Disclaimer: I own nothing! It all belongs to George Lucas! Unless… Do you think he'll be willing to trade for a couple of candy bars I have leftover from Easter?
Chapter Four: Meet Alaric… Or is it Mystiran?
"What do you mean?" Jaina asked. She looked at her apprentice and Marin with a worried look. "Are you two alright?"
Marin and Kionne looked panicked. They turned to each other and said, "Do you think they followed us?"
"Who followed you?" Zekk asked.
Marin threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Them!"
"Them who?" Jaina questioned.
"The crazy InuKag fans that I accidentally offended," Marin said.
Jaina and Zekk exchanged looks of concern. "What did you do, Marin?" Zekk asked.
"Well, I went to go see this really cool Inuyasha poster and there were all these girls dressed like Kagome and hugging a really cute Inu plushie. They started glaring at Kionne 'cause she's dressed like Kikyo and everyone knows that most InuKag fans loathe Kikyo." Marin looked at Kionne, Jaina, and Zekk for confirmation that they knew this. They gave confused nods and she continued. "I bought the poster and that's when I noticed that the girls were glaring at Kionne. So I asked them what their problem was and-"
"One of the girls gestured to me and said 'Why did you bring a Kikyo fan over here?'" Kionne interrupted. "Then I asked who Kikyo was and everyone ignored me. Marin asked the girl what was wrong with my costume and another one of the girls said that Kikyo was evil and shouldn't exist. Marin responded by telling her that it may be true, but Kagome shouldn't exist either. Marin also said that Kagome was just as bad as Kikyo because she was Kikyo's…" Kionne looked confused and Marin jumped back into the conversation.
"Because Kagome is Kikyo's reincarnation," Marin explained. "The girls got really mad at me and started chasing us. So we ran and then ended up here."
Zekk and Jaina exchanged an amused glance before turning back to their apprentices. Kionne looked tired and slightly scared and Marin was back to her bubbly, happy self. Apparently, their day's adventures hadn't shaken her a bit. Marin was grinning at them cheerfully.
"I'm going to change out of this costume, it's starting to itch," Marin said. She skipped off to the room she shared with Kionne.
Kionne looked at her master and Zekk, and then glanced around room. "Well, the house isn't destroyed, I guess Ishould be grateful," Kionne commented.
"You thought we would destroy the house?" Jaina queried curiously.
"Yes, either that or you would blow it up," Kionne answered.
"What made you think that I would blow our house up?" Jaina asked.
"Well… There was that one time I left you alone and you decided you were going to clean up the house. It looked like an earthquake and hurricane had happened simultaneously in here!" Kionne exclaimed.
"Umm…" Jaina couldn't think of a response.
Zekk burst out laughing, making Jaina blush. She whacked him on the arm, causing him to stop to rub his arm.
"So what have you guys been doing since we left?" Kionne asked.
"Nothing much, just sitting around-"Jaina started.
"Watching the Holonet," Zekk added.
"Eating a bit, wait… Have you two had dinner yet?" Jaina asked.
"No… is there any left?" Kionne looked slightly hungry.
Marin bounded into the room and beamed at everyone. "I'm starved!" she announced.
Marin ran off into the kitchen. Kionne ran off after her to help with the raiding of the leftovers.
XaXaXaXa-
(Morning, Jaina's office; with some weirdo blond guys sitting in it)
"Al, you're not supposed to be eating the Goddess's chocolate supply," oneman told the other. They were identical twins with sand-colored hair and liquid blue-grey eyes.
The man referred to as "Al" snorted. "Great One shouldn't have left 10 perfectly good chocolate bars in her desk. It's her own fault that I'm currently feasting on these delightful treats, 'Ran."
"'Ran" snorted and shook his head. "What the Sith have you been doing on the kriffin' computer of yours? Normally you're not so eloquent."
"The computer's done nothing to me. I just had an extremely strong pot of caf this morning."
"So that's why you were practically dancing through the halls. You know, that wall really didn't move into your way. There was no reason for you to Force push it."
"Kriffin' wall got in my way!" Al, normally known as Alaric Kenys, yelled. "It hurt really badly!"
"Al, you're acting like a 5-year-old," 'Ran, or Mystiran Kenys, told him.
"I am not acting like a 5 yr. old, you old coot!" Alaric sat down in Jaina's chair. Much to his delight, he found that it was one of those excellent spinny chairs. He started out slowly and steadily started to spin faster and faster.
