Revision as of 17:50, 30 April 2007

Background

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Prince HeadMed - see full version here

It all started when Queen Lasey the II, the most noble and regal canine in the entire Tocrowkian Reich, started to seek for a suitable mate.

A number of nations applied, presenting their best dogs, but Vault 10 didn't want to stand aside. A medical and genetic research corporation notified a genetically modified cat, Prince Headmed, who grew up in their labs, and he decided to join. While technically Headmed was more like a cat, his breed featured not only inhumane intelligence, but had proven themselves capable of interbreeding with geckos, humans, nukes, and, of course, dogs. Nova Boozia, however, stressed the point of Headmed's nationality.

Some days later, however, the nation of British Londinium made a threatening ultimatum: they offered Scooby, and told that if he is not accepted, he will be executed. Prince Headmed, hearing that, offered to carry the execution himself. Scooby had been put on a plane for Vault 10, and Headmed was offered to shoot it down. However, it is known that the plane was eventually destroyed not by the Prince, but by the nation of Hakurabi, which wanted to be sure the contestant dies.

What has really happen that mysterious day? Well, the story is fully recovered today. Read the references if you want a better understanding of the picture.

Where Plane Flies You

Target practice

Prince Headmed was flying his personal Su-47. Well, anyone else would say it was Tatiana, his personal psychiatrix who was flying the plane, and Headmed was just sitting at her back, but we know who was the commander here.

- "Target pr-ractice!!" - Headmed was shouting with excitement as he overheard the transmission. - "All your base are belong to us!". Headmed jumped onto Tatiana's knees and grabbed the stick. The civvies were flying at low altitude, as if hiding, and he went right behind them. Air flow was heavily disturbed by the airliner, but forward-swept wings fighter didn't seem to notice at all. Headmed pushed the throttle for a second, reversed his fighter left in a tight turn, and stopped the engines. Two seconds later he was flying sideways right about the airliner's door. "Her-r-re!" - screamed Headmed and hit the throttle all the way.

The flimsy door bent and flew inside like paper after being struck by afterburners' exhaust, but Headmed didn't see the beauty of explosive depressurization and people flying out, which gave him the usual warm feeling after cracking open Boeings with enemy troopers. He looked at Tatiana, his eyes filled with sadness and disappointment, and meowed just like a housecat. "Oh, my dear, don't cry." - she put her hand on his back - "For explosive depressurization to happen, you need to deal more damage to the airframe, and the hole should be..."

John worked in a cat food shop for the third day. He was already almost sleeping, as all of sudden the facade glass blasted apart, and a jet almost scratched the ground near him. He probably thought something, falling down from his chair, but remembered only being thrown at the wall by the shockwave.

" - IDIOT!!! RETARD!!!" - screamed Headmed, not pacified even by the view of large packs of Maleficat through the canopy - "We were at low altitude!!!" - he threw all his body onto the stick, hitting Tatiana's face in revenge, and the fighter turned vertically, performing a textbook stall. Tatiana returned to reality with a shocked face, instinctively switched full throttle, and they rushed skyward, leaving a wide line of broken asphalt and a few happily burning road signs below.

John was trying to stand up. He used to be an airport worker. Or was he still? Or what the heck was that? </br>

Suddenly, the radio singing was jammed by a strong noise, and he heard a scream: "I'll be back for my Maleficat!"

Headmed returned to the civvies, which continued to fly as if nothing happened. He carefully turned the plane at a weird angle, almost touching the civvies with the belly, and released the landing gear, ahich stuck into the liner through the door hole, extending it a little.

"Sssshhh..." - he threatened Tatiana not to fall off - and left to the back seat. Now Headmed felt excited. He was hanging on the seat, fighter's door in the floor opening below him, and he felt the wind. But there was less than half a foot between the planes, and Headmed jumped inside.

Royal Blood

Headmead ran across the seats, found a window where Tatiana could see him, and climbed on a seat's back, cleaning himself. They did it perfectly. But, suddenly, someone barked behind him, and Headmed remembered that he boarded the liner not just for the joy of hijacking.

"Scoooby..." - Headmed slowly turned around. - "Do you know what am I here for?"

Scooby shuddered. He remembered other dogs telling what Medhead did with them. "S-s-ame as with my sis-s-s-ter?" - Scooby almost couldn't speak. Well, he was a male, but he wasn't sure if it did matter, because Headmed never came without a purpose.

- "Tall tales, doggy. I have never met her. Why would I bother to? These doggies just dream of meee-w, and make it all up. I only had a few, and they all were royal, for that."

- "W-w-what then?" - Scooby was looking relieved.

- "I will execute you. In perrrrson." - Headmed started humming.

