Stork restlessly tossed and turned in his bed. He knew that he was no good to the squadron in his condition. He had tried to ignore the effects the Aphrosia Crystal had on him and pilot the Condor anyway. After he almost flew them into a mountain, Aerrow declared him relieved of duty until further notice and ordered him to his quarters.
He knew it was for the best, for himself as well as everybody else. He just hated feeling... useless. He also hated knowing that he was the subject of debate among the other Storm Hawks. The few times he wandered out of his quarters and into the group everybody would hush. Then they would try so hard to act cheerful, as if nothing was wrong. They didn't have him fooled. He could sense their concern. Especially Piper's. She'd check on him every couple of hours or so. Her words so soothing and encouraging. Smiling so sweetly. Yet above her smile, eyes that betrayed profound worry.
Doomed. How many times had he said that word? To himself as well as in earshot of the others? This was not the kind of doom he had ever anticipated though. When he agreed to join the Storm Hawks he knew that it could mean a shortened life. An icy but swift death by one of Atmos's violent storms, or down in a blaze of glory in battle with the Talons.
But this? It never occurred to him that the doom he would inevitably suffer would be to feel as if he were slowly dying, little by little, day by day, for years. For the rest of his life. Which could be agonizingly long, given the obvious knowledge that if a cure isn't found and soon, he would have to be discharged and replaced.
"But she's my ship." Stork moaned. "I found her, I fixed her. I spent years living alone in her, in the Wastelands devoting my life to nothing but the restoration of her."
As soon as he'd muttered those words, guilt set in. How could he be so selfish? The Condor was too important to the free people of Atmos. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of one merb. If a cure couldn't be found soon, and if Aerrow asked him to step down as pilot of the Condor, he would have to comply. He didn't really have a choice.
The depression brought on by his train of thought made the fatigue even worse. Along with the aching muscles and dizziness he'd been suffering, he found himself succumbing to drowsiness again. At least when he was asleep, he didn't suffer as much.
Stork was deep in slumber when Radarr crept into his room. He carefully climbed onto Stork's bed and walked on all fours up to peak at him. The little blue creature let out a pitiful whine. Stork's color seemed to be fading. His muzzle had turned a grayish white, and the darker green around his forehead and shoulders had turned a paler, dull greenish gray.
"Is he asleep?" Aerrow asked his copilot when he returned to the bridge. Radarr nodded.
"Any change?" The Sky Night inquired. Radarr shook his head. Aerrow looked downcast for a moment then turned to Piper. "Please tell me that you have some good news?"
"Sorry, Aerrow. The crystal we found here on Terra Amazonia turned out to be a fake."
Aerrow slammed a fist onto the round table. The others watched in silence as he composed himself, then asked, "Piper, what are our other options? Is there any other kind of cure, or maybe a treatment that could relieve his symptoms?"
"None that I know of." Piper soberly answered.
"But there has to be!" The young Sky Night protested. "Our spies in Cyclonia have reported that Master Cyclonis is carrying on business as usual. Why isn't she suffering from the effects of the Aphrosia Crystal?"
"I really don't know." Piper replied. "From what the spies have told us, Cyclonis does not have a Tranquility Crystal. That's the only known remedy other than..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't wish to say it out loud.
"Would someone explain this to me again?" Finn asked, his voice tinged with agitation. "Cuz I really don't get it."
Piper sighed and wondered if the wiry blond boy really didn't understand or was just refusing to accept the facts.
Weeks ago they had been on a mission to retrieve an Infinity Stone from an uncharted and unnamed terra. There were ruins of an ancient civilization similar to the one in the Forbidden City where they had found the Oracle Stone. Stork was the first to find the crystal. He was about to bring it to the rest of the Storm Hawks when Master Cyclonis herself attacked him. They had no idea that she and the Talons had been following them in hopes of stealing the Infinity Stone once the Storm Hawks located it.
