Aerrow smiled sheepishly. "Uh...heh heh. Hi," he laughed nervously.
Domiwick snarled, "You! I never thought I'd have to deal with you again!"
Aerrow drew his second dagger and activated them both as Piper stepped out of the shadows. "Sorry to disappoint you," he said sarcastically, and dropped into a fighting stance.
Domiwick clenched his big fists. "Why are you here? Trying to ruin another one of Master Cyclonis' plans?" he demanded.
Piper came to stand beside Aerrow, her arms crossed. "So she's your master now? I never thought I'd hear the great I.J. Domiwick admit to being less than somebody else," she taunted.
Aerrow gave her a sly smile of encouragement that Domiwick missed completely.
"I am nobody's inferior!" the blond man roared. "How dare you mock one of such high esteem as myself!"
"High esteem," Aerrow joined in, "or high self-esteem?"
Domiwick snarled with rage and lunged for the Storm Hawks, who stepped to the sides and watched him fall on his face. I.J. rose, pointed and shouted, "I will not allow you to taunt me so! I am not so weak as to fall to your petty insults!"
Aerrow and Piper exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. "Sorry, Domiwick," said Aerrow, "but it looks like you already have."
The man charged him again and swung a fist that Aerrow dodged with a mile to spare. "You children will not foil Cyclonis again. She has already set a new plan in motion, and you will be defeated long before you get the chance to stop her," he told them.
The Storm Hawks shared a glance. Piper said, "You're wrong. We're going to bring her to justice once and for all. With or without your cooperation."
Aerrow gave her a wondering look. She'd used almost his exact words from before. Piper glanced at him with a warmth in her gaze, then looked back to Domiwick with a cold stare.
He sneered, "My cooperation? And what is that supposed to mean?"
Aerrow raised his blades. "Tell us where she is. Now."
Domiwick laughed, raised his hands and shrugged. Then, "You stupid boy," he said sharply, earning a murderous glare from Piper that Aerrow didn't notice. "I don't know. And, even if I did, I'd have no reason to tell you." He gave them a greasy smile and nodded to someone behind them.
Aerrow whirled. He just had time to see a smirking green-moustached face before he was struck in the head with a metal staff and crumpled, vision going dark.
...
Back on the Condor, chaos reigned.
Junko had just discovered that the only food left on the ship was Stork's emergency supply of Merb cabbage, and he'd flown into a fit of hysteria. Finn was trying to calm him and was— repeatedly —receiving bundles of flying cabbage to the face in return. Radarr clung desperately to Junko's ears, attempting to guide him away from anything important in case the Wallop began smashing things. Stork had donned a pair of earplugs and sat on the bridge unaffected, reading his book of 'Untreatable Afflictions of the Atmos'.
"Dude, there's other food here! There's food you've never even heard of! It's the Far Side, man, just wait till Aerrow and Piper get back and we'll find a burger joint or something," Finn was shouting.
Junko hurled another ball of cabbage, not listening. "Nothing but cabbage! Cabbage! Why cabbage? Why not fried chicken?" he cried.
At this Radarr chirped angrily and yanked on Junko's ears, sending him to his butt on the floor. Chickens were very dear to Radarr. They were most certainly not meant to be eaten as emergency rations.
"Ouch!" Junko exclaimed, pulling Radarr from his head, "Why'd you do that?"
Radarr barked and gestured with his arms, earning a blank stare in return.
Finn hurried over, while Junko seemed to have snapped out of his hunger fit, and said, "Chickens, man. You remember the chickens. Anyway, look, we'll stop and get some food as soon as the others get back, okay?"
Junko looked up and said, "Oh, uh...Yeah. Okay. Sorry about that, guys. You know how much I hate Stork's cabbage."
Finn pulled him to his feet. "Yeah. Sure."
Radarr jumped up to Finn's shoulder and the three of them stepped onto the bridge. Without taking his eyes from his book, Stork removed his earplugs and said, "Done destroying my ship in the name of cabbage?"
Junko chuckled nervously and scratched his head. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, Stork. I kind of, uh, hurled all your cabbage at Finn's head. We're out."
"Yeah, man, oh well, I guess." Finn shrugged lamely. He was secretly glad all the cabbage was gone.
Stork looked up from his book with an evil smile, eye twitching. "It's a good thing I packed three extra crates in my quarters, then," he said.
