New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

"I thought I was crazy for jumping off balconies?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"You\'re right. But I didn\'t jump; I purposefully fell off. Not the same," Kary replied, smirking at him with her eyes.

Alex rolled his eyes at her, pulling his tongue out in a grimace as they directed their flight toward the airport.

The airplane wasn\'t parked at the main airport, though, as it was a private plane, and left off the side airport, where there was little to no traffic.

It wasn\'t much of a detour, as the side airport was actually closer to them since they flew over the entire traffic, but Alex knew they were attracting a lot more attention than he would have liked.

He turned his head to look at the giant moving flare next to him and shook it slowly.

"You know, it would have been much less conspicuous if you had let me carry us both there. Your method of flight is a bit… flashy."

Kary shook her head no.

"I can\'t always rely on you, now, can I? I can fly on my own; why would I ask you to carry me? It\'s a lot faster this way, anyway."

Alex wasn\'t convinced it was faster since he was flying at about half speed right now, but he wasn\'t about to call her slow. That was a straight path into aerial dodgeball with fireballs as the playing ball.

The airport was already in sight, and Alex smiled at how much time they had saved coming here this way. But his smile vanished almost immediately after, as the whirring of helicopter blades caught his ears.

*Thop thwop thwop thwop*

"Unknown flying civilians! Identify yourselves!" a rough voice came at them from a speaker on the approaching helicopter.

Alex recognized the bland khaki colour of the vehicle but frowned, wondering what the army was doing here.

A second copter soon joined the first one, as they started circling the now static Alex and Kary.

"I won\'t repeat a third time! Identify yourselves, or get ready to be shot down!" the voice shouted at them.

"Woah! Calm down, buddy! We are not hostiles!" Alex shouted over the noise, amplifying his voice through mana.

"Then identify yourselves!"

"I am Alexander Leduc! This is Kary Deveille! We are en route to the private airport for a departure!"

The helicopters continued circling them for a moment, their blades slicing the air and Alex\'s wings beating the only sound that they could hear.

The crackling of Kary\'s flames was utterly drowned out.

She warily eyed the two war copters, hoping no one would take a rash action. Honestly, she was already surprised Alex was so calm about this.

"Did you know they would be there?" she asked him.

"Well, I was expecting a military presence in airports and ports eventually—just not this early," Alex admitted.

With all the sightings of him roaming around the internet as he flew around the city, he was honestly surprised there wasn\'t more of a regular presence in the sky over the city already. But the airports shouldn\'t have been under that much scrutiny already.

After a moment, the speaker crackled back to life.

"Alright, you\'ve been cleared! Next time you fly toward the airport, call the tower to notify them of your arrival, Mr. Leduc!" the man shouted, before the two copters suddenly pulled away, each returning to different sides of the airport, flying low enough to avoid air traffic.

Alex frowned for a second, confused.

"Call the tower? How the hell am I supposed to do that? It\'s not like I have their number on speed dial," he complained, looking at the tower not too far from them.

"I guess we\'ll have to pull some strings to get the number, then," Kary said, shrugging as if it were a no-brainer.

But it wasn\'t that easy a number to get, Alex imagined.

They resumed their flight to the side airport, which was already almost under them, going toward the hangar at the far end, where Richard had said the plane would be parked.

Jack had graciously reserved this hangar for them, out of his many private hangars, even though Richard had expressed his reluctance to take the handout. He had his pride, after all.

They also had their own hangar on the other side of the side airport, but it was the only one, since they only had one private plane.

But Jack had insisted, explaining he wasn\'t doing this for the older man, but for the youngsters. Their endeavours were also a boon to his operation, so doing this was an investment, in his own words.

In the end, Richard had agreed, since arguing was useless. He\'d known Jack for a long time, as Jack was a big client of his, and they often traded favours.

Once the old man was set on an idea, he was practically impossible to convince otherwise. It was better to argue less and cut the waste of time.

As the couple landed in front of the hangar doors, they finally came face to face with the plane that was now effectively theirs.

"Woah…" Alex said under his breath.

