Private Your Reputation Proceeds You

[Morpho]

She had been black-bagged.

Middle of the night. Torn from her own bed. Morpho didn't know the who but she could hazard a guess why. You didn't make friends mining data on the holonet. For her nothing had been too hot to touch. She had been getting away with it for the better part of three years. Guess she had started slacking-- no one had managed to find her real identity before.

The black-woven bag drowned out the chaos, her heart loud in her ears as-- A needle pierced her shoulde...

---

She came to to find her body cramped and jostled. She jolted and tried to sit up, only to crack her head on something right above her. She relented with a groan and focused on regathering herself instead.

She was moving. In a trunk-- a suit case? It was vertical. She could hear the muffled voices of her captors on the other side. Chit.

Her captors.

She tugged at the bindings on her wrist but they pinched in an unrelenting grasp. She was trapped. Her gut told her they were almost there.

 

['Juno' Hart]

J u n o​

The crepuscular light of the evening sun cascaded across the dreary city, speeders hummed across the busy metropolitan area, tracing their neon lights across a yawning town ready for a good nights rest. The rhythmic hissing of the hand mixed kevlar laced paint sliced through the air of the otherwise sombre alley, filling the ears of Arjune as she painted her next great work upon the alloy wall of a local business.

She could remember the mixed reviews of her last work, that she was a vandal, a menace, that her art was uninspired and the product of someone who had some talent, but no vision. The thoughts filled her mind, inspired her, pushed her forward with a burning passion beating in her chest.

The words on the backstreet mural read, 'BLIND,' on top of a phantasmagoria of humanoid silhouettes which stood in for its background. The Monochrome colours of her work this time were in stark contrast to her usual fluorescent pinks and yellows. Mixing neons in with acid highlights. Only a small fluorescent yellow halo around a pink knife would mark it as a Juno. Drab, colourless, blending in with the shadow around it... but like all the best things in life. The true value of something was often hidden to the naked eye...

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Midnight

There was movement on the streets and on holonet, Juno was often mindful to look out for shining examples of the kinds of people they would recruit. Slicers, spies, thieves, fighters, politicians and millionaires. In a place like this it was often starved for rich talent, but when a slicer calling themselves Morpho lit up holonet big enough to catch Juno's ears... it was something to look into.

Morpho had proved difficult or even impossible to find, the best that Juno could do was narrow her search to this city, from there it was easier to track them than it was to find the slicer in question. She'd been here a week looking for signs that they were making a move, watching the signs, arms moving, mercenaries declining jobs and certain people going on holiday. It was only this morning that she caught something.

Local police chatter that a special forces unit was gearing up for a bust, no details. Juno had made her way into the local office, cried help for shelter from a battering spouse to spend an hour within their ranks, just, listening. Commenting occasionally, asking layman questions with the form of an unassuming vagrant as they bled out the information she was looking for. They didn't know what the bust was, came from higher up, probably a spice bust.

They'd found them.

Juno followed the three car armoured convoy, civvies, light armour, light weapons twelve bodies... the gear for a sting, not a spice bust assault team. By the time Juno caught up with them they were carrying a case out of a house. She needed to move, her mind racing as she pulled up a map on her holopad, spying a backstreet path the speeders may take and making her way there as fast as she humanly could.

Juno arrived at her destination, out of breath as the three speeder group came racing by, timing her jump just right, she would grip two of her knives as the glowing neon purple blades would set fire to the night air around them as she dropped from the sky, landing on the center car and slicing a circular hole into the cabin and spying the trunk. With a flick of her wrist one of the knives all but vanished, obliterating the lock on the case intending to spill its contents all across the backseat.

"Well, well, well, boys what have we got here. I thi-"

It was only then she realized the age, of their target... her face darkened as she thought

chit... this is going to be one of those whole day things.

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[Morpho]

A kid.

