I'm so sorry it took so long! School and other things have been getting in my way… Writer's block being the biggest one… Enjoy

Because of how late it was, Vic's parents told us all to sleep there and tomorrow I'd tell them what had happened from the time I had left them to fix Nathaniel's bike to now. I was grateful that I would have time to put together a slightly revised chain of events. I would not tell them about Ace kissing me! That had stupid written all over it, telling them that. The memory itself still made my ears and cheeks burn, the thought of telling the Storm Hawks, or Vic and his parents made it worse. Saar I could consider telling but decided against it, she wouldn't stop talking about it and would never let it go.

Saar, Piper and I slept in the spare bedroom, while the rest of the Storm Hawks slept in Vic's room. I think Vic was secretly thrilled to be sharing his room with Aerrow, the other three he could have lived without. Like me, Finn seemed to get on his nerves, Junko, we soon learned, snored, and Stork… was paranoid and it seemed to over whelm Vic.

The next morning, we woke up to the smell of Vic's mother's best breakfast spread.

"Wow," Piper said, looking at the door then to Saar and me, "that smells delicious!" I had noticed that that when Piper got excited the last work in her sentence was much higher pitched then the rest of it.

"That's Vic's mom for you," Saar giggled.

"Come on," I said, standing up and stretching my arms, "let's get in there before the boys do!"

"Yeah if Junko gets hold of it we'll never get any," Piper laughed.

I smiled, and walked to the door. Junko would have to go through my dead body before I allowed him to eat everything. Vic's mother's cooking had been one of the biggest things I was looking forward to.

As we walked out of the room I saw the guys leaving Vic's room at high speed (Stork not one of them). "Last one there is a rotten egg!"

"Oh, no," Saar sighed, "we can't beat them!"

"I can," I half shouted, half growled and took off after the boys. I maneuvered around Finn and Vic, and cut off Aerrow and Radarr. The only obstacle left was Junko. There was no way around the Wallop so I could only go over him. As I got even with a doorframe I jumped and pushed off, angling my body up towards Junko's shoulder. I tucked my body into a ball as I reached the maximum height and soared over Junko's shoulder.

I landed neatly two feet in front of him and took off. Behind me, Junko stopped running, confused by my sudden appearance, and the sounds of the other boys slamming into him. Only Radar got out by running under Junko's legs.

Behind them I could hear Piper's and Saar's shrieking laughter. Unable to stop myself I laughed too as I rounded the corner and stopped in the dining room.

"What's going on out there," Vic's father asked as I sat down.

"Oh there was a traffic accident in the hallway," I said. Radarr jumped on to my shoulder and looked around at the breakfast spread, his ears perked up.

"Really," he laughed, "and how did you two get out of it?"

I grinned as I piled warm strawberries with honey on to my plate. One of which I handed to Radarr, who still sat on my shoulder. "Well I sort of caused it and Radarr here just ran under everyone's legs." I leaned forward and placed different dishes on my plate.

Just as I finished loading my plate the rest of the group walked in.

"That," Aerrow said to me, "was cool. How'd you learn to do that?"

"Running away from my brother and his gang in the canyons," I said simply.

"Dude," Finn said, "that was so uncool."

"First," I sighed trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice, "don't call me dude. Second, it's not my fault that you ran into Junko."

"Skylar's right, Finn," Piper said, sitting down next to me.

Finn grumbled to himself and the rest of the Storm Hawks sat down. Radarr looked at Aerrow then to me and back again, as if trying to decide between us.

"Radarr seems to have taken a liking to you, Skylar," Aerrow said.

"I have that effect it seems," I said scratching under Radarr's jaw. "Really the one ones who don't like me is my family and my brother's gang members and girlfriend and to be honest I think they don't like me because I make them feel stupid."

"Speaking of other people," Aerrow said. "Are you going to tell us how it is that you ended up in Cyclonia and how it is that they just let you fly out of there?"

"Oh," I said as if I had forgotten the promise I made last night. I told them the story I came up with. It was the truth, just with some things left out, like Ace kissing me.

Everyone listened as I related what had happened in the last month, the Storm Hawks looked skeptical whenever I spoke of something a kind or human action that Ace or Cyclonis did. Piper had a hard pressed look when I spoke of Cyclonis's action my first day there.

I had to watch what I said and how I said it, when I said Ace's name I called him The Dark Ace just as the others did and I kept my voice even never allowing it to show the joy creep into it. When I finished, I was met with silence.

"Well," Vic's father said suddenly, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "I think you three," he indicated his son, Saar and me, "should show the Storm Hawks the terra. What do you say?"

"Sounds good," I said, standing up. "I've wanted to test out the Sky-Blade in the canyons since I finished it."

"I call riding with Savior," Vic said.

