Author's Notes: Crap. I only have 3 reviewers, and only 2 of them have been regular about it. This poor, unloved fic!

By the way, thank you angel on wings, ShubbaBANG, and Minn-Maigi.

Oh, well, got to get it done by Friday . . . That's the day before Christmas Eve. The Eve of Christmas Eve!

Chapter 4: Look Who's Driving

Something people never think about when they're standing on a deck: how much it hurts to fall on one.

As soon as I hit the deck, I completely had the wind knocked out of me. It took a moment for me to sit up and take in everything. When I did, I found myself on the front deck of the Condor Express just as we were passing by Polaris Pointe. Beside me, the boy seemed shaken, though a bit less disturbed by his fall than I was. If I didn't know any better, from the way he was sitting I would say he'd landed in crouch and fell over on his butt, as opposed to slamming into the darn thing like I did. He looked at him in concern. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I said. I sat up. "Where do you think—?"

A friendly voice answered my unspoken question. "Hello!"

I looked up. There was Junko, dangling off the front of the ship, a rope around his waist to keep him attached. He seemed to be working on screwing in a bolt.

Stork was on the deck, too. He looked me and the redhead over as if we were aliens. "When random kids start falling from the sky, you know you have mindworms," he muttered, probably to himself.

I decided I was going to ignore that.

I looked up at Junko in disbelief. "I thought you got thrown off!" I said. "What are you doing?"

Junko beamed at me with one of those huge, sweet grins of his. "Stork asked me help him seal off an air leak. Says he needed someone as strong as me to secure it."

I looked over at Stork and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm supervising," he explained in a bored tone.

The boy glanced up at Junko and then looked over at Stork. "But if you're out here, who's driving the ship?"

It was Stork's turn to raise an eyebrow at him. "Don't you know?"

The boy and I glanced into the frontal window to see the helm. There, with his hands on the wheel, was none other than the redhead's furry little friend.

The redhead pressed his face up against the glass. "Radarr?"

The creature smiled when it saw him and waved happily.

The redhead smiled. "You little con artist, you!"

I turned to Stork. "You let that thing drive?"

The redhead glared at me. "He has a name!"

Stork nodded in answer to my question. "He was very . . . persuasive."

I looked back inside and saw Radarr growling viciously at a little girl who dared to try to touch one of the levers. Small as he was, he looked absolutely frightening showing all his teeth and raising his hackles. I could see why Stork might find him persuasive.

The redhead shook his head. "I didn't even know he could drive a carrier ship."

As if to show off, Radarr started speeding the ship up.

Stork rolled his eyes. "Please tell that animal to slow down."

"Alright," the boy said. He turned back to the window and shouted. "Slow it down, Radarr! Watch the speed!"

Radarr nodded and was about to just about to do that when suddenly . . .

I couldn't believe my eyes. A white hen had appeared out of nowhere and was attacking Radarr with . . . kisses?

Whatever happened exactly, Radarr was scurrying away in a flurry of feathers, and the hen was running after him.

"Radarr!" Aerrow shouted in desperation.

Just then, Finn had come up to the helm and seemed to be looking at something as if to say, Hey, what's this do? I'm sure he said that, but we couldn't hear anything above a shout from this side of the glass.

Stork's eyes widened when Finn reached out a hand toward the helm. "Don't touch that!" he yelled.

But Finn did touch the helm. In fact, he pushed it. The Condor shot off so fast that the redhead and I about lost our balance.

"Great Atmos," Stork muttered. "We're doomed."

"What?" I repeated in alarm.

"The Condor Express won't respond once she hits this speed," Stork told us, taking great gasps of air as if trying not to panic. "She'll keep speeding up until she tears herself apart!"

"There has to be a way!" the boy said determinedly, slamming his fist into his palm.

"Well . . ." Stork said, thinking, "if we could somehow deploy the landing gear," he pointed downward, "we could create some drag, but the controls are shot. We'd have to do it manually. We could also try the safety chutes, but the circuits have been fried for about ten years, so that'd mean turning the release knobs on the outside of the ship." He held up a finger. "If we do all that, there's a very good chance," he slumped, "that we still won't make it."

"Worth a shot for me," said the boy. "We got to try."

Junko untied himself and hopped down, nearly slamming against the window with the wind force. "I'll get the landing gear!" he said. And with that, he ran inside.

"I'll get the safety chutes!" the redhead called. He grabbed the wrench Junko had been using. Next thing I knew, he had jumped the railing and was crawling down the side of the ship toward the pontoon-like engines.

"Wait!" I called after him. Didn't he know how dangerous that was?

Stork was obviously trying to take charge again. He pointed at me. "You," he said, "inside!"

"No!" I said. "Not while he's down there!" I pointed at the redhead, who had managed to make it down to the pontoon platforms.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Stork said. "You've known each other, what, fifteen minutes?"

