Author's Note: Well, I'm back again… Did you miss me? Welcome to Chapter Four of "Beginning of the End"!
Now that Dark Ace and Aerrow have seen each other, what will happen?
Three guesses… but I bet you won't need two of them, am I correct?
Read and Enjoy, people, and remember to review! It makes everyone happy ;)
Dark Ace was slowly counting to ten in his head, in order to calm down and stop his violent swearing, which had reached even new heights. Having seen that it was Aerrow of the Storm Hawks and some of his team flying near him, he decided to fly onwards to them. However, after a minute it seemed like the kids were preparing to leave, and indeed three of them did but Aerrow remained behind.
He watched the kid fly around, almost as if he was looking for something. Dark Ace sighed. He didn't care about things like that now; all he had to do was to take out Aerrow or at the very least, send him packing and continue searching for the source of the "weird" frequency reading. He found himself hoping again that this frequency was either a hoax or that nothing was there, because quite frankly he was in no mood to keep up the search for it.
He glanced back down at his skimmer, and he was unsurprised to see that the panel was still shaking and jerking around. Seriously, when he found that Talon who had caused it to be in that condition….
"Oh, what the hell. Nothing's here, so I might as well take on the brat. It will give me something to do, at least." he said, stretching. He had been on the skimmer for ages...
He saw the kid look around him again and then straight at him. He saw the look which crossed Aerrow's face. It made him snicker. He saw Aerrow mutter something.
The Dark Ace grinned. Perfect. Now he had a proper reason to go and attack the little Hawk.
He was expected.
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Aerrow had at first frozen at the sight of the Dark Ace, but then he had cursed and felt for his radio. He would now have to battle with his rival, instead of finishing his little recon mission and heading back to the Condor. It was almost as if this was planned. Maybe it was. Maybe this was a Cyclonian plan; lure them out to an unwelcoming Terra and send the Dark Ace out after them.
"But it won't work. I'll stop him." Aerrow muttered to himself, before radioing his friends. They had to know what was happening incase a Cyclonian Battle Cruiser was headed for the Condor at this moment in time. They could concentrate on that, while he went head-to-head with the Dark Ace.
"Um, Piper, Finn? Guys? You there?" Aerrow said into the radio.
"We're here, what's up? Seen anything?" Piper's voice came across as being curious before worried. Typical her, Aerrow laughed to himself.
"Yeah… Well… Its not what we were expecting…"
"What do you mean, Aerrow? What's there?" Finn said, sounding worried. Typical Finn, this time.
"Guys, we have a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"A very big problem."
"What do you mean? What's going on? Damn it Aerrow, talk to us!" Piper was now sounding mad. Better hurry up and tell her then. Or else she'll explode.
"It's the Dark Ace." he could hear the sharp intake of breath from his friends. "He's headed right at me, but I don't think he's after you lot on the Condor. However, if this was all a plan by the Cyclonians then maybe there's a cruiser headed your way." he said quickly, while looking at the ever-approaching skimmer in front of him.
"Okay, Okay, we're on it. Do you want us to come out-"
"No! No, that would be unnecessary. Besides, I need you guys on the Condor in case some Talons come a- knockin', okay?"
Piper sighed, while Finn sounded like he had huffed and was sulking. He wanted to go back out and fight the Dark Ace? Aerrow snorted. Like that would work out positively for Finn...
"Okay, Aerrow, we'll stay here. But be careful, and take care of yourself, okay? And if you need help, just call for us." she said.
"Yeah dude, we'll be over in a flash!" Finn said happily.
"Good. Okay, this is me signing out then. Over and Out." Aerrow switched off the radio and looked ahead. The skimmer was only a few yards away from him now, but he wasn't going to let the Dark Ace come any closer. He would go up to him instead.
"Time to party…" Aerrow muttered, while flying at the approaching skimmer as fast as he could.
The sooner this was over the better. If it had all been part of an elaborate plot, then defeating the Dark Ace would mean that they could leave and not have to worry about anymore weird frequency readings.
However, if this was merely a coincidence, then all this was in the way of something more important.
They could be running out of time…
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The kid had radioed his friends, telling them not to leave the Condor incase a cruiser was after them. Paranoid much? It kept mentioning something about a frequency reading as well… Was Aerrow and the Storm Hawks here on a similar mission to himself?
Whatever. He had a mission and he intended to get it over with.
Trying to ignore the shaking panel on his skimmer, he flew on ahead.
The brat was now flying towards him, at full speed too. Seems someone was just as eager as he was to get all this over and done with.
Dark Ace grinned. The kid looked fed up, but just wait until he was finished with him. Then he would have something to feel beat up about.
"Hello again, Aerrow. Out for a little ride, are you? And on Terra Grimius, of all places! Surely you would prefer to waste your time on Terra Neon instead, acting your age and not pretending to be grown-up?" He said with a snicker, and smiled all the more when he saw the expression which had previously been on the kid's face transform to a frown.
Yes, this was going to be fun, all right…
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Aerrow was fed up, but he knew that he had to do this. Flying on, he saw the Dark Ace flying towards him, and he had his trademark sneer on his face.