I laughed and we cleared away our dishes, taking them to the kitchen and stacking them up.

_________

The skimmers, heliskooter and the Stork Mobile roared as we rode out of town and onto the flatlands heading to the canyons. Each of the Storm Hawks rode on their respected vehicles and I rode mine with Vic on the back (he wanted to drive but I told him that no one drove the Sky-Blade but me.) Saar rode with Piper (she had wanted to ride with Aerrow but with our lunch and Radarr there wasn't room, I stomped on her riding with Finn, there wasn't room on Junko and Stork wasn't letting anyone on the Stork Mobile.)

We reached the canyons and were met by the sight of Nathaniel and his gang waiting at the entrance. But as we got closer I realized that there two more people there and Nathaniel had the grin that meant he ratted me out.

I grimaced with realization. The two people were my parents, and they did not look happy. I was tempted to speed right thru them and let them decide whether or not to get out of my way. Instead I continued at my speed till I was six feet from them then spun the tail of the Sky-Blade. Dust was kicked into the air as I spun the skimmer 270 degrees.

Behind me on the Sky-Blade, Vic gripped my waist in panic, gasping hard. "Don't… Do… That… Again," he gasped into my ear.

I ignored him for the moment and glared at my family. "Mother, Father, Nathaniel," I greeted them coldly.

My father and mother looked angry and Nathaniel also looked mad but that was because I called him by his first name, but before that looked immensely pleased with himself.

"Skylar Raven Nimbus," my mother screeched, "where do you think you have been?"

"Well that's the nice thing about having an IQ over 3, Mother," I said letting the words roll off my tongue like acid, "I don't have to think about where I've been because I know."

"Don't sass your mother," my father snarled. "Get off that thing, right now! You're coming with us. You cannot even imagine the amount of trouble you are in!"

I stayed were I was and gave them both a flat look. "No," I said calmly.

My father flinched slightly, he wasn't use to anyone telling him no. "No? Did you just tell me no, young lady," he shouted.

I didn't move, though behind me I felt Vic flinch. "Yes I did. What are you going to do, old man? Spank me?"

His face went from pale to red to purple and I enjoyed watching it change colors.

"Dad," Nathaniel said, "I had a feeling that my ill-behaved little sister would act in this manner. So I devised a… little bet."

My father looked at his son as did I and my mother. "Oh and what's that, son?"

"A race," he said simply, then jerked his head towards the canyons, "thru the canyons."

"Wait a second," I laughed, "the Sky-Blade against one of those pieces of crap? I fixed those things and I can tell you that they can't match the Sky-Blade's performance. In fact, the only thing those things can beat the Sky-Blade at is falling apart!"

Nathaniel scowled at me, "I'm not stupid, Skylar. You'll race him," he pointed over my shoulder.

I followed his finger and looked at Aerrow, who looked surprised and was staring at the finger being pointed at him.

"Me?" he looked at me then at Nathaniel. "Why would I race Skylar?"

"Because knowing my little sister that bike will be better than the ones that the Talon's use and because you're a Sky-Knight fighting them and would want to test yourself against anything that could make you better."

"Wow, Nathaniel," I said, raising an eyebrow, "you had to have been up all night think up this little bet."

He scowled at me.

"What are the stakes," I asked lazily. Aerrow would accept the bet if I accepted it. I was confidante in the Sky-Blades performance, as Nathaniel said I built it to rival that of the Switchblade Elites.

"You lose, you come home and that," he indicated the Sky-Blade, "bike will be mine to replace the one you destroyed."

My jaw tightened at the very thought of Nathaniel touching the Sky-Blade, let alone ride it. "And if I win?"

He smirked, "you won't win so there's no point in thinking of anything."

I counted backwards from ten and had to do it twice before I spoke. "If I win, you and our parents will not bother me ever again." I gave each of them an even cold look, "and I do mean ever, you three."

Nathaniel smirk twisted into a scowl for a moment before returning to the former. "Fine. Well, Sky-knight? Are you in or out?"

"Uh," Aerrow said looking over at me. I gave him a half shrug, if he wanted to race I would do it if not, it was nothing off my back. "Sure why not?"

I didn't think that Nathaniel's smirk could get bigger… I was wrong…

"Great we'll meet in the Night Stalker's Pass in 2 hours."

"Night Stalker's Pass," Saar said nervously, "I don't think that's a good idea."

Nathaniel snorted and rolled his eyes. "One, the Night Stalker's don't live there and, two, everyone but those two," he indicated Aerrow and myself, "won't go pass the entrance and we'll wait at the top of Wing's Cross for them to finish."

"Uh," Saar said, "okay."

Chapter 17- The race begins! The Dark Ace and Cyclonis return to the story!