Chapter 2: Pirate Prowl
Stork was looking out the periscope when he saw a light coming toward them through the gloom. He turned to Piper. "I've got something nearby closing in!" he warned her.
Piper clutched her book in one hand and balled the other in a fist. She was nervous as could be. "Guys," she said desperately into the radio, "hurry up!"
In the wreckage, the boys were running as fast as they could back toward the Condor, with Aerrow in the lead, Radarr running on all fours behind him, Junko following, and Finn taking up the rear. "You're allergic to Murk Raiders," Aerrow heard Finn say to Junko, "and you're just remembering this now?"
"Sorry!" Junko yelled over his shoulder.
At that moment, Aerrow drew up suddenly. They had reached a place where the floor had fallen through. Aerrow looked down, shining his flashlight downward toward it. Surprisingly, there was no volcanic wasteland, like one would expect when looking down at the ground on Atmos, but there was also no solid ground that Aerrow could see. There was only a long fall to the jagged rocks below. But there was no time to go around. Leaning back to spring forward, Aerrow leaped across the hole effortlessly, stopping to wait for the others on the other side.
While Radarr went across, Junko had turned back to Finn. "It's not like you get to run into 'em every day!" he continued the argument with a dismissive smile. As soon as he said that, he started across, jumping from an outstretched remaining rafter to the other side of the hole.
Finn called across to him, putting his hands to the side of his mouth to project his voice. "That's 'cause when you run into Murk Raiders," he reminded him, "you don't usually walk away!" And with that, he started across the same way Junko had, but when he jumped onto the rafter, he began to lose his balance, threatening to fall over backward. "Whoa!" he said nervously. Aerrow held his breath. Junko reached back and grabbed Finn by the front of his shirt, pulling him across, much to Aerrow's relief.
They continued running until Junko slid to a stop. "Wow," he said as he sniffed. "I feel a big one comin'." He sniffed the air. "I bet they're really close," he said matter-of-factly.
Meanwhile, just outside the wreck, another ship just as big and fully intact was drifting by, a skull and three crossbones painted in white on its rudder at the stern.
Just beyond it, on the Condor, Piper had her head in her hand, worrying. Then Aerrow's anxious voice came over the speaker. "Piper," he asked, "where exactly are we?"
Piper lifted up the book in her hand and flipped the page back. "'Terra Deep,'" she read, "'favorite hiding place of the Murk Raiders. This is where they drag airships to steal their crystal supplies and their crews!'"
In the wreck, the boys had stopped to listen to Piper's transmission. Finn and Junko cringed as Piper finished, and Finn clutched Junko's shoulder. "Huh? They steal crews?" he repeated nervously.
Aerrow knew he was leaving something out in his earlier review of their description. Yes, they stole crews to try to get them to become a Murk Raider as well, or to work under them as slaves. If that didn't work, then they kept the crew members for ransom. If no ransom could be acquired, then the crew members were disposed of.
Aerrow could feel himself being inclined to panic, but he had fought that emotion all his life, and he kept himself visibly calm, even though inside he was in turmoil. He knew he had to keep the others calm as well. He turned around to face them. "Let's stay cool," he told them. "As soon as we get back to the Condor, we're outta here." Finn and Junko nodded anxiously.
"Quietly," Stork's voice urged over the radio in a whisper. "Their sound-tracking devices are extremely sensitive."
Suddenly, Aerrow heard a loud pinging sound as a nearly visible wave swept over them. He and the others cringed.
"That would be the sound tracker," Stork radioed.
Then a searchlight started over the wreck. Unfortunately, the Storm Hawks' search party was under a huge hole in the roof of the ship. With a huge grunt, Aerrow turned around and jumped over the hunk of metal behind him, hiding behind it. The others, minus Radarr, followed suit. After the light had already fallen on him, Radarr leapt into a shadowed area only to have the light fall on him again. Seeing it was no use trying to hide, he held still with his hands held in the air and his ears flopping down, breathing heavily.
The Storm Hawks waited as silently as possible as the light passed over them, shining only on their heads. Apparently the Murk Raiders saw nothing because they passed right over them. Aerrow and Junko stood up as soon as it had passed, looking back up at it. Finn just peered at the opening in the roof from behind the hunk of metal.
The sonic finder was bound to notice the hum of the Condor's engine, Aerrow knew. "Stork," he ordered over the radio, "play dead."
