The traffic officer signalled to the two planes with a wave of his arms as the pilots watched from their cockpits. Rukawa moved his jet first, the aircraft jerking at the initial movement before it ran along the runway without trouble. Sendoh joined him not long after. From afar, Hanamichi has joined Captain Akagi, Mitsui, Hikoichi, Unit commander Taoka and colonel Yumiyoka to watch the two aircrafts make a slow run down the runway before they began to rapidly pick up speed to finally lift into the sky in a smooth ascend.
The two planes flew into the air to fly side by side with grace that the colonel had to nod in appreciation.
"Good aren't they?" Mitsui grinned at commander Yumiyoka.
The lady commander sniffed, "Just give it a little time."
Mitsui stepped closer to her, his smile sly, "Wanna bet on it?"
"Nani?" the colonel stared at the scarred-face sargeant.
"Ten thousand yen would just about do it."
Up in the sky, Rukawa looked down to his left to glance at Sendoh's plane before calling through his communicator, "Are you ready?"
Before the other pilot could respond, Rukawa geared his thruster, breaking himself out of the formation and far away from Sendoh.
"Rukawa, what're you doing?" demanded Sendoh knowing that this was not how it was supposed to go.
The other pilot's voice was mocking, "Can't catch up, Sendoh?"
Sendoh growled and made chase, managing to finally end up upside down over Rukawa's plane at the next turn that awed the onlookers on the ground from the fantastic acrobatic skills the duo have performed. The two planes synchronised with each other perfectly, nearly touching tail to tail that they looked like mirrored images in the sky.
"Wow..." Hikoichi gasped before he whooped out loud, "That was great!"
----
Upside down in the air, Sendoh looked above his head from his cockpit at Rukawa's surprised expression and grinned, "Hi there."
"Shinjimae*," was Rukawa's curt reply before he let his jet drop down to break the pattern off.
"Try this," he challanged, leading Sendoh to a merry dance across the sky in hazardous patterns of waves.
(*Go to hell)
----
"Man, they're really fighting!" Hikoichi cried out, noticing the two planes flying out of control as they tried to match up with the other for speed, skill and style.
Hearing Akagi's groan, Mitsui scratched his head, "Well, we were right about that. But who knows, maybe it's a new part of their show..."
Akagi gave him a look which made the first sargeant chuckle weakly, "Then again, maybe not."
Standing wordlessly, Hanamichi watched at the sky the two dueling planes and thought, Baka. What're you guys doing?
Sendoh made another pass over Rukawa and said, "Why don't you quit now, Rukawa."
"Not on your life Sendoh," Rukawa told him coldly before pushing forward to gain up to the spikey-haired pilot, "I will be no. 1."
"You're welcome to try," Sendoh answered and Rukawa could just hear the smirk in that smooth voice. The fox-eyed pilot gritted his teeth and made a flip, coming towards Sendoh so suddenly that startled the spikey-haired pilot when he saw the wing close to his plane.
Quickly he tried to avoid any sort of collision but miscalculating the distance between his jet and Rukawa's, his right wing scratched across Rukawa's left wing, jarring the two of them in their seats. Rukawa growled when Sendoh managed to put a safe distance between them and again put forth another chase.
----
Back on the ground, Hanamichi's sharp hearing caught on an odd noise in the wind. It was the sound of metal flapping erratically against the force of the aircurrent and Hanamichi knew it did not belong to the hum of the fighter planes flying in the sky.
"That sound..."
----
Sendoh was quick to realise that Rukawa has stopped trying to outmanouver or outspeed him when he saw that the other plane was just flying forward without any change in altitude.
"Rukawa, what happened?" he asked.
"You ripped my side-flaps!" Rukawa told him and Sendoh could distinctly hear a hint of panic in his monotone voice, "K'so, it's not working!"
"What?!" exclaimed Sendoh, "You won't be able to land without it!"
"Don't you think I know that?!" growled Rukawa.
----
"Chikuso**!" swore Hanamichi running towards the hanger where he parked his bycicle but upon seeing two motorbikes in the vicinity, he hopped onto the one with a key, which was a red scooter, and gunned out to the runway nearly running over Akagi and Mitsui in the process.
"Shit! Sakuragi!" yelled Mitsui shaking his fist.
Hikoichi blinked, "Hey, isn't that my scooter?"
Suddenly an external unit technical service officer came running towards them and whispered to Captain Akagi urgently, "Excuse me, sir..."
After a moment of listening, Akagi cried out in shock, "NANI?!!"
"Hold on," Sendoh told Rukawa calmly, "I'm gonna try to help you fix this."
