Authors note:
I have gone through 8 drafts of this chapter in order to figure out the perfect one.
Anyways enjoy.
If you want you OC featured put it in the review along with powers, what side their on and weaknesses.
Puget, Minnesota
Steeler Santa's home
The sun was rising over the horizon, right now Steeler Santa should be eating breakfast with his friend, Xerxes and remembering the battles their dead friend had participated in with them.
But he can't, because right now he is engaged in somewhat 'glorious' combat to defend his home.
An army of almost 70,000 hawks were surging through his home, each hawk wore a metal helmet, had a spear and shield and a laser pistol.
Steeler was fighting a hawk right now with his twin blades.
He blocked one strike from the hawks spear before retaliating with a swipe to the head.
He sliced the head off the bird of prey and moved on to the next.
Xerxes was using his bronze wing to block laser shots from a set of 5 hawks.
Once they stopped to reload he charged, slicing one hawk in half with his bronze wing, the next one he stabbed in the eyes with his battle claws and the third one's throat he tore out.
The 2 remaining hawks managed to grab Xerxes, slicing a blade across Xerxe's face drawing blood.
Xerxes was then thrown against a tree and shot in the shoulder with a laser gun, knocking out the barn owl.
The next bird Steeler Santa engaged seemed to be wearing some kind of crowned helmet.
This hawk however saw Steeler coming and parried his attack with a golden sword, with grey gems lining the blade.
Their blades met, sending sparks flying into the snow below, melting it.
"Who are you? Why are you here?".
The hawk just laughed at the questions.
"I am Prev the great, ruler of frozen fjord, or Vancouver to humans. I understand that you know the way to the blue macaw tribe in the amazon".
Steeler put on an angry face and pulled away from Prev, "I will never tell you" he declared before charging again.
This time he swung one of his blades to Prev's feet and the other to his head.
Steeler's blade hit Prev's talons, only to be blocked by the metal armor the hawk wore on his feet, as for his head strike?
Prev used his gold sword to block the strike.
Steeler put on a nervous smile, "heh heh, no hard feelings, right?".
Prev just grinned and grabbed the pale macaw's throat in his talons, "now, I am giving you one last chance, tell me where the blue macaws and that Alex owl are?".
Steeler managed to choke out a response, "never".
Prev sighed before shoving his blade straight through Steeler, who only went wide eyed with the sensation of death.
He looked down to the blade, noting the blood that now staind his pale feathers and the white snow beneath him.
The gold blade stook out of Steeler's back, blood dripping off the edge.
Steeler felt a trickle of blood exit the side of his beak, before the blade was pulled from him and he collapsed to the snow white ground, his blood freezing into the snow.
"Pity, could have used him as a good soldier, but…" Prev looked at his blade, where one of the grey goms now glowed white, "he will make a better power source".
Xerxes watched from the tree line, a cut running across his face courtesy of a hawk soldier.
He wanted to run up to this guy and kill him, but he had heard what this hawk said.
He had to warn his friends in Brazil.
And with that the army left Steeler's village, and began flying south once more.
Valhalla
Blu was curled up in his bed, silent as a mouse.
He was staring into the darkness of his chamber, the only light being the glass ball on his night stand.
But the only sound in his head was the seemingly endless loop of Jewel crying and mourning his death.
They had returned from the mortal realm about 2 weeks ago, through the portal that the peacocks kept in their throne room.
All who had attended the funeral had returned home, Steeler Santa was in Minnesota right now with Xerxes, relaxing.
Or so Blu thought.
It had appeared that no matter how much vodka he drank he just couldn't get the image and sounds of his friends mourning out of his head.
The gentle blue glow of the glass bowl reminded Blu of the blue feathers on Jewel, the flower that sat on his desk reminded him of her plant powers and the battle claws reminded him of her feisty and free nature.
His nightstand was flooded with empty glasses of wine that he had drunken to attempt to fall asleep, but his attempts were futile.
But right as he was about to go to sleep he heard a knock on his door, with a groan he got up and walked to the door before opening it.
On the other side was the female military macaw that he had met on his first day, next to her was a barn owl wearing his battle claws and a reddish metal helmet with gold lining.
"The council requests your presence again, please bring your battle attire" said the female military macaw.
Blu nodded and turned around but then asked, "oh yeah, what is your name?".
The military macaw answered, "Arthrisha".
Blu nodded and went back to preparing.
He used his wings to strap his battle claws to his talons, and then pulled the helmet over his head.
But before placing the helmet on he noted the blue thunder streaks that crisscrossed it, and the mural of a blue bird fighting a green peacock.
He then grabbed the metal rapier sword that sat on his desk and slid it into its scabbard before tying it around his waist, just like a fanny pack.
When he walked into the hallway he was met with the same barn owl.
The owl motioned for Blu to follow, which he did.
After 30 seconds of silence he finally asked a question, "so who are you, owl?".
The owl just looked ahead and answered, "my name is Soren. I died about 20 years ago when Pure One soldiers invaded my home. I stood against them and my brother to allow my family and friends to escape and well… I paid the price".
Blu looked down sadly, "I am sorry".
