Caution: The following chapter is a little on the gross side, but still enjoyable.

Chapter 3: Worm

Finn screamed as the thin slug-like creature dropped down from the ceiling of his room and into his mouth. Before he had time to spit it out, the slimy bug slid down his throat. Panicking, Finn desperately coughed and heaved, trying to vomit out the strange creature. But a scream from the bridge averted his attention.

Entering the bridge, he met a rather unusual sight; Scurrying around on the floor was the largest beetle he had ever seen. It was shiny black, with a mouth full of sharp needle teeth and millions of twig-like legs. Radarr rode on it's back, attacking the exoskeleton with his fangs. Piper poked at it with her lance.

"This thing is so gross!" she shrieked.

Stork hit it with the flat of his katana, "I will not have vermin on my ship!"

"Hey! Ugly!" Aerrow shouted at it from across the bridge, drawing his blades, "Come get some!"

The beetle hissed at Aerrow and, shrugging Radarr off his back, began crawling towards him. Finn saw his chance and grabbed his bow, lying on the table. He took a shot at the beetle, it's exoskeleton cracking, and it fell on it's side.

"Great shot Finn!" Aerrow congratulated, picking up the beetle, "Junko!"

He hurled the insect at Junko and, with one well aimed punch, it went flying out the Condor's open window.

"Impressive," Jaxx commented, "Of course I would have done a better job of it all by myself."

Stork rolled his eyes, muttering, "Yeah, sure you could..."

"Horrible, nasty little thing," Piper mumbled, brushing herself down, "how the heck could it have gotten on the ship?"

"Beats me," Stork replied, "It's not everyday you get a Sharp-Toothed Raxian Beetle Beast running around a carrier. Maybe it was in season. We should search the ship for eggs!"

Stork switched the Condor onto auto-pilot and darted towards the living quarters.

"OK, so we're egg searching," Aerrow smiled at Radarr as he leapt onto his shoulders, "anybody coming?"

"No thanks, I've already had my fair share of bug watching." Piper declined.

"You and me both." Finn agreed.

"Well, I'm going to take a tour of this ship," Jaxx declared, walking away, "I'll give you a shout if I see any."

"If we find any, can we smash them?" Junko asked excitedly.

"Whatever you want, Junko." Aerrow replied.

Junko smiled "Let's do it!"

As Aerrow, Radarr and Junko left, Finn turned to Piper, "Could those beetles produce worms?"

"I dunno. Stork's usually the expert on bugs," she answered, "Why? Did you see any worms?"

"No, I'm just... wondering." he replied, looking down at himself worriedly.

"Man! There wasn't a single egg!" Junko groaned as he, Aerrow, Radarr and Stork returned to the bridge.

"Don't worry Junko, there may be some on the..." Aerrow trailed off and looked at Finn, sitting at the table, "er, Finn, what's that?"

"What's what?" Finn asked.

"That." Aerrow pointed at his arm. The muscle in his lower arm was bulging out unusually.

Finn looked and a smile crept onto his face, "Wow! That new work-out program really does work!"

He poked the bulge, and it quivered and began to move up his arm.

"What the-?" Finn gasped, horrified.

"Whoa! Moving muscles!" Junko exclaimed.

"That's not a muscle..." Stork muttered, "I've seen that before..."

"So have I," Jaxx added, peering over Stork's shoulder at Finn's arm, "Then again, I saw a lot of creepy stuff on Terra Raxia."

The Storm Hawks watched on as the strange bulge moved further up Finn's arm, across his shoulder, and into his chest.

"You've seen this before, Stork?" Aerrow asked.

"Yep, a long time ago..." he answered fearfully, "It may be a worm, but there's only one way to find out."

Stork led them all to his room. His latest creation was covered with a sheet, which he now pulled away, revealing a metal platform, a maintenance desk complete with a series of buttons and a monitor, and a sort of scanning machine hanging over the platform.

"This is my new X-Ray machine," he introduced, "Since my peepers worked to perfection, I decided to build the real thing."

"You built all this?" Piper asked, bewildered.

"It's what I've been working on for the past few weeks," Stork replied, "Finn, I'll need you to lie down on the platform."

Finn obeyed, "This isn't gonna hurt, right?"

Stork pulled down the scanner until it hung inches away from above Finn, "Just keep still."

He went to the maintenance desk and input a command. A red light shone down from the scanner and over Finn. An internal model of his body appeared on the monitor. A small yellow shape could be seen around the chest area.

Stork tapped the screen, "That's it. A Raxian Chest Worm."

"Chest Worm?" Piper asked.

"As the name implies, they take up residence in the chest area of hosts and feed on their nutrients. They exit the body after 48 hours or so and look for a new host." Stork explained.

"So, all we have to do is wait until Finn passes it, right? Then we can get rid of it." Aerrow suggested.

"Not exactly, Aerrow," Stork replied, "Chest Worms don't get passed. They stay away from the digestive system as far as they can, for obvious reasons. Instead, they exit through a host's body through the chest."

Finn sat up in shock and banged his head on the scanner, "You- you mean that- that-"

"That it's only a matter of time before that worm bursts from your chest and runs rampant around the ship." Stork interrupted his stammers.

"So, what do we do now?" Piper asked.

Aerrow watched Finn panicking on the platform. Then he turned to Junko, Piper and Stork and whispered, "I've got an idea, but Finn cannot know about it..."

An hour later, they all sat around the table, watching Finn's arm.

"And, we're doing this, why?" Finn asked.

"We're thinking about how to take out the worm." Aerrow lied. They were all waiting for the right time.

Sure enough, the bulge reappeared on Finn's shoulder and the worm travelled down his arm, under his skin. It passed through his elbow and into the lower arm towards his wrist.

"Now Junko!" Aerrow yelled, leaping to his feet.

Junko grabbed Finn's arm by his elbow and held on tightly, while Piper and Stork took hold of his wrist and pulled his arm down onto the table's surface. Finn screamed and watched in horror as Aerrow drew one of his blades.

"Aerrow, what are you doing?!" Finn asked fearfully.

"Just trust me Finn!" Aerrow answered.

With Junko's firm hand on Finn's elbow, the worm was trapped from moving back into his chest. Aerrow carefully cut open the skin around the bulge and peeled out the worm, tossing it to the floor. It was half a foot long and pink with Finn's blood, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Aerrow stabbed it, pinning it to the floor. It hissed and writhed, but eventually fell silent.

"Sorry Finn," Aerrow apologised, "but if we'd told you, you wouldn't have let us do it."

"Hell yeah!" Finn growled, cradling his cut arm.

"I'll stitch that up for you." Piper offered.

"Man, you guys are so full of surprises," Jaxx said, impressed from what she had seen, "In normal circumstances I would have gone straight for the chest.

Stork bent down to inspect the dead worm. Wrapped around it's neck was a thick metal ring. He slipped the ring off and looked at it more closely.

"If my suspicions are correct," he began, "then maybe this worm belonged to someone, and that someone put it on the ship for a reason."

"The Cyclonians?" Junko asked.

"Who else?" Stork shrugged, "I mean, who in their right mind would keep a Raxian Chest Worm for a pet?"

"You used to once, Stork, remember?" a thick voice suddenly bellowed through the bridge. In the midst of all the confusion, someone had entered the Condor.

To be continued...

Please R&R. Pretty Please.