1:30 people. Up at 1:30 to get this out. But to be fair I haven't updated anything in about a month so... yeah whatever. Tired as fuck right now.

Jett was pretty happy. He made a new friend yesterday, found a new place to eat, and on top of that, the furniture place got his order in early so he was able to have a bed, bureau, desk, and even a book case. He was able to furnish the other bedrooms as well with a similar arrangement before he added a large couch and coffee table to the living area as well as a few arm chairs. The rest of the kitchen would be done later but all he needed for that was a nice dining table.

He had knocked out the wall and was planning to replace the old metal doors with some nice glass doors to give his new home a rather open feel to it as well as fill in the large hole in the wall with something of his own devices if he could get it built.

No, not IF. WHEN. When is better. With his knowledge, whatever he put his mind to he could accomplish here. His materials were set to come in soon and then he could seriously get some work done; starting with those old looking planes.

He walked over to where his room was. There was a closet to his left with a bathroom to his right. Farther in on the right side of the wall was his bed and bookshelf and on the left side was his bureau and desk. At the end of the room was a window that gave a nice view out of the cliff face. He flopped down on his bed. Near the end was his TV, embedded nicely in the wall.

He smiled and grabbed the nearby remote and turned the TV on. The Entertainment Daily logo was on the screen rotating in the corner of the screen. He’d watched the show before but always on Spitfire’s TV. Now he had his own place.

But what he saw on the screen made him raise an eyebrow. So that was why Spitfire wasn’t back yet. The TV speakers blared out the sounds of the interview.

“Well, uh, Score was just an idiot and an egotistical sadist. Last time I ever take relationship advice from Soarin’,” she laughed, “But, uh, I think the reason I haven’t dated is because, I uh, I just don’t want to put myself through that kind of thing again. Muscles are NOT everything to me… As for the last thing you asked, uh, there is one person I’m looking at… Rather not say anything beyond that.”

The host smiled, “Well there you have it ladies and Gentlemen. Spitfire is officially on the prowl.”

Spitfire put her head in her hands and laughed, “Oh no, don’t say that.”

“Well whoever you are mystery guy, run!”

“You’re such a jerk, Ghost,” she giggled.

“I try. Now when we come back, more about that cheating scandal involving Prince Blueblood,” the host turned, “Always a pleasure Spitfire.”

“Thanks for having me.”

Jett cocked his head, “Wonder who that mystery guy is. Well whoever he is I’m sure he’s of sound mind and judgment. Spitfire’s nice and wouldn’t pick someone stupid or of bad character. She deserves to find someone nice.”

He turned the TV off and walked to his desk. He pulled some paper out of it and placed it down.

“Okay, let’s just see here. From the top.”

He grabbed a pencil and got to work.

***

Spitfire yawned and stepped into her room. Once she was inside and the door was closed she pulled off her heels and slipped her dress off of her body.

Oh how she loathed dresses! And heels! She couldn’t run in either of them much less fly. They were just… movement restricting. She liked her freedom a lot more than she cared about looking all prim and proper. She grabbed some clothes out of her dresser and walked into the bathroom.

She pulled her bra and panties off before changing into something more comfortable and pulling a nightshirt on over her head before exiting.

“Hey, Jett. What’d you do today?” she asked.

No response.

“Jett?”

Nothing.

“Hey Jett?”

***

Soarin’ yawned and stumbled towards his door.

“Yeah yeah, I’m coming you annoying bastard.”

“Excuse me?” Spitfire responded.

He quickly opened up the door, “Whoa, uh, sorry ‘bout that Cap.”

“Whatever,” Spitfire yawned, “Have you seen Jett?”

“Yeah,” Soarin’ yawned, “After you left to do your thing he had some stuff delivered. He was setting some kind of living place up downstairs. Guess he moved out of your place.”

Spitfire blinked, “Oh. Well, uh, thanks for telling me.”

“No problem, lover bird.”

“What was tha-”

The door slammed rather quickly.

Spitfire sighed, “Yeah.”

She yawned and walked back up to her room.

***

Starry Skies walked back into the compound. She entered the main living area and started to head off to her room as a voice stopped her.

“So what did you do all day?” Charger asked from an arm chair.

Skies turned, “Now that’s not really any of your business now is it?”

“What? I’m not allowed to wonder what one of my team mates did on her day off?”

“No you’re not. And not when it doesn’t concern you.”

“Geez, what the hell crawled up your ass?”

“Nothing. Now just leave me alone and keep your nose out of my shit.”

“Fine, whatever you say.”

She continued on to her room. Once inside she locked the door and flopped down on her bed. She smiled. Today was a good day…

A good day indeed.

***

Jett overlooked his systems one more time, just to be sure.

“Okay, since when could I do this?”

Acc appeared in front of him, crossing her arms, “If you must know, it was always there.”

