So as I was writing this, I realized this story is going in a much more AU direction then I had initially thought. Does mean I will get to have a bit more fun with later chapters though.
Oh, for those who wish to know when this story is supposed to take place continuity-wise, it is certainly after "Forbidden City".
"Alright, Who ate my bag of Sky Chips?"
Aerrow sat down behind the table on the command deck. Finn had just stormed in, most likely from the galley, and was brandishing an empty chip bag at everyone there. Piper rolled her eyes before getting back to their slowly-building map of Cyclonian backlands; Radarr tried to see what she was doing from the back of her chair and Stork just stared out at the clouds outside. He just ignored Finn and took a sip of fresh, hot . . . something. He had learned rather quickly not to ask what Stork got when they resupplied. The drink helped him wake-up in the morning and had yet to kill him; not too bad a deal then.
"Oh, so none of you are going to fess up?" The bag was wadded up into a ball, "That's fine 'cause I already know the culprit."
The bag-ball sailed through the air and hit Radarr square in the face before bouncing off and landing in Aerrow's cup. He grimaced and sighed, the sight of his ruined morning pick-me-up sitting on the table with Radarr, having hopped up on top, and Finn getting into a shout-growl-ing match doing little to help his growing frustration from the past few days.
"What gives you the right to eat my food?"
Radarr snarled and shook his fist.
"I don't care if you found it out on the counter, it's still mine! I even had my name on it!"
Radarr seemed to slap himself in the face at Finn's statement, but the fighting continued on for a few more moments as Junko walked in.
"What's happening in here?" the Wallop asked.
"Oh, Finn's lost it again and thinks Radarr is out to starve him to death," Piper said without looking up.
"Wait . . . this doesn't have, um, anything to do with some, uh, chips, does it?" Junko looked rather guilty with his question.
Aerrow had a small mental chuckle. "Let me guess, you had something to do with the entire bag emptying itself." Radarr hopped off the table and stole Finn's seat instead.
"Um, uh . . ."
"Wait, you ate my food?" Finn had turned around and stared at Junko with extreme frustration. "Why did you eat my food? I bought it with my own money, it was the last one on the ship, and" the ball appeared in Finn's hands and uncrinkled, "it had my name on it." Badly penned, FINN was slowly melting off the wrapper from contact with Aerrow's drink.
"Sorry?"
"Ughh—"
"EaahahaHA !" Stork jumped back from the Condor's controls and then leaped a second time, far enough to end up landing in Junko's arms. "Kill it! Kill it, kill it, just . . . Kill it!"
He pointed back at the controls and they all stared. Aerrow couldn't see anything, it might have just been one of Stork's—a quick movement, a panel seeming to blur a little, set him on edge. Quick glances left and right of him told him that both Finn and Piper had seen something too, while Radarr and Junko just looked confused.
"Piper, ideas?"
"Don't know. I didn't even get a good look at it—"
"There!" Finn pointed up at the ceiling. Clinging to it was some sort of lizard; it was long and thin, about as thick as Radarr's wrist. It looked like it had only four legs, though small enough that Aerrow almost couldn't tell that it had them, like this was some snake that could stick to ceilings. Well, it wasn't an Atmosian Wall-serpent, no matter how much it seemed to act like it, the brown and tan coloration—
In an eye-blink, it was gone, nothing staring at them from that spot of ceiling.
Where'd it go, where'd it go, where'd it— his eyes searched the ceiling and then locked on to that odd blur he had seen before. Another blink and suddenly the creature was there again, though this time staring down at Junko and Stork.
"Eaahaha!" Stork shouted again as he jumped out of Junko's arms and dove under the table. Junko just stared up at it, giving little argument to common sayings about Wallop intelligence. Aerrow turned his attention back to the lizard-thing, moving ever-so-slowly towards Wallop and critter, hoping he could get close enough to make a leap at the thing. He heard other careful footsteps, probably either Piper's or Finn's, maybe even both, but he kept watching the lizard.
