Chapter 516.

"Day 3: The contest."

(The Bald Eagle Festival.)

The time has come and the day is looking good for those who are looking forward to this day, and as of right now it is time for the annual Bald Eagle Festival, and man does the place look packed.

We have tons of folks going into the large field and taking their seats and talking about what they all look forward to, and not too far from the playing field are the tents where the competitors are all waiting and checking on their avians.

In one tent, we have the five preteens from Royal Woods and they check on their Bald Eagle associates to see if they're looking fine and healthy. Lincoln then pets Patriot on the head. "This is it, buddy. The second time we have this event, the second time we compete."

"The same goes with you girl." Jordan pets the head of Valkyrie. "We're gonna show them all that we can be as good as we were before and sure as heck we can make this the best as last one, but we're not the ones the folks would have to be excited about." She looks to the others eagles and competitors, who are they're friends.

Ryan smiles and he has Harrier on his shoulder. "Yeah, this is our first time and though I have heard of this event long before, I never would've thought that I'd be part of this and with this eagle by my side too."

"Same" replied Gretchen. She then pets the head of Artemis. "We have done some wrong things and earned the forgiveness and trust, and now here we are, competing on an eventful day to honor these national birds of the country."

"Dang right." Hope then finishes cleaning off the beak of Freya. "We have been through so much, and now after so much change, we made it to something we thought we would never, ever be part of. This is both exciting and nerve wrecking."

"But we got this, all of us" said Lincoln. He then goes over to them. "We have been training and we have all survived through so much trouble and made so much successful changes into the loves we had before and the lives we're gonna have for the future to come."

"Sure, we might not win, chances we won't and someone else might take the spotlight, but what matters is that we gave it our all and showed everyone that we're just as good, talented and skilled as the other pros of the Bald Eagle partnership contests pasts, such as the one who's gonna perform his last ride to be well-known."

They all look outside the tent and they can see Steve Grey with Reaver and they walk away from their own tent and Reaver is wearing the blue ribbon to his leg, the very last one he accomplished before Patriot and Valkyrie came.

Lincoln smiles, and then they hear an announcement that the contestants must all report to the field, and so they do and walk there with the eagles on their shoulders. They even came with Eagle perch gloves, for when the time has come.

But they're unaware of the preteen from the other day looking to them sternly, and with his fake bald eagle on his shoulder, staring at nothing. 'When this contest is done, this'll be your very last!'

(Later.)

They all gather and line up with their eagles and they see the two commentators, one is a veteran from the War in the Pacific and the other is the same from last year, WW Legend, Jim Ross.

Jim Ross: We just wanna say thank you all for coming today and being part of this incredible event between people, and avian folks, and it sure is one good day for a heck of an aerial feathered air show.

Horace Steiner: And now, to perform the American National Anthem, please welcome, Royal Woods, Michigan's finest musical talent, Luna Loud.

Everyone claps and they see Luna Loud, but she's not gonna perform onto the guitar, instead she's gonna perform on the keyboard and she begins to start the national anthem with her musically talented voice.

Everyone gets up and places a hand onto their heart and take in the glory of this moment, but Jack Dilington Heron watches the group and is annoyed by them. 'They think they can feel positive about this day? Just you wait, the rest of you will be nothing when I win this!'

Soon, the national anthem is done and now it was time to begin the contest, but then Jim Ross is given a note that the others are confused at what he was gonna say.

Attention, everyone we just got word that the Rabbit chase challenge has been canceled, it appears that the remote controlled rabbit has been stolen, we are trying to figure out where it could be, but until then the challenge will be left out. We're gonna have to stick with the basic challenges.

Everyone else is upset by this and some of the competitors and eagles as well, and even Lincoln and Ryan were not pleased hearing this.

Steve also looking upset, he notices that the kid, Jack Dilington Heron smirks. 'Something ain't right here, and that boy is behind this.'

The first contest, is the Bald Eagle Tag Team challenge and the first ones to perform, will be Lincoln and Jordan. So, the duo begin to go to the red platform on the field and they have their Bald Eagles on their perch gloves.

Lincoln looks towards Jordan. "This is it, huh?"

Jordan nods. "Yeah, so let's do this."

The duo then grab each other's arms and the duo spin around with the eagles holding on and this gets everyone's attention and confused.

The duo then let go and they're eagles take off and spiral upwards, this shocks everyone and the duo take to the skies and they begin to barrel roll down, then they go back up and fly away from each other.

Patriot and Valkyrie then fly towards each other and great speed and they interlock their talons and spiral back down to the ground, but then they depart and take back to the air and glide around next to each other and fly above and below from each other.

