Bounty Hunter Anon II

by Sunny Solaire

Seeking Vengeance

"I'm sorry, darling, but other than that video message you found, there was nothing in that datapad that had any specific details about a bomb. I was very thorough." Rarity says.

"It's not your fault, Rarity." You reply. "If nothing is there, then nothing is there. You did everything you could."

The Republic official that had taken Octavia and the Wonderbolts aboard the cruiser for medical care had requested that you, Sunset, and Pinkie come aboard as well. You're currently standing alone in one of the cruiser's hallways speaking to Rarity on your comms. You're on your way back to Naboo to take Octavia home. They wanted to find out if you know who was behind the bomb.

Not only do you know who was behind it, you have a substantial amount of evidence to back up your findings. It was all on the datapad that you downloaded and sent copies of to Rarity.

So why are you currently in the process of deleting it from your suit's systems?

Rarity continues. "I understand your frustration, Anonymous. Hoity Toity is incredibly corrupt and selfish, but he is a senator. A SENATOR! For the Galactic Republic!"

"There is not a single part of that sentence I don't understand, Rarity." You reply.

Your HUD indicates that more data has been erased. You press another button on your gauntlet and proceed to wipe away more.

She lets out a frustrated breath. "Anonymous, darling, this is too risky, even for you. The Republic knows who you are. Once you kill him and get away, if you get away, you'll have a price on your own head the size of Coruscant itself! Every other bounty hunter in the galaxy will be after you."

You shake your head. "You worry too much, Rarity. It's me, remember?"

She lets out another breath, barely chuckling. "How could I forget?"

The last bit of data that is yet to be erased is Hoity Toity's video message.

You continue. "Hoity Toity knows more about Flim and Flam. I'd like to know more as well, and I've got a plan for how I'm going to get to him. Once we get back to Naboo, I'll contact you from my ship. I'm going to need some, uhhh... items of... questionable legality to pull off what I've got in mind."

She hums. "I know someone. I'll put you in contact with him when you get back."

"Thanks, Rarity." You shut off your comms and stare at Hoity Toity's still image on your HUD.

After a few seconds, you play the message again.

"...alk to me, what is going on there?! Did you get the shipment?! Is the bomb in place?! Answer me! I want Senator Melody DEAD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! DEAD!"

The message ends and you give a low growl under your breath as his words sink in.

Corrupt. Spineless. Cruel. All of these words, among many other, very bad ones, describe this "man" perfectly. Captain Spitfire is now dead because of him. Sure, you didn't like her, but she had a good job and she did it well. She didn't deserve her fate. Hoity Toity was willing to kill her and a great number of other people to keep his secret hidden. He may have given you payment for Adagio's bounty, but his money is the only thing that's good about him.

Well, maybe not even that. The money he paid you with was probably obtained by selling Kath Hounds, now that you think about it.

This scumbag is going to die by your hand, and no one else's.

"I'm coming for you, you son of a bitch..." You whisper aloud.

You take one last look at his image before you delete the message. That's it. All evidence of his role in this has been erased. The Republic won't be finding out about it any time soon, which means that they won't be in your way when you go to kill him.

You take a deep breath and walk down the hall and into the medical bay, where Sunset and Pinkie are both waiting. They look at you when you walk through the doorway, but they don't say anything right away.

The medical bay is nothing too flashy. The three of you are in the waiting area. Pinkie is sitting on one of the chairs next to the doorway while Sunset is leaning against a wall on her right. Her helmet is off. It's on a chair right beside her.

You walk over to them and remove your helmet as well. "How is she?"

Sunset sighs and looks down the hallway that leads to intensive care. A couple of guards are standing in front of a closed door. "Other than a concussion and a few scrapes, she's fine. The doctors said that her injuries were relatively minor, compared to the other people treated."

You nod. "How are Soarin' and Fleetfoot doing?"

She looks back at you. "They're both pretty roughed up, but Fleetfoot got the brunt of it. A few cracked ribs, one broken arm, and she lost feeling in both of her legs."

You set your helmet down next to hers and look back at her. "Are you serious?"

She nods. "Doc said she got hit in her back somehow and it paralyzed her from the waist down. The good news is that it's fixable. They said she could be walking again in a couple of weeks, at the earliest."

