Airwolf Rule The World

Airwolf had already refuelled mid air and Kristien flew her with ease. Carsten sat quietly watching the world go by. The scramblers sounded in Airwolf, Kristien continued to ignore them. The sound continued.



“What are you going to do?” Carsten asked getting fed up with the noise.



“Has to be ignored I am afraid.” Kristien had already blocked out the noise in her own head.



“Are you sure you can’t answer it?” Carsten complained about the noise again.



Kristien looked directly at Carsten with a look that made him realise he ought to drop it. “We are going to be at the rondezvous in 1 hour, so sit tight.”



Hawke had got out of the cockpit and had made a campfire near the phoenix, he had already changed into his Airwolf Flight Suit. He heard the bushes nearby rustle and he reached for his revolver and started to creep quietly over to the bushes. He held up the revolver and waited silently.



A mans figure started to back out of the bushes. Hawke took aim and curled his finger around the trigger. The safety was already off. The man dressed in black continued to back out of the bushes and as Hawke was just about the pull the trigger, the man fell over a tree root and fell down on to his back.



“Mamma mia.” Dominic said, slightly winded from his fall as he looked up at Hawke standing over him.



“Stealthy.” Hawke murmured.



“You gonna help me up or what?” Dominic moaned loudly. “And preferably without the loaded gun thank you.”



“You took your sweet time.” Hawke put the safety back on and placed the revolver back into belt and held out his hand to Dominic and pulled him up.



Dominic brushed himself down and looked up at Hawke. “Oh I did did I? Funny I thought I was on time.” Dominic wandered over to the camp fire and helped himself to some coffee. He looked at the Phoenix. “You sure you didn’t put your foot down in that and get here extra early?”



Hawke smirked at Dominic. “I may have a little.”



“You know I don’t like this at all.” Dominic said uneasily. “You know using the Lady for bait and that, it don’t seem right.”



Hawke sighed heavily. “I know but I am not sure how we are going to get to the bottom of all of this.” Hawke looked at the Phoenix. “At least we aren’t actually using the Lady as bait.”



Dominic nodded and looked at the Phoenix. “You know I really appreciate what Kristien has done, letting us use the Phoenix and all.” Dominic continued. “Well you know this reminds me of the time me and your old man took a loaded B17 from the airfield against the Colonels orders and….” Dominic began



“Quiet.” Hawke said already reaching for his gun.



Out of the surrounding bushes twenty heavily armed soldiers appeared all pointing their P90’s at Hawke and Dominic. Hawke sensibly lowered his revolver and placed his hands behind his head.



Hawke sat on the floor of the cell. It was cold and damp. Dominic walked about in the next cell unhappy at the prospect of being a prisoner. They had been taken there blindfolded. Hawke had a reasonable idea of how to get back, the quiet counting to himself and the noting of how many lefts and rights. He knew they had headed north from the landing site. He would have liked to have seen their faces when they looked at the phoenix expecting Airwolf to be there.



The main door opened and five heavily armed guards appeared. Hawke watched as they came to his cell door and opened it. He sighed deeply knowing that he was going to be taken away for questioning and a fair bit of torture. Dominic strode forward to the edge of the bars as four of the men grabbed hold of Hawke roughly by the tops of his arms and pulled him out of the cell, dragging his legs. They placed a black bag over his head. Hawke continued to try to get free to no avail.



“Hey take it easy will ya.” Dominic yelled to the captors.



The fifth soldier just stared at Dominic who began to pace the cell again as the main door slammed clanking a loud metal sound which seemed to echo around the cells.



Hawke was dragged to another room where he was then chained to a wall. It was quite damp and musty in the room. The black bag over his head preventing him from seeing anything. He heard the door creak open and close again. Hawke fell to his knees as he felt a blow to his stomach, winding him instantly. The chains on his hands preventing him from dropping to the floor completely, wrenching at his biceps as his whole body weight was held up by his arms. Hawke lost count of the barrage of fists that came next. He could soon taste his own blood. Just as he thought he was going to lose consciousness the pounding stopped. The chains on his hands were released and Hawke fell slumped to the floor.



The sound of a man walking with a cane came forward.



