Chapter 15: First Trip to 79's - Part 2

(Hunter's POV)

Hunte sent a short glare to both Wrecker and Crosshair before training his eyes on the retreating figure of Talla until she was out of his line of sight, worried sick the enhanced clone would end up having another sensory overload walking through the thickening crowd all by herself.

Hopefully his lesson had made an impact on her already.

It was hard enough having an intelligent conversation with Wrecker when he was sober, but Tech tried. Hunter's fingers tapped against his bottle of beer in an anxious rhythm of his own creation and Crosshair, who wanted the simple pleasure of enjoying the electrifying music already playing around them, rolled his eyes and drawled, "If you're going to do that, at least serenade us with something tasteful, perhaps a song from Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes?"

Hunter scowled, not in the mood for his snark at this particular moment, but stopped anyways.

For what felt like an eternity he struggled maintaining control over his stress at letting Talla wander the bar without an escort. His second choice of anxious tics practically frayed the edge of his tunic from insistent fiddling with it between his index finger and thumb.

What in the blazes is wrong with you?! You never worry this much over your own brothers.

She's naive!

If anyone tried messing with her, you know she'd rip their arm off.

Still!

You're supposed to be the level-headed leader! Don't lose your cool over a stupid girl you can't have!

Wrecker finally realized the Agent had been gone for a while. "What's takin' Talla so long?"

This was enough of an invitation for Hunter to bolt from his seat, all that sound reasoning be damned. He zigzagged his way through the crowd and gripped the railing of the second floor upon reaching it, peering over into the crowded bar below. It was hard to miss Talla, that hair not doing any favors for her stealth, and by the looks of it she was having a rough time, hunched over in her stool and face twisted in discomfort.

Eyes flicking to her left, Hunter saw why, and if he had enhanced strength the railing would have snapped like a toothpick as his hands seized, a white-hot burning sensation coursing through in his chest. The Togruta from earlier, that son of a mudscuffer had managed to corner her! Hunter had been in bars often enough to know that perverts like him roamed the establishments to find their prey, and Talla had become this one's. Her body language showed her obvious disinterest in talking with the guy, but Hunter glowered as he didn't take the hint and put his grubby hand on her.

Hunter would have hurled himself over the railing just like his common sense if Crosshair hadn't caught up to him just in time and literally restricted him from doing so.

Talla without a doubt rejected the Togruta's advances, prompting Crosshair to remind Hunter, "She's a big girl, she can handle herself." Not wanting him to do anything rash or stupid. His protective sergeant mode was in Corellian Overdrive right now, and the sniper rarely told his sergeant what to do, but even Hunter was bound to have reckless moments at times and that's when Crosshair, his second in command, was forced to be the voice of reason.

Hunter's hands clenched even more if that was possible, and Crosshair would be surprised if there weren't indents of his fingers on the poor metal railing now, the thin skin over his knuckles as white as a force ghost and close to splitting. But thank the force he listened to Crosshair and slowly let a calming breath wind down the tension that had accumulated in his shoulders and neck -

Only to snap to attention when the guy didn't let up and ran that same grubby hand down her bare back and she whipped around, clearly escalating into the distress category now.

"That's it!" Hunter growled, and thankfully darted away from the railing instead of leaping over it. So his brothers followed, also agreeing that it was time to intervene, and Hunter created path by shoving people and droids out of the way while he made his beeline to Talla, the burning sensation in his chest getting hotter by the second as his mind replayed the guy's inappropriate actions towards Talla, and her resulting distress.

Needless to say, he was sort of impressed when he found Talla handling the situation quite well as opposed to what he observed from above, and he held up a hand to abruptly stop his brothers hustling. Amidst the grunts and curses behind him when Tech ran smack dab into Wreckers back and Crosshair did the same to the genius, Hunter could hear the crackling coming from Talla's grip on the creep's wrist, and she wore a glare of her own so heated it probably was hotter than the flames on Mustafar.

And it did the trick. The man no longer leered at her but had a look of terror on his face - as he should!

Hunter still decided to interfere, not because he thought Talla was helpless but because he knew that she was capable of breaking his wrist, and he really didn't want to be kicked out of the bar they had just been given permission to be patrons in instead of forced into 'child labor'... another nifty little phrase Tech labeled the dishwashing as to see if it would make Neel let them go free since they were, technically, only 'four years old' at the time. It didn't.

