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Hermit

Katie just screamed as the prisoner screamed back. It wasn't human as she first thought; it was more along the lines of the lizards that work for the Cyclonians. But it seemed different from the lizards she saw. This one was more portly than any of them she knew and had white hair almost like a human would. He was also wearing a red lab coat along with red-shaded goggles. And even though he seemed friendlier, she was still scared stiff.

After the while, the lizard stopped screaming and continued to stare at his rescuer, who was still screaming. A little bit confused by why she was still screaming, he asked, "What'sss wrong?" That calmed the girl a little bit, but she was still nervous about being around him. Once realizing her problem, he said, "Oh! I'm not a Raptor. I'm a Terradon; a far advancsse life form and a vegetarian."

Now, she was really relaxed. Unfortunately, her scream could have been heard across the terra and there were going to be many guards upon them if they didn't move quickly. The other-worlder breathed and then said, "Come on, we need to get out of here whether or not these people hear us." And then, she started to walk out, being followed by a strange, yet friendly lizard. But for some strange reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was going to end in disaster.

Several minutes after their surprise encounter, the two were sneaking quietly around the base, heading towards the hanger. It was best to fly out on skimmers instead of hitching a ride on a big airship, but there was still something bugging the girl's mind. Would the lizard be able to ride them as well? He probably would since he has been living in this world much longer than her. Maybe they would be able to escape after all.

Feeling the silence was a little bit too much, she looked at the Terradon and asked, "So… what are you in for?" It would be interesting to see why he was in prison in the first place. The reptilians she saw around here were just basically working on a brute force kind of deal; she never seen any of them doing any of the brainwork around this place. Of course, her little sibling did mention that she thought Repton was smarter and more cunning than he looked.

It only took a while, but then he answered, "For being too sssmart for my own good. Oncsse you make sssomething powerful, everyone wantsss a piece of you. Of courssse, I've been in a rut lately in giving new power weaponsss to thessse sssoldiersss. But it hasss been nicssse; been working on an sssecret project of my own."

"What secret project?" Katie asked, feeling a bit curious. She wondered if this creature was on the "Invade-Earth" project that the commanders were talking about. But then again, she never really suspected that the Raptors were even on the project.

"Well, sssome alternative power sssorcesss other that cryssstals," the scientist started, before going into a long lecture, "You sssee, oncsse thisss war isss over, more than half of fuel cryssstalsss or any other ssspeed-type will be depleted. I've been resssearching and trying to come up with alternative sssorcesss incassse one ssside decssidesss to raissse up the pricsse. Ssso far, I've only come up with two sssolutionsss. One; posssssibly a fable, and two; a dissscovery I have made recssently."

Feeling more curious, the girl asked, "And what discovery was that?" For some reason, she felt like she was going to regret this.

"Well, I dissscovered that there were thessse little, tiny particlesss that help build over ssstructure, and when cut, producsse a powerful charge. I believe that if harnessss, thessse particlesss can be usssed to power anything, may even help with making ssskimmersss go fassster than ever before! … But it might have to be ssstudy more."

The Earthling paled; she knew what he was talking about. Anyone back on Earth knew that if someone would split those tiny particles, it could caused a very powerful explosion that could take out half a city, depending on the element of which it was from. She wanted to yell out to stop continuing his research, that it would be dangerous if Cyclonia or anyone else figured out how to turn that power into a weapon. But it might cause some suspicion if he didn't know about the invasion. After a few minutes in her own little world, she heard him asked, "What about you? Why were you in prissson?"

Thinking about her answer, Katie breathed in and said, "Me and my sister… fell upon a very big secret, and they put me in prison here while she was being taken somewhere else. Fortunately, she escaped, but the Talons are going to capture her again, or worse." Suddenly, she suppressed a chuckle, before saying, "You know, if my sister, Emma, were here, she probably wouldn't be freak by all of this."

"Why?" the Terradon asked, a bit curious. The human blinked, before thinking. All the time the two were on Cyclonia, she never really knew why her little sister wasn't really scared by all this.

"… I'm not sure… Maybe it's because she had gotten used to anything weird from the media back home. Or maybe she's trying to show that she's grown-up by not being scared. I don't know; I just hope she's okay. I last heard she was with some people called the Storm Hawks." That caused some shock to scientist as he stopped in his tracks. The girl stopped also and looked over at him as well, "What is it?"

"The Ssstorm Hawksss are nothing more than a trouble nuisssancsse to the Talonsss, and it isss thanksss to them that my life isss more missserable than before! … If your sssissster isss with them, then ssshe'sss probably a prisssoner." The lizard said, causing Katie to pale. If her sister was with these guys, then she was just as worst as when they were with the Talons. She got back to reality when she saw the other prisoner walked past her. She snapped back and started to follow him also. Escaping Cyclonia was more important now; worrying if her sister was still alive and intact would have wait until they were out.

