A/N: I'm on a roll with this, due to the quasi plot line that I have for this story. Enjoy, and if you finished reading the Author's Note, you LOST THE GAME!
Angel was completely out cold, and would not be returning to consciousness anytime soon. Ajax was carrying her, and had taken up a position behind and to the left of Max, with Fang behind and to the right. The Flock was flying in a rough v shape, trying to maximize the time they would be able to stay in the air.
"So…you have a plan as to where you're headed?" Ajax asked.
"East and south." Max said. "Eventually, we'll hit the Gulf of Mexico."
"ETA to landing?"
"We'll land in a few hours. I want to put some distance between us and the School." Max replied shortly, beginning to tire of the questions.
"Good 'nuff." Ajax said.
The Flock flew on in silence.
Two hours later, they began flying over the Mojave National Reserve.
"We'll stop here." Max said wearily.
The Flock descended noiselessly, it had been a long day, and all were weary. Once on the ground, Ajax gently set Angel down on the ground, then moved her slightly so she wouldn't have massive cramps in her wings when she finally did wake up.
"Seeing as how I'm probably the most wakeful of all of us, I'll take first watch after we get the fire going." Ajax called behind him, already well on his way to finding some wood.
Max found that she didn't have the energy to disagree, and went to check on the other members of the Flock. Gazzy and Iggy were talking quietly, and Fang was Mr. Rock as usual. Nudge was so exhausted that she didn't say anything beyond "What's for dinner?"
As it turned out, there was only a backpack full of Powerbars that Jeb had handed Max before leaving the Flock to escape. After distributing a few to each, Max motioned for Fang to give her the second backpack that Jeb had given them. Max found two tarps and a ball of string. While Max was trying to decide exactly what the tarps were for, Ajax returned with a suitable amount of firewood, which was unceremoniously dumped for the Gasman to deal with. He was also dragging a large, relatively straight branch, which he propped up in the lowest fork of a tree.
"How did you…?" Max said in amazement.
"I helped Jeb pack those backpacks." Ajax said. "I know what's in them."
MacGyver had been busy with the branch while Max and Ajax were talking, and within a few moments, he had the branch lashed in place, and was situating the tarps over it. Five minutes later, he had the tarps sewn to the branch, and secured to various sticks placed in the ground.
"That ought to provide some decent shelter." he said, standing up. He had created a two wall tent, and the fire was directly in front of it.
"You know, normally, we just hang onto a tree and sleep there." Max said. "It takes less time to set up and take down." she added sarcastically.
"You know, I hadn't thought of that." Ajax said thoughtfully, rolling out two sleeping bags. They were extra large in size, big enough for three Flock members per bag. "On the other wing, it gets cold out here in the desert. So…if you enjoy being warm, there's a warm place to lay your head til morn, or you can freeze in a tree." Ajax started to walk towards where the Gasman was attempting to build a fire. "It's your call."
"I can't seem to get this thing going." The Gasman complained. "I think the lighter's out of gas."
"Just fart in it." Iggy said seriously. After a moment, his composure broke, and he began to snicker at the idea of Gazzy bottling his signature scent.
"I've got a better idea." Ajax said. He held out a bottle towards Gazzy. "Here, put your fumes in there."
Ajax yanked a small shovel out of subspace, a flare of blue light running the length of the tool before the rift sealed itself again.
"Uh, Gaz? What's going on? I'm kinda in the dark here."
"Oh, uh Ajax just pulled a shovel out of thin air, and he's digging a hole with it."
"Oh. That's cool…wait, he pulled a shovel out of thin air?"
"Uh, yeah." Iggy's exclamation drew the attention of the Flock.
"Subspace. I pulled it out of subspace. It is essentially an unlimited storage location that moves with me. You 'bout finished with that bottle, Gaz?"
"Here you go." The Gasman responded, all too cheerfully, holding out the bottle. Ajax caught a whiff of the gas within and grimaced. "That right there is a strong stench, boys and girls."
"Why do you think he's called the Gasman?" Max asked.
