Ace of The Duck Pond Thunder of the Ghost Ships.

[Stella Gaslight]

Before the last week Jace had never considered herself high strung but if Liam told her to calm herself one more time she was going to explode.  It wasn't that he was a horrible teacher it was more that Jace was frustrated something that had come so simple to her in the past was now nearly beyond her reach.  She glared at the water pitcher like it was mocking her attempts to levitate it.

Donna watched from the far end of the hanger working on a new gun mount for the dog.  Now that she had a live human co-pilot the chicken usable controls were just not cutting the mustard. Liam deserved something a bit less rinky dink and just maybe it would stop the right gun from sticking so much.

[MWBailey]

"Well, now,Jace hon," Al was saying, with  a half-placating and half-comforting tone to his voice, "I'm sure Liam means well; he probably was taught the same way by whoever it was that taught him. Maybe if you'd do like my old flight commander in Malmady used to say, 'just relax and think about the target...' he trailed off, suddenly sensing that perhjaps 'relax' was not the best word to have used. Tyhat realization was ecipsed, however , by the apparentg success of Jace's efforts, signified by the trembling that began in the water pitcher. "Yeah, that's it, just relax, an -- oOops, I mean--!"

[Stella Gaslight]

"I got it!"  She said triumphantly and did her level best to raise the pitcher.   For a moment it rose straight and level and then it wobbled. Ok Jace we can fix this she thought trying to build the net of force as Liam had instructed her but it started to snarl.

"Easy now." Al said gently as the pitcher started vibrating.

"I am trying!"  Jace snapped and the force net tightened hard and fast.  The pitcher could not withstand the force and exploded showering them with water and broken glass.  "Shit! Are you all right?"

[MWBailey]

"I guess, Al said, his flier's cap and goggles dripping. Luckily he had left the radio transceiver part in teh Duxck after having come back and parked her  when he returned from picking up a sailboater who'd managed to get caught in a tradewind and gotten blown all the way up from Australia.The flightsuit was also in teh Duck, draped over the pilot's seat, so all else that got soaked were his regular khakis. "it's a hot day, so that actually felt kinda good." he wiped his forehead, and his hand came away bloody, while a cut above his left eyebrow stung when he did so. "Looks like I could use the stiptic pencil," ge quipped.

"been cut worse in a barfight. Don't worry about it. But dang, darlin', you could use that in a scrap, y' know..."

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred grabbed a rag as his customer came in and wiped his hands.
"Is it done?"
"Finished it this morning, The casings and workings are fine but the power stone is cracked and will need replacing."
"Have you got any?"
"Sorry, haven't found a supplier yet."
The customer sighed, "never-mind." He handed Wilfred the agreed fee and parts before Wilfred watched the man leave with his archaic device.
The device he had just finished lay on the desk and he cleaned his hands off before starting the cleaning work on it.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam entered the hanger like a man headed for the gallows......     Why was it so difficult to help Jace?


Seeing the mess, he couldn't help a small lecture.    "I assume you went through the steps?   You cleared your mind of all thoughts and distractions.   You focused on your will.   You saw your will as a solid shining sword.   And you pushed the sword towards your intended work?   If you just dove in again, I am not surprised at this result."

It was an odd arrangement.   In every other discussion, Liam deferred to the captain.  But when he was trying to instruct her, he automatically acted like his old masters and took a leadership tone.

So far, things had not gone well.

On the other hand, the few times Liam had tried to use his own gift to touch magic or perform small cantrips, it had worked perfectly.  And almost too easily.   He wondered if the easy power was why his own instructors had never allowed him to consider using his gift in such a way.

[MWBailey]

"Seems t' me, she gets frustrated an' loses her focus," Al said thoughtfully. "Same thing happens to fighter recruits when they're learnin' ta aim th' stationary guns on a 'plane."

[Stella Gaslight]

"I had it for a moment."  Jace said with a sigh.   "But it wobbled and I over corrected."  She felt like a little girl in front of the headmaster.  This was difficult but she remembered why she bothered every time she looked at Al's hand.  She had been angry and slightly drunk. There had been yelling about her secret stash and the next thing Jace knew a knife had flown too close and nicked Al.  She still wondered why he stuck with her after that.  Why any of them had stayed with her despite being dangerous.  A thundering boom shook all the windows and rattled Jace.   "What the hell was that?"   

