The furnace crystals had died.
To be fair, the crystals had been through a lot, and had lasted a lot longer than the team thought they would have. They had been dropped, tripped on, nearly ran over, stepped on. They were also eaten, but that was another story. Now the crystals were crushed, their fine powder scattered to the winds. While there was a supply depot not too far from where the Condor was moored, a storm was passing overhead, and Stork declared that they were to park until it was over. Finn felt a sense of deja vu as he shivered, arms crossed.
"Dude, it's freezing in here!"
"Just be glad we have the ship to cover us from the storm," Piper reminded him. "Otherwise we'd really be froze!"
"Piper's right," Aerrow responded. "We'll be at the depot in no time!" He grinned his thousand-watt grin, positive as always. "How bad can this storm be?"
Several hours later, his thousand-watt grin had turned into more of a lesser bright smile as the others shivered and tried to do their daily tasks around him. Aerrow frowned. Piper was writing in her log, but her pencil was shaking all over the pages, making her erase the marks and start over. Radarr was curled up on Aerrow's shoulder, chirping miserably. Finn was trying to sweep the floor, looking over at Junko as the Wallop clung to what was left of the heat from the furnace. Stork was almost asleep at the controls. The temperature wasn't good for the cold-blooded Merb.
Aerrow slowly got an idea. Standing, he wandered over to the couch. Radaar seemed to get the idea and curled up in his lap. Piper looked over, then closed her log and followed after. She pressed up against him with a shuddering breath and relaxed at the feeling of the warmth of Aerrow's body. Junko prodded Finn, and the two of them moved to the couch as well, Finn lying against Junko and the Wallop sitting next to Piper. Stork perked his ears and blinked away his grogginess. With a shiver, he wandered over and joined Aerrow on his other side, nearly cuddling the Sky Knight and making a shaky sigh of contentment. The six of them pressed together as much as humanely possible, soaking up the warmth of each other's bodies. Soon, there was less shivering, and they began to fall into a light sleep. By the time the storm had passed and the sun began to shine on the wet windows of the Condor, they were curled up against one another, undisturbed.