A/n: this is the direct sequel to Sky Blades. No time lapse or skips from the previous story.
Chapter 1
(Michael POV)
I take the news with a grain of salt but I don't think Lark is taking it so well. I clench my eyes and cover my ears for what to come. After the crap we've been through I would be mad to if I was taken from my city while being comatose and then finding out of not having a ride home.
"You got to be kidding" Lark yells at the top of her lungs.
"Now Lark please, I have an idea how to get out of here" I suggested trying to calm her down. "Richard do we still have the black box on the ship?"
He looks up but with an annoyed look on his face. He knows what I'm suggesting but will he accept it. I know Richard all too well.
"If you're saying I think you're saying then it might just work but I'm having my doubts now."
I nod and begin to walk to the Dreadnought. Before I take another step out of the door someone says.
"Um, question?"
We all look at the blonde guy to see what he has to ask.
"What is it Finn" Aerrow asks.
"Guys what exactly is the black box?"
Richard starts to look at me and the rest of the squad. He sighs and he brings is head up with a straight look on his face.
"I guess we can't leave you guys in the dark forever; the black box contains not only the most powerful crystals on Atmos but few of the most powerful crystals in the universe."
This catches Piper's and Lark's attention. If I know Lark she would ask to see the crystals due to her extreme prefer to experiment with those things.
"Can I see them" Lark asks.
Then Richard's face goes from straight to hateful. I can tell he wants no one else to know about the power of those crystals. He was always serious about thing but not like this.
"I suppose but promise that you won't touch them."
She nods her head. She tries to get up and I walk over to help her sit up. Even after a week of recovering from the surgery and she is still a bit weak and famished. I lift her up bridal style so I can carry her to the dining hall.
"Richard" I call out. "There is an olive branch flag in the main hall; can you wave over the court yard telling everyone to stop fighting."
He nods and leaves the room. Everyone notice I'm taking Lark somewhere.
So Piper asks "hey Michael; where are you taking her?"
I turn around and say "I'm taking her to the dining hall to eat and it's around early noon."
At that instance a roar is heard. This freaks out Gareth, Razor and I about it. So in an instinct we drew our weapons. We franticly search the room for that roar until we pinpointed where it is coming from.
"Um, Junko" Gareth asks. "That wouldn't happen to be your stomach is it?"
He nervously chuckle and says "Well we did skip breakfast to get here."
I give a sigh of relief but also a bit bothered. I bring my head back up and say "Well we all can go to the dining hall to get some food in our stomachs."
Some of us laugh some even grunt in agreement. I lead everyone through the halls and as we walk the sound of fighting have died down. I can tell the flag have worked. When we arrived to the dining hall Richard is already waiting at one of the tables. I walk over to one of the chairs to set Lark down. When I set her down I get a smile from her as a thank you. I proceed over to the kitchen to make lunch for everyone. The kitchen also connects to a garden both profuse in vegetation and in some wild life. I walk over to the pond to catch some domesticated fish and some clams. I catch about ten fish and thirty clams. I then walk over to one of the vegetation patches to get some fresh spice and carrots. I put everything in separate baskets to allow me to carry everything into the kitchen. As I walk in I noticed Stork joining us and he is just as paranoid as ever. I smile as everyone actually has friendly banter and conversations. It does my heart that not only I get to save my treasure but to also make good friends in the process. I kind of figured they would still be at each other's throats but the power of forgiveness apparently is a broad sword compared to the knife of hate. I proceed to cooking everyone's lunch. I skin and de-bone the fish. I figured I would bake the fish so I did. I get started to boiling the clams and cutting the carrots. As the fish bakes I sprinkle the fresh spice over the fish. I also bring out some bread to toast so I can get started on steaming the carrots. I peel each carrot and chop them into slices. I flip the fish over to spice that side. I pull the bread out of the oven so I can slice into tem equal pieces. I place the bread and fish on ten plates and I walk over to the carrots on I place a good portion on each plate. I look around the kitchen to find what I can use to bring all the plates out at once. I find a cart near the ice box. I wheel it over to the plates and begin to load the meals onto it. As soon I get the last plate on I bring everyone their meals. I walk into the dining room and everyone was laughing about a joke I overheard Gareth said, I think it was about a raccoon stuck on a rock in a pond. I place each plate in front of each person. I then take my seat with my plate next to Lark. My cousins and I did our usual before meal prayers to the gods. As soon we finish we just dig in. While we eat I her Junko give a hum of enjoyment.
