Thank you, Eiki-chan and Fushica and PeasleysParakeet for reviewing. I love ya'll!
Molly was running, she didn't care where to. She just wanted away from the earth hanger. She won that race, barely, but still won and he didn't care! He acted like he would've preferred losing to winning. She ran, her eyes shut against tears she hadn't felt in years, and she ran right into Aikka. And fell on her rump. He helped her up as he said,
"Molly! Are you alright, what happened?" He was concerned. Small tears were at the edges of her eyes.
"He doesn't care!" She cried. "We won and he doesn't care! He's telling us to pack and leave in the morning. I don't want to go." She was so close to crying, she was shaking from the effort not to let the tears flow.
He wrapped his arms around her and she shook in his grasp, not crying but not calm either. He smoothed her hair as she calmed down slowly. When she no longer shook with the effort not to cry, he pulled her back and looked into her eyes.
"Now, who is it that doesn't care?" He asked gently, so as not to upset her again.
"Don Wei, our manager. I sorta hijacked the Arrow 2 and Jordan jumped in with me and we used the hyper drive too much and were forced to crawl to the finish line. Groor kept coming at us and Jordan shot the joints out and it fell apart, and we won, but he said it was the worst race he ever saw and now we're the laughingstock of the race."
"He'll change his mind. You're a great pilot Molly. I was watching the race. He won't make you go."
"Do you really think so?" She asked tentatively
"Absolutely. May I walk you back to your hanger?"
"Yes." She said blushing hard. "Thank you."
They walked in a comfortable silence to the Earth's hanger.
"I really hope I see you soon." Molly said quietly.
"You will." Aikka promised. He kissed her hand, and she blushed like no other. She saw Jordan in the hanger.
"I'd better go, before he comes out and is rude to you again. Good-bye."
He bowed and left. She was looking after him when Jordan came up and said, "What were you doing with him, again?"
"I ran into him and he offered to walk me back! What is your problem? Aikka's nice and you keep insulting him, why?" She was practically shouting at him.
"He's a Nourasian, they're with the Crogs, and they're the enemy! You can't keep hanging out with him."
"And just who appointed you my father, Jordan? Just leave me alone."
She stormed off and sat beneath a tree that was near the pit. She was trying to cool her temper at Jordan, reminding herself he was her partner and he had been good in the race but he was so infuriating. Rick came by soon, on his crutches.
"Hey, little mouse; I heard what Jordan said about the Prince. He's not all bad you know. He just wants to protect you."
"And I wish he'd do it with more manners." She muttered angrily. Rick hobbled away to lie down.
"You know, he's right. But trigger happy does need to learn manners." A voice was coming from above her. Molly looked up to see a girl, a little older than her hanging upside down on a branch above her head. She had long black hair that was braided and hanging down, deep green eyes, and a lightly tanned white skin with a few freckles on her cheeks.
"Uh, who are you?" Molly asked blinking.
"Oh, excuse me, where are my manners? My name is Kailua. I'm a Kelamian." Now that Molly looked closer she could see she had slightly pointed ears and her pupils were a little like a cat's, slits.
"So what's your name? I heard the big guy call you 'little mouse'."
"My name's Molly."
"No it's not but whatever you say."
"How did you know that's not my real name?" She was slightly alarmed.
"Oh, simple Kelamians are telepathic. I know you were lying. I also know you're real name, and why you're here. So tell me who's the big guy who was by?"
"Rick."
"Rick? He's cute." Kailua said. She swung down, careful to keep her legs tucked up to not hit Molly, and landed gracefully next to her. She wore a bright green tank top that did a V-neck kinda low, but not sluttish, and a pair of black cargo pants. She was slightly turned from Molly so she could see the weirdest thing about this girl: She had feathery wings coming out of her back
"Ah, you saw them. Rather gaudy aren't they. But so much fun."
Jordan spotted Molly talking to some girl out by the tree. He went over to see what was up.
"Kailua, this is Jordan, Jordan this is Kailua." Molly introduced them.
Kailua puzzled over him for a minute before saying to Molly, rather bluntly "He's not so cute."
Jordan practically fell over and Molly doubled over laughing at him. She liked her, she was very insulting but fun all the same. Jordan pulled himself together and looked her over.
"I'm a Kelamian."
"Winged people?" Jordan asked. "Wasn't our next race supposed to be against you?"
"It still is. Ya'll aren't leaving, not yet. And you're much more polite with me than you are with Prince Aikka. And why is that? Simple, he's Nourasian and you think they joined the Crogs out of spite for the Earth. Wrong. The Nourasians didn't have a choice. It was either alliance or the destruction of the entire population. The Crogs went to Nourasia for the precious metals mined there but the Nourasian people couldn't give them up. There wasn't enough there. The Crogs declared war on them and took them by surprise. They had no choice at all."
