3046/Unscheduled Air Traffic

Unscheduled Air Traffic
Date of Scene:	18 September 2015
Location:	Boston-666
Synopsis:	Something unexpected enters Boston's airspace.
Cast of Characters:	Wo, 637, 253

---

Wo has posed:
    It had been quite some time, with no contact and no real trace, except the staff of command that Zuihou and Akizuki had recovered from the scattered debris a few days ago. Perhaps it's that ships know each other's equipment instinctively, but there was little doubt about which Wo-class it belonged to. A secret except to Psyber and a certain witch, it might have been distressing that this artifact remained silent and unmoving, provided that it was brought back for study that is. It would seem to the eyes of many to be little more than the shank of scrap metal that it resembles. Yet, it is more, so much more, especially to the one to whom it belongs. That is why, on this evening, the inert object begins to glow, from whatever location it might have been placed for safekeeping.

    The glowing outline of the young woman that Psyber had met before emerges shortly after, apparently having been awakened from wherever it is she goes when she becomes dormant. Even though she is a vaguely defined being with no muscle fibers, she still gives a stretch of what seems to be a lean body, as if getting up from a nap. "Hmm? Oh no," she says, somewhat detached from other worldly concerns that may be in the room around her, "One of the air crew is in trouble! My flight deck...ah, that's right." It's then that she finally connects with the here and now, beginning to pace around the room, "Hmm. Not here... One of the other carriers, maybe?" Her voice never quite seems to escalate into a panic, but if left unstopped by somebody, she begins to hover right towards the door. A gesture that sees her luminous body begin to fade and shimmer. "Ugh, that's right. I can't go that far without my 'body'. Being a ghost stinks!"

    And if noone has responded to this event, yet, she looks for any intercoms that might be around, and begins pushing the page button.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Since recovering the mysterious, blackened shard of steel in the Northern Loop, Zuihou has spent a great deal of time shirking Kanmusu duties to keep an eye on it or watch her radar. Boston is a place she knows the Wo-class likes, and she's well aware that this is somehow precious to that particular Wo, even if she's not entirely sure how or why.

    Which is why the diminuative light carrier is in the store room set aside for such a precious thing when it starts to glow. Zuihou herself stares out the window, her globe-like air radar spinning while she's on a search for any Abyssal scout planes that might herald the carrier's approach. As no ship goes anywhere without an escort, Akizuki reclines in a seat, focused on a handheld game system that beeps and squeaks. It's the destroyer who first notices the glow out of the corner of her eye, glancing up quickly and then back to her game.

    A second later, she snaps her eyes back up, once what she's seeing actually registers, and she hits a button that makes a stock Pause noise, "...Uhh... Zuihou?"

    Zuihou turns at the waist, as if pulled out of deep concentration, though she doesn't say anything. Her eyes hit Akizuki first, who jerks her head towards the ghost with a meaningful raise of her eyebrows. The carrier follows this and freezes in place, staring blankly at the spirit floating around the room, somewhat tethered to that steel shank occupying a nondescript table. After several moments of blank staring, her antenna unfurls off her headpiece and starts to rotate.

    "Um, mister Psyber? Something happened."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber has been doing a lot of things lately. Micromanaging Elliana's movements to figure out her plans, trying to ascertain what is going on with Priscilla's world, managing Madoka's world. But amdist all that, he's also been using unmanned Union drones to scour the infinitely huge Great Ocean square by square until he locates a missing ship.

    That is exactly what he was doing, in fact, when Zuihou calls him. And it's with a tablet in his hands that he walks into the room with it in his hands, "What happened? Did the router go down aga-" Psyber immediately pauses, looking at the ghost in the room, along with the staff sitting nearby.

    It's at that point that, out of sheer surprise, he blurts out, "Hornet. You're awake. Do you know where she is?" He asks immediately, not thinking as to the ramifications of the question. Almost as immediately as it leaves his mouth, he looks to Akizuki and Zuihou.

    "What you just heard is Class Black Classified. Do not repeat it."

Wo has posed:
    The regaining of awareness wasn't quite complete, for a few moments more, at least as far as whom is in the room with her. Instead, she keeps pushing the intercom's button - or hilariously, anything that might vaguely resemble one in this space, so she might just be calling into the thermostat. "Hello! Hello!" She hits it with a glowing fist a few times, assuming it must be busted - not that it does any earthly damage. It's around this time that she finally seems to notice she's not alone in the room, barely discernible eyes pivoting as her head seems to turn towards Zuihou and Akizuki. "Hmm? Japanese ships? I see..." She had met that Japanese girl, the first time she got woken up. It makes an odd sort of sense that there would be more of them around. Her eyes settle on Zuihou, in particular, ponderously, "I guess pride is secondary, since I've got nowhere else to turn... Hmm?"

