Hailfire

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Well that wasn't what she had expected. The assailant seemed to almost have the ability to fly, with [member="Subject 73 Red"] quick on his heels. If only she had her escape boots. Or even her jetpack. Darn!

Lori had to try to guess where they were headed, AND try to beat them to it. She grumbled to herself as she began to run down the street, glad that the effects of the flash bang were wearing off. Out of the corner of her eye she caught their jumping from building to building. There was no way that she could scale one in time!!

But that was when she had an idea.

Lori skidded to a halt and focused on the particles of air in front of her, whipping them fast so that they'd illuminate, just as she had done ever since she was little. As soon as the ball of light was created, she sent it hurling towards the two, moving quickly until bypassed them and then turned and hit the assailant in the face. It wouldn't burn him, but surely blind him like any flash bang would.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

The assailant yelped, and stumbled as he was blinded by the light. The assailant tripped over a piece of metal randomly and conveniently placed on the roof. Why it was there, Red had no clue, but he thanked whoever had left it there. He managed to gain ground on the assailant, and tackled him to the ground.

They wrestled around on the ground for a minute, but Red managed to pin him down.

Red pressed his right knee into the assailant's chest, and held the assailant's throat.

"Start talking!" Red yelled.

"Never!" The assailant spat.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

It worked!! Lori took note of which roof [member="Subject 73 Red"] and the assailant were on, before she climbed up an escape ladder to reach them. Thankfully the roof wasn't dozens of stories up! Once she made it to the top, she found Red kneeling on top of him, trying to get him to talk. Lori made her way over to them, staring down at him. "Who are you?! What are you after? Your friends are dead. My friend here can easily make you join them. It'll be up to you on whether it's the hard way, or the easy way."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

"Never! I will never tell you anything!" The assailant spat in response to her questions.

Red looked at Loreena. "Permission to use 'extreme' measures?" He asked her.

By extreme measures, he meant torture. That was another thing Red was exceptionally good at, torture and interrogation. Red hadn't been able to use his interrogation skills in a long time, and he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting rusty.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori folded her arms across her chest as she assailant still refused to talk. When [member="Subject 73 Red"] asked her for permission to do what she figured he'd do anyways, she just shrugged her shoulders. "Well he did choose the hard way, so...permission granted." It was silly that he even asked her. But if the dynamic works in order to get the man to talk, then all the better. At least her Dad wasn't here to get mad at her for it.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

Red nodded then turned back to the man. He lifted the assailant off of the ground and held him by the throat.

"Last chance." Red warned.

"Never!" The assailant managed to say while being choked by Red.

Then, Red held up his left hand. In it, there was a knife. Red then stabbed the man through the left eye. The man screamed in pain. Red twisted the knife, and the screaming got louder. Red pulled out the knife, and because of the serrated edge of the knife, the assailant's eyeball got stuck on it. Red pulled out his knife, and the eyeball came right along with it. He looked at his knife, examining the eyeball stuck on it. Blood was running down Red's knife, and onto his arm. Blood was coming out of the assailant's empty left eye socket. The assailant was still yelling out in pain and clawing at Red's hands holding his throat, but to no avail.

"Tell me!" Red demanded again, dropping his knife to the ground.

"I... Will... Never!" The assailant persisted.

"Then you force me to break into your mind." Red said, and he concentrated on the man. He reached into the Force, and broke through the man's mind. The assailant gasped. Red examined around inside of the man's mind. Everything was tightly held. This might take a while. Then, suddenly, Red noticed something inside of the man's mind. The assailant wasn't in their grasp yet. In fact, there was another assailant, aiming a sniper right at Loreena.

Red dropped the man and turned to Loreena. "Get down!" He told her and he shoved her to the ground. Then, the sniper took the shot. The bolt arched to where Loreena once was standing, and where she once was standing, Red was standing there. The bolt struck Red in the chest, and Red fell to the ground. He wasn't wearing his armor, so there was nothing to absorb the shot.

