I wanted to know who the Cyclonians were, and I got my wish. Aerrow recounted numerous anecdotes regarding his team's – the "Storm Hawks" is what he said they were called – triumphs against the evil Cyclonian Empire over breakfast, along with some explanations of key players in their leadership.

"And, well, the leaders of the Talons – the Cyclonians' 'elite' air force – like Ravess, Snipe, and the Dark Ace, all managed to get banished by Master Cyclonis. Or worse…" Aerrow added grimly.

I cocked my head a few degrees to the side. "'Master Cyclonis'?" I repeated curiously. "Who's he?"

After everyone at the table – except Piper, for some reason – burst into uproarious laughter, I frowned. Even Aerrow was laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked quietly.

Finn brushed a tear from his eye with an overdramatic sweep of his hand. "Cyclonis… is a chick," he explained before succumbing to another laughing fit.

I glanced to my left when Piper's chair made a dragging sound. She was standing up. "I'm just going to go to my room… I need to work on something," she said mutely, then paced out of the room without waiting for a reply. Everyone's laughter diminished and then stopped altogether.

Finn asked, "What's up with Piper?" His question was met with shrugs.

Once they began discussing something unrelated to the previous topic, I stood and – after a few of them glanced up at me – explained that I was going to talk to Piper. True to my word, I paced down the hallway. Since the bathroom was down the other corridor from Piper's room, I thought, it should be easy to retrace my steps. My boots were creating echoing metallic footsteps down the empty hall, and I found them rather unnerving.

I heard a quiet "eep" from in front of me, and I looked up to see Stork, the thin green person. I briefly considered his greenness and realized that I had seen people like him before…

"Sorry," I said with a shrug. "I was coming around the corner."

"Oh, it's fine," he said lowly, seeming to regain his composure slightly. "You must've finished… breakfast."

"Yes, I did," I replied, then frowned. "I'm sorry, but could you tell me what you are, exactly? This is the amnesia talking."

"Oh, I'm a Merb," Stork said in a reasonable tone. "I figured you'd know that…" he added darkly with a small twitch of the eye. "That reminds me… was it you who got the Murk Raiders to charge the Cyclonians?"

I blinked in surprise. How did he know that was me? "Why, yes. How'd you know?" I asked, mirroring my thoughts in my question.

"Didn't seem like a Murk Raider plan," he remarked offhandedly. He narrowed his eyes. "How did you work out that kind of strategy if you couldn't remember anything?"

His question caught me off guard. I decided to reply honestly. "I'm not sure," I said quietly, raising an eyebrow at his paranoid stare. "It just popped into my head."

He seemed to study me for a few seconds, and then flashed a dark smile. "Just wondering… you can never be too careful. Whatcha doing now, hmm?" His scrutinizing eyes were on mine again.

"I'm going to see how Piper's doing. She left sort of abruptly…" I explained, feeling like I was the person-sized equivalent of a bug underneath a magnifying glass. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just heading back to the bridge… someone has to keep the ship on course, you know," he added with a thumbs-up gesture. "I'm… gonna go now."

I nodded at him politely and then continued on my way. I went past a few of the doors that Piper and I had passed earlier when she was leading me around, but I slowed down a bit when I saw that her door was open. When I finally reached it and looked inside, Piper was sitting on a stool in front of a dull metal workbench with some crystals and papers placed on it. Her head was propped up by one of her hands, and her other one was toying absently with a blue crystal. Standing at her open door, I knocked twice on the wall.

"Mind if I come in?" I asked quietly.

She turned to face me, and then she shook her head. "Not at all. Come on in if you want."

I took a few steps into her room and paused near her stool. She had turned to face her crystal again, and I felt awkward just standing there. "Why'd you leave like that?"

"Like what?" she asked flatly, not taking her eyes off of her crystal. It started to glow a slightly lighter blue.

I turned around and leaned against the wall next to her workbench. "You seemed like something was bothering you," I said with a frown. "Is there something wrong?"

She stared up at me as if she was deciding whether or not she should say something. Then she looked down at her crystal with a sigh.

"None of us have wanted to talk about Cyclonis since the incident in the Far Side," Piper began slowly. "So, I guess I was just surprised that she was mentioned so… casually."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously. "Isn't she a Cyclonian? What happened?"

