Ace of The Duck Pond The Good Doctor.

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace was having one hell of a time getting one of the biplanes off her tail. They hailed her over the radio in German and she had no idea what they were saying until the dr translated.  "They wish you to land and give me over to them fraulein, if you do not they are promising to use the guns below to blast you from the sky."

Jace snorted.  "Like hell I will!  Aces I am about to get every bird in this place on my tail."  She opened the radio to the most channels she could manage and let loose a torrent of every curse word in German she could think of ending with some very disreputable things about their mothers.

Girard was blushing.  "I did not think you knew German."

"I don't but I do know the essentials to get along in any port."  She said having to twist through the air to avoid a massive amount of fire.

"You are just full of surprises."  He said dryly wondering what else was in store.

"Yup." It was just another day on the station as far as she was concerned.

[MWBailey]

Idiots, Al thought. Their ship's practically sinking unmder then and all they can think about is trying to gun down one aircraft. He was unclipping his remaining two aerial grenades when  he thought he saw a shadow flit by between the Aces' formation and the ship below; it seemed to ignore and even fly through the flak bursts and veritable clouds of projectiles. A kind of sixth sense told him what it had to be, but his conscious mind refused to accept it, until he actually saw the winged female figure draw a very long sword that was longer than a katana, ansd suddenly simply stop ahead of thier formation, and then fly directly at them.

"Crazy Minx!"  He yelled into his mask's transceiver, forgetting momentarily that it was still keyed, the added, "All ships, sword-swinging bogie dead ahead! I'm goin' after the maniac!" He gunned the engine and cut loose with teh forward machine guns, and the body misted away - and came back again! she still came on, and Al did as well, the twpo locked in a mad game of chicken. AT teh very last instant, the vaqmpiress dodged, twisting her sword arpound, and slashed at the Duck's prop, anciemnt tachi meetimng prop blade with a clang and knocking the woman away and down to one side, spinning as she fell. Al wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he heard the woman laughing wildly as she plummetted. He did a wingstand, and dove after her, shooting as if she were an enemy aircraft until she looked back, actually grinned, and did a backflip she disappeared form view, and then ythere was an inpack on the aft end of the fuselage. Al ;looked up at the rearview mirror pon top of teh canopy

"GOOD GRAVY GODS OF GOLIAD!" he shouted, HOW'D SHE DO THAT!?" for the woman had suddenly appeared again - standing on top of the fuselage of his plane, directly behind where the rear gun stuck out of the canopy. Al excuted a series of tortuous loops, banks and turns, even managing a reverse Chandelle turn, but still she stood there, laughing as she slowly started wormking the rear canopy open...

"Could use a li'l help here," Al said into the transceiver...

[Stella Gaslight]

Girard did not like the sound  of her happy laughter.  "Get ready Duck I got a surprise for miss vamp. I'm gonna need your toe line after a bit you aren't entirely set for me but I can make due." Tucking her hair under her leather helmet she strapped herself in tightening all the straps on her jumpsuit.  "All right then now things get fun.  I am going to go out on the wings and help Al with his sharp little problem   All you have to do is keep her steady and I will be back quick."  She didn't give him a moment to speak against her plan as she opened the hatch and stepped out like she was on the ground.  Jace grinned and walked toward the Duck utterly fearless and fired at Meri.  "Hello there." She shouted above the wind.

[MWBailey]

"Okayy... I can give you a tow," Al answered, wodering whether teh captain had lost  a few braincells, or had even heard ofr understood his transmission, then twigged to what she was saying...

"are you sure you want to--!"

BANG!

"Crazy woman's already out there and shooting her pistol?!" Al said, forgetting once again in his shock that the transceiver was keyed.
----------------

The  sharp report of a pistol shot, and the bullet whizzed by Meri's head, curving away in the wind of the two aircrafts' passage in the way of all projectiles in such conditions, but not before it severed several strands of the long black hair that streamed out behind her. She started in surprise, ducking low, for all the world as if she were standing on a dry-land battlefield, and threw a shortbladed throwing star at Jace, which severed a lock of the Captain's hair as it, too, curved away to fall far below.

"So, you wish to dance with me again, little amazon-chan?" Meri shouted across, drawing the impossibly-long curved sword yet again, while spreading her leathery wings and tensing in a crouch to spring.

[Stella Gaslight]

"You folks picked the wrong bunch to rile up."  Her eyes were only on Meri even as other plains zipped around them.  She pulled out her own blade and charged at Meri knowing she couldn't win but hoping could buy some time for al to come up with something else.  Her footing was sure as she skirted around the edge of greenies wing as long as Jace had her own plane under her feet she was unstoppable.

[CPT_J_Percell]

"Why is that damn fool woman outside of her plane, someone get her back inside!" Wilfred shouted over the radio as he looped his plane around giving a one way travel ticket to another attacking fighter plane. He barrel rolled over the duck so that he could see the fight with the vampyre before dropping down and filling another plane full of holes.

