Finetales

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

Yuna pushed her nose down in tandem with the Silent Eagle, sizing up the situation. She knew the F-15 was lighter than her big Sukhoi, and that the pilot would likely try to take advantage of that. But Yuna knew the Flanker better than she knew herself, and she liked to think she knew herself pretty damn well. She knew the Naga Merah's limits, and if there was any time to test them, it was now. She followed the F-15 as it dove for the deck, attempting to anticipate its next action but taking an even steeper dive to get below it. Only trouble was, a smart pilot would...

Shit, she thought to herself as her adversary began to pull up sharply, exactly what she was concerned about. Yuna was at risk of an overshoot now, but before she could mentally address that for even another millisecond, the Silent Eagle suddenly spit out chaff and banked hard left. Yuna smiled as she followed the F-15 left, assuming the pilot had gotten spooked and made a mistake. And, well, she was kind of right, but not for the reason she initially thought. Yuna's smile grew wider as the F-15's sudden bank put the Sukhoi in a more advantageous position, but then her smile faded as the enemy aircraft used...a laser???

"What the FUCK was that?!" she exclaimed, before noting exactly what it was the laser was shooting at. "Jefe, you fucking..." she muttered to herself, but she had no time to address the laser or the Sinomexican's arrival any further. She had to wrap this up right now. As the F-15 rolled inverted and tried to break away, Yuna momentarily cut the power and yanked the stick hard to keep the Silent Eagle in her sights. Once reacquired, she punched the throttle to give chase. With the F-15 further away, Yuna could now fully enact her master plan: Operation I Have More Missiles Than You.

"Party's over," she said calmly, as her missile lock turned into a solid tone and she let an R-73E rip with an accompanying "Fox Two". But rather than break off, she stayed on the F-15, keeping that sweet solid tone going as she ripped not one, but two more R-73Es out (with attendant "Fox Two"s) in rapid succession after the first. Dodge that, bitch.

@Rhona W @Smike

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

"Roger, Cobalt 8; I hear ya. Keep him interested just a second longer, I'm gunnin' for him, over".

@Rhona W

Scott's reassuring radio call was music to Yuna's ears. The two remaining MiGs were hounding her, and she was purely on the defensive, chaining together high-G evasive maneuever after another to stay out of their hunting crosshairs. Lining one up for a missile lock was currently out of the question, and she could only tolerate so many punishing Gs before her body gave out.

Thankfully, Scott's Fox Two call came before that happened, and the resulting explosion lit up the sky. The radar warning beeps ceased in Yuna's cockpit as the other MiG broke off, clearly not wanting to be on the other side of a 2-on-1. "Ha, you bitch!" she yelled, followed by calling on the radio "Thanks Heartbreak, I owe you one!"

She was out of the tangle, but her reprieve was short-lived.

"Cobalt Squadron, this is Skywatch. Be advised; I have a formation of four bandits approaching hot at high speed. Altitude ten thousand; radar identifies them as F-15's, but I'm getting issues resolving a steady picture at this range. These must be some of the mercs the Libyans have hired. Be on your guard, their aircraft may be heavily modified or unusual types, given the radar returns, over!"

@Rhona W

"Let me guess," Yuna muttered, rolling her eyes. The implied and unstated second part of her statement was that at least one of the four bandits would head straight for her.

And sure enough, Naga Merah started screaming at Yuna once more. "Awak anjing!" she spat at her plane in Malay. Just as she began turning the plane to square off against her attacker, the beeps became a solid tone and Yuna punched out flares and yanked the stick hard right and down. The missile hit a flare and exploded behind Yuna, who continued the turn to hopefully gain a favorable position against the F-15.

But Naga Merah was still beeping at her. This F-15 was out for blood. Yuna tightened the turn as much as the Sukhoi would give, and the beeps stopped as she saw the F-15 fly right over her, already banking to try to get behind her. She could barely see the plane at all in the darkness.

As she rolled the plane over and began a split S to hopefully get behind the F-15's downward bank, her brain made some connections that hit her like a Mack truck. "Wait..."

Blacked out F-15s...
Subtle trim...
Hyper aggressive...
Shows up late...

Could it be...?

A memory flashed through Yuna's mind. A weathered cockpit, a younger Yuna at the controls, and an overwhelming sense of immense frustration. A MiG-23 held together with duct tape, an incompetent squadron around her, and a seemingly endless parade of enemy fighters that she alone was responsible for. The Kazakh desert below would not be forgiving if a missile finally connected.

And suddenly...

A blacked out F-15.

Punching out. The long fall to the ground, looking on helplessly as most of your squadron gets decimated, and the survivors run for the hills. Meeting that Kazakh desert up close, and way too personal.

