8

Violence Fetish

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks or Violence Fetish, which is a song by Disturbed. I'm just borrowing the title because it pretty much sums up what's going on with Wing right about now…

Stork couldn't tear his eyes away from the horrific spectacle that was unfolding before him. Wing was going berserk, fighting tooth and nail to try and get to Falshade, who was trembling and rigid at the same time. Dark life-blood poured from his torn throat, matting his midnight fur. He was dying before their eyes and they could only watch helplessly.

"FALSHADE! FALSHADE!" Wing howled, her screams tearing at Stork's eardrums and ripping at his heart. She was thrashing and twisting and kicking like an animal, her captors holding her about a foot off the ground and watching her struggle with smug looks on their faces. With a shriek of feral rage Wing smashed her forehead into the face of the Talon on her right, splattering his nose against his face with a gut wrenching crunch. The Talon staggered back with a yowl of pain and then was silenced as Wing went nearly horizontal, using her captors as leverage and punched both her feet into his face. He let go of her arm as he fell, unconscious, to the floor. The moment Wing's feet touched the ground she was running, flinging herself towards her beloved jungle companion, shrieking and sobbing: "Falshade!"

The large cat looked up weakly, making a soft growling noise that came out more like a gurgle. He tried to stagger to his feet as Wing stretched her fingers desperately towards him, but he collapsed back into his own blood, flanks heaving and eyes slowly starting to close…

"NO!" Wing screamed, heaving with all her might. But the other Talon still had her by the arm, and he yanked her back so roughly Stork was surprised her shoulder didn't get ripped out of socket.

"LET THE FUCK GO OF ME!" Wing roared, driving her elbow upwards under his chin, jerking his head upwards and knocking out a few of his teeth. "YOU SON OF A BITCH, LET ME GO!"

"Can none of you get a weedy little girl under control?" The Dark Ace snapped, and as Wing turned around to face him she didn't even have time to blink as he twirled an energy staff around in front of him and swung it across her face, connecting solidly with her temple. Wing crumpled before him like a felled tree.

"Tie them up." The Dark Ace growled, turning Wing's head slightly with his boot so he could see the Stryker tattoo on her neck. Then he looked over at Stork, who was shaking like a leaf.

"Do you need a nap too?" he asked him coolly and Stork shook his head furiously. The Dark Ace looked sneered at him and then looked over at Falshade, who was lying, motionless, in the corner where he'd fallen. "I wouldn't worry too much about that one."

"But, Boss, why don't we just kill them now and get it over with?" one pock-marked Vulture, who was cowering slightly among all the Talons, asked hesitantly.

"Because we've got company. We're there's one Storm Hawks brat you can be sure the rest of them are around somewhere too. Besides, I'd like to play a little more with this one." The Dark Ace nudged Wing with the toe of his boot. "Go hang them up in the old Strategy room down the hall and we can use them as target practice later."

Several of the Talons chuckled darkly and left with the Dark Ace as a few lingered behind to rope up Stork and the unconscious Wing. Stork couldn't look at her or Falshade as he shamefully stayed still and let them bind him up. They'd both gone down fighting, while he stayed standing like a coward.

Aerrow heard the alarms start howling and stopped, confused and suddenly very worried. He looked over at Piper, who looked just as baffled as he did.

"What does that mean?" he asked her, looking around wildly, although he wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for.

"I don't know." Piper said, sounding bewildered. Up until now the operation had been going smoothly; as soon as they'd saw the giant spotlights flicker off they'd bolted for the walls, and with the help of some rope and a Levitation crystal they'd breeched the outer defences, climbing up over the lip of the wall and surprising the two sentries who'd been trying to get the cannons working again. They didn't even have time to reach for their weapons before Piper'd flicked out her energy staff and whacked them both around the head. They'd gone down without a sound and Aerrow had tied them both together at the end of their rope and stashed them in a storage room at the end of the set the stairs they'd taken from the room that sat at the corner where North and West walls connected. And then they were inside.

As Piper had said they would be, they found themselves inside an underground passage way that would led them into the bowels of the great Citadel. It was deliciously ironic, Aerrow had decided, as they raced down the narrow corridor: they'd be expecting Sky Knights to come form the sky; they were going to come up from the earth.

It was like a virtual labyrinth down here and Aerrow was glad he had Piper along with him; if it would have been anyone else he'd have gotten lost a long time ago. But Piper weaved expertly through the different passages as if she'd lived down here all her life. Up above them Aerrow thought he could hear the rumblings and groanings of giant machinery at work and he shuddered; tons and tons of metal and stone were hanging just feet above their heads, and at any second it could all come crashing down…

Aerrow shook his head. He needed to stop listening to Stork.

Soon enough they'd found a narrow flight of stairs tucked near the end of a rather desolate and dreary tunnel. Aerrow took the lead up the stairs, lightning blades out and ready. He didn't really want Piper to go first, just in case someone was waiting for them at the top.

As it were, there wasn't anyone. In fact, Aerrow was pretty surprised by the lack of activity; he expected a place this big to be crawling with Vultures and Talons and God only knew what else.

"Are you looking for a fight?" Piper asked as the three of them skittered down the empty hallway.

Aerrow grinned mischievously and she just shook her head with a smile. "Ask a stupid question…"

"I guess this means Stork and Wing did their job though, right? I mean with making a distraction and everything." Aerrow asked her as they slowed to a stop and peeked around the corner. He saw a flicker of movement at the opposite end of the hallways and pulled her back roughly, knocking the wind out of her slightly as she banged into his chest. "Oops, maybe I spoke too soon…"

Piper pushed him off gently and leaned around the corner just so half of one of her orange eyes was peeking out. "It's ok, there's nothing there. Go carefully, though."

Aerrow nodded and they proceeded down the hall like a couple of alley cats, creeping along on tip-toe and their senses stretched to the breaking point.

Radarr made a funny sneezing noise and it made both Aerrow and Piper jump a foot in the air. "Radarr!" the both hissed at their furry companion and he made a disgruntled noise, rubbing his nose irritably.

"How much farther 'til the rendezvous point?" Aerrow asked in a whisper.

"Not much farther. We round the corner at the end of this hallway, and down there should be an old elevator shaft. I told Finn and Junko to meet us there, and then the four of us will shimmy up the cables, which'll take us to-"

"No offence, Piper, but I know it from there." Aerrow said and she pouted.

That was about the time that the sirens went off.

They could hear the sound of boots thumping hurriedly over the stone floor, coming their way. They bolted down the rest of the corridor and ducked around the corner just as a troop of Vultures thundered past where they'd just been standing heading down the passage opposite.

"That was close." Piper said. "Do you think Junko and Finn-"

She was interrupted as both Wallop and blonde presented themselves, crashing right into them and sending the five of them sprawling to the floor in a heap.

Piper slapped a hand over Junko's mouth as the Wallop attempted to say something. The others held their breath as another group of Vultures rolled past. They all seemed to slump in relief as they went unnoticed and quickly detangled themselves from each other.

"What are you two doing here?" Piper demanded quietly, rubbing her wrist were she'd strained it when she'd fallen.

"We came looking for you." Finn said defensively. "We heard the alarms and thought you might be in trouble."

"You mean you guys didn't set them off?" Aerrow asked, perhaps sounding a little more surprised then he should give Junko and Finn credit for.

"No!" Finn pouted, folding his arms. "We were actually doing pretty well until you three showed up."

"But we didn't set them off either! If none of us are the reason they suddenly went on the defensive, then that must mean…" Piper trailed off, looking alarmed.

"Stork and Wing." Aerrow finished for her. When there's bad news to be said (and Stork wasn't around to say it) you left it up to the leader to deliver. Your team takes it better that way.

"You think they were caught?" Finn asked, concern in his eyes.

"They can't have been. They got the cannons and the lights down, remember? Maybe the Vultures are only on the alert because they lost their defences." Piper reasoned, but she didn't look like she was ready to believe herself.

"Should we go check on them, just in case?" Junko asked Aerrow, making checking on them sound like they were just down the hall and not on the other side of the Citadel.

"We can't. They're too far away. Look, I'm sure they're fine. In fact, I bet they're on their way back to get the Condor right now. Come on, we've got some kids to rescue." Aerrow said, feeling torn. 'What ifs' were bouncing around his head like popcorn, and he didn't feel so secure about their plan anymore. But he knew they had to get those kids out, no matter what, and he knew that Stork and Wing knew that too. The remaining members of his squadron nodded bravely and followed him towards the elevator shaft.

"They're alright" Aerrow told himself as Junko wrenched the metal doors apart. "They've got to be."

He was good at saying they were doomed. He lived for the moments when he'd foretell their ultimate demise and point out that he'd seen it coming all along. But he hated it when he was suddenly proven horribly right.

Most of the time he said it because he wanted to be wrong.

And how many times had he said something like this would happen? And right now he'd never wanted to be more wrong in his life.

Wing was shaking against is back. She'd woken up a little while ago, unfortunately after they'd been tied together and then hung from the ceiling to await the Dark Ace's return. She was crying, Stork knew it, but she didn't want him to hear. Her body was racked with silent sobs and Stork was glad he couldn't see her face; he couldn't stand to see people cry.

He stared at his green toes, which were hanging beneath him as dejectedly as he felt. He wondered why Piper had made him come along. He didn't just like staying behind on the Condor, he belonged there. He was useless on missions. He was useless at fighting. He was very good at doing nothing while his comrades went down beside him.

Wing sniffled discreetly. "Stork?" she croaked and he flinched at the brokenness in her voice.

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok?"

That one went right to Stork's heart. There she was, asking him if he was alright. God, she was brave.

"I'm fine."

"Ok." She was quiet for a moment and then added "I'm going to get us out of here. We're going to be alright. I just… need a second. To think."

"Ok." He whispered. He should think too. He was in this mess as deep as she was. It wasn't fair to make her pull him out of it.

He glanced around, looking for something to help them. They were in a big old stuffy room, empty except for a large wooden table and some old over turned chairs. There was nothing else around that could possibly be of use. Ha, who was he kidding? Even if there was a great big "How to get Yourself Out of a Seemingly Impossible Situation" kit hovering right in front of his face it wouldn't be of any use. His hands were tied behind his back and he was hanging about ten feet above the ground.

Wing seemed to have arrived at the same place. "Did they search you?" she asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

"Yep." Of course they had. They'd taken everything that he'd crammed into his pockets from him, laughing at all his home made emergency doom devices before they'd roped him up.

"Ah…" Wing paused. "Did they search me?"

"Er…yeah." Stork said uncomfortably. Those wretches had searched her, and none too gentlemanly either. He'd had another strange bout of Un-Merby Tough-Word Spewing and had snapped at his captors to, and I quote, "Get the hell off her!" That had earned him a fist in the jaw.

