Recalling the Guild: Aree Ankarta

[Darven]

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Bounty Hunter's Guild reforming. Membership mandatory for all in the business.

Meeting scheduled for 25:1:10, location to be announced later.

Thought you might want to know.



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Ru briikase haa'taylir gar vaabir bid jahaala.
- Dar


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[In case anyone wants to join - the location is CoCo Town, Coruscant, and it's going to be a bar-room brawl sort of thread. Just PM me first]

[Nya Halcyon]

'Ru briikase haa'taylir gar vaabir bid jahaala.'

She'd stared for a long time now, at that sentence only, not really taking in much else. It didn't seem to matter what else stood in it.

'I was glad to see you doing so well.'

Was it a joke? She'd been anything but doing well - so was this now a mocking reminder that he'd had to help her out?

The bountyhunter was in her pad on Imperial Center. 'Her pad' wasn't anything worth talking about, but it beat having to sleep in a cramped cabin on board her dilapidated ship while it was undergoing much-needed repairs. The last time she'd done that, she'd almost taken the head off some Rodian who'd been unfortunate enough to have caught the nightshift and had banged against the ship's hull a bit too loudly. He'd run screaming into the darkness after she'd threatened him a bit with the blunt side of her knife.

The ship's repairs and the pad came courtesy of her last "mark", Caran V'al Counis, the heir presumptive to the Counis Corporation, who'd been nice enough to offer once they'd gotten out of the small bit of trouble they'd both been in. She was going to have to be grateful for a while, but maybe he'd already forgotten about her by now.

The credits she would have left after paying for the repairs and rent for a week were enough to keep her running expenses for two months, so if she found something to do once she was off the planet, she'd be doing okay.

So the very last thing she needed right now was a reminder from the past, and someone who she had thought long dead come to life once more.

He should have stayed dead.

The countless times she'd felt sick to the bottom of her heart in the past - even now - whenever she'd not had the strength to push back the memories of her killing him; the endless hours of guilt, remorse, self-hate; everything she'd gone through in these past ten years, everything she'd put herself through just to make up for this one mis-step... and now he turned up, alive and well, mocking her for having to help her out of the mess she'd gotten herself in.

It wasn't fair!


Slowly her level of anger was rising, and she knew it well. It was not acceptable.

The Mandalorian got up from her chair in one sudden move, and then gave it a good kick with her right foot. It took to the air a short way and fell to the ground a few feet away with a loud clatter. The Twi'lek family under her would have yet another reason to complain, but at least it had felt satisfactory!

Then, in another reflexive motion, she leaned forward over the comm board, and typed in a short message that consisted only of one word.

Usen'ye.

Without reading it, she punched the send button, and then grabbed her helmet from the table. She needed to get out - the pad was suddenly too small for her alone. Yet she paused before putting on her armor - after a moment, she tossed the helmet onto a pile of dirty laundry in a corner, and exited the pad as she was. Tonight she'd need to be a part of the world around her.

The bountyhunter slammed the door shut, and took off, heading for one of the noisiest parts of the planet: CoCo Town.

[Ira]

No bumps, just a lot of noise. The clamor of skylane traffic, and happy hour wouldn’t be quieting soon. Each craft were clumped in invisible lanes, awaiting their signal for the next cluster. From above, the sprawl of speeders was an amazing display of order, but there was always one ruining it.

Near Kansen Entrance there was a little trouble with Cathar and Feeorin. No one wanted to get involve, and would blame them. A little bump and scratch here always turn into an altercation, but between those two it could turn into a war. Especially since both seemed to be on a cargo hull.
Business was being held up on all ends, and the two were already cussing away.

It was a spectacle. In the middle of it the problem wouldn’t seem as entertaining, but Ira didn’t have to worry about that. The EasyRide passenger air speeder coasted over. Asango, the Xexto pilot, had it all under control. He had been flying the Coruscanti skylanes for a decade, and knew every shortcut in town. Each hand on the man’s small body was at work, while his eyes swayed back and forth; a true multi-tasker.

Casual, calm, and curious, Ira slumped over in the back. The two had been talking the whole ride. Ira had learned a lot. The Imperial Center wasn’t the same as he had left it last. A lot had changed. New business had sprouted up, junk piles had been devoured, new shields were erected, and oh yeah…the Empire was in order. Ira’s last visit was when he was young, and he still was, but Coco Town wasn’t anywhere as spacious.

The entire fly-by-night canteen scene had been abolished. Not a repulsorlift could be seen in the sky as Asango slipped from the sky. Certainly the Empire’s henchmen had a hand in that. Of course, the garbage collection crisis had been handled too. The place looked a lot cleaner, but it should. CoCo District wasn’t a town named after some off-brand drink. CoCo stood for Collective Commerce, and it was now more evident than ever. All the bustle of traffic was business, while diners splurge across the land. Quick go and stops could be seen across the district as men and women were off to their next location with a haste only the Galactic capitol could know.

When he finally parked, he could feel it.

Warmth was coming. All the beautiful memories blanketed him at once like mom’s quilt. The first time he had taken a bite out of Dex’s famous burger. He liked burgers. They always tasted good at Dex’s place too. He wondered if the place was still there. When he first wandered into the district he got lost. Trumped into a bit of trouble, he got a nice hand from some Fallen. Come to find out, the girl was hitting on him.

Ira was so naïve.

“Aiite, I’see ya Asango, man,” he grinned, grabbing his chip back and throwing his backpack over his shoulder. This was just another stop, but he didn’t see himself going as fast as the others.

He wanted to enjoy this.

[Nya Halcyon]

There weren't enough trashcans littering the back alleys she walked through. Everything was too clean, too orderly, for her disorderly state of mind. The Mandalorian yearned for something... something other than this.

Clad in a black jumpsuit and a brown vest, her favorite garb outside the armor she wore almost constantly, Nya had been stalking the darkness through the backstreets of CoCo Town, trying not to think too much of what was gnawing at her. She was looking for some kind of diversion, no matter how small or short, but so far it had eluded her.

Her face was set in a sinister frown that gave her a pinched and haughty look. It was flushed from the heady depths of anger coursing through her bloodstream; like a disease it had invaded every pore of her. She knew its cost, its dangers well; two lives it had cost, just the one slip; exacted its price in the form of his death, and even if she had not found death like him, she'd not been whole these last ten years. The life that she'd known, the security, the feelings of comfort and belonging - the family, in short - had all died with him. It had been a terrible punishment.

Or so she'd thought.

But he was still alive. And there she was, like an obstinate child, indulging herself, gorging on what she'd denied herself all these years. Not that she hadn't felt its pin-pricks since, but that had been different; hadn't been that deep sense of hatred and loathing and red, hot, furious rage but the shallower, colder, controllable annoyance-turned-anger when something wasn't going as planned. If making her life miserable was the only punishment for a complete loss of control, apparently - then what was the point? There wasn't anything that could make it worse than it already was.

So she ploughed on, raging, and let it take her wherever it would.

[Ira]

The tap of his feet echoed in his ears. For Ira it was hard to grasp the vastness of Coruscant. Everytime he slunk down from the thick of space, he watched with awe. To actually be amidst it could mind-boggling. Sometime it was best to simply avoid certain things. He didn't want to fry his brain so early in his life.

And how early in his life was he?

Decades had passed since his last visit, but his face hadn't change. Ira was a special-breed. A species like man that had long, choregraphed dances with time. For some, he would be the one causing the mind-boggling, not Coruscant, but still it hit him. Even as he stood at the front of the very cantina he had once visited so many years ago, a strong reminder of his age relative to others, he couldn't help but see the buildings beyond that made him no more than a speck.

A sigh slipped from his mouth. He adjusted his hand, holding the bag haphazardly over his shoulder. Not much was in it, he never carried a lot, but he held it lazily. The string was tight in his grasp, yet the bag was banking back and forth.

"In I go...."

[Nya Halcyon]

She'd found an alley where time seemed to have stood almost still, where storefront after storefront lined the sides, their boarded-up windows smeared with graffiti slogans. A singular neon blue sign was hypnotically blinking on and off over one such front, like a thing lost and crying to be found, its electrical hum loud above the silence of the deserted street. The light, mirrored in the dull transparisteel windows of the floors aboveground, bathed that part of the street in a ghostly bluish glow. In the distance, at the other end, there was nothing; if she'd walk there she'd find the abyss opening up in front of her, the dizzying heights of the city making way to the lower levels.

She felt a strange kinship to this deserted, old, forgotten street. It, too, was a thing of the past. Maybe tomorrow the droid factories would pass over this part of the city and raze it, turn it into flashy buildings, and in a day or two it would be the new hub of the rich and successful. But today it still remained lost in the past.

As she stepped out into the middle of the street, a low wind was blowing stale air out past her, carrying the smells of another time with it. For a moment it was like she could almost hear the sounds of that time, too, yet then it was nothing but the slow whistling of the wind.

The lone surviving sign brought her to the remains of an old repulsorlift shaft, its carriage long since gone. Pressing the summoning button only resulted in a high-pitched whine. Following a sudden feeling that this was what she had been looking for, she pried the twisted half-open doors further apart and stared down the shaft. To her surprise it wasn't darkness that greeted her, but the glare of more neon coming from another street at least several levels down.

