While the City Sleeps (Open)

[Darth Nyne]

Lucius didn't bother to holster the now empty weapon, he simply tossed it aside, as he forced himself to his feet, he took to leaning against a wall. Crutchless and damaged really wasn't the most appealing part of his day. And then he heard the bit's about the boy, and the Force, and all things Jedi related. It was at this point that he knew he'd regret this day the rest of his life. The Force always managed to cause problems for people, Jedi, Sith, and the Dark Sects that always tried to come up.

"You mean to tell me there's another one?" he blurted out before Autumn could even formulate an answer to the cat and the squib. "Between the two of 'em we're all dead y'know that kitty boy?"

Lucius had never been highly acclaimed for his worded tact in tense situations, he'd always thought of himself as more of a shoot, before you get shot kind of guy. Unfortunately he still seemed to be missing his rifle. He truly hoped the Rodians hadn't gotten to it yet.

 

[Green Ranger]

She seemed to shrink away at the interrogating from the furry one, biting her lip a little. She glanced up at the man-cat, then back again.

'I guess I should start with answering about this...Jedi Order. It's probably the simplest to explain. Where I am from...well, we have a ban on those that are awoken to the Other Aspect, what you call the Force. Our world was invaded by a handful of people of many differing races, all wielding swords of fire and light...what you refer to as 'Light Saber'.

'Though they eventually left our homeworld after pacifying any resistance, we have had a strict policy on migration. Those who leave are not welcome back and will not be recognized by the governing body in any way, waivable only in exceptional circumstance...and those who arrive - be it even for purpose of trade - cannot be sensitive to the Other Aspect.

'As a result...I and all my kind harbor a great fear for those who wield the Light Saber. You all seem to trust them openly and with ease...but I cannot help but feel anxious when you suggest handing the boy over to them. Even so, it may be possible that their proficiency in the Other Aspect may...not be what the child needs.'

She paused for a moment, coughing lightly, a fine red spray covering her hand. She wiped it on her blood-soaked garments, unphased by the fact that they were apparently utterly ruined.

'There's...something about the boy, the way he appears in my sight, that shouldn't be there...not in a child in this part of the galaxy, at least,' she said, deep in thought. 'This may seem an odd question...but...is there anything noteable about the boy's appearance, maybe? I got the barest of glances at him before...well, you know...'

 

[Project]

[OOC: Sorry for the short one :(]

Shadows, darkness, grim emotions of fear and anger spread out, from the souls who had battled themself from the Inside of many people, caged inside the Corridor... but WOLF was never caged - he had allways found a new way to his ... destination, in the past.And so, may he made a new passage, throughout the venting-system of the ship today.Silently, he crawled to the dark room, where the little child was hidden... where something had attacked Jiang - alias Attilla.Now - the sandclock had turned around, as WOLFs Mindstreams have said.Quickly, he demounted the vent... and it droppd to the unlightened ground, followed by a silent contact on the ground by WOLF himself... he could feel where the boy was hiding, and so he began to disapproach him - silently he moved away from him, and listened to his very movements.

No words passed his lips, as he watched like the eagle watched his prey... and quickly he rolled a little flashlight towards him... and it secretly touched his feet.
Indeed, he never awaited a vocalized response, however he hoped for one... and so he began to kneel silently at one corner of the room, to await his next move.WOLFs knowledge about the kid was little... little but enough - he knew he was a force sensitive, and he knew he could feel his presence...
As his pupilless eyes began to move rapidly, he heard many many voices from the outside... but they were only blurs of the real mist of conversation that formated outside... one thing he knew indeed - Jiang was there, Dmivo was there... and many unwelcomed guests resided in the very same corridor.

 

[Jiang Winters]

[ooc: IMO, the vents on a freighter the size of Jiang's ship would be far too small for a full-grown man to crawl through. That and the vessel's life support system would probably cycle the air from each room back into the air scrubbers, but... Meh, nevermind, lulz. No worries. ^_^
Oh, and apologies in advance for any spelling mishaps. I'm using IE, so no magical Firefox spellchecker.]

