Area 88: The Return of the Razgriz

by KnighteWolfe

A preview of this chapter. Its not finished yet. Just wanted to let y'all know that it hasn't been abandoned.

2. ZeroZero Section meets the Razgriz

To those who want me to continue this story, here it is

the second chapter of my Area 88/Ace Combat 5:

The Unsung War crossover.

As always, please read and enjoy!!

Disclaimer: TV Asashi owns Area 88

while Ace Combat 5 is owned by Namco.

Area 88

Return of the Razgriz

Chapter 2:

Zero-Zero Section meets the Ghosts of Razgriz.

1130 Hours. 200 Miles West of Sand Island Air Base.

The sky was a vivid blue, a blue that could only be seen by someone flying in it. Colonel Saki Vashtarl grinned under his oxygen mask as he led the four best pilots in the direction specified by the lady he knew only as 'Mystery Woman Number One'. Leading the diamond formation in his SEPECAT Jaguar, the Asranian Prince realized that he was where he'd always wanted to be. Glancing out of his cockpit to his left after a quick scan of his gauges, Vashtarl saw the blue and white paint scheme of Shim Kazama's F-5E Tiger sitting as if he were glued to a spot ten feet off of Saki's wing. Shifting his gaze over to his right he saw that the AV-8B Harrier II of the young Kim Aba was pacing him almost as perfectly as Kazama was on the opposite wing. Swiveling his head around to his rear, the head of the Royal Asranian Air Force was barely able to see the menacing front end of Mickey Simon's F-14A Tomcat with Saki's cousin (and future wife) riding in Mickey's backseat.

Saki frowned as he thought back to how hostile Kitori had been when they had first climbed out over the ocean after leaving Area 88. She wouldn't shut the hell up and kept complaining over the radio about everything. If it wasn't about Mickey's flying style, the baroness was bitching about Kim having an airplane to fly while she had none. Ever since the loss of her beloved Mirage F-1, his cousin wasn't in her usually happy mood. Vashtarl didn't hold it against her though. She, like the rest of the group, was a fighter pilot and highly preferred to have a control stick in her hand instead of riding as extra cargo in somebody else's well-loved fighter. Simon had already been cussed out and threatened with bodily harm after cracking wise about Kitori's weight and wanting to charge her for extra poundage. Saki had winced in commiseration as his cousin had verbally blasted the American for a good twenty minutes over the intercom system installed in his 'Cat just for this flight. Baroness Kitori Palvanoff was an extraordinarily beautiful woman with near perfect measurements. She was also, if she so chose to flaunt it, extremely wealthy.

"Double Echo Lead to Double Echo flight; everything alright?", asked Saki over the radio.

"Double Echo Two, everything is fine." – Kazama.

"Double Echo Three, nothing to report." - Kim.

"Double Echo Four, just cruisin' Double Echo leader." – Mickey

Saki chuckled to himself as he heard the note of laughter in Mickey's voice.

"Can we just shut the hell up and get to where we're going? I'm tired of riding back here in this dark smelly pit.", snarled Kitori.

"Awww, you're just jealous Kitori. Next time order a fighter with two engines so you can get away. No single engine light fighter can beat my 'cat in a straight out aerial drag race. Maybe you should ask the guys at our destination if they have an extra -14 for you.", chuckled Mickey in reply.

"Mickey, I wouldn't fly a big unmaneuverable dump truck like this if you and I were the last two people on Earth and we had to repopulate the whole damn planet. I'll accept grounding before front seating a Tomcat in combat. Damn thing's just a big radar target in my opinion.", snapped Kitori in response to Mickey's teasing.

In the front seat of his aircraft, Mickey glared at the woman in his rearview mirror; a Tomcat unable to maneuver? How preposterous. Deciding to show the hostile aerial beauty just how maneuverable his bird was, Mickey advanced his throttles to the stops and dove under his flight lead before kicking in his afterburners and pulling straight up into a ballistic climb. As he passed the other members of his flight, he jammed the right rudder pedal all the way to the stops and rolled the large aircraft around its longitudinal axis several times, demonstrating its ability to roll 270 degrees a second before jerking his stick to the left, activating his wing sweep override and letting the Cat do a perfect one eighty and end up less than three feet from and about a thousand feet above where he started.

"How's that for unmaneuverable, baby? Ya gotta problem wit it? Ya ever wanna get into an angles fight with me; just say the word and I'll be there. Just like the Tomcat motto 'Anytime, Anywhere Baby!'", chortled Mickey as Kitori spluttered over the ICS circuit.

The baroness had nearly come close to tasting her breakfast for the second time that morning with Mickey's reckless stunt.

Three thousand feet above the members of Double Echo Flight flew five aircraft. They had been pacing the fighters below ever since they'd heard from their airborne control and early warning aircraft flying at near fifty thousand feet. The AWACS had tracked been tracking Double Echo ever since the people from Area 88 had entered their area of operations. Not acknowledging the call verbally (thus ruining their observations on the skill of the Double Echo bunch) the flight lead of the five aircraft had just clicked his mic and continuing with his observations.

Off to the left of the flight lead, an F-4G Phantom flew his number two and three in the formation. The other two aircraft in the flight, aircraft four and five did the same on his right side. To the casual observer if they were able to see the flight from the ground, it looked as if four other aircraft were trying to surround the Phantom. If the observer looked closely at the formation, he or she would be confused as they saw what looked to be an aircraft flying backwards.

Blaze Thomas grinned into his oxygen mask as he heard a whistle over their secured radio frequency. The guy flying the Tomcat below them was pretty damn good. That maneuver he had pulled had impressed them all, especially Swordsman.

"Damn, whoever is driving that 'Cat is good. It may be a -14A but it flies more like my -14D. Whomever maintains the engines on that bird must know a helluva lot about Tomcats.", commented Swordsman Snow.

"Hahahah, I think you may be outclassed there Five. That pilot looks as if he can fly rings around you!", chuckled Archer Grimm.

"Stifle it meathead! Just because your Eagle is faster than my Tomcat and can actually break mach speed unity going vertical, I'll still beat you five outta five times in a 1 v 1, ya young cub.", retorted Swordsman.

The pilot of the Phantom just growled over his ICS to his backseater before jumping in to the conversation himself.

"Archer, Swordsman both of you shut it! You ladies, can shake your dicks at each other later but for now you two maintain formation and SHUT THE HELL UP!", snapped Heartbreak One.

The two less-enthused pilots responded to the command with quiet acknowledgments. Over in his aircraft Blaze chuckled to himself. Looking over to his left he saw his wife shaking her head. He could see that in her cockpit thirty feet away that she was shaking with her own brand of silent laughter. An idea popped in his head and he saw a way to test the pilots in the aircraft below. Looking over at the Tiger on his left, Blaze waved his left arm in an exaggerated fashion so Edge could see him.

Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas was chuckling to herself at the rebuke her old flight instructor shot in the Snow's and Grimm's direction. Leaning back in her ejection seat, Edge sighed to herself and thought about what her children were doing at the moment. Looking to her right, Edge was a bit surprised to see her husband waving his hand like a chimpanzee on a caffeine buzz. Wondering what he wanted, she allowed her aircraft to drift a little bit closer. Kei watched as Ian flashed his fingers in pattern. It took her a few seconds and one repetition to get what he was asking her to do.

"Now why does my dear husband want me to switch over to Orange Five, our private frequency, on the back radio?", said Edge to herself.

Giving Blaze a thumbs up with her right hand while reaching over to her back radio with her left, Edge locked in a non-standard scramble pattern. Thus if anyone was actually able to figure out what channel Orange Five was, all they would hear when they switched to it was random noise. Once the frequency and scramble pattern was locked in, Edge gave Blaze a call.

"Yes dear, what is it?', stated Edge in her most seductive voice while thanking her lucky stars that no one knew her and her husband's private frequency.

"You know I love it when you speak like that hon and I'll be looking forward to partaking of what your voice is promising but this call is about something else. Ya wanna have some aerial fun with our visitors?", came the voice of her husband.

Just from listening to his tone of voice, Edge knew her husband was thinking about doing something devious. Usually she loved his playful side but now wasn't the time with several million dollars of aircraft and several tens of thousands of pounds of high explosives and flammable hi-test jet fuel. Cautiously, she asked what he planned to do.

"Oh, nothing much darling, just a test to see how steely their nerves are.", replied Blaze coyly.

Edge grew worried, when her usually quiet and strait-laced husband started talking coyly; he was trying to ease her worries. Deciding to skip the actions this time, she told him that she would sit this one out.

"Okay, it's your decision. But I think you're missing out. I'll be careful. Blaze out."

Kei acknowledged his transmission and switched back to her main radio. Debating on whether or not to let the colonel know what her husband was planning, Edge watched as Blaze's aircraft-with its unusual forward swept wing-design-slowed down and let the others edge ahead.

In the Phantom, Pops sat in the backseat usually occupied by a Radar Intercept Office on combat missions. He'd been playing with the radar system in front of him and had been watching the other four aircraft (what he could see of them) as the five ship continued to fly in formation. Out of the corner of his experienced eyes, something caught his attention. The man formerly known as Huckabein the Raven shifted his attention to the action and tried to figure out what was going on as the X-29 flying off Bartlett's left wing started dropping back. Tapping the floor mounted intercom switch with his left foot, he alerted the pilot in front of him.

"Hey Bartlett, Kid's got something planned. He's slowed way down and allowed us to ease ahead of him a bit.", stated Pops as he kept an eye on Blaze's aircraft.

Bartlett sputtered for a moment before checking it out for himself. Seeing that his backseater was correct, Bartlett started to fume.

"That sonuva…..! Get on the back-up radio and call that asshole. Inform him that if he doesn't return to his position I'll punch his lights out!", snarled Bartlett.

Pops told Bartlett he would and then proceeded to call Blaze on his back-up radio. As he expected, Blaze didn't answer. Up front, Bartlett was cussing up a storm. He knew that if Blaze had something planned; he couldn't resist telling his wife. Usually, Edge would coax her occasionally impulsive husband out of whatever it was he had planned. Although there were times when she happily and joyously joined in the mayhem he created. Rumor had it that Kita, Kei and Ian's daughter, was the end result of one of Blaze and Edge's more noteworthy adventures.

Hearing no reply from his wayward pilot, Bartlett told Pops to forget about contacting Blaze and to, instead, call Edge and find out what her idiotic husband was planning. Pops demurred and pointed out that whatever Blaze had planned, it was too late to stop it. Bartlett cursed again as he watched the reverse swept wing X-29 accelerated then pitched down into a nearly vertical dive.

"Aww shit, he's gonna get us in deep trouble. We're about seventy miles from our destination. And friggin Uncle Vinnie is watching. Shit."

"Bartlett, you might want to go ahead and give Oka Nieba a call and have them go ahead and make contact with those guys below us. Make sure AWACS Oka Nieba gets an acknowledgement from them and make sure that those guys don't pop off a missile at Blaze by mistake.", replied Pops.

Bartlett nodded and contacted the big E-767 Sentry aircraft orbiting with its fighter coverage almost six hundred miles away and flying fifteen thousand feet higher than his present altitude.

"Heartbreak One calling Oka Nieba."

"Go ahead Heartbreak One, you have AWACS Oka Nieba. What can I do for you?", answered one of the controllers.

"Ahh, Oka Nieba can you give Double Echo Lead a call and let him know that you have him on radar. Have Double Echo Lead contact me on this channel. Also give him a heads up about Igloo Two. My wingman's decided to announce himself.", stated Bartlett.

"Copy that Heartbreak One. Contact Double Echo and have him contact you on this freq. Also give Double Echo Lead a heads up about Igloo Two. We'll get it done.", replied the controller.

The controller was about to contact Double Echo Lead and have him contact Bartlett on his frequency when Bartlett cut back in.

"Oka Nieba, make damn sure that Double Echo is 'weapons safe'! I don't want them popping off a missile at Igloo Deuce!"

"Affirmative Heartbreak One. Confirm Double Echo is weapons safe."

Bartlett copied the transmission from the controller and sat back to wait for the leader of the flight below to contact him.

Meanwhile, Saki listened as Kitori bickered with Kim over some slight or another and he was beginning to get really tired of his cousins' bad attitude. Saki knew that Kitori was acting the way because sitting in the backseat of Mickey's Tomcat made her feel as if she wasn't in control. Like most pilots (Saki himself included) Kitori hated the feeling of helplessness she experienced when she was riding as a passenger in somebody else's aircraft and frankly, it unnerved her. Praying to all the gods he had been taught about from his time as a child to the present, Saki hoped that their benefactors had something for Kitori to fly.

"This is AWACS Oka Nieba calling Double Echo lead. Come in Double Echo.", radioed an unknown voice.

At that request, Kim and Kitori halted their argument (much to Saki's relief) and wondered who was calling. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Saki replied.

"AWACS Oka Nieba, you have Double Echo Lead. Go ahead."

"Double Echo, you're requested to squawk one-two-one-five and switch three-zero-three-point-one and contact Heartbreak One."

"Copy that Oka Nieba. Double Echo squawking and switching.", returned Saki as he changed his IFF to the requested setting and switched to the proper radio frequency.

Clearing his throat, Saki made the call.

"Heartbreak One, you have Double Echo Lead up on 303.1."

"Double Echo, Heartbreak One. Confirm you are at weapons tight?"

"Weapons Tight? Why the hell does he want me to confirm that my weapons are safe?", wondered Saki as he checked to make sure his 'Master Arm' switch was in the safe position.

Alongside Saki's Jaguar, Shin Kazama listened as Mickey, Kim, and Kitori complained about the request by the other voice on the radio. It was threatening to escalate into verbal abuse when Saki curtly ordered Mickey and Kim to follow the instructions given by the unknown flight. Shin had already double checked and verified that his weapons weren't armed when the call had first come through. By habit, Kazama searched the sky for the reason Heartbreak One had requested that Saki make sure that his weapons and the weapons of his flight were safe.

Back in the Jaguar, Saki listened as his three pilots checked in and confirmed that their weapons were not armed and their master arm switches were in the 'safe' position. Once that was done he contacted the other aircraft.

"Heartbreak One, Double Echo Lead, all aircraft in Double Echo Flight confirm 'weapons tight' status. Pardon my brusqueness but could you kindly tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Double Echo Lead, I just wanted to make sure that your weapons were safe. I didn't want anyone popping off a missile at my wingman, Igloo Two."

"Heartbreak One, where is your wingma……… shit!!!!", started Saki only to be interrupted when another aircraft flew past no more than ten feet in front of the nose of his aircraft.

The air displaced by the other aircraft jostled the normally stable Jaguar and it took all of Vashtarl's considerable skill to keep from loosing control of his aircraft. Once everything was again stable, Saki looked for the offending aircraft while calming Mickey down. When the Tomcatter had cooled off a bit, Saki went on the radio to complain but was cut off as he listened while Heartbreak One berated his wingman for doing such a damn fool stunt.

"Dammit Blaze!!! Are You Trying To Cause An International Incident? Those Guys Are Here To Ask For Our Help And You NEARLY Screwed The Pooch! When We Land, You Better Hope That You Make It Out Of Your Cockpit Before I Get There! If You Don't, Not Even Your Wife Will Save Your Reckless Ass!?"

"Heartbreak One, you're breaking up. Repeat your last transmission.", came a slightly bemused voice.

"Don't Play That Shit With Me! That Excuse Went Out Years Before Either You Or I Was Born! Even Pops Reports That That Excuse Was Old When He Was Young! DAMMITALLTOHELL! I Thought I Trained You Better Than That!"

Kitori and Mickey had a laugh at the other pilots' misfortune but cut it short when Saki told them to get off the channel.

In his X-29, Blaze was impressed with the skill shown by the pilot of the F-5 flying on the Jaguar's left wing. He hadn't even flinched when Blaze blew past him at Mach 1.2. The Harrier driver and the Tomcat flinched imperceptibly during the high speed vertical pass; even the Jaguar had a small twitch. The Tiger had made nary a twitch, bobble, or shake.

"Either that guy is an exceptional pilot or he's a very scared amateur. I have a feeling that its more of the former than the latter.", thought Blaze as he moved a little bit closer.

Shin Kazama watched the unfamiliar aircraft moving in on his left wing. He could sense that its pilot was measuring him to see how good a pilot he was. Shin was a bit impressed himself; the pilot of that strange aircraft handled its small size with an ability that Shin knew was far ahead of his own mastery of the Tiger.

"If I had my Crusader, I'd show this guy exactly how good a pilot I am. I'm still kind of getting used to this F-5 Tiger even though I've had it for several years. I knew the Crusader inside and out, top to bottom. Radome to afterburner.", mused Kazama as he kept watching the other aircraft out of the corner of his eye.

Bringing his attention back to the radio, Shin could hear Heartbreak One asking Saki if he would clear his flight into close proximity. Saki had granted clearance and then asked the flight lead how he knew they were there.

"Double Echo lead, Oka Nieba's been tracking you by radar for the past six hundred miles. You never knew you were being tracked because the AWACS had been ordered to not make radio contact with you. My flight and I have been tracking you for the past hundred and fifty miles. We just kept our radar's in standby mode and had Oka Nieba keep radar contact on your flight.", returned Heartbreak One.

Saki nodded as he listened to the other flight lead. Looking up through his cockpit canopy, Saki saw sunlight glinting off what could only be another formation of aircraft. Soon the glint resolved itself into four aircraft. Saki recognized the two bigger aircraft as an F-4G Phantom and an F-14 Tomcat (he didn't know if it was an -14A like Mickey's, an F-14B like another new pilots' at Area 88, or the F-14D Super Tomcat he'd been hearing rumors about). As the other formation came closer, he observed that there was another Tiger in the group. However, once the other formation was completely visible, Saki noted that the small aircraft that flew off the wing of the aircraft that he assumed to belong to the leader looked very different from the Tiger off of his own wing. For one thing, it only had a single engine and the cockpit canopy was more bubble-like than the typical Tiger canopy.

Saki was about to ask the leader of his escort to their destination when he heard Mickey's sudden intake of breath.

"Holy….., I can't believe my friggin eyes, a Tigershark; an honest to gawd F-20 Tigershark. I'd heard stories and seen pictures but I never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd be up close and personal with a Tigershark!", breathed the American in awe.

In his backseat, Kitori just rolled her eyes as she listened to Mickey. She didn't see what it was he was all in awe about. It looked like a Tiger with one engine, what could it do in a dogfight? Unimpressed, Kitori snorted in ridicule.

Over in the Jaguar, Saki was curious. He'd never heard of a Tigershark and he knew the basic specs on the majority of the worlds' military fighters. The prince asked the Tomcat driver what exactly the Tigershark could do.

"Geez, colonel, I think the better question would be what can't it do? It shares the same basic frame and fuselage with the F-5 Freedom Fighter and the F-5E Tiger like Kazama's. However with its single engine and enlarged afterburner can, it has about sixty percent more thrust and can maneuver like a bat outta hell. Only problem is, that extra power makes it a bit of a handful to fly. Sir, the Tigershark was often referred too as the badass little brother of the Tiger. In the hands of a competent pilot, I don't think there's a fighter in the world that can beat it. And from the looks of it, that pilot is one of a select few who can extract the full potential out of that bird.", replied Mickey.

Listening in to the radio banter between the two, Kei Nagase-Thomas swelled with pride. She considered the other pilots' words a compliment.

"Now Edge, don't get a swelled head just because he complimented your flying. Don't forget about the abilities of your husband when he's pushing a Tigershark.", came Swordsman's joking voice over her back radio.

Edge snickered then keyed her mic. in reply to the compliment.

"Whoever you are, and whichever aircraft you're in. Thank you for the nice words. However, if you think I'm good in the Tigershark, you should see my husband when he flies an F-20."

Exclamations of surprise came from the members of Double Echo as they realized that the voice replying to Mickey was female. Deciding to play along, Mickey asked Kei where her husband was.

"My husband is the guy flying off the left wing of the Tiger in your formation.", came the reply.

Deducing that the American voice was the guy in the Tomcat with the Playboy bunny on the vertical stabilizer, Blaze pitched up into a climbing turn and barrel rolled. Coming out of the roll, he inverted and positioned himself right above the cockpit of the Tomcat. Seeing the two faces staring goggle-eyed up at him, he waved and barrel rolled again before goosing his throttles and sliding back into position next to Kazama's Tiger.

Kazama studied the other pilot to see how he compared to other pilots he knew. He was bringing his head back forward when he saw the pilot of the aircraft on his wing trying to get his attention. Turning to face the other man, he watched as the pilot tapped his helmet then flashed his fingers. Recognizing that the other pilot wanted to talk to him without either of their wingmates knowing, he switched to the channel indicated.

"Aircraft off my left wing, this is Double Echo Two."

"Double Echo Two, Igloo Deuce here. Call me Blaze. I want to see how good you are. Don't change position.", replied the pilot of the aircraft with the reverse swept wings that looked odd to Shin.

Shin looked questioningly at the other pilot, only to be drop his jaw in shock as the pilot called Blaze barrel rolled his aircraft again. Only this time his roll carried him above Shin's aircraft where he went inverted and positioned his cockpit right over Shin's own cockpit.

Up in his Phantom, Bartlett was going apeshit and trying hard to not let it show in his communications with Double Echo Leader.

"Blaze what the hell!! Are you trying to get yourself grounded?", roared Bartlett.

Pops chuckled from the backseat of the well-cared for Phantom. He figured that Bartlett was pissed off because the kid beat him to doing what he wanted to do himself. Keying the ICS and changing to 'hot mic' he told his pilot to mellow out.

