DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters, locations, equipment etc used in this story, it exists purely because I want it to
WARNING: This Story contain themes of violence, torture, segregation, slavery and death (not necessarily in that order). Graphic content has been kept to a minimum to avoid M rating, even so, viewer discretion is advised (yes I shall be putting this warning on every chapter just in case)
(in addition there is a deliberately censored word in this one, I'm desperately trying to avoid an M rating while at the same time going as Dark as I can)
Hello all and welcome to the first chapter of this story, I hope the prologue got you all hyped for the rest of this, sadly I'm afraid if you're looking for action your going to have to wait until the next chapter, cause this one is going to be mainly world building, going over what happened to end the war in Atmosia's favor as well as Piper's own personal journey to the start of this story.
Don't like that, well suck it up, this fictional world is MY twisted Domain, I make the rules and I determine the SEVERITY of your PUNISHMENT!
Ahem, excuse me, lets just start this thing shall we
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Dear Readers (and Mortals) all, welcome back to, The Storm and the Hawk
Chapter 1: Past and present
How does one describe Piper Zanni of Terra Mesa? Well if you were to ask her teachers, they would say she is a dedicated and determined student, always willing and eager to learn more. If you asked her friends, they'd say she was a bubbly cheerful spirit, always with a smile on her face, though she was very emotional and hated to see suffering, no matter what it was. Her family would say she was kind, generous, sincere and caring, in short, the best daughter they could have asked for. That would be a basic psychological profile, as for what she actually looks like, she was a fifteen year old girl, despite her youth however, she already had a lithe cat-like frame. Her skin was chocolate brown, while her dark hair had a natural blue tint, but by far her most dazzling feature was her eyes, sparkling amber orbs set in a pretty face that had had every boy since the upper years of secondary school falling head over heels for her.
This story begins sometime shortly after Piper turned 15, about the time of the end of year exams at Traven Academy, but I'm sure you're wondering, 'What in Atmos's name is Traven Academy?' worry not dear readers, for while this story does begin during the end of year exams, every good story needs a backdrop, a history, and boy, does this story have a history... are you sitting comfortably, good, then let's begin
30 years prior to the beginning of our tale, the Free Atmos was at war with the Cyclonian Empire, for much of the war Cyclonian dominated, having greater manpower, resources and technology. Indeed, the Free Atmos only held on in the war thanks to the Skyknights, a group of selfless individuals dedicated to protecting Atmos, by their actions Cyclonia was kept at bay, but Atmosia – the lead Terra of the Free Atmos alliance – knew that it could not last. Enter Long Feng, at the time a young but dedicated crystal mage and scientist; it was Long Feng who began developing new weapons with which to wage war with against Cyclonia, supported by the Atmosian Council. Thanks to Long Feng's innovations, Terra Atmosia was able to create a new fighting force that would make up the bulk of the Free Atmos army, and it was called, The Atmosian Liberation Force, or ALF for short. The combined strength of both the Skyknights and ALF was able to begin turning the tide against Cyclonia, so successful was this force that Terra's that were once on the fence began flocking to the Atmosian Council and prompted the creation of the Atmosian Senate, a single governing body for all the Free Terra's of Atmos whose seat of power was Terra Atmosia.
As the Skyknights and ALF advanced deeper and deeper into Cyclonian territory, more and more Terra's were brought into the fold, until finally, only Terra Cyclonia remained. The Cyclonians gathered their entire fleet (or what remained of it) around their home Terra and dug themselves in, the battle of Terra Cyclonia would decide the fate of the entire Atmos, and if the Cyclonians lost, they would not be a part of that fate. The battle lasted for days, with the Atmosian Liberation Force bombarding the Terra, trying to pummel the Cyclonians into submission, just as the Cyclonians had done to other Terra's during the war. The Cyclonians refused to give in however, fighting tooth and nail for their home Terra, during this the Skyknights could only look on at the horror they had allowed to claim Atmos. They were meant to be the Atmos' defenders, protectors, and yet now they were watching as those they had defended, became the very thing the Skyknights had defended them from. Eventually Cyclonia could take no more and the Terra surrendered, but it was only with the Terra's capture that the Atmosians learned that Master Cyclonis – leader of the Cyclonian Empire – had fled with her son and a cadre of loyal followers, and those that the Atmosians captured stated words that would haunt the Skyknights forever, "Cyclonia lives!"