For being as small as she is, the fact that Fleetfoot was able to hobble that far through a burning building with all those injuries is quite impressive. She's a tough little Pantoran.

Sunset continues. "Soarin' just has a broken leg, and a seething hatred for us."

You cross your arms. "Pretty ungrateful of him, considering we saved his ass."

Sunset scoffs. "Yeah, well, he blames us for Spitfire's death, which is stupid. We did everything we could, that's what's important."

You shrug. "You can't save everyone."

"Exactly." Sunset nods.

You take another deep breath and impatiently tap your finger on your arm. The sooner you get back to your ship, the better.

Sunset looks at you again. "What's wrong?"

You shake your head. "I'm eager to get out of here. They're not going to pay us because we couldn't stop that bomb. Even though we pulled Octavia out alive and she's going to recover, we didn't keep her 'safe'." You start pacing back and forth slowly, clenching your fists. "If they're going to hold out on us, then there's no benefit for us being here any more."

"They're going to want to ask us questions about the bomb and how we knew about it though, Anon." She replies. "And seeing as how you're the only one who saw all the details..."

They will ask you most of the questions.

"I know..." You grumble to yourself.

"What are you going to tell them?" She asks.

The guards in front of Octavia's room aren't close enough to hear you. You're positive that no one is listening in, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

You look at Sunset for a moment before casually moving closer to her. "Only what they need to know." You say just above a whisper. "I'm not going to lie to them... Not completely, anyway."

Sunset's expression on her face changes slightly. She knows that you've got other plans. She also knows you're being discreet, so she waits for a moment before replying.

"So what's next after this?" She asks.

Still aiming for discretion among those potentially listening to your conversation, you reply to her in Mando'a...

You clear your throat. "Mhi cuyir slanar at slanar at Coruscanta at kyr'amur Ta'aya'r. Kaysh cuyir solus sulyu ibic. Juha bic tor, juha bic skira, Ni narir va baatir. Kaysh ne'waadas at ramaanar." <<"We're going to go to Coruscant to kill the Senator. He's the one behind all this. Call it justice, call it revenge, I don't care. He needs to die.">>

Sunset studies your words as you speak them. A grin appears on her face for a second before she looks down at both of your helmets on the chair beside her. "Ni juha bic 'nuhur'..." <<"I'd call it 'fun'...">>

She reaches down and grabs her helmet. She rubs the cheek with her thumb and just stares at the visor for a moment as she mulls this over. "Atba'a'yu o'r kaysh naritir malyasa'yr olya atin'la..." She sounds like she's thinking out loud. She looks back to you. "Ta'aya'r dabay ganar omtu ganar e save ta'na'oaragr cabuor kaysh. Mhi suya'gr ne'waadas e gaa'tayl." <<"Getting into his place will be tough... The Senator will likely have some pretty heavy protection. We might need some help.">>

You nod at her. "Rarity ashnar eo vi liser bu'yahyr. Mhi malyasa'yr mra'lira bic sto tion'tuur mhi pabida norac at te likr." <<"Rarity has a contact. We'll go over it more when we get back to the ship.">>

She nods and sets her helmet down again. "Pirusti, gar kar'taylir ibac Ni malyasa'yr cuyir ti gar an te miai bat ibic, Anon." <<"Well, you know that I'm with you all the way on this, Anon.">> She moves to the chair next to your helmets and sits down, cocking her head toward Pinkie. "Te veman bu'gar'a olar olyay, olyay la?" <<"The only question here is, is she?">>

Pinkie.

Even though she was right there this whole time, you forgot she was here in this room with you and Sunset. Despite hearing every word that was said between you two and hopefully not understanding any of it, she has said nothing at all. She hasn't even made a sound.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.

She hasn't made a sound.

You look over at her. She has her arms folded and she's looking down at the floor in front of her. Almost like she's deep in thought. She's not humming or smiling or getting on your nerves at all. No wonder you forgot she was here.

"You're being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal, Pinkie." You tell her. "What's up?"

She glances up at you for a moment before looking back to the ground again. "People died today, you guys... Actual, living people with friends and family. They died." You and Sunset glance at each other for a moment and she continues. "They were attacked by someone and we couldn't help them. They won't be able to be with their family and friends ever again and it's our fault." She sinks her head lower and closes her eyes.

