Well took a couple days like I thought, it's my longest chapter yet. Enjoy

Disclaimer: Storm Hawks and all characters attached to said title are property of the fine folks at Nerd Corps Entertainment. Please don't sue me. I have only created Stryker and now another OC who you all are free to use just ask first please.

Heart of Darkness...The Good Doctor

They were a day into their journey now. They still had awhile to go before they entered Cyclonian territory. Stork was, as always, at the helm searching the skies for the trouble he knew would eventually come. Finn and Junko were preparing themselves a small feast in the kitchen while trying to keep the noise down. And, Piper was in her crystal lab reviewing documents, searching for any clues she could find about how Cyclonis was revived after she had been killed. Aerrow knocked on the open door's frame.

"Hey there." Piper said without bringing her eyes up from the papers in front of her.

"What's all this your reading?" Aerrow asked as he stepped inside, coming to a stop on the other side of the table from Piper.

"Their transcripts of the information retrieved off the data crystal. I asked for copies of what they had of any crystal information and anything concerning Cyclonis' miraculous return from death. I'm hoping to find something they missed." She said, a slight tone of frustration in her voice.

"Any luck?" Aerrow asked, but judging from her tone he already figured the answer.

"None. I realized the data would be minimal at best, given that they couldn't get all of it. But, this is beyond fractured, it's like reading a book where all the pages fell out, and try as you might to put it back together, parts will be missing and or completely out of order. It takes a lot of time to get anything even to make since, but with this I don't even know where to start. There are a couple full pages where it describes some of the events after she died, and some about after she was revived, but almost none on the actual process save for the little bit about the Flow crystal." She sat back in her chair now in a huff."It's starting to give me a real headache."

"What about the guy who actually preformed the operation? Anything on him?" Aerrow asked, hoping to help move the investigation along.

"Only his name." Piper replied, reaching for a peice of paper she had set aside. Looking at it she said." A Dr.Heron..."

A yell suddenly came from the bridge. "WHAT!?"

Both Aerrow and Piper jumped at the sudden shout. The next thing they knew they heard the autopilot being engaged and Stork suddenly Stork was standing in the doorway of Piper's lab."Did you say Dr.Heron!?" Storked asked breathing very hard, but not from the fast run from the bridge. His eye twitch was already in full gear.

"Ya." Piper said, confused by Stork sudden panic. "Do you know him? And how did you hear us? Were you eavesdropping?"

"Well the doors were open and you guys voices tend to carry, not to mention my hearing is slightly better than yours."Stork said in a sudden calm. Then immediately went back to panic."And of course I know who Dr. Heron is! I doubt there is a merb my terra who doesn't." Stork was beginning to hyperventilate now.

Piper got a worried look on her face. "Stork calm down, just take deep calming breaths." She waited for Stork to catch his breath."Now, calmly as you can, tell us who he is. I couldn't find any references to him in any of my books on crystal researchers."

"No, you wouldn't, because he doesn't research crystals." Stork's words only caused Piper and Aerrow to give him confused looks. "The truth is he only sees crystals as a means to an end, his real research is into biological studies. He's a merb, but he is completely different from the rest of us. Instead of fearing and working to counteract diseases, he would actively search them out and study them in his lab. He would study their effects on the body, using various experiments to try and change how they worked." Stork was beginning to cower in the corner as he said this.

"Stork? Are you okay?" Piper said getting closer to Stork. Genuine concern for their pilot on her face.

"No, I'm not." Stork said, then suddenly got up and ran to his room. Aerrow and Piper shared a look, wondering if they should go after him. Then suddenly they heard him coming back, he appeared again at the doorway, only this time carrying a large book. "This," He said slamming the book onto the table. "Is a record of some of the Merb races' less than favorable people. There are several chapters on Dr.Heron." He said with a slight growl in voice. He opened the book to specific page that he had book marked. "This may be what your looking for." He said, now backing up from the book. "Happy reading." He turned around then slunk off to the bridge and once again went back to flying The Condor.

"Well that was unsettling, he seems to have some issues about this doctor." Piper looking at the doorway Stork had just left through. She then began to read the pages laid out before her in the over sized book.

"Flying The Condor always seems to calm him." Aerrow said, concern in his voice. "We can talk to him later after he has had some time to himself." Then redirecting his attention to the book. "Anything useful?"

