Easy Money? Not So Much.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

Having stepped through the gateway, Hijiri found himself gazing at the most beautiful city he had ever seen; not only was it far grander than anything on Earth, but even his own people's gorgeous lunar cities paled in comparison. In every direction, steel and glass buildings sparkled in the sunlight, as flying cars flew through the skies above, and he could even see an immaculate park off to the side of a nearby street.

“Come on, it's this way.” his stormtrooper guide informed him, waving him forward. The armoured man gave barely a glance at his surroundings, which Hijiri immediately remembered was how he ought to be acting as well; he had almost slipped into tourist mode there for a second. This would likely go better for him if he refrained from gaping at everything he passed; it was doubtful that the most advanced civilisation in the Omniverse would afford much respect to some slack-jawed yokel who behaved like he'd never seen a city before in his life.

As it turned out, there was an EPD Office only a few blocks from the gate, so it took little time to get there. Upon entering they were greeted by a woman who sat at a reception desk. She wore a crisp, grey military uniform and had shoulder-length auburn hair. On the desk before her sat two thin computers and some sort of device which seemed to be projecting a pale blue hologram. As they strode through the doors she glanced up and glared at the pair with the one eye not covered by her fringe.

“What the hell do you want, Dodson?” Hijiri glanced at his guide, who was presumably named 'Dodson', wondering how she seemed able to recognise him despite the fact that his armour bore no identifying marks whatsoever.

“Great news, Michelle, baby, I found a Prime who says he'd just love to join your crew, isn't that great!?” Judging by the way 'Michelle' started grating her teeth and twitching slightly as soon as he began speaking, the ex-Battle Rabbit guessed that her answer to that question was 'no'.

“Tell me, soldier...” she eventually began, after composing herself enough to speak, “Do you remember what happened the last time you 'forgot' to speak to me with the proper respect due to an officer of the Imperial Army?”

“Uh... actually, no, don't have a clue, doll. I remember waking up in a psych ward and hearing that you'd been demoted to little more than a glorified receptionist, and some people may have thrown around the term 'mindrape' – whatever that means – but no, I don't actually remember anything... sounds kinky, though, babe. I'm totally on board if you want seconds.”

The woman had gotten to her feet by this point, and looked just about ready to kill someone. Her nails were digging into the desk's wooden surface, and her knuckles had gone white. Figuring that this might not be the most successful job application ever if it ended in homicide, Hijiri decided that now might well be the time to step in; given how quickly this had escalated, one more comment from Dodson might well lead to a gunfight.

“Maybe it would be best if we just left,” he said, placing a hand on his guide's shoulder and attempting to lightly turn him back the way they'd come, “this officer is clearly busy with her duties and we really shouldn't waste her time.”

“No.” he had barely taken a step before she spoke up. “That brain-dead cretin is more than welcome to get out of my sight, but you should stay, Prime.”

“Aw, come on, cutie, you know you don't really-”

“Sorry.” the stormtrooper's voice was cut off as Hijiri shoved him outside and closed the thick, steel door in his face. He had no idea what the relationship was between these two (or what Dodson imagined their relationship to be, at least) but in the interests of not getting anyone killed, he decided this was probably for the best.

...

“Alright then. Introductions,” he turned to see the officer holding out a hand towards him. Her expression blank and professional, she seemed to have become utterly calm and collected the moment Dodson had left the building, “I'm Michelle Andreas, the officer in charge of this Recruitment Branch of the EPD. Should you decide to join us I will be your main liaison with Imperial command.”

“Pleased to meet you, Officer Andreas,” Hijiri shook her hand as he spoke. Judging by her lack of reaction to his calling her that, it seemed that he had been correct to assume by the Western sound of her names that the family name was actually the latter of the two, “I am Takanomiya Hijiri. With Takanomiya being my surname.”

“Right,” she nodded, apparently not unfamiliar with the idea that different peoples would often have differing grammatical customs. Sitting again, she went on, “I'll just note that down on your record here... now, to begin with you'll be attached to a small squad of stormtroopers and observed to see how effective you are in combat. Criminals should be taken alive if possible, but lethal force is authorised if necessary. As you're going to be the only one in the squad not in uniform, it is highly likely that you will be identified as a Prime and will be a priority target, should conflict break out, so taking stupid risks will get you killed. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. A lot of Primes like to see themselves as better than Secondaries, so it's not all that unusual for new ones to get themselves killed after getting overconfident and picking a fight they can't win.”

Hijiri tried his best to maintain his confident demeanour, hoping that that wasn't exactly what he was about to do.

“In order to perform this assignment you'll need to choose a Tier to be assigned to. This is Tier One, and the lowest Tier available is Tier Five, since Tiers Six & Seven no longer have routine patrols. The lower you go, the more dangerous it will be. That said, proving your value to the Empire will be much faster in the lower Tiers than it would be if you were to do nothing but patrol peaceful streets up here, understood?”

“Yes, sir.” he responded again, and after a moment's hesitation he made a decision which he was well aware must have been the height of stupidity. Still, he'd need to perform well if he wanted any sort of decent pay, so there was hardly any point wasting time up here. “I'd like to be assigned to Tier Five, sir.”

She sighed, and rolled the one of her eyes which he could see. Apparently, she wasn't too impressed.

“Right, of course, because you're a big, strong Prime who can just come back to life if anything goes wrong, huh? Fine, whatever, just make sure to listen to your sergeant. The last thing we need is to lose a whole squad of stormtroopers because you were too stubborn to back down from a fight and they were too stupid to leave you to die. Got that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fine. I've submitted your application now. There's a squad headed down to Tier Five in a few hours. They'll now be coming here to collect you first.”

Attempting Hand of the Empire quest.
Word Count: 1242, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 1242/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

The stormtrooper sergeant opened the door and stepped into the small office, stopping in his tracks when he noticed the suited man – presumably the Prime he was being forced to babysit – leaning his head against the wall, with a sheathed sword of some kind dangling from one limp hand, and an expression of utter despondency upon his face... whilst the registration officer smirked at him from behind her desk, lazily tapping away at random keys in a half-hearted attempt at fooling anyone who bothered to check this building's surveillance footage into thinking she was actually working.

No sooner had he opened his mouth to speak, however – intending to ask if this depressed-looking guy was seriously the person they were meaning to send down to Tier Five – when the woman suddenly frowned and cocked her head to one side. She held that pose for only a moment, before turning to glare venomously in his direction.

“And just what is he doing here, sergeant?” he barely managed to stifle a groan as – trying to avoid meeting her eyes – he glanced down and spotted the name plate on her desk. Michelle Andreas. That idiot's crazy ex-girlfriend. Great. Because this day clearly hadn't been off to a bad enough start already.

“Apologies, sir.” he replied, standing to attention now, not wanting to give her any more reason to hate him. Not if any of the rumours he'd heard were true. “We found him wandering the streets in full armour but with no partner or squad, and since we do generally work in teams, we were immediately suspicious. He claimed that the officer in charge of this branch had given him the day off as a reward for bringing in such a fine Prime, who would surely be a great asset to the Empire. We didn't believe him for a moment, of course, so we thought it best to bring him along whilst we verified his story... he never mentioned that you were the one stationed here, though, sir. Obviously we never would have brought him this far if we had known-”

He was cut off by a muffled yell and some cursing from behind him, and turned in time to see a stormtrooper stumble backwards and another rush past him and through the doorway. Despite the identical armour they wore, he knew who it must be immediately. Only one man he knew could be this stupid.

