10/27/16: It took me over a month to come up with a very good air battle scene.
I'm still alive and I'm ready for the air battle over New Orleans, Skyworld!
Enjoy!
Birds chirped through the open window as Robin groaned softly and turned over, leaving his legs to stay static sideways while the thick blanket adorned his damaged back, the constant stings persuading his body to stay asleep until his personal alarm clock arrived with a worried greeting.
This time either the princess or the hom always welcomed him with a hearteous smile and asked the morning question of "How do you feel?" or "Doing okay?"
Robin decided to stay awake, his mind felt utterly tired to the point of his storytelling last night while his brown almond eyes managed to energetically glance for the window as if he had struck up a brilliant escape plan.
Frowning at the sight of a cool breeze that swept in, Robin focused on the fact that there was something present in this room.
His ears practically picked up the sound of "chirp" and immediately knew it was a bird that had flown in the window by accident, whether it's navigation through Colony 9 was messed up while following it's flock that headed north towards Mt. Valak.
It was indeed a bird but a rare european robin, the feathers bearing the same color as the shade of his eyes.
Almond brown.
And today was the third time in his life that he was going to idiotically converse with a winged creature.
"Hey there little fella." a soft comforting tone brought the bird to focus it's curious gaze on him, tilting it's head multiple times before hopping towards the bed post and finally landed on the hill of his knee, claws gripping the cloth of the blanket.
Robin felt his courage muster up and slowly held out a hand, allowing the bird to hop on his wide open palm. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you."
The bird flicked it's tail as if it understood word by word. It's tiny talons gripped his skin as it chirped and kept on tilting it's head, wanting to know more.
"We're both named Robin, you know that. We're known to be birds of freedom, and today I'm going to fly like you towards freedom." the tactician held the bird carefully with both hands before throwing his hands towards the window, the bird flying free with distant chirps left behind.
After a few seconds of studying the clear blue sky of Bionis, Robin gave up with a sigh and laid back down, palms open on either side of his static body.
One glance towards the right palm, and he dared not the fell dragon has returned by printing the Mark of Grima on his palm again.
But instead it was rather strange his feathered visitor left him an unknown symbol on his palm.
The lines weren't red but indeed scratchy looking as if someone took his palm by force and traced the thin lines with a sewing needle, constant stings that followed after.
It appeared to be an upside down arrow, very similar to the one on the cover of his Thoron tome except opposite along with three lines that equally curved around the arrow as if it was shaped into an alerting target.
With his eyebrow raised in confusion, Robin sighed and decided to let go of the fact that the symbol corhently even exists. Probably it could be another message from Naga perhaps... or God as Shulk and Lucina have mentioned last night during thier prayer before dinner.
Switching positions with difficulty, Robin relaxed until he heard the door whip open, allowing Lucina to enter in with a concerned smile, "Hey Rob. Did you sleep well?"
Nodding in glee, Robin tried his best to hold it in but the deep drag of Elwind through the blanket caught the female's attention smiling in concern.
"Good boy." she half-heartedly chuckled while pinching his embarrassed cheek. She sat down and ran her hand through his snow white hair, the laugh brought him to explain his condition, "I'm fine Lucy. You don't have to do that, really."
"Better say than never do. I can read your expression. You can't wait to finally go back home." Lucina shook her head with laughter, standing up to prepare herself to move her paraplegic friend from bed to chair.
Robin stretched his arms before his mind kicked in with a command to stand up on his feet like he usually did but to no avail it brought him to stand successfully on his two feet. "I'm just glad that my journey is well over with. It's been long since I saw Cia and Douche. Man, I can't wait to see their joyful reactions once we arrive in Virginia Beach. It's gonna be memorable flight back home."
"We all feel the same way. Don't worry. My father's hypnotized with another grand opening of Nordsee under the ownership of his steel company in Wikon, Hoshido. So I say there's really nothing he or the other shepherds can do about your crimes. Let's pretend it was a one time thing, and it is." Winking, Lucina placed him neatly in his chair before beckoning their tactician to follow her towards the living room, where Shulk was all set with the schedule of take off, seated on the couch while browsing Smashbook on his Galaxy Alpha.
The squeaks of the wheels that halted beside the coffee table brought the hom's attention alive, a smile brought him standing up, "Your dream has come true my friend."
