I want to to say thanks to Dark Knightress and Unleash The Shadow for keeping with the previous chapters, everyone loves reviews.
The characters, settings (Burn, Tidal and Palm belong to me) and everything included in Storm Hawks is copyright to Asaph Fipke and Nerd Corps.
The characters such as Sigma Maxilos, Zados and Crow etc belong to me. Plus certain crystals were made up. (I can finally copy and paste it!)
Love in Lords and Crystals
Chapter 6
Encounters
"You shouldn't be too hard on Piper, she's had it rough the last few days" said Aerrow, Finn just sat and frowned.
"Remember Lark?" Finn kept his eyes away from Aerrow's.
"But this is Sigma Maxilos of the Interceptors!" Aerrow exclaimed.
"I've never heard of him" Finn said stubbornly. Aerrow sighed.
"That's because they've been dead for a couple of years" he said.
"He and Starling were unlucky survivors" said Stork..
"Come on guys, this is a time to celebrate! We're re-united!" said Junko, Aerrow nodded.
"I say we celebrate on Terra Saharr, and welcome in our new friend" Junko cheered, but Finn just walked off.
"Come on Buddy, you love barbeques!" said Junko. The door slammed behind Finn.
"Maybe he's jealous" said Stork, turning to face the windscreen. Aerrow looked at Radarr anxiously.
The Condor approached Terra Saharr. It landed quickly and stopped. The ramp dropped and everyone stepped out.
"Master Cyclonis, The ships have been prepared; we depart for Terra Atmosia immediately!" said Dark ace as he ran into the throne room.
"How is the crystal?" asked Cyclonis, the moment when she trapped Aerrow was still fresh in her mind.
"Better than ever, we eradicated 2 uncharted terras" Cyclonis smiled.
"Then we-" An explosion tore through the throne room knocking the two of them back, the ceiling of the room was smashed. A cloaked figure appeared holding a staff above, Dark ace fired at it but it was too fast. It aimed the staff at Cyclonis and shot, without her weapon, Cyclonis had no protection. Dark ace leapt in front of her, he was struck in the shoulder and sent flying into Cyclonis. She took a moment to realise what was going on and looked up at the spot where the mystery rider had been, but it was gone. She looked down at Dark Ace, who was breathing heavily beside her.
"You saved me" said Cyclonis emotionlessly.
"Anything for you" He coughed, Master Cyclonis ran a hand down his face, a moment later the talons arrived.
"Master, are you ok?" asked one of them, they all gasped when she pointed to Dark ace. Three helped him away and one remained with Cyclonis but she dismissed him.
"Ravess, search the area for that assassin" said Cyclonis when Ravess stepped past.
"Yes Master" she ran off.
"How dare they!" Cyclonis growled as she inspected the damage. Ravess took 6 Talons to patrol the borders of Cyclonia, they were lucky enough to find the assassin.
"Get back here!" She called, the cloaked assassin didn't oblige. Ravess took an arrow from her quiver and aimed it at the assassin. She shot but the cloaked one shielded it. She made a formation with the talons and accelerated in for a chase. The cloaked assassin slowed down so her could fly alongside her.
"Who are you?" she asked. The cloaked person took their hood off. It was a man around Sigma's age. He had very short, grey hair and red eyes.
Ravess reached for an arrow but he hit her bow away, she jumped up and swept at him, but he was just as fast on his feet as in the air. The talons jumped at him but he leapt back onto his skimmer and used a Nitro crystal to speed away.
"Dude, where's the race?" asked Finn, he watched a tumbleweed roll by.
"Majorly weird" said Piper, the desert where the camp should be was empty.
"It's deserted, get it?" said Finn, he elbowed Piper jokily.
"There must be some logical explanation" said Aerrow.
"Stand back to back" said Stork.
"Something weird is going on…" Aerrow began to walk back up to the condor when he heard a familiar voice.
"Everyone is busy" it said, Aerrow turned around to see Starling standing with everyone else.
