Private Dodge City

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Hold on, Amy!" Tansu yelled, jutting her arm out to the passenger seat to press the orange farm cat firmer into the seat. His meows were a frenzy of panic, but every sound he made was suffocated by the rushing wind courting over the transteel viewport's slant. The speeder, being a convertible, had been convenient for sliding into, but it was proving dangerous while being pursued by gangsters.

She footed the pedals heavily, and jerked the speeder in a wide arc to the right, cutting across a traffic lane and yelling an apology to the void.

The air lanes of Coruscant were a blur of motion and sound as Tansu hurtled through them, clinging to the controls and muscles all tensed. Behind her, the relentless roar of the gangsters — who she'd offended, or trespassed, or who knows what – engines marked the pursuit of the gang intent on catching her and knocking her back to the ground to. There were so many of them that they egged each other's confidence on for the first while, but, the longer the chase went on only served to feed their rage. And Tansu was the only target of all this.

The chase was a whirlwind, Tansu maneuvering through traffic with the precision of a needle threading through fabric, narrowly evading transport haulers and private speeders that cluttered the skyline. The gang was hot on her heels, their speeder bikes cutting through the air with ruthless efficiency. She glanced at the passenger seat every so often to see Amos huddled low, his ears pressed flat against his head, eyes wide with the primal recognition of imminent danger.

With a sudden, desperate maneuver, Tansu veered into a narrow alleyway between towering skyscrapers, relegating the walls to mere blurs of silvery white. The risky move granted her only a heartbeat before the piercing whine of a blaster filled the air and her display frantically broadcast incident to the engines. Her speeder convulsed violently under the impact, a critical blow to the engine that sent sparks cascading into the cockpit.

"Oh no, no! No, no! No!" Smoke plumed out from the back of the speeder, broad and unstoppably potent; it stung at her eyes and obscured her vision. It infiltrated her lungs as she tried to compensate for the failure by offsetting the engine with backup repulsors. She was coughing into her arm when she realized there were no backup lifts.

Only one hand remained on the wheel, and her grip faltered as the controls vibrated wildly under her hands. She was going down fast, her speeder barely a controllable missile plunging toward the denser traffic layers below.

____________________________________________________________
Talsin Lota
Before the events of Deep Rooted Pt. II
and Sting Like a Bee
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​

 

[Talsin Lota]

Tal was having a good day. He was almost done with the calibrations of his speeder and this test run was the best one yet. Great speed, but the vehicle was still lagging a bit whenever trying to pull around a corner. And that just wasn't acceptable.

But the ways the air streamed around him, the world blurred once he pushed the pedal... There was nothing better than that really.

He was slowing it down for now though. Best to find a spot to park and see if he could figure out what was causing the lag. As Tal looked for a spot he felt alarm in the force.

Danger.

It was similar to that night... The one he never wanted to think about. But he couldn't see anything? It was all fine, so what the hell-

A burning vehicle collided with his and only his fast reflexes caused him to twist the controls to ensure it didn't flatten him like a pancake. But the violent twist that Talsin made caused both their ships, locked into one another from the crash, to be send careening into a nearby building. The crash was all-consuming and the only thing that prevented Tal from being launched over the edge of the crash site was the belts strapping him into his speeder.

"F-fuck..." He breathed out there as the metal groaned around them. In the distance there was an explosion, he could feel the heat of fire closer by. "Hello?! Are you okay?" He couldn't move, the belt keeping him both safe but also restricting his movements.

"I-I am stuck, but I think... I can get out." Looking to the left his eyes widened as he saw the traffic far below and the lights. The crash caused his speeder to be leaning dangerously over the edge.

Tansu Treicolt

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Metal crunched on metal. Smoke billowed wider, collecting speed and spreading to eclipse the speeder entirely. Her ears were ringing and she could hear nothing but her pounding heartbeat.

Another plasma bolt whizzed past her and shattered her wind shield. She shrieked as the speeder groaned. She realized the only reason she hadn't smeared into the side of a building was because her speeder had lopsidedly curled around another aerial car and the two were locked in a deadly pretzel. Flames from the fuselages sparked up, growing wilder by the second and leapt from hers to the other. 

She couldn't get control of her coughing, and each flex of her lungs hurt more than it should have. A safety bag had deployed and marshmallowed around her, pinning her between the yoke, her safety harness, and her seat. She could barely move, and the heat from the fire was growing hotter. Her hands flew around the yoke, struggling to push it forward and off her chest. The pressure was immense, and every muscle in her arms and upper back strained through the struggle. 

