Knowledge is good… wisdom is better.
Piper's spirits were soaring as high as she was. Ordinarily, she was the most well composed of the Storm Hawks Squadron, proudly so. But right then, as she descended through a crimson-colored sky, towards the icy mountains of Terra Heim, the young Crystal Mage felt such an ecstatic excitement for what she was about to potentially uncover, she could barely hold back from just diving from her Heliscotter just to get down there sooner.
With all of her considerable self-control, Piper snapped herself back to her full composer: an ecstatic fool was not who she was… even if her friends were.
Skillfully evading their strongest wind currents, Piper navigated the mountain peaks, following the mental map she had long since made in her head from a thousand snippets of information she had accumulated over her entire life. As she did so, she felt a familiar regret: this meant so much to her, she had spent virtually her entire life wondering just what secret knowledge was held by the semi-mythical hermit known as the Keeper of Secrets…. She couldn't explain it, but doing it like this, somehow… wasn't right. She wanted something else… some….
"Hey!"
Piper almost exploded out of her skin, instinctive reflex preventing the resulting gyration of her Heliscotter. She knew that voice… and the sound of it made her heart sore even higher. Turning her head, the Crystal Mage smiled. She didn't know how he was there, but she didn't care, she was just so glad that Aerrow was there.
After a few minutes of further peak skimming, both Storm Hawks came upon and landed upon a notably small cliffside. To almost anyone else, it was just that: a cliffside… Piper knew better. But for once, she was less proud of herself, and more focused on her sudden companion. "I don't believe it." she pressed, "you actually found me among those mountains?"
Aerrow grinned brawly, shrugging as he dismounted from his Skimmer, "I can't figure that either."
"You can't?" Piper asked, likewise dismounting.
Aerrow shook his head, "no… it was… like I knew every move to make before I even hit the Terra…" he grinned, musing "kind of like you always do."
But Piper didn't even register the comment. She stepped over to Aerrow, her expression suddenly one of focus and intensity though.
"Piper…" he asked, recognizing the Crystal Mage's most serious mentality, "what's wrong?"
For a fleeting second, Piper glanced from Aerrow to the solid rock of the mountainside, and back again… then she cracked a grin wider than the Sky Knight had ever seen her crack before. "Aerrow… I love you."
A moment of stunned stillness passed across the mountainside, as Aerrow just stared dumbfounded at Piper. Suddenly regaining herself enough to register what she had said, Piper shook her head. "I… I didn't mean…."
The next instant she felt Aerrow's hand on her shoulder. "Piper… what've you figured out?"
As if she had been literally snapped back to reality, Piper looked Aerrow in the eye. "I think we've got a living myth expecting us."
Together the two Storm Hawks approached the rocky mountainside, Piper recomposed. She glanced at Aerrow, who just smiled an understanding smile. Returning the look, the Crystal Mage stepped up to the sloping rocks. Piper's heart was racing… no, pounding!
He was with her, the one person who truly appreciated her love of knowledge, and they were within moments of….
"Piper!" Aerrow's voice suddenly cried from behind her. Before she could even think, Piper felt his hand grab her tightly, pulling her back towards him. Not a microsecond too soon. A large, solid chunk of cratered rock slammed into the spot she had been in.
Acting on pure instinctive reflex, the Sky Knight fully pushed his friend behind him, his eyes fixed upon the rock… as it moved again. Shifting its form like some sort of living mold, the stony mass slowly took a form that almost made both Storm Hawks gasp… that of a towering humanoid… broad and massive.
Recovering her senses, Piper stared at the deme-giant… "a Gollum…."
Half a heartbeat later, both Storm Hawks had their weapons in hand: Aerrow; his twin energized Short Swords, and Piper; her Staff. Registering their reaction… the Gollum charged.
Aerrow reacted first, swiping the air with his blade, and sending an energy bolt right at the living rock, striking it on the left hip, making it stagger, but now slow.
Piper was next, grabbing a Frost Stone from a pocket and thrusting it towards the oncoming creature. A sphere of icy energy shot out, catching the Gollum on its left leg, freezing about half the lim. Grinning at the sudden opportunity, Aerrow darted forwards, arcing both his blades around to hit and shatter the ice. He half succeeded; the blade in his right hand striking and breaking some of the leg, but the deme-giant somehow managed backstep before the blade in his left hand could hit.
As if somehow in raged, the Gollum lashed out with its right arm to swat the Sky Knight away. As the lime came around though, a sudden surge of unnatural wind hammered into it throwing it clean off curse. A few feet away, Piper grinned, as she lowered her Wind Stone.