"It's okay Bartlett. Let the Kid do as he pleases. Besides we need to be on final for our destination. We're ten miles out and you Uncle Vinnie hates to be kept waiting. Anyways, I want to see how that Tiger driver handles himself.", stated Pops.

"Yeah yeah yeah. All y'all are ganging up on me today. At least Swordsman and Archer are still doing the smart thing and staying up here. You know that Edge and Blaze are going to be almost insufferable when we land.", griped Bartlett.

Pops agreed and then turned his head to watch the other airplanes.

In the front seat of his Super Tomcat, Swordsman Snow was getting fidgety. He wanted an up close look at that -14A. Marcus loved Tomcats. He lived for them! On the Lotus Turbo Esprit he kept at home; one of the first things he'd done when he purchased it used was have a large version of the Tomcat patch painted on the hood covering his turbocharged V-8 engine. He knew the specs on every Tomcat variant from the F-14A to the F-14A+, to the F-14B (often times called the Bombcat), to the TARPS Tomcat (occasionally referred to as the RF-14) to his own top of the line F-14D Super Tomcat. Swordsman even knew a little about the possible new Tomcat 21 coming out. Rumor had it that when the new 'Cat came out it was going to carry the designation F-14E or F-14F. Whatever it was going to be called, he wanted one. And wanted it badly!

Looking over at the Eagle flying his right wing, Swordsman gave Archer a call.

"Hey Grimm, how much do you wanna bet that I can invert myself over that other Tomcat with my port side vertical stabilizer in between both of his?"

"Awww come on Snow, Bartlett's already pissed off at Blaze. What makes you think he won't jump down your throat for doing something stupid? Give it up man. Let's just land and get to meet these people on the ground. I'm friggin exhausted.", complained Grimm.

"Come on Archer. I know you're just dying to see who's driving that Harrier. I'll give you ten bucks if go along with me on this."

Archer sighed. He knew that Swordsman was going to bother him all the way back to base if he didn't agree.

"Oh alright, but only if you take the blame when the colonel gets pissed off."

"Of course, now follow me."

Together the Tomcat and the Eagle peeled off into a one eighty and came roaring back in above the Double Echo formation. Ignoring the shouting from their flight lead, both Archer and Swordsman slid into position above Kim's Harrier and Mickey's Tomcat. Taking a moment to stabilize his aircraft (not to mention give the other Tomcatter a chance to adjust to the buffeting caused by the close proximity of another similar sized aircraft), Swordsman took out a pen and jotted a quick note down on the top sheet of paper on his kneeboard. Once the note was written, he flipped his Tomcat inverted and held up the message to his canopy so the other pilot could read it.

Mickey was gritting his teeth. It'd been a long time since he'd flown this close to another aircraft. Taking time to glance up through his canopy, he quickly read the note. Once he'd finished reading, he called Kitori over the ICS.

'Kitori, find something to write on and write down that this is an F-14A. Once you got that down, hold it up to the canopy so he can read it."

"Why dammit?"

"Kitori, just do it for shit's sake! I can't; my concentration is on keeping a straight and level path. One of his stabilizers is sitting right in between ours. Any deviation from this flight path will result in a nasty midair."

Kitori grumbled but did as requested. Holding the sheet of paper up, she watched as the other pilot read it, gave her a thumbs up, and then allowed the air to carry his aircraft up and away. Over in his Eagle, Archer slowly rolled over the cockpit of the Harrier and gave the pilot a quick wave before continuing his roll and returning to level flight sitting off of Kim's right wing.

Up in the Phantom, Bartlett had regained control of his temper and was calling Saki on the radio.

"Double Echo Lead, I do apologize for the actions of my wingmen. Most of them should know better."

"It's no problem, Heartbreak One. I know how they feel. I'd felt the same way if I was younger."

Bartlett chuckled to himself. He liked this pilot. Bartlett admired Double Echo's quiet calm voice and the way he handled his machine. When they landed he was going to buy the guy a drink.

"Thanks, Double Echo Lead. You'll get to meet them once we're on the ground. We're less than five miles from our destination. Follow me down. See you on the ground Double Echo."

"Copy that Heartbreak One. See you on the ground."

Saki watched as the Phantom slid up on his right wing and the pilot in the front seat waved before he dropped his nose and banked to the left. Saki gave him a thirty second lead before he followed suit. At thirty second intervals, each trailing aircraft peeled off to enter the landing pattern. Blaze and Shin were the last two still in the air. Edge had just kissed them off before she banked down and began her preparations for landing.

Still inverted over the Tiger, Blaze gave Shin a thumbs up before rolling upright and flashed another hand signal. This time he took his fingers and pressed them to his lips before splaying them outward. Shin recognized the 'kiss off' signal and nodded. He tapped his helmet and pointed forward. Blaze nodded and slid under the Tiger and popped up on Shin's right.

"See you on the ground Double Echo Two.", called Blaze.

"Same to you Igloo Two, see you on the ground.", returned Shin.

Shin watched as the unusual aircraft accelerated then split-essed and banked to the left. Counting off thirty seconds in his head, Shin banked and followed the X-29 down. He knew that the other pilot was giving him the honor of landing last in recognition of his own skills and appreciated the gesture. Shin would've done the same if their positions and situations had been reversed. Clearing his thoughts Shin Kazama, Zero-Zero Section; Area 88 concentrated on landing his aircraft after this extended flight. He couldn't wait to put his feet back on the ground and rest.

Besides, he had to take a wicked leak.

1400 Hours. Sand Island Base

On the ground with his hand shading his eyes, former Osean Federation President Vincent Harling watched as the airplanes he'd been hearing for the past few minutes finally appeared. First to approach the main runway of the deactivated Osean Air Defense Force Base at Sand Island was the Phantom of Colonel Jack 'Heartbreak One' Bartlett.

Harling, or Uncle Vinnie to Bartlett and the members of the Razgriz, was fast approaching fifty-five years old but still maintained the bearing he had demonstrated while appealing to Osean and Yuktobanian troops with Prime Minister Nikanor (Uncle Nicky to Bartlett and the others) by his side to end the war that had engulfed both countries several years back. Watching the Phantom taxi to a spot on the ramp, Harling made his way in Bartlett's direction just as the first of the Royal Asranian Air Force aircraft touched down. Seeing that the pilot of the Phantom had already raised his cockpit canopy, Harling grinned.

Bartlett was tired. He'd been flying for several hours. As had his wingmen and his backseater. Taxiing his aircraft to its old parking spot on the airbase brought back a wave of nostalgia to the old pilot. He'd been flying out of this base when he'd gotten shot down. It was here that he'd first met Edge, Chopper, Archer, and Blaze. Turning in his seat, he watched as Pops climbed down from the back seat and grabbed the chocks that had been left and chocked the nose and main gear of the big tough old aircraft. Hearing the sound of another aircraft engine, Bartlett shut his own engines down after locking his brakes. Taking off his helmet, the old instructor pilot climbed wearily down from his aircraft and waited.

Seeing the slender form of a SEPECAT Jaguar, Bartlet mentally critiqued the aircraft of Double Echo Lead. When the aircraft halted and was chocked in place, the engine wound down and the cockpit canopy rose. Stepping up to the foot of the boarding ladder, Jack Bartlett waited for the other pilot to finish his checks, unstrap, and climb down.

Colonel Saki Vashtarl shifted his attention from inside his cockpit to outside his aircraft when he finished all of his postflight checks. Lifting his head, he looked out and saw two men in flight suits waiting at the foot of the boarding ladder. In the distance, Saki could make out the form of a third man making his way in their direction. Undoing his oxygen mask and slipping his helmet off and placing it on top of his instrument panel, Saki unstrapped himself from his ejection seat and climbed over the cockpit railing. Using his foot to find the ladder, he carefully climbed down from his cockpit to the ground. Turning around to face the men at the foot of the ladder, Saki brought himself to attention and saluted.

"Colonel Saki Vashtarl, Royal Asranian Air Force reporting."

"Colonel Jack Bartlett. Osean Air Defense Force. Welcome to Sand Island Base.", replied Bartlett as he returned the salute and extended his hand.

After shaking Bartlett's hand, Saki turned to the other man at the foot of the ladder.

"Second Lieutenant Peter N. Beagle, Osean Special Forces. Call me Pops.", stated the older man after Saki introduced himself.

Saki lifted an eyebrow. The man, Pops, was much too old to be just a second lieutenant. Something wasn't kosher here. He was about to ask about it when he caught the barely imperceptible shake of Bartlett's head and let it drop. Putting his hands on his hips and shading his sunglasses clad eyes, Vashtarl turned towards the rest of the arriving aircraft. First to land was Eagle of Archer, followed by the Harrier of Kim Aba. After the Harrier came the pair of Tomcats with Mickey's -14A leading the -14D of Swordsman. Once the two 'cat drivers were taxiing to the shelter, the Edge landed her Tigershark next followed by Blaze's X-29. The last aircraft was the F-5E Tiger II of Shin Kazama.

1500 Hours. Sand Island Base. Old Wardog Squadron Ready Room.

The room was filled with the low voices of pilots when Saki Vashtarl, Former President Vincent Harling, and Jack Bartlett entered after a short meeting in Colonel Perraults' old office. As the three entered, the room grew quiet. Bartlett looked around and saw that his people and Colonel Vashtarl's people had separated into their own respective groups. Glancing at Pops, who was sitting in a chair in the back of the room, Bartlett saw the shake of his old friend's head as he let the colonel know that neither group of pilots had made an effort to introduce themselves to the other.

"Well that's about to change.", thought Bartlett as he shared a look with Harling and Vashtarl.

Bartlett walked up to the podium in the front of the room. Looking around the room and clearing his throat the Osean Air Defense Force Colonel ordered the gathered pilots to take their seats. There was a slight rustle as the eight pilots in front of the podium took their seats. Bartlett glanced to his side and saw his highness standing at ease with his hands clasped behind his back. The pale X-shaped scar on Saki's forehead stood out in vast relief to skin burnished tan by the relentless sun and dry air of the desert.

"Alright Wardog, settle down. We've got a lot to cover so shut up and pay attention. For our honorable guests let me introduce myself. My name is Colonel Jack Bartlett of the Osean Federation Air Defense Force, callsign 'Heartbreak One'. Wardog, to my left is His Highness Colonel Saki Vashtarl of the Royal Asranian Air Force. The prince and his best pilots are here to ask us for some covert aerial help. Before I ask his highness to explain why they need help, Wardog why don't you guys stand up and introduce yourselves.", stated Bartlett.

The four members of Wardog looked around at each other for an awkward moment before Blaze stood up and started off the introductions.

"My name is Ian Thomas. My callsign is Blaze. I'm a major in the OADF inactive reserve. It's nice to meet all of you."

Nagase stood up while Blaze returned to his seat.

"I'm Kei Nagase-Thomas. My callsign is Edge. I'm also an OADF inactive reserve major. Blaze is my husband and flight lead."

"I'm Hans 'Archer' Grimm. Like my two friends I'm an OADF inactive reserve major. I recently just graduated from college with a couple of advanced degrees in Aeronautical Engineering. It's a pleasure."

As Archer sat down, Snow rose to his full six foot four inch height and introduced himself.

"I'm Marcus Snow. My callsign is Swordsman. I'm a carrier qualified major and former carrier air group commander in the Osean Naval Air Force. I'm usually assigned aboard the carrier OFS Kestrel but for the time being I'm teaching fledgling aviators in the OADF the art of carrier aviation. It's an honor to meet all of you and welcome you to Sand Island Air Base.", finished Swordsman.

As the four Razgriz members sat down, the pilots from Area 88 looked at each other for a second before Shin Kazama stood up and introduced himself

"Thank you for inviting us here. My name is Shin Kazama. I'm a mercenary pilot in the Asranian Royal Air Force. I'm originally from Japan as is my wife. We both live on base at Area 88.", stated Shin as he sat down and watched as Mickey got up next.

"I'm Mickey Simon. I'm a former member of the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club. I'm single and I also fly out of Area 88. I can fly anything I can get my hands on but I prefer to pilot an F-14A first generation Tomcat. Out of the four of us, I'm the only tailhooker in this bunch, although there are other tailhookers based out of Area 88. Thanks for having us."

Mickey sat down and the youngest pilot in the room got up.

"My name is Kim Aba. I'm the youngest pilot on Area 88 and I'm also the only VTOL qualified pilot there. I recently upgraded from a Sea Harrier FRS to an AV-8B Harrier II.", stated Kim before returning to his seat and casting his glance in the direction of the angry woman sitting to his left.

Baroness Kitori Palvanoff was still pissed off. Like the other pilots in the room, she was attired in her dark lavender flightsuit sans g-suit and harness. Kitori didn't want to introduce herself to these strangers. Granted they were good pilots but what did they know about aerial combat. Crossing her arms over her chest, she just shook her head.

"Baroness Palvanoff.", came her cousins' warning tinged voice.

"Aww dammit, he's still threatening to ground me. Shit. Well I guess that I better do this.", fumed the five foot eleven inch woman as she rose from her seat.

The baroness took a moment to gaze around the room at the others. Her eyes alighted on the other female in attendance and she caught the slight nod of encouragement she gave. Taking a deep breath, (which did wonders for her ample chest as indicated by the sudden attention to that particular area paid by Swordsman and Archer. Blaze started to look but caught a wicked elbow in the side and changed his expression from one of rapt interest to one of studious innocence.), Kitori introduced herself.

"Kitori Palvanoff. As my cousin has previously indicated I am a baroness. I usually fly a Mirage F-1 but I recently had to punch out. When I first arrived at Area 88, I was the first and only female pilot there. Now other females from my country are learning to fly and have joined the Royal Asranian Air Force. In addition to myself there are at least ten of my countrywomen flying out of Area 88 with more joining every week. In addition there are several foreign female pilots based there."

"Where did you learn to fly, baroness?", asked Archer, his voice tinged with a more than professional interest.

Kitori glanced at him before continuing. He looked kind of cute in a boyish way but her heart was still set on marrying the prince.

"I originally learned how to fly back home in my country. I came to the Osean Federation several years ago and learned to fly combat aircraft before returning back home."

Looking back towards the front of the room, Kitori saw the prince subtle nod and returned to her seat. As she sat, she imagined the prince slipping her a wink from behind his dark sunglasses. Embarrassed, Kitori's face turned red and she humbly bent her head down to hide the fact that her cheeks were turning an interesting shade of red.

Once the baroness was finished and had taken her seat, Bartlett glanced around the room and nodded to himself. He was about to dismiss the pilots so they could get some rest when a voice behind them spoke up. Recognizing the voice, Bartlett winced.

"You forgot about introducing me colonel. In addition to that, Pops didn't get to introduce himself.", stated former president Vincent Harling.

"I apologize for my lapse in judgment Mr. President. I was trying to finish up so our guests could grab a bite to eat and get some rest. We have a busy day planned for tomorrow.", replied Bartlett.

"Still Bartlett, I wouldn't want our guests to be curious about myself, besides Uncle Nicky and his aide will be here tomorrow, along with some mutual relatives of ours."

Bartlett heard the rustles from Blaze and the rest of his pilots as they realized who was coming the next day.

"Nastasya and Nikanor, here? Oh Shit! This gets better all the friggin time!", fumed Bartlett as he tuned back in to what the former president was saying.

Harling turned towards the former members of his Presidential Squadron and mentioned to Blaze and Edge that Uncle Nicky was bringing in a couple of surprises for them. He smiled as he heard Nagase's sudden intake of breath. Harling had gotten off a backchannel message to Nikanor about an idea he had. Nikanor had passed it on to Bartlett's wife. Nastasya had been changing a diaper when the Prime Minister had called but she had agreed to Harling's idea. Knowing what Kei was thinking, Harling shook his head. It wasn't the surprises she was expecting. Returning his attention to their guests, Harling introduced himself.

"My name is Vincent Harling. I'm the former President of the Osean Federation. Prince Saki Vashtarl, Baroness Kitori Palvanoff, on behalf of the Osean Federation I welcome you to Sand Island Airbase. As you can probably tell, Sand Island has been deactivated but for now it will do as a temporary home until you head for Heierlark Base up north."

Saki reverted to his official persona as the youngest prince of the Asranian Royal Family and accepted the former President's kind words with a smile and a word of thanks. As the prince and the president finished their official duties, Pops stood up in the back. Looking at Bartlett, he saw the very subtle nod from his old friend.

In the cockpit of Bartlett's Phantom before they landed, Pops had told his friend that he was going to introduce himself using his real name. Bartlett had denied it but Pops had appealed to the honor in his friend by telling them that if they wanted their guests to trust them, they needed to know who he really was. Now steeling himself for this moment, Pops introduced himself.

"My name as y'all know it now is Second Lieutenant Peter N. Beagle, Osean Special Forces. However, my real name is Huckebein; Former Lieutenant Colonel Huckebein of the Belkan Air Force. I was known as Huckebein the Raven back then. I defected to the Osean Federation years ago and have been here ever since. I'm the mechanic that keeps the airplanes of Wardog Squadron flying. While you're here please call me Pops. Try and forget my real name. It's in my past and that is where I'd prefer to leave it.", said Pops as the gasps he expected from their guests floated throughout the room.

Before anybody could comment on the revelation, Pops walked out of the room and headed for the flightline. In the backseat of Bartlett's Phantom, he'd heard a low rattle as they were on final. Pops wanted to make sure that whatever it was wasn't something serious. He didn't want to postpone the flight back to Heierlark Base, it was too close to storm season and he still had a few fighters to winterize.

Bartlett watched Pops walk out of the room before turning to the eight pilots in front of him.

"Alright you junior birdmen and women, this meeting is over. Go grab some chow at the chow hall or head to over to the quarters to get some sleep. Edge, take the baroness over to the hanger and let her get acquainted with the choices of aircraft we have for her. Oh yeah, Nagase, take Palvanoff over to the equipment shack and talk to Pops, he might be able to find her a new helmet. The one she's got now is too damn big. Grimm, show Colonel Vashtarl and his pilots around the base, so that they can get a feel for it. Edge, once you and Palvanoff are finished join up with Grimm. Blaze, Swordsman I want to see you two yahoos in my office in ten. Got it? Good, everyone you're dismissed."

As the colonel stormed out of the briefing room, Blaze walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist. Nagase rested her arms on Blaze's shoulders in return.

"Enjoy yourself with the colonel, honey. I don't want you to be too bruised this evening. I have something special planned for you.' said Nagase quietly after kissing him once.

"You know Bartlett as well as I do, love. He's going to rant and rave for all of ten minutes before sitting down and asking me my observations. He's going to do the same with Swordsman. We'll be outta there in a couple of hours. You have fun with the baroness; she seems a bit intense although that may be because she had to ride as supercargo instead of flying her own craft. By the way, which ones are you showing her?', answered Blaze.

'I think that Uncle Vinnie talked them into offering her a Fighting Falcon, a Hornet, a Tigershark, or an Eagle. Personally I hope she picks the Hornet or the Tigershark. I can tell her about the quirks of each aircraft."

"Yeah I know, you can make a Tigershark get up and dance while you can make a Hornet do the shim sham shimmy. Don't you wish you had your Super Hornet here; then you'd really give her a show!"

"True, I could. I love the Rhino. But my all time favorite fighter is the F-5"

Blaze looked confused; his wife loved the F-5E Tiger, why? His eyes must've shown the question he wanted to ask because Edge answered.

"I love the Tiger because it was the fighter I was flying when I met you.", replied Nagase in a voice so quiet it sent tingles throughout Blaze's nervous system.

Last time she'd spoken to him in that tone of voice, the couple had ended up trying to keep from waking Kei's parents up while they were visiting Nagase's hometown with Kita. Their son Allen was born nine months later. Kei saw the look on her husband's face and whispered something in his ear.

"I brought that swimsuit you like."

"You mean the……?"

"Yes, that bikini. Let's go swimming later.", murmured Nagase against Ian's throat.

Too stunned to answer, Blaze just made choking sounds deep in his throat. Releasing his wife after another kiss he didn't remember, the fighter pilot turned to watch as Kei joined the impatient Kitori at the door to the briefing room. With once last wink in his direction, Ian watched as the love of his life and the mother of his children turned her attention to the taller lady and together the pair walked away. Was it his imagination or did Kei put a seductive sway in her hips just to taunt him.

"Yo Blaze. Back to the real world here, we gotta go topside and listen to Bartlett rant and rave. Put your fantasies away for now.", came the deep baritone voice of Marcus Snow.

"Yeah okay Snow. I'm boresighted on reality here. Let's go accept our punishment for our damn fool stunts today. I got it.", growled Blaze in a tone of voice Snow knew quite well.

Looking at his friend and old flight lead, Snow shook his head.

"Blaze ya might want to stop by the nearest latrine to take care of that 'little' problem of yours?"

"Problem? What problem?", asked Blaze as he turned his head in Swordsman's direction.

Swordsman didn't say anything; he just used his eyes to tell his friend to look down before averting his gaze and heading out of the room. Blaze glanced down and realized what Swordsman was talking about. Just below his waist, Blaze saw that his flightsuit stuck out like big top tent. Turning beet red, Blaze cursed to himself and decided to follow Swordsman's suggestion and find the nearest restroom.

As he hurried to the bathroom, Blaze grinned to himself, who could blame him for his reaction. His wife was incredibly hot. In the bikini she'd alluded too, Kei Nagase-Thomas was so hot she caused the water to turn to steam just by being in close proximity to the ocean. Never mind that it turned any man who saw her in that bikini to a quivering mass of jelly. The effects it had on her husband had to be seen to be believed.

