Well second chapter in. I'm glad to see that I got positive reviews over what was released. It was very gratifying that within an hour of releasing the story it was being read and favourited by people.
(Rae the demiBoss): I'm glad that you like what I've written so far, I'm very happy that the original author of this great work likes my continuation. Hopefully you will enjoy how this story develops in the future. To answer your question, the last loop was based in Dead Space.
(E): I'm afraid that I can't really write a Star Trek sketch on Tarsus IV as I have no real experience with the material. I haven't really seen much of the Original Series or read the novels. If you can come up with anything yourself feel free to send it to me via PM and I'll have a look.
(tseug backwards): Thanks for the suggestions. I might be able to write a Portal or Firefly crossover as I'm quite familiar with both stories. I'll have to think of a good concept of how it could play out.
'Speech' - talking through the bond
Please Read and Review
The Adventures of a Time Travelling Padawan Chapter 22
22.1 (numair2304)
"You have to make a connection-"
"Well then pass me that soldering iron." said Ezra as he worked on his latest project.
"You have to make a connection-"
"Alright." A thump was heard.
Kanan facepalmed. Why did he have to deal with an unawake Zeb as a padawan?
"When I said make a connection, I didn't mean with blunt instrument!"
"You have to make a connection-"
"Who with?"
"You have to make a connection- Here you go."
Ezra caught the item thrown to him.
"What's this?" he said looking at the item, a book he realised.
"Something to help you learn."
Ezra read the title 'How to Make a Connection' then he noticed some smaller print beneath, 'for Dummies'.
"Seriously?"
"You have to make a connection- what are you doing?"
"Working on my social networking." Ezra typed away at his tablet.
"You have to make a connection-"
Ezra yelped as the creature launched itself at him, only to be completely baffled when it proceeded to purr and rub itself on him.
Kanan laughed, he had thought it worth a try to plant some catnip on Ezra's clothing.
"You have to make a connection-"
"Канан? Почему вы так говорите?"
"Make a connection, you must-"
"Stop channelling Yoda!"
"You have to make a connection-what are you looking at?"
Kanan noticed that Ezra wasn't paying attention to the lesson, not surprising as they were both Awake, but what was surprising was that he was focused intently on something behind Kanan. Kanan quickly put two and two together and facepalmed.
'It's not baseline is it?'
'Doesn't appear to be.'
"Excuse, are you Kanan Jarrus?"
"Yes, who's asking?" Kanan turned around and found himself facing a vehicle. It definitely didn't appear to be from their loop and appeared to be just an average gas powered jeep. What he didn't see was who had been talking to him a second ago.
"Down here."
He lowered his eyesight and noticed two little creatures standing just in front of the vehicle. One of them was dressed in what appeared to be a red jacket of some kind and seemed to be the one talking.
"Hello, I am Alexsander Orlov and this is Sergei." He motioned to the other one. "Recently you bought insurance through comparethe******dot***."
"I did?" Kanan hadn't looked too closely at his loop memories after confirming the more important ones but even so he was sure that his unAwake self hadn't bought insurance. It was not like you could even be insured against damages caused by the Empire.
The paler creature who had been referred to as Sergei held up a stuffed toy that shared his likeness.
Alexsander started talking again."Congratulations! Here is your cuddly reward from the villages of Meerkovo for knowing your meerkats from your markets."
Kanan just looked on with a blank face. He had no idea on how to react to this situation.
'Ezra what's going on?'
'I haven't a clue either!'
Sergei handed the toy over to Kanan and he took it pensively. Sergei smiled.
"It's a mini me".
Alexsander glanced over at Sergei, focusing on his fur, then put a hand up to one side of his mouth and whispered to Kanan.
"He may moult a bit."
With that said he climbed into the jeep's passenger seat and called to his associate.
"Come Sergei, we have other places to be."
The one called Sergei seemed to give a sigh and climbed into to the driver's seat. As the vehicle started Kanan heard over the sound of the engine Alexsander talking.
"To get exclusive meerkat toy, get insurance through comparethe******dot***. Simples."
As the vehicle was driven away, Kanan turned to Ezra.
"Ezra, what just happened?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"You have to make a connection-"
"Uh, Kanan?" An unAwakeEzra stared behind him.
