Won the Battle or the War?
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Terra.
It was a usual day on the Condor. Finn was chasing Radarr around the Condor, today's problem was that Radarr had stolen Finn's ever so precious hair gel, Junko was furiously raiding the Condor's fridge and cupboards in search of some food to satisfy his never ending hunger, Stork was manning the ship whilst in one of his "Were all doomed!" moods with a scowl like death itself on his face, Piper was standing over the table, which was covered by a large map of the Atmos, trying to come up with the answer to the question of where were they going land to re-stock and re-fuel the Condor?, and Aerrow was contently reclining on the sofa reading a book he'd borrowed from Starling on one of his favorite Terra's. The sound of Finn calling in annoyance after the blue sky monkey, who still hadn't let go of his precious hair gel, grew louder by the second.
"Give it back Radarr!" Finn called after Radarr as the little menace ran circles around the Condor.
Aerrow and Piper looked up from what they were doing and glanced first at each other then at the door, until Aerrow put up three fingers in front of himself and counted them down slowly, "Three...Two...One..." then he pointed his index finger at the door and averted his gaze to Piper who sat at the Table, a huge smile on her face. Then Radarr came barging in with a wicked grin on face as he cunningly placed the tub of gel in such a position where it was invisible to the paranoid Finn, who would no doubt come raging into the room on his search for the tub of hair gel, that had been cunivingly stolen from his dorm room by a very hyperly energetic Radarr, and slip on it and send him flying. Just then Finn came darting around the corner and, seeing Radarr standing smack bang in the middle of the bridge a beaming smile on his furry face, came racing in, slipping, to Radarr's delight, on his own hair gel in the process. Radarr clapped his paws and chirped in delight whilst Piper and Aerrow laughed out loud as Finn, one foot in his hair gel and both his arms waving frantically, slid across the floor of the bridge heading straight for the unexpected Stork, who was slouched over the wheel of the Condor. The crash that followed was tremendous and hilarious. Stork lay on the floor directly under the steering wheel with a dazed look on his face, as Finn lay in a heap on top of him with an angry yet surprised look on his face at the cleverness of the little sky monkey he was forced to call a co-pilot. Both of them covered in the green hair gel that had been stolen by Radarr.
"Stupid weasel!" Finn yelled as he picked himself up off the floor.
"Now Finn, He's only a little sky monkey! And for your information some people can and want to call you worse names than that!" Aerrow said getting up off the sofa and petting his little blue friend as he clinged to his leg.
"You always do it Aerrow! Protect that fluffy little monster from everything, as if he's your pet. If he is, then keep him in a cage if not, then let me at him." Finn said trying to get at Radarr who was hiding behind Aerrows legs.
"Finn! Calm down. If you don't I'm going to have to use a hypnosis crystal on you and I know how much you hate them." Piper said leaving her maps and walking over to stand next to Aerrow and Radarr.
"I don't care! I want revenge! That's the seventh tub of gel he's wasted. If I loose anymore I'm never goin' to get another girl to look at me ever!" Finn cried thinking dreamily of the Terra Tropican babe's he'd seen the other week, and was still under the impression that they only noticed him for the fact that he'd spent two hours in front of the mirror in the bathroom, and then come out looking as if he'd just gotten out of bed.
"Alright Finn. You asked for it!" Piper said reaching into her little brown leather pouch that hung from her waist, which she carried everywhere with her, and pulled out a small green hypnosis crystal and gently began swinging back and forth in front of Finn's face. In a matter of seconds, Finn was lying on the floor with a thumb in his mouth and snoring, like the little child that he was.
"Thanks Piper! I don't know what I'd do if I had to stand Finn's obnoxious moaning for another day!" Aerrow sighed, placing a hand on Pipers shoulder.
"It's okay! I'm actually going to enjoy having some peace and quiet for a change." Piper giggled placing the hypnosis crystal back in her leather pouch.
"Hey Piper, do you think you could call Junko, and get him to take Finn back to his room?" Aerrow asked turning to the slumbering Finn sprawled across the corridor floor.