He had a pointed. I didn't even know the boy's name. But I couldn't just abandon him! He wouldn't abandon me when I needed him.

"Fine, get under the safety bar," Stork said, steering me toward the railing.

"What should we do?" I asked as I gripped the railing while Stork secured us both with the rope Junko had been using.

"Well, considering the fact that we have lost control of the ship, we are standing totally exposed on the front of the ship, the ship is accelerating beyond stability, and we are rapidly approaching the Great Expanse, from which no ship has ever returned, I suggest . . . we hold on tightly."

Just then, Finn came running out. "I didn't mean to do it, I swear . . . What's going on?"

I spun around on him. This is all his fault, after all! "You idiot!"

"Hey, I was just—"

"A mountain!" Stork yelled.

At that moment, I looked ahead and saw, just as Stork had said, we were headed straight into a mountain.

I looked down at where the redhead was crawling around on his belly. He had already gotten one knob, maybe more, and he was working on another one with the wrench.

Just then, the ship jerked to the side, just scraping the mountain as it went past. I looked back into the frontal window. Radarr had gotten back to the helm just in time and had pulled the ship's wheel over with all his might.

But unfortunately, the sudden jerk sent Finn, who was not secured to the railing, skidding into it and off the side. He was screaming like a girl and nearly went over when Stork had untied us and run and grabbed him by his pajama shirt. "Gotcha!"

But rather than securing Finn, Stork just seemed inclined to go over with him. I jumped in and grabbed the back of Stork's suit, but we were still sliding.

Suddenly I felt something pulling on my robe, and we stopped sliding. I looked back and couldn't believe my eyes. It was Arygyn! He put a finger to his lips, asking me to be quiet about his presence. They he pulled us all back on board.

As soon as we were safe, I looked back at him again. He winked at me and transformed into a Mynall bird . . . right before my eyes! In a flutter of wings, he was gone.

"Good thinking on your part, young lady," Stork told me. He apparently had not seen the bird.

I wanted so badly to tell him . . . but would he believe me!

Just then, I felt another jolt, this time from below the ship. "The landing gear!" Stork said.

"Junko did it!" I exclaimed.

Finn looked at me in confusion. "Junko?"

Just then I heard a yell from below us. It was snatched in the wind before I could make it out, but I knew the redhead had yelled something. He was turning another knob, and he gave his wrench one last yank.

The affect was immediate here as well. The safety chutes on the back of the ship opened up at once, flinging wide like two large, three-feathered wings. The Condor came to a sudden, sliding halt, sending Stork, Finn, and me into the railing.

The redhead was sent falling off the ship. "Oh no!" I yelled.

There was a moment of stunned silence from us. Was he . . . ?

Then we heard another yell from a deep, familiar voice. "I got him!"

I smiled. It was Junko! He must have caught him.

"I'm okay!" another voice yelled, this one the redhead's. It was such a relief to hear!

Just to be sure everything was okay on the bridge, we all looked back at Radarr, who smiled shakily and gave us a weak thumbs up.

"Well," Stork said, dusting himself off, "that is more like."

Minutes later, Junko and the redhead were back up on the deck with us. "What'd you do?" Finn asked Junko at once, still not quite caught up on what was going on.

"I had to jump on the landing gear," Junko said. "It came undone eventually."

When I saw the redhead unscathed, I smiled broadly at him. He shrugged. "The Wallop caught me," he said.

Stork raised an eyebrow at as all, his hands on his hips. "So, what are you troublemakers doing here in the first place?" he asked me and the redhead.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. In all the excitement, I nearly forgot. I slipped off my slipper. "I found your ticket!"

"You did?" Junko exclaimed. He snatched the tickets out of my hand. "Oh, thank you!" he yelled, smothering me in a bone-crushing hug.

I felt like I was being embraced by a bog howler. "Can't . . . breathe!" I wheezed.

He set me down at that and looked at his ticket again. "I can't believe you found my ticket."

Stork stepped forward. "Found your ticket, eh? Well then, by all means," he pulled out his hole puncher, "tickets, please. And you, too, young man," he added, turning to the redhead.

Immediately the boy dug into his coat pocket and pulled out his ticket.

Stork took both tickets and did his usual punch-at-super-high-speed. Then he handed the tickets back.

Junko took his and peered at it. "I S?"

The redhead got his back, too. "L E?"

"Hey," Finn said, coming up behind us, "just like me!"

"Well, come on, kids!" Stork said. "Let's go in where it's warm, before the thermal paralysis sets in on us all."

Junko and Finn went in first, Junko with his arm around his buddy's shoulder, hurriedly telling him everything that had happened.

The redhead and I were about to follow him when I felt the need to take his arm and stop him. "Hey," I said, "thank you, for what you did back there."

