A hologram of a dancing girl hovered over Sora, singing its programmed alarm song and invading his dreams. He lazily opened his eyes and slapped the hologram away, shutting it up. He turned his head to his calendar and saw the date marked with a skull.

“Whoa!” Sora shrieked as he threw the covers off him and jumped off his bed.

The day had finally come and there was no way he was wasting a second of it. He peeled off his clothes as he stumbled to the bathroom, almost losing his step when his legs caught in his Pajamas. He took a rushed shower and brushed his teeth in a daze as he crosschecked his plan in his mind.

He ran to the kitchen and put a slice of bread quickly into the toaster then ran back to the room and threw off his towel as he got dressed. At the same time, he swiped off a screen from his pod and enlarged it. The hologram portrayed news about a new ship that was to be launched by a coalition of rich enterpreneurs in Vannes and he smiled knowingly.

"Rich bastards," he grumbled and yelled as he lost his balance while putting on his pants and fell on a figurine of Bullshit. He yelled in pain because he sat on the mast and it pricked him, making him hold his butt as he pranced around the room. He finally put on his pants successfully, and wore a red T-shirt with a blue jacket on top of it. He grabbed the screen and swiped it back into his pod then closed the device.

He picked his skyboard from its spot by the wall and ran out of his bedroom, and through the kitchen, grabbing the toast in mid-air. He put on his sneakers when he was at the door and stopped for a second to say goodbye to his little apartment. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head in thanks. “Thank you for taking care of me. Next time I walk in here I will be a well-known pirate,” Sora vowed and bounded out the door.

He lived in an apartment on the third floor of a six floor apartment building. Unlike most other buildings, his used an open corridor despite how dangerous it was. 

He jumped down from his floor, enjoying the free fall then placed his skyboard under his feet and took off down the streets of the little town of Lamia. The skyboard was one of his creations: it was modelled after a skateboard, except it used compressed air to allow its user to float in mid-air.

A brown hawk with a red head circled above him then perched on his shoulder and Sora grinned as he greeted his best friend and brother. The hawk's eyes gleamed with a hidden intelligence, its feathered body hiding the robotics within it, the whole thing an artificial masterpiece his father had created.

“Hey Crow, our hard work finally pays off today. You excited?” Sora asked as he neared the main town of Lamia.

“Need I remind you that I’m the one doing most of the work,” the hawk replied in a mocking tone. It had the voice of a six year old boy, which made it impossible for Sora to ever take it seriously. Unfortunately for Sora, Crow was built to adapt and grow to its surroundings and so its sarcastic attitude never stopped evolving.

“Hey, all you do is the software stuff. I’m the one dodging bullets,” Sora countered.

“Bah, I can dodge bullets in my sleep,” Crow replied and flapped its wings.

“No one would shoot you in your sleep. You’re a freaking bird,” Sora said as he tried to grab it.

“Exactly,” Crow pointed out as he deftly dodged his hand, then landed on top of his head.

Lamia might be a small town but it was really lively. At eight in the morning the streets were already piled with people walking to work and shop owners vending their goods using big holograms.

Sora got off his board because it would be too dangerous to fly through the bustling crowd. He tucked it under his arm as he ran to the store of Old man Jenkins. As the name suggested, Jenkins was an aging old man with grey beards that fell to the ground. His eyes were covered by his eyebrows and his skin was completely wrinkled. Jenkins ran the electronics store legally, but under wraps, he sold a lot of banned or illegal software and weaponry that could take down towns. He waved to Jenkins and the old man guided him to the back of his shop.

Jenkins’ shop was small from the outside and it displayed pods, boards, microwaves and other basic amenities for customers. However, when they passed through a door at the back of the shop, it widened into a large hall filled with lots of junk scattered everywhere. This messy pile was the main workplace and everything a mercenary would want: from photon blasters to heat rifles could be scrounged up if you knew where to look.

“Hehe, you really did save enough to buy it,” Jenkins chuckled as he stroked his beard.

“Of course,” Sora replied, “I’m gonna need that piece to get started.”

“Can you handle the power though?” Jenkins mused in a low voice and Sora figured he was talking to himself. “It doesn’t matter either way. I sell the items and you buy them. Just don’t die; it’s bad for business,” Jenkins chuckled as he rummaged through a pile of junk.

