A Face Like Any Other

[Cerie Moreau]

They say that everyone has a doppleganger. Someone else in the galaxy that looks just like you. You hear about it from friends, or maybe have the itching suspicion that somewhere, on some other planet, there's a person that's walking around with your face. It's not often that such 'twins' meet each other, let alone know of one another unless someone makes mention of it. No one is safe from this delightful genetic hiccup, and no one can really say with any certainty that they know they have a look-alike traipsing about. They might suspect, or it might not be anything that they even consider in their day to day lives. That's just how the galaxy works, and some folk are content to do nothing but exist in their daily life without considering the fact that another may share their features.

The smart ones know better.

The smart ones take advantage of their situation.

And when you look like Loklorien s'Ilancy, there's a certain amount of free-wheeling and caution that must go hand in hand with your daily life. Though, when your daily life is a small cog in your long con, that's not saying much. So many delicate little strings to pull just right, so many weights to balance just so. It was an act that had been cultivated for years.

An act that had gotten her through life with a decent amount of accomplishment to show for it.

Though, if we were going to go for accomplishments of the noble sort, well, those were out the window in less than a heartbeat.

No. Nothing like that.

Cerie Moreau was a con artist. A hustler. A thief. She had no scruples and no plans to acquire any. She'd gotten this far on her face and the good graces of the people who thought they knew that face, and had plans to go farther. It was only small-time work though. Jobs on the outer rim. A little cosmetics, pose as a Jedi or Alliance officer, and she was in. Whatever she wanted, and wherever she wanted to go. Amazing, the doors that Loklorien s'Ilancy could open up.


* * * * *

She didn't really care what the name of the planet was that she'd touched down on. It was on the rim, and for now that was all that mattered. Her ship was docked with the local port authority, and she was out on the town, as it were.

The take from her last job had been enough to allow her enough discretionary income to enjoy herself, and that was what she intended on doing.

[Ben Merasska]

"So the interstitial matrices in the drive core would be filled, making for a lot more power, with a slight chance of overheat and explosion."

Ben felt drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, and blinked away his blankness. Shuvin grinned at him, cocking her hips and raising an eyebrow in a way that made him feel old, in that he had to remind himself to say nothing about it; she was sixteen, not twelve, and he wasn't her father.

"Don't you need to fill out a bit more before striking poses like that?"

So much for that.

"Were you even listening?" she asked, dodging his dodge.

"Sounds expensive," he replied, executing a verbal spin worthy of the Coruscanti Ballet. "Wait, did you say 'chance for explosion'?"

Shuvin sighed.

"It's not like there's no chance it won't explode anyway. We're talking about quanta and ripping the fabric of space and time here."

"So you did. Say there's a chance doing... that will make Alderaan explode."

Both he and Shuvin stopped to ponder his words. Shuvin opened her mouth, but Ben beat her to the punch:

"Don't say it."

"Again?"

Ben sighed and tossed the datapad that contained the manifest to the lanky Togrutan girl.

"You get to check the cargo and make sure it's all strapped in for that. I'm going to... go get some supplies."

She nodded, pouting.

"Is Ned coming back?" she called to him as he left the landing bay.

He didn't respond.

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


"Four weeks' worth of water," he murmured, strapping the tanks to the hoversled. "Now we need food."

He looked up, just in time to look down and keep checking the straps while an Alliance patrol passed by. There'd been an unusual amount of soldiers and security out today, and Ben wasn't looking to get his face on any bulletins with Cirr still Captaining that missile boat of his.

"Keep a lookout. Some Captain said he thought he saw s'Ilancy passing through in plain clothes."

"Any idea on what someone like her is doing here?"

"You wanna try and figure out what a Jedi's doing here? Go ahead. I'm just gonna hope whatever it is, that she does it when I'm not on duty."

Ben grimaced, and wondered whether there was anything he could remember that didn't have a bunch of regret tied to it. Jedi reminded him of Saricia, and the Wheel.

"You'd better hope that you don't get yourself caught by Jedi. We're still trying to understand the Ssi Ruuk, and you've had front row seats to their procedures."

Ben hopped into the landspeeder and drove deeper into the port-town, hoping he'd dodge this and get back out into open space without a problem.

[Cerie Moreau]

There was something rather exciting - not to mention exhilarating - about having someone else's face; particularly someone with a decent amount of standing. Of course that knife cut both ways, and it was never so much apparent as when the planets she found herself on were Alliance controlled. But, as all things there were ways around the hassle, and gods knew she'd had practice doing such.

Nestled in the back of one of the more seedy dives, Cerie nursed a glass of the local; it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. On par at least with Selonia's Best, and thankfully better than Durasteel Reserve. Of course, one couldn't be too picky about the alcohol served on these types of planets; you took what was given to you and enjoyed it. And enjoy it she did. To the tune of four pints.