“Yes but why? I mean, isn’t all of this just overkill enough?”

“Look, one of the reasons your synthetic skin can’t replicate is because it really can. It’s just really, really, really, really, really hard to do. Like you would have to lock yourself inside of a chemical 394-4KE39 container just to get the process started. But along with the fact your head has a piece of metal in it screwing some important shit up, that’s another reason why it wouldn’t work. But this, if used correctly would render everything else moot.”

“Well I’m about to abuse it. Now where did I put that metal?”

***

Spitfire yawned. She did not sleep as well as she had wished. That tired feeling stuck with her like white on rice, in a glass of milk, on a paper, held by MJ in a snowstorm.

She hated being tired. She couldn’t think or work as well as she would have liked. The only plus about it was it made her grumpier for flight training. Work’em harder, fly’em into the ground. Push their limits like never before.

She quickly got dressed and headed out of her room to the cafeteria. No one was up yet. First time for everything. She quickly grabbed some eggs and hash browns and found a table.

Funny, Jett should be up by now.

She polished off her food and downed a glass of orange juice before heading over to the hangers.

One elevator ride later and she was down in the hanger area again.

The place had changed considerably. For one, the once rocky and dirty walls were cleaner than before. The old machine shop and work area was cleaned up and most of the old machines that were still of use were shinned and cleaned; looking brand new. There were empty spots where anything broken at the time had been removed. And the area with the old planes was different as well as one of them was completely missing and taken apart- wait what?!

The overall frame of the plane was still intact but... it was different. Other than that everything was gone off of it. The metal over the wings, the individual bolts holding it together, the rudders, flaps, even the landing gear was all stripped away, all sitting in one giant pile of crap.

“You do know that there’s a stair case right?” Jett asked from behind a pile of parts and sheets of metal, “That elevator is still louder than all hell and until I fix that too, it’ll continue to be an assault on my audio processors.”

“What are you doing down here?” She asked, “And why did you take apart that plane?”

He stood up from behind the pile, a welding mask flew up from his face, “This is just a personal project I’m doing until the machines I ordered show up along with my second list of materials. In a few weeks you won’t even recognize this place.”

“So why did you feel the need to disassemble that plane again?”

“Well there’s nothing saying I can’t and the contract said to improve this place for use and it’s mine as long as the Wonderbolts can use it so… I just assumed that the planes were part of that,” He looked at the watch on his wrist, “Oh and it’s about that time.”

“What time?”

Jett walked up from behind the pile towards the back of the hanger past the machine shop towards a small container holding a strange liquid.

“What’s that?”

He reached in and removed a small cube with a small string coming out of it, “This… is something that was in one of the many books I read.”

He walked over a wall where a small cube shaped opening was carved into it and inserted the cube deep inside with the long string hanging out of it. He removed a match from his pocket and lit it before lighting the string with it. A small flame ignited and began to move down it.

“You might want to move.”

***

Soarin’ was comfortably sleeping in his bed. He loved his sleep. Something he loved almost as much as sex. Sleep was his escape, his recharge from the day’s events. Nothing could disturb his peaceful slumber without consequences.

He was late in getting up. As usual. He never set his alarm clock like any of the others and it was doing little more than collect dust on his night stand. In the cafeteria no one was wondering why he wasn’t awake yet.

Just as the rest of the team was enjoying breakfast and Soarin’ enjoying his sleep, a muffled boom followed by a light shockwave echoed through the air.

“What was that?” Fleetfoot asked.

While the shockwave had little effect to everyone else, it had a profound one on Soarin’. A large picture, not properly hung was situated above his bed. The boom and shockwave were not what woke up the Wonderbolt. No, what woke him up was a large sheet of glass landing on his head and shattering along with a heavy wooden frame.

***

“Just what do you plan on putting in there?” Spitfire asked.

Standing before them was a large perfectly cube shaped opening 50 feet by 50 feet. The edges were smoking and a small black trail led away from the edge of the newly formed opening.

“Well I was thinking about removing this entire complex from your power grid and running it on a fusion reactor. Once I get it built that is.”

“What kind of explosive did you use to do that?”

“Well, in some of those books of yours there’s some pretty crazy compounds it teaches you to make if you get the right stuff. And since I wanted an exact sized room for this I just did the conversion and made the stuff.”

“Impressive either way.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’ve got to whip these assholes into shape today again. On Saturday we have a day off so you and Soarin’ can do your thing.”

“Weren’t you the one who got me into it in the first place?”

“Oh yeah. Oh well. Don’t lose.”

“Is that an order?”

“Yes it is.”

***

Soarin’ sauntered into the cafeteria, a picture frame hanging around his neck.

“Which one of you insane FUCKS did this?!” he seethed.

Rapidfire looked turned, “Oh my…”

The entire cafeteria burst out laughing.

“Which one of you did this?!”