Despite this, Terra Cyclonia had been defeated, their fleet destroyed, their forces crushed, and what little remained of their forces no longer posed any threat, if they did ever return, Atmosia would be waiting. Terra Cyclonia was occupied and the majority of its population displaced to other Terra's and segregated into camps, most Terra's allowed the Cyclonians to live peacefully enough, but prejudice was heavy and Cyclonians were treated as little better than second class citizens, or worse. For other Terra's, hatred of Cyclonia ran deep, the Cyclonians who ended up on these Terra's were forced into slavery and were constantly brutalized and abused, treated like animals, many of these Cyclonians lost hope and fell into a despairing acceptance of their fate. That was until about 15 years after the war had ended.
On a day that seemed to be no different than any other in Atmos, the Skyknights worst fears came true as the peace was shattered. A small band of Cyclonians attacked a segregation camp in order to free the Cyclonians held prisoner there, they were led by Corvin Cyclonis, son of Master Anarchis Cyclonis, leader of Cyclonia. On that day the words "Cyclonia lives!" were heard on every Terra and the Senate responded with unrelenting fury. They tasked Long Feng – now the head of Atmosia's shadow Ops and lead military scientist – with finishing off the last of the Cyclonian Empire, and remind the Atmos of the Senate's power. Long Feng delivered, though it took him six years to track down the Cyclonians hide out, he was still able to bring the resistance to its knees, during his attack the majority of the Cyclonians resistance forces were killed, along with Corvin Cyclonis and his wife Cecilia Cyclonis, their deaths made public to all of Atmos. Now even if the remainder of the Cyclonians continued to evade them, there was now no one to continue the Cyclonis line, Anarchis was too old to have any more children and she couldn't live forever, it seemed the resistance was doomed to die a slow and painful death and was practically forgotten.
Piper grew up during the time between Corvin's attack and present day, and of course heard about all the news regarding the resistance's fight against the Senate. For most children, their thoughts were that the Cyclonians were getting what they deserved... for Piper however it was different, she pitied the Cyclonians, she didn't see them as animals like most did, but people, many of whom had nothing to do with the war as they had either been children at the time, or hadn't even been born by the time the war ended. Piper was not the only person in Atmos to feel this way, but unfortunately, they were in the minority. Despite not liking what was being done to the Cyclonians, Piper did not let it drag her down and focused instead on her studies, believing that when she was an important scientist of Atmos her words of tolerance and understanding would carry more weight. This path lead to the discovery of her Crystal Mage abilities, which happened one day at school when Piper was about 9 years old.
Piper's class had been split into pairs, each pair conducting the same basic chemistry experiment and using a cooking crystal as a heat source for the experiment. Unfortunately, the school at which Piper attended did not have the greatest of budgets, so the cooking crystals were of poor quality; this meant the experiments were going slowly as the students needed to wait for the water in their beakers to reach a certain temperature. Piper – gloves and safety goggles on – was fiddling with the cooking crystal she and her lab partner – her childhood friend Finn – were using, as she did the thought, if it burned just a bit hotter this would go quicker, entered her head. The moment it did, a surge of energy ran down her arm, through her fingers and into the crystal causing it to go into overload and explode. As Piper was wearing her protective gear she was thankfully not injured, and the explosion was small enough that it didn't reach anyone else... it did however make a loud noise and cause Piper to fall backwards over her chair. The entire class went into a frenzy at the sudden explosion before their teacher was able to calm everyone down and reach a sobbing Piper who was crying mainly due to shock and thinking she was now in trouble rather than actually being hurt.
The teacher told Finn to go and get another member of staff while he took Piper over to a corner and telling the other students to get on with their experiments. Once Finn returned with another teacher in tow – who had a quick discussion with Piper and Finn's teacher – Piper was taken to see the principle, only adding to her fear that she was in trouble, it was anything but. Upon reaching the principal's office, Piper's teacher explained what had happened, and here Piper learned that she was a Crystal Mage, one of only a rare few blessed with the ability to manipulate raw crystal, which was the basis for all of Atmos' technology. This was a significant development for a few reasons, due to their rarity and the fact that Crystal Mage's were usually all people of great intellect, every education establishment in the Atmos practically fought for the opportunity to have a Crystal Mage join their student body. This ultimately meant that Piper was now eligible for almost any high school after graduating from secondary school, the news stunned both Piper and her family – once she told them – but despite pretty much having a free ticket into some of the best high schools out there, Piper continued to study, determined to actually earn her place rather than simply take it.