A moment later, acting on impulse and reckless abandon, she'd pulled herself into the shaft and began to climb down the narrow rungs on its side, towards the light. Hoping that the closer she would get to the undercity, the less civilised her surroundings might get.

[Ira]

"Hello, sir."

The blank voice molded from a droid. Ira paid it no mind. He had been desensitized to the sound. He didn't like machine all that much. Dust had collected on the greeter, too. Each day, the same routine, and the droid would go on about the menu and bar. The whole concept was a bit sad. Most of the time, it was even unnecessary, but it was a pirk. A small bit that most cantina's had, and this one had seem to be fond of. Ever since Dex's Diner droids had became a bit part of Coco Town.

Ira didn't like it.

Beyond the door sat the life. Sounds of unusual, and familiar, languages smashed together into a chaotic chatter to convuluted to decipher. Not a word truly register, but there was some Basic being flung around. There was even more than he remembered, no doubt a tribute to the Empire's New Order. A little had changed. Yet, not enough that the sweet old taste was gone. The air still was twinge with an incense, and his nose loved it. There was still the booths to the side he remembered charming a few girls in too.

It was still like home.

Over the years Ira had walked a many walks, and talk a many talks. Coruscant was one of those stops that made his walk a bit different though. Posh men spoke with forward tongues, and the women held a flair of eloquence despite the slight in their ways. Although the established was flushed with a bundle of foul, it was still Coruscant. Most still held that herald accent that illicit behavior couldn't discredit. Ira found the hypocrisy of the Imperial Centre's under-belly awkwardly lovely. There was something geniune and humane about it all. So much that his gait became all the more nonchalant, and cool in it's atmosphere, while most succumb to the bustle.

The focus of his eyes leaped and bounded a few. Some seemed to hold his curious mind for a second, then he crept his senses elsewhere. The place was a non-human hub. Folks of all creeds clustered here for long chats. Also, it was falling into the depths of happy hour, everyone was into having a good time.

Ira just wondered how long that'd last.

With a smooth stalk to the counter, he requested some water. Turning his body about, he observed. All was as he left it, beside the tension. Beside the smiles and glee, there was an undertone of fear.

Man, was the Empire a bully or what?

[Nya Halcyon]

To her disappointment, once she'd reached the last rung, she found herself on a narrow parapet that jutted out of a greyish-brown wall. To the street below there still remained a considerable drop of maybe 20 feet - a distance unpassable to her.

She'd break her neck trying it.

Would I?

Did it matter? The answer to that question didn't come as readily as the first. It was one she hadn't felt herself close to for a long time now - not since her first days in the merc army, when fighting with reckless abandon had been her way of ensuring she'd die young.

That hadn't worked out so well back then, either.

But the first question - that was raising another set of demons. She'd vowed not to touch upon it again, and doing so now would be disastrous, for a whole set of different reasons than just getting a little bit angry. Because that was the crux of the matter: the two things didn't combine so well. And she felt a little afraid of it, too.

Dead end.

For a moment Dar's face was in front of her eyes, the way he had looked up at her, his bloodied face full of acceptance. He'd shown her that death could be welcome. He'd longed for it.

Unbidden, and unwelcome, a single tear rolled down her left cheek. What did it have to do there?

She wiped it off her face with the back of her hand, now even angrier with herself.

The odd elation she'd felt at finding the shaft in the deserted street had somehow vanished with every rung she had taken further down.

She only had one option available now, and that was to go up the shaft again. And once up there, she would find a place full of people and spend the night drinking until there wasn't a sober thought left in her brain.

As she took a step aside on the parapet, to reach the first of the durasteel rungs, something underneath her boot made an odd-sounding wet crunch. For a moment she stopped in mid-motion, looking down at her feet to see what it had been, but saw nothing there. The parapet was empty except for her.

Suddenly, her stomach felt queasy. A general uneasiness came over her, and her state of alarm grew. Somehow, the air seemed impossibly still, of a sudden. Then, a loud flapping noise impossibly close.

She turned.

A hawk-bat, woken from his sleep by her boots on one of his claws as he'd clung to the underside of the parapet, flung itself at her, beak and claws ready for the kill.

For a second, she froze. Then the air stilled, much like the sound had around them, and she was still frozen to the spot. It was right beside the rungs, so going up was no longer practicable.

There was nothing left to do. She had to give in.

Opening herself to her 'other' skill, she realised it had already been part of her. It had frozen time, given her this chance. There wasn't any point in refusing it further.

She jumped.

And landed on the ground 20 feet below, impossibly steadily on both feet, with no blemish on her. And broke into a run. Away, just away.

The hawk-bat, seing itself deprived of its revenge, and its dinner, went after her, loudly screeching. And in its wake came two more, blindly obedient to the threat their mate had been under.

Looking back over her shoulder as she ran, Nya realised this, and started running in earnest. She needed to find cover, somewhere.

[Ira]

Ira blinked.

It wasn't one of those normal blinks. Not even the type of blink when the lights turn on. The blink was the sort that children have on Life Day. Or more like the blink fit for the first flight out in space. The blink was one of amazement. Yet, unlike the ones for Life Day, or the breath-taking glimpse of the universe, it was for surprise.

Doubt wet his eyes as his lids flopped up and down. He stared with uncertainty, and he wasn't alone. Behind him stood a motionless Whipid, his mouth made to gawk. The jaws droped on most aware, while the others spoke senselessly. The counter swung their attention and followed suite in the astonishment.

There, at the door, ran a woman. She was an interesting gal, of course, but it wasn't her looks that grabbed their eyes, minds, and ears. No, it was the sound and sight behind her. In mindless dash she tried desperately to escape the pack of vermin known as bats. No one liked bats. Ira didn't like bats.

Actually, Ira hated bats.

To him, they were like winged womp rats, and he despised those. Anytime he found himself stranded on Tatooine (because that was the only reason he'd stay there) he would grab the nearest blaster and go to work on them. He absolutely hated them. However, that did not mean that the little pest couldn't astound him. The very fact that they were even in his presence in such an establishment was enough, but that they were attack took the whole cake.

The only problem was he didn't have a blaster. Lucky for him though, he had ordered a drink, and had some decent aim. With one heave, he flung his full glass at the head of the pack. The cup flew over the woman's head, thudding the swooping beast right on the head.

"Yes," he celebrated.

Silly Ira, he rejoiced too soon. There were still more to go around, and he threw the only glass he could afford to buy.

"Frag!"

[Nya Halcyon]

Without a clue of where her flight was taking her, she ran. A hasty look over her shoulder every few minutes confirmed that the bats were still after her - and gaining.

Pulling a blaster and shooting them wasn't an option; even if she'd manage to get off two shots in time, she'd never get the third before it would get her. For a moment she wondered whether she could have got them all if she still had her father's weapon; but she didn't, so she couldn't, and she'd simply have to find some other way. Maybe if she found some place she could hide which they couldn't reach...

She hadn't paid much attention to her surroundings other than in a sense of finding somewhere to hide but after a while she noticed that while they had at first seemed as deserted as the one she had come from, every window and entrance boarded up, things were changing. Though still deserted, she could soon hear noise coming closer and closer.

Just like the beasties which she could now even sense behind her - no doubt something that came courtesy of her other skill.

Rounding a corner she almost smashed into a speeder that was taking off. Swerving around, she caught the reflection of the bats behind her in its shaded viewscreens. Too close!

But her inheritance seemed to be strongly on her side today; had she felt close to exhaustion a moment before, it lent her tired legs one more burst of speed and strength, and she went flying down the road. She could feel the energy, the renewed strength in the pumping of her thighs and hear it in the steadier thumping of her own heart in her ears. For a moment she rejoiced in the feeling: it had been long since she'd felt this way. For that moment she wanted it to last forever.

Then the moment was over, and there were three large and very angry hawk-bats on her tail again.

Her eyes darting around the new surroundings as she sprinted down the street, she zoomed in on what appeared to be a cantina two houses down, a droid standing guard outside it. She hoped the doors were strong enough to withstand her hunters.

Another fresh burst of energy took her right past the droid and inside. A high-pitched warble sounded outside as the droid seemed to have noticed the incoming beasties.

The cantina was fairly full. And the doors weren't sturdy enough, as a few seconds behind her it burst apart into a mass of flying glass shards, splintering wood and flapping wings. Fortunately she was already halfway between the door and the bar counter by then, and in the time the bats needed to find her again, she'd reached it and hopped over it, pulling the startled barman to the ground with her.

At the sound of more glass breaking and someone screaming and someone else cursing, it belatedly hit her that using a cantina as the place to take out the beasties hadn't been all that great an idea. She came up with her blaster drawn, just in time to see one of the bats crash into a table of shrieking Rodians while a dark-skinned man on the other side of the counter was looking at his empty hands in consternation.

She started firing at the other bats and got one, but the other dove in between the other customers who screamed and jumped up and generally got in time way of a clear shot.

[Ira]

An eye shot over his shoulder, about, and around. Shots had gone fired, and he hadn't ducked. He wasn't in the way, but he could have been. A lot of problems had risen up in a matter of seconds, and with it went his heart beat. The pump of adrenaline through his veins kept the world clear, sounds distinct, and feet ready.