“Heya, hot stuff!” the newcomer cried out, advancing on Michelle's desk. She hissed as he approached. Actually hissed at him. Why was it always him who had to get caught up in other people's idiotic drama? The sergeant wondered, as he slowly backed away. Just then, however, the miserable Prime suddenly perked up.

“Dodson?” he asked, spinning around to face the room, suddenly light on his feet. “Oh man, am I ever glad to see you...”

For a moment the sergeant thought he'd misheard, being pleased to see Dodson was such an unfamiliar concept to the man. But then he noticed the change in expression. Far from being dejected, his face now bore a sadistic grin... and he had begun drawing his sword. Ah, yes, this was more reasonable. Still, murder was murder, no matter how irritating the victim. He raised his blaster, aiming it directly at the oncoming Prime's chest; there was no way he could miss at this range.

“Takanomiya, stop!” barked Michelle, shocking all three of them for a moment with what seemed like it might actually be some small concern for Dodson's well-being... before she continued speaking. “Even if he is a miserable little worm, you can't kill him unless you want to wake up back in the Nexus... however, he did just knock over a member of your new squad before bursting in here... so I'm sure no one would blame you for using a little non-lethal force to subdue him, especially considering how violent he's now acting.”

“Violent? Babe, I'd never-” was all Dodson managed before the Prime spoke over him.

“Oh yes sir, you're absolutely right, I think he's lost it. If he isn't subdued soon he'll be a danger to everyone around him.” so saying, the man continued to advance, his wicked smile back in full force. He dropped his blade and started cracking his knuckles as he did, ignoring the sergeant completely. Dodson tried to object, but the 'Takanomiya' person had shoved him outside before he could get very far, and then followed him out, loudly slamming the door behind him.

“Just what the hell was that all about, sir?” the stormtrooper asked, turning back to his superior. He was somewhat disconcerted to see an evil grin on her face eerily similar to that of the new Prime she had just recruited. Damn crazy people.

“Ah, yes,” she chuckled slightly, “well, it seems that our new recruit there ran into Dodson not long after being summoned by Omni, and that repulsive wretch agreed to fill him in on all the essential details about this reality, but decided it would be a good idea not to let him know just how easy it is for Primes to acquire all the Omnilium they need to survive. Takanomiya didn't even know it was possible to extract Omnilium from objects, and he certainly wasn't aware that Primes could passively gain it, simply by wandering around doing any old thing. Dodson had let him believe that he'd actually need to find a job in order to get by.”

“Ah, I see... wait... I do see!” for the first time today, since receiving the notice that he was to pick up a new Prime and escort the man around Tier Five, the stormtrooper sergeant was actually feeling slightly optimistic, “Now that he knows that, he has no reason to risk his life like that, does he, sir!?”

Worryingly, though, Michelle burst into a fit of laughter.

“That's what he thought too. You should have seen his mind light up. It was hilarious. For some reason, though, he's got the idea into his thick skull that we're all poor unfortunates beset on all sides by vile oppressors... we probably have Dodson to thank for that one, that brainless oaf always did have quite an imagination. In any case, he wants to help us, and apparently believes he can't do that properly without making a reputation for himself... so I convinced him to join you anyway.”

He wasn't quite sure what to say to that. On one hand, he was greatly disappointed to hear that he would still be getting saddled with a novice Prime – and judging by Officer Andreas' opinions, not even a particularly intelligent one, at that – but on the other, he was a little freaked out, to be honest. He had never really liked the idea of these 'mutant' people with their strange powers, and this mental stuff was the worst of the lot. He had no idea how powerful she actually was, of course; she might just have got that information from a simple conversation, after all... but then again, maybe not. Maybe she was even rummaging around inside his brain right this moment. He wished he could just leave.

“Yes, yes, you're dismissed sergeant,” she said, waving a hand lazily as she turned back to her computers. Hurriedly grabbing Takanomiya's weapon from where the man had casually discarded it, he hastened to exit the building before she changed her mind.

No sooner had he done so, however, than he was confronted by the sight of the Prime looming over Dodson, who was curled up into a ball in the middle of the street. The other 'troopers were just loitering around watching the 'fight', apparently not caring enough to actually want to stick up for the cowering idiot in their midst. Whilst he could understand their feelings, as a man in a position of some authority, the sergeant knew he had to put a stop to this. No sooner had he taken a single step forward, though, than the door behind him swung partially open and Michelle stuck out her head.

“Oh, by the way, I almost forgot; I'm assigning that vile maggot to your squad, sergeant. Don't worry, though, I'll make sure no one'll blame you if he gets accidentally brutally murdered whilst down there.” so saying, she darted back inside and slammed the steel panel shut behind her. There was a moment of silence after that, then the sergeant turned back around in time to see Takanomiya pull his new comrade up into a sitting position and casually throw an arm around his shoulders.

“Hear that, Dodson, we're going to be on the same squad now. Isn't that just great?” the Prime asked. Dodson whimpered in response. The sergeant sighed glumly.

Great. Really great. This day just kept getting better and better.

Word Count: 1493, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 2735/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

The lift came to a halt and its doors opened smoothly. The street beyond was barely lit in comparison to the bright vibrance of Tier One, though there was still some light, mainly in the form of the occasional functioning street lamp, and the grimy headlights of the cars and other vehicles which packed the roads. Clearly, despite being an utter dump, Coruscant's slums were packed to the brim. It was sad to see that such a thing lurked beneath the veneer of the proud, powerful nation which the Empire liked to display to the tourists above. Hijiri hoped that one day these people too could be blessed with the same peace and security afforded the well-off citizens of Tier One.

“Alright, move out.” the sergeant ordered, and his men began cautiously exiting the lift, leaving behind its comforting illusion of safety. During the trip here he had been quickly introduced to his new companions, and though he had yet to memorise all of their names, and still had no idea how to tell them apart in their armour, he had at least learnt that their sergeant was called 'Davion Calrime'... not a name he'd heard before on Earth, but not too weird, especially compared to a couple of the others here. He also now knew that Dodson's first name was 'Trevor'.

In addition to being introduced to one another, his squad-mates had also suggested using some of the supply of Omnilium which he previously hadn't even realised he had to summon something called a 'Mobile Dataverse Device & Communicator'. Judging by the description they'd given him, it sounded like it served much the same purpose in this reality as a smartphone would have done on Earth, and so that was what he had pictured in his mind when summoning it. It'd be useful if he got separated from them during a fight, they'd told him... though so far he had been using it just to browse the 'Dataverse'; their version of the internet. Stuffing the phone in a pocket as the last of the stormtroopers left the lift, he followed them out into the streets.

