The Skies. (open)

[Janus Riddyl]

It was time to pratice his new abilities taught to him by his master Zeke. One he seemed to be having trouble with was improving his bodily ability with the Force. Work was needed and Janus had an idea of how to do this.

If I can energize my body with the Force... I wonder if if I could use it to improve my flying ability? He outstretched his wings to allow sunlight to reach his feathers and give him more energy than eating and sleeping would ever do.

Now he sat down and focused on the Force. There it was inside him, glowing. He held it and applied it to his body. Standing up now, he felt his flight organs lighten his body as he hovered into the air. He flaped his wings twice to steady himself then he took to the sky. Filled with the Force he was traveling up at 120 mph, a speed he only ever achieved in a dive. He slowed down and began to fly in circles while observing the tiny objects on the ground.
What a joy it is to fly. Most species can only dream of such a gift. I wonder if I am the only one here that can?

[Wei Wu Wei]

"What's going on here?" Wei asked. "Force boosting, maybe?"

Wei grinned. He loved Force boosting. It was his best skill. Wei also felt that it was the one skill that could be applied to any situation.

"My name is Wei! What's yours?" He called out to the man in the sky.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus turned and looked down. He lowered his altitude until he hovered just above the ground; then he dropped to the ground. "My names Janus Riddyl. Nice to meet you." He said as he reached out to shake Wei's hand.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei took Janus's hand and gave it a firm shake. "I didn't think there were many races that knew how to fly. I knew about the Toydarians, but those guys are no fun." Wei chuckled. "It's nice to meet you, Janus."

Wei looked about. "You were flying pretty fast. How did you do it?"

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus smiled and spoke. "Under normal circumstances I can fly about 50 mph. I used the Force to enhance my muscles and in this case I reached 65."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei whistled. "Wow. I can run pretty fast, for a Padawan. I;ve been at the GJO for some time now. Everyday since I joined has been some sort of test of my Force abilities. Force Boosting is the skill I do best."

Wei didn't mean to brag, he really meant it. Nine times out of ten he was Force Boosting. His speed, his strength, his senses.

"Maybe we can have a race, if Speed Boosting is what you would like to practice. Morgan Evanar is very very specialized in Speed Boosting. I don't think there is anything on the planet without a hyperdrive that can out run him."

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus thought for a moment and then spoke "What is your top speed?" Janus liked the idea of a race. He sould like to see how he was measuring up next to the other padawans, but if Wei was faster than he was...still he might try anyway.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei's face reddened, and he put a hand on the back of his head to scratch an itch that had suddenly appeared there.

"Well, I've never thought to try to figure that out," Wei admitted kicking the ground as he did so.

Wei could probably go at maybe 200 mph. His normal running speed was more like 2 or 3 miles an hour. He had been practiceing alot, but was still a far cry from the Jedi Masters who had put several years of practice into their techniques.

"Well, only one way to find out right. velocity is simply a distance divided by the time it takes to go that distance, right?"

Wei had learned that from his mother's home schooling.

"So..." Wei began, making a line on the ground with his shoe. "We can start here. You pick the destination, then I'll start my stopwatch."

Wei had recently discovered a stopwatch function on the watch his parents had given him. He was discovering so many new things recently.

"Then, when we get to the end, I'll stop the clock, and we can measure the distance somehow and I can get my top speed."

Wei positioned himself behind the line, got into a running position, then began shunting the Force into his legs.

"Just tell me where we are going, then say when to go. You can fly if you want."

Wei wanted Janus to go as fast as he could. If that meant Janus had to fly, then so be it.

[Janus Riddyl]

Jnaus knew that the only way he was going to possibly stay up to pace with Wei was if he were to fly. He flapped his wings enough to hover above the ground. He looked ahead and spoke, "How about we go until the grass ends and the forest begins." The distance was about 300 meters away. He pause as he let the force fill his back and his wings. "Go."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei's eyes locked onto the treeline and at the sound of the word, "Go" he was off like a shot. Wei ran straight ahead of him to the trees, bounding over and juking around the small holes and rocks that a person could get himself injured on. Wei grinned. He bet Janus was having an easier time: he didn't have to worry about tripping over stuff.

[Janus Riddyl]

Jnaus took off as soon as he said go. His wings flapped hard and quick as they propelled him towards the treeline. He looked below him to see Wei dodging rocks and holes but his vision was shaken with his whole body as a strong wind pushed him the the left. He glided on it and turned back into his original course. The treeline was approaching, soon the race would be over.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei got lower as he ran so the wind would resist him less. Wei saw Janus suddenly go leftward and then get back on course.

