Why Not Take Out The Trash?

[Darth Adekos]

RAXUS PRIME

[member="Spark Finn"]

"I know you're out there you impudent little worm!" Adekos snarled. He was scuffed up, possibly bruised, but appeared otherwise unharmed. In a fit of impudent rage, he directed a telekinetic blast into a heap of scrap, sending it flying in every direction. A perfectly good excavation- he had been so close to finding what he wanted, but then the machinery malfunctioned and the droids started behaving erratically. He could tell when his own shtick was being used against him, and he could tell whoever was using it stunk of the Light Side.

There was only one person who fit the bill for a Light Sided technopath hellbent on interfering with his work. Adekos didn't even think she was still alive. Carach was supposed to have been taking better care of his precious "legacy" than this. Now she was running about unchecked through the galaxy.

Another blast hurled detonated yet another pile of scrap, sending refuse flying in every direction. He continued to make his way through the junkyard, shouting at the open air. "Don't test my patience any more than you already have. I'm already on the fence for leaving you alive after that stunt you pulled."

Months of work, wasted! Surely there would be hell to pay.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]



Angry tyrant was angry. Maybe he was #hangry? #Langry? #Mangry?

Blue-eyes beneath glass-lenses widened. Tank-top, skinny-jeans, converse clothed self stepped cautiously from behind a pile of rusty old converters that hadn't been blasted yet by this dude's rage. Some fallout from his second blast banged against her invisible force bubble. Her shuttle was close. Still cloaked.

She just had to...get past him? She wasn't counting on him sensing her stuff. Or maybe she was, to distract him from what she really did. Word on the street was, his little experiment was aimed at hitting the Galactic Alliance or the Underground. What started as a fact finding mission quickly turned into much more. #mystery

"Hey dude." #DarthKoKo "Who you calling little, gramps?" Pale-brow scrunched up as a scrap pile near the Dark Jedi Master rumbled to life. A salvaging droid moved much faster than its programming normally allowed as it put its domed head down on a collision path to ram into Adekos' ribs.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

Eyes narrowed as his quarry came out from hiding. Who dressed her like this? Every corner of this planet was dominated by rust covered metal, and she wore... Casual shoes and a sleeveless shirt? Somebody had better had their tetanus shot. Adekos scoffed audibly when she called him dude and then gramps. "I see your time off has left you no more disciplined..."

A droid shot out from under a scrap heap in an attempt to ram Adekos. No doubt at this trollop's beck and call. The Umbaran only half turned to face it, extending one hand towards the dominated machine. A stream of purple, Ionic energy streamed through the air and slammed into the droid, stalling it in its tracks. The stream lasted only a few moments and ceased when the droid crashed back into the ground, power supply exploding and smoke billowing from its head.

"...And no more skilled."

The Force started to gather in a palpable cloud near Adekos, and several scrap piles began to shift. "While you've been loafing about playing grab-ass with a doomed terrorist cause or whatever it is you do, I've been busy." It soon became apparent that these scrap piles weren't just shifting, but assembling. Three junk golems began to peel themselves out of nearby scrap piles. Two were close to Adekos, but the third emerged a long ways off behind Spark. They were barely humanoid in shape, a conglomerate of the garbage of a myriad of different contraptions. Starship parts, droid components, landspeeder engines, broken appliances- it hardly mattered. Whatever was there. An ethereal red glow in their core seemed to be the only thing holding them together.

Adekos unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and the crimson blade snapped to life in his hand. "Vacation's over, Spark. Time to get back on schedule."

The two junk golems in front of Spark took off in a reckless charge to tackle her. The third one, meanwhile, lingered in the back.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

#rude

"Looks like those classes at the senior center have been paying off. But your manners need some work, Adekos." A frown graced her thin-lips. The feeling coming from his attacking scrap droid pieces felt hauntingly familiar. The blond-techno-nerd pushed those thoughts aside as her mental defenses turned up.

Her invisible force-bubble exploded outwards, the movement of its invisible walls becoming evident as it slammed into the two scrap droids coming in for an attack in front as well as any edges of scrap metal, droid parts, and speeder parts that happened to be in its radius. Gangly-arms pushed forward to continue the wall's outward explosion like a wild bantha ready to steamroll anything in its way....including Pappy Adekos.