The bag from Hawke’s head was removed and it took several minutes for Hawke’s eyes to become accustomed to the bright halogens that lit the room. Hawke focused his eyes, his head was still spinning and his ears could hear the blood rushing around in it.



“Where’s Airwolf?” Archangel asked.



“Go to hell.” Hawke spat not realising who was speaking to him and he started to gather some strength.



“No hello Michael.” Archangel replied hoping to get some sense out of Hawke before he drifted off into unconsciousness. “Look I don’t know how you have done it and frankly I don’t care, but what ever that is parked out there is not Airwolf.”



“That’s her new disguise.” Hawke replied cockily.



“Hawke, we need to give them Airwolf or they will kill you.” Archangel tried again.



“Michael there is no way I am handing over Airwolf to anyone.” Hawke stubbornly replied and he wiped away the trail of blood from his mouth. “How come you are here?” Hawke questioned.



“Look Hawke we have got to give them something, work with me here.” Archangel pleaded. “They have your son.” Archangel held out his hand and clasped Hawke’s and helped him to his feet. “I am here to try to help you.”



“What?” Hawke started to struggle with the torment inside that he held about his first born. “Who has my son?” Hawke was waivering in the air with his head pounding as it was, the news that his son had been taken could engulf him at any time.



“The people that have you and Dominic, they have another compound south of here, where they have taken your son.” Archangel explained and he wiped off Hawke’s blood from his hands using a handkerchief and folded it up and placed it back in his trouser pockets. “I don’t have much time.”



Hawke was not prepared for this. He had devised a plan with Kristien and Dominic to try to help Archangel get out of the fix that he was in, working for the other side. Archangel watched Hawke physically struggle with the fact that his son was somewhere. He could use this further to gain control of Airwolf, but where was it. Archangel had given the extremists the frequencies that Airwolf used and it had led them here, but to what, an experimental plane that they couldn’t even open to cockpit to.



The five soldiers returned to the room again and dragged Hawke out to return back to the cells.



From the one way mirror in the room, a voice could be heard. “We are making no progress here.”



“Hawke will compromise now that he knows about his son.” Archangel confirmed.



“We do not have time for compromise, we demanded Airwolf and you have failed to deliver.” The voice grew impatient.



“I have delivered everything on schedule so far, I told you that Hawke was difficult.” Archangel looked directly at the mirror.



“You assured us that the missile we got for you with the electromagnetic pulse would disable Airwolf and it continued to fly out of your grasp, you underestimated this Hawke then, what makes you believe you can deliver this time.” The voice said.



“I did not underestimate Hawke then and I haven’t now.” Archangel snapped. “You will have Airwolf if you are patient.”



“Patience! We have waited months for you to deliver Airwolf.” The voice said.



“Then a few more days will not matter then.” Archangel replied, confident that he could get Hawke on side.



Dominic watched over Hawke as he laid out on the makeshift bed. The soldiers had put Hawke into Dominic’s cell and had thrown him on the mattress. Dominic had done his best to tend to the wounds that Hawke had. Hawke had drifted off to somewhere between coherent and unconsciousness. As Hawke stirred the pain hit him.



“Easy String, easy.” Dominic warned Hawke before trying to do any movements.



“Did you see Archangel?” Hawke asked as he struggled to open his eyes, one of which was already threatening to close after being so swollen.



“Archangel is here? You sure?” Dominic asked slightly shocked and looked around.



“Yeah and the people who have us have my son somewhere else.” Hawke held out his hand to Dominic and Hawke was helped up to a sitting position. Hawke waivered for a moment before somehow becoming more stable.



“Your son, you mean the baby that was…….when Kristien was….he’d be like seven now?” Dominic didn’t want the blanks filled in, he always struggled with what had happened to Kristien in the past and more recently. He was disgusted that any man could do that to any other human being, let alone a woman.



“His name is Zafar, Kristien met him in Dubawi.” Hawke replied as he stretched out his arms, hoping they weren’t as painful as they felt. The burning sensation seemed to ease once the blood flowed back to the bruised muscles.



Dominic raised his eyebrows, stunned into silence knowing what took place a few months before.



