will catch up with you soon I hope!  glad to see you are still the MAN!

spence

I so totally agree with Attica. I mean, I'm so happy with their reunion, it's so nice to hear from them again. It just kept focus away from the issues between Storm & Dade and Storm & Lucas. And it feels like it's not Storm. Well, not the Storm i remember from chapter 5.06. There's just a disconnect, don't you think? That was my opinion. Maybe I'll get a resolution on the next chapter. :)

It was also refreshing to see Storm with some new friends, to know that he proceeded to move on with his life after a gigantic chunk of it was destroyed last season. I'm dying to find out how his old friends would react to him getting new friends. Because it never becomes the same again.

My two worst reviews are the ones who comment in the forums!  Just my luck, haha.  One thing you should always keep in mind with anything I write, I rarely do it for the instant resolution.  And if you look at the title for the next chapter, it has that word in it.  And it's also the fourth and final part of this mini-arc featuring Storm.  So you can be certain many of the issues raised, won't be resolved until the next chapter.  In regards to Storm's disconnect, you really have to go back to the earlier seasons to understand how Storm works.  In 5.06b he vented somewhat severely on Marty Lee.  Whenever he does something like that, something that severe, he always tries to overcompensate by bringing out the 'nice' or the 'happy'.  But as the title of the next chapter suggests, you'll see him venture to the middle ground of it all and come to terms with how he really feels, not how he's 'trying' to feel, which is what you see in this chapter.  So always keep in mind, one chapter is never the whole picture and Storm is just that, stormy, random, unpredictable. 

Well Ty, you know my thoughts, but here is my contribution to the discussion.

Like Ty said, the disconnect with Storm arises from his ups and downs.  However, having reread the first season quite recently, the Storm we see here is more like the old Storm.  In Season 4 he was moody and angry (after his mother's death and Sarah's revelation), and for a lot of the time before that he was completely engrossed in his relationship with Lucas and his conflicts with other characters.  The Storm we see here is the old Storm that didn't have so much going on in his life.  Of course he still does, but for this chapter he has put it all on the back bench to focus on the tournament, and when he's with the pack he is so happy that he decides to ignore the issues we all know are there.

It's also good that he's more lighthearted simply because this chapter could have gotten incredibly tense and depressing had all the focus been on his conflicts with Dade and Lucas.  The next chapter will no doubt bring closure to this (and of course the nervewracking question: does he win the nationals? XD), and bring Storm out of SF with a more elegant and honourable exit than last time.  Needless to say, I can't wait.

it's good to read a new chapter of SF. so much emotion going on makes me feel so many things with every word i read, 5 seasons and im still in awe of the depth of this story and all the history that all of these characters have been through. if Storm had kept a diary/journal throught the whole story i would love to read it and know all his thoughts and his reasons for doing everything, i mean we read what he's thinking all the time but i would like to just read only about him and his thoughts and see everything from his point of view.