Hugs and that was all Robin needed for several tears to joyfully escape his eyes. "Seriously, we're not traveling to Smash Island again. Though the February 2016 mix to Ravenation sounded well worth it."
"Slowly digging into it, glad to hear that bud." Shulk hastily opened the fridges to take out the tupperwares Lucy packed last night for thier mid-day lunch during their flight.
"Did you get the wings for our cars ready?" Lucina asked in a hurry as she slung her lake blue Fjallraven Kanken Mini backpack around her shoulder and patiently waited by the entrance door.
"Sure did." Shulk replied while grabbing a few Capri-Suns off of the counter. Hence the drinks to be mascoted by the Hot Topic Krew and the rivaling Yoshi & Company, Robin found it strange for the leader of the MMMB to drinking that.
The tactician shrugged and grabbed his satchel, wheeling towards the door and into the driveway where three winged cars stood in a row, ready for take off.
"Excited?" Shulk glanced towards Robin who frowned at the sight of the travel roof box now left beside the frame of the garage entrance, "Why in Naga would you get rid of my travel box?"
"Don't worry, it's empty. Seeing that Ether brought me a message of an air battle over Skyworld told me that I should make your Touran lighter and durable for battle."
"Forget Ether." Robin snorted in annoyance, "A bird already left the message on my palm."
He held it out for Shulk to see.
The hom held his breath as he backed away in awe, "Dude, I can't believe a bird would leave that behind. No wonder you met your kind with the same name."
"Yup, and this time I'm not falling for AJRA's tricks to bring me back." Robin hugged him protectively around his waist, "Sorry if I'm saying this again but I couldn't have really done this without you guys saving me from hell."
"Hey as long as were together, it's alright." Shulk smiled while he kneeled down to level his gaze with the tactician, "Besides, I left you a surprise back at the mansion. I know you're excited."
Robin nodded in agreement as they both faced Lucina walking towards them, "We all set to fly to freedom?"
Shulk snickered. "Hey don't ask me. Ask our tactician here who went missing for 6 months straight."
"At least we can visit Bionis sometime. I really want to explore Mt. Valak." Lucina sighed dreamily as she closed the rear trunk to her CRV, watching Shulk carefully set Robin in the driver's seat of the Touran before folding up the chair and hooking it secured to the floorboard.
"There's always gonna be a chance, Luce, and hope never dies out." Shulk smiled as he entered into his Ibiza, toggling with the PA system until Robin's question echoed around the car out of curiosity, "Shulk, you never told me how to fly this thing."
The hom laughed half heartedly and shook his head to re-assure him, "It's real easy. No worries. Joystick to steer that polar bear of yours. A button fires all the baddies while the B button halts the car mid-air. Z button horns us to alert our enemies and the LR buttons barrel roll. Follow me right there?"
Robin nodded, feeling confident that he understood every detail of the functionality of piloting a Hydroplane with an odd steering device.
"Goodbye Bionis. May we see you in a few years." Shulk whispered in farewell as all 3 cars took off with speed from Adlerstrasse.
Blue and white.
The scenic clear sky of the sea surfaced the carpet of blue as Robin relaxed back in his seat, watching episodes of Chaotic on his I-Ocean X-7 while heaping himself with spoonfuls of the leftover beans Lucy packed for him yesterday night.
Chewing in thought, he glanced over towards his left where he saw Shulk rocking out to one of the Visual-K CDs he safely kept out of sight from Reyn while the Ibiza on Auto Pilot tried it's best to keep at the same level as his Touran, the CRV showing no unstable signs of turbulence as Lucina was busy reading a chapter from the Bible (or the poisoned book as her father likes to name it.)
A stray sigh echoed in both Touran and CRV as Shulk sighed in boredom and blinked his eyes tiredly, "How much longer? I can't wait to go back to the mansion and meet up with the rest of the cast."
"Relax Shulk." Robin chuckled while he paused the episode and took a refreshing gulp from his water bottle.
A facepalm startled both males in surprise and fear as they both leaned in on the com and found out that it was a slightly pissed off Lucina.
"Ugh, why didn't we ever think of using the Outrealm Gate in the first place?" arms crossed, the Owl lover patiently waited for a reply from either one of them.
