Storm Hawks: Adventures Of the Other Side

Chapter 4

"Stork, are we ready?" Aerrow placed his hand on Stork's shoulder, making his shudder and twitch.

"Um, yeah, ready to face our doom..." he spoke with a sarcastic tone, though the squadron knew all too well that he was serious. Stork pulled at the gears to start the Condor's engine before pulling at the helm to start her flight. 

Astra, Loki, Skye, Cedric and Nathaniel played guest upon the vessel, whilst the remainder of the Order of the Court stayed to protect the Castle, nest and civilians. She wore her uniform along with her knights, now excluding the title as protection. 

As part of the briefing, she were to be known as Amber, a Knight of the Order. No one is to know of their royal guest. Having never been in an airship before, Astra tried hard to contain her excitement, her knights also sharing the curiosity. Loki, on the other hand, showed his self restraint to not eating Radarr. 

"You do realise, that you should probably wear normal clothes while we're out, you would blend in a lot more" Piper informed her, Astra looking at her attire, soon realizing the problem herself. She looked at the squadrons clothes before gesturing holding her hands over her clothes, moving them from her pants to the top of her head, a slightly illuminating her clothes, changing the colours from white to all black - her draping crown was reduced in size into simple head jewelry with a blue gem. Before applying the same scheme to her knights. 

"Better?" She showed to Piper, amazed at the sight.

"Hey! Why aren't we sporting this look?" Finn popped up from behind her mocking Aerrow for his uniform choice. 

"Finn, we still have the uniforms that Giovanni made for us." Piper patronized.

"But it's not the same as that" Finn complained, as he pointed at the knights, exchanging confused looks. 

The journey began, Finn toured to the Condor with the knights whilst Piper and Stork chartered a course and  Aerrow and Junko saw to accommodation to their five new guests. 

Unfortunately for the knights, Finn's tour was solely on the rooms he hung out in and the hanger to show off his sky ride. They tried to mask their awkward glances by showing interest, and Finn being Finn, didn't notice. 

"Oh good you're here, do you know where everything is?" Aerrow walked in from behind them, no longer seeing excitement in the knights. 

"Well, we know where to find the sky rides, the guitars and the record player?" Nathaniel joked, earning chuckles from Cedric. Aerrow's face fell flat with underwhelm, Finn shot finger guns to highlight him doing a good job. 

"Finn, you're not showing them around anymore..."

"What?" Finn, spoke lifting his sunglasses from his face. 

"Anyways, you're rooms are ready." Aerrow broke away from the conversation, leading the knights back towards the bridge. "Skye, Nate and Cedric, you're sharing with us guys. And Astra, we've prepared a room for you and Loki" he spoke not turning back to look at the others. 

The knights exchanged looks before individually being shown who they shared with. Skye was sharing with Aerrow, Nate was with Finn and Cedric was with Junko. Astra being the last to be shows to her room, gazed at the room. It was so different to hers back at the castle, much smaller. The walls were a lilac purple with a yellow racing stripes through it, with a nice bed and a vase of flowers on the shelf next to it along with a set of lockers for storage as well as a very disturbing looking light bulb.

"This room was reserved for a potential member of the Storm Hawks, Piper chose the colour, I added the racing stripe, Stork added the Vulcabat repellent bulb - by the way don't pull the string unless you want to choke -" causing slight worry as he said this, "- Junko added the storage unit and lastly, Finn had pitched in with a 'victory anthem', but for the safety of everyone we got rid of it". Despite this not being for her, Astra felt at peace with the fact that the team would put so much effort into a room, leaving a faint smile on her lips. Whilst Astra settled in, Aerrow retreated back to his room to see how Skye was settling. He had made no changes to the room,  but only had a simple blanket on the extra bed that was set in for him. Clearly, none of the knights brought any personal belongings. He sat on the bed, tweaking at his sword, polishing the blade and using a special blue-green crystal to repair the cracks on the blades edge. Aerrow could not take the silence that filled the air, he had to say something to establish some kind of connection. 

"So... How long have you been working for the Princess?" his eyes darted between his bed and Skye behind him, hoping for some kind of reaction. He heard a sigh from behind him, assuming he looked up at him beforehand. 

"I - I don't work for her" He walked up to the side of Aerrow, handing him the crystal, gesturing signalling for him to use it on his daggers. "We we're all close friends, we used to be joined practically at the hip before her coronation..." he faded off looking around the room to Aerrow's decor, he only had a few posters, and one group picture of him and the rest of his squadron, and one with a few of something that looked like space and... a chicken? 'Maybe that belongs to the pet'. "... and that is why she asked us to be with her. She trusts us with her life more than she did with the guards that she was charged with by her father. We trained together, we all planned to fight together as knights." Skye looked at him, taking over the job with Aerrow failing so miserably. 

"Not to offend her or you guys, but she doesn't seem the princess type." Aerrow raised an eyebrow, seeing Skye's eyes never leave the weapons he was repairing. But he stopped, a smirk was plastered on his face.

"She isn't, if you knew her like we did back then, you would have seen her as being the complete opposite. Never wore dresses, was always out on a dragon, and never... played nice in battle" he laughed as he spoke. 

"Well then at least we know that she knows what she's doing, haha" Aerrow cleared his throat before leaving the room with Skye to the bridge. Along the way, they picked up the rest of their guests.

**

"Ok, you guys, now that we are all settled, we're almost at our first destination. From the maps you provided, we are going to visit every town on the way to the end, at the mountains and then visit them all again on the way back. This way we can make a thorough check of where Cyclonis will be hiding" Piper stated, pointing at the maps sprawled across the table. Everyone was sat at the benches surrounding the table waiting for the plan of action. Aerrow then stood up, Piper replacing him where he sat, and continued.

"Alright guys, Piper's right. Cyclonis is out there and we need to make sure we get her before she makes her move. For the time being, everyone will be assigned to various posts on the Condor to keep us going."

"Nate and Cedric, you work with Junko and Finn with weapons and rides, Amber and Skye, you're with Piper and I. You'll help us with strategics and navigation," he started facing each of the person's as he named them. "We will have to lay low, we have no coms, so we also need to be careful."

"Ummmmm, isn't anyone else worried with the fact we're practically blind with our travels?" Stork raised his hand, slightly turning from the helm to face the others as he spoke. 

"Stork, we will be fine" Piper rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"I hope so coz we're almost at the town of Gerass now" he spookily spoke with a twitch in his eye.