Seeing an opening, Aerrow went for the rest of the iced leg, but this time, the Gollum was ready, kicking out with its strong right foot. The blow it Aerrow hard, sending him flying halfway across the Cliffside and landing even harder.
"Aerrow!" Piper cried out, throwing herself at the deme-giant, pure anger suddenly surging through her as she leapt through the air. With what control she still had, the Crystal Mage raised her staff overhead, end aimed directly as the Gollum's bulbous head. Even as her feet landed upon the Gollum's shoulders, Piper thrust the metal point forward as hard as her anger could drive it….
The rock shattered at the impact, breaking apart. In the next instant though, the rest of the Gollum, suddenly lifeless, began to fall away… with Piper still upon its shoulders. She almost managed to jump to safety, but the rock was collapsing too quickly. Thinking like lighting, the young mage grabbed the one thing that could help her quick enough.
"Piper!"
Piper turned her eyes towards Aerrow, and saw the frozen shock on his face. She tried to give him a reassuring look, but didn't have time, as the rock she was on finally fell with all the rest. For a heartbeat, Piper heard Aerrow cry out her name again. and then… she fell into the mountain side.
Despite her heart pounding as hard as it was, Piper still managed to land on feet first on solid ground. Adrenalin surging through her, she clapped and pressed her hands hard together, her Phantom Stone squeezed between them.
The Mage had imploded the Crystal on reflex, using its fazing properties to pass right through the side of the mountain.
And yet… that did not matter at all. Piper reeled around, looking back at the solid matter or so of solid rock that now separated her from the outside world… and Aerrow! The young Mage's eyes shoot to the Crystal in her hand, but already knew what power she had used the first time… was all it had…. She was utterly alone.
Piper's body went numb her every sense going blank at the fact she had just left Aerrow… AERROW… alone and hurt!
"He would have suffered far worse pain… were it not for your sacrifice." The young girl reeled around again but saw nothing but the pitch blackness of… wherever she was. The voice, a calm, almost reflective sound, seemed to come from that darkness.
"What?" Piper asked, seeming to the emptiness itself.
"There is no need for you to feel guilt…."
"And who's said it's the business of someone who isn't showing his face!?" Piper snapped, her fists clenching tight. Frustration filled her ever sense.
For a fleeting heartbeat… silence. Then… a light. It was faint, as though a faraway star… and flickering with a dark purple ting. But where as anyone else might rejoice at a light in the dark… Piper instantly hated this, familiar, light. She advanced towards it, taking her Staff in both hands.
"I'm coming… Cyclonis."
It took a notable effort of will for the Crystal Mage not to charge straight at the light, and for Piper, that was saying something. She advanced with control, knowing that when she did reach the light, he needed strength. But when Piper came within sight of the light's heart, coming out onto what appeared to be a narrow stone bridge, her self-restraint was screaming within her. even as that light that faded back into its heart.
She was there, standing halfway across the bridge, clad in her sickeningly iconic clothes, and her own Staff held in hand… Master Cyclonis.
After a few more steppes, with every one of her senses fixated upon the tyrant who had once been her best friend forever, Piper came to a halt… staring across the center of the bridge at her,
And eternity seemed too past between them, their eyes never leaving each other.
"Guess this is something else you've spoiled for me Cyclonis…" Piper said at last, growling though her teeth. "Is that still a sick joke to you?"
Cyclonis's reply was as cold as Piper knew it would be. "I've got to confess, Piper… it is so easy predicting just what you want."
"So, you held back on coming here yourself just so you could rub in betting me to the Keeper?"
Cyclonis nodded. "There is nothing I wouldn't do for power… or to show you everything you could be if you just did what you should."
"I'd sooner jump off this bridge right now."
"don't you want the secrets of the Keeper?"
"You know? that doesn't matter right now."
Cyclonis's eyes narrowed… "and that petty Sky Knight dose?"
"That Sky Knight is worth more to me than any secret ever could be."
Cyclonis shrugged her shoulders, snorting at the words with audible contempt… and raised her Staff. "Then I'll tell him that… once I've taken what you're too weak to take!" They came at each other, charging like hounds across the bridge, their every thought turning almost automatically to combat tactics.
Even with all the anger still within Piper, Cyclonis was the first to strike, thrusting her Crystal tipped Staff right at her opponent. A small storm of lightning shot from the Dark Stone. In the split instant she had, Piper twisted the control cord on her own Staff, and thrust it at the oncoming volts. The Staff, now charged by the Sorb Gem within it, absorbed every spark.
Cyclonis thrust her Staff again, relishing a bolt of death energy. Still charging, Piper ducked, perfectly missing the bolt, and shooting her opponent a mocking grin.
