#had to clone out the bar code numbers

[laikaflash]

Jun Kazama from the back cover of the 1997 Tekken manga, illustrated by Masae Hashimoto. Publisher: ASPECT Comics. Accessed via the Internet Archive.

[ms-kio]

Absolute Filth

Kai Chisaki/Overhaul X Clone Wars! 1261 Words

(Image is just the outfit, no Eri T-T)

Chisaki Kai wasn’t… stupid. He'd traveled dimensions- Seriously! Could this woman get any more annoying?- He’d spent two years in the shithole that was known as the Coruscant Canopy, making a living off of making people disappear. Apparently, he had gotten popular due to turning murder cases into ‘missing persons’ cases, which never got looked at in the depths, and hardly ever in the canopy. Down in this filth-infested area, he'd mellowed out a bit, no longer having the inclination to so blatantly disobey the Yakuzas moral code.

Chisakis current Yakuza family was named after his old one, the Shie-Hassaikai. However, its members were wildly different. The majority of his Kobun were Twi-Lek women, fierce ladies who were willing to do what needed to be done in order to provide for their families.

Back to the annoying woman. She wouldn’t just shut up! From Chisakis limited knowledge on the types of ‘aliens’ around, the word ‘Zeltron’ was pulled up from his memory banks. There were a few in his new Yakuza family, but not many. They were the ones who projected emotions, right? Well, that sure wasn’t working. Never had, and probably never will. Maybe it was the quirk factor. 

Now, Kai was currently weighing the pros and cons of dividing the Zeltron by the numbers of molecules she had, but Chisaki Kai was currently very well dressed and an invited guest of Ziro the Hutt. He was inclined to mind his manners.

“C’mon, Chisaki. I promise, you’ll enjoy being with me.” Maybe not. Yes, Kai was that much closer to pulling off his gloves.

Kai shifted his eyes to look at her, knowing the striking gold was already sending a very violent message. “Talk to me like that again, and I will find your face on yet another missing persons report.” He threatened, fed up with her antics. Of course, she knew ‘missing persons’ when it came to him meant dead. So, wisely, she stopped talking.

Kai stood, making way to Ziro and taking a seat in a large, plush chair next to the Hutt, up on the raised platform. “I take it that Zeltron was being a little too… friendly for your taste. Hm, Chisaki-san?” The large slimeball questioned as he took a puff of… Whatever the hell that was.

“Indeed.” He drawled, tracing the gold band around the edge of his glove. He’d invested in more… protective outfits, due to the absolute filth that was in the depths, which he frequently visited. Not to mention, his base of operations was down there as well.

A Kobun then entered the establishment, signaling to him. Someone was coming. It was then that an assassin droid found Senator Amidala trying to sneak out. What was she doing here in the first place? Ziro wanted her dead, which would be bad for all parties involved if he killed her. “A moment, Ziro.” He said through his mask, holding up a gloved hand and beckoning his Kobun. All three currently in the room lined up next to him, two to his left and one to his right. Two Twi-lek ladies and one Nautolan man.

All attention was turned to Kai and his masked companions. “If you have the senator killed, you’ll have the whole of the republic senate focused on you and the Hutts, plus Naboo and her allies breathing down your neck. Do you want that?”

Ziro hesitated, providing enough time for a gold protocol droid to lean in the door. “Is anybody home?” Followed by shouting and explosions. Kai’s Kobun were safely beside him as clone troopers quickly and efficiently took over the bar, holding Ziro and the Yakuza members at gunpoint. The Kobun had their hands on their vibro-blades, tense and alert, while the Oyabun himself hadn’t flinched, his legs crossed as he leaned on a gloved hand, propped onto an armrest.

“Chisaki! Do something!” Ziro demanded as he was cornered, turning the attention- yet again- to Kai.

“No.” He said simply. “I have no quarrel with the republic, and I’m here as a guest. Not a bodyguard. The Shie-Hassakai have no obligation towards you.” He turned his head to address his subordinates, facing the Kyodai of the trio. “Stand down. Go report to the Wakagashira, I’ll deal with this.” The trio bowed, the gold bands around their Lekku (For the Two-leks) and arms (for the Nautolan), and lining their masks glinting in the dim light.

“Let them go.” The Senator ordered when the clones moved to intercept. “They weren’t here when I arrived, and delayed Ziro long enough for you to rescue me.” Chisaki nodded towards Amidala, who returned the gesture before turning to Ziro.

Kai tuned out their conversation, considering his options. One, he could use this to make allies with one of the more powerful senators. Two, make allies with Ziro and potentially the entire Hutt clan- “It was Count Dooku! He forced me to kidnap Jabba's son. Please believe me! I swear, I love that huttlet!” Oh? Guess his decision was made for him. Kai didn’t want the Shie-Hissaikai involved in that mess. Zero would be on his own this time. Plus, Kai would never want to deal with a liar. He’d seen the holocall between the Count and Ziro, the hutt wasn’t being coerced. Not at all.

“He’s lying.” Chisaki said once Ziro was out of earshot. “I observed his holocall with the Count, Ziro was being paid.” That certainly got their attention. “Commander Fox, is it? Make sure he’s locked up tight. I have a feeling our dear senator may have made an enemy.” The clone nodded, obviously not used to being addressed directly by civilians before barking a few orders to his junior clones.

“If I may ask, Mr. Chisaki. Where do you stand in all this?” Amidala spoke up. A fair question, in all honesty. A smart one to ask, too.

“Just an acquaintance. Ziro has hired me for jobs multiple times before, and invited me as a guest.” Kai answered truthfully, uncrossing his legs and resting his forearms on his knees. From the grim understanding on the senator's face, she knew exactly what kinds of ‘jobs’ he did.

“I see.” She said, not noticing that the clone commander behind her was that much closer to grabbing his blaster. Seems he understood too, and understood how high-profile a target the senator was.

“Commander.” He sighed letting his eyes fall closed for a moment. “If I wanted senator Amidala dead, she would be.” The mentioned woman clearly didn’t know whether to take that as a threat or reassurance, while her guard didn’t hide the fact that he heard it as a threat.

The senator's posture straightened, eyes sharpening on his figure. “If you intend to threaten me, Chisaki, You’ll find it’ll take more than mere words.”

Chisaki sighed, standing. “Unless someone convinces me to take one of the numerous jobs that include your death, Senator Amidala, the Shie-Hassaikai will not bother you.” He stated firmly. “I have no intention of letting my family get tied up in the business of war and senators.” There was a moment where the room’s breath was held, Fox’s hand resting tensely on his blaster. “I can assure you of that. However, if the republic decides to go after my family, I am not afraid of getting my hands dirty.” Chisaki said, standing up and taking a couple paces towards Amidala. “You have my word.”

With that, Chisaki brushed past the rest of the clones, exiting the establishment and boarding the hovercar that had been waiting for him.

[annwayne]

The Red Logs: Return to the Temple Ch. 11

Chapter 11: Strength

Last Chapter <- -> Next Chapter

Fem!OC X Crosshair

Word Count: 3669

Fic Summary:

There are benefits to owning a clone bar. Underworld lords don’t threaten you to pay for protection. Clones are great company. And the drinks taste great. However, there are also risks to owning a clone bar. Like, for example, becoming the fuck buddy of a special clone task force member so your life gets threatened when a Separatist puts out a bounty for your capture in order to use you as blackmail. Also your sleep schedule get’s wrecked. But Anya Tougt is a little more capable than an average bar owner.

Ao3 Link Here

Warnings apply to whole fic:

Canon typical violence, descriptions of panic attacks, alcohol, swearing, 18+ themes (eventual smut), trauma, religious trauma parallels, mild gore

Authors Note:

I just realized, my word count is likely off because I’ve started including my html coding for when I post to ao3. Opps.

28 BBY. That kid started following me around. Anakin Skywalker. He’s not as bad, once you actually get to know him. Actually, I think we’ll continue to get along fairly well. He was getting a little restless inside the temple today, so I took him out to my favorite dinner. Obi-Wan’s reaction once we returned was better than I expected.

Dry air scraped my throat with each inhale as we ran across the red landscape. With nightfall came a pleasant chill that almost made me shiver. Our footfalls, heavy breathing, and the billowing wind at our backs were the only sounds to disturb the mesa formation. All the sand dancing in the air made me all the more grateful for the helmet that kept my identity a secret.

Hunter and Tech led us, with Wrecker following beside me and Crosshair behind. Despite his many declarations of feeling fine, I noticed Wrecker clench his fists while we ran. If I noticed his discomfort, then the others would have as well. Hunter had said nothing against Wrecker when he suited up for this mission, but somehow that silence said enough. 

After several minutes, Tech lifted his hand to indicate we were nearing the coordinates. We gradually slowed our pace until we came to a stop behind a large rock formation. I peaked around the rocks to get a look of the building. Instead I found another mesa with several turret droids perched along its cliff face.

“My scans indicate there are two entrances. One there,” Tech pointed towards the base of the cliff. From my angle I could barely make out massive black doors, hangar doors. “And one up there.” His hand lifted to the flat top where a single lift door jutted out of the ground.

“How many droids?” Hunter kept his eyes on the lights that dotted the cliff.

Tech fiddled with his datapad before answering. “Outside the caves there appears to be ten droids, eight of which are the turrets along the cliff. Inside, however, I cannot yet get a clear scan.” Through yellow tinted lenses, hazel eyes narrowed. “Something is blocking my signal.”

“Only ten droids?” Wrecker let out a boisterous laugh. “The Seps are holding out on us!”

“Yes, well I don’t believe we will be running into many droids, even inside.” Only a nudge from Crosshair snapped Tech’s head up from his data pad. Upon seeing multiple buckets aimed his way, the clone elaborated. “After the destruction of the moon base Dukoo greatly diminished the number of droids assigned under Vekek’s command, I found the order in the files.” He said all matter-of-fact as if the information was well known.

Wrecker let out a low groan. “Aww, this is going to be so boring then.”

“We’re blowing up the whole base!?”

“What about life signs?” Hunter returned the clone’s attention to the mission at hand.

Tech shook his head. “Also unsure, I believe these winds are disrupting my equipment.”

Hunter’s helmet dipped down. Beside me Crosshair looked through his scope. “I could easily take them all out.”

“And alert Vekek to release the Doashim?” I turned my head to look his way. 

“Said I could, Commander.” He didn’t even bother looking up from his scope. “But if you have any ideas, please share.” Each word dripped with snark.

Unfortunately, I did. But there was no guarantee that plan would work, so I kept my mouth shut. With my silence as an answer, Hunter began editing the plan he shared with us on the Marauder. Crosshair and I would scale the cliffside while Tech used an EMP blast to temporarily disable the droids outside. Then the others would take the front entrance. With both exits cut off the chances of Vekek escaping would be much slimmer. Once she was in our custody and we were all clear, Wrecker would detonate the bombs he and Hunter would have set while Tech uploaded a virus into the terminals. But that plan had no contingency if Vekek released a modified Doashim. Hell, any Doashim.

There was that itch again, the same itch I felt back in my bar when bounty hunters attacked. This status as a Jedi- no, not the status. My power meant that I could help these clones. Just like I helped on the moon. And that nearly ended in disaster. Then a soft voice I hadn’t heard in years brushed my ears. 

Reach out.

Immediately I whipped my head around looking for the source. Crosshair’s helmet turned towards me.

Anya, feel through the force for them.

She spoke again. None of the other clones reacted in any way that indicated they heard the voice. Great. I was hallucinating. Hallucinating my dead Master’s voice, no less. Then the flashes of her guiding hand, those light footfalls that were so easily ignored by those less trained, and that look of determination that swelled in her inky eyes while teaching me came to mind. But, unlike the normal sporadic flashes, these all came from one memory. It wasn’t a hallucination, it was a memory. Instantly the strewn pieces snapped together like a magnetized puzzle.

I knew what I needed to do. Before Tech could finish analyzing the weather- admittedly I had no idea how that related to our plan- I closed my eyes and focused. Almost immediately I was overwhelmed by cosmic power, but a gruff huff and clenched fists steadied me. Reaching out in the force was a messy affair. With so many emotions flowing in I had to narrow my field of view. Master Tali had taught me to shrink my reach, like looking down a scope. So I lifted my hand towards the secret base and envisioned a barrier around it. 

“What’s she doing?” Wrecker’s voice created a pocket in my sight.

“Jedi shit.” Crosshair answered.

“And it requires focus, so please.” I hissed through the weight bearing down on my mind. There was movement beside me, but I paid it no mind. 

Finally I managed to connect with the life forms inside the caves. “Six.” I gasped as the connection dropped with my arm. “There should be six living things inside that cave. At least, six things big enough that they wouldn’t be a pest.”

From under his goggles I could see Tech furrowed his brows. But Hunter spoke first. “You’re sure?” My breath was still heavy as I lifted a hand into a so-so motion. Hunter’s helmet stayed on us for a moment before turning towards the base.

Goggles bounced as Tech took the pause from his sergeant as a chance to share his thoughts. “My instruments can barely pick up a handful of droids from within the caves,” Oh, I must have missed that development. “Due to all the interference from the wind!” As if to prove his point, a strong gust slapped against our armor. “And you’re saying from a feeling you know how many Doashim are in there?” 

My head shook as I attempted to explain. Like they were weighed down, my hands hovered at chest height switching gestures with each answer that came to mind. Out of all the choices, only one was true if I was being honest with myself. “I don’t.” Tech’s shoulders stiffened. “In fact, there’s plenty of reasons my number could be wrong. But an estimate is more than nothing.”

While my words didn’t seem to satisfy the exceptional clone, beeping from his datapad tore his attention away. “Hunter, a large enough squall is coming. They need to move now.” His helmet jerked towards Crosshair and I. Hunter nodded at us. It was time.

Together we sprinted across red earth towards the spotlights of the turret droids. Crosshair kept his pace steady despite the lights fixed a few meters before us. Even with the burn in my lungs and the sense of danger ahead, I matched his stride. 

Four meters. 

The lights remained steady.

Three. 

I clenched my jaw and forced my legs forward. Everything screamed to turn around.

Then, darkness.

That wash of blue light snapped out of existence as a massive blast of wind practically lifted my feet from the ground. Crosshair veered left while I remained on my path towards the right column of droids. We scaled the walls with rushed precision. Blaster fire would be too loud, so instead Tech had given us little chips to place on the droids. Something about making sure our exit would be a quiet one. Once I was close enough, I threw two of the chips onto the backs of the lower set of temporarily deactivated droids. Then, with the aid of the force, I jumped up to the next viable handhold and repeated with the higher pair.

“We’re inside.” Tech’s voice came over the comms. “Just as I saw on the scan, no droids behind the hangar doors.”

That seemed. Odd. Before I could give it more thought, the droids below me began sputtering back to life. A rush of panic spurred my body forward as my gloved hand landed on the clifftop. Burning in my abs slowed my rise until I gained enough height to roll unceremoniously over the clifftop. I threw my arms against the red rock and attempted to catch my breath.

“Impressive display of strength, Commander.”

Crosshair’s voice snapped my body up. With my lungs still burning for air, I opted to throw up a lazy bird his way while rearranging myself to stand. As I dusted the red gravel from my exposed skin, that thought I couldn’t give more attention to before came to mind. 

“Hunter, we’ve finished up here.” Static answered my buzz. “Tech, Wrecker, what’s your status?” Again, no response. Crosshair’s confident posture stiffened as he held his rifle at attention. We ran towards the lift. Before we got there I used the force to push the call button. “Did Tech mention our comms would be affected by the winds?” Crosshair answered by shaking his head. Lift doors opened in front of us.

“What are you thinking?” Beside me Crosshair remained still, if a bit stiff. I, however, was a jitterning mess.

“Why would a hangar have no droids guarding it? Even if Dukoo reduced the amount of droids, there should be at least one in that hangar.” Beside me Crosshair raised his rifle as the lift came to a slow stop. I followed suit, pulling out my lightsaber and holding it across my body. Then, gray doors opened.

Metal scaffolding clung on cave walls across from thick horizontal bars that sparked a sickly green. Those bars separated us from five normal Doashim stalking three modified clones. Immediately I closed my saber and lifted both hands towards the predators below. That familiar weight caught my breath as the Doashim slowed their-

“Shit!” A blaster shot threw my shoulder back and dropped my focus. 

 “No time for Jedi magic,” Crosshair dropped three tan droids. “We’ve got our own problems.”

“Clearly.” I hissed through the dull pain. Any attempt to calm the beasts below needed to wait until the droids were dealt with. Before another bolt could meet its target, I used my saber to deflect the red blast. Reverberating metal announced more droids climbing the steps that led to our position.

My blade sparked as I plunged the plasma through the dark plating of a super battle droid. Next I sliced another gray droid in half and deflected a shot from a lower step. Behind me, Crosshair threw a small reflective disk that landed on a droid in the middle of the next group approaching. One shot later that droid fell to its knees. Another shot reflected off that silver disk and bounced through three more droids, deactivating them all. From our perch by the lift we confirmed the last droids had been dealt with, but Vekek was nowhere to be found.

Below us Hunter was hanging on the back of one Doashim, struggling to bring his vibroblade to the eye of the creature. One of the beasts laid still against the other cave wall, but its shallow breathing twisted my gut. Wrecker managed to grab one by the tail and threw it into another readying to pounce on the strong clone. The stumble caused the pair to fight each other and ignore the clones around them. With the last Doashim, Tech was slowly backing up into a wall while looking up. Right as the creature pounced Tech rolled between its legs and pressed a detonator. A small explosion detached low hanging rocks that landed with a sickly crunch.

These Doashim were about a meter taller than the clones, a massive difference from the monster we fought on the moon. “Damn, that growth serum really did something huh?” I mumbled. Those energy beams would block any blaster fire, so we needed a way to shut down the power. “Crosshair, the control panel.” I gestured towards a silver box attached to an amplifier pylon. 

“Wait!” Tech yelled from below. “That’ll open the doors!” Behind him the rubble stirred.

“Tech!” I yelped. 

Wrecker dived into his brother, landing them out of the way of a visibly injured Doashim. One arm was completely limp and the side of its head was smashed in, yet it still raced through the cage looking for a fight. 

“They are modified, they can’t leave!” Together Tech and Wrecker fired shots at the injured beast. One of Wrecker’s Doashim lifted its head in victory, purple blood covering its jaws. A pair of red eyes landed on the two clones.

A long yell caught my ear as I watched Hunter rocket through the sky, purple liquid covering his gloves. His Doashim was covered in cuts leaking that deep color, but didn’t seem bothered at all. With a terrible thud, Hunter landed against the wall Wrecker and Tech were backing into.

“Their pistols aren’t doing enough.” Metal steps rang out as Crosshair paced the platform. At some point I must have holstered my lightsaber since I felt my empty hands shaking. Those dull thuds stopped and then there was movement beside me. A few objects flung through the air and landed with clinks. “You can control them, right?”

My eyes stayed glued to the approaching Doashim. A few of them snapped warnings at each other, but the one with the purple stained jaw roared for their cooperation. Hunter hadn’t moved since he landed. Wrecker and Tech stood directly in front of him. As if aware of our struggling situation, the previously incapacitated Doashim rose with a shake of its head.

“Annie!” Gray armor stepped into my view. A firm hand gripped my good shoulder and shook me. “Get the Doashim to stop moving, I’ll do the rest.”

I snapped up to his visor. “Four? No I can’t-”

“You did before!” There wasn’t anger in his voice, only urgency. 

“Instinct, not-“ My eyes darted back to the group of Doashim, now poised in a terribly familiar position. “Be ready.” I threw both arms up once again. A shot of pain ran through my right arm. But that didn’t matter.

Black covered my vision as I slammed my eyes shut. A rush of anger, pain, and fear threw my head back. Through the mess of emotions I found the four Doashim, more afraid than the clones at their mercy. Calm. My teeth gnash down as I lowered my chin. The only sound was the faint whispering of wind outside. Still. As my thoughts enveloped the Doashim, they turned to look my way.  Beside me I felt Crosshair move and then- 

Four dull thuds followed a single blaster shot.

Immediately, I dropped to my knees and folded over. My chest heaved as bile threatened to escape my stomach. Another shot brought the sound of fizzing power. I focused on the fading sizzle until nothing remained. Carefully, I brought my knee up to stand. When I lifted my head I was met with a gloved hand. 

Crosshair stood silently looking over his shoulder towards his brothers with an extended hand my way. The shake in my limbs encouraged my dominant hand to meet his. With a single pull, he brought me to my feet. 

“Good?” Our boots clanked in unison as we walked down steps littered with damaged droid parts.

“Yeah. Just, it was…” My chest tightened. “Intense.” Even though I managed to recover myself, my heart still pounded at a pace that was certainly not normal.

As we landed on red ground, Hunter stepped out from behind a massive terminal and waved us over. There were tables, abandoned equipment, and a mess of neon liquids contained in various glass containers lined up against the cave walls. Two deactivated insect droids laid in a pile together. One sputtered with electricity as Tech messed with its back panel. Hunter stood behind him with crossed arms. Wrecker watched on while leaning against the cave beside the protocol droids.

