Video: Love at War

Chapter II - A Friend to the Rescue

Flying at the best of her skills, Piper tried to dodge every single shot aimed at her. She couldn't believe how persistent those Cyclonians were. She flew farther and farther away, her home Terra was no longer in sight. In fact, she could even see another Terra! Did they really decide to ignore her Terra just to go after her? If the Terra wasn't that important, why did they even invade it in the first place?! Guess it was Cyclonian logic...

"These guys won't give up!" - she shouted to herself as she looked behind her.

In the new Terra, more specifically, inside a cave, was a boy. He and his animal companion stared at the sky, having spotted the girl flying for her life on a Cyclonian vehicle.

"They're attacking one of their own? What's going on up there?" - the boy wondered as he and his companion ran outside to take a better look - "Wait... She's not a Cyclonian... She's running away from them!"

As Piper flew in zigzags, she ended up getting herself cornered by another group of talons that decided to flank her.

"Oh, no!" - she said as she blinked in fright.

Now she definitely put herself in trouble. Yanking to her left, she managed to avoid quite a few shots but was eventually hit, since her back was exposed. The propeller from her heliblade was severely damaged. Black smoke came out of it, and it stopped moving.

"No!" - Piper screamed.

Her skyride nosedived in the sky, falling fast towards the small Terra.

"She's going to crash!" - the boy shouted, his companion perking its ears in alert.

She needed help! The boy exchanged glances with the little animal, the latter responding him with a nod, then both ran inside the cave once more.

Piper's heliblade fell quickly and crashed against the ground, bouncing one from the impact. Once it hit the ground again, the girl was tossed away from it. Talk about a rough landing... She slowly got up, pressing a hand against her head to ease her pain.

She barely had enough time to balance herself back on her feet when three switchblades approached her. The three soldiers pointed their staves with red crystals on their tips at her, threateningly.

"Fine, I give up!" - she held her hands up where they could see them as she surrendered.

However, the talons smiled menacingly.

"After all the trouble you caused, you're not going to get away with it so easily." - one of the talons said, suggesting they were not going to take her as prisoner, they'd kill her on the spot, maybe even torture her a little before finishing her off.

She stared at them in fear as she fell to her knees in defeat. She knew they were going to do terrible things to her. That was it. She was done for, she was a goner, she was... But then, something happened, a miracle: from behind the talons, a boy leaped, shouting at them and drawing their attention. Once they looked at him, he slashed at them with his two blades, sending them flying along with their rides cut in half.

The talons fell on the ground, the boy landing right in front of them, ready for battle. And not a second after, a small animal positioned itself beside the boy, assuming a fighting stance as well. Piper observed them, paying attention to every single detail in their appearance.

The boy was Caucasian, with green eyes and red spiky hair flowing messily around his head. He wore a red and teal shirt, navy blue pants, brown boots, brown and blue gloves and a metallic bracelet on his right wrist. He also had plated armor covering most of the vital areas in his body. One important detail that drew her attention was the Storm Hawks symbol on the plate on his left shoulder. She couldn't stop wondering how he got that armor. Was he... A Sky Knight? And that young? He didn't seem to be older than herself. Then she glanced at his animal companion.