~ Gifts of Mobility ~
Junko had always known he was a sentimental soul. It was one of the biggest differences between him and the rest of his species. That's why he gathered members of the Resistance into a bone-crushing hug when they revealed to him a certain gift: a wheelchair.
To most, it wouldn't have seemed like a big deal, but to a Wallop that had been trapped on bed rest for several weeks it was like Christmas had come early. For the first time since the "crash" he was able to be mobile again. He could see something else aside from the four walls that made up the medical tent. And that's exactly what he did the minute he could. The first place he went to was the makeshift hangar bay.
His ear twitched at the onslaught of noises; hammers ringing on steel, voices yelling, the hum of crystals. It was chaos, but it was everything Junko missed. He felt a knife of desire to help. He knew his strength could have been used here. The wallop pushed the emotion back, reminding himself to be grateful for what he had.
His ears twitched at familiar steps.
"Hey, Stork."
The merb sneered, more out of misery from the cold than actual malice. "I see those hacks that call themselves doctors have let you loose."
Junko grinned at Stork familiar grouchiness. "Yep! And it looks like you've been keeping busy, huh?"
Stork emitted a disgruntled noise. "Not as fast as I would like. These people have no concept of engineering, let alone aeronautics."
Junko made a funny face that the complicated words. "Well, that's nice, Stork."
The merb rolled his eyes. "What were you planning on doing today?"
The wallop frowned in thought. "I dunno. Maybe visit Piper and Finn later?"
"Mind doing me a favour?"
"Sure."
"Can you go over the east side and watch these idiots for me? Their welding frames together and I don't want them to catch fire. Again."
Junko couldn't help his smile; the knife of desire was tugged free.
~ Rebirth ~
Work on the Condor was the slowest. Mainly because the Merb refused to let anyone touch his baby if he could help it. He also had to constantly supervise the idiots under his watch. They needed regular guidance while making the Resistance's future warbirds, 'less they weld the grav-crystals to the top of the ships versus the bottom.
It was a shame Junko was in a wheelchair for who knew how long. He could have used the wallop's strength. Stork felt a stab of guilt for the thought, but he pushed it back. Junko made a decent foreman. The amount of accidents had been halved now that there was an extra set of eyes.
Stork sighed at the state of his baby. The framework had been trashed; bent and twisted to horrific shapes. The Resistance had only dragged back what was salvageable: most of the lift balloon, the engine and parts of the console. It was a better state of affairs than the first time he had been forced to rebuild the Condor. That time he had nothing to work from. This time, at least he had the heart.
A lot of the other Resistance members asked him why he bothered. Why not make a new ship, one based off the much faster, hardier, and sleeker warbirds? To them, they didn't understand how the bulbous Condor had defeated so many enemies, especially the waspish looking fighters that the Council favoured (and whose designs they were ripping off for most of the Resistance fleet).
He told them just to wait. It was something that couldn't be explained. You had to see her fly.
A/N: I apologize for the long wait. I had several chapters ready to be beta-ed, but then my computer decided to catch some virus. Did a system restore and lost a crapload of my files - if it wasn't a program it pretty much got trashed. Tried system recovery programs, looking through my recycling bin but dang, those files have gone AWOL. So now I have to do rewrites, which I hate. So inspiration is slow in recovering, so you'll have to forgive me.
To answer someone's question about timelines (because review replies have also been glitchy); Ch. 53 (where we go back to the Storm Hawks) picks up exactly where Ch 21 left off - when they crashed. So the chapters that I'm posting now of the Storm Hawks are/will be happening parallel to the events occuring between Ch. 22 through to 52. There's a particlar chapter coming shortly that will have directly overlapping plot points (I'll make a note when it happens) and when we get closer the events leading up to Ch 52 you will see more overlap. Hope that helps clarify things.
Also, just want to thank each every and everyone of you that reviews, reads, watches me and is just a general fan. Hugs for you all, my dears!