Wind Wei thought to himself. Wei pushed a little harder, carefully dividing his concentration so he could focus on rejuvenating himself a little. Running several times faster than normal made you run out of breath pretty quickly. Soon Wei was breathing normally again and blazing a trail to the treeline. Not long now.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus saw that Wei was moving much faster than he was, he began to push himself more. His speed picked up and he applied the Force towards making his body move more efficently, he saw that he was catching up to Wei now.
The treeline was appraoching fast, too fast. Janus increased his altitude and soared upwards parallel to the trees. He looped around and slowed to a stop. He waited before saying anything, he needed to catch his breath.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei saw the trees coming, and leapt forward, turning his body sideways so he sild in between the trees. Wei travelled a small distance before landing in a bush.

"So, who won?" Wei panted. He had lost track of Janus when he had jumped into the bush.

[Janus Riddyl]

"Well, I think you did." Janus managed to keep up to Wei, but he never saw past his back.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked about and managed to find Janus.

"Really?" Wei said, picking some leaves from his hair. Wei shrugged. "So, do you want to practice speed boosting some more, or shall we practice something else?" Wei asked.

"Oh," Wei added in as an afterthought, "If we practice speed boosting again, let's do soemthing else besides a race." Competition was ok, but Wei preferred things in which there were no losers. It was better on people's self esteem.

[Janus Riddyl]

There always is a winner and a loser, you have to accept being the loser sometimes; Janus told himself. He wasn't terribly upset that he lost the race, but he would have preferred to be the winner. Oh well.

Janus spoke now, "I would like to practice more force boosting, if you wouldn't mind. Do you have any ideas?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei thought for a second, then looked about.

"This isn't too far from where I had that strength drill with Master Navaria...I think."

Wei got out of the forest, then looked left and right, and finally his eyes settled on a small clutter of very large rocks. They were at least twice Wei's height.

"Over there," Wei said, pointing at the rocks. "We can practice strength boosting. My master taught me strength boosting over there once. I wonder if anyone else has been there since?"

Wei used two Force boosted leaps to get to the rocks, and looked around. The ground was churned up from where the large rocks had been pushed, pulled, lifted, then set down again. Wei recognized his own handiwork among it all.

"Brings back memories. Come on, Janus! This'll be fun!"

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus looked towards the direction thgat Wei was leaping to. He took to the air and glided to meet him. "I haven't had much experience lifting, so practicing will help." Janus set down in front of a medicore sized rock. "I think this will do for starters."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "Ok," he said, choosing a larger rock from the collection. "Just grab a hold, and do as you were taught."

Wei found two suitable handholds and focused the Force into his back, legs, and arms. Taking a deep breath in, the Padawan lifted the rock, exhaling as he hefted it higher and higher until it was over his head.

"Woo! Much improved!"

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus gripped the rock with both hands. He allowed the Force to flow into his body and felt the effects. He pulled upwards, pushing with his legs he pulled the rock from the ground. He slowly moved it above his head and held it there. He waited a minute then threw the rock a few meters away.

He turned to Wei, "Well, my strength has improved."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked at Janus. "I wasn't able to lift the rock this high when I first started out."

Wei looked up at the boulder as though he couldn't decide on what to do with it. Then he got an idea. He carefully split his attention and focused the Force into his legs for speed while maintaining his current strength in his arms. Then he began to run around with the boulder, gaining speed as he went. Then he threw the rock a good ten meters.

"Again!" Wei said, and lifted the rock. It was a little easier to shift his focus to include speed this time and ran around much longer. His final throw also went twice as far as before.

"Practice makes perfect," Wei said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

[Janus Riddyl]

"True." Janus looked at a larger rock and walked over to it. The Force flowed into him and enhanced his muscles. He picked up the rock and held it at waist level. Now his wings began to flap as they lifted him off the ground. At ten meters above the ground he glided slowly to where the rock that he had thrown laid. He focused his vision to ensure that the rock would land directly on top of it.

He paused before dropping and then released it. The rock fell and crashed into the other, spliting the smaller stone in half. He lowered himself to the ground and spoke, "I didn't think I would be able to lift the rock while in flight." He paused and thought to himself. "Learn something new everyday."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "Teachers can only show us the door. We have to step through it."

