literature

Exchange Student CH5

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Exchange Student

Chapter 5

Aerrow let go of the bars of the cell and flopped backwards miserably. This was embarrassing…why hadn’t they noticed the Cyclonians sooner? It wasn’t like they were especially subtle or anything…and what would they want with lunar crystals anyway? They had more than enough power at their disposal, a few lunar absorbing crystals wouldn’t help them much…and most importantly, why had they been separated from Magpie?

Piper paced the small cell they were in anxiously. “I can’t believe this! Poor Magpie! Her first day with us and we walk straight into the Cyclonians! And we were supposed to keep her away from them!”
“Dude, we were expected to stay out of the Dark Ace’s way for a whole week?” Finn said in disbelief, “That’s just silly.”
“I wish Junko were here…he’d be able to bust us out of here in no time!” Piper yelled, kicking the bars. “We have to think of something!” She slumped against a wall, dejected, then said, “Why do you think they took her away like that?”

The boys both knew who she was talking about. “I don’t know…” Aerrow said, “I can’t think of any reason…unless she has history with them…”
“From what Stork said Aura said, she might well have some history…but what?” Piper gazed out into the dark corridor that had ‘entertained’ them for the past hour. “What would she have done? She seems so cheerful and harmless…how would she have got in their bad books?”
“Hello? This is the Cyclonians we’re talking about!” cried Finn, “They don’t have good books! Only bad books! Everyone’s in their bad books! Including us…especially us.”

A guard walked out past them, carrying a red tipped spear, and beckoned to the guard standing sentinel outside their cell. “Hey. There’s been reports of a carrier heading for the terra…have these toads been calling for help?”
“No…all they’ve done is moan…hey, you! Have you called for help? Turn out your pockets!” He prodded the spear through the bars.

Aerrow glanced at the others. They hadn’t called for help…their intercoms were on their skimmers, which were back in the tunnel…they had no way of contacting anyone. And that carrier might not even be headed here at all. But if it was…that would give the Cyclonians something else other then them to think about. “We didn’t call for help…” Aerrow said, “But we have friends who’ll be wondering where we are…”
“Yeah!” said Piper, catching on, “They were supposed to meet us to upgrade out carrier…theirs is a high class war cruiser…and if we didn’t turn up…”
“They’ll be out lookin’ for us,” finished Finn, “But…we didn’t call them.”
“Blast!” The guards both turned away. “We should tell the Master.”
“What about them?”
“They’re not going anywhere!”

The two guards ran off up the corridor, leaving the prisoners alone. “Who d’you think is piloting that carrier?”
“With any luck, it’ll be the Swallows…but they’ll kill us when they find out about Magpie,” Piper said sadly. “We need to find a way out to find her.”

* * *

Magpie scraped at the leftovers on her plate, then put it back down, still hungry. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d just eaten, but it hadn’t killed her, which, Wyng had taught her, meant it was alright. She swung her legs under her little wooden chair and looked around the room again.

It was small, but not cramped, with a wooden table and chair inside and a heavy door with a barred window at the top. That was locked – she’d heard them lock it when she’d been thrown in here. She’s tried picking at it with her crystal morphing knife (another of her less lethal experiments) but to no avail. She was slightly nervous…Aura had always told her to stay away from Cyclonians, but she’d never been told why. Nervously, she tugged at the neck of her jumper.

The door clicked, and the sound echoed around the quiet room. With a heavy creak, the door swung open, to reveal a pair of Cyclonian guards, their faces hidden by their goggles and masks. “Master says you’ve t’come with us,” one of them said gruffly, while the other jabbed his spear in her direction. “You’re lucky…normally she’d soon’s kill a prisoner as look at them…especially a Storm Hawk…”
“I’m not really a Storm Hawk,” explained Magpie, as she was hustled out of the room, “I’m on an Exchange Student Week, Aura thought it would be good for the team to up their game and I volunteered because I love meeting new people…hey, what’s your name? My name is Magpie, but mostly people call me Mags, or Maggie…only my mum calls me Magpie, really…and Stork calls me a disaster, but that’s not even my middle name…”
“All right, quiet down!” grumbled the guard as she was frogmarched off through the patchwork of small huts, scaffolding and holes that made up the inside of the mountain. “It’s dark in here, why don’t you light some crystal lamps? I designed some, they work quite well, with minimum crystal power wastage, all you do…”
“Shut up, will you?!” groaned the second guard, pulling his helmet down over his ears, “Please?!”

Master Cyclonis was less than happy to hear about another carrier headed towards them, but was fairly dismissive of the new ‘threat’. “See that it is taken care of…” was her only order to her soldiers, who immediately took to their skimmers, and the matter was soon put to the back of her mind. After all…Master Cyclonis had an old friend to greet.

“Ah…Sky Knight Magpie…so nice of you to join us.”
“I’m not a Sky Knight, you must be thinking of Aura,” Magpie said cheerfully, but her cheerful mood evaporated as soon as the cloaked figure turned to face her. The guards bowed an stepped back, leaving her feeling horrible alone standing there before that awful figure. “Oh, come, now…don’t be modest…I’m sure you remember…” Cyclonis drew her staff, the claws at the end clicking menacingly, revealing a glowing purple crystal. Magpie shook her head, a pain shooting through her temple. “I…don’t know what you’re talking about…” The pain was so bad…it felt as though something white hot was being forced into her skull.
“I’m sure if you search your memory you’ll find out…we were old friends, you and I…no? Don’t remember?”

