Winds of Change.
Chapter 2 Translation.
AN: Welcome to chapter 2 of Winds of Change! I'll try to keep AN's to a minimum in the future.
Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks, and never will. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, however I DO own Kai, Rose, the Shadow crystal and this story.
"Speech"
"Thought"
Sound
The next morning, after waking up and going through his usual morning rituals, Kai found himself sitting at his desk looking through the ancient tome he had found the previous day. "I can't even read this thing, but at least some of the pictures are pretty interesting." The book was odd, no other way to put it. He was able to guess that it was some sort of log book based on the nearly identical wording that started at the top left of every page, but he had never seen a log book before that included sketches or maps.
After several hours of flipping through the pages, Kai's curiosity finally got the better of him. "Domiwick was after it, so it must be important. The question though, is why." Groaning, Kai got up and flipped on his seldom (read as next to never) used radio.
"Condor one come in. Condor one, can you read me?" Kai let go of the receiver and waited.
"Uh, this is Condor one speaking. Who is this?" A familiar female voice responded.
"Good to hear your voice Piper. This is SS calling. Just wondering if you guys would mind my dropping in for a little visit." Releasing the receiver Kai waited.
"SS? Who is…OH! Sure, nothing really going on right now. I'll let the guys know your coming." The radio then clicked off.
"I hate that moniker, but it's the only thing I can use that she'd recognize, and I can't risk using my name over the open air." After packing a small bag and making sure the book was safely tucked away, Kai revved the skimmers engine and took off down the short runway.
The flight wasn't very long; but Kai knew that he was lucky. Normally it would take him anywhere from a full day to a week to reach the Condor, however this time it was only a six hour flight.
The Condor pulled around to face him and the large bay doors opened. When Kai was sure that he was properly aligned, he switched the skimmer into its land mode and landed.
Once inside the doors closed and the lights cut on. "Great I only just got here and they already have the welcome wagon set up waiting for me. Joy." Climbing off his skimmer, Kai put his staff on the set and held his arms up over his head. "The only weapons I'm carrying are those on my skimmer and my staff." He called out.
Aerrow walked straight up to him. "Look, we don't want any trouble, Starling's not here, we don't know where she is, we haven't even heard from her in almost a month."
"Woah wait up. I'm here to see Piper. I know where Star is, we just spoke a few days ago." Reaching into his back pack, Kai pulled out the old worn tome and held it up to Aerrow.
"What's this?" Aerrow eyed the book suspiciously.
"I don't know. That's why I'm here; I was hoping that Piper could tell me." Kai knew that he had to be on his best behavior. The Storm Hawks generally got along with anyone, but at the same time, they had enough strikes against them from the Sky Knight Council, and Kai was pretty much a walking penalty shot.
This was the main reason that not many people were willing aid Kai. Anyone that was allied with him earned the ire of the council, and while they were unable to do much, they were still able to cause problems.
Aerrow eyed the book, and then looked back to Kai. "Alright, but if you're on the run."
Kai laughed. "If I was on the run, I have much better hiding places to choose from. Don't worry." Kai grinned as the two walked up to the bridge.
Looking around Kai saw that everyone was present and he felt slightly nervous. "I hate being in the spotlight." Kai cleared his throat and pulled out the old book and sat it on the table. "Yesterday, I…" Kai knew he had to be careful about how much he told, but he didn't want to lie, not if he was trying to stay in the kids good graces. They might be young, but they were far from stupid. "Yesterday I managed to track down and find a Cyclonian excavation site."
This grabbed the crew's attention.
"Apparently, Master Cyclonis has employed Domiwick to find ancient relics for her to use in the war effort. What you see before you, is the item they were after. To answer your questions, no, I don't know what it says because I can't read it. I know that it's got to be something very big or very bad based on the number of guards I had to get through, and no, I was not being followed." When he finished he walked up to Piper and handed her the book. "Could you please take a look at it and tell me if you can figure it out?" He asked.
"Why don't you take it to the council?" Aerrow asked with his arms crossed.
