The Condor edged slowly towards Cyclonia, it looked scarier than usual, it was late afternoon pushing on for evening and Starling was walking, luckily, the Storm hawks needed her to get around Cyclonia,
"I don't see what's so important about these nunchucks any way!" Finn moaned, Starling walked up to him with her hands behind her back,
"Family heirloom, and the fact that they have a pair of very powerful hanzo crystals embedded in the handles, you know nothing important really" Starling snapped,
Finn sat up,
"Alright enough with the sarcasm" He replied calmly,
"Cyclonia dead ahead!" Piper shouted with her face pressed against a pair of binoculars,
Aerrow stepped into the middle of the room,
"Okay all of you with me, Stork you stay here and make sure the condor stays safe, steer it out of trouble-"
"I'm staying too, I should help Stork protect the Condor" Piper said blankly,
"O-Kay, then all of you except Piper and Stork, with me" Aerrow demanded,
Four skimmers took off from the condor and already cyclonians were after them, six of them to be exact.
Two cyclonian vehicles had Finn trapped in the middle, Junko jumped off his skimmer and landed on Finn's, he lit his knuckle busters and hit the cyclonian elites, causing the vehicles wings to fall off,
He jumped from Finn's skimmer back onto his own.
Aerrow had problems of his own, there were now four cyclonians to tackle with and one of them just happened to be Dark Ace, who was on Aerrow's skimmer,
Their energy blades clanging with each other until Dark Ace tripped Aerrow who was now lying dangerously on the edge of his skimmer, the red blade lighting up his face, almost matching his hair,
"Say good-bye sky knight" Dark Ace hissed venomously as he lifted his blade ready to strike Aerrow, until he was knocked over the edge by a well-known purple skimmer,
"Good-bye" Starling said as she watched Dark Ace fall, and his parachute open.
Aerrow hopped back into his seat and belted off at full speed to the large, dark and menacing castle perched perfectly on the edge of Cyclonia.
Back on the Condor, Stork and Piper were glued to the window, Piper was watching the fighting just to be sure that her friends were safe, she'd hate for their friendship to end now, she's known all of them for ages and would hate it if harm came their way.
Stork however was watching to see if cyclonians were coming at the condor, so he could protect himself, and Piper even though, to Stork, she wasn't of much importance right now.
Things were quiet until Stork broke it with one of usual negativities,
"They're doomed," he muttered walking away,
Piper sighed leaving the window; the skimmers she recognized were no longer in vision,
She left the window and pulled out her squadron log,
Well these past few days have been… interesting, to say the least.
Starling decided to get shot in the ankle yesterday and is now staying on the condor, she seems fine now, but is it just part of her devious little scam?
Even though I don't know what it is, but still!
Aerrow certainly doesn't mind having her here; he's waiting on her hand and foot.
Finn and Junko seem ok with it to.
Stork is just avoiding her at the moment, though I hardly blame him, he thinks her foot is infected, it looks it, so I might keep my distance as well.
I suppose its cool having another girl on the ship, its pretty weird when you only have boys to talk to, as much as I love them, I can't talk to them about stuff that I need help with, so Starling could end up being helpful, I guess I can give her another shot,
But she best steer clear of Aerrow, for… reasons.
Maybe if I told her my little secret then she might back off, or not.
Starlings strange like that.
But what if-
"AH!" Piper screeched slamming the book shut,
Stork was standing over her shoulder reading everything she wrote down,
"Stork! Don't do that!" She growled,
Stork laughed evilly and smirked; he sat next to her,
"So what is your little secret"?
Piper looked at him for a moment before getting up and walking over to the window.
In Cyclonis' palace, the guys, Radarr and Starling were crawling through the air vent covering the whole of the castle; Starling was at the front followed by Aerrow with Radarr on his back with Finn behind him,
"Uh, guys" the wallop whispered,
The group turned around, you'd think that Junko would realize that he is just to big to fit through an air vent, they started of big to begin with, but they get smaller the deeper you go.
"I'm Stuck" he squealed,
Aerrow thought for a moment, there really wasn't much he could say to this,
"Don't move," he ordered,
"Like he has a choice" Starling stated turning to face the redhead,
"Just keep moving" Aerrow barked,
"Yeah, and lets hurry up about it too, I'm getting claustrophobic" Finn muttered.
As the group minus one continued through the air vent they came across Cyclonis' throne room, they looked through the small cage door seeing Cyclonis' snapping at some of her talons when Dark Ace walked in,
"Oh bugger" Starling whispered, "He lived"
As the group continued watching what was going on, which really wasn't interesting, but it resembled a corny soap opera, it kept you hooked.