The assailant they had captured used the distraction to get up and continue running away, holding his left eye.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori stepped back a little to give [member="Subject 73 Red"] some space while he showed her just how he gets information out of people. It was harsh, but not unlike some of what she had seen during her time with the Mandalorians. And there were others that could be far worse.

But still the assailant held on. Lori couldn't help but have some respect for his resolve. She knew that she was stubborn in her own right, but wasn't certain if her stubborness was at THAT level.

Break into his mind? Lori looked to Red with a bit of shock as she clearly had no idea that he had such a skill. Yet he did. And what he found was unexpected to be sure.

Lori dropped as soon as she was told to. She wasn't that stupid. However Red wasn't so lucky. Why were they trying to kill her? She had no bounties and had been away from her parents for some time. Surely they didn't know anything about her? She didn't even know who THEY were.

Taking out her blaster, she fired towards where the sniper was, all the while she was shouting to Red. "You okay?! I'll get some bacta patches for you as soon as we get off this roof! Hold on!" If only she had some back up. Arla had to guard the ship. But maybe....

Lori fired at the direction of the sniper before fishing out her commlink and using it to contact Arla. "Arla! It's Lori! Zero in on my location with the Sparrow and bring her here ASAP! Take out the hostiles in the area! Now!!"

"Yes Captain! On my way!"

It should only take a few minutes. Hopefully.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

Red groaned. Everything hurt, his head was spinning, and even breathing hurt. Well, that wasn't good, not in the slightest. Loreena yelled at him and asked him something.

"Am I okay?! I just got shot, without my armor! What do you think?!" Red responded. Then, he coughed.

Loreena yelled something into her commlink. Red just laid there, breathing heavily. He had been shot before, but it was never a fun experience. The sniper returned fire at Loreena.

"Maybe you could try hitting him!" Red suggested to Loreena.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

[member="Subject 73 Red"] had a right to be snarky. She knew that. And it was what she had expected too. But at least it let her know that he was alive and conscious. "I have help coming! Hold on!"

Lori narrowed her eyes. She was a good shot, but not from a sniper's distance! Focising on the air in front of them, she used the Force to bond the particles into a solid wall, thereby creating a shield of sorts in front of them. The sniper's blaster bolts bounced off of it. But it also meant that for the moment she couldn't return fire.

It didn't really matter though, for soon Jaster's Sparrow flew into the area, opening fire on the sniper's position. Lori hooped and hollered in joy! "Get 'em Arla!!"

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

Red noticed the ship. "Well, that was perfect timing." Red said, sarcastically. It would have been perfect timing before he got shot. He coughed, heavily. Well, that wasn't good.

Then, the sniper got up and ran. He jumped down into a narrow alleyway and disappeared.

"Well, at least we're alive." Red said. He moved to slowly get up, he winced at the pain. It hurt, a lot. He groaned and fell back down. "That's just perfect." He muttered to himself.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori didn't pay any mind to the sarcasm that [member="Subject 73 Red"] had uttered. Some people were like that, herself included. Instead she held her attention on her ship and it's attack on the sniper.

Unfortunately he got away.

Lori released her hold on the particles in front of them and then looked to Red as the man tried to get up. "Just take it easy. Once Arla get's the Sparrow down, we can get the medkit and patch you up enough to get you to a hospital." That is if he even cared to go to one. Her eyes remained fully on him while the Jaster's Sparrow touched down on the roof. "Thank you for saving me, by the way. You didn't have to..."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

Red shook his head at her proposition to go to a hospital. "No, no hospital. They'll just mess me up. They'll operate really slow, and then charge ma a ton, and then I'll have to kill them and most likely the entire hospital, both staff and patients. I really don't want to have to kill anyone I don't have to." He told her. He managed to get himself up into a sitting position.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Don't thank me yet, we're not out of this yet. Besides, I just did what I was bred to do." Red replied.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori frowned slightly as [member="Subject 73 Red"] refused to go to a hospital. Well, some people were like that, she guessed. "Alright then...We'll do what we can in my ship."

