"Hey-ohh," Blake called as we burst into our safe house. "Joseph, you home? We're back!"
"Just a moment, children," Joseph said, walking towards his office. "Something just came up."
Blake scratched his head. "Something important? Can we help?"
He adjusted his square glassed, then shook his head. "Not this time, I'm afraid. Please, don't worry about it."
The four of us shared a doubtful look. But we knew – whenever Joseph got like this, it was never worth pressing the issue.
I decided to clean myself up in the washroom. There was some glass cuts on my face and a pierce mark on my neck, but not much else this time. After some of my more difficult trials, my face would be barely recognizable through the wounds and bruises. But no matter what, they'd always see our glowing red eyes – the mark of an aeronaut, Joseph had said once.
I wondered if that was true. I guess he had no reason to lie to us.
After deeming myself 'passable' in the mirror – and adjusting my twintails – I headed to the front where my other pals were sitting.
"Hey, guys. Wanna raid that place now?" I asked.
"Nothing better to do," Travis shrugged.
"All in favor?" Blake rose his hand.
"We'll be there and back before Joseph notices we even left," Bernicia snickered.
"Very well." I pointed northward. "The building was that way. Follow me!"
When we smashed through the window by the door, we skidded to a stop right in front of the Guy.
"Well, what have we here," Bernicia said.
"Nice of you to make this easy for us," I grinned. "I hope you'll put up a fight."
"I'm flattered," the Guy replied, "but, ah, I actually have a request to make of you guys."
Bernicia's unibrow scrunched up. "Request? You wanna inspect one of us again?"
"No, it's something different… like, a trial of sorts."
"How about we just beat you up instead?" Travis cracked his fists.
"Always violence with you guys." the Guy crossed his arms. "I know you lot are supposed to be trained killing machines, but would it hurt to at least pretend like you're human?"
"You think you can just say whatever you want, huh," I scoffed. "So what are we, then? Clones? Robots?"
"Flying werewolves," Blake dryly suggested.
"I guess this means you're done talking?" The Guy rose a hand, and suddenly the room filled with robots, all of them pointing guns at us. Even for four aeronauts, I suspected we wouldn't make it out before getting run down…
"SCRAMBLE," I shouted. The others quickly spread their wings just as the robots opened fire—
Wham! These things were no tougher than the training models we fought all the time! So much for being intimidating, Guy.
"Perhaps it's easy for you," the Guy said, "but what of Joseph Adams?"
We all stopped short as the remaining robots surrounded us.
"How do you know his last name?!" I pointed an accusing finger at him. "He never told us his last name!"
The Guy blinked, then cleared his throat. "This just goes to show how much I know… and how much you don't know. But that shouldn't surprise me – you are but soldiers, after all. Anyway, make your choice."
"Um, hey," Blake muttered. "Isn't this bad? You know Joseph is super frail. He'd probably lose against just one of these things."
"Grr… you think this'll be a difficult decision to make, GUY?" I snapped a hand backwards. "I can take you on myself! The rest of you, Joseph protection detail."
"You sure?" Bernicia scoped out the enemy. "Never mind, you've got this. We'll come back for you in a bit."
"Heh. This'll be the last time you underestimate me," I sneered.
"I do hope that confidence isn't misplaced," the Guy replied. "ATTACK!"