The late morning sky of Atmos today was clear and bright. There were barely any airships travelling in the sector except for The Rusting Mary, a cargo ship.

"-we have 112 crate loads this week. Yes. We'll be there by mid-afternoon. You have a good day too, see ya."

Captain Harlin clicked off the radio and set it down upon the bench top. As he sat back in his seat, he grabbed a small foam cup from the surface of a bench directly to his left and lifted it to take a long satisfied sip.

"If it weren't for you coffee I'd have crashed this poor hunk o' junk several hundred times over by now."

Once it was placed back down he got up and walked over to the wheel, which was currently propped with brooms; a common trick he used because he knew the area so well from decades of flying in the sector. It gave him time to relax, read a magazine, play a game of chess with the ship mates, maybe have a few drinks of scotch…well that's no maybe, he'd definitely have some scotch.

Captain Harlin chuckled whilst moving the brooms aside. "If I had a piece of gold for the amount of times I've done this I think I'd be pretty darn rich by now."

At the back of the ship there was an extra passenger for today's journey, staying in a small storage room at the bottom of the bridge as all the living quarters were full. The passenger, who currently occupied a rickety old bed picked up from the dump the previous day, was a young brown-haired female; she was deep in sleep, exhausted by her hitch-hiking lifestyle. Luckily Captain Harlin was sympathetic enough to let her on without any questions; most days she didn't have the time to even ask and thus be aboard illegally. This time was different though – the girl almost ended up in a deadly situation the last time she jumped a ship, so rather than risk her life to save time she personally went to Harlin for permission and gave him a few pieces of silver as a gesture of appreciation. Then again with his track record of near-misses – as is expected from a person drinking lots of coffee to stay awake all the time AND having the occasional few glasses of scotch – it probably wouldn't have mattered either way; there was definitely a high chance of her dying on this trip.

A weighted knock on the door caused her to stir from sleep. It was one of the workers. "Hey girly, I got some food for ya." As she slowly rubbed her eyes he walked over holding a plate that contained some kind of lumpy gruel-looking stuff. The girl sat up with tired eyes and pushed her hair behind her ears so it was out of the way as she ate. Although it was hard for her not to pull a face expressing hesitation towards the food, which looked and smelt like rancid week-old vomit, it was still taken with gratitude.

"Thank you." she dipped her fingers in, then lifted the gloop to her mouth and sucked it off the tips of her fingers. There was a moment's pause in which her eyes squeezed together, mouth pursing in disgust, during which she tried her hardest to swallow. With a large gasp afterwards, she gingerly continued to eat.

The worker looked at her curiously. "So, where are you heading?" he asked.

"Home," the girl responded with exactness.

"Home, huh?" said the worker whilst he propped himself against the open door. "What terra?"

She twitched her mouth. "I can't really remember…all I know is that I have to go home."

With a nod, the worker said, "My name's Fergus. What's yours?"

"Ensayne," she responded.

Fergus walked over and sat down next to her. "You do know that on our route we don't pass near many terras, I have a feeling the one we're heading to isn't gunna be your home terra. We drop off deliveries every couple of days. You don't look like a Carsenine gal."

With a final dreaded gulp, Ensayne handed her empty plate back to Fergus. "I'm sure you're right."

"Ay...Ensayne, wasn't it? I'm sure you'll find it. And ya know, Carsenine is a nice place so might as well make the most of your time there; lots of good folk and nice scenery."

He closed the door, leaving Ensayne alone in the room. She flopped back onto the bed and looked around at all the cockroaches scuttling along the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Well, it hasn't been the worst trip. I have an actual bed, that's a plus, and I got to eat food. Things are looking up I think."

Somewhere in Atmos...

"Surf's up dudes! WOOOO-HOOOO!"

Enormous crystal blue waves swirled into large wall of water, creating a magnificent tunnel to surf into. A squealing blonde haired sixteen-ear-old boy named Finn took the initiative to drive in thinking he'd make it, until…

"Ahhh-AHHHHH!" Finn was enveloped by water when the waves collapsed down on him. It didn't seem to bother him though because when his head came up to the surface, he had a ridiculous grin on his face.

"Junko I hope you were watching!" he called out to his friend, but Junko was too focused on his sandcastle to notice, since the final touches were being made: a makeshift flag, seaweed decor, an assortment of sea shells, and some sticks tied together to make little stick people. Although the reputation of a wallop was that of strength and seriousness, Junko couldn't have been more different from the rest of his kind.

A little further up the beach, a skymonkey was in hot pursuit of a chicken. His name was Radarr. As Aerrow's co-pilot, Radarr was no pet; he often helped Aerrow during their fights with Cyclonians in case anything went wrong. Currently he was shaking his fist at the feathered fowl as it ran in a quick-paced waddling fashion with his sandwich firm in its beak. For some strange reason chickens would always manage to find Radarr, but they often posed as annoyances, sometimes even a little flirtatious.

