Chapter Ten, The First Flight

Ariana paid the taxi driver his fare, and walked up the path to her house, unlocking the door.

"What a messed-up day," she muttered to herself. She went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, trying to find something good to eat. She found some soggy raspberries and put them in her mouth. Ariana closed the door to the fridge, Justine staring at her, with her "kill"/ "rabid otaku" face. Ariana almost choked on her raspberries and spat them out.

"WHY… DIDN'T… YOU… TELL… ME… YOU… MET… AKO-CHAN!" growled Justine.

"What?" asked Ariana.

"I SAW THIS PICTURE ON !"

Justine held up a grainy picture of Ariana and Ako arguing on the sidewalk.

"Indoor voice, Justine."

"You didn't tell me that you met Ako-chan, the number one popstar in Japan!"

"Really, she's a popstar?"

"YOU DIDN'T KNOW AKO WAS A POPSTAR!"

"I thought she was a…"

"Tell me the details!"

"I can't really tell you… Okay, you know, I will, you'll love this. Okay, you know how for the past few weeks I developed these abilities and can do stuff like this."

Ariana knudged into a counter, causing a vase to fall. Ariana caught it quickly, without effort, and without it breaking or any water or flowers falling out.

"Or this."

Ariana picked up an orange and threw it through the kitchen wall, making a hole.

"Yeah, what's with you?"

"Apparently I was struck, accidently, by these things called Birdonic Rays when I was a fetus, that a bunch of other civilians, including 'Ako-chan' were struck with in Japan, except this Ryu guy who I don't like, who wasn't struck accidently. And they fought these people trying to take over the world, or destroy it, and now they're back, but one of the team is dead, and they need me, and they drugged my Jamba Juice and brought me to their American Headquarters, and they're all Japanese, and then they told me to become one of the Jetman, And then Ako pressed a button on her watch and became this, like, superhero with this blue spandex jumpsuit and this helmet with an opague visor and a bird motif, and these wings, and she looked like, you know, a power ranger, but she wasn't."

"OH MY GOD! AKO-CHAN IS IN A SENTAI! YOU WERE ASKED TO JOIN A SENTAI TEAM!"

"I said no. I don't fight."

"Blah, blah, blah, this is a once in a lifetime chance!"

"But it's against my principles. So, no, I'm not joining!"

Ariana went up to her room, and Justine followed her.

"You can't do your annoying pacifist thing your whole life, especially if the world is in danger!"

"And you can't do your whole Japanese thing either!" said Ariana as she emptied out her purse, "Look, I had a tough day, I need to go to sleep, I need to forget all of this—"

The cross changer fell out of her purse.

"What is that?"

"She must have put it in there!"

"What is that?"

"She'd think I'd join the team after using that stupid bracelet. 'Oh, I look so cool, no more sit-ins for me! I'm gonna join the NRA!'"

"Oh… My… God… Is that the transformation trinket?"

"What? Yeah, it's like a cross changer or something. They use it to change."

"Duh! Put it on! Try it!"

"No!"

"Please please please please!"

"No!"

"You're just afraid you're going to like it!"

Justine looked at Ariana with her big anime eyes. Not that Justine had anime eyes, no one on Earth has those unless they're in some Mary Sue fanfic. These were the eyes that Justine emulates to look like an anime character, her version of sad, puppy dog eyes, you know, when Sailor Moon or some other anime character is going to cry. Blech!

"All right, fine! I'll do it!" said Ariana with a huff.

"Yay yay yay yay!"

Ariana put the bracelet around her right wrist. She was about to press the button.

"No, say the line."

"Fine," said Ariana, "CROSS CHANGER!"

Suddenly, Ariana felt an almost euphoric feeling, power filling her body, like the first time she discovered powers caused by the birdonic rays. Her body began glowing, turning brighter and brighter. And she wasn't as afraid. Silver Light (if that was possible) began to form around her, engulfing her, until she couldn't see her friend, and her friend couldn't see her. She felt a surge of energy run through her body, around her feet, making its way up her body, to her chest, and then around her head. Then it stopped. The light cleared.

"Silver Dove!" shouted Ariana, almost instinctively as she did a pose. It just came to her.

"Oh… my… god!" Justine squealed! "You look so cool! You want to see yourself in a mirror?"

"I can actually see myself."

There was a computer inside Ariana's helmet or something. It started up, showing the schematics of her suit, transmitted through her visor.

