Shadow of the Vixen

[Clayton]

Valek kicked a charred lump that used to be wood of some sort. He couldn't figure for the life of him what it used to be. The blackened husk of carbon fell over, kicking up a cloud of black-gray soot. Well, this sucked. He looked over to one end of the burned-out plot and spied tarnished and warped fermentation vessels. They had cost a pretty credit and were now ruined. He balled his fists in the pockets of his stolen swoop gang jacket and sighed.

"...Mr. Naa? Hello?" came the voice for a second time as an older man snapped his fingers to gain Valek's attention. "I'm ah...I'm really at a loss. We found something under your furnace and-"

Valek's eyes grew wide. "WOAH! I can explain! Those had nothing to do with the fire!"

The fire chief took a deep breath, as if working up the courage to face some terrible fear. "Honestly, in all my years I...it defies...I know it didn't. The entire neighborhood would have been torched if they had. But why would you store fire grenades beneath an active furnace?"

He shrugged, never really having had a good reason for it. But then, there hadn't been a good reason not to. "I figured nobody would look for explosives below a furnace, so they'd be safe there." Valek couldn't tell if the fire chief was going to laugh or cry, so he decided to quickly change topics to something less awkward. So anyway man! What caused the fire, why is my bar burned down?"

The fire chief pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled. "Right. It was an accelerant neat the bar area. There was a tremendous amount of chemical residue. I think someone tried to mask it with the large amount of alcohol you had there, but we found traces of a synthetic compound usually used in plasma bombs."

Valek stared, almost lost for words. A rare event indeed. "My bar was bombed?" he asked weakly. Who would bomb his bar? Everyone loved it, even the criminals. Valek was an equal opportunity bartender. This was almost too much. "Any idea who did it?"

"No, we looked for security footage but your computer was melted to slag. We've found tibanna residue where the camera was supposed to be. Someone shot it."

"I'm not drunk enough for this," Valek muttered as he turned around and stared down the street. "Do I need to do anything else here? I've not had a building burn down on me before."

If the fire chief was surprised to hear that, or didn't believe that in the slightest, he didn't show it. "No. Go home, file an insurance report. And for the love of everyone, if you have grenades in your home, move them somewhere safe."

Valek nodded, already not paying attention. There was nothing he could do. Damn it all to hells, whoever did this deserved to get punched in the gut by a feral wookiee on stims. He left the burned bar behind him and made his way in a somewhat aimless manner through the neighborhood, not really picking a set path. He simply meandered in the general direction of where he needed to go. Valek fought back tears. His bar was gone. Hundreds of hours of work, possibly thousands had gone into it. And it had been done on purpose.

He dipped a hand into one pocket and pulled out a commlink. He didn't know what time it was on Mandalore, or if Talia would even be around. But she would know a good person to find who did this. Valek also wanted to talk to her again, it'd been some time and he missed her. Lightyears of distance meant he was only going to be able to send a voice message, since he didn't have access to a comm dish. "Hey Tal it's uh, me, I guess. Some frakking bastard burned down my bar on purpose. I uh, I don't know who. It...it sucks. Look, like,-" he cursed and abruptly backpedaled hard as a hovervan shot out in front of him and came to a jerking halt. One panel door flew open to reveal a swarthy man with a blaster pointed at Valek. "Woah shi-" Valek managed, hands flying up and comm dropping to the pavement before a blast of blue energy flew the short distance from the stun blaster to his chest.

The man hopped out of the van with surprising nimbleness given his mass. A heavy boot came crunching down on the dropped commlink. A handful of seconds later, Valek had been thrown unceremoniously in the van, the door slammed shut, and it sped off down another side street. The man raised his own commlink to his ear and spoke a few brief words. "Yah, bohss, ah got 'im." There was barely an acknowledgement on the other end before the line went dead. He stared at the communicator for a second or two, unused to taking orders from someone so young. "Get to ah 'arehouse, an 'urry. Tha' girl gives me the creeps," he told the driver.

 

[Sreeya]

"Do you know who did this?"

"I-I don't know... I just heard a young girl's voice on the comms-" Avin Kryze coughed and wheezed on the medical bay bed, Talia quickly moving to ease him back. Though it was impossible to tell externally, she was fuming on the inside. It wasn't often that Talia Al'Saif was angry beyond words, but she could go to war a thousand times over at that moment. Her father had come under attack, and the incident left him with broken bones and a stab to the side that almost cost him his life. At his age, it was a miracle he survived. He always kept hidden guns on hand and surprisingly quick thinking allowed him to shoot his perpetrator, though the man escaped. He had dropped his comms, which Avin had grabbed before passing out from his injuries.

