Ch. 6

(P.S. Before you start the chapter, I recommend that you go to Youtube, search "Ace Combat 4 music mission 8" and listen to it while you're reading this chapter.)

I knew a very small amount of flying planes, but not enough to save my life. However, Latias' curiosity was showing.

'What does this do?' I looked behind me as best I could, and all I could see is her putting her right arm into a slot on the back of my seat. Suddenly, the entire cockpit went dark for a second before reappearing. However, the computer's voice sounded familiar.

"Whoa! What happened? I feel like I'm flying, but I'm not at the same time!"

"Latias? Is that you?"

"What? You're inside me? Wha-?"

"You must have taken control over the plane, Latias. Try flying it, but-" Too late. She did a sharp turn, and I could see the ground off to our right. However, as she turned, I couldn't feel any G-forces, and I had to ask the computer about it.

"Computer, why don't I feel any G-forces?" The computer didn't respond.

"...She says its because of a design that gets rid of the G-forces?"

"Okay, then, I guess you're free to do whatever you'd like to, Latias. I'm just gonna relax..." I looked behind, and I saw various shadowy figures behind us, and they all seemed to be preparing an attack. "Latias! Hard left!"

"Wh- Oh, I see." We suddenly turned again. Latias must have been better at flying than I thought, because one of the Shadow Pokemon was in front of me. I heard a beeping, and I could see a diamond on top of the Pokemon. However, it did a sharp turn.

"Latias! Get us behind that Pokemon!" She turned the plane, swerving to avoid another attack, and got right on the tail of the Shadow Pokemon, which I could clearly see was a Pidgeotto. "Can you fire a missile?"

"What? What's that?"

"Never mind!" I heard the beeping again, and when I looked down, I could see that the control stick had the same flashing button. I grasped it and pressed the button, and I could see a missile chase after the Pokemon, which couldn't dodge in time. After a large explosion, the Pidgeotto fell out of the sky, the shadows draining out of it as it fell to the forest below. However, another one had snuck up on us, and I could feel the shaking as we were hit by a sudden blast of wind. However, the plane was too aerodynamic, and it didn't affect us much. Latias did a barrel roll, much to my dislike, and got right on its tail. Damn, was she good! She hadn't even known what she had done at first. Again, I fired a missile, and although it tried to dodge, the missile was too maneuverable, and it quickly turned to hit it. The last Pokemon was nowhere to be seen, up until we were hit by a supersonic Pokemon missile from above. I could hear warning alarms, and I saw that our right engine was damaged.

"Ouch! That hurt!" We still had our speed, and when we turned on its tail, I pressed the button again. However, my HUD displayed a "No missile" message. Damn! I almost forgot about the laser, but by that time, the Pokemon had risen back into the clouds. Something happened to the vision, and it showed black. When I looked up to where the Pokemon had gone, I could see its bones. "What happened? I can't see much of anything!"

"You must have turned on X-Ray vision. Look above us!" She must have saw the Pokemon, and she turned the plane to intercept. However, we weren't able to climb fast enough from having a damaged engine. It was too far away for the standard gun on an aircraft, but then I remembered the TLS. After switching it on, I pressed the button, and I could see the Pokemon's skeleton suddenly crumple from the impact before falling after the laser had apparently run out. Latias leveled us out just in time to dodge the falling Skarmory this time around, but we weren't able to stay like that for long. The plane started losing altitude, and I watched as the altimeter counted down from 10000 feet to 9000. "Latias, go back to regular vision! Try thinking about regular vision!" The cockpit returned to regular view, and when I looked at the wing, I saw that a piece of wing from the Skarmory was stuck in it, causing the flap to stay down. The other was just jammed down. I was getting frantic as I saw the ground approach us at high speed. "Hurry, Latias! We don't have much time! Pull up!"

"I can't! I will still try though!" The altimeter kept counting down, and only when it was 1000 feet did the blade from the Skarmory finally dislodge, and the other wing unjammed. We pulled up from a vertical descent, but it wasn't enough. We hit the ground, sliding for a few seconds before we hit a tree, hard, and I blacked out after that.