OK, it's not as long as I would have liked, as I wanted to include the bar fight in this chapter. However, it was more fun to end it here, and the chapter was already quite long...
Thank you for your comments, keep them coming!
Lucky stumbled to a halt outside a bar of some sort. Their race had been the last one of the day, and the sky was turning black, which hadn't helped her in her mad chase after Molly.
"Damn." She panted. "I have got to get into shape."
Once she had caught her breath, she walked in. She was ninety percent sure that Molly had gone in here, but she wasn't completely certain. She was a computer geek, not a sprinter. Her idea of strenuous exercise was walking the six blocks to work in the morning, or keeping track of a certain sister.
Searching the room, Lucky spotted the telltale red/black hair at the bar.
"That better not be alcoholic." She said, walking up behind Molly.
Molly turned around. "Goacamoli milk." She said smirking. "I've been drunk once, and it will never happen again."
Lucky sat down besides Molly. "I still can't believe you drank Stern's entire supply of sherry. You were eleven!"
"And a half and as drunk as a skunky skunk." Molly smiled fondly at the memory.
"You had to get your stomach pumped." Lucky pointed out.
Molly shrugged. "It was worth it to see the look on her face."
Silence reigned for several long moments. Finally, Lucky sighed.
"So, you gonna be okay?" She asked.
Molly looked at the now empty glass she had in her hand. "Once we're away from him, I'll be fine. I just…. I was right. I was the best option." Molly slapped her gloved palm on the desk in frustration. "He's so… Urgh!"
Lucky placed her hand over Molly's in a silent show of support. "I know. I saw."
Then the tense moment was over, and the girls began to talk of other matters, like what to do when they got back to earth, if Jordan's hair was black or blonde, and what the race had been like from their respective points of view.
MEANWHILE IN THE HANGAR, IN DON WEI'S OFFICE
Don Wei, father of Eva Wei (AKA Molly, not that he knew that) set up his briefcase to call the President. He was here as an ambassador for earth, not to allow some… child to go and risk everything with some half cocked plan!
'But she was right.' A voice in the back of his mind whispered. 'None of the others can fly. You can't either. Yet you were prepared to risk your life against Groor in a fit of rage. She and Jordan won, even if their methods left a lot to be desired.'
Don ignored that voice, and activated the communication channel.
The image of the President sitting on his throne-like chair flickered into existence, floating above the briefcase.
"Ah, Don Wei." He greeted. "What news do you have for me? I trust everything is going well."
Don looked at his bandaged arm in silence. He'd lost his temper with Molly and hit his hand against a console. "We have made it through the first round, but barely. It was sheer luck, the irresponsible gamble of a young girl who wasn't even meant to be here!"
Don looked up at the floating image, now confident he was doing the right thing. "It was a hard decision to make, but I'm afraid that without Rick, we have no other choice. The earth team is withdrawing from the competition."
The president shook his head. "That is impossible. This girl, you say she can fly? She's your only choice. You will not withdraw."
Don's eyebrows furrowed. "She's just a child, not a pilot! The only reason she can fly at all is because she's a mechanic who was taught how!"
"She doesn't sound like a child to me, if she's a mechanic." The president pointed out. "And to withdraw at this stage would mean total destruction for the Earth Coalition. The end of more than sixteen billion people."
Don drew back in shock and horror. "You didn't… You didn't mention that when you told me about the race."
The president chuckled. "I only told you what you needed to know at the time." His face turned serious. "The girl will race until your pilot is able to. Goodbye Don Wei."
The connection was cut. Don Wei sank into his chair, defeated.
He was left with no choice. Molly would be their replacement pilot, despite the extensive damage she had caused the Arrow two.
Despite everything.
LATER THAT NIGHT
"Then I remembered something my mom said to me. 'Flight is the greatest gift of all. It's also called freedom. Fly to your hearts content my darling.' And that's why I raced today." Molly said, as the two girls walked back to the earth hangar.
Lucky smiled. "That's so sweet. I can remember my Grandmother saying something a bit like that too."
Molly stopped walking. "Uh oh."
"Hm?" Lucky asked, looking at her sister.
Molly pointed at the closed gate of the hangar.
Lucky followed her finger. "Uh oh."
Both girls simultaneously sat down in the dirt.
"Those jerks." Molly muttered.
Lucky scowled. "I thought that they were better than that."
"Guess we thought wrong." Molly sighed. "Check for Traveller."
Lucky blinked in surprise. "Why?"
"To make sure that they haven't thrown us out." Molly said, bitterly.
Lucky frowned. "They wouldn't…" She said, uncertainly.
"We've known them for less than three days. We can't trust them. I don't know why I did in the first place." Molly said, glaring at the door.
Lucky sighed heavily and pulled a small device that resembled an early twentieth century cell phone out one of the many pockets on her combats. She flipped it open, and the 'keypad' expanded so that it was in fact, a keyboard. A small one, but it had everything that the girls needed.
She typed in the words 'Far from Traveller have we travelled. Lead us to our noble steed.'
The screen lit up, and an arrow pointed to the hangar.
"Forward six feet." Lucky informed the two toned girl. "Left another thirteen."
Molly stood up and ran to check if the Traveller was outside the hangar. She came running back.
"It's inside." She panted.
They went back to staring at the building.
"Our room was the fourth on the left of the corridor on the second storey." Lucky stated.
"Did it have a window?" Molly asked. "I didn't notice one."
Lucky frowned. "There weren't any lights on. The light was coming from a window. I must have put something over it."