    Psyber enters, interrupting for the moment what she was about to request. Unlike the Wo-class that is physically tied to her, she doesn't seem to have much concerns over her own identity. She does consider him, and recognize him from their first encounter, however. "Psyber, is that right? Know where 'who' is?" Merely moments after her own question in response leaves her ghostly lips, however, she appears to recognize the nature of his question, especially since 'she' isn't around this time. "You mean that zombie that has my face?" Surprisingly harsh on herself, isn't she? "I could probably help track her down, but there's something more important. One of my, her, airplanes is in trouble. I woke up from the radio message, it's in the airspace now, and low on fuel." She once again pointedly turns to Zuihou, "You think you can give it a place to land? You seem a bit small."

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "Ehh?" Zuihou and Akizuki echo each other when Psyber issues his declaration of classified-ness. They glance towards each other, as if acknowledging between themselves that this must be more serious than it already seemed to be. Returning her attention to the angel, Akizuki speaks up, "Hornet?"

    Beside her, now, Zuihou closes her eyes, arms folded with a little 'hnn' sound, "It sounds familiar... I really can't place it, though..." Eyes opening, she glances between ghost and angel, "Is she really a ship?"

    The carrier pauses, then, glancing between the two again as they have their more subtle conversation, face blanking at the mention of a zombie-- She really just doesn't get it.

    Then a plane comes up! That immediately pulls Zuihou back to the Now, "An airplane in trouble!?" Leaning forward, she places a hand over her muneate, while her equipment materializes on her arm and hips, "If you need someone to help out a cute little airplane, please leave it to Zuihou--"

    'a bit small'

    Red blush flashing across her face, Zuihou straightens up, hands shooting down her sides, "I-I'm just as good as those fleet carriers! Just you watch and see!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Yes. Meet the Spirit of the USS Hornet," Psyber says, waving a hand towards Hornet and nodding her way, finally responding to her, "Yes, I'm Psyber." He notes, looking momentarily vexed that she doesn't remember him when he has such a close friendship with her 'Other Self'. But that only lasts a few fractions of a second.

    Because he immediately says, "She's not a zombie. If you want to call her anything, consider her a ship adrift without a purpose. She is pained, she feels empty, but she is you," He seems pretty adamant about that point, "And you are her. And for anything good to happen, you both need eachother." He notes to the spirit with a somewhat pleading tone to his voice.

    He does lift his head when he hears about an incoming aircraft, "Right. Landing. One second," Psyber says, figuring it's another one of those little Abyssal aircraft. Psyber hits a remote in his pocket and one of the huge bay windows disengages and opens, sliding up to give ample clearance for arrival.

    He still regards Hornet out of one eye carefully. She may have riled up the minimal Admiral Pride he has towards one or two ships.

Wo has posed:
    Normally, Hornet is the kind of ship that would remind of the Doolittle Raid, which sadly was strategically ineffective for something to best be remembered for. Yet, it would certainly stick in the mind. To not be remembered is just a bit insulting, really - and this is how you end up with Abyssals. Instead, though, something else is more important for now, and instead of getting angry, the barely visible expression on the spirit's face seems amused, and approving. "Well then, good luck, Zuihou." Even before Psyber's light admonishment, she had realized herself she might have been too rough in her language, and softens her tone a degree, continuing, "It sounds like some of you are really attached to that other part of me, so do it for her. We'll sort this out after." She remembers all too well how pained that Wo-class looked to even see her; a reunion seems far-fetched. She settles in next to Akizuki, and raises nimble fingers to the side of her head, as if placing a telepathic call. "I'll call in."

    While the ghost of the carrier has no radio in this condition, the fairy aboard the F4F, nervously looking between her depleted gauges, and almost dehydrated from the long journey, raises her head with recognition. The connection they share is enough. Finding a last wind of adorable strength, she reaches forward to adjust her heading. Maybe it was her imagination? But this incarnation of Boston's skyline is familiar to her, so maybe there is a chance. It isn't long before the room reverberates with the sound of a troubled aircraft's engine, and a thin snake of smoke begins to bellow out as the last of the fuel gives out with a sputtering fit, damaging and hard-locking the engine. It seems it was just in the nick of time. The fairy seems confused for a moment that it's Zuihou - a familiar face, at least - is the one that is there to greet her. Maybe she really is just hallucinating all of this?

