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79's was the clone bar. Everybody knew that. Atleast, everybody on Coruscant who spent more than 15 hours on planet knew that. Fox sure as hell knew that. It made coming to the normally force-forsaken Bar a little bit better. Besides, it wasn't every tenday that most of his batchmates all had scheduled leave that lined up with one another.
So here they were. Sitting in a booth a level above the dance floor, slamming back drinks and exchanging stories. Fox didn't have that many to tell, but his brothers didn't seem to mind.
"-And that shabuir has the audacity to look at me- In the eye mind you- and asks: 'You did need a lift, correct?' And I can't help but sit there with this slack jawed expression. Then Nets, the absolute di'kut of a shiny, Just walks up and say, and I karking quote 'Well, That was fun! Can me And the Commander do it again?'!" Bly narrates while slamming back yet another beer. "Over coms, my squad is losing their absolute osik. Nets, bless his genetically engineered heart, is just looking at me with the 'did i do good?' shiny helmet tilt."
"Well? Did he do good?" Wolffe exaggerated between laughs.
"Did he do good? Pfft! He's got a good amount of latrine duty." Bly lamented into his empty pint. "And it doesn't help that Aayla AND this absolute Karker over here," He gestured wildly to Cody before flipping him off like he deserved. "Are recording the whole damn incident."
Cody is losing his absolute shit. Good for him.
"And it was worth every minute filmed!" Cody wheezed out, earning yet another one fingered salute from Bly. Fox can't help but shake his head, swishing the whiskey in his tumbler around as he glanced around the bar. Call it a nervous habit. His gazing eventually settled on a table of Clones and Five identically dressed nobodies sitting directly across from them, a good few meters away. The older clone sitting at the table seems to have the same nervous habit, catching Fox's gaze and nodding with a small raise of his glass to him. Fox can't help but sigh and return the gesture. Wolffe is looking at him when looks back.
"Who're you waving at, vod?" Wolffe asks inconspicuously, eyebrows raised. That grabs the rest of the tables attention, damn him.
"A colleague." Fox not-answers.
"Thought all your boys were either sleeping or on duty right now?" Bly asked pointedly.
"Not that kind of colleague." Fox grumbled back.
"Colleague as in jetii osik then? Thought you didn't have one of those."
"I don't have one." Fox grumbled again, mumbling into his drink. "Got two."
The table looked at him with wide eyes.
"Its not official or anything. Something about being adopted? Doesn't much matter right now."
"Oh no. No. You aren't dropping this that easily vod. You gotta tell us who."
"Can't. Secret Jetii osik."
"Bull. Nobodies generals are that secretive."
"Well, they aren't officially my generals, we just work together, Now can we just-" Fox grumbled, cut short by a shiny stopping in front of the booth.
"Uhm, excuse me? Sorry to interrupt, sirs, but I needed to relay a message to Commander Fox." The shiny tripped over their words.
"Wonderful timing, vod'ika. What do you need?" Fox grinned as the others glared.
"Captain Chapter, he uh, He told me to tell you, to uh... Uhm.."
"Spit it out."
"He said, and I quote, 'Get your ass to the terrace, even Stone's here. We're beating each others times.' I uh, I'm just relaying the message sir."
"What's your name, rookie?" Fox drawled, finishing off his drink. The others watched in curiosity.
"Ssaiho, sir."
"Well, Ssaiho, lets get our asses to the terrace. Seems I have a reputation to uphold." Fox replied nonchalantly, nudging Cody out of his way. "You're all welcome to watch."
Fox stood up, clapped the shiny on the shoulder, and nodded to the booth across from them as they also stood. Then he left. Cody share a look with the other two, before they scrambled after.
Chapter leaned against the handrail of the terrace outside 79's, glancing at his chrono. He had Foxtrot send in the marshland squads baby in to grab their newly adopted ori'vod and drag them out. What he did not expect was Ssaiho to drag out both Fox AND his batchmates. Seeing 2 Marshal Commanders following Fox around like curious tookas would forever be ingrained in his mind. Stone chuckled off to Chapters right, apparently filming. Chapter sighed through his nose, knowing that both the corries and his battalion would be holding this over his head forever. He snapped a quick salute and a quipped "Sirs!" before the four stopped in front of him. Fox stopped to take in the crowd of vode around them, in various states of armored and in civvies.
"So, what exactly are we doing here, Captain?" Fox drawled, arms crossed.
