EDIT
Here is my second fanfiction. Ok, before reading this, let me explain some points:
1. In this story, the characters are older than in the cartoon. Aerrow, Piper, Finn, Junko, Cyclonis and all the 14 years old in the cartoon are 18. Stork is 21, Dark Ace is 30 and Starling is 25. The others' ages aren't so important...
2. Yes, Dark Ace is alive and he never exploded.
3. Nobody ever went to the Far Side.
4. Aerrow, Piper, Cyclonis and Dark Ace never used the Binding and no one knows about that power.
5. Ravess and Snipe never were banished. The Condor never was destroyed and Stork never made a payback against Repton and the Raptors.
6. Stork and Cyclonis never found the "Door to the Far Side" in Terra Tropica.
7. In other words, the major events from episodes 43 (finding the "Door"), 44 (Ravess being banished and Cyclonis taking the "Door" to her Terra), 46 (the "prophecy" spoken by the Guardians about Piper being "the one"), 47 (the SH learning more about the "Door"), 48 (Terra Wallop and Cyclonia uniting and Junko being exiled), 49 (the Condor exploding, the Raptors being "killed" by Stork, Snipe being banished), and episodes 50, 51 and 52 entirely never happened in this "alternative story".
8. WARNING: there will be mature content. I'm not going to include explicit "porn", but there'll be quite a nice amount of violence, since I've decided to make this into a horror kind of story.
+ NOTE: I don't own Storm Hawks, the cartoon belongs to Nerd Corps. I only created the plot for this story.
Oh! Also read and review my fanfiction "Storm Hawks Fan 3rd Season", go to my profile and check it out!
I have great news: I'm planning to make a comic version of this fanfiction, it will be available on DeviantART when I reach the final chapters. So, don't miss it! Go to my profile and get more info! =D
Well, I hope you enjoy this fanfiction! Let's go to the story! ^^
Reviews to this story are welcome too! They help a lot! ;)
Edit notes: updated the information and fixed the grammar errors with the Author's notes.
Chapter I
An Old Abandoned Experiment
In a wide and bizarre dark room, you could hear the sounds of thin fingers touching the gray keys from the storm engine's keyboard. The young Empress in her usual large black cloak with a hood over her head covering half of her eyes frantically typed meaningless codes while staring at the metallic keys. In those years her hair had grown up to the top of her waist, she wore now a black outfit with brown boots that reached her knees, and had started wearing dark eyeshadow. She sailed in deep thought, and was just typing because she was being driven by an almost automatic and involuntary impulse, her mind was completely drowned in her subconscious.
She thought about all the plans she had created to finish the Storm Hawks: to convince them to join Cyclonia through oblivion crystals, to use crystals and other devices of mind control in an attempt to make them turn against each other, kidnapping and torture, surprise attacks with her army, disguise herself to trick and lead them to destruction, threaten to destroy all the Atmos... Anyway, lots and lots of different plans, but all had something in common: exactly the same result - failure. It all was already becoming cliché.
Until something finally occurred to her: why try to destroy them or force them to do it if they could just give up on that job? It just should become tiresome and unnecessary. No, what nonsense! They never would stop, no matter how arduous the task... But they could get tired of it if they went too far, if at least one of them could only make the others get tired, no mind control, only free will, maybe it might even work!
Then she remembered an old experiment that her predecessor used to work on when she was a little girl, something that has been ignored for a long time, before the fateful event that made her take possession of the Cyclonian throne early. She walked through the dark room towards a stone wall, bent down and dragged one of the rocks out of it, then pulled an old chest from the hole and opened it. Gazing at what was inside, she wondered: who would be the best choice? Then, she thought about doing a little research before making hasty decisions that would disappoint her again. She closed the chest, got up, went to her radio and called one of her Night Crawlers. Within minutes, the red-eyed captain appeared.
"What do you want, Master?" - he spoke with a reverence.
"Choose your best troops for a small mission that requires extreme discretion. Lead them to the vicinity of the Storm Hawks' ship and report their activities with as much detail as you can, try to send also holograms of them. I need it as soon as possible. Don't make mistakes." - she said.
"Yes, Master." - he bowed and walked out of the big double door from where he had come.
The Condor was parked next to Terra Amazonia, with the hooks at the tips of its steel cables fixed firmly to the rock formation shaped like a wide arch. The weather was pleasant, the sun was shining, no clouds in the sky. It was a quiet day. Six Night Crawlers then appeared without being seen and without the ship's scanners detecting them thanks to their cloaking devices. They settled in the rocky arch, slid silently by the steel cables and entered the Condor through the pipes. Each one was instructed with monitoring one Storm Hawk.
