#Storm Hawks fanfic | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

malarkay · 1 year ago

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Too Real Is This Feeling of Make-Believe

When the Storm Hawks intercept a transmission claiming that Master Cyclonis is going to Terra Neon, they assume the worst. Determined to stop her before she can carry out any nefarious plans, they head straight for the terra. But things go differently than how anyone had planned.

“Remind me again why I agreed to this,” Master Cyclonis prompted, and Ace suppressed a sigh as he took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face the mirror again.

“Hold still,” he told her, just forceful enough to gain her compliance without sounding too commanding, which ran the risk of earning her ire. He was well-versed in the art of wrangling his mercurial empress. Combing her hair out of her eyes with his fingers, he deftly began to work it into a single Galean braid. “You agreed because you wisely recognize that you need a day off to decompress from all the stress you've been under lately.”

He’d been trying to get her to take a vacation for the past month and a half, ever since he’d endured a tirade from a fed-up Ravess who declared that working for Cyclonis was becoming, quote, a fucking nightmare. Something had to give if they didn't want a mutiny on their hands. He’d begun by suggesting two weeks on Tropica, which she rejected outright. He hadn't had any luck getting her to agree to take a week off, either. Finally, she had agreed to one day off. It was better than nothing. He’d been quick to suggest Terra Neon. She was the perfect age for it, and the terra provided the most bang for your buck.

A disgruntled hum was her only response. She was clearly second-guessing her decision. Finishing with her hair, he handed her her Chroma Crystal necklace. She slipped it on, tucking it under her shirt, and they both took a moment to gaze into the mirror, studying the effect. Her braided hair was now a sandy brown, her eyes a light blue that matched the shirt she wore under a royal blue zippered hoodie. She’d ditched the black nail polish and had opted for a thinner, subtler eyeliner.

“Your own grandmother wouldn't recognize you,” he assured her as she moved to gather the rest of her things into a black backpack: a telescopic staff in case she needed to defend herself, an Oblivion Crystal in case she really needed to defend herself, and a Warp Crystal in case she needed to make a quick getaway. More cash than she could possibly spend in a day was tucked into a zippered pocket hidden inside her hoodie. “You’ll be shadowed the whole time by undercover Talons, and I’ll be here making sure the place doesn't burn down in your absence. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I'm not worried,” she told him.

“Voice.”

She rolled her eyes with a sigh before clearing her throat. “I’m not worried,” she repeated in a lighter, much less intimidating tone.

Satisfied that she looked and sounded like any other fifteen-year-old kid and not like one of the most hated and feared people in all of Atmos, he told her he hoped she had fun today and sent her on her way.

~*~*~

The Storm Hawks were on their way to Terra Neon, and Finn couldn't be happier, even if they were technically on a mission. They'd intercepted an encrypted Cyclonian transmission earlier. Piper had managed to partially decrypt it, unscrambling it just enough to learn that Master Cyclonis herself was supposedly going to be on the terra today. They didn't know when or why, but as Aerrow had said, she couldn't be up to anything good. Their job was to find her, figure out what her intentions were, and ultimately stop her from carrying out her plans.

They would have to be sneaky about it. If Cyclonis caught on that they were after her, she could bail, coming back later to finish what she started when they weren't around to stop her. Or she might decide to stay and fight, which could lead to innocent people getting hurt. They couldn't risk that, so they'd have to catch her by surprise. That meant disguises, but Piper only had three Chroma Crystals. It was decided that he, Piper, and Aerrow would be the ones to search the terra while Stork, Junko and Radarr would remain aboard the Condor to monitor the radio for any more Cyclonian chatter. To cover more ground, they were going to split up. Finn rubbed his hands in anticipation. This was going to be great! Without Piper breathing down his neck, he didn't see why his search couldn't include going on a ride or two.�� What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

They changed into civilian clothes as they approached the terra, him tossing on a black leather jacket over a dark green t-shirt before raiding his piggy bank for spending money. Meeting back up with the others, he accepted his Chroma Crystal, making sure it was securely tucked into one of his pockets.

Crossing his eyes, he looked up at his hair to see what colour it had turned, frowning when he saw that it was black. He looked over at the other two, Aerrow with his bright blue hair and Piper with her pink hair, and huffed. “Aww man, why’d I have to get the boring hair? Do my eyes look cool, at least?’

“These crystals aren't the best quality,” Piper admitted, sounding a little embarrassed. “Your eyes didn't change colour.”

He looked at the other two closer to see that their eyes hadn't changed, either. That made him feel a little better. Not enough to stop his disappointed whine, though.

“You look fine,” Junko reassured him, messing with his hair a little to style it differently. “There, no one’s gonna recognize you now.”

“Thanks, Junko,” he smiled, making a mental note to try to win his best friend the biggest teddy bear he could find.

Piper gave him one of her knowing looks like she could read his mind. “Just remember, you're here to find Cyclonis, not to goof off or chase girls.”

“Cyclonis is a girl,” he pointed out, and Piper rolled her eyes so hard he was surprised she didn't hurt herself.

“You know what I mean!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He crossed his arms. “I get it. We have a job to do,” he said, showing the others that he understood the assignment.

“Okay, so here's the plan,” Aerrow said. “We’ll keep in touch through our earpieces. If you see her, don't engage. Let the rest of us know, and follow her until we can get to you. Our weapons are too conspicuous, so we’ll leave them here. Junko and Radarr can bring them to us once we’ve found her, and we’ll go from there. Got it?”

They all agreed, and, at last, it was time to have some fun.

~*~*~

Have fun, Ace had told her, and she fully intended to meet that challenge. It would just take a little planning and strategy first. Armed with one of the cutesy little maps they handed out at the park gates, she claimed an empty bench and started plotting out which rides and attractions she wanted to check out, meticulously charting the most efficient route between them so that she didn't waste any time.

Once her day was planned, she got up and headed toward her first stop. She’d almost made it to her destination when she felt someone slip their arm around her shoulders and loudly say, “There you are! I've been looking all over for you!” She stiffened and stopped walking, only to have her overly friendly assailant prompt her to keep moving as he whispered, “Just play along. You've got someone following you.”

Ah. So a would-be rescuer, not an assailant. She glanced over her shoulder just long enough to catch sight of one of her plain-clothed Talons in the crowd before the boy with his arm still wrapped around her said, “Don't look! We don't want him to know we’re onto him.”

She decided to play along. The sooner this was over with, the sooner she could go about her day. So she let him lead her through a turn or two. He’d sneak a glance toward their shadow every time they changed directions. After a few minutes of that, she gestured behind her back, ordering the Talon to withdraw. It worked. Once he noticed they were no longer being followed, her rescuer relaxed, letting his arm drop.

“That was one scary-looking dude,” he said as he shuffled to a stop. “I’m glad we lost him.”

She couldn't disagree with his assessment. That particular Talon was a very large, intimidating man. She wasn't sure what Ace had been thinking with that pick. If she were ever forced to take another day off, she'd be sure to choose more inconspicuous-looking Talons as security.

“Thanks for looking out for me,” she said, finally able to get a good look at him. He was about her age, with bright blue eyes and tousled black hair. No taller than she was, and slightly built, he had to have been either very brave or very stupid to think that he could have done anything to stop the behemoth of a Talon from hurting them if that was his goal. Probably both. Surprisingly, it wasn't the suspicion that he was an idiot that bothered her. It was that there was something vaguely familiar about him, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what.

He gave her a grin that was clearly meant to be flirtatious, which made the feeling even more pronounced. Why was he so familiar? This was really going to bug her until she could figure out who he reminded her of. “Well,” he drawled, “if you really want to thank me, we could hang out for a little while. Go on a couple of rides, maybe have lunch together later?”

“No.”

He wilted at her flat rejection. She almost felt bad.

“How about one ride?” he suggested, looking so hopeful that the second no she had prepared died in her throat. She sighed.

“Fine. One ride.” She looked around to figure out where they were, then consulted her map. “The StarFlyer’s that way,” she said, pointing. “That's where I was going first.”

“The StarFlyer?” he said, making a face. “That's for babies!”

“No, it's not,” she said, defending the swing ride. It may not be the most thrilling ride in the park, but anything that dangled you a hundred and thirty-five meters into the air and then spun you around at seventy-five kilometres per hour was hardly what she'd call a ride for babies.

“Yeah, it is,” he said dismissively. “I wanna go on that!” he said, pointing to the giant roller coaster off in the distance.

She looked back down at her map. Not only was it out of their way, but it wasn't even on the list of rides she wanted to go on. She'd overheard that it was the most popular ride on the terra and that the lines were always long. She didn't want to wait in a long line.

“We’re going on the StarFlyer,” she told him. “Take it or leave it.”

“Ohhh, I get it. You’re scared,” he said obnoxiously.

“What? No.”

“Why else would you say no to the best ride on the whole terra?”

“Because, in the time it will take us to get through that line, we could have gone on three other rides.”

“We?” he grinned, stopping just short of waggling his eyebrows.

She narrowed her eyes at him but otherwise ignored his comment. “It’s an inefficient use of our time.”

“You sound just like one of my other friends,” he groaned.

“Well, your friend sounds like they have a good head on their shoulders. Look,” she said, holding out her map, ready to explain her carefully laid plans in detail. He took one look at the map and the little annotations she had made in the margins and shuddered. Snatching the map away from her, he crumpled it up and tossed it into the nearest garbage bin.

“That took me an hour!”

“And in that hour, you could have gone on the roller coaster instead! Listen, you can’t plan a day at Terra Neon. You have to feel a day at Terra Neon.”

“I feel,” she drawled out emphatically, “like that sounded better in your head.”

He scoffed. “I’m going on the roller coaster,” he said and started walking. When she didn’t follow immediately, he stopped and turned around. “You coming or not?”

With a sigh, she followed. “Don’t look so smug,” she told him when she caught his satisfied little smirk. “I agreed to go on one ride with you. I’m just keeping that promise.”

“Uh-huh,” he said as they walked, still grinning. “So, what’s your name, anyway? I’m Fi…” his words trailed off in a cough, and he thumped himself on the chest a couple of times before continuing. “Felix,” he finished.

