Dawn of a New Age

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

AN: Follow my tumblr (tallpoppy-canada) for updates on when I'll be posting or aph Canada stuffs!

Canada picked up speed and started to gain on the trio of Cyclonians that were tailing Finn. He fired at the one bringing up the rear and hit the man's back. He could see the huge burn on the talons back as he veered to the left smashing into his comrade. Both of their skimmers started to fall out of the sky.

Matthew focused on the last one not bothering to watch the other two. The last Cyclonian broke away from following Finn and nosed dived into the clouds. The nation followed the talon into the clouds and broke through the bottom into the wastelands. He looked around trying to spot her, but didn't see the enemy skimmer.

Suddenly someone was behind him and shooting. Matthew hissed as one of the blasts grazed his wrist and hand. He held on tight through the pain and pulled back up into the clouds. He lowered his speed and kept in the clouds hoping the woman would speed past him.

Canada pulled up a little bit, just far enough so he could see above the clouds. He spotted the Cyclonian just ahead of him and started to fire. The woman rolled and climbed trying to avoid the blond's blasts. She rolled to the left and Matthew was expecting it. He fired directly at her wings and one went flying off, but the talon kept in the air.

The nation furrowed his eyebrows and aimed again. He shot at the same side as her wing had flown off of and hit directly on the other one. The Cyclonian jumped off her skimmer and opened her parachute.

Matthew looked around again. Aerrow and Dark Ace were busy fighting on the wings of their skimmers, the Sky Knight had Ace pinned. Piper and Finn were chasing the last couple of Cyclonians off. Aerrow had just returned to his skimmer and let the Talon and his soldiers go.

The red head waved a hand and directed everybody back to the Condor. Junko was still firing from the Condor at the Cyclonians. Canada looked over to see the other Storm Hawks, Aerrow and Radarr's skimmer was fine, but Pipers had a few burn marks and Finns looked like one of the wings were about to fall off. Matthew looked over his own; he had one burn mark on his left wing and the burn on his hand. He finally got a chance to look at it and it wasn't pretty.

The burn was on the back of his hand and went up a little ways on his wrist. Luckily it hadn't burned his clothing. Judging by the deep red colour and how it ate at the area, the nation could tell it was a third degree burn. It would hinder the movement of his left hand for a while.

Matthew landed easily on the Condor runway. The storm Hawks pulled into the hanger and assessed the damage. The few burn marks on Matthew and Pipers skimmers they could just buff out, but Finn's wing would need to be replaced.

Junko came into the hanger with a big smile on his face. "We sure showed those talons whose boss!" He yelled.

"It's almost like you've done this before." Finn said elbowing the Canadian lightly in the side.

"I have, kinda." Matthew said.

"Right, bikes and plain doughnuts." Finn said and Canada raised an eyebrow with a smile.

"What happened to your hand?" Piper said noticing the burn. "That looks nasty."

"It's okay, it will heal." Matthew said looking down at his hand. It already looked a little better.

"We can treat that. We have crystals that can heal anything on the spot. Single use though." The woman said grabbing something out of the storage department of her skimmer.

"Nah, its fine. It will heal in a day or two. Don't waist those on me." The blond said brushing some hair out of his face.

"If you say so." Piper looked skeptical, but set the crystal down.

"Are there any repairs the Condor needs?" Aerrow asked Radarr on his shoulder.

"The Condor is in tip top shape." The wallop said clapping his hands together. "But, Finn's skimmer could use some work."

"I agree with that." Finn said. "I think we need to tighten a few bolts and it'll be fine."

"I don't know about that Finn." Junko said skeptically. Raddar chirped in agreement with the wallop. Finn just sighed and pinched his nose.

"Hey, Mattie, want to learn how to read?" Piper asked.

"You can't read?" Aerrow asked surprised.

Canada sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No I can read, but not your written language."

"Oh, I get ya." The sky knight said. "If you're going to be here a while it might be a good idea to learn."

"And I'll be able to help Piper to find more information on that crystal too." The Canadian said with a smile.

"Well have fun with that." Aerrow said and turned back to where Finn and Junko were debating the damage on the teen's skimmer. Piper motioned for him to follow and he jogged to catch up.

"So when was the last time you learned a written language?" Piper asked as they walked.

"Along time ago." Matthew said scratching the back of his neck. "It's been a while."

"I've never taught one so this will be interesting." Piper said. "Have any suggestions?"

"I don't know, maybe comparing alphabets to see if there are any similarities?" Canada suggested.

"That's probably a good way to start." The young woman said pushing the door to her room open and waved for the nation to come in. She sifted through her desk's drawers to find a couple of blank sheets of paper and a pair of quills and ink.

The pair sat down at the small round table in the corner of Piper's room end started to compare alphabets and sounds. He had to keep the books pretty far away from himself to read the words. He was mentally punching himself for leaving his glasses at home. They found out quickly that their letters all had the same sounds, but were represented by different symbols. Canada wrote out simple words to get used to the new alphabet and made an answer key. Piper and him spent the rest of the day reading and writing. It took Matthew a while to get used to the new symbols.

AN: Been watching the Olympic figure skating last couple of days! Canada won gold in the team event!