Fighting Wings

Ch 1: Trudging Through the Ashes

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks: They are owned by Nerd Corps Entertainment and Asaph "Ace" Fipke.

"Well, scratch another one..."

Kestrel let out a frustrated sigh as she scratched through the name of yet another hospital on the list for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Geez! I must've gone to every hospital in the Atmos by now," she said as she looked at the list once again. An assortment of names of several known hospitals across the known Atmos was now mostly scratched out. Kestrel briefly skimmed the crossed-out names one more time. Then when she was sure there was nothing left, the angrily folded the piece of paper several times and stuffed it into her right pocket.

"This doesn't make any sense," she thought. "If he doesn't get treatment in any of the general hospitals, then where does he go?"

The "he" that she was referring to was her latest quarry. Kestrel was a bounty hunter, among other things, though she preferred the term "freelancer." She was a person of many talents, and many jobs. And while some of them were simple jobs like scouting territories or delivering messages to people across Atmos, there were others that were much more dangerous, such as spying on Cyclonian airspace or rescuing Atmosian supplies and prisoners from the hands of rogue factions.

This latest job however, Kestrel could only describe with one word:

Infuriating…

When she first accepted the job of course, it seemed like it would the biggest score ever.

Only a week ago, the Sky Knight Council sent her a messenger crystal that actually summoned her to their chambers. That immediately sparked her suspicion, as the Council had typically detailed jobs to her in the crystal itself. Still, she accepted their proposal and flew off to Terra Atmosia to meet with them.

It was then, that she received news she almost never thought possible…

"You no doubt know why we asked you to be here personally, yes?"

Kestrel looked around the Council chamber for a moment before answering

"Um…what do you mean 'we'? You're… kinda the only one here,"

Indeed, only one member of the Sky Knight Council was present in the chamber at the time, the Council's Archivist, Kestrel never bothered to remember their names.

"Hmm, yes that is correct." Said the Councilman as he titled his glasses up. "The other Council members have…more pressing matters to attend to, but I can assure you that I speak on behalf of the entire council when I offer you this assignment."

Kestrel crossed her arms, "Or, you personally had a job for me and you didn't want the other council members to know about it, so you asked me here personally instead of sending me the information in a messenger crystal knowing that it would be screened before it left Atmosia."

The old man narrowed his eyes and the young girl for a moment, and then a small smile began to spread across his face "Very good," he replied. "But I'm afraid you're only half right. As I said, the decision to renew the bounty on this particular individual was unanimously decided upon by the Council, though, because the previous bounty has expired, the Council itself cannot renew it. However this does not extend to individual members of the council."

The old man then leaned forward. "And of course, we don't want this information to leave Terra Atmosia, due to the possibility that this individual could receive warning from his …allies within the free Atmos."

"Tch! For you old coots to go through all this trouble, this must be one hot contract," said Kestrel.

The Councilman blinked, apparently taken aback by Kestrel's impudence, but cleared his throat and continued.

"Indeed. Also you may be familiar with this one."

Kestrel raised her eyebrows. "That so? I'm not exactly familiar with too many people you know."

The old man grinned. "Be that as it may, I find it unlikely you would forget a former bounty, particularly…the only one that ever escaped."

Kestrel's eyes widened.

The Councilman looked down at his registry. "The Sky Knight Council has unanimously decided to approve the renewal of the bounty placed on-"

"Chaz Ri Kai…" Kestrel finished with a solemn tone

"Correct."

Kestrel allowed a small laugh to escape; it had been four years since she had last seen Kai. She had been hunting him all across the Atmos until she just happened to run into him once. She had almost caught him, but she hadn't counted on Kai's…unusual powers. Then he managed to escape…

on her prototype skimmer.

Kestrel continued to hunt for Kai, but eventually his trail went cold

That, coupled with… personal troubles that occurred shortly after, officially ended her hunt for Kai, and over time, his bounty expired.

Until now, it seemed.

But, there was thing that she didn't get…

"Why exactly do you want to renew the bounty in the first place?" she asked the councilman. "Especially after all this time. Oh, and don't give me any of that 'need-to-know basis' crap. I asked you, so you'd better tell me."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of keeping this information from you." The councilman said in a tone that sounded vaguely condescending. "The truth is, Kai has become something of a…liability, if you will. Given his association with Murk Raiders-"

"Murk Raiders?" asked Kestrel, "You serious?"