The flashback only took moments, but it told everything. And now Yuna's situation was all too clear.

"Not this time, motherfucker," she muttered through gritted teeth as she completed her split S, keeping the stick pulled back as she saw the F-15 perpendicular to her at two o-clock high. She banked right to get her crosshairs lined up, and when she got a solid tone, she squeezed the trigger and let an R-73E fly, calling out "Cobalt 8, Fox Two" as she did so.

The missile missed its mark, hitting one of the flares the F-15 deployed as the F-15 entered a steep dive to assist evasion. But this didn't bother Yuna; she had a plan.

Radar lock hunting. 10 missiles left.

@Rhona W

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

As the squadron dove to just above the deck and extinguished their lights, Yuna felt a particular tension in the air. It was a tension present on any combat sortie, one that Yuna and the rest of Cobalt Haze had felt hundreds, if not thousands of times. To Yuna it was like a warm blanket, telling her that her senses were tuned to maximum and that the air around her and the job at hand were the only things that mattered. She wasn't just used to it, she welcomed it...but this time the feeling was a little different. It was a feeling she hadn't felt for awhile, certainly not since joining Cobalt Haze. It was a feeling of flying into a hornet's nest, baring your fangs against an enemy that might have bigger ones.

This squadron had performed very well so far, but Yuna felt this operation was its first real test. It was time to prove why she deserved her seat beyond a shadow of a doubt, and she knew that others in the squadron felt the same. There were nerves, sure, but Yuna always said that a little more stakes never hurt anyone, and as the radios crackled back to life she cracked a small smile.

Just another day in the office.

"Skywatch to all Cobalt Squadron aircraft, engage"

@Rhona W

"Alright then Flight 2, go to work."

@Smike

Yuna's radar was already lit up like a Christmas tree, and the picture it painted was grim. "Fuck, 29s," she muttered to herself. This was a far cry from the MiG-23s she had just fought over Lampedusa. This was the A-team. There was no time to dwell on it though, and as Yuna tracked a pair of MiG-29s turning towards Peacenik and Brightspark, she sprang into action immediately. She shoved the stick to an intercept vector, punched the afterburner, and selected her R-73E missiles. "Alright, let's do this shit," she muttered. She was about to draw the moths to her flame, which was exactly the plan.

She approached the pair of enemy aircraft quickly, her vector perpendicular to theirs. As her lock-on system began hunting, she knew it would only be seconds before she'd get others trying to lock on to her. She had to distract the two heading towards her squadron mates before that happened. One target at a time. Her vector put her behind the MiGs, and once she reached their flight path, she yanked the stick right and slid in a ways behind the two MiGs, hunting for a missile lock as quickly as possible. The lock came in about two seconds, and she punched the trigger the instant she heard a solid tone. She called out "Fox Two!" as she moved to focus on the other MiG. The first MiG punched flares and broke left, diverting the missile into the flares. Yuna began locking on to the second MiG, but had barely started before the second MiG broke right. She elected to chase the first MiG, and yanked the stick hard left. She had successfully diverted the two MiGs from attacking Fuka and Myk, but now she had two MiG-29s on her ass. You win some, you lose some.

As Yuna began giving chase, she rattled off a radio call. "Peacenik, Brightspark: I'm tangled with two MiGs, got them off your trail. There are more though, watch your back!" She hoped the other MiGs would be focused on other things for the time being. The three aircraft quickly became tangled in what can only be described as aerial spaghetti. The enemy pilots were clearly competent dogfighters, but hadn't managed to link up a kill shot on Yuna yet. Yuna knew that moment could come at any point, especially as her missile lock warning had been blaring more often than it wasn't. She'd need to pull out all the stops. Just after a MiG made an unsuccessful pass, she punched the throttle, gaining airspeed and allowing the other MiG to get a good look behind her. "Come on..." she grunted, disabling the angle of attack limiter as she did so. Like clockwork, the missile lock warning blared again, and she yanked the stick hard back, causing the plane to face straight up as it bled speed. At the right moment, she added power and brought the nose back down again, completing a successful Cobra maneuver and sending the chasing MiG past. As the nose on Yuna's Su-33 came back down, her eyes caught the other MiG fast enough to aim and unload her GSh-30-1 autocannon into it (yapping out "guns" three times as she did so), shredding the engine and resulting in a fiery explosion just as the pilot ejected. Yuna pulled hard to the right as she yelled in excitement, but her jubilation was short lived.

She could see the other MiG crossing at her 2-o'clock high, and neither of them were in a position to get a lock. Yet, her missile lock warning started to blare. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckin' A!" she exclaimed as the warning turned to a missile approach warning. She pushed the stick hard forward and left to dive as she deployed flares, which successfully diverted...two missiles??

