This chapter is in Aerrow's Point of View :)

I do not own the Storm Hawks, they are the property of Nerd Corps.


Chapter 12

Once we were in the hallway outside of the bridge and were headed towards the hangar bay, Piper let go of my arm and walked quickly and purposefully forward. I went to follow her, but I heard the bridge doors open again, and Radarr came running down the corridor towards me.

Kneeling down, I let Radarr jump onto my shoulders before I stood up again, but looking at where I saw Piper last, I noted that she was no longer there and that she was now out of sight.

Surprised that she had been walking so quickly, I began to run towards the hangar bay as I heard a door around the corner open and close, most likely it was caused by Piper walking into the hangar as I had heard Piper call, "Coming slow poke?"

Entering the hangar, I saw Piper was already over at her heliscooter, checking it over quickly to see if there was anything wrong with it. I shook my head at how I had only stopped for a few seconds and Piper was almost ready to fly.

Walking towards my skimmer, Radarr jumped off of my shoulder and into his cockpit, and once he had put on his goggles, he looked at me expectedly almost as if to echo Piper's earlier taunt of calling me a slowpoke.

Glaring at a very smug Radarr, I told him, "It's your fault that I'm apparently a slowpoke you know." Radarr just shrugged his shoulders in reply. Finding myself shaking my head again, I began a quick check of my skimmer to make sure Finn or whatever I had heard in the hangar early this morning hadn't tampered with my ride.

Satisfied that it hadn't been, I climbed on and revved my engine, checking over the gauges quickly. Turning around, I saw Piper on her heliscooter, and as she revved her engine as well, for some reason my thoughts went back to earlier in the infirmary room.

I simply just couldn't ignore the fact that instead of going to the bridge to check on our status, I had stayed and watched Piper until she got up. I mean, wasn't I supposed to keep the safety of my squadron as a whole in mind first instead of worrying about one single member? But – I don't know. I sort of just felt compelled to stay there with her, make sure that when she got up she was okay despite the fact the Condor was obviously being pelted with energy blasts.

And it was exactly that – a blast that rocked the ship – that shook me out of my thoughts. Blinking a few times, I called out to Piper, "You ready?"

Grinning at me, Piper yelled back, "Let's do it!" With that being said, we both shot out of the hangar bay, down the runway and drove off of the edge, and transformed our rides from bike to flight mode.

Scanning the battlefield, I was soon able to locate Finn's skimmer, and I motioned to Piper to follow me. Finn must have spotted us coming, as he soon came towards us. As Finn pulled along side us, he told us that the Talons had started attacking a little bit after he, Junko and Radarr had found Piper and I unconscious in the training room. Radarr nodded his head, as if the verify Finn's report.

I could tell that Finn wanted to know what had happened to us, but since I myself wasn't totally sure, and there were currently Cyclonians swarming around the Condor, I quickly ordered, "Finn, Piper, let's split up and try and get rid of as many as we can, or at least distract them. Maybe after that we can figure out what's going on, okay?"

"Sweet!Let's go kick some Cyclonian tail!" Finn hooted as he turned his skimmer around and began to pursue one of the remaining Talons.

Looking over to Piper, our eyes locked, and after a few moments, I realized that we were just staring at each other, as if waiting for the other to say something. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to say, or do, so to avoid the oddness of it all I just gave Piper a curt nod before I too like Finn turned my skimmer around and chased after a Talon that flew past.

After following the Cyclonian pilot for a bit, I jumped up and stood on the wing of my skimmer and let Radarr take over the controls. Steadying myself, I drew out my blades and activated them. With the blue light from the rare striker crystals illuminating my face, I prepared to fire at the unsuspecting Talon when another skimmer flew right in front of me.

As I saw the tips of the skimmer pass only inches from my face before it disappeared into the skies above, I caught sight of the man piloting the skimmer. 'Dark Ace!' I thought to myself as Radarr went back to his usual seat once I got down off of the wing and began to fly the skimmer again – straight up.

'What is he doing here? Leading the attack? Surely he can't be or else he would've shown up way before this and Finn's skimmer would more than likely cut in half by now.' My train of thought was cut off though once I had levelled my skimmer out of its climb and the Dark Ace flew past me – again.

Changing direction once more, I chased after him and yet again gave the responsibility of driving the skimmer over to Radarr as I jumped upon the wings of my enemy's ride as my own flew past overhead.

The Dark Ace didn't seem the least bit surprised when I landed behind him, blades drawn and ready. In fact, as we began to battle on top of his skimmer, I couldn't help but feel like something was wrong or out of place with this whole battle in general. I mean, not only did the Dark Ace appear out of nowhere after letting all of the Talons attack the Condor for probably more than half an hour, he hadn't said a word to me yet.

I think that was one of the big things that tipped me off to something about this whole battle having some ulterior motive, after all, the Dark Ace hadn't even threatened, yelled, at, or even gloated over me. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong.

As I flipped away from another of his half-hearted attacks and landed on the wing on the port side of the Dark Ace's skimmer, I was feeling tempted to ask what was up. I didn't care if he gave me a proper answer or not, I just wanted to break this weird silence between us, it was beginning to freak me out a bit.

As I had just finished contemplating this course of action, the silence around us was broken, but not by myself or the Dark Ace. It was broken by the sound of a crystal explosion below us. Looking down, I gasped as I saw Piper's heliscooter's engine sputter a bit as the craft bobbed precariously before with one last wheezing cough, the engine completely died and the heliscooter - Piper and all – began to plummet towards the terra below.

Piper's surprised and scared scream echoed throughout the sky as I reached a hand downwards, almost as if I could stop her descent as I yelled, "PIPER!"

Without a thought, let alone a second thought, I dove off of my enemy's skimmer head first, the air screaming past my ears as I picked up speed as I continued to fall quicker and quicker.

Usually when I find myself plummeting towards a terra or the Wastelands, my first instinct is to simply release my battle glider and glide back to my skimmer, or anywhere else at least semi-safe, but I fought the urge, knowing that I at least had to be level with Piper's falling heliscooter to even have a chance at saving her, Since I knew that as soon as I opened up my glider wings, my descent would be a lot slower. Not necessarily stopped, but slower none the less.

As I continued to plummet, I suddenly noticed that Piper had stopped screaming. Looking towards her, I saw that her eyes were shut tightly, and she was bracing herself for the impact as though she had resigned herself to her fate.

'You can't give up now Piper!' I thought as I finally opened my battle glider's wings once I saw I was below her heliscooter. As my wings opened, the uplifting power of the air trapped beneath them immediately began to slow me down. By turning myself to the side and upwards, I was able to shoot forward and grab Piper in my arms and pull her from the seat of the falling vehicle she was riding, but just before we were clear of her heliscooter, one of the stopped blades tore a rip in the fabric of my glider.

As I was sent spiralling with Piper in my arms, I soon heard the not so far away sound of her ride crashing into the trees below. Knowing that I didn't have much time before we crashed as well, I gripped Piper tighter and held her against me, and one of my hands pressed her head towards my chest, hoping that such an action might keep her just a bit safer, and maybe avoid any further injuries that were sure to happen.

Like Piper had done before, I closed my eyes tight as the green of the trees rushed up at us before I cried into the wind screaming past my ears, "Hang on!"

The next sound to fill my ears was the explosive sound of branches that cracked and gave way underneath us as Piper and I fell towards the ground of the terra below.


Okay, the next chapter is really just a continuation of this one, so it will be in Aerrow's Point of View as well.

Crimson Fox4