Before the beginning of 2016, you would not have caught me dead saying I wanted to join the military. It was being gutted to fund bullshit like welfare and food stamps as well as the politicians pet projects or just going into their pockets. Then you had the bleeding heart liberal moon bats who had the gal to say America spending money on the military was offensive, they even went so far as to call a rail gun, which is nothing more than a giant magnet and something I could build in my garage, offensive. My buddy Taro was still trying to convince me to go, for reasons I understand now. Look at where I am now though. Just a few months ago, my days were spent either under the Civic or at my PC, now, I had three of the things I'd always wanted, A Supra powered by 12 perfect, beautiful gas guzzling Toyota built cylinders with a manual behind it, I was about as high up in the army as I could go and, amazingly, I had some how gotten to the girl of my dreams. Of all the shit I had been through since June, this night was an uncontested winner for most awesome.

The drive back to Area 29 was done mostly in the dark. The small black box was barely visible in the glow of the Supra's interior. There wasn't anyway my purchase had gone under the radar, Morningstar had to have known about it and I assumed that he'd bee waiting for me when I got back, sure enough he was. As I parked the Supra and stepped out, I noticed him standing by the Civic.

"You spent 25 thousand dollars on what?", he asked.

"You better keep it a secret if I tell you", I told him, "General or not, if you blab and it leaks out, you and I will never be on good terms again and I mean that."

Morningstar nodded. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled the box out, showing him the ring.

"Umm", Morningstar said.

"I'm gonna propose to Nina", I said.

He looked up, seeming shocked, "you can't be serious."

"I'm dead serious", I said, "there's a war coming and if I don't do this now, I may never get the chance and that would destroy me."

"I think your making a mistake Ace", Morningstar said.

"I don't", I said, "I'd do it even if I knew it would kill me afterwords."

He sighed, "I really don't want you to make the same mistake I did. I rushed into my marriage, until Mercury got hurt, my wife and I had been divorced."

"Don't", I said, "try to talk me down. It's not gonna happen. The only reason I won't do it is if she tells me no."

Morningstar handed me the box back, "if you want it that badly, then go for it."

"Thanks Alex", I said closing the box back up.

"Everyone's at dinner", Morningstar said.

"Menu?", I asked.

"Home style Mac and Cheese and popcorn Chicken", Morningstar said, "your Mom made it."

"Come again?", I asked as Morningstar and I left the hangar. We walked across the baked sand of 29 to the dome. The crickets were being extra loud tonight and a few rattlesnakes slithered across our path.

"Your parent's came back to 29", Morningstar said, "your Dad wants to join the project."

"He does?", I asked.

"Yeah", Morningstar said, "I told him I'd only hand him a uniform if you approved though."

"You should have handed him one on the spot", I said, "we need him here."

"Be warned as well", Morningstar said, "Nina's parents are here too."

"Gonna try and talk me down aren't you?", I asked as we entered the dome.

"No", Morningstar said, "not at all, if you want it, go for it."

"Speaking of", I said, "can you see if you can get a priest here to conduct a ceremony for us?"

"Have anyone specific in mind?", Morningstar asked as we stood outside the lounge door.

"Yes", I said, "Father Daniel Baguio, he's at the OLPH church in Sweeney Texas."

"I can't really turn you down now can I?", Morningstar smiled as we entered. The room was packed. My family was at one end of the table, Carlos and his team were sitting on the bean bags in the corner, Nina was sitting with her parents, A Mexican looking man and a white woman at one end, while everyone else where in their normal seats. I went to the seat I normally sat in, which but me between my brother Nick and Nina.

"Where have you been love?", Nina asked kissing my cheek.

"I had a real important errand to run", I said, "important to me at least."

"Which was?", Nina asked as I set a plate of food in front of me, I turned to face her, "you'll see later."

She shrugged, "I don't know what you bought, but I'm rebuilding the Corvette so the Civic will never catch it."

I smiled, "don't count on that, are these your parents?"

"yep", she smiled, " Mommy, Daddy, this is my boyfriend Ace, were on the same combat team."

"Have you been taking care of my daughter son?", Nina's Dad asked.

"Yes sir", I said.

"That's cool, that's cool", he said, "course if you make her cry I'll have to tie you to a vending machine and set you on fire. But you haven't so ya, stuff, stuff."

Nina gave her Dad a dirty look, "Daddy, really?"

Her Dad smiled, "it's my job to embarrass you."

"And given your threat", I said, "I'm going to assume that your working through Borderlands 2 for the Xbox One."

