Winds of Change Book II Distant Thunder

by RGZ Archer

Kai has assembled his team, and the group of seven must now race against both Cyclonia and time itself to prevent a weapon of unimaginable power from falling into the wrong hands. But just whose hands are the wrong hands? Who is their true enemy?

19. Old Friends, Old Scars, New Problems

Winds of Change Book II: Distant Thunder

Chapter 19: Old Friends, Old Scars, New Problems

AN: Alright, I'm sad to say that this story might…it might not get finished. Not that I have given up on writing, its just that….well, pretty much everything that I had planned for this story has already happened in the cannon series now. The 3 Guardians (though mine were slightly different), ARYGYN! Piper's powers, the soul anchor/binding crystal, the Crystal Drive Transformation ability, Finn turning out NOT to be a complete bonehead, Piper being 'the one' and Cyclonis getting a flying terra.

What's the point in writing something that's almost identical to the cannon series? In retrospect however, I guess it's my own fault for falling so far behind schedule. Had I kept up with my plans this story would have been finished 2 weeks before the series final episode, and I would have been seen as the guy who got ripped off royally, not the rip off guy. I might continue this, but I just don't know right now. Sorry guys, I will try my best, its just kinda hard since I'm no longer writing something new and different from the series. I want to point out that I hold NOTHING against the series or its writers. It could just be a coincidence that we had some many similar things planned (Harry Potter and Naruto come to mind as an example) but if I did anything to inspire the writers, then I am happy to have helped with such a great show in some way.

Oh, and don't forget check out Arashi21's profile for his work as well as a few that we are joint writing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks, and never will, also I do not own anything related to Legend of the Dragoon or Legend of Zelda or the 'Deathclaws'. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, Sony Entertainment Nintendo and Bethsaida (I think) however I DO own Kai, Rose, the Shadow crystal, Kanin, Tsuki, Majah and this story.

Shadow,Griffy and Nagera are the property of ShadowQueen25

Tigger belongs to Mrs J Black

Marina is Star Wars Nut's

Rondana was made, and is owned by MissDedodakes

Scarlett is the creation of Love Flame

It only took a short while for the ship to reach Kanin's village, but when it did, the problems started instantly.

"What do you mean we're not allowed to carry weapons!?"

"I mean just what I said, woman are not allowed to carry weapons in our village. You will hand them over now or you will leave now," the guard threatened.

Shadow, Marina and Piper were grinding their teeth while Tigger and Starling tried to hold them back.

That left Rondana to try and talk their way in past the guards.

"Look, we won't be here for long, please could you just," she never got to finish.

"If you wish to enter the village, you will hand over your weapons and armor now, otherwise, leave here at once!" The guard ordered.

Growl

The guard looked down and Griffy and Radarr, but was surprised to see the two of them looking around, clearly surprised as well.

"You…will…open…those gates….right now….OR I WILL TEAR THEM DOWN MYSELF!"

Rondana turned wide eyed to see Kai (who was still on the makeshift stretcher they had made) sitting up and baring his teeth at the guard.

"Boy, you will know your place or you will be."

"SHOVE IT! I KNOW YOUR BLASTED CODE YOU OVERBEARING OUTDATED FLEE BRAINED MUTT! I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE!"

The guard's eyes widened once he got a better look at who he was talking to.

"YOU!"

Kai's feral expression seemed to become even more agitated at this point.

"Yeah, ME, you have a problem with that?! You are interfering not only with an important mission, but you have threatened no less than THREE royal family members in the last TWO minutes!"

The guard's eyes narrowed.

"Royalty? Why would royalty travel with rabble such as yourself?" The guard taunted.

Between the massive pain spreading through Kai's body, and the already mounting stress this mission had placed on him so far, Kai snapped.

"BECAUSE I'M ROYALTY TOO!" Kai shouted before launching a verbal assault that would have made both Captain Scabulious and Marina's father proud.

Right at that point, the girls jaws dropped, but for two different reasons.

Three of their jaws dropped from the mere notion that Kai was royalty.

The other three's jaws dropped at the language that followed said proclamation.

