Guardian Angels
The Storm Hawks were on Terra Atmosia again, as there was nothing much to do around Atmos. The team were just lazing about in the Condor, when a crash made them jump to the skimmers. Stork took a look outside
"Yep, Cyclonians" he said, as if this was hardly a surprise
Aerrow sighed and flew outside with the rest of the team. He wasn't so surprised to see a battleship above their heads, nor the Dark Ace, but he was surprised to see another team there, around their age, but all girls, and they all looked familiar
One of the girls was looking up at the battleship, she had a mop of red hair, slightly longer than Aerrow's, and emerald green eyes, she looked at something in her hand- a watch, Piper thought. The girl told her team something, and they looked fairly doubtful, one of them hugged her- a wallop. This girl took off, towards the Dark Ace. Aerrow didn't see fear in her eye, and wondered if she was a cyclonian, but he thought again the second he saw her team's symbol on her back, and on her skimmer.
Once the girl reached the Dark Ace, she had to duck a little to avoid him hitting out at her
"Hey!! Watch it, I've got something for you!" she said as he tried to get her, she held out her hand, with the thing in it
Well, in the Storm Hawks' view, anyone who can talk to the Dark Ace, and isn't a cyclonian, has guts, or was crazy
This girl grabbed him on his collar, and forced the thing in his hand, which was difficult, as he was flailing about. He shook himself free, and looked at the thing she had given him. He flew to the floor with her, with a confused expression on his face, and questioned her. She said something to him, and he pulled something out of his pocket. The girl nodded. This was the first time any of the Storm Hawks, or anyone, had seen the Dark Ace worried, they only knew this, as his eyes filled with tears. The girl went back to her team, as the cyclonians backed off, and went home. Aerrow saw Ravess talking to Dark Ace, and her looking anxious. Before either Storm Hawks or Cyclonians knew it, the Dark Ace had fallen off his vehicle, and Snipe had to put him in the battleship, in disgust.
Piper heard a mutter amongst the other team "Shock", as they turned away. Aerrow ran up to them.
"What did you say to him? And why are you still here?" he asked
"Who wants to know?" she said, turning her head towards him. The rest of the team turned around. All of them bore the same symbol- some wings and a sword. The Storm Hawks knew why they were familiar. They had met them through Angel
She looked amazed "I thought I'd never see you lot again!!" she repeated
"Who, are you?" Piper asked looking at her symbol thoughtfully
"Isn't that the Archangels symbol?" she asked
Amber looked at it "No, we're the Guardian Angels, protectors of Terra Celestial"
Piper blushed, but the girl continued
"If you're looking for an Archangel, then, yes, there is an Archangel descendant left"
"Angel" muttered Finn
A girl with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes looked at him "How'd you remember that?"
"Easily" said Finn
Fern was satisfied "I'm the sharpshooter" she said
There was a girl in the team that looked familiar to them, with lank black hair, pale blue skin, and fairly light eyes. The Sky siren, Dreamy
A merb said "Yes, Dreamy is more of a distraction, if you get the meaning, or the heavy artillery! But at least she isn't the helmswoman!!"
"Thanks Sunni" said Dreamy. Sunni rolled her eyes at the sound of her name, and muttered something that sounded like "I hate that name"
The rest of the team introduced themselves. They found that Jay was a mechanic, Izzie was in charge of missions, Pixie was navigation and tactics, and the leader of the team was Amber
She seemed to not want to believe, or talk about, what she'd told Dark Ace, but eventually, she did
"Murk Raiders came to Celestial, and I saw them take Angel…my best friend…to Terra Deep. She only had time to throw the necklace at me, and say 'give this to my brother'. I just presumed that her brother was the cyclonian talon, and sure enough, I was right"
"How do we rescue Angel, and fast, the Murk Raiders are pretty mean, we just escaped them in our last encounter!" said Aerrow
Pixie pulled a map out of her pocket, and pointed to Terra Deep
"If we're right here, then we can get to Terra Deep in a few hours" she said
"If we use our skimmers, and keep the ships' visibility to a minimum, but keep the heavy ballistics out, then I'm pretty sure that Angel will be safe" Izzie said, and smiled, but the smile faded "but that is assuming she's still alive" she added
"I could call for extra help, if we need it" said Amber, looking at Izzie
"Who'd you intend to call?" asked Izzie
Amber took a deep breath "the cyclonian talons"
"WHAT?" said Aerrow. Amber looked at him
"We're going to need backup" she said "and the cyclonian battleships are huge. We could use some"
Piper looked doubtful, so she looked at Izzie, to see what she would say. Izzie folded her arms and thought for a moment
"Well, Angel is our friend, and she'd be willing to do anything for us"
Amber turned to the Storm Hawks "If you want to come, then I suggest you get your ship ready. We've got a friend to find"
Meanwhile, on Cyclonia, Dark Ace's limp body was put before Cyclonis herself. She inspected it, and tutted
"Whatever the problem is, it isn't physical.