[MWBailey]

I'm not sure who's crazier, Vampirella or th' Cap'n, Al thought to himself as he watched the two. He heard Wilfred's exclamation over the channel they were all tuned to, and just then his sixth sense suddenly flamed over; there was no other way to describe it as he slapped the rear gun's starboard interruptor off and cranked the gun up to the vertical again as a shadow came roaring up from behind. A split-second check of the periscope, however, and he barely managed to not elbow the firing bar as he realized the shadow was the brit's ship, upside down, sliding by a scant eight feet or less overhead. Al nearly gasped as the vampire, also noticing the brit, sprang from her perch on the ridge of the Duck's fuselage, turned a somersault which she combined with a slash at the Brit's tail section,  and then turning the returning backslash of the ta chi into a slash at jace's blade. The two swords made white glittering sparks as they met while the Vampire was still in mid-transit, and then the harridan landed light as a feather on the far wing of the Captain's biplane. But whereas jace needed the walking-wires to stay aboard, the vampiress stood as if on a sidewalk on terra firma, up on the balls of her feet, preparing to spring yet again.

Al cranked the rear gun around, keeping the Duck even with the Dragon in case Jace needed a place to escape to, and even as the vampire crouched and tensed to spring again, he both eyeballed the shot and sighted it through the periscope.

"What's the matter, pretty one?" Meri called across the Dragon's wings. "has your heart quailed already?" she glanced from the captain to the too-intent face of Al, and a thought struck her. "Or," she asked in a viciously teasing, insinuating voice, "Is that pilot a dear friend or love of yours?" she laughed. "Perhaps we can share him, you and-!"

Her words were cut short, suddenly, by the sound of the Duck's rear gun as the .30 caliber Vickers-Browning cut loose at the very extreme edge of it's forward-facing capability, and several rounds blasted into her midsection. Amazingly, she did not fall off of the wing - but she did not attack jace, either. She turned serious and shouted to the captain, "You should give us what we want, girl, perhaps yourself as well. The German fanatics say that you and he are both wasted here." she shrugged as the bullets began to spill out of their holes and clatter away across the wingtop. "Or, I could just kill you both here and now -" and she sprang just as Al fired again. this time, though,the impacts of the bullets caught her with enough force to knock her off course, and she missed her footing and tumbled away, to disappear into the cloud of flame and debris of a triplane that suddenly flamed to destruction from one of the other aces' gunfire.

Al snapped the captain a salute and banked away, then banked back and sideslipped under the Dragon and after the vampire, leaving the captain to wonder if he'd taken leave of his senses. Al himself wasn't sure why he couldn't just leave be; perhaps it was the look of incredible weariness and despair that flashed across the vampires face as she took the bullets he'd fired. Something was not quite right about this situation, he just... knew it. But the Vampire suddenly beat her wings, once, twice - and was gone like the flash of a lightning bolt.

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace took a moment to stand on the wing with her hands off the wires feeling the wind twisting around her.  This was her domain and no vamp could ever take that.  She noticed the doctor staring at her and smiled.  There was something in his eyes that was equal parts admiration and coveting.  Jace knew she had to properly take care of her client but there was something about him that was dangerous.  Maybe it would be best if they all guarded him tonight.  Donna would fuss at not being able to go dancing But they could order take out and listen to the big band show on radio if Al could get it to tune right.  An explosion drew her from her thoughts and she scrambled in to the cockpit. "Greenie to Aces Anyone see where that vamp went?"

[MWBailey]

"It's like she just went 'poof!' and vanished," Al said incredulously. "I don't see how she can move that fast."

"Something's not righjt, Jace, why would she just break off and disappear when she was so close to her target? He was right there, surely she could see the guy."

--------

For Meri's part, she had received an impression that she had experienced only once before, when a dear relative had passed away. Foster-Father, she sobbed in her mind.

Little White Bat, I go to the Blessed Plains. You are released of your bond, and are free, as are all of The Village, to avenge the wrong done to us by our former masters. That, and nothing more, rang in her mind in a voice that Meri would never hear again save in memory.

A thousand miles away, in a village of 'demons' and 'monsters,' an ancient Oni elder lay in his final throes and his own blood, as two Japanese officers fought a losing battle for their very lives, their blades already stained with the Elder's blood. Back across the Pacific Ocean, a lone vampiress shot across the sky, careless of the burning sun as she raced across the leagues toward the only home she knew in a world not her own...

[Stella Gaslight]

'Maybe I scared her off."  An explosion rocked the ship below as Dog took out set a large hunk of the deck on fire.  "Or it could be that."  The flames spread fast as they took out the fuel stores and Jace found herself spinning to avoid a column of flames.  'Aces it is getting a bit hot here be careful."

