Log:Information with Unexpected Costs: Khalim and EJ
Separated from Saturi, Khalim and EJ have to find a way from the gang war happening on the street below....continued from Information with Unexpected Costs.
OOC Date: April 30, 2022
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Eriu Jynx as GM and herself & Khalim
"Yes well, I do not think any of us were sticking around," Eriu says, pushing the sleeves of her blouse up her arms past her elbows. As bolts slam into the building below them a few manage to hit the building beside them - one nearly colliding with Khalim as he drew himself up.
EJ glances towards him as Saturi drags herself up, but is soon dangling like the very signage itself, causing her to tense up and hold up her hands instinctively - not like Eriu would likely stop the fall that Saturi would take. Watching as the easiest path up is now no longer an option, her mouth drops open.
"Find a way into the building, we will see about an alley exit!" She calls up, pulling her sword and with a heavy thrust of the hilt of it breaks the window beside them, starting to clear the glass with her boot.
"You first...you have the blaster." She advises Khalim, holding her sword in hand. "Meet you inside. If you can't find us, head for your ship when its safe."
Saturi is left with the option of trying to break into the building - the window she is at is partially open with blinds moving in the air lightly. She might be able to squeeze in - or she could climb.
This was, like so many preceding Shadowport-related situations, rapidly devolving into mayhem. Mayhem and skyrocketing danger. A blaster bolt scores the building's side just a foot above Khalim, causing him to tense as he reasseses not only his options, but everyone's. It's an impossible task, fortunately one that is cut short by Eriu's quick thinking and breaking of that window.
That blaster, briefly reholstered, is drawn once again as he looks to the Duchess. "This is not happening again," he says, and there's a lingering look to the Hapan, a look that speaks very clearly of worry - knowing Khalim, 100% worry for Eriu - before he's climbing through. It has been half a year since last they had seen one another, and some elements of Khalim were different... but many, if not most, were the same. This was the man she'd known, and would know forever.
"You think I want anything to happen again that ends in misery and bloodshed? Well maybe some," she admits as another shot pings off the wall near her and she is not long after him, pushing in through that window, catching her palm on some glass that had remained behind. She hisses and nearly is blind to the fact KHALIM IS RIGHT THERE.
With some amazing finesse the Duchess stops herself from impacting his back and comes up short, blinking as she looks over his shoulder and finds that...she can't see. Its dark in that room. It looks like it has been abandoned for some time. Its bare with only the minor amentities...but the smell is off. It smells like something familiar to Khalim. Eriussa is slower to catch on but her eyes start to widen. "KRIFF."
[ Khalim (Kh)]
That 'KRIFF' comes amid a realization. "Shhhhhh," he gets out, his non-firing hand reaching back blindly and finding a Hapan arm. He'd meant it to be a freezing touch, but it also may serve as contact, connection, to the newly blinded woman. His head cants and he listens. Just separate enough from that violent cacophony of noise, blasters and explosion alike, outside, are other voices. Here within this not-so-abandoned apartment. "We are not alone," he whispers, or attempts to whisper, just loudly enough to be heard by Eriu.
That pistol is raised, held to fore, and he steps further within. The hand upon Eriu releases, though it's a simple thing for her to reconnect should she try, he starts close and moves slowly. The connected hallway is the target of the pistol barrel as Khalim begins to navigate that central room. There's a wrinkling of nose, the smell of this place creating crystal clear connections for man. Likely actual crystal.
[ Eriu Jynx (EJ)]
Blind as she is when he releases her she fumbles forward and grasps at the back of his top to secure her position. Letting out a nervous breath. "Spice storage....this is the worst place for us to be," she remarks and as she steps a little wide of him she finds her foot connects with something and the rest of her follows suit, body slamming into packags of spice that send more than a few tumbling over to the floor.
"You hear that?" comes from the hall.
"You are hearing things. We have to wait out this idiotic exchange or the dumbnuts are going to find us out. Just stay at your post and shut it." Comes another voice. Both outside the room they are in.
