Authors Note: FYI Storm Hawks and its characters and stuff do NOT belong to me in any way shape or form. This is also my very first fanfic so be gentle. So here's chapter one, enjoy! (Also Aerrow, Piper, and Finn are around 18. Junko is 19, and Stork is 21. And "no" Cyclonia has not been defeated in this story.)
"Forever has it been since my dreams turned stale. Who am I? Why does this place still continuously mock me with its presence? I can only hope that one day they will return for me, release me of this prison and bring me home. I wonder if there is even a home to return to. Please, someone help me."
"RADARR!!" Finn yelled at the furry creature whose teeth were locked firmly on a bottle of his new hair gel that he had bought at the previous terra. "YOU SORRY BAG OF FUR, THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT THAT? I'M NEVER LETTING YOU NEAR MY ROOM AGAIN!!" Radarr continued to scurry through the hull of the ship, nearly colliding with equipment and the occasional Storm Hawk.
The rest of the team had grown accustom to this type of battle. Being inside the Condor for so long takes its toll on the nerves of the teenage heroes. Especially Finn, whose maturity level only reached that of an eight year old anyway. As Radarr continued to duck around the room, Finn gave in, and let a sigh escape his lips before sitting down next to his commander and best friend. "Aerrow I swear to all that is good in the Atmos, if Radarr gets his sticky little paws on any more of my things I will throw him into the wastelands."
Aerrow only let out a small laugh at the look on the frustrated boys face. "You know he's only kidding Finn. He gets just as bored as you do when we are stuck in the Condor for so long. " Aerrow gave Finn's shoulder a sympathetic pat, a wide grin still noticeable on his face.
"Well then why can't we go to Tropica, or Terra Neon? Or just someplace that isn't the inside of the Condor?" Finn answered back, the frustration in his voice very noticeable at this point. "Why do we all have to stay cooped up in here when there's nothing fun to do?"
"Because, we're going to Amazonia so I can study some new crystal deposits that Harrier said his team came across down there." Piper, their resident crystal specialist, said as she came walking out into the bridge and became visible to the two boys on the sofa. Aerrow quickly averted his gaze from Finn onto Piper, giving her a small smile as she walked past them and towards the helm to give Stork the coordinates for Terra Amazonia
Finn rolled his eyes at his friends and quietly mumbled an inaudible sentence under his breath, presumably directed at Aerrow. Finn jumped slightly as Radarr hopped up on the sofa next to him and dropped something into his lap. He gave a little snort as he stared at his slightly damp hair gel tube that had been returned to his possession and said "Thanks buddy, I forgive you." He then leaned over slightly and gave the fuzzy co-pilot a gentle pat on the head.
Finn suddenly remembered what Piper had just said and replied with "Why can't you just take your heliscooter to Amazonia and the rest of us can go to Tropica?" This seemed like a reasonable compromise to Finn but he knew that Aerrow would never go for it. He thought it was worth a shot though.
Aerrow stood and returned his gaze to Finn. "We are all going Finn, there's usually at least a dozen or so Cyclonians stationed on Amazonia so we might as well do a little recon while Piper looks for those deposits." Aerrow glanced over at Piper and she gave him an encouraging nod. "Besides, what could be more fun than taking down those Cyclonian morons?"
"I'd think that going surfing could be just as fun." Finn grumbled as he stood up to leave the room, it was getting late and he was exhausted, stupid Radarr made him use up all his energy. He excused himself, left the room and began making his way through the corridors towards his cabin. The door of Finn's room closed automatically behind him as he shuffled in and flopped onto his bed. He stared up at the array of posters that littered the ceiling. One had Harrier's face staring brightly back at him, he'd added a little mustache for good measure after their run in a few years ago. Another was a blown up photograph Finn himself had taken of the Rebel Ducks squadron during their last visit to terra Gale, which was when he learned that Dove was going to be getting married later that summer. Still another was a poster he'd found of his very own squad last time they had been in Atmosia. A street vendor had been selling all sorts of merchandise featuring the Storm Hawks.
