Week 23.3 – China

Previously: While flying Digger to China, Cole announced that they had company. And now…

“How do you know?” Digger asked, following.

“You think I would be able to control metal at a distance without being able to sense it?” Cole opened the cockpit door. “Especially over the ocean like this. No metal for miles, and then suddenly, boom, something headed right for us.”

Digger climbed into the copilot seat as Metalord climbed into the pilot’s chair. “A missile?”

“Interceptor, more likely,” Cole said. “They want to know what’s coming into their yard before they decide to shoot it down or not.”

Digger smelled Amanda’s hair a moment before she pressed up against the back of his chair. “There it is,” she said and pointed.

Digger looked and sure enough, there was a plane coming toward them. It flashed past on the right, a blur that Digger assumed was a Chinese fighter. “What should we do?”

“Relax,” Cole said, his eyes distant. “He’s coming around to get a better look.”

The plane matched speed with them on the left not long after. It was gray and stealth-contoured, with a red star prominently displayed on the tail. “What now?” Digger asked.

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]The fighter pulled its nose up slightly and dropped back, out of sight. “Which means his next move will be to get behind us and lock missiles on target.”[/blockquote]“Well, now is the tricky part,” Cole said. “See, right now, he’s probably radioing us to identify ourselves or else leave Chinese airspace. Problem is, levitating the plane magnetically like this completely screws up the radio. So I can’t talk to him even if I had an answer he would like.”

“Which means…”

The fighter pulled its nose up slightly and dropped back, out of sight. “Which means his next move will be to get behind us and lock missiles on target.”

“He’s going to shoot us down?” Tiffany asked.

“No, of course not,” Cole said. “I just have to explain to him what he’s dealing with, that’s all.”

“And how are you going to do that without a radio?” Digger asked.

Cole smiled. Digger felt the plane bank, although that wasn’t exactly right. It was rotating while still traveling in the same direction. Moments later, they were looking at the fighter jet straight ahead of them as their plane flew in reverse. “Now does he panic or…?”

Cole’s question was cut off by a gush of smoke from each wing as missiles launched toward them. Cole lifted his hands and the missiles held position just shy of the plane, their engines still geysering smoke. Cole twirled his fingers, and the missiles rotated in mid-air to aim back at the fighter, which veered off quickly. Cole released the missiles and they shot away from the plane, veering like drunks trying to walk a straight line with no targets to lock on.

As Cole rotated the plane back to face forward again, Digger asked, “Do you think that was really helpful?”

“Why not?” Cole asked. “I protected us from harm while demonstrating no harmful intent.”

“No harmful intent?” Amanda asked. “You pointed missiles at him.”

“Hey, I was just offering to return his property,” Cole said. “Strap in. We’ve got land on the horizon. We’ll be there soon.”

Will they receive the hero’s welcome Cole anticipates? Or might something possibly go wrong? How likely is that? Join us for the next exciting episode and find out!

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