Act 3: Chapter 1 - The Favor
August 10, 2023 (Earth Calendar)
It has been a week since our heroes had a first, brief encounter with the Second Brother. Theron was briefly sent to the hospital for medical aid and has managed to recover quickly thanks to his former Jedi training. However, his friends became really concerned for the safety of their friend and the Child in his care, and leaving the only option left for the Jedi into looking for a safe home to the Force sensitive infant before their new enemy decides to put innocents in danger to get his two targets and possibly his third which is none other than Saten. It is only a matter of time.
While Theron has left the city momentarily to get a few important things, Saten is put in charge of keeping the baby safe until his return as he couldn't trust R4 into watching him due to the little one always following the young Jedi. In the meantime, Shirai, Uiharu, and Konori have already been searching for any sightings of the Inquisitor that infiltrated Academy City's borders.
School District 7
177th Branch Judgement Office
"Uiharu, shouldn't you take a break from finding our 'new friend'?" Shirai asks her partner with concern in her expression.
Uiharu continues to type on her computer with a serious look on her face, not even bothering to stop and rest. And since she's been doing this for a whole week, the flower-headed girl has bags under eyes.
"I have to find this Inquisitor, Shirai." The Level 1 says. "From what Theron has told us about, they hunt children with Force powers aside from hunting down Jedi like him. And if Saten's most likely the Second Brother's other target, then I can't let him get to her."
"I know, but look at yourself!" The Teleporter points out her friend's condition. "You've been operating without rest for the past week, and we still haven't found our mysterious intruder. Working like this won't be good for anyone."
Her partner stops typing and realizes that Shirai makes a strong point.
"Okay." Uiharu sighs. "You make a valid point, Shirai."
"It's alright, Uiharu." Shirai smiles. "I'm there for you when we're in Judgement, remember?"
"Right." Her partner returns the smile before yawning. "I should probably get some shut eye right now. You and Konori will take over for me, kay?"
"Don't you worry about that." Assures the Teleporter. "I'll make sure nothing happens while you turn in. I promise."
School District 7
Joseph's Family Restaurant
Still morning in Academy City, Shirai has met up with Saten and Misaka about the current situation and Uiharu's absence.
"So she overworked herself again, huh?" Saten comments while holding the Child in her hands who is cooing at her. "That's Uiharu for ya."
"Still, that doesn't mean we should just let the Second Brother give himself time to spy on us and prepare to show his face." Misaka points out. "You and the baby are still targets to him just as much as Theron is."
"I haven't forgotten, Misaka. You don't have to worry about it." The girl nonchalantly says. "I've spent the whole week building up my mental barriers from any intrusion that dark warrior might throw at me. Theron's amazing when it comes to training."
"A whole week's worth of mental training from Theron isn't going to be enough, Saten." Shirai deadpans. "Remember what Theron lectured us about facing Force users?"
Flashback
August 7, 2023 (Earth Calendar)
Near a certain vending machine...
"You guys aren't capable of fighting him head on. We need to be smart." Theron says.
"But he's still out there plotting who knows what!" Saten argues. "If we wait, then he'll strike against us and take the baby!"
"And what good would it do when you DO find him? You're a girl with a few days of training and barely have combat skills. HE is a fully-trained Inquisitor and Sith apprentice who possibly has a decade or two worth of experience."
"We've faced people like this almost every day, Theron." Misaka reminds him. "It's nothing new to us."
"Fighting a Force user is far more different than fighting another Esper like yourselves except Saten." He retorts. "Even members of the magic side. And time and time again, people have always underestimated the Force that they're ignorant or unaware of."
"Really?" Shirai questions him with a snort, arms crossed. "Do tell."
"Force users in my view are considered to be the most dominant super-powered beings in the known Galaxy." He deadpans. "And are far more powerful than those that have received powers through science. (thoughts) The same goes for magic and it's nothing more than an illusion."
His friends were flabbergasted, more so for Shirai as she's a strong believer in science.
"B-But that's impossible! How can someone like you be more powerful than all of the Espers, including Accelerator, on Earth?!" Shirai exclaims in disbelief. "There has to be an explanation for this nonsense!"
