Miyu trotted out onto the tarmac, her new Heads Up Display dangling in her hand. Fox had been recommending her and Fay get them, although their Arwings were designed to not need them, the rigs still worked, and gave you added situational awareness. Fay was already out there, looking over her Arwing for any signs of wear. The one thing Fara had managed to actually teach them was how to repair and maintain their ships, although Fay showed a certain knack for it. Miyu waved to her as she passed beginning to look over her own fighter. It had only been a week and a half since they arrived, and they had only managed to get two solid flights up, due to much needed repairs being needed on Fox's Arwing, so she wasn't really worried about her fighter. She checked her watch and sighed, finally speaking to Fay.
"Alright, where the hell is he, he's late again." Almost as if on cue, she saw him shambling up to the landing pad. Although he had clearly showered and changed, Miyu could still smell the alcohol on him. She sighed as he closed his eyes and swayed on his feet for a few seconds. "Um, Fox, you sure you want to be flying with how hung over you are?" he waved her off and dropped into the pilot's seat of his Arwing. Fay shrugged at Miyu and the two of them climbed into their respective fighters. Miyu powered her fighter up, watching the holographic interface boot up. As soon as it did, she moved the slider that appeared higher, causing the craft to rise into the air. The only analogue style controls in the X-03 Arwings was the throttle, control yoke, and rudder pedals. All other functions were operated holographically. She gently pressed forward on the control yoke, tilting the nose of the fighter downward, and causing her fighter to gently drift forward. Although this was similar to fox's fighter, she did not have to touch the collective and she would stay airborne, fox on the other hand, would have to increase the collective and increase vertical thrust to not lose altitude.
"This is Fox McCloud, requesting orbital vectors for the Titan Orbital scrape yaaa-uuhn." Miyu couldn't help but giggle as he yawned. "Sorry Titan Orbital Scrap Yard for three single occupant fighter craft." In the gap between sending the transmission and the tower receiving it, Miyu powered on her radio.
"Late night drinking game got ya down?" she heard him grunt over the radio.
"Miyu, just shut up, I have enough of a headache as is." Miyu gritted her teeth, suddenly debating switching from training mode and putting a few rounds into the back of his fighter.
"Control to McCloud, transmitting data now. Fly safe." The data piped into her new HUD rig, a long blue arrow showing their flight path. She gently pulled back on the control yoke and eased the throttle forward, following Fox's lead as their fighters glided along the route. Within a few minutes, their fighters were slipping around the moon. Fox eased his fighter to a stop at the edge of the scrap yard they were using for training. The past two days, he had them disabling their cannons and ampping up their shields, then flying through the scrap as fast as they dared.
"Alright, make sure your craft is in training mode. This means your weapons will literally be just light, and won't affect you shielding, but your weapons disable when you're killed. I want you to split off in there, and duel each other." She sighed and watched Fay's Identify Friend or Foe tag change from friend to enemy. Her fist gently eased the throttle up and she guided the fighter into the debris. After a few seconds, Fox shouted into the radio.
"Go!" she rammed her throttle forward, all thought of being gentle gone. She smirked as she maneuvered through the debris, using a mixture of ruddering, pitching and the occasional roll to easily weave through the scrap. Fay's craft lit up on her scanners, a good distance above her. She looped onto her tail, instantly firing as Fay juked and dodged, finally rolling behind a piece of debris, out of Miyu's line of sight. Miyu shot after her, only to see her blip reappear on her tail.
"Smooth move Fay!" her own fighter started to juke as Fay fired a stream of unlinked training lasers at her. A few shots connected, but she was still in the fight. Miyu suddenly slammed on each of the pedals for a full second each, staggering it so she yawed off to the right before stopping and yawing back to the left. Fay, who had been following too closely to stop in time, shot past, letting miyu slip right onto Fay's tail. A handful of linked blasts later, and a kill chalked up on Miyu's HUD. The next few rounds went like this, as Fay learned to think faster and more abstractly, something Miyu had already learned from bounty hunting. After several rounds, the two of them were suddenly locked in a running battle, neither one able to gain the advantage long enough to beat the other. Finally, Fox's voice broke the radio silence.
"Alright both of you, weapons cold." She complied, bringing her fighter to a stop. His fighter was still visible on her sensors, since it was still sending friendly IFF codes to both of them. His fighter suddenly disappeared just after he entered the scrap yard, Fay's returning to a friendly tag. "Now, you two are going to duel me, two on one." Miyu instantly spoke up, bewildered.
"Whoa there, we got better fighters than you, we'll stomp you!" he laughed over the radio as Fay and Miyu glanced nervously at each other.
"Well then, you two should make short work of me then." She signaled fay to move forward with a hand signal, the two of them splitting apart to increase they're scanning area. After a few seconds, a red blip appeared near Fay and she was shouting.