Cyclonis impatiently tapped her fingers along the armchair of her throne. She was awaiting a report on how her minions were doing and the time that it was taking had led her to being a bit bored. But then she smiled at the fact that her three commanders will bring one loose end safely back into their grasp. Oh, the empress imagined that Gaian in the worse tortures ever thought of. It seemed to please her for a while until she saw a scared-looking guard coming into the room. "… What is it?"

"Well, I know it's a little late to probably say this but…" he gulped as he stared into her cold, merciless eyes, "The Terradon scientist has escaped, along with the Gaian prisoner that you were experimenting with." He then quickly dodged an incoming blast as the ruler pointed her staff at him. She was mad; mad at the fact that now the two most important variables to her off-world invasion plan are now loose.

She deeply breathed in to calm herself. Then, she ordered, "Get some men to the hanger bay; that's where they'll be heading. If the two are already gone, go after them." The grunt quickly bowed before leaving. The black-haired girl growled while looking down. Cyclonia was going to rule both Atmos and Gaia, even if she needed to chase two lousy, stupid girls to do so.

Meanwhile, both Katie and the Terradon were already in the hanger, getting their means of transportation ready. Thank god the Talons put her through all those flying lessons; if the two were to ride on one skimmer, it would have definitely slowed them down and they probably were going different places as well. She knew that she needed to go to her sister, and the lizard was probably heading somewhere else. In other words, they needed to go their separate ways.

The two then turned on their skimmers and started to fly out. Once running out of runway, they turned on the wings and started to fly away. This was prefect; there was no patrol out and it didn't seem that no one figured out they had escaped. Maybe things would go right for once after all.

But suddenly, a few blasts appeared, causing the two to lose their balance. The girl looked back to see a bunch of Talons flying on their tails. This was bad; there were too many to defeat and the patrol was closing in on them. It wouldn't be long before they catch and lock them up again. One of them had to sacrifice their freedom, and the Earthling knew who it had to be.

Turning to the lizard, she yelled out, "You go on ahead! I'll try to distract them." The scientist blinked in confusion and then was shocked at to what she was going to do.

"But your sister?! Do you want to rescue her?!" he asked, sounding concern about what she was about to do. Katie knew that distracting would probably cost her freedom, but there was no other choice. Besides, if Cyclonis got the Terradon first, the empress would get closer to that nuclear fission stuff with him than with her.

"I want to rescue my sister!" the girl answered, before yelling, "But having Talons chasing us is going to be tougher than I thought! Besides, you'll still be free if this works! And you can warn my sister about the Cyclonians if you meet her! She looks almost like me only a little shorter and not as skinny as me!" The old lizard thought for a little bit, before speeding on ahead. Once he was a few feet away, she turned around and headed straight at their chasers, hoping that her plan work.

Now, being with the Talons for some time, she knew some of their flaws in their battle techniques. One of them was if you try to play chicken with one of them, they'll panicked and fly out of the way into something, most likely their own comrades. But she was partly trying to get them to focus their attention on her alone, not the scientist. As she race towards them, the teen gave them a stern look; whether it worked or not, she rather not let Cyclonia get their hands tech that her world feared to use.

She shot straight pass the Talons, causing a few to lose control of their skimmers and run into some spires. The others, however, stopped and started to turn around in order to get her. She smiled; it worked! Now, the Earthling just needed to figure out how to get out of this mess. Unfortunately, she was too busy thinking, that she didn't have time to dodge the incoming shots at her. And pretty soon, one side of the wings had been shot off and soon, she was falling.

It felt strange, falling from the sky. Mostly, Katie imagined that she was never going to fall like this. But now that she was doing it, it felt relaxing. It was like all her troubles and problems were just floating away. A grunt noticed her falling and quickly caught her when he got near enough to; Cyclonis would have killed him if he didn't save her, even though he didn't want to. Once getting her, he flew back to headquarters. If the teen was awake, she would have thanked him. But she wasn't…

She blacked out during the fall.

Hello fellow readers! I got this part done, and one more to go!

And a quick announcement; to those who are reading Fighter's Calling, it's going to be on hiatus until I get a few more OCs as fighters. If anyone with OCs who wants to take a quick look at this, be my quest and thank you for your time.

To PKBitchGirl1, thank you for the review. I'm glad you like my Storm Hawks parody fairy tales, and probably this as well, even though it's short and a little bit OC-centric. I hope this chapter doesn't cause any make you think differently.

And yes, the prisoner was a Terradon and maybe the same one from "Scout's Honor". Repton probably trades his scientists to Cyclonia for supplies, hehe.

Please Read and Review!