"I'll monitor her," Rush grimaced. "I forgot how impulsive wires and circuits can be." Following her tail closely, he spun around in front of her before she went and took off without knowing what to do. "Alright," he snapped at her, "did you hear what Felix said, because if you didn't you might just go and blow the whole operation you were built for. Lesson 1: Always listen. If you don't listen, you might slip up later on… it could cost you your life, or worse, someone else's life. Other than that, good luck with flying. I haven't flown like this yet either, and you actually have the programming already in you to be able to, so you'd better know what you're doing while you're teaching me."

Firefly had to pause for a second to fully process what Rush was saying. Accessing the information she had on him, she quickly understood. He wasn't programmed to be the type of plane he was, but that in itself shouldn't matter too much. She moved on for the time being. In-depth analysis was for later. "Flying's easy," she said brightly, nudging Rush's wing a little, "Besides, you're the one that's supposed to be 'monitoring' me, so you'll have to learn pretty fast, too. Oh wait, I was listening. Lesson learned," she added, not noticing that the road narrowed and almost running into another hangar along the way, though it was uncertain if she actually cared or not, even if she caught herself before any damage was done.

"Lesson 2: Watch where you're going while we're at it." Rush muttered as they approached the beginning of the runway. He promptly got permission for takeoff, then.

Firefly followed closely behind, listening to how to communicate with the tower while trying to find a way to fix her mistake. For some reason it was different when it wasn't Felix scolding her. "I'm assuming you want me to take off first," she said, though she was already in the right spot on the runway to do so. Allowing automated instinct to take over, she fired up her engines and took off… although she didn't use as much of the runway as any normal plane would, she thought she'd been on the ground long enough.

Rush followed suite, struggling immensely with transitioning from taildragger to F-18 in takeoff. Although equipment allowed him to use just a minute amount of runway, he pushed it by using almost the whole expanse. It was nothing short of fear that made him cling on to old habits rather than new technology. Even though he was much more experienced than Firefly, to most it might look as if he had just been taken out of the manufacturer.

"That wasn't so difficult, was it?" Firefly asked, though in all honesty she was overwhelmed with the feeling of being in the sky, uncertain though she was. Being in the air was difficult at first, but, once she picked up on the wind current patterns, it wasn't hard at all. She rocketed almost straight upwards until she hit 50,000 feet, leveling out and not going above that height - she had to act as if she had an altitude ceiling. Eventually, she figured out how to drop back down to where Rush was, deciding to use some slang she'd found in her vocabulary database… perhaps it would sound less formal… maybe even friendly. "Are you getting the hang of it yet?"

In reality, Rush was not at all. The immense speeds they were traveling at were so much more thrilling and frightening than those of a Corsair's. He felt as if he were out of control, buzzing about a clear blue sky without knowing what he was doing or how he was doing it. It was difficult even to respond as his words were pushed back into his mouth, "I can't just 'get the hang of it', as you say.."

Slang isn't for me, apparently. Firefly was quiet for a minute, gradually slowing so that Rush didn't have to catch up to her. Already she'd encountered her first puzzle… she wasn't sure if she liked not knowing something. "Why not? Most planes are built almost the same. Ailerons, flaps, rudders… from what's in my database already, you were a Corsair…other than being a jet now, there's not much difference."

Rush could honestly say he wanted to shoot her out of the sky in that moment. "What the heck would you know? You're a stupid mess of wires and programming. You couldn't possibly understand the tangle of information messing with my head... not every plane is built the same, and being an old fashioned Corsair is nothing like being this blasted spaceship."

"Isn't a 'mess of wires and programming' what you are, too?" Firefly said, distancing herself slightly from the obviously annoyed plane. She had more questions than answers… and Rush wasn't okay with that for some reason. She didn't understand. "Unless my database is incorrect somehow, you're AI… but you don't seem like it."

"Yes, I'm AI," Rush admitted, "but I've been around the block a time or two." He felt it difficult to explain how... strange he was compared to her. Nobody quite knew how far he'd gotten to becoming almost human, and nobody could begin to explain why or how. "523 years," he sighed, "When you know you're AI..." He just couldn't explain it. Whenever he did, his mind seemed to revert back to computers and programming rather than feelings and experience. "I can't answer that one... But I think part of it has to do with the fact I was built when humans- real, unconverted humans- still were around. I remain one of the only AI machines that know what I am. I don't know if any of it has to do with what I am, but people have theories. Try asking Dottie or Felix sometime if you really want to understand."

"If AI does not know what it is… what does it think it is?" There were too many questions, but the most driving of them all had to do with her directive. What was wrong with the AI? What was so corrupt about the earth?

"It thinks of itself like everyone else. It confuses itself with humankind. And worse of all, it doesn't even know what humankind is."

