Ace of The Duck Pond Thunder of the Ghost Ships.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I think nearly electrocuting myself taught me something.  I can rig screaming green here to attract the lighting and then you would have a much easier time of it.  As long as I can get in the air I can watch your back.  "Greenie to Duck This is going to be one hell of an odd take off so make some space." The prop stated and she could barely see but Jace was determined to watch over her friends and her home.

[MWBailey]

"Alright then, get in and set your 'plane up for a short runway takeoff." Meri instructed. She had onpy done this once, for an imperial Japanese Army parasol-type carrier craft, and into a substantial headwind; the winds of teh storm blew across the runway of the Duckpond's airfield. as Meri tied teh towrope to her waist, she had a n idea.

She reached into the not-place, and drew the hellblade that was once her Foster-father's Tachi sword. "Soururipa," she keened to the sword, I need your power and your talent. I need the same motive power as that of the diving attack, but on a horizontal course, so that I may tow my comrade into the air. I apologize for giving you such mundane work."

Is your comrade a defender of teh station? the voice rang both audibly from the blade itself, as well as thundering in Meri's mind.

"Yes, she is."

Then the work is neither mundane nor dishonorable; your apology is unnecessary. Hold me forth, as in preparation for a forward chopping attack.

"GET READY!" Meri shouted back to Jace - and then suddenly it was as if a giant had seized the sword, yanking it forward and into teh sky on a steep trajectory. Meri screamed in both fear and joy, as she had never accelerated like this before. Sje looked ababck, and Jace seemed to be be holding her own against the crosswinds; Teh vamp heard Greeny's engine start and purr like a musclebound kitten, so she shifted her grip, looped over and back, and undershot Greeny's prop as she slashed the tow rope free. She then flew up beside Jace's craft, and made a sweeping salute with Soururipa. "I go to feed my blade!" she shouted, and surged ahead as if shot from a cannon...

[CPT_J_Percell]

The Blue Fang tore through the rolling clouds buffeted by the strong winds and lightning strikes all around him. The Blue Glow was almost blinding, but he could see the green glow of the enemy ships all around him even if he couldn't make them out.
Wilfred switched on the Chronogyro, "Command receive, command receive, 2-4-2 attacking, 2-4-2 attacking!" he released the transmit key and heard only static. A rattle of gunfire hitting the Blue Fang brought his attention back to the storm and he dived to the left to get away. the clouds parted and a vosh came into sight, his finger pulled the trigger and the vosh burst into flames.

[MWBailey]

Meri knew the vosh was there, but wanted to play a bit. She led teh craft on a wild chase, weaving among the thunderheads as lightning and plasma sprites ripped the air into shreds and made the atmosphere stink of ozone. Then, teh green light lashed out and took hold of her. She did not try to escape, but instead turned right over in a flip-loop, and dove straight at the Vosh, scereaming a war cry and bringing up the tachi and then slashing it down and across, slicing through the semitransparent fuselage as if the craft were a fish that she was flensing. This time, the slashed wound did not heal, but instead grew lionger and wider until the vosh split in two lengthwise and exploded in a shower of electric plasma and blue-tinged flames. Energy from the doomed ship, and lifeforce from it's pilot in the suspension tank a universe away, flowed into the blade and up Meri's arms, and she shouted in dark joy as she dove at another of the alien-seeming craft...

[Ranger Reid]

Liam still felt as though he had been slipped a mickey.  But when the first plane came into range, his body acted on instinct.  Contrary to his own understanding, he had actually been born with two gifts.  The first was the one he consciously controlled and knew about was the sense of how things worked.  His other talent seemed too simply to be anything other than a normal skill.    

His other ability had surfaced only a few times in history.  Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, and more recently, Rittmeister Baron Manfred von Richthofen.  Liam was a dead-eye, or an "instinctive shooter".

It was a good thing too.  Even in pain, physically and mentally spent, he was able to acquire and fire on targets with bizarre accuracy.

The first ghost ship came into view and without hesitation, Liam fired.  He decided to focus his attack in one specific place, in case it took more than one round to get through.    The first bullet hit the green glow and there was a pulse of bright light.  The second hit and the pulse revealed lightning shaped cracks.  The third round tore cleanly through the glow and struck the ship as if it were a mundane piece of furniture.   The being on the deck was glowing of his own accord, but without any fanfare, the fourth bullet hit him and knocked him ten feet backwards on the ship, and immediately the whole craft began to waver.  

[Stella Gaslight]

Getting in to the clouds was easy finding the targets was not.  She couldn't just shout over the radio for them to come get her but perhaps there was a better way. Lightning tried to strike the Screaming Green and soon found much to both it's and Jace's surprise it bounced back like it hit a rubber wall.  "Ducky dear I am firing lighting!" She said with a woop as the ghost ship behind her tried to charge and figure out what was firing on it only to see a smiling Jace had done a barrel roll and was coming up fast behind.

