NORTHERN MARKETS
Episode 85: Hasty Departure

The door to the hangar slowly swung open, and the crew of 7 fugitives snuk in slowly. They all had to sneak their way into the Academy’s aviation school and hangar from the pureblood village over at the Keewatin Branches.
And here they were: Whiskey, Cheech, Rusty, and Chuck, all former cops in the Kerning City Police’s SWAT division;
Ylin Arla, level 98 mage, deserter and former member of the CCA, the magicians’ equivalent of a police force; Jango Alyth, level 70 ranger, and deserter from the Justice Arrow, and at the time being, still captive. With them was the scrawny street magician Meeka Starla, a refugee from Kerning City who Rusty saved from the wrath of the JA.

The pack stood staring in awe at the giant magic-mechanical monster in front of them.

There sat the Kentigearna O hEachthianna, the huge aircraft that the students built, sitting there lifeless, bathed in the dim blue-green light. The wooden structure of the plane was dark, with the name of it, ‘KENTIGEARNA Ó H-EACHTHIANNNA’ painted in white block letters on the side.
The mithril jets and other metal framework covering the crystal engines reflected the dim light.

Ylin stared at the plane in amazement. This flying machine wasn’t a military project, it was built by the students here at the school. Well, the ultimate test would come quickly enough.
“So, what’s the game plan? You said only magicians could get inside-” Whiskey began.

“I’m on it,” Ylin said, as she walked swiftly out into the hangar toward the plane.
“How are you on it? You don’t even know much about it other than what this guy told us!” Chuck said, pointing a thumb at Cheech.
Ylin ignored the pureblood cop. What to they know? She climbed the ladder to the door on the port side of the plane. There was no handle on the outside; must be locked inside. Well-Duh!
If this thing could only be unlocked by magicians, then there shouldn’t be mechanical locks. She pressed her right palm on the door and released a burst of magic, and kept pumping a steady stream into the aircraft.
Then something happened, and it hit her like a bomb.
The magic she was pumping into the side of the plane bounced back and surged up into her brain. Paralyzed, Ylin couldn’t pull away!
She stood there, squeaking in pain as whatever the magical device inside took over her mind.

“Hey!” Whiskey said, alarmed.
“What’s going on?” Meeka asked.
“She’s getting electrocuted!”

What really was happening was that Ylin’s magic activated some kind of magic computer, which picked up her magic signature and instantly transmitted a mindsplitting torrent of data right to her head!
There was a bright blue flash followed by a loud electrical snap! and she fell off the latter, hitting the hard oakwood floor on her back.
The guys rushed over to her.
“agh!~” Ylin groaned.
“What happened?”
“What’s that some kind of anti-theft shock device or something?”
“No!” she shot back, rubbing her head. “That flying machine’s got an unsecured crystal computer onboard!”
“What does that mean?” Whiskey demanded impatiently.
“As soon as I tapped the circuits with my magic, that thing dreamlocked me and overloaded my brain with info!”
“Such as…?” Whiskey pursuaded her.
“How to get in, and start it up!” Ylin snapped, jumping to her feet. “first of all, it takes two magicians to get in. Don’t tell me I am the only magician here?”
They all looked at eachother. Rusty looked at Meeka. Then they all did. Her dark blue hair gave her away.
“I need her!” Ylin said, waving her hand for the street magician to follow her.
“M-me?! B-but…I’m just a kid! I know nothing about flying machines or magic-I-I ‘m not even from Ellinia! I’m not even magically trained! I wanna go away”
“Aw shut yer yap and get to work!” Chuck retorted. “You are in deep like the rest of us!”
“If the archmages get you, they will be as brutal as the Justice Arrow! They will torture you just like they do to ranger prisoners and then when you’ve told them about us, their fire mages will burn you alive until you draw your last breath! Is that what you want?!”
Meeka went bug-eyed. “n-no! No! I don’t wanna die! Please!”
She looked at Rusty with plead in her eyes.
“It’s okay, just go with her. She’ll know what to do” Rusty said cooly.
Ylin rushed over, took the girl by the arm and pulled her accross the hangar to the plane. They walked up to the door.