Piper began to read over some lines with her finger skimming over the page. "It says here he had some theories of the energies naturally generated by the human body. He believed that the energy released from the body when a person died could be replaced much in the same way you can recharge some crystals when they're used up. But he never could get any results because there was no way to properly synthesize the energy type used by the body."

"Sounds pretty creepy, but he obviously figured out a way. Why didn't Stork mention this before, he's obviously familiar with the guy's work." Aerrow asked.

" I think I see why" Piper responded, her finger stopping over a specific article on the page. "It says that his lab was completely destroyed, and he was assumed killed, in a Cyclonian attack..." Piper looked up at Aerrow.

Aerrow already knew what it said. "Three years ago." He said in a serious tone. "It would seem history needs some rewrites. What else does it say in there about him? We're gonna need all the info we can get on him."

Piper turned back to the book and began to flip through some of the pages. "It seems he would conduct experiments on the bodies of merbs who died of various diseases. He was the target of many attacks from outraged merbs who viewed his work as offensive. Some even suspected that he would purposefully infect merbs in order to gain access to more research subjects." Piper looked up from the book. "Aerrow, I get the chills just reading this. This Dr. Heron seems to be nothing but bad news. Who knows what he has been working on since reviving Cyclonis."

"Whatever it is, based on his history, it can't be good." Aerrow said, He then headed for the door. He paused at the doorway and looked back at Piper. "Give him an hour, then go talk to Stork. I have a feeling he's gonna need to vent some feelings that this whole Dr.Heron situation has brought up."

"Why me? Your better at getting everyone in the right mood for any situation." Piper said, she felt she was being assigned an impossible task.

"Because, like I said before, I think your the only one he really listens to when he's like this. Besides in an hour I'm sure he'll be close to fine anyway. I'm off to the kitchen for now to get some lunch, assuming Junko and Finn haven't eaten everything in the fridge already." With that Aerrow left Piper in her lab and headed for the kitchen.

"Great, a merb scientist who has a unusual thing for diseases, a crystal empowered Cyclonis, and nervous and paniced Stork who I have to talk down." Piper said to herself. "I wonder which one is gonna take more effort to deal with."

...

Piper decided it best give it two hours, both for Stork and for herself. She wasn't really sure what to say to him when he was this agitated. She started walking towards the bridge, thinking of exactly how to approach Stork and talk over his obvious past with Dr.Heron. As she entered the bridge, and looked over to Stork at the ship's control, she noticed just how quiet the bridge was. It seemed everyone was giving Stork some alone time.

It was apparent that Stork was not relaxed. His grip on the steering controls was tight enough for even his knuckles to be white. The twitch in his left eye seemed to extended up to his ear, causing his earrings to jingle some when they collided. His eyes were frozen to the horizon, scanning back and forth as if some uncertian danger were sure to spring at any second. Needless to say, flying The Condor for the past two hours had not helped to calm the now very agitated merb.

Great, Piper thought to herself, he's in full Crazy Stork Mode now.

"Hey Stork..." She started, walking up to the twitching merb.

"I'm not talking about it." He said flatly, in a voice that was not as jumpy as his facial features were. It was a clam serious tone. "I already know Aerrow asked you to talk to me. Good ears remember, you guys should work on closing doors."

Piper was a bit shaken by Stork's sudden refusal. She thought about just ending it there and turning around and walking away. But, looking at Stork's current state of being, she knew that leaving him as he was now wouldn't help anyone.

"Thats fine." She said, idea in her head of just how to deal with this. "To be frank, I wasn't looking forward to talking it out right now anyway. I think I'll just stand here and enjoy the view for a bit." Truth existed there, the view through the bridge's forward window was beautiful right now. Cloud's were everywhere, with the sun's rays bouncing up off them, it looked like a sea of gold was beneath them. "Of course, I know how you sometimes like to talk to yourself when your alone. So, just pretend I'm not here and feel free to chat away." She said giving him a warm smile.

Crap, Stork thought to himself, she's not gonna leave me alone till I say something. Stork let out a sigh. "Fine. You win, but I don't want to hear anything that sounds like therapy after I'm done. I already know what my mental problems are, it's only the physical ones I worry about." He let a another small sigh, looked at Piper through his twitching left eye, and began his story.

...

It was years ago, Stork wasn't even into his teens, and the only world he knew was his terra. He was eager to get off it, and more than willing to take the first offer that would achieve that goal. He began by apprenticing under a local mechanic who worked on the few carriers that frequented the terra. Business was always slow, so when he wasn't working in the shop he was working on and flying a small freight hauler. It wasn't powerful or reliable enough to even try to take off the terra, but it was good for practicing his piloting.