Above the crackling flames, groan of metal, Tansu could hear two things. 
Amos mewing and someone yelling.

The other driver! Panic choked her more than the black exhaust clouds. Her mind scrambled to piece together the collision. How had it happened? How many had been in the car? She hadn't even seen them through the smoke. But they were able to express that they were alive. Tansu drew in a fumes-filled breath through her teeth, held it, and exhaled as she forcibly pushed the yoke forward. Once it gave an inch, she wedged her knee against it, using her leg strength rather than her arms and twist-rolled to the passenger seat. She gasped, grateful to find Amos in one piece. He clung to her, claws out, desperate and terrified. She wanted to reassure him, but opening her mouth filled it with too much acridity.

"Getcherself out!" Her voice strained and thin. Just as she started to climb over what had been the fender of her vehicle, up and to the other car, she clung to the exhaust pipe and started to haul herself and the cat up.

Both speeders were twisted up and perpendicular, teetered on the edge of the upper-level parking lot. Any wrong move would send them crashing over the side and bouncing down the building.

"But real careful like!" She yelled, daring a look over her shoulder as she dangled. Her footing scraped at the top of a window. 

A violent cough shook her arms and faltered the ferocity of her grip. The car shifted in response, creaking dangerously. 
To make matters worse, an angry bolt of red plasma whizzed right by her head and singed her hair. She yelped in surprise.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

It sounded like the other passenger was still alive. Hopefully it was just a singular one and no people got hurt in the crash. From the sounds of it they were scrambling out of their vehicle. Tal had a bit more tricky a situation. The belt was the only thing keeping him alive at this point. The moment that was gone he would drop down into the urban canyon and be crushed by incoming traffic. If he was lucky anyway. If he was unlucky he'd be smashed to pieces, breaking bones, until finally his body had taken enough trauma so he could die.

Not a fun way to go.

He looked around and tried to keep himself calm. This was difficult, because his heart was racing lightyears a second and he really wanted to cry. He sniffed and bit his underlip. Keep calm, keep calm. You can't abandon your sisters, can you?

That seemed to have the calming effect Tal needed. It allowed him to see the opening above him (metal torn open because of the crash, he was lucky it hadn't torn through him right after). He grabbed hold of the edge... and unclipped his training saber. It was aesthetically interchangeable from a real lightsaber, but functionally the two couldn't be more different. A real one could slice through a man's skull like it was made of butter.

A training one? It would hurt like a fether, but he wasn't killing anyone with it.

He bend his head back and ignited it. The low-yield plasma cut through the fabric like a paper sheet. Oh, yeah, the heat was already uncomfortable and he quickly yanked himself up and leaped into the air with some assistance from the Force.

Only reflexes saved him from a plasma bolt in his head. The saber rose up and deflected the bolt back to the assailants. Tal landed right next to the other passanger, but didn't pay them any mind right now. He was trying to figure out where the blaster bolts where coming from.

"I assume those shooters are after you?" Tal said calmly while keeping the ignited saber away from them, but keeping it at a ready to quickly deflect another bolt if necessary. "You okay, no wounds?" His entire body felt like it was on fire. Several cuts, he was bruised badly and Tal was pretty sure he had broken a rib or two. His nose was definitely crunched again and bleeding. But Talsin was keeping it together, because he had a civilian to take care of.

"I am Talsin, I will do what I can to protect you. What is your name?" Still not LOOKING at his new companion as he peeked out from over the wreckage and immediately pulled his head back as another barrage of blaster shots rained down on them.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Ah! You're rocking it!" Tansu yelped as the stranger's footing balanced precariously near to her. Their entire parallel-sloped wreckage groaned in response to the sudden movement, threatening to fall away to the traffic below.

Check the status of the situation, establish connection, reaffirm roles. The recipe of the hero to save the day was not a new one for Tansu. She'd seen her dad and brothers do it a hundred times over, across a spectrum of disasters. They were Protectors, in every sense of the word.

Whoever she'd crashed into was obfuscated by the billowing thick black clouds of smoke and fire, but they said their name and followed the protector's recipe. If she'd just been a common citizen, she would have felt instantly safer and calmer. Especially with the glow of the Jedi stick.

The lightsaber explained their survival. And their insistence to meander down the pretzelled wreckage to her position. A Jedi always had to help others. She'd told this person to get themselves to safety, why did they think she needed help? She was doing just fine clinging for life and dangling off a bumper all by herself.

