Trial by Sakura

With Spring Break in session, the Sakura kids planned to celebrate in style when a warm spell hit Pirate Bay. With help from their aunts, Chokotto especially, they were able to hold a big pool party for their friends at school. Miku also found this the perfect moment to spend some quality time with her boyfriend Kaito, by letting him stay with her in her room.

Now you'd think as a father that Perseus would object to this all the way, but you'd be wrong. Perseus is as much of a laid-back and awesome dad as Raymundo Rocket, so he said yes as soon as Miku asked, but on one condition: that he could test Kaito on a simple thing tomorrow morning, before they would go to Chokotto's house to set up for the pool party.

Well, the evening went by quietly and peacefully. And early next morning, Perseus hauled Kaito from his peaceful slumber and dragged him up on his feet. Once Kaito was dressed, Perseus took him up to the airfield for his Trial by Sakura.

They entered Hanger 1C, where the work on Mako's Junkers JU-52 was running well ahead of schedule. "You want to give me a flying challenge, Pops?" Kaito asked.

"Nah, Miku tells me that you're a great pilot and besides that, the next person to fly Ol' Betty there will be her owner, Mako." Perseus said. "And speaking of which, hey Orbot, Cubot! Where are you?"

"Right here, Perseus." Orbot said, poking his head out from the cockpit windows. "We're just running some diagnostics on the engines before we finish cleaning up the fuselage and repainting the original decals. We even left you some photos we took of some interesting dents we found last night on the underside of Ol' Betty."

Perseus walked over to a desk where both Tails and Dr. Eggman were asleep at after a long night giving the engines a complete overhaul. He looked at the photos and smiled. "Is that my challenge?" Kaito asked, pointing at the photos. "Fix these parts on Ol' Betty?"

"Nope. Engineer already beat you to that." Perseus said. He then shook the table a bit, waking both Tails and Dr. Eggman.

"Morning already?" Tails asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Who took my chili dog?" Eggman snorted, half asleep, before he sat up and realized he was right before Perseus.

"Morning boys." Perseus grinned, placing a few boxes of warm donuts on the table. "Breakfast is served."

And as Tails and Eggman dug in to the donuts, Perseus turned back to Kaito. "Your challenge is over here." Perseus led Kaito over to where a few of the Sakuras' classic cars are kept, and told him to sit over at the table while he picks out a certain vehicle. This gave Kaito some time to think about his challenge, and what it was.

And while Kaito joined in on the donuts, Perseus found what he was looking for. Suddenly, the boys all jumped when the loud roar of a muscle car's engine shouted out, and turned around to see Perseus pull up in Shining Armor's 1967 Chevy Impala SS. But as he got out, he nodded over to Spy, who was sitting around, reading the morning paper and having a cup of French vanilla coffee.

"Hey Spy, can I borrow your knife for a sec?" he asked.

"But of course." Spy nodded, tossing his knife over to Perseus.

"Thanks." Perseus grinned. And to the surprise of the five men, Perseus dove the knife and buried it deep into the front left tire on the Impala, before leaving a long slash along the tops of the Goodyear letters, ending it by tossing the knife back to Spy, who caught it while drinking his coffee.

"Here's your challenge, Kaito." Perseus smiled. "Let me give you a scenario. You take Miku out for a Sunday drive, and then you get a flat tire. You can't call AAA because you have no phone service."

"Miku and Kaito are stuck on the side of the road?!" Cubot gasped. "We gotta go save them!" He was about to go and "rescue" them before Tails stopped him.

"It's just an expression, Cubot." he explained.

"Anyway, what you have to do is change the tire, with a jack and a fitting socket with a flex handle." Perseus pulled an old black metal box and a hand cranked bottle jack from the back of the Impala. "You'll now have to change the tire on the Impala. Think you're up to the challenge?"

"Yes sir, Pops!" Kaito said with a cheery attitude. He then proceeded to position the bottle jack on the rear axle housing so he could pull off the spare tire. Once that was done, he lowered the rear back onto the ground and placed the bottle jack directly under the center of the front axle. But before he lifted the front, he put on the parking brake so the wheels wouldn't spin while he would wrestle the lug nuts loose. This impressed Perseus, and he was impressed even more when Kaito stepped down on the flex handle to get the lug nuts moving.

In no time, Kaito had gotten the spare back on, tightened the lug nuts, double checking and triple checking the tightness of the lug nuts, replaced the hub cap, and lowered the front end back onto the ground. He then took the flat tire along with his tools and placed them all back in the trunk. "Well done, Kaito!" Perseus smiled, clapping his hands in applause. "You did everything so perfectly. You've passed my test, though I think later on I should give you an even harder challenge, just for fun."

"I'll be ready for it anytime, Pops!" Kaito smiled. And as he and Perseus walked out the hanger doors, Perseus turned to him.

"And Kaito..."

"Yes, Pops?"

"Don't call me 'Pops'!" All the others laughed as Kaito and Perseus walked down the way to Chokotto's house, leaving Perseus quite Cross from being called "Pops".