Chapter 10:
I Gotta Be Me!
Sylar Exile and his minion, the evil twin Skippy watched as Cal and his crew, now joined by Swagger Vasa, exited through the port-of-call after showing the Port Authority their starport visas.
Unlike everybody else in the story, Sylar had no sense of humor. He had hoped to keep Cal trapped in the Western Square when the Jedi had decided not to play by the rules. He had known it would be cut off when Vaklu's fighters bombed it. He had to admit that was the only thing about the clueless Jedi he did like—skipping parts of the game, but it wasn't enough.
Cal practically shone like a beacon, his Force powers were so strong now and that greatly interested Sylar. The man playing his side of the game was the real Sylar and he was not a genius when it came to mods like Cal's Chuck or Hiro, but he had given Sylar Exile the ability he had, which was to take others' powers. It was time to bleed Cal dry again. He just needed to get him alone.
He turned to regard his bruised, bloody minion. Vasa had really done a number on him.
"Since you can't handle this on your own, get a gang together. They should be going to Dantooine if Cal follows the Guide. I want you to arrange an ambush. He should head to the Enclave, but knowing Cal, he'll get there later than you. He'll find something noble to do before he arrives."
"Over the bug I planted on Swagger when he was beating the crap out of me, I heard them say they might skip going back to Dantooine." Skippy winced and wiped blood from where a tooth had scored his lip when Swagger smacked him in the face.
Sylar tightened a fist. "Did they say where they are going?"
"Didn't seem to know, and once they take off, the bug will be useless." Skippy's eye brightened; the other was shut from Swagger's other fist connecting with his face. "I have an idea." He leaned close to his mentor and whispered his plan.
Sylar nodded in agreement. "That just might work. Keep in touch and see if you can maneuver Cal somewhere I can reach him."
Skippy saluted. "Will do!"
He hurried through the port bay door and was just in time, since the Ebon Hawk and the Seeker were about to lift off. He raised his hands over his head and jumped up and down to catch the pilots' attention.
He was betting everything on his brother, and he was not surprised when the Ebon Hawk loading ramp lowered and Saunter came down, along with the pilot. He did not see the Jedi, but he covered his disappointment well. It was not hard to do what with all the bruises on his face.
Saunter was horrified at the way his twin looked. He gazed into his one open eye and tried to find out if Skippy was on the level. His twin could charm the birds out of the sky when he put his mind to it.
Skippy raised his hands when Atton drew his blaster. "I just need to talk to my brother," he pleaded, going to his knees, placing his hands on top of his head.
"Give me just a moment," Saunter asked Atton, who nodded.
"I'll have the quad gun trained on you, kid, so don't try anything stupid," the pilot promised and he went back into the ship.
"You look terrible." Saunter swallowed hard. Skippy was his brother after all. Swagger had certainly not held back—his lesson had been meant to be a harsh one.
"I...feel terrible," Skippy confessed, forcing tears to flood from his one good eye. "Not from the beating. I...had that coming. I feel bad because of what I did to you and what I meant to do to him." He put on his most sincere face. "I've seen the light, Bro. I swear! Never again!" He stood when Saunter pulled him to his feet and the brothers hugged, then drew apart after the obligatory three slaps to each other's backs that proved they were manly men.
"You should come with us." Saunter wiped his eyes, unashamed of the tears.
Skippy shook his head. "I can't, Bro, but what I can do is pass on a warning. Don't go to Dantooine whatever you do. Sylar Exile is going there and is going to kill all the Jedi Masters."
Alarm blazed in Saunter's eyes. "K-kill them? I have to tell Cal! He'll—we'll stop him."
Skippy played his golden pazaak card. "He also took all his droids and told me he's going to destroy them, but don't tell Cal that, or he'll think he has to go rescue them." Skippy knew his twin loved droids, too, and was counting on Saunter not being able to keep his mouth shut about their fate.
Saunter's eyes widened and he clenched his fists.
"I'm too badly hurt to help. I'm heading for the medic." Skippy hung his head in shame. "I'm so sorry, Bro. I hope this makes up for everything I did."
Saunter thought back to all the sibling cruelty he'd put up with all his life and knew it wasn't enough, but it was a start. "Thanks, Skip."
The two brothers hugged once more. As soon as the ship took off, Skippy put a finger down his throat and gagged. "I canNOT believe he's my twin!" He grinned diabolically as he reported his success to Sylar aboard his ship The Evil League of Evil.
