A/N: Be sure to visit my profile and copy the fanfiction soundtrack playlist link into your address bar so you can quickly find the song/s included in this chapter. I would display it here but for some reason the link info gets skewed when written into a chapter.

In this fanfiction I will from time to time have scenes that I envision with a piece of music, or just want to add it in for the fun of it. This chapter's music plugin is Mamma Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of music". I was inspired to include this because of its usage in two of my favourite shows: Lost and Dexter.


In Atmos there are a lot of dangerous areas which people try to avoid at all costs. If they are unlucky enough to become stuck somewhere like the Black Gorge, Terra Deep or the Great Expanse, there's not much hope for their escape. And up there as one of the most feared is Terra Ertghol, home of Ertghol Maximum Security which is hands down the toughest prison in Atmos' history. Its usage is reserved for the most dangerous high-profile criminals who only ever get out when their body has decayed long enough for maggots and rats to have eaten away all the flesh, muscle and internal organs. After that, what is left of the corpse gets dumped down a massive tunnel which travels all the way to the Wastelands right above a pit of lava. Not exactly what one would call legal, but then again, all laws go out the window once you step foot on Ertghol.

When the war against Cyclonia ended, every one of them including their allies were thrown straight into this prison. They had to extend the structure to accommodate the enormous influx of several thousand new detainees, but it didn't take long; they were all forced into intense slavery building the extension, and while waiting for its completion, they were chained up singularly out in the yards where the harsh sun beat down on their forms as ravens relentlessly pecked at them. One would think that letting hundreds of Cyclonians sit around together in the open would be disastrous, but the amount of heavy armoured guards in the prison was of such a monumental amount and all were equipped with military-grade weapons to use against their prisoners if even the slightest move seemed suspicious.

Once the new extension of 30 foot concrete walls, electric fencing and windowless cells was finished, the sunburnt Talons were forced to drag their blistered feet to the cells they'd be spending the rest of their lives in.

And that's just the beginning.

On a lighter and more pleasant piece of news, Monday morning was visitor's day. This luxury was only given to them once every six months, with a maximum of two separate visitors within the day. Since inmates had minimal human contact – even between each other – it would be rather depressing if an inmate had no one come to see them.

As it was, prison life turned Ravess into an even more aggressive person than she already was. At any point when given food through the hole of her cell door, Ravess would grab the hand and try to break their fingers, or immediately attack the officer when they'd open it to let her out for an hour. From her constant violent behaviour Ravess lost this luxury for a good couple of months.

Her brother Snipe was affected differently however. Even though he had his outbursts of rage at times, he was mostly quiet now. As for Repton and the other Raptors, they weren't in the same block so the two had no idea how they were coping, that is if they hadn't all killed each other by now.

An officer approached Ravess' cell with a nasty sneer. He'd dealt with her the most out of all the staff there so he knew all her tricks as well as what threats to use to keep her in line.

"You have a visitor Queen Psycho. And don't even try to scrape the skin off my arms this time or I'll thrash your skinny little ass so hard it'll bleed like a sliced throat!"

This was the first bit of good news –excluding the bleeding backside part – she'd had since arriving at Ertghol.

He cuffed her hands and shackled her legs before taking her down into the visitation room. When Ravess sat down in front of her visitor she almost choked when she saw who it was. "Oh god not you!"

It was her 'other brother' Barry. Ravess had no interest in knowing him since he was the complete opposite of her and had a tendency to rant about 'morals'. Although Snipe was a total idiot, she still liked him better than Barry. His golden mane of hair was like usual as untamed as his beard.

"It's fantastic to see you my lovely sister!" he beamed. "How's prison life going for you? Did you make a scene when they didn't give you a pink jumpsuit? It must have been quite a disappointment."

Ravess struck her hands on the table and growled rather viciously. "Oh piss off you bastard. This was all the Storm Hawks' fault, none of us would be here if they'd been killed, along with the rest of you self-righteous Sky Knights."

