A/N: The adventure continues. I'm still accepting suggestions for carrier ship names.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, plot points, or settings of the show Storm Hawks.
Merrowww…..
Sky Sharks
Escape Terra Bogaton
"Why am I sssurrounded lunaticsss?" Ralph asked herself in a decidedly exasperated tone. She decided that next time plans were being made that she was definitely going to be there to offer some sane suggestions. The brown lizard rubbed the stoop of her muzzle when the smaller reptile gave her an innocent big-eyed look like he didn't at all get why she was so upset.
"We won't be in the wastelands for very long." Chuckk reassured the taller reptile as he finished the upgrades of the muffler on her Bone Wing. His tail hooked a rag and brought it over so he could wipe some grime off his scales. "Besides being pretty heat, it would help with our future reputation as a Sky Knight squadron since so few even try it. And it is less risky than trying to avoid the anti air defenses above the tree line."
"Of courssse 'we won't be in the wasstelandssss for very long' we'll be DEAD!" She hissed. The light green lizard shrank back from the taller reptile's fury. "The wasstelandsssss are full of random rock ssspires, ravenoussss flessshhh eating beasstssss, and rutin' lava jetsss. It'sss near imposssssssible to get out alivvvve."
Chuckk grinned slyly at lisping lizard before adjusting his goggles. He did his best and tried not look intimidated by her glare. "Well, it has been done before by particularly skilled pilots, but if you doubt your skills that much, then I guess we could come up with something else…"
"I hate you." She hissed in a low very threatening tone that told him that he won this time but if he bragged he would be limping for the next few weeks. She did not like someone belittling her abilities even if she knew they were trying to manipulate her. The brown-scaled reptile left through the entrance to of the secret tunnel after glaring at Chuckk for a little longer. Her break was over and she had to get back to work, he would have to do the same thing in a couple hours. Until then the genius lizard would be working on their escape vehicles till they were as quiet as shadows and twice as fast as normal Bone Wings.
Merrowww….
The big green Raptor pushed the laser projector closer to its partner till the two devices touched face to face. After taping the two together, he marked it off on the map. Hurrl was as thankful as Chuckk was to whoever had left the schematics for the Terra's defenses and maps detailing the locations of said defenses in the Terradon Lab. It was lucky also for them that he found the entrance to that secret tunnel while practicing his dance moves.
Hurrl pushed himself off the ground and put the map in one of the pockets of his tan and brown patched shorts. He took a moment to brush off some red dust before strolling over to the next closest spot on the map to disable the sensor there. As soon as he finished this mission, they would have both a clear runway to the edge of the Terra and a training area to practice maneuvering.
A frown formed on his muzzle as he got that stupid but catchy not-exactly-a-song stuck in his head again. He had no clue where he had heard it before but he knew the best way to stop thinking about it was to sing it out.
"Fly! In the sky, gotta mission to fly!"
…
Making good use of a wooden stool to give his sore feet a break, Hurrl chopped vegetables and herbs in the Chief's kitchen. Since Raptor dishes tended to be pretty light on the veggies, it didn't take the big lizard long finish that task. A little light brown cooking assistant took them when he finished used them to line the bottom of an oiled pan.
"Alright, meat's ready for the rub." Chuckk announced and one of the younger assistants brought over some skinned Blizzarian leg and thigh quarters for Hurrl to rub spices on to. His nimble three fingered hands massaged salt and herbs into the mammal flesh to add a tangy flavor to the tough gamy meat. Then the pan was set and the assistants loaded it into a hot oven.
The Chief's dinner went well with very minimal threatening about manners. Hurrl even managed to sneak out a few things that could be useful later (it was surprising how much your pants could be overlooked when you have cooking crystals stuffed up your nose, again). Chuckk even came over to spend the night at his place and have dinner with him.
Merrowww…..
Tracing a thick finger along her Bone Wing, Ralph examined the changes Chuckk made. The outline of the vehicle had been smoothened out and most of the spikes were gone; one large spike with a smaller one immediately behind it sat on the nose while a ridge of three small spikes were centered on the tail end. The paint job consisted of dark brown with purple accents, her favorites, and the Raptor crest was gone. The Raptor frowned when she turned on her ride and didn't hear that distinctive Bone Wing roar, the remodeled vehicle only… purred. Deploying the wings gave her some relief in that Chuckk kept them looking somewhat draconic.