Once back inside the ship, Saunter hurried to the cockpit and asked Atton to patch him through to The Seeker. Swagger's voice snapped at him over the comm.
"What is it, kid?"
"I...have a favor to ask you." Saunter told the bounty hunter what he had in mind.
There was a long, ominous silence and then Swagger told Atton to meet him on Dxun.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Saunter," Atton told him as he set course for the moon.
"We have to give Swagger what Mira took from the museum and the 4,000 credits from Queen Victoria—I mean, it was her secrets we stole after all." He noticed Atton banging his head on the console. "Oops. Wrong queen?"
(Director cues music)
Atton pulled an electric guitar from under the console and a spotlight came on.
"I've paid my dues.
Time after time.
Cal's as dumb as they come
Hey, that doesn't rhyme!
And bad mistakes, he's made a few.
I stay by his side; my comments are snide
His mind's lobotomized!
He is the champion of puns
What he does, he does all in fun.
Cal is the champion.
Cal is the champion.
No time to level up
He's dumb as a paper cup.
All the time!
The Seeker rose smoothly and Swagger, in the pilot's seat had seen the touching tableau below, so it had come as no big surprise to him when Saunter begged him to meet him on Dxun. He emitted a low whistle and it elicited the expected response. His partner and Merc brother-in-arms Kit Flynn joined him in the cockpit.
"How's our guest?" Swagger asked as he banked his ship in a wide, sweeping turn.
"Locked up in my quarters." Kit Flynn was a broad-shouldered man with a half inch more in height than Swagger. His eyes were a twinkling, mischievous blue framed in a ruggedly handsome face that was crowned with brown hair that stuck out in all directions.
Where Swagger was lean and whip cord slender, Flynn was a grizzly—powerfully built and very good with a blaster and his fists. The two men were the perfect foil for each other and had been together so long, they could almost communicate non-verbally, although Flynn was one of the most verbal men in the galaxy. He had a ribald sense of humor and not a bad singing voice, which seems to be mandatory in this story.
"I told you to put him on ice in the brig." Swagger punched Flynn hard on the shoulder.
"First off, ow! Second, who died and made you my boss?" Flynn looked mutinously at his partner. "Third, when do I get to sing?"
"When the moment calls for it and I can get my hands on a good pair of ear plugs." Swagger smirked. "Take the comm, Flynnie. I'll go put my prisoner in the brig where he belongs."
"Ya know, Swag, Cal's a pretty decent guy... I mean, for a Jedi."
"Whatever." Swagger strode from the cockpit and escorted Cal from Flynn's quarters to the brig. He noticed how nervous the Jedi was, eyes flicking in the sockets, biting his lower lip, taking calming breaths. "What is your problem?" he asked finally, about to shut the door to the brig.
"Flynn said you wanted him to put me on ice. I hope you've changed your mind about that."
"Ya know, Cal, you taking everything literally's going to get you into trouble some day. Starting now if you do not shut up."
"Swagger, my team said they'd give you the 4,000 credits the queen gave us as a down payment for the bounty we owe you."
"I already knocked off 5,000 for the starport visa and so that would be 9,000." Swagger held up a small holorecorder that showed a holo of Cal and the words Wanted Dead or Alive, With or Without his Head, the Exile Cal I'bur. "The bounty on you is 500,000 credits, so, as you can see, you're way short."
Cal frowned. "I am? I mean, you are taller than me, but only by a couple of inches..."
The next thing that could be heard was a shriek and then more muffled cries and then Swagger left the poor Jedi to his own devices, of which he had none, since Vasa had divested him of everything except his clothes and boots.
"What was that noise?" Flynn asked. "Did you do something to him?"
"He's in the brig where he can't make a nuisance out of himself. Land near that waterfall. Room for us and the Hawk."
Flynn gave Swagger a one-finger salute and adeptly landed the ship near the waterfall. As he and Swagger walked down the ramp, they could hear the roar of the water as it crashed against outcrops of boulders.
Atton and Saunter were waiting for them. Swagger motioned for the kid to make his case. To tell the truth, he was undecided what he would do with Cal. He could let him go, but that would not solve the Jedi's problem and could prove problematic for the bounty hunter since his rep might suffer. In a way, he liked Cal. He wasn't bad for a Jedi, but the idea that he liked him burned in his gut like acid and he could not help but remember Cal had once told him he used Force Bondo to cement people to him and get them to like him, although he had admitted he did not do this on purpose. It was just being near Cal, proximity-wise. That is the main reason why Swagger had put the Jedi in the brig. He did not want any unconscious bondo-ing going on with him or Flynn. Kit was a damn softie as it was.
