Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks or Slayers.

A New Beginning

The Wastelands…

The most terrifying location in the known Atmos. With its volcanic terrain and dangerous beasts, only a few souls dared to enter and live to tell. No one would even try to reside there. And yet, for some karmic reason, someone had found himself trapped in that terrible place.

Snipe, ex-commander of the Talons, had been exiled to this place after his last failure. For weeks or so, he had been walking around, trying to get back and fighting off monsters who call this home. His efforts had left him covered in bruises, scars, burns, and bleeding wounds. His right arm was severely damaged, and he had developed a limp from his last battle. But that wouldn't matter now. Once he was back in the skies, he was going to get revenge on Cyclonis, destroy the Storm Hawks, take over Atmos, and…

And…

Snipe soon collapsed to his knees when he realized how futile it all was. After spending this much time trying to survive, it seemed to be useless to fight his fate. He stared up at the skies, his eyes dazed. He tried to think about, even remember, what his life was like before he was sent here; before he became a Talon. And after drawing nothing but a blank, he began to laugh loudly.

Whenever he had laughed before, it was usually if he found something funny or he was about to win. But it wasn't that kind of laugh. It was the kind that was made by someone on the brink of madness. Unknown to him, his laughter had attracted a Lava Worm close by. It slithered over to him, hissing as it moved. When the creature finally loomed near him, it took him a while to notice.

Deep down, he was very very scared. But that was nothing compared to the pain and regret he was feeling right now. And for once in his life, he welcomed defeat with a smile on his face. Under his breath, he muttered something unintelligible that no beast could care about. Then as Snipe closed his eyes, the Lava Worm lunged forward at him…

"FIREBALL!"

The bandits scrambled away from Lina's fireball. Screaming for their moms, they were caught defenseless by the infamous Bandit Killer. Their leader, who'd fallen at the first blast, had been asking himself how this could have happened. They had been careful. They made sure not to steal too much. But for whatever reason, she had found them and now, they were going to die.

After the smoke dissipated, Lina Inverse, the self-proclaimed Sorceress Genius, smirked. "Man, I'm beat. But getting back to my roots sure brings back memories."

After chasing pirates and nearly endangering them too, she went back to her regular prey. The ones she had defeated so far had been the usual treasure-and-loot kind. But there had been some that dealt with unsavory business, like human trafficking. Which was strange in and of itself. Most bandits had some decency and wouldn't think about taking people unless for ransom. But right now, she didn't care. Lina was about to get her loot until hearing one of her "handy tools" speak up.

"Hey, Lina, don't you think that was a little rough?" She sighed as she placed her hand on her forehead. Of course, she wasn't alone in this. Her partners, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis had followed her to observe her demolition. It's not like she didn't want to be near them though. She was getting paid to escort her royal friend at the moment. Besides, they were her companions. She wanted to be around them despite their opinions.

Turning to them all innocent-like, she said, "Well, they're bandits. I'm supposed to be rough with them." She then looked back in front of her and grinned. "Anyway, let's start searching for anything valuable. They probably have enough for a meal."

"Right! I'll go check and see if there are other bandits." Amelia headed towards a cave as the others went to collect. Well, Lina was right about the stolen goods. The amount of gold was chicken feed compared to the more experienced thieves. And there were only a few antiques gathered though they could be sold for a reasonable price. After getting as much as they could carry, Amelia came back in a panic state.

"Miss Lina! Miss Lina!" she called before approaching the sorceress, "There's a prisoner! They captured a man!" The group raised an eyebrow, confused by her alarm.

"Amelia, why are you being hysterical?" questioned Zelgadis, "It's just a person."

Amelia looked over at her friend, still having the panic look on her face. "That's the thing, Mister Zelgadis. He has wings!"

"Number 3X9 seems to be in a better state than the others."

"But it's still ineffective. Throw him out with the rest. He won't make it."

Snipe groaned as he turned again in his sleep. Voices, he kept hearing voices. He didn't know why, but he had kept hearing them whenever he slept. Even right now, he was hearing people talking.

"You're right, Amelia, he does have wings."

"What do you think he is?"

"Who knows."

"Hey, do you think he's one of those Ancient Dragons like that Voltron guy?"

"It's Valgaav, Gourry… But yea, possibly."

"Maybe it's a Fallen Angel?"

"Could be. Either that or a new type of Lesser Beast…"

Their constant chatter caused Snipe to wake up, stretching his arms out. Fluttering his eyelids, he observed that he was in a cell… A lousy, make-shift dirt cell. There was no bed, no pan, nothing but dust and rocks. He looked down at himself to see nothing but an old rag covering him. It explained what he was feeling on his lower body but not his back. He yawned before hearing one of those voices again. "He looks awake now."

With a grunt, he looked over to the bars to see four people staring at him like a sideshow freak. There were two girls, one big and one small, a guy with long blonde hair, and a green elf man with rocks on his face. After a few seconds of silence, the shorter girl stepped forward and greeted. "Hello, mister. Are you okay?"

Groaning, Snipe answered, "I'm fine… And don't call me mister." He then turned his back to them in anger. When she called him mister, it brought back some memories. Bad memories of a certain someone who always insulted him like that.

