted to this impossible idea of his.
And he knew he needed to do something about this unwanted obsession of his.
But he had exhausted all of his own ideas.
And he really didn't know who or what to turn to now.
The best he could do for now was hope that it'd eventually pass and act like nothing was wrong as much as possible until things went back to normal…but with each passing day, Jet feared that day wasn't going to come until he did something to quench this desire. And he only knew of one way to do that at the moment. And that was to give in.
He wasn't ready to do that yet.
But what if he had no other choice?
Jet quickly shook the thought from his mind. It wouldn't come to that. There had to be another choice, and he was determined to find it. If he just knew where to begin looking…
By this point in time, the airship had wandered very deep into the bank of fog, and now nothing could really be seen out Jet's office windows but a swirling grey mist. With unfocused eyes, he stared into that mist, so lost in thought as he was that he wasn't really paying attention to what he was seeing. He hardly even acknowledged the sudden and unusual flash of light that burst out from somewhere within the bank of fog, and when none like it appeared afterwards, he just shrugged it off.
He later regretted it when the airship suddenly lurched hard to starboard. Caught off guard by the unexpected maneuver, Jet had to scramble to grab a handhold to keep from falling to the floor. Even as he was doing this, an alarm klaxon that was to be saved only for emergencies went off aboard the airship. And before it had even finished the first burst of sound, the airship started shaking violently as a dull roar from something that could only be the engine of another craft grew. By the time Jet had managed to grab that handhold, a massive, metallic, craft suddenly sped past, dangerously close to his office windows, nearly colliding with the obviously much smaller airship. The other craft was moving so fast, its hull rushing past so quickly, that it was nearly just a blur. But not even Jet could miss the all-too-familiar logo plastered on the other craft's aft section, just before its rocket engines.
Jet muttered an old Babylonian curse under his breath, fully alert now as he rushed out of the office and back towards the airship's bridge. Only one person could have a craft of that size and design with that egotistic logo on it.
Dr. Eggman.