Jordan was stunned. By both the fact that she'd known what he was thinking and that she knew why the Nourasians were allies with the Crogs.
"How do you know all this?" He asked shakily.
"All women read minds gunner boy. Even your friend here can learn. As to the history, I'm a friend of Aikka's. No we're not allies with the Crogs. There's nothing on Kelamaia to interest them to conquer us." She looked at her watch and her eye's widened. "I have to go and make sure that Izabella is ready for our race."
"Is Izabella your ship? What kind is it?" Molly asked eagerly. Kailua blinked at her and laughed.
"Izabella is my giant hawk, I race with her. Izzy, for short, my 'ship' yes but not like yours. If she get's hurt, it's not so quickly repairable, so don't go shooting too much at her, got it trigger happy?" She added menacingly too Jordan, who backed up a step and nodded. "See ya'll later." She said. And spread her wings and launched into the sky and headed to the Kelamian hanger.
"Boy, she's weird." Jordan said.
"Yeah, but she's cool, don't you think?"
"Ha, you tell me."
"That wasn't true. Kelamians are telepathic, that's how she knew what you were thinking."
"Come on, if she's right, we have a race to prepare for." He led the way back to the hanger and found Don Wei there.
"You're sill racing, so get in there and win." He said shortly. He wasn't in a good mood; that was painfully obvious. "Well, what are you waiting for? Snap to."
"Yes, sir." Jordan promptly replied. Molly walked passed him without a word to the cockpit. She started it up and flew out of the pit and to the arena, where Kailua was already waiting. Her hawk, Izabella, was black and brown with a huge wingspan and golden eyes. Around her neck was a collar with buttons and gadgets on it. Probably to contact the opponent and use weapons, Molly thought. Kailua smiled at them as the stones dropped. Izzy spread her wings and prepared for take off. The circle gate dropped and they were off.
Izzy and Kailua were doing barrel rolls ahead of the Arrow 2, staying just out of reach of the guns. No reason to give gunner boy something to use as target practice, Kailua rationalized. Molly put extra speed into the Arrow 2 and caught up to them on the curve. Jordan wasted no time in shooting at her. Izzy took a shot to the tail feathers and one stray shot got Kailua's metal hair band, breaking it and sending her hair flying. She quickly hit a button on the collar, bringing her up on Molly's screen.
"Would it be too much to ask to keep that trigger happy gun boy of yours in line? He almost hit Izzy and came incredibly close to getting me!"
"Don't tell me, talk to Jordan." Molly snapped. She switched it to Jordan.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Kailua shouted. "You came that close to hitting Izabella and even closer to me! Try and look where you're aiming!"
She shut off the transmission and pulled her long hair out of her face. It now streamed behind her like a cape. OK baby, she thought to Izzy, time to show them what we're made of. She pushed another button and a multitude of thrusters came out of the sides of the collar, she flipped a switch and they all activated going way faster than the Arrow 2. Izzy quit flapping and held her wings out to steer.
Molly activated the hyper drive and was neck and neck with Kailua. Jordan couldn't get a good shot at her so was force to leave it alone. The finish gate was just a head. Suddenly a bright light came out of no where, and blinded the racers. Kailua flipped the switch down by feel and slowed down Izzy. Molly looked through the black dot clouding her vision and maneuvered the craft through the game and disengaged the hyper drive. Izzy came in a second later.
Kailua wasn't happy. Not because she lost the race, not even because Izzy's tail feathers were singed. No, she was mad because some idiot had thrown a light in her face and almost made Izabella crash into a wall! When she found out who he was a dead man!
Molly came over with Jordan to apologize. "Sorry about hitting Izzy. Just, gunners break things, it's kinda our job." He was apologetic and sincere, Kailua knew that.
"It's alright, no serious hard done. Would you two like to meet her?"
"Sure." They said at the same time. Kailua led them to Izzy who was preening herself with her beak. She looked up when the 2 approached. She bent down and nuzzled Kailua affectionately and looked at Molly and Jordan.
"Izzy, this is Molly and Jordan, guys this is Izabella." The hawk bent down and got eye level with Molly first and after a moments inspection, rubbed her with the side of her face. "That means she likes you." Kailua said approvingly.
The bird then looked at Jordan, who was nervous about having such a large creature looking at him. She looked him in the eye, and rubbed against him harder than she had Molly. "She likes you even more. Odd." Kailua had come to stand next to Jordan. "Good job, winning the race, did either of you see the flash of light or was I the only one blinded?"
"No, I was blinded too. Jordan was in the back so he wasn't blinded at all." Molly said.
"Someone was trying to stop one of us from winning the race, and when I find out whom, all his guts will be run up a flagpole!" Kailua snarled viscously. They bid good-bye to one another and headed back to their respective hangers. Molly was still thinking who would want one or both of them out of the race.
To be continued.