She retracted the wings and turned off her ride. Leaning back, she looked over to see what the others were doing. The female Raptor rolled her eyes at the sight of Hurrl bouncing around the remodeled version of bike she stole. Apparently, he liked the tasteless new green and orange paint job. Her frown deepened when she noticed that the bigger Raptor's vehicle was much more heavily armored than hers was.
"Hey runt!" She called over her shoulder. The small light green lizard ran over with an excited gleam in his big grey eyes, like his work was something to be proud of. That annoyed her for some reason. "Let's go test these gleepified rides."
…
Grinning wickedly, Ralph gunned it. She felt the scrawny lizard riding with her look around her side. "Ralph, there's a tree there."
"I know." The brown lizard replied not sharing in the other's concern, in fact it made her want to mess with him even more. Giving up, the light green reptile tightened his grip around her waist and buried his forehead between her shoulder blades. Two seconds away from crashing, she turned sharply and started making her way back to the tunnel as she dodged more trees. She slid to a stop and turned off her 'Dragon Wing' as Hurrl dubbed it.
"Hey hatchling, you can let go now." The smaller lizard gave her a nervous smile as he let go and got off the motor bike. She ran a taloned hand over his head on a whim and felt small spikelets pushing up alongside his crest. It looked very un-Raptor-like. "You might want to clip that soon."
"Right," Chuckk replied rubbed his head to feel small spiked growths sticking out from the ridges on his skull. "I had forgotten about that with all the prepping and sneaking going on."
At that moment, Hurrl burst into the little clearing from between two trees and several feet in the air in vehicle mode. Both lizards on the ground darted for the tree line to avoid getting hit. Shifting to flight mode in mid air Hurrl stalled, backed up, and landed gently. "That was fun."
With a sheepish grin, Chuckk climbed down with an annoyed Ralph following soon after from a neighboring tree. "Nice moves!"
Hurrl returned his friend's grin with one of his own. "I know right? I still don't get why I got fired from driving commercial vehicles."
"I can thhink of nine good reasonssss." Ralph hissed under her breath. Addressing the others she said, "Sso we've got everything we need to go, we just need to practice a bit more and find a good time to get off this rock. Hurrl keep a close eye on the Chief and let us know when he's goin' off Terra."
"Yes sir, Miss Boss Hen." The big green lizard replied with a mock salute.
Merrowww…..
"See what I'm talking about?" Tokka asked his brother Klaus. The blue clad lizard pointed to a particular section on the readouts for the ground level sensors. "Sensors in these quadrants haven't reported any disturbances at all for the past week."
"They could be broken or their crystals might have run outta juice," The purple clad brother suggested. Whatever the issue was Klaus hoped that it wasn't bad enough that they had to report it to Repton. "Either way someone needs to go through and check 'em out."
Ralph eavesdropped on the conversation between the head guards from across the hanger. The hen had finished her morning shift minutes earlier and had been cleaning some dirt from her replacement Bone Wing after her original "got destroyed in a freak accident". It was a stroke of blind luck that the brown lizard had been there when the compromised sensors had been discovered by her superiors.
"Yo!" She nonchalantly called over to her grey-green superiors. "Need somebody to do somethin'?"
"Er, yeah. You volunteering Ralph?" Tokka asked slightly nervous. The Raptor now standing quite brazenly in his personal space was well known for being one mean woman.
"I asked didn't I?" Ralph stated crossing toned arms across her cream-colored chest. She enjoyed watching the lighter lizard squirm but didn't let it show on her face. Just because Tokka and his brother were her superiors didn't mean that they were more dominant than her.
"Whoa, hey now! Let's not have any trouble here." Klaus interrupted trying to diffuse some of the tension. The Raptor wearing a mostly purple vest and pants took out a piece of parchment from a locked drawer at their station and handed it to her. "Do you want someone to go with you?"
"No, thank you." She replied politely taking the map. "However, I would like to have this count for my night shift."
"Er… no problem."
….
"Alright cocksss, we need to be getting' out of dodge." Ralph announced as she pushed open the door of the secret tunnel. Chuckk looked up from the sandwich he was constructing, giving her his full attention. Hurrl, while probably listening, continued to paint something on his mud flaps.
"Please tell me there isn't a hoard of Raptors on your tail." The disguised Terradon said nervously. The brown Raptor walked over to the worktable he was and sat down on one of the stools.
