Author's Note: I hope you're all enjoying this story so far :) I can't guarantee that I'll be updating on time, but I do have it planned to be updated every other week and perhaps earlier sometimes as well.

Enjoy!


"It's perfect!" Piper exclaimed, "Absolutely, positively the best plan ever!"

"Uhm...I'm not gonna like this, am I?" Stork asked in return.

"When do you ever like something, Stork?" Flame asked him as she sat in the chair opposite of where Piper was standing, her cape, flowing over the chair. Radarr was on her shoulder sniffing her hair and neck. "Knock if off, Radarr!" she said, tossing him to Aerrow, who was caught off guard and ended up having the pet latch on to his face before moving around his shoulders.

Piper continued to explain her plan and, of course, Stork didn't approve.

"Did somebody say South West?" Finn asked, to which Piper confirmed.

"Finn..." Flame started, but he ignored her.

"You know what's in the South West, don't you?" he asked, a smile on his face.

"Oh! Let me guess!" Junko popped in, "Terra Neon's twenty-four hour gravy buffet!"

"Why am I even sitting between you two morons?" Flame asked.

"Well, there is that," Finn agreed, "But think warmer..."

When Junko realized what he was talking about, they both exclaimed, 'Tropica!'

"And this, Aerrow, is why I babysit you children" Flame said to the teen boy, considering that they might be the reason Stork didn't seem all that mentally stable as she made her way over to Piper's side. Aerrow shook his head with a chuckle as Finn and Junko thought of all the things they could do on Terra Tropica.

"Don't forget the swimsuits." Piper reminded them. Based on their reactions, their imagination led them to something they didn't want to see.

"Stork," Aerrow said, grabbing the attention of the Merb, "Set course for Tropica." he ordered.

"Yes!" Stork agreed enthusiastically, grabbing the helm and doing as told.

"Stork! You're supposed to help me keep them safe while they study Cyclonians!" Flame said, displeased that the Merb was interested in going to Tropica as well.

Her head lowered to the ground a little, a small smile forming across her lips.


Flashback...

"This place is so beautiful." she said, looking around the island before returning her gaze to her lover.

"It would be more so if you stopped moving around and let me have my way with you." the Dark Ace replied, a menacing smirk forming across his lips.

"Is that so?" she asked him, strutting back over to him in her beautiful black bikini clad with silver neck to hip chains, "Aren't you supposed to be serving your Master instead of relaxing under the sun?"

"It's my day off." he brushed his duties aside, "I do as I please on days like this..." he explained, eyes never leaving her body as she straddled him. "And I must say...the view is absolutely breathtaking..." he continued, putting his hands on her hips.


"Flame?!" she heard Aerrow call out, snapping her out of her memory.

"Y-yes?" she answered.

He had an odd look on his face, as if she was yellow with red dots, "Are you alright?"

"Of course I'm alright." she reassured him, looking over to see through the window, "I'll give you children this chance to relax for a while, alright? After that, it's back to training."

"Don't ruin the fun, babe! We'll have a great time there!" Finn said, only for Flame's hand to be put over his face as she pushed him aside, making her way to sit down once again, her mind continuing on about her time spent on Terra Tropica with her lover.

The ride to Terra Tropica was smooth until they begun passing through Terra Gale. The sirens blared and everyone looked around, wondering what was going on. Stork took a look, concluding that they were 'doomed', like usual. Suddenly, a toilet broke through the Condor's front window, stopping at Finn's feet.

"Alright, to the hangar, I suppose." Flame spoke up, "Best to leave the Condor out of this, right, Stork?" she said, smiling at him.

"That is something I can live with." he agreed.

Everyone hopped onto their rides while Flame stayed aboard the ship, taking off of the Condor one by one. Flame knew something wasn't right about the clouds and could only assume is was related to Cyclonia.

"Oh, Ace...what have you done this time?" she spoke softly to herself.

"What was that?" Stork asked?

She looked up, not realizing she'd spoken out loud, "What was what?" she asked in return, playing stupid for a moment.

Suddenly, red beams shot over everyone's rides from behind, them looking back to see Talons.