"That is a really good question." Ajax responded flippantly. "I'm guessing it might have something to do with the uh, gas? But that's just my opinion, and I'm not expert in these matters."
All eyes were on the dueling sarcastics.
"Right." Max said slowly, letting everyone present know that she had seen exactly where he was going.
Ajax coolly turned from the duel, and fitted a small nozzle to the bottle. The gasses within the bottle were transferred to a tiny pressure sphere, which was then activated. Ajax propped up a small flow nozzle in the hole he had dug, then carefully fitted a rubber tube to it. At this point, everyone was watching to see what was going on. Ajax buried the whole thing except for the tube coming from the device. He casually blew a blast of air through the tube, causing some dirt to be shifted away from the flow nozzle.
"Build your fire directly over that nozzle." he said to Gazzy. After the fire was built, Max remembered that it was extremely late, probably three in the morning.
"I've got first watch, remember?" Ajax said. "You guys go to sleep, you'll be needing it." He turned back to the as-yet unlit fire. Pulling out a mega match, he ran it over a slice of fifty grit sandpaper he had for that particular job, and pushed the flaming match towards the pile of sticks, but backed off at the last moment.
Reaching over, he adjusted the gas flow knob on the tank so that the odor le Gaz could escape the pressure tank into the fire. After that, he pushed the match into the not yet burning fire. The kindling caught almost at once, and Ajax got well back. Gazzy was still watching him, though the boys were all in a single sleeping bag, and supposed to be sleeping. Apparently, Iggy was awake as well, for Gazzy was whispering to him, probably talking about the fire. All of a sudden, the gas from the flow nozzle mixed with the fire, causing a massive fireball. It settled after a few moments, leaving a low hissing sound as the gas slowly came out of the tube. Satisfied that the fire would continue to burn, Ajax began climbing a nearby tree. As soon as the Flock was asleep, Ajax moved purely to the realm of the spiritual, and called for fifty angels to join him at the Flock's camp. As the group approached the camp, Ajax explained that he needed for there to be no coyotes or other desert animals lurking about while the Flock slept. As soon as they had taken their positions, Ajax slipped into the trance that the Flock was entering. One by one, the members of the Flock found themselves lying in a grassy field.
"Were are we?" Max demanded.
"Once again, you are in the realm of the mental. I found that in your own worlds, the theme of a grassy field with a cloudless sky was common across the entire Flock. This time however, you are not here to carve out a place of recovery. You are here to learn how to fight. Ordinary things like what you might do to an Eraser will not work here, it's an entirely different environment with different rules."
Ajax moved his left arm to the side, and it looked like he was gripping something. When he pulled back, the others saw that he had a rod in his hand.
"I can do may things with this piece alone." he said, passing it to Max to pass around the Flock.
Max envisioned using it as a blunt force weapon, and handed it to Nudge. As Nudge examined it, she couldn't help but think how much like a light saber it looked. Suddenly, it shifted slightly in her hand, and ignited. A cool blue beam of light, about four feet long, shot out of one end. It hummed quietly, and Nudge waved it around a little, hearing the humming change slightly as she did so.
"Good! You figured out how to use it! Don't tell anyone how you figured it out, they need to learn on their own." Ajax said. Nudge hadn't even realized that the rest of the Flock had disappeared for a moment. The weapon deactivated, returning to it's former shape.
Nudge handed it to Angel, who, after a cursory glance at the rod, handed it off to Fang.
Fang saw it as the hilt of a sword, and the rod shifted, taking the exact shape of the sword he had envisioned.
Again, Ajax repeated the warning, and then Fang handed it to Iggy, the sword having changed back to being nothing more than a rod. Iggy was enjoying just being here, because his sight was not impaired here. He examined the rod, attempting to figure out the function. He passed it to Gazzy.
Gazzy had been thinking off an M-16 when the rod was handed to him, and when it touched his hands, it squirmed, shifted, and grew 'til it was the size and shape of an M-16. He squeezed off a few rounds, a big grin on his face, when Ajax warned him not to tell anyone.
