If I'm Running, You Should Be Too

[Kuzo]

Aimless.

Irajah sighed to herself as she sat down at the bar, a few seats away from the only other patron (a dark haired, grey eyed man). She was aimless and knew it. She had no leads, no ideas of how to get any farther with the information she needed. Sure, now she had people who were looking in to things too, but what was she suposed to do? Just- wait for them to find the information for her? Her hands curled in to fists, nails digging in to her palms hard enough to hurt.

It simply. Didn't. Suit.

Lay low, he'd told her. Don't make waves. Don't attract the attention of whomever might have done this to your planet, to your people. Stay out of trouble.

This... this was not going to work for her. Oh, it was sensible. Irajah didn't want to get in to trouble at all. She just also wasn't willing to sit here and let someone else do all of the work for her. She'd agreed at first.

The problem was that she didn't know where to start. She could call him back. Tell him that she wasn't just going to sit around and wait. Or she could get off of Dantooine and start applying herself like a scalpel to a cancer. There was someone, somewhere out there who knew something. And there was someone out there who knew everything.

She absently ordered a drink, one of the nightly specials, tugging her long flowing sleeves absently down to cover all the way to the back of her hands. Hazel eyes were distant as she accepted the glass, offering a cred stick and nodding a thank you to the bartender.

As the dark haired woman mulled over her problems, others started to enter the cantina. It was early in the evening, earlier than usual for the dinner crowd. She'd come to this particular cantina for the last five nights running- unwilling to be alone in her room at night, staying until last call before retreating back to the quiet.

And someone had noticed. But they weren't there just for her.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"]

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Rylan was running from his past. Running from what he had done over a year ago. He'd even gone as far as changing his name and face. He was in almost every right, a new man. It had come to the point where he had started to slip back out of the shadows, and begin this part of his life as Rylan Thatcher. Unfortunately, some people had a better eye than others. He'd been at the bar for a small time now, slowly downing his drinks while in thought, enjoying the fact that there was no crowd at the moment, the only two being himself, the woman next to him, and a few other stragglers here and there. However, he couldn't help but to listen closely when he felt the presences of five males enter at once. Sensing their hostility towards his direction, he started a bit, but quickly relaxed his body so as not to give himself away.

The authorities, he assumed. Maybe someone had caught his eye, recognized him. There was one problem he'd come across a few times, and it was that just by noticing that one feature of him, anybody who knew him could tell almost instantly. They were his most identifying trait, one he hoped he wouldn't pass on to his children. He'd heard stories about people with grey eyes, that they could be the worst people out there. The hardest to control. From his experience, the stories were correct. Ordering another drink, he looked to his right at the woman for a moment. Maybe, he thought, he could give them the slip if he was engaged in something normal. Like talking. "Come here often? , he asked, the worst conversation starter in the galaxy.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Come here often?"​

Oh, it was the worst. But despite that, she turned and offered him a small smile anyway. Well, honestly, somewhere between a smile and a smirk, because it was the worst. But still, half of it at least was a smile.

"Only lately," she replied, taking a sip of her drink. "It's the quietest cantina in town that isn't a total dive."

Was that a way of saying to leave her alone? No, because she didn't turn away and the smile didn't fade.

"I'm sorry," she amended as the bartender gave her a funny look. "The calmest, not the quietest. The place fills up a little later in the evening." The bartender, seemingly mollified, went back to wiping down the counter.

"How about you? I don't think I've seen you here before."

*****

As the two were talking the five men split in to two groups. A pair of them headed to the opposite end of the bar, looking like they were just here to order drinks. The other three filtered through the tables, the two in front shielding the view of the man in back.

Slowly, he withdrew a glop grenade. Non-lethal, messy, effective. Best yet, difficult to dodge once it went off. He glanced between the shoulders of his comrades, making eye contact with the bartender and giving the man a small nod. Only the slightest widening of the bartender's eyes gave something away and slowly, he started wiping down the bar in the opposite direction of the two people so casually chatting.

Of course, if that didn't work, they had no problems using more traumatic methods. But the individual orders on these two were clear. One needed to come in alive and uninjured if possible. The other one, alive was better, but, uninjured was optional.

Two for the price of one. The bounty hunter appreciated when his prey made it easy.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"]

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Rylan returned the half-smile with one of his own, letting a tiny bit of his charming personality seep through to the surface. "That's because I haven't been here before. I'm a traveler." It wasn't entirely a lie. He was simply trying to put some distance between himself and, well, everything. "I take it you do come here often then, if you were able to make that statement." He chuckled a little, but his smile was stopped short when he noticed the bartender swiftly making his way to the opposite end of the bar... away from himself and his new friend. In fact, his eyebrow arched a little, before he realized what was going on. "Were you expecting any friends?", he asked quietly. Not wanting to delve into the force, he had to assume there were at most a few guys coming in their direction. Who they were after, he didn't know, but it was safe to say it was him, assuming the woman next to him didn't also have problems. But that would be one hell of a coincidence, wouldn't it? Slowly reaching down, he unclasped his holster and rested a hand on his weapon.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

She had chuckled, shaking her head.