Finn's nose started twitching,
"Oh no" he sniffled, "OH NO" He said getting ready to sneeze every one into oblivion, until the group covered his mouth and the sneeze faded away. They sighed with relief until,
Finn burped so loud the air vent started shaking,
"Well that's annoying" Starling said rubbing her temples,
Dark Ace looked up at the air vent that was hanging over the room, he lit his energy blade and shot it, the blast carved the vent in half, Finn was plastered against the back of it, breathing heavily and hanging on for dear life,
Aerrow and Starling were in the half that got sent hurtling to the floor, their yells filled the room; the drop was quite big seeing as the vent was quite high up [duh
As the end of the vent hit the floor, Starling and Aerrow rolled out both landing next to each other and on their stomachs,
"Well isn't that cute" Cyclonis said sarcastically.
Aerrow and Starling both looked up seeing Dark Ace tower above them, instead of using his own energy blade, Dark Ace snatched one of the blades from Aerrow's back and pointed it at the pair of them, the blue light shining on them.
"Don't waste your time Dark Ace" Cyclonis whispered, "Fling them in the dungeon and be done with it"
Dark Ace picked the pair of the teens up, strangely enough he found them reasonably lightweight, and tossed them into an empty cell, a random henchman slammed the door shut,
"Dark Ace!" Starling yelped, running to the bars,
"What!" He shouted turning around seeing Starling hanging her arms through the bars lazily,
"My nunchucks?" She asked calmly,
Dark Ace got closer to the bars coming almost face to face with Starling,
"For me to know and you to find out" He answered shrewdly.
Starling rested her head on the bar for a moment, she lifted her head and scowled and walked over to the bench where Aerrow was sitting investigating his arm, she sat opposite him and gave him a puzzled look,
"What are you doing?" She asked in a bewildered tone,
Aerrow's leaf green eyes looked up at her deep brown ones,
"I landed funny on my arm, it's pretty sore" He muttered wincing as he gently pinched it, Starling copied the way Aerrow was sitting by crossing her legs, she shuffled closer to him,
"Let me take a look" She said gently taking his arm, he flinched as she took hold of it, "Sorry…"
Starling gently took hold of Aerrow's hand and started pushing it up slowly,
The more she forced it the more the pain grew and the more Aerrow flinched, when suddenly a brain wave hit Starling.
Forgetting about Aerrow's arm she compressed her grip, causing Aerrow to yelp and snatch his arm away,
"I wonder…" Starling said to herself,
"Wonder what?" Aerrow hissed rubbing his wrist,
Starling stood up and walked over to the door noticing an air vent hanging insecurely across the top,
"Your friends are still somewhere in the vent system, are they not?" Starling declared as she span around to face Aerrow,
"I don't know, I didn't see what happened." He replied,
"Well they didn't fall, and there is no where else for them to be, is there?" Starling said cocking her chin up slightly,
Aerrow smiled, hoping that a familiar face would poke through the space in the corner of the vent, which was looking pretty rusty.
Some where in the vent system, Finn was going back the way he came, not sure how but he'd managed to get Junko out of the wedge he was in, his massive body followed Finn's scrawny and slim one when they came across a small vent door, when Finn looked out he noticed their skimmers in a heap on the floor, he flung himself out of the door and over to a random skimmer, which happened to be Aerrow's,
The static on the radio rung around the room until he finally received a voice, it was Piper's,
"Finn? Is that you?" She huffed through the intercom,
"No, it's the Dark Ace, of course it's me you idiot!" He bellowed back in a stroppy tone, Finn could hear Piper giggling which made him angrier.
"Okay Finn, what's the problem?" Piper asked calmly over the intercom,
"Well…" Finn began, "We think that Dark Ace and Cyclonis have Aerrow and Starling locked up somewhere"
"Then go save them," Piper barked,
"Piper!" Finn barked, "We need you over here some where along the lines of right and now"
There was silence until Piper finally replied,
"I'll be right there, by the way, where exactly are you?"
"Crawling around the vent system"
Piper didn't say anything to that; she just gave herself the, well-there's-nothing-strange-about-that look.
"Stork, you'll be fine here on your own, I'm needed else where" Piper muttered as she took hold of her energy staff and hopped on her heli-scooter and flew of towards the evil looking Cyclonian tower at the opposite end of Cyclonia.
When Piper was in Cyclonis' castle she looked up finding the air vent, with a small flake of material on it, it was a deep shade of red; Piper wiped her thumb over it,
"…Aerrow," She whispered soundlessly to herself before her light frame hopped into the air vent.
In Cyclonis' throne room, Dark Ace and Master were having a conversation, which was anything but friendly,
"But Master! Some of those Storm hawks are still in the vent system!" Dark Ace roared,
"Then get them out! And when you do…. kill them" Cyclonis jeered evilly, "The two we have in the dungeon right now will act as bait to lure the rest of them in, fortunately I won't have to look at them for long… will I, Dark Ace?''
"Of course not" Dark Ace said, bowing as he skulked out of the room.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
All of this for a pair of nunchucks,
Seems a bit unbelievable but I like making the storm hawks crawl through tight and dusty air vents
Hope you liked
Next chapter be up soon