“Most of you already know the drill, but I'll go over it again for the sake of our two newcomers. Starting from this spot we have a specific circuit to patrol. Whilst patrolling we look down side-streets and through the windows of buildings, as well as those of any stationary or slow-moving vehicles; which with the usual congestion around here means almost all of them. We do not go on detours and we do not react to 'suspicious noises'. Walking into a dark alley after hearing someone coincidentally scream for help at the exact moment you happen to be passing by is a good way to get yourselves ambushed and slaughtered... no matter how tough you might think you are.” Davion looked directly at Hijiri as he said this, and the ex-Battle Rabbit assumed that beneath the helmet he was being glared at. For some reason, around here new Primes seemed to have a reputation for being either extremely overconfident or perhaps just plain stupid.

After making sure to get a 'yes, sir' from both Hijiri and Trevor, the sergeant led them out towards the roads. Since the traffic was rarely moving faster than a crawl they were indeed forced to look through the windows of just about every vehicle they passed, just as the sergeant had said, searching for anything obviously illegal, such as stashes of drugs, piles of weaponry or perhaps even bound and gagged abductees. It wouldn't be the first time if they spotted a kidnapping-in-progress, Davion assured the squad's new members.

To begin with Trevor practically jumped out of his skin at every sudden noise, and Hijiri was attempting to match the diligence with which the other 'troopers performed their duties... but the novelty soon began to wear thin. Rudely peering into the cars of frightened or angry citizens was hardly the heroic fight against crime he had envisaged when signing up. In fact, in the entire first hour of their patrol the most interesting thing to happen was when they saw a little kid who looked to be about eight playing with a bundle of toy weapons.

The man who spotted them immediately levelled his blaster at the car, terrifying the child and his mother. It was then that Hijiri learned of the existence of 'anime swords'; apparently it was possible for Primes to make absolutely anything into a deadly weapon, simply by pouring enough Omnilium into it; even if the item had originally been nothing more than a child's toy.

As it turned out in this instance, though, the kid's 'arsenal' was, in fact, just a bunch of regular toys, and the squad was forced to awkwardly apologise to a very angry parent. Hijiri was just barely able to avoid sighing out loud. He got the distinct impression that this wasn't anywhere near as rare an occurrence as he would have liked.

And so it was that he and Trevor ended up taking their duties a little more lightly than was perhaps wise. Of course, their sergeant had prepared for this, and so until he had time to train them properly – a process which would begin the moment they reached the barracks that lay at the end of their patrol route, he assured them – he was making sure to have more experienced members of the squad covering the same areas they were, so that nothing would be missed.

Nevertheless, that didn't change the fact that neither of them were actually expecting anything to go wrong by this point, and so when the first gunshots rang out and two stormtroopers collapsed immediately, they were both taken completely by surprise.

Word Count: 962, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 3697/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

The first to fall cried out and clutched at her shoulder where the blast of energy had torn straight through and cauterised her flesh behind it. The second was not so lucky. The shot that had taken him down had struck right between his eyes, killing him instantly.

At this point in time the road was completely locked in one huge traffic jam, which had left these criminals nowhere to run without being extremely obvious about it. Clearly, they had chosen to attack pre-emptively, rather than allowing their vehicle to be searched; presumably because there was something illegal stashed within.

No sooner had the first shots been fired than the car's doors burst open, and the criminal scum were scrambling out. It seemed for a moment like they had little to no chance of surviving; they continued shooting as they got out, but the stormtroopers (with the exception of Trevor) had turned to face them as one, and already had their blasters trained on the fools.

They weren't expecting the reinforcements, though. The doors of two more vehicles up ahead had also swung wide, and more thugs were hurriedly leaving those. One of their gang members had even raised his upper body out of the sunroof of the central vehicle – some sort of van-like contraption – and began laying down covering fire. With the 'troopers suddenly on the back foot themselves, the conflict immediately dissolved into utter chaos, with bright red bolts of energy (plus the occasional bullet) flying in every direction, and bystanders screaming as they too fled their cars in their hurry to escape the violence. They were fortunate to have done so; it wasn't long before a few off-target shots hit some of the other cars, and small fires broke out.

Taken completely by surprise as they had been, only Hijiri and Trevor had not immediately reacted to the onslaught, and so – perhaps sensing weakness – a pair from the first car ran straight at them whilst their more experienced comrades were distracted by other fighters. The pair wore shabby-looking grey and white clothes, and one held what looked like a customised imperial blaster, whilst the other had an ordinary handgun.

Trevor contributed helpfully by shrieking in terror and firing three shots: one missed by an inch or so, one missed by a couple of feet, and one hit a nearby stormtrooper in the upper arm, causing the man to cry out in pain and drop his blaster. The first action Hijiri took after drawing his katana was to fling the scabbard directly at Dodson, knocking the imbecile from his feet and thankfully sending the man's blaster flying. This was going to be tough enough as it was; having that fool for backup would have been a death sentence.

Aiming to close the distance between them and hopefully give his foes a shock in the process, he used his ability to lower gravity's effect on his body and propelled himself forward in a burst of speed far beyond what they were expecting. With two of them bearing down on him at once, though, the former Battle Rabbit knew he couldn't afford to go easy on them if he hoped to live. Taking a swing with his sword, he cancelled his ability's effect at the last moment – returning his weight to normal – just in time to slice open the first man's throat.

As a gout of blood burst forth from the wound, Hijiri side-stepped out of the way of the falling corpse and began turning to face the other man, only to see the barrel of a gun pointed directly at his face. He jerked his head to the side just a fraction of a second before the trigger was pulled, and felt the bullet pass him by. It couldn't have been much more than a centimetre – perhaps not even so much as that – from having torn a hole in his ear. Even with his abnormal – almost inhuman – speed, he knew it was luck as much as anything that had saved him there.

The criminal was not so fortunate. Diving forwards the instant the shot was past – knowing full well that he couldn't afford to give his foe the chance to try again – Hijiri rolled the moment he touched the ground, then jumped up to stand with only inches between the two men. At this distance he couldn't really swing his sword properly – he could barely swing at all in fact – but the handgun was pointed past him now, and it would take the man a moment to adjust his aim. Plenty of time.

The Rabbit slammed his forehead into the thug's nose, and was pleased to hear the cartilage break. Stumbling backwards in pain, as blood began to pour from his nose, his foe gave Hijiri the space he needed. Reversing his katana, so that the dull, edge-less side of the blade could be used, he clasped the hilt with both hands and struck out at the off-balance man's knee, shattering that too. The gangster fell. Hijiri kicked the pistol out of his hand, sending it skittering under a nearby car, then gave him a hard kick in the face for good measure.

Whilst he clearly remembered Officer Andreas telling him that members of the EPD had the jurisdiction to use lethal force if necessary, he would still prefer not to do so if possible. It had been his duty to protect humans back in his own world; to go from that to mercilessly butchering them just felt wrong... even if the ones in this realm didn't have 'possession by Ogres' as a plausible excuse for their evil actions.

Moving on from that man, he could see that the first car had been cleared entirely, and the man in the sunroof of the second vehicle had also been slain. Several more dead and wounded – thug and stormtrooper alike – lay on the pavement. Remaining in place for a moment or so as he focused on the hand gripping his weapon, to bring forth the energy he required for what would come next, Hijiri then sprung forward through the air, turning as he did, to build up some momentum.

