The Hylian League

A crossover by Star Wars nut

Authoress Note: Well, here's another chapter. I think it's a little longer than usual, but that's because I was introducing at least one member of each Hylian squadron, and I could've done one chapter for each. But I already have plans for later chapters, and I didn't want to do too much.

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks or Legend of Zelda (If I did own Storm Hawks, I would force Cartoon Network to show it more). I do, however, own Marina and all of her squadron except Naboroou. Also, most of the minor Hylian characters belong to me, so, unless you recognize the name from Storm Hawks or Legend of Zelda, chances are the character is mine. Ephiram belongs to Spymaster Fletcher, who was kind enough to let me use his character from his fic Agents on the Outside.

Chapter 8

Morning on Terra Hyrule

"I can't believe Zelda's making you do this!" Alia said to Marina after the Sky Knight explained her meeting with Zelda the previous night.

"I can," said Naboroou, "Zelda's never been a big fan of yours, even before the war. What I can't understand is why. Why would Zelda want the Storm Hawks to do this? There is no precedent at all in Hylian history, and Zelda's not known for trying new things."

"Maybe she thought it would foster Hylian-Atmosian friendship?" Lia suggested hopefully. Kaida snorted, "More likely she's going to blame it on us. I always knew Zelda was no good, but blackmailing you, 'Rina? That's just low." At that precise moment, there was a knock on the door and Nidia stepped in followed by the Storm Hawks.

"What's going on?" Aerrow asked Marina, "Nidia told us you had to tell us something. What is it?" Marina gritted her teeth and said, "I talked to Zelda last night."

"So?" asked Finn. Marina ignored him and went on, "Do any of you remember what I told you about the Hylian Great Festival?" Piper responded, "You told us it was a competition once a year where Hylian Sky Knights and their squadrons get together to compete and show off their skills. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Well," said Marina, "It's in a couple of weeks. That's why the other Hylian squadrons should be showing up today. Communication about you probably hasn't reached the other Hylian terras yet. The Hylian League has a really slow postal service, and the Hornets didn't bother to call everybody and tell them because they'd all be here soon anyway."

"And?" asked Aerrow.

"Zelda wants you- that is, the Storm Hawks- to compete."

"WHAT?!" all the Storm Hawks shouted at once. "But why?" Piper asked. Marina shrugged and said, "Honestly? I have no clue. But she wants it enough to bla... um ... make me tell you. Don't worry. You'll be here a few weeks before it starts, and we can help train you for it. Most of the events are straightforward anyway. Y'know, sparring in front of people, skimmer races, that sort of thing. The only thing we really have to worry about is..." But they didn't find out what the only thing they really had to worry about was, because just then a young man dressed in a shirt with the Hylian crest opened the door and said, "Excuse me? Sage Zelda sent me to tell the Desert Thieves to go to the landing strip to meet with the other Hylian squadrons."

"Right," said Marina, "we can discuss this more later. For now, let's go say hi to everybody."

SCENE BREAK

As it turned out, Zelda had called them down early. The first squadron to arrive didn't come until forty-five minutes after the Desert Thieves had arrived. As soon as the carrier was in sight, Marina knew who it was: the Phantoms of Terra Kakariko. The carrier landed, a door opened, and the Phantoms started to exit. Marina recognized each of them as they passed by her: the Sky Knight and Sage Impa, whose hair had gone prematurely white; Mako, the young handsome mechanic; Cadoc, the sharpshooter who fit the "tall, dark, and creepy" stereotype of a Terra Kakariko inhabitant perfectly; the slight black-haired navigator Sian; Impa's daughter and co-pilot Luda; and Anju, the red-haired carrier pilot. They all seemed shocked when Zelda announced the presence of an Atmosian squadron in the castle, and they walked into the castle a little more quickly then they usually would. Marina sighed. One down, three to go.

The next two squadrons to arrive were the Stone Phoenixes of Terra Death Mountain and the Blue Herons of Terra Zora's Domain. The last time Marina had seen either squadron was at the last Council meeting, and she had gotten their names mixed up in her head. All Gorons and Zoras looked the same to her, anyway. The last to arrive were the Forest Sparrows of Terra Kokori. No matter how many times Marina had seen the Sparrows, she still couldn't resist holding back a giggle as they all exited their carrier, looking for all the world like a group of kids on a field trip. No Kokori physically aged past the age of about twelve, but looks could be deceiving. Marina had once seen Saria, the Sparrows' green-haired Sage, blast someone she was fighting with halfway across town without hurting him (that was a good thing, because the person she was fighting with was Mido, the Sparrows' Sky Knight). The Sparrows, too, were shocked to discover the fact that there was an Atmosian squadron in Hyrule Castle, although they didn't try to hide their eagerness to meet the newcomers.

After the Sparrows entered the castle, the Desert Thieves and the Hylian Hornets started walking toward the door also. As Marina started to walk through the door, she heard Zelda asking, "Marina, can I talk to you for a moment?" Marina whirled to face the Hylian Sage and asked, "What the Din do you want?"

