A Flock of Pilots: Staraptor TF (Trade)

Trade with Elgusar-Wolf (elgusar-wolf.deviantart.com/)

"The skies are all cleared out!" Shane said as he steadied his plane, "All aircraft report! Over!"

"This is Christopher, alive and kicking! Over!"

"This is Paul, all systems go! Over!"

"This is Cam, and I don't have anything clever at the moment! Over!"

"Geez, the four of us are incredible!" Shane said happily, "Over!"

"You just lead us so well captain," Chris commented, "Over!"

Indeed, there was a great leader in Shane. The four of them formed a wonderful team of fighter pilots up in the skies, and Shane's allies followed him like a flock of birds. Even with the harsh conditions the war was putting them through, Shane was there to guide them through the harshest of air fights, and together, they were like Star Fox, just without Slippy!

"So I suppose we should find a place to refuel and then head back to our base," Paul said, "Over!"

"Probably," Cam said, "I don't believe there are any more…"

"Be alert!" Shane barked, "You never what enemy plane will be flying over your heads! Over!"

"Wait," Chris said, "I hear shots being fired! Over!"

The four of them remained quiet, and for a few moments, all they heard was the sound of their own planes, but as they passed through the clouds, they could see an air fight going on underneath them.

"More enemy bombers!" Shane shouted, "Over!"

"But it looks like we can ignore it!" Paul said, "Our own troops seem to be handlin…"

"Nonsense!" Shane said, "We must always be ready to fight! Over!"

"But we aren't!" Cam replied, "We NEED to refuel! Our planes can't…"

"Engage the enemy on my lead!" Shane interrupted, "Over!"

"… yes, captain," Chris said, "Over."

Shane dove his plane into the fight. His team sighed as they followed closely behind.

As much as Chris, Paul, and Cam loved Shane as a leader, they saw a lot of obvious flaws in him. Like here, they were going head on into a battle where they had huge disadvantages. It was just like Shane to try and take on overpowered enemy planes head on, and even though nothing horrible has happened yet, there were multiple times where it almost cost a life or two!

But the team still followed their leader, because they still had to trust him.

"Let's split up," Shane commanded, "There's a lot we need to take on! Over!"

And so they did, with Shane going straight into the battle, Paul taking left, Cam taking right, and Chris coming in from behind. After a few moments, it did seem to be working!

"Boom!" Cam said as he shot an enemy plane down.

"Nice job, Cam!" Paul commented, "Over!"

"Paul, you say that about every shot! Over!

"Well, it was really epic the way you…"

"Keep your guard up, Paul," Chris yelled, "enemy plane on your tail! Over!"

"What? Crap!"

An enemy plane was closing in behind Paul, and as Paul tried to steer out of the mess, he was shot in the left wing.

"Paul, No!" Chris shouted.

"I'll be fine," Paul assured, "I just need to find a safe place to land this thing! Over!"

Paul lowered in altitude, going underneath the clouds to find a nice field to land his damaged plane in.

"We'll be fine without him," Shane said, "Just keep firing!"

Meanwhile, somewhere on the ground beneath them, two lights were illuminating until they were as bright as a stage light on a movie set (trust me, it's bright), but still not bright enough to show itself past the trees surrounding it. Once the light eventually dimmed, two teenagers stood where they once were, and they were both shocked at what had just happened to them.

"Looks like that spell worked!" one of them said happily, as she waved around the stick she was carrying with her.

"I'll say," the other said, examining his surroundings closely, "but how did you know it would even work?"

"A true wizard can make anything work!"

"But… how did you know these parallel universes were a thing?"

"I didn't!"

"Well then… but how do we know we didn't just teleport into a forest or something?"

"Why don't we look around a bit? Maybe we can find a few people to help out!"

And so, the two of them walked through the forest, stepping over all the sticks and branches in their way to explore this new place.

"Another one bites the dust!" Chris said as he shot down another plane.

Their fuel tanks were soon to be on the brink of exhaustion, but they fired away mercilessly at the planes. They couldn't let one get away.

But eventually, two planes got a hold of Shane, and they were able to take out one of his wings.

"Ah!" he shouted as Cam took out the planes, "Wing down! Over!"

"It's okay Shane," Chris said, "just land safely and you'll…"

"I refuse to give up!" Shane said, "Take down both my wings, I'll fight till I can fight no more! Over!"

"But you can't!" Chris shouted, "You're losing altitude! Over!"

That was another problem they had with Shane, he didn't know when to give up. He didn't care if his engine was knocked out, he wouldn't land until he was dead! He was like the Monty Python Black Knight of air dogs: he'll pass major damage to his plane off as "merely a scratch"!

"Losing altitude?" Shane said, "Good for me! Over!"