Each of them had their hands full fighting off Talons. Stork did the best he could to dodge the blasts from Cyclonis's staff. One of them landed close enough to knock him off of his feet. Before he could recover, Cyclonis was on him. She tried to snatch the stone from his hand. As soon as her fingers made contact with the stone, there was a bright flash of golden light. Stork and Master Cyclonis were hurled several feet and rendered unconscious. The Talons panicked at seeing their ruler felled. They rescued her and fled, forgetting about the stone.
Piper had carefully retrieved the stone with the tongs she used whenever handling unstable or unidentified crystals. Stork was brought back still unconscious to the Condor but appeared to be uninjured.
Piper's examination of the stone revealed that what they thought was an Infinity Stone was actually an Aphrosia Crystal. At first glance they look identical, but are very different once examined closely, with very different effects as well.
An Infinity Stone would keep other crystals charged to full power indefinitely. An Aphrosia Crystal would incapacitate it's victims until they accepted and accomplished the inevitable, which was...
"Copulation." Piper explained to Finn for the umpteenth time.
"You mean sex?" Finn frowned.
Duh. "Yes, I mean sex." Piper was becoming frustrated with the sharpshooter.
"So, we're moored here on Terra Amazonia." Finn brightened. "This place is crawling with babes. I'm sure we can find at least one that's a little curious about what it would be like with a merb."
"Finn..." Piper began, but was cut off by the blond's enthusiasm.
"And if that doesn't work, we find him a nice merb chick." He continued his rant. "I've heard that he's very popular with the ladies of his species. Being the only merb member of the Storm Hawks has given Stork hero status back home."
"I don't know, Finn." Junko said. "What are we going to do? Just walk up to some strange girl and say, 'excuse me miss, but would you do us a favor and boink our friend?' That's really tacky."
"It wouldn't do any good anyway." Piper's fingertips rubbed her temples, trying to massage away the headache she was getting. "It has to be the other person affected by the Aphrosia Crystal. That would be Master Cyclonis. Since that is out of the question, we're just going to have to keep looking for a Tranquility Crystal or something else that will counteract the symptoms."
"That's what we've been doing all this time." Finn protested. "And it's getting us nowhere! I've had it! I'm going to go get that bitch and bring her to Stork!"
"Finn!" Junko was shocked at his best friend's uncharacteristic harshness.
"There are two problems with that plan, Finn." Aerrow stated calmly. "Number one, it's suicide. Number two, it's just wrong."
Finn hung his head for a moment, then said. "I am so sick of hanging around here, sitting on my thumbs while Stork gets worse and worse. This is all my fault anyway. I kept bugging him to get out of the Condor more often. I thought he was letting himself get too cooped up."
Aerrow placed a consoling hand on Finn's shoulder. "If anyone's to blame, it's me. I insisted that Stork come along on that mission. I figured those ruins might be booby-trapped like the Forbidden City. Nobody knows traps like Stork. How could we have known that the crystal itself was the trap?"
"Forget about blame." Piper stated firmly. "All of us knew there would be danger when we chose to be Storm Hawks. Stork accepted that just as much as the rest of us. Deciding who is to blame is a waste of time. We have to decide what to do next."
"And what should be done in the mean time." Aerrow added. "For now, the Condor is without a pilot."
"I don't mind taking turns at the helm." Junko remarked.
"Me neither." Chimed Finn.
"So far that's been working out okay, but what happens when we're under attack?" Aerrow asked. "We're really going to feel that gap when the Cyclonians turn up the heat. Which will be soon when they realize that we're short one pilot. We also have to figure out what's to be done about Stork." He noticed the sharp glances of his squadron. "Until a cure is found that is."
"Well..." Piper began uneasily. "There is a facility on Terra Atmosia for those who have been wounded in battle defending Atmos. Technically Stork qualifies for that. They'd take good care of him."
"No way!" This time it was Junko that pounded his fist on the table. Any harder and he would have knocked a hole in it. "You can't make Stork leave the Condor! It's the only home he's known for what... about a decade?"