He let out a sigh and closed his eyes, and folded both hands behind his head. "This is so lame, all we ever do is work to protect the Atmos, there's never any down time." Finn never once regretted joining the storm hawks all those years ago, but it had never been walk in the park that was for sure. Finn could still remember that little red headed kid, about the age of seven, asking him to join his sky knight squadron as his wing man and sharpshooter. He had agreed almost immediately, he Aerrow, and Piper had all been orphaned at a very young age so there wasn't much they felt they had stick around for.
Aerrow's mom had been lost in a cyclonian raid when he was around six, and his dad of course had been killed when the Dark Ace had turned traitor and took down his entire squadron before retreating to Cyclonia two years before that. Piper's family was relatively the same story. Her dad had been part of an underground squadron that worked with sky knights in the area. He got caught in the cross fire between Cyclonians and Storm Hawks one day and the building he had been taking shelter in, collapsed on top of him. Her mom ended up getting killed during the same raid that Aerrow's mom died in. Finn's mom and dad had both died in that same battle as well.
It was this sad fact that brought these friends together to begin with. Finn met Aerrow and Radarr about a year after the raid and they had been inseparable ever since. They together met Piper shortly after, and built their hideaway on top of one of the many hills in the outskirts of Atmosia. Junko came along when he and a group of thugs tried to claim their sanctuary in the name of Cyclonia, Junko later had a change of heart and drove his old "friends" away and was offered a spot in their ever growing squadron. And Stork of course had come free with the discovery of one Condor.
Finn had gotten about two hours of sleep when a tremendous rapping could be heard at his door. He opened one bright blue eye and said irritably "Come in Junko." The door slid open and in came the kind-hearted Wallop himself.
"Hey Finn, sorry to wake you up but Aerrow needs us all to come to the bridge right away." Junko said, a sheepish smile played across his lips, he knew Finn was never one who enjoyed being jostled out of sleep and Junko hated being the messenger that had to put his best friend in a bad mood.
"Why didn't he just use the intercom?" Finn asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, it wasn't fun when Junko got upset, and Wallop tears take forever to clean up so he let it slide for the time being.
"He said that a whole bunch of electric stuff's going on the fritz and Stork couldn't get the message routed into your room, mine was the only room that got the signal. That's actually what he wants to talk to us about too, so let's go." Junko said as he held out a large hand so he could help Finn up.
Finn took Junko's hand and was lurched forward because as soon as Finn was "up" Junko released his hand and sent him flying forward toward the wall. Finn let out a small yell before he was caught around the gut by Junko, getting the wind knocked out of him in the process.
"Woops. Sorry about that buddy." Junko said as he released Finn and inched back a ways to give his friend some air. Finn waved his hand as a sign to Junko to go on without him and that he was okay. Junko obliged and vacated the room. Finn took a moment to regain his composure and give his hair a quick once-over in the mirror by the door. Once he decided his hair was sufficient he made his way back to the bridge, one hand still holding his sore gut.
When he entered the bridge Finn saw Junko leaning over the large table in the center of the room, Aerrow and Piper were also huddled around as well, he saw they were consulting Junko on the blueprints of the ship. Stork had flipped the auto pilot on and was watching the meeting from a "safe" distance mumbling something about the Condor crashing into the Wastelands and bringing the Storm Hawks to their doom. As Finn approached his team; Aerrow, Piper, and Junko all looked up for a moment and gave him a small nod of recognition before turning back to the blueprints and maps that were scattered around the table.
Finn joined the circle and gazed down and the diagrams that had been obviously scribbled in a hurry, most likely by Piper, for they didn't make a lick of sense to Finn. Aerrow looked up and saw that everyone was now present and cleared his throat slightly before saying "So what's been going on is that nearly all our Engine crystals have begun malfunctioning. Same goes for the Solaris crystals as well, Piper, Stork and I have been on the lookout for the possibility of a leecher on board, but so far, nothing has turned up."