Chris wondered what he was talking about, but then he saw Shane dive his plane directly into one of the bombers. He shot the plane into flames, flying through the explosion it caused, but as he tried to regain balance, another plane started shooting at him.

"Shane, be careful!" Chris yelled as he dove down to shoot at the plane.

But the plane got a good streak of bullets down the other wing, and another in the cockpit.

"Ah!" Shane shouted, "It shot my arm! Over!"

"Shane, no!" Chris shouted.

Shane's plane was losing altitude at an alarming rate, and Chris dove deeper to help.

"Cam, I need to steer Shane towards safety! Can you handle the rest of the planes on your own? Over!"

"Certainly, I've handled worse before! Over!"

Chris used his left wing to support Shane's plane as he carried the bleeding man and his damaged plane down to the ground.

"This looks like an empty field…"

"So how do we know this is a different universe? I haven't seen any signs yet."

"Well, that's the thing, we haven't seen anything! Any normal forest like the one we just went through would normally be filled with…"

"Quiet, do you hear something?"

They remained quiet, listening for whatever was just heard.

"Yeah… and it sounds like it's getting louder!"

"Where's it even coming from?"

They looked up to where they thought it was, only to see two vehicles, one on flames, headed directly for the field they were in.

"We need to get out of the way!"

They both ran to their left almost into the trees, to provide enough room for the planes to land.

The one in flames was being supported with the other's wing, but as they got closer to the ground, it was slowly taken off, and the two planes wheeled in safely.

Once they stopped, one of the pilots quickly got out of the plane to help out the other one. He jumped onto the wing that wasn't in flames.

"Shane!" he shouted and threw the hatch open, "We need to get you to a hospital fast!"

"I'm okay," Shane said, coughing, "I'm not sure if there are any…"

"Talking makes it worse, we need help!"

"Are you guys okay?" the two teenagers shouted as they ran up to the pilots.

"Oh, thank god," Chris said as he turned around, "can you guys… AH! What the hell?!"

He fell off the wing he was on, scared by the sight of one of the teenagers trying to help.

"No no," he said, trying to be calm, "it's okay! We're only here to…"

"Stay back, beast!" Chris shouted, still freaked out.

"Anissa, calming spell!" he said, "Now!"

"Right!" Anissa said as she waved a stick a bit and said words Chris thought was just gibberish.

But once it was pointed at Chris, he suddenly found himself… calm! In fact, whatever that girl said to him was actually preventing him from being scared of the beast! He didn't even know how that was possible.

"Well then," he said, standing up, "what just happened?"

"This is my wand!" Anissa replied, giggling a bit, "Never heard of magic before?"

Chris had at least ten different arguments, but from what just happened and the bright sparkles emitting from the wand, he found his own logic cornered.

"Oh my…" he said, "are you sure the werewolf is friendly?"

"It's Elgusar," the werewolf replied, "and I'm tame as long as you are!"

He walked over to Chris, holding his hand… er, paw out to him, and since Chris was unbelievably calm for now, he could only feel tempted to shake it.

"Okay, I suppose I have your trust," Chris said, "so what's the deal with…"

"I STILL EXIST, YOU KNOW!" Shane barked at them, freaked out at his arm.

"Oh, right! Crap!" Chris said as he and the teenagers ran towards his plane.

Chris jumped onto the wing and lifted Elgusar and Anissa onto it to help him out.

"Let's get you to safety!" Chris said to him.

"Anissa," Elgusar said, "we could really use a medical spell right now!"

"Neither of us are experienced enough to completely cure him!" Anissa replied, "The most I can do is…"

"Just do the most you can do!" Shane yelled as he was laid flat on the wing.

"Um… right!" Anissa said as she began to chant.

"Damn planes," Cam said, frustrated by the low fuel sounds the plane was making, "just stop coming already!"

Cam was all alone now, as the rest of his allies had been shot down. He was left to take on the four remaining bombers, and none of them looked like they were giving up anytime soon.

He dove into one of the bomber planes, firing away until it exploded, but on the rise back up to the skies, he took a bullet in the left wing.

"No!" Cam yelled, "I'm done now!"

Any sane person would've just tried to land the plane by now, but Cam knew that those bombers would cause mass destruction if he didn't do something about it. He was risking his life at this point, but that's what his captain would've wanted, anyways.

"Come on, Chris," he whispered to himself, "we don't have all day now!"

"Oh god," Shane said in pain, "it still hurts!"

"I thought injuries like these were merely scratches!" Chris said.

"This isn't funny," Shane said angrily, "a bullet was in my arm just now!"