"I don't believe you, there is no way in Fenrails graces you could be royalty," the guard said disdainfully.

Kai pointed at Starling.

"Tell him before I do something he will regret."

Marina and Piper were the only two that picked up the underlining threat behind his choice of words (something he will regret, not I)

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Starling took a deep breath before replying.

"Kai is the soul surviving male of terra Messa. As such, he is, by default, accounted as the next in line as its Lord or Barron after the current default ruler steps down or dies."

Piper, Shadow and Tigger, who had been excited to learn that Kai might be royalty, felt their excitement poof into smoke.

"I keep forgetting about that. Aside from Starling, Kai and his mother are the only surviving Messan's. A king without a kingdom." Piper thought sadly.

The guard's dropped their staffs.

"So, unless you want me to tell your chief that you have been denying a member of a royal family medical treatment, YOU WILL MOVE NOW!" Kai bellowed, causing a small flock of birds to fly away.

Quickly picking up their weapons, the two guards opened the gates and ushered the group in.

Marina's eyes narrowed. When they had been dealing with the guards at the front gate, she had already decided that she wouldn't like this village, but as soon as they had entered it, she had to restrain herself from doing something that, as Kai had put it, they would regret. Din knew that she wouldn't have any. Every male in the village seemed to be glaring at them as they passed by. Not glares of distrust, as was common with strangers, but genuine stares of disdain.

Piper too noticed the heated glares being sent their way, but since she was used to it (from her and the other Storm Hawks being 'just a bunch of kids') she let it roll off her like water on a duck.

Tigger and Shadow both tried to keep their eyes straight ahead and not pay attention to the glares. It wasn't that they were afraid as much as they weren't sure what to do, and didn't want to make their situation any worst.

Starling herself was the only one not affected at all by the glares. Her thoughts at the moment were literally thousands of miles away.

Rondana, while not exactly in a good mood, was occupying herself with trying to figure out what had happened back at the gate to cause such an outburst from Kai.

"I know he has a deep respect for woman because of Starling and Suzi, but what on Atmos would have caused him to snap like that? His tolerance for pain is well above what he should be feeling from those burns by now. It doesn't make any sense."

Running over what happened in her mind a couple of times however found the answer.

Flashback

"I mean just what I said, woman are not allowed to carry weapons in our village. You will hand them over now or you will leave now," the guard threatened.

Flashback end

"He was still quiet when we were told to disarm ourselves…but."

Flashback

"If you wish to enter the village, you will hand over your weapons and armor now, otherwise, leave here at once!"

Flashback end

Looking around, Rondana noted the others current condition. Shadow and Tigger were both in their flight uniforms, as was she and Piper, and Marina was wearing her standard 'day wear'.

But Starling was wearing her flight suit and battle armor.

Rondana's eyes flashed in both understanding and mirth.

"Again, Starling was the catalyst to make him snap. I doubt the others, or even Kai himself caught that though. So quick to come to her defense, yet so slow to actually help her when she needs it."

Rondana's musings were brought to a halt when they reached a rather large nondescript building in the back of the village.

Kanin, who had been silent up until now banged his fist on the door several times.

The door was quickly pulled open by a man that Rondana could have swore made the Sky Council members look like a bunch of teenagers.

"Not another one…and a female at that?" He asked in a mixture of agitation and annoyance.

"Majah, what are you talking about?"

The old man (who they guessed was Majah) blinked.

"Kanin? When did you get back?"

"Just a short while ago, but what did you mean by another one?" then his eyes narrowed before adding "And a female at that?"

The old man suddenly saw the others and his frown became a scowl.

"Keep doing that old man and it'll be permanent."

Looking down at the source of the quip, the old mans eyes widened.

"Yeah yeah, its me again. Look, I'll explain later, but right now I'm in a major amount of pain, so could we please get inside?" Kai asked, winching in pain from the burns.

Marina's ear twitched at that comment.

"Please? I don't think I've ever heard Kai say please since this mission began," she thought idly.

Shaking his head quickly, the old man motioned them in.

As soon as they entered, everyone's eyes widened.

This, they quickly surmised, must be the village's hospital. As it had rows and rows of people lined up on both sides of the room they had entered.

