Disclaimer: I own my computer and my little red notebook, and all plot bunnies that populate either one. -.-
Chapter 12: Pushing the Sky
Jet squeezed his eyes shut briefly as his vision went out of focus again. He was determined to see this thing through, bullet or no bullet. He really hadn't had the chance to get a good look at Spike, to absorb that he was here and alive and talking to them. He'd had no chance to give Spike any idea of just what his absence had put him through. No way would he let any bullet keep him from doing that.
After a moment, his communicator flicked on. "Jet, I'm telling you that you're in no shape to do this!" Jet's hands tightened on Hammerhead's controls at the sound of Faye's voice. Something in him knew that she was probably right, but the rest of him—the stubborn part—refused to agree.
"And I'm telling you that I'm going to anyway. I told you a long time ago, Faye, I don't need instructions." That said, he switched off the communicator and blocked it from receiving any more contacts for the time being. He allowed himself one exasperated sigh. "Women." Then he took a deep breath, blinked his vision back into focus, and gripped the controls tightly as Hammerhead soared out of the tunnel and into the clouded sky.
"Men! Ugh," Faye scoffed as she shoved her communicator out of the way. She glanced at Spike quickly in the rearview mirror. "You guys are impossible, you know that?" Spike's eyes remained closed; he was still sulking about not being able to pilot his ship.
"Yeah. Well, y'know. We try."
"Argh!" she groaned. "I give up!" And with that, she followed closely behind Hammerhead and Swordfish II as they sped out of the darkness.
Vicious squinted as the sudden shock of light that greeted him at the exit of the tunnel stung his eyes. If he had figured it correctly, it would still take a few minutes for the drug he'd been given to completely spread through his bloodstream, which meant he had a few minutes before he became completely useless. Hopefully they would be able to dispose of their little welcoming-party before that happened.
Eying Swordfish II's controls, Vicious realized that he remembered each and every one, right down to the windshield wipers. It didn't really surprise him, for he'd been the only one brave enough to ride shotgun when Spike was first learning how to fly, but still, he hadn't seen the inside of the ship in years. Alright then. He glanced at Red Tail as it passed him. Don't you dare die in there, Spike. It isn't over yet.
With that thought still lingering in his mind, Vicious shifted his gaze to the Jade Crow ships waiting for them. There looked to be twenty of them at the very least, each visibly loaded with heavy artillery. The ships were small, fairly lightweight, but looked as though their speed would make up for it.
Well. No use in wasting what dwindling opportunity for conscious thought he had left.
Hesitating no longer, Vicious eyed the four ships nearest him and shifted into high gear, then flew straight at them.
As though his action had set off a trigger, all four Jade Crow ships sprang to life and opened fire at once.
A game plan already quickly forming in Vicious' mind, a ghost of a cold smirk played at his lips, and at the last moment he veered to the left, then sharply turned to the right. He almost did a complete 360º turn, but maneuvered in such a way that he was able to get some momentum, then charge straight forward—directly towards the closest Crow ship. Swordfish II flew straight through the rain of machine gun fire, and finally Vicious drove the protruding plasma cannon of Spike's ship straight through the enemy's cockpit. He could almost hear the crack as it beheaded the ship's pilot, which provoked a wicked grin to spread across Vicious' features. However, it also provoked three of the pilot's comrades to take notice and come at him at a rapid pace.
Vicious was ready for them. His spidery fingers flew across the controls as though he'd piloted the ship all his life, his steel-trap memory reacquainting him with every command. Without hesitation he activated Swordfish II's machine guns and shot down one of the three, the first ship still in a shishkabob-like state on the cannon. Next, he jumped the ship forward and pulled the front end to the left, then slammed it to the right. The ship suspended on Swordfish II's cannon smashed into another of the Crow ships and they both plummeted to the ground below.
That left the third one, and from the corner of his eye Vicious could see that a few more Crow ships had him in their sights as well. The venomous grin never left his lips as they approached, surrounding Swordfish II. At first glance, he could guess there were about seven of them.
This could get interesting.
Red Tail shot forward so suddenly and with such force that Spike flew backward, smacking his head against the back of the ship. "AH! Son of a bitch!" he yelped, rubbing his head and glaring at Faye. "Thank you!" he said wryly.
Faye grinned a little as she maneuvered her way through the enemy ships. "Oh, you might want to strap in. That first jump is a doozy," she said sweetly, then quickly dodged as the Jade Crow ships started to fire at her.
Spike grumbled in annoyance as he begrudgingly climbed into the front next to Faye and strapped in, subtly grabbing onto the side of the seat for dear life. In the meantime, Faye was dealing with hurdles that were a bit larger in scale than a bonk on the head. "Okay," she said quietly to the five ships before her, "come and get me."
