The far side of Atmos, a stretch of lush land and a sky of glittering gold, thousands of alien creatures roamed the clouds. The thousands of stars glistening like crystals. It was a new, untamed, untouched land. A truly new world.
The Condor, the home of the Storm Hawks looked filthy against this sterile land. The large metallic ship flew across the emerald green sky.
Stork, the Merb, the Condors pilot called out to his team. "Witch at 8 o clock!" He said whilst pulling the large ship in the 'witches' direction.
The young red headed Sky Knight, Aerrow quickly responded, holding the hand of his teammate Piper. "I will get her, she's weak, she's lost everything. I can take her on". Aerrow spoke with confidence, gripping at Pipers hand with loving reassurance. It had been a mere few minutes since they had left Atmos, their home. Piper clutched Aerrows hand tightly.
"But Aerrow we have no idea what the Far Side is like, you could get lost or she could... I don't want to lose you, not after all of this, not after all we've been through... I, I just can't lose you Aerrow, we should both go, face her together!" Piper insisted, looking into his eyes with care and complete adoration. The two Storm Hawks had reached perfect attunement, the ultimate bond between a crystal master and the perfect partner.
"No, it's because we've gone through all of this that I can't risk losing you Piper, you saw what she did to.. Him... I can't let her do that to you, or to any of you guys, I can't let her take you away from me Piper. I won't let it happen. Just make sure I don't fly off your radar, she doesn't have a skimmer, she will be slower than me for sure." Aerrow was confident, Cyclonia was gone, the Dark Ace with it, all that was left was their queen, the witch. Master Cyclonis.
Aerrow slowly and gently let go of Pipers hand. Looking to her with a half smile across his face. Radarr, his beloved co-pilot, his best friend crawled up to his legs, Aerrow gestured him to stop, kneeling to his friends height, feeling the cold metal floor against his left knee.
"It's not much safer for you either Radarr, there's beasts out there we have no idea about, they could hurt you, and I don't want that to happen. Who knows what they could do, just stay safe and I will be back sooner than you know it okay buddy?". Aerrow tried to reassure his furry companion with a smile across his face and a pet on the head.
Stork squealed before adding onto the end of Aerrows sentence. "Beasts which will almost be carrying some deadly disease or maybe they'll be able to pull your spine out with one fatal swipe and pick the fur from your bones..." He finished with a mad look on his face.
Radarr squeaked with fear at Storks "helpful" talk.
Aerrow looked a little disturbed at Stork before shaking his head. "I promise you all, I will come back, I will make sure Cyclonis is taken down once and for all!" He said raising his fist to the air, his team cheered on to their leader as he began his departure.
Aerrow walked out into the hangar, mounting his skimmer. Fixing his twin energy blades to his back. Revving his engine. He looked back to his team, his squadron, his family. He smiled, nodding to them with confidence, nodding to Piper with a glint in his eye. Piper ran up to his skimmer and embraced him tightly. "Stay safe Aerrow". She whispered to him. He looked at her one more time with a caring smile directed at her.
It was the time of the Sky Knights, time for them to finally rid their world of the evil that had plagued it for so long. Aerrow rode out of the hangar, opening the wings to his skimmer as he flew out into heavy, uncharted airs.
"So far so good guys, I have a visual on her, there's a lot of creatures flying around here- WOAAAH" Aerrows voice echoed through the Condor on the intercom..
"Aerrow! Are you alright?!" Piper called out over the radio to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine, these beasts are a bit ruthless, one just flew right into me!" Aerrow said whilst recalculating his flight path, keeping his eyes on his target.
"Please, be careful Aerrow, we don't know what they could do like you said." Piper responded with a tone of worry.
"Just make sure you keep away from any gas clouds, hoards of flying beasts and anything with teeth, then you might have a slight chance of coming back with your flesh still attached to your bones!" Aerrow heard Stork also adding in the background.
"Uh, thanks for that Stork..." Aerrow responded, his radio crackling a little as he responded, he thought it best to reply to Stork regardless to ensure his team he was still fine.
The dark haired young woman turned, she floated through the air aided by the energy of her crystal staff. Master Cyclonis, the girl who almost had the world at her feet now fleeing to the Far Side. She flew above the mass hordes of beasts which hovered beneath the clouds. The sky was greying, the winds becoming more harsh. She heard a familiar sound, a skimmer.
She turned to face the oncoming sound.
"It's over Cyclonis, you've got nowhere left to run!" The unwanted voice of Aerrow calling out from behind her amongst the whistling of the wind.
"Oh is that so Sky Knight, I have a whole new world to conquer! And nothing you, Piper or any of you pathetic Sky Knights can do will stop me!" She roared back at him, a single clap of thunder boomed as she spoke.
Aerrow stood on the nose of his skimmer, readying himself, readying his move and his weapons. He was ready to strike, his blades lit up. Cyclonis readied her staff too.
Thunder rumbled, lightning crackled.
There was a loud roar from something large behind him, a huge creature plummeted into Aerrows skimmer, sending him flying off his ride, he opened his wings to his glider and flew as close to Cyclonis as he could, Aerrow knew her crystals energy would be the safest bet.