Barry shook his head. "Us? What, you intended on killing me too? And how can you talk about killing a bunch of kids so casually, I mean, where's your conscience? Do you even remember what we were like when we were fifteen?"

His sister looked away with her nose pointed pretentiously in the air. She never liked his relays about childhood as she hated associating herself with him. "Are you trying to sway me again brother because I don't intend on changing. You're wasting your breath."

"Look where it got you!" he retorted, waving his hand at the room. "You thought that your side could win and now you're in here for life. You sacrificed yourself to an oppressive teenage ruler following in the footsteps of her mother and her grandmother. You could have been fighting WITH me instead of AGAINST me."

Ravess gestured to one of the workers in the room. "I'm finished here."

Barry tapped at the glass, giving her a serious look. "Oh no you don't Ravess, sit back down."

Ravess folded her arms, giving him a glare like a child that doesn't want to be spoken to by their parent. "Look, I'm sick of your lectures. You pride yourself on being a Sky Knight and all you want to do is force your ideals on me. You're not better than me." Finishing off her sentence with a rude gesture, Ravess strode away. Barry slammed his fist on the table and shouted angrily. His sister never took a word of advice even though all he ever intended was to help her. She was stubborn like a horse and fierce like a tiger; the two worst traits to put together in one person.

But he couldn't let her walk away just yet. Barry called out one more time to her and when she turned around he pulled out a photo from his pants pocket and slid it under the glass. Ravess slowly walked back over, glancing warily at the picture before picking it up.

It was a photo of Ravess and Barry as ten-year-olds smiling from cheek to cheek like normal happy siblings. Ravess breathed deeply, looking at him with the eyes of a regretful person. Barry leaned on the table as he watched her.

"Barry," she said softly, clasping a hand to her mouth to hide her reminiscing smile. "Stop trying to make me feel things."

"Come on sis, you can't keep up this façade forever. Take the picture with you at least, hide it if you feel you need to but promise me you'll look at it every day. Please?"

Ravess frowned. An officer inspected the item before allowing her to tuck the picture in the pocket of her jumpsuit. "Fine."

With that Barry was escorted out. But just as he was leaving, a woman walked right past him, headed over to Ravess. At first he didn't think anything of it until he caught her saying something which sent off alarm bells in his head.

"It's nice to see you Talon. Miss me much?"

Barry quickly twisted his head around to get another look. She was slim figured, with light blonde hair tied up into low-sitting pigtails, a fair complexion dotted with freckles, and had dark aqua coloured eyes. He didn't get a chance to hear any more of their conversation after that, however. The door was closed behind him and the prison officer, and while he was taken through the building back to the entrance of the prison, Barry was left to ponder over who the woman was.

Back inside the visitor's room, Ravess stared in awe at her master. Cyclonis was supposed to be long dead, and yet there she was. Her disguise as 'Lark' meant no one knew it was her, but Ravess didn't understand how she managed to get in with her Cloaking crystal when crystals were banned from being brought inside the prison except for staff personnel.

"I thought you died, Lark," Ravess whispered. "How are you here?"

Lark giggled and waved a dismissive hand. "Well, I was falling to my impending death right for the mouth of a lava serpent when a sky ride came flying towards me. I was rescued just in time. Funny, I never would have expected it to be him though."

Ravess furrowed her brow. "Him? Who is him?"

"A newly found friend of mine," Lark responded. "He was part of the Talons before the war but I never put him in a high position. He's also the reason I'm here without using a Cloaking crystal."

This grabbed Ravess' attention. "How is that even possible?"

Lark smiled. "It's a device that implements the effects of a crystal and transfers it to the target person permanently, but at the moment the only crystal that works with it is a Cloaking crystal. He has a squadron member taking a look to see if they can re-engineer the device to take on other types of crystals. If they are successful, I will be assigning a project to have them build more. The reason I came here is to let you know you don't have to worry about being stuck in this horrid hellhole forever. I have a plan."

Ravess grinned. "I like it when you have a plan. I was sure to die within a few years simply from the depressive state I've ended up in. How long do you think it will take?"

