Disclaimor: As always, not ours.

Author's Note: This took a bit longer than expected to get out. It's been written for awhile, but finding the time to type things up has been rather difficult recently. The workload for senior year is unbelievable. But even when updates are long in coming, we are working on new stuff all the time and will have it up as soon as humanly possible. Hopefully, now that we have entered the last 18 weeks of our public education things will go a bit faster.

Part 11: The Road Trip

"Okay. I turned off the coffee maker, put timers on the lights, left a nasty message on the chamber door in case Qui-Gon stops by, made sure Mace's special kitties were doing okay at the pet hotel." Adi sighed, "I just know I'm forgetting something."

"it might be a good idea to extinguish that fire you started when you used the toaster this morning." Ki-Adi-Mundi reminded her.

"Oh yeah!" Adi snapped her fingers, "That's it!"

She ran into the kitchen and used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire she had started earlier when she put four strips of bacon in the toaster. (Don't ask, this is Adi after all).

"Glad I did that before we left." Adi said, "The whole temple probably would have burned down before we got back."

Poor Adi. So flustered about the trip. What trip? We didn't tell you? Sorry. The Council is heading to the other side of Courascant so Yaddle could compete in the ping pong championships.

"Ready to go I am." Yaddle announced, "Win I shall."

Adi, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Yaddle went outside where they met up with the other council members. They were taking two speeders that could each seat six people. One speeder was red, the other was blue. Yareal had used his lightsaber to cut a hole in the roof of the blue speeder so his head could stick up through it. The drive was 18 hours long. There was no way Yareal could keep his neck bent for that long.

Ki-Adi-Mundi was going to drive the red speeder and Depa was going to drive the blue one. Depa, Yareal, and Shaak were in the front seats with Plo, Eeth, and Oppo in the back. In the other speeder, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Adi, and Yaddle were in the front with Yoda, Mace, and Mace's temporary apprentice, Obi-Wan, in the back.

Sheesh. My hand hurts! Too much writing!

"Remind me again why we agreed to let Depa drive?" Plo asked.

"She threatened to kill us in out sleep." Eeth replied.

"Oh. That's right." Plo said.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked as he buckled his seat belt.

"Yep." Adi answered.

The two speeders took off. Although she was a complete failure at everything else, Depa was a really good driver. The blue speeder glided down the road, Yareal's head sticking out of the roof.

"Adi, are you sure Moonbeam and the kittens are okay?" Mace asked for the hundredth time.

"The last time I called the hotel they were all eating caviar and getting massages." Adi told him.

"How much does that place cost?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.

"Forty thousand credits a day." Mace answered, "But nothing is too expensive for my special kitties."

"Obi-Wan?" Yoda spoke up, "Okay are you? Look a little green you do."

"So do you." Mace muttered.

"No. I'm fine." Obi-Wan said, "Please don't disown me or threaten to have me fixed!"

"Relax, kid." Mace said.

"Boy." Adi said, "Qui-Gon really messed you up."

(By the way, Sasee Tiin isn't going on this trip. He is still trying to get Aayla to hook up with Kit. We'll check on him in the next chapter.)

"Yareal's head looks so stupid sticking out of the roof." Yaddle giggled.

"Worry about that you should not!" Yoda scolded, "Focus on ping pong you should! If drag us all the way to the other side of the planet and then lose, rip off your ears I will!"

It was at that moment that Obi-Wan threw up all over Mace.

"Whoa!" Mace yelled, "Stop the speeder!"

Ki-Adi-Mundi pulled over. The blue speeder stopped behind them. Depa got out.

"What happened?" She asked.

"I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you I get motion sickness." Obi-Wan announced, "Please don't make me meditate for three days or polish all of the statues in the temple lobby!"

Depa and Adi's maternal instincts kicked in. The gorgeous 18-year-old that stood in front of them had never known a life outside of the strict rules of Qui-Gon. They both decided they needed to show Obi-Wan some compassion.

"Don't worry, sweetie." Depa said, "We'll clean you up."

Mace's mouth dropped open, "I'm the one who got puked on!"

"Then walk to that gas station and clean yourself up!" Adi ordered.

"I brought some car sickness pills." Depa said, "Let me go find them."

Mace stood there in shock.

"Come on Mace." Ki-Adi-Mundi said, "I'll walk to the gas station with you."

A few minutes later, Ki-Adi-Mundi stood in the men's room at the gas station as Mace used a gigantic wad of paper towels to clean off his shirt.

"I've forgotten what it is like to have an apprentice." Mace said.

"Depa threw up on you?" Ki-Adi-Mundi questioned.

"She visited a lot of bars when she was younger." Mace replied, "If I had a dollar for every time I've had to drag her drunken butt home, I'd be a billionaire."

"Obi-Wan had Adi and Depa wrapped around his finger." Ki-Adi-Mundi announced.