“Vekek was never here, only her projection.” Hunter shifted his weight as we approached. “After giving us a speech about how we’d die horrible deaths, she deactivated these droids and ended the call. And that’s not all.” We stood around the deactivated droids as Hunter talked. I crooked my head at his words. “She’s Ardennian. Looked like two of her arms were working on something unrelated while typing in commands for the droids.”

“Ardennian?” I mused. Short six limbed sentients that were known in the galaxy for their agility. Not someone you wanted to be caught in a fight against.

“Everything is gone.” Tech’s voice snapped my focus back. “I can’t lift anything from this.” He huffed as he stood to full height and stretched out his back.

“So coming here was useless?” Crosshair turned his head at my words. Normally that was his line.

“Not exactly.” Tech held out a hopeful hand. “Because of the length of her speech I was able to hack the broadcast and trace her location to a ship in orbit above Ryltoh.”

Even still, my helmet dipped. Tech continued, talking about the possibilities of Vekek’s potential actions. Hunter asked a question and Crosshair made a comment, but my attention turned to the clone who had yet to say anything. Wrecker’s relaxed posture was given away by the hand holding his stomach. I circled behind the droids and leaned against my own patch of wall beside him. He towered over me, nearly half a meter taller. 

“Did your stitches open?” I spoke in a near whisper, as much as a droid can whisper at least.

“Tech already gave me a shot of bacta, no need to worry about me.” Despite his positive tone, I furrowed my brows and crossed my arms. “What about you?” Two red nines turned to face me. The drippy paint was smudged and darkened from time.

“Just my shoulder, but nothing too bad.”

Beside me the clone shook those nines and turned to face me wholly. His head tilted. “But you collapsed after Crosshair killed those beasties.” Wrecker’s confusion increased his volume. “We all saw.” He gestured towards the others, who were now watching our conversation.

“What we saw was likely Annie experiencing an anxiety attack.” For a second, I worried Tech could see through my helmet, because he stepped forward when my face froze. “Likely related to her success in subduing the Doashim through the force.” He continued as if he was talking battle statistics. 

Finally I caught up. “But now I’m fine.” My hands itched to mess with my hair. “So there’s nothing to worry about.” 

Tech nodded once. Wrecker shifted, clearly unsatisfied with the end of this topic. Now it was Hunter’s turn to step in. “Wrecker, Cross.” He lifted a guiding hand at his brothers. “Get to planting explosives. There’s still plenty of functional equipment we can prevent the Separatists from collecting when they return here.” 

Even the prospect of explosives didn’t fully distract the large clone, but still he stood and clasped his hands together. Crosshair followed behind with long strides 

“I’ll bring the Marauder to the top of the mesa, Hunter.” Low thuds followed Tech’s words. My eyes watched as he navigated the messy steps to the lift door. A soft whoosh later he disappeared behind those doors. But my gaze lingered.

Something about Tech felt different. Not that I could even pinpoint it. We didn’t have many interactions since that conversation on the marauder. But the way he stepped in felt-

“I came to while you were, er,” Hunter’s voice snapped my eyes back to him. He waved a hand towards me. “Well, doing whatever you did.”

That earned a buzzing laugh from me. “So you caught the end of the show.”

Hunter’s low laugh joined mine. “Hell of a show. Cody’s job is about to be a lot less stressful with you around.” He crossed his arms and shifted his weight while speaking.

My laugh fell. “Not really.” I lifted a hand to rub the back of my helmet. “Obi-Wan’s not likely to bring me on many missions. This was a,” Through the helmet my drawl sounded like a low buzz. “Unique situation.” Across the cave I watched Crosshair throw bombs that latched onto the celiing with expert precision. At the other side Wrecker threw his explosives into a sporadic pattern. 

Hunter’s visor met mine before he lifted his helmet off and held it at his hip. He turned to look at the other’s when he spoke again. “That’s a shame. If anyone will bring an early end to this war, it’ll be the Jedi.”

I couldn’t hold back my scoff. “Don’t tell me you actually believe that bantha crap.”

“Not really,” He turned to face me. “But strength can make the difference between a win and a loss.” A low rumbling turned our attention above us. Hunter whistled to Crosshair and Wrecker, who lightly jogged to the steps that led to the lift doors. He turned, ready to join them, but stopped. “And Jedi have strength.” Then he followed his brothers.

Dividers by Djarrex

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -7-

Tick... tick... boom.

With Kiryu gone, our next goal is to stop Sawashiro from getting a bullet to the head. Fun! But there are a couple of pit stops first.

The first thing I do is head to Kamulop to check out the Tojo Clan medal prizes. Turns out, there are now two Poundmates I can add to my collection for 50 medals a pop: Daigo Dojima and Watase. I decide to add the cuter one to my roster.

Next, I decide to get some really annoying Part-time Hero quests out of the way. The first is Please Find My Cat 1, a terrible fetch quest that I probably should have done earlier but chose not to. Finding these damn cats blind isn't my idea of fun, so I cheat and pull up a map. Oops.

We are then given a new quest: Please Find My Cat 2, which involves finding Hiro's cat Robson. I'm not a huge fan of these Part-time Hero quests, so I decide to look this one up as well just to save time. After rushing to Hamakita Park, I find the little cutie sitting on a lantern.

My prize is getting Robson added to my selection of Poundmates. Sweet.

Next is Kappture the Kappa, another long and pointless side quest that involves snapping photos of Kappa statues. I'm not sure how I could have done this one without a guide because my brother in Christ why would you hide a statue inside the bar why why why god why.

Turns out that wasn't the worst part of this quest though. See, I assumed I found all the kappas... until I saw that I had 9. I got so annoyed and was racing to figure out which one I missed, until I realized that I never took a photo of the first one. You know, the only one that is pointed out to you and is the easiest one to take a photo of because of it? Yeah. Not a fun time finding that one out. And honestly? The rewards for these missions really have not been worth it. Well, maybe it was worth it for Robson.

Now for the main course. I head to where Seong-hui told me to go to and approach the building Ishioda entered. I then get assaulted by several of his goons, who go down without much of an issue.

And there he is. The big bastard himself: Ishioda. Side note: this screen actually has a small piece of foreshadowing! But we can talk about that later.

Before we can even get close to Ishioda, though, Adachi suddenly appears from the door and attacks... Adachi... Oh noes! It's Mirror Face! Ichi and his team have trouble discerning the fake Adachi from the real one. A classic clone dilemma. Ichi susses out the real Adachi by testing his knowledge of local traffic codes. One Adachi struggles to give even basic knowledge, while the other rattles off traffic laws verbatim.

Naturally, the real Adachi is the one who doesn't give a shit about his (former) job.

The battle against Reiji (and Mirror Face) is long and drawn out. Mirror Face himself isn't too much of a pain -- the most annoying thing about him is that he starts guarding as his HP gets really low, forcing the battle to be prolonged even further and draining my MP like a mother fucker. Ishioda, on the other hand, is genuinely dangerous. He counterattacks pretty frequently, and his Gunshot attack one-shots Saeko and Nanba if not guarded properly, which is near impossible to do. Once his HP is low enough, he enters into his second phase where his normal attacks become weak, but his counterattacks become strong -- strong enough to one shot pretty much everyone that isn't Ichiban or Adachi. Thankfully, Zhao's Essence of Deadly Beasts makes quick work of him.

After Ishioda crumples like wet newspaper, he spills the beans on Arakawa's assassination. Ishioda attemped to kill him as ordered, but Tendo suddenly appeared and sent Masumi to the big kabuki theater house in the sky. So it wasn't Ishioda who got the kill on the Omi Alliance's number one target -- it was the double-backstabber Tendo.

Ichiban and his crew demand to know where Tendo is now, but before Ishioda can answer, we discover there is a bomb under one of the desks in the office -- a bomb that can be seen in an earlier scene! Foreshadowing! Aoki and Tendo order their henchmen to detonate the bomb, and...

Well, at least we got something out of that.

[the-firebird69]

This is going on for years the max was sitting there bothering him tormenting him pissing him off and he's getting ready and we're getting ready for a massive assault on them and they're not going to be ready for it

-here in Charlotte county there are many things happening tons of people are angry at the pseudo empire and we're not too happy with what you're doing and they can't seem to negotiate or come up with common ground and they do need someone to go and they've got it now and they all say it we have finally gotten at what we need what we need to hear is this and they have the information but they didn't put two and two together because they think that the clones are big and the clones took a massive beating and there are fleets are gone and they don't have anything else for the most part and Tommy f is saying it I don't know where we are and people didn't listen and now they're checking cuz they say it's usually us who fail and we got pushed out of a big chunk of the world and they're going out and they're trying to check and they usually the motorcycles to get around to send messages to assign people to get groups going to get people's places and to receive people it's an intense idea he says when I went to China I was received by a bunch of you and BG on tuk tuks and you surrounded me that's one job for the motorcyclists and to help deliver messages once you get in there and Brian was a surprise his eyes were wide open and he was happy for the first time in a long time and he started assigning them stuff and he says those engines are missing I don't know where they are and it went and they got their own people's information that he had a whole bunch of it. It's working and yeah they can be annoying and my husband can be very annoying

-we have other things happening and it's starting to get a little bit happier and they understand what's happening it's changing and they're starting to work and figure out what's been going on and it's the Max and the horrified and they see why he's been upset what is wrong with you and he said that a lot and now you're going to figure out why

-there's a huge number of people considering what to do and how to do it and it's good and they're getting information and it's going around and it's going pretty fast and they're verifying on foot with these motorcycles and it rules I'll tell you what they go out they do the thing they go to the bar talking about stuff used code it's like the '70s and '80s is about damn time

-they were stagnated and getting picked off now they have a way to confuse people and a way to befuddle and a way to get information and to getting up on people and push them around they really needed it but as Bob Marsh says one spark plug away from winning.

-there's a giant number of things happening in the county but it's not good they're still fighting the pseudo military or empire that is our issuing warrants and these people and they're going after him it's kind of real slow and it really is annoying and it's all the cops and they're angry and they're doing that but tomorrow they plan on bringing them to court for more land and today they took 15% and tomorrow they went 15% and it will leave them with only what they're saying is 25% roughly a little bit more but not not that much and we have part of that it's going on in shortly and people have to do it the attitude is wrong with you doing is wrong to go somewhere else and they're going to go whether they're going to go by force too they also going to fire and lay off people

-we have a new report it says it's a selected calls and he says we have so many people that are yeah my son and daughter in law are confirming things I do understand what he's saying and confirm things to you and me that's a proper use but you're doing it cuz you're right there but you're going to do it anyways and he's going to do a different step and we're going to start doing that and we need Frank Castle hardcastle and his little buddy my husband said that once you stop we need to get the crucifixions going for real whatever the hell that is he knows what it is he thinks. I'm taking a move on if they say actually they're going to get done and it's a good idea

-the town's selectmen both of them are getting the Mayors out they're tired of these two fighting and they're getting the sheriff in the police chief out and they're going to move them out of town and is mostly the pseudo empire but everybody else wants them out too and it's annoying

But they said it in writing and it's coming down tomorrow in writing and it was a vote. It's like 12:00 to 1:00 so the word get out and they're threatening to select man so they're going to force them to do it and they're going to try and get him out of that apartment

-they're going to evict Dave and Stan said it I need him out of there but he might not do the formal eviction it's going to be something like getting them out somehow and Trump is out and he's in the apartment behind and he is not happy about it and they're going to try and move Dave out and you'll be surprised again who that might be.

-there's another group that is working the situation it's the Max and there's another group Tommy f and both want to highlight they need cloning and we want to highlight our women could be in jeopardy

WE ARE ISSUING AN ALERT SHORTLY REGARDING THE IMMINENT DANGER THAT FEMALES ARE IN GLOBALLY ARE WOMEN ARE TO FOLLOW OUR PROCEDURES THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Hera

Thank you both for taking it seriously we are issuing it shortly

Olympus

We need to get this done I'm having a meeting right now and my project is going fine thank you zigzag is on schedule a little bit ahead and he wants to make sure it stays that way and he wants new Giants pulled out so some can be broken loose to go do it and we're going ahead and doing that now and I do know what he's saying ones that are not scheduled to we need to have some measure of safety

Thor Freya

Olympus we're approving his request and hers right now

[princediavolos]

every clue in endless summer, explained

technically the title is kinda misleading because some clues simply have no explanation, they just are. still, there’s a lot of pieces to be put together over the three books, and there are clues found in the first book that aren’t explained till the last one. (if you’re confused about the clues, here’s the fandom wiki for book 1, book 2 & book 3.)

before i dive in, here’s some clarifications:

i’ve used mc’s default name, taylor, and neutral pronouns wherever i’ve referred to them. the endless is also referred to by neutral pronouns.

acts 1, 2 & 3 fall under book 1

acts 4, 5 & 6 fall under book 2

acts 7 & 8 fall under book 3

each act has one bonus scene, so if i’m referring to bonus scene 5, it implies to the scene shown after act 5.

ok so unnecessarily long exposition under the cut!

ACT 1

i. tranquilizer dart: found by taylor and diego upon landing on the airstrip. presumably used on the sabretooth, t'kal, to keep it docile. likely done by rourke or his henchmen, but it is also highly possible the endless tranquilized t'kal in order to keep it from killing everyone.

ii. strange creature: a colourful flying seahorse, found by quinn and taylor along the beach in a premium scene. as shown in bonus scene 1, rourke knows of the creature, as he examines it with interest through his binoculars.

iii. weird lights: lights resembling the auroras displayed at the control tower, found by taylor and jake. it is later explained in book 2 chapter 10 by grace, that the lights are caused by the doppler effect, due to the dilation and contraction of time around la huerta. the vaanti call it the lights of vaanu, said to bring them good luck.

iv. vintage wine: if taylor goes to the ballroom with zahra, quinn notes that every bottle in the room predates 1924. as revealed in book 3 chapter 7, the wedding in the ballroom was that of flora and arthur, and group arrived there due to the time anomalies of the island.

v. sharp tooth: found by grace by the pool, near the fence. according to her, the bars were all twisted. presumably belongs to t'kal the sabretooth.

vi. old note: a note found by taylor and diego in one of the upgraded honeymoon/rainforest suites. it was written by flora sullivan to eugene rosencraft, before her wedding to arthur barnaby. it also references neptune cove, where the second half of the island's heart is found in book 3.

vii. pirate coin/wolf symbol: can be obtained either by going to the waterfall with quinn, or by hiking the cliff with jake. the doubloon is probably a remnant of malatesta and yvonne's loot, while the wolf symbol could have been left behind by the endless. the symbol also matches the stamp on jake's dossier.

viii. shoe prints: a set of muddy shoeprints were found by the celestial's shelter. no solid explanation or implication towards who these belong to.

ix. gas mask: found by taylor underwater in the cavern. it looks very old, and as noted by diego, probably from the world war times. it would have probably belonged to kele, a world war ii soldier who paddled his way into la huerta while escaping from the germans.

x. padlock: the unbroken padlock to the burning hangar, which implies that the hangar was unlocked and jake's plane sabotaged. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, lila is shown to deliberately sabotage the plane in order to keep everyone on the island, implying she may have done it in this timeline, too.

ACT 2

i. cufflink: lila is discovered pocketing the cufflink in rourke's office, which she probably did to discover his whereabouts later on. in bonus scene 2, rourke is shown to remove all his clothing, including his cufflinks, before he steps into the containment pod. the cufflink can also be used in book 1 chapter 10, where rourke's dna on it reveals a footage video of him complaining about strange occurrences on the island.

ii. dossiers: files containing data on sean, grace, raj and estela are found in the paper shredder, intact. each of them is stamped with symbols of the constellations aquila, cygnus, centaurus and draco respectively. the symbols are left behind by the endless.

iii. whiskey notes: a note discarded by rourke in the vip lounge, referencing the satellite uplink at the la huerta observatory. this is also shown in bonus scene 2.

iv. frying pan: a frying pan embossed with the centaurus symbol on it, which raj says he feels very drawn to. this was also left behind by the endless. he also uses this pan to deflect a sedative dart aimed at taylor in book 1 chapter 16.

v. arrowhead: an amber arrowhead is found lodged inside the king crab's shell, as found by taylor and estela. as the vaanti have been shown to use amber weaponry (as well as in other ways, such as the catalyst idols), it is implied that one of them may have attacked the guardian with an arrow.

vi. dossiers: files containing data on jake, zahra and diego found in the room inside the observatory. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations lupus, corvus and canis. symbols left behind by the endless.

vii. strange gun: a futuristic gun found by either estela or jake. in book 1 chapter 16, it is revealed to be a tachyon accelerator, used to move objects forward in time. in bonus scene 5, lila refers to the gun as a temporal perforator.

viii. star map: a holographic display of constellations, as seen by taylor and sean as they go up the pod. sean points out that the stars in the sky over la huerta don't have the usual constellations, and that the stars have not looked like this for a million years. this is confirmed in the book 1 epilogue, when aleister notes that atropo's eruption has caused la huerta to go back to the hadean eon.

ACT 3

i. dossiers: files containing data on quinn, michelle and craig found by taylor and diego by the marina. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations delphinus, pavo and ursa. symbols left behind by the endless.

ii. rourke's ship: if taylor and lila venture into a familiar-looking boat, they will discover it is rourke's ship, the daedalus. he was seen on the ship in bonus scene 1, and he presumably destroyed it along with the other boats on the marina immediately afterwards.

iii. plastic explosive: the semtex explosive is found by taylor in the back of the boat. it's what was used to blow up the other ships in the marina, but this one malfunctioned.

iv. strange shell: a blue-purple coloured shell that repeats the speaker's words over and over. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, varyyn is seen tearfully listening to the shell echoing diego's voice, saying 'i'll always love you, varyyn' over and over again as it gradually fades away.

v. telepathic vision: varyyn telepathically communicates with taylor, showing them what would happen if the catalysts didn't go with the vaanti. it is later revealed to be a depiction of atropo erupting, setting the whole world on fire and destroying it.

vi. numbers: in the wine cellar, 1908 refers to a lever to the underground tunnel, disguised as a vintage wine bottle, as well as the cheat code to rourke's arcade game, most wanted 2. rourke also uses an override program on iris called the directive 1908, explained in book 3 chapter 9, which makes iris prioritise the goal she was created for -- to utilise imogen rourke's knowledge on cloning to provide an heir to rourke. another program, directive 8091, forces estela into the omega mech cockpit in book 3 chapter 10, as she is rourke's 'true' heir.

vii. dossiers: files on taylor and aleister are found inside the security centre, both stamped by the endless with symbols of constellations andromeda and serpens. aleister's dossier is newer, printed recently by iris upon discovering that he was aboard the plane to la huerta.

viii. healing plant: leaves of the plant, when wrapped around aleister's bleeding palm, heal it with unnatural speed without a trace. grace and aleister theorize this may be due to some cellular reconstructive properties the leaves may contain.

ix. necklace: worn by varyyn in book 1, the necklace is seen to have time travelling properties, as it brings back jake/estela/sean/quinn/diego back from the dead. it is unknown if the endless facilitated its use or it is associated with rourke.

x. pirate cutlass: the cutlass was forged by malatesta and was stolen from him by admiral higgenbotham, who was presumably killed alongside malatesta's crew in the flashback taylor experiences, by the vaanti. yvonne then stole the cutlass from higgenbotham's corpse, naming it chouchou. it is unclear as to how the cutlass ended up on a display case at the celestial.

ACT 4

i. hydra caduceus: a staff found in rourke's library, which when placed in the statue's hand in the atrium, turns it into a sundial. iris says that the caduceus is the only item in the library she cannot find the origin of.

ii. crimson glove: a futuristic, yet battered metal glove put on display in rourke's underground museum; taylor realises that the person's arm was probably cut off. the glove belongs to the endless, who tells taylor that they learnt very soon that 'the laws of time can be very unforgiving' with reference to their loss of limb.

iii. shotgun shell: michelle and taylor find the 12-gauge armor-piercing shell casing, as identified by jake, during the time loop. he notes that whoever shot this meant business. the shell probably came from one of the arachnids who were on the island searching for jake.

iv. snowy hills: taylor, with either jake or estela, finds snow on the hills and by the lake on a hot and sunny day, indicating time is in disarray throughout different parts of the island, much like the northern and southern parts of the island.

v. wedding ring: a wedding ring is found on the hand of a statue of a masked bride, in the valley of tombs by jake and taylor. the statue is of flora sullivan, and the ring was given to her by eugene rosencraft which she had turned down. it was after this she wrote him the note found in act 1.

vi. tattoo: uqzhaal has a back tattoo of the legend of the threshold. it is the place where yvonne finds the endless in bonus scene 5, and where yvonne, taylor and uqzhaal meet the endless after collecting all the catalyst idols and solving the puzzle.

vii. words on the wind: the voices at the singing cliffs tell taylor that something is coming across the sea, destroying everything in its path. this could either be an immediate reference to yvonne's arrival the next morning, or a vague prediction about the omega mech used by rourke in book 3.

viii. musket ball: yvonne concedes the gold musket ball at sharktooth isle in exchange for their services to find her 'treasure.'

ix. antique compass: yvonne's said treasure turns out to be an antique compass which she tries to conceal; malatesta made her walk the plank for stealing this compass, which she did in order to find the fountain of youth. the compass also leads her to the threshold in bonus scene 5.

x: oath blade: seraxa's gift to taylor for saving taari, saying that debts must be repaid in accordance with vaanti culture. she is shown to threaten the catalysts with this blade in book 2 chapter 4.