As soon as Stork heard Aerrow's order, he pulled down a lever at the helm. The power immediately went out on the Condor, leaving them in darkness as the shadow of the Murk Raider's ship fell over them. It was a huge ship, Piper could tell. It had to be nearly the same size as the Cyclonian Destroyers.
Then Piper heard a pinging sound and saw a wave pass through them. A sound detector. She clasped her hands together nervously. Hopefully they heard nothing.
As the boys were running back toward the Condor, pink-eyed Junko suddenly stopped again and sniffed. "Ah," he said, sniffling. "Oh, no!" He sniffled. "Oh, no!"
Oh, no! Aerrow's thoughts screamed.
Luckily Finn was there to stick a finger under Junko's nose and curb the sneeze. The sharpshooter put a finger in front of his own mouth and shushed the Wallop.
When Finn took his finger away from Junko's nose, the Wallop sniffled and took a breath, only to reel back his head and threaten to let it out. As soon as he saw this, Finn covered his mouth, and Radarr jumped up on Junko's shoulder and put his bare paw over Finn's hand to reinforce it. Junko sucked in his mucus, making Aerrow and Radarr cringe in disgust, but Radarr and Finn did not remove their hand or paw for fear of what would happen if they did.
"I think I'm okay," Junko's muffled voice said as soon as he had sucked it all in. In relief, Radarr and Finn took their hand and paw away. No sooner did they do that when Junko screamed, "Ah-choo!" sending Radarr off his shoulder, flying through the air, and into a pile of scrap metal with a loud CRASH!
Everything happened quickly after that, as far as Aerrow could tell. Having detected the sounds, the Murk Raiders' searchlight fell over them and saw them plain as day. And then the massive ship turned and headed toward them!
It was quite a ship they had. The Blood Crow, they would later know her as. Already she had proven herself almost silent in stealth mode, masking her own energy trail from detection by ordinary methods, while her own sonic finder picked up the smallest sounds. She had a thin yet long design with a skull and three crossbones painted on her rudder at the stern. Her most frightening aspect, however, was on the bow; there at the front of the ship was a skull that had a huge mouth with gigantic teeth. To make it even more frightening, three metal rods stuck out on either side of the skull so that the bow of the ship resembled the symbol on the rudder. The very sight of it made Aerrow's blood run cold.
None of the search party members needed to be told twice. All of them high-tailed it back to the Condor as fast as they could, Aerrow leading the way. No sooner had they made it back to the top of the wreck and headed toward the Condor when the ramp came down to let them in. Aerrow ran up it as fast as his legs could carry him, his whole body in fight or flight mode. Junko, Finn, and Radarr followed close behind. Aerrow wasn't even all the way up the ramp yet when he shouted, "Stork, get us outta here!"
Radarr had just gotten his tail inside when the ramp came up, and the Condor lifted herself off the wreck, taking off into the fog with the Blood Crow's glowing yellow eyes in her skull-shaped bow glaring after her. The Blood Crow then opened up her large jaws and emitted a sound not unlike a roar. She was after her prey.
On the Blood Crow's bridge, the dreaded Captain Scabulous sat in the captain's seat on a stand in the middle of the bridge. This figure was quite a piece of work, a scaly, three-toed, three-fingered creature with black hair hanging down to the height of his chin. A huge red scar ran across his face and blinded his eye, not concealed by an eye patch which most would consider fit for a one-eyed pirate. His missing left arm was replaced by a mechanical limb, and like any Atmosian warrior, he wore plates of armor on various parts of his body. He was a legendary figure, feared throughout the Atmos, much as Blackbeard was on Earth. A strange smile spread across his one-eyed face as he saw the Condor fly away in front of them. "Gear up, boys!" he ordered his crew. He stood up from his seat. "We've got ourselves a live one!"
The captain's first mate, Eyeball, stood at the helm. He was the same type of creature as his captain—most of the Murk Raiders were—only he was awfully obese. Two rings hung off on either side of his vest, and one ring hung from either shoulder plate of his armor, for he wore armor as well. A mechanical limb stood in the place of his missing left leg. This enthusiastic crewman, hearing his captain's order, put his trumpet to his mouth and blew.
Every hand on the ship knew that sound; they were going after some loot!
Immediately every free hand on the ship went into action. Cannons were run out of the Blood Crow's side and loaded. The Murk Raiders laughed as they drew their dual-edged energy cutlasses fueled by purple yarr crystals.
