Operation: Rainbow

Note: This was going to be an entry into a contest, but once again my luck struck and I missed the deadline. The third time is the charm!

The skies weren’t themselves that Monday morning. I figured the skies were sick of Monday as well. The air was extremely leaden, heavy and wet. It sorta felt like the Apocalypse was upon us as I gazed upon the dreary skies. It would get worse as I heard a soft voice call me by my nickname, “Tika!”

I cringed and turned around, it was Ruby. She’s the beautiful buxom witch of the Red Rose. It was her responsibility to keep the balance between man and the dragons. She informed me that a rainbow had been stolen and was taken away to the mists of Zark. I gave her a curious look, Zark sounded like it came out of a cheesy 1980s video game.

It continued to get worse, she asked me to aid her on her quest to return the rainbow and thus returning Earth’s skies to normal. I wish she didn’t. We have a past steamy history that I would like to keep under the covers. My girl knew of it and at times it would get contentious whenever Ruby was around me wearing her little, yeah it was little, witchy outfit.

The mists of this so-called Zark land were just as heavy as Ruby informed me during the preflight briefing. She signaled for me to take the lead as she dropped back on my port. My bird’s keen eyes easily sliced through the misty soup as we journeyed into the mystical land of the dragons.

I wondered how she could breathe out there. I know she’s a powerful witch and all that, but she’s still a human flying in inhospitable conditions. I momentarily glanced away from my LiDAR to see if the redheaded witch was still following me, dumb stupid mistake.

My HUD instantly turned crimson red as a soft voice calmly repeatedly stated, “Impact warning.” I turned my full and unadulterated attention back at my LiDAR, two behemoth blips were screaming straight for me. I banked my bird hard to the right. She shrieked as she veered away from the incoming objects.

My flight suit did its job; it inflated, keeping my blood from running into my legs. I painfully twisted my head around and saw that they were two scaly dragons. One broke off and followed me, Ruby was on her own.

I could sense the woman in the photo that was taped to my instrument panel scolding me, “RYAN TIBERIUS WOLF…if you don’t come back, I’m going to kill you myself!” I didn’t have time to glance to see if my masculine intuitions were right or not. It’s never a good thing to have a woman mention your middle name, neither is fire breathing dragon on your six.

Normally I would drop a few flares to distract or temporarily blind the opposing pilot. However, this was a dragon. Dragons spit fireballs at each other for fun. My nimble bird turned a golden hue before it was kissed with a fiery fireball. My bird shook, but that was it.

Ruby must’ve cast a spell or something after we broke up. The dragon continued to spit its fiery rage at me to no ill effects on my bird. I smiled underneath my oxygen mask, I killed my engines and performed a version of the cobra maneuver. I flipped my bird over and cut loose a dozen rounds at the dragon.

It shrieked in pain as the hot rounds hit its scales. The beast fell from the sky as I flipped my bird back over and reengaged her engines. I looked around and blinked. No signs of the other dragon and the skies were crystal clear. How did that happen so quickly?!?

I came around and saw Ruby lassoing the lost rainbow, now it was my turn. She made a magical noose and dropped it well below her. It was my job to fly my bird’s nose through it and make a MACH 3.5 dash back to the swirling aperture in which we entered. No problem, I’ve done this hundreds of times. Yeah , my palms were sweaty and I had a death grip on the control stick as I approached the noose. It magically tied itself around the canards of my fleeing bird. I engaged the throttle and it was a non eventful supersonic dash back to Gotham NAS.

The rainbow ebbed away as we entered man’s world. The skies returned to normal. The sun shined brightly. Everyone was happy except for Mrs. Wolf. I had to spend a month’ worth of salary on chocolates, candies, and flowers to get her to speak to me again. You know what they say…Happy wife, happy life!