Disclaimer: I do not own the Storm Hawks. I'd like to. But I don't. Maybe I'll get a few of the action figures when they come out. But that's not quite the same.
Author's Note: Hello, all. So over in the forums, there's a section for ideas, prompts, and challenges. Within that section is a post by Nakedmolerat05. I read it, and thought, "You know, it's crazy, but it just might work." So I decided I'd take a brief break from working on From the Ashes to write this (hopefully) humorous, fluffy little one-shot. I hope it doesn't disappoint the mastermind behind the idea.
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"We're here!"
Finn rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation as Stork settled The Condor into one of Terra Neon's docking ports. "You know what that means."
"Gravy buffet!" Junko said excitedly.
"Yes! No. Wait," Finn said, looking momentarily confused. "Well yeah, they do have the whole gravy buffet thing. But no!"
"A 47 percent greater chance of falling victim to a violent crime than had we gone to Tropica?"
"You didn't even want to go to Tropica, Stork," Piper pointed out.
"Of course not. The Tropican tick is a known carrier of twenty-three different diseases. And that's just what's been documented so far," he said, shuddering. "I was just saying…."
"Dude, is anyone even listening to me anymore?" Finn whined.
"Of course," Aerrow said, diplomatically. "So, what does it mean?"
Finn looked disappointed that no one had guessed the right answer. "The greatest arcade in all of Atmos," he said slowly, as if speaking to small children, then shook his head. "I can't believe none of you got that one."
"Oh, yeah," Junko said, smiling. "I almost forgot about that place. Hey, we should go there first!"
"Sure. That sounds like fun," Aerrow agreed, looking towards Piper and Stork to see their reactions. Piper smiled and nodded, while Stork sighed in resignation.
Twenty minutes later, they walked through the doors of the Neon Arcade. It was a massive, dimly lit building jammed with bright, blinking machines. Music blared throughout the arcade, though it did nothing to drown out all the noise from the games being played by the young patrons.
Finn stood in the doorway for just a moment, enthralled.
Stork's eye twitched violently, "Tell me why I'm here, again?"
"To blast some Cyclonians!" Finn said, rushing over to one of the machines, drawing the crossbow shaped controller from its slot and hugging it. Large red letters identified the game as 'Invasion of Cyclonia, II'.
"But, that's what we do every day," Stork pointed out practically, as the rest of the Storm Hawks followed Finn at a slower pace. "Isn't the point of a vacation to…vacation?"
"I am. I just want to see if I can beat my old high score. I hold the record!"
Finn smiled at the screen, where the top scores were posted. His name was not at the top. His smile wavered. His name was not on the list, at all. The smile slipped off his face, completely.
"What happened?" he wailed.
"New machine," a helpful voice piped up behind him. "Old one broke a few months back."
They all turned to look at the boy who had spoken. He looked to be no older than ten.
"Who're you?"
"I'm the record holder," the boy said smugly, pointing to the top of the screen. They turned, where a series of letters and numbers dominated the number one spot.
"You're…ZEP1LUG8XOR?"
"Yup."
"Well you're going down, Zep!" Finn grinned as he fed a coin into the machine.
"Yeah, right," the boy laughed.
The game started, and soon Finn was happily shooting his way through a seemingly never-ending supply of pixilated Talons.
The Storm Hawks stayed for a while, but one by one, grew tired of watching Finn play. Stork was the first to leave, muttering something none of them quite heard, and disappearing from the arcade.
Junko wandered off a little while later, on a quest for snacks to tide him over until dinner.
Aerrow and Piper stuck around as moral support for a few more minutes, but it soon became apparent that Finn wasn't even aware they still existed. Aerrow let his attention roam around the room, and soon his gaze fell on an open pinball machine. "Hey, wanna go play?" he asked Piper, pointing out the machine to her.
"Sure."
Aerrow let Piper go first. She played well, earning a fairly high score before her game ended. Aerrow grinned. "Bet I can beat that score," he said playfully.
"Bet you can't," Piper grinned back, crossing her arms.
"We'll see," Aerrow said, starting his game. Piper had had a good game. But Aerrow's game was nothing short of phenomenal.
He almost lost his concentration, and his shot at bragging rights, when Finn let out a particularly loud, "Take that, Dark Ace!"
Finn's yell was followed by a younger, more defensive, "Oh yeah? Well, you'll never get past the final boss!"
But then the voices faded, and Aerrow was in the zone, once more. He breezed past Piper's score, coming very close to the top score before the end.
He turned to Piper with a cocky grin, and she laughed, shaking her head. "Alright. You won that one. Next time, you won't be so lucky."
They smiled at each other for a long moment. Finally, Aerrow snapped out of it and cleared his throat. "So, uh, want to play again?"
"Okay."
They got through several more friendly rounds of pinball before Finn let out a whoop of triumph. "Right back where I belong," he announced, as 'THE FINNSTER' reclaimed the number one spot.
"You know," he told Zep, who was sulking as he stared at the screen. "Master Cyclonis was kind of a pushover. How long did you say it took you to beat this game?"
"I hate you," Zep pouted. Taking something out of his pocket, he pushed a button, and the object expanded into a board. It floated a few inches off the ground when he dropped it, and he stepped on, speeding out of the arcade doors.
"Dude!" Finn said, as Aerrow and Piper rejoined him. "Did you see that? I always wanted one of those! I'm gonna buy one!" Then his eyes lit up further. Still euphoric over his 'victory', he grinned. "I'll bet I'm a natural."
"How do you figure that?" Piper asked.
"Well, it can't be any different from surfing, right? And I'm an awesome surfer!"
"And so modest," Piper smirked.