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna need that swim later today. And tonight, who knows. Maybe she'll put it on again much later.", thought Blaze as he entered the bathroom and let the door slam shut behind him.

1542 Hours. Sand Island Base. Hanger Twelve

Kei Nagase-Thomas was daydreaming. After showing Kitori where her quarters were so she could stash her gear, the two women had gone over to the chow hall to grab a quick bite to eat. Since Sand Island was deactivated, there was only a company of soldiers here to serve the food, pull security duty, and get the planes fueled and repaired. Several of the other soldiers scattered around were Special Forces along with a few pilots. Edge mentally thanked them for doing their best to get this base active in the short time they had and still keep from being found out.

Returning her attention to the taller woman as they entered the hanger, Kei saw that Kitori was relaxing bit by bit. Over their meal, the two women had gotten somewhat acquainted and Kei found herself wanting to become a close friend to this woman. Putting the thoughts of what she had planned for her husband later in the back of her mind; Nagase began explaining about the four fighters arranged in front of her and the baroness.

"According to your file and what you told us in the briefing room earlier you prefer to fly a single-engined maneuverable supersonic capable aircraft.", Edge said in a businesslike manner.

"Yes. I prefer single-engined aircraft because that's what I've always flown. I like maneuverability because that's the way I fly. I can handle a twin-engined fighter like Mickey's Tomcat but it isn't as maneuverable as I want.", stated Kitori as she placed her hands on her hips and looked at the shorter woman.

Nagase went over the list of aircraft Pops had given her just before he walked into Bartlett's office where the colonel was reading her husband and Snow the riot act ten ways from Friday.

"Okay, Baroness Palvanoff.", Kei started but was cut off.

"Kitori."

"Hmm?"

"Call me Kitori. We're not in a formal setting and I'm wearing a flightsuit. Call me Kitori.", asked the baroness.

"Okay… Kitori is it? Back to the subject at hand, we have four aircraft that would suit your requests. Two of them are single-engined like you prefer but two of them are twin-engined. The only Dassault's we have are the Mirage 2000's and at the moment none of them are available. What we do have are an F-16C Fighting Falcon, an F-20A Tigershark like my own, an F/A-18C Hornet, and an F-15C Eagle like Archer flies. We also have another F-5E Tiger II if you're interested. Here are the specifications on each, read them and tell me which one you'll want to fly first tomorrow.", Kei said as she handed the other woman a medium-sized stack of notebooks.

Kitori accepted the pile of books that were dropped in her hands with a grunt. The narrow thickness of the books belied their actual weight, they were quite heavy. Lifting an eyebrow in Nagase's direction, Kitori asked her why the need for the manuals.

"Because these aircraft aren't the kind you can just 'kick the tires and light the fires' when you first start flying them. You have to learn about the aircraft and the systems. These fighters are a bit more advanced than the Dassault Mirage F-1 which in my opinion was a pitiful, underpowered, semi-maneuverable target. I've shot down several of the more advanced and maneuverable Mirage 2000 flown by some pretty darn good pilots. Those that we've captured said the same thing; the F-1 wasn't the best of the Mirage fleet. Granted, there are some pilots who can make a Mirage F-1 sit up and beg biscuits off a table but the majority smartly upgraded to a 2000.", replied Nagase in her trademark soft voice.

Kitori got pissed. She loved the Mirage F-1 and considered it superior to many of its' peers. To hear that the F-1 wasn't all that great by some woman who'd never flown one was tantamount to challenging Kitori's aerial prowess with her beloved and much lamented fighter. The books that had just been dropped in her hands found themselves in midair for the second time in less than five minutes as Kitori threw them on the ground in anger. Placing her hands on her hips and glaring at the shorter woman, Kitori prepared herself for a verbal battle.

"Why you… who do you think you are denigrating the Mirage F-1? You've never piloted one and you're getting all supercilious? What makes you say that? I bet those so-called 'damn good' pilots you've shot down in the Mirage 2000 who transitioned from the F-1 weren't as good as you've made them out to be. Do you have proof that what they told your interrogators is really the truth? How many enemy kills do you actually have?', snarled Kitori.

Nagase arched an eyebrow in consternation. This woman had the gall to actually call Kei's piloting skills less than her own. Kei had over 200 air to air victories in six months of down and dirty dogfighting against pilots more skilled than the baroness. This conversation promised to get dirty and if the baroness didn't take back her words, Kei was going to shove them right down her five foot eleven throat.

"For your information, baroness; I have over two hundred aerial victories. Several of which were against pilots more skilled than Mr. Kazama and aircraft more advanced than my top of the line brand new straight from the factory F/A-22 Raptor which, at this very moment, is back at Heierlark Base. If you actually pass the flying tests over the next few days, you'll actually get the honor of accompanying us to when we leave here. I've even shot down a few stealth fighters. How many dogfighting kills do you actually have, Baroness Palvanoff? And I don't mean kills where you pop off a heatseeking missile; I mean dogfights where you've actually had to go to guns with a bandit who was actively trying to kill you with his own cannon? Blaze, our best pilot, has over five hundred aerial victories. His kills are split evenly between gun kills and missile kills. Blaze even shot down several enemies the day he, Archer, and another pilot had to escort a CSAR helicopter in to rescue me after I got shot down in a snowstorm after being hit by a SAM. Do not debate aerial kills with me. You'll lose every time", Nagase stated coldly.

Kitori was stunned. This woman who was no taller than maybe five foot five, five foot six had over two hundred kills, amazing. Taking this new fact into account, Kitori looked at Kei with a new found respect but still wasn't going to back down from defending her choice of aircraft. Steeling herself for the discussion ahead, Kitori forged ahead.

"No matter what you say, that still doesn't take into account the fact that you've never flown the Mirage F-1. I may not have as many kills as you do but out of the two of us, I've actually had F-1 combat experience. Just because I flew here in the backseat of a dammed Tomcat, doesn't mean I'm not an accomplished fighter pilot myself. Besides how long did it actually take you to acquire those kills, several years?", retorted Kitori.

Kei snapped. Turning away from the taller woman, she stormed over to the phone handset hanging from the wall. Snatching it off its holder, Kei let it ring a few times and barked into it when somebody answered.

"Pops, do we have two of those trainer aircraft you like? We do? Good, have somebody prep two of them for an immediate flight. Myself and the baroness, oh yeah, have a…helmet in Palvanoff's size sitting in one of them. I have to see how good this woman actually is. Thanks. Talk to you later."

Slamming the handset down, Edge stormed back over to the other woman.

"Pick up those books and carry them to your quarters. Then get your flight gear and meet me out on the flightline. We'll see who's the better pilot.", Edge retorted icily before turning on her heel and storming out of the hanger.

Kitori watched the retreating figure and licked her lips in anticipation. She was ready to humiliate this person who deigned to impugn the reputation of the Dassault Mirage F-1 and insulted Kitori's personal reputation.

"Oh, this is going to be interesting.", murmured Kitori slyly.

Kitori picked up the manuals she'd thrown on the ground and headed for her assigned room in the barracks assigned to the Area 88 group.

Sitting on the wing of his Eagle and enjoying the breeze coming off the ocean, Hans Grimm watched as Edge stomped into the hanger and yanked open the locker containing her flight gear. Having seen the woman irritated before and not liking it, Archer knew that an angry Edge was like playing with a ticking time bomb. Archer also knew that an angry pilot tended to make mistakes that could get him or herself killed.

Grimm was supposed to be helping Pops do some routine maintenance on his -15. The open panels along the spine of his fighter visually explained that the work was in progress. Grimm and Pops had been working pretty quickly before the mechanical wizard had gotten a call from one of the other hangers and rushed off to prep two of the Hawk training aircraft for some sort of mission and leaving Grimm with a spanner wrench in one hand and a tech manual in the other to figure out something or another.

Carefully placing the wrench down on the rubber matting positioned by the open panel for that very purpose, Grimm moved over to the wing's railing edge and dropped to the ground. Landing in a crouch to keep his knees from being jarred too badly, the young aerial assassin straightened up and headed towards the lockers where Edge was adjusting the straps on her G-suit, a chaps-like garment worn on a pilots' lower body and designed to inflate and keep the pilots' blood flowing from the heart to the brain so he or she didn't black out in cases of extreme g maneuvering.

Raising his hand in greeting, Hans called out to one of his aerial idols. When Edge turned to face him Grimm's words died in his throat. He'd known Nagase was angry because of the way she walked; unfortunately he didn't know how angry she was. The look in her eyes told him exactly how pissed off Edge was. Her dark eyes were flashing warning signs that could be seen miles away. At that moment, Archer wondered if his other idol knew exactly what kind of firecracker he'd married.

"Blaze whatever you do, I hope you never piss Edge off to this extent. Hell, her eyes are blazing with an intense fire I've never seen before. Last time she was even close to this level of anger was on that mission where those Yuke commandoes gassed November City. Good lord, I hope I'm never on the receiving end of that look.", thought Archer as he stopped where he was and stepped back.

Hearing footsteps entering the hanger, Archer watched as Nagase's laser-like gaze shot towards the person entering the hanger. He was wondering who it was when the very recognizable figure of Kitori Palvanoff stepped around the end of a Phantom that was undergoing some routine maintenance and being worked on by its pilot and his RIO.

"Oh hell, I hope that Palvanoff didn't make a pass at Blaze. That would be one thing that would get Nagase that riled up. Waitaminute ain't Blaze and Swordsman still getting chewed out by Bartlett? After I showed Mickey, Shin, Kim, and Colonel Vashtarl around the base, those two were still in conference with the colonel. As I remember, Kitori and Kei were heading over to Hanger 12 to check out some aircraft. Did Kitori….? No, oh no she didn't! Don't tell me that Kitori insulted Kei's flying skills. Oh shit this ain't good. I gotta call Blaze.", thought Hans as he turned away from the tableau to find a phone.

At Archer's called greeting, Nagase had turned to respond when she'd caught a glimpse of the other woman just entering the building. Glaring even harder than she had been when she'd first entered the hanger, Edge mentally told herself to apologize to Grimm for her reaction when she got the chance. Casting one last glower at Palvanoff as she made her way towards the equipment desk, Edge flounced out of the area and headed for the flightline.

At the same time his wife was storming out of the hanger where Archer had been working on his fighter, Blaze was stretched out on the lone couch in the old Wardog pilots lounge. With his arms behind his head, Ian was contemplating the oil painting copy on the wall above him. The painting was of one of the black-painted Razgriz Tigersharks flying serenely through a grey sky. He knew that the painting was a copy because the original hung over the queen-sized bed in the master bedroom of the little house he shared with his family. Turning his head slightly to the right, Blaze could see Swordsman slouching down in another chair with his boots propped up on the old grey desk at the front of the room. Snow was flipping though a dog-eared copy of a magazine dedicated to naval aviation.

The two pilots had survived their chewing out by Bartlett with just a case of bruised egos and slightly ruffled feathers. Blaze was used to the colonel's rampages so it didn't faze him much. Swordsman, not used to being chewed out like that but with the thick skin inherent to all naval aviators, mentioned that he wasn't at all bothered by the verbal barrage the colonel had leveled their way. After grabbing a bite to eat, the two had decided to hang out in the lounge for a bit before returning to their respective quarters. Both Marcus and Ian were also hoping that they'd run into one of the Asranian pilots. Marcus sighed and closed the magazine before dropping his size fifteen feet to the floor.

"Blaze, did you see the pilot of that Harrier? He didn't look a day over sixteen and he's already an ace? Damn, fighter jocks are getting younger and younger all the time. They're making me feel like an old man and I'm only thirty-five. Hell Blaze, you and Edge are only in your late twenties/early thirties while young Grimm is just now entering his mid-twenties. If Chopper were here he'd be only a few years behind me.", grunted Snow as he leaned forward.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. To top it all off that kid, Aba I think his name is, was fourteen or so when he first started flying the Sea Harrier. As if a regular fighter wasn't complicated enough, fourteen years old and mastering a VTOL aircraft like that? I wonder if he's figured out how to viff yet?", mused Blaze.

"Viff, what's viff?", asked the black aviator of his friend.

Blaze sighed and sat up. Turning to the Eternal Swordsman, Blaze took on the tone of voice he used when he was instructing a fledgling aviator at Heierlark.

"Okay, pay attention. Viff is a term to describe an aerial move that only a VTOL aircraft like a Harrier can do. Say you're a Harrier pilot and you're in a swirling furball with a no-shit sierra hotel pilot flying a traditional fighter a thousand yards off your six. He's faster and in some cases, the bastard can outturn you. Whatcha gonna do? If you look in a Harrier's cockpit you'll see a lever beside the throttle. That lever controls the exhaust nozzles of your aircraft. Those nozzles can be moved from full aft position where they act like your jet exhaust and thrust the Harrier forward to a position where they are pointing ninety degrees straight down, thus allowing the Harrier to hover. That control can also rotate the nozzles so that their facing a few degrees forward. It's called vectoring your thrust. ", started Blaze as he watched Swordsman intently to see if he understood the explanation thus far.

Receiving a nod at his lifted eyebrow, Blaze continued with his explanation.

"Back to the furball, you're in a Harrier that's about to get morted and can't shake the lucky bastard behind you. What you do is take a hold of your nozzle control lever and push it to the position where the nozzles are pointed straight down. What that does is shift the Harrier from level flight to vertical flight. To your opponent, it'll look as if you just jammed on the brakes and caught the express elevator going up. Before he realizes it, you've done screwed up his solution and now you have an easy shot at his tail. Viff stands for 'Vectoring In Forward Flight' and the maneuver is called viffing. The day when the Buzzard and the Vulture were sunk, we tangled with some Yuke Harriers and the little bastards pulled that maneuver just about every single time I could get a reasonable lock. We all were surprised and Chopper got to cussin over the radio about it, remember?"

It took a moment for Marcus to remember but he did. He'd wondered why Davenport had been cursing over the air and thus infuriating every shipboard tactical air controller in the area. Nodding as he remembered, he started to lean back only to jerk forward again when the phone on the wall rang.

"Geez, what is it now.", grumbled Swordsman as he picked up the phone since he was closest.

Putting the handset to his ear, Snow grunted out a greeting to the person on the other end of the line. Answering yes to a question, Marcus held the handset out for Blaze.

"It's Archer, he wants to talk to you about something.", said the Super Tomcat driver.

Blaze nodded his thanks as he came over and accepted the handset from his friend. Putting it to his ear he greeted the Eagle pilot.

"Hello, yeah Grimm it's me, what's up?"

Ian listened to the former youthful aerial assassin. Snow watched with interest as Blaze's eyes grew wide before narrowing into near slits; cocking his head in Blaze's direction unobtrusively to listen to his side of the conversation, Snow as a bit surprised when Blaze yelled into the mouthpiece.

"She asked Pops what? She did what? Dammit, how could she be so damn sensitive? She knows better than to let somebody goad her into something like this. Yeah, I understand Archer, thanks. At least she's doing that first. The aftermath will be interesting. Yeah, run over to the radio shack and have those radio pukes rustle up a Texaco to meet them after the island run. They'll need the gas. I hope Palvanoff knows how to do a midair refueling.", Blaze said before hanging up the phone.

Looking off into the distance, Blaze let his mind carry him back to the war and when he and his two wingmen went into a forced exile just ahead of a court martial. So lost in thought, it took him a few moments to catch on to what Snow was saying.

"Hmm, oh sorry Swordsman, I was lost in thought for a moment."

"Remembering something?"

"Yeah, remembering when Edge, Archer, Pops, and I had to leave this base. We grabbed four of Pops' trainers and amscraed but those 8492nd assholes bounced us as we were approaching a volcanic island. That shit for brains traitor Hamilton sicced them on us with orders to shoot us down. Pops took the lead and we followed him when the 8492 guys' squadron's radars got screwed up by the volcanic rock the island was made out of. We followed Pops' bird so low that we were brushing the mountain tops. Pops led us through a small cave and out the other side as if it was nothing. Archer, Edge, and I were flying single while Pops had Genette and his dog in the cockpit with him. We were frazzled but Pops was cool as a jewel. If we were surprised at flying through the cave, that was nothing compared to what we flew through a few minutes later."

"Oh yeah, what was that?", asked Snow.

Blaze looked at his friend before continuing.

"There's an abandoned base on the island that was built deep into the volcanic rock. We entered the base through a pier where the base's former occupants docked a few patrol boats or cargo ships and flew through the interior of the base under the mountain for a good while before popping out the other side. I think you remember what happened shortly after we exited the base?"

Swordsman did remember, he had blown through the formation of Hawk trainer aircraft with his -14D and got into a clarification argument with Thunderhead before using a signaling light to pass on Captain Andresson's message to Pops. He waited for Pops and the rest to punchout before shooting a Sidewinder missile into each jet. He received credit for downing the four so-called Wardog 'traitors' and was awarded the medal he'd demanded from Hamilton through Thunderhead. Happily that medal went down with the Kestrel unworn.

"Yeah, I thought so. If it weren't for those Sea Goblin rotorheads lying to Thunderhead and Hamilton before scooping us outta the drink we would've drowned."

Snow watched Blaze as he walked over to the window with his hands behind his back and gazed towards the ocean. Waiting a moment before asking the question he'd wanted to ask since the conversation with Grimm, Snow stood up and stretched. Before he could ask, Blaze beat him to the draw.

"The baroness pissed Edge off and she challenged her to a mock dogfight in a couple of the trainer aircraft that are here. Grimm told me that Edge stormed into the hanger with a look of pure fury on her face and grabbed her flight gear before storming out as Palvanoff was coming in. He dropped the tools he was using to work on his Eagle and rushed out to call me. On his way to a phone, he ran into a ground crewman who'd overheard Nagase asking Pops the coordinates of the island. I believe that my lovely wife, an ace many times over in her own right, is going to get the baroness to play 'Follow the Leader' and is going to take her over to the island and show the baroness the error of her ways. And this is before they get to the actual one v one where Edge is going to have the significant advantage even though she hasn't flown over that particular island since that fateful day."

The two pilots were silent as they thought about the possible consequences of Nagase's actions. Blaze sat down again and sighed.

"Ya know Snow, the flying I did over that island and through the cave and the old base helped me prepare for the flying we did in the ravine with Ofnir all around us and through the tunnel at Sudentor with Hamilton's MiG 1.44 on our ass. Archer was scared all three times but he remained cool."

"Yeah, those two missions were tough but we persevered. You know what I remember most about that ravine mission, Blaze? I remember being scared but when Ofnir bounced us and started with their proselytizing and I answered what I did, it was like the fear just disappeared and I was able to enjoy flying in that ravine. One of these days we'll have to sneak in and do it again. Maybe we can talk those Zenit and Varyag pilots to join us."

Blaze looked at Snow incredulously before breaking out into a much needed bout of laughter. When Blaze finished laughing, he told Swordsman he'd see him later and headed out of the lounge. Heading for his quarters, Blaze decided to get the nap he had been trying to grab in the lounge in before returning to the flightline and to be there when Edge landed. Since they'd been married, each time one went flying by themselves, the others was always there waiting when they returned. Edge would be touched when she saw him standing by the parking spot. Of course he had an ulterior motive for it this time.

Blaze wanted to see Edge in her (and his) favorite bikini.

1621 Hours. Sand Island Air Force Base. Base Commander's Office.

In Colonel Perraults' old office, Bartlett and Pops were talking. They had a feeling that Blaze and the rest were going to help out Colonel Vashtarl and his people at Area 88. The two old friends were discussing the aircraft that they figured Blaze, Edge, Archer, and Swordsman were going to take. Bartlett had talked Vashtarl into allowing the four to bring their own aircraft and their Razgriz aircraft (although the prince still was under the belief that the Razgriz pilots were at their secret lair). The dilemma was with which aircraft in the Razgriz Hanger at Heierlark they were going to take.

"We know that Blaze is taking his Tigershark, Edge is taking her Rhino, and Archer is taking his Eagle, while Swordsman is taking his Super Tomcat. However, which Razgriz aircraft are they going to take? Archer and Swordsman are going to want the Razgriz Eagles and Tomcats respectively. Edge is going to say anything but she's going to want to use the Razgriz Super Hornets. Blaze already turned down taking the X-29's but I think he's going to be undecided about which aircraft to take. We do know that Blaze prefers a twin-engined aircraft for situations they'll be flying into in Asran. That scratches the T-Sharks, the Falcons, the Lightning II's, and a few others. We want to try and avoid the MiG's and Sukhoi's since those aircraft are what their opponents prefer except in cases like that F-15D variation that had the canards. Those gave our friends too much problems, like the Berkut's and the 1.44's.", muttered Bartlett as he leaned back in the chair.

"Yeah, according to Blaze, those were some mean bastards to fight. Personally, I'd recommend the Super Hornet's but if they have Foxhounds and Foxbats (MiG-31 and MiG-25 aircraft) the Rhinos' will be underdogs in the power department. The only aircraft that we have that are even somewhere close to the Mach 3 speeds that those airplanes have are the -14D's, the -15E's, our own -31's and -25's, and possibly the F/A-22's with their supercruise abilities. Unfortunately, the Raptors we have are undergoing maintenance and upgrades and won't be ready in time. Plus since we're doing this under the table the defense department ain't gonna take too kindly to us misplacing four very expensive next generation aircraft.", returned Pops with a sigh.

The two men were quiet for a bit before Pops got up and stretched.

