A/N: This is supposed to be a short humouress story about a problem the Dark Ace and Piper are forced to have to face together. I started really writing this because I enjoy the pairing Piper/Dark Ace even though I know it could never happen. But don't worry, I'm not going to have them suddenly announce their love to each other at all, probably won't even have them admit they like each other, because this is just a reasonable scenerio of what would really happen in the show if they got stuck in a situation were they would have to work together.

Also, if you've been reading my other story 'The Trouble Clef's', I haven't given up on it. I've just encountered major writing block for the story, even though I know where that stories going, I really need this break. I will probably continue writing for 'The Trouble Clef's' after i complete this story. So again, I'm sorry that 'The Trouble Clef' Story has been put on such a long hold.

Please Enjoy and Comment!

Chapter 1: Thinking Instinctively Gets You No Where

Piper stared in amazement. " I found it! It's over here!" She called out to the others. Aerrow, Junko, Finn, and Radarr scurried over to her side and stared at what she was looking at.

An ominous teal glow emanated from the crystal. It was jagged and looked like it was frozen fire.

"It's what my crystal scope has been picking up." Piper stated.

Finn looked in awe. "I wonder what this baby can do." His hand went out to grab the crystal from the pile of rubble.

"No!" Piper yelled, swatting his hand away. " For all we know, it could blow us up Finn! I have to examine it first before anything."

"Hmph. Ruin all the fun." Finn mumbled irritably.

Aerrow looked disapprovingly at Finn. "Piper's right Finn. You shouldn't be so impulsive."

Finn stood back, crossing his arms. " Of course you agree with her." Aerrow ignored his comment.

Piper's hand slowly grasped the crystal and pulled it up to her face for a closer look. "It looks hollow, like some sort of energy is swirling inside. Not to mention, extremely unstable. We have to handle it with the utmost care."

Junko's gaze kept staring at the crystal. "It's really pretty." Radarr chirped in agreement.

"Looks powerful." Aerrow said.

"Very." Piper agreed. "Aerrow…" She turned to him. " It looks extremely powerful. This could be just what we need. For all we know, this could be the key to-"

"-defeating the Cyclonians once and for all." Aerrow said hopefully. She nodded.

"Then lets get going dudes." Finn suggested. " The faster we get the crystal to work for us, then the faster the Cyclonians will go down."

"Right." Junko agreed, his gaze finally breaking away from the crystal.

"Right." Aerrow and Piper agreed.

Piper stuffed the crystal in her crystal pouch, and jumped on to her heli-scooter. The others got on their skimmers and they all took off. The small nameless terra they had been on was behind them in no time, and the Condor was a small black speck in the far horizon.

Finn smiled as they flew, " This is great!" he said. "We found the crystal, and not a single Cyclonian bothered us!"

"ATTACK!"

A large group of talons swooped out of the thick grey clouds around them. Their weapons were raised and they looked ready to fight.

Finn sighed. " Why couldn't I have just kept my big mouth shut?"

"Storm Hawks! Split!" Aerrow ordered.

Aerrow swerved to the left, Junko to the right. Piper swerved up and Finn dived down.

Junko activated his knuckle busters as his skimmer flew towards a group of talons. He began to sing a Wallop Folk song as his fists collided with the talons skimmers, causing them to explode. Although some of the talons skimmers started to fall out of the sky themselves, since the talons piloting them had covered their ears so they wouldn't have to listen to Junko's singing.

"Prepare to be Finnished." Finn laughed to himself, whilst aiming at the talons flying ahead of him.

Pew. Pew. Pew. Finn fired shot after shot, each arrow hit the talons right on causing them to have to deploy their parachutes as they plummeted to the wastelands.

"Chica-Cha" He yelled excitedly.

"Hehe." Laughed a talon with a green moustache who shot a blast of energy at Finn's skimmer unexpectedly from behind.

Finn's skimmer sliced in half. " Why is it always me?" He questioned himself again before falling through the air. "AHHHHHHH-Ouff!" Finn groaned. He had fallen crotch first onto Junko's skimmer. "Thanks" Finn grunted, obviously in pain. Junko simply smiled.

With Radarr at the controls of his own skimmer, Aerrow kept hopping from Cyclonian switchblade to Cyclonian switchblade, taking them out in the process. He landed back on his own skimmer and scanned the battle field. His eyes narrowed. Only a hundred metres away he could see the Dark Ace standing on top his own Switchblade. He seemed to be busy scanning the battle field himself.

Aerrow jumped down into the driver seat of his skimmer and took off towards the Dark Ace. It was a clear path to his target, until a large group of talons flew in his way.

The man leading the group glared at him. "Going somewhere Skyknight?" And the talons attacked, leaving Aerrow preoccupied.

Piper flew above the battle on her heli-scooter. She turned on the radio.

