J.P. held his Fly Pad tightly in his wing as he ascended on the elevator. He hoped everything on this busy was prepared. He wasn't too scared though. He had been working hard on his Fly Pad for the past months, after all. The Fly Pad would surely have everything he needed.

And yet he couldn't help but feel some sort of anxiety building up inside of him, eating him away slowly. He decided to ignore it as the yellow platform finally stopped. He stepped off it and into the office of the only bird with a higher rank at T.O.T.S.

   "Are you ready?" Captain Beakman asked, raising her head from her work. J.P. stayed silent in shock, wondering exactly what he should be ready for. It was a Tuesday after all, so she could be asking if he were ready for tomorrow.

   "Well— uh— You do know, Captain Beakman, that although I'd usually forego entertainment, the time at the spa is—" J.P. mumbled before getting cut off by the captain of T.O.T.S.

   "As much as I am looking forward for tomorrow, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about all our deliveries later," Captain Beakman said with a gentle chuckle. The embarrassment of thinking that was brought to light as his cheeks turned pink. He wished he could hide in his dysphoria hoodie.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Captain Beakman said, placing down her papers. Her motherly instincts activated. "Trans males don't need to experience toxic masculinity as well"

"I know, maman, but everyone else is experiencing it... It's hard not to let it affect me as well..." J.P. said. It had been years since he had transitioned, and yet the feeling of not passing never seemed to go away.

Captain Beakman seemed to be smiling lovingly and it was only then did he realise that he had accidentally called her "maman." He opened his beak to correct himself, but Captain Beakman spoke first.

"Maybe eventually you'll meet another male who would help teach you that there's more to being male than toxic masculinity could ever show you," Captain Beakman said. J.P. felt gratitude flow in him for having someone there to share some concerns with, even if she still didn't completely understand how it felt and he was still left with an empty hole.

   He did meet someone who he had shared every single concern to. More importantly, they actually did understand. They also managed to immediately help him feel better, and even solve some of the problems bothering him sometimes. It felt like those years could have lasted forever...

"Anyway, the delivery's probably not going to be too hard to do, even if a monkey-eating eagle would be tough, even for me..." Captain Beakman said. She seemed to be confident, but J.P. could sense some discomfort in her. He was feeling it, too.

"Isn't that why we're planning to do it in pairs?" J.P. asked, trying to think of something other than the anxiety eating away at him.

   "Right you are. Now I think it's time to get going. You might be late," Captain Beakman said, walking towards the elevator. This surprised J.P.. She was barely there for any other deliveries. Maybe she wanted to see him off. Is that what mothers did? He almost didn't remember how it felt to have one.

He shook his head. Captain Beakman probably was just being there since it was a big delivery as a whole, not because she wanted to be there as a proud mother. He took in a nervous breath as he stepped into the elevator with her, hoping she couldn't read minds.

   They finally landed and entered the crate-shaped chamber where the loading machines were hard at work, with eggs of monkey-eating eagles on each crate, ready to be prepped. Some already hatched while some were still very intact. J.P. supposed it was a lottery for this.

   The monkey-eating eagles had recently discovered they were very much in danger of extinction and asked for a mass delivery of eggs. It was hard to arrange, but it was going to be worth it if it was to prevent extinction. One did what one had to do to survive.

He walked outside. It was fresh air, but the air seemed hot. Either that or another mild headache. After a few more seconds, he concluded that it was a hot breeze, and the queasy feeling as abundant with every flier. He took his spot at the blue conveyor belts and checked his Fly Pad.

He already knew that the eagle's name was Aguila, and that he was going to do the delivery with Bodhi, but it seemed better to double-check every little detail. At least the anxious stork wouldn't hesitate to do the same.

J.P. loosened his tense posture as he saw the Super Flier coming. They were on time, for now at least.

   "Hello, Bodhi. Okay ka lang ba?" J.P. asked. Bodhi wasn't showing any of his usual tics at the moment, but he wanted to make sure that the anxious stork really didn't have anything bothering him.

   "I'm just just generally 緊張... There could be so many things that could go wrong..." Bodhi said, beginning to fidget with his wings. J.P.'s eyes widened slightly. The stork was getting a little more anxious now.

