Uncertain Fate
Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks. However, I do own Emma. All characters, places, ideas, and concepts belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 1: Found Sister
It had been, what a few months, since Emma came to the Atmos. The experience for her was… Well, it couldn't have been put down words. There were times when she felt that the world was against her, but those feelings were almost replaced by amazement of something she had only heard. What even amazed her more was how far she went through without dying. Facing off against pirates, reptilians, and soldiers of a tyrannical army on a time-to-time basis, she didn't even know why she wasn't in a hospital bed on life support.
It was one night, relaxing in the bridge of the Condor that the Gaian was in one of her thinking sessions. Munching on some cookies she snuck out of the snack bin along with milk, she pondered on the things that had clouded her mind since she came to Atmos. Some were just things she only dreamed of: fighting bad guys, protecting places, seeing dragons, and most importantly, being able to survive a world where most of the odds were against her. But mostly, she knew that it was mostly dumb luck, except for the dragon part. She definitely milked that sweet victory from Piper when the specialist told her that dragons went extinct years ago and afterwards, found a clutch of newborns.
Still, she missed her home back on Earth and wondered if she would ever return with her sister. That was the priority that made her stay longer than she could stand. However, the Gaian felt obligated to get the eldest back from the Cyclonians or else… Well, she couldn't think of it.
"Still awake?" a familiar voice asked, as the teen girl turned to see Aerrow, the proud Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks and leader, relaxing near the doorway. She just stared before going back to eating, causing the young sky knight to sigh. He then walked over to the table, sat down, and inquired, "Are you being bugged by something, Emma?"
"Just bored," she answered, staring off into space. The boy chuckled while sweatdropping. He remembered both Finn and Emma fiddling with the strange puzzle box they acquired at the Saharr Marketplace. In fact, they became obsess with it. It was only until after it lost power and their fight with the Mecha-powered Dark Ace that Stork melt it down along with the Suit of Ultimate Vengeance scraps. When the two found out, they didn't forgive the merb for it and took new entertainment in which they called, "Merb-Hunting", in which the Gaian described, "Is much better than Duck Hunter because there's no stupid dog to laugh at ya".
The redhead sighed before saying, "Emma, I've been thinking… It might be a long time before we may find you sister; and sooner or later, you might be a liability in our battles. So, you might want to consider taking combat and flying lessons." The girl sighed; she had this conversation many times before and they all ended the same way.
"I said this before Aerrow. I will take the combat training but not flying." she answered in a stern tone. Although it would have benefited her a whole lot, her fear and pride would never allowed it; she would never allow her fear of heights and falling to get out to the group.
"Emma, you should really think about it." The sky knight calmly, but forcefully said, "You know you can't rely on us forever. And that end might come sooner than you think, so you need to be prepared when the time comes. Look, if there's something bothering you, then tell us. You're not alone."
In a moment of thought, she deliberated; should she tell and be told there was nothing to worry about, or should she just keep quiet and let them bugged her until she finally decided to do it. Both seemed pretty lousy, but after a few seconds, the girl answered, "If we don't find my sister in a couple of days or so, I'll consider it."
"Okay, I'll have your word for it." Aerrow replied, before noticing her nonchalant eyes stared off into space again. "… We're going to find her. Don't worry about it." The brunette looked back at the sky knight again, not changing her facial expression. It seemed she got the message pretty clear.
"I know. She's tough…" she muttered, trying not to think what horrible tortures Cyclonis was doing to her. Needing to change the subject, she looked at the sky knight and asked, "Can you tell me about the Far Side again?" He smiled before going into detail on the legends, myths, and theories surrounding the mysterious Far Side.
As he trailed on with the tales, the girl drifted off to a place that was somewhat familiar to her. She didn't know why, but from what the young teen boy said, it seemed to be a mix of both the ancient civilization of Earth and modern day Atmos. However, when it came to the actual seeing of the Far Side from Aerrow's cycle around Atmos, he always said, "Wow." And when she asked why it was just "Wow", he replied, "Well, you would just have to see it."
Suddenly, the intercom turned on and Stork's voice spoke, "Attention; we have a situation here. Please come to the bridge so we can get on with our lives… Even though we might die." The red head quickly stood up as Emma watched him leaved. After he was gone, she stood up and started to walk towards the bridge as well. She wanted to see what Stork was complaining about now.