She winces some and keeping hold of his back with her hand still she drags herself away from the stacked spice. She breathes in and instantly wishes she had not. "In the air..." things are about to get loopy.
Spice storage. Spice in the air. Khalim sniffs, and /knows/ she is right. He'd hoped the smell was latent but as those packages spill to the ground they stir things up. There is spice here. Everywhere. Each footstep stirs it, it's trapped by fibers of carpet, thinly coating the walls, likely the air circulator is keeping things equally distributed. All it takes is one package to break, of which one may have already, and simply breathing here would become... an adventure. Perhaps not immediatley, but quickly.
"Kriff," Khalim repeats, voice low. That clutch at his shirt had been the first recognized sign that she was in trouble, visually, but that stumble made it very, very clear. He stops, and turns to her. "Eriussa, hold onto me. I'm going to position you away from the door. Nobody is shooting you by missing me. If..." There's no going back outside. There was no telling what he would be finding when he, alone, opens that door. "If..." He can't bring himself to say it. "You /survive/. Any way you can. You are a survivor, and you always have been." He looks at the Duchess, shadowed in this dim light. The same woman, and yet also not, for many reasons. There's a pang of regret. "This isn't the reunion I'd hoped for," he says, voice flat, and then he's moving her. Physically guiding her, behind a bit of furniture far away from the door to that hallway. "I'm going to kill whoever is on the other side of that door," he says, his master plan.
Assuming she does as asked, and secures herself, Khalim then moves to that door. His pistol's charge is verified, and his newly freed off-hand grabs the doorknob.
"What other kind of reunion would it be? This is how we are," she counters, the nerves sound in her voice because of her lack of sight. It leaves her vulnerable and the blade in her hand does nothing if she has no idea which way to strike. "There is light where we are headed if there are others. As long as I can see, I can help...put me beside the door. I will be out of the way but still have access to help when you open it. My back to it.." she expresses and tightly does she hold to his shirt.
She knows he's poised once she is in position, her sword held down so it can not possibly be in his way. The commotion outside grows louder and the guards at the door shift, a shadow moving along the bottom of the door as one heads somewhere. "They are coming into the building....we are going to need to stand at the stairs." One says sharply.
"Do what you want bu tI am staying here. Go on..." That leaves Khalim with possibly one adversary outside the door and one further away - possibly. Depends on what their position is.
Khalim
There may be a half-moment's hesitation, but Khalim recognizes Eriu's adjusted plan to be superior. He realizes, in that same moment, that what he'd done was degrade their plan in order to keep her safer. Theoretically. A flaw, in action, not character, but a flaw none-the-less. He says nothing, just pulls her along to the door. She's placed as she had suggested, and then...
One.
Two.
Three.
The handle is turned, the door flung open, that barrel traversed. Two trigger pulls result in a pair of golden blaster bolts screamed into the ether. Because, thanks to that sudden wash of light, he's mildly disoriented. Just enough to throw his aim off, as both bolts miss and splash into a far wall. 'This is bad' runs through the man's head, as he realizes they've just lost the initiative.
Eruissa is lucky in that when he opens that door, light, BLESSED light washes in. She draws a breath, giving those few moments as the blaster goes off to allow her eyes to adjust. She steps out and around behind him, clearing the door to his side as she ducks, focus starting to sharpen now that she can make out forms.
Punches are thrown and as they are she pulls up her slender blade and strikes without hesitation. That white blouse, black gloves, black pants and boots. Red hair. One strike finds his outstretched arm as he is pulling back and then there is two more strikes that land him on the floor, blood pooling.
"Not my intentions for this evening...."
Around the corner comes the other guard, hearing the shots and lifting his gun upon the two. This could get hairy - more than it already is.
