Drachma War Camp

"Ew," Ace said as he thought about the body parts. "Candy!"

Ace started to run toward the cargo then stopped. "I can't leave the Blimp unattended, hm. Bring me the candy! Also, we need to name our Blimp."

Ace looked out to the sky. What was that way out in the distance?

"I'll keep the blimp attended, you get your food," he said, looking out, but towards down. They were high up, and it was snowing out. Getting rather harder by the minute.

"What name?"

"Alright!" Ace called out as he walked towards the back of the Blimp. "We should call it, the flying candy!"

Zane paused but snapped out of it faster than usual. I should... really get use to it.

"No!"

Ace peered into the cargo bay and began munching on the candy. "Delicious~" Ace smiled. "I love sweet stuff."


Ace continued to eat until a rather loud bump knocked him to the ground. "What on Earth?" Ace asked. He got up and began running toward the helm of the ship.

"What are you doing to The Flying Candy, Pedro?" Ace yelled.

"We're not naming this blimp that!" he yelled back.

Zane held on to something to keep his balance. "And I didn't do anything," he muttered, even though Ace wouldn't hear it.

He looked up and saw the snow was getting harsher and harsher. "A blizzard?"

Ace ran up and looked at the Cabin windows. "Shoot, I can't see out them, they're freezing up," Ace grumbled. "We're high enough up we shouldn't run into anything, but yet-"

Ace fell to the ground as the Blimp bounced again. "Geez, what is going on out there?"

A loud clap rang through the cabin as thunder shook the Helm. "Thunder and mysterious bumps," Ace said. "This is trouble."

The blimp bounced again and it moved sideways, and turning that way, throwing both him and Ace on the ground - which was the window of the blimp at its position.

"It's not a normal storm."

"Be careful!" Ace yelled as he carefully grabbed back onto the floor of the room. "If you hit that glass too hard you'll go flying out it and that's game over," Ace warned.

Ace grabbed control of the Blimp and checked the barometers. "I'm bringing the ship down lower. If we stay this high we risk our engine freezing and then we're just a giant rock in the sky. But with this blizzard this bad we're going in for a shaky ride."

"All right," he muttered as he grabbed on something and supported his bad leg. He watched as Ace worked on the blimp and he looked out, wanting to see how the weather was.

But a large shadow was nearing the blimp. "A bird?! --Ace, hurry!"

Ace smirked at Zane's fear. "What could a small harmless bird do, Pedro?" Ace asked.

A giant talon smashed through the cabin window and snagged into the helm. A wave of cold sliced through Ace as he screamed at the sight. "What the heck is going on!?"

The Blimp swerved and began to dive downward from the additional weight of the bird. Ace barely held his grip as he tried to right the extra weight of the giant bird attack and to keep the blimp from smashing into the ground.

"Do something, Pedro!"

"Pretty harmless, huh, Roberto?" he gritted his teeth as he tried to move away from the talon that kept smashing through them.

Quickly, he tried to reach for his glove in his pocket but the constant drastic movement of the blimp gave him a hard time. But he slipped, and was barely able to grab on to the talon and jumping back. "Crap." Finally able to slip on his glove, he transmuted the ice around him, making it into a big enough sharp ice that pierced through the leg of the bird, it jerking out a good distance from them.

He couldn't thank enough that there was ice around them, what with the hale raining down.

Ace flew against the wall of the Blimp as the bird let go. The weight threw everything into the air. He pulled himself back up and began readjusting the blimp. He could hear the caw of the bird as it screeched from outside.

"Good job!" Ace yelled. "The Flying Candy isn't that easy to take down, stupid!"

Lightning thundered as the Blizzard outside raged on. Hail continued to pound away at the blimp. "Why is a bird flying in this miss anyway? Or was it just caught up like us. Aren't birds supposed to have better instincts?"

Zane went to his side, his early injuries throbbed. "I refuse to call this blimp the Flying Candy," he said, but relaxed. "No idea, really. And it was huge."

He looked back, careful not to slip, and snapped back to Ace, shaking him. "More birds behind us. Do something!"

Ace heard them cawing as the man shook him. "Fine," Ace said as he a cannon firing turret fell from below. "Hop in there and start taking them down while I fly us away from this blizzard," Ace explained.