"Not at the moment," She sighed. "But the nonfunctioning sensors have been noticed. I bought uss ssome time but we need to get off thhis terra as ssoon asss possssible." The taller lizard removed her metal muzzle guard and placed it on the table. Since she had had neither breakfast or lunch she took her subordinate's meal.
"Er, so when do you want us to go?" The light green lizard asked. He'd had enough of his meals stolen to have learned to just not bother the stronger reptile. He did frown when it became apparent that she didn't like his veggie heavy sandwich but continued to eat it anyway.
"I was thinking about tonight. I have my night shift off and you two should be done in the kitchen before nightfall."
"Sounds good to me. What about you, Hurrl?"
The large green Raptor gave them a thumbs up.
Merrowww….
The light green reptile watched as his friends left to visit their friends and family one last time. Chuckk figured that Ralph would have tea with her mother but they probably wouldn't say much to each other. Hurrl would probably leave letters explaining everything to the apprentice cooks, the assistants, and Leugey; he'd probably even leave a little bag of candy for the Chief's youngest brother.
"Might as well start packing." He mumbled to himself.
…
"How did things go?" Chuckk asked as he heard the trap door open as he secured the last strap holding down the tarp on the wagon. A satisfying twang told him that it was nice and tight.
"Yep! I even gave the hatchlings in the kitchen a big hug." The light colored reptile chuckled a bit when he saw Hurrl with Bruno, the plush sky shark was covered in so many patches he doubted that the big Raptor even remembered what its original color was. The dark green lizard came over to put his toy under the tarp and then hauled the fully loaded wagon to his bike.
"Yeah things went… well." Ralph said, she had her eyes shut rubbed her temples. Hurrl had most likely been talking her ears closed about something she really didn't care about. He noticed the moonlight from the windows softly gleaming off of something hanging of her neck. The short reptile got closer to get a better look at whatever it was. "What are you looking at sky shrimp?"
"That's your mom's necklace right?" He asked innocently. Dark taloned fingers traced along the edge of the crystal and silver shark tooth pendant.
"Yeah, sso, got a problem with it?" She near hissed, not sure of where he was going.
"Oh, no!" The goggle wearing reptile said as he raised his hands placatingly. "It's just really pretty and, uh, you look nice in it."
Bright yellow eyes blinked at him dumbly before the hen flushed an even darker shade of brown. "Go get my bike." Ralph hissed as she glared at him. "By the way, why are you wearing that musty old rag?"
"What, this?" Chuckk asked pulling on the front of the dusty white lab coat that was several sizes too big on him. "I thought it looked hot and 'sides when we get off this terra I can finally be the Terradon I was hatched to be! And Terradon's wear hot lab coats."
"You two are just plain special, now let's go."
….
"Halt!" A voice shouted over the roar of Bone Wings echoing in the patchy forest. Fear made the light green lizard's hide even paler than normal and he tightened his grip on the female Raptor. Ralph growled and gunned it. She expertly weaved between the trees in the dark. Hurrl broke out laughing, not his usual goofy laugh but a deep malicious one that sent a chill down the small reptile's spine. Towing the heavy wagon sharply cut the huge Raptor's maneuverability but he made up for it by pushing his Dragon Wing as fast as it could and relied on the armor and weight of the vehicle to plow through obstacles.
More vehicles joined the perusing party and Chuckk found himself crossing the prongs of his tongue for luck. Finally, they exited the tree line; stark moonlight illuminated the dry brush and grass. With pupils expanded to capture as much light as possible, the fugitives could see the edge of Terra Bogaton.
With hearts pounding they plunged over the edge and dropped like stones into the thick clouds. Falling faster and faster they plunged into the death world of the Wastelands.
Free from their pursuers, draconic metal wings spread wide and the fledgling Sky Knight squadron began a game with death and luck.
Merrowww…..
A/N: So… tell me what you think. I'm still accepting name suggestions for a carrier ship.
P.S.: A few notes about Bogators in this AU.
-Bogators consist of Raptors and Terradons who were once two different subspecies in the very distant past that recently merged back together. The traits of the Terradons: Short statures, high intelligence, gentle disposition, chin growths, four toes, multiple rows of head spikes, and poor eyesight are recessive to those of Raptors. Terradons throughout history were either persecuted for their differences or enslaved for their valuable intellect.
-Males are called cocks and females are hens not women. Calling a female Raptor a woman is the equivalent of calling a human female a bitch.