When MacGyver got his shot at it, he was thinking that it could be a bow, or a golf-club, or even a lateral-cranial impact enhancer. It shifted to a bow, then a golf-club, and then the lateral-cranial impact enhancer.
Ajax had seen all three forms, and decided to question him about it.
"What was that second item?"
"That. Was a pitch wedge, it's used in golf to hit a white ball towards a target range of about fifteen feet."
"And the third item?"
"That was a random piece of junk I picked up in an airplane hangar, and I dubbed it a 'lateral-cranial impact enhancer'."
"How does it work?"
"You hit someone in the side of the head with it." MacGyver said, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Oh." Ajax took back the rod, and when he had the attention of all members of the Flock, he activated the weapon, molding it into a sword that he had in real life. A rod, about half as thick as the original rod, grew out of the device, extending to a distance of two feet in length, ending in a blunt tip. After that, two single edged blades grew out if the handle, on opposite sides to each other. The blades lengthened, widening towards the tip, before slimming to a point at the very tip of each blade.
"Today, we are going to learn how to use thought inspired weaponry and armor. Catch!" Ajax threw a five inch wide circle to each person.
"This," He held up the disk. "is an armor disk."
He placed it flat against his chest, and let go. The disk stayed put.
"When activated…" the disk glowed for a moment, the sections of armor began to 'flash' into place. "it can create any armor you can think of. Go ahead, try it."
Max hesitantly placed it on her chest and removed her hand. She seemed slightly relieved that it stayed where she had placed it. Gazzy placed it on his chest, and thought of Iron Man's armor, though a color of green so ghastly that it should have been outlawed. Max couldn't really think of anything, and she was certain that she didn't want to.
"This is cool!" Gazzy said, eighty feet up in the air. He had managed to stabilize the suit, and was just hovering in place, trying to decide what to do next.
Fang's armor was reminiscent of a walking tank, and rather stiff, though it did have bumped out section in the back for his wings.
Max took a deep breath, and the only thing she could think of was the armor that Ajax was wearing. Was she opened her eyes, the disk glowed briefly for a moment, then segments of armor began to 'flash' into place just like Ajax's armor. Her wings were spread out behind her, and as she turned her head to look at them, the armor began enclosing her wings in a flexible adamantium carapace. She briefly wondered about a helmet, and then the queer feeling that accompanied the spreading armor began to slide up her neck. It closed over the top of her head just as she gave a muffled cry, then the armor was complete. As she looked at Fang, the view screen began to display pertinent information in a never ending scrolling of data to the left side of her vision. To her right was more data scrolling, this data was displaying suit diagnostics instead of information from the outside world. She opened her mouth to speak, and a glowing rectangle dropped down with the words comm link: active before scrolling back up again.
"Anybody besides me a little freaked out by this?" she asked over the intercom.
"This is really cool!" Nudge said. "I was able to like be fashionable with my armor, and it's really soft and smooth on the inside, and really strong on the outside, but it looks like"
"Computer." Max ordered, hoping there was a computer in her helmet. There was a soft bleeping noise. "Mute comm signal Nudge." The computer bleeped in reply, and Nudge's voice cut out.
Angel chose to report in. "I thought it would be all tight and restrictive, but it's like it reads my thoughts, and now I'm moving faster! That's all I've got, Angel out." There was a tone, and Angel's comm symbol dropped out of the HUD in Max's helmet.
Gazzy shut down his thrusters unceremoniously, and dropped to the ground with a thud. "That was cool! I bet I could even blow stuff up with this thing, just like Iron Man does."
"In other words, yes Max, you are the only one who was even slightly freaked out by this armor thing." Max muttered to herself. "Now, how do I get rid of my helmet?" A moment later, the panels that made up her helmet began to simply vanish, leaving her head free of the near-impervious carapace that somehow read her thoughts.
"All right, the fun's over, try to get out of your armor." Ajax said.
Max was out of hers in record time, though the disk still stuck to her shirt, making it sag awkwardly. Fang's tank vanished, leaving only the black disk, though it almost seemed to blend in with his equally black shirt.