Talia sent in the device for analysis at once, attempting to trace the last communications. She sighed as she looked at her old, injured father, "Just get some rest. I'll handle this."

"Moira...please be careful. Whoever sent this...they meant to deliberately get to you."

Talia bristled at the words, saying nothing in return as she made her way out. Not even a moment later, she had the urgent call from Valek, someone she hadn't had the chance to see in quite a while.

---
​

Despite all her connections and networks, tracking Valek down was proving to be fruitless. She replayed the frantic call in her mind over and over again, and each time she recalled when he abruptly cut off. Talia inspected everything around the burnt down bar and nothing could give her clues as to where he went. For a long time, she wracked her brain for connections to past crimes. Her past connections allowed her to get access to the forensics yields from the crime scene, and she was able to look up viable criminals that fit the bill. As she looked through the list of names, one particular one made her heart stop.

Vixen.

The memories flooded back to her at once, and she could hear the little girl's voice crying out for her mother as she and Valek stood over her dead body. They hadn't even thought about the girl wanting to exact revenge, and now the problem became too big to handle. After paying off some street urchins, she was able to get to a local hideout that was simply a guess. She made her way over at once, posing as a regular civilian. Her now long, blond hair was strikingly different than her previously cropped, black hair.

Talia's travels took her to what appeared to be an empty warehouse, and she silently observed it till nightfall. There had been very little movement around it, but a few people went in and out. The whole operation took her a few days, and she began to lose faith Valek was even alive still. Nevertheless, she hid out in a treeline overlooking the warehouse, having to bite back the urge to rush in guns blazing.

 

[Clayton]

Muttered voices, that's all he heard. A blaster shot rang out and another man gave a sharp cry of shock before a different sounding blaster bolt rang out. Stun? It sounded like a stung gun. Talia would have been able to instantly identify the weapon, all Mandos could do weird shit like that. His cheek was pressed uncomfortably against a rough floor. "Get his jacket. Put it on the hostage." A pair of powerful hands grabbed Valek and removed his most favorite jacket ever. He groaned and cracked open an eye to see two men binding a shorter man's legs to a chair. The jacket flew over to them, thrown by someone he couldn't see. They swiftly put the jacket on the man and finished binding him to the chair. As a final tough, they gagged the guy and threw a thick, black sack over his head. Valek was confused.

"His eyes are open, he's awake. Stun him again! He's more danger-" a blast of blue struck Valek again and the rest of the sentence was lost to him. "Let's move. The rest of you stay here and kill anything that enters the building. Then kill the hostage." They hadn't spent long at the warehouse, just enough to get everything set up and position people. One of them positioned unwillingly. The twi'lek that had been handling Valek since he'd arrived at the warehouse threw him in a different speeder as two besalisk bodyguards flanked the unconscious body. The young girl turned to the twi'lek. "I don't expect them to succeed. Take a sniper position in a building across the street. If they fail, kill the hostage before that bitch can get to him. One shot, center torso, then get the hell out of there." The twi'lek nodded. He didn't enjoy the idea of sticking around an enraged Talia Al'Saif.

The droid driver gunned the speeder at the girls command. They had a ship waiting at the docks. The young girl turned in her seat and punched the unconscious Valek in the nose. "You girlfriend isn't saving you, sorry to tell you." The speeder tore through the streets before arriving at a nondescript freighter. Valek was tossed in a makeshift prison cell, while the rest retired to a lounge where the young girl tapped into a couple cameras that had been placed in the corners of the warehouse. Before they left, she wanted to watch...and hear.

 

[Sreeya]

Talia couldn't deny that she was driven by emotions more than logic. It wasn't often she was in this type of predicament, but hearing from Valek reminded her how important he was to her. As a result, she wasn't thinking entirely too clearly, making her way hastily to the warehouse. Under normal circumstances, she would have had a clear head and seen this as a potential trap. However, with the recent situation with her father, Ral's death and Valek being potentially kidnapped, her mind was in a fog. She couldn't hear anyone from inside the warehouse, making her way over to a back door. It took Talia mere seconds to work on the lock, the door opening with a click.

Blaster at hand and her saberhilts on her hip, Talia quietly opened the door and made her way in. There was a long, dark hallway ahead of her and the pindrop silence made her uneasy. She made it through the hallway without incident, turning into yet another hallway. Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched the whole time, a young girl happily helping herself to some snacks while watching with pure glee. By the time she turned another corner, she heard the stun gun. That alone sent her rushing towards the source of the noise, caution thrown to the wind without a second thought. She whirled around towards another room when a blaster bolt grazed her shoulder. Cursing, she ducked into an alcove, suddenly realizing that this may have been a lure. However, Valek was still in there and she needed to get him out.

