The hallway was dark as they both made their way to the gym, leaving Daron tied, gagged,
 and uniformless in Shannon's room. Shannon scratched her neck under the thick collar of the 
uniform. 'How does he wear this?' she thought to herself as she and Duo came to the door. 
They opened it and the light was on. Shannon peaked her head in and looked around. When 
she saw only Dr. Morgan making a few adjustments to Hailstorm, she motioned for Duo to 
follow her in. 
	Dr. Morgan looked up from his work as the two approached and laughed. "You don't 
waste time, do you?" he shook his head and walked toward them. After looking Duo up and 
down he asked,"Do you know how to work one of these things?"
	"You bet," Duo grinned,"mine's waiting outside. I'll be coaching her from there." he 
started back towards the door. "I guess you can get her started, since you're the one who 
created the suit." he turned quickly and tossed an earpiece to Shannon. "We can keep in touch 
through this." he left and Dr Morgan got started preparing Shannon for her first official flight.	
	"Remember the flight simulater tests we've been giving you?" he asked once 
Shannon was seated in the cockpit. "This is just like that, with the exeption that you'll actually
 be going somewhere. Don't panic, or else you won't get anywhere. If you have any questions
 just ask that young man that came in with you, he probably knows what he's doing."
	"Probably?" came a voice in Shannon's ear. Apparently Duo had been listening, and 
now Shannon was having trouble not giggling. "listen to the good doctor Shannon, not me." 
Shannon returned her attention to Dr Morgan, who was going over the controls, which she 
already knew from the flight simulater. "Man this is boring," Duo spoke once again. Shannon 
hushed him and continued listening to Dr Morgan's seemingly endless speech on the 
balancing mechanism. Finally, both Duo and Shannon had about had it.
	"Pardon me Dr Morgan," Shannon said in as polite a voice as she could muster,"but 
shouldn't we be leaving. It won't take them too long to figure out I'm not where I'm supposed to
 be, and I already know all this stuff."
	"Oh, yes. Of course."  Suddenly, an idea occured to Shannon.
	"How would you like to come with us?" she asked.
	"I thought you'd never ask," he said as he climbed in beside her. Shannon was glad 
to have him coming with her, she would have hated to make him face Lt Tory all by himself 
when he found out she was gone.
	"Great," Duo said," I'm gonna blow off the roof now so watch out for falling debris." 
Shannon pulled Dr Morgan into the cockpit and shut the door. No sooner had she done this 
than the roof collapsed, revealing a black suit equipped with an energy scythe. 
	"Impressive," Dr Morgan said from behind her. She nodded her agreement and flew 
Hailstorm out of the demolished gym and landed it gracefully next to Deathscythe.
	"You two keep going," Duo said when he noticed some mobile suits coming their 
way. "I'll take care of these guys." Shannon had suddenly gone quite still and emotionless, 
but she quickly followed Duo's directions. She finally set Hailstorm down a ways away from 
the base in a clearing in the woods.