Up on the bridge, every part of Captain Scabulous' being was focused on the Condor. "Full power ahead," he ordered quietly.
The Blood Crow shot forward after the retreating Condor.
And on board the Condor, Aerrow's mind was working furiously. When he was really stressed, he might pace or move around a bit, but he hadn't reached his limit. The danger hadn't quite closed in on them up. He was still able to think clearly without revealing his fear to his team. He stood still behind Stork, who was at the helm. Aerrow's hand was on his chin as he pondered.
Finn wasn't quite so good at concealing his fear. He looked out the window anxiously. "Murk Raiders in here," he said nervously, putting his hand to the window, "Cyclonians waiting out there!" He clutched his fists fearfully. "We're trapped!"
That jogged Aerrow's brain. "Not if they can't find us," he said. He thought about what would be the closest thing in which they could not be found. "Stork," he ordered, leaning forward to add force to his voice, "head for the fog!"
Stork turned around at him with a queer, paranoid smile and said, "And right into zero visibility, bottomless caverns, and mangly pillars of razor-sharp rocks?"
"Exactly," Aerrow answered. The humor in it forced a lighthearted smile out of him. "I don't even wanna see what these guys look like," he answered.
"Right," Stork said. He turned back to the helm, and the Condor made a tight turn to portside, straight into the fog.
The Blood Crow, the eyes on her skull-shaped bow glowing yellow and the ends of the six long appendages coming off of it glowing purple, like some deformed demon, turned about as the Condor did so, following right in her tracks.
On the Blood Crow's bridge, Captain Scabulous watched carefully, smiling to himself with enthusiasm. "They want a chase, do they?" he said with excitement. He rose from his chair and clenched his fist. "We'll give them a chase!"
The bridge of the Blood Crow was filled with his evil laugh.
In the ever-thickening clouds of the fog, the Condor cruised as fast as visibility would allow. Aerrow took a moment to check on his team. Everyone seemed fine, not that he expected otherwise. It was only a routine check, and he just needed to see if he should up their mood. Everyone was alright considering the situation. Only one member caused him concern. "Junko," he asked the pink-eyed Wallop over the intercom, "how ya holdin' up?"
How was he holding up? If he had been willing to answer, he would have admitted he wasn't so good. His eyes itched like crazy, he was so stuffed up he could hardly breath, and he couldn't seem to stop sneezing.
The Wallop was in his room. He stuck a sock in each nostril to try to curb the sneezing. But it didn't work. When he felt another one coming, he reached for the pillow on his bed next to his giant teddy bear. Putting the pillow to his face, he let out his sneeze. Feathers exploded everywhere and all over him as the pillow burst. He sniffled, the socks still stuck in his nose.
This was torture.
On the bridge, everything seemed to be going well. But then Aerrow nearly jumped out of his skin. The pinging sound was there again, and so were the visible sensory waves passing through them. Aerrow and Stork turned on the spot. The Blood Crow was tracking them.
On the Blood Crow, Eyeball was watching the results from the sonic finder on the bridge. The tracker sensed sound waves and then transmitted them back to a pen that vibrated with the shape of the wave over a piece of long printing paper, making patterns on the paper that showed the sound waves in the shape of transverse waves. The louder the sound, the farther the pen moved. The more high-pitched the sound, the faster the pen moved.
There was a reason Eyeball was the one checking the results. This was one job he could do without messing up. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, nor the best shot in battle. His only real skills were being mean, bossing people around, listening to his captain, and snatching other peoples' wallets—something nearly all good pirates are good at. Checking the results on the sound tracker was easy. Besides, he was the first officer; he had a right to monitor it.
"Hoo, hoo!" he laughed gleefully as he saw waves showing up on the paper from the sound of the Condor. "I got 'em, Captain!" he told Captain Scabulous, who stood behind him. "Just ahead!"
"Stay on them, Eyeball!" Scabulous ordered with a smirk, raising his mechanical hand. "Let's reel 'em in!"
The chase began. The Blood Crow groaned as she moved forward after the little Condor, dwarfed by comparison. Another sonic finder signal was admitted, with more results, most of them produced by the Condor's engine.
