Chapter 2:The Encounter
Later that night, back at the camp….
"Now, go back and tell me exactly what happened." The professor said, cocking his head as he always did when something suspicious went on.
"Well, we were fishing, right? But there weren't any fish, so the Skipper and I went to pick some bananas for dinner, and when we came back there was fish in the bucket." The first mate explained, nodding at his explanation.
"Did you two see anything unusual around the bucket? Like footprints or a weapon of some sort?" The professor asked. If the mystery person had left anything behind they could track them and find a way off this god forsaken island. The first mate knitted his eyebrow as he thought, then his eyes lit up with excitement as he picked up a strange metal tube and handed it to the Professor who immediately took an interest to it.
He turned it over in his fingers, noticing that it seemed made to fit someone's hand specifically and that there were multiple buttons. He must've hit the button that activated it, because a blade of pure green energy sprang to life, elongating into a blade, which hummed with energy.
Seven pairs of eyes all landed on him: the chocolate brown eyes of Mary Ann Summers, the green eyes of Ginger Grant, and the blue eyes of Thurston Howell III and his wife, Lovey Howell, all watched the Professor as his face was a washed in an eerie green glow.
The seven castaways were all silent, as they watched the professor swing the strange sword around, the hum singing with every movement.
"This is astounding," the professor muttered, just barely above a whisper. "The hilt seems to shape the blade, which seems to be made out of pure plasma."
"Not only that," the first mate added. "It's made up of energy." The Skipper took of his captain's hat and slapped it on Gilligan's head, although very lightly.
"That's what he just said Gilligan," the skipper said, shoving his hat back onto his head.
"I know that, but I was just translating," The first mate said, a dumb smile on his face.
"Oh golly Professor," Mary Ann said, drawing the attention back to the dilemma at hand. "W-who do you think made it?"
"Well, it's too advanced to be the work of any native, and I see no stamp of Department of Defense, so it must be independently made by the person who caught the fish for all of us." The professor theorized, pressing the same button he pushed to turn the strange device on, turning it off. He placed it on the communal table, the other staring intently at it.
"Whoever made it," the professor said, his eyebrows knitted in question. "They will come out and get it. And when they do, we'll be waiting." The professor went to the supply hut, probably to search his science books to see if he could find any information on the strange device, which sat on the bamboo table, glinting in the torch light.
"You know, I was in a science fiction movie," Ginger said, breaking the silence. "And there were these aliens who landed on this island, with a bunch of people and they started to abduct random people and experiment on them."
Mr. Howell scoffed at the movie star's comment. "No alien would dare experiment on a Howell. Why, I'd have those scoundrels' medical license revoked in an instant."
"Oh Thurston!" His wife, Lovey, exclaimed.
"Well, when you're rich you can do anything." Thurston joked, pinching his wife's cheeks. They bid the other castaways goodnight; following them were Gilligan, Mary Ann, then Ginger, and lastly the Skipper, all went into their respected huts and had a peaceful night's sleep.
Ahsoka pov
At last, the young Togruta found a big cave to sleep in, with a medium sized fire going, which cooked her dinner of fish. Once her stomach was full, she lay down, but something didn't feel right. The former Padawan had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach, like she got when she was anxious about a mission.
Slowly getting up, she patted her hip, feeling only her shoto and not her standard lightsaber. Groaning, she realized she must've dropped it back at the lagoon, and those humans took it back to camp with them. Quickly putting out her fire, she scaled a tree in less than five minutes, and in the distance spotted a line of smoke, which, according to her training, meant that there was a settlement. That was her destination, and quickly jumped from tree top to tree top, getting there with the moon guiding her.
Landing right outside the settlement, she scanned the clearing for any signs of danger. Seeing nothing, Ahsoka stepped out, and started to explore the little camp. There were five huts made out of bamboo and palm fonds, but each was different. Looking through a window of the closest one, she saw two females, one with pretty dark skin, and lushes brown hair, like Senator Amidala, the other with bright red hair, like Master Kenobi, and creamy skin. They were sleeping in separate bamboo beds with ratty blankets on top of them.