"Old coot! I'm only eight minutes older than you!"
"I'm gonna be ssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccckkkkkkkkk!" Alaric stated as he spun.
Mystiran jumped out of the way as his brother went flying out of his chair. Alaric swayed around in a circle and if this had been a cartoon, then there would be definite swirly-eye action. He slowly tried to stand up and lurched from foot to foot until he regained his balance. The man gave an idiotic grin and ran back to the chair.
'Ran shook his head as he watched Alaric consume another chocolate bar. That would be his fourth one since they had entered Jaina's office. It was amazing how stupid and energetic his brother could get when he was taken away from his computer. He also vaguely wondered if someone had spiked his brother's caf with andris but had to reconsider that idea. He turned when the door opened, admitting Jaina and her apprentice, Kionne.
In his mind, both were pretty decent people. Kionne and Jaina could walk silently with all their flight gear on and that was no easy feat. Currently, Jaina was gaping at the hyperactive Alaric while Kionne was attempting not to break into laughter.
"What is he doing in my chair?" Jaina asked.
"Well, it appears to me, oh Great One, that my dearest brother is spinning until he gets himself sick," Mystiran drawled.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Jaina shot back.
"That's Major Obvious, I'll have you know," Mystiran retorted.
Everyone watched as Alaric hurtled into the air and then raced back to the chair again. Kionne decided not to hold in her mirth anymore and burst into laughter.
"What's wrong with him?" Jaina asked as she watched Al scream 'whee' as he spun around in her chair.
"Apparently he had a far too strong pot of caf," Mystiran said. Then, almost as an after thought, added, "And your chocolate."
"My chocolate!" Jaina screeched.
Jaina somehow got a hold of Alaric. She also managed to drag him into a chair and got him to stay there. Of course, Alaric was screaming, "I want the spinny chair! I want the spinny chair! I want the spinny chair!"
Jaina sat down at her desk and glared at him. "Alaric Kenys, you need to calm down. And you also need to repay me for all the chocolate bars that you ate."
"But I only ate 4!" Alaric protested as he held up three fingers.
Jaina gave him a weird look. "Al, are you okay?"
"Al, hee, hee. That's a funny name."
"Master Kenys, are you alright?" Kionne asked.
"Which one?" Mystiran asked.
"The crazy one," Kionne answered. "As a matter of fact, Master, I'm going to take Master Kenys to Cilghal to see if she can do anything with him."
Kionne walked over to the man and gently pulled him out of the chair and started to lead him out of the room. As the door was closing, they could here Al saying, "Did you know you have pink skin? Pink skin's funny."
Jaina looked to Mystiran with a raised eyebrow. "Well, what were you two doing in here anyways?"
"We were assigned by General-What's-His-Face to give you some possible candidates for your squadron. You're supposed to narrow it down to a few candidates and then Al and I are to help you pick 3 to fill the empty spots."
"Good, good," Jaina said. "When do I have to have the spots filled?"
"By next Wednesday at the latest."
"Only 5 days? Well I guess that won't be so bad. How many applicants are there?"
"About 2,587; well it looks like you're going to be busy for a while, so I'll be leaving you with these," Mystiran dumped a nice stack of data chips on her desk. "And now, I'm going to go visit my darling wife for a bit, so have fun, Goddess."
Jaina sat in a stunned silence, staring at the file reports with a shocked expression. She grimaced and then started on the boring task set before her.
XaXaXaXa-
(Jaina's apartment, after work)
"Kionne, is there some reason that you have Al here?" Jaina asked. She hadn't been in the friendliest of moods since she had been given her nicely sized mountain of paperwork.
"He hit his head on the door to the med room. I'm afraid he's been a bit out of it since. I was worried he would injure himself further if I left him alone so I brought him here," Kionne answered.
A few seconds after Jaina came in, Zekk and Marin arrived.
"Good Afternoon, Jaina," Marin greeted.
"What's so kriffin' good about it?"
"Gee, what's got you in such a wonderful mood?" Zekk asked.
"She got a lot of paperwork," Kionne said.
"Hiya, Uncle Bobo!" Al said to Kionne.
Zekk and Marin stared at him. He gave them a loopy smile before falling onto the couch. They looked at Jaina then at Alaric and then back to Jaina. Zekk pointed to the unconscious man. "Friend of yours?" he asked Jaina.
"I guess, but after he ate my chocolate this morning I'm not so sure," Jaina muttered.
