Dawn of a New Age

Chapter Thirty Six

Chapter Thirty Six

Matthew watched Aerrow and Ace close as the pair fought. He could see that the Sky Knight was worn down and was just able to counter the Cyclonians attacks. The Storm Hawks and other squads were still dealing with the new carriers that had shown up. These talons were more resilient than the others. The Sky Knight squadrons still stayed separate from each other.

They had been at this for almost four hours now; the sun was just starting to set. Aerrow and Ace had separated at the moment, but were now dogfighting. Neither one had managed to land a hit on either of their skimmers.

"Getting tired of this." Finn grumbled through the coms. There was a short lull in the battle.

"There's not many left." Aerrow said dodging another bolt from the Dark Ace. A few talons had dared to get close to the two leaders, but were easily taken down by the Storm Hawks.

"It's getting dark, what if night crawlers show up?" Junko asked. As night approached, the threat of night crawlers grew. Matthew didn't have much experience with the creatures, but they were a lot harder to down than the normal talons.

"Didn't they betray Cyclonis?" Piper asked coming up next to Matthew and levelling her helieskooter off. Canada shrugged. Junko and Finn were flying close as well, but Aerrow was still circling with Ace. They seemed to be having a staring contest.

"The other squads will be making a final push against the Cyclonians very soon." Stork announced. "If the talons don't pull back and retreat, the Sky Knights are. They don't want to lose any more people."

"We've been lucky so far." Canada said with a sigh. They hadn't lost a skimmer yet or had any serious injuries. Good thing too since they didn't have many supplies left.

"I'm going to push back against Dark Ace. See if I can scare him off." Aerrow said suddenly hopping up on the wings of his skimmer allowing Radarr to take the controls. Radarr guided the skimmer closer to Dark Ace and Aerrow jumped over daggers drawn.

Dark Ace hadn't been expecting the move and quickly got to his feet. He managed to block Aerrow's attack, but just barely. Upon seeing their leader being attacked again, more talons were heading their way. The Storm Hawks flew to meet them, separating the Dark Ace from his men.

Matthew didn't pick a particular talon to go after this time. He shot at anyone who came anywhere close to him or any of his team mates. He had managed to land quite a few shots on different talons before another Storm Hawk would take them out.

Night was coming fast. Almost as fast as the talons were falling out of the sky. The Sky Knight squadrons were fighting closer together now.

The Dark Ace could see his chances were dwindling and he was becoming desperate. He fought with a new burst of energy tripping Aerrow. The sky knight rolled out of the way of a stab from the talon leader.

Canada had caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He broke away from the pack of waring skimmers and flew a little closer to Ace and Aerrow. Matthew pulled a knife from his pocket watching the talon stab his wing again as Aerrow just rolled out of the way. The Sky Knight still hadn't managed to gain his feet. The nation quickly threw his knife seeing Ace preparing for another attack. He had aimed for the hip, but because of the distance the knife ended up catching Dark Ace in the back of his knee.

The talon yelled and lost his footing. Aerrow finally rolled up onto his feet and pinned Ace to his wing. The dark haired man struggled and tried to push the smaller Sky Knight off him, but didn't have the strength to.

A few talons spotted their leader being pinned and swirled around them. The Storm Hawks and a few other allies took them out quickly. Aerrow had managed to cuff Ace with his own shackles and hauled him to his feet. Sky Knights and their squadrons circled around them and cheered. Ace kept his head down and was trying to keep weight off his one leg.

The remaining talons started to retreat back to their ships. Matthew could see Snipe snarling and yelling in anger in the distance, but he didn't bother making an attempt to help his comrade.

-❄"Write like you're running out of time."❄-

A few hours later after the sky was totally cleared and night had fallen, the Storm Hawks were still up. They had just given Dark Ace over to the Sky Knight council to make their ruling on his punishment.

"What did Arygyn have to say about the crystal?" Piper asked as they were finishing up the last few repairs on their skimmers.

"Oh I almost forgot." Matthew said scratching the back of his neck. "He said that the crystal could only be used on a certain day in my world. That day is today there."

"You could go back then?" Finn asked popping up from under his skimmer.

"Yeah." Canada nodded wiping his hands off and standing up.

"Are you going to?" Aerrow asked raising an eyebrow.

"I better." The nation said with a frown. "I don't really want to, but I have responsibilities I have to take care of that couldn't wait another whole year."

"That would be what here? Twenty nine, thirty years?" Piper said.

"About that long, yeah." Canada said biting his lip.

"Would you be able to come back?" Junko spoke up.

"I'm not sure." Matthew shrugged. "I didn't get a chance to ask. Arygyn said that he would pop around tomorrow."

"Would you want to come back? If your world is at peace, why come back?" Junko asked finishing up the last little bits of repairs he had.

"As far as I know it's still peaceful. Tensions are pretty high though." The nation said with a small smile. "I'd want to come back to visit you guys. Make sure you're still okay."

"Things should hopefully be getting better now that Ace has been caught." Aerrow said wiping his hands off and hopping up onto the crates Canada was sitting on. "We'd be glad to have you back. We're going to miss you."