And then a few hundred feet past him, a red-haired boy and blue-haired girl named Aerrow and Piper – both sixteen just as Finn and Junko – were relaxing on some beach chairs underneath a large umbrella.

"It was a good idea to come here," Aerrow said to Piper. "The weather is perfect."

Piper smiled. "Sure is!"

Aerrow looked around the beach for a moment. "Hey, where's Stork?"

"Stork's down by the rock pools," she replied. "I think he was looking for crabs."

"And I found some!" Stork sung out to them. Stork was a Merb, the oldest out of them all at twenty three. He began marching up the loose white sand, smiling victoriously. Aerrow and Piper sat themselves up in a hasty manner to get a good look, and there it was; a bright orange crab captured in a box.

Stork stopped next to the two and said, "I'd like you to note this is not our dinner for tonight – he's my pet."

"Pet." Piper raised her eyebrow. "Really, Stork?"

Stork nodded vigorously. "Yes, my new pet. I've got it all figured out. He'll stay in my room, of course, but I need a tank to stick him in so when we head off I'd like to stop by Frank's Junk Shop."

"Alright then Stork," Aerrow said to him, squinting at the crab – it didn't look very happy. Stork punched the air with a shout of glee, then headed off along the shore again.

After a minute of conversation about Stork's new pet, Aerrow decided to change the subject. "You know it's so nice not having to worry about Cyclonians anymore. I think we did it right this time. Cyclonis and the Dark Ace are dead; Ravess, Snipe and all the Raptors are in jail along with the rest of the Talons. I think the old Storm Hawks would be proud of us."

"You can say that again!" Junko called from next to his sandcastle. "I could spend all day doing this – building the castle, decorating it-"

Suddenly a chicken came running through – it was the chicken Radarr was chasing, and Radarr wasn't that far behind.

"No, not the castle!" Junko yelled with panic. But it was too late; the chicken may have flown over it but Radarr hadn't been paying attention, so with a surprised screech he toppled right onto it. The castle crumbled completely underneath.

Junko groaned. "Radarr look what you did!"

Radarr looked up at Junko with big sorry eyes. It was hard to be mad at him.

"Oh, it's okay Radarr," Junko stroked his head and Radarr squawked happily.

Watching Junko try to rebuild his sand castle, Piper turned to Aerrow with a serious expression. "I've had this bad feeling lately, I didn't want to tell you about it but I feel like something isn't quite right. Do you think it's possible they might return?"

All of a sudden Stork was in front of them. "Piper," he began. "There is only one answer to that question. What do you think that answer is?" Before Piper could respond, Stork nodded at her. "It would be yes, wouldn't it? Now," he stood upright as he'd been half-hunched over whilst speaking. "What is the real question here? The REAL question is when, how many, and what will they try to get back their power."

Aerrow responded in his usual positive attitude. "There's no need to be so pessimistic Stork. They're all either locked up in the maximum security prison at Terra Ertghol, or dead. As for the Night Crawlers, no one's seen one since the end of the war. I think it's safe to say that we won't be hearing or seeing any of them again."

But this didn't go down too well with Finn; he had been walking up from the water when he overheard their conversation.

"HEY, don't say that!" he yelled. "Because every time someone says, 'it can't get any worse' or 'it's all over now' or something like that, you know what happens? Do you know what happens Aerrow?"

Unfortunately Finn was right; everyone's attention became redirected to the sound of a signal coming through Aerrow's radio. Finn, whose eyes were now ablaze, pointed a quivering finger.

"THAT!" he shouted hysterically.

"What?" Aerrow asked, but Piper shushed him.

"This is Guy Skylee of 'Inside Atmos' reporting with an emergency headline! There have been sightings of Cyclonians in the skies – no attacks as of yet, but Atmosians are warned to keep their eyes peeled and make a report if Cyclonians are spotted again."

Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Junko and Stork turned to Finn. In return, Finn gave them an I-told-you-so look.

Then everyone looked at Aerrow.

"Let's find ourselves some Cyclonians!" Aerrow gestured for them all to pack up.

Finn gaped at him. "But...I wanted to surf some more!"

"Finn –" Aerrow promptly gave him a look that told Finn now-is-not-the-time-to-complain.

"No," Finn pouted. "No! This is all your fault; you just HAD to say 'we won't be seeing them ever again! This happens every single time on TV and look now, it's happened to us too! But does anyone pay attention to anything I say? No, of course not."

With a final, "Hmph!" he picked up his surf board and trudged off to the Condor.

Junko looked solemn. If this news should affect anyone the most it would be him. The Wallops sided with Cyclonis for the war and there were very few who refused to do so. Sadly his family weren't part of that group, and all were killed in the midst of war. Chief Thragg was killed by Junko, who has never forgotten how horrible it felt taking a life. It was only out of sheer desperation, facing death himself if he didn't strike Thragg first. Junko had vowed not to fight again from that point on as it scarred him too deeply. "Finn's right, you've jinxed us Aerrow! Why did you have to say that out loud?"