"Swagger, if we can raise the entire bounty for Cal, will you let him go?" Saunter asked, boldly going where no man had gone before.
"Yep." Swagger smirked and reached for a death stick, lit it and began to smoke. He tapped an ash onto Saunter's boots. "IF," he stressed, "you can do that, I'll let him go."
Saunter grinned as close as he could to a full out smirk, but not enough to tick off the volatile bounty hunter. He stuck out his hand to shake on the deal and Swagger dropped another ash into his palm. Saunter gritted his teeth against the small pain and wiped his hand on the side of his pant leg.
"We'll get those credits for ya, Swagger," Saunter vowed.
Swagger exchanged a look with Flynn that told the merc he'd believe that when he saw it. "Good luck on that," he said, blowing smoke in perfect rings. "He stays where he is for now."
"Could we see him?" Atton asked, not really thinking they would be allowed, but Swagger dipped his head in acceptance. "Flynnie, show 'em to the brig, will ya?"
Atton was prepared for anything but what he saw when the brig door rolled up. He had half expected to find Cal chained to the wall or restrained in some way. What he did not expect was to see Cal with his behind parked on a huge block of ice, shivering uncontrollably.
"Cal, what are you doing?" Atton queried. His friend was not tied to the ice, so why was he sitting on it?
Cal's teeth chattered so loudly they sounded like castanets, which Cal figured is what castaways used to catch fish in. Even this cold, the poor Jedi could not stop his mind tangents.
Flynn was doubled over laughing at Cal, who looked miserable and could barely answer.
"Swagger put me on ice and told me to stay."
"Of course. Why am I not surprised?" Atton tried to pull Cal free of the ice, but his warm behind had melted the ice and he was stuck in a hole, his feet sticking up in the air.
Flynn guffawed and slapped his thigh and wiped tears from his eyes. "That has got to be the funniest sight ever," he gasped. "A real ice hole!"
Saunter grabbed one arm, Atton the other and they were able to extract Cal from the ice. He gave them a worried glance as they pulled him to his feet.
"Swagger told me to stay."
"If Swagger told you to jump over a cliff, would you do it?" Atton rolled his eyes. "Never mind. I already know the answer."
They quickly told Cal what Skippy had told Saunter. It put Cal into an even worse mood. Not only the Jedi Masters were in jeopardy, but his beloved droids!
"You have to get me out of here!" He thought long and hard, until sweat popped out on his forehead and the ice he had been sitting on melted into a large puddle on the deck. "I know!" The light bulb went on over his head. "We ran into a glitch in Jaden's game where these little plastic guys ran around getting points and they had bricks they had to find and they could unlock them..." Cal ruminated on that for a moment. "Although, how you can unlock a brick is..."
Atton reached up to gently tap the light bulb over Cal's head and it dimmed then brightened perceptibly. Cal smiled his appreciation.
"Thanks, buddy. Anyway, there were bricks with X2 score; 4 score and seven years ago, our forefathers..." Cal shook his head. "Somebody had four fathers?"
"Cal!" Saunter and Atton shouted in unison.
He looked relieved and cast a glance at Flynn, who was still laughing at Cal's predicament, but whose reflexes were so quick, he batted it right back at the Jedi.
"Anyway, six score; eight score and ten score, so if you could..."
Atton grinned and placed a hand on Cal's shoulder. "Good idea," he enthused. "I'll talk to Chuck about including the mod in our game just for the quest."
"Chuck? Where's Chuck?" Saunter gazed about him with trepidation.
Atton walked up to the fourth wall screen and tapped on it. "Hey, Chuckie! You there?"
Big, startled brown eyes appeared when Chuck drew near to the screen. "I've been away on a mission, guys. What do you need?"
Atton told him and Chuck considered it for a moment. "That's quite a challenge. I can do it, but only within certain confines."
"Do we have to become little plastic guys?" Saunter had been filled in by Atton as Chuck considered the request.
"You could, but it sounds like time is of the essence, so..."
"The essence of what?" Saunter asked.
Atton slapped him on the back of the head. "Don't start," he warned.
