Rolling on into the next. Prepare for the fight scene!
Heart of Darkness...Determination
Dark Ace moved closer to The Storm Hawks with his sword drawn. He stopped a few yards from where they stood and began to look over the ragged team, as if gauging how much strength they had left. He must not have thought much of it as he let a dark smile cross his face and shook his head with a small laugh.
"I must admit I'm surprised that you were able to escape your cell. And the fact that your merb pet is with you means that you already gave Heron a visit." He poised himself in a battle ready position. "So, did you kill him?"
"No." Aerrow said defiantly. "Your the murders, not us." Aerrow prepared himself to strike out against Dark Ace, not sure that if his blades would last long without working crystals.
"And that means your weak." Ace said as he moved quickly toward Aerrow.
Aerrow quickly raised his blades to block the strike. The blades collided with a quick shower of sparks. Aerrow pulled away from Dark Ace and looked his down at his blades to access the damage of the strike. The metal appeared to have melted slightly where Dark Ace's sword had hit, they were no match without crystal energy of their own. These won't last long at this rate. His thoughts were cut short as Dark Ace advanced again with a swipe at Aerrow's neck. Aerrow began to dodge and kept dodging through Ace's various attacks.
Piper, who saw the damage to Aerrow's blades, moved to help out her leader. She grabbed up the two staff weapons that she and Finn had taken off the two Talons earlier and removed their crystals. "Junko." She said to get her friends attention. "I need you distract Dark Ace for a bit."
"I'm not sure how long I can keep him distracted with empty knuckle dusters." Junko said in a worried tone.
Piper grabbed up the now powerless staffs. "Use these. They should be able to hold of a few strikes before they break. Hopefully I'll be done by then."
Junko nodded and grabbed up the staffs, holding them as one in his beefy hands. He then charged the Dark Ace with all the force he could muster.
Dark Ace was currently focused on Aerrow, so he didn't notice the large wallop suddenly run up and send him flying a few yards from a hard tackle. Ace quickly stood and turned his anger on the Wallop, lashing out with his sword. Junko blocked with the staffs, but could already feel them starting to break. Hurry Piper, not sure if I can hold him. He thought silently to himself as Dark Ace charged forward again.
Aerrow was also confused by Junko sudden charge, but was quickly pulled to Piper by Finn before he could think anymore on it.
"What's going on? Junko won't last long Against Ace even if he had working weapons." Aerrow said in a concerned tone.
"I'm trying to level the playing field." Piper said as she snatched the weapons from Aerrow's hands.
She quickly went to work opening the crystal casing and removing the powerless Blue Strikers from it. She quickly replaced them with the crystals she got from the staff. After making other small adjustments, she gave the blades back to Aerrow.
"These crystals are only meant to give quick bursts of energy, so I can't be sure how long they'll last in a sustained fight." She gave Aerrow a worried look as she spoke. "I turned down the power just enough to give you more time, but that means you can't really use them to block heavy blows.
"It'll have to do for now." Aerrow said as he turned to look back at Dark Ace. Junko was trying his best to hold Darl Ace, his staffs had already broken and he was trying to knock aside the blows the the broken halves. Aerrow started running forward, straight at the Dark Ace. "Junko! Fall back!" Aerrow yelled as he activated his blades, a faint glow covering them.
Dark Ace turned in time to block Aerrow's strike with his sword. Using Aerrow's momentum, Dark Ace quickly turned Aerrow blades to the side and spun on his heal to deliver a kick to Aerrow's mid-section as he moved him to the side. Aerrow felt himself sprawl out on the ground from Dark Ace's kick. He quickly rolled onto his side, just in time to avoid Dark Ace's sword as it plunged a few inches into the floor. Aerrow lept to his feet and brought his weapons around to point at Dark Ace, who had just freed his sword from the floor.
Dark Ace lunged forward again, his sword aiming for Aerrow's stomach. Aerrow brought one of his blades down, knocking Dark Ace's sword to the side. Dark Ace quickly recovered by bringing his sword back around to slice at Aerrow's shoulder. Aerrow brought up both blades to block the strike, his arms strained under the force of the blow. The weak energy around the blades wasn't enought to hold back all the damage, causing small cracks to appear on the surface of the metal. Aerrow saw this and swept himself out from underneath Dark Ace's sword.
Dark Ace let a smile cross his face as he brought his sword around and stared at Aerrow. "It doesn't matter if I defeat you anymore Aerrow." Dark Ace said as he swung forward again.
Aerrow quickly dodged to the side. "Oh yeah? And why's that?" Aerrow asked as he moved forward to strike at Dark Ace.
"It's simple!" Dark Ace yelled, knocking Aerrow strike to the side with a one armed swing of his sword. He used is othe arm to punch Aerrow in the face, hard. Aerrow was knocked down, his blades skidded away from him and his vision blurred. Dark Ace stood over him, an arrogant look on his face. "You've already lost." He said with a calm tone as he gripped his sword tighter and raised it above his head. The crystal energy flared on the blade.