[MWBailey]

"Sounds like either an explosion, or those twins built another unflyable travesty," Al said as he turned to go out to take a look.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I don't think it is the twins unless they can leave trails of green flame."  Donna was staring up at the sky trying to see where it was coming from.

"I think whatever caused that is buzzing the northern tower."  Jace rubbed her eyes not quite believing the fact she was seeing a transparent green mono-wing zipping through the sky.

[MWBailey]

The phone in the hangar office rang, the big fire bell they'd replaced the phone's buzzer with to be audible over the sound of aviation engines ripping through the relatively silent area. Al stuck his finger in his ear as he went to answer it. He put the reciever to his ear, and then thrust it away as the voice on the other end screamed, "Get on the horn and talk to these idiots,. willya? We got a China Clipper comin' in from Lala Land and he's almost outta fuel! We ain't got time for these nuts! Channel 86.7!"

"Roger that, Bob," Al switched on and tuned in the Aces' radio, and tuned in the frequency. "Jace, I think you'd better come see about this," he called out to her across the flight line, as he heard the talk back and forth between Tower and newcomer.

[Stella Gaslight]

" What do those numbers mean?  It can't be a call sign it is missing the letters.,". Jace listed carefully trying to fit the half mumbled speech.  "10 5 1914.". She repeated.  " What on earth do they want here?,"

[MWBailey]

"danged if I know...wait, that sounds like a war date..." Al trailed off. "That'd be October 5, 1914... What was it happened then, I seem to remember hearing some news about a Russian action... something..."

[CPT_J_Percell]

"Our surprise plane is a Voisin III!" Wilfred said walking into the ace's hanger, In my world that date is when a Vosh took out a German plane.

[MWBailey]

"Vosh?" Al was nonplussed. "Never heard of 'em. Some kinda... Slavic tribe, maybe?"

He paused, a thought having struck him "Oh, now I've got it. That was the first time somebody in a 'plane actually downed somebody else. Happened up on the Easterm side o' things. Might've been a Russian, or maybe a Serb... We didn't hear about it until about a month later, when they started puttin' guns on our own planes; 'til then, we were mainly arty spotters." He thought for a minute. "Dodgy things, those first guns were; nobody'd figured out synchronization yet, so they put these danged armor slabs on the props to bounce off the bullets that didn't get shot between the blades." he shuddered.  More'n one pilot got killed by his own gun that way. Took a knack just to figure out when to shoot or let it be."

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace vaguely remembered her father taking about that on one of his many long rambling speeches about battle.  "Are they looking for someone to do with that here?  I mean we do have every kind of flyboy but that's stretching it a bit thin."  The ship circled wider as if looking for something or someone.  "I think we better get up there before they do something crazy.  Well more crazy than speaking gibberish at the tower."

[MWBailey]

"Right you are, Cap'n!" Al strode over to and climbed up the side of the Duck, and swarmed intio the copilot's seat, yanked his flightsuit off of the pilot's set in the forward cockpit, and quickly slipped it on, no mean feat considering he was wearing standard miltary laceup boots. He then checked that the rear gun was loaded, and secured the passenger compartment's trapdoor, and then clambered around on the outside again, and into the pilot's seat, clipped on the radio transceiver, and began the startup process. Soon the electric startmotor was whining and the cylinders were coughing to life. He made sure the forward guns were loaded and cocked, and tested his ship's control surfaces.

"If nobody wants to ride shotgun, I'm ready to go," he radioed the others.

----------
"And just what do you think I should  do about it, Shiro?" Merovingia, "Meri" for short, tartly addressed the Imperial Palace's maitre d'hotel, Matoka Shiro. "I have duties here, as you well know."

Madame Lee had  just entered the club's managerial office to encounter the two discussing the recent events at the Tower. "But, you are also a very accomplished Assistant, Meri," Madame Lee praised the Eurasian girl. Perhaps you should be there, to welcome our guests, should they turn out to be friendly - or help take care of them in ... other ways ... if they are not." she smiled knowingly; she did not know for certain, just yet, what Meri did for them or the Aces, but she knew the rumors, and what Meri actually was. It was a bit hard to not figure that part out, once Meri had taken a rather secluded room in the club's basement, and several of the club's thorns in its side disappeared in mysterious circumstances - with the girl always on the fringe of the incidents; The club owed its very existence to Meri several times over, in fact, and Madame Lee always paid her debts.

