YOU WILL READ THIS!!!
Thankyou. Ok, sorry guys it's been a while but I have a proper reason which you'll completely understand (if you're scottish). SCOTLAND LOST TO ITALY! Boo hoo. That was so not a free kick. Bloody refs. Anyway, it's customary for me to go into mourning whenever Scotland loses a match, which means I'm mistaken for Goth most of the year. : D Also, I got royally pissed off at the fact no one appears to be reading my author's notes. So I am ransoming the chapter again, the details of which are at the bottom.
On the bright side, I think I did ok on the Junko bit, and there is an uber suprise! Byeeee! (skips off)
Piper was a light sleeper. Whether it was a benefit or not was debatable, but it meant that she woke up at four in the morning because of someone knocking on the door of her room.
Rubbing her eyes and grumbling about the time, she pulled on her dressing gown and walked to the door. Opening it, she was surprised to see her leader. "Aerrow! What on Atmos is it? It's four in the morning!"
"Sorry Piper, but the radar picked up an opposing presence. We think it might be a large patrol of Cyclonians, possibly with a battleship. They haven't noticed us because we're flying low and because of the distance betweenus, but they will soon, so it's best to suprise them while we can. I'd rather stay in bed too, but we have a duty, no matter how much sleep we want." He rubbed the back of his neck tiredly.
Suddenly, it just struck Piper how hot Aerrow looked when tired. And shirtless. "Oh…Ok, I'll see you at the bridge then," she stammered. He nodded, and ran off to his room. She turned back to hers, her head a whirl of emotions.
'I can't be serious. It's against all rules. Even if it wasn't, he likes Heala's sister,' she blindly thought, heavily sitting down on her bed. She glanced helplessly around as is she was drowning, for something to relate to. Her eyes fell on her notice board attached to her door, where various notices where pinned up. If you needed to tell Piper something and she wasn't there, put it on her notice board. It also served as a way of telling the rest of the Squadron what they needed to know from her. However, it was also covered with pictures. She walked up and examined them.
Yes. From the beginning, it had always been her and Aerrow. They had first met when she was five and he six, and she thought he was so cool. Piper smiled at the memory, but it soon faded, and she sighed, putting it back up on the notice board along with the picture. 'It's different now. He's fifteen and captain of a squadron. Too many things get in the way.'
She picked up the next photo along from it. It was of a group of children on Tropica, all around the age of ten, laughing at a blond boy stuck in the mud. Now she remembered; it was a year after they had met Finn and Junko. Again, there was Aerrow, casually leaning on her shoulder in mirth. Why was he always so…carefree?
This one was more recent. It showed Aerrow after he had been knighted, proud and glowing, confetti thrown in the air by a laughing Finn. She had skulked to back of the celebrations, organising, but not really taking part. She had just set a higher crystals exam, remembered Piper, and got the highest marks in her year. She was bursting to tell Aerrow, but had refrained from telling him about it for another week. It could wait. Even so, he pulled her up, surprised, from where she was hidden at the back. Even now, Piper could still relate to the look of pride on her younger self's face as she looked upon his face.
Despite the fact they both trained in different arts, there were still similarities between the sky duelling captain and the linguistic crystal specialist. They were both passionate about their profession, and both ambitious. They even had similar leadership qualities, able to inspire and direct even in the most hopeless of conditions.
She had never had the time or felt the need for guys, so why was she desperately wishing for a diamond ring from her leader?
'It wouldn't work out', she decided, forcing herself to see the truth, and get ready. 'We're in the same squadron, which is illegal. Anyway, how do I know he feels the same? When Terra's fly, I say.'
Sadly for Piper, her heart didn't agree to what her head what telling it, seeing as it usually got its way. 'Bossy boots,' it mumbled, roaring in protest. 'Always bloody well trying to tell me what to do. You'd think it made most of the decisions round here.'
……….
While Piper was mulling things over in her room, the rest of the ship was in pandemonium. All of the boys were racing about, attempting to motivate a ragged and patched up old Condor into battle mode. And Radarr? He was just running in circles.
"Doom, doom, we're all doomed-" Stork was babbling, flicking controls and putting the ship into a severe drop. "That's probably Ravess's ship, and she has lots and lots of lovely talons trained to speed up our doom…"
"Stork! Cut it out," interjected Aerrow. The merb only muttered darkly. "We know. Junko, get some fuel crystals out and ready the skimmers."
Walking along to the hangar with the crates of crystals, Junko came across a kneeling Heala, hurriedly tightening the screws on her skimmer's metal plating. "Heala!" he said surprised. The bounty hunter shrieked, dropping the spanner on her toe. "Hey, it's only me! What are ya' doin' down here? Did you hear about the talons comin' this way?"
"Yeah…that's right…" mumbled the girl. She fumbled with the spanner dropping it again.
"Here, lemme' help you with that," the wallop said good-naturedly, bending over the ride.
"Thanks. I was never good with mechanics." She sighed and tilted her head to look up at Junko. "The problem is that The Pig…refuses to cooperate after it's been forced to run on an incredibly small amount of fuel, as it was until I found you Storm Hawks. And then...it won't fly properly, so I don't know if I'll be able to help against the Cyclonians."
"Don't worry about that, you can share with one of us," answered Junko cheerfully.
"Right..."
"How's it going, Junko? Those skimmers in order?" Aerrow came in with Radarr on his shoulder, Piper and Finn behind him.
"Yep, but Heala's skimmer isn't working. Can she share with one of you guys?" He replied.
"Don't worry," called Heala jokingly from her place on the floor. "I won't mess up too badly; I've done this before."
Aerrow shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, but it doesn't suit my fighting style. Piper?"
Thanking the Atmos for her dark skin colour to hide the blushes, she replied "Maybe." Then an idea struck her, and she smiled devilishly. "Actually, though, I think she should ride with Finn." They both stiffened unconsciously, and Aerrow raised his eyebrows so high they disappeared under his hair. "They're both sharpshooters," she continued, "they could attack our targets from afar, and get them down quicker."
"Fine!" Heala shrugged, kneeling down to pick up her helmet. "I'll try not to hit you. Not," she added quietly as she brushed passed the other girl. Piper only smiled sweetly.
Biting his lip slightly, Finn watched Heala sit down gingerly behind him, and lightly placed her hands at his waist.
"Ready? he asked. She nodded, gripping him more tightly as they set off into the fight.
Yay! I put in Piper/Aerrow! Like it? Love it? Detest it? Or did you even read it? I don't think one of my reviewers did, as they asked me who Finn MacCool was. Firstly, I STATED IT IN THE STORY. Are you sure you read it? I also mentioned it in full in the last chapter's second A/N. So now, to see how many actually read these; all reviews I get have to mention the no. 1 reason I took so long in the update. And also, I'm adding some speculation. Yay! -
1. Heala knew about the talons without being told...
2. Piper likes Aerrow, but it's against the code. What will happen?
3. The Finn/Heala is moving on. What will happen in the end?
4. Heala has some familiar traits...
Ooooh, speculation! I don't know when the next update will be, probably after Christmas. It will be a short chapter, but there's a cliff hanger! Anyway, Merry Christmas and enjoy speculating!
GWGE
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