"Didn't you tell us one time that it leads us back to the Old Generation?" Shulk wondered in confusion while placing on his thinking meme, "I'm pretty sure the exact date that happened before the time of Schism was 17...75 AG."
"After Grima. Correct." Lucina nodded in laughter before adding, "It's strange to see that almost every business in AJRA including my father's steel company has AG at the end."
"I wonder why." sighed Robin as he exited out of Youtube on his phone and lobbed the device laying erect on the center console.
Before anyone could explain the term "AG", both Shulk and Robin felt something strange tingle down both of thier backs in fear.
It was almost as if an invisible force arrived but showed no signs of an stray airliner present in the sky. However, everybody in the AweSomE cast had to thank Shulk for the radars included in the Hydroplane Dashboard. It was considered a blessing to them to see if Team Aquila arrived or not, seeing that they left too early before the cast did.
The coordinates on the radar that urgently beeped repetitively brought all three of them to bring out a concerned face and voice of worry.
"Whatever it is, let it pass by us. We're not gonna fight it and waste our fuel." Lucina sighed dejectedly as she waited for Shulk's response.
"Relax, Luce. Choppers are slow so there's no way it can out run our Hydroplane speed." Shulk chuckled with a grin as he leaned back in comfort and closed his eyes to relax.
Robin, however, was picky on this situation and completely wished he had Ether so that he could foresight the strange heli before it reached them.
The AweSomE cast have pretty much seen helicopters hovering over Neptune Beach and other places in Virginia. They varied from different spastic colors such as red for emergency, green for patrol, and navy blue and white for police.
But today was a different story for them and it was following them hot on their tail.
"As much as I despise someone spying on me like those Plegian bandits, Lucina's right. Just let it pass by us." Robin sighed in heavy concern as he glanced back to see the chopper following the Touran.
Why did the pilot favour his car over the Ibiza and CRV?
"Are you sure?" Shulk awoke to the worried reply and experimented his Ibiza to tilt to the left, hovering 3 ft over to right of the minivan.
Lucina maneuvered her CRV in the opposite direction as Shulk, still the chopper was hot on the Touran. "There's no way this could be happening."
Robin tried to change route and dive down beneath the clouds, then re-surface. The chopper imitated the movement, not so quick and agile as all three of the winged cars.
"Robin, just let it pass!" Lucina alerted him, the tactician felt urged to fight it.
"Fine, he's free to leave us alone." Robin muttered as they slowed down across the orange clouds, the chopper sped by them in ease.
"What was his problem anyway?" Shulk quired in confusion as he paused the Visual-K songs on low volume and sat up in concern.
"Perhaps some usual heli from Skyworld." Robin wildly guessed as he glanced back one more time to see if it returned or not.
"But guys, were already over New Orleans, Skyworld." Lucina pointed out, the map on her Nav screen synched in and popped up on the other nav screens in the other two cars. "We took off from Bionis about two hours ago. Wasn't it worth it for the Outrealm gate in the first place?"
"How about we lead the heli to the Outrealm gate so that way we don't have to bother about who's following us." Shulk pointed out, listening into the tactician's snickers towards the hom's genius plan.
"Helicopters in the Old Genearation!? Dude, everybody would mistake that for a Wyvern, Griffin, or a Pegasus!" Robin held in the rest of his laughs as it died down.
Shulk and Lucina squinted thier eyes to see a dot heading thier way.
Since the heli passed by them with ease, there was no absolute explanation on how it could have come back speeding towards them in firey rage.
"Supposedly, he was to land somewhere in a secret military base in Skyworld. I wonder how he came back all of a sudden?" Shulk inquired as he studied the radar, the beeps growing red in alert.
"If the news on my crimes spread like wildfire, I'm afraid he spotted me out as an escaping threat." Robin held his breath as all three cars hovered in the sky, three F-18 jets circled around them viciously like a hawk.
"I guess that's the end of your journey, Rob." Lucina added while she tapped the steering wheel as if anxious for an appointment.
"Great! You involved us too!" Shulk exhaled in frustration as he glared at the Touran, Robin returning the look of doubt.
"Fine then! If you guys never came to rescue me then I'd be stuck in that rat hole for years! Don't inflict the blame on me, Donkey Boy! This would have never happened if you already saved me during your retarded EDM event! I was locked behind bars since you tried to lure me to your stage location! I would have never met Gaius if I was already rescued by then!" Robin ranted back, crossly steamed towards the alarming situation.
