Shocking Flight pt. 1

"Bravo-echo-echo-zero-zero-eight, you are clear to begin taxi, you are second in queue.” The line closed with a sharp buzz, and, smiling, I picked up my microphone.

“Thank you, control. Hey, actually, what’s the weather look like through to sector victor-nine?” I released the key, and waited for an answer as I started moving my plane onto the taxiway. Luckily, I was only flying a small bird, so I was given precedence.

“Uh, bravo-echo-echo-zero-zero-eight, weather looks clear right now, but likely to get pretty rainy and very chilly in an hour or so. You got deicing on your bird?” Click.

“Uh, yeah, I have deice on here. Am I gonna need it?” Click.

“It’s likely. Recommend you prime it once you’re off the ground.” Click. “Charlie-Echo-Foxtrot-Nine-Eight-Nine, you’re clear for takeoff.” Click. On that announcement, the plane in front of me drove onto the runway and paused, doing their final check, before putting the pedal to the metal and flying down the runway.

I waited, knowing that another plane was about ten seconds from landing. ATC was radioing off instructions that didn’t concern me. Sure enough, a private jet hit the tarmac meters in front of me. ATC opened the radio channel again, and I whispered the words as I heard them spoken. “Bravo-Echo-Echo-Zero-Zero-Eight, you are clear for takeoff.” I grinned madly.

“Thank you control.” I said before engaging the engines. I rolled forward, taking the turn at a comfortable speed. I lined up the nose, re-centered the avionics, and, with a face splitting smile, I punched the throttle forwards. Instantly, the turbojets kicked into full blast. Normally, when I had passengers, or cargo, I was careful with my takeoffs. But this time, I only had myself, so I could skip the smooth acceleration phase, and bring the lever from zero to one hundred in roughly a millisecond. Within perhaps five seconds I was coming off the ground, flight control all the way back. The nose came up first, as it always did, and the tail end followed soon afterwards. And suddenly, after a few slow seconds of holding my breath, praying nothing went wrong, I was flying. Going through my post takeoff checklist, I hit the gear switch and listened to the motors whirring. They stopped after the normal three seconds, indicating an absence of faults. Knowing that I was flying a working vehicle, I glanced down at my map and started turning to the right, as per my flight plans.

I had perhaps another two hours to my destination, an island off the coast. A friend of a friend owned a large portion of the forest island, and their long, straight road from boatramp to cottage was to serve as a landing strip. I had taken a good look at the dirt road a few weeks back, and I was pretty sure I could land there. From my experience, it was almost always stormy there. The treeline and the buildings would allow for me to abort a landing easily, and my large supply of fuel meant I could make it there and back twice without refueling if needed. Calmly assuming my heading, I turned on some music on my com headset, and relaxed in my seat.

Comfortable with my pathway, I engaged the "autopilot", which was really a series of alarms that would be triggered if I went too far from a straight line. With that all configured, I stood up and grabbed a sandwich from the cooler. Anyone who has ever thought that humans were not an advanced species has never been in the driver's seat of an airplane, especially not one where he didn't need to touch any controls for at least another two hours. Of course, sitting in the seat for two hours would become boring soon, so I finished my lunch and grabbed my laptop. There was a build I was working on in Minecraft, and I was eager to finish it in Survival without cheats. Luckily, as a charter and shipping pilot, I had lots of time on my hands. Especially here, where I was not responsible for anyone's property, nor anyone's life. So, I pulled out my aged laptop and booted it up, plugging the charger into the sketchy lighter socket I had added to the rear equipment panel. Not exactly to code, that, but I was a pretty good electrician, FAA rules be darned.

Two hours later, I closed my laptop, and put it on the vacant co-pilot seat. An alarm was bleeping in my ear. "Where is it?" I muttered as I scanned for the blinking red light. I found the airspeed warning, and disabled it while dialing back the throttle, before looking out the windshield. Ahead of me was a massive black storm cloud. "Well crap." I double checked my GPS and locators, and found that I was directly on course for sector V9, the island. And a further examination of the maps revealed that the storm cloud was right on top of the island. "Well double crap." I grabbed the radio mic and tried to raise my friends down on the island. "Victor-nine ATC, this is Bravo-Echo-Echo-Zero-Zero-Eight. Do you read me?" There was a moment of silence, followed by the response.