Finn radioed in to the Condor, explaining that they were under attack, losing his Skimmer in the process, like usual. He hung on to the scope for as long as he could before the wires gave out and fell, only being caught by Piper's Heli-Scooter.

"I'm going out after them." Flame spoke up, turning to run to the hangar and took off as quickly as she could.

Aerrow managed to confuse one of the Talons, causing him to abandon his ride. Another Talon pulled out a swarm crystal, planning to use it on one of teens only the have it grabbed out of his hand by Finn and it being tossed into the ride, the metal craft turning into tiny bits and the swarm left in it's wake attacking the Talon himself.

Flame continued to circle around, keeping watch on them as another Talon was after Aerrow. That was, until a mattress was thrown at him and he plummeted down. Piper took a look at what was going on to see a man wearing a sort of Kiln as armour. Flame laughed out, knowing that old mad man all too well. Aerrow, Radarr, Finn and Piper made their way down to Terra Gale as did Flame, but unlike the three teenagers, Flame stayed next to her Switchblade, watching what would take place next.

The three searched for the old man, falling into a netted trap. The old man went on about the teenagers being Cyclonians and that they will face punishment for what they'd done. Being moved into a catapult to be tossed into the Wastelands.

"Wren." the old man heard, turning to see Flame approaching.

"Mademoiselle Flame?" he said in confusion, pronouncing her name wrong as usual, "What are you doing here?" he asked. Few words were understandable by the Frenchman, but this wasn't her first time meeting him, of course.

"They're not Cyclonians," she laughed, "We were on our way to Terra Tropica. I knew those clouds weren't normal to the Terra. Please, let them go?" she asked him.

"Zey are Cyclonian spies!" the man said, continuing to move the catapult toward the cliff edge.

"You truly are a mad man, Wren." Flame responded.

"Radarr, go!" Aerrow told his pet, who moved immediately, biting the old man on his foot. The pain made him let go of the lever, giving Radarr the chance to bite away the net keeping the three teenagers held together.

Once they were released, Wren resorted to holding up his fists for hand-to-hand combat, bragging about being pretty good at fighting back in the day.

Piper lowered her head into her hand for a moment, "We're not Cyclonians!" she exclaimed.

"She's right!" Aerrow backed her up, "We're the good guys! The Storm Hawks?"

Wren looked at them in confusion.

"Come on!" Finn spoke, "You've heard of us! We're famous."

"No, you're not." Flame told him.

"Jealous?" he asked her.

She laughed out, "I can kick your scrawny ass any day, Finn." she reassured him, patting him on the back hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.

"Nope! Never heard of you!" the old man concluded, "Who is your 'Commanding Officer'?" he asked.

"That would be me." Aerrow answered.

The old mad man spat on his hand, shaking Aerrow's as he introduced himself, Flame giggling at Aerrow's reaction. "Ze name is Wren! Welcome to ze last free piece of Terra Gale!" he said, something falling off the building behind him.

"Impressive..." Finn commented sarcastically, receiving Piper's elbow in his stomach.

The sun set quickly and Wren spoke to them over the campfire about the freedom of Terra Gale being taken away from them by Cyclonians.

Honestly...I pickedthe worst man... Flame thought to herself as she knew it could only be the Dark Ace behind it via Cyclonis' orders.

Wren explained that two weeks ago, his granddaughter, Dove, was kidnapped by the Cyclonians. Flame didn't want to believe that her lover could have kidnapped a young girl, but then again, she wouldn't put anything past that evil man.

"Yup, there it is." Finn spoke up as he watched Aerrow's face upon looking at Dove's picture when Wren handed it to him.

"Shut up, Finn." Flame said, smacking him on the back of his head.

"That's the 'we're going on a dangerous mission' look." Finn continued, rubbing the back of his head.

Aerrow reassured Wren that they would get the young girl back from the Cyclonians, handing the picture to Finn. Upon seeing her, Finn was all for it, only to receive yet another smack over his head.

"Do you purposely just stand there to smack me?" he asked the woman.

A wry smirk formed across Flame's lips, "Sometimes."

