Dare Devil

Chapter Two

Chapter 2

AN: Still in Matt's memories.

The squadron had been in the air for ten minutes and Matthew was a enjoying every second of it. He was able to duck and dive, spin and climb without worrying. At the moment the planes were flying in a V formation like Canadian geese would with Canada at the point. There had been no sign of enemy air craft in the area and the skies were partly cloudy.

Matthew sighed and looked around. He spotted a small black dot off in the distance. He caught Roy's attention at pointed to the dot. Roy nodded and caught the attention of the pilot next to him. Canada caught Billy's attention on his other side and he did the same. The wordless command reached the planes at the edge of the formation and they turned towards the threat. As they got closer Matthew could see that they were German fighter planes most likely going to attack their artillery. There were ten of them and only seven allied.

With the sun on their backs the allied squadron attacked. The Germans quickly scrambled to get the advantage. Matthew went after the first enemy plane he saw. He fired aiming for the wings. The German dived down into the clouds and Canada followed. It was hard to see, but Matthew could still make out the aircrafts silhouette in the cloud. The enemy didn't have cover for long as the patch of fluffy white cloud soon ended back in to clear blue sky. Matthew angled his plane and fired again. The Germans plane sputtered and was spitting oil. The plane sparked and ignited. It spiraled to the ground.

Canada turned back to the dog fight happening above him and turned to fly up. He spotted two German planes flying away back to their base. He let them go and went after one that was trying to shoot Billy down. As soon as he got on the pilots tail he turned away from Billy and was trying to escape Matthew. He quickly scanned the sky. Now there were only three German planes left including the one he was chasing and four of his pilots. He hoped that the other two had went back to the base and not been shot down.

Matthew turned his attention back to the German plane. It was trying to escape back over enemy lines. Canada reloaded his machine gun before firing again. His bullets tore into the tail of the enemy plane damaging his flight controls. The German was unable to maneuver away from the Canadian and dived down to the ground.

Matthew turned back to his squadron. They had chased the remaining planes back over enemy lines and were returning to him. They reformed their formation and flew towards home. Canada looked over the planes. Billy's plane had a few holes in the vertical stabilizer and wings, but nothing too serious; Roy's plane was sputtering and leaking oil down the side of the nose. The other two planes had minimal damage, but would still need repairs.

Canada caught Roy's attention and held up two fingers. Roy shook his head and pointed to the ground. Matthew furrowed his eyebrows and turned his eyes to the sky. Jack and Lloyd had been shot down. Two fine young men had been downed by the enemy, but possibly not killed. They could have landed safely in a field and trying to make their way back to the allies. He hoped that was true.

The remaining five pilots made it back to the base without any more problems. As soon as they were on the ground and out of their planes the base commander approached Matthew. "What happened? Where's the rest of your squadron?" He asked.

"Some Germans were going to attack. We engaged them and lost two pilots." Canada said calmly looking at the ground. He took a deep breath and looked up. "We took down about 6 enemy planes."

"Congratulations! What your score now Williams? Thirty something right?" The base commander cheered. He didn't even acknowledge that they could have lost two pilots. He pulled Matthew away from his squadron into a hanger and handed him and envelope. "It's from General Arthur Kirkland. He wishes to meet you tomorrow."

Matthew blinked. He wondered why England would want to see him. It was addressed to General Matthew Williams. He was surprised that the base commander hasn't asked why, but ranks do get mixed up some times. Canada opened the envelope and read the letter.

General Matthew Williams,

Meeting at 15:00. Army base no. 178.

General Arthur Kirkland

"How will I be getting there?" Matthew asked. He couldn't fly there without being spotted by Germans or questioned by England. Nations weren't supposed to fight in the war, only guide their troops. He didn't like to be called a general, too much responsibility.

"By truck." The commander looked at his watch. "It leaves in one hour, be ready."

Canada nodded and walked off back to his squadron. They were sitting quietly around the lunch table, their food untouched.

"What did he want?" Roy asked as Canada sat down in one of the empty seats.

"Some stupid meeting." Matthew grumbled.

"Can you believe that ass! He congratulated us on winning when we lost two of our best pilots?! All that commander cares about is killing Germans and if we die, he doesn't care!" Alexander growled in a low tone so only they could hear.

"They might not be lost. Only downed?" Philip suggested trying to calm Alex down.

"I wish I could say that no reports of death have come in yet, but I can't. We won't know for sure for a few days. Until then we're on leave." Matthew said with a frown. "I'm going to be gone for a bit, stay out of trouble."

"What are we? Kids?" Roy asked trying to lighten the mood with a laugh. Matthew smiled sadly and stood up patting Alex on the back before leaving.

The Canadian walked into his room and grabbed his backpack and threw it onto the bed. He dug through his dresser and found his formal general uniform and changed into it.

"Kuma? Where are you?" Matthew asked grabbing his note book and a pencil putting it into his pack. The polar bear peaked his head out from under the covers and sat up.

"What do you want?" He asked with a yawn.

Canada smiled sweetly and patted the bear's head. "We're going on a bit of a road trip." He said. Matthew grabbed another change of clothes, note book and his cap stuffing it into the bag. He closed the drawstrings and looked over to Kuma.

"As long as you're not driving." The polar bear said. Matthew laughed and grabbed his coat throwing it on over top of his uniform. He didn't want anyone to see it; too many questions and consequences. The Canadian put the back pack on and picked up Kumajiro and headed for the troop transport area.

Trucks were everywhere and there were more soldiers looking for the right truck than in the whole air base. Matthew found the right truck and climbed into the back. He set Kuma down on the bench next to him and put his back pack under the seat. Kuma crawled back over and laid his head on Canada's lap and fell asleep.

Two other men were in the truck with him. One was sitting close to the front and talking with the driver through the opening into the cab. The other was writing a letter. The one talking to the driver told him it was okay to leave and everyone was on. The truck rumbled to life and drove off.

AN: This will be on Wattpad, Fanfiction and AO3!