"Sure!" Piper answered, already heading down to the kitchen.
"Well Finn. You asked for it." Aerrow muttered to himself as he tried to haul Finn a little further down the corridor.
"Um…Guy's!" Aerrow heard Stork call from where he was inside the bridge," I think we have a problem!"
"What kind of problem?" Aerrow asked, giving up on the thought of trying to attempt to move Finn.
"Where's Piper?" Stork asked turning round to face Aerrow.
"She's gone to fetch Junko. Why?" Aerrow asked puzzled.
"We have a problem. The engine is running out of crystal fuel, and the last Terra we passed was about 2 hours ago, and there's no Terra for the next hour and a half in any direction that we take." Stork explained pointing to the crystal fuel monitor on the control board, whilst getting very hiked up about his precious Condor.
"Don't worry Stork. I'll get Piper now. We'll all be fine!" Aerrow said trying to comfort Stork who was no in a state of panic.
"Someone call my name?" Piper asked popping her head round the entrance of the bridge.
"Stork was just having a nervous breakdown!" Aerrow explained as Piper came into the bridge.
"It's not a nervous breakdown." Stork argued whizzing around to confront Aerrow and Piper.
"Fine then, Stork was just a bit nervous about the amount of crystal fuel that we have left. Apparently not enough to get us to the nearest Terra in any direction." Aerrow continued, trying to wipe a nervous look from his own face, but Piper saw it before it disappeared.
"It's okay Aerrow!" Piper comforted, laying a had on Aerrow's shoulder, "We'll be fine. In fact, I think I see a Terra right now." She added leaving Aerrow and Stork behind her as she walked to the large windows of the bridge, to take a closer look at the mysterious land form that was coming into view.
"Weird! There's no Terra in miles from what all the maps say?" Aerrow said in disbelief as he picked up one of the maps that Piper had been studying earlier, and bringing it to where she stood looking out of the huge windows of the bridge.
"Unknown Terra, spooky surroundings, and no sign of civilization. Certain, imminent, painful doom!" Stork grimaced from where he stood behind the wheel of the Condor.
"It doesn't look that dangerous to me!" Piper debated taking the map that Aerrow offered her.
"I don't know guys. It looks deserted, this might not be such a good idea." Aerrow butted in.
"Come on Aerrow. You're always on about "Where's your sense of adventure?" so let's take this chance. There could be people there but if not then it'll give me chance to go through my crystals and try to figure a way out of here without running the Condor out of what crystal fuel we have left." Piper pleaded, practically on her knees. They'd been in the sky for a week now and they hadn't even run into any Cyclonians yet, even though they were on the outskirt border of Cyclonian territory.
"I don't know Piper. I don't want to risk a run in with any Cyclonians in this state!" Aerrow said thinking of what the Cyclonians would do if they knew the Storm Hawks were in a little bit of engine trouble. The Dark Ace would surely be hot on their tails if he got word of their position.
"Oh come on Aerrow. Please?" Piper pleaded hanging onto Aerrows arm.
"Well…" Aerrow contemplated, "okay. This time I'll listen to you Piper!" he finally agreed. Piper squealed with delight as she jumped up and down ecstatically.
"Hey, what's Piper acting like Radarr when he eats too much cloud candy?" Junko asked coming into the bridge.
"She's exited about doing a little re-con down on that Terra." Aerrow explained pointing out of the windows at the mysterious Terra.
"You mean that creepy, big, scary, pitfall of a Terra?" Junko asked a look of disbelief on his face.
"Well, if you have to put it that way, then yes." Aerrow answered, starting to regret the decision already.
"Junko, where's Finn?" Piper asked breaking out of her exited trance.
"Um…he's in his room." Junko answered cramping a pipe that had started to leek.
"Good! We could do without his distractions today. Junko, prepare the landing gear, Stork, guide the ship down. Piper, get your things together." Aerrow ordered everyone to their places. "Piper. You and I are going to take a little walk around this Terra!"