Shadows of Twilight

[Talon Vosra]

O'REEN

It had been a long time since he had walked on the plateaus of O'reen. Some area's still held remnants of the battle that had raged on the planet. He wore simple cloths designed more for utility than anything and as always walked bare foot. There were rumors of a small gang having sprung up and demanding protection money from the poor sick and laid low. Talon knew that wasn't how the fringe operated but he couldn't help but take a small detour and investigate himself.

Emerald orbs watched from where he stopped by a small tap-caf as a group on speeder bikes slowly drove through the street. He could go now and find what was wrong, but that was not how things were done now. He would wait for a chance to deal with them in a more private setting. for now he walked around a corner and wrapped himself in the cloak of shadows and moved to down an alley as he kept track of where they were going. With luck he could track them to their hide out and handle them quietly.

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

O'reen - what was the Corellian-born noble doing here? The battle that left its mark on this fortress world was before her time amongst the Lords of the Fringe, and she therefore had no memories to make herself bound to this place in any way, shape, or form, but that had nothing to do with why she was camped out in the dark, in a nondescript, derelict warehouse. That building, and its illegal occupants, were in fact why she was here, waiting patiently.

She had the hideout figured in a very short frame of time. It was rather difficult to hide from someone who was so well-versed in evasion, hiding, and disappearing, in the first place. In all honesty, it was not her usual modus operandi for the simple fact that there was nothing to thieve, so much as the potential to... well, un-thieve? Dispense justice?

Oh, Rhuan would be proud, wouldn't he?... Would he?

She shook her head. It was a start. It was, after all, not the first time she faced the possibility of having to use the least subtle of her skillsets. The electrostaff she leaned on, her sitting on a crate not unlike a old, weary traveller, hood drawn over her face, spoke to that possibility.

[member="Talon Vosra"]

 

[Talon Vosra]

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

The gang slowed and stopped as a bay door on the side of their headquarters opened. Talon crossed the street casually and walked in and slowly off to the side as the door closed behind them. He could feel another strong in the force as he began walking around the outside of the open room toward a ladder well.

They had stolen, assaulted and rumors of disappearances abounded. He would look around and see if he could find some proof and then he would do what he needed to for the sake of justice. His eyes darted to the assorted group of humans and aliens as they began pulling loot out of their speeder bikes and distributing it.

"Well, I guess that's that." Talon muttered.

He began walking across the catwalk along the second story that led to a small over head room. One last check for more information then they would be dealt with. He was sure the greater government would like to hear about this.

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

It wasn't long that she had to wait. Within a reasonable amount of time, the noise of speeder bikes came to her ears, and that nagging feeling of something being there pulled the hairs on the back of her neck into an upright position. Her crystalline blue eyes narrowed, her head lifting only so much as to watch from the dark corner she and the crate occupied, from under the edge of the hood. She managed a good look at the faces, even though the lighting was dim, as she had been sitting in this decrepit facility long enough for her eyes to have adjusted. She was used to snooping about in the dark.

They laughed amongst themselves as they unloaded the goods, and it sent the outside of her consciousness to a time some eight years before, when she had been with people not unlike these. When she had been green, thinking she could trust them simply because their leader had been Rhuan's son. She had been mistaken, and had nearly paid for that mistake with her life, had the training gained from her late mentor not been deeply woven into the fibres of her being. A second attempt at working with another had yielded similar results.

She allowed a mostly-silent sigh, unheard underneath their jovial yet mean-spirited clamour, and rose slowly from the crate, moving away from that cube-shaped, temporary seat at measured, soft-footed paces. They were as-yet still distracted by their ill-gotten gains, and did not notice her approach. The irony of this was not at all lost on her. She had been them once, in a way, but had never been so brazen, and her targets had never been anyone other than those that would not suffer for the loss of what she had taken. Honour? This lot had none.

