The Dark Ace's Victory

            The citizens of Terra Atmosia gazed skyward to the crash of metal on metal.  Almost a daily sight now, they watched the battle with fearful eyes.  Storm Hawks versus Cyclonia, the only squadron in the Atmos free from Cyclonis's control.  The young heroes valiantly fought a losing battle against the Cyclonian army.  Outnumbered and outgunned, they refused to surrender.
            The Dark Ace rammed his skimmer into Aerrow's, eliciting another ear-shattering crunch as the Storm Hawk's ride caved beneath the pressure.  The fearless sky night ignored his failing ride and somersaulted toward his rival.  He knew the Dark Ace was winning.
            Lightning cracked across the blood-red sky of Cyclonia, followed by a brief darkness.  In the absence of light the Dark Ace disappeared, his wicked laughter echoing from an indeterminable direction.  Aerrow took a nose dive in desperation, but was intercepted by another head-on tackle from the Dark Ace.  The two skimmers locked together- Aerrow's a mangled corpse, Ace's suffering only small scratches.  
            The warriors drew their swords and attacked.  Their blades crossed and the two rivals stared each other down.
            "You know you're losing, don't you?" Ace sneered.
            "I don't care!  I'll never give in to you!"
            "Good, I wouldn't want to miss out on the satisfaction of taking you down myself!"
            "We will defeat Cyclonia!"  Aerrow shouted, taking a wide swing at the Cyclonian.  The Dark Ace easily dodged the sloppy attack as Aerrow realized his poorly calculated action too late.  The older man smirked as he felt his energy blade pierce the sky knight's torso.  He was satisfied with the damage, if not a little disappointed by the small amount of blood that poured from the injury.  The young sky knight's still unfaltering glare made Ace a little uneasy, but he ignored the feeling.
            Aerrow lunged forward, attempting to return the favor, but stumbled.  The Dark Ace had more than enough time to dodge with ease.  Barely stopping himself from falling off the auto piloted ride, he broke the crystal on his blade and dislodged his own ride from the Dark Ace's, only to see it fall to the Wastelands.  Cackling with delight, Ace called out to the boy:
            "One little cut and all that skill just disappears?"  He lowered his smirk into a scowl, adding, "how disappointing."  Aerrow, clutching his wound, decided to go with his very last resort.  The Dark Ace simply stood, waiting to see his opponent's next move.  Aerrow took a step back and pressed a small button on his energy blade, sending a signal to the Condor II.

                                                                           -<>-

            On said carrier ship, an overexcited merb stood at the helm, dodging enemy fire and thinning the waves of fighters.  As he wrenched the steering column like a madman, trying to avoid imminent doom, he noticed a warning light above him.  His eyes widened more than usual and his breath caught in his chest for a moment.  He closed his eyes, gathering what little resolve he still had, before making an announcement to the others.
            "Finn, Junko, get to your turrets.  I need all fire focused on the Dark Ace."  The wallop was the first to arrive.  He looked at the radars with doubt.
            "Stork, Aerrow and the Dark Ace are in the same spot, we can't-"
            "I said 'fire'!" Stork shouted, staring at the battle before him with tears in his eyes.  Finn ran in with Radarr on his shoulder.  He noticed the same situation with the radar and looked up at Junko before directing his words at Stork.
            "There's no way we're shooting at Aerrow, we'll kill him!"  His voice squeaked a little, and Radarr chirped in nervous agreement.  Stork looked at the two unwilling gunners.
            "You know what this means.  Aerrow said he'd only give the order if we were about to lose.  This is the only way to win.  We-" he turned around to focus on piloting.  "We have to do this."  Finn and Junko ran to their turrets, locked on to their target, and fired.

                                                                           -<>-

            The Dark Ace's mouth dropped open when he saw all the Condor II's fire becoming concentrated on Aerrow and himself.  Aerrow took the opportunity to try another attack.  In his distraction, the Dark Ace didn't dodge, and Aerrow's blade dug into his headband and dragged down his face across his left eye.  Ace stumbled backward and screamed.
            "You dirty little sky knight!" he hissed, wiping the blood from his face.  At that moment, Aerrow fell and the Condor's fire disintegrated the skimmer.  A few shots tore at the Dark Ace, but most were deflected by his armor.  Regardless, he still fell.  It was a long way down, and his glider wings were still functioning.  He steered his way across the sky, avoiding the Condor II's fire and as he crossed paths with the nearest Cyclonian he kicked the man off and mounted his ride.
            Aerrow felt his consciousness fading as he fell.  Feeling himself jolt to a sudden, if not gentle, stop, he opened his eyes to see Piper.  She pulled Aerrow into a sitting position and tried to bandage his wounds.  
            "Aerrow, what do we do?" she asked as she worked.
            "We have to keep fighting, Piper."
            "But you're hurt, you can't-"
            "I'm fine."  Aerrow winced as Piper tied the bandage.  "I think I got a pretty good hit on the Dark Ace.  I'm sure we can figure something out."  Piper's worried expression only deepened.  She wrapped her left arm around Aerrow with all her strength, Aerrow looked all around trying to understand what was happening as she veered her heliscooter left with her free hand.  The Dark Ace's blaster shots from his now-generic ride barely missed Aerrow, hitting Piper instead.  She cried out as she fell from the heliscooter.  As Aerrow struggled to stay aboard the unpiloted craft, he watched Piper's parachute in horror, screaming his friend's name as the Dark Ace blasted the thin material to bits and the girl free fell into the wastelands.