"The rules, to a certain extent, have to be followed." Chuck was perusing a Guide to Star Wars Legos as his nimble fingers ran over the keyboard. "You'll have to find the X 10 brick. I can unlock it for you and convert the silver, gold, blue and the rare purple studs into credits and you should have your bounty in a very short time."
"But, the little plastic guys collect the studs and pay for the brick and then go to Extras menu and collect more studs and that's when the amount goes up." Morgan was arguing with Chuck.
"I know, but I am inserting a program into the mod that whatever they sell will convert the credits ten times the amount. All they have to do is find the brick and I can tell them where it will be to make it even easier on them."
"Wow! You can do that!?"
"Yes. I am the Intersect after all." Chuck's tone remained calm, even though he had just given up his secret to motor-mouth Morgan. "I mean, the king of mods."
* * *
Swagger surprised everyone by releasing Cal to go with them.
When questioned, Cal quirked an eyebrow and shrugged. "Who knew I had a recog-nuisance? He released me on it. Where are we going?"
Atton filled him in on what Chuck had done for them. "We know exactly where it is," the pilot confirmed, coming to a grinding halt to gaze up at a large, square plastic red brick floating in the air above the head of a stranded Mandalorian who was standing on top of what appeared to be a high hill.
Cal had read the Guide and knew it was a weapons cache. He also knew the Mandalorian's name because it hovered in the air inside a box. HUMUS? No, that wasn't right.
Saunter looked up to see what Cal was staring at so intently. "What's up, Cal?"
"I think I need to level up and get Force Contacts." Cal blinked his eyes several times, but he was still not sure about the name. "Kudzu?"
Saunter shook his head. "You don't want contacts. I wear colored lenses so I can have brown eyes like Swagger and they aren't the greatest. A Jedi needs something like Force Vision, so you can see without help."
Cal cocked his head and peered at his young protégé. "Do you have to wear them to see or just for others to see you as Swagger?"
Saunter thought about it for a moment. "I wear them to look like him," he admitted. "So does Skippy. We have blue eyes if it weren't for the 'tacts."
"Well, use them to see and tell me what his name is." Cal had not been allowed to take any weapons or his RPG rucksack that had the Guide in it.
"Kumus."
Cal called up to the Mandalorian who seemed terribly embarrassed to be left standing in the same place for three days. "Hey up there! We'll give you a hand, since I'm hearing some bomas right around the corner, if you'll do us a favor and bring down the brick floating right over your head."
"What brick?"
"It's right next to your name," Cal said helpfully.
Kumus looked up and was startled to see the large object, but he nodded his acceptance of the deal. Atton used his lightsaber while Cal used the Force and the bomas were dispatched with ease—as were the malraas, who looked like felines on steroids. They returned and could not find Kumus until they reached just the right spot and found his name again and then, there he was! Kumus jumped up several times and admitted he could not attain the brick.
Atton walked around the tall hill, looking for a way up and could not find one. The game graphics did not allow any exploration on the far side of the hill. Cal had an idea to use the permacrete detonator and blow the brick off the hill, but Atton vetoed that. He had a mental picture of plastic pieces raining down, so they asked Kumus to come down and form the base of a pyramid with Cal at the top. Cal Force jumped and slammed into the side of the hill and collapsed the pyramid in the process.
"What happened?" Atton asked, rubbing a bump on his head. Just his luck to bang into a man encased in metal.
"Force jump doesn't go up very far, just forward," Cal replied. He waved his hand and everybody who had been battered in the fall was healed.
"Well, that's immensely unhelpful," Atton commented sourly.
There was a rumbling noise none of them could identify except Kumus. "Sounds like the Make-it."
"What's a Make-it?" Cal asked.
Kumus told him the vehicle was called the Make-it. "Because if you want to turn left, you can't make it—if ya want to turn right, you can't make it. If you want it to steer where you want to go, you can't make it. If you want it to turn around you really can't make it."
Suddenly a vehicle with a sharp snout, made of grey metal and with six (were those tires?!) wheels, came up the path and hissed to a stop. Cal watched the vehicle with fascination as it undulated, rocking up and down until he almost got sea-sick. It was almost as if it was breathing.
Cal approached it warily. It looked dangerous to him. He was terribly shocked when it disgorged three sentients. Two he recognized as the woman called Commander Shepard and the male Kaidan Alenko that he had met in the elevator when their games merged. The other was an alien, a species he did not know and who introduced himself as Garrus.
