Change Must Come Through the Barrel of a Gun

[PadawnPrawn]

"Oh." he said quietly. "I thought people would do anything for money." he said, tilting his head towards her slightly. Fletcher blinked and stared at the blaster momentarily, he hadn't used it many times before but had grasped the basics of how it worked. He couldn't help but laugh as [member="Emerald Sage"] narrowed her eyes and told him that they needed to be scary. He imagined Emerald to be the least scary person he knew. Fletcher shook his head, smiling.

"Well... does it have to end in any sort of horrific suffering or death for him?" he asked, holding the blaster dangling at his side.

 

[Emerald Sage]

Emerald stared [member="Fletcher Lorcan"]. “You don’t need to hurt someone to scare them,” she smiled. “Heck, it’s better you don’t hurt them. I mean much... Trust me.” And then she winked walking off.

Flipping her hair she started forward blaster in hand. Her other hand reached toward her belt and pulled out a little silver cylinder of lip stick. As she reached the speeder she took the lipstick and rubbed it onto the arms dealers speeder. “Hey there,” she said as she cleared the speeder and approached the man. Depressing the button on the back of the lipstick she released the paint bomb causing the speeder to explode.

“What the….” the man turned around and Emerald was there with the blaster pointed at him. “You my friend made a big mistake.” She fired the blaster multiple times around his feet watching him dance and laughing a little. Her entire demeanor changed in an instant. Good acting, she insisted to herself. “I am something of an explosive connoisseur,” she started, “Me and the young man behind you were recently attacked. We traced the explosive device. You’ve been a bad boy,” she pulled a knife from her belt and held it up to her thumb. She cut into her flesh letting little droplets of blood drip from her finger. Torture was for sadists and monsters. If she was willing to cut herself what in gods name was she willing to do to him? That was the effect she hoped she’d have.

“Oh god, look I don’t know nothing about…”

“You don’t want to lie to me,” Emerald said staring him straight in the eyes. “Raxus Nationalists… and explosives…”

“Okay I sold some explosives to a Rodian named Pako,” he put his hands up in surrender, “just… just leave me alone…”

Suddenly Emerald changed and turned winking at Fletcher a smile on her face. She bounced away walking back to the speeder when the man reached into his coat and pulled out a blaster….

 

[PadawnPrawn]

Fletcher was about to say something but decided it would be better not to. He watched as Emerald approached the man and stared in awe at the way she did things so casually, calmly and professionally. Though he didn't intend on hurting anyone unless they made a move first, he approached slowly and carefully with the blaster raised. It was like hunting for prey, if you moved too fast you would panic them and it would cause all sorts of chaos.

The Padawan was surprised at how quickly Emerald's behaviour could change and he wasn't sure if it was something to admire or be aware of. His eyes moved from the man to the knife that Emerald was now holding and he hoped it was all just to scare the offender and not to start an actual murder.

Once Emerald had turned back to him and winked, he smiled for a moment, the blaster lingering, a dangerous distraction. Luckily he had quick reflexes and as soon as he had registered that there was another blaster, he instantly lifted his and gave Emerald a look of warning.

[member="Emerald Sage"]

 

[Emerald Sage]

[member="Fletcher Lorcan"] pulled up his blaster and gave Emerald a look. She knew that look when she saw it. Only there was something else. Fletcher flinched, didn’t fire. Now she had a choice, engage and shoot the man, probably killing him or…

Darting forward Emerald grabbed at Fletchers robes just as the red blasts started firing their way. Don’t cross an arms dealer. You already know they have guns and they are otherwise grumpy people.

Practically throwing Fletcher into the speeder Emerald jumped in after him and put the pedal down zooming off. They almost veered into a building, but that didn’t matter. “Don’t hesitate,” Emerald said taking a few deep breaths. She wasn’t angry persay, but she was a little annoyed. That would pass. It only took the span of a minute before she calmed right down. It was one of her skills. “You’re lucky I didn’t have to kill him, luckier still I didn’t die. I would haunt you.”

Reaching over she reoriented the blaster, “Stun setting. Don’t ever hesitate. It could be your death, or worse the death of a friend and partner.”

There all her speechifying was over now. “Now to find a Rodian named Pako. How do we find him? He’s a needle in a pretty big haystack.”