Rondana caught Shadow's questioning look, but shook her head, silently telling her to keep quiet.

"There isn't much room left, but I will see what I can do," the old man said as he moved surprisingly fast towards the back of the room.

Following him, the others (including Kanin) found themselves feeling more and more ill the further they went. On both sides, almost crammed together were dozens and dozens of once strong and healthy men, who had been reduced to a near death state of frailty.

Rondana quickly noted that whatever it was affecting them however was not the results of being attacked by whatever creature they had encountered a little over an hour ago.

"Whatever that thing was, it wouldn't leave this much of a person left after it got a hold of them, if it left anything at all."

The people's skin was a dark grey color, and was covered with large blots of purplish red she further noted.

Immediately, her doctor mindset kicked into over gear.

"IT'S A PLAGUE! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Just when she was about to voice this however, Kanin spoke.

"What did this? The Red Claw's have never been taken down, not all at once."

Rondana's eyes narrowed in thought.

"Red Claw? Whatever the case, it seems all these men have something in common." Looking around, she noted that they were all very large, six foot six at minimum and she guessed weighing in at lease two hundred pounds each.

"These are not regular men…they must be soldiers…or warriors," she guessed.

"I am afraid that I am not sure Kanin. It started a little over a week ago. One by one they became ill. At first we thought it might be a plague of some sort, but after five days passed and no one else was brought in…" the old man let the rest hang.

Rondana realized that something was wrong with this picture. Very, very wrong.

"Why is it only these Red Claw's are sick? If it was an outbreak of some sort, then everyone in the village would be falling ill, not just one group." Narrowing her eyes even more, she discreetly surveyed the men on each side a little more closely.

"Varying ages, so it can't be something genetic, besides, I doubt all these men are related to each other. They don't seem to have anything in common either, other than being a Red Claw…"

"Have you made any hypotheses as to what the cause of this might be?" She asked suddenly.

The old man looked over his shoulder at the young woman with a mild glare.

"She's a friend Majah…and a…doctor," Kai said weakly.

The old man snorted.

"Never thought you were actually serious about trusting a woman to do a mans job."

Rather than feel angered by the old mans retort, Rondana felt something different. She heard the insult, just as the others present had, but unlike the guards from before, or the glares from the villagers, she felt not a single trace of ill intent behind his words.

In fact, it almost sounded like…he was teasing Kai?

"I was telling the truth then, and I am now. She's stitched me back together so many times I lost count," Kai said lightly.

"She must not be doing a good job then. If she was, you wouldn't keep falling apart," Kanin jabbed.

Rondana was about to teach the soon to be female a lesson when Majah stepped in.

"It wouldn't matter who put him back together Kanin and you know it. How many times was Kai in here during that one week he stayed?" The old man said before chuckling.

Kanin paused for a moment before chuckling himself.

"Guess you're right. He probably has a doctor and bed with his name on it in every village there is."

"Alright, enough with the jokes. Set them down here," the old man said indicating to an open space on the floor next to a window.

Shadow and Tigger put the cargo net/stretcher down and let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm not that heavy," Kai said pouting slightly.

Shadow and Tigger blinked before snorting and shaking their heads at Kai.

"Since you are actually able to talk, I am guessing you do not have the blight," Majah asked, getting down to business.

Kai shook his head before replying. "Just some burns. We were running low on supplies before coming here, but after fighting that…thing we had to use the last of it up."

"Burns? What were you fighting?" Majah asked quirking a brow.

"You mean you don't know?" Starling asked suddenly.

The old man looked up at her, and after a moment, for just a brief second smiled before going back to his scowl. "There is no creature known to us that can cause burns. Gashes, yes, poison, yes, but not burns."

That made the others look at each other wearily.

"Does this help?" Kai asked.

Looking down, the others saw that Kai had made an illusion of the creature they had fought. (Though it was only about a foot tall.)

Kanin and Majah both looked at the creature (which snapped at Kanin) closely, but shook their heads.

"No, never seen anything like it before." Kanin replied first.

Majah shook his head. "I am sorry, but I have never even heard of such a creature myself. Where did you find it?"