Still considered to young to be taken on an actual carrier crew, Stork was left with no option but to shuttle visitors and other merbs around the terra on his hauler as a taxi service for extra money. It was while doing this he met Dr.Heron. He had come in on a privately owned vessel and docked at the garage for repairs. When he stepped off his ship, Stork didn't know hat to make of him. Not many merbs owned airships for the simple reason most never left their terras. His appearance was off to, while a bit shorter than most merbs, he made up for this by standing straight up, no hunching at all. He wore a long grey coat that matched the color of his fur, and it had numerous pockets with various devices stuffed into them. His black hair was long and greased back out of his face. He also wore a pair of goggles that kept his eyes shaded.

He approached Stork and inquired as to where he could get transportation to the other side of the terra, he was apparently in a hurry. Stork directed him to his hauler and they were off. Stork made the trip in half the time of what most merb drivers would even dare. Once they arrived at a small dwelling that Dr.Heron had directed him to, the doctor jumped out of the hauler and ran inside. Curious, Stork followed to see what had the doctor in such a rush. Inside, Stork saw something that would haunt his nightmares for a long time.

It was a merb, or was, his body was covered in tumors, some of which leaked a black ooze. Stork felt violently ill and rushed outside to vomit. He stayed outside till the doctor appeared in the doorway, he slowly walked towards Stork. "Not a pleasant sight was it?" Heron asked, looking directly at Stork through his shaded goggles. "It's called Black Growth, very painful, giant growths cover the body, poisoning the blood and causing it to turn black. No real hope of survival once you've caught it." His voice was slow and rhythmic, it sounded like he had said this same thing many times before. "Nothing I could do for the poor man, only try and make his passing peaceful and have meaning."

"How can dying like that have any meaning?" the young Stork asked. Most merbs saw death as an end, an end that could come from one of many sources. They figured they were safe on their own terras where they were familiar with their surroundings, lessening the chances that their end would come to soon.

Dr.Heron looked at Stork then took a small vial out of his coat pocket, it contained a black liquid. "This is his blood, I took it before he died. By studying it I might be able to find ways to treat it or prevent it from occurring in anyone else."

Stork was intrigued, he had never really heard of a merb wanting anything to do with disease except avoid them however possible. "How will you do that?"

"Research and experimentation." Heron replied as if it were the only logical answer. "I need to get back to my ship now, if you please, before this sample goes bad." Before leaving though, he set fire to the dwelling. He looked at Stork. "For containment purposes, no worries, it won't spread beyond the house. Sadly, I have done this before."

Stork got them back to the garage with the same speed as before. "Impressive skills by the way." Heron said as they arrived back at the garage. He got out of the hauler and began to make his back to his ship. He stopped and turned to look back at Stork. "Would you care to see my ship?"

Stork was eager to get a close look at the insides of the ship, it looked to be one of the newer models meant for private use, small but fast and maneuverable. Only one room besides the bridge and engine room. "Sure." He said, still a bit shaken by what he had seen earlier, but that wouldn't stop his love for airships.

Dr.Heron motioned him to follow and they made their way onto the small vessel. They entered onto the bridge, Stork looked all around taking in what he was seeing. It was beautiful to him, it was the first time he had been even near the controls of anything besides his small hauler. He reached out and touched the flight controls, he wanted so bad to take the ship for a spin.

"Before you decide to take us out, perhaps you should finish the repairs first, hmm?" Heron said, coming up to stand beside him.

"How did you damage this ship anyway? It seems almost brand new." Stork asked looking up at Heron

"Sadly, while I'm good at many things, flying a ship is not one of them." He looked down at Stork. "Know any good pilots?"

Stork felt his heart sink a bit. He knew he was a good pilot, but there was no way he could get employment like that for a few more years.

"Come with me for second, I have to store this sample in my lab." Heron turned around headed for the ladder in the back of the bridge. Down the ladder led to the engine room, Dr.Heron headed up the ladder, to where the only cabin was located on these variety of ship. Stork followed him, coming out the top he saw various containers being powered by Freezing Crystals. Dr.Heron opened one and placed the vial containing the black blood inside. He stood up and looked at Stork. "Tell me, young one, have you ever been sick?"

Stork nodded, disease was far from uncommon on Terra Merb. You just had to hope you only caught one that wouldn't kill you.