"Right about what now?" Stork popped up. "Was Finn talking again? I usually just block out his voice."

Aerrow sighed heavily. He definitely understood their frustration, but he couldn't just let them go and assume they get caught by someone else. If the Storm Hawks could catch them first, perhaps the Talons won't have the chance to band together and plot anything nasty. A far worse outcome would be if they managed to let out the rest of the Talons, most importantly big guns like Repton, Ravess and Snipe.

Once everyone was on the Condor the doors came up and Stork began to power up the engine. He knew exactly where they were going: Cyclonia.

"And here we go again, back to square one." Stork muttered darkly.

The Storm Hawks had been travelling for an hour and a half northeast, not even a quarter of the way near Cyclonia. Some cloud forms filled the sky ahead of them, and only moments later Stork saw forms fly through them –

"Aerrow," Stork's voice sang out abruptly. "I can see our little FRIENDS..."

Just as Aerrow came running forward along with Finn, Junko, Piper and Radarr, two Cyclonians were riding out from the clouds in the direction of the ship. You wouldn't know it at first as they weren't in uniform or using Talon switchblades – all they had were old Cloud Bangers – but the weapons and notable red goggles sitting on top of their heads gave them away easily. When the two realised it was the Condor, their expressions of terror were seen even from a far distance.

The Cyclonians spun their rides around immediately.

"Let's get them!" Aerrow shouted.

Stork revved the accelerator, whilst Aerrow and Piper ran out of the room and into the hanger to get on their rides. While they were starting up their engines they felt the ship jerk into a complete stop, causing them both to be flung off and thrown across the floor. Piper slammed right into a wooden crate. As she rubbed her head she looked over to see Aerrow trying to lift himself up while groaning in pain.

"Stork?" he said wearily. "What's going on?"

Stork's eyes hasted to look over all the controls, trying to figure out what had happened. "I don't know man, but you two should get out there and go after those Cyclonians otherwise you'll lose them...who knows if I'll get the Condor started again in time – if she even starts."

While Aerrow and Piper hurried to their bikes with a bit of a limp whilst trying to regain themselves, Stork's attempts to start up the Condor made it sound out some very sickly, creaking noises, obviously indicating it was not going anywhere. The two kicked off out of the hanger, sped across the runway, and took off into the air.

They passed through the clouds in front and saw the two Cyclonians on their dodgy Cloud Bangers quite a fair way ahead of them. Aerrow and Piper accelerated harder. Within a few minutes they managed to catch up.

One of the Cyclonians put his Cloud Banger on auto-pilot so he could jump out of his seat and turn back to shoot a blast at Aerrow with his staff. SHMM! Several red bolts flew into Aerrow's direction, but they missed the target. Aerrow pulled out his energy blades and took a good hard swing, shooting a blast of blue light, and knocked the Cyclonian off their vehicle. They managed to grab at the handle though, which left them dangling down the side. The other Cyclonian gulped.

"So it looks like you're not all gone, huh?" Aerrow began, looking from one to the other.

"Oh, yeah, like you'd be able to take us out for good kiddo," said the one barely holding onto the handle of his bike. He pulled himself up with difficulty, but managed to get back on. "Master Cyclonis has a plan to –"

"Hey, shut up!" the second Cyclonian swiftly threw a small crystal at the other's head. "Are you a bloody idiot or something?!"

Aerrow and Piper exchanged anxious looks to one another, but in that very moment the Cyclonians took the opportunity: they shot multiple times at the two Storm Hawks and, though they missed, it was good enough to block their vision by the light of the blasts. The pair of Cyclonians sped away.

"Quick!" Aerrow yelled to Piper.

"Aerrow," Piper pointed urgently downwards. "They're going into the Wastelands!"

Aerrow started to rev up to make for a faster acceleration, but Piper put a hand on his arm to stop him momentarily.

"Is it worth chasing after them?" she asked seriously.

"Of course it is!" Aerrow said with determination clear in his voice. "We need to know what's going on Piper! What was supposed to be the final battle against Cyclonia to end it all hasn't, AND Cyclonis is still alive. We watched her fall into the Wastelands...she should be dead!"

Aerrow gazed down toward the cloud line separating the Wastelands from the sky, and watched as the pair of Cyclonians passed through those clouds. He sighed.

"The last thing we need is to end up dead in the Wastelands chasing a couple of Cyclonians when we could be continuing straight on for Cyclonia, don't you think?" Piper turned her Heliscooter around. After a moment of staring off into the swirling whiteness beneath them, Aerrow reluctantly turned around also. The two headed back for the Condor.

"Hey guys," Finn called to them. Aerrow and Piper had just walked through the doors from the hanger. "So we don't know what's wrong, but it's okay!"

Piper looked confused.

"Helpful, isn't he?" Stork said to her. "What blondie means is we have help on the way, but we may be stuck here for a little while."

"How long's a 'little while' Stork?" Aerrow asked questionably.

Stork tapped his index finger to his chin. "Oh, about...an hour or so."