This dedication attracted the attention of an institute that Piper had had her eye on since she had begun thinking about graduation, and that was Traven Academy. The Academy had been founded by a Terra Mesian, though it had been constructed on Terra Atmosia, the founder was Alexander Traven, formerly of the now defunct Interceptors of Terra Mesa. The Academy was the most prestigious institute for education in the entire Atmos, already boasting the highest test scores and ex students who had gone on to become great scholars, artist, musicians, engineers, even Skyknights, yes Traven Academy also trained Skyknights, in fact combat training was mandatory for all students, though the majority of this training was purely self-defense. Piper had wanted to go to the Academy ever since their teachers at her school on Terra Mesa discussed graduation options to her and the other students, now not only was it possible, but it might even be easier than Piper first thought. Still, she wisely kept her options open, looking at several other schools in the first part of her last year at secondary school, her status as a Crystal Mage meant that practically every school she applied for was begging her to enrol. As it turned out, Traven Academy was no different, but they were more subtle about it, and eventually they delivered their trump card by offering Piper a full academic scholarship if she enrolled at the Academy, meaning if Piper enrolled, the cost of her education there would be practically nothing.
Piper's family wasn't poor, but they weren't exactly wealthy either, so the scholarship sealed the deal, the best education for next to nothing in terms of cost, it was a no brainer, so after graduating from secondary school, Piper was on her way to Traven Academy. It did mean becoming a boarding student and moving away from her family and friends, but Piper was determined and her friends and family were happy for her, Piper made sure to spend as much of the summer as she could with them before the new school year began.
When Piper arrived at Traven Academy, it was both everything she'd dreamed, and nothing like she had expected. Upon arrival, Piper discovered that her new status as a Crystal Mage was a double edged sword, while it had made it easier to get into the school she wanted, it also drew a lot of hate from the other students, and Piper quickly found out why. Piper was currently the only Crystal Mage at the Academy, this meant that a large majority of the other students had got in on merit alone and they felt (especially the ones with parents who could actually afford the standard of education provided by the Academy) that Piper had cheated her way in with her Crystal Mage status. This was especially true for the group of Students Piper did not expect to see there... Cyclonians
Despite Corvin Cyclonis's attempted rebellion, it had been many years since then and many Cyclonians still lived peacefully throughout Atmos; these Cyclonians had then found a new avenue with which to fight for their rights, politics. When a great number of Cyclonian students had excelled in the state funded schools – to the point where they had done better than their Atmosian equivalents – the Cyclonians had begun pushing to get the Senate to allow those students to be accepted into higher tier schools based on their merits. At first this had been met with great resistance, the Senate outright refusing to accept their demands, but the Cyclonians kept pushing, launching non-violent protests in the streets of the Terra's where they lived. Eventually they gained support from Atmosians who began pushing the Senate as well, after some years the Senate finally caved and agreed to the demands so long as certain conditions were met, these included a limit of no more than a dozen Cyclonian students at schools that were outside of the state provided education system for the Cyclonians. The conditions were accepted and now Cyclonian students were able to graduate to schools that were – up until that point – off limits to them.
This was how Piper met Starling, a young Cyclonian student at Traven Academy who was a couple years older than Piper, and Starling had no love for Piper due to the fact that she and indeed every Cyclonian who attended the Academy had worked even harder than their Atmosian counterparts to be there thanks to the prejudice against them. To Starling and the other Cyclonians, Piper was an example of Atmosian favouritism in its purest form, something they loathed, and they began giving Piper the evil eye from the moment they first saw her. Piper for her part had attempted to be the better person by trying to be friendly, an act that was thrown in her face, Piper had approached Starling and her cohorts one lunchtime during the first week of Piper's first year at the Academy. After greeting them however Starling had responded by telling Piper to "Get lost," and that they didn't need an "Atmosian Crystal Mage toady," as a friend, hearing that Piper had stormed off after saying that she was only trying to be nice to them, Piper purposely avoided Starling and the other Cyclonians after that. Luckily Piper soon learned that if she left the Cyclonians alone, then they would leave her alone, and considering that she felt they had a right to be angry that other students needed to do far less to get in allowed her to forgive them for their attitude
The same could not be said for the other students who had a go at Piper for being a Crystal Mage, many of whom were stuck up rich kids who looked down on Piper and her common background. Piper did not have to face them alone however, as she did make two friends there, they were both boarding students like her and they were both in most of her classes, they were Aerrow Strike and Dove Gale. Both of them had got in through scholarships like Piper and as such, like Piper got a lot of fire from other students, not as much as Piper, but enough that they felt that Piper was more a kindred spirit than rival. After their first meeting, Piper, Aerrow and Dove grew closer to one another and became fast friends, looking out for one another and standing by each other no matter what. Aerrow's scholarship was for athletics, though he was more interested in becoming a Skyknight, like his dad – who'd disappeared not long after Aerrow was born – Dove meanwhile had a science scholarship, though she was also a very talented artist and had joined the Academy's Art Club not long after enrolling as a hobby. Aerrow was courageous, loyal and determined, while Dove shared many of Piper's traits, kind, generous, caring, but she was also understanding and patient, Piper couldn't have asked for better friends while attending Traven Academy.
