To grasp the winds...(open to anyone who wants to learn some weather control)

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion was perched atop one of the ancient Massassi temples, just watching the sky. It was early morning, only just dawn, and Yavin IV's mists were rolling in across the sky, shrouding the jungle below in a cloud of warm fog.

"Perfect..." Lion thought.

For a minute Lion just marveled at his surroundings, then returned to the task at hand. He was here to learn about weather manipulation, one of the few Jedi arts that wasn't particularly mastered by anybody yet. Lion had heard about powerful jedi that had been able to grasp the winds or create rain.

Interested, Lion had devoted an entire day to researching it in the Jedi Archives. He had found some much useful information in the journals that had been kept by Streen, an old hermit that had once lived in Bespin. He had been among the first of the students that Master Skywalker had taught, and was apparently the most skilled manipulator of weather seen since the Old Republic fell.

Unfortunately, Streen had died before the GJO had been formed, leaving Lion with a bunch of books and a bunch of questions. Still, it was enough for Lion to start with...and now he was ready.

As the mists continued to pass across Yavin IV's forests, Lion reached out with the force, trying to "feel" the weather like Streen had. Of course, no Jedi was powerufl enough to control nature, but one skilled enough could create a tornado or start a storm by manipulating the winds or the moisture in the air.

Lion relaxed, his eyes closed, as he let the force "see" for him. A small pinprick of light infront of him signified a current of air...and there was another one, to his right...and one to his left.

After Lion knew what to look for, it became quite easy. The air had a "feel" all of its own, its own signature in the force...Lion found that it was quite easy to touch, also.

Now, for the hard part.

Lion reached out, trying to "tug" at the on the winds he had identified. It almost needed persuasion, but Lion layed into it with his mind, trying to coax it into moving towards him. He saw it twitter just a tiny bit, but then it stopped.

Lion strained, but it didn't move any further.

He sighed, and then relaxed again, remembering not to "forcE" anything. He reached out again, gathering the wind in his power, and pulled it towards him, but lightly this time...and it began moving.

It wasn't very quick, mind you, but it was certainly moving. Lion smiled and opened his eyes, and say where the air he had pulled had affected the fog. It was now swirling away like it had been split down the middle, curling to the sides away from the small current that Lion had grabbed.

"Got it..." Lion said quietly, then sat down to try his new skills again.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion assumed a cross-legged position, then went to the task at hand. Streen had been extremely good at manipulating the weather, and had on at least one occasion created a powerful tornado of icy wind. Lion hoped he'd be able to match him.

Unfortunately, Streen left little to go by, but Lion had guessed he's pulled the wind in a cyclic motion to cause it to become a tornado...it also had something to do with temperature, but Lion wasn't quite worried about that yet.

He was planning on grabbing four or five currents in the wind and pulling them in a circle....if all went well, he'd see a small hole begin to appear in the fog...maybe by pulling that air up and having it encounter resistance could he create a small tornado.

Lion sighed and thought of the complexity of what he was trying to do...

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe had been wondering around the academy when he had come across his old friend. He slowly made his way to his side and sat down quetly. He spoke in a soft tone so that he wouldnt have disrupted his concentration

"Hello Lion...How are you doing today my friend?"

He crossed his legs as to try and imitate what his friend was up to

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion's eyes snapped up to the voice that had spoken...Oh...Straffe. What was he doing out here? The small patsh that the winds had cut through the mists began to disappate as Lion lost control of them.

"Hey, Straffe...I'm doing okay today...How about you?"

Lion knew Straffe quite well, and they had fought together on numerous occasions. He was quite skilled as a combatant.

"I'm trying to recreate the ancient Jedi art of weather control...back during the days of the Old Republic, some powerful Masters used to be able to create rainstorms or make big tornadoes...want to practice with me?"

Straffe was already sitting down...he was eager to learn, and Lion respected that.

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe bowed his head slightly to accept the greeting from his fellow Jedi

"I feeling quite rejuvinated if I may say so and ready for anything"

A smile crawled across his face. He thaught about the tales he had heard about the old rpublic and was eager to learn more about it

"I heard something about weather control from strangers but never was able to witness it. I would be honored to practise this art with you"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded.

