I'm so excited for this chapter and things to come. I think right now, the thing I'm look forward to the most is the episode with Carver. There will also be a reunion later on, don't worry. So, before I begin. I rewatched the last episodes, I had watched them years ago and forgot what happened, but dude! That's all I can say. So, let's get this show on the road.


stratosphere

"What is happening?" Adrianna demanded at she ran onto the bridge.

"I don't know," Aerrow said as he tried to keep his balance as they were being attacked from an unknown enemy.

Adrianna grabbed a hold of the railing to keep her balance as everyone else came running onto the bridge as well.

"Evasive maneuvers everyone!" Aerrow ordered as he grabbed the same railing to keep himself from falling over.

"Oh sure, take a nice relaxing swamp bath, and we just have to get attacked," Stork groaned as he walked to helm, wrapped in a towel. He was not happy as he started driving the Condor through the blasts.

Everyone had a moment pf panic as a pipe busted on the Condor. But thanks to Radarr's quick actions, he patched up the broken pipe as both Adrianna and Piper covered their eyes to avoid looking at a now naked Stork.

"Piper, where are these things coming from?" Aerrow demanded.

"If my math is correct, and it always is," Piper said gleefully.

"Not the best time Piper," Adrianna said as she braced for another hit to the Condor.

"These trajectories all originate from a point twenty leagues above us," Piper continued without hearing Adrianna.

"Twenty leagues, but… No one has ever gone that high," Aerrow stated in confusion as he looked up into the sky. He then pulled down a periscope to be able to look farther up into the sky. "I don't believe it, someone's reached the stratosphere," Aerrow said as he released the periscope and looked at the Storm Hawks.

"But who?" Piper asked concerned.

"Ravess," Adrianna seethed as an arrow pierced the ceiling of the Condor. As she grabbed the arrow, Adrianna muttered, "I hate that woman," under her breath.

"The stratosphere, how could Ravess have-" Aerrow said in shock until Piper cut him off.

"Aerrow, we need a plan," she said as she tried to keep her balance.

"Right," Aerrow said as he snapped to. "Junko, the emergency flares, throw them up."

Junko nodded and ran off to do what he was told.

"Finn, nail it!" Aerrow then ordered.

Finn shoot off one blast, and hi the flares.

"Clever," Piper said.

"But, they're not going to last," Adrianna pointed out.

"Stork, find some cover, fast," Aerrow ordered.

"It's getting kind of drafty," Stork said as he abandoned the helm to find himself something to cover up with.

"The ship, Stork!" Adrianna shouted as she covered her eyes again. She had stopped looking in Stork's direction, but now he had moved.

"Right," Stork said as he stopped reaching for his towel.

"Actually, if you could do both, that'd be great," Piper said as she too was tired of looking at Stork naked.

"How are you not disturbed by this?" Adrianna whispered to Piper.

"I've lived with these guts for over a year," Piper shrugged.

With Stork and the Condor under cover, Aerrow laid out a map. "We need to modify the Condor for high altitude operation. Tight bulk head, booster rockets, the works," Aerrow told everyone.

"You mean were gonna-" Junko started.

"Yep, we're going up to the stratosphere to stop Ravess," Aerrow said as he looked at everyone.

"That platform that Ravess is using," Adrianna said as she looked down. "I saw the plans for it. The energy spectra that the platform is using, there are gravity stones to keep it aloft."

"Okay, Piper can you figure out how to do the same thing for us?" Aerrow asked. "We're also going to need air, because I don't think there is a lot of it up there."

"Leave that to me," Stork said.

"And we could all use some high-altitude training," Aerrow said as he looked at every one of his team members.

"I'm on it," Finn volunteered. He then turned to Junko to whisper, "Sounds easy."


"Well?" Ravess asked as a talon approached her.

"They've taken refuge general. From this altitude-" the talon answered before he was attacked.

"Perhaps you need a closer look!" Ravess growled as she shoved the talon against the door. She then opened the door out into the stratosphere. The only thing keeping the talon from falling was Ravess' hold on the man.

"General, you have an urgent transmission from Cyclonia," the talon said as he stood at attention.

Ravess threw the talon to the side and turned to walk away. "I'll take it in my cabin," she said as she walked away. As she walked, thought swirled through her head. 'The Storm Hawks are here, that means Lilith is most likely here as well. This is my chance.'

Ravess took a second to compose herself before she answered the transmission. "Master Cyclonis," she said as she tried to keep the fear out of her voice.

"So, you have been using my platform for sneak attacks," Master Cyclonis said.

"Indeed Master," Ravess said as she pushed the fear away from her. "With the Storm Hawks out of the way-"

"The Storm Hawks had no clue we were up there until you started taking shots at them," Master Cyclonis cut in.

