I do not own Storm Hawks!
Thanks to angel on wings and to The Alien of Pluto for their reviews! I would have had this up a week ago, but then midterms…..sob.
On with the story!
"Finn, are you wearing Aerrow's pants?" Piper asked. After the noises from last night, please let him say no….
"Dude! Aerrow, we definitely need closets or some sort of clean and dirty clothing that does not consist of the floor and hamper basket. It happened again!" Finn walked off to find his own pants while Aerrow's pants pulled, stretched, and gapped at all the wrong and right places.
Piper slapped a hand over her face and peeked through the fingers. Cyclonis rolled her eyes. Dark Ace decided that maybe he needed a stronger cup of hot chocolate. Stork glanced up from the latest viral defense, and goggled at Finn from his station.
Junko sighed. "No matter how I work it, we just can't have closets on the Condor. It's always converted into space for parts, not clothes."
"Dude, it's no fault of your own. I'll just get out of these and into something a little more my size. I mean, it's not Aerrow's fault his hips slim down like a guy's and mine flare out like a girl's." Finn clapped a hand on Junko's shoulder as he walked by, and headed into what a curtain deemed the men's room.
Piper opened her mouth, and Cyclonis slapped her hand over it.
Dark Ace chocked on his hot chocolate.
Aerrow, meanwhile, just rolled his eyes. After doing laundry on the Condor, he figured himself lucky that the clothes came out near the size they went in, instead of shrinking, or, thanks to one of Storks paranoid beliefs, electric blue.
Aerrow's pants were thrown past the gap over to where his cot was, and Finn shimmied into a clean pair of shorts.
Piper and Cyclonis were trying not to look at each other, because they would die laughing if they did. Aerrow was glaring murder at Dark Ace who was cleaning up what little hot chocolate got on his clothes.
Finn strolled out of the make shift tent, and looked around.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Everyone is fine. We are just surprised that you and Aerrow seem to swap clothes on a regular basis." Cyclonis answered primly in her diplomatic voice. To think she would ever actually use that training. She made a mental note to pay a stipend to the un-employed teacher when she got back.
"So? I thought girls traded clothes all the time. And besides, Aerrow and I are mostly the same size, as compared to Piper and Stork. I remember when I got their pants mixed up because I was so tired. That was funny, looking back at it."
Piper and Stork shuddered.
Cyclonis chose not to ask, as the other Storm Hawks displayed similar reactions. She looked at Dark Ace, who made the universal sign for 'don't ask me' by raising both shoulders and shrugging.
Finn strolled by.
"Oh, and Aerrow, that card you thought I had swiped last night? I found it under your cot." Finn flipped the Jack of hearts at Aerrow, such that the card twisted on an axis and landed by him. Aerrow blinked.
"Ah, sorry, Finn."
"Dude, no problem. I only bring it up because Piper's been scrutinizing us since breakfast."
"Piper!"
For all the trouble she was in, Piper was glad for the misunderstanding.
After the morning fiasco, Dark Ace banned the children from all dangerous objects and sat them down with a mad-libs game to play. Soon, the children were raucous, but no longer trying to kill each other over petty disputes.
Also, the time for lunch went by without anyone noticing, which meant six ravenous teenagers and Radarr when dinner came around. Dark Ace sorted through the gloopy fruit until he found the fixings for dinner. Corn, cauliflower, and cooked spinach along with seared ribs looked to be on the menu tonight.
He rolled up his sleeves and pulled on an apron, setting to work in the mini-kitchen that had been provided to suit the needs and wants of the divers group, rather than the mysterious benefactor guessing what all they were in the mood for, and how much they wanted.
The starch and two vegetables were put in their own porcelain containers with some water and left to cook.
The ribs were then cut, and cooked, with a generous slathering of sauce that Dark Ace whipped up with the spices on hand with vinegar, brown sugar, jalapenos and honey.
He rubbed his hands together when he washed them. Finally, something productive he could actually do.
The Storm Hawks and Master Cyclonis were sitting at the table. Dark Ace was wearing a blue apron and serving them dinner. Finn pushed his food around on his plate.
Dark Ace seemed to be refraining from commenting on his behavior. No one had critiqued the food (yet), and they were talking about how the day went and what to do tomorrow.
The pool was getting kind of old, so Aerrow was racking his brains for a new activity to keep them busy.
Piper finally picked up the rib bones and started gnawing on them, before shooting a 'It's really good, thanks.' at Dark Ace.
He nodded with a small smile pulling at his lips. The others rushed to praise him, apologizing for taking so long, they were really hungry. Finn didn't say anything, he was lost in thought.
Finn finally sighed, and sat up straighter, putting his shoulders back. Dark Ace braced himself.
"Hey, Cyclonis, I have a question."
At the head of the table, flanked by Aerrow on her left, and Dark Ace on her right, Cyclonis glanced down the left side of the table at Finn.
"Yes?"
The others fell quiet, and slowly chewed their food. No one reached for their drinks.
"How come we've never seen Cyclonians eat before now? I mean, I know you receive shipments of donuts, but I've never sneaked up on a Talon taking a break for lunch. Why's that?"
Cyclonis shrugged. "Timing, most likely. Atmos is big enough for three time zones, and some even argue for four time zones. The Talons are stationed out longer than you are, and have probably adjusted to the different times for eating, where as I've noticed, you all eat when you are hungry, and mostly eat meals together when able to."