A whirring-hissing rumble was heard a few junk-piles over as her shuttle came online.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

The junk golems stopped short of their target, smacking into some invisible wall. In their limited understanding (they were no smarter than the average technobeast), they began to claw, kick, and punch at the Force Bubble. This display gave Adekos pause and he instinctively took a step back. Was he really going to get thwarted by something so juvenile and basic as a Force Bubble? Too late. The Sithling was bowled over along with his scrap golems as the wall smacked into the three of them.

His lightsaber deactivated as he tumbled over himself, landing on his chest but still pointed towards Finn. His fist pounded the ground in frustration. "You're going to regret that!" Adekos reached out with one hand, calling on the Force to attempt to constrict Spark's windpipe and leave her gasping for breath- if only for a moment. The two scrap monsters that had been tossed aside with him started to get back to their feet. As they did so, their third friend took off sprinting towards Spark and leaped forward, attempting to tackle her to the ground from behind. Scrap golems were not especially stealthy creatures, unfortunately. Doubtless she would be aware of its approach.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

While Adekos was pounding his fist and throwing a tantrum #adulttantrum, she was moving. The force bubble blast was great, except, it left her in the open. She felt too much like a lone, free-range nuna and Adekos was looking a little too wolfy. #wolfyisawordnow #duh Converse-clad feet were making a bee-line toward the nearest pile of nerdy tech-gear junk.

Seriously, what was this place?!?!

#totescool

The speckled-girl stumbled as breathing came a bit harder. Blue-eyes narrowed at Adekos. Mind reached forward to technopath the shizniz out of his lightsaber hilt in an attempt to explode it. A clattering from behind split her attention. Converse-clad feet launched her in a dive to the side but she felt the technothingie's digits....arms....scrap-metal???...close around her bony-ankles. Glasses went slightly askew on her face.

#Ewwwyit'stouchingme

Hot air blasted the area as her shuttle hovered over them. With a mental-push, the ship's weapons turned on and whirred to life, aiming two ion-canons toward techno-gramps. It was so similar to that one time with Coren and Sage. Except this time, she didn't have to be flying the ship to use it.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

His lightsaber hummed erratically at his side, forcing Adekos to abandon his telekinetic strangulation in order to keep it from exploding. Did she just try to use his signature move against him? He was going to have to remember to patent it before he went into battle next time. He was probably entitled to some royalties. Eager as ever, the other two scrap golems finally regained their footing and bolted off to join the dog pile. Adekos was just starting to clamber to his feet as well when a gust of hot air hit him and he gazed up to find a giant metal ship hanging over him.

Electronics he could do. Droids were a cinch. But starfighters? Gunships? Beyond his scope.

"Blast!" Adekos yelled, now turning around to flee in the opposite direction. The Umbaran hadn't brought any air support, largely because he hadn't suspected he would need it.

Meanwhile, the scrap golem with its hands around her ankles would try to drag her towards it. In a few moments his friends would be along to help restrain her, and hopefully that would be enough to get that ship from out of the sky.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

The ship continued to fire at Adekos, though a bit more sporadically as she was dragged back. A force blast was released at the two droid puppet thingies with enough force to launch them into a stagnant scrap crusher. With a sharp nudge of her mind, she turned on the machine.

#clobberingtime

With a wriggle and a squirm, she twisted on her back and kicked her feet at the technothingie. It caught her ankle and hauled itself over her thin-form to pin her to the ground, grabbing for one of her bony-arms. "Get. Off." Pale-face scrunched up as she dove into the droid with the force, intending to take over control.

The ship stopped firing overhead.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

Oblivious to the loss of two stalwart helpers, Adekos continued to flee- now being chased by a hail of ion bolts. It was all well and good that they weren't real blaster bolts, otherwise it would have been a problem that they started singing him as he dove from scrap pile to scrap pile in pursuit of cover. He was livid. Terrified, sure, considering he was being chased about a junkyard by puppeted shuttle, but mostly angry. Either Spark or the narrow-minded twits she worked for were going to be paying for this injustice. One way or another, but for now he would have to settle for occasionally belting out some profanity while having his clothes get chewed up by ion bolts.

Meanwhile, the scrap golem struggling with Spark was no simple droid. It was a construct, animated entirely through the Force. It had no circuits, no droid brains, wires, power supply... It was just the Force, made animate within the humanoid form of arbitrarily selected chunks of garbage. If it even heard her request to get off, it likely didn't understand it. So it swung a powerful right-hook for Spark's face, trying to knock her out cold.

