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.

Aerrow's Dilemma

The stormy skies of the Atmos were filled with violent lightening on this night. The winds howled through the buildings and ships as trees swayed and joints groaned. The heavy rains poured against the hull of the Condor as the silent and echoing of a single drip could be heard against the cold metal of the ships floor.

On this cold night Aerrow walked the halls of his ship, unable to sleep as his mind was weighing heavy with thoughts of the next day. He and his team had been summoned to Terra Atmosia for a meeting of the sky knight council. Aerrow peered out of the Condor's windows at the other carriers in the docking port with them.

There were sky knights from every squadron in the Atmos there and Aerrow knew that this meant something big was going down at the meeting the next day.

Aerrow carefully stepped over the puddle that had been produced from the leak that he had heard earlier and sat on one of the couches on the bridge. He supposed that for a ship that was over 120 years old and had been in as many battles as the Condor he should be grateful that it was in as good of shape as it was.

Aerrow returned to his thoughts about the meeting and began to wonder just why it had been called. He had been a sky night for five years now and he had never been invited to anything like this; now at only a few months shy of his 20th birthday Aerrow was experiencing his first real doubts about his life.

He had had similar doubts in the past few years, but they had never been as concrete as those he was feeling now. In his years as a sky knight he thought that he was going to be fighting mostly Cyclonia and their forces, but all that had changed nearly four years ago. Cyclonia had suddenly taken an abrupt u-turn in their plans and began to found their Empire in a peaceful way.

Aerrow couldn't understand why this change had taken place, nor could anyone else; but it had and Atmos had been better for it. Long gone were the days of Cyclonian raids and terror, they had been replaced with what Starling had described to him as a noble empire on the verge of a change; Aerrow didn't pretend to understand it so he was a little lost in everything.

Unfortunately Starling didn't represent the majority of sky knight, many were and still are suspicious of the move; Piper amongst them. This suspicion had lead to deep conflicts within the sky knight community. Some quads were vehemently apposed to it and began rampant attacks and bloody battles against Terra's that now identified themselves as part of the Cyclonian Empire.

Aerrow was sick over some of the reports that had civilians slaughtered and sky knights killed in these battles, he just couldn't understand why they were being ordered to attack Terra's that had once relied on them for protection.

He had seen the Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe, other Cyclonian generals, and even Cyclonis herself risk their lives for those who were now their citizens; for Aerrow the conflict came from the fact that he had no clear enemy anymore, not that a sky knight was suppose to have an enemy.

The Dark Ace, the man who had betrayed his squad and killed his father was now dead. For years Aerrow had held such contempt for the man and now he had nowhere to vent it, it had been only three months prior that it had happened.

Apparently the Rex Guardians were on a raid against a small Terra close to Cyclonia. The Terra was small but held a village where several Cyclonian scientists lived. The Rex Guardians had attacked without warning and the village was nearly leveled, Talons were quick to respond and the battle had begun.

It wasn't a battle to be proud of nor was it a battle that would be spoken highly of in the history books, even those written on their own Terra. The Guardians had been merciless and Aerrow had even heard the rumor of children being targeted and sacrificed, not by the Talons, but by the sky knights. T

he battle was quick and after about a half hour it was over and when the dust settled the costs were great. Official numbers were never given but Aerrow had heard twenty Cyclonian citizens of the Terra, not even any of the scientists they had originally been after, were dead.

The Rex Guardians had lost thirty sky knights and the talons only twelve, with about thirty more injured; the Dark Ace had also fallen during the battle. Word spread fast of his death and feelings were mixed. At the end of the battle his body was found in a heap on the ground, he was surrounded by the bodies of three Rex Guardians. Aerrow was slightly rattled when he heard that he had died in such a noble battle, but it only made him question more about what was happening.

Less then a week later he had been given back this fathers sword, the one the Dark Ace flaunted so proudly as his weapon. Aerrow had nothing to say when Master Cyclonis herself had given him the sword.

He wanted to ask so many questions but instead got answers to so few as Cyclonis walked back to her ship, flanked by her Nightcrawlers. That exchange had been a real eye opener for Aerrow as the sword sat on his wall telling him every morning to question his life and that there were things that he didn't understand. All of this only confused Aerrow more and his team wasn't really much help.

Junko hadn't really ever had anything against Cyclonians so he wasn't that moved by the change, he was far more excited about being able to visit the Terra now and compete in their famed contests of strength. Aerrow never really got why Wallops were so concerned with this but who was he to judge, besides Junko had been able top meet a few female Wallops how he was corresponding with.

Finn hadn't really changed over the years much, he was still the same as he was the day he met him. He had grown taller and more muscular like Aerrow but not much else had changed about him.

His great aim had earned him a name across the Atmos and many admirers; mostly female, but the occasional male snuck into the group, much to Finn's cringe. He was quite accepting of the change in pace and enjoyed the downtime it gave them.

He thought that if Cyclonia wanted peace then who were they to stop them; of course Aerrow also knew that he really wanted some time with his girls so that's why he said what he did.