At least, that was what she allotted herself to start with, and as Cerie finished the dregs of her last pour, the blonde pulled out a credit chit. Keying in the tab and a generous enough tip, she rose to stand. Her shoulders rolled as she made her way through tables and chairs, and stepping through the door and out into the sunlight, she blinked a few times to allow her eyes to re-acclimate to the brightness.

She stretched, gave a swipe to an errant bang that'd fallen into her eyes, and turned to the left. It wouldn't be difficult to keep herself floating until the sun descended and the nightlife blossomed; especially when there was alcohol to visit and bars to drink.

[Taala Su]

"Watch it, sweetheart." Taala put out a hand to keep the blonde from running into her. "Don't damage the merchandise okay?"

Her face marred by a week old black eye she hadn't bothered putting makeup over yet (it was afternoon for fuck's sake, she didn't start work until dusk), she stepped back to look over the woman who'd just stepped out of the bar. "What are you staring at?"

[Cerie Moreau]

A bit taken aback, Cerie gave a funny look to the woman's hand before letting her eyes track up to the face belonging to said hand. And the aged black eye. She gave a bit of a snort.

What was she looking at?

"Obviously merchandise that ain't been handled with care," came the obvious response as she gave a dismissive wave to nothing and no-one in particular, moving to pass by.

[Taala Su]

Taala leaned back, hand on her hip, an incredulous look on her face. "Really? You're pretty fucking observant."

She stepped in front of the blonde. "Don't pretend I'm not here, bitch. Why don't you just keep walking and keep your opinions to yourself."

[Cerie Moreau]

That caused her to stop, and Cerie gave a more than confused stare to the woman before answering slowly, lest there was any misunderstanding. She made sure to enunciate every single syllable.

"You asked a question in reference to what I was looking at, and I answered."

She wasn't looking for a fight; least not this early in the day, and Cerie found herself at a bit of a loss.

[Taala Su]

"Whatever," Taala said, finally stepping to the side. She flipped her hair out of her eyes and walked on, adjusting her miniskirt. Then she stopped in her tracks as a tall Codru-Ji rounded the opposite corner, turned on her five inch heels and started running in the other direction, quickly passing the blonde as the four-armed alien shouted at her.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben whistled while he placed the last of the sealed containers of food in the hoversled, and jumped into the speeder, glancing at a Missing Child holoposter. The drive back to the starport was almost boring, but as he dropped Alderaan's hydraulic cargo platform, he frowned, wondering where Shuvin had gone. Normally she'd help him out with this. He shrugged and backed the hoversled and speeder onto the platform, and pressed the button for it to rise back into the ship.

Once again he wondered where Shuvin had gone, and frowned when he thought he saw her out on the street, walking far more stiffly than he'd ever seen before. He jogged out to catch up with her, and poked her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Shuvin. What's going on?" he asked. She turned to look at him blankly, and he frowned again. He caught sight of a blinking red light on her neck and he frowned, seeing a shiny loose necklace-like thing around her neck. "Shuvin?"

She turned and continued walking. He followed, not liking at all where she and this whole situation was going.

The teen Togruta led him into a large landing bay where a whole crowd of creepily quiet children were gathered, and a man with tatoos on his face and a dirty coat sized them up. Ben hurriedly jumped to the side behind a conveniently placed crate, and watched as the man counted. A young woman with a face only a mother could love approached him from the large transport behind them.

"Will you need more?" she asked. The man shook his shaved head and grinned, two dangling earrings and a glint just under his bottom lip indicating piercings. Ben grimaced.

"Slavers," he grunted. "That's just a whole bunch of lovely."

He felt a barrel press into the back of his head, and he stilled.

"Get up," a harsh voice with the sound of a thousand cigarras behind it murmured. He stood, and the man and woman looked over at him. "Look, we have ourselves a hero."

Ben shook his head.

"Hero? Me? Nah. I just noticed you have my mechanic there all glassy-eyed and quiet and I have to admit, I want her back."

They all glanced at Shuvin, who remained perfectly still. The man with the piercings frowned.

"Why did you not lock the doors?" he asked angrily. Ben felt the barrel leave the back of his head.

"Hey now, I didn't -" but he was cut off as Ben dropped to the ground and spun, pulling his blaster from under his coat and firing as quickly as he could. The rough-voiced slaver went down, and Ben rushed over to Shuvin while the pierced man shouted angrily:

"KILL HIM!"

Ben watched as every child's face, from the six year old blonde's blues to the Shuvin's sixteen year old Togrutan eyes fixed onto him.

"Ah," he breathed. "Shit."

He turned tail and ran, followed by suddenly much more sprightly children, and a flood more coming from the large transport.

"Why me?!" he shouted as he tore down the main lane of the starport into the town itself.

[Cerie Moreau]

Cerie blinked in mild confusion at the encounter, and making a face, she gave a shrug to no one in particular. Perhaps it was simply par for the course on this planet?