Names. Right. She hadn’t thought she’d need a name when she came here, not expecting to pick up company. She considered using Lark but dismissed that idea. She didn’t like how things had ended the last time she gave someone that name. She’d have to come up with something else. It didn’t take long for one to bubble up from the darkest depths of her subconscious, and she blurted it out without thinking. “Andy,” she said, and nearly winced. When she was younger, and her grandmother was still alive, there was a boy whose father was governor of Gale for a few years until his assassination. She couldn’t remember his or his father’s name, now. It wasn’t important. What was important was that he insisted on butchering her name whenever she saw him. Ignoring her repeated requests that he refer to her by her preferred middle name, her surname, or her title, he had instead glommed onto her hated first name and then managed to make it even worse by shortening it. Thus, Calandra had become Andy. Ugh. Well, there was no taking it back now. For as long as she was stuck with Felix, she was stuck with this stupid name.

“Andy,” he said, smiling over at her. “I like it.”

~*~*~

It turned out Andy was even more impatient than he was when standing in lines. While he bounced on the balls of his feet as they slowly inched their way forward, hardly able to contain his excitement, she stood with her arms crossed, scowling, radiating major stormcloud energy.

Maybe he shouldn't have insisted on the roller coaster after all. She was definitely going to ditch him the moment the ride was over. He was going to blow his chances with a cute girl again!

‘You could try talking to her,’ an exasperated voice in his head told him. It sounded suspiciously like Piper. Duh! Of course, he should talk to her! It would distract her from the wait.

So he asked her where she was from. After a moment’s hesitation, she told him she was from Terra Greemus.

“Cool, what's it like there? I've never been.”

There was another pause before she answered breezily, “Oh, you know….”

He didn't know, but he laughed like he did. “Oh yeah. Totally.”

“What about you?”

It only took him a split second to come up with an answer. Piper would be proud of his quick thinking. “Terra Rex,” he told her. A part of him felt bad about lying to her, but he had to keep up the undercover act. If Cyclonis was around here somewhere, there could be other Cyclonians around, too, and he couldn't afford to have any of them overhear who he really was. It could ruin the whole operation.

“Huh. For some reason, I always thought everyone from Terra Rex was blond.”

Well yeah, he thought so, too. That's why he…crap! His hair wasn't blond! It was fine; he could salvage this. He could if his mind hadn't gone completely blank, anyway. Come on, man, say something! Anything! “That's racist!”

She stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. After a second, he started laughing, too, his face burning. “It's not racist,” she insisted between bouts of laughter. “A stereotype, maybe.” Getting her laughter under control, she said, “It was stupid of me to believe that everyone from an entire terra would have the same hair colour, now that I think about it. Sorry.”

“It's okay. I get that a lot.”

The conversation became easier after that. He learned that she was an only child and that it fell on her to take over the family business. When he had asked what kind of business it was, she had waved a dismissive hand. “Logistics. Boring stuff. I don't really want to talk about it.” Fair enough, he didn't really want to talk about boring stuff, either.

He told her he had three brothers, a sister, and a very smart dog. That made her smile, but it was kind of a sad smile. She'd always wondered what it was like to have siblings, she told him. And a pet. She claimed she didn't have time to take care of a pet, though. He suggested a cat. Cats were supposed to be pretty easy, weren't they? She shrugged. “Maybe someday.”

She asked him what his plans for the future were, and it was his turn to shrug. He couldn't tell her that he was already part of a Sky Knight squadron. “I dunno. I like helping people. Maybe something that lets me do that.”

She grinned and asked him if he had ever considered trying to join the Rex Guardians. He laughed outright at that. “Join those stuck up windbags? Dude, not on your life!”

That seemed to amuse her more than anything else he'd said.

At last, they got to the front of the line, and soon enough, they were in the front car. “Best seat on the ride!” he said excitedly. “When we get to the top of the first hill, you gotta raise your arms in the air when we drop,” he instructed, suspecting that this was her first time on a roller coaster. She had neither confirmed nor denied her roller coaster experience level when he’d asked her on the walk over.

“Why?”

“Because it’s fun?”

She looked skeptical but agreed. The ride operator came around to yank on their restraints to make sure they were secured, and then away they went!

She was surprisingly chill throughout the ride. Besides an initial yelp when the first drop came, there wasn't much screaming and yelling coming from her side of the car. He thought she maybe hadn't enjoyed herself as they got off the ride, but when he asked her how she liked it, her smile and the way her eyes sparkled put that fear to rest.

“Wanna go again?”

“Yes!” she said without hesitation.

As they made their way back to the end of the line, he spotted two teenage boys about a third of the way from the front. They looked pretty cool, which gave him an idea. Grabbing Andy’s hand, he led her over to them, ducking under the railing to get in line behind them.

“Hey guys, what's up? Thanks for saving our spot,” he told them. Sure enough, the boys played along, fist-bumping him and acting like they were friends. The person they had cut in front of grumbled a little but didn't make a big deal out of it. Success!

“That was sneaky,” Andy told him approvingly. He just grinned. He’d just shaved so much time off their wait. He didn't think he'd hear any more Piper-like complaints about 'inefficient use of time’ from her after this.

~*~*~

Cyclonis wasn't sure how it happened. She wasn't sure how she had gone from counting down the minutes until she could ditch Felix for good to standing in line with him to go on their fifth ride of the day. After their second time on the roller coaster, they had gone on the Gravitron, then something called the Pendulum, which she had not enjoyed. Not that she was going to admit that to Felix and have him make fun of her. Honestly, it had started out fine, simply rocking back and forth. No big deal. But then the ride had flipped them upside down and let them hang there for what felt like an eternity before it creakily continued on its arc. And the restraints? A joke. They had been hung upside down with nothing but a frayed lap belt to prevent them from falling out! The cursed thing was part torture device, part death trap. Someone had definitely died on that ride before, no one could convince her otherwise. Felix, obviously, loved it.

One thing was for certain, she was never going anywhere without a levitation crystal ever again. Just in case.

Now they were waiting to go on something called The Orbit. Round cars were attached to a central pole that swung them around the wavy track while the cars also rotated. Felix explained that there was a wheel they could turn to control how fast the car spun. The majority of the cars spun at a relaxed pace, while a few were barely moving at all, and one was spinning so fast it looked like it might fly off the ride entirely, its occupants screaming bloody murder the whole time. She already knew by the way Felix’s smile grew manic as he watched that that would be them soon enough.

They had stopped along the way to get some cotton candy; yet another thing that she'd never tried before that Felix seemed so casually familiar with. As they waited in line, he offered her some first. She pinched off a bit of the fluffy pink candy, popping it into her mouth. It dissolved instantly, and she couldn't help but make a face. “It tastes like pure sugar,” she said. She wasn't sure she liked it.

“Not true,” he said as he ate some. “There's also food colouring.” After a brief moment of deliberation, she took some more, giving it a second chance. Knowing what to expect this time helped. It actually wasn't that bad. Between the two of them, they finished it all by the time they got to the front of the line.

~*~*~

They were on their way to grab some lunch when Aerrow’s voice came through his earpiece.

“Everyone check in. Are we all doing okay?”

Oh no….

He quickly scanned the area on the off chance he might spot Cyclonis somewhere in the crowd. It was the first time he’d given the matter any thought in…a while. Nope. No Cyclonians here. But there was a bathroom. Perfect. Smiling apologetically to Andy, he excused himself as all the others sounded off that they hadn't seen anything suspicious all morning. “All good here,” he told everyone as he entered the bathroom, turning a blind corner and running right into Aerrow. Literally.

“Ahhhh!” he screamed, startled. Aerrow yelped, stumbling back a couple of steps before catching himself.

“Finn! What the heck?”

“Nothing!”

That earned him a suspicious look. Honestly, where was the trust? But whatever suspicions Aerrow had, he didn't voice them. Instead, he said, “I'm about to head over to the food court for lunch. Do you want-”

“No!”

He could have kicked himself. Now Aerrow really did look suspicious. It wasn't like him to turn down food.

“Is everything okay? You're doing what you're supposed to, right? Because Piper thinks-”

“Pfft, come on, Piper always thinks I'm slacking off, but I've got this! If….” He looked around, aware that they were still in a public area and easily overheard. “If she's here, I’ll be the first one to find her. Guaranteed.”

“Good,” Aerrow smiled. Giving him a quick hug, he told him to be careful and left. Finn waited a full sixty seconds for the coast to clear before walking back outside, wondering how they were going to avoid running into Aerrow again.

~*~*~

Less than a minute had gone by since Felix disappeared into the bathroom before one of her Talons casually sidled up to her. Luckily not the big, brutish-looking one who had caught Felix’s attention this morning.

He crossed his arms, carefully looking away from her before he spoke. “Everything alright?” he asked respectfully. The ‘Master’ part was left unspoken but implied.

“Yes,” she answered, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

“That boy isn't bothering you, is he? He can be made to disappear.”

So eager. He must be gunning for a promotion.

“That won't be necessary. I find him amusing for now.”

The man gave a nearly imperceptible nod. “We stand ready to assist you should you need us,” he reminded her.

“Of course. I expect nothing less.”

With that, the Talon disappeared back into the crowd. Soon after, Felix returned to her side. “So, change of plans,” he told her. “My stomach doesn't feel so good between all that cotton candy and crazy rides.”

Gross. She shifted a little bit away from him, and he rushed to reassure her. “No! I didn't…I wasn't sick in there. I’m fine! I just thought we could ride the StarFlyer first before lunch.”

“You want to ride the baby ride?” she teased him.

“Yes,” he smirked. “I wanna ride the baby ride.”

“Okay,” she agreed. She shifted her backpack so that she could get at the outside pocket, unzipping it and pulling out a pack of peppermint gum, offering him a piece. Hopefully, he was telling the truth about not getting sick in the bathroom, but just in case….

��To help settle your stomach,” she prompted.

Slipping the gum back into her bag once he had taken some, she shouldered her backpack, and they headed off to the StarFlyer.