With that, she flew straight at them, then waited until the last possible moment and quickly cut to the right at full speed, luring the ships after her. "Hold on tight," she addressed Spike, a dangerous grin forming at her lips. Then, without warning, she slammed on the brakes. The ship stopped abruptly; so abruptly, in fact, that Red Tail completely flipped over in the air with the inertia of the stop. The Crow ships shot over Red Tail harmlessly, and Faye went straight into high gear and flew in the opposite direction of the Crow ships, still upside-down.
They flew straight forward briefly; then Faye screeched to another halt, flipping the ship back over. Sure enough, the five Crow ships were still struggling to get themselves turned back around. "See ya, boys..." she murmured, then launched two missiles in their direction, doubling that with firing up Red Tail's machine guns. "...well, maybe not."
However, these ships were speedy little devils. Three of them escaped the missiles and managed to evade the machine gunfire. One started in straight towards her, while the other two shot around to either side. "Shit!" Faye cursed, then quickly dodged two powerful but slow blasts from the Crow ships' plasma cannons. All three of them followed Red Tail relentlessly from there on. Knowing that flipping over wouldn't likely work twice, she instead swerved to the left, did a 180˚, and immediately opened fire with Red Tail's machine guns. All three of the Crow ships went down.
"HA! Take that!" Faye declared, then spun Red Tail around and started back into the fray. However, neither she nor Spike saw a new Crow ship emerge from the metal tunnel they had come through.
"Okay, admit it, I'm good," Faye pressed, looking at Spike slyly. He summoned the energy to roll his eyes, though the sudden physical strain after all the abuse his body had taken, inside and out, had been a complete shock to his system. It was starting to take its toll.
"It's not over yet," he pointed out, closing his eyes, then a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Wouldn't want to jinx—"
Suddenly, something rammed into them from behind. The impact threw them both forward, only their seatbelts keeping their heads from slamming into the dashboard, and Faye instinctively stomped on the brakes, making Red Tail screech to a stop.
Faye immediately turned her ship around to face the Crow ship, noting that this one was painted a deeper shade of green than the others. On its side, in white, even lettering, it read: Sabertooth.
"What the HELL!" Faye blurted, eying the ship's pilot. At a glance, Spike's face fell into a glower that could easily have burned a hole in the other ship. He recognized that Crow—unbeknownst to him, the same Crow who had led Jet and Vicious from the station to the warehouse—and even from the few glimpses of her he'd gotten while he was their captive, she just rubbed him the wrong way.
And now that he was paying attention, it looked like she had that effect on Faye as well; she and the Crow had locked eyes, and with every passing second, Faye's visage seemed to grow more violent. If he didn't know better, he'd swear the two women were exchanging blows through stares alone; then again, he didn't pretend to have any idea how women worked.
Finally, as if the Crow had said something that crossed the line, Faye let out a growl of rage and let loose everything Red Tail had. Missiles and gunfire combined into a fantastic light show as they flew toward the Crow's ship; then, to Faye's shock, every last one of them merely bounced off an invisible shield surrounding Sabertooth. The woman seemed to scoff at the failed attack, and suddenly, out of the front of her ship shot three enormous metal blades, fashioning the ship to look very much like the paw of a predator. Then, from the sides of Sabertooth, two missile launchers emerged.
Without hesitation, the Crow launched two missiles at Red Tail. Faye immediately flew under her ship to attempt an attack from behind.
Spike, meanwhile, had subtly moved to the far right in his seat in attempt to evade Faye's wrath. Being careful not to make any sudden movements, he glanced out the back of the cockpit's dome; then he mentally groaned.
"Uh, Faye..."
Faye's demeanor didn't change in the least. "Shut up, Spike," she replied curtly, her eyes glued to Sabertooth's cockpit.
"They're still behind us."
"Spike, if you say ano—WHAT!" Faye looked in the rearview mirror, and sure enough, the missiles were literally following after them. "Ah, FUCK!" she shouted shamelessly. "They're heat-seeking!"
Unable to shake them, all Faye could do was floor the accelerator and maneuver like a madwoman to buy time to think up a plan of attack. Not that she had the slightest inkling of a plan, but hell if she would give that Crow bitch the satisfaction of knowing that.
Thinking quickly, Faye realized that she was heading straight for the area in which Jet was fighting off several Crow ships. Yes...she could use that.
Quickly, she started steering with one hand and held out the other. "Spike, communicator," she ordered, and he grabbed it from where she'd tossed it and placed it in her hand. She started to contact Jet, but got only static. "Jet!...agh!" she blurted in frustration when she realized that he'd blocked it. "Damnit! Why does he have to be so stubborn!" she groaned, then kicked the speed up a notch.
Meanwhile, Jet was oblivious to Faye's frustration as he sloppily dodged a shot from a Crow plasma cannon. He gritted his teeth uneasily, willing his vision to come back into focus, but it was to no avail. Rather, a hint of red burst at the edges of his sight, as if in defiance. Growling in vexation, he saw a Crow ship coming at him from behind in the rearview mirror, then quickly turned Hammerhead's propellant tanks by 90º and shot straight up at the last minute. The said ship was unable to stop its own staggering speed and collided with one of its comrades—namely the one that had been charging at Jet from the front. However, only one of them appeared to be mortally damaged, and the other merely left the first to crash to the ground, again setting its sights on Hammerhead.
