Broken Speeders: Unusual Recruiting (Jedi please)

[Veela N'livyan]

"C'mon laserbrain, you got right'a way! No, don't look at me like that you Kowakian monkey-lizard...oh for frells sake, pass the darn freighter!"

Veera N'livyan leaned out her window and made a...'communicative gesture' with her hand.

"Holy hutch, my dead grandmother pilots faster than you do, microbrain!"

Someone behind the young Twi'lek honked and her attention was diverted to them. Blaring her own horn, Veera glared in the rearview mirror.

'Oh go stick you head in a Hutt! If you don't like my flying you can kiss my--Gah!"

Jerking the controls to the left, Veera narrowly avoided ramming into the back of another speeder. Her lekku twitched nervously but a scowl appeared on her face. The Twi'lek teen had only been legally permitted to fly for six months now, but already her insurance had skyrocketed from speeding tickets and wreckless piloting offenses. But really, it wasn't her fault if half the planet couldn't pilot.

As she pulled into a different lane, Veera glanced at the chrono of her twin-pod cloud car and groaned. There was no way she would make it to her classes on time. Seething, the female turned on the sound system and punched the playlist button, cranking the volume as 'Dianogah and the Mynochs' blasted out.

Traffic moved and Veela wasted no time, hardly glancing around before turning sharply and cutting through lanes. She ahd almost made it across the last lane when it happened.

Crash!

Veela jerked in her seat as the other vehicle smashed into hers.

"Seven hells of Sith spawn! You imbecile!"

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Coruscant in the morning was better known as hell in the sky, traffic was always backed up and impatient, half-witted pilots often compounded the problem by causing speeder crashes. The pilot of Ka' el's taxi was one such half-wit.

"Grebit! Snarf! Kree tu ba!" The rodian cursedin his native tongue. Since getting in the speeder, Ka' el had maybe heard the creature utter 2 or 3 words at most in choppy basic.

However it wasn't the creatures basic that was irratic and choppy, his piloting was even worse. As they sped in and out of rush hour traffic Ka' el winced as they nearly slammed into oncoming speeders, sideswiped others at intersections. It was a terrifying ride, though the ever-patient padawan remained calm as he went over the morning holo-pads.

They were only about 3 blocks from the temple when suddenly Ka' el's morning paper was interupted by a sharp jolt.

"Seven hells of Sith spawn! You imbecile!"

Ka' el immediately felt a wave of extreme displeasure in the woman's aura even before she stated it as such. The rodian hung his head out the window and began cursing in his own tongue. Ka' el raised his right hand and massaged his temples between his index and thumb.

As the two cars approached a landing dock both drivers got out of the car for futher hostile negotiantions.

"You, you are crazy woman! Driving like you are sole possesor of sky!" the Rodian once again attempted basic in a most humorous manner. Ka' el exitted the car and waited for the authorities, preparing to keep the peace if things became physical.

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela scoffed in indignation, hands on her hips. It was plain to see that she was livid.

"Me? What about you, you overweight glob of grease! Any near-sighted scrap pile could have seen I was turning, you stupid lump!"

Turning to look at her vehicle, Veela screeched. The left side was completely totaled, a mass of crunched steel.

"Look at this! Look! At! This!"

She motioned towards it with both hands as if one couldn't see it. Her blue eyes were ablaze with anger and she kicked the cloud car, frustrtaion leaking out every pore.

"Well I tell you one thing, you are certainly going to pay for this!"

The cab driver shook his head.

"No, no, not me! This your fault, stupid girl!"

Veela seethed, breathing heavily.

"My father is going to have a field day with this yiou malfunctioning little twerp...I could have been seriously--"

She stopped suddenly and looked up at the sky, where traffic overhead was soaring by.

"Look out."

The Rodian didn't move, obviously untrusting of her and jsut as angry. Veela threw her hadns in the air.

"Fine laserbrain, don't move! It's not like you've shown any signs of intelligence so far!"