                                                                           -<>-

            "Did you hit him?!"  Stork asked, eyes darting across the lightning-riddled sky.  Junko and Finn exchanged worried glances.
            "I don't think we hit Aerrow, did we?" Junko asked, voice doubtful.
            "Nah, dude," Finn replied.  "I think he jumped before we shot.  But we totally hit the Dark Ace.  But we are out of ammo now."
            "That can't be good."  Junko looked at Stork anxiously.  
            "Oh, God.  PIPER!!!"  The merb gasped as he pulled his eyes from the periscope.
            "What happened?!" Finn asked, taking the scope and attempting to see what Stork had.  "Hey, Aerrow's still in the sky at least."
            "But Piper's not."  The carrier pilot's tone was darker than usual.
            "No!" Junko sobbed.  He and Finn exchanged disbelieving looks.  "She couldn't be..."   His voice faded and Stork turned away solemnly.
                                                                           -<>-
            "PIPER!!!"  The Dark Ace cackled at the teen's helpless call, hand outstretched as though he could save her.  The Cyclonian commander then tackled the heliscooter, knocking Aerrow off-balance.  However Aerrow caught one wing of Ace's ride and pulled himself up.
            "I see you're still fighting," The Dark Ace grinned as he watched the sky knight struggle to stand on the moving ride.  He left the pilot's seat and took a fighting stance, feeling no need to draw his sword.  "I guess you haven't had enough torture," he grinned as he flipped on the autopilot with his foot.
            "I'm not going down unless you go down with me," Aerrow smirked.  Weaponless, wounded, and on the verge of fainting, the valiant knight refused to give up.  He lurched forward, hands locking around whatever they could grab.  He broke part of the armor covering the Dark Ace's left arm before he was thrown backwards with ease.  The Dark Ace finished the job, tearing off and discarding the crushed scraps of metal.
            "I don't think that's going to take me down, Aerrow," he grinned.  He took a single step forward and landed a high spin kick on Aerrow's face, spinning the teen several times.  He collapsed with a thunk.  Still he tried to stand, raising his face to see the Dark Ace's foot collide with it once more in a hit that landed with an audible crunching of Aerrow's jaw and nose, flinging the hero off the the skimmer with no chance of recovery.

                                                                           -<>-

            The Condor II took a sharp nose dive.  Stork watched his target without blinking.  Finn and Junko waited in the open hanger, watching for their fearless leader to come into view.  Finn leapt into his skimmer when he caught sight of Aerrow, barely catching him.  As he barrel rolled back into the Condor II, Aerrow's unconscious form slipped off.  Junko took notice and wasted no time in catching the sky knight.  Finn landed and ran after Junko, who rushed Aerrow to the infirmary.
            The three boys stared in horror at their leader.  Only recognizable by his fiery red hair, his face was hidden beneath varying shades of crimson blood.  Finn and Junko couldn't bear to watch as Stork attempted to doctor the wounds and left the room, silent and solemn.  The merb dabbed at his friend's near-fatal wounds with the utmost care, hoping with what tiny, broken shred of hope his heavy heart managed to cling to that Aerrow would survive.  His thoughts drifted for a moment to the Condor making its escape beneath the sulfuric fog of the wastelands, to the fruitless search for Piper, to the Dark Ace's victory.  He wondered whether Cyclonia was invincible.  He suppressed his feelings and continued the job at hand.

                                                                           -<>-

            Wiping the last trickle of blood from his new scar as he unbandaged his face, the Dark Ace grinned at his triumph.  Even if Aerrow had survived, it would be such a long time before he recovered that there would be more than enough time to track down the Storm Hawks and finish the job.  He glared at his image in the mirror, a gloved hand reaching up to trace the scar.  He still kept his eye closed, knowing it was useless.  Oh, well, he thought.  Who needs depth perception to kill a crippled sky knight?  His laughter echoed through Cyclonia, sending a shiver up the spine of everyone in the kingdom... even Master Cyclonis.