~*~*~

So, Andy might be onto something with the StarFlyer, now that he’d given it a proper chance. Okay, three proper chances. It was actually really relaxing. It was like flying on a Skimmer, but not really. Flying took concentration, always running calculations and making little adjustments to make sure nothing bad happened. This felt more like falling, only no, because falling was scary, and this ride wasn’t scary. It was somewhere in between the two. He could just sit back and enjoy the view of the sky and the wind whipping through his hair without a care in the world.

“Wanna go a fourth time?” he asked once they were back on the ground. The other great thing about this ride was that there was almost no wait time. The walk to the ride and three trips through the short line had only burned half an hour.

“Nah, I nearly fell asleep this last time,” she confessed.

“You, too?” he laughed. “It’s so…” he trailed off, trying to think of a better description than ‘relaxing.’

“Meditative,” she finished for him.

“Really? My friend, the one I said you remind me of a little bit, meditates. I tried it once, but I couldn’t get into it.”

“It takes a lot of practice. No one gets it right the first time.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Are you feeling better?” “100%. Ready to eat whenever you are!”

She nodded, and they started off for the food court. “I just don’t get how you’re supposed to clear your mind of all thoughts,” he said as they walked.

“You don’t,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“No offence, but I think you’re meditating wrong.”

“No, you are. You can’t just stop thinking altogether. That’s stupid. You’re going to have thoughts. Meditating is about learning how to not dwell on those thoughts. It’s kind of like watching a leaf float past you. You have no control over the wind that blew that leaf towards you. You can’t stop the leaf from approaching you. But you can watch it pass you by without reaching out and grabbing it.”

“Whoa,” he said. That made way more sense than how Piper had explained it. “So you think the thought, but you don’t really think the thought?” he asked, putting more emphasis on the second ‘think.’

“Exactly. Like I said, it’s not easy at first, but you get better at it the more you try.”

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as they walked. He was so confused by this girl. She’d obviously never been on a roller coaster before today, but she also hadn’t been scared riding it. She didn’t know what cotton candy was, but she could wax poetic about meditation. And who the heck came to an amusement park alone, anyway? Had he befriended an escapee from a monastery? Was that a thing?

They got to the food court, and he watched her study the menu boards, her brow furrowing more the longer she stared at them.

“Problem?” he asked.

“Do they not have anything healthy here?”

Oh yeah. She had definitely escaped from a monastery. He was sure of it.

“No, everything here is terrible for you. That’s what makes it fun.”

She hummed indecisively. After another full minute of silence, she asked, “Wanna split one of everything?”

“Umm, I don’t think I have enough money for that.”

“That’s okay. I do.”

Seriously, who was this girl?!

~*~*~

In the end, they didn't get one of everything, but they came close. They'd settled on a sampler platter that came with chicken strips, potato skins, fried zucchini, and mozzarella sticks. Then they'd added some nachos, a giant slice of pizza that they cut in half, a side of fries, and a couple of sodas.

Cyclonis didn't think they'd end up finishing it all once she saw it all laid out on the table between them, but she had been wrong. After one of everything from the sampler platter, her half slice of pizza, a quarter of the nachos and a handful of fries, she was uncomfortably full.

Felix, meanwhile, was still going strong. She watched in horror and fascination as he polished off the rest of the food. Hadn't he complained about feeling sick just an hour ago? Were all teenage boys like this, or was he some sort of freak of nature?

“Maybe we should hold off on going on any more rides for a while,” she suggested as they cleared their table. She would hate to have to murder him if he threw up all over her.

“Okay. They have a really cool arcade here. We can hang out there for a while,” he suggested, and she agreed.

Forty-five minutes later, she decided she wasn’t a fan of arcades. There were way too many flashing lights and blaring sounds, all jumbled together into one big discordant mess, and it didn't take long for it all to start getting on her nerves. On top of that, Felix had obliterated her in basically every game they'd played together.

Yeah, she wasn't having fun.

At least Felix took his wins gracefully. Now. The first time he beat her, he had started dancing around, exalting himself and mocking her in turns. Eventually, he noticed the look on her face, and it instantly shut him up. Gulping, he had called her scary before suggesting they try a different game. Since then, he'd wisely kept his opinions about how badly she sucks to himself.

“There's a laser tag arena next door,” Felix told her after another fifteen minutes. She wasn't sure if he had gotten bored or if he had finally noticed her discomfort. Either way, she was grateful to get out of there.

~*~*~

It didn’t take long for them to get suited up and join a bunch of other smaller groups who would all be playing together. They had the arena for an hour and would get to play as many rounds as they could fit into that time. Once the rules had been explained, they broke into two teams of ten. He and Andy were on the same team, their red armbands distinguishing them from their blue-banded enemies.

It was a simple game of Capture the Flag. Respawns were allowed, but if you were hit, you had to go back to your team’s base before rejoining the game. A whistle blew, and the game began. The arena was huge, dimly lit, but not too dark, with multiple levels and plenty of obstacles to hide behind between them and the opposite team’s base.

“Follow me,” Andy told him, sounding like she had a plan. It didn't take him long to regret his decision to do so as she led them up to one of the upper levels, found a person-sized foam pyramid to conceal them behind, and then…decided to camp there?

She flattened herself against the ground in a spot where she could watch the chaos going on below. He had to admit that it did give them a really good view of the entire arena, but if all she wanted to do was watch the game instead of play, she could have saved her money.

“Watch our backs,” she told him. After five minutes of dutifully doing as he was told, he got bored. Only one other player had come up to their level the entire time, and he easily took the kid out.

He had had enough of sitting on the sidelines. “Okay, well, you have fun up here. I'm gonna go actually play the game now.”

“Hold your position,” she ordered.

“Andy, seriously, this is so boring. I wanna play.”

“Hold. Your. Position,” she said, glaring back over her shoulder at him. Scary Andy was back.

“Okay, fine,” he told her, holding up his hands in surrender.

Two more minutes passed. He got to shoot one other enemy player who had tried and failed to sneak up on them, but that was as exciting as things had gotten for him. He was considering shooting himself so that he’d have to go back down to where all the action was when she spoke.

“What's the range on these laser guns?”

“Uhh, I dunno.”

She hummed in thought, pointing to a player who was pinned behind another foam pyramid on the lower level. “Shoot her.”

“She's on our team,” he protested.

“So?”

“Do you…do you get the objective of this game?”

With a sigh, she aimed her laser gun at her chosen target and fired, hitting her on her second try.

“Andy, what the heck?”

“That was fifty meters,” was all she had to say for herself. She pointed out another player, this one on the opposite team. “Would you say that's a hundred?”

“Give or take,” he agreed. He took aim, fired, and hit his target on the first try.

They tried a hundred and fifty meters, followed by two hundred, registering a hit at both distances. Anything beyond that appeared to be out of range.

“You're a good shot,” she complimented him.

“I know,” he grinned, which made her roll her eyes.

She watched the battle rage below them for another minute before announcing, “I've seen enough.”

Getting up, she led him back down to the main level. Their flag was gone by the time they got back to their base, and less than a minute later, the whistle blew again, signalling the end of the game. The blue team had won that round.

Once the red team was back together, Finn just about had a heart attack when Andy lit into their teammates. “That was pathetic. There was no cohesion, no strategy; it's like you all wanted us to lose. So let me tell you what's going to happen in the next game…”

“Who the fuck died and made you queen?” a disgruntled older teen who had nearly thirty centimetres and fifty kilos on Andy interrupted.

Showing an alarming lack of fear, Andy stepped closer to the almost full-grown man who had spoken out against her. She had to tilt her head back to look him in the eyes, but when she did, the guy took a nervous step back. “Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware you wanted to keep losing.”

Ohhh. Scary Andy had a scary voice to match now. That was new. And vaguely familiar for some reason?

The guy looked over to him. “Bro, control your girl,” he blustered.

“I dunno, man, I think we should hear her out,” he said.

Thankfully, no one else on the team seemed to have a problem with injecting a little strategy into their gameplay, so they all agreed with him. He gestured, prompting her to continue.

“Now we don't have much time, so I’ll keep things simple,” Andy said as if the interruption never happened. “Luckily, the blue team’s tactics are laughable, so we should be able to win pretty handily if everyone sticks to the plan-”

She quickly and succinctly laid out her plan, breaking the team into pairs and giving each pair a specific role to focus on. As for them, they’d be the ones responsible for capturing the blue team’s flag. “You wanted to play,” she told him with a smirk. “Let’s see what you got.”

The whistle blew, starting the game.

One pair stayed behind to guard the flag, while another split up and headed off to opposite sides of the upper levels. Andy said she had seen them both make some pretty impressive shots during the first game and decided they should be their snipers. The other two pairs stuck to the perimeters of the arena, moving to flank the enemy. The middle of the arena was all theirs. They moved from pyramid to pyramid, him covering her when she was on the move, with her doing the same for him. They each landed a few good ‘kills’ and made it to the last pyramid before the enemy base unscathed. A member of the blue team was guarding the flag, perfectly positioned so they couldn’t get a clear shot of her target sensor without leaving the safety of their cover and putting themselves at risk.

Andy waved up at the upper levels, trying to get the attention of one of their snipers. They didn’t have to wait long. No more than ten seconds later, the flag guardian’s vest lit up, indicating a hit. They both darted forward, him reaching the flag first.

“Go, go, go!” he said as he grabbed it, and they full-on sprinted back towards their side of the arena. Andy got hit along the way, but it didn’t matter. He got the flag back to their base before whoever had shot Andy could get him, too. The whistle blew, and the match was over. Their team had won, with enough time left for one more round. A tie-breaker.

Before the third round, Andy ran a whole new strategy by the team. They couldn’t use the same tactics as last time, she said, because the blue team was probably busy right now coming up with ways to counteract them after their success. Just as she was assigning roles, Aerrow’s voice came through his earpiece.

Seriously? Now was so not a good time.

“Hey guys, I don’t suppose any of you have had any luck locating the target?”

The poor guy sounded so hopeful and so bored at the same time. He glanced at Andy, thinking fast. “I call dibs on sniper!” he told her.

