Thanks for all the reviews, guys! Y'all are awesome. But, before this starts, I just have one thing to say...

PHEAR MY ITALICS.

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Okay, maybe it could be that hard.

"Then the talon says to Snipe, 'That's not Ravess, that's last night's leftovers'!"

Groan.

"Ba-dump tish!" Finn added for emphasis, motioning in the air as if playing the drums, grinning. "Eh, eh? Pretty good, huh?"

"Give it a rest, Finn," I shifted from lying down to an upright sitting position. "please. You've been cracking lame jokes for hours now. Don't you ever get tired of hearing your own annoying voice?"

"No, I don't, actually," he turned his nose up haughtily. "Come on, I'm givin' you all my best stuff!"

"Oh, that's sad," Stork remarked dryly from where he sat, picking the dirt from under his fingernails for the tenth time today.

"Hey, I don't see any of you breaking the silence,"

"That's because we like the silence," I reminded him.

"Y'know what? Fine," Finn said, moving to a corner away from us. "have your precious silence. I'm done trying to get some fun goin'. You're on your own."

"Finally,"

Even Aerrow breathed a small sigh of relief from his post at the wall separating him from Radarr. I couldn't hear anything from the other side, but I'm sure his copilot was relieved too.

Junko, sitting a few feet to my right, arms resting on pulled up knees, looked like he was about to say something, but didn't. Knowing how good a buddy he is with Finn, I guessed he wanted to make him feel better, but couldn't find anything to say. Instantly, I felt bad for being so hard on Finn. The more I thought over what I had just said, the more I realized how mean I sounded. None of us particularly cared for his jokes, and we let him know, but when things are said in the heat of the moment, or when we're busy, it's easier to write things off as just stress talking. With this silence, it was hard not to think about an insult and what the person really meant by it during a moment when there was all the time in the world to think about what they said. I hadn't meant to really upset Finn, but I couldn't just apologize now. Well, I could've, but it would've been weird.

Suddenly, I didn't like the silence anymore. It felt awkward. I didn't like that I had had the last word, and that it had been unkind, but mostly because it was directed towards someone I called a friend.

Apparently feeling that same awkwardness, Junko spoke up a few moments later. "Maybe we should do something," he suggested. "y'know, besides just sitting here."

Finn, still sulking, just grunted.

"Maybe we could do some exercises, do some more training?" Aerrow put in.

I was glad for conversation, but I wasn't too fond of the idea. "We should probably rest today," I told him. "I think we're all still sore from yesterday."

Normally, this would be the time when Finn would back me up and go on and on about how much hurtin' he was doing, but right now he didn't even look up. Mentally, I cringed. Had I really made him that upset?

"Come on," Aerrow urged. "no pain, no gain. What doesn't kill you---"

"...Only makes you stronger. Yeah, we know." Finn interrupted, finishing his sentence. "Maybe if you stopped trying to kill us for a minute, you'd realize that we don't want to be dead."

Ouch. Now he was turning on Aerrow, too?

The skyknight blinked, surprised. Heck, we were all surprised. Our wingman had never spoken to Aerrow like that before, with such venom and spite. "I didn't know you felt that strongly about it,"

"Yeah, well, we like training and all, but you just take it too far sometimes, dude,"

Feeling defensive, Aerrow shot back, "I'm sorry for trying to help all of you become a better and well-prepared team, then."

"What, we're not good enough for you? You think you have to fix us?"

"That's not what I said! You don't need fixing, I just wanted to see all of you being the best that you could be!"

"Oh, and to do that, you think beating us at everything and making us suffer will help?"

"You make it sound like I purposely make you miserable," Aerrow said incredulously.

"Could you keep it down?" Stork broke in drearily. "Your bickering is giving me a migraine,"

"And what's your problem?" Finn asked, turning his attention to the Condor's pilot.

"What's my problem?" Stork repeated. "You have no right to be complaining. You're the one who put us in this situation."

"I've been thinking about that," Finn pointed an accusing finger, "and y'know what? You're the one who set up the stupid security system in the first place. If you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have messed with anything, and we'd be outta here by now!"

"Now it's my fault? My fault for having everyone in mind, for working all night to make sure we're prepared for an attack from the horrors of the unknown?"

"'Having everyone in mind', yeah, right. You only care about you and your safety and your precious Condor!"

