I do not own Storm Hawks! Thanks to angel on wings for leaving two hiccups! Dunno if I'll get to them this chapter or the next right now….Turns out, I'll have to use your suggestion in the next chapter. But thanks for leaving two I certainly would never have thought of it!
On with the story!
Aerrow heard the hiss of the staff extending, and lunged for the side.
Dark Ace clapped from the sidelines and ended the training.
"Now, can anyone tell me how they've improved?"
Piper groaned. "I thought I had greased this staff."
Aerrow stretched, coming out of his tumble. "I didn't turn around to see what was behind me and just jumped."
"Exactly. Part of why I knocked you out once was because for some reason you had to look behind you instead of just acting. The reaction cost you valuable time. If you had stayed down, Master Cyclonis would be ruling the Terras by now. Piper, greasing your staff isn't the problem here. You have a lose piece."
"What? Where?"
Cyclonis rolled her eyes from where she was working on editing the film footage. Leave it to Dark Ace to turn everything into a lecture.
It had been three days since she was able to move around, and she was so glad that she only had a swollen ankle.
Finn was miserable. He could barely remain coherent now, and was continually napping. Junko was scared Finn was dying.
Cyclonis bit her lip. Without her crystals, there wasn't anything she could do on her own. All she could do was attract crystals in her staff to her, or use a hidden crystal to blow up a bolt headed at her.
Setting her completed work to the side, she stretched her upper body. Aerrow caught the motion out of the corner of his eye.
Realizing what he saw, he turned around, blushing furiously.
Piper hid a yawn behind her hand and yawned hugely, stretching her arms out and putting her chest forward. Aerrow sent his gaze up, his ears turning red.
Dark Ace wished the two girls would stop teasing the poor boy and have a little mercy.
If Aerrow didn't break soon, Dark Ace was going to be convinced the younger Sky Knight was straight as a synovial graph.
Sighing, he told the Storm Hawks to hit the showers and headed over to Cyclonis. Stork was sitting near her, convinced that she was doing something with the film that would attract flesh eating mites, or something.
"Ugh, who ever got a shot into your defense is, I'm just not seeing it." He groaned. Cyclonis had told him yesterday that once, a Storm Hawk was very close to actually harming her with their amazing reflexes and not stopping to think.
He'd been kept busy trying to figure out who had defeated him and come so close to harming his Master.
Cyclonis hid her smirk into the editing screen. She never said that the person in question had ever defeated Dark Ace. In fact, he never had.
Cyclonis saved her progress and proceeded to enter a new sequence. The film had gone along beautifully, and chances were, they could have a solid hour movie flick.
Realizing that Master Cyclonis was ignoring him, Dark Ace rose and left to get some hot chocolate. Trying to figure out who it was was giving him a headache.
Finn groaned and mumbled on the couch. Junko glanced at him, and then proceeded to wipe his brow with the damp cloth. He'd been excused from training as Dark Ace didn't need to put all the Storm Hawks out of commission. Just train them to find out who had nearly hurt his Master while he observed the progress of their skill.
In other words, he was going mad while wrestling with the problem.
Stork glanced into Cyclonis' face.
"You know, Finn got like that once, but at least his puzzle was a physical manifestation."
Cyclonis grinned at him.
She remembered the breathless speed with which Finn had gone from 'busted' to firing at her. All he did was have Junko turn around, and then she was in the sights of his weapon.
Never before was she so glad to have a crystal hidden up her sleeve. There was no time to mount a defense, just attack the bolt, and then, him.
She had no eyes for the Wallop. He was just a stair step to the blonde kid on his shoulders. The only thing that really bothered Cyclonis now was that when Finn had shot at her, rather than the bolt flying at an angle into her head, it was flat and level with the floor and headed to her breast.
She frowned. By all the laws of Physics, that should not have happened.
Of course, anyone watching her would presume that she was frowning at the editing.
Dark Ace sighed, and ran through the battles he had fought against the Storm Hawks while nursing his hot chocolate. He finally decided that aerial combat was out of the question. Master Cyclonis would just levitate herself, so roughly sixty percent of all the battles he had ever fought against the Storm Hawks became invalid and useless information for determining who the mysterious person was.
That left hand to hand combat. Dark Ace scowled into his hot chocolate. The only person he had ever actually taken time to cross blades with was Aerrow. But the one time he fought against Master Cyclonis, he had been there to quietly circle around and take him out.