That seemed to throw her off for a second, but she recovered quickly, restructuring the team so that they were the snipers for this round. Once the whistle sounded, he ran up to the upper levels and wedged himself into a corner where he could see anyone trying to come at him. Alone, he could finally speak freely.

“Nope, still nothing. Also, I vote that the next time we come to Terra Neon, it’s to have fun. Today has been a real drag,” he said, shooting a blue team member who had immediately shown up looking to take out the snipers.

“Finn, where are you? Why’d it take so long for you to answer?”

“I think the better question, Piper, is where are you?”

So he could avoid it like the plague….

“Right now? Outside the theatre. Now answer the question.”

“I’m near the carousel.”

“Really? I’m near the carousel, and I don’t see you,” Aerrow said.

“Uhhh….”

“Finn!” Piper said disapprovingly.

“Okay! I stopped to play a game of laser tag. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have lied. As soon as the game ends, I’m heading right back outside.”

He winced to himself. Technically, he wasn’t lying?

He heard Aerrow sigh through the earpiece. “Listen, at this point, I don’t think that the intel we got was right. So how about this? Stay undercover, keep a lookout for Cyclonians, but if there’s anything fun you wanna do, go ahead and do it.”

“Dude, do you mean that?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re the best!”

“Thanks, Aerrow!” Piper said, all traces of her earlier irritation gone.

The line went quiet again.

Finn grinned to himself. “Alright, time to bag me some-”

The whistle blew.

“Aww, man!”

~*~*~

She was in a pretty good mood as they left the arena, her team having absolutely slaughtered the blue team in back-to-back matches.

“So, what kind of logistics business does your family run that requires you to know battle tactics and strategy?” Felix asked her teasingly.

“Just one of the many perks of a classical education,” she joked. “Where'd you learn to shoot like that?”

“Well, since you asked,” he smirked, “follow me.”

He led her to the carnival game section of the park and right up to one of the booths. It was one where you shoot little duck targets as they move along a conveyor belt.

“Seriously?” she laughed.

“Hey, don't knock it until you try it,” he said, slapping down enough money to buy them into the game.

They spent the next hour playing every game there. Felix won a stuffed bunny that was nearly as big as he was. He asked the game operator if he could leave it there and return for it later, and the man gave him a ticket to bring back when he was ready to claim it.

“What're you going to do with that thing?”

“It's for my brother. He was disappointed he couldn't come today.”

She couldn't help but smile a little at that. Felix seemed like a genuinely good guy; she was glad they had met. He'd made the day a lot more fun than it would have been if she had spent it alone.

She won a goldfish from the last game they played. She emulated Felix, asking if she could claim it at the end of the day, and was given her own ticket.

“You did say you wished you had a pet,” Felix grinned.

“I said I don't have time to take care of a pet!”

“Well, you're in luck, ‘cause none of these fish look like they're gonna live past the end of next week, anyway,” he pointed out, and she scoffed.

The next couple of hours went by in a flurry of more rides. They’d ridden the bumper skimmers, the carousel (where she had managed to snag a brass ring, winning a free ride), a ride that took you to the top of a tall tower and let you free fall from there, braking just a meter or two before hitting the ground, and the roller coaster for a third time.

Around sunset, they decided to go on the Ferris wheel. The cars faced west, giving them a spectacular view. She found herself enraptured as the disappearing sun painted the sky and the surrounding clouds orange, pink, and purple. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

“Yeah,” he agreed. He didn’t sound like he found it nearly as impressive as she did. Then again, why would he? On Terra Rex, with its clear blue skies, he’d probably seen hundreds of sunsets like this before. Maybe even thousands. Still, he didn’t tease her over her enthusiasm, and his smile was soft when she glanced over at him. At some point, he’d managed to drape his arm around her shoulders without her noticing. She was surprised to find that she didn’t mind. She was even more surprised when, without even thinking about it, she leaned into him.

~*~*~

Finn tried to play it cool when Andy leaned into him, which wasn’t easy when his heart was pounding as hard as it was. He really hadn’t been sure if she’d welcome his arm around her or not. Sure, he thought they’d had a lot of fun together, but did she feel the same way? Then there was the fact that he was lying to her about everything: who he was, where he was from, what he did for a living. He felt really guilty about that, even more than he had when he had lied to Aerrow and Piper. It was almost bad enough to convince him to keep his hands to himself.

But then they had gotten to the top of the Ferris wheel, and she had gotten lost in the beauty of the sunset, and she just looked so….

Pretty, for sure, but it was more than that. It was like walls he hadn’t even noticed were there before had disappeared, and he was seeing a side of her that not many people got to see. Yes, she could be standoffish, sarcastic, hyper-competitive, and downright terrifying at times. He didn’t think any of that was a front. She was definitely all of those things. But right now, she just looked so vulnerable. And a little sad, like she was seeing something she really wanted but couldn’t have. And it made him want to put his arm around her even more than he already did, to be her shield while hers were down.

He had expected her to reject him; he really had. He’d expected her to pull away, push his arm off of her, and make some kind of comment that would pour ice water all over these new feelings. So when she leaned into him instead….

Oh boy.

This was bad.

It made his whole body feel like it was buzzing. And his heart was beating too hard. And he was very aware of all the places her body pressed against his. And she was warm? He wasn’t sure why he was surprised by that. Maybe because of the times she’d looked at him in a way that made a chill go down his spine? That was probably it. She gave off cold vibes. But not now. Definitely not now.

And it wasn’t fair, man, because this wasn’t real. It’d never be real because, at the end of the day, he would go back to the Condor and give the Chroma Crystal back to Piper. He’d go back to being Finn, not Felix, and never see Andy again. Or if he did, he wouldn’t be able to tell her who he was. She’d never want to talk to him again if she knew that he had spent all day lying to her.

The ride ended too soon. He asked her if she wanted to grab dinner, she said yes, and then she took his hand! His palm prickled as it pressed against hers, but he didn’t let go.

~*~*~

Something had happened up there on the Ferris wheel. Cyclonis wasn’t sure what. Felix’s whole demeanour had shifted. He seemed anxious, upset even. Had she done something to mess things up between them? She couldn’t think of anything. Then again, he wouldn’t be the first person she’d ever upset without intending to. It was frustrating when that happened. She much preferred upsetting people on purpose.

Comforting others wasn’t really her strong suit, but she decided to try, reaching out to take his hand. He clung to it like he never wanted to let go. Okay. Not something she’d done, then. Good to know. After a few minutes of walking in silence, she decided to come out and ask him about it. “Are you okay? You seem unhappy.”

He seemed to debate with himself whether or not to answer her question. “It’s just…do you think we’re ever going to see each other again?”

Oh.

“Probably not,” she admitted. Her chest felt too tight when she said that, and she realized that she wished it wasn’t true. She just wasn’t sure how to make that happen short of kidnapping him, which was an option she disregarded immediately. That wouldn’t go over well. Besides, she’d only known him for a day. She wasn’t even sure she liked him well enough to keep him forever.

But what other options were there, really? She couldn’t keep playing the part of ‘Andy’ indefinitely. And a Free Atmosian, especially one from Terra Rex, probably wouldn’t be thrilled to learn that the girl he’d spent the entire day with was the Master of Cyclonia. She couldn’t tell him that, he’d freak out, and that would ruin this perfectly good night.

No, they definitely weren’t going to see each other again. Which was why they might as well make the most of the time they had left. Which was what she told him next. He had thought about that for a minute or two as they walked before nodding his acceptance.

“I guess that’s the best way to look at it,” he agreed.

~*~*~

Strangely, Finn felt better after their talk. It made things easier, knowing that this was a casual, one-day-only thing and that they were both okay with that. Not that a part of him wasn’t still disappointed about that, and he could tell that a part of her was, too. But it was better this way. Way less complicated, too.

The easy companionship they had shared for most of the day returned. Neither of them was starving, so they each just got a corndog and another soda for dinner, not even bothering to sit down. They ate as they walked, just taking in the sights and sounds of Terra Neon at night when the place really got to show off the lights it was named for. When they were finished and had found a trash bin to toss their corndog sticks into, they went back to holding hands.

They stumbled upon Ghost Carrier, the haunted dark ride, and Andy insisted they go on it. He balked at first. She really wanted to go on a scary ride? After dark?

“It’s a dark ride. What difference does it make if we go on it during the day or at night?” she reasoned.

“Because at night, it’s still going to be dark after we get off the ride!”

“If you don’t want to go on it, that’s fine. I can go by myself,” she sighed.

He gave her an unimpressed stare. “That’s low, even for you,” he told her, and she laughed. “Fine, let’s go.”

The ride ended up being eventful. Tense music played throughout the entire thing, though it did nothing to drown out the various screams, growls, howls and maniacal laughter that punctuated every animatronic jump scares. So many jump scares! The music did nothing to drown out his screams, either.

They emerged at the end with him clinging to Andy. He’d practically crawled right into her lap by the end of the ride. She had her face pressed against his shoulder, her own shaking as she laughed herself silly, he guessed at his expense. So that’s where the maniacal laughter had been coming from.

“I hope you’re happy,” he told her once they had escaped from the ride’s demonic clutches.

“Oh, I am,” she said smugly.

They stopped by a food cart to get dessert, then walked some more until they found a quiet little spot by a water ride. Not many people ventured into this section of the park after dark. They leaned against the fence that separated the walkway from the manmade river, staring out over the dark water for a few minutes while they finished their churros. Once they were both done, he leaned over and nudged her with his shoulder. She turned to lean back against the fence, smiling at him. “What?” she asked, making it sound like she already knew the answer to that question.

He pushed away from the fence, moving to stand in front of her. Reaching out, he tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear, grinning. He hoped his grin didn’t look as awkward as it felt. “So, uh, when you said we could make the most of the time we had left….”

Her smile turned into something dangerously close to a smirk. Dangit! He knew his grin looked awkward! “Well, maybe not the most,” she said. Did she sound nervous? Why would-

What she meant caught up to him, and he blushed furiously. He hoped it was dark enough to hide it. “Dude, no! No, no, I know that!”

They both laughed.

“I didn’t expect that,” he assured her. “I am so not ready for that. But I would really like to kiss you.”

