A/N: Hola again! Thanks so much for all the reviews, I'm hoping we can get to at least 20 with this chapter?
Here's the first Deryn/Apocalypsia chap for you. I apologize for any grammar mistakes (Bramblepool isn't very good at that kinda stuff- no offense to her- and I tried to fix them all, but I might've missed some). Remember that this chapter is technically the secondDeryn chapter in Leviathan, so Deryn has prepared for her boyishness and is now on her way to the Service.
Hope you enjoy the chapter and pretty please review!
Disclaimer: Bramblepool and I do not own Leviathan. All rights go to Scott Westerfeld.
Copyright: We own our OC's.
The London omnibuses were much fancier than those back in Scotland; faster, too. The one that took them to the airship field at Wormwood Scrubs was drawn by a hippoesque the breadth of two oxen across the shoulders. The huge, powerful beast had them nearing the scrubs before dawn had broken.
Deryn stared out the window, watching the movements of the treetops. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of white, hot light, so intense that it felt like Deryn's eyes had been burned into wrinkled, ashen squicks. Just as suddenly as the light came it was gone. Deryn then began to frantically rub at her eyes, hoping the complete darkness around wasn't permanent.
"What was that?" Deryn wondered aloud.
Because the darkness had finally subsided to splotches, Deryn was able to make out a lean, feline-like, figure swinging into the bus through the partly open window in front of her. As her vision cleared, Deryn realized that the figure was a girl. A girl with long, dark hair. A girl who Deryn knew.
"Apocalypsia! What in the name of everything in the universe that makes even the slightest sense are you doing here!"
A strange smile spread across her irritatingly familiar face. Hearing no answer come from the girl Deryn repeated the question.
"Ummm," said Apocalypsia unsurely. "Uhh, your mother sent me to accompany you."
Deryn heard a series of snickers rise up from the group of boys sitting on the front of the bus. She felt heat rise up to her cheeks. Stupid, barking boys.
Apocalypsia plopped down on the empty bench in front Deryn and Jaspert. Deryn could have sworn she heard the girl mutter under her breath "Suuuuuurrrrrrre. Let's go with that story..."
"So," said Deryn looking around at the surrounding bus-goers, "my mother sent you to accompany me?"
"Uhhhh yeah. Right after you left for London she sent me after you to make sure you didn't get hurt," Apocalypsia replied in a voice that sort of made it sound like she had absolutely no idea what she was saying.
"Why wouldn't she tell me?" Jaspert wondered out loud.
Apocalypsia didn't reply. She seemed too absorbed in taking in every single detail of her surroundings. Why she was acting so strangely (well more strange than usual) Deryn had no idea.
"I have Jaspert to keep me out of trouble so you really don't have to stay. You can just leave. Seriously," Deryn said hoping that Apocalypsia got her hinting to go home before Deryn went barking mad.
"No, I'll stay here." stated Apocalypsia with a sense of finality.
Deryn sighed. This single thirteen-year-old girl had been the bane of her existence for the past six months. Deryn wasn't sure why the girl irritated her so much; she just did. Now Apocalypsia just sat there acting like every other normal person just sitting on the bus. Deryn almost started laughing out loud at the thought of Apocalypsia being considered in any way normal.
The omnibus's next stop was at the Scrubs famous prison. Most of the passengers disembarked there, women carrying lunch pails and gifts for the men inside. The sight of the barred windows made Deryn's stomach churn. How much trouble would Jaspert be in if this ruse went wrong? Enough to lose his position in the Service? To send him to jail even?
It just wasn't fair, her being born a girl! She knew more about aeronautics than Da had ever been able to cram into Jaspert's attic. On top of which, she had a better head for heights than her brother.
The worst thing was, if the boffins didn't let her into the Service, she'd be spending the night in her horrible rented room (most likely with Apocalypsia, which does not improve the situation), and headed back to Scotland by tomorrow.
Her mother and the aunties were waiting there, certain that this mad scheme wouldn't work, ready to stuff her back into skirts and corsets. They had probably sent Apocalypsia to be sure that Deryn would return immediately. If that happened, there would be no more dreams of flying, no more studying, and no more swearing!
And the last of her inheritance wasted on this trip to London.
