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All of the Pieces
[Episode Eighteen]
Moanin' in the Moonlight
Wherein turbulence is not just a metaphor.
Secretary Nimziki looked down at the stern, dark eyes of Major Matapang. He had heard that the hard-nosed Major was one of the toughest Air Force Officers stationed at Groom Lake; earning the nickname of Wrecking Ball in more ways than one.
"All of your commanding officers recommend you very highly, Major," the Secretary hummed, closing the manila folder containing the Major's service record.
"Because they don't want to deal with the freaky kids," Matapang grunted as he paused the security camera footage playing on the computer screen in front of him. First, an all out siege on one of the most heavily guarded military bases in the US by an unknown enemy, then, a group of twenty-somethings waltz through a hail of bullets into a hangar holding the most advanced prototype aircraft in the world and ask for a ride. Matapang was not one to shy from a challenge, but this was beyond sanity.
"Perhaps so, but your record doesn't lie. Though their praise may be self-serving, it is not misplaced," Nimziki concluded, ignoring the Major's informality. He couldn't blame the guy for calling a spade a spade, not after the events that had unfolded over the last few hours.
"My job is the same as yours, Major;" the Secretary began, "to defend this country. We have been attacked twice now in one night, by an enemy that we currently have no means to fight against. I couldn't begin to explain who or what they are, but I do know that they are intentionally stirring up tension between nuclear superpowers around the world. These... freaky kids, as you call them, might be our only solution to stopping mutually assured destruction from becoming a very real scenario."
Matapang stared at the paused footage for a moment; a perfectly timed still of a monstrous venus fly-trap snatching an M16 from a soldier and apparently eating it. "And you want me to sit in a plane with these walking weapons of mass destruction for 15 hours, fly them into hostile airspace where none of our conventional weaponry is effective, and make sure they don't cause an international incident that will trigger a nuclear apocalypse?"
"Yes," Nimziki replied simply.
"Fuck me."
"I am not getting into that flying garbage can," Hiei spat.
"C'mon man, this is top of the line technology," Kuwabara sighed from the ramp of the C-130 as everyone shuffled onboard.
The fire demon scowled, crossing his arms in defiance. "Top of the line by human standards is still trash."
"You can fly around on dragons no problem, but you're scared of an airplane?" Yusuke taunted loudly, quite intentionally letting his voice echo in the hangar. Never mind that only his small group could understand Japanese.
Hiei's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he would not allow himself to be coerced by such a simple appeal to pride. Not by the Mazoku, of all people.
Kurama patted Hiei's shoulder as he passed to board the plane, turning to him with a sympathetic smile. "Not to worry, Hiei. Though I highly doubt that timing will allow us to return for you before we confront Enma... Would you like for me to bring you a finger, perhaps, as a consolation prize?"
Hiei growled at the fox's audacity, but stood firm; he was not getting on that lumbering metal sky turd. Just as he spun on his heel to walk away, a small, blue flower sprouted on his shoulder where Kurama had touched him. Before he could curse his luck, the plant released a tiny cloud of pollen. Hiei was asleep before he even hit the floor.
Lyra frowned as Kurama knelt down and hoisted the peacefully slumbering fire demon onto his shoulder. "He's going to be pissed when he wakes up," she warned.
"He would be even more upset to miss the fight," Kurama assured as he carried his cargo on board. They didn't have time to waste on trying to convince the stubborn demon, and leaving an angry Hiei behind in a base full of humans and experimental weaponry was not the best of options.
Lyra shook her head and made her way into the plane. She was stopped as soon as she stepped inside by a short, but muscular man in a flight suit. He looked quite a bit more weathered than the two younger soldiers that had already took their places in the cockpit, and while her knowledge of military regalia was rather thin, it was obvious by how he carried himself that this man was higher rank.
"You, you're one of the ones that speaks English, right?" he asked with a voice that sounded like a bass drum being dragged across a gravel driveway.
"Yup, me and Kurama over there," she replied, gesturing to the fox as he carefully belted Hiei into a seat.