Two more appeared and Donna cursed as they opened fire first with bullets and then with lighting.  "Liam I am going to have to try what mama would call a dammed fool stunt to keep them from frying us.  Hit the launch command for number 17 hard and fast. That will send out a barrage of dandelion balloon bombs that should stop them from lighting us up until i can get you a better angle of attack."

[Ranger Reid]

Liam did as asked, and then felt his world spin as Donna wheeled the plane over.   Suddenly a thought sprang into Liam's head:  "She is an amazing pilot!"

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred ripped through the clouds shooting anything got got in range, "Command 242, command 242," he called over the radio and only getting static in return. He pulled towards the center of the storm and as lightning flashed, he thought he caught a large shadow, larger then anything that should be present.

[MWBailey]

The Duck was flying faster and hitting harder than she ever had before. Al had only found two targets, thiough. He'd smoked both, but then a third loomed up in his sights - and it was gigantic. Meri was already circlingin from the west "So, you ain't the biggest plane out here in the dogfight anymore, huh, ya big galoot?" he muttered to himself, and possibly the Duck as well "well, thats just the way it goes. Well, hello, miss vampy..."  He fiddled with the radio and finally got Wilfred caterwauling about some command or other, then saw Blue Fang on the far side of the behemoth. "Blue Fang, I got visual on ya, what're ya yellin' about, and what inna heck is THIS thing?" he said into the transceiver. "I wonder if a couple of my bombs'll make a dent... " He eyed a weird-looking projection on the top of the craft, if craft it was, near where he would have expected to see a cockpit window. Suddenly a long, red gash appeared in the side of teh thing's fuselage, and Meri streaked away at the end iof it, seeming to twirl that immensely long sword of hers, and looping over and returning for another run...

[Stella Gaslight]

"Oh hell." Jace said as she wildly spun as something exploded near her wings.  She got away but only but just. "Greenie to Aces They have explosive shells and aren't afraid to blow things up."

Puffs of white went out and at first the ghost ships thought the Dog was damaged and fired their lightning.  Explosions rocked the sky as the balloon bombs went off. "All right! Liam what is left is all yours."

[Ranger Reid]

An explosion sounded so close the entire plane shook.   Liam called out "That was close!"   The only sound back was a grunt.   He leaned back out of his gunner's seat to try to see up to the cockpit.   All he could see was broken glass and Donna's hair streaming in the wind.

The fatigue and mental haze disappeared.   In fact, the entire world ceased to exist to Liam.  He ripped his belts off and sprang to the front of the plane.

Donna was okay, but she had several small cuts from the shattered side window of the plane.

Liam's power flared to a dangerous level.    Without conscious thought, he used his ability to repair her cuts, and then the window.   Then in fury he turned his energy to the two green glowing ships behind them.    In a burst of power, Liam reconfigured their energy structure.  Less than a millisecond later they simply imploded and ceased to exist.

Raging, Liam stretched out his hand.   Two more planes popped out of existence.   Blood began to flow freely from the young man's nose, but he continued without noticing.   In his rage, Liam pushed against the green glow of the ships and found something behind the energy signature.   The other he had seen before, his older twin.    As if in a dream, Liam saw himself standing opposite the other.   They stared for a moment and the other spoke  "   'S Rioghal Mo Dhream "       Liam's response was "Die."  With a final surge of power, he sensed the other's small heart defect, and instead of repair, the young man tweaked it to fail completely.    The other clutched his chest and collapsed.

As he did, so did Liam.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Liam?"  Donna said and saw him fall. "No no no no no.  You don't get to take him too.  I may have turned my back on you lord but you can't take Liam.  We only just... " Donna broke down crying and did not notice she was brodcasting.  "If you take him from me I will worship that dammed  coconut for the rest of my days."  Her mama would tan her hide if she ever heard what Donna just said but something heard and inside the special bullets a seedling started to grow lending it's health and growth to both Liam and Donna.  Donna didn't notice her hair grow half a foot or the slightly odd feeling in her belly bur she did notice Liam was breathing a little easier.

[Ranger Reid]

In a dark cave, under an old oak, the local "king" of the fey nodded his head sadly.  It was as he had feared.   There was a civil war brewing among those with the old blood, and he had hoped not to take sides.   But then those kids had came and neither one hesitated when he asked for their gifts.

He looked down at the dagger and bullets in his lap.   It was a silly reason to take sides in a war really, but the king was resolved.   He and his would stand with their new friends.   



Meanwhile a group of mages stood in circle around a body that at one time had favored Liam.   None spoke.   

