Disclaimer: I don't own Storm Hawks or any of its ideas, characters, or anything else that comes out of its universe. So don't sue.
Cyclonia built this?
Aerrow just stood in amazement at what he had uncovered. He and the rest of the Storm Hawks had been called to Terra Glockenchime to help in cleaning and maintenance at the time-pulse. Aerrow didn't really think it was a sky knight kind of thing but he went anyway; unlike him his team was rather excited. Radarr was going nuts on the Condor and needed to stretch his legs on a Terra for a while.
Finn, ever the ladies man, had commented that he needed to meet some girls and was going to go and show off to the female populace of the Terra. Junko was just happy that he could do some heavy lifting; Aerrow never understood Wallop strength or their need to flaunt it. Piper was the most excited of the team. She wanted to get a better look at the time-pulse and all of the crystal technology that sat in its inner workings. On their last visit they had apparently only seen a small portion of the time-pulse and there was far more underground. Stork wasn't really going to leave the ship but he was happy none the less.
When they arrived they had all gone their separate ways. Aerrow had been guided deep into the time-pulse; apparently he was lucky as only a very select few were allowed down here. The dark cave was filled with enormous gears which were explained to him as being redundancies, in case something broke. Aerrow walked to the very depths of the Terra until he reached a small landing.
The landing had four paths and he was lead down the left most one. The cave was filled with gears, but one was obviously broken. The enormous gear had a splitting crack going through it and the crystal in the center had been removed.
"You need to remove the broken gear" the timekeeper with him said.
"Alright" Aerrow replied, slightly daunted by the task of changing out the huge gear.
Aerrow was left to his devices as the timekeeper went to gather the new gear. Aerrow took hours trying to get the gear removed. He had been given no explanation on how to accomplish his task, but he had figured it out himself; Piper wasn't the only mechanically inclined member of the team. He had removed several other smaller gears near the broken one and began to pry at it with his tools.
After a couple of hours he had only seceded in taking off a small portion of the broken gear, feeling dejected he returned to the Condor for the night; in the morning they would return.
That night dinner had been quite with his entire team tired; well all accept Piper. Apparently she wasn't very happy that she had been delegated to help sweep and polish gears while Aerrow had been sent into the bowls of the time-pulse.
"It's not fair" she said pouting as she and Aerrow sat outside.
"Look Piper we're all doing our part, I mean I'm just pulling out some broken gear" he replied trying to appease the obviously pissed off girl.
"Well I don't care" she replied stomping her foot against the Condor's hull.
"I'm the one with knowledge about crystals and mechanics and they send you down there" she almost screamed at him.
"Piper calm down" Aerrow said calmly trying to calm his friend.
"No" she screamed
"Aerrow I deserve to be the one down there" she said
"Do you know how many people are allowed to see the inside of the time-pulse?" she asked, somewhat rhetorically as she cut Aerrow off from his answer.
"Outside of the elite timekeepers there have been only one or two others allowed down there" she said as if quoting some ancient book.
"So why you? Why now?" she asked in an almost defeated tone.
Aerrow tried to comfort her but she just ran off to her room. Later that night he could hear her feverishly working in her lab but decided against talking to her. When she wanted something like this she was always very dejected when she couldn't get it.
The next morning Aerrow returned to the depths of the time-pulse and at the same time eliciting a sneer from Piper's face. It took Aerrow another three hours to finally remove the gear. When he was done he noticed something on the wall behind the gear. He brushed the dirt off of it and tried to read it but was defeated.
The plaque was bronze and held a small red stone in it. Aerrow was very surprised as upon closer inspection it wasn't a crystal as he had first though but a ruby. In the Atmos rubies were very rare as most people concentrated on mining crystals and rare gems like this were hardly ever found. He tried to read the plaque but felt dejected as it was obviously in an ancient dialogue that he couldn't read.
What he did recognize however was the Cyclonian symbol sitting paramount atop the plaque in what was usually a place of honor; Aerrow simply didn't understand all of this. The time-pulse was very old and the section where Aerrow currently was working was obviously one of the machines oldest sections. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the timekeeper who had entered the room.
"I see you've found it" he said calmly.
Aerrow spun quickly to see the old man standing there as if nothing were out of the ordinary. He recognized the man as one of the senior timekeepers. He was an old but not ancient man with salt and pepper hair and a slight five o'clock shadow covering his face. His timekeeper robes hung gingerly on his frame hiding what Aerrow could tell as being a well built frame.
