Flying Fun
~Terra Fanboy

Setzer sat back in his chair, enjoying a fine bottle of well-aged wine. He swirled around the glass in his hand and mused about how perfect his Falcon was, knowing that the wine would not spill on his smooth-flying ship.

"But there's no one else to appreciate the fineness of my craft. Its elegance, speed, and style. What wouldn't I give for the opportunity to..."

He took a sip from his glass and nearly choked as an idea struck him. He had a plan that would make him the center of attention and let everyone see his airship's excellence. Smiling, he left to go plan out the details.

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"A flying race?" Vyse asked out loud. He was looking at a rather large poster of airships racing.

"We should enter!" Aika said cheerfully.

Fina concurred. "Well, there is a rather large reward for the winner. And we could use the money..."

"Yeah, lets do it. They don't stand a chance," Vyse said, a cocky grin spreading across his face. He was the king of the sky, and he wouldn't lose.

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"Looks like they're having some dumb contest," Squall said apathetically as he looked over the poster.

Cloud leaned back in his chair, sharpening his blade. "Yeah, just a bunch of idiots trying to show off."

"I'm suprised you don't enter with that piece of junk you're always travelling around in." Squall was smiling coldly, thinking of his own superior spaceship.

Cloud was dangerously close to 'sharpening' his blade on Squall. "Mine's the original rocket, scrub. Your cheap little dragon toy is a crappy immitation."

"All right then, I'll see you there. And when I dust your silly blimp, I get to keep it as a trophy."

"Fine. And I'll use your ugly piece of junk for scrap metal when I win." Cloud would have liked nothing more than to let out an Omnislash at that point, but he kept his cool.

"See you there then." Squall left the bar they were in, smiling as he walked out into the night.

A thought occurred to Cloud. "Cid's gonna kill me if I lose." Cloud, realizing this, suddenly put his head in his hand in a very Squall-like fashion.

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"Hmm.... Whats this?" Terra looked at the poster with puzzlement. She recognized the Falcon and knew that Setzer was running some kind of contest, but she had a hard time understanding why he hadn't told her himself. After all, the kids would have loved to see a race.

"What ARE you doing?" a rich feminine voice distracted Terra from the poster, and she looked over to see a very familiar figure. Terra felt a little nervousness, as she didn't deal with people she fought in the arena very often.

"Oh, hello, Lenneth. I was just looking at this poster and wondering if I should bring my children to the flying race."

"You have children?" Lenneth sounded somewhat suprised. Terra was suprised herself. She thought a goddess of fate would know such things.

"I look after an orphanage. I'm not really their mother, exactly..."

Lenneth changed the topic. "A flying competition, hmm? I should enter and represent the glory of Valhalla in the skies."

Terra's face suddenly lit up with a rather devious smile. "Wow, I didn't know you could fly, Lenneth. I guess I'll see you there then."

"I look forward to meeting you in battle once more, oh mighty sorceress!" Lenneth called after Terra.

Embarrassed, Terra could only muster a weak reply. "Um, yeah... I hope to see you again soon too, Lady Valkyrie."

Terra walked off after that exchange with her grocery bags floating neatly behind her. She assumed her morphed form and started flying south. She wanted to be home in time to cook a nice dinner for her kids. Tomorrow, she could take them to an actual competition. They had wanted to go to her matches, but she didn't like the idea of letting them see her fight. She allowed herself the pleasure of picturing the look on Setzer's face, too.

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On the day of the competition, Vyse, Setzer, Cloud, and Squall were suprised to see two women standing in the midst of their massive airships.

Setzer approached Terra. "What are you doing..." His face blanched as he saw her assume her morphed form. "You're not going to... uhh... don't tell me..."

Terra found herself as amused by his expression as she thought she would be. "Lenneth and I thought it would be fun if we showed up and participated. You only said it was a flying competition, not an airship race."

"Indeed." the Goddess of fate added.

"I think you might be screwed here, Mr. Gambler." Setzer looked back to see a certain blonde godlike smirking at him. Setzer found himself in a pickle, but he couldn't very well turn back now. Turning away from her, he walked up to a podium.

Walking up to his podium, Setzer took the mike. "As you all know, today we have a contest to see who is the real master of the heav..." Setzer paused to look at a scowling Lenneth. "err.. Skies. The rules are simple. Make it too the goal, 1000 Km to the east, before anyone else. There are no rules other than this, so you are allowed to attack other contestants, but keep in mind that you'll probably lose time if you do that." Vyse was grinning at this point. Grinning and looking at his cannons.

"Whoever wins gets 5,000,000, tax free. Best of luck to you, ladies and gentleman."

And so the contest began, but who will emerge victorious?
  • Lenneth proves that you don't try and out-fly a goddess
  • Terra screams across the sky to victory
  • Vyse shows everyone the power of an Air Pirate's vessel
  • Cloud wins, and Cid gets the Ragnarok as a birthday gift
  • Squall wins, and Cloud gets impaled by an angry Cid
  • Setzer has the Falcon live up to her name: the fastest airship in the world

SageAcrin
There is a simple fact in this match being overlooked.