"Good to see someone else" said Aerrow, as he went to greet her, Piper dashed up to the condor. Maxilos was fitting a symbol plate on his back to match everyone else. Piper ran into his room.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, Piper hadn't thought about the Storm hawks rare team-ups with Starling.
"It's-" Piper said slowly.
"Wait, I here a voice" Maxilos opened the window and saw the team chatting with Starling.
"It's her" he said calmly. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and began to leave.
"No! Sigma you can't!" Piper exclaimed.
"I've waited two years for this day" He stepped past her and walked calmly to the exit ramp.
"Hey look, it's everyone's favourite sky knight!" He yelled. He pointed his Striker crystal loaded sword at Starling. She raised a brow.
"Sigma?" she asked. Aerrow looked at them with a puzzled look.
"Ok hold on, what's going on?" he asked, Maxilos glanced at him, then back at Starling.
"I…" Starling was speechless; Piper ran down from the condor and stood next to Aerrow.
"You abandoned me" said Maxilos, Starling frowned.
"We had to return to Terra Mesa, the Raptors were invading" she exclaimed.
"Bullshit, I never heard anything about that"
"I was the only survivor of the battle" said Starling sadly.
"Great so while I was sitting under an umbrella in Neon, you were off having a little fight with Repton. Well thanks for breaking the news two years later" Maxilos gave a fake smile.
"It's the truth!" said Aerrow. Maxilos un-charged his weapon and kicked the sand.
"You have this way of always making me feel better" said Maxilos sarcastically.
"Well it wasn't just bad for you! How do you think I felt? You were nowhere to be found on Neon. You were my only friend in the whole world and you were gone too!" Starling found herself staring face to face with him, both of them had furious but slightly upset looks. Piper and Aerrow glanced at eachother.
"It was never about me, it was just about Zados" said Maxilos. Starling clenched her fists.
"What's Zados got to do with this? It was just about me and you, Sigma!"
"That was until Repton appeared" Maxilos grunted and walked back towards the condor.
"We can sort this out" said Aerrow, Starling just stared at the ground.
"I must go" she jumped on her skimmer and took one more look at Maxilos before he disappeared into the condor. She wiped a tear from her eyes and drove away.
"What do we do now?" asked Junko.
Dark ace lay in the Cyclonian hospital wing, his wound was bandaged but it still throbbed from the pain.
"Excuse me sir, do you need anything?" asked a talon, Dark ace grit his teeth and got out of the bed, but he winced when he stood up. He clutched the bandage and breathed heavily. The talon helped him back down but he hit him away.
"I want to find that bastard!" Dark ace exclaimed.
"Ravess tried to take him down, but he escaped" said the talon. Dark ace wiped his face.
"Excuse me" said Master Cyclonis, the talon turned round to see her standing in the entrance. The talon bowed and left the two of them alone. Cyclonis came over and stood beside him, her darkness blended against the white walls and ceiling.
"You're injury will keep you here for some time, so I have sent for a stand-in" Dark ace sighed.
"So now I've been replaced?" he asked, Cyclonis looked at the bandage.
"No, But I need skilled warriors to patrol the area around the empire, I have sent word to 17 terras" said Cyclonis.
"What if they don't oblige?" asked Dark ace.
"I will destroy them" she said, she took the Cranium crystal from her pocket.
"Why not just enslave Terra Atmosia and demand that they give their finest warriors or they die?" he asked, Cyclonis frowned. "Because I'm assembling the fleet, I sent Snipe back to Terra Minium to design more carriers" said Cyclonis, Dark ace nodded.
"You really trust Snipe to design good carriers?" Dark ace attempted to get up, but his wound hurt too much. Cyclonis noticed him struggling and changed the subject.
"I will find a healing crystal, but for now, you must stay here. I will have Ravess to guard me" Cyclonis began to walk out when she stopped at the door.
"Oh and Dark ace, Why did you save me?" she asked; Dark ace exhaled.
"I swore to protect you" he said, she turned to face him.
"Why did you really save me?" she added before leaving Dark ace to think about his answer, he realised what she meant, but he said nothing.
In the next chapter: Cyclonis gets some new allies and the winds of war begin to blow.