Captain Scabulous smiled as he saw the results on the paper. The pen was moving farther, making bigger strokes. The sounds were louder . . . which meant they were getting closer. "So close," Scabulous said, "I can taste it!" He brought his mechanical blade-like fingers together, his best attempt at a fist with his metal appendage.
On the Condor, a very different commander was trying to keep his wits about him. They were being tracked by a sound detector. Naturally, the best way to be hidden was to emit as little sound as possible. "Okay, everyone," Aerrow said, "on my mark, we go silent. Now!"
Stork cut off the Condor's engines and the ship made a whirling sound as everything went black. Then Stork pulled her over to the starboard side as she hung on the wind currents and the density of the clouds, letting her slip silently into the gloom and away from the Blood Crow's charge.
The steady beeping sound that had been emitted by the sonic finder as it picked up sounds suddenly began to speed in frequency and then stopped beeping altogether and started making a continuous ringing sound, like a heartbeat monitor losing a heartbeat. The pen stopped moving, and the line on the paper came out straight.
Eyeball stopped and stared down at the paper in astonishment. "Wait a minute," he said, lifting up the paper as it came out the machine. He spoke quietly for fear of how his captain would react. "I think we lost 'em."
Just as Eyeball had predicted, Captain Scabulous didn't take it well. "What do you mean we lost 'em?" he shouted in his face, lifting up his mechanical hand and hooking his blade-like fingers threateningly.
Eyeball didn't know how else to respond. The Condor was off the radar.
On the Condor, while Finn kept lookout through the periscope, Aerrow and Piper were looking at the 200-year-old chart Stork had given them, trying to get a layout of the pillars of jagged rocks with their limited visibility. Piper pointed to a spot. "Here," she whispered, turning to Aerrow. That was where they needed to turn.
Aerrow turned to his pilot. "Stork!" he ordered in a stage whisper, his urgency making his tone harder than it needed to be. "Hard left. Now!"
"Hard left?" Stork repeated in a whisper just to be sure. But before Aerrow had a chance to confirm, Stork pulled the Condor over to portside.
Aerrow went to the front view window, aware of Piper following him and taking a place by his side. He kept his fists clenched; he was as nervous as the others, and clenching his fists masked that. He couldn't let his team know he was anything but determined and fearless.
The Condor steered silently around the rock pillars. Because the engine was off, Stork had to make exaggerated movements in order to turn her.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aerrow saw Radarr move to the window on all fours and stand up on his hind legs to look straight ahead of them, churring softly as the rocks got closer and closer together, boxing them in. Piper, too, watched with her mouth slightly open to the side, looking concerned as two rocks ahead of them made a very narrow opening. Stork winced as they passed by it, the Condor's side missing the jagged rock by inches. The gap ahead of them was even narrower. Aerrow knew they were worried that the Condor couldn't get through. The thought had crossed his mind as well. But he had to believe she could make it. At a time like this, he couldn't afford not to take chances.
Just then, he heard the sound he dreaded to hear; the Condor's giant starboard engine scraping against the point of a rock along its bottom. Finn's head snapped up, with his teeth clenched fearfully. His fear was contagious, especially to one already vulnerable, and Aerrow tightened his fists, if that was possible. The sound lasted for only a little longer than a second, but he knew that, even so, the Blood Crow must have picked it up.
Indeed, on the bridge of the Blood Crow, Eyeball smiled to hear the sonic finder admitting a beeping sound and seeing the pen move, making waves on the paper. But just when he had opened his mouth and made a sound to speak, the beeping turned into a ringing again, the pen stopped moving, a straight line was drawn across the paper, and the sound was lost. Eyeball frowned in irritation.
Stork's eye twitched and a drop of sweat had formed on his forehead as he clenched his teeth, concentrating on the Condor's handicapped steerage in this hazardous area. Aerrow could see he was working hard and wished to relieve him, but right now, he needed the Merb's skills.
Both of them saw the gap up ahead of them in the rocks. "Um," Stork said nervously, "we're never gonna fit through here . . ."
Aerrow studied the gap. Maybe he should . . . But no. He spoke no order. The Condor slowly neared the rocks.
Piper turned to her Sky Knight anxiously. "Aerrow, we gotta turn!"
"We'll make it," he assured her. They had to. He turned back to the windshield, frowning at it determinedly. This had to work.
But luck didn't stay with them. Still in his room and still having a sock stuck in either nostril, Junko began to suck in a breath as he felt the urge to sneeze again. He tried to stop, tried to stifle it, but it was no use. "Ah-choo!"
