Legacy of Deceit
The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.
Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.
Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.
…
"Piper, find that bomb! The rest of you start evacuating everyone on Terra Rex, I'm going after Marrshal!" Aerrow yelled as he made a snap decision.
"Right!" the other Storm Hawks responded as they flew back to Terra Rex to complete their assigned missions. Without pause, Aerrow took off after Marrshal, determined to stop him and retrieve the crystal.
Piper raced through the streets of Terra Rex on her skimmer, tracking down the emanations of the leecher crystal using the latest version of her crystal radar while panicked people rapidly ran to the airfields from their homes, desperate to escape before the terra was destroyed. Thankfully, many people had already left due to the battle so the task was not impossible, provided everyone hurried. By the look of her radar, the leecher crystal was hidden somewhere near the center of the terra, which made sense, all things considered. Finally arriving at the location, Piper looked around; finding herself in the middle of a town plaza, no sign of the bomb in sight even though she technically should be standing right next to the device. It did not take much thought to know that the device was buried; the only question was where and how deep. Given the amount of time Marrshal had spent on this scheme, Piper guessed that she would never be able to reach it in time… And even if she could, how could she defuse it in time? There was no way to stop it, Terra Rex was doomed.
Aerrow sped through the skies, relentlessly pursuing Marrshal no matter how hard he tried to escape his adversary. For his part, Marrshal was becoming quite fed up with this chase; it did not fit into his plan. There was a solution though, an easy guaranteed way to get Aerrow off his tail even if it meant giving up the Crystal of Infinite Skies… but as long as Aerrow pursued him he could not complete his plan anyways.
"You want this so badly?" Marrshal shouted back to Aerrow as he held up the crystal. Although Aerrow gave no vocal answer, the flurry of energy blasts was all the answer Marrshal could have hoped for. "Fine, go and get it from the Wastelands!" he yelled as he threw the small jewel straight down.
Aerrow immediately dove to grab the crystal, Marrshal might escape for now, but this crystal was vital to restoring the peace and presenting a unified front against Cyclonia and so it had to be the higher priority. As he dove toward the area where the gem had fallen, something like a gentle nudge in the back of his mind alerted him that something was wrong and Aerrow immediately pulled up as he tried to figure out what was wrong. Almost by instinct he could see what the problem was: the crystal Marrshal had thrown was a fake. The spymaster must still have the real crystal then Aerrow thought as he accelerated to continue his pursuit of the Merb traitor. Luckily, he could still see Marrshal up ahead, if he had continued his pursuit of the fake crystal even a second longer though the spymaster would have been out of visual range and impossible to track. Marrshal's ride was fast, but he had a way to even the score Aerrow said to himself mentally, his thoughts racing as to how he could retrieve the real crystal from the spymaster. While he planned, he pulled out a velocity crystal he had luckily thought to bring with him and dropped it into his crystal converter. With a sudden burst of acceleration, Aerrow quickly caught up to the spy and threw several bolts of energy at Marrshal, hoping to slow the man down by forcing him to perform evasive maneuvers to avoid being shot. The tactic worked and Aerrow gained even more sky on the spy, eventually closing to within a dozen yards of the skimmer he was pursuing.
"You are persistent, why do you continue this pointless pursuit? The Crystal of Infinite Skies will be lost to the Wastelands if you do." Marrshal said as he glanced back at Aerrow over his shoulder.
"I don't think so Marrshal." Aerrow said with grim certainty, "You have the real crystal don't you?" To Aerrow's surprise, the spy suddenly stopped dead in the air and Marrshal stood to face his pursuer. The man had not drawn his weapons, although Aerrow had little doubt that he could do so in an instant and he kept his own weapons trained on the Merb. Marrshal then further surprised the young Sky Knight by slowly pulling back his hood, almost as if it were a kind of ceremony. The face beneath was so similar to Stork's and yet they were worlds apart; this Merb regarded Aerrow calmly without any trace of fear or paranoia as would be expected.
"What makes you so certain Aerrow?" Marrshal said as he stood there simply, allowing the wind to whip his cloak about him. "You are taking an awful risk to confront me rather than retrieve the crystal."
"Can it, I may not know exactly how I knew the other crystal was a fake, but I'm certain of it now." Aerrow said as he pointed a blade directly at Marrshal's head, "Give me the real Crystal of Infinite Skies or this will get ugly."
Unexpectedly, a wide grin spread across Marrshal's face and he pulled out a small cloth bag that seemed to glow with a faint light. "Very well then, if you can see through such a thorough deception, I will give you the real Crystal." Marrshal said as he tossed the bag over to Aerrow. "I will even stay right here while you check to make sure I am being honest."
"Oh… okay…" Aerrow said as he caught the bag and opened it to reveal a brilliantly shining crystal. Aerrow carefully inspected the crystal, but this felt right, it felt like this was the real crystal he sought. It was a sharp contrast to how odd this entire situation felt to his other senses. After taking a minute to make sure that his feeling was certain, Aerrow looked back up, surprised to see that the spy was still there. He had not expected the man to actually hold true to his word. "It seems that you're telling the truth Marrshal… Now the question: why?"