The Condor landed on an unknown terra right after they arrived. It appeared a distressed beacon was activated around that area, and being a sky knight squadron, it was their duty to rescue whoever activated it. The doors of the hanger opened and four bikes with five teens and a small furry sped out onto the terra and towards the exact point of the call. Once getting there, they all got off with their weapons in hand as Aerrow ordered, "Okay, guys, be on your guard now. We don't know what's out here."
His message seemed to have gotten to the group. Finn was expecting the ledges along with Piper, Junko activated Knuckle-Busters and went into a defensive stance, and Radarr started to sniff the air. The only one who wasn't taking it serious was Emma, as she gazed at the landscape. The specialist took notice of this and said, "Emma, Aerrow said to be on your guard."
Without looking at the tanned girl, the brunette responded, "Well, I don't see anything that might be dangerous. Besides, if there really was an enemy here, then they would have attacked us by now, right?" If she had know those were Custard's last words, she would have reconsider a better choice, especially afterwards. A figure leapt from a hiding place and went to attack the team. Finn quickly shot, however, missed. Piper was to ready to staff for an attack, however, the figure quickly rammed the weapon it was holding into her stomach, causing the tanned girl to let go of her pole and fall onto her butt; one down, five more to go.
Junko started to charge at the enemy with Finn still firing his Ice Bolts. The cloaked figure quickly deflected two, making both the wallop and sharpshooter frozen. The sky knight quickly charged and swung his blades at whoever was attacking. However, the figure quickly dodged and started to attack the young teen. It soon turned into a fight for survival for the two competitors, each one blocking or dodging the other attacks.
Both seemed to be at a stalemate, before a battle cry was heard. Emma, seemingly being left out of the battle, decided to help Aerrow and quickly pinned the adversary against a rock. She was fiercely pushed the body against the stone, hoping that her strength was enough to subdue her. However, once the moonlight reflected the figure's face, she gasped and relaxed her force.
"Katie, is that you?" the Gaian asked, causing the enemy to become shock, let down their weapon, and then removing its hood. The Storm Hawks, with two now-unfrozen Finn and Junko, now looked over at the two, to see that the figure was a girl with long, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a face that looked almost identical to their Earthling friend. They really hoped that whoever she wasn't a clone of their friend that the Cyclonians wanted to use to trick them.
"Emma?" the young woman answered, staring at the younger's eye. Suddenly, she hugged the young teen, who got freaked out, and exclaimed, "Oh! It really is you, isn't it?" The tightness of the hug indicated that she really was glad to see her. The sky squadron, however, was really confused by this sight, especially of what happen next.
"Katie! I thought the Cyclonians had you!"
"They did!"
"How did you get away?"
"I escape when they weren't looking."
"They must have been really distracted when you escaped."
"And what does that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing! I'm glad you're safe!"
Being out of the loop, the red head coughed, causing the two females to look over at him. Once realizing about what had happened, the younger brunette introduced, "Guys, this is my sister, Katie. She's the reason why I stayed in Atmos through all your crazy endeavors."
"… You stayed because of me?" Katie asked, before blushing a bit, "You really shouldn't have. I mean, it's nice and all, but this world is still dangerous. I mean, with all the Cyclonians and Raptors running around." That was the thing with Cyclonian training; they told the trainees they were fighting but not who against.
"Yea, well, there are a lot more than just the Raptors and Cyclonians ruling the skies." The sister answered, before turning to the Storm Hawks. "This is the Storm Hawks; the one of the many squadron of sky knights that protects a free Atmos." Once the college student looked over at the kids, her face was in shock. The squadron now knew that she was surprised at their… difference.
"But these are just kids. Why are the Talons having a hard time with this bunch?" Now, she wasn't trying to make it sound like an insult. But to the Storm Hawks, it hurt very much.
"Hey! We did a lot of great things. In fact, we're the reason that your sister is safe from Master Cyclonis!" Finn exclaimed, before getting hit by Piper's staff. The tanned girl puffed her cheeks in angry embarrassment as the blonde just had little birdies circled around his head. The two Gaian girls blinked before looking back at each other and then back at the group.