"Hey buddy. I need some help, just don't panic when you see me."
Kanan tensed as he suddenly heard a voice from behind him. He threw out his senses to detect any threat but nothing registered. He relaxed slightly maybe the multiverse had run out of things to throw at him. He quickly cursed himself for his stupidity, you shouldn't tempt fate especially with the loops. He tried to prepare for whatever the multiverse had decided to throw at him this time. He had faced Freddy Fazbear, Slendemen and Chopper in full on prank mode, he could weather this storm. Kanan steeled himself and turned to face the voice.
"I don't know where I am and I need to find my boy Charlie; can you help at all?"
Kanan looked into the smiling face of terror and fainted dead away.
"Well that's useful. Do you know hard it is to check on vitals with stick hands. Kid, could you check to see if he's ok?"
Ezra stared at the being, he knew that there was a lot of life out there in the universe but a life form that appeared to be made of snow was definitely a new one. He looked on in wonder as the living snowman hovered over Kanan trying to wake him up.
"Who are you? What are you?"
"Name's Jack Frost kid. As to why I look like this, short version the universe can be very unoriginal."
22.2 (numair2304)
"You have to make a connection-"
"Uh Kanan." Ezra twitched. This was NOT baseline.
"What is it Ezra" Kanan turned around and looked down. Instead of the usual suspect, there was a new creature holding what appeared to be a book.
'Well this is new. What is it and why is it blue?'
Ezra searched his memories. The last time he had found himself in the Hub universe he had looked up as much information as he could relating to their loop. He had also started researching other fictional works to try and prepare for any future fused loop. This had included other works by Disney and he thought he recognised the little guy.
'I think his name is Stitch. Be silent for a bit and let me try something'
Ezra walked over with his hands open to try and show that he didn't mean any harm. He knelt down so that their eye levels would match.
"Hi there, my name is Ezra and this is Kanan. What's your name?"
"Stitch. My name is Stitch."
"What are you doing here?"
"Waiting."
"For what?"
"Family."
Ezra had tried a Ping but had received no response from the little blue guy. He couldn't see any signs that Stitch was Awake.
"Do you want to travel with us? We move around a lot so we cover a lot of ground, there would be a good chance that we could run across your family."
'Ezra, do you think it's wise to have him travelling with us. We've not got a particularly safe lifestyle.'
'Trust me Kanan, if what I remember is right Stitch should be able to look after himself. I just don't like the idea of leaving him out here on his own.'
Stitch seemed unsure. Ezra dug into his memory, he definitely didn't want to leave the little guy here alone.
"I know what it is like to be lost; I lived alone for such a long time. I was so used to it that I didn't realise how much it hurt. I have a family now; I found it all on my own. It's little and broken but still good. My friends, they're my family now, they're my ohana. Do you know what that means?
Stitch nodded. "Ohana, ohana means family, family means that nobody gets left behind or forgotten."
"Will you let us help you? I don't want you to be left behind alone. So will you please come with us?"
Stitch seemed to make up his mind and nodded.
"Ih."
The Inquisitor grabbed the leaping fyrnock with the Force and threw it to one side
"This was your plan?"
He laughed keeping his eyes on the two seated Jedi further back in the cave.
"To lure us here and allow these creatures to do your work for you."
"Feeboogoo!"
There was a flash of blue and suddenly there was a new figure on the field standing between the Inquisitor and the rebels. Ezra was startled to see Stitch standing there with all four arms extended, ready for battle, facing down the Inquisitor. He couldn't understand how he could have missed Stitch somehow joining them in the Phantom and following them to the asteroid cave. Kanan feeling Ezra's connection drop due to his surprise boosted his own to encompass all the fyrnocks to keep them calm.
"Stitch! What are you doing here? You were supposed to stay with the rest of crew!"
Stitch didn't look back at them, keeping his gaze fixed on the Inquisitor.
"Nobody gets left behind!"
"Another creature to stand between you and defeat. How pathetic!"
The Inquisitor stepped forward and raised his lightsaber. He would slice through this new creature and get rid of the Jedi's last line of defence.
"Ika patooba!" Stitch said with a sneer not moving an inch.
The Inquisitor brought his lightsaber down hard.