Fleetfoot managed to crush her laughter enough to get a response out, “Beat’s us. We didn’t do it!”

“We just heard and felt a boom,” Surprise laughed, “But whatever it was…”

“If you’re looking for where it came from it came from over there,” Rapidfire pointed towards the hangers.

Soarin’ glared toward the hangers and growled.

***

Spitfire stood sitting on one of the work counters watching the android work. Jett was reassembling the plane but with some rather distinct differences. The wings and tail were already reattached.

“So you were saying?” She asked.

“Oh, well anyway… This was after the Nazis invaded France and pretty much conquered all of Europe and it was pretty much just down to Britain as the last power left standing. Now this was before the US really got involved over there. The Battle of Britain was basically the allies’ last stand at that point. If England fell then the entire free world was done. But the British still had their air power and the Nazis knew that. They needed to gain air superiority over England. The RAF had to hold them off or have Europe fall. Now remember this is one giant air battle now that lasted from summer of 1940 to autumn.”

“Geez, and it was just several months of nonstop dog fighting?”

“Yup. Three months and three weeks. And the British had 1,963 aircraft against the Nazis 2,550. The British had two main fighters they used; The Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire.”

Spitfire grinned.

“I’ll give you a hint at which one was faster.”

The door to the hanger burst open and a very angry looking Soarin’ walked in, brandishing a picture frame.

Jett placed down the curved piece of metal in his hand, “Hello.”

“You!”

Spitfire rolled her eyes, “Soarin’ what’s your problem?”

“I woke up today to a heavy picture falling onto my head. Do you know what waking up to glass shattering on your head is like?!”

“Well unlike you, this guy actually got up early and was working. Kinda like you’re gonna be doing later when we do drills.”

“Actually I never went to sleep,” Jett spoke up.

“Just what were you doing this early in the morning that was so important it had to wake me up?!”

“Actually it’s like 9:00,” Spitfire replied.

“And I was demoing a wall out and rebuilding an airplane along with redesigning the inside of this entire hanger. Sorry if I woke you.”

Soarin’s eye twitched, “Next time you use blasting explosives. Please wait until everyone is up.”

“Well if you didn’t ignore your alarm clock this wouldn’t happen.”

Soarin’ growled before throwing the picture frame to the floor and walking out of the hanger, mumbling all the way up the stairs, “Stupid little… robot boy… blasting explosives my ass.”

Jett blinked before taking the metal plate he dropped and bending it in his hands. He examined it before again bending it further, “Perfect.”

“You’ve been bending it?”

“Yes.”

He replaced the plate on the fuselage of the plane, “Perfect. Now… where did I put that other thing?”

Spitfire just shook her head, “Well, I better get going. Soarin’s gonna have his butt kicked today and I plan on being the one doing the kicking.”

“Well, have fun.”

“Oh I will.”

***

Two Days Later.

Somewhere deep in the valley below Canterlot there was a disturbance. The valley was a very distinct place. Forests and plains, the town of Ponyville was in one of those plains, but in one of the more secluded areas, a disturbance was had.

It started as a point. A single point of light floating lightly above the ground. Then came the spark. Then a flash. Then an arc. Bolts of wild energy began to fly all over from the point. The light emanating from it became blinding. The crackling bolts of electricity singed the ground.

Then, when the noise couldn’t get any louder and the light any brighter, it happened.

Space tore itself open in a burst of energy and two figures came into existence. One hit the ground and rolled rather nicely before flopping to the ground unconscious. The other hit significantly harder, digging a crater into the ground and throwing all sorts of dirt up into the air as it hit.

Then, 20 meters away, the ground exploded…

***

Well things progressed nicely during the rest of the week. Spitfire retrained her team all day while Jett received his deliveries and did his work down in his literal man cave. As soon as he had his stuff he closed off the doors and stayed there all day.

No one had seen much of the android during the day. He only came up for food and water and even that was only so people could see him and know he was still in existence. Other than that, he stayed locked down in the hanger.

Today was Friday, a great day. But there was a slight trouble in paradise as there always is. The Wonderbolts were getting ready to do some flight training but there was a bit of traffic back up on the runway.

“SOARIN’! GET YOUR ASS IN THE AIR THIS INSTANT!” Spitfire yelled over the radio.

“Really dude, come on, you’re holding us all up,” Lightning Streak added.

“I can’t help it! The engine’s being difficult!” He replied.

Spitfire sighed. Her and her team was in the middle of trying to get some flight maneuvers that didn’t involve them actually using their wings so they could get a bit of a rest. Still, sometimes using aircraft came with some difficulty. Especially when the things weren’t maintained properly.

“Soarin’ these planes are literally the only ones of their kind in existence. These are delicate pieces of machinery that need regular maintenance,” Spitfire sighed, “Shit like this happens whenever you slack off on your chores.”

“Not my fault these things are so fucking complicated.”

