I do not own Storm Hawks! This story is an AU story. Yet another reason why studying past midnight is a bad idea!

On with the story!

Aerrow panted, his chest heaving. At his side, Finn glared at the bully facing them. The Earth Spirit the bully had recently bound to with a Contract was slamming his hands together, igniting a green glow around them.

Finn looked to Aerrow.

Aerrow breathed in, and then pushed his will into their Contract. Finn, a Class A Air Spirit, brought a shield of air between himself and the Earth Spirit.

Aerrow was after a bigger fish than defeating the Earth Spirit. He wanted more than to defeat the bully. Aerrow wanted the contract for the Earth Spirit.

Not that he coveted the contract. The bully thought that because he had bound an Earth Spirit, that he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it, because his terms of the contract had the Earth Spirit obeying his every command- even out of battle.

Aerrow brought himself up to his full height. His breathing slowed as he focused on his battle.

Piper analyzed the situation from a great distance away, hovering over the ground, partially taking cover. As a Fairy, she had many powers, such as healing, but Aerrow wanted to do this on his own. Radarr, his Familiar, waited with her.

Aerrow's hands were tied in the metaphorical sense. With his two stronger and better suited fighters side-lined by issuing the challenge to the bully, who set the rules of combat, Aerrow now only had Finn to combat the Earth Spirit.

It wasn't that Finn was weak; he just had a playful personality. He also shared his Master's sentiments. Aerrow couldn't stand to see the Earth Spirit in pain, but he was still without a plan to steal the Contract.

The Earth Spirit charged.

Finn, tired of having to keep low, whipped up a tornado and lifted the Earth Spirit into the sky. Aerrow pushed his will over to Finn. Finn grinned. Instead of slamming the Earth Spirit back down, Finn held him up in the air.

Then Aerrow stepped up.

If they had been on the Campus grounds, a teacher would have stopped the fight by now, the Earth Spirit would leave with the bully, and Aerrow would be on probation for daring to attack another Mage directly. But the bully had wanted to thrash Aerrow without interference.

Aerrow slammed a wave of blue light at the bully. His heavy build and piggy eyes widened.

But without the Earth Spirit to route the sheer force coming at him, the bully was knocked flat on his back.

Piper winced. If any of the teachers noticed the wounds later, there would be trouble. She resolved herself to sneak out and heal the bully before he could get Aerrow in trouble later.

If there were no wounds, there was no cause for investigation.

Radarr watched silently from the side lines. He should be helping his friend and master, but instead, he was watching as Aerrow thrashed a bully on his own. There wasn't even a competition. The bully got what he wanted through intimidation and brute strength. Aerrow got to where he was by studying, and even breaking rules. But he followed his own moral Code strictly.

Eventually, the bully wore out.

"You win! What do you want?" he gasped out.

Aerrow set his mouth. "The name of the Earth Spirit you've been bullying."

The bully stared at him in fury. Aerrow could understand the sentiment, but he felt that the bully didn't deserve the Earth Spirit after the way he treated him for the past three months. In fact, Aerrow suspected that the bully had stolen the Earth Spirit from a researcher, or had stumbled upon a poorly executed summoning that had dragged the Spirit along. Then he had brain-washed the Earth Spirit and taken the credit for binding the Earth Spirit.

"Junko." Aerrow nodded.

The bully turned and stormed off, leaving the warehouse. He would be walking a fair distance since the warehouse was on the outskirts of town. Piper clasped her hands together and whispered a phrase under her breath. The bully wouldn't realize that he had no evidence of the struggle for a few hours. Even if the bruises faded, the pain would linger.

"Finn, put Junko, Junko, Junko down." It was common knowledge that that only another Mage could break the Contract.

Finn released the winds back into the air. Rather than drop the Earth Spirit, he eased him down to the floor.

Aerrow approached them.

The Earth Spirit towered above him by at least a foot and a half, and was heavily muscled. His brown skin and green hair gave him an earthy look, and easily identified him as non- human entity. He had two legs that ended in cloven hooves with two front claws and one back claw.

His eyes were the grey of rock that gleamed dully.

Aerrow put his hands on Junko's shoulders.

"I can send you back home, if you want to go. Or you can make a new Contract."

Junko gave Aerrow a very confused look.

"Only Mages can create contracts." The implication that a Spirit had no say in their Contract was left unsaid.

