Hello all!

Apologies for the late post, I've been on holiday in japan (again) XD

I do not own the Storm Hawks they are property of Nerd Corp

Thank you all that reviewed last chapter! I have it all planned now so let the good times roll! (or bad, I dunno)

Enjoy and Review!

Chapter 51 – Family affairs

The figure held their hand out, offering Stork a lift up only for Stork to scramble backwards "Tock, what are you doing here?" he asked pointing at her.

"You've already said that Stork, come on up ya get" she laughed walking over to him and helping him up to his feet.

The feeling of her hands on him gave him the chills, slowly giving them the cold shoulder.

"You know you're a hard man to find, Stork. Had to track down your friends to find you..." This caught Theo's attention, jumping down from the pile "you've seen the others? How are they? Are they still alive?" he asked rapidly completely forgetting about his hostility towards her.

Tock chuckled and turned to the boy "Well I only saw Aerrow and Piper, but from what I've been hearing the others have been causing a bit of chaos down in the dungeons" she explained as Theo sighed with relief at the news.

Tock then noticed what was past the boy "I don't suppose that's your father?" she asked walking towards Sigmund how breathed heavily beneath the pile.

"D-don't go near him!" Theo cried out running up to her and pulling on her shirt only to have her hand rest on his head "don't worry I know what I'm doing..." Tock pulled a small container out of her pouch and looked at it "this shall do" and with that she flicked it at Sigmund. It smashed on contact and drooled down Sigmund's face that, at the time, was surprisingly complacent.

"What did you do?" Theo uttered as he tried to climb back up the pile to Sigmund, began to pant far more heavily then he already was. Theo reached his father, grabbing on to his left hand which was a dead weight.

"Don't worry little one, he'll be okay in about uh 5 minutes?" Tock guessed as she looked at her watch.

She jumped down from the pile, landing next to Stork who refused to look at her. Tock rolled her eyes "don't give me that..." Tock was interrupted by the feeling of a cold, clammy hand within hers. She looked down at the interlocked hands, and her eyes began to tear up. A memory played through her head of the last time they were together.

The day was calm, like any other. Tick was working as an apprentice at the fruit market while Stork did odd jobs as a repairman.

A young Stork walked in to the room to find Tock, deep in a fairy tale.

"Come on Tock, do you want to go to the market to see if Tick has any fresh Atmosian mangos?" Stork asked the young Tock who smiled up at him.

She reached out and grabbed on to his hand. They were just about to leave when there was a knock at the door.

"Now who could that be?" Stork questioned slipping his hand out of hers and reaching for the door. With a twist of the wrist he opened it to find an abnormally small Merbian, dressed in their countries military uniform, with 2 abnormally tall uniformed Merbian's looming over him.

From where Tock was standing she couldn't hear what was being said but the expression on Stork's face had her worried.

What happened next, no one was expecting as the two abnormally large Merbian's grabbed Stork by the shoulders and started to drag him away. Stork resisted launching a right hook into the Merbian on the left who let go the instance he was struck but it wasn't enough, as soon as the Merb let go of him the other struck Stork who fell to the floor with force.

Tock dropped to her knees next to him "I-I'm going away for... a little while" Stork gasped "but don't worry, I'll be back" a tear rolled down his eye which he quickly wiped away.

"You promise?" Tock squeaked as she grabbed a hold of his cold, clammy hand.

Stork nodded before he was picked up by the two tall Merbian's and taken away.

The smaller Merbian gave her a dark look before marching off himself.

The crackle of glass awoke Tock from her day dream.

"Aww what a happy family you two make" a bitter voice remarked from the Condors observation deck.

The voice came from Tick who lent against a window pane, swinging his dart gun around his finger.

"Tick, what are you doing here!" Tock questioned letting go of Storks hand.

"Dear sister I hope you didn't think you had lost me?" Tick responded grabbing his dart gun and placing it back in its holster.

"I didn't try to lose you; I told you where I was going..." Tock tried to explain.

"You said you were going to the library, do you see any books around here?"