Is she... crying?

"You two are trying to justify this and wave it off like it's just a job. All you care about is getting paid and nothing else. You don't even want to help the Republic find out who did this." She takes another shaky breath and sniffs. "You two are no better than Discord..."

Wow. She's really not happy right now. Granted, Zeltrons are a bit over-the-top when it comes to emotions. It's like there's no setting between "off" and "high". It's why they're usually so giddy. This sadness is clouding her judgement.

She probably knows that you all did do everything you could to help, but she feels guilty because she wanted to do more. It means she isn't in this for the money.

Right now, neither are you. You will kill Hoity Toity.

"Listen, Pinkie. We're probably not going to get paid for this. We know that." You step closer and speak just above a whisper. "We're not done with this though. Not yet." She slowly looks up at you again, her eyes a bit red.

You don't want her to blow your cover to the Republic, but you have to tell her something.

You continue. "For some reason, what happened with Octavia really hit me where I live. I want the one responsible to pay for what he did to her, and to all those other people he killed."

She stares at you hard, studying your face as you tell her the truth. "Really?"

You nod. "Yes. It wasn't fair, and it was extremely cruel. You're right. All those people who died didn't deserve to die. I care about them too. When we get back to our ship, we're going to track down who did this ourselves." You look to Sunset for a second before looking back at Pinkie. "Sunset is on board. We both know that we aren't going to get paid to do this, but we want to do it anyway. Are you on board with us too, Pinkie?"

She looks at Sunset as well before looking back to you. After a second, she smiles a little. "You got it."

That's what you like to hear.

You smile back at her. "Good."

Glad that's taken care of.

You take a deep breath and stand up straight. "All we can do now is just wait though."

So you do just that, thinking about everything that's happened since you arrived on Dantooine. The bikes, the militia, the bomb, the looters, the Kath Hounds, everything. It's been a busy day.

A couple of minutes pass when the door opens and a neatly dressed Republic officer steps into the room with you. He's a light blue Twi'lek and he's holding a datapad. You don't recognize him.

"Hello, everyone." He says with a polite smile. "I assume the Senator is doing well?"

His Ryloth-native accent is thick and obvious. Galactic Basic is clearly not his first language, but he doesn't seem to struggle with it.

Sunset stands up. "That's what we heard."

The Twi'lek nods. "What a relief. It's unbelievable what happened out there." No one replies after that. There's a bit of an awkward silence before he clears his throat and looks at the datapad. "Now, I understand that you discovered something about the bomb a few minutes before its detonation?"

Sunset points to you. "That was Anon. He discovered it and told us about it over the radio."

He looks to you and you nod, confirming her statement. "I found a datapad at the Jedi Enclave that had information about the bomb. They knew Senator Melody was there."

"I see..." He types something onto his datapad. "How did they know she was there?"

Time to stretch the truth.

"I don't know." You say. "They were trying to capture Kath Hounds, and were planning to have a ship take them away. They were a lot more organized than we had expected them to be. I wanted to look through that datapad to see if I could find out who they were shipping them to, but I came across details of a bomb instead."

"Do you have the datapad with you?" He asks.

"No. The first thing I saw was the info on the bomb. I didn't know if it was meant for Senator Melody at the time, but I assumed that it was, so I just dropped it and headed back." You lie.

He continues typing on his datapad for a moment before turning to Sunset and Pinkie. "Now, you two had arrived at the compound much sooner than Anonymous. How?"

Sunset clears her throat. "When we first got to the Enclave, we saw how organized they were and had suspected that they had a plan to get rid of the Senator or something. Me and Pinkie went back while Anon stayed to figure out more."

"How did you know that?" He asks.

She shrugs. "We just... We had a hunch. We're very experienced in this line of work. Something felt off, so we acted on it."

You continue her thought. "I had let them know on the radio about the bomb right when I learned about it myself."

He types more. "Why did you leave your post and go to the Enclave in the first place?"

"We had heard that the locals were having trouble with looters trespassing onto the Enclave's grounds." You say. "We decided not to wait, and took action instead. We thought the locals could've used some help."

He looks at you. "That can be considered a form of vigilantism to some, Anonymous."

