Chapter Five
It was quiet, too quiet. Awful things shortly followed the sound of silence. It was the calm before the storm, the flash of light before the thunder. Silence was deadly and should not be taken lightly.
It was a time of reflection, a time to look back on all the unspeakable traumas of war. This in itself is a frightening concept and depressing judgments can spiral from it, threatening to change who you were for the worse. In times like these, silence was your enemy. One cannot afford to be lost in their own minds when so much is happening before their eyes, but the silence was always there as a constant reminder of things that were and things that could be.
Everyone affected by war has scars that run deeper than the flesh. The scars that are unseen by the rest of the world and haunt you in the dead of night when there is no company but eerie silence.
To cope with the horrors that wait in the quiet, one must seek a higher understanding and embrace them. If you understand just how the ambience can affect you, it is possible to prepare for it.
Old merbian darkness poetry documented the chilling experiences of hiding deep underground as the Cyclonian invasion force flew overhead and the merbian citizens prayed for their lives.
Stork turned the page of his tome, being extra careful to avoid slicing his hand open on the sharp edge. There was no telling what kind of reaction an open wound would have in this unknown atmosphere, yet with their forever diminishing supplies, they were most certainly doomed anyway.
All this big talk about the war being over, yet they were still chasing this power-hungry lunatic across the skies. When were they going to stop? Where exactly did this path take them? The others were still naïve to the measures they may have to take to assure the safety of the Atmos, assuming they survived long enough, all except for Aerrow. The leader kept it to himself, but Stork was well aware he had not slept peacefully for days.
Master Cyclonis was not going to stand down. She would not surrender and it left them in a very difficult position.
Stork shrugged the thought away. It was painfully irking without the others around, warming the metal shell of a carrier with their noise. Piper was no longer pestering him over the intercom and it made him wonder if they indeed were eaten.
As if on cue, the bridge's sliding door to the foredecks shot open. Stork did not look up from his reading as four sets of footprints paced before him. "What time do you call this?" he said finally, not battering an eyelid.
"Stork, you were supposed to watch Aerrow." Piper's irritated voice reached his ears. "He got out."
"I didn't realise our leader was a domesticated pet." he droned, turning the page.
"Never mind that," Finn interrupted, "we need to hightail it out of here, like, right now."
Stork's right eye twitched. He snapped his book shut and evaluated the situation before him. The four of them stood in a line, Piper and Finn in the centre with Radarr and Junko on either side. Aerrow was in the wallop's arms, limp and injured. The team's uniforms were scuffed up and covered in dirt. "Nightcrawlers?" he guessed, getting to his feet.
"Yup." Junko confirmed. "They were everywhere."
Radarr nodded furiously.
"It is not wise to venture further over these cliffs." Stork commented, reaching the helm. "May I suggest the deadly sea?"
Piper waved her hand at him from the other side of the bridge; she shook her dirty hair out of her eyes and most likely dropped all kinds of foreign filth over his precious ship. "Yeah, go for it. Anywhere but here."
He powered the engines, pulled a lever and the ship was untethered from the cliff face. He did not hinder from his task, but he was curious about the others. Stork perked his sharp ears and listened as Junko rested Aerrow on the table.
"We gotta keep him with us." Piper was saying. "We need to make sure he's okay."
"Well, that detour was a complete waste of time." Finn grumbled, returning to his post at the window beside the helm.
"No," Piper said elatedly, "it wasn't. I want to run this through with Aerrow, but we may have picked up some vital evidence."
"The only thing we know for sure is that Domiwick is here too." Junko pointed out.
"We know someone else is here." Piper elaborated. "There were footprints."
"That's cool and all," Finn put in, "but we have no idea where to find them."
"Always the downer." Stork grinned eerily.
"Anyway, that's not the point." Piper continued. "Remember when the nightcrawler said 'the stone does not yet exist', what do you think that means?"
It accrued to Stork that others were not going to fill him in. That would have been Aerrow's top priority.
"That the helix stone doesn't exist, like I told you already." Finn sneered, placing his hands on his hips as he studied the view of the sea outside.
"Then, why did they not simply say that?" Piper persisted.
This was about that fabled crystal again. Stork had yet to prepare a crate of essentials for the end of the world. If this crystal landed in Cyclonis' hands, that survival crate was exactly what he would need. He then remembered that the end of the world was the end of everything and he need not prepare to survive in a world that was no longer there.
"You're looking into this too much." Finn fired back, "The helix stone is just a farfetched myth and you're wasting your time. Give it a rest."
Stork cleared his throat. "They said that about Terra Vapos, the leviathan, the dangers of the black gorge, dragons, the Suit of Untold Vengeance, the great monster in Aquinos Lake, the caverns below Terra Aquinos and let's not forget us, more specifically, Aerrow. All of which, are in fact true."
