Sorry for the long delay. On with the story. Again, they are not mine, blah.
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02 YOUNG BLOODS
-11 years later-
It was hard to believe that a minute ago, everything was peaceful on board the Condor. But now, the hallways was decked with red flashes of light accompanied by the deafening echoes of the alarm. Various item were sliding across the floor, unsure where gravity started or ended.
"Situation: Doom number 52. Three minutes, little birdies." A voice drawled over the intercom.
A lone figure, literally armed to the teeth, bolted towards her destination in a fluid grace; and when she got there, she was forced to grip hard onto the door frame to keep her from skidding into the next room. "Oi! Creep!" Her rough voice startled the occupant of the crystal room.
The youngest of the crew held his breath as a red crystal fell out of his full arms. Miraculously, a harmless TINK! reached his ears above the din, and he allowed his breath to escape with a whoosh. It obviously wasn't one of the explosive crystals. He glared at the intruder. "Just a moment, Limpet. Standard procedures." He reminded her before he grabbed the dud off the floor with his tail, stashed all the crystals and notebooks respectively into their slots with an amazing accuracy of speed, and quickly secured the latch of the safe. Creep proceeded to pretend flipping the switches above it and then dashed towards the hangar. The Condor lurched again, but he safely bounced off the walls with his feet like a reptar he is. Satisfied with this one, Limpet quickly shimmied sideways to the last room in the hallway.
She was about to slam her fist onto the door, when it suddenly slid open. Time seemed to stop when her fist connected with the face of the resident sharpshooter, and her face slowly spread into horror. It had been comical, if her hand hadn't been introduced to his face of all people. "Oh.. my..." She mouthed. She watched his gloriously grey eyes widen as he took his time to register the pain. With a growl, he reached for his nose and shot her a look. Every nerve in Limpet's body wanted to die. "Zhayne, I'm..."
"Two minutes." Announced the intercom again. Just then, the Condor righted itself.
Zhayne nudged Limpet to the side, and he took off to the hangar with his crossbow bouncing against his thighs. Limpet's fins (which happened to shape her exterior ears) drooped at his retreating back, but she immediately hunched herself up and followed after him, expertly zig-zagging to avoid the traps and various flying objects in the ship.
Upon arrival, she noticed her chief leaning against the entrance of the docking bay, his left hand resting urgently on the lever. She gave him a quick nod before hopping onto her skimmer. To her right was Creep revving his vehicle in delight, and furthest away is Zhayne hunching over his skimmer. He was forming a bruise in the middle of his face and possibly suppressing a steam. Like the others, she quickly snapped on her custom-made full face helmet (a new compulsory rule enforced by the Authority of Atmosia). "All here, chief-o." She saluted with two fingers.
"Fly fast and far, everyone." Was all that Junko said to them before he tug at the lever. The kids immediately kicked the safety latch off their vehicles, and let themselves loose in the clear blue skies of Atmos with some yells of excitement. The wallop wasted no time to get to his skimmer and sped out of the Condor. "We're clear." He radioed.
"Copy that." Came the muzzled reply.
When Junko caught up to the youngsters, they were at a considerable distance away from the Condor and swooping around until they see two more skimmers exit the condor at high speed. "Nice of you to join us!" He hollered over to their arriving companions.
"Wouldn't miss it." Came a dreary reply from the pilot.
The captain nodded to her helmsman. "Time left?"
The merb checked his timepulse before he pulled out a curious device from his side. His yellow eyes never left the watch as he pointed it at the Condor and tilted it downwards. At the same time, the condor dipped downwards and it began to descend slowly, as if the engines had been cut off. "Right about..." the edge of his lips quirked downwards while his thumb felt a button. "Now." And on cue, brilliant display of light shot out of the ship, creating a mess of boom in the sky and fizzles of colour. It was accompanied by a series of whoops, mostly from Limpet, Creep, and Junko. "Never get tired of that." Junko smiled.
"Always wondered where you kept them fireworks, Stork." Limpet grinned as she hovered around him.
Stork's eye twitched slightly. "Apparently... far from disasters like you, who would surely find creative ways to make our demise go boom within a rainbow of agonizing death." He replied almost nonchalantly. He then steered the condor up with his remote control. "What now, captain?" He asked the woman who was flying closely to him.
The captain arced her delicate eyebrow. "Inspection, of course."
