Chapter Eight.

by Carycomic

IMPERIAL PALACE, CORUSCANT (10 BBY)

Emperor Palpatine finally overcame his astonishment enough to yell behind him:

"Guards! Guards! Activate the anti-skycraft batteries. Shoot that giantess. . ."

On completing his one hundred-eighty turn, he found himself once more being silenced in amazement. Only, this time, it was by the polar opposite of what he had seen outside. Namely; the sight of a red-skinned Sakiyan with a bulbous head, a thin moustache, and a form-fitting black unitard crushing his two Crimson Guardsmen (now each half a centimeter tall) literally underfoot!

Yet, once again, the erstwhile Darth Sidious was able to overcome his speechlessness.

"Who in the name of the Darkside are you?"

"Strange you should use that invocation, Your Excellency," replied the Sakiyan. "I am Darth Sinestro of the Legion of Doom. And we are here to summarily execute you for treason against the True Sith."

"By shrinking me, and then stepping on me as if I were a bug?

Sinestro grinned. "It's either that; or letting my comrade swallow you alive and unarmed."

Almost as if on cue, a tremendous right hand came down and encircled the self-proclaimed Emperor in a vise-like grip! Whereupon, Palpatine found himself on a virtual turbolift ride up to Darth Giganta's leering face.

"And, to think," she gloated. ". . .the others thought we were acting prematurely. This was almost _too_ easy!"

"Your melodramatically named Legion was right the first time," countered her would-be meal.

Whereupon, Palpatine closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Seconds later, a strange tingling sensation began to run straight up Giganta's arm at, quite literally, the speed of thought. The result of Palpatine generating a charge of Force lightning and transmitting it at point blank range from the palms of his hands straight into her own!

"AH-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H!" screamed the giantess, as she instinctively released her hold on the Emperor.

But, the latter did not fall to his death. Far from it; he, in fact, used Force-enhanced telekinesis to levitate safely back down upon his balcony! Following which, he whipped out his lightsaber from a hidden pocket within his hooded black cloak. And, upon igniting its reddish blade of energy, he threw it upward toward the astounded giantess' wide-open mouth. A mouth into which he telekinetically guided it!

And, which she reflexively swallowed. All in less time than it takes to tell.

"Shame on you, my dear," he gloated. "Big girls ought to know better than to swallow sharp objects."

Giganta could not retort, as she was too busy choking on her own blood. Simultaneously, she began to stagger backwards, totally unmindful of the screaming on-lookers who rushed to avoid being trod upon. Not that it did some of them any good. Not when she fell down right on top of them, flat on her back, a moment later!

The ensuing seismic vibrations were channeled all the way up to the balcony of the Imperial Palace, Palpatine had been prepared for them, however. Once again, he resorted to Force-enhanced telekinesis; although, this time, to keep himself steady. The same, on the other hand, could not be said for Sinestro. The latter had been so stupefied by the speed of Palpatine's counter-attack, against Giganta, that he wound up being driven to his knees by the massive ground tremors!

As a result?

He was totally vulnerable to the bolt of Force lightning Palpatine now hit him with, stunning him even further.

"That's an interesting-looking gold ring you wear, my friend," the Emperor mused aloud. "There's something about it that seems very strong with the Force. Could I take a closer look at it?"

Whereupon, down at street level, the Emperor's lightsaber came shooting up out of Giganta's throat like a larval xenomorph bursting out of a humanoid's chest! It's reddish blade of energy once more ignited and returning to Palpatine's left hand, hilt-first, like a faithful dog.

This was followed by Sinestro's scream as the lightsaber amputated his right hand straight through the wrist.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON NAR SHADDA

Dr. Redu C'to checked the heartbeat, pulse, and respiration of his Drall head nurse, who was still unconscious. Duly reassuring himself that her vital signs were all stable, he turned back to his most unusual patient of all. The one currently incarcerated in a cage normally set aside for lab animals!

"Subject has regained consciousness," he spoke into a holovid recorder. "And, according to the diagnostic sensors attached to his 'quarantine area', all his vitals are within textbook norms. Yet, he has been miniaturized in both size and mass by one simple blast of a beam of light! If I can ascertain from him how that was accomplished, it will open a whole new field of research in medical science."

"O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh!" interrupted Rek'oj. "Well said, Doc. You do have a way with words! But, you're forgetting one teensy-weensy thing. I didn't invent the fracking ray gun that did this to me! I was trying to find its source. Thinking that one just like it might have been put on reverse-polarity before being used on a certain trio of Anomids back on Coruscant. Making them grow to the size of rancors!"

"I know nothing about those weapons prior to their arrival here from Peridon's Folly," replied the Bith physician. "All I did was inject some emigrant Xa Fels with water from a lake on the planet Ambria. To see if the midi-chlorians present therein would improve their state of health and. . ."

The Ayrou grinned as he saw the look of realization cross his captor's face.

"Aw-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w! You know I've been using the Force on you. Usually, I'm subtler than that! I guess that must been shrunken along with the rest of me."

"We will soon remedy that," snapped the Bith. "Once I move your cage next door to the one holding my pet ysalamiri!"

"I'd rather you didn't, Dr. Reducto," replied a new (and decidedly female) voice. "Because, I have some questions for him, myself. Although, not until after I interrogate you, first!"

