Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1838248" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 33: Tails of BalanceCorellia was a well populated planet, but thankfully Shadow had directed them to a smaller city near the northern coast of the largest continent. Apparently, the place was a haven for smugglers and thieves. But this was Corellia. No matter what CorSec did to keep them away, the smuggles an thieves were everywhere. The city itself was small only compared to the capital of Coronet. Of course, most anything that wasn’t Coruscant was smaller than Coronet, so it wasn’t the best comparison.    After they’d exited hyperspace, an argument had started. Voort argued they should go to Coruscant immediately. Even Jen agreed with him. Akan did to a point, but part of him was pulled to agree with Shadow in getting her ship. Of course, that was a large amount due to curiosity. With the vote essentially tied on what to do, Akan offered a suggestion. Drop Shadow and him off and then they could meet on Coruscant. This had the advantage of not having to be anywhere near Voort, who had been getting on Akan’s nerves more and more lately. However, leaving Jen with him...strangely, though, she didn’t seem to have problem with it. Apparently she trusted the Imperial. Or rather, former Imperial as Voort had insisted multiple times.    Having set down outside the city, the plan was to just drop the two Alraxians of and leave. Currently, they stood in at the edge of the ramp, and Akan gave the grass below a careful look. It’d been a very long time since he’d been back on Corellia. Shadow had already said her goodbye and good luck, and was waiting at the bottom of the ramp impatiently. Akan looked to Voort, who was wearing his Imperial uniform minus the patches and insignia. Giving the ex-Imperial a fairly dirty look, Akan said simply, “After this is over...”    Eventually, Voort nodded, but there was a hesitation in it. Akan didn’t catch it, but Jen, knowing what was being said, did notice. Somehow, it didn’t surprise her. Akan then looked to her, a weak smile on his face, “You be careful.”    To his surprise, Jen stepped over and hugged him. Stepping back after a moment, she nodded, “You, too.”    After standing there for a short moment in a state of confusion, Akan backed down the ramp, then turned and caught up to Shadow. The shuttle started up, and Akan turned back to look in time to watch the two wings folding down as it shot off into the sky. Honestly, Akan had never understood people that well. So, as was usual for most males, he understood women even less than most. This, of course, caused a fairly constant state of confusion when dealing with others.    “Close your mouth before you choke on a bug,” Shadow commented, a grin on her face as she started walking towards the city not too far off.    Akan glared at her for a moment, but then just gave up and followed. As they approached the city, he found that he was starting to get a feeling like they were being watched. When he had been about to say something, Shadow shook her head. [Don’t talk about it.]    [Aren’t we going to be noticed?] Akan asked worriedly, watching an airspeeder fly not too far over them. [I meant, the New Republic’s probably got people looking for me. And I’m a bit...well, easy to notice in a crowd. Especially on Corellia.]    She didn’t stop, but she did turn to give him an accusing glare. [You didn’t tell me you’re wanted now.]    [I thought you were smart enough to pick that up.] he responded flatly, watching a few people carefully as they started into the streets of the city. They both got some looks, but with the myriad of species in the galaxy, and the fact that Alraxians were fairly similar to at least one, meant they didn’t stand out too much. People were content to go about their business, anyway. Akan did make sure not to run into anyone, though, as that was never a good thing. Seemed like everyone in these smuggler cities took things like that personally. Following Shadow through the slowly gathering crowd of people, Akan realized he had no idea where they were actually going. [Um...so where’s this ship of yours?]    Shadow glanced over her shoulder a moment to make sure he was still keeping up, then nodded ahead. [An old warehouse. My old...friend used to own it.]    Eventually, Akan did managed to catch sight of the building she was talking about. It wasn’t that old, actually. Well, not in terms of any of the buildings around the city, but he’d expected a run down and beat up building. Instead, he saw a large, well painted and generally pristine look to it. There was a very small feeling in the back of his mind though. Something bothering him.    [We’re being followed.] Shadow ‘said’, confirming his thoughts.    Instinctively, Akan found his hand moved to rest over his blaster pistol. Thankfully, his jacket concealed the weapon and would hopefully not tip off anyone watching them. He did his best to reach out with the Force, trying to find the source of those following them. It didn’t take long. Determined minds were usually easy to pick out. At least three or four of them...    He noticed Shadow drop back next to him. Using Akan as a bit of cover, she glanced over his shoulder. It looked like she was looking to him, and to add to this, she said, “Aren’t you hungry? Its been hours since any decent meal.”    He didn’t answer, but that was because she’d faced forward again and ‘spoke’ through the link. [Two Humans, a Trandoshan, and a Mon Calamari. One of the Humans has a New Republic uniform on.]    [Let me guess, one of the others is wearing CorSec colours?] Akan asked sounding annoyed. He hated being right...especially when it was about being easy to notice.    Shadow didn’t respond, but he took that to be a ‘yes’, which did feel right. Sometimes even words through the link weren’t needed to understand. This was still odd, but Akan was finding it easy to get used to. It was amazing how things worked when you had a fairly certain idea what the other person was thinking. Honestly, Akan should have mentioned something about the New Republic most likely being on the look out for him earlier, but he hadn’t thought they’d be traveling anywhere near the Core Worlds anytime soon. One day he was going to learn to stop anticipating actions, as he was nearly always wrong about things in the long term.    [There’s a break in the crowd up ahead of us.] Shadow interrupted his thoughts with her’s, [When we get there, break and run as fast as you can to the warehouse.]    Alright. That wasn’t the best plan, but it was more than he’d come up with up to that point, so Akan decided to go with it. There was obviously more to what Shadow was planning than just running. He couldn’t pick it up though, only subtle hints that there was more. Once they reached the break in the crowd, Akan didn’t even glance over his shoulder. Instead, he took off running. He heard someone yell, “HEY! STOP!” behind him, and then people cursing as they were pushed aside by the four who were most likely right on his tail now. Approaching the warehouse, he noted there was no entrance on the side where he was running to. Cursing, Akan turned and started as fast as he could to get around through a small alley.    Hearing blaster shots behind him, he watched as a few red bolts hit the wall in front of him just before rounding the corner. Out of habit, he glanced behind him. This was when Akan realized Shadow wasn’t with him. In fact, he realized she hadn’t even run...turning forward, he climbed over a low durasteel wall and continued to get around the large building. Akan could still hear the men behind him, but they were slower and having trouble on the wall.    [No time for questions] Shadow’s voice suddenly said in his mind, [Just do what I tell you. Get a mental image of you. How you were as a Human. Focus on it. Focus as hard as you can and make it be. Okay?]    Akan glanced over his shoulder again, seeing a human in CorSec green helping the Mon Calamari over the wall. Forgetting that Shadow couldn’t see, he simply nodded at what she’d said. Focus...him. Rounding the corner, he started across the back of the warehouse, looking for a door of some kind as he ran and tried to think all at the same time. Focus...he put together a mental image of what he remembered looking like. Not tall...somewhat average build, tanned skin. Less scruffy brown hair...no tail, normal ears. Once he had it, he held onto the image, and did as she said. Make it be? How? Well, it had sounded a lot like many of the things in using the Force...so...he tried using that line of thinking to do whatever it was.    A sudden pain shot through his body. Overcome with surprise, he nearly tripped and fell flat on his face, but somehow Akan managed to keep running. The pain ended after a few moments, and Akan suddenly found it was much harder to keep his balance. He stumbled slightly, noticing that he wasn’t even running as fast. His vision was a bit less focused to...and he couldn’t hear those footsteps behind him. They had to be there. They wouldn’t have just stopped after he got around the corner, would they? A slightly dizzy moment hit him, and Akan finally lost his balance. Stumbling to the ground, Akan fell flat onto his face on the hard, paved ground. Pain shot through his face an arm(which he’d landed on awkwardly), and before he could get up, suddenly felt himself being dragged away from the warehouse.    A somewhat familiar voice said, “Gods, your even heavy like this.”    He was dragged into a second alley behind the warehouse, and when rolled over, he looked up into the face of a young human girl. She looked about nineteen or twenty, with short, jet black hair and two soft blue eyes. It took him a moment to realize the girl was wearing the same clothes Shadow had been. That’s about when he realized the hair of his fringe was brown.    “No tail makes it hard to balance,” she said simply, looking out down to he warehouse, obviously looking for the men who’d been after Akan, “You really shouldn’t do other things while morphing until you’re used to it.”    “Huh...?” Akan asked, realizing his voice sounded...different. After a moment, he looked down at himself. Skin was a lot lighter than before. Still tan, but, not the dark mocha colour as before, “What happened?!”    Shadow patted his head idly, “Your first lesson in morphing. Going to have to find a better time to teach you, though. And next time you fall, please land on your back.”    He watched as she rubbed her face, and Akan realized that was where sharp pain continued to be on his own face. Putting his hand up to it, he felt a little blood. Akan pulled his hand back and looked at the blood. Red. More normal at least. Akan managed an apologetic look, but Shadow shook her head, “Just remorph that. Do it the same way you did the first time. There were at least five or six more waiting to pick us up, so I figure we’ll wait here until its clear.”</blockquote>

Verification