"Not true." Piper flapped her wings and flew over. She continually hovered above the air, which was a good thing, as Piper was currently the size of three apples in order to not drain all of Aerrow's magical power during the fight.

"The Code clearly states that a contract is between master and servant. If either party cannot work to satisfaction, then the contract is void. New Spirits like yourself usually don't know that, but it is common knowledge. Most likely the bully has you thinking a lot of things that aren't true." She perched on Aerrow's shoulder.

Radarr couldn't keep up with her speed and arrived shortly after she did. He crawled over the floor and climbed up onto Aerrow's back. Aerrow bent slightly to aid his Familiar, and when Piper and Radarr were on his shoulders, relaxed his stance.

Radarr and Piper held on as Aerrow walked the exhausted Earth Spirit over to some rocks. He gently set Junko down for him to rest.

"The basic rules of a contract between a mage and a spirit are that we can only enforce our will upon them when summoned to battle. A Spirit is an entity- there are many kinds and there can be a variation of rules in their Contract. With Finn, I let him know what I want, and he acts upon it. Punishment is also negotiable. Finn comes to me if he feels that he did something wrong, we talk about it, and if needed I assign him chores to do."

The Air Spirit with the windswept blond hair grinned at Junko. A free loving Spirit, Air Spirits were mischievous denizens who rarely had troubled minds. But when troubled, lightning was known to split the sky. He was clothed in a blue tunic and leggings, barefoot, and his blue eyes shifted hues.

The Earth Spirit pricked up his head, much like a horse pricked up their ears.

"You mean, unless I know it's wrong, and want to make it right, you'll talk with me?"

Aerrow nodded, then, catching himself, said, "I give you my solemn word."

The Earth Spirit held out his hand. It was his way of expressing that he was willing to Contract with Aerrow, testing the waters by addressing him in an informal manner. Aerrow grinned and slung his hand into Junko's.

"My name is Junko. I'm a Wallop, Class C Earth Spirit. I'm not really strong, but I'm smarter than average."

"I am Aerrow, and I'm a Mage at the Academy. I'm in the Atmos branch of studying. This is Finn, my Air Spirit. Piper's a friend, and she's a Fairy, technically under my protection. This is Radarr, my Familiar. Stork isn't here right now, but he's a Shade that hangs around, also 'technically' under my protection. He's probably bringing his portal Condor here so that we can warp home without attracting attention."

As the clock struck seven in the evening, Stork walked into the warehouse. Okay, he glided into the warehouse, but he was faking a very good walk. He drifted over to Aerrow.

"I see you made a new contract. Welcome to one of the more considerate masters in the Academy. Any day now he's going to be lynched for being different from other Mages."A manic grin flitted across his face. "Woe to those that would try." Stork was a naturally gloomy person, with green skin and piercings. The piercings weren't only decorations. A Shade was a very dangerous entity, nick named Death's Heralds for very apt reasons. Stork had three piercings in one ear, seals that enabled him to even be in the presence of others. He was a Class S Shade, who dealt with knowledge mostly. He was also a Protector class.

Stork then sat upon the floor and began to open the Condor around them. A glowing circle with the blue emblem that Aerrow had chosen for his calling card lit up under their feet. The figure looked vaguely like a dragon with the wings spread on each side.

"Junko, welcome to the Storm Hawks."

Master Cyclonis raised her eyes from her book as Aerrow entered the lounge.

"I take it there's another bully sent back to the peon ranks?"

Aerrow glanced over his homework sheet and sat across from her. The table between them was small, and laden with books for studying mages.

"Yeah, he was putting an Earth Spirit through a lot of pain. I just couldn't take it anymore."

Cyclonis nodded. She was a petit girl, a few classes above Aerrow, and the only Cyclonian practitioner at the school.

Unlike Aerrow, who made Contracts with Spirits, it was rumored that Master Cyclonis made pacts with Daemons.

Aerrow knew that the only 'demonic' thing about Cyclonis was her taste in nail polish. He could smell the concoction she painted on down the hall and across the house they shared. She had a genuine Guardian, a lanky fellow by the name of Dark Ace that she named. Why she picked Dark Ace, Aerrow had no idea. He also wasn't about to pry into her affairs.

Cyclonis was a smart girl, with a sharp intellect, and an even sharper tongue. Thiers wasn't a typical friend relationship. When she demanded why Aerrow wanted to be friends with her, he had blurted out that she looked lonely, and he wanted her to have a friend. Cyclonis decided not to blast him into next week. Aerrow rarely lied to her, and after throwing her a surprise birthday party, she started to look out for him.