While bats began preoccupied with the wall of fearful screams, and patrons, Ira thought fast. The pilot dashed a long side the bar, running his hand across. A few of the drinkers jumped out the way, while others became obstruction for him to swing around. There were very little empty bottles, but he managed to find one in his trial.

The idea was the same as the last.

He had no ammo, or any blaster. For a citizen like himself, it wasn't permitted, and not by the government. Instead, he wouldn't allow himself to get caught up on a planet like the Imperical Centre. There were far too many conflicts boiling around the galaxy, and he had enough history to connect him to any side if ever interrogated.

No way was going to a jail cell over wanting to be protected.

All he needed was a bottle to keep any idiot at bay. And so it was, grabbing the bottle, twirling about, and swinging like a game of ball. The glass swivel through the air, dancing about until it finally collided. Luck had been on his side the first time. Yet, no one was smiling down on him the second.

The glass hit one of the "obstructions" in the path. Somebody's head was in the way, and with a thunk they fell to the floor. All that was left were a few stray plates to fend the bats off. They were enraged, and ready to pounce.

Their target: him.

[Aree Ankarta]

But the first downed hawkbat didn't do her the favor of staying down; shrieking viciously it had joined its remaining friend while her attention was elsewhere - since she thought it was out of the fight anyway - and the two beasties were doing a great job evading her behind a group of tall hammerheads who alone amongst a mass of frantic people pressing for the doors were standing still and would not duck down no matter how many times she yelled at them.

So far she'd stayed put behind the counter - it had been a good cover. She was about to hop over it and go around the shabla hammerheads when out of the corner of her eye she noticed something: the dark-skinned guy whose glass had taken down the first bat was moving along the bar, looking for something. Puzzled, she saw him move around the trio of Ithorians, then reappear on their far side to continue his path along the counter. Finally, she watched as his fingers wrapped around a glass bottle and a second later she heard smashing glass again.

The guy had guts. No brain, but guts, at least. What was he thinking???

The Ithorians finally stepped out of her line of sight, just in time to see the two hawk-bats circle around and hone in on the would-be hero. His second bottle must have missed its target. And unless she'd do something to help him, he was going to end up as dead meat in the bat's gullets.

"Osik," she hissed under her breath. The distance between him and her was too great for her to reach him under normal circumstances. Unless she let the Force aid her again... and that would be as suicidal as the guy's brash behaviour, with all these people around.

Only a second had passed. She could still reach him... if she let herself.

And then time slowed. The noise became nothing but a low murmur in the distance. All that existed to her were the two hawkbats, the dark-skinned guy and herself. All she heard was the beating of her own heart, and the heavy sound of two sets of leathery wings in the air. Leaping onto the counter, she landed in midstep already and sprinted down the bartop, her feet somehow impossibly missing the glasses and plates as she did. As she ran, she had her blaster aimed at the beasties who were honing in on the guy, who was frantically looking for something else to toss at them. But it wasn't until she stood right behind him on the bar, and looking straight at the two great flapping beasts herself, that she fired two shots in quick succession.

Both hit home, dropping one bat instantly, while the other sailed a few steps closer to its intended victim before smashing onto the ground to the guy's feet.

Then time caught up with her again. The noise rushed back in. She stared down at the guy's face, her face set in a grim mask. "What in haran were you thinking?!?"

[Ira]

Silence trapped him. For once Ira was unsure.

He watched as the bats charged. He listened as the screams echoed. He even felt the stares of the cantina. Yet, one thing he did not note was the footsteps. A long the counter, in the mix of flapping beast, and deranged, disgruntled patrons trotted one. Determination tinged the air, but Ira was sure it was only him.

The only problem with that thought was he was unsure about everything else.

Already his futile, wild attempt had fallen face first. He had little else to call on. Ira felt a panic. In the anxious stand, he sought refuge in memories. There was no escape other than to the mind at this point. The bats were too close, and his reflexes would be too slow. Of course, he had the quickness, but these were beast. They would only follow him, just as they had the masked guide that had brought them here.

In the splash of nostalgia, he gulped down the good times. Certainly he was going to be a beast's dinner tonight, and he rather one last drink before he was gone. The glass he threw didn't have anything in it, but his memories were a strong enough shot for him. As he gulped down, he squeezed his eyes in pain and awaited.

Nothing happened.

When he woke from his past, returned to the present, and realized the world he wasn't anything less than confused. The bats had fallen. One a bit a distance away, while the other decided to be a bit too close for comfort. Impulse told him to back up, while his instincts said to do it faster. In a blink his back was against the counter, but he felt more than the hard of the cantina bar. Someone was behind him.

Lifting his head up, he noted the woman. She wasn't happy. He knew exactly why. She had that damn blaster in her hand.

"I wasn't," he aptly answered. Anything else he had to offer her was left to his grin. Ira smiled innocently, yet sly. Ira always smiled that way.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

The sound of the sirens went unnoticed amidst the din within the bar - the screeching of the hawk bats, the blaster fire and broken glass, the hollering of the patrons caught in the crossfire of man and beast - was demanding much more of the attention than the obscure wailings from beyond the immediate danger zone.

The sirens were not of the ICPD however, although, Tarruurri did have hers wailing along with the others. It was the Dept of Wildlife that were squealing in beserk heraldry of their arrival, the twin vans careening into the spacelane with blatant disregard of life or limb of those unfortunate to be in their path, an angry Rodian smacking his palm against the van's side in outrage. There had been reports of hawkbats being harrassed and attacked by persons unknown and the DOW were here to come to their rescue.

The creatures themselves were not helpless, but they were however protected, being as they were only one of two suspected indigenous species remaining in the vast urban and commercial conglomeration that was Imperial Center. They didnt venture out much amongst the general populace, thankfully, but preferred to dwell unnoticed and unhampered in the steamy alleys and underpipings of the city. It was a happy arrangement and only once and a while did the bats and the rest of the city inhabitants converge. Like tonight. The call had come and the vans dispatched.

Pulling up outside the bar, where an obvious conflict was in full swing, two pairs of Wildlife workers exited each van like some kind of animal swat team. Tarruurri nosed her ICPD cruiser half a block down, preferring to make her entrance once the critters were well in hand and subdued. Then, that'd be her cue...take the offending instigators in hand and..well...arrest them. It was not really her usual arena of policing, but she was in the neighbourhood and this was part of her sector. Until the uniforms arrived, she'd be takin names and...how'd that saying go again? Anyway..

Taking her time, but keeping well and truly alert should there be more bats flying about, Kajeela made mental notes of her surroundings and moved slowly forward.

[Aree Ankarta]

"Don't state the obvious!" she snapped at the guy. She was starting to wonder if he was drunk - only intoxicated beings would try such foolish acts of bravery out of a lack of understanding of the true risk of the situation. Disgust settled over her face, turned the corners of her mouth into a sneer as she noticed the empty glass in his one hand and the moisture on his lips. "If that wasn't the most--"

She didn't get to finish what she meant to say for at that moment a duo of creatures in what looked like a green variant of stormtrooper armor entered through the splintered remains of what had once been a set of doors, brandishing nets and a stunner of a size she'd never seen before. The sight made her forget what she'd wanted to say, especially when another pair of them came running in a few seconds later, screaming "DO NOT HARM THE ANIMALS! DO NOT HA--"

The scream died in mid-sentence as the screamer saw what his companions had already realised a moment before: there wasn't anything left to save.

Nya anticipated trouble the moment she'd seen them, without needing to know what they were or who had sent them. True to form, once these odd orderlies had taken stock of the situation, she watched them fan out, two of them moving to the broken doors to prevent anyone else from leaving, another pulling a comm from his belt and rapidly barking a few unintelligible words into it, while the forth moved with surprising speed towards the dead bats - and her.

Refusing to let it worry her, she assumed a sore and expression of utter cool and control, and holstered her blaster. Haughtily she watched the DOW agent - as that was what they seemed to be, judging by the letters emblazoned onto their backs - approached her.

[Ira]

Ira was born to be a rebel without a cause. It was in his nature to detest officials. Any sort of governing official, or administrative figure stood as a threat to his very being. There was never a reason, purpose, or specific act that called for his brash behavior, but that was how he function. He could help it, but why would he? For the most part, Ira enjoyed himself. All the wild, unruly silliness he got himself into kept his blood boiling. It was the only way for him. There were no other options.

Ira was always born to be a pest. He attracted the kind unlike him. The type of people that were serious about themselves. The ones with drama in their life. Those many folk that woke up in the morning, looked at themselves in the mirror, and then put on a suit. As the youngest of his siblings, he was a professional agitator. A long with being a rebel, it was in his make-up.

So, when he saw Aree's coolness, and the fleet of officers he went into over-drive. It was like bumble bee finding a flower, or interceptor running into the enemy. This moment was his calling, his destiny. The stage was set, and he was ready to act a fool.

In a blink, his arm was up. He raised in a student like stupor, wiggling it about impatiently. Sweat beads trickled down his face in a feign of nervousness. Ira fidgeted restlessly, but kept his hand high, raised, and waiting. He looked like a kid in class about to answer a question. Yet, so much like a child, he didn't wait to be called on to finally answer this question (that was never asked).

Shifting this thumb to the side, he directed at Aree. With only a few words he had set in all in motion, and he did it with a devilishly, mischievous, boyish grin:

"She did it!"

