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| Becoming X; Chapter One, Happy Landings | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 5 2010, 09:48 PM (181 Views) | |
| LoganActor | Mar 5 2010, 09:48 PM Post #1 |
Plays Logan on TV!
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Chapter One “X-Jet” SR-71 Blackbird, 102,089 ft, Mach 2.8 1201 hours Liam sat in the co-pilot’s seat of the X-Men’s SR-71 Blackbird, grinning like an idiot, his right hand on the control yoke of the jet. Outside the cockpit windows, the clouds were crawling by beneath the jet, like mountains carved out of cotton candy. There was a sense of motionlessness that crept through the surprisingly quiet cabin, as if the jet and its occupants were above time, beyond it, moving, but not really going anywhere. This was especially true of the man in the pilot’s seat. Logan sat in the pilot’s seat, his feet up on the control console of the jet, his seat reclined, cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. Kurt and Piotr were in the rear cabin, also sleeping. Laura, sitting in the jump seat just behind Liam, whispered instructions as he needed them. For the most part, it wasn’t too difficult. The basic joystick controls were the same as any other fixed wing aircraft. Tilt forward to push the nose down, pull back to make it come up, adjusting the pitch. Left and right controlled the roll of the jet, and the foot pedals in the floorboard controlled the yaw. The autopilot system helped make his movements smooth and controlled. He was grateful, though, that she wasn’t letting him fly alone. He’d flown smaller aircraft, but none of them had been supersonic jets hurtling through the lower levels of the stratosphere at almost three times the speed of sound. “Go ahead and pull back your throttle to fifty percent.” Laura said softly, squeezing his left shoulder. “ Throttling back.” Liam said, gripping the throttle control, and pulling back. He heard a dramatic drop in the engine noise, and then a massive increase in sound as they dropped back below the sound barrier. The engines roared like monsters from hell, chewing their way forward through the rear cabins, and he felt a momentary bit of pity for Kurt and Piotr, who had most likely just been woken up rather rudely. Liam had to begin to actually fight the control yoke, as the jet continued to lose speed. When traveling faster than the speed of sound, the movement of the jet through the air at such a speed makes the control surfaces a feel a bit slippery, as the air moving around them doesn’t have enough time to actually buffet or move them, and so it felt as if now the jet was moving through thicker air. “Head for bearing zero eight nine.” she said, gesturing off to his left. “And drop down to thirty thousand feet.” Liam nodded and complied, gently banking the jet, and then leveling off as he reached his desired heading. He pushed the control yoke forwards, dropping the nose a significant amount, and letting the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania fill his viewscreen. “We should be entering New York’s airspace in about three minutes.” she said softly. “Then we can see how well you land.” Liam nodded, checking his instruments. Everything seemed to be in order. The HUD on the viewscreen glowed softly red, showing that he was flying more or less level with the artificial horizon indicator. “Shouldn’t be too bad. Just like skipping a rock across a pond.” Liam chuckled. “Well, not exactly. We don’t have a traditional airstrip. We land vertically.” she said calmly, scanning the viewscreen. Liam turned to face her, a slightly panicked look on his face. “Wait, what? This thing is VTOL? I can’t land VTOL. I’ve never flown VTOL.” he said, the words tumbling out of his mouth. She smiled and patted his cheek affectionately. “Don’t worry. I’ll walk you through it.” she said. “No, seriously. I shouldn’t be landing this thing. Not unless you can give me a runway.” “Well…I can do that. We do have an escape runway that leads away from the mansion. We never use it for landings, though.” she said, giving him a considering look. “We always hover, and then lower in through the roof hatch. It could work, though. Whatever you prefer.” “Yes. Absolutely. I definitely prefer the runway.” he said, nodding. He thought he heard a snort from Logan, but it just turned out to be a snore. The man hadn’t moved. “Okay. We need to spill off some speed.” She said, typing commands into her control panel behind his seat. “When I tell you, I want you to take a descending circular path down to two thousand feet, and then follow the indicator.” The HUD changed before his eyes, a waypoint appearing several hundred miles ahead, below the cloud cover. Liam took a deep breath, and lowered the nose again, and tilted the jet. Three quick circles and he leveled off again, four thousand feet lower, heading for the waypoint again. “Now, weather readings are indicating low cloud cover and heavy fog, but the waterfall near the entrance to the hangar always keeps the area pretty clear. Turbulent air doesn’t hold fog well, and it’s too low for cloud cover to be an issue.” she said, pointing off in the distance at a whirling vortex of clouds. “You’ll descend through that, and then the entry to the hangar will be a mile ahead.” Liam nodded, grateful that he had someone else there with him. He much preferred leaping out the back of a plane to piloting it. He lowered the thrust to forty percent, and extended his flaps as they entered the swirling clouds. He could feel the controls become more responsive, more touchy as the flaps whirred into place. He lowered the landing gear, as they passed six hundred feet, and it clunked into place solidly. “Are we close?” he asked, not liking being unable to see the ground that was surely rushing up to meet the wheels. “Close.” she said, and they burst through the cloud cover, which revealed a cliff face. In the split second that Liam took to register what he was looking at, he found a sheer rock face stretching up to touch the clouds, and falling all the way down to the floor of a forested valley. Sure enough, a waterfall kept the area clear of fog and clouds, shimmering white water roaring over the edge of the cliff to fall down the face of the rocks. Halfway down, the water split in two, taking two smaller paths down to a pool that surely lay below in the forest. Just below the split was a