Chapter Six

Everything ached. His eyelids were heavy, his limbs would not respond, held down by his own exhaustion. As he attempted to come to grips with his current situation, a throbbing pain ran through his skull and his thoughts scattered the moment he tried to focus.

Aerrow despised feeling vulnerable; he had no time for it. Fuelling himself on sheer willpower, he forced himself back into reality. His eyes flickered open and he was met with the blurry outline of who he believed to be Finn staring down at him.

"It's about time!" his wingman rejoiced. His voice barely surpassed a whisper, but it still irritated Aerrow's senses. It took a moment for him to decipher what Finn was saying. "Guys, get up! He's awake!"

Aerrow was now very confused. Blinking a few times, his vision adjusted to the dim light of the surroundings. The blotchy dark shapes looming overhead materialised into a spiral of interlocking pipes, illuminated by the natural glimmer of moonshine protruding from the round skylight on the ceiling. He had no memory of how he wound up in this predicament, much less how he even entered the bridge.

"Dude, there was this huge storm and the wind was like-" Finn started making dramatic whistling noises as he waved his arms around. "And the waves were all-" He threw his arms above his head with the sound of an improvised explosion. Aerrow did his best to tune out Finn's very loud and irritating narrative as he struggled to jog his memory. It was like trying to gather the details of an obscure dream moments after rousing. He was so lost in thought that he barely noticed the rest of the squadron gathering. His right hand went to his forehead and he discovered that something cool and damp was placed against his brow.

Finn was now going great lengths to describe the bolt of lightning that he claimed to have struck the Condor at least twice.

"How're you doing?" Another voice sounded over the grand finale of Finn's tornado sound effects. He guessed it was Piper.

"I'm fine." He said automatically. He tossed the wet towel to one side and made to sit up.

"Notsofast!" Piper snapped, hurrying to his side. "Can you tell me your name? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Piper, you've known me for four years, I'm pretty sure you know my name by now." He droned, massaging his aching head.

"Be serious, I'm checking for a concussion!" She insisted, flashing her outstretched hand under his nose. "What is your name and how many fingers am I holding up?"

He could not help but find this amusing. His gaze travelled to his feet that were hanging off the edge of the table as he concealed a smirk. "Aerrow. Three. I already told you I was fine."

His right shoulder felt suddenly heavier. "Hey, buddy." Aerrow smiled and Radarr pressed the side of his furry face against his cheek. "What exactly happened, anyway?" He asked, looking around. The lights around the bridge were off and the outside world beyond the windscreen was undistinguishable through the blackness. It looked like a lot of time had passed, but he could not remember what time of day it had been the last time he checked.

Stork leapt to attention and his lanky silhouette loomed over him as the merb began an examination. "Possible amnesia." He noted after a moment of consideration. "Most likely retrograde."

"Huh?"

"Memory loss." He stated, leaning closer to inspect his eyes.

Aerrow was extremely uncomfortable. "I know what amnesia is." He mumbled, fleeting his gaze away. He lifted his left foot onto the table, rested an arm on his knee and continued to stare at the floor. Red hair fell into his line of sight and hid the others from his view.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Junko spoke up after an awfully awkward moment of silence.

Aerrow's brain was still incredibly hazy. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, but it was like someone had let off a nimbus crystal inside his head. He was lost in midst a thick cloud of fog. "I have no idea."

"I don't exactly call that 'fine'." Piper pointed out. "You hit your head pretty hard."

"You don't need to tell me that." He grumbled.

"The nightcrawlers," Finn piped up, "you remember them, right? They had us on the ropes, then you showed up outta nowhere."

He was having a hard time admitting it to himself, but he had a hunch his memory loss was not only linked to his headache, but also his exhaustion. He recalled snippets of an intercom conversation, beyond this were merely blurs of light and colour. "There was a cave." He pondered, "I remember navigating a dark cave."

"Yes!" Finn cheered and Aerrow flinched. "You're the only guy I know crazy enough to drive, let alone fly a skimmer through that. It's like you have a death wish, it's awesome."

"Didn't we blow up the entrance?" He continued, ignoring the comment.

"Again, all you." Finn added.