Wren was ecstatic about their decision to go in after Dove, mentioning to them that they should teach the Dark Ace a thing or two.

Flame smacked herself in the face with her own hand, shaking her head.

"Is something wrong, Flame?" Aerrow asked her.

She smiled, "No, nothing's wrong, Aerrow. Thanks." she reassured him. He's most definitely going to hear a thing or two about this one...

They returned to the ship, forming a plan as to how they could infiltrate Cyclonia in order to rescue the young girl and explained their decision once the plan was done.

A part of Flame felt like she was betraying the Dark Ace, but the good in her knew that what he did was wrong and she would have to speak to him about what he'd done. Kidnapping a young girl? What reason could he, or Cyclonis', have for doing such a thing?

Everybody knew that something was on Flame's mind, but nobody dared asking her about it. Doing so would only lead them to get lectured about something else, which she often did to mislead them on her true thoughts.


Their plan was good, even though they ultimately wrecked their rides while Flame's Switchblade remained intact. She took another route in: one that she had personal access to, to none of the Storm Hawks' knowledge. They carried no suspicion when she had wandered off, using Dove as an excuse to find what she truly came for.

Walking through the halls, the guards paid no attention to her as this wasn't the first time she had been seen in Cyclonia. Even though they had their suspicions, she was granted access by the Dark Ace himself and, hesitantly, by Cyclonis. Asking around for her lover, she kept walking in the directions the Talons were pointing her in, not looking in front of her and bumping into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking for—"

"Flame?" he spoke, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for you, Ace." she said. She was irritated and he knew that, looking around before looking back at her.

"Is that so? Did you miss me too much?" he asked, a mischievous smile forming across his lips as he grabbed her, pulling her closer to him.

She smacked him across the face, pulling away from him, "Why did you kidnap a young girl? What did she or her grandfather ever do to you?!" she asked him.

"We captured the Rebel Ducks and figured that she was a part of their Squadron."

"Ace..." she said, a disappointed look in her eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, Flame." he said, cupping her cheek, "You know why I do what I do."

"I know." she said, "It just saddens me that you're...so loyal to her cause."

"We'll discuss this later, Flame." he finalized, "I assume you have somewhere to be?" he asked, an eyebrow raising in curiosity.

"I'll see you soon, Ace." she agreed, being given a soft kiss before returning to her Switchblade.

Once returning to their evacuation area, Flame was able to play off her sudden disappearance easily and headed out with Aerrow and the rest of the team to return to Terra Gale.

He'll be arriving any second now...

Aerrow let out a sigh of relief, "I told you the plan was fool proof!" he bragged to Piper and Flame,

"Aerrow..." Flame started, but he continued on.

"We saved the day and didn't even run...into..." he stopped his sentence upon seeing him standing on his ride.

Flame huffed, "I told you."

"I think you spoke too soon..." Piper added.

"The Dark Ace!" Aerrow growled out.

"Well, well. If it isn't the 'notorious' Storm Hawks." he said, that same evil smile forming across his face, "and, of course, the one lone Sky Knight to aid them." he finished, looking at his lover.

Flame looked at him, was it necessary to point me out...?

"Nice to see you too, Dark Ace." she said with a mischievous smile.

He looked at her, "Always a pleasure..." he replied in a rather flirtatious tone. She was glad none of the teens had noticed anything about it.

"From the looks of that storm, he's got a Fire Bolt Crystal." Piper informed them.

"Storm Hawks! Prepare for battle!" Aerrow ordered.

"Talons," the Dark Ace spoke, sitting back down on his Switchblade, "Attack!"

Aerrow went directly for the Dark Ace, both of them preparing their signature move, but the Dark Ace's was much more powerful and caused Aerrow to be knocked off of his Skimmer, using his glider to return to it.

Flame flew around, watching and observing the Storm Hawks. She tended to not get involved in their battles because she needed them to learn on their own, but was nonetheless disappointed by her lover always trying to kill Aerrow.

