Fighter Flight: Follow the Feeling
Ezra dashed across the roof tops as fast as he could, weaving between obstacles to make himself a harder target to hit. So far his pursuers had yet to gain any ground and had only fired a couple times, missing horribly, but luck had to run out eventually.
Leaping across to another roof he managed to shake his tail, but groan as a new one appeared. The sound of a TIE engine screamed over the wind.
"Great," Ezra panted. "Just what I need."
He glanced at the approaching fighter and almost tripped in surprise.
"Zeb?"
The figure visible through the window gave a thumbs up, the move causing the TIE to slip into the street below. Two roof tops later and it popped back into view.
"Zeb!" Ezra shouted. "Hey, Zeb, let me in!"
"So, now I'd be saving your life, right?"
"What?" Was Zeb really bringing this up now of all times!? "Yeah, sure. Yes! Whatever!"
'Let me in or don't already!' Ezra thought, ducking and jumping the blaster fire aimed at his back. 'I don't have time for this!'
"I let you in, we're even."
"Fine!"
"You have to say it," Zeb called over the sound of blaster and wind.
'Are. You. Kidding me?!' Ezra's hands curled into fists. 'It's not like I'm running for my life or anything here!'
"All right, all right. We're even. Now let me in!"
The Tie lowered, hatch on top opening, and Ezra dove inside. He landed head first on Zeb who promptly threw him to the side. The brief moment Zeb's hands were off the controls enough to cause the TIE to drop back down into the street.
"Don't crowd me, kid. I'm flying here," Zeb grunted, elbowing Ezra in the ribs as he tried to regain his barring in the cramped space.
"You don't know how," Ezra retorted, leaning over Zeb's shoulder. His eyes widened as he saw how close they were to the ground. "You're gonna hit someone! Go up!"
Ezra's hands shot out to grab the nearest yoke and pull them up, but only succeeded in getting into a tug of war with Zeb over the controls and turning the ship into a collision course with one of the stalls.
"Turn the ship!" Ezra yelled.
Zeb winced at the loud sound and flung Ezra's hands off the controls. "Let go!"
"Turn the ship!" Ezra yelled again.
"I'm trying!" Zeb jerked on the yokes and Ezra stumbled as the TIE lurched, hands shooting out to steady himself. One hand landed on the controls and the canons fired.
Almost instantly the windshield was covered in splattered fruit. There was a moment of stunned surprise and the two exchanged guilty looks. The sound of angry yelling brought them back to reality and Zeb pulled them higher, somehow managing to miss hitting anything else.
"I can't see a thing," Zeb grumbled, glaring at the mess in front of him.
"Gain altitude," Ezra instructed.
"I know," Zeb snapped back, craning his neck in a vain attempt to see past the mess. Ezra huffed through his nose and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
'If Zeb wants to crash into something, fine!' Just let him off first.
For awhile it was silent aside from Zeb's occasional mutter and then–
"I think we're too low."
"How can you tell?"
Ezra didn't answer, just continued to stare ahead.
"Why don't you go clean the window?" Zeb suggested, but Ezra didn't hear him.
The boy's brows drew together in a slight frown and he knew without a doubt they needed to turn. NOW!
"We need to turn."
Zeb continued to fly straight.
"Turn!" Ezra yelled, grabbing the yokes and pulling them as hard as he could.
The TIE jerked to the side and a large shadow flashed by them. Zeb turned to at the boy.
"How did you know?"
"Not sure." Ezra shrugged. "I just. . .knew."
"Good," Zeb chuckled uneasily. "That's – that's good."
Zeb sighed. He wasn't sure if he was relieved and unnerved, probably both, but he knew he needed to some time to think if Ezra was going to go from 'bratty, annoying kid that might have weird powers' to 'bratty, annoying kid that did have weird powers.'
Zeb cleared his throat. "Now get out there and clean the canopy."
With a scowl and good deal of mutinous muttering, Ezra climbed up top. By the time he had finished smearing the fruit mess around enough they'd be able to see out and climbed back inside, Zeb had regain his mental bearings.
"So," Ezra wiped his hands clean on his pants. "What do we do now?"
"Ah. Hadn't thought that far."
Ezra snorted, but bit back his comment about Zeb only having enough room in his head for one thought at a time. No point starting an argument he couldn't run away from.
Zeb drummed his fingers on the controls as he thought. His training as a Lasat Honor Guard enabled him to picture various scenarios and possibilities, but an actual solution evaded him.
'Ah, well,' he thought, flicking on the communicator. 'That's what superiors are for.'
"Spectre-4 to Ghost."
"Go ahead Spectre-4," Hera's voice answered.
