A/n: ~It's been a hot summer! So if you're like me, and live somewhere tight and smoggy, you'll understand my need to get out of the house as much as possible and my undisclosed desire to be incredibly lazy. :) I hope this new fanfiction will make up for that. Get somewhere cool and happy scrollin'!

::Dedications to everyone suffering in the sweltering heat, and to you troopers who are diligently trying to beat it and write your stories!

Sincerely, Timmy

July 20, 2011

by: Her Head in the Clouds

"Hey Junko! Help me move this beast of a laundry!" Finn called from atop the pile of scrap metal in the junkyard.

The wallop perked his ears and turned his large form over to the sharpshooter. He had just finished inspecting an old discarded fridge for any clues to their mission (more likely though for the evidence of any leftover food still considered food).

"Yeah OK!" he answered back, taking a big jump onto the dirt ground and jogging over. As they heaved the heavy appliance over to check the broken television beneath, Radarr scampered by. The blue sky rodent (I like to assume!) sniffed and crawled on all fours, looking to be in hot pursuit of a scent that smelt so foul, he was sure it was Cyclonian. The rubble they dug through was an old junkyard of discarded home appliances and furniture, belonging to years of destroyed homes and buildings during the past and present Cyclonian uprisings.

"Aw, check out this cool TV!" Finn piped, surprising Junko because the blonde-eyed boy usually turned his nose up at anything outdated or not in style.

"Really? You do?" he voiced that very opinion. Finn smiled reaching down to wipe a strip of dust off the cracked screen.

"Chyea, I do! Man, you know how expensive these were a few years back? I remember watching The Sky Avenger Patrol featuring THE RETURN OF AERIAL JOE on this baby when I was a kid!"

Radarr lifted his head in his chase and turned to give Finn a look that said 'When did you stop being a kid?' Finn caught it and stuck his tongue out at the critter before looking up at Junko.

"Hey, you think you or maybe Stork could get it to work?"

Junko made a face.

"Why? We've got a better one back on the Condor and plus, this is a pretty old TV, Finn" he replied back with a serious tone. He was more about not doing extra work for Finn as opposed to rejecting the offer to fix it.

Finn made a face to mimic the wallop's and turned back around into the rubble.

"Finnneeee!" he whined. Then he sighed and reached out hand to pull a rusty shower head in another pile. "Let's just get this over with and get outta here! Aerrow's probably done the other end and I wanna shower!" Junko noticed that Finn began to have a little trouble pulling out the shower head. Finn tugged vigorously.

"Yuck, why couldn't we have worn gloves? We're in a garbage dump touching gross things!" Finn whined again. Junko snickered.

"Finn, why are you being such a little girl?" Said boy rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, dude. Don't come crying to me when you smell like garbage for the next two days!" Finn laughed at his own joke before scrunching his eyebrows in annoyance. The shower head still wasn't budging.

"Stupid piece of-!"

"Let me help!" Junko offered and with one quick yank, Junko ripped the showerhead from beneath the pile. Suddenly the entire pile they were standing on began to shake and as quick as Radarr could jump onto Finn's head...

CLANK!

CLATTER!

CLINK!

CRAASSSHHH!

When the three boys looked up from their tumble to the ground, the entire metal mountain began sliding into a slope of terrible spillage. Metal jutted out this way and that around them and Finn was sure that if they stepped anywhere outside where they stood, they were sure to get run through with something sharp. Radarr shivered in fear while Junko looked around astonished. He turned to give Finn and Radarr a small smile.

"Sorry! It's getting harder to control my strength" he said shyly. It was true, in the many months since they had all began their lives as Storm Hawks, Junko had grown incredibly stronger. This mess was a ripple in the ocean compared to the worse damage he'd done on their ship. Finn rolled his eyes but gave the large wallop a grin.

"Same old Junko" he laughed as he shook his head. What didn't change despite his strength was their friendship and chumminess.

Radarr chirped to get his attention and both boys began to get up on their feet.

"Aerrow's gonna be mad. He said not to attract any attention to this part of the junkyard. And here WE go, creating Atmos' loudest industrial band!" he half-joked as he rubbed his neck looking out to all the destruction. With a huff, he hopped over a twisted purple lamp and put his hands on his hips.

