Stork brought the Condor to a soft landing on Atmosia's hillside with a small sigh of regret. "We're here," he called into the intercom system.

The crew filed onto the bridge, Piper carrying a pendant in her hand. "Okay I'm not sure how well this'll work, but I added a regeneration crystal to the mix. If we're lucky, that'll keep the Chroma Crystal charged."

Stork took the pendant and slipped it on. At once his wings vanished. "Well, it seems to be working," he said, his rubbery neck allowing him to look behind him.

"Just be sure to keep your wings close to your body and you should be fine," Piper told him.

The vampire nodded. "Just to let you know, Piper, I've been through that library before. You're only going to find tall tales and bedtime stories. Oh, a few of them got their information right, but still."

"Well who knows, maybe you didn't find the right book, or missed one." She smiled at him. "Besides, you know I like to do my own research."

"Suit yourself," Stork said with an indifferent shrug.

"Okay," said Aerrow, "while Piper's doing that, Finn, you'll get ahold of whoever you need to to get to Lyn. Junko, we might as well resupply here, stick to the list please. Stork, anything you need for the Condor, get it now."

Piper nodded. "Alright, once I've looked at the books I'll see about getting those blood bags."

Most of the crew filed out to their various tasks, leaving Aerrow, Finn and Radarr alone on the ship. "Kinda thought you were gonna follow him, bro," said Finn as he fiddled with the dial on the comm unit.

Aerrow heaved a sigh and sat on the sofa, next to Radarr. His eyes rolled at Finn's comment. "He doesn't need a babysitter, Finn."

"Uh-huh." Finn smirked at him.

Aerrow shook his head. "Okay, okay - so I would have, if it wouldn't have made him paranoid that I don't trust him now that he's told us what he is."

Finn snickered. "Thought so!"

"Shouldn't you be calling Terra Lyn and acting like a complete smarmy fop?" Aerrow asked with a huge grin.

"My middle finger, dude, take a good look."

Aerrow responded with a rude gesture of his own. "Up yours, pal. Go make that call."

Finn waved absently at Aerrow and finished playing with the dials. "Alright, alright, I'm callin'. Just don't make too much noise, okay? This is gonna be hard enough." Aerrow nodded and took a piece of fruit from the bowl on the table and nibbled it. Finn sighed deeply and activated the radio. He really wasn't looking forward to this. "This is Finn, ward of the Vicereine. I wish to be patched into the Viceroy's private domicile."

"One moment, sir," said the female voice on the other end. Aerrow was giggling behind his hand silently while Finn made a face at him. "Connecting you now. I bid you good day, sir."

"And you, ma'am." Finn pretended to gag once he was put on hold. Aerrow looked like he was about to split his seams from laughing without making a sound.

"You have reached the residence of the Viceroy and Vicereine of Terra Lyn. I must ask your humble forgiveness but the Viceroy and his wife are not at home. May I trouble you to leave a mess-"

Hearing the voice, Finn's whole body relaxed. "Al, dude, chill. It's me."

"Young Master Finn! How delightful to hear from you again!" The man on the other end of the line actually sounded happy.

"Told ya I'd be alright. Look dude, I need to get back in the Vicereine's good graces. Yeah, yeah, I know I bailed out with out so much as a goodbye, but I cou-"

Finn was interrupted. "Young Sir, I completely understand. But may I ask the real reason you want to butter them up?"

Finn sighed. "You know me too well, Al. Alright, you know that tome you got me for my birthday some time back? I kinda need that back."

"A tome. You are going to go through that abysmal ritual just for a book? Dear boy, I know you have more sense of self-respect then that."

Aerrow was shaking his head at Finn. "Hold on one sec, Al." Finn clicked off the speak button for a moment. "What's up?"

"I'm not so sure it's a good idea to tell others about what Stork is just yet," Aerrow said with a frown.

"I gotcha, Aerrow." He clicked on the speak button. "Sorry, Al. Look, one of the people I hang with these days is really into reading old books, and I recently remembered that tome. Figured if I gave it to her, she'd get off my back about forgetting to take out the trash."

"Take out the trash?" Al said the words slowly.

