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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1866637" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 55: Flashy Heroics“What do you mean stand guard?!” Shadow asked in the most annoyed voice she could manage as a human and through the mask. It was strangely funny because her voice was higher than usual and she didn’t seem to notice. When Akan grinned, she somehow knew and backhanded him hard in the chest. [Shut up, Jedi Boy.]    There was no answer to Shadow’s question beyond Voort saying swiftly, “Just do it.”    Then, the three former Imperials stepped into the Garrison leaving the two not-so-humans to stand around annoyed and amused. Well, only Akan was amused. Shadow, obviously, was not. More standing around. More boredom. More of this damned planet that was already getting on her nerves. Forget all of this. Loki needed help. As best as a human could manage, she growled under the mask. And the being human just didn’t help. Too many things were just wrong. She felt weak, slow, and half blind. All of which were true when compared to her Alraxian body.    The two of them were spared the fun that was already occurring inside. The door had opened to a short hallway, which then led to a single guard room. This was occupied by a middle aged Narani who was wearing what looked to be half of an Imperial uniform with other random pieces of clothing with it. Landau was the only one not annoyed by this, but it did not change any actions. The moment of their entrance, the Narani’s eyes widened, and he nearly fell back in his chair trying to get to his feet while drawing a blaster from under the desk. He managed to get as far as leaning back before Hansen put a blaster shot into his face.    “You had slugthrowers earlier,” Voort commented as he searched the man’s body and got out a small keycard.    Hansen nodded as she moved to the door on the other end of the room which led to the cells, “They’re common outside of Haladin. Here most of the blasters are from the old armory.”    “Lightly defended in here,” Landau thought aloud, remembering the days when the small detention building was guarded by at least five men.    Again, Hansen nodded. Voort was moving over and slid the keycard into the slot. When the door opened, Hansen said, “They don’t get many prisoners. Its easier to just kill someone and make a mistake than try to hold them.”    “Wonderful way of thinking,” sounded a voice from inside the now open door, “Glad they make exceptions.”    Voort smiled and stepped in, seeing a room with two large doors on the opposite walls. The doors each had holes cut out of them, through which one, Jen’s face could be seen. Despite her lighthearted words, Jen looked terrible. Even only being able to see her face, that fact was obvious. There were cuts and bruises along her forehead, and her left eye was only half open. Managing a smile, Voort stepped over and got the door open. This revealed Jen to be worse off than expected.    The main thing that caught his attention was her leg. There was a long, crude brace strapped to it. Broken. That meant they’d be slowed down, and getting out was going to be trouble. Jen noticed his expression and shrugged weakly. She noticed Hansen, and the two women’s eyes met. Something there bothered Jen. What exactly it was, and if it was even anything beyond paranoia.    The moment passed when Voort helped her to walk, albeit slowly, out towards the main guard room. Greetings where exchanged quickly, and it was decided to leave anything more to once they were out. The plan meant that they weren’t going back to Caars’ safe house, but all the way back to Hansen’s base. Voort had decided that Jen could be carried when the rocks got steep if they needed to move quickly. He didn’t mention this, though, noticing something about the way Jen looked at him that said she was fine and if he tried anything she’d injure him.    When Landau made it to the exit and reached for switch, he suddenly stayed his hand. When Hansen started to bark at him to keep going, he waved for her to keep quiet. They all followed the signal, more out of curiosity than anything. It took only a moment after they all went silent for the reason Landau didn’t open the door to be apparent. A low, constant hum could be heard outside. To Voort and Jen, the sound was obvious. Landau had stopped out of surprise, not actually identifying the noise. Hansen was in much the same boat.    It was the hum of a lightsaber. But it wasn’t as constant as it sounded at first. The sound changed in pitch every few seconds. Again, Voort and Jen recognized this. Movement. The two exchanged glances, and Voort started forward, “Trouble,” was all he said.    Landau reached an arm out to push the other man back, “If its trouble we’re safest in here until its passed.”    “I can help him,” Voort said flatly.    “The less of us they notice, the better,” answered Hansen, also keeping Voort back. He sighed, but nodded. Jen was going to need all the help she could get, whether she wanted it or not, in their now ruined escape. Or at least, it sure felt ruined. A quick in and out with no flashy heroics was the plan. Voort hoped that Akan hadn’t fallen victim to said flashy heroics.It was ironic that Voort blamed the current situation on Akan. Sure, he’d activated the lightsaber and drawn the attention of near twenty people. But most of them scattered. And besides, it was Shadow’s fault. If she hadn’t cursed in her native tongue, they wouldn’t have been noticed by the passerby as anything but two Narani. But no...Shadow was complaining about being human again, and she’s spoken a curse out loud and in a language that these people wouldn’t have known.    At the accusing comment(or at least, it sounded that way, neither Akan nor Shadow actually understood it) from the passerby, Shadow had knocked the Narani out. She had failed to remember that there were many other people all around them. She also didn’t know how very out of character that was. These were both quickly proved as facts when those that did not scatter brandished either knives, blasters, or an interesting combination of the two while yelling the Narani word for ‘offworlder!’. Again, neither Akan nor Shadow knew that was the word, but it had to be that or something similar from the context and tone.    And that was the point when Voort’s blame on Akan could be considered correct. He reacted to the brandishing of weapons without thinking that it wouldn’t be a good idea to respond in kind. By the time Akan had realized this, his lightsaber had already been drawn from underneath the heavy robes, and the blue-green light of the blade was illuminating the hood and relfecting off the visor to create a strange mix of black and transparent sections. The noise heard inside the door was that of Akan moving back and forth...swaying in anticipation for the first move to be made.    [I’m going to draw them away.] he said to Shadow in the moment of inaction. [Disable anyone that stays behind and get out of here.]    Shadow had thought to respond to that, but the idea was a sound one...for once. As long as he didn’t get them killed. That’s when Akan made what would have been considered a rash move if it hadn’t been planned. He charged the nearest of the Narani. Plowing over the surprised man after arranging a meeting between the butt of the lightsaber and the Narani’s face, Akan ran down the street. He stayed in sight, but kept close enough to the walls of buildings that the blaster shots caught that instead of him.    It worked. In fact, it worked better than Akan had expected. The Narani had been so outraged and surprised by the sight of an unknown in their own garb killing one of their own that they’d ignored Shadow and charged down the street after Akan. Shadow started to go after them, but instead did what needed to be done. She opened the door to the garrison, seeing a very surprised Landau.    “No time to explain!” Shadow said quickly through the mask, “Just come on!”    She grabbed Landau’s arm and started sprinting towards the way they’d entered. Hansen was right behind them, not asking for an explanation as it didn’t sound like she was going to get it anyway Voort put an arm around Jen and helped her to keep up. As they ran, Jen called out to Shadow, “Where’s Akan?!”    Shadow just glanced over her shoulder, and made an annoyed look. Sure, it could only be seen in her eyes, but Voort picked up on it. He glanced to Shadow, following around a corner and grumbled, “Flashy heroics.”</blockquote>

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