Aerrow sighed as Finn went back to bed, yawning. The blonde sharpshooter had been woken up by Stork looming over his bed, in a dead sleep, again. Over the last month or so Stork had been found sleepwalking into each team member's room, only to wake up even as he seemed ready to grab them. He'd always clap his hands to his mouth in shock then say something along the lines of "You're not a Soot Crawler!" or "Finn/Piper/Junko... you're real..." or even "What am I doing in here...?" with an eye twitch. They'd only known the merb a few months, but it was long enough to figure out a few quirks about him. First off, merbs weren't single gendered, they were hermaphrodites, they had their own words for he/she and him/her. Stork had explained that for Common Atmosian, the common language of the Atmos, some merbs used he other she and it didn't really matter which was which. Stork just preferred to be referred to as male. The other thing they found out very quickly was that Stork didn't like being touched, but would touch the others at his own will. It only took one full conversation with each other for Aerrow and Piper to figure it out; Stork was making sure they were real and not figments of his imagination. No one was surprised when this was explained, the merb has spent years hiding in the Wastelands, inside the Condor and after being alone for that long in a place almost nothing could survive in... none of them begrudged the merb the presence reassuring, physical contact.
The youngest Sky Knight in the Atmos was shaken out of his musings about his green skinned pilot by a knock on his door. "Come in," he said, tiredly. Finn walked back into Aerrow's room carrying two half full shot glasses. "What do you want Finn?" Aerrow asked wearily.
Finn looked Aerrow over, the young man looked exhausted as he sat on his bed, so much so he seemed to have dark circles under his eyes. They'd known each other long enough for Finn to know that when something was really bothering Aerrow, or a thought would refuse to leave the red-haired teen's mind he just could not sleep. And Stork's increasingly odd behavior on top of being a Sky Knight in general was obviously keeping Aerrow awake. "Thought you could use a nightcap bro," the blonde told him offering the red-haired youth one of the shot glasses as he leaned against the desk that was right beside the head of the bed. "And I had a thought," he said as Aerrow declined the drink. Aerrow knew Finn drank more than the average sixteen year old, in fact he drank more than the average adult probably did. However, Finn knew where to draw the line when they were on duty, and Aerrow allowed him leeway on the rare occasion when the team was off-duty. For anyone else this would be a very bad thing but Finn was the soul survivor of Terra Lyn. He'd witnessed everyone he'd ever known be slaughtered while he hid in the hallow of a tree. After that explanation... Aerrow didn't begrudge Finn the indulgence of imbibing alcohol on a fairly regular basis. Finn downed one of the half shots, put the glass on the desk and grabbed the chair that was pushed into said desk and straddled it so he could rest his arms on the back, the remaining shot glass dangling from his fingers. He glanced at the large shield that had once belonged to the leader of the old Storm Hawks, Lightning Strike, Aerrow's father, while he put his thoughts in order. Finally he spoke up. "Stork keeps creeping into everyone's room... everyone's except yours. I mean we've seen him hovering around your door a few times but he's never like gone in. Dunno if it means something or what but it doesn't fly with his, "nightmares about intruders" explanation. " One could hear the air quotes in Finn's voice.
Aerrow snatched the other half shot from Finn and tossed it back. Finn had just given him one more thing to add to the list of things weighting heavily on his mind and he was already exhausted from it all. He pulled a face as the liquid burned horribly. "I don't want to know where you get this stuff. You get some sleep, don't worry about waking up early this time, we're playing Light-Stone Tag tonight."
"Sweeeeet!" Light-Stone Tag consisted of using a Light-Stone Crystal, the type used in flashlights, to tag each other while in the air. The idea was to avoid being tagged of course. Finn took back the now empty shot glass, stood up and pushed the chair back into place. "Night dude, see you when I get up." Finn gave Aerrow a cheeky grin and left his leader and friend to his thoughts.
