The One Year Flight

Chapter 4 Training Begins

AN: Welcome to the fourth chapter of T.O.Y.F things will be picking up now. Kai has been in training for six years, but the next year is going to be murder. From what I can tell the average Sky Knight is between 22 and 30 years of age, Aerrow being a rare exception. The Knights are going to put Kai through what would normally be seven to eight years worth of training in one year. When it's all over he will be at Sky Knight Level. But keep this in mind people, Sky Knight does not equate to Squadron. Dark Ace is equal to Aerrow, slightly better actually, but he is no match for the Storm Hawks as a whole. Quality is better then quantity, but only to a point. Aerrow, on his own could not take out two hundred talons. This is applied to Kai, he will be Aerrows equal, but keep in mind that he is also four years older, so Aerrow has a lot more potential.

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, the Shadow crystal and this story.

"Speech"

"Thought"

Kai sat on the end of his bed. He had been up the entire night, but he didn't care, he didn't even feel tired. "Yippe for dragons." Kai thought dryly as he got up. Looking at the limited cloths he had, he decided to blend in as best he could and changed into some cloths that Suzi had brought him yesterday. It wasn't much, just a fur lined version of the standard flight suit he already had. Picking up the leg holster he put the belt on, then tied the second strap to his leg a few inches above his left knee and placed the tri staff into it before walking into the room for breakfast.

"Well what do we do with him? He can't do our training. He's a hosier, besides I don't think he would last through it." One of the squadies said.

"Unless you forgetting how close he came to pinning Suzi, you never even came close there mate." Billy's voice replied.

Kai could head them but didn't care; right now he was driven by a singular need.

Food, and more specifically meat.

"Morning to ya!" Suzi called out from her spot at the table. She knew that he had heard the others talking, she was interested in seeing how he reacted. It was nothing major of course, but she wanted to know if pride was going to be a problem.

"Mmmm morning Suzi, you guys got any meat around here?" His eyes were barely open, but he could still see clearly.

Of all the things to say, that was the last one any of them had expected him to say first thing in the morning.

"We got some ace, but why you asking? Meat for breakfast?" Billy asked with a hint of amusement.

"I know, but it's weird. I can't think of anything other than meat. I feel weak, and for some reason I crave meat." Kai replied setting down between Suzi-Lu and Billy Rex.

Suzi thought for a minute before an idea hit her. "You said that you got some o the dragons traits right?" Suzi asked him.

Pop

"Yeah why?" Though awake, it was in Kai's opinion far too early to be thinking yet.

Billy caught on to Suzi's train of thought. "Eh I never studied much back in school, but weren't dragons like, really big, fire breathing lizards? The only thing they would have eaten is meat." The whole group turned to look at Billy like he had just single handedly defeated the Dark Ace. "What? I paid attention to some of the classes." Billy said in his defense.

"Yeah, the ones that had teachers you thought were cute." Suzi replied rolling her eyes.

Wheerrpshh

One of the guys at the other end made a wiping motion while another did the sound effect.

"Not true! There was that one cute sub." Billy retorted with a beaming grin.

The whole table erupted in laughter, including Kai.

GGGGGGRRRRRRRROOOOWWWWWWWW

The group stopped and stared at Kai who was clutching his stomach.

Banging his head on the table he was only able to speak in a whiney voice while he held his stomach. "Meat."

This of course caused another round of laughs. Thankfully being half canine, the Zero's were able to relate what he was going through. Regular humans had impulses and urges sometimes, especially if their bodies were low in a particular vitamin or mineral. But those who were closer to the animal half of the gene pool had it a bit harder. Blizzarians, Wallops, Merbs, Murks, and especially Raptors still had animalistic instincts that strongly influenced them, one of the strongest being a craving for meat.

Suzi, who had actually done very well in biology, idly wondered if he had any of the other big three. "Only time will tell, but I'll pass that little bit on to the next group."

The group watched in awe as the boy devoured an entire turkey in less than three minutes.

A frozen turkey.

"That was good." Kai leaned back before feeling his stomach rumble.

Belch

Kai's eyes went wide as the guys fell to the ground laughing, Suzi just stared, her mouth half open.

"They felt that one at the other side o the terra!" Gasped Billy between laughs.

"Not bad for a hosier. I ant seen someone do dat without a load a soda before." Another of the guys managed to get out between laughs.

"Man we gotta hold on to him till the next Sky meet, he'll beat those Wallops no problem!" Another said laughing so hard that he was actually crying.

"Ok boys enough laughing, time for training." Suzi struck the ground with her halberd. Kai noticed her gaze was pointed at him in particular.

"Alright, since I'm new here, give me the run down." Kai got up and stretched for a second before walking up to Suzi. "So what's up first? Laps? Weights? Drills? What ya got?" As soon as the words left his mouth he noticed two things, one was that all the laughing stopped, the second was the glint in Suzi's eyes.

"Run down eh? Alright. Boy's, to the glacier!" Suzi pointed her halberd in Kai's direction.

The ride was fun. Kai was riding second seat with Suzi, she claimed it was so none of the guys would spoil the training surprise, but he knew better, it was so he couldn't get away. He had ridden on skimmers plenty of times before, both land and air mode, he had driven/flown plenty too, but beyond function and mechanics, a grinder was nothing like a skimmer.

For one thing, they were much, much faster, or at least the Zero's drove faster than he had ever gone. The other big difference was that they had no front wheel driver, or even tires. They only had a set of skis. All the power, and traction, came from the back of the vehicle. As he watched the others shoot by he wondered why they didn't just fly, it would have been faster after all. But he figured out why quickly enough.