"Alright then, Straffe. What I'm trying to do is just learn to grasp the wind. You've ever manipulated objects with Telekenisis before? It's just like that, except it's a bit more tricky. Whereas you could force pull a box without worrying about it, the winds are constantly moving, constantly changing...it gets a bit random, but it's quite possible and actually easy once you get the hang of it."

Lion actually was surprised that Straffe had come to learn, but the input of a second individual would be greatly valued.

"So, ready? Try to grasp the winds."

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe smiled

"I would be glad to start"

He closed his eyes and he summond up the Force within his body. He felt it flow through as if it were his own blood. While keeping his eyes closed, Straffe raised his hand. He invisioned the wind in his mind, as if it were an object.

He swayed his hand back and forth slightly, trying to push the wind slowy in a swirl. He pictured this in his head, not opening his eyes, the wind moving slowly in a swirl

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion cocked an eyebrow...Jesus....that kid WAS good at this.

"Not bad..." he thought to himself. "Time to get back to work..."

While Straffe was still working with the wind, Lion himself closed his eyes again and focused on creating his tornado. Taking a lead out of Straffe's book, Lion raised his hand and concentrating as hard as he could, feeling to the force bind the wind to him like it was a tractor beam.

He began swaying his hand back and forth, focusing on the motion he felt in his arm as a "guide" for the wind. It was much easier to focus this way by putting everything into perspective. He slowly moved his hand, first back and forth, then up and down, working slowly, deliberately.

He gradually quicked his motions, concentrating with all of his power on guinding the force. His eyes snapped open a second later, surveying the sight he had created. A small dustdevil had appeared, drawing the morning mists around it like a miniature hurricane. Lion smiled and returned his attention to Straffe, while he set his mind to thinking about ways to make the storm larger.

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe still kept his eyes as he moved the wind moved around him. He kept his eyes close, focusing more on the feeling of it the the sight. He invisioned a cloud of smoke, slowly engulfing him. He continued untill he was almost a giant ball of smoke.

Fossing even harder, Straffe used all his foce to blow it away with a medium sized gust. He opend his eyes and saw just bits of the smoke floating around him. He quickly saw that Lion had made a small tornado like wind

"Is it hard to creat tornados? By my guss it would be better if we combined our forces so that we can creat a giant storm. If you have done research, storms are consisted of many winds, so if we combine both of our streingths we can probibly creat it"

He smiled as he made fog slowy swirl around him, his hands moving like he was in water. He held the wind gently as if it were as fragile as thin glass

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion smiled at Straffe's suggestion.

"Actualy, it's not really that hard, but I don't want to make a storm....I imagine the council wouldn't take to kindly to us if we made a tornado that destroyed the temple."

Actually, Straffe's idea had some merit. He was quite sure that Jedi joining their powers together could potentially create huge storms, but he wasn't sure he and Straffe could coordinate properly...afterall, they were only padawans.

"Still....I think I'll try that soon. Right now I think we should each try to control more than one gust of wind...that will form a base for our training."

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe nodded his head

"I think your right...Out of curiosity...How many other Jedis do you know that are able to control the weather?"

Straffe wanted to find out how many were able to understand the mystic art of weather control

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion looked up.

"Honestly? None, actually. At least not today. But in millenia past, there were some Jedi masters powerful enough to create thunderstorms and immense tornadoes...Jedi Master Streen was probably the most recent jedi that studied weather control..."

Lion took a little breath.

"So, I guess you could say that we're almost on our own...I don't know any living jedi that have devoted their time to learning weather manipulation...interesting, eh?"

Lion cocked an eyebrow.

[Straffe Stormrider]

A small smile crept on Straffes face, he felt likt a kid in a candy store

"So you mean that we will basically be the only ones learning this tecnique?"

He felt so anxious now to master something that no other Jedi he knew could do

"Lion...Since I have come about this new infromation...I am going to spend all of my time mastering this technique. We will prevail in unlocking the secrets of this mystic art"

Straffe closed his eyes again, listening for Lions response. He waved both hands around him like water and made even more fog swurl around. He continued unitll he made a funnel goign towards the ceiling

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion's eyes went wide.