Junko and Finn exchanged a dreading glance. "Aw, man..."
...
Aerrow could hear someone calling his name as if from far away. He struggled to free himself from the thick fog of his mind, sat up suddenly and reached for his blades.
His fingers closed on nothing— his daggers were gone —and he felt a hand on his chest. "Aerrow!" Piper cried. "Calm down, you're okay. It's me."
Aerrow looked around, recognizing nothing of his surroundings but the navigator kneeling next to him. "Piper. Where are we?" he asked breathlessly.
She shrugged, "I'm pretty sure we're in that tower at the top of the cliff, but...I'm not sure."
Aerrow groaned. "This is all my fault," he said, and looked up at Piper. "We're stuck here, the others have no idea where we are, Cyclonis knows we're looking for her, and we still don't have a clue as to where she is. If I hadn't— Gah!" He clutched his head as a bolt of pain assaulted him.
Piper laid a supportive hand on his shoulder, keeping him upright, and waited for him to recover. "Aerrow, it's not your fault."
"But—" he tried to cut in, but Piper went on,
"We'll get out of here, and warn everyone, and stop Cyclonis. I promise."
Aerrow looked her in the eyes. "Thanks, Piper, but don't make promises you can't keep."
She was silent, but her brows drew together with worry.
After a moment Aerrow broke eye contact and pushed himself up to his feet with her help, his head pounding where the Talon had struck him. He rubbed the sore bruise there.
"You know, I've beaten those guys so much they're getting kind of endearing," he said to no one.
Piper smiled. She knew the feeling, as strange as it seemed.
Aerrow looked around the cell, for that's what it was— a circular, white-stone prison cell, lit by a cluster of pale crystals in the ceiling, with four round windows too high up to see out of and a single locked wooden door. He figured Piper was right, and they were in one of the white tower's upper rooms, judging by the shape.
He looked up at one of the the windows, the only one without a glass pane, and wondered if it was large enough to escape through. He walked over to it was tried to reach it, but even with his arm stretched to its extent he couldn't touch the bottom edge.
"Piper, come here," he said. Then Aerrow pointed to the window. "If I help you up to there, you think you could climb out?"
She eyed the opening, then shifted her gaze to him. "It isn't glass?" she asked.
He shook his head. "It's broken. It's worth a shot, escaping. As long as you've got a Levitation Crystal or something. It's a long way down."
Piper looked to the window again and nodded. "Okay," she decided, a determined light flaring in her eyes, "let's do this."
Aerrow gave a nod and positioned himself under the window, lacing his hands together. Piper pushed away the image of before, her panic when she thought he'd abandoned her, and started to step up. Then she stopped and looked at him.
"What about you?" she inquired. "I'm not going to leave you here alone."
Aerrow shrugged. "If you escape, you and the others can come back for me later."
Piper still looked uncertain, but he held her gaze with a half-smile until she sighed, "Alright." She stepped up into his joined hands and reached to take hold of the windowsill above her as he lifted from below.
When her head cleared the sill she looked out the window, over the terra beyond, and drew in a wondering gasp. They were undoubtedly in one of the tower's highest rooms, as she could see, under the velvety dark sky, far out over the cliffs beneath them and, at the very edge of her line of sight, the Condor with its running lights blinking.
She could imagine seeing the rest of her team at the windows, waiting for them to return. Or maybe it wasn't just her imagination, and she really could see them there. Either way, she needed to get out of the tower.
Below her, Aerrow grunted, "Uh, Piper? Are you just going to stand there? You're not as light as you look."
She looked down, blushing red. "Oh. Sorry."
She reached up, grabbed the far side of the windowsill, and pulled herself up, shoulders barely fitting through the small gap. She made it halfway before she had to stop and readjust her grip, then pulled herself farther through.
Her head and shoulders cleared the far side then and she was met by a blast of wind in the face. Piper freed one arm and pushed against the tower's outer side with it, trying to wedge her hips through the opening.
She tried for only a moment before she realized she was stuck.
Jammed halfway through the wall in the side of the tower, legs inside, shoulders outside, she was stuck.
"Oh, dear," she sighed.
She heard Aerrow's muffled voice come from inside, "Piper? Are you okay?"