Aerrow opened his eyes. This was where he drew another blank. "What happened after that?" He asked, glancing around at the outlines of the others standing around him for inspiration.

Piper had her arms crossed and she gestured at him with a tilt of her head. "That would be the crash."

"Were any of you hurt?"

The four in question shook their heads and Junko addressed him directly. "You really saved us back there."

"As long as you got out okay, that's all that matters to me." He briskly reported. "Now, is someone going to fill me in on our current status?"

Piper clasped her hands together and presented him a tentative look. "Before we get into that…"

Aerrow kneaded his clammy forehead with a clenched fist. "Can this wait, Piper?" He groaned. "I feel I've stalled us too much as it is. How long have I been out?"

"Twelve hours, tops." Finn stated bluntly. Aerrow flicked his gaze to the sharpshooter, who crossed his arms. "And no, I'm not exaggerating."

"We were worried about you." Piper added.

Concentrating on his dark surroundings was irritating Aerrow's senses, so he shut his eyes to focus his mind. It took a lot out of him to push himself from the table to his feet. He instantly discovered that his right foot could barely support his weight. He had forgotten all about his previous injury. Fingers grasped around his forearms and he shunted himself free. He could not allow himself to be a burden any longer. "Piper, report."

"It's been twelve hours since the battle with the nightcrawlers. We've been tracking a large radiation of crystal energy across the sea." She informed him. "We're currently grounded on the coast of a new stretch of land. We're refuelled, rearmed and the skimmers have been fixed up. There should be a couple of hours until sunrise. The five of us have been sleeping in shifts."

He ran his hand over his chin in thought. Rushing out there and carelessly tackling this uncharted land was out of the question. He had been far too rash with his plans of action and would not put any of his squad in danger like that from now on. Judging from their track record, the Storm Hawks were notorious around here. "Any reconnoitring must be kept low profile from now on." He announced. "No one can know who we are. In addition to the nightcrawler uprising, Cyclonis may have spread false accusations about us to anyone else that may be here. It is unsafe for us to be donning this." Aerrow finished his statement by flashing the hawk on his back in their direction. He stared at them all with sharp eyes. "I hate that I have to do this, but we're on a lot of hit lists right now." He gave a shrug and glanced briefly at Radarr on his shoulder who nodded in agreement. "This means, you can't tell anyone where we came from, at least until we find out what's going on."

Finn lifted a finger. "Wait, isn't Cyclonis the one on the run? We won the war, we shouldn't be hiding."

His shoulders dropped. "I agree, but I don't want to take any chances."

Piper narrowed her eyebrows. "That doesn't sound like you."

Aerrow met her amber frown with a stern look. "I may be willing to risk my own life, but I'm not risking yours. This isn't up for debate."

"Marvellous," Stork sighed, his dark hair falling over his right eye as he hung his head "we have become fugitives to this land, while Cyclonis remains the same to ours. The irony."

In the silence that followed, Aerrow's stomach churned in hunger and he had no doubt all of them heard it. He sheepishly played with the back of his untidy hair. Radarr pined in his ear, his long ears pinned with worry.

"You need to eat." Junko pointed out, his kind grey eyes studying him with concern.

"Before you waste away." Stork sneered. "Don't think I haven't noticed all those meals you've been skipping."

"It's hard to eat when you're unconscious, Stork." Aerrow stated.

"That's not what I meant."

"I'll get something ready for you." Piper cut in, stepping towards him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and steered him away from the group. "Aerrow, come with me." Piper turned her head as they neared the hatch. "The rest of you, get some sleep."

Aerrow allowed Piper to guide him through the Condor, for his pounding headache made it nearly impossible to do so himself. It took most of his concentration to remain standing and Piper seemed to have noticed this, therefore had not attempted to make conversation with him.

The navigator directed him to the small table in the kitchen and Radarr hopped off his shoulder to help Piper with the cooking.

Aerrow slumped down in the chair, placed an elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand.

"Don't fall asleep on me now." He heard Piper warn from somewhere.

"I couldn't if I wanted to." He said simply, his depth perception suffered and his eyes still had not adjusted to the bright lights of the kitchen. He listened to the clatter of utensils, at a lack of anything better to do.