Lark looked around quickly at the cameras on every corner of the ceiling, the officers standing about glancing at each prisoner cautiously. One of the officers caught her gaze, and his suspicious squint narrowed further when he saw Ravess' big smile.

He immediately ran over, club raised, snatched up Lark and lifted it to her face. The whole room stopped to watch.

"What were you talking about just then girl?" he snarled heavily. Lark giggled – although Ravess knew it was just an act to make her seem normal – and she replied, "Oh, I was telling my friend about my new kitten! She's the cutest little thing ever."

The prison officer looked between the two like he knew they were up to something but couldn't do much when he had nothing to go on except for facial expressions. Frustrated, he let her go with a rough push and said, "You two are done here. Queen Psycho can go back to her cell, and you little bitch can get the fuck out as well or I might just accidentally smash your skull in because, well, it's happened before. Me and my clumsiness."

Lark brushed herself off as if it was nothing, then peered up at the towering monstrosity of a man with one eyebrow raised like she was challenging his authority. It almost became a showdown, but Lark had better things to do. Besides, when her Talons come to swoop down on Ertghol she could pay him a private visit and perhaps show him the inside of his own skull.

"Well, I'll see ya," Lark directed to Ravess, then blew her a kiss. Ravess rolled her eyes at Cyclonis' girly persona.

Later that day in the hour prisoners were given for recreation, Ravess approached her brother Snipe in the yard. He seemed surprised to see her since she'd been on time out for several months. After she told him of Cyclonis' visit and her plot to get them out, Snipe started cracking up. "She ain't gunna get us out sister, this place is seriously tough. Unless she has a few hundred Wallops with her there's no way it'll work. That's without any of that tactical crap either. I can't believe YOU didn't think about that!"

Ravess put a hand towards his mouth when an officer walked near the fence line watching them intensely. "Did you not pay any attention? She has the ability to Cloak herself at will now, and with that device she could give that ability to the other Talons as well. They could potentially take on the appearance of the prison officers, governors and the warden. Now do you see how this could work? Anyway, don't go telling anyone about it because the last thing we need is for one of the officers to overhear the plan."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Snipe grunted dismissively. "As long as it works I couldn't care less about how it's done. Now can you bugger off please, you're cramping my style here!"

Ravess huffed. She realised how little she could tolerate Snipe's blunt temperament, and how her solitude in a cell was just a blessing in disguise because once they were working together again for Cyclonis, she'd have to put up with him every day belittling and ignoring her advice.

Then she realised how Barry felt. Funnily enough he still cared about her even though she pushed him away every time and even though she'd threatened to kill him almost just as often. Maybe it was time for Ravess to listen to her oldest brother; once released, she could quietly disappear and start a whole new life.


"Storm Hawks, can you hear me? Hello? Anyone?"

Amidst trying to get her radio to work and frantically flying away from a couple of Talons who wanted her head, Ensayne was feeling the pressure mount very quickly. For all she knew the Talons may have already alerted the other ones and could be preparing for the Storm Hawks' arrival by now, but since they now had eyes on her after she overheard their plans, they no doubt wanted her head on a stick, so Ensayne couldn't turn around for Carsenine and leave the Storm Hawks to sort it out themselves. She knew they would be quite capable to handle it on their own but as it was mentioned: her head, on stick, no backsies.

Finally her voice came through on their radio. Most of the Storm Hawks were in their rooms at the time, so it was just Stork on the bridge when the static of the radio cleared and he heard someone speaking.

"Hello? Is someone there? Storm Hawks please if you can hear me, you're in trouble!"

Stork clicked it on. "Who's this?" he asked warily.

Ensayne breathed with relief. "Oh thank goodness! Um, Stork is it? You guys are in trouble. I saw two Cyclonians on Carsenine and they were talking about some plan to do with a maximum security prison on Terra Ertghol? And they saw me so now they're coming to kill me and they're setting up a trap to capture you all when you get to the ruins!"