There was a sudden pause in the ship's firing, which Adekos used to pop out of cover. With both hands, he directed a duo streams of Ionic energy beams into the ship. With any luck, he could short-circuit the targeting system or engines. Maybe disable the ship entirely. Then again, this was a technique mostly meant for droids, not airborne killing machines. He'd just have to take his chances.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

#someonehadapottymouth

She couldn't exactly tune-out the angry sithish lord traipsing around the junkyard. But blue-eyes beneath glass-lenses were focused on the metal thingie still sitting rudely on top and totes breaking her personal bubble space. #mybubble!!! She felt what was coming. With a wiggle of her nose, a few clicks were heard as the arm of the droid popped out of its socket. It clanked against her shoulder and hit her chin with a sudden thud as it fell off before able to complete that right hook. Lip split, blood oozing down her chin.

Using the golem's sudden off-balance and lost appendage, she rocked her hips and blasted it off with the force, straight up, toward the stream of energy Adekos was ravaging her shuttle with. The blond scrambled back to her converse-clad feet and retreated. With a whirring groan, her shuttle veered suddenly wide-right and dropped toward the ground.

Stretching her pale-fingers, her force-presence surged forward, plugging into anything in the junk-pile with a circuit-board or old power-source: parts of droids, scraps of old holo terminals, starship pieces, and maintenance equipment. With a shuddering breath, the various objects and sharp scrap-metal rumbled to life. Gangly-arms surged forward as she blasted all the pieces at Adekos.

Some pieces were as large as her shuttle and others were small and razor sharp like a cracked-up screen of a poor, neglected last season i-Comm.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

The ship started to pitch to the right and groan under Adekos' barrage, causing the Umbaran to smile under his mask. Fool! Did she think a measly little shuttle could stop him? He was a learned master of the Dark Side, a disciple of the teachings of Darzu herself! He now knew a thousand intricate secrets in the art of Mechu Deru, and each one would have driven mortal men mad! Nothing could-

Without warning one of his helpers was flung through the air, intercepting not one but both of his Ionic beams. His concentration snapped and the beams stopped, but not before the helpless golem absorbed the brunt of the energy and exploded in a miniature shower of scrap. Shrapnel flew every which way, clattering uselessly against his mask but causing small knicks and cuts in Adekos' attire and, but extension, himself. Adekos grit his teeth and instinctively managed to half-turn from the shrapnel. It did little good- this was going to hurt something fierce when the adrenaline wore off. The shuttle crashed harshly into the dirt while this happened, cockpit door angled sideways towards him.

When he looked back up, Spark was unattended. It was only then that Adekos realized his first two golems had likely met some kind of grisly fate and he had unwillingly polished off the last one himself. No matter. Or it did actually matter, because he then noticed Spark was drawing on the Force like a drug addict drew on glitterstim. Every electronic in the surrounding area was levitating. He knew what would come next. Adekos stuck a hand out, willing the door to the shuttle to abruptly open.

"Don't try it."

She tried it.

Why me?

Everything was thrown at him at once. Adekos moved to sprint for the best piece of cover available, which was the shuttle whose door he had conveniently opened. Electronics of every shape and size smacked him around as he tried to get to cover. It was a journey barely over a minute long, yet by the time he flung himself inside the shuttle's cockpit his clothes had been minced, his body bruised and bloodied, and his ego thoroughly wounded. This was getting ludicrous. "We're going to try this again now," he wheezed, holding a hand over the cockpit controls. "Only now I'm the one with the shuttle."

One of the guns yanked itself around according to someone else's unnatural will. It took aim at where Adekos suspected Spark's probable location was and fired a single, concentrated Ion burst.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

Legs trembled. Fingers shook. Almost the entire junk pile had been displaced at one rude darksider. She saw where he was running. And she saw the swivel of the turret.

"Feth...," converse-clad feet finally moved as the force pumped through her body. She dove behind one of the huge junk-piles that hadn't been displaced by her combination of mechu-deru and TK craziness. The heat from the blast that just missed her melted the bottom of her shoes.

#myfavoriteshoes!!!!!!

