A/N: I hate transitional chapters...this one feels icky. Yeah, and don't even attempt to translate any of the Adamanttian here - I made up half of it xD
"All aboard the Roofus Express!" Cassiter exclaimed (still speaking Adamanttian) showcasing his Sky Demon, who was itching its ear with its back leg in a very non-impressive sort of way.
They looked at the pair with apprehension. Carnelian turned to glare at Qin.
"No." she stated.
"Now, now Carnelian, Cassiter is one of our best pilots and Roofus is a good flyer, albeit a bit…umm...distracted…but you'll be plenty safe with them."
"But Grandfather-"
Qin waved his hand dismissively. Carnelian fumed but said no more.
The travelers approached the Sky Demon, and Cassiter stood by, smiling and holding out his hand to help them up. Carnelian ignored him and passed by still frowning. Radarr crawled over to the Krystallion and curiously sniffed his boots. Cassiter looked down at him and made some chittering noises in his throat. Radarr smiled suddenly understanding the greeting and the two shook hands.
Piper walked over next.
"Novusa," she greeted in Adamanttian. "Je eg Piper. Nos aprrenis tyes heaides."
Cassiter's eyes widened at the sight of her. Then he smiled, graciously bowed, and took her hand.
"Je sius lysannor serva, singulariter unus amo vos, venustus noctis flos."
Piper looked slightly embarrassed, feeling flattered, and Cassiter kissed her hand. Carnelian rolled her eyes and Aerrow stared blankly, mouth slightly open, at the scene wishing he could translate (or not translate) more than the words "I, honoured," and the last bit about a "lovely, night flower".
Still embarrassed and hot in the face Piper passed Cassiter and mounted the Sky Demon.
They all looked over at Aerrow who hadn't moved from where he was floating.
"That's okay," he said a faint smile playing on his lips. "I'm good."
Then he shot up into the sky and flew around till he was at level with the Sky Demon's head.
Cassiter stared for a moment then wiped his hair out from his eyes and grinned.
"Kesay." ('Cool.') He said approvingly.
Cassiter then scuttled on, easily passing Carnelian and Piper on to the neck of Roofus, and then, in a need to show off a bit, scaled further up, till he was grappling the horns on the Sky Demon's helmet. He whispered something in the creature's ear and it nodded zealously.
"Okapitim." said Cassiter, and Roofus shook his head up and down again, nearly shaking Cassiter loose. Then he clicked his heels against the sides of Roofus' neck and let out a yell in Adamanttia. Roofus bayed too, a great roar, leaping up suddenly and diving off the balcony at high speed. Carnelian screamed, and Piper yelled in surprise, and the two tightly held on to the saddle to keep from falling off.
Then, midway down the length of the tower, Roofus opened his wings. They caught the air. They flapped. The Sky beast arched upward and put from the dive, in a graceful turn.
Aerrow watched from the balcony, kind of wishing he'd still had his body so that he could have been on that dive. He smiled anyways and told himself that when he got his body back he'd try Sky Beast flying later.
"Wait up for me!" he called and then, leapt off the balcony as well, zooming forward after the Sky Beast, following the sight of it, and the screams of Carnelian shouting in Adamanttian that she was going to kill Cassiter.
Elsewhere…
"..THIS IS THE STORM HAWKS! -shch- DO NOT TRUST AERROW-shshct- AN IMPOSTER! I REP- shct- AN IMPOSTER- DO NOT TRUST- schh"
All heads turned to the red-head. Triumphant smirk morphed into a scowl.
So much for surprise.
The Dark Ace acted fast. He kicked the nearest councilor sending him sprawling but within a second the Messa Skyknight was careening out of the air, twirling her nun-chucks, glowing violet. Their weapons clashed together, bathing the room in blue and purple light.
"Who are you?" demanded Starling.
He ignored the question. He thrust her back and blasted her.
Miles way in the Wastelands the Storm Hawks listened to the fight transmitted through the radio waves.
Junko was standing on one foot, holding out the radio with his hand, while Finn, teetering beside, was holding onto the wallop's arm to keep near the wonky radio and not fall off the junk pile. They looked like modern art.
"Hey, who's winning?" Finn shouted out to the mesh.
Another burst of light exploded in the Council hall. The members ducked behind the podium. The fight was waning. Starling was losing. Normally she and Aerrow, as well as the Dark Ace for that matter, were evenly matched. But this was not normally.
Starling could see where this this was going. Time to end it quick.
She flipped backward on one hand to gain some space between them, and to build up the energy. Her special move- she hadn't quite figured out a name for it- was building. She flipped again into the air, launching herself in the direction of the impostor twirling her nun-chucks.