"About five miles southeast of here," Rondana stated as she crossed her arms.

Feeling a tug on her leg, Piper looked down.

"Something wrong Radarr?"

The Sky Monkey shook its head quickly, but then pulled from his small back pack an item that made Piper shudder.

A claw.

"If you don't believe us, here's proof," Piper said as she held up the claw for all to see.

Kanin's eyes almost dropped out of their sockets and Majah almost dropped his cane at seeing it.

"That….for something to have a claw like that…a true test for a warrior if I ever saw one."

Marina snorted. "You mean a test in stupidity. That thing would rind you limb from limb like a newborn bird."

Kanin's eyes flashed as he spun around and threw out his fist.

"I have had enough of your barbs woman!"

Kanin and Majah were both unprepared for what happened next.

Marina didn't duck or get out of the way.

No

Ste stayed right were she was and lifted only her right hand, and caught Kanin's fist in her open palm.

"You have something you wish to say?" Marina taunted as she started tightening her grip.

The others looked on and could see the pain in Kanin's eyes. He did a good job of hiding it, but they could still see it was there.

"I was only able to hold back that creature for a few seconds with BOTH arms and my entire body. YOU can't even push back my weak arm," Marina said darkly as she tightened her grip even more.

"Enough of this, I will not have you fighting in here and causing a mess in my hospital. If you have something to settle do it outside," Majah ordered.

Marina grinned wickedly as she released Kanin's hand before whispering so that only he could hear her.

"Next time whelp, the old man won't be there to save you," resulting in an angry flash from the young mans eyes.

"Still, if the creature was that close to our village, there is a chance that more of them will come. Kanin, tell the guards to be on full lookout for anything suspicious, and to sound the alarm if something happens. Without our warriors, we can't afford to take any chances."

The young man nodded his head in affirmation and left quickly.

"Now, I am assuming that you have a vessel, am I correct?"

Kai nodded his head.

"Bring it inside the village, but try not to cause too much of a scene if you can. It would do you no good for your only transportation to be destroyed."

Marina stretched her arms before grinning. "I'll take care of it. It's been a while since I've flown."

"Marina," Kai warned.

Rolling her eyes, the redhead walked off muttering about boys that worried more than old women.

"As for the rest of you, I would advise against spending too much time away from your friend here."

Shadow snorted.

"We will try to keep that in mind, but…is there anything we can do to help?" Piper asked. She didn't want to think they were freeloading off of these people, even if they deserved it.

Majah shook his head. "No, I am afraid it is not allowed…as is your carrying weapons…"

Tigger and Shadow both groaned at this.

"Just let it go old man. We'll be out of your…well, I can't really say out of your hair since you don't have any, but you get the idea."

Majah glared at the boy before whacking him over the head with his cane.

The rest of the day was…interesting to say the least. The girls had tried to venture out into the village, but eventually gave up and returned to the hospital….well, most of them did. Marina and Shadow had to be dragged in before they caused any major problems with the village's male populace (read as cause much harm and destruction.)

Tigger kept Shadow occupied with a deck of cards, which Majah actually sat down and played a few rounds of Go Fish with, while Piper spent most of day going over the log book and trying to find where the cave's entrance was located.

Starling and Rondana however were a different case.

Rondana was observing how Majah ran his hospital, and was surprised to see that aside from having an entirely male staff, that it was actually pretty close to Jim's clinic (only much better). At the same time, she was enjoying what had come to be a favorite pass time for her, one that she picked up from Kai she guessed from his many stays in her care.

People watching.

Not exactly the same as just idly watching what was going on around you, but actually paying attention to a person and every little detail of what they did.

Currently, the target of her observations was Starling.

The purplenette was standing guard over Kai. Though the casual observer would think she was just leaning against the wall and speaking to her friend, Rondana knew otherwise.

She might have looked relaxed, but Rondana could see that the muscles in Starling's legs were twitching every now and then from being taunt over an extended period of time. Added to this, while her head was pointed down at Kai, her eyes were constantly scanning the area, almost as if they were expecting something to happen.

Rondana snorted to herself.

"Blind is to justice what clueless is to."