Aerrow gave a nod to Piper so she could begin "I've deduced our position and there's a small refueling Terra not too far from here." She said as she pulled out a few of the maps she'd used in the process. "But the problem is, the crystals are dying fast and we need to do everything we can to keep them from dying prematurely. So Stork, you stay here and pilot the ship while we try to keep the crystals going." Piper finished and she and Aerrow began placing all the papers they'd been studying while trying to find a logical excuse to their engine trouble, back into a messy pile at the center of the table.
They all hurried down to the engine room, small emergency crystals in hand that could be used to replace the large ones for the time being. Piper scooted around, picking up all of the crystals that had given out completely and set them aside so more room could be made for replacements. Radarr was running the fading Solaris crystals up to the deck so they could start absorbing sunlight. The odd thing was however, as soon as a replacement was set into the engine, it would start to fade, and as soon as it was removed, it would begin to power up again. So for the next hour, the Storm Hawks were constantly placing and replacing crystals to keep the Condor from falling out of the sky and into the Wastelands below.
As the friends continued to move about the room, they heard Stork's voice boom out from the now functional intercom. "Terra in sight repeat, Terra in sight! We might not be doomed after all, at least… not yet." At that moment the engine room came alive with the weak cheers of the rest of the team.
"Great job everyone; we got here in one piece." Aerrow said, panting and clutching a stitch in his side that had developed from constantly running back and forth for a straight hour. Radarr let out a small chirp and promptly fell backwards onto the floor. Junko leaned against the wall, trying to take some of the strain of his throbbing legs. Finn and Piper both collapsed and sat down on the small staircase that led into the engine room, both leaning on the other for support so as not to completely fall over. Aerrow, trying to stay strong for the moral of the team, stayed standing. After a minute or so however, Piper made him sit down saying that he shouldn't strain himself.
After a few moments rest, the team made their way back up to the bridge to join Stork and help prepare for landing. Aerrow walked forward to the helm and placed a hand on Stork's shoulder as he leaned in to get a better look at the Terra. It was a bit larger than Terra Gale, with room for a refueling station, a diner, what looked to be an inn, and a few small residential homes scattered here and there. He hoped that they wouldn't be stranded here for long, but because of the uncommonness of their predicament, it was hard to tell just how long any repairs would take.
Aerrow and Finn took their skimmers out of the hanger so as to guide Stork. The carrier docks at the refueling station looked like a pretty tight fit and Stork didn't want to risk any unnecessary damages to the ship so the task of parking guide fell upon Aerrow and Finn.
"So where are we?" Finn asked Aerrow after they had successfully guided the Condor into port. Aerrow looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face "I don't really know Finn. Somewhere between Terra Vapos and Terra Amazonia I guess. Piper couldn't find a registered name, but we didn't exactly have enough time to go into great detail." Just then the Condor gave one final lurch as Stork shut her down for the time being.
"Is it just me or does this place kind of creep you out a little." Finn said as he quickly surveyed the area. From the air, the Terra gave off the illusion of a quaint, lively place to live but on ground level, something just seemed off. The town was completely baron, like a ghost town. The sign on the diner said "open" but it didn't seem like any part of the Terra was "open." Windows were covered with blinds, doors were shut, and not a soul could be seen anywhere.
"Yeah" Aerrow said as he began to take a look around as well "I'm just hoping that there'll be someone around to repair the ship. If not, then we could all be stuck here for a very long time." Just then, Aerrow looked over and spotted a figure in the distance, walking slowly towards the Condor.
Well there you go everyone, the first chapter. Was that enough of a cliffy for ya? =) I'll try to get chapter two out as soon as I can so be on the lookout!!! And remember to R&R. Luvs ya'll bye.