She rattled out a radio call as quickly as possible. "Splashed one but I got at least three on me now. Need help!!"

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna's Su-33 mission loadout:

12 x hardpoints + GSh-30-1 autocannon

• 150 x GSh-30-1 autocannon rounds
• 10 x Vympel R73E short-range air-to-air missiles (inner hard points)
• 2 x Vympel R27R1 medium-range air-to-air missiles

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

Yuna listened along as Scott addressed each question, nodding at his practical answer to Brightspark's question. As far as she was concerned, ethics were something you brought up on leave after a few too many drinks, not right before climbing into the cockpit. No time to think about that sort of stuff when you have a missile lock warning blaring at you.

"Hey, I'll try and swing us a contract on the French Riviera or in Las Vegas next time; somewhere we can really enjoy things".

@Rhona W

Oh god, Yuna thought as Scott continued. This squadron in Vegas? I can't even imagine." She thought of Jefe and Brightspark especially...no telling what antics either of them would get up to in Sin City. But she hoped she'd get to find out.

With the briefing over, it was time to roll, and in short order she was back at her freshly refueled and rearmed Su-33. After exchanging a few words with her crew chief, she climbed into the cockpit. Checks and taxiing went by in a flash, and it was soon her turn to take off. Kat's A-10C had just left the tarmac, and seeing that beast of an aircraft always reminded Yuna just how diverse the aircraft in this squadron were. That's how she liked it...something different to look at, everywhere you looked.

One uneventful takeoff later, and Yuna slid in with the others at 5,000 feet.

"Alright, Cobalt 5, 8, 10-you're riding with me. Here's how we break down the approach. Brightspark, we're on Wild Weasel duty. We focus on their facilities on the ground, kill any radar and then hit their runways, fuel trucks, hangars, anything they can use to get planes into the sky. Calico, Sparrow, you're in the air superiority fighters so you do what comes naturally. Anything that sniffs at me or Spark, make it rethink its actions. Remember, air defenses are last on our hitlist. Focus on shredding the priority targets and then getting away clean."

"If I go down, Calico becomes flight lead. Do what she says unless Heartbreak says otherwise."

@Smike

Yuna replied in kind to Fuka's professional demeanor. "Roger Peacenik, we've got your back." It was still baked into her from her tenure at the RSAF, but a couple of her previous PMC employers had been sticklers about constant professionalism as well. She did not appreciate it in a PMC setting, as to her it was "not that serious," as she was known for saying to squadmates when bitching about it. But her ire was mostly derived from the insistence on maintaining military professionalism when on the ground in between ops, in order to stroke the young officers' egos. But flying the plane was the actual job, so she didn't mind treating it as such, even when it was coming from those same wannabe war heroes.

Thankfully, Fuka had none of the qualities she despised about those guys, so she had no complaints being professional to Fuka. Plus, she had a sneaking suspicion that Fuka would be the most fun to drink with in the entire squadron. She'd have to test that theory one day.

@Smike

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

"So, you had a good time, at the very least?"

@Letter Bee

"Heh," she briefly chuckled. Not many pilots she had met would think to ask that question, but it happened to be a question she enjoyed answering. "Always."

Just then, Scott began by stroking their egos. He was clearly enjoying himself, and it felt good to have a squadron leader that actually cared. Of course, they all knew exactly how much ass they kicked, but a fighter pilot never turns down a chance to drink in some praise.

What followed was the briefing of the next phase of the operation, starting immediately. Yuna was happy to find out they were just turning around right away to go kick some more ass. Her Sukhoi had seemed to want more as much as she did when she landed. Better still, she'd be flying under Peacenik's lead and getting stuck in with enemy aircraft. Yuna was ready to be done talking and back in the air, but first...questions. Yuna's least favorite part of any briefing.

Yuna had to admit the youngest pilot's question about civilians was a pertinent one, though she figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to distinguish an airborne Mirage from a civilian airliner. She mentally rolled her eyes as the eager pilot continued, using many words to say just about nothing. Jefe then chimed in with her own take on the situation, which seemed like a reasonable summary.

"Besides that, not much else. Seems like more of the same, right?"

@Smike

"Another day, another airport," Yuna replied casually, shrugging.

@Letter Bee@Smike

the Alliance of Liberty City

Eris and Kate

(collab w/ @BunniesOfDoom)

Kate didn't react to the chaos-bringer as the villain grabbed her throat. Her face remained neutral as she sent flames licking out of her neck, ensuring that the crazed woman's hands wouldn't be able to keep their grip for long. As she did so, Kate responded with an uncharacteristic calm in her voice - both for the fiery-tempered goddess, and for the situation at hand. "Different to who, exactly?" she began, speaking slow and measured. "Did you really think I was somehow on...on your side?"