He landed directly in front of a woman whose teeth had been filed down to points. She wore the same grey and white clothing as the others. She'd spotted him almost the instant he had darted at her, though, was holding a blaster in each hand, and had already begun turning to point them his way even as she tried to jump backwards to put some distance between them. It wasn't enough, of course; she was quite fit for a human, it was true, but she was hardly a match for his speed. He had landed mid-turn, and so already had plenty of momentum behind his next swing. On top of that, he released all the power he had gathered thus far; boosting the strength of gravity around his hand and sword, to significantly increase their weight. Still using the back of the blade, his katana struck her elbow with more than enough force to shatter bone.

To her credit, the woman's only response was to grunt in pain. Landing and rolling backwards even as one blaster slipped from limp fingers, she ended her roll kneeling on one knee and with her remaining weapon aimed his way; barely even seeming to notice her severe injury. It was a much, much more efficient response than he had been expecting.

Hardly pausing to think – he didn't have time – Hijiri jumped straight up; far higher than she could have anticipated. Four bolts of energy darted out after him, but her aim had yet to adjust properly to his sudden change in speed and altitude, and all four were off the mark... though Hijiri couldn't help but notice that each blast came substantially closer than the previous one, despite there being only milliseconds between each shot.

He had underestimated this one quite severely, it seemed, and now – reaching the apex of his leap – he was losing momentum; slowing down even as her accuracy was improving. This instinctive move to jump out of harm's way may not have been such a good idea after all.

Just then, a shot from one of the stormtroopers which was either amazingly accurate or miraculously lucky blasted the gun straight out of her hand, melting most of the barrel in the process.

For a moment she seemed stumped, and didn't react at all, but then the gangster leapt to her feet, cursed in frustration and charged the shooter, pulling a small knife from her belt as she did. Not allowing her to intimidate him in the slightest, the 'trooper calmly, methodically levelled his gun at her chest. It was blatantly obvious to anyone watching how this confrontation would end, yet the woman showed no sign of fear.

And then Hijiri landed. With an arm already outstretched and having come to rest practically right behind her, all it took was one swift motion for him to crack the pommel of his sword into her temple. Before she could even begin to turn and face him, the woman collapsed, sprawling limp and unconscious on the pavement. He nodded at the stormtrooper who had helped him – who had saved him, if he was being honest – then turned to see how many more remained, only to notice that the fighting had ceased.

Their patrol had originally numbered fifteen, whilst their attackers – he did a quick head count – seemed to have had eighteen fighters. Of those, five stormtroopers remained standing... well, six, after Trevor realised it was over, shoved aside the corpse he had been hiding under and got to his feet. None of the gangsters were still on their feet.

“You two, secure the captives!” Davion yelled, gesturing towards Hijiri and the 'trooper who had just helped him out.

“You and you,” he pointed at a couple of the others, “do what you can for our wounded.”

“And Dodson, you slimy piece of human excrement, you're with me!” going by the sergeant's word choice, it appeared that Hijiri was not the only one to have noticed Trevor's cowardly actions. “We're searching those cars and taking whatever they have that could be of value to the Empire!”

The former Battle Rabbit and his partner gathered up a few sets of handcuffs from the other members of the squad as they went about their tasks, then set about checking to see how many enemies had survived the firefight. By the time they were done, they had a grand total of seven captives, though three were so badly injured they were unlikely to survive the next few minutes. Laser guns, it seemed, were not exactly the ideal weapons if one was seeking to take prisoners.

He had just finished passing those numbers on to Davion when one of the would-be medics approached, having also finished his rounds.

“Six wounded, sir. Two of those in critical condition. Three dead.” he stated succinctly.

The sergeant grunted non-committally. “At least most of us got through it, I suppose. This could easily have gone much worse. I've notified command, though, so just hold tight for now, they'll be sending us a transport, so we can head over to the nearest barracks soon. In the mean time, help me unload these damn suitcases.”

Davion and Trevor had already begun raiding the two cars and the bigger vehicle between them, and had so far dragged out three huge, padlocked suitcases, with more still to come, it seemed. Whatever their new prisoners had been involved in, it seemed pretty big.

Word Count: 1963, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 5660/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

The squad bar Trevor and Davion was spread out across the medical bay, with the five injured in beds as they were left to recover from their various treatments. One of the most critically injured had died, and the other would remain incapacitated for around a week, according to the barracks' resident robotic doctor (a 'medical droid', the stormtroopers called it). Other than that, though, the remaining members of the squad would all be combat-ready by tomorrow. Such was the level of technology available in Coruscant.

Hijiri had been leaning up against one wall and conversing in low tones with the man who had saved him earlier, who apparently was called 'Kroll vor Iechtelstier'... it had taken him several tries to get the pronunciation right on that surname. One of the others sat slumped in a chair by the bed of the woman who'd been hit in the shoulder, whilst the last member paced back and forth with clenched fists. He stopped moving and they all turned when the doors opened and in strode their sergeant, followed by Trevor, who managed to look utterly miserable even with the helmet concealing his expression. He'd been assigned latrine duty for the next month, as a result of his actions... though that had been entirely Davion's own decision; he had chosen not to report the 'trooper's cowardice to Imperial Command.

Hijiri didn't much approve of keeping things from their superiors... but Trevor would almost certainly have been court martialed for what he had done, Kroll had said... and Imperial justice could be... strict, at times. He may not have been liked – barely even tolerated, actually – but no one here hated him that much.

“Orders have come in,” Davion stated without preamble, “Command wants to give the gang responsible for this smuggling operation as little time to react as possible. As such, we won't be waiting on reinforcements; everyone fit for combat will head out tomorrow morning, hopefully before they have the opportunity to move their stock or prepare any surprises.”

Four of the captives had survived their wounds. Of those, three had been impressively resistant to 'questioning'. One, however, was barely into his teens. It hadn't taken much to convince him to give up what he knew. It wasn't much, but they'd learned the drop-off location for the guns, and also now knew who they were dealing with; a gang which called itself the 'Northside Wolfpack'. Apparently, the name came from a rumour that they were actually werewolves.

“We'll be going in alone. No other squads can be spared to assist with this, despite the chance that we could end up massively out-gunned. Most of you likely expected this. Takanomiya, Dodson, you two probably did not. You should be able to understand, though; this isn't Tier One, we don't have vast troop reserves down here. We just have to make do with whoever we do have at any given time, and right now, that means only those people present here in this room. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Hijiri answered immediately. Having already been told by Kroll what their orders would likely be, he was prepared for this. He knew they'd be counting on him, as a Prime, to do a large portion of the fighting by himself. Judging by the stories he'd heard – both from the squad and via the Dataverse – it seemed that Primes typically wielded all manner of strange and awe-inspiring abilities. True, Secondaries could technically do the same, but it was far rarer for them. Primes, being hand-picked by Omni, tended to be a lot more impressive.

