A Meeting of Giants [complete]

[Salem Ave]

It was late in the evening. Salem Ave, having received correspondence from Lilaena De’Ville on the matter, was looking to get in touch with a man called Gash. Apparently, he had begun training already beneath one of the Sith Masters, but it was necessary now for him to continue with another tutor. De’Ville had told him that it would be difficult to miss the initiate, on account of his size. Using details provided, he had sent a note to the apprentice, that he should meet Salem at sundown on the steps of one of the city’s largest banks.

[Gash]

If an eight-foot-tall ball of hair can be said to bustle, then by all means, Gash was bustling.

"Oh dear, I'm late," he was mumbling to himself. "Oh dear, I'm late late late."

He spotted the bank and winced as the sun caught his eyes from behind the strange figure there, outlining something that wasn't quite human. Oh. That's what it was; a scarf. And blue clothing.

"I'm here!" he said happily, coming to a stop at the bottom of the staircase and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

[Salem Ave]

Salem looked up, opening his burning-white eyes. So this was Gash, he thought. Even as the Sith Knight stood, the man towered over him by a good foot and a half, something not many people could claim. “Do you know why you arrre herrr-e?” he asked.

[Gash]

"I guess so," he responded, pleased that the blue man - it wasn't clothing, apparently - was so tall. He wouldn't get as much of a crick in his neck from looking down. "I mean, I haven't seen Master Blade lately, so...are you my new teacher?"

[Salem Ave]

“Apparrrently. My name isss Sss-alem Ave.”

Without explanation, he turned and began to walk up the steps towards the entrance of the back – motioning a clawed hand, to show that Gash should follow.

“You’rrre rather larrrge, aren’t you, Gasssh? Wherrre do you come from?”

[Gash]

Gash followed, taking the steps three at at time even though he wasn't hurrying.

"I'm from Hebrahn; it's in the Arba sector in the Mid Rim. I'm Anaki, by the way, and I'm not large for Anaki. Well, not really. Not much.

"Why are we at a bank, Master Ave?"

[Salem Ave]

“Becaussse you’rrre going to go inside, and get something for me.”

The bank was all but empty at this time of the evening. Clerks and employees were finishing their nightly duties, before they would depart and leave only the nightshift guards to watch over the building. From where the pair was standing, the interior of the bank was only a row of three windows, behind which cashiers would sit. There was only one in place. Of course, the bank was a huge building, with offices and vaults sprawling out behind this surface area.

“Without anyone sss-eeing you.”

[Gash]

The giant's jaw dropped. For a moment, all was silent. Then he burst out in one of the loudest belly laughs known to man.

"AHAHAHAHAH!"

Wiping tears from his eyes, Gash sat down on the steps, still chuckling.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just, well, there aren't many Anaki out and about in the galaxy...so I'm a little of a curiosity. I'm used to being noticed.

"So with the Force I could, mmm, affect someone's mind?" His interest faded, replaced by concern. "But what about cameras?"

[Salem Ave]

“Haven’t you any initiave of yourrr own?” Salem drawled without looking back at the hunched form sat behind him. His eyes were still firmly fixed on the interior of the bank, as he tried to pick out the various life forms within. “I know from what othersss have told me that you were beginning to learrrn how to find beingsss through their presence in the Force. If thisss is the case, then you shouldn’t need to affect theirrr minds, simply avoid taking a route that would bring you across their path.”

[Gash]

Gash stood, brushed off his knees, and looked fixedly at Ave's back. The barest hint of a whine crept into the giant's deep voice.

"But it's a bank. They'll have cameras. And even if I can feel people, I don't think I can feel cameras."

[Salem Ave]

“Then you mussst learrrn how to find the camerasss through the people,” Salem replied, as he turned, fixing his eyes on Gash once more. “Thisss is a test, Gash. It isn’t supposed to be easy. Therrre will be times when you are thrrrown into situations like this, situations that do not have clear cut sssolutions, so you must learn how to cope.”

[Gash]

Gash nodded, eyes squeezed shut. Even if there was no way he could have come up with an idea like that, it was easy to recognize something sensible if it came from someone else.

"Fine, I'll do it." He blinked. "Sorry, my memory isn't that great. Have you told me what I have to get yet?"

[Salem Ave]

“No.” Again, his back was to the giant as he peered into the shadowy interior. “I want you to brrring me a sssingle Rrr-epublic Daktari. The bank will have a vault, sssomewhere, full of them.” The Daktari was small currency and not of any notable value to the members of the Circle, but it was as good a trophy as any. Salem wasn’t so much interested in the trinket, of course, as he was in Gash’s approach to locating it.