"You want impossible?" He rhetorically asks. "How about the time there was an ancient Sith Lord who is literally a walking black hole that consumes entire planets with the Force while his physical body is deteriorating?"
"W-Wait, what?" Shirai eyes popped wide.
"Not insane enough for you? Well then, how about the time another Sith Lord enacted a ritual to consume all life on a single planet and gained immortality and can inhabit a host whenever he dies? Shall I go on further?"
The girls faces all had dumbfounded faces on them when they heard of these insane, feats pulled off by the ancient Sith Lords the young Jedi briefly mentioned. Just how powerful is this omnipotent sentient Force?!
Present Day
"I remember, alright." Saten nods while feeling her brain's overloaded with so much new info that would drive almost anyone into insanity. "I just can't wrap around the fact that there are insane feats that the Sith - and possibly the Jedi - have pulled off."
"And the power to consume entire planets that have Force energy within them? That sounds way overkill and far-fetched to believe." Shirai says in disbelief while rubbing her head. "Right, Sissy?"
However, Misaka was too busy thinking about that Inquisitor who easily kicked Theron's ass on August 3rd.
"Sissy?" The Teleporter asks her again, concerned.
"Huh?!" The Railgun snaps out of her thoughts. "Oh, it's nothing! I was just pondering about those crazy feats is all."
Luckily, her two friends bought the small lie for now as she doesn't need them to push themselves hard in helping out like Uiharu did for the past few days.
"A-Anyway, I'm gonna go for a stroll on the streets for a bit. I'm sure Theron will be back with whatever he's getting." Misaka says as she gets off her chair, getting ready to leave.
"You go on ahead, Sissy. Besides, I gotta head back to the branch office and help Konori out with some activity around this school district." Shirai nods as she too gets up and puts on her Judgement armband before looking at Saten and the Child. "What will you do, Saten?"
"Well since Uiharu's resting back at her place, I think I'm gonna continue babysitting this cute little fella." The Level 0 explains before playing and gushing with one of the baby's big pointy ears, in which he coos in response.
"You really like having him around, do you?"
"Well he is special after all. And it's the only reason why we need to protect him, Shirai. Too bad humans don't have longer lifespans like this kid does."
"Can't argue with that. I still don't know why he doesn't like me. I'm not perverted."
"Right. Sure you aren't." Misaka sarcastically rolls her eyes.
After breakfast, Misaka walks alone on the streets as traffic passes by her.
"Just how can we find the Second Brother before he hurts anyone else just so he can get to Theron, Saten, and the baby?" Misaka wonders. "The Imperials that Anti-Skill have apprehended during and after the invasion don't really have any useful information we can use to find him, even if they're able to get them to talk. I didn't think finding our enemy would be THAT hard for us."
The Railgun was so busy figuring out on what to do that she literally bumps into someone.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you." Misaka apologizes before immediately recognizing the person. "Hey, it's you!"
The person Misaka bumped into was a 16-year-old girl wearing a high school summer uniform similar. The girl has platinum blonde curled long hair (often mistaken as light purple or pink hair). This is Junko Hokaze, a Level 4 electromaster Esper and a first year high schooler.
"Misaka!" Hokaze gasps in surprise after turning around from being bumped into by accident. "It's been awhile. How are you?"
"I'm still holding up but thanks for asking that, Hokaze." Misaka smiles. "Sorry about bumping into you, by the way. Wasn't watching where I was going."
"That's okay." The platinum blonde girl smiles back. "I would've been in your position if I our roles were reversed."
"Can't argue with that." The Railgun chuckles. "I should go. Wouldn't want to keep you waiting in meeting up with... (in disgust) her."
"It was good seeing you, Misaka." Hokaze waves at Misaka as the latter walks past her on a crosswalk. When she was out of sight, the former sighs. "Why can't those two even get along for once? Speaking of the Queen, I should hurry and meet up with her at the bakery."
Although she has graduated from Tokiwadai, Hokaze is still part of her best friend's clique in the famous school for girls.
