Darkness surrounded her on all sides, but it was not an empty darkness. It was filled with sound and air and it made her head spin. Holly realized very quickly that this was because her eyes were closed, and upon opening them she discovered that she was tumbling from an impossible height toward a dirty, brownish plain below.

Oh, she thought. This could be worse.

Holly twisted her abdomen and rolled until her feet were pointing toward the ground. She then extended her body to its full height, and activated her wings, bringing her descent to an abrupt halt.

Okay, where's everyone else? If they were all falling, I'd be able to see them below me now. They're not there, so… am I alone? Did she really just teleport me all the way up here? What good does that do her?

She tapped a panel on her helmet and brought up her instrument panel HUD. The altimeter read 3 kilometers, which was a little closer to the thin-oxygen barrier than Holly would have liked. Thankfully, her helmet did include a high-altitude mode, which she promptly engaged. A compact oxygen mask slid out and locked itself in place over her head as the helmet's airtight gel seals activated.

Now it's just a matter of getting to the ground and finding the rest of my team. The coins can come second.

She curled downward into a nosedive, picking up speed before leveling out. She scanned the ground below her, finding the thin, twisting black line of a road to follow. However, she also found something she did not want to see- a faint, flickering glint just out of visual range. It was something she had been taught to fear in the Lower Elements Police Academy, what the old fly-boys called the "Shining Omen", and the fastest way to ruin a smoothly-running aboveground mission.

Her helmet picked up the hailing frequency and immediately tuned itself to it, transmitting the sharp crackle straight into her ears.

"This is Hikaru Ichijo, Skull One to unidentified bandit. Change heading to 099 and depart the airspace immediately, or you will be destroyed."

Fighter jets. Why did it have to be fighter jets?

Holly tapped a panel on her helmet to respond.

"This is Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police. I'm just passing through, so why don't you drop the professional act? There's two ways this can go down, one where both of us walk away and one where only I do."

"Unidentified bandit, I have achieved missile lock. If you do not comply within fifteen seconds, you will be destroyed."

Holly could swear she heard Kenny Loggins playing faintly in the background of the pilot's transmission. The glint jolted forward and began to rise to her level.

He won't back off. I'll have to knock him out then. It'll be difficult, but not impossible.

The jet's whining engines became audible as the bulky silhouette rose from above a layer of low-hanging clouds and finally moved into visual range. It was a big, heavy fighter, with swing-wings. Holly would have pegged it as a US Navy F-14, but its shape was a little different, the engines much larger, the tail-planes completely missing.

It's an unorthodox design, but that shouldn't make fighting it much more difficult. I can do this.

"Your fifteen seconds are up, unidentified bandit. You've just entered… the DANGER ZOOOOONE!" the pilot sang, accompanying Mr. Loggins' dramatic cries.

The jet sped up, banking slightly as it pulled closer in behind Holly. The elf countered by increasing the speed, the wings roaring as they approached their maximum speed.

He'll have the speed advantage, but I'll be far more maneuverable.

"Beginning intercept," warned the pilot. A low, long bark signaled the firing of a Vulcan gun pod. Holly twisted her body, rolling to the left as the wall of red-hot tracer rounds tore through where she had been seconds ago.

"D'Arvit, he's using guns?!"

Another bark and Holly pulled up, looking back to watch the jet echo her movements as its burst of cannon fire missed.

Maybe I can force him into a stall.

Holly arced further upwards, aiming for the sun which hung above the desert. Her wings pushed hard, carrying her up in a graceful pirouette. Her helmet's built-in tracking system indicated that the jet was still following. The gun roared again and Holly managed another dodge, but only just.

I can't keep this up much longer. If even one of those rounds hits a wing, I'll lose my maneuverability advantage. And if one hits me, I'll get turned into a fine red mist.

The tracking system indicated that the plane was beginning to lose speed, which meant it was stalling. Now was Holly's chance. She somersaulted backward, now facing the stalling jet, and snapped her Neutrino out of its holster. She fired three shots, each meeting their mark on the aircraft as it lazily floated up towards her. Holly hovered a bit to her right as the jet closed in, her blaster having disabled its control mechanisms and sensors. The huge aircraft lazily floated up, the cockpit passing the hovering elf only inches away. Holly snagged one of the cockpit's latches as it passed by, swinging herself over to straddle the glass.

"Well, it's been fun," she chuckled, "But I'm afraid this dogfight is over, Mr..?"

"Commander Hikaru Ichijo," smiled the pilot behind the glass, flipping up his large helmet's polarized sun-goggles. "And this is far from over."

The nose of the jet, and Holly with it, suddenly rolled backwards. Holly pressed herself closer to the glass in an attempt to stay on.

"What? I shot you three times!"

"This is no ordinary air-superiority fighter," grinned Hikaru. "This is a VF-1S. It's EMP-shielded!"

"I don't care what it is!" screamed Holly, pressing her Neutrino's barrel against the glass. She flicked the setting dial to the cutting beam, but it was no use.

Hikaru shook his head mockingly and twisted his yoke, sending the jet into an aileron roll. Holly was flung from her hold on the canopy, spinning dangerously through the open sky as the jet thundered off, banking to return like some great prowling shark.