"Oh," the boy said, as if he hadn't thought twice about it, "it's nothing."

"I'm Piper," I said, holding out a hand to shake.

He took it. "Aerrow," he told me.

"Pleased to meet you. Really."

It was while shaking his gloved hand that I noticed he was shivering. Without thinking, I took off my robe and put it over him.

He looked down as if embarrassed by that, but he didn't remove it. "Thanks," he muttered.

"It's nothing."

Our next stop was Terra Blizzaris, which I thought was strange because I thought Blizzaris was in the north. Apparently this was a new Blizzaris.

The people who came on were absolutely crazy, especially the boys. In matter of minutes, they were hanging from the ceiling, whooping and hollering and being the general idiots.

"These guys are crazy," I whispered to Aerrow.

Aerrow, however, was grinning from ear to ear. "I know," he said, "isn't it great?"

Radarr, who was perched on his shoulder, chirped in agreement.

Boys!

But one of the Blizzarians had come up behind me, this one a girl. "Yup," she said, "my boys can be kinda crazy."

I stared at her. "Your boys?"

"Yeah," she said. She held out a hand. "Name's Suzy-Lu. That's my gang there."

I shook her hand and smiled at her, thinking these Blizzarians might not be so bad after all.

Just then we all heard, "Hey, Aerrow!"

We looked around. It was Gareth. The kid had been following Aerrow around for some time. Once we had come back inside, Aerrow and Radarr had decided to stay on the bridge with the rest of us, even after Aerrow had warmed up and given me my robe back. What had happened when the ship was speeding uncontrollably had been a total secret; so naturally, everyone on the ship knew, including Aerrow's and Junko's part in stopping it. Gareth had been following his hero around ever since. He wasn't nearly as bad as Noob, however, who seemed to be hero-worshipping both Aerrow and Junko.

Aerrow smiled kindly. "Hey, Gareth."

Just then, the nightmare himself came: Noob.

"Aerrow, Aerrow, I was just looking . . ." He tapered off when he caught sight of one of the boy Blizzarians, Billy Rex, hanging from the ceiling and hollering. "Who are they?"

"Picked them up at Blizzaris," I explained.

Noob's face brightened. "Those guys look cool!" And with that, he was running to join their fray.

Aerrow and I exchanged glances and sighed in relief.

"So . . ." Gareth said, when he was left standing in front of us. "Can you do that, Aerrow?" He had this idea that Aerrow could do anything.

"I think so," Aerrow answered honestly, looking up at Billy Rex, who had hollered, "Rock on!" and jumped down onto the round table.

Radarr squawked in alarm. He clearly did not want Aerrow to try that.

"But you're not going to," I told him sternly.

"Probably not," he admitted.

We stopped by Terra Aquinos, too, where some kid named Horace got on. Then we went to Terra Clockstoppia, which I didn't even know existed.

This girl in a beautiful dress got on. Aerrow's eyes widened. "Piper," he said, "that girl looks just like—"

"I know," I said. She looked just like me.

"High!" she said to us excitedly. "I knew Santa Claus was real! I knew it! I can't wait to see him! Can you wait to see him? Oh, yeah, you look just like me!"

What a spazz.

"What's your name?" Junko offered kindly, as was his custom.

"Princess Peregrine," the girl huffed, as if the answer annoyed her.

I stared at her in delighted surprise. "You're a princess?" I said. "Wonderful!"

"No, it isn't," Princess Peregrine. "I hate it. Please call me Perry."

"Okay," I said. "What do like to do?"

She pulled out two hand puppets. "I play with these!" she said. "This is Lady Ursula and Dr. Ogre." Immediately she started moving "Dr. Ogre," making him say, "'I'm gonna eat you!'" He let out an evil laugh. Perry's voice was deep and gravely for the ogre. Then Perry switched to a sweet, singsong voice for Lady Ursula. "'Oh, you?'" the Lady said, swishing a hand in Dr. Ogre's direction dismissively. "'Eat this!'" She pulled out a puppet version of a club with studs like a mace. Lady Ursula proceeded to beat Dr. Ogre with it.

Okay. Sorry I asked.

We went to Terra Amazonia, where some blond girl got on (Finn ogled at her) and then went to Terra Merbia. "Your home terra!" I said to Stork.

Stork cringed. "Don't remind me."

A group of kid who called themselves "Sky Scouts" got on. Even though it was five minutes midnight (and had been for about an hour now), they were all dressed up in their scout uniforms. It was kind of curious, especially since these Merbs didn't seem as paranoid as Stork or other Merbs I'd heard about.

The one called Griffin did a backflip and said, "Huh! I could do lots of cool moves if this place were bigger!"