Hunter maintained his dagger-like glare aimed at the bastard as he and his crew approached the scuffle, and he put a restraining hand on Talla's shoulder which of course startled the trained Agent, but the defensive attitude dropped when it registered it was just him. "Let him go, Talla." Hunter sternly ordered her, though he wouldn't have shed a tear if she took that blade holstered in her boot and gutted him like a ghest, and didn't end up reprimanding her for following through on the wrist pulverizing, actually giving her a pat on the shoulder that said 'Nicely done!' And when she didn't protest the contact, he kept that reassuring hand on her while proudly watching his other teammates deal with the guy and made him apologize for his actions, thoroughly making him wish he hadn't messed her, then narrowed his steely eyes on the creep leave as he left the bar.

Dealing with the attempted drugging of Tala was a blur. While victoriously building up Talla, at the back of his mind all that Hunter could think about was how in his eyes, the Togruta got off easy. A guy like him surely had other victims before Talla, and if he was allowed to roam free, there'd undoubtedly be others after her. It was most likely the soldier in him, sworn to protect the innocent, that influenced his rash actions after Talla left the bar counter to join the others in the shot contest, hopefully not started yet.

He gave a believable excuse - ''Need to use the 'fresher'' - which would buy him five to ten minutes considering the crowds. That was all he needed, granted the slime ball hadn't high tailed it out of the general area of the building.

And after poking around a bit and using his tracking abilities the best he could under the chaotic circumstances (loud, cheering people and the myriads of different scents that overwhelmed his sensitive nose) he found that Rhyden hadn't gone too far, and was pitifully huddled in the alleyway to the right of the building, cradling his right wrist that was now swelling up and tinting into unnatural, sickish hues.

Hunter's fury sprang back to life full throttle, and after a slight detour he then stalked towards the whimpering man. "Hey, you!" He bellowed to be heard over the chaos around them.

When Rhyden saw the menacing guy with a kriffing skull tattooed on his face making a bee-line towards him, out for his blood, his eyes bugged out and his next action was to try scrambling away for his life, but the vengeful Sarge was one step ahead of him and instantaneously pulled out his vibroblade at and launched it with such force and accuracy that it pinned the guys jacket sleeve to the wall with a CLANG! making it impossible for Rhyden to pull free. And he did try.

Hunter cast an intimidating shadow over the huddled male, so Rhyden held up his unpinned hand to plea for mercy. "Look look, I already said I was sorry!"

"You're not sorry for what you did, you're sorry you got caught." Hunter seethed, then abruptly wrenched his blade free and with his other hand fisted it into Rhyden's jacket as he tried fleeing again, slammed him back against the durasteel wall and earned a pained grunt from Rhyden upon sharp impact, but Hunter was just getting started. Seeing red, he pressed his sharp blade against the sick man's neck so he'd cease his struggling, unless he wanted to accidentally slice his own neck open. "I didn't want to get us kicked out of the bar, but we're not in the bar anymore, are we?"

Rhyden visibly gulped at the fire in Hunter's eyes that was much scarier up close, then immediately regretted it as the action caused the glowing blade to actually nick the thin skin it was pressed against.

His resulting wince was the best song Hunter had heard all night.

Boy had he been off his game tonight! Rhyden woefully thought. Usually, he was good at picking out chicks who didn't have fierce protectors like this! "H-hey I've got a couple hundred creds on me!" He feebly tried bribing, scooping the pouch out of his pocket and shoving it in Hunter's face, praying he'd be satisfied. "If you let me go, it's yours!"

Hunter scowl intensified, and Rhyden would have taken back that bribe if he could since the blade now pierced his skin and drew a thin line of blood. "I don't want your money."

After a whimper Rhyden shrieked, "Then what do you want?!" Hoping it would catch the attention of the nearby Coruscant Guard. Force, he couldn't believe how badly this night had turned out, he usually RAN from the authorities!

"I want to slice your head off," Hunter growled, "But that'd get me locked up for murder and frankly I'd rather see you behind a ray shield."

Rhyden thought his cries did catch the attention of the shock troopers patrolling the area, and he made a noise of triumph since Hunter looked like the assaulter in this scenario, then exaggerated his look of pure terror as the trio marched up to the pair and he waved them down like a mad man, "Thank goodness you're here, this big bag of crazy came at me for no reason!"

What Rhyden didn't know was that Hunter's previous detour consisted of making the druggers illegal actions known to the Guard, "Your sixty seconds are up." The Sergeant, standing in the middle, informed Hunter. He had allowed Hunter one minute alone with this guy to 'Kindly educate him about the dangers of drugs' after he told them Rhyden had tried to take advantage of his clueless female friend. Well, this evening was this particulars trio's first day on the job, so in a way they were clueless too, and eager to take criminal scum down a peg even if it wasn't by the book. Frankly they were disappointed when the perp hadn't lost an eye in a terrible accident from a crash course in knife throwing.