If my weapons have no effect, I'll have to get him out of the cockpit… but he can shake me off before I can get anywhere with the Neutrino. I could try mesmerizing him, but it'll be difficult.

The VF-1S completed its banking turn and began to charge toward Holly again, rolling as it approached.

"HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZOOOONE!" screamed Hikaru through the hailing channel as a multitude of white, feathery trails erupted from his jet and arced toward the elf.

"What kind of missiles are those?" cried Holly, turning and revving her wings back up to top speed. She heard the shrill cry of the approaching munitions and swept to the right as a short, gyrating cylinder passed her by.

It's some form of micro-missile… probably not much better than a dumbfire rocket.

Holly was proven wrong when the cylinder spun along its horizontal axis and dove back toward her.

"D'Arvit," she cursed, dipping into a vertical dive. Her helmet informed her that fifty incoming objects had shifted course to intercept her. If the missiles were that good at tracking, the only solution was to outlast their fuel supply.

If it's a circus you want, it's a circus you'll get.

Holly dove toward the ground at maximum speed. A missile pulled up on her left, and she rolled to her right again, turning her ventral surface toward the weapons in order to fire her own. A quick blast from her Neutrino caused the tiny missile to explode into a fiery orb, which took out a few more of its companions. The storm of missiles shifted again toward her current position, and she rolled left to swap places with them, firing again and removing a few more from her pursuers. Her helmet warned her that her altitude was about to drop below one hundred meters, so she somersaulted back up into a foot-down, head-up position and cut her speed in time to avoid becoming a splatter on the dry yellow dirt. She rotated backwards at full speed and watched the missiles at the head of the pack explode harmlessly against the ground, but a few stragglers managed to alter their course in time to follow. Holly rolled back into a prone position and blasted off ahead. The missiles began to draw near, and so Holly pulled up into another vertical climb. The missiles adjusted their flight and began to curve up towards her, only to find her waiting with her Neutrino drawn. She expertly put a blast into each approaching munition but one, which sailed up to her height, ran out of fuel, and fell away.

"Oh, gods," gasped the elf. "I think that might have been the most intense flying I've ever done."

She had little time to celebrate her accomplishment, as a sudden, concussive explosion sent her spinning. An unnatural dizziness settled over her as she felt something warm trickle out of her ears. The wings' emergency stabilization system kicked in, yanking her back into an orderly flight pattern, but her world was still spinning.

A sonic boom… at this range… D'Arvit.

She caught a glimpse of the jet rocketing away over the desert, pulling up to circle back toward her. Holly looked around, desperate for something to use to her advantage. She was recovering from the boom, but another swarm of missiles would be the end of her right now, she was certain. Another advantage had to be found, and as luck would have it, there was one right behind her. A long, shallow plateau rose in a fairly humble manner, not really imposing or majestic. Holly didn't care. It was enough.

Hikaru rolled the VF-1S back in line with the horizon, having completed a perfectly-executed Immelmann. His target was dead ahead, hovering in front of a plateau.

I guess she's given up. Good for her. It makes things easy for me.

Hikaru eased back on the throttle, bringing himself low over the sunbaked dirt. His gun pipper floated into his targeting reticle, and he lowered his finger to the Vulcan pod's trigger.

"I've got you now," he lilted, keeping beat with good old Kenny. He squeezed the trigger down and the elf juked to her left, leaving nothing but the plateau in front of him. Hikaru pulled back on the yoke and deployed his flaps, sailing upwards past the landform.

The pilot roared with laughter through the hailing channel. "Ha-ha! You really thought I would fall for a last-second feint like that? You thought I'd go flying into the cliff? That's the oldest trick in the book! Come on!"

"I didn't think you'd go flying into the cliff," said the elf who swung herself up from the bottom of the jet's nosecone. "You're just too smart for that."

Hikaru knew he should probably roll and shake her off, but he found himself wanting to listen to her some more. She really did have a pretty voice.

"I am pretty smart," he agreed.

"No, I just had you pull up so you would slow down, so I could grab on to this fancy jet of yours."

"It is pretty fancy."

"Yes, it is. Actually, I'd like you to show me more about it. Can you show me the autopilot?"

"Yeah, sure," he giggled.

She'll love this. The autopilot is amazing. I wonder what she'll have me do next.

He flicked a switch on his instrument panel, and the plane leveled out.

"That's really nice," Holly smiled, her voice loaded with the Mesmer. "Now could you step out here for a moment?"

"Of course," Hikaru smiled, pressing the hatch release button. The canopy slid back, and Hikaru undid the clasps on his harness. "Gosh," he said as he was pressed back into his seat by the speed. "It's really windy out here."

"Ooh, you're right," she nodded. "Why don't you open your parachute and shield us from the wind?"

"That's a great idea," he concurred, pulled his emergency chute's ripcord, and flew away.

Holly exhaled with relief and pulled herself into the cockpit, sliding the canopy back into place.

"That was a real pain in the arse," she groaned, clipping the harness down around her. "But at least I got this puppy out of it."

She reached forward and pressed the play button on a cassette deck that had been taped to the instrument panel. The speakers crackled to life, and the elf couldn't help but sing along.

"Right in-tooo the danger zoooooone!"