Muttering a curse, Jet swiftly moved Hammerhead out of the path of another blue-white blur which he knew to be the fire of a plasma cannon, then swerved around and quickly fired Hammerhead's harpoon. "Come on..." he muttered, hoping to God that his consciousness wouldn't fail him.
The harpoon shot straight out, and in an instant, Jet could feel its impact as it tore through glass and thick metal once, twice. Through his red-edged vision, Jet could see that the harpoon had gone straight through the cockpit of one Crow ship, then hooked the wing of another. He smirked weakly in triumph, moving the harpoon to let the ships drop to the ground far below.
Then he was abruptly cut off as without warning, Hammerhead lurched forward, throwing Jet forward with a jolt and rapidly propelling his ship out of its original path. "SHIT!" he yelped, looking to see what had hit him; then his dismay turned to exasperation when he saw that it wasn't a Crow ship that was now speeding away from him, but Red Tail.
Without thinking, he snatched up his communicator in frustration. "JESUS, Faye, what the fuck was that?" he barked into it. There was a slight hesitation from the other end of the line, and Jet watched as Red Tail barreled through the reinforcements that he had been about to take on.
"Try keeping the commlink open!" finally came her rushed reply. It was then that Jet saw the two missiles that shot from out of nowhere, first matching Faye's pace, then slowly exceeding it until they were able to reflect Red Tail's image in the silver plates of their noses.
Faye had the accelerator slammed down with all the strength she had, silently willing Red Tail to release some hidden burst of speed, but the ship was pushed to its limit. So close... she thought to herself, eying two Crow ships that Jet had been fighting as they took notice of her.
"Spike," she addressed her passenger urgently, glancing at him from the corner of her eye, "when I tell you, throw the switch next to the green button." Spike scanned the control panel for said switch, then nodded when he found it. Faye returned her attention to steering, weaving through the machine gunfire from the two Crow ships and steadily moving towards them. Just ten yards away...eight...six...four...practically on top of them..."NOW!"
Spike quickly flipped the switch. At once, Faye pulled the shift back as far as it could go. The switch released something in the ship, allowing Red Tail to abruptly change its course and shoot straight up into the sky. Spike watched with vague interest as the missiles crashed into either Crow ship.
Faye collapsed against the back of her seat, trying to slow her breathing. God, that had been a rush. So relieved was she to be done with that wild goose chase that she didn't even notice that more Crow ships were heading straight for her. Hammerhead's pilot, however, did notice.
"Damnit, the woman just can't stay out of trouble," Jet muttered to himself, then fired up Hammerhead's engine to go help her out. All he had to do, he figured, was activate the harpoon again and hook the Crows, then get back to business. Just a few hundred yards to go...
"I wouldn't do that."
He flinched upon hearing the unfamiliar voice crackle through his communicator, but didn't lose any speed. First he glanced back to see if whoever it was had come up behind him, but there was no one. After a good, hard look to make sure, he returned his eyes to the front—
—leaving himself only a split-second for the name 'Sabertooth' to flash in front of his eyes before three titanic metal blades were driven directly through Hammerhead's cockpit.
. . . . (runs away and hides) o.—
To my obscenely marvelous reviewers who probably rather dislike me at the moment:
jdchs-Glad you liked it! 'Tense' just seemed to be the perfect word to describe the whole situation. Tense and awkward. (sigh) Poor them. As far as relaying any messages to Vicious for ya...erm. I don't think my author-powers go further than occasionally pouncing on him and going "TELL ME WHAT YOU WOULD DO IN THIS SITUATION!" ...or something. Um. Yeah. Don't mind me...
Wait...you reviewed again...o.o Wow. I think you just gave me my self-esteem boost for the month of June. I really don't know what to say, other than an incredibly enthusiastic thank-you! What you're describing is exactly what I was going for, so I'm thrilled that, at least for you, that's what is coming across!
...And no, I'm not Watanabe-san, lol. n.n
Shteve-Welllll...I'm sure you can tell why she didn't have Hammerhead now?...heh... —.o (is still hiding)
microfiber shoelaces-Faye does indeed kick ass, and lots of it. n.n She's good that way. I really don't know what else to say to your review except thank you and I love it, as always. :)
Bob the barbarian-So glad you're still liking what you see. Your reviews are great, they always get me in a good mood, so thanks a lot. n.n
phoenix521-Thanks so much! That's the great thing about Ed—she always wins. Always. n.n
VanillaRose-Hmm...insanelly...insanely? I think that's how it goes...yep! (just looked it up) XD And as far as Jer goes, it might just be both. 0.O (sigh) He's a silly boy. But I'm so glad everyone else is behaving themselves! (...somehow that sentence didn't seem grammatically correct...T.T) I'll make a note to give 'em all cookies later. ;)