Aerrow's eyes snapped open. He sat up with a pained sigh and looked around the brig, noting the charred pieces of the safe, the closed metal door behind him, and the blood-red crystals resting unharmed where he'd placed them. Those accursed crystals. He raised a hand to his head, where a dull throb remained.
What exactly had happened? Aerrow remembered the crystal sending out bolts of red lightning when he put it in the safe, and then the terrible shrieks it had emitted. After that...the snaky creature had vanished into his chest. Aerrow started to breathe faster.
What was that thing? Was is inside of him somehow right now?
He was suddenly reminded of the Nightcrawlers' armor; the translucent beasts that had seemed to inhabit the crystals within. Something like that had just wormed its way into him?
Aerrow shuddered and grasped at his chest, searching with his fingers for any holes or unnatural lumps or other signs of alien presence. The front of his uniform was charred, the armor plates partly melted, but aside from that there was nothing strange.
Regardless, this was very bad.
There was an evil Far Side critter inside of him, probably killing him from the inside out, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. Maybe Piper could figure out some way to get the thing out, or maybe this one had allergies like the Nightcrawlers' crystal creatures. There may still be some hope. He had to tell the others.
Aerrow pushed himself up from the floor, steadied himself, and opened the door to the rest of the ship. He stepped through, locked it securely behind him and climbed the series of ladders, then the stairs, then hurried through the hallways and stumbled onto the bridge.
He was met by his team, the five of them turning around, startled. Before anyone could speak, Aerrow gasped, "We have a serious problem."
Stork grumbled, "You think?" without turning around.
Piper ignored him and hurried over to Aerrow, touching gently the burned patch on his chest, "Aerrow, what happened?" she asked breathlessly.
"Are you okay?" Junko inquired.
Finn looked over Junko's shoulder. "Dude, what happened to you?" he cried, sounding quite shocked. "You were gone, like, five minutes, man. How'd you get blown up?"
Aerrow answered, "The crystals. I was putting them in the safe in the brig, and they started blasting lightning. A bolt hit me, and a creature like the ones in the Nightcrawler armor went...into my chest, I guess. I blacked out."
"So...one of those things is inside you?" Junko asked, voice wavering with fright.
"Dude, that's so creepy!" Finn exclaimed.
"I knew it," Stork declared, "It's going to eat your soul and kill you horribly from within!"
Aerrow scowled. "Thanks, Stork, I feel much better now."
Piper said nothing, checking Aerrow's wound with a feather-light touch. It seemed the lightning hadn't done much damage, his armor taking the brunt of the strike, but around the plating his skin was reddened and raw. When her fingers brushed across the damaged area Aerrow, swallowed down a shout of pain and she jerked her hand away. "Sorry. I just need to see how serious it is," she apologized sympathetically.
Aerrow gave a grunt in acknowledgement. Then he addressed the whole team, "Whatever this thing's going to do, it can't be good. We need to find a way to get it out. Until then, I think it would be safest for us to land and lock me up somewhere it can't hurt anyone else."
The others nodded grimly.
After a moment, "I leave you alone for five minutes and you get struck by lightning and attacked by an alien," Piper murmured halfheartedly, reaching into the crystal bag at her hip. Aerrow shrugged helplessly, not knowing what to say.
She drew out a pair of crystals, one blue, one green, and held them up to his burns. A wave of cool air washed from the blue one, soothing the irritated wound, and the second slowly repaired the damaged skin. After a moment Aerrow's wound was gone, and Piper replaced her crystals.
"Thanks," he said gratefully, and she nodded without a word.
Then Stork called from the helm, "We're nearing a terra. A...floating one."
Finn ran to the railing and looked out the window. "Dude..." he said in awe.
Junko joined him, exclaiming, "Wow!"
Soon everyone was lined up at the windows, staring out at the mass of land hovering before them. A frown settled over Aerrow's features. This floating terra reminded him too much of Cyclonia in its last days of power. It looked as though the very same antigravity crystal pontoons powered this terra's flight.
He exchanged a glance with Piper, who seemed to be thinking the same thing he was.
"Do you think this is safe?" Junko asked, voicing their thoughts. "Those pontoons look a lot like the ones on Cyclonia. What if these people were the ones who gave them to Master Cyclonis?"
Aerrow looked determined. "I don't know. Maybe they're common here. If these are the source of the pontoons, though, that just means we're one step closer to finding Cyclonis."
The team was silent for some time while Stork brought the Condor closer and maneuvered it into position alongside a sky dock. Several other airships, mostly freighters and patched cargo ships, were docked similarly all around the terra. Bright blue sky defied the cover of heavy clouds here, unlike the other terras they'd seen. On the surface, the ground was dusty and reddish and crossed with tire tracks, and clusters of buildings dotted the landscape. The whole place seemed to be a kind of hovering rest stop.
Finn scanned the terra appraisingly and shrugged. "Looks nice enough. Kind of like Terra Saharr."
