Ask Chandrila In Over Your Head

[Elias Vlast]

He hadn't slept in what seemed like days. Everything he tried seemed to turn to shit. He was getting desperate and when the rumor of a store that had just had to fire one of the security guards, leaving them short-staffed for the day, he jumped at it. Normally a place like this took a plan, a damn good plan but there wasn't time. He had to move today.

It was starting to get late, the store would be closing soon so if he was going to making his move, he would need to do so now. Maybe it was stupid to try a job this big so soon after getting out of prison but if he was going to crawl out of the hole he was in, he would need to make big moves. Knocking off drug dealers here and there wouldn't get him anywhere.

There was still one customer inside, he had hoped she would have left by now but she seemed insistent on staying until they shut the lights off on her. He sighed, stomping out his cigarette and walking towards the store. Pulling on his mask as he hit the door, he shot the lone guard in the chest, the stun bolt knocking him out cold. He didn't much care about killing, but the heat from murder was something entirely different than a robbery. He had been told that was the only guard and it had been the only one he had seen during the time he had been casing the place, though that had only been about half an hour.

"Nobody move!" he yelled, waving his gun around. If he had brought accomplices, this would go a lot easier but he had been burned by partners before, and besides, he wasn't looking to split his spoils.

The gun paused as it passed over the red-haired woman. "On the ground!" he yelled moving towards the back of the room.

 

[Valeska]

She was so proud of herself for ditching her guards. Having made an excuse of needing to go find a restroom and not wanting to be obvious, she gave them the slip. They were no doubt still waiting outside near the restrooms standing at guard.

Val wore a disguise in the form of glasses and a wig. She had ducked into the store to check out the expensive bracelets. It was almost her sister’s birthday. While the entire planet of Naboo would be celebrating it and blowing up social media, she wanted to get her something cute and personal from another planet.

She looked down at a glass case when a woman nearby screamed. Valeska looked up to see the buff guard from before land with a thud. The command to get on the ground came next, and she could only stare in confusion. Her eyes were wide open, never having felt so vulnerable before. And she wasn't used to such audacity and lack of discipline.

Val glared and crossed her arms, “What do you think you’re doing? You’re breaking the law and the authorities will have your head for this!” The storekeeper burst into tears, already on the ground and pleading for her to also get on the ground.

Val only scowled and began to reach for her comlink to quickly contact her guards.

Who the hell did this guy think he was?

 

[Elias Vlast]

He moved past the woman, he didn't have time to worry about her and she didn't look like that much of a threat. He turned his attention to the store worker who broke down and collapsed on the floor. He wasn't sure if it was becuase he had yelled to or if she had simply just fainted.

He slung the empty bag onto the counter and started throwing several pieces of jewlry into it. He was vaguely aware of the woman talking behind him but he didn't have time. After finishing emptying the small display of bracelets that had been set out for the woman. He turned back around to scan the room, seeing the woman lift a comm device on her hand.

El lunged at her, spilling the back and its contents onto the floor. He went to knock the device out of her hand before she had transmitted anything. "Do you have a death wish." he spat, flipping the switch off of stun and pressed the barrel against her head. Maybe she wasn't being used to being in danger, or maybe she was just too stupid. The rich think they are invincible, it boiled his blood as he stared at her with cold red eyes. He pressed the barrel against her harder. "Pick the bag up and start filling it." he said, slamming the grip of his blaster down into a display case causing an alarm to start sounding. He was on the clock, he needed to grab what he could and get out of here.

"Hurry up!" he shouted at her again, waving his gun at her.

Who the hell did this girl think she was?

 

[Valeska]

She managed to the call out to the guards, but that was when the maniac had the nerve to knock her comlink out of her hand. Val gasped at the sight as the comlink shattered, “THAT THING COST MORE THAN YOU’RE WORTH!”

It wasn’t until she had the barrel of the gun pressed against her head that she felt true terror. Val raised her hands up, “Look, look, there’s no reason to get all worked up-” She yelped as he slammed the gun down to shatter the same case she had been looking at. As he commanded her to start filling the bag, Val shot him a look of disgust.

The alarms began to blast and the call had been placed to her guards. She knew they would hear the alarms and come over to investigate any time now. Val decided to take her time scooping through the items on display. She pretended one of them was stuck.

“Um, excuse me, story lady!” She called out, “Can you come over here and unlock this please?” Val hoped the ditzy woman would play along and do something clever or call for help.