Kanan and Ezra stood side by side and looked out over the grassland. In the distance they could see Stitch being chased by an unAwake Zeb. Stitch had managed to get hold of Zeb's bo-rifle and was having a fine old time playing keepaway.
"Ezra, are you absolutely sure that he's not Awake?"
"From what I can tell he's not, he didn't react to the Ping and his soul doesn't feel that old."
"You mean this is truly his baseline abilities? Ezra, he managed to stop the Inquisitor's lightsaber with his bare hands!" While still shocked at what Stitch had done, he had to admit that one of his fondest memories from now on was going to be the look on the Inquisitor's face when Stitch managed to block the lightsaber strike.
"You think that's bad. The loop he's from, a large portion of his family is made up from his fellow experiments, all of which have unique abilities and talents. If he starts looping there's a good chance that either he'll end up replacing the rest of his family through the loops and acquire their abilities or they all will start looping as well. He's number 626, you do the maths."
Kanan thought on this as he watched over the two. Zeb had now regained his bo-rifle and Stitch was now dodging blows as Zeb attacked with its staff form. There was no anger involved now however, Stitch seemed to have got Zeb to look on the lighter side and they were now seemly having a friendly spar. He considered the trouble that a new bunch of loopers with a variety of abilities could bring to the loops but in the end decided that even if the whole lot of them start looping he doubted that they would be anything like as chaotic as a looping Chopper.
22.3 (numair2304)
Twilight Woke up to find herself reading the Tale of the Two Sisters again. Wait. That wasn't the tale this time.
When Ezra arrived in Ponyville, he was interested to see Twilight on the outskirts apparently waiting for him.
"Welcome to Ponyville, Ezra. It's nice to see you again."
"It's nice to see you again Twilight. The name's Crystal Artifice for this loop. Who else is Awake?"
"All the normal bearers and Spike. However this loop appears to be a variant which I assume has something to do with your presence. We're not dealing with a Nightmare Moon this loop but a stallion called Callous Moon."
Ezra thought on this and realised. "Oh, you've got to be kidding!"
"What do you know who it is?"
"I've got a pretty good idea. Do you mind if we mess with the timeline and grab the Elements early so that they can be used straight away?"
The curtains opened to reveal an imposing stallion wreathed in jet-black armour.
"Greeting mine subjects. At long last your true lord has returned. My Empire shall stretch beyond the stars."
"Now!" was all that was heard before a prismatic light hit the figure. When the lightshow had died down, a much smaller figure was left kneeling on the stage.
"Ohhh. my head. Where am I? What am I?"
Ezra approached the pony. "Are you Awake? It's me, Ezra."
"Ezra? Why do look like that? Where are we? What is this place?"
"Welcome to Equestria, Yoyo. I think you'll enjoy the change of pace."
22.4 (numair2304)
"Ezra?"
"Yes Kanan?"
"Why are we doing this?"
"It's a running gag that Twilight and Rarity have been doing so I thought we could try it out."
"Kanan?"
"Yes Ezra?"
"Why are Jedi and Sith armed with cutlery this loop?"
"Just focus and trust the forks."
"Kanan?"
"Yes Ezra?"
"Why in a universe that has such a wide selection of weaponry do the Jedi rely on the equivalent of swords in a gunfight?"
"Because they look cool."
"Ezra?"
"Yes Kanan?"
"You're not doing this. We're not going to let you."
"Kanan, this is the first time I have ever seen the Ghost existing as a Gunmen for real in our loop. This is a prime opportunity."
"Ezra, I don't care how unlikely a scenario it is for the Ghost to be a Gunmen in a loop. You are not going to fuse a Gunmen and a piece of the Allspark together. I heard what happened with Ranma and the Death Stars."
"Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
"I heard from Hera that the last time you experimented with the Allspark we had a Transformer appear in our loop, luckily he was Awake and friendly. The way I see it you have a good chance of creating Unicron or the Anti-Spirals. The worst case scenario is that you manage to create a fusion of the two, so no experimenting with fusing Spiral Power with the Allspark."
"Aww!"
22.5 (numair2304)
TheIronSpeaker: Yoyo you Awake?
Yoyo'd: What do you want?
