Name: Bartlett, Jack
Age: 42
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 154 lbs
Hair color: Black/Gray
Eye color: Brown
Blood type: O
Background: Captain Jack Bartlett is the leader of the 108th Tactical Squadron stationed at Sand Island Navel Base. While is skills in a cockpit was second to none, he makes rash mid-air decisions which have gotten him reprimanded dozens of times. Because of this, he had been a captain for 15 years. He values the lives of his wingmen over everything else… including his own.

As soon as they touched the ground, Bartlett was requested to report to Perrault's office. Blaze shuck his head. He finally said, "I don't understand why they even bother to reprimand him anymore. He is going to be a captain forever more."

"It's procedure!" Chopper replied, "After all, they have to set 'an example' to us junior officers. Give me a break."

"So in other words: they're stupid." Blaze said.

"You have a doubt about it?" Chopper said.

"You guys!" Nagase suddenly said. "You really should stop insulting the commanding officers."

"Why?" Both of men said.

"Because if they hear you, you'll both get reprimanded with Captain Bartlett!" Nagase explained.

Blaze frowned. Chopper rolled his eyes. Then both of them shrugged. "What?"

"Nagase… Nagase… Nagase. Do you have to take everything so seriously?" Chopper said, "C'mon! You need to have fun once in a while!"

"That's not true." Blaze said, "You don't have too. Well, there is always the second option."

"What second option?"

"Go through an emotional breakdown and end up in a military mental hospital." Blaze said, "That option is always open!"

"That's not an option! That a consequence!" Chopper exclaimed, "One I don't want anyone to go through!"

Blaze looked at Nagase for a second. "Question: What needs to be done to make you smile a little?" Blaze asked, "Tickle you?"

"Hey, Kid!" Chopper cried out, "Don't get kinking on her!"

Blaze gave Chopper a black look "Davenport… Do you want me to drag you into the ring?"

"NO!" Chopper said, "No! No! I didn't survive that dogfight just to get killed by you!"

"Then take that back!" He wasn't joking.

"I take it back. Sorry!"

"Good." Blaze said, satisfied. "Well, I'm to get something to eat. Anyone what to join me?"

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"Pops, that kid was inhuman. There is no way he just a trainee!" Bartlett said the older mechanic, "He was flying better than I was… He was flying better then you could!"

"You know, his eyes are strange." Pops said, "I hear of a project a long time ago…"

"15 years?" Bartlett said, thinking it might refer to the war.

"Longer. It was called Zero Limits. Several pregnant women had there unborn babies injected with a formula call… Z-2... F-3… Formula X! That's it. Formula X! The formula injected into the babies was to give them superhuman capabilities and genetic information."

"What happened to these kids?"

"They dead 6 months after birth. The Formula did what it was supposed to but it also caused a cellular breakdown which took their lives." Pops explained, "To my knowledge, they never fixed the problem."

"You think that this kid might be a bi-product of this project?" Bartlett asked, "That they might have fixed the problem with this formula?"

"Well, the reason why I brought it but was because all the babies which were apart of this project were rumored to have blue eyes with white pupils."

"Like the Kid's." Bartlett said.

"Realized that this project was given up on… at least officially." Pops said.

Bartlett nodded, "The 'Gray Men'?"

Pops nodded.

"I have never met his sister, Emily, but I hear a great deal about her from the Kid." Bartlett said, "I don't think he made her up. She is real."

"I didn't say your young trainee isn't what he claims to be." Pops warned, "He may be a survivor of the war. He could even be ignorant of his creation… or a creation from a project similar on Osean side. We don't know." Pops said, "My suggestion is to do nothing but train him… and see what he does."

Bartlett nodded. Seemed like the best course of action.

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Blaze continued to tinker with the radio when he suddenly heard a knock on his door. The door was open, so he just looked… and was taken back at who it was. He was expecting Chopper asking him how his radio was going or Bartlett tell him how good, or bad, he did today.

However, what he got was a Kei Nagase in paints and sleeveless white shirt. "Yes."

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing Chopper's radio." Blaze asked, "After he found out about my I.Q. looked up my education and found out that I have degrees in electronics. So he suckered me into this."

Nagase smiled a little. That was Chopper all right. "Why does he trust you so much? Chopper, I mean." Nagase looked up a little, "Actually, when I think about, everyone trusts you. Even Captain Bartlett and he don't trust anyone."

"He trusts Pops." Blaze pointed out, before he frowned, "As for the other people, I don't know. I think Chopper trusts me for the same reason he trust you and the Captain… he is a good judge of character."

"You think that Chopper trusts me?" Nagase asked.

"Yes, I do." Blaze said, "That's really the question, isn't it? Does anyonetrust you?"

Nagase looked at him for a second and found him, surprisingly, correct. "God, you are perceptive about everything, aren't you?"

Blaze laughed, "I wish I could introduce you to Emily. She is only 9, but she makes myelook blind to other people's feelings." Blaze said. "If it makes you feel better; I trust you. You're not finished training and you kept you cool in two dogfights. I think you're going to become an excellent pilot." Blaze stated, "And before you ask, I am not 'just saying that'!"

Nagase turned way from him, suddenly shy and uncomfortable. She finally said, "I should let you finish fixing Chopper's radio." Nagase said, find herself wanted to get back to her room "Good night, Blaze"

"Good night, Lieutenant." Blaze said.

Blaze turned back to his work as Nagase walked out, feeling like a complete coward. She was calm and collective in the sky but when taking to a man she liked, she nerves just seemed to give out.

She turned to her book. It always took her mind of things when she read it. Even if it wasn't complete.