“Soarin’ really. All you need to do is clean the damn thing every once in a while. Mechanics do the rest. It’s not like we’re asking you to build one from…”

A noise filled the air. Unlike the rather rackety, unorganized noise of the Wonderbolts planes, this was more regular and almost insect like.

It got louder until soon the source became of it became clear. An airplane was accelerating away from the cliff. It had straight wing planform and a two piece, bulbous shaped cockpit. Three sets of black and white stripes were on the plane, two on the wings and one on the fuselage. On the tail was the emblem of black lightning bolt in the center of a black circle.

“… scratch…” Spitfire finished.

The plane turned and buzzed the complex before turning and heading towards the city.

“W-”

“Shut up Soarin’ and just get your ass in the air.”

“Yes Ma’am. There it goes.”

A burst of collective laughter filled the channel.

***

Dane opened his eyes. A group of icons flashed across his vision. A similar three were on his left side along with a view of his body. Most of it was green with a few yellows here and there. A motion sensor screen was on the other side as well as a variety of other icons.

He turned his head. Dirt. Lots of dirt. In fact, all he felt around him was dirt. He slowly pushed himself up off the ground, a large thick layer of the stuff falling off his body with some still staying in his hair.

“Bloody fucking hell. What happened?”

He was standing in the middle of a small crater with his head just peaking over the rim. He scrambled up the side and out of the dirt hole and looked around. He was in a valley. Wide open grass plains and fields surrounded him that led to forests at the base of mountains on either side of him. A river was out in the distance. But that wasn’t the detail that got him. Resting in a crater of their own were gigantic concrete blocks at a slight angle. Various piece of buildings littered the ground around them. Some of them were just piles of debris while others were entire sections of structures. Atop the concrete barriers was an O’Brian Class Destroyer.

“Motherfucker.”

A moaning behind him got his attention. A specific bar tender was lying on her stomach on the ground.

He quickly ran over to her.

“Hey, hey Gin,” he nudged her, “You alright?”

She moaned again.

“Hey, bitch. Get up.”

“Mommy, I don’t wanna go to school…”

“WAKE UP!!!”

His face was met with a fist that tossed him back down into his crater.

“Ah, motherfucker what the fuck happened?!” came a voice atop the crater. Gin was awake. She scrambled to the edge of the crater, “Hey Dane! You alright?”

“No. You punched me in the face, you crazy bitch.”

Gin reached in and lent him her hand, “What the hell happened?”

“I have no clue,” he grabbed her hand. She let out a scream and retracted her arm.

Dane quickly climbed his way back out of the hole, “What’s wrong.”

“My arm,” she said clutching her left arm, “I think it’s broken or something.”

He did a scan, “Yup. You have a light hairpin fracture. Not too bad but I wouldn’t use that arm for a while until we figure out where we are.”

“Speaking of which. I don’t think this is the shipyard.”

“Yeah… Something’s not right. There should be an ash cloud covering everything.”

“What happened? Do you remember anything?”

Dane rubbed his head, “I don’t know really. I just remember Earth, the volcano…”

He sighed, “Jett and Spitfire…”

“Dane, stay objective. Do you remember anything else? You’re the one with the supercomputer for a brain here.”

“I, uh… I think… yes. Yeah I do. Just when we were leaving I thought I saw a light when we were in the hanger bay. I don’t remember anything after that.”

Gin looked behind the whited haired android, “Is that…?”

“From the looks of things, yeah it is.”

“Hmm, UEG Acheron.”

“How in god’s name does that even happen?”

“Beats me. I still have no fucking clue what happened or where we are.”

Dane sighed, “Well there are probably medical supplies, food, and above all shelter on that ship so let’s find a way aboard.”

“Agreed. Wherever we are, I don’t want to find out if anything hungry lives in or near these forests.”

“Yeah… yeah… Something’s off here.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Let’s just get aboard the ship. I’d rather not stay here any longer than we have to.”

***

Jett hoped out of the cockpit of his plane. Some adjustments would need to be made but that’s what happens when you bend the metal by hand. Still, he was proud of his handy work. And he only had to destroy one and a half planes to do it. And fortunately there were six of the ugly things in the hanger to begin with so he could reasonably two more of them without seriously compromising some part of the design.

And yet, this plane was a relic. Old news. Like a vintage collectable that no one really had for any other reason but to look at. The thing wasn’t even equipped with a jet engine.

The doors to the hanger burst open and Spitfire stormed down into the hanger.

“What is the meaning of that?!” she pointed at the plane.

“That? Oh the P-51? Nothing, why? I just made it out of boredom.”

She walked over to the plane, examining it in detail. She had to admit it looked sturdy enough. Who was she kidding? It was more than sturdy. Damn thing out flew the planes they had without as much as a second thought.

“You just, built that?”

“Yeah pretty much. The engines you use in your planes though suck. I had to rework everything on it just so it didn’t sound like hell every time it flew.”