"Close", Nina's Dad said, "I just finished it on the 360 and I'm working through Metro Last Light on the One but I can't get past the part where those two Nazi dudes are beating on each other."

"You have to sneak around and go up the stairs, there's a lantern behind the stair case with a pile of crates in front of it, a metal door and a call box off to the left. Get above them and there are only two guys to worry about."

'Cool", Nina's Dad said, "thanks bro."

"Don't mention it", I smiled, "I'm a Metro freak."

"By the way my name's Rafael Rodriguez."

"Ace Kyloth", I said, "nice to meet you sir."

We ate that night in a state of constant conversation. It was the end of August and since none of us had been at home for the 4th of July, Morningstar had apparently gone into town and brought back an ass ton of firecrackers. Some of them were small like sparklers, while others were huge ass rockets as tall as I was. We'd just finished cleaning up when Morningstar, Carlos and my Dad brought back the massive pile of explosives, which took up the entire table.

"I've never seen so many firecrackers in one place", Mercury said with wide eyes.

"Me either" Trace said, "there must be a million of them here."

"I doubt there's that much", Riley said.

"There's enough", Morningstar said, "my wallet is certainly feeling it. Each of you kids can pick out one that you can set off yourselves, for the rest of it, we'll take turns."

The others began shifting through the pile, looking for the biggest ones they could find, while I simply reached for a rocket that exploded in blue.

"That all?", Nina asked grabbing a large Volcano that claimed to spray showers of sparks over 6 feet high.

"Yes", I said setting it down, "they can fly up to a thousand feet these, they'll explode in the clouds, which is exactly where my head has been since I met you."

The white Scales on Nina's cheeks turned red.

"For a very long time, I've wondered about the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, now, I can attest that in no uncertain terms, she's in front of me."

I had caught everyone's attention as I went down on one knee and reached for the box.

"Nina", I said opening it, 'will you marry me?"

Nina put both her paws over her snout. I could see tears streaming down her cheeks as her eyes got all sparkly.

"YES!", She squealed, "OH MY GOD YES!"

She jumped at me, her arms out. I quickly stood up and caught her, spinning around to avoid getting knocked over and in the process I almost lost the ring. I could hear someone start clapping and soon everyone joined in. Nina was crying tears of joy into my shoulder.

"I love you Ace", she whispered, "thank you."

I smiled, "I love you too baby girl."

Nina backed away from me slightly as I put the ring on her finger.

"It's amazing", she said pulling me into a kiss, I'd go so far as to say it was the best one we ever had.

"I'm happy you like it", I said.

"How much did you spend on it?", Nina asked,.

"It's not important", I smiled, "it's really not, what matters is that you like it."

"It's also important for us to go out and blow off this pile of fireworks in celebration", Hawk giggled.

"We should take the lady's advice", Green said, "let us depart for the tarmac."

"Void and I can carry most of the pile', Navi said.

Green and Morningstar helped Navi and Void load up and then my Dad and I footed the rest of the pile. Outside on the tarmac, I now saw my Dad's bright red Hyundai Genesis 3.8 along with the Van and a Ford F-150 that I assumed belonged to Nina's parents.

"I think the newly engaged couple should be the first to fire off their rocket", Nina's Dad said.

"Because why the hell not?", I asked as I handed Nina my lighter, a Zippo that I had put into an Altoids Tin to make it easier to hold onto as well as make it look cool. I set the rocket down and then stepped back. Nina lit the fuse and then quickly retreated to my side as the rocket shot into the air, out of sight and then exploded a supernova like fashion of blue aura.

"That was cool", Nina said leaning against me.

I smiled and pulled her close to me. The more things change the more they seem to stay the same. There's a lot of stuff I wanted to do with my life, lots of different paths I could have taken, that I saw clearly marked. But you know? There's always the off the beat path that's boarded up and covered in cobwebs or the road less traveled that's been left to fall into despair. You fight the potholes and the sharp corners, but at the end of the day, if your putting quality rubber to the road and your chassis is sitting on good coil overs, that same bumpy road that no one likes to drive on can leave you a happy squealer. It seemed that was the course my life was on. Each pothole had the potential of popping the rubber and leaving the V12 powered Supra that was my life stranded, but every nailed shift, inch of suspension travel, mile driven, corner smashed and uphill drift made it all worth it. I wasn't a big believer in destiny and all that shit, but somehow, I just knew I was supposed to be here. I knew I was on the right track.