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela slipped inside the destroyed doorway, the flash of her Detective sheild in the DOW officer's face ensuring her hassel-free passage.

She picked her way unobtrusively to one side of the shambled room, keen eyes watching every movement while an expectant dread settled on the patrons within. Every caught breath and furtive glance of the occupants reeked of guilt and complicity with their reckless actions - the lone exception being the woman standing boldly across from the Wildlife Agent. Kajeela waited, knowing any minute now...And there it was.....the first one to crack - a young fella pointing accusingly, and as eagerly as if his hair was on fire, to lay blame.

The officer was uncertain, looking from the cool gaze of Aree over to the smug face of Ira.

Tarruurri's eyes narrowed darkly and her tail began to flick. After a moment of consideration, she spoke with firm authority.

"Take them both jin"

[Aree Ankarta]

This would have been a good time for wearing the armour and helmet. She suddenly incredibly naked and vulnerable without them. Then the moment passed, and she felt composed, cool calmness washing over her.

This wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with officials. The trick was to stay reasonable and not to let herself be pushed into a corner from which she might do something stupid to get out of again. Like letting herself be provoked into using the Force. She'd not stayed ahead of the Inquisitoriate for all these years just to fall into their hands now because of some idiotic bar brawl that wasn't her fault anyway.

As long as this identity held up - which it would, since she'd legally taken it up and destroyed any records of her real name, as well as the memory of the clerk handling her name change - she wouldn't have anything to fear as long as she didn't call the Inquisitoriate's attention upon herself.

It seemed that the felinoid officer was the one she would have to deal with. So she hopped down from the bar - making sure to bend her knees low at landing on the floor, in imitation of someone without her skills - and, ignoring the DOW officer who tried to grab her, walked over to the Cizerack in charge.

"I'm not going to deny that it was me who shot these beasties, but the utreekov over there would have been dead if I hadn't, seeing that he was trying to shoot them out of the air by throwing bottles at them."

Stupid idiot! She turned around and glared at him for a moment before turning back and looking for the Cizerack's response.

[Ira]

Aree looked. Ira grinned. He grinned a big one, too. Ira’s ears almost met the ends of his lips. The young fella was more childish than young. No words came up, he didn’t have a retort. All he did was allow his cheeky, child-like response play its parts. Then, he shrugged his shoulders weakly, knowing all too well how he came across. For the most part, he seemed insane, or at the very best inane.

He’d throw on the fool’s cap.

There wasn’t many other caps he could wear. Already he had made the mistake of throwing bottles, so any mindfulness would be unbefitting. Maybe, just maybe, if he kept up with the immature role he’d be let down easy. Ira still had his youth on his side, and hopefully it would work to his grace when everything finally went down.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Tarruurri eyed the pair of them, while in the peripheral the Wildlife officers slowly moved to encircle them.

Kajeela held up a belaying hand toward them, halting their progress forward for the moment.

"How djid they get ssso rrrjiled up to attack jin the fjirrrssst place?"

She was asking Aree, but was clearly suspicious of the young fellow grinning like the town idiot.

[Aree Ankarta]

"To be honest, I have no idea," Nya said, noticing that the Cizerack officer's attention had wandered to the utreekov. The trick would now be to keep it like that, so her story would need to be as convincing as possible - trouble with that was that the circumstances weren't all too promising for it. "I was following a bounty down into an abandoned part of the fifth level, and ended up in a broken turbolift shaft which these three beasties started following me down. The bounty must've stirred them up somehow. I'd managed to get down to this level before they got close enough for me to realise it, and then I just ran. They were too close to shoot them down so I had to find cover - I thought the door of this place would be enough to hold them off."

She sincerely hoped the Cizerack wouldn't ask her about the bounty, because she hadn't a clue if the Imperial Center police corps kept track of some of the bounties issued on the various criminals on the planet. And without her helmet's uplink, she had no chance at being able to shake a name out of her sleeve.

Being a registered bountyhunter at least gave her some cover. She could simply have told the truth - but these days, wandering through abandoned parts of the planet-city raised some questions in the eyes of the wrong people.

"Unfortunately, once they were inside this utreekov here decided to be smart and throw glasses at them. That, and the shouts from everyone else got them riled up properly. I had to do something - so I shot them down before they could do any serious harm."

[Ira]

Ira ran his eyes from the two, then finally said, "utreekov?" dumbfound as ever. No other words slipped out his mouth, just looks. He kept the dumbfoudness, and sprinkled in a bit of geniune confusion. All he had done was throw glass. There was no problem in that.

Of course one or two of the glasses was aimed to hit, but he was being a good samartin. Even with his facade thrown up, and masquerade in full effect, he saw no reason for all this interrogating.

He hadn't done anything wrong except save a life or two. Those bats were viscious...like momma's old stew. So, he kept quiet, and waited. Eventually her lie would play out, and he showed his certainty of that with his light shake of the head and show of disbelief. Obviously this was another tale to get out of the bind. Whatever truly happened, and how she got there wouldn't be told.

If for some reason he got binded up for this he would go after her with his last breathe. She was stupid to think this was over she got away with this. Ira saw her face, and that was enough. His memory was good. Real good.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

"Unfortunately, once they were inside this utreekov here decided to be smart and throw glasses at them. That, and the shouts from everyone else got them riled up properly. I had to do something - so I shot them down before they could do any serious harm."


"Ssso, you arrre a herrro - jisss that rrrjight?" Kajeela said. Her curiosity had been piqued - this woman was the second <a href="http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18507">Bounty Hunter</a> the Detective had encountered in a few weeks who bucked the stereotypical image Tarruurri had of ruthless, heartless, killers-for-hire.

"And thjisss sssjimpleton" she gestured to Ira, "jisss not yourrr assssssocjiate?" Aree shook her head in the negative.

The Wilderness officers were all frowning now. They wanted to make an arrest, bang some heads, break some bones. And Tarruurri was shooting the breeze. Kajeela noticed their shift in focus and pulled them up on it, pointing to two of the officers, "Ssstarrrt lookjing forrr the Hawkbat nessst, you jidjiots." It was obvious to the Cizerack that the beats had been disturbed and reacted much like wild animals will when threatened - with agression. The other two officers she instructed to take down the particulars of Ira and Aree so that if there was further investigation, or charges filed by the bar owner, they could be contacted.

"Thjis wont take long" she said to Ira and Aree politely, though the both of them got the distinct impression it would take as long as necessary and the pair of them had better just accept it.

[Ira]

Ira sighed, leaned back, and stared at the ceiling. The officers were surrounding him now, eyes gawking, and waiting. Maybe they noted his ageless face, youthful features, or that his smile had long faded sometime the Cizerak had started speaking. Whatever it was, they were scribbling away before they even asked a question. It was awkward, but Ira didn't focus on it much. His eyes were on the ceiling, and his mind was elsewhere.

He had gotten himself into a mess.

Another sigh escaped his depths, and he waited. The question would soon stir up, and he would throw in his bit on his contact information (which would be bogus) and try to leave as soon as possible. Not just lean the bar, though, he would be heading off world. This planet was nothing but trouble.

[Aree Ankarta]

"This had better not take too long," she said, knowing that look fully well. It wasn't that she was in a hurry to do anything - not like she had anything to do other than wait for her ship - but being in the presence of even just this small a number of officials made her nervous, and she didn't know how long she could hide it.

Had anyone noticed her unusual skills? She cast a hurried look over the assembled creatures, especially those standing along the bar. Most of them seemed too inebriated to have seen anything, but the utreekov who was now being sized up by the officers was giving her a headache. Something about him spelled trouble, and she didn't know why.

[Ira]

Leaned back, eyes up, and not a word shot out his mouth. Ira was calm again. The show was done. They asked the questions, and he answered without given them even an eye. Somewhere between it all, he gave a fake name. Matter fact, everything he said was fake - but it lined up. Ira had put many years in the stars, and with it went different identies. This wasn't the first mess he had gotten himself in.

And since it wasn't the first, he was use to this tension. Ira could feel it, rolling off her. Slowly his eyes guided him, giving her a small look. A grin stopped on his lips, before his eyes played like lights and let it go. He stared then, for one lingering second, and turned off.

His eyes went back to the sky, and the questions had just ended. They were a blur, but he was sure there was no way they'd done any real uncovering. All they'd find out was this guy name Jerik Hilloon who had his same picture, prints, and all, coming from Spira. Hopefully the rest of this poodoo would work out well, and he could go.

But he was interested. This lady was...interesting.

[Aree Ankarta]

Then she caught him staring at her, and for some reason the stare was anything but dumb-witted. There was something in it that spelled danger, and the tingling at the bottom of her stomach which she suddenly felt confirmed it.

She'd cloaked her connection to the Force in the way she'd been taught as a child, which effectively was like having switched it off even though it was still part of her. It would not be a good idea to announce herself to the Inquisitoriate by continued use of it, but ...

But. There was something about this guy that was making her want to reach out with her mind and take a tour of his thoughts. Which was a dangerous thought. But one that kept calling to her.

Shab! she cursed inwardly. The Inq spooks aren't going to detect me if I just use it for a few seconds more!

