The Suite Life X

32 - Tension In The Air

The dark blue and golden Hunters touched down thousands of feet in the air in the midst of an air fleet.

“Did you guys get there okay?” Bailey radioed in right at that second.

“Yeah!” Cody has to shout his answer over the roaring winds surrounding him. London followed suit.

“Thank goodness! Anyway, Wind Crowrang should be somewhere at the front of this convoy. Both of you, be careful. Maybe get inside a plane when you need to talk to us, too. I can barely hear you over the elements out there.”

“Um, roger!”

The two ended communications and dashed ahead, unaware that a certain bird Maverick was hovering over them watching their every move with curious amusement.

“Hmm…”

---

What followed started out as pretty straightforward: it amounted to little more than disabling cannons and shooting eagle-like Mavericks and their progeny out of the sky. That, and fending off the humanoid ones that wielded maces and hid behind shields (London’s own shield got a real workout here).

Focusing on the task at hand helped them distract themselves from the turmoil going on inside their heads. Cody hated himself for chasing his brother away and was terrified that he’d been abducted by two people he had grown to trust. As for London, she was dealing with that on top of worrying about the threats of a certain creep as well as a fear she had very recently contracted: one of hurting the people she cared about.

Things began to change, however, when the airships started to actively try and shake them off as they went.

Cody felt his metaphorical stomach drop the first time it happened. He managed to just be fast enough to sail right past the first attempt only to trip on the second.

Any pretense of stoicism vanished in an instant.

“LONDON! HELP!”

Realizing what happened and acting quickly, she perched herself at the edge of the nearest plane and using one of her blades to ground her, she extended her grappling hook the farthest it could go.

With a last-ditch air dash, he caught it. Unfortunately for them, they wouldn't get a moment to rest until after the pattern repeated itself a few more times (these times, much more successfully) and a bigger ship with windows came into view.

Like a thirsty man finding an oasis, they both dove in without hesitation.

---

Collapsing on the floor of the plane, safely out of immediate sight, the two let relative silence consume them for a few minutes.

“C-Cody? L-London?”

It was Bailey.

“W-We’re okay…”

The brunette sounded on the verge of tears, though judging by her message, they seemed to be happy ones.

“I heard screaming and…and…you’re safe…”

“…London saved me…” Cody mouthed the words to himself as if trying and failing to grasp them. “London Tipton just saved my life…”

“Isn’t it just ‘London’ now?”

“Yeah…” the taller twin glanced at her with a small but genuine smile, his first in quite a while. “It’s just London.”

“G-Good…” Bailey responded, voice still a little shaky.

They only had another minute or so to collect themselves, but not much more, and they knew it.

Cody first opened his mouth to speak, but the older teen beat him to it.