"Oww." I whined while rubbing my head. "That hurt."
"I told you taking a short cut through the Black Gorge would be chatostrophic!" came Stork's muffled voice. I slipped out from the pile of Storm Hawks and saw that the green carrier piolot was laying on his face with his feet dangling over his head.
"Maybe so, but we needed to get away from those Cyclonians." Aerrow said while standing up. I went over to try and help Stork get up, but he quickly got up and walked away.
"Alright, let's just find a way to get out of here." Piper said. We all nodded except for Stork. He just went over to the controls and tried to make the Condor move.
"Uh, Piper?" the green piolot said. "It's not working." Piper was over at a large metal furnace type thing with spinning crystals inside. They gave off a dim glow.
"The crystals have been drained of all energy!" Piper exclaimed. Slowly, the glow of the crystals started to fade. "Wait! I have a solar crystal that could charge up the ship!"
"Heh, heh. Uh, Piper?" Finn spoke up, and all attention was directed towards the blonde. "Do you remember that beach party we had?"
"You used my only solar crystal for a barbeque?!" Piper snarled.
"Uh, guys?" Junko said causing everyone to look at him. Just as Aerrow was about to say something, there was a rattling amongst the gadgetry on the ship. There was a scuffle of little feet. Junko and Finn let out a pathetic scream, and then...
"Aw! It's really cute!" Junko said. "And you were afriad of it, Finn!"
"Huh...yeah right." Junko was holding a strange little, furry creature. His fur was a light orange with patched of white. Its wide eyes had red irises. Two of its teeth were bucked and it made adorable purring noises. Something about it made me uneasy.
"I think I'll call you mister Cheepers." Junko proclaimed.
"I wouldn't trust the natives of the Black Gorge." Stork said as he cowered behind Piper. "The Black Gorge is very tretchorous." Stork glared at the fuzzy little thing.
"Yeah, but what are we going to do?" I asked, causing Stork to look directly at me. "We have no way of getting out of here with the Condor and Piper's crystal out of commission."
"Kira's right." Aerrow said suddenly. "We need to do something." Stork gave everyone a hesitant nod. The green piolot rushed to his quarters to retrieve a rolled up paper.
"Here. It's the map of the Black Gorge. We can follow this map to get to this giant ridge to allow Piper's crystal to recharge in the sunlight. We have limited time though." Stork explained. "Plus, it's very dangerous. There are metal-eating vulka-bats, giant meat-eating plants, living tar, giant eels, and giant poison-toothed spiny gorge sloths." I looked over at the small furry creature in Junko's arms when Stork mentioned the gorge sloths. It looked so cute and fluffy, but something about those red eyes made me nervous. Out of nowhere, the Condor shook violently. I could hear scratching sounds as the heads of strange creatures started to poke through.
"It's those vulka-bat thingies!" Finn yelled as some of the 'bats' flew in the ship. Stork hid under the table.
"They're goin to eat the whole ship if we don't do something!" Piper yelled while trying to fight off the numerous vilka-bats.
"Wait! Junko's room is full of metal junk!" Finn proclaimed, and in a flash, the largest member of the Storm Hawks was baracading himself in front of his room.
"No! I need this stuff!" Junko prtested.
"What could you possibly do with all those scraps of metal?" Aerrow asked, and Junko remained quiet. We quickly ransacked Junko's room of all its metal and made a nice pile outside for the creepy bat thingies.
The metal-eating vulka-bats hovered around a rather large pile of scrap metal while a very sad wallop watched as they devoured it all.
"I feel like I just lost a part of me." Junko whimpered. Mock tears streamed from his eyes.
"Don't worry big guy." Aerrow said to his friend. "It was for the good of the team."
"Well, since you all have everything under control, I'm going to go hide -er- protect, the Condor." Stork said while walking away.
"But Stork!" Piper called after the merb. "You're the only one who knows the area well enough."
"Piper's right." Aerrow agreed.
"Piper's good at navigation! Have her do it! Just avoid all areas with a skull and crossed bones." Piper held up the map of the Black Gorge in front of Stork. It was covered in symbols of death.
"Stork, please help us." Kira said in a sweet voice that almost made Stork shiver.
"Fine." he sighed.
"So, how much time do we have to get to tha ridge?" Aerrow asked.
"About two hours."
"Well then, let's get going." Aerrow said, and the group started on the dark path ahead.