--
It has been 11 years since Master Cyclonis' reign came to an abrupt halt. And although Cyclonians are slowly diminishing their terror in the skies and truce had been called out on every terra, Atmos was still at the edge of their seats. Nobody knew what became of the young empress. They tried to comfort themselves by confirming that the legendary Aerrow of the Storm Hawks had taken her and the Dark Ace down with him; but because her body was never found, most believed that she had slipped, and was slowly bidding her time, gathering her armies elsewhere on some uncharted face of Atmos. Battle scars that maimed every terra during Cyclonis' last invasion constantly reminded the citizens of the possible threat. As a result, sky knights still rule the sky, weapons at ready should such circumstances rise again. Thus, Stork had compiled a thick book of manuals/guides/procedures over the years should any form of doom would reach up and swallow the residents of the Condor. Doom number 52 is among his favourite drill:
What happens, when they suddenly find themselves in an enemy territory, blasting them out of the skies when they least expect it? What would they do when the Condor is failing? What would happen to their valuable information or crystals once it crashes into the ground? What would the enemy do once they scavenge the wreckage and get a hold of their documents and stashes?
Everyone followed their captain closely as she went through every important room in the Condor. Every now and then, she would step to the side before the door opens, casually letting piles of item slide past her safely before resuming her mission within each room. She was currently in the crystal room, nodding in satisfaction.
Creep bashfully shuffled his foot. "I even flipped the switches to destroy the safe." He grinned.
Piper advanced towards the security screen and hit the playback button. Indeed, Creep had indicated that he flipped all of it. "Very good." She said before she exited to the last room. The new crystal specialist's smile faltered after that, when he realized that he has some serious cleaning up to do.
Zhayne's room was easy. He was their newest member, even though he had joined them for more than half the year now. Since he was from Amazonia, he brought very few belongings with him. Among the first few things they made him do was to read Stork's survival guide, and it proved useful especially today. Except... "What's wrong with your face, Zhayne?" Piper questioned. Zhayne felt his sore nose. He opened his mouth, ready to say that he accidentally fell on his face, but Limpet cut in.
"I... uh... I was gonna knock, y'see..." Limpet casted Zhayne an apologetic look. It was no point in lying anyway. security cameras were carefully installed in every nook of the ship (including the air vents), except their rooms and the toilet. Zhayne returned her apology with a glint of hardness in his eyes. She winced.
Piper glanced between the two and let go an inaudible sigh. "You would have been an intruder with a weapon in hand, Limpet." She turned to Zhayne. "And you should be more cautious. You're a Sky Knight now," She emphasized the word strongly. "...and reflexes should be your first instinct. We cannot afford to let anything happen to each other, because each and everyone of us might as well be responsible for the fate of Atmos," she chastised. Zhayne nodded his head, but the captain didn't miss him balling his fist. "The same goes to you, Limpet." She finished before she strode away, a sure signal that everyone should start cleaning up.
"Yes, ma'am." Limpet meekly responded.
Junko scratched the back of his neck. "Don't worry about it, guys." He offered. "you guys did great today, and what the Captain means is that you're smarter now, so you would know what to do next time." He smiled.
Limpet managed a weak grin. "She's stiff, that one." The native of Terra Aquanos sighed. "But yeah, she's right the same. I coulda mucked up if it were real." She looked at her arms, and stared disdainfully at her spurs just near her wrists. Zhayne was really lucky. She reached towards the Amazonian. "Hey, man.. I..."
Zhayne stepped away from her. "Even at practise I prove myself a failure." He growled lowly, more to himself. Limpet's hand dropped to her side, her mouth opening to say something.
"Then there no reason for you to be part of us."
"Stork!" Junko exclaimed. "How can you say that? He definitely isn't a failure - Piper asked him to join us, after all."
Stork held up his index finger. "Exactly." Zhayne cocked his head to look up the tall figure. "So if you start thinking yourself a failure, then you're disgracing the honor given to you. We need the best of Atmos, for Atmos." The merb made his way to the bridge. "And you were chosen to help defend all of Atmos after all."
Zhayne can only blink.
--
"You were too hard on them this morning."
"Hm?" Piper looked up from the map to her pilot. "What do you mean?"
Stork switched the auto pilot on before turning to face his captain. "They are just young, captain." He risked. "It takes time for them to get used to this, and even more for experience."
The captain cum navigator put down her measuring stencil. "And they need to know what could have happened, and fast. Isn't that why you who suggested this whole drill in the first place?" She returned with a frown on her face. "Besides, when we were--"
"They are not us, Piper." Instantly, Stork was in front of her. "They are NOT them."