"So..." she drawled in an accent not her own, coming to a stop some ten feet away with a sharp tap of her electrostaff on the ground, the contacts at the end of it sparking in a vaguely threatening manner as she sort-of leaned on it, as if slightly lame, perhaps wounded, "...you guys mind telling me what's so funny?"

[member="Talon Vosra"]

 

[Talon Vosra]

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

Talon rummaged quietly as he released the cloak to give his attention to the task he had decided on. He flipped through datacards and found a list of people that were extorted for protection credits. He contiuned a short while also finding a list of local officials that were paid to look the other way. A frown formed on his pale face as he walked to the window and looked down.

He had noticed the sudden hush that had fallen on the boisterous buffoons below and now he understood why. He saw the form of a woman with an electro staff standing and facing the crowd. He pocketed the data cards and opened the door before walking back out onto the catwalk to watch he didn't cloak himself this time but leaned on the railing and folded his hands together casually as the gang turned around and looked at the woman.

"Well, well, well." The apparent leader said, "what'av we got here fellahs. Looks like a lady with some spark came to pay tribute and get in on some fun."

His hand slowly drifted toward his blaster as some of the others snickered. Talon reached behind his back and pulled a pair of 56 cm sticks made of phrik from a thin sheath beneath his shirt and waited.

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

[member="Talon Vosra"]

"Tsk," she uttered, seeing the hand going for the blaster, and tipping her still-hooded head in that very direction, "is that your idea of fun? Boring."

She laughed but a few notes, and settled into a disappointed sigh as she freed her head of the hood, canting her head slightly to one side. The blue of her eyes sparkled slightly as they settled on the apparent leader, gauging how much of his words were borne from the categories of stupidity, machismo, and false invincibility brought on by his being part of a group, and not alone. It wouldn't have surprised her if this applied to every member of the group, but far be it for her to assume, because then it would be her that just might be stupid.

"I was hoping you'd use those big hands of yours," she said, faint promise spicing her voice as one-half of a smile curled a corner of her lips, "to, you know, come and get me yourself."

She shook her head gently.

"But, oh, if wishes were fishes. Such a pity that real fun is a concept that big, meaty head of yours doesn't seem to be capable of conceiving."

 

[Talon Vosra]

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

"Oi!" The man said clearly offended dispite not fully grasping the full scope of what she had said, "you fink you scare me? I'm gunna put you ova me knee and teach you soom respect."

The man took his blaster out and set it on a crate as he started forward backed by shouts and hoots from his crew.

"Gitter Rook!"
"Teach that tint a lesson."
"Giv'ah ah kiss fer me mate."

Talon shook his head from his lookout and smiled as the moron moved forward. His four friends were in a relatively close cluster just below and now were nudging one another and laughing as their boss moved forward. An operation this size obviously had someone else acting as the brains, because this bunch didn't have enough brain power to fire a blaster once.

Talon stood striaght as light bent around him and he winked out of view. He walked to the steps and walked casually down to sit on a crate behind them.

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

[member="Talon Vosra"]

A spanking? She rolled her eyes. Come to think of it, she had never been spanked. There had been worse, however. Always. As the brute lumbered towards her, she unclipped the cloak with one hand, casting it off - it provided nothing in the way of protection outside of shielding her from the weather and was liable to do little more than get in the way - an act that revealed a modest collection of other armaments on a belt... daggers, a plain, dark cylinder, and other items that, while they could be improvised into action in a fight, were largely meant for other purposes.

For example, the empty space on the back of the belt, due to a fine yet very strong wire left unnoticed. The very one the brute tripped on before her very eyes, as that wire was anchored between two posts tied to the roof structure. Like a great, old tree he fell, and just as hard, his head knocking against the hard floor just shy of her feet. She wasted little time in applying the pressure of one boot to the side of his head, and deftly flipping the electrostaff, jamming the electrically-charged contacts into his spine, just to make certain he was out for the count, her eyes on the remaining goons all the while.

"Well? What are you idiots waiting for?" she said derisively, righting the staff again and lifting her foot off the head of the very unconscious 'Rook', "I haven't got all day, you know."