"Why are women so attracted to cute things?" Mace demanded, "Like bunnies, and unicorns, and padawans, and..."

"Special kitties?" Ki-Adi-Mundi interrupted.

"That's different!" Mace objected.

"Is it? Would you still love Moonbeam if she were purple? Or bald?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.

"Of course I would!" Mace said.

"Oh. That's a good thing to know." Ki-Adi-Mundi muttered.

"What? Why is that a good thing to know?" Mace wanted to know.

"Well, in case any of that stuff ever happened." Ki-Adi-Mundi said quickly, "Yeah."

"Oh." Mace grinned, "But that could never happen."

"Of course not." Ki-Adi-Mundi agreed.

"I mean how could a cat turn purple?" Mace laughed.

"You'd be surprised." Ki-Adi-Mundi thought.

A few minutes later, Mace and Ki-Adi-Mundi returned to the speeders.

"Ready to go?" Yaddle asked, "If hurry we do not, late I will be!"

"Don't worry your squishy little head about it." Depa muttered, "Let's go."

The Jedi piled into the speeders.

Two hours later...

"The legs on the bantha go stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp. The legs on the bantha go stomp, stomp, stomp all through the galaxy!" Shaak sang.

"How long have we been listening to this?" Eeth demanded.

"Too long!" Depa yelled.

"The tail on the bantha goes swish, swish, swish..."Shaak continued to sing.

"How about we sing a new song?" Depa suggested.

"Okay!" Shaak cheered.

"My lightsaber can go slice, slice, slice, burn, burn, burn, kill, kill, kill. My lightsaber can go slice, slice, slice so shut up!" Depa sang, evilly.

Shaak folded her arms, "You didn't have to be so blunt about it. If you had asked I would have stopped!"

The other Jedi all laughed.

Five seconds later...

"99 bottles of Jawa juice on the wall." Shaak sang.

"SHAAK!" Everyone yelled.

In the other vehicle...

"And that's why I've never owned a computer or Gameboy before." Obi-Wan explained, "Qui-Gon is convinced that they leak radiation."

"Man. He really was one marshmallow away from a bowl of Lucky Charms." Mace sighed.

"Well Obi-Wan, the next Wal-Mart we come to, I'll buy you a Gameboy." Adi said.

"That's okay. I'm content just chatting with you all." Obi-Wan said, "You are a lot cooler than everyone says. Most people think you're really stuck, crusty, and boring."

"What?" Yoda said, "They do?"

"Yeah." Obi-Wan replied.

"I can't imagine why they think that." Ki-Adi-Mundi shrugged.

An hour later the council stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. Mace insisted that they stop at the one with a huge kid's play place.

Once they had gotten their food, immaturity took over. Oppo was chasing Adi all over the restaurant with French fries stuck up his nose. Depa was complaining that she didn't get the toy she wanted in her Happy Meal. Mace and Yaddle were having a contest to see who could chug the most ketchup packets. And Ki-Adi-Mundi and Yoda were playing the games on Depa's Happy Meal box.

Once they were finished "eating" the all attacked the play place. Mace took off his boots and crawled into a green plastic tube. Shaak went straight to the ball pit. The others all found their way into the giant maze of colorful plastic tubes and crawled around. Yoda had reached the top of one tube and could no longer see where he was going. It was completely dark!

"Get out of here I must." Yoda said.

He crawled forward two more feet than felt himself falling.

"AAAH!" Yoda screamed as he sped down the dark, enclosed plastic slide.

Four terrifying seconds later, Yoda was thrown out of the slide and into the ball pit.

"Glad that is over I am." Yoda sighed.

He then noticed two horns were swimming towards him. Someone or something was buried beneath the balls! Once the horns were about a food away from Yoda, they popped up, revealing Shaak's grinning face.

"Boo!" She cried, "I scared you!"

"Did not." Yoda insisted.

"Did too." Shaak argued.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"You're stupid." Yoda snapped and exit the ball pit.

It didn't take the idiotic McDonald's employees too long to realize that all the Jedi were too old to be playing in the play place. So they got kicked out despite Mace's best efforts to use a mind trick on them.

"Gee." Obi-Wan said, "You guys really AREN'T serious at all."

The Jedi drove down the road. In the red speeder, Yaddle was meditating.

"Be one with the paddle. Become the paddle. Let the ball out of your sight you cannot!" She chanted, "Become one with the paddle!"

Suddenly her concentration was broken as her face became one with the dashboard. The speeder had come to a sudden stop.

"Ki-Adi-Mundi!" Yaddle scolded, "Capable of driving safely are you? Stop slamming on the brakes!"

"It's not my fault." Ki-Adi-Mundi replied, "It's a traffic jam."

"Great. Now we're gonna be late." Adi whined.

"Aw man." Mace groaned around a mouthful of Honey Bunches of Oats Banana Nut cereal bar.

"Uh guys..."Obi-Wan said.

