After Mish left the cantina, Tycho and Darillian scrambled out of their seats, which was odd, as she'd been ignoring Tycho and slapping Darillian. They ran out of the Orange Bothan, presumably following her. Ton and Kat sipped at their Elba beer, trying not to freak out now that they were alone together.
"So . . . Kat," Ton began, playing with his beer.
"So… Ton," Kat replied. She decided that Ton must be horribly bored with her and got even more depressed than she was.
Ton wondered why he was even bothering. He really wanted to just cut the talk, pull her over his lap and plant a huge kiss on her lips, but he didn't, "Do you think everything'll be okay? What, with the surgery burnt down, and Ran out of it, and the Prowler and . . . everything?"
Kat shrugged. "Probably. The Authors will figure out a way to get us out of this." Kat wished Ton would just cut the talk, pull her onto his lap, and give her a huge kiss on the lips. But there wasn't much odds of that happening.
"You think?" Ion replied, trying to send out message to one of the Authors to put him out of his misery and make Kat fall madly in love with him. "I mean, I know we've got out of all sorts of things before, but this is pretty major . . . And I don't think they have a clue what they're doing." He turned to face Kat, hoping his puppy-dog-eye would do the trick. Confound my being half metal! he thought to himself.
Kat wondered why Ton was glaring at her like that. Does he want me to get out of here or something? "Yeah, the Authors do have a tendency to be sort of inept." Maybe if I insult them enough they'll put me out of my misery, she thought bleakly.
The Authors grin's widened slightly.
"Yeah, that's true." Ton exhaled. "Kat. Look. I mean. I know this isn't the time to, but, what I mean to say is... well..."
"Phanan." Announced a suspiciously Xena-Like woman from behind him.
He jumped. "Oh, hi Vitrum."
"Where are the others?" she asked.
He shrugged. "There was a slight problem. My surgery burned down and my security guard, who it turns out Darillian was working for, is probably dead. So Mish ran out, Tycho and Darillian were running after her, and we're still here, waiting for you."
Cimex kissed Ton lightly on the head. She didn't know why she did it, but it seemed the thing to do. Plus, she had a feeling it'd make that nurse mad. "Poor baby," she said, semi-sarcastically, semi-sympathetically. She flashed a smile at Kat.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about, again?" She looked around for the Glass Prowler.
"Mish has the Glass Prowler," Kat said, glaring at Vitrum. Back off! she thought in a rather catty (The Authors snicker) tone.
"Ton, darling, we need to get reaquainted." Vitrum continued, oblivous to Kat's thoughts, but experiencing a sharp pain down her left side. Kat had not only studied to become a nurse, but she'd dabbled in the Dark Arts and Necromancy too, you know? No medical student would be without a dabble in the darkside...
Ton gulped. He really didn't want to get reacquainted with Vitrum, but he was afraid she'd kick his butt if he turned her down.
"RIGHT, THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU TWO!" Mish stormed back into the cantina, towards Ton, Cimex and Kat, "Will someone PLEASE kill either Tycho or Zurel?"
Ton noticed Mish had called Darillian by his first name, and smirked. Perhaps those subliminal messages while she was sleeping had worked?
Vitrum got out a blaster and shot Tycho in the arm. "I don't like psychologists," she deadpanned.
"I SO DIDN'T MEAN THAT!" Mish yelled! "WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" She continued, and lunged at the darkhaired woman, moving to strangle her.
Kat jumped on Vitrum too. She didn't have an ulterior motive or anything, she just wanted to help out her partner.
"Get...them...off...me..." Cimex managed.
Ton wondered if he should.
Darillian wondered if he should.
Tycho smiled at the woman who'd shot him, a malicious smile.
Kat and Mish had both had hand-to-hand training in their Intel education. Vitrum didn't have a chance.
After several minutes, Kat and Mish got up off of Vitrum. She was curled into the fetal position and was whimpering.
"That's for taking me literally." Mish said triumphantly.
"That's for going after my man!" Kat added. Ton stared at her. "Oops…"
"I KNEW it." Mish said, "Hand over the credits, Zurel."
Darillian dug into his pocket and pulled out some credits, and handed them to Mish.
"Now," Mish said, "Kiss and make up . . . You and Ton, that is." She smiled a Devaronian smile (which had previously only been used by Wedge Antilles before, if you'll recall, so it was a great achievement).
Kat blushed. Ton blushed. They avoided each other's gaze.
"Come on, get to it!" Mish cried.
"Umm… I have to fix up Tycho," Ton said. It wasn't that he didn't want to kiss Kat, he just didn't particularly want an audience.
"Ton Phanan." Mish announced in her Do-You-Want-To-End-Up-Like-Cimex voice she'd just invented, "If you do not get up off your lazy backside and give Kat the best kiss she's ever had, I will personally kick you into the line of sight of the nearest Imperial Military Shooting Training For Beginners unit."
"Umm…" Ton started considering his options, but then Kat grabbed him and kissed him.
Mish applauded, as did Darillian, Tycho (painfully) and the rest of the cantina, apart from Cimex (she was in too much pain) the Glass Prowler (no hands) and the waitress (she quite fancied Ton).
Kat let Ton go and blushed. Ton would have blushed too, but he was too busy smiling in a smug, satisfied fashion.
