"FINN!"
A familiar shout to the rest of the inhabitants of the Condor. Stork rolled his eyes, Radarr shook his head, Junko stopped mid-bite of his rancid toast and Aerrow bumped his head on the table he was searching under. A blonde, squirrelly boy froze in his tracks. What did he do this time? Finn was about to find out as Piper stepped out from behind a corner. He let out a girly shriek at Piper's sudden appearance and jumped backwards. She was holding the piece of disgusting toast with a pair of tongs and she had an angry glint in her eyes.
"What is this?"
"Ah, I see you've tried Junko's 'jelly' toast."
"Don't play games with me Finn." Piper said impatiently, dangling the toast in front of his face.
A drop of the yellow gunk fell to the floor and burned a hole through it. Finn gulped.
Piper thrusted the toast closer, "You put this in my collection of icers."
With a furious glare she twisted away from Finn and snapped her wrist, sending the toast flying straight into the bin in the corner of the room with uncanny precision.
"Don't kill me." He whimpered.
Piper was about to launch herself at him with an attack when strong arms caught her, vice-like around her arms.
"Piper,"
"Let me at him! I sick of his stupid pranks!"
"Piper,"
"It'll take ages to get that gunk off my icers!"
"Piper!"
Piper turned and glared at her captor. Aerrow stared sternly back.
"What are you going to achieve by hurting Finn?" He asked.
"Sweet revenge," Piper replied grimly.
"Come on, Pi. Finn's done worse things than this. Violence isn't the way to solve it." Aerrow said soothingly.
Finn piped up, "Yeah, this is no worse than the time when I –"
"Stay out of this Finn." Aerrow said sharply. "Just forgive and forget." He said comfortingly to his navigator.
Piper seemed to have calmed down. Aerrow let go of her and as fast as lightning, she smacked Finn across the face. She left the room with and expression of grim satisfaction. Aerrow and Finn looked at each other and Aerrow shrugged.
"Why'd you let her do that?" Finn asked, rubbing his stinging, pink cheek, "That really hurt!"
Aerrow grinned, walking away to continue his search for the photo album. "You deserved it."
Piper entered her room, scrunching up her face with displeasure from the stink coming from her bucketful of icers. She pulled up a stool next to the bucket and began gently scrubbing the goo off. The process was long and tedious as she worked at a slow pace, in fear of damaging the crystals.
After about an hour, a pile of gleaming, blue frost crystals lay on her table. And a big bucket of lumpy, yellow, smelly, substance. Piper put the bucket into the garbage disposal and dusted herself off, satisfied. Now that was done, she could write in her Squadron Log. She sat at her table and opened the black book with the Storm Hawks insignia imprinted on the front in silver. She flipped to a new page and began to write.
Squadron Log
21st May 2010
Today we are going to Terra Neverlandis. The home of Aerrow, Finn, Radarr and I, prior to becoming the Storm Hawks. Previously, it had not been in Cyclonian control and was uninhabited since we left. So hopefully nothing much has changed since we lived there. Finn is annoying as usual. He threw some of Junko's cooking into my bucketful of icers. It was horrible.
Stork is slightly more cheerful than usual. He hasn't mentioned a thing about mind worms today…yet. Junko is as merry as always. Unfortunately he made one of his 'special' recipes which ended up in my room, courtesy of 'The Finnster'. Radarr is misunderstood as usual. He and Aerrow were playing cards and Aerrow wasn't concentrating on the game and ignored him. Unintentionally of course.
Speaking of Aerrow, he was staring at me a lot today. A lot more than normal. I can't help but feel shivers down my spine whenever I catch his eye. Also I got into a bet with Finn. If he finds his old teddy, Mr. Snuggles, he has to give it to Junko as a replacement for Mr. Bitsy. I'm betting that Finn won't last a week without taking it back. The loser has to clean the bathroom for a month. Yuck! Cleaning it for one week in every six weeks is enough for me so I'd better win this bet.
Piper finished off her entry and closed the book. She sat back in her chair and looked around her room. Everything was neat, tidy and spotless. Crystals sparkled from every shelf, reflecting the sunlight filtering through her window.
Her room was her second favourite place on the Condor, after the crystal lab. Whenever she was tired or unhappy, Piper would retreat to her room and gaze out the window. What she was outside changed everyday – one of the perks of living in the air.
Piper could make out a close terra on the horizon which she identified as Terra Neverlandis. Her excitement mounted. There could be no more than ten minutes before they arrived. Her gaze dropped to a photo in a frame which sat on the window sill. It was one of her favourites.
The photo was taken of the whole squadron on the bridge. On the far left, Stork was at his usual place at the, glancing casually at the camera. Next Finn was making hand pistols at the camera, his mouth open in the middle of saying 'Chicka-cha!'.
Next to him, Radarr was doing a karate fighting stance while balancing on Aerrow's shoulder. Aerrow was smiling happily at Piper, his arms around both Piper's and Finn's shoulders. Piper was looking at the ceiling, in the middle of rolling her eyes while making a smart comment on Finn's catch phrase, all the while smiling.