 

[PadawnPrawn]

Fletcher lowered the weapon and kept up with Emerald the best he could. Once they were in the speeder, he looked at Emerald feeling quite ashamed of himself. He refused to accept that he was in the wrong though. "In my training-" he said, which was how he justified most of his actions. "-we were taught not to start combat unless absolutely necessary." he said, though it could have classed as self defence, he didn't want to be the one to mention that. "I didn't know there was a stun setting." he muttered.

"Well Rodians can't be too hard to find." he said, still speaking rather bashfully. "Well the most obvious choice is doing a survey of the Rodians in the area, asking which of them are interested in explosives and if their name begins with P-" he smirked. "just kidding." Fletcher frowned thoughtfully and looked away from Emerald. "Where do criminals hang out?"

[member="Emerald Sage"]

 

[Emerald Sage]

Emerald laughed a little put and put an arm around [member="Fletcher Lorcan"], pulling him close to her and giving him a pecking kiss on the forehead. “You’re starting to catch on kid.”

And then she answered him directly. “It depends on the criminal,” Emerald replied. “Swoop gangs, street gangs, organized gangsters… they all have different places they like to congregate. Bombers, even bombers for hire, tend to be loners. More likely we’ll find him by finding an associate of his. There is a place where the Raxian Nationals congregate, we can go there and listen and see if anyone is listening.” And then she gave a nervous look over at Fletcher wondering if he could put up with the… well Jedi hate. The Raxian Nationals weren’t exactly known for their love of the Jedi, or even outsiders. “Think you can pretend at being a local?” she said with a quirked eyebrow.

The little club was just up ahead. There really wasn’t a lot to it, just a building with neon lights set in what was the old and nearly abandoned factory district. Still it was a popular attraction, suddenly becoming chic, Emerald rolled her eyes at the silly things that went into fashion. “Lead the way…”

 

[PadawnPrawn]

Fletcher didn't really resist having her arm around him and the kiss that followed, though by now he began to feel a little uncomfortable at the gestures. He just gave her a small smile and ignored it.

The Padawan nodded. He would try to put up with the people there, but he couldn't promise anything if something was directly said about the Jedi, he couldn't help being reckless. "I can do that." he nodded again, though not being sure if he could really. He was actually quite sensitive himself, and towards other people, often acting on his feelings rather than thoughts, as he knew he shouldn't do.

Fletcher said nothing but acknowledged what she was saying and led the way to the building. He didn't feel safe, though maybe because it was because he knew there were so many Jedi enemies around here. But then again...

[member="Emerald Sage"]

 

[Emerald Sage]

So a Jedi and a plant walk into a bar…. it all felt like the start of a bad joke. Emeralds species didn’t need to be force sensitive in order to sense the emotions of others and could feel the apprehension in [member="Fletcher Lorcan"]. And why not? this was not a friendly place. In reaction she squeezed his arm and pulled him tightly letting out a pheromone to calm his nerves.

“You’re doing great,” she said as she led him through the club and over to a small table. The pair sat down and she smiled at the waiter and gave him a little wink and smile. After taking their order he ran away to grab drinks. “I’d ask if you’d seen anyone suspicious,” Emerald said, “But that wouldn’t narrow down in here would it?”

True enough. Around them was an assembled mass of various criminals and shady individuals. “A few Rodians. One of them is our thief.” Emerald used her peripherals and various objects to look around the room. Under the guise of vanity she pulled out a mirror and looked around behind her. “Behind me to my right,” she said with a smile, “Another behind you to the left, and two more to the side.”

The waiter came and she accepted the drinks and laughed and smiled before turning back to Fletcher. “So the force, think you can find out which one of these is our guy? Search your feelings and sense it?”

 

[PadawnPrawn]

Fletcher relaxed, knowing that he would have to stay calm in order to maintain a clear mind and better judgement. Being apprehensive was something they couldn't afford.

"Not particularly, no. It would be far easier to weed out the un-suspicious ones." he sighed and glanced around. "This is ridiculous." he muttered. He didn't like being her, everything he had been taught was telling him to get out of there, you couldn't trust anyone and if anyone knew who he was... there wouldn't be a pleasant ending.

The Padawan glanced at the Rodians that were mentioned and looked back at Emerald. "Search my feelings?" he smiled and kept his eyes on her as not to look suspicious. "The one behind me seems more suspicious than the others." he said, still not looking. "Can you see him?"

[member="Emerald Sage"]