She only whimpered pathetically instead and remained on the ground.

“Look, if you need lunch money, I can just loan you some cash and we can forget about all of this,” Val started blabbing away, attempting to reason with the blue lunatic, “You’re Chiss, right? You’re very intelligent, I’m sure. Your people are the most famous admirals and scientists in the galaxy. I've read all about Thrawn! Huge fan! We can talk through this.”

 

[Elias Vlast]

She really wasn't that bright, was she? She actually had the nerve to yell at the person waving a gun around. What kind of level of crazy did you have to be at....Maybe he would be doing the Galaxy a favor by erassing this spoiled brat.

He looked around the room, as she started filling the bag. Time seemed to crawl, she was moving too slow. He growled as she called out to the sprawled out worker on the floor who had rolled herself up into a ball.

"If you don't fill this bag in the next ten seconds, they are going to have to scrape you off the walls." he spat. His free hand clenched in anger. The alarm conintued to sound in his ear, the room itself seemed to start to shrink in on itself.

He was about to yell when an armed man crashed through the door, blaster rifle raised. The guard fired but El was already throwing himself sideways to the ground behind a case. He rolled and came up shooting, actually hitting the first guard but their were more behind him. "Shit..." he muttered to himself, eyeing the back entance.

 

[Valeska]

Val winced at the man’s words. She truly did believe all the things she was saying, and to see a Chiss behave like this blew her mind. Of course, she didn’t want him to do that literally, so she quickly began to scoop the jewelry into the bag.

Thankfully, her stalling paid off as more people showed up. Val whirled around and recognized one of her guards.

“Fred!”

Or was it Bob? Who cares, he was hired to protect her. She frantically waved at him to get his attention and make it clear she needed to be rescued. Fred-Bob looked away for just a moment, and that was more than enough time for the blue psycho to fire off a shot.

Val screamed from all the blasters going off, jumping over to duck behind a counter. Her heels weren't meant for this kind of action and she quickly slipped them off. She could make out the Chiss crouching behind another counter from here, and she gave some serious thought to using her stiletto as a weapon.

“Drop your weapon and come out here!” One of the guards called out. There was exactly one other exit in the store, and it was behind where the idiot storekeeper was on the floor.

 

[Elias Vlast]

He popped up, firing several more shots before ducking back down. He was showered in the shattered glass as blaster fire ripped through the case. Luckily, the bottom part of the case seemed to be made out of something solid that held up against blaster fire.

None of that mattered if he couldn't get to that back door. "Alright!" he said, not sure what he was about to do. These weren't cops firing at him and he was pretty sure he would be cut to pieces if he surrendered so that was out of the question.

He slowly raised himself up, his gun held pointing upwards until he got to a good leaping posistion and jumped backwards over the counter behind him, firing widely as he tumbled over. He felt a shard of glass cut stomach as he rolled onto the floor below.

El had lost track of the bag and the girl who had been holding it, but she had apparently took cover behind the case he had leaped behind as he landed on top of her, grunting slightly at the unexpected woman.

The firing stopped after the guards realized that they might hit their employer if they continued. He pushed himself up to his knees, feeling the stabbing pain in his stomach, looking down to see a shard sticking out. "Kriff me." he muttered to himself.

He knew he couldn't let himself get surrounded. "Come on." he said grabing the woman and hauling her upwards with him, gun raised to her head. "If any of you even breathe in this direction, I'll blast a hutt sized hole in her head." he said, jerking her infront of him and taking a step towards the door.

 

[Valeska]

Val shrieked as the man seemingly came out of nowhere and landed on her. She collapsed under his weight and was flailing on the ground. Val practically clawed his face off trying to get away. To her horror, he abruptly grabbed her and once again had the gun pressed against her.

She stared as he hoisted her to her feet, looking out at the guards that stopped shooting. Val’s jaw dropped as she was being pulled backwards, “What’re you doing, you morons! Shoot! What the hell are you, Stormtroopers?!?” Val shrieked at the top of her lungs, but it was to no avail. Their guns were leveled, but no one made a move.

The alarms had set off a series of protocols, and that meant that suddenly the sprinklers on the ceiling went off. Everyone was suddenly doused in ice cold water, and someone accidentally fired off a shot. It missed Val and the Chiss by mere inches, “STOP SHOOTING!” She cried out as she was dragged backwards.