They were close enough to each other now to talk without shouting, and this was what the Dark Ace decided he would do first. Talk.
"Hello again, Aerrow. Out for a little ride, are you? And on Terra Grimius, of all places! Surely you would prefer to waste your time on Terra Neon instead, acting your age and not pretending to be grown-up?"
Aerrow glared at his rival, who had succeeded in making him more annoyed than what he had been. The Dark Ace could always do that to him.
"I could say the same to you, Dark Ace. Has Master Cyclonis finally had enough of your whining and sent you away?" he retorted back, trying not to cringe at how bad his comeback seemed. Even to his own ears.
The Dark Ace laughed. Seems he too knew just how bad that was.
"This time, there will be no mercy, little Hawk."
Aerrow laughed himself. Just how many times had he heard that threat without actually suffering from it? "Put another record on, Dark Ace. That one seems to have been on repeat too long!" he said, pulling out his energy blades and lightening them up, while preparing to leap at any moment.
He really wished Radarr was here; who would control his skimmer when he was engaged in battle? The Dark Ace could somehow manage to do it perfectly. Aerrow could do it, but he just wasn't too confident.
Dark Ace had pulled out his own energy blade and placed in it his customary red crystal.
"Bring it on then, Aerrow." he hissed at him.
Okay, now he was pissed. Great one, Aerrow. Real smart.
Aerrow smirked himself. Bring it on, indeed…
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They flew at each other, slashing with their energy blades, sending bright sparks of red and blue at and around each other.
They circled, and then flew at each other again. Dark Ace leapt up onto the front of his skimmer, once again ignoring the movements of the loose piece of metal and instead concentrated on this fight.
Aerrow mimicked the move and waited on the front of the his skimmer, while the vehicles flew head on.
Dark Ace smiled. "There's still time to simply give up and fly away, Aerrow."
Aerrow glared at him. "No fear, but I want to stick around and watch you get the hell beaten out of you, like always!" he said back at him, watching the Dark Ace throw an extremely poisonous expression his way. The skimmers were closer than ever now.
And that's when it happened.
The skimmers flew at each other with such force and neither competitor was paying any attention to this detail, when they should have. They were too busy throwing cheap insults to one another and sending blasts ansd bursts of energy.
The skimmers collided with a sickening crunch.
Aerrow heard the Dark Ace yell in pain, before registering pain coursing throughout his own body. He tried to pull up, but the skimmers were stuck fast and his refused to budge. The controls were also unresponsive.
Dark Ace felt a sharp burst of pain along his left side and he struggled to stay upright. He tried to turn his skimmer around but it seemed that it had been messed up in the collision, and it was tangled up in Aerrow's skimmer.
Things were not looking good. But they were to get worse.
The skimmers appeared to be falling, carrying their riders to with them. They had been damaged beyond repair in that crash, and now where simply falling out of the sky.
"Dark Ace! Can you move your skimmer?" Aerrow asked quickly, glancing down below him. The Terra that had previously been miles below them was now looking an awful lot closer.
The Dark Ace rolled in his eyes. "If I could move this piece of crap, do you think I would be still here, falling through the sky?" he replied irritably.
Aerrow sighed. "We don't have time for this. In another minute, we'll be dead. Have you any type of plan at all?"
The Dark Ace struggled to keep his eyes open. They were closing at an alarmingly fast rate, while his side was screaming out in agony.
"We're going to have to let these skimmers fall down first and then jump of them and hope that our parachutes will work…" he said.
Aerrow looked at him. "Are you crazy?" He looked down at the ground. Time was getting shorter…
"Okay, okay…" he looked at Dark Ace. The man had closed his eyes.
Aerrow gulped. Definitely not good.
He climbed carefully out of his skimmer and clambered over to the Dark Ace's. He looked carefully at the man, who had appeared to have passed out from an injury which Aerrow couldn't see. It was only then that Aerrow realised that his right arm was bleeding heavily.
"I'll deal with that later… right now though, I need all the luck on Atmos…" he glanced down again. Nearly there now.
He carefully untangled Dark Ace from the pilot seat and checked that he had a parachute.
The skimmers were getting closer…
And closer…
They were nearly there…
Aerrow took a deep breath, and without another thought, leap into the air, dragging Dark Ace with him, making sure he was upright. He was lighter than Aerrow had expected, which helped him alot.
Aerrow flew through the air at an incredible speed before hearing a woosh and knowing that both of their parachutes had successfully opened.
It was when he looked down that he discovered another problem.
They were still going to hit the ground hard.
But Aerrow could do nothing about that. However there was a chance they could end up breaking a neck or backbone…
"No time to worry about that now!" Aerrow told himself.
The ground was even more closer…
Suddenly; appallingly; Aerrow's world turned to an violent shade of black and the last thing he felt was Dark Ace falling from his arms and pain throughout his body.
He heard himself hit the ground with a sickening thud, and then no more.
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Okay, so that could have gone better, I'm sure I was rambling near the end there.
Hopefully some people may have actually stuck with me and read to the end! Yay!
So, what will happen next? Will they make it intact or not?
Stay put for Chapter 5!
Reviews are like those MasterCard Adverts are always saying: Priceless :D