Aerrow gaped. "A whole hour?!"

"More likely two." Stork added. He casually leaned against a pipe. "Well the Condor won't be going anywhere, it just isn't starting up. The closest repair shop is quite far from here and the mechanic has to finish a job first before he can come out to us."

"Alright, so we'll just have to wait then," Aerrow tried to sound positive. "How about we do something while we wait?"

The group gathered round. "Oh, oh!" Finn threw his hand into the air, jumping up and down ecstatically. "Can we play Monopoly? I call dibs on the surf board!"

Before anyone could agree – or disagree for that matter – Finn ran off through the door to the corridor and moments later came back with the box and plopped it onto the table.

"First thing's first, whose playing as Banker?" Aerrow asked.

"Is this really a question now?" Stork laughed. "I've always been Banker every other game because everyone cheats."

With a nod, Aerrow continued. "Has everyone got their pieces?" He smiled happily clutching a small silver Skyknight.

"Like always I'll have the crystal," Piper picked it up from the small pile of little silver objects in the box and placed hers on the board.

Stork snatched his up within a second and glared around at everyone. "I'll be having the airship thank you very much."

"Stork, we wouldn't take your airship," Aerrow laughed.

"Hmm, I'm going to be the sock this time," Junko announced to the group. "No one ever chooses the sock."

"And what about you Radarr?" Aerrow asked him. Radarr's eyes roved over all the pieces that were left: there was an energy sword, a skimmer, a terra and a banana peel. He made a few noises in his throat like he was thinking. After a moment, he reached for the silver skimmer and pretended it was flying around.

"Alright then, everyone's set, so let's start playing!" Aerrow called happily.

Two hours, three minutes and twenty eight seconds later...

Piper clutched at her side laughing. "Finn, look at you!" she giggled. "You have one dollar left. You'll have to mortgage a terra. We're not going to do up another I.O.U. book like last time – you were the only one in it!"

"So?" Finn snapped defensively, folding his arms. "I own the three most expensive terras –"

"That no one has landed on once," Stork grinned at Finn's bad luck. "But it would seem you've landed on almost everyone's terras at least twice. Which, by the way, where's my three thousand dollars for the last four you got caught on Finn?"

"I'll get it to you!" Finn frowned in a panic. "Junko, can you lend me some money?"

"It's against the rules Finn," Junko held tightly onto his large colourful amount of notes.

"Come on, you got HEAPS and you're not doing anything with it!" Finn bent across the table and clasped his hands together. "Please, PLEASE Junko!"

Piper swiftly held out her hand between the two before Junko could be swayed. "No one's going to bend the rules just because they're friends." However as she said this, Aerrow sneakily slipped Piper a few hundred dollar notes under the table.

"Ahhh-HA!" Stork jumped up and pointed at her. "I saw that! And I bet you've been getting hand-outs from him this whole game haven't you?!"

Piper blushed and dodged his gaze. "N-no I haven't!"

All of a sudden, there was a tremendous noise like a large fog horn that sounded outside.

Stork kicked his chair back and ran towards the hanger. "The mechanic's here, the mechanic's here!"

The rest of the Storm Hawks followed out onto the runway, where they saw a ship half the size of the Condor parked next to them. A bridge then began to extend over the side of the runway, clunking down hard on the runway's surface. Moments later, a man walked out: he was wearing dark grey overalls and carried an enormous metal tool box in one hand.

"Hello there, my name is Greol," he greeted. "You needed assistance?"

Stork nodded. "When I accelerated the Condor faster, she just stopped. I thought she was only stalling but I haven't been able to start her up again. We've checked all the usual stuff."

Greol nodded. "You didn't hit the high speed impeller?"
Stork shook his head. "No, we had uhh...issues with it the last time it was used so it was only through regular acceleration."
"Well that makes my job easier. Should only be the Exaspor then. If connections get loose and the vehicle isn't serviced on a regular basis you wouldn't know, and then it takes that one moment and bam, it's popped out entirely. Anyway it's piss easy to fix."

Finn furrowed his brow at Greol. He muttered to Aerrow, "Piss easy? Where'd he get that one from?"

Greol dropped the tool box onto the ground, opened it up and pulled out a handful of tools.

"It should only take me about five minutes," he said, then proceeded through the hanger and made his way to the engine room.

Aerrow, Piper and Stork follow after him while Finn, Junko and Radarr stayed behind to keep an eye on the ship parked next to the Condor.

"What the heck is an Exaspor?" Finn queried Junko.

Junko looked at him. "It's complicated," he said simply.

"Doesn't sound like it is." Finn retorted with a huff.

When five minutes had passed, the group returned to the bridge.

"Thanks for that," Aerrow said to Greol.

"Too easy mate," Greol replied. "Just give me fifteen for it. I would however suggest bringing her to my garage sometime and I'll give her a full service. She'd be much happier for it."

As Aerrow gave Greol the money, Junko gaped and shouted, "SHIIIP!"