Eris's gaze flickered for a moment, blinking fiercely as if trying to keep tears away. She held tightly to the woman's throat for far longer than she should have, the flames cutting into her skin and causing it to bubble. Eventually she released with a hiss, ripping her hand back and grabbing that wrist. "I should have known you were no different than the others. I thought-," she paused a moment as she shook her head. "It doesn't matter anymore." The ground below her turned to liquid and she began to sink below. "You're just like every other lying hero out there."

Kate's expression turned angrier as Eris spoke, and doubly so when the chaos-bringer began to sink into the ground. "Oh no you don't," she snarled, and jumped at the villain as she sank into the ground, grabbing her forcefully as she did so. As they both sank completely into the ground, Kate kept her forward momentum going to endlessly tackle the villain through the ground. She had hated this before, but this time she was angrier and felt that she had the upper hand.

As they crashed through the liquidfied floor, Eris kept her power going. One floor after another, they pushed through until she finally brought the power to an end and the two crashed harshly onto the ground floor of the prison. Liquid from the floors above them dripped off them like water. Eris found herself trying to get her breath back as she lifted her leg and sent a harsh kick at Queen. "Get off me!" she wheezed as she scrambled to try and get out from under the woman.

The debris that followed them down hit Kate heavily, as the two landed in a way that Kate was essentially a shield for the villain. Kate winced as she felt the heavy impacts on her back, which her wings were powerless to do anything about. Then before she could react, she felt the heavy kick from the chaos-bringer below her, which hit just above her knee and caused her to partially roll off as the force of the kick sent that leg airborne. But Kate was quick to react, and not about to let the pain get in the way of her objective. She managed to keep hold on the villain with her arms grasping their counterparts tightly, and she brought her leg back down to knee Eris wherever she could manage. Her eyes sparkled with flame as she scowled back at the villain. "Make me," she replied darkly.

Eris squirmed underneath Kate, trying to wrangle herself free. "You're such a child! Make me? Really?!" She eventually was able to wrangle an arm free and she reached out to grasp a hold of a light fixture by its pole. She brought the item around in a swing, hoping to knock Kate off her and finally get some wriggle room so she could get a full breath of air. At this point, her lungs were burning but her diaphragm refused to expand far enough to let her get a full breath, especially with Queen holding onto her so tightly. "Get off me!" She repeated again, though this time far angier than a moment before.

Kate found herself somehow even more annoyed as the chaos-bringer managed to get an arm free and grab hold of something to attack with. Though Kate wanted to keep the villain down, she also knew that light pole would probably hurt a lot, and made the split-second decision to stop that instead by halting its swing with both of her hands shoving against it. She still sat on top the villain, but no longer had control of her upper body as she stopped the light pole in its tracks, using her two-handed advantage to yank it free from the villain's grasp and toss it aside where it couldn't be reached. "Who's the child now, you pest?"

"Pest? Pest?!" Eris's anger flared, causing the area to be doused in red as her power consumed the room. "I am not a pest." Her voice grew slow and dropped a few octives as her red eyes locked on Queen's face. A dark grin crossed her face as she brought her hands up by her chest, red energy condensing there between her palms. "I'm a fucking monster." With that, she released the energy in a powerful pulse, Queen directly in its path.

As the chaos-bringer built up red energy, Kate had plenty of time to manifest a shield in front of her. When the energy was released, the shield did not stop the attack. Instead, it translated the energy into a harsh knockback, sending Kate flying backwards across the derelict room and breaking the shield construct in the process. Kate barely had time to think as she was sent flying, using her wings in a desperate attempt to slow down before smacking the opposite wall. This wasn't enough though, and although she did slow her velocity considerably, she still smacked against the wall with enough force to briefly knock the wind out of her as she fell to the ground. She paused a moment as she caught her breath, and then looked up at the offending villain, flames dancing around her eyes, hair, and fists. "Yes you are," she said coldly. "You are a pest. And nothing more."

As Queen was flung off, Eris rose up from the ground quickly, finally able to take a full breath and feeling the relief as the burning sensation in her lungs began to fade to nothing. She snorted as she stepped over to the lamp that Queen had just tossed to the side. She hefted it in both hands as she turned to face Queen, her eyes dark and dangerous. "Tell me, Queen. If I make you bleed, will it be golden like ambrosia? How hard do I need to hit you to find out?" She stepped over towards the woman, raising the lamp up like a major league bat before she brought it down towards the woman's head.

Despite her anger, Kate managed a smile as she watched the chaos-bringer grab the lamp and attempt to talk big. "You'll never find out," she replied as she manifested two short swords, set them alight with flame, and used them to slice the lamp in half as it came down towards her, causing the two halves to fall harmlessly beside her. She then brought the two swords to an X, inches from the villain's throat. "You are but a pest. It is your destiny," she said with a smirk.