"Honestly. Shokuhou is a pain in the ass." Misaka grumbles as she continues her morning walk. "After what she's done to Touma before we even first met, there's no way in hell I'm going to let her near him or even talk to him with that ability of hers she's still abusing on other people. (sighs) But at least Theron's not even close to be just like her. They may have telepathy but the only difference between him and her is that he has a versatile set of multiple Force abilities I've never seen from him yet. Plus, I know Shokuhou's not in shape for combat like very few Espers are. Literally."
At Saten's apartment...
"You really need to be careful with overworking, Uiharu." Saten lectures on her smartphone. "How many times do I need to keep reminding you?"
"Sorry, Saten." Uiharu apologizes through the speakers. "I just wanted to catch this intruder so badly that I want to avoid losing you and Theron."
"I can take care of myself as much as he can take care of his own." The Level 0 says as she is sitting on her bed in her casual clothes. "What I want is for you to get some actual rest before you catch a fever."
"I keep catching fevers a few times because you keep flipping my skirt!" The Level 1 shouts in annoyance.
"Hai, hai." Saten casually answers. "Look, just try to rest. Please?"
"Fine." Uiharu yawns. "But you owe me cake for this."
"See ya, Uiharu." The Force sensitive girl rolls her eyes, and chuckles before hanging up her phone and place it by her nightstand.
"So the kid's still sleeping." She warmly smiles as she sees the Child all tuckered in his makeshift bed. "All of this babysitting is a lot harder than I thought. I wonder what Theron's doing?"
[Sugaan Essena (Black Thunder) - The Hub - Jedi: Fallen Order OST plays]
Japanese countryside
Theron's cabin
Inside the hangar , the young Jedi is busy working on the Ebon Hawk. From tool to tool, Theron uses them to either calibrate the ship's systems, its hyperdrive, or redesign the interior of the whole freighter. Unfortunately, he's been having setbacks lately as the ship is over thirty centuries old and that everything is outdated.
Scenario after scenario, Theron had to stop small fires from spreading inside the huge hangar, hurting himself again in the process. He spent those three days into getting the ship working again and feels exhausted. Ship maintenance can be an annoying bitch sometimes.
"Done." Theron announces inside the ship, putting down a hydrospanner he used for the hyperdrive and removing his headphones with rock music from his Galaxy playing loudly. "Now let's get this garbage working again."
Now in the cockpit, Theron gets in his pilot seat and starts pressing a few buttons and switches.
"Okay! Try it now, R4!" He orders his droid.
R4 then uses his scomp link to start up the ship's systems and engines. Everything lights up and the sound of the engines is heard before whining down, losing power and setting a small spark in the cockpit that resulted in a fire... again.
"Kriff!" The Jedi curses in panic as the alarms blared loudly. "Quick, turn it off! Turn it off!"
R4 complies immediately and shuts everything off before using his built-in fire extinguisher on Theron and the fire.
"Not me, dumbass!" He coughs when the astromech finished taking out the fire.
"You're welcome." The droid grumbles.
"I wasn't even on fire!" He angrily shouts. "Didn't you even update the ship's systems before we started up everything?"
"I did, meatbag. But this ship is so old that we'll need a replacement for the negative power coupling and keep the ship from setting on fire again, or even from being flooded by hazardous gases if we don't do something about it."
"Great!" Theron exclaims frustratingly. "So it NOW breaks down after landing here. Any other parts we need to replace or repair?"
"Other than replacing the power coupling and fixing the hyperdrive and shields, nope." R4 answers. "However, we should be able to get it flying again if we have the Ebon Hawk at emergency power."
"At least the backup generator is still intact." The Jedi grumbles to himself.
"Ya know, it'll be a lot easier we had some help from our friends."
"Good idea. We can't hold off on finding the kid's homeworld forever, so let's get back to the city and explain the girls of our little problem. Just engage the stealth drive when we arrive. (mutters) If it's still operational that is."
The Ebon Hawk starts up again, and takes off from the hangar for it's flight back to Academy City.
Back at the 177th Branch office...
Afternoon came as Shirai patrols the streets of School District 7. Luckily, there weren't any gangs or robbers to apprehend this time of day as everything was peacefully quiet minus a few civilians hanging out or passing by.