The Major glanced at the redhead and then back to Lyra, an uneasy look on his face. "You don't grow mutant monster plants out of you, do you?"
Lyra blinked. "Not last time I checked, no."
"Good, you're sitting with me. I want answers," he grunted and lead her by the arm to a seat near the front. "Major Antonio Matapang, and you are?"
"Probably just as confused as you are, but I will try to help," Lyra laughed as she buckled in next to the Major. He seemed far from amused by her snark, and she sighed. This was going to be a long flight.
He didn't understand any of it. Lyra's explanation of demons, gods, psychics, and spiritual energy made no sense, but the Major had appreciated her efforts none the less. She had seemed more than a little confused herself, and he wondered how this young woman just seemed to be going along with it as if it weren't absolutely insane. Major Matapang stared at his knuckles, swollen from over two decades of rigorous Kali training and an unmatched dedication to his military career. He understood violence, but his brand of violence was absolutely useless in this new situation.
"How do you handle it?" Matapang asked after a good half-hour of silence, feeling out of place asking such a question of someone more than ten years his younger.
Lyra pulled her harmonica from her lips, ending the slow song she had absently begun to play. She had no spiritual energy to pour into her music, but the power of the notes themselves seemed enough to bring an air of calm over the tensions within the plane. Yusuke and Kuwabara were out cold, and Hiei, thankfully, remained unconscious. "Handle what?"
"Being around... people," he stumbled over the word as he looked around at the super-charged beings that he was escorting into a war zone, "that have so much power. I know you said that you have power, too, but from what I saw on that security footage, any one of those demons could kill all of us with a pinky finger."
"They wouldn't, though, they are trying to save the world," Lyra sighed, afraid that her three hour explanation had done nothing to soothe the Major's fears about being around the boys.
"You've already convinced me of that," he assured. "That isn't what I'm asking."
She shifted in her seat to face the Major, examining his hard-set jaw and uncomfortable posture. "What are you asking, Antonio?" she asked, grinning as he twitched a little at being addressed so informally.
"You stand next to them with no fear, and hold yourself with the pride of an equal–"
"Ah, I get it now," Lyra interrupted and slapped Matapang on the arm. "You're used to being the strongest, scariest guy in the room no matter where you go. Now you're not, and you don't know how to deal with it."
The Major flinched. "Jesus, you sound like my ex-wife."
Lyra's bark of laughter was loud enough to startle Kuwabara out of his cat nap, but not quite enough to rouse Yusuke from the simulated death he was currently practicing. Kurama stifled his chuckle, as that would have ruined the illusion that he hadn't been listening to the entire conversation.
"Major, every day is an orchestral performance," she said, doing her best impersonation of her Granny Euna's sagely voice, "some days you get to be first chair violin, and other days you are the triangle player. No matter the instrument you're dealt from one day to the next, you get off your ass and you play with all of your heart, or else the song will be incomplete. Make sense?"
Matapang stared at the musician with a raised eyebrow for a moment before smirking. "Was that supposed to be inspirational?"
Lyra huffed and crossed her arms, slouching back into her seat. "Well, I could have just told you to grow a pair, but I was trying to be tactful."
"Now there's a metaphor I can understand," the Major smiled, a true smile that anyone who knew him well would claim was rare. He relaxed his shoulders and settled back into his seat, glancing down at the harmonica resting in Lyra's lap. "Do you know anything by Howlin' Wolf?"
Lyra held an offended hand to her chest, but her smile was bright. "Do I look like an amateur to you?"
"Certainly not," Matapang chuckled.
The opening chords to Smokestack Lightning brought the air to life, and the Major closed his eyes to get lost in the music. The comfort of old memories was short-lived, however; Matapang rising to his feet as the plane began to rumble from unexpected turbulence. They weren't due to land for another half-hour, at least. "Status, Lieutenant," he shouted up to the open cockpit as the pilot and navigator scrambled to adjust.
"We've hit a strong updraft, sir... this storm front... it wasn't on the radar," the pilot huffed as he stabilized.