“That plane is better than anything we have.”

“Figured as much. Your flight tech, judging by how fast and how maneuverable the things were resemble early 20th century stuff.”

“Well it’s not like we needed them for anything. I mean, a third of our entire nation has wings. It was only until everyone else decided they wanted to see what flying was like did we start trying to make planes.”

“I take it that it was successful?”

“No. There are literally thousands of pictures and films of people trying to use a plane with flapping wings.”

“Yeah, we tried that at first too. Then we got smart and let a pair of bicycle shop owners have at it and voilà, an airplane. Then like 60 years later we landed a man on the moon. Another 70 it was Mars.”

“What? Bullshit. It took us like 20 years just to get something with an engine on it that flew.”

“Well we’d been trying it for years but as soon as we had that down everything else came naturally. Rockets, spaceships, eventually you have fleets of star ships flying around the solar system.”

“Hmm,” Spitfire walked around the plane. She looked at it as if she were a girl with an unlimited budget on daddy’s credit card.

Suddenly she looked up, “I want one.”

“What?”

“This. This plane right here. I want one. I want you to make me one. And everyone else on the team. But I want mine first.”

“Uh… okay. But what about my other things I was working on? I was gonna start building a computer next week.”

“Well you’re plans have changed.”

Jett sighed, “The machines I ordered come in on Sunday. I could get started on Monday.”

“Perfect. And you’ll be paid extra for your services.”

“Great…”

“Oh, and the princesses want to see you.”

“Even better…”

***

Dane pulled the manual release lever and pried open the door to the medical bay. The ship was still without power but the medical bay did have its own emergency generators.

“Come on. There should be something for your arm in here somewhere,” he said.

“Great,” Gin replied walking into the darkened room.

Dane walked past all the beds into a back room. A few beeping sounds were heard followed by a loud click and the whirring of a reactor powering up. Soon lights filled the whole medical bay. Various consoles and tech of all sorts came on.

“Okay,” Dane said opening up a shelf on the wall and removing a syringe with a gray substance inside of it, “Now, let me see your arm.”

Gin held out her arm. Dane grabbed it and pulled, relocating the bone back over where it should before quickly stabbing the syringe into her arm before the bar tender could even scream.

When she did though it was loud.

“FUCK! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT YOU ASSHOLE?!”

“I reset the bone and injected the Nanites. Now don’t move it.”

“Don’t fucking do that again.”

“I needed to fix your arm and I did.”

She grabbed him by the shirt, “If you ever put me through something like that again, I’m gonna rip your head off and peal your skin like a banana.”

The android gulped, “Yes ma’am.”

“Glad we’ve come to an understanding. Now, you go get the power in this bucket back on and I’ll go find some provisions.”

“That’s not fair. I don’t need to eat.”

“Not my problem.”

“You’re a bitch.”

“Yeah? Well get used to it. It’s just us now and if we’re gonna survive we have to get our priorities straight. Now you’re the android and if anyone can get this ship working it’s you. So PLEASE just get this DONE and let’s get out of here and rejoin the others before…” she trailed off looking at the floor, suddenly despondent, “Let’s just get out of here…”

Dane nodded, “Yeah…”

He quietly walked out of the medical bay towards the engine room. The bartender quietly rubbed her arm before leaving the bay and heading towards the galley.

***

Jett again found himself in a chair. Not that he remembered it but something about this situation seemed familiar though he couldn’t quit place his proverbial finger on it.

He found himself sitting in a waiting area. Relatively unappealing it was a simple place with a few chairs and some couches with a coffee table and magazines on it. Various paintings of sorts hung on the wall.

Jett sat quietly in his chair, twiddling his thumbs. Two guards stood on either side of him but they weren’t doing a great job of hiding their discomfort. Their guns would be useless against a person who was literally bullet proof.

Jett sighed. He was bored. These two chess pieces next to him weren’t making it easier.

Hmm. Maybe he could fix that and try out one of the new tricks Acc taught him.

He went statue like, not even bothering to maintain the illusion of breathing. Then, something happened. A light abrasion appeared on his cheek. At first it was small, almost unnoticeable, and certainly not seen by the two guards. Then it began to expand; slowly but surely it grew, revealing a silvery surface underneath, occasionally a pulse of blue energy shot across the surface. Soon most of the color of the android’s face was gone leaving just a hard metallic surface. It even extended to his eyes which were now just silver orbs in his head.

Then the color left his hair as well, slowly turning silver. The rest of his body soon followed until he looked to be a silver statue sitting in a chair.

One of the guards finally took notice and looked down at the android. He let a small gasp out and broke into a cold sweat.

The other took notice and began to look uneasy. Slowly they edged away from the inhuman metal statue.