Wing muttered a few choice words and sniffled again. It broke Stork's heart to hear her being strong like that. Strong for the both of them. He supposed he was lucky that way; he'd always had someone to be strong for him.

She was shaking again. Sometimes you just needed to cry. He knew that all too well. Jesus, though, he wished he knew how to comfort her. Why did she have to be stuck with him? Piper would have known what to do. Aerrow would have known. Hell, even Finn would at least have had something to say.

"Come on, Stork, think." He thought, looking around aimlessly. What, about what to say or what to do? "Either!"

"Wing?" he said very quietly.

"Yes?"

"I, um….I just…" He sighed. He had nothing. Absolute zippo.

Her right hand was just brushing against his left one. On a sudden impulse he flipped his hand over hers and squeezed it gently. There. He might not have been able to say anything to her but at least he could do that.

His sudden use of physical contact (which from what she'd seen of him he went to great lengths to avoid) must have surprised her just as much as it surprised him. She twisted her head a bit so she could sort of see him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ok, here came the words. About time. "I just… look, I'm sorry you got stuck with me."

"What?"

"I'm not a very good partner. I mean, this was your first mission and it couldn't have gone more wrong. And who'd you get stuck with for it? Not Always Has a Plan Piper, not Brave, I Can Get Us Out of Anything Aerrow… nope, you got Good Ol' Afraid of his Own Shadow Stork."

Wing blinked at him. He could see her out of the corner of his large eye.

"You're not afraid of your own shadow." she said after a moment of stunned silence.

"Practically. I mean what good have I done this whole time?"

"Stork, you shut down those cannons like you were turning off a light switch! Dude, I told you I was no good with technology and I meant it! I'd have never figured any of that stuff out, but you made it look as easy as flying the Condor. Which actually doesn't look too easy, but you… nevermind, my point is you're a great partner and I'm glad Piper choose me to come along with you. I'm glad you're with me." Wing said earnestly. "We make a good team, you and me."

"Yup, that's why we're hanging from the ceiling."

"Hey, everybody makes mistakes. And I told you, we're going to figure a way out of this. Don't beat yourself up, ok? None of this is your fault." Wing froze suddenly, starring over his shoulder as if holding eye contact with a cobra.

"What?" he asked her nervously.

"I just found our way outta this mess." she said, red-rimmed eyes gleaming. He followed her line of sight and saw a lighting crystal sitting in a small bracket on the wall, inside a protective glass dish.

"We're going to blind ourselves out?"

"The sarcasm isn't helping, pal."

"Sorry. So how is that going to get us out of here?"

"The glass. We can smash it and use it like a dagger to cut these ropes!"

"Gee, that's a great plan. Too bad the glass is all the way over there."

"Ha ha, smart guy, I thought of that one too. Ever heard of the Pendulum effect?"

"Of course I have!"

"Great. Please tell me you've been on swings as a kid."

"Once. Faulty chains. Horrible crash. Enough said."

"…Ok, that doesn't matter, you get the gist of pumping your legs to make you go higher and higher, right?"

"Sure." Stork said, starting to see where she was going with this.

"Now we're getting somewhere. Right, when I swing my legs forward, you move yours back, and when I move mine back you swing yours forward. Eventually we'll gain some momentum and then-"

"Pendulum effect, got it."

"Righto." Wing said, swinging her legs forward. Stork didn't realize they were starting yet and forgot to move his legs until Wing bumped her heels into his and he shot his legs jerkily out in front of him. They swung about half a foot.

"Try to be a bit more smooth." Wing said, swinging her own legs forward again. This time he remembered to pull his back. It didn't take them long to get a proper rhythm going and soon they were swinging back and forth like a… well, like a pendulum. Who saw that coming?

"How close are we?" Wing panted as they hung in the air momentarily before falling back away from the wall.

Stork swallowed roughly, feeling queasy as his stomach sloshed back and forth. "Uh… fifteen feet, give or take."

"Argh." Wing muttered, throwing her feet forward. "Okay, try and like, throw your body into it more. Yeah, I know that sounded weird, but we're running on stolen time here."

"I get it, I get it." Stork gritted, not at all liking the way the wall whooshed up towards him as they swung back towards it. Oh, God, what if the rope was too long and he ended up splattering into the wall like a bug on the Condor's windshield? What if the rope was too short and they just ended up swinging back and forth forever in some strange pendulum dimension? What if the rope was just the right length and they were able to get said shard of glass but the Dark Ace returned just as they were about to free themselves and butchered them both and left them hanging there like a display in the window of a meat shop?

Or (as an alternate ending) say theoretically the rope was the right length, they freed themselves, got back to the Condor, met up with Aerrow and the others, saved the kids, defeated both Talons and Vultures alike and actually ended up being heroes? Was that too much to ask?

Then again he supposed if that happened they'd just drop dead a few weeks later from blood poisoning after the tiny, unnoticed lacerations they were sure to get from broken glass had festered, gotten infected and ultimately poisoned their bloodstreams.

Stork never was good with happy endings.

"Are you listening?" Wing demanded, trying to shake her hair out of her face and blink sweat out of her eyes at the same time.

"What?"

"I sa-id try and grab a hold of something on the wall… a ledge, or that bracket or something."

"With what?"

"You're feet!" Wing's voice cracked with impatience. "Come on, those toes of yours have to be good for something!"

Ok, she had a point. When they swung again back towards their bracket Stork stretched his leg out as far as he could, toes straining. He tried not to think about how ridiculous they both must look right now.

"We're still too far!" he said as they dropped back the other way, his stomach dropping with them.

Wing thrust her whole body into the momentum, feeling the rope start to chaff around her wrists and her ribs. "How far is too far?"

"Eight feet, but that's being generous."

Wing made a frustrated noise. "Try it again!" she said as they swung back again towards their target. Again Stork stretched out for the wall, and this time he was sure they were closer. What was that strange feeling? Was it maybe…. hope?

"Definitely were closer that time! Do that again!" Stork said, feeling more enthusiastic then he ever remembered feeling before.

Wing felt like she'd suddenly been thrown into a rodeo, only not as the rider. She waited for just the right moment before rolling her whole body again, praying that this time Stork would be able to reach the bracket. She was starting to have trouble breathing.

Stork forgot about worrying about getting mashed into the wall. Their freedom was so close he could taste it… well, actually all he could taste was blood from where he'd bitten his cheek when he'd been hit, but hey, who said blood couldn't taste like freedom? Stretching so far he was sure he heard one of his muscles tear, he reached desperately for the bracket. His toe actually scraped against the wall just below it before he felt them falling back again.

"Shit! I had it! Wing, I had it!" he seethed disjointedly, feeling sort of light headed and twitchy. He'd heard constant adrenalin spikes could do that to you. Or maybe it was the constant swinging back and forth… or maybe he was just coming down with something.

"Ok, that's great! This time, see if you can hang on to it!" Wing said, sounding a little harsher then she intended to, but Stork didn't seem to notice. To make up for it anyways she added "Third time's a charm though, right?" Was this the third time? Argh, you'd think riding a skimmer would make you a little hardier with the whole G- force factor, but this swinging was really scrambling her senses. Who invented the stupid Pendulum effect anyways?

"One more time" Wing promised herself and bucked again at the end of the rope, feeling like she now knew what it must be like to be a fish caught on a hook, struggling to get free. She supposed that when she'd been roped up, unconscious, all her muscles had been slack. Now they were bunched and moving and it made the rope feel like it was tightening around her like a jungle python, squeezing, squeezing….

She saw the opposite wall rush past her as they came down, and she wanted to kick off it for extra momentum, but she decided against it. She might end up jarring them and messing up their rhythm instead. All she could do was hold her breath (she didn't have many other options by this point) and hope to God that Stork managed to catch a hold of that bracket.

Aside from piloting the Condor, Stork didn't do a lot of things that may seem particularly heroic or amazing. Sure, he could build a skimmer out of spare parts in a matter of seconds, make almost anything into an anti-death device, guide unfortunate souls some-what successfully through the Black Gorge and he was pretty good at Poker, but aside from that… well, it was usually just best to leave him to sit tight on the Condor. He'd proven that today. Aside from flicking switches, what had he really done to help out? He knew, deep down, the others loved and needed him around, just like he loved and needed them, but sometimes he'd watch them do all their high speed stunts and amazing battle moves and he'd feel kinda… useless? No. Sort of… side-kicky. Like those techies you'd see in the movies, who did all the hacking and make smart remarks, while leaving the shoot-outs and fist fights and car chases to the heroes. Anyways, ever since they'd come to this Terra things had gone from bad to worse, and he hadn't done much to help out. But right now, here he was, possibly the only thing that stood between the success and failure of the whole mission. This was his moment to do something besides swing the Condor in at the nick of time. It was just a small thing really, but it was important too. It was a Hero-Moment, a small fleck of personal victory in a sea of roaring triumph and crushing failure. Like the time Piper had managed to restart her Heliscooter's engine just in time to be able to catch up with Aerrow and crack a Talon that he hadn't noticed across the back of the head with her energy staff, or like when Junko had been able to catch all three baby birds just before they'd hit the ground after Finn had accidentally dislodged them from their nest high above when he'd roared overhead on his skimmer. Sometimes it was just those little things that mattered. Hero-Moments didn't come Stork's way often, and when they did he often didn't have time to grab them. But today he could see his moment shining in front of him (quite literally) and today he wanted to seize it.

Stretching out with all his strength, ignoring the straining pull on his muscles, he reached for the bracket, willing himself to reach it. The tips of his toes brushed against the cool metal and he reached beyond his limit to catch a better hold. Merb feet weren't exactly like a second pair of hands or anything, but they certainly were more versatile then human feet. Clenching all three of his toes around the bracket like a fist, Stork clung to the wall with all his might, ignoring the ripping feeling in his injured knee. There was a terrifying moment in which the rope suddenly went slack and he was the only thing holding them in their current position and for a few seconds he thought he was going to slip. But he quickly shot out his other foot to secure them and hung on so tightly the knuckles of his toes went a paler shade of green, if you can believe it.

He'd seized his Hero-Moment.

"I…I got it! Ha! It worked!" he said, smiling like a lunatic.

"That's great!" Wing said, sounding out of breath. He could feel the Storm Hawks emblem on his back pressing into her back. "Think you can smash that glass?"

Stork was using both feet to hold them up. And even if he wasn't he wasn't about to smash glass with his bare foot. "Er…nope."

"Right. Heads up, then." she said and kicked out backwards, nearly catching him in his bad knee by accident. Her boot connected solidly with the dish and with a shriek of shattering glass the whole thing seemed to explode into an aura of silvery shards.

"Don't you dare let go." Wing warned him, as if reading his thoughts as he watched all those wicked shards tumble past his naked feet. Unfortunately her threat came a little too late, because on of those shards nicked him just as the words left her mouth and out of sheer Merb instinct he let go.