The spell removed the bullet from Shane and stopped the bleeding, even patching his arm up like nothing happened, but Shane could still feel all the pain from there, and his body still felt weak from it all. Elgusar and Anissa couldn't do much more to him, other than their usual means which… they decided might be too unconventional for the two.

But they decided it was the only way, so they tried to lure them into it.

"So…" Elgusar started, "you're fighter pilots, I assume?"

"Yep," Shane said proudly, "and we're the best at it! No army is safe!"

"The why did you just crash?" Anissa asked.

"Well, we… uh, I…"

"We all had low fuel," Chris said for him, "and Shane thought it would be a good idea to take on a whole fleet of bombers. He always does."

That tempted Elgusar to quietly take out his little research booklet, looking for a good way to use that info.

"That's not what made us crash!" Shane snapped back.

"Oh, my mistake," Chris said sarcastically, "Shane crashed because he thought he could still fight the fleet with a damaged wing."

Elgusar had the perfect plan now, and while Shane and Chris were giving each other dirty looks, he quickly whispered Anissa the plan he had.

"So how can you help Shane?" Chris finally asked.

"Well," Anissa started, "what if I told you that there was a spell to allow you to use the flaws your friend is describing to your advantage?"

"I…" Chris started, "don't see what that has to do with…"

"THERE'S A SPELL FOR THAT?!" Shane asked excitedly.

"Indeed," Elgusar said, "you'll be aggressive, shaking off injuries, and taking on huge planes without hesitation. And this time, you'll benefit from it!"

"But there may be a few 'side-effects' included!" Anissa said, half-winking to Elgusar.

"Anything if it means my army!" Shane said before Chris could say anything.

"What, you like the military?" Elgusar asked.

"Of course!" Shane responded, "I fight for the people I love and lead my friends into combat so we can save the one place we call home!"

"He's pretty dedicated," Chris said, "he even calls us his flock sometimes."

This was playing right into the teenagers' surprise.

"Perfect," Elgusar said, "you ready?"

"Of course I am!" Shane said.

With that, Elgusar took Anissa's wand and performed the spell himself. With a couple of swings and some gibberish, he triggered something in the wand that entered Shane's body.

"You okay, Shane?" Chris said once it was cast.

"I feel great already!" Shane said, jumping off the wing, "I don't even feel any pain in my arm anymore!"

"How do we know if the effects worked on him?" Chris asked.

"The effects take time to work their way onto him," Elgusar responded, grinning a bit, "but we can just watch them make their marks on him."

"What does that mean?" Chris asked, even more confused.

"Yeah," Shane agreed, "and what side-effects were included to make my shoes feel so tight all of a sudden?"

Confused, Chris looked down at Shane's shoes. He was already confused to see them suddenly growing out a bit, but his eyes widened in shock when he saw the seams on his shoes actually beginning to tear.

"My feet are feeling all kinds of weird," Shane said, "What is going ON?!"

"Huh?"

Looking down, multiple black points tore out from the shoes, with three in each front and one in each back. They were black, a bit curved, and really started resembling some sort of claw.

And then, out of nowhere, his shoes practically exploded from all the pressure, revealing two big orange feet with four toes where the claws… er, talons were in the shoes.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SHANE?!" Chris practically screamed at the sight.

Elgusar tried to perform the calming spell on Chris, but when he did, Chris simply fell on his back out cold.

"Wrong spell!" Anissa reminded him.

"Oh… sorry, Chris!" Elgusar called out, not that he'd hear him.

But Shane simply remained speechless, both frightened and intrigued by the new bird feet he was given, with hard orange skin he could actually feel running up his legs. In fact, he could feel his legs quickly thinning out, and his ankles shifting around to better support the new feet he had. Plus, his pants were pressing more and more against the ground, which was a result of the fact that his legs were shortening down a big amount!

"You alright there, Shane?" Elgusar asked, "Sorry if this came a little suddenly…"

"Is this temporary?" he quickly asked, wanting to know it now.

"If… you want it to be."

That was enough to calm Shane down, leaving him much more intrigued to see what these changes had in store for him!

Finally, his legs had shortened down the correct amount, now maybe ⅛ of their original height, but his newly structured feet and hardened skin were enough to hold his body up. He tried keeping his pants up, but had to look down underneath to see… feathers starting to grow. Specifically, gray feathers were starting to grow around his legs, sticking out a small amount. And they were quickly spreading up his hips and private areas, too, which let him drop his pants safely.

The gray feathers spread around his hips and under his arms, and also a good portion of his back. A thicker layer of white feathers formed over his stomach, and in back, five long gray feathers grew out with black tips. As that happened, his tailbone pushed out on his skin a bit more, giving him a stubby little bird tail for him to control.

But then came the other inside jobs.