The Bith slowly turned about, one hundred-eighty degrees, to behold a masked human female in purple-and-black holding a miniature bowcaster upon him. One aimed right at his forehead!

"And, you are. . .?"

"Helena D'Ibertinelli," said the woman. "Huntress of House Renliss."

"I've heard of you," Redu C'to replied. "Or, rather, your ilk. You only hunt male fugitives. I, however, am not wanted for anything that I know of!"

"I beg to differ," the Huntress disagreed. "I could haul you back to Bimmiel for aiding and abetting the spice-head, Arnwes Kar. That carries the death penalty, there, just as much as being a dishonest businessman."

She had eavesdropped on the Hawk-Batman's initial interrogation of the previously shrunken Bith. So, naturally, she was running a bit of a bluff while simultaneously hoping he could not discern that. Unfortunately, that hope was almost instantly dashed.

"I will tell you what I told your colleague (with whom you are obviously running some kind of delayed-reaction version of 'Good Cop/Bad Cop'). I merely received those weapons from Kar. I didn't ask where he got them. And he didn't volunteer the information!"

"But, _someone_ must've been done some tinkering with them during the interim they were stored on your premises," the Huntress persisted. "So, what I want to know is... who made the modifications responsible for that?"

She pointed at Little Rek'oj.

The Bith shrugged. "Perhaps it was Sevenny."

"And who the frak is Sevenny?" the Huntress demanded (with gradually mounting impatience).

The not-so-good doctor's only response to that was to utter a piercing whistle. Followed, two second later, by the sight of an FX-7E medical assistant droid crashing through the door of the storage locker it had evidently been hiding within it! One of its several metallic tentacles extending outward to inject a hypodermic needle full of water directly into the neck of the unconscious Drall nurse. A moment later, Nurse Hedda was springing to her feet... after suddenly expanding to the size of an immature rancor!

And, with all the fierceness of an adult one.

* * * * *.

CORUSCANT (10 DAYS EARLIER)

Prince Xizor put the holovid on freeze-frame so his guest could get a good look at the garishly dressed individual in the center of the image. An image downloaded from the hidden holocam the GCPD had recovered from the office of Willem Lambert on New Cov. He had had to pay his contacts, within the Imperial City Police, twice as many credits as usual, to obtain a copy of it, undetected! Yet, it would prove worth it... if his guest could do the job.

That guest was Shatterfist, master of teras kasi.

At first glance, most humans would probably assume the latter was a Devaronian with cranial hair implants. But, in reality, the shirtless alien humanoid was only half-Devaronian. Born and raised on Berchest, by his bounty-hunting Gotal mother, after her one-night stand with a certain Vilmarh Grahrk. So, to those few who knew him, it came as no surprise that he had followed in her footsteps. But, where she had been a member of House Renliss (the females only-branch of the Bounty Hunters' Guild), he was a member of House Paramexor. The branch that only went after escaped murderers!

"Well? What do you think?"

"I think your man Jennings was killed in self-defense."

Xizor frowned. "And I say he was killed trying to defend himself from this Hawk-Batman! But, that's beside the point. Jennings was a very valuable employee, and I want his killer brought to justice. Just name your price!"

Shatterfist meditatively massaged his chin for a bit. Then, he grinned.

"Whatever you were paying Jennings for his work on New Cov! Plus, a holovid endorsement from you the next time I apply for membership in House Salaktori*."

Xizor's frown only partially evolved into a smile.

"You drive a hard bargain. But, it's a deal."

NAR SHADDA (THE PRESENT)

There was inevitably some initial hesitation due to the unexpectedness of what she had seen. The Huntress quickly recovered, however. Immediately changing her mini-bowcaster's aim from the Bith to the mutated Drall and firing, accordingly. Yet, even though each bolt hit the targeted mark, none of them had any effect on the bestial giantess! Consequently, she wound up being chased out of the front door of Dr. Reducto's clinic, while the Bith, himself, exited the rear. Becoming airborne, shortly afterward, courtesy of a Clone Wars-surplus JT-12 jetpack.

The Hawk-Batman (finally arriving on the scene with Arnwes Kar) looked from the fleeing physician to the mutated Drall running after the Huntress and back again. Muttering heatedly, under his breath, he chose to save the Huntress. So, he landed just behind where the bestial giantess had her intended prey cornered. And, with his left hand, he drew and fired the very gun everyone seemed so obsessed with gaining information about! One "ka-zap" later, the female Drall that had been Nurse Hedda began to shrink. Although, slowly and painfully, as compared to the swift-and-harmless manner in which every other being struck by the beam had shrunken!

Releasing the fugitive Bimm (after first instructing him not to go anywhere), the Hawk-Batman used his right hand to medically scan her body with a battery-shaped device.

"Total cellular disruption," he mused half-aloud when he was through. "Almost like whatever gigantized her couldn't stand the bio-miniaturization process. But that raises the question; what gigantized her in the first place?"

"Precisely what I'd like to know!" said a new and decidedly female voice from behind him. "That's why you're under arrest... in the name of the Hapes Consortium!"

tbc

AUTHOR's NoTe:

*House Salaktori: the oldest and most prestigious branch of the Bounty Hunters' Guild.