Hawke’s ear were diverted to a distant sound. “We’d better get ready.” Hawke said.



Kristien flew Airwolf at over MACH 1.5. Carsten was looking at the PDA which had a GPS signal from Hawke. Combat mode had been engaged minutes before using the turbos. Kristien had already selected what she wanted.



“Are you sure about this?” Carsten asked checking the PDA again.



Kristien firstly could not believe she was being questioned at this late stage less than 2 minutes out and secondly she was flying at Mach 1.5 and he wanted to divert her attention. Kristien did not even reply and just pressed the side of the helmet releasing the visor and engaging the TADS. She counted off the seconds and then released a sidewinder. With sure fire accuracy the ADF pod released the missile and like an arrow from a bow, it went to the far end of the compound where a fuel tank for a helicopter was sitting. The silence of the early evening air was ignited by a fireball explosion caused by the sidewinder.



Various alarms sounded over the compound and soldiers ran in different directions, unsure as to what had happened and who had caused it.



Hawke and Dominic smiled at each other, knowing what was happening. Dominic helped Hawke up and they grabbed the mattress from the bed and moved to the far corner of the cell and put the mattress over them.



“You sure about this String?” Dominic asked in the gloom under the makeshift shelter they had made.



Hawke looked up at Dominic. “Too late to do anything about it now.”



High above the compound Airwolf flew, out of sight. Airwolf went into a nose dive towards the compound, eating up the air. Kristien tugged at the trigger for the chain guns and the compound below began erupting into mini explosions where three hundred and thirty rounds a minute started to make short work of anything that stood in Airwolf’s way. Airwolf hovered into the courtyard making a three hundred and sixty degree turn, still spewing out the devastating force from the chain guns. Nothing was left. Carsten sat unable to move as he witnessed the devastation in front of him.



Kristien did not even survey the smoke ridden scene. She checked the monitor and saw Hawke and Dominic were ready. She selected a hellfire and the missile went to the far side of the stone walls that housed the cells, making a hole big enough for people to come through.



Hawke and Dominic emerged through the smoke and debris, unhurt from the explosion. They ran towards Airwolf.



The campfire flames were keeping the chill of the night air away from the four bodies that sat around it. Dominic and Carsten were drinking coffee whilst Kristien patched up Hawke’s injuries. Carsten watched Kristien’s every move. He was struggling with the fact she was pregnant but also she had unleashed Airwolf’s arsenal to get Hawke and Dominic out. Nothing was left. No one had time to radio for help either.



Airwolf stood majestically almost dwarfed by the Phoenix that was still parked from Hawke’s flight earlier. Dominic finished up his coffee and looked at Hawke and Kristien.



“So Doc how’s he doing?” Dominic asked Kristien.



“Cracked a couple of ribs, couple of lacerations and one hell of a concussion, apart from that he will be fine.” Kristien put away her doctors bag to the side and then sat down opposite Hawke and next to Carsten.



“I want you to return home.” Hawke told Kristien and he took a gulp of coffee with the couple of pain killers that Kristien had given to him.



Kristien calmly sipped her water, partly ignoring Hawke’s paranoid demeanour.



“I agree with Hawke.” Carsten added his weight to the current request from Hawke.



Kristien looked up and stared hard at Carsten and then looked over to Hawke. “So what are you going to do?” Kristien asked.



“Going to find our son.” Hawke replied to Kristien and as he said it he watched her.



Kristien stood up and walked away from the camp fire. Carsten was about to follow when Hawke also stood up and followed Kristien. Carsten handed Hawke a P90 as he walked away.



Kristien was already sitting on a tree trunk and was looking at her feet dangling in the air. Hawke walked quietly over to her and sat down beside her.



“Do you know where he is?” Kristien asked keeping a level head.



“You are not surprised he has been taken?” Hawke said rhetorically. Hawke watched Kristien. “Surely Dubawi would have kicked up a fuss if he went missing?”



“Not if he walked out with the Deputy Director of the FIRM, they wouldn’t.” Kristien explained her theory.



“Damn it.” Hawke spat, furious that no one had discovered Archangel was working for the other side.