Deciding to take another risk, she peeked into another hut; just see what was in them. This one held an elderly couple; they also sleeping on separate bamboo beds, except unlike the other hut, this one smelled heavily of expensive perfume. Itching her nose, Ahsoka moved on to the next one, which housed a middle age, scholar-type person, with a well-built body. He had curly brown hair, and he was surrounded by different types of crates, which were labeled but Ahsoka couldn't make out the words. In the last hut, there were the same two people from earlier, although the boy was tossing fitfully in his sleep. In the dead center of the small little community there was a communal table, made also of bamboo…with Ahsoka's lightsaber sitting on it, gleaming in the torchlight.
Making sure that nothing was broken, she clipped it on her belt and turned to leave. But as she passed the hut with the scholar, she stopped. Peeking inside once again, she noticed a small, white bag with a giant red cross on it. Of course from her experience on the battlefield, she knew that was probably a medic bag, with needle and thread for stitches, antibiotics for cuts, bandages for more severe injuries and maybe some pain killers. That bag might come in handy, but Ahsoka couldn't steal the entire bag, so she opted for the bandages and a small bit of the pain killers. And besides, it wasn't like they were going anywhere. It didn't take long for her to realize that these people were like her: stranded, although she suspected they'd been here a lot longer than she.
Quietly opening the bamboo door and wincing at the slight creak, the young girl used her Jedi stealth to sneak in the hut, move around the man, and grab the bag. She was almost out the door, when a small snore which emanated from the human made her jump, but the thing that scared her most was the bloodcurdling scream that came from the other side, waking the man in the hut.
"Hey!" He said when he saw her. Quickly running, and making sure to stay to the shadows, Ahsoka darted out of, the med kit banging against her back. She continued to run until the trees grew dense and thick with vines and thorny roses, which scratched her burnt orange skin, causing the tiny cuts to form on her exposed skin. The shouts of her pursuers, her heavy breathing and the painful throb of her head injury became a symphony as she tried to make her way back to her little cave.
Getting lost twice, she finally made it back, but despite having a long, emotionally draining day, she still couldn't sleep due to the recent adrenaline rush and the fear of being caught. It was almost exactly like when she was running from the millions of clones hunting her on Coruscant while she was trying to prove that she didn't bomb the temple. The fear of being caught outweighed the risk for a quick sleep, even if she went deeper and deeper into the planets core where fewer clones were.
Her heart raced a million miles a minute as she rummaged through the med kit, smiling as she did so. Deep down, the Jedi part of her chastised and felt bad for stealing from people who probably needed it more than she does, but the un-Jedi part of her (yeah it's a thing) applauded her for being so successful, but also chastised her for being seen. Now they were probably going to hunt her down and do the Force knows what to her. But for now, she would just try and sleep; she had a long day tomorrow trying to contact someone, preferably Lux, but for that she needed tools and materials, and to get those she needed…to steal.
"Ugh," she groaned as she made a list of all her injuries: a throbbing head, most likely a concussion, a medium sized cut on her right jaw from hitting all the branches, and multiple cuts all over her arms and legs. Looking over her clothes, she continued to groan, growing grouchier by the minute. Her little red dress was torn in three places, and her leggings were torn beyond repair and dirtied.
Deciding to deal with her injuries first, she took out the gauze and started to wrap it around her head, thankful that her montrals weren't bigger yet. The painful headache eased to a dull throb, which made Ahsoka a little happier. After that, she walked to the back of the cave were a small pond sat, water dripping from a stalagmites. Leaning in, she started to clean the wound on her face, putting little antibiotics on it, and then dressing it. The young Togruta did the same for the smaller cuts, and before long, adrenaline rush had faded, and Ahsoka felt her eyes close against her will. She laid down, using a rock for her pillow and gravel as her mattress; the drip, drip of the water her lullaby and pretty soon she fell into a deep, blissful, dreamless sleep.
Gilligan's pov
Five minutes earlier….
Gilligan tossed and turned fitfully in his sleep, the nightmare consuming everything. He'd have nightmares like this sometimes when he had a stressful day or something bad almost happened to him, like when he was forced to be hunted down like an animal for Jonathan Kinkaid. Yeah, his fellow castaways probably thought that he shrugged it off, like he usually did, but it had scared him so bad, he was almost afraid of going in the jungle by himself.