Finn folded his arms and shot the helmsman a look of irritation. "Point taken."
"Moving forward," Piper said through gritted teeth, "They said the crystal does not yet exist. Are they planning to produce one? What do you need to create a helix stone, anyway? The matrix would be transcendent compared to anything I've ever made! Is Cyclonis involved? They looked like they were working for Cyclonis, they had her upgrades!"
"Calm down, Piper." Junko hushed, "You're the best crystal mage out there, right? There's no way anyone but you could make the most powerful crystal in the Atmos."
"Yeah, chill it down! You're being more paranoid than Stork." Finn urged.
The pilot rolled his eyes. "Actually, I'm on her side." He peered over his shoulder at Piper as she stood beside the round table. "We still have no idea what this Binding ability even means, not to mention, how Aerrow can connect with it."
"That's not entirely true." Piper said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Uh, how do I explain this? Aerrow already has a connection with crystals, in fact, one crystal in particular – all the Sky Knights do. It's a trait passed down through their bloodline that allows them utilize specific crystals to enhance their abilities."
"We already knew that." Finn frowned, "It's Aerrow's Lightning Feather thing that he does." He paced over towards the table and pushed his hands onto it, resting his weight on his palms. He gazed down at Aerrow's still form.
"Lightning Claw." Piper corrected him.
"Whatever. It's this whole perfect attunement thing that's weirding me out. I mean, where did that come from?"
Piper shrugged. "I'm not sure, it's all on Aerrow. I had nothing to do with it – like I told you before."
Finn crossed his arms. "No point asking him, I know he's clueless. I bet Cyclonis knows."
Stork slipped over behind Finn and peered over his shoulder. "And you intend to ask her? You'll have more luck questioning Aerrow right now." he sneered, gesturing to the Sky Knight.
"Not helping, Stork." Finn grumbled. "Don't we, like, need a new plan or something?"
"We do." Piper agreed, glancing around at the team. "When we headed out today, we gave away our position. We can't go back without risking another run-in with the nightcrawlers. I need to fix up the cloaking device as soon as possible."
"I assume you haven't heard," Stork spoke up, "that's not the only thing that needs 'fixing up' around here. Now our leader is also one of them." He let out a sigh and made his way back to the helm. "Let's face it; we are without a shadow of a doubt, doomed to roam these skies until we perish. What will be our end? The diminishing supplies? A monster from the depths of the ocean? Will we run out of fuel and drown in the remains of the Condor? Are these uncharted skies plagued with a deadly virus that will rot our insides into a pile of compressed jelly? Look at us, even if we do manage to stumble across Cyclonis, what threat do we pose to her? None."
Piper was scowling at the helmsman; he could feel the back of his neck tingling as if her line of sight was burning into his skin. "I'm doing the best I can." She frowned. "Look, I don't know what Aerrow's plan is. He hasn't told me anything. I'm making this up as I go. If any of you have a better idea, by all means, take my place."
The room fell silent. Even Radarr did not utter a sound. A few moments passed of only the welcome whirr of the Condor's engine chugging rhythmically in the background. The silence was disturbed by Piper falling back into the cushioned seat behind her. She let out a sigh. "I've messed everything up. I'm so sorry. My role is all about maps, charts and navigation, but we don't have any of that stuff here." She went quiet for a moment, "I just didn't want to feel useless. I had to be doing something. I tried to take charge and Aerrow suffered because of it."
"Are you talking about the time you almost burnt him to death or the time he had to bail us out of a trap you led us into?" Finn smirked.
Stork pulled a lever and a large metal fist sprung out of the grate behind him and clobbered the sharpshooter in the face before sliding back into position and the grate fell shut.
"Stork!" Finn whined, rubbing his jaw. "It was a joke, man!"
He had no idea what possessed him to react in that way. Too many things had gone wrong and now the team was falling out of line. Stork was sure Aerrow would be able to hold them together, but with him out and Piper at a total loss of confidence, he could not stand by and watch them crumble. They may be doomed to live out the rest of their lives trapped in a dangerous world of the unknown, but he was not going to go down knowing he did not even try.
The helmsman turned and eyed the others with a twitching stare. Thankfully, Finn's stitches across his lower lip did not break in the impact, but his jaw sure did look bruised. He had to apologise for that at some point – when he stopped being angry at him. Junko looked close to tears and taking everything that had been going on into consideration, Stork could not blame him. His earlier comment about there being no hope for survival obviously did not help matters. He would have to watch what he said in this situation, for it was Aerrow's optimism that balanced out his pessimistic nature; without him around, Stork would risk getting everyone upset. He did not want that. There was only room for one doomsayer on this ship. Piper and Radarr appeared baffled by the merb's outburst, yet he had not said a word.