"Stork says you haven't been eating enough."

"We rarely do, let's be honest."

"Why do you do that?" Piper snapped suddenly.

"Do what?" Aerrow asked, straightening up. His vision focusing on the girl standing on the other side of the kitchen staring directly at him with a splintered wooden spoon held loosely in her hand.

"Shrug off the conversation when it suddenly regards you. You did the same thing in the bridge a moment ago."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do." Piper persisted. "You completely avoid talking about yourself. Now then, have you been skipping meals?"

Aerrow hesitated, but Piper's scowl made him reconsider. "Yes. I'm trying to make the supplies last as long as possible."

Piper slapped a hand on her forehead. "Did you ever consider that decisions you make as leader are influenced somewhat by your lack of nutrition?"

Aerrow blinked, dumbfounded. "Not until now."

Piper turned back to the stove where Radarr was overseeing the cooking. "You'll feel a lot better if you ate regular meals, you know."

She had a very upfront way of making him feel like an idiot. Aerrow hid his face in his hand. "I was doing what I thought was best."

"Yet, we rely on you to be on top of the situation and you can't even look after yourself."

"It sounds pretty stupid when you say it like that, I know."

"It is stupid no matter how you say it." Piper elucidated, stirring the brew set up on the stove.

"Remind me why I'm in charge, again…" Aerrow groused, burying his head between his elbows on table and wrenched at his hair.

"Because somehow, a misfit like you made it through the Sky Knight trials with flying colours." A tinkering sound followed this statement as if Piper had tapped the utensil on the edge of the saucepan.

"Assuming it didn't have anything to do with being the last descendant of the original squad." Aerrow's response was muffled as his forehead was pressed against the table. The cold wooden surface did a great deal to calm his aching headache. "Or so I'm told."

"Stop being a drama queen." Piper stated flatly. She slid a bowl onto the table, towards him. "No one is perfect. Better eat up before it gets cold."

He shot upright. "I'm not – hey!" It was odd to be on the receiving end of Piper's denigrations, having watched from the side lines for so long as she and the sharpshooter fired insults at each other. Frankly, insult sparring was not his thing.

Piper giggled at the frown she was presented and Aerrow's face softened into a light hearted smirk as he realised she was merely using his dreariness to her advantage.

Radarr presented Aerrow with a spoon, which he took gratefully and pulled the bowl of steaming vegetable stew towards him.

"I just reheated what we had earlier." Piper shrugged. "I asked the guys to save you some."

Aerrow was already a quarter of the way through his portion the moment Piper had finished talking. He swiftly finished the remainder of his meal, scooped up the bowl and got to his feet. He had to admit, he felt a lot better now that he was not operating on an empty stomach. He sauntered past Piper and Radarr on his way to the sink, fully aware that both of them were staring at him. Judging from the pile up in the sink, Finn was currently on dish duty and Aerrow took it upon himself to relieve him.

"You still eat like a ravenous blood-hyde trackbeast. At least that hasn't changed."

Aerrow swallowed. "I was hungry. I ate. No need to be subtle about it." He watched the sink fill up with water as the sunrise leaked bright lines of colour over the worktop through the blinds. "Thanks, by the way."

"My pleasure." She responded. "Aerrow, I really need to talk to you about what we discovered in the cavern."

He removed his gloves, tossed them on the worktop and began scrubbing a plate with a grubby dishrag. Anything to keep himself occupied and not feel like he was completely useless. "Don't you have sleep to catch up on? Write me up a report and I'll review it later."

"But this is really important!" She asserted.

Aerrow placed the clean plate beside him, which Radarr dried with a clean rag and then scampered over to the cabinet to put away. It did not take much perception to notice that his previous statement came off as discourteous and little of this did Aerrow have left. He swiftly attempted to correct his mistake. "Look, Piper, we've already established that I'm not thinking straight. On top of that, I'm currently occupied with planning out our next move."

"Maybe I can help." She proposed, retrieving a clean rag of her own and began helping Radarr with the drying. "If you're not thinking straight, best get it all out in the open, right? We've still got awhile until morning. We can work this out. We always do."