Shulk kept his words but instead continued to hold his pickering gaze on the tactitcan.
The heli hovered forward towards the three halted cars floating over the sun striking clouds, a visible horizon just ahead.
"We request you to give up your friend in the middle for he is an important icon to AJRA."
The way the pilot was talking, was he a Grimleal too?
Robin couldn't believe it what he was hearing now. Important icon. To AJRA. The country. But it well said and posed as an illusion to sacrifice the tactician to the invisible dragon.
"Why would we do anything for you bloody wankers!" Shulk verbally fought back, holding in his fired up urge to start the airbattle.
"Shulk." Lucina whispered to calm him down from the dark threat that colored the clouds from rose orange to a deep purple color with tongues of lightning flicking from the foggy surface, the dramatic effect of the worst to happen.
"He carries the vessel of his ungraceful acts as a successor to the great Divine being." the pilot's voice laced with venom as the heli glared at the cars.
Divine being? Robin thought in fear and worry. This had to be a surreal dream right now! There was no way this could happen to him considering 6 months of wading around the rathole in loneliness, starvation, and fleeing from his enemies flashing blue.
"Robin, whatever you do, don't listen to it. Stay calm. I have a plan." Lucina assured as she played with the Flaps and Aileron on the wings of her CRV, the Grimleal pilot noticing her actions of preparation to escape the whole wicked confrontation.
"Your friends wish to follow your path, I see." the pilot smirked darkly, his face hidden from the hood of his cloak. "However, that's not going to happen until the vessel has submitted his succeeding acts to the invisible one."
"What invisible one? You polytheistic jerks! You want Robin back just to spread his acts across Future Europe and the rest of Mira! I refuse to follow you guys back home! We came, we rescued, we saw the downfall of AJRA. Now you want to bring it back up because of him!" Shulk spat back as his Ibiza shook after a dangerous blast from one of the F-18 jets.
"Bark all you want my precious puppy. You'll make a good mutt for our divine leader. I suggest you to replenish your acts to a monotheistic being and come follow our Divine ways of life, joy and everlasting peace."
"Forget it! Your peace only brings destruction to your own country!" Lucina countered in defense, urged to take out her Parallel Falchion in battle on roof.
"My, your friends do have a good taste of protection over their lovely vessel. What are you going to do to escape me this time? Run all you like my precious ants, you'll never escape fate and our presence of Light." The pilot hissed, his voice as calm and venomized as ever, "My guards circle around you like vultures, feasting on their prey and waiting for the moment to strike you guys down. Or go ahead and dive down beneath the clouds. Disappear like our fallen soldiers of Time and Darkness. Indulge your robotic Pegasi and Griffins in fizzing storms of a thousand jolts. Pick your only choice in life, my dear vessel. Will it be freedom or torture?"
Freedom or Torture? Robin replayed the strong statement in his mind as he braced himself switching to the bird's message that it left behind marked on his palm.
"Robin, please. Whatever you do, don't go for his plans." Lucina pleaded as Shulk kept his confidence strong towards these dirty Plegian hogs.
"Be alert like a snake, strike before they make a move." the hom whispered cautiously though the intercom, Robin started to sweat in confusion and heavy panting.
Raising the message on his palm in view, he screwed his eyes shut before gritting his teeth and whining in pain.
"Hurry, my sweet vessel. The time is ticking to the end of your final decision." the pilot darky smirked as he signaled the F-18 jets to close in on them. "Bring them down, my humble servants."
"Not on my watch!" a familiar voice echoed through the intercom of the three valiant cars as a familiar blue and white 757 flew in towards the scene.
Shulk recognized the voice of freedom, justice, and liberty as he sat up and exclaimed with a gasp, "Team Aquila!?"
"We thought we lost you overseas, sonny. Unfortunately, we have backup at your service!" Agent Trump chuckled in laughter as his Opel Astra, followed by a Skoda Octavia and a Chevy Cruze, came speeding from the Trump plane towards them.
"What?" the pilot hooted in disgrace, finding it blasphemous for more help to arrive.
"Dammit, Trump! I thought we were heading home!" Jeb snapped in disappointment as he crouched down in search of Geroge the turtle.
"I'm here for any battle for Solaris and Delyra!" Rubio held up Creventis as if he just slayed Garuga on board the flight.
