Captain Cassian Andor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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genessia2018-03-17 12:47 am
captain_by_the_book) wrote in genessia2018-03-17 12:47 am
Entry tags:
a date with the futuristic lover (and terrorists, yeah, these, too, you know how it goes)
Who: K-2SO and Cassian Andor
What: Kay and Cassian decide it's time to gettheir new pokechild Bahryn the Pachirisu used to the hustle and bustle of the city. An evening snooping around in Nova City's underbelly makes for a romantic date, right? Right. Trouble finds them - Aka Nova City Search Request log
Where: Seedy parts of Nova City
When: Saturday, March 17th
Warnings: Spies being bad at spying, possibly violence, tba
"Do you think I should get Bahryn a baby sling, too?" Cassian asked as he tapped a finger against the white and blue Pachirisu's snout, making her chitter poutily and duck back into the duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder. He had suggested it for Winry with her pokemon who wanted to be cradled all day. Bahryn didn't have that problem, not exactly, but she had far too much energy to remain still in the bag and liked to climb all over him. "Maybe she would do better at keeping still if she had body contact... at least until she's older."
Maybe it had been too optimistic to take one of their latest batch of pokemon on a mock field mission already but these days they couldn't give the new babies as much time as last year's had been given to adjust. They had to be ready for field work soon, especially Bahryn with her speed and ability to electrocute whole groups of people at once. She and Stardust would be a devastating electric tag-team once she was trained.
Thus, here Kay and him were, walking through the streets of Nova City. Not the glitzy and clean streets near the Guardian's tower which Cassian knew well, no, these they had long left behind for seedy streets filled with people with distrustful eyes. Bars peppered the street, at this hour of the night they were well-frequented, light and the mingle of voices and music spilled onto the street.
Cassian gritted his teeth. Once, he could have effortlessly slipped into the crowd. He would have felt the thrum of the crowd and melted into it, moved with it. After a year in Attleton the high rises towering high above them felt too high, the grimy alleys which no sunlight ever reached too dark.
He didn't reach for it, that would be stupid, but he felt the comfortable weight of his blaster and the back-up blaster and the back-up blaster's back-up mini blaster. They were all hidden beneath his nondescript beige coat, it was just barely cool enough to get away with a winter coat. He looked towards Kay at his side, Stardust with him, and gave him a small smile. Unlike a real mission, he permitted his gaze to linger on his partner. This was, after all, first and foremost a romantic night in town.
What: Kay and Cassian decide it's time to get
Where: Seedy parts of Nova City
When: Saturday, March 17th
Warnings: Spies being bad at spying, possibly violence, tba
"Do you think I should get Bahryn a baby sling, too?" Cassian asked as he tapped a finger against the white and blue Pachirisu's snout, making her chitter poutily and duck back into the duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder. He had suggested it for Winry with her pokemon who wanted to be cradled all day. Bahryn didn't have that problem, not exactly, but she had far too much energy to remain still in the bag and liked to climb all over him. "Maybe she would do better at keeping still if she had body contact... at least until she's older."
Maybe it had been too optimistic to take one of their latest batch of pokemon on a mock field mission already but these days they couldn't give the new babies as much time as last year's had been given to adjust. They had to be ready for field work soon, especially Bahryn with her speed and ability to electrocute whole groups of people at once. She and Stardust would be a devastating electric tag-team once she was trained.
Thus, here Kay and him were, walking through the streets of Nova City. Not the glitzy and clean streets near the Guardian's tower which Cassian knew well, no, these they had long left behind for seedy streets filled with people with distrustful eyes. Bars peppered the street, at this hour of the night they were well-frequented, light and the mingle of voices and music spilled onto the street.
Cassian gritted his teeth. Once, he could have effortlessly slipped into the crowd. He would have felt the thrum of the crowd and melted into it, moved with it. After a year in Attleton the high rises towering high above them felt too high, the grimy alleys which no sunlight ever reached too dark.
He didn't reach for it, that would be stupid, but he felt the comfortable weight of his blaster and the back-up blaster and the back-up blaster's back-up mini blaster. They were all hidden beneath his nondescript beige coat, it was just barely cool enough to get away with a winter coat. He looked towards Kay at his side, Stardust with him, and gave him a small smile. Unlike a real mission, he permitted his gaze to linger on his partner. This was, after all, first and foremost a romantic night in town.
