Phantom Rebellion
Chapter 29 Hunter Brawl
By: Major144
Disclaimer: I don't own anything this is just a story for fun.
Danny and Wulf headed towards downtown and found a market that appeared to be abandoned for the night. This was good, because the two Rebels didn't want to get citizens involved in a fight with the bounty hunter. Now all they had to do was wait. Wulf clutched his bowcaster, while Danny kept a close hand to his lightsaber. There was a tiny whirling sound and Valerie and Tucker arrived on the scene on a speeder bike. The bounty hunter stopped a few yards away from the Rebels, got off the bike, and then she helped Tucker off, while she kept a blaster pointed at him. The two then faced Danny and Wulf. Valerie kept Tucker in front of her, with a blaster pointed at his head. Danny raised his hands and took a step towards the pair. Valerie pointed her blaster at Danny.
"That's far enough Jedi." Said Valerie.
"Alright I'm cooperating. I want to make a deal." Said Danny.
"What kind of deal?" Asked Valerie.
"I want to trade my freedom, for your prisoner's freedom." Said Danny.
Tucker and Wulf looked at Danny like he was crazy.
"And why should I do that?" Asked Valerie.
"The way I figure it, is that I'm way more valuable to the Empire, then the others here and I bet the Empire has a bigger bounty on my capture then the others. I'm willingly handing myself over to you. No tricks and an easy payday for you." Said Danny.
Tucker was fixing to protest against this, but Valerie rapped, him on the head with her blaster to silence his protest. Tucker yelped in pain and groaned as Valerie turned her attention to Danny.
"I like what your saying. Alright I'll let your friend go and you hand yourself over to me." Said Valerie.
Danny began to head towards Valerie and Tucker, when suddenly the air was filled with a whirling noise coming from the East. Everybody turned to see five speeding shapes racing towards them. The group instinctively dived to the ground as the shapes raced by. One of the shapes smashed into Valerie's speeder bike and sent it crashing into one of the shop stalls making it explode. The shapes spun around and stopped before the group. Danny and the others stood up and saw that the newcomers were Skulker and four droids riding speeder bikes and carrying lances.
"Skulker!" Cursed Valerie.
"Who?" Asked Danny.
"I am Skulker. The universe's greatest bounty hunter and I have come to collect your bounties and get rid of some competition." Said Skulker.
"These bounties are mine!" Declared Valerie as she activated her jetpack, flew into the air, and began firing her blaster at the Skulker and his forces.
One of the droids was blasted off it's speeder bike, while Skulker and the remaining three droids scattered to avoid getting hit. Danny ran over to Tucker and pulled out his lightsaber, to slash through the handcuffs that bound Tucker's hands. Tucker rubbed his wrist, while he and Danny ducked behind a stall. Danny motioned for Tucker to run to Wulf, while he raced for the abandoned speeder bike and hopped onto it. Tucker raced towards Wulf, as one of the droids suddenly went after him. Wulf fired a blast from his bowcaster and took the droid down.
"Good shooting." Said Tucker as he reached Wulf.
Valerie was continuing to shoot at Skulker, but the large bounty hunter, proved to be incredibly swift on his speed bike. Skulker managed to maneuver his speeder bike behind Valerie and hurled his lance at her. The weapon flew through the air and managed to strike Valerie's jetpack causing her to lose control and crash into the ground. Valerie groaned as Skulker pulled out a blaster prepared to fire at her, but then he noticed Danny racing towards him on a speeder bike with his lightsaber raised high. Skulker turned to face Danny and charged at him firing his blaster at the young Jedi. Danny felt the heat of the laser blast as, they missed his face by mere inches. The two fighters drew closer and closer. It seemed they were about to have a head on collision, until Danny curved slightly and swung his lightsaber at Skulker's speeder slicing the front of it off and making Skulker lose control and crash into a fruit stand with a thunderous crash. It seemed like the bounty hunter was down.
Nearby, Valerie was stumbling to her feet dazed, with one of Skulker's droids charging at her with it's lance. Tucker saw what was fixing to happen and ran towards Valerie and tackled her to the ground, just barely avoiding being impaled by the droid's lance as it flew by. Valerie and Tucker laid on the ground and the droid was fixing to spin around and try impaling them again, when Valerie sat up and fired a quick burst from her blaster, nailing the droid in the chest and knocking it off of it's speeder bike. Valerie then turned to Tucker.
"Thanks." She said.
"Your welcome." Said Tucker.
It was then that Skulker burst from the remains of the fruit stall and faced Danny. The Jedi charged forward on his speeder bike intending to smash into the bounty hunter, but Skulker shot his hands out and stopped the speeder in it's tracks. Danny let out a startled gasp as Skulker picked the speeder bike up and tossed Danny off of it. The teen hit the ground and his lightsaber landed a few feet away from him. Skulker raised the speeder bike over his head and prepared to smash it down on Danny, when a blast from Wulf's bowcaster hit the bike and it exploded into pieces making the bounty hunter stumble back. Wulf took this moment to leap forward and slash Skulker with his claws knocking him to the ground. Danny got to his feet and ran to get his lightsaber as Wulf leaped onto Skulker and began to claw at him. Skulker let out an angry bellow as he slammed one of his fist into Wulf and knocked him off. The bounty hunter stood up and pulled out a long metal fail from his armor and swung it at Danny. The Jedi swung his lightsaber and slashed the fail to pieces as he charged at Skulker. The bounty hunter activated a flamethrower on his right wrist and fired a blast of flames at Danny, but the teen dived underneath the flames and slid between Skulker's legs slicing at them as he went through. There was a slice sound as Skulker toppled forward with his legs cut in half. The bounty hunter rolled himself onto his back and tried to blast Danny with his flamethrower, but the Jedi sliced his arm off, followed a few seconds by the other. The Jedi deactivated his lightsaber as he stood over the defeated bounty hunter. The others gathered around to look down at Skulker.
"Is...he dead?" Asked Tucker.
It was then that Skulker's chest opened up to reveal an odd sight. Seated in a tiny control chair was a Zilkin with green skin and red eyes, wearing a grey uniform. The Zilkin glared up at the group.
"So this is the great Skulker." Said Valerie in a mocking voice.
"Oh that's right laugh it up! You have made a great enemy this day! You ruined my suit and humiliated me! I'll admit your tougher then I though Jedi, but this isn't over." Spat Skulker in a high pitched voice.
"Oh yeah, why don't I just step on you." Said Tucker with a smirk.
Skulker glared at Tucker then leaped from his control chair and onto his face! Tucker screamed as he stumbled around waving his arms. Wulf tried to yank Skulker off of Tucker's face, but the tiny bounty hunter leaped off and landed a few yards away. Skulker then let out a whistle and his remaining droid came racing in. The Zilikin jumped onto the droid and they speed away from the market.
"Well that was weird." Said Valerie.
"So where does that leave us?" Asked Danny facing the bounty hunter.
"Well, I've decided to let you all go. Your pal managed to save me and I just had the satisfaction of seeing Skulker get beat and humiliated. Your free to go, but the hunt is still on. It's nothing personal, just business." Said Valerie.
"Fine by me." Said Danny.
Valerie turned and began to walk away. Tucker watched her leave with a sad look in his eyes. Danny and Wulf looked at Tucker.
"What's with the look?" Asked Danny.
"Oh...it's nothing. I'm...um just sad to see her go. I mean we could have convinced her to join us! She would have been a great addition to the Rebels." Said Tucker as his cheeks flushed a little.
"Sure. Whatever you say. Now let's head back to the ship." Said Danny with a little smirk on his face.
The Rebels left the market and headed back to the hanger.
To be continued.