Finn ignored her comment. "Come on, let's go find somewhere that sells them!"
The two dutifully followed Finn as he hunted down a sporting goods store, purchasing a hover-board before heading to the local hover park.
They drew a few eyes as they walked through the gate. Recognition seemed to flit across one hoverer's face, because she elbowed her friend, and pointed. "Hey, that's…." they heard her whisper, before Finn stopped and struck a pose.
"The Storm Hawks? Yeah," he said, before grinning at Aerrow. "We're total celebrities! Now watch this!"
He made a beeline for a free half pipe, hopping onto his board.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Aerrow asked, concerned.
"Of course."
"Because I do have some experience thanks to the Terra Zartacla mission…."
"Dude, if I need your help, I'll ask for it. This'll be a piece of cake."
He kicked off, starting his ascent, picking up speed as he traveled back and forth along the pipe. "Woo! See, I told you guys! Piece of caaaaaaaaaaa-ack!" he yelled, as he reached the edge, and, instead of turning, went right on going. The hover-board slipped out from under him, and he fell, crashing unceremoniously back to the ground.
Aerrow, Piper, and several hoverers who had been watching, winced in sympathy. "Are you okay?" Piper asked.
"Ungh," Finn answered, getting to his feet.
"I…" Aerrow began, but Finn held up a hand, apparently uninterested in what he was about to say.
"It's not like you could do any better," Finn challenged.
"Maybe not," Aerrow agreed slowly, before casting a furtive glance at Piper. "But I'll try," he smiled.
"Go ahead," Finn said, offering him his board.
Aerrow accepted the board, and took Finn's place on the half pipe. He got the hover-board moving, and things started off smoothly. When he began to pick up speed, he watched where he was going carefully, learning from Finn's mistake. As he saw the edge approaching, he crouched and grabbed the edge of the board, hanging on so that it wouldn't drift away from him as he lost the support of the pipe. Placing a hand on the edge of the half pipe, he made a successful midair turn and rode to the other end, repeating the trick, before turning his board sideways and sliding to a halt.
Finn jutted out his lower lip and crossed his arms. "Beginner's luck," he groused.
Aerrow laughed, and looked over at Piper. "Well, what'd you think?"
"Impressive," she answered. Aerrow stood a little straighter, his smile growing. "For an amateur," she finished.
"Don't tell me you think you can do better than that," Finn said. Piper frowned at him, and he held his hands up defensively. "I mean, uh, nothing against you, Piper. But, like he said, he's at least had experience."
"Then he wouldn't have anything to worry about if we placed a friendly wager."
"What kind of wager?" Aerrow asked warily.
"If I do worse than you, then I'll buy you dinner, anywhere you like."
"Hmm, and if you do better?"
"Then you buy me dinner. Simple."
"Alright," Aerrow agreed, with a small smile.
Finn smirked. "Let me get this straight, whoever wins, you two are, like, going on a date?"
His two teammates blushed. "N-no," Aerrow stammered hastily. "It's not like that, at all."
"It's just dinner," Piper agreed.
"Yeah, dinner, like the kind one might find on a date," Finn grinned.
Piper rolled her eyes, and with a well-placed stomp, flipped the hover-board up and into her waiting hands. That wiped the grin right off of Finn's face. "Um, where'd you learn to do that?" he asked. But she was already moving, taking her place on the half pipe, and didn't answer.
Without much effort, she had the board moving, and reached the edge faster than either Finn or Aerrow had managed. Once there, she copied Aerrow's boarding move, shooting back down the sharp decline and up towards the opposite edge, where she pulled off a much fancier, twisting move, before slowing and stopping in front of the gaping boys.
"Well?"
"Um…." For a moment, it seemed as though Aerrow had been left speechless. But he recovered his voice quickly enough. "I can match that," he said.
He reclaimed the board, and with a confidence inspired by his earlier good luck, started off. Once he had built up enough momentum, he launched himself up off the edge, where he did indeed mimic Piper's move. He landed it a bit wobbly, but he managed to stay on his board.
Grinning at Piper, he said, "I guess you're just going to have to try harder."
"I guess I am."
When she reached the summit of the pipe, once more, she jumped, popping the end of the board off the edge of the pipe. The hover-board went flipping end over end, up and over her head. Twisting in midair, she reached out, grabbing the board on the descent and placing it back under her feet as she made a clean landing, to the raucous cheers of the watching hoverers.
"Was that hard enough for you?" she asked with a wink.
"I guess we'll find out," Aerrow answered, with more confidence than he felt, as he took the board.
As he approached the edge of the pipe, he tensed. He knew it wasn't going to be as easy as Piper had made it look. Once at the summit, he jumped, but he had misjudged the timing by a split second. The end of the board missed the pipe, and he only managed to push the board away from him completely. He lost his balance, and went skidding down the pipe, landing in a heap at the bottom.
"Whoa, Piper won!" Finn said. "How'd you do that?"
"Oh, um," Piper smiled sheepishly. "I might have forgotten to mention that I'm the youngest hover-board medalist in the history of the Neon Z Games."
"Uh, yeah, think you did," Finn said.
"When was this?" Aerrow asked, surprised.
"A long time ago, before I met you guys."
There was silence for a moment.
Then, Finn frowned. "Hey, does that mean that girl earlier wasn't looking at me?" he asked, looking around for the hoverer in question. He found her, and when he noticed that she was, indeed, casting admiring looks in Piper's direction, his shoulders slumped. "Bummer."
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Later that evening, as Aerrow walked with Piper towards the restaurant she had chosen, he tentatively reached out his hand to her. When she interlaced her fingers with his and moved closer to him, he smiled.
He had never been so happy to lose in his life.