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It would be terribly cute to see Cassian carrying the pacifist around like that but Kay would worry about his health. Bahryn zapped even those she liked, out of excitement. Their joltik Stardust was on Kay's palm, trying to suck energy out of his fingers or running up and down his arm as they walked. The droid was so used to it that he didn't mind at all, instead, he was focussed on their surroundings, memorizing the path they were doing and taking note of the looks they were getting.
It reminded him of the Ring of Kafrene but Kay knew better than mention it. That particular mission had left Cassian troubled and he didn't want to remind the Captain of what happened. He wondered if that was why Cassian seemed tense but when he caught the man's gaze, the stepped closer.
"Funny how even the most beautiful cities like Nova have not so nice parts, hm?"
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He walked a little closer to Kay, brushing his arm against the droid both to reassure himself and Kay. Too much here reminded him of the planets they had visited on missions which were to be spoken of never again. It was like stepping back into his old life - like slipping on old boots which had always fit snugly only to realize they pinched in more places than you could count.
"I guess it shouldn't surprise us in a city as large as Nova." They just didn't visit Nova often, having never felt a pull to the high-tech city which would in theory, but only in theory, be the place closest to home.
Bahryn tried to climb out of the bag again and this time Cassian simply sighed and helped her to climb his arm and slip into his jacket. He shot Kay a look. "Yes, I know she's going to shock me the first time a loud noise startles her." But it would be worth it to have her reassured by his body warmth and scent in these unfamiliar surroundings.
There was a group of young men loitering by one of the alleyways, in heated debate, and Cassian slipped a little closer, lingering to look at a poster.
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Kay placed Stardust on his shoulder and gave Cassian and unashamed look, it would have been close to a brief leer him if he had been a human with an actual face. They were supposed to be relaxing and he didn't want Cassian to stress himself too much. After all that happened, however, it was understandable that the Captain's annoyance had been building up.
"I know the last weeks had been frustrating. I wasn't too pleased myself." The droid tilted his head in the direction of the pachirisu when it let out a happy squeak after being released from the bag.
He stopped walking to make sure that Bahryn wasn't going to electrocute Cassian immediately. Since none of them was moving, the conversations around them were more noticeable. There were vendors trying to sell questionable objects or strange food as snacks, multiple droids walking by and even places that offered software and hardware actualizations. Kay dreaded to think about the quality of such updates in a place like this.
Even in the middle of the busy market, the quiet conversation taking place a few meters from them was still noteworthy because of how secretive it seemed to be. Kay exchanged a brief look with Cassian, knowing very well that secretive things were, well, Cassian's thing. He was going to ignore it in favor of stopping the joltik from climbing his antenna when the words 'Dyson sphere' got his attention.
Kay's optics shifted uncomfortably. The Death Star had been, in essence, a synthetic Dyson sphere and no one talking about a real one could have good intentions in mind. These two didn't look like scientists.
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That lasted all throughout his first good look at the marketplace, a place which reminded him of Jedha in how chaotic it seemed, only that the people were a lot warier. On Jedha, the regular people had been caught up in their own business and Jyn and him had been able to melt into the crowd.
Here he could feel far too many scrutinizing, suspicious eyes on them. It had been the same ever since they reached the seedy parts of town, nobody had been willing to be lured into a chat, everywhere they went they had been immediately recognized as someone who didn't belong. Even with most of his attention on the market and its visitors, especially the two men, a strangely appealing spicy smell from one of the large pots kept making Cassian's nose twitch. Under his coat, Bahryn wriggled and chittered as if she, too, wanted to take a closer look.
Much like Kay, it was the mention of the Dyson sphere that caught Cassian's attention. He narrowed his eyes at the two. They looked like thugs, the older of the two more so than the younger, why would they be talking science?
He met Kay's eyes for a moment and gave the tiniest tilt of his head to indicate he wanted to keep listening in.
"...no, no, see, it's this low level grid, it's all wireless and it doesn't interfere with anything." The younger shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and looked around furtively - Cassian made a point of cooing at Bahryn, who had stuck out her head just in time for him to look preoccupied. "Not easy to mess with that." He winked and smirked. "Unless you know how..."
Again, he mentioned the Dyson half sphere on "the dark side of the sun" which was kept in place by the planet's amplified gravity but Cassian's horrified attention was drawn elsewhere... namely to the poster he had been pretending to study. The once bright colors were dulled by now, the edges torn off, but nobody could miss what it advertised for - the action figure 2 pack of the Heroes of Genessia - Attleton Series, featuring toy Cassian riding on K-2SO's shoulders aiming his machine gun turret.