Though he was easily able to act calm and assured, privately Hijiri worried that he might not be up to the task at hand in his current state. He still had nowhere near the reserves of Omnilium he'd need in order to access his true form... and without that, he wasn't worth much more in a fight than just a couple of stormtroopers. He had only defeated three of those thugs the other day... if the odds had been even slightly worse, he could easily have wound up dead.

“... Yes, sir...” groaned Trevor pathetically. Davion sighed, but didn't otherwise react to the idiot's unprofessional attitude. It was a far cry from how enthusiastic that fool had been when Hijiri first met him, only yesterday. Apparently, coming face-to-face with the reality of the situation on the lower tiers had really intimidated him. Perhaps he hadn't realised how pitiful and cowardly he was until now... it wasn't like Tier One had a lot of crime, after all, whilst they did have many, many stormtroopers. It was entirely possible that he'd never actually been placed in a real life-or-death situation until now.

Hell, maybe he'd even considered himself pretty brave before this; his position as one of those guarding the Nexus Gate – where any random Prime could come along and brutally murder you without having to worry about Judge Dredd or the Space Marines showing up to stomp them into the ground – must be a riskier assignment than strolling through the safe and cheery shopping districts and public parks of Tier One. Finding out the truth about his nature must have really been a blow to his ego. If not for the fact that one or two of their fallen squadmates might still be alive right now had Trevor performed competently in that battle, Hijiri might even have felt sorry for him.

“Alright, and the rest of you? I assume you're all prepared for this?”

“Yes, sir!” the rest of the squad chorused in perfect synchronisation. Even the 'trooper who had almost died – and was still on life support at the moment, actually – took part, though it was glaringly obvious that he wouldn't be fit for anything. Hijiri was impressed. Back home, all of his allies had been just as brave... but they had also been far more powerful. Casualties had been a rarity even in the lower ranks of their Earth Defence Force, whereas these people had watched four of their comrades gunned down mere hours ago, and still didn't hesitate for even a moment. It was a lot to live up to.

Davion nodded. “Good. Now, Nash, I'd like to speak to you for a moment. The rest of you who're uninjured had best return to your rooms; you'll be needing your rest for what comes tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.” they said again, before heading out. Trevor, being closest to the door, left first, then Hijiri, Kroll and that pacing guy headed after him. Davion and the man who had been sitting glumly brought up the rear, closing the infirmary door behind them and hanging back. Briefly glancing over a shoulder as he walked, Hijiri noticed the sergeant give 'Nash' a pat on the shoulder, whilst speaking quietly enough to keep their conversation private. The man nodded a couple times and stood straighter. Though slightly curious, the ex-Battle Rabbit knew it was none of his business, so decided to simply forget about it.

After reaching the residential section of the 'racks, they all split up and each headed for their separate rooms.
Once there, it didn't take Hijiri long at all to get to sleep. That had been quite the... eventful day.

Word Count: 1222, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 6882/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

The transport they were using now was different from the one they'd taken on their way back to the 'racks the other day. That one had been some sort of troop-transport aircraft, which had been sent since speed had been of the essence, due to all the wounded squad-members. This thing, on the other hand, had been chosen for stealth. It was an old, grimy & battered-looking unmarked van with black-tinted windows. In other words, it'd blend right in on Tier Five. Despite its appearance, though, it was actually much sturdier than it looked; those rusted walls could stop bullets and lasers alike.

As the last of them filed in and sat – the interior of the van was a lot like a transport helicopter; with a row of seats at either side of the vehicle, facing in towards each other – someone swung the van's rear doors closed and they were off...

For a moment. Then they pulled out into the street and almost immediately were caught in a traffic jam. The others had said to expect this. Tier Five was poorly maintained and far lower-budget than the upper tiers. It was also far smaller than Tier One, with much cheaper housing, and as such, it was packed. It really was a great indication as to the necessity of civilisation to sentient beings that so many people would actually prefer to live in a crime-ridden hole like this than in one of the other verses, like the Tangled Green or Camelot.

They waited. And waited. And waited.

They moved!

…

… About three feet, then stopped again.

And waited some more. And some more. Then a little bit after that.

The most irritating thing was that the NSW cell's building wasn't even all that far from here. It was actually going to take them substantially longer to get there in this way than it would simply by walking, never mind taking the airborne transport. Sadly, without knowing what they were up against, it would be much too risky to let the gangsters see them coming, which meant driving around in this thing and then hopefully finding some way to sneak in.

As they waited the stormtroopers either sat staring straight ahead patiently or else checked over their weapons to make sure everything was in working order. Taking a cue from them, and feeling like he might as well be doing something with his time, Hijiri focused and held out one hand in front of him. A few of them paid attention as a small globe of Omnilium floated up from his palm to hover just above it as the mystery item was created within.

“Huh? What're you up to now, man?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.

A few minutes later, the bubble burst to reveal... a rock.

“A rock?” Trevor asked. Hijiri ignored him.

Catching it, then unsheathing his katana, the former Battle Rabbit began running the whetstone across the length of the blade. He honestly had no idea how effective – if at all – sharpening a sword would be in a universe where an overpriced toy could be just as lethal – if not more so – than a highly advanced laser gun, of the sort wielded by his stormtrooper compatriots.

But it wasn't like he had anything better to do.

…

Time passed.

…

“Anyone want to play a game?” Trevor asked. “How about I-Spy? Rock-Paper-Scissors? Tic-Tac-Toe? … No? No one? Really?”

“Shut up, Dodson.” Davion sounded more bored than angry. Though, of course, he still wasn't to the point of being desperate enough to actually want to listen to what that idiot had to say.

They went back to sitting quietly, except for the noises of Hijiri whetting his blade and a few of the others looking over their guns for the fiftieth time or so... this was a pretty long journey.

At one point the Rabbit noticed the guy sitting next to him looking down at his Dataverse Device and realised that the 'trooper had an earphone cable going from the device up underneath his helmet. Glancing at the screen, he saw that the man was watching a video of two kittens playing.

Realising that there were actually better things to do than sharpen an already sharp katana, Hijiri sheathed the weapon, re-absorbed the Omnilium he had used to make the whetstone, took out his smartphone-shaped Device, and began to browse the Omniverse's internet, looking for something to entertain him for however many hours this journey had left in it.

…

At some point, they managed to speed up to something above a snail's pace, and from then it took only a few more minutes before they had arrived at their destination.

The two in the front left the vehicle first, and once they were sure there was no one around, the van's rear doors were swung wide and the rest of the 'troopers spilled out. They'd parked in a dingy back alley scarcely a dozen metres from their target. The good news was that the building appeared to be nothing more than an old warehouse, and it didn't seem like there were any sentries keeping watch. The bad news was that there was only one entrance; a metal gate designed to be large enough to fit trucks. Judging by the rectangular patches of slightly less discoloured brick, it seemed that this had previously had a few human-sized doors as well, but at some point not all that long ago – when the gang moved in, presumably – those had been bricked up.

They had ensured that anyone who wanted to come at them would have to do so head-on. There would be no stealthy lock-picking and sneaking in here. Other than that one entrance the warehouse looked just like a big, cubic lump of bricks. There weren't even any windows.

