Part Three: Ironwoman
"Ben, I'm really not sure—"
"Jules, you suck in hand-to-hand combat and the chances are you'll have to do a lot of aerial fighting. I've gotten the airspace over Soladad cleared for the day."
She sighed, nodding.
Ship jumped to her chest, beginning to cover her form. It was the creepiest sensation she had ever felt. His metal form was cold against her human skin as he slid over her like an Ironman suit. Thankfully he knew to cover her face last.
"Ready?" Ben had already turned to Jet-ray.
She nodded, feeling the neuro-sensors splay themselves across her skin. They connected her movements, her electrical patterns to her pet and vice versa
"Right," he nodded, "Ship, you're only supposed to keep her alive and in the air; anything else has to be a command from her. Got it?"
"Shhhiiiiipppp." The symbiote intoned.
"Good. Catch me if you can!"
And Ben shot straight up. "Uh oh, Shi—!" before she could stop him, Ship made them rocket up as well.
She couldn't help the instinctive scream of pure terror that ripped from her throat as they raced higher than most commercial airliners. It was then and only then that she realized that they were heading out of earth's atmosphere.
"SHIP STOP!" and they lurched to a stop, hovering.
"Okay," she muttered as she did a mental inventory of herself. Her throat was a little sore but other than that she was fine.
"Okay, Ship, we need to find Ben; scan for his heat signature please…" the visor in front of her face suddenly sprouted binoculars that allowed her to search for a living being via heat. She scanned the area around her and below her, seeing little pinpricks of heat moving around on the ground before a larger blob zoom through her lens' sight.
"Got him! Ship can you see him?
"Shhhiiiiipppp."
"Follow hi—Shi—!"
He had blasted them off again, chasing after Jet-ray. After the initial fear wore off she found flight quite enjoyable and grinned as her prey came into her field of vision
"Lock onto him Ship."
The visor became smooth and a red circle came up on it, encircling Ben's form.
"Hand energy blaster, stunner mode." she reached out, opened her palm and felt the area warm up as the blaster gathered energy, "Careful Ship, we're just playing tag."
They were gaining on him, "Now Ship." The blast left home and headed towards it's target. But, being the experienced flyer of the two, Ben merely dodged, lifted and aimed his tail to start shooting beams at her.
On his own accord Ship dodged the lasers, "Hold steady Ship"; she bit her lip. Obviously, unless they got in a really lucky shot, laser blasts weren't going to work.
"Fall back boy." They stopped, beginning to hover.
"Ship can you give me a list of all your possible non-lethal weapons?"
"Shhhiiiiipppp."
A list of all non-lethal options came to the visor's screen and began scrolling upwards.
"The net." She decided and felt the implement come to her palm. They chased Ben down again and netted him; he dropped like a stone the second his wings folded. The line connecting the net to the netter went taut, "Take us to the ground Ship."
They lowered slowly and carefully, settling the now human Ben onto the dirt gently before touching down themselves. Ship left Julie, going to her wrist like a bracer.
"Not bad," Ben commented, having untangled himself from the netting and now on his feet brushing himself off, "Not bad but not good. You're so green…" he lifted up the netting, "You see, you should have thought of this first; it's always easier to catch flyers rather than wound them, especially for newbies…"
He sighed, "Ship can you clean up?"
The blob nodded and sucked the netting up like a noodle.
"Let's get back home; I need a bath…" he scratched his head, "I think Jet-ray has fleas…"
She giggled and nodded.