“SO?” Kristien asked again for the whereabouts of their son.



“South of here.” Hawke replied and he pushed the dirt on the floor with his boots. Kristien sighed and rubbed her pregnant stomach. “Kristie, please I need you at home.” Hawke spoke softly to her, he knew he was in no position to demand as much as he wanted to. “You need to rest otherwise Metteo will start kicking up a fuss and you have done so much already.”



Kristien held her hand onto her pregnant bump. She had given herself different drugs to keep everything calm whilst she flew Airwolf. She felt tired but with the adrenalin still flowing through her veins, all of her pleas from her aching body were being ignored. “And what about Archangel?” Kristien asked.



“I don’t know.” Hawke replied truthfully. “He was here and he helped me up and told me about Zafar.” Hawke explained. “They want Airwolf in exchange.”



Kristien looked up and met Hawke’s gaze upon her. “Airwolf, you can’t.” Kristien told him bluntly.



“Kristie, I am going to trade Airwolf for our son, I owe you this much.” Hawke replied, his heart already hurting with a dull ache.



“You owe me nothing.” Kristien told Hawke instantly and she slid off the tree trunk and started to walk away but then paused as Hawke walked up behind her and stood as if he was her shadow. For a moment Kristien hoped that he would take her into his arms and console each other to how they were both feeling, but instead Hawke just stood, not daring to touch her. Kristien sighed deeply, deep down she wanted so much to discuss life stuff and meaning of life with Hawke but this was not the right place. “I had better go.” Kristien said reluctantly to Hawke and walked back to the camp.



Hawke gave a huge sigh of relief. This trap that they had willingly entered into had taken a turn that no one could have predicted.



The Phoenix took off with Kristien and Carsten in. Hawke watched from Airwolf, relieved that Kristien was on her way back to the estate. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen but he knew it was going to be bad. Dominic sat at the EDCC checking a few things over. “Ok I have cross referenced everything from what you have told me and the computer has come up with this place, a disused air base twenty clicks from here.” Dominic read off the results from the map that was displayed on the main monitor.



Hawke was already closing Airwolf’s door with a hiss of the pressurisation and he placed the helmet on his head. “Well let’s go and have a look then.” Hawke replied as he pressed TURB START ONE.



The Phoenix was soon high above the earth, Carsten sat in the gloom of the purple with the tilt of the earth down below. He looked at the altimeter and a small shudder went down his spine as he saw they were at one hundred thousand feet.



“I thought we were going back to the estate?” Carsten tried to ask hoping he was going to get an answer. There was none.



Kristien watched her monitor, Airwolf took off and she followed what Hawke was up to. Something she remembered popped into her head. Archangel had Hawke’s blood on him. Hawke had been given an isotope that could be traced, true it was wearing off but it could be followed. Kristien quickly went to work and typed in various things to the keyboard whilst the Phoenix stacked quietly on the edge of space.



On the screen came two blips. One was Hawke and the other was Archangel.



“Got you.” Kristien muttered to herself.



“What are you up to now?” Carsten asked knowing he was probably going to hate the answer. How wrong he was.



“I’ve found Archangel.” Kristien replied. “It’s faint, but its him.”



“Let’s go then.” Carsten encouraged Kristien, how he wanted to get hold of Archangel and throw him up against the wall and have at least ten minutes in a locked room with him. A room which would probably become Archangels tomb.



Hawke flew Airwolf to the disused air strip. There were a few guards and a couple of tanks. Nothing else appeared on the monitors. Dominic was busy at the EDCC scanning everything up to a fifty mile radius. Nothing was out there. Hawke flew over at MACH One, at approximately twenty feet, pulling up a dust cloud which covered the guards below. By the time the air had cleared Airwolf had disappeared. Hawke pulled up and did a hammerhead stall and turned Airwolf around.



“Give me hellfires Dom.” Hawke requested.



Dominic depressed the buttons and gave Hawke all of Airwolf’s firepower. The ADF pod and the chain guns deployed. “Set.”