- "Order of Her Majesty? S-she refused me?"

- "It is me who gives orders. She will."

Headmed smiled, and Scooby jumped back, feeling frozen and horrified just from his smile. He was sitting, unable to move, not knowing what to do. Today he was going to marry Queen Lasey the II - and now execution. He heard the rumors. But now he thought it would be better if they just put a bomb on the plane.

The cat walked around, pushed the cabin door and was disappointed to find just an autopilot. He turned around, sinking Scooby's mind into deeper terror.

All that time Tatiana was sitting in the fighter, facing the sky, hanging in her seat head down. It was boring and tiresome. She disconnected the suit, turned over to the rear seat and stepped into the airliner. A dog jumped to her legs, released from Headmed's gaze and shaking off the terror.

The Myth

Scooby has heard a lot in his life. He heard about Tatiana, the legendary ace right from the mystical land where the plane flies you, the last dogfighter in the age of stealth craze and backstabbing. He always believed her to be a myth downed stealth pilots kept on retelling to turn defeat by conventional planes into a honor. The legend even wasn't coherent: some said she shot or dodged all the missiles and entered dogfights, and some that she followed railroads using WIG effect so closely that they believed her to be a fast train until the visual range.

And, most importantly, Scooby has always wondered why would the Land Where the Plane Flies You have air aces and pilots at all, not to mention that he was generally very skeptical, not believing in such land at all, and openly mocked so-called The World Soviet Party members as delusional dreamers.

He overcame the fear, closed his eyes and sniffed in the direction of Headmed. No traces of butter. Scooby wold smell it from ten yards, and, though he had never seen that, he knew the only way cats could fly is with toasts on their backs, because it had a sound logical explanation, unlike all these parties finding you. But here she was, the fighter was behind the window, and if anyone could board a plane right in the air, it was Tatiana, because never in the world could a cat, no matter how smart, fly a plane. So it was true? His mind was leaving him.

Scooby laid down. He still believed her to be a myth, but he started to think about another explanation. In the land of Vaults, where the only long route safe from radiation is by air, nearly each family has a small plane or two, and it's hard to find a teen who has never played airwar with real fighters, at least at school sport class. Why would Aerospace Logistics hire a pilot from that mythical land? Couldn't it be just a team of local aces playing her? Scooby wished he could ask her himself, but he wouldn't understand him. But he was losing his mind, and didn't care any longer about what could Headmed do to him.

- "Sorry... Is she... Who is she?" - he asked.

- "And do you yourself know who you are?" - Headmed replied calmly.

- "I am..." - Scooby tried to answer, but was interrupted by solid, confident, loud Headmed's voice.

- "You are flying, yet you are not a bird. You think you know who I am, and you don't. Many great minds asked themselves if they know who they are, and they don't. Do you think you can? You think you were sent to marry, and you were sent to be executed. Is there anything you know?"

Hearing the word "executed", Scooby finally took hold of himself in the last struggle. Headmed, a huge genetically engineered cat, notorious criminal mind who could trick anyone into believing that executing his plans was the most honorable thing in the world. Tatiana, the Red Baron of the 21st century. Yes, a nice company for the last day of his life. He was just thinking, thinking over everything he could.

Execution

- "Execute me" - he said with a doomed voice.

- "Do you understand who will execute you? Have you answered the most important question of your life?"

Scooby could not forget it. He could forget the past, but not that one question. He still could not understand it, as believing in Tatiana would crush the last solid foundations of his beliefs. Pilots fly planes and people find parties, yet the cat was here, and he could smell no toast.

- "What... How..." - he tried to ask.

- "There is no toast on my back, as you can see." - Headmed shrugged.

"Is that cat reading my mind??" - a thought blazed in Scooby's head, driving him crazy.

- "There has to be one on yours, because you fly" - commented Headmed.

- "I... fly... Yes, I fly. But I would smell a toast on my own back!"

- "You have probably eaten too much dry food today. Cats lose smell because of it, you know."

- "I have eaten dry food today" - Scooby agreed - "But am I a cat?"

- "You are flying with a toast on your back. Do you know who flies this way?" - Headmed was speaking without a single note of emotion, and his voice sounded as belonging to the Universe itself.

- "Since a cat always falls on her feet and toast on butter, Murphy and Cat forces cancel each other if oriented coaxially. Momentum and force are created by shifting and tilting them, and the cat flies in the desired direction, controlling her flight by tailerons..." - Scooby was the best student in the Police Academy and knew the textbook by heart; he was excited and proud to finally show off his knowledge.

- "And you know I have no toast. Who flies without toast on his back?"

Scooby was digging deep in his memory. Humans, he knew, but that was not the answer. One of his friends... Fido! Yes, Fido! He was a dog, and he was a gunner on a bomber.