Please stop talking, thought Magpie, as the pain grew even worse, I can’t listen to that piercing deadly voice any more, I can’t listen, I can’t…

“You don’t remember working alongside my scientists? I would have thought that a shining moment in your life, Magpie. To show off your talent with inventing? To work your magic in a proper crystal lab? To create and build, your true calling? Why…it was you who designed the aerial defences that we use to this day…those defences are set up around this mountain right now, so if you’re waiting for your little friends to run in and save you…think again. You, of all people, should know that those defences are impenetrable…you designed them. Don’t you remember any of it? I know I do…in fact…I would love to have your services again…I would pay a high price to have you work for me…after all…it is in your…and your friends’…best interests…”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” growled Magpie through gritted teeth, staring at the floor and refusing to meet her gaze, “I’m just a technician on my team’s carrier…I’m not…I never worked here…I’ve never met you…”
“I tire of your insolence, merb!” snapped Cyclonis, “Perhaps another little spell in captivity would help you come to your senses! Return her to her cell! No food or water until she’s ready to come work for me!” The Dark Master turned her back on Magpie, who was know on her knees with pain, clutching the side of her head. The guards heaved her off the floor. “Get going…move!”
“You heard her! You should be honoured that the Master has offered you work!”

As they made their way back to the cell, the pain in her head subsided, and by the time the guards threw her back into the room and into her chair, she could think clearly again. The door slammed behind her, and she spun round, before collapsing back into her seat. It was a good thing she still had some leftovers…that would serve her for a while.

That girl…that little, deathly pale girl…there was something about her that Magpie did not like one bit. It was as though she was a distant memory, or a bad dream come to life, a bad dream from the distant past…and thinking about her made her head hurt again. She frowned, and slumped back in her seat. “Wow…I really have no idea how to get out of this one at all.”

* * *

“Torrne, skimmers! Two o’clock!”
“I’ve seen them!”

The Swallows’ carrier swung to the left as blood red bolts whizzed past them, and Torrne jerked at the controls to right it again. Aura ran down the vorridor, banging on the doors. “WYNG! KAL! JUNKO! WE’RE FLYING OUT!”

Head popped out of the rooms where they had been preparing, and the four of them raced to the skimmer bay. Torrne pulled the carrier upwards to avoid a flurry of shots from ahead, and Aura fell with a shriek into her skimmer. “Come on, come on, no time to waste! They might have Magpie!”
“Um, what is the whole deal with Magpie?” asked Junko, revving the engine of his skimmer as the hatch opened onto the skies. Aura shook her head. “It’s a long story…and it’s not important right now. Just try and keep them away long enough for me to get a message to Stork and Torrne to land the carrier. Your ‘heavy ballistics’ should work pretty well here…” Aura smiled at him and threw her skimmer into the clouds, opening the wings in a second and soaring away. “What’s the message?!” cried Junko, and aura glanced back. “He needs to get in there and get Magpie and the others out while we’re causing a distraction!”
“Wait…you want…you want STORK to do this?!” Junko said, “He’ll never do it!”
“Oh he will…if he knows what’s good for him…Keep them away, guys! I’m going out for the Condor!” She revved her engine and with a burst of flame, she accelerated away from them. Wyng pulled up beside Junko as they flew towards the little specks that were the enemy skimmers, flying from the mountain in the distance like bees. “Aura doesn’t like anything getting in the way of her missions…if I were your carrier pilot I’d be thinking about running, or doing what she tells me to.” He pulled away. “Right then! Let’s show them not to mess with us!”

Aura flattened herself against her skimmer, her radar ticking on the dashboard. A green blip flashed for a second, and she eyed it carefully. It was the Condor…it had to be, and from what she knew about the paranoid merb, Stork was most likely to still be on board. Which was good. They Cyclonians didn’t know about him being there. Aura and her team had already exposed themselves…Stork would be able to slip inside the mountain much easier. She turned her skimmer towards the carrier and dived beneath the trees.

* * *

Kitt jumped as the Relay Crystal glowed underneath her nose, and picked it up before carrying it to Stork, who was glued to the scope. “What? Oh.” He took the smooth flat stone from her and looked at it. “Aura?”
“Stork! I’m coming aboard! Let me in!” The image faded. Stork glared at the stone.
“Please wouldn’t hurt, you know.” Despite this, he turned to the controls and pulled the lever for the skimmer bay doors, and heard them creak open below him. A blurred purple shape dived past and her heard Aura’s skimmer land in the bay. He slouched off to see what she wanted. She couldn’t want  him to do anything…there was really nothing he could do but wait.

“YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?!”
“It’s the only way…they’ve already seen me, and we’re busy making a distraction so that you can get inside!” argued Aura, as Stork made wild gestures at her. “This is much more serious than you think!”
“For once, I want to know what is going on around here!” Stork hissed, “What is going on with Magpie!”

Aura glared at him. “Fine. You want to know?”
“Yes! Yes I do! If knowing means I’m more prepared for a sticky demise, then yes! I want to know the truth!”
“Fine. It’s probably better that you know. But we don’t have much time.”
“Tell me quickly.”
“Alright.” Aura took a deep breath and began.
Oooohh...cliffhanger!!! Mwahaha...I'm evil...

Anyway. More action to come, and I SUCK at action scenes.

Who want's that Dark Ace to fight Aerrow in this somewhere?

Storm Hawks, skimmers, merbs and Cyclonians are all (c) Nerd Corps.

Chapter One >>> [link]
Chapter Two>>> [link]
Chaper Three >>> [link]
Chapter Four >>> [link]
Chapter Six >>> [link]
Chapter Seven >>> [link]
Chapter Eight >>> [link]
Chapter 9 >>> [link]
© 2007 - 2024 BlackMage339
Comments10
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Crowing-Shoopuf-San's avatar
Very nice! Oooooh, action scenes! I'm sure you're great at writing them! And we'll soon see.

The cliffhanger is just torture.