Meanwhile in another part of the ship Stork paced like a caged wild tiger. He was in his room with the door securely locked. The merb was a secretive individual, telling the crew only what they needed to know about him. Running his mouth had gotten him into trouble once, he glanced at the reflection in his bathroom mirror to look at the earrings that were welded shut and embedded in his ear. He'd vowed never to make that mistake again. Oh he told half truths, like that he'd escaped into the Wastelands to avoid the Cyclonian invasion of Terra Merbia. Well, there had been a Cyclonian invasion and he had ended up in the Wastelands because of it, so there wasn't a total lie in that. But the truth was, he didn't trust these kids. Another truth was that he did have nightmares about invaders coming onto the Condor. And, sometimes he did sleepwalk into their rooms because of them... but that was in the first week and they weren't even aware of it then. He kept his secrets very close indeed. He'd not told them how he was able to fix up the Condor in the Wastelands, or how, exactly, he'd gotten this far from Terra Merbia. The merb traced the lines of the blueprints of the Condor he kept on his wall by the door. He sighed and went to the storage locker in his room and got out the food he used to feed the to spiders he kept in a cage across from said locker before heading to bed. Aerrow had mentioned something about some night training they were doing, sometimes he wondered how these kids had survived as long as they had. He laid down on the bed across from the door and flipped on the heating blanket. It was a question for another day.
The next afternoon Piper came up to Aerrow who was working on his Sky-Fu, the hand-to-hand, in-the-air combat style of Atmos. She couldn't help but spend some time admiring Aerrow, and his bare chest, as he flipped and spun, kicked and punched, leapt and damn near flew around the Hanger Bay. When he halted in a handstand position and held it she spoke up. "Aerrow? Can we talk?"
Aerrow looked at her from his upside-down position. "Sure, what's up?"
"It's Stork. We were supposed to be working together on the power consumption of the crystal array but... I don't know he seemed distracted and eventually said he had something else he needed to do and all but bolted out of the room. He seemed really, really on edge too," Piper told him. She then let out a little moan.
Aerrow pushed off the ground and flipped to his feet. "Piper?" he asked with a worried look. "Are you alright?"
She smiled at him reassuringly. "It's just that time."
The red-haired youth walked over to her and pulled her into a tender hug. "Anything I can do?" He knew the answer was normally "no" but always asked.
The Crystal Mage snuggled into Aerrow's arms and kissed his cheek. "Not at the moment," she smirked at him though. "But if I think of something I'll let you know." They stood there holding each other for a while before she spoke up again. "Aerrow, I'm really starting to worry about Stork though. Something is defiantly wrong with him."
The Sky Knight kissed her forehead. "I know. I'll try to talk to him, but you know how he is, he keeps secrets." He kissed her lips softly. "Why don't you take a hot bath and relax. I'll see what's up with Stork."
Piper returned the kiss. "That bath sounds like a great idea." She extracted herself from his arms. "Good luck getting Stork to talk though."
Aerrow laughed. "Thanks. I'll need it." He watched Piper walk off before going to the comm unit in the wall. "Stork, report to the hanger bay please."
Stork entered the hanger to find Aerrow doing pull-ups one handed. "You wanted to see me?"
The young man dropped to the floor. "Yes, I did. I ordered you to work with Piper on the power array, she said you pretty much blew her off. I'd like to know why."
One of Stork's ear flicked a bit and he looked everywhere except at Aerrow. Finally he spoke. "Umm well she's uhh... having her female cycle." He seemed to be embarrassed. He shuffled a foot. "I can smell it... It's um, creating some problems with me."
Aerrow put a hand on Stork's shoulder. "Because you're duel gendered?" Stork lowered his ears, and eyes and Aerrow took that as confirmation. "Can you explain it to me please?"
"It's kinda complicated..." Stork began.
"Try me," Aerrow countered with a smile.
"Can we leave it at it screws with me? Please?"
Aerrow thought for a moment, watching the merb closely for a while. He really didn't understand much about Stork's duel gendered nature. And now that he thought about it, Stork kept his distance from Piper every time she'd been on her cycle. "Alright. I'll have Junko look it over with Piper later."
"Thanks," Stork said with a sigh of relief. He then noticed that Aerrow was still looking at him. "Was there something else you needed?"
Aerrow nodded. "Yes actually. Stork I'm starting to worry about you."
"Me? Why? I mean, I'm fine, really," Stork said in a rush.
