Everyone's eyes were on the frail leader of Black Hole as he gathered his strength and uttered, "I... hhh... don't know... but.. hh... don't trust... hnghh... him... just... hhh... because he helped you. Hhhhhhhngghh..."
There was an akward pause during his gasping breath. Eagle suddenly spoke out quietly and angrily, "You should have killed this old man, Jake-" but was cut short by an angry glare from Sami.
Rachel looked uneasily at her fellow COs in the dim light of the transport chopper. She shifted her eyes from Sensei, dozing in a dark corner, to Eagle sulking at Sami, to Von Bolt, with a look of utter acceptance of his future in his eyes. Rachel wanted to lie down and sleep like Sensei, but she felt compelled to say, "Jake, Eagle, Sami..." noticing Sami sulk back at Eagle, "everyone, all the arguing in the world won't restore Omega Land. There will always be war, people like the Bolt Guard, nu metal... we need to fight for the future, not about the past."
The others stopped talking and contemplated this for a moment. One by one, they went back to their usual flight activities – Jake listening to music, Lash reenacting their campaign on her DS (occasionally pausing to shine its lit screen onto Sensei's face in attempts to wake him up), Colin practicing origami with a 1,000-ruble note. Sasha glanced at Rachel, saw closed eyes, and decided not to wake her up. Instead, she got up to talk to the pilot. "When will we be back in Orange Star headquarters?"
"Should be about eight hours...so 5:00AM."
"Thank you." Sasha sat back down. I should get to sleep, too... she thought. "Good night, Colin."
He flinched, tearing his 1,000-ruble crane in two and hastily picking up the pieces. "G-good night, sis."
They arrived at Orange Star headquarters at the scheduled time. The more lively COs like Grimm and Javier jumped out of the chopper before its rotors were even stopped; Max dragged out Colin and Grit, fast asleep after a night of poker. Too bad Olaf's not here to see that, Sasha smirked. She watched idly out the window as Jess argued over breakfast arrangements on the helipad. Eventually, five soldiers clad in orange uniforms arrived to escort Von Bolt into the building.
Rachel climbed back into the chopper for a moment. "Sasha, Jake, you two stay here for a moment." She got back out to try to stop Jess and Eagle from arguing.
Sasha stared out the window at the capital of Orange Star. "Your country is so beautiful, Jake..."
"Not as beautiful as you, Sasha." With that, they leaned toward each other for a kiss. Time seemed to stop as the two consummated their love in that beautiful moment.
"Wake up," he said in his nerdy Yellow Comet accent.
"Wake up, Sasha!" repeated Sonja. "Everyone, wake up!" The tired COs stirred. "I've just received some intel, and... Sensei, you're better with helicopters than I am... is that light in the cockpit that just came on, by chance, the missile lock warning?"
"Oh. That light's almost burned out. Somebody should replace the bulb."
"Pilot, you see the light, take evasive maneuvers!" Sonja yelled.
"Hey, Grimm, do we have any spare light bulbs?" Sensei inquired.
Those who had resisted Sonja's wakeup attempts moments earlier were jolted awake as the chopper seemed to do barrel rolls to escape the missiles readying to fire upon them from below. "Let me see your headphones, Jake!" ordered Rachel.
She grabbed the expensive headset off his head by force, and extended the microphone. She put them on and broadcasted on the unencrypted channel to Black Hole COs, "Don't fire on us! We are going to leave Black Hole peacefully!"
She heard a voice unknown to her answer. "Blaaargh! Why shouldn't we smash you?"
"We have the leader of your country!"
"You have..."
The voice seemed dumbfounded. The voice seemed to be arguing with another, but Rachel couldn't make out what they were saying. She was about to say something when she heard a new voice, a hissing, grating voice that sounded like Koal. "Von Bolt is aboard your helicopter?"
"...Am I talking to Koal?"
"Heh... no, I am not Koal, but I am the commanding officer of the ground forces below you... is our country's beloved leader Von Bolt on your copter or not?"
"Yes, he is, do you need to talk to him?"
"Heh, that won't be necessary. Flak, give the order. Shoot down that helicopter at all costs. Launch the fighters if you have to. Just don't screw up this time! Heh heh heh..."
Rachel pulled off Jake's headset and addressed the chopper. "We need to make an emergency landing. Now. I know just the place."
Meanwhile, less than a hundred miles away, two legendary Orange Star COs from Macro Land were in an armored personnel character riding through Black Hole land towards the distressed allied copter.
"Hey, Nell?"
"Yes, Andy?"
"Does this APC have attack abilities?"
Nell sighed and retreated into thought, I go through this every single year and yet he still keeps forgetting. She smiled and answered, "No, why?"
Andy scowled and said, "Oh, weak!" Then, with a quizzical look on his face, he asked "What's an airport, again?"
Nell's mind drifted to airports, and she daydreamed about moving to Omega Land to be with her sister Rachel after she retired. Good thing Andy would have a group of advisors as the new leader of Orange Star in Cosmo Land to keep him from doing anything too stupid. Oh no... a chill came over her as she had a horrible thought. Omega Land is a continent... I'm going to have to explain that all over again...
Nell smiled again. "Airports let us deploy air units!"
Andy looked like he had just an epiphany. "Oh, OK. Got it!"
Nell knew that he didn't.
Rachel made an announcement. "Everyone, in about ten minutes we're going to be landing at a site where Orange Star reinforcements can transport us home. There's no need to worry."
"Tee hee! It's like a roller coaster, except we're going to die!" squealed Lash happily, as a bunch of anti-air units fired at them and missed every time, shrapnel exploding in the air around their helicopter.
Rachel sighed. "Lash, do you really not care whether you die? That's just stupid."
"I can do death." Lash smiled.
Rachel threw Jake's headphones at Lash. "Well, we're not going to do death. You talk to them. See if you can get them to cease fire."
Lash pouted, but she knew deep down inside that she might regret it a little if she were to die, so she reluctantly put on the headphones and started chattering into them. Her face lit up, and Rachel heard her say "Hi, Flak!"
Flak responded, "Lash? Oh no... Adder, Lash is on that copter..."
Lash giggled, "Flak, your AA units missed us entirely!"
It sounded like Flak muttered something under his breath, but then Lash realized Jake's headphones had slipped. (Unbeknownst to her, Flak really had muttered something under his breath).
She adjusted the cumbersome headset just in time to hear Adder hiss, "Lash, are you alright? Flak, order your anti-air units to stand down!"
"Aww... it's okay, Adder, you don't need to do that!"
Rachel asked "Who's Flak? Who's Adder?" but she received no reply. Lash had already grabbed the sleeping Sensei's parachute with no resistance, and Jake leaped to restrain her, to no avail. The Black Hole prodigy playfully hopped out of the chopper, still wearing Jake's headphones.
She had to yell over the roar of the air quickly rushing up at her. "Relax, Adder, there's nobody important in the chopper now!"
"...You jumped, didn't you..."
"Tee hee, I got a parachute, silly!"