And the plane climbed. He had already run simulation after simulation - he knew where he needed to be, the velocity, and which direction he needed to fire.

He turned, wings drawing beautiful twin contrails in the sky. His missile arm lowered and rotated, the Truncheon missile locking on target.

[Firing,] he transmitted.

The missile burned forward, and Eddie was close behind, pulling up almost too late-- but then the missile struck.

True to its name, the missile was an implosion missile. The burst of flame was centered, doing its job on impact. Most of the debris stayed as centered, falling only a short distance from the building, but all the same there was a rain of debris as the temple was reduced to rubble. Even the focusing rods that Shandor had so carefully placed were left either broken or warped.

[One hundred over one hundred.]

Eddie carefully circled until the last of the debris was down, and then he began to close in on approach.

He had his soundtrack again.

We are the champions, my friends.
And we'll keep on fightin' 'til the end.
We are the champions,
We are the champions -
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions--
Of the world!