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Sadly, they quickly forgot the light banter and flirting, attention directed towards a more serious matter. He was attuned enough to Cassian body language that the head tilt told him enough. However, staying there doing nothing would look odd and attract attention so he reached up for the Joltik again and let Stardust cling to his fingers one more time. If anything, it looked like he was playing with the creature. That is, until he stole a glance at Cassian and saw the horrified look on his face. No longer after that he noticed the poster and let out a soft "Kriff".
Never one for subtlety, he moved near Cassian, reached out, and then tore off the poster in half. Kay crumbled it in a ball, and, just in case that got anybody attention, murmured. "Bahryn, do you want to play catch?"
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The two men were distracted from their own conversation by the ruckus with the pets and the older snorted, Cassian could distinctly hear him say, "look at that loser cuddling his fuzzy rat."
He stiffened in indignation, hand reaching for his blaster... and caught himself. But this could work to their advantage. "Yes, the pokemon would like to play catch," he said, making a point to say it loudly and with another dirty glare at the two men.
They just snickered, attention returning to their own conversation and more talk of the power grid, which couldn't easily be manipulated. "But if you disrupt the Dyson sphere's gravity balancer you bring the whole world to a standstill. Bam!" The younger man snapped with his fingers. "Just like that."
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The droid spared a brief glance at Cassian then lower, to his side, as if to warn him against showing his weapons just yet. It was a concern that dissipated quickly when Cassian repeated his word, louder. Kay nodded and started to bounce the paper ball from one of his hands to the other in front of the Pahcirisu, the pokemon's eyes fixated on the ball with intensity. Then he threw it down the street, not too far away but enough to make Bahryn have to spring after it with a delighted squeak.
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In truth, while his eyes were on Bahryn, his ears were completely tuned in to the conversation he was eavesdropping on. The two were speaking quieter now, with plenty of suspicious looks. It was too bad when people finally clued in that their talk could get them in trouble, he could only hope they wouldn't come to their senses and take this somewhere private.
A power cut. The thought was chilling, even if it only affected Nova City. Everything in Nova City needed electricity, not to speak of the chaos it would spawn.
"...and I keep telling you, it's for real! I don't have one on me, but I know what I heard. The android said you've just got to plant the gravity balancer in a subarchway and it all comes crashing down!"
Android? A subarchway? He chanced a look, but no, he couldn't spy a pendant on either of them. Cassian gave Kay an alarmed look. If pendant wearers were involved in this plot the danger had just increased exponentially. They'd need to catch at least one of the men for interrogation.
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Stardust chose that moment to make a chittering sound, both to bring attention to himself and to help with their charade. Kay only seemed surprised but the briefest second. He knew the little joltik was smarter than he looked but not that he was so well trained. Cassian's work, no doubt. He petted the little pokemon's head and it made a purring noise.
The alarmed look on Cassian's eyes didn't go unnoticed and Kay's own uneasiness showed in the way his shoulders were held upright. This was worse than they imagined if these men coudl cross the subarchways. Oblivious to it all, Bahryn came trotting to his side, the ball in her mouth, squeaking happily. Kay scratched her head absently as he saw from the corner of his optics how the men frowned and moved away from them some more. Apparently, they decided it was better to go somewhere without strange people around who could eavesdrop.
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He automatically leaned down to the pokemon vying for their approval, joining Kay in rubbing his fingers over her little head and praising her. Inwardly, though, Cassian was still cursing up a blue storm. "Good job, you got her to play fetch for you, but she still likes me best."
The men looked nervous now. Too nervous. Maybe they shouldn't have lingered. Were they under suspicion? Kriff. Cassian couldn't hear them well anymore, just a few scraps from which Cassian deduced the promise to arrange a meeting. Then, even worse than just leaving together, the men split up, leaving the marketplace in different directions. Because it couldn't be easy. Never could be.
Cassian placed his hand on Kay's forearm and leaned in close, unabashedly pressing himself against him and hooking a leg around his. When he was as close as he could get without literally climbing him, he whispered, "one of us needs to tell Garrus. We need the younger. He can get us the android."
He felt vaguely sick to his stomach. One to call Garrus, the other to follow their sole lead. That meant splitting up. Nothing good ever came out of them splitting up.
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Stardust made another sound when Cassian wrapped himself around and Kay and moved to the droid's back as to not be squeezed between them. Kay looked somewhat surprised by the change of behaviour until he realized what Cassian was doing. He leaned in closer to nuzzle Cassian and speak in a low voice. "You go warn Garrus, I'll follow the man. If there's an android involved, perhaps it will talk to me."
