Hey everyone! Sorry that I haven't updated this story in what feels like forever, but you'll be happy to know that there's a backlog of chapters on my computer right now that will be posted in the coming weeks!
Well, enough of my talking, although I'd like to thank my beta, Unleash The Shadow for editing this chapter, I like how it turned out ;)
Go ahead! Read it! It starts out in Finn's POV this time by the way. Oh, and I've done something with the POV switching I've never done in the APAH series yet.... can you guys figure it out? I suppose this will have to be Cookie Challenge #10! First one to leave a review / message me with what they think is different than usual wins a cookie!!!!! ^.^
I do not own the Storm Hawks, they are the property of Nerd Corps.
Chapter 6
Trap!
Once Stork had landed the Condor in the little remaining space in the clearing, he had walked down the ramp to help me put the skimmers away in the hanger bay, but as he walked up to me he started to look around.
"Where's Piper?" Stork asked as he continued to scan the clearing with his eye twitching the whole time.
"Umm…" I began, hesitating a bit before I mumbled hurriedly, "She's gone."
Stork immediately turned and looked at me, the twitch in his eye stopping for a moment before coming back with a vengeance as he screamed, "WHAT!"
"Stork, it's okay!" I reassured the merb before me as I told him, "She just went off to look for the others, I'm sure she'll be just fine!"
Except she ran away crying...
Stork just looked at me doubtfully before he sighed in defeat, probably thinking that I was just being ignorant and not telling him the full story, which... when you think about it, I suppose its true.
Glaring at me, he stated, "Help me get the skimmers into the Condor, then" he paused as he pointed finger in my face, "You tell me what happened, got it?"
I just nodded my head, eager for Stork to get his finger away from my face.
Stork just kind of snorted before he turned around and I followed him to where the skimmers and Piper's heliscooter were parked.
He's so gonna' flip once I tell him what happened....
Piper's POV
Coming to another clearing in the jungle I crouched down in the bushes, having finally found what I had been looking for, and I wasn't overly impressed with what I saw either.
This clearing... it definitely isn't a natural one.
Looking around the compound of the Cyclonian outpost, I saw that on the far side to my right there was a large stack of trees that had been chopped down, and were waiting to be cut up and burned. It disgusted me that they would just chop down part of the jungle like this just to build a silly outpost so close to their own terra, but I wasn't one to try and understand why they did what they did. The simple answer was always 'they're Cyclonians'.
Studying the area around the outpost more, I felt a knot grow inside my stomach as I saw all of the Talons milling about.
How am I supposed to get to the others now? It's not so easy for a black panther to blend in with a crowd of Talons, and I can't really shift into anything else less noticeable because the jungle isn't as dense in this part of the terra compared to others, they'd see the flash of light - no question about that.
Coming to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to be able to get into the building without creating some type of racket, I decided I may as well just walk right out into the open, I mean, these Talons would be crazy to attack a widely feared animal, right?
Having figured out what I needed to do in order to gain entrance to the Cyclonian outpost, I began to stealthily creep from one tree to the next until I was facing the outpost once more, except on the opposite side as before, and thankfully on this side there wasn't quite as many Talons standing guard.
Alright, here goes nothing...
With a deep breath, and without another thought, I broke free of my cover and ran out into the openness of the clearing between the edge of the jungle and the building. As expected, mass chaos broke out almost instantly.
The Dark Ace's POV
To pass the time while I waited for the rest of the Storm Hawks and that 'hallucination' to come and make a pointless and fruitless attempt to rescue their friends, I spent my time walking from one cell to another.
The Wallop and the deceased Sky Knight's pet – err – co-pilot, or whatever it was supposed to be didn't speak to me at all. They had retreated into a dark corner of their cell, and I often heard whimpering whenever I walked by. I was never quite sure which one was whining though. For all I knew, it could have been both of them making that pathetic sound.
Whenever I walked by the renegade's cell though, I usually stopped for a few moments, seeing if I could get answers out of him as to why he rescued that Piper girl that the Master wanted so badly, or I'd ask him if he really thought he could replace the Storm Hawk's dead Sky Knight.
The only thing I would get from him though was a cold glare or even the cold shoulder at times when he just completely ignored my question or tried to pretend like he didn't even know I was there.