"Hey Mike" Junko calls out. "This is really good; what your secret?"
I laugh and say "no secret just some herbs and spice."
Then everyone chuckle and laugh. We continue the meal as usual. When we finish eating we get down to business. Richard pulls a black box out of his coat. It's a foot wide, seven in length and three inches in height. He places his thumbs on the tabs and then a click is heard. It opens when the clicks were heard. He turns the box at us and ten little crystals are in the box are visible to us.
The only reaction initially was Lark's.
"That's it; those are the universes most powerful crystals."
"I expected them to be bigger" Piper added in.
Richard give a small sigh and says "size does not matter; one of these alone could power a Phalanx class battleship for a whole century and those things are like a moving city fortress."
Then Aerrow, Junko, Finn and Stork now stare at the small one inch crystals. We then notice Finn because most of us know what he's thinking. Then Gareth opens up and says to Finn.
"No Finn you can't have a crystal to power your guitar."
"Aw man you're no fun."
At that instance we all laugh. After that moment we go back to business.
"Alright we had our fun but now we need to discuss the plan to get out of here."
"Richard is right; not saying the Condor can't hold us all just we need to distribute enough weight allowing us to get to New Cyclonia in a day" I add. "We either need to salvage those ships for parts and materials to rebuild the Dreadnought or convert this castle into a flying fortress."
"Michael, just wondering why is that small thing called a dreadnought" Junko asks.
"Well it used to be half a bridge for the flagship of our great grandfather's battle ship before it got blasted to pieces and some parts were salvageable; we just modified it for travel and as a home."
"I see so" Stork says. "Well I will get started salvaging it."
"Take Gareth he's DZ's mechanic." As soon I said that Richard takes charge and assign jobs to everyone.
"Junko, Finn, Aerrow, Razor go into the forest with a couple of scouting squads to salvage for parts; Mike and Piper you two try to convert the Dreadnought's engines to accept these crystals; I'll help reorganizing the troops and Lark you can oversee the operation."
We all nod in agreement and Richard closes the box and hand it over to me. We all walk out while I place the box on Lark's lap and lift the chair she is in and bring her outside. When I got outside some of the guys from the Storm Hawks' side begin fixing their skimmers while my men bury the dead and setting the tombstones. I set Lark down by the sun. The spot I set her down is a bit isolated, no one can hear us so I guess now is a good time to tell Lark my feelings.
"Hey Lark."
"What is it Mike?"
"Remember the day we met?"
"Yeah that was the day you kissed me" She says blushing to that moment of nostalgia.
"Well at that moment I just wanted some fun but from that day I grew feelings for you." As I keep our eyes locked on each other I can tell she is taken back by this. "Every day I've seen you the more those feelings grew but so did my cowardice; it was until now I held my feelings back." As I say that I raise my hand to meet hers and she place her other hand on top of mine. "When we get back I would like to take you out for a date."
"Oh Mike that is so nice but I don't know; this whole thing about being nice seems all too new to me and I don't know."
"Well we still don't know unless we try."
She chuckle and says "Well okay." I feel so happy that she accepted my offer but before I get up, she squeezes my hand and says "I swear if you ever try anything it's your manhood on the line here." I gulp and nod. "Good now on your way" she says in a cheerful tone.
A take my hand back and I take the box into my arms. I look at her again and say "Lark, sometimes you can be either persuasive or just plain scary." She giggles as I walk back to the semi-smoking carcass of a ship.
I meet with Piper so we can get started on the engine. We walk through the narrow hallway to get to the engine room. It's a hot mess in here. The engine must have blown up when it crashed into the wall. Luckily for us there is a closet filled with spare parts for us to use to repair the engine. I open the giant hatch where the carcass of an engine is leaning up against. I kick the smoking pile of smelted metal out of the hatch so we can have room to build the crystal converter. We get started on building the base until we hear a scream.
We get out of the ship to see what happened. We can't believe what we found. A giant wolf is cornering one of the soldiers. I run towards the wolf but the wolf hears my foot steps and it immediately turns to attack me. I wrestle the wolf but it quickly over powers me. It tosses me onto my back with its giant teeth and it tears off a piece of my armor. It charges at me ready to rip my head off. I close my eyes in hopes it would be quick and painless. I then hear the sound of crystal-like object growing out of the ground. I open my eyes to see a cage of ice surrounding the wolf and it looks like a close call too. I look back to see Razor and his salvage team have returned with some useable engine parts.