"Well, someone is in a bad mood," remarked Zelda, "You really should watch your language. You are a Sky Knight after all. Anyway, did you give the Storm Hawks my message?" Marina nodded reluctantly and Zelda asked, "And what did they say?"

"They agreed," Marina answered. "Oh good," Zelda said, "I did not want to have to let anyone in on your little secret, although of course I would have if I had had to."

"Who are you kidding?" Marina asked before walking calmly through the door into the castle, hurrying to catch up with her squadron.

SCENE BREAK

When the Desert Thieves had left to meet the other Hylian squadrons, the Storm Hawks had decided to split up and explore the castle. After some wandering, Piper had found a very large library. Some areas were roped off, with signs indicating that some sort of special permission was needed to enter. Piper concluded that those areas could only be accessed by members of Hylian squadrons, but she decided it didn't matter much anyway, because most of the library wasn't roped off. After some browsing, Piper found a book of Hylian League history, which seemed interesting. She opened the book and looked in the index until she found what she was looking for: The Seven Years' War. She flipped to the page indicated in the index and read:

The Seven Years' War

This war, called the Seven Years' War because of its length, was the only conflict in recent Hylian history that involved fighting from all six terras of the Hylian League. It began when Ganondorf Dragmire, Sky Knight of Terra Gerudo, attacked Terra Hyrule, killing several members of the Hylian Hornets. The other terras, outraged by this baseless attack, declared war on Terra Gerudo. Dragmire responded by forming an alliance with the Atmosian terra of Cyclonia. The Cyclonian fighters combined with the Gerudo guards and the Desert Thieves proved too much for the forces of the other Hylian terras, and, three years into the war, Dragmire had gained enough power to declare Terra Gerudo the new head of the Hylian League, which it remained for four years. The war was ended when Link, also called "the Hero of the Seven Years' War," snuck into the Gerudo Fortress and killed Ganondorf. Ganondorf's heir, Marina Dragmire, who was against everything the war was about, ended the war and gave the position of power back to Terra Hyrule and Zelda the XIII. However, Marina didn't end the alliance with Cyclonia until two years later, when...

"Interesting stuff, isn't it?" Piper jumped and turned around. There was a middle-aged, white-haired woman standing behind her.

"Of course, " the woman continued, "wars are always more interesting when you're in them, not to say it's fun-interesting, just interesting. You must be one of the Storm Hawks. I'm Impa, Sky Knight of Terra Kakariko. And you are..."
"Piper," said Piper, "Storm Hawk navigator. Excuse me, but did you say you were in the Seven Years' War?" Impa nodded and said, "Darunia- the Sky Knight of Terra Death Mountain- and I are the only two Sky Knights who were Sky Knights the whole war. The rest were killed by the Gerudo or Talons. Mostly the Talons." Piper nodded and said, "That sounds about right. Say, do you know anything about how the Sages' abilities work? I haven't heard much besides a rudimentary description, and that didn't get very technical."

"Well," said Impa, "you're quite the scholar. However, not many people know how Sage abilities work. I have a basic idea, but that's only because I am one."

"You are one?" Piper asked confused, "But I thought you said you were a Sky Knight." Impa shrugged and said, "Hey, who said I can't do both? Darunia and Ruto both do double jobs, and Zelda could've if she hadn't given the Sky Knight position to her husband and gone Sage full-time, but anyway, like I said, no one quite understands how Sage abilities work. All anybody knows is that in every generation, one person from each terra is born with Sage abilities. Always only one. The abilities involve some sort of energy manipulation..."

SCENE BREAK

After everyone split up, Junko had decided to go for a walk in the castle courtyard. It was nice and quiet, until after a while, he heard a voice behind him shouting, "Hey, Brother!" Junko turned around, startled.

"Uhhh... I don't think I'm your brother," Junko said, confused. He didn't have any brothers, only a much older sister who was now married to a dentist. He hadn't visited her in years.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the speaker, who Junko now saw was what looked like a giant turtle made of rock and walking on its hind feet, "I thought you were a Brother Goron. I'm Darunia, Sky Knight of Terra Death Mountain. Who are you?"

"I'm Junko, of the Storm Hawks. Why did you call me 'Brother?'"

"I'm a Goron, Brother," said Darunia, "We all do that!" With this, he indicated the group of five Gorons standing with him, most about Darunia's size, one hunched over and favoring one leg, and one about twice Junko's size.

"What are you?" one of the Gorons asked, "You sort of look like a Goron, but then not like a Goron."

"I'm a Wallop," Junko said shrugging.

SCENE BREAK

Finn, after some walking around and flirting with any remotely attractive female he could find, had decided to see if he could find someplace where he could do some target practice. Since he didn't want to ask for directions, he wandered aimlessly around the castle until he heard a voice behind him say, "So, whatcha doin'?" Finn turned around to see a blond-haired kid who was wearing all green and looked about eleven years old.

"Why do you wanna know, kid?" Finn asked back.