Eris let out a manic laugh as Queen brought the swords up by her throat. "My destiny? My destiny is to burn this whole world to ash. And you and any other pathetic hero isn't going to stop me!" She brought a hand up, sticking it between the blades at her throat before using her other hand to fire chaotic energy at the woman, that hand with a finger and thumb extended like a gun. She even made pewing noises as she shot the chaotic energy at her. "Heros are just lying fools who think they're better than anyone else! When the world burns, what will there be left for them to save? What would they do then? Turn on each other? I can't wait to see."

Kate watched as the chaos-bringer lived up to her name (well, the name Kate thought of her as anyway) and "fired" a chaos bullet right at her face. But she didn't try to dodge it; she let it graze her cheek, leaving searing pain and a noticeable mark on her face. She smiled, almost endearingly, at the villain. "Another scar for my collection," she said brightly. "How kind of you." Her tone got darker as she continued, not ever moving the two swords from the villain's throat. "You can't even burn a parking lot to ash. You're no real threat. But if feeling like you're somebody makes you feel better, I won't stop you."

"I'm no threat?" Eris's eyes moved to the new scar on the woman's face before she leaned forward and licked it. "This nice little mark says otherwise." Her hands began to pump her energy into the blades at her throat, finally sick of having them there, no matter how enticing and thrilling it was. When the blades showed no signs of melting like she had expected, she let out a scoff. "I'm sick of this. Bored already. This is just turning into a see who's dick is bigger show. I'm not here for your entertainment or anyone else's for that matter." A wall of chaotic energy formed in front of her and she used it as a spring board to push away from the blades by her neck. Then, while still jumping back from Queen, she began to spawn more chaotic stepping stones. She ran along them, heading towards the window just on the other side of the room. "Catch me if you can, copper!" She called out with a cackle as she ran.

Kate rolled her eyes as the chaos-bringer tried to run from her. "Playing hard to get, I see," she called out after, her wings catapulting herself into the air as she gave chase. It took her seconds to reach the window, alighting on its sill like a bird as she watched the villain reach her. She crossed her arms in theatric disappointment. "Running? Really?" she said judgingly.

Eris couldn't help but laugh at the way Queen reacted to her attempting to flee. She paused on her stepping stones, her head tilting to the side as she eyed her. "Oh," she swooned as she batted her eyelashes at Queen. "I knew there was a reason I loved you." She laughed as the stepping stone under her vanished and she plummeted down towards the floor again. Her red energy formed below her, developing a slide and catching her before she hit the ground. She slid along it, giving a wave over her shoulder as she zipped along towards the open door of the room. As the slide came to an end, she popped off it and began a sprint down the hall, heading for where she hoped was the front door.

Kate sighed and shook her head as the villain once again flirted with her. This charade would never end, though Kate supposed she preferred it to her opponents being angry all the time. Still, she wondered what the chaos-bringer's motives were, considering how diametrically opposed the two were. She was in no hurry to catch up because she knew she could fly much faster, so she casually lept off her perch on the windowsill and gave chase, not bothering to go anywhere near her top flying speed. That wouldn't have helped anyway, considering the tight corridors, but even in her relaxed pace she caught up to the running villain in no time, choosing to fly behind her and match her pace. She made a point to let out a loud yawn as she did so, both announcing her presence and broadcasting just how hard she wasn't working.

Eris peeked over her shoulder to see Queen casually flying along behind her. She let out a bit of a laugh as she whirled around, running backwards, her pace slowing significantly. She let Queen's momentum carry her close as she threw her arms out to embrace her. She wrapped her arms tightly around the angel before she let her feet slip out from underneath her. Either Kate would carry their weight aloft or the two of them would crash down into the floor below. Either way, Eris didn't care as she brought her mouth up to kiss Kate. "I can't be mad at you. Look how your wings glisten in the light. You are beauty incarnate. Venus born in an angelic form."

Kate expected the villain to continue running, or to duck into a room, or to attempt to throw up some chaos walls. What she did not expect was for her to turn around and stop, making Kate run into her even at her relaxed pace. As Eris embraced Kate, she briefly kept the two aloft before being confused enough to stop using her wings, which resulted in the two falling and briefly tumbling, before coming to a rest on the ground. At was at this moment that Kate noticed she was being kissed once more by the villain. She had a flashback to the park, where they had first met...and fought. This time it was a little less bewildering, considering their brief past, but still confusing enough for Kate's mind to very briefly short circuit before snapping back and realizing she had kissed the villain back. This made her even more confused, which was only compounded by the chaos-bringer piling on the pillow talk. Kate tried a few times to speak unsuccessfully, before finally getting her mind back in (relative) working order. "What...is this?" she asked simply.