"No." Aerrow mumbled, shaking his head. The words had disintegrated somewhere between his head and his voice and he exhaled roughly, annoyed at his own harsh impulsiveness. "Ah, I mean, I'm not the best company right now. I think it would be a good idea if I had some space."

"That isn't going to happen." Piper established. "You've just woken up from a great blow to the head. If you think you'll be getting some space after that, then think again. You'll have to wait until we're fully satisfied that you aren't going to relapse."

Aerrow gave Radarr a hopeful look in a request for backup, but he merely placed his paws on his hips and nodded in agreement. "I've got Radarr," He said finally.

His co-pilot looked surprised for a moment, before nodding sternly in Piper's direction instead.

Piper deliberated, frowning at the pair in disapproval. "Fine," She agreed, coaxing them away with a flick of a hand, "you're doing a poor job with the dishes and it's painful to watch. Get out of here."

This conversation had not turned out the way he was hoping. In fact, he was unsure exactly what he was expecting. He suddenly realised he had upset Piper and had no idea why. "Are you sure?" Aerrow started, his stomach tightening with guilt, 'Cause I-"

"Aerrow, just go."

Leaving her standing there had been the most awkward and shameful thing he could have done in his position, yet here he was, flinching at the sound of the hatch closing on his heels.

"Way to go, Aerrow." He grumbled to himself, slapping a palm on his forehead. "Once again, you back out the moment things start to get personal." He lifted his hand away from his face and smacked it against his forehead again. "Stupid."

Radarr tilted his head at him and shrugged. He could not deny this either, it seemed.

"She's gonna resent me for the rest of the day." Aerrow realised, limping down the corridor, subconsciously heading towards the front of the ship, slipping his gloves back over his fingers as he walked. Aerrow was still stiff from lying on the table for twelve hours and this was evident in his posture. "Anyway," He sighed, glancing at his co-pilot who trotted beside him on all fours, "let's find out what we're up against."

At first, it was impossible to make out anything at the bottom of the ramp. It made contact with the ground with barely a sound, which was rather unexpected given the circumstances. The sun had scarcely broken the horizon and the light was blocked out mostly by dark shapes that towered overhead. It was not until Aerrow's shoes sunk in the long grass did he identify the looming silhouettes as trees. The Condor had landed on the edge of a forest of some kind – this was a big change of scenery from the dirt and rock he had grown accustomed to.

The ground was far from even as it appeared that a lot of it had eroded into the sea, leaving the dying trees clinging to earthy mounds of soil with their roots. A veil of mist lingered about the surroundings, breaking up daybreak's early rays into odd spectrums of colour. The leaves still held dews of the passing storm, thus also explained the mist.

Aerrow was comforted by being around a landscape he was more familiar with. He had spent a time scavenging woodland terras in his youth and he was sure his experience would assist regardless of their uncharted location. If he could escape a high security prison surrounded by a deadly jungle while being pursued by a pack of voracious trackbeasts, a flock of angry occucrows and every single Cyclonian on the terra with nothing but a rusty spoon and the uniform on his back, he had no reason to worry. The only disadvantage he could think of was that with woodland came less visibility and he would have to rely more on his other senses to assure that they were not caught unawares by a potential threat –having his own personal furry radar at his side was also a plus.

"The others mentioned something about tracking crystal radiation." He thought out loud, leaning against the landing gear, folding his arms. He exchanged a pensive glance with Radarr. "Does that mean we're close?"

Radarr nodded, mimicking his crossed arms.

"Then it's worth a look." He concluded, returning his gaze to the rising sun. "Although I gotta say, it does feel as if we're grasping at clouds."

A gust of wind brushed past them and the Sky Knight inhaled the cold dawn air. For the first time that morning, he felt like himself again.

He was not sure how long he had been stood there watching the sunrise, but it must have been a fairly long time considering that his shadow over the uneven grassy terrain had shrank considerably by the time he was disturbed.

"You're letting in a draft."

"Hello to you too, Stork." He greeted him, spinning on his heel to meet the merb's twitching gaze. "What can I do for you?"