"Thermal sensors are indicating a large heat signature on the ground, this is no storm system, that's smoke!" the navigator corrected.
"What the hell is on fire down there?" Matapang asked as he squinted through a port window, struggling to see through the dark skies.
"By these readings... about half of the Eastern Siberian Taiga, sir," the navigator said, her voice grim.
Matapang grunted and marched up to the cockpit, gripping the pilot's chair as the plane rumbled again. "How did we not pick this up on satellite before we got here, Grayson?" he demanded.
"It must have just started, sir," Grayson replied, not entirely sure of his own words.
"Forest fires don't spread that fast!" Matapang chided.
"Not naturally," Kurama ventured as he appeared soundlessly behind the Major to peer through the windshield. Matapang eyed the fox warily, as he had been on and off throughout the entire 15 hour flight. Of the freaky kids on board, the redhead was the most unnerving to him, from his calculated body language to his ever-alert eyes.
Yusuke groaned and popped his head up from the makeshift hammock he had fashioned out of cargo nets. "You guys care to share with the rest of the class?" he asked in Japanese, irritated that his nap had been cut short.
"Russia on fire, flew into hot air, made plane shake, bad news," Lyra relayed as she tucked her harmonica safely away.
"Thanks for the Caveman Nightly News update," Yusuke drawled as he rolled out of his nest.
"Had to make sure you could understand it," Lyra winked, earning a bay of laughter from Kuwabara.
"Oh fuck off, both of y–" Yusuke's comeback was interrupted by the the plane dropping violently to the right, sending anyone and anything that wasn't strapped down tumbling.
"What the hell did we hit, Marsh?" Grayson shouted to his navigator as he struggled to pull up on the yoke.
Lieutenant Marsh cursed as sirens began blaring from the control panel. "We didn't hit anything, something hit us! But there's nothing on radar!"
"Energy blasts won't show up on radar," Kurama said calmly as he sat down and buckled in.
"Oh shit..." Lyra shuddered and followed the fox's lead.
Lieutenant Marsh's jaw fell slack as they dipped low enough through the smoke to see the glowing orange of the fire below. "Tell me I'm not the only one who sees that!"
"We can all see the fire, Marsh," Grayson mumbled as he finally leveled off.
"No," she hissed, leaning over to grab Grayson by the chin and forcing him to look to the right, "that!"
Grayson sunk back into the pilot's chair, his eyes wide. A few hundred yards away, a large, humanoid figure with black wings hovered in the sky. It was hard to make out, but there was a small orb of light flickering close to the flowing robes that covered the figure. The Lieutenant had no idea what it was, but he had the distinct feeling that the light meant trouble. "Major..."
Matapang leaned forward into the cockpit, squinting into the distance to see what his lieutenants were so worried about. As soon as he spotted the winged creature, the small orb began to grow larger at an alarming rate. "Incoming fire!"
Before Grayson could make a move, the Major had him by the collar of his flight suit and yanked him out of his seat. Matapang was in the pilot's chair and had the plane banking to the left as quickly as the large aircraft could maneuver, but it was too late to avoid the attack. The ball of energy hit the right wing, detonating the fuel stores and ripping into the cabin.
It was a horrible time for Hiei to wake up.
[A/N] Man, these guys are really turning into world travelers, huh? I didn't really think about it until I was trying to wrap up this episode, but there's been portal hopping, dangerous car rides with Botan, Mukuro's mobile fortress, a top secret C-130, and a neon speedboat tugged by a peppy wind demon! Gods... when I put it like that it sounds like a mess... lol
Today's title comes not from lyrics, but from the 1959 LP titled Moanin' in the Moonlight by the great Howlin' Wolf! I'll be posting the song Smokestack Lightning on my tumblr for those interested in hearing some of the best blues to ever grace the earth.
And holy crow! I got a couple of spectacular reviews since my last post. Thank you so much to Totidem Verbis and to the guest reviewer! Y'all made my heart melt!