"My reasons are my own Aerrow; I think you would have learned that by now. No matter what else I have told you, my true motives shall now remain forever shrouded in secrecy to you. Simply enjoy your good fortune and hurry back to Terra Rex, I would not want you to miss the show…" Marrshal said in an ominous tone before he vanished, having used a cloaking crystal to disappear into the quiet skies.
As Aerrow looked around to get his bearings, he contemplated how he would get back in time to make a difference. He desperately wanted to help Piper and the other Storm Hawks, but he had traveled too far, by the time he managed to travel back to Terra Rex he would be too late to help. Suddenly he noticed a warm feeling in the hand holding the pouch Marrshal had given him. He pulled the crystal to out find that he could see a tiny view of Terra Rex inside the jewel, as if the crystal was somehow responding to his thoughts. As he stared, transfixed by the image in the crystal, it seemed to pull him in and surround him. With a sudden lurching motion Aerrow found himself flying through open skies with Terra Rex visible only a short distance away, maybe two minutes flight time at most.
"Of course, the Crystal of Infinite Skies…" Aerrow said as he accelerated toward the terra where the battle still raged.
By the time he arrived back at the terra, the battle was slowing down quickly, the combatants distracted by the mass evacuation of inhabitants, although they had not yet learned the learned the reason for that evacuation. Rex Guardian and Ancient were racing among the people fleeing Terra Rex, trying to find out exactly what was going on. A difficult prospect considering the pandemonium that reigned in the skies over the landmass. He hoped that Piper was safe no matter what she was doing; hopefully disarming the bomb that Marrshal had planted.
"Aerrow!" Piper suddenly yelled from off to his left.
"Piper! What is going on?"
"The device was buried; I can't get to it in time." Piper explained. "There's no way to stop it now, I just left a minute ago... Terra Rex will probably be gone in another five to ten minutes." The crestfallen expression on her face told Aerrow that she had already considered a million scenarios, searching for a means to stop the coming cataclysm, but had rejected each in turn as impractical given the time remaining until the end. Surely there had to be something he could do, but with only five minutes remaining, what could he do?
"Aerrow!" Vespos suddenly called out as the Ancient leader raced toward them from the terra. Behind him, the battle had fallen apart completely as the magnitude of the crisis began to set in. "You have the Crystal of Infinite Skies?"
"Yes!" Aerrow yelled as he held up to brilliant crystal.
"Give it to me quickly then follow me, I need you to tell me where the bomb is!" Vespos responded; catching the crystal as the red haired Storm Hawk threw it to him. Without pause, Vespos wheeled around and streaked off toward Terra Rex, the whine of his skimmer indicative that he was pushing the vehicle to its limits. In less than a minute the three stood where Piper has located the device, both Piper and Aerrow wondering what Vespos planned on doing.
"Back up about fifty feet or so, only I am safe within the zone of this move." Vespos said solemnly as he removed his usual weapon crystal and locked the Crystal of Infinite Skies into his weapon. "I have only done this once before…"
Taking their cue from his statement, Aerrow and Piper backed off, retreating to a safe distance as the Ancient raised his blade above his head. After a pause to focus his entire attention on the task ahead, Vespos stabbed downward in a quick motion, driving his sword up to the hilt in the soil and rock of Terra Rex. With his sword firmly in place, Vespos knelt down beside his sword while continuing to hold the handle of the blade with one hand. A moment later and an aura of energy surrounded Vespos, the precursor to a Sky Knight Move, although Aerrow could not think of any Move that could help them now. Suddenly however, white light blazed around Vespos's blade and pulsed into the ground as a large mass of soil and stone vanished, leaving a perfectly spherical crater fifty feet deep and one hundred feet in diameter. As Vespos braced himself to prevent himself from collapsing, Piper quickly pulled out her crystal scanner and began sweeping the site. While Aerrow went to help the exhausted Ancient stand, Piper picked up a large fragment of leecher crystal that the attack had missed, quickly throwing it up and out of the crater to prevent it from absorbing any more crystal energy and exploding near them. It might still explode, but at least this way they were safe if that happened.
"Is… Terra Rex… safe?" Vespos asked in a weary tone as he slowly walked over to where Piper stood with assistance from Aerrow.
"Yes, you did it." Piper proclaimed triumphantly as she rechecked her scanner.
"Good… contact Harrier… it is time… to clear the air…"
Later, after Vespos had rested and all the involved parties had eaten at a banquet celebrating the end of the civil war, Harrier and Vespos really started the negotiations. Thanks to the Storm Hawks, both sides now knew the details of everything that had happened and how Marrshal had manipulated them. Vespos had been silent throughout, probably embarrassed that he had let his emotions get the better of him and had continued the fight even after they knew it was a Cyclonian plot. Aerrow could somewhat relate, his own determination had led him into traps before… The incident with the Great Atmos Race being one of the prime examples of him doing something he knew was a bad idea.