Even though Piper had decided to purposely leave the Cyclonians alone, there was just something about Starling that drew Piper's attention, the way she seemed to act and behave just felt weird to her. This meant that Piper was always keeping at least one eye on Starling and this lead to an encounter in Piper's second year that would change Starling's outlook on the young Atmosian.
Piper had been heading back to her dorm one evening after studying with Aerrow and Dove in the library, Piper was almost back when she past the dorms that the Cyclonians were housed, just outside of them she saw Starling and two other Cyclonians doing something with a sheet at one of the communal sinks, a bare mattress also stood nearby. Curious, Piper approached, as she got closer she saw that there was writing on the sheet, and the mattress looked like it had been torn open then stitched back up. Then Piper detected the smell, it was coming from the mattress and reminded Piper of raw sewage, covering her nose and mouth, Piper looked back towards the Cyclonians and now saw the writing, though smudged from the water Starling and her friends were using to clean it, the words were still legible
It read "You're a piece of s*%? Cyclonian, so sleep in it!"
Piper stared at the words aghast, even giving a small gasp when she saw it, a gasp that Starling and her fellow Cyclonians heard; they whipped round towards her, glaring. "What do you want? I thought I told you to leave us alone!" Starling snapped angrily
"I was just wondering what was going on, I'm sorry..." but Piper was interrupted by the male Cyclonian, a big bulked out fellow with dark violet hair and dark violet eyes
"Starling told you to get lost, or maybe you'd like to confess something!" he snarled
"Snipe, control yourself!" the unknown female Cyclonian – who was a female version of Snipe, though she sounded far more intelligent – snapped before turning to Piper, "Though he raises a good point... are you responsible for this!?" she demanded while glaring angrily at Piper
The two siblings advanced on Piper... until Starling stopped them, "Enough!" Starling snapped, stepping in front of them, then turning to the scared Piper, "I asked you a question, what do you want? I won't repeat myself again."
Piper looked from her to the two angry siblings, then back to Starling, before taking a breath and bringing herself to her full height, "I'm sorry for the intrusion, I was just wondering what was going on," Piper stated apologetically
Starling examined Piper for a moment, before sighing and turning away from her, "Leave her, and help me with this, she's clearly got nothing to do with this," Starling said sternly to the two older students, who obeyed her after only a moment's hesitation
Piper was stunned to see these older students taking orders from someone younger than them, but she quickly shook it off, she was about to continue on, when a thought occurred to her and she followed Starling and the Cyclonians towards the sheet. The three of them noticed that she was still there, none of them spoke, but Starling did raise an eyebrow at her
Piper swung her bag off her back and began fishing around inside it while speaking, "Can you hold that up for a moment so the words are clear to see?" Piper asked
"So you can go and show it off to your friends and gloat, I don't think so!" Snipe growled
Starling just started at Piper carefully as Piper rolled her eyes as she extracted her phone – a graduation gift from her folks – "No, so I can go show the supervisor so we can figure out who did this and get them suspended for it, I mean there's bullying, and then there's this, they shouldn't be allowed to do this," Piper explained.
