"Hey Misty, I'm getting pretty lonely here, aren't you? Maybe we should get the others up here too, I suppose they'll want to know what's going on."
Misty thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose we could, but how?"
"Why don't you be creative?" replied Tails.
"Attention passengers, we would like to inform the travelers in Row 26 have been chosen randomly to accompany us in the cabin."
A murmur rose throughout the cabin. Gradually, people's heads turned towards the unlucky people in Row 26.
"Um, guys, I think we should go now." said Tracey.
"Bloody oath, mate, or we're history. Come on, before we attract too much attention" replied Brock, oblivious to the eyes staring at them.
The group of them slowly got up and walked what seemed to be miles to the cockpit door and knocked.
Misty waited. There. Three knocks.
She rose from her seat and slowly opened the door. Brock, Tracey, Richie, Ash, Sonic. Five people, good.
She shut the door, locking it behind her.
"Hi guys," she said cheerfully.
Expletives found their way around the cockpit as the scene was taken in.
"What the Hell, Misty? You killed two pilots and now you want us? You psycho!" gasped Ash.
"Oh yeah. I killed them. Now I'm going to kill you." came her sarcastic reply.
"Thanks, I feel great now,"
"We didn't do it," said Misty, "Do I look like the harmful type?"
"..."
"Don't answer that," she said sheepishly. "But seriously, they were like that when I got here. I thought Tails had done it."
Heads turned towards Tails.
"Well don't look at me," said Tails, who had joined the group, "How could I take those two out and not make a fuss of it?"
"A fair point," remarked Tracey.
"Well what's wrong with them, then?" asked Richie, "They look about as lively as a pair of boulders sitting next to each other."
"I don't know," replied Tails. "They don't appear to be injured, so I'm thinking internal problems, like stroke or something."
"Okay, now what?" said Ash, changing the subject abruptly, for no apparent reason.
"Well, I'm supposed to be flying the plane to Celadon and landing it there. Of course, not as easy as you think, you look out that window and tell me where you think you are."
Brock looked out. "Just water everywhere,"
"Exactly. I've also no idea how I'm supposed to make an approach. Back on Mobius, after a while I learned where all the hills and things where around my runway, so I knew how high I should be when I was a certain distance away."
"Well, why is it different here?" asked Ash.
"On Mobius, it took me about a year to memorize heights and things, and I judged distance with my eyes. Here, I've no idea where I am, how many hills there are, how high they may be, what course I'm supposed to follow, and there's only one thing that will tell me all of that, and that's this."
Tails picked up a clipboard with a few wafer-thin, almost translucent pieces of paper marked "Approach Plates – XKCL".
"Let's see," said Tracey.
He looked at it. The paper was mainly a diagram, a map, with a bird's-eye view of Celadon Airport. It was completely covered in lines and dots.
"Hey, what does 'Missed Approach: Climb to 2000 via KCL course to D6.0 IBFI ILS/CLD VOR M97' mean?"
"What did I tell you? All the terrain, heights and things are on there, and I don't even know which way's up!"
"Well maybe the controllers will make it easy because they think you're a novice," suggested Misty.
"Hopefully." added Tails. "Otherwise, we're screwed."
He looked towards the cockpit again, scanning for any clear anomalies. He sighed, trying to relieve the stress he had been placed under so suddenly. His brain constantly tried to think of ways they could handle the situation, but none of them would work unless they knew how to land the aeroplane properly.
So we need to remove that restriction, Tails concluded, silently.
"Okay, we need to get the controllers to tell us how to land - Tracey, take this." handing the radio to Tracey.
"So what do I say?" he enquired, confused.
Tails scribbled some words onto some spare paper.
"Right, here we go. Orange Center, this is Air Pokémon 1317 requesting full vectors for a visual approach to the Celadon active. We have an approach chart but we can't read it. Altitude is 33000, airspeed indicating 290, over."
"Very good," remarked Tails, "but you need to hold down the 'COMM' button first."
"Oh," Tracey said, rather embarrassed, before repeating the message.
"Air Pokémon 1317, understood. Expect vectors for runway 17. First vector in 24 minutes, acknowledgement not required. Transponder 7700."
"Well, that's done." said Tails, swiping his hands together as though they were covered in dust.
"How did you know what to say, Tails?" asked Misty.
"I picked stuff up as we went. Vectors mean directions, active is the runway they're using at Celadon, and they need to know our height and airspeed to work out when they need to start giving us instructions."
"What about the transponder bit?"
"I think that's this," Tails said, pointing towards a device on the radio stack. "I'm not sure what purpose it serves, but it says 'Transponder', I'm guessing that's what they're talking about. I've set to 7700 already."
"You're the boss."
The team sat idly for twenty-four minutes and, right on cue, came the first vector.
"1317, descend 24000 feet, turn right heading 300."
"I'll handle the flying, Tracey, you get on the radio. Just confirm everything they say."
Tracey nodded and picked up the radio. Disengaging the autopilot, Tails sat down in the pilot's seat, taking up the control yoke and turning it gradually.