Everyone spun around; a cargo ship roughly the same size as the Condor was passing through a mass of clouds not that far off and it was coming in quickly.

Captain Harlin barely needed to concentrate on what was ahead, having flown the route for the last twenty-seven years of his life and with the navigation instruments, there was no need to worry. Thus, he was casually conversing with his friend Terry while stroking his enormous frizzy beard.

"Look at those clouds ahead." Terry remarked.

"Yeaupah, those are some dense clouds huh? Could you take a quick peek at the navigation controls for me mate? Just to check there's no poor bugger on the other side."
Terry wandered over to the instruments, but he looked concerned.

"What is it?" Harlin didn't like the way Terry's eyes were widening.

"They're uhh…not working."

Captain Harlin's face contorted with dread. "Ohhhh SHIT!"

At the back of the ship, Ensayne was standing outside on the deck leaning against a wall near the small storage room, when all of a sudden the ship lunged severely. She yelled out in panic as she tumbled forward; she didn't even have time to grab onto the door, and realising this she knew something horrific was about to happen. She slid across the deck, banging into the railing quite hard, then flipped over the side without a moment's chance to grab on to something. Her voice pierced the air with the sound of her wavering scream. She could feel the air whipping around her. The Rusting Mary was fast shrinking away while her body twisted and tumbled in descent, showing her in the last few seconds of consciousness what she was about to crash into and surely die of impact from - someone else's stationary ship. Letting go of her fear briefly, Ensayne relaxed her body to brace for impact.

As the large ship was cornering away the Storm Hawks saw a person fall overboard. They plummeted horribly fast and hit the runway with a gut-wrenching thud, catapulting back into the air from the force of the impact, then rolled over several times before coming to a stop. The mechanic yelped and shouted in confusion. In that moment the Storm Hawks rushed over towards the person, revealing once they were close enough that the person was a girl; she was literally feet away from falling off the side. Blood was all over her face, seeping into her hair, long abrasions covering her arms and legs from scraping along the rough surface of the runway, and there was blood steadily oozing from her mouth.

Piper checked her pulse. It was barely there. "Junko go grab a stretcher, we need to get her inside asap. She's most likely broken bones. Take her down the first corridor."

Junko nodded. When he came back with the stretcher, Finn helped grab the other end and they both carried her inside.

"I...uhh...will the girl be...?" the mechanic was obviously unsure what his role was at this point.

"Don't worry, we have it under control," said Aerrow. "Thanks again for fixing the Condor."

"Umm, I have a question," Stork began as they were running through the hanger. "Is it really a good idea to let this girl on board? Every time we've had a guest on the Condor it's ended badly. Let's not forget the time Cyclonis changed her appearance to make herself into LARK. You know, not too long ago we came across some Cyclonians, so it's not out of the realms of possibility that they've set up this entire situation which forces us into taking the guest and then BAM! We're dead. Cyclonians cheer, Cyclonis takes over the world, Atmosians are oppressed again and etcetera. Pretty quick way to screw us over!"

"As much as I would usually agree with you Stork, I have huge doubts that's what has happened. Cyclonis wouldn't risk potentially missing our runway to fall into the Wastelands AGAIN, and she is smart enough to know doing a stunt so soon after we spotted her Talons would arouse too much suspicion. No, if she was going to infiltrate us again, it'd be when we LEAST expect it." Piper walked into her room and rummaged through her drawers. Finally she found what she was looking for. "If a Mill crystal could fix all the bones in Aerrow's body within five days, then it'll work fine for this."

The Storm Hawks gathered inside a spare room down the first hall where Junko had placed the girl. Radarr scurried onto the bed and looked intently at her appearance as if trying to determine if she was an intruder. They hadn't found a Cloaking Crystal, however, so she was who she appeared to be. While Piper created a cast around her, Aerrow said to Stork, "Fly us to a terra where we'll be safe from being seen. The last thing we need is for someone to come across us while this girl is in the middle of treatment."

Stork nodded. "I'll check the map and see what the closest unpopulated terra is from here."

He left the room. Piper finished the cast, then put the Mill crystal in place. "Her injuries are serious, but they're not as severe as I originally thought. We'll just have to see how long it takes to heal, I'm not sure at this stage."

"It might be worthwhile keeping an eye on her," Aerrow suggested. "We'll take shifts. I'll do first watch."

Everyone headed out of the room. Aerrow pulled up a chair next to the bed and peered at the girl with curiosity.

She looked older than him. He wasn't sure how much older but if he had to guess, maybe five or six years.

"So," Aerrow spoke aloud. "Who are you...?"

It was hard to tell, but he had a feeling she was possibly part of a squadron judging by the attire Aerrow had seen her wearing before the cast was put on. He remembered seeing a plate of metal attached over the abdomen area, a large squadron seal stitched onto the back of the tunic, a pair of fingerless gloves with metal wrist bands, dark grey leggings and long brown boots, which were particularly worn and weathered. What Aerrow wanted to know was what a member of a squadron had been doing by themselves on a cargo ship, out in the middle of nowhere?