This renegade was beginning to irk me a bit. After all, this wasn't the first time I had met him. I had seen him before when I had done the daily prison inspection a month ago when we still had that Piper girl captured, and we were still blissfully unaware that the majority of the Storm Hawks had survived the fall into the Wastelands.
I knew I should've cut their parachute cords ahead of time...I figured it wouldn't matter since they were out cold and all.
I hadn't cared that he was in the same cell as her, he hadn't been a threat then, and we were running out of space in the prison because of all of our 'political prisoners'.
This was now the third time that we had captured this annoying little hooligan, and I sure wasn't going to let him slip through my fingers this time, so when a Talon rushed in saying that a Black Amazonian Panther had been spotted on the south side of the building, I began to look forward to the battle ahead.
"I've got your little shape changing friend now boy, and I'm sure that the rest of the Storm Hawks will be arriving any minute now as well." I said to the renegade in the cell in front of me before I ordered the Talon, "Make sure he doesn't escape while I go and deal with this pest."
Stork's POV
"How could the others have been captured? How could the Dark Ace be here on this terra? Why did Piper go after the others without back-up?!" I yelled at Finn from across the table on the bridge of my precious Condor.
"Calm down Stork!" Finn whined before saying, "You promised you wouldn't get mad if I told you what happened!"
I could feel my right eye begin to twitch again as my patience grew thinner and thinner with the blond sitting across from me. Forcing myself not to yell, I told Finn, "I said I wouldn't get mad, right now I am just plain annoyed. Piper didn't even tell me she was going after the others. Actually, she didn't even tell me the others were missing!" Pausing to catch my breath I looked Finn dead in the eye before I asked, "Why wouldn't I be angry?"
"Well... at least you're not mad at me." Finn said as he walked around the table towards where I stood.
Rolling my eyes, I muttered, "That hasn't been determined yet..."
Finn just shrugged his shoulders before he took out a purplish coloured crystal from his pocket.
"What's that?" I asked as I took it from his hands and began to inspect it before I added, "And where did you get it?"
"It's a message crystal Stork, and it was sort of given to Piper and I by a Cyclonian..."
"AH!" I screamed as I tossed the message crystal in Finn's direction which he was amazingly able to catch. After I wiped my hands on my pants, I turned to Finn and yelled, "Do you KNOW how many diseases they could have coated that crystal with?"
Rolling his eyes, Finn replied, "Chill out Stork, it was in a Cyclonian's pocket and hands before he gave it to us. I'm sure he wouldn't have gone near it if it was covered in diseases."
"But we're talking about Cyclonians here Finn! Their minds are twisted and backwards, I'm sure they'd let some poor Talon meet his painful doom by disease and sickness just to get us infected!"
Finn just looked at me shocked for a moment before he said to me, "Piper told me to tell you that we are to listen to the message on this crystal, and if needed, to make a plan."
"And what is this plan supposed to accomplish..." I asked Finn, hoping Piper had given him more details than that.
"I don't know, okay!" Finn replied with a frown. "But I know that we need to listen to the message in this crystal! Piper told us to!"
Since when does Finn listen to anything Piper says?
I forced myself not to roll my eyes as I nodded and said, "Let's listen to it then."
Nodding as well, Finn quickly activated the crystal and a dark sinister voice immediately filled the Condor's bridge, a voice that I'm sure anyone could've recognized in their sleep,
"Hello remaining Storm Hawks. I'm assuming that if you're listening to this, you know I've already captured two members of your squadron and that pesky renegade. Well, I regret to inform you that they are now my prisoners and there is nothing you can do about it. But if you and your little 'hallucination' of a friend feel so inclined to make a rescue attempt, do not fret, your missing friends are still on the terra. Or, if you want to make this easier on yourselves, I propose an exchange. My hostages for the shape changer or Piper, easy as that."
As the message crystal faded after the Dark Ace's recording finished playing, I kept staring at the crystal in disbelief of what I had just heard. It seemed that Finn was feeling the same way, as he muttered, "No way..."
Finally prying my eyes away from the crystal that had delivered such bad news, I looked at Finn in the eye, and we both said at the same time, "Piper's walking into a trap!"
