Oh my god it's been so long since I updated! I'm really really sorry to anyone who's been patient enough to read this story and wait all this time for the next chapter without forgetting my story (hopefully!) Well I'm back again for now and I really am making a huge effort to keep writing. I never knew just how hard it is to write something that won't come!

I recently watched a new episode of Storm Hawks, 'Stratosphere', and I realized that it fit quite nicely into the background of my story! Not exactly as I put it across, but I must be psychic! :)

Enough of this long note! I'm giving you an extremely long chapter as well! I'm sorry if it looks daunting, but I couldn't stop typing! Here's chapter 13, Enjoy!

Storm Hawks- Where Your Allegiances Lie

Chapter 13- A Battle to end a War –
Part 1 – The Calm Before The Storm

The blood red skies leered overhead as the attacking force moved past the northern border and started for the very heart of Cyclonia. All the carriers from all over the Atmos were spread out for miles, lined up behind one very battered little ship.

The Condor's engines sputtered into life as Stork moved the Condor into high gear. Like one great monster, the army of Sky Knight Squadrons started to advance, keeping in their ranks. Not even ten seconds after they had passed the border of Cyclonia, a message crystal appeared at every ship, warning them that they were in Cyclonia territory and not to advance or they would be destroyed.

"No need to tell me!" Stork muttered as he threw the message crystal into the inferno that was the engine of the Condor so it couldn't infect them all with a nasty flesh-eating disease. "It's not exactly like we're having fun driving into Cyclonia! But I guess we do have to do this." Stork's paranoid muttering paused for a moment as he leant heavily on the steering wheel. "Either we die later by some other horrible disease or we die…for Aerrow." Stork's head filled with memories of Aerrow.

Stork's Flashback

"So?"

Stork was standing behind a door in the Condor. On the other side of the door were the rest of the Storm Hawks on the bridge. Stork's gut was twisted.

"I've found the perfect guy."

That was Aerrow. He was the only one who had met Stork yet. Well, define 'met'.

"Come on then, who is he?"

Finn's voice. That was all the Storm Hawks were so far. Two friends and a battered old ship.

"He's amazing. I saw him put together an entire skimmer in less than a minute, just from old junk."

Stork felt a twinge of pride at Aerrow's words, but they were quickly overtaken again at the feeling of nervousness.

"Come on then, let him in! Where is he?"

"Stork, you can come in now."

Stork took a deep breath and walked through the door.

"You!" Finn's yell of surprise told Stork that he clearly remembered him from the previous night.

"Err, well, hi. You obviously remember me but lets get one thing straight, I only did that because someone put something in my drink and it could have been anything from a shard of a poison stone to some old milk which would have done me just as much if not more harm than the shard of poison stone would have done depending on its size."

"Ha! Dude! You were hilarious!"

Finn's peal of laughter stopped Stork's gibbering and made him go bright red instead.

"You…with the pan…and the…wooden spoon!" Finn threw his head back and laughed loudly before holding out his hand to Stork. "I don't know what kind of engineer you'd make, but you'd definitely liven things up a bit around here, with some of my help of course!"

Stork recoiled from Finn's outstretched hand: who knew how many infectious diseases could be lurking on it? His face burned as he realized it had been stupid to let Aerrow talk him into this.

"Stork's just very into personal hygiene, Finn. And he's not going to be our engineer." Stork's heart sank even further. Of course this was just a chance to laugh at me again, he thought miserably. "He's going to be our carrier pilot."

Both Stork and Finn looked at Aerrow in shock. Aerrow just grinned at Stork.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I saw your fingers twitch when I showed you her engine. Care to take her for a spin?"

Stork didn't know what to say.

"Me? Fly the legendary Condor?" He finally managed to gasp out.

Aerrow nodded and gave a mock little bow, pointing his arms to the gleaming steering wheel. Stork's fingers curved around the metal and knew Aerrow had brought him home.

End Flashback

It was all thanks to Aerrow that he had finally found his true calling in life. Sure, there was always the danger of dieing a horrible death due to Cyclonians, but it was probably safer than most other places, mainly due to the fact that Aerrow was always there to protect his team.