"Breakfast." He said simply, shoving a plate into his hand and then a clipboard into the other. "Damage report. We're going to need a few things."

"Okay…" Aerrow acknowledged, briefly skimming over the report. "I'll see what I can do. There's bound to be something on this rock we can use to patch the hull."

Stork lifted a finger. "Watch what you bring onto my ship. No pulsing, oozing, weeping, drooling, humming or juddering of any kind." He counted off his terms on his fingers. "Am I clear?"

"Crystals tend to hum." Aerrow flatly pointed out. "What if we happen to find a few power crystals? What then?"

The look he received in return was priceless. "I was referring to humidity." Stork stressed, stretching out the last word for emphasis. "The smell takes weeks to air out. You forget that the Condor is made of metal – the best insulator there is." Stork paused for a moment as he considered something. "I suppose, if this resource could literately hum, that would be just as infuriating. Crystals I can tolerate, but no…singing."

Stork had clearly noticed Aerrow's mind start to wonder as the next thing he saw was the end of his clammy finger. "Don't you dare start imaging it! Tar that breaks into song is the last thing we need."

Aerrow hid his face behind the clipboard as he burst into snickers. "You're right, I apologise." He peered over the board, still not completely satisfied that he was rid of his childish grin. "Anything else?"

Stork blew a strand of his dark hair out of his face. "Try not to overdo it." He stated, lowering his voice. "The team needs you more than you realise. You've grown into someone who is not easily replaced." He turned his back to the Sky Knight and began making his way back up the ramp and into the Condor. "Next time you decide to throw yourself before imminent peril, consider the others."

Aerrow turned to Radarr who looked as stunned as he did. "Was that a compliment?" He questioned, "From Stork? I really couldn't tell with the part about impending doom."

His co-pilot pulled a face and raised his arms to express his cluelessness as Aerrow lowered himself onto the edge of the ramp, dropping the clipboard onto his lap and sank his teeth into a piece of toast. He offered the plate to Radarr who also took a piece.

"I have the strangest feeling…" Aerrow began, his mouth full of crusty bread and swallowed, "…but I can't quite place it."

It was true, from the first moment he stepped outside the ship and the cool morning breeze wore away his grogginess, he had started to notice an unusual sense of foreboding that hung in the air. He could usually sense when trouble was afoot, but this feeling was different. He needed to stay on guard. It did not feel like they were in any immediate danger, but he had risked too much to recognise the cost of carelessness.

Another set of footsteps told him someone else had made an appearance. "Hello, Finn." He breathed without looking over his shoulder.

"How do you do that?" Finn laughed in admiration, plonking down onto the ramp beside him. When Aerrow merely shrugged he looked out over the trees and inhaled the forest air, sighing heavily before speaking. "Nothing like the smell of soggy moss in the morning." He smirked as Aerrow furrowed his brow at this. "Kinda reminds you of Neverlandis, doesn't it?" He continued, "We never did replace that stinky lake wood you used to build us a place to bunk. It always smelt like we were sharing a room with a bog howler."

Aerrow gave up the plate of toast to Radarr. He suddenly did not feel hungry any more. "What do you want?" He said bluntly, gazing down at the damage report before him.

"I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay." Finn explained, giving his shoulder a nudge. "And see if you wanted me to do anything. Also, Piper asked me to give you this." He held out yet another report which Aerrow took and shoved it behind the papers he was already looking over.

"She is avoiding me, then." He mumbled, running a hand through his hair, his mind drawing over possible alternatives for landing gear suspension oil.

"Well, I dunno." Finn stressed with a shrug of his shoulders. "You think I said: 'Oh, hey, Piper, are you still talking to Aerrow? Gee, thanks.'"

Aerrow smirked and hid his face in the clipboard. "Yeah, sorry. Kinda preoccupied."

"Why?" Finn said, with interest. "What did you do this time?" He started listing off predicaments on his fingers. "Carp about her plan? Forget to flush the toilet? Set off one of her unstable crystals?"

Aerrow shrugged. "I'm as clueless as you are. I know I did something to upset her, I just have no idea what."

Finn snorted. "Girls."