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Then he pushed Kay away, or rather, pushed himself away from him since he didn't stand a chance of moving Kay when he didn't want to be moved, and licked his lips with a saucy grin. "Alright, I'll finish up here. Don't start playing without me, darling."
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"I wouldn't dream of it, love." After that, Kay turned and tried to catch up with the suspicious man who was wading through the crowd. It was only thanks to the fact the streets were so full of people, droids and vendors that he could follow the man with relative ease without sticking out like a sore thumb.
Stardust was still slightly irritated but quiet, now holding on the front of Kay's chest, on the front panel of his midsection. That way it was harder to stop as well. The man moved warily, changing ways every now and then to get the more darkened streets and stopping from time to time to look at window displays, feigning casualness.
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All the while, quietly recording an urgent message for Garrus, just the barebone facts of what they had overheard. If neither of them made it back the intel couldn't vanish with them.
With every passing second, Cassian felt his restlessness grow. He didn't like them splitting up and he couldn't even send Bahryn after Kay. If it had been any of his older team he would have but the Pachirisu was a baby. Even if she didn't forget her mission over pursuing some interesting scent she was as likely to be hindrance as help.
It was pure agony to finish his purchase of droid polish and even taking the time to be difficult about the kind of polishing cloth he wanted to go with it - but if he were conducting a secret meeting on the market he would have a third watching out for suspicious people following the two others. Then he was finally free to follow, only hoping that the last glimpse he had caught of Kay would lead him down the right street.
He followed it, but that one street fanned off into many again, a maze of them, impossible to search by himself in due time. Meanwhile, Kay was all alone out there... He couldn't be far ahead yet but he had to catch up soon or it would be impossible. He had to take the risk. He let Bahryn out of the bag and pressed his face to her little head. "Help me find Kay. And then find me. Please hurry."
Bahryn just gave a little chitter and he felt his heart sink. Maybe it was asking too much of her. There was another chitter and she was off, a white-and-blue dart disappearing in the darkness.
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Finally, the man disappeared into a half-ruined building and Kay lowered his head in annoyance. It must be a trap of some sort and the man was probably armed but his options were limited. He couldn't let him go and disappoint Cassian. Besides, he was made for combat. Kay, he moved around the building to find a different entrance, getting in through a crumbled wall.
That, apparently, wasn't what the man had been expencting. Kay spotted him near the entrance, a gun in his hands and in a crouched position, waiting for someone to come through the door. His eyes went wide when he spotted the droid and immediately aimed his weapon at Kay. The ensuing minutes were a mess of blaster bolts, Stardust trying to electrocute the man, and Kay grabbing him by the wrist and holding him up until his feet stopped touching the ground.
And then, out of the blue, a cracking sound pierced through Kay's audio receptors and a jolt hit him right in the back. Normally, a little electricity wouldn’t be a problem. He was used to Stardust and Barhyn zapping him by accident.
Normally.
Whatever tech he had been zapped with, it had come from Nova City and it left his processor reeling, sending frantic, alarmed messaged to his HUD. Oh, that was bad.
He dropped the man and turned, arm stretched to hit the second man that had somehow followed them too without Kay noticing. His arm connected with something before the second jolt of electricity zapped his frame. He heard Stardust screeching as if in pain and then everything went black.
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Either way, he refused to wait and continued his search. If only he could call Kay and ask where he was... They needed to see about getting his internal systems hooked up right to the comm network.
Far too long minutes passed before Bahryn darted back to his side, ran around his legs with a squeak of, "Paaaaachirisuuuu!!!" and was off again. Cassian hastened after her, stealth now an afterthought. She hadn't sounded excited like when she had achieved a task. She had sounded scared.
He didn't need her to point out the building, an abandoned warehouse, there were the distinct signs of electric burns licking at the walls that he knew all too well from having two electric pokemon. Grimy windows shattered in the pattern of blaster damage. Cassian's heart sped up, then calmed as he closed his eyes, pressed his lips together and forced the panic back. Cold, sharp purpose filled his mind, no stray emotions permitted to cloud his reflexes, to keep him from fulfilling his mission.
"Don't get in the way," he whispered to Bahryn and slipped inside through a shattered window. There were more signs of battle inside, shattered crates, blaster burns and in the middle of the large, empty hall, a tiny dot of yellow laying lifeless on the floor.