Not closing her eyes, not showing any kind of sign of doing anything other than standing there looking idly on as the officers were still busy trying to calm down irate customers, she concentrated on the man, his life source, his essence - trying to see, trying to hear, trying to sense as he did. Trying to look into his thoughts.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela was used to this scenario, bad guys trying to pawn themselves off as innocents, innocents trying not to look guilty out of simple fear of authority, curious onlookers openly gawking on the free show...it was all just another day on the job for her. Usually, that is.

The young punk was pretty good, he deadpanned like a pro, gave his information like a good lad doing his civic duty. Tarruurri gave him creds for style, but she'd seen this song and dance thousands of times before and "Jerik" was a ne'er-do-well if she'd ever seen one. Experience told her they'd probably never find this kid again unless they tagged him with a tracer on his butt.

The woman though, she was very subtle. And convincing. Tarruurri had no cause whatever to doubt her story, no reason to suspect that Aree was anything other than what she presented. Then why did the Cizerack's stomach twitch?

"We're good here, Detective" the officer turned and advised Kajeela, waiting for further direction from the Cizerack. They had got the information they'd needed, his partners were reconnitoring outside for further nests, all that was required now was a clean-up crew for all the detrius splattered about the bar, and that was someone elses problem.

"Verrrrjy well" Kajeela acknowledged, but made no move herself to leave. She was hesitant to go, a nagging sensation that she was missing something would not allow it.

[Ira]

He blinked.

And then, there it was. Years of building, living, dying, all there behind his eyes in that shot of darkness. In the depths was his essence, bright as ever, in a dim too empty for some to imagine. The shine was blinding at the center, but what sprung from it was hard not to boggle at.

The outfit was Antarian, and built for their Rangers. A group formed for assistance in the Jedi Order, they were dead, but in his mind they were very alive. So alive he wore the outfit. These were memories, and he was falling. The sky was very much above, yet far too near to be on the ground. Sprawled out, he dove from the air-craft and off to the earth. There wasn't anything on his back, this was a free-fall.

Down below was a fleet of troopers. An invasion? No, far too small to be that. This was an air-strike, and it was to be stopped. Beside his fall was another. It was a she. On the other side was a he, and they looked a lot like. The man was a bit more casual in her wear, while the other was adorn with the style of a true Jedi. Both fit the script though, and it was why he was there.

The pilots felt the thunk of the three figures banging against their outside. Soon, the ships went haywire. Shift there, shift here, and nearly everywhere, trying to shake the newcommers off. It was to no avail. In moments fumes billow with smoke, and fire from the destroyed vessels and the three were off. Swooped by another ship, a friendly one, and taken to safety back in the sky.

Another blink.

This time he was the pilot. War stormed the dark, spotted, blanket that coated space. It was the Clone Wars from the sounds of it. Also, the look of it told it too. Jedi interceptors, ARC ships, everything was fitted for a true battle. Blaster fire shot through, a long with ion cannons, while he flipped about in a wild array, displaying skill, pizazz, dexterity and experience.

The little hunk of junk he was trapped in was good. An old Naboo Starfighter, and the shots couldn't be more off target. He had the droids eating space dust. Comm alerts were coming through, but he ignored them.

"Ira, Ira, come in Ira," they screamed. He paid them no mind. He moved on. Swept over, shot the droids into dust, and blasted off back to the center of the siege. They needed him, clearly, but he was too focused to respond. He was acting on intuition, instinct, and...something else.

He blinked again.

It was all gone, and his eyes were still on the gal. He didn't know what had transpired, he just knew those memories. They kept coming back, but the worst was the day his friends died. The ones he had fought for, battled along side, and that day was Order 66. That memory was too dark, too dim, to be realized again, because he tried to fix himself on those good times.

Those times when that shining light was the brightest. Being stopped by a Cizerak, and a pack of authorities was certainly not a dark day. No, this was one of his better days, compared to then.

He blinked once more.

"All done there?"

Ira looked over. Not at Cizerak, but Aree.

[Aree Ankarta]

She blinked. Once. Twice. And stared right back into his eyes, looking her gaze with his.

Of all the things - what she'd seen had been the very last possibility on her mind.

Now that she'd seen him through his own memories, she knew that spark that made him himself. She knew what to feel for - and found it. Unmistakably there.

Faint. But yet - there. And he'd just confirmed it with his question - he wouldn't have recognised what she'd done otherwise.

She knew she was staring, and knew that it would attract attention, but right now, it all went out of focus. The chances of meeting another one such as her was extremely slim, but there it was. However difficult that made things.

The question was - what would he do now? Who was he working for?

And what could she do now, to get herself out of this situation?

Slowly, as slowly as she could, she let her hand wander down towards her utility belt, not quite sure what she wanted but sure that she needed to do something other than simply standing there.

So she finally opened her mouth, deciding on the spot to act innocent and see where it would lead her: "What do you mean?"

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Tarruurri canted her head at a slight angle, catching a whiff of something out of the ordinary in the exchange between the two before her.

Aree dropping her hand to her utility belt was not missed and the Detective felt her ears flatten slightly in agitation.

Something was about to pop, Kajeela was suddenly quite certain of it.

[Ira]

Ira looked for a second. Took in the moment each blink at a time, then he smiled. It was a subtle smile. A small one, barely detectable and cunning. Almost was a smirk, if it wasn't the innocence in his eyes. Then, those eyes turned away. Actually, they practically were torn from the scene, as his body smoothly flipped about to put his back to the counter once more.

Elbows laid behind him, in a full on lean, he let out a sigh. The smile was almost faded to oblivion, and lost in the mist of his memories. For a second, he let that linger. No words, no rustling, no sounds came from him in any way. Then, finally, out of the tenseness, he said his part:

"Whateva..."

He felt he read his line perfect. Hopefully the nosy cat-girl would step back and leave the two alone. There was plenty to talk about, but maybe they wouldn't get there. Either way, Ira wasn't comfortable with her there. Everything had been handled.

Why was so curious?

Under his breath he wanted to be snide. He didn't, though. He knew better. These situations weren't new. Actually, they were quite old, and thoroughly experienced. Not well-experienced though, Ira had been in a jam far too many times to find it as a nice time. Instead, he just stood there, and kept the thought to himself.

Curiosity killed the cat.

[Aree Ankarta]

His answer confused her. What did he mean? and want? She wasn't going to take another chance at trying to get into his head - the first attempt had been bad enough, and probably announced her presence to the inquisitors all over the planet as well as if she'd walked up to one of them and told them who and what she was.

It wasn't wise to use the Force in their neighborhood, and she'd done so too many times already tonight. It was almost as if the planet and its dark masters were trying to bait her by generating odd situations like these.

It was a thought to consider - but not now.

Now she had this weird guy to figure out, and he wasn't going to make it easy for her, standing there and looking like nothing could faze him.

I've seen insane men act like this - is he one, too? Maybe some adept who was driven mad by powers he never learnt to control? It was a possibility, and his behavior certainly fit into it. Another reason not to try and get into his head again, even if she hadn't been too afraid of the Inquisitors to try it.

She'd need to get out of here, and observe him for a while, if she wanted some answers about him. If she truly did. And she wasn't sure of that either.

But she couldn't let him wander around - or stand around, as he was doing right now - with the chance that he might use whatever powers he had, for if the Inquisitors hadn't caught on to them yet they surely would much faster if they could feel two sources instead of just one. And if he had powers but no control, he would endanger them both. Which could happen any minute now, no matter how harmless and relaxed he might look. There was something to him that belied that, something that spoke of danger to her, and she....

...she... she needed to control it. No one was going to get the drop on her just because some nutcase with force powers was playing stupid games.

Before anyone could stop her - or anyone could even as much as react - she had her blaster drawn, and fired two shots at him, intending to stun him and render him unconscious, and deal with the consequences later.

[Ira]

The former Ranger had great instincts. Ira's reflexes were profound, for anyone, not just his age. Yet, he didn't see her coming. Only miliseconds unfolded after he realized with a rattle. He blinked, and it was so. The stun bolts boinked his brain cells into a fizz and he was all but awake.

Slumped over the counter, he looked drunk. Aree had hit him good. Already she had been surprised. Clearly, Ira had played it cool up to this point. But still, he seemed anything but sane to the masses. No one would be surprised by his sudden unconsciousness.

Well, anyone that wasn't keeping a careful eye on him. As his eyes dropped into a close, his mind wandered. Then, fell on the Cizerak. She had been paying far too much attention to the two. Although everything had been packed away, interrogations had been given, and everything checked out, she was still around.

It was disturbing.

So, he was disturbed, but not from his rest. The stun had tranquilized him. He was at ease at the counter, flopped over like the fool he was.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela saw Aree draw the gun, fire off the shots and hit Ira square on. From the amount of detail that assailed her senses - the flash movement, the sudden noise, the on-rush of conflict - Tarruurri might think she would have had time to react, but it was not the case.

It was a second or two after the fact, with the stun bolts secure in their target, before the Cizerack sprang back out of range, looking and feeling, quite foolish as she did so. The speed of the assault was astonishing. She went to draw her own blaster, but halted with her hand mid air and away from the weapon belt clasp -- Aree had her lined up already in her sights. Kajeela's tail flicked back and forward in forced inaction.

