Review Responses:

itsblippingJBH - I'm glad you like it! The world building is the part I've felt the strongest about overall, so I'm glad that's paying off!

Pt35 - Dang, I've never witnessed a wreck like that. Sounds kinda scary to me!

I actually intended for Hidden to remark about having to retreat to a higher altitude because of aircraft flybys, though I guess I just wasn't able to fit that in. That said, I would imagine that Sixclaws wouldn't want to provoke anymore unwanted conflict, which is why he opted for a smaller group to fly up there.

I actually upload chapters every Saturday, not at a specific time or anything though. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep posting chapters weekly like this with school and all, but I've managed to push through so far.

Chapter 31: The Reggie-tron 9000

The Salvation Hangar Bay

Late Afternoon

"H-Hidden? I'm not too sure about this…."

Maple sat in the cockpit of the Reggie-tron 9000, the metal dragon standing warily on its hind legs at the edge of the Salvation's lowered rear hanger door. The vast precipice of the blue sky sprawled out before her, a few lonely clouds drifting by below. She felt herself growing dizzy at the astronomical sight, struggling to keep her arms steady so as to not preemptively plunge herself towards the grassy hills far below.

"Don't worry. Reggie already figured out how to get this thing into the air." Hidden remarked, giving her his best reassuring grin.

Maple wasn't having any of it.

"He only figured that out two days ago, and if I remember correctly, he slammed into the hangar roof so hard he left a dent visible on the floor above."

Hidden smirked. "Well, you won't have to worry about any roofs out there."

Maple turned the Reggie-tron to Hidden, and Hidden seemed to sense her unamused frown on the other side of the metal shell. "Hey, if worst comes to worst, just spread your wings and glide to safety." he said.

The whined suddenly picked up, whistling as it whipped across the mechanical dragon's synthetic wing membranes. Maple turned back to the edge of the hangar ramp hesitantly. Come on Maple, you've done crazier than this! she thought to herself; though, looking back, leaping out from above the clouds in a giant metal casket kind of topped the list.

She sighed. "Welp, here goes nothing." she murmured.

She stared at the rectangular projection of the world ahead of her, tossing aside any reservations as she had on the day she'd snuck up to that SandWing in the forest, and the day she'd met Reggie for the first time, and took a step out of the hangar.

"Woah...wha...WAH!" she shouted, the Reggie-tron losing its balance and tumbling off of the hangar door. The mecha spun head over heels, spiraling out of control as Maple flailed her arms in an attempt to stabilize the thing. She swung her arms out to her sides, spreading the metal dragon's wings and halting the nauseating spinning, but her plummet persisted.

Come on, come on! What was it he said he did? Maple panicked, the memory just slipping out of her grasp as the grassy hills grew ever closer on the display.

And in an instant, she had it, quickly balling her hands into fists and swinging her arms down to her sides. A loud rumble emanated from beneath her, fiery jets on the Reggie-tron's legs bursting to life as it stabilized itself into a stationary hover. Her descent ground to a halt, the hills so close she could make out individual blades of grass.

She turned back up towards the Salvation, a tiny speck amongst the nearly cloudless sky. Slipping one of her hands out of its gauntlet, she pressed a holographic button next to the projection of the outside world (another of Reggie's recent discoveries), the dark cockpit slowly falling away as the video feed spread all around her. Soon enough, the darkened interior of the Reggie-tron had completely disappeared, replaced by the rolling hills of dry grass of the outside world.

Maple grinned. All the fear that had filled her before replaced with pure exhilaration. Without a moment's hesitation, she instinctively swung her arms out behind her, the Reggie-tron's thrusters rocketing her off into the endless blue sky. The world spun out beneath her as the Reggie-tron swirled upside-down, spiraling higher and higher.

Where has this been all my life! Maple thought, as she spun and whirled through the air, not entirely in control of the metal dragon, but too excited to care. Flying inside the Reggie-tron, with the world projected all around, far surpassed riding on the back of a dragon. Now, she was the dragon, and the sky was her domain.

Maple had nearly forgotten why she had been piloting the Reggie-tron in the first place, the thrill of flight consuming her, but the sight of another tiny speck on the horizon, far smaller than the Salvation up above, snapped her out of it. She attempted to stabilize the Reggie-tron once again, the machine flipping backwards a couple of times before stopping in mid air. The ground was so far below her, and ahead, the shiny silver outline of one of the Salvation's shuttles glistened like a shining star in the middle of the day.

Maple grinned, lightly flexing her fingers within the gauntlets as she sized up her target. It seemed to have slowed to a stop, its drivers likely having spotted Maple spiraling around in the air.