 

[Talon Vosra]

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

Talon smirked as he watched the leader go down on his face like a sack of bricks and nodded approval with how quickly the woman finished the job. She was pretty good. The others shouted and started forward as Talon stood and swung the phrik stick at the nearest goon's head as he decloaked behind the group. The goon fell to the ground quickly and Talon didn't envy him the headache he would have when he woke.

"Now, now gentlemen," he said looking them up and down a second, "and I use that term loosely. Maybe you should think again. We have you surrounded."

Talon stood there and channeled the force to create the illusion of figures standing in the shadows around the warehouse.

"I'd give up if I were you." He said nodding briefly to the woman.

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

[member="Talon Vosra"]

First, another goon went down. Then she saw him, someone who clearly wore on his face a level of intellect better than these honourless thieves, an unknown... whom within her own quick deductions was marked down to someone who had an idea none too dissimilar from her own, in being here. But he was still unknown. Nonetheless, more deserving of trust than the 'gentlemen' that...

"We have you surrounded," he said, causing her to glance out the corner of one eye, then the other.

...well, how about that. When he suggested giving up, nodding to her, the other side of her mouth joined in completing the smile that was until now partially formed.

"Took you long enough," she said, fixing him with a somewhat hard look, stepping over the wire towards the remaining goons and the unknown. One of the remaining, doubtless feeling trapped, got foolish and started taking partly menacing steps towards her - a motion that quickly had the staff in her hands at his throat, not yet touching. "Uh-uh-uh."

She shook her head at him, a shame on his foolishness,"I would do as my partner suggests," she insisted, looking again to the unknown man, "Really, what took you so long? I could have been mauled by these... cretins."

This simple acting brought a small measure of joy to her, that didn't show for the sake of believability.

 

[Talon Vosra]

[member="Selinica Miriya Cailis"]

Talon shrugged keeping up the act as he looked at the other men.

"You were doing so well." He said as first one then the others slowly dipped to their knees and put their hands behind their seemingly empty heads.

Talon stuffed the two black sticks into their sheath and began binding their wrist behind their back with strips of self locking plaststeel. He cinched them down on wrist and then ankles before binding them to one another.

"Tie that one up would ya, partner." He said as he took out a blank data card and made copies of the information he had found and taped it to one goon's forehead. "At least your good for something." he told the goon and patted his cheek.

He looked over to see if she had bound the two she had closest to her before dropping the illusion and seeing the figures wink out.

"You'll nevet get off this planet." A weequay goon growled at Talon before he spat at the former Jedi.

"Thank you for reminding me." Talon said as he began pulling strips of tape off and applying them to their mouths.

He stood and looked at the woman.

"Good work." He said as he started for the door.

 

[Ilias Nytrau]

[member="Talon Vosra"]

In much the same fashion he had, she bound the two closest two her - one unconscious, possibly with at least a mild concussion, and the other having thought better after a close encounter with her electrostaff, the very recent memory of its use on their leader cautioning him against continuing to move. She glanced at his work before fetching her cloak and putting it around her person once again, followed by un-anchoring and winding up the fine durasteel chord to return it to its place on her belt.

The commentary between what she had figured now as an illusionist (Jedi, maybe? She couldn't be sure) and these thieves served to amuse her as she tidied up. It was when she was all sorted that she looked to him, and he commended her simply on the job done.

"Thank you," she replied, an honesty from her beyond the act, while he turned to leave. She glanced at the tied-up men, as she walked around the perimeter of the bound group. The same weequay growled and lunged at her about as much as he could, in his current state. He got a sharp tap to his head with the staff, from the body of it rather than the charged tips. She bent slightly, eyes narrowing at him. "Behave," she chastised, an edge to her voice, and off she went, tailing after the assist.

"Hey, wait up!" she called, jogging up to him, then proceeding to move away from the warehouse, speaking more in a hushed voice. "So, is this common fare for you, or simply a detour from your usual schedule?"