Soren shrugged, "no problem, just miss them. That's all. If you want to know my power, I can tell you. I have the ability to power my body with the strength of Glaux or god in your terms".
Blu just nodded.
The pair soon came to the council room, where yelling could be heard inside.
They pushed open the doors to reveal 50 warriors and the peacock council.
The topic of the meeting?
"This village was brutally attacked by Pret and his army! He killed the women, children and men! We must retaliate!" screamed the yellow peacock.
The Red one nodded his head, "we must send a squadron to aid with the defense of the blue macaws".
When Blu heard this he just went ahead and interrupted the council, "wait, someone is trying to attack my tribe?".
The council looked to Blu before answering, "yes Blu. The one who attacked the village was named Pret, the hawk. He rules over the kingdom of Frozen Fjord, or vancouver as the humans call it. He has attacked a village in Minnesota and killed the warrior there known as Steeler Santa".
Blu took this news like a bullet to the chest, another one of his friends, dead.
But he did not cry or show weakness.
The council continued, "but a barn owl known as Xerxes did escape and is going to the amazon to warn your friends of the impending attack. I believe the Rio Army shall come to the aid of the macaws".
Blu shook his head, "sirs, with all due respect they can't beat this force. We barely beat a force of 50,000. But 70,000, this is a losing fight. Please send my squadron down to help".
The peacocks looked to each other uneasily before coming to a conclusion.
"Very well Blu, but you must hide your identity from your family, at least until battles end. It could remove focus and cause heartache".
Blu nodded in understanding before the rest of his team walked up to him.
"Well Blu, it looks like we'll be going back to your home after all" said Stacker in a joyful voice, Angelo then walked to Blu carrying something in his wings.
"Blu, you're going to need this", he then lifted revealed a metal mask and cloak, "so they don't know it's you".
Blu thanked his fellow spix before taking the items, sliding the mask under his helmet and cloak over his body.
Hi scabbard added a weird shape to the cloak, but few noticed this.
Zain then added a good point, "you should not talk, just in case they recognise your voice, oh yeah. Just for simplicity sake your name for now is Reynard, okay".
Blu nodded, staying to his promise not to speak.
The group then walked to the portal gate inside the room, the peacocks then used their magic to open a portal to the jungle of the amazon.
Blu exhaled before jumping through the portal, his squadron following suit.
Soren just watched from the sidelines, as the inferno squadron left Valhalla.
Blu crashed into the dirt ground of the amazon, with Zain, Stacker and Angelo following him.
"Well, here we are. Home sweet home".
The squad looked around the rainforest before taking to the sky.
Once above the canopy they began scanning the horizon, searching for any sign of the spix tribe, or even the scarlets.
Hell Blu was okay with the military or Lear's tribes.
Zain spotted someone in the distance, a barn owl.
"Who is that?" asked Angelo.
Blu smirked behind his metal mask, "Xerxes" he said before flying to the barn owl.
Once about 15 feet away from him Blu noticed the blood that dripped off the old guardians face.
The owl then noticed the group and flew down, below the canopy, in an attempt to avoid the 4 macaws.
"After him!" screamed Stacker.
And our band of heroes dove after the owl, chasing him through the canopy.
(Dare by stan bush starts playing)
The group criss crossed through the trees.
Xerxes noticed this and now tried to shake the group off his tail.
Xerxes dove again, flying into a tunnel through a hill.
Blu and Angelo followed through the tunnel, while Zain and Stacker flew over head, watching from afar.
Inside the tunnel Xerxes had managed to kick up great amounts of dust, which went right into Angelos eyes.
Xerxes exited the tunnel, the 2 spix macaws following closely.
Back with Blu and the team, they were gaining on Xerxes who now spotted the waterfall, and Jewel with Rico, Tomada, Sorell, Alex and Skyler.
Jewel turned to the chase and saw the owl in need of aid.
Then she saw the 4 birds following Xerxes.
Xerxes landed behind Jewel, with our 4 friends landing in front of Jewel.
"Who are you and why are you here?" asked the still mourning female spix.
Angelo answered for the rest of the group in an amazingly calm voice, "we come with news from Minnesota. The village in which Steeler Santa resides in has been destroyed, Steeler killed. Xerxes here is the only known survivor of the attack".
He looked at the group in front of him, nting all of their expressions.
It took Jewel a moment to take in all this information.
Tomada and Rico just looked in amazement and sorrow.
While Skyler, Alex and Sorell kept up their skeptical faces.
Jewel however, could not trust these birds.
"Why should we trust you, and who are you?".
Zain smiled, "well for starters my name is Zain, the Scarlet over there is Stacker, the spix in Angelo and our masked man there is Bl- Reynard".
Zain just managed to save the last sentence.
Jewel was still not satisfied, "you have not answered my second question".
Angelo was about to answer when something came from behind him and tackled him to the ground.
In fact, all the newcomers were tackled and held by spix macaw guards.
Roberto held Angelo, while 1 held Blu/Reynard, 2 held Zain and 2 held Stacker.
Jewel did not say anything, she just watched as the events unfolded.
Eduardo soon flew up to them, being semi cranky due to having to leave the game.
