Cocky Littlebird

I crunch the plastic bottle in my palms, tossing it into the trash can. I look over to Clover modestly sipping on the remainder of her water bottle.

Jax: "All done?"

She looks over to me, nodding her head silently as usual.

Jax: "Alright, then let's get back to training. Like I said before,"

I throw up my thumb, pointing it towards myself.

Jax: "I'll be riding shotgun."

I stand up, offering to pull Clover up as well. She takes my hand as I pull her to her feet. We take heavy steps as we approach our warbirds. The soft sand crunching as it gives way under our weight. The two Aerocords lay dormant under the blazing sun, awaiting their orders. Bypassing Spirit, me and Clover walk up to Sakura. Sakura's canopy slides back after seeing our approach, welcoming us inside. I hop in first, stepping over all the dials and switches on the sides. Sat in the rear seat, I look over what's available to me. I have a mimic over the front seats flight controls. Throttle, stick, pedals, even a few weapons switches, and dashboard filled with important displays. Definitely beats the plain old seat and straps I had before...

Clover peaks over the canopy as I begin to buckle myself in. I pause, giving her a small wave before returning to my task. Waving back, Clover hops inside the cockpit's front seat. The canopy slowly returns to its closed position as the beeps and boops sound through the tight cockpit. The hum of the spooling engines whines through the cockpit before crashing into a deep howl. The gauges and dials flick through their encasements before settling on their individual numbers. Strapped in, I gently set my hands on the stick and throttle, ready to fly again.

Jax: "Spirit, take-off and prepare for an autonomous training dogfight... Hey Clover, this is our second time flying in the same bird huh?"

Clover: "Yeah it's a little scary..."

Spirit's engines begin their battle cries as she gains speed down the runway.

Jax: "Scary? How so?"

Spirit's nose takes to the skies, leaving us on the sand below.

Clover: "I mean... I have someone watching my every move... Sat less than a foot behind me in a cramped cockpit..."

The stick and peddles move on their own as my hands and feet sit along for the ride.

Jax: "Hehe, I guess if you put it that way it would be a little scary, wouldn't it?"

I glance over my shoulder, watching as the control surfaces deflect in their normal manors. I return my gaze forward, looking at Clover through her top-mounted mirrors.

Clover: "Jax... Are you ready?..."

Clover raises her pink hoodie as her mask falls over her face. The mask's design depicts some sort of goddess with its main three colors being white, green, and golden yellow. White acts as its primary color. The top of the mask flows and twirls into a royal crown of yellow, highlighted by strafes of green. Along the cheeks, small yet vibrant swirls of white cherry blossoms fall from the crown, highlighted in gold. The bottom half of the mask is missing, only having the upper half-covering her eyes and rounding around a portion of her cheeks.

Clover: "Jax?.."

I lean back, looking into the deep blue skies above. Spirit circles in the sky, twirling and spinning as I fade back into reality.

Jax: "Ready as ill ever be."

With confirmation, the throttle in my left hand begins to slide forward. The deep howl cries higher in pitch as we begin to jostle down the makeshift runway. As the stick slides back, the sands below begin to seemly fall from beneath us. We gain speed as Spirit falls in line beside us, awaiting to begin combat. As we borderline the speed barrier, I give out Spirit's call.

Jax: "Spirit, break off left before turning back in 10 seconds later. After merging with the target, engage in a friendly engagement. Weapons and Cloak disabled. Flight preset Royal Sakura."

Receiving her order, Spirit breaks off as instructed. Her once large airframe disappears into a small insignificant dot each passing second. A few seconds later, Clover too breaks off in the opposite direction. Silently counting to 10 before turning to engage. As the 10 seconds pass the stick pulls back, aligning a merge with the bandit in the distance. The throttle slides the rest of the way forward. Turning the howl into a large bellowing cry. No longer having a direct visual with the bandit due to the fat seat blocking of me, I instead watch the radar displayed in front of me. I watch as the dot closes in on us with incredible speeds. Vanishing from the radar display, I peak up until, BOOM.