"Rondana, could you come here a sec?"

Blinking out of her train of thought, Rondana came up to Piper's side.

"Sure, what's up?"

"You're good with books, does anything seem strange to you about this?" Piper asked holding out the book to the older teen.

Rondana tried to see what Piper was getting at, but didn't notice anything too strange. The book was Ancient for God's sake, strange and weird was to be expected.

Running her fingers over it however, she did notice something wrong.

"There's a page missing."

Piper looked down.

"Really? How could you tell?"

Before Rondana could answer her, they heard a loud horn call blow throughout the village.

"Was that a good alarm or a bad alarm?" Shadow asked looking up from her hand of cards.

"Uh, Shadow, since when is there such thing as a good alarm?" Tigger asked her friend as she carefully slid her winnings towards herself.

Shadow gulped.

"That's what I was afraid you'd say."

Right as the words left her mouth, the door crashed open and Kanin came flying in.

"Majah! There is trouble at the East gate. Something's attacking the wall!"

The old man looked at the girls in the room, then back to Kai. "It looks like your little rumble has caused quite a commotion young man. Next time, make sure whatever it is you are fighting doesn't have friends."

Kai didn't say anything, instead just opting to look the other way.

Looking at Kanin, Majah nodded his head and the two left.

"What was that about?" Shadow asked, noticing Kai's reaction to the older mans comment.

"Just something from…last time I was here," Kai said darkly.

Sudden shouts and screams from outside caught their attention.

"Another attack?"

Starling's eyes narrowed.

"Something is not right here. I'm missing something, but what is it?"

"Marina, you and me will check."

Before the words had left her mouth, a huge clawed arm thrust through the wall of the building directly over where Kai was laying.

"IT'S ANOTHER OF THOSE FREAK THINGS!" Shadow shouted as she pulled her crystal ax ready.

Muttering under her breath, Starling pulled her own weapon free. "We can not afford to allow any casualties. Everyone, break!"

The group rushed for the doors, and entered into the fray.

What awaited them was a sight of pure carnage and pandemonium.

Apparently, Kai had neglected to mention that this terra's entire population was comprised of werewolves. Said werewolves were fighting about a dozen of the creatures Shadow had dubbed 'Deathclaws'.

And were losing.

Badly.

Radarr hopped onto Piper's shoulder, just as he did with Aerrow when he went into combat, and Griffy got into his battle stance.

Not needing any orders on what to do, the girls charged.

"Hey! Ugly! Yeah, I'm talking to you circus freak!" Marina shouted at a Deathclaw that was about to carry out its name on an unconscious werewolf.

The creature roared in anger and charged her.

"Here we go, training, don't fail me now!"

Breaking into a full blown run, Marina jumped onto the creatures shoulder; the pushed off into a forward tuck and roll. The second her feet touched the ground, she spun her blades into a twin downward hold and swung her arms back with as much force as she could, driving her scimitars into the creatures arms just under its shoulders where they connected to its arms.

Letting loose a roar of pain, it quickly spun around and tried to decapitate Marina.

Ducking under the creature's massive bladed hand, Marina came back up and slashed at it again and again. She knew that at this pace she didn't have a hope of winning, but if she could keep it occupied, then maybe someone else could.

Jumping to the side, she brought her left blade up and around so that it sliced the creature from its right wrist to its shoulder shoulder.

Smirking, she turned to renew her attack, but her smirk quickly fell.

"What the…no, it couldn't..it..has."

Marina watched as the long gash that traveled the entire length of the creatures arm sealed itself, leaving only a tiny trickly of blood where a huge gaping wound should have been.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Marina shouted before jumping over the creatures attack.

Shadow and Griffy were having about the same success, having discovered that the creatures could heal themselves soon after the fight started.

"THIS SUCKS!" Shadow called out at the top of her lungs as she ran from the Deathclaw as fast as she could.

Griffy squawked a reply that caused Shadow to double take.

"Griffy! Watch you mouth..err beak."

Roooouuuugghhhhhh

Hearing the creature behind them roar, Shadow's speed increased exponentially.

