Wayward Son: Grounded

Chapter 4

Piper took the record off its player.

"Hey, I was listening to that!" Finn complained. "Why d'you always have to kill my buzz?"

"Buzz?" said Piper, eyeing record with disgust. "Is that what that noise was? I honestly couldn't tell with how loud and obnoxious it sounded."

"There is nothing loud and obnoxious about it," Finn said as he walked over and yanked the record from her hands. "You're just jealous of how epic it is because you have bad taste in music. Your stuff's so boring! It doesn't even have any guitar solos!"

"You guys, shush!" Junko whispered loudly. "You're gonna wake up Aerrow!"

The bickering pair froze and looked over at the couch around the strategy table.

"Sorry," they whispered.

"Found anything yet, Stork?" Junko asked.

"I'm trying," Stork replied, twisting and turning the bottle and examining every possible side. "I swear, you'd need a microscope to read this writing. Are these painkillers for ants?"

"If they were, that would probably explain why he still feels the need to take so many at once," Piper suggested.

"This is kinda disappointing," said Finn, leaning on the couch and looking down at their leader's snoozing face. "I'd hoped he'd get all weird again and start saying stuff about frogs, but this time he just dropped off! You comfy there, Stork?"

Stork briefly broke his concentration on the bottle and looked down at the peaceful teenager.

"His head is heavier than it looks," he commented. "If he stays there any longer he'll cut off the circulation in my legs."

"Let him sleep," said Junko. "I think we should just be glad he's not screaming again."

The rest of the Storm Hawks nodded in agreement.

Radarr jumped up onto the table and took the bottle out of Stork's hands, and after around half a minute of looking it over, he pointed out something in small print and in such a pale shade of grey it almost blended into the white plastic.

Stork squinted at it.

"Side effects may include headaches, nausea, dizziness and drowsiness," he read. "That settles it. No more of these, we're switching brands."

"Speaking of switching," said Piper, "Finn, you can have your music next week. This week, it's my turn."

"You know what?" Finn snatched the record out of her hand. "How about I just don't bother?"

He tossed the vinyl disc to one side.

But there wasn't the crash he expected.

"I had really thought you'd grown out of that by now, Finn," said a familiar, accented voice. "Is it so hard simply to compromise?"

The entire squadron looked to the newcomer in shock, but none were more alarmed than Piper.

"Starling!" she exclaimed, and immediately struggled to look casual. "What... uh... wh-what're you doing here?"

"There's something I need to ask you all," the Interceptor explained as she approached, holding the record in one hand and a folded newspaper in the other, "and it's vital that you tell me the truth."

"What is it?" asked Junko nervously.

Starling tossed the newspaper onto the table. From her position she had yet to catch sight of Aerrow.

"I need to know if this is true," she said, "and if so, why nobody was informed."

Radarr picked up the paper and read the headline. He sighed and rolled his eyes before holding it up for all to see: