They REALLY get you off the ground! [Shadow, Pilot]

Akui was bored...like, REALLY bored. Her roomie was busy training, and her chicken...faunus...lady...friend...thing was in class, so there was no one to do anything with but Diablo and he had his fill of fun and was no resting in his sun spot. She wasn't particularly inspired to craft anything, and she had no reason to test her prototype glasses, so she was just laying on her bed and thinking of something to do...and everything she thought of required Lien, which she was strapped for. This idea in particular reminded her that the academy regularly offered Shadow Missions, and in the very least she could go get bored to death and get paid for it, which was fine with her.

Akui got showered, dressed and stuck, then proceeded to leave her dorm and mosey her way over to the Shadow Mission board rather than check her scroll. Nothing seemed super interesting, but going under one's wing when they man a winged vehicle was ironic enough to make her agree to it, and she walked over to meet what was unfortunately a male pilot. He introduced himself, although she didn't care so she didn't remember, and she followed him to his airship...the same one that transferred students and faculty all the time. While she had rode in one of these a number of times, she would be sitting in the cockpit this time, which was definitely a first. She nearly vom'd upon entering it: what a filthy and disgusting name for it, which she assumed had something to do with men mainly being pilots, and it made her cringe and her stomach flip again just to sit in the chair next to him.

The took off and flew around downtown Bellmuse for a while, and the pilot had handed Akui a book that she was currently reading to understand all the gauges in front of her. After about fifteen minutes of him blabbering and her reading and looking up at the gauges every so often, the pilot turned her direction and said: "Alrighty lil' lady, iz time for yuu to fly dis giant hunk o' metal!"

[361/1000]

"Don't patronize me muthaf-"

"Listen here, lil' lady, I 'erd about who you is and what you'z done...makes me no never mind. I ain't a'scared of yuu, I'm jus here to teachin yahz how to fly dis here hunk o' junk, so dere be no needin to be all feisty and whatnot."

"You should be scared of your grammer..." Akui muttered as she adjusted herself to get up.

"Whadi yuu say?"

"Nothing, just move over, because there 'ain't no wayz' in hell that I'm sitting your lap. Oh, and don't touch me."

The pilot moved out of his seat and walked over so he was off to the side, so he could watch over her and monitor how she was doing without imposing on her. Akui sat down in the pilots seat and cringed at the idea of sitting where the man was just before. She fit the headset properly on her head, and she read up a few more pages in the manual before she adjusted her hand to grab what she learned as the control wheel. She turned off the auto-pilot, and adjusted the thruster slowly. They may be moving very slowly, but everything seemed in perfect order as she eyed all the gauges in front of her.

[572/1000]

"Not duin too bad for a first timer, and afta just readin da manual no less. You got some talent in ya, lil' lady. To think so much potenshal lies in such an angry an angsty lil' vixen. If'n yu din mind, maybe yu could tell meh why yu so up-in-arms about evrythang?"

"Maybe you could just shut your damn hillbilly mouth and teach me more about how the hell to fly this thing."

The man signed and shook his head. "Seein as yu got the general idear, how aboutz a lil quiz? What is that gauge right there?"

Now it was Akui's turn to sigh. "That is for checking the altitude. Seems rather low for movement."

"You darn tootin! Know whish lever adjusts the thruztaz?"

Akui looked around for a moment, then place a hand in a smaller lever near the one for the thrusters themselves.

"Good! Crank tha baby back and giv et sum juice!" Akui pulled the small thruster lever all the way back, which adjusted the levers to point downward,  then adjusted the thruster a couple smidges more than before, and they quickly rose into the air. Akui gave it a few moments until the altitude gauge was just a bit higher than needed before adjusting the small lever back to neutral.

"Not bad, not bad...think yu can take us to da cargo bay in town?"

Akui went to glare at the man, but he wasn't doubting her: from the smirk on his face, she could tell he was challenging her.

"Think? Know." she gave him what was the beginnings of a smirk.

"Tell ya wat: if you can get uz ta the cargo bay and back to da academy before your lesson ends, I'll take you on a joy ride in a real speedster."

Akui looked him in the eyes before smirking fully.

"You're on."

[883/1000]

Akui's eyes darted from the window in front of her, to the speedometer, to what she liked to call 'the minimap' and then back to the window to repeat the process. She had already reached the cargo bay and picked up the delivery, and now she was cruising back to the academy launch pad...cruising meaning of course illegal speeds. However, with her instructors guidance, she flew under the radar and was fast approaching the academy grounds...in fact she was nearly there already.

With some quick adjustments to the small and large thruster levers and a rather impressive command over the control wheel, she managed to slow down enough to properly land the actually rather large ship without any difficulty or malady. She even knew how to operate the buttons involving the cargo bay and let the men in to unload it. As she and her instructor disembarked the ship, the pilot turned to her with a grin.

"Well lil' lady, I dint doubt you for a secun, and yu did make it back earleh...unfortunatleh, it's only bout a minute earleh, which isn't nuff time to take yu for a spin in a reel speedster, but...tell ya wat: if you signz up for anotha one of dem mishions, I promiss to meet up withya earleh so that we gotz the time." The pilot then handed her a card that seemed to represent a ticket that allowed one to use a small personal jet or something. The pilot walked off to speak with another student, likely another understudy, and Akui left to go to her dorm. Once she got there, she opened her scroll and submitted her time. She then looked up information on her scroll about aviation and the current planes and ships used in Bellmuse, eyes gleaming with the desire to learn more about how to take to the air with technology.

[1199/1000]