ACT 5

i. silver sap: the sap that drips from elyy'stel's tree aids the catalysts to walk in between dimensions. it is the consumption of this sap by eugene and flora that gradually turned them feral and eventually into the vaanti.

ii. deep fissure: if taylor keeps rewinding until they can't go any further, right up to the ancient sea, the catalysts witness the forming of a fissure in the ocean bed. this fissure was caused by vaanu crash-landing on the earth, and it eventually becomes mount atropo, and forms the bubble surrounding la huerta.

iii. the island's heart: one half of the island's heart, which was formed right in the crux of the volcano, found by the catalysts in the base of elyy'stel's tree.

iv. the mask maker: the masks worn by the vaanti bear the name of their maker, rosencraft & sons, 1921. this explains the masks worn by guests at flora and arthur's wedding, which also took place in the rosencraft manor. the rosencrafts were said to be bankrupt, and that the estate belonged to the banks.

v. burning shard: a burning crystal shard that glows green and reacts the same way that quinn did while possessed by the island's heart. it is one of many crystal shards scattered across the island, originating from the crux of the volcano.

vi. mansingh crater: a crater found near the chasm bears the name of mansingh transglobal tech, the company run by grace's mother, blaire hall. it is suspicious to both taylor and grace, as it implies blaire hall was somehow involved with rourke. no further explanation has been made about the crater.

vii. newspaper clipping: a scrap of an article is found by taylor in the elysian lodge, detailing the deaths of arjun and subhanu sethi due to a car accident, also killing their son and putting their daughter in a critical condition. this daughter is lila, and this article implies that rourke (or someone else) was doing a background research on lila.

viii. rourke's note: an old note written by rourke to look into the new junior researcher, as they look familiar. this is most likely a reference to olivia montoya, although it is not known where he recognises her from.

ACT 6

i. rourke's plan: out of agitation, lila blurts out rourke's plan to save the world through a machine at the masada facility. this machine turns out to be the omega mech, and rourke's plan happens to be controlling the world and its people's existence on his whims.

ii. tracking device: a tracking device is found by taylor, attached to the yeti's fur. this was placed there by the arachnid. this tracking device relays location details back to them, as seen in the military humvee by michelle, jake and taylor, where the code name for the yeti is arktos.

iii. garbled message: a distorted voice reveals the date and coordinates of jake's location, received by the arachnid through an anonymous transmission, which is how they came upon la huerta in the first place. this voice belongs to jake himself, who did so using a 'time-phone' in order to merge realities and help them escape through a helicopter from the masada facility.

iv. crashed satellite: varyyn, while talking about shooting stars, says a satellite once crashed to the ground from the skies. it is probably a stray satellite that got caught in the la huerta time bubble, or it belonged to rourke.

v. omega mech: olivia montoya demonstrates rourke's plans for the omega specimen, aka the endless, through a vr headset. she urges the viewer to understand the destruction the specimen, and rourke, are capable of.

vi. missing guests: rourke claimed that the guests at the celestial were evacuated in time at the beginning of the book, but it is shown that he had them put in containment pods. as seen in bonus scene 4, lundgren and the other arachnids were a part of these guests, but were released by rourke upon striking a deal with him to capture jake.

vii. charred skeletons: skeletons of people are found in the flames and ashes at hartfeld, proving that people did not escape the eruption.

viii. havana cigar: lundgren's cigar at the masada facility implies that he was snooping around where he shouldn't, and that he didn't trust rourke. this distrust is confirmed in bonus scene 6.

ACT 7

i. temple/ancient map: if taylor, yvonne and uqzhaal find the endless, they will give the whereabouts of no'ox naj temple to yvonne, where the fountain of youth exists. if they don't find the endless, taylor and yvonne find a carving of the la huerta map on the walls at the threshold, also hinting towards the temple. the whole group meets the endless for the first time in this temple in book 3 chapter 4.

ii. scout: a mechanical spider with a spy camera is found by taylor while they go windsurfing to win malatesta's bet. like the tracker on the yeti, this was also placed by the arachnid to track down their locations.

iii. padlock: a weathered padlock bearing the inscription, 'no land, no sea, no one will keep us apart. flora & eugene, 1920,' found by taylor in a coral reef. after turning down eugene's proposal (the ring clue, book 2), she tried to make it up to him with this padlock and by asking him to show up at neptune cove (the note clue, book 1). when he failed to show up, flora gave up on him and somehow ended up in a forced marriage to arthur barnaby a year later.

iv. pen: a tarnished silver pen bearing grace's name is found in the shrine at no'ox naj temple. it is implausible that she was at the temple, as she was under rourke's custody the whole time. it is also the same pen seen in grace's catalyst idol, returned to her by aleister and ultimately found near professor diaz's car which she had smashed up.

v. silver sap: one of the drinks served at the anachronists' party at quarr'tel is the silver sap from elyys'tel's tree. the creation of the vaanti myth, which is said to have started at a masquerade theme wedding, is that of flora and arthur's, where the former gets shot after confessing her love for eugene at the wedding. in an attempt to save her, eugene gives her some of this sap. this consumption eventually turns them into the feral vaanti.

vi. spirit's identity: the anachronist, clockmaker, refers to the faceless spirit as vaanu. in reality, vaanu is simply an alien being from another planet (the prism dimension) who crash landed on earth when its planet was destroyed. upon communing with vaanu, taylor discovers they are vaanu's creation, made for the purpose of returning la huerta to its normal state, allowing vaanu's departure.

vii. aleister's note: aleister writes a note to grace, apologising to her, and how he feels genuine remorse over his betrayal. he mentions that he hopes to redeem himself in her eyes.

ACT 8:

i. painting: at the rosencraft manor, there's a painting titled 'depiction of the divine' portraying rourke writing the ten commandments dressed in roman attire. the attire probably matches the statue of himself in the atrium, which opens up the sundial to his museum.

ii. communicator: the anachronists provide sean, raj and michelle with antique communicators which lets them coordinate the attack on cetus.

iii. path to the core: vaanu shows quinn the way to the core of the volcano, where the island's heart belongs. this core is the place where vaanu landed on earth.

iv. molten crystals: a crystal orb with claw markings in it, made by the oryctoraptor that dwells inside the volcano. referred to by varyyn as the deep guardian, it is the most reclusive of the four. it is also responsible for the orb found in the cavern in book 1 chapter 5, and possibly the orb that causes the time loop in book 2 chapter 2.

v. the endless' musings: zahra finds a diary belonging to the endless at the base of the volcano, in which they speak of how the sentience of the crystals probably drew the four guardians (cetus, king crab, yeti, oryctoraptor) to establish order on the island, but they were driven mad. the endless also believes it is possible the crystal created the creatures. this is possible, as it would explain the existence of the colourful seahorse, t'kal and furball (although they have not been affected like the guardians have.)

vi. closing words: the closing words spoken by seraxa during the handfasting ceremony, which is customary as 'it was for the first bride and her beloved.' they are the same words that were engraved in the padlock that flora made for eugene.

[detroitbydark]

Characters: Hound/OC

Summary: when life (or Thire) gets him traffic duty, Hound makes the most of it.

Warnings: None

A/N: I shouldn’t be starting a new work. I really shouldn’t. I also shouldn’t have decided to write a oneshot, talked to @skdubbs and have four chapters plotted out.

This does take place in the Fox and Mouse verse (around chapter 6 if I remeber correctly).

————

“From Kessel to Kijimi, this is Nuna Skii flying you through the dark hours of the night. I’d like to give a shout to-.”

Hound hunches forward over the handle bars to the GAR issued speeder. Traffic Ops. Kriff.

It would teach him to make a bet with Thire. Then again, how was he to know that the Commander actually had it in him to bag the cute little secretary that took up guard duty outside of his office door.

Obviously not Hound.

The ARF Sargent sighs before turning the radio up. He’d rather be back in his barracks with his massiff at his feet than clocking for speeders and traffic violations. It wasn’t that it was below him it was just… well it was below him. He didn’t go through recon school to be looking for our of date tags.

At least he got to listen to his favorite radio show.

“-and more of that sweet jizz music coming from Dantooine as a special favor to my boys in the 332nd”

Nuna Skii’s show on Independent Republic Radio was a favorite of many a trooper. Overnights were osik but the sweet smoky sound of her voice and the frequent shoutouts - often laced with innuendo - were definitely one way to pass the time. And if her voice was stored in the spank banks of half the troopers in the GAR? Well, that was just an added bonus to her show.

“Just you, me and an empty sky lane tonight, eh Nuna?” He asks the radio.

“How about we take another deep dive into an absolutely delicious track, yeah?”

“You could sell me some ocean front property on Tatooine and I'd pay top dollar. Hit me with it, babygirl.”

He only does a handful of stops and doesn’t write a single ticket for the next six hours.

———

She was so karking tired. Like, tired was an understatement. Half-dead might be more correct. She needed atomic grade caf or a bed to pass out in immediately. Glancing at the near stalled traffic in front of her, Nuna can’t help but think she wasn’t going to get either anytime soon.

The joys of working nights.

She really did love her job. To be a young holoradio jockey and have a spot on any station on Coruscant was pretty damn amazing but to have it on IRR? probably the single coolest station in the core worlds? It was a dream come true. Most of the time.

A yawn escapes her lips and her speeder rattles ominously underneath her.

“Oh- no, no, no.” She mutters looking down at her gauges. Warning lights flash brightly. She’d just gotten the kriffing thing out of the shop last week. They were supposed to have fixed the thrusters. The bike leans to the right and Nuna feels the tell tale swoop in her stomach from a sudden drop in altitude. It wasn’t much more than a few feet but if it was anything like it was the week before she needed a landing platform. And fast.

The early morning light bounces off the transparisteel buildings around her as she tries to find the nearest safe bet. Her speeder bike coughs once and jerks again, jostling her helmeted head. She sucks in a sharp breath as it pulls hard, dragging her from the skylane and into open air. It’s a struggle to keep the thing upright as she tries to guide it in for a landing on the nearest platform. Lights flash in her rear view.

“Really? Really?!” She hisses to herself as her muscles strain to keep the bike on course.

She manages to land the malfunctioning speeder, the ungainly pile of scrap plopping down with all the grace of a pregnant nerf.

The Coruscant Guard bike, all sleek lines, gunmetal grey and cherry red accents lands feet behind her.

Hers makes one last wheeze and cuts off. The good thing is, she’s wide awake now. No caf needed.

“Ma’am?”

Nuna turns to see the visage of snarling maw cocking it’s head in her direction.

“You ok?”

She swallows hard. It was a known fact within her small circle of friends that Nuna Skii - the real Nuna Skii not the sex kitten holojockey- was absolute mush for a guys in uniform and the one stepping closer was definitely one that would make her heart pump harder if it weren’t already for the adrenaline of a near death experience. If there was a name for kink involving men in helmets Nuna had it.

“I- uh- yeah” she takes a deep breath because now was not the place and certainly not the time, “I’m good”

The trooper's head cocks the opposite direction as he points toward her handlebars. “You know you're ok to let those go now, right?”

A nervous laugh escapes her lips. Her hands feel stiff from the exertion of the landing and she wiggles her fingers, forcing the blood back into them as she pulls them back toward her. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“No problem. Can I see your identichip and registration?”

Nuna gives him a blank stare for half a second, eyes moving almost comically from his outstretched hand and back up to his helmet. His free hand rests at his kama, index finger tapping idly. He’s got to be kidding, she nearly died and he was going to-

“You're going to give me a ticket?” She pulls her helmet off with little fanfare and hangs it from the handle bars. “Really? I nearly died and now I’m getting a ticket?!”

The trooper holds both hands up, “Easy there. No one said anything about a ticket. Just because you broke about three different traffic codes and at least two vehicular safety ones...” he lets the implication of what he’s said hang in the air.”

Nuna pulls the requested items out of her bag and hands them to the trooper with more aggression than needed but, damn it all, she was so tired she could cry and now she had to deal with a broke down speeder. Again.

She watches as the trooper looks down at the identichip and then back to her. Once, twice, three times.

“Is there a problem?”

“You’re Nuna Skii- I mean like the real Nuna Skii?” The tone of his voice has changed and he almost seems… excited?

“Uh yeah, guilty as charged. Listen, is this going to-“

“Say, ‘flying you through the night on IRR.’”

“Is this part of your usual traffic stops?” Nuna raises a brow at the trooper. Really? Did it ever get strange enough. She swings a leg over the seat and moves to stand. Her legs shake underneath her and tall, excitable and toothy holds out a gloved hand.

“Here, let me help you.”

She takes it because falling flat on her face really doesn’t seem like something she wanted to add to her laundry list of problems this morning. When she’s standing at her full height, which was substantially shorter than the solid wall of clone trooper in front her, she looks up.

His hand moves to the back of his helmet and rubs gently, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound demanding.” He says almost bashful. “It’s just that if-“

She takes pity on him. “From Corellia to Canto Bight, flying you through the night on Independent Republic Radio”

He stands frozen for a moment. Nuna squirms under the unflinching state of his visor until finally-

“Holy Fett! It’s really you! Listen! I- I mean we- the Guard- we’re like your biggest fans.”

The wind whips up through the levels ruffling the hair on her head, deep lilac colored wisps work their way into her mouth and she spits uselessly before reaching up and using her fingers to remove them. “That’s great really-“

Her hands go to her hips. Was this guy for real?

“Hey, I know a guy that does towing. He’s kind of a di’kut but he owes me a favor. I could get your ride towed where you need it. I mean, if you want?”

“Like, for free?” She clarifies.

The trooper looks down at her as if that was a given, “well, yeah.”

“And you want what in return?” Nuna fidgets. This is where the guy becomes a dirtbag and asks for something. He hands back her identichip and registration before reaching up and popping the seal on his bucket. He gives her a lopsided grin as he slips the helmet up his arm. Kriff. He was cute. His dark hair is cut into a floppy Mohawk. A stray curl of it dips down across his forehead and he offers her a lopsided grin. He is about as intimidating as a puppy.

“Can I get a shout out on your show tonight? I mean, the boys are NEVER going to believe this unless you do.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it” he seems to think for a moment and his smile becomes toothy, “unless you’d like to give me your number too?”

She can feel the hot rush of embarrassment to her cheeks and hopes he mistakes it for wind burn. She ignores his comment about her number because, this fine specimen was so far out of her league it was crazy.

“So What’s to stop me from saying yes and not doing it”

“Aww come on, please? You wouldn’t do one of your biggest fans like that would you?”

“What’s your name?” She can’t handle the soft puppy dog eyes he’s giving her. It should be illegal for any dude with shoulders that broad to look so cute.

“Sargent Hound of the Coruscant Guard at your service.”

She nearly chokes. Well, that explained the puppy dog eyes. “You drive a hard bargain, Sargent.” She says regaining her composure. She looks behind him to the GAR issued speeder. “If you can drop me at my building I’ll call it a deal.”

His smile makes her tummy flutter, “I think that can be arranged.”

——-

“You’re full of it” Rule barks “Osik up to your visor!”

Hound is lounging back on a couch that is not nearly large enough for both him and the massiff sprawled out on it. Grizzer lifts his head, licks his lips lazily and lays back down. Hound scratches around the creature's dorsal spikes and the massiff kicks his back foot happily.

“I told you man. It was her. Identichip verified and everything.

“El-Tee? You hear this?”

Lieutenant Thire looks up from his holopad and the boloball game he was watching, “what?”

Rule is grinning from ear to ear, “Hound here says he helped Nuna Skii out of a bind this morning.”

“I’m not just saying it. I did it.”

Hound explains lazily. He doesn’t tell them about giving her a ride home, pretty sure he broke about half a dozen regs just having her pressed up against his back and her arms around his waist and that was before he dropped her at her building. It was early enough in the day that he doubts anyone really noticed. If they did it was worth it to have her hands clutching at his armor.

Hound had pictured Nuna Skii so many times that the fact that she wasn’t a leggy blonde had come as a shock. What she was wasn’t a bad thing, just different. Short and soft with curves in places he wished he could run his hands all over.

“Prove it!” Ryk laughs as he ambles in, freshly showered and pulling his blacks over his head.

“Should we tell ‘Em Grizz, old man? Or should we just let them eat their buckets when it happens?”

Ryk rolls his eyes as the ARF Trooper chats with his massiff. “You know he’s never going to answer back, right?”

Grizzer looks over his shoulder at Ryk.

“Aww come on man” Hound fusses. One mearty hand moves to scratch under the massiff’s intimidating jaw. Grizzer turns into the touch, nearly purring with contentment. “Just because he can’t speak basic doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand it. Isn’t that right boy. We got our own language, Grizz and I. Smartest mas’ in the whole GAR, aren’t you?”

The creatures leathery tail thumps happily in agreement.

“Don’t know about that but he certainly smells a lot better than the bunch of you.” Thire mutters turning his attention back to boloball and cursing quietly. Ryk lifts an arm smelling.

“Not me! I’m squeaky clean!”

“We’re getting off track here” Rule announces in an attempt to refocus the gathered troopers. “What we need to know is how you're going to prove you met Nuna Skii.”

“Did she sign a ticket?” Thire asks, not looking up. When Hound doesn’t answer Thire looks up.

“She was having a really bad morning-“

“You do know when you work traffic you have to ticket people at least once in a while.”

“Apparently, not the pretty ones.” Ryk cackles.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, vod.”

Ryk rolls his eyes as Hound moves to turn the radio on. Nuna’s show was starting any minute. He hoped she’d come through.

———-

Around and around Nuna spins. The wheels on her roller chair are in desperate need of oil and squeak in protest. Nuna is undeterred as she waits for the next commercial to end. Her producer glances at her through the transparisteel divider and rolls her eyes. Yes, she was a child. No, she would not be apologizing. She grabs a cold protato from a greasy Dex’s bag as she makes another loop. If her fans could see her now. She’s got on an oversized tunic and a pair of dark pants that were probably a little too tight but were way too comfortable for her to care. When she woke her hair wasn’t about to do anything for her so now it sits piled high in a sloppy bun atop her head. She was about as far away from the character she portrayed as she could get.

“On in fifteen Nunz” Tully her producer says. Nuna hurries to swallow her food and takes a big gulp of water.

“And that was the Twi’Three with their latest and I’m Nuna Skii keeping you up all night.” She purrs into the mic. “I think we’re going to go to the comms and take a few calls. Whatcha wanna let the galaxy know?”

“Hi Nuna. Long time listener. I just wanted to say that I love the show but I’m getting really tired of your pandering to clones-“

Nuna mashes the end button with gusto before sighing deeply into the mic.

“Babies and Gentlemen. My lovelies. From 2100 til 0500 five nights a week this is a trooper positive show. If you don’t like it I’d suggest you find something else to listen too. Those yummy boys in white are giving the Republic their all. I don’t see a problem with a few minutes here and there dedicated to them, do you?” She asks sweetly. “It makes me happy making them happy. You know what else makes me happy? New stuff from that Mon Cal band, Ach’tu. Coming at you after this commercial break”

———-

“Maker, I love when she does that.” Ryk groans quietly. “She could put me in my place any day.”

Rule nods, “she could read me the repair manual to my deece and I would die a happy man.”

Thire snorts, “What about you Hound. Got something to say?”

“Yeah man” Ryk lifts his head from where he was resting it against the back of his chair. “What does she look like.”

Hound offers a sly grin, “like a million credits.”

“Long legs? Big tits? You're killing us man” Rule says raising a brow, “unless you don’t really know.”

Hound laughs, “I know vod, but I’m not telling.” His brothers roll their eyes.

“For all my blaster babes and bucket bunnies happily messing with republic property. I salute you.” Nuna’s voice grabs the gathered troopers attention. Thire snorts softly, pretending as if he wasn’t listening. “Along those lines I want to send a special thanks to my new favorite Hound dog out there patrolling the sky lanes of Coruscant. Keep being a good boy and next time we meet I’ll give you a scratch behind the ears.”

The room falls silent except for the low snore of a sleeping massiff. All eyes fall on Hound. His smile says I told you so.

A good boy. Yeah, he could be very happy with that.

