Shadows of Heroines and Heroes
.:Escaping the Future:.
The snap-hiss of a lightsaber activating could be heard as a sapphire blue blade erupted from the end of the hilt in Rick's hand. It was the lightsaber of a warrior, one that gave him the strength to fight.
Another snap-hiss as the yellow blade with a crystal that came from the very same formation as his mother's lightsaber crystals sprung to life.
With these two lightsabers he felt he could take anything on. Right now, all he was battling was a training droid. His father Mandalore, or Canderous of Clan Ordo had built it. The build of the droid was based on HK-47, an assassin droid owned by the Jedi Revan. And with his skills in mechanics, Rick managed to fit it with lightsaber capabilities.
Making sure all the lightsabers were set on the lowest level, he spoke.
"Unit JAINA, activate lightsaber training level 12."
"Training level 12, initialized!" The black droid's eyes flared red, and she raised the two sabers, igniting one blue and one red. "Target must die!" She shouted, and then charged at Rick in a flurry of arm movements only a droid would be capable of.
Rick met the attack not just with by parrying the two lightsabers with his own two, but also with a built up defence of energy shields he'd weaved into his robes with the thread he'd used. The thread had been sprinkled with powdered bark from a Gallopian Steam Plant which had extra resistance to heat and energy. The plant was a rare find on Dxun, but he'd found a grove of it not far from the Mandalorian Outpost.
He parried another attack, swung low, feinted the attack and kicked up, knocking JAINA's arm so that the red lightsaber was thrown from her hand and hit the floor, inactive.
Now just contending with one lightsaber, Rick easily overpowered the droid, sending her flying into the wall with a well-aimed kick to the chest.
"Training Level 12: Passed. Record Time: 13.6 seconds. " She said in her mechanical voice. "This Unit will now sign off." Rick sighed.
"Well, that was an easy 13.6 seconds. Too bad my Master Jedi skills only get me 13.6 seconds to relax." He said to no one in particular after an eye roll at his own biting sarcasm. "Now, back to the problem at hand…"
Rick walked out of the room and onto the balcony. At this time he was living in the war tower of the Mandalorian Outpost. He could see everything within two miles from the balcony, though at this time of night there wasn't much to see.
"So what if I turn sixteen in two days? So what if I'm the oldest? I am not Mandalorian material. I don't have the fighting spirit, and I don't have the killer instinct. Hell, I can't stand the sight of blood! What kind of Mandalorian is that, huh father?"
"You tell me."
He had not expected this, and before he could turn to see the speaker a hand had been place over his eyes and he heard the hum of a lightsaber, felt the heat of the blade at his throat. Rick rolled his eyes under the hand, guessing who'd snuck up on him to do this.
"Tell you what?" He whispered. "That your lightsaber is made out of unrecognizable black iron, with a Telgorn Jolt Cell, a Phobium Emitter, and a Pontite Lens. It has a blue blade the color of the Tatooine sky, and two focusing crystals: Jenruax and…" He focused on the hum for a moment. "Opila. Or that you're about six foot, with a head of flames and horns? Am I right… Padme?"
"Very clever, Ordo, very clever..." The Zabrak girl said, lifting her hand from his eyes. Rick was yet to discover why she called him by his last name (Clan name) and not his first name. She did it to everyone, except the Handmaiden and Juhani, whom she had a certain respect for, and her parents. Rick smiled at what else he'd noticed about the lightsaber through the Force.
"By the way, the next time you threaten someone with your lightsaber, you may want to up the power level so it does more the give your victim a tickling sensation."
Rick went back inside before Padme could come up with a witty reply.
"Are the rest of you going to come out of hiding?" He asked, his Jedi Senses going haywire about the two Force sensitives besides Padme, around him.
He noticed a shimmer in the air not far away, in one of the corners of the room. A second later, Kail Raner had deactivated his stealth field and appeared, his white blonde hair catching the light of Padme's still activated red lightsaber, and becoming almost as fiery as Padme's was.
That left one last friend to be revealed, and she did this by letting out a small growl and lightly dropping from the ceiling to land on her feet. In front of Rick stood a six-foot walking carpet with dark brown fur.
"Okay, now that's you're all visible, I'd like to ask why you're here?" Rick stated.
Kinraar, the Wookie, growled. "We heard you shouting." She spoke in her own language. Having grown up very close friends, the four had learned each other's language. Only Padme, who was half Zabrak and Kinraar were native to something other then basic, and could therefore understand each other quite clearly.
"We thought perhaps you could use some company." Rick smiled at the Wookie, the Zabrak girl and Echani boy.