There were a few more moments of awkward silence, the group wondering if he was alright. It was then that a new voice spoke up, coming from the flat-chested girl now. "Well, we're only asking. You're in a cell and you seem uncomfortable sleeping on your back. You know, with you having wings and all."

"Wings?" Snipe muttered before touching his back for the strange thing that was bothering him. After feeling some feathers, he grabbed and pulled it over, seeing it was a black wing. "… Oh yea, I do have wings." He seemed to be nonchalant about the situation, much to their surprise.

More awkward silence filled the room and then the tall blondie asked, "So, do you need help getting out?" Snipe turned to him and cocked an eyebrow. Did he really need to ask that? Didn't he notice his great build and the lousy work?

"No, no, I'm good." Stretching his back, he picked himself up so he could break out of his prison. As he was getting up, the ragged blanket fell off causing the entire group to pale and the girls to scream.

"KYAAAAAA!"

Snipe looked over at them, seeing the girls covering their eyes and the guys yelling. Looking down, he soon realized he was naked. Not sure why though, he just was. As if by instinct, his wings covered his crouch to shield innocent eyes. "Hey, it's not my fault. I didn't know I was-!"

"FIREBALL!"

Lina incinerated the cell bars and blasted the idiot, not even listening to his excuse.

Later, the group was outside with Lina getting lectured on why she shouldn't blast naked men at first sight. Snipe, meanwhile, was off in a secluded part of the camp, bandaging up the scorch marks from Lina's fireball. He did manage to find a spare pair of pants that fit him. A pretty plain wear but at the very least, he would be decent.

As he was wrapping up his wounds, Snipe glanced down at his chest, raising an eyebrow at what he saw. There was an orb-like crystal embedded where his heart was. He didn't know how he got it and frankly, he didn't care at the moment. Though he did consider hiding it along with his wings given that they stuck out too much. Starting from his lower midsection, he started to wrap the bandages around his torso.

Snipe managed to get his wings covered after a bit of struggle and time. He then headed back out into the open, taking a glance at the group who were still there. They looked over at him with quiet stares. The girl who had torched him earlier, Lina if he recalled, took a step forward before clearing her throat.

"So…" she began, "Guess you'll be going then. You know where you're heading?"

"Not really," he answered back, looking away. In all honesty, he didn't have much to do, other than getting his revenge on the Storm Hawks and Cyclonis. It'd be difficult to find them though since he didn't know where he was.

The group looked a bit stunned by this but not too worried. They probably didn't care anyway. Snipe was about to take his leave, not even giving them a simple goodbye. That was until he heard the big dumb blonde say, "Hey, why don't you come with us?"

"Huh?" He looked back at the group, raising an eyebrow. Why the Wastelands would he be asking him that?

Lina casually replied, "Oh yea, we're pretty much taking our friend here to a delegation summit thing and you can come with us if you want. It wouldn't hurt to have one more person."

"I don't know," The grumpy elf man grumbled, "Do we really need one more tagging along?"

"Don't be silly, mister Zelgadis! Having another comrade to help with the fight for justice would be great!" The shorter girl looked at her companion with stars in her eyes. Snipe, on the other hand, felt a bit uneasy when hearing that.

Still, he didn't have that many options, and maybe traveling with these guys would be okay. At least until he had a better idea. After some more consideration, he rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. "I guess I can do that."

"Great then!" Lina said while clapping her hands. "Glad you're coming with us, mister…"

"Snipe."

"Snipe, huh…" She paused, looking like she was pondering. Then after a while, she turned herself around and pointed at the sky. "Anyway! Let's go, everyone!"

"Right!" Her other companions exclaimed as the four of them started to set off for their next destination. Snipe soon followed, keeping his distance from them. He was still unsure about going along with these people. Yet he remembered that there wasn't much he could do at that point. Who knows, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Perhaps he'll have some fun in whatever these guys were doing.

So, Snipe continued behind the four. Little did he know of what was waiting ahead for him.

Author's Notes:

Hi all!

It's pretty much been a long time since I put up anything written. Been kinda busy with life and working out my other writing stuff. (Big tip: Do your basic story outline before you write it out.) Anyway, I thought I probably should at least put up something and I picked posting up something to this set of fics.

This is nothing new per se. It was pretty much a self-indulgent experiment fic in which I wanted to use when I tried to get into livestreaming. Since that pretty much went nowhere, I decided just to put it up on Tumblr as a somewhat wip for peeps to read. While some aspects have gone through different scenarios over the years, the core concept remained which was Snipe teams up with Lina and gang, they meet up with the Storm Hawks along the way, and wonderful world-ending shenanigans ensue.

Anyway, I want to thank the peeps who have been reading this and my other works. I really appreciate the support. I also want to add that I now have an AO3 account and this story along with the other Slayers/Storm Hawks ones (with some minor editing) are up on there. I will be putting up others soon hopefully. With some of them, I want to either complete or at least get a sizable chapter queue to upload them soon.

Either way, hope you enjoy this!

Please Read and Review!