Newcomers
Chapter Two: Greetings From Earth
Lightsabers clashed and sizzled inside the bland training room. Sweat covered much of the floor, making walking, much less engaging in combat although not very vicious, rather challenging. At this time, Obi-Wan Kenobi was engaged in a stationary duel with a certain Siri Tachi. "Keep your feet planted Padawan," Qui-Gon Jin, who was in charge of the drill, instructed Obi-Wan. Siri gave him a smug look and blocked another blow meant for her head. Obi-Wan gritted his teeth even more. This drill was particularly difficult because his left arm was literally tied behind his back, and Siri was taking full advantage of it. For about the fourth time she took her saber in two hand and swung as hard as she could straight down at Obi-Wan's head. Obi-Wan raised his lightsaber and the two energy blades clashed with a loud crackle and sizzle. Inch by inch the blades crept closer to Obi-Wan. He was losing this tug of war.
He looked straight at Siri and said, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Siri gave another smug grin.
"Every second." Out of nowhere another student in an adjacent sparring match lost her footing and tumbled right in between Obi-Wan and Siri. Obi-Wan looked down to see that the girl was none other than Bant.
"Bant, are you…." But he never finished his sentence because Siri took that moment to slide her saber away from his and swing at his neck, stopping just close enough to singe the skin. "AH!" He inadvertently leaped backwards and slammed the student behind him, send the two combatants tumbling into each other. Fortunately they were able to deactivate their lightsabers before any damage could have been done. Siri bent over laughing and managed to pull Bant to her feet.
"Keep it up and I might have to start calling you 'Oafy-Wan' again!" Siri said between bursts of laughter. Obi-Wan's face turned beat red as he apologized and help the two students he bowled over regain their feet. As he walked off to confront Siri they shot death glares at him.
"Siri, that wasn't fair at all. And someone could have gotten hurt!" He said, untying his left hand from his belt.
Siri locked eyes with him and went into confrontation mode and said, "It was perfectly fair. You were distracted and I took the opportunity to strike. And it's not my fault that you can't walk three steps without tripping yourself up." Obi-wan opened his mouth to retort but before he could a middle aged Jedi walked into the training room with a datapad in hand.
"Would Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bant, Garen, and Siri Tachi please report to the council chamber immediately. That is all." By this time Garen had come over to see if Bant, his sparring partner, was alright. The four looked at each other and Qui-Gon gave his apprentice a questioning look from across the room, raising an eyebrow. Obi-Wan met his gave and simply shrugged and gestured for his friends to come along as he headed for the door. In the hall, Siri fell into step next to Obi-Wan to gloat a little more.
"And that's another victory for Siri Tachi!" She said, as smug as ever. Obi-Wan shot her a glare, but it quickly turned into a mischievous grin.
"That may be," He said, "but I believe the overall score is ten to six, in my favor." Now it was Siri's turn to glare.
"Ten? More like six, which means we're tied!" She said with her nose slightly in the air. Obi-Wan turned back to Bant and Garen, who were to keep track of the score so these arguments didn't last for a month.
"Ten," They said in unison. Obi-Wan, still grinning, turned back to Siri, who was looking at the ground and grumbling incoherently. The four Padawans arrived at the council chambers to find all member, except for Qui-Gon who was still overseeing the sparring. Also, standing in the middle of the room were four humans. They seemed to be about the four Padawan's age, except for one who was bigger and taller than the others and had a premature mustache. There were three males and one female. They stood in a line facing the Padawans. The one of the far left was the female, she was rather petite, barely smaller than Siri, had long burnet hair hanging down to her waist, a soft smile, and was wearing a pink and white flower dress. The males seemed rather opposite. The young man to her right had slick, seemingly purposely greasy, brown hair down to his neck. He was only a little bigger than the girl, had pretty long fingers, and wore a black jacket made of slick looking material, a tight shirt under that, blue pants made of a different foreign material, and silver chain necklace with a cross on the end. The next boy in line sized up to Obi-Wan but a bit more muscle on him, and had shoulder length, jet-black hair that curled a little in the back that also seemed to be purposefully greasy. He wore a jacket of the same material but with the sleeves ripped off to show his arms, same tight shirt, the same kind of pants only his had large holes in the knees, and his necklace had a oval-like tablet with another tablet hang off the main chain on a smaller chain. The fourth was by far the biggest. Not as big as Master Windu but he was almost close. He wore yet another slick material jacket but his was a faded brown. He wore no necklace, had a nearly shaved head, and looked older by at least three years.
The two groups simple eyed each other for a moment until the boy standing next to the girl spoke, "Great, so we gotta wear the pajamas too. Boy won't we look tuff." The girl elbowed him in the ribs. "What?" Master Windu stood and cleared his throat and walked over to the four strange newcomers.
"Padawans, I'd like to introduce Jessie Carter," he said and proceeded down the row, "Richard Carter, Kelly James Johnson, and Gordon Carter. They are from a distant planet, primitive in comparison to our society. We will brief you further on the situation later. But for now we would like you to act as their guides around the temple and get them adjusted to life here. Their rooms are the four empty ones of the east wing. You all are now free to go. May the force be with you." Windu bowed and the council parted, leaving the eight teens standing there.
"Well then," said Bant, stepping up, "I'm Bant! And this is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Garen, and Siri Tachi." Obi-Wan and Garen gave slight waves and Siri simply nodded.