Jiang folded his sienna-and-black furred arms over his chest as his ears swiveled forward, to catch every word of the answers he expected from the woman. But before she could speak, the injured man exclaimed something, refering to him as 'kitty boy'. The Kasa Horansi's lips pulled back slightly in a snarl, his fangs exposed as he turned about and faced the man with his ears flattened against his skull. "Yes, I know that. Now please let the lady speak, before I make like a kitten and use you as a scratching post." He stated calmly. Was he serious about his threat? Well, that man would just have to find out the hard way if he kept speaking.

With him dealt with for the moment, Jiang turned back to face the young woman, his expression settling back into a softer, more comforting one as she spoke. He quirked an eyebrow as she explained herself.

He had to admit, knowing her worlds history with the lightsaber-wielding denizens of the galaxy, he could understand why she was apprehensive about simply surrendering the boy into the hands of the Jedi. However, he had seen first-hand the kindness of some of the Jedi, and something told him that the boy would be safe with them. He still wondered why she mentioned that the Jedi's talents with the Force might not be what the boy needed. To Jiang, it seemed clear cut. Boy doesn't have control over the force, the Jedi do. Send boy to Jedi, watch Jedi fix boy, pat self on back and check in on him every now and then.

Then again, he wasn't a force user himself. Maybe he was overlooking something? Jiang supposed that he'd find out when he turned the kid over to the Jedi.

He pushed all those thoughts away - derailing his own train of thought seemed to be something he was doing quite often that night - as she coughed up a fine mist of blood, causing a concerned expression to cross over his facial features as he examined the woman from head to toe for a moment, before locking his gaze on her face as she questioned him on the boy's appearance.

While his ocular implants had recorded a very detailed, high-definition image of the boy that could be fed into a computer and rendered into a lifelike 3D holographic image, he was more concerned for her health than he was downloading the image - contained on a memory card at the base of his skull - to a computer for her to study to her heart's content. "I'll do better than telling you if I noticed something strange, miss, I'll give you a complete holographic image of the kid. But first, you're coming to the medbay and getting scanned, if only to keep me from worrying that you're going to keel over randomly. And then you're getting cleaned up. Don't argue, please, I'd really rather not have to carry you to the medbay." While his voice was soft but serious at first, it lightened to a joking tone as he finished speaking, a quick wink accompanying his words as he turned and gestured down the hall, towards the medical bay.

As he was speaking, a little voice in the back of his head was screaming and kicking at him for being a big softy. But he just couldn't bring himself to be unkind to the woman, just like -despite the obvious danger of keeping him around- he couldn't bring himself to be even remotely heartless towards the boy.

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn opened her mouth as if to object, then sighed in resignation. She wasn't used to the galaxy's kindness - so far she had seen little but ignorant predjudice and indifference...though admittedly she had expected nothing less. Sometimes she counted her blessing that the Tae were so isolated - they weren't instantly recognized in the galaxy, and all things considered, that was probably a good thing. People had a tendancy to fear that which they didn't understand.

'Alright, i'll come to the medbay...I can understand your concern, but it's nothing i'm not used to. But...thank you for the gesture, anyway.'

She was still rather shaky on her feet, but she waved away all efforts to assist her, silently gesturing to be led to the medbay.

* * *

He wore it like a cloak, the dark and silence that filled the room surrounding him...he felt trapped, yet safe somewhat. There was no way he could hurt anyone while he was in here...there was noone to hurt. And he was so tired...always so tired...He closed his eyes, but suddenly his mind sensed...something. In the dark and silence, someone had found him. Even here, he wasn't safe. His mind began to race, his eyes darting around the room...but there was nothing. In the solid darkness, he couldn't distinguish anything.

There was a sound of metal rolling on metal, and it was coming towards him...he shrunk up, curling into a ball...something touched his leg, cold and hard. With a quiet squeak of fear, his eyes flashed, and the flashlight flung itself across the room. He began to cradle his head in his hands, a dull ache forming in his temples. He just wanted to be left alone...