"Bravo-Echo-Echo-Zero-Zero-Eight, this is Victor-nine ATC. Read you loud and clear. How you been, Nicholas?"
"Just fine Marco. And you?"
"Great. So, you think you can land in these conditions? There's a headwind on the landing strip, and there's some water. And holy crap is it raining! TWC said 100 mm over the day! That's crazy! Think I saw some lightning, too. I tell you man, this island... It scares me sometimes."
"Well, I've landed in some pretty thick stuff before, and I can still see clear to the ground. I'll try, and do a touch and go if necessary."
"Well, it's your call, Nicholas."
"I'm in. Let's try this." I started pushing the nose down. I was still pretty high, so I'd do a loop around the island before landing, perhaps do an obligatory close fly-by of Marco's cottage. I looked at the land beneath me. I could easily do a flyby and get out before I hit the mountain, no problem. I was starting the first loop at this point, so I started slowing down and rolling the plane to the left, while pulling up. These two things combined brought about an awesome maneuver known as a turn, which I held for the needed five minutes, all the while bringing down the speed and the altitude.
A painfully loud thunderclap shook my plane, and left a purple line in my vision. "Holy crap, Marco, you see that one?"
"Yeah, uh, Nick, that was really close to you."
"I'll be fine."
I was starting the second loop, only a thousand or so feet in the air, when things went sour. I had just deployed landing gear, and was a going over Marco's house.
Suddenly, the world flashed brilliant white and blue before changing to black. My ears were ringing, and I couldn't move. I think I fell forwards, as I felt something hit my chest and slide.
A faint noise penetrated the buzz. "Nicholas! You're falling fast! You need to-"


The pain was the first thing I noticed. I felt like a field mouse in a spin-dryer.
Where the hell am I? I pondered, trying to pull my head from dirt. There were shards of glass scattered through the trees all around me, and various pieces of cockpit were intermingled in the branches. I tried to get my leg under me to stand, but I could barely move my eyelids, let alone a limb. I saw my hand in front of me. There was something in behind my hand.
Small steps first. Move my hand. That one thought forced me to move my charred hand out of the way. I could only move it perhaps seven centimetres, but that was enough to reveal the piece of wire behind it.
Okay. Just a bit further. Where does it lead? I mustered my strength, and pushed my unresponsive limb a tiny bit more. And again. And again.
When does this wire end? I asked myself, hoping curiosity was enough of a motivator to overcome agony. I managed to get my arm to move again, before another pain was sent through my arm.
I shouted some curse word. Blue lights sparkled before my eyes, all radiating from my arm, which was starting to glow bright blue, almost as if super-hot. Oh, crap, I'm hallucinating now, I thought. The burnt flesh, which was practically coating the entirety of my arms, stopped glowing, and rapidly sprouted a brilliant white fuzz. All this time, the pain was slowly drifting away, as though someone had sneaked up behind me and giving me an injection of Articaine in the lower neck. I did welcome the numbness and lack of agony, but deep down, I knew that this could only mean I was dying. But I didn't care, the temporary lack of pain felt too good to be true. I looked away from my arm, which, for whatever reason, was now without pain, yet I could feel the wire and the wet, pine-needle covered ground. Knowing I was pushing my luck, I tried to move again. Reluctantly but surely, I pushed my chest off the ground, slowly getting my footings. I looked down at my body, all of which was either white or glowing blue. Okay. Now I know I'm hallucinating, and probably dying of oxygen deprivation, or electrocution. My clothes had all been burnt off, leaving me au-naturel. I rested my hands on my knees, trying to figure out if I was slowly dying in a fantasy world. As I started contemplating this, my fingers and toes started to feel weird. As in, very weird. I looked at them, trying to figure out what was going on beneath the incandescing haze. Slowly, I leaned further forward, until my hands were resting on the ground. A white bulge formed in the centre of my vision, becoming larger and larger second by the passing seconds. Was that my nose? I reached a hand up to my ears when I felt something shifting around over there, but my palms and fingers could barely feel anything. I looked around, now feeling fine. There was a shiny surface a few metres in front of me, and I walked, clumsily at first, given the quadrupedal stance I had assumed, but soon quickening. The large plane of glass was, miraculously, intact on the ground in front of me. I looked down into it, and a white-furred fox was looking back up at me, blue lightning sparking around on his face.

