Welcome to Gaia! ::

((By all means, go for it. Inventiveness is encouraged. I like the Vizierat thing you designed by the way. I'm very happy with how this RP is turning out so far.))

Akito pondered the offer for a mement before yet another squadron of ships appeared on the horizon. "This could work, I suppose," Arilam said over the com. Arilam fired a spray of bullets into the oncoming ships, scattering them before he lowered his bike into the larger ship and docked into the small hangar inside the ship. Disengaging the engine, he jumped through the corridors and hallways before reaching the cockpit.

Glancing around the cockpit, Arilam could tell this was a well-modified machine. He wasn't well-versed in the mechanics of ships larger than his airbike, but he could tell this was not your standard ship. Approaching the man in the pilot's seat, he crossed his arms and gazed out the window at the firefight, "Got anything you want me to do? Seems you might need an extra pair of hands to survive this fight."

Karawan stepped out of the Sakura tree, the trees gentle petals falling in a torrent of wind coming from overhead. The entire school was awake and looking out of their windows, terror in their eyes. The time difference was disarming and so was the distance. Karawan had studied the theory of extra-continental arboring, but had never actually done it. He'd taught the theory, wrote papers on the theory, but had never accomplished it in praxis. Smoothing out his clothes, he was happy enough to not be in two pieces.

He knew that he needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Seeing the dogfight overhead, he knew that any sudden appearance of a Duatians would be seen as suspicious and conspicuous, especially a Duatian in Vizier Robes. He pointed his finger and shot a vine around his long red hair, tying it down and along his back piece for ease of travel. Before he could arouse suspicions he focused his magik to all the trees in the vacinity, forming a line of trees between the school and his aunt's house on the other side of the capitol city. Using his wooden disks, he manipulated them into stairs, each one moving up and replacing the other as he climbed them. Once he got to the tree tops, he bent them and jumped from one to the other. At this rate, he'd be there in before the sun crept fully over the horizon.

How do I explain this all to my aunt? So many thoughts flew through his mind: stay safe, stay calm, and stay clear of the Vizieriat.

((See y'all tomorrow))

It wasn't exactly how he had intended things to go, but Robert was cutting as much of a bloody swath through the opposing fleets as possible.

By no means was this bloody swath very large; despite the prowess of its captain, the Red Vulture wasn't a warship. Now it was cruising, though, magically generated air filling its sails and its props retracted, as they'd do more harm than good. The Vulture was busy clawing for altitude, heading upwards at an almost 45 degree angle. If Robert got hit, he wanted some space to fall to see if he could get things running again.

Either way, he was climbing straight for the clouds, and apparently his enemies didn't like it.

Shell after shell screamed by the Vulture. Robert glanced back, yelling orders to various men, most of whom were working at half productivity due to the steep incline of the deck. He was outrunning the ships themselves, but he wasn't escaping their weapons. The higher clouds beckoned tantalizingly only a thousand yards ahead, offering concealment and altitude, both very valuable things.

A chunk of the starboard aft flew away as a shell hit it, wooden and steel splinters filling the air behind the vessel. Robert cursed. The hit had come altogether too close to one of the air orbs. Lurching, the Vulture began to lose altitude. The air orb was offline, temporarily probably, but now Robert had to deal with his bucking craft, intending to use his fall to gain power and speed so as to pull away, dropping into below-floating-earth clouds for a hiding place.

Pirouetting downward, Robert spotted another airship flying low and level to the earth. For no other reason than a thing to concentrate on during the maneuver, Robert pulled out of his dive, the acceleration gained from the drop causing him to gain distance on and then pass the other craft. As he passed, not sure if anyone would see him, he jauntily waved, grinning oddly.

Karawan ran through the streets in the early morning, noticing the citizens rousing from their sleep. He'd abandoned the tree-road he created, deciding it was a bit conspicuous and needed to remain undercover. He neared his aunt's house, he noticed that in this part of the city, the rich part, houses were still quiet and no one was stirring.

As he reached his aunt's gate, the wooden disks around him showed his calming down. The structure of the gate was made of coursing and cascading white-water. Knocking was of no avail, the pressure would tear off his hand. And using vines to leap over was useless because the water grew to halt any intruder. He couldn't wait for them to stir to let him in, what if he was discovered. He'd wanted to practice offensive magiks, after all, between teaching and his Viziership, he never had time to fool around.

Whipping a thick vine against the ground with his left hand, he sent sprays of leaves out of his right, forming small holes in the gates structure. Each wave of water criss-crossed each other in intricate spirals and filigrees. The holes weren't big enough to leap through, so he conjured up a tree to part the waters so he could walk through it, but the tree was instanly sawed in half. What a sophisticated gate you've erected uncle, he thought.

Sitting on a engorged flower he had raised up about fifteen feet from the ground, he noticed the water thining out. He realized that if he could go high enough, the water gate would thin out enough so he could leap through it safely. Placing both palms upward, he concentrated hard on the flowers roots, and began to rocket upward. The Water Gate followed, its rapids thining out immensly as he rose, higher and higher in the air. He didn't notice through his concentration, but he was nearing the cloud line, and the water was still not thin enough. He raised his hands high above his head, the flower seat not spinning, forming a torrent of leaf and root. It seamed that the higher he climbed, the water became smarter, and began thickening up.