She kicked them off before they could melt her feet, too and continued to crouch behind her makeshift cover. Finding a white-painted piece of shrapnel, she flung it in the air like a frisbee, hoping Adekos could see it from the shuttle. Her shuttle. "TRUCE?" She yelled, panting hard. Maybe instead of killing each other, they could...compromise?

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

Eyes narrowed. Grimace intensified. Some sort of white chunk of durasteel flew from where Spark was hiding and through the air, landing behind the ship and out of sight. From the inside of the cockpit, Adekos could hardly hear what Spark was yelling about. He wanted to say it was a plea for mercy or clemency, but it didn't sound like it. Adekos didn't know who this "Bruce" fellow was, but if he was within yelling distance, it could spell trouble. Then again, it was just as likely to be a seasoned Jedi as it was a particularly well-armed GNK droid. He waited with baited breath for someone else to enter the fray.

No one came.

Fine, time to wrap this up. The turret twisted around completely- more than it should have normally been able to. It affixed its barrel in the complete opposite direction. This was far more than its intended field of vision, causing the mechanism controlling it to snap in several places. It would not be turning back around to fire on anyone else without proper repairs. With this settled, Adekos departed the vessel. Wary of any further trickery from Spark, he held his activated lightsaber in hand.

"This had better be to discuss the terms of your surrender." He grunted. He rolled one of his shoulders to gauge the severity in a gash in it. As expected, it stung like the dickens. A job for the medical droid later. "You've caused me enough trouble for one lifetime."

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

She waited a few tense moments.

Then a few more...

and a few more.

.......................... .

What was with this dude? #Probablyhardofhearing #seniorcitizen Blond-haired head popped up from the junk pile as she stole a peak, just in time to see and hear the crunch-crunch-crunch of her gun turret breaking. #totesRUDE!!!!!

The old-dude came hobbling out. Finally. Scuffed-up skinny-jean self cautiously edged a step, then another away from the cover of her junk-pile. Still totes within diving distance, duh. "My surrender?" She wiped the blood still dripping from her lip. "Please. We were about to tear each other apart. I just want to have a civilized conversation young-adult to senior citizen."

Glasses were adjusted.

"I helped you once. Did some development work on a new droid model. I'd say that makes us even. I walk away. You walk away."

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

No one had ever quite confronted Adekos about his age before this. It was true, he was getting on in years, and now that he was being confronted with it he could feel his irritability growing. The Force had a habit of prolonging lifespans, and even without it he could probably live to be a century based just on advanced medical technology alone. Regardless of that, being called a senior citizen had a certain connotation to it. As if Adekos had just gotten done sending birthday cards to his grandchildren even though their birthdays were still seven months away. Or he had gotten lost on his way to the same grocery store he always visited and proceeded to drive along a busy street at the admirable speed of ten miles per hour.

"And now you've set my project back months, fool! And that's not even to mention the cost of replacing all the equipment you damaged!"

He was, of course, referring also to those droids that had been helping with the excavation. The entire site had been partially reburied along with most of the excavation equipment and all of the droids. Something in the junk pile next to Spark shifted, as it did in some other adjacent piles. His entire project had been jeopardized by this trollop's meddling. This assertion that they were now "even" almost gave him a heart palpitation. The fact that Spark didn't properly recall what she had assisted him with also helped annoy him further.

"I could have trained you." He snapped, pointing a finger accusingly. "You could have made something of yourself, but now here you are trapeezing around the galaxy, nipping in vain at the heels of your betters! No ambition, no direction, and no plan! You'll die before you make anything worthwhile of yourself and it'll all be because you can't see past the bridge of your nose. What a waste. We're not even, you cretin, not by any stretch of the word. If you really want to walk away, you can start with telling me who sent you."

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

Gaze shifted uncertainly to the rattling junk-pile next to her. A circle of defensive-power hummed around her skinny-form. "Cretin? Really. That's totally rude, dude. I thought we were keeping this civilized?"

Bare-feet shifted on the metal-strewn ground. She felt the hum of the force around her, crackling and shifting through the tech in her ship and in the half-broken gadgets strewn around the field. Like space and the ship was to Coren, this planet was to Spark. "And trained me?" She snorted, blue-eyes narrowing beneath glass-lenses. "You would've just used me like every other sith. Like Carach. I'm sorry but the darkside track record involving me sucks. Not much better for the jedi either but that's neither here nor there."

