Chapter 70

Radarr had taken the opportunity to steal away from the Team when they'd landed on a friendly Terra and, despite his better judgement, had stolen a ride from one of the locals.
He then proceeded on his own to look for his friend, knowing that she would be at the centre of all these strange goings on.

In his mind, he could see Blinx and Digger headed for safety and obviously the Blizzarian knew about her and what she could do.
After seeing the truth behind the masks of his former squadron, he knew there was only one person he could rely on, one person that could possibly save them…but he had to find her first.

On top of that, his memories were changing and returning, slowly and fuzzily.
All this had started long before Blinx had arrived, when Cyclonis had found the Door and began messing with Other Side Technology.
Something had come through before the Storm Hawks and Cyclonis had left, something that had begun to terrorize The Atmos before it suddenly stopped.

This was due to the fact that everyone forgot, he realised.
The only reason he remembered everything was because he'd never reunited with the Storm Hawks after he'd been left behind at a pit stop, but he'd heard through the Chicken Vine that something had taken his place as Aerrows Co-Pilot, which couldn't have been right.

Then there was the time he'd nearly been killed by a flying Cyclonia…not to mention all the other times before that that went without saying.

Now he was remembering that the Storm Hawks had left the Atmos and that there was no way they could return without the Door…which had been conveniently destroyed.
If Aerrow had disappeared to the Other Side, whose shoulder had he been sitting on for the past seven or eight months?

Things weren't making sense.
He was waking up, and he knew it was because of Blinx.

Stork stood at his controls staring into the glass of the windscreen that used the night behind to perfection, reflecting his tired image back to him almost as perfectly. There was only half light from the machines around him, but not even those lights could comfort the feeling of terror welling in his skinny body.

He yawned, eyes closing for a fraction of a second. He couldn't sleep, but he was tired.

This feeling of real terror, not the usual kind he went on about, was keeping him from catching any real sleep and had been doing so for the past week or so he and Piper had been looking for Blinx. They'd been keeping in touch with the boys, but Aerrow was determined that they find her, and quickly.

He yawned again, but this time when his eyes opened again, he could see something reflected in the glass behind him which had definitely not been there before.

It looked almost comedic in its slow, head tilting approach, like its head was far too heavy for its thin, lanky body, which was almost sickly.
The sinewy muscles and bones could be seen beneath its coal black skin. Its feet weren't as troublesome looking as its claws were. Long black, skeletal hands and fingers that ended in sharp looking points.

He let his gaze flicker momentarily towards its face as his own contorted into a state of wide eyed, open mouthed panic, a sure sign he was ready to start screaming…but it wouldn't come.

There was nothing on the head. No eyes, no face, no nothing. It was a bulbous, featureless thing on a longish neck.
He squealed though when an uneven jagged split in the head opened and a thick, serpent long, steak pointed tongue emerge, dripping with the creature's saliva. Inside the mouth, equally uneven, razor edged teeth shone in the half light.

The long tongue snaked through the air towards him, probing the minute currents for his presence as the creature moved forward again.
He could do nothing but stand and watch with chattering teeth and knocking knees as its reflection approach his own.

When the tongue took grip on his shoulder, he finally screamed, jumping half a mile in the air. When his senses returned, he found himself clinging for life to a pipe on the ceiling, staring down at a concerned, but giggling, Piper.
She asked him if he was alright, he replied he was fine and probably had some fever or psycho-illness…like he usually did.

But, after she left the Bridge, he couldn't help thinking he'd seen something like the creature before. Where though, he couldn't be sure.