Shaking off a bit of my initial disbelief I mumbled to myself, "Well, now we know what Piper meant about making a plan!"
Aerrow's POV
Once the Dark Ace had left, I was finally alone – if you didn't count the Talon he had left behind to guard me that is.
Unfortunately by the Dark Ace leaving, I now knew that Piper had come to rescue us, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Piper had shown up as a Black Amazonian Panther, meaning that she was still using her shape shifting abilities.
I just couldn't get out of my head what the Dark Ace had said earlier...
I hope Piper's okay, and if she is trying to rescue us, I really hope she made a plan.
While I had been lost in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that the Talon who the Dark Ace had assigned to watch me was now leaning against the bars of the door.
"May I help you?" I asked bitterly.
The Talon just chuckled as they turned around to face me. I hadn't seen this Talon before in my life, but somehow, I felt as though I knew who he was, there seemed to be something familiar about him.
The Talon just smiled at me for a moment, and just before I was about to ask them again what they wanted, a blue cloud began to form around the guard's feet. Looking on in amazement as a familiar blue cloud surrounded the Talon's body, I stood up and was soon looking into a pair of golden eyes that belonged to a face that was framed with locks of black hair.
Piper's disguise....
"Piper?" I whispered as I took a few steps closer so that soon it was only the jail bars that separated us.
Piper just smiled as she nodded her head.
"But, how?" I asked, as I finally realized that if Piper was in here, that the Dark Ace would soon be coming back inside due to the lack of a panther outside.
Piper just smiled some more as she said, "I'm a shape shifter, do I need to say anything else?"
I couldn't help but shake my head in amusement and disbelief all rolled into one before I asked, "Did you find the others yet? Junko and Radarr are in another cell somewhere."
Piper just nodded in response saying, "I've already gone to see them, and I unlocked their cell door, but I told them not to open it and try to escape until I came back with you, or until they thought it was safe."
I grinned as I said, "You thought of everything, didn't you?"
Piper just gave me a small forced smile before she said, "I guess, but none of this would have happened in the first place if I hadn't forced everyone to help me out with this mission, I should've just taken care of it myself." After saying that, Piper's eyes soon found that the cold stone floor was more interesting to look at then I was.
Wrapping my hand over Piper's that was gripping one of the metal bars I told her, "Piper, the Storm Hawks are a team, and you didn't do anything wrong. None of us knew that the Dark Ace was here on Amazonia. It's okay."
Piper looked up at me and gave me a small smile before she whispered, "Thanks Aerrow, I really needed to hear that."
I returned her smile, and was about to say more to her when I heard yelling off in the distance, and the yelling most definitely belonged to none other than the Dark Ace. Piper looked at me with desperation before she said, "Come on, we've got to get you out of here."
She began to fish around in her pocket for something with her hand that I wasn't holding, but I slipped my other arm through the bars and grabbed onto her wrist, causing her to look at me as I said, "No, we don't have time!"
"But Aerrow -" Piper began before I cut her off.
"No Piper, listen to me! The Dark Ace told me that Master Cyclonis ordered him to kill all of the Storm Hawks except for you! And it seems like me, and you, as the Amazonian Guardian, have both been lumped into the Storm Hawks category as of late."
Piper just stared at me in shock before I continued saying, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about, now go!"
Piper just looked at me before she frowned saying, "You're crazy to think I'm leaving without you Aerrow. You know that."
She began to fish around in her pocket again, and her face had lit up as I assumed she had found what she was looking for, but the look of triumph was soon replaced with a look of pain that washed over her face. Her hand left her pocket, something clasped in it, and she pressed her hand against her head as though she was fighting off a headache.
Grasping her hand that was wrapped around the jail bars tighter, I whispered, "Piper, you okay?"
Piper just shook her head no in reply.
As her face continued to show signs of the pain she was in, I heard the yelling that had been in the distance only a few moments ago now getting closer with each and every second.
Looking Piper over, I saw that the gold coloured eyes she had disguised herself with had blue energy the same colour as her crystal flitting across them.
Piper moaned as her body slipped to the floor, her eyes switching from gold, to blue, to orange, and finally they fell upon and stayed orange.
Looking up at me with an almost apologetic look in her eyes as a blue cloud began to form around her, Piper quickly slipped a cold piece of metal into my hand before the cloud began to dissipate.
