Storm Hawks

The Far Side Fray

Chapter 1

We Are Left to Wonder

"The storm Hawks, sure they were young, often seen as only little kids but they sure left a big mark and raised hope again when all was lost. They made up for their age by their bravery. Apart from their age, they were everything the original Storm Hawks were and before they left, they also earned the same respect.

Now? Who knows what happened to them. They just left. No one knows if they are to return one day. When they do, if they do, we shall welcome them not as sky nights but as heroes of the sky!" a purple haired sky knight finished her speech as the crowd cheered with the hope that was given to them by these heroes of the sky. The Storm Hawks flag proudly waving in the wind behind them was kept up as a symbol of their newfound hope. "That famous blue hawk…" Starling trailed off in her mind as she watched the warrior blue insignia flowing. "They'll come back" caught off guard by the voice and a soft hand on her shoulder, she turned around. It was Dove, calm yet confidently looking at the blue hawk. "They always did," She continued. Her and Starling spent the next moment just gazing at the flag and the setting skies behind it. It was all up to them now.

The fallowing morning, Starling made her way to the Interceptors' memorial terra bringing with her a small, brown leather book. It was a journal actually. Yes, Starling, the lone wolf sky night with an "I don't need friends" attitude had a journal.

"It has been exactly a week now that the Storm Hawks left us to wonder. I wonder how are they? How is it like? What are they up to this very minute? But one thing I won't dare ask is, are they still alive? I know they are! If they made it that far, it wasn't for nothing. Now, it is up to me to keep everyone together. Sky knights have been helping in the rebuilding of their terras as there have been no dangers to fight off for the last few days. Well, a few pesky night crawlers and talons here and there but now they are all in hiding, probably plotting. But we can't waist our remaining resources running after them. We're hanging in there I suppose.

Starling out"

In the Far Side of Atmos

A ship engulfed in smoke leaving a trail in the skies behind it was dashing nearly nose first into a mountaintop. Inside the ship, a squadron of six teens and sounding alarms. "JUNKO, FINN, PULL THE CANNONS BACK IN!" the red head sky night Aerrow yelled through the alarms to the strongman and the wingman while gripping tightly to the rail in the bridge. "STORK! TRY TO LEVEL THE CONDOR, WE'RE GOING DOWN AND GAINING TO MUCH SPEED!" another order came from the sky knight. "Aerrow! We lost them!" a golden-eyed girl said while retracting a telescope to which a nerve racked pilot responded with intensity "We may have lost THEM but we're also about to loose the CONDOOOOR!" The six of them now were all hanging on for dear life to what ever was in reach and braced them selves for the incoming impact. BANG! The Condor bounced once as the pilot Stork managed to level the Condor's nose at the last minute, however this was not enough to stop the coming disaster. POW! Another loud noise as the Condor bounced a second time resulting in loosing many pieces of armor along with a propeller. And finally, KABANG! The ship impacted for the last time before skidding another two hundred yards and leaving a scar in the mountaintop's earth and PING! As the wrecked ship hit a bolder, putting an end to the Condor's wild ride.

It was quiet. Even more smoke was now rising from what was left of the carrier ship. The only thing to be heard was a slight breeze whispering in the air passing over the Condor.

Inside the ship was no better. It was dark, smoky and cluttered with broken equipment, glass and other materials along with the six unconscious bodies each spread out all over the bridge. It was two hours before a small scatter in the room by a silvery long eared creature desperately looking for its leader. It was Radarr. He let out a few low chirps hoping to receive a response. He continued roaming the room when he heard a groan fallowed by a cough. Radarr ran to the source of the noise knowing it was Aerrow. At Aerrow's side, the anxious creature snuggled his soft head under the knight's hand and gave him a nudge with his nose. "Ra…Radarr?" asked the battered redhead. "Hey buddy, you all right?" he said as he slowly pulled himself up. Radarr replied with a cheerful squawk only to see Aerrow grab his throbbing and bleeding head. "Ow. What in the world just happened?" Aerrow began to slowly realize the state of his surroundings. "Ah Crap! Guys?" he yelled out as he rushed him self up only to be brought back down by a sharp shooting pain through his upper torso. He gasped in pain as he was now on his knees looking straight into the floor in shock. What was this? This couldn't be good. He took a deep breath and forced himself to straighten up in order to have a look at the cause of the pain. What he saw almost made him loose consciousness again. A piece of metal was peering out of him like a dagger. He actually didn't quite know what it was as it was both covered in blood and it was dark in the room. His shirt felt damp around the wounded area and he figured it was probably more blood. A rumble in the background caught Aerrow's attention, it was "Junko!" and he crawled over to the wakening wallop. Greeting the redhead with a loud yawn, he then asked "Aerrow? Where are we? Wha…What's going on?" "That's what I'd like to know. I think we may have crashed when we tried to escape that cyclonian ship. That's all I can rememberAAH!" The pain interrupted him again. "Are you all right?" "I'll be fine. Hold on a sec." Aerrow turned around, took a deep breath and on 1,2,3! He pulled out the bloodied shard of metal from his body. "Gahhh!" the young sky knight clutched at his wound and turned back to his friend who was now looking at him with a worried look on his face. "C'mon, we have to help the others, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine" it took a lot just to simply bruise a wallop. Radarr was already ahead of them to look for the others. The little sky lemur found a delicate brown toned hand popping out of the rubble. Radarr squawked as he heard a faint groan. "Piper!" Aerrow rushed to her side completely ignoring the pain in his upper abdomen and throbbing in his head. He had to see Piper and nothing would stop him! " Piper! Piper. Please! Wake up!" he urged as he held her hand and brushed some dust off of her scratched face. "mmmm…" came out a low moan from the dazed navigator. "We're right here, Pi" he responded in relief to hear her awaking. Still holding her slender hand he was caught off guard as she suddenly opened her sunset orange eyes "Aerrow? Wha-" "Shhhh, it's ok, take it easy." She slowly pulled herself up and clung on her bloodied leader "Aerrow! Why are you all, what is this?" "It's fine Piper, I'll be fi-" "Your covered in blood!" "Yeah, I know but what about you? Are you ok?" he tried to get Piper to stop worrying and possibly worsen her own condition. "I'm ok I guess…a little soar." Aerrow suddenly realized he was still holding on to her hand. Piper fallowed his gaze and noticed their two hands in one another "Guys! I found Finn!" yelled out the joyful wallop, stopping the awkward moment that was to come in between the navigator and sky knight. "Aw man! What the JUNKO! I…CAN'T…BREATH!" the blond sharpshooter changed his train of words as he was suddenly being crushed by his not so gentle giant friend's hug. "Oh! Sorry!" Junko released Finn to let him catch his breath. "Finn! You ok?" " It depends on your definition of 'ok' " The banged up wingman replied to his leader.

