Dawn of a New Age

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven

Canada revved his skimmer and sped down the run way. Finn and Aerrow weren't too far ahead of him and Piper was right at his side. He could see the Rex guardians among the Cyclonians. They were not doing so well against the talons.

The Storm Hawks got closer and split up. Matthew spotted a group of four Cyclonians that were getting close to the ground and shooting at the people. Canada dived down to follow them. Piper had spotted the same group and joined the nation. He started to shoot at the ones on the left and Piper shot the ones on the right. The group of talons broke off into pairs. Matthew and Piper split up, each following a pair.

The nation hit one of the Cyclonians engines and he veered into his partner. Both of them jumped off the wrecked skimmers and opened their shoots. Canada flew back up higher into the sky to pick his next target. He heard a whizzing noise and rolled until he was upside down. He heard a 'thunk' and felt the impact on the belly of his skimmer. He peaked over the edge of his skimmer and looked up to see Ravess aiming at him again.

Matthew saw the arrow leave her bow and reacted quickly. He was already safe, but he didn't want any more damage on his skimmer. He turned tightly to the left still upside down and saw the arrow whizz by. He turned right side up and saw Ravess reloading with a smirk. Finn flew past her catching her attention. She tracked his movement and let the arrow fly. She didn't lead the shot enough and it didn't come near to the teen.

The Canadian turned his attention back to find his next target leaving Ravess to Finn. Snipe was busy trying to get close to the Condor and Junko. Aerrow and Piper were keeping the talons away from Terra and the Rex Guardians were doing the same. Matthew spotted a squad of four Cyclonians going after a guardian.

Canada dived down and positioned himself behind the talons. He started to shoot at them and the two on the ends broke away. Matthew didn't bother following them; he was more concerned with getting the talons off the Rex Guardian's tail. He managed to shoot one of the talons engines and he lost altitude. The last Cyclonian dived down and helped his buddy onto his skimmer and started to retreat. The Rex Guardian gave him a thumbs up and smiled before flying away.

Matthew noticed that a pair of Cyclonians came up behind him. They started to fire at him and he ducked down on his skimmer to keep a low profile. He rolled to the right and the talons followed him. Canada faked going left and pulled a quick loop and the talons didn't react quickly enough before he was behind them. He started to fire at the pair.

The talon on the left broke away spotting a Rex Guardian. Canada followed the other one hoping that the guardians could take care of themselves. He shot at the talon and followed him as the Cyclonian tried to lose him. Matthew followed him closely and copied his every move. He finally managed to get a good angle and hit the talons wing. A few metal pieces flew off before the rest of the wing flew off as well.

The Canadian dipped his wing and flew away from the falling skimmer. He looked around again trying to see if anyone needed help. Suddenly he heard a scream and quickly turned to the sound.

Matthew spotted Ravess not too far away. She was standing facing away from him bow raised pointing at a target he couldn't see. The nation started to panic thinking she had hit one of the Storm Hawks, but just as the thought went through his mind, Ravess lowered her bow. The arrow hadn't left her bow and it looked like she was trying hard to aim again. The pink haired woman dropped her bow and collapsed on her skimmer. She must have fallen onto the controls and her skimmer rolled. She fell off her skimmer and started to fall into the wastelands.

The battle had almost seem to pause seeing this. Snipe yelled diving down to try to catch his falling sister. The nation could now see that she had an arrow in her chest. He looked back over to where Finn was. He was just lowering his crossbow, a neutral expression on his face. Matthew immediately pieced together what had happened in his head.

"Retreat!" Snipe called with his sister in his arms. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

-❄"This screw never asked to be a mascara wand."❄-

As they landed back on the Condor, things were tense. Canada could tell that Aerrow was angry. The red head was normally able to keep his cool, but he was steaming. They pulled into the hanger and got off their skimmers. Finn's body language made him seem a little nervous, but he still kept a neutral face.

"Aerrow." Junko warned seeing the Sky Knight moving in Finn's direction.

"Do you know what you just did?" Aerrow ask slowly in a calm tone.

"Yeah, I killed Ravess. I killed a Cyclonian, something we should have been doing from the start!" Finn argued crossing his arms.

"Finn, you can't do something like that!" Aerrow yelled angrily.

"Why not? It's my choice. You expect to win a war without killing anyone?!" Finn yelled back. The other Storm Hawks just stood and watched.

"You don't understand, do you?!" The Sky Knight growled pinching his nose.

"Don't understand? You've got to be kidding me!" The blond said clenching his teeth and rolling his eyes. "I'm doing something that could finally end this war! Something you're too scared to do!"

Aerrow bit his lip and stepped back. He was hurt by Finn's words, but was still angry. He walked away and hopped onto his skimmer. "I need to cool off." He said starting the bike and taking off. Radarr chirped and ran after him, but he was already gone.

"Finn," Piper said speaking up first. "You don't get it do you?"

"Not you too Piper!" Finn groaned. "You're on his side?"

"I'm on no one's side." Piper shook her head. "Finn, what you just did could get him into serious trouble."

"What?" He asked body language changing to concern.

"Anything a squad member does falls back onto the Sky Knight. Aerrow could get into a lot of trouble for this." Piper explained. "The code is 'no attacking with the intent of killing.' Yes, we aren't technically an official squadron, but Aerrow is a Sky Knight and we are his squad."

"I didn't know that." Finn admitted looking down at the floor. "I didn't know that it could affect anyone else." He said scratching the back of his neck. "I need to apologize."

"I don't think apologizing will help right now." Junko said. "Maybe we should let him calm down and come back on his own?"

"He can take care of himself." Piper said. "I'm still worried though. There could still be some talons lurking around."

"What about the coms?" Matthew asked speaking up. He knew it wasn't a good idea for the red head to be out on his own. Junko tried to call, but shook his head. Matthew bit his lip. "I'll go and look for him. It's getting dark and it's probably not good for him to be out all night."

"Okay, keep in contact. We'll stay in the area." Piper said as Canada climbed onto his skimmer. He started it up and revved the engine before taking off.

Once he was in the air, Matthew didn't know how to find Aerrow. He scanned the clouds looking for any sign of the Sky Knight. He spotted a few small forested terras poking out of the clouds. He flew closer and looked through the trees. Canada saw a flash of sunlight reflecting off of metal on one of the smallest terras. He dived down to get a closer look and saw Aerrow's skimmer parked in a tree.

The nation found a clearing and landed riding in the direction his saw the skimmer. He was happy the forest floor didn't have too much undergrowth. He saw a flash of red hair through the trees and turned pulling up to a tree. Aerrow was lying on his back on one of the lower branches and his skimmer was on one of the higher branches.

"How do you even?" Matthew asked motioning up to the Sky Knights skimmer as he got off his own.

"Magic." Aerrow said sitting up and letting his feet hang over the branch.

"Cooled off?" The nation asked crossing his arms and looking up.