Aerrow pulled a clean sheet of paper to him, and blooded the top of it with his finger.

"Making the Contract?"

"Yep." Aerrow wrote out his standard opening, that the Contract is negotiable and only available to Mage and Spirit.

Then he wrote out Junko's name and the encrypting code he used. Casting a white spell every time he said his Spirit's name to prevent a thief from stealing them was tiring. Aerrow preferred that protecting his Spirits was a little more permanent and not entrusted to just a slip of the tongue.

Perusing the Contract, Aerrow nodded in satisfaction. He held the Contract out to Junko, who had silently followed him through the door. Junko read through the Contract, and then signed it.

Aerrow nodded, and banished the Contract to his bag of tricks for safe keeping.

"Why don't you look around? I usually leave you all to your own devices when I'm working because you feed off of my Mana to exist here. I can find you that way, and you can find me. It's a bit of a two way street. The kitchens through there, the bedrooms are upstairs, and Piper and Finn can answer any questions you have."

Junko nodded, and left. He looked eager to explore his new home. Aerrow smiled at his enthusiasm. He hadn't meant to blow Junko off right after he arrived, but Stork had told Aerrow in front of everyone that he still had some homework to do.

With a sigh, Aerrow pulled his books towards him. He set to work, copying out notes and debating theoretical arguments on paper. A lot of the theoretical arguments were actually meant to test how the values and ideas that a Mage developed worked for them. It also alerted the teachers to any problems and misconceptions that the top students had concerning their studies.

Such as the more liberal view that Aerrow exercised, but the relationship between master and servant was generally considered a private practice.

Cyclonis pushed a bowl of fruit and a glass of water towards him.

"You need to stay rested and fit if you want to support two Spirits, a Fairy, a Shade, and a Familiar all at once. I hope you don't intend to pick up any more strays."

Aerrow shook his head. "I can't. I simply have no more Mana to spare."

Cyclonis rolled her eyes.

"I don't regret it, either. I know a lot of people go off about how their father made great achievements, but I'm really just doing this to make something of myself. Until the School's founder turned up, I didn't even know I qualified for a Mage, much less a Sky Knight class Mage. How are your studies coming along?"

Master Cyclonis marked her place in the book and stood up. "I finished my practical exams today. That's the joy of independent study and being the only one of your kind. You get to spend a lot of time thinking and learning. I'm setting out for a satellite school to take the Basics Final and finish out my degree. Then I get to go out into the world and see what happens." She put the book away and picked out another tome.

Aerrow smiled. "That's great, Lark!"

Master Cyclonis nodded. "I'll miss you too. Perhaps I'll take a teaching position on theories or as a tutor here. But I really want to get out and see the world." She returned to her seat.

Aerrow nodded. Once, he would have hugged her, but that was before Dark Ace was sitting right next to Master Cyclonis, dozing.

There were many things a Mage learned, and startling a Guardian was not on Aerrow's top ten ways to die list.

"Good luck, Master Cyclonis." She smiled, and went back to her work as Aerrow ate the food and read the next few chapters for his spell class.

Once his homework was done, it was ten at night and school started at eight in the morning tomorrow. Selecting a book on Spirits and types, Aerrow bade Master Cyclonis good night and retired to bed.

"You should have told him, Master." Dark Ace didn't move, but Cyclonis knew that he had watched the entire exchange. Guardians never slept. They could Meditate and rest, but never sleep.

"I don't want him to worry, Dark Ace. Distracting Aerrow from his studies will not help him in the coming war against the Far Side. It is caring Mages like Aerrow that will preserve and mend the relationships between the races."

Then Master Cyclonis rose and left for bed. Dark Ace walked beside her, his steps silent, and hers a ghost.

A/N: Really confusing, I know! But I had killerladybug beta for me. Basically, and AU story that is set in a magical world! I know, I have a lot of other stories to update, but I had to get this out of my system!

Also, thanks to killerladybug, yes, I know parts are redundant, that a classical Spirit that was abused by a mage would be hesitant to make a new Contract and hate the entire human race, and the Code will be clarified at a later date, along with the ranking system. Those of you wo have seen episode Origins, know what I'm basing this on.

Class X is the highest, Class S second highest, then A, B, etc.

Review, and don't hold your breath for an update!