"I guess we'll have to see what Blaze says when he sees the Intel the Prince and his people brought. He'll make the decision on which aircraft to bring and most of the time the others will go along with it because he's right most of the time. Now if you'll excuse me colonel, I gotta get down to the flightline and wait for the ice princess to make it back."

Bartlett lifted an eyebrow.

"Ice Princess? That's a new way to refer to Nagase."

"Yeah I know. It seems that Baroness Palvanoff pissed her off and she challenged her to a mock 1 v 1. However, Edge also asked me for the coordinates of an island I'm familiar with that's nearby. I showed it to her, Blaze, and Archer years ago when we had to escape from here after Hamilton's betrayal. Maybe one of these days I'll show it to ya.'

Bartlett nodded and waved as his old friend walked out of the office. The colonel stretched his own self out before rising and walking to the window. His wife and daughter were arriving tomorrow along with Prime Minister Nikanor if he understood Harling correctly and Bartlett wanted to be well rested so he could play with his very active two year old daughter Anastasia. Smiling at his reflection in the window, Bartlett decided to crash for awhile in his quarters. Colonel Vashtarl was giving a briefing about his countries' situation tonight and he wanted to be alert.

1625 Hours. Sand Island Base. Visiting Officer's Quarters.

In the quarters set aside for him and his people, Saki was talking to three of his pilots. Gathered around the gunmetal grey desk sat Shin Kazama, Mickey Simon, and Kim Aba. The three had been telling him what they'd learned about the base from their guide Major Grimm. They'd been impressed with the professionalism and courtesy they'd been shown. Saki had even been allowed to communicate with Area 88 for a long time. His aides had brought him up to speed on what had been going on since his departure. Greg had been shot down (again) and had lived through it (again). One of the rebels new mysterious enemy aircraft had surprised him with what he thought was an impossible maneuver. Greg had been so scared that McCoy had had to cut him a break on his booze prices when the big pilot with the bushy beard (it was so bushy that Saki wondered how Greg was even able to wear his oxygen mask) had gone through half of McCoy's stash in one sitting. Saki's aide had grounded Greg until Saki returned. Saki had vetoed it and told his aide to ground Greg for a week to get him sobered up.

The other thing that Saki's new aide had told him was the depressing news that several of his oldest and best mercenary pilots had been killed by suddenly expert pilots in the new rebel squadrons. Even some of their older more experienced rebel pilots were getting kills that they would never have gotten before. This worried the prince and he'd mulled it over in the privacy of his own room while Kazama was talking with his wife Ryouko.

Right now, Saki was listening as Mickey was offering his observations about these pilots.

"Colonel, I know that we need all the help we can get and I was -and still am- supportive of this idea, I don't understand why we even need the help of these four pilots that their Colonel Bartlett is so hot about. Give us some time and we can beat these new rebel aircraft and instructors back.", commented Mickey with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

Kim nodded in agreement as he wrapped his arms behind his neck. At seventeen years of age, Kim Aba hadn't lost the youthful looks he had when he first came to Area 88 when he was fourteen years old. Slightly taller than he was back then, Aba recently found himself the object of interest (and in some cases passion) from some of the new female pilots that were arriving at Area 88. Several of the young women had tried to seduce him after they've returned from missions when their emotions and adrenalin were ramped waay up on the scale. A couple of the more adventurous had tried to sneak into his quarters while he was asleep. It had gotten so bad that there were times when Kim had to hide out at Shin and Ryouko's small quarters in Shin's old barracks building.

"Mickey, I understand what you're saying but the pilots were looking for have faced these enemies before and prevailed. These Demons of Razgriz as they're called are superior pilots. No one knows who they were but according to our research, they were originally part of the 108th Fighter OADF Squadron and based out of an island base, this base to be exact. I've tried to get this Colonel Bartlett to identify the pilots but he's demurred; only admitting that he knew them and trained most of them. We need the Razgriz to help train us and to fight with us to defeat this rebel menace once and for all."

Kim frowned while Mickey gritted his teeth in frustration. They knew that over the next few days, Zero-Zero section was supposed to participate in a series of mock dogfights. There was a two part reason for this. The first reason was to get Kitori proficient enough in her new aircraft. The second reason was to introduce them to the tactics that the new enemies might use. Once they thought they were ready, Saki and Zero-Zero Section were going to follow their hosts to their home base up in North Osea.

Shin Kazama was listening with half-lidded eyes. In some respects he felt the same way as Mickey and Kim but Kazama was a practical man. After getting bounced by the enemy and incurring very minor damage to his Tiger, Shin was open to getting help from the outside. The mercenary pilots at Area 88 were the best of the best. They had to be to make it in a mercenary air force but these new fighters coupled with the new flight instruction that the rebel pilots were getting as well as the possibility that the instructors were doing more than just 'instructing' could very well mean the end of Area 88 and Saki's faction in the government.

"Shin what do you think?", asked Mickey.

"Mickey, I think that we need all the help we can get. You've seen how proficient the rebel pilots are getting and the equipment they are receiving. Still, although our pilots at Area 88 are the best, if the rebel instructor pilots decide to start flying missions in support, things could get worse.", answered Shin.

"They already have. Greg was shot down today.", commented Saki.

Mickey guffawed, he knew that once he returned to base, Greg just got a new fighter and got back in the sky. He said as much to the colonel.

"Usually, Simon, I would agree with you. This time we believe that Greg was shot down by one of these instructor pilots. Greg was rescued by our rescue people but he was so scared that McCoy had to part with half of his alcohol stock. Leo had to ground Greg for a week so he can sober up. Leo told me that Greg's nerves were so shot, he could barely hold on to his glass as he debriefed. In the debrief, Greg said that the guy who shot him down countered every defensive move Greg made and when Greg got a shot, the enemy pulled a maneuver Greg says is impossible.", Saki continued.

The room was silent as his three guests thought about the ramifications of what Saki was telling them. If Greg, one of the top five pilots at Area 88 (if they discounted Shin, Mickey, Kitori, and Kim; Greg was the number one pilot at the airbase) had his nerves shot so bad he couldn't hold his glass of single malt scotch, then Greg had been really scared.

"I've had Leo send out a team of soldiers to the site of the aircraft wreckage to see if what Greg said about having his gun camera running when the enemy pilot pulled the maneuver. If the film isn't too damaged, I'll have it sent here so I can show it to our hosts and see if they know anything about the maneuver. However, I'm not keeping my hopes up."

Shin leaned forward and asked a question.

"Did Greg describe the move to Leo? If he did, did Leo pass it on to you? If so, you can tell us and we can ask our hosts about it."

Saki nodded at Kazama's suggestion and told them what Greg had told Leo and Leo had passed on to him. When he was finished, even the usually loud American was in awe. He just muttered to himself that he needed to see it to believe it. When he was finished, Saki gazed at his pilots with the pride inherent of commanding officers everywhere.

"Has anyone seen Kitori?", asked Saki suddenly as he realized that the baroness was missing.

His three pilots glanced at each other in confusion before shaking their head in negation. Saki scowled, he was about to suggest that his pilots talk to their counterparts and learn more about them. Every chance they got they were to ask about his mystery squadron known as Razgriz. Saki figured that it would be best if each pilot talked to the person they felt a kinship with. Saki was going to speak with Colonel Bartlett some more and see if he'd inadvertently let some more bits and pieces of information slip out. Saki was positive that Bartlett knew more than he was letting on.

"Mickey, talk to their Tomcat pilot. You both are naval aviators and you both fly Tomcats maybe he'll tell you more because the two of you have shared the experience of landing on an aircraft carrier at night in bad weather. Kim, you talk that young pilot Archer. He seems fairly close to your age. Or at least your generation, maybe he'll be more inclined to share with somebody close to his own age bracket. I wanted Kitori to speak with their female pilot but I get the feeling that Major Nagase-Thomas won't divulge anything. That leaves you Shin. I take it that you had already figured out that I want you to talk to the one they call Blaze. You two seem a lot alike. Maybe you can get him to show you that aircraft he was flying so we can learn about its advantages and disadvantages. Both you and Mickey say you saw a similar aircraft design the day your Tiger was damaged.", mentioned Saki.

All three pilots answered and Saki let them go. He wanted to get some sleep. The flight here had taken a lot out of him and he preferred to be refreshed and alert when he got to fly the next morning. As he sat in the chair and studied his small suite of rooms (he guessed that the quarters he was installed in were originally for visiting VIP's), Saki felt a twinge of homesickness tinged with excitement.

At the same time her cousin was contemplating the next day's events, Baroness Kitori Palvanoff was rethinking her knee-jerk reaction to the flying skills of the woman in the training aircraft ahead of her own. From the beginning, Kitori had been belittling Kei's skills. After take-off, Edge had given her several minutes to get used to the handling of the nimble little aircraft. It hadn't taken long for Kitori to get the hang of the Hawk and shortly after that she fell in love with the small airplane and wanted one of her own. She had been a little bit astonished when Edge had kindly informed her that the trainer could be armed with air-to-air missiles, bombs, and a 20 mm cannon in the nose.

"My husband shot down an enemy fighter with a Hawk during the war a few years back.", Nagase had told her about forty-five minutes into their flight.

Shortly after that, Kitori's boredom grew when the other woman told her that they were going to play follow the leader. Kitori had actually laughed over the radio and asked Edge how she was going to prove to Kitori that she was a good pilot. Nagase hadn't answered, she just told Kitori to try and keep up, which she did for the first twenty minutes of the flight.

It was when Kitori noticed that her radar wasn't functioning that she started to get concerned. She had mentioned it to the other pilot who just replied that she guessed Kitori would have to do without and still try and keep up. The tone of Nagase's voice-a coy yet smug tone thought Kitori-sent small ripples of fear down the baroness' spine. When it became apparent that Nagase wasn't going to say anymore, Kitori steeled herself for what she thought was going to be a routine flight.

It was at that moment that her flight lead flipped her aircraft over onto its back and dove for an island that was below them. Having no choice but to follow, Kitori did the same and followed the other aircraft down. As the ground got closer, Kitori got worried; she didn't particularly like to fly low level except when the situation required it. A quick glance at her altimeter and her heart nearly stopped. Kei Thomas was flying less than a hundred feet above the ground.

Kitori tried to contact Nagase over the radio but the other woman wouldn't answer. Cursing to herself, Kitori continued to follow the other aircraft at the same altitude. A little while into the low level flight, the baroness felt herself relaxing and even managed a taunt or two over the radio. Then she saw the cave. Figuring that Nagase was going to give the cave a wide berth, Kitori relaxed only to stiffen in fright when she saw the other jet fly into the cave!

With her heart in her stomach, Kitori made it through the cave and exulted over the radio to the other woman. Her happiness was derailed when Nagase returned her taunting radio call with one of her own.

"I do hope that you didn't think that was the only surprise I'm going to spring on you. If it was, then you have no right to meet and learn from the Razgriz. Those pilots could've gone through that cave with their eyes covered and at supersonic speeds. One piece of advice: start getting used to your rudder pedals; you'll need them sooner than you think."

Kitori snarled something impolite over the radio. Nagase just chuckled and pushed her throttles further forward. Deciding to ignore the other woman's soft voice, Palvanoff concentrated on her flying. A little bit scared but still up for a challenge, Kitori increased her own speed in order to keep up with the major.

In the leading Hawk, Edge was keeping a careful eye on the baroness by using the three rearview mirrors mounted on the canopy bow. Edge was impressed at the skill the other woman was showing so far. Palvanoff had been surprised when she followed Kei through the cave but she got over it sense the cave was fairly short. The next challenge was going to require all of Palvanoff's skill, even skills she didn't know she had.

Kei was retracing the route Pops had followed when he led them away from Sand Island when they had been denounced as traitors to Osea. Like Palvanoff, Nagase had been scared (especially when they flew through the old base) but unlike the baroness, Nagase had been flying in high stress and high pressure situations for so long by that time that being extra alert had become second nature to the exiled Wardogs. Nagase had learned that even when she was so exhausted she was nearly falling asleep in the cockpit, she'd still be alert enough to acquire enemy fighters (either by radar or by the naked eye) at incredible distances and usually before the enemy even knew her or any of the Wardogs-and later the Razgriz-were there. As good as she was at being extra alert, Kei still considered her husband Ian 'Blaze' Thomas to be the king of being extra alert. Blaze could be half asleep in his cockpit (and in one memorable case, Blaze had been so tired that near the end of the furball, he'd fallen asleep while in the process of popping off a radar-guided missile at a madly maneuvering enemy) and he could still spot a bogey, identify it as either a bandit or as a friendly, maneuver for the most favorable position, and start tracking the target in preparation for missile launch.

Noticing that the terrain was changing, signifying how close they were to the base entrance, Nagase popped her speed brakes out and pulled back on the throttle to set the most economical speed for her pass through the interior of the mountain. Glancing over her shoulder for a second, Nagase saw that the baroness was rapidly overtaking her. Just as she was about to call out over the radio for the baroness to slow down, Kei saw Kitori pop her own speed brakes out and drop her flaps to match speeds with Nagase. Edge gave her a little bit of credit, it was nice airmanship.

"That was good. Now we'll see how good you really are.", stated Kei before concentrating all of her attention to her front.

The entrance to the base was less than a mile away and looming forebodingly in front of her aircraft.

Kitori finally realized what Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas meant when she said that she wanted to see how good she really was. Nagase wanted to see how well Palvanoff could manage this new wrinkle.

"I can manage this as well as or even better than Ms. High and Mighty. This tunnel is well lit and shouldn't go for very long. At least its not too dark.", thought Kitori.

At that moment, the aircraft in front of her disappeared from Palvanoff's view and Kitori's heart froze.

"Oh Shit!!!!!", shouted Kitori in fright.

Yanking her throttles back and preparing to pull back on the stick to send her aircraft into a ballistic climb, Kitori saw that she had just entered the tunnel and any climb she might execute was going to end in a fiery way. Over the radio came a calm voice.

"Increase your speed slightly to keep from stalling. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT send your aircraft into a climb. Reduce your altitude. Use your rudder to change directions, not the stick. You use the stick and you'll roll right into these walls. Above all relax and whatever you do, DO NOT PANIC."

The soothing voice had a slight calming effect on Kitori Palvanoff but the baroness was more scared than she had ever been in her life. Even in the middle of combat with several enemy fighters trying their damnedest to bring her down in flames, Kitori never felt scared. This was different, vastly different. One small move, one wrongly-timed twitch of her wrist and Kitori would never see her future husband again.

Ahead of the scared stiff baroness, Nagase gritted her teeth in frustration. Kei was having some misgivings about her actions. From the movements of the aircraft behind her, Nagase could see that the baroness had clamped down on her control stick with a grip that couldn't be removed. That was a mistake; Palvanoff needed to loosen her grip otherwise every small move she'll need to make would be exacerbated and that wouldn't be a good thing. Taking a deep relaxing breath to calm her own nerves (Nagase was even more nervous than the baroness. She'd flown through the base before and knew exactly what was ahead of them), Nagase started to talk the baroness through the abandoned underground base.

"Kitori, I can tell that you are severely frightened and scared isn't the way to fly through this base. In fact flying through here scared is a good way to buy the farm. I'm going to talk you through this, however when I tell you to do something drastic I need you to do it right when I tell you. Otherwise you will not survive. Click your mic twice if you understand?". Nagase said calmly while giving her aircraft a little bit of left rudder to make the turn into the main tunnel.

Two clicks came over the radio and Nagase smiled. Baroness Palvanoff called back a moment later and in a very small voice told Nagase that she was so scared she didn't think she was going to make it. Kei growled over the radio and told the baroness to stop her sniveling. It wasn't going to do her any good. In the silence that followed, Kei could just about hear the indignation emanating from the baroness. Waiting a moment for Kitori to regain her senses, Kei told her to increase her speed to 350 knots. Kitori asked why and Nagase smothered a sigh.

"Three hundred and fifty knots is the best speed for traversing this base. We still have a long way to go and that speed will give you enough energy to maneuver. We also have a little bit of ground effect but that is going to lessen the further we get under the mountain. Remember we're working with less than a hundred feet of altitude in here. Alright you're doing fine but be careful we have about a seventy-five degree turn to the left coming up. To manage the turn you're going to have to reduce speed and use your rudder. If your aircraft starts to drop quickly when you apply left rudder, don't worry, that altitude change is going to help you make the turn. If you want, you can add a little bit of left roll in but don't use too much."

While she was giving the baroness those instructions, Nagase was suiting her actions to her words and reducing her speed. Letting her fingers lightly grasp her control stick, Nagase brought her wings up in a fifteen degree bank and gave her Hawk a measured amount of left rudder. Like it was on rails, the Hawk made the left turn with room to spare. Kitori stared slackjawed as the pilot of the little trainer aircraft put the bird through its paces and performed moves she'd never seen before. And if that wasn't it, Nagase was talking Palvanoff through the underground base as if it was just another sortie for her.

Clamping down on her burgeoning fear and doing everything the other pilot told her to do and when she told her to do it, Kitori began to relax as she got used this kind of flying. It challenged her present skills and forced her to come up with new skills. Midway through the base, Kitori realized that Nagase wasn't giving her any more instructions and rejoiced. She'd learned how to tell what was coming ahead by 'exploding her eyes' out so she could see farther, better, and with more clarity and by watching the tail of Nagase's plane. Kitori also started to anticipate the other pilots' movements and ended up performing the flight maneuver a half second before Kei did.

From her position in the lead, Nagase was able to watch her student approvingly through her three rearview mirrors and by swinging the tail of her Hawk out a bit in preparation for a turn and looking out the side of the cockpit. Knowing the fork in the tunnel that was fast approaching, Nagase wanted Palvanoff to negotiate a section of the tunnel on her own. Kei knew that the tunnel ahead branched in two different directions but ended up coming back together a few hundred yards from the base exit. Reviewing the map in her head, Edge figured that to make the break for the left hand tunnel when it was too late for the aircraft following to negotiate the turn was going to take split micro-second timing.

"If I yaw the tail out early, the baroness will know and follow. To split this flight, I'm gonna have to simultaneously roll and yaw the aircraft and at a higher speed. If my calculations are correct, the split second it takes for the woman behind me to realize what I've pulled, I'll be entering the left hand tunnel and she'll be too close to the right hand tunnel to execute the same maneuver and will have to resign herself to taking the longer route.", murmured Edge.

A minute or so later, Nagase saw the tunnel split and put her plan into action. Waiting till the exact last moment, the married pilot and mother of two young children popped out her speed brake, jammed her left rudder pedal to the stops, and yanked her stick to the left hard. The nimble little trainer responded beautifully: it slowed down so quick that Kitori was caught by surprise. As she was processing the sudden speed drop, she stared agape as the little fighter rolled to the left so fast she was sure Nagase was going to crash. It was at that exact moment when she saw the fork and figured that there was no way she could follow that maneuver in the little amount of space left. Resigning herself to taking the other route by herself with no one leading, Kitori steeled her resolve and vowed that Nagase was not going to show her up.

"Just you wait till we get to the dogfighting part of this sortie. I'm going to show you the folly of your ways. No one insults Baroness Kitori Palvanoff or her Dassault Mirage F1!", thought Kitori as her aircraft entered the right side tunnel.

All alone in the near darkness of the underground base, Kitori didn't let the horror get to her. She used her newfound skills to navigate through the tunnel. When she saw the waning daylight at the end, Kitori rejoiced. Her nightmare was nearly over. So happy that she was about making it through that small section of tunnel by herself, Palvanoff didn't react at first when her proximity alarm went off. When she did react, the only thing Kitori saw was an orange and white streak exiting a side tunnel at a high rate of speed. Wanting to prove her aerial superiority, Kitori kept her line as the aircraft got closer. Ten yards from the end of the tunnel and as the two planes moved closer and closer together until Kitori was sure they were going to collide in midair; Baroness Palvanoff saw an amazing aerial maneuver for the third or fourth time that day. The other trainer rolled itself inverted as it pulled alongside her aircraft. Kitori listened as Nagase expressed a verbal compliment.

"Not too shabby, Baroness. You're pretty damn good so far. Maybe those Razgriz pilots will want to train with you and help y'all out after all. I know that the number two pilot of the Razgriz will be very interested in my report about you. ", stated Kei much to Kitori's confusion.

"Why would Razgriz Two be so interested in your report about me? Granted I'm a better pilot than you and I look a hell of a lot better. But why would this pilot be so interested in your report?", returned Kitori.

Smothering a chuckle, Kei answered.

"Because Baroness Palvanoff, the Razgriz number two is a woman and she loves seeing women perform in this male dominated career. Many of the enemy pilots from the war we fought years ago would be humiliated to know that they were shot down by a woman. Now don't forget, we still have one more thing to do."

"I won't.", grumbled Kitori.

"Good I'll go left; you go right we'll turn towards each other at twenty-five miles. When you hear me call 'fights' on' that'll be the signal for us to commence the ACM portion of this sortie; and Baroness, one more thing."

"Yeah, what is it now?", complained Kitori.

"I don't intend to make it easy for you so you'd better do your damnest to get me before I get you.", replied Kei in the iciest voice she could manage.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see. Don't go home crying when I take you apart.", taunted Kitori.

Nagase just chuckled and for some odd reason, Kitori felt a chill as she heard the laughter from the other pilot.

Nagase rolled her plane upright and then waved to Kitori before peeling off to the left. Kitori returned the wave then banked her aircraft in the opposite direction. Both pilots mentally changed their thought processes from the taunting of before to the aerial version of cold-blooded ruthlessness. Even though no live weapons were going to be used (indeed, if there had been a live missile or a full cannon load of ammo, both pilots would've used them so intense was their rivalry), this 1 v 1 dogfight was going to lead to the downfall of somebody's pride. Both Kei and Kitori just hoped that it wasn't their pride that was going to be destroyed.