 

[Jiang Winters]

While it was Jiang's instinct to offer the woman a forearm to lean on, she simply waved him on, and so he led. "This way, miss." The kasa horansi said, as he gestured towards the medical bay and then walked on, leading her to it. "Mind if I ask, what's your name? I'd like to be able to put a name to your face, rather than just having to refer to you as 'miss' or 'the woman'." He queried. He paused as they reached the entrance to the medical bay and opened it, then stood aside to allow her to pass into the med bay, which had been freshly sterilized and scrubbed down by the oh-so-efficient cleaning bot hidden in a slot in the ceiling.

He walked into the medical bay after her, but only realized that he probably had never told her his name until the door hissed shut behind them. "My name's Jiang, by the way." After speaking, the striped feline walked towards one of the many seemingly randomly placed cabinets arranged through the room, and selected a clunky, briefcase-sized device from it. "Should've replaced this thing years ago, but it still works." He muttered to himself as the old medical scanner booted up with the same whirring noise as old-fashioned computers sometimes seen in museums or long-abandoned outposts and ships.

"A'ight, stand still for a moment please." Jiang ordered, at the same time unclicking a rectangular handheld scanning wand - connected to the primary unit by a primitive cord - and slowly waved the black wand over the woman's head and torso. He didn't bother with her legs and arms; there wasn't much life-threatening to be damaged there, after all. He didn't catch that he was holding the primary part of the scanner so that the readout screen faced Autumn, making it so that she would be the first to see what her results were.

 

[Darth Nyne]

The offered crutch had been destroyed, buy the fool with the knife, his rifle was missing as a possible replacement. So with hand on wall he began the long hobble back to the medbay, hoping there was more than one bed but willing to use a chair if he had to. Being on the leg had been a bad idea, but he wasn't about to die lying in bed. Putting his weight on his arm against the wall rather than the bad leg, a slight wince barely showing with each step, he quietly followed, hoping the cat-man wouldn't bring up the blaster scoring he'd just pocked off into the halls of his ship.

 

[Green Ranger]

'I'm...my name's Autumn,' she said quietly. She seemed to be noticeably better than just minutes ago, although through all the blood it was hard to tell. She did seem steadier on her feet, however, and at least she had stopped shaking. She remained standing, gesturing for the injured man to take the bed, even giving her arm to help him keep his balance. She carefully maneuvred his body so as to cause the least pain possible while he lay down, and her eyes seemed to emenate the barest of glows as she did so. She wasn't capable of much at this point, but hopefully she could at least soothe the pain while he got comfortable.

She then quietly returned her attention to the man-cat - apparently named Jiang. She looked warily at the device, almost dubious at its capabilities, although she allowed the man-cat to examine her, regardless. A panel on the device lit up in front of her, listing a quick diagnostic of her condition. Although she was certain Jiang was meant to be reading the information, she quickly glanced over the summary before mentioning anything.

What she saw was no real surprise to her - a few blood vessels had ruptured, the damage sread across her body, although they were already well one their way to healing completely. Her lungs still had quite a lot of blood inside them, and she figured she'd be coughing up blood for a few hours at least. Still, the bleeding had stopped, at least...the bruising across her body would be quite severe, however...she felt tender all over already. She was well on her way to a full recovery most 'pure' humans would have been crippled by. She glanced up to the man-cat - Jiang, his name was Jiang - allowing herself a guilty smile and gesturing towards the screen.

'I...I think you're meant to look at this, not me.' she said, trying to be as polite as possible about the error.

 

[Viggy]

The Squib stood by silently with his hands in his pockets as the woman answered their questions. The first part of what she said had made sense, but as she went on about the boy Dmivo still couldn’t figure out how she had become interested in him. Figuring you had to be a Force-Sensitive to understand, the Squib merely shrugged his shoulders and nodded. As Jiang insisted that the woman be brought to the medical bay, the whole group set off in that direction. Dmivo followed after the Kasa Horansi, the blood-soaked female Force-user, and the crippled man as they made their way to the med bay.