"...their databases are tampered with? They'd have to at least know their directives…" she said, running calculations and trying to understand what Rush was explaining, but her thoughts were suddenly drowned out by a warning of some sort. "Fuel's low. I have to land," she said quickly, looping back around and connecting to the tower, mimicking how Rush had requested permission to take off… with necessary changes to reflect the situation. Once she had received access to the runway, she attempted landing as best as she could - even if she almost went off the edge of the plateau in the process - but Rush wasn't right behind her at first. Had she left him behind?

Rush had also requested landing, but had to loop around and come in a second time. It wasn't the smoothest landing a plane had ever made, as he kept overcorrecting to adjust from taildragger to nose gear. Even so, he managed not to crash, which was the most important thing as of the moment. Rolling up to where Firefly was taxiing, he harrumphed, "Thanks for leaving me in the dust back there."

"...I didn't realize until after I landed. Sorry." The plane looked almost sheepish, merely expressing what she thought was the correct response for the situation. "Wait… why did you say 'thanks'? I thought I wasn't supposed to leave you behind."

Rush rolled off grumbling. "Somebody doesn't know what sarcasm is…"

"Yeah…" a bright coloured dragon seemed to pop out of nowhere from beside Firefly, "Sorry about him. He's not so friendly to new people… I promise you he'll get better eventually. So, you must be Felix's experiment, Firefly. I'm Streak!"

Firefly almost startled until she realized she already knew what dragons were - she had yet to completely go through and process all the information in her database. Dragons were very strange creatures, apparently. "Hello, Streak," she replied, nodding slightly, "I hope you're right about him, though. I'm supposed to be helping and I'm just making everything worse." The plane turned away a little, but had already learned not to leave others behind. That wasn't very nice. "I know everything there is to know about him and I still failed."

"Maybe that's just it," Streak hypothesized, "most people feel uncomfortable when someone knows everything about them while that person doesn't know you. Even if Rush knows of you, Felix has kept your coding relatively secret."

"I'm not hiding anything from him, though… I'm not programmed to. If Felix kept any of my coding secret it was because of something else... likely the government, specifically anyone who identifies with it." She was going through her own security protocols at this point, somewhat curious. "The only ones I'm supposed to fully trust are Felix, Rush, and you… should I explain that to him?"

Streak shook his head. "Sometimes getting to know someone is the best thing there could be. Try to... I don't know... humor him if you can. Allow him to share what he wants you to know, and don't ever... ever... mention Glendalcanal."

It took a split second for Firefly to register what the dragon meant about Glendalcanal… the events were already in her database. "...I don't think I'd want to say anything about that, from the sound of it." The plane paused for a moment, trying to figure out the other part of what Streak was saying. It'd be illogical to do as such, but being logical had gotten her nowhere. "But if I act a little more like an actual human…? Would that help at all?"

"If you can," Streak agreed. "...just don't act like you know everything about someone, even if you do. Okay?"

Though she still didn't understand, she was beginning to figure it out… humans, while somewhat similar, also tended to rely a lot more on their emotions, and not purely on logic. "...I don't know how well I'd be able to, but I can try."

The dragon nodded, "That's all I ask, really… So, how was your first flight anyway?"

"Other than accidentally leaving Rush behind? ...I guess it was what would be considered 'fun'. Except for figuring out air currents at first. Calculations don't really work when a wind gust happens."

"Oh please," Streak laughed, "just go with your gut on wind currents… don't overthink it. You can't trust your calculations all the time, you've got to guess and make mistakes sometimes… but overall, it should be worth it to learn to trust your flight instinct. Especially if you're going to S-P-A-C-E."

"Why did you spell 'spa-'... oh… that's secret… so you spelled it. Okay." She actually figured something out without asking a question! "But… how do you rely on instincts without making calculations to back them up? Isn't that… not safe?"

"Not always," Streak explained, "but making calculations isn't always the safest route either. See, you need to find a balance, and you can only find that with experimentation."

Firefly already knew that… somewhat. If she wasn't so newly activated and Rush knew how to fly better, they would've left the planet already. She needed experience. "...that sounds like it might not end well, but… I guess I still have a lot to learn," she admitted. The world wasn't a place where everything would work… be it proven in theory or not.

"Eventually you'll get it. You know, knowing Felix," Streak suddenly changed subjects, "he probably wants to know how flying went."

"Likely… and maybe you should go find Rush. You're probably a better friend for him right now." Firefly wasn't beating herself up about it; she was going off of pure logic. Streak obviously had known Rush for a lot longer than she had, and therefore knew how he was without relying on a database.

Shaking his head, the dragon started heading towards where Felix was currently biding his time. "No. Rush is a temperamental plane who needs his space sometimes. Judging by the way he was acting when I saw him last, now more than ever is a time to let him cool off."

"'Cool off' as in… he's really mad right now." Firefly was more talking to herself rather than Streak, as she was still only in the beginning stages of assessing her main database. She knew she was being awkward, but she couldn't help it. "Sorry… trying to figure out what I know and what I don't." Regardless, she was content to report back to the hangar she'd been activated in. It seemed like a safe zone of sorts.

"It's fine," Streak grinned, "I understand. It'd be weird to know nothing yet everything at the same time."