He stepped aside, and motioned to the doors. They were unlocked, but only because a guard was sitting behind a desk not some fifteen feet inside, head drooping somewhat from lack of sleep. The vampire lifted one arm and motioned an arc, hissing: “May the Forrrce be with you, Anaki.”

[Gash]

He bobbed his head gently, a bow and an acknowledgement. "Could you watch my junk for me?" he asked, removing a metre-long steel mace, an only slightly smaller ryyk blade, and a repeater the size of them both from his coat. "Sometimes it clanks, and I don't want it to make noise."

[Salem Ave]

Gash carried enough weaponry for a small militia. Salem tucked the portable armory into a shadowed corner of the terrace, in which he would wait for his apprentice while the giant attempted to complete the task. With this done, he looked back expectantly, his white eyes shining through the murk. Inside the bank, the guards head nodded again, as he pretended that he wasn’t sleeping, merely resting his eyes.

[Gash]

First, he made sure that the guard was the only person present, and that this same guard was the one who was looking at the security monitors - more or less. Unceremoniously, Gash got to his knees and crawled past the guard's desk, making a surprisingly little amount of noise. His mental 'lock' on the nodding guard somehow told him that the fellow hadn't been alerted.

The giant stood and headed down a hall, checking for lifesigns all the way. As he passed a pair of doors, his nose wrinkled; someone, he thought, was approaching. He backstepped and quietly opened the door on his left: a men's bathroom. Taking care not to scuff his boots on the linoleum, he entered a cubicle and kept his head down while the approaching person followed for a bathroom pitstop.

Impatient, he nevertheless succeeded in remaining unnoticed until the man washed his hands and left. Gash followed, continuing to check for lifesigns. His shoes squeaked, but he didn't feel any real change in the minds around him, so he assumed that nobody had paid it any mind.

He headed down the hall opposite from the departing employee, deeper into the bank complex. There were more cameras than guards, but all appeared to be directly linked to monitors - linked by highly visible cords. Primitive but effective setup. If he could just avoid being noticed by the people at the monitors, like at the front door, he was home free.

Several more times he had to duck into unoccupied side rooms to avoid interception, including one heart-stopping occasion on which he found the chosen door locked and had to pick again. From what he could sense, though, he had penetrated deeply into the bank completely without notice.

One of the last rooms he entered contained a large metallic wheel on the wall. He took a chair and braced the door, dusting off his hands. The vault required a key, and he didn't have a key. Joy.

He gripped the wheel tightly, braced his feet, and turned the wheel with all the strength in his eight-foot-three frame. The locks snapped under pressure, and the door swung free.

Alarms blared. He jumped into the vault, snatched a bag of what he assumed was money, and leapt back out. The bag disappeared into his coat. Grabbing a chair from its position against the wall, he wound up and swung it in a tight arc that put it through the windowless wall. Lifesigns were approaching. Fast.

Two more swings made the wall cave in enough that he could get out. Gash scrambled through and found himself in another room. He closed his eyes and tried not to panic. He could sense life; he knew this. Plant life was a lot subtler than he was used to, though.

But there was a row of hedges around the perimeter of the bank. Find the hedge...and he'd find the outer wall.

With a considerable effort of concentration, he looked for the hedge and failed. The barricaded door on the other side of the holed wall was being battered on. It broke his concentration. Frowning, he set himself to simply battering down every wall between him and where he thought the perimeter should be.

*** *** ***

Two minutes later, an immense, debris-covered figure emerged from the bank's outer wall and discarded the shreds of a boardroom table. Taking a deep breath, he ran into the streets and turned several corners to bring himself back in front of the building. He had to find Ave and tell him: the guards hadn't been fast enough. He'd gotten out without a single shot fired and very probably without having been seen.

[Salem Ave]

The telltale wail of alarms had begun. Offhand, the Sith wondered if Gash had been caught, but this was not the case. An eight-foot-three cloud of dust and debris rounded a corner towards Salem, with a look of what could only be read, beneath the layers of grime, as triumph.

“You cerrrtainly were quiet.” Salem eyed the bag in the giants hands with narrowed eyes. “But you appearrr to have been sss-uccessful. At leassst in this firrrst task.”

The bank guards had begun to file out into the area surrounding the bank proper, in search of the thief. They weren’t particularly smart, but they would find the pair eventually.

“Now, you have to get rrr-id of the evidence. I want you to find an civilian, an innocent and sssomehow plant the bag on their perrrson. Then, lurrre the guards to this persssons location, and ensurrre that they arrest them.”

[Gash]

"Right."