"But I did go to the Library..." At this point Tick wasn't listening.

"And to think you would head here, to the very person that left us!" he pointed at Stork who was shaking his head with an eyebrow raised.

"Left you?" Stork questioned turning his puzzled look to Tock "why does he think I left you?"

Tock tried to find her words "I...I kinda didn't tell him about the whole army thing..." She rolled her foot around as she spoke.

Stork face palmed "why wouldn't you...you know what I'll talk to him" Stork turned to Tick to find his dart gun, loaded and ready, pointing at him.

"Tetrodotoxin or 'zombie powder' by those that practice Bogaton Voodoo, it's commonly found in sky puffer fish. It binds to the sodium channels in your nerve cells, preventing the cells' to function causing you to go into a state of paralysis before you die a slow and painful death" Tick explained, a dark look in his eye as he spoke.

"N-Now hang on there, Tick" Stork cautioned taking a step back.

"No you hang on, Stork. Do you know what we were put through? We thought we were rid of the hardship when you took us in, only to find that you would leave us as well!" Tick twitched causing the gun to shake.

Stork lowered his hands "Tick, I didn't leave you, not intentionally anyway-" Stork tried to explain but this only caused Tick to push the dart gun closer to Storks face.

"Screw your excuses!" Tick barked, lowering his gun slightly. This was enough for Stork who grabbed Ticks arm and brought it around with him shoving it halfway up Ticks back, Tick could feel his arm coming close to dislocation as he gritted with pain.

Stork, who now had Tick in a submissive position, emptied the canister in Tick's dart gun before whispering two words in Ticks ear "I'm sorry" he then let go of Tick.

Tick sighed with relief as he could feel the blood rushing back to his arm.

"Now that, that's over" Stork began before being hit with a clean hook to the jaw.

"Tick!" Tock screamed grabbing on her brothers arm, restraining him from throwing another.

"I-I guess I deserved that" Stork admitted as he checked if all his teeth were still in place.

"Don't say that, Stork" Tock comforted still restraining her brother.

"No, Tick's right. I did leave you. Even after my exile, even after joining the Storm Hawks I didn't keep my promise..." Stork explained, refusing to keep eye contact.

By now Tick relaxed and watched as his caretaker crumble before him.

"But we managed to meet up again you did keep your promise. Even if it isn't in ideal situations and not at our old home, we still got to see you again and that's all that matters" Tock comforted lifting Stork up as she spoke.

She then turned to Tick and slapped him across the face "And you! Give him some slack, he's gone through the same ordeal we had to, if not worse..." Tick, who held the side of his face, looked away as he was being spoken to.

"Now, shake hands!" Tock ordered, both Stork and Tick gave her a weird look and then gave each other weird looks before looking down at the floor.

They stood like this for about a minute before Tick held out his hand, still looking away.

Stork looked at his hand and smiled an uneasy smile before placing his hand in Ticks. The feeling of Storks hand in Tick's made him look up to find his old caretaker smiling uneasy at him and all he could do was laugh, which made Stork laugh as well.

The family were happy again, well until a table flew past Tick nearly taking him out.

"Ye be the ones that smashed up me bar!" a bellowing voice came from the top of the pile of junk.

Theo's voice could heard as well "Dad, no! They're on our side now!" he barked.

Stork, Tick and Tock looked up at them, startled, to find Sigmund had returned to normal.

A few minutes later (after some whispering and bickering)

"So I understand, you be one of the Storm hawks then?" Sigmund questioned Stork who had that same uneasy look on his face again.

Theo sat atop his father's shoulder; a glow surrounded him as he laughed at his father's questions.

"So, what of the others?" Sigmund questioned which caused Stork to switch on.

"-I honestly don't know" Stork shrugged.


Author Notes:

Bad News: I have a combined assessment for the next 6 weeks, that's all 5 subjects combined into one big project. So I'm going to be REALLY busy, so please don't get angry at me if I can't post soon enough.

Chapters left: 17

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

From the one they call Doilan.