Aerrow was unconvinced and his frown showed it. "I'm not buying it Stork. You've been more distant than normal these last few months. You're jumpier than ever. You creep into everyone's room, except mine. I'm not one to disbelieve the word of my team, or my friends, but..." Here Aerrow let out a noise that was both a sigh and a grunt of annoyance. "I don't believe that it's because of nightmares anymore. It may have been at one time but if that were the case you'd've been coming into my room as well. I don't like to be lied to Stork..." Aerrow would have gone on but the proximity alarm went off just then, causing Stork to jump a mile. "We'll finish this later Stork. Get to the helm." Stork nodded and darted off, though Aerrow noticed the revealed look that flickered onto the merb's face. It was there and gone in the span of a blink but it confused Aerrow even more.
In a few moments Finn's voice came over the comm unit. "Hey we've got some Cyclonians coming our way!"
Aerrow hit the comm button. "The Dark Ace?" he asked, a small bit of hopefulness in his tone.
"Na dude," Finn replied, his tone suggesting that he was a bit sorry to say it. He knew how much Aerrow actually liked fighting with the Dark Ace. "Just a scout patrol."
"It's strange to see them this far into Atmosian territory though," Piper said.
Aerrow thought for a moment they were pretty far out in the middle of no where. "I agree, we'll try to capture them. I want to know what's going on. Storm Hawks prepare for battle." And with that he cut the comm. Very shortly there after Radarr, Finn, Junko and Piper came running into the hanger bay and mounted up on their rides. The red-haired Sky Knight gave Piper a questioning look but she just nodded, she'd be fine.
The battle was painfully easy, only a small group of Talons on skimmers overloaded with provisions. Three of the six were captured while the other three managed to escape. Aerrow had ordered Stork to follow the Talons and the damaged skimmers were easy to catch up to and capture. Finally they had the prisoners they wanted and they'd be heading to Terra Atmosia soon to drop them off to be kept at the Stockade there. The Talons were placed in the seldom used brig. There were only four cells, each had a toilet, sink and a bed with a mattress, blanket and pillow. Aerrow was of the opinion that just because these people were their enemy, that didn't mean prisoners should be treated worse than animals. He'd even ordered that extra mattresses and coverings be put two of the cells because they each had two Talons in them. Each of the cells were secured with a Shield Crystal that kept the Talons from escaping.
"Alright everyone," Aerrow started as they gathered on the bridge of the Condor. "First off, I'm proud of all of you. I know this was an easy fight but that's when mistakes are the easiest to make." He smiled at his team, they'd only been together for six months total, three before trying to register as an official squadron and three after they had been denied that title and yet even after so little time together they moved like a well oiled machine, and it really did make him proud to see that in his young team. "Second," he continued after letting his words sink in. "Now that we have these Talons we need answers from them. Cyclonians don't normally come this far out for no reason, and these guys had enough supplies on their skimmers for several weeks."
"So how do we get them to talk?" Junko asked.
"You could just growl at them, dude," Finn suggested with a smile.
Junko looked more than a little uncomfortable at this. Yes he was a wallop but he would rather be reading than fighting or being scary. "Umm..." he started.
"Actually, I was thinking about having Piper use that Hypnosis Crystal she's got on them to get answers," Aerrow said.
Piper thought for a few moments. "That could work... with the right questions asked in just the right way..." she started. She rambled on like this for a while before she noticed that she'd completely lost the boys. She sighed deeply. "Yes I can get them to tell us what they were up to."
"Excellent, Piper," Aerrow told her. "Get on that as soon as you can. Junko, I want you to watch them. You don't have to roar at them or anything... but if you felt like a work out with some weight lifting..." the human trailed off.
Junko's expression was blank a moment as he thought, then a grin spread across his features. "Intimidate without being mean," he said happily. "I like it!"
Aerrow grinned back and chuckled lightly at the wallop. "I thought you would."
Several hours later Piper and Junko came out of the brig. After watching Junko lift weights that were the size of skimmers the Talons were falling over themselves to talk to Piper in order to avoid the "Deadly Wallop". Piper went to find Aerrow and Junko went to get a snack.
The Crystal Mage found Aerrow kicking back on his bed, reading a book on war tactics. She smiled as she saw the squeeze box on the table and the accordion on the floor. Aerrow played both very well and in fact on boring days and nights he played for the team, though he always blushed to his hair line when they all applauded his playing. "Aerrow?"
Aerrow looked up from his book. "You get anything from them?"