Over the rushing of the wind, Piper called back, "Yes, but I'm...uh, stuck."
Aerrow was silent for a moment. Then she heard him, barely audible, say, "Me and my stupid plans. Nothing but trouble."
She wanted to say something encouraging, but she doubted it would do much good in her current situation. Instead she shouted to him, "Try and push me through!"
She pulled her other arm out through the window and braced it against the outer wall at the same time she felt Aerrow grip her feet. "Ready?" he called.
She took a deep breath, then braced herself and shouted, "Now!"
Both Storm Hawks pushed, and Piper cleared the window. But she overbalanced on the far side, lost her grip on the wall, and fell, plummeting from the hole with a terrified shriek.
"No! Piper!" Aerrow cried.
She gasped and thrust her hand into her crystal bag, searching by feel for her Levitation Crystal. A panicked moment passed, the ground nearing rapidly and the wind tearing past, and then her fingers closed around the crystal and activated it.
Her descent slowed and then stopped altogether, and Piper breathed a sigh of relief. She willed herself higher, back up to the window, where she called, "Aerrow?"
Immediately his voice came through, sounding relieved, "Piper! You're okay?"
"Yeah," she answered breathlessly, breaking into a smile that he couldn't see. It was good to hear his voice. She'd feared she might not have found her crystal in time, and everything she wanted to say to him would have gone forever unsaid.
"I'm coming to get you out," she decided.
He started to protest, shouting, "Piper, you have to warn the others first! They're more important! Hey! Listen! Are you even there?" Then he sighed, continued to himself, "Gah, why don't you ever listen? One day that's going to get you in serious trouble, and I'll never forgive myself."
Piper heard every word and stayed quiet, feeling touched and a little guilty.
She flew back away from the window and circled the tower once, scanning its sides for a lit window near the top, large enough to fly through. She found one quickly, took a deep breath, and shot toward it.
She braced herself a second before she hit the glass and crashed through with only minor cuts. Piper hit the floor inside the tower and rolled until she hit the far wall, startling a lone Cyclonian guard as he walked by.
"You! You're supposed to be— !"
Piper struck him across the face with a quick punch before he could finish, sending him to the floor out cold, and whispered, "Sorry!"
She stepped over the man's still form and dashed up the flight of spiral stairs leading up through the center of the ceiling. She figured there was only a small number of guards here, probably only a handful to keep an eye on her and Aerrow (and what a great job they were doing). From the outside, the tower looked otherwise deserted.
She climbed the stairs until she reached the top level, which was only about thirty feet in circumference, and a familiar wooden door. Another guard stood by it.
He shouted, "Wha— How did you get out here?" and leveled his crystal-tipped staff at her.
The crystal flared red, and Piper cartwheeled to the side as a beam of energy shot by her. She leaped at him, launched an aerial kick into his jaw, and landed lightly as he thumped to the ground with a groan.
Aerrow's voice came from behind the door, "Piper?"
She hurried over and laid a hand against it. "It's me. Hold on, Aerrow, I need to find the key," she said. Piper turned, knelt by the guard she'd just downed, and checked his belt for the key to the door.
She found it without trouble, a coin-sized metal disk with a red crystal protruding from it, and slotted it into the hole in the handle. It turned, and she pushed open the heavy door.
Aerrow stood just inside, and she stepped forward and hugged him tightly before he could say anything.
"I'm sorry," she said in his ear.
"For what?" he asked as she pulled back.
"Disobeying orders. Again. I just couldn't leave you locked up here alone in some Cyclonian prison cell. I got a chance to break you out, and I took it, even though you kind of told me not to, so I'm sorry. I don't mean to worry you all the time."
Aerrow blinked. "Don't worry about it. Just don't make a habit of it, either. Now let's get out of here before the guards wake up."
Piper nodded, and the Storm Hawks dashed from the room. Piper led the way down the stairs to the window she'd crashed through, and there Aerrow suddenly caught her around the waist, activated his glider and leaped into the air.
Piper gasped as they dropped suddenly, then laughed when they caught an updraft and spiraled up into open air. The sensation of flying without a Skimmer or a ship through the darkness was so new and exhilarating, she almost didn't notice Aerrow's arms around her waist and his body pressed against hers. Almost. She grinned and closed her eyes against the blast of the wind.