“Listen, you! It matters not where you are from or how trained you are not! You are a magician with magic running in your blood, that is all that matters!” the mage snarled clamping Meeka’s wrists.
“Ow…let go you’re hurting me!”
“You going to cooperate?”
Meeka nodded, and then took Meeka’s left hand and pressed it against the side of the plane. Using her own magic, Ylin pulled out some of the girl’s magic and channeled it into the side of the aircraft. Meeka sqeezed her eyes shut waiting to be fried, but that didn’t happen. She opened her eyes. “What…what’s happening?”
“Making sure the computer on this thing picks up your magic signature.”

After ten seconds, there was a hiss of air as the door popped open. Motioning for the guys to follow,Ylin climbed into the plane, pulling Meeka with her.
It was dark inside, but the mage already knew the way to the cockpit and walked there, taking the girl with her.
She flipped a switch, and a ceiling-mounted crystal lit up.
The cockpit was small, and bare. Rather than the hundreds of buttons, switches and levers that a plane should have, there very few. Crystals and gloine-phol screens covered the panels. Actual computer screens on the side surprised Ylin, and she reminded herself that pureblood students also designed and built this flying machine. The windows were huge, giving a full view of the closed hangar door.
“Whoa…” Meeka said, looking around.
“Take a seat! We got work to do!” Ylin ordered sharply. She wasn’t going to take any crap from this kid.
Meeka said nothing as she sat in the co-pilot seat. Ylin tried pressing buttons, squeezing crystals and pulling switches.
“Hey, uhh don’t we need keys to start the ignition, like a car?”
“Does this LOOK like a car to you?” Ylin snapped back.
“Jeez I was just wondering, don’t have a cow, lady!” Meeka retorted.
Ylin stared at her. “Then you do not ask questions like that. You’re from Kerning, you said so yourself! Things work very differently out here where magic prevails over electrical!”
A screen lit up, flashing the Gaelic words for: TRANSMIT 2+ MAGIC SIGNATURES TO INITIATE STARTUP
“I can’t read this,” Meeka said.
“Take your left hand, and put it on the garnet close to you,” Ylin replied, placing her own hand on the garnet next to her. Both garnets were linked to the panel between them by stiff mithril wires.
Meeka shook as she kept her palm pressed on the giant garnet. Then she felt a warm tingling feeling in her hand.
“What’s going on?”
Ylin look up. “The computer’s reading your magic. For you it might take longer-
“Ah! What’s it doing! It’s spreading all over me!”
“Relax, kid,” Ylin said. “The system is circulating more magic through you to get a better magic reading. For you, your magic is so low the system hardly can sense you. For a pureblood, this would never work, and they would get bad magic burns and radiation sickness. Cool system, eh?”
“..Y-y-yeah…”
The computer screens flashed and beeps echoed accross the cockput. Screens lit up showing schematics, power grid, magic grid, status of systems and engines in the plane. Every label, sign, and even the words on the computer, were however in Gaelic.
“Clear. You can take your hand off the garnet now, kid. Now look at the your computer screen- not the glass one, the actual liquid goo display one. What is it showing?”
Meeka looked at the screen. It showed a map of the engines and systems throughout the plane. Everything flashed green. “It looks good here,”

The lights came on, and other systems like computers (dopplar, weather, etc) came on.
Ylin pressed numerous buttons and keypads until one of her screens flashed in Gaelic: “MAGIC BARRIER READY. MANA RESERVE 50%”
“Magic barrier?” she asked. “Some kind of shield….”
The guys sat in the other rooms in the back.
Jango was locked in the bathroom in the back.
In the front, Ylin activated the intercom. “Everyone, inspect the plane. Tell me everything.”
“Hey, I found the kitchen, and we’re loaded up with food!”
“Weather monitoring system is up and running.”
“Navigation system is starting up. Navigation system good.”
A screen lit up showing several maps.
More gages and lights came to life infront of Ylin and Meeka.
“Good. We’re starting the engines. Stand by. Who’s in the tracking room?”
“It’s me,” Rusty Miller’s voice said on the speaker.
“Keep scanning for anyone approaching and tell me instantly when you see someone!”
“You got it!”