Last but not least, Junko was on the far right, an arm around Piper's back. He was facing a little away from the camera as he had been running into the shot after he set up the camera to auto. The whole picture was on a tilt as Junko had put the camera down onto the table unsteadily in his hurry to be in the photo.
Every time Piper looked at that photo, it brought a smile to her face. She had a couple of other photos of the squadron. On e of all of them in fighting positions and weapons out and another with them all standing stiffly next to each other and wearing forced blank expressions as they tried a formal photo. But this picture showed the Storm Hawks as they really were – A bunch of kids who liked to have fun and were one, big family.
"I like that picture too." A voice mused, shocking her out of her reverie.
Piper twisted around and glared reproachfully at Aerrow who was examining the photo in interest.
"I'm sorry I startled you. We arrived at Neverlandis a minute ago. Stork announced it on the intercom but you hadn't seemed to have heard it. So I came to get you." Aerrow explained, looking around her room.
"Oh, thanks." Piper replied, getting up. Together they started walking to the bridge.
"We were just discussing that someone should take a skimmer down to the terra, just to make sure it's safe and there aren't any Cyclonians down there waiting to ambush us. We're still deciding who should go." Aerrow said.
"I'll go." Piper said automatically.
Aerrow's eyebrows pulled together in a frown.
"It could be dangerous. I should go with Radarr." He insisted.
"I'm perfectly capable of doing this mission. I am the best at recon." Piper challenged.
Aerrow's jaw set, "No,"
"Come on Aerrow, why not?" Piper said persuasively, "I'll-I'll take Radarr with me."
Aerrow pondered this.
"Okay," He said reluctantly, his eyes full of concern, "But contact me right away if there's trouble."
"I will, and calm down Aerrow. What's wrong? It's just a simple recon mission. I've done heaps of these before."
Aerrow's eyes were downcast as he mumbled, "I don't know. It's just that I feel like I shouldn't let you go out there alone. It's my duty to keep the Storm Hawks safe…to keep you safe." Aerrow fell silent, unable to convey his feelings any further.
However, Piper grinned cheekily, "You overprotective Sky Knight. I'm not useless you k now. I can fend for myself. Besides, now you know how I feel when you do all those stupid, daredevil stunts."
"Stupid?" Aerrow said in mock hurt, "I would call them death-defying stunts."
"Well I call them stupid and reckless." Piper's voice softened, "But that's why I love – I mean that's what makes you who you are."
She swiftly covered up her mistake but her cheeks burned at what she had intended to say. Luckily, Aerrow didn't seem to have noticed.
"So who am I Pi?" Aerrow said, urging her to continue.
"Well, you're Aerrow, famous and heroic Sky Knight. The brave and fearless leader of the Storm Hawks. One of the Atmos' best flyers. A deadly fighter."
"Wow, I didn't know I was all that legendary." Aerrow grinned.
"Hey, I'm not done yet!" Piper said, "The Dark Ace's arch enemy. Cyclonia's most wanted. A stubborn and sometimes immature boy who's sometimes even denser than Finn. A cocky, bone-headed moron who doesn't know when to quit the crazy stunts."
"I'm denser than Finn? What –"
Piper laughed, "It's all true and I'm still not done yet!"
She took a deep breath and continued, "A kind, caring and loyal guy. A self-sacrificing, polite boy who doesn't know how to criticize another person. A handsome, (snort from Aerrow) sweet and understanding leader who is different to all the other guys I know – in a good way. And most of all you're the best friend in the world a girl could have and I'm lucky to have you."
Piper smiled shyly at Aerrow, hoping she hadn't freaked him out with all that information. Aerrow wasn't freaking out, but he was mind blown. Never had anyone said so truly who he was.
He stared at her, unable to phrase what he was thinking. Piper's smile faded. She cringed at Aerrow's dumbstruck face, cursing herself for blabbering on like that. He was just asking a simple question.
Piper started to walk away when his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin rested on her shoulder. Her face lit up at his happy, shining, emerald eyes, speaking words he did not need to say. She felt his cheek lift against hers in a smile.
"What are you guys doing?" An all too familiar voice asked.
The two sprang apart, blushing furiously. Aerrow rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and Piper rubbed her arm sheepishly. Both looked anywhere but at each other and Finn. Finn's wide, blue eyes swiveled between them, narrowed in suspicion. His face split into a devious grin.
"Oh, did I interrupt something?" He said, feigning innocence, "Did you two need some privacy? You seemed pretty comfortable…" He trailed off with a barely suppressed smirk.
"Don't be stupid Finn. We weren't doing anything." Piper snapped, glaring fiercely at him.
"It didn't look like nothing." Finn retorted, cocking his eyebrow maliciously.
"Finn," Aerrow said, his patience waning, "I was just giving Piper a hug because she said something really nice."
He smiled charmingly at her and she beamed back. But Finn was annoyingly persistent,
"So what exactly did Piper say?"
Piper shoved pas him, calling over her shoulder, "Real mature. Why don't you get a dictionary and find the meaning of 'mentally retarded'!"
Aerrow grinned at her remark and walked after her, clapping Finn on he back.
"You just got outwitted by a girl." Aerrow informed him.
But in his mind, he knew that Piper was much more than just a girl.