"We've gotta get off this wreck." Her insistence was all broken up by coughs and drawn out gasps through her exertion to hold on and hoist herself up by sheer upper body strength alone. Amos wailed around her shoulders. Every muscle screamed. If only she could get some footing, then she could get a foundation to propel herself —

— She needed to see the distance to clear for the jump she'd need to make. Maybe she could grab the Jedi on the way? Wouldn't that be something. Just as she looked skyward, the wind from the traffic that sped by happened to clear a portion of the smoke just as she looked up. In this newfound pocket of clarity, the face from the market revealed itself and Tansu grimaced.

Chit. Chit. She could just drop, Let go of the speeder and sail down through the crosshatched traffic flows. Maybe land on another car. Or die.

Any option seemed better than seeing this guy again.

Then a blaster fired at her and erupted the dashboard next to her. Duraplastic, steel, sparks and wires flashed out and she shoved her face into her shoulder to protect herself.

Dying was maybe too extreme an alternative. She'd get out of this rut and then figure things out.

"Talsin! Can you make it to that ledge?" Again, broken up by coughs. Her throat and lungs burned.

Then her stomach dropped. The din of engines too small to belong to proper speeders roared out. Desperately, she twisted to look behind her. Through the smoke, the shape of the speederbikes circled, maniacal laughter rung out.

She felt a flash of intention spike through her and she shrieked. "They're gonna push the wreck off the ledge! We gotta jump! Now!!"

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Talsin Lota
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​

 

[Talsin Lota]

Luckily for them both Tal didn't see her face. He was too busy balancing off of the wreckage and trying to shield her from the blaster bolts, but he couldn't cover both sides from this angle and hell he hadn't trained deflecting bolts THAT often either. None of this was ideal. But Tal had grown up with decades (almost two!) of learning to be confident even if he didn't feel it. Fake it until you make it but as a noble style.

"Yes, I can, but what about-"

Another blaster bolt and Tal grimaced as he reared the saber to bounce one back by sheer stroke of luck.

"Yes, okay!" As she screamed that they have to jump. He acted on instinct and leaped towards the ledge and then immediately twisted around, to grab her arm and yank her up over the edge and help her up... which was exactly when he realized who it was that he was busy rescuing.

You He whispered tightly and his face scrunched up in pain. Everything was hurting already and his nose was DEFINITELY broken again. "Damn it, I-"

And then the wreckage dropped off of the ledge just as she had anticipated. The bikes came in and Tal acted on instinct. Yanking the girl back and behind him as he reared his 'lightsaber' towards them. They didn't expect that. In the smoke and fire the plasma stick hadn't been that obvious, but now they were face-to-face with a Jedi or what they assumed to be a Jedi. It was one thing to be chasing a young little girl.

Another to-

"One step more. Please. I have been having a terrible fucking day and I just need one more excuse before I start venting my frustrations on the fucking lot of you."

As if to make an example of it Tal took a step forward towards the ledge and them.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Just as the speeders gave way beneath her, Tansu was airborne. Not of her own volition. Talsin's hand tightened around her wrist and she yawped out in surprise when he hauled her up and dumped her behind him. It was just in time. A few seconds later, and she'd be falling along with the bulk of metal she could hear crashing down the side of the building.

Amos moved anxiously about her shoulders, seeking a way to find more cover and be less exposed. His claws were fully out and his ears completely flattened. She twisted to her side, scrambling to adjust and face the impending danger. Her unexpected victim-turned-saviour taunted at the oncoming gangsters.

Hopped up on adrenaline and spice, they took the bait. Violence was their primary language. They whooped and hollered, and leaned in to accelerate and come in. The wild eyes of the leader locked on Talsin, his speeder levelled at his midsection with the intent to bisect him on impact.

Tansu dropped her hand to the holster at her thigh, and she propped up on an elbow. Talsin's stance was authoritative and wide set enough to emphasize how grounded he was. A fighter's base that was difficult to imbalance. And the gap between his legs was just enough to frame a shot. Tansu aimed and fired off two shots in rapid succession at the exterior fuel cells of the oncoming bike.

Sparks burst out from the primary fuel source of the bike and the driver deviated from their collision trajectory. They veered hard to the right, whipping the tail end of their bike around in a wide arc, skidded backward through the air currents their acceleration had created, and slammed to a stop perpendicular to the teens.