Back at the Condor, Piper began to panic "AERROW! Stork where is he! I can't see him on the grid! He's gone! And his radio just shut down and is offline!" Piper becoming hysterical with fear, running around the Condor frantically.
"Aw man and the storm looks like it's going to come down real hard!" Finn, the blonde sharpshooter added, looking out from the Condors large window.
"Stork we have to get over there and help him!" Piper pleaded, running over to Stork and looking to him with large tear filled eyes.
"There's no way we can risk going out in that!" Finn pointed to a storm, a mass of sky beasts forming around the clouds, like a tornado of creatures large and small, fleeing from the thunder and lightning.
Aerrow grabbed onto Cyclonis' leg, knowing he would be protected by the energy of her Crystal.
"Get your filthy hands off me Sky Knight!" Her flying wasn't affected by the extra weight of him, the energy of the crystal kept her levitated and protected from the storm, but his weight of the young man pulling at her limb was uncomfortable for her.
Cyclonis readied her staff aiming it down her body, towards Aerrows face with a sadistic smile pasted across her face.
"Look out!" Aerrow cried out. Another beast with huge shark-like teeth soared her way, she briskly aimed her staff in its direction but the beast hit one of the crystals off from her staff.
"No!" She reached out, grasping at the air for her crystal, desperately trying to grab for it.
The storm intensified, the winds becoming a painful hit against both the both of them, Cyclonis had just one crystal left in her staff, keeping them elevated. But it would not protect them from the storm, levitation also had become much more difficult and the strain of Aerrows added weight becoming much more painful for Cyclonis.
"Get off me Sky Kni-"
Thunder clapped, cutting off her sentence. The electricity, attracting to the metal of both her staff and Aerrows blades, the two were struck down. Cyclonis screamed as she dropped her staff into the air from the recoil sent out by the final crystal exploding out from her staff. The electric energy surging through both Cyclonis and Aerrows bodies.
Aerrow had groaned as the lightning jolted through his body, his grip had loosened on one of his blades which he too had lost to the monstrous storm.
Both Cyclonis and Aerrow fell, falling fast towards the land beneath them, Aerrow panicked, he let go of Cyclonis leg which doing so, he also dropped the second of his blades, it blew into the distance.
Crap! Aerrow thought to himself, watching as his blade disappearing.
He was being pulled by the storm, he saw Cyclonis falling fast towards the ground, he saw his blade flying out of sight.
I can't just let her die...
He made the decision, he was going to betray all he stood for. Aerrow leaned forwards, fighting against the hurricane of wind pulling him back, holding out a hand to Cyclonis as he glided alongside her.
"Take my hand!" he shouted, half hoping she could hear him in amongst the howling, violent winds.
She didn't accept his hand. Trying to slap it away.
"I'd rather die!" She shouted back at him.
Realising they were getting closer and closer to the ground Aerrow lunged himself towards her, his body impacting hers. He wrapped his arms around her body as his glider spun downwards towards the volley of trees below, he tucked his head in, hoping to obtain minimal damage. They crashed into the trees below, his glider getting jammed into some of the trees, one of the wings snapped, the other bent.
They both fell to the ground below.
Piper panicked as she watched the storm unfold before them, feeling utterly helpless.
"I'm going to find Aerrow!" Junko announced heroically.
"No Junko! You'll get yourself killed!" Piper cried out, knowing it would be suicide, the thought had crossed her mind but she was too smart and knew it was much too dangerous.
"Dude the condor is struggling to pull back from that wind, you go out on a skimmer and it's bye bye Junko!" Finn added, bluntly but truthfully.
"We can't just leave him out there! What if he's hurt!" Junko sounding concerned.
Radarr squawked, looking to Piper for answers.
"Dude, if I know Aerrow, he will be okay, look how many times he's come out of a bad situation and he's been all good! It's gonna be fine." Finn placed a friendly, reassuring hand on Junkos shoulder.
Stork pulled at the steering wheel of the condor, the metal of the ship creaking in the winds, he was fighting to keep it from being pulled right into the storm.
"Finns right, I know Aerrow can do this." Piper added. "I believe in him. And once this storm's died down, we can go look for him and make sure he's back with us and safe". She hated admitting Finn was right but it would be suicide going out into the storm, they'd just be putting their lives at risk heading out into the horrific weather.
"I don't want to have to dig two graves Junko" Stork added.
"Stork!" Piper said with a tone of disgust.
"Well if by some miracle Aerrow survives this, I won't have to dig any graves". Stork furthermore contributed.
"No ones digging anyone's graves, we have to believe in Aerrow, and besides he's come out of a worse situation with only a few scratches!". Piper paused, walking over towards the window.
"Least I hope not..." She said quietly, with more worry, looking out towards the blackened sky.
Xxxxxxx
Hope you've enjoyed this so far, this has been a side project I've been working on when I am somewhere with no internet, I'm still working on my Cyclonis/Dark Ace fic, just thought I'd try something new too! Let me know what you think of this so far! Will try edit up this one quicker as it's actually completed just in the editorial stages! (I write these up on my phone first so they always suck to begin with!)