Piper frowned and continued toying with her crystal. "She was their leader. It… was bad," Piper began to explain, slight strain evident on her features. "There's this place called the Far Side of Atmos, and she went there after the last battle against Cyclonia," she said slowly, probably because she was trying to dumb it down so that someone with little understanding of the world's recent events could comprehend it. "She was cornered and outnumbered by, well, us… and she ended up trying to use the power of her crystals to…"

My vacant stare must've caused her to trail off.

"You don't want to hear this, do you?" she asked forlornly, avoiding eye contact with me.

I shook my head. "No, I just don't understand this whole 'crystal' thing," I said with a frown.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then glanced between me and her blue crystal. "In Atmos, there are crystals of different shapes and colors that all have some amount of power and usually an inherent effect…" She seemed to brighten a little bit at the prospect of playing teacher. "But Cyclonis had an ability to manipulate the power of crystals by changing their effects at will to suit her purposes… to bind them to her will, per se. It's called 'binding'," she explained, and then paused. "I can do it, too."

I found her explanation interesting, if a tad accelerated for my tiny understanding of the topic. "Well… then what did Cyclonis do?"

Her mouth formed a straight line and she glanced down. "Well, prior to then both she and I had used crystals to bind power into someone else, acting as a sort of conductor of energy… but she tried to bind the power into herself." She began passing the crystal from her left hand to her right hand as a nervous gesture, taking occasional glances at me.

"What then?" I asked quietly from my leaning position on the wall.

She took a deep breath. "We were standing in a vaulted room in this huge crystal structure, and Aerrow told her to surrender. She refused, and she started channeling crystal power into herself." She adopted a sort of distant stare, seeming to look right through the crystal she kept toying with. "She started crystallizing from her feet up. She fell. It was frightening," she remarked absently. "She… crawled but stopped after a little while… then she started calling for me to help."

That was a little surprising, since it was coming from who she had said was her first enemy. "Did you?" I asked with a frown.

She stared up at me and paused for a few seconds, brown eyes filled with what seemed like regret. "No."

I raised an eyebrow, but looked away. "That… that must've been difficult."

She was looking sullenly at her crystal again when she decided to reply. "Well… I don't think I could've done anything for her… I didn't want to work with my crystals for a while after that, but I guess I got over it after a while."

"How'd you learn about all these crystals?" I asked, glancing around at the crates in her room. I could tell she wanted a change of topic, anyway.

She adopted a small odd smile. "Well, I just managed to teach myself over the years. It wasn't easy, though…"

I found myself staring at the gently glowing crystal in her hands. "Do you think you might want to teach me about them sometime?" I asked, honestly interested in the topic that she seemed so fascinated with – and I knew so little about. "I'm a little out of touch."

She regarded me with a curious expression. "Sure…" she said after a few seconds, breaking out into a smile. "I'd like that."

"We're near Terra Atmosia… if anyone was wondering," Stork's amplified voice called over the loudspeaker.

"Oh, great," Piper said. She stood up and left her crystal on her workbench, then started walking out of the open doorway with a backward beckoning wave for me to follow.

"'Terra Atmosia'?" I asked with uncertainty evident in my speech.

She glanced back at me. "It's a very developed terra where we can get some supplies," she explained. "We're running low on food, and I needed to try to look for a little something-something in the town library. Wanna come along… Celine?" she asked experimentally, curving her eyebrow up in a sympathetic arc.

"Oh, that would be fine," I said, leaning forward off of the wall.

We walked at a relaxed pace down the hall, and she described the way that the crystals that were used in the ship's – the Condor's – engines functioned. I found it to be a little over my head, but I was glad that I was finally beginning to learn something about the world I'd been dropped into rather than by going on instinct and whatever assistance my subconscious had to offer. The door to the landing bay slid open right as our conversation had just about reached its conclusion, and the blond-haired member of the "Storm Hawks" popped up near me almost immediately while the rest of the team – aside from Piper, that is – were tending to their vehicles.

"Hey, uh, Celine," he began, glancing between me and something held in his hands. "Aerrow thought it'd be a good idea to give you some goggles, you know, since you're probably not used to flying… and… whatever?"

