Chapter 4- It was a triumphant day, the day she won...
The next morning, the cadets were rudely awakened by Blade and air horns, who went room to room with his alarm some time before sunrise. The cadets rushed out of bed and into their uniforms.
"Good morning cadets! Get some breakfast, warm up with a 5 mile run, then meet me in front of the building after your shower. You will be learning Flying from me today and Aerial Combat after lunch."
"Sir, yes Sir!" The cadets chorused, lining up against the walls, right hands at their heads in salute. Blade walk back the way he came, looking at all of the cadets, checking they were all ready.
"Dismissed!" He said, and went a different direction.
The cadets proceeded to jog out of the building in their dual-file formation and ran around the perimeter of the Terra till the sun rose and went into the segregated bathrooms to shower.
At Breakfast they all line up by the buffet, the behavior and food slightly better than those in the first years and what they were given. Different from her last regiment; in Snipe's class it was a free for all and you had to fight for your share.
Jay was obviously the scrawniest of them all but it was partly to blame on her genes. Galeans were just thinner unless they were Sky Knights. They trained all the time.
"Here, have some elite rations." Jay looked up to see the elite commander and her hero, his two trays in his hands.
"Thank you, I could use them." She laughed. It elicits a smile from him.
"Mind if I join you?" He asked kindly.
"Oh no, I'd be honored!"
"Great, thanks."
"So um…how long 'ave you been here?" Jay asked after he sat down.
"Since I was seven."
"…" Jay struggles to find the words.
"It must 'ave been hard." She decided to say.
"It was but compared to being disowned and fending for yourself and fighting predators off Terra Mesa bare handed or with a knife not so much." He says, then takes a bite; Elite food resembled real food compared to that given to the first years, as a form of motivation to move up and not fall in rank.
"Well, dig in." He encouraged, noticing his revelation distracted her. Jay chews a bite of her own pensively, wondering abouth is past. She then realizes how much better this food was.
"It's…a million times better than what we got in Snipe's class!" She says, absolutely estatic about the small and yet large win. She practically attacks her plate.
"Well, get used to eating it. In my regiment we take care of our own, fully patched or not."
"Thanks." She laughs to herself, a little embarrassed.
"I didn't know I waz so hungry. Galeans can eat." She pushed away thoughts of how she and others who escaped the clutches of the Cyclonians starved since Cyclonia conquered their Terra.
"How old are you anyway and how did you get here?"
"I'm twelve and I waz taken when I waz tending to the crops. Most of zee adults are part of zee reziztaunce and since not many were at home…WE were picked off from the Terra."
"I'm sorry that happened. You should be at home with them."
"…well, my glass is half full. I may be a prisoner but I'm alive." She says cheerfully, as if she were untouched by the grimness.
"And you have a friend out of me." He says.
"The feeling is mutual, beware though, I've heard my attitude is contagious." Jay says with a big, bright smile. Blade laughs.
"I'm not worried." He said to her as he got out of his seat.
"Alright everyone, break's over!" He shouted.
Jay pushes in the rest of her ration of bread on her mouth, causing her checks to puff like a chipmunk, leaving her hands free to clean after herself.
"Alright, first are basic flight maneuvers."
Basic manuevers in his opinion perhaps, being trained by THE Dark Ace for ten years. To someone like Jay who had never mounted a Skyride, they weren't basic at all. If it weren't for Blade, she wouldn't have gotten off the ground and would have been learning just to drive the ride. Blade led the group on his own ride through the drill.
"Ugh..." Jay groans as she shuffled behind the group into the cafeteria for lunch.
"Hey, at least you can fly? You'll get the basics tomorrow." Lynn tried to comfort. She was the humorous, tomboy type.
"Yeah,"
"And you have the impressive Commander smiling on you..." She teased.
"Goodness no! He's older and my superior!"
"Yeah by two years," lynn scoffs. "And I know he likes you. Besides, the age gap limit is four years, it isn't illegal. And there's no rule against it in the academy."
"…well…I'll admit I'm not so against it. He's tough but I outrun him easily, it's…adorable in a way."
"Mhmm." Lynn hums knowingly.
"Argh!"
Blade practiced advanced maneuvers to clear his head but it wasn't working.
Damn why can't I stop thinking about her...
Here they come. He thought, as the students came back out for more training.
As an introduction to more Advanced Flying, Blade performs several advanced tricks and then lands his SwitchBlade Elite. Jay watched, absolutely amazed. Meanwhile, Top Dog and his two friends came out to watch.
"Hey, isn't that the flat chick?" One of Top Dog's followers commented.
"How'd she get into the Elite squadron class?" Top Dog growled.
"That's the class that has any chance of getting out of here," The other commented. Top Dog whipped his arm back, hitting that guy's gut to take out his anger.
"Blade I…I don't know how to fly properly yet. On Gale we aren't taught to fly until we're old enough to- join the reziztaunce." she said, whispering the last part.
"I'll teach you, we'll get you caught up."
Blade focuses on her and she learns operate the SkyRide without a problem in an hour.
"You can do this, and you can learn the maneuvers if you don't let your fear get to you. Practice often." He advised.
"Right-o!"
"This one's yours." He added, patting the SwitchBlade. "It's tradition that a new pilot gets their own to practice with and fight with after graduating."
"Really? Is that how you got yours?"
"Nope, mine is custom."
Despite earning her stripes in being a Talon, she's still happy of the accomplishment and claps her hands in delight, not being able to contain it.
"Eeee!" She squealed.
The two continued to work together, and Jay continued to work hard. After that day, she no longer feared flying. She did before but Blade stayed close until she got the hang of it. Now everything he was teaching her sunk in, and with fear no longer in her way, she was able to do all of the maneuvers, basic and advanced, and was moving on to hand-to-hand combat in mid-flight, just like Dark Ace taught him.
He was also eating with her, seeming to abandon the Officers table. They ate and he occasionally opened up about his background but it was clear to Jay there was something he wanted to keep from her. She didn't push it and decided to take what he did give her.
Hey, sorry for not updating in a little more than a week, about. The 'save' button on my docs wasn't working on my laptop so I have to type on my desktop who's a bit slow. It's from 2003 but I can't part with it; I wrote my first story here, wrote my first novel and I continue to do so with it and I started on fanfiction through it so meh XD
I ask for a little bit of patience, I'll update more this week to make up for it and in appreciation for your patience.