"Yeah, that\'s an understatement," Kary chimed in.

The large, entirely mate black plane, with a V-wing, two turbines at the back, and rectangular air ducts at the front of the wings, stood there, immobile in all its grandeur.

It was a sight to behold.

Alex had expected something smaller, or at least less impressive than this. In his opinion, it was more of a jet than a plane.

Of course, he was happy with the purchase, as it was exactly what he wanted in terms of speed and space.

Walking under the wing, as the signal lights flashed slowly, Alex tried to imagine which was faster, him or the plane.

He reached a lowered set of stairs, squarely in the center of the aircraft, and started climbing them.

"Hey! Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?!" a woman called from the side.

"Excuse me?" Alex asked, confused.

He was sure this was his plane. Shouldn\'t the crew be aware he was coming and what he looked like?

"I said who the fuck are you, and what are you doing boarding my baby?" the woman asked, stepping between him and the stairs, as Alex stepped down from them.

"You\'re baby? This is my plane, lady. Who are you?"

"Unless you are secretly forty, and have suddenly gone through a rejuvenation cure, you are not the proprietor of this plane. It belongs to Bellemare & Delphi Security, and is leased under the name Alexander Leduc.

"And last I talked to the owner, he didn\'t sound anything like you," she protested, crossing her arms over her chest.

Alex looked at her like she was a confused animal.

"Are you aware of who Alexander Leduc is, miss…" Alex started, still not knowing her name.

"I\'m Major Carol Schrute. I\'m the pilot of this marvellous aircraft. And I might not have met him yet, but I spoke to them over the phone, and he didn\'t sound like a child!" she said, looking at him with glaring eyes.

Alex chuckled.

"Miss Schrute, whoever you talked to wasn\'t me. And I assure you, this is my aircraft. Now, step aside."

Alex tried walking by her, but she roughly pushed him back.

"Kid, I was a pilot for the Canadian Air Force. If you think I\'ll just let you walk into this plane without knowing who you are, you are dreaming. Or asking for a beating, whichever one you\'d like."

Alex looked at her, his face turning into a shit-eating grin.

"Great… I get to pilot around a pretentious prick… Probably a kid from old money, too, by the arrogance of his tone…" she mumbled to herself as she climbed the stairs.

11:36

"A beating? From you? I highly doubt that. Will I need to show you some ID for you to step aside, or maybe toss you into the plane and climb in after you?" he taunted.

Kary sighed annoyedly.

"Why are you always trying to pick fights, love? Just show her some ID. We don\'t have time to lose in a pissing contest. I\'m sure Jack is about to get here with Jonathan, and I doubt seeing you fighting just about everyone and their mothers is a good example for the kid."

Alex pouted at Kary, who was raining on his parade.

"Aww… But it would have been fun. If she\'s anything like Alfred, she could have been a bit of a challenge," Alex whined.

"Alfred? Alfred Lancaster? You know the Colonel?" the woman suddenly asked, her demeanour changing.

Alex smirked at her. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"What\'s it to you?" he asked.

"The man\'s a legend. I doubt he would hang around a snot-nosed brat like you, son," the woman mocked.

"Hah!" Alex laughed.

"He doesn\'t have much of a choice when I work with his boss and basically guard his precious little lady so often. Hell, I wouldn\'t be surprised if he showed up here to drop her off," Alex replied, smirking at her.

Kary shook her head, fishing in Alex\'s pockets to pull out his ID.

"Hey!" he complained.

"I said we didn\'t have time to waste, and here you are, flaunting your connections," Kary rebuked, pulling out his driver\'s license and pushing it to the woman.

The Major grabbed the ID card and looked at the name. She then pulled a frustrated grimace.

"Great… I get to pilot around a pretentious prick… Probably a kid from old money, too, by the arrogance of his tone…" she mumbled to herself as she climbed the stairs.

Alex could hear her, but he was too focused on her leaving with his ID.

"Hey, I\'m going to need that back! Aaaaand, she\'s gone…"

\'What a pleasant start…\' he complained, mentally.