Amongst Rhyden's confusion Hunter dropped him, so he let out a choked sound of relief while clutching his stinging throat, thus not expecting a hard fist to collide with his nose two seconds later, a sickening CRACK! filling the air followed by him crumpling to the ground in a heap of cries and tears from the blinding pain that made him swear he saw stars!"I THINK YOU BROKE MY NOSE!"

Hunter wiped the back of his hand on his pants as if he just touched something dirty while the reg sergeant simpered at seeing the blood flowing out of Rhyden's nostrils like a waterfall. "Ah, now that was worth the price of admission."

With his unbroken hand Rhyden had cupped his gushing broken nose, and gaped up at the three chuckling police officers, "What -?"

"How long you reckon he'll be locked up for?" Hunter asked while crossing his arms in superiority, hoping for 'the rest of his miserable life.'

One reg officer roughly forced the Togruta to stand, purposely twisting his injured wrist behind his back and earning a satisfying yowl while the reg sergeant patted him down and found the pack of death sticks in an inside jacket pocket. "Depends on the drug and drug amount, but I'd say anywhere between six months to two years." Hunter's face revealed his lack of satisfaction that what happened in the bar would not even be considered, and the clone trooper sympathized, wanting nothing more than justice too, "I know, but attempted rape is hard to prove, especially if your girlfriend -"

"Friend." Hunter insinuated, hearing Talla being called his girlfriend giving him a weird feeling.

"Sorry -" Yeah, right, 'friend' my ass. "If your friend was intoxicated, it'll make her story unreliable."

"Sir." The third officer held up a datapad with Rhyden's face scanned into the system, revealing a long list of offenses ranging from complaints to actual charges. "This perv's name is Osian Cai and there's a warrant out for his arrest on seventeen different planets, including Coruscant, for -" He cleared his throat dramatically and numbered each offense with his fingers for extra effect while the color drained from Osians face, "- twelve counts of aggravated sexual assault, nine counts of sexual assault with a weapon, illegal drug possession, illegal drug trafficking -"

And the sergeant snorted. "Heh, looks like your little friend has earned a one-way ticket to at least twenty-five in the Central Detention Center."

A rare smile graced Hunter's features... actually, it was more like a smirk. A really, really, really pleased smirk. He was not pleased with the number of women Rhyden had victimized but pleased that his 'little friend' would in fact be locked up for the rest of his miserable life.

"Might even get life imprisonment." The soldier restricting Osian chimed in smugly.

Ooh, even better.

The datapad holder whistled, astonished when came across the reward posted on the Togrutas head, "And since you turned him in, looks like you'll be getting a big payday - seventeen THOUSAND credits!"

It was unusual for Hunter to openly show what he was feeling inside, but in this instance the shock he experienced at this reveal was clear as day when his eyes became the size of the planet and his jaw dropped to the ground. Like, to the ground floor fifty stories below. "What?" His dumb response.

The reg sarge took the datapad out of his subordinates' hand. "All of the planets chipped in a thousand credits each to have him turned in,'" He happily displayed the reward posted in the Togruta's digital file to Hunter, "Read it and weep tears of JOY!"

Hunter had to take a minute to process the image, circuits in overload.

SEVENTEEN THOUSAND CREDITS?!

Mother of moons, he could have fainted.

Now, a responsible, boring reg would probably reveal that he was clone trooper who probably wouldn't be allowed to accept such a substantial reward, stupid dehumanizing rules and all. At least, Hunter didn't know if clones could... and after being told all that would be needed to accept this reward in cold, hard cash was a first/last name combo and maybe proof of identity, he wasn't going to risk this chance at possessing more credits he would most likely never get another opportunity to ever have again.

Instead, the non-reg with an affinity for breaking rules told the trio of gullible shiny's his name was Hunter Lawquane, and he would provide adequate identification when he came by the Detention Center in the morning, because right now he really felt like rejoining the party inside the bar.

They didn't bat an eye.


(Regular POV)

Hunter had returned just in time. Talla was only on her second shot, and it was clear that'd be all she could handle. Her eyes were unfocused, her words were starting to slur, her coordination was less than stellar, and she was giggling over every. little. thing. Wrecker wasn't doing so hot either after the three he'd had on top of his other strong drinks Hunter had lost track of. Six? Seven? Being three times the size of the others, he claimed he could handle more than the rest of them... and prided himself in that untrue fact. He almost always lost all sense after only a few drinks.

Either way, the bottle of hard liquor was swiftly taken from the loopy best friends and shoved into the hands of a random stranger passing by. "And that's the end of that." Hunter declared while the stranger cheered at the bottle of free whiskey that was still a half full.