"What am I supposed to do? This thing heals faster than Junko, Kai and Finn's ego put together!" Remembering what happened back at the forest however caused her even more confusion. "If these things can heal, then why didn't that one? It just…died…and stayed dead."

Recalling the short tumble with the Deathclaw, Shadow replayed each and every move the others made, up until the point where it was crushed by the tree.

"That's it!"

Looking over her shoulder, and seeing that the creature was still following her, Shadow grinned.

"They can only heal if their alive, or they can't heal internal injuries. Either way it doesn't matter, but how do I use this?"

Hearing someone scream in pain, Shadow turned just in time to see Tigger get thrown back by the Deathclaw she had been fighting.

"TIGGER!" Shadow felt something in her just snap. After that point, everything became a blur.

Glass shatters

"GET AWAY FROM HER NOW!"

Tigger felt pain coursing through every inch of her body. She had only been hit one time, but it was like taking on a Wallop that was getting its teeth pulled.

Looking up, she saw the creature grinning madly at her and raise one of its clawed hands above its head.

"No…redo's this time…huh?"

Blinking, Tigger fought back the tears that were trying to fall, but failed miserably.

"Aladd, Kai, someone, anyone, help me!"

"GET AWAY FROM HER NOW!"

CLANG

Opening her eyes, Tigger saw the back side of her friend Shadow standing between her and the Deathclaw. Holding her crystal ax sideways with both hands, she was blocking the Deathclaw's claw with her ax's side.

"Shad..ow…"

"Are you…ok…Tigger?"

Tigger's eyes widened even further at hearing her friends voice.

"NO! The curse! It must be trying to take control of her!"

"Shadow, get out of here, you can't let the curse."

"I'm fine…Tigger….just…move! I cant hold this thing for much longer!"

Trying to move, Tigger found that she couldn't, the pain was just too much, and she knew that several of her bones had to be sprained if not broken.

Shadow on the other hand, at hearing her friends strained groans of pain only became even angrier.

"You should pick on somebody your own size freak! But by the time I'm done with you, you won't be able to do that with a matchbox!"

Letting loose a roar of her own, Shadow shoved the creature back several feet.

"Let's see how you like MY blade!"

Holding her ax out in front of her, Shadow moved her hand from the base of the hilt to the top of the blade. As she did so, the green crystal ax grew in size until its handle was almost as long as she was tall. Following this, the green crystal energy literally exploded into a fountain of raw power cascading from both ends.

This combined with the smoky purplish black energy field that was enveloping her body made Shadow into what could only be called at best, the true Grim Reaper.

Tigger could only watch in awe as her friend lifted the monstrous weapon with one hand and heft it onto her shoulder.

"Alright freak, lets dance!" Shadow roared out as she charged the cstill confused and stunned creature.

Hearing the explosion of energy nearby, Piper feared for the worst. She knew that Starling had taken the Shadow crystal from Kai, and that there was no way he would be getting back from her, or work up the courage to take it himself (for more reason than one.)

But at the same time, Kai had displayed the ability to use his powers without having the crystal on hand.

Trying to reach out and feel the source of power, Piper was surprised to find that she couldn't feel the energy field at all.

"But that means that it's not crystal energy!"

Letting out a sigh of relief, knowing that Kai had not broken his promise to them, she then realized something else.

"If it's not Kai, then…who or what is it?" She thought.

"Uh, this would be a good time to PAY ATTENTION TO THE THING THAT'S ABOUT TO MAKE US DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH!"

"Oh great, you again," Piper thought ruefully.

"Hey! I saved your butt last time remember!?" New Piper huffed.

Before Piper could 'think' of a reply, she found herself tackled into a tree.

"AAAHHHHHH!"

Dizzy from pain, Piper looked around, trying to find the source of her attacker, and unfortunately, found it.

Standing no more than five feet from her was a Deathclaw. Its tiny mouth grinning like a shark at her.

"Do something!" Piper shouted.

"What do you want me to do?! I can't control your body!" New Piper shouted back.

Bringing up her staff, Piper blocked the creatures next attack, but at the cost of her staff being snapped in two and her being thrown into a building.

Pushing herself up, Piper was hardly able to stand.