We merge, circling in for the killing shot. Spirit may be a smart aircraft, but without a pilot, she's still leagues behind what an average pilot can achieve. That being said, Spirit is still more than capable of pressuring the green pilot, Clover.

Clover's breaths become sharp and jagged as she fights the massive G loads. Clover janks Sakura around the sky, hunting for any opportunity to end her aggressor. Running off sensory and internal cameras alone, Spirit begins to lag behind. There's a limit to how much Spirit can read in a fight. Her autonomous capabilities of course weren't prioritized in favor of a situation reading pilot. But she has enough knowledge of past fights and our guideline duels to at least put up a threat. Clover maneuvers Sakura around the crisis crossing fight. Snapping around the skies as the two planes dance around each other, meer feet from contact.

Sensing her losing battle in the vigorous nose-to-nose dogfight, Spirit begins to lower her nose. Exchanging her altitude for more speed, she resets the fight back to the equal, beginning stages. Dragging the fight to the sands below in the process. We spiral around each other to the ground, mimicking a tornado narrowing down to its base. As the ground seemingly races up towards us, we split off, chasing the other bandit's tail. We're in Clover's strong area, a rate fight. The last time we did this was when I was in Spirit, ending in me lost horribly... Spirits' attempt most likely will end the same. The question is, will Clover correct last time's fatal mistake? As expected, we close in on Spirit tail with relative ease. As we get closer and closer, Sakura's indicated airspeed begins to drop as the stick in my hand draws further back. She's pulling for a kill shot too early...

Jax: "Clover, ease off the stick. At this rate, we're going to end up in an exact repeat of our last duel."

Through her sharp staggered breaths, Clover manages out a single word of argument.

Clover: "... But..."

Jax: "No buts! Go in for the slow easy approach directly behind her. If you go offensive now you'll end up with no speed and no agility to cash in later!"

Understanding my plea, Clover eases off the stick. Sakura's indicated speed falls right back into the green zone as we slide right behind Spirit. Following in the footsteps I showed her, Spirit suddenly janks hard, hoping to force an overshoot. With the extra speed I instructed Clover to save, Sakura snaps back. Following the helpless Spirit through her attempt. Spirit makes panicked efforts to throw us from her six, but it's useless. We follow her through every maneuver she makes. And eventually, the three-second call rings out from Clover.

Clover: "... That's... Three!.."

The G loads stop as Clover levels out Sakura.

Jax: "Spirit disengage, form up on the Royal Sakura."

Clover's heavy breaths begin to stabilize as we fly off into nowhere. I look over my shoulder, watching as Spirit gently sways around in her assigned formation. I peak over the seat, gazing into Clover's masked face as I lay out a witty remark.

Jax: "So, how do you feel? Bringing down the skies biggest threat?"

Clover: "I feel great!.."

Jax: "Yea? You can take down the skies' biggest threat. But can you take down its greatest pilot!?"

Clover throws out a remark herself, catching me off guard from the unexpected reaction.

Clover: "I don't think I can shoot myself down Jax... Can you show me how?.."

Clover's mask slides out of view, Displaying her excessively wide smirked face. Each day this girl catches me off guard in some fashion... Doesn't she know how to play by the rules!?

Jax: "You little... Fine then! Let's have another round, you versus me."

Clover: "I don't know... If I could take down the world's greatest plane... Its pilot must be just as bad right?.."

Jax: "You wanna bet!? LET'S BET!"

With Clover's ballys challenge, we land. Allowing me to jump into Spirit. We take to the skies once more and commence duels till the blue skies turn red. In which case, Clover had no choice but to eat her words. The poor, poor child lost to a staggering 2-30. She gave me absolutely no choice, after all...

N O M E R C Y G I V E N T O T H E C O C K Y L I T T L E B I R D . . .