"What?" Stork finally verbalised. "If you're waiting for an inspiring pep talk, I'm going to have to disappoint. If you don't like how things are, get up and do something about it instead of taking it out on each other. Passive aggression is an early sign of a mindworm infestation."
The younger team members exchanged bemused glances. Finn let out a sigh and looked Piper straight in the eyes. "Everything I ever said against you, I take it back." He declared, sliding into the seat and scooted beside her. "Piper, you know I'm behind you one hundred percent. There's a lot more to you than maps and charts, man. I know you can do this – you said it yourself, you got us here and they said it couldn't be done. You can only fail if you don't get back up again, right?"
Stork smirked. It took a knock on the head for him to come to this sudden enlightenment.
"Likewise." Piper sighed. "I've been using you to vent out my frustration and it wasn't fair. You too, Junko."
"We've all been on edge since this whole thing started." Junko pointed out, sitting down also. "We need to band together as a team and find out how we can, uh, help each other."
"That's very considerate," Piper smiled, "I have a feeling that's exactly what Aerrow would have us do."
Radarr scurried off and came back moments later with a clipboard and pen.
"Dude," Finn smirked, his gaze on Radarr, "this doesn't call for a shrink."
"Alright," Piper started, pulling the open notebook towards her, "how are we doing on maintenance?"
Stork smiled to himself and continued to watch them out of the corner of his eye as he steered the ship. That was all they needed, a little push in the right direction.
"The engine was a little stressed from overuse." Junko reported, "It's a good thing we had that ground time, or else we'd be looking at a least a week of repairs, considering we can't replace anything."
"Still need to work on stocking up on ammo." Finn stated. "Aerrow hooked me up with qweep and I haven't had a chance to get around to it."
"I can help with that." Junko volunteered. "I'll be working in the shop tonight anyway."
"As you know, I have that cloaking device to work on." Piper reminded the team. "Stork, I'll need a hand."
He met her eye briefly and saluted.
"You got all that, fur face?" Finn grinned down at the shortest Storm Hawk taking notes.
Radarr gave him a blank look and held out his clipboard where he had drawn a terrible picture of a chicken.
"Didn't think so." He finished, resting his elbow on the table and put his head on his hand. Finn's disapproval was met with an offended scowl as the clipboard fell out of Radarr's relaxed grip and with a huff, he slumped from the table.
"Aw man," Junko sighed, slouching in his seat and rested his head on the table, "if the nightcrawlers aren't working for Cyclonis, why do they hate us so much?"
"Apparently, we're trespassers." Piper clarified, "It's nothing personal."
"They hate our guts and want us 'taken care of.'" Finn smirked. He straightened up, folded his arms and rested them on the table atop the diagram Piper had drawn earlier. "Sounds pretty personal to me."
"Say, I just had an idea." Piper said suddenly. She rose to her feet and rushed over to the railing at the front of the bridge, where Aerrow usually stood. "Stork!" She cried, which naturally made the merb flinch. "Use the crystal scanner to track strong radiations of crystal energy. It either means civilisation or a really powerful crystal."
"Or Cyclonis." Finn added with a mumble.
"Or nightcrawler headquarters." Junko joined in.
Stork fiddled with the device on the helm and waited for the radar to update.
"Might as well serve ourselves up on a silver platter." Finn proposed.
"Express order." Junko finished.
"Will you two knock it off?" Piper yakked. "This is our only chance!"
"To be 'taken care of.'" Finn murmured.
"Painfully." Junko agreed.
"In the most inhumane manner imaginable." Stork decided, his left eye twitching manically.
"Totally." Finn smirked.
Piper's harsh gaze fleeted to the ceiling in irritation. "Guys! You're doing this on purpose!"
"I wasn't." Stork responded instantly.
"Good of you to catch on." Finn jestingly pointed out, his grin growing wider as Junko chuckled in the background.
"You don't like my plan?" Piper rounded on him, meeting his sly smirk with a harsh amber glare.
Finn put up his hands defensively. "Your plan is lovely, Piper." He promptly assured her.
"If you don't like it, you can just say so." She snapped.
"You're not-"
"Come on, Finn. You clearly don't like it." Piper scowled, crossing her arms over her slim physique. "But I don't see you coming up with any alternatives."
"I just-"
"What about you, Junko? Anything to contribute?" Piper was clearly messing with them, but her sarcasm was going over the duo's heads like an emergency rescue balloon.
"You're leading the way, not me." He said sheepishly.
"Well," Piper respired, spinning on the spot, her gaze on the window, "it looks like we're stuck on this suicide mission then, doesn't it?"
"We've dealt with worse." Finn insisted. "I say bring it on, there's nothing these skies have that the Storm Hawks can't handle."
Stork had to disagree, there were plenty of scenarios that lead to their demise and one of them was staring them right in the face. Their current course led straight into the raging tempest of the bitter beyond. "Except maybe, that."