It all sounded a little insane from Stork's perspective. He knew very well of that prison and there was absolutely no way anyone could overrun it considering the amount of watch towers that lined the edges of the terra. Besides that, ninety-nine percent of Cyclonis' remaining army were on the inside of the compound, in chains, and watched by officers or cameras twenty-four hours a day.

"You uhh, do know how crazy that sounds, right? This is just part of your setup, huh?"

Ensayne became frustrated. "Wh-what? Setup? I'm not doing – I know what I heard!"

Aerrow walked onto the bridge. "Stork, who is it?"

"It's the amnesia girl, she says she heard Talons talking about Cyclonis' plans –" but before Stork could continue about the absurdity of it, Aerrow immediately grabbed for the radio. Stork may be paranoid about everyone and everything, but Aerrow was not and when they left her back on the terra, he was certain by then that she was a good guy.

"Tell me everything."

An hour later Ensayne found the Condor stationary in the sky. She flew up to the runway, parked in the hangar then hopped off her ride hastily. They all walked back to the bridge together.

"How far behind do you think the Cyclonians are?" Piper asked her.

"I'd say about twenty minutes. Whatever they're riding, they aren't a match for this Swiftflight that's for sure."

Aerrow nodded. "Good. We'll change course for Terra Beddaren, it's only a few hours west of here. Once we're there we can –"

Sirens whirred from the bridge and Stork looked particularly alarmed.

"Um, guys? We have company."

Up ahead there was a swarm of Cyclonians coming their way. Aerrow ordered Finn and Junko to their positions while Stork powered up the main weapons, then they took off straight for them. Aerrow didn't want Piper and himself to go out on their rides just yet if they could take them out from the Condor first.

Finn loaded up his sharp shooter then lined up his first shot. He fired and it hit the Cyclonian's sky ride right on the nose, sending it into an immediate spiral. He proceeded to take out his second, third, fourth and fifth targets as well without fail.

"Chikka-cheh!" Finn exclaimed.

Junko wasn't so lucky though since the incident with Thragg had made him freeze at the sight of conflict. He tried to aim at the Cyclonians, but he couldn't focus. The blasts barely reached within metres of them. Junko's hands began shaking.

"I can't do this, I'm not ready!" he yelled out.

Piper rushed over to him. She placed a hand on his arm. "Just breathe deep for a moment, okay? Relax yourself. We know what you've been through. Just remember, Thragg was fooled into thinking they were the stronger ally. He wasn't thinking about his morals, only who would win. You can help save the Wallops that are left from being corrupted like he was."

Junko sighed. "I know Piper. I just…feel like I don't have it in me to be the strong Wallop I was. When Chief Thragg looked at me before I…before I did it, he looked at me like I was his real enemy. He never even said he was sorry. He wanted me dead. I think my strength died when he did, Piper. I haven't felt anything since then, all I've wanted is to leave it all behind me."

Piper gave Junko a hug. She felt bad that he'd been hurt psychologically like that, but she didn't quite know how to help him through the pain. After a moment, Piper said to him, "Why don't you go back to the bridge and stay with Aerrow? I can take over here."

Junko smiled weakly. "I'm sorry Piper, I don't want to disappoint you guys."

She shook her head. "It's okay Junko, you would never disappoint us. If you're not ready then you're not ready."

Back on the bridge Stork had started up the weapons, firing in quick bursts. The Cyclonians weren't prepared for such a heavy assault and dropped out of the sky like flies. With all this success the Storm Hawks should have been happy, but Aerrow wasn't easily fooled.

"Stork, do you have any readings on the scanner aside from the Cyclonians?" Aerrow asked him. Stork leaned over to the controls but before he could voice his findings, clusters of yellow light beamed from a formation of thick clouds in the distance and within seconds the Storm Hawks were showered with explosions.

"It's an ambush!" Aerrow realised. "Stork get us out of here fast, the Condor can't take much more damage."

Piper and Finn left their positions quickly and retracted the manual cannons back inside. The two made their way to the bridge.

Stork pulled the Condor away but then several blasts shot straight into one of the engine pontoons. Alarms whirred loudly, indicating a serious problem. The Condor started tilting to its side.