Inside, Jiang gave her his name and the woman gave hers: Autumn. Dmivo had already introduced himself to her with his full name earlier on, so he just stood by silently. As the tall pilot of the ship began a medical examination of the woman, the Squib suddenly remembered the man in the cockpit.

“Hey-o, Jiang! Whatever happenated to your coco-pilot, John? I asked him to come n’ help me with the kiddo, but he’s vanishappeared….”

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Huh? Oh, oops." Jiang muttered, hurriedly turning the device around as he spoke. 'Well, THAT was embarrassing. Why do I always make a fool out of myself at one point or another when a lady is involved?' He thought to himself, as he quickly examined the device's readout. "Looks like I'm not the only one who heals quickly." He thought aloud, unconsciously flexing his previously-injured shoulder slightly as he voiced that thought.

The Kasa Horansi's eyes turned from the device to Autumn's eyes, a slightly curious look in those synthetic blue orbs that seemed to inquire as to her rapid healing. But just as he parted his lips to give voice to that question, he heard Dmivo pipe up, stealing away the tall feline's attention.

"That's strange." He replied, one furry twitching as he turned about and walked towards one of the medbay's counters, placing the scanner upon the countertop and shutting it off before turning to face Dmivo. Jiang's brow furrowed for a moment as he thought, before sighing and giving a heavy shrug of his shoulders. "Well, John will be John, I guess. For now why don't you stick with me, huh? I could use some help scrounging up some clothes that'll fit Autumn here."

The gaze of those bright blue eyes of Jiang's settled upon Autumn once again, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he added in, "That is, if Autumn would like a change of clothes."

 

[Green Ranger]

Autum bit her lower lip, supressing a smile as she looked at the floor. Jaing had always seemed so in control of himself...it was interesting to watch him fumble over a seemingly simple task.She found it interesting what he said next, however...a fast healer? She realized she had no idea what was considered normal in regards to healing - apparently by galactic standards she recovered quite quickly. She silently made note of the fact.

She looked at her clothes when offered to find a change, noting the stains of blood that covered her dress, though she dismissed the offer with a gentle shake of her head.

'It's okay, really,' she said softly, 'I just need to wait a little while until I feel a bit better, then I'll clean them off. The stains probably look quite bad to you...they'll wash out easily enough.'

The group sat in silence for an awkwardly long moment before Autumn spoke again. 'I'm sorry, I probably sound ingrateful, but...I really want to see this boy you're taking care of. There's a suspicion about him that I just can't confirm until I've taken a look at him...or at least of that 'holographic image' you mentioned?'

It then occured to Autumn she had no idea what a holographic image actually was, but she figured she would find out soon enough anyway...there was no point in asking.

 

[Jiang Winters]

[ooc: Oh God, Gr1m, your avi! I can't stop laughing! xD ]

Jiang was silently grateful when Autumn broke the short but awkward silence that had descended after she politely refused the change of clothes. "Don't worry about it, Autumn. You're fine." He replied, as he reached his right paw up and felt around at the base of his skull. "As for that holographic image... Mmph." He grunted slightly as he seized something hidden under his soft sienna fur, and tugged it out, producing a small data chip that would fit atop the fingernail of Autumn's thumb.

The Kasa Horansi dug around in one of the many pouches lining his belt and produced a small and vaguely cylindrical black device that fit in the palm of his hand. He slid the data chip into a receptacle on the device and activated the little projector, causing a fairly high-definition holographic representation of the lost boy to appear above his hand. The little holographic figure was roughly six inches in height, but that was more than sufficient, provided Autumn held it close.

"Here you go, Autumn. Study away." He quipped with a smile, as he held out the little device for her to pluck from his hand.

 

[Green Ranger]

Watching the woman with te hologram was like watching a kitten with a new toy. She pawed at the hologram, jumping back startled as her hand passed through, rotating the projector in her hands in silent awe. Eventually, however, she seemed to comprehend what it was and how it functioned, and she settled down to look on the hologram's features.

