Here it be, I don't know if its as good as the others but still ; school kills, and I'm now in a band so yeah, awesome but time consuming.

Yeah I'll stop ranting, Dark Ace if you will.

Dark Ace: She doesn't own Storm Hawks and never will

taLoN: Thank you

Dark Ace: Like you could ever own me.

taLoN: Cyclonis sure as hell does.

DA: What was that?!

taLoN: NOTHING!!!!

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Chapter 3. Next 2 You

In the darkness of the gorge, the group slowly made their way towards what they hoped would be a way out, keeping a lookout for anything that could possibly kill them. Aerrow led the small group fallowed closely by Finn and Junko, Ravess and Snipe and bringing up the rear were Piper and Dark Ace. Piper gazed at the map in front of her without really taking any of the information in, she was to busy worrying about the fact that they may actually DIE here, and that thought scared her to no end.

Despite what most people thought, the Storm Hawks were no stranger to death; they had not killed but they had suffered their own individual losses. Aerrow lost his parents when he was only 5 to the Dark Ace, Finn's mother had died while having his baby sister, who later died from illness. Junko's parents died when he was 12 in an accident. She herself had lost her older brother and father to illness, and her mother just left 2 years ago.

The blunette was pulled from her thoughts by her red haired leader. "Piper, you ok?"

She gave him a look of false reassurance before replying "Yes, I'm fine just thinking."

"What about?"

"Aerrow, what if we die here?" she asked causing him to look at her sadly.

Putting his hands on her small shoulders, he said sternly "Piper we are going to make it out of here alive, I promise." Looking into his deep green eyes she saw nothing but honesty, and nodded her head smiling up at him.

"So what brought up such depressing thoughts?" Finn asked, placing his hands behind his head as he walked occasionally glancing back at the two. "Just thinking about family, or lack thereof really." the blonde gave her a sad look before Ravess piped up with "Aww are the kiddies missing mommy and daddy?" causing Snipe to chuckle, but he was the only one since Dark Ace seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, chewing on what Finn identified as a guitar pick.

Piper glared at the archer, and replied rudely "Well the key words in that sentence were 'lack thereof ' "

Ravess just gave her a bored look and said "Well your not the only ones so get over your little pity party and deal with it, stop living in the past." though she said the last part more quietly than the rest.

"Well what about you, I'll bet you had the perfect little family." Aerrow replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, a witch for a mom and no dad it was great, especially when she just left and Snipe and I got to be street rats. It might surprise you but the good guys aren't the only ones with a crappy past."

"Really? Why did she leave?" Piper asked in genuine surprise, she had never met someone else like her in that respect. Ravess just shrugged and started "Well to help pass the time I guess I'll tell what I remember in a general overview."

""When Snipe was 7 and I was 5, she told us she was going out and she would be back in an hour. Well our mother was a very punctual woman, so when she didn't come home I knew she had abandoned us, and honestly I didn't really care. She never told us she loved us and wouldn't touch us unless it was necessary.

We were living on the streets for 6 years before we started Talon training, I excelled as did Snipe and we eventually became Commanders."

"And Ravess went through about 14 boyfriends before ending up an alcoholic." Snipe added at the end causing him to get his face beat in by his little sister.

"I'm not an alcoholic, idiot."

Finn whistled before saying "Harsh." to which the siblings only shrugged. Then Snipe seemed to get a bright idea ( not )

"Hey Dark Ace you never told us about your parents." Dark Ace looked at him and said "What's to tell, they were both screwed up."

"Come on details Ace." Ravess said coyly, causing Dark Ace to raise an eyebrow before saying "Only if you never call me that again." And Ravess nodded.

"Ok well my dad was a drunk, and my mom was insane."

"So was my mom." Aerrow said causing the dark haired male to shake his head.

"No, I don't mean my mom is insane, I mean, we the jury find the defendant. . .Diagnosed Manic Depressive, Schizophrenic. You know how most people are kind of balanced out; my mom was way the hell off. Smart but manipulative, beautiful, killed her last husband. She also had a 180 I.Q., spoke 4 different languages and played piano and violin."

"Wow."

"Yes, my parents hated each other too, their divorce settlement involved a bar tab." Piper raised an eyebrow at this.

"Lived with my dad for 4 years, he died then went to live with my mom then she killed herself, lived by myself and was in a band then I was with the Storm Hawks, then Cyclonia." The others just nodded, not really wanting to ask him anything with the look he was giving everyone.

"Talk about dysfunctional." Snipe said shaking his head before everyone suddenly stopped, their eyes watching intently for the source of the noise.

GWRRRR

Everyone looked up and was horrified at the sight before them. Piper thought the best way to describe it would be a mutated cross between a Gorge Sloth and a Giant Vulcca bat. It had two sets of furry wings and had the basic body of the Vulcca bat but it had fur and the head shape was that of a Gorge Sloth. It also possessed what looked to be long poisonous claws on each limb, but the scary part was that it was at least 3x as big as a Gorge sloth.

It opened its large mouth to expose fangs that Piper was sure were each about as big as she was, and let loose a piercing shriek, making everyone wince and then glared down at the group.

"Guys get ready; I don't think this thing is going to let us pass without a fight." Aerrow said taking out his only dagger, keeping his eyes trained on the thing. Dark Ace mirrored his movements with his sword while remarking "Really? What gave you that idea."

Aerrow just glared in his general direction. The Bat shifted and everyone tensed, waiting for someone to make the first move.

After what seemed like forever the Bat decided to take its chance and dived at Aerrow. The teen dodged, jumping to the side next to Finn. The Bat created a depression in the ground were Aerrow had been and turned, lunging in one fluid motion at where Dark Ace, Piper, and Ravess were standing; Dark Ace and Piper jumped left and Ravess flattened herself on the ground letting the thing fly over her. Dark Ace pushed Piper out of his way and as the bat came towards him, rolled backwards into a hand stand, kicking it in the jaw and landing back on his feet.

The kick didn't seem to cause any substantial damage, only nock it slightly off balance and anger it. Clawing at the ground with its giant wings as it tried to change course gave Aerrow a chance to strike, dodging one set of wings he grabbed hold of the others and plunged his dagger through the thin layer of fur and skin and into the ground, causing it to shriek in pain and round on the redhead, knocking him out of its way, only to be tackled by Snipe and Junko who managed to hold it down.

Walking over, Dark Ace slit its throat and said quietly "One down."

Piper helped Aerrow up as a gloomy silence filled the air, no one spoke, content to keep their thoughts to themselves. Though everyone was thinking the same thing,

Will I die here?

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On schedule?! Wow that's new, sorry about the crappy ending ill try to make the next one better.

taLoN out.