"Thanks guys." He walked over and sat down on his bed.
"But it'll take more then you three to fix this problem."
"You really don't want to be in the Mandalorian Army, do you?" Kail asked.
"Being in the army itself, I may have been able to handle. But my father wants me to actually lead the troops by the end of this year. I'm not capable of that. I can't lead troops into battle. I have a hard enough time getting myself into one…well, except doing battle against the training droid that is. Did I tell-" He suddenly stopped, looking up.
"Does anyone other then me sense a slimy faced blonde with an odd obsession with himself?" He asked, standing and Force-pulling one of his lightsabers into his hand.
Padme closed her eyes, calling on the Force around her. She was an expert in battle, but her Force abilities were nothing compared to Kinraar or Rick.
"Disciple!" She snarled. There weren't many things that could get Padme angry but the Disciple was on of them. The main reason was because he'd tried to have an affair with her mother.
"Do you think we should go see what's happening?" Kinraar asked. Kail opened his mouth to say something, but Rick held up his hand.
"My father told me to stay here no matter what." He said. Kail frowned, looking a little disappointed. Rick smiled mischievously. "So we can't let them see us."
Kail's face lit up with the same look of mischief Rick was wearing, and the two walked back out onto the balcony, Kail activating his stealth field as they went.
Kinraar raced out onto the balcony and leapt clear off it, calling a vine to her hand with the Force. Next to Kashyyyk, Dxun was her favourite planet due to all the trees. Rick followed suit while Padme gathered the Force around and her leapt from branch to branch of the jungle trees.
The four companions sped through the Dxun Jungle, following the Force to the location of the Disciple. They were sure that whereever he was, their parents would soon bring some action.
They were right. Kinraar and Rick swung up onto an extra thick branch not far from the settlement Revan and Carth had founded, the shrubs below parted for no visible reason, and Padme landed on a branch just above them. They watched as Revan's youngest daughter, Alison, was placed in a stasis field, and then they saw the Disciple prance out of one of the rooms toward her.
"That sick pervert!" Padme hissed, her hand going for the lightsaber at her belt.
"Don't do it Padme." Rick whispered. "If you do I'll freeze you in Stasis."
Reluctantly, Padme pulled her hand away. Then they heard the snap-hiss (or several, actually) as Revan rushed Mical, holding one lightsaber in her hand and the rest with the Force. Mical accidentally knocked Alison over the edge into the river that flowed behind the balcony of her room.
Rick raised his hand before thinking, hoping to slow her fall. However, his focus was broken when he saw a muscular man carrying a large handheld blaster cannon sprinting forward. However, Rick's father, Canderous, did not fire his cannon, but took a hold of Revan in an attempt to keep her from giving the Disciple a worse fate then death for a man.
He didn't do a very good job and Rick suddenly saw his mother walking forward, which was enough for him. Between Canderous' fatherly instincts, and his mother's Force abilities, they'd find him pretty quickly.
"Let's get back to the tower." He looked back to the river for a moment, but there was nothing they could do for Alison. He took hold of a jungle vine, looked down to see the shrubs returned to normal and some plants parted in the general direction of his tower home.
Padme's shadow could be seen leaping from branch to branch, so Rick turned and nodded to Kinraar and the two took hold of a couple vines and swung back toward the tower.
As Rick landed on the balcony, what met his sight was shocking.
"HK-47?" He asked, stunned.
"Warning: Approach with caution, Meatbag. Assassination Unit JAINA is-"
"Assassination Unit?" Rick shouted. "What are you talking about?"
"Threatening Statement: This unit will not be spoken to like that by an inferior Meatbag." HK-47 raised his blaster rifle and was hit with an ion beam coming out of the shoulder of Rick's former training droid.
"Gleeful Announcement: Unit JAINA is now signing on! Full Name of Master: Erick Jolee of Clan Ordo." The charcoal black, feminine HK-50 version said.
Not taking notice that HK had been temporarily disabled, Rick shouted at him. "HK-47, return her to her former, wait, did you just say I was your master?" His brain had just registered what JAINA said.
"I believe that is what she said." Kinraar growled. "You seem to have acquired an assassin droid, just as my uncle's life debt family has."
At that moment Padme landed lightly on the balcony, and Kail climbed up onto it as well.
"Canderous is coming!" Kail whispered urgently. "I almost lost my stealth field trying to get back here in time."
"Well, you three better get out of here. He said I was to train 'in solitude tonight, so you will be ready for your ceremony tomorrow' Those were his words, I believe."
