Private Monsters of Lao-mon

[Inanna Harth]

"I've got an idea."

There was a certain manic devil-may-care energy to Cato which had been part of his personality for as long as Inanna had known him. It drove him to perch in tightrope-balance spots, like the back of the couch or the edges of buildings. It had also caused him to throw himself headlong into dangerous or tricky situations.

Inanna knew instinctively from the look on his face and his determined gait as he ran ahead of her, chasing the urartu, that he was about to do something risky. But it also admittedly excited her—always had, in fact.

His lightsaber plunged into the ceiling and right through the creature. The thing didn’t make a noise, but molten goop dripped through the hole his blade had created in thick trickles. A strange and alien stench filled the air, earthy and pungent. The urartu continued to flee through the shaft, the lightsaber dragging through its gelatinous body and leaving behind an oozing gash.

Thinking fast, Inanna widened the hole he had made in the vent, causing the creature to fall out and into their midst. It immediately lunged at Cato.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato had managed to skewer the gelatinous creature, but unsurprisingly, it was nonchalant about the interruption. It tried to continue its escape, but Inanna ripped over the bore wider and cause it to splat onto the ground. It wasted no time attacking the nearest target: Cato.

A pseudopod lashed out around his ankle, immediately causing his skin to burn on contact. With surprise, the knight was pulled to the ground, his lightsaber slipping out of his grip.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

The plan, when she formulated it in the moments prior to cutting through the shaft, seemed simple enough. She would force the creature out of the vent, then use pyrokinesis to burn it alive.

Instead, she had to deal with the added complication of the urartu lunging at her husband. It grabbed hold of his ankle with a pseudopod and knocked him off his feet. Cato didn’t take the fall very well, losing his grip on his lightsaber as it began to drag him across the floor toward the rest of its body. Once it made contact and started to digest him, it was all over. He’d be dead in seconds, if not seriously wounded.

She had to act now. A fireball shot forth from Inanna’s fingertips, lighting up the corridor in bright orange. It collided with its target in a surge of heat. The urartu burst into flames, the fire consuming it rapidly as if it had flammable fuel for blood. It didn’t thrash or scream in pain. The pseudopod wrapped around Cato’s leg continued to feebly tug at him until it too was burned away, melting into a pool of smoking liquid on the floor.

Inanna rushed to Cato’s side. “Are you okay?” she asked, not for the first or the last time.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

The urartu tried to make a quick meal of Cato, but before it could absorb him into its center mass, Inanna summed forth a gout of flame, incinerating the blob. It showed little self-preservation now, only trying to consume the Jedi knight till the very end. Cato pulled his leg away, finding it a bit swollen and burnt from the acidic appendage and the fire that melted it. But nothing serious.

"I'm good. I'm good," Cato quickly replied, reaching to hold Inanna's hand, "Almost got a bit messy there with my foot. Wouldn't be quite as flattering for me to have to walk around on a peg leg for the rest of my life, now would it?" He sighed, and looked up at her directly, "Nice save." The creature was gone now. With any luck, everything could go back to normal now.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna winced at the sight of his leg. "How badly does it hurt? Can you still walk?" It certainly looked painful, though not serious. Cato had suffered far more catastrophic injuries in the past, and she didn't doubt he could soldier through this one, but she still hated to see him suffer anything. She reached out with the Force, offering a little bit of healing energy.

His hand found hers. It was the same arm which the urartu had grabbed. In typical Harth fashion, while one of them was fretting over the other they forgot about their own injuries. Her welt wasn't as bad as his, since the contact had been shorter, but it still stung.

"Almost got a bit messy there with my foot. Wouldn't be quite as flattering for me to have to walk around on a peg leg for the rest of my life, now would it?"

The thought of him hobbling around on a peg leg made her snort. "We need to wash off as soon as possible, in case any of the acid is still on our skin." But they were victorious, and the evacuation wasn't even finished yet. They would have to search the whole base to be sure there was no more danger. Still, what were the odds?

Despite all the excitement (or perhaps because of it) her mind soon turned to other pressing matters. She met his eyes, gazing at him adoringly. "Going to our quarters would take too long," she muttered, sounding as if she were trying to convince herself not to take immediate advantage of their first opportunity for respite since this whole operation began. "We'd be better off going back to the infirmary and using the showers there." The empty, deserted infirmary…

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"It'll work," Cato assured, despite having not put any weight on it yet. Eventually he began to stand up, mainly at the mention of washing off. "We should do that," He said with piqued interest. There was a pregnant pause, "We'll need to be extra thorough, to make sure the acid's complete gone…"

"The rest of the base hasn't been cleared either. Can't let anybody else come back down till we know for sure…" A suppressed but playful smile tugged at his lip, and he laid a firm hand against her cheek. This could take a while...

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna took a step closer to Cato as he rose to his feet, ready to help him if he had trouble with his leg after all. At least, that’s what she told herself. Her breath hitched as he laid a hand on her, his touch instantly reigniting her.

“I need you…” she whispered. “Come with me.” Taking his hand, she pulled him down the hall.

Some time later, a very satisfied Inanna was held in Cato’s arms, her back pressed to the tile wall of the shower. Basking in the steam, she felt like she had died and gone to paradise. Mmm, she hoped they would get to spend their afterlife like this forever…

Suddenly, the shower curtain was swept aside. Inanna had failed to sense any presence approaching—which wasn’t uncommon for her, though she was distracted—and was startled by the arrival of… “Dr. Gog!”

The Shi’ido physician looked at them in bewilderment, a CryoBan blaster clutched tightly in one hand. Evidently he had expected to find the creature in the shower. “Why are you still here?” he demanded, seemingly unconcerned about what they had been doing. “Shouldn’t you have evacuated by now?”

Cato Harth​