Aerrow smiled at her antics and guided them toward the waiting Condor.
...
Stork closed his book of untreatable afflictions and stood, returning to his usual place at the helm to stare out the window. Finn, Junko and Radarr were lounging, bored, on various seats around the room, and Stork was growing ever more anxious as Aerrow and Piper still failed to return.
He'd been checking the windows every few minutes for signs of their friends, and nothing had happened yet. Junko had begun snoring somewhere during that time, and Finn took to playing catch with Radarr using a stray cabbage.
Now Stork leaned his sharp elbows against the helm and sighed, staring out over the terra.
He stayed this way for some time before a flicker of movement outside caught his eye.
He leaned over the controls to get a better view and squinted to make out the distinct shapes of two Talon Switchblades. Each appeared to have two riders, one Talon and one...Storm Hawk.
Stork gasped as he realized the situation, rushed to the window and pressed his four-fingered hands against the glass. "Oh no," he said, voice shaking.
The Talons were coming closer, flying toward the white tower, and he could clearly make out the shapes of his friends, slumped across the enemy Skyrides. Somehow they'd been discovered, and now they were being taken to the tower to be imprisoned!
Stork wrung his hands. "Oh, not good. Really not good. Guys, we have a problem."
Finn sat up, and he and Radarr joined Stork at the window.
"What?" Finn asked, and Stork pointed with one trembling finger. Finn looked up, spotted the Talons, and then noticed Aerrow and Piper. "Uh oh," he said, eyes going wide. Radarr let out a squeak.
"Aw, man, what do we do? Go after them?" Finn asked, looking at Stork for an answer.
The Merb shook his head. "They'll find a way out. I'm not risking the Condor to go up there."
Finn looked annoyed, gesturing as he cried, "We can't just sit here and watch while they're getting locked up! We have to do something."
Junko had awoken and came and joined them, stretching and yawning. "What's happening?" he asked.
Finn pointed out the window, "The Cyclonians have got Aerrow and Piper, and Stork doesn't want to go after them."
Junko looked at Stork askance. "But we have to!"
Stork sighed, narrowed his eyes at them. "Fine. But," he raised a finger, "first I'm going to give them half an hour to get out on their own. The Condor is only a last resort."
Finn and Junko nodded in agreement, at least partially satisfied.
Stork went back to his seat and continued reading, shoulders hunched, a sour look on his long face. They all sat down to wait.
Junko fell asleep again, and this time Finn joined him. Radarr stayed perched on the helm, keeping a sharp eye out for signs of his friend. Stork kept his nose in his book.
Time passed slowly. Each minute Radarr's worry grew, and Stork was periodically casting hopeful glances out the window. They waited.
And then, Radarr spotted a flicker of color and movement from one of the highest tower windows. He chirped and gestured wildly to Stork, who hurried over and looked up to where Radarr was pointing.
Stork rifled through a drawer in the control board ans came up with a telescope. He held it up to one eye and trained it on the round tower window.
"Um...it's Piper. Looks like she's trying to jump to her doom. I don't blame her. I suppose a quick death is better than a life spent in...Cyclonian prison." His eye twitched.
Radarr rolled his eyes, snatched the spyglass from Stork and peered through.
It was indeed Piper, and she was indeed trying to climb through the tiny window, but Radarr seriously doubted she was jumping to her doom.
He kept the telescope trained on the window, saw Piper brace her hands against the tower wall, and then he shrieked with alarm as she lost her balance and fell.
In a flash Stork was at the window next to him, watching with wide eyes as their friend plummeted from the top of the tower. "Gah!" the Merb exclaimed, his hands going to his face in horror.
Then Piper stopped in midair, drawing a dark red crystal from her bag, and they both heaved relieved sighs.
"Levitation Crystal," Stork explained. "That was close."
Radarr chirped in agreement. They both watched as Piper flew back up to the window, shouted through, and after a second she rounded the far side of the tower and disappeared from view.
Stork and Radarr stayed at the window, waiting for her to return. Neither of them moved for several minutes. Stork's eye began to twitch again. Radarr started to worry.
Then, suddenly, both Aerrow and Piper came swooping around the tower again, Aerrow's battle glider activated, his arms around her waist. Radarr leaped from the helm in triumph, and Stork smiled and laughed nervously. "That could've been worse," he admitted.
