Chapter three of To catch a Jet.
Story[]
After Kit had recovered from his crash-landing, he suddenly found himself being tended by an elderly bear-woman wearing a maid outfit. "Hey, hey young man, are you alright?" she asked. Kit shook his head and sits up, finding himself in a barn. The bear-woman took a quick look outside: the crashed BV-141 recon-plane still laying on the ground and has drawn a crowd of the neighborhood and Swatzis. She turns back to Kit and checks him over. "Quite a landing there, I suspect you hijacked that plane and it went wrong?" she deduces, "well you're half-right: I was aiming to stop it's pilots before they alerted the Swatzi, we had a fight and one shot the engine and they fled, I would've fallowed had the other one not broken my flying-surfboard" Kit explained, "I noticed you had an air-board, I thought me and my family were only ones" the woman remarks, but she became suspicious of Kit: in her eyes he looked really familiar, Kit in turn felt the same, "I'm Kit" the teen introduced, "Clara" the woman returned, "you're an Uslandian-soldier aren't you, and a young one at that" Clara remarks, "and you don't seem to be Hounslandian, let alone a hound" Kit notes, "of course not, I come from Greenorama (the Talespin-analogue of Ireland), but I later moved to Usland, I'm a spy" Clara explained, "wow, how old are you?" Kit wondered, "seventy-one, but I'm still fit for an old-lady" she answers jokingly, "I'm only sixteen, but I'm gonna be seventeen in a week" Kit supplies, "really?" Clara says when she heard footsteps from outside approaching, "quick, hide" she encouraged and hides Kit in a haystack, the new arrival was a Swatzi-dog-man that Kit recognized from ages ago: Major Heartworm, "who are you talking too?" he asks, "uh, just the animals" Clara lies, "but I heard another voice, did you find one of the pilots?" Heartworm presses, "no, those were the animals" Clara explains, Heartworm wasn't completely convinced, but he abandons it for now when another Swatzi comes up to him and they leave. Once they were gone Kit gets out of the hay. "Was that Major Heartworm?" he asks, "aye, you heard of him?" Clara replies, "me and a friend of mine actually met him once, when we were shipping cargo on a plane to Freelandia" Kit recalls, "well, why are you here? surely you didn't drop in for a visit" Clara pries, "I was sent here to steal a plane" Kit explains, "jet-propelled?" Clara guessed, "yeah" Kit confirms, "well when General Mega notified me that they were sending over a teenager with a flying-surfboard he wasn't kidding, and I'll be glad to help" Clara states bravely but then looks at Kit's uniform, "however you will need a disguise" she adds and hastily leaves, seconds later she returned with a lederhosen, "here try this" she advised, Kit though wasn't that enthusiastic, but desperate times call for desperate measures so he obeys. Seconds later he was done, though he felt like a total dweeb. "Good thing my friends aren't here to see this" he murmurs to himself, hoping this'll be worth it, "just stick close rookie, I've been doing this for decades" Clara assures and they walk out. Trekking across the yard passed the plane-wreck she brings him to a shack of some sort, opening it she leads him in to an elevator and once inside that she presses the down-button and they descend. "Now if anyone asks, you say you're my assistant I hired" Clara instructed, Kit nods, "so you came for that new jet eh? which one do you think is more suiting?" she asks, "there's more?" Kit gasps, "three types, one's called the Heinkel He 178, this is the one that attacked that Britannican-fleet, however they've also just made two more: the Messerschmitt Me 262-Schwalbe-slash-Sturmvogel, and the Heinkel He 280" Clara answers, "great" Kit sighs as they felt the elevator stop and the doors open. Kit feasts his eyes on perhaps the most advanced technologies he's ever seen, there was laser-emitters, a proto-tiltrotor (known as the Focke-Achgelis Fa 269) and what he's come for: the He 178-jet, he also got a glimpse of a Me 262-fighter being towed by a SdKfz 2-Kettenkrad-vehicle (a kind of half-track: meaning it had both wheels and tracks for mobility). As they walked through Kit noticed several Swatzis were eyeing him suspiciously, causing him to gulp: this wasn't gonna be easy.
Back at Higher-for-Hire, Rebecca was putting Molly and Ramón to bed, the latter wanted to sleep with Molly for companionship while Kit was away. It was hard on all of them, but all wanted Kit to get back on his feet and if facing the Axis-Powers was the only way to do it, so be it. She tucks them in and with that she left, heading downstairs to go outside where Baloo Riven and Rey would be, as she suspected they were just sitting on the boardwalk's steps gazing at the stars. Rebecca quietly joins them. "Mind if I join you?" she asks and they made room for her. For awhile they all just sat quietly until Baloo spoke, "I just hope we won't regret this" he peeped, the others look at him, knowing what he means, "so do I Baloo, so do I" Rebecca replies wrapping her right-arm around his, "hey Kit was able to take of himself before, I'm confident he can do it again" Riven says, "you sure are good at staying positive Riven, no matter what's wrong" Rebecca giggles, "yeah, I just hope our comfort on Kit didn't soften him up too much, that's what I'm worried about" Baloo fears, "sometimes you have to be independent, even if you don't want to, that's how I lived" Rey informs, "do you think he'll be brave enough to nab that plane without worrying about a mess up?" Baloo wonders, "I'm sure he'll do it" Riven asserted not willing to give up, not ever.
Back in the base, Kit and Clara were doing the dishes. "What kind of spy does dishes?" Kit moaned, Clara looks at him: even his attitude was familiar. "You know, you look a lot like my son, and act like him too" she remarks, Kit stops and looks at her, "what do you mean?" he asks, "you see: he was a hothead: always taking risks just because he wants to, he was also striving to be a pilot, and when he came of age he did, though he had a bit of a tough start, but later on he became so good he got recruited in the air-force: he practically won the war for the good-guys, and this in turn made him a celebrity of sort, him and his family, including me" Clara describes, "wow, he must've been a great guy" Kit notes, "he was Kit, he was" Clara sighed, "what happened to him?" Kit asks, Clara suddenly turns sad, "he and his wife were killed in a plane-crash bound for Cape-Suzette, such a shame too, they were also starting parenthood" she expressed, Kit looked at her baffled: something told him her story of her son wasn't a coincidence to what happened to Kit's parents, but he still had doubts, and he had more important matters right now, Clara apparently thinking the exact same thing, "but anyway, you said you needed to steal the jet right?" she reminds, "either that or its blueprints, or both" Kit informs, "I see" Clara mutters, "well the plans for both the He 178 He 280 and Me 262 are located at the north-wing of the base, heavily guarded, but if you do aim for those I hope you have an escape-plan" Clara informs, "truthfully I'm instructed to take the He 178 or its blueprints, but I think I'll do both" Kit said cockily, once more sparking Clara's suspicions on him, but only briefly as a dalmatian-Swatzi arrives, quickly Clara gets an idea and skips to the fridge, opens it and pulls out a bowl of sauerkraut, "is that sauerkraut?" Kit gagged, "yes" Clara humors and presents it to the swatzi, who gets mesmerized by it that he didn't see Clara punch him in the face and knock him out, "wow" Kit whistled: Clara wasn't kidding when she said she was fit for an old-lady, "now swap cloths with him" she instructs, Kit does so and by a minute or two he's done, "now which way to the blueprint's room?" Kit asks as Clara fills him on what to do.
Stay tuned for To catch a Jet, Chapter four