Sky Knights in a Half Shell

Chapter 3

While they waited until their arrived in Tera Gale, the turtles, April and Casey decided to pass the time with the rest of the Storm Hawks Squadron.

"Hey uh, you got any comic books here?" Mikey asked.

"Comic books? Say no more. Follow me." Finn said.

"I'll catch you later. Chika-cha!" Finn said, pointing to April as he passed by her, who rolled her eyes.

"You guys got anything to eat? I'm starving." Casey said.

"I can cook you something!" Junko said.

Aerrow and Radarr were behind Junko silently trying to get him to decline, both gesturing no and shaking their heads as well. Before Junko could see them behind him to see what they were doing, they both moved away from him.

"At this point I'll take anything." Casey said.

Aerrow shook his head and Radarr facepalmed.

"Say no more. I'll give you my best!" Junko declared.

"Awww. You are so cute!" April said to Radarr. She approached him. He was apprehensive to her touching him. "I don't bite." She said to him. When she started rubbing his ears, it soothed him.

"And then there was one." Aerrow said, referring to himself.

"You weren't that surprised when you saw us. Doesn't happen that often." Leo said.

"Yeah. Atmos has its fair share of races around here. Although this is our first time seeing turtles like yourselves." Aerrow said. "Are different races not common where you guys come from?"

"No. You see on Earth, it's mostly just humans." April said.

"Which is why seeing anything different like us usually gets a completely different reaction from most people we encounter. We weren't always like this." Leo said.

"We save their lives countless times and what's the thanks we get? Getting called freaks or trying to capture us to experiment on us." Raph said before shaking his head.

"Wow. I'm sorry to hear that." Aerrow said.

"Eh. It's not your fault. People like you, April and Casey are proof that not all people are like that." Raph said.

"Some people fear what they don't understand. I wasn't exactly that accepting of the guys when I met them either." April said.

"If you helped save them, those people deserve to know who did it." Aerrow said.

"As much as we'd love for that to happen, the reality is much of humanity isn't ready for that. It's the reason why we try to stay in the shadows at night." Leo said.

"If you guys weren't always like this. What were you like before?" Aerrow asked.

"Your normal everyday turtles. We were mutated by ooze called mutagen. It mutates whoever touches it with the last thing they touched. The last thing we touched was a human. Which is how we got like this. The person was our master and father, Master Splinter, who also came into contact with the mutagen when he found us. The last thing he touched: A sewer rat. But not everyone that touches it is guaranteed to turn out like we did." Leo said.

"Your turn. You said you're a Sky Knight. So are there more of you? And the Cyclonians. Who are they? I wanna know what we're gonna have to go against." Raph said.

"To answer your first question, yes. There's more Sky Knights. They're all leaders of their squadrons, as I am with the Storm Hawks. Each squadron protects a Terra. As for the Cyclonians, Stork summed it up for the most part. They look to rule over all of Atmos with an iron fist. Their leader: Master Cyclonis, Empress of the Cyclonian Empire. Their Commanders are some of the most skilled pilots in Atmos. Ravess, one of the two Sub-Commanders of the empire along with her brother Snipe. While Ravess is the marksman and the brains, Snipe is the muscle. And above them both is the Dark Ace, commander of the Empire." Aerrow said, the last part with the Dark Ace being said in contempt. "The Dark Ace was once a member of the original Storm Hawks, until he betrayed them, destroying them all himself. He was said to have never been beaten in battle." Aerrow said before grinning a little. "Until we came along and revived the squadron. I battled him, and although he won our first battle, I came out on top in the next." He then had a serious look on his face. "Since then, we've had our fair share of meetings and battles. But until we take down the Cyclonian Empire, we won't truly be able to declare victory. And Atmos will never truly be at peace."