"Only lately," she repeated. "I was taking a stab in the dark wi-"

His question, and the movement of his hand to his blaster stopped her comment in it's tracks.

Oh maw, not again. It took a moment to parse, and realize that he wasn't going to pull his blaster on her. So that was some relief. But the uneasiness didn't leave her and she looked up. She didn't know what, exactly, she was looking for. But her hazel eyes met the dark eyes of one of the mercenaries. And though he looked away almost immediately, there was no doubt in her mind-

That wasn't the glance of a total stranger.

"No," she murmured. "Those are not friends of mine."

Her own hand strayed to her holdout blaster- a joke, if she were being honest.

"Now's probably a good time to step away from me- if you don't want to end up hurt." It didn't even occur to her that they would be after him. She had enough evidence to know that people were after her.

Which was of course when the rearmost mercenary lobbed the glop grenade through the air, arcing toward the spot on the bar right between the pair.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"]

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

After getting confirmation that the woman wasn't friends with the stooges in the back, Rylan risked taking a look at them. When she suggested getting away from her, he scoffed. "Please. They're most likely after me, i'll guarantee you that." Looking at the ugly mug of one of the mercenaries, he noticed the man pulling out a grenade and activating it. Eyes going wide, Rylan dodged to the side and slammed into the other, knocking her to the ground as the area on the bar they had just been in was covered in sticky foam. He had never seen anything like it, but was suddenly glad he wasn't covered in it himself. Helping the woman up from the ground, he looked her in the eyes for a moment. "I think we should run now."

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Not about to argue with you!"

It wasn't every day she was slammed off of a barstool by a stranger. But at least she was moderately sure this one wasn't trying to- she glanced quickly at the spot they'd been sitting- Not kill her, capture. Well, at least this one was just as keen to get away.

Rather than argue about who was after whom, Irajah ducked behind the bar, pulling [member="Rylan Thatcher"] with her.

Not before the now irritated mercenaries opened fire. Most of them were slinging stun blasts willy-nilly around the bar, regardless of anyone else here- but at least one of them hadn't set their blaster to stun. And everything was suddenly very, very serious.

"There should be an exit through the kitchen," she said, pressing her mouth close enough to his ear that no one else would hear it. Of course, that would only matter if there wasn't anyone already there waiting for them.

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

"Then that's probably where we should be going." Looking around for something to help with a diversion, Rylan drew his pistol, a menacing piece of black metal that stretched almost ten inches and housed three barrels. With such a monster, nobody would easily deduce he was once a Jedi, or that he had any affiliation with them. However, there were obviously still some parts of him that gave himself away. Either way, he knew he had to get out of the area, and if this woman was being hunted too, they needed to work together. Thinking on his feet, he remembered that their hunters had seemed to want them alive. He could use that to his advantage. Getting close to the woman's ear, he whispered, "Play along, hopefully this works in our favor." Getting up, he jerked her up with him, maneuvered her to cover his body, and placed the pistol to her head. "Back away, or i'll blow her brains out!" The whole time, he began inching back towards the kitchen, his eyes trained on the mercenaries.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

She'd been about to ask what he meant when he showed her. Letting out an undignified squeak, Irajah's eyes widened. She was, quite suddenly, staring at the faces of their assailants, with a gun to her head. Her hands came up, gripping at his forearm around her.

This was not at all what she had in mind.

Are you crazy? flashed through her head, but really, the question didn't need to be asked.

Is he crazy? Flashed through the lead bounty hunter's mind at the same moment. There was a flash of real fear in his eyes- fear? Why? Irajah was too distracted to notice it, but Rylan might.

"Alright boys- give 'em some air," he said, pointing his own gun away from the pair.

"We can talk about this, civilized like, shiny?"

[member="Rylan Thatcher"]

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Rylan had to stop himself from grinning- his little stuny had more than went in his favor and that of the woman's. As the supposed leader of the mercenary group directed his weapon away from the pair, Rylan simply kept stepping backward. He could see into the man's eyes then. He was afraid, maybe of losing his bounty. Tough. Perhaps his client was a particularly dangerous fellow, and if that was the case, then the situation they were in could be much worse. Either way, once he had himself and the woman at the kitchen door, he whispered softly into her ear. "Attack me and take my gun, then haul ass. I'll be right behind you." At that point, she'd have protection for herself, while he would be able to deal with the men in a more physical manner if had to.

[member="Irajah Ven"]