"We're coming to get you back, Aerrow."

Finn sighed and put down the cloth he was using to clean his crossbow. It was shining from the amount of polishing it had got, along with his sparkling sky ride, his spotless uniform and his gleaming glasses. Cleaning was the only thing that caused distraction enough to forget about the mess they were about to be in. Even posing in front of the mirror just wasn't enough distraction.

Radarr was curled up at the foot of Finn's bed. He looked like he was asleep, but the reflection of his eyes showed that he was awake. He was watching Finn and kept letting out little whimpers every now and then. When Finn put one hand by his head, Radarr snuggled up to him and closed his eyes. It looked like he was trying to imagine that Finn's hand was Aerrow's.

"Yeah, you aren't the only one." I'd swap with him anytime. He knows how to rally us all, and he'd have no problem beating me and getting me back on the right side. But taking Aerrow down…he's so good…he's beaten the Dark Ace so many times I've lost count! So how're we gonna beat him? He scratched Radarr's ear and Radarr let out a half-hearted growl. He soon gave up though, just enjoying the attention.

The thing is, this isn't just like any other fight we've ever been in. Finn mused. We have to win this fight, or it's all over. There won't be any more free Atmos, only the world of Cyclonia. But we can't lose! We must have, like, every single Squadron in all of Atmos!

Finn absently returned to his needless polishing while he ran through Piper and Starling's plan in his head for the fiftieth time. Soon enough his mind wandered to Aerrow's predicament.

What would I do if Cyclonis ever got her hands on my mum? Just picturing his mum in chains was almost too much to bear. Poor Rosella. She was always so nice. I can't believe I never wondered where Aerrow's parents were! We've talked about all our families here on the Condor, but he always seemed to disappear to do some chore or something before it got to his turn.

Finn turned his crossbow over and rubbed the other side of it with his grease covered cloth.

Still, it's hard to believe that Aerrow is actually a prince! Or a king. Or whatever! Guess we'd better get used to calling him 'Your Highness'. Finn snorted with laughter but quickly stifled it. And I guess that means the only way Cyclonis can get her claws on the throne officially is by getting Aerrow to write her into his will and then kill him or to marry him. Even the surprise of again figuring something important out wasn't enough to stop the chill creeping up his spine. Aerrow marry Cyclonis? Urgh! That's just too gross to think about! But…If she's a queen then she has the power to force him to agree to it, but she would still need a Joiner to marry them.

Finn got caught up in his ponderings before he realized he was still polishing his crossbow. Sighing again, he lay down the cloth on his table and stretched.

"Don't worry, Aerrow, we won't let that happen."

Junko wiped his sweaty forehead with one giant hand. Aerrow's bookcase was a lot heavier than it looked, and it was a much easier to push over than to push up.

Aerrow's room looked neat and tidy again. All the books were in the correctly placed bookcase, his bed sheets ware straightened out and all the other bits and bobs that had been thrown around were back where they belonged. Junko thought that Aerrow should at least come back to a tidy room.

He looked around the room one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything and allowed himself a small grin. Now he won't have to worry about clearing that up when he gets back to us. Unless…No. No, of course he's going to be back soon. We all will.

Junko rubbed his arm, and then slapped his hand away. It was no point worrying about what could have happened when it hadn't. And it wasn't even his fault. He walked to the door and stood leaning against the doorframe like Aerrow always seemed to do when he was thinking.

Junko's Flashback

"I don't want to- I'm not going to- I just-"

Junko kept backing away from the angry young man, hands up. His blond friend was kneeling on the ground, clutching his arm and groaning in pain.

Aerrow was holding a Cyclonian energy spear at Junko, who was walking backwards with his hands in the air, trying desperately to show him that he meant no harm.

Aerrow and Finn were dressed as maintenance men. Junko was dressed as a Cyclonian guard. There was obviously a problem.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were Cyclonian spies!" Junko wailed.

"Like you?" Aerrow asked. His voice had a certain ring of anger in it.