   "Don't worry. Well, you can't really control it—," J.P. said, correcting himself. Bodhi smiled faintly, and it caused the confident stork to frown with empathy. A lot of other storks would probably just tell Bodhi to not worry, calm down, and stop being so scared. Those were rarely helpful words. He had personal experience to know that.

"There's no promises that I can give you that we won't run into any problems, but I will do my best to solve it," J.P. said in a gentle tone, surprising himself. Of course, he would be able to solve any problem, but he didn't know why he phrased it that way.

"謝謝... That means a lot to me..." Bodhi said, not quite meeting his eye. He had a more relaxed smile on his beak, and that was enough for J.P. They probably wouldn't run into much problems.

"So who's going to be carrying the egg? Why exactly are there two fliers with one egg?" Bodhi asked the second-in-command at T.O.T.S.. Then he saw another pair of fliers struggling to catch one of the monkey-eating eagles, who was already flying in the sky. His question was answered. J.P. sighed at the fliers.

"We'll be able to do this," J.P. said, more to Bodhi than to himself.

The conveyor belts behind them suddenly whirred to life. Bodhi let out a short scream, causing J.P. to shake his head with a fond chuckle. They both turned towards their blue conveyer belt as a crate started to roll along towards the end, with an egg sitting snuggly on top.

   "Putang ina. It's still an egg," J.P. groaned, the turned towards the stork standing beside him. "You'll have to be the one to carry the egg. I'm fast, but you're more careful"

   "But I'm a little too careful... What if we arrive late?" Bodhi asked, scratching his neck anxiously.

   "I'll ensure we won't. I'm Captain Beakman's right-wing stork for a reason!" J.P. said with a confident smile.

"Alright..." Bodhi said, approaching a little closer to the conveyer belt. J.P.'s proud smile turned into a frown as he realised the anxious stork's worries was not completely soothed.

Bodhi got loaded up and they looked to the tower for a signal. Paulie gave a small salute and J.P. returned it.

"On to yet another great delivery!" J.P. said, confidently pointing to the clear skies ahead. He started to take off, with Bodhi following after him. Then they were finally in the skies.

J.P. took a deep breath, feeling the cool wind ruffle his feathers as he flapped his wings. He felt right at home in the skies. It felt silly of him to be worried. He was J.P., and he was practically the master of the sky already. It was true that it had been a while since he last embarked on a delivery, but how could it be any different?

+*+

    Around fifteen minutes had passed already. Bodhi was still flying straight, slowly and carefully. He had J.P.'s Fly Pad in his wing and continues to navigate. That stork was still reluctant to use his Fly Pad, and had left it behind. It was getting quite annoying, but one would usually grow to get used to annoying things.

Overall it was a calm experience, and J.P. liked it.

The former Super Duper Flier used to fly with a companion a lot, and they really enjoyed their time together. After the incident though, it would be impossible to ever fly together with them again. He had forgotten how nice of a feeling it was to fly with someone, even if Bodhi wasn't Juane. J.P. tilted his head. The thought ignited other ideas.

    J.P. looked at Bodhi who was flying beside him and began to feel guilty at the thoughts that immediately formed in his mind. He didn't want to let go of those ideas though. It could finally be another shot at what had been lost.

The sound of cracking interrupted the scheming flier from his thoughts. He looked around, wonderjng where Bodhi went. He found the other stork behind him, pale-faced with worry and starting to sweat. The anxious stork's flying had also slowed down considerably.

   J.P. flew over to Bodhi, raising his eyebrows. "What's wrong?"

   "我... 我... uhhh... 确定you might want to... uh... check the egg..." Bodhi said, slipping in and out of Chinese again. J.P. raised his eyebrows as he flew higher to take a better look of the egg inside the crate. He released a small gasp. It seemed like the egg had a small crack.

   Before he could take a closer look, the egg decided to completely crack, and did it crack loud.

Bodhi, startled, let out a loud scream. He immediately started to fly around, breathing heavily. It seemed like he was looking for something, but didn't know what he was looking for. All J.P. could do was fly in place and watch.

"It's alright, Bodhi! Nothing bad happened!" J.P. called out after the stork. The panicking stork still didn't stop flying around, stopping every few seconds and looking around. There it was again. Looking arohnd for something that was perhaps non-existent. J.P. wondered whether the crack had been a trigger.