"Stork! Do you read? We're being attacked by Cyclonians! We need back up-"

Boom!

Piper's sky-ride swerved to the side before stabilizing. Smoke rose from the engine.

She looked to her left to find the Talon who had just blasted her. She pulled out her staff which extended full length. But she didn't see the Talon from her right throw a fiery red crystal at her heli-scooter.

BOOM!

Piper felt her whole heli-scooter explode from beneath her. She dropped her staff. She started to frantically pull at her parachute strap as she fell but it didn't seem to work- why did she always get the defected one?

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh-OWF!" Piper groaned. She had landed on a red wing of a sky-ride. The lower half of her body dangled over the wing and her hands grasped the cold metal tightly as to not fall.

"Hello." A cold voice spoke. Her head whipped around to the man standing in the middle of the skimmer. He smiled triumphantly.

"Dark Ace," Piper growled. She pulled herself up onto the wing and stood up before wobbling uncontrollably and falling down on her knees.

"Haha. Pathetic!" Sniggered the Dark Ace. Piper sneered at him, slightly embarrassed. She had not realised how hard it was to stand on a skimmer going about 80km/hour. Aerrow had made it look so easy.

"Shouldn't you be off fighting Aerrow?" Piper accused. It was a reasonable accusation. Aerrow was usually always the one fighting the Dark Ace in the battles, because of the grudge the held against each other.

"I don't have time to bother myself with Aerrow."

Piper looked slightly confused. "What do you want then?!"

"Luckily for me, what I want just fell from the sky right in front of me." He grinned.

Piper's eyes widened. She went to pull out my staff, but nothing was there then remembered that it had fallen, so instead she pulled out a pink crystal from her satchel and threw a blast at him. He deflected it with his sword and threw a blast of his own which hit the pink crystal out of her hand and sent it tumbling to the wastelands below.

Piper quickly pulled a green crystal out but had no time to use it as the Dark Ace charged at her. Quickly she jumped over the Dark Ace in hopes of landing on the opposite wing in a fighting stance. Instead she found herself grasping the edge of the wing with her one hand, trying to keep herself from falling into the wastelands, like the green crystal she had just been holding.

"Nice try, but you need practice." Dark Ace commented, walking over to the wing she hung onto desperately. He grabbed the arm of her hand that was holding onto the wing and pulled her up so her face was only a few inches from his. She desperately hoped that she would never have to be that close to him again because she could see every feature of his angry face. His dark red eyes seemed to peer into her soul, causing her to shiver.

"Hand over the crystal you found and I won't throw you into the wastelands." He demanded.

"Nice try, but I won't fall for that." Piper mused, knowing perfectly well he'd throw her into the wastelands, crystal or no crystal.

"Oh you'll fall alright," he commented.

"Try me," she dared. She figured she might be able to get her parachute to work. The Dark Ace growled.

"Woah!" Piper yelled as he pulled her up onto the wing unexpectedly.

Riiight. He needs the crystal I have, so he wouldn't throw me to the wastelands. Piper thought. She got up into a fighting stance.

Dark Ace sneered. " You leave me no choice but to take it by… FORCE!" He yelled the last bit as he swiped at her with his double-blade. Piper ducked and kicked him in the stomach. She pulled out an orange crystal. "My last crystal… better make it worth it." She whispered to herself.

"Argh!" Yelled the Dark Ace as he slashed at her again and again. Piper dodged each attack and moved swiftly in the middle of the skimmer as to not get cornered on the end of a wing.

She shoved the orange crystal at him, which exploded in his face. He fell hard on one wing.

His ash smouldered face looked up at her, boiling with anger. "You're going to wish you didn't do that."

He jumped at her and slashed so violently and quickly, Piper almost wasn't quick enough. The blade came so close to her face she could feel its intense heat tickle her skin. She fell on her back on the left wing. Slowly she got up and backed up to the edge of the wing as the Dark Ace approached her, his weapon raised.

"Your Skyknight's not here to save you now." The Dark Ace mocked as he looked around quickly to see all the other Storm Hawks occupied.

"I don't need saving." Piper growled. She lied of course. But she wasn't going to let him think she was at any disadvantage. Even though she was lacking a ride, weapon, working parachute, a friends help- yup, no disadvantage.

She stood at the tip of the wing wobbling back and forth, trying to keep her balance. The Dark Ace's blade was at the ready. "You sure about that?" And he thrust his blade at Piper.

And that's when Piper made her biggest mistake. Instinctively, her hand flew to her crystal pouch and wrapped around the only crystal in it. She pulled it out and held it up like a shield. The fiery red double-bladed smashed against the teal crystals delicate shell, shattering it's hallow frame, unleashing the unstable energy, causing it to blow up in both the Dark Ace's and Piper's face.