Chapter Twenty-Six

There was the long, drawn out moment. An awkward one, where both sides weren’t quite sure what to do or say.

Up to me, I guess.

Amber stepped up until she was next to Morgan. Close enough that her shoulders almost brushed the taller girl’s. She smiled at team Glasir. “Hey guys. Nice to see you.”

“Likewise!” Jess said. She was currently riding piggy-back on Oli, who barely seemed to notice that she had someone clinging onto her. “Tell us about your team!”

Amber nodded and half-turned to gesture to Cassy and Jade. “This is Cassy, our team’s flier and expert in all things fashionable. And that’s Jade, she’s got a really cool scarf.”

“Wow, a cool scarf, what a ringing endorsement,” Jess deadpanned.

Grinning, Amber shook her head. “You don’t get it, it’s a really cool scarf.”

Jade tugged on the end of said scarf and it writhed around like a coiling snake, part of it wiggled up to cover her mouth a bit more. Jade is surprisingly outgoing most of the time, but she looks shy. I’m starting to think she’s just playing into the stereotype.

“Oh, uh guys, this is team Glasir, they saved my hide when I first got to Agartha. That’s Cecilia, Jess and Oli, who are either an item or are very, very good friends, and uh,” Amber hesitated as she looked to the final member of the team, the shorter brunette with the quarter-staff. “Emilia, right?”

The girl nodded once.

“Hey guys,” Cecilia said. “Nice to see two teams that are already getting along.”

“Is that Evalyn’s team back there?” Amber asked. It was hard to miss the girl and her teammates, seeing as they were all gathered not two dozen meters away, but she had to ease into the conversation somehow.

“Yeah, team Helskor,” Cecilia confirmed. “They seem pretty nice so far. You’ve met?”

“They’re in the same year,” Jess said. “Of course they’ve met.”

“Eh, we didn’t interact too much with the other teams until a few weeks in when we started doing group stuff,” Cecilia said.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure you tried to interact with that boy in team Tarnkappe,” Jess said.

Cecillia mock-glared at her teammate. “Shut up you. He was cute.”

Cassy stepped up, broom held across her shoulders with her arms draped over the handle. Amber didn’t miss the way Jess and Oli stared at Cassy’s stomach, nor did Cassy herself, if Amber were to judge by her grin. “So, you girls are part of the flight club?”

“First rule of flight club,” Jess said. “Is never stop mentioning flight club.”

Cecilia laughed. “It’s pretty fun. Most teams get their own specialities in later years, and we went all-in for rapid response stuff. It’s why we’ve got our own chopper.”

“You get a chopper?” Cassy asked.

“Well, it’s the Air Force’s, but it has our name on it,” Cecilia said.

“We got one of the techs to agree to add some decals to it, but we can’t decide what to put,” Jess said. “I want a hot naked chick riding a bomb, but Cecilia vetoed that.”

The team’s leader sighed. “You’ll just get some CO’s panties in a twist and then no one will be allowed to have decals.”

“What do us first-years get to do, then?” Amber asked.

Cecilia rubbed at the back of her neck. “They try to make some of it more fun, but a lot of it is learning and memorizing things. It wasn’t until year two that we got to really do things.”

“That’s lame,” Cassy said. Her broom lifted, and with her arms around it, that left her hanging a foot off the ground. “I can fly already, you know?”

“Neat,” Cecilia said. “You’ll get to fly a bunch with some boring missions, and they might let you sit on as a co-pilot on some of the helicopters. They have four seats in the cockpit, so you get to play with the least important things.”

“I got to launch rockets at a nest of boogiemen once,” Jess said.

Cecilia rolled her eyes. “If you pass the tests and such, then by next year you can co-pilot prop-planes and spend more time in the simulators. It’s pretty cool. This year we’re supposed to get enough hours on to fly basically solo.”

“Basically?” Cassy asked.

“I mean, the planes aren’t yours, you can’t take them for a joy-ride.”

“Not with that attitude,” Cassy said.

Their conversation stalled when a young soldier moved over to them, a clipboard held before him. “Hello everyone, we will be starting in just a moment. If you could join us, please?”

“Hey,” Cecilia said, stalling the soldier. “What are you planning to do with them today?”

“Introductions and a demonstration flight,” the soldier said. “Lieutenant Garnt is in the hangar now,” he replied.

Cecilia nodded, then turned to her team. “We could bring them with us. We’re heading out with two choppers, there’s room for six in each.”

“Oh, the fresh meat would get to see us at work,” Jess said.

“Go with you guys where, exactly?” Amber asked.

“Someone spotted a nest maybe half an hour’s flight from here. We’re going to burn it out. Simple as a mission can be. We shouldn’t even step out of the chopper at all,” Cecilia said. “Should be plenty safe. I’ll talk to Garnt if you want me to.”

Amber looked to her team, and they all seemed ready to shove the choice onto her, though Cassy did seem eager. “I think that would be fine,” she said. “As long as we can include team Helskor too. It wouldn’t be fair to play favourites.”

Cecilia nodded along, and marched into the hangar to bee-line towards a man standing by a whiteboard. Amber and the others followed her in.

