fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Thursday, August 9, 3rd period]

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flight and flying

Flight and Flying [Thursday, August 9, 3rd period]

Anakin didn't apologize for his behavior, you know, ever.

Which was why his gaze was just as sharp ever as he looked at the students when they gathered in the Danger Shop. And if he didn't make eye contact with Rory, well, these things happen.

"Today we're going to try something a little different," he said quietly, pointing to two motorcycle-esque machines hovering before him. "This is a swoop bike," he said, pointing to one, "and the one on the left is a speeder bike, the slightly newer model, which is also equipped with a laser cannon. Don't use the laser cannon. Both fly like the motorcycles of this world drive, but can get up to 400 kilometers an hour. That being said, you will be wearing helmets --" fortunately for the class, much more attractive than the Nubian ones from the previous week, "--and there are two different scenarios based on your level of skill. One is a desert planet with nothing to hit. The second is a forest moon with trees hundreds of meters tall."

He glanced around at them. "Please don't hit a tree and explode. I don't care that it won't actually kill you. There'd be paperwork and I don't feel like dealing with That Woman today. In two weeks, we'll be meeting at my shuttle and doing some actual space flight. If you hurt my ship, I'll be unhappy. If you demonstrate today you don't have the maturity to fly responsibly, you won't be asked to come along." He stared hard at each student. "Questions? No? Let's begin."

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" 'F I wasn't worried about getting detention from Master Skywalker for breaking his bikes down into parts, I'd help ya with that. 'Ve been wondering what kind of mechanism they're using to keep it floating off the ground."

He helping Rikku waddle over to the speed bike and slid himself into the seat on the back half. "I don' think I've met either one. 'S it your roommate or the fake prinicpal who's crazy? Or both?"

Rikku chewed on her lip curiously. "I wonder if he wouldn't let us have a go at one of the sims? I just really kinda wanna tinker with it, you know? Pop the hood off, look at the gears, all that stuff." She rolled her eyes. "Still a grease-monkey, I guess."

She helpfully got her wonky legs out of the way of the pedals and began fussing with the hand switches. "The fake principal. My roommate's Hermione Granger and she's way smart and studies a lot and when she thinks there's something wrong with rules and discipline then you know something's up. The fake principal's just evil. She did this and I fell over and she started laughing. I wanted to kick her teeth in."

"There's nothin' wrong with being a greece-monkey from one a them to the other," he said. "An' I think I side with your roommate. Anyone who'd laugh while doin' that shouldn't have power."

He moved his arms back and forth a couple of times while debating about grabbing on to Rikku or not, before grabbing on to a bar on the back so as not to be too forward.

"Treat me as your gas pedal," he said. "Lemme know when you wanna start, stop, speed up, or slow down, an' I will. Shouldn' be any big obstacles out there, less you drop into one of the canyons.

Rikku laughed. "It's such a cool feeling when you actually get something running again, you know? And you can put your hands on your hips all, 'Ah, yes, everything's fine now, just some sand in the engine.' 'Cause sand really screws up your engine. So glad this isn't the desert."

"Sounds awesome! Let's crank 'er up." She flipped a few switches, then swiveled slightly to try to look at him. "Do you, uh, do you need to hang on so you don't fall off? I'm not, like, hitting on you or anything. I just don't want my gas pedal to go sailing if I make a sharp turn. And I kinda like sharp turns."

"If you're cool with it," Johnny said, reddening a bit as he moved his hands carefully on to Rikku's waist before pushing down on the gas petal. He brought the bike up to a mid-range speed to start up, as they both got used to the arrangement.

"I don' have as much experience with sand, since I usually stick with paved roads an' ramps. But I get the same kinda feelin' after fixing bikes that have been through the dirt and rocks of unpaved roads. For me, the best part's not just fixin' it, but knowing that you can make it a part of yourself, an' feel the freedom of speed with it."

"Everything's got sand in it where I'm from," Rikku explained. "I, uh, I kinda am one of those people from another world? And I grew up in the desert and ugh, the sand gets everywhere. What's wrong with the bots, well, my first guess would be they've got sand clogged somewhere."

She steered carefully at first, getting the hang of the settings and of not controlling her own speed, before she started slicing through the turns. "Oh, dude, this rocks," she giggled. "I, uh, I never had my own machina, like, to ride or anything? I mean, Mel and I stole a car and souped it up, and that was awesome, but ... I think my favorite bit really is how ... there's logic to it, you know? Like, this tab goes here, that wire goes there, and when it works, it's like you understand something."

