“Come on Danny! You sure you don’t want to hit up the city with us?”

“Sorry guys but I promised my sister I’d be home during shore leave.”

“Really Dan?”

“Hey come on. I hardly ever get to see Cat anymore ever since my mom got her when my father got deployed.”

“Alright, alright, go see your little sister. But when you’re done, meet us in Vegas.”

“It’s a deal.”

“So did they ever figure out that problem with the rear vertical stabi-”

***

Jett opened his eyes. Or rather he thought he did. His systems merely reactivated and his HUD reset itself. Various lines of code flew past his vision before the reboot was complete.

He sat up. He was in a hospital bed. It started coming back to him. That electrical wire probably didn’t do too much for him. Needless to say it still hurt like a bitch and caused a power overload that caused a mandatory system shutdown.

He looked down at himself. His clothes were still in tatters from the fight and he found he was handcuffed to the hospital bed.

No one was in the room with him but as he examined it. It did seem more and more familiar. Yeah, this was where he’d taken Spitfire when she hit her head.

But now there were the matter of those two… whatever the fuck they were. That white haired kid was dangerous, that much was certain. As for the girl, unknown variable.

He looked at the nightstand next to his bed. A picture sat on the surface next to a lamp. Him and Spitfire with the white haired kid and the brown haired woman. Instantly he tensed up before reaching over with is other arm and knocking the picture off the nightstand.

“Semen colored fuck,” he growled.

He yanked rather effortlessly with his prosthetic and tore the handcuffs off his arm before hopping off the bed. He looked around the room. He slowly made his way to the door and looked out.

Then, in the reflection of the glass he saw him. That damn white haired kid and his friend. And Spitfire.

He reexamined the room. Just above his bed was a small window. He glanced at the door and back at the window.

***

Spitfire, Dane and Gin entered the infirmary.

Dane immediately face palmed before turning to Spitfire.

“You see? I told you we should have strapped him down but NO.”

The trio was staring at an empty hospital bed with a pair of torn handcuffs attached to it. A broken picture was on the floor. Above the hospital bed was an open window.

“How the hell was I supposed to know he would get away?” She asked.

Gin sighed, “Can we worry about that later and work on finding the bastard?”

“Fine.”

“And I still want to know how you hid your fucking wings like that for 7 months,” Dane said.

“Did I not already explain it to you?”

“Not the beach part.”

“Another time perhaps.”

***

A few hours earlier.

“Well it’s honestly a miracle that the Princesses decided not to punish the three of you in any way considering what you did,” Spitfire sighed as herself and Dane dragged a deactivated Jett Halsey towards the Wonderbolt HQ.

“Yes, well I’m still sorting out the whole wings and all the other degrees of weird native to your people or whatever the fuck you are,” Dane said.

“You know you can stop being rude you know,” She said dropping her end of the android, “I’m still the same Spitfire that’s been living with you for the past 7 months.”

“Yes well one with a lot of secrets. So you may be the same Spitfire but that is no small comfort to me or Gin considering we never knew who you were to begin with!”

“If you would let me explain you would!” she responded, “By the way, where did you send Gin?”

A loud rumbling got their attention as a series of bright lights lit up the night sky. A large metallic object sailed overhead before disappearing into the clouds with the heavy rumblings of the engines fading with it.

“That’s where I sent her. That is how we got here to a degree.”

“Oh so you did highjack that Destroyer,” Spitfire said picking up her end of the robot.

“No, we were only on it when you pulled whatever crazy magic trick you pulled to strand our asses here.”

“So why send Gin into Space with that?”

“Because I don’t need any primitive governments getting ahold of an advanced military warship that has the capacity to destroy a planet. The Admiral would certainly be turning over in his grave or at least feeling some kind of perverse inkling in the back of his head if I started mishandling that thing.”

“We’re not so primitive you know. In case you haven’t noticed we’ve been living in a period of peace that has lasted quite a while now. We have not had any major conflicts in the last thousand years.”

“Which would be a LIE,” Dane said.

“How would you know?”

“I’m a supercomputer, I can tell when you’re lying. Plus I heard the guard earlier mention some attack on this city that happened last year along with some terrorist group wrecking all sorts of havoc before it was bombed back out of existence. Needless to say: I don’t trust you.”

Spitfire sighed, “Well I’m sorry alright?”