Woah! Is that... me? My brain was back to firing on all cylinders, and I peered into what I was trying hard to believe was my reflection. The eyes blinked in sync with mine. All of my face was a flurry of white fur with blue streaks tracing lines across, the exceptions being the black splotch that was the tip of my muzzle, my closed mouth, and my two fiery red eyes. I looked closer, curiosity overcoming fear, as tended to be the case in my life, and saw the blue flashes striking through the white of my eyes, blood vessels seemingly filled with electricity.
The rain was still falling around me, and I could see in my reflection the droplets evaporating off of my skin, tiny flares of steam following each one's disappearance.
A feeling started to overwhelm me, like the first time I had flown a plane. Giddy excitement like no other. But this was different, it was not just joy, it was also an urge. Some other part of my mind knew what to do.
I sat down on my rear, held my head high, and looked upwards. The feeling built, and I held this stance for a few seconds. Time seemed to slow as the feeling grew, actually, no, I could see the raindrops slowing down, time actually was slowing down! There was a faint light in the clouds immediately above me. It moved downwards, spreading out, before reaching down to meet my face. The ear-splitting crack was a beautiful noise.
I stood back up on my feet, my glow now bright enough to colour the surrounding trees blue, and leave flickering shadows across the ground. I glanced at my paws, noticing that the static was arcing off my ankles to the wet ground.
Wow. That was amazing! I looked around, suddenly feeling a whole new level of energy. I focused again, trying to pull down another lightning strike, but no amount of sheer will could rouse another blast from the depleted clouds. I pulled my thoughts back together, trying to figure out what I had to do. I didn't know exactly what I was, but I was some sort of giant-electric-fox-ish thing. I started into the woods ahead of me, no real destination in mind. The rain raged on. Briefly, a noise pierced the storm, barely catching my attention. I paused, listening further. I heard it again, a roar of some sort. I called out somewhat timidly, turning around, crouching a bit, and finally catching sight of the plane wreck. I gasped, noticing the immense damage to the surrounding area. The plane was a write-off, and so were the immediate surroundings. There was jet fuel covering the ground to a reasonable depth, probably only extinguished by the rain.


"Nicholas?!" Marco yelled into the forest as he floored the ATV, his voice drowning in the deluge around him, and the roaring engine benath. "Nicholas!"
With a deafening blast, a massive bolt of lightning struck right into the front of the scar in the trees where he had seen the plane go down. The thunder crack echoed off of the hills, shaking Marco. The strike left a huge streak in his vision, and he rolled to a stop, hands covering his mouth as he gasped. Silent tears formed in his eyes. At the end of the crack, he saw a shimmering glow. Marco paused, staring with confusion. The glow moved forward, entering the trees, and quickly disappearing into the darkness. He gunned the ATV, aiming for the largest gaps in the trees. He hit a small bump, and the engine wailed as it over-revved, but he didn't care. He needed to find his friend, or at very least his body. The plane crash site was a kilometre from the where he'd watched the plane get struck and started plummeting. The massive gash in the trees looked like a scar from the small hill, with the tail fin of the plane sticking up like a flag. As he went down the hill, the plane fell from view, but the stench of jet-fuel was getting stronger, thanks in no small part to a wind blowing towards Marco from the crash. But there was another smell; ozone. It was similar to the smell that came off of the radio equipment on a bad day, and he quickly put two and two together, figuring that the ozone must be stemming from the lightning strike.
The scent was starting to burn his nose, despite the wind and the rain. At this point, he was navigating solely by the headlights on the ATV, the combination of setting sun, black clouds, and tree cover making for an imposing amount of darkness.
There was a noise somewhere to his left up ahead, catching his hearing over the roar of the engine. He wrenched the steering hard to the left, overpowering the vehicles protests. A faint glow became visible to Marco beyond the trees, and he accelerated, wanting to find his friend. Despite his eagerness, he slowed down, knowing that the area ahead would be treacherous to a vehicle with wheels. Planes had lots of glass, as a general rule, among other things that could easily become tire-shredding nightmares for him. He stopped, and jumped off the vehicle.


The roaring stopped, fading quickly into the background of water. "Nicholas? Where are you man?" Marco's shaky voice carried through the rain, accompanied by crunching leaves.
"Marco!" I attempted to shout. It didn't quite sound right. At all.
"What the hell was that? Nick? Are you here?"
Almost certain I couldn't speak, I gave it another shot "I'm over here, alive!"
"What is that?!" He said with a distinct note of fear entering his voice. His footsteps stopped. "Nicholas?"
I started walking towards him, slowly. "I'm right here, damnit!"