"Let's get out of here, Junko! We'll just tell Aerrow we didn't find anything!"

Junko let out a big sigh, indicating his relief the search was over and went to hop over the lamp just like Finn when he spotted something to his left.

"Hey Finn! How 'bout we take one more look?" he called. Finn turned to look at him.

"Where?"

Junko pointed as he walked over to the piece of furniture that caught his mind. Finn realised that it was an old bedroom drawer that looked like it had seen the worse of the Cyclonian War. It was scorched and watered down by nearly a decade in the open weather, it's once healthy brown oak colour burned and washed away to dull grey. Despite the broken corners and gaping holes in some sides, it still had a few handles intact and kept its frame.

"In here!" Junko replied, trying to hide a little excitement in his voice. As he went to open the drawers that still had handles on them, Finn came up behind him and bent on his knees to lean in and eye the furniture more.

"I don't know, Junko..." he said doubtfully with less excitement for the find than the wallop."I have a bad feeling about this."

"Why? Are you scared something's gonna pop up and scare us?" the wallop teased with a small grin as he fiddled around in one shelf. " Besides, drawers are meant to hold things, so there's a good chance we'll find something!"

Finn scoffed and crossed his arms. Junko was on to the third drawer with a handle.

"I'm not scared of anything Junko! I am steel!" he argued confidently.

"OH MY GOSH! WHAT IS THIS? AAAHHHHHH!"

Junko cried as he was suddenly pulled into the drawer and began flailing his body around for help. Finn broke down and went to reach for Junko's shoulder.

"AHH JUNKO! WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT? HERE, LET ME HELP!" he cried in fear and it looked like Junko was getting pulled in.

"AHH NO! NO! IT'S TOO...IT'S...IT'S..!"

"WHAT? WHAT?"

"IT'S-AAAAHHHHH!" and with a hard shove, Junko ripped his arm out of the shelf and turned on Finn, to who's scream was heard for miles and miles. Radarr screeched as his ears flew up to the clouds.

A small pile of papers waved lazily in Finn's face.

"Just a pile of paper."

Junko laughed as Finn came back to earth and gave him the dirtiest look imaginable.

"NOT COOL, BRO!" Finn yelled, his face red with embarrassment and frustration. Junko rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Sorry, buddy," the wallop joked. "Just wanted to see your reaction!" He continued laughing as Finn went stiff and ripped the papers out of his hands.

"Yeah, whatever," Finn grumbled as he glared down into the papers. "Let's just see what these are."

As Junko calmed down, Radarr went to jump on his shoulder, shivering from the screaming that had just happened and hugged the wallop's ear with a mellow smile. Junko walked over to where Finn was standing and eyed the papers through some small glasses he took out of his pocket.

"So what are they?" Junko said with a little laugh still in the back of his voice. "Are they like Cyclonian documents? Because you know Aerrow would love to have-"

"Actually, no."

Finn cut him off, his voice had lost all amusement and as Junko observed his face quickly, the blonde-haired boy looked tense and withdrawn. Junko went to look at the paper but couldn't really make out the words. The writing was all garbled and twisted, written with a light blue pencil, almost like it was written by a very small child. And judging by the format, the wallop could only guess what it might be.

"It's a letter."

Finn nodded as his blue irises flicked back and forth trying to make sense of the scrawl, decoding its message. Junko didn't want to disturb the boy as he read it better than he could, but he had questions to ask.

"From when?" ...Do you think?" he said softly.

"Maybe... during the war..." Finn's reply was barely above a whisper as he continued reading the letter. Radarr remained silent.

The air around the three suddenly grew cold and chilly. Junko was relieved when Finn finished reading the letter and didn't immediately say anything to comment on it. Instead, he looked out into the horizon and passed the letter over to Junko without a word except for the sigh that escaped his lips.

"Uh..." Junko started but decided against what he wanted to say. He took the yellowing paper from Finn's outstretched hand. Before he began reading it, he eyed the sharpshooter quickly then returned to the letter.