Snarling in frustration, Cyclonis thrust a third time this time firing three more bolts of death energy. This time, Piper was able to grab one of her own Crystals: A Pulse Emerald, and thrust it forward. A thunderous shockwave burst from the stone, both blowing the incoming bolts apart throwing sear counter force, and throwing up a cloud of age-old dust from the floor of the bridge… and right into Cyclonis's face.
With a sharp curse, Cyclonis swept her Staff around before her, the Dark Stone vaporizing every speck, just in time for her to see Piper throw a Crystal at her. Not able to counter in time, Cyclonis simply struck the Crystal with the butt of her Staff… but he hadn't noticed what kind of Crystal it was… it was a Dazzler. Lights exploded all around Cyclonis, blinding her utterly and instantly. Crying out in pain and deliria, Cyclonis swung her Staff wildly before her.
The flailing Staff did hit something… another Staff. Piper had closed the distance between them, though she still needed to block the wild swing however blinded it was. but before she could deliver a knockout blow, Cyclonis's sight managed to return enough that she could see her enemy… and fight back.
Both Mages entered into close combat, their Staffs clashing again and again, faster and faster. As the sound of each blow rang out across the bridge, Piper felt her mind and body fall into fluent combat movements, ones she had learned and practiced a thousand times over. She knew everyone by heart… just as much as Cyclonis clearly did.
As the speed of the blows increased even more, the moves and their most possible patterns filled the minds of both Mages… until one of them broke that pattern. With a sudden daring that would have made Aerrow proud to see, Piper made as if to jab for Cyclonis's right leg, the anticipated move, but reached the swing at the last instant, bringing the weapon upwards in a low uppercut that struck her opponent hard on her left shoulder.
The blow was delivered with all the speed and power Piper could force into it, it should have sent Cyclonis flying aside, not just away from her, but clean off the bridge entirely. Instead… she burst apart. Even as she was hit, Cyclonis's body seemed to turn to nothing but dust, dust that blew away as though from a sudden wind.
Piper stepped backwards in utter alarm, gasping as what she had thought to be her nemesis, evaporated into the air. Her eyes wide in complete and utter confusion, Piper continued to backstep, barely even aware she was doing so. Suddenly she faintly felt herself bump into something; it was soft, but firm… and wearing familiar leather clothing.
Piper spun around… her mouth dropping open, her eyes as wide as view ports. It couldn't be him… it just couldn't be, he had been outside, behind a solid meter of…. Oh, forget it!
Throwing all her confused logic out the window, Piper threw her arms around Aerrow, who just wrapped his arms around her, and hugged her right back. "You really are incredible…." His voice was as warm as it ever was to Piper, but now it seemed laced with pure pride.
"You actually got through all that rock?" she asked finally asking the question.
"I… seriously don't know how I got through…."
"What?"
Aerrow shrugged, clearly as nonplussed as Piper. But then he shook his head, all uncertainty gone in an instant. "don't worry about it, Piper… its nothing against what you've just done."
"Aerrow…" the young Mage observed, "it wasn't the actual…."
"Who cares!?" the Sky Knight stated, "you still beat whatever it was."
Piper chuckled, her shoulders bouncing as she looked into Aerrow's face, "thanks…"
"And so, I see what should be…" it was the same voice, just as calm and near reflective as it was the first time Piper had heard it.
Aerrow reeled around, drawing his blades like lightning and instinctively tensing for a fight. But this time, as though she had always suspected it, Piper suddenly understood it all… the voice… the Cyclonis thing… even Aerrow suddenly just being there.
"Aerrow, we're ok…" she hissed, calmly placing a hand on his right arm and softly pushing it down, as her eyes gazed out into the surrounding blackness. "you really have a hands-on way with testing someone… Keeper of Secrets." Behind her, Piper registered the faintest gasp of sudden understanding from Aerrow.
The voice spoke again… "a test such as this is a necessary one. tell me child, how right would it be for a stranger to enter one's home with not to introduce himself but reputation?"
Aerrow steeped up next to Piper, "wait… you know we're the Storm Hawks?"
"What else can I believe when addressing the son of Lightning Strike himself."
This time, both Aerrow and Piper gasped, momentarily stunned as the Keeper spoke on.
"Yes… I have seen the fall of Lightning Strike, and the rise of his legacy through you…"
Aerrow furrowed his brow, glancing at Piper, "then why did you put her through your test alone?"
"Because she is the one seeking to ask things of me… but you are both welcome to those questions."
"Keeper…" Piper said, suddenly hesitant. "I'm sorry for snapping."
"You are with him now… and you both have questions."
At that moment, something flashed through the minds of both Storm Hawks, an image… no, a vision: an aged figure draped in ghostly tattered robes, with a raven perched upon his right arm.
"Go on Storm Hawks… ask them."