"STORK!!" Wing howled, completely forgetting to keep her voice down as her frustration bubbled over.

"I'm sorry!" Stork wailed back at her as they dropped away from the wall again.

"I'm not angry at you!" Wing shouted, feeling like she was losing her mind. "I just want to get the fuck out of here and find the Dark Ace and rip his fucking heart out with my bare hands! I HATE CYCLONIANS!! I HATE THEM!!" She slammed her mouth shut to stop the words from tumbling out, because the sobs weren't far behind. Tears leaked out the corners of her eyes. Too much, too much… she tried to squish it all down, but it was just too big.

"I'm borrowing your legs." she choked to him, wrapping her ankles around his and wrenching both their legs upwards. He yelped, his bad knee screaming at him and she let his legs go as suddenly as if shed been shocked.

"I'm sorry!" she sobbed, nearly going parallel with the rope she was so desperate to get enough momentum. They dropped down and the rope jerked tight so roughly she gagged. "Grab it!" she wheezed at him and he stretched his uninjured leg out, reaching towards the bracket which was now ringed with a crown of splintered glass. If he'd been within a mile of his right mind he would have laughed and said "No way, not Stork. You must have been mistaken." And yet there he was, as if he wanted to have his foot shredded. Maybe Wing's current state of madness was infectious…

Grabbing hold of the bracket the second time was much easier then he thought, and he was able to grasp it so quickly it took him a moment to realize he'd actually caught it.

Wing was shaking again, but it wasn't because she was crying again. Well, she sort of was, she could feel hot tears spilling down her cheeks, but she no longer felt like she was going to breakdown and bawl like a baby. She would do that later. Right now she could feel a dangerous energy building in her blood, making it slam through her veins like molten adrenalin. Something was swelling in her guts, rising like bile in her throat and squishing her heart. Her limbs were twitching and trembling and she felt like laughing and screaming and crashing and burning. Too much, too big, too small to hold it all inside.

"Er… are you alright?" Stork asked her, latching his other foot around the bracket.

"I'm fine. No I'm not. I feel like a million bucks. I feel like a train wreck. I'm ok. I'll be alright. No I won't. Stork, I think something very bad is gonna happen…"

"Something bad already did happen." Stork informed her gently. "But we're going to be ok, you said so, remember? But we can just wait a second… you kinda sound like you need it. Anything else you have to let out?"

"Yeah…"

"Ok, well… I'm, um, here for you."

At that moment Wing let out a scream so piercing it nearly blew his eardrums. It wasn't one of those high pitched girly screams, but it was no less painful. There was so much raw emotion in it Stork was surprised she didn't vomit up her soul with it, or in the least tear her own throat open.

Wing seemed to deflate when she finally shut her mouth, sucking air in raggedly through her nose. Stork ears were pressed against his head and he opened his eyes a crack, surprised to see that the remaining chunks of glass were still intact.

"Next time could you warn me before you do that?" he asked her. She hack-snorted messily then sucked back on her nose and hoerked a glob of snot onto the floor beneath them with a splat.

"I'll try." she said hoarsely. "Right, let's get the hell out of here."

Stork eyed the glass apprehensively. Grabbing onto the bracket with his feet was one thing, but plucking a shard of glass with his toes as if it where a cherry seemed to be like pushing his luck. Plus he didn't know how long he'd be able to hold on with just one foot. "Quick question, and please don't scream whatever harebrained solution you have at me, but how am I supposed to get the glass from the bracket to the rope?"

"Hey! You told me to let it out!" Wing said peevishly, her voice spiking and cracking on random syllables. "Just grab a piece with your foot and pass it up to my hand."

"Easy for you to say." Stork grumbled, carefully loosening his grip with his right foot and lifting it to hover uneasily above those wicked little glass fangs. He tried to ignore the nagging strain in his complaining knee as he selected a shard that looked like it was just barely clinging to its fellows and pinching it between two of his shaking toes as gingerly as if it were an Eruption Stone. He was suddenly reminded of the first time he'd ever lost one of his baby teeth when he was much younger, and the frightened, delicate way he'd tugged and twisted at it for hours before it just unexpectedly decided to part company with his gums and fell into his palm. This was going to take the same sort of gentle prodding, only he hadn't been using his foot to pull out his tooth, and nor had he been worried about it severing one of his digits.

He attempted to just slide the shard right out of there, smoothly as extracting a splinter. But of course, that would have been too easy. The damn thing was still attached by the roots (it made it less frightening if he pretended it really was a tooth). He tried pulling it towards himself instead, shaking it slightly to try and snap it from the base. Nothing. Argh. He tried forcing it backward and ended up nicking his third toe off a slender sliver he hadn't noticed until it decided to dig itself into his skin. At least this time he didn't let go. But in his surprise he twisted his foot away and just like that, with a tiny pwick,the shard of glass detached itself from the gums… er, bracket, as easily as snapping a dry twig. Of course.

"Did you get it?" Wing asked unevenly.

"I… yeah. I did."

"Hey, alright! Pass it here!" Wing said, stretching her fingers in the general direction of his foot. Stork bent his leg up towards her hand, squeezing his eyes shut as his knee popped painfully. He felt like he was trying to do the splits and he had to let go of the bracket. They swung back and he nearly let go of their precious shard. He squeezed it tightly in his toes and felt blood burst from beneath them. He let out a hiss and Wing jerked her head around to look at him.

"You ok?" she asked, no longer fighting for momentum. Stork got a good look at her face as he nodded his head briefly and realized just how bad she looked. They swung back and forth pointlessly a few times, waiting to slow down before attempting to pass off the glass. Finally Stork bent his leg back again and tried to hold the glass in the tips of his toes without dropping it. He could feel blood running down his calf and it made him shudder. Wing stretched her fingers towards him, pulling harshly on both of their arms. "Sorry" she muttered, trying to push his hands back the other way with her free hand so as not to put so much strain on him. "I can almost reach it... just a little closer."

Ignoring his knee altogether, even though he knew he was going to regret it later, he lifted his leg as high as he could (which hurt more then his knee, if you know your male anatomy). "Grab it… grab it." he hissed at her, trying to imagine his Happy Place.

Wing's fingers grazed the shard and then plucked it from his toes quickly, and he dropped his leg with relief.

"Alright!" Wing said. "See, didn't I tell you we made a good team?"

"I'll celebrate later."

Wing sighed and switched the glass to her other hand, laying it against the rope that was looped around their wrists and sawing back and forth. For one horrifying moment she couldn't feel the rope fraying and she wondered if her whole brilliant plan was about to blow up in her face. But then she felt the tiny threads of rope give and tear apart, tickling her fingers like spider legs and she let out a relieved breath.

"Ha! Ha ha!! It's working! Oh, that's right! I am a fucking genius! TAKE THAT!" She crowed to no one in particular.

"Please don't start screaming again." Stork groaned.

"Shut it. Ok, right, I'm almost through, and once I get my arms free then-" At that moment Wing sliced through the last few cords and just like that, they dropped. Neither of them had realized that the rope that was hanging them from the ceiling was also attached to the rope that had been tied around their wrists.

They both let out startled cries as they fell, and then were abruptly silenced as they slammed into the old table, splitting the old wood clean in half and tumbling to the floor.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Wing yowled, clutching at her hand and trying to roll over and sit up, succeeding in squashing Stork into the floor.

"Remember earlier when I said I weighed more then you?" Stork said, face flat against the stone floor. "Well, I was wrong, you win. Get off."

Wing was cursing to herself and didn't appear to hear him. He bumped her with his shoulder to get her attention and she spat at him like a feral cat.

"Don't do that!" he said in alarm, shrinking away from her as much as he could while still being tied to her.

"I'm sorry!" Wing snapped, not sounding sorry at all. "But I've got a fucking shard of glass in my hand and you just made me shove it in further!"

"You…what?" Stork gulped. Wing wasn't listening again. Gritting her teeth she wrenched the piece of glass, which had turned out to be a much better dagger then she'd wanted it to, out of her hand with a howl. With an upward jerk she ripped the jagged makeshift knife across the remaining cords that had been wrapped unbearably tight around her ribcage a moment earlier and rolled off Stork, nursing her hand. The stupid thing had bit deep into her palm when she'd hit the table, and when Stork bumped her arm it had succeeding in shoving the thing clean through to the other side.

Stork pushed himself to his feet and hesitantly came up behind her, looking over her shoulder at her wounded hand. He nearly fainted when he saw the damage.

"Oh…lord. Did, um… did I do that?"

Wing tore another strip off her jacket (if she went on at the rate she was going to end up with a shawl before they got back to the Condor) and tried to tie it around her hand. Now that she didn't have a chunk of glass sticking out of her hand she felt guilty for being angry with him. "No, I still had it in my hand when we hit the table. Don't worry about it."

Stork watched her fumble with her impromptu bandage for a moment before crouching stiffly next to her and taking her hand gently, carefully wrapping the strip of cloth around her palm and trying not to look to closely at the oozing puncture site.

"You said I made it worse, though. I'm sorry. But you were kinda squishing me."

A small smile flickered over Wing's face. "Well, I'm sorry for snapping at you. It just really hurt and I lost my temper."

Stork shrugged and tied off her bandage. "There. Hopefully that'll keep you from getting a full blown infection until we get back to the Condor. No promises it'll save you from Vectorial Blood Spores though… I knew I should have brought my adhesive micro-filters…"

"I'll risk it." Wing said with a low chuckle. She stood up and went over to the door, pressing her ear against it, listening for approaching Talons. "Alright, let's go, we've lost some serious time… I hope those bastards didn't touch my swords. I'll teach them to hang me from the fucking ceiling."

"You know, just something I've noticed, but you swear a lot." Stork said, inspecting his foot for any shards of glass before he decided to walk on it. All his life the only girl he'd been around on a regular basis was Piper, and although she was no princess of clean vocabulary or anything she was pretty sparing when it came to choice words. Stork had naturally assumed that this was the norm for all girls.

Wing turned back to look at him. "Does it bother you or something?"

"Well, no, I mean, compared to Finn you're practically a saint…" he suddenly felt extremely foolish. She was good at making him feel that way, without even meaning to. It unnerved him. "It's just that… it's not very…" Hmm. Proper? Ladylike? Oh, God, if he said that she'd never let it go. "…Becoming."

Wing, who'd been in the act of peaking out the door, froze and then slowly turned around to look at him with an expression that was the perfect emotional depiction of 'WTF'.

Stork ears burned and he stared at the floor, wishing he had something to club himself over the head with. "What?" he mumbled defensively.

Wing blinked at him from beneath raised eyebrows, then said "The speech about being a lousy partner aside, that has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say."

I don't know if you've ever tried shimming up a steel elevator cable while dangling over a deep, dark elevator shaft. But I can assure you if you ever do, you'll never try it again.

