The Seventh Member of the Storm Hawks

Fire and Ice

While Piper and Stork wandered off, the others went to speak to the inhabitant of the terra. Aerrow wrapped his arm around Nika's shoulder, she welcomed it since she was starting to feel rather cold. "Oh man that was awesome!" Finn cheered, "You can join us if you want." One replied with a smile and shrug, Nika grinned – she couldn't wait. "Ah ah, but your girlfriend there can't – don't want her getting hurt and all." He continued, Nika sighed and shrugged herself away ignoring her friends calls for her to come back. She sat in the square and made a miniature snowman, she could handle herself just fine! Junko's arms suddenly lifted her up and hugged her, he looked a little upset. "Sorry Nika, it's probably a misunderstanding." He tried to reassure, Nika nodded and wiped her face. "I know, I'm not interested now – hey have you seen my mini snowman?" She smiled, he looked like he wanted to say something else but decided against it. "I'm going to take part in the pie eating contest if you wanna watch?" He said before he jogged back over to Finn, playfully tackling him into the snow. "Hey Piper!" Nika shouted, the crystal expert grinned and ran over. "Isn't this place cool? I can't wait to update my charts!" She gushed, looking around her. "You want to watch Junko try and eat frozen pies?" Nika smiled, Piper grabbed her arm. "Oh, do I!" They stood next to Aerrow, who was watching as well. "Hey, you alright?" He asked gently, putting a hand on her shoulder, she merely smiled and nodded. The three Storm Hawks cringed when Junko tried to bite into one of the pies and found he couldn't, instead the Wallop thought it was wise to smash up the pie and put the entire thing in his mouth. "I give him three seconds." Aerrow said playfully holding up three fingers and counting down before he and Piper smiled wide. "Brainfreeze!" Nika giggled watching her friend's reaction to the cold hitting his head, thanking the fact it wasn't her since it looked sore.

"Are you ok Junko?" Nika asked helping her friend up, he held his head groaning. "Ow, that really hurt, I'm not doing that again." He moaned, thankfully Aerrow and Finn helped to prop up the Wallop. "You did well big J." Finn reassured patting his arm. One said it was a great idea if the Absolute Zeroes and the Storm Hawks did some training in the backlands, Nika scoffed knowing where this was going. "It's ok Nika, you can ride with me." Aerrow smiled holding his hand out, Nika shook her head and linked arms with an annoyed Piper both stalking off in a huff. "Forget it, we've changed our minds." Piper called, not looking back. "Are you sure? Because..." He asked again trailing off when the pair turned to face him. "Aerrow, we said forget it!" Nika snapped, regretting it immediately – he looked at her sadly before joining the others.

"Those boys are a hoot eh?" The rabbit with pink hair chuckled, it was the last thing the two female Storm Hawks wanted to hear. "I like to keep my squadron trained up real good." She continued, Piper turned. "Wait, did I just hear you say, 'your squadron'?" Piper asked in disbelief, a female Sky Knight in charge? "Oh yeah, name's Suzy Lu – Sky Knight of Blizzaris." She said as if it were nothing. Piper shook her hand with a grin, while Nika just nodded – not one for handshakes. "I'm Piper and that's Nika – she's a Sky Knight too." Piper smiled introducing them properly, Suzy Lu smiled looking a bit shocked before she and her friend curtsied to Nika – earning a strange look from Piper. "Um, why are you curtseying?" She asked, Nika paled – this was going to blow her secret, as Suzy Lu went to explain why – she caught Nika frantically shaking her head telling her no. "Just something we do with female Sky Knights here." She said, Piper nodded almost believing it – if not spotting Nika breathe a sigh of relief. Nika watched Suzy Lu build houses with the Blizzard Crystal – something Piper grew very interested in, she smiled seeing her friend enjoying herself. 'Maybe I shouldn't have snapped at him, he was only being nice. I'll apologise when he gets back.' Nika thought to herself, she was getting cold – after living in a terra with constant summer temperatures, she was really beginning to feel it.

The boys were sitting on the cliff taking a rest, it was overlooking the small village. Aerrow was quite ticked off about how they rudely dismissed his teammates – seeing Nika's crushed face destroyed him. "Oh yeah, this is the life eh?" Billy Rex sighed to no one in particular. Aerrow couldn't take it any longer, especially when the boys were oblivious to his friend's feelings. "Look you probably didn't mean any harm but Nika and Piper are as much part of the Storm Hawks as any of one us. They should be here too." Billy Rex looked confused as he looked at the redhead, "But Sky Knights don't do the back country eh? That's just for us squads." He replied throwing a snowball into Bobby Bones' face. Finn started to laugh to himself, "He thinks they are our Sky Knights!" Aerrow frowned, was it just simply a misunderstanding? A different way of thinking? "Wait you mean you're not-." He stopped short seeing Billy Rex trying to touch his nose with his tongue. "I'm not what there chief?" He asked, feeling disgusted Aerrow told him to never mind.

Bursts of water interrupted Nika's thoughts, she watched as Suzy Lu tried to stop them with her Blizzard Crystal but more kept coming. "This doesn't look good Piper." Nika said quietly, "No kidding." Piper replied quite distant. A small creature appeared, it was shivering like there was no tomorrow. Nika gasped, this was horrible! Was there something else about this terra that was missed!? The place started to shake madly, more of the creatures and water shots appeared. "Oh, the mountains never done that before." Suzy Lu said, quite confused. "That's because it's a volcano!" Nika shouted dodging a water shot, then the volcano erupted sending a lot of lava into the air. "Sound the alarm!" Suzy Lu shouted, Nika and Piper looked at one another – what alarm? All of the folk covered their ears which confused the pair even more. "Is it broken? I don't hear anything." Piper said, Suzy Lu turned with a look of amused disbelief. "You don't?" Nika watched the volcano erupt – "We need to get everyone away from here! The lava will be down here any minute!" She exclaimed, a mountain with that steepness meant the lava would flow quickly and it didn't help that it was particularly violent. Nika stood with the people at the edge of the terra trying to calm them down, Piper directed them towards her while Suzy Lu made a barrier of ice that she hoped would help.

The Yarisian sighed in relief seeing Stork showing up with the Condor, Piper ordered the people onto the ship. "Aerrow to Stork come in!" The Sky Knight's voice shouted through Stork's head piece – at least they were alive. "We sure could use a hand up here!" He shouted, Nika looked down – he sounded rather scared and frantic. "Take a number man, it's really lava – ey down here." Stork replied, there was no way they could help Aerrow and others with the weight of the ship. Piper confronted Suzy Lu, worried for the boys and knowing it was the Blizzarian's fault that this was happening. "I'm taking Suzy Lu to the volcano, make sure nobody panics." Piper called, Nika saluted and kept watch over the panicking people. Everyone cheered, including Stork, when the girls stopped the eruption – Stork hastily shooed everyone off the Condor, muttering he now had to disinfect everything. Everyone gathered near the Condor, waiting for the boys to return, according to Piper – they had to walk. Nika grinned seeing Aerrow appear and hearing Finn complaining – without a second thought she ran up and hugged Aerrow, he quickly hugged her back. "I'm so glad you guys are alright!" She blushed, quickly removing herself and tackling Junko. Finn snorted until Nika jumped onto his back, he freaked out. "Hey, hey, hey! I didn't say you could touch me!" He moaned, Nika lightly punch him in the shoulder. "Quit complaining Finn!" She smiled before skipping back over to the Condor, a blush and smile present on her face.