Taking Flight, Taking Flight

"I love it. You did an amazing job with this, truly."

With a broad smile, Karma's eyes remained fixated on the ship and the lovely painting on its body.

She had always found Lulu's ability to be admirable, so much so that she was left speechless at times; sometimes it was hard to compliment things that were just so good, they leave you lost for words.

Lulu is so good that calling her talented seemed to be the go-to phrase to throw out at her, but she despised that word the most. She would get angry at the mere utterance of that word, something she rarely ever did.

Karma had once asked her why she hated the use of that word, that whenever she heard it her face would scrunch up, and the answer she was given was simple; saying she was talented sounded to her like they were dismissing all the work and effort she put in to get proficient in the craft.

That simple explanation gave Karma an understanding, she now knew why she grew angry when hearing those words. She would also be frustrated if someone had decided to chalk up all her efforts to something as simple as talent. Things like time, effort, stress, and pain went into what the two of them did to improve themselves

"You think so?"

Tilting her head, Lulu gazed at it quizzically. She was always this way when it came to her work. No matter what anyone else says, she'd always look at them in either a negative or just a not-so-positive manner.

"Of course! I've always been honest with you about how great and skilled you are."

"... Sure, I'll take your word for it. I don't feel like going over it again to fix mistakes anyway, even if I accidentally made your forehead bigger than it usually is."

Looking at Karma's resolute gaze for a moment she shrugged her shoulders and sighed as she began to close all the paints she had opened.

"Wait- what?"

"Nothing."

Pretending she hadn't said anything, Lulu dropped the paint brushes that had been used in the bucket of water, ignoring Karma who was badgering her about how prominent her forehead was as she examined the painting.

Chuckling, Lulu went to the back of the ship, where you could enter the ship from, and looked up to the back jet thrusters.

The thrusters were blocky and before she had painted them they seemed to be a bit strange when matched with the body of the ship.

"Hey Karma, are these thrusters from another ship?"

"I think so, I found them somewhere out in the junkyard. I didn't know how to mess with all that machinery hoopla in the engine, so I just pulled it off and replaced it with a more usable-looking one."

"Hmm, "More usable-looking" are you telling me it's not completely usable?"

She raised her eyebrows when hearing that, looking at Karma who had approached her.

"This is a junkyard, Lulu."

"Oh yeah..."

Going silent, she looked at the thrusters for a few moments before sighing and running her metal hand through her hair.

"Well, I don't want either of us dying if we ever took this bird off the ground. I'll look at it."

Sliding her coat off and dropping it on the closest desk, she stepped up to the thruster, glazing her eyes over it before finding how it was attached.

"Can you hand me the screwdriver you used for these, please?"

"Yep- hereeee ya go."

"Thank youuu~."

Taking the tool she quickly removed the screws and pulled off the metal covering the thruster's inside mechanics and the rest of its coverings revealing its insides.

"Hmmm..."

Scrutinizing the wires, circuits, and pipes that filled up the thruster she observed and tried to spot any defects she could see.

"Yep, it's certainly usable... No major wires out of place or tubes with dangerous cracks or chips in them. One thing, we'll have to change the pipes and the way they connect with the components because these won't work when being used with an energy crystal."

Energy crystals were quite different as a power source when compared to the normal engines that were used to power Detrid vehicles, not including the transport and carriers made for military use. When it came to giving out energy, a raw energy crystal trumped the widely used Fulcore engines.

A raw energy crystal is fused with Flauna as it is bathed in it for a grouping of cycles, at the minimum of twenty cycles, where the color of said crystals changes depending on the time it spent submerged in Flauna, purple crystals such as the one Karma had put in the engine were submerged in highly saturated Flauna for fifty to a hundred cycles - meaning it was a third rate crystal, rare, but not the rarest.

There were certain pipes, wiring, and circuits that did not work with certain types of crystals, luckily for Lulu in this case, it was only the pipes that needed to be changed.

"So, what do we need, different pipes?"

