A/N: I apologize that I haven't updated in a while! Hopefully, I'll get something else up sooner than it took to get this chapter up!


"Gildar, we're gonna have company!"

Gildar glanced behind him in the direction of Thorne's voice. He and Skabb were dashing down the hall of the dungeon, with the barbarian a few meters behind the viking. Skabb had also looked back, and there was an undesicive expression on his face. A few seconds later, he glanced at Gildar before making a u-turn.

"Gildar, you keep going!" he cried. "I'll help Thorne!"

"Alright!" Gildar cried as he ventured onward toward the prison cells.

Skabb took a right turn, then met up with Thorne at the end of the corridor. The blue-streaked Rebel glared at him as he adjusted the positioning of the gun in his hands.

"This is exactly why spies shouldn't scream 'Skabb rules' when they're freeing a princess," he growled.

Skabb gave Thorne a look, then knelt down at the other end of the hall's frame. The two stared intently out into the control room, their eyes narrowed and bright with determination, then waited...

When the doors to the control room slid open, over twenty Imperial troops flowed through. Immediately, the firing began.

"Rain of Thorne!" the mohawked-warrior cried.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Skabb screamed.

Meanwhile, Gildar had made it to Cell 23. The viking was scanning the metallic door, trying to figure out how to get inside. Before long, he decided that he would use his superior viking strength to break the door down.

Gildar put himself in a stance. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, then, with a yell, ran at the silver door. He slammed himself hard into it - and fell to the ground immediately afterwards.

Inside the prison cell, Ballista, who had been alseep, had woken with a start. Carefully listening, she could hear the loud explosions of firing blasters. She narrowed an eye, then slowly pushed herself up.

What's going on?

Outside, Gildar was busy cringing and rubbing his sore side. He groaned to himself.

Well, that didn't work.

The viking surveyed the metallic door again, then noticed that there was a security panel to the left of it. Shaking off the pain in his left side, left arm, and the slight feeling of humiliation in his chest, he whipped out the blaster attached to his recently bought belt.

The red and gold Rebel aimed at the panel and fired. It exploded, resulting in the metallic door sliding open. Gildar waved the swirling smoke from his face as best as he could, then dashed inside the cell.

Gildar emerged from the cloud of thick smoke with his eyes shut, coughing and waving more smoke away. He then announced between multiple heaves for fresh air, (only for his lungs to be filled with more of the vaporized grime, thus making him cough), "The mighty - Gildar - has ar - arrived!"

Ballista stared at him as he continued coughing, unsure exactly how to respond. Before she could comment in any way, the smoke had cleared away completely, and the viking slowly straightened up. He took a deep breath of clean(er) air before he spoke again.

"Okay, your Highness," he said, opening his eyes and quickly glancing at her, "you're free, now we've really got to..." Gildar blinked, then turned his full attention to the princess. He completely lost his train of thought as he stared at her beautiful face outlined with her glimmering blonde hair and radiated by her sparkling steel-blue eyes.

His jaw gradually dropped as he continued to gaze at her. "Whoa..."

The huntress crossed her strong arms and hardened her expression. Nevertheless, the viking still approached her to get a better look at her face. After another moment, he smiled at her in an impressed yet cocky sort of way.

"You know, I don't meet that many people who are almost as gorgeous as me."

Ballista glared at him. "Oh, please; I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll realize that's not too hard to do."

Gildar tilted his head a bit, slightly taken aback at her sassy remark. Suddenly, a loud explosion from outside grabbed both his and Ballista's attention.

"This way, princess!" the red and gold Rebel cried, running for the door.

The huntress dashed after Gildar and out the prison cell. The viking attempted to lead the princess to the dungeon's exit, but she already seemed to know where to go.

After taking a few turns, the duo found themselves in the middle of the fight with Skabb and Thorne.

"It's about time you showed up!" Thorne yelled over the blasting. "Now help us push these losers back!"

"Alright, what's the plan?" the huntress asked.

Skabb and Gildar looked at each other, then over at Thorne. The alchemist gritted his teeth as a red bolt of energy nearly shaved off his mohawk.

"Stay alive!" he screamed.

Ballista crossed her arms, ignoring the lasers flying past her. "Well, this is some rescue," she sarcastically commented. "You three infiltrated the Death Star to rescue me, yet failed to make up an escape plan?"

"And you're welcome," Gildar replied with an award-winning smile, earning an unimpressed look from the princess. A laser beam suddenly tore by the viking's hair, making him jump and drop his gun. "Ahh!"

The huntress rolled her eyes, then slid under the next glowing red beam and grabbed Gildar's gun from the floor. With a whirl, she was up on her feet again and taking aim. Clenching her teeth and fiercely narrowing her eyes, she fired.

"I've got 'em," she said, moving in front of Gildar. "You just stay behind me."

Gildar frowned indignantly. "Hey, now wait just a minute!" He stepped besides her. "That's not how it works! You're the damsel in distress, I do the rescuing!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ballista replied, flipping back her blonde hair. "Leave the shooting to the huntress, pretty boy."

Gildar was about to say something else when another beam flew past him, making him jump. Realizing that he couldn't defend himself without a gun, and that he wouldn't get his back, he groaned and reluctantly moved behind Skabb.

The onslaught continued for about another minute.

"There's too many of them!" Skabb yelled.

"Oh, ya think?" Ballista hissed back.

The princess delivered another shot to an unfortunate trooper and quickly scanned the area. When she located a large grate, she fired at it, creating a large hole in the in the wall.

"What are you doing?!" Gildar demanded.

"Everyone in there!" Ballista shouted.

With that, the Celtian princess hopped through the hole and slid down wherever it led to. Thorne glanced skeptically at the hole, then delivered a few more shots to the enemy. Afterwards, he dashed for it and followed Ballista down the chute.

Skabb glanced at the hesitant viking between a few shots. "Gildar, in!"

Gildar took another step closer to the hole, then wrinkled his nose immediately after. "But it smells terrible!"

"Oh really? Guess what, I DON'T CARE! NOW GET IN THERE!"

"But-"

"Skabb Rule #2: ALWAYS DO WHAT SKABB SAYS OR SKABB WILL SMACK YOU!"

The viking groaned. "Alright, fine!"

Gildar looked down the hole again, cringed, and finally jumped in. Skabb shot down a few more troops, then cried out-

"SKABB RULES! HA HA!"

With that, the barbarian bounded backwards, leapt into the hole, and slid down the dark chute, having no idea where he would end up.