Alright. she thought, feeling a new wave of confidence wash over her as she sat within the metal dragon, Time to go say hello.

She yanked her arms back, and the Reggie-tron rocketed forward at tremendous speed, rapidly closing the distance between her and the shuttle. It wasn't until she was mere moments away from it that Maple remembered that she had yet to perfect the art of stopping, and she quickly veered the Reggie-tron up, just barely avoiding a collision with the bulky aircraft.

The metal dragon spiraled past the shuttle, Maple struggling to set it straight as the world spun around her at dizzying speed. She finally managed to get it under control, hovering in an upright position with its wings spread out for balance. She slowly turned around to face the shuttle, having overshot it by a short distance.

"Sorry!" she shouted through the Reggie-tron's speakers, unsure if the people inside of the shuttle could hear her. Either way, she didn't get a response, the shuttle hovering motionlessly in mid-air.
Maple looked down at the world spread out beneath her, and spotted a small clearing at the center of a large cluster of trees. She pointed one of the Reggie-tron's talons down towards it, and after a moment of silence, the shuttle began to slowly descend towards the clearing. Maple followed suit, gradually cutting the thrusters' power as she descended towards the cluster of trees. By the time she had just barely begun to grace the treetops, though, she accidentally cut all power to the thrusters and was sent crashing through the thick blanket of leaves.

Maple groaned, staring up at the dense canopy above her, the Reggie-tron having landed on its back amidst the dense underbrush. A few birds shot up from the branches, their caws fading into the distance as they fled the giant metal monstrosity that had invaded their woods.

Rolling the Reggie-tron back up onto all fours, Maple slowly made her way towards the clearing, pushing aside low hanging branches and trampling a fair amount of shrubs beneath its cold metal talons. By the time she'd stepped out of the dense treeline, the shuttle had already landed in the center of the clearing, it's rear ramp lowered onto the grassy earth.

A dozen or so humans were milling about inside of the vessel, some carrying long poles nearly twice their height. Maple chuckled, realizing how they had managed to pilot the oversized ship, when two people stepped down the ramp towards her.

One was a tall man, with brown skin and dark hair, wearing a uniform adorned with various colorful badges, and who curiously seemed to have six fingers on each hand. He stared up in awe at the formidable metal dragon that stood before him, though never allowed his wonder to disrupt his composure. And the other was….

"Reggie?!" Maple shouted, opening up the cockpit of the Reggie-tron, "What in flying fire snakes are you doing here?!"

Reggie grinned, hands on his hips. "I knew it was you in there! I can't believe you got to fly that thing around first!"

"Hey, you're the one that got yourself captured." Maple replied, "And you didn't answer my question."

Reggie grinned. "I think you just did, though." Maple frowned, and Reggie chuckled, holding up his hands apologetically. "Alright, alright. I was just helping these guys fly the shuttle, so we could come up and smooth things over."

Maple looked past Reggie and the six-fingered man, seeing more of the soldiers within the shuttle marching down the ramp behind the two. Some of them held guns, which did unnerve her, though they didn't seem too terribly threatening; at least when compared to the strike force from earlier that morning.

The six-fingered man stepped forward, standing up straight as he addressed Maple. "You must be Maple, correct?" he asked. Maple nodded.

"Well, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm General Sixclaws, and I would like to apologize on behalf of my subordinate for the disastrous events of earlier this morning. I can assure you that the Sand Kingdom does not wish any…."

"Now hold on just a minute." a voice called out from the trees. Maple froze, recognizing the voice in an instant.

A four-wheeled vehicle, similar to the one she had taken refuge in, drove out from the encircling treeline and into the clearing. As it slid to a stop, a man wearing a sandy brown uniform and dark glasses stepped out of the front, grinning as if he had just been crowned king.

Soon, more vehicles burst out of the trees, including some of the large armored vehicles with the long cannons, until they completely surrounded the clearing. Soldiers marched out between the vehicles, guns held at the ready towards their dumbstruck targets.

"Now then." the man with the dark glasses said through a cone shaped device that amplified the sound of his voice, "I'll be taking that shuttle, and that robot thing too."

AN:

I actually chopped this chapter in half in order to upload it on time. I was so focused (and stressed) with school this week that I never got around to really working on it until Thursday, so I decided it would be best to opt for a shorter chapter this week and wrap up Maple's episode next week. It is a little odd though how both human characters get six chapters while the dragons each only get five.

The next episode is gonna be a bit of a...weird...one, but I'll get to that when the time comes.

Stay tuned!