"But Master, it's the perfect opportunity!" Ravess tried to defend.

"This project is all the opportunity we need. Complete your task, or I will start taking shots at you," Master Cyclonis ordered. "And don't even think about getting your revenge against Lilith, Dark Ace is going to take care of her." With that, the transmission cut out.

"Dark Ace is now a love struck fool," Ravess seethed.


"Finn, where is everyone?" Adrianna asked as she walked into the main hanger that had been set up for them to use for high-altitude practice. When she got no reply, Adrianna walked closer. As she walked up to Finn, she noticed him asleep. "FINN!" she screamed in his ear, effectively waking him up.

"Who, what!" Finn shouted as he waved the controller around.

"Give me that," Adrianna ordered as she snatched the controller away and put a stop to the spinning torture that her brother and team mates had been subjected to.

As the machine came to a stop, all the Storm Hawks came stumbling out. Both could tell that their team mates were going to be sick.

"Alright peoples, ten second break," Finn said as he waved his clip board around. "Then, we cut the air pressure in half."

The others laid on the floor and groaned, in agony or in frustration, Adrianna didn't know. Luckily, they were saved by Stork walking in wearing his new, invention that would allow them to breathe up in the stratosphere.

"What are you wearing?" Adrianna asked as she looked at the things around his neck.

"My proto type strato suit," Stork said as he lifted up his helmet.

"I got that," Adrianna said as she tried and failed to contain her eye roll. "Around your neck."

"It's full protection from the dangers of the upper atmosphere," Stork said as he waved his hand.

"Are those radishes?" Finn asked as continued to hide behind Junko.

"The only known defense against strato elves," Stork said seriously. He then named off what each thing around his neck was supposed to ward off.

"That's great Stork, but for the rest of us, just do the air part, oaky?" Aerrow said.

"I can't tell if he is serious," Adrianna muttered to herself.

"Of course, I am! One can never be too careful with the things up in the stratosphere," Stork said.


"How goes everything?" Adrianna asked as Aerrow walked back inside after doing some of his finishing checks.

Aerrow was so nervous that he didn't hear her.

"Aerrow!" Adrianna shouted. She was in the middle of getting her suit on when Aerrow had walked in.

Even after the pep talk from Piper, Aerrow still wasn't quite focused yet.

"Hey, everything is going to be fine. We're going to go up there, kick Ravess' butt and then come back down," Adrianna said as she momentarily stopped putting her suit on.

"I know, but so many things could go wrong," Aerrow said as he stopped looking at his check list.

"If they go wrong, they go wrong," Adrianna stated. "As much as we want to, we can't plan for every little thing."

With a sigh, Aerrow nodded his head in understanding.

"Good, now zip me up and let's get you into your suit," Adrianna said as she turned around.


"Final systems check," Aerrow said as he tried not to sound nervous as everyone buckled into their seats.

"Crystal matrix, ready," Piper said from her seat.

"Boosters, ready," Junko said as he looked around.

"Navigation, ready," Stork said nervously.

"Let's light this candle," Aerrow said as he started the Condor up. "Release clamps," Aerrow ordered.

Adrianna hit the button, and the next thing they knew, the Condor was rocketing along the ramp they had built. Then up into the air. They then successfully made it into the stratosphere.

"We made it," Adrianna said as she let out a sigh of relief. She had doubts that the Condor would be able to make it up into the stratosphere. In even her prime, the Condor would have had trouble.

"Gravitation crystals are holding," Piper said.

"It's so beautiful," Junko said from where he stood by the window.

"It all seems so small from up here," Aerrow said in wonder.

"We can see the boundaries of the known Atmos," Piper said in awe.

"This is breath taking," Adrianna said as she gazed at all of the terras below.

"I hope you're enjoying the sights, our next stop is a Cyclonian battle platform…of doom," Stork said as he gained everyone's attention.

"They're getting ready to fire at us," Adrianna stated as she watched them get closer to the platform.

"Finn, get to your station, and give them a welcome to the stratosphere gift," Aerrow said as he watched the platform get closer as well. "Stork, take us in," Aerrow said. As they reached the platform, Aerrow called out, "Lower boarding tube."

They all then made their way to the boarding tube. As they approached the tube, Adrianna made sure she had her swords, she wasn't taking any chances.

"Where do you think you're going?" Aerrow challenged as he watched his sister get ready.

"I'm going with," she said as she didn't even look at him.

"No, you're not," Aerrow said sternly. "That a Cyclonian ship, if something happens you could be on your way back to Master Cyclonis. We still don't know the full effects of what Cyclonis' crystal did to you."

"Aerrow-" Adrianna tried.