"Whjy the frrrell djid jyou do that?" she demanded of Ankarta, slipping a sidelong look at Ira to assure herself he still breathed.

[Aree Ankarta]

"I know his type."

Of course, now she would have to explain herself. Something she hadn't quite considered a moment ago when she hadn't yet shot the guy. Osik, it wasn't a good idea to point a blaster at a cop, but it would be even worse if she didn't, as long as she hadn't explained her actions.

"It's nothing but an act, that slouch and the grin - he was going to do something stupid, I've been trained to study body language, I could see it even in the minutest movement of his hands."

Of course, this would all have been so much easier if she could have used the Force to simply erase everyone's memory of herself and the guy, and disappear - but there was the Inquisitoriate, and the fact that Cizeracks were apparently immune to mind influence, that put a lid on that idea.

She really hoped the Ciz would go for it. The alternative was a whole lot messier and she wasn't sure if she could pull it off.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela's eyes narrowed. She'd sensed no such action from the kid and she was trained to watch body language too.

"Put the weapon down" she directed, her tone implaccable.

Aree did not comply and Tarruurri could tell she was considering her options.

Keeping her hands where they were in front of her, Tarruurri whipped her tail around and with a strong flick of its end to Aree's hand, sent the blaster sailing into the air. Immediately following on that action, Kajeela launched herself full-body at the bounty hunter, flinging her 190lb frame onto Ankarta intending to knock her down.

[Aree Ankarta]

Okay, so the Cizerack hadn't bought it. Next option-----

But whatever had been on her mind for the immediate future was curtailed by the sudden lack of a blaster in her hand.

"Shab!" she hissed from between clenched teeth, and then threw herself forwards in an attempt at simply running the felinoid officer over and escaping through the still gaping door.

They smashed against each other in mid-air. The bountyhunter had got a warning through her other sense at the very last minute of her opponent's intent, but by then it had already been too late - changing direction in mid-jump is almost impossible even for Jedi who don't have to hide their powers - and it was all she could do to throw her head back to avoid smacking it against the Cizerack's.

With a resounding thud, they hit each other. Having pulled up her arms at the last minute, Nya threw them around the thin but wiry frame of her opponent, and held on, trying to pin her, and wrestle her to the ground.

The plan that had never really even been a plan changed once again. They tumbled to the ground, one snarling, the other cursing.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Tarruurri was used to subduing hjumans with a minimum of effort, her felinoid strength usually proving no match for the feebler breed, but such was not the case in this scenario. Aree was proving particularly strong and it was disconcerting as much as it was annoying.

"jYou arrre underrr arrressst! Desssjissst yourrr ssstrrruggle jimmedjiateljy!"

Tarruurri, through gritted teeth, insisted on keeping protocol as much as she could, but the Bounty Hunter was giving her little leave to do so. Ankarta intensified her effort and Tarruurri had no option but to do likewise.

Grappling hand to hand and their two sets of legs scrabbling the floor trying to find purchase, and therefore leverage, they were so intwined together that they resembled a flipped crow-crab struggling to re-right itself. Kajeela's tail was bent back beneath her body and the pain of it was shooting all the way up her back. She twisted unexpectedly and threw up an elbow into Aree's jaw, feeling the rocking of the woman's head at the point of impact but no loosening of the hold she had her in.

"jYou mussst ssstop rrresssjissstjing arrressst!"

[Ira]

His eyes went slow. The lids barely flopped open, but he could see what was up. Two blurs, wrestling, fighting for survival. The tranquilizer had done him in good, barely could make out the blobs. If it wasn't for the counter, he wouldn't even be able to stand. The ex-ranger was in bad shape.

But not bad enough not to move.

He had to escape. One step after another, he pushed, pulled, and yanked to get across the counter and away. The where wasn't he concern, he just needed to get somewhere from there. All the fighting was only going to ruin his chances to get away from this possible case without anymore question.

Survival of the fittest...and he wasn't feeling so fit right about now.

[Aree Ankarta]

Shab, that hurt! The iron taste of copper flooded her mouth; when the Cizerack had jammed an elbow into her jaw, she'd bitten down hard on her own tongue. The pain from that, and the fact that a tooth or two had gotten loose and was now mixed in with the bloody saliva inside her mouth, kept her lips firmly pressed against each other. She still had her opponent in her grasp, even in spite of the nasty blow she'd been dealt.

The Cizerack had no idea what she was dealing with if she thought she'd give up so easy.

Somewhere at the back of her mind, in the cold and analytical part of her brain, a part of herself looked at this whole situation appraisingly and, if asked, would have stated that her current course of action was or'dinla - very stupid - and futile, and she was getting herself into more trouble than she could get out of in one piece. Unfortunately, however, that part of herself was now no longer in control. It was the hot-blooded Mando stubbornness that rushed through her veins now - something utterly alien to her Jedi, but perfectly normal to her adopted Mandalorian, heritage. The distant future didn't matter - the immediate outcome did; and that, to her, was getting rid of the Cizerack who was the only one between her and the door now.

Shrugging the pain off, shunting it aside like a piece of clothing she no longer had any need for, she doubled her efforts to squeeze the Cizerack female's torso. At some point the felinoid had to have no breath left. Yet even in this state she understood simple math - the Cizerack was much heavier than her, and the muscles straining against her hold were more powerful than hers. She'd need something else to distract her opponent so she'd get a grip on her neck instead.

She swallowed the mouthful of blood and teeth - no need to waste them - and, with another twinge of her entire body, threw herself slightly sideways yet without giving an inch. Then, with a snarl, she opened her mouth wide inspite of her bruised jaw, and bit down hard into the flesh of the Cizerack's arm.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela yeowled loudly, her perfect little mouth opening widely, revealing sharp little teeth as she cawled out in pain.

She tried banging a fist repeatedly on Aree's head to detach her, but the bounty hunter clamped down all the harder.

"Aarrrrrouuuwww!"

Giving up the thumping as a bad plan, not being able to get any decent leverage in her swings due to the fact Ankarta still gripped her arms, Tarruurri extended her thumb in an effort to gouge Aree's eye. And she'd have done it too, taken the whole dang eyeball, except at the moment Aree pulled back from the attack, Kajeela needed to change tactics in order to gain an advantage. Given the very shortest of opportunities as the Bounty Hunter pulled away, Tarruurri twisted her arm violently, breaking the hold, and snatched at her blaster at her belt.

Aree knew what the Cizerack was after and threw herself left, pulling Kajeela with her. This only resulted in a change of postion, not predicament and as they rolled over, reversing roles of top and bottom, Kajeela had gained not only the upper position, but the upper hand as well. No time to lower the weapons' setting, the detective fired a full-stun bolt into her opponents chest.

[Aree Ankarta]

She had just gathered all her remaining strength and had been about to deliver one nasty blow to the Cizerack's stomach area when she'd caught an idea of her opponent's intentions. So she'd pulled back - only to realise that that had been the wrong move.

Seconds later she found she'd lost all of her leverage as now she was the one at the bottom - and staring into the barrel of a blaster.

Yet there was no immediate sense of danger in this - which gave her warning enough, even as the shot went off.

Stun bolts at close range were no fun. If she'd been further away, the chances would have been better for her to remain relatively unaffected. It was simple energy, and .... her body had the freakish ability to absorb that like a sponge. Trouble was that the energy had to go somewhere afterwards; she'd have to bleed it off into her surroundings, or put it into some kind of force move. Anything. At long range, that was easier - a flick of a finger, a sudden increase in heat around her could go by unnoticed by anyone. But in such close proximity, with her opponent literally on top of her - that was impossible without the Cizerack noticing.

She couldn't move away. There was no room to move. She had to take it, and see what would happen.

And then the world turned red.

------------

When she came to again, she knew with absolute certainty that she had not been out long. For one, the Cizerack was still looming above her, looking down at her with a curious gaze. The noise in the bar, the position of the creatures inside it and the other officers had not changed significantly to indicate more than a few seconds could have passed. Yet the Cizerack was now up and standing above her. Her own limbs tingled, as if waking up from a long sleep; her chest, however, was a different matter. It hurt. Seriously hurt. She took a gulping breath, realising that there was no air inside her lungs. The hit must have compressed everything inside her chest. The air tasted of metal and ozone, but it was still the sweetest stuff she could have imagined. And with every lungful, the pain in her chest faded a little bit more.

Her eyes didn't leave that of the Cizerack officer during all of this time. Surprise was written in there, and something else. Suspicion?

After a moment, they were still locked in that stare; when she tried to move her hand and see if she could raise herself, she became aware that her hands were in binders. For a moment, she didn't care if the other could see the defiance growing inside her, as she waged an internal battle for control of her body. The Cizerack made no move, seemed oblivious to the danger she was in. For no one had bothered to put binders on her legs, too.

It turned out her body had absorbed some of the bolt. The tingling in her arms and legs came only partially from the nerve damage - a greater part of it was simply the excess energy they had stored for now.

Gathering it all into the core of her being, she used it well - used it to flip herself up into the air and ram her head into the Cizerack's stomach, tumbling the felinoid over while she herself made a mad dash for the open door.