She nodded encouragingly, and he leaned forward, closing his eyes as he pressed his lips to hers. It was a gentle kiss, and after a moment, he pulled back, looking at her to make sure they were both still cool with this.

“I think we can do better than that,” she said, and he grinned. Emboldened by her egging him on, he leaned back in for a more adventurous kiss this time. That one kiss turned into many kisses before they decided that they should head back towards the main part of the park before it closed.

That had been a lot of fun. There had been a few less-than-great moments. Neither of them had much (okay, any) experience kissing someone like that, after all. Unsurprisingly, Andy was not shy about letting him know when he was ‘being gross.’ He retaliated by letting her know when she was ‘not being gross enough.’ That nearly ended things right then and there, but they were able to laugh it off. They were never going to do this again, after all. They didn’t have to take it too seriously. In the end, they had both learned a thing or two and enjoyed themselves, which was their goal all along.

He collected Junko’s stuffed bunny rabbit, then walked Andy over to the ring toss booth to pick out her goldfish. She chose one that was all black, with creepy googly eyes and a permanent frown. Y’know what? It suited her.

“What’re you going to name it?” he asked as they went into a nearby store that they were told sold goldfish stuff.

“It’s a fish, it doesn’t need a name.”

“Aww, come on, every pet needs a name! Wait, I’ve got it! Gillbert. With two L’s. Get it?”

She snorted, shaking her head. He watched her pick out a twenty-gallon tank, which he thought seemed a little excessive for one goldfish, but she insisted. The store clerk agreed with her, saying that the type of goldfish she had chosen was larger than your average goldfish and needed extra space. Andy had given him such a smug look at that. She picked out purple and black gravel to line the tank, several scraggly-looking fake plants, and a haunted castle ornament big enough for the fish to hide inside. A tank filter, aquarium maintenance kit, and fish food soon joined the pile.

“All this for a fish that’s gonna be dead in a week?”

She shrugged. “Might as well make it the best week of its life.”

“Are you going to be able to carry all that?” “I’ll manage.”

Loaded up with bags, she led him back outside.

“Do you want me to walk you back to your ship?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “I’ll be okay on my own.”

There was an awkward silence as they stared at each other. He put down the stuffed bunny and gestured for her to do the same with her bags. Once their hands were free, he stepped forward and gave her a hug.

“Today was fun. I’m not gonna forget it,” he told her.

“Me neither,” she said, hugging him back. They both took a step back when he let go. “Well, have a nice life,” she told him, which made him laugh.

“You, too,” he said. Picking up the stuffed animal, he made his way back to the Condor.

~*~*~

Cyclonis watched Felix walk away. When he was out of sight, two of her plain-clothes Talons materialized from wherever it was they had been lurking. She picked up Gillbert while the Talons gathered the rest of her bags and followed her back to their ship.

She was all too aware that they had seen everything that had transpired between her and Felix that day. That was confirmed when she noticed that one of them couldn’t quite hide the way the corners of his mouth twitched up every time he glanced at her. A pointed look from her sobered him right up.

“You will not breathe a word about today to anyone,” she commanded.

“Of course, Master,” they said in unison.

~*~*~

“Have a fun night?” Aerrow asked as Finn sauntered into the room with a grin he just couldn’t shake.

“You know it! Where’s Junko?”

“In the engine room with Radarr.”

Shooting him a thumbs up, he headed to the engine room. “Junko, buddy, got you something,” he said as he handed off the gigantic rabbit.

“Aww, thanks, Finn! You didn’t have to do that!”

“I know, but I felt bad you’ve been cooped up here all day. Anyway, I’m beat. Gonna head to bed. G’night.”

“Night!”

“G’night, Radarr.”

Instead of wishing him a good night, Radarr sniffed at the air, looking a little confused. Shrugging it off, he headed for his room. Surprisingly, Radarr followed.

“Uh, you okay?” he asked the little guy as Radarr barged into his room right on his heels. There was no answer as Radarr scaled him like he was a tree, sniffing at him carefully. Suddenly, Radarr squawked, his hackles rising as he leapt back down to the floor, chittering and pointing accusingly at him.

“Whoa, slow down. What’s the problem?”

Radarr pointed to him again.

“I….”

Radarr nodded, then dramatically mimed sniffing, looking disgruntled.

“I smell? Gee, thanks, Radarr. Listen, I’m too tired to shower right now. I’ll be sure to do that first thing in the morning.”

Self-consciously, he sniffed himself, just to make sure it wasn’t an emergency. He didn’t smell anything.

Radarr shook his head, stomping his foot.

“I don’t smell?”

Radarr made a so-so gesture. How was he supposed to interpret that?

“I kinda smell?”

Another head shake.

“I smell like something?”

Radarr nodded emphatically.

“Okay? Oh, wait! I smell like someone?” he guessed. Another nod. “Okay, listen, I kinda met someone today, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell any of the guys. It didn’t…well, it’s not going to work out.”

Radarr smacked his forehead, then really started carrying on. He had no idea what Radarr was saying, but he knew a lecture when he heard one.

“Seriously, what is your problem? I hung out with a girl. It’s not a big deal.”

Radarr was growing more frustrated by the second. Finally, he put his hands up to his shoulders, fingers pointing upward.

“Feathers?”

Radarr rolled his eyes and tried something else, rubbing his hands together menacingly while doing a pretty good job imitating sinister laughter.

“Evil villain?”

Radarr touched his nose.

“Radarr, I don’t….” he trailed off as what Radarr was trying to tell him hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Dude….”

Radarr chirped yes.

“Dude, no!”

Radarr chirped yes again.

Suddenly, so much about Andy made sense. And didn’t make sense! How could he have spent the entire day with Cyclonis and not know it? How could he have spent the entire day with Cyclonis and have fun?

His knees went weak, and he sat down hard on his bed. He had made out with her! It was too much. This was all too much.

“I need to lie down,” he told Radarr, who by now looked more concerned than angry. “Please, Radarr, just keep this to yourself. I didn’t know!”

Radarr sighed and waved a hand like, ‘Fine, they won’t hear about it from me.’ Then he awkwardly patted him on the knee before leaving the room.

Finn stared at the ceiling, way too many thoughts swirling through his head. Well, he had told Andy…Cyclonis…that this had been a day he’d never forget. And he sure as heck wasn’t going to forget it now!

He wondered if she had known who he really was and decided she hadn’t. She wasn’t that good an actor. And she hadn’t tried to recruit him to her cause or anything. And if there had been any Cyclonian attacks anywhere, Aerrow would have told him, so this hadn’t been some elaborate plot to keep them distracted. So, what? She had come here in disguise to have a fun day out? And had been as clueless about his identity as he had been about hers?

He grinned a little. Oh, he was so going to use this the next time they came up against her. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he did. If he had to live with this knowledge, then he was damn sure going to make sure that she had to live with it, too.

#storm hawks #storm hawks fanfic #storm hawks finn #storm hawks master cyclonis #and now for something completely different #fluffy #a little shippy #storm hawks finn/cyclonis #with a twist

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malarkay · 1 year ago

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Inside the Wire Chapter 14

During their final battle with the Storm Hawks, Cyclonis is stopped just short of destroying the Dark Ace. Victory, however, eludes them. With Cyclonia fallen, and escape to the Farside cut off, they're forced to confront the consequences of their actions.

~Three years after the fall of Cyclonia~

Piper surreptitiously wiped her sweaty palms against her pants legs, eyes fixed on the small crowd of reporters, scientists, and relief organization leaders that had gathered to watch the unveiling of the ASE. The Rebel Ducks were also out in that crowd, along with Wren and Dove. She worried about Wren. He looked so much older than he had when she first met him, not even five years ago. He looked tired. The destruction of Terra Gale had hit him hard.

The crowd was huddled under a large canopy of heavy canvas. A second canopy covered the makeshift stage, where she, the rest of the Storm Hawks, and the Sky Knight Council were gathered. The canopies, however, did nothing to protect them from the icy wind. It bit right through her uniform as if she were wearing nothing at all. She looked away from the crowd and toward Aerrow. Radarr, perched shivering on Aerrow’s lap, gave her a disgruntled look. He stopped hugging himself long enough to make a sweeping gesture toward the podium, his chittering a clear demand to just start already. “I’m waiting for the weather to die down a little before we start,” she told him apologetically. “Besides,” she smiled, “this makes for a good demonstration.” Radarr did not look impressed.

Black cumulonimbus clouds towered above them, overshadowing the terra and making the gray sky look even darker. Streaks of red lightning flickered within those clouds, and walnut-sized hailstones rained down from them. They had to wait out the hailstorm before she could properly address the crowd. Even with a microphone, it would be difficult to hear her over the din of the hailstones battering the canopies and pinging against the hulls of the nearby ships.

After another few minutes, the hail died down. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the podium, tapping the microphone to make sure it was on. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to welcome you all here today to the unveiling of a device that, I believe, will profoundly impact thousands of lives for the better,” she began. Her proclamation was met with polite applause from the crowd and much more raucous clapping and whistling from Aerrow, Finn and Junko. She grinned over at them before continuing her speech. Later, she wouldn’t remember a word she said. All she knew was that people clapped at the appropriate places, it was over faster than she anticipated, and then it was time for the demonstration.

She looked up at the ASE, a twisting spire of silver metal that towered above them. She had made some significant alterations to the original design to make the aesthetic less Cyclonian. That had been Cyclonis’ idea, and after the disaster with the Atmosian Academy of Crystal Tech, she’d readily agreed to redesign the outer casing. After all, the ASE should radiate an aura of hopefulness, not intimidation. It had ended up looking pretty cool if she did say so herself.

Opening her satchel, she carefully retrieved the ASE’s power source from within. It was a diamond-shaped crystal the colour of the sun and the size of a grown man’s fist. The crystal glowed brightly as she held it up like an offering to the ASE and willed it to float out of her hands and up, up, up to the little alcove that sat just below the top of the spire. As it nestled into place, the ASE activated. Light pulsed from the top of the spire, fanning out in all directions, and the storm dissipated. The clouds burned away, the wind slowed to a moderate breeze, and the sky turned a dazzling blue. The air began to warm to a comfortable temperature as the sun’s rays touched down onto a terra that had not felt sunlight in who knows how long.