Moments later a cup of Dr. Fizzy crashed onto the cabbies head, drenching him with the sticky liquid. Apparently someone had grown tired of the drink.

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Ka' el watched with a bit of guilty pleasure as the foul mouthed Rodian got a drenching from a discarded container of Dr. Fizzy. Something however piqued his interest, it seemed the girl sensed the falling container nearly as fast as Ka' el had.

Strange...

"You you did this you you witch of Dorthomir!" The Rodian howled as he attempted to wipe away some of the drink from his eyes and antenae.

Moving dangerously close to the girl the Rodian pushed his finger right between her eyes.

"That's enough." A soft yet confident voice spoke from behind the Rodian.

Both individuals turned to look at the young Padawan standing behind them watching their argument. The Rodian however returned his attention to the girl, but she stayed oddly fixated upon the Jedi.

"I...I will..."

Snap-hiss....

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, I said that's enough."

The young dirty blonde haired boy said in a louder and increasingly more agitated voice. In his right hand was held a light blue saber that was ignited and seemingly ready to inflict some damage.

[Veela N'livyan]

She couldn’t exactly say she’d been surprised when he’d drawn the weapon. Veela’d somehow expected something; there was always a bit of a nagging at her, and it got to be annoying sometimes. She always felt as if she were forgetting something.

“Get your filthy finger outta my face you caterwauling clod!”

Her attention span was limited to one thing at a time, and having looked at Ka’el—who she assumed to be just another go-gettum do-gooder—her mind was drawn back to the Rodian. He had seemed to shrink with the release of the lightsaber, snarling at Veela who glared, and then retreating back to the cab.

“What a ninny.”

She turned again to look at her cloud car, and the Twi’lek’s shoulders slumped. Her anger dissipating slightly, a look of extreme sadness came into her eyes. She patted the speeder sadly.

“Three months. Only three months and I lose ya, Mabel.”

Veela cooed mournfully at ‘Mabel’ and sighed, then realized that Captain Lightsword—as she’d begun to call him in her head—was still standing there. Veela cleared her throat, embarrassed.

“You didn’t have to do that Cap’n, he wouldn’t have hurt me. But thanks anyway.”

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Ka' el nodded to the twi'lek woman and then looked around at his surroundings.

Hmm almost back to the temple anyways...

"I didn't do it to be a hero, I did it so you two would shut the frell up and he could finish getting me to where I needed to go, but it seems I'm almost there anyhow."

Ka' el then turned towards the cowering Rodian.

"Here," He grunted as he tossed a couple credit chits at the cabbie and then turned away.

"Hey you, dees is not enoof! Its 15 creds to Praxeum heights," The Rodian Snarled as he counted his creds and there were only 10 there.

"I know and I'm still four blocks away so I believe I tipped you quite well, unless you want to renegotiate..." he sneered waving his saber menacingly.

"Frell you Jedi," the Rodian shouted as he hopped into his speeder and sped off.

Ka' el thumbed off his saber and placed it back in the folds of his cloak.

"And the names Ka' el, not Captain."

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela had obviously not been expecting his answer. She smiled sarcastically at Captain.

“Well all you had to do was say so, Merry Sunshine.”

But her real shock came when she found he was a Jedi. There were several views of Jedi held in the N’livyan household and Veela’s was a vague one. She’d heard of them briefly and her father had a high opinion of them, contrary to her mother. But she’d never bothered to go to the trouble of meeting one.

As the Rodian sped off, Veela turned to the Jedi with raised eyebrows.

“Well Sunshine, I thought Jedi were peaceful people, not sword-swinging ‘negotiatiors’. Obviously I was wrong.”

She glanced Ka’el up and down and smirked.

“And I don’t care what your name is…Captain.”

[Ka' el Darcverse]

"Nor do I care what your's is squiddy," The young padawan said in obvious refrence to the woman's head tentacles.

"As for being peaceful, I didn't kill him did I and in the end I got some much needed peace and quiet, until you started talking again." Ka' el shook his head.

