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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2808506" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 311: Focus“Jyren! What the hell are you doing?! We’ve got ten minutes!” Shadow’s voice echoed through the corridor’s towards their room. Jyren glanced up, but knew he wouldn’t see anything but the open doorway and nothing at all. Shadow had given up using the link as the loud yelling had much more force to it. He’d been...putting on one of the flight suits, then checking all of the seals on both his and the spare for any kinds of rips or tears. The Darkwing had left far too many, and so it had taken nearly two hours to get the both of them in working order and able to withstand a vacuum and retain pressure.    This meant, of course, that he was back in his old human body again. It was still awkward to go back to it after all the time that had passed. He knew it was how he’d lived the majority of his life...and yet it felt alien to him now. Something was wrong with that.    Ten minutes.    [On my way.] he said simply through the link, finally getting to his feet, checking the blaster at his hip, and starting for the hangar with both slighsuits. The helmets were still in the X-Wing and those, thankfully, were fine.    Jyren rounded the corner to head for the hangar before Loki quickly jumped in. [Incoming from behind, Jyren.]    Normally, that would have been a signal to duck or dive for cover. But Loki’s ‘voice’ had been calm and more of a quick warning. Which meant it wasn’t Shadow ready to kill him. Not that Jyren expected that. He knew she was back in the hangar pacing and cursing his name...and through the link she was sending a thousand comments about how wonderfully punctual he always was. That meant it left...    “I don’t have time for this, Toby,” Jyren said with a sigh before he’d even finished turning around.    The little Alraxian finished padding up to him and looked all the way up...which, truthfully, wasn’t nearly as far when Jyren was a human. But Toby just shook his head, “Don’t wanna play.”    “Good,” Jyren said quickly and started to attempt an escape, “Because I don’t have time to play. Or entertain you in any way right now. We’ll play later.”    He spun around and got going the other way for two steps before there was a surprisingly rough tug on his left leg and Tobias’ voice, “Wait!”    Jyren stopped only because he wasn’t in the mood to have extra weight for the moment. The child was heavy enough as it was, and being human currently just made things more difficult. So, spinning around to look down at the clinging child, Jyren only glared. Tobias did his big-eyed look and let go, “...’s important...”    “Fine, Toby,” Jyren sighed, turning around yet again and looking straight down, “What is it?”    Unsurprisingly, Tobias took a couple tiny steps back before shuffling his feet a few hundred times. Then, finally, he revealed what was he was carrying with a hand that was behind his back. As best he could, Tobias reached up and extended the lightsaber to Jyren, “...forgot this...”    There was a very, very brief moment in which Jyren almost refused it. He had yet to pick the weapon up since Alraxia. But something(sense, probably) stopped him this time. Instead, he let out another sigh and knelt down to be closer to level with Tobias. Carefully, he reached over and gently scratched the child’s ear. After a moment, Jyren’s hand moved down and slowly took the lightsaber from Toby’s hands, “Thanks, little guy.”    Tobias smiled broadly, let out a happy purr, then scampered off in the direction he’d come from. It was...surprisingly quick. But Jyren simply got to his feet, attached the lightsaber hilt to his belt, and made his way to the small hangar. When he got there, Shadow was also human-shaped, and leaning against the X-Wing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was also grinning.    Doing his best to ignore the grin, Jyren simply walked over and tossed her the orange flight suit that had been draped over his shoulder, “I don’t want to know.”    Shadow caught the flight suit with no trouble and went right to putting it on over the morphsuit she was currently wearing, “That was too easy, you know.”    “Uh-huh,” Jyren smiled and nodded as he stepped past her, already starting up the ladder to the open cockpit of the starfighter. Currently, the best strategy was to just avoid this at all costs and get straight to business. Shadow-tactics, really.    Somehow, though, those only worked when she used them.    “Who’d have thought I’d find another easy little weakness of yours that quickly,” Shadow said over her shoulder, now zipping up the flight suit and getting the switches, oxygen lines and other things that Jyren had shown her how to do as quickly as she could. Since Jyren was not saying anything in response, it got rid of any distractions. A moment later, she was climbing up the ladder, too.    But, instead of simply climbing into the rear seat, she held the grin on her face, leaned forward, and before Jyren could get his helmet on, kissed him very strongly. When she pulled back, he made a ‘buh’ noise and Shadow just laughed, “Hmm...I think I like that one better, but Toby its just so much fun to watch you melt when Toby asks you to do something.”    If not for her previous actions, Jyren might have reacted to that. Instead, his general shock kept him in a state of ‘buh’ while Shadow laughed again and sat back into her seat. She pushed the ladder away(not caring about any kind of special way to get it in the ship), and closed the cockpit, “Fine, then. I’ll just do all the flying. You just sit there and wait until its time for you to have your fun.”    “...buh...”    Shadow reached over and patted his shoulder gently, “Helmet, dear. It won’t do us any good if you die when the cockpit opens,” she paused a moment to ask Loki to open up the hangar and got the sublight drives on the starfighter going. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult. As she started to bring the X-Wing out, Shadow added, “One day you’re going to have to stop freezing up like that.”    Of course, she refused to mention the fact that she had pretty much the same reaction when he surprised her like that. That, though, was not the point at the moment. Right now, they had about six or so minutes until the convoy should arrive...and then another ten minutes before they would be able to jump out. It was time to focus.((Happy [Insert Holiday Here], everybody.))</blockquote>

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