I look back at the wolf and I can tell it tried to attack one of the soldiers for a reason. I try to place my hand on its forehead but it growled at me. I ignore it. I need to establish connection with the beast. I delve deep into its mind until our thought meet.
I appear in a location where it looks like one of the sacred places of the forest. I appear as what my ancestors were: a reaper with wings. I look to find the wolf but instead I find a godly being. I try to speak with my mouth but no words come out. The only thing I could do is think my words. This came out like I'm actually saying it.
"This is surely a strange place."
"Indeed my friend."
I look to meet my eyes with the godly figure. "Are you the wolf I'm trying to communicate with?"
"Yes, I am; I am the guardian of the forest: Veles."
"Tell me Veles, why did you attack one of my friends' soldiers?"
"I delve deep into his mind and he wish to turn the forest into a civilization for the moderates and remove those of the old ways."
"We will leave as soon as we can."
"You better else you and your friends will feel the wrath of Gaia."
"Help us and we will leave the forest as soon as possible."
"Very well."
In that instance my vision becomes filled with a blinding light. I find myself back in the courtyard. I no longer see a wolf, now I see a man dressed in robes of a shaman. I turn to nod to Razor to bring the cage down. For a number of reasons I can still hear Veles' thoughts. This troubles me but we need to get out of here. I walk back to the Dreadnought with Veles following me. We get questionable looks from everyone but the forest denizens. I want to tell them its okay but Veles tells me to pay them no mind. They way Veles wants to help me is almost similar to Wrath's but more demanding for us to leave. We walk through the hallway to the engine room.
When I walk in, the replacement engine is set in while the energy converter is still in its base form. I quickly get to work on it. I bring up the schematics on the type of energy conversion for these types of crystals. A long time ago back on Rohann, these crystals were considered forbidden. Now these power just about everything: battleships, weapons, hospitals, heck even a blender. The first time these crystals were used was when my great grandfather Achilles 1st used seven weapons powered only by these crystals. He even fought an entire war with these types of crystals. From then on we call them saber shards. The type of energy these crystal emit are spectral energy; meaning a source of concentrated light need to enter the crystal to activate the limitless amount of energy stored in it otherwise it will just be a decorative piece. I grab one of the emergency blasters in the emergency box hanging off of the wall. I quickly build a container to house the wild energy before plugging it into the system. I place a saber shard in the far corner of the container. I leave a small crack allowing me to shoot the crystal. I silently pray to the gods that this will work. I take the shot and quickly close the container. At first nothing and then I hear a hum of energy flowing inside the container. Soon the container begins to glow every color of the spectrum. I place the container into the energy converter and seal it tight. I flip the switch and the ship comes to life. I walk to the outside of the ship. I see that all the salvage teams are here and the exterior of the ship looks like it can hold until we get to a city. I see Richard climbing up and walk to stand next to me.
"Mike, I don't know what the hell did you do to that shaman but everything that could rip a man to shreds did not make a howl or disturbance for the salvage teams and somehow the men look relaxed to the point they are actually working faster and better; tell me the hell happened?"
"Cousin, that shaman is the guardian of the forest and he agreed to help us leave and the only thing he wants is for us to leave."
"Well let's honor his wish by leaving now." Richard then turns to the soldiers to give an announcement. "Can I get your attention; now that we need to do is done here, we all can go home back to New Cyclonia; but we have to leave now, so load up and prepare for flight."
I jog across the courtyard to get Lark. I take a quick glance to my sides and I find that my fighter have been returned to me. I run to Lark and have a quick word.
"Ready to go my lovely lark?"
She giggles a bit and responds "whenever you're ready."
I nod and pick her up bridal style. I run towards my fighter and prop open the cockpit. I gently lay Lark down on the co-pilot seat and myself on the pilot's seat. We quickly take off and circle the two ships and squadron of skimmers. We wait as they get off of the ground. Before I leave I hear one last thought from Veles.
"Hurry Michael Blade hurry before the forest turns on you."
I reach over to my radio and opened a radio signal between my fighter, the Condor, Dreadnought and the remaining twenty skimmers. I make sure it's a secure channel. I hail the Condor and Dreadnought first.
"Guys we need to get out of here now."
I hear Stork from one of the lines and he says "don't need to tell me twice."
Then I hear a respond from Gareth.
"Well we worn this place down; lets bolt."
We all aim towards the direction of New Cyclonia and we all fly there at full speed in hopes of getting home sooner. I have a feeling this is just the beginning.
