.:Swoop Wars Part 2:.
Rick woke about an hour before dawn, but not where he had expected.
In fact, he wasn't exactly sure where he was. And his memory of the night before was a blur, although he remembered being slashed by Alison's new 'pet'. It was nothing he couldn't heal, but the fact it had scratched him at all ticked him off.
But not as much as discovering that he was lying next to Alison in the same bed, their clothes discarded in a corner of the room, and absolutely no recollection of how he'd gotten there.
So, being extra careful not to wake Alison, he climbed out of the bed, at which point he made another frustrating discovery: he had a massive hangover.
Pulling himself into his clothes with some difficulty, he staggered out of the room and found Kevin and Rain having breakfast. Looking around, he realized they were in the Hotel owned by Ignus, in Ahto East Central.
"Well, look what the kath hound dragged in." Kevin sniggered, handing Rick a mug of caffa to help him with his hangover. Fifteen minutes and four mugs later, Rick was beginning to feel a little better
…until Alison's new pet caat walked out of the room he'd come from, planted itself on the chair next to him, and began watching him with murderous eyes.
"What's with that thing?" He asked as Rain laughed and reach over to scratch After a few minutes of sitting there with the caat staring at him, Rick couldn't take it anymore and got up to leave.
"Tell Alison she needs to be at the Swoop Tracks by twelve-thirty." He said, and walked out of the Hotel, intending to go visit Kail and Padme before heading to the Swoop Tracks himself, it turned out he'd slept in till eleven o'clock.
"Well, it's nice to have a visitor we know." Kail said, as Rick walked into the Medical Facility. Rick turned to see Kail, not just standing, but he was also fully dressed in his robes, with a blaster at his belt; he had not yet replaced the lightsaber he'd lost on Derallia, so until he did the blaster would have to do.
"Kail, you – you're standing."
"Yeah, I noticed that." Kail joked. "Two trips to the Kolto tank and one night in a healing trance have helped a ton."
"How's Padme?" Rick asked.
"She's doing okay." Rick turned to find Padme, also dressed, coming out of the room the two had shared while needing the help of the facility, which they obviously didn't need anymore.
"Although the doctor said not to do anything too active for the next couple of days, we're free to leave."
"Even though I feel perfectly…" The Zabrak girl staggered, but Kail was by her side in a second, helping to support her. "…fine." Padme groaned, "Okay, so I'm not as invincible as I thought."
"No, you're not, and you're going to straight to the Ebon Hawk to rest, Padme." Kail said; then he smiled. "Or maybe it'd be more appropriate for me to call you Your Highness, because for the next couple of days, I will be you completely loyal servant."
Smiling as mischievously as Kail, Padme turned and kissed him. "Okay, first order: find me a hotel room with a view screen, I want to watch Rick and Alison, go head-to-head in the greatest Swoop Race since Revan on Taris."
"Yes, my queen." Kail said, supporting Padme as she walked out of the Medical Facility. Laughing and shaking his head at the two, Rick ran after them, and they walked together for a bit, then Rick headed off to meet Alison at the Swoop Tracks.
While walking toward the Swoop Tracks, Rick tried to piece together the events of the previous night. He had a vague memory of falling onto the ground and kissing Alison, and then the small, tender kiss turned into a long, passionate kiss that continued until they'd fallen into the bed in the hotel room, while stripping off all their clothes.
Having worked out the basic idea of the previous nights' happenings, Rick could relax as he walked into the men's changing rooms, where he found an empty cubicle and got changed into his Swoop riding gear.
When he came out of the cubicle, he found three other racers: one was a Rodian with extremely green skin; greener then he'd ever seen; one was a Twi'lek with blue-green skin and a long scar going down the side of his face; the third was a man a bit shorter then Rick, though he wore a full helmet that covered all of his face.
Rick walked out and saw Alison just coming out of the women's changing room, also wearing Swoop riding gear. Another three racers came out after her: another Twi'lek, though this one's skin was a light shade of violet, and she had no scar; another human, who had short purple-dyed hair and deep, piercing green eyes.
The final seemed human, though the lower part of her face, from her nose down, was hidden under a brown cloth.
She also wore a helmet which hid most of the rest of her face, though Rick could see a pair of yellow, animal-like eyes staring back at him.
All eight racers walked to their respective Swoops, and climbed into them. As the light in front of them went from red to yellow, Rick turned to Alison, who smiled a challenge at him from the cockpit of her Swoop.
"Loser buys dinner tonight." She sent through their bond.
"For the next week as well, and that's not counting space travel!" Rick sent back.
"Deal!" The light turned green – and they were off!
The Swoops tore across the waters, and just seconds later it was obvious this would not be a clean game.
As Rick's swoop approached the Rodian, he saw something round and shiny in the Rodians hand, which he then released to come hurling toward Rick –
Who hit a trigger on his controls and fired two quick shots ahead of him. One hit the flash grenade and blew it up before it reached him. The second hit the right engine of the Rodian's swoop, which then blew up and sent the Rodian crashing into the sea.