Aerrow looked at the bedside table and saw a metal rod sitting there. He got up and moved over to the table, picking it up in his hands.

"This is a staff," he muttered softly as he rolled it over. Noticing the button and clicking mechanism, Aerrow pressed the button down and voila, the rod expanded at both ends into a full staff. It looked a bit old fashioned and simple, so it definitely wasn't a multi-crystal wielding staff like Piper's. Aerrow had a look inside one of the leather satchels they'd found attached to her belt – now sitting on the bedside table – and what he discovered was four green striker crystals. These used to be a common crystal for weapons about 10 years ago from what he knew, but they weren't seen too often now. Her whole getup seemed so…retro. But why?

Night began to close in as the distant sun was setting, bringing a magnificent orange glow through the sky where scattered clouds had formed beautiful patterns. The Storm Hawks found a safe terra to stay a few hours ago, with the Condor positioned on a high rise overlooking most of the place; from this perfect vantage point they had a great view of their surroundings.

The last rays of light flickered across the sky and it was dinner time on the Condor. Aerrow had finished his first shift, whilst Finn had just come off his meaning Stork was the next person to keep watch on their guest.

"Tell me Junko isn't doing the cooking tonight?" Stork questioned Piper.

"You have nothing to worry about Stork, Finn's got it covered."

Stork's eyes widened. "Umm...Finn?"

Piper raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Finn can't cook either! Can you do the cooking PLEASE?"

She laughed. "It'll be fine."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Stork said in a panicked voice. "Finn's still going to cook? Piper, no no no no no –!"

Piper walked away giggling at his distress.

Stork made his way to the room begrudgingly. Once the door was closed, he turned around and peered at the unconscious girl lying on the bed. Stork narrowed his eyes suspiciously while he observed her. After a few moments of staring, he moved over to the chair that Aerrow and Finn had occupied. It was positioned close beside the bed.

With a heavy sigh he leaned back in the chair. "I can see this being incredibly boring."

Stork had been sitting in the room for half an hour. During that time Piper came in to check the Mill crystal's progress and it seemed it had already finished the healing process.

"She mustn't have had any broken bones then," Piper said with relief. "That's incredibly lucky." Once the Mill crystal was removed from the crystal insert, Piper took off the entire cast. Before leaving the room she went to the cupboard near the door to grab a blanket to cover the girl.

"Now she can kill me without restraint," Stork mumbled to himself just as Piper left. Since the cast was off he decided that he didn't want to sit too close to her in case she woke up and tried to strangle, stab, bite, kick or scratch him, which would be easy to do in close proximity.

Now he was sitting on the other side of the room where he'd have plenty of time to run for the door. But during the next minute that he was not paying attention to her, the girl began to stir. It took a few times before her eyelids would permit to open properly, but once they did, she was almost immediately aware of the last thing that happened.

"Huh, I'm alive?" she was relieved, however also quite surprised by her luck. After all the crap that's happened to her, she now came to the conclusion that she could very well be invincible, just without the benefit of feeling no pain because, well, THAT would be ridiculous. Stork looked at his book like there was some nasty picture on the page, for his whole face contorted strangely. Very, very slowly, he moved his focus over the top of the book and to the bed where he just heard the girl...being...awake.

"I don't recognise this ceiling," she continued wearily. "Well, I was falling towards a ship. So then maybe...maybe they saved me and I'm recovering in one of their rooms..." It took her a moment before she turned her head sideways, confronted with a green creature staring back at her with a particularly disturbed expression frozen on his face, which was now growing more disturbed by the second. Then it was almost like a staring competition, waiting to see who was going to scream first.

Well, it turned out to be Stork.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Stork screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Aaaahhhhhhaaahh!" the girl squealed back.

Stork toppled off his chair instantly and crashed to the floor rather ungracefully. His book went flying through the air. When he jumped back to his feet about to run for the door, he couldn't see the girl. Stork spun around on the spot looking this way and that. What the hell just happened? Did she already escape? His gaze reached the bed; the girl was gone, but in her place sat a quivering little mouse.

The mouse squeaked so loud that Stork screamed and fell to the floor again.

There was distant yelling now; the Storm Hawks heard the commotion and were calling everyone to get to the room. Stork scrambled for the door but he lost his footing in his panic and crashed into a cupboard with a terrible SMACK! BANG! Then the cupboard toppled over completely. Just as he wrenched the door open the whole team was running down the corridor towards the room.

Stork pointed feverishly as they came up to him. "THE GIRL – SHE – AND THEN – I FELL DOWN AND –A MOUSE – SHE'S A –"

Aerrow couldn't understand a word of what Stork was shouting about. "What?"

"THE GIRL WOKE UP AND TURNED INTO A MOUSE!" he shrieked to Aerrow and ran away flailing his green arms about.

The entire group dashed into the room.

"Where is she?" Finn asked.