[CPT_J_Percell]

An amber light flashed away on wilfred console and he screamed something less the gentlmanly across the radio. it wasn't important but it was damn inconvenient and would resault in the plane bing out of action if he had to rebuild it.

[MWBailey]

"WHOOP!" Al had banked off directly over the flattop, inadvertenly catching the edge of the thermal wave from the fires below. "avoid the float if you can, she's hot as a volcano," he radioed tothe others. "If that keeps up, and if she has ammo stores, they're gonna start going up in a --!"

KAARRUUMMMPPFF!

A huge explosion both cut off Al's statement and confirmed it at the same time. Smaller detonations rumbled and snapped from within the floating airfield and others either exploded in mid air or peppered the water around the flattop.

"Ahhh... Ahem. like I was saying..."

[Stella Gaslight]

"Damn Donna when you blow stuff up it really sticks."  Jace sounded impressed.

"It wasn't me boss that was all Liam."  Donna actually sounded pretty impressed with him.

"All right aces lets go back to the roost before anything else explodes."  Donna laughed and so did Jace as they turned back towards the station.

"Fraulein what you did out there."  He trailed off amazement obviously coating his features.

"I have be wing walking since I was six.  Hell I was born in the air.  There are times I like it better than the ground."  He looked at her like she was an odd savage.

[MWBailey]

"You still need the tow, Boss Lady?" Al radioed.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Na I was hoping to catch miss sharp tooth in the line and tie her up real good but she up and disappeared before I could."  Jace could see the start of salvage teams coming and knew the bones would be picked clean soon.  "She is strong but I bet tow line is stronger."

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred stayed above the others watching for anymore targets. slowly the others were heading down ready to land. Once they were down he would land and see what damage the witch had caused.

[Ranger Reid]

A strange ballet developed.  At first there were individual streaming metal birds in flight, then in an instant, the Aces were flying in a tight V.  As the oblivious enemy closed smoke suddenly sprang from their planes.  The time between each explosion of flame was so brief, they had no chance to realize their danger.

It wasn't just Liam, but each member of the Aces for a brief moment became part of a larger whole.  It was beautiful, deadly, and sudden.

Within seconds the only planes left were Aces.

[Stella Gaslight]

Donna slumped in her seat finally relaxing when they could see their own hangers. "That was half mad." She wiped the sweat from her brow and before he could react Donna was hugging him.  "You were amazing.  You did right by dog and me."  It was good to see that most of home was still standing.

[CPT_J_Percell]

wilfred braced the stick with his knees and made some notes in his jot book, the ident numbers looked wrong but it could be to do with this world. Flying around in a circle he watched as its sinking came to a stop leaving the remains of the flight deck at a steep angle. Crew were still abandoning the wreckage and he spotted battle ships sailing towards it, late for the battle. Turning around, he headed back and landed befor rolling back into the hanger.

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace let out a large sigh as Screaming Green touched down. It was good to not being fired at but she always missed the sky a little bit. "All right doc you stick with me.  If that crazy vamp comes back we are the only friends you have. Anyway we will settle in to the old cash office and ride this out."  She waved at the others with a big grin.  "Welcome back Aces."

[Ranger Reid]

Liam watched the other planes trailing towards the air strip.  A nagging feeling kept bothering him.  Finally he voiced his concern:

"Ummmm  Donna,  where can we go that's safe to land?   We were being shot at when we took off too.   So the base might not be cleared yet.   

Is there a strip nearby that no one would expect us to use or something?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Oh Hell."  Donna said noticing a dark figure. "Capitan is wandering in to a trap.  We have to get down there quick.  See that big obnoxiously yellow building over there? That is Mama Hayrick's. She and the captain don't exactly get along but that is she safest place on the island."

[Ranger Reid]

Liam gingerly took out his pistol.   It still had the 'special' bullets loaded.   But there were four normal rounds up top.   He hoped he could avoid wasting the consecrated rounds.   Too many sacrifices had been made creating them.

[Stella Gaslight]

"We are going play this easy and hopefully we can get the captain out before things start exploding." Donna landed as close to Screaming Green as she could and walked out casually.  "Capitan do you want lunch from the sandwich shop?"

Jace turned to answer and narrowly missed getting stabbed in the shoulder. "Damn it they are in our home." She crashed to the ground as two more tackled her from the shadows.  Jace managed to push the doctor back out of danger but could not get free herself.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam thought about going out to help.

But as the captain shoved the doctor away, he had an evil thought.   When the closest man took Jace to the ground,  Liam called to the hatch where Donna lingered "Get low!"

Swinging his seat and lining up the turret, Liam fired a harsh burst of 3 shots.   Three of the attackers went down the the large 30 caliber rounds. 

Within seconds, it was just the captain and one attacker.   The body of one of the unlucky men fell and entangled his partner who was still grabbing at Jace's feet.