"The Zodiac Killer always has chances, even with the power of it's Celestial Strike." Ted smirked as they neared the scene of trouble.
"On my mark guys. Three.-" Robin pulled back the steering wheel to make the Aileron flaps on the wings rise upwards.
"Two." Lucina copied as the jets continued to circle around them.
"One." Shulk finished as all three cars dived down in speed, the jets disbanded their circling and locked on them where ever they flew.
6 Hydroplanes (including Super Clinton going solo while a grumpy Kitty Sanders and the rest watched from the window of the Trump plane) against Three F-18 jets that belonged to the AJRAnian airforce began to move like a heated dogfight over the sunset of New Orleans, Skyworld.
"Hey, stop blocking my view, ya crooked puppy!" Ted exclaimed all of a sudden as his radar brought up the third F-18 following him.
Hillary kneeled down on the hood, her lavender cape billowing in the wind as she mouthed an important command.
"What?" The Zodiac seer quired in confusion, Clinton rolled her eyes with a sigh and signaled him to come up on the roof of his Cruze.
"No wonder you're hard to read sometimes." Ted muttered as he set his car on Auto-pilot and joined the puppy on deck.
"Grab your celestial staff Trusted and I want you to aim random shots of Libra while I guide the lightning bolts with my telekinesis powers towards those jets!"
"Right on." Cruz nodded as he swung his staff in different directions, the fast bolts of Libra evetually changed course towards the second fighter Jet. The odd outcome of barrel rolling into the clouds caused the Libra bolt to strike the Octavia instead.
"Teddy!" Marco yelped in distress as he dodged the on coming plasma blasts coming his way. "Watch where you're aiming next time!"
"Hey, it's puppy's fault for not letting me fight solo!" Ted argued back with pure sincerity.
"We work as a team remember!?" Clinton reminded him with a smirk as Ted muttered in disappointment and dived down to follow the second jet.
The first jet was engaged into battle against the Ibiza and the CRV as Shulk and Lucina teamed up on taking it down together.
"Lucy, let's do what they did earlier." Shulk ordered as he started turning wide into a circle, attempting to catch the jet dizzy from following him.
"Gotcha." Lucina nodded as she maneuvered the CRV into the circle opposite from the Ibiza.
The first jet however got took in extremely tight turns, the elevation of flight to the engines failed to move the craft into a straight path.
"Boomerang our weapons to his final death." Shulk commanded as Monado and Parallel Falchion crossed each other in a beauty of an explosion.
The breathtaking blast caught Lucina to catch the Monado in it's deactivated state while Shulk caught the Falchion glowing red due to the weapons held in the wrong hands of the owners.
"One down, two more to go!" Shulk exclaimed as he followed the rest of the Hydroplane cars against the jets.
"Dragon Nova!" Trump yelled as the green arrow sped towards the first Jet, catching the fins upon impact. The fuselage dived down in smoking farewell as the Astra's windshield held a nervous pilot.
"Hey sonny, say your last words to mommy before you skydive to hell." Agent Trump smiled as he activated the windshield wipers, the strong iron blades managed to push the pilot off of his hood. A distant scream echoed behind in the sky as Trump shrugged. "Not my crime."
The third jet was hot on the Octavia as Rubio and Hillary switched places, the dracoknight preparing his final move.
"Remember the dragon of divine flames and Solaris will return the power of the Wayward Dawn!" Creventis began flaming green as Marco jumped from the wings to his Octavia and bravely slashed through the fuselage of the F-18.
Feeling rush of hot air and flames tingle his cheeks, Rubio shielded himself from the blazing firework as the pilot hollered in agony while releasing his parachute.
All three jets were eliminated. Only one helicopter controlled by a Grimleal faced a white Touran.
"Has the vessel made up his mind yet?" the pilot whispered with a smirk, patiently waiting for the tactician to attack Tendratudo style.
But Robin held his ground, staring at him with a hardening glare that expressed with hate and enmity towards Ylisse's biggest fell enemy.
"What's important isn't whether you can see the future or not. It's the will to make a choice and the strength to seize destiny! Our time has come. OUR DESTINY IS OUR OWN!" Robin yelled as he sped towards the heli in great revulsion, not caring of the white polar bear is shot down for good in the middle of the barren wastelands of the Arctic sky.
