I was in the clear-blue skies over North Korea, my F86 Sabre howling as it raced through the wind. I noticed suddenly a black shape moving at great speed in between the clouds. I recognized the plane as a Mig 15, but on the body there was an image of a purple cornflower. The plane veered towards me quickly and in it's cockpit I noticed long white hair under the flight helmet … Smack!

"Ryan you ok dude!" Alfred said nervously.

I woke up and found myself on the floor of the mess hall with Ludwig, Alfred, and Arthur staring at me concernedly. The woman was turned around again reading some sheets of paper.

"I'm fine I just was thinking of something that happened some time ago."

Suddenly the woman stood up and punched Alfred in the head! Alfred's head swayed backwards which made it look like he was in danger of falling over. Just she was about to punch me I grabbed her fist, staring into her eyes. I was finally able to notice the details of her face. Her face had scowl that could kill someone in an instant on it her eyes were like sharpened diamond drills that bored holes through my head. I was quickly thinking of things to do. She looked too strong for me to subdue so I decided to go the nice way.

I asked, "What's your name?"

She responded "Natalya".

"Ok, Natalya my name is Ryan." Natalya didn't say anything back. "Why did you punch my friend Natalya?"

"Because he dares to put my beloved big brother's life in danger," She than threw a dark glance at an oblivious Alfred. Oh, I thought to myself this must be Belarus, Russia's crazy sister.

"Well Natalya do you really think it's necessary to punch my friend because he dislikes your brother"? When I finished my sentence she gave me a hate filled stare that made me feel uneasy, obviously she didn't want to answer the question.

"It seems like you guys are going to get along just fine," Ludwig said smiling though it was obvious he was worried.

"I guess you're right," Arthur said nervously "We're going to get along just fine."

"As my duty as base commander," the Ludwig began with a serious expression on his face, "I have to tell you if you four die no one will you know were here, when you finished with your business here meet me at the hanger so we can check out your aircraft."

Then Ludwig left briskly, he must have been thinking there was going to be a bloodbath.

"Hey Ryan," Alfred said while a smile was forming on his face, "I think you can let go of Natalya's hand now" "AHHAHAHAHHAHA," burst America as his eyes started to water, he looked like he was going to die the way he was laughing so hard.

"That was a good one, Alfred" Arthur said chuckling.

Natalya suddenly got out of my grip and angrily said, "If you ever do that again I will kill you"

"You do understand that you if kill me this squadron will be at 75% strength," I said very seriously even though on the inside I was very nervous. Natalya scoffed at me and walked away with her head turned away, and flipping me the bird.

"Maybe we should go meet Ludwig at the hanger," Arthur said scooting into the conversation. While we were leaving the mess hall I noted how Natalya walked behind Alfred, Arthur and me with a petulant look on her face, and rebuffing all our attempts at a conversation. When we arrived at the hanger we met Ludwig outside the green dome.

"All right, time for you guys to see what we have got in store for you all." He pressed a button on the side of the huge bay doors and the gigantic doors creakily slid apart to reveal what was inside. The things that we were so hoping to see were inside and we were not disappointed. I looked to the left and saw a looking like brand-new F3 Lightning on the far left. I noticed Arthur doing a fist pump as he looked in joy. In the center was a gleaming F4 Phantom looking as menacing as it was awesome. America slapped me heartily on the back as we both admired our plane. My head turned to the right and there was a Mig 21. Wait, a Mig 21? I rubbed my eyes as I looked in disbelief at why there was a Soviet fighter in the hangar with our planes. On the side of the fuselage though there was an image of a purple cornflower. Wait, a purple cornflower? What, why is that … that symbol doing here? A cornflower, a cornflower, I slid against the wall of the hangar bay and put my hands on top of my face. Why that? What is that symbol doing here; I thought I would never see that image again? Oh my god, is she … is she? I blanked out and suddenly I was back in the cockpit over North Korea. The purple cornflower emblazoned Mig 15 unleashed a hail of bullets at me. I then dived down to avoid the fire, the forests and rivers a mere blur as I sped past them. I franticly veered left and right to make the Mig overshoot. I craned my neck back and I saw the Mig was still hounding my tail. I pulled the stick back, my Sabre reacting instantly. I turned left and the Mig and I were coming head on. We passed with inches to spare. It felt like time stopped as we slipped past each other we were so close I could see the pilot's helmet and oxygen mask. I executed a climbing right turn to get behind the Mig. When I got on the Mig's tail, I let loose a hail of bullets speeding in the air as their yellow tails burst through the air. The Mig executed a roll barely just dodging my fire. I was going so fast I found myself below an upside-down Mig 15. "Well, this is getting interesting," I said to myself. The Mig and I rolled trying to lose airspeed. The G forces pressed me back against my seat, stopping me form being able to move any part of my body. For what felt like forever, we kept twisting and turning around each other, trying to make the other overshoot. I faltered, in a moment of over-anxiety; I added too much thrust causing me to be in front. I felt thuds on my Sabre as the Mig's cannons fired. I watched in horror as the cannon shells began to rip my left wing apart. Soon it ripped off, spiraling the plane into a flat spin. My instruments went haywire, lights were flashing. The instruments were either knocked out or spinning crazily. I reached for the ejector seat switch but the G forces held me back in my seat, I was struggling to lean forward and every few seconds I looked at my altimeter. Sweat broke down my face as I strained every muscle in my body. I finally grasped hold of it and pulled it back. Suddenly, my seat was rocketed out of the plane out into the big blue sky. I pulled my rip cord and my parachute blossomed out, I gently floated down thinking the danger had passed. I saw my F86 on fire spinning like a top before it hit the ground and exploded. Suddenly I saw the Mig 15 coming at me; the Mig began opening fire at me! I watched in horror as cannon shells nearly hit me! I waited for the demise that I knew was awaiting me as shells whistled past my body. I let out a great big breath that I was holding in, in terror, when I realized that I was not hurt. As the Mig passed, it pulled into the clouds and out of sight. I then began to gradually descend down, watching the tree-speckled landscape grow larger before me. Finally I felt my feet touch the ground and I immediately kneeled down and started to vomit. I started to shake uncontrollably and my legs gave out below me and I thumped down on the ground staring at the blue sky. I saw a group of American soldiers in their uniforms and clutching their M1 Garands rush over to my location. I could hear them yelling for the medics. While the medics were grabbing me by the arms and dragging me quickly, the soldiers fell into cover behind them warily looking for any enemy attempting to capture an enemy pilot. The medics roughly shook me yelling at me to stay awake. But I could not stop myself from lapsing into a bleak darkness. Never before had I ever been so close to death and from that day forth I would wake up in a cold sweat every time I vividly remembered that day, and that image of a cornflower always brought a terrible mix of anger and fear to my heart. Smack!

"Dude, how many times are you going to faint today . . ." I heard Alfred remark as I woke up. I saw Alfred, Arthur and the Ludwig with worried expressions on their faces while Natalya was behind them.

"Hopefully that was the last time," I said while rubbing my eyes.

"Are you sure you're OK, Ryan," Arthur said with a concerned voice.

"I'm fine, it's just the heat is getting to me," I said lying through my teeth. Before anyone could say another word we heard the tok-tok-tok-tok of anti-aircraft guns going off and huge booms as explosions erupted from the ground around the hangar.

The PA system turned on, "We are under attack this is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill."

"You heard the radio," Ludwig barked at us, "I'm going to the command room, I'm going to brief you guys in the air." Alfred, Arthur, Natalya and I raced to our aircraft.