Aerrow ordered his team to enter the clouds in order to lose the Dark Ace. Flame pulled back to join the Dark Ace's side with a scythe in hand, looking at her lover, "Why don't you ever listen to me? He's just a child, Ace."

"I told you that we will discuss this later, woman!" he said once again, "Stay out of this as you always plan to. I don't want to damage that pretty face, after all." he said with a hand on her cheek, a dark grin appearing on his lips before giving her a kiss.

She was glad that the Storm Hawks were busy looking out for themselves. She wasn't ready to tell anyone hat she was involved with the enemy in such a way. The only person that knew about it was her best friend and a fellow Sky Knight, Starling.

"Hide and seek?" the Dark Ace spoke out as the Storm Hawks entered the clouds, "I'll play." he agreed.

Both of them knew that he controlled the cloud they'd just flown into and it was a complete giveaway.

"I see you," he said, quite satisfied, throwing an energy bolt in their direction.

"Why are you so evil?" she asked the Dark Ace.

"Why do you love me regardless of that?" he came back, her not being pleased with his witty remark while he looked around for the teenagers.

Suddenly, one of the talons were shot down and Flame knew that it was Finn's handy work. Quickly, she hopped on to his Switchblade and he stood up, their weapons clashing for the sake of those watching.

"My place tonight?" she asked the Dark Ace.

"Of course." he agreed, giving her a chaste kiss before she hopped back onto her ride and pulled back and away, pretending that she was fighting him beforehand. She was sure Finn saw something and was probably wondering why the Dark Ace hadn't thrown any attacks at her after her withdrawal. Luckily, it was perfect timing, as Finn had continued to shoot at the Cyclonian Commander.

The Dark Ace managed to destroy Finn's Skimmer and he fell, being saved by Piper's Heli-Scooter once again until she shook him off to join Junko on his ride. The Dark Ace managed to blow out an engine on Junko's Skimmer, pursuing them as they gradually declined toward the Wastelands until his attention turned to Aerrow's fist connecting with his face.

Flame came back to the Dark Ace's side, scythes out and watching as the two battled in a momentary hand-to-hand combat as the Dark Ace's blade was lodged into his Switchblade's wing.

"With a little more training, you'd make an excellent Talon." the Dark Ace told Aerrow.

Aerrow replied with him rather eating dirt and the Dark Ace simply replied with that being arranged. They continued on their battle, the Dark Ace getting a chance to get his blade back, pointing it at Aerrow.

"Checkmate." he said victoriously, having a good laugh when Aerrow pulled out a wrench.

This child is an idiot... Flame thought to herself before flying off to meet with the others. She knew she couldn't stick around and watch for too long without Aerrow wondering why she wasn't intervening, even though she had made it clear on multiple occasions that she was only there to watch over them.

The Dark Ace continued after Aerrow through a deserted Terra, not realizing until the last moment that the teen had lodged the wrench in between the wings of his Switchblade beforehand and was blown out of the sky as he was unable to retract the wings in time. He was able to grab his blade, but in the process, the Fire Bolt Crystal detached from his weapon and found itself in Aerrow's hand.

A Talon had managed to save the Dark Ace from plummeting to his death, but was only knocked off of the ride in return as the Dark Ace continued his pursuit for Aerrow. Once he was directly behind Aerrow, his attention was drawn away as he found himself surrounded by the rest of the Storm Hawks along with the Rebel Ducks of Terra Gale as well as the Condor, Flame flying right above the top of the ship.

"Now that would be checkmate." Aerrow told the man confidently, flashing the Fire Bolt Crystal to taunt him even more.

The Dark Ace informed Aerrow that he wouldn't be so lucky next time before retreating back to Cyclonia. He knew he was in for a long talk with his lover, as always, but that was something that came along with being involved with someone of good nature when you're the complete opposite.

They returned Dove to Terra Gale along with the Rebel Ducks, being rewarded with a Windstone Crystal from the two.

"Now can we go to the beach?" Finn asked Aerrow, Junko agreeing with the blonde-headed boy.

"You kids have fun. I have somewhere that I need to be." Flame explained to them, taking off of the Condor and heading back to her small home and awaiting her lover to stop by.


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