March 31, 1999
Kinderdijk, Holland
12:23 PM
We stepped out of our planes into Kinderdijk, Holland, where the ACES competition would take place. It was huge. All sorts of bi-planes and people from all over the world in one little place. We had taken our top 25 planes to the competition, mine being one of them. It seemed that everyone took more planes and people then necessary. Only 15 planes could fly at one time for one team, but everyone made damn sure they had double or even triple the planes and men-power.
"Lots of practical jokes go down here. It is a dangerous place to be caught by yourself." Ted whispered to me and Frankie. "Make sure he stays with you at all times." The three of us plus the other 30 men from camp came to either fly, do a quick fix for the planes, or to protect our hanger. These practical jokes seemed horrible. It would be much nicer just to worry about flying then having to protect your plane and self.
10 of our biggest guys took the first shift, while the rest of us went to the hotel. The guys got 9 suites. 4 guys to a room plus one for me and Frankie. After the first night at the Camp, Frankie was taken from my room, saying there was no respect to put a young lady and an idiot together. A few days after that, me and Frankie and a few other guys from camp went to the market to pick up supply. A hot guy happened to pass by, and the other guys freaked out. They were sure that I, the one and only girl and a teenager as well, would be interested. But they were not expecting me not to notice him, and have Frankie to stop short and stare at the guy's ass, jaw dropped.
Apparently, it wasn't obvious to them Frankie was gay. He was quickly put back into my room, both of us laughing at the revelation for the guys.
That night we got a lecture from Ted in our hanger. "Ok, team. We have been here before. Seven straight years, and every year we get better and better. The same team, no new noobs for the past 6 years. This year, we finally got rid of the ass Evan," a round of boos and comments went around the room. Ted continued when we all stopped. "and we earned a brilliant not-17 year old dogfighter," Everyone laughed. Ted hadn't told everyone my heritage, but he stilled told them that I was only 17, which was pretty obvious. The legal rules for the competition was I had to be at least 18 to fix the planes, 20 to fly, and 40 to actually lead a team. "As well as a cook," nodding to Frankie. Another round of cheers went for the two of us. "Now last year, we were runner-up, beat only by Team Iceland. But this year, we will win first place, like years past!"
After the speech, me, Frankie, Tommy, Greg, and Larry stayed to guard the planes. We were just walking around making sure no one came near the place. These Hi-jinxes kept everyone on their toes, and since fighters were forbidden, it kept everyone frustrated. If you knew someone did something to your plane, you couldn't go punch him. The only thing that kept the "jokes" to a minimum, was the fact that the flight roster was a kept a secret from the Teams. I was glad that your team didn't take part in such silly....
"WE GOT ICELAND'S PARACHUTES AGAIN!!!!!" it was one of those moments, you just wanted to slap yourself: which I did. Now I knew why we kept in top shape. To steal money back home and to steal parachutes here. A round of applause came from the other four as Ted, Benny, Mike, and Matt came in with about 30 sum backpack parachutes.
"Again?"
"Come on, kid. It is just a joke. We have been doing it since year two because our first year, Team Iceland blew us out of the water in the semi-finals." they all laughed. Great, I thought. They only protect their hanger so they don't get what they do to other teams.
"How does Iceland feel about this?"
"Pissed, of course. They have to bring extras and hide them every year because the first two times we did it, they had to forfeit because they had no dogfighters that would fly without a parachute." Ted said to me. I was really pissed off. "Well your shift is done," looking at me with what seemed to be a bit of fear in his face. I left angrily, Frankie following close behind.
"It is pretty funny," he smiled at me.
"It is pretty dangerous," I glowered at him.
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June 23, 2001
Montréal, Canada
4:03 PM
That year, we ended up beating Team England and Portugal in the semi-finals. It was such a rush flying up there. The guys always said I was a natural born pilot, and I thought they just went easy on me in practice. But going against the other teams, I realized I was pretty damn good. I ended up bring down 5 planes, proving I held my own in a dogfight. In the finals, we went against Team Ireland and Iceland, thankfully who had their spare parachutes. I managed to get 3 planes down while they were going after Ted. Ted, who was truly amazing at this, managed to get down both the leaders in under 10 minutes. We won, knowing next year that we would have to stay champions.
And we did the next two years racking up 6 first place trophies for Team Canada. It was the middle of summer in 2001, when me and Ted had the fight. I was always angry that we would pull pranks, and as a right, the champion of each year would put down rules for the upcoming competition. I would always try to get him to put down no late night hi-jinxes, but he wouldn't even conceder it. He would just laugh, saying that was how the game was played.
"If you don't like it kid, then leave and start you own team and beat us. Only thing stopping you is about another 20 years experience."
"Fine, see you in 20 years old man." I started to storm off, knowing there was no way I could pull this off. We both knew it.
"Penelope, get back here." he said with a sigh. "You have been here for almost 4 years now. Maybe you should see the world a bit with your own two eyes." We stared at each other for a bit. We both knew that one of us would eventually leave to go somewhere. I just couldn't believe that I was going now. He stared up, and I turned around. All 31 guys were behind us. Some crying because they knew that they were losing their little girl and a cook. "that goes for all of you men. You are of course allowed to stay, but don't you want to see the world and think about having a family. Men, we need to take risks in our life, and it isn't going to happen in this cubby hole. If you still wish to dogfight, you are to repot back here in the mid-February.