If she didn’t have the crowd’s attention before, she certainly had it now. They inundated her with questions, too many coming at her too quickly, and all on top of one another. She put her hands up, gesturing for them to quiet down. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have later. But first, Chairman Tern would like to say a few words.”

She ceded the microphone to the Chairman, then went to sit with her squad, who all gave her back pats as she passed them. “You did great, Piper!” Junko told her enthusiastically, shooting her two thumbs up, and she smiled and thanked him.

The Chairman’s speech was all about how historic this event was and how the Council pledged to build more ASEs for the refugees who lost their homes in the war and had yet to find new ones. Nine terras would be transformed, and the necessary infrastructure would be put into place to turn each into a self-sustaining community. He ended his speech by officially naming today’s terra New Gale.

The Chairman waved her back to the podium, and she spent the next hour answering questions from the crowd. Trying not to mention a certain Cyclonian’s name to the press when discussing the development of the ASE was exhausting, but they had agreed that it was for the best. Fielding the scientists’ more technical questions was easier.

When the Q&A session was over, she met up with the guys, who had bailed on the science stuff to talk to the Rebel Ducks. “The hero of the hour!” Florian, the Sky Knight of the Ducks, greeted her as the rest of his squadron cheered. Dove nearly knocked her over with the force of her hug before moving aside to let Wren take her place. He took her by the shoulders, smiling up at her with glistening eyes before pulling her in to kiss one cheek, then the other.

“This means so much to us,” he told her as he embraced her. “So much. Thank you.” ~*~*~

The demonstration of the ASE was today, Piper had told her. She didn’t want to wait to hear how it went, but it was a weekday, and she wasn’t allowed to take her radio out of the cell block. There was only one solution: feign being sick. No doubt she would have to endure an angry tirade from Ravess later for sticking them with extra work, but it would be worth it.

Waiting in line after breakfast, she hunched over a little, arms crossed across her stomach. A passing guard stopped when he noticed. “Alright, what are you hiding?” he asked.

“I’m not hiding anything; I’m just not feeling well,” she told him.

“Sure you aren’t,” he said skeptically. He beckoned her out of line. “You know the drill,” he said. She planted her feet shoulder-width apart and put her hands on her head, making sure to grimace a bit in pain as she straightened. When his search didn’t turn up anything, he frowned. “Sick, huh?” he said, still sounding like he didn’t believe her.

“Stomachache,” she confirmed.

“Scale of one to ten?”

She deliberated for a moment before settling on a number. “Seven.”

He scratched his chin, considering her answer. “Alright. I’ll walk you to the infirmary.”

At the infirmary, a cursory exam and a few tests didn’t turn up anything obviously wrong with her. The medic hadn’t heard of any viruses going around but conceded that she could have eaten something that had gone off. She was given the day to recuperate and sent back to her cell. Once she was locked in and the guard had left, she clicked on her radio and tuned it to the proper station, keeping the volume low.

Lying back on her cot, she laced her hands behind her head as she settled in to listen.

She grinned a little as Piper gave her opening speech. She sounded really nervous and spoke too fast, but she got through it. She should have given her a few pointers on public speaking, but she hadn’t thought she’d need them. She always seemed so effortlessly good at everything….

It was a good thing she wasn’t actually sick, or she would have made herself gag with that thought. Her feelings for Piper hadn’t changed, despite the fact that the inevitable had happened and she and that Sky Knight were together. She’d accepted that relationship in the same way she accepted everything else that had happened to her these last few years. Through gritted teeth. What she did not have to accept were stupid, fawning, lovesick thoughts like the one she’d just had. She had to nip that in the bud. What if she slipped up and said something like that to her out loud? She’d rather jump off the edge of the terra without a parachute.

She refocused her attention on the radio. There was a prolonged silence, followed by a loud murmur of wonder from the crowd. The reporter who was covering the event gave a brief description of what he had just witnessed, and she smiled. It sounded like the ASE was working perfectly. Piper had tested it out beforehand, obviously, so they knew it should. But something working during the trial run didn’t always translate to it working when it mattered. The more complex the machine, the truer that became. And the ASE was quite complex. She knew they had both been nervous that it would fail them today and was glad their fear was unfounded.

She frowned when Piper passed the microphone onto the Chairman and rolled her eyes when he began to speak. Leave it to the Sky Knight Council to take credit for something it had nothing to do with. The Council hadn’t designed the ASE. It hadn’t built it. Even the funding the Chairman was pledging to use now wasn’t Atmosian; it was reparations from Cyclonia. She took a deep breath, trying not to let her mood be soured by the Council inserting itself into her and Piper’s project. But it was difficult.

She rolled her eyes even harder when the Chairman dubbed the terra New Gale. Did the Galeans really have to be granted the first transformed terra? They couldn’t have named it New Cascade instead? In her estimation, there were people more deserving of a permanent home than those rabble-rousing miscreants, like widows with five young children to support. She took another deep breath and reminded herself that it wasn’t her decision to make.

Thankfully, the Chairman’s contribution to the proceedings ended there, and Piper returned to answer questions. The demonstration’s success seemed to have done wonders for her nerves because she sounded much more natural and relaxed. She enjoyed listening to Piper talk as much as she always did, enough that it almost didn’t hurt that she was getting no credit for the invention. She took a third deep breath. That was what they had agreed upon. It was necessary if they wanted to see the project through to its completion, and that was more important than her ego. She needed to remember that. She glanced at the photo of her grandmother she kept tacked to the wall above the sink and whispered the mantra she had adopted when she decided to pursue these projects with Piper.

“I’m not you.”

The next evening, she bummed the daily paper and a stick of gum off one of the guards. Chewing the gum, she tore the article that hailed the ASE as ‘groundbreaking’ from the newspaper with painstaking care. She stuck the wad of gum to the back of the article and tacked it on the wall next to a feature about the vapour mills.

Another success under their belts.

~*~*~

~Four years after the fall of Cyclonia~

The Seraph Spectator

Amazonia Stands By Controversial Action Despite Sky Knight Council’s Charter Threat

By: Baz Taghavi

Terra Amazonia finds itself the center of controversy following a violent clash between the forces of Chieftess Antiope and insurgents that left nineteen, including insurgency leader Nikoleta, dead. The inclusion of the Screaming Queens in the skirmish drew sharp criticism from several fellow Sky Knight squadrons as well as the Council itself.

“It is a Sky Knight’s sworn duty to protect all citizens under his guardianship,” Harrier, the Sky Knight of the Rex Guardians, said. Harrier, no stranger to controversy after his involvement in the polarizing trial and sentencing of the former empress of Cyclonia and her top general, continued, “To take up arms against them, except as a last resort to save innocent lives, is an egregious violation of The Code.”

Chairman Tern of the Sky Knight Council echoed the sentiment. “The politicization of Sky Knight squadrons will not be tolerated. These squadrons exist to protect their people from external threats. They are not the government’s personal mercenaries.”

When asked how the Council intends to address the issue, the Chairman had this to say. “We are in the process of discussing possible diplomatic sanctions against Amazonia, which could include the revocation of the Screaming Queens’ charter.”

If the Screaming Queens’ charter were revoked, they would no longer be recognized as an official Sky Knight squadron and would lose all the rights and privileges that come along with the title.

Chieftess Antiope remains steadfast in the face of the Sky Knight Council’s censure, maintaining that her actions aimed to restore law and order to a terra besieged by insurrectionists who posed a clear danger to law-abiding citizens. “This was an Amazonian matter, and it was handled as such,” Antiope defended. “Atmosia and the Sky Knight Council have no business involving themselves in sovereign affairs uninvited. The Screaming Queens are, and will continue to be, Amazonia’s Sky Knight squadron, with or without their charter.”

Terran governments across the Atmos are divided on the issue. While some have come out in support of the Sky Knight Council, others have voiced concerns that it is overstepping the boundaries of its authority. With no clear consensus for or against the proposed sanctions, only time will tell what the Council will choose to do.

~*~*~

“I hear the Council actually went through with it,” Cyclonis said once the greetings were out of the way.

Piper frowned. The Screaming Queens’ charter revocation had made quite a few waves, and for good reason. Only twice before had a Sky Knight squadron had their charter revoked, and both times, the situation had been much more cut and dry. The Council’s decision to go through with it now was proving to be fairly unpopular.

“The Council did what it thought was right,” Aerrow said.

“And what do you think?” Cyclonis asked him.

“What do you?” he shot back.

“I think if it were me, and one of my governors put down a rebellion on their terra, I would commend them on a job well done. Problems tend to spread; it’s best to stop them early.”

“In that case, I agree with the Council’s decision,” he said flippantly.

Cyclonis exhaled sharply. “A thoughtful response, as always.”

“You know I don't like talking politics with you.”

“The world won't end if you admit that you agree with me occasionally.”

“I'd rather not test that.”

“Can we not talk about Amazonia?” she cut in finally, pulling cups and a jug out of the bag they had brought with them. “We’re supposed to be celebrating.” Since their last visit, the ninth and final ASE had been successfully activated. She poured the drinks and slid one of the cups over to Cyclonis.

“What is this?”

“It's a juice blend,” she answered, careful not to glance at the guard and raise any suspicions. “Finn insisted on mixing it up for his birthday.”

Cyclonis eyed the cup dubiously. “That was a couple of weeks ago. Is it still good?”

“It's very well preserved,” Aerrow smirked.

She raised her cup, and the other two followed suit. “To the successful completion of our project,” she toasted before taking a careful sip. Cyclonis’ sip was much less careful, leaving her spluttering and coughing hard enough to draw the guard’s attention.

“Everything okay over there?” he asked from his place at the door.

Cyclonis waved off his concern. Or was it suspicion? “Swallowed wrong,” she claimed after recovering. Then, to them, she asked more quietly, “What's in this?”

“Yes,” Aerrow answered with an amused grin.

“You could have warned me!”

“We did warn you,” Aerrow said.