"It sure is a lot peaceful in this part of the district." Shirai admits. "Too peaceful for my tastes."
"Maybe because you Judgement and Anti-Skill officers have been apprehending criminals before they can even be processed everyday."
The Teleporter jumps in surprise and turns around to see Accelerator walking up to her with the same bored expression on his face.
"M-Mr Dean!" She exclaims nervously. "What a surprise!"
"Shh!" Accelerator hushes. "In case you've forgotten, I want that to remain a secret from anyone that's around us."
The pigtailed girl covers her mouth at her own mistake she made.
"That's better." He says. "Now then, I want to know where the Jedi's at."
"Why?" She questions suspiciously.
"I need to talk to him about a small favor."
"He's unavailable right now. Says he's out of town. But I can let him know that you want to speak to him when he returns."
"Tch. Whatever." He says before walking past her. "I'll just find him on my own."
"Rude." She mumbles to herself.
The Ebon Hawk arrives at his home in the city outskirts and lands next to the small hangar due to its large size. Powering down the ship, Theron and R4 open the boarding ramp and exit the ship.
"Alright, I think it should be safe to call Saten now." Theron says and contacts her. "Hey, it's me. I'm back and I need you to call everyone about something important I need to show you guys. Huh? Uiharu overworked herself? (silence before he speaks) Alright. I'll see you soon."
He ends the call and looks at the city view as he waits patiently. R4 then comes up to his side.
"Should we get all of the equipment set up so we can make repairs and upgrade the Hawk?" The droid suggests.
Before Theron could say anything, he notices Accelerator in the distance in his right.
"You go on ahead. I'll meet you inside and help you out. Seems like our good old friend the General Superintendent is here for a visit."
R4 whistles and rolls away as Accelerator stands before the Jedi.
"So you brought this old junk into the city behind my back?" He raised his eyebrow in question. "Not a good way of strengthening our alliance."
"But that's not why you're here, is it?"
"No." The Vector manipulator snorts. "And I don't really care, even if I am Academy City's chairman. Just don't do anything you'll regret."
"Duly noted." Theron sarcastically acknowledges. "So what do you want?"
"A favor."
Theron perks up in confusion and suspicion.
"A favor? That's a bit out of character coming from you."
"Shut up." He grumbles. "You remember those Imperials that Anti-Skill rounded up to a secured prison for outsiders and terrorists?"
"Yeah, so?" The Jedi shrugs . "I heard a few of them are trained to resist interrogation properly unlike the ones I fought here and back in the Old Galaxy."
Accelerator looks around before continuing.
"One of them slipped up into revealing the locations of their remaining buddies at large scattered around the city."
"If this is a favor, then why not have Yomikawa's Anti-Skill unit deal with it? I'm supposed to lay low until I can get this piece of crap flying again? I've already got an Inquisitor running loose and he's still hunting me."
"Huh?"
"Jedi hunter. Black and red. Wears a t-visor helmet, and extremely deadly with a spinning double-bladed lightsaber." The Jedi describes without telling him about the Second Brother being a Sith apprentice. "He's out there trying to make his move and has no interest in helping his fellow Imperials except for hunting me and Force-sensitive children."
"If he's that big of a problem, I might consider taking him out for you."
"Yeah, no. Don't need your help. I can do it myself."
"Good. Because that's your problem, not mine."
"Whatever you say, edgelord." Theron rolls his eyes. "You can show yourself out. I'm busy."
"Tch." Accelerator says and turns on his electrode before jumping away using his ability.
Theron then heads back inside the ship to get all of the repair equipment set up outside.
Not long after, everyone except Uiharu arrived.
"Whoa!" Misaka gasps in awe. "That's his ship?!"
"It looks so cool!" Saten agrees with her.
"I'll admit, it does look impressive." Konori says with full honesty.
"It looks like a garbage ship." Shirai deadpans, pointing out the few parts and screws falling off of the hull.
"That's because she's thousands of years old, Shirai." Theron shots back at her after jumping off the top of the Ebon Hawk. "Plus, she hasn't flown for a very long time and needs new parts and a few major repairs."
