Note: Ohhhhh man, it's gonna get good from here. And that last chapter ended on a final note, I'm sure, but no. There's still more to come. Yes.
As you can probably tell, I think Snipe is just the stupidest man. He really is.
I don't own Storm Hawks, just Candice and Ruel.
Chapter Nine: Broken
It had been six years since Snipe was given orders to eradicate Ruel. Six years that the stupid man spent searching. Snipe wasn't smart, but he always got the job done, no matter the cost. So far, he'd tried everything from full-frontal assaults on the Condor to going door-to-door with flyers that read "Have you seen this child?" in bright red lettering, with no results. Ruel continued to live and elude him. Dark Ace was not amused.
The child was fourteen now, and sadly had begun to look more like his father, Dark Ace, than ever before. His ebony hair grew into the same swooping spiked shape. His eyes took on the same crimson irises. He was the same height; the same build. Even his voice was similar (but lacked the accent and was a slightly nasally pitch). If not for his green skin and pointed ears, it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference between them. He'd also begun referring to Stork as a surrogate father ("Dad!") in place of Dark Ace, and Stork accepted this. He understood that this boy would grow up without a proper paternal figure otherwise, which of course led to a life of debauchery and crime. He didn't want that to happen. So he learned to respond when Ruel called him "Dad". This was one of those times.
"Hey Dad, when can I fly the Condor?"
"When Sky Sharks fly out of my ass." Stork responded monotonously, as if he'd rehearsed. Ruel tended to ask to fly the ship a lot. Silly boy.
"Aw, come on! I'm almost old enough. I know how!"
"No." Stork said bluntly. "I'm not letting a fourteen year old get me killed. I've lived through way too much to die so pathetically."
"I won't crash it!"
"Bullshit. I've seen what you did to Finn's skimmer. You're not getting near these controls."
"It was Junko's fault!"
Junko gave him a look and a "hey!"
"But Daaaaaaad!" Ruel pouted, making him look like an overgrown child. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stalked away, probably to go play some practical joke on Radarr.
Candice came walking in, and noticed Ruel walking out.
"He ask for the Condor again?"
"Every Wednesday."
"Today is Friday."
"Oh, well, he's a bit slow this week, isn't he?" Stork replied jokingly. Suddenly the entire Condor was rocked by an explosion. Piper came screeching in.
"Snipe's out there with at least six battalions of Talons! He's heading for a full frontal attack!"
"Again?" Stork asked. "Which way?"
"About half a mile off the starboard bow!" Stork looked in that direction and true, Snipe led an army-and-a-half towards them. Aerrow came tearing in, with a pudding-covered Radarr on his shoulder. Ruel took up the rear, snickering to himself.
"Storm Hawks, battle stations!" Aerrow cried, pointing in Snipe's general direction. Stork yanked the wheel to face the battalions.
"Jesus, that's a lot of Talons." He commented.
"Junko, Finn, and Ruel, you three are with me. Piper and Candice, I need you on the blasters. Stork, you keep driving. Just... try not to die."
"Oh, I feel safe." Stork replied sarcastically. Piper nodded at Aerrow and ran towards the blaster on the left. Candice ran to the one on the right, and they began aiming. Junko, Finn, and Ruel ran after Aerrow into the hangar bay.
The battle was fierce. Ruel managed to hold his own for a good long while, until Snipe managed to slice his skimmer in half. "Aw man." Ruel got out before dropping like a rock, landing hard, crotch first on Finn's skimmer.
"Yelp!" Ruel squeaked. Finn laughed.
"Better you than me, dude!" He joked, getting an icy red glare in return. Ruel positioned himself and pulled Finn's crossbow from the back of his pants.
"Whoa, hey! Watch the hands back there!" Finn said.
"Sorry." Ruel aimed high over Finn's shoulder and shot the arrow off, striking Snipe's skimmer. It sputtered and stopped, leaving him dead in the air.
Ruel dropped the bow on the seat and jumped out, and almost caught onto Snipe's skimmer to punch him when a blast echoed from the Condor behind him.
"Dad!" Ruel turned around, his parachute activating.
Stork felt the explosion and tried desperately to keep the Condor steady, but the control panel was shot.
"Damn it!" He called back over his shoulder to Piper and Candice at the blasters. "We got no steering! This is gonna be rough! Keep firing!"