Hawke returned to the airstrip and pressed the red button sending one hellfire missile towards the middle tank, before it had even hit, Hawke pulled Airwolf up and pressed the turbos. The middle tank exploded and the munitions on board, sent more explosions up engulfing the other two tanks which were parked next to the middle one. A huge orange fireball blew up into the sky.



Hawke looked at the monitor and something appeared for his eyes only. He knew it was from Kristien. He changed course and pushed Airwolf towards the target.



Hawke slowed Airwolf up and checked out the area. He saw one white vehicle below and nothing else. It was a single storey building, an old barn out in the middle of a valley, possibly used to house sheep.



“Dom what have we got?” Hawke asked.



“Three people, but with sub normal body temperatures.” Dominic replied.



Hawke announced Airwolf’s arrival by unleashing the chain guns on to the white limousine below, setting it on fire, it exploding as the gas tank ignited. Satisfied that the getaway vehicle was disabled, Hawke brought Airwolf in for landing. He jumped out of Airwolf and retrieved his revolver from his belt. Holding with both hands with the safety off, he entered the building.



The smell of death was heavy in the air. Blood was everywhere, smeared and congealed, the floor was sticky as Hawke’s boots walked through the human remains. The trail of blood stopped at a couple of double doors, he opened them slowly. Hawke a seasoned army soldier was not prepared for what presented to him, a small child dismembered and tortured, with another two bodies both females again dismembered and evidence of torture. Hawke could barely keep calm, his emotions churned violently and the dark Stringfellow came to the surface.



“String, we got movement from someone right out back.” Dominic’s voice came over the radio.



Hawke stormed through the body parts and out the back door. The fresh air rushing to hit him, almost making him wretch with the clean, fresh air, leaving the stale taste of death behind. Hawke could see the man clearly, dressed in white climbing up the valley sides to try to get away. Hawke ran back to Airwolf and jumped in. Airwolf took off and Hawke guided Airwolf to the runaway. He tugged at the chain guns and released three hundred and thirty three rounds at the side of the valley, debris erupting everywhere. The lone man held up his arms, surrendering to Airwolf, knowing he could not get away. Hawke pushed Airwolf’s nose closer to the man, forcing him back to the barn structure.



Airwolf landed with the man stood in front, arms still raised.



“String, that’s Archangel.” Dominic ID’d the man. “What the hell are you doing?”



“Stay here.” Hawke ordered to Dominic as he left Airwolf again.



Hawke walked towards the man in white. Hawke pulled out his revolver and motioned for the man to walk back inside to the crime of the century.



As the doors closed Hawke allowed the revolver to release one bullet as vengeance pulsed through Hawke’s veins. .



As Archangel fell to the floor clutching his knee he screamed out. “Hawke, what the fuck are you doing?” Blood oosed from the knee, colouring the white trousers crimson red. “Hawke.” Archangel shouted writhing in pain.



Hawke’s eyes were glazed over and he just watched the downed Archangel drag himself along the floor, his blood now adding to the congealed trail. Hawke allowed Archangel to back up more and go through the double set of doors to where the carnage lay. Hawke allowed another bullet to release from the chamber into Archangel’s other leg.



Archangel yelled with more intensity. “Hawke, damn you listen, God there was nothing I could do, they had already killed your son, I am so sorry.” Archangel tried to reason with Hawke.



With his glazed deep blue piercing eyes, Hawke surveyed the scene of what was the small child. He struggled to see if it was Zafar, he only had a hazy photograph of him in his mind, he could not tell in all the carnage who it was. Kristien was the one who had met him. Oh God Kristien, how the hell was he going to explain this to her. He had failed her yet again, another promise he could not keep to her. As vengeance continued to pulse through his tightening veins he remembered the set up with the prostitute and how Kristien had been given that evidence, where she nearly lost the baby that she was carrying now.



Hawke snapped, like a man possessed strode forward to the downed Archangel and began throwing punches at Archangel. Hawke did not need much convincing it had been Archangel handing over the evidence to Kristien. Punch after punch, Hawke pounded onto Archangel’s body, delivering so much force you could hear bones cracking, even Hawke’s knuckles cracked under the immense strain of delivering this helping of vengeance. He could have used Airwolf to deliver it, but he wanted to feel something other than pain and despair and emptiness that he was forced to deal with.