The sneeze was exactly what Eyeball was looking for. The first mate smiled as the sound tracker beeped again and began to make waves on the paper. A smirk spread across Captain Scabulous' face when he heard the sound. Now they had a bearing on the Condor's location; the Blood Crow veered to portside.
The little Condor didn't even notice the Blood Crow crawl up behind her, but Aerrow heard the pinging of the sonic finder and felt its wave sweep through him, and he knew the Murk Raiders had spotted them. Time for plan B—and yes, he actually had a plan B. Taking one last look at the jagged rocks to estimate their stability, he turned around to Stork and pointed to him. "Full speed!" he ordered.
Stork surely must have thought he was crazy, but he didn't hesitate. Applying the throttle, he brought the Condor back to life, and she charged forward. And of course, just as expected, she had a few bumps. The first rock hit her on the starboard side. Aerrow grabbed the railing just before he nearly fell backward while Piper was thrown forward onto the railing. A second collision to the bow broke apart some of the pillars of rock. Stork heaved the Condor over, keeping her out of the way of the falling rocks. The movement made Piper scream and sent Finn sliding across the ship. "Whoa, whoa!" he shouted, before having his back collide with the starboard side of the window.
As they made more collisions and made more rocks fall, Stork forced the Condor upward. Aerrow leaned forward on the railing to keep himself upright. Hearing Piper grunt, he saw her doing the same at his side.
The flight through the falling rocks only lasted for another second and then . . . they were clear. Aerrow let the tension ease out of him, not realizing he had been hunching his shoulders. Stork and Piper did the same, Piper letting out a loud sigh of relief. Aerrow stared ahead for awhile, catching his bearings.
Piper recovered just a second before he did. She turned around to Stork. "Nice move," she congratulated him. Aerrow turned around and smiled. She'd beaten him to the punch.
All the same, they weren't clear of danger yet. Aerrow turned back to the window. "Well," he said, "let's hope it bought us some distance."
But even as the Condor sped away, the Blood Crow was nearing the rock pile they had created. Captain Scabulous was at her helm, and he smirked at the joy of the hunt. He did not slow when he saw the blockade. Instead, he just operated one of the Blood Crow's many powerful energy cannons that stretched across her length, causing it to open up out of the ship and fire with yarr crystal energy at the rock pile. It only took one blow and the path was cleared. The Blood Crow continued after the Condor.
The chase was far from over.
Author's Notes: Storm Hawks related trivia #1: Stealing crews is not as unusual as some might think. It was, or is, actually a pretty standard behavior for pirates. When having captured a ship, most modern pirates just hold the crew hostage, but some do what most oldie pirates did: give them a choice. The choice is either death or to join their crew. Not everyone was willing to die when they had the chance to live, even if it meant becoming a pirate. Many pirates of the 18th century, although not majority of pirates, actually started out as captives. In fact, the famous Captain Jack (not Jack Sparrow) actually started out as a captive and was elected captain by the crew when the captain before him was killed. He later became one of the most dreaded pirates of the Atlantic, second only after Blackbeard. Of course, many pirates who started out as captives, including Jack, slaved away under their captor pirates before they were trusted.
Storm Hawks related trivia #2: Hollywood has often taken the missing limbs of the pirates of the 18th century a little too far, but they weren't entirely unrealistic. Pirating, in Atmos or on Earth, is a dangerous business. It was not uncommon to see pirates with missing limbs. Often it was because they received battle wounds that were healed by amputation. After all, back in those days, with the risk of gangrene and other festering, a man had 1 out of 10 chances of surviving without amputation; he had 6 out of 10 chances of surviving if the injured limb was amputated. With the lack of medical care for Murk Raiders, perhaps it is the same for them. In fact, so often did you loose body parts as a pirate that, in order to keep people in their crews, pirates (who were quiet democratic) developed a system in which you were paid a certain number of pieces of eight for each lost limb. The amount depended on the limb that was amputated or shot off. However, pirates of the earlier centuries on Earth did not have mechanical replacements for their limbs. Therefore, captains were normally voted out of command if they had missing limbs. Remember, if you had a missing limb, you were handicapped, even with a hook or wooden leg to replace it.
Now, I happen to know some pirates, so if you don't review, they just might come and find you! He, he! Oh, I mean, um . . . Arg!
