//------------------------------//
// 4-gotten: Flight 
// Story: The Sparkle in his Eye 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	While Alister, Nefarious, and Qwark slowly descended the shaft, being careful to avoid the hazards - such as flame jets on either side of the shaft and spinning blades - while also trying to move fast to conserve any possible fuel limitations, Twilight kept herself afloat with her wings while endlessly tinkering with the jetpack she'd grabbed.  Nefarious, meanwhile, relied on proximity alerts to maneuver himself around the obstacles in the shaft while he kept his focus on Twilight, taking note on the shape of her wings and what his sensors told him about the way her natural energy fields surrounded her while she flew.

As they continued downward, Alister glanced around worriedly.  "How far down does this shaft reach?" he marveled.

"Probably to the surface," Qwark mused.  "I mean, we are descending from floating stone islands, after all."

Alister blinked a few times.  "Twilight, do you think you can stop tinkering for a while?" he called out plaintively.  "It's unnerving when Qwark is the smart one!"

"Hey!" Qwark complained as Twilight burst into giggles and Nefarious into maniacal laughter.

Further down the shaft, they encountered more minion bots in proton powered excavation units, which had been weaponized.  The minions were shielded by glass domes.  "How are we supposed to get past them?" Qwark demanded.  "We can't wield our weapons while controlling the jetpacks-"

A blast of kinetic energy smashed into the dome, shattering it and exploding the entire excavation unit.  "Yes!" Twilight crowed happily.  "It worked!"

"Twilight, what did you do?" Alister demanded.

Grinning, Twilight turned to show off her modifications to the jetpack.  "Using the tech in the Smash-Hammers for inspiration, I redesigned the jetpack to absorb the kinetic energy of the descent and store it, to be released as controlled kinetic energy missiles!  And the best part is that, unlike the Smash-Hammers, you don't have to release all the energy at once, so you can store multiple shots!"

Nefarious guided himself over to Twilight so he could get a better look.  "Oh, I see!"  Whipping his own jetpack off, he dropped several dozen feet before strapping it back on with the modifications completed, once more taking flight.

"You know, I could have held you in my levitation field while you worked on it," Twilight pointed out as she and the others caught up to him.

Nefarious scratched his dome for a time.  "...probably would have been a good idea," he admitted, "but racing gravity was more fun!"

"Next time we can stop, give us the modifications," Alister instructed.

"Will do!" Twilight promised as Nefarious tested out his jetpack's kinetic missile launcher.





With all four jetpacks thusly upgraded, the trip towards the bottom of the shaft progressed much more smoothly.  At one point, a wall of spinning blades began to follow the group down the shaft, but they were more than far enough ahead of the hazard to keep their lead.  At that point, the shaft stopped in another wall of spinning blades, leaving only a path to the east that they had to fly through.

"This is going to be long and frustrating, isn't it?" Twilight grumbled as she folded her wings, activating the jets on her pack for the first time.  "Gonna give my wings a rest..."

"Extended flight causes that much strain?" Nefarious asked worriedly.

"Normally, I fly quickly to the destination," Twilight explained.  "This is the first time I've stayed in the air this long without thermal assist.  The continuous flapping to maintain altitude and velocity is straining my muscles."

"When we next land, I have a few neural stimulation treatments that should help your muscles relax," Nefarious offered solicitously.  "I downloaded them back when I got suspicious a newly hired masseuse had no idea what she was really doing, and I wanted to check her methods."

Qwark whistled innocently, distancing himself from Nefarious as much as he could.

"Do I...want to know?" Nefarious asked cautiously.

"No!" Twilight and Alister insisted firmly.

"Thanks for the offer, though," Twilight added.  "I think I'll take you up on it."

After a very long descent, the group finally reached relatively solid ground again, landing near another comm uplink with arms dispenser.  Before approaching it, Twilight flopped down.  "Massage now..." she murmured, tossing Alister her bolt card so he could purchase whatever new weapons were available for everyone, along with any new upgrades.

Nefarious quickly moved to Twilight's side, his scanners focused tight on her muscles as he brought his hands up.  "So...how does this feel?" he asked carefully as he pressed his fingers against a particularly tight knot of muscle, releasing the stimulating electroshock from his fingertips directly into her neural pathways.

Twilight let out a soft, pleased moan as the muscles relaxed.  "Ohh...very nice..." she purred.

Chuckling, Nefarious continued his work relaxing Twilight's muscles.  After a time, Alister returned from the vendor.  "So what's new?" Nefarious asked curiously.

"Blitzers," Alister explained, tossing over the weapons.  "Energized boxing gloves."

"So...basically the new gen Walloper?" Twilight murmured in response.  "Yeah, not really useful.  What's the FTF effect?"

"An electrical shock field," Alister answered.

Twilight thought about that for a time.  "Yeah...completely useless," she confirmed.

"Until we get a hold of it, right?" Nefarious suggested teasingly.

Twilight grinned widely.  "Let's see what we can do with these, shall we?" she asked, pulling out her tools.

Alister shook his head as he watched.  "Is this what their date's going to be like?" he asked Qwark.  "Will they even leave the lab?"

"Hope so," Qwark countered.  "Twilight deserves more than that for a first date..."