He paused at a sudden thought.

"Can I have my weapons back?"

[Salem Ave]

Salem motioned a claw to the shadowed area where he had stashed Gash’s toys. “I hope you arrren’t planning to ussse them to convince the plant to take the evidence.”

[Gash]

A slow blink took up the portions of the giant's face that weren't obscured by his beard. "Hadn't thought of that," he said truthfully. "No, I'm just going to get attention with them - the guards and all, y'know? - once I've planted the money. Call it 'covering fire.'"

He retrieved his gear and stashed it once more under his immense coat. "Any objections before I start? Or any more conditions?"

[Salem Ave]

Salem shook his head slowly, listening carefully for the sounds of the advancing guards. “Otherrr than that you are not sss-een and leave no trace of your presssence? No. Now go.”

[Gash]

He left, clicking his teeth and turning several corners. At last a fire escape presented itself. It creaked alarmingly, causing Gash to go very, very fast all the way up to the flat roof of the building's second floor. He found his footing and hunched down immediately, then began traversing roofs. He wanted the plant to be far away from Ave; if the blue guy got mad...

Gash stretched out with the Force and found one of the few minds that still roamed the city at this time of night. It seemed close. Scuttling over to the edge of the building, he checked that the individual was large enough to have theoretically bashed its way through those walls. An Ishi Tib; close. Maybe it would do. It was facing away from him, so that would work too. Hmm...

He craned his neck down the road towards the bank, where the sounds of running feet could be heard. He took the bag of credits in his hand and concentrated. Sometimes - when he was in tune with what he was now learning to call 'The Force' - he could aim better than normal. He hoped that now was such a time.

The bag flew true, striking the ground right at the alien's feet. It turned and picked the bag up just as two things happened.

One, the guards stampeded around a corner.

Two, Gash - now down the fire escape on the other side of the building, and hiding in the gap between a corner and a dumpster - opened fire on the guards with his long repeater. All that was needed was a few shots to get the guards in a furor.

He ran, and so did the Ishi Tib. Fortunately for Gash, the Ishi Tib was the only one who could be seen running. He was shot down with stun weapons, and the bag in his hand was belatedly recognized.

Mission accomplished, Gash made his way back to where he'd last seen Ave.

[Salem Ave]

Just as Gash returned, so Salem did also. When the giant had left to accomplish his task, the vampire had taken to following him to observe the outcome. Sure enough, he had managed to complete his mission. He remained, however, holding onto the wall he had been scaling.

“Excellent, Gasssh. Tell me how you feel about what we have accomplissshed tonight.”

[Gash]

"Well," the giant said doubtfully, "it was a good test, and it got the ol' adrenaline flowing...it was interesting, trying to outthink people...I don't do that a lot...and it was really good practice...beyond that..." He shrugged. "How should I feel? What were you looking for?"

[Salem Ave]

“Feedback,” Salem replied dryly. “Doesssn’t it make you feel guilty to know that you’ve potentially sent an innocent man to hisss death?”

[Gash]

His eyebrows drew together into one long, bushy line. "Does Onderon give the death penalty for stealing a bag of credits?"

[Salem Ave]

“The theft isss only parrrt of the crime.” Truthfully, Salem had a very primitive understanding of modern justice. On Kirrek, if the same had been committed, the perpetrator would have been publicly hanged or some such. He simply assumed the same fate would befall them on Onderon. “It isss a matterrr of ethics, also. Do you have no morrrals or remorssse in you?”

[Gash]

"When kids are involved," he said truthfully. "I don't like to hurt kids. It makes my head hurt; I don't know why."

[Salem Ave]

“I sss-ee.” Cogs had begun to turn in Salem’s mind, and he paused a moment before speaking next. “Rrr-eturn to your living quarters and pack your bags. We’re leaving for Kirrek tomorrow, at nightfall.”

[Gash]

He sketched a quick little bow, trying and failing to think about why they would be going to another world. Trying and failing, for that matter, to think of any place called Kirrek. He'd simply never heard of it, and wasn't that rare?

"I'll be there, Master. Would you like me to practice breaking and entering in the meantime?" It was unclear as to whether this was a joke. Not to Gash. Gash knew he was making a joke. Gash was simply very bad, in face, attitude and imagination, at making jokes.

[Salem Ave]

Jokes really were not something Salem had the inclination or capacity to deal with. He looked blankly at Gash for a moment, before turning away. “Jussst make surrre you’re ready.” This said, he departed into the night.

[Gash]

"Sure will be!" he called after Ave, then toddled off in the opposite direction. Time, he deeply believed, for second dinner.