The image of the boy was that of when he first stepped out from the bathroom, his hair freshly cut off, looking around nervously and tugging at his new clothes. His eyes wandered around nervously, although for a moment a faint smile crossed his features, apparently in response to something that was said to him. In that brief moment before the hologram restarted the loop, his eyes seemed to lose focus, as if they had suddenly lit up...his face lost focus, and the hologram restarted. It was enough to convince Autumn. Everything she had seen, everything she had felt....it all made sense now. She slowly, carefully put the projector down on the end of the bed, before turning back to Jiang. She took a moment to compose herself, then looked him square in the eye, her eyes suddenly strong and demanding. Her voice suddenly grew cold.

'What in the Art are you doing with a Tae?!'

 

[Jiang Winters]

Autumn's sudden shift in demeanor had no visible effect on Jiang whatsoever, with the exception of a slight twitch of his right ear and the even slighter arching of his left eyebrow. "Well, I guess now we now WHAT the boy is." He muttered softly, glancing over at Dmivo as he spoke. His quiet words were intended only for the Squib, and spoken quietly enough that he suspected that only his vertically-challenged friend would hear.

The striped feline skipper then turned his gaze back to Autumn as he calmly replied, "Dmivo found him collapsed outside the ship. His clothes were torn to shreds, his body malnourished and so caked with dirt and filth that it was impossible to determine anything about him save for his gender and that he was a near-human of some kind. We were worried about him, so I brought him aboard to treat him. That's when we started noticing that he had a LOT of raw force potential. We... I found that out the hard way."

He gestured towards the wall upon which the smashed medical cabinet was mounted, the wall still streaked with a bit of his blood that, curiously, the cleaning 'bot had missed. Figuring that she would understand that he had been thrown into the wall by a manifestation of the boy's powers, he continued to explain. "But that was just a minor setback. We got the boy showered and gave him a change of clothes, and we were giving him something to eat and taking care of him..." His gaze hardened slightly as he jabbed his index finger in Autumn's direction. "That is, until you and your blind buddy started poking your noses where they didn't belong."

He sighed, and let his hand fall to his side. "Though admittedly, that... Thing probably would have shown up anyways, and it probably would have done a hell of a lot more damage if you hadn't been here to contain it. So I guess we are sort of in your debt for holding it back." Jiang paused again, frowning slightly as he glanced at the door, a pensive expression settling across his features. "Speaking of which, we should probably go and check on the kid before that demon thing decides it's time for act two. I don't know if that blast door will hold it back a second time. After we're sure he's secure, we're taking him to the Jedi Temple. They'll have a force cage or one of those Yslmari things, he'll be safe there until someone can teach him how to control his abilities."

He smirked faintly as he turned his head to Autumn again, and nodded his head towards her. "Unless you care to try teaching him how to control those powers of his all by your lonesome."

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn shook her head slightly. 'No...you don't understand. A Tae of his age...it doesn't add up. He wouldn't have been allowed leave into the galaxy even if he tried, which only leaves another option...that he was born offworld. And that just raises further questions. Furthermore, I think it's fair to assume he doesn't have any parents, considering his state of mind, and the condition he was in when you found him...'

She frowned, her mind racing, trying to piece together the information she had, but she kept drawing a blank. 'I simply don't understand how the boy can even be alive,' she said softly, trailing off once more.

'This is beyond my knowledge,' she admitted, 'because...in truth, i'm not even in full control of my own powers. I left before I was ready...and it's a miracle I survived that attack at all. Only an institution like your Jedi Order...or possibly the people of my homeworld, may even have a faint chance of reining in the boy's wild powers, but even then it's nowhere near a sure thing. On the other hand, we can't just let him go again...by all accounts he's so far gone, I doubt he'd survive much longer on his own.'

 

[Darth Nyne]

Lucius had been helped into the bed by the woman, and was almost resting comfortably while she oogled the holo, of the mysterious passenger, but then the talking began. Force this and powers that, followed by mention of a planet of users, and the Jedi temple. He'd had enough, he swore even being the first member of his family in generations to not wield the Force that it would still be the death of him.

"I say you get that boy to the Jedi," he pushed his own two credits in "Now, before we all end up dead."