Iggy's danger-sign and black/yellow tape encrusted bi-pedal monster vanished, leaving the pale bird kid roughly fifteen feet in the air. He landed without incident, and all eyes turned to Nudge. She had taken an…artistic approach to her armor design, and it looked more like some sort of gown that might be worn to a wedding than an actual protective suit. It vanished after several seconds, leaving Nudge to pout about not being allowed to keep it on. Gazzy launched himself fifty feet into the air before making his special carapace disappear. He dropped back to the ground in a slow spiral. Angel's armor was already off, and MacGyver was in the process of removing his armor. For some reason, MacGyver hadn't been able to shake the idea of ancient armor when he had placed the disk over his chest. That was what was now disappearing, huge section by huge section.
"Now that you've worked out how your armor works, it's time to learn how to use your weapons."
Nudge raised her hand like she was in a class. "Yes Nudge?"
"Can we keep the weapons and armor?" Nudge asked. "Because that would be like,"
"Nudge."
"really cool, especially if we could have them like out in the real world,"
"Nudge?"
"although I guess this is also the real world,"
"Nudge!"
"wait, now that's too confusing…what?"
"Yes. You can keep the armor and weaponry if you pay attention and learn how to use them properly. I need you to pay attention, because you might not get this chance again before you are attacked on this level. And before you go thinking that can't happen, know this. Right now, out in what you called the 'real world' Nudge, a group of fifty people are surrounding your camp in a circle."
When Ajax dropped that particular bombshell, Max tightened considerably.
"Don't worry though, they are friendly. Those people are the Sigma heavy infantry division, one of Heaven's finest divisions of angels. There is nothing, be it man, beast or demon getting in that circle without one monster of a fight."
"I'd like to see them! What do they look like? Are they dressed in like, white robes and stuff?"
"Nudge! Fine, I'll ask them to stick around for a few minutes after you guys wake up, but seriously, we need to get this show on the road! This world experiences time at a different speed than the realm of the physical, and it's already about four thirty by your method of reckoning time."
"So, what are these rod things?"
"They will serve as your weapons. What would you have for a weapon?"
Max thought about it for a bit, and decided that while a samurai sword would be awesome, a smaller, more curved blade would be better.
While she thought it out, a sickle formed in her hand. Opening her eyes, she looked at the weapon in her hands. She slashed with it a few times, experimentally, then returned to a neutral position. Fang's rod morphed into a ninja's blade, also as black as his clothing.
Nudge had a light saber again, and Iggy was holding a chain-sword.
Gazzy had his M-16 pointed at the ground, and Angel had what looked like a cross between technology and a magic wand like you might see in those exaggerated cartoons with the massive star or other item at the tip.
Hers was a light steel grey, and had three concentric rings around the rod. The was a slight humming sound coming from it, then suddenly, an arc of electricity briefly connected the device with the ground.
"Why didn't that thunderclap hurt our ears?" Iggy wondered out loud. Despite being able to see in this realm, his hearing was still off the charts.
"Because of the nature of the weaponry. Now if there had been demons nearby, in the mental plain, that thunderclap would still be reverberating in their chests. Essentially, Angel, what you've picked is a cross between your own personal toaster, and a stun gun." Ajax looked over at MacGyver, who was standing in the firing position with his bow. Oddly, though Ajax had not yet touched on the topic of partial armor for a specific purpose, MacGyver's armor had created an arm guard for his forearm, to prevent string burn. A quiver was slung behind him, and an arrow was already fitted to the string. He released the tension in the bow, and the arrow flew straight and true for a distance of two hundred feet.
"Wow, that was a really long shot!" Gazzy said.
"Yeah, it would be, after all, this is angelic weaponry we're talking about here. It's about twenty times as strong as anything you've ever seen before." Ajax gestured to the arrow that was embedded in the ground. "You should call it back." he said.
"How? Do I just say 'come back to me, arrow' or something?"
The arrow slithered out of the hole it had created in going there, and then flew back towards MacGyver, where it dropped gently into the quiver.