Within moments, the coast was clear for him to exit. Unfortunately, all the shooting had left the mall entirely empty. Val was barefoot, soaked to her bones and shuffling along backwards, still in disbelief over her luck.

“You’re going to be in so much shit when the Queen of Naboo hears about this,” She hissed at him, watching the worthless guards and the store slowly disappearing from view.

 

[Elias Vlast]

There was a stinging line across his cheek where one of her nails had scored a hit but he was far passed feeling pain for the moment as adrenaline pumped through his body. He pulled her back towards the door even as she yelled at them to shoot. She had to see if they shot in their direction, there wasn't much chance of her surviving the encounter but she didn't seem to have much sense.

There was a slight rumble of pumps overhead before the fire suppression system doused the room in freezing cold water breaking the brief standoff in the room. The sudden activity coupled with the insistent yelling to fire caused one of the guards to let out a single shot in their direction.

"Shit." he cursed again, seeing the smoldering hole in the wall a few inches to their right. He pulled hard on, yanking her towards the door. "You follow me, and she's dead," he shouted over the alarms and sprinklers as he pulled her through the back door. He let out a nervous chuckle. He wasn't sure what she was on about a queen, but regardless, he was in some shit but that was nothing new for him.

Once out of sight, he practically hauled her with him as they raced across the empty mall, pulling her into an employee hallway that eventually led to a speeder garage. Peering in, seeing it mostly dark, the pulsing strobe lights from the alarm blaring the only source of light. "Move." he said pulling her along, finding a suitable speeder.

"If you try and run, you won't make it five feet." he said, shooting her a cold glare before yanking at the wires in the speeder cockpit. He had hot-wired more than his fair share of these and it only took seconds. Turning back to her. "You're driving," he said, pushing her in the driver's seat as he jumped in the back seat. He pressed the gun into her side, not bothering to voice the threat. "Drive out of here and take a right." he commanded

 

[Valeska]

Val couldn’t believe her terrible luck. She thought this kind of thing only happened in movies. She refused to be one of those squealing, helpless girls. She was quiet for the most part, complying and going along to avoid being shot. With piercing red eyes, it was difficult to read the Chiss, and she decided not to irritate him further.

The duracrete felt cold under her feet, and she was still freezing from the water. Her hair was matted to her shoulders, and she didn’t even realize the wig was half off by now. She could only hope that the imbecile wasn’t educated enough to realize who she was, or she would really be in trouble.

She opened her mouth to protest as he shoved her into the driver’s seat and hotwired the vehicle. Each time she tried to speak was interrupted, and he finally popped in behind her and held a gun to her head.

Val chewed nervously on her lip and stared down at the console in front of her. She had been raised as a princess and had drivers her entire life. She stared in confusion, wincing as he pressed the blaster against her.

“I- I don’t know how to drive!” She shrieked. Nevertheless, she pressed some random buttons and the speeder abruptly backed up. It rammed into the speeder behind it, causing a shrill alarm to echo throughout the lot.

Panicking, Val continued to press random buttons, having no clue what she was doing. The radio station came on and blasted music, windshield wipers began to go and the seat warmers came on.

 

[Elias Vlast]

The speeder lurched backward as she yelled out. A second later they slammed into another speeder, the sound of crunching metal echoing in the garage. Rattled, it took him a second to realize she was still pushing buttons. Terrible music started blaring, the windshield wipers running at max speed.

"Stop!" he yelled. How had he managed to pick the biggest idiot in the galaxy as a hostage? If she hadn't played the role so perfectly, he would have assumed she was stalling him. The thought of just leaving her crossed his mind, but distant sirens convinced him otherwise. He may need her as leverage.

He got out and took the driver's seat back over, pushing her over to the side. "You so much as make a noise or even flinch...." he said holding the wheel in one hand and a blaster pointed at her in the other.

The speeder shot forward, making the turn out of the garage as flashing lights appeared behind him. He muttered a string of curses as he pulled the wheel hard turning down a side street. He needed to get back to the slums. He could hide better there and figure out how to get out of this mess, though he knew the easiest would be to kill the girl as so as they were away.

The cops were still off in the distance but Elias was starting to pull away. He thought he was going to be in the clear until a black-covered speeder came out of nowhere and slammed into the back of them. El barely kept control as he turned down another street hoping to shake them.