They might think they had her already, but she wasn't going to make it that easy for them

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

She had not want it to come to this, but some folks just would not go easy. How Aree had the resource to pull that kind of maneuver was beyond reason, but time to dwell on that would come later. The Cizerack Detective upped the setting on her weapon. Kajeela would not shoot to kill, but this time, the Bounty Hunter would not get up again so quickly.

One bolt, then another hit the fleeing Ankarta, throwing her forward under the impact and compelling her through the doors she was so desperate to escape out of. She fell into the arms of a returning DOW officer.

Ira, who'd gotten as far as to be almost free when the battle started had remained on the floor in the semi-crawling position he had started off in.

Tarruurri lined the muzzled of her blaster on the young offender, her grey eyes hard.

"jYou would be wjissse to ssstand carrrefulljy to jyourrr feet and come wjith me qujietljy"

[Aree Ankarta]

She was just about to congratulate herself on making a clean escape when her danger sense flared once again. So she flung herself sideways, but there was not enough space to dodge the stun bolts coming after her.

The last thing she consciously experienced as she was flung forward and out of the cantina was thinking 'well at least I made it through the doors,' before she crashed into something soft. There, her body went into overdrive: unable to handle the energy a second time, it convulsed and flailed, so that the officer holding her had to let go and drop her to the ground in order to avoid being hit, while her conscious mind slipped into a darkness that burned and stung like flames that were at once burning but cold.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Finally getting the situation under control, Kajeela ordered the DOW's to stack Aree and Ira into the back of her squad vehicle. With the Bounty Hunter zonked out and restrained hands AND feet (she wont make that mistake again) and a steel-mesh divider between her and them, the Cizerack Detective was confident she would return to the precinct without further incident and her perps in tact.

Once behind the wheel of the speeder, Kajeela radioed in to Remkah, who was loafing at home, having clocked off work just prior to Tarruurri intercepting the call for the hawkbat debacle and the beginning of this whole mess.

She depressed the accellorator and the vehicle jumped into the busy Coruscant space lanes.

"Anssswerrrr, Rrremkajh jyou nerrrfherrrder..."

After a few moments, her partner came gruffly on the line and hrrumphed his acknowledgement to meet her down at the precinct, adding something about overtime and 'not gettin' paid enough for having his evening imposed upon..'

[Caran V'al Counis]

This wasn't at all unexpected from her.

Caran knew he'd gauged her personality and general demeanor well enough. He could have sworn he had actually seen this coming in some vague way. It was nothing he would readily speak of, but in truth he had been watching her. Ever so closely he had. Somewhat amicably they had parted ways after an initial meeting of vast misunderstandings and yet... he'd kept an eye on her. Something about Aree Ankarta (or Nya Halcyon, if you really knew) had piqued his curiosity. So, for her and her troubles, he would go into CoCo Town. A place he generally preferred to avoid at any time he could manage it, on account of its obnoxious levels of noise.

He could have a driver, if he wished. But most of the time, he didn't bother calling on the services of the driver his family had appointed to him. Especially not of late. No doubt, anyone in the employ of the Counis Corporation that came into contact with him was someone who his mother had their ear. But that didn't really apply here. He would like to think so.

Dodging deftly through the stuffed, bumper-to-bumper space lanes, Caran beat his path with the knowledge of the quickest routes to take to any specific location in CoCo Town. He was headed to the precinct. The file pulled up on the place gave him, mostly, two names : Kajeela Tarrurri and Jonas T. Remkah.

Eventually, having found somewhere not-too-crunched to park the speeder, Caran hopped out and strode purposely towards and in to the precinct, where he was met by the rather tired-looking face of Remkah. And then, that was when Tarruuri stepped into his field of vision. Before either of them could speak, Caran beat them to the punch.

"I'm here about a..." He paused, then smiled and continued. Let's play nice. "...Aree Ankarta. She was very recently taken into custody here."

[Jonas T. Remkah]

Jonas tapped the rubber-end of his pencil on the countertop as he eyed Caran speculatively, "Who are you, the lawyer?"

[Caran V'al Counis]

"I could be." He replied. "But that wouldn't be very truthful of me."

He smiled pleasantly, idly checked his wrist chrono, then looked at Remkah again.

"Sorry to say, but I'm her employer, unfortunately." Caran said, a little commentary on the attitude of the girl that he had, against his better sense, become familiar with. "Caran V'al Counis."

"So, Detective." He had a pretty good idea of what had gotten Nya entangled in here in the first place, but it would be better to ask. "Might you be able to tell me what it is, exactly, that Miss Ankarta has done to earn herself a place - albeit temporary - here? And what I might be able to do to clear up this... incident?"

[Jonas T. Remkah]

"Disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, operating firearms in a public establishment, causing me to miss Star Search.."

Remkah held out his hand, his face dead-pan, "ID, Mister V'al Counis"

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Tarruurri stood, arms folded, watching the proceedings as Remkah verified Caran's identification through the system, her tail moving back and forth imperceptibly.

Once cleared, the Cizerack motioned for V'al Counis to follow her into her office.

"Take a ssseat, Mjisssterrr V'al Counjisss. jYour emplojyee jis jin sssome ssserrrjiousss trrrouble."

[Caran V'al Counis]

Having retrieved his ID from Remkah, followed by his continuously pleasant (albeit barely there) smile, Caran pocketed the ID and followed along behind Tarruuri, as she had motioned for him to do so.

Caran V'al Counis had not dealt much with Cizerack in any level of society. He knew though, that the one with which he was now alone in a room was fairly competant at her job, so far as the info on her suggested. As requested, he took a seat. Nothing nearly as comfortable as his office, but at least it was some seating of some sort. The chair squeaked with the weakness of age as he sat.

"Serious trouble?" The very definition of her. He mused, crossing his legs and feeling the chair groan a little. He smiled civilly and drummed fingers on the armrest. He wasn't really looking at Kajeela, but he glanced up at her just now. "You don't say."

He sounded hardly surprised.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela recalled the uncanny strength of Ankarta and the unsettled feelings Tarruurri felt, yet couldn't identify, when grappling with her.

"What do jyou know about Mjizz Ankarrrta, hasss ssshe worrrked for jyou long?"

Behind Caran, Remkah ran his knuckles along the door and entered, passing a print-out to Tarruurri and then helping himself to the reheated coffee coalescing in a pot beside her desk.

"What,, jif anjythjing, do jyou know of herrr backgrrround...?"

[Jonas T. Remkah]

Jonas held the pot aloft, swirling its contents in offering to Caran - yes, no?

[Caran V'al Counis]

Caran shook his head, waved his hand in a 'no' gesture towards Remkah, but managed to look thankful for the offer, nonetheless. He was certain he'd imbibed enough caf that morning to kill at least a mid-sized family pet, if the desire was there. Too much caf never did too well in his stomach without a share of food to soak it up.

What did he know? That was a hell of a question. Rather, what could he admit to knowing that Aree wouldn't want to chew his head off about later? It wasn't that he feared her. No, far from it. She just seemed very temperamental at times. Caran folded his hands in his lap, his legs crossed, one over the other and looked on Kajeela with measured politeness and civility.

"Only a few months, give or take, Detective." He admitted. That was the honest truth. "She's a bounty hunter. I'm certain you've gathered that much. Fancies herself being a Mando and that, miss, is a thing I figure I should know well enough about. Miss Ankarta isn't terribly keen on parting with facets of her past, but my intuition says I can trust her. She won't weasel out on me. If 'hunters are good on one thing, its their word. Same with Mandalorians."

He swallowed and blinked. Hoped that fatigue wasn't setting in. Three hours of sleep was hardly enough.

"I know little of her past. Just that she used to have a partner she worked with. Don't know his name, sorry. Another one of those forbidden pieces of information. Look, detective. I've checked her credentials personally. She's legit. Unfortunately, she does have a temper."

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Temper? That wasn't a crime in most places and Tarruurri was the least concerned about that aspect of Ankarta's personality. If the Cizerack's surmisings were accurate, and she dare not voice them out loud, then the bounty hunter could not only be a danger to others (which was well established already) but to herself also. There was still a good price on the head of those of Aree's abilities.

V'al Counis seemed a decent type and the felinoid Detective had an instinctive and immediate good feel about him.

"jI would sssugessst jyou look verrrjy carrrefulljy to jyourrr employee, Mjisssterrr V'al Counjisss" she admonished in a not-unfriendly tone. "Ssstaff ljike herrr arrre rrrare thessse dajysss and therrre arrre otherrrsss who mjight ljike to wrrrangle herrr awajy frrrom jyou forrr thejirrr own benefjit"

[Jonas T. Remkah]

Leaning his tall frame against the wall, Remkah sipped his coffee quietly, not having a clue what his partner was talking about.

[Caran V'al Counis]

Caran smiled pleasantly.

"Nobody takes from me without my knowledge, without my agreement, Detective Tarrurri." His eyes darkened a little. "Nobody."

The darkness lifted as quickly as it had come and left only the initial pleasantness in its wake. He laced his fingers over the space in front of his stomach and tilted back slightly in the chair, which creaked forlornly with protest.

"I look after what is mine." He stated, quite plainly. "Now, might I see to Miss Ankarta? Or is there a matter of any bail or paperwork that must be settled prior to that?"

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Tarruurri appeared to come to a sort of decision in her mind after taking a moment more to scruitinize Caran.