Talla's groan of disappointment was so excessive it was embarrassing since it caught the attention from tables nearby. "AWW, YUR NO FUN!" She moodily folded her arms and pouted like a child in her seat next to Wrecker.

Crosshair, who was amazingly still coherent despite having had three strong drinks and four shots, was pretty darn proud his scheme to humiliate Talla was working out splendidly.

Hunter gave him a dirty look as a result, all festive feelings momentarily pushed aside to reprimand Crosshair. "Looks like your plan worked." He murmured darkly to the smirking sniper who merely shrugged, not the least bit sorry. This trainwreck was going to be more entertaining than anything they'd find on the holos back home.

Wrecker, way too far gone by now, still downed his fourth shot. "WE'RE TIED!" He proclaimed.

"You keep telling yourself that, Wrecker." Crosshair antagonized back, not even trying, or unable to hide his amusement.

Wrecker suddenly gasped dramatically and slapped the top of the table excitedly. "Tal, I jus' got the most AMAZIN' idea!"

She mirrored his energy with just as much exaggeration, if not more, and Hunter was stunned the table didn't shatter upon impact, "What?!"

The poor table was abused as Wrecker enunciated every, overly dramatic word in his next sentence. "We. Should. ARM WRESTLE!"

Unfortunately, the table did suffer a crack after that from Talla's uncontrollable strength when drunk. "OKAY!... What's that?!"

Hunter was quick to shoot down the idea, but Wrecker was quicker to yank tipsy Talla from her seat and tug her along to the very much occupied table, but he was swift at fixing that by clearing it of drinks and other party goers by one swipe of his arm across the table and several rude body slams, earning the Bad Batch another four names onto their list of people who despised their existence.

Crosshair was obviously no help in disbanding this craziness and proceeded to take Wrecker's side in the coming battle. Close to drunkenness himself, he was less self-conscious about the regs and other species who noticed their crazy, and he actually stepped behind Wrecker's chair and vigorously massaged the burly man's shoulder muscles while offering words of encouragement as his brother flexed his impressively large arms. Wrecker gloated that this was gonna be easy, but secretly he was hoping he'd have a worthy opponent at last.

Tech was indecisive on who to root for, disappointedly going along with this crazy scheme, and pulled out his datapad to do some calculating to see if Wrecker's muscle mass would overpower Talla's recent access to intense training regiments, consisting of daily all-inclusive workouts and healthy sustenance that would adequately fuel her endurance. Unfortunately, he ended up spending the entirety of the match leaning against the railing with eyes glued to his datapad and not participating at all, furiously tapping away as he was unable to get a satisfactory calculation! It would probably end up being a close match though.

So Hunter was coerced into supporting Talla, not wanting her to lose for a stupid reason like lacking confidence since she somehow noticed the daunting spectacle they were causing.

He knelt down by her chair and grasped her shoulder firmly to capture her flighty attention. "Okay Tal, the rules are simple: you have to try and pin Wreck's hand to the table -" He explained the short list of rules and how to grip, and she listened with the little attentiveness as her drunkenness allowed her but he was seventy-one percent sure she got the gist of things, and awkwardly patted her shoulder after in a weak attempt to bolster the spirits of the second clone in the whole galaxy with enhanced strength.

Crosshair started reffing, his relaxed nature allowing him to enjoy the fun like a normal person would. The resting-b*tch-face was long gone and replaced with an actual smile. Granted, it was still practically nonexistent, but the fact that accompanying it was eyes were lit up with liveliness instead of gleaming with contempt for everyone and everything's existence... it made up the difference! And made Hunter's job all the more impossible.

In the surrounding area of the squads table, people began snickering as the toned but still comparably small woman accepted Wrecker's challenge and grasped hands with the MASSIVE dude. But all mockery ceased when Crosshair counted down from three and went 'GO!'

Talla's arm wasn't instantaneously slammed back down onto the table...

She was fighting back!

And it was working!

Wrecker was equal parts surprised and happy. He had never been able to meet his match in arm wrestling! And he actually had to put forth effort in order to win! Which he planned on doing. Boy, was this great!

Talla's teeth were gritted as she concentrated reeeaaaalllllyyy hard to keep her unsteadiness in check so her applied force or grip wouldn't slacken, and soon Wrecker was too when she doubled her zeal. Neither had ever met their human match when it came to super strength, and both wanted to take the title of 'Strongest Human in the Galaxy!'

As the first minute came and gone and it was clear they were evenly matched, people started to place wagers when Wrecker seemed to get the upper hand, and Talla's small hand started being inched downwards towards the surface of the glowing bar table, but then out of nowhere she got a new burst of raw strength and stood her ground! Straining her arm muscles, she pushed his hand back up! And then his large one was slowly forced towards the tables surface!