"We're gone." Padme said, stepping back to the edge of the tower, dropping herself backwards. Kail smirked, and then vanished under his stealth field, and Kinraar raced to the balcony and Force-jumped forward and swung toward a jungle tree on a vine she'd pulled into her hand.
"Hopeful Query: Is this Canderous a Meatbag to be dealt with in a bloody fashion?" Asked JAINA. Frowning at the droid's sudden bloodthirsty nature, (damn you HK, he thought) Rick deactivated the droid and pushed HK-47 under his bed so his father wouldn't see him.
"Rick." Canderous' gruff voice called as the door to Rick's quarters unlocked and slid open. "Ah, good, you've finished training."
Rick nodded.
"Good, because your ceremony is not tomorrow, it is to be done tonight."
Rick felt like he'd been slapped. His mouth fell open, though, luckily his father took it as surprise instead of utter dread.
"You have, fifteen minutes to prepare." Canderous said, checking his chronometer. Rick murmured nervously as Canderous placed well polished purple Mandalorian armour, the colour of Mandalorian Royalty on Rick's bed, then left.
Rick stood staring at the armour for about a minute, then closed his eyes, trying to think of a solution to his problem.
"I've got to leave." He whispered decisively. He picked up the Mandalorian armour, and pulled it on over his robes. He then clipped his lightsabers onto the utility belt, and turned to the balcony. He couldn't do this alone, he'd need-
"You weren't planning on sneaking off planet without your loyal comrades in arms were you?" Rick turned to the location of a synthesized voice. Two people, clad on full-body Mandalorian armour, stood next to a dark furred Wookie. Kail took off the helmet of his red armour, smiling at his friend. "We'll be with you 'til the end mate."
"You can say that again." Padme smiled as well as she pulled off the helmet of her yellow armour. "Come on, we've got a ship waiting in the hangar in the Stareth Settlement."
Rick suddenly stopped dead.
"The Stareth Settlement? I'm going to have to sneak past the Lady Revan?" He hissed, his face turning pale. "Are you crazy!"
"Quit complaining and come on." Padme said grinning and pulled on her helmet and took hold of Rick's hand. Then he pulled away.
"Wait, there's something I want to take." He said, sprinting over to the charcoal-black assassin droid, and reactivating her. "No questions; just follow us quietly." He whispered.
"Statement: Of course Master. JAINA is built to serve." Said JAINA, and they raced out onto the balcony and climbed down onto the jungle floor, fleeing the Mandalorian Settlement.
Underneath Rick's bed, HK-47's eyes lit up in a gold demonic way.
Rick, Padme, Kail, Kinraar and JAINA sprinted through the jungle, making short work of any Cannok or Boma that was dumb enough to cross them. After a while, Rick's chronometer beeped.
"Fifteen minutes passed, my Father would've discovered I'm no longer in my quarters by now." Rick whispered. "We have to hurry."
It didn't take them long to reach the Stareth settlement, though sneaking into the hangar was another story. They had to take three detours to avoid the guards, and then had to wait ten minutes while two of Alison's friends sped off in the direction of the Med Wing.
But finally, they made it to the hangar, and to the ship.
"You said you had a ship, not a Mynock's leftovers." Rick said, looking at the pile of junk they were using as their escape vehicle.
"Oh, quit complaining and get on." Kail said. Once on board, the Echani boy rushed up the front of the cockpit, being the best pilot they had, his father had learned from Atton Rand, and then taught Kail.
"Hold on, I haven't learned how to, er, actually take off yet." Before Rick, Padme or Kinraar could say a thing, he'd started the ship up, lifting them up off the hangar floor.
"Well, that wasn't as bad as I expected." Padme said.
"Did I mention I haven't learned how to enter hyperspace yet?" Kail said. Rick opened his mouth and closed it again. Then he opened it again.
"Are you kidding? What has your dad been teaching you? How too fly a remote?" He shouted.
"No, he just let me fly our shuttle inside Dxun's atmosphere and did the take off and landing." Kail shouted back. "Don't worry, so long as I can work out the coordinates we should be able to make the jump to lightspeed."
"And are you sure you can do that?" Rick asked.
"Well-"
"Move over." Kinraar said, shoving Kail out of the pilot's seat. "My uncle taught me how." She said, flicking switches as they exited Dxun's atmosphere. "Where are we going?"
"Tatooine!" Rick said. "Mum said that was where Revan left the Ebon Hawk!"
"The Ebon Hawk?" Padme said in awe. "Wow."
Kail stood back up from the spot Kinraar had pushed him. "Well, I think this is the beginning of a great adventure." He said, smiling.
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