"Anyhow good day to you and hope your next speeder doesn't end up like this one, however I doubt that." As he finished speaking he turned his back and started walking towards the Temple. It would take him a good 10-15 minutes to get there if he walked quickly.

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela was not one to let up once someone started her. Ka'el had succeeded in doing so. Ignoring the fact that her destroyed choice of transport was blocking traffic, she stomped after him with her hands clenched at her sides.

"Well I can see that my mother was right! You Jedi don't have any manners...You're just a..."

She mulled over the sentence, trying to fill in the blank with the perfect insult.

"A stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!"

She took a step back as Ka'el turned around. And then Veela smiled.

"Knew I could make you stop, Captain."

She shrugged and then extended a hand.

"I didn't mean to offend you...I was just a little upset."

She looked pointedly at her hand, obviously waiting for Ka'el to shake it.

"I guess I can be a bit of a fuzzball sometimes."

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Ka' el did indeed stop and if Veela had not bben so self-involved would have noticed he was looking beyond her.

Frelling sons of vader my holopad... he groaned inwardly. Then as if he had just waken from a dream he realized that squiddy was talking to him.

He looked down his nose at her hand as if he was contemplating what wierd bacteria were growing on her flesh. Then smiled cooly at the woman whom had just went on a tirade of insulting him only to apologize and offer him her hand.

"Yes well no harm no foul..." He said aloofly to her. Looking around the area for another Holopad vender. He casually shook her hand and then release it, quietly cursing to himself about his poor luck with losing Holopads.

Then he looked at Veela again this time with a coniving glint in his eyes.

"Say you don't happen to have a holopad on you do you?"

[Veela N'livyan]

“Sure I do.”

Veela eyed Ka’el suspiciously.

“Why?”

In fact, Veela had two holopads on her. One was quite obviously hers, and the other belonged to a certain Jedi. But there was no need to mention that. After all, she wasn’t sure if she liked this bloke. Their introductions had been most unusual and unpleasant and Veela stubbornly told herself that she was not going to be the one to break the mold and be friendly. He was the Jedi.

“I would have thought a Jedi’d be more careful with his belongings Captain.”

Without realizing it Veela had confessed to having had his ‘pad. She wouldn’t have known he’d been carrying one unless she’d seen it or was in possession of it. But her mouth got the better of her. She put her hands behind her back and began to toss Ka’el’s pad back and forth between her hands. The blue limbs knew instinctively where to go and not once did she drop the device, despite the fact that she couldn’t see it. An offside of the nagging feeling that constantly followed her.

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Suddenly the pad was no longer bouncing between her hands and actually floating over her head. The young padawan focused intently on bringing his possesion back into his grasps.

"Impressive, most normal people wouldn't have had the speed nor the stealth to pluck that out of the back of a cab before it took off." Ka' el commented as he thumbed through the headings making sure it was all there.

"and it was also nice how you noticed the Dr. Fizzy falling before it did." Ka' el smiled as her face bore a somewhat shocked expression on it. Ka' el knew that she had felt the container being discarded almost at the same moment he had, which had been a few nano-seconds before it was thrown.

"Ever had any training with your gifts?" the Padawan asked casually.

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela snorted, hoping to erase the expression of utter astonishment that had flitted onto her blue face as the holopad drifted back to Ka'el.

"What gifts? It's simple coordination. And luck."

She shrugged nochalantly and put her hands on her hips.

"Anyone can do it Captain, you seem quite capable. It's just a matter of staying on your toes."

Veela it seemed was reluctant to agree or comply with anything that the Padawan said. She refused to play along with the idea that she had 'gifts' of any kind...in truth it just irked her that he had been the one to ask.

"The only gift I have is piloting."

She glanced back at Mabel.

"And I know it doesn't look like it but it's true."

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Ka' el nodded with a slight smile on his face. He had been quietly manipulating the Force behind the young Twi'lek raising a small bit of rotten fruit out of one of the waste disposal units behind her.