TheIronSpeaker: We've got our fight coming up soon
TheIronSpeaker: I just wanted to know if you wanted an all out fight or to set some handicaps to limit the damage.
Yoyo'd: Let me guess, Kanan had a chat with you about that asteroid blowing up last time we fought.
TheIronSpeaker: He wouldn't shut up about it, we weren't to blame that it had a fault line through its core.
Yoyo'd: It would be nice to go with the basics.
Yoyo'd: Shall we say bo-rifles only and no abilities from outside loops?
TheIronSpeaker: Sounds fun, just make sure that your troops keep out of the way.
Yoyo'd: I'll task them with capturing the others.
Yoyo'd: That should occupy them completely.
Yoyo'd: Now that's settled, I have a question for you.
Yoyo'd: How competent do think my unawake self is at tactical decisions; avoiding the whole evil issue?
TheIronSpeaker: What do you mean?
Yoyo'd: Do you remember, during the Wookie rescue, when at the end of the encounter Kanan was standing on the Ghost a good 20 feet away from me in the air.
Yoyo'd: Why in the world did I think it made any tactical sense to fire a blaster at him?
Yoyo'd: At that distance he could have dodged or deflected easily and indefinitely; with the lightsaber he couldn't have hit me at that range.
Yoyo'd: The tactic to use should have been either focus on the kids or try to get a good hit on the Ghost itself.
TheIronSpeaker: I understand what you mean, firing a low yield blaster at a Jedi is never a recipe for victory especially at a distance.
TheIronSpeaer: You can make the case however that your decision making was thrown off slightly by your surprise of encountering a Jedi.
TheIronSpeaker: What I really don't understand about that scenario is how Kanan even managed to get on top of the Ghost.
TheIronSpeaker: I'm sure that 30 seconds earlier he was standing right beside me in the container.
22.6 (numair2304)
Down in the sewers Ezra was facing towards an extractor fan that they had just blocked their path after running from the Empire's forces. Beside him stood an Awake Hera and Senator Traysis.
"How are we getting past this thing?" Hera asked.
"We could cut its power" Ezra answered, his body and voice running through the scenario in automatic as his mind thought back on what they had planned earlier. With all of them Awake early this loop Ezra had suggested a baseline run with one exception and the others had agreed.
"That's enough. We're not going anywhere." Hearing that Ezra knew it was showtime. He turned to see Traysis holding a blaster on him and Hera, he quickly slipped into his original role.
"Whoa! Senator? What are you doing?"
"Put your saber down, boy. Now!"
"You're, you're with the Empire?"
Hera cut in. "But all your transmissions, those planets you visited. How did word not get out about you?"
Traysis was smug as he vaunted his supposed control of the situation. He bragged about his actions, seemingly proud of what he had accomplished, with Ezra inserting his own comments into the monologue keeping to the original script..
"Because no one ever knew, not even my own droids. Insurgents are not arrested. They're identified and watched. The troublesome ones have accidents after I'm gone."
"But you're not a traitor. You're a voice of freedom, a light in the darkness, like my parents!"
"Parents? No one has spoken against the Empire on Lothal since the Bridger transmissions. I remember them. The original voices of freedom. You're their son."
"Why? Why?!"
"I joined the Empire like your parents should have for their lives, for you. Your parents were very brave and very foolish. Where are they now? I'll tell you, my boy. They're gone!" At that Ezra had to hold himself back, to stay in character, even with the loops the chances of him locating his parents was slim to nonexistent.
"They're not gone, Trayvis." Hera started walking towards Trayvis. He aimed the blaster at her, a slight fear appearing on his face.
"Stop right there!"
"As long as we fight, all that they spoke out for lives on."
"I said stop!" Traysis pulled the trigger but all that came from the blaster was a click. "What?" He tried the trigger again frantically. "No!"
Hera retrieved the blaster from him with her right hand before following up with a punch to his face from her left. Though she was tempted to put all her strength behind the blow she held back, using just enough force to definitely leave a mark but not enough to render him unconscious. Traysis hit the floor hard clutching his bruised face.
"A true rebel would know if he's holding a charged blaster."