"Junko's right." Finn agreed. "Stork loves this ship. If we kick him out it'll break his heart."
"The longer it takes to find a cure, the weaker and more dependent on others he will become." Piper informed them.
"Then I'll take care of him." Finn volunteered. "Here, on the Condor."
"We both will, Finn." Junko said.
"How do you feel about it?" Aerrow asked Piper.
"I'm with them," Piper responded. "Stork belongs on the Condor, even if he can't pilot it."
"Radarr?" The Sky Night glanced at the smallest of the Storm Hawks. Radarr scurried over to stand between Junko and Finn, arms folded. His meaning was clear to Aerrow. "Then it's settled. Stork stays. We'll find a temporary replacement to pilot the Condor until his condition improves." A collective murmur of approval ran through the group. "And we will all do our part in taking care of Stork until then."
A quick glance around the room told Aerrow that his squadron was in agreement on that point as well.
While his comrades were still on the bridge deciding his fate, Stork slept deeply yet uneasily in his quarters. He'd toss, turn, kick and moan. Occasionally waking up to a draft whenever his thrashing managed to slide the covers off of him. Then he'd pull the blankets back up to his shoulders and drift off again.
He kept having the same nightmare. Cyclonis. Sometimes she would appear in his quarters, sometimes on the bridge, or in the meadow where he used to play as a child on Terra Merb. Always wearing the sheer black robes. Dark enough to obscure the details of her body, but not the shape of her legs, the curve of her breasts, or the angle of her torso as it plunged towards her tiny waist.
Wordlessly she would reach out to him, beckoning with her violet colored eyes. Just as wordlessly he would follow. Even though every fiber of his being felt like it was screaming at him to stop, he blithely joined her. Together they would walk into the storm, into darkness. Then he would awaken, heart pounding and gasping for breath.
Then one dream was different. He was back on Terra Merb, in the meadow. In the distance he could see the village where he spent his childhood. The one that had burnt to the ground while he ran for his life, narrowly escaping explosions from Cyclonian weapons. Not now. All was peaceful. The sun was shining, the breeze was gentle and warm and birds were singing. Then there was another sound, soft and mournful.
He glanced back into the meadow. There was a mound where bright purple flowers bloomed. At the center of that was a small form. As Stork moved closer he could see that it was a child. A human girl of about four or five years of age wearing a lavender dress.
She was crouched among the flowers. Her arms wrapped around her calves, her head buried into her knees. Her shoulders were heaving as if she were sobbing heavily, yet the sound her cries made were a quiet kind of sorrow.
Stork placed a green, four digit hand on her head and said, "What's the matter little one? Are you lost?"
The child slowly raised her head. Tears streaming down her checks. Jet black hair framed her pale little face. Her violet eyes pierced his own as she whispered, "I am so afraid."
Then there was another sound that didn't match the dream. It was the sound of someone shuffling around in his room. It pulled Stork away from his dream, into a semi-wakefulness. He figured it was Piper checking on him again. Really, does she have to do it every hour or two? It's not like he was going anywhere.
Stork opened his eyes and turned his head toward the door. Instead of Piper, Cyclonis stood before him. He took in a sharp, deep gasp of air in preparation for a scream. Before he could, Cyclonis thrust something at him, inches from his face. It was a small green crystal. Instead of screaming he let the air that filled his lungs out in a long, slow sigh. The room became darker and faded into nothingness.
When his awareness returned to him, he was in a strange room, in a strange bed. He started to get up but was unable to. His ankles and wrists were shackled. Tugging at his bonds revealed that they were either attached to the legs of the bed or bolted to the floor. He was also without a stitch of clothing.
Cyclonis had been standing behind the headboard. She came into his view as she strolled slowly around his right hand side to sit at the foot of the bed gazing not at him, but at the floor.
Finally she turned her head, her eyes meeting his and said, "Let's get this over with, shall we."