Alison didn't wait for any provocation though. As soon as the human woman overtook her, Alison fired three shots from her Swoop and blew the woman's Swoop into a thousand pieces, turning the woman into a smoking corpse which fell harmlessly into the ocean to become Firaxa-chow.
The next victim was hit by both Rick and Alison. The two of them were completely equal in speed; then a Swoop rider, the Twi'lek man, came up between them and passed them.
Both teenagers thumbed their laser triggers and turned the Twi'lek and his Swoop into a giant ball of fire, which disappeared under the waves of the ocean.
This left Alison, Rick, and the two masked racers. Seconds later, the man threw a grenade into the engine of the woman's swoop when she got ahead of him. Amazingly, she knew it was there, and hit a button that launched her from the Swoop bike and high into the air.
She fell back down and disappeared like all the others.
When the final racer came up between Rick and Alison, the two of them both shifted gears on their Swoops and slammed toward him to crush him between them.
He put on a burst of speed and before they could do a thing, Alison and Rick slammed into each other.
Seconds before the two Swoops imploded on themselves, Rick let go of his handlebars and was pulled backwards off the seat, while Alison used the Force, and pulled herself up into the air and away from the explosion that followed.
About two hours later, Rick allowed himself to sink down beneath the surface of the ocean. As soon as his feet touched the ocean floor, he bent his knees and propelled himself upwards, bursting out of the water and into the air at which point, he flipped, rotated and landed on his feet on the Ahto City docks, uninjured, though he looked like a drowned rat.
A moment later, Alison pulled herself up onto the docks as well.
"If I ever get my hands on that filthy, foul-playing, race-stealing, mask-wearing freak, I will kill him and then bring him back to life so he can clean up the mess, then I'll kill him again and dump his body in the ocean." She said furiously, her eyes shadowed and dark.
Rick nodded quickly as he brushed back a strand of wet hair. "What you said." He said.
"Well, that's quite an insult, Alison; though I've heard Elaine and your Mother use more colorful language."
Rick and Alison both looked up and saw the Racer who'd caused them to have to swim back to Ahto City. Rick rushed at the man, and was pushed backwards by a jolt from the Force so strong it took a moment for him to recover his breath.
While he did that, he looked questioningly at Alison, and found her rushing forward and being pushed back as well.
"How do you know her name?" Rick asked, catching his breath.
"Do you really want to know? Well, I suppose you do." The man reached up, and pulled off his helmet.
"Disciple?"
Rick threw himself forward, his lightsaber flying from his belt into his hand, one end already ignited, and attempted to cut the Disciple in half.
He was met by another blast of Force energy that left him lying on his back, once again short of breath.
Back at the hotel, both Padme and Kail shivered in unison as the vision ended. Their eyes met, and they both raced for the door; Padme to go and help Rick and Alison, and Kail to try and stop her from leaving.
There were a few moments fighting and rolling around on the floor, which ended with Padme on top, proving she could handle the Disciple, as Kail was much stronger than him.
They saw Rain and Kevin already heading toward the exit of the hotel, with Alison's pet caat, Shayera, right behind them.
They got to the docks quickly, to see Alison and Rick about to get kicked off the docks by the Disciple.
But he hesitated when he sensed the Force-Sensitive gather behind him, and many lightsabers ignite.
He turned, smiling, and then had to duck quickly to avoid receiving a blaster bolt in the head. He ignited a lightsaber of his own, and then rushed at Padme first, expecting her to be the weakest after spending a couple of days in the Medical Facility.
The poor, deluded fool.
Padme, still holding a grudge against the Disciple for threatening Kail, ignited her red and blue lightsabers, and they met with Disciples double-bladed red saber with more power then he had expect, causing him to over balance and trip backwards.
Rain and Kevin leapt at the Disciple, their viridian, purple and green lightsabers, blurs as the three sabers went through three different parts of the Disciple's arm, almost simultaneously.
Mical screamed in pain and fury and unleashed another blast of Force energy and knocked all of them down. He would not be denied his revenge by mere children!
Out of the air, appearing from nowhere a dark blur suddenly fell onto Mical and sent him flying to the floor with a snarl. Alison struggled up right and looked on in surprise as Torne and Shayera attacked the Disciple with fierce intensity.
Kinraar joined them almost as quickly, as Rick and Alison looked at her, "where did he come from?" Rick asked just as confused as Alison. Kinraar grinned and howled, "I made him see some sense."
"Never mind, I don't want to know," Alison mumbled as she turned to look at the fight. Somehow while they were all preoccupied Mical had managed to escape again.
"Damnit, won't he ever die!" Alison clenched her fists as the thought rang through her mind and over to Rick across the bond. "Ali, are you okay?" Rick asked; concern hearable in his voice as he probed her thoughts gently.
She didn't answer him though, whistling to Shayera, who came bounding up and jumped up onto Alison's shoulder, meowing playfully.
"Right, let's move out, people, we should get back to the ship before anything else happens."
Rick followed her, frowning; she hadn't answered his question and she wasn't going to.