It had followed Stork's dive of safety and stared at the table. It bared its teeth, the things looking so sharp that Aerrow got an uneasy feeling of dread looking at them, and seemed to tense up. Aerrow, hoping he was close enough under it to grab it, tensed to jump as well when he heard a loud click. Reacting without thought, he looked at the source of the noise and saw that the table was gone, Stork holding his hand in mid-air as if gripping something and exposed. Aerrow quickly looked back at the snake-lizard and could have sworn he saw it grin before it jumped down at Stork.
Aerrow leapt to grab it, forcing himself to forget those teeth, but missed, Stork shouting as it got closer. He landed with a roll and turned around, expecting to see Stork struggling to get the thing off, and saw . . . the lizard hovering over a grinning Stork.
"Don't mess with my table," the _ said to it. He jerked his thumb up and suddenly the table was back, cups, amps, lizard and all.
"Wha- How. . .?" Finn asked as Stork stood up from under the table.
"I'd say a minor Invisocrystal." Piper looked at the table, mind obviously thinking a dozen things at once.
"Yep," Stork brushed nonexistent dust off himself, "Got it from a back alley merchant on Terra Neon. Thought I could use it as part of my Condor security system."
"So you used it to make the table a trap." Finn took a careful step away from it.
"Eh, it's part of a couple actually."
"Can someone explain to me what just happened and," Junko held the lizard up by the tail, "what this is?"
"Junko, whatever you do," Stork took a few quick steps backwards, "don't drop that thing."
"What, this?" The Wallop shook his hand, swinging the lizard around, "It's out cold. You might have even killed it."
"Ah, no; Naivurep Needle-mouths don't die by simply falling. I would also suggest you don't let it bite you when it wakes up."
"Alright, can we just pause for a moment?" Aerrow took a step forward, stepping between the two. "Stork, do you know what this is?"
"Yeh-es, I believed I just covered that with my little safety tips demo, thank you very much."
"Fine then. Care to explain what it is in more detail?"
"I just wanna know how it made him jump like a scared little girl," Finn stage-whispered to Piper.
Stork glared at him, "I didn't see it at first, okay? I just thought it was a smudge on one of the windows, though I seem to be the only one who cares about those types of things, when suddenly BOOM! Needle-mouth staring at me from over the controls. Since I didn't want to be bitten and watch my body slowly get pulled into a thousand spreading micro-holes, I decided to get away from it. You all helped with the rest."
Though I doubt a lizard's bite produces micro-holes . . . whatever those are. Aerrow glanced over at Piper to see her roll her eyes again, but it was obvious she was thinking hard on something; maybe Stork's Needle-mouths had a more real counterpart?
"Yes, we did. But can you tell us more abou—" A snarl from behind caught Aerrow's attention and he turned in time for the lizard to swing itself free of Junko's grip and land on his own shoulder. He reacted instinctively, freezing in place, only his eyes moving as he watched it crawl over him, snarling once at him on its way.
Though it felt like minutes, in less than a few seconds the thing had gone from Junko's grip to crossing over Aerrow to finally landing onto Stork. It crawled up from Stork's chest and paused on his shoulder, sniffing him. Once he fully realized he could move, Aerrow took a tentative step forward to try and help his friend, but the lizard suddenly hissed, leapt off Stork and then disappeared through into the ventilation duct.
Stork fainted dead away.
"Oh-kay," Finn looked from Stork to the duct, "that probably could have gone a lot better."
Aerrow looked at Finn. "Have any suggestions on how? No? Good, then you and Junko get Stork back to his room. Keep an eye out incase that thing comes back."
He turned to Piper as the two got to work, Finn frantically trying to watch everywhere for the lizard. "What do you think that thing was now?"
"I still didn't recognize it from anything I've read," she responded with a frown, "but what Stork said, that reminded me of something . . . I am not saying Stork's Needle-mouth is real; it just sounded familiar, is all. Just give me a few minutes and I should have found what I remember."
"Fine. Radarr," the team's Mission Specialist still looked confused, but hopped onto Aerrow's back anyways, "Looks like we have a head start on some...thing...hunting."
Review! Comments, ideas . . . really any statment of a sort you wish to make. I'm curious to see what someone may write with permission like that.