Back at Sand Island, the Area 88 pilots and their OADF counterparts were all crammed into the communications room listening to the verbal exchanges between the two women. All six men could hear the barely concealed hostility coming from each woman's voice. Bets were being taken by the enlisted radio operators as to who was going to win the best of five.

Mickey Simon leaned against a wall with is arms behind his head. He grimaced as he heard another person place a bet against Kitori. Out of the corner of his eye, the lanky Tomcatter saw Kim Aba shake his head. Both pilots were supposed to be resting but as they stretched out on the couches in the lounge that connected to their quarters (Mickey and Kim were sharing quarters, while Saki, Kitori, and Kazama had their own rooms. All rooms opened up onto a central lounge/sitting room area) when they'd heard about the little competition between the two women. Rushing out of their room, the two had run into Kazama as he was returning from his failed search for the pilot known as Blaze. Mickey had told Shin about the little competition and together the three men had buttonholed one of the low-ranked techs and found out where they could listen in on the dogfight.

As they had entered the communications shack, the Area 88 trio had found the three male Wardog pilots also on their way into the communications shack. Mickey and Kim had stared coldly at Marcus and Hans (who didn't return the look) while Shin and Blaze talked about aviation.

Aba crossed his chest after straightening his turban and asked Mickey a question.

"Hey Mickey, where's the commander? I thought for sure he'd be down here. After all Kitori's his cousin."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Saki should be here supporting his clanswoman. Last time I saw him was when we were in his room going over the assignments. Saki was planning on getting some sleep so he may still be sacked out in his room.", answered Mickey.

Blaze looked over at the two pilots and shook his head.

"Colonel Vashtarl's up in Colonel Bartlett's office going over the sortie schedule for the next few days. Bartlett sent me to inform Colonel Vashtarl that he wanted to make sure of the sortie schedule. Who knows what's going on up there now? The two of them are probably sitting in the office listening to the same thing we are. Long ago, our former base commander, Colonel Perrault (he's brigadier general now) had a speaker installed in his office so he could listen to flight ops. Bartlett just had upgraded just in case something like this happened.", answered the Wardog flight lead.

Mickey and Kim nodded their thanks as they continued to lean against the wall. The pair ignored the glower from Shin before he returned his attention to the speaker above his head. Across from Kim and Mickey sat Marcus and Hans. As usual, Swordsman had his boot encased feet propped up on a handy chair. In his large hand, the six foot four inch black pilot held a steaming mug of coffee (when things were slow, Snow was a coffee addict. It wasn't too unusual for the pilots of his air wing aboard the old Kestrel to find him hanging out in one of the squadron ready rooms with his ever present mug of coffee. He even used to drink the stuff while sitting the 'alert five' watch in the cockpit of his -14D). Archer was resting his head on his wrists as he leaned back in his chair. Once the two trainers had launched, Pops had returned to the hanger and together the pair finished the work on Grimm's Eagle.

Shin Kazama and Blaze Thomas were sitting in chairs next to the radio console using their hands to describe dogfights they'd been involved in. At the moment, Shin was describing his ill-fated encounter with an Atoll- carrying MiG-21 Fishbed while piloting his old F-8E Crusader. Kazama was about to go into more detail about the fight when Nagase's voice came over the radio net saying the words that started the dogfight.

"Fight's on! Call the merge! Hard deck's ten thousand!", grunted Nagase as she yanked the Hawk into a hard right bank and came charging back towards Kitori.

"Right side to right side! Copy hard deck ten thousand feet!", returned Kitori indicating that she wanted to have them pass on each other's right side.

"Copy that. Let's see how good you are!"

"Same goes to you, major!"

As he listened to the communications between his wife and Palvanoff, Blaze turned to one of the techs and asked what the odds were on the outcome of the first sortie.

"Ten to one odds on Major Thomas, sir; the majority of the radio techs think this will be over in three fights. Although some think it'll go the full five. I'm not counting on that though.", answered the tech.

"Hmm, I see. I'll take those odds put me down for fifty. Oh yeah and put me down in the minority who say this exercise will go the full five. Anyone else want a piece of this action?", said Blaze as he directed his question towards the other four pilots in the room.

"Yeah, I'll ante up. Put me down for fifty on Palvanoff. I believe it's only going to go three fights, though.", commented Kim Aba as he made his way over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.

"Nah, it's going to go the whole five, kid. Just from watching how the major handled that Tigershark decides it for me. Although I still think Kitori will triumph.", added Mickey.

"I'll put my fifty on Edge. She's damn good. Edge covered my six a few times over the Jilachi Desert. And I still remember how her and her Tiger protected my young Airman first Class ass when we got bushwhacked here. Blaze, you remember that furball?", stated Hans.

"How could I forget, Archer?, Chopper and I had to deal with those dammed B-1B Lancers while Edge was busy gunning down the Tornados.", replied Blaze, then he went silent as he remembered Chopper Davenport.

Snow turned to Shin and asked him if he wanted in. Kazama demurred at first until Mickey and Kim convinced him to join in. Kazama bet the same as Mickey, fifty on Kitori to win. Kazama agreed with Mickey that the dogfight was going to go the full five rounds. Snow added his own fifty but went with Blaze and picked Edge to win in five.

"So let's see: myself, Swordsman, Mickey, and Shin say it's going to go the full five with Swordsman and I picking Edge while Mickey and Kazama pick Palvanoff. Young Kim Aba picks Kitori to win in three. Archer agrees with the number of rounds but chooses Edge to triumph in three. Looks like a six hundred dollar pot to the winner. We'll have to pick the victor of each round to determine the winner of the overall pot. I wonder what the colonels' are doing?', asked Blaze as he notated the pilots' bets on a sheet of paper.

The other five pilots looked at Blaze and nodded. They wanted to know as well.

Up in Colonel Bartlett's' office, Jack Bartlett and Saki Vashtarl were doing the same thing their pilots were doing down in the radio room. Unlike their pilots, the two older men were splitting a bottle of bourbon that Bartlett had brought with him. Both men had their feet propped up on Bartlett's desk and were reminiscing about dogfights they'd been in before getting moved up to command positions. Pops had joined them a few minutes before after checking out the engines on Mickey's Tomcat and repairing the minor damage on Kazama's Tiger. He too had a glass full of bourbon and was perching on the window sill as the three men listened to the first dogfight. Saki spoke first.

"I bet our pilots are down in the radio room listening to this fight and placing bets on its outcome."

"Colonel, that'd be a sucker bet. Everybody on this island is probably doing the same thing. If they're not gathered by a radio, then they have a buddy listening in and relaying the news by phone, messenger, or radio. I believe that this is the most action this old base has seen in years.", answered Bartlett as he took another swig of his drink.

Pops and Saki nodded before turning their attention back to the radio and listening in. None of the pilots on the ground knew how tough this dogfight was but they could imagine it by just listening to the grunts and curses over the radio.

1700 Hours. Airborne Over the Cerean Ocean.

Up in the air, Kitori was now certain of one thing: Major Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas was one 'Sierra Hotel' fighter pilot. Kitori Palvanoff, the Dragon Lady of Area 88, was getting her ass handed to her in this fight.

Every move she made, Nagase had a counter. At the outset, Kitori had planned to use the nimble little trainer to make a hard level turn to immediately slip in behind the other aircraft. It was a maneuver she did exceptionally well. Kitori had pulled it numerous times while flying her F1 and it had always worked. Even on her last sortie in the Mirage, she'd been able to pull it once. This time when Kitori stomped on the right rudder pedal and yanked her trainer into a ninety degree bank, she expected the other aircraft to be almost right in front of her.

It wasn't.

Now Baroness Palvanoff wasn't a nugget pilot getting her first taste of aerial combat so she didn't panic. She just looked around to see if she could spot her adversary. For the first few minutes of searching, Kitori didn't worry. It was after those first few minutes when she still didn't see Nagase that Kitori got nervous. Keeping her head on a swivel and occasionally checking her radar, the baroness kept looking for her quarry; knowing that an aircraft traveling in a straight line in the middle of a dogfight was a good way to get shot down, Kitori kept jinking her aircraft: up, down, left, right. Sometimes she's change her position in the sky by a thousand feet or more.

"Look behind you, Lady Palvanoff.", came Nagase's soft voice over the radio.

Kitori jerked as she heard the voice over her radio. Squirming around in her ejection seat to look over her shoulder, Kitori saw that the other aircraft was saddled up behind her in the perfect firing position.

"If I had been an enemy pilot, Lady Palvanoff, you'd have been dead a few minutes ago."

"What the…..? How did…! Where did you come from?", asked the frazzled Area 88 pilot.

Kei smiled to herself before answering the question. Like most enemy pilots that she'd flown against, Kei had pulled into a vertical bank at the merge and Kitori had immediately gone into her sharp horizontal turn. Kitori's reaction time had impressed Nagase so much that she'd written on the three by five card strapped to the kneeboard on her right thigh her observations on which aircraft (in her opinion) would be best for the former Mirage F1 driver.

"Damn, she's pretty good. Needs to learn to keep up her scan and use the vertical a bit more but this woman is pretty damn good. She's about as good as one of the Yuke pilots we allied with over Sudentor. Hell in some respects, Palvanoff is better than Amazon was.", thought Nagase as she followed Kitori through another defensive maneuver.

In the lead aircraft Kitori was trying everything she could to shake Edge off her six. Nothing was working and Kitori was just about out of tricks. There was no way she could get an advantage on the woman she was flying against. For the first time in her flying career, Kitori knew how those who found themselves on the other end of her cannons felt. There was only one thing she could do.

"Knock it off. I lost this match.", Kitori called over the radio.

"Copy that. Let's set up for another 1 v 1."

Kitori clicked her mic twice to acknowledge the other pilot before breaking to her right. Behind her, the other aircraft broke left to set up for another head on pass. This time Kitori vowed to not let Edge gain the advantage early in the fight like she did before.

"I'll beat her this time!", Kitori mentally vowed as she waited for Kei to indicate the fight had started.

Back at Sand Island, the radio room resounded with yells and cheers from the OADF contingent. Mickey Simon and Kim Aba just stared at each other as Marcus Snow and Hans Grimm grinned at each other as their wingmate triumphed in the first skirmish. Blaze growled at them to pipe down.

"This ain't over yet you two. There are still four more set ups to go!. Now listen, they're starting the second skirmish now.", snapped the Wardog flight leader.

The room quieted after Blaze's outburst and returned their attention to the radio. Out of the corner of his eye, Blaze caught the nod of thanks from Kazama and returned it with one of his own. Leaning back in his chair, Blaze slouched down and concentrated on the mock dogfight. He was concerned about the fuel levels of the two combatants. They were a nice distance away and it seemed as if the tanker crew he'd asked for were taking their blasted sweet time launching. Reaching over the shoulder of one the techs, Blaze grabbed one of the phone handsets sitting on the desk. Placing it against his ear and waiting for somebody to answer he grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen with his other hand and did some quick calculations. The results he received did not look good.

"Dammit, if they launched with a full bag of gas then they'll need some fuel at the end of the third fight. Their jaunt through the cave didn't help their fuel situation at all. Now all of this yanking and banking and excursions to full throttle is using up their fuel at a prodigal rate. Those dammed tanker pukes need to launch now!", thought Blaze as he tapped his pen impatiently against the desktop while waiting for somebody to answer the phone.

When somebody finally answered the phone a few minutes later, Blaze was seething. In the interim the two female aces had finished their second mock dogfight and much to the surprise of the OADF contingent, Kitori Palvanoff had won. Mickey and Kim were looking smug while Snow and Grimm were silent. Kazama hadn't said anything but Blaze could see the hidden look of superiority on Shin's face. Turning back to the console and his calculations, Blaze barked a command at the person on the other end of the line then waited while the person relayed his orders. Once he got an acknowledgement about the tanker launch, Blaze hung up the handset.

Tapping the controller his shoulder, Blaze asked the man where the extra headsets were. The man reached into a drawer beside his position and pulled out his spare and handed it to Blaze. The pilot placed the headset on his head and plugged into the communications net. Waiting for a break in the conversation between Kei and Kitori, Ian tapped his fingers on the desk.

"Stormrider Lead, Sand Castle, say state."

In the lead Hawk, Kei had been jotting down a few more notes about her opponent. The baroness had impressed her with her flying this time. She'd learned a bit from the first match and at the merge both pilots had pitched up into the vertical. Seeing that she was going to be on the losing side of the 'vertical scissors', Edge had waited for Kitori to pull her aircraft up so that they were canopy to canopy. When the time came and Edge was looking over her head into Kitori's cockpit, Kei had dropped her nose just before the climb had topped out and accelerated and immediately broke into a right bank to set up for her next maneuver and tried to sucker Palvanoff into an angles fight. Palvanoff wasn't having it and let her climb top out before dropping her nose and pushing her throttles to max power.

Yanking her Hawk onto its back, Kitori gained a lot of energy and was able to turn it into extra speed. Nagase, in the middle of her power sapping bank, rolled out and tried to escape but Palvanoff used her extra momentum and quickly gained a firing position on her opponent. Kei had just called Kitori and let her know that she'd won this one when Blaze's call came through and she checked her fuel gauges. Lifting an eyebrow in surprise as she saw that her fuel totalizer had her at around twelve hundred or so pounds, Nagase knew that it was time to hit the tanker.

"Sand Castle, Stormrider Lead is reporting 1200 pounds. I hope you got a filling station on the way."

"Stormrider, Sand Castle, the gasman is on the way. You and your wingman go to max conserve and wait for them to arrive. Let Stormrider Two tank first, she's probably got less gas than you do."

"Copy that. Baroness, you copy Sand Castle?", Edge asked the baroness.

"Who the hell is Sand Castle?", snapped Palvanoff.

"That's the base, genius! They want us to refuel since I know that you're probably under a thousand pounds of gas. Join on my right wing and go to max conserve. We'll wait for the tanker to arrive. When it does, you tank first. Sand Castle, how much do you want us to get?"

"Stormrider Lead. Get a full bag of gas that should get you through your remaining exercises."

"Copy that Sand Castle. Stormrider's breaking off to refuel before returning to the lesson at hand."

"Hah!, I'm up two wins to one, major. What lesson are you talking about: the one I'm teaching you or the one you were supposed to teach me!", commented Palvanoff over the channel.

"Stormrider Two, knock it off Kitori! Just follow orders and join on the major so you can refuel!", came Shin Kazama's voice over the radio.

"Okay, okay. Alright I'll get the gas. Then I'll get back to business.", grumped Kitori as she joined on Nagase's wing.

Shin clicked his transmit button twice before relinquishing the headset to the tech he'd gotten it from. Blaze had indicated that he wanted Shin to talk to Palvanoff. Blaze listened as Kei and Kitori checked in with the tanker as it arrived before unhooking his headset and handing it back to the tech who'd given it to him. Returning to his seat after grabbing a bottle of water, the Wardog pilot waited for the action to recommence. He knew that his wife, even though she was down, would triumph. From his point of view, Blaze knew that Kei hadn't even opened her bag of tricks yet.

"Kitori Palvanoff is about to get a big surprise if she thinks she's going to easily win.", mused Blaze.

He expected Kei to win the next two matches within forty-five minutes and return to base. After all, they had a beach date planned.

Up in the air, Kitori and Kei were about to start their fourth aerial combat match. Kitori was up by one but Kei was about to put the older woman in her place. Mentally reviewing her tactics, Kei decided to use a tactic to force Kitori into a two circle fight. With her experience in the aircraft growing, Kei knew that she had to beat Kitori quickly and set up for the final match. Estimating that it would take her ten minutes, Edge gritted her teeth and a feral smile came over her. She had this match won.

Instead of ten, it took five minutes and Kei had forced Kitori into an untenable position she couldn't break out of. At the merge, both aircraft had pitched into the vertical but Kitori had come into the break with more momentum. Kei had seen this and waited for the other Hawk to edge slightly past her aircraft. When it did, she popped out her speed brakes, ruddered her aircraft over behind the other, and waited for Palvanoff to run out of airspeed. When she did and dropped her nose, Kei triggered her gun cameras and taken the picture. The cross hairs of her HUD were superimposed over Kitori's helmeted head in her cockpit.

"You're dead Palvanoff. Let's set up for the last mock dogfight.", commented Nagase calmly.

In her cockpit, Kitori slammed her gloved fist down on her canopy rail and cursed to herself. She'd made a mistake and the cocky bitch had nailed her. Now the scored was tied and that did not sit well with Palvanoff. Nagase was good, too good. She was so much better than Kitori was that the baroness knew that Edge could have finished this mock combat in the first three battles. Now with the score tied, Edge was going to be even harder to beat.

"Alright, let's set it up and see who wins. This is the last one and it's for all the marbles. I'm not going to go easy on you and I don't want you to go easy on me. Fly this one like you mean it!", snarled Kitori.

"Okay, if that is the way you want it. Don't come crying to me when you lose.", retorted Edge.

The two women peeled off in different directions and flew a short ways out before doing a one eighty and coming head on. This time Edge called the merge.

"Let's do this, Palvanoff, left side to left side at the merge. Fights on!"

Both Hawk aircraft came charging at each other head on. With a closing speed of around six hundred miles an hour the two aerial valkyries passed each other with both aircraft heeled over in a seventy-five degree bank. Edge went left wing down at the merge and pulled hard into a climbing spiral. Looking over her head through the cockpit canopy, she saw that the baroness was pulling the same maneuver. Deciding to break out of the developing two-circle fight, Edge pushed her throttles to max power, reversed her roll and pulled into a climbing right turn.

Palvanoff saw that within seconds of her turn the two aircraft were going to head to head again and dived to regain some of the energy she lost when she pulled up into her climbing turn. As she dove, the baroness kept one eye on the other woman's aircraft. Sensing that the time was right, Kitori pulled up and converted the energy from her dive into a screaming climb. As she climbed, her Hawk passed Nagase's Hawk in the midst of its right turn.

Trying to return the fight to neutral ground as Kitori passed her while climbing; Nagase reversed her turn to keep Kitori in sight. Deciding to initiate her own shallow climb so she could keep Kitori in sight, Kei went nose up and reduced power. With one eye on her airspeed and one eye on the other aircraft, Nagase waited for the Kitori's climb to top out. She was pleasantly surprised to see her opponent loop the trainer then start down again. Acting fast, Nagase went inverted and moved in behind the baroness.

Seeing her predicament as Nagase inched closer and closer to a perfect firing position on her tail, Kitori jinked every way she could to do anything to force Nagase into an overshoot. She'd roll left and Nagase would follow! She'd roll right, Nagase would follow. To Kitori it was like trying to get rid of a clingy and annoying boyfriend. In desperation, Kitori blew out her speed brakes and barrel-rolled. As she came out of the roll, Kitori saw the other aircraft flash past. Unable to react in time, Nagase had overshot and blown right past Kitori. In seconds the quiet OADF major had gone from the hunter to the prey.

"Dammit, I screwed that up! Now to see if I can flip the script again and regain my advantage.", Nagase cursed to herself through the grunts as she fought the effects of positive and negative G forces on her body.

Looking over her shoulder, Nagase saw that Kitori had come out of her barrel roll and was nearly locked into firing position. Pushing her throttles up, Nagase broke to the left and pulled hard. When she saw her opponent commit to the left turn, Nagase immediately rolled back to the right and pushed her control stick forward. Knowing that for a half-second she'd be clear before Kitori realized where she'd gone, Kei pulled back up into the vertical. She had a plan that was going to end this fight decisively once and for all.

In her cockpit, Kitori was wildly looking around. Just as she'd committed to her left turn, her opponent had disappeared. Relaxing her bank and giving the stick a little back pressure, Palvanoff continued to search for Nagase. A glint of sunlight off of Nagase's canopy gave Palvanoff her position. Nagase was starting a full power climb. Rolling right and pushing up her speed, Kitori lit off after her. Seeing the angles start to work in her favor, Kitori planned to catch Nagase just as she ran out of airspeed and end this little competition.

Over in the other Hawk, underneath her dark helmet visor and oxygen mask, Nagase grinned. Kitori had just done exactly what Kei wanted her to do. Her instincts were telling her that her climb was going to top out several hundred feet above Kitori and in that instant, Kei planned to purposely depart her aircraft just enough so that for a second or three she looked like an easy target to Kitori. When the baroness moved in for the simulated kill, Nagase hoped that by that time, she would've regained control of her aircraft enough to end this fight.

To an armchair dogfighter it looked as if Kitori Palvanoff was about to win this mock dogfight. Especially when they witnessed Nagase's aircraft start to tumble out of control. To the experienced eye, the tumbling Hawk looked like what it was meant to look like: an aircraft that the pilot had intentionally put out of control to gain that nth degree of advantage to win the dogfight.

In her cockpit, Kitori Palvanoff saw Nagase's aircraft go out of control and she grinned. This match was hers.

"Easy meat.", she grunted as she eased up her climb.

In doing that, Kitori did the one thing no self respecting fighter pilot would do when locked in a life or death struggle: she got predictable and allowed her aircraft to travel in a straight line. It was only for a few seconds but it was enough for Kei to end the battle.

Keeping her eye on her target and her hands away from her control stick as her Hawk went out of control, Kei waited for the correct moment. When it came, it came as an expected surprise and it came at just the right time. Just as her Hawk righted itself and came back under her control, Kei saw her chance.