Dane blinked.

“Listen,” she sighed, “Most of what you know about me is true.”

“Like?”

“How Jett found me in the forest that day, how we spent our first few days together, how much fun we all had, how… easy it was just to talk to him,” she gulped, “How… how much it hurt to watch him lose all those precious moments and then just start dating that… that WHORE!”

Dane reeled back, “Wait, he’s dating someone?”

Spitfire wiped her eyes, “Yes… And as much as I would like for it to be… me, it’s not. He’s interested in someone from a rival flight team and started dating her earlier this week.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I can’t decide which is worse, waking up in the morning and knowing he doesn’t remember any of it or that… he’s not mine and never was to begin with.”

“Well, uh, you can’t really blame him. He did basically get reset as a mind. No memories of anything like that. But he could easily get them back! I mean, we could fix him I suppose.”

“And what if he continues to pursue a relationship with that girl? That would hurt even more knowing he remembers everything and that I… I blew my chances with the one good guy who actually meant something.”

Dane sighed, “Have you ever considered that it may just be an attraction? Like some kind of perverted Stockholm syndrome? I mean, he was the first face you saw when you first appeared on our planet. Maybe your mind just latched onto him like that?”

“I’ve already considered that. We may look similar but my physiology is a lot different from a human’s, not including the wings. Something like that would have just gone away after a month or two and if it did happen to last longer medication would have knocked it out. Nothing works!”

“You have stuff for that here?”

“Yes we do. If you decide to stay here you’ll have to learn that our world doesn’t operate under the same rules, or at least not as you know them.”

“I think we’ll be fine if we do decide to stay,” Dane said looking up at the new star in the sky.

“Well what about Gin? She’s not anything really… special here. I mean my kind can fly cause we have wings and shit, others with those, as you called them, Gandhi diamonds, can manipulate the fuck out of things and well those without either of that are ridiculously strong.”

“Well then you don’t know Gin. She trained for years on a high gravity Gym and even took anti-atrophy supplements to lock the stuff in. She’ll fit in just fine.”

“How do you know?”

“Well for one she practically took a shit all over your royal guard so…”

Spitfire laughed, “Yeah well there is that. The three of you seem to have a knack for making a mockery out of our military.”

“Well not to be mean but our military makes yours look like a bunch of kids playing pretend.”

“That it does. Plus you three are far from regular in any sense of the word. Two military grade androids and a Sarah Connor bartender. Quite a team.”

“Someday I’ll have to fill you in how we all met.”

“For another day then.”

…

“Out of curiosity, where did your jock friend go?” Dane asked.

“Oh, I sent him to hash it out with the Princesses and to make sure Miss… Starry Skies didn’t get hurt,” she growled on the last part.

“Don’t you hate her though for… stealing your android so to speak?”

“I hate her guts don’t get me wrong. In fact nothing would give me greater pleasure that to see her run over by a truck but… for the moment she makes Jett happy so…”

“Wow, that’s rather noble of you.”

“Yeah well don’t count on it lasting too long cause I’m running a little low on Nobility at the moment.”

“Speaking of nobility, that guy who’s car we wrecked in the fight… he wasn’t too important… was he?”

Spitfire grinned, “It wasn’t like he didn’t have it coming.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean he’s a royal prick.”

“Oh, well I guess you can thank Jett and I for that one cause I crushed the front of it and he cleaved it in half with a coffee table, tore the doors off it, and then ripped it in half before it burst into flames.”

“Geez and you both did all that in a fight?”

“Well he kicked me into the car before cleaving it in half. The rest of it was just him using it as cover.”

“Oh… so is Gin going to come back down there?” Spitfire asked looking up at the new star in the sky.

“Not yet. I told her to stay up there in case things went south. But I suppose I can summon her when we reach the… wherever you get your shit done.”

“I’ll fill you in when we get there,” Spitfire sighed, “Fuck this guy is heavy.”

“Oh come on, he’s only 62 kilograms.”

“Yeah but half of him is metal.”

“Oh get over it.”

They marched through the path through the rocks, still dragging the android behind them. Soon the complex was visible. It glowed brilliantly, partly from the moon light and partly from the light it generated itself.

“Yeah,” Spitfire said, “This is where I work. I’m Captain of a flight team called the Wonderbolts.”