As it were, there were only three cables, one very thick one and two thinner ones on either side. Naturally they let Junko have the thickest cable, because it was just better to be safe then sorry. Radarr and Aerrow took the cable on Junko's left, which left Finn and Piper to bicker over who would got to scramble up first and left the honour of a first class shot of their rear end to the one beneath them. Piper craftily won in the end after several rounds of "you're the pervert, no you're the pervert" by explaining to Finn that he was by far the better rope climber and she would just slow him down if she went first. Finn never could distinguish between flattery and trickery.

Something none of them had been counting on, however, was just how high they'd have to climb. Until now the entire operation had seemed like a walk in the park. But when you had already hauled your ass up ten vertical feet and you had at least another thirty ahead of you… man, it really was a rude awakening back into reality. Aerrow had always been proud of his own physical condition and capability, and he knew the rest of his squadron were certainly no cream puffs, but this hand over hand climbing was just brutal for all of them. Radarr seemed to be the only one who had it easy; the little bugger was scampering between the cables as if he'd done nothing else all his life.

"We couldn't just take the stairs, huh?" Finn groaned, heaving himself up another foot.

"Yeah, and I suppose before we did that we were just going to waltz right in the front door. Oh and hey, don't worry about trying to bust those kids out of their cells; I'm sure if we asked the guards nicely and told them we were just going to take them out Trick or Treating they'd gladly let them out for us." Piper retaliated, sensitive as always about people poking holes in her plan.

"Is it Halloween already?" Junko asked, not following her sarcasm.

"Junko, don't you think if it was Halloween that we would have decorated the Condor?" Finn asked him pointedly.

"I dunno, Stork kinda freaked out over last year's decorations, I just thought we were gonna skip the whole thing this year." Junko said, sounding disheartened.

"Aw, I'm sure all we'll have to do is get Wing to ask him and he'll go for it." Finn said with a snicker.

"Oh, knock it off, Finn. You're probably just jealous anyways." Piper said, defending her adopted brother in his absence.

"Funny, Piper. I dunno, Stork might have some competition though… I mean, you and Wing are pretty close… maybe we outta take down that second bunk in your room."

"Finn…." Aerrow warned, noticing the way Piper's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Aerrow, may I borrow one of your lightning blades?" she asked sweetly. Junko gulped and decreased his rate of climb so as to put as much distance between himself and Piper as possible.

"Is it…important?" Aerrow asked, knowing full well what she was up to.

"Oh, I just happen to have an incredibly amazing shot at this huge, blonde bug and I wouldn't want it to go to waste." Piper said and Finn tucked his legs up in an attempt to scurry up the cable faster.

"Dude, I was just messing with you! Don't give it to her, Aerrow, she'll do it!" he squawked desperately and Piper smirked.

"I dunno, Finn, that last one was pretty harsh. Maybe I will give it to her… unless you apologize." Aerrow said, playing along to take his mind off his blistered and bleeding hands.

"Aerrow, be a pal!" Finn pleaded, too high up to see their smug faces. "Come on, I'm your wing-man! You need me!"

Quite suddenly their teasing was cut short as a grating, grinding sound made them all stop in mid-reach. They whipped about in the darkness, looking for the source of the noise.

"What was that?" Piper whispered. Aerrow was about to suggest they up the pace when suddenly all three cables jerked beneath their hands with another grinding sound. Aerrow's grip slipped but he managed to stop himself from sliding too far down the cable. Finn, however, was not so lucky. The moment his cable jumped he simply let go and then dropped like a rock with a scream.

"Finn!" Aerrow shouted at the same time Junko cried "Piper, watch out!"

When you're clinging to a cable like a spider to its web, you can't really 'watch out' when your blonde friend comes careening towards you.

Finn collided solidly with Piper, dislodging her and sending both of them to what would have been a very sticky end had it not been for Junko, who shot out a hand and snatched a hold of Finn's arm as he plunged past. Piper and Finn had been tangled together and luckily Piper was able to grab hold of Finn's leg when he abruptly stopped falling. Something popped and Finn's eyes shot open and his mouth formed the word "ow".

Aerrow was looking down at the three of them anxiously. "Is everybody ok?" he called.

Piper reached out and clung to Junko's cable, carefully swinging herself onto it. "We're fine. Good catch, Junko."

"Yeah, brilliant." Finn said, looking pained. "So now what?"

"Hang on, wait 'til I get a hold of the cable and then Junko can lower you down." Piper instructed, but at that moment there was another grinding, rumbling jerk and then the cables beneath their fingers came alive, hauling them gently upwards like muscular snakes.

"Sweet! No more hauling ass!" Finn cheered, apparently forgetting that his shoulder was slowly being separated.

"Er… I wouldn't celebrate yet, Finn." Piper said, a tone in her voice hinting that something was very… not sweet.

"Why?" all three boys demanded in unison, tension in their voices.

"Well, um, I may not have mentioned… but this elevator… doesn't go all the way to the top floor, if you know what I mean." Piper explained guiltily.

"What floor does it go to?" Aerrow asked hesitantly.

"That one." Piper squeaked. Aerrow looked up. About fifteen feet overhead lay the doors they'd been climbing towards. And just atop that, hovering like a thundercloud, hung solid stone ceiling.

"Of all the details to leave out, you picked the crushing one?" Finn howled.

"Aerrow, get those doors open, quick!" Piper squawked, ignoring Finn in their absence of time. The distance between them and their splattering demise was closing alarmingly. Aerrow whipped out one of his lightning blades, clinging tightly to the cable with his free hand and tearing open another blister. He took aim and fired at the doors, not even sure if an energy blast was enough to make them open. For a horrifying, endless split second, nothing happened. Then the doors split open, allowing light to spill down on them like a beacon.

"Jump!" Aerrow shouted, flinging himself more then actually jumping from the cable and stumbling across the floor. He fell to his knees and only just managed to roll aside as Junko came crashing down beside him, dragging Piper and Finn. With an alarmed squawk Radarr leapt from the cable and tackled Aerrow's shoulder as the red head got back to his feet. Moments later they heard the elevator car rumble up into its dock, screeching to a halt and crunching slightly against the ceiling as if Fate were showing them just how lucky they were.

But, you know, Fate doesn't let you slip through its claws that easily. Just as Aerrow was about to ask Piper which way they had to go to get to the dungeons, a group of maybe twenty Vultures (and, unfortunately not to Aerrow's surprise, Cyclonians) rounded the corner and zeroed in on them.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Prowling along, limbs moving smoothly and yet disjointedly, Wing scowered the corridors, listening, waiting. They were all around, she knew, in this mighty catacomb of a fortress.

Stork stalked along behind her, clinging to her without actually touching her. He could hear them too, moving about, above, below… nearby. The placed was like a hornet nest and they'd roused the hive. It was only a matter of time before they bumped into a group of them. And Wing didn't have her weapons.

"The Control Room's down that way." Stork whispered, pointing down a side corridor. He'd been conscious while they'd dragged him into the Strategy room, and he remembered the way clearly. He'd made it a habit of remembering exits, because you never knew when you might be making excuses and dashing towards them like all Hell was on your heels.

Wing peeked around the corner and tucked back around as if someone had thrown and Eruption Stone at her. "Yeah, sure is." she agreed. "And about seven Talons too." She moved ever so slightly so that one electric orb could peer down the hallway. Stork grabbed hold of her arm in case he had to wrench her out of the line of fire. "Fuck, it's right there! I can see it! My broadsword is right there!" Wing seethed and leaned around a little further. Stork dug in his heels.

"They'll see you!" he hissed.

"Don't you even think it, buddy." Wing growled at one of the Talons who was eyeing her broadsword with interest.

"They're going to hear you!" Stork hissed again, tugging at her relentlessly. "Come back here, we need to think of a plan!"

Wing pulled back, seemed to think for a moment and then took a deep breath. And then to Stork's horror she started singing at the top of her lungs:

"LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH-"

"What are you doing?" Stork demanded, his voice tight with fear.

Wing, still singing, or screaming, or repeating, whatever she was doing, held up a finger and peered around the corner again. Stork could hear them coming, even over her overly loud voice.

"BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH-

FUCK IT!"

And just as she spewed out that last part the first of the Talons rounded the corner and she greeted him with a solid punch right in the bridge of his thin nose. It splattered under her fury and he staggered back into one of his fellows.

Ah. Now he got it. A trap. Clever. No trip-wires, but still clever.

Wing anchored her left foot to the floor and pivoted on it, her right leg coming up and spinning her around like a dancer. Except dancers don't wear thick combat boots that add a nice extra kick (pardon the pun) to the receiving end of a furious round house. Two Talons caught that kick, one in the ribs and one right in the jaw. The latter of the two dropped, clutching at his dislocated jaw and too shocked to utter a whimper. The second Talon doubled over, clutching his side and letting his energy staff loosen in his grasp. In one single fluid movement Wing snatched a hold of his staff and tore it from his meagre grasp, spinning him to the side to meet her knee cap, right in the face.

As Wing spun about to try and clobber another Talon in the temple with her new weapon, Stork wisely ducked out of the way and tried to think of how he could make himself useful. Wing, although nowhere near the expert that Piper was when duelling with an energy staff, was holding her own pretty well, finally connecting with her original target's head just below the strap of his goggles before spinning about to sweep the legs out from beneath another Talon and then clock him in the head for good measure.

"Get to the Control Room, I'll catch up!" she told him, wrestling with another Talon who had locked their staffs together. Stork nodded and was about to try and wriggle past when the seventh Talon, who'd been until now lying in wait for either a good shot or a good get away, leapt forward, ignoring Stork altogether and aiming straight for Wing's exposed back with a downward chop with his staff.

But he never even got close.

Stork's movement was so fast that he didn't even realize what he was doing, let alone the Cyclonian. He liked to think it was his fighting instincts finally kicking in. Whatever force of nature propelled him to do it, he balled up one green fist and sent it home, all three bony knuckles connecting solidly right between the Talon's eyes. The Talon halted abruptly as if his legs had been suddenly liquefied, teetered for a moment and then collapsed at Stork's feet, out cold. Wing, who'd just dispatched her own Talon with a knee to the gut and a quick flip of her wrist to free her staff, jumped back in surprise as the last Talon slumped to the ground next to her with a thud. They both stared at that prone figure for a minute and it was hard to tell which of them was more stunned.

"Did you… did you just deck that guy?" Wing asked slowly. Stork was still starring at the Cyclonian, shocked out of his own mind. Then he blinked and brought his knuckles up for examination.

"Ow."

Wing burst into laughter, throwing an arm around his shoulders which hovered a good half a foot over her own. "Well, look who's finally coming around!" she crowed. "Our Storky's got a taste for blood after all! Watch out, Cyclonians, this dude's got bite!"

"You're worse then Finn." Stork told her, although a tiny smile was curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Oh, man, wait 'til the others hear about this! This is a story for the ages!" Wing cried, jumping up so she could give him a nougie.