There was the other trainer aircraft traveling in a straight predictable climb. It was the moment in aerial combat that Kei Nagase lived for. As she watched, time compression set in and everything seemed like it was going in slow motion. There was the distinctive pointed nose of a Hawk trainer gradually riding to meet what Kitori thought was an out of control aircraft.

Taking a deep breath, Kei Nagase dropped her nose and squeezed the trigger on her control stick. Instead of 20 mm cannon shells erupting from the cannon, a series of pictures were taken. Each picture denoting the target superimposed over Nagase's crosshairs. When she released the trigger, the camera stopped. The last picture was the one that would prove to the others who'd won this fight. In the picture, the crosshairs for the cannon in the nose of the little aircraft were superimposed on the face of her opponent. At the very same moment she released her trigger, Kitori called her own shot. Nagase smiled as she heard Kitori's words. She didn't have to deny anything; the picture she took would explain it all. Nagase glanced at her heads up display and saw where her crosshairs were situated.

The point where the horizontal and vertical lines met was situated right on the bridge of Kitori Palvanoff's nose underneath her oxygen mask.

Nagase made the call.

"It's over. Knock it off. Palvanoff you lose.", stated Major Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas with a note of finality in her voice.

When she heard Nagase's announcement over the radio Kitori Palvanoff was stunned. She'd lost? There's no way in hell she could've lost again. Nagase couldn't have pulled off a ninety degree guns shot from where she was. For chrissakes' the other aircraft had departed and Nagase had been out of control. She couldn't have recovered her aircraft and gotten a visual on Kitori's aircraft in the very short amount of time she'd had. Kitori stammered a bit but she got her denial out over the radio.

"Bullshit, you couldn't have regained control of your aircraft that quick. Even if you did, there is no way you could have gotten off a shot. This win is mine, Nagase.", Kitori shouted over the radio.

"Baroness, its time to return to base, when we land, I'll show you who won this duel.", Edge returned calmly.

Kitori with no other choice fumed silently as she joined up on Kei's wing. The entire flight back to Sand Island was made in silence. Fearing that any words from her would ignite the incendiary temper of the woman in the other aircraft and preferring to fly without speaking anyway, Kei didn't say anything to the fuming baroness. For her part, Kitori refused to even contemplate talking much less admitting to being beaten. Just wait till they recovered back at Sand Island, Kitori was going to shove her fist down Nagase's throat.

Back at Sand Island Blaze, Shin, and their respective contingents had ventured out to the flightline to watch the two trainers land. The sun was starting to drop and against the spectacular sunset the silhouettes of the Hawks made for a fantastic picture if somebody had been there to capture the moment.

Twenty minutes later, both aircraft had landed and were being towed to their hanger. Still in their flight and g-suits Kei and Kitori had clambered down from their respective cockpits and were heading to the briefing room with their respective cliques. Palvanoff had been the first of the two women to dismount her jet. The minute her flight boots hit the ground, she'd ran over to where Nagase's aircraft was being serviced and hooked up to a towbar. Edge had already dismounted and was talking with the plane captain. She was asking the young man to check the starboard wing for any loose nuts, bolts, or rivets. Nagase feared that she might have overstressed the little trainer in the last battle.

"Oh yeah, pull the film from the gun cameras and get it developed. There's some evidence on it that shows who won the last fight.", commented Edge as she slid out of her g-suit.

"No prob major. We'll have it pulled and developed shortly. I'll have my people make developing that film a priority. Everyone who heard the fight wants to see those pictures.", returned the plane captain.

Edge signed the aircraft logbook in the spot indicated stating that she had no problems with the aircraft and it could be put back in to service immediately once it had been refueled, checked, and the camera's reloaded with film. Hearing the angry footsteps storming in her direction, Nagase turned to face the baroness. She quirked an eyebrow as she noticed that Kitori had her fist cocked back as if to through a punch.

Kitori saw red upon spotting her opponent talking calmly with a ground crewman and clenched her fingers into a fist. Approaching the other woman, Kitori allowed her rage to take over and pulled her arm back in preparation of throwing the first punch.

"Two more steps and I'll be able to wipe that smug look off of her face!", thought Kitori.

Just as she reached the point where her fist would connect with Nagase's nose, a familiar voice cracked out over the flightline like a whip.

"Baroness Kitori Palvanoff, cease your actions at once!", snapped Colonel Vashtarl.

"But highness!"

"Baroness Palvanoff, report to my quarters right now! That's an order! Do not bring further dishonor on to yourself.", Saki continued as he overrode Kitori's pleading.

Seeing the dark frown being cast her way by the prince, Kitori had no choice but to swallow her pride and do as she was commanded. It galled her to have to suffer this indignity in front of strangers, especially male strangers, but she squared her shoulders, turned on her heel, and made her way in the direction of the hanger's locker room. Kitori knew that she was in for a strong lecture when the prince returned. She just hoped that he didn't make her wait for a long time as was his right. Kitori had heard through the family grapevine that Saki had once made one of their younger cousins wait nearly four hours for a lecture after a minor transgression that could've been easily written off as childish play.

As the baroness walked semi-dejectedly off, Edge caught Blaze's eye and lifted a questing eyebrow. Blaze saw the question in his wife's eyes and quickly glanced beyond his five foot six inch wife at the statuesque five foot eleven baroness heading for the same place as the other pilot. He started to take a step in that direction but the quick shake of his wife's head and the warning look in her eyes gave him pause. Confused for a moment, Blaze came up with a plan. Mouthing some words to his wife he waited for her to understand and stroll off in the same direction as Palvanoff. Turning to the rest of the gathered pilots, Blaze wrapped an arm around Shin's neck and gently but forcibly faced him in the direction of the briefing room.

"Gentleman, now that the evening's entertainment has passed, why don't we retire to the lounge and wait for those gun camera photos to be developed?", asked Blaze, successfully shifting the attention of the crowd.

Not giving anyone a chance to answer, Blaze dragged Kazama along with him as he headed for the pilots lounge. Walking in the opposite direction of her friends and wingmates, Nagase offered up a wry smile to the orange-hued sky above. Her husband's irreverence won over the gathered crowd and the five remaining pilots followed their erstwhile leader towards the operations building.

"Give the baroness a bit of room before you approach her, Edge. She's not happy about the result of today's exercise right now.", came a quiet voice from behind her.

"Well what do you recommend to help break the ice?", Edge asked of the voice without turning around.

Not hearing any reply from the mystery speaker, Nagase's shoulders slumped until she felt the mystery conversationist slip a bottle of something cold and wet into her hand. Recognizing the shape, Edge grinned again before replying.

"You know I can't drink this now. I gotta swim date with my husband planned for later and I'd rather his attention not be diverted because I'm half drunk and stumbling through the waves.", stated Kei.

There was no reply.

Nagase just shrugged her shoulders and continued following Baroness Palvanoff.

1910 Hours. Sand Island Base. Hanger Twelve. Pilots Locker Room and Shower.

Kitori stood naked under the shower nozzle and let the warm spray of water cascade over her head and rinse the remainder of the shampoo out of her shoulder length black hair. The shampoo she used was a special blend made exclusively for the female members of the Asranian Royal Family and it was Kitori's lone acknowledgment of her status within the family hierarchy.

The baroness was currently running the last fight through her memory as she stood with her head downcast. She'd been in the shower for the past ten minutes and the water was starting to go cold. Hearing the door to the communal shower in the locker room, Kitori gritted her teeth. Would she ever be able to find some time of her own before she met with the prince in his quarters. Kei Nagase had entered the locker room just as Kitori had finished putting her flight gear away and sat down on the bench in the middle of the room. She'd heard the other woman stop then mutter something to herself before leaving the locker room. Kitori had seen the tips of Nagase's flight boots as she had turned around and left the area. Feeling some wetness on her cheeks at that time, Kitori realized that she was silently sobbing.

"Crying, I'm crying? Crying over a defeat in a training exercise? I don't cry, I never cry! I haven't cried in seventeen years! I shouldn't be crying over something as petty as that!", fumed the baroness as her tears stubbornly refused to stop.

At the time, Kitori had wiped her eyes and finally stopped sobbing and started retrieving her personal toiletries so she could take a shower. It was in the shower when the baroness realized that she hadn't' been sobbing at her loss to a better pilot, she'd been sobbing because of her humiliation by her betrothed in front of her wingmen and those who were going to help.

"Are you alright, Kitori?", asked Nagase as she prepared for her own shower.

"I'm fine, Nagase. Everything is fine. I'm about finished if you need this stall, although there may not be any hot water left.", replied Kitori as she lifted her head and shut off the water.

"Don't worry about using up the hot water. There's enough left that I'll be alright."

Kitori grunted as she stepped out of the stall and toweled her herself dry. Wrapping the large beach towel around her body and tucking the end in the valley made by her 33C cup breasts to secure it, she made her way to the sinks. As she made her way past the last of the showers and turned the corner, Kitori stopped. There stood Kei Nagase-Thomas at a sink brushing her teeth naked as a jaybird.

Kitori eyed the shorter woman's blemish-free porcelain white skin in awe. Kitori had never seen skin so fair in her entire life. Even the skin of some of her female cousins didn't compare to the beauty in front of her. Almost against her will, Kitori felt herself reaching out a hand to see how soft Nagase's skin was. When she touched the skin, it electrified her as she felt the softness.

Edge had been finishing up with her tooth brushing and was putting her toothbrush and toothpaste away when she felt Kitori's touch. Gasping in surprise and whirling to face the older woman, Nagase stammered to say something but it caught in her throat as she saw the fright on Kitori's face. Kitori was stepping back and held a hand up to her mouth.

"I….I….I'm sorry, I just wanted to feel how soft your skin was? I was just curious.", stammered the former Mirage F1 pilot.

Nagase shook her head. Whenever she was around other female pilots, whether it be in a locker room or at a formal dinner, they all wanted to touch her skin just to see for themselves how soft it was. She was partially used to it by now.

"It's no problem, Kitori. I'm used to this. It happens to me a lot."

Sighing in relief, Kitori took a tentative step forward and asked Nagase how she kept her skin so soft. Kei answered that it was the lotion she used after she got out of the shower.

"Everytime I fly, I have to use the lotion afterwards. Otherwise my skin would loose its softness."

"Does it work?", asked Kitori in a small voice.

Kei gave Kitori an evilly smug grin before answering.

"Oh yeah it works! My husband can't keep his hands off of me!", Nagase replied with a knowing wink.

Kitori returned the major's wink with a nod of her own. Kitori continued to watch as Edge finished what she was doing at the sink before turning her fantastic body in the direction of the shower stalls. Stepping to one side to let the other woman pass, Kitori noticed that Nagase lifted an eyebrow as she saw how far Kitori's towel poked out where it covered her breasts. Anticipating the next question, Kitori answered it.

"33C cup if you're wondering. Not the largest in my family but not the smallest either."

"Oh, mine are only a B cup; 28B to be exact. Even though I often complain to my husband about their size and wish they were a bit larger, Blaze always tells me that their perfect.", returned Nagase with a slight tinge of embarrassment showing on her cheeks.

Kitori shook her head in negation and told the younger woman to not worry about her tit size. As long as she was happy with the results she received from her husband about them, Nagase daren't think about getting breast enlargement surgery. The other woman sighed and gave Kitori a half smile before entering one of the shower stalls and turning on the water.

Kitori made her way over to the sink Nagase had just vacated and stood in front of its mirror. Letting her towel drop, she examined her breasts in the pane of glass and gave a satisfied whistle. Rummaging through her toiletries bag, Kitori pulled out her anti-perspirant and applied it under hear arms. Once that was done, she reached for a fresh bra and panty set. Taking the pink briefs and slipping them on, Palvanoff pulled them up her legs and situated them just right. Minutes later, as Kitori was slipping into a fresh flight suit, she heard a muffled curse from the shower stall. Confused and curious, the Asranian baroness stepped over to the entrance to the shower area and called back to the other woman. It took a few tries but Nagase heard her over the rush of the shower water.

"I'm outta shampoo, dammit! The minute I step outta this barracks area my hair is going to frizz up so bad I'm gonna look like that dammed Medusa!", swore Edge.

Kitori glanced back at her kit bag and saw that her prized bottle of shampoo sat forlornly on the edge of the sink. Sighing to herself, Kitori strode over and picked it up. Entering the shower area, she made her way to the stall where the water was running and opened the curtain just enough to place the bottle on the ledge that ran the length of the wall of the stall.

"Here, use mine. I'll pick it up from you later. Don't use a lot though, this bottle is the only one I brought with me.", Kitori stated as Nagase accepted the shampoo.

"Uh, thanks Kitori. I appreciate it. I'll make sure you get it back as soon as possible.", replied Nagase.

"Don't sweat it. We women got to stick together in this male-dominated profession. So what if we remember that we're women first and fighter pilots second. They just gotta deal with it."

Nagase smothered a laugh; she was beginning to feel that Baroness Palvanoff was a kindred spirit. Bringing her attention back to the present, Nagase was able to catch Kitori's departing words before the door closed and cut them off. Humming to herself as she poured a dollop of the shampoo into her hand and began to lather her hair with it, Kei caught the soft floral scent as it wafted into her nose. Smiling to herself, Kei realized that at the core of her being, Baroness Kitori Palvanoff was exactly like her. Like Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas, Kitori Palvanoff was little girl at heart.

"Maybe I'll give the baroness a chance to pilot my Rhino sometime in the coming two or three weeks. I believe that she'll be a perfect pilot for either a Falcon or a Super Hornet.", mused Nagase before her mind turned to what her husband was presently doing.

1947 Hours. Sand Island Base. Air Operations Building. Pilots Lounge.

Oblivious to his wife's musings, Ian 'Blaze' Thomas sat in one of the old ready room chairs off of the Osean Eighth Naval Fleet flagship, OFS Condor, that were taken out when she was undergoing service life extension work and renovations three years after the Circum-Pacific War. At the present time he was kicking back with the pilots and relaxing. Bartlett had retired for the evening to clean up his quarters and prepare for the visit from his wife and daughter the next day. Pops had begged off saying that he wanted to get some more work done on the present aircraft as he waited for the pilot ferrying Blazes' T-Shark in from Heierlark to arrive.

The ferry pilot, a war veteran nicknamed 'Rumrunner' was bringing the T-shark in and returning the X-29 back to Heierlark. Once the X-29 was safely back at its home base, Rumrunner was going to bring Edge's Rhino down and fly her Tigershark back north. After a few hours of rest, the ferry pilot was going to be busy ferrying aircraft to different Osean Air Defense Force bases around the world before returning to Sand Island.

Blaze glanced over to his right and saw that Colonel Vashtarl was deep in conversation with Shin Kazama while Aba and Simon played a semi-friendly game of pool With Snow and Grimm over in the corner. Checking his watch, Blaze saw that it would soon be time for him to make his escape and meet Edge so they could go for their sunset swim together.

A little bit bored, Blaze picked up the phone handset and called the weather room to find out what time sunrise was set for. As he heard the answer, a plan began to form in his mind. Hanging up the handset after thanking the weather watchers, Blaze rose from his seat and headed for the door. On his way out, he called over to Swordsman.

"Hey Marcus, I'm calling it a night and leaving it in your hands. Rumrunner's supposed to be here in a few hours so have the coffee pot ready. You know he's going to be flying all night tonight bringing those planes in."

"Yeah, I know. You go and have fun. Anything comes up; I'll pass it on to the colonel and Pops. You makin' any stops before you reach your quarters?"

"Nah, I just got off the line with the weather guessers and found out what the early morning weather was going to be like."

The Eternal Swordsman frowned. If Blaze had just gotten off the line with the weather shack and asked about the early morning weather, there was only one thing it could mean. And Snow didn't like that answer one damn bit. He needed his sleep. Turning to the door, he saw that Blaze had already escaped and he cursed, much to the amusement of the other Tomcat pilot in the room.

"What's up Snow, you thinking about how much you're gonna owe me once you tank this shot?", asked Mickey as he chalked up his cue stick.

Snow shook his head negative and proved it by sinking the difficult shot with ease. Stepping back from the table, the six foot four carrier aviator placed his hand on Archer's shoulder and muttered the two most hated words of Wardog Squadron.

"Archer, we got a dawn patrol tomorrow morning. I just hope that our guests get enough sleep."

Grimm groaned as he heard his wingman's words. He'd done enough of those during the war. After they shot down the SOLG and he resigned his commission and started college, Hans had felt greatly relieved that he'd never have to be up at the crack of dawn flying in a war weary jet. Granted, the sunrises were spectacular when he was awake and coherent enough to watch but Grimm loved his sleep.

"Awww shit, not a dawn patrol. I thought I was done with those for eternity. Dammit Blaze, why're you doing this. Shit, this sucks. I bet Edge is going to the one of us pissed off the most. Ever since her wedding and the birth of her two children, Nagase absolutely abhors getting up that early unless she needs to do something. I can't remember how many times since our retirement and their wedding that Blaze has been consigned to the couch because he kept waking her up so early in the morning!", fumed Archer as he tightened his grip on the shaft of his pool stick.

Kazama had finished his conversation with Vashtarl and had appropriated a seat near the billiards table so he could watch the game. Colonel Vashtarl had departed to get some rest. After the excitement of the day, he was a bit tired. Shin had heard Swordsman's words to Archer and Archers' pointed reply. Curious, Shin asked what was wrong. Snow answered.

"It's nothing, sir, nothing important. I was just informing Archer that we have an early morning go time for launch tomorrow. Major Thomas wants us to do a dawn patrol."

"Dawn Patrol? What's a dawn patrol Major Snow?", asked Mickey.

Archer and Swordsman looked at each other and sighed. Snow was about to answer when Grimm beat him to it.

"A dawn patrol is an old Wardog Squadron tradition started by one of our old wingmen. He set it up with a ground crewman when we were stationed here before and during the Circum-Pacific War of 2010. Early in the morning, probably a few minutes before sunrise, Blaze is going to have the air raid siren go off. Back during the war, the air raid siren going off meant a hot scramble with everyone running to their planes and trying to get them launched as quickly as possible. At the first dawn patrol, a bunch of us pilots were woken up and came charging out to our aircraft. We launched in record time and formed up only to find out that Davenport had wanted us to be flying so we could watch the sun come up. When we landed after that first dawn patrol, Captain Bartlett read Davenport the riot act six ways from Sunday and ordered him to not pull such a damn fool stunt ever again."

"I see, sounds interesting.", commented Shin.

"Keep thinking that when the siren goes off and wakes you up from a deep sleep. We'll see how interesting you'll find it then.", returned Archer.

2100 Hours. Sand Island Air Force Base. North Beach.

Kei Nagase-Thomas and her husband lay side by side in one of the lounge chairs situated on the north beach of the base and together they watched the stars and conversed quietly. The pair had been lying in the lounge chair ever since they'd met up with each other in their quarters and strolled hand in hand to the beach. Once on the beach, Ian and Kei had stripped down to their swimwear (as promised, Edge was wearing her husband's favorite bikini) and jogged down to the water for their swim.

The Thomas's had swam together for about forty-five minutes or so before returning to the shallows and holding each other for a few minutes to reaffirm their love. Later, Blaze had picked Edge up and cradled her in his arms as he made his way to the lone lounge chair sitting on the beach. As usual, Edge had marveled as her husband (who couldn't stand more than five foot seven inches tall and weighed around two hundred pounds soaking wet) could pick her one hundred fifty-five pound five foot six inch petite frame and carry her cradled against his chest like one carried a baby.

"You washed your hair tonight, didn't you Edge?", asked Blaze as he trailed one finger lightly along one silky smooth leg.

"Yeah, I ran out of shampoo. The baroness loaned me hers though.", replied Edge softly as she smothered a chuckle.

"I see. It must be a special shampoo. It smells different and much better than your old shampoo. You'll have to ask her where she bought it."

"I will. Did you see the photo from my gun cameras?", asked Edge as she rolled over onto her stomach.

"Oh yeah I did. I was walking past the hangar when the photo tech grabbed me and showed it to me. Nice placement of your pipper there, hon."

"Did they leave the time stamp on the picture so that the winner could be proven?"

"Yeah, they did. Your finger beat hers by about three seconds. I don't think she's going to like that?"

Edge smiled to herself. She believed that there would be no more troubles out of Kitori after today. After her shower and after Kitori had survived her lecture from Colonel Vashtarl, the two women had met up in the galley and talked a bit while trying to get to know each other a bit better. Edge believed that with her present skills Kitori Palvanoff would make an excellent addition to the Hornet Mafia and planned to subtly push her into choosing the Hornet over the Falcon when it became time for her to pick.

Blaze listened to his wife's easy breathing as they lay motionless and relaxed. He had a feeling that after the dawn patrol, Bartlett would probably send him back to Heierlark. He knew Bartlett wanted Blaze to give his own unbiased observations on the Area 88ers and his being on base in proximity to his wingmen would bias his opinion. His old flight instructor wanted Blaze to come in without any knowledge about his opponents therefore his observations would carry no taint of bias.

Ian told Kei about his thoughts. As expected, Edge wasn't too happy about it but saw Bartlett's reasoning by the temporary banishment. As it was, Edge planned on not being in close proximity once those two returned from their mock dogfight sorties against Colonel Vashtarl and his aces.

"Well, then, my beloved. What do you think we should do before you're sent off into exile? I assume you have plans for your last night in my company for awhile?", asked Edge coyly.