"What is the meaning of your incursion here!" he shouted.
Angelo didn't even bother answering the old spix's question.
Roberto then pushed his talons down onto Angelo harder, "answer him".
Stacker then scoffed before speaking, "I'm tired of this. Reynard, if you will?".
Blu smiled before giving off a huge electrical pulse, sending everyone but his friends flying backwards.
Roberto landed under the waterfall, but everyone else flew into trees and onto the ground.
The squad then stood up and dusted themselves off, before looking to the recovering macaws before them.
"Look, we mean no harm. We are only here to help you guys fight off Prev's army. Which by the way is 70,000 hawks strong" declared Stacker.
Jewel and her friends decided to listen to the 4 mystery birds but before they could get even one word out Sorell screamed, all eyes turned to see a burn mark on her back as she fell down in pain, "Sorell!" screamed Tomada as he caught his falling love.
All eyes turned to see a group of a hundred or so hawks above them.
Tomada was about to charge the hawks when a shriek was heard, then a hawk fell with an arrow embedded in his chest.
Then out of nowhere Blu and his friends charged the small battalion of hawks.
Angelo continued using his newly formed bow to snipe hawks while dodging lasers, Zain used his dragon form to torch any hawk that came near him, Stacker used is super strength to break the bones of hawks and Blu?
Well Blu took out his rapier and used his thunder abilities to electrify the blade.
His silver blade, now crackling with blue lightning easily broke any shields these hawks may use.
"Hey Stacker!" yelled Zain "It feels good to get back to fighting after a couple years".
Stacker nodded, "yeah, I missed the feeling of bones breaking on my wings".
Angelo then shouted, "you guys are so immature".
After several minutes of fighting like this our heroes were beginning to tire out, while Jewel, along with her friends watched the ensuing battle.
Jewel had to admit, these guys were good.
But something was off, she felt like she knew the one wearing a cloak.
Like she had met him before.
But back to the battle, Blu had an idea and signaled for the squad to descend to the ground, which they did.
Blu then spoke loud enough for Angelo to hear, "make an arrow out of metal, I'll hit it with electricity and we'll see how these bastards do".
Angelo nodded and prepared an arrow, attaching the rear to the string of his bow.
He aimed up at the mob of hawks flying down to them, before launching the arrow.
The group watched as all the hawks got out of the arrow's way.
Then when the arrow was in the center of the mob Blu sent a bolt of lightning to it.
The moment the lightning made contact with the arrow a huge blue electrical blast occurred, electrifying all the attacking hawks.
All present turned their eyes away from the blast, cringing as they heard the hawks scream in pain as the lightning tears apart their nerves.
Blu, Zain, Stacker and Angelo turn to the group of awestruck natives in front of them and casually walk up to them as dead hawks fall to the ground all around them.
Zain smirks and casually asks "do we have your trust?".
Jewel looked at them with wide eyes, "I suppose you do".
And with that they all flew to the pit of doom to inform the tribes of the threat at hand.
The group of mortals have given our heroes their trust but now only a hundred miles away, a hawk sat on his portable throne his gold sword in hand, still looking at the white gem he now possesed.
He knew that the bird he killed in minnesota had given his powers into the gem, that bird seemed to be exceptionally strong.
This strength now coursed through Prev's body.
He enjoyed a sip of wine as he sat on his throne in the jungle.
In front of him were several captured female scarlet macaws, now being forced to dance for the sick hawks pleasure.
Prev took a second to look away from the 'exotic' dancers to look at his reflection in his drink.
He saw a hawk, more powerful than any hawk before him.
He was interrupted from his day dream by the sound of wings flapping and warriors landing.
He looked up and saw 3 of his soldiers land before him, 2 carrying a wounded scarlet macaw.
The third soldier bowed for his king before giving a report on their mission.
"Milord, we have successfully captured the leader of the scarlet macaw tribe, Chief Felipe".
Prev now stood up from his throne and with his sword walked toward the wounded chief.
He used his left wing to grab the sides of Felipe's head, pulling him up to stare the king in the face.
"So you are Felipe, leader of the Scarlet macaws. Quite frankly I thought you'd be taller".
Felipe glared knives at the hawk, the scarlet dancers now looked to see their leader, on the floor bleeding and bruised.
"Feisty, but being feisty will not save you from the fate the rest of your tribe shares".
With that Prev lifted his blade up, and swung down, into Felipe's head.
The dancers turned away, Prev smiled.
Felipe's scream echoed through the jungle that night, as another grey gem turned red.
Prev felt more power surge through him, and shivered at the feeling.
He retired the blade from Felipe's head, allowing the disemboweled scarlet to fall to the ground, dead.
He then looked to the dancers, "why have you stopped? Keep going!".
The dancers quickly continued dancing, not wanting to anger the man that had killed their leader.
Prev returned to his throne, wiping a bits of blood off of his feathers before sitting down.
He placed his sword next to him and continued watching the dancers, that was until a guard pointed out a drop of blood left on the king's beak.
Prev just licked it off and smiled, "Goodnight Alex, enjoy your last night with that sweet, sweet Skyler of yours".
Please review and see you next time.