"No! I'm not! I was looking for you. No! I mean, I was looking for you, but not to turn you in!

"You hurt him! You've broken his arm!"

"I didn't mean to! Please, just let me explain!"

"Stay where you are." Junko stopped backing away. "Stork, how bad is it?"

A teen merb shuffled round the corner and hesitantly examined Finn's arm.

"It's alright Aerrow, it isn't that serious. And it definitely isn't broken."

Aerrow's shoulders seemed to slump in relief.

"But it hurts!" Finn moaned.

"I'm sorry. My name's Junko. I followed you here, and when I saw you getting those guards uniforms I thought I should too. But then you must of changed and I didn't see."
"Why were you following us?" Aerrow asked. He didn't sound as angry now but he was still holding the spear at Junko.

"I…I've…I've been wondering if, well, if maybe I could…maybe…you know, only if you want me, join you guys?"

"You want to join us?" Finn was standing up and looking curiously at Junko. "So you followed us into a dark Cyclonian tunnel just to ask us if you could join?"

"Well, yeah. I thought there might be some kind of test or something, and I'm lousy at tests, so I thought I'd impress you." Even aloud, the words sounded stupid to Junko.

"Not really, we just sort of-"

"Stay still."

Aerrow's whispered command confused Junko, but suddenly he let out a blast of crackling red energy from the tip of the staff. Junko's first thought was to duck, but his brain told him to 'stay still'. The energy flew overhead, but didn't just carry on. It connected with something solid and something fell backwards. Junko spun around, just as the paralyzed Cyclonian hit the floor.

"There." Aerrow said. "You passed the first test. Now let's get out of here!" The pre-Storm Hawks turned and ran away from the frozen Cyclonian. Finn ran up next to Aerrow.

"What first test?" He asked.

"Lesson number one: follow commands." A smirk danced on Aerrow's lips.

"You just made that up!" Junko heard Finn exclaim. He heard Aerrow laugh, and it was strange. It wasn't a particularly strange laugh, in fact, it was pretty ordinary; roguish and full of mischief, but there was something strange about it coming out of Aerrow's mouth.

Maybe it was because he was so serious before. Junko thought. He saw Finn open his mouth to accuse Aerrow again, but before he could speak, Aerrow put on a burst of speed that left Finn behind, unable to keep up, let alone talk. Aerrow let out a gleeful laugh again. He's so full of energy! It was true. Aerrow looked like he could run back the way they had come, catch up with the rest of them again and still be faster than Finn or Stork! Or me. Junko added as an afterthought. Let's see.

Junko started puffing as he tried to catch up with Aerrow. He overtook Finn and Stork easily enough but couldn't gain any more speed. Aerrow, noticing Junko's increase, pulled back to level him.

"What's up?" His voice was calm and untroubled. Junko felt like a tired old rhino when he spoke.

"I was just wondering: how do you have so much energy? Are you really a Sky Knight?"

Aerrow gave him a cheeky grin.

"I haven't been knighted yet, but that comes after I've got a team together, but I've passed all the training. That's why I have so much energy. At the Academy we sprinted for three hours non-stop every morning at two am. And that was just a warm-up."

"Go on then." Finn's weary voice sounded from behind them. "You're going to have to show him something cool before he believes you. I didn't when you first turned up on my doorstep."

"If you insist." Aerrow grinned back at Finn and Stork, who shuddered.

"But if you break anything, I am not setting it!"

Aerrow laughed and eyed the circular wall. "Watch this." He took a deep breath and ran at the wall. Junko winced at the anticipated crash, but when Aerrow reached the wall, he put one foot on it, then the other, and ran straight up it! Junko's jaw dropped. Aerrow was running vertically up the wall and matching their pace on the ground. He twisted slightly and ran even faster, reaching the ceiling of the tunnel. He let out a whoop and Junko could see the thrill in his eyes as he ran back down the other wall. At the bottom he pushed off hard with his feet, did a few flips, and then casually slid next to Junko again, acting like he had done nothing more interesting than step off an elevator. They stopped running when Aerrow held up a hand.

"Nice." Finn said simply.