"Disease of all sorts of variety plague this world, but there aren't many ways to treat the serious ones like you saw earlier." Dr.Heron was starting to get an excited tone in his voice as he continued. "Sadly the only way to truly study a disease is to take samples as it's happening. I get word of an outbreak I have to be there quickly, hence why I have this ship. But, I can't risk studying these samples on a ship, one bit a turbulence rocks the floor causing a vial to break, and that's the end of it. I have to set-up a base of operations, which I plan to do here, on Terra Merb, my old home. Many diseases here to study anyway, but I also need samples of rarer diseases that are in farther off places, but to go to them would take time away from my research."

He looked at Stork straight in the eye now. "I find myself in need of an assistant. Interested?"

Stork was shocked. "Why me?"

"Judging by how you ferried me both to and from that unfortunate dwelling, I would say you have practiced your flight skills to near perfection. Very rare for a merb, it kind of reminds me of me. I definitely don't fit the role of the usual merb." Heron let a grin spread across his face. "Besides I have a gut feeling you will have knack for this kind of thing. It will be quite simple really though, you will fly out to the terras where an unusual disease has sprung up and collect samples and bring them back to me."

"But won't I be in danger of being exposed and getting sick?" Stork asked, unsure of if he would ever be capable of something so dangerous.

"That's why, while I am having my lab built here, I will be teaching about all the diseases and various other nasty little things I have encountered in my travels. You will learn all the necessary precautions and treatments that I have developed. It will be hard, and I'll be drill it into your brain, but it will get you off this terra. You will be able to explore The Atmos, and somehow I feeling that is what you truly want."

Stork felt excited at the prospect of seeing the world. Dr.Heron reached out his hand. "Do we have an agreement?" Stork nodded enthusiastically and shook the older merb's hand.

Months passed while Dr.Heron's lab was being built and set up. During this time he gave Stork a crash course in a multitude of studies. From parasites, to insects, to proper protection and procedures when working in an infectious environment. Stork learned it all, but it caused him to develop insomnia from long late night study sessions. His new found knowledge also caused him to be wary of everything around him knowing exactly where diseases were lurking.

But, it was all worth it the first time he went out on his first trip to gather samples from a nearby terra that had a sudden outbreak of Sleep Measles, not a deadly disease but still worth investigating. Dr.Heron accompanied him the first time out to make sure everything went okay. Everything went fine, Stork collected samples and Heron administered basic treatment to the locals. It was the first of many such journeys for Stork. Dr.Heron would occasionally accompany him on trips to collect samples from specific rare diseases.

It was a year after they had met when an outbreak hit Terra Merb, an outbreak of the very disease they had met because of, Black Growth. Dr.Heron went to work trying various treatments he had developed seeing if any positive results had come from his research. Within a week five merbs were dead, ten more still sick and not getting better. Luckily it was isolated to a remote part of the terra within a family that all lived together on a small farm.

Stork ran trips back and forth from the farm to the lab in his old hauler. When one would die Stork would take the body to Heron for autopsy. After the fifth one had died, depression was hitting Stork as he realized none of the treatments were working and they were all going to die.

Over the next couple of days the rest finally died except for one. A young female merb, she showed signs of having a slowed progression. It was certain she would die, but not for at least another couple days. Stork was beside himself with grief, his nerves were near the breaking point. They moved the girl to the lab to have her close for observation.

Stork talked with Heron about just helping her slip off peacefully. "She doesn't need to suffer. We can just keep her doped up until she fades. We don't need anymore data..."

Heron stopped Stork with a raise of his hand. "Don't finish that sentence. Of course we need more data!" Heron raised his voice. "She shows signs of resistance to a highly deadly disease. Yes, it's not enough to save her, but if I can figure out why she is resistant we may be able to duplicate it and improve it to where we can control and stop this disease cold! Doping her will affect her system and not give a clear reading on the scanners. We need her system clear to keep the readings as accurate as possible." Stork knew he couldn't win, he was still a novice when compared to Heron. So he backed down and went back to recording data.

Three days later, in extreme pain, the girl died. Stork was physically exhausted, he hadn't slept the entire time. Heron told him to go rest while he preformed the autopsy. On the way back to his room he decided he wouldn't be able to sleep yet, so he decided to to go fly his hauler around to help clear his mind. He went out back to where the hauler was parked and got in. Before he started up the engine, he noticed the corner of something sticking up between the seats. Before he even realized what he was doing, he pulled out what turned out to be a notebook, opened it, and began to read it. It was Dr.Heron's notes on this case of Black Growth. Normally he wouldn't read these, they were the doctor's personal notes. But, Stork felt that he needed to read these, he had been to involved in it not to learn everything he could. As he read, more and more, his eye began to twitch. He rushed back inside, and yelled at the top of his lungs. "YOU MADE THEM SICK!!"