"I'm sorry." Piper whispered to me as she gave me one final look of regret, before her beautiful tangerine eyes slowly slipped shut, and a few stray strands of her midnight blue hair fell onto her face.
"Piper, no..." I whispered as I clenched whatever she had given me in my one hand, my other hand still grasping hers. Looking up, I noticed with dismay that the Dark Ace had shown up, his red face showing his anger, but the smirk on his face was what I think troubled me the most.
"Well renegade, looks like you made decent bait after all." The Dark Ace told me before he motioned for two Talons that had accompanied him to pick up Piper who was passed out on the floor.
As the Talons picked Piper up off the floor, I reluctantly let go of her hand. Seeing this, The Dark Ace told me, "No need to worry about her, she'll be just fine living in Cyclonia. Right now, I'd be more worried about the fate you'll be meeting soon."
As they began to walk down the hall to who knows where, I could feel a tear begin to prick at the edge of my eye as I realized that the Dark Ace now held Piper captive, that I was unable to help, and that it was my fault that Piper had shown up here in the first place, she had come to rescue me and the others after all.
I told her that I wouldn't let anything happen to her... and I just failed to keep her safe – again.
Trying to push down my feelings of remorse, I realized that there was still hope; Piper had unlocked Junko and Radarr's cell, maybe if the Dark Ace walked past them, they'd realize they need to help, or maybe he won't walk past them at all....
I had almost given up hope when I remembered that Piper had given me something before she had passed out.
Why did she pass out anyways?
Pondering as to what the answer to my question could be, I suddenly connected the dots.
The way Piper's eyes were switching colours... that happened the first time she shifted into a Phoenix and she passed out on that terra where I had landed my skimmer! The Amp Stone must have finally taken its toll on her energy...
With even more urgency to rescue my friends, I slowly uncurled my fingers to reveal a small black metal object was what Piper had given to me.
So you had a plan after all Piper!
Dark Ace's POV
Purposefully not walking past the prison where the two Storm Hawks were being held, I led the two Talons who were dragging the Piper girl to a small interrogation room that was in the centre of the outpost.
After the Talons had taken her into the room and had tightly tied her to a chair, I shut and locked the door leaving the two Talons guard before I walked down the hall to the janitor's closet. Picking up a large bucket, I began to walk to one of the washrooms, and my thoughts wandered the whole time.
I suppose it was alright being sent here to train the Talons; I was able to capture a few Storm Hawks and that renegade after all. I think that pretty much almost made this sorry excuse of an assignment worth it, but what truly made this whole mission worth it was the look on that renegade's face when I took Piper away from him. I suppose they were friends or something.
Shrugging off my thoughts momentarily as I entered the washroom, I filled the bucket up with cold water before I headed back to the interrogation room.
What I don't get is why the girl was passed out on the floor. I guess it doesn't really matter at the moment though, I captured her, and that's all Master Cyclonis really wanted. She never said how I had to capture Piper.
Besides, there is a quick and simple remedy for waking up someone who's knocked out.
I couldn't help the sinister smile that began to spread across my face as I entered the small square room where the knocked out girl was bound to a chair. Closing the door behind me, I turned around and walked up to the unconscious teenager before me.
Without a second thought, I threw the water inside of the bucket at the girl's face.
Hearing a gasp come from her, I pulled up the other chair that was in the room, and spun it around and sat on it backwards so that I was sitting on the chair, my crossed arms resting on the back of it, my body facing the outpost's newest prisoner.
The girl looked around for a few moments, disoriented before her eyes finally fell upon me. It took her all of a few moments before she began to glare.
"So you're finally awake." I said to the girl, smirking at the surprised look I received before her face once again hardened. Continuing I asked, "What, didn't you know we found you on the floor unconscious? I bet it was the renegade that knocked you out."
Turning her face away from me, I raised one of my eyebrows as I questioned, "So he did, did he?" In response, she just glanced at me from out of the edge of her eye, the look on her face screaming defiance.
Seeing my chance to bring her silence to an end I said, "So, let me get this straight, he rescued you from a prison in the heart of Cyclonia a month ago and now he decides to hand you over to us once more?"