Stork shoved her off. "We're not out of danger yet." he reminded her, clawing at his hair to make it lie flat again. She gave him a bit of a salute and hurried off down the hallway to collect her broadsword.

"Aw, baby, are you ever a sight for sore eyes." she crooned, hefting it into her hands and stroking the side of the blade, which was slick with blood. Then she spun around, looking for her scimitar and nearly clipping Stork with her broadsword.

'Shit, where's my scimitar?" she asked him, eyes flashing about desperately.

"I have no idea. Go look for it, I'll be in here." Stork jerked a thumb at the Control Room and sidled past her. His heart was going berserk in his chest. He did not want to let her into that room.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "You're lying."

"Am not." he said around the lump of bile and fear in his throat.

And then she remembered. He saw it dawn in her blue eyes, the most terrible dawn he'd ever witnessed.

"Falshade." the words barely made it past her lips and then she was trying to shove her way past him.

"No, Wing!" he said desperately, trying to hold the door shut and get a grip on her jacket at the same time. But she wriggled out of his frantic grasp and forced the door open. He tried to catch hold of her as she squeezed past but she was too quick for him. He nearly ran into her frozen form as he followed after her.

Any Talons who she'd felled before had been removed from the room, but blood still remained, on the floors and walls. Her scimitar was lying next to one of the sectors and the rainbow of lights were winking and flashing as if they'd never born witness to the battle that had taken in place in their dark universe. But Wing only had eyes for Falshade.

No noise escaped her as she fell to her knees and then scrambled across the floor, which was slippery and sticky with blood. Jungle blood. Stork could only look on in horror and distraught. Wing pulled herself right into the panthera's flank and grabbed hold of his shadowy pelt in both hands. Her entire body was trembling as she gave the cat's body a gentle yet desperate shake.

"Falshade?" she whispered, tears choking and catching in her voice. The cat's head lolled lifelessly and his wings rustled slightly as they were jostled by her pleading shake. One slid over his flank, bumping her arm bluntly, no muscles or comfort assisting his movements. Blood dripped from the mighty gash in his throat and joined the sea of cooling life that Wing was kneeling in. The panthera was gone.

Now was not the time for screams or oaths of revenge. Now was not the time for tears and sobs and begging for return. Now was the time for silence, a horrible, smothering thing that wrapped around Wing and her broken heart as she buried her face into Falshade's fur, no longer warm or soothing but stiff and cold. And the clamouring silence washed over her like black water.

Stork twisted his face away and tried to block that freezing silence from his ears. No no no no no no NO! This was the Golden Rule, one that you were never, ever supposed to break! It was almost a law: no one was ever lost. No one ever gets left behind, nobody ever is supposed to die….

It was all a stupid game they liked to play. They ran about with swords and crystals and pretended to be big, they aimed to cripple, they acted like children. But this was war, and they had to be kidding themselves to think that all along they'd always be alright, that they'd never lose each other. They had kidded themselves. It was all fun and games until somebody died. It took that to make them realize… and now…

His frustrations and anguish bubbled over. It was because of these stupid Vaticans with no stupid squadron that they'd gotten dragged here, Piper's stupid plan, his stupid, stupid paranoia… where had it gotten them?

No. It wasn't their fault. It was the Vultures and the Cyclonians and the Dark Ace and everyone else who just couldn't let the world go by without trying to ruin it. It was a game to them too. A game of Let's Conquer the World, Let's Play God.

A bitter taste was in the back of his mouth as he yanked Wing's broadsword from its scabbard and turned to the controls. Fuck, why couldn't he have just done this in the first place? Then Wing wouldn't have a hole in her hand and Falshade wouldn't be dead.

Jeez, the thing was heavy. How did she make it look so easy? Squeezing the trigger on the handle the whole sword went up like it had been soaked in star fuel and he jumped slightly at the heat. It sat heavily in his hands for a second before he flipped it over and rammed it into the centre console. The huge machine crackled and spat and hissed and howled like a beast and sparks flung themselves free from the inferno. Lightning rods of electricity flew and connected together and leapt at him like angry snakes. He let go of the sword and back up a bit, his foot sliding in something thick and cold. He recoiled in repulsion and watched as the entire board flickered like a failing heart and then all the lights winked out like a dying constellation. The only light was the eerie glow of Wing's gleaming broad sword.

He breathed deeply a few times and waited to hear something explode. Nothing. It had been safe all along.

"Wing." he breathed carefully, picking out her hunched form in the semi-light. No response.

"The system is shut down… this place is a closed door to them now." he reported quietly, all euphoria vanquished in the face of loss. "We have to go get the Condor. Remember Piper's plan?"

Wing made a whimpering noise and pulled herself further into Falshade's body.

"Y-you go." she gurgled. "Y-you know w-where my skimmer is."

He rubbed his hands over his face. "I can't fly your ride. And what if I run into more Talons?"

"Take my sword." her words were hollow and empty and sounded like defeat. It scared him.

"What about you?"

"I'm going to stay here." she told him hazily, snuggling into Falshade's flank as if she were lying down to sleep until she died.

He hated doing this to her, but there was no way he was letting her stay here until another band of Talons found her. He crouched next to her and reached for her shoulder, changed his mind half way and then grit his teeth and grabbed it anyways, despite the fact she was probably crawling with bacteria. "No, you're not. Get up. C'mon, please get up. You can't stay here forever."

She murmured something inaudible into Falshade's fur, her face hidden from him. He was certain it was something along the lines of "watch me" though.

"Look. You dragged me… literally, through this whole mission, and even though I fucked up you just wouldn't quit. We're so close, and I'm not just gonna let you sit here and give up." He told her, clinging to her shoulder a little tighter then he should have.

She raised her head slowly, looking stiff and sore all over. She looked him straight in the eye and for once she just looked so… small, like a child. All strength and hope and fight seemed to have been sucked out of her by the black hole that was Falshade's absence. Her face was bruised and torn and streaked with blood and sweat and too-long held back tears.

"I can't just leave him here." she whispered, shaking.

"We won't. We'll come back for him." Stork told her, not even beginning to think of how they were going to carry the three hundred pound panthera's… deadweight… out of the fortress.

Wing oogled at him, her eyes stretched abnormally wide and vacant. "You promise?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I promise."

Wing was on her feet so fast he was knocked over backwards. He shuffled away from the pool of Falshade's blood before bothering to try and get back to his feet. Wing had approached the still fizzing circuit board. She reached out and tug her sword free, sliding it into its sheath without a sound. She retrieved her scimitar and then helped him to his feet, looking wretched and deadly.

"This isn't like last time." she said then, to no one in particular it seemed. Stork nodded anyways, in case that might comfort her.

"No, it isn't. Things are going to be okay, you'll see." That he wasn't so sure of. There were only a few things that could make this any more not-okay, he knew that even in his over-calculating mind. And they were horribly possible.

"No, don't you see, Stork?" she asked him then, something horrible cracking on her face, the veins around her temples leaping out like ink from her pale skin. "Don't you get it? It isn't like last time because…" her jaw cracked under the strain of her smile. Despite his trying to be supportive he couldn't help but take a tiny step back from her. "Because because because this time there are still Cyclonians around and just waiting for someone to rip their bellies open and spill all that tar from their veins. See?"

When the lights suddenly went out, Aerrow felt like he was trying to fly Widow's Canyon blindfolded; at any moment he expected something to blow him apart.

Instinctively he ducked, pulling the person nearest him, who happened to be Finn, down with him to his belly on the floor. He heard Finn's rattling breath as he succeeded in knocking the wind out of himself and then felt and heard and saw five charges thunder by overhead as the Talons attempted to stop any of them who may have tried to make a run for it.

He whipped out both of his lightning blades and fired two rounds towards the Talons and then rolled to the side as another charge came hurtling like a comet in his direction on the floor. He heard Finn yelp, hopefully more out of surprise then injury, and Radarr squawked as he was nearly rolled over by Aerrow and Junko and nearly blasted with another bolt of energy.

Then the emergency lights sputtered to life.

Piper had pressed herself against the wall and was almost successful in pitching herself into the elevator shaft. She was the first one to start the attack, cracking one charging Vulture around the head with her energy staff before she could even register her own movements. She jumped over him as his unconscious body continued to hurtles itself at her out of pure momentum. She fired two bolts at the clutter of Talons who were providing cover fire for their allies and then spun about in a wide arc, clipping two Talons in the head region before flicking her staff round and catching a third under the chin.

Aerrow sprang into action, closing his blades like a scissor to catch a Vulture's energy staff between then and then rolling them over so now the open end was facing the floor. He grinned up at the Vulture, who looked dumbfounded and then twisted to the side and jerked his blades downward at the same time. Like a see-saw the opposite end of the staff rocketed upwards in the Vulture's grasp and punched into the underside of his jaw, snapping his head upwards with a crack. For good measure Aerrow landed a snap kick right in his now exposed chest and the larger man keeled over backward and met the floor without resistance.

Finn struggled to regain his breath on the floor while he fumbled with his crossbow. In these close quarters it was easier to select a target, but difficult to insure you had a clear shot at said target. You never knew when someone you knew might decide to jump through the cross wires at the wrong moment. They don't call it friendly fire for nothin'.

Feeling frustrated as he lost yet another perfect shot because Aerrow was obscuring his vision, Finn wondered if it might just be more effective to throw his crossbow at someone instead. He looked up for inspiration and spotted a heavy looking pipe line snaking across the ceiling over head of the battle.

"Oh yeah, I am so genius." he told himself and then shouted "Hey, Hawkies! Pretend there's a deck and hit it!" Hoping his friends got the message he reared his crossbow upward and squeezed the trigger.

Two crossbolts blasted soundly into either side of the large pipe. The pipeline shudder like a huge black centipede and then with a jaw clenching grinding sound it broke loose from its support brackets and parted company with the ceiling. It swung down like a tree branch that has been released and thundered into eleven Talons simultaneously, knocking laying them all low like bowling pins.

"Ha! Strike! Thirty points to the handsome blonde with the bow!" Finn crowed, blowing on the tip of his crossbow and pointing his fingers in their typically arrogant six guns position.

Right around then it was like the force of a waterfall had been realised from the rumbling pipe.

"Quick! Follow me!" Piper shouted over the clamour and the boys took off after her down the corridor while a wave of water chased behind them like an eager dog. It barely reached their knees and wasn't really of any hindrance to them, but Finn had only provided them with a temporary lull and they intended to take full advantage of it.

"Way to think on your feet, Finn!" Aerrow congratulated as the slipped and splashed down the fast-flooding corridor. "Not only did you knock out those Talons like flies with a fly swatter, you provided us with some get away cover!"

"Heh, I know, I'm awesome."