It went back and forth like this for a length of time no one was sure of, probably in the minutes category though, and it didn't seem that either participant was going to let up anytime soon. There were shouts of encouragement for each participant mixed with shouts of dislike for their opponent, and cheers when their chosen side seemed to be winning mixed with loud groans or grumbles when their side seemed to be losing.

Crosshair began growing impatient, having accepted a bet of originally ten credits from an orange male Rodian, then it was doubled, tripled, quadrupled, until it was now fifty credits at minute four of the competition. If Wrecker won, Cross would get the small payday, but if Talla won, Crosshair would have to cough up the nonexistent money... Yeah, he was in no position to make sound decisions in this moment, and his opponent obviously had no idea he was a trooper otherwise he would not have offered the fifty-credit challenge to a creditless clone.

So, to ensure Crosshair wouldn't lose the stupid bet he made, the stupid gambler decided to resort to taunting in hopes it would break Talla's concentration.

He sauntered the few steps back to the table and leered down at her once he arrived at her side, knowing her weak points after almost two weeks with his squad. His tone was laced with mockery and ridicule, high enough to be heard over the music and crowd but low enough that Hunter couldn't make out what he said among the chaos, even with his enhanced hearing. And Crosshair made sure to position himself so that his back was to the sarge, knowing he could read lips if need be. "It'd be a shame if you lost now," Crosshair jeered, "After shooting your mouth off about being this undefeatable super soldier and all." Her face twitched as her sharp(ish) concentration faltered, and his grin turned malevolent, "It would prove your all talk and no action, and -" He winced dramatically and knelt down to her eye level to watch the walls of herself validity crumble into ruins, "All of these people watching would know what a fake you are too." She refused to look at him, but the line on her forehead became more prominent as she avidly tried to tune him out, but he tilted his head in fake innocence and delivered the final sardonic blow, preying on her vanity, "How humiliating that would be for you, the 'exceptional' Agent Talla, don't you think?"

He was surprised her teeth didn't shatter when her already clenched jaw seemed to tighten even more, "Stow it, Crosshair." She managed to ground out, not tearing her gaze away from Wrecker's equally steely one, but there was a meager amount of hostility behind that command.

And Crosshair obliged her, but not because he was in any way being chivalrous. Those three short sentences had done the dirty trick, and the result was her hand/arm beginning to waver as the strength was figuratively sucked right out of them by those taunts. Talla's even breaths to keep herself grounded were swift to become turbulent, her hand now being pushed to its crushing defeat, inch by inch, with nary a falter in Wrecker's action. Her noises of protest/effort were desperate but did nothing to help her waning resistance. Her eyes, now widened, looked helplessly as her hand was already halfway down.

It didn't take a genius to know that Crosshair preyed on her weaknesses and used verbal ridicule to take her down, like he did to the regs who so much as breathed the wrong way around him. Hunter usually let it slide, not caring for regs himself, but this was Talla. Whether Crosshair liked it or not she was a Bad Batcher, and didn't deserve to be humiliated in front of all these people.

Hunter didn't know if his next actions would actually aid in her victory or not, and Wrecker and Tech would obviously not be any help in defending Talla from their testy brother, the one who did cartwheels on the fine line between being an ass just for fun and just being straight up cold-hearted... but if Talla did lose, it should be a fair defeat, only because in this instance Wrecker just happened to be a little stronger than her.

The Sarge marched to the frantic woman's other side and played the part of the Light side of the Force while Crosshair, fittingly, portrayed the Dark side, and delivered scathing ridicule of his own against her snarky bully. "You should know, Talla, that Crossy's frightened like a little girl right now." Talla became rapt to attention at this piece of helpful information that doubled as an insult, Crosshair's smirk was now morphed into a snarl, his older bro knowing exactly what buttons to push too when the situation called for him to be knocked down a few pegs, "He made a stupid bet before he saw that you could actually beat Wrecker, and decided to sink so low as to resort to childish antics to make sure his idiocy doesn't earn him a good beat down from a thug when he can't pay up -" His final words were declared with a feigned cold-blooded stare at the close to seething Crosshair, only to give the impression that he did not regret them one bit, "- and the thug most likely wouldn't need any backup from his buddies to take out a stringbean like this guy."

Hunter of course knew that Crosshair, like Tech, was completely capable of defending himself, even if he didn't have the bulk like him or Wrecker. Agility was their friend and equally powerful ally. But he gave Crosshair a taste of his own medicine, the only way he'd back off. Having Hunter come to Talla's rescue certainly didn't earn her any brownie points with her estranged team member, but the Agent found herself believing what the Sarge said over what the sniper said, probably because when it came down to it, she valued Hunter's word over Crosshairs.