Soon Archangel became limp in his grip and Hawke threw his body onto the floor. It seemed so easy and painless. Archangel was still breathing and Hawke walked over to the torso of the small child, he placed his hand onto the cold head, his dark brown hair matted with his own blood. The innocence of a child with all this violence chilled Hawke to the bone. Hawke struggled with the darkness that he used to allow to rule his life before meeting Kristien, the cold, the deep brooding, the reclusive life that he lived by, preventing anyone from coming near, started to seep inward again, just like the Titanic flooding, there was really no going back.



Kristien landed the Phoenix next to Airwolf and got out and walked over to Airwolf. Dominic stood with his arms on the nose of Airwolf, holding up his body, shaking his head.



“Where’s Hawke?” Carsten asked looking around.



Dominic nodded in the direction of the barn, he couldn’t make eye contact with anyone, such was the shock he was in. Kristien looked at Dominic and then at the doors on the barn, Carsten checked his weapon and Kristien turned. “No, stay here.” Kristien told him, she could feel Hawke’s deep brooding from where she stood. The darkness she had felt from Hawke on their first meeting had returned.



Kristien walked forward and opened the door. She knew the smell of death quite well and she ignored it and followed the congealed trail towards the double doors. She opened them and surveyed the scene of dismembered bodies. As Kristien’s eyes became accustomed to the dim light, she could see Hawke sat on some bales, his hands out in front of him holding something. As Kristien walked closer she could see it was Archangel with his chest torn open, the ribs pulled apart. As she came closer she could see what had happened.



Whilst Archangel was still alive, Hawke had ripped open his chest and ripped out his heart whilst it was still beating.



There in Hawke’s bloodied hand was a heart, now cold, now lifeless. In his other hand was his revolver.



Kristien sat down next to Hawke and shifted her position to get comfortable. Time passed. Kristien took deep breaths, keeping her composure, trying to absorb everything that was emanating from Hawke.



“I expected it to be different.” Hawke said in a deep gruff voice. “How can someone not have a heart of stone? It should be stone.” Hawke said rhetorically. “I can understand better if it was stone. What else can sit back and allow a child to be killed? Can sit back and allow you to be taken, to be beaten near to death?” Hawke struggled with hundreds of questions that were trying to filter through the labyrinth of the darkness that allowed him to rip out a beating heart. “It should be stone.”



Kristien looked back at the bodies and then back to the open chest cavity which once housed the heart that was in Hawke’s hands.



“A heart is just a heart no matter who it is in.” Kristien spoke softly. “It’s just a muscle with four chambers that pumps blood around, that’s all.” Kristien gave her explanation a clinical feel.



Hawke turned to her, his eyes completely glazed. “I couldn’t save our son.” Hawke admitted to her, his voice starting to crack under the immense strain and he pointed with a blood soaked finger to the bodies that lay on the floor in a pool of congealed blood.



Kristien just looked at the chaos and could not even begin to connect with what had happened here. At least the cloned Archangel was dead, finally out of the way, permanently. But no answers as to where the real Archangel was even if he was still alive.



“Bastian couldn’t be saved when he was taken from me, by anyone.” Kristien explained quietly her version of events, the ones that had prevented her from allowing the darkness to consume her. Oh God how she grieved, for four years not allowing anyone to know where she was, then somehow one day waking up and wishing she was with Hawke, crying for him in the cold and lonely nights. The possibility that Bastian had survived, albeit with Bryon, rocked her world but still she managed to keep calm. “You remember what I told you, don’t you.” Kristien reached inside of Hawke’s dark mind to try to find him.



Hawke nodded silently.



Quietly she slipped her arm over his and she rested her head on his shoulder. Hawke turned to her, she felt so warm and this was the first time that she had come to him since the incident with Diana. Somehow even in the darkness Kristien was there like a bright beacon of light, showing the way out, his hand dropped the heart back to the open chest cavity, the dried blood cracking on his hand, the revolver loose in his hand, clattered when it hit the ground. Hawke felt Kristien reach out to him, to pull him close, to bring him out of the dark and into the light.