"Well," said the kid, "You've been wandering around here for Farore knows how long, and it's starting to annoy me, so I thought I'd see if you were actually looking for something or just wearing yourself out." Finn, figuring that this kid must work in the castle or something, said, "Hey, there's this thing called 'respect for your elders'. Maybe you should look it up." The kid looked Finn in the face and said, "Look, moron, I don't know who you are, but I'm Mido, Sky Knight of Terra Kokori, and for your information, I'm nineteen." Finn stared at this kid, confused, until he remembered that Marina had said that the Kokori usually looked a lot younger than they were.

"Oops."

SCENE BREAK

Stork had found his way to the hangar bay and was checking up on the Condor. He had tracked down Malon, who had said that she had found the main problems and could fix it, but it would take a while. She had even said that she could repair the shields. However, Stork wasn't too happy with the idea of some peppy red-haired other mechanic working on his baby. He had already insisted that he be there when she was working and planned to spend every spare moment with his ship.

As he was double-checking to make sure no one had touched his emergency boxes, he heard footsteps somewhere near him. He quickly grabbed a frying pan and jumped out in front of... well, he wasn't quite sure what it was.

The thing was about as tall as he was, and was a light blue in color. It appeared to be amphibious, with scales and a long fin running off of its head, but he wasn't quite sure why it was there.

"Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?" Stork demanded, brandishing his frying pan menacingly.

"Rina," the thing said, "Mechanic." Stork stared at Rina and asked, "What are you?"

"Zora."

"Oh. Well, you aren't carrying any infectious diseases, are you?" Rina chuckled quietly at Stork's question and shrugged, as if to say, I have no idea. Stork edged away from her, just in case you could catch something by standing too close to a Zora.

SCENE BREAK

After hearing all that information about the Hylian League and the Grand Festival and the Seven Years' War from Marina, Aerrow decided he needed to think. He didn't usually just sit around and think, but this was such a shock, that he knew he needed to. He decided that he needed to find his skimmer and just fly around for a while. After asking around, he found out where their skimmers were and a good place to fly, he got onto his skimmer and took off.

He still couldn't believe everything he had found out in the past few days: there were terras out there with no connections to Atmosia, they even had their own Sky Knights without a Sky Knight council! And yet, they seemed to get along pretty well, aside from that war. He knew what a war was like; he and his father were both in one. Aerrow remembered hearing stories about red-haired female Talons who always robbed before they killed. He realized now that they must have been Gerudo, on loan from Ganondorf, the father of the very woman who now helped the new Storm Hawks when they were in trouble. He supposed Piper would call that irony.

Suddenly, Aerrow heard the sound of another skimmer, faint at first, but getting louder. Then, almost out of nowhere, a yellow skimmer with green-tipped wings flew up next to Aerrow's, and on it was Link.

"Nice skimmer," the Hylian Sky Knight said to Aerrow, "Are you any good at flying it?"

"Of course I am!" responded Aerrow, "What about you?" and he raced off, Link following close behind. For a while, the two flew silently, both showing off their speed, agility, and any tricks they knew. Finally, Aerrow landed, Link right next to him.

"Wow," said Link, "You're good." Aerrow smiled and said, "Thanks. You're pretty good yourself, although now that I'm seeing your skimmer up close, I'm thinking it did half the work." Link smiled and looked at his skimmer, "Beauty, isn't she? She's an Epona-class Hylian warhorse, a really good type, if somewhat old. I got her a few years back from a rip-off artist named Ingo. She wasn't much then, but Malon and I fixed her up and now I don't think there's a skimmer anywhere to match her. She's saved my life more times than I can count. It almost feels like she knows where I want her to go without steering."

"I know what you mean," said Aerrow, "My skimmer's pretty good too, although not nearly as good as yours."

"Well yeah, but you're the best skimmer pilot I've ever met," said Link, "and I've met a lot."

"Thanks," said Aerrow, who was really surprised that Link thought so highly of him already, "Y'know, I thought that you'd be..."

"More like Zelda? No, I'm not much like her at all really. I do love her, and she loves me, but we're almost complete opposites, y'know. It's a good thing we are too, otherwise I'm pretty sure some members of the Hornets would've killed her by now." Link laughed at his own joke, and Aerrow chuckled.

SCENE BREAK

That night

The alley was dark in Hyrule Town. The peddlers and citizens who had lived there had all gone to bed, so no one saw the hooded figure walk into the alley and turn on a communicator.

"Hello?" the figure said, "can you hear me? Yes, I'm secure. Of course I have a report, would I be calling you if I did not? The event is in a week and a half, it will be very busy and very distracting. You can strike then." There was a silence as the figure listened, then the figure said, "There is one other thing. There is a squadron here from Atmosia called the Storm Hawks. Is there any problem with that? No, I have it on good authority that they will be participating in the event. There should be no problem keeping them distracted. Yes, that is all."

On the other end of the line, Ephiram, the Cyclonian spymaster, said, "Thank you for the information, it was highly appreciated."

End of Chapter 8

Authoress Note: Oooh, there's a traitor in their midst! Can anyone guess who it is? I'll give you a hint: It's a member of a Hylian Squadron (I won't tell you which one), and their motive is similar to that of a Sky Knight in an early episode. Oops, that's two hints. Oh well! First person to guess correctly gets the canon character or OC of their choice into this story or one of its sequels!

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