The Old man nodded

Then she started laughing. "So he's a pirate now? Oh that's just beautiful!"

"Quite," the old man replied, clearing his throat. "As I said, his association with the Murk Raiders has made him a liability to the Council and a potential threat to Atmos. So far he seems to only appear with them during attacks on Cyclonian targets, or so our information suggests, but if that is true we are uncertain how long this behavior will continue.

The Archivist tilted his glasses up once again and looked back down at his rather large book. "Therefore, the Sky Knight Council hereby commissions you to guarantee either his capture or elimination-"

"I don't do 'elimination' in case you forgot." Kestrel interrupted, glaring at the old man.

"Yes, we are well aware," the Archivist replied. "The Council would prefer that he be taken alive as well, but eliminating him as a threat takes priority, as a result the means are irrelevant."

Kestrel cocked her head to the side slightly and raised one eyebrow at the old man. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

The old man didn't reply, but instead threw a piece of rolled-up parchment towards Kestrel. The easily caught it and examined its exterior briefly before turning back to the councilman. "What's this?"

"The information on our payment for Kai of course," He replied. "Let's just call it an 'incentive'"

Kestrel looked back down at the scroll in her hand and slowly opened it.

Her eyes almost popped out of her head.

The reward was ten, no TWENTY times more than it had been previously! The sight of all the zeroes on the paper caught her off guard so much that as she tried to speak, only choking sounds would escape from her mouth.

During all this a large grin of satisfaction moved across the old Archivist's face. "So, I take it we have a deal then?"

Kestrel forgot about all her suspicions, all her questions about the contract, and without even taking her eyes off of the paper, nodded slowly.

And here she was now, starting to regret ever taking the job in the first place.

The Council's Archivist gave her one last bit of information before she left: Kai had apparently been undertaking the missions meant for a Sky Knight and had received numerous injuries, including open wounds and broken bones. That was what led her to search every hospital in the Atmos, but none of them had ever kept records of Kai being a patient.

Once again, her hunt for Kai was at a dead end…

Kestrel was already flying back home when suddenly, suspicions she had so readily forgotten about before, began to resurface.

The first time she was sent to go after Kai, he was simply a fugitive, she didn't ask about the details back then, she was still new to the profession, she was just told that he was a criminal on the run. Now the Council considered him a "liability." It almost sounded as if they were using him for some unknown purpose. And now he had outlived his usefulness. Plus the almost ridiculous reward meant they were desperate to either capture or kill him.

"Why is he so important all of a sudden?" she asked herself. It wasn't like she cared about what happened to Kai, he was a pirate after all. She just wondered what the Council's true motives were, why they would go through all this trouble to keep it a secret if Kai was nothing more than a pirate.

Her suspicions plagued her mind until Terra Amazonia, was clearly in sight. While the Terra was her home, she wasn't an Amazonian, nor did she live among them. They got along well enough and she even traded with them on occasion. Some were even hospitable enough to teach her a thing or two about some of their fighting styles. But neither she nor they considered her to be one of them. Instead she was more of a "permanent guest" on their terra. She didn't mind that setup as she preferred to stay out of the limelight.

Following her usual route above the terra's thick, luscious jungles and flying under and over its rocky overpasses she made her way to one of the terra's many waterfalls and flew toward it. As she was coming up on the column of water she jerked her skimmer to the right at the last minute and made for an opening to the side that lead past the water, turning her skimmer on its side she flew into the opening and made it past the waterfall without so much as a drop on her skimmer. She then returned the skimmer to its normal flight position and landed it on a strip of land in the cave. Of course, this long cave behind the waterfall was not naturally formed this way. Kestrel had always speculated that the Amazonians dug it out and used it in the distant past. Either way, it made a prefect spot for her to be secluded from the world around her.

As her skimmer slowed to a stop she got out near what to the untrained eye looked like a pile of well-stacked wreckage and scrap metal.

This was her home.

It was mostly constructed painstakingly from wrecked carriers and spare parts from skimmers and carriers of criminals she had captured. It took a long time, but eventually this makeshift home provided almost all of the base necessities for a normal home, even indoor plumbing!