Certainly weren't anything she couldn't deal with if it really came to that, she supposed while turning slightly on her heel to amble her way further into town. She had nowhere to be but whatever next establishment tickled her fancy.

Which, if she was being honest, it didn't need to be too fancy. Although the local offerings certainly needed a bit of work if they were gonna compete with the likes of some of the others she'd had on her wanderings.

It was in the midst of crossing the main thoroughfare that she stopped, ears picking up... something. Her face scrunched up with the effort of trying to pick out this new peculiar sound, and standing in the middle of the street, the blonde turned this way and that, at a loss as to how to decipher this new sound that was just a little bit concerning in that it was getting louder. Bit by small bit it was most certainly getting louder.

Thoroughly stumped, she squared her shoulders back while looking down the cracked duracrete street in the direction of the starport.

There.

Well, she thought. Least, it looked like that was it. It was certainly something, and squinting, Cerie did her best to make out the shapes and blobs that looked to be growing... no no, that wasn't it. They were getting nearer.

So engrossed now in trying to piece together this puzzle of noise, she stood there, still in the middle of the road despite the small amount of traffic that had begun to build up. Someone honked at her, and she blindly waved the motorist off, her eyes still fast trying to pick apart this mystery.

[Taala Su]

Jassar'du could go for days without eating, but not apparently without hearing from her. Her former pimp had some strong ideas about when and how someone could quit the biz. "That's right, asshole, I quit!" Taala shouted over her shoulder, only to find the thick skinned Codru-Ji was almost within grabbing distance. She kicked off her heels, hitting him in the shin with one, and ran out into the street.

"You should have been killed in your cocoon, Jassar!"

"Get back here Taala, you -" his voice was drowned out by a speeder honking, and she darted through traffic like a nala frog, reaching the other side and perhaps safety.

She needed to get off this planet, find somewhere else to...do something. It was an honest profession, hooking, she just didn't think she should have to give a cut of her hard earned credits to anyone else. It wasn't like she wasn't getting beat up, just that Jassar'du got to do the honors! She turned to flip him the double bird, only to be nearly run over by someone running in the other direction. "Watch it!" she shouted, ready to hit the next person who touched her without paying.

[Ben Merasska]

The next person to touch her was a seven year old boy named Bino. She didn't know his name, and he definitely didn't know hers, but he charged into her full speed, as if he'd never noticed she was there. They both went down in a tangle, as hundreds of other children and youngsters of varying races and species, ranging from five to seventeen years old, stampeded past her and everyone else.

The last person to touch her before Bino was Ben Merasska, a thirty year old freighter captain. He, incidentally, was the one the children were chasing with blood lust in their eyes. Some of them, he noted, were pretty kriffing fast, too. He glanced back, and saw smoke rising from the starport. He grimaced, noting a large heavily armed picket ship landing in the space port.

Two Alliance patrol officers watched in confusion until they were knocked unconscious by five preteen girls.

"RUN!" Ben shouted, seeing a familiar looking blonde woman squinting at him and the flood of crazy kids. The town was going to be ransacked by a mob of children. If Ben wasn't in danger of dying, he'd laugh.

[Cerie Moreau]

It was moments after the bizarre sight had finally come into focus, and Cerie couldn't help but stare dumbfounded.

At least, until the harried cry to flee was shouted at her from the wild-eyed soul at the head of the pack. And then her narrow gaze widened into something akin to astounded panic.

Surely not... there wasn't... certainly no way...

But the look on his face as he and the posse of bodies behind him rapidly closed the distance was not one that held anything to try and make sense of, and the blonde felt her body move on instinct, bolting into motion just quick enough to stay ahead of the main pack, yet now shoulder to shoulder with the man.

Her legs churned in sudden and confused desperation.

Children??! He was being chased by children?! And now she was running right along with him, taken up in a tidal wave of ridiculousness. Well, it would've been ridiculous if she'd not seen the looks on those small faces that gave chase.

Over the sounds of honking speeders and bystanders yelling, Cerie managed to shout a hurried question to the man running alongside her.

"What'd you do??!!"

[Taala Su]

By the time Taala realized what hit her, she was on the ground and being stomped on by a herd of stampeding kids. She kicked the kid she would never find out was called Bino out from where he was tangled in her legs and turtled on the ground. After what felt like an eternity of munchkins but was probably only thirty seconds, the sea parted and she hesitantly pushed herself up to inspect the scrapes and footprints on her.

A hefty Gammorean child slammed into her, stepped on her face as she toppled, and continued grunting and panting as he followed the tide of insanity. Taala decided to just lay there, groaning.

[Ben Merasska]

"I don't know!" Ben shouted back, a small part of his mind trying to figure out why the woman running next to him was so kriffing familiar. But the sound of an adorable little girl snarling at his heels quickly put all his attention back to trying to lose the killer children. "Well, I do know, but that's a technicality!"

He reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled, steering them into a large ornate building before locking the front doors and shooting the control panel to the side. He backed up, watching through the clear transparisteel doors as the horde of children pressed up against the door. Behind those, other groups of little prepubescents were setting fire to another building. His eyes sought out Shuvin, but he couldn't see her.

"It won't be long before they get in another way," he panted. "We gotta get outta here."

[Cerie Moreau]

It was all so surreal. She had been enjoying a drink. A simple drink with intentions on a sort of crawl that would last for the rest of the day...

And now? Now that was an endeavor that'd been sent to the unreachable lands of 'never going to achieve'.

Instead, Cerie found herself rather out of breath, gasping in lungfuls of air even as her mind desperately tried to catch up with the events around her.

She was acutely aware of the man's hand, grasping hers, and as the press of child bodies pushed inwards at the door, she couldn't help but seek a small amount of shelter in his added mass. Another body, and all...

"Less'n you got a ship waiting for us up top," her tone was gritty, breathed into his ear perhaps a bit too closely, "... I don't see us findin' a proper way outta here without knockin' a few little'un's heads."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben jumped a little, having forgotten he was holding the woman's hand until her words breathed into his ear. He ignored the impulse to wipe his ear with his sleeve as he pondered her words.

"Um, excuse me?"

Ben turned to look behind them at a fancily dressed young man looking past them at the door.

"They really want a tour?" he offered lamely. "What is this place anyhow?"

"It's the mayor's mansion," the young man offered absently, still staring incredulously at the press of children against the clear doors.

"Is there a garage?" Ben asked, hoping there'd be a speeder they could steal. The man waved vaguely behind him, and Ben shrugged and looked at the blonde. He nodded in the direction of the interior. "Well, I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. How about you?"

[Cerie Moreau]

One last look to the press of small bodies against the door and she was off without argument, tugging him along with her. He was surprisingly quick on his feet, and offered no objections to her wordless decision of 'not-gonna-stay-here'.

There was just something absolutely creepy about a mass of children hellbent on overrunning you that instilled a sort of primal fear of the maker in a person, and Cerie wasn't about to stick around and try to figure out the ins and outs of such a base emotion. Nope. Just wasn't gonna happen. She pulled her 'rescuer' along with her, past the man who'd spoken to them without so much as a nod, and through an arching doorway that led deeper into the interior of the mansion.

It was a sound though, that stopped her in her tracks, and slowly she turned to look behind her. It'd been such a small sound, but one that carried over the muffled din from outside like a ringing bell. It was the sound of cracking. With so many small fists pounding on the translucent paneling, it was inevitable that the glass would give in; only she'd hoped that it wouldn't be this soon. With an incredulous look creeping over her features, the blonde watched as spiderwebs laced their way across the panels like wildfire over dry tundras.

One more tiny hand was all it took, and the entire thing shattered inward to rain thousands of shards inwards.

"Oh hells... "

And with that she bolted, jerking the man along with her in the original direction that the man had before indicated.

[Ben Merasska]

"This way!" Ben shouted, though he actually didn't have a clue where he was going. The cry of the fancily dressed man echoed over the cries of dozens of children. He turned left down a hallway toward a large set of double doors, which he ran into, shocking him into a brief paralysis.

Well, shock and pained paralysis, as running into doors would do. He gathered himself at the sound of the children getting closer, but there wasn't anywhere else to go, save for an open door which led to a staircase. Going up in a building where the bottom floor was dominated by bloodthirst hellions was not what Ben Merasska wanted, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

The two ran into the stairwell, and clambered up them without really thinking about how much noise they were making until they spilled out onto a poshly carpeted hall. It was quiet, though they could hear the sounds of the rampage below, muffled and surreal.

One door was open, and Ben could hear speaking through it.

"—all kinds of destruction! This wasn't what I signed up for when you gave me your little speech! I expected maybe one or two a month, at most, and now there's hundreds of children ransacking the town! There's no way I can recover from this!"

"No way, you say?" a woman's voice carried through the door, and Ben almost didn't hear the sounds of feet coming up the stairwell. He hurried input the controls to close the door and lock it, before looking around for someplace to get them out of the building.

"Mayor Belby, surely you realize that an operation of this size couldn't remain a secret forever? Whom do you think I'd feed to the akk dogs when the time came? Of course it would be you."

There was spluttering, and a threat to go public. The woman laughed.

"Go ahead. Tell them an Imperial bogeyman enslaved hundreds of little children with some sort of technology, transported them offworld from the starport, and set them upon your little nothing of a city, and that you knew the whole time."

The door thudded, and Ben, who hadn't realized that he had gone quiet while listening, jumped. The room had gone silent, and the door opened, revealing a thin, rodent looking man, and a beautiful if forbidding looking woman (http://theholo.net/forum/member.php?4677-Veskasa-Vel-Aath) wearing what looked like an Imperial uniform of some sort. Her eyes met his, and before anyone could do anything, the door burst open and he and the familiar looking woman holding his hand ran without a second thought.