"I hate to say it, but good work, Finn." Piper relented as they paused momentarily to let her recall which hallway they had to take. "Okay, the dungeons are down this way, and since it looks like the power's out then we shouldn't have any trouble getting the doors open."

"Bonus. C'mon, let's go save some kiddies!" Finn cheered eagerly and led the way down the considerably darker passageway.

"Hey, if the power's off that means Stork and Wing did their job, right?" Junko asked Piper as they followed behind.

"Theoretically." Piper said with obvious relief. "The three of them are probably on the way back to the Condor as we speak."

Aerrow and Finn had reached the end of the passage and were both heaving at the handle of a heavy metal door. The energy locks may have been off but the door was still bolted shut.

"She's all yours, Junko." Aerrow granted, bowing in an exaggerated way as he moved away from the door. Junko grinned his boyish little Wallop grin and crunched his knuckles together, activating the hungry green glow. The others backed away a safe distance as he brought back a fist and then sent it thundering into the door, knocking the thing right off it's hinges.

"I think it was a pull." Finn smirked and Junko pulled an 'oops' face at him before pushing his way into the black chamber beyond the now empty doorway.

Aerrow followed after him closely, activating his blades once more so they could look around. "Hello?" he called. His voice echoed back instantly. It was like shouting in a shower stall.

Suddenly something threw itself against metal bars nearby, attempting to land a punch on Aerrow. Radarr leapt back in alarm and Aerrow started.

"Back off!" came a small but determined voice. "I'm warning you! Don't come any closer!"

Aerrow took a respective step back and raised his right blade a little higher to shed light on the voice's owner. Directly in front of him lay a solid wall of bars, and just on the other side a small boy, no older then eight at the most, was struggling ferociously and trying to claw his was through the bars to get at them. Behind him, hidden in the semi-shadows a small group of children huddled, looking dirty and terrified of these new, weapon wielding teenagers.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down." Aerrow said, trying to sound non-threatening. "We're here to get you out!"

"Right. And I'm a pixie." the boy growled, his tiny hands curled at his sides. He looked exhausted, starved and afraid just beneath a fragile wall of determination. And his face looked oddly familiar. Aerrow suddenly was stuck by the notion that this must be Thane's son.

"No, really, we're here to help. Look, we aren't Talons, see?" Piper said soothingly, angling herself to show him her Storm Hawks crest. "We're going to get you out of here and bring you back to your families."

"And why should we believe that? Just because you've got some bits of twisted metal on your backs?"

"Hey, listen up little dude, because I did not claw my way into this puke hole to get sassed by some little punk, okay? That's my job. We nearly got sliced, diced, shredded and splattered to find you guys so unless you smarten up and come with us right now you're going to get one hell of a service charge in your dungeon inbox, got it?" Finn snapped, his patience with this kid done and gone.

The boy seemed to mull over this before looking at Aerrow again, with dramatically less hostility. Enter Finn, hostage negotiator and master motivational speaker. He still seriously lacked tact, however.

"Okay, so you're here to rescue us. How do you plan to get us all out without anybody noticing?" he asked haltingly.

"Let's just say that inconspicuous isn't really our forte. Anyways, does it really matter? We're getting you out and that's that. Just stay quiet and do exactly as we tell you." Aerrow ordered, nodding to Junko. The Wallop stepped forward and grasped the metal door, wrapping his meaty hands around two bars and jerking the thing right from the brackets and tossing it aside without a second thought. He then moved on to the next cell, where the children inside shrank back form his formidable size and watched on in a combination of awe and fright.

Piper stepped into the first cell and crouched next to the trembling children, speaking soothingly and motherly to them. The boy stepped out boldly and stood before Aerrow, stretching in a way he must have thought was unnoticeable in an attempt to make himself look taller.

"We'll follow you." he reported. "But we're not going to be able to just waltz out of this place. We might even have to fight." The idea seemed to frighten him and give him a guilty sense of excitement at the same time.

Aerrow nodded. "We'll protect you, don't worry."

The boy glanced about shiftily and stared at his feet awkwardly before asking "If you lend me a blade, I can fight as well."

Aerrow lifted a brow before shaking his head. "Sorry, little man, but you'd better leave that stuff to us. But there is a way you can help me. The other children look up to you. Can you make sure they listen to us and keep together?"

The boy nodded obediently, looking proud of himself. "You bet I can. I'm Finch." he informed Aerrow, thrusting out a hand brazenly.

"Aerrow." Aerrow responded, shaking the tiny appendage and then turning to check on the others' progress. Piper had coaxed all the children out into the middle of the room and was still chattering to them to keep them calm. Junko had just ripped the last door from its socket and Finn had hefted a tiny girl up into his arms, holding her close to his chest and looking much more reserved then Aerrow had ever seen him.

"Her name's Pidgin." he explained to Aerrow's questioning look. "Her ankles hurt, I think."

The girl stared up at Aerrow with huge dark eyes and clung tightly to Finn's uniform. Piper gave him an exaggerated adoring expression and he stuck his tongue out her in retaliation.

"I like kids." he muttered defensively.

"Listen up, everyone." Finch was talking to the crowd of children as Aerrow checked down the passage to make sure the coast was clear. "This is Aerrow and he's going to get us out of here. We can trust him. But we've got to be really quiet and keep together, okay? This isn't a game."

"Smart kid." Finn granted.

Finch turned to Aerrow. "Okay, we're ready to go."

"Right. Junko, you take up the rear, make sure we don't loose anyone. Finch, stay close to me in case I need your help. Finn, keep up with us too and make sure you cover us if we need to make a break for it, got it?" Aerrow directed, feeling his leader skills flowing as he built their action plan. "Piper, stay up near the front so you can tell me where to turn and keep everyone together." Piper nodded. Aerrow scanned the group of traumatized kids and picked out a taller, older looking girl who looked a little less stricken and like she still had some strength in her yet. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Stella." she said, sticking her chin out defiantly. She had to be at least twelve.

"Okay. You're going to stick with Piper there, help out the littler ones and if Finn has to help me out you're going to take Pidgin from him, okay?" Aerrow directed, pointing to each of his friends in turn. The girl nodded and stood next to Piper, taking the hand of a smaller boy and girl who might have been her younger sister.

"Right, the rest of you keep together, follow us and look out for each other." Aerrow said lastly to the rest of the children. Some nodded while others hid behind others taller then them. Aerrow suddenly felt very afraid. Coming in here in the first place had been risky, but now that he had all these kids in tow while Talons and Vultures stormed the fortress in a frenzy felt just bad. Foreboding. Like he was pushing his luck

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and then after one more check into the half-lit hallways he stepped free of the dungeon, eager to leave it's bloody, fetid, fear scent behind him.

"We want to head to the courtyard." Piper whispered to him, holding the hands of several children at once. Despite the untimely inappropriateness of the situation Aerrow couldn't help but think of how much of a good mother she'd be, in another space in time.

"Right. Which way's that?"

"At the end of this corridor turn left." she instructed and he did as he was told, halting briefly to listen for any approaching Talons and checking to make sure they still had everybody. Then they hurried on.

It was an eerie feeling to be fleeing down these corridors with so many kids in tow. It hadn't really been that long ago that he'd been their age and was sure he would have felt the same way they did now. In this given situation would he have been like Finch and Stella, tough and determined to protect those smaller then himself? Or might he have been like Pidgin and cling to someone older, stronger, faster?

He liked to think he'd act as the former.

"Hang a right up here, Aerrow and then take the first set of stairs you see down." Piper called to him in a pantomimey sort of way. Aerrow jerked his head in acknowledgment and skidded and had to back track as the next turn appeared faster then expected.

He skidded again as he came to an abrupt halt, Radarr's body whip lashing on his shoulder and digging his little blue digits into his hair for support. Finn bumped into his back.

"What?" the sharpshooter demanded uneasily, although the answer was obvious. This new passage was completely pitch black. Not even an emergency light flickered at the opposite end.

"Everyone stay quiet." Aerrow whispered behind him, feeling a prickly feeling on the back of his neck that alerted them that they weren't alone. Finn slid Pidgin into Stella's arms and raised his crossbow warily, peering through the scope stubbornly.

They waited, the whole troop of them, with baited breath, starring into the darkness until their eyeballs hurt from the strain.

Then something shuffled ahead of them.

"Finn, ten o'clock!" Aerrow shouted, pulling Finch and another child against the wall and out of the line of fire. Finn leapt forward and cracked three shots off into the darkness. The blue energy's light lit up the passage momentarily and gave them a silhouetted view of a horde of Talons, etching them out like quicksilver.

"Aerrow, take these kids and run! Finn and I'll handle these jerks!" Junko hollered, clapping his knuckles together and taking off down the hall while Finn fired round after round at the dark mob.

It took all of Aerrow's will power to shove aside his Sky Knight instincts and walk away from the fight. He turned instead to Piper, barely able to make her out it the dark.

"Which way?" he had to raise his voice to be heard over the ensuing sound of battle.

"Keep to the wall, the staircase should be just ahead." she answered and he nodded before remembering she couldn't see him.

"Okay. Here we go." He broke into a run, keeping one hand on the wall and the other firmly wrapped around Finch's. He prayed that they wouldn't lose anyone in the dark and that Finn and Junko would hold their own alright and that they'd be able to catch up and not get lost and that Stork and Wing were on their way and that please please please let none of these kids get caught in the crossfire.

He almost fell down that flight of stairs, it yawned up in front of him so suddenly. He felt somebody whoosh by behind them and assumed it was Junko, because right after that there was a muffled whump of fist meeting flesh.

"Here, here!" Aerrow called back to Piper. "Found it! Have we still got everyone?"

"I think so. Just go Aerrow, quickly!" Piper urged and he took in a deep breath, promised himself that Finn and Junko would be okay and then vaulted down the stairs, half leading and half dragging Finch behind him.

"Right to the bottom!" Piper's voice echoed weirdly from the dark above him as she ushered the rest of the kids down the dark stairs and answering his question before he even asked it.

He stumbled three times and kept getting his knee sockets jolted as he skipped several stairs unknowingly in the dark. He looked upward and wished the emergency lights would turn back on. He didn't dare risk lighting up one of his blades; if anyone was waiting at the bottom they'd see him coming from miles away.

He heard thumping and clattering coming from above, rapidly descending towards them. "Hold up!" he called and skidded to a halt, nearly loosing his balance and taking the long way down the stairs.

"It's just us!" Finn's voice panted from above. "Keep going!"

"You're both alright?"

"Not for long if we don't get outta here, captain!"

"Point taken." Aerrow muttered and continued hurtling down the stairs, feeling like he was pitching himself down the throat of some monstrous beast.

The stairs levelled off so abruptly that he kept going for a moment expecting there to be another step beneath him. He hit the ground hard, staggered and fell, most un-leader like. At least he had the decency to let go of Finch's hand before he did so.