"Yeah, take out the trash. I'm not living rich. Haven't been since I left."

"And I'm sure you're having the time of your life, aren't you, sir?" Aerrow could hear the smirk in the man's voice, and he decided that he liked the man's sense of humor.

"You always did know me, Al." Finn shook his head. "Just let them know I'm coming back. I'll do the stupid ritual and stay for a week, then we'll be outta their hair. Hopefully for good this time."

"I shall alert them the moment they arrive. How many people will you be bringing?"

"Myself, a young man, his animal companion, a young woman, a merb and a wallop," Finn said, grinning widely.

"You're going to give them a heart attack. You know that, right?" The man sighed and chuckled. "Of course you do. I can hear that million-buck grin all the way over here. I'll let them know. Where are you now?"

"We're chillin' on Atmosia for the day. Once the pilot gets the parts he needs and our bookworm's done in the library, we'll be leaving. Probably tonight."

"That's only a day's trip away. We'll see you tomorrow night. I shall inform them once they arrive. Good day, sir." With that, Al hung up.

Aerrow leaned back, kicking his feet up onto the table. "So who was that? You seemed to relax when you heard his voice."

"Oh, that was Al, my butler. Great guy, actually gave a shit about me when I lived there," Finn said, sitting down next to Aerrow.

"You miss him?"

"Na... okay, maybe a little." Finn rubbed the back of his head. "He's about the only thing I miss about that place. He understands - he was the one that distracted everyone while I got out, the day you came to get me. Dude always had my back. If there's anyone we can trust on Lyn, it's Al. Oh, and the seamstress, Old Mrs. Molly. Although call her that to her face and you get a pin cushion to the face." Finn laughed hard at the memories. "That old woman was the one that informed me of the fact that girls often tried to take advantage of the marriage rule. We'll go to her when we need the formal attire. You, me, and Piper can just get something off the rack - Junko too, maybe - but for Stork, she'll need to do some alterations."

"You sure we can trust her with Stork having wings? Not something merbs normally have, you know."

"If I ask her not to say a word, she won't. She's an ornery old broad, but she's got a good heart. I once told her that I hated the way everyone treated me for being the Viceroy's ward, and she told me to ignore the morons and idiots." The blond shook his head. "We'll have to stick around for a week after the ritual. Or until you get fed up with how I'm being treated, whichever comes first, but it's polite-" Finn made a face. "-to stick around. Besides, they do have a killer crystal shop and a fairly decent repair shop."

"It almost sounds like you want to stay there," Aerrow said.

"More like, I wanna show the assholes I grew up with that money ain't everything. And to rub in their collective faces that we saved Atmos when Cyclonis stole Aurora Stone." Finn grinned.

Aerrow laughed. "Okay, that sounds more like the Finn I know."

Finn laughed back at Aerrow, and the two relaxed, rehashing old stories back and forth and generally goofing off until Piper returned bearing a large container with several Icer Crystals attached.

"Well, Stork was right - nothing in that library but overly exaggerated tails of evil things that drain a body dry. We could make better guesses by watching Stork. But I did get the blood bags. All I had to do was mention that we don't exactly have a terra we hover around, so they gave us quite a few full ones to stick in the freezer. And they told me that we could actually reuse them, and they gave me the tools we'd need and everything!" Piper's words were rushed with excitement as she took the container to the kitchen to shove the bags into the freezer.

"Ya know, Aerrow," said Finn, "this is all kinda weird. We've got blood in our freezer."

Aerrow snickered. "Finn, we're a group of orphans, we're flying a ship that's at least a hundred years old, most of us have fucked each other, and to top it all off, we're all about a half step from crazy. Blood in the freezer is nothing."

Finn snorted right back at him. "Well, when you put it that way."

It took the better part of the day for the rest of the team to arrive. Stork took the longest with collecting parts and tools, but by nightfall they were taking off from the terra, much to Stork's delight. "Feels good to be flying again," he said to Aerrow.

The redhead smiled at him. "Sometimes I wonder if you weren't born to fly. Oh, Piper wanted me to tell you, you were right about those books being mostly full of crap, but she did manage to get some information-"

Stork interrupted. "I probably could've told her whatever she found out."