 

[Valeska]

Val heaved a sigh of relief when he finally decided to take over. She protested as he roughly shoved her over to the next seat. As he spewed out yet another threat, Val glared and cut him off, “Yes yes, I heard you the first 8 times.”

Besides, it was hard to take his threats seriously with this song blasting at high volume. Val didn’t have time to comprehend the absurd situation, and she screamed as he abruptly whizzed out of the parking lot. She quickly buckled her seatbelt, trying not to puke as he took tight turns and clearly went over curbs. This guy had absolutely no regard for the law!

She kept glancing over her shoulder and saw a black speeder coming up near them. She frantically waved at it for help, but it rammed the speeder she was in. Val screamed, slamming into the idiot Chiss as they spiraled slightly and turned into another corner.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Val shrieked, “You got away! Now let me out!!”

Val thought of the movies and opened her side of the door to jump out. All she needed to do was tuck and roll, right? As soon as she opened the door, he took another hairpin turn and the door came clean off. Val was frozen for a second, hand still up and clutching thin air where the door used to be.

All while the sickeningly catchy tunes kept playing.

“Why are you turning there? THAT ALLEY DOESN’T GO ANYWHERE!” She shrieked as they began to go into parts of the city that had little to no lights.

 

[Elias Vlast]

He opened his mouth as she cut him off, anger burning away any reply he may have had. His heart pounded in chest, the thumping of blood in his ears almost drowning out the horrendous music...almost.

As they weaved in and out of various streets, he couldn't shake the tailing speeder and with each new hit, he was sure his speeder wouldn't make it to less friendly parts of town. An idea came to his mind, though it was a long shot.

He turned the wheel hard to the left just as the girl decided she was going to try and do something dumb. The door hit a light pole with such force it ripped it clear off of its highest, sending it flying backwards. The door struck the pursing speeder in the windshield. It swerved and plowed into another speeder, turning end over end. "That was really stupud," he stated, glaring at her.

Elias let out of breath as he saw the smoking wreckage behind him. With one more turn, it disappeared behind the corner. He pulled into a dark alleyway. "Get out." he said to the girl. Jumped out himself he grabbed ahold of her, pulling into an old abandoned building that he knew had access down to the sewers, once there he could get out of the sector.

He flung the hidden hatch open. "Go." he said gesturing towars the stairwell down into darkness. The smells of the sewer lofted upwards, slight steam rising. "GO!" he repeated as she hesitated.

 

[Valeska]

Valeska tried to stay in the speeder, believing that he would finally leave her alone. However, he came around and yanked her out. She screamed, trying to tug her arm out of his grip.

“Why do you still need me, you imbecile?!” She glared at him, only able to make out the red hues that made up his eyes, “You got away,” She shoved the bag she had stocked up at the store into his chest, “Just take it and go!”

He was having none of it, and he dragged her towards a building. A lot of dark thoughts quickly ran through her mind on what may happen to her. She prepared to start physically fighting him for her life. However, that was when he leaned over to open the hatch to..

“What?”

The smell was unbelievable. Val started dry heaving at once, stepping back. With the gun back in action, she covered her mouth and nose, finally descending the steps. It was the worst experience of her life, by far. She had never smelled something so horrible. She glanced over at the Chiss and noticed he didn’t seem as bothered. Figured, she thought, it probably reminded him of home.

 

[Elias Vlast]

He grunted slightly as the bag was shoved into him. He took a quick look inside. It was a start. He should be happy, it would be a pain to fence the jewlery but he could probably live off of this for a year but he wanted more. He didn't want to live like the slave he had been.

He was going to be more.

El was quiet as she finally descended the stairs down into darkness. There was no use making any more threats. He wondered if she knew she was about to die. Growing up a slave meant constantly facing the fact that you could die any second. There had been times where he would have begged for that ending, the galaxy had never been that kind to him. But her? Had she ever been without? Had she ever had to fight for anything in her life? He doubted it.

When she turned back, face but the faint service lights. He raised his blaster. "Look, I never wanted you to get wrapped up in this mess." he said.

"I'm sorry." he finished, hesitating. He had never actually killed anyone before. Up until this point, he had gained whatever he had by taking from people like her, but never killing.

 

[Valeska]

Val was oddly caught off guard by his words. She was immediately suspicious, wondering if these were kind words before he killed her. She froze in place, trying to stare at him but finding it difficult to make him out. Was he apologizing? She was suddenly very uncomfortable.