17 and nothing more-- the renown hacker boiled down to nothing more than the hidden identity of witty teen. Some might have even called her a prodigy once, but now she was too old for that. A better word for her now was scoundrel, or crook.

Or in this case, dead meat.

Morph flopped pointlessly across the back seat, bruising and desperate to do as much as stand. Her complaints didn't make it past the gag, but she stared at her rescuer with nothing short of terror.

Good guy, bad guy? The trucks swerved to a panicked stop.

Good guy, she was forced to conclude, holding out her bound wrists in a silent ple-- The cab door opened. Blaster fires singed the wall right besides them-- and another seared through her shoulder.

 

['Juno' Hart]

J u n o​

A young girl, in her teens crashed out of the case, panicked and reeling from the sudden release. She didn't look too bloodied or beaten, however, kidnapping a minor... she had to say she was disappointed in her former employers. But, if this was that hacker the holonews had been talking about in the past few days, grooming her through their torturous methods would probably be rather effective on the little lamb.

The Girl would reach out to her rescuer with no small amount of desperation as the blaster bolts would begin to fly. Juno would have to duck back away from the hole, letting go of one of her knives as the girl would cry out at the sound of being hit by one of the blasts. Chit... This had to end quickly. Then she had an idea.

Speeding through the air, There would be the sound of a crack hiss, like that of a lightsaber, precious moments would pass as a brilliant disc of energy would shoot through the car, between the three backseat occupants angled downwards. Between the drivers and into the engine panel of the speeder as the entire care would plummet towards the earth throwing everything into chaos. Juno would perch as the speeder would begin to flip.

"Girl, Jump NOW or you're dead!" Juno would yell poised and ready to grab her from the hole before leaping towards the ground, shielding her as Juno would take the initial impact before rolling out to diffuse the impact.

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[Morpho]

It was crazy. The whole damn thing was a holoflick with one too many blaster shots for her liking, but she did what was she was told and jumped. She couldn't make sense of up and down, never mind think about protecting herself like Juno did. They skidded to a stop and unrolled in a heap. All she could do was hope the car didn't roll over them, where ever it was, because she sure wasn't getting up any time fast.

"Ah, shit," she complained, weak limbs shaking as she peeled her face off the pavement. The street lights illuminated the dirty street they had fallen on. In the distance the tale lights of the truck blurred into focus. It was flipped over. An injured driver managed to crack open the door and fall out.

He only hit the ground for a moment before recovering and starting their way.

Panic overtook her, her mangled body suddenly finding the strength to start crawling the opposite way. "No, no, no-"

Not very graceful. Then again, ones first time usually wasn't.

 

['Juno' Hart]

J u n o​

Juno hit the ground, hard, rolling out like a ragdoll clutching the child to her chest as the two of them spiralled out. Only letting go towards the end of their momentum as she pried from her grip. Juno could feel the bruises, cuts, scrapes and stress fractures from the impact. A busted lip and eyebrow marred her face as she groaned, wiping the ground with her sleeve to mop up the blood and pulling her clothes tighter. Pushing herself up from the earth while the speeder crashed unceremoniously across the street in a stupendous fireball.

A single piece of shrapnel from the blast hurtling towards the two of them as a viper-like hand whipped out, catching the projectile. Juno pocketed the shard of speeder, preventing the bloodied piece falling to the ground as the other two speeders were coming to a halt. The girl behind her would likely be caught in the crossfire of a fight... Juno cursed again under her breath as every fiber of her being wanting to give these guys the beating of a lifetime.

Turning tail she'd run to the victim behind her as she clambered away, holding out a hand and commanding "Lets go, they'd rather kill you than lose you."

If she would take Junos hand she would pull the girl to her feet and keep her in front of herself, shielding her with her own body as Juno would begin to make a break for it to get off the street. Whirling as another bladed disc would launch deflecting off of each of the remaining two speeders and slamming into the engines underneath their chassis in order to ground them before the disc returned to juno... Then the blasters started flying.

They needed somewhere to hide...

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