Meeka was calm again as she sat back in the giant seat. It was made from woven leaves, fabrics, and silks.
“Place your hand on the garnet. We’re starting the engines. We’ll see if this thing will really fly as it’s been built to!” Ylin ordered.
Meeka placed her left hand on the garnet again. She and Ylin both felt rapid pulses as Ylin pressed numerous buttons and many switches. The lights blacked out and the whole ship shook as the engines started. The vibration and humming steadied and the lights came back on.
Computers flashed many signs, all indicating that the engines were warming up. gages fluctuated as did other indicators in the cockpit.
Ylin took the mic again. “Testing the hull’s powers. Stand by,”
She slowly turned dials, and the walls became invisible!
“What the crap! We’re gonna fall!” Meeka shrieked, jumping up on her seat.
“That would be the gloine-phol. It is a substance harder than glass and if you apply the right magic charge to it, it can filter light, block light, make it possible to see through the walls. Sweet huh?”
“Y-yeah..”
She turned the dials again until the outside world disappeared even the windows became walls.Then the hull went back to normal and the lights out in the hangar seemed really bright. Meeka had to cover her eyes.
“Now it’s pulling more light in. Like a nightvision window. “
Soon Ylin was done testing systems while the engines warmed up. The vibrations and thunder of the giant crystal engines roared throughout the whole ship.

Ylin Arla and Meeka both touched the garnets again, and the computer flashed bright green words in Gaelic, meaning that the engines became unlocked and now she could drive the plane.
First, she unlocked the brakes, and slowly gripped the steering wheel, and tested it by pushing it upward, downward, right, left. Screens showed the flaps on the wings and tail moving. Okay, so these were the auxillary controls, which she could use to make sudden turns to avoid an oncoming obstacle.
Ylin now turned the steering wheel, and screens showed the jets moving, and if the plane was in the air, it would change overall path.
“Sweeet” she said, taking the mic. “Somebody go out and open the hangar doors, Let’s go!”

Chuck had to do it. He ran his fat ass off back to the door of the hangar and slammed the red button that opened the giant doors. He ran back and climbed aboard just in time before the mage locked the doors of the plane.
“Everyone, hold tight, The Koe is taking off!”

Ylin hit buttons and switches, cranking up the engines and jets. She looked out the giant windsheild and watched as the heavy oak hangar doors slowly slid open. “Meeka, press the green glass button below that screen to your right. It will let off some ballast air!”
Meeka did what she was told, even though she had no idea what she was doing. The words on the screen were still all in Gaelic. Loud hissing echoed through the plane from the back.
Ylin watched the display to her left. Numbers counted down, showing the weight of the plane on the floor of the hangar.
The number dropped below zero, and just as it did, the plane started to rise off the floor and floated in the air, with the footpads ten feet up.
“The Koe is launching!” Ylin said into the mic as she pushed the steering wheel forward and pressed her foot on the throttle pedal.

The Kentigearna O hEachthianna slowly blasted forward as the airpressure jets blasted hard.
“Drop more ballast air!” Ylin ordered.
Nervous as hell, Meeka hit the button again. More air hissed out of the ballast tanks, and like a floating object underwater, the plane began to rise upward as it cleared the hangar and drifted out intop the open.

It didn’t take long for the CCA to find out the magicians’ prized flying machine was taking off. They all rushed towards the hangar at the Academy, and by then the ship was flying right through Ellinia!

“Lookout!” Meeka screemed as they came full speed towards one of the giant bridges.
Ylin pushed the steering wheel as hard as she could and the plane dipped, missing it by mere feet!
The mage frantically pulled, jerked, and turned the steering wheel to avoid the giant trees and structures clinging to them.

It was quite a sight; the giant aircraft flying recklessly through the trees and forests around Ellinia, narrowly missing buildings and trees. The plane’s loud crystal engines’ roar echoed through the forest practically waking the whole town!

Ylin jerked the steering wheel and the whole plane turned sideways as it flew between two trees.

The archmages of the CCA followed the plane on their hog mounts or cars and opened fire with every magical attack they had.

The whole plane shook as it took an ice bombardment on the back!
“Crap!” Ylin cussed. She slammed a button, activating the plane’s magical sheild. Then she took a swereve to the left as she just missed the CCA’s headquarters tree! Mages fired off missiles of fire and ice at the plane. The whole ship shook as the bombs hit, bounced off by the magic energy sheild.
Whiskey managed to make it into the cokcpit. “What are you doing?! We gotta get outta here or we’re not gonna last much longer!”
“I know that!” Ylin shouted back.
“Go up!”

