HEARTS OF STEEL
by Gunman
Disclaimer: I do not own Colossus, X-Men (DoFP), Star Wars The Phantom Menace or their characters.
Summary: Colossus gets hired as a bodyguard to a wealthy opera house owner, and helps a young singer rise to stardom.
Inspired by 'Caught In The Web' by FrivolousThoughts, and 'Everyone Loves Spidey' by Maximus-Reborn.
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Chapter 8
Diva Shaliqua
(Boonta Eve, Tatooine)
The transport landed on the desert planet and a strong looking young man walked off first. He was about 6 foot 6 inches tall, athletic and muscular, with short dark blond hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in a black bodysuit with silver trim, no sleeves, black boots and belt, and a pair of fingerless gloves on his hands.
His name was Peter Rasputin. Looking around he nodded to his employer who had yet to disembark from the ship.
Romeo Treblanc was the owner and operator of the famous Galaxies Opera House on Coruscant. Slightly portly, with brown hair and eyes, a beard framing his face, Treblanc lived in the limelight of his operatic profession, which he used to cover his only real fault: gambling.
Peter was one of the few people who knew about Treblanc's gambling problem, and thus far he had kept it a secret. Mostly for two reasons: 1 - he knew that Treblanc was a good man who was not perfect. And 2 - he didn't have any other place to go.
The last thing that Peter recalled, he had died on his own world, in his own dimension, killed by giant robots called Sentinels, and somehow he ended up on Coruscant. Particularly, in the entertainment district of the city-planet.
With very limited skills and no knowledge of this new world, or universe, which included speaking languages of alien cultures, Peter was at a loss on how to provide for himself. Especially since he was also without his teammates, The X-Men.
Peter wandered around the immensely huge city, walking for hours and hours, alone and without means to support himself. It wasn't until he came across Romeo Treblanc being attacked by a rival business owner who was trying to muscle him out of his Opera House, that Peter's luck changed.
Despite Treblanc's rival having half-a-dozen tough and vicious thugs, they were outmatched when Peter shifted into his steel-form and beat all of them back.
Treblanc thanked Peter for saving him and quickly hired the mutant on the spot. Having no where else to go, and no other means to support himself, Peter agreed to be Romeo Treblanc's bodyguard.
That was a year ago, and Peter had been a most effective bodyguard ever since.
Being the owner of the Galaxies Opera House, Treblanc would often travel across the galaxy to other worlds seeking out various new talent. One of them he had meet while here on Tatooine.
Her name was Diva Shaliqua, a half-human/Theelin singer who had been bought by Jabba the Hutt some time ago. A slave all of her life, Diva had an amazing vocal talent which went unnoticed by Jabba.
Treblanc and Peter arrived at the main box that overlooked the starting and finishing race line for the annual Boonta Eve podrace.
This was also the private box of Jabba the Hutt, where he entertained most of his wealthy and often very influential individuals.
It was less than an hour before the race actually started, so Treblanc decided to send Peter to place his bet for him.
"Peter, I want you to go down to the betting tables and bet on Sebulba to win." Treblanc said.
"Are you going to be alright up here?" Peter asked as his boss handed him a bag of druggats. (Most expensive currency on Tatooine)
"This is Jabba's private box, and I'm a guest here. I'll be fine. Go, go, go." the portly man said with a confident grin.
"Alright." Peter said as he took the bag of money and headed into the betting tables.
Peter just sighed as soon as he was out of Treblanc's hearing range. His employer had made him do this many times, and he often wished he could do something about it. It wasn't a healthy habit, mostly because Treblanc had some seriously bad luck when it came to betting.
Arriving at the betting tables, Peter placed the money on Sebulba to win, seeing as he was the reigning champion in these races. Which to Peter didn't make a great deal of sense, since naturally everyone was going to be betting on the Dug to win.
However, while Peter's reading skills had come a long way since his arrival to this world, his translation skills were still poor. It wasn't until after he had made the bet for Sebulba that he looked at the ticket and realized it had actually been made for Anakin Skywalker, a local human boy who had been a late entry, and who had never won a race.
Embarrassed at the mistake, Peter couldn't really bring himself to tell Treblanc. So he was naturally shocked, and overjoyed, when Skywalker won the race. (Actually he was the only one to complete the race itself)
While Treblanc had been upset by Peter's mistake, he was overjoyed when he learned Skywalker had won the race, and thus made him a lot of money.
Now a few hundred druggats richer, Treblanc quickly went to talk to Jabba (who had been asleep for most of the race) about buying Diva from him.
The pair haggled back and forth, until The Hutt eventually agreed to sell Diva to Treblanc, blissfully unaware of her singing talents.
Diva, however, was more concerned about how she was going to escape from her new owner the first chance she got.
That was, until she met Peter.
Far more handsome than most other 'people' on Tatooine, Treblanc's bodyguard was was tall and muscular, with kind eyes and a warm smile. She was a little confused at how he could be a bodyguard, not seeing him as powerful or intimidating as some of Jabba's own guards.
That was, until they were on their way back to Treblanc's ship, and a group of thieves attempted to rob him.
"Your money! Give to us! Now!" one of the thugs said, pointing a blaster at the trio.