I raised an eyebrow since he seemed to be conveying the goggle-giving idea a tad awkwardly, but then I had a flashback to my escapade on the Murk Raider ship – or, more specifically, flying down from the Murk Raider ship – and decided that anything to lessen the effects of what may very well be my first open flight would be welcome.

"Sure, thank you," I said, accepting the pair of goggles. They were slim and of a gray-black color with subtly blue-tinted lenses. Since he kept staring at me expectantly, I pulled them on. There wasn't any noticeable color change, so I assumed the color was one-way only.

"Looking good," Finn stated with an additional "chicka-cha" sound effect.

I felt a small smile creep onto my face. I wondered if Finn was that much of a goofball all the time. "Thanks."

"…Celine," Piper said, prompting me to turn around. She was sitting on the heliscooter with her hands on the controls. "We're gonna head out."

I stood uncertainly to the side of the vehicle, and decided to toss my leg over it and hop on timidly. I wasn't sure if I'd ever ridden any kind of personal aircraft like this, but the idea seemed a little… dangerous?

"We're gonna go ahead of the Condor and land in Atmosia," Piper explained, jarring me from my skeptical thoughts. "Stork'll land there after us, and then we'll deal with a few errands."

I nodded, since the plan seemed simple enough.

"Last one to the tree does the dishes for a week!" Finn called out from his skimmer.

"You're on!" Aerrow replied.

Oh, dear…

The landing bay doors opened abruptly and everyone revved their craft's engines and then shot forward – including Piper and I on our little heliscooter. That was the first encounter with the bright blue expanse of the open Atmos that I could remember.

(._.)

A Cyclonian flagship scraped and scarred by a number of skirmishes rumbled through the clouds, stressed hull groaning in protest. Cyclonian troops – soldiers of a nation that no longer existed – busied themselves with the controls on the bridge while a robed individual with a feminine form stared down intensely at a radar display. The definite red blip pinging every few seconds demanded all of the hooded lady's attention, so much so that she didn't bother to glance down when she adjusted her collar which bore the insignia of the Cyclonian Empire.

"M-master," one of the many soldiers on the bridge said to her back.

She straightened a bit and shot the soldier a sideways glance. "Speak," she ordered, voice coming out cold and devoid of emotion.

"M-master," the soldier stuttered again. "We're approaching another one of the locations where a crystal energy signature is that matches the, um, red one."

After a brief pause, the hooded lady nodded. "Very well. Inform me if anyone decides to play hero and interrupt our operation... especially if it's those… Storm Hawks," she added in a hiss of distaste.

The Cyclonian nodded silently and bowed, departing for whatever further duties were expected of him.

"If they dare show their faces… and they always do…" the Master of Cyclonia murmured to herself, twisting her mouth into a grimace. She clenched her fist. "I will crush them."

(._.)

The Storm Hawks' vehicles skidded to a halt at the edge of the town at around the same time, and I followed Piper's cue when she hopped off of her scooter and started running toward a tree in a small town square. Aerrow and Radarr were in the lead, and they managed to slap their hands against the bark with enough time left over for Aerrow to flash a grin at everyone who was still running for it. Junko was next, followed by Piper. I pressed my hand against the tree with a blank expression, breathing slightly heavier than usual due to the sprinting.

"Aw, geez," Finn muttered. I looked over and saw that he had stopped a few feet away when he realized that he was the last to reach the tree.

"Looks like you're doing all the dishes for a week, Finn," Piper pointed out with a giggle. I smiled to myself.

"That's not fair," Finn insisted sulkily, staring down at his shoes.

"Condor's parked," Stork said flatly, pacing past Finn. He stopped between our group and Finn, and then raised an eyebrow. After a small smile crept onto his face, he continued walking calmly to the tree and put his hand on it.

"Wh-…" Finn began, eyes almost bulging out of his head. "You weren't even playing!" he accused, pointing at Stork and glancing hysterically between him and us. He faltered. "…Were you?"

I couldn't help myself, so I broke out in laughter along with the rest of the team – excluding Finn, of course.