"Yeah, pretty much."
Everyone else had watched with open mouths as it did so.
"As of now, I bind your weapons to you." Ajax intoned. Each weapon began to emit a white glow as Ajax continued speaking.
"These weapons will be your trusted friends in combat, refusing to harm your friends or yourselves."
The glow was intensifying, and the smaller Flock members were already cloaked entirely in the white light.
"They will refuse to commit destruction in the hands of another, and will return at your call."
At this point, the glow had swallowed nearly everyone in the whiteness.
"Bear them well, and may God be with you."
Nudge woke with a start. It was a moment before she remembered where she was. The fire was nearly out, and she looked towards the tree where Ajax was keeping watch. He wasn't there. After a few moments of searching, she found him, seemingly carrying on an animated conversation with thin air. The remaining members of the Flock began stirring, and in an incredible show of coordination, they crawled out of their sleeping accommodations as one. Gazzy and Iggy moved to deal with the fire, and Iggy noted that the can was just about out of gas. MacGyver was helping Fang disassemble the tent-like structure and roll up the sleeping bags while Max and Nudge went to prepare breakfast, or maybe more accurately, warm up the Powerbars. Just then, Nudge gasped.
"What is it, sweetie?" Max asked, not looking up from the bag.
"Look! They're all around, just like he said they were! Max, with those guys nearby, we wouldn't have to worry about anything coming after us!"
Max looked up, and momentarily froze at the sight of fifty soldiers, all armed, and wearing pure white clothing. Their golden swords seemed to swirl the light, making it look like the swords might have been made of water. Ajax strode up with one of the soldiers.
"Max, I'd like you to meet my good friend, Sigma Alpha. He's the commander of this battalion."
"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Sigma said, holding out his hand. Max shook it.
"Well, I'm glad to meet you too." Max said.
"I had asked if they could stick around, you know, visibly for a little bit, and my good buddy here said he'd go one further. He and his senior staff will be joining us for breakfast."
At that, Max went bright red. "We don't have anything beyond a backpack full of PowerBars." Max said.
"Oh, that's all right. It'll be our treat. Our battalion is meeting up with a supply train two weeks sooner than expected, so we've got plenty to spare."
"If you're sure…we eat a-"
Whatever Max was going to say was cut off by a massive unfortunate occurrence. About five seconds later, there was an epic fireball as Gazzy's fart touched the remains of the dying fire and ignited. He was thrown fifteen feet away from the fire, due to the sheer force of the fireball. He would have taken a fatal blow to the head from a tree if it weren't for Sigma moving quite a bit faster than Gazzy was moving. He caught the young bird-kid, and set him back on his feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just got caught off-guard there." Gazzy said. "Thanks for catching me." With that, he returned to the fire, were Iggy was also moving back to the fire.
"Are you aware," Sigma said, returning to where Max and Fang were now standing "that you have a live propane factory?"
"You mean The Gasman?" Max asked
"The who?"
"They all have somewhat…different names. The kid you saved from that tree? He's The Gasman."
"We learned to never put him in any position other than the very last in line. He's only gotten worse over the years."
Sigma's eyebrow twitched, but otherwise kept his face clear of any negative emotions related to such issues. After a few moments of awkward silence, two other senior officers joined them carrying baskets of food.
They spread a blanket out over the ground, and Sigma gave thanks for the food. The Flock dug in eagerly, and the senior staff of the Sigma battalion looked on in curiosity as the Flock packed away more food than anyone had ever done in their presence before. Max looked around the blanket, and realized that, for the moment at least, she was truly happy, despite the fact that she was a fugitive and a freak.
Nudge was in an animated discussion about fashion with a female lieutenant first class, while Ig and Gaz were busy picking the brains of the detonation specialist sitting across from them. Fang was rather quietly discussing stealth with the SpecOps leader, and Angel was trying to read Sigma's mind. Max smiled at the look on Angel's face, apparently entering the mind of an angel is harder than normal people. MacGyver was eating standing, since there wasn't enough room on the blanket, and discussing improvisation tactics with the second in command. Everyone was putting food away at a relatively quick pace. Ajax wasn't with the group, as he had already finished eating, and was busy putting the finishing touches on packing up camp.