“It’s here somewhere,” Jenkins mused as he threw out used pods, guns, bombs, pencils and what looked like a live turtle. “Ahh, found it,” he happily exclaimed as he pulled out a blue and white bracelet.

“Happy Birthday, you lout,” Jenkins beamed as he held out the bracelet, “For once, I will not ask for payment so keep your money for your adventures.”

Sora got out from the corner of the wall he had been hiding at in case one of the things Jenkins flung out exploded (It had happened a few times before). “Thanks old man,” He said as he took the bracelet and clamped it on his left arm. Needles came out from the bracelet and pierced his skin as it took his DNA and modified itself to suit his taste.

“Your very own Personal Gear,” Jenkins chuckled, “Do be careful with it now. You don’t want to end up in space.”

“I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Crow chirped and Jenkins smiled.

“You kids are really going after her then?” Jenkins asked with concern.

“Watch the news tonight old man,” He replied as he hugged Jenkins, “you should be hearing about me by then.”

“Just don’t show up on the obituary,” Jenkins pleaded with a smile as they walked out of his shop.

“Same to you old man,” Crow replied as Sora ran away from the shop waving.

He ran through the town waving goodbye to all the shopkeepers who knew that he was leaving; though known of them knew the real reason except Jenkins. He stopped at a monument of Captain Morgan and his battleship. Comically, the battleship stopped at his knees which made a point of joke for many of the town members.

He bowed his head in respect for the man who had risked everything to go into space without guarantee of a safe return.

“It all starts here,” He said with tears in his eyes.

“Don’t cry yet,” Crow said, “Save the tears for when we succeed.”

“Yeah you’re right,” Sora laughed as he wiped off the tears, “I guess we should get going.”

He jumped on his skyboard and sped towards Lamia airport where his Stinger was parked. He heard the hum of a skyboard and turned to see his childhood friend April, skating up to him. She was a year younger than him but they had spent all of their lives together. April had red hair with yellow highlighted tips, which she had added when he once told her she was like a flame. Her round face featured bright red eyes and full lips which were pouting at the moment. He slowed down so she could catch up and saw the hurt look in her eyes.

“Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?” April asked, disappointed.

“I’m sorry,” Sora apologized as he hung his head, “You were the one person I could not say goodbye to.”

April smiled at her dorky friend, “Okay then,” she said and raised Sora’s chin, “how about see you later.”

He beamed at April with joy, “Yeah! See you later is perfect”

April smiled sadly as she raised her pinky, “We’ll definitely meet again, in the sky or in space.”

He took her hand solemnly as a tear fell down his cheek, “We definitely will meet. In the sky or in space,” he vowed and Crow flew over to April.

“Promise me you’ll take care of Sora,” April choked through her tears as she stroked Crow’s beak gently.

“You have my word,” Crow promised and flew back to Sora’s shoulder.

They could not hug since they were on their boards, so they did their secret handshake and April slowed to a halt, watching Sora’s form disappear slowly in the horizon. When she could no longer see him, she let out all the tears she had been holding in and tightly clutched the ribbon He had once given her in case she ever decided to let her hair grow.

He skated in silence as he relished in the memories of him and April playing together in Jenkins’ shop. They had caused a lot of trouble for the old man while trying to invent new things from the scraps; which more often than not, ended with them blowing things up. He smiled and blinked away the last of his tears as he increased the speed of the skyboard.

The fence of Lamia Airport came into view and he hovered over it, waving at the cameras. Inside the airport a guard shut off the alarm before it could give an intrusion warning. They were used to Sora’s back entrance after more than six years of him using it.

He hovered to his hangar and greeted a couple of workers passing by. He stepped to the ID verification and waited patiently as the machine scanned his eyes, thumbprint and voice.

The doors of the hangar slid open and Sora smiled as his beloved Stinger came into view. It was an old model, Falcon class jet but with the help of his deceased father and a little touch up from Jenkins, the Stinger was a force to be reckoned with. Crow flew off his shoulders and perched at the nose of Stinger, synchronizing its systems with the jet’s.

He jumped into the cockpit and placed his board at the back seat. He turned on the radio and waited for Crow to give the okay for him to turn on the rest of the systems. A few seconds passed and Crow shrilly screeched, which was their signal. He closed the cockpit and changed the radio to a public channel.