Ravess sighed "It's psychological"
Cyclonis looked at her. Snipe looked anxiously at his sister and wondering what she was getting her self into.
"Explain" said Cyclonis, looking at her
"He said something about his sister being caught by Murk Raiders, and then he collapsed"
Cyclonis muttered "Shock"
"That's what I thought" said Ravess. She went over to the Dark Ace. "What are we going to do with him? I mean, he is your henchman"
A phone rang in the next room, Snipe went and answered it. They could hear him talking to someone in the next room, before they knew it, he was calling for Ravess. She raised her eyebrow and talked to the person on the phone
"Who's this?" she demanded
"Err, Amber" came the voice on the other end
"Amber who?"
"Of the Guardian Angels"
"Get lost"
"No…wait! I think I know how to get Dark Ace out of shock!"
"How's that"
"We need to get his sister back, but we need your help"
Ravess looked hopeful, and parted her lips slightly as she took a slight breath. These people were willing to help, despite being enemies
"What's going on?" hissed Snipe
She looked at him and smiled slightly. Snipe hated it when she pulled that innocent look. She turned back to the phone
"Right, I'll be there as soon as possible, with reinforcements, but this doesn't mean we're friends" she said. She put the phone down
"What's going on?" Snipe repeated
"Fancy doing something useful for me?" Ravess said
Snipe nodded
"Get the battleships ready, and the men. I think we're going to have some fun. And I think some Murk Raiders are about to be ours" she said walking off
At the sound of "fun" Snipe's happiness had lifted to a whole new level, but at the sound of "Murk Raiders", his stomach had got that sick feeling. Reluctantly, he did as his sister said
The battleships were ready in the space of an hour, as was everything else. Whenever Ravess wanted something, she wanted it how she described it, so they'd had to spend some more time sorting everything out, so it was perfect for her.
Cyclonis had said that collapsing was only the first stage of shock, which made everyone wonder what, the next stage was, apparently, it was something worse. After much persuasion from the Talons, Cyclonis herself had come along. Her crystal expertise was needed, and she wanted to keep an eye on Dark Ace, who was in the medical room on the ship- they knew that if they found Angel, he would wake up, and Angel was also reluctant to visit Cyclonia, so he had to come along.
Cyclonis didn't really do much on the ship, just kept a sharp eye on her companion, and jumped whenever a crystal designed to tell when someone's body wasn't doing something, went off- but it was only playing up, so she continually had to check herself. This caused a great amount of amusement on the ship, but sadly, they were reminded of why the Queen of Cyclonia was there in the first place.
The second the cyclonian battle ships met the Condor, and the Guardian Angel's ship, named the Maelstrom, they were right outside Terra Deep. The Guardian Angels and the Storm Hawks came aboard the battle ship with Ravess, Snipe and (to Piper's disgust) Cyclonis (who came out, as long as Snipe bought the Dark Ace with him), and shared the plan with them. They seemed to think it was a good idea, but they looked doubtful. They gave everyone a role. Snipe, Junko and Jay were to use the heavy ballistics; Dreamy had to create a massive illusion of the ships, to make them look like Murk Raiders' ships. Finn, Fern and Ravess were to look out for anything, and send out a warning signal. Pixie, Piper and Cyclonis (because the Dark Ace appeared to be improving, as they were getting nearer Angel) were to deal with crystal works. The rest were to fly about, disguised (due to Cyclonis' cloaking crystal), and try to find her.
A glint on a far piece of rock sent Amber, Radarr and Aerrow heading towards it. Amber gasped when she saw what it was
It was Angel's skimmer, all torn up. A bag hung on a dead tree. Amber grabbed it, and looked inside. Everything was still in there. It looked as if the bag had been thrown from a great height, as if Angel had dropped it by accident on trying to get something to fight them. Aerrow checked out her skimmer, and called Piper, Pixie and Cyclonis over.