Now he could have some fun. Which one did he want to scare the most? Well the one on the right did have the mildest reaction between the two so…

He slowly turned his head to face him, ever so slowly until his gaze met his. Jett saw his nervous gaze shift to his friend behind him who slowly began to raise his weapon.

The door opened, “The Princess will see you now,” A secretary said.

Jett stood up, looking like his normal self, “Thank you.”

He walked out of the waiting room, giving the guards a funny look as he left. The next room he entered resembled a rather large library. It was multileveled place with a nice set of stairs in the center of the room leading up the second level balcony. Massive bookshelves were all over and yet the room maintained a sort of cozy feel to it. The entire ceiling was a giant domed structure with a large doorway opening on one side that had a rather large telescope peering out of it. Various lounge chairs and couches were all over. A sort of living area was set up in the center of the room with a small fire pit that burned green with a group of chairs around it.

And no one was inside of it, as far as Jett could see. He could easily find out if there was actually a person in here with the motion tracker but hey…

He quietly walked around the library. The books themselves were organized by subjects and then organized again into separate subcategories that were then organized alphabetically. He wandered over to the history section and peered at the collection.

He navigated over the early history section and removed a book titled, The God King.

He cocked his head. Interesting title. He shrugged and opened the book up and began to look at the table of contents.

“You know you can sit down if you wish,” a regal, gentle voice said.

Jett turned. A woman stood atop the staircase. She wasn’t like any woman Jett had seen before. For one she was over two meters tall, and wore an almost Romanesque style robe. A tiara sat atop her head and her hair was a rainbow array of colors and flowed almost of its own will. Her face was something almost ageless. Old beyond all years and yet still maintaining a youthful look.

Some strange energy readings were emanating from the woman but Jett decided to ignore them.

Jett closed the book and cocked his head.

“I’ve heard much about you, young one. Spitfire speaks very highly of you. You are an android, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jett responded.

“Splendid. So you kept her safe during the six weeks, which I hear was really six months, she was away?”

“From what I hear ma’am.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Ma’am, I do not remember anything before a week and a half ago. There appears to be data corruption in my systems that are preventing me from accessing them.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not like it’s your fault. I hit my head when I first crashed here.”

“Hmm.”

Jett closed the book, “I heard you had wanted to see me?”

“Yes I did. I wanted to get a feel for the person who kept my Captain safe for six months along with humiliating my entire guard in their own city.”

“Well, uh, you know about as much about me as I do at the moment so I think we’re on the same page here. As for the whole guard thing, I’m a robot. What else do you need to know?”

“For one how you avoided my entire guard and my sister’s night guard well into the night.”

“Easy. I don’t have a life signature, or give off any thermal energy unless I want to; I don’t need to move constantly, I also don’t need to breath. These are all pretty good things to have.”

“Not breathing?”

“How long can you hold your breath?”

The princess sighed with a grin, “Point taken. You know my protégé was looking to study you. She was incredibly interested in finding out what makes you tick as she put it.”

“Well I will gladly submit to questioning at a later time perhaps but not right now.”

“Fine, fine. Just contact me when you’re ready and I’ll put you in touch with her.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“So have you been adjusting well?” The Princess asked, “Spitfire hasn’t been too hard on you?”

“Yes. I’m doing fine. I took on the job of cleaning up that old beat up hanger they have at the HQ. But now she has me building some planes for her.”

“Planes?”

“Yeah. I built an old plane from where I’m from and she liked it and wants me to build some for the whole team.”

“Well it looks like you’ll have some work to keep you busy for a while,” The Princess smiled.

“Yeah, but the only problem is that I wanted to get working on some other things and really get to working on that hanger.”

“Well I’m sure it won’t be that much of an inconvenience,” The Princess laughed, “After all. If it’s something that will help me beat my sister’s team then by all means.”

Jett raised an eyebrow, “Sister’s team? Do you bet on them or something?”

“No-well yes, but not as you’re thinking. We have a wide variety of flight teams, kind of like your… uh… what was it again Spitfire had said? Football teams?”

“Yeah. But go on…”

“Right. Well only the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts, mine and Luna’s teams, are military so the rest are formed by whoever has the resources or desire to do so. So we set up a league and have competitions like races, sports games, airshows, you know. But anyway, my sister and I have a rivalry going and last year, she won the wingball tournament.”

“So…”

“So whatever help you could give Spitfire would be greatly appreciated.”

“Wouldn’t this be cheating?”

“If I recall correctly, Spitfire recruited you.”

Jett gave a small smile, “Point taken.”

***

Dane stepped into the engine room of the ship. The dim blue glow from the reactor filled the room. The android quickly ran up to a console and examined the read outs.

“Okay, type 5 shipboard fusion reactor…”

Power was off, probably for when the ship was under refit.

“Shit,” Dane sighed, “Wish Jett was here. Bastard would have this thing figured out in a flash. Fuck, at this rate I’d settle for a ‘how to’ guide.”

