Hilo! Wow, my first Storm Hawks fanfic, and possibly my only one. I know that the chapters are short, but it's because it's been hard typing 2000 words per chapter lately, for all of my stories. In addition, if I keep the chapters short, I might actually be inclined to type them up faster (maybe, we'll see). I hope you enjoy the story when it really starts developing, and if you don't I hope you at least enjoy the quotes. We all know Stork needs a bit more love anyway, right?

"'If there are any idiots in the room will they please stand up?' Asked the sarcastic teacher. After a long silence, one freshman rose to his feet. 'Now then mister, why do you consider yourself an idiot?' Enquired the teacher with a sneer. 'Well, actually I don't,' said the student, 'but I hate to see you standing up there all by yourself.'"

. . .

Thick dark clouds grazed through the sky, coveting the sun. Liquid spears hit the Condor's hull with high-powered winds fueling their speed, shattering on impact, having a scattered residue on the windshield before another one hit near the same spot, having its own residue. The Storm Hawks were only thankful that lightning wasn't hammering down on them, but due to the weather, they were all bored nonetheless. So they were hoping that someone would ask for help from their radio, or even for something to attack them. That was how desperate some of the members were.

Stork focused at the helm, looking out for any signs of lightning, other fly-goers, or even mountains that could pop up out of nowhere just to maim them. It had almost happened before. He was humming a tune that sounded more gauntly than cheerful to relieve a few more ounces of his boredom, and maybe his anxiety. Piper was in her room working on stabilizing unknown crystals that could do who knew what and were viable to explode in her face, possibly singeing her eyebrows off and cover her face in soot. Finn was polishing his crossbow, grunting and moaning just because he was bored; his 'quiet' way of complaining. Junko was in the kitchen fixing himself a snack before going to his room to check his candy stash and his metal-junk collection. Last to be mentioned, Aerrow and Radarr were at the helm with Stork and Finn playing a simple game of cards; however Aerrow was more focused on waiting for the radio to make some sort of sound, thus allowing Radarr to peak at his hand without getting caught.

After Radarr's twenty-eighth consecutive win, Aerrow threw down his cards and yelled, "You cheat! You were looking at my cards weren't you?" Stork and Finn looked at the distraction, silently thankful that there was something to occupy them, but Stork looked back and forth from the bout that was about to erupt, and his windshield.

Between the split second of Radarr smiling, and then scurrying away, and Aerrow about to chase him down, the radio sputtered to life. "This is Starling, requesting aboard the Condor. I repeat: this is Starling hailing the Storm Hawks, requesting that you open the hull." She had an urgent tone between all the static.

Aerrow gave Stork a curt nod, the okay signal, and called Junko and Piper to the bridge. Within seconds, Starling rode in with her modified purple Slip-wing Fighter Ultra and skidded to a halt inside. She hurried to meet the team again for another mission. "What's up Starling?" Aerrow asked in a resolute tone.

"I need help finding someone." Starling was known for her mastery of disguise, and also for her tracking skills. It would have been extremely difficult for someone to give Starling the slip enough to where she needed to ask someone else for help. She didn't want to ask because it was personal, but she had no choice.

Aerrow and Piper knew that it must have been important if she asked for help on anything, so they complied verbally. "Where do we head to first?" Piper asked, retrieving a few maps.

Starling took a glance at the map hanging from a three-legged stand and pointed to small clumps of terra only about sixty tics off Terra Atmosia. "We'll start here." Stork stepped up to the stand, saw where Starling was pointing at, and turned a full one-eighty.

"Who are we looking for?" Aerrow asked. He gestured everyone to sit at the table.

"Her name is Kite. She was one of my teammates." Starling sat down last, and rested her elbows on the table, interlinking her fingers together.

Everyone's eyes widened, although Junko did it because he didn't quite understand. "Your… teammate?" Aerrow tested. "I thought the raptors. . . ." He couldn't complete the sentence.

Starling set an old photograph in the middle of the table so it could be passed around. "She and I escaped, but we went on different paths and hadn't kept in touch. Recently, I heard that Repton had been trying to get her because she stole something from him. He hasn't been able to find her either, thankfully, but I'm still worried."

"Why haven't we heard of Kite before?" Piper asked. An expert on anything from crystals, to maps, and even to squads, but she had never heard of a Kite. She had sat next to Aerrow, so got the photo next. Piper recognized all of the Interceptors except one, whom Starling was wrapping an arm around by the waist in the center. Kite was young, probably around fifteen or sixteen (certainly not as young as they were), but Starling looked younger also, making the black and white picture fairly old. She was shorter than Starling by a full head, and wore loose, ratty, clothing with dark stains on them. She wasn't smiling, but she was completely relaxed, slumping on Starling and having one of her arms around the other's neck.

"Kite mainly helped get parts and fixed our rides, but she helped in many other ways. She was good at getting information from other terras, which was a key component on our successful battles, and she was a great distraction. Kite said she merely wanted to be a part of the Interceptors without being mentioned as one, and we kept that deal going."

None of the Storm Hawks understood the kind of relationship the Interceptors had with Kite those years before, but they were willing to help all the same. "Can you give us anymore information? Like what she stole?" The young red-headed sky knight asked.

"It was a map of some kind. Supposedly, it was supposed to lead to a mine with a rare crystal somewhere inside, but I couldn't hear what kind. The Raptors were on their way to deliver it to the Cyclonians before Kite managed get a hold of it."

When the picture finally got around to Finn, his eyes widened in glee, obviously she was physically attractive to him. "Oh, yeah," he said with a grin and a few nods. "We'll find her." Starling caught the flirty tone in his voice and plucked the photo from his fingers. He obviously didn't understand that she was much older than in the picture, but that never stopped him from chasing older women anyway.

. . .

"A man said to his wife one day, 'I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time.' The wife responded, 'Allow me to explain, God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!'"