She stayed near him as the Jaster's Sparrow cargobay door opened with Arla walking outside. She was armed with two blasters, her eyes looking in every direction. "Are you hurt, Captain?"

"I'm okay. But he took a shot for me."

"Let's get him inside then." Arla didn't even ask Red's permission. She just grabbed hold of his arm and hoisted him onto his feet with a bit more strength than a lady her size seemed that she had.

Lori got to her feet. "Yeah, the quicker we're in the air the safer we'll be. We'll get you fixed up as well as we can, then maybe we could figure all this mess out." Like why they were after her in the first place. Or maybe it was just because she was with Red. In any case, they needed to get to safety.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

"Right. I'm sure it'll be fine. I can operate on myself if necessary." He told her.

Then, suddenly, he was pulled up by the newcomer. "Okay, I guess we're going now." Red muttered to himself. Red frowned. The newcomer was... extraordinarily strong, far more than what they appeared to be, and possibly more than other humans. Intriguing. Definitely interesting.

"Well, let's get inside."

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

"Well it won't be necessary. You're not alone and we aren't squeamish."

Both ladies went to either side of [member="Subject 73 Red"] to lend him support as they headed up the cargobay ramp. Arla kept on the lookout for danger and once they were all on board, she brought the ramp up. "I'll get us in the air ASAP, Captain. But let's get him in the crew bunks." At least there Red could lay down.

Lori didn't argue with her. There was no need to. Leading Red to the bunks, they helped him to lay down on one of the bottom ones. Then the two left him alone; Arla to the cockpit and Lori to fetch the medkit.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

"Right. Let's just hurry up." He said as they assisted him inside of the ship.

Once they were inside of the ship, they brought him to the bunks, and helped him lay down. Then, they left him alone; a poor choice on their fault. He pulled out a small datapad. Any sort of movement hurt terribly. He started typing on it. He then pulled out a transmitter and activated it. The blue image of a pit droid appeared.

"Pitt, get my equipment ready, I'll be coming soon." He told it.

The pit droid nodded and chattered something in droid speak.

"Just get it ready! I'll be there shortly." He told the droid. He then deactivated the transmitter and stowed it back into his pocket, along with the datapad.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori was on her way back to the bunks by the time that [member="Subject 73 Red"] was just finishing his transmission, carrying the medkit. Her brow was raised as she stepped in. "You weren't just complaining about my ship, were you? I mean, she's not much but she's good and she's only a couple of years old." Of course she had no idea of what he had said moments earlier.

Not really waiting for an answer, she sat on the edge of the bed and put the medkit on his lap. Opening it up, Lori brought out the bacta gel and plasters. "I'm going to lift your shirt carefully, so...try not to move." She took in a deep breath and let it out quickly. While one hand held the bacta, the other was used to slowly lift the shirt to expose the wound. The heat of the blasterbolt cauterized some of the fabric to the burned skin. Lori grit her teeth as she pulled, not wanting to take the skin off. "Try....not...to...move..."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

Red shook his head. "Nah, your ship is... adequate. It's better than nothing." He said.

She slowly worked on him. He knew she was trying to be careful, but time was of the essence. "No need to be so careful, just do it! I can take it!" He told her. They needed to hurry, and her being slow and careful was slowing them down.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori clenched her jaw. "It's not hurting you that I'm worried about. It's the fact that your skin could come off and I'm trying to prevent that. So...hold still." The last thing that she needed was for [member="Subject 73 Red"] to get infected.

She continued to pull on the fabric and with every centimeter freed up, Lori slathered on a bit of bactagel. "Did you recognize those pirates?" She attempted a bit of smalltalk to help distract her some while she continued working on him. Now three quarters of the way through, the process seemed to move quicker..

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

"Yeah, I recognized them, they were the criminals I told you about. I'm not surprised they tracked me down, I did stop one of their heists, so they are probably angry or afraid of me, so they hunted me down. In fact, I wanted them too." Red told her. She was still movingly slowly, but she was making progress. He needed to reach his cache of gear, but he would tell her about that later.