- "Dogs!" - Scooby replied, and rubbed himself at Tatiana's legs, as if she could protect him from the pressure of Headmed's mind.

- "You are right. Do you know who you are?" - at this Headmed's words Scooby almost fell out - "Yes, you do." - finished Headmed.

- "I want... I want to know... What should I do?"

- "Proceed" - Headmed announced, and jumped back into the fighter.

Tatiana stood up, followed him and got to the pilot's seat. Skooby has nothing else to do but join them. He could barely hold in place, and, if not for Headmed holding him with teeth, the wind would blew him away. But the door closed, gear retracted, and the fighter fell down.

Rebirth

A lone fighter was flying over hills filled with crops, lit only by the Sun already leaving the horizon. Far above, a missile salvo crossed the air, hitting an empty airliner, explosion lighting the sky bright and debris leaving flaming trails. The fighter made a tight right turn, accelerated, and all of sudden disappeared right inside a rail tunnel, ground behind it already burning with the liner's remains.

The last fires fell down, coloring the twilight sky. Night was preparing to take over the world, and the lone fighter, slowly and silently, as if trying not to disturb her, left the hill and headed skywards. Soon it was far beyond the clouds, leaving only a thin smoke trail behind.

The sky around was beautiful. Tatiana led the plane higher and higher, and soon they could see the Sun again. Sunset looked completely different from here. The dark red clouds were below them, and the Sun shined bright and crisp, leaving the glow in the clouds behind it. They could see the space beyond the Earth, the real black color never seen on the surface, and the stars were looking sharp. They could see the planets, and Scooby finally understood what was real in the life. He could - but he has never been here. All his life before was just playing in the dirt, with ones who were nobody for him, without purpose, without being part of the world. But here he finally realized what it means to be rescued and reborn, and he was ready to promise himself not to waste a second ever since.

Tatiana turned on the lights in the cockpit. The view of the sky became less visible, and Scooby looked around.

"And now do you know who you are?" - she asked softly.

Scooby suddenly felt relieved, warm, and finally in his place. He jumped onto Tatiana's knees, and she put her hand on his neck. Scooby has learned a lot today. All his old foundations were away, but he felt like he found the new ones. He didn't even believe Tatiana existed before, he didn't think Headmed had a personality, but now they the only things he was sure in.

- "A cat, my friend. You are a cat, and isn't it fine?" - Headmed raised his head over Tatiana's shoulder, his voice toned down and soft. - "Now you know everything you need."

Scooby was happy as never before. He finally knew it. He rubbed himself at Tatiana again, and the serenity filled him. He meowed in satisfaction, almost touching Tatiana's face with his nose.

"Where were you going to?" - Tatiana whispered. She knew he couldn't answer, but Headmed turned to Scooby, his face somehow not scaring him at all.

"Where was I going?" - Scooby wondered himself. He was going to see some dog, he recalled. It was like a bad dream, a dream he wanted to forget. Why would he? Why would he want to see some dog? Let alone the fact she was from different species, he hasn't even known what dog that was. He was told to - that's all. Scooby tried to feel his memories as a writings on a blackboard. He wiped them out, all, clean.

- "Nowhere" - he laughed. "Nowhere. I just was burning my life for nothing." - "I am going wherever I can really live. You know better where should I go."

Tatiana didn't ask Headmed. She already knew what Scooby would answer, and just pulled the throttle.

The Land Where the Plane Flies You

Deep in the night, Su-47 was crossing the sky, visible only by the glowing cockpit. It reached a large lake, made a few figures, and rushed down along the mountain river, perfectly following its sharp turns and flying under several bridges. Finally, it reached a small, beautiful valley between sharp cliffs, the river going around it after the waterfall and leaving somewhere hidden among the trees. A few lights were glowing in one of the cliffs, and soon heavy doors started to open nearby, light stripe from the hangar making the river below shine in the night, and turning waterfall into a rain of glowing drops. The plane made a few tight turns, rolling on the way, while waiting for the hangar to open.

Scooby could believe everything now. He was amazed, and he took back his former doubts. All of that was impossible, but he became a part of it. He now believed the stories, and, now a new person, remembering the faces of downed pilots, he knew they weren't lying. He wanted to ask how could she control the plane better than one controls his own body. He couldn't speak in words known to Tatiana, but she understood him by his face.

- "It is not me. It is the sky. You cannot dominate the air, and if you try, you will be the target. I just let the air lead me and stay where it is. But, to do it, you must be born in a different land" - she smiled.

"The land where the plane flies you".

Notes

• Original thread
• Original post
• If you don't know Where Plane Flies You