"Why bother, we're Cyclonians, the supervisor won't do anything about it, they'll just file a report and say they'll get around to it," Snipe's sister retorted
"Hush a moment Ravess," Starling ordered before turning fully to Piper who returned her neutral stare, "Why do this, we're not friends, why even bother when you know it will most likely amount to nothing?" Starling asked
Piper just sighed, "Because it's the right thing to do, because I'm not a jackass, now hurry up before it gets too late and we get in trouble for breaking curfew," Piper replied exasperated
Starling blinked, surprised that Piper would be so forceful, it was just unexpected. She turned to the other two and nodded to them while stepping out of the way, Snipe and Ravess stretched out the sheet until the words were clearly legible. Piper brought up her phone and used its holo-crystal function to take an image of the sheet before saving it to her phone, then she turned to Starling, "I'll be right back with the supervisor, we'll get this sorted you'll see."
With that Piper began heading in the direction of the supervisor's office, "We can hope," Starling muttered as Piper walked off
It didn't take Piper long to reach the supervisor's office, but when she did she stopped dead as there were students already there, with the supervisor on duty, and they were all laughing. "Man we should have set up a camera or something so we could see the look on those Cyclonian scumbags face's when they find our little surprise," one of the students said
"Yea, we'll do that next time, anyway, thanks for lending us the keys, it was a big help," another student said to the supervisor
"No problem, those Cyclonians need to know their place, and it's under our boot heel," the supervisor answered while taking back the dorm keys
Piper did a quick 180 and began making her way instead to the one person she knew would – and more importantly could – do something about this, Matron Ana Traven. She was on equal rank with the supervisor though their roles differed, but what was important about Ana, was not only that she was a good friend of Piper's - after meeting her in the first year - but she was also the mother to the principle of the Academy, Alexander Traven
Piper arrived and knocked on Ana's door, "Come in," came Ana's voice from within
Piper opened the door and stepped inside, Ana looked up from her desk and smiled when she saw Piper, "Piper my dear, what can I do for you?" she asked
Piper closed the door and approached Ana's desk, "I just found that someone had done this to Starling," she said pulling out her phone and having it display the image of the graffiti'd sheet
Upon seeing the image Ana's face went from kind and caring, to a look of outright fury, "Who in the wastelands did this!" she shouted standing up
Piper didn't flinch from the shout and simply continued with what she had discovered "The students responsible are currently in the supervisor's office," Piper started, Ana seemed to relax at those words, but then Piper continued "And they were joking and boasting about this with the supervisor who gave them a spare set of keys to get into Starling's dorm."
If Ana had been furious before, the look on her face now had no adequate descriptive in the dictionary, she immediately picked up the phone on her desk and dialed, after a few moments someone picked up and she began speaking. "It's Ana, get down here now!" silence followed in which Piper could just make out someone speaking on the other end, then Ana interrupted whoever it was, "I don't care how late it is, I need you down here NOW!" she shouted before hanging up. She then sighed and turned to Piper, "Where is Starling now?" she asked
"Still at the communal sinks outside her dorm with two of her friends, trying to clean the words off, I think someone also stuffed sewage or something foul inside of her mattress because that was out there as well with what looked like a repaired hole torn into it and a foul smell coming from it," Piper stated
Ana gave a restrained shudder of anger, before sighing and her features softened as she went over to a cupboard and took out a fresh sheet and handed it to Piper, "Take this to Starling, tell her to chuck the mattress into one of the skips and that I'll get her a new one brought to her, might have to be a temporary one for now as we'll have to order a replacement in, but it should do for a couple of nights," Ana instructed, Piper just nodded, "As for the supervisor, tell him to report to my office immediately and that the students in his office need to stay there or they will be expelled, leave your phone with me, I'll get it back to you as soon as I'm able."
Piper nodded, "What about the sheet their trying to clean?" she asked
Ana just waved her hand as she answered "Tell Starling to chuck it in laundry, I'll see what I can do, but she might need a replacement for that too, if so, all the money for the replacements is going to come out of the fees that the parents of the students responsible pay for."
Piper just nodded, thanked Ana and left with the clean sheet, as Piper made her way back towards the supervisor's office she past the Principle, Alexander Traven, a foul mood plastered on his face, noticing Piper he raised an eyebrow, Piper just smiled as she spoke, "Ana's waiting for you, she's got something to show you, I'm going to make sure the people responsible are going to stay put." Traven's eyebrow rose higher but rather than stop he sped up towards Ana's office, after he arrived Piper could just make out their conversation... which quickly turned into Traven shouting in rage.