His blade met it head on. It held, no problem. Starling landed some feet back. Second time maybe-
"Argh!" The impostor shouted, jumping and twirling into the air, building up his own signature move. At first he glowed blue- but the aura turned violently red suddenly, drawing from a source other than the sword. It looked…familiar somehow.
Starling's eye widened. The scene flashed back to a memory. She recognized the move. That was the Dark-
The blast erupted, and not in just her direction. The flood of energy hit her and throw her back till she slammed against a wall. Her nun-chucks were designed to withstand most other Skyknight's moves but this? This was out of her league.
The world went red
Then…
Black.
Static hissed though the radio.
"Oh that can't be good." said Stork, sounding genuinely worried.
"Grr, c'mon ya stupid thing." Finn growled turning at the dials of the machine. He whacked on the side a couple times. A long shhhhhhhhhhhtchhhhh was all that replied. Minutes passed.
"You don't think…?" asked Junko. He didn't finish the question. They looked between each other. You don't she's…
"Schshhhhhhh-hello?-shhhhctt-"
They turned to the radio.
"Shhchcttt-Storm Hawks?" Wobbly, weak, but a distinctly accented voice called.
"Starling?" Finn said into the mesh. "What happened?"
"Schhh- He got away. " she replied sounding hollow. "I'm sorry but-schhttt- that energy-schhhh-"
Starling leaned into the side of one the Councillors helping her support her weight. Her whole body was covered in patches of ash and black, and she was sure that later she would be purple and blue with bruises. She was outside now, doctors were being sent and people were running all over the place. Another radio- hers had been destroyed inside, much like most of the interior of the Council hall- was held up to her ear.
"-Storm Hawks?"
"Uh huh?" Finns voice replied.
"The impostor- it's not who I think it is..is it?"
"Well, ummm," said Finn. "That depends on who you think it is."
Starling's eyes narrowed, looking off into the distance to the Aurora tower that was now dark.
Dark.
"The Dark Ace."
The other people listening in on the conversation gasped.
"That's what we figured too." Finn replied confirming the worst.
"How?" demanded Starling. "If that 'Aerrow' was really the Dark Ace then where's..?"
"We don't know. The Farside maybe…with Piper, and Radarr."
Starling could hear the worry, and the sadness behind the words. She knew what it was like to be missing your team.
"And where are you?" she asked.
"Ummm…Stork?"
"Purgatory," muttered the voice of the merb faintly through radio. There was the sound of some scuffling and a hit.
"Errr...no idea." The sharpshooter said finally.
"Alright then," Starling replied. "We'll track your signal and then send you help. It might take a bit."
"Uh…" Finn replied unsurely. "Okay…"
Junko wavered for a second and the whole tower of stuff shook dangerously. Finn tried desperately not to fall over.
"Yeah, sure. Not prob. But uh..be quick. Please."
He was pretty sure he couldn't last very long standing like this.
Stork was staring off through the cracked wind shield. Hot, rancid Wasteland air was blowing through it. Like sulphur. Probably the lava. Or maybe it was the ship. He'd been eyeing a particular spiny column of rock in the distance for a time now.
"That rock…" he mused, scratching his chin. "It seems odd. In fact the more I stare at it, the more these Wastelands seems so very…familiar."
"They all look the same to me." Finn muttered, not that could see them, wishing Starling would hurry up and get back to them. His muscles were aching from hanging in his position for so long.
"Finn?" asked Junko bashfully. There was a look or urgency on his face. "I need to use the bathroom."
"Just hold it!" Finn countered. "We can't move."
"Oh yesss," Stork half- growled. "Familiar…" His eyes narrowed. Spiny. The smell of sulphur. That crag, those ditches…
"Starling calling the Storm Hawks. Do you still read?"
"Finally," Finn breathed. "Storm Hawks here."
"We have tracked your location-"
Stork gasped suddenly. "Eek!" he cried leaping from the pane. "Oh no. No." he rasped.
"The terra closest to you now is-"
Stork's voice overlapped with Starling's.
"Terra Merb."
And with that, Stork fainted.
The wind was cold and wet. Piper couldn't decide whether or not she liked Sky Beast flying. For one thing she didn't have to focus on driving. She was free to search the landscape with curiosity as much a she liked. On the other hand, there wasn't much to see right now. There were a lot of clouds. A dense cold fog lay below them. The tops of hills and spires of rocks stuck out of the mist like islands in a stream.
"Bad weather," Carnelian grumbled behind her.
"Everybody hold on," Cassiter said in Adamanttian. "Were going up."
"What'd he say?" asked Aerrow lazily floating beside Piper.
"He said were going up," explained Piper.
"Why?" asked Aerrow.