"Jimminy crickets, just give it up already!" Tansu groaned through her teeth and hauled her body up to stand. Amos leapt from her shoulders and wound between her ankles. Everything hurt. Pain shot from joint to joint, travelling through her arms, ribs, knees, all over.

The leader circled the pair, his goons followed the trajectory. Through slit eyes, he evaluated getting in a fight with a Jedi. What their odds might be. If this pursuit of the girl was worth the pain and cauterization of a lightsaber. And a blaster. Was he too high for this level of a brawl, or just high enough? The two companion bikes hovered on either side, waiting for the final evaluation. Their blasters pointed at the pair, trigger fingers poised for the decision.

In the distance, marshal sirens blared and coloured lights whirled. They were drawn by the smoke and the called-in reports of a traffic accident.

Tansu moved the hem of her jacket, and dropped her hand to her hip where her saber was clipped. She watched the leader's eyes follow her gesture, linger, and widen with recognition.

She smiled and he sneered and put his bike in reverse.

"Next time, blondie! When your Jedi friend isn't around, and you cross Skullwire territory, you're ours!" The trio whooped, circled the pair tauntingly tight again, and raced off.

She'd been holding her breath for most of the encounter, and as soon as they zipped off, she doubled over and coughed violently. Smoke still clung to her throat and eyes and the burning could no longer be staved off.

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Talsin Lota
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​

 

[Talsin Lota]

He was still holding his saber tightly, squeezing there, secretly concerned they would see through the bluff. What would one lightsaber do in- He felt the warning signs but had no idea what was coming until they were coming at him and then... Tansu dropped down and squeezed her trigger finger. The blaster bolt roared between his legs and destroyed the incoming criminal's speeder immediately. His eyes widened for a fraction, but then immediately steeled themselves again.

Best not to look like that was a surprise to him.

Until finally the tension went out of him as they seemed to buy the threat and left. The tension didn't leave Talsin gently, instead it came out violently. Breathing out in a shudder, his hand shaking as he felt the danger pass.

"A-are..." His teeth rattling for a moment as he looked at the wreckage in the distance. "-you okay?"

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Every-ow-thing hurts."

Everytime she coughed, the pain in her sternum amplified. So all her sounds were a mix of choking, gasping, whimpering and...laughter?

"I can--ow--I can't believe - ow-ow-ow, they bought that. Also that you can stand at all."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

He straightened up there a bit, stiffened. Laughing? At a time like this?

"Sorry, you are laughing, right now?" Trying to shake off the tremors as he glanced over his shoulder at her perplexed.

Tansu Treicolt

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Tansu was still doubled over, barely standing, then then she dropped. Her entire body gave up.

Amos moved between her tabletop position to run his head along her torso, seeking to flatten his head under Tansu's neck. Mrrrowing concernedly with each turn beneath her belly.

"Y-yeah." She wheezed, and rolled into her back. Everything hurt way too much to even attempt to stand again. Her head was pounding, her chest felt like it was on fire, and every muscle had an ache of their own.

"Th-ow-that's a training-ow-saber isn't it?"

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

And he paused there as he looked at his saber... and cracked a rare smile. "I... well, yes. I only just... got initiated." He says sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. The tremors in his hands kind of dissipating as he was distracted.

"But I was betting on it that they wouldn't know one from the other..."

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Congrats." She croaked for both his bet paying off and for joining the Jedi Order. Her hand crept up her front and pressed against the place on her chest where the yoke had bore into her, and felt how sensitive it was. Like a bruise was already forming.

Tansu closed her eyes and let Amos sit on her stomach.

The sound of sirens was getting louder, and amplified the ringing and pounding between her ears. Now that the adrenaline was fading away, agony filled the space. "Thissucks."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

"Oh, thanks, I guess." Tal shrugged there as he crouched down with her and listened to the sirens. "Doesn't really feel real yet. I have mostly been to a few of the lessons. I came into it quite late, apparently you are supposed to start your training as a kid." But then again that sort of orthodoxy only made sense in a time of peace.

Not when the Galaxy was at war every two months.

"You know, I loved that speeder." Tal said dryly.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Yeah, that's supposedtuh be how it goes." She agreed. Technically, by all accounts, she'd started some level of training as a kid — but her parents had been tentative. They'd spent their life as heroes, and wanted a good childhood for the girls, unencumbered by expectation. She would have said something about him being a slow learner, just to hurt him, but he changed the subject.

Still with her eyes closed, Tansu winced as if his words had a physical affect.