"You know me better than that, love. Of course I have plans; however, those plans will have to be put on hold so we can get some rest. I've set up a dawn patrol for our guests and I wanna be well rested for that. If my plans were to go into effect tonight, I know that neither of us would get enough rest.", answered Blaze.

Edge rose up and looked at her husband in disbelief. Her idiot husband set up a dawn patrol! And he was going to be away from Sand Island for a few days! Damn his hide!! She started cussing in her native language. Blaze knew the majority of what she was saying even though he didn't completely understand his wife. However, he lifted an eyebrow as Edge called him names he'd never heard before in either language. When she sputtered to a halt to take a breath, Blaze quickly kissed her to stop another torrent of abuse before she could get really wound up.

"Give me a break, Edge. I'll be back before you know it and then the plans we hold off for tonight will be even better and sweeter then.", commented Blaze as he gently stroked her face with his hand.

Seeing the wisdom in his murmured words, Edge subsided and agreed to his decision. In the back of her mind, she was already planning on ways to make his return even better. The couple spent another hour out under the stars before retiring for the night. They had to prepare for an early and event-filled day tomorrow and wanted to get as much rest as possible.

0521 Hours. Sand Island Air Force Base. Next Day.

Everything was quiet. The guards on duty were preparing for their last rounds and looking forward to hitting the messhall and grabbing an early breakfast before retiring to their quarters to get their sleep. Once they went off duty, any problems that happened were no longer any worry of theirs unless the temporary base commander wanted to be a pimple on the abscess. And from what they could gather from their colleagues, this colonel was a good man to work for.

Over in one of the maintenance hangers, some of Pops mechanics were finishing up the last critical repairs on the visiting aircraft. The Tiger had gotten a replacement vertical stabilizer while the visiting Tomcat had both of its engines swapped out for new ones. Pops had taken one look at the state the old engines were in and shook his head in appreciation. Whoever had worked on the engines at Area 88 to keep this aircraft flying knew his shit, but as with all things, it was time to replace the old engines with a fresh pair right out of overhaul. Rumrunner had borrowed Pops' Greyhound and made an extreme late night run up to Heierlark to grab the new set while the mechanics at Sand Island took out the old pair. At the moment, the techs were finishing up the last of the installation work and were buttoning up the open panels that had facilitated the engine swap. They were exhausted after working though the night but they wanted to hear this Cat purr with its new heart. For them that would be a good enough reward.

Out on the flightline, a pair of aircraft sat and waited for their pilots to strap in. Edge glanced at her husband as she finished up some pre-flight checks on her Rhino. She did a double take when she realized that Blaze was wearing the flightsuit issued to him by his F-20 Instructor on the day Blaze qualified in the Tigershark. It was called a party suit because it was the custom-tailored flashier, yet functional, flightsuit worn by a pilot specifically to attend a squadron or wing party. Party suits came in a variety of colors that depend more or less on the squadron's colors. A friend of Edge's from flight school had joined the Two Hundred and Fifteenth Tactical Fighter Squadron based out of McNealy Air Force Base. The 215th was nicknamed the 'Ice Dragon' Squadron. The Ice Dragon Squadron party suits were a vivid blue with a white trim that looked like icicles. In addition, the fabric looked shiny as if it was an actual dragon scale.

Both Edge and Blaze had several party suits, however their favorite party suits were their Razgriz suits. The Razgriz party suits were a stark black with grey trim. The Razgriz patch on their left shoulder was done to mimic the Razgriz emblem on the vertical stabilizers of their Razgriz aircraft. At the top of the patch was a section done in dark grey with red trim and the words 'The Ghosts of Razgriz' sewn in white. The rest of the patch was done in muted variations of the colors grey and black. All in all it looked striking, especially against the all black flightsuits. The Razgriz party suits were rarely worn anywhere other than Heierlark Base. If those suits were worn away from Heierlark, they were usually complemented by the all black Razgriz flight helmets and dark face shields.

The Tigershark party suit was different because it mimicked the colors of an actual Tigershark, mottled grey and black striping that allowed the shark to blend in with its maritime environment. The only touch of color was Ian's callsign stitched in bright orange thread over his right chest slash pocket. Edge had seen that particular flightsuit only three times before. Ian had been asked to exhibit his prowess with the F-20 Tigershark at an air show a few years after the war. Kei had been scheduled to perform a Super Hornet exhibition but had bowed out because her daughter was only eighteen months old and Kei wanted to stay home. The other two times she'd seen Ian's Tigershark party suit was when her husband had given Kita a private air show on the occasion of her fifth birthday and the day of Allen's third birthday when he'd surprised everyone and performed a private air show for their son. Kei called Ian over when she was sure he was finished with is pre-flight checks.

"Blaze, why're you wearing that flightsuit?"

"Oh, I gotta see a man about some planes. Pops asked me to do a favor and pick up a fighter he'd seen at one of the boneyards around Osea. He talked to the guy running the place and made a deal. Several months later, the guy called Pops and told him that the aircraft he wanted was ready. Pops asked me to accompany him down to pick up the bird. On the way back to Heierlark, I was flying the 'hound while Pops put his purchase through its paces.", answered Blaze as he finished his pre-flight checks and gave the white silk scarf hanging from around his neck a toss to resettle it where he wanted it.

Edge mentally shook her head in amusement as she observed his actions. She hadn't seen the scarf at first because of her husband's flight suit. One night a short time after they got married, Edge and Blaze were in bed holding each other and their conversation somehow ended up on their fantasies. Edge had been surprised that ever since flight school he'd always wanted to wear a white silk scarf like his flyboy heroes from the dawn of powered flight. After hearing that quiet revelation, Kei had quietly done a search to see if she could find a scarf so Blaze could make his fantasy come true. It had taken a few years and she had been about to give up in her quest when she found the scarf at a curio shop at a local mall that was full of all kinds of aviation memorabilia. The kindly old shopkeeper who'd given her the scarf for free turned out to be an old fighter pilot from the golden days of aviation and the scarf had been his. It was her love of flying that had convinced the old pilot to part with his most precious keepsake from his youth. The only payment he wanted from Nagase was for her to bring her husband next time and that the two of them sit and tell him their flying stories. She agreed and the very next week Ian accompanied her to the small shop.

The minute, Ian stepped disinterestedly inside the small shop, Edge was treated to the sight of her husband turning into the cute little boy she knew he had been. Ian's eyes had lit up like a child a Christmas and he flittered around the store happily for several hours commenting on this piece of memorabilia or oohing and ahhing over that piece. When Ian met the store owner, the two hit it off so well that Kei thought she had been forgotten as Ian and the shopkeeper told all sorts of stories. She didn't mind though, Kei loved flying as much as her husband did.

After that fateful meeting the relationship between the two young pilots and the old barnstormer turned fighter pilot lasted until the death of the kindly gentleman a few months after their son turned a year old. At the funeral, Kei watched as Ian approached the casket to say his final goodbye to the kind hearted man. As he stood gazing at the peaceful expression on their old friends face, Kei watched her emotionally strong husband broke down and cried like a child. In the end, Kei had to help Ian make his way back to their seats in the church. At the cemetery, the aerial Valkyrie kept a close eye on her husband as he listened to the eulogy. Before the casket was closed for the final time, Ian rose from his seat and made his way to the graveside. Once there, the man known as the Razgriz Demon King got on his knees and reached into the pocket of his black suit and pulled out a folded square of pure white fabric. Edge gasped as she recognized the old yellow scarf that had led to the friendship in the first place, now carefully cleaned and once again gleaming in its brilliance like the day the old pilot first received it. Ian unfolded the scarf reverently and carefully wrapped the ancient piece of fabric around his friends' neck and let it drape the way it had been worn: arrogantly and carelessly flipped over the shoulder informing the crowd (and the world) that the deceased man about to be buried was a pilot.

After the burial, as they stood at eh headstone, Kei quietly asked her husband what he thought their friend was doing at the moment. His answer had made her chuckle.

"Hon, he's probably up in heaven right now with one hand on his stick and the other hand on the throttle terrorizing the angels with the 'devil may care' attitude common to those who preceded us into the wild blue. I can see him now, silk scarf waving in the wind, leather flight helmet on his head, goggles over his eyes, and his engine firewalled to the max for eternity. One day in the far future, we'll see him again. And he'll be waiting with a bottle of scotch and three glasses. Standing next to him will be Chopper with his usual expression of reckless indifference. And Kei, you know what? I can't wait till that day.", Ian had told her.

Ian and Kei were the last to leave the cemetery. Before they left, Ian reached back into his coat pocket and pulled out a pair of gold pilots' wings and placed them on the headstone. Next to them he placed a shot glass and filled it with the most expensive scotch he could find. The final thing that her husband did before they left was put the bottle up to his mouth and take a long draught before passing it to her. She did the same and together the first couple of aviation kneeled down in front of the stone and placed the half-full bottle in front of the name plate. On her knees and not carrying that her dress was getting dirty, Edge kissed the granite in her own private goodbye. Hand in hand Ian and Kei Thomas left the final resting place of a great pilot who lived a good life.

Later that night they got completely shit-faced on shots of scotch at their favorite bar. Two days later, Ian received a package in the mail.

It was an old white silk scarf.

Now sitting in the cockpit of her Super Hornet, Edge saw her own addition to the scarf as it fluttered in the breeze. On one end of Blaze's link to pilots past, was a smudge of red. One slow day during her first pregnancy, She'd found the scarf and-on a whim-covered her full lips with red lipstick and giddily kissed the silk. The next morning, when she woke up, the scarf had been wrapped around her neck. Underneath the print of her lips the date along with a cocky little message had been written in permanent black ink. She never questioned the writing and he'd never complained about the lipstick. Kei also knew that five more important dates were written on the scarf: her birth date, his birth date, the date of their wedding, and the days that Kita and Allen were born.

"When she's old enough, I'll have to have Kita kiss the scarf like I did. That scarf is going to be a family heirloom. A history of our love for each other.", thought Kei fondly as an old hand cranked air raid siren started its slow crescendo.

Strapped in to his fighter, Blaze glanced at his life partner. When he was sure she was watching, he reached down to the end of the scarf marked by her lips and lifted to his lips. Kissing the old imprint of fire-engine red lipstick (a color Kei never wore in public), he gave the silk a careless toss over his left shoulder. He considered the toss his way of honoring those old pilots who had gone before him. Then with a carefree wave, Blaze tripped the switch that closed his canopy. Out of the corner of his eyes, the King of Demons saw the hanger door crash open and bodies start spilling out as the pilots reacted to the siren on instinct.

Blaze started his engine and knew instinctively that his wife had fired hers up at the exact same instant. With his booted feet pressing on the brakes, watched as the groundcrew around his aircraft yanked the chocks out from in front of his landing gear and dashed out of the way. Once he was sure everyone was clear, Blaze advanced his throttles to idle and started to taxi towards the runway. When he reached the long strip of asphalt and concrete, he positioned his aircraft on the far right of the wide runway and waited for the F/A-18E Super Hornet flown by edge to pull up next to him.

Once the Hornet and the Tigershark were side by side on the runway, an unspoken message was passed between the pilots. At exact same time down to the very nanosecond, the two pilots advanced their throttles to max and released the brakes. The two fighters rocketed down the runway and lifted off. Once airborne, Blaze called the control tower and had them patch him through to the P.A. system.

"Scramble, Scramble! All aircraft scramble. Commence Dawn Patrol!"

Within five minutes of their lift off, Blaze and Edge were joined in by the rest. Once the ten aircraft were together, Blaze wiggled his wings and advanced his throttles. Behind him, Edge slid her fighter into her usual number two spot off of her husband's left wing. Next to her flew Archer and his eagle. Behind them were Bartlett and Pops in the formers Phantom, Saki Vashtarl's SEPECAT Jaguar, and Swordsman's Super Tomcat. In the last row of planes were Shin, Mickey, Kim, and Kitori (who'd just grabbed the first aircraft she saw as she came sprinting into the hanger).

In formation and matching speeds, the ten aircraft flew towards the East where the sun was just starting to come over the horizon. To Vincent Harling on the ground, the ten aircraft silhouetted against the morning sun made a spectacular picture. Aboard the Yuktobanian carrier Strizhi the crew stood at attention along side of the flight deck in their dress white uniforms. On the bridge, Prime Minister Nikanor stood out on the bridge wing of the. Beside and behind him stood his loyal aide Lieutenant Colonel NastasyaBartlett, who at the moment was dealing with her sleepy two year old daughter: Anastasia Jacqueline Bartlett.

Nikanor listened and chuckled quietly as Nastasya cooed to her daughter in a quiet voice before picking her up in her arms. Looking up towards the sky and seeing the formation, the head of Yuktobanian Intelligence scanned the ten aircraft till she saw the one she expected. Taking her daughters arm, she held it up and pointed at the airplane on the outside of the third row.

"See Anna, there goes your papa. Lets wave to him as he flies by.", the tall brown haired woman said to her little girl.

The head of the Yuktobanian laughed again as the young child started waving enthusiastically as the airplanes flew by causing the big yellow ribbon to bounce as it gleamed in the light of the rising sun. He cast his eyes upward as the matching ribbon in his aide's hair (perfectly matched in color, style, and fabric) shook slightly as she waved to the aircraft overhead.

Down on the deck, a thousand men and women came to attention and saluted the formation as it passed over the ship and continued on into the distance. When the airplanes were just specks in the sky, the captain of the ship ordered his men to stand down and return to their duties. Nikanor turned to go and watched as Nastasya started to follow.

"No, Nastasya. You and Anna stay here and watch the sky. They'll be back before you know it.", commented Nikanor in his thick accent.

"But prime minister…..", started the recon expert.

"It's okay. You are not working today. Relax for a bit. Spend time with little Anastasia. We'll be there in a matter of hours."

Nastasya started to reply the way she'd been trained but cut it short when Nikanor waved it off and stepped through the hatch. Letting the tears that were forming in her eyes start to fall; the intelligence expert leaned her head down close to her daughters and nuzzled her ferociously.

"My little Anna, your Uncle Nicky is a good man. You remember that.", murmured Nastasya as her daughter giggled and waved her hands around again.

Then muttering a quiet prayer in her native language for the safe return of her husband, Nastasya turned to the east and lifted her eyes to the sky again. She wanted to see the fighters as they came back. Untying the yellow ribbon in her hair with one hand, she held by her side and waited. When the dawn patrol returned with the Phantom leading, the spy raised her arm and waved the ribbon with a manic energy. When the pilot of the big fighter flashed his position and landing lights, Nastasya broke down and let the tears fall. Hearing a change in the sound of the engines, she quickly raised her head in alarm only to cry fresh tears as she saw the Phantom roll inverted.

As she gazed up at the upside down airplane, her sharp eyes caught the movement of the pilots' left hand. When the hand moved to the helmet in a two fingered salute, Nastasya's heart filled with an over abundance of love. Her husband was letting her know he'd seen her and was acknowledging it in his usual way. Again waving the ribbon and holding her child up to see her father, the thirty-something woman felt relieved. Her heat began to beat a little slower now that her love was returning safely but it sped up when she remembered what she had planned for her husband that night.

Anastasia Jacqueline Bartlett gazed at her mother curiously as a bright streak of red popped up on her mother's face. Her little mind couldn't figure it out so the two year old yawned in response to her mother's embarrassment.

Back at Sand Island, the arriving fighters came screaming into the break to set up for their final approach. As the first aircraft made its way towards the main runway, former President Vincent Harling watched as its landing gear was extended and the plane touched down with a gentle chirp of its tires. Five minutes after the first fighter landed (Kim Aba's Harrier) the nine remaining aircraft had landed and taxied to their respective revetments except for one.

Blaze Thomas passed the hardstands as he made his way to the refueling pad to hot fuel. Bartlett had passed the word to the younger pilot that he wanted him to land, refuel, and then take off and head for Heierlark. A groundcrew would attach his travel pod to one of the Tigershark's hardpoints.

Bringing his aircraft to a stop in the designated space, Blaze kept his engine running and watched as the fuelers mated the hose to its proper receptacle and proceeded to pump JP-5 back into his tanks. This was all done in complete radio silence to insure that the electricity generated by the communications system wouldn't cause a spark that would blow the plane and everyone in close proximity to it sky high. Once the refueling was done, Blaze taxied his Tigershark out of the revetment and headed for the active runway.

"Sand Castle Tower, Tigershark Zero One Six; requesting permission to take off.",

"Tigershark Zero One Six, you're cleared for take off, destination Ice House. Your estimated time of arrival is 2142 hours local.", came the reply.

"Let's see if I can get there before then. Any requests from Pops or Heartbreak One?"

"Wait one Blaze and I'll find out."

Blaze waited a few minutes at the end of the runway before his headphones crackled with the tower's reply.

"Blaze, Heartbreak One is preoccupied at the moment communicating with Uncle Nicky but stated that he had no requests for you at this time. Pops has a request thought. He'll tell you himself though."

"Copy that, patch him through."

There was a slight rustle as the tech passed the older man his headset. Blaze heard Pops' voice a few seconds later.

"Hey Blaze; I need you to do me a favor. Think you can do it?"

"Pops, this is me of course I can do it.", Blaze answered with a grin

"Good, I need you to exercise that new bird that came in a few months back. You remember the Raven? It's parked in the back of the maintenance shack. The crewdogs and I have been working on it and upgrading all of the systems and performing checks on the new engines I installed. I also did a major upgrade on the Terrain Avoidance Warning System. Think you can check the quality of the work?", answered Pops.

"Sure no problem Pops. Oh yeah. Delta Kilo wants you to know that he got a deal on some 'Varks and he wants me to pick 'em up and bring them back to Ice House. He also wants to know if you can upgrade all eight of them to the same specs as your Raven when you return to Ice House and get the chance."

Pops knew that he was receiving some odd looks and he had no way to explain them. The mechanical grand master appreciated the young pilot for being astute enough to know not to mention his alter ego over an unsecured channel but was curious about how Blaze knew about his purchase and asked.

"You know how Delta Kilo gets restless, grabs a ride, and just goes gallivanting all over the sky? Well he just happened to be in one of his more edgy moods and took up a -33 for a jaunt and he happened to spot your Charlie Deuce on approach to a certain place and took a GPS reading. Later he grabbed a Tornado and jetted back to the location and had a chat with the proprietor. That's how he happened to get the deal on the 'Varks."

Pops grumbled. That idiot was occasionally too smart for his own good. The old pilot was glad that his young protégé was interested in such an old warbird and wanted to fly one of his own. The man formerly known as 'Huckebein the Raven' would have preferred if Blaze had came to him first and asked.

"Blaze, you tell Delta Kilo that I said no prob. He gets the birds up there and I'll get to work on them when I return. However, you also inform your friend that next time he gets a WHUTA about some airplanes and goes behind my back, there'll be hell to pay. You got that?"

"Yeah I got it Pops. I'll pass that message on.", answered Blaze as he tired to hide the relief in his voice.

Pops glanced around the room to see if there were any other requests and spotted Edge standing by the door. Apparently she'd just entered the room. He beckoned her over with a wave and passed her the headset. Edge accepted the piece and placed it on her head. Pops read the request in her eyes and booted everyone outta the communications center. As he was leaving he gave the young woman a fatherly smile. She smiled back in thanks and directed her attention out the window at eh lone fighter sitting at the end of the runway.

"Tigershark Zero One Six, Rhino Zero Zero Seven. You owe me big time for dashing off like this. When return, I'm gonna collect on your rain check with interest. You got that!", Edge barked into the microphone.

"I copy that Zero Zero Seven. When I return I'll be more than willing to repay you for this dashing off, anything else?"

"That's affirmative Zero One Six. Just be careful and return to me.", Nagase requested quietly.

Out on the window she saw her husband flash his wingtip lights in a familiar pattern. She clicked the 'talk' button on her headset in acknowledgement then watched as the Tigershark started to accelerate down the runway as Blaze released his brakes. Fifty feet into the takeoff roll, the rear of the fighter lit up as it's pilot engaged his afterburner.

In the cockpit of his beloved T-Shark, Blaze kept an eye on his airspeed indicator. When it reached around one hundred seventy knots indicated, he pulled back on his stick and slapped his gear handle up. Deciding to perform a private airshow just for his wife, he did a low transition, flying no more than fifty feet off the runway. When he reached the end of the nine thousand foot long combination of coral, reinforced concrete, and asphalt, he yanked the stick into his belly and shoved it over to right.

In the tower and on the ground, those around the base stopped what they were doing and watched the magnificent aircraft easily pirouetted around its lateral axis until it was out of sight. Once the aircraft had disappeared, many shook their heads in awe and amazement at the expert pilot and his truly magnificent mount.

Even the visitors from Area 88 were not immune to the awe that the unassuming man brought out in those around him. Colonel Vashtarl turned to Shin Kazama and shook his head in a gesture of respect.

"Shin, I think that man was born to fly. He has a rapport with any plane he flies and yet I can feel that his connection with that particular aircraft is so strong that together they transcend the limits of man and machine. From just that little display it seems that Blaze Thomas and his Tigershark have melded and become one entity.", the Asranian Prince murmured.

Kazama could only nod in agreement. He agreed with most the prince to the utmost. For some odd reason, Shin Kazama started to fill an excitement starting to bubble up. He couldn't wait to meet Blaze Thomas in the upcoming exercise. But one there was one thing he couldn't fathom and it would bother him far into the evening.

"If Blaze is that good, then are the Razgriz even better than him? What about Razgriz Leader, the one known as The King of Demons. Could he be so good that he is unbeatable in the air?", wondered Shin as he lay in his quarters that night.

