I really wanted this chapter to come out a lot sooner, but little things becomes major things and stop all your side stuff. Anyway, time to catch up to the Storm Hawks, or whats left of them anyway, as they try to survive on an enemy terra. Remember, events here take place before the events in the last chapter.


Heart of Darkness...Into The Maw of Madness

Aerrow, Junko, Radarr, and Finn now found themselves racing across the craggy and sharp edged surface of Terra Cyclonia. The were searching for any kind of cover they could use to keep them out of sight until they could form a plan. Aerrow was in front of the other two, looking around for both any sign of Talons and suitable cover. He paused for a moment to look back at what had once been his home.

It lay there, the two main pontoons smashed in from the head first crash into the terra. Everything about it look more dented and broken than it had been since he and his friends had first found it and worked to put it back in the sky where it belonged. Smoke rose out of various points of the ship, adding even more to its already desperate appearance.

Finn came up beside him and put his hand on Aerrow's shoulder. "Dude, we can't stop now."

Aerrow let a small sigh as he took a final look at the remains of his home. He turned around and began to pick up the pace towards a small cave that he could see off in the distance. It had a large outcropping above it that would keep it out of sight from anyone looking down from the citadel overhead. It would have to do till they could figure out the next move.

As they got closer to the cave though, Aerrow noticed it looked less and less like a cave. It was perfectly round and seemed more like it had been cut into the side of the rock. Approaching it now, he could see metal all round the edges of the opening. He stepped up to the opening and peered inside to get a better look. All that he could see was metal all along the round walls, and it extended far and at an angle going down out sight.

He turned to look at his team. "Any thoughts guys?"

Junko got closer and took a look. "I'd say it's an exhaust shaft for one of the crystal reactors that power this place."

"More like did." Finn chimed in. "Stryker's little present took care of that."

"Ya." Junko said as he steeped away from the opening. "We wouldn't even be able get close to this if it were on with all the super heated air being pumped out."

Aerrow started thinking about how they could use this, and he already had the beginnings of a plan floating in his head. "Alright, Here's what we're gonna do." He looked at his friends to make sure he had their attention before he continued. "We're going to go down this exhaust shaft and infiltrate the base. We look for anything useful, who knows, maybe not all energy crystals were sucked dry by that wave. We might be able to..."

Finn interrupted him before he could continue. "We might be able to what? Get some crystals together, repair the Condor, and fly happily back home?" He gave Aerrow a look that showed his disdain at Aerrow's plan. "We are in the middle of Cyclonia with no working weapons. We are down all our skimmers, The Condor and two friends."

"We don't know that for sure yet Finn. They could have gotten off the Condor before it crashed." Aerrow retorted, his voice betrayed him though as it lacked it's usual confident tone.

"We are all watching Aerrow! Neither of them jumped off!" Finn was yelling now, the desperateness of the situation starting to wear on him. "Their gone, and sorry to sound like Stork here, but we are as good as doomed!"

"I'm just trying to do something Finn!" Aerrow yelled out, his voice cracked a little as he yelled, tears could be seen forming in the corners of his eyes. He quickly wiped his eyes before continuing. "Listen, that field, whatever it was, wiped out power on our ship and everything around it. But it didn't look like it covered all of Cyclonia. There may be some workable crystals left further in. If we get some, we can take some skimmers and fly out of here."

It was Junko's turn to voice a concern. "What about all the Talons inside?"

Aerrow thought for a second then continued. "I'm pretty sure their all scrambling around a bit confused about what to do. If we just get some disguises we can just blend in. Everyone will be to busy trying to get things working again to notice us."

Finn was still skeptical. "But what if we don't find any crystals?"

"I don't know Finn." Aerrow confessed, he still sounded confident but his face showed his worry. "I'm already grasping at straws with this plan. And it's better than sitting out here for however long it takes for some to either rescue or capture us. So..." Aerrow looked at his friends, confidence now showed on his face again. "You guys up for this?"

Radarr was the first to chime in, giving an affirming chirp as he jumped to perch on Aerrow's shoulders.

Junko cracked his knuckles. "Like you said, it's better than standing around doing nothing." A loud grumble sounded from Junko's stomach. "Besides, maybe we'll find something to eat while we're in there."

Finn let out a sigh as he looked Aerrow in the eye. "You know I'm in Bro." He clapped his hand on Aerrow's shoulder. His usually cocky smile spreading across his face "Like I would actually let you guys go in there with The Finn-ster to help bail you out when you get into trouble."

Aerrow let a smile cross his own face, then turned to look at the next problem at hand, the exhaust pipe. "So all we gotta do is follow this pipe down into a powered down reactor, hoping it stays that way long enough for us to infiltrate enemy territory. We will be surrounded on all sides by enemies who hopefully won't notice us because of needing to deal with their own problems. We get in find something we can use the get out again. Simple right?" He looked at his friends, they all had nervous looks on their faces.

Finn finally broke the tension. "So who wants to go in first?"

"Guess that would be me." Aerrow said as he stepped into the opening of the pipe."Remember guys, when we get in there and get disguises on, act like your confused and panicked."

"Trust me." Finn said as he followed Aerrow into the pipe. "I don't think that will be a problem."

Junko followed next with Radaar scurrying around their feet.

They began to make their way down the shaft, light slowly fading around them as they got farther from the opening. Aerrow's mind was filled with thoughts of how this could go wrong, how it could go right. But, mostly his thoughts kept going back to one thing. His two friends who had still been on the Condor when it crashed. He hoped Finn was wrong. he hoped they had made it off in time and that they were okay.

He had no way of knowing just how wrong he was, and how much worse the situation was going to get.


So they we are, short chapter I know, but I felt i needed to get something out there before you all forgot about me. Anyway, hope to get some good, or bad, reviews. Any are welcome. Till next time.