They then go back to Lincoln and Jordan at great speed, but they manage to land onto the eagle perch gloves of the two preteens and they're unfazed by the sudden impacting landing.

Everyone else cheers and claps at this, they were impressed and the judges all begin to discuss their score.

Up next are Gretchen and Hope, with Freya and Artemis. They also high five and fist bump, Lincoln and Jordan on the way and the two eagle hug their parents and they hug them back and let them go and perform. The show of affection makes everyone say "Awe."

The two girls go onto the platform and they look to Artemis and Freya, they place a small kiss onto their head and they let the two sister Bald Eagles take off.

Artemis performs some barrel rolls, while Freya spins out of control, but both interlock their talons when they collide and they begin to spiral downward and then they deploy and fly off while still interlocking talons.

Artemis and Freya stay like this and take turns in flying, while the other turns, then they let go and fly away from each other and they take to the skies and then dive back down and they fly past they're human partners by a few inches and then they take to the skies once again.

Artemis and Freya then glide around and spiral around Gretchen and Hope, and then they once again take to the skies and land back down onto the two preteen's eagle perch gloves.

This performance makes the people cheer at what happened and the two girls with their eagles take a bow and then walk off the platform and go to speak with the others, while another tag team takes the stage and does their performance.

"Wow. That was pretty amazing, and went better than what we practiced too" said Ryan. "Nice." He goes over and kisses Gretchen on her cheek.

Gretchen giggles. "Thanks, we did well and it was kinda close when they flew by us, but the practice was all worth is and we got the folks to love it."

"But, let's not count ourselves as the winners yet" said Hope. "We have to see the others as well. There are so many good and awesome Bald Eagle Tag Team Talent." They all agree and watch the other folks with their Tag Team eagles perform, while someone sees this and scoffs.

'Meh. Tag Team Eagle contests, a bunch of stupid stuff, the real deal is flying solo and I know that we're gonna ace the solo stuff for sure.' He then goes back to his tent to adjust his Bald Eagle, but he doesn't know that someone is watching him and she follows the boy and sees what he's up to.

(Later.)

Soon, the singles contest begins and after multiple other competitors show off their eagles speed and the impact landing from the dive, the next one first is the new kid of the block, Jack Dilington Heron.

The preteen walks by Lincoln and Ryan with their eagles, Harrier and Patriot. "Have fun watching me win this one, losers." The other contestants did not like that kid.

Jack steps onto the platform and looks to his bald eagle. 'Time to fool these chums.' he secretly pushes the button on his glove and the robot Bal Eagle looks to the obstacle course and analyzes the whole thing.

As the pistol is fired, the eagle takes off and makes its way pass the caution cones, but it accidently knocks one down making everyone surprises and this makes Jack upset. 'What? No!'

The next thing that happens is the flight under the poles and the eagle flies underneath, but some of the belly is grinding against the dirt and making some dirt hit the eyes and nearly lose focus. This makes everyone question this eagle and why it's not feeling any pain.

Then the water fall is next, and as the eagle passes through, the water slides off the dirt which some folks notice, this was odd for such an avian to have its feathers get cleaned off so easily.

The eagle lands onto the platform and then they see the time. Gene: 11.55 seconds.

This makes the folks clap, and yet they were kinda confused as to why his eagle seemed off. Jack was feeling nervous about this. 'Play it cool and they won't know that this is a robot.'

The next one is to test the sky dive strike force, and so he lets his eagle off into the air, and it goes super-fast into the sky which is something very confusing and surprising and even the judges were getting suspicious. An eagle can't be that fast.

The eagle then stops and drives back down, Jack then pushes the button in his pocket and he changes the density of his eagle to something heavy, and then it lands with a large smoke cloud which makes everyone gasp.

But the smoke clears and they see that the Bald Eagle is… Okay?! What?!

The judges clap and yet they discuss this and are totally confused and suspicious, which Jack doesn't notice, he then walks off and passes by Steve Grey whose next. "Have fun looking bad, old man."

Steve Grey scoffs at this kid being mean. 'That boy is gonna get himself killed one day.' He then walks to the platform and then Steve Grey looks to Reaver. "Let's show them one last wicked run of flight, old friend." The eagle nods and takes off.

The Bald eagle then takes off at great speed and goes through the obstacle course, he bypasses the 10 large caution cones and then flies underneath the 50 poles, then he barrel rolls through 10 hoops and then he picks up some speed and he flies right on through the water fall and makes it to the finish line.

The folks all cheer and look to the score board of the time. Reaver: 15.59 seconds.