Looking into the air for a moment, Lulu shifted through her head trying to remember what her mother had taught her before some cylinder objects began to pop up along with her mother's words.

"Hmmm, yes. We'll need Cyrex 42-B pipes, ah, we'll need at least twenty of them, they are quite small."

Placing a hand on her chin, Karma nodded her head before shaking it and sighing.

"Cyrex 42-B pipes... mhm, nope, I don't remember which pipes those were. Remind me please."

"It's those small blue pipes, marked as C-42-B in big and bold letters. They are often used for hover boxes and transport units, as well as the atomized units, those wouldn't be here though."

Not wasting a moment she quickly described the objects, almost going off into a tangent about another machine.

"Yeah, even when they become junk they're recycled by the Towers and other military powers, anyways, I'll find them real quick for you, just give me a few moments, yeah?"

"Gotcha."

Nodding her head and giving her a thumbs up, Lulu watched as she walked off, checking the other machines in the warehouse before leaving to check the rest of the junkyard.

Returning her attention to the ship she went ahead and pulled off the coverings of all the other thrusters, she looked at their inside and scratched her head, realizing that all of them were nearly suffering from the same issue.

"Ok, hey Karma!"

Trusting the girl's hearing abilities she called out to Karma, waiting a moment for a shout to come back her way, her ears twitching.

"Yeah!?"

"We might need maybe sixty-eighty of those pipes and some reddened and blued wired, about maybe twenty geters in length!"

Shouting to her the estimations of what they needed Lulu's ears twitched once more before she mapped out what would go where when the parts were brought to her.

"Ok!"

Haaa - Sighing, Lulu sat on the ground after hearing a confirmation, laying down while huffing a heavy breath, she was exhausted but not tired. She wanted to do what needed to be done and help Karma finish up her ship.

....

After a short while of Karma bringing in the parts and parts and the long while of the two of them putting the parts in their places, they were finally finished, with Lulu putting the engine coverings back on after she replaced some of the floorings in the ship, she sat down with Karma.

"Well that's that, we've got most of everything cleaned up now."

Tossing the remainder of the parts she brought back, and those they replaced off to the side and out of the perimeter of the ship, Karma looked at the ship impatiently.

"Yep."

Giving a simple reply, Lulu nodded her head and leaned back in her seat, she was tired as she flinched at the movement of her legs and arm, due to the braces on them being subpar and not up to standard, they were quite uncomfortable to wear and she fell slight pain in the areas where her nerves weren't burnt.

"What do you think of it Karma, your ship I mean?"

"What do you mean?"

Not answering Lulu's question Karma raised her own, confusing Lulu.

"I mean what do you think-"

"No, not that. What do mean by "your ship"?"

This time, interrupting her Karma clarified what she meant by her question, focusing on a couple of words she had spoken.

"Well, it is your-"

Not understanding why she was so focused on those words, Lulu attempted to explain what she meant by her words, only to be interrupted once more.

"No, it's our ship, Lulu. I built this ship for the both of us."

Making a statement, Karma asserted her point even further by pointing her head to the work they had done together and then pointing to the image that had just recently been painted on the ship's exterior.

"... Alright."

Even though she tried to hide it, Karma was able to spot the slight smile on her face, turning to the ship before returning to look at Lulu, raising a question with a grin.

"Say... Wanna go out for a ride?"

Ignoring her slight pain looked at Karma with a blank stare before flashing her one of her most brilliant smiles.

"You know it."

....

Wuuuoooooooom! - The most unique engine sound that the two girls had ever heard resounded out in their ears as they started up the ship, twisting the crooked key in the ignition; its loud and resounding tempo replaying as the ship shook for only a moment.

With its start-up, many things in the cockpit lit to life, the buttons above and in front of the two lit up along with a few noticeable buttons and levers, that they both threw to the back of their minds for the moment.