 

[Viggy]

Dmivo paid little attention to the medical exam Jiang gave Autumn. She had set she was alright, after all, and despite the fact that she was still coughing up blood after a deadly encounter with the little human boy’s deadly powers, the fact that she claimed to be alright settled the matter for the Squib. He was a bit puzzled as Jiang replied to his question so cryptically ‘John will be John’. Who was this John guy? And why had he just been sitting in the ship? Dmivo had met Jiang out in the streets, after all. Something was fishy, but the Squib couldn’t quite sniff it out.

For now, he just paid attention to the discussion of the little boy between Jiang and Autumn. He gave a slight nod to the Kasa Horansi as they simultaneously took note of his species, which Autumn had revealed. Jiang suggested, once more, bringing the child to the Jedi so he could learn to control his power. Autumn seemed to agree (though she also mentioned that her own people could help him), and so did the man on the crutches.

“Yep-yep, for my part and place-way, it seems to seem most definishitely wisable to bring boy-child to Jedi-types, pre-emptively no less, you bet,” the Squib agreed. “However so, issue-probs of our own necessitable safety-like condishations dictify that we should obtainate tools and instro-suction manuals for containifying the boy’s powers, before triangulifying a move to the Jedi-type’s nest. Respectifyng boy-child no less, he is dangerable, and can’t just walk-a-trot down the city street-paths being suchways, bet not."

 

[Green Ranger]

Autumn nodded silently. It took a while for her to respond, mainly because keeping track of the small, furry one was even more difficult than before...her throbbing head wasn't helping, and the creature was probably agitated, as his speech mannerisms seemed even more drastic than usual.

'I think research is a task that will consume precious time we may not have the leisure of having,' she said thoughtfully, shaking her head softly. 'We are sitting in a craft worthy of flight, aren't we? If we fly to the Jedi, it will take only a fraction of the time. And if the boy's power stirs again...well, i'm not exactly in a state to be protecting us again...but I'll do what I have to. Maybe I can help hold the blast doors together, and we can contain him in the galley.

'If the Jedi are everything you say they are...everything my people's history says they are...then once we are in their facility they may at the least have a means to contain him properly.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"It's settled, then. We'll fly boy wonder to the Jedi Academy, and place him in their care. Autumn, would stand watch outside the galley? If the boy starts to act up again, use the datapad that I mounted to the wall to vent the air in the room, that should put him back into unconsciousness. I'll go get us moving. If something goes wrong, hit an alarm or use the ship's intercom to shout for help."

Jiang didn't wait for anyone to object, instead he turned around and walked out of the medbay, and started padding down the hall leading to the vessel's cockpit. He paused as he reached the galley and glanced at the blast door, making sure it wasn't glowing red hot or something strange like that, and then he made his way into the cockpit. Moments after the cockpit's doors hissed shut behind him, the kasa horansi was in his seat and punching in the startup codes for the ship's engines. They rumbled to life almost instantly, a dull growl echoing through the ship's corridors before dying out as the engine's sound dampeners kicked in.

The inertial compensator and artificial gravity fired up a split-second after the engines powered up, and so without delay, the furry being plotted a course to the Jedi Temple and took off, easing the freighter into the air and giving it some thrust before joining up with a lane of aerial traffic heading in the general direction of their goal. As the temple wasn't that far, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, he did not want to hop into orbit even though it'd save some time off their trip. The wear and tear on the ship wasn't really worth the time that would be saved.

 

[Darth Nyne]

He sighed and looked to the squib, a light huff in his voice. He, at this point, refused to speak to the Tae, as she'd said the boy was of the same species so why did they trust her not to kill them anymore than they did the boy.

"Hey, short and fuzzy, does anyone even know if the Jedi will allow us access," he questioned. "It's a time of war, and I'd be willing to bet their on top guard for anyone of the dark persuasion trying to infiltrate them."

He thought it best just to hit orbit and space the both of them, but he tried to keep those thoughts in check with the sensitive around.

"And what's a guy gotta do to get something alcoholic around here," he muttered "or at least a caf."