Dark Knight Over The Empire.
By Carycomic
Chapter 5.
NAR SHADDA (10 BBY)
* * * * *
G'nort Gneesmacher put his right arm around the green-skinned Twilek girl as he headed back toward the spaceport hotel room he had rented. It might not be the master bedroom of a Hutt crime lord's palace! But, at least it was cleaner than most of his previous lodgings. Which, in turn, should make this pretty little thing a lot more enthusiastic for their upcoming "tryst."
Unfortunately, it would not be his more usual untidiness that killed her mood. It was the near-misses of blaster fire from the Ambush Bugs he suddenly found pursuing him!
"There he is! Get him! Get him! Avenge the boss!"
The Ranth/Lasat mixed-blood was forced to resume driving with both hands on the wheel as he threaded his vehicle through the flyways of this massive ecumenopolis. For, while these vengeful Noehons might not be as good at sharpshooting as he was, they still outnumbered him. And the way they were zipping around his airspeeder with their swoops, one of them was bound to get in a lucky shot, sooner or later! Making him fervently wish there were another gunman in the seat beside him, right now, rather than this "dancing" girl.
As if in answer to that quasi-prayer, Gneesmacher's sidearm suddenly flew up out of his holster and floated in mid-air!
It did more than that, in fact. It started firing at the pursuing Noehons with a precision even he could not match! Striking- -and shrinking- -every single Noehon who got within range of its beam. Furthermore, after half a dozen such shrinkings, the remaining insectoids had had enough.
"Veer off! Veer off! He's pulling some kind of Jedi poodoo with that thing."
Whereupon, the Ambush Bugs flew away at top speed.
"Wow!" exclaimed the Twilek. "You didn't tell me you were a Force-sensitive."
"He's not," growled a deep voice in reply.
Whereupon, the Hawk-Batman deactivated his costume's stealth mode. Revealing him to be kneeling in the vehicle's back seat.
"Who the frell are you?!" demanded the astounded Gneesmacher.
Yet, the Hawk-Batman's only response was to fire the gun point-blank at the bounty hunter. Instantly shrinking him to only a couple centimeters tall! Unfortunately, it was at the expense of discovering, the hard way, that the airspeeder was still on manual control! ! Whereupon, the Twilek started screaming as the vehicle started heading into a power dive for Nar Shadda's distant surface. Yet, she did not remain frightened for long, as the costumed crusader hurriedly jumped into the driver's seat, and activated the auto-pilot.
A minute later, the vehicle had leveled off. Allowing the Hawk-Batman to pick up the shrunken bounty hunter by the nape of his furry little neck.
"Alright, slaver! Time for me to ask _you_ a few questions. Starting with: 'Where did you get this gun?' "
"Look!" exclaimed Gneesmacher (in a high-pitched voice). "I don't know who think you are. But, I'm a bounty hunter, duly licensed by the Empire. You have no right to. . .!"
The Twilek girl could not contain herself any longer. She burst out laughing!"
The Hawk-Batman looked at her, semi-incredulously.
"May I ask what you find so funny, Miss. . .?"
"Sumeer! Sumeer Gleesahn. It's him! His voice is so squeaky, it's cute!"
"Cute?!" echoed the shrunken bounty hunter: "Why, when I get back to normal size, you lousy, good-for-nothing b***, I'll show you who's. . ."
The Hawk-Batman spit in Gneesmacher's face in order to censor the rest of that threat. He then turned to Sumeer.
"How adept are your lekku at tickling a client's bare feet?"
Sumeer grinned: "Let's find out."
* * * * *
Whereupon, the dangling tips of her cranial tentacles stretched upwards to the soles of the shrunken bounty hunter's furry feet.
"Kitchy-kitchy-kitchy-koo. Kitchy-kitchy-kitchy-koo!"
"Ha-ha!" Gneesmacher began to laugh: "No! S-Stop. . .ha-ha-ha! Stop tha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"You want her to stop?" demanded the costumed crusader. "Tell me where you got this gun!"
"Okay, OK! I'll ta-hahahahahahahahahahaha! I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Sumeer ceased the tickling. Whereupon, Gneesmacher took a deep breath and declared, "I got it from Dr. Reducto."
The Hawk-Batman glared at him.
"Who?"
"Redu C'to. A Bith doctor. That's what his patients call him, in Huttese."
"And where does this Bith doctor maintain his practice?"
"He runs a free clinic about half a click south of the Multi-Ale'-Inn."
"What about Drakvaar the Kubaz? What were you discussing with him at the time of your confrontation with the Bartokk?"
"I was collecting on a bet! When I first told him what this gun could do, he didn't believe me. He bet me five hundred credits that I couldn't bring back living fefze beetles, from Duro, with it!"
"Were they delicious?"
Gneesmacher was rendered momentarily speechless by that question. So, the Hawk-Batman repeated it.
"Uh, yeah," replied the former. "Better than the paste made from them. Why?"
"Because it's going to a long time before you eat either, ever again."
He then tossed the shrunken bounty hunter into Sumeer Gleesahn's lap!
"He's all yours. Enjoy."
Whereupon, the costumed crusader activated his boot-jets and took off, southeastward. In the meantime, the Twilek girl picked up Gneesmacher in her left hand and kissed his whole body with one half-hearted lip lock. And she giggled at his resentful sputterings even as she put him in her cleavage!
"I can't wait to show you to the rest of the girls. They are going to ADORE you! !"
tbc