He led them to another room, shut the door and barred it with furniture before looking around desperately for something to save them. A large set of windows, opened out onto a balcony, and the city stretched out from them. A roof top sat below them some ten feet, and Ben looked back at the door and then at the familiar woman with a look of trepidation.

"Think we can make the jump without breaking anything?"

[Taala Su]

She got to her feet and found that one of her heels had broken, the stiletto dangling from the bottom uselessly. Taala kicked off her shoes, leaving them in the middle of the road, and walked aimlessly. For the moment there were no children stepping on her, so she tried to get her bearings, only to find out that apparently all hell was breaking loose in town. If hell were being kicked and torn apart by screaming zombie children. Actually, yeah, that sounded like hell.

Taala padded over to an idling speeder and found it empty. A brick had been thrown through the windshield and there was a suspicious reddish smear on the open door, but it was running, and that meant she could too. She sat inside it and pulled the door closed, just as a group of nearby kids turned to look at her. "Oh shit," she said, looking over her shoulder at the now running hellions as she gunned the accelerator.

BANG!

She screamed, the speeder slewing sideways as she experienced a full body flinch as a small body flipped over the front of the speeder and into the backseat of the vehicle. "OMIGOD!" Taala struggled to straighten out the speeder, and hesitated to look back at the carnage. Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, only to find a bloody preteen rising up and lurching for the back of her head. She shrieked and yanked hard on the wheel, making the kid fall off balance to the floor of the speeder.

[Cerie Moreau]

One hand on the rail, Cerie gave a hurried look over the balcony with a healthy amount of concern.

Of course, the sounds of maddened children trying to beat down the barricaded door behind them was a much bigger concern, and any doubts on whether she could make the jump were instantly discarded.

"Make? Yes."

A chorus of tiny fists rattled the door, followed by the howling of young voices.

Creeeepy.

The sound of a large chest being shoved made the decision for her; no way in the nine hells of Corellia was she going to take her chances with the Children of the Scrubroot back there.

"Without breaking anything? Only one way to find out!"

[Ben Merasska]

They backed up, and Ben glanced back at the jostling door. The furniture was sliding inward ever so slightly...

"By the way," he said conversationally, setting himself up for a running jump. "Name's Ben."

[Cerie Moreau]

Her body lowered a small bit as she mentally prepared to willingly fling herself over the railing of a balcony. She blinked, then screwed her eyes shut one last time. Maybe all of this was some nightmare, and she would wake back up in her bunk with a hangover the size of the Death Star? She opened her eyes. Nope. Still here. Well, so much for the notion that all of this was just an absurd, bad dream.

"Nice t'meet you, Ben," she mumbled.

Oddly enough she felt compelled to offer a hand for him to shake, but things being as they were, the blonde settled for giving him a pat to the shoulder.

"I'm Cerie."

A final sideways look, a nod, and the two burst forward into a sprint, eating up the dismally short distance to the rail.

Cerie was aware of the door being further pushed open as she and Ben both flung themselves up into the air and over the edge of the balcony.

[Taala Su]

The radio clicked on as she fumbled with the speeder, swerving to avoid a burning vehicle in the middle of the road, music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc8bQoL-J0) blasting loud enough to rattle her eardrums. The hellion in the backseat jumped up, grabbing her shoulders, and Taala slammed on the brakes, slapping and yelling at the kid to leave her alone.

She abandoned the speeder, her tank top torn as the girl hissed and growled, a bit of fabric left in her hand as the prostitute made a run for it. She was near the spaceport, so she found the middle of the road and ran as fast as she could, bare feet slapping the duracrete as she began to pick up tiny ferocious followers. They doggedly pursued her, and Taala began to pray she wouldn't trip.

[Ben Merasska]

"It's nice to meet yooouuu!" Ben cried as they jumped.

He landed awkwardly, just barely avoiding twisting his ankle as he rolled to bleed momentum. He came to a stop sitting down, feeling nauseous and short of breath. Dazedly, he glanced back up at the balcony, but it was empty. He frowned.

"Cerie?" he called, pushing himself up only to swear at how sore his ankle was. He could hear the scraping of the furniture on the floor in the room behind the balcony and felt a push of tension speed up his movement. "We probably shouldn't be here when they get to the balcony."

[Cerie Moreau]

She'd let her body collapse when she'd hit the roof, rolling to a stop on her stomach with a precarious view of the street below. It was enough to elicit a surprised gasp that she seemed mostly intact, quickly followed by a swift retreat from the roof's edge, scrambling up to her feet.

"Agreed," came her only answer, and cast a look overhead along Ben's own line of sight.

A quick shuffle and she was back to the overhang, carefully looking down at the alley. Sounds of screeching children filtered up, and small feet thundered along the pavement as younglings ran wild.