“Takanomiya, jump up there and take a look around, just be careful you're not seen,” after yesterday's battle, Davion had made a point of taking some time to go through everything Hijiri could do with him; he wanted to know exactly what capacities his new underling had, so as to best utilise him in the field, “it's unlikely we'll find anything so fortunate as a skylight to sneak down through, but it's worth a try, at least.”

“Yes, sir.” Hijiri took a moment to warp gravity around him in such a way as to drastically lower his weight, before jumping straight up, dozens of feet into the air. He had judged the amount of force needed for the leap perfectly, and reached the apex of his jump just in time to grab ahold of the edge of the roof before he would have fallen back down. He could have gone further up had he wanted to, but if there were guards on duty here, that just might give the game away.

Instead, he braced his feet against the brick wall and slowly pulled himself upwards, until his eyes were high enough to peek out across the rooftop. There was absolutely nothing there.

He dropped back down, landed as lightly as a feather, sighed and shook his head at the sergeant. “Sorry, sir, nothing but more brick up there.”

“Yes, I expected as much.” Davion nodded. “Alright then, we have no choice; we're going in through the front. Is everyone prepared?”

“Yes, sir!” chorused most of the squad in perfect synchronisation.

"Yes, s-" started Trevor, before realising he was too late and tailing off lamely...

Keeping to the shadows as much as their gleaming white armour would allow as they approached, it wasn't long before they reached the gate; a retractable metal plate, which at the moment was pulled up and back into the building, leaving the entrance wide open. They were just preparing to storm in when a dazed-looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth walked out with his hands in his pockets. He was dressed entirely in white and grey, and there was a white wolf with the letters 'NSW' printed beneath it on the front of his t-shirt. All things considered, it wasn't exactly a subtle hint that they'd come to the right place.

“... Huh?” asked the man as he slowly turned to face them, not seeming remotely surprised, afraid or angry to see them... whatever he was smoking was apparently pretty effective.

Davion shot him.

“Steve!” someone yelled from inside, a moment later, “Everyone, look! Some asshole just shot Steve!”

This voice was followed by numerous others seemingly enraged by their friend's demise, many of them promising either a swift death or an extremely slow, tortuous death to those responsible for the attack. The first five to reach the gateway bolted through without a second thought, firing wildly and hoping to hit someone.

As almost the entire squad was pressed up against the wall, they did not. Instead, all of their bullets and lasers flew off in completely the wrong direction, and they began turning just in time to get cut down in a hail of blaster fire.

“They're up against the wall!” called someone who apparently wasn't a complete idiot. For a moment, nothing happened. They could hear furious whispering from inside the building, but no one else emerged.

“You think you got us cornered, huh, swine? You clearly ain't got no idea the kinda goods we got stashed in here.” one of them said, seeming completely assured as to his odds of winning this fight... which was a little worrying, given he didn't even know how many stormtroopers his people were up against; if this raid was anything other than a hastily arranged mess, then there would likely be at least three squads this size, if not even larger ones.

“Go!”

Around the corner leaped two men, one holding what looked like a plastic riot shield, while the other aimed a fat, six-chambered rifle of some kind so that the shots it fired would fly over his ally's head. It took Hijiri only a moment to realise that he was looking at a grenade launcher.

Oh, shit.

“Move!” yelled Davion, almost before the pair had even appeared before them, his reaction was so fast.

Hijiri sprung up and forwards, intent upon flying straight over their heads. The others scattered.

There was a sharp bang as the gun fired its first round, followed almost immediately by a huge explosion. Spinning in mid-air to see what had become of his allies, the first thing the ex-Battle Rabbit noticed was the huge cloud of smoke.

The second was Davion. Whereas most of them had ran back or to the sides, their sergeant had accurately predicted that their enemies were probably not all that likely to want to blow themselves up by firing a grenade launcher at close range, and so had dived forwards instead.

Thrown off balance for a second by the shockwave, the shield-bearer was unable to move quickly enough to intercept him. Rolling, then coming up in a crouch with the grenadier directly between him and the rest of them within the building, Davion fired, landing a neat headshot before snatching the launcher from the air the moment it slipped free of the dead man's fingers.

Hijiri drew his katana and dived forwards the moment he landed. Davion was aiming his new gun straight into the warehouse, but was standing barely over a metre from the shield-bearer, who had now turned to place his shield between himself and the rest of the squad, whilst drawing a pistol with his free hand. In a moment, the sergeant would find himself in the same state as the launcher's previous owner.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, those within the warehouse began firing. Miraculously, Hijiri was not hit during the split-second it took him to dart through the air and ram into the shield-bearer, impaling the man on his sword and knocking him back a couple metres as well in the process. The gangster's shot went wide. Davion fired three shots, one after the other, right into the crowd within. Explosions sounded. More than just three. There must have been some other explosive 'goods' inside. Perhaps stashing all that stuff in one place hadn't been such a great idea after all.

There were screams, then wails, then moans, then coughs as the dying died and the wounded ran out of air amidst the smoke which now billowed out of the one exit in clouds. Apparently, this place didn't have particularly good ventilation.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen and it seemed like Davion might actually have almost single-handedly wiped out an entire building's worth of criminal thugs and lived to tell the tale.

But then he fell to his knees, and just before he collapsed entirely, the former Battle Rabbit noticed that his commander had been shot at the very least six times... it was impressive that he'd even managed to remain on his feet long enough to take those shots.

And then, as Hijiri – along with whoever else had survived that first grenade – rushed over to their fallen sergeant, a slow, sarcastic clapping started up, coming from somewhere in the back of the warehouse...

Word Count: 2213, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 9095/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

“Who's there!?” a stormtrooper shouted, vaguely aiming his blaster in the general direction of the noise. The former Battle Rabbit was pleased to recognise the voice as Kroll's. Not only was that guy probably his closest friend amongst them, but more importantly, he was also their best sharpshooter.

“There is no need to shoot, I am unarmed. I promise.” the clapping did not stop as the man spoke... and judging by the sound, he was closing the distance between them.

“Sergeant! Sergeant, can you hear me!?” one of the others yelled as she crouched by the fallen man's side and began shaking him frantically. Given that there was currently just one woman left in the squad – the only other having been killed during the previous day's conflict – this would have to be Priya Singh.

“Priya!” A third 'trooper arrived, hauling the woman back before she made Davion's condition even worse, before tearing off his helmet – revealing the bright crimson hair and eyes of Leon Nash – and placing an ear on Davion's chest; trying to pick up a heartbeat over the sound of clapping and encroaching footsteps.

“Stop that nonsense and-” Davion snarled, giving him a shove, before breaking out in a fit of coughing. Blood spilled from his mouth and splattered against the concrete pavement. “... help me up...”

His voice sounded much weaker after the coughing. Priya and Leon shared a glance, before they lifted the man between them, and began backing off from the warehouse.

“We'll take him back to the transport.” the female 'trooper told them, then nodded towards the clouds of smoke still billowing from the warehouse. “The rest of you, handle the mystery guy.”

“... no, don't-”

“Will do.” Kroll said with a nod, completely ignoring his commanding officer's attempt at giving an order. In his current state, the sergeant would be lucky to survive even without being caught up in another firefight. And if the clapping guy did turn out to be harmless, they could easily arrest him without the help of a dying man.