Naturally though, she hadn't done all the work alone…

Kestrel walked up to the door, which had once been part of the crewman's quarters of a carrier, and the still operational door slid open automatically. The inside was impressive as well. Though some of the walls had the telltale sign of their age and condition, such as rust, adorned upon some of their surfaces, the place looked very hospitable; several working lights illuminated the whole area, giving the walls a glowing red color as the light reflected off their surfaces. The makeshift house, while small, had all the amenities that most homes would have, such as a kitchen, bathrooms, and two bedrooms. This home also extended further into the cave walls, adding more to the already impressive home.

However, the first thing she noticed when she came through the door was the sofa and the pile of blankets stacked on top of it. As soon as she stepped in the blankets began to move until a young man's face emerged from them.

It was the face of her partner, and her best and only real friend in the Atmos.

"Glad to see you're finally awake Gyr," she said sarcastically. "Hope you don't start getting lazy on me."

"Hello to you too," Gyr replied with a smile. He pushed the blankets back and sat on the couch. "So, what did the Council tell you Scout?"

Kestrel smiled back. "Scout" was Gyr's nickname for her. He had called her that since they were kids. She had asked him about why he called her that several times before, and he always replied that the nickname "seemed to fit," and never elaborated on it further. But if he remembered it, that meant his memories were beginning to come back.

"Well they gave me a job that just may be exactly what I need to finish our little project!"

"Really?" Gyr asked, but then he began to scratch his head. "Uh…what was that 'project' again?"

Kestrel sighed. "I guess your memory hasn't completely returned yet."

"Guess not." Gyr replied, still holding his head

"Well you know it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't used your powers like that." Kestrel said. "Every time you go overboard like that you lose your memory."

"It's not exactly easy to control," was Gyr's reply. "Besides, you were in danger, what was I supposed to-"

"Oh for Aurora's sake, stop trying to act like a Sky Knight-in-Shining-Armor all the time!" Kestrel snapped. "You don't need to keep trying to protect me every time he shows up. Next time I'll handle him myself."

"You really think you can?" said Gyr. His voice was calm but he was glaring with annoyance at the very least "You can't control your abilities any better than me! Last time he showed up he nearly killed you, you expect me to just let him?"

"He's not going to kill me Gyr, even if he was capable. He's still my brother."

"Kess, we don't know why he's hunting you. We don't know what's going on in his head! Right now we're just lucky he hasn't figured out where we live yet, we…"

Gyr's words were cut off as he grabbed his head in pain. Kestrel was about to rush to help him when he held up his hand.

"I'm fine," he said breathing somewhat heavily. "The pain's already going away."

Kestrel shook her head and took a seat next to him. "See? This is what I mean! You're just hurting yourself like this. Hiero is going to come back for me either way; you can't drive him off forever. Eventually he's going to find me when you aren't around and I'll need to fend him off myself..."

Kestrel was about to continue, but her pride suddenly stopped her. Her words seemed to be caught in the back of her throat. She turned away from her friend and finally found the words again. "I just…I don't wanna keep putting you through this whole ordeal over and over again, especially since it won't stop my brother in the long run."

"I know," Gyr replied, "But don't think that I'm gonna just sit back if he shows up again."

Kestrel smiled. "Yeah I know. But at least learn how to control your powers better. No more chronic amnesia ok?"

Gyr chuckled slightly. "Sure, I'll get right on that."

The two were silent for a moment, but then Gyr decided to break the ice once more.

"So you gonna tell me about the job the Council sent you on or not?" He asked.

Kestrel remained silent for a moment, and then reached in her right pocket and pulled out the folded list. "You remember Kai?"

Gyr thought for a minute. "Sort of, he was a bounty from along time ago right? I don't remember ever seeing him or anything though."

"Be glad you didn't," said Kestrel. "That was a particularly humiliating day…"

Both of them chuckled slightly before speaking again.

"So what about him?"

Kestrel relayed the information given to her by the Council's Archivist and her expedition to every hospital in Atmos, only to find nothing.

"So now the trail's cold again huh?" asked Gyr.

"Seems that way right now," Kestrel replied as she opened the list and showed Gyr the scratched out names. "I've been to all of these hospitals and no sign of him, nor was their any record of him ever checking in to any of them. But I must've been to every single one in the Atmos! This whole thing doesn't make any sense!"

