The Seventh Member of the Storm Hawks

Terra Deep

"WAHOOO!!!" Nika cheered as she barrel rolled, taking out a Cyclonian, sending him spinning in the air. The Storm Hawks were currently engaged in a small fight with some Cyclonians, who had chased them after catching them spying on their plans. Now they faced a large battle ship with a voice telling them to give up. "Fat chance!" Finn yelled before he was narrowly missed by a Cyclonian, Nika was thoroughly enjoying herself – annoying Cyclonians was a great pastime. The rumble of a battleship roared over the skies, distracting the young squadron. "Guys! They have reinforcements! Back to the ship now!" Piper yelled over the communications, Nika inwardly groaned – those losers couldn't win a fight unless they were in high numbers. "Oh, Piper it can't be that... bad..." Aerrow answered before seeing the three incoming battleships with numerous skimmers dotted around them. "GO, GO!" He yelled, racing back to the Condor – everyone followed.

"I don't want to alarm you but we are doomed." Stork announced as the four Storm Hawks parked in the hangar. Nika growled and threw a wrench at the speaker, the metal only slightly denting. "And you're fixing that." Stork continued, Nika was ticked off – it was way too easy! Why would five Cyclonians on skimmers be aimlessly wandering the skies of Atmos? "We should get to the bridge." Finn said, quite worried about the situation. All four, Radarr on Aerrow's shoulder, ran to the bridge – Stork was panicking and Piper was frantically looking through her maps for a place to escape to.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Aerrow shouted, they had been getting chased for about an hour now and frustration was getting the better of the redheaded Sky Knight. "Not... unless you want the engines to melt through the hull!" Stork replied, equally as frustrated. "I'll take that chance. Full speed!" Aerrow ordered, Stork complied and the Condor raced away from the Cyclonians even faster. Nika shared a worried glance with Junko – he pulled her close to him before she relaxed a little. "You know they are lame when they have three battle carriers and still can't catch us." Nika smirked, the Cyclonians began to fire making the ship rock especially when Storm manoeuvred to dodge them. "We'll lose them in there!" Aerrow shouted to Stork, pointing at a fog cloud in the near distance. "Are you sure?" Stork tentatively asked before the Condor was narrowly missed by a blast, one that made Nika yelp a little. "I'm thinking – yeah." Aerrow replied, going slightly sarcastic at his helmsman. Everyone but Stork and Aerrow slid with ship as Stork made a sharp left to evade the Cyclonians. "Ow! Finn get off my foot!" Piper hissed, shoving the blonde off of her. "Sorry." He replied, resisting the blush coming to his cheeks when he helped her up. To try and brush it off, he ran to the searching device and looked for the Cyclonians. "They're not following!" He grinned, Nika smiled briefly but was still tense. "Cyclonians don't stop for fog." Nika blurted, wondering why they had stopped. Stork squeaked catching everyone's attention, "Um, more likely they stopped for this." He called, there was a mangled ruin of a ship that was impaled on a mountain, Nika stood beside Stork as everyone went to the window for a closer look. "Who did this?" Aerrow thought aloud, Piper grimaced. "Better question: what did this?" Piper rephrased, Nika felt a wave of a bad feeling wash over her and rubbed her arm. "I don't feel so good." Junko spoke, holding his stomach – Nika sympathetically smiled at him.

"Stork fly us over to it, Junko, Finn and I are going to look for survivors." Aerrow announced, Radarr scowled at Aerrow feeling left out. "C'mon Radarr." He smiled, seeing his co-pilot looking ticked with him. Radarr grinned and quickly took his place on Aerrow's back, Nika couldn't help but smile – he was so attentive. "Stork be ready in case whatever did this comes back. Piper, you try and find out what did this and Nika help Piper – if it is someone then we need to know what weapons we'd be against." He sent a quick smile over to the brunette before the boys left. Nika immediately began to sift through Piper's journals pretending to be skimming over them. "If he doesn't tell her, then I will." Stork muttered to Piper, who threw him a look, the Merb shrugged and stood beside the brunette. "Any ideas?" She asked, Nika shook her head and retied her hair. "None, but I know it wasn't some creature that even the Wastelands didn't want." Piper sniggered a little at her comment, Nika always knew how make someone laugh even if she didn't realise she was doing it herself. She was a little jealous of her friend, a princess who was very beautiful and very talented but she knew better than to be horrible about it – she was just lucky and gifted. "It had to be a direct attack, the ship looks like it was crushed open if you know what I mean?" She continued, turning to look at Piper. "I think so, it would really help if I could work out where we are!" She replied as she moved her various maps around the table. "Let's see if the guys are having any luck. What's it look like in there?" Piper continued before communicating with the boys, Nika stood near Stork who honestly looked like he could wet his pants in fear. Why did this all look too familiar from somewhere? "A lot of battle damage and fresh. This wreck hasn't been here very long." Aerrow replied, trying to find the right words. "The same Cyclonians that were after us?" Piper asked, Nika silently shook her head mentally conversing with Piper and herself. "No... the ship looks like more it was torn apart, by hand." Aerrow replied, the blue eyes of the Yarisian widened – it couldn't be what she thought it was! Piper sighed loudly and continued to look through her journals and maps, hoping to find an answer somewhere. The boys suddenly started using their weapons, Nika turned to Piper wide eyed as it had spooked her from her thoughts. "You guys okay?" Piper blurted, Nika sheepishly rubbed her arm, she got spooked over nothing. "Uh just a slight weapons malfunction. No uh big deal." Aerrow responded, the brunette couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.