"Silver Dove." It displayed.

"I'm Silver Dove?" asked Ariana.

"THAT'S PERFECT! Since, you're a peace freak and doves represent peace! Although I'm not sure if they can be silver, I don't care, you look so cool, and shiny."

Ariana wore a spandex suit, matching mini skirt, boots, and gloves, all similar to Ako's, only silver, and glistening. Her helmet looked like a dove was engulfing her face. She had an opague visor covering her eyes, and the helmet covered her mouth as well.

She did kind of look cool.

"I need to take some pictures!"

"Justine, don't!"

"They won't know it is you, they can't see your face."

Suddenly, Lilith glided into the room, her eyes glazed and red, with a big, crooked smile on her face.

"Holy crap," she giggled, "Ariana's a power ranger."

"I'm not a power ranger," said Ariana somewhat proudly, "power rangers aren't real. I'm a Jetman."

"Whoa, so I'm not having a weird trip again. That's cool."

Lilith touched Ariana, feeling up her suit.

"So shiny," said Lilith.

"I know, right." Said Justine.

"Hey," said Lilith, "Justine, can you get me, some like, McDonalds. I have a craving for some fries."

"But the McDonalds is going to close soon, wait, let's have Ariana fly there."

"What?"

"You said that Ako-chan said you can fly, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, why don't you fly to McDonalds, you have like three minutes, and get some fries."

"That would be AWESOME!" said Lilith.

"Fine, but that's it."

"Here you go," said Lilith, handing Ariana a crapload of money, "That should be enough."

They followed Ariana outside. Ariana took a deep breath.

"Give me a break, it's my first time doing this."

Ariana ran, and hit a tree.

"Okay, one more time."

Ariana took a deep breath and jumped into the sky, her arms at her side. She pulled her arms out revealing a set of matching wings that were sewn on or connected to her arms, and the body of the suit.

"Amazing…" her friends said.

She soared into the sky, catching a steady altitude, she was really flying, it was amazing, but Ariana was afraid, because she actually liked it. She was flying so fast, she could make it on time. All of a sudden, her visor screen showed her directions on Google Maps to the McDonald's on the bottom corner of the screen, showing her path. Although outside, the visor was still opague.

Ariana glided to the McDonald's drive through, still hovering, with her stomach and chest facing the ground.

"Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?"

"Uh… yeah, I'd like…" Ariana looked through the wad of money Lilith gave her… "Forty large fries, please."

"Pull up to the next window."

Ariana handed them the wad of money as the McDonald's employee looked at her with disbelief, and handed her two bags filled with individual packets of large fries.

"Thank you," said Ariana. The man was speechless, and two other employees walked up to the window, looking at the chick wearing a, you know what, I'm not going to describe it again, hovering off the ground like super man, her arms spread out, to her left and right, not pointing forward like super man.

"Have a… nice… night…" said the man, as Ariana flew away, carrying bags of French Fries, one in each arm.

Flying, it felt so peaceful, serene, and everything down below was beautiful.

Ariana arrived back her house, and handed off the French Fries to Lilith, who was caught up on what was going on by Justine.

"So you can be a superhero."

"I don't want to be. I just want some French Fries… But how do I take the helmet off?"

"Hmm…" said Justine, "it usually comes off when the person gets beaten up and seriously injured… LET'S BEAT UP ARIANA!"

"Yeah!" shouted Lilith, with a mouthful of fries.

They both started lightly punching Ariana, who dodged them.

"Wait, hold on… I think it has a detachable something. Aha."

Ariana pulled off her helmet.

"Wait," said Lilith, "Shake your head all sexily!"

"Okay," said Ariana, shaking her head and hair slowly as she pulled off her helmet.

"Nice!" said Lilith.

"Okay, now let's have fries and put this all behind us."

Meanwhile, at the US Sky Camp Headquarters…

"She's been activated!" exclaimed Ryu.

"But how could she have gotten a cross changer?" asked Chokan.

Everyone turned to look at Ako.

"I thought she'd reconsider if she tried it."

"Let's visit Ariana tomorrow, maybe she might join us," suggested Kaori.

"Hey, Chokan," said Raita, "I have a question: Since we speak Japanese and Ariana speaks English, how can we understand each other?"

"It's the language of Convenience," said Chokan.

"But."

"It's the language of CONVENIENCE!"