Wei sat down for a bit. "We as Padawans can't expect our teachers to tell us what to do in every single little situation, much less train us for everyone of those little situations, so we have to work on those things on our own. Like when you and I picked up the boulders and moved them around."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Agreed. As Jedi we won't be able to depend on our masters." Janus said but then drifted into the Force. He began to see in his mind the Force acting through everything. He outstretched his hand towards a fairly large rock and used the Force to lift it from the ground. He positioned the rock on top of a larger one and set it down.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked on as Janus did his thing. "Telekinesis, eh? I have a game that I made up involving telekinesis. It's wonderful practice, if you care to give it a try."

Wei was not that great at telekinesis, but he was better at that than illusions and sensing other people's intentions.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus liked the sound of a game, maybe it would put more fun into practicing. "Game huh? Sounds fun. How does it go?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, we have several tennis balls, or in our case we use small rocks, and we use telekinesis to fling them past each other. You use telekinesis to send it flying, then let it go on it's own.

Then the other person has to use telekinesis to stop the rock, then fling it back. As time goes on you put in more rocks until you can't keep focused on them all and you have to stop."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Ok, sounds reasonably easy. Mind if I go first?" Janus allowed the Force to fill his mind. Locating and lifting the rock was easier than larger rocks so it immediatly ascended into the air. Janus shot it so it would land close to 30 meters away.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei reached out with the Force and brought the rock around in front of him and fired it back, making it corkscrew back to Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus looked on as the rock came spiraling towards him. He felt the rock then gripped it with the Force. He maintained its speed but curved it so it would fly past him and loop around both him and Wei. Janus increased the speed of the rock and sent it soaring back into the air.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei reached out with his being and yielded to the rock's momentum, but keeping it controlled so it shot back at Janus. It took a lot less out of him to have the rock do most of the work.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus felt the rock and slowed its speed while maintaining its altitude. The rock slowed to a stop half a meter in front of Janus. He turned to Wei, "How about we add another."

Janus used the force to pick up a slightly bigger rock and he sent them both soaring in an arc through the sky.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sat down, thinking about what to do with the rocks as they hurdled towards him.

"What to do?" Wei muttered. Wei threw up his hands in exasperation, and the rocks flew skywards, angling around to fall towards Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus watched as the rocks spiraled down towards him. Using the Force he pushed their decent to fall into the trees. Before they touched the ground Janus lifted them and shot them into the air as high as he could. He looked towards Wei as the two rocks began to fall.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sat and watched the rocks fall towards him. Wei reached out and began to slow them down. The two rocks stopped inches from his palms. Wei took careful aim, and sent one rock whizzing towards Janus, then sent the other one right after.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus held his hand out towards the rocks and slowed the first ones approach. The other collided with the first and fell to the ground. Soon the rock rose from the ground and began to orbit the suspended one. Janus sent the rocks up in an arc to land where Wei was standing while maintaining one rock orbiting the other.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Another one of those arcing things? Wei was beginning to get bored. Wei slowed the rocks down, then reversed the rocks' movements so that the orbiting rock was now stationary, and the stationary rock was now orbiting. Then he sent them sailing back to Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

"No arcs huh?" Janus replied. He caught the two rocks and stopped the orbiting. He lifted another smaller rock and brought the three together. He focused for a few seconds and shot them in three straight opposite directions the quickest he could make them go.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei brought the rocks together and lined them up one behind the other, then made two of the rocks spin around the other, making a wheel of sorts. The big wheel began to roll toward Janus. THings were getting heated up again.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus took control of the wheel and slowed the spinning. He formed a circle with them and began to spin them faster and faster. As the rocks spun around they began to spread out until they formed a circle around Wei and himself. "Can you add another rock while maintaining the spin?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei raised an eyebrow. "I'd be glad to."

Wei lifted a rock into the air, and smoothly slipped it into place with the other rocks. With the hard part out of the way, it was simple matter to maintain the status quo.

[Janus Riddyl]

Jnaus watched the spinning rocks and decided to up the difficulty level more. He lifted a rock from the ground and began to move it with the others at a high plane. He slowly began to add the rock to the others. After that had been done he slowed the rocks and brought them together. He sent the cluster up and made an explosion like effect. The rocks came raining down and it was Wei's turn.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei got one rock, and moved it under another rock. When the two rocks touched, Wei expanded his thinking to include the second rock. And so it went until Wei had gathered all the rocks.

"How long have you been at the Order?" Wei asked out of curiosity, and also to distract Janus as Wei sailed the cluster to Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

Knowing it would be best to deal with the incoming cluster, then answer Wei's distracting question. He held the rocks with the force and then threw them each at different lengths. "I am coming to a close on my third month here. How about you; how long have you been here?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei stopped the first rock, then held it in front of the other rocks, letting the rock stop the other stones for him. "Very nearly a year or so."

