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The Skies have no Limit

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BdrLineAzn:
Wild Winds Inn

Up early and already downstairs, BdrLine and Tommy converse with each other about the speculation of a saboteur in the race. Up in their rooms, Charles and Tommy are getting ready to go down and meet them.

BdrLine
"So we are going to finish constructing the ship when we get back to our site."

Tommy
"And check everything over?"

BdrLine
"Twice if we have too."

Tommy
"How about the engines, those are way too complicated for us to check."

BdrLine
"I tinkered with Artemis rockets before and I believe they have the same basic design, but all we are looking for is are some obvious tampering to them."

Back upstairs, the two already dressed for the day, go to their bags and bring out their semi-automatic Guards pistols that they kept after their time with the Anvalan Military. With an unknown saboteur on the lose, they decided last night to keep an open eye out for any strange activity. Once holstering them inside their vests, they head down to meet with the other two. BdrLine spots them as they reach the bottom of the stairs and motions for them.

BdrLine
"Hey you two, ready to get this day over with?"

Charles
"Guess so, well you know where I'll be at. Second day of shooting, but I'll keep a watch out for you know what."

BdrLine
"Alright, oh and Courage, you'll be coming with us, we need you to see your ship, and to help finish it as well."

Courage
"Okay then, lead the way."

The four then leaves their table and the Inn to their different destinations.

--Somewhere in Cathedral--

As Charles makes his way to the competition range, he has his eyes and ears open and hearing for anything that seems out of place. Then he heard a gunshot, even with the noise from the crowd, he is able to locate it down an alley where he spots what seems like Plasma on the ground with crates strewn around him and a person he has never seen going over to him and helping him up. Out in the distance, he sees another man running around a corner trying to escape.

Pulling his pistol out, he rushes to the two and checks Plasma.

"Hey there Lieutenant, looks like you almost had a bad day."

He takes a once over and sees that there was no blood or bullet wound in him and turn to the lady.

"Watch him, I try and get our 'friend'"

Leaving the two, Charles runs down the alley way where he saw the man turn. After a few minutes of running, he thinks that he has gotten away until he heard what seems like bird squawks. Cocking the pistol, Charles turns a corner and sees the bird from the Inn and the man who shot Plasma on the ground with claw marks. Holstering his weapon, he goes to the lying body and checks the pulse, he feels a faint beating, and looks at the eagle.

"Nice work, now lets see what is going on."

He picks up the unconscious man and walks back to where he last saw Plasma and the lady. Seeing that he is still there, he goes over to them.

"Got the guy, now what."

--Docks--

What seems like hours, the three has finished building the the whole craft for the race. The design BdrLine went for was that of a plane,  the body slim and arodynamic, only difference was the addition of angled, swept back wings. Inside the pilot seat, only the basic and most simple controls were put in to shave off weight. What sits is only a plain dashboard that only shows the fuel and altitude, rudder pedals, a joystick to control pitch and yaw, finally the seat. As Courage looks inside, he notices a big red button on the joystick.

Courage
"Hey Bdr, whats this?"

At the back installing the two X-02 engines, BdrLine looks over and sees him almost touching the button. Panicking, he quickly goes over and takes his hand away from it.

BdrLine
"Don't touch that, its for emergencies only."

Courage
"What is it them."

BdrLine
"hehe, weeeeell, in an event that somehow you lost control, we place mini rockets under your chair to launch you out if needed, afterwards a parachute will deploy which will bring you down safely. That button is the one that sets it off."

Couarge
"Wait, you mean to tell me, im sitting on explosives!"

BdrLine
"Don't worry it is safe. When Tommy and I looked over everything twice, I highly doubt you will use it. Come on, the engines are almost installed and we need to get this to the track.

Sighing, Courage goes over and helps finish bolting the engines in place. And with the help of an airship with a crane, it lifts off the racer and brings it to the starting track.

--Non-Descriptive Room--

Placing his bird mask on, the Mystery Man turn to see the other person he was talking to earlier in the week.

Mystery Man
"So everything prep and ready?"

Man
"Yes sir, we have taken the Zhao shipping job and two ships heading to Chang-ning as we speak."