"This is love, my sweet Queen. Don't act like you didn't just kiss me back." Eris's hand slid along Queen's cheek, carrassing it lightly before she ran her finger along the newly formed mark there. "You have to admit, we make quite the couple." She laid there on her back, gazing into Queen's face with an alluring smile.

"Do we, though?" Kate asked. "People like you are who I came here to fight, and to defeat. Not because of some costumed heroes, but because it's what I was made to do. And we did just fight, did we not?" She sat in the silence for a bit, looking down at the villain's oddly comforting smile, considering her still-glowing red eyes and all. "How does...this...work?"

Eris allowed her head to tilt to the side. "It doesn't work." She said with a small laugh. "It's not supposed to work. You said it yourself, I'm the type of person you live to take down and yet," she waved a hand, gesturing to the two of them laying on the ground together. "Here we are. If there's anything I am very, very good at, it's breaking the rules." She slid her fingers through Kate's hair. "We just need to break a few rules and the world would be ours. No one would ever stop us, could ever hope to stop us. Just me and you."

"But see, that's where you lose me," Kate replied. "I'm not here to conquer. Never was, never will be. I've done enough conquering for generations. Here, I'm here for..." she paused. "Well, not that. I'll never want what you want, and at the end of the day I need to stop you if you're going to put peoples' lives at stake. Especially since none of the so-called 'heroes' can fight worth shit," she said with a small chuckle. "But...here, now... I like this."

Eris allowed her eyes to scan Kate's face, her thumb lightly rubbing along the woman's cheek. "It is nice, isn't it? Just take a moment for ourselves. The world be damned." Her lips pursed for a moment as she watched her. "What if, we just leave, yeah? Who's going to stop us? Those heroes definitely can't stop me and they don't give a damn about you. Let's just go. Live our lives how we want to live them, together. I'll even stop killing people, well, some people. I can't promise you a lie. Some people will die by my hand. That's just how life is for me but I could hold back. For you. If that's what you want from me. I would hold back for you. Maybe just kill the really bad heroes. You know, the ones doing it for all the wrong reasons. The fake ones." She was trying to negotiate in her own way. She was very, very bad at it but she was willing to try.

Kate sighed. "I don't mind if you kill evil people. You'd be doing me a favor, honestly. But even the heroes doing it for the wrong reasons are," she paused and lightly put her head over her face as if to cover it in shame, "...I hate to say it, but necessary." She made a show of spitting after she said that, as if she was spitting out the words she had just said. "I can't do everything for this town. One day real evil will show up and Liberty City will need everyone it can get to defeat it. Right now we have no chance. So as much as these pathetic heroes infuriate me...I need them to stay alive." She sighed and gazed into the villain's eyes. "Not to bring the mood down or anything."

Eris laughed lightly, moving her other hand to the woman's other cheek. "Then we continue this dance. Day in and day out, we go against each other. I do something to lure you out, you defeat me or chase me off. Rinse and repeat and we never get to be together like we want." She let her hands drop down on each side of her head, looking up at Queen with a dark smile. "I love you, Queen. You deserve to be recognized for your greatness. You are a true hero and if it means that I have to still be that villain until the world sees it too, then so be it. I'll be the villain the world needs so you can shine." She leaned forward, bringing her lips up to meet Queen's again in a deep kiss as her hands moved up to cradle her face. "I'll see you again, my sweet angel." The ground below her began to ripple as her power turned it to liquid. "And until then, fight the good fight and I'll continue to go bump in the night." She began to sink below the surface, her hands being the last things to leave.

Kate watched the villain sink into the ground, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stop her this time. She lay there for a long time after, thinking about all that had just happened. "It doesn't have to be one or the other," she spoke softly, as if the chaos-bringer could still hear her. She felt torn at a deep level. She knew she could never abandon her purpose, but she wished deeply to continue down the road of love with the chaos woman. She knew there had to be a way to do both, but it would be tricky at best and cataclysmic at worst. Of course, the easy solution was for Eris to stop killing and causing mayhem, but Kate knew there was no chance. So, she resigned herself to staying the course, and hoping to steal a kiss from the mysterious woman whenever they found themselves alone after a fight. For now, she had some heroes to address.