All around his body, he could feel his muscle bulking up a decent amount and reshaping, as his bones grew out more and shifted in their own ways. Specifically, his whole torso area bulked out a good amount, giving him a much bigger body as his chest pushed out a bit more. It smoothed itself out and also rounded out more, giving his whole body a bit of a rounder look as his back arched forward a bit to show his chest off a bit more. His sides also grew out more to give him a bigger body frame, and his neck was slowly shortening down until his head was connected almost directly to his torso.

A layer of black feathers covered a portion of his chest and back, as at his arms, serious changes were going down. His arms were growing out a lot, becoming much bigger, but also much flatter, as his muscle was no longer that visible on them, despite the immense power his muscle gained! His fingers were also forced together and merged into one mass of a hand, as it pointed a bit and also thinned out more. His bones also started shifting inside, with many functions reversing until the default arm movement was back rather than forward. And with a coating of gray feathers, his new wings were created, which were automatically retracted on his sides.

"You're making me some sort of bird?" Shane asked, as he felt black feathers covering the back of his head.

"Not familiar with the species?" Anissa asked back.

"Not at all!"

"Guess we're in another universe after all," Elgusar whispered to Anissa, "there are no signs of Pokémon even existing in this one!"

"What are you whispering?"

"Um," Anissa started, "never heard of the… mythical creature you're becoming?"

"Oh, sweet," Shane said, excitedly, "I see now!"

Only his head was left now. His head was reshaping a good amount as well, as it grew in size a small amount but also shortened down, as his facial features moved a bit farther down his body. His ears moved farther up his head and reshaped dramatically, becoming what looked like pointed extensions on his head which grew outwards to give it more of a curve on top. A layer of white feathers began to cover up more of his chest, as well as his face and part of his ears, as his eyes shrunk in size a bit (although his vision vastly improved) and changed iris colors from black to red. His mouth and nose also grew a bit closer together, as a decent area around them began to harden out. From there, the hardened skin pushed itself out into a sort of long, yellow beak on his face, which was thin with a black tip.

The rest of his head, above his eyes and the tops of his ears, was covered in more gray feathers, except for a large white area in the center of his forehead to indicate his gender. Finally, from the black feathers at the back of his head, a black extension grew outwards, several above his head, which lengthened over his head, curving down it and a bit past it, almost to the tip of his beak. By now, a massive black crest with a red tip was formed on his head, finalizing the transformation.

"It appears the changes have ended," Elgusar said, "how do you feel?"

"I feel so powerful now!" Shane said, "I can't wait to try it out on those planes now!"

"Are you sure that's…" Anissa started, before Shane immediately took off into the skies with his powerful wings.

"At least I didn't forget the speech part of the spell this time!" Elgusar said.

"Yeah," Anissa said, "but… do you think he'll be okay up there?"

"Mm mph! Ah! What happened?"

"Chris?" Elgusar called, "You're awake!"

"Where did Shane go?" Chris asked immediately.

Before anyone could answer that, Chris heard a little alert go off in his plane.

"Wait," he said, "that's Cam! He needs me!"

He jumped into his plane and put on the earpiece he needed.

"Cam, I… um, am having trouble refueling at the moment! Over!"

"I'm up in the sky by myself, with almost no fuel left, and there are still bombers I need to take out! And I lost a wing! Could you please hurry up? Over!"

"My apologies, man, I'll be up as soon as I…"

"Woah, hold up, I saw something rocket past my plane! Over!"

"What? What does it…"

"It's a bird! A big bird, but it looks shorter than me! It's making circles around one of the bombers! Over"

Chris looked over at the teens who performed the spell on Shane, honestly impressed by what they did to him.

"He dove right into it! He passed through the explosion like it was nothing and… oh god, it's taking a bunch of bulletfire!"

"NO! I need to…"

"It's taking it like a champ! He dove right into one of the bomber wings and… oh my god, it started a chain reaction with the rest of them! Over!"

"Wow…" he said to himself. His captain was using his most tragic flaws to his advantage, by eliminating the entire fleet of bombers on his own! He really did care about his army…

"And wait, it's flying under my plane… Chris, I think the bird is carrying me to safety!"

"What? How does…"

"Over!"

"Uh, how does it even do that!? Over!"

"I don't know, but I just ran out of fuel, and I'm being taken to the nearest landing spot! How majestic! And I think I see Paul's crash in the distance! Over!"

"Just to be honest," Elgusar said, "I heard all of that."

"You guys are miracle workers!" Chris said to them happily.

"Do you think he'll want to change back?" Anissa asked Chris, "Because we need to leave pretty soon."

Chris thought for a moment before responding.

"I doubt it," he eventually said, "he wouldn't want to let down his flock!"