She drove the plane above the bridges and branches into a clearing where the O-hEachthianna Family Tree (or Tree of Elders) stood. This giant tree was a hundred times bigger than a California Redwood, but there was enough airspace around the tree the plane could fly around it. Ylin flew into the clearing and took a counterclock wise spiral upward.

“Magic power reserves at 28%. We’re almost out of gas!”
“What the crap?! How did we burn so much up so fast?!”

By now, the CCA mobilized all their Beamoth winged archmages, and fairies and they took flight. They had powerful wings and sped through the night after the stolen aircraft. One archmage released a storm of fire missiles that shot upward after the plane.
The bombs were picked up by the plane’s built-in radar.
“Incoming!” Cheech shouted into the mic from the radar room. “15-no 20 something fireballs coming from the rear!”

“Shyt!” Ylin cussed as the guy;s words echoed on the speaker. She looked at a screen. 25 red dots closed-in on the back of the plane (blue plane symbol)
“Brace for impact!” she shouted on her mic.
Meeka was hyperventilating. “This is it! We’re really gonna die!” She watched the screen as the red dots closed in on the center and she screamed, bringing her legs up to curl up. Her foot hit a switch that activated the ship’s Reversal Magic Collection System (RMCS)- which abosrbed energy attacks through the magic sheild converted it back to raw magic energy and refilled the mana reserves (massive storage tanks loaded with tree fibers that can hold imments amounts of compressed magic energy).
Then the fire missiles hit.

Outside, there was a blinding flash of light as the fire bombs slammed into the rear of the plane. Bright blue magic crackled as the invisible shield on the hull destroyed the fireballs and sucked the magic in. There wasn’t even a scratch!
Inside, everything shook as if it was violent earthquake.
The display for the mana reserves flashed.
“Holy crap! We’re full again!” Ylin gasped.

A storm of lightning and ice struck the plane and again the attacks were absorbed.
“Look out! We’re gonna crash!” Meeka screamed, pointing at the ceiling of thick foliage above them.
Ylin increased the power of the air-pressure jets, and the plane shot straight upward like a rocket.
They closed in fast on the layer of branches (containing houses, homes, fungus gardens, and other buildings)
“Brace for impact!” Ylin shouted.
“Hold your nuts!” Whiskey screamed to the other guys in the back rooms.
The plane slammed into the top layer of branches and giant leaves.

The ship crashed upward through, blasting a hole right through the branches and buildings, and mini-trees that grew on the giant branches. Then, the plane blew through a gloine-phol glass top, shattering the glass-like cover, and blasted upward into the open sky.

Ylin turned the plane northward and brought it horozontal again. She exhaled a sigh of releaf and flopped back into her seat. “Holy crap!” she swore. She shut off the cockpit lights.
Meeka stared straight forward, gazing at the night sky and the black outline of the land and mountains below.
Ylin checked the altitude display. it read: “4000 BHEITH” (4000 feet)
The number kept increasing as they climbed higher into the sky.
“Incoming! I got holy sh!t like 30-something bogeys coming after us from six’o’clock!” Cheech’s voice echoed on the speakers.
Ylin snapped back to attention as the display came up on her screen. She swore. There were at least 80 yellow dots closing in. The screen showed the altitude numbers for each dot, and they were closing in fast.

The Beamoth archmages beat their wings furiously as they flew into the air from all different directions. They were dispatched from the CCA patrol stations and posts on the treetops. They kept teleporting to get closer to the plane. One Beamoth mage- with one black wing, and one white wing, dressed in a silvery-black robe, weilding fearsome looking staffs that looked like modified Eviscerator and Eclipse pole-arms with black power crystals on it. She wore a black Bosshunter faceguard, covering her bright red hair and evil black eyes.

Inside the plane, a shrill beeping echoed from the speakers in the whole plane. Then an angry female voice roard in Gaelic.
«Ar aire, occupiers of unidentified aerárthach! This CCA high commander Raonaid Saint Padus! We have you completely surrounded by archmages from the 7E Foireann and the 1E Foireann! There is no escape. You 10 seconds to make contact with us or be destroyed!»
Holy crap! Ylin breathed. Damn. The CCA was sending the 1E Foireann squad after them! The leader of the 1EF was Mapleworld’s nastiest archmage, Krystik Sylvanneas, level 192 supreme archmage and sorceress! Ellinia’s most badass archmage who’s mastered every magic trick inthe book! She could wield about a million times the magic power any other mage could hold, and Sylvanneas could wipe out an entire city if she wanted to!