"You mean this?" Aerrow asked pointing to the plaque.
"Yes" he said trying to gauge Aerrow's reaction.
"What is it?" he asked curiously.
"That is a dedication plaque. You are in one of the four heart chambers of the time-pulse. Here is where all originates and all returns" he said cryptically as he took a seat on a small bench that had been move into the room. Aerrow took a seat next to him and continued with his barrage of questions.
"It is a vital part of the time-pulse" he added.
"And the plaque?" Aerrow asked again. He could feel the man dodging the essence of his question.
"It is to dedicate the completion of the chamber" he said.
"So you can read it?" Aerrow asked somewhat more excitedly then he wanted to let on.
"No, but we timekeepers have passed down its meaning for generations" he said, noticing a slight disappointment of Aerrow's face.
"Why is it here and why is it branded with the symbol of Cyclonia?" he asked rather forcefully.
"That is a very old and guarded secret" the timekeeper replied rather nonchalantly.
"If I tell you will you keep that secret?" he said turning a serious eye to Aerrow.
Aerrow though for a moment, such a secret would obviously a great story to hear. On the other hand could he really keep something like this from anyone, especially Piper.
"Yes" he said confidently. He definitely wanted to hear the story and if this was then only way then so be it. A sky knight had honor and he saw this as simply another test of that honor.
"Then listen and listen good Aerrow" he said as he shifted to a more comfortable place on the bench.
"Long ago Cyclonia was the center of a great empire; many say the Empire covered from one end of the Barrier Cliffs to the other. They were great artisans, philosophers, scientists, and warriors.
Their leader Master Cyclonis ordered the building of a series of time-pulses around the Atmos to facilitate travel and expansion. This was done because before the creation of the network pilots had to use the stars and their guts to navigate the skies." he said.
"They why is it not controlled by Cyclonia now and what happened to the rest of the network and this empire?" Aerrow asked. He was completely engrossed by the story and had his head filled with more questions then answers.
"That is another story for perhaps another day" he said. The man rose to his feet and began to exit the room.
"Now I believe you have a gear to install" he added pointing his staff at the large hole in the wall of gears.
"And a secret to keep" he added with what Aerrow could tell was the man's most serious tone.
"Of course" he replied.
Aerrow went back to work and in only another two hours was finished the repairs. When he was done another timekeeper came in with a glowing blue crystal. He inserted into the gear and suddenly everything came to life. The gears all began to spin and groan as the time-pulse lurched to life. It hadn't been shut down for the repairs but now it was apparently even more accurate; Aerrow didn't even pretend to understand the specifics of it all.
After all of this Aerrow was caught in contemplative thought. The Condor was taking them somewhere; he hadn't really listened as Piper drowned on about their destination. Aerrow thought back to all that he had learned that day, all he had ever known was the evil Cyclonia and their horrible exploits.
He was smart enough to know that something's were exaggerated as the history he read was written by them; enemies of Cyclonia. If Cyclonia had built such a great thing as the time-pulse, a network of them nonetheless, why didn't they control it or them now? Where these other time-pulses real and where were they was a bigger question on his mind; could there be more in the unknown Atmos? Could Cyclonia have vast forces and a loyal Empire beyond the know skies of the Atmos?
All these questions swirled in his head as the cool night air blew through his hair. The biggest question was causing him the most problems though. Was Cyclonia really evil? This question was weighing heavy on his shoulders and Aerrow knew that only someone from Cyclonia could answer it for him; and not just anyone but someone high up. He was pulled from his musings by Piper who had suddenly appeared.
"So what did you see?" she asked with a smile that was big enough to consume him.
"Old gears and nothing else" he replied keeping his promise in mind.
"Oh come on Aerrow. You have to have seen something cool and secret." Piper said.
"Look Piper all I saw was a bunch of old gears and a few crystals, nothing more nothing less" he said forcefully.
Piper looked rather dejected as she walked off mumbling something about timekeepers and their secrets. She was obviously not happy with either their assignment or Aerrow's response to her probing questions; at this point Aerrow didn't really care either, he simply returned to looking at the stars in the clear night sky as the creeks and groans of the Condor relaxed him and his mind shifted back to the huge flurry of questions that were running through his mind.