She glared at the three boys in the front of the bus, the ones that had snickered at her earlier, who were jostling each other and giggling nervously as the proving grounds grew closer, happy as a box of birds. The tallest barely came up to Deryn's shoulder. They couldn't be so much stronger, and she didn't credit that they were as brave. So why should they be allowed into the King's Service and not her?
Deryn Sharp gritted her teeth, resolving that no one would see through her disguise.
There couldn't be that much trick to it, being a stupid boy.
...
The line of recruits on the ascension field weren't impressive. Most looked barely sixteen, sent off by their families to find fortune and advancement. A few older boys were mixed in with the others, probably middies coming over from the navy.
Looking at their anxious faces, Deryn was glad to have had a father who'd taken her up in hot-air balloons. She'd seen the ground from on high plenty of times. But that didn't keep her nerves from playing up. She almost reached for Jaspert's hand until she realized how that would look.
"All right Dylan," he said quietly as they neared the desk. "Just remember what I told you."
Deryn snorted. Last night Jaspert had demonstrated how a proper boy checked his fingernails- by looking at his palm, fingers bent, whereas girls looked at the back of their hands, fingers splayed.
However, Apocalypsia was currently disproving Jaspert's statement, by walking beside Jaspert and her, inspecting her fingernails, with her palm facing up and her fingers bent. Somehow, Apocalypsia managed not too trip and fall on the tufts of grass, outcropping rocks, and rabbit holes that were barking everywhere. So apparently normal girls do not look at the backs of their hands fingers splayed (then again, Apocalypsia couldn't really be considered normal in any way, shape, or form).
"Jaspert," Deryn said. "If they ask me to do my nails, don't you think the jig's up already?"
He didn't laugh (even though Apocalypsia was doubled over laughing rather hysterically). "Just don't draw attention to yourself, right?" he said.
Deryn said nothing more, following him to the long table set up outside a white hangar tent. Three officers sat behind it, accepting letters of introduction from the recruits.
"Ah, Coxswain Sharp!" one said. He wore the uniform of a flight lieutenant, but also the curve-brimmed bowler hat of a boffin.
Jaspert saluted him smartly. "Lieutenant Cook, may I present my cousin, Dylan."
When Cook held out his hand to Deryn, she felt the moment of British pride that boffins always gave her. Here was a man who reached into the very chains of life and worked them to suit his purposes.
She gave his hand the firmest shake she could. "Nice to meet you, sir."
"Always a pleasure to meet a Sharp fellow," the boffin said, then chuckled at his own joke. "Your cousin speaks highly of your comprehension of aeronautics and aerology."
Deryn cleared her throat using the soft, low voice she'd been practicing for weeks. "My da- that is, my uncle- taught us all about ballooning."
"Ah, yes, a brave man." He shook his head. "A tragedy he isn't here to see the triumphs of living flight."
"Aye, he would have loved it, sir." Da had only gone up in hot air balloons, not hydrogen breathers like the Service used.
"Now who would this be?" The boffin asked, finally spotting Apocalypsia.
"That's Apocalypsia," Responded Jaspert. "She's an orphan that the Sharp family took in when she was a baby."
"De—I mean Dylan's mother sent me after them to keep them safe," added Apocalypsia. "I'll be heading back to Glasgow by tonight. Mrs. Sharp just wanted to make sure that Jaspert and De- Dylan wouldn't get hurt."
"Well then," the lieutenant said, seeming a squick more than slightly confused.
Jaspert gave Deryn a nudge, and she remembered the letter of recommendation. She pulled it from her jacket and offered it to flight Lieutenant Cook. He pretended to study it, which was silly because he'd written it himself as a favor to Jaspert, but even the boffins had to follow royal navy form.
"This seems to be in order." His eyes drifted up from the letter and traveled across Deryn's borrowed outfit, looking troubled by what he saw.
She stood stiffly under his gaze, wondering what had gone wrong. Was it her hair? Her voice? Had the handshake somehow gone amiss?
Seeing the panic concealed on Deryn's face, Apocalypsia began to laugh hard. Luckily for Deryn, the girl managed to just barely stifle the sound of her laughter .
"Bit spindly aren't you?" the boffin finally said.
"Aye sir. I suppose so."
His face broke into a smile. "Well, we had to fatten up your cousin too. Mr. Sharp, Please join the line!"
A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review!