Sierra || Lloyd Hansen

5. Sunshine

You're woken up as you feel the taxi come to a stop. You squint against the bright light of the sun that's now up. Court gets out of the taxi and you follow his lead as armed men cautiously surround you with guns at the ready. Court stuffs his hands in his pockets and walks forward to one of the men.

"You our ride?" he asks.

"Identity challenge. Heathen," the man responds.

"Response, hermit," Court replies without hesitation.

After a glance at the armed man that just checked out your taxi, the man holds his hand out to Court. Court reaches forward for a handshake, but the man pulls back his hand with a laugh as Court looks disappointed in himself for falling for that. You chuckle as he stuffs his hand back in his pocket.

"Need anything?" the man asks, looking at both of you.

"Just a nap," Court shrugs as he walks towards the plane.

"A massage and cocktail would be nice, but I'm guessing we aren't flying first class," you smile as you earn a hearty laugh from the man before following Court onto the plane.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Court is asleep next to you with his head rested against a metal divider, slightly separating sections of the plane. Your head is rested against his arm and you have your eyes shut, not wanting to fully fall back asleep, but wanting rest. You hear a phone ring, but decide to remain still with your eyes closed.

"Yeah" the man that joked with you earlier answers the phone. You obviously can't hear the other end of the conversation, so you put all your focus on the man's responses.

"Mhmm," a pause, "Come again?" you squeeze Court's arm slightly to wake him up and you feel him stir slightly. "Roger that."

An uncomfortable silence falls over the plane apart from the music playing over the speakers which increases in volume. You feel Court move briefly before stilling again as you faintly hear footsteps approaching you. They stop just to the side of you and you open your eyes as you feel Court's sudden movement. He sprays both men that had approached you with a fire extinguisher before jumping up and hitting one in the gut with the extinguisher. You get up, delivering a swift kick to the same location on the other man. Court spins around, continuing to take men out with the fire extinguisher. You grab a parachute pack, swinging it to smack guys' heads to knock them out.

Grabbing a flare, Court lights it and uses it to draw some men away from you, taking them on himself. With their lowered visibility from the flare, Court takes them out easily with a few skillful punches.

You kick the gun out of another guy's hand, leading to you both diving for it and grabbing it at the same time. You use your grip on the gun to angle it away from yourself, but the man fires. It hits a gas tank that quickly catches fire and explodes, creating a gaping hole in the side of the plane.

As air is whipped out of the plane, an announcement can be heard overhead warning of a sudden pressure drop and advising you to put on oxygen masks. You manage to make your way to Court and he grabs your arm, pulling you towards the side of the plane where he's holding onto a bar with his other arm, using that hand to hold on an oxygen mask. You grip onto the bar next to him, shoving an oxygen mask quickly over your nose and mouth and taking a few deep breaths.

You look over at Court, but suddenly a man tackles you from behind, causing you to lose your grip and begin falling towards the hole. You regain your stance much better than he does as he falls to the hole, gripping the remaining bar at the top of the hole. Finding a broken pipe near your feet, you swing it at his hands, forcing him to lose his grip and let go, being dragged out the hole.

Court slides down to you with your parachute pack from earlier. You both grab onto the bar as you feel yourselves begin to be lifted off the floor as the plane drops. You both grab oxygen masks and you catch your breath again. When the plane manages to pull up to a horizontal position again, Court gets into a scuffle with another man which ends with that man being whisked out of the hole and straight into one of the jets.

The hole suddenly begins to widen as more of the side of the plane is ripped away. You glance at Court and he quickly nods to you. With the slight footing you have left, you jump from the plane, managing to slip the parachute pack on as you fall and opening it just in time. You try to look up at the increasingly more destroyed plane that's plummeting to the earth to try to spot Court, but your parachute blocks most of your view.

The moment your feet touch the sandy ground beneath you, you unstrap yourself from the parachute. You move under a large and stable rock to avoid being hit with any falling debris as you hold your breath slightly, waiting for Court.

You suddenly see a pair of feet above you and to the left as a parachute gets caught on the large rock. Court hops down from the dead man dangling off the rock like it was nothing.

"I guess you didn't choose to drop by in style," you tease as he walks over to where you're sitting.

"What more style can you ask for?" he sits next to you.

"Ok, seriously though, what the fuck was that?"

"That's what I want to find out," he pulls out his phone, quickly hitting redial.

"Hello," Fitz answers.

"It's us."

"Where are you?"

"Emotionally? I think we've both been better," Court replies sarcastically.

"The extraction team?"

You glance up at the dead man hanging from his parachute on the rock above you and Court. "They've been better too," Court sighs.

"Are you okay? Either of you hurt?" Fitz sounds slightly concerned as he hasn't heard from you yet.

Court looks at you, but you stay quiet and let him speak. "You know what, Fitz? I'm trying to figure out what answer it is that you want."

"They leveraged me, kid. They have my niece. You hear me?"

"Hold on. You're breaking up," Court holds the phone at arms length and mutters so only you would hear, "shit."

You run a hand down your face and huff lightly. You glance at the phone as Fitz repeats 'hello' trying to see if he lost your connection. You purse your lips slightly as you begin to get an idea of who would use extreme tactics to find the two of you like this.

"Okay, there you are," Court brings the phone back in front of the two of you, "Sounds like you're in a real pickle, Fitz."

"Put him on," you suddenly state firmly. Court gives you a confused look, but you hear Fitz's phone being handed off.

"Hey, sunshine. Good to hear your voice again," Lloyd's familiar voice responds on the line.