"WE'RE GOING DOOOOOWN!" shouted Stork. They saw the enemy ship speed out from the clouds towards them, following as they descended. Once it was directly above them, ten anchors dropped down from underneath it and latched onto the Condor. The Storm Hawks gasped at the unexpected jerk they felt when their ship stopped falling, which sent them all tumbling to the floor.

Stork heaved himself up with a groan, then had a look out the window. "Um, guys? They've captured us."


The sun was falling fast as night was creeping closer. When their unexpected enemies flew down from their ship on unrecognisable sky rides to the runway, the Storm Hawks immediately grouped together and made their way down with weapons ready; even Radarr was kicking at the air with teeth bared in a nasty snarl.

Just as these strangers were taking off their helmets, Junko looked around at his crew and then said to Finn softly, "Hey, have you seen Ensayne?"

Finn shook his head then had a moment of doubt. "Oh man, what if she was in on this the whole time! She totally tricked us, probably going through all our stuff right now. Aerrow, Aerrow!" Finn walked over to his red-headed friend and whispered, "Ensayne's not here. I think she was in on this thing from the get go."

It didn't seem like Aerrow believed it, whether in doubt or simply trusting his instincts. "She may have turned into a mouse again, who knows. Send Junko to look for her."

Once Finn told Junko to find Ensayne and he'd left the runway, the remaining Storm Hawks got a good look at their unwelcome guests. The first to step forward, wearing a long black leather jacket over their attire, was a green-haired male. He wielded a long energy sword mounted with a Firebolt crystal. He appeared to be the leader of the squad. The girl next to him had vivid magenta hair and she looked severely furious like the wind had frozen her face that way.

The other female of the group wasn't human; not a raptor, but certainly from another lizard race. Her scales were very fine and soft-looking. Like the girl's small physique, her tail was just as slender and long as the rest of her.

Next to her was a lanky looking boy covered in armour, but he didn't look the type who could handle a tough fight. He was even trying to look nasty, but it wasn't working all that well. Stork seemed less awkward in comparison.

The last of them stood at the very back of the group in the shadows of his fellow members, like he wasn't interested in being there. His raven black hair was prominent as there was quite a bit of it, but when Piper's gaze fell on his face she saw that his eyes were a violent shade of purple, and they seemed to glisten unnaturally.

"So you're the Storm Hawks?" the green haired male began. "Geez, you lot look a bit…odd, don't you? What the hell's that green thing over there?"

Stork's eye twitched at the comment and his hands curled into fists. "What? You haven't seen a Merb before?"

"Oh, is that what you are…bloody freaky looking thing aren't ya! Merbs are part amphibian right, so that makes an oversized frog or some shit doesn't it?" he began laughing, as did the rest of his crew.

Stork did not take the insult well. Just as he was about to go deck the guy, Aerrow pulled out his twin energy blades and said, "Stop insulting my friend and tell me what you want with us NOW."

"Well, insulting your friend is quite entertaining," the leader began, grinning. "Look at his face, he's FUMING, about ready to strangle the crap outta me no doubt." He gave a snide chuckle watching Stork grow more and more impatient. "But he'd have to get past my mates first. And so would you," this was directed to Aerrow. "Oh, and you and you, and that gross little Skymonkey you have too. Oh gosh, did I offend the bugger!" Radarr was snarling and chomping his jaws as the man said this. Aerrow grabbed Radarr to stop him.

Stork walked over to Aerrow. "Let Radarr bite his leg off, this guy's throwing insults at us! Why would you want to STOP us from attacking him?"

Finn piped up. "I have to agree with Stork, we shouldn't be taking his crap. This bloke's a total loser!" For some reason Finn's comment made the man burst into laughter. Finn furrowed his brow in confusion. "I uhh…didn't say anything funny. What the heck's WRONG with you dude? Are you like, crazy?"

