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Instincts

Tilting her head to the right, n**'s eyebrows slowly raised as she began to sense a pair of familiar presences. Seeing Taran, n** put Shalimar in his arms and started off down an adjoining hall.

"Where the hell are you going?" Dragon yelled. "The ship is going to explode!"

"Just get to the Maru," [+1] n** replied. "I've got something to do."

"Listen to her," the strange woman said, looking n** in the eye though talking to Dragon. Her voice was perfectly calm and sane. "She will make it back with plenty time to spare for us to get out of here."

"Very well," Dragon said. "n**, you and I are ALSO going to have a talk about what you're up to when you get back."

"We may not need to," n** said, turning her back on the others. "Now go!"

Before anyone could argue with her, n** took off down the hall. Following her instincts, n** ducked down various passageways--all of which seemed amazingly clear of all Renstok despite the warning going off. In her head, n** heard the thoughts of someone pleading for salvation while another thought about protecting the other.

With a ear shattering roar, n** transformed into her tiger form and broke through a wall. Twenty or thirty Renstok were currently being held at bay by two human children [+2] wielding wands and casting spells, but the children were obviously exhausted. Roaring again, n** rushed through the Renstok towards the children. Extending her claws, n** ripped, shredded, and mangled every single Renstok that was between her and the kids.

Spotting her, the boy shouted and threw a spare wand into the air. Leaping, n** transformed into her human form and snatched the wand effortlessly out of the air. Landing next to the children, n** pushed them down with one hand and brandished her wand. "IGNICULUS TIGRIS!" [+3]

Leaping from the tip of n**'s wand, a flame tiger raced about the small room, setting any Renstok that n** had not killed ablaze. Once the Renstok were running blindly about, on fire, n** flicked the wand to disperse the spell. Looking at the the two kids, one boy and one girl, n** said, "Come on. We're going."

"We're sorry!" the girl said. "We just wanted--"

"You can tell me later," n** said, picking the kids up and settling them on her back. Though they were fourteen and quite tall, n** was able to make sure they were comfortable. "Hang on, we're going to move fast."

Once the kids had a firm grip on her, n** raced out of the room with burning Renstok and followed the path she had used to get to them--but in reverse. Then, following the path Xangord had used to find Xink, n** reached the Maru as the first of the explosions rocked the Renstok homeworld.

Closing the cargo bay door, n** set the kids down and slammed her hand on the com, "Get us the hell out of here!"

"Aye!" Nerissa's voice replied from the comm.

A split second later, the Maru shuddered as it lifted off the floor and blasted its way out of the bay. Placing her hands firmly on the necks of the kids, n** directed them through the Maru and found them a pair of empty seats. Forcing them to sit, n** locked their belts to keep them in place. Pointing at each one in turn, n** said, "Neither one of you move from this spot. Don't talk to anyone. Don't talk to each other. Once we get back to where we're going, the three of us--"

"Four," the girl said. "He wasn't able to hold on to us."

"Four?" n** asked. "You mean your--grrr. Was this his idea?"

"It was mine," the boy replied. Pointing at the girl, he said "She made the teleportation spell."

Half sighing, half growling, n** said, "Fine. Whatever. Stay put for now though."

Before either of the kids could reply, n** went to the front of the ship.

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Getting to the Maru

As n** left to go do...whatever, Dragon led the rest of her group back to the Maru. Thankfully, they met no Renstok along the way. Reaching the Maru, Dragon set Wynn on an empty cot and directed Xangord and Taran to do the same with their charges.

Pulling Nissa to the cabin, Dragon said, "Fire it up, but wait a couple of minutes."

"We don't really HAVE a couple of minutes," Nissa said.

"We'll take what we can get," Dragon replied.

About a minute later, n**'s voice came over the comm telling them to go. Leaning through the hatch to the rest of the ship, Dragon said, "Sit down and buckle down! We're taking off!"

As the first explosions began to fire off, Nissa flew the ship out of the Renstok homeworld; dodging the various exploding Renstok fighters--I hope not all of that is Rose's work, Dragon thought, but rather the work of the mainworld exploding.--and reaching the Altsoba harmlessly. Before the bay door closed, Dragon sensed a fresh slipstream portal being opened port side.

Connecting to the bridge, Dragon barked into the intercom, "ANTIE-D! Get in the pilot's chair and get us into the slip stream that's opening port side or else we're going to be caught in a black hole!" [+4]

Turning to Nissa, Dragon said, "Download to her databases how to fly the slipstream."