None of the other competitors have the ability to recreate space and time to their liking.

So, while all the other people are taking off, Lenneth simply turned their main means of locomotion into various fowl.

(Yes, this could be called chicken of her. But she's not a dumb cluck, she knows that fowl play and winging it is a large part of the strategy of these birds, and she doesn't quail at using any means neccisary to duck out of a loss. She's not some dumb goose.)

Ultimately, this would come back to haunt her, later, as, soon after she crossed the finish line, a half-Esper giant albatross promptly nuked her into ashes. But hey, you can't have everything.

Besides, her and Lucian can be in the infirmary together, this way. There's nothing more romantic than that, is there?

Lenneth: 18
Terra: 15
Vyse: 14
Cloud: 7
Squall: 15
Setzer: 13

Draco Ignifer
Your average blimp is capable of speeds in the high double digits of MPH. If we just round it up to 100, we should get a pretty reliable figure for the Falcon.

The fastest bird ever recorded flew at a bit over 170 miles per hour. This was probably a dive, but since that's the best reliable figure for winged flight, we'll put that there. This is an appropriate figure for Lenneth, and since there's absolutely no data for Terra, she goes about there too. Which is faster? Doesn't matter - they're not in the fastest category.

A modern blimp is capable of high levels of flight - low hundreds. Normally, the Highwind would go there, but it has rockets, so we can probably increase it to 400 MPH safely. We should probably also put the Delphinus there. Which is faster? Doesn't matter - they're still not in the fastest category.

The Ragnarok is a spaceship. They have to be able to escape Earth's gravity, which requires acceleration of 11.2 kilometers per second. Converting this to MPH, we get just about 7 miles per second, or 25,200 miles per hour. According to the official schematics, however, it can go just a little bit faster than this - 26,000 miles per hour. Naturally, this isn't the typical flight speed, but given that the entire point of this exercise is a race, spending a bit under a minute and a half at maximum burn is a very reasonable strategy.

Can we go for a more reasonable competition next time? Like Omega Weapon vs. Joghurt in a duel to the death?

zero
Hmm, well, for the Flying Fun story, I know all about the speed of the Falcon and all, but let's face it, Squall just has to choose his destination, kick back for a nap and let the ship do the rest itself.

I'm a Cloud fan generally, but he doesn't stand a chance against the Ragnarok.

jaymthegenius@yahoo.com
On your marks, get set, GO! It looks like Terra takes a lead and holds it for quite awhile, but then another figure fly's past her, it's Superman! Who indeed finishes first, however being a shadow racer his winning doesnt count, and so Terra wins, followed by Squall in his Ragnarok, then Cloud, then the hidden boss Lenneth whos power normally exceeds all, then Setzer takes second to last to Vyse, who's ship malfunctioned and didnt make it past the finish.

UltraDude
The horn blew; the race had begun. Immediately, Lenneth and Terra took off, using their smaller size to get better acceleration. Shortly after, the Falcon and Highwind left the starting line, followed by the most lumbering competitors.

The problem? Lenneth and Terra would need to slow down to concentrate on a spell. Knowing this, they shot forward quickly hoping to get an early lead to keep, so that they would only have to deal with one another.

Of the others? Neither Setzer nor Squall had any weapons of any note on their ship, if they had any. The Highwind had proven via Cid's Limit Break proved that it had a healthy supply of missiles, but Cloud really had no idea how to do anything but fly the ship.

The Delphinus? The cannons and torpedoes could be fired without a drop in speed, and were both accurate and powerful, and a quick casting of Quika would allow it to reach speeds to match the competition. However, one weapon was all they needed. Setzer had made the mistake of making the course a straight line.

The audience was puzzled when the Delphinus simply stopped shortly after leaving the starting area. That was, until the front end opened up revealing the long, thick barrel of the Moonstone Cannon. The observers took cover as energy coalesced around the massive weapon, and fired out in a brutal stream of annihilation. The competition didn't even have time to let out any curse words of surprise before they were vaporized by the beam.

Thus, the Delphinus won the race relatively unnopposed, and everyone learned a useful life lesson.

Lenneth learned that pirates were something to be loathed. Terra learned that she should probably keep the orphans away from anything involving Setzer; seeing your foster mother vaporized in a beam of light can be traumatizing, to say the least. Cloud learned that impalement was not a fun thing to go through. Squall had already had the fact of his failure pounded into him, so he didn't really learn anything. Setzer... when does Setzer learn?

As for Vyse and his crew? They learned that as sweet as hidden treasure is, a prize earned through brute force is a hundred times better.

CompmanJX3
The Delphinus is faster.
The Delphinus has more firepower.
The Delphinus is piloted by Vyse.
The Delphinus wins.

Alanna82
When in doubt, pick the option of Cloud getting impaled