That is what gave her a fresh burst of energy and determination and strength.

When Crosshair, and vice versa Hunter, shot up from their crouches, the younger of the clone men fiercely jerked his fist back with the intention of giving the older across the table the shiner of his life, only to freeze when a loud THUMP! sounded on said hard surface between them instead.

There were a few seconds when all commotion ceased, and a deafening silence engulfed the area as the long-awaited moment of victory happened for... TALLA!

IT WAS WRECKER'S HAND PINNED TO THE TABLE!

While Hunter and Crosshair were stunned to silence at this crazy and unexpected outcome with their jaws slack - someone beat Wrecker at arm wrestling?! - the crowds around them erupted in roars of CHEERS and HOLLERS and CRIES and CURSES! One clone corporal shouted, 'MARRY ME!' at frozen Talla -

Hunter would have thrown a rock at him if he... you know... had a rock...

- and other patrons threw their hands up furiously at losing their drinking funds to this apparently 'rigged' event.

It took a couple of beats before Wrecker processed what had happened. He gaped at just as shocked Talla across the table, then down at his pinned thicker wrist underneath a smaller, fair and perfectly manicured hand, then up at panting Talla again. Now, the explosives expert had a history of being a sore loser, but when it registered that someone had arm wrestled with him and it had actually been a challenge for him to almost win, that was what came to the forefront of his mind. It didn't matter that hundreds of people just watched a big guy like him lose to a tiny woman like her, what mattered was that HE HAD FUN!

So, in the second shocking event in less than fifteen seconds, Wrecker didn't pout or whine like he usually did after losing. Rather, the widest grins in the history of wide grins split his face and he energetically pumped up a fist and whooped, "YEEAAHH!" And without warning he bounded around the table and in one swift moment hoisted dumbfounded Talla up onto his shoulder and repeated his energetic actions, "GIVE IT UP FOR THE CHAMPION!"

Soon, he got everyone chanting her name, and all this hype is what snapped her out of this stupefaction. Soon, she was eating up this attention and joined in on the praise, laughing and dangerously swaying on her already unsteady perch from the overwhelming, booming cheers and earlier intoxication.

Tech... meticulous, thorough, oblivious Tech standing against the railing... he finally looked up from his data pad and held it up triumphantly, "Through extensive research and calculations, I have determined that Talla will come out victorious in this match!" :D

The geniuses only response was a peeved Crosshair snatching the stupid electronic from his hands and chucking it over the railing with a grunt.

And Tech voluntarily followed his precious two seconds later and dove after it into the crowded dancefloor below.

Hunter always went out with the family with the hopes that this time would be less crazy than the last time... when was he going to learn that it would never be so? Especially now that rambunctious and fiery Talla was now added into the equation?

Force help me.


Soon, Talla's next adventure was being showed what to do when on the dance floor. One moment she was on Wrecker's shoulder, next she was dropped back onto the ground - thankfully Hunter caught her before she face-planted - and then she was dragged down the steps by the very man who dropped her. The first floor was filled with people who were dancing to the song that Wrecker had gotten pumped up about. He immediately began grooving to the beat of the song while Talla remained frozen in her tracks, her brain not computing what exactly she was supposed to do.

"I dunno how to do this, Wreck!" She shouted in lamentation to be heard over the loud music that no longer bothered her.

"Just loosen up!" He explained with a spirited shove of her shoulder in encouragement, "Feel the beat! There's no wrong way to dance!"

Talla tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear self-consciously and observed Wrecker jumping around and freestyling, looking to have the time of his life, not having a care in the world. She bit her lip in concentration, then through slightly blurry eyes observed the other people around her, how they moved their bodies to the thumping and electrifying beat.

Eventually Talla took Wrecker's suggestion and focused on the song. She'd heard music before in small increments over the last week and found it nice to listen to. It was something pleasing that filled the silence that was at times unwanted, and the words would either say things she couldn't, or just be plain fun to hear.

With much fear of looking stupid, she began by simply bobbing her head to tune of the base that basically shook her to the core, and peered around her to make sure no one was giving her weird glances.

No one seemed to care.

The intense, loud beat caused vibrations throughout her body, and the adrenaline - and alcohol - started speeding through her veins, giving off a euphoric sensation. Soon, she was stepping to the beat as well, then swinging her arms, and when the song reached its chorus she found herself jumping about, cheering and hollering.

Wrecker cheered her on. "Yeah! You're gettin' the hang of it!"