“Tower, this is Hawk, requesting permission to cross the runway,” Sora said into the intercom.

A cheery voice which Sora recognized as Tom, a great controller with an annoying sense of humor replied, “Hawk, this is Tower, Hold.”

A few second passed and Sora repeated, “Tower, this is Hawk, requesting permission to cross the runway.”

“Hawk, this is Tower, Hold,” Tom replied and Sora felt his patience slowly slipping away.

“Tower, give me freaking clearance now,” Sora grated into the intercom.

“Hawk, in ten seconds a Leviathan class will be landing. If you’ve got the balls, go out on the runway now,” Tom replied with a mocking tone.

“Tower, get your head out of your ass,” Sora laughed when the ship had landed and taxied onto the runway.

“May the winds grace your wings,” Tom said.

“Thanks and take care, Tom,” Sora replied as he shot into the sky.

 **********

Miles away in Vannes military base, thirty two years old, Captain Richard Gale marveled at the unnamed ship in the hangar through an observatory glass. His years of service had been rewarded, and he had been given the expert honor of being the captain of the greatest ship ever created.

It did not belong in any particular class because its design was too original and new to fit into any existing class. It was designed to fly in the atmosphere, space and could even dive underwater. Its systems had been designed to be the perfect reconnaissance/assault weapon. Rumors said its firepower rivaled that of the biggest Dreadnought.

The only thing that disappointed him was the ship’s color. He had never liked white and the ship was painted white, like a blank slate. Well, he could always have it painted after he had been officially instated as its captain.

Richard left the observation room as he drew out his pod and clicked on the screen. He flipped it out and clicked a button that separated the screens into many small ones. He then chose the one that interested him and enlarged it. It was a video feed of excited civilians dancing in masks in preparation for the unveiling of his ship. He smiled contentedly and minimized the screen at the same time as he enlarged another that showed the reports of his soldiers.

Great, everything was going perfectly. There was nothing that could spoil his day.

 *************

After about two hours of full speed flight, Sora entered into Vannes airspace.

“Vannes, this is Hawk, Registration code, BS-23, this is a call to verify I’m entering your airspace,” Sora said into the intercom.

“Flight BS-23, this is Vannes, confirming entrance into our airspace. May the winds grace your wings,” a voice replied.

He felt the adrenaline rise in his veins as he got closer to his target. A few minutes later, he turned the intercom on as he neared Vannes military base.

“Tower, this is Hawk, Registration code, BS-23, requesting permission to land,” Sora said.

“Hawk, this is Tower. Welcome back. Permission to land granted. Head to runway B and taxi to the usual hanger,” Tower replied.

Vannes military base was situated on a flattened mountain, surrounded by a body of water. The city of Vannes was connected to it by a single, heavily monitored driveway. The only other routes were through the air and underwater, if the sharks did not eat the intruder first.

He smiled as he angled Stinger towards the specified runway. He remembered how years ago, he had volunteered to work here after Jenkins had dropped him a tip that they were building a magnificent ship. He had spent those years going in and out until they trusted him enough to let him fly in with his own jet. It also helped that he had befriended almost everyone he met, and no one thought that Sora could possibly know about the existence of the ship since he was just an errand boy.

Sora taxied down the runway and parked in an open hangar then jumped down from the cockpit at the same time that Crow ejected itself from the nose of Stinger. A few Falcons were parked in the same hangar and he admired the jets as he made his way into the base.  

“Did it go well?” Sora asked.

“All systems in this base are under my explicit command,” Crow replied.

Sora let out a breath of relief at Crow's words because it meant that their greatest hurdle had been overcome. During the time they had worked, here Crow had been silently breaking into the military database, using the weirdest of doorways; like a simple dishwasher connected to a sub-sub-sub branch of the main computer.  Little by little, it had inched its way to the main computer and during the brief connection between Stinger and the military Tower; Crow had finished its takeover. However, it knew it could only control the entire system for five hours at most before its presence was discovered and it was completely shut out or worse, invaded.

Sora smiled with satisfaction as he walked confidently to the soldiers’ locker room and swiped an ID and uniform he had kept hidden. He got dressed quickly and tucked his blue hair under the hat. He walked over to a mirror and sighed with satisfaction at his reflection. 