You scoff at him. "What, you're going to arrest us for going out of our way to try and fix a problem? That's stupid."

Sunset cuts in. "And it's unjustified. If we hadn't done what we did, then Senator Melody probably wouldn't be alive right now. Our job was to protect her. You'd be arresting us for doing our job too well."

He shifts his gaze between you and Sunset and holds up his hand, showing his submissiveness. "All I'm saying is that is how others may see it. I, for one, am just grateful that the Senator is alive."

He should be thanking you then...

He clears his throat and looks to his datapad again. "Well, alright. I think that's everything I need to know."

Good.

He looks at you all again and smiles a little. "Thank you all for your assistance. I'll be back in a few minutes with your payment and you can head on your way when we land."

Woah, they're actually going to pay you?

Don't show surprise, Anon. They won't appreciate that.

You simply nod. "Happy to help."

He nods back at you all and turns around to head back out the door.

Once the door closes, you grin and look back to the girls. "Payday."

Sunset smiles back and pumps her fist a little as she walks back to her spot by her helmet.

Pinkie smiles and shakes her fists in front of her excitedly. "Woo hoo!"

You chuckle and take a seat on the nearest chair. "Once we land, we'll split it all up and go over what comes next."

Hopefully, it doesn't take much longer. You're getting paid, sure, but you still want to kill Hoity Toity. You're also curious about Flim and Flam. The Senator should know more about them.

It's like Sunset said, the Republic is undermanned and desperate right now. They'd likely be willing to pay you tons of money to help them out. You'll have to ask Rarity if there are any more bounties out there that they've posted.

As you wait in silence, your mind starts to wander some more. You really think hard about everything that has happened lately.

Then, you remember something else that Rarity had mentioned to you about Flim and Flam back at the Enclave. She said that they were just starting to work with Death Sticks.

That's another mystery you've been curious about. These newer, more powerful Death Sticks have been popping up all over the place lately. Where exactly are they coming from?

Hoity Toity was probably working with Flim and Flam when you brought in Adagio. She was using them and her good looks to get money from rich, horny addicts on Nar Shaddaa. Was she working for Hoity Toity at one point?

You think back to when you first captured her. She used that lightsaber crystal around her neck to get away by screaming extremely loud. It almost made you deaf. It's like it enhanced her voice's volume to an unnatural level.

You stand up and walk over to your helmet next to Sunset's and slip it on. You need a refresher.

You pull up Adagio's bio from your helmet's records and go over it again on your HUD. 'Adagio Dazzle. 20,000 credits, wanted alive. She had stolen a variety of goods by using a form of hypnosis.'

You had figured that the Death Sticks were the cause of that hypnosis. They deteriorated the brain so quickly that it made those affected by them more susceptible to suggestions or requests. You assumed that Hoity Toity was just another client that Adagio stole from and decided to put a price on her, but after this little incident, you've discovered that he is working with Flim and Flam. Thanks to Rarity, you've discovered that they're also working with Death Sticks.

If those Death Sticks are the same kind that deteriorated the brain, then Hoity Toity would have known that beforehand. He wouldn't have let Adagio hypnotize him and take his money.

Trixie was doing the same thing on Malastare as well. While working for Diamond Tiara, she was busy spreading out Death Sticks to the locals. Those Death Sticks were the same kinds that you found on Nar Shaddaa with Adagio.

Did they know each other? Did Hoity Toity know Trixie? Did Trixie know Flim and Flam?

Another thing comes to your mind as you think about it more...

How are the Sith involved with this?

On Tatooine, you, Sunset, and Rarity encountered that Sith warrior. Just before you fought and killed him, you distinctly remember him saying that Darth Sombra was angry about your "meddling" with his operations on Nar Shaddaa, or something. The only thing you can think of doing was messing up Adagio's deal there and bringing her in.

You thought that Adagio was working with the Sith to some degree after that, but with everything else you've learned, another question comes to your mind: is Hoity Toity also working with the Sith?

You'll brainstorm more with everyone else when you get back to the ship. There's something else going on here. You know it.

You're just not seeing the whole picture yet...

Author's Note:

The Mando'a Alphabet.

Hoity Toity. (Good quality EQG image is nonexistent)