Kai took a deep breath before answering. He was however, happy to see that he was not the only person to get riled up over that comment. Shadow had a scow on her face, but since she was behind the others they couldn't see it. "Look, it's pretty much common knowledge that I don't have a good history with the council. If I brought this to them, they would find some way to make it look like I was helping Cyclonia. Besides, I help fight the Cyclonians, I'm not part of any squadron, so I don't have to tell them anything if I don't want to." He could see that Aerrow was not exactly pleased with this answer, so he continued. "Look, I'm just trying to stay a step ahead of Domiwick and Cyclonis. This might be something big, but it could just as well be something very small. I don't want to waste a lot of time or resources on something that turns out to be a dud. If it is something major, we'll see what happens."
Piper was thumbing through the pages as the two talked. "I can't read this language, whatever it is."
"Well, sorry, but it looks like you've wasted your time." Aerrow was cut off by Piper.
"You didn't let me finish. I might not be able to read the language, but I can still figure out what it says. Just like code breaking, it'll just take me a little while to figure out." Piper smiled warmly and Aerrow backed off….slightly.
Three days had passed since Kai had arrived on the Condor. He had tried his best to stay out of their way, while at the same time helping out wherever he could, doing little things like cleaning or helping with repairs. They kept a strict watch on him, but since he was used to it, he just ignore it.
"I figured it out!" Kai nearly jumped out of his skin when Piper slammed a notebook down on the table. Looking her over, he couldn't help but notice a few things. She was far paler than usual, also she seemed to be shaking and twitching. Lastly there were the dark bags hanging beneath her eyes. "Please don't tell me she's actually spent the entire last three days working on this thing. She had to sleep at some point."
"How did you figure it out if you can't even read it?" Shadow asked.
"Simple, I used the code breakers method." Piper smirked.
"The what?" Finn asked.
"The code breakers method. I took the most commonly occurring symbol and guessed that it was E. I wasn't able to figure out much else until I recognized the format. It's the same as the Condor's old log book." Piper beamed.
"How did that help figure out what it says?" Junko asked as he scratched his head.
"Back in the golden age's, it was the captain who would fill out the log books, and captains usually always talk about "their ship". So all I did was take the word that appeared the most often, and put the word ship in its place. That combined with my earlier guesswork gave me the translation of five different symbols. Using these, I was able to figure out the rest."
"Piper, you are truly one of a kind." Kai grinned and was surprised to hear her giggle. This of course caused Aerrow to glare at Kai, who knew he needed to fix the problem if he didn't want to be kicked out of the Condor while in the upper stratosphere. "I don't think I would have ever figured that out. Where did you pick that up?"
"I studied the ancients for a while." At this point Kai noticed that her face drooped. "It's the method that Domiwick used to find the Forbidden City, according to his book."
The color drained from Kai's face.
"Um, dude. Are you ok?" Finn asked waving his hand in front of Kai's face.
"Piper, what did you find out?" Aerrow asked, already on the same line of thinking as Kai.
"Like I said, it's a log book from one of the ancient's air ships. But there are some things that just don't make sense. It's more of a guide than anything else." Piper said rubbing some sleep from her eyes.
"Oh no."
Everyone turned to look at Stork.
Putting down the note book, Stork looked up to meet the others gaze. Finn, Junko, and Shadow all noticed the worried look he now shared with Kai and Aerrow.
"Would somebody tell me what's going on?" Shadow asked.
"If that is indeed a captain's log book." Kai swallowed.
"Then the only reason it wouldn't be on his ship." Aerrow continued.
"Would be if the captain took it with him from the ship." Stork finished.
"Soooo, why is that a bad thing?" Finn asked still not understanding.
Then Piper looked up. "A captain goes down with their ship. If the log book was taken by the captain, it was because he intended to return to the ship."
"So that means that…" Junko squinted his eyes in thought.
"It means, that the ship still exists. The captain was attacked while away from the ship, but there is still a chance that the ship is hidden somewhere." Kai said.
"So? Why is that a bad thing?" Shadow asked. "I mean, what good is a two thousand year old air ship?"