She waved a thin hand through the air.

"You know, the Underground could really use someone like you. Why are you wasting your time with a bunch of haters?"

She began circling Adekos toward her shuttle.

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

Adekos continually moved, keeping himself between Spark and her shuttle. "My so-called 'haters' fill your terrorist cell's ranks. If they didn't, I doubt you'd be here." As one could expect, Adekos had no idea what the Underground was. He also had no idea that it was a proper noun where Spark used it. It just sounded to him like Spark just dropped an umbrella term for every rebel, terrorist, and criminal organization this side of the Corellian Run. When you thwarted or outlived several dozen earnest attempts to buck the system, they all started to blend together.

His presence in the Force hung over several scrap piles like a malevolent pall. The shuffling intensified as golems were strung together underneath. If anyone bothered to count, there were five in total, all at various distances from the two dueling technopaths. "You keep blabbering about how we're going to use you. Use you for what? You've no discipline. You've no finesse. Everything you do is unrefined and amateurish- totally lacking in even the basics of true technique. The only people 'using' you are your little friends. I can tell they've taught you nothing."

"Carach and I disagree on many issues; etiquette being the most clear. But we're unanimous when I say we hate to see talent go to waste. It's always been about helping you, Spark." He sounded sincere. Then again, most Umbarans did when they were lying. "Helping you reach your full potential- saving you from the lackluster mediocrity you've currently consigned yourself to. Why can't you see that?"

The Umbaran gave a smooth wave of his hand, beckoning the Force to his will. It was not an intricate display, but enough to get his point across. An invisible strand of the Force would then seek to coil itself around Spark's glasses and crush them completely, potentially shattering their lenses and blinding her.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

Wait. What was he saying? The Underground had spies? Or he was just a hater? #prollyjustahater A warning in the force prompted her to raise her force barrier. Just as it snapped into place, she felt a pressure near her eyes and gasped when a large crack etched its way down her right lens.

#partyfoul!

The shuttle behind him rumbled to life. Sandy-brows knit in concentration as her force-presence increased in the model. Thrusters turned on. The shuttle hovered a few inches off the ground and lurched forward, aiming to plow Adekos right over or smash him on the view-port like a bug.

"I'm not buying your cult punch. Guess civilized conversation is over?"

Fingertips surged forward as she released a force blast at his chest hoping to sandwich and smash him against the nose of the quickly approaching shuttle.

#KoKowrap #vegan?

 

[Darth Adekos]

[member="Spark Finn"]

As it happened, getting beaten up could put a dampener on one's danger sense. Adekos barely had time to register what was going on before the shuttle plowed right into him, causing him to roll over the hood and end up scrunched up against the forward viewport. He grunted in pain (getting hit by a starship of any size at any speed was seldom a pleasant experience) and struggled to pick himself back up. That was when he sensed the Force well back up within Spark for something decisive.

"Spark, wait-"

Negotiations had since concluded, it would seem, and the Force Blast smacked Adekos so hard that it shattered the viewport and sent him flying into the shuttle. He actually managed to skid through the cockpit and end up in the middle of the main cabin, only coming to a halt when he flew into a wall. This was the last act. He couldn't keep this up any more. By this point, something was probably broken. It was time to bid a speedy farewell. Fortunately he could still offer up a distraction. Adekos, now covered in glass shards, gave a painful groan as he shakily got back to his feet and issued a mental command to his technobeast friends.

The scrap golems burst from their respective hiding spots and started sprinting towards Spark as fast as their cobbled-legs could carry them. As usual their intentions were rather simplistic- tackle Spark to the ground and wail on her until she stopped being so mean to their progenitor. They closed in from all sides, but would not arrive all at once since they had been space apart unevenly.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Adekos"]

Wait? Wait. Was he crazy?!?! The dude fired shots first! #therewasnowaiting. #drinkyoprunejuice

With a final push of her mind, she locked the controls on the shuttle so it would continue to careen across the landscape far, far away from her or, at least until it crashed into something. #speedingticket. That earned her a nice solid punch to her ribs as the first golem broke through her force barrier. Her skinny form flew through the air and past the other golems like a rag doll, landing in a tangle of limbs in a junk pile.

#owww

Wincing with a hand against her side, she pushed her way free and gathered the force around her, promptly disappearing just before the nearest three golems re-found their hipster target.