[highsviolets]

of hyperdrives & hands: engineer!reader x obi-wan

summary: you’re fixing the hyperdrive on the Negotiator when a mysterious being pays you a visit.

word count: I honestly have no idea bc i wrote this whole thing on my notes app in the car lmao. (sorry if the formatting is weird/there are typos!!)

rating: G. but also, this is basically a love letter to Ewan McGregor’s gorgeous hands.

A/N: fulfilling a request for the lovely @aty-cgca7! ily, chasity! I hope it’s everything you were looking for 💖 also I know nothing about engineering or computers or hyperdrives so don’t come for me y’all 😂

of hyperdrives & hands, a fic by corellians-only

Brow furrowed in concentration, you squint in the hazy light. Reaching up to your forehead with your left hand, you slide your fingers across the surface of your skin, batting away renegade wisps of hair that had fallen away from your bun.

Maker, but it was warm down here, in the maw of this behemoth ship. You curse softly to yourself as a bead of sweat hovered perilously close to your eyelash, threatening to obscure your vision as you strain to locate the loose wire that had sent you onto the Negotiator in the first place. Hadn’t your father always warned your that space was cold? When you told him you had joined the Civilian Engineer Corps to help with the war effort, he had even cracked a joke about adding extra layers to your uniform.

You frown. Clearly, accomplished pilot though he was, you father had never been in the hyperdrive control center of a Republic Venator-class Star Destroyer.

Catching your distraction, you shake your head. No. You needed to focus. Now was not the time to question your father’s supposed space travel wisdom. There’s a job to be done. Hyperdrives did not fix themselves.

There she is. Rather than simply becoming disconnected, the wire had split in two, snapping under the pressure from the processing core directly above the unit. This was going to be more complicated than you thought.

For a few hours, the only sounds that filled the room were soft snip of wirecutters and the gentle thrum of the engines. As you start re-routing the stray wire, your mind begins to wander.

You had heard stories about Star Destroyers with entire hangers of processing cores for the shields alone. That their nav computers were the most accurate in the galaxy. That their holo encryption system was unbreakable (it wasn’t. You had written and sliced a viral code into their data key a few standard months back, just to see if you could). This was your first time on such a warship when it was in space, and while it was impressive, at the end of the day, it ran like any other ship.

Tali had been even aboard General Secura’s flagship, the Liberty, for a supply dump once and she swore that their weapons systems were the most flawless thing she had ever seen - barring General Kenobi, of course, she had added with an impish grin tossed your way.

Your not-so-subtle crush on the dashing General was an open secret among your platoon of female engineers. Most of them assumed it was because he was pretty and famous — he was on nearly every holomag cover, after all — but you knew better. You knew he was a good man. His hands told you so.

The first time you had seen General Kenobi, you had been playing in the undercity of Coruscant when a boy a little older than yourself had stopped to ask what you were building with the rubble left behind from an explosion caused by the nascent Black Sun cartel a few days earlier.

“I don’t know,” you had responded belligerently, upset at your endeavors having been interrupted - and by a boy, no less. “Why do you have a braid in your hair?” you continued. “I thought only girls had braids.”

The boy had adjusted his stance to stand up taller. “I’m going to be a Jedi,” he proclaimed. “I’m Obi-Wan,” he offered with a smile. His eyes flashed suddenly, and with a quick thrust, his hand extended into the dusty air. A sheet of durasteel that had been hovering precariously at the tip of the heap was now suspended in midair, mere centimeters from crashing down on your head. Even in the grim half-light of the slums, you could see sapphire eyes earnestly fixed on the hunk of metal. Strong, lithe fingers gestured gracefully. The object fell with a great crash a few meters away.

You could only stare in awe.

The faint sound a male voice calling had caused him to twist his head and listen. “I have to go.” He frowned. “Master Qui-Gon is calling me. I hope I see you again some day.”

He bowed slightly, then turned and trotted back toward his Master.

You had never been quite able to forget the teenager with pretty hands who had saved your life.

Nearly two decades later, you had seen him again. You and Tali had been sipping cups of caf before your shifts in the makeshift mess hall of a personnel loading area when you sensed his presence. Not in a Jedi way - you didn’t have a lick of Force sensitivity, you knew - but in the way you noticed that everyone seemed to speak a little softer and trail their eyes after the passing figure in white armor.

He had strode past the the two of you, hardly sparing a glance at two female civilian engineers and pointedly ignoring the sheer weight of the gazes trained on him. Later, over a pint of lomin ale, Tali has raved about his hair, and how “he had a shoulder to hip ratio that was sharper than a vibroblade, didn’t you notice?”

You had taken a sip of your drink and laughed good-naturedly at Tali’s antics. You had noticed him, to be sure, but you had been transfixed by his hands, not his muscles.

Back in the days before the war, when you were still a little girl, your father Aves had always told you to take note of a being’s hands. In the present moment, you smile as you refit the access panel on the hyper drive’s core reactor as a the memory comes to mind.

Even though he was a good father, Aves had been a man of mystery. Whatever it was he did for a living, it had blessed him with an intimate knowledge of guns, starships, and computers, and he had passed everything he knew on to his “blazing sun,” he used to call you affectionately.

“Blazing sun,” he would instruct you, “you can tell a lot about a being by their hands.” When he was satisfied he had captured your attention, the impression of a smile glowed across his face. He resumed cleaning his carbine rifle as he spoke, his voice low and smooth. “You can tell a lot about a being by their hands,” he intoned again. “Their trade. Their social class. How they hold a weapon. What kind of weapons they use. If they can pilot a ship. If their mind is focused or skittish.” The tall man had shrugged gently, an action that seemed counterintuitive to the grade A contraband blaster now resting comfortably in his expert grip. A new power pack slapped into place with a precise snap. “If you ever want to know someone” — he tucked a stray hair behind your ear tenderly, the other hand still clutching the blaster — “look at their hands.”

You begin tapping out routine codes on the core reactor to test the replacement wire. The various combinations of letters and numbers in basic and binary were muscle memory, and you stared in awe as your own fingers punch in the digits seemingly of their own volition.

Yes, it was General Kenobi’s hands that most enraptured you, you decided. Slender, calloused (you supposed - not that you had ever had the pleasure of testing that theory for yourself), extensions of strong, well muscled arms that indicated a strong degree over his motions. He had held them so softly at his sides that day in the mess hall. They had gestured animatedly as he walked alongside a clone commander, a graceful arc to his movements that made you think he would be a good dancer — or a formidable fighter.

The klaxon of an alarm drives you from your reverie. “Oh, kriff.” The latest code you had entered seemed to have caused the wires to short circuit, tripping an internal safety alarm.

“Kriff, kriff, kriff.” You continue to swear violently as you all but run over to the central computer console and entering a code to kick-start a program to halt the shrieking din. Within the minutes, the alarm bells stop, and you sag against the console in relief.

“Is something the matter?” a rich tenor voice asks from behind you.

Immediately you tense. In a singular, practiced motion, you pivot on your left heel and whip your blaster into your right hand simultaneously, turning to face the voice in a fighting stance.

“Freeze!” you call into the shadows. Your eyes scan the cavernous room methodically before settling on a spot a few meters in from the doorway where the light seems distorted. You take aim with your blaster.

“Justice, freedom, faith,” the disembodied voice replies calmly from the same spot.

Your eyes narrow. Whoever the being was, they had given the correct password. But the upper-class Coruscanti accent didn’t belong to anyone in your platoon, and who else would be prowling around the underbelly of General Kenobi’s flagship? There had been faint rumors of a lightsaber wielding Separatist operative. Maybe they were coming to sabotage the ship? Well, not on your watch.

“Step into the light,” you order, durasteel edging into your voice. “Keep your hands above your head.” The contours of the blaster are cool, comforting in your grip, soothing the blood rushing just beneath the surface.

A tall auburn-haired man steps into the light, arms raised. “Will this suffice?” he asked wryly, amusement playing across his features as you feel shock and embarrassment creep up your neck and onto your cheeks.

Stars above. I almost shot General Kenobi. A thousand thoughts race through your mind faster than light speed - some witty, some pragmatic.

But of course, what slips out is neither of those.

“Fierfek, you startled me,” you manage to spit out instead. It’s only your steel will that prevents you from collapsing from embarrassment on the spot. Feigning nonchalance you decidedly do not feel about almost murdering a war hero and childhood crush, you holster your weapon and turn back to the console.

“I gathered as much,” he returns, amusement still coloring his tone.

The room fell silent for a few moments as you run system diagnostics.

“What is it you’re working on?” This time, he’s so near you can feel the heat of his breath on the back of your neck. Well honed reflexes are faster than your brain, though, and it isn’t until you feel a gentle pressure on your elbow that you realize it’s raised to jab him in the throat.

General Kenobi’s chuckle seems to fill the room. “Are you sure you aren’t trying to kill me?” he murmurs. A shiver runs up your spine despite yourself and you feel your stomach start to coil.

You stare at the data steaming on the console until your eyesight begins to blur. “That depends. Are you trying to kill me, sir?” Maker, but you were mouthy today. What was wrong with you?

Kenobi releases your arm dropping his to his side. Immediately, you feel bereft somehow with the loss of his touch.

Peering over your shoulder, he asks, “hyperdrive problems?”

Kriff, does that man not realize what he is doing to you, muttering in your ear like that? Of course he doesn’t, you dolt, you tell yourself; he’s a Jedi. Not his fault you’ve had a crush on him since you were nearly eight years old.

“A replacement wire short-circuited the system and triggered an emergency code,” you respond as evenly as you can manage. A fresh sweat breaks out across your forehead as another complex code dances across the screen.

“What code is that?” He reaches out as though he could absorb the masses of data contained in the system through osmosis. Maybe he can. You’re not a Jedi.

The movement serves a different purpose for you. Something wet and bright glistens as his hand moves into the blue light of the console.

“You’re bleeding.”

He glances down and grimaces. “It’s nothing. Just a scratch.”

You arch an eyebrow. “Doesn’t look like it to me.” Blood is starting to gather around an incision slashed across his right hand.

He opens his mouth to retort no doubt, but you beat him to it. “Don’t give me that bantha dung about Jedi business.” A grease stained finger jabs in the direction of his chest.

Kenobi’s face remains impassive. When he doesn’t respond, you roll your eyes, and, tugging at his elbow, drag him over to the glow lamp near your workstation.

He continues to scrutinize you, and you look down at yourself, wondering what he’s staring at. Your coverall sleeves are rolled up, there’s sweat gathering at your collarbone, and you feel the grimy mixture of dust and stale perspiration coating your face. You’re a hot mess if there ever was one.

Resolutely, you ignore the flush on your cheeks and the steel of his gaze and rummage for a bandage in the care pack attached to your hip. Several excruciating seconds later you find one and tear it open.

It’s when you’re grasping his hand in one of yours the he finally speaks. “I’ve seen you before.”

His cool composure inspires a sudden flash of irritation. “You seem rather certain sir,” you say as you apply a bacta salve.

“Because I am,” he responds mildly. His hand grips yours tightly when you apply the bandage, and you almost asphyxiate on the spot. You were right — his hands are calloused.

“Well, consider this your repayment from saving a girl from durasteel in the Coruscant under-levels about twenty years ago,” you answer with a quick smile. It’s hard to be angry when Obi-Wan Kenobi is in effect, holding your hand.

Reluctantly you release him from your grasp, letting your hand drift down to your side.

The General inclines his head in thanks, then glances back at the computer. “Is the hyperdrive fixed, then?”

You nod, stuffing supplies back into your pack. “I modified the code and replaced the wire so it should be okay.” You meet his eyes. “I’ll be with the ship until it returns to Coruscant, so if there any problems I’ll be available to assist, sir.”

You turn to leave, but he reaches out and catches your hand. “And who do I have to thank for such diligent caretaking of both my ship and my hand?” he inquires. His touch is like satin against your dirty hands and you grin in spite of it.

You consider for a moment. “A blazing sun,” you tell him.

You smile as you make your back to your quarters. Yes, you could tell a lot about a person by their hands.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Foodcrime

We are living in a golden age of predatory capitalism, in which businesses that generate real value and stable employment are being destroyed by deep-pocketed quasi-tech firms that lose money on every transaction but hope to make it back by securing monopolies.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the restaurant industry, where a bewildering array of deceptive (and even fraudulent) tactics are being deployed by Doordash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Yelp, who have nonconsensually interposed themselves between eaters and restaurateurs.

If this is ringing bells, you might be recalling the infamous May case-study in which a pizzeria owner discovered that Doordash had put up a fake delivery page for his restaurant and was selling his pizzas for less than he charged for them.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/18/code-is-speech/#schadenpizza

Doordash would take the orders, then pay low-waged workers to call the restaurant and pretend to be real customers ordering takeouts. Then other low-waged gig economy workers would pick them up, pretending to be diners, and deliver them.

The end-game was to become a gatekeeper to the restaurant, by offering lower-than-cost pizzas to this guy's customers and then threatening to divert them to a rival unless he paid ransom to Doordash.

The wily pizza owner figured out that he could order dozens of his pizzas to a confederate's home, and simply ship out boxes of half-cooked dough, and bill Doordash a small fortune for a few pennies' worth of cardboard and flour.

It was quite a fun story!

Alas, it was not representative. In the time since, the outlandish, predatory conduct of app companies has intensified, documented in "Rescuing Restaurants: How to Protect Restaurants, Workers, and Communities from Predatory Delivery App Corporations."

https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/rescuing-restaurants-how-to-protect-restaurants-workers-and-communities-from-predatory-delivery-app-corporations/

The report comes from Moe Tkacik for the American Economic Liberties Project, and it documents the fraudulent, anticompetitive tactics used by tech companies to steal from restaurants:

Merging dozens of companies (online menus, delivery services, etc) into a single giant, then doubling its fees

Creating fake websites for restaurants, then using SEO to make them the top results on Google, and tricking customers into ordering through an app company instead of a restaurant

Imposing anticompetitive contracting terms on restaurants prohibiting them from offering discounts for in-person dining or own-driver delivery

Punishing restaurants that refuse to pay for upsell "marketing services" by banishing them from app search-results

Tricking drivers into becoming dependent on apps for income, merging with competitors so they have no alternative, slashing wages, all while maintaining the fiction that drivers are "independent contractors"

Collecting sales tax on take-out orders that are not taxable and pocketing it

Using tax-evasion techniques to avoid sales- and income-tax at the local, state and federal level

Bribing Google (paying "referral fees") to add "order now" buttons to restaurants' listings that go to apps, not the restaurants' own ordering systems

When restaurants cancel their Grubhub service and build their own ordering systems, Grubhub fraudulently lists those restaurants as "not offering delivery"

Building "ghost kitchens" in shipping containers (etc) that clone the menus and recipes of the popular restaurants they've driven to their knees (while tricking chefs into working under dangerous, low-waged conditions in them)

It's the latest wrinkle on all the predatory businesses whose principle competence is SEO and fraud - think of the fake "locksmiths" that completely dominate all Google searches.

These are bullshit referral services that dispatch an untrained guy with a drill to destroy your lock and charge you a fortune, while the actual, skilled locksmiths in your neighborhood can't be located with a search.

But this is worse, because these predators have fantastically deep pockets, with money from the likes of Softbank (the notorious front for the Saudi royals behind Uber and Wework), and can afford to lose huge sums for years.

Older tech companies, like Yelp, are getting in on the action. As Edward Ongweso Jr reports for Motherboard, Yelp now fraudulently lists Grubhub's call center as the order number for restaurants in its database.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjwebw/yelp-is-sneakily-replacing-restaurants-phone-numbers-so-grubhub-can-take-a-cut

People who calls these numbers are deceived into thinking they are ordering from the restaurants they know and love - instead, they are being victimized by a rent-seeking man-in-the-middle attack that will destroy that restaurant over time.

Tkacik's report concludes with nine recommendations:

I. Investigate and prosecute the apps’ systematic unfair and deceptive practices

II. Prohibit delivery apps from imposing no price competition clauses

III. Ban further anti-competitive mergers in the sector

IV. Enforce and expand local laws curbing predatory commissions and other delivery app abuses

V. Prohibit delivery apps from using loss-leader pricing to harm competition and incentivize consumers to abandon on-premise dining

VI. Eliminate “independent contractor” loopholes and force the third party delivery giants to give their workers the wages, protections and benefits required of employers

VII. Require delivery apps to restrict the use of data collected from restaurants to  limited and specific purposes, and explicitly prohibit them from leveraging data

VIII. Mandate search neutrality within apps and bar payola style arrangements between apps and restaurants

IX. Separate platform and commerce in two ways: (1) Prohibit the combination of online ordering apps and delivery/logistics services (2) Online ordering apps and dark kitchens

[singledarkshade]

Not The Clone You Were Expecting

Summary: Waking confused, Phil Gasmer soon finds he has a rescue mission with no idea how to do it. Author’s Notes: This was written for the RipChat Holiday Gift Exchange and is my gift to @kalinara. My prompt was: I would like a story involving Phil Gasmer, either physically present or the parts of him that still exist in Rip. Thanks to @incendiaglacies for reading through this for me and making sure it made sense.

Enjoy He felt strange as he woke, like his mind was filled with cotton wool.

His last memory was being held down by two of the three men who had abducted and tortured him while the third moved closer carrying a metal band that he knew would kill him.

And he was sure he had died.

Somehow there was consciousness again, and he could hear voices. Although they sounded far away there was something familiar about them, recognition tickling at the back of his mind.

The voice suddenly became clearer, as though his ears popped.

“He looks identical. Even the scars are the same,” a woman near him mused.

“They have to be,” a man replied, filling him with a vague feeling of anger, “We have to ensure Gideon believes him to be Hunter. If he is missing any scar or freckle, she will know immediately that something is wrong.”

Confusion filled him, everyone had claimed he was Rip Hunter. Why was it different now?

Forcing his eyes open, the bright light stabbed into him, but he managed to focus finally. Bemusement filled him as he saw himself lying on the table across from him, strapped to a table.

“Phil,” the other version of himself called urgently, “Elude protocol.”

The man and woman frowned turning to Phil’s doppelganger strapped to the bed while Phil’s hand moved without thought and he pressed his left thumb into his right wrist. The world around him dissolved and suddenly he was in a completely different room.

“What the hell is going on?”

All Phil Gasmer wanted to do with his life was make movies with his friend George, and maybe get high on occasion. Then his life went insane from the moment the people who called themselves Legends appeared in it. He discovered the people in his movie were real, and that he apparently wasn’t who he thought he was but one of the characters he’d created, Rip Hunter.

Which was without a doubt depressing as hell considering all Phil knew about the man’s backstory.

And that was before he was abducted and tortured by three men who spent most of their time arguing amongst themselves.

Looking around the new surroundings, Phil found he was in a room, lit by a strip of lighting above his head. There was a desk and chair in one corner with a chest of drawers in another. Realising he was only dressed in a hospital robe, Phil opened the top drawer relieved to find several lots of clothes, all in his size.

Dressing quickly in dark denims, a grey t-shirt and a dark blue shirt, Phil then pulled on a pair of boots he found before he began to look around properly. There was a mirror on the wall and Phil moved to check if it gave a clue to where he was.

Looking at himself Phil frowned to see his hair was shorter and lighter than he remembered, his beard was gone, which annoyed him because he’d liked it, but there was a light scruff across his jaw.

Phil jumped when a beam of light covered his face, and he realised he was being scanned.

“Mr Gasmer…Phil,” his own face appeared before him, “I know this is strange but if you’re here then I am in trouble and you’re the only person who can help me.”

Phil stared at himself before sighing, “Rip Hunter.”

“One thing I can promise you is that you’re not actually me this time,” Rip continued, “If you’re seeing this then someone has managed to capture me and used cloning technology,” he paused for a moment before explaining, “I made a few arrangements just in case something like this happened, which is a longer story than I can tell you right now. I implanted a few additional pieces of knowledge in your mind, and I’m sorry but you’re the only one I can trust.”

Phil frowned confused but waited in silence.

“If you haven’t found them already,” Rip continued, “There are clothes in the top drawer, and in the drawer beneath that are a few weapons as well as some other kit you will need. Check the computer, all you require is to place your palm on the scanner, and it will know who you are. All the information you need can be found there.”

With that the recording ended and Phil was alone again.

 Phil frowned as he realised there was no way out of the room that he was in. He couldn’t find a door, there was no window and no hidden levers. All he wanted to do was leave and hide and be free from all the insanity.

But…

Rip Hunter had been the man trapped across from him when he’d woken, he’d done something to ensure Phil would escape their captors, and the least Phil could do was try to help the other man.

Opening the second drawer, Phil winced when he found several knives along with a gun and what looked like a watch of some kind. Closing the drawer without taking anything out, Phil moved to the desk and took a seat.

A rectangle on the desk lit up and nervously Phil placed his hand upon it. The computer sprang to life, and a blue head appeared on the screen.

“Greetings, Mr Gasmer,” the male voice came with an accent that reminded him of Rip, “My name is Graham, and I am an AI.”