"I'm the self-centered one?" Stork said in disbelief. "Do you know how many times I've risked my life for you? For all of you? I didn't have to join the Storm Hawks, I should be dead hundreds of times over, according to the odds. You're the one who only thinks about himself!"

Finn, Stork, and Aerrow were standing now, fists clenched, getting up in each others' faces, carried by the momentum of their anger. I joined in standing too, attempting to calm them down. "Fighting like this isn't solving anything," I started, but Finn cut me off.

"Oh, all right, I'll just do what you say, Piper," Finn shot back sarcastically. "since you're the nag of the group, I'd better listen, huh?"

Oh no he didn't.

"What did you just call me?" I asked, all sympathy I had for him suddenly gone. He was not going to get away with calling me a NAG. "I hope you didn't just call me what I thought you called me."

Accusations continued to fly from his mouth, now directed towards me. "Oh, I did," he said with satisfaction. "Know-it-all."

"Well, you know what? Someone has to tell you what to do, or you end up doing something stupid and getting into trouble!"

"You always think you know best. 'Oh, everyone had better do what I say and make me happy, 'cause I'm the giiiiirl. Everything I say has to be right,'" he mocked me in a fake girly tone, motioning daintily with his hands.

In the background, I faintly heard Aerrow and Stork arguing about attitudes and dangerous missions, and I saw Junko stand up out of the corner of my eye and say something, but I was too mad to pay attention. "Shut up, Finn!"

"'Shut up, Finn'," he repeated, continuing to mock me. "What're you gonna do, nag me to death?"

"STOP IT!" Junko bellowed over all of us.

We stopped, shocked. Junko never gets angry or shouts at us. Ashamed, I realized that I hadn't noticed how upset he was getting. Of all of us he's the last to argue, insult, or place blame. The wallop looked frustrated, almost on the verge of tears.

"We're supposed to be friends," he looked at all of us, "we shouldn't be fighting like this!"

"I'm sorry, Junko," I started, but he cut me off.

"Don't apologize to me, Piper," he said, calming down a little. "apologize to Finn."

Taking a deep breath I turned to Finn, my eyes downcast. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you earlier, but I had to say something. You would've gone on forever if I hadn't spoken up."

I looked up and saw that Finn was wearing the same berated look on his face that I was. "I guess I just don't know when to stop sometimes," he mumbled. "And I'm sorry I said all that to you guys...But, y'know...it's kinda true."

Aerrow stepped forward, rubbing his neck. "Looks like we all have stuff we'd like to get off our chests,"

"Yeah, I guess so," I admitted. "And, as corny as it sounds, I think we all need to sit down and discuss what's bothering us." I prepared myself for another awkward silence, or at least a couple psychologist or group therapy jokes, but neither came. Instead I received a couple nods, and a couple 'here-we-go' sighs, then we all sat back down. "Finn," I said, "since you seemed to have the most to say, you can go first."

Finn looked down at his hands, which were resting in his lap. "I just...I make jokes and stuff 'cause I wanna hear you laugh. Sometimes it's just because I want you to notice me, or because I think up the most perfect thing to say in the moment, but other times I just want you guys to be happy." His head lifted and his eyes searched ours. "Am I really that annoying?"

Wow. I was expecting more complaints, not a heartfelt confession. I thought about his question...Was he? He definitely could be annoying sometimes, but overall, he wasn't that bad. It certainly hadn't occurred to me that maybe he was annoying for a reason. I had always written it off as Finn wanting more attention, but now I looked in his eyes and guessed there was something behind that egotistical joker personality. Did he think that we didn't really care about him, that we only kept him around for his sharpshooting skill? Maybe he joked around to add something to his worth.

"Yes, Finn, you are," Stork answered sarcastically.

"No, you're not," I reassured, shooting a glare at Stork.

Aerrow nodded. "I mean, if you joke around too much it gets annoying,"

"But...there are times when we really need those funny moments," I admitted, finishing Aerrow's idea. "Without them, we'd end up taking things too seriously. They help us stay calm in scary situations." I pulled my legs up and hugged my knees. "You do make us happy, but in other ways, too. You may act full of yourself sometimes, but I know you care about us."

"And you're our friend," Junko finished. "even if you were really annoying, we'd still like you,"

Finn smiled a little. "Thanks, guys," he said. Then his smile broke out into a hopeful grin. "So, does that mean you wanna hear my joke about the Dark Ace?"

"Ehh, no," we all answered.