"That was amazing!" Junko contradicted, his eyes wide.

"It was nothing." Aerrow shrugged. "So, what can you do?"

"Nothing like that. But I'm good with stuff. Like a mechanic. And I'm quite strong too, so you don't have to worry about me struggling with anything heavy."

Stork nodded. "Wouldn't be too bad having a strong wallop around. But you better not have any diseases."

"Halt!"

The unexpected voice caught the four teenagers unawares. Seven Talons with energy spears were glaring at them, forcing them to freeze.

"Stay where you are." The guard in front said menacingly in a deep voice. The group subtly moved closer together behind Aerrow, who was nearest to the Talons. Junko's mind was frozen. He hadn't thought facing the Cyclonians would be this scary!

"Take out the wallop first." The first guard said, moving his spear to face Junko, who gulped. Then Aerrow spoke, and the guard twitched back his spear to face Aerrow again.

"He's not the only one you should be worried about." Junko felt a warm glow inside him. No-body had ever cared about what happened to him.

"Change of plans. Take out the cocky one first." He fired, straight at Aerrow's bare face. He had no time to protect himself, or move out the way.

"No!"

Junko's hand suddenly reached out and grabbed the ball of energy. His entire body shook as the electricity buzzed through him, but instead of hurting, it just felt…tingly. In one smooth movement, he grabbed hold of the guard's spear and punched as hard as he could.

The guard flew backwards, crashing into the other six as he flew through the air and knocked them all unconscious.

Stork and Finn turned slowly to look at Junko in awe, who gave a nervous laugh.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Junko turned to see Aerrow looking angry and slightly pale staring at him.

"Why did you do that? You could have got really hurt!"

"But it doesn't hurt, it just tingles."

"Well you completely failed the second test!" Junko's heart plummeted. Aerrow's eyebrows were creased in a frown, but slowly thy smoothed out and Aerrow smiled. "But you passed the third test with flying colours." He held out his hand. "Welcome to the Storm Hawks Junko."

Junko couldn't believe his ears. When the words finally sunk in, he turned bright red. He held out his massive hand and shook Aerrow's.

"What was the third test?" He asked when he finally got his voice back. Aerrow grinned at him.

"Lesson number three: the Storm Hawks are family."

End Flashback

Junko stepped away from the doorway and closed the door.

"Just you wait Aerrow, you'll be back with all your family in no time."

Piper pulled back her hand and massaged her knuckles. The dummy she was practicing her sky-fu on just bounced back into place innocently. It was a lot harder than it looked.

Still rubbing her sore knuckles, Piper fell back onto the bench in the training room. She was breathing deeply, a result of the brutal session she had just finished. The bars had been sufficiently bent, the weights were back in their holders, and the dummy with the Dark Ace's face on it was back in its normal position, leering at Piper.

"Stupid thing." Piper muttered under her breath. Her eyes wandered around the room, looking for any kind of distraction from the pains in her heart. But everything she looked at brought back memories of him. This was where he spent most of his time on the Condor, if he couldn't be outside on his skimmer. That was one of the things that Piper loved about him; the fact that he would always be either in the air or in the training room.

A small blush tinted Piper's coloured cheeks. She hated to use the word 'loved', but it was true. He just had so many interesting things about him that made him so…fanciable.

The colour in her cheeks rose another shade of red. Good thing I'm alone. Then again, if I wasn't alone, I probably wouldn't be having these stupid girly thoughts. After all, that was all it was: a little crush on a good friend.

But it's so much more. I want it to be so much more. Piper mentally slapped herself. She needed to keep those kinds of thought out of her head. She didn't want any feelings to come between their friendship.

It's not like I'm in love with him or anything! A twinge of unease washed through her body somewhere around her stomach. 'Love' was definitely much too strong a word to use.

Piper gave up trying to distract herself from thinking about where he was and what he was doing. Instead, memories of happier days came into her head. The one that pushed itself to the front was the one that had happened right in this very room.

Piper's Flashback

Piper walked down the walkway of the Condor. All of the doors to the various rooms were closed and there was no sound except for the occasional creak of a pipe and the clicking of Piper's shoes on the metal floor. It was dinner time, and everyone was eating at the table. Except for Aerrow.