Traven's shouts carried down to the supervisor's office because when Piper reached it the man in question was sticking his head out the door, Piper could see that the students were still inside, though now they looked decidedly more nervous
"What are you still doing out and about young lady," the supervisor began, all students need to..." but Piper interrupted him
"You're wanted in the Matron's office, the principle is also waiting for you," Piper stated, "And as for them, Matron has ordered that they're to stay in your office... unless they want to be expelled." With that Piper simply walked on as the supervisor and the other students gawked at her, then Traven's booming voice echoed down the halls, drawing a few students out of their dorms who looked curiously at what was going on. The supervisor ordered them back to bed as he nervously made his way to the Matron's office
When Piper had got back to Starling she saw that they had given up on cleaning the sheet, which wasn't much better than the last time Piper had seen it, they noticed Piper approaching and Snipe nudged Starling to get her attention. Starling looked up and raised an eyebrow at the sheet Piper held in her arms, which she proceeded to hold out to Starling, "Courtesy of Matron Ana, she also said to chuck the mattress in the skip and that she'll get you a replacement, don't worry about cost either, that will be coming out of the fees of the students responsible, the sheet she said to just chuck in laundry for now and she'll see what she can do about it," Piper said a small smile on her face
Starling looked at the fresh sheet, then at Piper, "How?" she asked confused
Piper just smiled, "Pays to have friends you know, and just so happens that me and Ana are good friends,"
"What was all the commotion in the dorm building about?" asked Ravess
Piper's smile grew, "I don't think the current supervisor will be keeping his job beyond tonight, and if the jackass's responsible for this don't want to be expelled they'll accept what's coming to them, the principle was quite pissed when he saw what was on my phone."
Starling, Ravess and Snipe all stared at Piper dumbfounded, and Starling had to ask the question she had earlier, but to which Piper had given her a rushed answer, "Why do this? Why help us?"
Piper's smile became kind and sincere "Because it doesn't matter if your Cyclonian or not, you're still people, it's not right to treat you any differently than anyone else, and yes I know that's a double edged sword, but in this instance it's for your benefit. What I mean is, as a fellow human being, it's my duty to lend a helping hand if I can," Piper explained
Starling looked at Piper shocked, then her face softened and she smiled herself, the first time Piper had seen her do so, "You know something, I was wrong about you, your all right," Starling paused here as she began thinking "It was Piper right?" she asked
Piper just smiled and nodded, Starling then held out her hand "Names Starling, nice to officially meet you," she said
"Likewise," Piper replied as she shook the outstretched hand
"This lummox here is Snipe," Starling said gesturing to the bulked out Snipe behind her, who just grunted in response, but did give a tip of the head to Piper, who returned it
"And this here is his sister Ravess," Starling said gesturing to the tall young women at Starling's side
"Heh," Ravess responded
Piper just smiled and nodded back, then turned to Starling, "I'm glad I could help, and finally meet you, if you ever need anything or a friend, please just ask," Piper stated
Starling nodded in response, "we'll keep it in mind."
Piper nodded at that, then pulling her bag up a little higher on her back, continued on her way to her dorm
Starling, Snipe and Ravess watched her go, once she was out of earshot, Starling spoke "Keep an eye on her, if anyone gives her any trouble over this; teach them a lesson, quietly." The siblings both nodded as Starling continued "Spread the word around our group, she's to be treated fairly from now on, no more evil looks."
More nods, then Ravess spoke "You think she can help us?"
"Right now, no, but Ace still needs time to get into position, it may still be a few years before we're ready, I hate waiting even that long, it's been 6 years since my sister was taken and I want to move now," Starling sighed, "But if we go now, we'll be slaughtered, and my sister will remain a prisoner, so we need to continue with how we've been operating, and that means finding as many people who can or would even be willing to help us... Piper just might be one of those people; I want to know for sure by the time we're ready to move."
The two siblings nodded again, they'd invested so much in this operation, 6 years of planning and coordinating, to have it all fail, to crumble right before their eyes, would spell doom for their people.
That event was 3 years ago, in that time, Ace had successfully infiltrated the facility holding Starling's sister, and Starling had been carefully watching Piper, slowly getting to know her. Now it was time, and Starling was going to take a chance on Piper, and request her help, if Starling was wrong about Piper, then 9 years of planning and patient waiting would blow up in her face.
To be continued dear Mortals, Mwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Ahem... you know... it's actually not half bad (grins evilly)
please leave a review if your liking this story and as always constructive criticism is welcome ; )