Aerrow added, "Maybe another time,"

Finn shrugged. "Fine by me. But now you'll have to wonder...When will Finn strike next?" he struck a dramatic pose. "Who knows when I'll drop the joke? Just wait, it'll be when you least expect it..."

"Ooh, we're all in suspense," Stork rolled his eyes.

"If that's how you feel," I crossed my arms, "maybe you would like to go next, Stork."

The merb blinked. All eyes now on him, he shook his head. "No, I don't have anything to say." He looked around, deciding to place attention on someone else. "Aerrow can go next."

Aerrow began to protest, but I interrupted. "No, I know you have something to say. You were arguing, too,"

Getting that panicky look about him, Stork shook his head again. "No, no, no, I don't want---"

"Stork..."

"I said no!" he shouted in his shaky voice. "If you want me to talk, here's something to start with: stop pressuring me!"

Now we were getting somewhere.

"I'm always doing things I don't want to do!" he clenched his fists. "Do you think I enjoy risking my life on a regular basis? You don't know what it's like to be able to calculate the exact odds of our survival in any situation! You've no idea how lucky we've been so far!"

Well, that explained a lot of the paranoia.

"I do a lot for you people and a lot of the time I'm never thanked for it, or given the recognition. That alone I could live with, but time and time again you're always telling me what to do and ignoring my warnings or advice. Then, on top of all that, living like this is stressful and I don't want to shorten my lifespan with stress-related illnesses!" Stork gasped, having put a lot of force behind his last sentence.

"...Good," I managed. "That wasn't that hard, was it?"

Stork gave me a dull look.

"I've apologized before about not listening to you," Aerrow reminded him.

"Only when the horrible things I warned you about actually happened," the merb countered. "You're constantly blowing me off or ignoring me, all of you."

"Well, you do have a tendency to exaggerate, Stork," I said.

"I can't help it," he argued. "that's how we merbs are! If there's a even a somewhat-likely chance you could meet your demise in a grisly, sickening way, I'm going to tell you for your own safety."

"Dude, thanks for your concern," Finn told him, "but would it hurt to show a little optimism every once in a while?"

Stork sighed. "Optimism is a lie, Finn. Only good for morale. It may work for all of you, but I don't buy into it unless there's a good reason." Then, staring at the floor, he lowered his voice and added, "The more careful you are, the less likely those you care about will meet an...untimely end."

In the brief silence that followed, I wondered what he meant by that. Did he really worry about us that much? I guess if I knew the chances all my friends had of living or dying in our regular day-to-day adventures, rather than clinging to my hope that everything would turn out fine, then I'd be worried, too. I was starting to get a better picture of how Stork thinks, and why he does what he does. Something was bothering me, though, something in the back of my mind. Stork isn't the most open with his feelings of friendship, yet he had just said he cared about us. "The more careful you are, the less likely those you care about will meet an untimely end". He's usually pretty detailed with his what-ifs, but this one seemed different.

I wondered what his family life was like before we all met. None of us had really gone into detail with each other about our pasts, but we knew that we had all lost our parents, our families, in one way or another. Maybe he wasn't just talking about us...

"Okay, well, I'm sorry," Aerrow broke into my thoughts, apologizing to Stork. "We'll try to listen to you more often, right guys?"

We all nodded our agreement. "We're sorry, Stork."

"But, you know," Aerrow continued, "we're the Storm Hawks. We're always going to be in dangerous situations and there will always be times where we have to take chances, you know that. It's what we do. You can't just look at the bad things that could happen, because then you might give up. Aren't the chances of survival lower if you give up from lack of hope?"

"Dismally lower," Stork replied darkly, "but someone has to be the cautious one."

"Fair enough," the skyknight accepted. "We just...worry about you sometimes."

After a pause, Junko commented, "There's a lot of worrying going on,"

Finn agreed. "Yeah, I guess so. Did you have anything you wanted to say, buddy?"

"Uh, not really," Junko shrugged. "I'm pretty happy with everything, besides you guys fighting,"

"There's gotta be something," I urged. "Isn't there anything you're not completely happy with?"

Looking down, the wallop thought for a moment. Junko is a happy, easygoing guy. It wouldn't be too surprising to find out that he had no complaints, but everyone has something. I don't think about it too often, but he really is one-of-a-kind. Most wallops are just big, quick-tempered fighters, but not our Junko. He's the sweetest, kindest wallop we've ever met, probably in the whole atmos!