Instantly a series of directions appeared on his vision.

“Well I’ll be damned. Okay now… start up sequence.”

He placed his hand on the console and watched it light up. Various keys and screen readouts appeared.

“Okay, let’s see here…”

Intuition was never something that Dane had ever really used. Hell, he probably never noticed it until now but here he was letting his fingers glide over the keys without really knowing what he was doing.

He tapped the last key and instantly the room lit up. A light rumbling followed by the quiet whirring of the reactor was heard as the machine powered up.

“Okay. COMs next.”

He tapped another group of icons on the console before an audio window appeared.

“Alright. Let’s see here. Is this thing on? Yo Gin! Can you hear me?”

A rustling sound came through followed by the bartender’s voice, “See you got the reactor and COMs up. Good. Now get to the mess hall and help me here. Then we’ll head to the observation bridge.”

“Why not the command sphere?”

“There’s no windows.”

“Good point. Alright, I’m coming.”

“While you’re down there, see if you can close blast doors on all the windows and hatches. I don’t want anything getting any funny ideas.”

“Alright, let’s just see here. Oh yes here we are. This baby comes fully loaded. FTL HD Radio, fusion reactors and power windows.”

A light rumbling was heard through the ship as armored plates closed over the airlocks, hanger doors, and windows. The ship was now an armored shell.

“Where are we sleeping tonight?”

“Let’s focus on food first. Then we’ll find somewhere to lie down.”

“Alright. See you in the mess hall.”

“Yeah.”

***

Jett yawned. The meeting with the Princess went well though he really didn’t see the meaning behind it. He simply guessed that its purpose was that, because he was a newcomer and a robot at that, the rulers of this world wanted to make sure he wasn’t dangerous.

He still found the thought of a monarchy weird but he guessed it was understandable for him as all monarchs of human history were complete evil or insane or both.

Still, he made it out in time for lunch. He had stopped at the sandwich shop he had found on his last excursion before heading to the park again to finish it.

He again sat down on the bench like last time.

“I was wondering if you’d be back,” a voice said.

Jett looked up, “Oh, hey. It’s you again.”

Starry Skies again sat up in a tree branch. She smiled at the android.

“What brings you back here again?”

“Well I was out again and figured why not? Might as well get some kind of routine going.”

“Makes sense. So you’re gonna just start getting lunch and then coming here?”

“Sure I guess. I like nature.”

She grinned, “Me too. That’s why I’m here. Sometimes I just need a break from things.”

“I know that feeling,” Jett said taking a bit from his sandwich.

“Really? I highly doubt you’ve had to deal with a team of angry guys all day.”

“No, but I do have a flight captain who can be a bit demanding sometimes.”

“Wait. You’re with the Wonderbolts aren’t you?”

“Yeah. But, Spitfire’s not all bad. I mean she did give me a job so I can’t really complain.”

“Still. How much sleep do you get?”

“Uh, I don’t. I don’t have a need to so I don’t. I get more done that way.”

“Sounds like you work more than I do.”

Jett smiled, “Well I keep busy.”

“I’ll say.”

Jett sighed. A silence fell over them as Jett finished his lunch. Then Starry Skies spoke up again.

“Hey,” she said, “You wanna grab some coffee or something tomorrow morning?”

Jett pondered this for a moment. Tomorrow was Saturday and he did have something scheduled but… It could wait while he had breakfast couldn’t it? What was the worst Spitfire could do?

“Sure,” he replied, “Why not?”

***

Dane stepped into the ship’s mess hall. A large open room with rows of tables with a buffet in the back. A few smaller tables with things like napkins, straws, and silverware were scattered about the room.

“Hey Gin!”

“Yeah?!” The bartender popped up from behind the counter.

“Oh there you are. So what’s the news?” he asked walking over to her.

“Well, this thing is fully loaded with everything. All the stuff is military so… no expiration dates. At least within reason,” she said tossing him an MRE.

He looked at it, “Best if used by June 15th, 3498? Who the hell’s even going to be around that long to throw this out if it even goes bad? It has a shelf life of like a thousand years!”

“Well you will. There’s no predetermined lifespan for an android so if you are still around in the year 3498 you can tell the future people not to eat the 2413 MREs.”

Dane sighed and sat down at a table, “Is there anything else?”

“Not anything that I can get. The freezer and pantry areas are still locked and require a code to unlock them.”

“I could probably figure it out but this ship is huge and the systems are complicated as fuck. I only got the reactor going from a tutorial.”

“A tutorial? Where did that come from?”

“My head. Apparently there’s a lot of extra crap in there now.”

“Well it’s good that there’s SOMETHING occupying that empty space.”

“Yeah, yeah laugh it up. So you have any idea on where we can spend the night?”

Gin pulled out a pad from her bag, “I found a map of the ship and located the officer’s quarters. This ship was up for a crew rotation so there’s no personal stuff in any of the rooms.”