Snipe jumped out of his dead skimmer to catch Ruel. He activated his parachute so he wouldn't plummet to his death.
"I finally found you, you little half-breed toad!" He said.
"Get off of me!" Ruel struggled, kicked, and scratched at Snipe, even managing to pierce one of Snipe's eyes with his fingernails (which were kept long and sharp, much to his mother's chagrin), blinding that eye permanently and causing a squirt of blood and eye jelly to blow outwards.
"ARGH!" Snipe let go of Ruel, leaving him floating. Snipe brought his hands to his face in pain, giving an unholy roar of "I'M BLIND!"
Finn swooped in and rescued Ruel before Snipe remembered that he still had another eye to work with. Ruel wiped the blood off his nose and mouth and nodded.
Soon Snipe called a retreat and the remaining Talons limped away in their skimmers.
Stork still didn't have control, and the Condor was falling fast. He pulled and yanked on the wheel but no response. The others got into the control room and immediately got to work fixing the problem before they all became just another bloodstain on a Terra wall.
Stork had no choice. " Oh, I so don't want to do this... Ruel!" he called.
"Yeah, Dad?"
"Get over here! Take the controls while I work on the wiring!"
"But you said--"
"Forget what I said and listen to what I'm saying now! Take the damn controls! I have to fix the wiring! Try to steer away from anything that looks painful!"
Ruel half- fanboy-squealingly, half- seriously took the controls and yanked back hard, trying to level out the ship while Stork ducked down below his knees and began tearing out wires and re-hooking them in different places. Finally he got a spark and Ruel pulled back on the wheel again, and this time the Condor leveled out and narrowly missed a stalactite that would have torn the ship in twain.
Stork stood up, which caused Ruel to rise with him and end up sitting on his shoulders.
"Whoa- oh!" Ruel exclaimed, swinging his hands down and holding onto Stork's hair for balance.
"Good job driving, Ruel!"
"Um, thanks Dad, but could you put me down? You know I'm not the biggest fan of heights." Stork put Ruel back down on the floor. Ruel let out an involuntary shiver of relief. Aerrow laughed.
"So, Ruel, was it you that poked out Snipe's eye?" Aerrow asked.
"Yep! His depth perception is gonna be all off. He couldn't hit a barn door now!"
"When he does figure it out, he's gonna be real pissed, dude." Finn interjected.
"Snipe's way too stupid." Ruel spat, giving Finn an icy glare that withered him and caused him to back up behind Aerrow. Candice came forward.
"Finn's right, Ruel. When Snipe comes back he'll be out for blood."
Ruel broke down in a fit of tears and rage.
"Then let him take it! Isn't that what you want?" He snapped.
"What are you talking about, Ruel?"
"I've seen the way you look at me when you think I don't notice. You hate me. You look at me and all you see is Dark Ace. I know that there's nothing you'd want more than to see me gone, just like Jussell. You say you love me, but when I look in your eyes all I see is despair and hate. So when Snipe comes back, just let me go. Isn't that what you want, Mom?"
"Of course not! I--"
"Save your breath!" Ruel snapped hotly, walking out. Candice looked at Stork desperately.
"I don't hate my son. I don't!"
Stork merely nodded. "Sometimes your eyes say things about you that your voice won't say. You might not hate your son, but you can't deny how much you remember who his father is every time you lay eyes on him."
"But I love my son so much."
"I know, as do we all. But Ruel is a teenager and I guess he's just a bottled-up mess of hormones and emotions right now."
"Go talk to him." Stork responded before turning his back to take the wheel.
Candice ran out, and eventually found Ruel standing on the very roof of the Condor, overlooking the cloud cover below.
"Honey?"
"Don't call me that. Leave me alone."
"Honey, Stork just taught me something very special that I think I need to share with you."
"Think again." He asked coldly. Candice ignored him.
"He told me that although I know full well how much I love you, I can't deny that you do look just like your father."
"Dark Ace may have been my biological father but he's not my father now. Stork is. He takes care of me like a father should. Dark Ace isn't my father."
"Please, honey. Let me finish. I guess when I look at you I do see Dark Ace in you, but only on the outside. You're nothing like him. You're cheerful, and kind, and loving. Dark Ace is cruel, and angry, and sadistic."