"Family bonding. Stone's in for it, and he mentioned you being out here, so we all collectively got up, and thought, 'Yeah, lets go kriff around with him.'" Chapter smirked. A shout of language bobbed above the chatter around them, earning a hearty "Dick around" in response from somebody else. "Besides, The commander wants to see if you can keep up. Probably all of you, now that you're all here."
"Sure. Why not." Fox shrugged after a minute.
"Wonderful! I'll be sure to tell Titan that y'all're in." A voice vibrated behind them. General Marv stood behind them, her entire form hidden in Cloaks and veils. One of the Marshal Commanders jumped, Fox snickering. "Daal' Marv, she/her, General of the 409th. Now, I believe I have yet to meet two of you?"
"Only two of us?" One murmured.
"Correct! You see, Wolffe knows me already. And so does Fox. But you two.. call it a vague guess." She responded, shrugging. Wolffe let out a huff, grumbling about a spar.
"CC-2-"
"Not numbers. No, never numbers. Names, please." Marv cut them off.
"Oh. Commander Cody, he/they, sir. And this is Commander Bly." Cody introduced.
"He/him is fine." Bly commented.
"Oh! Wonderful to meet you. I believe that you're under Secura's command, Commander Bly?" Marv faced towards him, face obscured by a thick veil.
"Er, yes sir. Why do you ask?"
"Because Quinlan won't stop bitching about his baby girl being in a relationship with a man he hasn't met yet. So I get to goad this over his head for a hot minute." She barked out a laugh. "Ah, he's gonna be pissed. It's gonna be great."
Silence spanned a second before Chapter interrupted with a tap of his chrono. Marv nodded reluctantly, before jumping onto the hand railing. The crowd cheered enthusiastically as she dropped her cloak back onto terrace, along with her veil. The armor she wore underneath was segmented, flexing as she stood to her full 5' 2" height.
"Alright! Family Game nights category was speed trial, so tonights activity is Foot Race! Disqualifying means a corrie will pick you up and you get to spend the night in gay baby Jail! So aptly named by our beloved corrie commander Thorn, who is on call watching the security cams, and will call you on your bullshit! Rules are as follows! 1! No throwing each other, no stabbing, and no, you cannot trip each other over traffic! 2! Your end goal is a meditation room on the east side, on level 1273. You MAY use the normal ground paths. You MAY use speeder hopping. You MAY NOT disrupt traffic, or disturb the drivers of said traffic! 3! Your goal is to simply get to the end, Not to beat each other, unless you have credits on it! If that is the case, bring it up to Scratch. 4! I do not care if you use the lower levels, just stay safe. 5! Taking more than 45 minutes will worry me. Taking an Hour will get you tracked down by me. Do not take more than an Hour and a half, for everyone's sanity. Everybody got it?" Marv shouted enthusiastically into the crowd as they returned cheers of affirmation. "Alright! Sync chrono's on the 1, then Go!"
"5!"
"4!"
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"Go!"
And just like that, the crowd took off in many directions down random off shoots and paths, down alleyways, but most notably, many decided to jump straight off the karking terrace. Those that thought it was a good idea were: Troopers, a few miscellaneous ARC's, The 409ths General, Stone, and-to The Marshal Commanders chagrin- Fox.
Wolffe stared in awe, then shouted out for Fox. All three ran and leaned over the guardrail, looking for him. Bly was the first to spot him, jumping across taxi-speeders roofs without so much as being acknowledged by the cabs, following the same path as a few other troops. Cody cussed under his breath, running down a path that travelled parallel to the speeder traffic. Bly and Wolffe followed suit.
A little know fact about the command class was that they moved too fast and too fluidly to be force nulls, but that secret was only murmured about amongst the vod. Nobody outside knew, but if they were watching the Commanders of the 327th, 212th, and 104th, they'd certainly wouldn't refuse it. They raced after their vod at breakneck speeds, dodging foot traffic easily as it came. Wolffe had, after a moment, started speeder hopping after Fox. Bly and Cody vaulted over gaps in-between streets, communicating over comms as they tracked the head corrie commander, losing sight of both him and Stone after five minutes.
Cody skidded to a stop, breathing heavily as Bly stumbled into the handrail in front of them leading up.
"Who knew that that mirosik was that fast?" Bly grumbled, backing away from the handrails.
"He certainly didn't do that shit on Kamino." Cody huffed. Several troopers passed them in a pack, hopping between levels with ease. Bly stared at them with wide eyes.