The man stopped laughing. "Our squadron is called the Total Losers. I thought it was pretty funny that you'd –"

Then the Storm Hawks cracked up laughing. Finn almost had trouble breathing because he was laughing so hard. The man folded his arms and watched their reaction, which didn't seem to offend him in the least. In fact, it was almost like he wanted them to laugh.

"The thing you all don't realise since you're having a good chuckle is that by the time I finish this sentence we'll have the lot of you tied up in chains because my friend Polly has a wonderful surprise up her sleeve!"

Before they could make a move, the Storm Hawks became wrapped up in metal chains that had appeared out of nowhere, forcing their hands behind them. As they struggled, though, the chains constricted further.

Piper didn't understand how this was possible. She had never heard of a crystal that could conjure up objects. The lizard girl called Polly gave them a smile, and then turned to smile at the creepy looking purple-eyed male.

The leader turned to Polly again and said, "Go look for the Wallop and get him chained up as well. We don't want Cyclonis' scheme to fall through because we let one loose by accident, as I'm sure you know by now she's dealt with enough idiot Talons who've failed her, so we have to make a good impression."

Polly nodded quietly. She strolled past the captured Storm Hawks, not giving any of them eye contact. For a moment Finn's eyes roved over her and when Piper saw this she hissed, "Oh would you stop staring at every girl that walks past you, she's not even human!"

Finn huffed. "Would you STOP having a go at me Piper? I like girls, and if they're pretty then of course I'm going to look! Especially if they, you know, have nice uhh…" he proceeded to describe with his hands, making several exaggerated round gestures.

"I get it Finn!" Piper snapped.

Unfortunately all this conversing had grabbed the attention of the squadron's leader, and as he walked over Aerrow's eyes narrowed quickly, trying to reach for one of his blades.

"Well look at this now," the man grinned, staring at Piper. "Such a lovely little thing aren't you?"

Aerrow clenched his teeth. Radarr started snarling again.

"You're a dainty one, but strong on the inside – and probably outside, too. Just what I like, would you believe? Who knows, maybe you and I could –"

Piper had managed to reach for her staff and got it to shoot off her cuffs. She knocked the leader backwards quickly. When she was just about to get Aerrow's constraints off, the staff suddenly lost power. Piper looked at it, turning the switch on and off, but the crystal no longer had a charge.

"Whaaaat?!"

The leader nodded to his dark-haired friend with a smirk. Piper looked over to him, then gasped in horror. The energy from the crystal was being sucked into his purple eyes! She knew straight away what was happening but she didn't want to believe it. Leech crystals are well known for being highly unstable and if they reach full capacity, they will explode. So what kind of lunatic could he be to decide that he wanted fragments of Leechers inside his eyes? Were they all crazy?

Since she was so distracted being gobsmacked by this, the leader of the group clicked on his own pair of chains. With a dark grin he whispered to her, "Lucky I have my own set, just for girls like you."

Back up on the bridge, Junko was continuing to look for Ensayne when he felt something scuttle past his foot and instinctively twitched it away. Then he realised, if she was a mouse, then that was probably her at his feet. Junko got on his knees to look under the furniture and he found her almost instantly. She hesitantly crawled out from underneath, pointing her paws at her mouse body and sighing. It seemed as though she was stuck that way.

"Stay up here and keep yourself hidden. If they capture the rest of us and don't find you, we might have a chance of escaping later on."

Mouse Ensayne nodded in understanding and scampered back beneath the lounge. Moments later someone came walking up from the hangar. At first Junko thought it might have been Aerrow, but he was sorely mistaken when he realised it was the lizard girl from the other squadron. Junko waved at her nervously.

"I suppose you want to capture me?" he asked her. She didn't speak, but she smiled and held up a crystal in front of her. Junko looked at it curiously. She pointed it towards him and chains sprung out like slithery snakes, snapping shut around his wrists then binding them behind his back.

Polly indicated for him to follow her. Junko shook his head. "No, I won't go. I am a Storm Hawk, and…we don't give up!" In that moment he tensed his Wallop muscles and began to pull hard on the chains. Polly watched him with much interest as he struggled against them, straining and yanking without much luck. He relaxed for a moment, building himself up to pull as hard as possible, and then –

SNAP!