Ezra switched back to the conversation, glad that the acting was now over. "Thank you for proving our suspicions, Senator, too many of your leads turned out to be Imperial traps. Did you get all that Chopper?" Ezra looked up behind Traysis high on the wall where the droid was perched just inside of one of the pipe openings.
'Yep, even got multiple angle shots for editing later.'
Traysis, still on the floor holding his face, heard only the usual chirps and whistles in the reply and took a while to realise what Ezra had asked. "Got what?"
Hera took over. "We got it all Traysis, a full confession recorded, oh and by the way congratulations Senator that just went live to the Empire. We piggybacked on your broadcast, now everyone knows the truth about you."
"What are you going to do with me?" There was only fear left in Traysis's face, it appeared that he was the kind of individual who could be brave only when he thought he had an advantage over the opponent.
"We'll leave you to explain to the Empire how easily you gave away their methods for locating rebels and how they're dealt with. I suspect the Empire won't be happy with you."
They vacated the area leaving Traysis just sitting there, looking at the ground with a blank stare, seemingly unable to cope with the new future ahead of him.
Later the whole Awake crew was watching the edited production, Chopper had even included subtle music cues for changes in the plot's direction. One scene of particular note was Hera's punch shown in slow-motion making contact with Traysis' cheek. After the film finished the protagonists took a bow to applause from the rest of the crew. Ezra finished with "I would like to thank all of you for your participation. I would also like to say that all credits for this fine piece of work go to Hera for her acting skills, Chopper for his excellent camera work and editing skills; and Yoyo for leading the search party in the wrong direction to buy us time"
22.7 (numair2304)
Ezra paced around the lounge swearing under his breath as he linked up with this loop's memories. He had Woken up late this loop and been unable to prevent Kanan's capture and the destruction of the comms tower by the Empire. He hated Waking up so late in the loop as there was no real time left to rescue Kanan depending on if they could even find him.
It didn't help that they had to go through the process of sending Chopper in undercover to extract the location of Kanan's imprisonment. Even with the foreknowledge that Kanan was held onboard Governor Tarkin's Stardestroyer, the Sovereign, that didn't guarantee a rescue as the location of the ship could alter depending on the loop; in one bad case the information they'd acquired stated that Kanan had been sent straight to the Mustafar system after his capture. In any normal situation he could have hacked the information out of the Empire's datanet in less than ten seconds but thanks to the Empire always taking out their own comms tower, the datanet was down and he couldn't hack what wasn't there. He also couldn't track him down through their padawan bond as Kanan was usually too weak for him to detect unless he was close enough.
He had promised himself that he would make sure that they would rescue Kanan but the simple truth of the matter was that, unless Kanan or Yoyo Woke up, there was little chance of them locating Kanan, let alone rescuing him before the loop ended. He resolved to try better this loop; he wouldn't let Kanan remain the Empire's prisoner.
22.1: Making a Connection cont. Can't escape from advertising even in the multiverse.
Канан? Почему вы так говорите? - Kanan? Why are you speaking like that?
22.2: Originally this started as just another Making a Connection gag but as I developed the sketch ideas kept coming. When I first started writing the inclusion of Stitch into the connection running gag it was just a bit of fun, but as I developed the sketch more the idea grew. I realised that there were some parallels between Ezra and Stitch. Both of them were alone and though they didn't realise it at first they hated being lonely. They gained a family as time went on. An unconventional family true but a family nonetheless. I also want to say that if people complain and say that he shouldn't be able to stop a lightsaber like that, I would like it noted that he can juggle plasma blasts with his bare hands in his original story. Just in case people don't know what Stitch is saying here's the translations:
Ih - Yes
Feeboogoo - Bring it on
Ika patooba - Baldy.
22.3: Yoyo gets a holiday in a sanctuary loop.
22.4: Just a bit of fun that I thought of after reading through Saproneth's MLP loops again. Not sure that it works, so would welcome reviews.
22.5: Just a question I've been wondering myself since I watched Spark of Rebellion again recently.
22.6: Part of me wishes that Hera could have hit him harder but getting Traysis in trouble with the Empire is also good.
22.7: Into Rebels Resolve now. I'm hoping to move the plot along especially since I haven't allowed myself to watch the next season until I finish the loop to that point so that the story will still be fresh and new to me.