A raptor was making some odd fly-bys, and normally, Max would have been in wonder, but the way it was flying, and the coloring made her suspicious. Ajax looked up at it, and his eyes narrowed. A moment later, a snarl of rage came over his face, and he picked up the twelve foot long branch that had been the center ridge of the tent last night, and threw it at the raptor. Sigma had looked up just in time to see a tree branch fly over his head, and moved to see Ajax a bit better.
"Dude, that was a good shot, but what was wrong?" he asked.
"That raptor was what was wrong. It wasn't organic, and it had cameras. It came from Itex." Ajax ground out. "I'd bust their heads for this, but I can't do that right now."
"Well, it sure looks like you got him. It, I mean." Sigma added quickly.
"Yeah…" Ajax zipped the backpack shut, and subspaced it. He looked around, taking in the camp. "I think that's just about it. Now, I just have to erase the fire, and we're able to get out of here with nearly no trace except for that shattered raptor camera." Ajax ripped out the gas line that he had buried last night, and tamped the dirt back into place. Within five minutes, the Flock finished up, and Sigma got up.
"Well dude, it's been a pleasure, but we've just gotten new orders, so…I guess I'll see ya around?"
Ajax smiled lopsidedly. "Yeah, I'll see ya around, old man."
"Who you callin' old, dude?" Sigma said, playfully punching Ajax in the arm.
Ajax grinned, but didn't comment. The Sigma battalion vanished a moment later, leaving the Flock alone again.
"That was so cool! I mean they were like real angels, and this one had this really cool sword, and-"
"Nudge, please. Thank you. Now, do any of you remember last night? Raise your hand if you do."
Everyone raised their hands. "Good, glad to know you were all paying attention. Now," Ajax reached up and pulled two felt bags out of subspace. "In these bags are your weapons and armor. Take one out, pass it around." He underhand lobbed one bag to Max, the other to Fang.
Max caught it with one hand, and looked at the insignia on the front. It showed a fierce looking warrior, bearing a bright blue shield. The rest of the drawing was black and white, leading Max to believe that the armor disks were inside. She was right. Pulling one out, she absently handed the bag to Iggy, and turned the disk over in her hand. It seemed to glow slightly, and, remembering last night, she placed it against her shirt, this time in a place where it would not sag awkwardly like it did before. After a moment, she allowed her hand to drop away from the disk, and it stayed in place on her shirt. She thought of the armor that had covered her last time she had such a device with her, and the armor activated, covering Max in an impervious layer of metal. Surprisingly, it didn't feel constricting, but almost like she had just been freed from something. It was lightweight, and flexible, yet hard enough to stop anything headed her way. It wasn't cold against her skin, but felt like a warm blanket that had just come out of the dryer at her mom's house. She had expected to loose the sense of touch in her hands, but when she caught the bag she saw coming at her, she realized that the armor somehow allowed for the sense of touch without sacrificing the protection it offered. She remembered that the weapon, when not active, would just be a metal rod, and wondered how she would keep it with her without holding it all the time. Looking at her waist, she noticed a loop of metal bending out from the armor to accept the weapon. She pulled the weapon out of the black felt bag, and it flashed on both ends for several seconds before the lights faded away, and the weapon was inert once again.
"What was that?" Max asked. Ajax had stepped over to retrieve the bags.
"What, the blinking? That was your weapon imprinting. Now, it will respond only to you."
"And why does the armor feel so light and free? Not that I'm complaining or anything…but it just seems a little weird."
"A simple question with a simple answer. That fine piece of armor that you are wearing was designed, forged and assembled in Heaven, by God's specifications. It's designed to be freeing. Now, we are going to learn to fight with these weapons, so lets get to it. Do you want to start with aerial combat, or terrestrial combat?"
"Uh, I think we could start in the air, I guess."
"Okay." Ajax responded cheerfully. "Up and away."