"No!" he hissed when Bahryn made to dart forward, holding her in place by her bushy tail. It could be a trap, after all. He checked and double-checked before finally permitting himself to approach Stardust. He scooped the Joltik up gently, holding the tiny pokemon cradled in one hand while he searched for signs of life with the other. There was a steady little heartbeat and Cassian permitted himself a moment of relief.
The unconscious pokemon secured in a pocket, he continued the search. He could read the crime scene, the fight, could read where Kay had fallen by the skid marks beginning there and leading to... Nothing? Just grimy metal floor like all the grimy metal floor around it. They could have just gotten a hover sled or maybe...
It was a valiant attempt at hiding a trap door. It was that hideyholes were one of the Rebels's specialties. It took a minute to crack the mechanism once he'd found it, slightly longer to find it. Of course, the thing about hideyholes wasn't that they had to be well-hidden. They already served their purpose if nobody else could enter them without you knowing.
That was a problem. If you played fair. He threw Bahryn through the opening as soon as it had opened far enough, there was a shriek as she fell and then the familiar crackle of her bathing her surroundings in sparks of electricity. He slipped down the ladder just as the last crackles faded away to the sight of another grimy, mostly empty room, to the two men from the market at the far end of it - battered, injured, but still clearly recognizable. They'd been too far away to be knocked out by Bahryn, just startled - one stood frozen leaning over Kay slumped on the floor, the port at the back of his head and his chest panel both opened, hooked up to one of Nova's high-tech tablets.
The other fired with his one good hand.
The scene exploded once more into violence.
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I am me.
The droid repeated in his mind, trying to fight it. But the invasive feeling had persisted, growing in intensity, changing Kay's code in its wake and ramming through safewalls with the same care of a rancor in a china shop.
No. Stop. Stop. I am me. I am me. I am me.
It felt wrong, it hurt, to lose himself and to get back to what once he had been. Back to a basic programming with arbitrary rules of right and wrong were right was always the well being of the Empire. Back to old protocols, never erased, always impossible to do so.
Back to being a tool.
A murderer.
A property.
No. No no no no...I am me...I am...I am....I̸̘̥̦̞͖͇̬̙̍͋͋̅͟͢͞ a̫͓̰̹̗̣̲͊̿̄̈́̆̎̆̍͡m̳͓̫̖̳̌͆̃͋̌̋̾͆̿̕ͅ m̡̺̦͓͕̦̗̪͓̈́̓͛̄̑̽͞e̶̩̭̗̹̞̗̎̈̈́͆̉.̢̡̨͙̤̰͖̄͂̾͑̓̔͘͟͟͠.̴̻͖̗̘̄̂́̋̄̏̌̚͢͜.̧̨̠̙͕̲̫̗̝̐̀͂̿̊ͅI̛̗̭̩͓͕̲͔̿̀͐̀̀̒̕͡ ạ̵̼̯͍͎̣̃̆̿͆͐̑́̕͞m͖͉̟̲̬̦͐̃̎̍̅́̽͢͜ͅ.̵̢̯̣͕͈̥̻͇͇̭̃̅̈̏͊̐͘̚͠.̷̢̧̛͖͙̭̙͈͙̊̂͛̀ͅ.̡̡̛̫̝̜̻͍͎̮͊̅̃̿̏͑͐̚̕I̞̣̬̠̻̤͖̞͛̉̂̉͗̈́̂͂͡ â̧̛͔͕̞͖͂̔̇m͚̹̞͔̭͓̤͑̍̀̓̾͒̉͠ͅ.̹̞̩͓̙̮̒̂̍̀͘̚͜͝.̨̡̨̗͈̠̒̀͊̕̕͘͠.̵͕̝̯͓̝̾̇̌͒̈̎̅̿̆̚͜.̷̡̛̛͈̣͇̥̓̆̓͐̍̐̂̚͟
When the enforcer droid K-2SO opened his red optics to the world again, everything was in chaos. He would had frowned, if he had the capacity. Such was the way of weak creatures like Rebels and troublemakers, always spreading dysfunction. They could not be trusted with their own future, no wonder the Empire's mission was so important. Only the New Order could save them from themselves.
K-2SO stood up, his back straight and movements bold with purpose. He ripped off the cable at the back of his head, annoyed, and strode forward towards the nearest man. Distracted as he had been firing blasters at Cassian, it barely had any time to reach before K-2SO hoisted him by the shoulder. The droid twisted the man's arm in a way arms shouldn't be able to bend and then hurled him across the room. Their head hit one of the walls with a sickening crack and then K-2SO turned towards the others, red optics flaring like clots of blood.
You are being detained. Do not resist.