The first to send images and reports was the one that watched Radarr. The co-pilot had grown a little, was stronger, his fur on top of the head was longer and looked like a short kind of hairstyle, he wore a different outfit: navy blue shorts with dark green details that covered him up to his knees, a shirt with the same color but the texture was similar to the camouflage of an army's uniform, his wrists and ankles exchanged white bandages for metallic bracelets and anklets, his ancient tiny shoulder armor pieces were now larger and covered a small part of the arms, he also had gloves on his forepaws that showed his fingers and contained a metallic piece for the back of the hands, like those of the other team members. The animal was in the Condor's hull, chasing after some kind of squirrels that were scratching the ship's bodywork trying to hide food or maybe make nests there.
"It's just an animal, I couldn't change too much with it. You may finish your part." - Cyclonis told the Night Crawler through her communicator after seeing what Radarr did.
The second to give the news was the one that took care of Stork's routine. The Merb also had changed: he had some beard under his the tip of his chin, the hair on the back of the head was longer and was trapped in a thin ponytail covered by the elastic that tied it all the way to the tip, leaving only a small tuft of hair showing, he cut his bangs a little, but they covered his face anyway. He wore a gray long-sleeved shirt with brown leather protections on the shoulders and chest, his pants were gray with some dark brown details, like the protections for the knees and ankles, he didn't wear that belt anymore - he replaced it with a lead toned gray plated protection - his gloves were a dark red color similar to brown and still showed his fingers, he also kept that metallic "X" from his armor. The pilot was reading a book about disasters and other calamities from the Atmos and seemed very involved into reading.
"He's very paranoid, but has improved since sometime ago. I think he won't help much. End your part too." - the young empress said.
The third was spying Junko. The wallop was very taller, his hair was no longer that little messy tuft - he cut the upper tip turning it into a straight and uniform tuft - and the horn on his nose grew a little. He wore a moss-green sweater with details in beige and dark green leather protections, dark brown pants a little longer than his old jeans, with the tissue bars covered by his beige legs protection. He didn't wear those long gloves and they were now dark green. The flight engineer was in the kitchen preparing a big snack and eating it voraciously.
"This wallop may give enough trouble for them, but I don't think he has what I need right now. Complete your part." - the girl said.
The fourth looked at Finn. The sharpshooter was also taller, his body had evolved a bit, he still had his forelock with almost no apparent difference, maybe just the color that had darkened slightly, leaving a slight gradient, but he kept his charm and his face was still attractive. He wore a shirt with short sleeves in a dark yellow color (almost beige) with light blue details, his trousers had teal color with details in gray, and brown slightly grayish boots. His gloves were of the same style, but now were brown like his leather protections. He was in the bathroom shaving some facial hair on his face, the boy was wondering if he should grow a goatee. Maybe next time...
"This one has a huge ego, he could create a good competition. Maybe..." - the Cyclonian began, when suddenly the blonde guy ran out of the bathroom looking for Radarr accusing him of stealing again his hair gel - "...forget it, I thought he had matured." - she added.
The fifth monitored Piper. The Crystal Mage had stretched a little in these years, still slender, her face had the same characteristics and squandered beauty. She also changed her hairstyle: put her bangs to the right side of her face, left her orange hair band behind and began to tie her hair in a ponytail. She wore a purple blouse with pink and white details and sleeves that covered her arms up to shortly after her elbows, and gray pants with white details, longer than the old one. She had gray leather protections on the shoulders, wrists, knees and elbows, her gloves still covered only two fingers, but they were white, while her boots were a color beige slightly pink and covered her pants bars. The navigator was in her room examining some crystals.
"Hm... Dear Piper... I think she would become something more useful than a burden, after all her activities have little influence on the others' ones. But maybe... Guess I still will save her." - Cyclonis reflected.
The sixth reported Aerrow. The Sky Knight continued with his red hair intact! His face still had the same grace of when he was a boy, the young one also grew up and had some muscles - like Finn, but both without exaggeration - he was a handsome and robust guy. He wore a dark teal shirt with long sleeves and light blue and gray details and navy blue pants with black details. He traded the old long blue and brown gloves with short gray and black ones and had blue leather wrists protections where he put silver plated protections. He also had this set of guards on the elbows, shoulders and knees, like the others of the team and his boots were gray. He was alone, training hard in the hangar: doing pushups, abdominal crunches, squats and various other aerobic exercises.
"Training. Is that all he does?" - she said with a slight smirk, then Aerrow suddenly began running out of the hangar with his swords in hand, but disabled, and somersaulted, cutting five thick branches in marks he had painted earlier with red ink to practice his accuracy in agile attack moves, then landed easily on his feet - "Wow... I think I just found the perfect choice. You can come back here."
The Night Crawlers left the Storm Hawks' ship and made their return to Cyclonia. In her room, the young empress walked around, plotting carefully every part of her new plan, she sometimes stopped, looked at the chest and gave an evil smile. Once she was done thinking, she ordered to one of her talons:
"Call the Dark Ace, I have a special task for him."