They were now five. Where was their pilot? That question was answered soon enough. From a corner near the bridge's windows came a voice saying, "We're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed…" "Stork!" the five teens yelled out in surprised and relieved. As they walked up to the trembling merb Piper asked "Stork? How long have you been awake and laying there?" to which Stork opened one big yellow eye "I'm not sure." Aerrow lent him a hand for him to get up "how you feeling?" "I'm…I'm ok…" the terrified pilot replied vaguely, probably in shock. "NOOOOOO! MY FACE!" came an overly dramatic scream from behind them. They all turned to the source of the girlish scream only to find Finn staring into a large piece of glass. "Finn, it's just a scratch!" replied an annoyed Piper. "YOUR FACE? WHAT ABOUT MY SHIP! IT'S RUINED!" cut in an angry Stork. "It's ok Finn, girls love scars!" Junko replied trying to cheer up the blond pretty boy. "They do?" Finn asked in a high-pitched voice with big rounded eyes. "Guys!" Aerrow said, "We need toAH! Crap..," He grabbed is freshly bleeding wound. The team looked with worry at their hurting knight. "We won't get any better by worrying over Finn's face! Aerrow, sit down" Piper helped Aerrow down slowly. "It's getting cold in here, we have all the windows busted and we are at the top of a mountain! We need to find anything that could start a fire for the night and patch up the windows." The navigator took charge seeing as her leader was just not in a good shape to be in the leader position. This was going to be a long night.

In the Southern Far Side: In the royal cyclonian palace.

In a large echoing room painted of rich reds, purples and golden large gothic windows and French door frames stood a slender dark green haired prince at one of the windows, absorbing the sun's last light before nightfall. His sunset watch was interrupted by the two large doors opening, inviting in a man dressed dark green and red, sporting a brighter red crow insignia in his armor covered chest. "Master Lucas" the man said, "I have come to deliver today's border patrol report" and stopped half way through the room. "Speak then" the prince responded not moving even his gaze. "Our border patrol has not detected any threat. The Eastern border patrol was clear with the exception of a small riot lead by three resistance rebels, two of which have been executed publicly and the third rebel still has not been found. The western border, cleared. As for the northern border, their has been a chase after an unidentified ship, it was eliminated." The messenger ended. "Are you sure that ship was not one of our own in training? Or one of our deliveries? After all, the northern border is where the shipments come in." The prince replied as he turned around to face the man. The man forced to make eye contact with the prince's purple set of piercing orbs responded "No sir, this was some kind of old fashion battleship, a kind not recognized by our armies." "Hem, perhaps they were just rebels as well. Thank you, carry on now." The prince Lucas turned back to the window and added "Oh! And please let my sister know I am ready to see her" "yes sir" the messenger bowed and exited the room. Not long after came in a dark haired girl dressed in a black laced, deep purple dress accompanied by two night crawlers at her sides. "Hello sister" he turned to see Master Cyclonis walking towards him and threw her arms around him as he did around her. "Welcome back Lark, it has been so long." "Oh Lucas, I've missed you and thank you" she replied as they pulled apart and both of their purple eyes meeting, his lighter then hers. "What happened to you? You look so exhausted! And is this a scar I see on your lip?" "Uck! I was so close Lucas! But those, those BASTARD kids! GAH! They ruined everything!" "Now now, calm down, Lark." "Humph! It doesn't matter now anyways, they're on the other side, and I closed the portal behind me." Cyclonis remembered about a week ago the event, from being so close to victory to loosing her most trusted right hand man Dark Ace and having to cower through the portal. "It's ok, they can have their own little laws and government for now but they'll only loose again when we'll have all the plans ready for action. Then we'll pay them a visit!" he replied to his stressed out sister with a hand on her shoulder. "I failed Lucas! And now I have to go to you for help and the rest of the family!" "Lark, grandmother gave a little girl a whole kingdom to rule! You weren't ready! You were only 12 when she died and it was all passed down to you, not to mention it was still in development of both territory and army wise. Besides, we couldn't bring our technology to the atmos kingdom and you came this far with out it! Imagine how easy it'll be WITH our technology!" "Yes, if only we could figure out a way to expand the portals…" Cyclonis responded completely unaware of the fact that her enemy Piper had already figured this out.