Cal smiled and lifted her hand and kissed it. He knew he was flirting and he knew what Mira would do to him if she caught him flirting, but Cal loved women and droids in that order.
"So good to see you again." His eyes sparkled as he met hers.
Shepard was flustered by the attention and Alenko looked downright hostile. Garrus appeared somewhat amused.
Commander Shepard reclaimed her hand. "What's going on here?" she asked in her abrupt fashion.
"We need your help," Cal told her. He pointed to the brick. "I need to get up there and bring that down. Could you bring your Make-it over close to the cliff so I can reach the top?"
"Alenko, secure a line," she told the LT.
Alenko, a handsome man with black hair and dark eyes fired a gas-propelled grappling hook from his rifle. He tugged on the rope then handed it to Cal. "Okay, civilian, she's all yours," he said in that voice that sounded like Carth Onasi.
Cal blinked. "She?" He gazed at Shepard. "Her she?"
"NO!" Alenko was outraged. "I mean the rope so you can climb up the hill. What are you, some kind of an idiot?"
Cal nodded. "I can be. Sorry about the misunderstanding." He grabbed the rope and pulled himself up to the top of the cliff. He peered over the tree tops and hollared down, "I can see your camp from here, Kumus."
From this height he could also see the other side and saw the steppes that had been cut into the side of the cliff. So, that was how Kumus got up here! He went to the very far edge of the cliff and used Master jump, propelling himself through the air, up, up, grab the brick and over. Miscalculation! Jumped too far. He landed in a sprawled heap, the breath completely knocked out of him.
"Cal?" Atton and Saunter raced to his side. "He's not breathing!'
Commander Shepard pushed them aside, rolled Cal onto his back, cleared his airway and began to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation. After a few tense moments, Cal's arms came up and enveloped her, pulling her down on top of him while his lips sought hers.
"Hey!" Alenko started forward and Atton drew his lightsaber and switched it on, barring his way.
There was a tussling match in the grass from the couple and then Shepard was released and both rose. Shepard would not meet Alenko's fiery gaze nor would she respond to Garrus's query about the strange weapon Atton possessed and could he document it.
"S-sorry," Cal apologized for the fifth time. "I just--- well, when a beautiful woman kisses me like that, I respond."
"She wasn't kissing you!" Alenko said furiously.
Saunter and Atton exchanged meaningful glances. It was time to change the subject. "So, ah," Atton drawled. "Tell us about the Make-it."
"It's Mako," Shepard corrected, back to her unflustered state. "Do you need a ride? We're headed to the base. Our radar indicates it isn't too far from here."
"Hostiles are between us and the base, Commander." Garrus announced.
"Of course they are," she returned smoothly. "What else did you expect? Pile in, folks. There's room for all of you and that over-sized brick."
Alenko sourly handed them barf bags. "You'll be needing these." He whispered behind his hand. "With her driving..."
"I heard that! It is not my driving! This thing is impossible for anyone to drive!"
Atton groaned. She might as well have thrown down a gauntlet, which they had enough of those, thank you very much. "Now you've done it."
Sure enough, Cal asked if he could drive it. Shepard agreed he could take the wheel, but only if he gave it back after he was done. Cal tapped the radar screen as he started the Mako moving forward.
"What are those red dots? And what is that large yellow X?"
" The yellow X is the Mako. The red dots are hostiles. Happens every time we get in this thing." Alenko groused. He peered at the screen. "From the size of them, looks like armatures."
"Do they have legatures too?" Cal asked, wondering why everyone groaned in unison. Shepard did not reply.
Cal was having a very tough time steering the crazy vehicle. It seemed to have a will of its own and headed for every cliff and tree it could find, After chugging back up another hill they had just plunged over back onto the road, Cal relinquished the Mako back to Shepard.
"This thing is terrible!" He gasped as he used his barf bag so he would not hyperventilate and Shepard would not have to not-kiss him again.
"It is," Shepard agreed. "Almost every damn planet we go to we end up in this thing from hell."
"Who designed it?"
"Somebody with a twisted sense of humor. The six tires should make it more stable, but they don't."
"Those red dots are getting closer."
"Position the Mako sideways and fire from a distance," Garrus offered from his seat.
The path was narrow. There was no cover. The Mako rocked and swiveled and jerked, slipping, sliding, jostling, going every direction but the one she wanted it, which was perpendicular to the enemy. As Shepard desperately fought it, trying to get it into position, large white pulse beams were coming their way.