"No, I think that's just Piper." Aerrow corrected him, flipping back a page of his clipboard. They seemed to be running low on a lot of maintenance supplies. If they held out much longer they would be crafting their own screws and bolts.

"Hey, you got any jobs for me?"

"Not right now, Finn." Aerrow responded, without meeting his eye. "What do you know about the crystal tracking situation?"

"We're on a big hotspot." Finn retorted, "The gismo thingy was going haywire. It's useless out here now. We can't pinpoint any co-ordinates."

"I suspected as much." Aerrow muttered, getting to his feet. "We need to check this place out on foot."

"We can't drive?"

Aerrow shook his head and gestured to the treeline. "The forest is too dense and the earth is too unstable. Besides, I don't want to upset any wildlife. We have enough enemies out here already."

"Yes, good plan." Finn said, relieved. He gave Aerrow the thumbs up from his position on the sloped ramp. "No more being eaten for Finn." He paused suddenly and looked at Aerrow oddly. "What about you, though? You're still sorta messed up."

Aerrow raised his eyebrows at him, his arms crossed. "When has that ever stopped me before?"

"I don't suppose you'd want to miss out on another reconnaissance mission, would you?" Finn smirked, leaning forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"You guys need me out there. Unless you learned how to track while I was out." A light breeze blew his hair into his face, so he ran his fingers back through it to get it out of his eyes. "I need to be on the field team. The question is, who else is going? I don't know if it's a good idea to send out the entire team. What would we do for backup?"

Finn scrunched up his nose. "I don't know either, man. Strength in numbers? Picking teams is always easy for you."

Aerrow's fingers were at his scalp. "I can't screw this up, Finn. It's only us out here." He turned his back to him and raked his fingers through his auburn hair. "I need to think."

"You've been thinking for the past two hours. Look, we're doing this 'cause we want to, not 'cause you ordered us to." He paused suddenly. "That makes sense, right? I had this cool thing I was gonna say, but I don't think it came out right." Finn faltered. Aerrow turned to him as he got to his feet. "Just do your Sky Knight thing and try not think about all that crazy stuff. You're good at that. Need I remind you of Terra Deep or the Great Expanse? No one was gonna come looking for us in those places and you made sure we got out okay. We trust you, dude. You've faced the unknown head on and punched it in the face more than most."

Finn had always had a knack for making him feel better. Junko would offer him a hug, Stork would assure him that things could be much worse and Piper would just overcomplicate everything, which eight times out of ten would have him leaving the conversation feeling confused and foolish. Finn was different. There was a large amount of truth to his words the others could not seem to match.

"You think I'm overprotective." He realised.

The sharpshooter paced before him and placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. "I know what you're afraid of, Aerrow. I've seen it in your eyes out on the coast. You think you'll end up leading us someplace that smacks us down so hard, we won't get up. None of us asked you to stand in between us and what's out there. It's our job as a squadron to do that for the people back home."

Finn scuffed his heels in the grass on his way back to the ship, but he hesitated. "Oh, and another thing." He piped up, doubling back. The two stared at each other for a brief period before Finn friskily punched Aerrow's upper arm. "That's for taking a nap and leaving us with Piper, you loafer."

There was no stopping the grin that followed. "Thanks, Finn." He said openly. Finn returned his bright expression with a wink of a dark blue eye before making his way back up the ramp into the Condor, leaving Aerrow feeling significantly lighter than he had been before.

It was easier to focus now; as if the mental block had suddenly been torn down, he could see a plan forming as clear as day. They were heading into the forest. He needed Radarr. His sensitive hearing would be a great asset with the lack of visibility. They were tracking crystal energy, so he needed Piper. This left the others for the secondary team. Finn would be best suited leading this half of the group; his keen eyesight was ideal for spotting danger before it reached the field team and identifying them from a long distance if he hailed for backup. With backup Aerrow expected great strength and for that he had Junko. Backup followed a quick getaway and he would trust no one but Stork to get them out of there alive.

Aerrow was certain he would need every one of them to do their part for the good of the mission. The stakes were higher than ever. The saying goes that no news was good news, but time had proven that no news would only lead to big trouble in the long run.