The distinct sound of metal clanked and crashed to the floor. Junko looked at Polly, who stared in horror. "I might not be the strongest Wallop, but I'm still a Wallop!"

Junko thought it was over now, that she'd run off to the airstrip and tell her crew they should leave, and Junko would rush out and beat the heck out of the lot before they left with their tails between their legs.

Well…that doesn't happen.

Without hesitation the lizard girl ran to the side and began scaling the wall of the bridge, then the ceiling, and within seconds she was on top of Junko. Her tail lashed against his body repeatedly as she protruded her face into his to bite down several times, hissing as she did so. Junko howled and flailed his arms about in a panic. He collapsed to the ground, frantically struggling still. Polly sat on top of Junko with her tail curled around one leg, her hands against his shoulders to hold him down. He tried to lift her off and yet it was like she weighed a ton.

"Get…off…" Junko groaned. "Please…!"

Polly leaned down towards his face. Her piercing yellow eyes darted side to side as she stared at him intently. Slowly, she moved herself off of him. Junko sat up.

"How are you stronger than me?" he gasped. When she didn't answer, he continued to say, "And why aren't you talking?"

It didn't seem like she was in the mood to explain, or perhaps she just couldn't talk at all. Polly pointed at him, then held up the crystal again. Junko sighed in defeat.

When the two left the room, it was just in time because Ensayne unexpectedly transformed back, while still under the lounge, and since there was not much room for a person to be hiding under there she banged her head on the underside and felt the pressure of her whole body cramped against it.

"Ow ow ow!" she tried to wriggle herself out, though incredibly difficult, but inch by inch she eventually came unstuck. Ensayne stood up and stretched out for a moment in an attempt to uncramp her muscles, then made her way to the window of the bridge and looked outside. The enemy squad had knocked out the Storm Hawks with some kind of sleep-inducing crystal, and were in the process of taking them up to their own ship on their sky rides. What was she to do now? She had no idea what their plans were, but it was quite possible that they'd be heading to the ruins of Cyclonia and giving the Storm Hawks over.

Ensayne's stomach dropped when she saw the two Cyclonians that had been chasing her pull up onto the runway. Her sky ride was sitting in the hangar bay, they'd recognise it in an instant. She needed to hide fast.

"Just when I would like to transform I bet I won't be able to now," she mumbled under her breath in frustration.

Out on the runway, the two Cyclonians called down the other squad to meet with them there. Delos shook the leader's hand. "Good work capturing those Storm Hawks. Cyclonis will be pleased with your efforts. What is your name?"

"Danger," responded the green haired man. "Or 'D' for short. I'm glad that we have proven useful to her cause. We will continue to bring her satisfaction."

"Have you come across a brown-haired girl? We spotted her on Carsenine, she heard us talking about Cyclonis and Ertghol prison. I noticed her sky ride is sitting in the hangar over there."

Danger shook his head. "No, we haven't seen this girl you speak of. Todd, would you like to take a look with Polly? Search every inch of this ship until you find her. Rave, I need you back on the Lammergeyer – start setting a course for Cyclonia. And Leecher, continue working on that device. The sooner it's ready the better."

There was no time to lose. Ensayne ran down several corridors of the ship, looking in each room for a possible place to stow herself. She heard people walking onto the bridge – that would be the people they sent to look for her. Ensayne froze on the spot. If they heard her take another step she'd be done for.

If I can't control my transformation I'll have to scare myself into it, Ensayne realised. You heard the Cyclonians plans…they won't keep you hostage because you're nobody. You'll be killed on the spot when they find you…

She heard the two coming down the hallway now. Ensayne's attempts at psyching herself up into a state of fear paid off just in time; Polly and Todd walked into the room, looking around intently for any clues, but all they found was a mouse darting into a crack on the wall.