"He's already on my tail, I can't shake him!" Miyu pushed herself to her limits, catching up in time for Fay to wink off the board. She managed to slip onto Fox's tail, but he was too quick for her to fully track. He was clearly actively manipulating all of his controls, including his collective, pulling off turns she would dare, and literally rolling through debris fields that he had a quarter of a second window that if he strayed out of in his timing, the craft would have wrecked, and yet, he did it over and over again. After a while, she began to think she wasn't chasing a master fighter pilot, but a living god of the air. She startled as her fighter tallied a confirmed hit on his fighter, just before he managed to flip around and score the kill on her.
"Holy shit! We couldn't even nick you! You are like a god in that fighter!" she could barely see his face in the space between them, but she could still see his grin.
"I'm good, but I aint no master. You still hit me a few times Miyu." No come on, that's it for today." Miyu nodded, falling in on his wing as they returned to Corneria.
Fox marched out of the star port, double checking that he still had his wallet. It toke him several minutes of walking, and the sun was already setting, but he managed to find his usual bar. He walked in, examining the not quite clean tables and rowdy atmosphere. He ignored everyone in the bar, heading straight for the main bar and leaning up against it, waiting for the bartender. It took him a minute to stop by, but he was instantly friendly when he did.
"Ah, McCloud, good to see you. What will it be tonight? The usual? Fox was about to nod when an arm shot around his throat, locking him in a choke hold, another hand on the back of his head. He tried to pull the arm off, only to find that whoever it was had used their other arm to brace it, so that any attempt he made to break the hold would just choke him out faster. The bartender opened his mouth to speak, but didn't as the person released him and none to gently shoved him onto a stool.
"That will be nothing for Mister McCloud tonight, he's leaving." Miyu took the space he had been standing in as she spoke, her attention focused on him. He was expecting anger to boil over at her at any second, but it never came.
"Yeah, says you and what army? You'll have to kill me to drag me out of here." He was turning back to the bar when he felt Miyu roughly grab his ear.
"I wouldn't count on that, sorry about this sir." She was already yanking on his ear, far harder than she had the last time. He couldn't help but squeal as she roughly dragged him out of the bar, followed by the most of the patrons and the bartender all laughing as the door shut. She finally let go of him and he straightened up, almost wanting to grin himself for reasons he couldn't quite explain. He tried his best to seem angry with her as he yelled, rubbing his still pulsing ear.
"What the hell are you doing Miyu?" she smirked and signaled him to follow her.
"Teaching you that there are better ways to spend your time than drinking yourself under a table." He finally let a small grin out, still confused at his own emotions. If it had been Katt or Fara dragging him out like that, he surely would've fought back more, and actually been angry with them.
"Alright, where are we going?" she smiled, tucking her hands into her jacket, and clearly letting her hips sway more than usual.
"Just a little café Panther used to talk about all the time. I met him before he joined Star Wolf, worked with him a little bit too." Fox shrugged at the explanation, not really caring. They were silent for a while, Fox intentionally staying silent. After a few blocks, she suddenly bumped her hip up against his, smiling at him. "Come on Fox, it's okay to talk."
"But that requires effort." She playfully punched his shoulder, making him smile. She gestured to an open air café by the water, just before leading him in. they sat near the water, overlooking a small natural looking beach, even though he knew it was man made, it still made an incredible view.
"Hello, I'll be your waiter for the evening, may I get you anything to drink?" Fox was about to ask for something alcoholic when she piped up.
"A big thing of the strongest coffee you have for him, he's had a long day. Just some water for me." The waiter smiled and walked away, Fox shooting a glare at her.
"I'm perfectly capable of ordering my own things." she chuckled as she glanced out at the waves.
"I know. I also knew you were about to order something with alcohol. Wasn't going to drag you from a bar so you could get drunk somewhere else, plus, I can tell just by looking at you, you're exhausted." He grunted, unwilling to look into her light blue eyes. He knew she was staring at him, but he did his best to ignore her. "You know, it doesn't take a telepath for me to read you like a book." He froze the second he heard the word telepath, feeling almost as if she had just stabbed him with a knife. A single tear slid down his cheek and he opened his eyes to see her staring at him, a worried expression on her face. "I'm sorry Fox, I probably should have worded that differently." Her hand slid across the table, wrapping her fingers around his and giving it a gentle squeeze. He looked away from her, about to pull his hand away when a memory echoed through his mind.
"Fox, it's okay to morn Krystal's death, but you do nothing more than disgrace her memory by not trying to move on, to live." Peppy's words continued to echo around his skull for a few long seconds. Maybe it is time to move on. He rotated his hand, lacing his fingers with hers. Tears were still stinging his eyes when he finally spoke.
"Thank you Miyu. For pulling me out of there." She smiled, a look of relief crossing her face just as the waiter arrived.