"The Ancients technology was far more advanced than our own. They created the Aurora stone, the Cabion, the Shadow crystal. Heck, their responsible for the Black Gorge." Kai said, still in a dazed state.
"Not to mention the Storm Engine and the Forbidden City." Stork added.
"But, you have the book right? How could they possibly find it if you got to it first?" Shadow asked, and only then noticing Kai's downcast face.
"Because, I didn't find it first, Domiwick did. He had it for close to six hours before I was able to steal it." Kai punched the wall as hard as he could.
"That means that he probably made a copy of the text in case something happened to it." Piper groaned.
"Piper, do you think that you can lead us to where the ship might be hidden?" Aerrow asked seriously.
The young teen nodded while biting her lip. "I think so, but it could be hidden anywhere. The log books organized by location not date. I would have to chart it out and figure out where they had come from and where they were going. There are a few maps, but the terra's names are different. It will take me some time, but yeah, I think I can find it."
"Good. As soon as you figure out the first location we're moving out. I want everyone else to check supplies and make sure that we're not low on anything critical. Shadow, I want for you to contact the council and tell them that we have a priority one alert." Aerrow was cut off before he could finish.
"No. You will do no such thing."
Aerrow turned to glare at the older teen. "You have no authority to give orders on my ship. What's more, your part in this is over."
"If you want to prevent Master Cyclonis from getting her hands on that ship, you will listen to me." Kai replied sternly.
"So what? You going to tell her where it is if we don't let you have it or something?" Aerrow's tone had become harsh.
"No. "I've told you that I am not a spy, and I'm certainly no traitor. But if you contact the council, it will make things worse than they already are." Kai said trying to maintain his cool.
"Um. I'm confused." Finn said raising his hand.
"Think about it. What will happen if you alert the council? They'll pull every squadron that they can get their hands on. Master Cyclonis will see this and respond in kind. Her forces might be made up of a bunch of idiots and morons, but she still outnumbers us twenty to one. As long as it looks like nobody is paying any mind to it however, Domiwick won't get any more aid than he already has." Explained Kai.
"Aerrow, he's right. Master Cyclonis has spies both in and around the council, and any major shift in activity will no doubt catch her attention." Piper said placing an arm on his shoulder to try and calm him down.
Finally after what seem like hours, Aerrow sighed. "Alright, I guess you're right. Looks like we're on our own with this one." Aerrow noticed that Piper suddenly looked away.
"I'm afraid that won't work either." Kai said in an apologetic tone of voice. "You guys are the main thorn in her side, so I know that she keeps close tabs on you. If you were to go after it, it would be the same as alerting the council."
"Then what are we supposed to do? They already have a four days head start, and there is no way that you can find this thing on your own." Aerrow shouted.
"Look, I know they're not going anywhere for the time being. I took out all their skimmers and it will take at least another three days for before Cyclonis can get them resupplied." Pausing to take a breath, Kai continued. "We can't rush something like this or we'll just make things worse. We need to be careful, and think this through, besides, it's getting late, and I know that Piper needs to get some sleep. We'll talk about this tomorrow." With that Kai got up and left the room. He took the original copy of the book with him, but left Piper's translated copy.
The others too went to their separate rooms, but none were able to get much sleep that night.
Meanwhile, in his temporary room, Kai stared at the little book that had come to cause such a large problem."Think Kai think! If we alert the council we lose. If the Storm Hawks go after it we still lose. But at the same time Aerrow's right. There is no way I can do this on my own." That's when a certain line of thought crossed his mind. "I can't do it on my own. That fink! He knew what it was all along." This of course caused him to scowl. "This is just his way of trying to teach me another lesson." After taking a few moments to calm down and start thinking straight again, Kai pulled out a sheet of paper and started planning.
End Chapter 2
AN: I don know, even though I spent two days writing and editing this, it still felt a bit rushed. Anyways, if anyone wants their OC's to have guest apperences, drop me a review of a PM. Look for the next chapter whenever I can get it out. (At worst, a little over a week.)