Log:Jade & Grey: Adventures in Babysitting
A kid need rescuing and Mara's the designated adult in the room.
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Mara Jade, Jax Greystorm
It was Sesti's day off and she was doing Sesti stuff. Probably involving something about working on a cybernetic and wishing she was on another planet with a spa. Kadi was off with her kids and Ax. Amber was off being the general and questionable if she was ever the adult in the room. So somehow Mara had been the designated adult in the room. So fingers can be pointed at whose fault it really was that Mara and Jax were speeding through the congested traffic of Nar Shadda in a stolen two seater air speeder. Up ahead of them is five swoop gang bikers that had snatch a little kid in front of the pair from the parents in the Corellia district. The tyke was on the lead swoop.
Jax guns the engine of the speeder trying to catch up with the gang. "For the record, you know I'm going to pretend I'm innocent and this was all your idea, right?"
Mara Jade hadn't planned on going for the wind and rain blown look today. It's storming as nar Shadda always seems to be and it's causing all manner of havok on Mara's hair. And therefore on her mood. "We'd catch them faster if you'd use the accelerator, gramps" her comment is light hearted yet terse as she draws her blaster and again rises up from the open topped speeder to try and get a good shot at the closest speeder. As Jax takes a corner particularly sharp and fast, the redhead must hand onto the top of the wind screen to keep from tumbling right out of the 'borrowed' speeder.
"Who in their right mind leaves a speeder parked with the top down with thunderstorms in the forecast?!"
Jax calls out," Hang on," as he pulls back on the accelrator of the air speeder and pulls back on the diving yoke to get up even higher. He catches up with the Swoop ganger who has yet to realize they had a tail. Then Jax hits a rudder and spins the airspeeder upside down, "That a clear enough shot for you?" It was almost Maverick and the Mig but not quite as close so no where as cool. "And I may have cut the rag top off!"
Mara Jade braces as the first speeder is spun and caught up in a brilliant crash with a droid operated cargo carrier. "Clear. And yet - very messy. You're going to have a lot of apologies to make for your driving later." She turns again, "we're catching them." She readies her blaster pistol and leans over the passenger side of the speeder, arm outstretched as she prepares for a shot.
Jax grins, "You mean I'm not suppose to fly this thing like a Resistance A-wing, like I did when I was a Kath Hound!" Jax pulls the speeder up neck and neck with the next speeder just in time for the thug, a grand to point his blaster pistol at Jax taking a shot at the Corellian as Jax taps the breakes and the blaster bolt just misses his head and the windshield. "Krif me." Then Mara's shot blows up the stablizer of the biker and he takes out a neon sign advertising 'Live Nude Girls' as the swoop ganger and the sign fall into the dark abyss below. Jax looks over his shoulder, "Twi'licks going to need a new billboard." - Mara Jade instinctively flinches as the blaster bolt sizzles past her face as well. Turning with a renewed drive to stop these guys, particularly this one for almost burning her eyebrows off. She aims and returns the favor by blasting a big chunk of the steering controls off the merc's speeder. She almost smiles before looking to the next speeder in the gang, "Good job keeping us from being shot, Jax. And yes - fly it like you stole it. Since you did." She does smile then looks back. "when we get to the lead speeder, if you can get me close enough I can jump across."
Because that couldn't possibly end poorly.
"THat's a blue milk run, You sure you got this?" Jax says as he hits the afterburner just in time for another swoop to crash into the passanger quarter flank knocking the speeder off target and they go racing towards a 'Uncle Wyrick's Tasty Cakes' delivery truck. Jax pulling up at the last moment before they get a leathal dose of tasty cakes and scraps the bottom of the speeder. The find themselves at a bad angle for chasing the swoop. Jax stops for a moment, "Sithspit. You see them?"
Mara Jade quickly ducks back into the speeder as the next in this never ending series of events, most unforunate, happens. Flicking bits of tasty cakes from her shoulder and hair, she looks around and shakes her head but holds up her left hand as she closes her eyes, centering herself and taking a long slow breath.
Mara Jade takes two slow breaths that seem like forever, "They went right. Go straight and turn in three blocks. We should be able to come in right behind them if we don't cut them off." It's calm and collected as she checks her blaster. "And yes. I can do this. Just get me along side."
Jax nods, "I'll take your word for it. Unless the kids a trained force senstive, I can only get flashs of where people are in the dark." THen he pulls back on the throttle of the air speeder. He's following her directions as he races through the artificial valleys and canyons of Smugglers Moon. He takes one turn so tight that it's it would seemed he's using the force to ehance his attributes but it's not with him at the moment. Then they burst through a rain cloud and into the lane just ahead of the main ganger with the child. Jax lets off the throttle and the find themselves lined up with the thug. "You sure you want to do this? I know you're a badass but I'm not that crazy or good yet."
Mara Jade holsters her blaster and braces herself as they take off once again, weaving and swerving around vehicles and obstructions. And then they're close to the lead speeder. Looking over at Jax, she smirks.
"No."
And then she leaps from the stolen speeder to the gang speeder with the kidnapped child without another moment's consideration.
A jump across a wide chasm is a challenge.
An acrobatic jump from a trapeze takes skill.
An acrobatic jump from one wildly careening speeder to another during a chase and blaster shoot out is certainly more difficult still. Most would say crazy.
Mara clears the distance but the gang leader tries to swerve away at the last minute. It leave Mara hanging on by her right hand to trim details along the edge of the speeder. But she is on the speeder just the same.
For now.
Mara's hanging by the finger tips of the swoop and the swoop ganger 1eader is giving Mara a shake but moves her out of the way as another ganger takes a shot at her. The kid screaming in terror over the sound of the rain. Anything the gang leader saying is drowned out.
Jax though for his part pulls in under Mara more or less to catch her if she would fall. His hand going straight to his Dl-44. The first shot goes wild but the second and third damaging other gang members swoops and putting them out of the fight.
Blaster bolts are flying everwhere, speeder parts exploding. It's like an actoin movie out here. No one would believe it if witnesses told them. As Jax takes out the other two swoops, it eases the pressure and danger on Mara as she hangs so precariously on the side of the speeder.
Making a lunge, pulling with her right arm, her left finds purchase on the frame of the speeder and she scrambles her way up onto the speeder.
A glimpse of just what Mara Jade must have been like as the Supreme Leader's hand, she moves with a fluid grace to come up behind the gang leader. At the same time, her right arm wraps around his throat to choke him while her left hand strikes him with the bottom of her open hand, directly into his ribs. A jerk of her right arm seems to instantly make the gang leader disappear and fall away like a rag doll. Without a moment to let the swoop go out of control, she slides forward and grabs the controls, offering a smile to the frightened child. "Don't worry. We're here to get you back home safely. It'll be all right." Reaching up to tug her goggles up ove rher eyes to make it easier to see in the Nar Shadda monsoon, she waves to Jax to indicate she's got the child secure and she turns the swoop around and slows it down to a more sane speed as they head back to the hotel.
If only Snoke could have seen his lethal hand in action to save a small child, there would probably be disguse. Jax though grins and brings the air speeder into formation with Mara. THe remaining swoop gangers have disappears into the streets. Jax would flank Mara and the child to the Hotel. The child back with his parents, Jax calls out, "I got to go dump a speeder. Drinks on me back at the lounge at Waywards?"