"I hope you don't plan on going back down into the streets."

[Ben Merasska]

“Uh, no." He answered. He turned and looked across he roofs. In the distance, the starport could be seen. “I got a ship at the port. If we get to it, we can get out of here."

He started off, jumping awkwardly to the next roof. He turned back to her.

“Let's go!"

[Cerie Moreau]

There was really no extra urging needed, and Cerie was making tracks in no time at all, following after Ben with a hurried zeal that spoke volumes of her desire to not be accosted by a mass of children with a case of the zombie fever. Or whatever it was that was the in thing these days. It certainly wasn't anything to sit and ponder over, and the blonde was making quick work of gaining on her companion.

"Works for me!"

She yelled back, landing just behind him.

"Just so long as we can actually make it there!"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben didn't really need to say anything to that. He looked back at the balcony when they'd crossed three rooftops, and there were kids standing there watching them and shouting wordless rage at him. He turned and ran from them, not once embarrassed that he was essentially running from a bunch of children. Cerie caught up with him quickly, and they drew farther away from the chaos of downtown. As they got closer to the star port, the commotion and noise dropped, until everything was eerily quiet. It was so quiet, Ben almost didn't notice the sudden absence of a roof to jump onto, and nearly fell a couple stories down to the ground below.

"We're going to have to climb down," Ben panted, not looking very pleased with the prospect. He glanced around, and found am access ladder that halted about twelve feet from the ground. Quickly he scurried down and after a brief moment to gather himself, dropped to the ground, hissing as his feet and ankle protested their treatment in the form of pain.

[Cerie Moreau]

She was quick to follow. Hells, who wouldn't be?! As absurd of a situation as this was, it was still more than a little bit terrifying.

"This is like some bizarre after school special," she huffed out while making quick work of the ladder, and pausing momentarily at the last rung, Cerie looked down for only a milisecond, eyeing the distance to the ground before deciding to take her chances with the drop rather than the crazed, mouth-frothing children behind them. All told, the drop wasn't large, but she still made a pained face as she landed, going into a crouch to try and absorb the impact.

This day started out so wonderfully, too.

A few deep breaths as she rose to stand, and her eyes went to Ben.

"So about that ship... ?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben nodded, standing and gingerly resting his weight on his left foot. Pain shot up his leg, but it wasn't like they had many options.

"This way," he grunted.

***


"We can't let that spacer or that woman leave. If word of this gets out, plans will have to change. And that is..."

Ferrik Brun glanced over to the other accomplices in this woman's scheme. Wearing a black uniform that looked about as stereotypically Imperial as he'd ever seen, she was looking at them all intently. She'd always scared him. Especially now, that she was all but admitting that they'd be killing everyone in this town. Everyone. Rasmus looked as cruelly intent as he usually did, especially with that tattoo of some black tribalistic designs in dots on a red background, the background being his quite liberally pierced face. What happened to make everyone want to stand out so much? Nondescript was his MO, and it had saved his life more than once. Sera and Juvin were listening carefully, though they were probably just waiting for this to end so they could go back to some empty room and rut like squibs in heat. Carrine, quite possibly the ugliest woman he'd ever met, was smirking. She was always something of a sadist.

"...Inconvenient. If you allow things to become inconvenient, then you'll become inconvenient, and I'll most likely kill you."

Most likely?

She dismissed them, and he stood there, feeling a bit worried. How were they going to find one man and one woman in the middle of this chaos?

"He was the one who started all this," Rasmus said, looking at them all.

"Really? How? Why?" he couldn't help but ask. He regretted asking anything when everyone's attention turned to him.

"Said something about us having his mechanic, some Togruta girl," Rasmus answered. "Tried to get her back, didn't, and then ran. We sicced the slaves on him and he got away."

Mechanic?

Ferrick ran to a terminal and booted it up, and did a quick search for recent arrivals. He narrowed the search down until only three names were left.

"Which one of these?" he asked Rasmus, who stalked over to look at the holograms depicting three humans. Rasmus pointed him out, and Ferrik pulled up the information... "Here. His ship is here. He's got to leave, and his ship will probably be his first choice."

Rasmus grinned cruelly and loped out of the bay which held their ship and served as their hidden headquarters. Ferrik felt some relief at the thought that Rasmus was going to kill the spacer and the woman who was most likely still with him. It meant that he wasn't going to be, most likely, killed. He liked that. But as an incentive...

He loaded the program and found the girl he was looking form and input new instructions for her.


***


The star port was deserted. Being the center of the unpleasantness that had taken hold of this town, Ben wasn't surprised people had skipped off and quickly. But it was still more than a bit unsettling.

Not quite as unsettling as the code for opening the bay doors to the building where Alderaan was sitting not working, though.

"Code's not working," he said, turning away from the door to look around nervously. "We gotta find another way in."