“Who’s in the communication room?” Ylin demanded.
“Me,” Rusty called back.
“Patch me through on the external frequency the enemy is using!” Ylin ordered.
“I’m on it,”
After eight or so seconds, a blue light lit up indicating the mic was linked to recievers outside.
«Commander St. Padus, is this really neccessary?» Ylin asked.
«State your name, pilot!»
« I am Ylin Arla, former captain of Squad 160,»
«Aye! You’re the one who stole the plane?!»
«You think?!» Arla spat back. «Oh, and by the way, I am not doing it for the Justice Arrow!»
St. Padus seemed pissed.
«YOU?! Why did do it? That aircraft was a top secret prototype!»

«I’ll tell you why,» Arla began. «The Magic Council has been cutting back against the people of Ellinia too long. First thing: Two weeks ago, the students at the Forest Grove high school turned over memory crystals and tapes of magic markets and useful intel information. When were you planning to use that?. Second thing: That ranger who surrendured had with him books, tapes, and memory crystals containing information on how to contact the people of New Saskatchewan who wiped out the Justice Arrow’s base out there. Yeah, its sad they killed many of our magicians imprisoned out there but they had their reasons. That is no valid reason to reject this oppertunity to establish a friendship with New Saskatchewan and work together in defeating the Justice Arrow!!»

There was a wash of static, and a different, deeper, and colder voice echoed on all the speakers in the plane.
«Pilot of Kentigearna, you are to follow us under escort back to the air station, where you and your crew will be taken into custody!»
Ylin figured that bone chilling voice was Kristik, the insane archmage behind them. She still couldn’t believe that archmage was in Ellinia. Rumor had it she was banished from Ellinia because she was too dangerous and the CCA and Library of Ellinia kept her busy on assignments out in Mapleworld’s darkest places.
Just then, two giant Beamoth archmages swooped down infront of the plane. They were fire mages, using their fire heat to manipulate the air around them giving them the speed they needed to keep up with the plane. Trails of flames blew behind them.
« If you do not obey this order, you will be destroyed!»

“Captain!” Whiskey shouted from the radar room (he just kicked out cheech). “This machine is saying there’s a hundred locks on this plane!”
The ‘locks’ that the computer picked up were the super rare psi-crystals’ detection of the enemies’ intent to shoot it down.
Ylin pondered quickly. The massive swarm of super insane archmages following them were not good. Their prescence here in Ellinia wasn’t good either. The Magic Council didn;t have to be THAT sinister to defeating the Justice Arrow, and it wouldn’t take much to subdue the pureblood populations into agreeing to a peaceful way of life with the magicians. No way was she gonna surrender to these maniacs!!
«Well, Kentigearna?» the archmage’s voice echoed. Through the speakers, she sounded like a banshee on crack.
I’ll take my chances! Ylin thought. Death awaits at home now. She had nothing to lose, not even the lives of these purebloods who pulled her into this!
She took the mic and said in Gelic, «Yeah, you know what, F*** you, You mages are just as psychotic as the bow masters of the Justice Arrow themselves! No good can come from you here!»
A red light lit up meaning the line was cut off.
Ylin had put everyone’s life on the line, and put all her trust and faith into the plane’s magic shield and abosrbing system. Hope this works!
She cranked the lever of the magic sheild and absorbant system, just as the mages outside prepared to fire.

The archmage flapped her giant wings and swung her staff, ordering the other 79 archmeges around her to open fire.
The sky was lit up by the storm of lightning, glowing ice, fire, and sparkling rainbow of poisons being fired at the plane!!!

“HOLY CRAP!” Cheech screamed-
Ylin couldn’t even speak-
The magical fury swallowed up the plane, and there was a colossal explosion and flashes of light.

Blasts of fire and smoke were seen where the plane exploded. But it didn’t explode!

Inside the plane, the world turned into red hell. Garnet lights lit up and flashed like crazy, and alarm bells and sirens went off, filling the air with an endless chime of whistles, beeps, bleeps, and screams. The whole plane shook violently, and everyone was thrown to the floor. Meeka screamed bloody murder as she curled up and buried her face in her hands.