He stuffed Crow in a little bag so as not to arouse suspicion and walked out of the room. He used his ID card which was verified thanks to Crow’s hacking and nobody paid him any heed until he reached the section of the base where the ship was kept.

Sora whistled with amazement as the hallways changed drastically once he entered the ship's private hangar. The outer walls were all transparent so you could view the ship from anywhere in that section and he noticed he was not the only one who walked while oogling at the ship. He did not blame them though because though it was all white, the ship was an amazing sight to behold. 

He smiled as he made his way along the halls and stopped in front of a jet bridge which led into the ship. He rubbed his hands in anticipation and took a step forward but panicked as a hand grabbed his shoulders and spun him around.

Sora looked up into the green eyes of Captain Richard Gale and swallowed hard. Richard was a big man in all respects of the word. He stood at about 6’6 with bulky muscles and black hair that was shaved at the sides.  His smile was betrayed by the cold calculating gaze in his eyes.

“Name and Rank soldier,” Richard roared, and his deep voice reverberated in Sora's ears.

“Eddie Kodo,” Sora blurted out as he saluted, “Platoon Soldier, First Squad, Sir.”

“What are you doing here?” Richard shouted and Sora blocked his nose from the arid smell of alcohol. Someone has been celebrating too early.

“Final Maintenance, Sir. Want to make sure you get the best reception, Sir,” Sora shouted in reply and Richard grinned.

Richard patted Sora’s back and he felt the wind leave his lungs with each blow. “I like you kid. Come and have a drink,” Richard said as he led Sora away from the ship.

He gritted his teeth but followed silently. He secretly opened his bag and let Crow out. Sora pointed to the ship and Crow flew quickly to the ship.

 ***

Crow already had the basic layout of the ship in its head and it made its way past a few workers into the main computer of the ship. It landed and tucked its wings as it scanned for an outlet it could use to speed up the hacking process.

It successfully found one hidden smartly behind a switchboard and its eyes whirled in joy. It raised its right wing and a cable ran out and into the outlet.

It hacked into the ship in a race against time because if it did not seize control in a minute, regardless of whether it succeeded later or not, an alarm would go off, alerting the entire base.

It did not care though because it had practiced on numerous ships in the past and even managed to take down an entire base, though it had taken a year. Numbers, algorithms, codes and calculations whirled past its eyes as it fought against the system in a silent battle.

Crow panicked when it realized the enormous amount of data it had to hack into, protected by an even larger firewalls. The ship was ridiculously amazing and after seeing the features it had, there was no way Crow was going to give up on it.

“Sorry, Sora, you have to dodge some bullets,” Crow apologized as the sirens blared, warning the base.

 ******

Sora was walking stiffly behind Richard when the sirens blared. He pulled out his pod and flipped out a hologram of Crow, totally ignoring Richard now that he no longer had time to mess around.

Richard shouted at him as he ran back towards the ship but he refused to pay attention to the Hulk.

“What’s going on?” Sora cried.

“The ship’s tougher than I thought. I’ve taken control of the doors and successfully ordered an evacuation system but I haven’t seized complete control,” Crow replied.

“Okay, how long till you’re done,” Sora asked and yelled when a bullet whirred by him. “Holy Crap! They’re shooting at me,” Sora cried as a bullet passed through the head of Crow’s hologram.

“Calm Down,” Crow ordered, “You still have the PG right? Use it to get to me. I should be done by the time you reach the doors.”

Sora looked at the bracelet with doubt but when a bullet shot the hat off his head, it decided for him. “Let’s try it out,” he yelled and the PG responded to his will.

Sora felt, rather than saw the armor envelop him. Sky blue armor encased his entire body, shielding him from any and all attacks. A helmet formed with the shape of the head of a hawk, its yellow beak gleaming menacingly. A Japanese blue katana appeared in his armored hand and Sora smiled. It really was suited to his taste. Thousands of information flashed across the screen of the helmet and he suddenly knew everything about the suit. What he did not know at the time was that the PG would become one of his greatest sign cards.

Richard stared at Sora's hovering figure in frightened amazement. PGs were extremely rare, and it aside from top agents, it was unheard of for a normal civilian to possess one. He roared in anger as he shot Sora but the bullets bounced off an invincible shield, protecting him. He let out a few more rounds at a gaping Sora before throwing the pistol at the ground in defeat.

