a bird of many steels

Chapter 3

we see the group standing at the air field

wales: so betty we have a little race course set up normally it's used by the carriers so practice high-speed maneuvering

betty: got it, say are the times split by aircraft or is it just a large grouping?

enty: there split by role and aircraft so if a plane has a similar top speed we put them on the same board

betty: so whats the fastest time?

enty: that would be me at about 3 mins and 45 secs

betty: so am I gonna get a practice lap to see the course or?

enty: first time around you'll be following one of my planes

betty: alright cool what plane are you using?

enty: as its basically showing you around I was going with an sbd

betty: cool I guess ill follow in one also

suddenly a flash of light and a sbd with the engine idleing appeared ready to take off at a moments notice

enty: good lets see if you can keep up

in a flash her rigging appeared and launched a sbd that looped around and she jumped on

betty in thought: guess ill get to use quick launch

betty quickly scrambles to get in the plane and sets it up to do a carrier style launch

hornet: I recognize that set up why?

betty: just watch

as the canopy closes she salutes Hornet and the plane is launched forward and slings into the air as betty tries to catch up to Enterprise she decides to unsummon parts of her armament to save weight in a flash of blue her bombs and ammo were gone after catching up she radios enterprise

Betty: you really had to start early?

enty: eh just a little experiment noticed you launched like you were on a carrier and removed extra weight but where would that leave you in a fight?

Betty: it would leave me quite fine really the armaments can be summoned separately to the aircraft allowing me to change weapons when needed like I could attach the extra guns instead of bombs to give me more firepower aginst aircraft but I give up maneuverability

enty: huh interesting any ways follow me

after enty saying this she brings her air craft into a dive with betty following holding steady enterprise pulls up to aim under a bridge immedily followed by gunning it over the water and entering a tunnel after exiting they shot upwards performing a stall and recovery diving back down betty begins to gain on enterprise as she hasn't deployed her diving flaps only pulling them moments from the ground after matching enterprise nose to nose and pulling hard up letting the aircraft level out and slow down enough to preform a landing bring her gear down and engaging landing flaps she hits the runway letting the plane slow down to swap over to her motorcycle and ride over to the group all standing in slight surprise

hornet: you just managed to challenge my sister in a dive

betty: what?

wales: most of the girls here when doing a time trial make exlent time matching or even beating enterprises section times but loses it in the climb and dive section

belfast: manly most deploy the flaps as they would in a dive bombing run opening them and start to dive but as enterprise realized that this wasn't a bombing run but a race she opted to dive the plane and open flaps and pull up before hitting the ground but you managed to catch up using the same tactic so that leaves us wondering what was different?