A low growl sounded from somewhere, and the crackling noise drew closer. It sounded like a Tesla-coil pushing towards him. Marco looked around, seeing only isolated forest around him, and an eerie glow coming from the far side of the plane. Summoning his courage in the face of the noises he had heard, he sighed and walked towards the plane. The noise was stemming from the other side, and was accompanied by some leaves crunching. He took a deep breath, and walked towards the cockpit, finding the glass completely pulverized. He stuck his head in, looking into the crumpled wreck of an airplane. He noticed his friend's laptop bag turn apart on the yoke, with the laptop looking somewhat intact on the floor. A cooler of sandwiches was spread across the ceiling, and his clothes were scattered through the cockpit, the zipper on his bag having given up during the crash. The crackling was still present, but louder now. "Nicholas? Dude, where are you?"


I walked towards the end of the plane, taking my time. He would probably go into shock if I ran to him, so that was right out. Slowly, I reached the corner, and saw Marco leaning through the pulverized plane's cockpit window. Great, I thought inwardly, This won't surprise him at all. I went up behind him and nudged his thigh with my muzzle. He jumped backwards, screaming, before planting his feet and looking right at me. He stood still, eyes pried wide open. His mouth was moving slowly, drawing in a breath, I think. The lightning flickering off of my skin shone off of his eyes, creating a sparkle across the veins like in mine. This was only noticeable as we stared each-other down for what felt like an hour. In reality, it was only a second before he raised his hands defensively. "Woah," He breathed, "It's all cool. Just, chill out, okay?"
How do I tell him?
He jumped backwards, eyes moving side to side. "Who was that?" Wait, he can hear me think?
It's me! Right in front of you, I screamed in my head, unable to actually make noise.
He looked at me, mouth hanging open. "You... you just talked!" In my head!"
Yes, I did Marco.
"What? You know my name! How do you know my name?" He stammered, astonished.
Marco, it's me. Nicholas! 
"No! That's not possible! How could you be Nicholas?" He shook his head, blinking. "How?"
Magic, I replied, growling a little. Badass though being a lightning-fox-thing was, it was a tad irritating. I got hit by lightning on the way down.
He nodded slowly, trying to comprehend this. It only now dawned on me just how weird this was, what I was trying to tell him. "Magic's impossible. How can you prove that you're him, Raiju?"
Oh, is that what I am? I thought to myself, before replying, I was flying to sector V9 aboard BEE008. I was after CEF-something in the takeoff queue. My laptop is, if you can turn it on, in the middle of a game of Minecraft, the password is T3rr0r. The plane was struck by lightning at a thousand or so feet, and plummeted since I fell onto the yoke when I passed out. Need I continue?
"No. Okay, Raiju, I still don't think you're Nicholas, but you should come back to the cottage anyways. It's late, and I wouldn't want to leave anyone, friend or not friend, in this weather. Com'on." He turned around, took a deep breath, and started walking. He was muttering, and though I didn't hear his exact words, the gist was pretty clearly disbelief.
We promptly reached an ATV, which explained the roaring I had heard earlier.
Are we headed back to the cottage? I asked.
"That's the idea. Can you hop on?" He said as he swung himself on.
Uh... I'll run, thanks. I replied with hesitance.
"Okay, your call." He said as he revved the engine. He then jumped forwards, the engine kicking into throttle. He spun the handlebars to the left, spitting up mud, and brought the front end to a rest pointing back towards the cottage. "You sure?"
Yeah.
Without a further word, He gunned the engine, and I started running. He was clearly getting ahead of me, but I knew there was something I could do. I just wasn't aware as to what. I thought ahead to the place I was trying to reach, the cottage, all of the cedar plank siding, the dock. It would probably look pretty nice around this time of day, but for the rain.
The tail light grew smaller ahead of me, and I blinked, trying to refocus on the race. As my mind drifted to the cottage, the area around me lit up, bright as day, but it flickered between the cottage and the forest. The flickering accelerated as I kept running, but suddenly stopped.
I was still running, but now I was slowing down behind the cottage, and the faint hum of an engine was a good distance behind me. It took a few second, but the thunder caught up to me, echoing off of buildings, and shortly the hills. I looked behind me, realizing what I'd just done.
Holy crap that was awesome. I thought, suddenly noticing the appreciable decline in glow from my body. That's neat. Did I just teleport?
I stood behind the cottage, waiting. The rain had died down, and the wind filtered through the trees. It was only a minute or so, but eventually Marco did arrive on the ATV.
Took you long enough.
"You can teleport."
I shrugged it off, grinning. Before we go inside, I-
"Raiju, you probably can't fit through the door."
I'm Nicholas, damnit! I screamed in my mind. He was visibly taken aback. But all that aside, I just have one question, Marco. Just what the hell is a Raiju?