"Whoa, Straffe...you ARE getting good at this. We will figure out how to control the weather, and it'll be quite a surprise to people we fight it they suddenly get sucked into a tornado."

Lion sat down and watched Straffe form the funnel...it reached a good 20 feet high.

"So, what should we continue on now?"

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe let the smoke slowly fade away

"Maybe we should try to form storm clouds. If we are able to make rain then it should be a peice of cake after that"

He opened his eyes and looked at Lion, Straffe was determined to accomplish this difficult task

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded.

"Well, my friend...do you have any idea about how to start? From what I've read, I'm pretty sure it involves condensing moisture in the air...the problem is keeping the droplets together long enough to make rain and not mist."

Lion was trying to think about how to go about this.

"I say that we should just try to focus, and feel the water..."

He sat down cross-legged and shut his eyes, letting his senses roam towards the ceiling...

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe thaught of an idea

"What if we used hot air to mix with cold air. From my knowledge of the weather, when hot and cold mix, they tend to creat rain storms. So if you concentrate on making a part of the air cold, I can concentrate on making it hot. I already know how to make the air become hot, well sort of. What do you think?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded, then smacked himself in the face.

"...Why didn't I think of that? Okay, excellent idea Straffe...think we might me able to accelerate or slow down the molecules in the air to cool or warm it?"

Lion thought...it would be hard, because molecules are damn small, but Lion's master had once told him "Size matters not", and had told him a story where Yoda lifted an X-Wing out of the swamps of Dagobah...could it work on something small? He'd need all of his concentration.

"Alright, Straffe, let's try it. Good luck, man."

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe pondered for a minute

"I remember hearing Master Hazzard talk about how he speeded up the air molecules to make the room become scorching hot. So I think that if we slow them down...We can make it cold"

He still sat in an idian position and scratched the side of his head

"So if the friction of the molecules give off heat then if they dont touch then that must mean it becomes cold"

Straffe loved feeling smart as a smile appeared on his face

"Ill try speeding up the molecules and you slow them down ok?"

Lion nodded his head as they both began concentrating. It was going to be a difficult task but there was nothing that was going to stop him from achiveing this task.

Straffe concentrated on the left side of the room and tried to use all the air that was there. He left a neutral zone inbetween the left and right of the room so that the air wouldnt mix and make it more difficult to summon the storm.

He closed his eyes again and concentrated on the Force so that it would flow through his body like blod then out into the air. He visioned the miniscule particles strating to rub together and begining to move faster to. Straffe focused on one part of the air and slowly began expanding. He slowly, but surely, began to make the friction between the molicules heat up

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded and concentrated on his side of the room. He shut his eyes, sending out the force as if he were using it to guide himself in a dark room. He was looking for resistance from molecules of air. Making sure not to reach too wide, he focused his powers into a small cluster of air molecules two feet away from him.

He reached further into the force, trying to descern certain molecules from each other. He managed to get an okay picture of it, but his force powers were too limited to select single molecules. However, he reached out and gently "plucked" one of the air molecules with the force, trying to retard its motion. He succeeded, and reached out wider, gathering more and more of the air molecules and slowing them down.

Content with the speed the molecules were moving at, he began seperating them, reducing the friction caused by them even more.

It seemed even harder to manipulate and "coax" the tiny molecules than it did to slow them, but Lion managed it. Finally, panting from the effort, he stopped. He had succeeded. There was a small void surrounded by slowed air molecules. Careful not to loosen his grip on the air, he strode forward carefully, and was pleased when he realized it was indeed significantly cooler where he had slowed the air.

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe kept his eyes closed as he felt the small pouch of air infront of him get warmer, eventualy hot. A drop of sweat rolled down the side of his face as he kept his grip on the air. He visualized the bubble which was the size of a small baby. Straffe thaught that this might be enough. While still concentrating, he spoke to Lion

"Are you ready to merge yet?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion smiled, then nodded.

"If we don't merge now, I think Im gonna pass out."

Lion turned his attention back to the cold air bubble he was holding onto, trying to keep it a stable as possible.

[Straffe Stormrider]

Straffe didnt move as he concentrated even harder. Sweat started to sleek down his brow as he moved the air molicules. He moved his patch of air slowly to the center of the room, close to Lions part of air