"Master, be nice," Kionne admonished. "The poor man had too much caf. He couldn't help it. It turns out that he has ADHD, so that didn't help matters at all."
Jaina scowled and muttered something about work before wandering down the hallway to her "room". Marin shrugged and sat down in the chair, smiling happily at them. "Soooo… it sounds like you had an interesting morning, Kionne. What happened?" Marin asked.
Zekk sat down in another chair and looked at her expectantly. "I'd also like to know."
"Well…" Kionne started. She gave a brief version of what happened and ended with Alaric cracking his head on the door. "You see, it's one of those old fashioned doors that you have to push or pull open but he didn't realize that because he was hyper beyond all reasoning. The door was partially opened and Master Kenys totally miscalculated the positioning of the door and ran smack-dab into it. That's how he got even loopier in the head."
Zekk nodded and glanced at the man on the couch. So this was Alaric Kenys. The man was snoring and drool was coming out of the side of his mouth. All in all, this was not what Zekk had expected from someone in Jaina's squadron and a supposed technology expert. The man looked like he was a big 8-year-old almost. Alaric snorted and muttered something about flying banthas and dancing Wookiees. This caused Zekk to wonder what the Sith that man was dreaming about, but decided not to think about it.
He glanced at the apprentices. Marin was attempting to tell Kionne something, who looked more confused than a Gungan in a desert. His stomach started to growl so he got up and went to get food. He opened the fridge and looked inside. On the door there was blue milk that was a week past its expiration date, and a bottle of some yellowish green stuff (what the kriff!). In the main part there was a Tupperware container, overripe fruit, and some funny looking green stuff that Zekk swore he saw move. He sighed and groaned. He reached a cautious hand out for the Tupperware, gently opened the lid, and peeked inside.
There was a fuzzy white fungus growing on a leftover nerf steak. It had a sickly sweet smell and looked like it was about to attack him. Zekk quickly closed the lid. He stood and walked back into the living room. "Kionne, when was the last time you and Jaina went grocery shopping?" Zekk asked.
"I don't know, I think it was about 3 ½ weeks ago… Why?" Kionne answered.
"Well, your fridge is bare, and there's things growing in it. Very err… questionable things," Zekk explained.
"Ooh, ooh, I wanna see, I wanna see!" Marin exclaimed as she raced to the kitchen. Kionne followed, also curious about what was growing in the fridge. You could hear shrieks of, "That's disgusting!" and, "Did that meat loaf just move?"
When the girls returned, Kionne looked mortified and Marin was between grossed out and amused. Zekk raised an eyebrow as Kionne sat down and muttered something about cleaning the fridge.
"Girls, I'm going to go get Jaina and get some food, okay?" Zekk announced. They nodded. Zekk jerked a thumb towards the still sleeping Alaric. "I want you guys to keep an eye on sleeping beauty."
Marin gave a mock salute. "Yes, sir, General Zekk, sir!"
He laughed and ruffled her hair before walking down the hall to Jaina's office. Without bothering to knock, Zekk strode right in the room. Jaina again was poring over a datapad. She was muttering something to herself and seemed half-asleep. She glanced up when he walked into the room, andthen went back to working.
"Jay, you have a problem. A big one," Zekk commented as he sat on the cot and then lounged down on it.
Jaina looked up with an alarmed expression. "Oh no, Al didn't mess with my Holonet connection did he? I hope none of those singing Hutts come again."
"It's nothing about- wait, what singing Hutts?"
"Umm… don't worry about it. So what's the problem?" Jaina asked.
"You have nothing edible in your fridge!"
"So? Kionne and I don't usually have enough time to cook, so we order takeout most of the time."
"C'mon, we're going to get some Sith-spawned food!" Zekk exclaimed.
He grabbed Jaina's arm and dragged her out of the room ashe made his way through the living room with Marin calling out, "Where are you two going?"
"Out," Zekk replied, "we'll be back some time later."
"Bye!" Marin called, waving enthusiastically.
Zekk dragged a stunned and confused Jaina out of the apartment.
TBC-
This is where I should insert 'cackles' in asterisks, but I can't because FF.N won't let me. Here are the review replies:
DathomiranAuthorRoamer: Wow, other people aside from me like my humor! I did well at a description? Hold on, I gotta see if there are pigs flying… Thanks!
Dragonsdaughter: Thank you, I'm glad you like it.