"Pleased to meet you," Jessie said curtsying. Richard made a hand gesture with his index and middle finger and said, "Greetings from Earth."Gordon simply nodded, and Kelly stepped up and extended his hand to Bant.
"And by the way, you all can call me KJ, alright?" he said with a smile. Bant shook his hand, looking a tiny bit puzzled at 'KJ's name preference. Obi-Wan and Siri exchanged a quick look and Garen raised an eyebrow. KJ moved on and put his hand out for Obi-Wan to shake. Obi-Wan took the shake, squeezing a bit roughly. KJ grinned and gripped harder. The two boys locked eyes and continued to try and crush the others hand. Siri noticed what was happen and rolled her eyes while Jessie giggled, Bant was again a bit confused, and Garen, Gordon, and Richard shook their heads.
"Okay boys, break it up," Siri said and began to wrench apart the 'handshake.'
"Nice grip," he said to Obi-Wan, finally releasing the death grip. He then turned to Siri and grinned again. "Come on now girl, we're just horsin' 'round. All good intention." He took her hand gently. Siri smirked and gripped his hand and twisted his arm around. She put his arm behind his back and pulled up as high as she could. Rather than the expected result of KJ bending over and yelping in pain he simply chuckled. "Well looks like she's got a bite bigger than he bark. Sorry babe, but you're gonna have ta do better than that." Taking the challenge, Siri put him into a headlock, attempting to crush the jugular. KJ twisted his head to the right, releasing most of the pressure on the vein. Now frustrated, Siri went for the kill switch and began to put pressure on his ….. manly portions with her knee.
"How's that?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"Nice and painful," KJ said in a very high and squeaky voice. Siri released her hold and stepped back, letting KJ stumble forward. KJ then dusted himself off and turned over to the Jedi with a bit of a goony grin. "I think she likes me!" He got a little laugh out of everyone and a bone-chilling glare from Siri. Without further ado, KJ proceeded to Garen. "Well this one looks a little more mellow," he said shaking Garen's hand clam and casually.
Garen sighed and said, "Yeah, I'm the reasonable one." KJ chuckled a bit.
"Keepin' the kids in line eh? That's what we got Gordon for. In case y'all didn't notice those three are all related. Richard and Jessie are twins. I'm just the friend." For a moment there was an awkward silence. Most of them were expecting KJ to break the ice again but he remained silent, carefully studying the Jedi and his new surroundings, carefully avoiding looking out the windows. Now it was Bant's turn again.
"So would you like to go to your rooms?" she asked. The boys all just shrugged and Jessie spoke up.
"That would be fantastic! I'm exhausted. Perhaps later on we could talk a little more. I'm sure you find us very strange and we are also curious about this place," she said pleasantly. Bant nodded and turned to her friends.
"I'll show them to the east wing, you three can go ahead and go back to the lightsaber lesson," she said gesturing to the for newcomers to follow. Jessie fell into step with her and the two immediately started to chat. KJ and Richard follow, murmuring to one another and breaking out into laughter every once in a while only to be followed by a glare from Jessie. Gordon took up the rear silently, simply observing his new environment. Obi-Wan, Garen, and Siri then turned on their heels and headed back to their training.
"Now that Bant's with them I hope I don't have to spar with Master Qui-Gon!" he exclaimed, sounding genuinely worried. Obi-Wan and Siri laughed and Obi-Wan patted Garen on the back.
"I'm sure my master will go easy on you," he said, fighting down his laughter. Garen simply groaned and kept walking along. It only took a moment of silence for all three of their minds to wander back to the four strange humans.
"Seems like the girl and Bant get along fine," Garen commented nonchalantly.
"That one boy better watch his back," Siri spat.
"I can't help wonder why he doesn't want to be called by his name," Obi-Wan said, furrowing his brow a bit and massaging his right hand. Siri glanced over at Obi-Wan for a moment and shrugged. She also saw him massaging his hand.
"He too tough for you, Kenobi?" she asked teasingly. Obi-Wan looked down at Siri and grinned.
"I went easy on him," he said to counter. Siri rolled her eyes.
"Sure Kenobi, just like you weren't eyeing that 'Jessie' girl," she said, "And don't deny it, because I saw you."
"I did no such thing!" Obi-Wan exclaimed, "And you're one to talk. It certainly looked like you were enjoying grabbing that 'Kelly' or 'James' or 'KJ' or whatever other names he may own!" Siri let out a growl of frustration.
"Get ready Kenobi, you're in for it now!" Siri said, pushing open the door to the training room where Qui-Gon was overseeing an exercise where two combatants had to balance on one foot and spar. Qui-Gon looked up to the three Padawans as they entered.
"Obi-Wan and Siri, you will pair up here. Garen, for the time being I will be your opponent," he said with a slight grin partly because he heard the squabble all the way from across the room and because of Garen's expression of pure dread. "And be sure to have your right hand tied behind you this time, Obi-Wan." As Obi-Wan and Siri walked over to their spot, Siri glaring at him the whole way, Obi-Wan sent a silent prayer to the Force and roped his right hand to the back of his belt………….
,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,.,.
Well there y'all go, Chapter 1! Not incredible I know but I'll storm up some ideas to get this party started! Please send me your thoughts, compliments, or complaints. And any sort of suggestions are great. I love hearing what ideas you may have for me!