---

Eris

Eris rose up out of the ground a few blocks away. She clawed her way through the liquid cement until she was on her knees on the sidewalk. She sat there for a while, thinking about what had just occured. She was so close, so incredibly close to getting Queen behind her. She drove her fist into the cement, feeling a sense of euphoria as her knuckles split on the sharp ground. She brought her hand up, looking at her bloody knuckles for a moment before she licked the blood from her hand. Her uninjured hand dragged along her face and she drifted back and away, Kersey's eyes being the ones to open and look around. She blinked a few times as she slowly stood from the pavement. She wasn't sure where she was or how much damage she had done. Her hand hurt and when she looked down, she saw her knuckles split. She hoped the blood on her hands were her own and not some poor doctor that Eris had killed like she said she would. She didn't have her bag. She didn't have her laptop. She didn't even have their trench coat. She was still in that hospital gown she was wearing when Eris took over. She needed to move, figure out where she was, and go home. She couldn't linger, not out in the open and so obvious. So wrapping the gown tighter around herself, she began a barefoot sprint to no where in particular. She was just going to keep running along the streets until she recognized something, anything. After all, all roads eventually lead to Rome.

---

Kate

Kate eventually made her way out of the compound. Despite the fact that Eris had escaped, Kate considered her efforts a success as no doctors had been killed at the villain's hands. Still, as much as Kate had to admit that she did have a spark with the chaos-bringer, she was not happy that the villain was loose again, and undoubtedly soon to cause trouble once more. But for now, she was ready to put her mind at ease for the rest of the day. She decided to take a lazy flight over the city instead of taking the subway or a cab, as snaking through the skyline was always relaxing. Unfortunately for her though, her respite was short-lived as about halfway home she heard some commotion. She turned the corner to see what the fuss was, and...well, shit.

A huge four-armed...thing appeared to be terrorizing the block in front of her. She could see a handful of heroes attempting to do something, noticing an oversized girl the most as she seemed to be the best match for the monster. But it wasn't looking fantastic for the heroes, which made Kate roll her eyes, and then she saw it. That lady from the park that had interrupted Kate's fight with Eris. Her anger flared up immediately, in such a way that really proved she was deserving of being a citizen of Liberty City. "Oh FUCK this asshole," she yelled, and flew full speed at the battle. As she did so, she manifested a huge two-handed spear and targeted the large monster. For one, she felt that the girl from the park wasn't as big of a threat, and for two, she saw said girl get pinned to the ground by an unfamiliar hero as she approached. Attacking the monster was the better tactical choice in that moment, so she careened straight for it. As she closed in, she lit the spear with flames, and used both arms to send the spear straight at the monster's chest. She didn't know what the monster was made of, but this was a great way to gauge what it could take.

@BunniesOfDoom @Omega Man @Eviledd1984 @Silver Carrot @Azure Bubbles

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

As Yuna sped her Sukhoi towards Fuka and the assailing Mirage, she heard Ximena's call and then saw the Sea Raptor make short work of the distance, making the intercept before Yuna could get a lock. Yuna yanked the stick back and rolled over as she gained altitude quickly, positioning herself to tag in if the Ximena's initial pass didn't take care of the Mirage. Yuna didn't expect that to be much of a possibility though, and as she looked down from her nearly-upside-down vantage point from above, she witnessed her prediction come true as Jefe's AMRAAM deleted the Mirage.

It was a beautiful sight. God damn, I'm glad I picked this squadron, she thought.

"Sorry about sniping it from under you, Cobalt 8. I'll buy you another drink to make up for it!"

@Smike

"Make it two," Yuna replied jokingly.

As both flights mopped up the remaining targets, the comms gradually got quieter until Flight One caught up to Flight Two and the job was done. The call came to begin phase two, followed by the call from Heartbreak to land at Lampedusa. Yuna's brain came down from combat mode as she slid into a holding pattern and waited her turn to land. When it was time, she guided her Su-33 smoothly down, touching down with only the tiniest tire squeak just past the numbers. To her, every landing was a competition, and she hoped her squadmates and ground crew had seen that greaser of a landing.

A short taxi later and she was climbing out of her plane, attended to by the maintenance techs on hand. She unzipped her vest and suit as she walked towards the handful of others who had landed before her, and was soon standing with the group. She stood next to the others facing the runway, so she could watch (and judge) the remaining landings. As she did, she was greeted by Brightspark, someone she had yet to interact with in the squadron.

"So, it seemed you and the others had a dogfight or two? How did that go? Did the enemy fight well?"

@Letter Bee

Yuna shrugged. "Eh, they were okay," she said matter-of-factly. "Definitely didn't seem very well prepared, but under the circumstances they did alright. I've fought a lot worse." She quickly replayed the day's action in her head. Two Mirages on the ground and two Floggers in the air. Not a bad tally for the day, even though she only counted the Flogger kills. "Two of 'em came after me at once towards the end, which was fun," she recounted. "You could tell they were pissed off at me after I deleted a couple Mirages on the ground, which, fair," she admitted.