Perhaps it was Piper? There was a strong resemblance between her and the towel girl she had fought at the wrestler's match.
How he had been absent from that social mishap he still had no idea. All he knew was that he had returned and defeated how many wrestlers to save Master Cyclonis from being caught by them? Was it ten? He hadn't bothered counting.
And then Master Cyclonis had insisted on getting them out of their hypnosis state and sending them home, salvaging what dignity she had left.
"Is your hot chocolate okay? You've been making a lot of faces at it." Dark Ace looked up to see the Wallop staring at him.
"No, I was just thinking."
"Oh, okay. Usually when Finn doesn't want to hog the mirror in the bathroom he finds another reflective surface to practice on."
Dark Ace filed that under a list of taunts to never use.
Finn could be scary when he wanted to. He also- Dark Ace paused. He thought back over the battles he had fought, and the times he had been absent from Cyclonis' side.
She had trapped the marksman and the Wallop inside of the storm machine while he had been gone….
"Junko, did Finn ever attack Master Cyclonis?"
Junko felt his ears prick. He settled his weight so that he could leap between Dark Ace and Finn while he pretended to think about his answer.
"Well, there was the time you stole the Atmos beacon and he nearly shot her when we got caught….why?"
Dark Ace stood up, stormed over to Cyclonis, and announced-
"The only Storm Hawk to come close to killing you was Finn, wasn't it?"
Aerrow and Piper, returning from their showers (separately, people, notice the plural) stopped where they were walking by.
What was going on?
"Ding ding ding, give the man a prize, he figured it out. Yes, Finn is the only one to ever come close to doing me actual harm. Would you like another puzzle to keep you occupied?"
She asked the last piece like one asks a dog if they wanted another cookie for being good. Dark Ace got the feeling that if she had written the riddles on a piece of paper, she would be waving it in his direction, like a doggie biscuit just out of reach of the dog sitting there.
"….not right now, thanks."
Dark Ace slunk off to find something other than his bored master to amuse himself with. As it was, Piper was creeping up on her.
"Bodily harm? When was this?"
"Oh, the first time you snuck into Terra Cyclonia. He probably doesn't brag about it because he was then trapped in the storm generator. But the time I tried to get you to join doesn't count, all you did was break a prototype crystal."
Piper leaned in close to Cyclonis and wrapped her arms around her from behind.
"I remember there being some emotional damage." She murmured into Cyclonis' ear.
Stork decided the brain eating mites could be left alone to escape whatever new disease was causing Piper and Cyclonis to act weirdly.
Once he figured out what, he would be back to combat it.
Aerrow sent Junko away to rest and amuse himself while he watched over Finn. It was so quiet without Finn running around and being loud. It was oppressive. Dark, gloomy, he felt trapped.
He ran a hand through Finn's hair, careful of the bump.
Maybe if he was paying more attention, that soap wouldn't have been on the ground. Then Finn wouldn't have hit his head and be out of commission. If he had just been paying more attention…
Dark Ace pressed a cup of hot chocolate into his hand.
"Thinking like that isn't going to help. And yes, it's a fresh cup." He pulled a chair over, and sat down.
"It wasn't your fault, and you should know better than to blame yourself. It never fixes anything and just wastes your time."
Aerrow nodded. "I just…I feel like the walls are closing in. Finn's sleeping way too much, and it's so quiet."
"Don't you have peaceful days on the Condor? I know you take impromptu vacations in between missions."
Aerrow rolled his eyes. Of course the Cyclonians spied on them. That or Dark Ace was very good at guessing.
"Even when we aren't under attack, there's the constant hum of the Condor around us. We even play music on our days off. Finn loves to mess with us when we play any music he doesn't like. It really irks us. So finally, he decides to have his cake and eat it too. He rigs up another needle, and plays both his and Piper's music at the same time. I went up the wall listening to them, before I noticed that the music oddly synched together."
Dark Ace nodded and looked at a point between Finn and Aerrow, keeping his eyes drifting between one and the other.
Hey, when someone needed to just talk, looking like an observant listener was usually for the best.
"And then Stork missed the off button and switched Finn's on to the bass enhancer and cut the volume for his record to half. That was beautiful to listen to. Even Piper agreed. Finn rarely messed with our music by changing it to something else after that."
Aerrow smiled affectionately at his wingman. "I just want him to wake up and be okay."
