Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Dude, you've been at that for almost an hour." Finn said lying on the hanger floor staring at the ceiling. "Give it up bro."

Matthew through his last knife and groaned when it nicked the arrow again. He just missed so many times that the arrows end was sharpened into a point. He walked up to the target and retrieved his knives.

"I'm going to leave this." Canada said biting his lip. He knew it would be even more impossible with the sharpened arrow end. "For now."

-----❄"Phrasing."❄-----

The next day, Canada woke up rather late judging by where the sun was in the sky. He rolled out of bed and changed his clothes. He had completely forgotten that his phone was in his jeans pocket and took it out. The nation didn't bother checking or looking at it before putting it back into his new jeans pocket.

Matthew left his room and found his way to the kitchen. Piper was there making breakfast. "Good morning." She said with a yawn.

"What are you making?" Canada asked raising an eyebrow at the weird looking concoction she was stirring.

"They're peppermint and holoberry cupcakes." She said starting to pour the batter into cupcake tins.

"For breakfast?" The nation said with a sigh. He hadn't seen these teens eat anything healthy yet. Piper smiled and nodded. "Why?"

"Why not?" Piper replied. Matthew nodded accepting the answer and started to dig through the kitchen to find something generally healthy. He found another one of the weird blue apples he ate yesterday and took a bite. This ones insides were bright neon green.

"What are these?" Canada asked gesturing to the apple thing.

"That is a galapple. They all have different coloured insides, but they taste the same." The amber eyed girl said. "Be careful of the purple ones, they'll dye your mouth."

"I learned that one the hard way." Aerrow said walking into the kitchen and going over to the fridge. He grabbed a container of something and took a spoon out of a drawer before sitting on the counter. "So, you wanna learn how to fight on the skimmers?" He asked pointing the spoon at Canada.

"Walking on the wings?" The nation asked and Aerrow nodded. "I'll pass for now, thanks."

"Aww come on, it's fun." The Sky Knight said with a mouthful of food. Matthew smiled, but still shook his head. Aerrow shrugged and kept eating. "There's nothing to do today. It should be quiet."

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth sirens started to blare and Stork came over the PA system. "There a squadron of Cyclonians coming our way. You guys might want to get out there!"

"Let's go!" Aerrow said jumping off the counter and going towards the door. Piper quickly took her cupcakes out of the oven and followed the red head. Matthew ran after them, mentally preparing for a fight.

Once they got to the hanger the trio hopped onto their skimmers and helliskooters. Finn and Junko ran in a second later.

"Junko, help Stork in the helm." Aerrow said starting his bike. The wallop nodded and started back towards the bridge. Matthew started his skimmer and revved the engine. The Sky Knight started down the runway and the other followed after. Canada drove off the runway and opened his wings. He looked around for the Cyclonians and spotted them to the left and down a couple hundred feet.

As soon as the Cyclonians spotted the Storm Hawks they started to fire energy blasts at them. Matthew could easily tell which one was in charge; he was yelling commands at his squad mates. Besides the leader there were eight others.

Aerrow turned too looked back at them. "I'll take care of Dark Ace. You guys get the others." He yelled over his shoulder.

Canada noticed that the leader, Dark Ace, had broken away from the others and Aerrow followed after him. He watched as the other Cyclonians broke apart and the other Storm Hawks did as well. The blond spotted two of the Cyclonians coming his way.

Matthew was still a couple hundred meters above them and dived down. He shot at them as he dropped altitude. One of the blasts it the enemy skimmers engines and it sputtered, but was still flying. The nation was still getting used to the aim of the blasters. The pair of Cyclonians started to fly straight up at him and fired. He kept a low profile on his skimmer and fired back at the Cyclonians. He was aiming for the skimmer he already hit.

The Canadian quickly estimated the distance between the two and rolled his skimmer to the left holding on tight as he passed between the two. He pulled a tight turn and made it behind the pair. Matthew fired again this time directly hitting the already handicapped skimmers upper right wing. If went flying off over his head and he ducked. The Cyclonian's skimmer started to spiral out of control and he hopped off pulling a parachute. Canada tailed the other Cyclonian and fired at him. The talon tried to lose him, but was unsuccessful and soon he too was falling into the wastelands.

The nation looked around at the brightly coloured sky. There seemed to be more talons than there were before. He spotted one flying his way and went to meet him head on, but before he got there Junko had already hit them from the Condor. Canada pulled out of the way of the debris and spotted a new target. He flew after a trio of Cyclonians that were just hanging around Finn.

Matthew turned and pulled up to get to the talons. He was coming up behind them when he felt a weight on his wing. He looked over to see a man crouching on his wing tip. The man had dark hair with an undertone of green and red eyes. Judging by the man’s uniform being fancier than the others, Canada assumed that this was the Dark Ace Aerrow had mentioned.

"So you're the new Storm Hawk I've heard rumours about." Dark Ace said straightening with a smirk. Matthew frowned and thought 'nope' before pulling a barrel roll. The Dark Ace tried to hold on, but flew off. Canada dipped his wing and look down to see the Talon falling through the air. Seconds later a skimmer was there and caught him. Dark Ace looked up at the unfamiliar person, but was distracted by the fact that Aerrow was shooting at him.