Most of the Flock jumped into the air as a matter of habit, but MacGyver, Fang, and Max stayed on the ground.
"You know, from the air, you'd be sitting ducks right now." Ajax said. "MacGyver, you're with me. Everyone else can just spar as you normally would." Ajax wound up, and flung himself into the sky. MacGyver followed with trepidation, and eventually was up at a high enough point to engage in combat.
"All right, rules of engagement: Three strikes, and you're out. You're goal is to get three on me before I can get three on you. Set your weapons and armor to 'practice mode', and we can begin."
"What does practice mode do?" MacGyver asked.
"Normally, I wouldn't be able to strike you because you are a friend, but with the equipment in practice mode, I can score hits on you. It won't hurt you, but your armor will note the hit, and when you get tagged, a light will flash on your HUD. Did I clear up that question?"
"Yeah."
Ajax rose to an altitude of about one hundred fifty feet, and circled as MacGyver worked his way up. "All right, Mac. Let's see how you do on the offensive at one-fifty." Ajax muttered to himself.
After a few more moments, MacGyver finally got up to where Ajax was waiting, and reached for his weapon. Ajax merely shifted in the air, waiting to see what MacGyver was going to do. He was so focused on MacGyver's flying, that he didn't notice the fact that the entire Flock was focused on watching him and MacGyver. MacGyver continued to climb until he was above Ajax, then made a shallow dive towards Ajax, weapon poised to strike. Because a bow would have been impractical, MacGyver had opted for a mace, figuring that the least he could do was just knock his enemies out. As MacGyver approached, the radar built into the HUD in Ajax' helmet alerted him to MacGyver's approach. Ajax inverted, and slid away to the right. MacGyver didn't show any sign of irritation, but doggedly pursued his target. Due to his inverted position, Ajax had noted the entire Flock watching. He opened a comm line.
"Since you all are just watching, how 'bout we shake this up a bit. Seven to one sparring. The first person to tag me gets an all expenses paid trip to…Disneyland for two!" Needless to say, this got everyone moving, and Ajax found that he might have made a minor mistake by saying that. The armor at his feet shifted, and a pair of rockets flared up, moving him out of the way of the Gasman's tackle maneuver.
"If you get tagged more than two times, you're out, and should either land or change your armor color to red." Ajax said, just to remind everyone.
After a moment of being chased by Gazzy, Ajax pulled his weapon from it's clasp, and the sword activated. Ajax turned in the air with a tight twist, and caught Gazzy's weapon on the flat of his blade. Gazzy grunted as his entire forward motion was reversed within the span of three seconds. He tumbled a bit before stabilizing, but in the process, he dropped his weapon. Gazzy reached out, as if to stop it from falling any further, and it reversed course, and flew back into his hand.
"That was cool!" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, you're all able to do that as long as it's your own weapon you're reaching for." Ajax said, spinning around in time to catch Nudge's light saber against the spine of his sword. This time, Nudge's momentum was too great for the thrusters in the suit, and Ajax shut down the engines, deactivating his blade at the same time. Ajax fell out of Nudge's range, and reignited the engines, reforming his blade at the same time. Twelve turbocharged seconds later, Ajax was high above the fight, and he leveled off, watching the others. As one, they began their ascent, but Max activated her warp drive ability, and showed up ahead of the Flock. As she was coming up, Ajax shifted to accommodate using two hands instead of one, and delivered a powerful stroke to Max's arm. The only way she even knew that she'd been hit was the fact that her heads up display had pinged, and only two hearts were blinking now. Ajax dropped, tagging Max again as he did so.
Aggravated by the fact that she had just taken two of her permitted three hits, Max chased Ajax down, passing MacGyver as they did so. Poor MacGyver had never stood a chance. As Ajax passed, three hits were delivered. One went to the back of the head, causing his helmet to ring like a bell. another strike on his ribcage, and an up slash against one of his legs, all within the span of two seconds.
"Oh, come on!" MacGyver said petulantly. He didn't truly want to fight in the sky, and had been hoping to land, but not like this.