"No!" The group of friends yelled in almost unison as they looked in horror from where they stood.
Ace smiled and swung his sword around. Instead of slicing down at a defenseless Aerrow, he fired off two quick burts of energy at the cargo ship's engines. The blasts hit firmly and immediatley turned the once working engines into scrap.
"You don't get to die yet, but your not going anywhere." Dark Ace said with a laugh as he holstered his balde once more on his back. He turned away and started heading for the edge of the platform.
Aerrow felt confusion as he watched Dark Ace walk away from him. "Your just going to let us go?" Aerrow said as he picked himself up off the deck.
"Go?" Dark Ace said with a small laugh, turning to look at Aerrow as he stood on the edge of the platform. "Aerrow, you and your little group have nowhere to go anymore." He started laughing harder now as he simply leaned back ad fell backkwards off the platform.
Aerrow was shocked by what he just saw and quickly rushed forward to look down. As he reached the edge, Dark Ace flew back up into view, his glider wings extended and the thrusters on.
"You shall all bear witness now to the end of your free Atmos, and the rise of Cyclonia. Enjoy the view." He said and started to laugh as he flew up towards the top floors of the citadel.
The other gathered around Aerrow and looked off into the distance. The carriers were closer now, they had all been to distracted by Dark Ace to notice how much closer they had gotten. Aerrow looked over at the ruined engines of the cargo ship, his hope dwindling. He looked back at his team, searching their faces and seeing the despair in their eyes.
He couldn't let this happen, not like this. He needed to act. Aerrow picked up his battered blades from the floor, frowning at the damage. He holstered them on his back and began moving back into the citadel.
Finn ran up to Aerrow's left side, holding his crossbow in his hands. "So what's the plan?"
"Not a clue." Aerrow said as he kept moving forward. "But I'd say heading up is a good direction."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Junko said as he ran up to Aerrow's right side.
"Escape is no longer an option, and we have no way of warning the fleet. So our only option left is to take Cyclonis head on." Aerrow said trying to keep his determination.
Piper watched the boys moving into the citadel from where she stood on the cargo ship. Stork was sitting on a bench that was built into the wall, trying his best to keep from aggravating his wounds.
"You need to go with them." Stork said as he looked at Piper. "Not that we aren't all doomed anyway, but I think the chances are better in you go with them." Stork said with a slight smile.
"What about you?" Piper asked, casting a worried look at Stork.
"I'll be fine for now, but i would only slow you guys down if i went." Stork said as he laid down on the bench, stretching himself out. "Mmmmm, that feels better."
Piper walked up to Stork, looking down at him with the same worried look. "I can't just leave you alone here."
Stork looked up at her with a small smirk. "I doubt the Cyclonians are worried about capturing an injured merb who casually resting on a broken ship. Besides, I always feel more comfortable on a ship, even if it is a Cyclonian piece of crap." He said with a small laugh, wincing as his ribs reminded him of his injury. "Besides I'm sure they're going into a lot more danger than I'll face here."Stork then started to turn a dark green in the face.
Piper felt worried a the sudden change in Stork's appearance. "Are you sure your okay?"
"Yeah." Stork said in a slight mutter. "Just thought that I might not see you again."
"I'm not gong to lose to to these guys any time soon." Piper said with a grin.
Stork felt his heart rise into his throat at her smile. "Piper, there's something i need to say."
"What?" said as she leaned closer to Stork.
"Um, I..." Stork began to stutter now, Piper being so close was making it hard for him to think staright. "I really like..."
Piper looked at him with a slight bit of confusion.
"I'd really like some sandcakes when whenever you get the chance to make some." Stork said in a huff, his face a deep shade of green now.
Piper smiled again as stood back up. "When we win, and are safe again, I'll make a whole batch just for you."
"I'd like that." Stork said in an embarrassed tone. His thoughts though were more focused on what he had wanted to say. I completely choked. Something has to be wrong with me. Some sort of secondary infection that has risen from all this strain from being injured.
Piper began to move away again, moving to catch up with Aerrow, leaving Stork on the cargo vessel. As she moved through the cargo room with all the crates, she noticed a crate that looked different than the rest. She moved towards it and examined it. It wasn't a normal crate, it was made of a thicker material and was securely clamped shut. Piper removed the clamps and opened the crate and looked over the contents.
One of these might come in handy. Piper thought as she reached in and removed one of the crystals inside, they were leechers. Of course they wouldn't be affected by a power draining field, they drain power already. Might come in handy. She placed the crystal in a small shielded bag she carried on her belt.
She caught up with Aerrow who gave her a quick look that showed he was happy to see her come along. "What about Stork?"
"He's staying behind. He feels he would only get in the way." Piper said, her voice still carrying a concerned tone.
"It's probably for the best. He's already pretty hurt." Aerrow said as he bagan to pick up the pace. "We better hurry, it's a long way up."
I wanted this out yesterday, but got dargged into something. I hope you enjoyed that cause now things are really going to start rolling. Only a few more chapters left for this story.