This is easy as anything, he thought, hydraulic power, most likely. He brought the plane out of the turn and pointed the nose down slightly. The altimeter dropped safely to the target altitude.
Continuing on with ATC instructions, Tails soon had the plane over mountains, then cities.
He had followed instuctions from the checklist which Brock had found by accident while trying to recover a lost Smartie.
It was soon time to begin the approach.
In the baggage hold of Air Pokémon 1317...
"Ha! That's that done then!" exclaimed Jessie triumphantly. "Our plan is working!"
"What plan, Jessie? I hope you're not being secretive again." muttered James in reply.
"Of course I'm not fool! I'm telling you about it right now, aren't I?"
James sighed.
"Anyway, here's what I did. First of all, you'll be wondering why I signed us all up at this Airport Starbucks, then quit the same day. It's because it's imperative for our plan!" Jessie explained delightedly.
"Using the Internet café at the airport I managed, with my superb hacking skills, to download a roster for Air Pokémon. I got photos of the two pilots flying the twerp's plane today, then when they ordered coffee here – which they always do- I spiked their drinks! They'll fall asleep mid-flight, headaches maybe, and when the plane lands there'll be so much commotion that the twerps won't notice we've stolen that Pikachu!"
Jessie laughed maniacally for a few seconds before James interrupted.
"Well, I have three comments."
"Do tell,"
"Whatever. I notice that your plan seems very reliant on the twerp's arriving at the airport. Now, if both of the pilots are asleep, how will the plane land?"
Jessie's face twitched slightly.
"Which leads me to the second point, what if the plane goes down? Everyone will surely die, even us! I don't think I can handle that concept. I'm not that...bad."
"What about that blue Pokémon you agreed to torture?" asked Jessie, annoyed.
"You still haven't got me the Muscle magazine you promised me. And even so, I have another point to make. If you have such good hacking skills, why didn't you hack into a bank account and get rich that way?"
Jessie exploded in a fit of rage.
"How dare you show me up!" she screamed, "Why did you say anything! Always trying to outsmart you are, telling me something obvious that I missed accidentally!"
She drew a massive animé-style mallet and moved in on James, who was cowering behind a bag of golf clubs and a surfboard..
"Please, Jessie, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I just thought I'd tell my thoughts on your plan!"
Alas, James' apology was met with a lump on his head which would remain for a few days, at least.
"Air Pokémon 1317, the airport is straight ahead, you're cleared for a priority visual approach onto runway 17, descend and maintain 3500 feet until runway is sighted. Report visual on runway 17."
"Well, this is it guys, that's our clearance. We can take as long as we want, we have the priority for a visual." briefed Tails. He took the plane down and held it straight in the wind. The aircraft buffeted with increasing intensity in turbulence.
"Tracey, I can see the runway – just. Let the center know please."
Indeed, it was a miracle that Tails could see anything. A cold front had moved into Celadon, and there was heavy rain, turbulence and a visibility of about half a mile. Theoretically, Tails shouldn't be seeing anything, nor should he be flying a visual approach, but these were different circumstances; foxes have better night and poor-visibility vision than humans.
"Where? I can't see it, Tails." said Misty, worriedly.
"Can you not? Well, I can, don't worry about a thing, I can handle this." he said, setting the flaps to 30 degrees.
The plane hit a strong air pocket, heard obviously by some members in the cockpit.
"Whoa, Tails, you all right?" asked Brock, who looked slightly queasy. "This bouncing around is not so good for lunch."
"I'm doing the best I can, please just let me concentrate for a second?" pleaded Tails, who was wrestling with yoke and throttle. "And can somebody let the passengers know they're going to be okay, if they wear seatbelts and keep quiet?"
Another gust came by swept the plane off course. Anyone except Tails wouldn't have noticed; the visibility had been downgraded from poor to fog.
Tails was clearly having a hard enough time as it was. The wind was coming from every direction and was buffeting the plane everywhere. In the background, the engines could be heard whining and spooling as Tails fought to maintain a safe speed.
He grabbed the gear lever and extended the wheels, then quickly set the flaps to "FULL". The plane hit another air pocket and once again Tails fought with the controls. They were getting closer to the ground...
A computer voice kicked in and jumped everybody.
"100 feet above,"
"Here we go, this is all or nothing." muttered Tails.
The runway lights just appeared and miraculously the plane was still in its general direction. It was zooming closer both below and in front of the plane.
In slow motion to everyone's perspective, Tails eased of the throttle, still fighting against gusts. The runway was getting closer by the millisecond. Tails pulled back on the control yoke ever so slightly, and added that little bit of thrust.
Misty shut her eyes. Ash braced himself. Brock strapped himself to the jumpseat. Richie grabbed the nearest rigid object, and Tracey waited, sick-in-the-stomach.
Thump.
The rear wheels slammed onto the ground, shaking and rattling the plane. Tails eased the nose gear onto the runway, while extending the spoilers and applying reverse thrust and brakes. The plane skidded from side to side, but slowing down, nonetheless.
They had made it.