“Like Gideon?” Phil asked.

“Precisely,” Graham replied, “Captain Hunter has charged me with providing you with assistance.”

“Okay,” Phil said before asking, “Help with what?”

“Your existence here shows that a concern he held has come to pass,” Graham continued, “In order to rescue Captain Hunter, you will require assistance. Unfortunately, the Waverider is not an option as, whoever has managed to abduct Captain Hunter, has done so in order to capture the ship.”

“Then who can help me?” Phil sighed.

Graham paused for a moment before replying, “Currently I am unable to answer that question as I do not know the state of the world outside these walls. Once you leave the building then I will have access to the required information.”

“How do I leave?” Phil demanded annoyed.

“In the second drawer you will find what looks to be a watch,” Graham explained, “This is called a Time Courier, it has been designed specifically by Captain Hunter to ensure that only you and he are able to use it. Once you activate the Time Courier, I shall be downloaded to it allowing me to guide you.”

Phil grimaced, moving over to the drawers again he pulled out the Time Courier and attached it to his wrist, this time taking the weapons as well.

“If you open the bottom drawer,” Graham spoke up before he could ask, “There is a bag along with currency for you to use, as well as other technology for this time period.”

Following the instructions, Phil found a rucksack. He was surprised by how much money was in it and frowned in confusion at the shiny black rectangle that was also inside it.

“This is a mobile phone,” Graham explained to him, “It will be connected to your Time Courier so all you are required to do is switch it on,” at Phil’s frown of confusion, he added, “Press the button at the side and when the number pad appears enter the code 2059. Once that is done it will connect automatically to the Time Courier and all you need to do is leave it on whilst in the bag.”

Phil followed the instructions, sliding the phone into a pocket inside the bag which looked like it would be safe. Reluctantly he added the knives and gun to the bag.

“Okay,” Phil whispered, “I’ve got everything. What now?”

“There is an earbud in the front pocket of the bag,” Graham said, “Put it in your ear and press once to activate it.”

Following the instructions once more, Phil winced when something jabbed his ear when he activated the earbud.

“That will ensure it does not fall out,” Graham said, this time in his ear as opposed to surrounding him, “And now it is time to leave.”

A scraping noise made him turn to see a door opening behind him, and a cold breeze filled the room making Phil shiver.

“There is a coat in the cupboard,” Graham told him, as another door opened where a long dark blue coat hung.

Phil slid it on before pulling the rucksack over one shoulder and stepping out into the unknown.

 Noise was coming from the end of the corridor that Phil was walking along. Reaching the end, he found two doors and frowned.

“Which way?” Phil asked softly.

“The door to your left leads into the bar of the public house we currently reside,” Graham told him, “While the door to your right leads to the street.”

Phil grimaced, “I could do with a drink.”

“Alcohol will not be conducive to rescuing Captain Hunter,” Graham noted disapprovingly.

Sighing Phil said, “I still need something to eat and drink.”

“There is a shop close by which will provide you with sustenance,” Graham assured him.

Grimacing Phil took the door to his right and stepped out into the street. He blinked in the bright light and jumped when a large lorry flew past him.

“Turn to your right and walk one hundred feet,” Graham told him, “There is a convenience store where you can obtain provisions.”

Phil walked in the direction the AI sent him, finding the shop easily. Walking in he located bottles of water, sandwiches and cookies.

“In order to pay,” Graham said in his ear, “Simply present your Courier to the small box at the till. It will pay for your food.”

“It will?” Phil asked before musing, “Cool.”

When he reached the front of the queue, the bored looking kid behind the till scanned his items then looked up waiting. Nervously Phil placed the Time Courier at the box, surprised when the kid handed him a receipt.

Taking his shopping, Phil put some of it in his bag before leaving the shop.

“Where to now?” Phil asked as he ate several cookies and drank the water while walking away from the shop.

“Head towards the park at the end of this street,” Graham told him, “Once there I shall open a portal to your next destination. This shall lead to the individual who will be able to assist you in your mission.”

A little worried that Graham hadn’t given him any actual information on where he was going, Phil continued to walk. He had no idea where he was but didn’t want to ask in case someone took notice of him. Once more he was in a world completely different to the one that he knew, the cars, clothes, hairstyles, and technology screamed this at him, but Phil decided until he knew he was safe from whoever had Rip then he wasn’t talking to anyone.

Reaching the park, he continued to walk and stalled when day suddenly became night, as the park became a street with houses surrounding him.

“Graham?” Phil called, “Where am I?”

“The house at the end of the street is your destination,” Graham told him, making Phil sigh that there was no further information provided.

But demanding answers would waste time and it was just easier to follow instructions for the moment. Heading to the detached house Phil saw a neat lawn at the front and two lights on inside. One upstairs and one downstairs.

Hitting the bell, Phil held his breath hoping that whoever answered was friendly. Listening to the sounds of the owner coming to answer, Phil sighed in relief seeing the man who opened the door was someone he recognised and knew would be able to help him.

“Rip?” Jax demanded.

Phil winced and shrugged, “Not exactly.”

                                 *********************************************

 Jax smiled as his little girl toddled towards him, catching her in a tight embrace when she reached him and pressing kisses to her cheeks while she giggled away.

“Alright,” Sadie laughed, “Come on Miss Martina, it’s bath time. Say goodnight to daddy and we’ll go play in the bubbles.”

Martina giggled, “Nyny, Dada.”

“Night night,” Jax hugged her, before passing the two-year-old to her mother.

Sadie smiled, starting to sing to their daughter as she took Martina upstairs leaving Jax to his work. He was taking several engineering courses so he could put his knowledge of the things he’d learned on the Waverider to good use and had two assignments to finish for the end of the week.

About an hour into his studying the doorbell rang, sighing in annoyance Jax put his pen down and opened the door to the last person he expected.

“Rip?”

The man standing there shrugged, “Not exactly.”

The American accent and hesitant demeanour made Jax stare in astonishment and he finally asked, “Phil?”

Relief filled the man’s face, “Yes. I’m sorry for just turning up and I know this is strange, but I need your help.”

“Come on in,” Jax told him, stunned that once again the film student was in front of him.

Phil stepped inside and headed into the lounge when Jax motioned him through. Looking up the stairs to see Sadie watching concerned, he said, “It’s something from my time with the Legends.”

She nodded, “Okay.”

He smiled relieved she understood before heading to where Phil was standing looking nervous and worried.

“Just letting my wife know there’s not a problem,” Jax assured the other man, “Grab a seat and tell me what’s going on.”

Sliding his bag off, Phil sat awkwardly on the edge of the couch and began to explain what had happened to bring him to Jax’s doorstep.

Jax rubbed his hand across his eyes, “Okay, let me see if I’ve got this right. You’re not Rip but a clone with all of Phil’s memories, completely separate from Rip who is in trouble?”

Phil nodded, “That’s the basics.”

“So, this AI you have?” Jax asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Phil pulled his right sleeve up and said, “Graham?”

“Yes, Mr Gasmer,” a male voice with an English accent stated as a blue head hologram appeared from what looked to be a Time Courier.

Phil smiled slightly, “Can you answer all of Jax’s questions?”

“Of course,” Graham replied, “Mr Jackson, what can I assist you with?”

Jax mused for a moment, “Explain how Phil isn’t Rip this time.”

“In case something like this happened,” Graham stated, “Captain Hunter made arrangements so that Mr Gasmer’s consciousness alone would be transferred into any cloned body amongst a few other additional pieces of information.”

Jax and Phil swapped confused glances before Jax asked, “What pieces of information?”

“As it is likely Captain Hunter has been taken in order to take control of the Waverider,” Graham continued, “Then he has transferred certain proprietary information to Mr Gasmer.”

Jax frowned, “What exactly does that mean?”

Phil shrugged confused.

“It means that the information the people who are currently holding Captain Hunter are after is no longer in his mind,” Graham explained, “But in Mr Gasmer’s.”

 Phil rubbed at his fingers worriedly as he listened to Graham, suddenly jumping at the AI’s pronouncement.

“Hold on,” Phil spoke up, “What information is in my head?”

Jax nodded, “That’s a really good question and,” he added, “You keep saying Captain Hunter, not Director. When did Rip set all this up?”

“Captain Hunter activated me three weeks after he left the Waverider following the destruction of the Spear of Destiny,” Graham explained, “Gideon streamlined the plan, and the last update was three days after the Waverider was stolen from the Time Bureau.”

Phil noted Jax looking guilty but didn’t want to ask because right now he didn’t want to lose focus.

“What information do I have?” Phil asked the AI again.

“I do not hold those specific details,” Graham replied, making the two men groan in annoyance.

“Well, that’s helpful,” Jax sighed, “Okay, why did you come here?”

Phil frowned, “This is where Graham brought me. I thought you’d be able to help me rescue Rip.”

Jax stared at him making Phil squirm slightly, “You’re looking for my help on a rescue mission?”

Phil nodded, “I have to.”

“Why you?” Jax demanded, “Why not just call Sara and the Legends?”

“Because Rip said I can’t,” Phil replied, “The people who have him want the ship and Gideon so we can’t give them a chance to take it. Although I am surprised, they’re not already looking for him this time.”

Jax frowned, he began to pace before sighing, “I thought Rip was dead. They all do.”

“Why?” Phil asked softly.

“He overloaded the time core trying to stop a time demon,” Jax explained, “Sara told me that it vapourised him.”

Phil took a soft breath, “I didn’t know anything about that. All I know is I can’t leave him there.”

Sighing Jax nodded, “Okay. Graham, do you know how to find Rip?”

“As per Captain Hunter’s instructions,” Graham spoke up, “Now that I have guided Mr Gasmer to a safe haven, I will shut down.”

Phil stared at the watch, “What? Why did you get me to bring the weapons, and the money?”

“This was to ensure you came here. The money is yours to build a new life,” Graham told him, “Although you and Captain Hunter are two different people there are specific traits you share.”

“The need to save people,” Jax noted with a knowing roll of his eyes.

“Precisely, Mr Jackson,” Graham replied, “However, Captain Hunter did not want you to risk your life, Mr Gasmer. Therefore, I wish you well.”

Phil gasped, “Wait.”

Horror filled him as the only chance he had to save Rip shut down.

 Jax watched Phil desperately try to reactivate the AI with no success. Leaving the room, he found the communicator Sara had provided him with when leaving the ship.

Just in case.

Jax stared at it for several minutes, the Legends were the best bet for rescuing Rip. He had a wife and a daughter to take care of. Running around time and space was not part of his life anymore. Putting it back with a sigh, Jax returned to the lounge where Phil was looking defeated.

“I don’t know how to fix it,” he sighed to Jax, “He didn’t leave that information in my head.”

Jax grimaced, “Give me the Courier.”

“What?”

“Give me it,” Jax told him again, “I should be able to get some information off it.”

Hope touched Phil’s face and he quickly undid the watch strap, “Are you sure?”

Jax shrugged, “It’s possible. Rip taught me how to fix Gideon, so I should be able to get some information.”

Pulling out his tools, Jax grabbed his tablet and connected the Courier. He paused and turned to Phil who was hovering anxiously.

“How about you have something to eat,” Jax suggested, “While I do this?”

Hesitantly Phil nodded, “Thanks. I am kinda hungry.”

Jax quickly heated up some of the casserole his mother had dropped off earlier and gave the man a plate. Once Phil was eating, Jax got back to work. The fact that Rip had trained him meant that Jax knew the programming quirks Rip had that were not in the manual he’d been given to read. Therefore, he recognised the little things Rip had put in that would probably have confused someone else. And it took only about an hour for him to get into the main program.

“Got it,” Jax said, seeing Phil jerk awake who’d closed his eyes after finishing his meal and fallen asleep.

“You have?”

Jax nodded, “Okay, bypassing Graham so he can’t just shut us down again and…” he tapped in a few more instructions, “Got it.”

Phil moved to look at the screen, “Does it help?”

Jax mused as he scanned the screen, “Typically Rip didn’t leave any real information but,” he smiled, “I think I can locate him.”

“How?”

“If I’m reading this right,” Jax told the other man, “Then, using the beacon in your arm that activated the transporter to get you out of there, I can backtrack to where Rip is being held and transport us there.”

 “Are you sure about this?” Sadie asked softly after Jax explained everything.

Jax nodded, “Rip is my friend and I have a feeling if I don’t then Phil will try to go after him alone. The last time he fought that I know of, he attacked me with a rolled-up script and that didn’t do any damage.”

Sadie chuckled and wrapped her arms around him, “You’ll be safe though, right?”

“Believe it or not,” Jax smiled, “I know what I’m doing. We also have the element of surprise.”

Sadie sighed, “Okay. Just be careful.”

Jax kissed his wife quickly, “I will be but if we’re not back here in an hour I need you to contact Barry and his team to come after us with the information I’ve left them.”

Nodding Sadie sighed, “I will. But I trust in you.”

Hugging her tightly Jax hoped his confidence wasn’t misplaced and he’d be back here soon. Tiptoeing into the nursery, Jax took a peek at his baby girl who was fast asleep cuddling her favourite teddy. Her tiny bow mouth was moving as though she was drinking from her bottle.

Kissing her forehead, Jax smiled, “Love you, Munchkin.”

Martina sighed happily in her sleep and he shook his head wondering how he got to be so lucky. Taking a quick breath, he headed down to where Phil was waiting for him. He looked nervous but determination covered his face.

“Are you ready?” Jax asked, picking up Rip’s pistol and setting it.

Phil frowned, “Shouldn’t I have that?”

“Do you know how to use it?” Jax asked, when Phil shook his head he said, “Then I’ll take the pistol.”

Grabbing his tablet, still connected to the Courier, Jax reconnected the strap to Phil’s arm so it worked again.

“This won’t accidentally land us inside a cell,” Phil asked, “Will it?”

Jax grimaced, “Hopefully not.”

“Well, that makes me feel safe,” Phil rolled his eyes.

“Do you want to do this?” Jax demanded.

“Sorry,” Phil winced, “I’m ready when you are.”

Jax took a quick breath and murmured a small prayer to whoever was listening before activating the Courier. He was surprised when the world around them dissolved, unlike his previous experiences with the Time Courier.

And suddenly they were no longer in his house.

                                 *********************************************

 Rip watched his captors argue as they tried to work out another plan to capture the Waverider. Eston Hayes, the leader was someone Rip knew well from his early days as Time Master. Ironically enough he’d been captured by Rip breaking into a cloning factory.

Thankfully, the partitioning of his mind so that any attempt to transfer it to a clone meant they got Phil had worked. Now Rip hoped Phil had found Graham and was safe well away from Hayes.

“Having problems?” Rip asked amused when Hayes walked over to the cell they were currently holding him in.

“You think you’re smart, Hunter,” Hayes snarled at him, “That little trick of yours won’t stop me for long.”

Rip shrugged, “I don’t want to tell you your business but the equipment you’re using means that it won’t be able to remap my mind. Shame you wasted your one chance.”

At the confusion that covered the other man’s face that he quickly tried to hide Rip chuckled again, “You might want to check with your tech person how your equipment works. Or a ten-year-old child since they might have more information.”

“You think you’ve won something,” Hayes snapped, “But all you’ve done is ensure we will take the Waverider by force and the AI will be damaged.”

Rip stared at him before replying, “You’ll get nowhere near Gideon. Trust me on that one.”

“With you as my prisoner,” Hayes chuckled, “Trust me I know that Time Master AI’s are programmed to protect their Captain.”

Rip shrugged, “You don’t know Gideon.” He took a seat on the cot in his cell and smiled, “I’ll wait while you work out your next step.”

Hayes glared at him before stomping over to his crew once more. Grabbing the young guy who was supposed to be his technical expert and throwing him through the door towards the other room that held the machine. Hayes then moved the others out, yelling at them all to fix things for him or face the consequences.

Rip let out a long breath hoping he could work out a way to escape before Hayes managed to devise a feasible plan. Out the corner of his eye Rip spotted a shift in the light. Confused he stood and moved so he could see the other corner of the room, stunned that Jax and Phil were standing there.

 Jax let out a sigh of relief when they materialised outside the cell but hidden from the people who held Rip. He winced slightly when Rip spotted them and swore.

“What the hell are you two doing here?” Rip whispered harshly as Jax moved to the keypad.

“It’s a rescue,” Jax replied, “You remember what that is right?”

Rip glared at him, “I left explicit instructions with Graham to get Phil to safety then shut down.”

“Phil and I decided you don’t get to do that,” Jax replied, he managed to unlock the door and frowned at Rip, “Are you coming?”

Rip walked out the cell and, to Jax’s amazement, rested his hand on Phil’s shoulder concerned, “Are you okay?”

Phil nodded.

“Okay,” Rip smiled, taking the pistol Jax offered him, “We need to destroy all the equipment, stop Hayes and his team then make sure they can’t make any further trouble.”

“I’m guessing he’s an old friend of yours,” Jax noted as he followed Rip.

Rip sighed, “Time Pirate. It was one of my first missions to apprehend him and his crew who were, believe it or not, robbing a cloning factory.”

“What’s your plan?” Phil asked.

Rip frowned in thought, “There is a main panel just at the back of the control console. Phil, I need you to basically pull out every wire you can find. Jax, overload the system. I’ll deal with Hayes and his people.”

“There’s four of them and one of you,” Phil noted.

Rip gave a slight shrug, “I’ll be fine. Destroying the machine is the priority.”

Concern still covered Phil’s face, “Are you sure?”

As they stood face to face the only way Jax could tell the two men apart was their clothes. And the fact Rip had his pistol.

Rip nodded, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Come on,” Jax caught Phil’s arm, “Let’s do this.”

 Rip took a slow deep breath to focus himself, he still felt a little off after the mind scan. Ensuring the partition worked so Phil’s consciousness had been transferred only had taken concentration and it had been exhausting but Gideon was in danger and he wasn’t going to let Hayes, or anyone else, harm her.

“I want the codes,” Hayes was yelling, “I don’t care if you have to tear it from his mind.”

Smiling slightly to himself, Rip pushed everything to one side and slid into attack mode as Miranda once called it. Easing into the room, he ensured his pistol was set at the highest stun setting and fired three shots hitting each of Hayes’ team before they could defend themselves.

Hayes turned stunned, “How?”

Rip gave him a smug smile, “That would be telling.”

Firing at Hayes, Rip swore when the other man threw himself to one side out of the way. Hayes grabbed random items from the shelves and flung them forcing Rip to take cover, when he tried to fire at the other man Hayes charged at him. Hayes slammed into Rip throwing him to the ground, and Rip felt the air forced out his lungs.

“You smug bastard,” Hayes snarled, wrapping his hands around Rip’s neck and squeezing, “I’ll find a way onto the ship using your corpse.”

Rip struggled to throw the other man off him, but Hayes was bigger and as he choked Rip it became harder to fight. Suddenly Hayes stopped, his eyes rolled back, and he fell to the side revealing Phil above him holding the panel door.

“Are you okay?” his clone asked, offering Rip his hand.

Rip nodded, as he took several deep breaths.

“We’ve pulled out everything we could,” Jax reported when he reappeared to join them.

“Good,” Rip turned to Phil again, “Time Courier.”

Phil looked a little surprised but undid the strap passing it to Rip.

“Graham,” Rip called, “Reactivation code, Alpha, Hat, Joke.”

The watch turned on again and the holographic head appeared, “Yes, Captain Hunter.”

“Contact Agent Simons in the Time Bureau,” Rip ordered, “Get her to sort this out, asking her to ensure my involvement is not revealed at all.”

“Of course, Captain Hunter,” Graham replied.

Rip sighed, “Jax, can we go back to your house or will I open a portal to somewhere else?”

“The house is fine,” Jax said flatly before demanding, “Who is Agent Simons? Why not Ava Sharpe or Sara to clear this up?”

“Agent Simons is a former Time Master who joined the Bureau,” Rip replied as he programmed the Courier, “She knows how to deal with this type of situation, not to mention she knows who and what Hayes is. And,” he stopped Jax from speaking again, “Right now it’s easier not to let them know.”

With that said, Rip opened the portal leading them back to Jax’s house.

                                 *********************************************

 Phil sat in the back garden of Jax’s house with a mug of coffee in his hand the next morning. Jax had two spare rooms in his house so he and Rip had taken one each to sleep after their rescue mission.

“So,” Rip said letting Phil know he was there, “How are you?”

“Confused.”

Rip chuckled and took a seat at the table across from him, “I can understand that.”

“What happens now?” Phil asked.

“You live your life,” Rip told him, “Which is what I expected you to do originally. You weren’t supposed to come after me.”

Phil shrugged, “I couldn’t leave you there.”

“That reckless streak Gideon keeps telling me off for having is apparently something we share,” Rip noted.

“What are you going to do now?” Phil asked.

Rip shrugged, “I’m not sure. Gideon has advised that the Legends are currently in the middle of a quest which I don’t feel I should interfere in. The Time Bureau is not an option anymore. But I have some bases I can use to continue my own mission of protecting time.”