No sooner had they made their departure than two people strode forth from the smoke: a slim, blue-eyed white man with shorn blond hair, dressed in a tatty white suit with grey patches sewn on in various spots, presumably covering tears in the fabric; and a lithe black woman with her dark hair braided in cornrows, who wore a white t-shirt with a grey wolf logo and white, three-quarter length tracksuit bottoms. The man's shoes were grey leather, though they seemed just as cheap as his suit. The woman was barefoot. He smirked at them, while her expression was utterly impassive.

“Well, well, well done.” the suit said cheerily, finally ceasing his clapping.

“Who are you two?” demanded Kroll, directing his weapon their way, as Hijiri and the few others who had gathered around him did the same.

“Who are we? Me, I am no one, just another weak and unimportant gangster in a tier filled with them. Hardly worth your time, Mr Stormtrooper.” the man seemed practically on the point of laughing, for some reason. “My dear associate, here, though...”

“I'm his Ace in the Hole.” the woman jerked a thumb toward the smiling man as she spoke, sounding faintly bored. Hijiri had been given a basic rundown on Tier Five slang the other day, and so was familiar with the term. She was a Prime.

Immediately, every stormtrooper's aim shifted towards her. The man laughed, and slid both hands into his pockets, backing away a few steps.

“Will you come peacfully, or force us to gun you down?” Kroll demanded coldly. The woman didn't react, and the man apparently found that threat amusing. No doubt it was apparent from their lack of reinforcements that this was not a well planned operation. It was probably pretty obvious that their squad would not be equipped with any Banishment Circles in a situation like this, so there wasn't really a whole lot they could do to threaten someone who could simply return from the dead after a week had passed.

“Now, now, now, my good man,” he began, happily, “let's not be too hasty here. How about we make a little bargain? You agree to fight my associate without firing upon me, and I will refrain from interfering in the battle? As a bonus, I even swear to surrender peacefully should you defeat her. I do believe that would be in the best interests of all parties, no? I don't need to worry about dying, and you are guaranteed a captive to torture – sorry, I mean 'question' – if you do end up going overboard and killing her during your battle. So... what do you say, friends?”

“Fine, if that's how you want it.” Kroll lined up his blaster for a headshot.

“Excellent!” the suit gleefully exclaimed, and glanced towards his Ace. “Show them.”

“'Kay.”

It was unreal, how quickly their situation deteriorated.

One instant, Kroll and the others were just a fraction of a second from firing, and the unarmed woman stood before them with no way of defending herself.

And the next, hair was swiftly growing out all across her skin, her skeletal structure was changing radically, her body was stretching and her muscles swelling rapidly; her clothes were shredded immediately.

In the moment it took them to pull their triggers, her transformation was over. Four lasers landed right on target... and sizzled. Some of her fur had been singed. Beyond that, the enemy Prime seemed completely unaffected.

The being which now stood before them, as well as apparently being immune to blaster-fire, was an enormous black wolf, no less than seventeen feet long, it seemed, and around nine feet high at the shoulder.

"Ah..." said Kroll, as the grey-suited man bounced on his heels and grinned brightly.

Word Count: 992, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 10087/5000-10000.

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

Kroll cast a sidelong glance Hijiri's way, and the Prime nodded. The man's face may have been completely obscured by the helmet he wore, but the question he wanted to ask was obvious; 'can you beat this thing?', which was why Hijiri had given him that nod. He had no idea if it was true or not; in fact, he was almost certain it wasn't... but with his skill at concealing his true thoughts behind a cool and serious expression, along with his knowledge that their blasters were utterly useless against this thing, it wasn't like there was any reason not to act confident.

“I will be your opponent, beast.” he stated, tossing aside his katana's empty scabbard and taking a few steps forwards, “these men are no threat to you, so there is little point in you targeting them.”

“Oh my, my, my, how very rude of you, to address my associate by the moniker 'beast', as though she were naught but a wild animal. Tut, tut, tut.” The suited man tried to appear disappointed, giving a 'sad' shake of the head. The effect was spoiled somewhat by his apparent inability to stop smiling. “Nevertheless, you are correct when you point out their weakness. Ignore them, my dear; subdue their Prime first.”

The wolf's head was just feet from the ex-Rabbit's own, and when she darted towards him – moving even faster than he could – it was all Hijiri could do to avoid her. Literally bending over backwards to get away, he pressed his empty palm to the ground to keep from falling, as her huge jaws (easily large enough to bite him in half, could she catch him) snapped shut directly above him.

Bringing up his knees, he slammed a kick into her lower jaw and used the force of the blow to roll backwards to put a little distance between them. The wolf reacted immediately, and once again gnashed her teeth at him. This time, though, he was prepared.

She was not aware of his ability to interfere with gravity, and so was not expecting him to be able to step back as quickly as he did. She also did not anticipate that he might raise his blade directly in front of him the moment she attacked, not to strike at her throat or attempt to ward her off, but simply to ensure that if she did take a bite, she'd end up with a mouth full of steel.

She did, and she did. Yelping and backing off, he was pleased to see that not all of her body was so well defended as her skin and fur; blood now trickled slowly from her gums and tongue. The stormtroopers gave a cheer, and she glanced back at her companion. He continued to smile.

Snapping her head around to face her target once more, she snarled and lunged again, though this time she led with one clawed paw. Leaping straight up, he took her by surprise again.

Three times, actually. The first shock was the height of his jump; a full sixty metres straight up. The second was the speed of his fall; after reaching the apex, he began drifting down like a feather, as though he weighed barely anything at all. And his final surprise was when, as she waited below to catch him in her gaping maw, he suddenly seemed to acquire a massive amount of weight seemingly from nowhere, causing his speed to increase drastically. The tip of his blade struck her directly between the eyes, in a blow with hundreds of pounds of force behind it.

… and glanced off.

He landed awkwardly, off-balance with one arm (and the sword at its end) drastically heavier than the other, and fell to his knees. He was genuinely shocked to not have killed her with that blow. So shocked, in fact, that for a moment he couldn't even react to what was going on around him. He couldn't even bring himself to try and stand back up.

The wolf had not been cut, but having still taken quite a knock to the head, she was actually slightly dazed. Having the instincts of a wild beast, though, she would not let something like that stop her; in a moment her paw was arcing out towards him, and before he could react, four deep gouges had been cut in his side. He screamed, and was sent tumbling.

His body came to a sudden and painful halt when he slammed up against the wall of a building. Shaking her head a couple times to clear the hazy feeling from her thoughts and hopefully somewhat alleviate the headache he'd given her, she then charged. Despite the pain in his side – along with the lovely new collection of bruises he'd picked up from being tossed around like a ragdoll – Hijiri had gotten over his momentary shock and was back on his feet almost instantly.

He sprung directly up once again... but this time, she knew what to expect. No sooner had he kicked off than the wolf had leapt into the air after him.

He was almost too fast for her. Almost, but not quite.

Her jaws closed around his right ankle with a sickening crunch, and when she struck the wall he'd been tossed up against she gracefully kicked off and landed smoothly on the road. With a flick of her head, she slammed his body into the ground, face first. She then threw him forward, all the way across the street and into the side of a parked car.