Piper had already knocked on his room and got no answer, so now she was searching the Condor for him. It wasn't like him to skip a meal. Not because he was always hungry, but because he always wanted to make sure his team was eating well.

As she reached the bottom of a ladder, strange sounds reached Piper's ears. Worried, Piper headed in that direction.

Eventually, she ended up outside the training room. This room was practically a mystery to Piper, since she was only starting the first levels of Sky-fu, so she only needed as much space as there was in her room. Also, the guys spent quite a lot of time in there just mucking around, although their fights always ended up in other parts of the Condor, often before they had even properly begun, and she wasn't totally comfortable with all of them yet. Especially Junko with his bulging muscles, though he seemed very kind in nature, and Stork, who seemed to think that girls were some form of strange disease. Then again, Finn was an arrogant pig. So basically, the only person she felt comfortable around was Aerrow.

The sounds were definitely coming from inside the training room. It sounded like someone was fighting inside, but it was just one voice. Not sure what to expect, Piper pressed the button and cautiously stepped inside.

What she saw next took her breath away.

Aerrow was standing on the highest bar, topless, in just his trousers. His chest was supple and toned and his six pack was easy to see even from a distance. The fading light of dusk cast half of Aerrow's face in shadow, making the half in light look like an angel.

Even though Piper was the last recruit to the Storm Hawks, she and Aerrow had immediately clicked. It was like they had known each other for years when really it had only been less than a month. They had become very good friends in a short space of time. And it wasn't like Piper had never seen a guy without his top on! Finn always had his top off when he was sunbathing.

But this was different.

Piper quietly stepped into the room and the door closed automatically behind her without Aerrow noticing. She slid behind a crash mat and peeked over the top.

Aerrow was standing on his tiptoes on the bar high in the air. Even just his stance looked like it required all of his concentration to stay balanced on the thin piece of smooth metal. The training room stretched through the three floors of the Condor, designed purposely so that its occupants could train in the air while having crash mats and safety nets to catch them, unlike outside where the only thing that would catch them would be a sharp rock in the wastelands. Even so, Junko had had to move the high bar right up to the ceiling at Aerrow's request so he could do some more vigorous training. It looked like this was it.

His toned chest heaved as Aerrow took a deep breath and let it out of his mouth. His arms were raised on either side of his body at shoulder height and his eyes were closed. Piper watched with bated breath. Suddenly, his eyes shot open. Gracefully, Aerrow leapt backwards off the bar, sweeping his arms up high over his head. He began falling, twisting with increasing speed in a high backwards dive, until he reached the medium bar.

Both of his hands grabbed hold of the bar firmly and his body swung round it once, twice, three times. At the top of the third spin, his body stopped spinning and Aerrow held a perfectly still handstand. Piper, being much lower down than Aerrow, saw clearly the strain on his face as he fought to control the forces of gravity, and the ship's jerky movements, on his body. After several seconds he slowly lifted one hand off the bar and held it out to the side. Several more seconds passed as he held that pose. Then, to Piper's increasing amazement, he bent the one arm holding the bar and re-stretched it, doing push ups on the bar. His handstand stayed completely still and straight except for the up and down motions of the push ups. Piper watched his eyebrows contract in concentration and sweat glisten on his brow. After about twenty push ups, Aerrow switched arms by pushing off and landing the other hand on the bar. His handstand wavered for a second before he gained control once more.

Another twenty push ups later and Aerrow flipped off onto the low bar. Piper thought his work-out must be over since she had heard him fighting before he had even started on the bars, but it looked like it carried on. Aerrow stood perched on one foot, not wavering once in his perfect balance, and started kicking at invisible opponents high in the air. He used his arms to block invisible attacks and to balance when he swiveled on the one foot.