Heron looked up from the body of the girl, he already had her open and weighing her organs on a small scale. "Stork, your interrupting me."

Stork threw the notebook at the doctor, Heron looked down and the book and knew what had Stork so upset. He simply sighed, and looked up at the young merb, his face unreadable from his shaded goggles. "Yes, Stork, I made them sick. Black Growth is a rarity, even rarer is a resistance to it. Do you remember the one who died from this when we first met." Stork nodded, he could never forget that sight. "These were his relatives."

Stork was horrified. "Why?" He could barely choke out the word past his clenched teeth.

"Because that man lasted a week longer than most ever would, I arrived there expecting a corpse, but instead found a someone barely clinging to life. But he was worthless for study, to far gone." Excitement was seeping into his voice now. "Imagine my surprise though when, a month ago, I found he had some relatives. I thought at least one of them might have a resistance similar to his." He made a gesture at the girl's body that lay on his table. "Look at it Stork, it is a truly horrifying and deadly disease. The most destructive to the body I have ever encountered. I can't let any chance of finding a way to master this disease escape me. And so, one late night trip and a couple drops into their water supply later, and I have all the test subjects I need." Heron grinned at this, to Stork it seemed like the grin of the devil himself.

Stork felt as if the floor below him about to give out. How could he have worked next to this man all this time and not seen this madness. His eye was twitching like mad now. Heron just looked at him. "I should probably have a look at that twitch you have going there Stork, people might think your crazy with a twitch like that." His grin never left his face. "Come on Stork, calm yourself, how you can you not understand this? So what if few die here and there? It won't matter if we can conquer the ultimate disease."

Stork collapsed onto the floor. "Ultimate disease? What's worse than then Black Growth?"

"Death, Stork, death is the ultimate disease." Heron began to move around the room throwing his hands in the air as he spoke. "Only by studying the worse ways people can die and finding the cure for that can we even come close to conquering death." Heron walked towards Stork and put his hand out to the young merb. "Come Stork, don't let all this time we have worked together be in vain. There is still much for you to learn, so much for us both to discover."

Stork rolled over and got to his feet and ran out the door. He made his way to hauler, turned it on, and raced out of there. He could faintly hear Heron yelling at him but was unable to make out the words. He made it to the dock where the airship was, got on and started it up. He took off and never came back.

...

Piper just stared at the Stork, she didn't know what to say. The story he had just finished telling was more terrible than she could have imagined. It explained a lot of Stork's problems, from his fear and knowledge of disease, to his distrust of others. She just stood there, unable to speak.

"Later, I heard about the Cyclonian attack, and the death of Dr.Heron. I figured it was a good enough time to put my past behind me." Stork said, staring straight ahead at the horizon. "And now here we are, going into Cyclonian territory where a long thought dead part of my past is alive and still continuing his experiments." He then looked over at Piper. "So I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not very happy about this mission."

Piper wanted to say something, but she couldn't really find the words. She started to put a hand out towards his shoulder. "Stork, I..."

Stork interrupted her. "We're entering Cyclonian territory now." He said in a flat tone. "You may want to go tell they others to prepared for whatever may happen. Not exactly the most welcoming skies in The Atmos." As he said this, the sky seemed to darken, the clouds were higher and thicker here letting in very little light.

Piper dropped her hand back to her side and made her way to the the doors that led to other parts of the carrier. Before she went through, she turned to look at Stork and said. "I'm sorry Stork. I didn't know it was this hard for you."

Without turning to look at her he simply said. "It's not your fault. Some things just don't stay buried, no matter how much you want them to."

With that Piper turned and left Stork alone on the bridge. His eye was still twitching and his ear was keeping time.

TwitchTwitch...TwitchTwitch...TwitchTwitch...

...

BeepBeep...BeepBeep...BeepBeep...

Whew, a long chapter, and a bit darker than those before, to be sure. Looks like I have created another OC and he's also evil it seems. Maybe I need therapy.

On a side note, Today is my birthday, hooray for me. What do I want you ask? Reviews and lots of them. Bad and good reviews are all welcome. remember this stuff is also about what you guys want to read. So hope to get plenty of feed back..Later.