The air grew unbarebly hot inside the plane from the intense heat outside. On the computers monitoring the magic sheild and abosrbant system, the Galelic word !!ANLUCHTAIGH!!
flashed on all screens.
“Mana reserves at 1750%!” chuck shouted from the systems room. “We’re way over the max limit!”
The tanks holding the magic energy were growing hot, as well as every wire, and cable throughout the plane from the magic energy. The shield converted it all to raw magic and now the whole ship was about to blow up!
Ylin ran back to the system room, shoved Chuck out of the way and frantically typed on the wooden keyboard. She punched in numbers, commands, and codes, and changed the function of the plane’s jets from air pressure to fire.
she ran back to the cockpit to frantically change a few more things. “You, keep this thing in the air!” Ylin told Meeka.
“I don’t know how to fly this thing!”
“Just f***king do it!!” the mage shouted at the street magician. Meeka sat in her seat and held the steering wheel tight. Already the plane was flying out of control and about to enter a down spiral.
Ylin ran back to the systems room to adjust the magic sheild and diverted most of the magic out of the wires to the sheild. The red lights stopped flashing and the normal lights were back on.
She also put more energy to the mana tanks’ holding system to keep them from exploding under the immense power they contained. She jumped back into her cockput and punched buttons into a screen. A vew of the rear came up, showing the pack of mages. Red squares covered all of them, but she made the super archmage the target. Then she took the lever above the screen and pulled it back as far as she could.

What Ylin Arla did was she turned the magic shield into a weapon- The plane shot from behind a massive blast of electrical bolts at the mages behind them. She had the energy converted to electric so they couldn’t use it, and so they would end up sapped and knocked out of the sky.
The archmages didn’t even see it coming. The plane was spiralling downward to the ocean, within minutes of slamming into the 3000 feet high rock wall when all of a sudden the lightning storm took them out. Sylveannas was shot by the biggest bolt the plane could muster, and the evil mage, too, dropped.
Ylin threw Meeka out of her seat and grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it back, bringing the plane out of the downward path. The plane shot upward again and she slammed a red button, activating the jet’s firepower.
The small plane blew out five 500-foot trails of bright white flame. The firepower propelled the plane high into the sky, and drove it at well over 600 miles per hour.
Everyone was slammed into their seats or the walls by the heavy gravity of the speed they were under. The whole ship shook as the excess magic energy from the reserve tanks was piped to the rockets and converted to searing flame and expelled from the jets. The maximum capacity of the tanks was 1000% or ten times the amount normally carried. To allow for enough power to get away from Ellinia and the range of the archmages, Ylin programmed the computer to allow a limit of 15% a minute, enough to not let the tanks explode, and enough to let them get away.

From the houses on the treetops, the plane looked like a real bright shooting star in the sky. Lightning bolts shot outward from it, releasing a boom of thunder every few minutes.

15 minutes later.
Altitude 41,000 feet.
Speed 842 miles per hour.
Ylin put the plane on auto-pilot, and she and Meeka had to touch the garnets again so she could program the system to allow only one magician to operate all systems.
She walked back through the narrow hallway to the navigation room where she checked the map of Victoria. After the first hair raising 25 minutes in flight and at the speeds they were going, the plane flew eastward over the ocean (Ellinia Bay), northward along Great Mage Wall, the giant cliff. 20 minutes after blasting the fire jets, they were now flying over the mountains of northeast Victoria. Just below them was Mount Chicago.

Cheech came out of the radar room. “Uhh, nobody’s been following us,”
Ylin looked at him. “Good. We’re beyond their range and several hundred miles north Ellinia’s borders. Chuck, hows’ the mana reserves?”
“We’re at 915%”
“We’ll go at this speed for now. In an hour we should pass over the border into SEA Lands airspace. Then I’ll slow us down and give us some time to plan our next step. Good job everyone!”

And with that, the plane rocketed off into the night.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Took me forever to come up with that.
Yeah, some mages are evil too. I’ll save that for another story, after all, these people are trying to get away from the war and go after the Justice Arrow’s economic gold mines. u kno, the markets, and eliminate the JA’s business link with them.
anyways i gotta go clean my hamsters’ cages. Peace & chicken grease