The hangar was... a hangar. Amber had never visited one before, but she’d seen them in movies and TV shows. Her dad loved old war documentaries, and she could remember falling asleep on the couch a few times to the tune of a man talking about tactics and history. The hangar she was in was little different to those she’d seen then.

The walls all curved up above, and there were tool-boxes and other things waiting by the sides. A plane with a tarp over some parts of it sat at the back. Not a big jet or anything, but a prop-plane with two propellers back-to-back at the front of it, and its engine cowling opened to the side for maintenance.

The place smelled like oil and grease and exhaust fumes, but the few people she saw there didn’t seem to mind.

Two rows of four seats were set out before a whiteboard and the lieutenant that Cecilia was talking to. He was an older man, maybe in his thirties, and for all his straight-backed posture and tight uniform, he managed to look quite excited as he spoke with Cecilia.

Team Helskor moved toward the seats, and in doing so, ran into team Svalinn. “Hey Evalyn,” Amber said.

“Amber!” Evalyn cheered. “You guys are joining the Flight Club?”

“I think so,” Amber said. “We’ll see after this, I guess.” She gestured to the three girls with Evalyn. “We haven’t actually been introduced yet. I’m Amber, this is Morgan, Cassy, and Jade.”

Evalyn turned to her teammates. “Let me do the honours then. This is Mary.” She gestured to a shorter girl with her hands folded behind her back. Mary smiled and pulled an arm out to wave. “That’s Victoria.” Victoria was a tall black-haired girl who nodded. She looked like a serious young woman, but not on the same level as Morgan. “And this is Margaret.”

Margaret stepped up, eyes locking onto Amber’s for a moment before she looked down, blushed, then mumbled something before hiding behind Evalyn.

“Uh, okay,” Evalyn said. “Anyway, pleased to meet you all.”

They didn’t have much time for more than that, the lieutenant, Garnt, asked them all to sit down. “I intended to go over a few things today, but magical girl Cecilia here has brought up a suggestion that I think sounds quite reasonable, so I’ll extend that offer now and we’ll see from there. If you’re interested in seeing some of what the flight club offers, then your two teams can join team Glasir aboard a pair of black hawks heading west to clear out a nest. It’s the kind of simple mission that being part of the flight club allows you to participate in as of your third year. Are you interested?”

Team Svallin unanimously agreed, and Heskor did as well, though it took a bit of whispering between them before they did so.

“Brilliant. Then let me go over an abridged version of our introductions,” Lieutenant Garnt said. “The flight club is a joint Norumbega-Air Force operated club that meets here, in this maintenance hangar, once a week. Our activities are separated by year, but mostly include lessons on flight operations and piloting. You get to join in on training flights, learn to pilot simple aircraft like that AT-8 Trainer over here.” He gestured to the plane at the back of the hangar.

Amber found herself a little eager, but also somewhat reluctant. I just want an instant payout, instead of having to learn anything, but it might be worth it.

“Our goal is for members of the club to get a full civilian pilot license by the end of year one, and a total of twenty-hours of flight time by the end of year two. Basically, you’ll be trained to solo-pilot a small single-engine craft in standard meteorological conditions.”

“So no fighter jets?” Cassy asked.

The lieutenant grinned. “I’m afraid not. The qualifications to become a fighter pilot are a bit more complex. But this is a club that leaves you with something handy at the end. It’s the kind of experience that will make it easier to join certain combat teams in the future. Over half the magicals in the current rapid-response roster were members of the flight club.”

Morgan raised a hand, and Garnt pointed to her. “Yes?” he asked.

“Is this like the firearms club? Where you get some military-grade certifications after some time? Or are all the certifications civilian-grade?”

“Civilian, I’m afraid. They are accepted by the FAA, Transport Canada and the SCT. Basically, you can fly a civilian craft anywhere in North America. A few teams have used light aircraft to reach Agarthan breaches in hard-to-reach locations before.”

Morgan nodded. “Thank you.”

“Any questions? Usually I have graphs and images, but a ride-along is a lot more amusing.” The officer might have been an adult, but the gleam in his eye belonged more on the face of an excited kid.

Seeing as no one had any objections, the lieutenant nodded and gestured to team Glasir. “Alright,” Cecilia said. “I guess you can come with us. We have flight uniforms for most things, but since we’re doing more magical stuff today, I don’t think we’ll need those. Just your normal costume should do.”

Everyone got up, and started following team Glasir out.

Next to the hangars were the pads where helicopters landed. Amber recognized the location a bit, from when she arrived at the academy, though it was a little vague. She hadn’t been paying as much attention as she could have that night.

“How do you wanna split things?” Cecilia asked, “We have room for six per chopper. I’m thinking two per team? It’ll give everyone a chance to mingle.” the magical girl had to raise her voice. Two of the helicopters on the pads were starting up, propellers spinning and creating a wind that even as far away as they were, they could feel.

“How do we choose?” Amber asked.

Cecilia blinked, then pointed to Amber, Jade, and two girls from team Helsket, Victoria and Evalyn. “You four with me and Jess. The rest with Oli and Emilia.”

“You’re splitting me and Oli up?” Jess asked.

“Don’t need to traumatize the newbies,” Cecilia explained. “Come on, Jess and I will be in the Glasir chopper!”

***