1100 Hours Sand Island Base, three weeks later.

It was a slow day at Sand Island Air Force Base. The morning sorties between Wardog and Double Echo had ended and now the pilots were going through an informal debriefing in the pilot's lounge. Swordsman was at the blackboard explaining to his fellow Tomcat pilot about their mock dogfight earlier. Edge and Kitori were in the middle of the room alternately listening to the discussion between Snow and Mickey and discussing their own flight. Much to Nagase's great delight, Kitori had chosen to pilot a Hornet. Shed' flow both the Falcon and the Hornet in back to back flights and announced that the Hornet fit her flying style better than the Falcon did.

Over in the corner, Archer was talking to Shin and Kim about different maneuvers they could pull. Archer was fighting his frustration that the young Harrier pilot had still not learned to VIFF his bird and he was trying to get Kim to understand the advantage it would give him in a dogfight. Listening to the conversation ricocheting around the room as their pilots talked about the thing they all had in common (namely a love for flying) Bartlett and Vashtarl sat around the front desk drinking coffee. They had already finished the debrief from their fight that morning and were just enjoying the camaraderie that was slowly infiltrating the group.

At that moment, the door crashed open and a young communications tech came running breathlessly into the room. The young man looked frightened and his expression was one of sheer terror with something else underlying it. Effectively ending the myriad of conversations around the room as every eye in the place focused on him, the tech tried to speak but couldn't.

"Hey, kid, spit it out. What's got you scared? You look white as a sheet.", growled Bartlett.

Before the young man could answer, Nastasya Bartlett walked in like she owned the place (although the image was ruined by the sleeping two year old child nestled comfortably in her arms).

"Jack, stop barking at the boy. He's just nervous to be reporting to you the news he has.", the former field agent stated in her accented voice.

Jack Bartlett's eyes narrowed as he glared at his wife. Noting his irritation and enjoying it all the more, Nastasya made her way over to the chair beside her husband's desk. Sitting down and arranging herself with a grace that both Nagase and Kitori wished they had, Nastasya ignored her husband until she was comfortable. Once she was she just gave Jack the mysterious smile that Genette had once commented about aboard the Kestrel.

By now the spluttering technician had gotten his breath back. Clearing his throat and again gaining everyone's attention, he looked at the three people at the desk before speaking.

"He's on final. The Demon King is on final approach."

The room was quiet for a moment before exploding into pandemonium. The Wardog squadron members glanced at each other before tearing out of the room at full speed. The Area 88'ers looked at each other in wonder before turning their attention to the front of the room at the still seated figure of Colonel Jack Bartlett. Kazama was the first to speak.

"What did he mean: 'The Demon King is here?"

Bartlett sighed and was about to answer when his wife cut him off.

"What the tech means is that it looks like the Razgriz are taking an interest in your plight.", stated Nastasya while stile smiling that mysterious smile of hers.

"What my wife means is that Razgriz Lead wants to meet you.", stated Bartlett as he cast a scowl in his wife's direction.

Nastasya responded by looking innocent and busying herself with her slowly awakening daughter. At that very moment, a sound that the Colonel Vashtarl and his people recognized as jet engines rolled over the building. Since he was closest to the window, Kim opened the blinds and looked out. What he saw astounded him and he couldn't speak for a second. Turning to face his friends, he spoke quietly but with an increasing excitement.

"A plane just landed; an all black plane with a red strip at the top of its vertical stabilizer. On the side of the stabilizer is a shield; a dark grey shield."

"What does the shield say, dammit Kim speak up!", shouted Mickey.

The teenager glared at his blonde friend before answering.

"At the top of the shield it says 'The Ghosts of Razgriz'. Underneath the shield is a number."

"What number is it?", growled Baroness Palvanoff.

"The number under the shield is the number '1'"

There was a second of shock before the lounge again exploded into another flurry of noise and the Area 88 pilots stampeded out onto the flightline. When they got there, the pilot of the mysterious plane had dismounted and was making his way in their direction. As he approached the group, the 88'ers could make out that he was wearing an all black flightsuit and helmet with the tinted face shield down obscuring his features.

Razgriz One halted as he studied the group of five in front of him. Seeing that person Blaze had mentioned to him as being in charge of the group, he took of his helmet. Secure in the fact that his face was still shielded by his black balaclava and his mirror sunglasses; he reached down and unzipped one of the pockets on his midnight black flightsuit. Extracting a black envelope with a red strip across the top, the pilot known as the King of the Razgriz Demons extended the envelope to the prince.

Saki accepted the strange envelope from the strangers' hand. Quickly glancing down at the envelope before returning his gaze to the hooded specter standing in front of him, colonel Vashtarl allowed his sunglasses covered eyes to ask a question. Receiving a short nod as an answer, he opened the envelope. Inside the pocket, was a single sheet of black paper. Elegantly rendered on the tri-folded sheet in grey and red was the Razgriz squadron shield.

Extracting the sheet and opening it, Saki Vashtarl read the four lines written within. Lifting an eyebrow in confusion he looked at the pilot. For the first time since approaching the group, Razgriz Lead spoke. When he did, everyone knew that he was speaking through some sort of device to disguise his voice.

"Grab your flight gear and follow me.", came the mechanical tone of the pilots voice as it was filtered through the voice changed sewn into his balaclava.

Saki nodded and passed the envelope and letter over to Shin Kazama. Shin took the letter and envelope and watched as his commander followed the pilot attired in all black. When they were by the mysterious conveyance that had brought the Razgriz Leader, Shin glanced down at the letter. Printed on the black sheet of paper in red script was a four line message.

"Amidst the eternal waves of time,

From the ripple of change shall the storm rise.

Out of the abyss peer the eyes of a demon,

Behold, the Razgriz, its wings of black sheath."

Wondering about the meaning of the four lines, he passed the letter to his companions before turning around to face Colonel Bartlett and his wife as they stepped up to him. Handing the letter over to the colonel, he asked what it meant.

"It means, son is that Razgriz Lead is willing to listen to what your commander has to say. Once Colonel Vashtarl makes the request he came here for, Razgriz One will take it back to his wingmen and they will discuss it before making a decision. We won't know the result of that discussion for awhile. When the Ghosts have decided, your colonel will get another message. And when that one arrives, be prepared to head up North.", replied Bartlett.

"Up North, why up North Colonel?", asked Kim Aba.

"Because The Ghosts of Razgriz are based out of Heierlark Base in Nord Osea, Pilot Aba and because they are known as the Ghost of the North Sea. However, invitation to the Lair of The Razgriz is depends on one thing and Razgriz Lead hasn't received that yet."

"What's he waiting on, Colonel Bartlett.", asked Kitori as she watched her betrothed climb into the aircraft assisted by the ground crewmen around the plane.

Bartlett glanced at his wife before answering. Shin caught the glance but chose not to comment on it at the present time.

"Razgriz Lead is waiting on the report from Major Ian 'Blaze' Thomas about your abilities in the air. Then and only then Baroness Palvanoff will we know what their answer is. Be prepared though, they may want to fly against you before they make their final decision. You'll find out from Blaze if you make it up to Heierlark."

"How will we find out?", asked Mickey Simon.

"Oh you'll know the answer to that soon enough."

Over at the aircraft, Saki Vashtarl was allowing the ground personnel to strap him in to the ejection seat. He glared at the plane captain when the young woman tightened his harness to the point where he could barely move.

"Sorry sir, Razgriz One's orders. He wants you to be secure and he wants to make sure you don't inadvertently touch the controls.", state the young woman as she prepared to scamper down the boarding ladder built into the aircraft and close his canopy.

On the other side of the aircraft, away from the eyes of the prince and his pilots, the leader of the Razgriz was quietly conversing with Swordsman, Archer, and Edge.

"There are four other aircraft like this awaiting you at the lair. Blaze has been testing this one for Pops and I 'borrowed' it to make a delivery. Edge, Blaze says he'll be waiting for you at Heierlark."

Edge nodded at the words and turned to face Snow and Grimm. Her eyes bespoke a request which they were all too gracious to provide. Snow wrapped one of his arms around Grimm's neck and pulled the younger pilot around to the other side of the plane and headed back towards the building.

"C'mon youngster, it's obvious that Edge has something she wants to ask the king that she'd rather we not be around to hear. Let's go grab a bite to eat.", came Snow's thundering bass.

Resigned to his wingman's not so gentle pull, Archer let Snow lead him away. Once the two pilots had disappeared around the other side of the aircraft, Edge spoke to the man attired in the dark flight suit.

"I know it's you under that helmet Blaze. I just want you to be careful and don't let your true identity slip to the prince.", she murmured.

"Snow and Grimm knew it as well but they played along with the subterfuge. I was worried that you might let it slip when you first heard me mention myself.", answered Blaze as he switched off his voice changer.

The husband and wife gazed intently at each other knowing that they couldn't let the secret of the Razgriz get out. Blaze replaced his black helmet on his head and took a hold of his wife's hand. Gently rubbing a gloved thumb over her knuckles, he non-verbally passed on the message that he'd be alright. Then releasing his grip on Edge's hand he reactivated his voice changer and started to climb up towards the cockpit. Once situated in his ejection seat, he returned his attention to the woman standing forlornly on the ground. Opening up a storage compartment on his side of the cockpit, he reached in and withdrew a jewelry box.

"Edge, Blaze bought this and asked me to give it to you when I got here. He misses you very much.", came the deep voice through the voice changer.

The pilot gave the box a toss and Edge caught and opened the box. He could see the delight in her eyes as she saw what lay nestled inside. Edge closed the box and stuck it in one of the leg pockets of her flightsuit. The pilot could see the words she mouthed to him as he started the engines of his aircraft.

"I love you to, Edge.", thought Blaze as he activated the intercom.

Saki Vashtarl was caught off guard when the deep voice of his pilot came over the intercom.

"Tell me your request and we'll talk about it. I'll take notes as needed."

Saki started to protest but decided against it and started to explain his request for help in fighting the new aerial threat facing his mercenaries now that the remnants of the Belkan Grabaecr and Ofnir fighter squadrons and their support personnel have started offensive activities against the Asranian Kingdom, its Royal Family, and their allies. Before he knew it, Saki had told the stranger the entire story about the two different factions vying for control of Asran.

"So, will you help us? Even if its only in advanced training for out pilots and more modern equipment?"

The black attired pilot thought for a moment before giving a non-committal answer.

"I'll pass on the information you've given me to the rest of the Razgriz and we'll discuss the topic and its varying ramifications. You know it's their decision as well as mine if we choose to support you or not."

Saki nodded as he realized that was about all of the answer he was going to get at the present time. Turning his focus inward, the Asranian prince thought about the members of his family still fighting for their lives while he was here trying to solicit help from outsiders. He thought of his cousins on the ground with the army, his eldest brother flying for the official Asranian Air Force, as well as his older sister working in the intelligence decision of headquarters. Yet time and time again Colonel Saki Vashtarl, Heir Quaternary to the Asranian Throne, found his thoughts returning to his father the king and his mother the queen.

"How are they holding up? Are they okay and safe in the main palace or have they chosen to move to one of the smaller, better defended palaces out in the far reaches of the country.", wondered Saki as he sat lost in thought next to the one man who could turn the fortunes of the Asranian Mercenary Air Force around.

Before he knew it, Saki realized that the aircraft he was flying in was on final approach to Sand Island. As the island base grew nearer, Vashtarl became aware of a high pitched buzzing sound coming from the man next to him. HE turned his head and was met by an astounding sight.

His pilot was dead asleep and the buzzing sound he'd been hearing was the sound of the man's snores.

"We're on final approach and you're asleep? What The Hell Is Wrong With You!", screeched the prince.

Razgriz Lead came awake with a snort and glanced blearily around through his helmet's tinted face shield. Seeing that everything was alright, the pilot wiggled around in his ejection seat before resettling himself comfortably just as the landing gear touched down on the runway with barely a sound.

"Everything's fine. We're back in one piece. Now can you please be quiet. I was up all night last night working on some paperwork that needed to be done. Blaze would have done the paperwork but he was busy teaching a class of fledgling Airedales. Just tell the crew chief to refuel the bird in twenty minutes.", murmured the exhausted pilot before slipping into the welcome arms of Morpheus.

Minutes later, his conveyance came to a stop in the exact same spot it had launched from a few hours earlier. Astoundingly, the engines shut down without any prompting from the dead to the world pilot. When the ground crew unlatched and opened his canopy, Colonel Saki Vashtarl set what he believed was a world record for unstrapping himself and hurriedly dismounting the airplane. Disdaining the help of the ground crewman standing on the accommodation ladder, Saki jumped from the canopy rail to the ground ten feet below. Taking one last look at the still snoozing pilot, he just shook his head and went to find the crew chief. When he did, he started to tell the chief what the pilot wanted but the old veteran just shook his head.

"The autopilot sent us a report on the fuel it would probably need to return to Heierlark when y'all were about seventy miles out. All we had to do was be here when it came in and shut down. That bird right there is one helluva plane. Whomever designed it with that system did a damn good job of making sure this kind of aircraft survived its missions and brought it's pilots back home."

Saki just shook his head in awe. His pilot had been asleep for the last seventy miles of the flight and the autopilot had handled everything! That thought totally boggled his mind. Saki snapped back to the present when he sensed that the refueling was finished. Following the fuel truck as he took of his helmet, Vashtarl cast one look back at the aircraft he'd just ridden. The crewman who'd opened his cockpit canopy had closed and secured it before dropping to the ground and scampering away from the black-painted bird. Seconds after the crewman was safely away from the craft, the engines ignited and spun up to idle speed. Seconds after they'd stabilized at high idle, the brakes released and the aircraft started to taxi out towards the runway.

As the pilot's side of the aircraft came broadside to the prince, Saki lifted an arm in a gesture of farewell but let it drop when he saw that his pilot was still sleep. Watching the bird as it gracefully moved out to the active runway and prepared for take-off, Vashtarl again shook his head and headed towards the waiting crowd by the operations building. Turning back to the runway one last time just as the engines on the plane positioned at the end of the runway ran up to full power with a roar before the afterburners ignited with an ear-splitting blast of sound, heat, and fury as fifty feet of flame and thirty thousand pounds of thrust shot out from the twin exhausts. Too an appreciative crowd the midnight black swing wing aircraft (Saki had just noticed the swing wings as he made his way towards the rest of his mercenaries), ripped down the runway and lifted off. Once airborne, the ten people below saw the wings sweep back to a fast cruise position and disappeared into the sky towards the north.

Taking the last few steps and meeting up with Colonel Bartlett, he shook his head.

"So Colonel, what do you think about the King of the Razgriz?", asked Bartlett.

"Colonel Bartlett, that pilot is good. So damn good he's insane! I hate to imagine what he's like in combat. I'm impressed with him but I'm more impressed with the plane. It flew on its own by itself, no hand at the controls for seventy miles! Then landed, taxied to its hard stand and shut down so it could be refueled. To top that off, once the refueling was finished and everyone was clear, it started it's own engines and taxied out to the runway, where it executed the most perfect lift-off I've ever seen and made its own course corrections to head it in the direction of its home base. All while the pilot was asleep and had been asleep for the past seventy miles! Hell I didn't' even know that Razgriz Lead was asleep till he started snoring while we were on final approach!! Damn, I want one of those. Is it a new kind of fighter?", stated Saki as he slipped out of his g-suit and unzipped the top part of his flightsuit and tied the sleeves around his waist.

To his amazement, the members of Wardog were trying to stifle their laughter while Bartlett had a gleaming twinkle in his eyes.

"Actually colonel, that aircraft is at least ten years older than a 'Cat.", answered Bartlett in a voice full of mirth.

"Older than a Tomcat, that's dammed impossible! No way, No Fuckin' Way!", Vashtarl exploded with pent up emotion.

He was about to go on about how the technology of the time could not have possibly come up an aircraft that can fly continue its mission and return home to its exact parking spot if either crewman became incapacitated when Pops cleared his throat.

"Colonel Vashtarl, that aircraft was designed at a time when The Osean Federation and Republic of Belka were at steps away from a full out war that could go nuclear. It was designed by Osea to fly to it's destination, drop it's payload, get out at top speed, and return home even if the pilots were killed during any part of the flight. It was also designed to do this at low-level."

"How low?"

"Hmm, personally, I've flown one at less than two hundred feet off the ground at Mach 2 through a mountain range in Belka.", answered Pops as the incredulous Area 88 pilots looked on in amazement.

"How in the hell did you do that without killing yourself and your co-pilot in the process?", asked the young Harrier pilot.

Pops gave the young man a fatherly grin before answering.

"I had my Terrain Avoidance System set to hard. I didn't have to worry about my co-pilot, he'd already died when a lucky 20mm cannon shell came screaming through the cockpit and blew his head off. To top it off, I had caught some shrapnel from an exploding missile and the aircraft was so badly damaged that all we could do when we landed was scrap it."

The five mercenaries glanced at each other uncomfortably as they imagined screaming along at tree-top level at two times the speed of sound in a damaged aircraft with a dead co-pilot beside them. Pops looked at the pilots and guessed the next question before it was even asked.

"It's called the F-111 Aardvark, Kazama. There is also an electronic warfare version called the EF-111 Raven. It's a damn good plane. Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do on Edge's Rhino."

The gathered pilots all turned and watched as the older pilot ambled his way towards the repair hanger. Edge spoke so quietly that her words were almost missed.

"That man, the more I know him. The more I want to learn about him. I admire that about him."

Snow, Bartlett, and Grimm all nodded in agreement. Bartlett turned to the five pilots standing with his people.

"You've just met the heart and soul of the Ghosts of Razgriz. Zero-Zero Section, what do you think?"

And with that question, the Knightewolfe brings to a close Chapter Two of 'The Return of the Razgriz'. To all my readers it looks as if I did it again and got carried away with the length of this chapter, for that I apologize most wholeheartedly and will try (operative word there is 'try) and reduce the length of the next chapter. Hopefully the length of this chapter doesn't discourage readers from enjoying this story. I'm enjoying writing it!

Okay, for those aviation buffs who're curious about some of the planes mentioned: Yes there is actually a fighter called the F-20 Tigershark. In fact there is only one left in the world and it's at a museum somewhere in California. The X-29, like the F-20 is a variation of the venerable F-5A and F-5E except the X-29 has a reverse swept wing. I think (but I'm not sure) that NASA has a pair of X-29's flying somewhere, I don't know. Maybe somebody can do some research on that and find out.

Now for those of you who are wondering about my favorite fighter. I'm a big fan of the now-retired Grumman F-14 Tomcat. I wish it were still flying. Oh well. I'm also a fan of the RA-5C Vigilante (those of you who've read 'Sylvia's Solitary Soldier' probably figured that out when Chapter 3 was posted). Other fighters that I love are the F-8E Crusader and the F-20 Tigershark.

To all those who are still reading this story despite the lengthy chapters, I thank you very much and I appreciate your interest. It's readers like you that keep me writing. As long as there are readers, there will be writers.

Updates on my other stories:

'Sylvia's Solitary Soldier' Chapter 5 is coming along pretty well even though I've been basically working on this story for the past few week. .'S.S.S.' Chapter 4 is finished and will be posted soon.

'Agents and Operatives' Chapter 2 for you 'Totally Spies' fans is rapidly nearing completion and should be posted within the coming weeks. I got to finish the chapter and do some scene editing before it's ready for you wonderful readers.

'Kim Possible: the Taking of Shego' chapter one, is still being worked on. However since I later plan a KPxTS crossover once 'Totally Spies: Agents and Operatives' and 'KP: TToS' are further along, I have to develop the storyline a bit and find a way to introduce the unstoppable Ron Stoppable to the Foxfire Trio. Quick question, what kind of car do you think I should have Ron drive later on I the story? I'd leaning towards a Subaru WRX but I'm also thinking about a Mazda Protégé MP3 among others. Let me know what you think and I'll choose from your submissions.

'Robotech: Child of Khyron' is still being working on when I get the time. I've worked my way into a tricky plot hole I'm trying to work my way out of. When I get that little problem worked out, I'm gonna ask (actually beg) a pre-reader to do a little embellishing of the relationship between Dana and Kieran in her own special way. She's extraordinarily good at that. I just got to get some of my previous chapter to her so she can get caught up again. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my flagship story.

'Setsuna's Sun Prince' is back on track after the little mishap where I lost some of what I'd already written due to some unexplained computer glitch. Oh well C'est la vie, stuff happens. I'll just cut what had been originally added to Chapter 8 and rewrite the end so I can go ahead and get Chapter 9 flowing smoothly. I'm waaay behind on that one as it is. One thing I can spill about 'SSP Chap. 9' right now is that in that Chap, Taki will be singing. Stay tuned for parts of that make appearances in my updates.

My Captain Tyler, WCP, and NGE stories are temporarily on the back burner. I gotta go back and reread some of my previous stuff for Tyler, WCP, and NGE but soon they'll start being updated. Keep an eye out. You never know, I might sneak one up on ya'll. J

'A Day in the Life of the Sun King' is proceeding smoothly. No major problems and just some inconsequential things I can change as I go along. I'm trying to get all of the main scouts introduced and I'm still debating whether or not the Sailor Stars will make an appearance. (As it is they might make just a cameo since I haven't seen the complete Sailor Moon Sailor Stars episodes).

That's all for now and I hope to be updating again soon. Y'all keep on reading and enjoying and I'll keep on writing and enjoying. Reviews are welcome but not necessary. Flames get tossed in the circular file.

The Knightewolfe is off and running.

Knightewolfe's Lair

2/07