"Of course you did." She murmured thinly. That speeder, and her rental, were total write offs. Crunched beyond recognition and probably shattered into pieces by the time they reached the ground. They were so high up in Coruscant's skylanes.

All the colour drained out of her face, and she pressed her hands into her eyes, as if hiding from the responsibility of owing more money than she could conceive. Talin Treicolt had already incurred them a debt for the destitution of Nero Drake 's speeder. Another thousand credits or so was not something Tansu wanted to be responsible for. Racking up debts in less than a month on Coruscant was a bad bad thing. "Chit."

Slowly, she slid her hands down and peeked over her fingertips at him.

"Was it a rental?"

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Talsin Lota
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​

 

[Talsin Lota]

The hope she was radiating was almost palpable. It almost made him sorry that he called her a worthless hick the other day. Did he actually add the word worthless back then or had it just been his imagination running wild? He snorted as he got up to his feet again, because being so close to her was kind of ... nerve-wrecking for some reason.

"No, no it was not. Do you see me driving around a rental?" Tone dry as he delivered the execution while wandering away from her to the edge of the building. "Forget about it. I will have a new one anyway."

That sounded snobby.

Tal didn't care.

Everything was hurting currently.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Rental or not, it was still gone. Her stomach pitted and dropped down to her ankles. Force, oh Force, they were never going to be able to become Jedi. She and Talin Treicolt were going to have to keep coming up with hairbrained schemes to make a quick credit constantly at this rate!

"Too good for a rental?" Her eyes rolled all the way to next week. "Of course y'are." But, propping herself up on her elbow, she was remiss to admit that there was a certain polish and poshness that he exuded. More than just a city boy. Even all ashy and bruised, he still seemed...really-look-attable. For lack of a better term, which Tansu was unwilling to search for. "Y'know you're just the w—" She stopped, finally hearing what he said after the snobby comment.

"Fo—forget about it?" She coughed again, from surprise and pain at the sudden movement of her sitting upright.

"Really?" Was this the same guy from the Troydarian's shop? Or did he also have a twin? She peered at him.

Maybe it was the same guy. He'd given up a hundred credits without a second thought, now he didn't seem to flinch at the loss of a speeder that cost thousands.

The sirens that had sounded distant bellowed increasingly louder and tore her from her scrutiny.

"Uhh, you expectin' to high-tail before investigation or..?"

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

"I am a Jedi Padawan. It is my duty to be there for the proper authorities and explain what happened." It was an excuse really. The Jedi in him, whatever that meant, would have loved to just tug tail and run. What did he owe to the Jedi or to the cops of this metropolis while his planet was being occupied by fucking bastards and nobody seemed to care about that?

No, it was his father and mother, who brought him up to be respectful of the law. To offer any and all assistance to the cops. Because they were there to protect them all.

Sure as feth didn't help them back on Teta... but that thought was quickly pushed down again.

Instead he glanced to her, up and down. "You can make yourself scarce however. I am sure being interrogated by the cops is less than fun."

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Back home, she didn't get in trouble for recklessness. There wasn't nearly as much traffic, she hadn't crashed since she was just learning to drive.

"Interrogated?" Tansu took offence. Mostly because of the judgement he levelled at her with a look. And because she was still holding a certain amount of animosity for his rudeness last time. AAAAnd because he was too good for a speeder rental. And his eyelashes were unfairly long for a guy's face.

"And have your barely-involved account misconstrue the facts? I don't think so." He'd been involved at the end, but not for the pursuit, or the fear she'd felt that had pitched her to hijack one of those gang member's speeders. Both of them looked convincingly terrible. Covered in ash, soot, grease, bruises, and cuts, but the context was all wrong. What if he sold her out?! And took this as some personal vandetta against him from the market or whatever.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

It was his turn to roll his eyes. There was something about Tansu Treicolt that made her want to argue against him as often as possible. It was the most annoying thing about her. He barely knew her and in truth he hoped he finally saw the last of her. But it really seemed to be part of her personality to just annoy the ever living feth out of him.

"Don't be an idiot. If you are here when the cops show up, my bike is the least of your concern. How about the property damage of the crash, the debris falling down and any of the other traffic that got caught up in it?"

He was about to say more but he also coughed and then grimaced. Everything hurt... there were places that hurt he didn't even know had existed.

Why was he here convincing this menace to flee from the law? Why was he even agreeing to shield her? Wouldn't it be better if she got nailed on the spot for everything? It would teach her a lesson, that was for sure.

But Tal was better than that. He had to be.