I noticed that the girl had closed her eyes, as though she was trying to ignore me. Getting up from my chair, I stood up and moved towards the girl before I stooped down so that I would be eye to eye with her I continued, "Or maybe he knew that he had failed. He knew that he had failed to protect you because you had come to rescue him. He failed, just like your little Sky Knight did."
What I had just said seemed to do the trick, as her eyes shot open, shooting daggers of hatred in my direction before she hissed, "Aerrow's a great Sky Knight. He would never abandon me or the others in our time of need!"
Shaking my head I roared, "Don't you see, girl?! Your Sky Knight is dead. He has been for some time now!" Bending down even further, I stuck my face near hers and whispered, "No one can help you now."
The girl and I stared at each other for a moment, trying to size the other up before the girl asked me a question that swung our 'conversation' in a new direction, "Why am I here?"
Taken aback a bit at her sudden question, I straightened up and asked her my own question, "Does it really matter?"
"Yes, I may as well know why I'm here."
When I didn't answer her right away, she asked, "Why?" her eyes boring into mine.
Replying, I told her "Master Cyclonis wanted me to capture you for her, is that a good enough answer?"
The Piper girl just continued to stare at me before saying, "If she just wants me, then why did you capture the others?"
I began to return the glare, as I didn't especially like how this teenager was speaking to me with little to no respect. "Well, if you must know, I needed them as bait to get you to come here, and now that you've shown up, they can be disposed of." I answered with a smirk.
Narrowing her eyes at what I had just said, she queried, "You mean letting them go, right?"
"Of course not," I retorted before continuing, "Master Cyclonis has ordered me to kill any Storm Hawks who cross my path except for you, so I intend to do just that."
It was now the girl who was smirking and I couldn't help but back up a bit as her eyes began to flash between their amber colour to an eerie light blue as she said, "Wrong answer."
What in the Atmos is wrong with the girl's eyes?! And what does she mean, 'wrong answer'?
Knowing that people's eyes didn't glow, I felt myself backing up further and further away from the girl until I felt my back hit the wall behind me.
This is crazy! Why am I backing up from some girl that's tied to a chair? But then again, something creepy is going on with her eyes...
Forcing myself to look at the girl's eyes once more, I noticed that they were no longer just switching between orange and blue, there was now a dark, almost black colour accompanying the others.
Closing her eyes for a moment, I noticed that there was a blue glow about her, causing me to say, "What are you..." But my voice trailed off as she opened her eyes to reveal that they were now rich mocha colour with no trace of the tangerine colour her eyes had been moments before.
Staring at me once more with an ever growing smile on her face, I was forced to close my eyes as the blue glow began to turn into a swirling light blue cloud that totally enveloped the girl, the force of the wind from the whirlwind of blue clouds was so great that it was threatening to knock me over, and was stirring up so much dust and dirt from the floor that I could feel it pelting my face.
Why do those blue clouds seem so familiar?
I only dared to open my eyes again when the wind had died down, and the sight that met my eyes made my blood run cold.
Before me where the girl had been sitting, all that remained was a few lengths of rope that had somehow been cut, and the wooden chair that she had been sitting on was knocked over and appeared to have claw marks on it.
But where did she go?
Before I even had a chance to look elsewhere, there was a flash of bright blue that I saw from the corner of my eye, and without thinking I took my sword and shot several balls of energy into the corner of the room where I had seen the flash come from.
There's no way whatever was over there could have been able to dodge that, they'll be out like a light for sure.
As I glanced triumphantly at the slowly settling dust, I couldn't help but smirk in anticipation of my victory.
So, what do you guys think of the new chapter? Good, bad, unexpected? (I bet the title ruined it for ya! :P) Oh, don't mind me, I just had pop ^.^
Anyways, a huge thanks goes out to all of those loyal and faithful reviewers out there that are still following the APAH series! Speaking of which, I'll be making a really important announcement about the APAH series at the end of this story, so keep an eye out for it ;)
Crimson Fox4
PS. I am going to finish my Christmas fic for those who are wondering, but unfortunately I haven't had anytime lately to type it up, so please be patient with me! I'll try and get it all typed out before the end of January, how's that? :P
PPS. Come check out the forum "Phoenix Fable Challenges" I know you guys will love it ;D