With little option, Talia propped her boot up slightly against the edge of the wall, the shiny surface doubling as a mirror. From there she could see the outline of someone slowly peering out to look for her. Talia moved lightning fast, quickly firing off a shot to pick the man off. She paused for a moment, not seeing anyone else from there, before darting once more towards the source of the noise. By now, the real Valek was already being transported though she had no idea just yet. This chase wouldn't be over so quick, not when she wanted to watch this play out like a movie.

Talia was on high alert now, anger coursing through her veins. When Talia was angry, very bad things happened. She heard movement down a corridor, and she quickly primed a grenade and tossed it into the hall. The subsequent explosion and screams told her that area was cleared. Talia glanced up to spot a camera zooming around to locate movements. Not having enough time to hack into a terminal, she went the old fashioned route of popping them off whenever she saw them.

Slowly but surely she made her way towards the central room, though she was anticipating quite a bit of resistance before she reached Valek.

 

[Clayton]

They had gotten the drop on Talia and yet she was still coming out on top so far. It was a poor showing for a gang that had the reputation of being able to handle tough jobs. Not that she expected any better. No, she wanted to see the pain on Talia's face when the fake hostage got shot. That would be something to replay over in the future. The gangsters hadn't expected explosives, and they needed to regroup fast or be dismantled. The leader, a rough and tough rodian, quickly assessed his options. Talia had to end up going towards the room where the hostage was. Fighting her head-on would be stupid.

"Twins, push her towards the rec room. Don't get killed, and tell me when she gets to the rec room," he barked into a comm. The twins were what he called his gunslingers, a pair of hopped-up chicks that liked to fight with two blaster pistols. Together they could lay down an unending storm of fire. "The rest of you, follow me." He led three others along the second floor until they reached another room directly above the rec room. The leader, who was the only one who had any serious skill with precision charges, set a trio of limpet charges on the floor, armed them, and backed off to a safe distance. "Get your blades, I don't want us shooting each other when we drop down on top of her."

The twins meanwhile headed down a flight of stairs behind Talia's last heard position. They were grinning and each step had a light spring to it. In a short matter they were upon Talia and immediately began firing at her. Four blaster bolts at a time was a lot for a squad to handle, much less one person. Push her, they could do that easily. The hard part was up to the rest of the gang. Maybe they'd get a bonus from the cut. It wasn't like they'd be splitting it up as many ways now.

 

[Sreeya]

Talia was more than angry at this point, and she began to feel the urgency of rescuing Valek even more. Each moment she delayed was another chance of him getting killed. If this was masterminded by who she thought it was, there was little room for mercy in her heart. Talia didn't pause as she made a beeline for the hostage room, convinced that she would have to face a small army as she burst in. She didn't care, and she would take them all without mercy. Though she had spent many years with the Republic, she was a stubborn Mandalorian at heart. She didn't know how to quit.

After a few steps, she heard some people approaching. Talia ducked into another alcove, ensuring the cameras were blown. She peered over the edge of the wall to take a peek at the two women and their twin blasters. Talia cursed as they began to fire at once, more than enough ammo to take down an army. Her mind was buzzing with thoughts, and she had to calculate this rationally. Despite all her fame, she was still just one person. Talia chewed on her lip beneath her helmet, fingers flirting with a hilt on her hip. She had been trained in the art extensively by Jedi despite not having the power of the Force. That training had been many years back from a Jedi that was quite possibly fascinated by her for saving him from the jaws of death. In turn he taught her more than enough to hold her own against an average Sith, though perhaps not a highly trained one.

With that, a glaring red light ignited as she whirled out from her hiding place with a lightsaber. Talia spun it around, the motion deflecting a high amount of the bolts coming her way, though she took some damage to her armor. It was a risky move, but she relied more on the sheer surprise of bolts being deflected back than anything else. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she spun the blade about, deflecting as much as possible as her left hand brought up her heavy blaster pistol to fire off shots directly at the torso and heads of the twins to take them out of the fight. She did this maneuver long enough to get just close enough to activate her infamous flamethrower, spraying a blast of fire right into the faces of the two "-KRIFFING BITCHES! I CAME TOO FAR TO BE STOPPED NOW!"

 

[Clayton]

The appearance of a lightsaber was indeed a surprise. Perhaps they hadn't been told everything about who was going to be coming to rescue the short guy. "Hey that's not fair," they said in unison as bolts started coming back their way. They ducked to the side and were caught once more by the heavy blaster. A well-placed shot sent one twin spinning to the floor, hurt, but not dead yet. She rolled onto her back to look at Talia. One arm was now useless, and she was having trouble aiming her other blaster. "Woah, you crazy nerf-sucker!" the injured twin spat out. They weren't entirely certain how to handle the armored hellion that was headed firmly in their direction. This...wasn't the plat at all. Their eyes widened in shock as Talia activated another weapon, this one sending gouts of flames at them.