Wei decided to play puppetmaster and turned the rocks into a caterpillar, wriggling its way back to Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus caught the caterpiller and bent it until its head touched its end. He brought the ring closer to him and launched it like a discus.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei held out his hand as if a yo yo were attached to it. Then he flicked his wrist, and the rocks began to whirl about as Wei performed the trick "Shoot the Moon." Wei let the rocks go and sent the errant yo-yo back to Janus.

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus cought the yo-yo with the Force and turned the circle into a cluster. Deciding to test how fast he could move something with the Force He shot the cluster in a straight drive papallel to the ground. Hopefull the rocks would be moving at 300 miles per hour.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei took one look at the rocks and decided he had had enough of the game. He just couldn't figure out how to spice the game up any more. So he let the rocks fly past him.

"Not bad, Janus. I see your telekinetic skills are pretty good. No doubt that last toss wore you out, eh?"

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus looked up from his position of bending over with is hands on his knees. After taking a breath he spoke "Yeah, I gave it my best shot." Janus stood up now and walked towards Wei. "So, any more games?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shook his head. "Nope. Can't think of a single one."

He laughed. "It was good to practice with you, Janus. I'm sure your master is proud of you."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Thank-you. I enjoyed practicing with you as well and I hope my master is proud." Janus took a sigh of relief knowing there were no more games to be played. He enjoyed the practice but what he wanted now was some food, a shower and plenty of rest.

"Speaking of masters, I don't believe you have told me who you are an apprentice to."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I learn under Navaria Tarkin. She's a pretty busy lady, being on the Council, but she's a great teacher, and a good friend too. Who is your teacher?"

[Janus Riddyl]

"I am an apprentice to Zeke. Also a great teacher, I have learned much since he has accepted me."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"You learn under Zeke?"

Wei smiled. "Zeke's one of my best friends. I've known him for a long time. Me and him used to train together when he was still a Padawan. We still do things sometimes, but he's been awful busy lately with other things."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Wow, that really cool. I enjoy learning under him, like I said before, he's a great teacher." Janus replied. "Not to be nosy or anything, but how far to you and Zeke go back?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Ever since I got here," Wei replied.

"I remember when I was first applying for a membership. He came bursting into the Recruitment Center, and the next thing I know I was accepted by Xazor Dawnstrider, and then Zeke let me have his room cause he was moving in with someone else."

Wei shrugged. "That was a good day for me. I got accepted, found a teacher, and a room all at the same time. Oh! And I also met my wife on that day."

Wei grinned from ear to ear. "Everything just fell into place, you know? And I didn't even have to do anything."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Wife? I didn't know you were married." Janus knew that the Jedi order that replaced the one of the Old Republic allowed marriages. Still, he was surprised. He didn't expect Wei to be married, but what did he expect then?

"So who did you marry?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shrugged and his grin turned sly. "Miss Angelica Shin. A stubborn woman with a short fuse. And I love her to death."

Wei chuckled. "Most people don't realize I'm married either. The Jedi Code tells us that it is good for us not to have attachments, because of the feelings that get in the way. So, when I'm doing Jedi things, I push all that out of my mind. And when I'm not doing Jedi business, I let all the feelings just kind of gush out. Too bad I don't get to see my wife very often because of Jedi business."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Yeah, that's too bad you don't see her that often." Janus thought of the jedi code for a moment. He could understand why the Old Jedi Order did not allow marriages, but he could see just as well why they may be allowed. "Why do you think the Jedi order has changed its policy concerning marriages?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Because enough Jedi didn't like it. Trust me, a large amount of people that all think differently from what the rules say will either get their way, or get killed. Jedi don't kill when compromises can be worked out. Always try to find the more peaceful solution before you ignite your saber. There are far too many Jedi today who are too quick to reach for their blades."

[Janus Riddyl]

Janus listened to Wei and took note of his advice. Janus had learned already that aggression leads to the dark side. "Thats good advice, Wei. I'll remember that."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "We Padawans can't teach, but we can compare notes. It's too much fun to talk with other Padwans concerning different ways to use the Force. Some people find one method to be better than others when it comes to things like sensing people's intentions, how to strengthen the body, pushing and pulling. It's like study sessions in academic school."

[Janus Riddyl]

"Ah yes. I have spoken to others and they do have different ways of using the Force. I find it interesting to learn of others ways of using the Force." Janus thought for moment about the way he opens up to the Force. "If you don't mind me asking, but how do you open yourself to the Force?"