“How old are you exactly?” Dane asked as he looked around the area.

“18.”

“Girl we’re gonna have to lay down some ground rules if you ever plan on dating Mr. Halsey here.”

“Like?”

“We’ll discuss it later,” he said, “For now, let’s get inside before my headache gets any worse.”

They pulled the body of the android down the road toward the complex. The pair pulled him up to the door.

Spitfire dropped her leg and knocked.

A girl with white, windblown hair walked up to it and answered, “So you decided to come home after all? Did you get rid of those cigars because I am NOT letting your ass come back in here with you still smelling like tobacco. ”

“Yes Mom,” Spitfire rolled her eyes.

“And first thing tomorrow you’re seeing a doctor about those lungs. Healing Spell right away!”

“Yes Echo, can you let us in already?!” Spitfire said moving out of the way.

Fleetfoot looked down at the unconscious android, “What the fuck did you to him?”

“SHE didn’t do anything,” Dane said moving into view, “We got into a fight and- hello there.”

Fleetfoot blinked, “Uh, hello to you too. Do I know you? You look… oddly familiar.”

“I’m this guy’s brother,” Dane said bowing.

Fleetfoot perked up, “Really? Another one? Spitfire where are you finding these guys?”

“Yeah yeah, you can have him. Now would you LET US IN?!” she yelled.

“Fine. Is your new friend staying here too?” Echo asked.

“For the moment,” Dane said with a grin as they pulled Jett into the complex. They pulled him towards the living area as Fleetfoot closed the door.

“So…” Dane whispered, “Your friend… is she single?”

“You’re making it really hard for me to tolerate you Dane.”

Fleetfoot ran up to Spitfire holding a piece of paper in her hand. She held it in front of Spitfire’s face.

Spitfire stopped, turned, and then smacked her upside the head.

“Dane meet Echo, Echo meet Dane.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Dane flashed a smile.

“Pleasure’s mine Casanova,” Fleetfoot grinned as the three of them entered the living room. They hoisted Jett’s body onto a nearby couch.

Spitfire flipped his body over, exposing the black scorch mark on his back. Fleetfoot gasped.

“Relax,” Dane said, “He’s fine. He just suffered an overload and deactivated.”

“Can you… do anything about that?” Spitfire asked.

“Yeah, I can do something about it. Just need to flip him back over.”

He flipped his body over and started to unbutton his shirt, exposing the black undershirt the android wore. Dane put an ear to his chest.

“Okay… now it’s just a matter of- got it,” he said raising his head. He raised his hands and punched him in the side.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Spitfire asked.

“Just… fixing… a few… things,” Dane said before reaching behind the android’s head and pressing down.

Instantly blue light beams shot out of his eyes onto the ceiling and began running lines of code.

“He’ll be fine. I just had to reboot his systems. He should be up by tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“Now,” Dane said walking towards the door, “I’m going to go get Gin.”

He removed his cell phone from his pocket and tapped a few icons on it.

“What’s up?” the bartender asked.

“Get down here.”

“It’s safe?”

“Yeah it’s safe. And before you ask, yes I fixed Jett.”

“Alright. Just so you know I’m not letting my guard down.”

“Would you get down here already?”

“Fine. See you in five.”

Dane pocketed his phone and returned to the living room. Spitfire was sitting on a couch opposite Jett with Fleetfoot next to her. Dane found an armchair.

“You know I would say you should spill it all right now but considering it will take Gin a little while to get down here I suppose I can wait.”

“Yeah,” Spitfire sighed.

***

“Warning. Hull Breach. Hull Breach. Warning. Hull Breach. Hull Breach…”

“What the hell was that?”

“All Decks this is the Captain speaking, evacuate the ship immediately. We have lost atmospheric stabilization and we’re venting fuel into space. Get to your designated escape pods and shuttle craft.”

“We just lost our port engine!”

“Oh my god.”

“All personnel on Deck 2 you’re atmosphere has been compromised. You have two minutes before automatic atmospheric venting. Evacuate your deck immediately.”

“Dan come on! We’ve gotta get the hell outta here!”

“Yeah in a second!”

…

“Halsey come on!”

“Yeah! I’m coming!”

“Warning. Reactor Overload in progress. Core breach in Five minutes 26 seconds. Warning. Reactor Overload in progress…”