Valek woke up in a haze, as if he had a nasty hangover. Getting stunned several times in a row must have done that. He opened one eye, afraid to get shot again. Bars filled his view, freshly installed going by the shiny weld lines where they connected to the floor. Where was he? And more importantly, who had abducted him? The list of enemies he had made were short but bizarrely powerful. The top of the list were the Sith...Melon himself. Valek chanced a quick look around. It appeared he was in a cargo hold. A well lit one at that, no shadows were cast by crates. No, this wasn't creepy enough to be Melon. The Jedi? That would be weird that his bar was burned down but, well, he'd done worse to them unfortunately.

He could hear someone coming, heavy footsteps echoed through the cargo bay. Valek leaned against one side of his makeshift cell and drooled a bit. He didn't think they'd stun him again now that he was locked up, but you never knew. Better be safe and appear as nonthreatening as possible. Not that Valek really felt up to getting in a fight right now. A big besalisk came into view and his heart sank. He was definitely not going to fight his way out of this one.

 

[Sreeya]

Talia couldn’t help but grin beneath her helmet as she saw the looks of pure shock. Whipping out a saber worked wonders on anyone that she faced, and she purposely used it as a trump card for when she was outnumbered. Talia kept pressing with the flames, ignoring the shrieking that ensued. She kept moving forward, catching the first twin moving around on the ground to get up. The girl even had the gall to slowly prop her weapon to face towards Talia, “Give me a break,” Talia spat the words as she shot off a bolt at point blank range to shred through her face.

Whatever trap they had planned for her failed spectacularly, and they had no visual of where she was moving. The only clue that the twins failed would be the lack of a response through their comms. Speaking of which, Talia nabbed one of their comms and security badges to get through the building, hoping to trace back more information on who she was dealing with.

Gun and saber still at the ready but switched off, Talia kept making her way down the corridor. A set of double doors marked a room of some importance. She slowly creaked the door open, peering around the edge. In the middle of the room she could spot a man bound and wearing Valek’s jacket. She hadn’t seen Valek in a while, and he looked to be of the same stature.

The room appeared oddly empty, and Talia wasn’t going to rush in. Instead, she looked around the room at all angles, spotting places where she could take cover. Deciding to risk it a little, she spoke out barely above a whisper, “Valek?”

 

[Clayton]

The fake hostage who had been posed as Valek was in a groggy haze. He knew something wasn't right, after all you don't end up hooded, gagged, and bound to a chair if you didn't do anything wrong. The gunfire, explosions, and shouts were other clues that something heavy was going down. Things fell silent for a while, until a whisper barley carried across the room. He groaned timidly from behind the gag.

Across the street, the twi'lek was observing the hostage room through a scope. His gloved finger rested gently on the trigger of the heavy blaster rifle. "Looks like your hired gang failed," he spoke into an encrypted comm. "She thinks it's a trap, the door is just barely open, but the hostage is suddenly alert...It'll be soon so keep your eye on the cameras." He planned on leaving the gun, no need to waste time taking it with or disposing of it. The twi'lek knew exactly who he was tangling with, a woman who had cut bloody swathes through Sith and Mandalorian alike. He was a little confused about how she had ended up with some bartender, but that wasn't his concern. "Just a little more..." he whispered, finger curling around the trigger as he centered the crosshairs at the base of the hostage's spine. As soon as Talia stepped into the room, he'd pull the trigger and leave.


"Looook, man, like, tell Malon I'm sorry and my insuranche will cover th damagess to his horror ship, mmk?" Valek slurred as the Besalisk settled into a guard position. Except the besalisk was watching him and not the paths to the makeshift cell. Valek's heart sank. He wouldn't even be able to try and wriggle his way out of this while everyone else was distracted by the latest in holoporn or whatever the hell these people watched. Could he take the besalisk? He wasn't sure. He'd fought one before, but that one he had managed to get him from behind. Talia had gotten herself knocked silly by going toe to toe with it.

The Vixen's daughter sat in the lounge as she feasted on the footage from the warehouse. She wasn't even perturbed that Talia was destroying all her cameras. She would simply add them to the things Talia and Valek were going to pay for. Plus, the only cameras she truly cared about were nestled in the corners of the hostage room, well hidden. She even managed to laugh as Talia ripped through the gang like a knife through bantha butter. Or a lightsaber through flesh, as it were. "Warm up the engines, I want us out of here the moment my lieutenant steps aboard. Talia might be following him closely after he leaves." The captain nodded, not entirely disappointed. The delight taken in this revenge was extreme, though he figured if he'd seen his ma killed, he might not have turned out too different.