"Why…why is it…"

Her unfinished question was answered by a series of short deep croaks coming from the Deathclaw.

"He…it…it's toying with me? Playing with me like a cat with its prey?"

Several emotions ran through Piper's head at that moment. Starting with fear and dread, as she knew that this creature was leagues beyond her level. This was followed by terror at the thought that she was very likely about to die.

But then, then something else trickled into her line of thinking. A series of memories similar to this very moment.

Flashback

"You think you can stop me? You're just a stupid little kid!" Carver shouted as he lunged at Aerrow.

Flashfoward

"You're nothing but a stupid little kid! What could you possibly do against me!" Dark Ace taunted as he laughed.

Flashfoward

"What are you going to do? Your friends are busy and you're all alone," Lark said darkly with her reptilian smirk as she raised her staff towards Piper.

Flashback end

Tightening her grip on the two half's of her staff, all traces of fear vanished from Piper's face. Closing her eyes, and taking a deep breath, Piper felt something stir in her blood.

Annoyance

"Why is it that no matter how hard we try?"

Annoyance that grew into anger.

"No one will take us seriously. Even after fighting and defeating Cyclonis, her armies, the Leviathan, Murk Raiders, it's never enough!"

Anger that blossomed into full blown rage.

The rage, of a dragon.

"No more, never again. WE ARE THE STORM HAWKS NOW!"

The Deathclaw raised its arms high and charged what it thought to be a vulnerable prey with an almost mad glee in its eye, never once noticing the crackling blue spark that emanated from Piper's crystal necklace.

Before the Deathclaw could cover half the distance between it and Piper, Piper's eye's opened, pinning it in place.

Instead of the warm and gentile orange orbs that were commonly seen by all, they were a brilliant sky blue and crackling with power.

Twirling the two half's of her broken staff around her, Piper leapt into the air with a savage scowl.

"EAT THIS YOU WALKING FREAK SHOW!"

Throwing her arms back, Piper focused the accumulated energy into her arms and flung them forward, producing a familiar blue and white pair of electrified wings.

Many, many miles away.

Standing on the bridge of the Condor, Aerrow looked over the chart carefully and frowned.

"This doesn't make any sense. Those coordinates are in the middle of nowhere. There's no terra within almost a week's travel from," eyes wide, Aerrow swayed for a moment before grabbing onto the edge of the table to steady himself.

"Woah buddy, you alright?" Finn asked, genuinely concerned for his friend.

Aerrow had been pushing himself, (as well as the others) to the breaking point since he found that mysterious letter. Only sleeping when he collapsed from exhaustion, and only eating when his stomach growled loudly enough to frighten Junko.

Taking a few deep breaths, the young man turned to his friend and tried to brush his concern away, only to be surprised at his friend's sudden shock.

"What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

Finn stammered before pointing at Aerrow's face, then to the mirror behind him.

Confused at his friends strange (read as stranger than normal) behavior, Aerrow slowly turned to look in the mirror.

What he saw was an electric blue crackle flashing in his eyes. Before he could blink however it disappeared into nothingness.

"What on Atmos was that?"

End chapter 19

Yeah, I'm evil aren't I? Like I said, I'm not a hundred percent sure what to do now that most of my fannon is actually cannon. I can go back to the drawing board and try to come up with some more stuff, or I can just go with the script I already have, its up to you guys.

I want to apologize for my lack of…existing lately lol, but things have been really busy and I haven't had time to think straight, much less work on anything that requires deep thinking. I AM still working on my fics though. TDT's newest chapter is almost complete, I've only got 5 more scenes to do for that, but it's just hard to work on for some reason.

I want to thank those of you that have stuck with me, you guys (even though most are actually girls) are what keep me going. I'll try to get better at responding to your reviews in the future sooner, and update more regularly.

Oh, and just to clear things up. Kai isn't REALLY royalty. It's just that with the entire population of Terra Messa…dead, the oldest survivor (his mother) holds legal ownership of the land, and as her son, he would be next in line. Hope that clears any confusion up.

That out of the way, be on the lookout for chapter 20:

Divided we stand, United we fall!

To be out soon!

Till next time, Ja Ne!