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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1996244" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 141: Heroic Acts of StupidityFocus. Calm. Time doesn’t matter. Draw on the Force. Become one with the Force. Calm. Feel. The Rodian suspects nothing. Ignore him. Focus...focus. The Nikto with the repeating cannon is watching too closely. He is ready for a fight. The others. The others are distant...no! Focus! No! No time to focus! Calm. Calm. Time does not matter. Feel. Reach out. Yes. The human to the left. Jumpy and ready to pull the trigger if anyone speaks too quickly. He is the most dangerous. Yes? Focus. Yes. Stay calm and wait. Patience. The Rodian is speaking. They will expect them to act after he goes silent. Act first. Act now? Yes!    The sudden movement from Akan caught everyone except Shadow off guard. She had waited for him to move, knowing he was going to and trying to figure out how to stop them all from getting killed. And in one sudden moment, there was a cry of surprise from two of the bounty hunters that was drowned out by a familiar snap-hiss. There wasn’t any warning before an armored human was cut into two, the Nikto with a heavy rifle next to him had a chance to swing the butt of the gun at Akan’s head, but instead simply hit the lightsaber. The back end sliced off in an explosion of sparks, and a moment later the Nikto was dead, too. At this point, there had been enough time for the Rodian to squeeze the trigger on his small disrupter pistol.    But Shadow’s hand reached the weapon at the same moment, her diving momentum forcing the shot to go low, nearly taking off Jen’s foot in the process. The Rodian managed a quick, surprised look on his face before Shadow’s other hand, claws extended, raked across his neck. Letting go of the disrupter, Shadow allowed her moment to bring her around and deliver a strong kick to the side of the Rodian’s skull. There was a crack, and then a thud as the body hit the metal street below, and Shadow was already moving on to the next target. As she caught the Trandoshan’s wrist, breaking it and bending it back, the creature pulled the trigger. Literally, the bounty hunter shot himself in the face, and it was not a pretty sight for Jen to watch the blaster bolt take the Trandoshan’s face off.    Jen didn’t have much of a chance to see it, though, as a silent nothing yelled at her to just move. Not one to argue with instinct(or the Force, though she still mentally considered it her own instincts), she took a quick step to the side and a blaster bolt went between her and Titus. At the same time, Titus was growling a curse and getting his lightsaber off of his belt. Getting it in one hand, he spun to look at the young looking human who had fired the shot, already starting to move forward as he fingered the activation switch for the blade. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he caught sight of more movement. Time slowed so he could watch an older looking, dull grey skinned Rodian squeeze off a blaster shot from a very large and likely very illegal rifle. Titus even had a chance to watch the blaster bolt streaking right to his undefended left side, knowing it was going to hurt and preparing for the pain. But the pain that he got was not the expected pain.    In a flash, time seemed to speed up and Titus was left trying to figure out exactly what had happened. The blaster bolt never hit, instead literally stopping and impacting nothing just a few centimeters from his side, and a moment later he collided with the human he’d been charging at. His attention focused away, Titus hadn’t realized how close he’d gotten to the younger man, slamming into him hard and nearly running him completely over. Titus came down in a roll over the younger man’s body, getting to his feet and realizing that the lightsaber had taken an arm and a large part of the street with it. On the ground, the kid was screaming in pain, and all that Titus could do to assuage the pain was to simply end the boy’s life with another quick strike. Looking up, he saw that Jen was moving from a surprised position straight to the ground behind where Akan had been, diving for a blaster pistol and getting to her knees. She fired off a barrage at the stunned bounty hunters across from her, and in a moment had to stop for fear of hitting Shadow.    As fast as it had started, it was over. Ten bodies now littered the old square in at least twice that many pieces. Shadow was licking a small scratch that she had deemed pointless to waste energy on, and Jen was getting back up onto her feet. Titus looked straight to Akan who was breathing hard and holding his lightsaber at his side, “Dammit, Akan! That was stupid!”    “It worked, didn’t it?” the young Alraxian half grinned and deactivated his lightsaber.    Titus took a step closer, deactivating his own weapon and pointing up at a random building, “You really think that was all of them?! They weren’t stupid, Akan! And I’d be willing to bet that they’ve got at least one sniper up on the—“    The echoing sound of a blaster shot silenced him. The fact that the shot came from the exact building he’d been pointing at was lost on no one. The shot caught Akan square in the back, getting a loud yelp of pain out of him and a surprised noise out of Shadow, before he hit the ground hard. Cursing, Titus ran over to the downed Alraxian, grabbing him and quickly picking him up. Hearing Shadow growling something, he yelled to the two others, “We’re leaving!”    Then, carrying Akan as best he could, Titus ran. Behind him, Jen followed but not before scooping up Akan’s lightsaber from where it had landed. Staggered blaster fire followed them just before they reached a larger crowd, turning a corner and heading through the populated night streets of Ord Mantell as fast as they could. It took another five minutes to reach the ships, and Titus was actually surprised there weren’t any people shooting at them there. It was the perfect spot for an ambush. By then, Akan was conscious again and Titus just dropped him onto his feet without a word. As they reached the ships, Akan’s body remorphed but still feeling the echoes of the pain, he asked, “Where are we going from here?!”    “Doesn’t matter!” Jen answered as Titus was already moving up Alderaan’s access ramp, and a moment later she was right behind him. Even she knew the stupidity of sticking around. Shadow was already at the X-Wing, glaring at Akan as he started over. When he did make it to the X-Wing, she growled and punched him. Hard. Right across the face. It wasn’t enough to take him down, but there was a distinct crack from his jaw.    Before he had a chance to yell at her, she screamed at him, “Don’t you ever do anything so stupid again! Now get us the hell out of here!”    With that, she shoved him hard into the X-Wing’s ladder. He was up it and in the cockpit a few moments later, with Shadow dropping into the rear seat at the same time. Alderaan was already lifting off the pad, and it took another half minute before Akan could get the X-Wing off the ground. Doing his best to ignore the anger that sat behind him, Akan got the X-Wing moving and followed up right behind Alderaan. Making out of the atmosphere, he started to wonder if he should ask where they were going again. Right on cue, the comm beeped and a staticy voice of Titus sounded in the cockpit, “Shadow, we’ve got trouble. Apparently you just killed three hundred civilians on Obroa-Skai.”    “Nine,” Shadow quietly whispered in a dangerously calm voice.    “My thoughts exactly,” Titus agreed, “Its just around the corner. Set a course there and we’ll see you on the other side...” a pause, then, “...and I’d suggest having a talk with Akan.”    “Yes, I planned on it,” she replied just before the comm clicked off. Silence was left in the X-Wing, which continued to hang there until the jump to hyperspace. Even then, Shadow was silent. Probably for effect. The link told him otherwise, though. Apparently, she was debating what exactly to do. All in all, it just made Akan more worried. He had gotten them out of that, right? Sure, it wasn’t the best but there was going to be trouble either way. Besides, it wasn’t his choice to go to a haven for bounty hunters. It was going to be a long hour and a half.</blockquote>

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