They left the Orange Bothan.
Ton and Kat were walking behind the others, holding hands and simpering to each other. The others had made them walk in the rear, as it made them ill to look at the sickeningly sweet display. Mish and Darillian were reluctantly helping the injured Tycho walk, which was a bit bizarre, because Vitrum had shot him in the arm. They had left the beat-up insectoid scientist in the cantina where she was commiserating with the waitress over "the one who got away."
Mish, who was carrying the Glass Prowler's case with the hand that wasn't supporting Clechu, turned her head to face Ton and Kat and said, "Kat, you realise we attacked our only hope of curing the Prowler, right?"
Kat looked sad for a moment, then saw that Ton was gazing at her with more ardency than usual. "Sorry, Mish," she said, unable to keep from smiling for more than a couple nanosecond.
"It's okay. I started it anyway," Mish said. "All over this dude." She juggled Tycho's wounded arm. He winced.
Tycho, to be honest, was getting less enamoured of Mish. It wasn't that he thought she wasn't hot, 'cause she was, and she was nice too - most of the time - but she was sort of starting to scare him. And it was sort of her fault he'd gotten shot - she'd stood up for him, but the damage had been done.
Darillian, however, still totally had a thing for Mish. Sure, she'd hit him, but what was a bitch-slap to true love?
They arrived at their ship fairly quickly, as the Orange Bothan was beside Tycho's office as they'd walked there in the first place. Well, all except Tycho, that was. Clechu wasn't sure why he was still with them, as they could have dropped him off at his office and had one of his guys in white lab coats take care of him. But whatever. [Mish and Kat were both confuzzled as to the true meanings of this paragraph. We do not apologise for the inconvienience.]
The guy at Storinal Control was the same one that'd been there when they arrived. He looked quite disappointed and a little confuzzled to see Kat, who he thought was cute, being all smoochy with Ton, who he thought was mad. He was also a bit scared to see them towing around "Dr. Doran," who was still bleeding a little bit.
"Quote" said Ton as they reached their ship.
"What?" Asked Mish.
"Quote." Ton repeated, "it opens the Millennium Falcon-esque ship, don't ya know?"
The ship, amazingly enough, opened at that. Mish raised an eyebrow.
"So, um, why am I here?" Tycho asked, wondering if they were planning on kidnapping him away from Storinal.
"To say g'bye to Mish." Kat reminded him, kissed Ton on the nose lightly and went inside the ship.
"Oh . . . Uh . . . Right." Tycho turned to Mish, "Look, Mish. This may be hard to take, but, well, I don't love you anymore. It was never meant to be."
"Tych, I mean, this is all so sudden!" Mish exclaimed, grinning broadly.
"I'm sorry Mish, you're just too darned scary. And you got me shot."
"Don't start sentences with 'and'." Mish said, planting a kiss on Tycho's lips. "Bye Tych, nice meeting you. See ya again some day maybe! Goodluck on finding the woman of your dreams!" Mish walked up the ramp into the ship.
Darillian shrugged. Tycho did likewise, "You've got quite a gal there, Zurel. I just hope you can handle it. Good luck not getting shot."
"Thanks man." Darillian walked into the ship too.
"So, I guess I'll see you around, Sneezy," Ton told him. "And, uh, sorry 'bout that nickname."
Tycho shrugged expressively. "No worries, man."
"Throw some more shrimps on the barbie, Bruce."
Tycho knew there was a reason he never really liked Phanan. The dude was just too weird.
"Where to now, Captain?" Mish asked, sliding into the pilot's chair which Kat haistily vacated as she entered the cockpit.
Ton looked around. "Umm… none of us are a Captain. But I think we should go back to the surgery and see if we can salvage anything."
"Mish, can you fly the ship by yourself?" Kat asked.
"No." Mish said back, monotone.
"Are you sure?" Kat asked. "Or can maybe Darillian help you fly it?"
"Nope."
"Can I order you to fly the ship without Kat?" Ton offered.
"Nope." Mish countered, making life difficult and enjoying it.
"Please?" Kat and Ton begged in unison.
"Ummm......" Mish looked at Darillian. Back at Ton and Kat. Back to the ship's controls. Back to Darillian.
Shrugging and sighing in a MOST melodramatic fashion, Mish pushed a small red button.
"What's that?" Ton asked. Weird how he knew the secret password and didn't know what any of the buttons did.
"That's the button to make the ship run on the Infinite Improbability Drive Generator I shoved in it whilst reading the Guide. It'll make the ship go on it's own, but some improbable things might happen. It's very probable that they will actually."
"Improbable things like what?" Darillian asked suspiciously.
Mish shrugged. "I have no idea. Probably very improbable ones, but perhaps some probable ones too." Mish paused, "Why?" she added, lightning reflexes pulling Darillian over the pilot's chair and planting a huge kiss on his lips.
When they broke apart, Darillian asked, "Was that one of the improbable things?"
"Very probably." Mish shrugged.
Just then Ran Kether, who had perished in flame when Ton's surgery burned down, burst into the cockpit. "Everyone freeze!" he yelled, pointing a REALLY big blaster at them.
"Aw, man." Mish said quietly. She had dreamy expression on her face and had been eyeing up Darillian when Kether had walked in.