    The tiny F4F does its best not to stall as it glides in, the air brakes doing their best to reduce the speed, but also threatening to send it careening short and into the side of the Heaven or Hell tower. With a final pull back, the small aircraft slams onto Zuihou's carrier deck, a landing gear snapping from the force and sending it sliding across, before being arrested by her hopefully-prepared carrier rig. It's damaged, but mostly intact. "We lost a few like that," the ghost remembers, "Nice to see one make it." Slightly grudgingly, but good-hearted, she compliments, "...good work." The fairy aboard the plane, for her part, draws the canopy back, apparently content to just take several deep breaths of fresh air for the moment. Her chubby face is smudged with dirt and oil from the hard landing.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    When the window simply opens, Zuihou raises a hand to shield herself from the sudden blast of wind, then glances up at the spirit beside her destroyer escort. Realizing that the plane means to land /right here/ and /right now/, she quickly composes herself and whirls around, thrusting up her arm and presenting a level flight deck to the now-opened bay windows. She sets her face into a determined stare, air radar twirling. Once she sights the incoming Wildcat, she tracks it with her eyes but does not move, lest she throw things off for a plane that really cannot afford to make any corrections.

    Beside the spirit of Hornet, Akizuki raises her hands, balled into little fists. Tension rises as the little plane rumbles and chokes its way in, her hands bobbing up and down with the similar movements of the exhausted aircraft. She visibly winces when the plane hits Zuihou's flight deck, snapping its wheels off and then fouling in the arresting wires strung across the deck. Only when the fairy hauls open the canopy does Akizuki relax.

    Zuihou, for her part, remains tense as well until that canopy opens and the fairy shows it's alright. The tense expression on the girl's face breaks into a sort of 'I did it!' smile. Keeping her flight deck level, she turns to show the successful landing off to the Spirit, her destroyer friend, and Psyber with an ever-widening grin on her face that wouldn't be out of place on someone who's just had a dragonfly land unbidden on an outstretched hand.

    Zuihou really is just that excited that an enemy plane chose to land on her!

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "I'm fond of her like I'd be fond of anyone who is trying to understand their place in the world," Psyber says to Hornet, his tone softening when hers does. He looks incredibly anxious as that plane comes in, both for what it heralds and for the fact it could seriously fuck up the side of his building of it crashed. Luckily, though, it doesn't. And Psyber lets out a sigh of relief.

    He reaches into one of the mini-fridges in the office areas to get a water before realizing it might be a bit too big for the fairy. So he ops to instead fill the CAP of the bottle with water and offer that to the tiny fairy, "Good job, Zuihou. You really pulled through on that one."

    Psyber is already staring at that ship and pondering. Not about its damage, but, "If that plane has telemetrics and flight information, we might be able to pull its path and backtrack it to Wo. A lot of people are looking for her right now," Psyber says seriously, an edge of relief finally entering his tone.

    "I need you two to keep the existence of that plane and fairy a secret, though. The Feds will want to be there when we recover Wo, so you'll have to give it back to her later, Zuihou. If they find out she's... got fairies and a plane, they may try to undo some of her growth. And none of us want that."

    Even in moments of intense relief, Psyber has a clear enough mind to laser-focus on priorities.

Wo has posed:
    Flight recorders are still a distant necessity, on aircraft of this age. These are really accurate models, after all, and they were more occupied with things like stuffing more avionics aboard, when everything is vacuum tubes and electromagnetic relays. The fairy gratefully accepts the cap of water, her button-like eyes somehow sparkling as she wraps her arms around it and downs it with large gulps for a being of her size. Immediately afterward, she looks much better. While she's unaware of the high level vows of secrecy being exchanged by the others in the room, and while there might not be a black box of sorts aboard the plane, she does have something she brought with her. Reaching into her flight jacket, she withdraws what looks like a scrap of notebook paper, and unfurls it to proudly present it to the giants in the room. From the looks of it, it looks like the fairy herself doodled it in crayon, but she made reasonable facsimiles of landmarks as she passed them.