At one moment Piper nearly screamed out. Aerrow's footing on the smooth metal slipped and he fell backwards off the bar. Piper almost stepped out of her hiding place to run to his aid when he hit the floor, but he never even got close. As soon as he slipped he threw out one hand and spun up again into the air. He twisted in the air to face the right direction and landed easily. Since he was facing Piper's direction she had to stifle a giggle as she saw his face. He looked angry with himself for falling, but there was something comical about the confusion and annoyance in his green eyes. He shook his head, took up his stance, and started kicking again.

Time seemed to pass even slower than usual. Piper couldn't have been there much longer than five minutes, but it felt like she had been there for hours. Aerrow's movements were either so slow and controlled that she was holding her breath in anticipation of him making a wrong move and falling, or so fast and deadly as lightning that she didn't dare to blink and miss any movement.

After the imaginary fights on the three bars, Aerrow moved onto tumble runs on the mats, occasionally including a vault or trampoline. He flipped and spun so effortlessly that Piper felt like she could watch him train for ever, watch him glide and fly like he was part of the air around him. And he was so…so…Well, to put it bluntly, he was so…hot! His muscles were just the right size, not too bulgy and solid, but he was very muscular for a fourteen year old human. His beautiful green eyes could penetrate everybody and turn any girl's legs to jelly. And his hair! It was like fire, completely un-tameable and out of control just like him, but it was so perfect.

It was in those five minutes that she watched him train, that Piper realized that she liked him more than friends should like each other. It was a stronger feeling than just friendly affection; it was much deeper than that, and it would only grow deeper the closer they got.

I'm not being shallow, Piper thought, I don't only like him because he's, well, totally gorgeous and strong and handsome. Those are good, of course! But I like him because he'll do just about anything just for the thrill of it. He's so…bad boy! But he's a Sky Knight! He's all into hard work and perseverance and following the rules, but then he goes and breaks all the rules by taking a short cut! I've never met anyone like him. And I've never felt this way about anyone. Piper admitted to herself.

A loud thud sounded close by and Piper immediately went into panic mode, fearing the worst and picturing broken bones and torn muscles. When she looked over the top of the mat, however, it was just Aerrow landing on another crash mat underneath the bars. He doubled over with his hands on his knees and panted for breath. Finally he stretched out and reached for a towel to wipe his face with.

Piper wasn't sure if Aerrow would have minded being watched while he trained. He always managed to find something for everyone else to do that ended up with him being left in there alone. He probably wouldn't mind, but to be sure, she pressed the button to open the door and stood in the doorway, making it look like she had just come in. Aerrow turned around, towel in hand. When he saw her, Piper was nervously pleased to see that his flushed cheeks turned redder.

"Hey Piper. What're you doing in here? I thought you hated gyms."

"I…I mean we…were wondering where you were. It's 18:00. Everyone's eating." Piper felt her own cheeks tinting as she couldn't stop her eyes from roving over his toned chest. Aerrow didn't notice as he was busy trying to wipe away the grime from his pink face.

"Sorry. I was just finishing up. I'll get changed and then I'll see you on the bridge."

Aerrow gave her a grin and walked past her with the towel round his shoulders. Piper followed him out and watched him walk down the walkway to his room. A small smile graced her lips as she turned the opposite way and made her way back to the bridge.

End Flashback

Piper looked up at the high bar right by the ceiling. If she squinted her eyes, the red light from the skies of Cyclonia shining in through the windows cast a shadow that, with enough imagination, could be the shape of Aerrow, calm and sedate, waiting to begin.

That was what they had to do. To end the war, and perform the sequence to perfection, they had to wait. Only when they were ready, after taking that deep breath, only then they should take the blind dive backwards into the air, into the fight of their lives.

"We're going to win, Aerrow. I'm going to take that chance, and we're going to win."

Bloody…hell! Bet that took you all hours to read! Sorry if I've just wasted the best part of your day, but it started off really short, then a good length, and suddenly it's a monstrous 5197 words! Just quirky little memories of how the Storm Hawks formed, but I quite enjoyed Piper's memory :) Aww!

The next chapter will be what this chapter was originally going to be, with hopefully a lot more action. But it might take me a long time to write to get it right. Don't worry though! It should be up much quicker than this one was! (SHOULD!!!)