"Do something quick. I can't hold it," gitted Rukawa holding tightly onto the stick to keep his plane steady.
Running the engine to the max, Hanamichi finally made it across the runway and fell off the scooter when he hit the grassy area. Leaving the bike behind, he scrambled towards the gate where the fangirls were gathered with their van as they usually were gawking up at the Airbats' display. Taking off his jacket he flung it over the barbwire of the gate and climbed up easily to the other side.
Taoka looked grim, "This does not look favourable for the team's evaluation."
"And if they crash they would probably fine the unit commander," said Hikoichi innocently.
Taoka managed to looked grimmer, "That too..."
Suddenly, Colonel Yumiyoka asked, "Captain. How is their fuel?"
"Ma'am," Akagi rightened himself, "Normally we don't have any problem but their fuel is less than the normal combat manouver pilot."
Rukawa looked at his fuel indicator and cursed, "Damn it! I have to try to land!"
"Wait for help!" protested Sendoh.
Rukawa chose to ignore him and was about to push down his plane when a new voice cut into their communicator, "Rukawa! Listen to me! Level your wings!"
"Who is that?!" demanded Rukawa.
"Who else but the tensai!" crowed the redhead through the communicator. He has managed to borrow the fankids' home-made communicator to contact them (after serious threats of bodily harm if he was denied) and tune into the airways in which Rukawa and Sendoh has been using, since to go up to the command tower would be too little and too late.
"Sakuragi?" asked Sendoh in surprise, "How did you know so fast?"
"Told ya I'm the tensai," said Hanamichi smugly, "I could hear the ripped flaps from on the ground."
"Ee?! You lie!" exclaimed the spikey-haired pilot.
"I don't lie," grinned the redhead before he became serious again, "Sendoh, fly side by side with Rukawa."
After a few seconds of thought, Sendoh decided, "I don't know what you have in mind but it's better than letting Rukawa land by himself."
"He might crash," agreed Hanamichi as he watched Sendoh fly carefully beside Rukawa's plane. The fox-eyed pilot watched and listened to everything attentively while he gave it all his strength to maintain his aircraft's altitude.
"Now, you need to support Rukawa's left wing with your right wing."
Rukawa nearly lost his concentration when he thought of the implications. Sendoh took a deep breath before he nodded, "Yoshi***. I'm going to do it."
Slowly he brought his right wing up towards the underside of Rukawa's left but it was not careful enough since the the two wings collided, jarring the two planes of the impact. Sendoh and Rukawa cursed.
"Cool it," said Hanamichi, "Try again."
The officers in front of the hanger looked on anxiously, waiting to see what would happen when Hikoichi pointed out in excitement, "Hey look!"
"What the..." breathed colonel Yumiyoka and as the plane came nearer all of them could see with amazement Sendoh's fighter plane supporting Rukawa's by the wing. The jets' tires unfolded out of their confinement and everyone watched with bated breath as the two made a landing. When Rukawa and Sendoh were safely on the runway did the cheers erupt.
A few minutes later, Sendoh climbed down from his aircraft and pulled off his helmet with a relieved sigh.
"Sendoh."
Rukawa looked away for a moment before he turned back to face Sendoh to say, "I...I want to thank you."
Sendoh smiled at the sincerity but also the clear reluctance in the man's voice. He was about to say something in return when he saw over Rukawa's shoulder the redhead running towards them.
"Hey, guys!" Hanamichi called, waving to them.
"Sakuragi!" laughed Sendoh brushing past Rukawa to meet the redhead halfway. When he reached the grinning mechanic, Sendoh grabbed Hanamichi in an armlock around the redhead's neck and pulled him close to ruffle the red hair, "You were fantastic, kiddo!"
"Hey, that's Tensai to you Sendoh!" squawked the redhead trying to get out of the pilot's grip.
Rukawa watched the two stoically until the redhead looked up to give him a charming grin and a wink. The fox-eyed pilot quickly turned away, cursing to himself, Baka! Stop blushing!
In front of the hanger, colonel Yumiyoka spoke, "I see a lot of problems here..."
"But ma'am-" began Akagi.
"But," cut in Yumiyoka, "They've got talent. Continue your training until further notice."
Akagi smiled, "Yes ma'am."
"Yes?" she asked turning around.
Mitsui held out his hand, "Ten thousand yen?"
(**Damn it!
----
----
----
(***Alright)
----
~~~~
The spikey-haired officer combed back his hair and turned towards the fox-eyed man, ready for any lashing but also curious at the look on the other pilot's face.
Hikoichi grinned like crazy. As the lady officer walked away, Mitsui called out, "Colonel!"
Previous I Next