"Just do what I want you to do!" Shepard fumed at the vehicle.
"Uh, large white thingies headed for our yellow X thingie," Saunter said, gulping, taking a visual out the front view screen.
"Brace yourselves," Alenko warned as the vehicle suddenly jumped straight up and came down with bone-breaking force.
"Shouldn't you pause and save your game in case you get killed?" Cal asked, trying to stay calm.
Shepard treated him to a glance that told him she thought he was insane. "We can't do that in the middle of a fight!"
"Well, um, do you mind if I do, because we haven't saved in a while and I don't want to go back to—" He stopped, doing calculations in his head and visibly went pale. "Frack! Atton, we'll end up back on Peragus!"
He leaped out of the vehicle, went to the fourth wall screen and begged Chuck or Morgan, whichever was playing to quickly save the game. He hopped back in the vehicle, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Whew! That was close. Morgan was breaking the bathroom."
"That's taking a bathroom break. 'fresher in your Basic," Garrus explained.
"You know, when I was outside this thing I didn't see the red dots," Cal told Shepard.
"We don't either. We figure the radar in the Mako's stronger than ours."
"Makes sense," Cal admitted.
"Uh, another white thingie's coming," Saunter warned.
Kumus was throwing up into his barf bag. Atton gritted his teeth when the vehicle backed up and rolled halfway up an incline as the white beam zoomed by.
"Have you even gotten off a shot yet?" Cal asked Shepard as she hit the jets and the Mako jumped several feet into the air to avoid another of the white pulse beams. "Yipes!"
Shepard sighted and fired the cannon on top of the vehicle. Cal stole a look through the sight. "Hey, now they're red triangles."
"That's because we are close enough to target them." She struck one and the red blip disappeared. "One down. One to go. Dammit!"
Cal and the others emitted very unmanly screeches when the Mako plunged over the side of the cliff and landed in a pool far below. The only thing that saved them was Shepard used the jets to cushion their fall. The Mako would not move out of the deep water and the two teams had to climb out.
Shepard sat on the banks and stared at the mired vehicle. "I hate that thing. All terrain vehicle, my ass!"
They all had to rush to cover when one of the armatures fired down at them. Atton threw his lightsaber and sheared the armature in half.
He and Cal and Saunter all high-fived. "Welcome to our game, armatures!" Atton crowed as he caught his returning lightsaber and put it away.
"Wow, some trick!" Alenko acknowledged. "We're stuck here."
"Don't you have something called lift?" Cal asked, knowing he had it and wondering if the six million dollar biotic man did, too.
"I can't lift something that big!" Alenko complained. "Without the Mako we're dead."
"Seems to me, with the Mako, you're dead," Cal commented. He raised his hands and closed his eyes. "Use your lift, Alenko. Feel the lift surround you, bind you; feel it in the rocks, in the water and in the Mako."
Shepard and Garrus gaped as the Mako was lifted out of the water and deposited on the bank of the pool. Cal opened his eyes and smiled as Alenko whooped in excitement.
"I—I did it!" he exulted.
"With a little help from the Force," Cal thought. He patted the biotic man on the shoulder. "The Lift is strong in you. You've taken your first step into a larger world."
Atton sniggered. "Borrowing from the canon again, huh, Cal?"
Cal grinned. "Whatever works."
Saunter asked if he could have a turn driving the Mako once they got it back on the road. Shepard was dubious, but really, the damn thing would do whatever it wanted regardless of who was driving. She gave the kid permission.
They headed north and rounded the curve and spotted the Mandalorian ruins. That was when everything went south, including the Mako.
"Can I fire the cannon?" Saunter touched the red button and there was a loud BOOM!
"There goes the newly repaired sensor disk," Atton said.
The vehicle neared the battle circle just as Saunter pushed another button and there was a sharp rat-a-tat-tat sound. Rounds stitched the ground and Mandalorians flung themselves in all directions to keep from being hit.
Atton slapped the kid's hands. "Don't touch anymore buttons."
Cal thanked Shepard for the ride, but he was never so glad in his life as he was when he set his feet back on the solid ground. No red dots or triangles. Just a bunch of peeved Mandalorians, which he put into stasis.
Atton reacted to the rough ride. "My teeth were about to break from being smashed together so hard and my neck is out and my back is out in six places. The road wasn't that rough, so why was the ride?" He waved a hand to use Force healing and sighed in relief. "Let's see medi-gel do that," he said snarkily.