"Huh," said Johnny with surprise. He managed to take this news much better than he would have a month ago. Perhaps the newness of Fandom was finally starting to fade.

"I love the simple logic that there is in machine 'cause it all makes sense an' is there for a reason. I got my own bike, so I know how t'take it apart an' put it back together an' fix it when things go wrong." Johnny raised an eyebrow at Rikku. "You stole a car?"

"Ooooh, you have a bike? Is it like this one? How fast can it go?" Rikku giggled, swerving this way and that to see how responsive the speeder was. "The car was Deadpool's. Uh, is? Maybe. What's left of it is totally Deadpool's."

Johnny grinned in happiness at the thought of his bike, and increased the speed on the speeder bike a bit.

"It's a Harley XR-750. 'S not nearly as fast as this is, but it's light enough that I can pull tricks an' jumps with it."

He let out a chuckle. " 'M guessin' that there's a whole story behind this."

"Oooooh, seriously?!" Rikku bounced a little. "That sounds so cool! Can I see it some time? What kind of tricks?! And oh! Me and Mel were just blowing off steam and we needed a sweet car, and we took Deadpool's. We threw haste on it, and flamestrike, and put a chimichanga maker in the dash? But then it kinda got blown up on the way back from Florida."

"Yeah, sure. Soon as I figure out where'd be the best place to bring it out, I'll letcha see it. 'Ve offered a couple other people rides on my bike, an' I'll offer the same to you if you want," he said.

Johnny burst out laughing on the story, and almost lost his grip on Rikku before regaining his balance. "I wish I coulda seen that, was all he managed to get out."

"Bring it out?" Rikku asked. "Is it stuck somewhere? And ooooh, I'd love to go for a ride on it! And we left what was left of the car in front of Deadpool's house. It might still be there. It's got scorch marks and there's a sunroof that shouldn't be there and some cabbages on the seats but the chimichanga maker? That sucker still works."

" 'S in the school garage, but I need somewhere where's there's space enough to do stuff without runnin' people over." He readjusted his posture on the bike so that he was comfortable again, and evened out control of the speed.

"An' next time in town, I'll have t'go see it and make me some chimichangas."

"They were good ones, too," Rikku said, nodding. "'Cause we stole the chimichanga maker from this place called Bert's that said it had the best ones around. And they were right."

Issues such as "theft" and "property rights" didn't seem to be a big concern to her.

"Oooooh. There were some really flat places on the way to Florida. Like Georgia had some fields that just went on and on. But that was kinda a few hours away."

"Was that here in Fandom or somewhere else? Don't think I've been to Bert's before," he said. Johnny was a little concerned about the stealing but not enough to care deeply about it.

"I was thinkin' somewhere much closer to the school. Dunno that I wanna go all the way to Georgia to get some practice time in."

Rikku laughed. "No, this was, like, after we broke out of jail. Dunno where it was, we were zipping down the highway and I'm not from here so it all kinda ... runs together, you know?"

She thought for a minute. "There's gotta be somewhere around here, yeah? I mean, it's a shame you couldn't just ... rope off bits of the park or something."

Johnny laughed more at Rikku's story. "You broke outta jail? You must have one heckuva interesting life."

He thought about Rikku's comment for a minute in silence. "Can't I?" he asked, never one to think about the consequence of actions.

"Kinda, yeah. Busy at least. Sometimes that's good, and other times ... not so much, you know?" Rikku tried for some of the more swooping curves, shivering a little. This bike rocked. "And I ... whoa. You know what? I don't know why you couldn't! You could totally just set up an area and go to town. Keep your eyes peeled for people screwing off and you'd be set, yeah?"

"You're pretty good at this," he told Rikku, instinctively leaning into the curves on the bike's path. He lessened the speed while doing loops before bringing it back up on the flats. "An' busy's always better than sittin' around doing nothin'."

Johnny started to stare off into space a bit. "Yeah, that'd work good. 'D love to perform in front of an audience again. Need t'get some rope and tent pegs, an' maybe some basic ramps..."

He trailed off as he got lost in the idea and started planning out just what he would need to make things work.

"Thanks!" Rikku laughed. "Professor Skywalker said you're supposed to go really fast, and that much I'm totally good at. In fact, let's see what this baby can do."

She considered for a minute. "You know, you could announce it ahead of time, like a show, and that'd make it easier to rope it off, 'cause then people wouldn't just wander in. Plus that sounds really cool to see, you know?"

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Flight and Flying [Thursday, August 9, 3rd period]

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