massive opening in the rock face. Inside the cave, Liam could just barely make out landing strip lighting, and the waypoint was set just inside the mouth of the opening. He couldn’t tell how deep the opening went, though, and he was certain he didn’t want to find out. “Are you fucking shitting me?!” he shouted, pulling back on the yoke. “It’s a cliff!” “And the landing zone is in the cliff face. It’s just like a normal hangar.” “Except that it’s in a cliff!” Liam shouted, pulling harder on the yoke, which refused to move. “Fuck!” “Too late ta pull out of it, kid. Gotta make the landing.” Logan said. “Learn by doing.” Liam glanced over and found the older man holding his yoke, hat still pulled low over his eyes, eyes closed, unmoving except for the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest. Liam swore up one side and down the other, and turned back to the rapidly approaching opening. “Let go, Logan.” he snarled, and the yoke moved freely in his hands. Logan folded his hands back over his stomach, and settled into his seat, slouching even further. “Just land the jet. You’ve done thinks like this be-” Laura began, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Quiet.” he snapped, as he flipped the HUD off, except for the distance to target reading. Laura kept her hand on his shoulder, but shut up. Liam dropped the thrust to thirty percent, then to twenty, as they came even closer to the opening. The stall warning began blinking in the corner of Liam’s vision, but he kept the thrust where it was. He nosed the jet a little to the left, a little to the right. As the distance to target hit five hundred feet, he cut thrust completely, and the jet coasted into the hangar’s opening on momentum. The jet wasn’t really made for gliding, but it was possible. Liam nosed the jet downwards, and the tires touched the landing surface, which from what Liam could see was made of some dull metal. He slammed the brakes on, and heard the tires lock and screech across the ground, though the jet came to a rapid halt. For a long moment, nobody moved or said anything. As Liam’s eyes adjusted to the darkness inside the hangar, he found himself in a massive cavern, with a full length runway. The entire mountain that it was housed in must have been hollowed out. The silence was broken by the rear cabin door opening. Kurt and Piotr came forward, Kurt limping and Piotr holding his head. “Logan, Sind Sie verrückt?!” Kurt asked. “Have you lost your hairy mind?” Logan sighed and sat up, adjusting his hat. “Nah. Just takin’ a nap, elf.” He said, standing up and stretching, and then patting Liam’s shoulder. “Not bad, kid. Any one ya can walk away from, right?” Liam didn’t make a sound. He just continued staring out the viewscreen, holding the yoke. “Oh…well…Yes. Very nicely done, Liam.” Kurt said uncertainly. “Come on, you two. Let’s go tell Slim and Frosty that we’re back.” Logan said, ushering the other two X-Men out the side door of the jet. Another long moment passed. “Liam?” Laura asked, coming around to sit on the arm of the captain’s chair. “Mm.” Liam made a sound, but didn’t move. “You can let go of the yoke now.” she said, smiling. “Oh thank God.” |
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| Gorvar | Mar 5 2010, 09:55 PM Post #2 |
Self claimed fanfic critic.
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Wow, talk about trial by fire.... Very good first chapter, and i'm impressed by the very accurate descriptions of aviation terms. Should I ask if you have experince here aswell? Cant wait to see more as usual ^^ |
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| LoganActor | Mar 5 2010, 10:08 PM Post #3 |
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Plays Logan on TV!
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Nah. None personally. I've flown a lot commercially, but none in the pilot's seat. Just lots and lots of research. |
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| Gorvar | Mar 5 2010, 10:11 PM Post #4 |
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Self claimed fanfic critic.
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i bow my head to you in submission... |
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| LoganActor | Mar 5 2010, 10:14 PM Post #5 |
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Plays Logan on TV!
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Balderdash, I say. I'm just anal about details most of the time. |
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| Cat | Mar 6 2010, 03:50 AM Post #6 |
Secret Agent
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Poor Liam. Why do I think that was Logan's way of getting revenge? |
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| LoganActor | Mar 6 2010, 08:35 PM Post #7 |
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Plays Logan on TV!
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*chuckles* Because it was, in a way. There's more planned, of course. Logan might be okay with Liam and Laura sleeping together in theory, but in reality....maybe not so much |
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| Gorvar | Mar 7 2010, 06:18 AM Post #8 |
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Self claimed fanfic critic.
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It`s refreshing to see this side of Wolverine |
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| LoganActor | Mar 7 2010, 07:01 AM Post #9 |
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Plays Logan on TV!
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Yeah. I'm thinking I'm gonna take Logan to a more "Dad" kind of place. Not nicer, or gentler, but more concerned with his offspring's welfare. And I'm pretty sure this is gonna be a Liam-centric fic. He's stolen my attention... |
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| Gorvar | Mar 7 2010, 07:05 AM Post #10 |
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Self claimed fanfic critic.
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It's very difficult to keep your attention on other characture's then your own when you write something, true. Looking back at 'The Spectacular X-men' i'm even suprised i had that few TW in it. Best thing you can do is write a lot about the others and throw in a line or two from your own. Do offspring count if she's a clone? |
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