Anyway, in his nightmare, everything was perfect, the sky was a brilliant blue, with only a few small fluffy clouds dotting the sky, the sun shining down on the young first mate and his little island home, warming him up, the water a brilliant aquamarine, so clear you could see the scales of the fish flash as the sun's ray caught them. And the first mate was sitting on the shore, enjoying a nice picnic with his little island family. Suddenly, the scene changed and he was back at the huts, each of them aflame, orange and yellow flames engulfing them. He watched in horror as each of the castaways tried to put it out. Gilligan tried to move, but for some reason his feet wouldn't work, they seemed glued to the ground! As he continued to struggle, the sand seemed to crawl up his legs, swallowing him, now engulfing his waist. He started to squirm and scream, hoping to get the others attention, but they just stood there laughing and pointing at him like he was some sort of freak.
The sand was up to his chest, crushing the air out of his lungs, making it difficult to breathe. His eyes widened as the young first mate's mouth and nose was covered up, Gilligan still screaming as darkness consumed him.
He woke up screaming, waking up the Skipper, and startling him so much that he fell out of his hammock. The Skipper quickly tried to calm his little buddy down, but he couldn't with him flailing around in his hammock, his eyes still closed.
"Gilligan wake up!" The Skipper shouted, worried about his little buddy. He still didn't wake up, but he stopped flailing. The Skipper shook Gilligan's shoulder until the first mate finally woke up, a wild look in his usually calm blue eyes.
"Wha-what happened?" He asked as he took in his surroundings.
"Gilligan, little buddy, you were having a nightmare," the Skipper explained.
"What in the name of the dime is going on here!" shouted Mr. Howell showing up at the crews' hut in his ninety dollar pajamas, clutching his teddy bear in one hand. Next to him was Lovey looking very discombobulated, wearing her silk nightgown.
"Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Howell," the skipper apologized for the clumsy first mate, who was still in his bed but fully awake. "Gilligan was having a nightmare, but he's alright now."
"Well I should say so," Lovey said, patting her curly hair. "The way he was shouting it sounded like someone was being massacred."
"Skipper? Gilligan? Is everything alright in here?" Ginger asked, wrapped in an orange beach towel, with Mary Anne wearing one of the Professor's shirt as a night shirt, appearing right beside her. They all looked at the Skipper and Gilligan with big worried eyes but the Skipper just assured them that Gilligan was alright and that it was just a dream.
As the castaways started to disperse and head back to their huts, the Professor came out of the jungle, which prompted Gilligan to ask, "Skipper why is the Professor coming out of the jungle?" The Skipper came to the window and found the scholar talking to the others with twigs sticking out of his hair.
"I don't know," the Skipper said, looking anxious. "Let's go ask him."
"Ah Skipper, I'd been meaning to talk to you," the Professor said when he spotted them. "The med kit was taken and I believe that there are some head hunters were here."
"Oh professor, are you sure? I mean it just could be some frightened person," the skipper said, hoping that the Head hunters hadn't returned.
"I'm certain that they have most likely returned to the island," he said pointing to the supply hut/lab. "One of them broke into my hut and stole the medical kit. I saw her as plain as day wearing what looked like ceremonial war paint and had a ceremonial headdress." Gilligan did a double take at what he said, not because of the big words but because he said 'she'.
"Wait did you say 'she?" Gilligan asked confused. The professor nodded his face a blank expression. "So the headhunter's a girl?"
"I concur that it is a tad anomalous that the headhunters would use a female to do anything dangerous, but with the way they did what is far out of the ordinary." the professor said, making Gilligan form a confused look on his face.
"What?" the first mate asked waiting for the translation. The Skipper looked at him with a look of exasperation, and being tired probably didn't help his temper.
"Gilligan, the Professor just said that it was strange that the headhunters would use a woman for anything dangerous, like sneaking around," The Skipper said and Gilligan smiled and nodded, happy that someone knew what the Professor was saying.
"Oh, that makes much more since," the first mate said.
"I propose we form a search party, to look for the missing medical kit, and we can set a trap for the headhunter as well."
"You're right Professor, but right now, I think we should all go and get some sleep." The skipper said, walking back to his hut with Gilligan on his tail. "We all need to be functioning at maximum level tomorrow."
"Yeah, and we need to be awake because of the headhunter." Gilligan said, causing he Skippers blood pressure to rise.