"Do those crystals still have juice?" asked Aerrow.
Pixie looked at it, and tried to switch it on. Strangely, the machine worked, and the crystals glowed.
Cyclonis was confused "Why didn't they take her crystals, or anything of hers?" she asked
Piper looked up, thinking, before realising and answered slowly "because they never got there in time"
Amber looked questioningly at her
Piper explained "She knew what was going to happen, so she escaped on her skimmer, but she forgot about how dangerous it is to go through these parts. I think that they chased her, in order to get her crystals, but she wouldn't let them have them, and she knew she was going to lose anyway, so she dropped her bag over, and made sure it landed, and she switched her skimmer off, and let it drop as well. The Murk Raiders could save her--"
"--but not what they wanted" said Amber "So if she's still alive, my betting is that they want her to find the things they lost"
"Speaking of being found…" said Cyclonis looking up, as a Murk Raider's ship loomed over their heads
"Keep low" muttered Aerrow. He went over to the busted skimmer with Radarr, who had retrieved a spanner, and was working on fixing it. The skimmer wasn't badly damaged, only the wings had fallen off, so it was easy to fix. Within a minute, the skimmer was its old fixed self again. The only problem was getting it on the Condor without being spotted by the gargantuan ship above their heads. Thinking for a while, Radarr pointed to the intercom on the skimmer.
Aerrow gave him the thumbs up, and clicked it, but paused. Where would the message go? For all he knew, he could be giving the Murk Raiders a signal to collect their prize, so it took his finger off the button, and gave a signal via his skimmer, which gave a message to the Condor, and the helpers.
Within minutes, a ship appeared, with Stork at the window. Without the Murk Raiders seeing (well, they hoped they didn't), Junko had shot an arrow with a length of rope attached, and both vehicle and bag were removed from any danger.
"Let's move out" hissed Cyclonis. The rest looked at her.
"Not without Angel" snarled Amber, who everyone knew was getting anxious about her best friend. Clearly Cyclonis didn't like the idea of friendship, seeing as she had failed to get Piper's friendship previously
Aerrow caught sight of something flashing slightly on Amber's neck. A necklace hung there, and the crystal on it was glowing. Amber simply gasped at it
"She's alive, and she's near" she said, relieved. A faint noise could be heard from Cyclonis' pocket. The crystal was going haywire.
"We've got to hurry" she said, looking at it.
Using Amber's crystal, they were able to track Angel's signal to Captain Scabulous' ship. Crashing could be heard on it, but the crystal still glowed, and it had not broken yet, as Amber knew it would if she had died. Cyclonis' crystal was beginning to brighten, so she was beginning to wonder if Dark Ace had reached stage 2.
As the companions reached the main entrance, the crashing got louder, but shrieks could be heard from the Murk Raiders
"That's my girl!!" grinned Amber.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aerrow saw more ships approaching, one with Stork in the window, one with Sunni, and one with Snipe peeking out. He also saw the rest approaching, Finn, Fern, Ravess with crossbows at the ready, and Snipe and Junko with the heavy ballistics. For a split second, Cyclonis had the fleeting impression that her henchman had moved, but how could that be possible?
Amber noticed that her illusionist, Dreamy, was running out of energy to keep up that illusion, she knew that because she was beginning to drop slowly to the floor, so she pointed that out to the other by use of intercom
"We'll have to speed this up then" came Aerrow's voice.
Amber gave the signal to move in, and before the Murk Raiders knew what was happening, Dreamy had dropped her illusion. Amber looked at her. She had fallen to the floor, which Amber had expected due to that amount of power used. The only thing she could do was to get Izzie to drag her away from the open door, which would make Dreamy fall to an instant death. Aerrow, Radarr, Amber, Piper, Pixie, Ravess and Cyclonis had gone in to find Angel. However they were greeted with an unexpected scene.
Murk Raiders lay on the floor, not moving. The team stepped over them.
"What happened?" was on everyone's mind.
As the team approached the control room, they were greeted with a shock. The pilot was…Angel. Amber ran up to her.
"How are you still alive?" she said, putting her arms around her best friend, who did the same back
"Just got lucky, I guess. Scabulous wasn't so happy to find xhis new passenger could take over the entire ship within a day, I think I got that from my brother" said the pleased reply
When they saw Angel, she looked slightly different. But then they realised that was due to the black suit with a Murk Raiders' symbol on it. But where was her white suit, with the silver wings?