Gyr looked at the list and skimmed down the names of the hospitals. It took some time for him to read through the pencil scratches of each crossed out hospital but his eyes eventually stopped at an uncrossed one at the bottom of the list.

"Wait, what about this one?" he said as he pointed to it. Kestrel brought her face closer to the map to see where Gyr was pointing, until her eyes met the name he had found.

"You've gotta be kidding me right?" she said, and then she pointed at the name. "That's Terra Pathologica: the terra of Diseases."

"So?"

"The Council's information said Kai was seen with open wounds on numerous occasions. It would be almost suicidal for him to go to a hospital on a terra where most of the deadliest diseases in the Atmos are in the same place!"

"Well it's the only place you haven't gone to yet, it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot I suppose."

"Yeah I guess, but-"

Kestrel was interrupted by a loud beeping noise coming from the other side of the house.

"Oh yeah, that darn thing was going since you were gone." Said Gyr. "I didn't know what it was so I put it under those-"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT EARLIER?!" Kestrel shouted as she ran towards the sound.

"W-why?" asked Gyr shocked by her sudden outburst. "What is it anyway?"

"That's the homing beacon for my skimmer! The skimmer Kai STOLE from me four years ago!" she said as she pulled the towels and sheets off of the table where the sound came from. Soon she pulled out a small circular device with a black screen on it. She looked at the apparently lifeless device and let out a frustrated grunt.

"Well that's just great!" she growled. "It's dead, that beeping must have been for a low battery. How long was this thing going off for anyway?"

"I told you it was going off for days!" said Gyr "It was driving me crazy! Why do you think I put it under all those sheets?"

"Don't you know what this means?" she exclaimed. "Kai must've used my skimmer recently. But now I'll probably never know where he went with…wait." She turned back to Gyr. "When was the last time you heard it go off?"

Gyr shrugged his shoulders "I dunno. Ten…fifteen minutes ago maybe?

"Ok good, then I still might be able to catch him." Kestrel hurriedly grabbed her equipment and weapons from the table and moved toward the door when Gyr spoke up.

"How are you going to find him if you have no idea where he went?"

Kestrel turned back to Gyr. "I have a lead, remember? Terra Pathologica. I'll fly in that direction and use falconsight to pinpoint where he went. If he was using my skimmer in that area within a few hours or so, I'll be able to find him."

"Need some help?" Gyr asked and was about to get up until Kestrel stopped him.

"No it's ok, you still need to rest." She replied as the door opened. She turned back to Gyr and grinned "Don't worry, I'll find him and be back with that huge reward by tomorrow!"

Gyr returned her smile. "Good hunting Scout!" Kestrel returned his wish of luck with a nod just as the door closed.

Gyr began to lay on the couch again when something suddenly came back to him. He looked back at the table and noticed a crystal recharging device laying there. Then another memory came to him…

"Well…" he said "That's not good…"

Starting at a run from her porch, Kestrel leapt up to the flag pole hanging outside her house and swung from it, landing right in her skimmer, like she always did when she was going out in a good mood. In an instant she was off flying past the opening in the waterfall and rising up to meet the sunset as it peaked over the top of the dense jungles of the terra. She allowed herself to soak in the exhilaration that flying gave her. Even though she'd flown countless times before, each time the wind in her face and the smooth feeling of weightlessness in the air was exuberating, even if only for a moment. Once she had flown far enough away from Terra Amazonia she regained her focus on the task at hand:

Capturing the only one that got away…

"This time Kai, you won't be so lucky," Kestrel said with a vicious grin spreading across her face. "Thing's have changed since we last met, you won't have the advantage this time around."

A/N: OK! That was my shot at writing something about an OC I made up three months ago and having not written anything in over a year, so I'm probably a little rusty with my writing style right now, but don't worry, it will get better. In the meantime, if anyone has any feedback and helpful hints they'd like to give me I'd appreciate them.

And don't worry TDT 15 is coming! Archer is working very hard on it, but work is apparently slowing him down or something. In the meantime go check out his other stories on his profile RGZ Archer. This story is kind of parallel with Archer's story Winds of Change (both volumes) so if you are confused by what's going on in my story go read that Gathering Storm and Distant Thunder (the two volumes to WoC) on his profile. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and more stories on my OC to come (hopefully).

Laterz!