[Stella Gaslight]

"Donna?" Jace asked with concern.

"Not now Jace just leave me alone."  Jace could hear another close explosion and Donna cursing softly before cutting off completely.  "Greenie to duck I think we better circle the wagons."  Jace hoped Donna wouldn't do anything too dangerous.

The Dog was hit it wasn't bad but it made Donna scream with rage.  She had some rudimentary weapons controls left over from when hen was her co-pilot.  Her aim was far from perfect but with the fire of her rage burning it didn't matter. If Donna missed then she just moved the Dog so the next burst hit. She was a force of nature stronger than the storm taking out the ghost ship that had hit her and then hunting more.

[CPT_J_Percell]

A series of flashes and booms lit up the sky before the radio cracked. " 2-4-2 land immediately and surrender, repeat,  2-4-2 land immediately and surrender. This is the tempest. We will deal with the Goliath but you will surrender to us."
Wilfred cursed, this was bad news. More flashes and booms and the sky was filled with green flashes. A vosh took a dive towards the Blue fang and Wilfred spun out of the way.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Hay you big green tempest thing.  None of us are surrendering to you.  You attacked us you German bastards don't think you can get away now.  You have angered the Aces and you won't live long enough to regret it."  Jace roared like a lion and charged through the thinning clouds.  They were winning and she would keep her aces safe.

[Ranger Reid]

The circle of mages stood over the corpse.   They could feel the fingerprint of the young man's magic, but had no idea how he had reached across the void to destroy their man.    Wordlessly they looked into the mirror they used to control the ships.   Since Marcus had been killed it seemed their planes were faltering. 


The leader waved his hand and the second nodded.


As the group turned to go their own way, Second looked in to the mirror and gave a mental command.     Immediately the ghost ships began to break formation and retreat back to their own realm.

Victory was not to be today, but time was on their side.   They would bring the Aces down.

[MWBailey]

Meri fought on, abandoning the attack on teh unrsponsive tempest to and follow the greenships to the place where lay the gate that had allowed them access to the Aces' dimension, destroying them piecemeal, even as they began to leave the world she was in; she had a sense that that gate was the Hole in Time, and that it was now closing. She was not sure if the universe that the greenships came from was the same as her home universe, but the greenships smelled similar, that is to say, they smelled akin to the smells that airships and other aerial craft from her home reeked of, save that the fossil-fuel stink was of a different, seemingly "evolved" order. Whatever the truth of the greenship's epoch might be, there was an excellent chance that if it were her home, her Mistress, Morganthe, had survived. She did something, then, that she had not tried since that day that she had finally accepted that she was trapped in this other world that was not her home; she tried to send to her sire and mentor, Morganthe.

She reached out her mind to where she sensed the gate to be, and sent her mind questing forth in the way that only a Master vampire can. Morganthe! Mistress! This is Ia, your former fledgling! I am MEROVINGIA!

The result was not what she expected; a view of dark-clad men, walking away from whatever point she was seeing the vision through. One turned back, suddenly, as if having heard her psionic shout. He looked at her; Meri stared hard-eyed back at him. The two stood, matching one another stare for stare, and she suddenly recognized what had seemed an indistinct feature of the ground, or floor, between them: Liam, or more probably, a very close relative of his, perhaps even a twin brother - and he appeared to have died, as he bore the classic facial expression of one who had died of sudden heart failure. All in an instant, an instant in which she knew, beyond all doubt, that the man who had turned to face her was the enemy - or at the very least, her personal enemy.

"What have you done with my--!" she shouted, cut off in mid shout by a wave of the man's hand, which severed the connection. She found herself hovering in midair, her wings beating as if treading water amid the dissipating storm. She saw a last, lone greenship heading for a sun-bright point in midair just below her, and she dove upon it in uttermost rage, slashing it in half as she had the first of her kills, from nose to tail, and watched as the craft exploded right within the gate, as the gate suddenly winked out, leaving smoke and roughly half as much falling debris as there should have been. She swooped around the point ion midair, searching for any trace, physical or psionic, to try and follow through to her enemy, but it was fruitless. Mistress... she sobbed, one last time, in her mind, out across the void that was now once again closed to her.

Al nearly collided with Meri as she wildly swooped back around yet again. He had been trying to get in from of Jace, to keep her from diving through the gate, and was in the process of banking off to avoid her, when Meri came within a few scant feet of the Duck's top wing.

"WHOA!" he yelled into the transceiver. "Crazy Ivan Vamp alert!" What in the hell is she doing?! He added, "Duck to Greeny, and to Dog! Jace, Donna! back off, the gate thing's closed, repeat, Gate is Closed!"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Ok Duck but they hurt one of ours.  They should be paying in blood."  Jace was hoping desperately Liam was only hurt.  Donna deserved a more happiness.