"Guys, watch out for the bottom!" he called up a little too late. Piper stumbled and let out a surprised yelp but held her balance. Finn crashed right into him. Junko was far enough up to hear the warning and stepped off the last stair indifferently.

"Watch out for what now?" he asked.

"Have we got everybody?" Piper was asking, attempting to do a head count. "Is there anyone missing?" she turned to Aerrow looking ashamed of herself. "I should have set up a buddy-system." she scolded.

"You're doing great." Aerrow assured her. "Now, which way to the courtyard?"

"Straight ahead, through those big doors." she said, still sounding annoyed with herself.

"Junko, wanna let us out?" Aerrow asked, looking around the considerably brighter entrance hall nervously. Junko approached the mighty doors and stared up at them with a shrug.

"Who are these guys trying to impress?" he asked and with one hand on either handle he dragged them open as easily as if he were pulling a blanket over his bed.

"Good work, Junko. Is there anybody out there? Talons, the Condor?" Aerrow asked. Junko leaned out and looked around.

"Nobody."

Aerrow couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. What he did know was they couldn't stay waiting like a flock of sheep at the bottom of these stairs. "Alright. Everybody follow us out and stick together, okay?" Again he was greeted with several scattered nods. He motioned for Junko to wait behind them again and then stepped out into the courtyard warily, his eyes jumping from shadow to shadow.

The courtyard was large enough to fit the Condor without difficulty. Landing it in between the high grey walls may have been something of a challenge, however, but he had faith in Stork. What he didn't like was how closed in he felt in here. It was like stepping into a big, cardboard box. He looked up at the walls anxiously. It would be so easy for the Talons to open fire from above, pick them off like fish in a barrel.

"Come on, Stork, where are you?" he muttered, training his eyes on the inky sky. He wished he had his radio.

He stopped in the middle of the yard and turned to look at Piper, trying not to look as desperate as he felt. Every second more they stood here was another second more that could give the Talons a chance to find them.

"Where are they?" he mouthed, not wanting to give the kids any reason for panic. Yet.

She lifted her palms and looked as uneasy as he felt. Finn was watching the doors they'd just come through, his crossbow lifted and at the ready. He didn't have much ammo left, Aerrow noticed in dismay.

"Aerrow?" Finch was tugging at his hand. Aerrow looked down at him and forced a smile onto his face reassuringly.

"What's up?"

"What are we waiting for?"

"Some friends of mine are coming with our carrier ship. They'll get us all out."

"Where are they?"

"They're coming." Aerrow promised. "They're just a little behind schedule. I need your help again, alright? Can you go tell everyone that when our ship gets here that they'll have to follow Piper and you inside? We can't afford to have anyone dawdling, okay?"

Finch nodded and went over to the group of children and began giving them Aerrow's instructions in a low voice.

Junko came over beside him then. "They're alright, right?" he whispered, although his voice didn't decrease in volume very much.

"Who?"

"Stork and Wing. I mean I know they got the power off, but…" Junko fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm worried about them."

"Me too. But we have to keep these kids calm, remember. This is just a bit of a set back." Aerrow told him and he nodded grimly.

"You shouldn't lie to little children, Aerrow." A menacing, oh-so-familiar voice drawled from the darkness over at the opposite end of the yard.

Aerrow stepped forward, placing himself between the kids and this new threat, one he'd seen coming from the moment he saw the Talon emblem glinting in the light of the shadowy tunnels. Finn, Junko and Piper did likewise, pushing the kids back gently and pulling out their weapons with resolution.

The Dark Ace sauntered out from beneath a second shadowed passageway they hadn't noticed, over in the far right corner of the yard. As he approached them slowly Talons and Vultures alike spilled out of the dark mouth behind him, filing into ranks behind him, grinning wickedly. More and more and more of them, the whole damn nest.

The Dark Ace stopped in the middle of the courtyard and smiled smugly at them. Behind him stood his minions, more then Aerrow could take in in one glance. More then a hundred.

"I'll leave that sort of thing to you, Dark Ace." he growled while several children behind him whimpered and cried.

"Everybody stay together." he could hear Finch telling them and felt a rush of pride for his mini commander. He glanced over at the rest of his squadron and felt even more pride gallop momentarily in his chest. They all were standing with bent limbs and fierce faces, brave and collected and ready to fight despite the towering odds. He turned to face the Dark Ace again, feeling powerful beside his friends.

"Lying suits you better anyways." he continued. "What did you promise those pirates in return for their man power, I wonder?"

The Dark Ace laughed, a dark, harsh sound. "Man power? You mean flesh wall. They know what they're here for, foolish little Sky Knight, and they know what their reward is as well. No, Aerrow, today you are the liar and I can tell you why in four simple words."

"Oh yeah? Enlighten me." Aerrow dared, although he was sure he knew what was coming and didn't want to hear it.

The Dark Ace smirked and the lifted a pale hand to count down with his fingers: "Your friends aren't coming." His last finger dropped finally and Aerrow felt a spike of dread poke a hole in his confidence.

"He's making it up." Piper told them as Junko faltered and Finn shot Aerrow a disarmed glance. "The power went out, you saw it. They're coming."

The Dark Ace laughed again. "You're always so sure of yourselves, aren't you? The pathetic little Storm Hawks, stubborn and arrogant in their youth and talent. But why would I want to bluff about a thing like that? I already have enough men here to personally annihilate you, why would I be worried about, ah… reinforcements?"

"Because you know we can kick your butt from here to Cyclonia!" Finn barked.

"Shall I give you two more guesses? No?" The Dark Ace taunted them. He wanted them to make the first move, Aerrow realized, to draw them away from the children. He ground his boots into the stone firmly. "Then I'll tell you. I don't have to bluff because I know I've got your Merb friend and that wretched little Shadow Stryker hanging from the ceiling, quite incapacitated, as we speak."

Aerrow faltered momentarily. How would the Dark Ace know Wing was a Shadow Stryker unless he really had run into them? And why no talk of Falshade? This was bad, really bad, he knew it.

"Maybe it will console you to know that they're alive still, until I finish with you. You should try and keep me busy." The Dark Ace said, all smugness gone from his voice as he advanced forward. "Goodbye, Storm Hawks."

Right around then Aerrow heard the engine rumbling in the night air. And then something burst over top of the towering walls and dropped into a nose dive, something loud and definitely not hanging from a ceiling.

"KABOOM, MOTHER FUCKERS, KABOOM!" Wing howled and pulled her skimmer right over their heads, narrowly avoiding Junko before disabling the wings and turning herself sideways so the flat side of her skimmer was facing the Talons. Tire squealed and screeched as she skidded over the ground, still going much too fast, and crashing right into the front ranks, turning her skimmer into a battering ram. She leapt free of her ride as it continued to roll over Cyclonians and Vultures and then whipped her broadsword off her back. With one massive two-handed sweep she unleashed a mighty wall of fire that roared straight towards the confused and scattered Talons.

The Condor's horn sounded so loudly that it rattled the ground beneath Aerrow's feet and reverberated in his chest. He looked up to see their bird sinking down slowly towards them and he couldn't remember ever being happier to see her.

"Watch it, make room!" Piper was saying, ushering kids out of the way as the Condor's pontoons touched down and the ramp ejected itself down to contact with the ground with a solid clang.

"Piper and Finn get those kids inside, quickly! Junko with me, we gotta help Wing!" Aerrow shouted over the noise and then charged toward the band of Talons, slightly depleted now and stricken but no less a threat.

Wing didn't seem like she needed help, however. She was releasing burst of flame every now and then from her broadsword to keep from getting completely surrounded and then swinging and chopping madly at anyone who got to close. She was ranting and raving like a lunatic, however, and Aerrow was worried about her.

"When I grab a sharpened object and choirs of angels seem to sing- back off you sonofabitch!" she shouted, whacking a Vulture around the middle with the flat of her broadsword with enough force to make a Wallop nod in approval. Aerrow kept an eye on her and then made a quick sweeping look to see where the Dark Ace had gotten too. He seemed to have vanished and that irritated Aerrow, even thought he knew he shouldn't be scratching for a fight with him. Besides if the Dark Ace wasn't around usually that meant less people got hurt. However what could he be up to that would suddenly call him away from battle?

Junko was clearing a path through Talons easily, throwing punched like he was cutting through bamboo with a machete. Aerrow saw Vultures fleeing back into their nest and gaps were forming in Talon ranks like a shirt chewed on by moths. He shot through one such gap, landed a punch in the face of one unfortunate Talon and came up beside Wing. He perhaps should have warned her because she turned and was so surprised by his sudden appearance that she nearly gutted him with her scimitar.

"Nice timing." he told her and took in how frightening she looked. She was covered from head to toe in blood, some new enough that it dripped from her hair. Her face was marked by tear tracks and dirt and she looked bruised and battered and broken and feral. For the first time since meeting her he had to question he emotional stability. Living alone beside the graves of your family had to have some sort of psychological effect, after all, and he wondered if it was really such a good idea after all to have invited her along with them.

"Call it a hunch." she said and then pulled him down as a Talon took a swipe at his exposed back. She shot upward again and launched a kick into his chest before flinging him back with another impressive swipe of her broadsword.

"I got your skimmers!" she yelled as they were suddenly engulfed by a wave of Talons forced back by Junko. He was loosing sight of her in the crowd, many of which were more intent on getting away then fighting anymore. He nodded to show he'd heard and pummelled the nearest Cyclonian beneath a series of quick jabs. He risked a glance over at the Condor and saw Finn standing on one of the pontoons, restocked with crossbolts and firing at any Talons who got too close. Radarr was circling about like a sheep dog as if to make sure no children were left behind. Piper was holding Pidgin and directing the rest of them into the hanger. They were almost ready to go.

"Junko, Wing, fall back to the Condor!" Aerrow shouted over the sea of Talons. Junko saluted him and carved himself a path back across the courtyard. Wing was fighting her way back to her fallen skimmer but turned briefly to give Aerrow a thumbs up to show she'd heard.

Most of the Talons had retreated now and Aerrow had a much easier time getting back across the yard. He turned and fired three charges at their fleeing backs for good measure and then approached the Condor, waving up at Stork on the bridge and holding out his arm as Radarr scrambled onto his shoulder.

"Aerrow! They've got ships!" Finn yelled down to him, pointing. Aerrow looked up and could make out a large carrier ship rising into the night. It didn't appear to be interested in attacking the grounded air ship. They were running now, too battered to try and take on the squadron anymore. They learned fast.

Wing motored over on her skimmer, which looked sore and thoroughly scraped. "I'm going top side to make sure they don't try anything funny." she called to Aerrow over the roar of her engine and he lifted a finger to tell her to wait. He beckoned for Finn and Junko to follow and hurried into the hanger and bee-lined for his ride. He had to weave between children and decided to walk it rather then ride out of the hanger.