The others nodded in agreement. "I don't think Cyclonia's pontoons came from this place," Aerrow said with relief. "You three," he went on, nodding to Junko, Finn and Piper, "go check the place out. Yes, you can eat while you're there. See what you can learn about anything that will help; the forbidden crystals, Cyclonis' location, a map of this world, whatever. For now I'll be under house arrest, and Stork, you can stay with the ship. Got it?"
Everyone nodded.
"Right." Aerrow smiled tightly. "Then let's go."
The team separated; Finn, Piper and Junko to the hangar bay, Radarr to the railing next to Stork, and Aerrow to his quarters with the door bolted.
Minutes later the recon team was heading to the surface on their Skimmers, their cerulean contrails marking their path from the Condor to the ground. Stork took to checking the ship's controls, and Radarr fell asleep on top of the helm.
...
Aerrow sat against the wall on his bed, shirt in his lap, stitching a new red patch over the burned area on his uniform. Still he felt nothing strange; no ill effects of having a luminous crystal-snake fly into him. He was deeply disturbed by the idea nonetheless. It was bad enough having enemies with such strange creatures as allies, but this was another horror entirely.
He absently felt the place on his chest where the lightning had struck. Nothing remained of his burns but a slight sheen to the healed skin, and still there was no sign of alien presence. A small comfort.
He finished the last stitch in his shirt and held it up. The new patch matched the ones over the shoulders in color, and the seam was satisfactory enough. He pulled the shirt back on and leaned against the wall.
How long did he have? Was the creature really killing him, right now, as he sat?
He rested his head back against the wall. He didn't want to consider such depressing ideas.
Aerrow slid off the bed and went over to his desk, shuffling through the pile of random items there until he found a decent pencil and his pad of paper. Then he returned to his seat.
Aerrow liked sketching.
Not many people knew it, and rarely did he have idle time to spend doing it, but nonetheless it was something he enjoyed more than much else.
He crossed his legs and stared at the paper for a moment, thinking. Then he began to draw.
...
Finn landed first, snapping in his Skimmer's wings and skidding to a stop, red dust billowing up from his tires.
Junko and Piper landed their skyrides on either side of him, and they rode from there into the cluster of buildings closest them, leaving their own tracks in the dirt behind them, a memory of their passage.
From here they could see the details of the place more clearly: twisting paths joined the scatterings of structures together, each group of buildings consisting of a few restaurants and diners, repair shops, secondhand stores, 'Speeder' rentals (none of the Storm Hawks were exactly sure what a Speeder was), and motels.
Sky docks ringed the terra all the way around, and most were occupied by the same beat-up freighters they'd seen from the Condor.
The people they could see were mostly burly men, dressed in rough attire and worn boots, roaming the streets chatting gruffly and tending to their business.
A few other people were thrown into the mix as well: a lanky man in a vest walking with a young woman with gray hair, a strangely familiar blonde lady and her son, a brightly dressed guy eating a sandwich on a bench to one side.
The Storm Hawks took all this in and parked their Skimmers at the edge of the street.
Piper addressed the boys, "Let's split up and cover as much ground as possible. We need to ask the people here what they know about Cyclonis and the forbidden crystals, and I need to find a map."
"After we eat, right?" Junko asked.
Finn nodded earnestly in agreement, and Piper sighed. "Yes, after we eat." she told them, and immediately they whooped and ran off toward the nearest diner: 'Clear Skies: Burgers and Fries'.
She had to laugh, albeit shaking her head, and followed them at a more appropriate pace.
...
Back on the bridge, Radarr was snoring gently, draped over the helm, and Stork was fiddling with the environmental controls.
"You know, I've never really experimented much with this," he mused to Radarr, who, of course was still asleep. Stork rubbed his hands together mischievously, a smile spreading over his face. "Now that all the Condor's systems are brand-new, maybe I should see what she's really capable of."
Stork reached out and twisted a dial with a sudden jerk, and the room temperature plummeted.
Every surface crackled as silvery frost sheeted it. Radarr woke with a startled chirp and rolled off the helm, landing on the floor with a thump. Stork chuckled, breath turning to white mist in the freezing air, and turned the dial the other way.
The temperature rose sharply, making the frost melt in a split second and slide to the floor in a curtain of water. Radarr squeaked. Heat waves radiated in blurry ripples from everything in the room, and the window cracked with the sudden pressure change.
"Oops," Stork grumbled, and turned the dial back to its regular position.
The temperature leveled out again and Stork went to the window, running a finger along the new crack. He sighed. Radarr jumped back up onto the helm and chirped scoldingly.
Stork was tempted to swat him across the room, but refrained.
Instead he muttered "I'll fix it later," and returned to the environmental board.
His finger hovered over the buttons and dials for a moment, undecided, and then he pressed a random button.
Gravity vanished.
Laughing crazily, Stork rose into the air, turning slowly upside down, and Radarr was lifted from his perch on the helm again. The furry blue creature crossed his arms indignantly as he floated toward the ceiling.
Stork pressed another button. He and Radarr dropped back to the floor ungracefully, and the oxygen was sucked from the room.
Stork grinned despite the lack of air in his lungs, watching Radarr flop dramatically onto the ground and clutch at his throat.