"None of the CT's should be able to do that, right? I'm not going insane?" Bly murmured. Cody went to reply, but was interrupted by his comm shrilling as a call reached it.
"Cody here."
"Hello there, commander. I've been attempting to contact you for the last few minutes, is everything aright?"
Cody dragged a hand over his face, flicking on the holovid, the miniature holo-kenobi flickering to life instantly. He looked concerned.
"Just, a little busy sir."
"Are you alright Cody? You look like you just ran 4 marathons in full kit back to back."
"Jumping through traffic will do that to you, sir. We're trying to catch up to Commander Fox, sir."
"Did he do something? Wait, jumping through Traffic???"
"Yeah, the bastard jumped off a building onto traffic." Bly grumbled, watching more troopers pass them. Cody watched as well, formulating an answer.
"I... I'm not sure you'd actually believe me if I told you sir." Cody grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Just, try to explain it then. You can only live with Anakin for so long before you start believing in the absurd."
"One of the Generals, Daal' Marv I believe? Her battalion, a few of them are racing each other back to the temple. On foot. And she dragged Fox into it, and he just. Jumped right in. We've been trying to catch up to him for the last few minutes. Wolffe took after him the fast. Bly and I have been pursuing via walkways." Cody rambled.
Mini-kenobi was silent for a moment, stroking his beard.
"Well that explains her inviting most of the council to 79's."
"Sir?"
"Master Marv, one of the Jedi shadows. She use to host races across Coruscant back to the temple when we were padawans. It only makes sense for her to do It with her battalion. Would you like a lift back to the temple?"
"It would be appreciated, sir, but why?"
"Because, she never bothers to tell people that using a speeder isn't against the rules. Where are you at the moment, commander?"
"Corner of Julius and Bernstein the Performer, level 1279."
"Alright, We should be there soon. Kenobi out."
The hologram cut out, Bly hovering over Cody's shoulder.
"Kot'ika, did he say 'We?'"
Several minutes passed by, along with occasional gaggles of troops, before General Kenobi pulled up in a speeder, Commander Tano in the passenger seat. She gave a tentative wave, gesturing for the two to get in.
"So. What's it like participating in a shadow mad dash?" Tano asked after the two sat down and the general set off.
"Sir, if thats what its like working with a shadow, I never want to be assigned to one." Bly responded. "Way too many opportunities for things to go absolutely wrong, and way too chaotic. There wasn't any planning ahead."
"If it makes you feel any better, at least she had destinations in mind, and it didn't span half the planet away." Kenobi replied in kind, starting the speeders ascent.
"Wait wait wait. Master, you've been part of a shadow mad dash before?" Tano jerked, gesturing wildly to the few troopers they could see jumping along the levels below them.
"Most of my creche clan won at least one of them while we were growing up. Granted, It also didn't help having a maniacal eight year old racing against you, along with other padawans and masters." Kenobi sighed, before adding. "And Yoda."
"But still! I would kill for a chance to do one- Er, poor choice of words, but you get the point!"
Kenobi shook his head, veering off towards the temple as it came into view.
"There's Wolffe!" Cody shouted over the traffic, pointing to Wolffe, who was sitting on a taxi roof. Kenobi swung down, Cody picking up Wolffe as they drove by, dragging him into the speeder. Bly tried to help him up, and got punched in the nose for his trouble. Once he did right himself, Wolffe flipped the two off and slumped into the seat.
"Evening, General. Commander."
"Hey." Tano replied with a smile. "You managed to get waaaaaaay further than these two. Good job."
"Still didn't catch up with Fox though. Lost him after a traffic jam."
"Hey, he's just slippery. We're going to the same place, anyways." Tano smirked, righting herself in her seat.
"What happened to fox being the sane one?" Wolffe sighed, dragging his hand down his face.
The temple was easy enough to navigate with the two Jetiise leading the way, more adding themselves in to the gaggle as they continued. Wolffe fell back to walk alongside both Generals Koon and Fisto, the latter of which tagging along simply because he was bored. Skywalker had also tagged along out of nowhere as well. The meditation room that they were directed towards was rather off the path, but it was large. Plants swept along the walls and ceiling, floor obscured by large vode piles. Daal' Marv was engaged in a lively conversation with one of the troopers she was playing Sabacc against, her commander (presumably) leaning against her back, apparently sleeping. Fox sat in the middle of a pile in the corner, bits of discarded corrie guard lining a perimeter around them. Cody approached first, glaring. Fox simply smirked.
"Well," He drawled. "Took you long enough."