"No, I'm not letting you go," Aerrow said as he and the other dashed across the landing tube.


Adrianna paced around the Condor, things were taking a lot longer than what they should have. She was about to go across the boarding tube when the rest of the Storm Hawks came running right at her. "What happened? Where's Aerrow?" Adrianna demanded as they ran past her and straight to the bridge.

"You guys get out okay?" Aerrow asked over the coms.

"Aerrow?" Adrianna shouted. "Where are you? What happened?"

"I'll explain later, right now I'm fine," Aerrow replied.

"We're back to regular atmosphere," Junko stated.

"Revert to normal flight mode," Piper ordered.

"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Adrianna demanded as she took off her helmet.

"Proceeding to pick up point," Stork said as he faced to helm.

"We can see Ravess' little toy," Aerrow said over the coms. "I think we're going to miss. By a couple leagues."

"What are you talking about?" Adrianna demanded again.

"Um, we'll tell you later," Aerrow said as he was dreading his conversation with Adrianna. "Finn, Junko, get her out of here for now," Aerrow ordered. If something was going to happen, he didn't want Adrianna yelling out his name.

The two hesitantly looked at each other before each one grabbed one of Adrianna's arms an all but dragged her off the bridge.

Adrianna was ready to scream in frustration as she was dragged away from the situation. "Finn, let me go," she ordered.

"No, if something happens, Aerrow wouldn't want you in there hearing about," Finn tried to reason.

"But if something does happen, then I need to be there," Adrianna stated. "He's my brother and I abandoned him once, and I'm sure not going to do it again."

"Fine, but you need to stay calm or we're going to drag you all the way back to your room," Finn stated.

"I don't know, I've never done this sort of math before," Piper stated as her fear was clearly heard in her voice.

"Trust yourself, you can do this," Adrianna stated as she walked up to Piper.

Piper then gave Aerrow his instructions on what he needed to do.

"Guys, I can-" whatever Aerrow was going to say cut out.

"Aerrow?" Piper shouted in concern.

"Aerrow?" Adrianna demanded.

"He's too far out of range," Stork said as he looked at his female teammates.

Everyone looked at each other, all were worried. In their worried state, a high powered, red laser shot at them from the sky.

"What was that?" Finn demanded.

"The exopod," Piper said as she looked skyward.

"It's knocked out our crystal array," Stork exclaimed.

"I'm on it," Junko said before he walked away

"How does that exo-thingy know where we are?" Finn asked.

"Because were not alone out here," Adrianna said as she looked through the periscope to see Ravess and her Talons.

"We're sitting ducks out here," Stork said, right before another blast came raining down, but this time it hit Ravess' ship.

"Power's back," Adrianna said happily.

"Radarr's on course for the pickup point," Piper said happily.

"But what about Aerrow?" Adrianna asked worriedly.

"Aerrow, Aerrow?" Finn shouted over the coms.

"Like I said, I'll be fine," Aerrow said as his voice finally came back over the coms.


"You know, you make me worry so much," Adrianna said as Aerrow walked up to where she was leaning against the railing outside. "But then again, what are little brothers for," she said with a soft smile.

"Sorry," Aerrow muttered. He knew she must have been worried.

"Just promise me you won't do anything that reckless again," Adrianna asked.

Aerrow knew he couldn't make that promise, after all he was a Sky Knight, so instead he changed topics. "Addie, when we confronted Ravess on the platform, she said something," Aerrow said. His gut had been twisting every time he thought of what Ravess had said before she had abandoned her platform.

Flashback

"It's over Ravess," Aerrow shouted as they rushed into the room.

Ravess simply laughed and then told them how this platform was just used to help them reach the outer atmosphere. But before she left she had turned to Aerrow and said, "Tell Lilith that Dark Ace misses her and has become pathetic." With that being said, she let lose another laugh before she jumped into an escape pod.

End flashback

"What did she say?" Adrianna asked as she braced herself.

"She said to tell Lilith that Dark Ace misses her," Aerrow said. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked his sister.

"Don't worry about it," Adrianna said stiffly.

"Addie," Aerrow tried.

"No, Aerrow, let it go. It doesn't concern you," she ground out.

"But it has to do with you being captured by Cyclonis," Aerrow tried to protest.

"Aerrow, you have to trust that when the time is right, I will tell you guys what happened to me," Adrianna said. "It's been a month since you got me out of that place, so please just give me some more time."

"Alright, but know you can tell me anything," Aerrow said.

"Am I interrupting?" Piper asked as she walked out onto the rail-lined platform.

"Yes," Aerrow said the same time Adrianna said, "No."

"No, you're not," Adrianna said as she sent Aerrow a look that told him their conversation was over. "I need to be alone for now."