I do not own Storm Hawks, Storm Hawks is the sole property of the creator Asaph Fipke, Nerd Corps., and affiliates. I write this fan fiction without the creator's permission, and make no profit from this work of fiction.
A Quarter Shy of Human
Chapter 1: No Animal
"Aerrow you might want to take a look at this," Stork called over his shoulder, he sounded worried, and so sounded like his usual self.
"Is that smoke?" Aerrow asked, looking out the large frontal window of the Condor.
"More like fog look at how thick that is, man." Finn chipped in as Junko lumbered over to see what everyone was looking at.
"That's Terra Falls it's called that because of all the waterfalls it has." Piper said. "What could they be burning that would put off that much smoke, the forest, maybe? It looks like the whole Terra is on fire."
"Judging by the white color, and the smell, I would say they are burning thermoplastic elastomers." Stork said casually.
"Is he speaking Merb?" Junko asked, as Finn and Aerrow pitched in with the intelligent response of, "huh?"
"Elastomers like … Latex?" Piper asked.
"Yah, they're burning some type of rubber," was Stork's reply.
"Oh, rubber, like tiers, yah, yah, okay," the other three said in agreement.
The ventilation system in the Condor allowed for outside air to be pumped into the airship and then circulated; unfortunately the system did not filter smells. The main floor of the Condor was soon coated in a thick, oily, and rank smell.
"Do you think we should land and check it out?" suggested Piper, as she covered her nose.
"Definitely," Aerrow replied as Radarr skittered around his feet, "Stork, take us down."
"Oh, yes, let's land in the middle of a fire, so that maybe we can all burn to death. Although, the smoke inhalation will probably kill us first." Stork said darkly.
Stork managed to land in a clear area, and after being prompted and cajoled, Stork was forcefully drug from the Condor, without a float device or pots and pans, and made to ride double with Finn on his Skimmer. After, a short time they broke through the thick jungle that covered Terra Falls, and found themselves in the midst of a village populated by normal, human-looking, people. The group received a somewhat, reserved welcome.
"Hi, we're the Strom Hawks, I'm a Sky Knight and this is my team. We noticed all the smoke, and thought we should check and make sure everything was alright." Aerrow began.
"Welcome to Terra Falls, I'm Yol, the leader of this village," a tall brown haired, brown eyed man introduced himself. He looked generic, and about forty years old.
"So what's with all the smoke?" Finn blurted out.
"Well, we have a dangerous criminal in our midst and we are trying to smoke her out of hiding, you see almost half of the trees that grow on this Terra are Rubber Trees, they put off a lot of smoke when you burn them," admitted Yol.
"A criminal huh, well maybe we can help," Aerrow volunteered.
"Yah, we can catch that criminal for you, after defeating the Cyclonians, there is nothing we can't do," Junko announced enthusiastically.
With a look of wonder, Yol spoke in an amazed voice, "it was you who defeated the Cyclonians three years ago? But, you're all so young, you're what maybe nineteen, twenty?"
"Eighteen, actually," said Piper proudly.
"Then you'd of been what, fifteen when the Cyclonians fell?" Yol said, astounded.
"Yep, we battled them for the first time when we were fourteen, and then just a year later we had them on their knees," Finn happily stated, while nonchalantly inspecting his finger nails.
For the first time, Yol, seemed to notice Stork, "and is he also part of your team?" Yol asked, all the warmth and kindness had fled from his voice, and he inspected Stork with cold eyes.
"Um, yeah, this is Stork," Aerrow said, he could feel the unease, and wanted to avoid a confrontation, if possible.
"I suspect he is a Merb," Yol said, with thinly veiled disgust, stressing the words 'he' and 'Merb'. All the other villagers were still standing around and seem to share Yol's hostile feelings toward Stork.
"I am," Stork boldly said, "I that a problem."
"Are you full Merb, or are you part human as well?" asked Yol. Everyone openly starred at Stork, and the tension hung in the air.
"I'm full Merb," Stork said cautiously, his courage gone; "I've never known a Merb who wasn't."
"Oh, well in that case, welcome, my boy, sorry about the cold treatment, it's just that a large population of Merbs live on the other side of this Terra, and us humans and them had always gotten along fine, until about fifteen years ago that is. The last couple of years have been especially rocky between us, we used to trade, and we didn't really have separate borders. Unfortunately, a small group of both Humans and Merbs have caused trouble between us, and well, we all found that it was best if they stayed on their side and we stayed on ours," Yol explained. "Anyway, about that criminal, she was last sited on the far side of the Terra about two and a half kilometres from here, that was almost a week ago by now, but it would be a good place to start looking, if you still want to help out," Yol offered.
"Sure thing, alright guys let's split up, we can cover more ground that way," Aerrow spoke. "Finn, you and Junko search this area; Radarr will come with me, and Piper you and Stork team up. We'll all search a different area and radio in if you find anything. Uh, hey, Yol, what does the criminal look like, and what should we do if we find her?" questioned Aerrow.
"She has very pale skin, reddish-brown hair, and I'd say she's pretty short, shorter then Stork there, maybe 160 cm at the most," Yol answered. "If you find her just restrain her in what ever way you can, and bring her back here, we'll… um… we'll giver her a fair trial and punish her accordingly." A strange stress was placed on the word 'fair' and at the word many of the villagers snickered.
The team split up just as Aerrow had directed, and began the search for the criminal. Piper and Stork rode double on her Heliscooter; they had only flown over half the Terra when the Heliscooter began to make a coughing sound and then proceeded to plummet towards the ground. Piper just managed to make a rough landing.
"I knew this thing would get messed up if I let Finn barrow it, that's the last time he will ever do that, next time he wrecks his skimmer he can just beg Junko or Aerrow to let him barrow one of their vehicles." Piper was quite disgruntled by the end of her little rant. "Stork can you fix this?" she asked.
"I could if I had a wrench, or maybe even a screw driver. But, someone forced me to leave the Condor unprepared," he stated ominously.
"Well it looks like we'll just have to walk back to the village from here," was Piper's unenthusiastic assertion.
"Oh goody," Stork rebuffed, with even less enthusiasm then Piper.
A rustle from the trees to their right, had them both on high-alert.
"Did you hear that," Piper whispered. Stork nodded in response.
"Do you think it was the criminal?" Stork whispered back, fear, creeping into his voice.
"I don't know." Piper answered. They both held their breath for a moment and stood frozen, when they didn't hear anything for almost a full minute, Stork let out a sigh of relief.
"It must have just been an animal or something," he breathed.
"I can assure you I'm no animal," came a feminine voice from behind Stork.
Piper turned and gasped to see a pale girl, their age, holding a knife to Stork's throat.