Mystery Man
"Good, we may be able to capture the family this time. And the race."

Man
"We have disguised our remaining two ships as Cathedral Militia colors, and will be in the formation overlooking the race. All that remains is your galleon"

Mystery Man
"Excellent, those prototype engines are as good as ours."

Laughing, he exits the room with the other man to launch his plan.

Plasmarobo:
--Alley near Wild Winds Inn--

Plasma pulls himself up off the ground, feeling at his chest, determined to find the bullet hole. Finding nothing he looks around bewildered. He sees Lorena, and turns to her, still pawing at his own chest in disbelief.

Plasma
"What happened!? Why didn't...what?"

He shakes his head and drops his hand from his chest. The mechanical spider scuttles up his arm, coming to rest on his shoulder. It clicks as Plasma looks at the crates, touching one of the broken boxes almost reverently. His gaze flicks up as Charles comes around with the bloody assailant. A sudden, crazed look enters Plasma's eyes and he begins to wave his arms in weird flapping patterns.

Charles
"Got the guy, now what?"

Plasma
"Put him down! Quickly! He might be booby trapped!"

Charles quickly sets down the man. Plasma waves the two back from him.

Plasma
"Stay back. I know this man. We've met once or twice before, and not on good terms. He a mercenary of sorts. Although how he knew..."

His gaze flicks up to Charles.

Plasma
"You need to tell BdrLine something, quick as you can: The control devices are rigged. I don't know if they're designed to crash the ships at a certain place or just misdirect them, but once the engine has been run for more than a minute or two..."

He trails off, staring at the body on the ground. He blinks once. Then whips around and dives at Lorena suddenly, shouting at Charles.

Plasma
"DOWN!"

Charles barely manages to throw himself backwards as the fireball erupts from the man on the ground. It's not very large, but does enough to incinerate the body and would have done for Plasma and Charles had they been any slower. Plasma picks himself up, brushing the dirt and dust from himself and helps Lorena to her feet.

Plasma
"Are you alright? I think I've seen you at the Inn. I'm Plasma and I'm very sorry about all this. I'd forget about it if I were you. Unless you're in the rocket race, in which case you may want to remember."

He gives her a pained smile. Then turns to continue down the alleyway.

Plasma
"You'll have to excuse me. I've got to find the organizers of the race and delay the start if I can. At least long enough to get things sorted out."

He runs off towards the Cathedral Plaza. 

Gryphos:
--Docks--

Michael was just putting his skeleton Squid through some maintenance tests and found nothing mysterious. He thought to himself:

I don't know how long these engines were in that warehouse, but they're in good nick. I'm lucky I found them when I did or someone else would've nabbed them in no time.

At that moment he looked to the gangplank to see Gareth coming aboard.

Gareth
"Well, Michael, this..."

He gestured vaguely at the ship.

"...Is quite something. You taken her out on a test run yet?"

Michael
"Not yet, no. Rather not spoil the engines."

Gareth nodded understandably.

"But anyway, what happened with you and Lyre while we were busy with this?"

Gareth
"Oh, you know. Wandered around town, bought some stuff, went looking for more stuff, got shot at, got shot. You know, the usual."

Michael laughed before suddenly realising he wasn't joking.

Michael
"Flak, what happened? Are you okay?"

Gareth
"I'm fine, but Lyre's gonna be bed bound for a few days back at the Inn. The story is..."

He told Michael about the story with Mockingjay and the firefight at Garrow.

"So you've just been working on the ship, right?"

Michael
"Yep, just tinkering. I did overhear some guy getting punched earlier in that warehouse over there."

Gareth
"What is it with people recently? If they're not getting shot, they're getting punched. Next thing you know people will start blowing up."

Michael
"Very possibly. Anyway, I gotta get this monstrosity ready."

Gareth
"Well, I'll be off. Good luck, don't get blown up."

Michael
"I can't promise anything."

They both laughed as Gareth stepped off the ship and returned to town.

Piemanlives:
--Near the Wild Winds--

She watched him run off, the warning played in her mind, what did he mean I'd be wary if I was in the race, is something wrong with the race? She shook her head, she'd be sure to check the craft again when she got back, first she needed to grab that food.