"Where is your Archangel suit?" asked Pixie
Angel looked at the suit "Oh, I'm still wearing it under this thing. Their suits are really itchy!"
"How did you take them down?" asked Aerrow in awe. Angel picked up the silver Archangel symbol "you can use it as a boomerang. The Murk Raiders failed to see that" she said
Cyclonis looked at the crystal, which had gone haywire. She started to fret about her companion. Some Murk Raiders came out of nowhere. The team armed themselves. But before the Murk Raiders could make their move, a red vehicle came out of nowhere, and pushed the enemies aside. Dark Ace stood up, perfectly well. He smiled warmly at his sister, but the smile faded at the sight of his foes coming towards him and the others.
"Run!" he hissed at the team. Angel went to help, but he nodded at Ravess, and she and Pixie had to drag Angel, who was fighting tooth and nail, to safety.
The second all of them were out of Terra Deep, including the ships, everyone went quiet. Including Angel. Cyclonis looked at her crystal, which had broken. Her face fell, and a tear escaped her eye.
"How could I leave him like that?" she whispered. Ravess went over to her, and put an arm around her shoulder. Cyclonis tried to stifle her cries.
Pixie gave Izzie a helping hand trying to nurse Dreamy, who still hadn't woken from her faint, but thankfully, after a while, she awoke, with a headache. Pixie had to get her some medicine.
Angel hadn't moved from near the window. She just kept staring blankly out, as if trying to see some sign her brother was alive. Suddenly, her eyes grew wider, and she shouted "open the doors!!"
The second the doors were opened, the figure became clearer, and as the person landed with a crash on the landing strip, all of them knew.
It was Dark Ace
Everyone rushed towards him, and, for the second time, Snipe had to pick the Dark Ace up, and take him to his friends and what remained of his family. Angel cried, and hugged her brother. Cyclonis knelt down beside her henchman. It must be noted Piper looked as if she was going to cry as well, and Aerrow hugged her.
Before the teams knew it, the Dark Ace shook his head slightly, and opened his eyes, and acknowledged the thankful scene in front of him. Angel half- strangled him hugging him; Cyclonis closed her eyes and happy tears escaped as she stood up with her companion. Piper smiled (although why was the word on everyone's mind). No- one was more thankful than Angel. For a few moments she had thought he was dead, but didn't mention that to him. Cyclonis gave a hateful look to the crystal, and threw it to the wastelands. Ravess looked at the Storm Hawks, and the Guardian Angels
"This doesn't change anything" she said, as she and her cyclonian friends boarded the ship. The Storm Hawks and Guardian Angels started to smile, and then burst out laughing. They had known from the start a rescue mission wouldn't end with friendship.
They continued laughing as the ship pulled away, and Angel gave a sigh.
"What's up?" asked Finn, sitting beside her. The rest stared. They had never known Finn to be caring, or maybe he was trying to get her to be interested in him. Angel stood up
"I just want to know the depth of trouble we'll be dealing with next"
Although it didn't seem right to think it, maybe she was right, maybe there was something horrible coming in the future, and for one moment, Aerrow had the vision of what he'd seen in the Forbidden City.
The Guardian Angels all looked at Angel
"You know, you could join the team" said Amber. Angel smiled slightly
"No, I don't think I could. With the trouble I deal with every day, I don't think I'm willing to put you in that as well" Both Guardian Angels and Storm Hawks growled.
"Hey!! You can't seriously expect me to turn up all the time, can you?" she added
They all nodded in agreement. Angel went towards her skimmer, and her bag. She looked back. "Thanks for saving me, and thank you for fixing my bike." She smiled at Radarr, but how did she know Radarr fixed it? She winked at them, before her bike slipped off the side, and she jumped off, and landed on it
"I'll never know how she does that" moaned Amber, watching her friend speed away. She turned to her ship.
She waved to her team, who got on, after saying goodbye. With a last look at the team, she said something that stuck in each Storm Hawks' head, before leaving.
"Remember who your predecessors were, and what they were trying to do. Now that's your job"
By sunset, all of the Storm Hawks were staring at the rising moon, and they suddenly knew what Angel meant when she had mentioned something was coming. The moon was pointing to Cyclonia.
"They're up to something. It's time to warn Atmos" Aerrow said, running to the Condor
The team sprinted on. Angel was right. Something was coming…
War was coming