"Nothing here." said Todd to Polly. When she pointed towards where the mouse disappeared, he shook his head. "I'm doubtful. Chromas and Cloakers are only good for changing human appearance. Ask Leecher, he's read tons of books about animal transformation attempts, no one's been able to figure it out. Come on, we've still got a lot of other rooms to check out. Still can't believe I'm on the Condor! Did you know –"

His sentence trailed off as the two left the room. Ensayne slowly extended out of the hole, and waited until she could no longer hear their voices before scurrying into the hall. Then it occurred to her that she should probably get onto the other ship so she could listen in on what they were going to do next. If Ensayne had any chance of crossing the runway and getting up onto the other ship undetected, she would need to distract them somehow because the last thing she needed was to be running past as a mouse and then turn back into a human midway. As it was, she felt rather anxious about how much time she had left.

The easiest thing she could think of to get their attention was to set off alarms. When she reached the bridge, Ensayne jumped up onto the console and looked for one of the alarm buttons, but none of the buttons were labelled.

I don't have time to look through a manual! Well, here goes nothing…or everything!

Todd and Polly had been in the engine room at the time when the Condor's alarms deafened their ears. In the midst of this, sprinklers had also turned on, music started playing from the speakers ["Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Mamma Cass Elliot], and the hatches on every room were automatically opening and shutting.

"What the hell is going on?!" Todd shouted over the noise to Polly. She made hand gestures to her hair as if she was fluffing it, and batted her eyelids. "You're right Polly, it must be that girl Delos told us about. Let's get to the bridge before she hides again!"

The two ran as fast as they could, hearing the chorus of the music echo through the ship with the sirens whining over the top. But when they were halfway down the main corridor they saw that the hatch was closing and shutting – she'd set off all the doors!

Polly went ahead anyway. Todd shouted out for her to stop, worried that she'd get sliced in half if she didn't calculate it right. When the hatch opened up, Polly dived forward and landed smoothly on the floor. When she turned around and saw Todd's horrified expression, she looked down to see that it had chopped off half her tail.

She didn't take this well. The room was suddenly filled by the sound of a very frightening and ear-splitting hiss that quickly turned into a scream.

By the time Danger and the two Cyclonians came rushing in, Ensayne was well on her way outside and looking for the closest rope to climb. Then, once she made it to the point where it extended from the other ship, she climbed up inside the hole.

Danger strode onto the bridge of the Condor and looked madly at Todd and Polly. "Where's the girl?"

"We couldn't find her," Todd replied with a good deal of anxiousness in his voice.

Danger's eyes narrowed in on him. "So what the hell happened here then? Did a ghost just come on through and play with the buttons, then piss off back into the depths of the ship?"

Todd shook his head. "No, no. We were in the engine room when it happened, and we were running as fast as we could but...she was gone when we got here."

"What about Polly, did she see anything? Surely she saw SOMETHING."

Todd looked to Polly, but she too shook her head. Danger sighed heavily. Frustrated, he punched his fist into the console, which sizzled as sparks flew everywhere. The sirens, sprinklers and music all stopped completely.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH THIS BULLSHIT!" Danger roared. "IF ANYTHING HAPPENS BECAUSE OF ONE GIRL THAT WE NEVER FOUND…!" He pulled out his sword. The two Cyclonians who were standing next to him shouted in horror when a flash of red light filled their eyes. Their lifeless bodies thumped onto the concrete ground.

"I don't trust Talons not to have the brains to keep their mouths shut so…what the hell, it was far easier to kill them than to risk the possibility that they slip up, which they do. And you both know that you're my family now so your lives are just as important as my own."

Polly was starting to lose consciousness. Danger walked over to help Todd lift her up. "Get a Curasol crystal and rub it on the cut, she might die otherwise. Let's hope we can get Operation Prisonbreak in motion by tomorrow."


A/N: Since Polly's tail loss was not caused by autotomy I am not sure what happens to a lizard under other circumstances. And since we're not talking actual lizards – but of a hybrid between human and lizard – I think it should be safe to bend the reality a bit anyway and Curasol is my answer to a common crystal that can be used for healing, since it doesn't seem like in the show that mill crystals are common, or at the very least the knowledge of using it on people.