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Phil told him.

Rip sighed, “My experience of working with others is not exactly positive. I have Graham to help me while Gideon keeps the Legends on track. Time Masters always worked alone, I feel that’s the best idea for me at this moment.”

Phil shrugged, “I could help.”

“No,” Rip whispered, “You deserve to have a real life. You wanted to make films. Do that. One of us should get to live our dream.”

Phil smiled before reminding him, “But if you need help at any time.”

Rip nodded, “I’ll call on my brother.”

[mischiefandspirits]

Colony of Gotham (2/7)

The Colony of Gotham is an urban legend that is whispered about in the dangerous city. It's said the Colony is a family of demons and spirits that stalk the night, hunting for the souls of the guilty.

When Bruce became Batman, he'd never intended to be mistaken for a demon. He was happy to lean into it, though, and as he gained his partners -- as his family grew -- they all followed suit.

First Part ~ Next Part

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When winter came, Jack Drake used a Christmas gala as an excuse to approach Tim. He brought him into a side room to give him the news that Janet was dead, then proceeded to all but demand Tim return to the Drake mansion before the boy could fully process his words. When Tim tried to bring up the others, Jack stated Tim was nothing more than a charity case for Bruce just like Dick and Jason. Tim knew that wasn’t true for the older boys as Bruce had claimed them. For his own case, however, Jack’s words hit hard.

Bruce had yet to turn him. Tim knew the older boys had both been with him for years before their own turnings, but that was because neither had wanted it. Barbara had been changed right away, so why not Tim? He couldn’t bring himself to ask -- wasn't sure he could handle what would happen if Bruce said no -- but they had to know, right? They must have seen the way they watched them when they ate or discussed their nature. They were all detectives, after all.

He started to wonder if Jack might be right and Bruce didn’t really want him. Between that, his mother being dead, and his father actually wanting him, Tim didn’t fight it when Jack tried to lead him out.

Which was when Jason appeared in all his fury. He didn’t know why Jack was there, but he did know he had no right to be anywhere near Tim after what he’d done. Tim tried to talk him down, but that only made Jason angrier. He pulled Tim away from the man and told him Jack didn’t know what he was talking about. Bruce loved Tim just as he loved Jason and Dick. When Tim tried to argue, Jason realized how Tim had linked being turned with being family.

Temper rising and impulsivity at its peak, Jason heard Jack tell Tim they were leaving without even asking if that’s what he wanted, looked the man dead in the eyes, and bit his little brother. He made sure Jack couldn’t see his fangs or Tim’s wound as he gathered his brother into a hug and told Jack, in no uncertain terms, that Tim was theirs and if he had a problem with it he could take it up with Bruce’s lawyers. Then he led Tim away while passing him a dehydrated blood bar so he could complete his transformation.

Jason realized that maybe his timing needed work as the fever haze of turning began to wash over Tim, but the memory of the sunshine smile he’d received when his little brother had realized what he was doing and the tight hug Tim was giving him even in his declining consciousness made it worth it.

At least until they reached the car and Alfred leveled Jason with a look.

The moment Tim was tucked away in bed, Bruce and Dick laid into Jason about discretion and consent. Jason had been sure Tim wanted it, but doubt started to creep in as the younger boy slept through his transformation.

When Tim woke to an apology, he thought it meant Jason didn’t want him after all. The two quickly reassured one another then, with Barbara’s help, managed to make the others see reason as well.

When Tim’s animal form turned out to be a scrub jay, Jason never let his Tiny Jay live it down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate Kane traveled the world for years to bring herself out of the downward spiral of alcohol and women she’d fallen into after leaving military academy, then returned to Gotham to make a name for herself as the Batwoman.

They called her a succubus with porcelain skin, lips painted with blood, and red fire for hair that had horn-like ears poking out. Unlike the rest of the Colony, she had eyes that could be seen, bright red with black sclera and slit pupils. There were hints of a curvy figure under the armor she donned. It was black with a bat painted onto the chest in blood.

They said she was beautiful.

They also said she was, without a doubt, the most vicious of the Colony. She didn’t carry guns, but she’d be happy to steal yours to use. It only took a few gunshots to men’s knees before word got around she favored women and protected them, though some never got the hint and still tried to flirt with her.

Bruce was not pleased when he found out who she was, but he knew the woman well enough to know she wouldn’t stop so he brought her into the fold as much as she would allow.

Jason and Tim hadn’t met her before, having joined the family after she’d left. The younger boy got along well enough with her, but the older boy was immediately taken with his new crazy vodka aunt (they were technically second cousins once removed, but everyone agreed aunt was simpler) and Bruce regretted introducing them when he realized the two were sneaking off to gun ranges together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new team of heroes eventually arrived on the scene, one that would go on to cause problems for one Tim Wayne.

It began one month after the team’s formation when a certain clone -- in a fit of rebellion against one of the men whose DNA had formed him -- decided to take a trip to the one city the Justice League avoided like the plague and ordered their mentees to do the same.

Despite almost immediately regretting it, he held out for three hours before deciding to head back. The problem came when he realized he had no idea how to do that. He was completely lost and had left his phone at home to be sure Clark wouldn’t figure out where he’d gone.

Not for the first time, he wished he could fly.

He wandered around lost for another half an hour, not willing to trust any of the Gothamites that all seemed to eye him with an even greater distrust, before a boy stumbled out of a coffee shop and directly into him. Kon was impressed the smaller boy hadn’t managed to spill a drop of coffee nor lose his footing in the collision considering the massive bags under his eyes and the way he almost seemed to be vibrating from what Kon realized was a half-empty black coffee with six shots of espresso.

Tim managed to show him the way to the train station in between complaining that he was a creature of the night that didn’t need sleep, wishing destruction on his elder brother for dragging him into the city for a book signing before disappearing on him because of an emergency, the brightness of the day (despite the sky being more overcast than Kon had ever seen it in his month of life), and describing the video game he’d stayed up the night before playing.

Kon was honestly extremely worried about the guy, and he might have forced him to swap numbers before he left on the train so he could make sure Tim got home safe, even if the guy claimed he just needed to call his other brother to pick him up. Tim did get home safe, but he also got a second coffee beforehand so Kon felt justified.

In Tim’s defense, he required three times the amount of caffeine to feel the effects. Not in his defense, he had drunk more than three times the amount that day.

Tim did not appreciate the grumpy, yet overprotective puppy he’d somehow gained. All the same, he couldn’t bring himself to block Kon’s number. Even when he put together that Conner “Kon” Kent was Superboy, a founding member of Young Justice.

Tim also didn’t appreciate his brothers teasing him over his new super friend.

The teasing only got worse some months later when Tim and Barbara went to a convention together where he got into a long conversation with one Keli Quintela about the integration of human and alien technology and the pros and cons of utilizing alien coding language in firewalls. They ended up spending most of the convention together and went home with each other’s numbers and emails. So of course she turned out to be Young Justice’s Teen Lantern.

He would never let his brothers know that Keli set mandatory downtime hours on all the projects they worked on together because, apparently, he had “an unhealthy work ethic” and needed to “take more personal time.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep it from Barbara. She soon started setting similar blocks on his other projects.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stephanie’s story is a familiar one. She took on the persona of Spoiler to help the Colony take down her father Cluemaster whenever he decided to cause trouble. She wore body armor she’d stolen from her father and dyed purple alongside a cloak and a mask that covered the bottom of her face. She interacted with the Robins the most during their on-again-off-again team up so it was no surprise she eventually realized there was more than one. This meant that when Jason decided he was getting too old for Robin, they went with the obvious successor.

Stephanie will never admit how long it took her to realize the lot of them weren’t demonic monstrosities. Or how long it took her to catch onto the vampire thing.

According to rumors, the Red Hood had been the leader of the Red Hood Gang when it was at its prime. He’d been brought back from the dead by Batwoman to serve as her right hand and he held a grudge against the Joker for leading the gang to ruin. He was a brute in armor to match hers under a black and blood-red hooded vest. A red mask covered his mouth and nose while a black domino with glowing red lenses hid his eyes. His hair was a fiery red that matched his mistress’s. They said he was just as vicious as her and while he was thrilled to beat you down with nothing more than his fists, and more than capable of doing so as well, he often used the guns hidden under his vest. Some said he never kills, others said he simply handed those he does over to his mistress. He never spoke but in growls, but his mistress always knew what he was saying.

That might have been because Jason only spoke over comms while his mask filtered his voice into animalistic growls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During this time, Cassandra Cain celebrated her eighth birthday by killing Miranda Row on her father’s orders. Cass, trained to understand body language better than most understand words, was horrified as she took in how the dying woman was feeling and fled both the scene and her father. He went down for the crime, but Miranda’s daughter Harper knew the man hadn’t acted alone and was out for blood.

On a happier note, this was also around when Stephanie was turned.

If anyone ever asked Stephanie how it happened, she would be sure to give them a story full of lies that was guaranteed to be far more dramatic than what actually happened while Tim would be off in the corner, blushing face hidden in his hands.

Because honestly, it was an accident.

She and Tim had been cuddling in the cave on their night off. Tim had gotten a little enthusiastic with his fangs, not that she minded at the time. Then she grabbed a drink from the mini-fridge. Unfortunately, neither of them realized just what she was drinking until it was too late.

A human is bitten by a vampire. A human drinks another human’s blood. The human is no longer a human.

The situation made the Colony more cautious around their significant others, to the amusement of one asexual-aromantic Jason Todd-Wayne. It wasn’t a problem for Bruce as Selina had turned before he’d ever met her, but Barbara and Kate both started keeping their blood locked in mini-fridges in their closets. Dick, unfortunately, wasn’t as lucky.

The manor was safe, but he wouldn’t be able to keep anything locked away at Artemis’s apartment without explanation. He could easily just keep all his normal blood at the manor, but he usually had a blood bar or two on him in case of emergency and Wally was known to steal food thanks to his speedster-increased metabolism. The bars weren’t toxic to humans in case someone happened to get their hands on one and Wally had only made the mistake of stealing one once before when Dick had first turned (he’d eaten it too fast to react to the taste, but had immediately gagged after and sworn off ever trying one again), but Dick was still nervous one or both of his partners might get their hands on one by accident.

As a result, he stopped nibbling on Wally and Artemis during intimate moments just in case, something that did not go unnoticed. Dick was a biter, so when he suddenly stopped out of nowhere the two began to worry. They tried to talk to him about it, but he talked around them or played dumb. Artemis then texted Jason, Artemis Grace, and Barbara.

Jason simply sent her a vomiting emoji before saying if she still wanted to come with him and Kate to the gun range, she wasn’t allowed to talk about doing that kind of stuff with his brother around him ever again.

Grace advised them that if Dick wasn’t satisfying them then they should rid themselves of him. When Artemis tried to say that wasn’t the problem, all she received in response was a shrugging emoji.

Barbara said she didn’t know but she’d try to talk to him, then immediately texted Dick to tell him to either get over his fear or tell his partners what was up.

Dick worried over it for a week before blurting out that he was a vampire while the three were cuddling in bed.

The two laughed, assuming it was another of his jokes, until they realized he wasn’t laughing but hiding behind his hands. The three had had a long conversation after that about the nature of vampires, how Dick fed, and the powers and limitations that came with vampirism, the latter of which included Wally receiving a painful kick to the shin over a glitter joke.

The two had taken it well, having seen weirder things in their lives, and Artemis got a lockbox for Dick to keep his bars in to prevent any accidents that could come from Wally’s hunger-induced amnesia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary Elizabeth “Bette” Kane was first cousins once removed with Kate Kane, which is how she ended up getting sent to her aunt’s for the summer. She had been excited at first since she knew how much Kate liked to party, but she was more than disappointed when she found out she’d been signed up for a science summer camp at Wayne Enterprises. She fought with her aunt over it and when that didn’t work, she went looking for dirt. That was how she’d accidentally stumbled upon the Batcave.

Kate and Bruce unfortunately didn’t have enough time to figure out what to do about it before something else took precedence.

Barbara was shot by the Joker.

That night affected three young women’s lives.

Barbara’s vampiric durability meant the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but her mobility was still too limited for her to ever go out in the field again. After some time to come to terms with her new state, she settled into the role of Pythia.

It was a serpent made of code, slithering through servers and whispering into the ears of the Colony. It was never seen, only heard. It saw all. It knew all. Beware if it turned its attention to you.

Stephanie stepped up as Batgirl. They needed the cover and she honestly butt heads with Bruce too much to be a good Robin anyway. Plus, purple was much more her color.

Batgirl had grown stronger. When you could see her, she was nothing more than a shadow cloaked in violet. However, it was rare you’d see anything. Thanks to the theft of an invisibility device Penguin had built for her father, sometimes you couldn’t even see her when she was right in front of you.

Bette was in the cave while the others were hunting down Joker, Kate too worried to leave her at home until they were sure he didn’t know their identities. As she watched the Colony work, it suddenly hit her what her aunt was doing as Batwoman. After that day, she put more effort into the camp and even developed an interest in medicine. At the same time, she began to learn how to fight from her aunt. When the summer came to an end, she pulled some strings to get enrolled in Gotham Academy so she could stay with Kate. Then she took her place as Tim’s partner by offering her fashion and makeup skills.

“The shadows have started to overwhelm the Bloody Robin,” people whispered.

The ones that had always wrapped around him rose up in the form of a hood while darkness had ensnared his limbs, leaving only hints of green on his clawed feet and hands. The formation of the hood, though, revealed his neck.

And the long bloody gash that encircled it.

They say the change was done by Batman, that he tore Robin’s head off to bring out his darkness.

During this time, Barbara was dealing with the trauma of what had happened to her. One of the ways she did this was by joining an online support group for trauma survivors. It was through the chatroom that she met Hank Hall and his girlfriend Dawn Granger. The three quickly became friends. Hank was grumpy but well-meaning in a way Barbara was all too familiar with. Dove was more openly kind and caring, though Barbara could see a viciousness lurking beneath.

The three talked for weeks before deciding to meet up for lunch when Barbara was on a trip to D.C. It was only then that she looked them up, not wanting to risk meeting them in person if they were up to something.

She took the teasing over having super friends with far more dignity than the boys. Admittedly their status as super friends was more debatable since the couple were semi-retired and only really went out in emergency cases or as favors to their old Titans friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Bart Allen heard his Grandma Iris and Uncle Wally talking about the latter going on another trip to Gotham, he was ecstatic. The myths about Gotham were always the best horror stories to listen to growing up in the future and now that he was Kid Flash he was sure Wally would let him go with him. He’d been waiting for his opportunity since he’d taken the name and joined Young Justice, but there had always been things in the way. Wally had a mission. Dick was busy so Tigress had come to Central instead. Bart had a mission. Bart had another mission. The police commissioner's daughter got shot so no one was going to Gotham. So on and so forth.

It had been over a year, but finally, Wally was going to Gotham and Bart had nothing planned.

“No, you can’t come,” Wally said immediately.

“Why not?” Bart whined.

“Gotham’s too dangerous,” Iris said, from where she was folding towels. She gave Wally a pointed look. “Neither of you need to be going there.”

Wally shrugged.

“But -”

“No,” the two adults cut over Bart.

He went anyway.

Unfortunately, while he could run just as fast as his uncle-slash-first cousin once removed, he wasn’t quite as coordinated as the older speedster so he lost track of him halfway through the city. Not managing to find him again, he ended up deciding to just grab something to eat and head back. Deciding to ask for a local’s opinion, he ran around until he spotted someone moderately trustworthy looking (it took longer than it would normally, but he’d expected that in Gotham). When the shorter teen offhandedly mentioned he was sneaking away from his brothers and their friends, Bart invited him to come eat with him. When the guy couldn’t seem to remember when the last time he ate was, the invitation turned into a kidnapping.

The guy, Tim, was pretty cool even if he clearly couldn’t take care of himself. He actually kind of reminded Bart of the friends Kon and Keli had mentioned having in Gotham, so maybe a lack of self-care was a Gotham thing. Either way, Bart had them swap numbers and proceeded to bother his new friend around mealtimes to make sure he ate.

Tim hadn’t even needed to look up Bart since Dick showed up in his room with a big grin talking about how Wally’s nephew had gotten a new Gotham friend named Tim.

The younger brother wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve this. He hadn’t asked for it. Why did these people keep showing up out of nowhere!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TFW you find out scrub jays are the only non-primate and non-dolphin shown to plan ahead for the future and just can't help yourself.

Steph wears her suit from Young Justice as Spoiler and her Rebirth Spoiler suit as Batgirl.

Jason's Red Hood suit is a mixup. It's the typical Red Hood suit, but the helmet and jacket are swapped out for the mask and vest from Red Hood: Outlaw.

The updated Robin suit is similar to Damian's from the animated movies, just with the usual black robin mask. And bloody.

Vampires' animal forms:

Tim: Woodhouse's scrub jay

Kate & Bette: Gray bat

Stephanie: Golden jackal

[nitewrighter]

Ah okay!! How about Samir & Aedan being a bunch of sleuths trying to discover and dispatch the Talon scientists responsible for the creation of Andrea. Or basically Aedan asking Samir and maybe to an extent Sombra to find a way to completely trash all the cloning-related research that Moira got from his conception so that no more clones would be made to go through what he's gone through(the existential dread) or wind up becoming another killing machine like Andrea!

I really love this prompt! Though I think Aedan’s relationship to Talon’s cloning projects would probably be more complex than “TALON ONLY MAKES MONSTROSITIES AND OUR EXISTENCE IS ONLY SUFFERING.”

...okay did this fic turn into a “Mountains of Madness/The Thing” knock-off? Maybe. Do I still like it? Yes.

----

The four of them stood huddled together in front of a massive, ice-slicked steel door dug into the side of Monte Sarmiento. All of them were bundled up, virtually indistinguishable from each other save by the colors of their windbreakers layered over thick down jackets, and Marti’s black braid speckled by snowflakes. Their faces were mostly obscured by goggles and scarves, and what skin did show was chapped by wind.

“Secret South American lab?” Jaime had pulled one glove off and was picking bits of protein bar out of his teeth with his pinky nail, “Even for Talon, that’s... nnnot a good look.”

“Overwatch had them too,” said Samir with a shrug, “Though, granted, it was for Crisis-era prosthetics research.”

“I’m just saying!” said Jaime, he shuddered as an icy wind blew through and looked over his shoulder back at the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Darwin before pulling a glove back on, “At least we’re not in Argentina.”

“Overwatch’s was in Argentina, actually,” said Samir, and Jaime snorted.

“Focus,” said Marti, her goggles down over her eyes as she and Samir decrypted the code on the door.

“We’re sure this site’s abandoned?” said Jaime, “We won’t be activating any... ‘nuke from orbit’ failsafes, right?”

“Best intel Auntie and Lynx could get, and Winston’s satellite should intercept any signal it might send out,” said Marti, numerous lines of code running across the lenses of her goggles, “And the decryption should be complete... right... about... now.”

There was a deep whirring sound and the ice on the door fractured. The four of them flinched back as it fell down in sheets and shattered against the icy and rocky ground, opening into a dark, steel-lined corridor.

“Scout it out, Ebo,” said Marti, taking the small spider-like drone off of her back harness and setting it on the ground. The little robot scuttled into the darkness and one lens of Marti’s goggles lit up with a feed from what Ebo’s camera could pick up.

“...so when do we all get the cute little drone sidekicks?” said Jaime as the four of them lit up their flashlights and walked into the corridor.

“You’re welcome to build your own,” said Marti, shining her flashlight around the massive heptagonal hallway. There was a loud ‘thunk-CHUNK’ and the hallway suddenly lit up in unnerving red lights. It mostly eliminated the need for flashlights, but all of them hesitated to turn them off. There came a loud whirring and all of them flinched with alertness.

“Stay calm,” said Marti, holding up a hand to make them pause in their steps. she brought a hand to her temple, apparently focusing on Ebo’s feed in her goggles, “Security drones incoming,” she said. Jaime swung his rifle off of his shoulder and Samir materialized his rifle from hard-light, “Aedan, stay low. If they get your head the mission is scrubbed. Samir. Take drones at two o’clock to eight o’ clock. Jaime. Eight to two.”

Jaime audibly cocked his rifle. The drones came flying out of the darkness, unnerving things, radially symmetrical, somewhere between squid and jellyfish in their design, bearing some resemblance to the gwishin omnic but even more unnervingly reminding Aedan of the construction of his own mother’s combat suit with a strange tightness to their chassises. Aedan could already feel dread chilling his blood but both Samir and Jaime quickly and efficiently dispatched the drones. A few loud shots echoing off the metallic walls of the corridor and the drones spun and crashed to the ground next to them. About 7 or 8, virtual target practice.

“Not to jinx it but... seems a little underwhelming, right?” said Jaime, “As far as secret labs go?”