He pressed the button again and drew in a deep breath as oxygen returned.
"Isn't this fun?" he giggled.
Radarr chirped angrily and jumped up onto the control board, spreading his arms to keep Stork from pressing any more buttons.
The Merb sighed heavily in mock disappointment. "Fine," he groaned, and shuffled back to his place at the helm.
...
Aerrow sat patiently through the sudden environmental changes, letting Stork have his fun uninterrupted, and continued sketching.
At first the picture had seemed formless and random, but quickly it was taking shape and becoming more recognizable. For some time Aerrow sat, the image in his head transferring to paper through the strokes of his pencil, and in another several minutes he finished the last detail and looked over his work.
He'd drawn a scene full of action and emotion, the clash of good and evil in the skies above Atmosia.
Skimmers and warships dotted the paper, with bursts of lightning and weapons fire accenting the space in between. The great shadow of Terra Cyclonia in flight was visible in the background, and the small figures of he and his friends had weapons raised together in anticipation of battle.
One would think such a memory would be undesirable, but in Aerrow's case he wanted a reminder; something to call to mind their courage and their victory in the face of near-impossible odds. It gave him some encouragement when he found himself in similar situations. Like right now.
He smiled slightly, pleased at the outcome of his drawing, and set the pad and pencil aside.
...
Finn and Junko burst into the diner, startling the people seated inside, and rushed to the counter in record time.
A surprised employee came over. "Uh, can I help you?" she asked.
Junko glanced at the menu on the wall above her and said, "Um, yes, can I get two of the super-ultra-sized triple Sky Burgers with super-ultra-sized fries?"
The lady raised her eyebrows, nodded, and wrote down his order. Junko looked over his shoulder. "What do you want, Finn?"
The woman looked up, amazed and a bit disgusted. Finn stepped up, flashing the employee a wink and a smile. "Ah, yeah, I'll take the same," he told her.
She wrote down his order as well. "Just a second, please," she said, sounding as if she was trying very hard not to judge her two customers outrageously, and disappeared through the swinging door to the kitchen.
Piper walked in then and joined the boys at the counter. "I hope you haven't bought the place out," she said wryly.
"Oh, no, of course not. We just got two of those," assured Junko, pointing to the menu.
"Two total, or two each?" Piper asked, dreading the answer.
"Two each," Finn replied with a grin.
Piper's jaw dropped. "Guys! Super-ultra-sized triple burgers? If you don't explode, you'll be sick for a week!" she exclaimed.
Finn shook his head. "No way. Junko and I can handle anything. And we haven't eaten since, like, yesterday."
Piper scoffed in exasperation. "When you start barfing all over the ship, don't say I didn't warn you," she retorted.
Junko smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
A second later the employee woman returned, carrying a pair of loaded trays. She set them on the counter with a grunt of effort, saw Piper, and looked fearful. "You don't want anything too, do you?" she asked.
Piper saw the girl's expression and laughed. She shook her head. "No, thanks. I think they can share." She ignored Finn and Junko's scandalized looks.
The woman sighed in relief. "That'll be fifty-two thirty-five, then."
Junko and Finn's eyes widened. "Uh, well, you see..." Junko began, but Piper sighed and pushed past him, digging in her pocket. She came up with a handful of the clear crystal shards used for currency and laid them of the counter. "Is that enough?" she asked.
The employee counted quickly and nodded. "Yes, ma'am." Then she looked up at Finn and Junko and chuckled wonderingly. "You guys be careful, now. Those burgers aren't for the faint of stomach."
Finn grinned. "Don't worry. We're as tough as they come. Chicka-chah." He let himself think that the girl blushed in response.
Piper sighed and thanked the flustered lady, then the boys took their trays and the Storm Hawks sat down at a booth.
"Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you guys," Piper sighed, a touch of humor in her tone.
Junko shrugged helplessly. "Sorry! I was hungry!"
Finn offered, "Is it because we're funny and cute and wickedly handsome?"
Piper laughed and rolled her eyes. "That must be it." The guys grinned at one another and dug into their giant burgers.
Piper looked around the diner, as she hadn't had the opportunity walking in. The walls were clean and white and mostly occupied by windows. Bright lamps with green shades hung from the ceiling, the booths were comfortable and a matching green color, and the room was spacious, though only a few customers sat at the tables.
She looked around at the people; about the same as they'd seen outside, mostly stocky sailors, a few others.
Wait.
One man looked familiar. She couldn't place him, but something nagged at the back of her mind, an answer infuriatingly out of reach.
Piper squinted across the room at him.
He was a broad-shouldered, handsome man, his dual-colored hair longer and more unkempt then she thought it should be, his short dark goatee grown into a beard...
Suddenly Piper remembered.
She'd seen this man once before, read about him in a number of books, and heard about his acts of heroism and his tragic death, when he was thrown from the edge of Terra Mesa by Repton himself.
But...that was impossible. He was dead.
It was unmistakable, though. "Guys," Piper whispered, and Junko and Finn stopped eating momentarily, "that's Hunter—
"—of the Interceptors."