Cal led the way to Kex and they gave him the brick. Luckily, Chuck had already converted it to a credits brick X10 so when they sold the items they had in their rucksacks, almost all the gauntlets and gloves and robes and armor that robbed them of using their Force powers so who needed it anyway?-- the amount came to 503,000 credits.
Cal talked to Chuck about returning Commander Shepard to her game. It seemed that Morgan had thought it might be fun to combine the two games, but she had to save her galaxy and he had to save his. She had Alenko and he had Mira. He sighed. He was not being fair to Mira. His heart still belonged to Bastila. But Mira didn't want his heart, just his (T rating, hello!) strapping male physique.
He used Force enhanced speed to get them back to The Seeker. Swagger was smoking a death stick, leaning nonchalantly against the hull. His brows rose when Cal handed him the heavy rucksack. "The entire bounty and some extra," Cal declared. "I do have a favor to ask you."
Flynn came down the ramp just in time to hear this. "Should be interesting."
"Take Saunter with you. Show him how to be himself not a clone of you. He has a lot of potential."
Swagger choked on some smoke and Flynn slapped him on the back. "Flynnie and I don't take on sixteen year old wannabes, Cal. You're free to go."
He turned to go and Cal put a hand on his arm. "Saunter's a good kid, Swagger. He idolizes you."
Swagger gazed pointedly at Cal's hand on his arm. "He idolizes the idea of me. I'd end up killing him, trust me." He smirked when he saw Saunter had not looked at him once, but kept his gaze on Cal. "Besides, I think the kid's found himself a new mentor." He shook off the Jedi's loosened grip.
"Yep, I'm seeing the same thing," Flynn confirmed. He shook hands with the Jedi. "Nice meeting ya and thanks for making us rich."
"Fire up the engines, Flynnie," Swagger ordered. He paused on his way into the ship and looked over his shoulder at Cal. "I ever find out you used Force Bondo on me, I'll find you and I will kill you. Understand?"
"I swear I didn't, Swagger." Cal said, but Swagger's attention was on Flynn who was grousing about how he didn't get to sing, not even one note. Swagger gave him a hard push back up the ramp and disappeared inside his ship.
Cal and the others watched as The Seeker soon became just a dot in the sky then was eclipsed by the storm clouds that were scudding across the threatening horizon.
"Well, how was it meeting your idol?" Cal asked Saunter.
"Unexpected. I mean, he's really cool and all, but I can see I was wrong to want to be like him, because nobody could and we really have nothing in common." Saunter removed the dark contacts, revealing startling blue eyes. He sighed in relief. "I think I'll go wash this hair color out and get into some regular clothes. This just isn't me."
Cal smiled fondly. "You gotta be you."
(Cue music as Saunter comes out of the ship.)
I'll go it alone, if it must be
I'd rather be me, than Swagger V
I don't walk the walk
I can't talk the talk.
Killing does not come naturally!
I gotta be me!
Cal whistled and clapped enthusiastically. Atton tugged at his sleeve and pointed. The Mandalorians had followed them and were advancing in a very menacing manner. "Let's get the hell outta Dodge!" Atton yelled as he dashed to the cockpit.
Cal joined him as the Hawk swiftly ascended. "Dodge? I thought we were on Dxun."
Atton rolled his eyes and concentrated on flying. "Setting a course for Dantooine, unless I can talk you out of this. It's suicide, Cal. That creepy Sylar Exile will be there. It's a trap. Skippy told Saunter it's a trap. We'll be flying to our doom."
Kreia tried to smile as she Force Eavesdropped. She was in the port dormitory as usual. Everything was back to her machinations. Cal was finally doing what she wanted.
She sounded like the wicked witch of the West and East as she cackled her delight. "I'll get you my handsome Jedi, you and your little droids, too!"
What she did not know was if Cal had a house available he would have dropped it on her in a pico second.
A/N And another chapter bites the dust. Not many more to go. With Cal, ya never know what parts will be cut of the game. Swagger was doing his taking over thing, so he graciously decided to bow out since this IS Cal's story. Thanks to all of you who read and review and those who just read, although more thanks go to those who review, tee hee! Special thanks to Javan & AC, my rocks! I hope I encourage them as much as they do me. I don't own Star Wars or any of the original lyrics to the songs or references to other sources, like TV shows and movies.
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