The metal crumpled as he struck it, and a few more cracking noises sounded from some bones or other. In as much pain as he was right now, Hijiri couldn't even even identify the breaks; his entire body felt as though it had been tenderised with a mallet made of solid lead. He crashed to the ground and lay still as the blood flowed freely from the shattered ruin which had once been his nose, prior to a certain high-speed collision with the surface of a road.

Groaning, it was all he could do to glance up as the enormous wolf padded slowly towards him. Whereas he was scratched, bruised and broken all over, bleeding profusely from the gashes on his torso, from his nose, and from whatever remained of his ankle and foot... she appeared to have barely even exerted herself.

It would seem Michelle had been right; he really had been out of his depth in coming to Tier Five after all. The Primes in this area were just too strong for a newcomer like him to handle. Hijiri sighed and closed his eyes as the creature's jaws parted, and she came to a stop before him.

She  lunged.

…

Instead of being struck by an enormous canine, though, a sudden flare of blinding white light erupted out of nowhere, seeming to burn straight through his eyelids, and at the same time, a feeling of renewed strength swiftly coursed through his veins.

For a moment, Hijiri thought he had died, and somehow, in the peaceful slumber of death, a week had already elapsed; that this light was the Nexus' bright sky, and the strength was his body re-forming in the land of the living.

And then the light was gone.

Opening his eyes, Hijiri saw the huge wolf backing off, shaking her head, whining and pawing at her eyes, as though trying to rub the light from them. The pain of his wounds struck out at him once again, searing his entire body like fire... yet now, though, it somehow seemed almost a trivial task to find the strength to push through that pain.

Getting to his feet – placing as much of his weight as he could on his intact ankle – Hijiri looked down at himself – at the long, black coat and the pair of white boots he now wore, and at the slightly shining purple gem embedded in his chest – and realised what had happened; somehow, in his time of need, one of his old powers had suddenly re-awakened. His true form had returned to him. Hijiri had become a Battle Rabbit once more.

“Oh yes,” he said softly, a wicked grin momentarily flickering across his face before his usual cold and ruthless mask re-asserted itself, “oh yes, this will do nicely.”

Bending to scoop up his katana from where it had fallen when she had struck that vehicle, Hijiri then darted forwards at his foe. His ankle screamed as he ran, sending burning spears of agony racing up through his leg; despite the shiny new footwear that covered it, the flesh and bone beneath was clearly still just as messed up as before. He could make it, though. He had to last just a little longer.

He jumped, at the same moment she recovered enough to snap at him again. This time, though, he was the one just slightly too fast for her, and rather than being caught again, he used her snout as a stepping stone as he dashed over her head. Grabbing a fistful of her black fur, he hauled himself into a sitting position on her back. She bucked wildly, trying her best to toss him off, since her claws and fangs could not reach him where he sat.

He stabbed her. This time, unlike his futile efforts of before, the blade of his weapon sunk into her side until the guard struck her skin; a full twenty-eight inches of razor sharp steel were embedded in her guts as she howled at the pain of it. He ripped the katana free, then stabbed again. And again. And again.

Realising that she couldn't hope to endure this for long, the wolf hurled herself into a building, smashing his body against its stone wall. Stumbling from the force of the rebound, she rolled, flattening him against the ground, then charged again, this time striking him against a lamp-post.

Not even having the strength to so much as try to avoid or even soften the blows, the Battle Rabbit simply clung on with all his might as she continued to throw them both into any and every solid object in their vicinity, grit his teeth, and kept trying his very best to lacerate her internal organs. His vision was dimming around the edges, and his body felt not-unpleasantly numb... he was no doctor, but it was pretty obvious to the Prime that he couldn't hope to stay conscious much longer... hell, he'd be lucky to live much longer.

At long last, though, she stopped, and collapsed on her side. Realising that it was over, Hijiri let go and allowed his limp body to fall, bounce, and roll off a metre or so.

As he watched, though his vision was blurred and dimming by the moment, the Battle Rabbit saw his erstwhile opponent shrink; her body seeming to cave in upon itself as she returned to her normal form... where there had been a mighty, jet-black wolf, there now lay a dark-skinned woman with a hand pressed weakly to her stomach in a futile attempt at staunching the flow of blood which rushed freely from it.

In moments the stormtroopers had closed in on them, and he allowed himself a small smile as he drifted off...

***

“He's out cold!” Leon called. He and Priya had only just returned from hauling away their sergeant – and calling in an airborne transport, since there was no way Davion would last until they reached the barracks if they were forced to spend hours in traffic again – in time to see the tail end of the fight and rush over to begin carting away their Prime now as well.

“Get him back to the van while we wait for the air-transport; we can't afford to remain out here; we're much too vulnerable in this location.” Kroll vor Iechtelstier commanded. No one was entirely clear on why he had decided to take it upon himself to assume command in Davion's absence, though the man had mentioned before that he was once a noble on some small backwater planet before being cast out by his family and forced to join the Imperial Army... so perhaps it was simply due to the characteristic arrogance of the nobility? “Dodson and Woodvale, get the woman.”

“Huh? We're taking her too?” Trevor demanded. By this point the woman had also lost her grip on consciousness, her hand had slipped weakly to one side, and her lifesblood was ebbing away. “Why not just leave her to die?”

“I agree completely.” The suited man butted in, still seeming perfectly chipper, despite his circumstances. “My associate here has gravely wounded your dear comrade here, why should she be deserving of your mercy?”

“Yeah! What he said!” Trevor agreed. Kroll gave a sigh of exasperation.

“Please try to actually think before you mindlessly agree with our enemies; we have no Banishment Circles, so if we kill her now she'll only be reborn a week later and before we know it she'll be back on the streets again... do you really want that?”

“Oh... uh... I guess not.” as Trevor gave his awkward response, the suit chuckled lightly.

“Come on.” the speaker – 'Woodvale' – had a lilting, almost effeminate voice. He moved towards the enemy Prime, but was interrupted before he could secure her.

“Just a moment, my dear fellow. If you are planning on leaving her alive, perhaps I might be allowed to give her this?” without waiting for their approval, the man unbuttoned and shrugged off his jacket, before approaching his compatriot and covering her in it. Priya nodded in approval, and no one else raised an objection; unlike in the case of Hijiri – who had returned to his human form upon losing consciousness, and so was now dressed in a black suit once more – this woman's transformation apparently did not come with a free set of clothes... and, well, they could hardly just leave her like that.

“Yes, yes, of course.” Kroll agreed absently, before approaching the unresisting man and snapping a pair of cuffs around his wrists the moment he had finished dressing his partner. “Alright, come on. Let's get these three into the van.”

As they marched off, the stormtrooper couldn't help but glance back over his shoulder for a moment at the spot where that first grenade had landed... killing two more of his squad-mates, who had been unable to get out of the way in time. He sighed again. As badly as this operation had gone, if it hadn't been for the actions of first Davion and then Hijiri, it could have – would have – been much, much worse...

Word Count: 2480, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 12567/5000-10000.