"Piper, will you and Stork be okay on your own?" he called to her and she nodded, holding Finch firmly by the shoulder as he struggled to come after Aerrow.

"Go and chase them off. Stork and I will meet you back at the city." she said and brought the last of the children up the ramp. Aerrow realized he hadn't given her much opportunity to fight all evening, instead enlisting her to keep an eye on the kids. He promised himself to make it up to her later.

It was hard to take off in the cramped courtyard and Finn nearly ended up crashing head first into one of the mighty walls but they climbed steadily upward and then were free of the fortress. Aerrow could see now not only one but three air ships taking off in the distance. The really were turning tail and running. He smirked and turned to look at his squadron triumphantly.

"Look at them run! Cowards!" Finn yowled, pointing his six gunned fingers after them and shooting them at the retreating carriers like pistols cockily. Junko punched a still glowing fist in the air. Wing managed a lopsided grin.

"Have I ever told you guys how amazing we are?" Aerrow asked and Finn wrapped him in a one-armed hug awkwardly from his skimmer, squeezing his shoulders gamely.

"Yeah, but you can say it one more time, just for me, Cap'n!" he crowed in Aerrow's ear.

"Stop calling me that. Like, now."

"You might wanna move, the Condor's a big girl." Stork's voice crackled through Aerrow's speaker then. They peered down and could make out the Condor's lights as she lifted from the courtyard like a ghost. Finn snorted.

"You better not talk to real girls that way, Stork-y, or your never gonna get any." he said, using Aerrow's intercom system as opposed to his own because he was a knob that way.

Stork muttered something inaudible at the other end of the radio and Finn giggled like a maniac.

They circled back down and coasted along behind the Condor like an escort. Aerrow kept looking back over his shoulder as if he expected to see skimmers following them. He couldn't just shake this feeling that there was still something or someone about back there. It just seemed too easy.

The next time he turned around he had to blink several times. Okay, now he was just being paranoid. Those weren't really skimmers, were they?

Then the Condor's proximity alerts went off and could be heard even from this distance in the still night and he knew there really were skimmers behind him.

A red bolt of electricity barrelled past him and nearly caught Finn's engine. They simultaneously wheeled about to see the formation of Cyclonians hanging in the air like hornets.

"You didn't expect us to give up that easily, did you?" The Dark Ace's voice floated over the space between them silkily and taunting even after their defeat at the citadel.

Aerrow began to wheel his skimmer about in the air, glancing at the others to make sure they were prepared for battle too, but stopped suddenly when he caught sight of Wing. She was hunched over her controls, stiff, trembling. Something glittering dripped from her chin in rapid succession. Dark, matted hair obscured almost the rest of her face, but Aerrow could see her lips moving, muttering something over and over again, slowly and then quickly and then slowly, disjointedly again. He strained to catch it, caught up in her sudden strange attitude despite the situation:

"I hate….I hate Cyclon….I…hate…I love you, Falshade… and I hate…"

She jerked upright then and screamed it out so loudly that Finn and Junko turned to look now too.

"I HATE CYCLONIANS!"

She flung herself against the throttle, wrenching her skimmer into a straight upward climb so abruptly and roughly it groaned and screeched at her in protest and insult. She rolled her ride around and then gunned it, pushing her ride to its limit as she charged the fleet of Talons.

"Cover her!" Aerrow shouted at the other tow and then tore after Wing.

x

She could only half see. Images and urges and impulses and broken dreams flashed like a chewed up movie reel behind her retinas. She was feeling too small again as a pressure swelled and roiled and devoured anything in its path in her guts and under her ribs. Her throat felt like it was closing and she couldn't suck up enough oxygen. Her radio was crackling like a sparking fire beneath her left wrist as Piper tried to contact her from the Condor, but she couldn't hear her. All she could hear was the blood thrashing in her veins, in her ears it seemed, could feel the vessels constrict and then expand behind her eyes and temples, too fast, too roughly.

She could see the Dark Ace though. The whole time he remained clearly in her wavering vision. She saw him lift his sword, drawing her forward daringly. His red eyes connected with hers for a second time that night and she absorbed every echo of their hue, of that colour, as red as an exploding sun.

And then she knew she wasn't meant to be the one to kill him.

An electricity coiled dangerously between the two of them again, waiting to blow, but it was a different kind this time. She felt no less hate for him then she had before, no less then she ever would carry for him. But she knew she wasn't the only one to hold that hate. How many other families had he ripped apart, how many other oaths had been sworn against him, how many tears had she added to the sea that he held claim to? In the end, it didn't matter how badly she wanted to see his soul flicker and fade in his eyes, there were hundreds of others out there who wanted it just as much. Who was she to think she was the one to finally end it? What made her so special?

She knew then if anyone were to finally kill the Dark Ace it would be Aerrow. It was just the way it should be. She'd had here moment of emptiness, been pitched into a place emptier and darker then hate, been consumed by it, a place called revenge, and she hadn't liked it one bit. She'd had her taste of that hollowness, a feeling the Dark Ace himself probably knew all too well and she was quite content to stay out here, just this side of it, and nurse her hatred.

She realized all this in a split second and knew she wasn't about to charge into a final battle with the Dark Ace. But she did want to hurt him, to mash the same amount of pain into him as he had forced into her at that moment. She wanted it more then anything else. And that was what she planned to do.

The Dark Ace raised his blood hued blade and she feinted a reach for her scimitar. She was almost upon him, close enough she could see every detail of his crooked, perverted grin, his greasy black hair and the black empty centers of his gleaming eyes. And in the split second before impact she smiled at him, a werewolf grin, showing off her teeth and splitting her cracked lips. And she saw something deliciously like confusion flicker in his eyes.

Got you.

At the last instant she flipped her skimmer over so that she was flying nearly horizontal and pulled up and out of reach of his blade. She gave him a good long look at the width of her wings before the lower one pounded directly into his face, a satisfying, solid thud of his skull banging into metal with nearly a hundred miles per hour worth of speed behind it.

She lowered herself over the helm of her ride and propelled her ride back towards the citadel. Her job was finished now and she felt like if she didn't go back, like, right now her insides were going to blow through her skin and her chest would implode. She already felt like one of her tear ducts had exploded; tears were running freely from the corners of her eyes and she no longer had control over them. Her anger had abandoned her with her sorrow and she no longer had the energy to fight it.

However she did have enough energy left in the corners of her bones to summon up a bit of vengeful humour. If not for anything else then for Falshade. She twisted slightly so she could see the limp form of the Dark Ace keel from his ride and plummet a good fifty feet before one of his counterparts managed to catch him.

"That's why they call me Wing, bitch." she coughed up. "And don't wear it out."

x

Aerrow heard the connection of metal meeting skull and watched the Dark Ace waver for a second before keeling forward and plummeting. Laughter was the first thing the bubbled up in his throat and he wished he would have thought of something like that before.

"Take that you S.O.B.!" Finn yelled before turning his sights on one of the other Talon skimmers. "You mess with the Storm Hawks and you get their wings!"

Aerrow was watching Wing now, as she continued on a straight shot route back to the fortress instead of angling back around to regroup. He was abruptly worried that she might be considering taking up chase of the other airships.

"Junko, follow Wing and keep her out of trouble, okay?" he hollered to the Wallop, figuring he would have the easiest time carving a path towards the wayward lost girl if needed. Junko nodded and motored after Wing while Finn and Aerrow began the assault on what remained of the scattered and disorganized Talons. Now that they'd lost their leader they seemed more interested in taking flight then continuing with their attack. Finn and Aerrow weaved among them, firing charges more out of a gloating sort of warning then actually making contact. They dive-bombed a few of them, cackling and jeering until Finn got a little too close (and too cocky) and nearly lost an engine to one particularly aggressive Cyclonian. After that they fell back and watched them flee to catch up with the rest of their heinous crew.

"Think that's the last this Terra'll see of those guys?" Finn asked, banging on his smoking engine with his cross bow in irritation.

"Let's hope so. Maybe we should hang around for a couple days to make sure they don't come back for round two." Aerrow said and then looked around absently. "Where'd those two get to? Don't tell me they went all the way back to the citadel!"

Finn groaned. "Argh! I just want this to be over, I'm ti-red." he whined. "Let's just go back, they can catch up."

"No, I'm not leaving them alone up here in case there's still Vultures about down there." Aerrow said and ignored Finn's grumbling as he pushed his intercom button. "Stork, Piper, Finn and I have to go back and get Wing and Junko. You take those kids back to the city already."

"No way, we're coming too." the microphone said indignantly in Piper's voice. "Why'd they go back anyways?" The transmission ended but it was obvious Piper hadn't taken her finger off the button because they were able to hear Stork make an 'erm' noise in the background.

"Stork?" this was Piper. "What happened?"

"Probably best if you don't hear it from me." Stork's voice said skittishly on the other end. Finn was leaning over Aerrow's shoulder even though he had an intercom system of his own.

There was a scuffling noise and then Stork was yelping "No pinching, no pinching!"

Finn snorted. "Kinky." he said and Aerrow pushed him back a couple inches because he was breathing on his neck and it smelled.

"Tell us!"

"I'm trying to drive here…Ow ow ow!"

"Tell us!"

"Okay! Back off!" Stork took a deep breath and then whoosed out one word:

"Falshade."

It took that name for Aerrow to notice the panthera's absence and suddenly something was clawing inside him. Radarr made an alarmed squawking sound and then Aerrow and Finn were flying after Wing and Junko without having to say a word.

It was hard to angle back down over the courtyard but after a few short spirals they were touching back down on the cobbled yard. Stork kept the Condor hanging above their head in wait but Piper came down to join them, finding it much easier to make the landing with her manoeuvrable heliscooter. She was just touching down when Junko appeared in the dark doorway, Wing shadowed beside him.

Aerrow had slipped off his skimmer, unable to come up with any words. Wing was starring at them with wide, lost eyes and was holding something between her hands. A large, black paw.

Junko looked as if he were about to cry, his eyes watery and glassy and his lips trembling. In his arms he held Falshade, or what was left of him here now. The powerful and majestic animal hung limply between his arms, head lolling and his intelligent feline eyes, the colour of his jungle homeland, closed forever.

Radarr made an indiscernible noise and Finn had pulled a hand over his face. Only Piper seemed to still contain the use of her voice, but when it crawled from her lips it was barely a whisper.

"Oh Wing." she murmured and then rushed forward to catch the smaller girl as her legs buckled beneath her.

Finally!! Oh man I am so sorry that it's taken me this long to update! I am really disgusted with myself. If I ever get this bad again feel free to PM me and send me a virtual slap!

But now that this chapter is finally up (it's been sitting half finished for months now) I'd like to dedicate it to someone very special to me. This is for my dog, Sloopy, who passed away last week. She didn't have wings, but she was just as loyal and loving and brave as Falshade and I know she would have died to protect me and my family if she had to.

Love you, girl.