"Well," he said hesitantly, "Finn...Sometimes you're a little pushy." Seeing Finn's reaction, he added quickly, "I know you're not trying to be mean or anything, but sometimes you remind me of the guys back home who always pushed me around and I don't want to think of you that way. You're my friend."

Thinking this over, Finn nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'll try to work on that. I'm just glad you're not mad at me for telling Aerrow that you still sleep with a teddy bear..."

Junko's jaw dropped, and the blonde quickly covered his mouth. Aerrow held back snickering and from the other side of the metal wall, we could hear Radarr making squawking laughter noises. "Finn!" Junko whined, "You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"It was only Aerrow!"

"Well, now everyone knows!"

"Look, it's okay," I reassured him, his lip quivering a little. "I still sleep with my stuffed dog sometimes, too. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"But you're a girl," Finn pointed out. "No one would care if you slept with a ton of stuffed animals,"

"Finn, you're not helping." I put my hands on my hips. Then, I realized what he had just said. "Wait a minute...Are you saying that because I'm a girl, you'd expect me to need a security toy? You don't think girls can be every bit as tough as guys?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Finn raised his hands in defense.

"How did you mean it?"

"All I was saying was that girls can get away with it and guys can't..."

Aerrow laughed, finding the situation humorous for some reason. "You're digging yourself into a hole, Finn,"

"And why's that, hmm? I don't understand why guys have to---"

Before I could say anything more, he interrupted me. "See, this is what I was talking about! You always think you're right!"

I blinked. I hadn't expected the sudden change of subject. Running through the conversation in my head, I put myself in Finn's place and was a little shocked to realize how obnoxious I sounded. Did I really sound like this? "I...I'm just using the freedom of speech and opinion," I said lamely.

"You abuse the privilege," Finn accused.

"Careful, those are some big words," Stork commented.

I opened my mouth to argue, but stopped, not really knowing what to say at this point, mind drawing a blank. Then, I managed, "Do all of you think that?"

When no one answered, we sat in awkward silence again, avoiding eye contact. Once again, I broke that silence. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"We didn't want to make you mad, or hurt your feelings," Aerrow said, rubbing his neck.

How long had they felt like this? Man, how long have any of us had these feelings of anger or annoyance towards each other? I guess it was bound to happen, each with our own different personalities. And, I guess, all friends fight at one point or another, it just happens. It's never pretty, but real friends work it out. It's what we were doing now. "Well," I sighed, "I'm sorry I made myself so unapproachable on this. And I'm sorry for being a 'know-it-all', but really...I do know quite a bit. Maybe some appreciation for saving your butts with the things I've learned would be nice."

All in agreement and apologies swapped, we then turned to Aerrow. "What about you, dude?" Finn prompted.

His answer ready, Aerrow launched right in. "I don't have anything worth arguing about. If there's anything that annoys me, I try to forget it and move on. You guys are a great team, awesome friends, and I'm glad to have you with me. If there's something you want to talk to me about, anything you're not happy with, then go right ahead. We'll work something out. But, personally, I have no complaints. Thank you," he said, smiling warmly as he looked over his squadron, "all of you."

It was a feel-good moment. If we weren't content before, we were now. I was about to do some thanking, too, when Finn jumped up and ruined the moment.

"No, thank you, Aerrow," he grinned, taking a bow. "I'd also like to thank everyone here, the Condor, and my dashing good looks and incredible skills..." We groaned. "Without all of you little people, I wouldn't be where I am today." He sniffed, wiping away an imaginary tear. "I'm just so...touched."

"In the head," Stork added, his sardonic wit ever at the ready.

As we all laughed, I thought about how happy I was. With my life, my friends, being part of the Storm Hawks...and the future, as far off as it seemed at the moment. It renewed my desire to bring down the cyclonians and to bring a better life to everyone in the atmos. Sounds kinda cheesy, huh? Well, it was a huge goal, but I was ready to go for it.

SCREECH!

Merriment cut short, we jumped, our attention snapping to the big front window that was still halfway shut off by a slab of metal. There was a giant, furry head looking in at us, sharp teeth bared, making terrifying screams. A big fist came into view and it began pounding on the glass.

"What is that thing!?" As Finn shouted over the beast's screeching, we prepared ourselves to deal with this newfound complication.

That's what I'd like to know.