Aerrrow knew that Finn had been dating a girl of Terra Gale, and twins on Terra Vapos, and about six or seven others. Aerrow was a bit jealous, sure he had female admirers and Piper wasn't very shy anymore about what she felt for him but none of them were right; he just wasn't sure what he was looking for.

Aerrow wasn't sure about Radarr but he thought that maybe his little buddy was fine with whatever made him happy.

Stork was always a cautious and very pessimistic individual but now he seemed a bit different. His home Terra had joined Cyclonia a week ago and Stork had apparently been OK with it. He seemed relaxed and calm and it really suited him better then his paranoid persona. He was still morbidly obsessed with dark and dangerous things, but he was a loyal companion and friend.

A large crack of thunder followed by a spike of tremendous lightening could be heard outside and Aerrow thought that it was slightly appropriate for his thoughts about his finale teammate.

Piper was the worst of the worst when it came to this new world order. She was always bitter against Cyclonis for who she tried to recruit her, but now it was getting bad.

She was the only one on the entire squad who had really called for blood during this much more peaceful time. She didn't know that he knew but he had heard rumors and later seen with his own eyes the fruits of her labor that helped in fuelling the violence. Piper was a genius with crystals, not the worlds best or even close to Master Cyclonis herself, but she was still very good and this made her valuable.

Aerrow remembered seeing some blueprints on her table one day and he hated what he saw. The papers were in fact for a crystal weapon system that was capable of mass destruction; in fact it was the very system that the Storm Hawks and the Rebel Ducks had seized from a transport a week prior.

It had been a real mystery and definitely not Cyclonian and had become a real puzzle; they had destroyed it later that week but Aerrow remembered it clearly. Soon after Piper had been looking rather nervous and Aerrow had caught her burning papers and destroying small prototype crystals.

An intelligence briefing a week later let Aerrow know the truth; at least part of it. Apparently the weapon was a massive storm engine similar to the one Cyclonis had built when he had first become a sky knight. There wasn't a lot of information to share but they were sure it wasn't Cyclonian and had actually attributed it to a new group calling themselves TerraForce; real cheesy.

Apparently they were a terrorist group who had felt the current order, that with a more peaceful Cyclonia, was not working and something needed to be done. They were small but had been randomly attacking both Talons and sky knights hopping to spark something; fortunately nothing had happened but with them having the ability to get a weapon like the one they had found it was only a matter of time before something or someone broke.

Aerrow had a hard time believing Piper could be involved, but he knew better and watched her vigilantly ever since; and that had paid off. He had overheard her speaking with someone and admitting herself to be a member of the group, Aerrow was crushed. Piper had been his friend for years and now she was a terrorist plotting to plunge the Atmos back into war; it was bad enough all the violence the council was authorizing but this was too much.

Aerrow had been very vigilant after this and had even used his position as Piper's friend to gain information, very overtly of course, to stop several attacks. He had only told Starling about this and she was as hurt as Aerrow. She had also thought of Piper as a friend and this kind of betrayal was the worse kind.

Starling had also been suspicious at first about Cyclonia's plans but now years later she had come to see that they were simply using a different strategy; one that wasn't violent and sky knights themselves had used in the past. Aerrow had to wonder what Piper was thinking with her plans, whatever they may be.

Aerrow now turned his thought to the true source of most of the conflict in his life now, Master Cyclonis. The young ruler of Cyclonia had struck Aerrow more and more recently as she had seemingly taken a personal interest in him. He had encountered her on numerous occasions and they had been surprisingly pleasant experiences.

She had grown on him in the years since their change in strategy and he was almost hoping to run into her here and there. She had grow up quite nicely, she was only about two inches shorter then him now and her body curved nicely; sometimes it distracted him a little too much. She was an enigma to him and the rest on Atmos, he never could figure out why she was ruler of Cyclonia at such a young age but when he tried to ask or prod about it her face always returned to the sinister one he once always associated with Cyclonians; so he left it at that. Perhaps it was because she was such a mystery that Aerrow found her in his mind.

She had always been an evil ruler with destruction on her mind to him and now she was something he simply couldn't put his mind on. He found that he was about the only sky knight that she personally interacted with, despite being in a peaceful state with the rest of the Atmos. He was kind of flattered by this, despite Piper continuously screaming at him after every one of their encounters or not so secretly trying to make him hers instead, it felt nice to have a place with someone like that.

He remembered one time Ravess had been there and he swore as the blush cleared from his face she had smirked at him almost like she knew what he was thinking. Whatever Cyclonis actually was to him Aerrow was thinking that in the future he would try and develop it; what that was he didn't know but hopefully he would know what it was when it happened.

Aerrow looked at the clock to see that only a few hours were left until sunrise and only one or two after that until their meeting so he decided to go back to bed. He was slightly dreading the meeting but he thought that perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as he had previously thought. He surprisingly fell asleep quite easily as he closed his eyes and allowed the stress that filled his head to melt away and be replaced with the sinisterly attractive smile of Master Cyclonis.