"Robin!" Shulk, Lucina, and Team Aquila called out in distress as they carefully watched the Touran strike skywards into space.
"How could my vessel be so foolish? Does he think that he won't live to this day if he disappears into the sky?" the pilot mused with a wicked chuckle.
"Wrong. I was born to come back for my friends! And it won't be stopped from the likes of you!" Robin smirked as the Touran dive bombed towards the whirring blades of the copter.
"Is Robin crazy!?" Lucina spluttered out in shock as Shulk held his breath.
Team Aquila watched from the windows of the Trump plane, closing themselves in awe towards the final moment of his journey and escape.
It came down to banish all Grimleals back to where they belonged.
"Checkmate!" Robin smirked as Superior Jolt sparked the helicopter in a pervulsing explosion, the Grimleal pilot unknown of sight.
"Just how much power does that tome have!?" Marco asked in awe as the Touran hovered back to the level of the rest of the cars.
"Equal to your Holy Blitz." Robin replied as Ibiza and CRV crowded around the white minivan.
"You play Knights vs Dragons?" Marco started squealing like a girl as he held up his 3DS, "Let's have a battle together when we head home!"
"Sorry, I only own it on the Lexibook. Well Gaius's Lexibook that is." Robin laughed with a start as he toggled with the wing controls to his Touran.
The A3 connection starts being unresponsive as Robin barked an urgent reminder to Shulk that one of connections to the wing are loose.
Shulk nodded as if nothing was wrong, "Relax, bud. It was a trick to get your minivan invincible from the heli impact."
"The green snow." Robin breathed the holy item Naga blessed him with.
"There's no such thing as green snow, sonny. At least in New York." Trump pointed out with a laugh.
"At least I'm happy that George is alive! No more planes in flames!" Jeb raised the turtle up high as if it was an amazing icon to Aquila.
"Good job, Team." Ben walked inbetween the aisles of the plane as he congratulated his presidential members. "You have yet helped out our friends from the party in order to defeat more of our HRE enemies. So, as a reward we'll have a-"
"Stars and Stripes Lemonade party on the battleship Trusted!" Chris Christie came out of his room with bunch of 4th of July themed cupcakes and sparklers.
The rest of the candidates seemed unamused to reply as Christie inquired in confusion, "What?"
The silence broke up when Hillary used her telekinesis powers to return a book she was reading gliding softly towards the shelf, "Anyway, it's been a hard earned day for us. Since we're heading in the same direction, I agree with Chris. Party time for me and Kitty here."
"Meow." Sanders grumpily meowed as he stayed in Hillary's arms while she re-shuffled a set of pieces on the Plan board.
"I owe you guys a great debt for helping us out." Shulk smiled as Trump approached the com.
"Hey, we couldn't let some get left behind in battle. It's for our own good to help others no matter how difficult the situation is. Besides, we together as a team."
"Ya hear that Ted? We work together as a team." Hillary exclaimed excitedly with a smile.
Ted sighed in annoyance, "Sorry, I only heard Mr. Believe Me."
"Lizard brain." Clinton muttered as she prevented Sanders from pawing at the pieces in curiosity.
"Anyhow guys, I can't thank so much for your outstanding help! It's been a wonder you guys are the second strongest Smash Bros team!" Shulk continued as he relaxed for the rest of the 8 hour flight. "What's important isn't whether you can see the future or not. It's the will to make a choice and the strength to seize destiny. Our time has come. Our destiny is our own."
Sorry for an slight ugly chapter. It took me about a month to come with a good battle scene thus here I made it. Tiny errors, but I can fix it.
Besides, can someone please explain how in the world did the Trump plane TELEPORT from chapter 10!?
I mean, they took off at the end of chapter 10, then flew a few hours PAST Skyworld, then magically as if an Outrealm gate appeared in the middle of the ocean, they come back to where they took off.
Seriously.
But anyway, my brother was playing Smash Bros for Wii U, and while he was busy beating up some Wi-fi players, my dad suggested him to:
"Turn the console off so that way everybody dies." xD
Another time after that, the screen displayed the character selection screen when my dad joked: "Look they're Ready to Fight."
Mom comes rushing in, panicked: "Where!? Where!?" xD
That was so hilarious, I died laughing.
Falco276 out! :D