"Come on, let's head back to the Condor now." Aerrow said, hoping to have some order, "I bet Stork would be really glad that we found your big sister." The group started to head towards their skimmers, leaving their leader to let his mind wander. He wasn't wondering about how the merb would treat the girl; it was about how she showed up all of a sudden, claiming to be Emma's lost sister. Something didn't seem to add up about it, especially since Cyclonis would never give up something as valuable as a Gaian's memories. Something screwy was going on around here.
The tactician stopped and looked back at Aerrow, asking, "Aerrow, what are you thinking about?" That caused the red head to snap back into reality. He looked back at the tanned girl and smiled a fake smile.
"It's nothing, Piper. Let's just go." He said, before walking back to his skimmer. To him, this had been definitely a strange night.
Everyone, allies and enemies, were standing on the ruins of the falling empire. Cyclonis, gaining technology from the Farside, had up her game and started to rebuild the fallen empire back to its former glory. It would have been total victory too if it hadn't been for her bane, the Sky Knights. Though she managed to almost confine them all to a prison crystal, her biggest blight, the Storm Hawks along with the rest of her other annoyances who didn't join her, had stopped her plans with Piper's Binding and Aerrow's leadership. Now, with the cost of her Dark Ace, she was alone, but she will still stand and fight them all, even at the cost of her life.
"It's over, Cyclonis," Aerrow said, "Your army and crystal technologies have failed you. If you surrender now, the council might go easy on you." The empress growled at that response. She wasn't going to surrender, right when she was so close to ruling all of Atmos like her ancestors had did. However in reality, it was falling apart before her eyes.
"Please, Cyclonis! Just surrender so you won't hurt yourself even more," Piper pleaded, trying to convince her equal to give up this foolish exploit. It was hopeless endeavor though. It was going to take a lot more than that for her former "best friend" to convince Cyclonis to surrender.
"I won't surrender," the dark crystal mage stated, "I will never surrender. As long as I'm still here, the Talons will never fall! I will rebuild my empire and I will destroy-!" A slash from behind caused the young teen to faint and fall to the ground. The two looked down at the body where they saw a gash on the body's back and then looked up to see the culprit.
It was a built figured, dress all in blue armor accept for his right arm, tail, and wings. It was demonic, three-clawed arm that went from his hand to almost half its chest, with its own shoulder-guard and a dark eye. In his normal hand, it grasped a blade that still haunted Aerrow's mind, but now it looked more unnatural than before. The two would have guessed it to be their old enemy, Carver, but the blue horned and demon-winged helmet only showed the red eyes, glancing for kill at the two. Whoever or whatever this was made both crystal mage and sky knight quivered.
"… Who are you?" the young teen asked, as Junko, Finn, Stork, Radarr, and Emma entered the room. They were about to warn their friends of the once-flying terra now falling. However, the scene in the room made them paused with horror. There was a dead body of Cyclonis and a blue demon-like creature before them. While the Atmosians waited for an answer, the Gaian felt that she already knew who this was.
"I... Am…NIGHTMARE!"
…
….
"Hmmmm…"
"What is wrong, Master?"
"Our latest scribe seems to be different than the last one, but still showed Nightmare's revival."
"Him? It's bad enough that he terrorized Gaia four-hundred years ago. If he revives here, than both worlds shall be doom."
"Is it because of the Gaian?"
"Not true, our previous scribes also showed Soul Edge being revive before she came. However, maybe her being her might make Soul Edge come up with a plan to involve both worlds, maybe in war."
"I agree. In this one, it showed him killing Cyclonis. But in our last one, it showed Nightmare heading towards Gaia instead."
"Does that mean she might be an uncontrolled variable because of where she's from?"
"Don't say that! Gaia and Atmos affect one another. Besides, we're Guardians. Our job is to watch over all life on Atmos, and interfere when we deem necessary."
"Yes, once, we were many. But now, there are only four of us left. The Cyclonis lineage saw fit to that."
"Well, according to the future scribes, it seems that she has a choice to either stay here or go back home. I think we should tell her about this and see what she chooses. Then, we should start scribing as to the future of our world once she does."
"Are you sure it is safe to tell her about her and our future?"
"Better than letting her make a choice without letting her know what is at stake."
"Then, we shall tell her in hopes that she would make a choice. One where both she and our world will have a bright future."
The Guardians then transformed into Mynall Birds before heading off into the skies, beginning their plan for the final showdown.
Author's Notes:
Please see next chapter for Notes.