[Cerie Moreau]

"You're kidding," came the incredulous response, Cerie's face pulling into a mask of disbelief.

Not working?! Had this entire town turned into a haven for crazy? There were children running about the streets like mad hawkbats, and if the look in their wild eyes was any indication, they weren't out for hugs. The blonde folded her arms over her chest, peering around Ben at the keypad.

"No way; try again. It has to work."

One hand came out to wave at the pad of glowing aurebesh numbers.

"Maybe you keyed it in wrong."

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh, no I didn't," Ben answered, but still repeating the entry code and receiving no tone and the door continued to remain closed. "Any ideas on how to... get in... the bay?"

He turned to Cerie, his somewhat annoyed expression mutating into a wide eyed open mouthed look of terrified surprise; his words trailed off as he suddenly found himself staring past the woman to see that angry tattooed face man leading a small group towards them. Krasst!

"Um," he hummed in terror, "we should probably be running now, yeah? Yeah. Let's run. Run. Run!"

He grabbed Cerie's hand and tore off in the opposite direction of the oncoming pirates or slavers or whatever they really were. A series of shouts behind them let him know that they were gaining. It was something of a kindness to tell the truth; now he didn't have to look back to see how close they were.

[Cerie Moreau]

And again they were running. Was she really surprised? No, not really. Pulled along by Ben into a nearly frantic sprint, the blonde turned to look back, her mouth twisting open at the sight of the small group closing in on them. Though, it wasn't children, so thank the Core for that. Still, it wasn't something that was much more desirable.

"Oh hells," she let out, a burst of energy bringing her level with Ben, and fueled by fear once more, her legs brought her past him so that now she was tugging him along.

The pair rounded a corner, not slowing their frantic pace by even a millisecond.

"Is this a normal day for you?!"

[Ben Merasska]

'No!' he wanted to shout in return, but as they rounded the landing bay once more, he realized something.

It was, in fact, becoming troublesomely normal for him to be running for his life on any given day.

He pulled Cerie into an alcove along the side of the bay, and put his finger up to his mouth. Things remained silent while the scary men and creatures ran past, shouting profanities.

"We have to get in here. This is the only way off this damn planet and its crazy bloodthirsty children. But the door won't open. So how do we get in? Damn, Shuvin would have figured out a way. Stupid collar thing probably messed her up something terrible though."

[Cerie Moreau]

"Shuvin?"

The name rolled off her tongue easily enough, but the confusion in her eyes was readily apparent. In a dazed sort of haste she shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"So your ship is in a place we can't get."

It was stating the obvious, but for her it was necessary.

"Can't we just hop up topside, on the roofs?"

It was a desperate series of words, but she let them spill out regardless.

She let her eyes slide to the side, unsure if it was really safe.

"We gotta do something."

[Ben Merasska]

"I know," Ben answered grimly, surveying the locked landing bay with trepidation, "but damn if I've got an idea."

Ben spent the next five minutes trying to come up with a plan, any plan, to get them out of the hell that this town had become. Unfortunately, neither of them were acrobats, presently or retired; one of them only looked like a high ranking Alliance official, without the knowledge of codes and transmissions that came with the actual rank; they didn't have any grease to try and slick up the walkways and capture some of the slavers to torture the codes out of them, and Ben didn't have the fortitude for torture anyway.

"...so, we'd have to get to the zoo, find the ape exhibit, bring them here, and let them try the code. Sooner or later they'll get it."

He glanced at Cerie, and grimaced.

"Okay, that was pretty bad too. What about �—"

His statement ground to a halt as a figure exited a building farther down and made its way to the landing bay. As it drew closer, Ben was able to make out montrals and a rusty orange hue. Ben frowned while the collared Togruta entered in a code at the door and entered the landing bay, the door staying open behind her.

"Shuvin?"

With a quick look around to be sure no one else was watching, he ran across the avenue and into the darkened landing bay. He was only able to think that some light would be useful before Shuvin's fist was introduced to his face.


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

After being told that he would most likely be killed by the ringleader of this little plot, Ferrik Brun had a bit of a crisis. He had no problem with slavery, as long as he wasn't enslaved. He stood to make more than quite a bit of money should this deal go through. But if it didn't go at all, but rather fell through, then Ferrik was in a bad way. He owed money, and he wanted it so he could live comfortably, sleeping well at night even in spite of the misery he'd helped to spread. Hey, life was cruel, and no one got anywhere being nothing but nice to other people.

But chances were, he wouldn't live through this snafu. If any of the others had some fantasy of being spared by their employer, then Ferrik wouldn't burst their bubble. But Ferrik would be damned if she thought she'd get out of this without even a blemish to show for killing him. This was his crisis. How was he to keep himself alive, and how was he going to strike back at the bastard or bitch that killed him? So he covered his tracks, and introduced another code into the program he'd written in the first place, replacing the self destruct sequence with an autoshutdown and unlocking, and shunting the destruct sequence to a shift-command key. The only way it would get tripped was if someone else came in here and killed him, as he was the only one who knew the replaced command. And if she commanded him to kill everyone and then kill him? Well, he had some insurance against that too.