"I hate traffic jams." Ki-Adi-Mundi muttered.

"Guys..."Obi-Wan tried to say again.

There was a pounding on the driver's side window. Everyone turned to see Eeth with his face smooshed up against the glass. Ki-Adi-Mundi rolled down the window.

"Looks like we're not going anywhere for a while." Eeth sighed.

"Yep." Adi replied as she stared at the endless line of cars in front of them.

"Guys!" Obi-Wan said more forcefully.

"Let's have a Huttese fire drill!" Yoda suggested.

Before Obi-Wan could object, the Jedi all hopped out of the speeder and started running around it. They all got back a few seconds later except they were all sitting in different seats.

"You all are crazy!" Obi-Wan muttered.

"Now we can play I Spy!" Said Adi, who was now seated in the driver's seat.

"I spy something green." Ki-Adi-Mundi started.

"Me?" Yoda asked.

"Yep." Ki-Adi -Mundi replied.

"Find that offensive I do." Yoda said, "Help being green I cannot!"

"Don't anyone even think about saying you see something black." Mace warned.

"Okay. I Spy is too controversial. Let's play something else." Adi said.

"Guys we..."Obi-Wan started.

"I can't think of anything to do!" Yaddle said.

"We're going to be stuck in this traffic ham all day with nothing to do!" Mace sighed.

"Bored already I am." Yoda said.

"GUYS!" Obi-Wan screamed, "We're Jedi! We can pick up this speeder with the Force and move it out of this traffic jam."

The masters stared at him.

"Of course!" Mace slapped himself on the forehead, "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.

So the Jedi all picked up the speeders with the Force and then set them back down a few miles up the road, beyond the traffic jam.

"I think we've earned ourselves a milkshake." Mace cheered.

"At this rate we might as well walk to the contest." Obi-Wan muttered.

Yoda called Eeth's cellphone to inform the other speeder of their plan.

A few minutes later they came to a Dairy Queen. Plo was now driving the blue speeder because he wound up in the driver's seat after the fire drill. Ki-Adi-Mundi was still driving the red one because...well...would you really let any of those other people in that speeder drive?

Plo pulled up to the menu and ordered six chocolate shakes.

"Pull up to the next window." The personalityless employee said through the speaker.

Plo pulled up. Yareal then saw something that he had only seen in his worst nightmares! A sigh stuck to the concrete structure above the drive through window that said, "Clearance 8 feet".

Quickly he did the math. The speeder was 6 feet high; his neck was 26 inches long. The top two inches of Yareal's head were about to become acquainted with a brick of solid concrete.

"Stop!" Yareal yelled to Plo.

But it was too late.

KLUNK! Yareal's head slammed against the roof, knocking him unconscious.

"Oh dear!" Plo cried, "I forgot about Poof!"

"He's okay. Just unconscious." Oppo announced, "He'll probably have a killer headache when he wakes up but other than that he'll be fine."

"Can I have his milkshake?" Shaak asked.

Plo handed it to her.

About five minutes later the Jedi were cruising down the road enjoying their frozen dairy treats. Mace had tried one of Dairy Queen's new Honey Bunches of Oats Blizzards.

"Argh. My head." Yareal moaned as he regained consciousness.

"Oh!" Depa cried, pointing, "Lookie! A tunnel!"

"Honk the horn! Honk the horn!" Shaak said, slapping Plo's arm.

Plo rolled his eyes and honked the horn once the speeder was in the tunnel. Depa and Shaak giggled at the echo.

In the red speeder, Adi, Mace and Obi-Wan were sitting in the backseat. After such an exciting day, Obi-Wan was asleep, leaning against Adi.

"He's a good kid." Mace said.

"All kids are good kids." Adi replied.

"I never knew you liked kids." Mace said.

"I love kids. If I wasn't a Jedi, I'd be a stay at home mom." Adi said.

"And who would be the father?" Mace asked.

"Whoever could tolerate my insanity." Adi shrugged.

"I lived with Depa for ten years, Adi. To me, you are the sanest person in the universe." Mace said.

"I'll remember that the next time you call me stupid." Adi chuckled.

They both laughed.

The two speeders zoomed out of the tunnel.

"Look!" Yaddle cried, pointing, "On the other side of the planet we are!"

"It's about time." Mace muttered.

"Go to the hotel we will. Need to sleep we do. Begin tomorrow the tournament does." Yoda announced.

The two speeders parked outside of Holiday Inn Courascant and everyone hopped out, except for Yareal.

"Poof?" Eeth said, "Are you okay?"

Shaak climbed on top of the speeder to see if she could see Yareal's head. Instead she found the stump of Yareal's long neck. His head had been severed when they went through the tunnel!

Shaak sighed, "Oh well. He'll grow a new head."

The Jedi dragged Poof's body into the hotel and settled in for the night. Tomorrow would be a hectic day.

THE END

Tune in next time for

Part 12:

The Ping Pong Tournament!