Disclaimer: Storm Hawks and all characters associated with the cartoon show are the property of Nerd Corp. However, Hikaru and Mikomi are my property. You are free to use them, just use a disclaimer. Happy reading.
Thanks for the reviews people! I never thought I'd get such a kick out of feedback. Worry not, for I will not hold my story hostage for reviews. On with the show…
E.V. North
"You know, he's kinda cute when he's not trying to kill us." Junko said as the Storm Hawks made their way back to the Condor. He was carrying the unconscious Hikaru in his arms. The trance helmet had skewed his glasses so that they hung crookedly on his nose. Junko reached down and straightened them gently. Hikaru's long braid was flopped like a tail over Junko's arm. It swayed lazily as they walked along the shore.
"Yeah," Finn said, rolling his eyes and massaging a large bruise on his shoulder. "If you like psycho, mind-controlled, mutants."
"For once," Stork started "I agree with Finn. I don't think bringing him onto the ship is a good idea. He's dangerous." He nervously flicked a pebble into the lake with his foot.
"We can't just leave him here." Aerrow said bringing the cloth he had been holding to his nose away from his face to check the bleeding. It seemed to have stopped. They walked up the Condor's flight ramp and entered the hanger bay.
"Stork, get us airborne." Aerrow said "I'm sure a Cyclonian cleanup crew will be along to pick up Dark Ace and the Talons. Once we're a safe distance you can come to the infirmary. Oh, and please radio Radarr to bring in our rides." Stork nodded and walked in the other direction down the hall toward the bridge. Aerrow, Finn, Piper, and Junko, who was still cradling Hikaru in his arms, went the other way.
"Lay him on the examining table, Junko." Piper said, opening a cupboard and rummaging for something. "Don't worry Finn," she said, seeing the look on Finn's face and anticipating his complaint. "I'll fix you, Aerrow and Junko first."
As Piper saw to her friend's injuries the Condor lifted off from the jungle surface of terra Xoam. Radarr had finished retrieving the damaged rides. It sped away from the terra and cruised across the sky. It didn't go too far however. Stork settled the Condor in between two close-set mini-terras off the coast of terra Xoam. Hiding was a safer move than running the risk of an encounter with the Cyclonian rescue team. He glanced nervously at the scanners to check that they had not been followed.
Once the meticulous merb was satisfied that they were relatively safe he deployed the grappling anchors and walked to the infirmary. This whole situation with that human boy bothered him. He would feel better once he was sure that those crystals were removed from his head. And those powers; Stork had never seen anything like them. Was it magic? Was it the crystal on his neck? Was it psychic power? Was it poltergeist flu? Stork didn't know and that made him uneasy.
He knocked on the doorframe as he walked through into the infirmary. Junko looked over and waved. He was sporting a band-aid decorated with little skimmers on his cheek. Finn was holding an icepack to his shoulder and looking grumpy. Piper was in the process of wrapping a bandage around Aerrow's arm as the skyknight wiped blood off his face with a wet cloth.
"Hey Stork." Aerrow tried to wave, but Piper jerked him back.
"Stay still a second." she said. "When I've finished with Aerrow I was going to take the trance helmet off. How long will he stay out after I remove it?" Stork thought for a second, trying to remember the instruction manual.
"At the maximum setting… the wearer will remain in trance for 2 to 6 hours after removal of the helmet depending in the individual resiliency of the wearer's mind." Stork recited, looking from Piper to the unconscious boy and back again. "We should strap him down though." He added.
"Agreed." Aerrow said, flexing his bandaged arm. He and Junko fastened the leather straps attached to the table around the boy's wrists and ankles. Piper was gathering tools onto a tray next to the examining table.
"Ready?" she asked, putting her hands on the helmet and looking around at the rest of them like they were lined up to start a race. The others nodded. Stork flinched. She pulled the helmet off. It clanked against the flat, red crystals on his temples. As Stork had said, he did not wake up. She handed the helmet to Stork who clutched his 'happy place' to his chest like a teddy bear.
"Ok," Piper said, clapping her hands together. "First thing we need to do is see if we can get those crystals off." She took the boy's glasses off and put them on the tray. Next she grabbed the handheld scanner sitting next to the glasses. It hummed happily as she switched it on and ran it over the crystals on Hikaru's head.
"Hmm…"she mused "These seem to be some kind of mixture of hypno crystals and lightning-striker stones. Dark Ace uses a lightning-striker in his sword." She fiddled with a knob on the side of the scanner. "They look like they only function with input from that other stone Dark Ace was talking into."
"Dark Ace was talking to a crystal?" Finn asked, confused.
"Sort of." Aerrow answered. "He was talking into it like a radio. This guy," he indicated the boy, "would do anything Dark Ace told him to when he did." Aerrow looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think Dark Ace called him Hikaru. That must be his name."
Piper continued to look at the little screen in her hand, scribbling on a small notepad as she did. Occasionally she would look at Hikaru, and tilt his head this way and that. She looked more and more concerned the longer she looked.
"I think we may have a problem." She said, her brow furrowed "Take a look." The Storm Hawks all crowded behind her to see the small screen. On the screen was a green, rotating rendering of what looked like a faceted mushroom. Its base came to a cruel looking point.
"What's that, a mushroom?" Finn asked, remembering that he hadn't eaten since that morning.
"More like a nail." Piper answered, sounding grim. "This," she pointed to the flat top of the object "Is the part of the crystal we can see on his head, and this," she ran her finger along the spiked stem "Is the part that is in his head. These crystals penetrate into his skull; the point is only a few millimeters from his brain. Removing these could kill him."