"Look at my face, Mom." Ruel flipped around to look at his mother. "Listen to my voice. I am Dark Ace. I look like him. I sound like him. God dammit, I fight like him. I breathe the same air, speak the same language. Mom, I couldn't be any more like him."
"But you couldn't be any less, either. You're two different people. And anyway, you don't look exactly like him."
"Yeah. My skin is green. All Dark Ace needs to do is go out as Frankenstein for Halloween and there you go."
"Stop talking like that. I will always be able to tell you apart."
"Just leave me alone, Mom. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to be anywhere anymore if it means that all my friends and family are going to get hurt because of me." Ruel turned his back once again.
"But no one is hurt."
"It's only a matter of time. Did you not see the size of that army back there? Mom we could have all been killed. And it would have all been my fault."
"Please, stop! Stop talking like this, Ruel, you're scaring me!" Candice embraced Ruel from behind, holding him and shaking as she cried. Ruel didn't seem to notice. In fact, he pushed her off.
"I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't let you or anyone else get hurt because of me anymore. This is for the best." Ruel stepped up, close to the edge of the Condor.
"Ruel, get down from there!"
Even as the whole Condor came to a shuddering stop, Ruel stood there on the edge. He put one foot over the edge...
Suddenly a dark green form tackled Ruel from the side, to the ground.
"Oh, no you don't!" Stork cried as he restrained Ruel, who was now screaming and shouting, struggling to be let go. He clawed at Stork's eyes like he had Snipe's, only Stork thought ahead and had a pair of high-density goggles on.
"Ruel, what do you think you're doing?!" He cried, straddling the boy and pinning him to the floor.
"I'm doing what should have been done a long time ago! Don't you see? This is the best for all of you!"
"But is it the best for you?!" Stork replied, shaking Ruel so he bopped his head off the floor once.
"Fuck me! I'm not important!" Ruel swore loudly, still struggling.
"If you weren't important, would they be trying to kill you?!" Stork asked desperately, tightening his grip on Ruel's shoulders.
"I...I..." Ruel stammered.
"Exactly!" Stork let Ruel get up. Ruel stammered and then, finally, broke down in tears, falling to his knees. Stork knelt down and held him, patting him on the back.
"I'm sorry, Dad, I'm so sorry."
"I know, Ruel. Come on back inside." But Ruel didn't.
"No, I'm sorry I have to do this!" Ruel broke free of Stork's grip and ran to the edge of the Condor before jumping straight off.
"RUEL!!!!" Stork and Candice shouted in unison.
But all was well. Piper came flying out from the hangar bay on her Heliscooter, catching Ruel as he plummeted.
"No, Piper! Let me go! I wanted to fall!" Piper would hear none of it and flew up to Stork and Candice to show them Ruel was alright. Piper had a tight hold on Ruel's belt, not letting the teen go anywhere.
Later, Aerrow had to literally strap Ruel down to the sofa to stop him from trying to jump off again.
"What is your problem? Don't you see I'm dangerous? Let me go so I can fall! I don't want to hurt you!" Ruel was practically frothing at the mouth trying to escape.
"Losing you would be the worst pain we could ever endure." Aerrow said simply. "It doesn't matter to us whether or not you look like Dark Ace, or if we get attacked by him and Snipe every single day for the rest of eternity. We're the Storm Hawks, and we leave no man, or Merb, or combination thereof, behind." Aerrow finished. Ruel ceased his struggling.
"But I understand your paranoia, Ruel. You're afraid that if we get killed, you'll have to live with the crushing guilt."
"I don't want to see anyone hurt anymore."
"Losing you would be the worst pain we could ever endure." Aerrow repeated.
"Really?"
"We all love you. We're your family now." Aerrow released the straps holding Ruel down. "So let Uncle Aerrow here help you out." Aerrow grinned.
"Okay..." Ruel said.
"You promise not to try to commit suicide again?"
"I promise, as long as you promise me something."
"Name it."
"Even when I say I'm fine, always keep nagging me to tell you my problems. Otherwise they'll just build up and make me do something this stupid once again."
"I promise." Aerrow put his hand on Ruel's shoulder, only to get tackled in a hug in return. Aerrow returned the hug, ready to help a troubled teen with any problem. He let go. "Now come on. I think your mom and dad want to talk to you." Aerrow said.
End Chapter
NO I AM NOT DONE YET.