"So it'll be a window with green fabric over it, since you would never endanger our posters." Molly concluded.
Lucky looked at the row of windows, imagining how the inside of the building related to the outside.
"It's that one!" She exclaimed, pointing.
Molly looked at it. "The top of the exit would act like a balcony if we climbed out the window." She noted. "If you could give me a boost, I could climb up…."
Lucky shook her head in horror. "There's no way you could climb that high! It's way too dangerous!"
Molly's eyes glinted. "Watch me." She said angrily, taking off her gloves, shoes and socks.
Lucky slapped her forehead as she realized what she had done.
"Molly, don't you dare…" She began as Molly stalked over to the exit. "Seriously, don't…."
Molly ignored her and started climbing, although she found it difficult to ignore the sharp edges that dug into her hands and feet, and even harder to find decent hand and foot holds.
With a grunt of pain, she grasped the edge of the roof, and heaved herself over it, earning herself a pretty nasty graze on her stomach in addition to all her other injuries.
After assessing her injuries (mainly superficial, although it would be slightly painful to walk, use her hands or bend over for a while) Molly carefully limped over to the only open window over the makeshift balcony. She cursed in fluent Japanese when she realized that it was shut, and although it was their room, she would have to break in.
She smiled sardonically. "Who knew a few months in hell would come in useful." She muttered.
Taking a few tools out of her skirt bag, she put her time in the law-forgotten land to good use. She wasn't a professional, but it didn't take one to jimmy a window open. It took timing and luck.
Molly sang quietly as the porthole window sprang open. "I rock, I rock, I rock!"
Pulling it open the rest of the way, she pulled herself over yet another ledge. "If only schoolwork was that easy." She mused.
She slipped out of the room, her bare feet making no sound on the cold, metal tiles. She walked down the stairs, flinching as her feet touched the stone that the floor was made of. It was even worse than the metal.
Finally, she reached the switch for the hangar door. If she could get it open, even just a little bit, Lucky could slide through.
Sighing slightly, she grasped the wheel and heaved. Pulling on it with all her might, she managed to turn it enough for the hangar door to open a few inches. Another heave, and Lucky would be able to get through, if she went on her stomach.
Molly sighed in relief as her sister's blonde hair came into view. Lucky threw Molly's things through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, before rolling through it herself. Molly released the wheel, and the door came down with a thunderous clang.
Lucky jumped up from the floor in surprise, and both girls ran up the stairs as fast as they could, completely forgetting about the shoes, socks and gloves. Ignoring the surprised yells of their male housemates, they ducked into their own room and shut the door.
Molly sank down onto her bed. "That was close." She said, peering at her hands.
Lucky lay down next to her. "Yeah."
They were quiet for several long minutes.
"Lucky," Molly said, questioningly. "Why the hell did we run?"
"Because they locked us out. We panicked." Lucky said, sitting up. "We… WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?"
Molly fell off her bed in shock. "Lucky, calm down…. Please…"
"YOU'RE BLEEDING! THAT IS NO REASON TO BE CALM!" Lucky screamed.
Molly looked at her hands, stomach, and feet. "It's not that bad."
Lucky glared at her. "Stay still. Don't move. I'll get the iodine."
Molly gulped. "Okay." She said, in a small voice. She was the more aggressive of the two in the eyes of the world, but in reality, Lucky was tougher and scarier, especially when it came to Molly's well being.
Lucky stormed passed the males angrily. "Out of my way." She barked.
"Lucy what is going…?" Don Wei started.
"My name is Lucky." She yelled. "And Molly is hurt, from having to break into our room!"
Lucky opened the car door, deliberately slamming it against an open box of tools, sending the box and its contents flying. She grabbed the first aid kit out of the Traveller.
"How inconsiderate of me." She muttered sarcastically. "Way worse than locking two defenceless females out so that they can be potentially violently and brutally killed by a sore loser."
The glare she sent them was enough to stop them from trying to explain themselves, or even to try and stop her as she stormed passed them once again. Even Don Wei moved out of her way, without telling her that Molly would be racing the next day.
Molly remained perfectly still as Lucky cleaned her bloody hands and feet, before carefully pulling a few stones from the graze in her stomach. Inside her mind, she was using every swear word she knew. And as a mechanic, she'd learnt a lot of swear words.
"I'm sorry Lucky." She mumbled, as Lucky opened the bottle of iodine.
"S'okay. I should have known better than to tell you that you couldn't do something." Lucky said, expressionlessly. "This will sting a little."
Molly whimpered. "I know that it will sting. No little involved."
Lucky smirked in acknowledgement of just how true that was. "Hell no."
Molly closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She hated iodine with a passion that was usually reserved for racing.
"To make it up to you, we'll go back to the bar tomorrow. Maybe we'll make some friends." Lucky proposed.
Molly nodded. "Maybe we'll see Aikka."
Lucky instantly went into sisterly-interrogation mode. "Who's Aikka?"
Molly's eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't tell you?"
THE NEXT DAY
Molly had left the hangar early in the morning, and was just leaning against the wall, waiting for her sister to wake up. Usually, it would have been necessary to sit down and wait, because Lucky was a deep sleeper. However, Molly had a plan.
That plan kicked off at approximately seven O'clock earth time.
Molly flinched as one of her favourite songs, Never Say Never, broke the quiet of the morning. Well, broke was an understatement. Shattered, completely destroyed, smashed into a million pieces… Now that was a way to describe the quiet. Even she thought that the music was a bit loud.
And she was outside of the Hangar.