"Not to mention make him a perfect target for mind worms." Stork added, in an attempt to be helpful. The Storm Hawks turned to stare at him. Stork shrugged, grinning sheepishly, then paled and went wide-eyed at something behind his teammates. He pointed and backed up a step. The others wheeled around to look. Hikaru's eyes were open. He appeared to be trying to sit up, but couldn't because of the leather straps. After a few tries he gave up and lay back down, scanning the room with his deadpan stare.
"I thought you said he wouldn't wake up for at least two hours." Piper whispered, taking a step back.
"I did!" Stork squeaked "He should be asleep. I-I don't- I can't explain. Should we put it back on?" He held up the helmet.
"No," Aerrow said, stepping forward "He might be able to tell us what they did to him." He leaned down next to Hikaru, who was still staring around the room, as though memorizing it.
"Hikaru?" Aerrow said gently "Hikaru, how do we get those crystals off your head." Hikaru didn't even acknowledge Aerrow's presence, but stared at each Storm Hawk in turn.
Finn shuddered, "So much for that." Piper seemed lost in thought. Without Dark Ace to give him orders Hikaru seemed harmless, if a bit creepy.
"I've been working on a crystal that disintegrates other crystals. That might get the control crystals out safely, but it's still unstable." She said, looking pensive "Otherwise, we have to take him to a real doctor on Atmosia to take them out surgically."
"I think that doctor plan sounds safest." Aerrow said, as Finn waved a hand in front of Hikaru's eyes. He didn't blink. "Stork, set a course for Atmosia." Stork nodded and shuffled out "Junko, try to fix the damage to the skimmers. Have Radarr help you." Junko smiled and Radarr hopped on his shoulder as he left. "Finn and I can help you here with Hikaru." He continued, addressing Piper this time. Piper smiled as she looked around at her two friends. She felt the Condor lurch out of its hiding place and cruise through the sky. Terra Xoam disappeared behind them.
It wasn't long before Finn had melted all the ice in his icepack and needed to go off to the kitchen to refill it. Aerrow glanced up at Piper who was looking over the notes she had made on the crystals.
"You know," Aerrow started, trying to make conversation. "He sure has strange looking clothes, huh?"
Piper looked from Aerrow to Hikaru, who was staring out the window at the passing clouds and nodded "Yeah, I've never seen anything like them. His eyes are too sharp looking for him to be Atmosian. Pretty color though." Aerrow looked, she was right. They were the color of a blizzicane.
"Maybe the skyknight council will be able to tell us where he's from." Aerrow said, seeing his own reflection in the red crystals on Hikaru's head. They flashed red. Sparks began to fly from them as they had done before on terra Xoam. Hikaru squeezed his eyes shut, apparently in pain.
"What's going on?" Aerrow shouted, rushing to the side of the examining table.
"I don't know!" Piper said desperately, "I think the crystals are electrocuting him!" The red bolts of electricity grew and wreathed his whole head like some kind of crackling halo. Hikaru's back arched and he screamed, struggling to get free of the straps. The examining table shook with the force of his thrashing.
"Piper!" Aerrow yelled, "Get your experimental crystals. We don't have time to get him to Atmosia."
"But I might kill him if I do it wrong." Piper protested. She looked on the verge of frantic tears.
"He'll die if we don't get those crystals off NOW!" Aerrow shouted urgently. Piper nodded and sprinted from the room, narrowly dodging Finn, who had rushed back at all the noise, fresh icepack in hand.
"What's going on?!" He yelled, panic in his voice. "What happened?!"
"Help me hold him still, Finn!" Aerrow yelled, trying to pin the thrashing boy's shoulders down. Finn dived in to help, icepack forgotten. Tears were streaking down Hikaru's face and blood began to trickle from his ears and from under the crystals on his temples. The large, uneven crystal that was tied at his neck like a choker flickered into life, feebly trying to glow yellows and purples.
Piper rushed back into the infirmary, two tiny green crystals clutched in her fists. "Hold his head still!" she shouted, sliding to a stop at the head of the table. The boys tried their best to hold Hikaru's head still. Finn had to grab the boy's jaw to still his shaking enough for Piper to tap the green crystals to the red ones on his head. Immediately, thousands of tiny cracks appeared on the flat red gems. They spread and as they did they seemed to suck the red, malevolent color out. All at once, the flat stones disintegrated and the fragments disappeared. Hikaru stopped screaming and thrashing and flopped back onto the table. Blood flowed freely from the small holes left behind by the crystal spikes. His eyes were closed.
"Is he alive?" Piper asked nervously. There was a tense moment as Finn tried to find a pulse.
"Yeah," Finn said, getting up off the boy. He looked around for where he had dropped his icepack. Piper sighed with relief. It appeared she had been holding her breath. She grabbed some gauze from a jar and told Aerrow to grab some bandages from the drawer behind him. She wrapped the gauze and bandages around his head to close the wounds left behind. He looked like he was wearing a white sweatband. She also cleaned the blood and tears off his face with a wet cloth.
As she wiped the blood away his almond-shaped eyes fluttered open. He looked up at Piper and, for the first time, he looked like he was actually aware of his surroundings. He blinked a few times and squinted at Aerrow and Finn behind her.
"Where are my glasses?" He asked, looking around. His voice was smooth and gentle sounding. Finn and Aerrow looked around, startled. Piper blinked in surprise and took his glasses from the tray and put
them carefully on his nose. Hikaru wiggled his nose, trying to get them into place. He looked around at the room again. He looked anxious as he flexed his hands, still held down by the straps. He looked back at the Storm Hawks, cocking his head and giving them a nervous smile.
"Where am I?"