“When?”

“‘Finn. Birthday. Well-preserved,” she pointed out. “I thought you got it!”

“I didn't!”

“Clearly,” she laughed, which set off Aerrow, too. Cyclonis’ reaction to their laughter was predictable. “We had the same reaction when we first tried it,” she said to smooth things over as Cyclonis glared at them in offence. “Finn has a heavy hand.”

Cyclonis’ glare didn't abate. Instead, she snatched her cup back up and drained it in one go, her only reaction this time a suppressed grimace as she set the cup down and slid it back across the table at them.

“Wow,” Aerrow said, still grinning, and picked up the jug to refill the cup.

“Aerrow, no,” she told him.

Aerrow hesitated, but Cyclonis gestured for him to continue.

“Cyclonis, no!” But neither of them listened to her. “This was just supposed to be a fun little toast! You’re going to get us all in trouble,” she warned them as Aerrow handed over the refilled cup to Cyclonis.

“We are having fun. And no one’s getting in trouble. I can handle myself, and even if he does start getting suspicious, he's cool,” Cyclonis insisted, with a little side nod toward the guard.

She mentally questioned how well Cyclonis could handle herself, considering she'd never heard her refer to anyone as ‘cool’ before, least of all one of the guards.

“See? We’re having fun,” Aerrow agreed, offering to top off her drink. She put her hand over her cup and shook her head, and he topped up his own cup instead.

They were right, though. The rest of the visit was fun. She relaxed and finished her drink as they talked about nothing of any real importance. Aerrow and Cyclonis always got along better when they loosened up a little, and Finn’s concoction certainly helped with that. It turned out that Cyclonis got downright giggly when she had a couple of drinks in her. She smiled, though she felt a little sad at the discovery. She always got a little melancholic whenever Cyclonis said or did something so Lark-like that it made her realize all over again how little she'd actually been acting that day.

It wasn't until Aerrow tried to finish off the jug by dividing it between the three of them that the guard cleared his throat, drawing all eyes to him. The guard shook his head. A bit sheepishly, Aerrow stoppered the jug and stowed it and the empty cups back in their bag. It seemed even the cool guards had a limit, and the limit, in this case, was two drinks.

The meeting drew to a close not long after that. Even with just one drink, she felt a little lightheaded as she got up alongside Aerrow. Cyclonis stood, too. Or tried to, at least. She hadn’t quite made it all the way up before dropping back onto her chair. She couldn't blame her. She remembered leaving Finn’s party to go to her room, needing a break. She had intended to rejoin the festivities once she felt a little less dizzy, but she’d made the mistake of sprawling out across her bed and was quickly lulled to sleep by the slow spinning of the ceiling above her instead. She'd woken up the next morning, having not moved a muscle all night, her mouth as dry as the desert and her head pounding. That had been after three cups of the stuff. Aside from Stork and Radarr, the boys had woken up in even worse conditions. It had not been a good morning to be aboard the Condor.

The guard snorted, shaking his head as he walked over to the table. “This was a one-time-only thing,” he said, his voice casual, but the look he gave her and Aerrow made it clear he expected compliance without any arguments.

They nodded in agreement.

Satisfied, the guard turned his attention to Cyclonis. “Let's try that again, lightweight,” he told her, taking her by the elbow to steady her when she stood. She stayed standing this time, shaking off his support once she had her feet under her.

“I’m fine,” she claimed, and after one last round of goodbyes, they parted ways until next time.

~*~*~

~Five years after the fall of Cyclonia~

She glanced down at the newspaper's front page, the headline immediately grabbing her attention. A sick sense of glee flooded her, and she couldn't help the laughter that escaped her at that moment.

"Knock it off," the guard who'd handed over the paper ordered. "You're creeping me out."

Ignoring him, she turned to head back to her cell and found that her outburst had caught everyone's attention.

"What happened?" Snipe asked.

"Whose death are we celebrating?" Ravess astutely followed up on her brother's question.

Ace remained silent, but his smile was one of anticipation. She grinned at him, one that felt almost foreign to her now, though it had once been so familiar, as she held up the paper so he could read the headline. His dark laughter set hers off again.

"You guys are demented," the guard complained from behind her but didn't make any further attempt to quell them.

"Who died?" Ravess asked again, annoyed at being kept out of the loop.

"Chairman Tern," she answered, the glee settling down into a feeling of satisfaction.

"Oh, that is gratifying," Ravess said, a smug smirk replacing her annoyance.

"Who's that?" Snipe asked, prompting the swift return of Ravess' annoyance.

"The head of the Sky Knight Council," Ravess told him. He still looked lost, so she went on. "The frail old man you threatened to squash like a bug when he told you you were going to prison for twenty years?"

"Oh, him! Wait, does that mean we don't have to be in jail anymore?"

"No, you idiot, that's not how that works.”

"Oh," he said, disappointed. That news quickly killed his interest in the conversation, and he disappeared back into his cell.

Handing off the newspaper to Ravess so that she’d leave them alone, she went back to her cell, taking a seat on her cot. Ace followed, sitting beside her.

“Congratulations on outliving your first enemy,” he said, gently nudging her.

“You, too.”

“Technically, he isn't the first enemy I've outlived, but thank you.”

Silence settled between them. The joy she'd felt at the news was beginning to fade, replaced with a feeling that wasn't guilt so much as an acknowledgment that she should feel guilty. She knew what the Storm Hawks would say. They'd say it was wrong to celebrate someone’s death, that it wasn't something good people did. But the self-recrimination she tried to muster up in response to her initial reaction wouldn't come. The fact of the matter was that she was happy Tern was dead, even if that happiness was slightly dampened by the unwelcome turn her thoughts had taken. She, more than most, had every right to celebrate his passing. He was the reason she'd been imprisoned here now for twice as long as she'd ruled her empire. He was why she'd be imprisoned here for the rest of her life. She knew what the Storm Hawks would say to that, too.

“You’re thinking too loudly.”

She shrugged.

“Do you still wish they had executed you?”

She frowned at the question. Dying would have been easier. She believed that now more than ever. The past five years felt like a lifetime, and that was just a fraction of the time that still stretched out in front of her. But….

Her eyes travelled to the little collection of newspaper articles that papered the wall, displayed right next to the photo of her grandmother. She may have lost her life’s purpose when Cyclonia fell, but she had been lucky enough to find a new one. Perhaps a better one, though something deep inside her twinged painfully at that thought. Her gaze flicked over to Ace, then down. Not everyone was as lucky in that regard.

“No,” she finally answered, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she did. Tension she hadn't noticed him holding onto drained out of him at her response. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Do you?” she asked, even though she dreaded his response. She held her breath as she awaited it.

“No,” he said after a moment's deliberation. She exhaled, choosing to believe that he was telling her the truth. He draped an arm around her shoulders, his hold tightening into a brief side hug before loosening enough to allow her to escape whenever she grew tired of the contact.

They stayed like that for a long time.

~*~*~

The funeral of Chairman Tern was a massive event. Aerrow had never seen anything like it.

An entire day had been dedicated to the Chairman lying in state, the Storm Hawks tasked with guarding the casket as throngs of people passed through the Council Hall to pay their respects: Sky Knight squadrons, dignitaries, and civilians alike. He had worried initially that he would have trouble with Finn. While he was growing up and getting better with responsibilities, he was still a work in progress. Complaining whenever he was stuck with a boring job was still one of his favourite pastimes, and there was no denying that the job they'd been given was boring. They’d had to stand at attention, still and silent, as they watched the line of people pass by. It was a recipe for disaster. But Finn had surprised him, doing the job with all the seriousness it demanded and no complaints. It helped that there were five of them when only four guards were needed. It allowed them to take rotating breaks throughout the day. It also helped that Finn had been the one to spot and tackle a protester who had slipped past security outside, stopping him before he could deface the white casket with the electric red soda he was about to throw at it. Finn had ended up covered in the soda instead, earning an extra break so he could get cleaned up before returning to duty. Aerrow thought he might have milked that break a little, but not enough for him to prove it even if he wanted to. Overall, the day had gone off without a hitch.

The next day was the funeral itself. Tern was eulogized by Councilman Griffin, his square jaw tight with grief, his baritone voice adding to the gravitas of his speech. He learned things about the Chairman he had never known before, like how he and Griffin had been Sky Knights together when they were younger, Griffin leading the Rex Guardians while Tern led the Red Eagles. He wondered if that's why the Chairman had been so willing to believe that Carver hadn't betrayed them of his own free will. He learned that he had been married for 48 years before illness claimed his wife and that he had lost a son and a daughter in the fight against Cyclonia. Hearing that put his attitude toward the Cyclonians into perspective. He slipped his hand into Piper’s, holding on tight. His nightmares, when he had them, were almost always about losing the people he loved the most. He didn't want to think about what that must feel like for real.

Once the eulogy was complete, six burly pallbearers lifted the casket and carried it outside, where the procession from the Council Hall to the Sky Knight Memorial began. The Storm Hawks and the Sky Knight Council followed along behind. The route to the memorial was lined with security to keep the way clear from mourners and protesters. Above them hovered a news ship, multiple cameras pointed at the procession below, broadcasting the funeral to all corners of the Atmos. It didn't take long to reach their destination. The memorial itself was a large marble wall inscribed with names. Flanking the wall were two ornate cauldrons that burned with eternal flames. A raised stone platform sat a short distance in front of it. The pallbearers carried the casket up the steps of the platform before lowering it down into a deep depression carved into the stone.

As they did, the three remaining Councilmembers lit torches from the cauldrons and carried them up the steps, observing a moment of silence before tossing the torches into the depression. By the time they and the pallbearers had descended the steps, the casket was fully engulfed in flame. Reaching a safe distance from the blaze, they turned and snapped to attention. As one, the Councilmembers, pallbearers, and Storm Hawks saluted the Chairman one last time.

The fire would be allowed to burn itself out. Once it did, and the ashes had cooled, they would be carefully collected for later scattering. And finally, Tern’s name would be added to the wall, carefully chiselled into the marble by one of Atmosia’s most skilled artisans.