She stepped towards the door, "Follow me"

Leading the way for Caran down the hallway, they brushed past other detectives and uniformed cops as they went about their day, no one interested in them or what they were doing.

Opening a door into a holding room where Aree was sitting cuffed to the table she was seated at, Kajeela announced, "Ssshe jis jin herrre" and, entering the room, watched keenly for Aree's reaction to her boss's arrival.

[Aree Ankarta]

It was an odd feeling, this sitting behind bars.

Usually she was on the other side of them; it was her marks that would sit inside, waiting for that moment where she would turn them over to the ones posting the bounty. For most of them, there was no way out other than to accept their own death. It was a gruesome thing, that - watching them come to the realisation that this was truly the end of the line. Death was imminent.

She'd never liked having to interact with them during that stage. It was the reason there were no cams or listening devices installed in the hold of her ship, inspite of the possible dangers this might hold.

Stupid, really. There were much worse things out there, and she'd experienced her share of them. She'd killed, and even enjoyed it. And yet she couldn't stomach being around someone coming to grips with death. Perhaps that was her aruetyc side - the cowardly side, the part of her that was a stranger to her upbringing.

This situation was just as aruetyc - as alien. Whoever heard of a bounty hunter being locked up? They'd been around, told her some things needed clearing up. What things, she'd asked, but received only stony silence in response. It was distinctly worrying.

She had no idea what the Cizerack woman thought about her, or thought she thought. The officer seemed suspicious of something, more so than she should have been about a simple bounty hunter. There was no telling what she'd seen, or maybe even recognised; the bountyhunter had recklessly thrown caution aside in her crazy bid to regain her freedom, during those last minutes at the cantina. It had been inutterably stupid.

If the Cizerack had realised.... then had she called them in? Was this then now her own turn to accept that there was no way of escaping fate? How long until they would send one of their agents to pick her up? How much time had she left?

Did it truly matter? What good were ten seconds, a minute, an hour - even a day - longer if it all ended in the same thing anyway?

Of course, if the Cizerack hadn't betrayed her - it wasn't entirely impossible for her to chance some kind of escape after all. With some pluck, a stolen blaster or two, and some aid from her other skills, she might actually have made a decent bid at it. Trouble was - if she did so, she'd still end up dead. It would draw the attention of every Inquisitoriate agent in the sector right to this spot, and was the equivalent of announcing her presence over the holonet.

Stupid.

Very stupid.

She pulled her arms up a bit, to stop them from falling asleep, making the durasteel cuffs rattle against the table leg. The table was cemented to the floor, of course. The cuffs had sensors in them, three blinking LEDs on the lock indicating they were active and being monitored by someone.

And then there were steps outside, rapidly coming closer. Two sets of feet walking towards her. One was the Cizerack - she could recognise hers by now. The other - heavier. Confident. Male. They didn't belong to anyone she'd already heard in this building.

It didn't leave many possibilites. Just one really.

She closed her eyes. Stiffened her back. If her arms had been free she'd have crossed them in front of her chest now, but with them being attached to the table she could do no other than to place them onto her knees. What did it matter anyway?

Yet when the door opened, she had her eyes locked onto the door. She couldn't not meet her doom with both eyes open. The Cizerack came in first, with an unreadable face, and then....

...

"You?!?"

[Caran V'al Counis]

He had followed Tarruurri, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets and stepping with a softshoe weight along the stiff duracrete floor. He was wondering at the reaction that she, Nya Halcyon/Aree Ankarta might have to him. All things considered of the last time he had seen her, it might not be friendly. He'd expect thankfulness and it would go unfulfilled. He knew, however, that she would appreciate this gesture, in some way that he might not see. After all, her place tended not to be the side of the bars he saw her on when he entered the area.

Caran smiled small at her utter surprise.

"Me." He replied, so matter-of-fact, the smile falling away to be replaced by a pique of both eyebrows ceilingward to show some form of more appropriate reaction to her exclamation. Secretly, he was really quite amused at the whole inverse nature of the circumstances to where they had both been only so many months previous. "Were you perhaps expecting someone else, Miss Ankarta? Because I can certainly leave you here if that is what you really want."

He just stood there, watching her face as he spoke, studying her for a reaction to his little threat. Or his veiled promise of help. It depended on how one decided to take it.

[Aree Ankarta]

Surprise instantly turned to suspicion. How had he found her? And why? Their encounter lay weeks in the past, and she hadn't heard anything from him since then. Why had he come now? What was behind it?

Could he possibly be one of the inquisitoriate agents?

When she'd first met him, he'd played being someone else. How could she be certain he wasn't playing one now? When he'd unveiled his identity on board her ship, it could have been just another act. And yet... no. She'd gotten a glimpse of his state of mind then - and been certain there was nothing false about him.

But if he wasn't an inquisitor, then what was he doing here?

Her eyes flashed from Caran to the Cizerack and back. What was the connection there? There was no public record that linked herself to the V'al Counis heir, so how could ICPD know of it and call him down here? But the Officer had an air of curiosity about her that she didn't even need her other skills to interpret - ICPD couldn't, and they hadn't called him. Which meant he'd come of his own accord.

Which brought her back to her first reaction.

If her arms hadn't been cuffed to the table, she would have defiantly crossed them in front of her chest, but as it was she had to contend with simply glowering at him for a moment.

She let his words wash over her, noting the undertone they carried. Oh he was amused, was he? Even if he didn't let it show... she could feel his amusement without even opening herself to the Force. It rankled a bit, but---

---something inside her shifted. And then she knew, with absolute certainty, that she could trust him. And the knowledge made her experience a rare moment of joy, even though she could not grasp where it came from---

The glower turned instantly into a grin. She found herself wishing she knew what sort of a story he'd spun to them in order to get to her. Reading his face was no use, his expression betrayed nothing.

She'd just have to improvise.

"Are you done gloating, dear? And will you stop being so officious?" was what she said after another moment's consideration, shooting him a brilliant smile and a suggestive wink. And to the Cizerack she added, confidentially, "he's always so proper when he's talking of me to others, as if it would hurt him to admit we're intimate. Men... And really, why should I have expected him of all people, after the furious row we had last night?"

Holding up her hands as far as the cuffs allowed it, she flashed them at him and continued, "now get me out of here, dear, so we can go home already and make up. You know that's always the most fun."

Whatever he wanted to get out of this situation, it was better to get to the bottom of it without having an IPCD officer look over her shoulder.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela's ears stiffened slightly in perturbance. She had not anticipated such remarks from Aree as to the personal nature of her and V'al Counis's relationship, he having given no real indication of such from his stated reasons for being there, apart from being very, very possessive. But the cheeky wink was hard to ignore.

The Detective's grey eyes flicked furtively between the two in an effort to ascertain the truth of the matter, her tail switching left to right - an outward indication of the silent debate going on within her head as to what exactly these two were playing at.

On the one hand, Tarruuri had been wanting to ensure Ankarta would be agreeable to leaving in the company of Caran. On the other hand, Aree suddenly appeared very amiable and even tap-danced the thin line of sharing too much information on how close the pair really were.

Kajeela smelt a rat and her eyes narrowed, not liking the idea of being duped.

[Caran V'al Counis]

Caran's eyes slid over to the Cizerack, lofting one eyebrow, admitting in that one gesture that he really had no idea what she was talking about. Inwardly, he was trying not to laugh, while his stomach knotted slightly - as if he hadn't thought about the very things she implied, none of which had actually occurred, as much as he himself had suggested to the contrary, the last time they had seen each other. She was attractive, physically, that much was for certain. Mando, to a point. That was more and... he had other suspicions that he would keep to himself, for the time being.

"The lies are not necessary, Miss Ankarta." Any smile that had lived on his face was snuffed, like a flame against a gale. He eyed her quite pointedly. "Not that they were very convincing to begin with. We are all professionals, adults, here. Let us try to act reasonably."

He kept his eyes on her, making some point of singling her out. It was almost warning. He could leave her to take her chances with any other potentially interested parties and he was more than certain, for what he knew of her (which was a little more than she knew he did), she wouldn't like very much at all.

"Now..." Caran voiced, bringing the point of his being here back to the fore, "...are you coming with me or shall I throw you 'to the rancors'? Your choice, Aree. Your life is in your hands. I have never made it any less."

[Aree Ankarta]

Di'kutla... was he really that stupid?!? After her previous experiences with him, she wouldn't have thought so.

But his warning didn't go unnoticed. There was something in his voice that she didn't like at all. Perhaps she had misunderstood the nature of this visit - she'd assumed, based on her strange elation from a few moments earlier, that he'd simply come to get her out of here; a kind of favor, repayment in kind for her "help". But maybe he had some other motives for wanting to see her released - he certainly seemed confident enough that she'd come with him.

And with that thought, all of the strange frivolity she'd felt before fell away; paying no heed to the obvious admission that her previous statement had been a falsity, she decided to fully ignore the officer and find out what it was he wanted exactly. His words had made her very much aware that it was up to him now, not the ICPD, that she could get out of here - he must have already secured her release.

"What the shab do you want from me?" she asked, with a snarl that betrayed that she didn't like his tone at all.

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Kajeela folded her arms across her chest, puzzled at the pair in front of her and thinking huu-mans can be ridiculously complicated at times.