Piper shouted up the Cassiter asking in Adamanttian. Cassiter replied, sounding a bit devilish.
"He says were taking a shortcut over something called Filum Arachin. Or Spider's Thread."
"What's that?" Aerrow asked.
"No!" yelled Carnelian. "Rien! Nila! Spider's Thread is a line of Leech Crystals, it connects two of the greater Fields." then she started yelling Adamanttian at Cassiter, to turn around and take the Acani Pass.
"Hey, relax. It's safe. I've done this like a million times. It'll save a whole day of travel." Cassiter replied in Adamanttian.
"But I thought flying over the Leech Crystals-" started Piper also speaking Adamanttian.
"We'll be fine as long as we stay up high enough." Cassiter assured and gave a cocky smile.
"What are we doing?" Aerrow asked feeling more oblivious.
Piper inhaled, feeling nervous. "Were flying over a thin bit of the Fields of Death."
Cassiter shouted into Roofus ear. The Sky beast clicked and let out a low hum like a whale, before gently curving up higher, flapping it's wings to propel itself. The group disappeared up into a cloud layer that thoroughly soaked them.
They broke into the next clear layer. Carnelian was wet and irritated. She muttered some deaths threats in Adamanttian and grabbed her hair with both hands and wrung it till water dripped out. Piper shook her head scattering water droplets, while Cassiter's hair hung damping front of his eyes.
"Should be going over right about now." he said. Aerrow and Piper looked at each other then down, but only the clouds could be seen.
Then, a soft pulse ran through them, the same way a low bass note is not heard but felt.
Roofus bayed.
"Ohh," Cassiter shivered. "Maybe we should go a bit higher." He clicked his heels ad told Roofus to fly up a bit more.
Carnelian was quivering. Even Radarr whined.
"I don't feel anything," said Piper looking at her comrades.
"It's like this big tired feeling…" Aerrow said. Piper looked at him. He was horizontal and facing down, flying with ease. His half-translucent face looked troubled. "Like your energy is waning."
"You can feel it?" asked Piper.
"Aerrow is made of energy right now." Carnelian explained from behind and they looked at her. "His spirit," she went on speaking in Atmosian. "Is strong here because of all the free-floating energy that comes from the plentiful crystals we have. Your world, I understand, does not have this energy."
Aerrow turned back to gazing at the unseen ground. "It's still not like this." he said.
The group moved higher and continued flying.
Distance passed.
Then after what must have been a half an hour after they had passed over the Spider's Thread (Piper judged this by how everyone else's shoulders relaxed) Cassiter started exclaiming in Adamanttian that they had arrived, and Roofus dived down into the clouds.
They flew down low, then glided close along the ground. The mist was thick down here too. Pointed rocks seemed to rise on each side, walling in a path. They became narrower and narrower till Roofus had to land.
The passengers descended.
"The crystal is this way," Carnelian said and she lead the way.
Piper could feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickling and Radarr moaned quietly on her shoulder. She scratched his head reassuringly. The mist poured from the rocks on either side, flooding onto the path and licking at their legs. It seemed to curl and dance as though it were alive.
There was a soft glow up a head, shielded by the fog. The wind shifted and the curtain pulled away.
The Storm Hawks gasped.
The path opened up to a circular clearing surrounding by more tall rocks. In the center of the clearing was the Anti-Seer crystal.
It was huge.
It sat on a natural pedestal of stone. The base was about the size of the average dining room table. The tallest point jutted straight up about 12 feet. Shards jutted off and up from it. It was purple. It resembled a giant radish somehow. Light moved on the inside of it, a plasma sitting in the core of the crystal.
"Oh wow," Piper said excitedly, clasping her hands.
"Er," said Aerrow unsurely. "Wow. How does it work?"
Piper moved toward the crystal.
"According to what I read, you just have to touch the crystal and think or say what you want to see."
"It's that easy?"
Piper, Aerrow, and Radar placed one hand on the crystal. It was smooth and strangely warm. The plasma inside recoiled as though tit felt the touch.
"So then we just have to say something?" asked Aerrow. "Like 'Storm Hawks'?"
"No," said Piper. "You have to be speci-"
The crystal activated.
There was a burst of light and the motion of being thrown forward. They yelled being caught off guard.
Carnelian and Cassiter shielded their eyes from the blinding light, and when it had faded out, Aerrow, Piper and Radarr were frozen where they stood, enclosed in a purple-pink aura.
"So, ummm, what do we do now?" Cassiter asked in Adamanttian.
"Wait." Carnelian answered. "We have to watch over them to make sure nothing happens to them."
And they looked at the three still, and glowing Storm Hawks. Their eyes were opened and glowing violet, seeing a different place.
And another time.
The Storm Hawks.