Cyclonis eyed her glass.
"Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah, thanks." Finn bit into his food, finally dining.
Everyone, relieved that a typical Finn joke wasn't coming down the table, reached for their glasses and had a long gulp from them.
"Wow! This is good!"
Piper snorted her milk from the exclamation and the sheer volume of the yell. All around the table, glasses hit the wood and Storm Hawks choked.
Cyclonis paused in her drinking, before taking a deliberate swallow. Her undoing was looking at Aerrow and Piper next to him. She started giggling, and the rest was history.
When Finn wanted milk to come out of your nose, the only way to stop it was to not drink.
Aerrow finally came up with an idea that everyone agreed with, after Dark Ace documented the other ideas and why they weren't viable at the moment.
Rappelling, rock climbing, or bungee jumping seemed to be the consensus. They left the table for some quiet meditation, and then parted for bed. The girls headed upstairs and got ready for bed.
Piper animatedly talked to Cyclonis about the time she needed to make and anti-gravity crystal, or else Stork would be stuck to Lugey for the rest of his life.
"Not the idiot brother in the Raptors?"
"The very same. I had them pulling me from one shelf to the other. Although, during the confusion, I went from being next to a yellow crate to a red crate, but I didn't think much about it then. I was short on time."
"Ah, yes. He was very glad to get a neutral crystal and a Gravitron crystal out of the ordeal, and besides, the Raptors make excellent maids I hear."
Piper looked shocked at Cyclonis, but then the image, of Repton fuming in a light pink apron with daisies embroidered on it danced through her head.
Downstairs, the men jumped as the thundering laughter came down the stairs. Finn gave Aerrow a slightly alarmed look.
"Do they know just how loud they're laughing?"
Aerrow shook his head. If they were laughing that hard, he could find out about what in the morning.
In the morning, the pool was half the width it had been yesterday. In its place, against the wall, there was the equipment to rappel against the wall that had holds jutting out for climbing, an a beam had been cleared in the ceiling with a ladder built into the wall.
Where the pool used to be, there was an inflated mattress.
Aerrow blinked at the set up.
"Okay, so the mysterious benefactor listens to us. I'm slightly creeped out."
"Dude, I just say thank you and don't think about it." Finn examined the gear. He picked up a rope and tugged on it.
"It looks safe, all they forgot to supply us with was instructors to watch us and weight us down while we climb." Finn tossed the rope back where he found it.
Stork was going through the equipment anyway, being his paranoid self.
Junko pointed a finger at himself.
"I can take care of the weights. And I can spot. I've got the eyes of a hawk."
Dark Ace rolled his eyes. He did so again, for emphasis.
Junko didn't see him.
"Right, well, I'm going to check out the bungee cord." Dark Ace made sure not to be anywhere near the wall or the Wallop. He had a feeling that Junko was far-sighted, and needed help with near sighted objects.
Such as clipping the rope to himself before the others started climbing.
The day was spent climbing up the wall, which was a good twenty feet at the shortest distance. Junko seemed to really not want anything more than to weigh down his teammates and help them descend once they were done.
After lunch they shifted the focus to the bungee jumping and gave Junko a rest, and Dark Ace had three heart stopping moments.
One was when Piper snapped back up past the beam.
Another was when Stork started screaming after passing out from the first pass, just dangling over the mattress.
But what really made his heart freeze for that aching second before realizing that everything was okay was when Finn reached the bottom of his descent on the first drop and slipped out of the harness.
Dark Ace heard him land on the mattress, and could only pray to Master Cyclonis that it didn't mean he had killed Finn.
After that, Dark Ace was done with the bungee jumping. He packed everything up and locked it, with a severe admonishment that after the scares, he was the only one allowed to supervise the bungee jumping.
Aerrow had held up a hand with a pointer finger extended to argue his case against the rules, then re-thought the action, and scratched the back of his head instead.
"Okay, bungee jumping is off the list. Let's get back to the wall climbing."
"Rock."
"Whichever, Finn."
The rest of the evening was mostly peaceful. Dark Ace watched the kids climb, and Junko was actually a good conversationalist.
Who knew the Wallop was Finn's best friend.
It was finally time for bed, and as Dark Ace ushered the teenagers through the showers and into bed, he stopped and looked at a painting that had appeared over the table.
It was the Colonel, a mafia boss that the Cyclonians made sure to be on good terms with, because fighting Atmos and not Colonel was actually a pretty big difference.
The man had strings in Cyclonia and Atmos, but more in Atmos. Master Cyclonis was very careful in taking the Colonel out. She couldn't afford the mafia siding with Atmos over the war. They needed to remain and independent, neutral factor that thought they could survive when the Cyclonians won.
Dark Ace grinned, and then removed the painting.
He didn't have much of an appreciation for oil paintings.
A/N: I am now offering gift fanfics to people who reviewed and helped Lights, Camera, Hiccup! get to where it is today. As I am currently on Spring Break, please know that this is a very limited offer, but I will do my best to get around to everything people request.
The only limit is that it must be something allowed on by the guidelines. Also, I have ideas of previous fanfics floating in my head, so expect several stories to be up and running. I will credit you for your gift. But this means I can finally get around to updating my other fanfics!