J.P.'s eyes widened as Bodhi proceeded to fly westwards, the complete opposite direction to where they were supposed to be flying. He should've known.

What's worse was that the area there was getting more mountainous. Sure, Augila also lived in mountains, but this area was with a thinner flora. He hoped the mountains wouldn't serve too much of an obstacle and flew after the panicking stork.

There were mountains on either side of him. There were times that he had to swerve to avoid some big cliff right in front of him. It also seemed to have more or less the same amount of rocks and soil. It was hard maneuvering here and trying to navigate his way through, but he wouldn't really admit it out loud.

The flora wasn't also that thick. It was concerning, to say the least. Less trees would mean that there would be less roots to keep the soil together. That would probably mean that the existing soil was quite dry. The rocks already seemed dry enough. Dry soil could also lead to lose soil, and lose soil could lead to...

J.P. didn't let himself finish that thought as he felt tears form at the corners of his eyes. He blinked them away. It stung, but it was for the better.

Less flora also meant that be wouldn't have as much cover from the sun, whose golden rays were kind of burning him. At least he managed to get a clear view of the path Bodhi was taking. He was surprised to see that the stork was navigating through this terrain well. Juane was also a master at terrain navigation...

J.P. suddenly slowed down and stared at the mountainous terrain in front of him, wondering if he really wanted to have a pain navigating through all those rocks. Then he thought of the delivery. They still had to delivery Aguila to their family. Sighing, he continued the chase.

   +*+

He continued to fly after Bodhi, who was now moving faster from all the panic. J.P could barely make out Aguila who had hatched from the egg, but just barely. They has magnificent white feathers slowly fading to brown on their head, and it fanned out like a peacock tail. Their body was adorned with dark brown feathers. They had a really sharp beak though, and talons much sharper than any nail filer could make.

   He wouldn't admit it, but it did scare him, and he started to understand why Bodhi was screaming and panic-flying. It wasn't everyday that an egg cracked in one's face, revealing a very dangerous-looking creature.

   "Bodhi, please slow down!" J.P. shouted at the stork, feeling himself start to sweat from all the effort. He was probably about to get winded any time soon and might have to slow down. Bodhi might not have heard him as he was still flying fast. It did make sense, considering he was also screaming.

   He did say that he believed that Bodhi could fly really fast when scared, but he didn't truly believe it until now. That stork could possibly outfly anything at that rate. It was getting quite alarming. It was also making it hard to catch up, even if J.P. would never admit it out loud.

   J.P. knew that he could be able to catch up eventually, even if everything around him was blurring from how fast he was already going. J.P. forced himself to go on for at least five more minutes before pausing to take in a breath, and it was a mistake.

   J.P. found himself flying slower and slower, no matter how hard he flapped his wings. He felt like he was exerting all the effort he could find in his body, but his wings still weren't flapping fast enough. He groaned, and still focused ahead of him, not wanting to lose Bodhi.

   Eventually though, his body seemed to not be able to take it anymore. Each flap drained every last ounce of energy left in his body, and he was soon left with none. He gradually descended and hovered a decimeter above the ground, panting hard and sweat flowing out of his pores like a waterfall.

  His mouth was really dry as well. Whether from the heat, lack of water, or all the shouting, he didn't know. He was really thirsty now though, and he regretted thinking that this would be a short enough delivery. He wished he brought water, but it wasn't like he knew that Aguila was actually quite scary. Majestic, but scary.

J.P. heard screaming above him and saw that Bodhi was just circling the area now. He was still screaming though. J.P. looked around, seeing that they had entered a more-or-less enclosure from a thin gap in the rocks. He frowned as he clutched his Fly Pad, desperately reaching for signal to know where they were already.

   The thing is when one was flying, or even hovering, one would kinda forget that the ground existed. It was just the stork and the sky. It was something dangerous. Forgetting that the ground existed was very risky, and J.P. was about to find out about the possible consequences of it.

   It came in a more subtle way. No one would even notice until the shaking grew strong enough. Originating from a mountain forming a few kilometres away, the shaking was still subtle, until it grew stronger. The nearby rocks and remaining flora could feel it, but only because they were sentient to what usually happens in nature.

