When Sparks Fly

Helicopter

I'm almost all the way up the stairs, having only a few flights left before I get to the helipad. I hear Sharon over the ear piece, "that's one down."

"How'd you manage that?" I stop and lean against the wall.

"Mercury vapor, amongst other things."

"Nice," I let out an exhausted sigh.

"You two better speed things up. The chopper's about to take off."

Then I hear Sam, "P, how's it coming?"

I start running up the stairs again, "I'm almost there."

"Why do you sound so out of breath?"

"Hey, just because I'm super human doesn't mean I like or do cardio." I hear Sam chuckle and I try to keep pushing, mumbling to myself, "I'd better get to kick someone's ass when I get up there."

When I get to the roof the chopper has taken off, so I jump off the pad, deploying the wings Sam and I had rebuilt. When the pilot notices I'm following them they try to avoid me by any means necessary. One measure they try is nose diving, which is easy for me to follow. It isn't until we start over the Hudson River that they start shooting at me. I avoid the bullets from the copter and manage to catch it, clinging to the side. But before I can even think of anything to do they shoot at me from inside and I have to let go. I fall back around ten yards from the copter and remember that Sam and I had not only rebuilt RedWing, but had made me one of my own, BlueWing.

"BlueWing, see if anyone on board has flight training." The little blue and silver drone pops out of my pack and zooms ahead to the copter.  Of course, it doesn't take long for the Flag Smasher on board to fire at him and he retreats. When he links into my pack again I get the info on my wrist piece, luckily one of the people on board has flight training.

The pilot continues to try to shake me, but has little success. Before I can hack into one of the phones on board, one of the NYPD copters joins the chase and, thinking they can get them to stop, park themselves right in front of them. This doesn't stop the Flag Smasher, who blow past the NYPD and sends them into a tailspin, causing me to pull out of the pursuit of the Flag Smashers and try to help them. I send BlueWing in to help one of the the operators and I help the other, both of us pulling them out before the copter can hit the water. When I land with one of the men in the middle of the bridge nearby I look up and notice that the copter is heading toward the bridge. I can't think of anything to do so I focus all the energy I can and throw a bolt at the copter, sending it back into the Hudson. When I look around I expect to see people running, but instead I look around and see people clapping. I give them a bit of a nod before I take off again, heading after the Flag Smashers.

I fly after the helicopter again, still being shot at any time I get close. But I do manage to get close enough to hack into one of the hostages phones, sending them a message to put their earbuds in. Ayla Perez, the representative from the Philippines, is the only one on board who has the flight experience to fly the helicopter. A few short moments after I send the message I call Ayla and soon after I hear the click of her answering the phone, "a little birdie told me you know how to fly a helicopter." Before Ayla can respond the pilot realizes I'm flying parallel to the copter, which probably wasn't the smartest idea on my part. He veers the copter toward me, causing me to pull in my wings to avoid them being damaged by the blades, but since I now have no propulsion or stabilisation I go flying into some of the concrete drums they have stacked in a construction yard. When I hit the drums they become unbalanced and begin to fall, as do I. I end up deploying my wings again in order to get away and re-emerge out of the water. "You just earned this ass-whooping!" I deploy BlueWing again and catch up to the copter once again, hoping this will be the last time. "Okay, Ayla. What we're gonna do is gonna require damn near perfect timing. We're gonna count down from five and then you're gonna grab the controls. Okay?"

I send BlueWing ahead of the copter before I hear Ayla, "five... four... three... two..."

As Ayla gets to two I speed up, flying toward the copter at full speed. When I get within a few yards I flip over so I'm going in feet first and tuck the wings back into the pack. I kick through the door and take the pilot out his side door before grabbing him. For someone who just got kicked out of a plane he is pretty pissed, as I imagine anyone would be, but he is also failing to realize if I can't deploy my wings we both end up in the Hudson. Not wanting to take another dip, I kick him off of me so I can deploy my wings and fly back up to the copter. "Nice work, Ayla."