The one named Owlsley had tan skin as opposed to green. He obviously wouldn't be the athletic one; his belly bulged over his belt buckle. But he proved to be just as much trouble as Griffin. He peered through his glasses excitedly at the gauges of the Condor next to the helm, where all the levers were located. "Hey, what's this do?" Owlsley asked, tapping a gauge. "And this?" He pulled down a lever, which released one of Stork's traps, triggering a punching mitt to come out of the wall. He then pulled another lever and had the same thing happen, although this time the mitt narrowly missed him.

Not realizing the trouble he was causing, Owlsley said, "Oh, I know a lot about machines and stuff!" He ran away from the helm before anyone could stop him.

Owlsley ran up to the Condor's cannon, currently reeled back on its turret and the hatch closed. "What's that thing?" the Merb boy asked, pointing to it. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out a wrench and loosened a screw on the cannon's turret. "I can make this way better!"

Stork ran to stop him, shouting, "No!" But he was too late. The boy ran off just as the cannon was loosened on the spring of the turret and jumped forward, running into the closed hatch.

The one called Pydge had a gray tint to his skin that surprisingly looked natural as opposed to sickly. He was slight and skinny, and like Owlsley, he wore glasses. Pydge grabbed hold of a very frightened-looking Radarr, hugging him close. "I love animals!" he exclaimed, squeezing Radarr as tight as he could. Radarr's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. It looked like he couldn't breathe. Then Pydge suddenly dropped him. Radarr landed flat. "I can," Pydge said, pointing to himself with his thumb and stuttering a little, "I-I can talk to them!"

Radarr had just gotten up on his hind feet and was rubbing his head, recovering from the fall. Pydge turned to him and said, "Rrrrree, ree, chippie, chippie, ree!"

Radarr looked at his paws in the wildest alarm, his eyes bugging again. Whatever Pydge had said to him, it wasn't pretty. Radarr took off running across the bridge. And of course, Pydge chased after him. "Uh, hey, hey!" he cried. "W-where you goin'? Come back! I wanna talk!"

"ENOUGH!" Stork had finally shouted. "Sky Scouts, on the deck! We have to, um . . . makes some repairs."

"Can I bring this guy?" Pydge asked, having gotten hold of Radarr and hugging him again. Radarr peered up at Aerrow and me in an appeal for help.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Stork said, leading the way out.

"Yes!" Pydge exclaimed, running out on the deck. Radarr gave a horrified squawk as he was carried out.

Stork looked back at me, Aerrow, Finn, and Junko before he went out. "One of you take the helm."

And with that, he was gone.

Aerrow went up to the helm. "Well, this can't be too hard."

Finn pointed at the center of the helm. "Is that the horn?"

"I think so," I answered, squinting at it.

He slammed his hand on the helm and heard the horn blear. He smiled at that. "I've wanted to do that my whole life!" he exclaimed. Then he did it again.

"Okay," I said, taking his hand and pulling him back, "enough."

Aerrow hadn't been driving for a few seconds before I heard someone outside shouting, "STOP!"

It was Stork. He was shouting at us, gesturing for Aerrow to stop.

"That lever," I said, pointing to one. "That looks like the break."

Aerrow eyed a button. "I think that's it."

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

That made him hesitate, and both he and Junko looked at me. I knew it was the second time I'd asked him that, and the third time I'd asked someone this night, the first time at Junko. But what if we weren't sure?

Aerrow hesitated again and reached for the lever I had spotted. Then, with a defiant glare in my direction, he pressed the button he had noticed.

Immediately the ship came to a sliding, screeching halt so sudden that we all fell forward on our stomachs. "Whoa!" Finn and Junko cried as they slid into the round table and steadied themselves against it. Aerrow was thrown forward onto the floor, and I screamed as I landed close to him.

The other kids didn't do any better at keeping their balance; there were lots of screams, lots of collisions, and lots of yells of, "Ow!" and "Sorry!"

Once Junko had stood up, he pointed out the window. "Look!"

We got to their feet and gathered at the window along with him, Finn pressing his hands against the glass. Outside, we could all see the safety chutes had deployed, and an indicator on the helm proved the landing gear was out.

Junko and Aerrow had done their dangerous acts of bravery for nothing! That button had been there the whole time! Everyone groaned, and Junko said, "Oh, man!" And with that, everyone turned to glare at Stork out the window.

Looking around at all of us, Stork chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, yeah," he said loudly so we could hear through the glass, clearing his throat. "Forgot that was there."

But the Sky Scouts were cheering. "That was awesome!" Griffin yelled.

"Why'd we stop?" I shouted at Stork.

Pydge was pointing frantically. "Look!"

We all looked just as Junko sneezed so loudly as to send six kids, including Finn, flying.

I stared out the window. "It's—"

"—Sky Sharks!" Junko yelled before letting out another sneeze.