Piper laughed. "I barely needed the crystal. They were pissing themselves to talk after seeing Junko lift weights."
"And?" he asked, putting the book on his desk.
"They were looking for something. What exactly that was even they didn't know. They were just told to head in this direction and map out what they found. Apparently they're not the only team out here, but they had no idea where the other teams are or where they were heading," Piper explained as she walked closer to him.
Aerrow gave her an easy smile. "Good work." His hand darted out and snatched her arm and pulled her down onto the bed, causing her to let out a small shriek of surprise and a laugh. He nuzzled into her neck and nibbled it, tickling her making her giggle more and squirm.
"Aerrow!" she laughed. "You know we can't really do anything..."
"I know," he replied with a devious grin. "Won't stop me from doing this though!" and he proceeded to tickle her, not only with light kisses to her neck like before but also with his fingers on her sides and belly.
Piper laughed and halfheartedly tried to fend off Aerrow's tickling attack. Finally, out of breath she said, "Okay okay that's enough. I can't breath."
Aerrow immediately stopped and cuddled her instead. "Feel better?" he asked tenderly. He'd done all this to cheer Piper up, she never liked forcing information out of people with Hypnosis Crystals, it always felt wrong to her.
Piper sighed contently as Aerrow wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. "Yeah, I do." She scooted closer to him. Suddenly she lifted her head and gave him a look. "Aerrow," she scolded.
Aerrow gave a lop sided grin in return. "Can't help it," he said. "I'm male and I'm attracted to you. Proof's right there." And he pressed his arousal against her leg more firmly, for that's what she'd felt when she'd scooted closer to him. "Don't worry, just ignore it." He gently kissed Piper's cheek. "I know you're not in any kind of mood for it."
They lay there for a while, just enjoying the comfort of each other. Finally Piper spoke up, "We should get the watches set on those Talons," she said reluctantly.
Aerrow clung to her. "Do I have to?" he said in his best fake childish voice.
Piper rolled her eyes and elbowed him. "Yes Aerrow, you have to do your job." She smiled at him. "I'll be here when you get back."
"Naked?" Aerrow asked with a grin. He ducked the pillow that was thrown at him.
"You're worse than Finn. Go on, shoo." She mock glared at him. She loved this playful banter.
Aerrow laughed and left the room, he knew perfectly well that Piper couldn't strip down completely even if she'd wanted to, being on her period and all. He gathered up the rest of the team and had them meet him on the bridge. "Alright guys. We got what information we could out of the Talons, they were mapping out the area, searching for something. They weren't told what they were looking for though."
Finn looked at Aerrow. "Strange dude."
"No kidding, we'll report this to the council when we bring these guys to Atmosia. Now then, I want watches set on these guys just in case. Stork, you're up all night most nights anyway, I want you to take the late shift. Finn you take first shift, Radarr second and Junko third." They nodded though one of Stork's ears flicked and he looked extremely uncomfortable about something. "Finn why don't you get some dinner going, you guys go help him." Finn shrugged and led the others to the kitchen they were famished from the fight and with some help he could get dinner ready quickly. Once they were out of the room Aerrow turned to Stork. "Are you alright?"
Stork knew that tone, it was the tone of "I know something's up" and he sighed. "There are strangers on my ship," he answered.
"Alright, I'll give you that one but what about earlier?" Aerrow pressed.
Stork's ears and even his crest lowered. "I need some time in my trance helmet. I've been stressed."
"Humm it has been a while since you used that. Are you sure that's all though?" Aerrow asked.
"Ask me again in the morning, please?" Stork asked.
Aerrow rubbed his temples. "Fine," he said. "I'll be taking watch while you guys eat. Just bring me and the prisoners plates."
"I'll let Finn know," Stork said as he walked out.
Aerrow thought for a moment then quietly followed the merb, discretely. He was very confused when he saw Stork leaning against a wall holding his stomach and groaning. In a moment he seemed to straighten up and be fine. The Sky Knight thought about confronting Stork then and there but he'd told the merb that he'd ask him what was wrong in the morning. He'd bring up what he saw then. He went back into the brig and took a seat to watch the prisoners, mind on everything but the men in the room with him. Something was wrong with Stork... and he was worried about what it might mean for the team.