Both Marti and Samir gave Jaime a wary glance as if he might very well jinx it, but there was a sound overhead and all of them flinched, Jaime and Samir bringing their rifles to the ready, but only a few nonfunctioning drone chassis tumbled out of a duct. They glanced up at the duct, noting even more nonfunctioning drones jamming it. There was a scuttling sound and Aedan tensed, only to see Ebo scuttling back to Marti.

“...I guess at one point they were supposed to overwhelm any intruders with numbers,” said Marti, picking up Ebo, folding its legs back in, and tucking the robot back into a slot on the harness on her back. She glanced over at Aedan, stooping over one of the dispatched drones.

“Aedan, if you want to study it further, we can grab it on the way out---” Marti started but Aedan was folding and unfolding one of the wing-like appendages on the drones.

“Pseudo-organic...” murmured Aedan.

“Come again?” said Marti.

“Nothing just...” Aedan pulled himself up to his full height, “Technically they’re living things.”

“What?” Jaime tilted his head.

“Well... insomuch as a nanite is a living thing,” said Aedan, rejoining the group.

“...Are you good?” said Marti, as Aedan closed the distance between them.

“You need someone with experience in Talon’s science division,” Aedan answered with a level of obviousness.

“But are you good?” said Marti, “This mission is already hitting close to home with you---”

“Look, it’s just a practical exploration of one branch of the capabilities of nanite design,” said Aedan, irritated, “I’ve already gone through my whole stupid clone angst well before I even defected, I’m here to make sure something good actually comes of it. Which I can’t do if everyone is treating me like a Fabergé egg.”

“I’ll take your word for it...” said Marti, glancing off.

Aedan did his best to ignore the implications of her words as they continued walking forward. “I’ll take your word for it,” didn’t simply imply that she believed his words, there was another layer to it. “I’ll take your word for it,” easily translated to, “I believe that you believe that---and of course, just because you believe this about yourself or your situation doesn’t make it true.” But no, despite everything he strived for as a person, Aedan knew his very existence represented probably the ugliest side of Talon’s unfettered scientific ambition.

It’s why they brought me, thought Aedan as they reached another massive steel door and the three of them looked to him expectantly. There was a retinal scan terminal next to the door.

“Your time to shine,” said Marti, as Aedan stepped up to it.

“...couldn’t you have tried to decrypt it? Or blow it open?” said Aedan, stepping up to the terminal.

“We don’t know if that would have activated some self-destruct failsafe,” said Samir, “We want to see the lab how Talon would have seen it.”

“Of course,” said Aedan, bringing his eye to the scanner.

Two blue lines of light crisscrossed over his mahogany brown eye.

“O’Deorain, Moira,” an automated voice sounded from the computer, “Vocally confirm any guests with you for biometrics.”

A bit of panic flared up in Aedan’s chest, but he glanced back t his three compatriots and looked back at the terminal. Pitching his voice in the best approximation of his mother’s, he spoke, “O’Deorain, Moira, reporting. And three guests.”

“Accepted,” said the terminal, “Enter passcode.”

“What?” said Aedan.

“Verbally state your passcode,” said the terminal.

“Let me decrypt it,” said Marti, bringing her goggles back down over her eyes.

“Please enter passcode in the next... 40 seconds,” said the terminal.

“Will it decrypt that fast?” said Aedan, quickly.

“No,” said Marti, looking at him.

Aedan brought in a sharp breath through his teeth. His mother never had very good passcodes for anything, largely because she was dealing with Talon passcodes around every corner with Talon putting pressure on her to come up with new ideas all the time. What would she pick for here? What would she pick for now? Something obvious. Something reflecting her sensibilities.

“Please enter passcode in the next... 20 seconds,” droned the terminal.

“Uh, Aedan?” said Jaime.

“Darwin!” Aedan flinched at how loudly the word came out of him.

“Passcode expired. Please enter current passcode in the next...9 seconds,” said the terminal.

“Aedan--” Samir started.

“Beagle!” blurted out Aedan.

There was a pause of a few seconds, then another ‘thunk-CHUNK’ as the gears behind the door shifted, and the massive steel doors pulled away revealing a large lift.

“...How did you know that?” said Marti.

“Well,” Aedan shrugged, “Some side effects to Mum supplementing my memories with hers, I suppose, but mostly? We’re both lazy in our way. I mean, I supposed there would come a point where you get so exasperated with passcodes that you just defer to the passcode being the location the passcode is in so...” He trailed off and scanned the faces of his team members.

“Let’s just... get on the lift,” said Marti.

The four of them moved onto the lift. There were only two other floors. A main level, and what seemed to be a ship bay for evacuation or Talon drop ships. They opted for the main level. The lift hummed and all of them felt a distinct gut-sinking feeling as it plummeted.

All of them tensed as the doors opened to a massive chamber hewn into the mountain itself and supported by steel beams like the ribs of a massive beast. There were more ‘thunks’ and ‘whirrs’ as the auxiliary power lit up the lab, cold little white lights on footpaths thrummed up from the floor, creating an eerie lighting from below, and there were a few industrial lights shining down on a central lab table. Lining the lab walls however, were what appeared to be massive cylinders of tight bands of metal, each equipped with its own terminal and what appeared to be a generator.

“Full scan, Ebo,” said Marti, once again taking the little robot off of her back and sending it scuttling off into the dark recesses of the lab. Scalloping around the tanks, the little spider drone bustled around a corner into a corridor which Aedan assumed might lead to the generators for this lab.

“What are we looking at here?” said Jaime.

“I’d guess maybe cryogenic research?” said Samir, walking up to one of the metal cylinders and putting his hand on it, “Feels like it would be appropriate, given the location...”

“So we might just end up thawing out Talon agents if we touch the wrong thing,” said Jaime. He snorted. “Can you imagine just... being forgotten in a freezer for years?”

“...Overwatch actually had that happen with Doctor Zhou,” said Samir.

“Speculating gets us nowhere,” said Marti as she walked up to the first cylinder’s terminal. She brought her goggles down and activated the holographic screens of the terminal, her fingers racing across them to decrypt.

“It’s too warm in here for cryogenics,” Aedan said, mostly to himself as he headed to another cylinder He rapped a knuckle on the cylinder. The reverberation of the metal wasn’t quite hollow. He frowned and turned to the terminal, typing a few old Talon access codes. The holographic interface lit up, displaying flatlined vitals. Samir might be right, thought Aedan, It could be cryo... but another possibility was itching at the back of his mind. Aedan selected a button that said, ‘Open exterior shell,’ just as an excited huff came out of Marti.

“Got it--!” Marti started as the metal bands slid to the side but that tone of victory in her voice quickly shrank in her throat. Aedan glanced at his own cylinder and saw the bands sliding away from it, revealing glass and… yellow. His gut seized. All four of them stumbled away from the cylinders, shrinking in close to Marti in horror as the metal bands slid away to reveal two yellowish glass tanks, each with a naked man floating in it with dozens of wires stuck into his skin and a particularly unnerving wire ported at his temple. Mnemosyne, Aedan thought, mindlessly feeling at the side of his own head. It took a second to make out their hair in the yellowness of the tank, it was a bit long for amnio-tank regulations. How long had they been abandoned? How much did the biotics slow the keratinization process of the growth of hair?

“Blonde clones in tubes...” Jaime said, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice but somewhat blindly fumbling for Samir’s hand, “Like I said before: Not a good look.”

“Look at their faces,” said Marti, squinting.

The truth was their faces had that strange, anonymizing shadow of death upon them. The way death makes anything look so very remote from anything it looked like in life. They were in tanks of biotics, but all Aedan could think about were embryos and reptiles in jars of formaldehyde. But they could still pick up a sharp nose, a strong jaw, and thin lips.

“…Jack Morrison,” Samir said hollowly. Even without the scars, everyone could recognize that nose and that jawline from the posters that had colored their world since well before any of them were born.

“You’re telling me Talon devoted an entire lab to cloning Jack Morrison?” Jaime said, his face twisted up.

“It might not be just Jack Morrison,” said Marti, quickly heading to the lab’s central terminal, and Samir paled slightly.

“With all data on the SEP serum destroyed, it was their most logical bet,” said Aedan, “Short of grave-robbing other subjects from the Omnic crisis, but I doubt any samples there would be viable if they couldn’t scry the compound from genetic information.”

He felt Jaime’s eyes on him, shrewd and disturbed. Aedan pressed his own lips together, hating how much he still knew about how Talon thought. Hating how much he still thought like Talon.

Marti still had her goggles down, streams of data going over the lenses as she typed at the central terminal, “I’m getting the next one open.”

They all tried to keep steady, but the loud whirrs and ‘thunks’ which issued from Marti’s hacking efforts while all their eyes were fixed on the other clones in the amnio-tanks made all of them flinch.

A nervous laugh fell out of Jaime. “Keep expecting their eyes to open...” he said, his voice a little strained.

The metal bands slid away on the next cylinder, revealing not a blonde man but a floating amorphous pulp of black.

“Nanite amalgam?” said Aedan, tilting his head.

“What’s a nanite amalgam, again?” whispered Jaime.

“Baby reaper,” whispered Marti.

“They’re not ‘Baby Reapers,’” said Samir, “More like... Reaper goo coral colonies.”

“But we don’t--I mean Talon doesn’t usually let them get this big...” murmured Aedan, “It’s easier to observe cellular anomalies when they’re...” he trailed off and tapped at the monitor next to the tank with the black pulp. Aedan put a hand over his mouth.

“What?” said Marti.

“...it’s not a nanite amalgam. This... was an attempt at cloning Reyes,” said Aedan, his shoulders dropping, “Couldn’t maintain cellular cohesion. He...” Aedan took a steadying inhale, “In the most scientific terms... ate himself.”

Jaime’s lips pulled back from his teeth in some combination of repulsion and that odd scrambling need to use humor to try and maintain some mental grip on the situation but also knowing he shouldn’t do that for Aedan’s sake.

“Aedan, do you need to--?” Marti started.

“Open the next tank,” said Aedan, stiffly. Marti gave him a look and Aedan cleared his throat. “Please. If it’s... in your best judgment, team leader.”

Marti tapped away at the monitor again. The next tank was a similar black pulp but now in a roughly human shape, like a shadow.

“This one managed to maintain its hox genes...” murmured Aedan.

“I’ve found the ‘Emergency access’ channel--I’m opening the rest of them,” said Marti.

There was a series of clanks and whirring then and the rest of the tanks were revealed. These weren’t all identical clones. If Aedan had to make a comparison, he would say it was like An artist’s body of work as defined by a particular phase. There was Picasso’s Blue Period, and here was his mother’s “Try and create a supersoldier that combines the most terrifying aspects of both Morrison and Reyes with varying but all uniquely disgusting results” period.

“Subjects seven through eighteen,” Aedan said quietly, pressing one hand to the glass of an amnio-tank. He remembered McCree interrogating him shortly after his defection. Why does everyone always assume clones are made in bulk?

They weren’t made in bulk, thought Aedan, This is trial and error. This is throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks.

 There was a man in the tank with a ruddier skin tone than Jack’s but hair too light to be Reyes’s--or at least most of him--his arms and legs tapered off into cloudy black points, like a piece of wood that had only half of it burned.

“Couldn’t maintain cellular cohesion at the extremities. Organs were probably in a state of peril from the start and failed as it moved inward,” Aedan muttered.

“Uh--Aedan?” said Marti, but Aedan moved across the next tank, featuring a man with similar features midway between Reyes and Morrison, in somewhat complete form, but with the entire back of his head dissolved and trailing up 

“Could reconstruct most of his body but not the arbor vitae. Probably killed himself at the first attempt at a fade, yet the nanites still responded to the peripheral nerves. Very unusual,” he murmured.

“Aedan,” Samir’s voice was troubled but Aedan was too caught up in his observations, moving to the next tank. 

The clone in this one was... unfortunate. Really more of just a brain and spine surrounded by a black cloud of nanites. “The previous couldn’t maintain the integrity of the central nervous system, this one couldn’t maintain the integrity of the periphera--”

“AEDAN!” Jaime bellowed and Aedan glanced up. Jaime pointed to the end of the row of tanks. The last tank was empty--or at least, what was left of it was empty. What remained of the tank was jagged glass rendered virtually white from all its fissures. They had all been so busy looking at the tanks and monitors they didn’t catch the shards of glass sparkling in those cold floor lights at the base of the final tank. The glass definitely showed that something had burst out of the tank, rather than a force shattering it inward.

“...do we know... why Talon abandoned this lab?” the words came out of Aedan squeakier than he wanted.

“Well, mostly our prerogative is to secure any Talon site that’s tactically viable,” said Samir.

Marti pressed a button on the side of her goggles and a clear tension overcame her, “And you know what?” she said, her voice pitching higher than usual, “Let’s consider this one secured! Let’s go to the lift, everyone!”

“What?” said Samir.

“But there’s still so much to--” Aedan started.

“We are going to the lift,” said Marti through clenched teeth, “Now.”

There was a scuttling and Aedan, Samir, and Jaime all instinctively clustered close, only to see Marti’s drone Ebo scuttling out of a dark corridor of the lab. Marti un slung her shockcaster off her back and fired off several tether lines behind the little spider robot.

“Uh, Marti--?” Jaime started. 

“I said get to the li--” Marti shoved her goggles up off of her eyes as a horrible creaking, sloshing sound came out of the corridor behind Ebo, “NOW!” she shouted, “GO NOW!”

What lurched out of the corridor, Aedan couldn’t really compare to the nanite amalgams he had sent swarming over Urdr when he had defected with Rei. Too much of it was flesh-toned. But the black of nanites spiraled all over the whorls of skin and muscle making it up. Aedan didn’t try to make out how many eyes or hands were throbbing and blinking and clenching in it. Somehow, despite having far more eyes than any organism had any business having, all of those eyes fixed on them. Four dumb kids in brightly colored windbreakers standing smack dab in the center of the lab. Some of the eyes that looked at them were blue. Some were brown. Some had entirely too much pupil. Too much tapetum lucidum. Some were runny with tears and yellow gunk. The mass of nanite-spiraled muscles and flesh pressed out at Aedan like some creature trying to burst out of an amniotic sack. Aedan was frozen in place mouth hanging open, staring at this creature. This thing that came from a tank and was made of only a few smatterings of DNA and nanites, just like he did. He stood there, dumbly, until he felt felt Jaime grab his arm and he felt his own legs pumping as all four of them sprinted for the lift.

 Marti fired out a tether at Ebo, caught the little robot, then yanked back hard, whisking the drone into her arms. She hugged it close to her chest as she ran. It wasn’t clear if she was protecting it or she thought it might protect her. Jaime just kept running, gripping Aedan’s arm so hard it hurt as Aedan flailed behind him, unable to pull his eyes away from the crawling, clawing mass that pursued them. Samir tossed out a few turrets to slow it down but soon surrendered to the dead sprint to the lift as the pulsing mass of flesh and nanites and muscles and sinew and limbs that didn’t know if they were hands or feet but were still reaching out, feeling out, followed after them. The four of them scrambled into the lift and Marti feverishly slammed the ‘close door’ button as the mass sloshed and crawled and reached for them. Samir brought up a hard light shield and the fleshy mass pressed against it, not-quite-hands pressing white against the bluish light before the doors of the lift finally closed and the lift shot upward. 

“Guh--” some repulsed noise throbbed out of Jaime’s throat. Jaime, who never knew how to shut up for anything, was at a horrified loss of words. He suppressed a gag. 

“Subject Eighteen...” the words left Aedan in a breath, a manic laugh shook him, “You created something with SEP serum toughness, and nanite adaptiveness but it wasn’t--it wasn’t...”

“Aedan--” Marti touched his arm.

“It was adapting,” Aedan was babbling, “It was adapting. It knew not to give itself a mouth or vocal chords because maybe then we could hear it coming--”

Marti suddenly pulled him into a hug.

“Probably converted what labtechs were here into biomass...” Aedan’s voice was breaking. 

“Breathe, it’s okay,” said Marti.

“There’s a brain in there--maybe a lot of brains---maybe--” Aedan didn’t know why he kept talking. Maybe talking was all that kept the worst of the horror back. He felt Jaime layer himself around Marti in that same embrace.

“Tell me it’s not me--Tell me that thing isn’t me---” Aedan wasn’t quite sure when his face had gotten so wet with tears but it must have been bad because even Samir was piling into the hug now. 

“It’s not you,” Marti’s voice was half-muffled against the bulk of Aedan’s own coat. Aedan just sank to his knees, his breath heaving between hyperventilating and sobs, and the rest of the team sank with him. Their only comfort was the thrum of the lift itself, bringing them up further and further from the horror below.

[mneiai]

Obi-Wan first met the Mandalorian (and, while there were certainly a few Mandalorians out there in the galaxy, this one was always the one to him) on his mission to Mandalore. He was seventeen, and while half as reckless as his Master still not perhaps as cautious as the Council would like, and he'd done something foolish.

That could describe any number of his missions, of course.

But that time he was in the precarious situation of having just killed two Death Watch assassins by Force jumping on one of them as they flew around with their jetpack. They had, of course, landed far away from his initial location, after he'd managed to figure out how to steer a struggling person in armor.

He'd broken his leg on the landing (the Death Watch commando had broken their neck, so he considered his injury something of a victory) and stared helplessly back towards the settlement he'd come from, wondering how long, with his not-great Force healing, it would take him to get back there and find where Satine would have gone to ground.

Despite his predicament, he hadn't been too distracted to notice someone's arrival, and he'd had the blaster from the corpse beside him out and pointed before the Mandalorian coming at him could get too close.

According to him, once Obi-Wan calmed down enough to pay attention, the Death Watch was his enemy and Obi-Wan was doing him a favor by taking them out and keeping them distracted. So he took Obi-Wan back to a nearby farmstead, also full of a bunch of Mandalorians who never showed him their faces, and helped him heal up.

He wasn't the nicest person out there, but he and Obi-Wan got along surprisingly well, their personalities an unexpected complement to one another that amused the others around them in a way that filled the room to Obi-Wan's senses.

When they parted ways, because Obi-Wan had a duty to get back to and the Mandalorian traditionalists (for that's what they were, he'd figured out on the second day, not just too paranoid to take off their armor near a stranger) knew the importance of such things.

He never thought he'd see the Mandalorian again and wrote it all off as another interesting diversion on a mission full of them.

He'd met the Mandalorian again eight months before his Naboo mission, at a bar.

While he still had his armor on, and Obi-Wan had never seen his face regardless, his Force presence was unmistakable. He was also very, very bored.

So even though Obi-Wan was supposed to be lying low as his Master collected information, he'd sauntered over with his drink, a smile on his face, and a perhaps flirtatious "hello there" falling from his lips before me could think better of it.

The Mandalorian's emotions had shifted quickly, but within a few moments he recognized Obi-Wan and instead of boredom, or aggravation, he'd settled into amusement. He'd offered Obi-Wan a seat and they'd conversed casually in Mando'a for a few hours, neither ever actually saying what they were doing there.

Though a high ranking official had gone missing the next day, so Obi-Wan had assumed he knew the Mandalorian's reason for being on planet.

The third time was also in a bar, three months after the Naboo mission, when the weight of grief and responsibility, and overwhelming helplessness, dragged Obi-Wan down to trying to drown his sorrows in what was the worst whiskey that might have ever passed over his tongue.

One moment he was alone at the little back corner table he'd taken (not so bad off to not choose a strategic location), the next the Mandalorian was next to him.

He hadn't wanted sympathy from someone he knew hated Jedi and the Mandalorian hadn't offered. Instead, at some point, the comfort he gave was a rough hand job in the alley behind the bar and a comm code.

After that it was more frequent for a time, the Mandalorian seemed to travel almost as much as Obi-Wan did as a new Knight out of favor with the Council and getting all the worst assignments. They'd meet up when they could, neither ever giving details of why they were nearby, and take out whatever frustrations they had through sex. Obi-Wan didn't care that he didn't see the Mandalorian's face (well, he missed kissing, but not all that much), because he could feel him in the Force. He imagined what he would look like, the expressions that might correspond to the moods he was in, but he never asked for more than the Mandalorian could give.

It was a horrible few years and the Mandalorian was perhaps the only highlight.

But then they became busier, and Obi-Wan started to get assignments to take Anakin on, and they just sort of...stopped, eventually. One comm call after another unanswered and Obi-Wan decided that it was time to move on from such selfish matters as a steady lover.

The very first time he ever actually heard the Mandalorians name was on Kamino. There had been something hauntingly familiar about the clones he'd seen, though he couldn't place it until they were at the door, Obi-Wan staring at the Mandalorian who had clearly hastily put on his armor to answer (he could see hints of his bare wrists and tried not to think inappropriate thoughts).

The Mandalorian--Jango--had been away training a clone army. He was raising a clone as a son. The face Obi-Wan had never seen, not in a decade of knowing Jango, now surrounded him.

None of the clone soldiers wore beskar'gam. He'd seen them taking their buy'ce off with no regard for who would see their faces.