Peter stepped up, putting himself between the thugs and Treblanc and Diva.
"Please allow us to pass, or you will get hurt." Peter said, trying to be civil.
The thugs looked at him and then burst into laughter.
Diva was seriously doubting Peter's abilities as a bodyguard, until the seven thugs attacked, and she saw Peter transform from flesh and blood into living steel. The thugs tried to shoot him, but their laser bolts bounced off of his metallic skin, two of the bolts striking two of the thugs. Diva gasped as she witnessed his brute strength, knocking them away like they were tiny maintenance droids.
However, he didn't kill any of them. At least not the ones he physically manhandled.
"That's... impossible. Incredible." Diva gasped.
"That's why I hired him." Treblanc said to the young future singer.
The trio continued on to Treblanc's ship, where they met Treblanc's pilot and one of his assistants.
Once the trio were aboard Treblanc's ship, and en route to Coruscant, Treblanc freed Shaliqua and offered her a contract to sing at his Opera House.
While she had originally intended to 'jump ship' at the first opportunity, she told him she needed time to think about it.
Treblanc's assistant managed to find something more 'appropriate' for Diva to wear instead of her metal bikini and see-through pants.
While Treblanc went to talk to his pilot and assistant about promotions for Diva, Shaliqua and Peter were in the ships lounge, just talking.
"Is something wrong?" Peter asked the half-Theelin woman.
"I... just have some... concerns." Diva said.
"About what?" he asked her. "Mr. Treblanc's offer is legitimate. He even freed you from being a slave."
"I know, but... I've been a slave most of my life. Almost all my life. I... I suppose you could say that I have trust issues."
"I understand that. But he is sincere about his offer. Though..."
"Though... what?" she asked.
"He has heard you sing. I haven't. So I don't know exactly why he wants to promote you."
Diva smiled as she looked over and saw a musical player that Treblanc used to 'audition' new talent.
She scrolled through the songs on is list and picked on of her favorites. A slow and romantic song with a beautiful and transcendent melody.
For the next seven minutes, Peter was held spellbound by her voice. From the front of the ship, Treblanc and his crew just listened to Diva sing, as if from her heart.
When she was finished, Peter was speechless.
"Well?" Diva asked, jarring him from his thoughts.
"That... was beautiful. I... I see why Mr. Treblanc wanted to promote you." Peter said with full honesty in his voice.
"And I do. I honestly do. You will be a star, like nothing Coruscant has ever known." Treblanc said. "So... what do you say to my offer?"
Diva looked back at Peter and then back to Treblanc.
"I have some... conditions."
"Of course. Anything you want."
"A yearly salary, my own apartment, my choice of outfits, and... I'd like Peter to take me out to dinner." she said.
Treblanc almost laughed he saw Peter's surprised expression as well as his blush, at the very idea that she wanted to spend time with him.
Peter looked at Treblanc, who was nodding his head rapidly, urging him to accept.
"Uh... I wouldn't mind taking her out to dinner." Peter said sheepishly.
"Then... we have a deal?" Treblanc asked the woman.
"Yes." she said simply.
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Once they arrived on Coruscant, Treblanc immediately set up Shaliqua at a cozy apartment which was right across from his Opera House, where his own apartment was situated.
They were able to get her a full wardrobe, which was much better than what she had been wearing on Tatooine. Though for some reason she kept the metal bikini that she had been forced to wear by Jabba.
After touring the Opera House, Shaliqua was given a tour of the area by Peter.
She and Peter then went out to dinner, where Peter told her about his life. There was a part of him that worried that she wouldn't believe him, when he told her he wasn't from this universe. That his abilities were the result of an evolutionary x-gene, giving him super powers. And what's more is that he wasn't the only one. In his world, prior to the Sentinels hunting down every mutant on the planet, there were thousands of mutants with superhuman abilities.
Peter told her about his friends, The X-Men, and all that they had been through in their world.
Shaliqua knew that Peter couldn't be making all of this up. There was just too many details involved.
But Peter had grown in his time as Treblanc's bodyguard. He had learned about the other worlds of this universe, he could now read four different alien languages, including Huttese, even if he was light on speaking it, and he could even fly a ship like the one Treblanc owned.
Shaliqua's career took off after her first grand premier. A year later, she had four major operas under her belt, which only increased the sales of Treblanc's Opera House, as well as his reputation.
Peter's and Diva's relationship continued to grow. He was almost always with her, as her own bodyguard and eventual boyfriend. Treblanc didn't mind in the least. Since she was the star of his Opera House, and the sales from her shows allowed Treblanc to hire more security and bodyguards for himself.
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Authors Notes:
For those of you who don't know, Diva Shaliqua is that blue-haired girl in the metal bikini who was at the Boonta Eve race in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. She was standing next to Jabba when the race was going.
There is actually a backstory for her, so I thought I could elaborate on it. Originally she had been bought by Treblanc, but fearful of trusting others because of her life as a slave made her run away from Treblanc, and she eventually took a job singing in bars in seedy clubs on Coruscant instead of the glamorous Opera House. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to write up something better with her involved.
Hope everyone likes it.
Read and Review, please.