(GQ #2) Sight for Four Eyes

2. Head in the Stars

"Incredible!! You look so cool!" Leon marveled at the lieutenant captain, fully dressed for space exploration. 

Around his chest wrapped metal armor, topped with a plating that resembled extreme shoulder pads. Two giant yellow jetpacks were strapped to the back, along with a smaller one strapped on each metal sandal he wore. Leon and Jun wore the same thing, but his armor had a few tweaks to distinguish him as the lieutenant. Plus, he just wore it with more style somehow.

Emil blinked and laughed in disbelief. "Really...?" he asked as if this were the first time anyone told him, which couldn't possibly be true. "Oh. Wow! Thanks so--!" He coughed, then spoke in a lower pitch. "Thanks, Rookie!"

"How come we have a mirror here?" asked Jun. "The walls and stuff are already reflective."

The blond shrugged in response. Meanwhile, Leon looked at himself in the mirror, clad in all his armor. All that was left was the helmet, so he decided to put it on.

"Wait, Leon!"

He turned around to see Jun. The rubber neck lining of the IF jumpsuit was stretched over the eldest ranger's head. Both of Jun's eyes were revealed, as the black bangs that usually covered the right one had been tucked into the makeshift cap.

"You gotta wear it like this before putting on your helmet."

"Oh yeah!" Leon remembered. "Thanks for reminding me!" He promptly pulled his neck piece over his head, then slipped on the helmet.

Emil did the same. He also pressed something on the side of his helmet. A click sounded in Leon's.

"Can you guys hear me?" Emil's voice crackled over the headset.

"I can!" Leon confirmed.

"Yeah." Jun gave a thumbs up.

"Great!" Emil could be seen winking through his helmet. "Now's a good time for a quick refresher course on safety and the controls. Jun, I know you know all this already, but bear with me. So first, lift up the right panel on you guys' helmets and press the button underneath that. What that'll do is secure your helmets to your necks. Then jiggle the helmet around a bit. If it pulls at your neck, then you know it's on tight enough to keep all the oxygen in. Do the same with your gloves, too. Lack of oxygen is really rough on the skin!"

Jun and Emil started testing out their helmets and gloves, and Leon followed their lead.

"Okay! Now that we're all safe, we can go over the jets. They're controlled by these buttons under our chest plate thingy." He pointed to four buttons underneath the triangular plate on his chest. "The top ones control the jets on our backs; the bottom ones are for the jets on our feet. And now that we have on our jumpsuits--"

Leon's eyes widened as Emil lifted one of his foot jets up to his arm.

"--I can show you guys something neat!"

"Lieutenant, please refrain from using the jets inside of the ship." The captain's voice cut in. "You will propel yourself across the loading deck."

Visibly disappointed, Emil put his foot down. His attempt to set himself on fire was thwarted yet again.

"Is everyone prepared for the loading deck to be drained?"

Emil paused for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say we are, Captain!"

"Affirmative. I will commence draining out the air from the loading dock in T minus Ten... nine... eight..."

There seemed to be no change when the captain reached zero.

The lieutenant checked on the others. "You guys are still able to breathe, right?" Leon and Jun confirmed that they could breathe. "Okay! We're all set for the hatch to open."