Aerrow surveyed the room. "Over there." He indicated to the bed.

There on the blanket was a small mouse shivering in fright in the place where the girl should have been. They were all completely baffled.

Aerrow was the first to speak. "It's alright, we're not going to-"

Right before their eyes the mouse suddenly transformed back into the girl.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Finn squealed.

The girl yelled in fright and POP she changed back into the brown mouse.

"Finn!" Piper put a finger to her lips. "Shhh. Obviously when she gets scared it makes her change form, and no don't ask me how because I'm not entirely sure." She lowered herself down and kneeled next to the bed.

"Sorry, Finn just-"

Without warning the girl changed back and almost knocked Piper over.

Piper stood up, extending her hand to the girl and pulled her to her feet. "How are you feeling?"

"A little sore," the girl began. "But other than that I'm fine. Thank you so much for saving me, I thought I was done for. Was anything broken?"

"Surprisingly no. Although they say if you prepare your landing during freefall you can soften the impact."

Then it seemed she remembered something. Hurriedly she asked, "What happened to the cargo ship?"

"It's gone," Aerrow said. "Why?"

"I was trying to get back to my home terra," the girl replied with a noticeable haste in her tone.

"What's the terra's name? We'll drop you off."

"Carsenine. But it's just that...well...I don't know if it's really my home terra."

Finn looked at her sceptically. "I don't get it. Do you guys get it?"

"What do you mean?" Junko asked.

The girl tried to think of a way to explain it. "I don't know...anything. Well, yes and no. But I don't remember much if anything of my life and neither where I was living, but I really need to get back there."

There was silence for a moment.

"Well I don't think we can help you with that," Finn said. "I mean, if you don't know where you were from, like...okay I don't understand how you don't know but-"

Piper glared at him. "Finn would you shut up for a second? From the sounds of it she's got some form of amnesia."

There were footsteps and moments later Stork stormed in. "So I suppose no one decided to come and see how I was!"

The girl shouted in fright again, but Aerrow calmed her down.

"It's okay, it's okay; that's just our carrier pilot Stork."

"Sorry," the girl breathed outward. "I just...what is he?"

Stork frowned, obviously offended by this remark. "I'm a Merb."

"How about we do some introductions?" Piper suggested. "My name is Piper. You know Stork's name. And this is Aerrow, he's the Skyknight. This here is Finn, just ignore him-"

"Hey!" Finn protested.

"Well, all you're going to do is hit on her anyway, aren't you?"

Finn rolled his eyes and exclaimed indignantly. "No!"

While the girl tilted her head in the direction of Finn, Piper continued with a laugh. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. The tall one over there is Junko, and finally Radarr, Aerrow's co-pilot."

Radarr scrambled over to the girl, sniffing at the heels of her feet and giving her a suspicious look. It seemed as though he was trying to decide whether he approved or not.

"So what's your name?" asked Junko.

Everyone gazed at her, and she felt comfort for the first time since the start of her solo journey across Atmos to find home, wherever that was. Meeting this group was one of the few highlights she'd had in a long time.

With a warm smile the girl replied, "Ensayne."

After forcing down the disastrous attempt of a dinner by Finn – who couldn't have made a worse meal if he tried – the Storm Hawks had a private chat while Ensayne was asked to wait in a room down the hall. Now that she'd been healed by the Mill crystal, they agreed that it would be best to take her to Terra Carsenine and be on their way. The possibility that she was not who she said she was and in fact some kind of spy for the Cyclonians was still a probability. Even if she was just as innocent as she seemed without any hidden agendas, at least she would be out of harm's way.

They stayed the night on the terra. While everyone else was sleeping, Aerrow had trouble closing his eyes. He was still paranoid that this girl was a Cyclonian spy. The two Talons they ran into mentioned her having plans. What if this was the plan? Aerrow decided to get up and go check on Ensayne. The corridors echoed softly with his footsteps along the floor as he walked, so he treaded more lightly as he got closer to her room.

He opened the door as soundlessly as he could and sighed with relief - she was still in the bed sleeping. Just then he started feeling tiredness kick in; it must have been the paranoia keeping him awake. Yawning heavily, Aerrow retired back to his bed and dozed off within minutes.

The next day, 11.45am

The Condor hovered down to Terra Carsenine. It was a beautiful little township; there were cute country cottages lined up behind the shops in the centre, all containing lovely front gardens bursting with colour; there was a lake stretching right across the terra with boats all tied up to the docks; and the town folk were so laidback and generous, insisting that the Storm Hawks take several baskets of food and wear flower necklaces. Even though it was reaching lunch time the air was still quite crisp, but the sun allowed a bit of warmth to wash over them.

Ensayne stepped off the Condor and turned to wave goodbye. She felt sad to leave them as they were such nice people. She knew they had a quest to complete, and she needed to find her home terra. Looking around though, she couldn't see anything familiar to her; not the houses, not the faces, the park near the dock, heck not even the scent of jasmine in the air. After a long sigh of disappointment, Ensayne began walking down the footpath to look for some accommodation. She'll probably stay there for a week or so, in the meantime getting out her map of Atmos to plot the next terra for travel.