"I am sure the Scarabs will welcome your presence. You do have your swords, do you not?"

Meri smiled grimly, but not without warmth for her superior; she tended to view her, in Meri's rather cold, immortal-ish kind of way, as a surrogate for her mother, who had died when Meri was very young. "I am never without them, Madame."

"Do be careful, dear one," Madame Lee said as she walked with Meri to the ladder to the roof.
 
"Always, Lee Sama," Meri bowed respectfully.

Moments later, she was atop the roof of the club, spreading her wings and stepping into a shadow - and then she was up in the air, emerging from behind a low-flying, shadowed cloud...

[CPT_J_Percell]

"How you feeling Jace, Walking it a strait line yet?" Wilfred asked walking over to check her. He grabbed her hand and pulled up he blouse sleeve revealing the jagged burns still present on her arm. "They are not as angry as they were, but I will still insist that you try to rest it or if you go anywhere, keep it in a sling." He watched has she drew back her hand and flexed her fingers. "How are you fingers, are they still working?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"They behave, mostly."  He see them flutter slightly then a tightening of her jaw as the fingers were forced to calm.  It was better than the first night where she had to call on Al to stop the cramps that turned her hands in to gnarled claws.  "I can still fly."

[MWBailey]

Al saw Wilfred examining Jace. He fought down a wave of jealousy. OK, now just who do you think you are, boy? he scolded himself. Jace is a big girl, she can take care of herself. If she wants your help, she'll ask for it. But then a thought occurred to him. He slid open the cockpit canopy and yelled, over the rumble of the Duck's souped-up engine, "Jace, you wanna ride with? Might be better for that arm!"

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace smiled nothing would ground her as long as she was still breathing.  "I hope there's enough space in that ducky for me.  I just can't let those poor tower boys  deal with that crazy green plane."

[Ranger Reid]

Liam shook his head.   It had been so hard to get Jace focused, and every time he thought she was going to make a break through something came up.

He had began to feel like he wasn't helping her at all.   Even with all the commotion outside, helping Jace with her powers was all Liam could focus on.   He began to allow his own natural talent to flow outward.

There were times when he felt like it could solve the problem for him.  If he could let his power figure out how the Captain's power worked.......

As soon as he started to try though, his shoulder pinched and he lost his own concentration.   That was the other half of the problem.  Liam's control had collapsed after the adventure with the doctor.

He had succeeded in rooting out the gremlins, and had even gotten permission to stay with the Aces, but his shoulder had become infected.  By the time it had healed, he had lost both weight and control over his power.   Only Donna knew how bad of a time he was having.  He had shared everything about himself with her.  

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna wrapped her arms around him from behind.  "Liam be kind to yourself.  I know you want to help but the captain but she will have to find her own way.  She always does. ". She kissed him and her breath tickled his ear.  He lit up her heart in ways she thought had been lost with the death of her first love.  Liam knew every secret from silly to serious she had.  " Should we follow them?  The duck is quick but it gets in over its head sometimes."

[Ranger Reid]

"Yes.   Let's go."   Liam sighed.  As soon as Donna's arms encircled him, everything dire seemed to fade away.   His (and Jace's) blockages would resolve themselves.  He was sure of it.

[MWBailey]

"Hop aboard and strap yerself into the rear cockpit. There's a hood-and-transceiver rig on the radio shelf."

Al noticed Jace's favoring of her right arm and hand as she clambered aboard, but said nothing about that. To cover his looking at the sight, he added, "You can pilot from the rear cockpit if somethin' happens to me, and that radio set is fully functional and separate from mine up front here - but you can patch the two together intercom-style by flipping the green toggle on the far-right mixer box to the up position; then we won't have to tell back and forth - but don't switch it to a different frequency while we're connected, or we'll just confuzzle each other. The pressure suit connection is over next to the aft engine throttle lever, there on the port side pof the seat." He added, "Let's close up the canopies, so we can hear each other yell if we need to. When the canopies were closed, Al told her how to set up and plug in the transceiver and hook up the intercom again. "Testing, Testing, kin you hear me?"