--Outside Cathedral, Trade Ship Skyrunner--

The few members of the crew scurried about checking to make sure every thing was ready for the test run, the emergency shut off switch was primed and ready, all that remained was to deploy the craft. At the front of the ship was a jury rigged station replacing the front facing gun.

Alex
"Alright, time to fly this thing, Davidson get on the release."

The three of them took position on the craft, a rear facing chaingun was mounted on the back.

Reagan
"Is this thing really nessecary?"

Alex
"For now yes, who knows what might pop in for a shot at the Skyrunner, and with its diminished crew compliment I doubt it can last that long without us."

Reagan
"Oh, you seem to have thought this out."

Richard
"He's a bit of a paranoid like that, anyways I'm ready here, Captain give the signal."

Alex
"Travis, hit it."

Davidson hit the switch, at the same time Richard fired off the engine and the craft flew off into the distance.

Richard
"Captain, I'm just going to say this is still the worst idea you've had in a good while, worse then trying to steal from under the Yeshan Empire during our time in the Firnfield militia!"

The roar of the engine combined with rushing wind almost drowned out what he was saying but he got the gist of it.

Alex
"It worked though didn't it!?"

Richard
"Got me there!"

The two of them shared a laugh, behind them Reagan was just listening, she realized she never really knew the man who she married several years ago. There was no time to dwell on that now however, she needed to watch for anyone aiming to take shots at them and the ship.

Reagan
"Do you guys see anything?!"

Alex
"Huh?! Oh no I don't! Richard do you see anything!?"

Richard
"Negative Cap! Wait, I see something in the distance!"

Alex
"Pull up along side and wave at em!"

Richard pulled the craft along side, the crew looked up at them and waved. They seemed to know what they were doing and yelled words of encouragement. They waved back and flew off, by the time they had launched the balloons and landed they had flown for a total of 12 minutes.

Alex
"I'd say a flight well done, what about you guys?"

Richard
"Thrilling, this craft handled like a beaut!"

He let out a laugh, it wasn't every day he saw him like this. He did seem to be genuinely happy though. He looked over to Reagan who was still looking at Richard, she seemed, down for some reason.

Alex
"How about you, how do you feel about this?"

Reagan
"Huh?-"

She snapped out of whatever thoughts she was thinking and looked at him.

Reagan
"Oh the test was good, I was able to get a decent ark of fire at anything I aimed at why?"

Alex
"Just wondering, also are you alright, you seemed out of it for a moment."

Reagan
"I'm fine, there's the ship, we should probably head back now."

The ship landed next to them, the crane lowered and lifted them back on board. The Skyrunner set a course for Cathedral and headed home.

BdrLineAzn:
--Somewhere In Cathedral--

After the mini fireball engulfing the man, Charles gets back up and sees Plasma running off in one direction. Remembering his warning, Charles turns and run towards the docks where BdrLine and the others are working on their build.

As he arrives there, he sees no one around. Groaning, he Charles paces back and forth wondering where did the go.

"Come on, come on. Ok, ... since nothing is around here I assume they finish with the ship. Now where do you go from there."

Realisation hits him as the race would start in a few hours and most of the competitors would be at the start. He goes off in another sprint to the western edge of the city where the course was laid out.

--Rocket Race Starting Line--

On board the crane airship, BdrLine and the other two leans over the rail as the operator guides them and the ship to the start. From the air, they see how far the actual course was and the many checkpoints.

Placing a hand on his back, BdrLine says to Couarge.

"Look at this, the iconic course. Ready for this."

Courage
*sighing* "Ready as I'll ever be."

Standing back up, Courage digs his hands in his pocket and feels a piece of paper in one of them. Curious, he pulls it out and remembers that one of the ladies at the warehouse gave it to him before they left. As he was about to open it to read it, the operator calls out.

Operator
"About to land, you guys get ready to unhook this thing."

Folding back up and placing it in his pocket, he, BdrLine, and Tommy goes over to the side holding onto the railings as the operator lowers the airship. At a safe distance from the ground, they jump and land on the floor. Going over to the straps, they unhook them and soon their rocket ship is place I. one of the open slots. The crane ship then leaves the area to continue with the rest of it's jobs.

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