Realizing that this plan had turned to folly, he began to slow down his acceleration into the sky. Feeling the cold air he was so unused to, desiring always to be close to the Wood and to the earth that held it, he breathed a deep sigh of relief as he began his slow discent back to the ground to think of another plan.

Just then, he heard the growing groan of the propellers and flaping sails of an airship. He flipped around, attempting to dodge the wooden craft with its white and blue sails. But before he could descend sharply, it knocked him off his flower seat and sent him plummeting down down, into the hold of the Wood Karawan had so longed for.

Arilam studied the man. The man's words did nothing to encourage Arilam to trust him. 'Just like all mercs, this one only fights for money. I guess the price the Queen offered wasn't enough to bid his life on.'

Arilam was uncertain about why the man would be kind enough to help him escape the firefight from earlier. What was in it for him, to help a random pilot trying to get through a fight into opposing airspace? Arilam would have to guard himself (and his wallet) well, until he understood the man's intentions.

Arilam looked out the window and watched the clouds as the ship flew calmly over them. "Out of curiosity, what kind of goods do you sell?" Arilam asked, but before the man answered, something caught his eye.

As they were passing over an Olympian magik school, Arilam caught sight of a mage rising up through the air on a... flower? As well as a body of water that followed nearby. The boy was right in the ship's path, and before Arilam could warn the captain, the boy had panicked and fallen off the flower into the clouds.

"Damn, hold that thought!" Arilam yelled, racing through the hatch to the docking bay. He flipped a switch to open the gate, as he hopped on his bike and roared the air orbs to life. "Follow me down!" he yelled through the com as he blew out of the boy and dived through the clouds.

For what seemed like forever, he flew blind through the white, before bursting through the cloud cover and into sight of the ground. He caught sight of the falling boy and accelerated, pushing the limits of his air orbs. He was making headway, but wasn't sure if he could make it. He got closer: 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet, 5 feet, 1 foot. He reached out his hand...

Arilam saw the boy's attempt at saving himself with hope, but it withered as the board reverted to its original size. Putting on one last burst of speed, Arilam charged forward, reaching as far as he could.

With one last grapple, Arilam grabbed ahold of the back of the boy's cloak, before rearing the nose of the bike in the air, trying to boost himself back into the sky. He opened the glide wings, and hit his head on the controls as the bike greatly slowed, and began to float over the streets, early onlookers looking at it with fear and wonder. Blood dripping down his goggles, he typed in a small code, initiating the autopilot, and the bike began to hover back up to the merc's ship. Arilam felt his vision grow blurry, and tightened his grip on the cloak. 'Must've hit my head harder than I thought. Gotta hold on... just until we get back to the ship.'

{{okay left behind alittle bit rying to catch up now}}

"for the love of..." Rannek's curse was yanked from his mouth as the hallway depressurized.

His fist slammed on the controls to the side hatch, closing it tight before anything was pulled from the shelves and sucked out. Tenkyuu watched as a few loose papers whipped past him from the cockpit up into the opening towards the back of the hall. He ran fast for the cockpit, his fingers flying fast about the controls. The White Hawks sails folded closed and the air orbs glowed a bright blue to keep it hovering in one place. Moving back into the hall and down into the hold he came up wearing a large pack across his shoulders.

Rannek ran up to the top deck and into the open air. He finished strapping the loops about his shoulders, chest and thighs. Snapping a pair of googles about his head he looked over the edge of his ship and spotted the airbike far below just as it caught the falling youth.

"Stay safe girl I'll be right back." He said to his ship as he slipped off the edge of the Hawk and went into a free fall.

He fell fast for a few seconds before reaching to the rip-cord and giving it a yank. The pack sprang open and locked into place, forming into a short pair of glider wings. He grabbed the reins that had folded down before him and steered straight toward the air-bike that was slowly climbing for the skies. Rannek's Eyes grew very wide when he watch the vine sprout around the bike. He landed just after the plant-life enveloped the bike, his impact sending the whole thing rocking back and forth. He unsnapped the pack and left it fall away before it ripped him from his precarious perch.

"Kid your going to have to calm down or we're all going to crash." Rannek shouted over the wind, "I know this is going to freak you out but please stay calm."

His hand came up and the metal of the glove he wore seemed to meld and form into a short blade along the back of his hand. He sliced several of the vine free and tore at the others to get to the controls of the bike, trying his best with his free hand to try and keep the other two on the bike.

"Gods this thing wasn't ment for this many people." He swore as his knifed hand finally started typing at the controls, "Damn it man what kind of model is this?!?"

Again the metal seemed to melt and mold around him, this time however his hand sunk into the dash of the air bike. The bike lurched and started to climb fast making it's way toward his ship, they were going to live; just barely. It was another few moments before the landed in the small hanger of the White Hawk, the hatch closing behind them and repressurizing the now very cramped chamber.