"GILLIGAN!" The skipper yelled chasing the first mate around the community until he relented and went back to sleep. Gilligan quietly walked into his hut and climbed into his hammock, wondering why a headhunter would take the weapon that was on the communal table. Sighing tiredly, the first mate felt his eyes close against his will.
Ahsoka pov…
Ahsoka awoke to the sound of birds chirping happily announcing the day's start. Stretching, she stepped outside her little cave, the sun felt perfectly warm.
Although, something wasn't right. Where was she? How'd she get here? Was she on a mission and did she get separated from her unit? She'll have to contact Master Skywalker…then it crashed down on her like a wave. The Jedi temple bombing. The chase. The Trial. Her decision not go back to the Jedi Order. The crash. And finally the encounter.
Ahsoka wondered how the natives reacted to her presence and wondered what they were going to do. Hopefully they wouldn't overreact like the Talz Master Skywalker told her about, how their anger got Chairman Cho killed. But most of that happened because of the Chairman of Pantora and his greed. But that's another story entirely.
Anyway, she decided to start the day by getting fruit, but unfortunately, she wasn't sure which fruits were edible and which were poisonous. Her stomach rumbled, which prompted her to hurry and find food.
"Maybe I could eat what those natives were eating yesterday," Ahsoka said to herself. "What'd they call it again? A bana?"
"Ah a banana!" a voice corrected. Startled, she ducked behind a bush, and peeking out she saw that boy from the camp, with the strange fruit in his hand. He was sitting under a tree, with a whole bunch of them clustered together. The boy was happily eating it that is until some sort of furry creature jumped down and snatched the one he was eating.
"Gladys," he said, running after the creature. "Get back here with my banana!" Ahsoka saw them coming this way, and so she retreated father back into the bush, hoping her grumbling stomach wouldn't give her away. The hairy creature jumped clean over her, but the boy, who attempted to do the same thing, didn't. Instead his leg hit Ahsoka on her shoulder, causing her to cry out and be pulled out of the bushes, and the human to lose his momentum and fall face first onto the ground. Rubbing her sore shoulder, she heard the boy groan, but he didn't sound that hurt.
"Oh boy, wait till I tell Skipper what happened," he muttered, and Ahsoka's heart started to beat so hard she was afraid it would come out of her chest. Slowly getting up so that not to get noticed she started it back, but he must've noticed the movement in his peripheral vision, because he started to turn towards her, making the young Togruta freeze in terror.
His blue eyes stared at her shoes, and he seemed surprised and little bit scared that he was staring at someone else's shoes. The boy's head moved further up, until his blue eyes met her blue eyes. The boy, whose name she suddenly remembered was Gilligan, opened and closed his mouth, but no sound came out of it. His eyes were huge, and they were filled with terror. Trying to seem friendly, she smiled, but that just made him more scared.
"SSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR! PPPPPPPPRRRRRROOOOOOOFFFFFEEEEEEEESSSSSEEEERRRRRRR!" He shouted. Ahsoka had been in enough battles to realize that he was calling reinforcements. Although the former Padawan could fight without her lightsabers, she was still badly injured from the other day, so taking the shouting as her cue to leave; Ahsoka jumped the bushes and headed towards the cave, leaving the boy to scream his head off. Unfortunately she got lost…
Mary Anne pov…
The innocent farm girl from Kansas was hanging laundry with Ginger and chatting with the Professor when she heard Gilligan yell for help. The conversation immediately stopped, and the Professor dashed into the jungle, leaving the two women to wonder and worry.
"Oh I hope Gilligan's alright," Mary Anne worried as she hung up some of the Skipper's pants. The movie star was taking down the dry clothes and folding them, putting them into a separate basket, shrugging at Mary Anne's statement.
"Well, I hope that it isn't that headhunter the Professor saw last night," she said, folding one of Gilligan's red shirts. "It might've been that he found something interesting and he wanted to show the Professor." At least she was optimistic, but poor Mary Anne's mind went to the worst case scenarios. What if he was hurt really, really, really bad? Without the medical kit, then he'd be up a creak depending on the severity of the injury. Or what if it was the headhunter and he was being held captive at sword point? Mary Anne voiced her concerns, but Ginger helped calm her down by taking her mind off things like the performance they were going to put on that night, or the exotic berries they found early that morning.