"I see," He said with a slightly put off look. Suddenly using the Force but with no movement on his part the rotten fruit flew at the back of the woman's head.

[Veela N'livyan]

Splat!

Veela shrieked as something wet and slimy smacked the back of her skull. She couldn't tell what it was, only that it was sticky and dripping down her back. And from the grin on Ka'el's face, she had a suspicion that it wasn't some accidental mishap.

"You!"

She pointed an accusing finger at him, tilting her neck awkwardly as the unpleasant substance leaked downwards.

"Why in the hells of Hoth did you do that?!"

[Ka' el Darcverse]

"Did what?" Ka' el feigned ingnorance.

Why didn't she dodge it? He pondered.

Perhaps I was mistaken...

Ka' el deactivated the holopad and put it into the folds of his cloak as well. He turned and used the Force to detect which direction to go to get to the Temple.

"Come on, I'll take you to the Temple where you can get cleaned up and buy you lunch since you're having such a bad day."

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela plastered a scowl on her face and nodded.

"Alright Captain. Just hold on a sec."

The police had arrived and were looking over the damage. Veela wandered over to them and began talking to one of the officers, who scribbled furiously onto a pocket pad. Things seemed to be going normally when suddenly Veela began to shake her head and talk faster. It was plain to see that she was quite upset with the officer, but the situation was stopped from escalating further when he promptly handed her what looked like a ticket. She marched back over to Ka’el, shaking the thin slip of paper.

“Suspended! They suspended my license! What a bunch of ignorant bolts!”

She stalked past the Jedi Padawan and down the pedwalk. Veela was so absorbed in her loathing of the authorities, that she didn’t see a rather large crack in the duracement and nearly toppled over as her toe lodged in it. She managed to right herself and then groaned loudly.

“See! Now look what they’ve done! They’ve gotten me all worked up, and then I get distracted, and then I do stupid things like this! I hate this planet!”

[Ka' el Darcverse]

For once in his life he'd seen the Coruscant City Watch do something correct, suspend this young woman's license.

Amazing she went from being able to detect a falling cup of Fizzy at about the same time as me, to not being able to even detect a large crack in the durracrete...

"Yes you are definately cursed," Ka' el said with a short laugh. Come on now," As the young padawan finished speaking he felt a tingle in the back of his neck.

Danger!

His Force intuition told him that something was fast approaching him from his left.

[Veela N'livyan]

"Ow!"

A spasm in her back made Veela jerk, just seconds after Ka'el finished speaking. She placed one indigo hand on her spine and frowned. She felt quite sick all of a sudden, and had the urge to leave as soon as possible.

"I wanna go, let's go."

She wasn't upset anymore, and thus her senses were no longer clouded with angry emotions. Her sciatic nerve was contracting rapidly, sending shivers up her back. Frowning Veela shook her head.

Stop it. There is nothing wrong.

But she wasn't so sure. After all, Ka'el was still standing there, an expression of worry on his face.

"Hey Captain, we should get outta here."

[Ka' el Darcverse]

Ka' el heard her words and he didn't. He was too focused on what was seemingly coming right at him from his left.

Blaster...

Suddenly it dawned on him why his Force senses were tingling. If Veela truly had the gift as Ka' el believed she did, the next few seconds would be played out in slow motion.

Ka' el arched backwards, placing his left hand behind him to balance himself. Suddenly a glass window shattered to his left about shoulder high, as red bolts of energy passed through them. The first bolt barely missed the Padawan's arching torso, but the next bolts came in higher and further away.

Suddenly everything reverted back to normal as the danger for the moment passed by the Padawan. A speeder's rear door was destroyed by the blaster fire that had barely missed Ka' el.

Now the boy was listening and watching.

"come on we don't got much time, City Watch will be here soon" A hushed whisper came from behind the doors. Ka' el and Veela had unwittingly walked into an attempted robbery of a upper-sector title-loan company.

The police quickly descended upon the situation before Ka' el even had time to react. It seemed the now-dead guard had first set off the silent alarm before he attempted to apprehend the criminals.