"Probably. And also there's several bags of blood in the freezer for you, if they're needed. She's also been taught how to draw blood so we can refill them."

"Well, that'll be good if I ever need a snack. Although Finn didn't seem too averse to being a donor." Stork's grin was sly.

Aerrow shook his head. "Stork, knock it off." He couldn't quite hide the grin on his face. Stork made a non-committal noise. "I mean it, Stork. Until we have some idea as to what's what with feeding for you, let's try to keep to what you need and not recreational, alright."

"I know, I heard you the first time." Stork smirked. "Doesn't mean I'm not going to tease and torment your wingman mercilessly."

"You wouldn't be you if you didn't, Stork. Why don't you take that crystal off now that we're in the air again?" Aerrow asked.

"Well... umm..." Stork's ears drooped a bit, causing Aerrow to walk over to him and rub between where his wings sat. "I figured you guys... would want me to look normal." The last part was barely murmured out of nearly-closed lips.

Aerrow shook his head and stroked his pilot's muzzle softly. "Stork, it's like I told Finn earlier. We're a bunch of nut jobs - you are fond of calling the Condor a flying asylum. You are what you are. It makes no never-mind to any of us, I promise."

Stork couldn't help but lower his eyes, humbly. "You're too good for me, Aerrow," he said as he removed the pendant, his wings appearing.

Aerrow smiled. "Don't say that, Stork. I just like you the way you are, however you are."

Stork's wings moved to brush against his Sky Knight. "It'll take all night to get to Lyn. I looked it up before I came back. Finn wouldn't know coordinates if they were tattooed on his dick."

Aerrow snorted. "Probably not. So, can I ask you a few things?"

"Hey man, I got all night."

"What things did you find out about being a vampire?"

"Besides what I learned on my own?"

"How about all of the above, for starters." Aerrow smiled.

"Well, I don't know much. I know I need blood, and the wings - that's the obvious stuff. I can't say for sure about the bright light being a problem. Most merbs are more at home in darker places than brightly light ones, so I don't know if that's a real thing or just made up." Stork paused and tapped his lips. "I know my senses are heightened, even moreso when I stay fed." He grinned and looked at Aerrow, letting the vampiric allure he possessed go to work ever so slightly on the redhead. "Then there's that. From what I read, it's supposed to be used to get a victim to come to you without effort. I have no real idea how it works."

Aerrow cleared his throat, shaking off the physical reaction to the allure. "Anything else?"

"Nothing specific. Just some notes I made over the years to try to keep me sane when I lived down there. Mostly on what the hunger was doing to me, a few things on why I didn't let out the wings - mostly because at the time it took less energy to keep them in than it did to let them out, and because there are things in the Wastelands that hunt based on size. The less mass you have, the less appetizing you are to them. That's actually the reason I was so pissed when you guys showed up that first day. Putting in those traps took weeks because those things out there were trying to get me; there would've been more if I'd had my wings out." His eye twitched, and he cleared his throat. "Oh, and of course the enhanced strength. I'm not sure if a keener sense of smell is part of it, either. It's possible that because merbs have a better sense of smell than humans, I just notice the scent of blood better or what. I'm not sure."

"And a small Volca bat did this to you?" Aerrow asked.

"Best guess? Yeah." Stork scratched the top of his head with a wing. "I don't know how or why it happened, just that it did. All those books Piper and I have gone through didn't mention how it starts. Just tall tales and stories that frankly I wouldn't trust."

"Speaking of trusting, Finn says that we can trust his butler and an old seamstress with what you are. Just in case it comes up," Aerrow told him. "But hopefully it won't come to that. However, if/when you need to feed before we get what we came for, come to me immediately. I want to keep your hunger under as much control as we can manage." Aerrow looked at Stork for a moment. "You look exhausted. Why don't you grab a few hours under the trance helmet? I'll watch the helm for you." There was a slight tone of command in his words.

Stork's lips twitched slightly. "Just don't touch the levers on the right."

"You know me better than that." Aerrow watched the merb head off, and shook his head. Life had never been dull for him, and it didn't look like it was going to be any time soon. He wouldn't have it any other way.