A petite Hapan dervish slices her way ahead of Khalim, her blade slicing air before it slices guard. And then again. And then again. "Kriffing," is all the Mirialan can get out before, in that next step of his own, he finds himself staring at the rising barrel of a weapon. That second guard is rounding the corner, and is as alert as Eriu and Khalim are.
There's no time for precision. That barrel raises. His own is extended before him, quick-sighted, and with another one-two pair of twigger pulls a second batch of tibana-charged blaster bolts, bright gold, scream out. They lance, bracketing that guard - one to left, one to right - but missing. Two burning holes are scored into the wall just beyond the guard.
Bad meets worse.
Pistol don't fail him....again. His shots miss and Eriussa watches as return fire goes wide of both of them, but still in their direction.
That will never do.
She rushes forward, clearing the distance with a pound of thoe boots. Two slices clear the air, one cross his chest and the other along his leg as he collpases to a knee and lifts his gun at her again.
Fluid motions have her turning as if to clear away from the pointed blaster.
But Khalim will feel the weight of their decision as there are calls for back up down the other end of the hall as a door opens that is out of sigh tand voices start to carry. This WHOLE FLOOR IS A PROBLEM.
Frustration meets fear, as Eriu is ahead, blade chopping yet again, and yet that pistol. Point blank, and though that guard's face shows that pain is setting in, he'd need to be the worst shot on this moon to miss. Literally the worst shot.
Perhaps it's fate, the ways in which our small moments have a way of taking on their own energy. The universe may slow down for us, when it knows the moment is ours. Was destined to be ours, and can be noone else's. Perhaps this is such a moment, because Khalim sees this unfolding, and there is no clear target. Eriu's body twists, an attempt to clear for him, but it's just not enough. Her body is in eclipse of the guard's own. Her legs obstruct even the possibility of aim. It's her arms. They're outstretched, one holding that lengthy blade, and as they twist... as her body begins to twist, he can see what's coming.
He leans into his aim, the barrel of that Westar never stopping in its own movement. He sweeps in unison with the arc of her arm, and there, for a split moment, the guard is visible. A spot of cleared space. To simply aim would be impossible.
The universe slows for Khalim.
He pulls that trigger.
A golden bolt lances ahead... Through space. Through time. Through the crook of Eriu's elbow, behind which a body is momentarily revealed. There is a dead guard, tumbling down stairs.
And that is how Khalim got his groove back, and pulled off perhaps the shot of his life.
The flare of light that is the bolt from Khalim's blaster is a seering line in her vision as it slams into the guard ready to pull the trigger of his pistol point blank. The next thing she knows he's falling....away from her and stops ummoving on the next landing.
Her head turns and glances back at him, mouth partially open as she starts seeing the movement. "We have to go!" No yelling his name. Bad idea around here. She motions to the mirialian as she looks up and down...and finally selects down. Half sliding on the railing of the stairs to carry her.
She hops over the dead body and is rounding the landing as she continues to that first floor and hopefully an alley access that will give them some reprieve from the chaos inside and out.
All it takes is that look, the one that flashes across Eriu's face as she sees the trouble brewing behind, for Khalim to understand. We have to go indeed. Feet hit floor as he runs after her, hop, skip, and sliding down to the first floor. What they find, well... they'll see what they find, as that first floor landing is reached.
Somehow the Mirialan manages to close the distance and the pair are essentially side by side as an exit is reached, grabbed, and yanked open. "This is how we are," he says, voice a tight grate. Agreeing. Lamenting. Accepting.
They spill out into the neon washed alleyway, some of the fighting having recently spilled over as they see the bodies of a couple of gang members strewn across the ground. But most of the fighting is in the streets, bigger, more open though there is always the risk that stray shots could be found. "Do not follow the streets...we stay...in the back ways..I hate to say it but we need to. Normally I advise against it..." Eriu remarks, a very real and very old memory coming back about a Nar Shaddaa alley and her misfortune.
"We go...Saturi is smart...she will meet us..." but then she is looking at the building, their exit likely to be opening soon. No choice but to run.