Talla laughed too, and soon her and Wrecker were dancing together, jumping around and swinging their arms and hips to the party songs that played. Some men tried to get her to themselves, but the now hypervigilant Wrecker simply shoved or kicked them on their way. From her extreme dance moves, her fire-colored hair insanely whipped this way and that, and her fit and flare dress whirled about her legs from her vigorously fun exercises. Occasionally Wrecker took her hand and spun her around, and once he even dipped her, to which people whooped and clapped.

Talla had never had so much fun in her entire life.


Eventually, Wrecker and Talla stumbled back to their table upstairs and collapsed onto the edges of the booth, breaths sputtered and they were laughing their heads off from the fun they had! Talla's hair was no longer perfectly styled, and she was now sporting a

"Let's do this every night!" Talla requested loudly.

Wrecker's dirty look was hazed. "Hunter always says no! He's such a BUZZKILL!"

Talla grabbed the buzzkills arm and tugged on it like a child would to her parents. "Oh please, please, please can we, Sarge?"

Hunter firmly shook his head. "Nope."

Tala pouted and leaned closer towards him and set her chin on his shoulder. "Pleeeeaaaaase?" She asked again with comically big, pleading eyes and a slight pout.

The close proximity of their faces stirred up that stupid sensation in his chest he was trying to quell and he abruptly stood as a result, which turned out to be a bad choice because it caused her to be pulled from her seat and she ended up flat on her back on the floor by the booth from her zero coordination.

And all she could do was giggle.

Hunter sighed regretfully, wanting so badly to give Crosshair what for despite the snipers already ruined evening. "Alright, I think it's time to go."

Wrecker groaned too dramatically for Hunter's tired soul, and it earned him a half-hearted glare. "But I'm not finished havin' fun yet!"

"Wrecker, the bartender cut you off three hours ago." Tech flatly informed him, being the only one in the whole squad who closely monitored his alcohol intake as well as the speed he drank it so as to be in full possession of his faculties by the end of the night, then slid out of the booth with tipsy Crosshair when Hunter stepped out, and both latched onto Wrecker's arms to heave him the big lug from his seat.

Hunter felt his heart sink when he saw he'd have to deal with Talla, and looked apprehensively down at her giggling form. With another heavy sigh, something he averaged doing at least two hundred times whenever they meandered beyond the walls of their ship and it didn't involve destroying Seppie property, he then crouched down and grabbed her arm, to which she lazily turned her head in his direction and drunkenly grinned up at him like a fool. "Come on Talla - stand up." He instructed with as much patience a Sergeant over a squad of four maniacs... while he himself was one... could possess after drinking four strong beers and a shot of the houses strongest liquor.

It admittedly wasn't much.

He tugged on her limp arm to aid in her getting upright. "There we go." He managed to get Talla up onto her unsteady feet without too many curses at the will of the Force for the life it had given him, and gripping her elbows he forcefully guided the drunk woman out of the bar.

When they passed the almost empty bar counter, Talla waved crazily to the blue twi'lek casually leaning against it for a breather since the number of people in the bar had decreased at the late/early hour of 3 AM. "See ya later, Neel!" He grinned in amusement and gave a little wave back, making her ecstatic and even more difficult to handle.

It was really fun (note the sarcasm) getting Talla and Wrecker into taxis without them falling over the edge of the sidewalk platform to their deaths. Hunter had to lift her bridal style and set her into a seat himself in their separate one, then assist sober Tech and not so sober Crosshair with getting Wrecker into their own cab. Once they got him over the side, he ended up flopping face first onto the cab floor and remained there, laughing his head off.

The three standing Bad Batchers looked blankly at each other, then shrugged and climbed into their cabs without another word on their hectic lives of the unusual variety, leaving happy Wrecker where he was.

Getting out of the cabs wasn't any easier. Tech had to bribe Wrecker with the promise of delicious Iktotch toast if the heaviest of them all succeeded in getting up himself, and thankfully that tactic worked and Wrecker was able to hop out on his own, not knocking any teeth out when he face planted again onto the concrete of their landing pad.

After he recovered, from there Wrecker just stumbled up the ramp into the ship with Tech and Crosshair hot at his heels to guide him to his room where he could pass out in peace, on his bed or on the floor it didn't matter because once he was through the threshold he was on his own, his guides just as exhausted.

Hunter was forced to lift Talla from their cab again, and awkwardly shifted her giggling form around in his arms to pay the cab driver, who thought this odd family was more entertaining than anything found on the HoloNet.

The tired man planned on just dumping the drunk woman at the door of her room and leaving Talla to her own devices, but her body dangerously swayed once placed onto her own two feet, and her face twisted in discomfort from an intense nausea wave she had never experienced before. When she clutched her upset stomach, Hunter knew he had a span of like three seconds to get to the refresher unless he wanted a big mess to clean up.