"Alright, team," Aerrow said once the laughter had subsided. "Stork, Radarr, and I are going to see if we can find a few parts for the Condor. Junko, Finn: we need you to pick up some food supplies. Try to get something that everyone will be able to eat. Er… like," he corrected.

"I need to head to the library," Piper said. She looked at me briefly. "Wanna come?"

I nodded. "Sure."

The team split into their groups – even disconsolate Finn – and departed for the sections of town appropriate for their missions. I walked carefully beside Piper, glancing around for the library we were supposedly heading toward. There were small stores to the left and right down the cobblestone street, all in soft colors ranging from gray to pale blue. A few people were out walking, but it definitely wasn't crowded.

"Hm… Celine?" Piper began from my right.

"Yes?" I glanced over at her, and she was still facing forward.

"Do you remember Atmosia?" she asked carefully. "Like, does anything seem familiar?"

"Not really," I murmured. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

"Oh."

After a pause, I continued. "Why do you ask?" I asked with a questioning glance.

"Well, it's a big terra and it gets a lot of visitors," she explained. "So, I figured maybe…"

"I see."

"Here's the library," she said quickly, veering to the right.

I trailed behind her as she reached the door to a large building on the right side of the road composed of pale red bricks. I followed her inside, and was met with a relatively dimly-lit, musty room filled with rows and rows of shelves upon shelves of books. It contrasted sharply with the bright, open scene on the outside. I sneezed. I shook my head to clear the awkward sneezing feeling, and saw that Piper had crossed over to the counter. There was an elderly man going through a few papers behind it. He looked up.

"Ah, s'you again," he muttered, shuffling the papers into a neat pile and setting them aside. "The, uh, crystal expert. You were lookin' for that old Nil tome, huh?"

Piper nodded. "Yes, that's right."

"Hmm, hmm… just so happens I managed to lay m'hands on one of 'em for ya," he muttered, dropping to a knee to go through a cabinet under the counter. "Wasn't easy, y'know. Nil book's from the Golden Age. Ain't much of 'em left." He stood and dropped a thick, leather-bound book on the counter. "Anything else I can get ya?"

"Actually, do you have any books on advanced crystal matrices?" Piper asked.

"Oh, that'd be in the research section near the back," the old man said, nodding in the far corner of the library with his head. "Just lemme know what you wanna check out."

"Thanks," Piper said. She made a beckoning motion with her hand and started going down between the rows of bookshelves. I followed.

"Crystal matrices… that sounds complicated," I remarked, pausing when Piper stopped to crouch at the base of a shelf.

"It is pretty complex," Piper admitted. I glanced down at the book she was thumbing through, and it had a diagram of a crystal – complete with complicated structural information linked with cross-references to other points – on the left page with a solid wall of numbers and symbols on the opposing one.

I started glancing nonchalantly around the bookshelf opposite the crystal research one while considering the fact that I might have to learn what all of the things on that page meant under Piper's tutelage. While trying to decide whether my request to be taught about crystals was a wise one or not, one of the books caught my eye. It read "The Legend of Celine: Sky Knight" in faded letters along its worn, leathery spine. I drew my hand close to the book and pulled it free of its neighbors – all old stories.

The book was heavy and clearly meant to last. I casually flipped it open and stared at the first page. The title was repeated in an ornate font, along with a seal under it that looked a bit like a bird.

"What are you looking at?" Piper asked from behind my book. I slammed it shut and stared at her blankly. She was standing with her chosen books under her arm, looking at me with a raised eyebrow and a frown.

"…I found a book about the 'Celine' that you all named me after," I replied quietly, holding the book with the cover facing her.

Piper raised an eyebrow and glanced at it. "Oh, neat. Here, give it to me and I'll check it out, too." She paused briefly while I handed the book over. After my hands were free, she turned to the left in the direction of the front counter. "I could ask if they have anything else about her, if you're interested…" she trailed off, glancing back at me.

"That would be great." I smiled, but then sneezed almost immediately afterward. "…You know, I think I'll wait outside. It's rather stuffy in here."

She nodded. "That's fine. I need to look for something else… I shouldn't be too long."

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that I'd be out of the dim, dusty library – it was beginning to make me feel sick, and my nose kept tickling. I didn't glance at anyone or anything on my way out. When I reached it, I pulled open the door and stepped out into the light.