Dear Mr. Knight,

My name is Timmy. I am 8 years old. I live with my mommy and daddy and I am on summer vacation. The Cyclonians came to my terra and now everyone is in danger. I can see fire from Mr. Pecker's bakery store and I'm scared. Daddy hasn't come home for days and Mommy won't stop crying and I know the Cyclonians are coming to everyone's house.

Please Mr. Sky Knight, can you use your swords and make them go away? I want to be a Sky Knight when I grow up because I want to protect Mommy like you do and make the Cyclonians go away. I want Daddy to come home so if you meet him, can you tell him to come home? He promised to take me and Mommy to see grandma. Please come to my terra, we really need you.

Sincerely,

Timmy Eagle, Age: 8

Junko had no words. His mouth was dry and he was sure his couldn't see straight. His heart pounded and a bad chill rippled through his body. Radarr, who must've also read the letter over his shoulder, whimpered and recoiled into a tight ball beside Junko's head. Years ago, a little boy who was probably all their age, was alive during the war and wanted the Sky Knights to come rescue him so he wrote them a letter on paper in pencil crayon. The idea of a child's letter never reaching its sender and not knowing where the boy was sent a haunting feeling through the three.

Where was Timmy now? If he was in any less fortunate state like either of them during the time of the Cyclonian War, there was little chance that he would survived. And if the letter still remained in the drawer and was never sent to the Sky Knights, it was even more likely that... Not all kids were saved; all them prayed and pleaded. But not all of them could be protected...

Should they tell Aerrow...?

No one said a word until Junko folded the paper gently in his large hand and turned to Finn.

"Finn...?" Junko asked cautiously.

Finn didn't look like himself.

The gleam was gone in his eyes, like a candle flame blown out and his mouth was a tight line, much like their leader in times of seriousness. The boy suddenly looked years older than he was as he stood stiff and unmoving in the terra's breeze.

"Finn," Junko said again. "Let's...let's go back now. There's nothing else we need to see."

Finn snapped his head up to Junko's sombre face, looking like he'd just woken up from a bad dream. He carefully regarded Junko with dry eyes and a frown before nodding slowly. He rubbed his eye with the back of his gloved hand.

"Uh, yeah," Finn's voice cracked. "You're right Junko...let's...!"

Junko was surprised when what sounded like a hiccup or sob escaped the boy's lips.

Junko turned around quickly and pushed the drawer shelf closed, but not before quickly looking into the remaining shelves for anything else. When he found nothing but an old hairbrush and an old picture of what was probably Timmy and his parents posing for a summer picture, he quickly gathered them and brought them with him. Timmy had black hair like his mother, but he had his father's face and brown eyes. When he looked up again from the picture, Finn was staring him still looking deep in thought.

"Do we... have to bring it all?" Finn asked slowly. He sounded as Junko felt: unsure and terrified about discovering this all. Junko immediately gave him a look that read 'Of course, Finn!' but as he stared down into the items again, the idea began to melt away from him.

"I..." the wallop began slowly. "I don't know, Finn...I don't...want to anymore."

Finn had the same look of resignation. Instead, Radarr settled for both of them, by scampering off to fetch the rest of the team. The two were grateful for the little guy as he disappeared into the garbage dump, giving them the needed silence and time they needed to dwell on Timmy's words and their feelings before the others arrived.

Nothing was more certain than the way the two of them felt about their lives, the war, and the people left behind. They could fight the Cyclonians for years, but they knew that when it came down to the little pieces still cracked inside all of them, it didn't, wouldn't, matter.

It wasn't long before Aerrow, Piper and Stork returned with Radarr to find Junko on the floor sobbing through his eyelids, and Finn trying to choke back a sob as he tried to explain the contents of the letter, hairbrush, and photo clenched within his fist.

~Finn and Junko really stuck out to me this week and I knew it was about time that I made a hurt/comfort plot. It was easy to formulate since the two comic-reliefs hardly get any credit for seriousness... A sombre idea and general message for a such a warm and sunny season, I know, but different genres make for better writers and in turn, better story plots. Hope you enjoyed reading, thanks again, and continue having a good summer.

Much love, Abby~