Ajax went into fighter jet mode, not targeting anyone as Max continued to chase him. Her hyper speed was causing Ajax to think twice about going for anyone else, and it was all he could do to keep his feet out of her range. Ajax twisted sharply out of an inverted dive, and shot straight up on the force of his jets alone. Max followed, unwilling to let him go. As Ajax ascended, he pulled his sword again, and delivered two blows to Fang, the first in his stomach, the second over his spine. He didn't have time for a third, as Fang twisted away, and Max was still following him. Now, she was triple pissed, and Ajax realized that he had made a poor choice in not making sure she was done before going for Fang. He shut off his engines, and held his blade ready. A moment later, Max blasted into him at full force. He caught the blow admirably, but the force of the impact jarred his arm, causing him to drop his weapon. It changed back to it's inert form as it fell, so as to protect people from being sliced open. Grabbing his backup weapon, Ajax trapped Max's blade, and twisted. She held on, and changed her blade, freeing it.
"Excellent maneuver!" Ajax said. He was glad that she had caught the idea of how flexible her weapon could be, despite that fact that this meant he stood less chance of winning. A moment later, she tagged him with her weapon, squarely where his jaw would have been if it weren't for the helmet protecting him. Ajax reached for his still falling weapon, causing it to return to him, but Max got in another strike before it was back in his hand.
Ajax squirmed in the air, attempting to get away before she could get him again. Max followed, but Ajax straightened out, and flew straight up, making a beeline for space.
As the altimeter wound up, the air became thinner, and they began moving faster as the resistance and gravity dropped. Ajax had gotten out in front of Max, with a lead of about two hundred feet, and the suit around his feet began to shift, a boxy looking object pushing out from either side of his feet. The newly formed impulse engines began to glow, and Ajax shot forward at a greater speed. Max realized that she was having a hard time breathing, and wondered if her armor was capable of going into space. The suit shifted near her shoulders, ovals forming with depressions in them. Two miniature deflector arrays powered up, and then something shifted on her back, and breathing became easier again.
Max: You mean to tell me that you wrote eight pages, and just stopped, just like that?
HW: *looking left and right* Um…yup!
Max: Unbelievable. *starts to pace* I mean, how can you write eight freaking pages, and just stop like that?
HW: Hey, in my defense, I'll make this a two part chapter. How did you like breakfast with the Sigma battalion?
Max: Breakfast was good. I liked it.
HW: So you should be thankful for my spur-of-the-moment ideas. As the writer in control of this story, I am the one who set that little scene up. Still wanna be pissed at me?
Max: I concede that you MIGHT have a point.
HW: Good. Now, next Sunday, I'll update again, perhaps a double header if I write it right. Heh, did you see what I did there?
Max: *shakes head disbelievingly* You're pathetic.
HW: Hey, you want me to just stop writing? Life support doesn't go forever, even in that armor that you're wearing.
Max: True. I tell ya what. I'll punch you if you decide to stop writing, and I won't if you don't stop until this is done.
HW: Note to self: Write Max out of the story after an extremely heartbreakingly painful death.
Max: Backing down now.
HW: Note to self: Belay last note to self.
All right Max, it's been fun verbally sparing with you, but I have answer to readers to do, so don't hold against me what I'm about to do. *throws Max out of an open window like a sack of potatoes*
Max: I can fly you know!
HW: Yeah, I know…oh CRAP! *quickly closes the window*
Max: Darn!
Answers to Readers!
NinthFeather: I keep making you loose the GAME because it's far too much fun not to. By the way, I lost the GAME! Sorry for not including the villain in the first half of this chapter, but I'll try harder next time!
The Layman: It is shallow to pin Mac's MacGyver-ness to one thing. *attempts to look genuinely offended*
The link was for Deviantart, but as FFN saw fit to erase most of it, I will try again here. I've never seen Angels and Demons so…you should be intrigued.
The link is as follows, but for it to work, you will have to remove the spaces. I'm sorry for the confusion this has caused.
http:/ ncc-1701-j. deviant art .com / d388u6u