[MWBailey]

"How're ya gonna go after em, drill a hole in reality?" Al shot back. "They're GONE, you ladies keep diving at the same point, and you're gonna collide! You can't kill what ain't there ta shoot at!""

[Stella Gaslight]

"I'm sorry Duck." Jace said softly throttling back.  She was hoping this time they all made it out alive.  Liam had chosen to stay with them and if she had lead him to his death well maybe it was time to step down before anyone else got hurt.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred watched as the green glowing Goliath limped back through the time hole leaving the Tespest floating in the evaporating clouds, the radio cracked to life. "Tempest to Blue Fang, are you receiving." Came the voice of a woman in authority, "Wilfried Oliver Lewis Ferdanand land immediately and surrender the Blue Fang. This is a direct order from High Lord Captain Alison DuBlade."
Wilfred froze at the controls, he knew the name, but didn't know she was now a captain. "Blue Fang to Tempest, Will comply with your orders." He said dipping the nose and heading back to the hanger. By the time he had parked up and exited the Blue fang, The Tempest was landing in the water next to the runway.

[MWBailey]

Al guessed what was going through Jaces mind from his own past experiences in the Great War; leadership had it's extremely unpalatable aspects, but they had to be done and dealt with, he knew from personal experience. He radioed Jace to meet him on a different, little-used channel for a private message. When he heard teh click of her transceiver and callsign, he launched into what he hoped she'd understand was the truth iof such situations as they faced with Donna adn Liam.

"Jace, I don't know much, but bein' in the war and all, I found out you have t' give orders, and sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes, hell, they get killed, too. Some might say it's your fault, and it might be your fault, but it's a better fault than havin' done nothin'. If'n you hadn't ordered us up today, a whole slew o' people woulda got sucked up by those bastards, and hurt and even killed by them. You gotta weigh that against the effects of your orders. I know that stinks like last week's undershorts, but that's just th' way it is.

"You did yer job, Boss Lady, an' there ain't nothin' wrong with that. I'll stand by ya 'til we both swing on th' gallows - and after. You know that."

--------
Meri landed outside Wilfred's hangar just minutes after Wilfred landed, and walked up to stand beside him as teh visitors came in. "Fellow travellers," she said to them and tpo Wilfred, "I don't know where you came from, or what Wilfred has done to attract your attention, but we are comrades-in-arms, Wilfred and I, and I will stand beside him. I am Merovingia Harper-Chen, Foster Daughter of Lord Shouro of the Island of the Youkai, Master Vampiress of the Creche of Morganthe Villareal y Garabaldi y Vega y Dreyfuss, Bound by pax diaboli as defender of the humans and supernaturals of the Station known as the Duckpond."

It had been awhile since the court of the Cold One Czar, but old habits of protocol died hard, it would seem. Meri was in fact originally of noble birth, albeit to a minor family employed as diplomats ofteh British empire, but such had rarely been relevant in her recent unlife.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I love you Al you always know the right thing to say to cheer a girl up."  Jace noticed the huge carrier and frowned.  "I thinK we best land and see what all this is about."

He was still breathing and looked almost peaceful but Liam wouldn't wake and that scared Donna to the depths of her soul. She landed gently as if the dogged determination was made of spun glass and as soon as the plane was out of the way Donna held Liam like he was the most precious thing on earth.  How could she fix this?  Perhaps the king under the tree would know. But first she had to let the Aces know what happened.  Cradling Liam to her chest she stepped out on to the tarmac to join the others.

[MWBailey]

"I think yer right, Hon. That's one heck of a big seaplane, if it even IS a seaplane. looks more like a flattop with wings ...and I love you, too, Jace."

Al followed Jace down to the runway and landed in sequence, cranking the wheels out of their housing in the main float just in time; he'd nearly forgotten them in his concern for Jace. The Duck "waddled" a bit before settling on her dry-land wheels; apparently whatever had been done to her had offset her former balance just a hair. "Like ta know who did what to Duck; mostly it's good, but there's a couple things I ain't too sure about..."

He clambered down out of the cockpit and followed Jace as she went over to Donna and Liam. "Aw... Hell." he said under his breath after a minute. He didn't waste time with fancy speeches this time. "Here, keep holdin' 'im," he told Donna, "but lemme look at 'im." Al checked the boy's pulse and took a steel signal mirror from his pocket, holding it in front of Liam's mouth and nose, watching the rate at which the surface fogged and cleared. " I kin try smelln' salts, but it looks ta me like a coma. Th' blood on 'is lip says he's had a bit of a shock from somethin'; saw a kid's nose do that when he tried to throw magic at a claim jumper in Brazil once. Izzat kinda like what he was doing?