"And idiot," he turned to Frankie, "make sure she meets a great guy. And when she does, leave her alone and come back here. You can't always follower her, but you sure as hell can cook here whenever you want." We all laughed. It was a sad laugh, tears and snot flying everywhere. Me and Frankie decided to head off to England for a bit. Even some of the guys hopped into their plane, promising to be back in a few months. "And make sure when she comes back on hands and knees to beg for my forgiveness, she is wearing a dress, complete with tiara.
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August 1, 2001
Somewhere outside Caen, France
4:03 PM
"So what are we gonna do" Frankie asked for about the one millionth time.
We were sitting in some field in France. "I don't know." I said once again. In the past two months, were had been all of Europe. We were running out of stuff to do. We had done a few heists, so we were good on money. There was only so much a 19-year-old genius girl and a 20-year-old gay guy could do with a plane.
"I got it." Frankie jumped of the ground. "We are goin' to make a team and enter into the ACES competition and beat Team Canada!"
"How do you expect to do that?" It sounded like fun, but I had no clue how we would pull it off. Then the light bulb went off in my head. I said with a huge grin, "Team Canada was so going down."
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March 31, 2002
Kinderdijk, Holland
12:53 PM
"And who may you be?" a man with a clipboard asked as we tried to find our hanger.
"Team Black Baron," a short middle-aged English man responded.
"Oh, new are you? You and your men have Hanger 34." We turned to go to our hanger, all 39 of us. I had 25 pilots, 5 mechanics, and 8 very large men to make damn no one messed with our planes. Plus our cook.
"Good, the accent was brilliant." Frankie whispered into his microphone. I heard him under the 100 pounds of clothes, body suit, and mustache. I though back a few months. We were trying to figure out how to make me look like a 40 year old woman. I soon found out we had a better chance to make me a man. When I said this, Frankie busted out laughing. After spending a week in London, England, I disguised myself as a middle-age man and asked Frankie the way to the London Underground. I had fooled him, and then scared him out of his mind when he got back to the motel, seeing the same guy that had asked for directions was sitting on his couch eating TV and eating his leftover Pork Egg Foo Young.
After a few days on Thiefnet, I found more then enough men ready to fly on my team. All having their own bi-plane. We set up our base of operations in Holland, only about 200 miles from Kinderdijk. None of them knew that the Black Baron was really a teen-aged girl.
The only bad part about our plan, was calling Ted (which we were made to do every week or he would send the guys looking for us) and telling him were would not be coming back for the competition. After about an hour of crying, he made me promise to at least visit after Team Canada won the competition. He though I had joined another team, and Ted didn't want us around to hear their plans. It was now war.
The next day, we easily won our semi-finals. We would be facing Team Canada as well as Team Iceland in the Final's. It was hard having to take Ted out of the sky, but after the first bullet to my new plane from Ted, I knew I was going to kick his ass.
And I almost did. After about a 2 hour fight, the only people left was me and Ted. He had won, but afterwards, he told me it was one of the hardest dogfights he had ever been in. I told him, in my English accent, that I would be back next year, with a vengeance.
When I got back to my hotel room I shared with Frankie, we started jumping up and down. I knew with a little more training, we would win, no doubts. It sucked for Frankie, though. To make sure that Team Canada didn't see him, or get recognize by anyone else, he was stuck in a disguise and almost always in the hotel room, never allowed to see the actual fights.
When we went to the camp in Canada for a visit, everyone was waiting, refusing to go anywhere until they saw us alive and fine. They were a bit confused when they hadn't seen us at the competition, but gladly gloated as they showed off their new trophy, and had no clue they were talking to the Black Baron.
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Next year in the ACES Competition, we were in the finals with Team Canada along with a new team, Team Muggshot. I had seen this Muggshot before, and it was on TV getting arrested years ago. If was only a few days after I disappeared when I heard about The Cooper Gang in the U.S. and them going after Muggshot. During the finals, Ted was the first to go down after only 5 minutes. Later I found out someone had cut his gas line, and he quickly lost all of gas and forfeited. Only about 2 minutes after that, Muggshot followed suit. Team Black Baron had won. We would get total control of the competition and the rules. I so badly wanted to tell Ted, but I had started out to change the rules, but now it seemed that the Black Baron was an over night success. He was invited to go everywhere and show off his moves. It was so over whelming.
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It was about a month before the 2004 ACES competition, where I would have total control over the rules. I hired more guys to enforce the new rules. Also, I had to make sure I won again this year. Just being in first place one year wasn't going to stop these idiots from trying to kill each other with their pranks.
Then I got a message from this guy Bentley aka Spex_Guy asking me to help him out with this "gig".
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Hope you guys had fun with some fireworks, (for ppl not celebrating fourth of july, fireworks are ALWAYS fun!)....and I hope you like the chapter
Again...thz to all my readers....I heart you
Also...the next few even numbered chapters will be longer, talking about all the heist the Cooper Gang did in Penelope's point of view....how you enjoy