There were only two seats in the cockpit, and there were some durable lounge chairs that Karma had found in a torn-up transport carrier. After fixing them up and making something out of them, she bolted them onto the ship after slapping a large blue L and a red K on the back of the two seats.

Lulu's seat was placed in the pilot's position while Karma's seat was placed as Co-Pilot, even though that's how it was set up, Karma was sitting in the pilot's position due to her being the only one of the two that had some form of flying experience.

"Hey, Lulu, where did we move the autopilot function again?"

"Er, top left, left corner, I think?"

"Let me- nope, not the right button."

Pressing a green button, the ship slightly lowered as its legs bent in, pressing the button once more the ship returned to its original state. Turning to Lulu she heard her nervous chuckle as she flipped through a book titled "Ship Controls for Larguts".

"Sorry, it should be the blue button with the ship on it though. I don't remember where we put it."

"That's fine, um, yes here it is. Alight, remember to remind of this, we need to label all these buttons."

"For sure."

Putting a piece of paper in the book as a footnote she closed the book and put it in one of the ship's pockets off to her side.

Clicking a few buttons the back of the ship closed and the windows locked down, securing every possible opening point as every thruster stirred alive.

Pulling the lever between them the ship shook and raised off the ground, retracting its legs and tires into their sockets.

"The book said... Ah, there it is."

Looking at the monitor on her top left, Lulu flicked a small switch and turned it on and it gave her a 360 view of the ship.

Flicking more switches she began to speak in an exaggerated voice.

"Three, two... One, we are ready for lift-off."

Beep - Press the button on a small remote, causing the top of the warehouse to open.

"Let's get a move on then."

With a short laugh, Karma pulled on the steering wheel launching them out at great speeds, Lulu tightly ripped at her armrest and tried to stop the shaking of her body.

"That's what I'm talking about! Check the systems, Lulu."

Cheering loudly, Karma quickly glanced at Lulu and reminded her.

"Already on it."

Looking at the meters and analytical board for a moment, she tilted her head and looked at it in confusion before nodding her head.

"It looks about right. Nothing is at dangerous levels... We are good, to— continue, yeah!"

Nodding to her, Karma ignored the lack of confidence in her voice when saying that and continued to steer the ship forward; going at a fast and steady pace.

The Snowfields rushed by below them, large hulking bodies lumbered as they were thrifting through the snow like large trees billowing in the wind.

Gazing out and below, Lulu marveled at the sight before returning her attention to the control board in front of her.

"So what, do we do next... It's getting quite dark now..."

She spoke, going silent as she remembered what she was due for later. She didn't want to think about it, but it would happen anyway so it was best to be ready for it.

"Right, let's head back, you should be at home when it happens... But first, let's go!"

Quickly switching the ship to autopilot and setting it to hover, she grabbed the separate autopilot control device and rose from her seat, beckoning for Lulu to follow her.

Unfastening her seatbelt, Lulu followed her to the back of the ship. Pressing a button on the side, the back began to open.

"Uh, what are we doing?"

"Jumping, here you go."

Tossing a small backpack-like device, Karma already strapped hers onto her back. Coming over to Lulu, she took the device out of her hands and started to strap it on her back.

"What is this?"

"These are jump packs. Save you from falling to your death."

Lulu raised a brow at Karma's answer.

"Did you steal these as well?"

"What? No, of course not! I found them in an unopened box in my mom's."

As if she was caught, Karma's cheeks lit up as she stated what she did as if there was no problem with what she said.

"Karma, that's the same thing."

"Bah, there were like yen of them in there, two going missing is perfectly fine."

"..."

Staring at the redhead in exasperation, Lulu sighed and shook her head.

"Whatever."

"Mm, let's go now."

Taking hold of Lulu's hand, she brushed off the previous conversation and led her to the edge of the now-open back of the ship.

"Wait–"

Now waiting for a moment, Karma dragged Lulu off the ship with her, bringing the both of them into freefall.

"Hahaha!"

"Fuuuc–"

Karma laughed hysterically while the unready Lulu cursed loudly.