"Clearly mistakes were made… we Ancients clung too closely to the memories of, what to you, is the ancient past. Even to us it happened several years ago, we should not have indulged our pain so." Vespos said in a regretful tone. "Even though we knew that the entire war was a Cyclonian plot we still tried to avenge our fallen comrades, we were too quick to assume that Harrier would betray us for power. In doing so we almost committed as great an atrocity as Osprey did to us."
"No, you didn't." Harrier said suddenly, "What my ancestor did is unforgivable; he took something he must have known was vital to safeguarding the Atmos and used it to establish a legacy in order to bring greater glory to himself. Nothing you have done can compete with that treachery. Also, unlike Osprey you came back to save us, something he never did for you as he left you to fight alone."
"Nonetheless, it is time to bury the past, you are not Osprey. We cannot forget what he did, but we can work toward building a new relationship with the modern Sky Knights." Vespos proclaimed. "And with the Crystal of Infinite Skies, we will finally have the time to rejoin Atmos, our oaths as Archoni'ent are fulfilled, the Atmos is finally free of the Stormweaver Order."
"That's great news!" Aerrow said excitedly.
"Especially for you Aerrow, and not just because we are your friends and can help bring about the end of Cyclonia that much quicker." Vespos intoned cryptically.
"What do you mean?"
"Aerrow, you used the Crystal of Infinite Skies, not many Sky Knights are able to do that, as Harrier and his family can probably attest to. There is only one lineage of Sky Knights who are able to do so, the Archoni'ent."
"You mean… I'm an Ancient?" Aerrow asked slowly, awed by the prospect.
"Of a sort… All Sky Knights have the potential to become Archoni'ent, but very few know how to tap that potential. It may be that the time you spent with all those psionic and link crystals in you unlocked that potential, regardless, you have the potential to fight as we do, if you are willing to train as one of us. You cannot be a full-fledged Ancient since you are not from Terra Anki, but you can reestablish the Order of the Archoni'ent if you so wish. You serve a proud order though, worthy of succeeding us despite its origins thanks to the members that now make up the Sky Knights; we cannot ask you to abandon it for our legacy, feel no obligation either way…"
"I will think about it." Aerrow said, already contemplating with excitement the prospect of being able to chain different Sky Knight Moves together in combat. Would that training mean abandoning his duties as a Sky Knight though? Probably not, but he wanted to know more, particularly if being an Archoni'ent meant that he would be expected to sleep for a thousand years. He would be of no help against Cyclonia if he had to do that. "Perhaps if you could tell me more about your order that would help."
"We will gather as much of our history as we can, it may take a several weeks, but we will get it to you so you can make a decision."
Marrshal flew toward Cyclonia, having taken a detour to dispose of the Dying Light crystals in the Great Expanse first. No one would ever find those crystals again and he had no need of them now that Aerrow had discovered his potential. The Ageless Specter's plan was complete; his world would be safe from the wrath of the Illuminati now that the majority of the Stormweavers were sealed forever. The Crystal of Infinite Skies was both a key and a gate that allowed one to traverse the many dimensions and universes of reality as well as allowed one to lock others in those dimensions or pull them out. With the crystal back in their possession, the Ancients could lock the Stormweavers in their dream dimension, preventing them from ever manifesting physically in this world again and preventing any further corruption to the Atmos. The Stormweavers would be taken by the Illuminati to another universe, their role in these events having been completed and all rogue sources of chaos would disappear. Even now the substance that had consumed Master Cyclonis was receding; her role was no longer needed.
"Well, that was a pleasant ending to events." The Ageless Specter mused as he leaned back in his throne. "Have Marrshal continue to monitor events and inform us if anything happens to disrupt the balance of their universe."
"Of course sir." Psychos said as he dispatched a message to Marrshal. "The Stormweavers have been secured and their chaos powers reintegrated, they will no longer serve as rogue agents of chaos; the Oracle has also been secured and awaits transport to her trial before The Four if we have no other use for her. Kind of a boring end to our plan even if it still achieves our aims, we did not even get to reveal ourselves."
"True… in this other universe though, it would seem that Aerrow was unable to reclaim his legacy. A pity really, events would have been far easier to bear if the Oracle had not tampered with the weave of fate. Well, we prepared for this outcome, so I think we can release the Oracle from her temporal slumber and let her act as our harbinger." The Ageless Specter said casually as he watched the events on each Atmos unfold.
"That outcome is more fun though." Psychos said with a smirk as he gave orders to the appropriate subordinates.
"Too true…"
You who read the dire destinies of the Dark Oracle now turn to me looking for solace for the Dark Oracle predicts the end of your known world by Darkness. There are many outcomes and the Dark Oracle has only enlightened you as to the ones that require his personal involvement.
There is yet hope; the compass of fate may point back into the venerated halls of the past, guided by the arrow as it points true once more.
Revel in the new dawn, declared by the Darkness to be complete.
The world can celebrate in the new wonders that can be found as the arrow finds the path that it shall fly. Honored Guardians, rest at ease for the Darkness no longer seeks to overcome your skies; you have proven yourselves for the arrow struck true.
-First Canto of the First Prediction of the Light Oracle