She turned the conversation back over to Brightspark. "What about you, how was life over Linosa?"

@Smike @Letter Bee

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

"Cobalt 3 here. That ship's a problem." she noted, riding high above the clouds of flak it was throwing up. "If it keeps spraying like that it'll get lucky eventually. I'm going to shut it up. Cobalt 8, ride my back and make sure no one creeps up on me."

@Smike

"Roger Peacenik, got your six," replied Calico, banking her Su-33 and throttling up to head towards Peacenik. As the Hornet plunged towards the deck, Yuna spotted the enemy Mirage closing in fast from below. "Cobalt 3, you got company, five o'clock low. Moving to int-" she was interrupted by the occasional lock-on warning beeps turning into a solid tone. "Shit!" she said as she yanked the stick hard right and punched out flares. The incoming missile barely missed its mark, and Yuna scanned the sky just long enough to see the two Floggers bearing down on her. "Two bogeys on me, standby one," she quickly rattled off to Peacenik as she sent her Su-33 into rolling scissors. Follow this, assholes, she thought to herself, leveraging her Sukhoi's far superior performance to goad an overshoot (or a crash) by the attackers.

It only took a couple rolls for the maneuver to work, with the ancient Floggers completely unable to match the Flanker's performance. In his anger, one of the Flogger pilots took the bait completely and tried to stick to the Flanker through the maneuver, but the Flogger couldn't handle it and lost altitude fast, plunging towards the water only a few hundred feet below. The other Flogger pilot wisely pulled out of the maneuver early, but in the process overshot Yuna, who was ready to pounce. As the Flogger overshot, Yuna squeezed the trigger and let fly a volley of autocannon rounds as she kept her crosshair on the Flogger's path. The rounds ripped through the Flogger, which immediately began to billow smoke from the left wing where it was hit the hardest. Yuna banked her Sukhoi hard to get behind the stricken foe, whose stabilizers had clearly taken a hit as the plane attempted in vain to do any kind of turn. With another volley from the autocannon going straight into the engine, the Flogger burst into flames as the pilot ejected.

Instantly Yuna punched the throttle and headed back towards Peacenik. She hadn't seen if the Mirage had scored any hits on Peacenik's Hornet, but both planes were still in the air. "Cobalt 3, I'm coming for your bogey, 20 seconds," she called out.

@Smike

Shattered Steel - An Ace Combat/Project Wingman/etc inspired aircraft-based RP

Yuna Xu

Yuna waited patiently as the first stages of their operation came to life. Jefe's missile call meant the rest of the squadrons was moments away from being unleashed against the enemy. Like clockwork, the radar kill call came next, followed by Heartbreak saying the magic words.

"Heartbreak; weapons released. All units, engage at will, over!"

@Rhona W

The radio squawk Yuna had been patiently waiting for finally arrived, and she spared no time. Her left hand had been ready at the throttle, eager to slam it forward. As soon as Yuna heard Heartbreak's callout, her left hand pinned the throttle forward while she called out "Calico, engaging!" in response. Her primary targets were the enemy fighters on the ground, and while a dogfight would be fun, she didn't want to give any of them a chance to even get off the ground.

As Scott's flight began to rain hell on Limosa, Yuna was about to do the same to Lampedusa. They had 8 fighters including 4 Mirages, and she hoped she could take out the more capable fighters first. As her Su-33 approached Lampedusa, Yuna plunged her Flanker down to a few hundred feet above the water. Even though Jefe had taken out their eyes, those Shilkas could still cause plenty of problems. The Lampedusa airport sat on the southeast edge of the island, and Yuna had moved south early so that she was approaching at the runway heading. If she had wanted to land, she'd be right on the money...assuming she was going a few hundred knots slower.

As she closed in on the airport, the HUD on Yuna's Su-33 lit up with targets. Among those was a Mirage already entering the west end of the runway to take off. To their credit, they had responded quicker than she expected. "Not on my watch," Yuna muttered as she selected her R73E missiles. She got a solid lock just as the Mirage began its takeoff roll, heading straight for her. Its pilot would see everything. With a squeeze of the trigger and a call of "Fox Two!", Yuna let an R73E fly, and it headed straight for the rolling Mirage. In moments the missile connected with its target, and a fiery explosion erupted on the runway.

Before she needed to peel off, Yuna had time to get one more shot off, but not a lot of it. She snapped her attention to another Mirage getting ready to taxi, swiftly targeted it, and got a solid lock in moments. She let out another "Fox Two!" as the second R73E left its pylon. She yanked the stick hard left to peel off, not seeing the results of her second strike. But, it would be easy enough to survey the results on the next run, and someone else from her flight had to have seen it. She began to setup another run, this time moving wide past the airport to attack from the opposite end of the runway.