Grinders were fun, unlike skimmers you didn't have to worry about landing them softy, you didn't have to worry about some part breaking, or bending an axle. This all added up to being able to hit any jump at any angle at full speed. He had heard on several occasions that the Zero's had a few loose screws, if that statment had any merit, Kai knew without a doubt what had loosened them, but he agreed with them that it was totally worth it.

About an hour later the group arrived at the glacier, at which point Suzi ran up the back side and emerged at the top with a little pole and flag which she planted at the top. "You want in with the Zero's you got to reach this!" She called out.

"That's it? Climbing ice?" Kai was starting to think things might be easier then he feared them to be. Of course this theory went up in a colossal ball of fire when he heard all the guys behind him laughing.

"Ohhh no, there's more to it ace. Turn around and face the grinders for a second." Billy pointed at the parked rides while flashing a huge grin.

Kai was nervous, he knew he could trust them not to KILL him, but he didn't know what else to expect beyond that. A second later he felt both of his hands get pulled behind his back and one of his feet get lifted from the ground. A second later they were tied together behind his back. So there he now stood, hopping on one leg. He could see the guys were all grinning. "Did you guys really have to do this?" He asked more than just a little suspicious.

"Yep. Worst day of my life ace. Now get on up that hill!" Billy gave him a shove towards the wall of ice causing him to fall face first into it.

"Ouch!" The group was able to hear him mumble a few curses into the icy ground as he tried to push himself back up. Thirty minutes lath he had given up on getting back up and was trying to crawl up the incline. Two hours later he gave up that idea. "SUZI!" He called out at the top of his lungs. Looking up he noticed that she was lying on her back getting a suntan. "She has fur! What's the point?"

Rolling over Suzi looked to see that the boy was in the same place he was forty minutes ago. "Yeah! What ya want?" Suzi was more than a little disappointed in the boy. Starling had spoken highly of him, but so far he hadn't proven to be much. Their fight had been short, even though he had some talent, Suzi was sure that Starling had been holding back on his training. "Why would she hold him back on purpose? He should be twice what he is now. It almost makes you think that she wanted him to.." Suzi shook her head to clear the thought. No way would her friend do that, there had to be a reason for his lack in skill, not to mention build. Suzi knew that if Kai was going to have any chance of completing his training in the short amount of time that he had, they would have to take drastic measures.

"Can one of you give me a hand?" He shouted with more than just a little annoyance.

"This is training, not team training!" She called down the glacier.

"I don't need much! I just need someone to flip me over onto my back!" He shouted.

Now this caught her attention. "Why would he want to be on his back?" Suzi thought it over for a few more seconds before finally giving into her curiosity. "Hey Billy!" She shouted. The guys had been playing a game of rugby, but when they heard Suzi, call they stopped.

"Yeah chief!" He called back.

"Flip em!" She shouted.

"Eh alright." Billy walked over to the boys humming body and flipped him so he was staring straight up.

"Thanks man, I've been trying to do that for twenty minutes now." Kai shot a grin before he planted his foot into the ground hard and pushed up. Once his leg was fully extended he quickly pulled his leg back up and pushed off again. The group watched in amazement as the boy skirted his way up the incline. He didn't stop the whole way up, and upon reaching the top he rolled back onto his stomach and inched his way to the flag. Stopping in front of it he grabbed it with his mouth and bit down and pulled back. There he lay, painting, out of breath, with the flag in his teeth. "So how's that for a hosier?" Kai grinned as he spoke, the flag still in his teeth.

"Not bad." Reaching down Suzi cut the rope loose and watched as he rubbed his sore wrist. "Why did you need help rolling over though? It's not that hard. And where did you even think to do that?" Suzi asked

"When Billy pushed me down, I packed down the ice around where my feet were, so I had nothing to push off of. As for where did I think of it. Not a clue, it just sort of popped into my head." Kai shrugged his shoulders.

"Well that's enough for today. You need to rest up cause from here on out were going to run you into the ground." Suzi walked away but turned when she noticed Kai was looking down the glacier. "What are you planning?"

Kai just grinned then jumped head first down the wall of ice.

"WWWWAAAAAHHHOOOOOOOOO!!"

The Zero's that were below heard the cry and turned to see the boy flying down the glacier head first.

"WWWWWOOOUUUUHHHHH!!"

"WWAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOO!!"

Suzi could only shake her head and smile. "Eh what the heck." Making sure her halberd was safely strapped to her back Suzi ran forward and dived into to wall of ice. "WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOOO!!"

While she was sliding down the sheet of ice, some bits and pieces of past memories started to filter through. Things she had heard, and things she had seen. "Something is wrong with this entire situation. Why is he so weak? I know that Starling had trained him for at least six years, but he should be stronger than he was yesterday, and even today. Also, I know that Starling said he had been doing physical training, so where is the muscle mass? It makes no sense." Upon reaching the bottom, she brushed herself off and climbed back onto her grinder. She wasn't surprised when Kai jumped onto the back and wrapped his hands around her waste.

But, that's when it struck her, and her eyes became the size of basketballs "She said he was doing physical training, but she never said what type!"

End chapter 4

AN: I know this ones short, but I thought this was a good spot to stop it. I figure that Kai will be with the Zero's for around two months before he has to be moved. I'm not quite sure who he will be with next, but I can tell you this. Kai was friends with Suzi before this occurred, as you all know. Now here what you didn't. He knows only three Sky Knights personally, the others he only knows from reading about or hearing about. He's very close friends with Starling, he's buddies with Suzi, but the third is an old nemesis of his from the past, someone he absolutely loathes and despises. Given a few little clues dropped in the previous chapters of this story and Broken Wing I'm sure you'll figure it out. Also, the bit at the end about the physical training is very important. Keep this in mind, there are many, many different types of physical conditioning, and not all of them involve muscle mass. Until next time, Ja Ne!