"She?" Saten questions. "You mean the ship?"
"Not just any ship, Saten." He explains smirks. "This here's the Ebon Hawk. Fast, maneuverable, and as strong as a Zillo Beast."
His friends don't know what a Zillo Beast is so they decided to just forget about it for now.
"In other words, you're asking us to help you fix i-." Misaka says before quickly correcting herself. "I-I mean, her."
"What? Don't be ridiculous!" He laughs. "It's not like I'm asking for actual help or anything. More like a small favor from me."
He earns a few unconvincing expressions from the girls and the Child coos in response.
"Okay, yes." He groans. "I'm literally asking for help. So, are you guys interested or not?"
They now have satisfied looks along with the baby laughing.
"You know, it's really cute you're acting like this." Saten slyly smirks. "I think that's one way to impress me."
"Wait, what?" Theron confusingly asks.
Her friends were also confused at what she's up to. However, Konori figures it out and smirks at what she's doing.
"If you like my body and beauty so much, it'll take a lot of effort to win me over." She proposes in English with a seductive tone as she sways her hourglass figure and walks up to him.
"Hold on sec! I'm not-!" The flustered Jedi exclaims in English.
Saten then leans closer to his red face and then stifled herself.
"Pfft! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" She laughs, looking away. "The look on your face! Hook, line, and sinker!"
Misaka's jaw just dropped, completely understanding English except for Shirai and Konori.
"She was seducing him!" Misaka reduces in disbelief. "I can't believe she's good at it, even more than Kuroko's really cringy ones."
"I had no idea Saten can have the courage to charm a boy like Theron." Shirai admits in shock.
Although Saten was teasing the Jedi, she in actuality was very flustered at what she did.
"You're doing it again, Ruiko!" Saten panics in her thoughts. "Stop that!"
Theron felt embarrassed and angry. This trouble-making girl has the audacity into make fun of him like that! Yeah, well, two can play at that!
"It's unwise to provoke a Jedi like that." He says, smiling evilly. "More specifically, a former one at that."
Saten stops laughing and gasps as his face is close to hers. He then leans to her side and begins whispering in her ear.
"If you're not too careful milady, someone is sure to take advantage of you." He whispers. "For example, your boobs. The smell your hair and smooth skin give off. And even your very appealing body. A precious girl like yourself wouldn't want that. Don't you agree?"
"I should've known!" She accuses with a gasp, covering herself. "You really are a pervert, aren't you?"
Feeling like she's had enough, he pulls away from the shy and flustered girl, and bursts into laughter.
"I'm just messing with you!" He admits, still laughing. "You really believe I'm stupid enough to go THAT far to be a pervert? Then you shouldn't do things that'll get you into trouble."
The girl's jaw drop in disbelief. Then, she grits her teeth in anger as he continues to laugh. She clenches her right fist and catches the young Jedi off guard by sucker punching him in the face, sending him crashing into the ground. Her eyes flickered from blue to red and back to blue.
"Man, Uiharu wasn't kidding." He quips as he gets back up, holding his punched jaw. "You hit harder than Misaka and as fast as a speeding starfight-."
He never finished his sentence as he was then slapped on the face hard, grunting in pain.
"You ass!" Saten angrily shouts at him. "It's not funny!"
"Sorry, sorry." He apologizes. "Couldn't help myself. But you have to admit, you had that one coming."
"You take that back."
"Or what? You have nothing to threaten me with, so there's no point in continuing this." He snorts.
She cutely puffs her cheeks and looks away, blushing in embarrassment.
"You're a Jedi, and yet you like to troll everyone you meet just for the fun of it." Saten grumbles in slight annoyance.
Meanwhile, her friends have just witnessed the teen drama and chemistry that the two Force users gave off.
"My, my." Shirai comments smugly. "Those two are really made for each other."
"Ain't that the truth." Misaka agrees with a smile, already enjoying this as it's almost similar with herself and Touma when the young couple themselves banter as well.
The Child standing between Misaka and Shirai's feet laughs as he finds Theron and Satan's bantering funny.
To be continued...
