First Reply Feels Like Somebody's Watching Me

[Mr. Usher]

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FIRST REPLY, OPEN TO ALL​

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The pitter-patter of rain accompanied the sound of soaked soles squelching on the sidewalks and gangways of Coruscant.

A figure of a man limped awkwardly, as if inebriated, along, occasionally turning, searching to see if they were followed. The harsh lighting from the streetlights and signs kept his face shadowed, only lit faintly when the cigarette in his mouth shines slightly brighter with each inhale.

The figure crossed underneath the traffic of speeders, meeting his contact under a bridge. An item, a particularly valuable and difficult find, was procured and handed to his contact, both nodding wordlessly. The contact was nearly identical to the courier, eerily shuffling in separate ways with the same awkward gait.

The two figures were one, after all. Mr. Usher was merely transporting the prize from one body of his to another. The courier returned the way he came, puffing the cigarette once more before reaching to take and snuff the cigarette.

The think, translucent skin of his hand clearly showed the shifting muscles underneath, the fingers were closer to tendrils, wrapping around the cigarette and and pulling it from the crude mimicry of a human mouth, tossing it aside onto the street.

Mr. Usher, the courier, hesitated, tilting his head. "Littering. Did I used to care about trash? Maybe one of the fresh contributions felt strongly about such." The streets were dirty enough; it was a silly thing to waste brainpower on, but Mr. Usher felt a need to wash this drone's hands.

Especially when someone has been following him for the last three blocks.

Mr. Usher wrapped his prehensile fingers around the holdout blaster in his jacket pocket and called out into the rainy night from under the bridge: "C'mon out, fella, let's have a chat"

 

[Xeno]

Coruscant
Tags: Mr. Usher

Luxar | Klocto | Sword​

"C'mon out, fella, let's have a chat"

"I'm not typically one for chatting."

Xeno emerged from the wall of a nearby building, just across from the bridge. He phased out of it, as though he were a ghost, his icy blue gaze glued to the stranger. The half-Nagai wasn't fond of what he had been seeing creeping around his city, whatever this crude imitation of a man was. Worst of all was that it seemed to have clones of some sort. Was it finding hosts to multiply itself? The former Sith assassin wasn't really open to finding out. He'd much rather remove the blight.

He didn't kill, but the unnatural was an exception he could make. Even now he felt the darkness squirming within the two bodies that stood before him. This wasn't a man. He was two. Likely more. There was no telling how many others were slinking around the darkness below his feet. A blight like this required immediate attention.

"I will, at the very least, itch my curiosity," Xeno muttered as he stepped forward, his stance causal but ready to shift in an instant. "You're no Sithspawn I've ever had the displeasure of meeting in a back alley. Whatever you are, I don't much care for alchemical entities in my city. Certainly not in the freak hivemind variety."

The half-Nagai drew the bamboo kendo sword from his back, holding it out in a traditional, guarded opening.

"I'll be removing you now."

 

[Mr. Usher]

CORUSCANT
TAGS: Xeno​

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instant. "You're no Sithspawn I've ever had the displeasure of meeting in a back alley. Whatever you are, I don't much care for alchemical entities in my city. Certainly not in the freak hivemind variety."

" Listen here pal," Mr Usher replied via the prior courier drone, stepping between the Jedi fanboy with a stick and the drone carrying the meal ticket to enough Maclunkie's to replicate 500 of these husks "I ain't the jealous type - this is a big city and what you do with other sithspawn in back alleys ain't none of my business."

Mr Usher openly brandished the blaster now, pointing it at the vigilante with casual, albeit uncannily imperfect, posture.

"But if you wanna dance with me, pal, you should know. . ."

The two husks would be a minimal loss of biomass but the prize was worth risking a few more. The nearest ultra-dense enforcer was too far to intervene and frankly would the risk of losing that flesh almost outweighed the reward.

Instead, he redirected two nearby prowler husks dressed in Janitor's jumpers to the scene - window cleaning was only his day job for them.

The prowlers crawled down the sides of the buildings from above, dropping in a fluid motion a few paces away on either side of Xeno , pulling free switchblades with a flourish in sync.

". . .there's a whole lot more of me than there is of you."

"I'll be removing you now."

With that line, the former courier fired the blaster and the pair of prowlers rushed towards Xeno, knives first.

The current holder of the cargo made a run for it, running towards a ledge that a fifth husk was speeding towards - a 'getaway driver', though the chance of the speeder getting there in time was slim.

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[Xeno]

Coruscant
Tags: Mr. Usher

Luxar | Klocto | Sword​

"There they are... figured you had more around."

Xeno was quick to act, deflecting the blaster bolt back at the body which fired it before turning to intercept the incoming blades, two of them at once. The half-Nagai effortleasly beat back the blades on either side of him with a singular half-circle arc in his swing. He'd muster up his strength before letting out a powerful shockwave, a Force Repulse, which would hopefully throw off his enemies so he could turn his attention back to the one fleeing. Xeno turned his icy gaze back to see the incoming get-away driver, gritting his teeth.

"Luxar, eyes on the streets," he spoke into his communicator. "See it?"

"Sure do, boss man," the Shard replied. "Big man's on the case!"

From a perch above the developing scene, Luxar and Klocto, Xeno's closest friends and band mates, were staked out. Waiting for their time to strike on Xeno's orders, much to Klocto's dismay especially. Luxar, in his hulking battle-droid body, lept down from on high with an arch angled towards the speeder. He'd try to intercept at just the right time to crush it under his weight, then turn his attention to blocking the running body.

Xeno, meanwhile, fixed his attention on the body with the gun, readying a defensive stance.

"You're gonna need a bigger gun," Xeno scoffed.

 

[Mr. Usher]

CORUSCANT
TAGS: Xeno​

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"Karkin' Jedi wanna-" the deflected bolt returned to the first body, blasting a crater from the face of the husk, tilting the head as the body slowly fell back from its heels.

The two prowlers' wrists snapped back as the wooden sword swiped the knives away, and a blast of air sent the lighter weight bodies flying back, one down the stairs leading to the first body, the other with an audible crack thrown against alley wall.

The courier ran for the speeder, only to see a battle-droid descend from above, smashing the hood of the speeder into the ferrocrete below, flinging the unsecured driver overhead and into incoming speeder traffic - a pink mist eruption terminating that corpus.

The battle droid was turning its attention to the courier husk when the first body spoke out, crater burned through the top of its head. The maimed figure a stood, adjusting its tie and replacing its hat.

"It ain't the size of the gun that matters-"
a wet sound accompanied the flesh bulbs reconstructing the crude face of the first body. A tendril of biomass connected the off-hands of the husk to the prowler flung from the top of the stairs. Mr. Usher was sucking the biomass off the fallen prowler into the husk, using the dying corpus to regenerate and empower the husk, rapidly increasing muscle and bone density as the fallen body withered and was sucked entirely into the wrist of the abomination in the pin-striped suit.

Simultaneously, the hive mind controlled the remaining prowler, paraplegic from the spine-snapping wall collision, having it slowly re-assimilate its own legs, biomass transferred for additional arm strength - slowly, quietly, waiting for the right moment.

"-it's how you use it"
The still-regenerating body fired once more while, at the same time, the now-legless prowler lept forth with renewed upper body strength to grab the 'blade' of the wooden sword and hamper Xeno's deflection.

That was the plan, at least - Mr. Usher hadn't accounted for the backup waiting to intervene.

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