That being done, the next one for Reaver to try is his high dive strike performance and test the force of his impact and how strong he has been.

Trevor has Reaver on his right arm eagle perch glove and he lets him fly high, they all watch as he reaches the very top and then he stops and looks down, he then closes his wings and dives down with great speed.

His eyes are closed and then he opens them and he sees the target and he stands by and gets ready, as soon as the timing was right, he opens his wings and slows his speed down slightly and then lands onto the target with the pressure plate, making some dust go around him and he stands tall and unharmed.

The judges look to the score on their tablets and then they discuss to each other about how it went.

The next one to go on next is Lincoln and Patriot, they walk by Steve Gray and fist bump with him, the boy walks up to the stand and he looks to Patriot. "You know what to do, right buddy?"

Patriot nods and then closes his eyes, and he waits. Jim Ross then fires the pistol and the Bald Eagle takes off from Lincoln's eagle perch glove and he goes in fast, he does as Reaver did, but faster and with more maneuverability and he manages to barrel roll when he goes right on through the small water fall.

He lands onto the finish line and looks onto the score board. Patriot: 11.01 seconds.

The folks all cheer from this, and the judges all nod that he was very impressive, and then they showed that he had his eyes closed the entire time?!

Lincoln is surprised. "Whoa what?! Hang on, what?!"

Everyone cheers in amazement and this makes Reaver whistle, he is impressed, and questions how the heck Patriot did all of that, but we can guess that focus and many years of facing trouble has made him stronger and faster than he was before.

The judge's clap and so do the commentators and the other competitors, they are impressed. While someone isn't and growls at this. 'No, this can't be!'

Next up is the Eagle sky dive and so Lincoln has Patriot on his eagle perch glove again, and as the whistle is blown the Bald Eagle takes to the skies with one flap, and he continues to do large flaps as he gets so high up.

Patriot then sighs and closes his eyes and dives back down, he feels the breeze and the rush into his head, and then he opens his eyes and continues to dive downward and then he deploys his wings at the right time and lands smack dab onto the pressure plate target, and stands tall and proud.

The crowd cheers and are truly amazed at what happened. The judges all begin to talk about the score on the tablet which calculated how much force that eagle made with his landing.

Lincoln then has Patriot on the glove and they walk off and they go over to Ryan and Harrier. "You guys are the last entrants, you ready for this thing?"

Ryan nods. "Yeah, we can do this and win or lose, what truly matters is that we showed everyone what Harrier here can do."

Lincoln nods. "Dang right, now get out there and show them what you can do." Patriot goes to Harrier and hugs his son, and the other bald eagle hugs him as well, and they depart from the hug and Patriot watches as Harrier goes over with Ryan.

Patriot is truly proud that his flesh, blood and feathers is gonna go out there and perform as he did, and he's already proud of his girls and same with Valkyrie.

Ryan and Harrier are now looking to the crowd, they can see Luna, Bullets, Nora, Peter Harris and many other folks watching them, Ryan looks to Harrier.

"This is it, Harrier. The moment of truth, we may not have met or interacted much before, but I know that this is the moment for you to prove that you are as ace as your mother and father, let's see you take off and show them that you're one heck of an eagle ace flyer."

Harrier feels motivated by this, and as the pistol is shot he zooms off of Ryan, and he's nearly caught by the pull. "Whoa!"

Harrier flies left, right and barrel rolls so fast past the obstacles, and then he flies underneath the poles and even flies with his back facing the ground, which surprises all and even Ryan. "Okay, when did we do that kind of trick?"

Harrier then flies on at full speed and he has his wings wide open and he flies on through the small waterfall and then he takes to the skies at great speed, which looks like what he does for the sky diving strike and he zooms down fast and imagines something.

The many enemies he had to fight, the many prey he chased down and the many friends he wishes to save, and he lands with a major impact that has some dust fly around the place, and the smoke clears and Harrier stands tall.

They all look to the scoreboard, combined the time of the obstacle course, and the speed impact of his strike which became part of the whole thing. Harrier: 10.59 seconds!

This makes everyone cheer in amazement at what had happened, and it is a standing ovation for all. Ryan goes towards Harrier and so does Patriot, Lincoln, Jordan, Valkyrie, Artemis, Freya, Hope, Gretchen and Nora and they check on the Bald Eagle.

"What the heck was that all about?" asked Hope.

"Did you just perform two challenges at the same time?" asked Gretchen.

"That was some pretty sick moves, and some pretty sick timing too" said Jordan.