Dane looked at the pad, “Up near the Observation deck?”

“Yup. So at least we’ll get a view.”

“The windows are up, idiot.”

“Go fuck yourself with a ten foot pole.”

“Geez, someone’s on their period. Wonder if this thing’s carrying any pads.”

“Shut up Dane. And people have surgery now so sit your ass down.”

“Uh, who got the ship running again?”

“Shut up and eat your food,” she said throwing the MRE at him.

***

Spitfire was getting impatient. Jett should have been back by now. Practice was over for the day and the team was going about their own business. Still, the android should have been back by now.

Spitfire was sitting on her plane, tapping her fingers against the hull.

“Gah! What’s taking him?!”

“You know Cap,” Rapidfire said between bites of an apple, “I still have no idea why you’re stressing about this. I mean-” BITE “-it’s not like you own the guy.”

“You shut up. I’ll stress about it if I want to.”

“Still don’t know what it is with this guy. I mean, you’re worried about a guy who could probably snap me in half like a tooth pick. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Hey,” Spitfire turned, “you weren’t that time he got-”

“Hey Spitfire, hey Rapidfire,” Jett said as he walked onto the complex.

Spitfire whipped around, “And just where have you been? You were supposed to be back an hour ago.”

“Stopped for lunch,” Jett shrugged, “I got hungry.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just skimp out on your duties like that.”

“Actually, I read that contract of yours very carefully and as far as anyone’s concerned, I’m well ahead of where I should be. And me working on those planes for you is a favor.”

“You still should have been back sooner. You could have had lunch here.”

“Why can’t enjoy myself a little? Most of the time I’m just down in that hanger renovating it and hardly get any sunlight.”

“Still. You’re still new here and unfamiliar with everything.”

“Why are you so worried? It’s not like you own me or anything.”

Spitfire didn’t respond.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you all later. I’m off to philosophize on the human condition. Bye.”

With that Jett calmly walked off towards the HQ.

Rapidfire stood up, “Well this is awkward. I think I’m going to go bother the Streaks for little. Bye.”

Spitfire remained sitting on the plane. The android’s last words stung. She knew he didn’t mean them too but they did none the less. When she thought about it, she did seem a bit overbearing. A bit possessive. Why was that? Was it due towards her feelings for him? More than likely. Her society was not run by gender rules of males competing and females choosing so both often happened. She had chosen the android as her mate, to put it primitively. But why had she been so possessive? Was it the thought that he might meet someone else out there? Maybe. Back in his world, when he still had all his memories, he had been a rather angry, isolated person on the outside. No one outside his small family of people interacted with him so she had next to no competition if any. But here, where he had none of his past experiences and was not so angry or withdrawn, it was possible.

Spitfire sighed. There wasn’t really much she could do about it. What could she do? Tell him he couldn’t leave the compound and not to talk to anyone of the opposite sex, or of EITHER sex for that matter? That would be impossible.

She hopped down from her plane, “Gah, I need some coffee.”

***

Saturday.

“Welcome Wonderbolts and Support Crew to the fight- I mean friendly competition between the android and the asshole!” Spitfire said cheerily into the microphone.

“Hey!”

“I’m Spitfire but, you already knew that,” she stepped away from the microphone. Fleetfoot egged her on.

“Why’d you stop?”

“WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME DO THIS?!”

“Geez calm down. Fine, I’ll do everything while you go down there and support your boyfriend.”

“I WILL FUCKING EVEICERATE YOU!”

Fleetfoot went wide eyed, “Uh, your hand was on the button.”

Spitfire cringed, “Fuck. Uh, sorry ‘bout that people.”

They were standing in the broadcasting box that sat above the bleachers overlooking the sports field.

“Get down there. The first round is gonna start soon and it’s in boxing. No rules accept for no broken bones beyond a nose.”

“Alright.”

She bounded out of the box down to the field where… there was no android to be found.

“Fuck where is he?”

Rapidfire shrugged, “Beats me. He left for breakfast an hour ago.”

“Shit.”

“Hey guys,” a certain android walked onto the field.

“It’s about time you got here!” Rapidfire said, “We’re starting soon.”

“Where have you been?” Spitfire asked.

“Went out and got breakfast. Is there a problem?”

“No, no. Just… Just kick Soarin’s ass.”

“Is that an order?” He asked with a smirk.

“Yes,” she replied with a smile, “Yes it is.”

Fleetfoot spoke from the box, “We good?”

Spitfire gave a thumbs up.

“Alright everyone, we’re all here now and settled in?”

The Wonderbolts and support crew cheered.

“Alright everyone. Let the games begin!”

Author's Notes:

If you've seen any grammar mistakes just point that shit out in the comment section below and I'll fix that shit tomorrow or later today or whatever the fuck. I'll just say tomorrow.