That did the trick, until the bushes rustled.
"Oh don't worry Mary Anne," Ginger said seeing the worried look on her friend's face. "It's probably just Gilligan or the Professor. "
"I feel like I'm on edge," she admitted. "I haven't felt like this since I was in grade school and I had to give a book report on a book that was too difficult to read."
"Really?" Asked Ginger, getting sucked into the story despite the rustling getting louder and louder, "what happened next?"
"Oh well, I was standing at the front of the class, and I was panicking so I just made stuff up at the top of my head, and it never had nothing to do with the book. Boy was the teacher mad! His face looked like a cherry tomato when I was done." The girls giggled, ignoring the continuing growth of the rustling. Suddenly, the rustling just stopped and they heard someone breathing really heavy then gasping in surprise.
Turning the girls saw a sight that made them freeze in fear. Mary Anne saw a light orange girl, wearing a tight maroon mini dress, which was torn in several places, with dark grey leggings, knee high matching boots, and elbow long gloves. She had a lighter red belt, crisscrossing, meeting a metal hexagon with an eggplant colored flap hanging out of it. On her face, she had white markings on her forehead, and cheeks, the most predominate shape was a diamond on her forehead. Her eyes were startlingly blue, mimicking the ocean water on a clear day, and on her head she had some sort of white headdress with blue stripes. It looked like it was fashioned to look like she had dull horns and weird head tail thingies.
The girls continued to stare as the girl closed her eyes for a minute, and Mary Anne noticed that she had a bandage around the headdress and on her face, with tiny little cuts all over her arms. Plus, her eyes kept darting to the picnic basket the girls brought for lunch. Inside there were several mangoes, a few bananas and a coconut crème pie that was still cooling. The young farm girl heard a grumble, which the unknown female winced at, and licked her lips, and continued to eye the basket.
"Ginger I think she's hungry," Mary Anne whispered to her friend who was holding Mr. Howell's boxers up like a shield.
"Well, what makes you think it's hungry? And how do you know it's a she?" she whispered back, keeping her eyes on the stranger. The girl's eyes flicked back and forth between the two, as if following an intense tennis match.
Not bothering to answer Ginger, Mary Anne bent down slowly, as not to startle or frighten the poor thing, and opened the basket, and pulled out two mangoes. Like feeding an animal back on the farm, Mary Anne slowly walked towards the young head huntress (or so she thought it was a headhunter) and put the fruit at her feet.
"Go on, it's alright," she coaxed. Narrowing her eyes the unknown female bent down, snatched the mangoes off the ground, and devoured them in less than five minutes before flashing a smile and darting into the trees. Not three seconds after, the Professor, the Skipper and Gilligan came crashing through the tree line, looking like they had run all the way.
"You ladies alright?" The Skipper asked, grabbing Mary Anne's hands with worry in his eyes. Mary Anne was happy that Skipper was worried; it almost likes\ her big brother Vern when she got lost for a few days in the cornfields. It was a BIG cornfield.
"Oh yes Skipper we're fine," Mary Anne said, hugging the big cuddly teddy bear.
"We're safe too," Ginger said, winking her heavily mascaraed eyes.
"I believe it is time for us to confront this head hunter," the professor said. "We should set several traps for him around the island, for maximum assurance."
"Yeah not only that we have the best chance in catching the crook," Gilligan translated, earning him a slap on the head by the Skipper.
"Let's get back to the huts," the professor said, leading the small group. Mary Anne and Ginger looked at each other and silently agreed to not to tell anyone except Gilligan.
Ahsoka pov…
Ahsoka walked in the right direction back to her cave; she couldn't help but think about the two humans she encountered. They could've called the others, they could've killed her, but they didn't. She had been showed kindness before from people like Hondo Ohnaka, but that was different. These girls gave her food, and it was delicious. Like a jogen fruit, but a little sweeter and lighter in color. It made her feel bad about stealing the med kit, so tonight when she was looking for food, she would return it. It ease her conscious a bit.
Arriving at her cave, she started to make her fire, but her head was throbbing nonstop. Feeling nauseous she vomited the contents of her stomach, collapsing right there, as the sun climbed the sky.