She was already having a rough time, and she had no chance to really process his words. A moment after he got his sorry out, she immediately hunched over to vomit. She couldn’t see where it landed, so it splashed directly on his shoes. Her anxiety combined with the absolute horrific stench sent her over the edge.

Val gasped in shock, never having done something so unlady-like. She wiped her mouth off, speaking in the wrong direction, “I’m sorry! I didn’t-” She paused for a moment. This asshole kidnapped her! Val immediately scowled.

“Actually I’m not sorry,” She said suddenly, “I’m not going to take your stupid apology after you dragged me into this mess. You could’ve let me go at any point, but here we are.”

 

[Elias Vlast]

The vomit on shoes didn't bother him, just as this place didn't bother him. This place and places like it were all he had ever known.

"Here we are..." he said reluctantly, finger tensing on the trigger. Just the faintest movement was all it would take and she would just be another body added to the myriad of other corpses who had met their end down here but he didn't.

A second before he finally pulled the trigger, he flipped the switch on his blaster switching back to the stun setting. He hadn't made a conscious decision to, but there it was. The stun bolt hit the woman at point black range, and he grabbed her before she had a chance to fall. "I am so kriffing stupid," he said to himself as he carried her away.

********

It had been nothing to get away once they were in the sewers. Valeska would find herself in the basement of some abandoned warehouse in a sea of abandoned warehouses. She was tied to a chair. Looking around the room, it was clear that he, or at least someone, lived here.

"Shit shit shit," he murmured as he watched the halo-report of the search for the kidnapped Princess.....Princess. He had planned on just waiting until things died down and then dumping the woman where she would be found, but this changed things. He drank from the bottle of alcohol beside him, tapping his blaster pistol against his head.

They wouldn't stop looking for him after this. There likely wouldn't even be a prison cell waiting for him if he were caught. This was not good. He took another, deeper drink from the bottle.

 

[Valeska]

Val groaned as she slowly came to. She felt sore in her body from where the stun blast hit her. She had no idea how big and ugly of a bruise it left. Val drew in a breath and even that caused excruciating pain. She was sure something was broken. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around.

“What…” She began, speaking quietly as exerting more energy hurt her ribs, “Where the kriff am I?” Her eyes popped open. She saw the bottle in his hand and gasped, immediately screaming despite the pain, “HELP! HELP MEEE!”

She struggled and moved around, the chair starting to jump a few paces to the side. After a moment, she paused and stared at him, “Did you….did you do anything to me?” Val was about to burst into tears. What kind of sick person was he?! She had seen enough crime stories on Holonet. She glanced down at her own state of attire, not seeing anything out of place.

 

[Elias Vlast]

"Search and rescue attempts are already underway, but if you have any information, please contact the number below." the voice came from the datapad as the woman started to stir.

A second late she yelled out for help. While there was no chance of anyone above actually hearing her, it still made him jump. "Cut it out," he said, his head already starting to pound.

"You're fine," he said, standing up. He started to pace, trying to think of a way out of this mess. Maybe there was some way to leverage this into something. Surely they would pay some sort of ransom to get her back if the news reports were true about who she said was. That was stupid, he likely just end up getting himself killed. He had the jewels from the store. Sure it wouldn't be a massive payday but it would be enough to make him comfortable and off the planet.

He took another drink from the bottle before setting it down heavily on the table. He let out a chuckle. If she would have just played along, she would be home right now or in some fancy mansion, and he would be lightyears away thinking how he was going to spend all of his money. "Quite the mess we have here, huh Princess?" he said, still not looking at her.

 

[Valeska]

Her eyes widened when he revealed he knew her identity. However, this also meant her name and picture was being splashed everywhere. Word had likely reached her sister by now and a planet wide search would commence at once. Val had to keep from grinning, watching the Chiss begin to grow uncomfortable and drink from being nervous.

“If you let me go, I won’t say a word,” She said after a moment, trying to push aside her brash personality, “I will simply put this behind me and go back to my life. I will tell them to call off all efforts to hunt you down,” Nothing in her eyes or face implied she was lying.

The chances of him dying a gruesome death were much higher if he were caught than if he simply let her go. He had to weigh his options carefully. It wouldn’t be too long before the streets above where they hid had Rangers all over them.