Thank the force he shoved her down before the toilet in her personal 'fresher just in time, and his next task was kneeling behind Talla and rubbing soothing circles on her trembling back as she clutched the edges of it and heaved up all the contents she had put in her stomach tonight, which truthfully made him want to throw up too. But he fought it off with every shred of willpower he had left and offered soft reassurances to the best of his ability, glad she could not see his face that would give away his insincerity of being absolutely not okay with any of this. In fact, the only thing that was truth that came out of his mouth was that he wasn't upset with her, specifically.

A couple of miserable groans escaping amongst the retching. "Never drinkin' ever ag -" Talla wasn't able to finish that declaration as another convulsion wracked through her body.

And it prompted Hunter's next annoyed and disgusted response, "Suits me." You're gonna get it, Crossy.

After she somewhat recovered and messily rinsed her mouth out with water, the new fashion expert who also happened to minor in dermatology - Tech - popped his head in before Hunter could flee to his own barrack for much needed sleep. "Be sure to remove her makeup, otherwise she is at risk for developing acne, redness and dullness of the skin, and other various blemishes!"

Why has the force forsaken me? "What do I take it off with?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hunter's blank face showed it was not in fact obvious, and Tech rolled his eyes and stepped inside the room fully to reveal the shopping bag he had found in the common area, filled to the brim with Talla's new things. Rummaging through them, he produced a small clear bottle a moment later with the label he read out loud: "Makeup remover."

Hunter gave a distasteful look at the bottle placed in his hand, "Why can't I use a wet rag or something?"

Tech incredulously looked at him, utterly abhorred at this innocent statement, then just dropped the bag in his hands to the ground and marched away before Hunter could ask how the heck he was supposed to use this stuff. Thankfully there was instructions on the back, but once Hunter opened the bottle and got a whiff of the awful smelling chemicals or whatever the kriff this was, any thankfulness disappeared.

Talla shared this sentiment once he started applying it to her face when she couldn't coordinate her hands do it herself. Sitting down on the edge of the drunk woman's bed next to her, Talla's nose wrinkled in disgust at the awful chemical smelling liquid he put on a small cotton round, "That stuff stinks."

Hunter scoffed in contempt, "Tell me 'bout it." He agreed in a mutter, then told her to close her eyes and he raised the soaked cotton piece to her face.

She obeyed, but then jerked her head away as the liquid gave the delicate skin of her eyelids an uncomfortable tingling sensation once contact was made. For a normal person probably wouldn't bother them, but with her enhancements it magnified the sting, "And it burns!"

His own fingers were also unfortunate victims in all this, "Yeah, what the hell is this - acid?!" He grimaced down at stinging skin of his fingers and said, "Are Blair and Skylar trying to burn your skin off? Is that the secret for a -" He tried to remember the exact beauty term he had heard a couple of girls talk about once, "A healthy glow or whatever it's called?"

The giggle from Talla that absurd statement earned him didn't make Hunter feel any less awkward about saying it, "Yur funny."

Speaking of Blair and Skylar -

Her hand reached up to comb through the 'luscious locks' as Nik called them on the side of his head, and all his thinking and moving and breathing stopped at her touch. "And ya do have great hair." The loopy grin returned as she twirled a wavy brown wisp around her pointer finger, drunkenly marveled at the silken tresses, "Soft."

Flustered upon contact, Hunter decided to shut this down right now because he was starting to go blue from lack of oxygen. When Talla shuffled even closer, practically on his lap, and attempted to put in a tiny braid, he didn't care that leaving the paint on her face overnight would ruin it or whatever. He just sprang away from the close proximity with her and flung the cleansing supplies from his hands onto her nightstand, then made quick work with Talla's boots so she'd be somewhat comfortable sleeping before fleeing the scene. Tech walked by the door again mere milliseconds later and found Tala already conked out on her bed and Hunter well on his way out, muttering a goodnight to his brother before scurrying to his room. If it was a regular door, he would have slammed it shut.

The self-hatred was strong with this one as he again wished things would go back to normal, because being attracted to the one woman he couldn't have and, just his luck, the first one he could sorta kinda maybe probably actually talk to, it was beginning to get torturous.


A/N:

I know it's kinda weird and probably unrealistic that the Bad Batch are now 17,000 credits richer, but I have plans for this money a lot of it will have a use for later on

Keeping focused on the task at hand can actually help someone control a sensory overload, so Hunter's advice isn't completely made up!

Thanks for reading this chapter!

- Ella