Piper glared into his yellow eyes, daring him to say that again. "And I intend to stop it from happening again." Her eyes lit up adamantly.
Stork sighed, breaking contact with her amber eyes. "So do I, Piper... so do I." He combed his hand through his dark hair. "But..." He reached forward to cup her face, startling the dark woman with his sudden move. "You're living in the past." He searched for something on her face. "Isn't it time you stop punishing yourself? What happened, happened. No one was to blame." He said gently.
Piper reached her hands up and clasped them over his four-fingered ones, only to pull them off her slowly. "It still hurts, Stork." She let her head dip a little. "I still think about--"
"Captain...?" Junko's voice peeked through the hall. The moment he appeared, Stork was back at the controls, and Piper greeted him with a quirk on the side of her lips. Her neck strained to look up as he approached her. He had definitely grown over 7 feet, and a lot of modification had been done to the Condor to accommodate the Wallop; including the size of their fridge.
Piper cocked her head to the side. "Is something wrong, Junko?" She asked, her concern evident.
Junko shrugged slightly. "Well, it's waaay out late in the night," He paused, "and I think it's kinda inappropriate if I were to walk in on Creep's bedtime. Long story short," he held out his cybernetic arm. "I just thought that I need you to take a lot at this."
Piper leaned in to look over his knuckle buster (which was wielded into it). Some crystals were starting to have faint cracks. "Oh, Junko.. this really looks shot."
"Must've strained it this evening when I was clearing the hangar." Junko shrugged. "But... how bad is it?"
Piper shook her head. "Not too bad, but the crystals can only take about..." She looked closer at it. "Maybe four more beatings. I wouldn't recommend it though, so I guess we need to make a stop in Atmosia to replace these."
Stork flicked his ear. "So are we heading to Atmosia tonight, captain?"
Piper shook her head. "No... Dock the Condor safely on the upcoming terra, Stork. We'll only leave when we're all fresh come afternoon."
Stork nodded. "Aye, captain."
--
Red eyes looked over the sky as he sat on his favourite perch. He can smell the dampness in the sky. Rain is coming, he knows it, and he will be the storm over Atmos. He just needs time. Just a bit more.
--
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Sorry for the slow chapter. I'll do my best to upbeat the next one. Here, Piper would be 28, Junko is 29, and Stork is 34. Introducing the younger crew:
-Limpet is as you can guess, is a native of Terra Aquanos. You can expect her to be in the shade of turquoise, with some cerulean streaks across her limbs and the side of her face. Her eyes are a nice shade of sky blue. She is junko's protégé, and she handles the maintenance of the ship and skimmers alongside Junko (he trusts her with the tasks while he works more on enhancing their weapons). She is quite adept in hand-to-hand combat (since she has spurs), but nowhere as skillful as Piper when it comes to Sky-Fu; she prefers using her wrench anyway. She is around 19 years old and she stands at 5'3".
-Creep is a reptar, sort of one of the reptilian race that reside on Terra Bogaton. He is moss green in color whereas his eyes are tangerine yellow. Creep is Piper's protégé in handling crystals (since Piper is now the captain of the condor, and she can only do so much as a tactitian, a delegate, a navigator, a financial planner, a manager, and cook). He constantly wears his special yellow peepers wherever he goes (he could shift it to x-ray, night vision, heat vision, or set it to shade) which he inherited from his uncle who was a scientist. Full of creativity, he lets the others create his inventions (namely Stork or Limpet). His other talents include stealth and infiltration. To reptilians, he appears to have a speech impediment (he just rarely ever hisses). He is only 12, and he stands at 4'9".
-Zhayne is a quiet character from Terra Amazonia. Assuming that the terra favors girls more than boys, so it's quite a challenge for him when he left his home (imagine people telling ladies they can't do certain things because they're girls, so it's quite the opposite for the men there. I'm not a sexist, I assure you). He has dark brown hair, a nicely tanned skin, and grey eyes. He has a few red tattoos on his face and wrists. He has a vast knowledge on herbal lore, making him their resident medic although his method is more traditional. He is 17 years old, and stands at 5'7".
Hopefully, I can come up with some sketches of them soon so I don't have to describe them that much. I think I have an ideal look for stork in this era in my DA account (celestial4ever.). Check it out if you please. Plus, I'm sorry for the OOCs with out favorite characters. I intend to experiment with them, seeing that years of beating themselves up for their past mistakes can change a person.
Thanks for reading.