"Oh, and by the way, it's really cold in that turret. And there is almost no protection from Hail, so good luck!" Ace said as he pushed Zane into the hole.

I'm going to kill him, I swear. That was the principal thought as he felt himself fall into the hole and onto the turret.

He wasn't kidding. It was freezing and the hail were big chunks of ice that hurt to get hit from. Using the ice to protect himself with the help of alchemy, he manned the turret, trying to hit as much bird as effectively he can.

Then maybe I can use this to hit Ace.

Ace heard the sound of his adjusted cannon firing and smiled. "That's the beauty of an slx-2500 with Ace adjustments! We'll be having fried bird for weeks, kehehe~ And here he thought I hadn't been getting the blimp ready just because I didn't check to see who was onboard. I was adding magnificent bird repellent!"

Ace got back to flying the blimp. The blizzard was doing crazy damage to their flight mechanisms and the engine was beginning to freeze despite their drop in height. "Shoot," Ace whispered. The bird had also managed to make a giant hole in the cabin causing air pressures to be sporadic. "Geez, we're in trouble," Ace thought. Not only that but he had no idea how to get them out of that stupid blizzard.

Zane jumped back up to where Ace was just in time, the turret exploding.
"Ace, what the hell, I'm going to kill you - but before that, those freaking birds are being manned by someone - or something and they are firing back."

A huge blast of fire missed their blimp by the second, thanks to Ace's piloting. "And you made a mess out of the blimp!" How am I going to make money out of this now?

Ace pulled out a few more cannons and had them drop. "Firing back at us? In this snow storm? Who could do it?" Ace questioned as he pulled on another lever.

Ace drew a quick circle on the ground as he pulled the lever and pressed his hands to it. "Activate, Blimp shield level 3!"

Iron hide shields popped up around the blimp. "That should keep us somewhat safe, but it's very heavy and slow moving," Ace explained. "And we really need this blizzard to be over. The hail and cold is doing damage to the freaking thing."

"Couldn't see," he said, as he seated himself. "But those birds aren't normal, aside from their size. On second thought, I think the birds are firing back at us."

He relaxed for a while when the blimp was shielded, if not just for a moment. "Well, we have no control over the weather, Ace. So keep us safe for now."

Ace got in front of Zane and stared at him. "Hey, what are you doing just sitting there when I'm trying to save the blimp, hm?"

Ace flicked him on the head. "Bad Pedro. You're an Ice Alchemist, right? Why not going to the Engine room and getting some of the ice off there. And then when you're done try firing back on the birds attacking us. Hopefully, you know, they don't decide to land and we have to fight them ourselves."

Ace turned back to the helm and hung his head low. "How did The Flying Candy get stuck with such an irresponsible second in command?"

"Don't make me use it against you," he glared at Ace but stood up. "And how about you? You can't even shake those birds off our tails. Aside from that, you let the blimp get trashed this bad."

He walked towards the engine room, thinking of getting the blimp in good condition as highest priority. Really hate having to resort to alchemy.

But he did anyway, moving the ice off and throwing it outside, trying to hit some of the birds on the way and by doing so, got a glimpse of what was on the bird. "...for real?"

Ace laughed as Zane walked away. "Yup, we got ourselves in quite a mess."

Ace began drawing circles and laying out metal. He did have one idea, but it was pure suicide. "Alright, Pedro, when you get back, we'll try this last option."

He went back to where Ace was. "The engine's fine, and," he looked at the transmutation circle laid out and some metal. He looked at the broken window and tapped the wall with his gloved hand, the ice covered the hole.

"What are you planning to do?"

Ace pulled a string and a ramp opened up to the outside. "Yo, Pedro," Ace said as he whisked back his hair. "Keep The Flying Candy afloat. If I don't make it back alive, remember me for how I want you to, not how you see me."

Ace transmuted the hunks of metal into a small one man airplane rocket. "Since we're already in the sky I wont need to worry about take off so this thing will be really hard to control, hehe," Ace said as he hopped in and turned it on. "Geronimo!" Ace said as he drove the airplane off the ramp and into the blizzard.