That evening, he was invited to attend a private, Sky-Knights-only gathering at The Galleon, a pub that was known for catering to a high-end clientele of Sky Knights, politicians, and other wealthy Atmosians. He'd never been before.

A lot of Sky Knights, current and retired, were in attendance. Griffin and some of the other oldtimers took turns regaling everyone with old war stories and tales of scrapes they had gotten into with, and sometimes against, each other. All of the stories were kept lighthearted. No one wanted to bring down the mood. They'd all had enough of that over the past few days.

“Those were the good old days,” Harrier said wistfully after one of the retired Sky Knights finished a particularly gripping tale of heroism.

“Harrier, you're what? Thirty-five? What do you know of the good old days?” Councilman Amsel teased him.

“Enough to see how fast everything is going downhill,” Harrier said. “Decorum has gone straight out the window. Just look at the protestors who tried to disrupt Chairman Tern’s funeral. Completely inappropriate. And over what? Some petty disagreements over a decision the Council made?”

“People have a right to protest,” Suzy Lu pointed out.

“There's a time and a place,” Harrier argued. “And this wasn’t it. But that’s not the point. The point is that we used to be able to put aside our differences for the common good. We used to be a united front. What happened?”

“The war ended,” Griffin said simply.

“So that's it, then? We don't need each other anymore?”

“How much have you had to drink?” Suzy Lu asked, prompting quite a bit of laughter from the people within earshot.

He looked quizzically at Starling, who he had been sticking close to all night. “Harrier’s known for getting a bit melodramatic when he's drunk,” she quietly explained to him, and he nodded in understanding.

“Stop trying to make everything a joke,” Harrier chided Suzy Lu. “War or no war, there’s strength in unity.”

Suzy Lu bared her teeth at Harrier’s tone. “You sound like a Cyclonian.”

Harrier glared right back at her. “Because I believe our terras should be more closely allied, not less? That's absurd.”

“How much closer do we need to be, eh? If Rex needs help, just ask, and Blizzaris’ll be there. That’s allies in my book.”

“How’d that work out for us against the Cyclonians?”

“Pretty good, I’d say. We won, didn’t we?”

“Thanks to the Storm Hawks!”

A bunch of eyes turned toward him. Awkwardly, he smiled and waved, not knowing what else to do. Starling silently laughed at him. She had the decency to try to hide it by taking a long drink, but he saw. He grinned and shrugged at her when everyone turned their attention back to Harrier as he went on.

“It wouldn’t hurt to band together more officially. What if the Cyclonians decide to stop honouring the treaty? What if some other greedy little warlord decides to try their hand at world domination?”

“I’m sure if you asked Antiope, she’d agree. Only she’d say it’s the Sky Knight Council you gotta be worried about.”

“Let me make one thing clear: We have no desire to take over the world,” Councilman Canastero said. A rumour had spread through the pub earlier that he was going to be named the new Chairman of the Sky Knight Council. They were just waiting for the official week-long mourning period to end before announcing it.

“Let's not digress. My point is that we were ill-prepared to fight off a full-scale invasion last time, as much as I hate to admit it. And instead of coming together so that nothing like that could ever happen again, we just seem to be growing further apart. Doesn’t that worry anyone else?”

He exchanged a glance with Starling. She tilted her head with a look that said she was surprised that Harrier was making a valid argument. Conversation buzzed around them as everyone began voicing their own opinion on the subject.

“You know, Cyclonis sides with Antiope,” he told Starling with a little grin.

She snorted. “Why am I not surprised? You should tell Harrier; it’ll make him feel vindicated.”

He considered that for a minute before shaking his head. “I'd rather stay out of this.”

“Agreed.”

~*~*~

~Six years after the fall of Cyclonia~

“I guess this was inevitable,” Piper said as she passed the morning paper to Aerrow. The day's top story was about the Tribal Council of Amazonia proposing a referendum to cut all diplomatic and economic ties with Atmosia and its closest allies.

The others read over Aerrow’s shoulder. Finn was the first to respond, “It’s not like it’ll be that big a loss, right? Terra Amazonia’s pretty and all, but that's all they've really got going for them.”

“Except they're one of Atmos’ largest suppliers of fuel and energy crystals,” she pointed out.

“And there are several medications that can only be derived from plants native to the terra,” Stork added. “Including the cure for Scarponian Sleeping Sickness.”

“And cinnamon! And vanilla!” Junko said before gasping. “And chocolate!”

“Okay,” Finn drawled. “I guess they have more going for them than I thought.”

“Not to mention that if this referendum passes, it could start a chain reaction of other terras following,” Aerrow said grimly, and Piper couldn't help but smile at his shrewd observation, even though this was no smiling matter.

“Exactly what I’m worried about,” she agreed.

“How likely is that?” Finn asked.

“If they're ready to cut us off entirely, they must be confident that others will join them. Otherwise, they’d just be hurting themselves. Unless they've already signed a trade agreement with the Cyclonians.”

“The Cyclonians don't exactly have their act together,” Aerrow said, which was and wasn't true. The Cyclonians had put forward several self-governance proposals in recent years, only to have each one struck down for one reason or another. Protests against the Atmosian-led interim government were becoming widespread throughout the Cyclonian territories as more people began questioning the ‘interim’ part. If the Amazonian referendum passed, it could lead to the loss of other allies and give the Cyclonians the push they needed to demand the end of Atmosian interference once and for all.

“Well, the vote is next month, so they must really feel sure of themselves,” she said. “And if it does pass, things are going to change forever.”

Her words hung heavy in the air. Slowly, everyone’s eyes slid over to Stork.

“What? Are you all expecting me to say we’re doomed?” “Well? Aren’t you?” Junko asked.

“I’m withholding judgement.”

Finn scrubbed his hands through his hair at Stork’s words. “Oh man, we’re doomed!”

~*~*~

~Eight years after the fall of Cyclonia~

The last two years had been full of upheaval, as everything they feared would happen did happen. But as the dust settled, Piper realized things hadn’t turned out that bad. Different, yes, but not bad.

Amazonia’s referendum had passed, and many terras followed in their footsteps, including Aquanos, Saharr, Blizzaris and Nord. They had formed a loose confederation of terras who maintained complete autonomy over their terras' governance and Sky Knight squadrons. According to what she had heard from Suzy Lu, they did have ambassadors who would come together to form conclaves whenever an issue that affected the alliance at large arose, but none had been called so far. Otherwise, the only thing connecting them was a free trade agreement and a promise to provide mutual aid in times of need.

Atmosia and its remaining allies had responded by strengthening their bonds and rebranding themselves as The Atmosian Federation. The keystone members of the Federation were Atmosia, Rex, Mesa, and New Gale. All of the transformed terras had remained, with the exception of New Ost. Terra Ost had always had strong ties to Blizzaris and Nord and had opted to go where they went. Zartacla, Seraph, and the Stockade all remained under the Federation's jurisdiction.

The Sky Knight Council expanded and became, simply, the Sky Council. A representative from each terra sat on the Council, whose primary role was to legislate common laws for the Federation. Canastero and Amsel remained as the representatives from Atmosia and New Gale, with Canastero heading the Council as Chairman. Harrier retired from his role as Sky Knight when the Federation formed and was immediately appointed Rex’s representative by the terra’s High Lord. He had taken to his new role like a duck to water, unlike Mesa’s representative, who had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming, metaphorically speaking. Terra Mesa's governor finally gave Starling an ultimatum: Rebuild the Interceptors and serve as their Sky Knight, retire, or join the Council. Unwilling to choose a new squadron but not ready for retirement, she has reluctantly chosen the third option.

The Cyclonian territories, which still referred to themselves collectively as Cyclonia despite the terra itself no longer standing, had finally wrestled the self-governance they had sought for so long from the Federation, in no small part thanks to modelling themselves after the Federation, with a few cosmetic differences. Instead of a Council and a Chairman, they had a Parliament and a Chancellor. Each terra now had a governor who was elected by the people instead of appointed by the Master. Each governor served as their terras representative to Parliament, and collectively, they agreed upon the laws and policies that would bind the Cyclonian terras together. Their Chancellor served as facilitator during sessions and lent their seal to legislation as it was passed, but they were largely a figurehead. They didn't possess the same kind of veto or special wartime powers the Atmosian Chairman did. But the Cyclonian people, so used to being ruled by an autocrat, seemed more comfortable when they had someone who appeared to serve a similar function as the Master.

All of the terras who had prided themselves on their independence before continued to do so now. Neon, Tropica, Wallop, Bogaton, Xerxxes, Glockenchime and more tried and largely succeeded at maintaining friendly relations with the different factions that had popped up throughout the Atmos.

And after a few skirmishes and scuffles and growing pains, the different factions did the same. Once it became clear that no one had any desire to expand their influence any further than they already had, everyone settled into an unofficial truce, and all of Atmos was able to enjoy their hard-earned peace at last.

~Ten years after the fall of Cyclonia~

In a barren stretch of sky between Terras Ray and Greemus, the air was rent as if slashed by an invisible claw. The tear in the very fabric of space rapidly expanded into a large portal. Three long, serpentine creatures, each bearing a rider, emerged from the portal into the reddish predawn light. The riders brought their draconic mounts to a halt, hovering in midair as the creatures beat their powerful wings to keep them aloft. They conversed briefly through a series of hand gestures before the middle one flicked their reins, continuing east. The other two peeled off in opposite directions, one going north, the other south.

The portal expanded further, and a large ship slowly passed through. It was unlike anything that had ever been seen in Atmosian skies. The ship itself was like something out of a storybook, a great, multi-decked wooden vessel designed to cut through waves, not clouds. Yet it was held in the sky via a series of steel cables connecting it to a zeppelin as large as it was.

Four more ships soon joined it. They were smaller, single-decked, and bore six gun ports for crystal cannons per side, along with bow and stern chasers. They appeared lighter, faster, and more maneuverable as they surrounded the larger ship, providing an escort as it lumbered its way east.

From the portal, more ships came.

#storm hawks #storm hawks fanfic #inside the wire #master cyclonis #dark ace #storm hawks aerrow #storm hawks piper

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