   J.P., however, was unfortunate enough to not be.

The rocks nearby were being bothered already. They knew they had to move, they had to fall eventually. The pressure was building up and they were getting ready. Just one more shake. Oh if only it wasn't so unfortunate that there was a cliff right beside him.

"PUTANG INA BUWISIT NITO—" J.P. started to shout and cuss into the void of rocks and flora around him, even being louder than the screaming stork up in the sky.

    J.P. blinked and he was suddenly on the ground with his wings outstretched on it. He panicked for a second and began frantically touching the surounding area, wondering if he still had his Fly Pad. He had no idea what was happening, and the Fly Pad could give a sense of security.

   He didn't know what had caused the rocks to fall and knock him over. Maybe it was Bodhi's screaming, or maybe it was completely natural. He knew screaming wouldn't be any better though.

    Everything was hurting, even just a little bit. Muscle aches all over. And he was too tired to get up. He supposed the situation was bad, getting knocked over by rocks just after fully exhausting himself. He couldn't find the strength to do anything other than let his eyes travel.

   Then he began to tense up as he realised the ground was shaking. The ground was shaking. Things were falling. He started breathing heavily again, looking around for signs of something, anything bad that was happening. If anyone he cared for got hurt. His head couldn't focus on a single thing. All he could do was continue looking around, hoping everything would be okay.

   What overshadowed all of the anxiety was some intense pain he suddenly felt in his right wing, and he let out a scream of cuss words, hoping that all his worries and the pain would be let out in the scream. Or just scream and focus on the screaming and not the pain.

In a second it seemed like Bodhi's wide brown eyes had magically appeared in front of him, feeling all tensed up and breathing heavily as well. Aguila was on his shoulder, also peering down at him. They were staring at him, and their eyes were wide with terror.

The earthquake had finally stopped though, which helped J.P. calm down just the tiniest bit. His wing was still hurting though, but he didn't dare let out a string of curse words again. He felt tears start to form, but he didn't let them fall. He needed to always prove he was a real male.

Suddenly he felt his right wing go numb, but it was still there. He knew it was still there, but he didn't really feel it. Or it was stone-cold, like it had no life left in it. It was a very weird sensation, knowing that his right wing was there, but he couldn't really feel the life in it.

   J.P. would turn over to have a look at his wing, but everything was hurting and he still didn't have enough strength to even go bother. It was probably bad, but he decided that he would rather live with blissful ignorance, even if it were just for that moment.

He saw Bodhi begin to panick and grabbing his Fly Pad, frantically typing on it. Well he hoped the anxious stork knew what he was doing. It wasn't like J.P. knew anyway.

   Since the exhausted stork couldn't really do anything, he just lay there and closed his eyes. He begun to think. He wondered if he were going to die. It was far-fetched, but he liked the idea of it. He could finally be reunited with them. Death didn't seem too bad.

   There were so many animals who were already claimed by it anyway. It's more of a win-win situation, if he were being honest.

Then he thought of the anxious stork who was with him right now. Bodhi was probably searching for what to do, or trying to send a message back to T.O.T.S. Then he thought of Lucky. He wasn't able to re-develop a strong bond with him. And Captain Beakman, Bodhi, Ava, K.C., Pip and Freddy. He felt guilty for not feeling guilty at the thought of leaving them.

   Then he realised that they still had a delivery to do. Yeah so maybe he shouldn't really leave the earth right now.

   J.P. suddenly opened his eyes, deciding that he couldn't handle spending one more minute just laying there. Each minute that passed by doing nothing was a minute that could've gone to delivering Aguila. Though who knew that this could have happened?

   How was he supposed to predict that he would exhaust himself, there would be an earthquake, he would get knock over by rocks, and finally end up lying cluelessly on the ground.

   "Bodhi, go and do the delivery," J.P. said, but the stork just remained there. His brown eyes were still wide and staring at him with worry.

"What the fuck happened?" J.P. finallt asked.

   Bodhi shakily lifted his wing and pointed to something on the exhausted stork's right side. "Y-Y-Your wing..."

   J.P. felt his heart drop.

+*+ A/N +*+

Don't mind me. I'm just writing this based on when I broke my arm all those years ago