While Obi-Wan knew Jango didn't judge others for not following the Way, he had a sinking feeling he didn't even consider the clones as worthy enough sentients to do so. It was completely at odds with what Obi-Wan knew of the Tribe's stance on children, but when he considered it he knew it was most likely in line with their stance on genetic engineering.

He'd tried to find out what was going on, who had hired Jango for the hit on Padme, anything, but it was too easy to be lulled back into their old interactions, where neither revealed anything of meaning.

Eventually he'd find out enough information to figure things out, he decided, and it had been years since he'd seen Jango. And now he knew his name and, though in a roundabout way, what he must look like, he couldn't resist staying with him a little longer.

[glorious-kt]

Anon. Tumblr decided to be an asshole and eat your ask when I started my draft. Luckily for you! I remebered it!

Cody and Fives for number 3 for the whump prompts.

Don’t worry I got you!!

⚠️This does contain torture and mind rape. Viewer discretion is advised ⚠️

——————

Cody winced as he watched Fives get kicked in the gut by the commando droid in his cell, wanting desperately to reach through the bars of his own cell to comfort his little brother. Fives hissed in pain as the commando droid yanked him up by his hair, forcing the young trooper to sit up on his bruised and broken knees. Cody swallowed as he and Fives locked gazes through the bars of their cells. Hells, the way the kid could look so broken and yet so defiant impressed Cody.

Fives had a broken nose, a busted lip, a broken rib or two, a fractured wrist, a broken hand, a broken leg, and most likely some internal damage. He looked like hell had just run him over, and yet... his eyes still carried that spark of golden defiance. The kid was still a shinie! Had only painted his armor a few weeks ago, and yet here he was taking a beating from a commando droid like it was the easiest thing in the galaxy. Rex had told Cody that he predicted that Fives would make an amazing Officer one day. It was only here, in a prison cell on Ventress’ ship, did Cody begin to believe those words.

“Still going to remain silent, Commander,” the witch asked, stalking out from behind Cody.

The 212th Commander wanted to whip around and snap her neck so badly in that moment. He could feel the rage boiling beneath his skin. Sadly, he knew that he would end up dead before he could even try. That or she would do something even worse to Fives. Still, he managed to silently glare at her over his shoulder. His gaze was only torn back to Fives by a small noise of pain coming from his vod’ika.

“I-I’m alright, Boss. Don’t- Don’t worry ‘bout me. I can- I can hang- hang in there a bit l-longer,” Fives croaked out, having to pause every few words to swallow down the blood pooling in his mouth, offering Cody a small pained smirk.

Kriff, verd’ika. Cody swallowed heavily as he stared at Fives. Yes, he loved Fives. He loved his vod’ika, and seeing him like this broke his heart, but... but the codes he was protecting would protect Kamino just a little longer. He had to choose. Choose between Fives or a planet full of brothers. It should have been an easy choice. His duty was to the Republic, so his choice should easily reside with protecting Kamino, but...

There was a sharp pressure in the air now, it felt dark and cold, making Cody shiver slightly as it coiled around him. Fives made a choking noise as his eyes went wide before shutting closed. The young trooper’s body tried to curl in on itself as Fives shook his head vigorously. Cody’s eyes widened in horror as he realized what the sharp pressure was.

“Stop,” Cody begged as he glanced back at Ventress who was smirking as she held her hand out to Fives, tearing through the young trooper’s head.

“Give me the codes then, clone” the witch sneered at Cody, twisting her hand which caused Fives to cry out in sharp pain.

Cody glared at Ventress briefly before he looked back at Fives. The commando droid was pushing it’s vibroblade through the trooper’s shoulder. Nice and slow and painful. So close to the heart. Cody swallowed back the bile that threatened to crawl up his throat as he saw the vibroblade begin to move. It was moving because of Ventress. He couldn’t watch this. He c o u l d n ‘ t. Cody closed his eyes and turned his head away, but he was grabbed by his hair and forced to look back at Fives. Fives... who was crying quietly, who was covered in blood, sweat, and tears, who was looking at him with the most trusting eyes in the galaxy.

“Keep your eyes open, I really want you to watch what I’m about to do to your little friend here.”

Fives screamed. A scream of pain that could have shattered windows as the vibroblade began to move closer to his heart. Cody stared in horror, unable to help.

“Fives, listen to me. Just listen to my voice, vod’ika. It’s okay. You’re gonna be just fine. We’ll get out of this okay,” Cody began to talk, tears in his eyes as he tried to break through to the young trooper.

Fives stared back at Cody, panting and screaming through the pain, his uninjured hand reaching out to hold on to the cell bars. Cody shifted closer to do the same.

“You still got to make ARC trooper, vod’ika. You and Echo were planning on doing it together. When we get out of this, Kix and Crys will check you out, and we’ll get you in a bacta tank. You’ll be in good shape to get working on becoming an ARC. Rex, Echo, you and I will go to 79s to celebrate it once you graduate from ARC training,” by this point Cody was just talking for the sake of talking.

Fives was only half listening of course, but he slowly nodded along with the words. Ventress scoffed quietly and brought her hand up in order to end Fives’ life, only to be cut off by a large explosion rocking the ship. Cody could have sobbed in relief. They were saved! Ventress snarled as she stalked out of Cody’s cell, locking it up, and head to where the rescuers were. Fives gasped in quiet relief as the pain stopped briefly, only for the air to be knocked out of him when the commando droid ripped hi vibroblade out of Fives’ shoulder before leaving.

“Just hold on Fives! Just hold on, help is on the way. Help is coming. Just hold on,” Cody called out as Fives hit the floor, fading in and out of consciousness.

Fives ended up passing out eventually, Ventress had taken her escape pod and left the ship, and General Skywalker and General Kenobi were checking over the central computers as Kix and Crys looked over Cody and Fives. Fives would need to be put in a bacta tank for a while, but... he was alive. And that’s all Cody could ask for.

[multiverseforger]

Brock Rumlow led the Savage Crims gang on New York City's Lower East Side, during which time, he assaulted fifteen-year-old Rachel Leighton and fought Rachel's two brothers, killing the elder brother. Rumlow fled, entering Taskmaster's school for criminals, within three years becoming an instructor under the name Bingo Brock.[2]

As a mercenary, Rumlow enlisted with Albert Malik, the communist Red Skull, in Algeria, serving the Red Skull under the name Frag until he was sent to invade Arnim Zola's Switzerland chateau; Rumlow was ultimately the only team member to survive the assault. There, he also met and impressed, Johann Schmidt, the original Nazi Red Skull, who accepted Brock's services and code-named him as "Crossbones".[2]

The true Red Skull sent Crossbones to observe Baron Helmut Zemo's progress acquiring the Bloodstone fragments and to obtain them.[3][4] He stowed aboard Captain America's flagship, and entered Zemo's ship to steal the Bloodstone fragments. He overpowered Diamondback, and shot a crossbow bolt that coupled with Captain America's shield. Crossbones was forced to shatter the Bloodstone fragments when the alien entity known as the Hellfire Helix used it to take control of Baron Heinrich Zemo's body; the destruction of the Bloodstone discorporated the Hellfire Helix.[5] Knowing that his master would be infuriated by the Bloodstone's loss, Crossbones kidnapped Diamondback to Madripoor as bait for Captain America. He challenged Captain America to retrieve Diamondback, but the Captain defeated him, although Diamondback escaped, and the Red Skull ordered Crossbones to desist and return to headquarters.[6] The Red Skull then ordered him to retrieve the Controller after the Controller's breakout from the Vault.[7] With the Machinesmith, Crossbones investigated the Red Skull's disappearance.[8]

Crossbones assembled the Skeleton Crew from the Red Skull's henchmen and led them on a search for the Red Skull, who had been missing since Magneto imprisoned him in an underground bunker.[9] They battled the Black Queen and her Hellfire Club mercenaries.[10] Crossbones enlisted the aid of psychic Tristam Micawber to locate the Red Skull. Upon finding his master, Crossbones took the Red Skull to Skullhouse for convalescence.[11]

He next attended AIM's weapons exposition.[12] He battled Daredevil during a failed assassination attempt against the Kingpin.[13] He battled Bullseye during Bullseye's failed assassination attempt against the Red Skull.[14] He battled Captain America again and was defeated.[15] He later recounts how he met the Red Skull.[16] The Red Skull assigned him to discover who killed the Red Skull's spare clone bodies.[17] Alongside the Skeleton Crew, he battled the Schutzheilligruppe in an attempt to rescue the Red Skull but was captured.[18] He was rescued from the Schutzheilligruppe's custody by Arnim Zola's fake Avengers.[19] Crossbones was eventually fired for questioning the Red Skull's decision to ally himself with the Viper.[20]

Desperate to regain his position as leader of the Skeleton Crew, Crossbones kidnapped Diamondback, imprisoning in an abandoned subway station and forced into a brutal regime of combat training.[volume & issue needed] Crossbones believed that he had brainwashed Diamondback into betraying Captain America, but Diamondback was actually laying a trap for Crossbones.[volume & issue needed] Diamondback stole samples of Captain America's blood from the Avengers' mansion, then accompanied Crossbones to the Red Skull's mountain fortress.[volume & issue needed] The two were captured and imprisoned, and the Red Skull rehired Crossbones on a temporary basis.[volume & issue needed] He was later attacked by Cutthroat, the Skeleton Crew's new leader, who feared that Crossbones will try to take back his position as the Red Skull's right-hand man.[volume & issue needed] Crossbones killed Cutthroat, never realizing that Cutthroat was actually Diamondback's older brother.[volume & issue needed] Crossbones later stabbed Diamondback during Diamondback's escape attempt, only to later save with a blood transfusion in order to use as bait.[volume & issue needed] He was critically wounded by flying shrapnel during an assault on the fortress by Captain America and the Falcon, and imprisoned.[volume & issue needed]

Imprisoned in the Raft when Electro breaks the inmates out, Crossbones was seen fighting Captain America and Spider-Man. Spider-Man kicked Crossbones in the face, knocking him out.[21]

After he escaped from prison, Crossbones became a mercenary and assassin for a number of organizations, until he was rehired by the Red Skull who was later apparently assassinated by the Winter Soldier.[volume & issue needed] Crossbones and his new lover, Synthia Schmidt (the Red Skull's daughter), began hunting Aleksander Lukin, the Winter Soldier's commander.[volume & issue needed] They plotted to crash a stolen World War II era plane into the new Kronas Headquarters in London, only to have their plane destroyed by the Red Skull's Sleeper robot.[volume & issue needed] While they escape the destruction of the plane, they found Agent 13, and are about to kill Sharon Carter, only to be stopped by the Red Skull's appearance.[volume & issue needed] They begin working with Red Skull/Lukin whose minds both share Lukin's body.[volume & issue needed]

Following the Civil War storyline, Captain America's Anti-Registration heroes surrendered to Iron Man's Pro-Registration heroes.[volume & issue needed] While being led from Federal Courthouse, Captain America was shot in the shoulder by Crossbones taking the Red Skull's orders.[volume & issue needed] Crossbones tries to escape in a helicopter but was tracked by the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier then beat Crossbones into unconsciousness, while Crossbones simply laughed. Falcon then turned Crossbones over to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.[volume & issue needed]

In Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, Wolverine, along with Daredevil and Doctor Strange, broke into S.H.I.E.L.D. to interrogate Crossbones and threatened to kill him. Crossbones revealed no knowledge of his hiring by the Red Skull. Wolverine left him a bloody mess on the floor after being convinced by Daredevil to spare his life.[22]

S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Tony Stark arranged for Professor X to scan Crossbones' mind for information, but Professor X found that someone had erased several parts of his memory in order to prevent such a scan.[volume & issue needed] Sin and a new incarnation of the Serpent Squad have broken Crossbones free of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.[volume & issue needed] They then capture the Winter Soldier when confronting Lukin to find out a relationship with the Red Skull.[volume & issue needed]

When Sin and the Serpent Squad attacked the Senate Building, Bucky Barnes arrived as the new Captain America. After battling and injuring many of the Squad, Crossbones attacked Barnes. After a brutal fight in which Crossbones launched Barnes out of the building. Bucky was saved by the Natalia Romanova's intervention, and Bucky shot Crossbones several times in the chest. The gravely wounded Crossbones was then taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody once again.[volume & issue needed]

At the start of the Heroic Age event, Crossbones has become a member of the new Thunderbolts team formed in the aftermath of Siege.[23] Government agents, working with Luke Cage, add Crossbones to the team knowing that he cannot be reformed, hoping that his extreme methods will alienate the other Thunderbolt members and push them towards rehabilitation.[24] During the team's first mission, Crossbones was exposed to corrupted Terrigen Mists;[25] during the events of Shadowland, Crossbones manifested the ability to fire a powerful, piercing beam of energy from his face, theorizing that this ability originates from his exposure to the Terrigen mists. He uses this ability to murder a police officer.[26] Fearing that the Thunderbolts are close to being disbanded following Cage's decision to leave, Crossbones attempted to escape alongside Ghost and Juggernaut. During the attempt, Crossbones used his new ability to fight the unsuspecting Steve Rogers. Crossbones was defeated and discharged from the Thunderbolts, after Ghost revealed his murder of the police officer.[27] Crossbones is shown incarcerated in a padded cell wearing a straitjacket, apparently no longer able to use his energy beam.[28]

During the Fear Itself storyline, Crossbones was constantly harassed while he was behind bars, because he was both a former Thunderbolt member and a neo-nazi. Shortly after when he was being beaten up by more thugs, Juggernaut unintentionally causes a break out in the prison facility called the Raft. Man Mountain Mario (the cousin of Man Mountain Marko) helps defend Crossbones from the thugs. While the two of them were trying to escape, Mario told Crossbones about his grandma who helps criminals leave the border. Crossbones manages to escape and returns the favor by killing Mario to help with his escape.[29] He confronts some of the former Avengers Initiative members in New Jersey after he escapes the Raft. He fights Gravity, Frog-Man, Geiger, Scarlet Spiders, and Firestar. When he's surrounded, he tosses a grenade at Gravity but Geiger catches it and is seriously injured, creating an easy distraction for him to escape.[30]

During the Ends of the Earth storyline, Crossbones was seen in one of Doctor Octopus' facilities. Sabra fights past some Octobots until Crossbones shoots Sabra.[31]

Crossbones later appears as a member of HYDRA who are planning to spread poisonous blood extracted from an Inhuman boy named Lucas. He fights Sam Wilson as the new Captain America on Bagalia. Just as he was about to kill Wilson, he is defeated by Misty Knight who was undercover at that moment.[32] He is later defeated by Wilson when he attacks a HYDRA base located on Florida.[33]

During the Avengers: Standoff! storyline, Crossbones was an inmate of Pleasant Hill, a gated community established by S.H.I.E.L.D. When Steve Rogers was at the Pleasant Hill Bowling Alley trying to reason with Kobik, Crossbones attacks Rogers. Before Crossbones can kill Rogers, Kobik's powers de-age Rogers back to physical prime, which allows the Captain to defeat Crossbones.[34] In the aftermath of the events at Pleasant Hill, Crossbones founds a new version of HYDRA with the Red Skull and Sin.[35]

During the Secret Empire storyline, Crossbones appears as a member of the Army of Evil and took part in the attack on Manhattan in retaliation for what happened at Pleasant Hill.[36] Crossbones and Sin are shown to be in charge of a super-prison that was established by Hydra. Their super-prison was raided by the Underground in their mission to free their captive friends.[37]

[starwarsfic]

I.26

Originally posted August 8, 2020

Summary: Obi-Wan never thought he'd see Jango's face and isn't pleased at how he does.

Details: Jango/Obi-Wan. Jango follows The Way.

xxxxxx

Obi-Wan first met the Mandalorian (and, while there were certainly a few Mandalorians out there in the galaxy, this one was always the one to him) on his mission to Mandalore. He was seventeen, and while half as reckless as his Master still not perhaps as cautious as the Council would like, and he'd done something foolish.

That could describe any number of his missions, of course.

But that time he was in the precarious situation of having just killed two Death Watch assassins by Force jumping on one of them as they flew around with their jetpack. They had, of course, landed far away from his initial location, after he'd managed to figure out how to steer a struggling person in armor.

He'd broken his leg on the landing (the Death Watch commando had broken their neck, so he considered his injury something of a victory) and stared helplessly back towards the settlement he'd come from, wondering how long, with his not-great Force healing, it would take him to get back there and find where Satine would have gone to ground.

Despite his predicament, he hadn't been too distracted to notice someone's arrival, and he'd had the blaster from the corpse beside him out and pointed before the Mandalorian coming at him could get too close.

According to him, once Obi-Wan calmed down enough to pay attention, the Death Watch was his enemy and Obi-Wan was doing him a favor by taking them out and keeping them distracted. So he took Obi-Wan back to a nearby farmstead, also full of a bunch of Mandalorians who never showed him their faces, and helped him heal up.

He wasn't the nicest person out there, but he and Obi-Wan got along surprisingly well, their personalities an unexpected complement to one another that amused the others around them in a way that filled the room to Obi-Wan's senses.

When they parted ways, because Obi-Wan had a duty to get back to and the Mandalorian traditionalists (for that's what they were, he'd figured out on the second day, not just too paranoid to take off their armor near a stranger) knew the importance of such things.

He never thought he'd see the Mandalorian again and wrote it all off as another interesting diversion on a mission full of them.

He'd met the Mandalorian again eight months before his Naboo mission, at a bar.

While he still had his armor on, and Obi-Wan had never seen his face regardless, his Force presence was unmistakable. He was also very, very bored.

So even though Obi-Wan was supposed to be lying low as his Master collected information, he'd sauntered over with his drink, a smile on his face, and a perhaps flirtatious "hello there" falling from his lips before me could think better of it.

The Mandalorian's emotions had shifted quickly, but within a few moments he recognized Obi-Wan and instead of boredom, or aggravation, he'd settled into amusement. He'd offered Obi-Wan a seat and they'd conversed casually in Mando'a for a few hours, neither ever actually saying what they were doing there.

Though a high ranking official had gone missing the next day, so Obi-Wan had assumed he knew the Mandalorian's reason for being on planet.

The third time was also in a bar, three months after the Naboo mission, when the weight of grief and responsibility, and overwhelming helplessness, dragged Obi-Wan down to trying to drown his sorrows in what was the worst whiskey that might have ever passed over his tongue.

One moment he was alone at the little back corner table he'd taken (not so bad off to not choose a strategic location), the next the Mandalorian was next to him.

He hadn't wanted sympathy from someone he knew hated Jedi and the Mandalorian hadn't offered. Instead, at some point, the comfort he gave was a rough hand job in the alley behind the bar and a comm code.

After that it was more frequent for a time, the Mandalorian seemed to travel almost as much as Obi-Wan did as a new Knight out of favor with the Council and getting all the worst assignments. They'd meet up when they could, neither ever giving details of why they were nearby, and take out whatever frustrations they had through sex. Obi-Wan didn't care that he didn't see the Mandalorian's face (well, he missed kissing, but not all that much), because he could feel him in the Force. He imagined what he would look like, the expressions that might correspond to the moods he was in, but he never asked for more than the Mandalorian could give.

It was a horrible few years and the Mandalorian was perhaps the only highlight.

But then they became busier, and Obi-Wan started to get assignments to take Anakin on, and they just sort of...stopped, eventually. One comm call after another unanswered and Obi-Wan decided that it was time to move on from such selfish matters as a steady lover.

The very first time he ever actually heard the Mandalorians name was on Kamino. There had been something hauntingly familiar about the clones he'd seen, though he couldn't place it until they were at the door, Obi-Wan staring at the Mandalorian who had clearly hastily put on his armor to answer (he could see hints of his bare wrists and tried not to think inappropriate thoughts).

The Mandalorian--Jango--had been away training a clone army. He was raising a clone as a son. The face Obi-Wan had never seen, not in a decade of knowing Jango, now surrounded him.

None of the clone soldiers wore beskar'gam. He'd seen them taking their buy'ce off with no regard for who would see their faces.

While Obi-Wan knew Jango didn't judge others for not following the Way, he had a sinking feeling he didn't even consider the clones as worthy enough sentients to do so. It was completely at odds with what Obi-Wan knew of the Tribe's stance on children, but when he considered it he knew it was most likely in line with their stance on genetic engineering.

He'd tried to find out what was going on, who had hired Jango for the hit on Padme, anything, but it was too easy to be lulled back into their old interactions, where neither revealed anything of meaning.

Eventually he'd find out enough information to figure things out, he decided, and it had been years since he'd seen Jango. And now he knew his name and, though in a roundabout way, what he must look like, he couldn't resist staying with him a little longer.

xxxxxx

A/N: There's this vast misinterpretation in more casual parts of the Mandalorian fandom that ONLY the followers of the Way of the Mandalore are actually Mandalorians (nevermind what that says about people like Bo-Katan), it's bs but gave me lots of Jangobi ideas lol