The Storm Hawks watched her shrink away into the distance as the Condor ascended from Terra Carsenine. Admittedly Piper would have liked to get to know Ensayne more, especially for her strange ability to change into a mouse. As far as Piper knew she hadn't heard of Chroma crystals being able to turn the user into an animal, only their human appearance. Considering that fright seemed to trigger Ensayne's transformation made it even more confusing and fascinating. Maybe in her own time Piper could research into it, but she had to focus on their current mission.

Ensayne spent most of the day looking for the cheapest accommodation available on Carsenine but she was shocked by how expensive it was; even private adverts in a resident's home was too much for her small pocket of coins to afford. She realised this was a rich person's terra, meaning she'd either have to find work somewhere fast or make herself comfortable in the forestry behind the main part of town.

By three in the afternoon Ensayne managed to acquire no jobs as it seemed no one was interested in hiring today. She made for a wide dirt road between some townhouses, heading straight for the forest, when she saw two men come around a corner wearing red goggles on their heads.

"The Storm Hawks did come here right?" said one.

The other man nodded vigorously. "I'm positive they landed here Delos! I saw their ship only a few hours ago."

Ensayne threw herself behind a large garbage bin. They must be the Cyclonians that Aerrow mentioned. Ensayne had never seen one in person before so she was particularly wary of crossing paths with them.

"They've probably already left Hauv. You should have stayed near the ship and done something to stop them from leaving. You're so USELESS."

Hauv flinched, expecting to be hit again. "We could ask the locals, see if anyone knows where they're headed."

"Why would the locals know that? Anyway I have a good idea where they would be going since they'd be looking for us."

Hauv didn't seem to know where he was speaking of. "Um, where's that?"

"Oh for crying out loud…CYCLONIA! Geez Hauv you really don't use your brain do you?! It's the obvious choice. Even though WE aren't set up there, a few other Talons have taken refuge and Cyclonis has been banding them together so we can attack the maximum security prison at Terra Ertghol to get the rest of them. We should radio Zarlakov, warn him of their arrival. Surely they can set up a trap to capture the Storm Hawks, then Cyclonis will have the pleasure of sorting them out herself."

Ensayne tried to absorb as much of their conversation as possible so she could relay it to the Storm Hawks. Unfortunately she bumped the rubbish bin when she changed her position to hear them better, and the Cyclonians heard it clearly.

Delos squinted around. "Someone's watching us."

The sound of boots crunching on dirt began moving around the intersection. Ensayne wasn't sure where she could go without them spotting her. Then she heard the boots against the dirt grow louder: they were definitely heading in her direction now.

Delos grinned as his eyes settled on the garbage bin. "Whoever's behind there come out now!"

Ensayne made a break for it. She jumped out from behind the bin and immediately legged it towards town. The Cyclonian men raced after her with staffs raised and blazing. Red bolts from their striker crystals sped past her head so she forced herself to run harder as she barely dodged the attacks. Residents inside the townhouses along the dirt street began throwing objects at the Cyclonians: a pot plant cracked on Hauv's head, dinner plates exploded into thousands of pieces as they hit the ground around their feet, and one resident even threw a mattress which landed right on top of both men.

Ensayne made it to the main path along the shoreline, however severely out of breath. What she needed was a sky ride so she could catch up with the Storm Hawks, tell them what she heard, and maybe even fight alongside them. There was a dealership down the end of the walk on the east part of town, so she started running in that direction. When she finally got to the shop Ensayne yelled for the owner to lock the front door. Her heart was racing, her legs searing with pain, her mouth horribly dry. She indicated to the man that she needed water so he grabbed a cold bottle out of the fridge behind him and she drank it all without pause.

Between breaths she said, "Someone's chasing after me, I need your fastest vehicle right now."

The shop owner nodded vigorously. He hurried her into the showroom. "I would normally suggest one of the Airskimmer models but if all you need is speed and reliability, nothing fancy, no extras, then you'd be better off with a Swiftflight Speedster. It has a decent amount of armour, easy to read navigation tools, radio –"

He didn't even have time to finish the summary when Ensayne interrupted him.

"Do you have keys?" she asked urgently.

The shop owner had to go back to his desk to get them but he was back very quickly. "Wow, this has to be the quickest sale I've ever had!"

A bag of coins was thrown in his face, then Ensayne leapt onto the Swiftflight. "I'm sorry I don't have enough money to fully pay for this. Thank you so much for your help." with that she started it up and sped off to the back of the store through the large open roller door, deployed the wings when she was out in the open and ascended into the air quick as a bullet. The Cyclonians, however, spotted her from the main street only a few blocks away.

"There she is in the sky!" exclaimed Hauv. Delos glared at the quickly disappearing figure, obviously frustrated at their failure. "What should we do now?" Hauv continued.

"Catch her, kill her."