"Ferrik, the boss lady's on her way to see you. She looks pissed."

He hoped.

[Cerie Moreau]

Not far behind Ben, Cerie found herself having to as-quietly-as-possible scramble after him. Gods knew she didn't want to give herself away to another pack of screaming, bloodthirsty zombie children. Some days a girl could only take something so incredibly bizarre once.

And as she ducked into the darkened interior of the landing bay, she held back the instinctive urge to, as silently as she could manage, call for Ben. Everything seemed to move at a suddenly frantic pace then, and seconds later the blonde caught an obstruction mid-stride; it was soft, like a body.

That was the only thought she could formulate before tumbling forward, her arms going out to arrest the fall in any way possible.

[Ben Merasska]

She entered the room with little sound to warn him. Ferrik felt a prickling on the back of his neck, turned and there she was, standing there, looking at him.

It was creeping him out, to be honest.

"Yeah, boss?" he asked, after it became apparent that she would not start this conversation.

"How many slaves have we shipped offworld?" she asked. He was caught off guard by the question, having expected something more along the lines of 'I'm a crazy bitch witch which means I'm going to kill you for no good reason!' followed by him being killed. Thusly dead, she would enact the destruct sequence and flee the planet and all just retribution that would follow.

"Uh," he started, before remembering. "I'm a slicer boss. I don't know. All I do is program the collars. Though we've put out three hundred collars or something like that. Most of them are wandering the town now."

She nodded once, as if he'd confirmed something.

"And the destruct sequence?"

"Operational," he said slowly, affecting a manner of slow comprehension. "Just checked the programming actually. Command key's prepped."

She nodded again, this time with a satisfied smile.

"Very good. Activate it, and come with me. We're leaving. Quickly!"

Ferrik nodded slowly, and turned, but at her exhortation for speed, his finger sought out the fake destruction key and pressed it. It was instinct; he'd had the destruct sequence there for so long he had to remind himself that he'd switched the programs. He'd meant to actually run the shift-command, but honestly, he didn't much care. He watched the screens turn to static and then black, and turned to follow the woman out into the landing bay and onto the ship.


***


Shuvin Undhi hadn't been having a very good day. At least, that's how she'd describe it. People were telling her what to do, and while she didn't want to run around spreading chaos everywhere with preteens, it was damn hard to muster the will to even hold onto such thoughts. It was like she was drunk and very easily distracted. The only order she'd had so far that made any sort of sense was the order to return to the ship, where she'd wanted to go all day. And, considering the only thing Ben had done when he'd seen her was run, which made her very annoyed (though she grudgingly admitted that if he'd been caught bad things would have happened — it was the principle of the thing: he was her captain!) when she was told to knock him out, she didn't feel too bad about it.

Right after punching him, when the collar unhitched itself and fell to the floor, it took a few moments before the teen Togruta realized that she was in fact thinking clearly again, with Ben gripping his bloody nose and blinking rapidly, she did the only thing she wanted to do. She punched him again, and turned to find the lighting controls, feeling satisfied that Ben had learned to never ever allow her to be captured by slavers again.



***


Ben, for his part, just let himself crumple onto the floor, one hand still gripping his nose, and resolved to never, ever let Shuvin get captured by slavers again. He'd move when his ears stopped ringing.

And then someone tripped over him, a hand, palm splayed to catch themselves on the ground, came down on his crotch, and a knee landing on his chest. He cried out some garbled swear words and curled into a ball. The lights turned on, and he looked up to see Cerie, eyes wide and still somewhat on top of him.

"Ow," he said. "Dad reary hur'."

[Cerie Moreau]

Some things were just instinct; like how you just knew that you'd just put your hand on a man's junk. Even unintentionally, it was still the same reaction.

Her eyes went as wide as Ben's in that exact moment, and Cerie scrambled back somewhat in an effort to pull away. She ended up sitting ungracefully with a hand covering her mouth and the other reaching out to his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," came her only response in the sudden illumination that now settled around them.

"I didn't know... " well that was ultimately a stupid thing to say, and Cerie clamped her mouth shut. Instead she gingerlly gave his shoulder a light pat.

"There there," Gods she sounded like some deranged yet addle-minded Nurse Spanner, "It'll pass."

A quick look up showed her the interior of the bay, and the back of a young Togruta currently making her way towards a ship.

Another look down to Ben told her that he was still curled up into a ball. Poor guy. His nose bloodied, he looked... well, he looked like a bullied anooba pup. Her hand pulled awaY from his shoulder as she slowly tried to stand.

"You gonna be okay?"

In a show of compassion, the blonde held both hands out to help pull him up to his own feet.