"Right. Well, we've had a bit of a problem."
"I thought you might." Hera's voice sounded irritatingly smug in Ezra's opinion, and he felt his eye twitch in annoyance. "Look, don't worry about the meilooruns."
"Yeah, meilooruns," Ezra cut in. "Uh, we found some. But we lost them. Then we found them again. But we smashed them."
"Cut to the chase, kid," Zeb growled.
Ezra shot him a look. Ok, yes, he'd been rambling, but that was probably just a result of inhaling too many fumes when he'd been cleaning off the window.
"Wait! What am I hearing? It sounds like–"
Zeb and Ezra both winced at Kanan's tone, apparently their brief moment of silence had been long enough for the sound of the TIE's engine to float across the open communication's channel.
"Yeeaaahhh, about that." Ezra chuckled nervously. "See, um – Well – WestoleaTIEfighter."
"You what?"
They winced again.
"He's taking it better than I thought," Zeb whispered to Ezra, who nodded though he was more impressed that Kanan had the rushed sentence.
"Get rid of it!" Kanan ordered.
"Do we have to?" the boy and Lasat whined.
There was long, heavy sigh and Ezra had the distinct impression Kanan was longing to bang his head against a wall.
"At least tell me you dismantled the locator beacon?"
"Of course," Zeb laughed, but his ears twitched nervously. "We're not fools."
He caught Ezra's eye and jerked his head to a consol.
"Under there," he muttered. "The red wire. No, wait. The blue?"
"Well, which one?"
"It's the red and the blue," Kanan's voice corrected, plainly frustrated.
"Ah, well, if it's those two don't worry about it. Yanked them out ages ago," Ezra assured Kanan from underneath the consol.
Zeb leaned down to look at him, an expression of bemused incredulity on his face, and mouthed 'really?'
Ezra stood back up, stuffing the wires into a pocket.
"Time is relative," he hissed in Zeb's ear.
Zeb raised a brow, lips twitching, but Kanan's voice cut off any comment he might have made.
"Stealing a TIE attracts unwanted attention," the Jedi scolded. "Rendezvous at Shadow Site 2. Fly straight there. Do. Not. Stop. And don't do anything!"
"On our way," Zeb replied. "Spectre-4 out."
"That went well," Ezra said lightly, leaning against the back of the seat.
"Yeah," Zeb agreed.
"Do you know which way were supposed to go?"
"No idea."
Ezra chuckled at the completely unconcerned tone and watched as Zeb messed with the unfamiliar controls, trying to figure out how to work the navigation.
In the relative silence the feeling of unease returned and Ezra found himself looking around, searching for the source. The last time he'd had this feeling he'd-
"Ok. Navigation system's online," Zeb informed him and Ezra instinctively turned to the voice. "Course set for rendezvous point."
Ezra glanced out the window again.
"Wait. What's that?"
"Look like smoke."
"Yeah. Only. . .I think I know where it's coming from." It was the source of his uneasy feeling. "Go check it out. Please?"
Zeb took one look at the kid's face and, with a sigh, headed in the direction of the smoke, firmly ignoring the flash of happy surprise that crossed the young human's face.
Ezra watched as the smoke got closer. It might be the source of his unease but it was also. . .calling to him? He didn't understand it, but the closer they got the more certain he was that what they were doing was right.
The smoke came from a farm and Ezra had a sinking feeling he knew whose farm it was.
"Friends of your?" Zeb asked, as Ezra leaned forward, eyes narrowing as he searched for any sign of life.
"Of my parents," he corrected.
"There's a convoy of trooper transports heading northwest," Zeb informed him. At Ezra's nod he sighed again. "Uh, karabast! I know that look."
"What's the worst that could happen?" Ezra argued.
"Well, we could both wind up dead."
"Besides that."
"Oh, boy. Here goes nothing."
Ezra smiled slightly as Zeb turned the TIE in the direction of the convoy. It was time to start planning.
'You better be ok, Sumar.'
Author's Notes:
The deviations from the shows script felt more natural to me. Ezra also came across as bit suave and able to talk his way out of things, so having him falter and ramble so much like they did in the show just didn't fit his character, in my opinion anyway.
Sorry if this is short, I didn't want to keep anyone waiting, but I got behind when inspiration hit me over the head with the hole Street Rat Rules thing. I'll wrap this part up soon.
OH! Before I forget! I had a couple people ask me about what happened to that person and if the crew could found out about them. I'm toying with the idea of doing a small bit about it separately, but I don't want to ruin anything I might write later. Show of hands, how many of you want it now regardless of possible spoilers? I'll tally the responses up at the end of the week and let you know in my next up date, later!