Flying a handful of meters beside the bubble, the lieutenant tapped her faceplate to key the comm with her flight. Her words were relayed to their passengers via a small speaker that manifested in the middle of the platform.
"Alright team, we're comin' up on the eye wall. Full afterburners; insertion angle three degrees. We're about to go blind, so keep an eye on those instruments. Do not; I repeat, do not alter pitch or elevation till we're in the eye of the storm, understood?"
Their acknowledgements resounded over the comm.
"Here goes nothin'..."
As the turbulence outside approached its peak, the conditions inside the bubble began to follow suit. Lightning pelted them relentlessly. Hundreds of innocuous objects - ranging from bricks to splinters to even individual stalks of wheat - became deadly missiles as they entered the eye wall.
What happened in those next few moments is somewhat unclear. The platform seemed to buckle beneath them, before rising to its original height in an instant. Had they been present, a casual occupant might've likened it to being trapped in a giant pinball machine. Save the shadows of rain and debris impacting the bubble, the only things visible were the faint verdant glows of the airmens' visors.
And within an instant, the turbulence vanished. The lieutenant's voice was heard on the comm.
"What on earth..."
When everyone had come to, they found themselves in a tight circular arena of swirling clouds and debris. It was very calm, almost silent. At the top of the funnel was a thin layer of clouds obscuring the open sky, and at the bottom, a spectacle of utter violence as the tornado ripped apart a railyard, tracks and all.
Unfortunately for the airmen and company, the witch turned out to be quite circumspect.
She did a double-take when the flight entered the corner of her vision. For a moment, both parties shared a dreadful surprise.
Yet their enemy was quick to act. She whirled about, protecting her weak point (the small of her back) from view, whilst simultaneously summoning the arsenal captured from the airmen early on in the fight.
"Ahh, lieutenant?" said one of the airmen over the comm, "I'm readin' multiple spikes from the bogey."
Kirino's blood ran cold. "Aw hell- Incoming missiles! Evade, evade!"
Within a second, the protected platform split in half between the two pairs of airmen. Within a few more, the entire arena was transformed into a shower of bright blue flares and glimmering chaff.
At one point, an errant burst of aethercannon fire severed the link between @All in One 's caretakers. Just as all seemed lost however, one of them swooped in from above. He caught the girl with one hand on her back, the other behind her knees.
As luck would have it, it was that same puckish young lad; same firey hair; same charmingly vulgar accent. And though they couldn't see past that vermilion steel faceplate, one could be certain he was grinning underneath.
"Fallin' for someone else, love? What a heartbreaker."