“Intruder is using a PG. All personnel are allowed to use anti tank weaponry and fire on sight,” Richard roared into his intercom. Personal Gear was an experimental weapons armor that never made it out of testing due to its dangerous capabilities and it had been banned in every state on Earth. Richard knew his men did not have enough firepower to take down the monstrosity, but they could buy some time if they took out the shields.

Sora turned in frightened excitement and thought, “Forward.” He legs suddenly picked up tremendous speed and he zoomed forward unable to control himself. He barely dodged hitting a wall by thinking, “Left!” It turned quickly again and Sora immediately understood that he was not meant to think but do just like normal movements.

“Commander, we can’t target him,” a rookie screamed.

“He’s too fast,” another yelled as Sora barreled past.

“All men block the jet bridge. Do not let him in there!” Richard yelled as he ran to the observation room.

Sora ran unhindered, since he did not have to worry about bullets hitting him until he heard a voice say, “Shield level 50%.” He did not need a genius to tell him that he could not afford to get any more hits and he started making efforts to dodge their shots.

A couple of soldiers ran out of a room ahead of him and fired off of volley of heat seeking missiles. The PG system noticed the threat and accelerated Sora's thought processing speed. The missiles suddenly looked slow as he calculated their trajectory and he evaded all of them with sharp deft movements, and sliced the last one, which caused a chain-explosion.

The soldiers froze in shock as he disappeared from the path of their missiles, then took cover as they exploded. By the time the soldiers had recovered,he was long gone.

Richard made it to the observation room and enlarged all the cameras but they all showed still images because of Crow’s hacking. Richard roared in anger as he smashed the keyboards, ignoring the sparks of electricity than surged out from the computer.

Sora made it to the Jet bridge but was greeted by three soldiers holding heat bazookas and RPG’s. They trained their weapons at him and Sora smiled because he had already made preparations.

As if on cue, all the bombs he had stolen from Jenkins went off around the base in succession. The soldiers cowered in fear for a few seconds as they expected a bomb to go off near them.

He used the chance to fly past them and into the ship and the doors shut firmly behind him, shutting off the advances of the soldiers as he ran to the bridge.

Crow had already finished its hacking and was perched on the Captain’s seat. “Took you long enough,” It joked as he turned off his PG and sat on the captain's seat..

“Got held up,” he replied as he took in a deep breath.

“So what are we naming her?” Crow asked.

“Phoenix,” he replied calmly. “Gonna have to change its paint job though.”

Crow laughed in reply, “Phoenix huh. Good Name. When we fall…”

“We’ll only rise higher and stronger,” he finished with a smile.

Crow retracted the Jet bridge and opened the main hangar doors, letting a stream of sunlight into the hangar. The hangar was sectioned into the mountain and the onlookers cheered as the doors opened, oblivious to the panic inside the base. 

Inside the ship, her engine hummed, as it transferred power throughout the ship, waking it up to its new life. Phoenix hovered slightly off the ground and idly flew out of the hangar, to the immense delight of the cheering fans.

“Let’s give ‘em a show,” Sora said and they circled around the base slowly, to the immense delight of their screaming fans. The sides of Phoenix spread out into wings as its propulsion systems picked up speed.

Before it severed its connection to the computers, Crow ordered a massive lockdown in the base that rendered all pursuit attempts for the next three hours useless. It also blocked all outgoing transmissions so they could not call for help from nearby bases.The soldiers throughout the base screamed bloody murder as they banged on their closed doors, willing them to open but their only reply was the base's lock down alarm.

Richard watched with anger as Phoenix climbed into the skies with his entire career. He knew that for the sake of publicity, all records of the ship would be scrapped and no one would remember its existence soon. A story about it sinking into the ocean would be the convenient cover up for its loss.

“Eddie Kodo,” he said through gritted teeth, “I swear I’ll kill you.”

****** 

Inside Phoenix, there were cells for prisoners of war. In one of these cells, a creature opened its eyes in delight and licked its lips.

“I’ll get out soon,” It snickered menacingly as it pulled against its chains.

Sora’s got a ship and Richard’s in a lot of trouble. What is it that lurks in the bowels of Phoenix? Find out in the next episode of Space Hawk