Dawn of a New Age

Chapter Thirty Seven

Chapter Thirty Seven

Later in the night once everyone had turned in, Matthew was still awake. He wasn't really tired yet despite today's battle. He crawled out of his bed and grabbed his phone off his desk. It lit up in the night and almost blinded him. Canada looked at the battery and saw that it was still almost fully charged.

The nation slipped out of his room and headed to his spot by the windows. Once he got there, Matthew slid down the wall and pulled his legs up to his chest before rapping his arms around them. He sighed resting his chin on his knees.

Canada looked out the window and watched the terras go by. He had never really got used to the idea of 'floating' islands. He was also still getting used to the idea of going home as well. He was ready to be back on his land again, but wasn't ready to leave the Storm Hawks. Even know they were old enough to enrol in the military now, Matthew still saw them as younger siblings that needed to be protected. He felt guilty for leaving them here, but knew that they most likely couldn't go with him. Even if they did, Canada wouldn't be around often enough.

Matthew felt a sudden wave of tiredness come over him. He yawned and turned his head laying it on his knees. The nation tried to clear his mind and sleep.

-❄"Sure. Still seeing whatshername. Took her to whatchamacallit. Gave her my thingamajig."❄-

In the morning, Canada yawned and stretched before getting up and going to the kitchen. Piper and Junko were already up and cooking. Piper was baking some sort of cake and Matthew had no clue what Junko was cooking, but it didn't smell good.

"Morning Mattie! Want to try some of my spiderberry and octoflower salad?" Junko asked as soon as Canada popped in. Piper just shook her head out of the wallop's line of sight giving him a warning.

"No thanks Junko, I'm going to just have a galapple." Matthew said with a polite smile and taking one of the oddly coloured apples off the counter.

"Your loss." Junko teased digging in. The door open and Stork walked in. He took one look at what Junko was eating and walked right back out. Matthew smiled and laughed quietly at that. "I don't know why you guys avoid my food. It's amazing!"

Finn and Aerrow came into the kitchen half way through Junko's sentence. "Well buddy, that's because your tastes are a little more..." Finn trailed off trying to think of the right word. "Exotic." He settled on.

"Still, you're missing out. More for me though!" The wallop said finishing off his 'salad.'

"Do you know when Argyn is coming?" Aerrow asked hopping up onto the counter next to where Matthew was leaning. Radarr scurried in and hopped up onto the counter as well.

"No, he just said he would pop around." The blond said with a shrug. "I'm assuming sometime around supper."

"Still got some time then. You're sure about your decision?" Aerrow asked keeping his eyes on the floor.

"No, not really." Matthew sighed running a hand through his hair. "I don't really want to leave. Now especially when you could finish this war, but I do need to go back. I can't just leave my responsibilities as a nation for a full year. It wouldn't be fair to my people."

"I understand." Aerrow said. "It's going to be weird without you. No one to tell me to eat healthy."

"Well actually, I am planning to leave my phone with you guys." Matthew said with a small smile. "That way we could still talk even if I'm not here."

"But you don't have another?" Piper pointed out pulling her cake from the oven.

"It's not that hard to get another." The nation shrugged. "I can just reset this one back to its original factories setting and transfer stuff to the new one easily. It will be easier for you guys to use that way too."

Canada quickly went through his phone, emailing all the important things to himself. He had smartly backed up most of his stuff to his computer back at home; it was mostly just the new photos of the Atmos he hadn't transferred.

The rest of the afternoon was spent teaching the Storm Hawks how to use the phone and teaching them the little bit of English they would need to know. Piper had him right down an answer key for the different words and English to Atmos lettering chart. With a little practice they picked it up fairly quickly, expected for a teenager.

"How long will the battery last?" Finn asked.

"Quite a while, but I have a solar charger with me. Just plug it and leave it in the sun and it will charge. Unless you lose the charger." Matthew said remembering to give them the cables.

"What if we break it?" Piper asked passing the phone carefully back to Canada.

"Well, if the screen just cracks you shouldn't have much of a problem, it happens all the time. If you drop it in water or damage the circuits inside its pretty much game over." The nation shrugged. "Just be careful with it."

"We will." Aerrow said with a sigh and Radarr chirped in agreement. "You'll call us as soon as possible?"

"Of course. It might be a while for you guys. I'll have to get things figured out at home; bills are probably past due by now." Canada said remembering about his bills. He hoped Kuma had taken care of them.

"Bills? That's sucks." Finn groaned leaning back in his chair.

"You'll send us photos of your world, right?" Piper said excitedly. Matthew nodded. "It will be so cool to see the differences."

"It's going to be weird to not be flying all the time. I'm going to have to readjust to normal driving." Canada said with a small smile. "It's also going to be odd not have to do supply runs and battles often."

"Hopefully we won't have to do those much longer." Finn said crossing his arms with a smirk. "With Ace down the rest of the Cyclonians will be a piece of cake."

"Missing a single commander won't make the whole army crumble right away." Aerrow said. Radarr nodded in agreement from his shoulder. "It will still take time for the Atmos to finally be at peace."