"So no talents eh?"

[Veela N'livyan]

Veela looked up at Ka’el from the duracrete, where she’d dived milliseconds after his own reaction. She was pale, but managed a small grin.

“None whatsoever.”

She knew that he knew she’d sensed the onslaught seconds after he had. Rising from the ground, Veela crossed her arms over her chest and gave Ka’el a stern look.

“And don’t think just because you cheated death you’re getting out of that meal. You owe me lunch Captain.”

She extended her hand once again.

“I’m Veela N’livyan by the way; not Squiddy.”

But she knew that as long as she kept calling him ‘Captain”, he would have no use for her real name.

[Ka' el Darcverse]

"Nice name Squiddy," Ka' el replied, this time taking it firmly and shaking it.

"Not much for blaster fire are you?" He said taking notice of the pale shade of blue she had turned since the barrage of of plasma had narrowly missed the young Padawan. In the bowels of Coruscant every day was an adventure.

"Come on then, Yog's isn't far from here."

Ka' el motioned for her to walk along side him as he continued down the Pedwalk. The first few steps there was an awkward silence but then Ka' el decided to make conversation.

"So what do you do Squiddy?"

[Veela N'livyan]

She blushed and looked away as they walked, embarresed that she'd gotten so unnerved by the shoot-out. Thankfully Ka'el broke the silence, and the girl pounced on the opening.

“What do I do? I dunno…I’m a sophomore at Coruscant Technical Intel. And I work at the Bornac Grill and Sports Bar.”

Veela shrugged, obviously finding her life fairly boring. She was actually beginning to like the idea that she’d missed classes today; college was not what she’d wanted to do after high school, but her parents had insisted. And since she had natural intuition with tech and mechanical things, it had seemed a logical choice.

“I know you’re a Jedi…But what exactly do you do with that?”

[Ka' el Darcverse]

"Run around saving twi'leks in distress," Ka' el said deadpannedly. "Whatever I choose to do I suppose, make the galaxy a better place, fight Sith, Champion the Republic. Sit around watch GSN and play my guitar. " He shrugged as he completed his sentence.

"Mostly I train, preparing myself to become a Knight, when I am promoted I'll have a more defined role in protecting the peace and order in the galaxy."

Ka' el continued to walk making a right and crossing one of the speeder lanes to get across to the next Pedwalk.

"So how do you like School?"

[Veela N'livyan]

“I don’t.”

She sighed as they walked, and pointed out a large, intricately architectural building across the speeder lanes.

“That’s it there…Beautiful outside, incredibly boring inside. It’s pure kid stuff, but if I want the certificate I have to put up with the classes.”

Veela eyed the building with bland interest, wondering what her classmates were going through at that very moment. It was still relatively early in the day, so they were probably doing a review of yesterdays procedures, preparing their various consoles for today’s lesson. There was a niggling of her conscience for cutting today but it was quickly squashed with the reasoning that she could pick up whatever info was handed out easily enough by phoning one of her mates.

“My life is pretty dull Captain. At least I don’t ever ‘rescue’ anyone.”

She was making fun of him in a good-humored way, the blaster incident having broken the ice in a cataclysmic way. The Twi’lek’s stomach growled and Veela nudged Ka’el.

“So how far is this ‘Yogs’?”

[Ka' el Darcverse]

"Another block," Ka' el laughed at the gastrointestinic problems Squiddy was having.

As he and Zeela rounded the last corner over one of the giant skyscrapers Coruscant was so famous for the Temple came into view and there to the right of it and infront of it was Yog's right before you came onto Temple proper.

"There we are, hope you like Grilled Bantha Burgers," He said with a grin.

[Veela N'livyan]

It was a sight to see, the temple was, and Veela took it in intently. She'd passed it before, but never had she actually taken a look at it. Always in too much of a hurry sights were often missed by the young Twi'lek.

"I could eat anything right now, Captain."

She spread her hands elegantly in the direction of Yogs.

"Lead the way, oh mighty Jedi."