Dark Ace sighed in his head. This had horrible implications for what he saw earlier. Maybe Aerrow was bisexual? Or just worried about his marksman.
Dark Ace sipped his hot chocolate, to hide the bulge his eyes made when he recalled how he had phrased that last thought.
His marksman?
Geez, he really needed a distraction- why, hello.
"Was that there earlier?" He nudged Aerrow with the hand holding the hot chocolate cup and pointed.
"Hmm?" Aerrow said. He was glad that he wasn't actually drinking when Dark Ace got his attention, otherwise he would need another shower.
His hot chocolate was still hot, and Dark Ace's had seemed to somehow get to the comfortable warm but not cool drinking temperature.
Aerrow looked over, and nearly jumped. It was a record player! But- how?
Aerrow motioned for Dark Ace to stay with Finn and wondered over to the player, reaching up for his dagger….and finding he was in civilian clothes. He really hated that switch. He must have changed out and left his clothes and the armor to be washed and polished after the training.
Cursing his foresight for being limited to not needing to fight, he approached the record player cautiously. There were no crystals to power it, but there was a reflective surface that was dark and glossy and looked a little like ink when it was fresh and applied to paper.
The record player wasn't on, and there was a rack of records attached to the side. One of the records had the word STYX on it.
Shrugging, Aerrow turned around and waved to Dark Ace that it didn't look like the record player was some sort of bomb.
"This happened too when the pool was made." Piper looked over the record player. "Remember? We woke up to find that the pool had chairs and toys added to it."
"Yeah, but none of us was asleep when this showed up from nowhere and there was no pre-existing need for it." Stork chimed in. He was waving some sort of device around it, and so far was muttering off diseases and parasites from a mental checklist as the record player continued to be clean.
Cyclonis wheeled herself around the player.
"It doesn't run on crystals. What does it run on? Perhaps I can take it apart and-"
"But there aren't any places to take it apart. The buttons are all inset and the framing is solid." Junko observed.
"Did you look under it? A lot of times you can hide flaws in an otherwise perfect machine just by how you show it off." Cyclonis seemed to hiss darkly at that statement.
Dark Ace rolled his eyes. He had told Snipe that the equipment shouldn't go there, but noooo, the burly man just had to do things his way.
Junko lifted the record player up.
"Nope. Solid."
Cyclonis pouted. She wanted into the contraption because she was curious, not because she thought it might have a clue on how to heal Finn. After all, crystals powered many objects, and many crystals had secondary powers if they were worked just right, so what was powering the record player?
Piper sighed. "Well, let's presume that it's our mysterious benefactor and pick something to play."
She selected the STYX record and put it on.
The songs were odd. There were words to them. They were long, too. But the silence was driven back and Aerrow found that actually liked some of the songs.
Then the word 'domo' split through the silence.
Domo arigatou, Mister Roboto,
Domo (domo) Domo (domo)
Domo arigatou, Mister Roboto
Finn twitched. The music was odd, and but he was responding to it. The music made no sense to them. Why would Finn want to be called Kill Roy? At least, that's what it sounded like. Finn groaned and sat up.
"Are we on Vapos?" He struggled to his feet. Aerrow held out a hand to help him steady himself. "No, we just found some music you might like." He brought Finn over to the record player. His eyes were vacant and he wasn't even looking at the record player.
"Dude, I don't feel good." The static from the player filled the room. More on memory than any desire to listen to the music, Finn's hands slipped over the edge of the player and turned it over.
"My head is killing me-" he started to say as he set the record down, and then Finn and the player disappeared.
Vanished.
Right in front of them.
The rest of the day was spent in shock, and no one slept that night. The next morning, Piper screamed. She was clutching the picture from the Storm Hawks team day that they had. Stork was terrified because he thought the camera was going to trap his soul in there. Piper reassured him that the only thing it was trapping was a sense of time and that they were going to keep the picture.
Finn had vanished from the picture. She collapsed, sobbing. This was terrifying and no one knew how to combat it. Cyclonis wheeled herself over and picked up the dropped picture.
Damnit, if only she had her crystals!
Aerrow was in a slump. His thoughts were racing around and wouldn't stop. He was the one who had led Finn to the record player. He had thought it was safe. It was his fault that Finn was gone.
Dark Ace racked his brains for a way to keep them together. Storm Hawks were stronger than this; they had always thrashed him in a fight.