Lincoln chuckles. "You beat the record and showed them the impact that you can do seems like something far more superior to what we did."

Ryan looks to Harrier. "I don't know what were you thinking back there, but that was some fine and awesome flight capabilities buddy, well done, Harrier." He pets the eagles head, and Harrier smiles.

Harrier is then tackled by Nora and she begins to place a lot of kisses to his face and this makes them all chuckle, then they hear someone panic. "No stop!"

They all see Jack and his eagle flying weirdly and then it keeps hitting onto the flag pole and then lands onto the judges table which shocks them, then Raptor lands down and grabs the eagle and throws it into the air.

Then Apollo swoops down and uses steel wing and the eagles head breaks and reveals it's true face as it lands back onto the table and the judges and crowd are horrified, the face is robotic and it begins to fire a small laser into the sky and it repeats something it recorded, the voice of its creator.

"Come tomorrow, if we lose, then we knock off the competition and make them have an injury that would show that they're not so strong, the lasers were designed for making pulsating pain inside the body and whether the eagle lives or dies, it doesn't matter. Robots are in and animals are out!"

"We're so gonna win and then I'll be the top eagle champ baby!"

The judges all look to the kid, and Jack backs up slowly and is nervous. "Let me explain…" He then bumps into Steve Grey who grabs the boy. "Hey! Let me go you old man!"

"You're not going anywhere." They all see Angel Carson with a remote control. "Found this in your tent." She then controls the eagle robot and it hops around and then shuts down. "Looks like someone tried to cheat his way through this."

She then shows them the damaged robotic rabbit. "This was also found, and it turns out that he was the one who wanted that rabbit chase sequence to be shut down, because his robot eagle has this predatory instinct and would lose control if it did see a small mammal."

The judges then go over to the boy. "Jack Dilington Heron, consider yourself disqualified and banned from any further Bald Eagle contests! Get this kid out of our sight."

The guards come and Steve hands the kid over to them. "No! Let me go, do you know who I am?!" He then looks to Lincoln and the others and is angered. "This is not over! I will come and get what I deserve and that's my win!" He then looks to Angel. "And you! You'll pay for ruining my plans, whoever you are!"

They watch as the boy is escorted away, and they all cheer at the girl who helped show the truth of the kid and this makes Angel bow and then she lets the other eagles apprehend the robot eagle.

All the eagles who are part of the contest, even Bullets, Nora, Raptor and Apollo become part of the group and they all look to the now shutdown robot bald eagle and are ticked off at this mechanical fraud and they all have their talons sharpened and ready.

They begin to tear this metallic monstrosity apart and then toss the remains into the trashcan and the folks cheer and soon it was time to announce the winners.

Jim Ross makes that announcement as the Tag Team contenders all stand tall and wait.

"Alright folks, now the winners of the Bald Eagle Tag Team contest are…. For the second time, Lincoln Loud and Jordan Rosato, with Patriot and Valkyrie."

The duo are surprised and they see Gretchen and Hope smile, clap and nod. They deserved it, and even Artemis and Freya were happy for their parents and they watch as they go to the stage and claim the Tag Team Gold trophy, which isn't too big or too small.

They all congratulate them and Luna with Peter Harris begin to record this moment, and then the next announcement is the second place and it turns out, it goes to Hope and Gretchen with Artemis and Freya and all four of them go on stage and receive they're blue ribbons.

Soon, Horace Steiner makes the announcement for the last contest.

"Alright all you Bald Eagle fans out there, this next one is for the singles Bald Eagle contest, and the winners are… Well, I'll be dang. Ryan Rosato and Harrier!"

This was something they did not see coming and everyone cheers and so does Lincoln and Patriot, and the boy has one thing to say to his friend. "You guys earned it, go on."

Patriot also nods, and he bows to Harrier and he also bows back.

The duo then get on stage and they receive the large trophy, and it's as big as Lincoln was when he was 11, and the crowd cheers to the new top notch singles Eagle contender, and it also has to be the proudest moment in Ryan's life.

He looks to his friends and sister, and girlfriend who are smiling, and clapping at what he and Harrier have accomplished and even the other Eagles are happy that this hatchling from last year, won.

The folks back in Royal Woods are damn proud of this kid, adopted by the Rosato family and has proven that the next generation has come to show that they are as ace as the veterans of the game.

To be continued…

A/N: Now that is what I call one awesome and incredible Bald Eagle Contest, and this kid, well he might be the next threat to be faced, and he might make a comeback, but for tomorrow they'll be ready to go home and greet the others. Leave a review and tell me what you all think.

Date made: 2/28/21 – 3/1/21.