Note: Number three, and another 30 percent of Stork's sanity down the tube. XD No, I really love Stork. He's a jittery, twitchy, skinny, paranoia-riddled person who's always hunching over machines and prophesizing about terror, doom, and imminent ruin. Kind of like me, only he's male and has pointy ears. And he's green. Personally, I like to think of myself as a pale ivory color. XD

Anyway! I don't own Storm Hawks, just Candice. And her two boys briefly mentioned in the last chapter. Yes, she's actually a couple of years older than Stork is. From Wikipedia I've concluded that Stork is about 24 or so. That would put Candice at about 27 or 28. Ok?

Someone review and tell me if the Merbs have their own language because I've only seen a few episodes of Storm Hawks and I want to know. OK?

Chapter Three: Cyclonian Ruin

Stork had to awkwardly find a way to make his way to the main living area (the equivalent of a living room in most homes) and sit on the sofa while a sobbing Merb woman clung to his chest and cried on him incessantly. Aerrow noticed Stork's plight.

"Stork, what did you do to her, man?"

"I didn't do anything, Aerrow!" Stork snapped back. Candice stopped sobbing momentarily.

"So you're A-Aerrow? I thought the name... I thought it sounded familiar when S-Stork said it... The Sky Knight, Aerrow? Y-You're the one trying to stop the Dark Ace, am I right?" She asked shakily, getting off of Stork enough for the poor man to finally breathe properly.

"Um, yeah, that's who I am!" He said. "oof!" He complained as Candice barreled into him in a tight hug.

"You can help me, can't you? You can stop that horrible man! He took my boys away. Took them and--" She began crying loudly again.

A female Merb crying is not the prettiest sight. In fact it was rather scary. Therefore Stork took it upon himself to try to stop her.

Unfortunately, not having seen another Merb in a few years had left him, shall we say, a bit blunt-edged.

"What did he do with them?" He asked softly. Apparently this was the wrong thing to ask, as Candice let out a piercing shriek and fell to her knees, clutching Aerrow around the knees and crying on his shins.

"Stork, I don't think you're helping." Aerrow scolded.

Piper came running in at the sound, followed by Junko (who was carrying Finn over his shoulder, as the latter had been shocked at the loud sound and cracked his head on a lever, effectively knocking himself out).

"What's goin' on, guys?" Junko asked, dropping Finn on the floor and letting the blonde just lay there on the floor.

"Apparently Dark Ace has something to do with her condition. She's upset and very confused right now. As you can see."

At this point, Candice was mumbling insanely to herself as she nuzzled Aerrow's knees with her head. Something along the lines of "Bad man. Mean man. Good man. Good man stop bad man, yes. Yes..." Even Stork was a bit scared at her actions, and took to gently pulling Candice off of Aerrow's legs before her tears completely soaked through the material.

"Well, what's Dark Ace got to do with it?"

"Apparently it was something about her two sons being taken away by the Cyclonians. I didn't catch much after that as she let out that shriek and decided to begin soaking me." Aerrow said, wincing when he heard the telltale whine that meant that something --or someone-- had just landed hard on top of Radarr.

"Well, maybe when she calms down we can ask her." Piper suggested.

"Good idea, Piper. Stork!" Stork flicked his head up from the floor. He was currently in the middle of an unwilling dog-pile (or Merb-pile) made up of Radarr on the bottom, then Stork, then Candice on top, crying into the pilot's shirt.

"When did she start crying?" Aerrow asked.

"A while ago." Stork answered breathlessly. His lungs were being constricted by 95 pounds of weeping Merb on top of him. "Like, We were talking, and the topic of her sons came up, and then she said something about them 'used' to being a handful, or something, and then I offered to let her come down and grab something to eat, and then she got mad at me for some reason, and then she just started crying."

"Women..." Aerrow mumbled, earning a sharp cuff in the back of the head from Piper. "OW! Well, anyway, calm her down the best you can." Stork suddenly realized something.

"Hey, if we're all in here, who's piloting the Condor?" As if on cue, the ship began a violent nosedive through the clouds onto a small expanse of land below them. (Imagine the Spongebob episode where Patrick and Spongebob are huddled over the fire and Patrick says 'Hey if we're underwater how can there be a--' And then the fire goes out XD)

"Whooooaaa!" Junko called out, falling over and landing on top of the whole Merb-pile. Radarr squeaked in pain and managed to squeeze himself through. He quickly ran back on top of Aerrow's shoulder before any more harm could come to him. Piper ran back to the wheel and yanked back hard on it, leveling out the ship. Junko blinked.

"Wow, at least something squishy broke my fall."

"That... would be us, you big oaf." Stork rasped from somewhere in the pile. Junko got up, apologizing profusely and dragging the two Merbs up off the floor.

The shock of having a whole teenage Wallop land on her was enough to make Candice stop crying, at any rate. Well, it was either the shock of Junko landing on her or the fact that the sheer G-force smacked her head down and her lips crashed onto Stork's awkwardly. Yeah, it was probably that.

Her lower lip quivered and Candice made a few more whimpering sounds as if she were about to cry again. She took a deep breath, about to let out another shriek when Stork covered her mouth with his hand and began jabbering away.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Calm down, ok? Don't cry. Crying bad. We uh... We don't need a flood. Let's just get you into the kitchen. We'll make you something to eat and you'll stop crying, right?" Stork asked desperately, not looking forward to being soaked again. He took Candice by the shoulders and led her towards the kitchen.

"B-But I..." She began, only to be cut off by Stork's nervous, insincere giggling.

"Eh he he he he he he! Just calm down and you'll be fine. Really." He said, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

Chapter Three is Complete! Chapter Four is On It's Way!!!!!