Stork was decimating his instruments, psychotic and border lining neurotic on thinking about how his instruments couldn't detect….whatever it was that had taken Finn. He tossed another idea of repairing the machines onto the floor. This doom was something that didn't relent.
Junko sat where the record player had appeared. His best friend was gone and there was no explanation for it….
"AAAAGH!"
Everyone jumped. Finn ran through the door from the fog and slammed it shut behind him. "Dude! I am never going near a record player again!"
The Storm Hawks stared at him, and then Piper started running.
GLOMP!
Dark Ace sighed. He didn't do glomps. Instead, he reached an arm in and patted Finn on the head.
"Well, I guess that means there's a use it or lose it policy at work here. I mean, there's always food left over, but we never see where it gets cleared off to. I guess the record player wasn't needed anymore once you were back on your feet. But still, yesterday was freaking weird." Cyclonis mulled aloud.
Dark Ace rolled his eyes. Piper was way too happy to have her team mate back to discuss the possibilities with Master Cyclonis.
"Finn, do us all a favor and smack Aerrow over the back of his head." Dark Ace commanded.
"Huh? Why?"
"He was depressed, Junko was sick, Stork seems to have mind worms, and Piper's been a wreck. I'm the only one who did think that you were coming back."
"Awww, did you miss me?" Finn worked his way through the group hug and hugged Dark Ace.
Aerrow scowled something fierce. In fact, all the Storm Hawks looked ready to disembowel him. Dark Ace shuddered. Finn really was central to the team, wasn't he?
Finn let go, and whipped his hand over the back of Aerrow's head. "That's for being a quitter and too harsh on yourself. This is for worrying." Finn drew back a fist.
Aerrow braced himself. The fist thunked gently into his shoulder, before Finn wrapped himself around Aerrow.
"It wasn't your fault; you know I get myself into these messes a lot." Finn went around, purring and rubbing into the Storm Hawks and reminding them that he was okay, that he was here.
They watched the movie that Aerrow, Piper, and Cyclonis made. No one really focused on it, they were too busy lying down and curling around Finn.
They all fell asleep that way.
Finn woke up from his accident after having the oddest dream. He pushed himself up from the couch and looked around. Cyclonis was in a wheelchair, and Junko was wringing out a cloth.
"Hey, how long have I been out?"
"Oh, about three days. It's really good that you woke up, Aerrow's gonna be back from the showers in a few seconds, and Dark Ace has been making faces at his hot chocolate."
Glancing over at Dark Ace who was ranting to Cyclonis about something, Finn stretched and got off the bed. His head gave a dull throb, but otherwise left him alone.
He really hoped that he never had hit his head again.
Aerrow was pleasantly surprised to see Finn up and about after coming back from his shower. Piper was talking to Cyclonis, and as he passed Dark Ace, the man gave him a spare cup of hot chocolate.
"The next time you beat yourself up over something you can't control, I'm dumping the hot chocolate on you."
Aerrow accepted the cup and thanked him, promising to keep the 'advice' in mind. He wandered over to Finn, who was starting to walk around and stretch out his muscles after being laid up for so long.
"How hard did I hit my head?"
"Harder than the time Starling dropped a bomb to take out the Cyclonian guards I was facing. I've been meaning to ask you, did Starling's bomb look anything like the time pulse from the clock tower to you?"
"Dude, how would I know? I never saw either of them."
"Well, they were orbs with yellow crystals in them. Never mind, I was just thinking about it because Piper and Cyclonis were talking about crystals while we were shooting the movie. Think you'll be up for a movie tonight?"
Finn grabbed Aerrow and steered him away from the others.
Then, in a low voice he asked him, "Junko didn't tape me sleeping, did he?"
Aerrow doubled over howling with laughter. Or he would have. Instead, he just grinned and clapped Finn on the back. "Of course not." His mouth was twitching into a smile at the corners.
"Come on, let's get you something to eat." Finn agreed whole heartedly and headed over to the table.
A/N: This is so weird. But I do not own STYX either, just a CD. I couldn't resist. Also, I have about three more hiccups to work with, thank you again angel on wings. I managed to write pairings out of my system so from now on in this fanfic, expect me to poke fun at any and all pairings that can be done in the Storm Hawks! Also, don't take anything about it seriously, it's for laughs.
I mean, I already made a subtle jab at the fact that Finn can be paired up with any and all of his team mates.