    The spirit rises from where she's resting, after, to take a closer look. "Clever girl," she says, lifting a luminous hand to pat the fairy on the head. "It looks like you've got your flight recording, Psyber." As her time begins to grow short, judging by how her glowing fades - so that a bit more of her earthly facial features can be seen, she does wonder, though, "This other part of me. Is she in trouble, then? You seem to be really suspicious of anyone that gets around her." She thinks of something else, as well, all her playful tone from before basically having evaporated, "Did Enterprise make it? Northampton? ...even that kid that tried to tow me, when I was too stubborn. I think that other part of me is still fighting to come home. That's what I really wante--" She seizes up right then, the dim glow receding back into that elongated hunk of metal still resting nearby. Seems she's run out of energy to materialize, for the time being.

    At least the fairy is still here, however, having already emerged from the plane and walked across the flight deck, to try and clamber up Zuihou's arm and rest on her shoulder. She glances after the fading image, then to Akizuki, Zuihou and Psyber in turn. She gives a broad grin and a salute.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "Ah?" Akizuki glances towards the spirit when she starts bringing up other ships, "The Grey Ghost? We thought we got her a bunch of times but she always managed to come back somehow. It's how she got that name." Her eyes close, head bobbing from side to side, "Not sure about the others... Unless the kid you mean is Makigumo-- She sank." With a shrug, she admits, "A lot of us Japanese ships did, though..."

    Zuihou, however, is absolutely pleased with her current situation. Now the American fairy is climbing around on her like a real mothership carrier! For several minutes the girl is utterly glowing with pride, not just that she was able to land the heavier Wildcat but simply because its pilot trusts her so much. The map and other things are almost entirely forgotten, until she snaps back to herself with an "Oh!"

    Shifting, Zuihou detaches her flight deck so she can remove it while keeping it level, setting it on the table beside the Wo's discarded staff. She then gingerly removes the crayon map and sets it aside, as that is going to be needed. Her main focus however is the airplane itself. With the fairy on her shoulder, she gently busies herself with decoupling the plane from her arresting gear, "We'll have to fix her up for you, good as new~! Miss Wo will be happy to see you're alright, once we pick her up, too! So I think it'd be best if you're happy and your plane is fixed!" Glancing down, she asks, "But-- would you be alright with me helping you fix it..?" It IS technically enemy equipment, after all.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber looks a bit relieved to see the map exists and lets out a heavy sigh and a faint smile. Then he manages to turn his attention back to the spectre of the Hornet, "She's... yeah. She's been missing for weeks. And I wouldn't call it suspicious, I'm just protective. Of the many people I've met from her world, Wo was the one I thought I could help. I'm just... trying my best," He says, averting his gaze from the ship as she remarks, "It's also just weird talking to you, since you're her but you don't remember me."

    He shakes his head a bit to clear the cobwebs, "We lost Northampton in a major tactical fluke, but yeah, Big E survived. The Yorktowns are credited with holding back the Japanese juggernaut. I did a lot of research about you since last we me-" He's cut off as she begins to vanish. He'll finish later.

    Psyber manages to give Zuihou a fairly genuine smile as she talks to the plane and the fairy, "Like I said, you may have to wait a bit to give her back to Wo, since we can't take her with us with Feds around. But I think Wo will be happy to get her back. She really... pulled through for everyone."

    He gives the little fairy a salute back.

Wo has posed:
    Though she had lingered long enough for the answers to hit her, she hadn't gotten to express much of herself, in turn, to both Akizuki and Psyber -- since Zuihou is apparently occupied and probably trying to not make a squee-ing noise. There was a bit of an understanding glance from the ghost, before she had vanished, but deep conversation is difficult when you're on borrowed time, and have to go back to sleep for the next time you're needed. Maybe if Psyber had something like a spiritual energy reactor that could conduct into it...but that might be risky. In any case, the glow fades shortly after, and apparently Hornet's spirit is again resting. They'll just have to hope that the answers make that sleep a bit more easy, even if not all were good news.

    The crude map that the fairy made is...well, adequate. Enough that feeding it into the appropriate databases will probably yield a flight path. She seems quite proud of herself, or at least, did. Like most fairies, her attention span is very context sensitive, and once the moment has passed and she's been effectively 'dismissed' by Psyber, she flops forward, undignified, across Zuihou's shoulder. The light carrier girl's question lingers only for a moment, before she raises herself back up onto her tiny arms, and gives a beaming grin and a thumbs up. At least, that is probably the gesture - their hands make delicate gestures difficult. Those kinds of old scores to settle don't really matter to a fairy, and she has enough intelligence to know that it's ultimately to help her own mothership. There aren't any state secrets to steal in her Wildcat, anyway.