T1 - Like You Own the Place

[Ash]

The check point on the other side of Coruscant’s gate picked up that something had passed through. Its machines and men became alerted to Ash’s presence the moment she crossed the line. The instruments to detect intruders or just guest in general light up, needles fluttering along the gauges visible to those watching them. Specifically, a scientist, Jack Shadi, had to lift his head over an enormous machine to look on at who had arrived. Whoever they were, he was getting a high electric reading off of them.

He laid his eyes on a pair of pretty near perfect rounded ass cheeks. It hadn’t been his intention to look at her butt first. He quickly flustered behind his thick-framed glasses and directed his gaze to the rest of her. Slender, small framed, curved in places that implied she past puberty. Her meatier thighs were wrapped up in denim which fought to do so. Her toned calves and down were covered in black shiny leather. Her shirt, what little there was, was light pink and shredded like she’d ripped it in half before putting it on to suit her needs.

Despite the intact pants, he noted there was a lot of skin showing. At first, he thought it was a shirt under her shirt, but noticed very quickly that they grey-purple coloring that mimicked deep bruising was her flesh.

She rose from her lying down position on the bike, her flat bottom boots slamming against the ground as her body rolled sexually up a straddle position over the bike. Her hand came up and through her long black hair, brushing it back and out of her face. He noted the ebony black horns that came in front of her head like a natural tiara, and lastly the thin tail that ended in a heart looking arrow tip.

He watched her stick out her tongue, then pull it back while exhaling carefully to form a large pink orb about the size of her head. It popped after the layers of gum became too thinly stretched, then deflated anti-climatically against her chin. All while it does, she tries to collect it back in her mouth as quickly as possible. When the expended bubble was put back into a wet wad in her mouth she grinned.

“Sup boys?” The Storm Demon sang before winking over at one of the more heavily armed men.

[Ash]

The next moment every gun within three city blocks was trained onto the mysterious demonic woman. At least fifty laser sights danced against her chest and head.

Ash just laughed to herself, smacking the bubble gum loudly. “Everyone wants a piece of me, don’t they?”

A large figure with some of the thickest shoulders the sex demon has ever seen, comparable to the bouncers at the strip club she worked at, approached her. He lowered his gun and brought up notepad, or as close to one as this verse seemed to ever have. It was two metal arms that displayed a screen with entwining rays of light that are produced from both arms.

His gun was as impressive as his shoulders, large, powerful… It was at the ready, across his equally impressive chest. “Have you been to Coruscant before?” He asked, his voice deep and bored.

The snapping of the gum in her mouth could be heard for a long moment as she considered how to deal with being checked in by the guards. “Yeah.”

“Your name?” He said dryly, still looking through his information.

She gathered he was already trying to pinpoint her in his database in case she gave him false information. “Ash. The Storm Demon.”

“No last name?”

“No.”

There were a few buttons pushed. She couldn’t see what he was typing, but it felt like he was actually putting her full title in there. Which was interesting as she was sure they wouldn’t care. Maybe it was in the alias section. Or maybe he put it in as first name Ash, middle name The, last name Storm-Demon. Either way, there was a lot of silence between the groups of people involved.

A crowd of secondaries - only allowed to get so close to the gate without going through this same process - were forming and whispering to one another. She saw a few unique aliens even mingling in the crowds.

She lost interest in them as soon as she noticed a change in the way he was standing. The guard had subtly tensed up and glanced over his screen at her. He stared at her for a moment before going back to his tablet-sized device. “Ash. Storm Demon. Female. Approximately twenty years o-”

“Twenty-three.” Ash interrupted.

The guard punched something into it. “Twenty-Three years old. Ethnicity Unknown.”

“Caucasian.” She corrected, and he followed by imputing the information.

“First registered here at this gate roughly a year ago.”

“Huh... Feels longer than that.” Ash commented, thoughtfully. Her gum covered tongue stuck out of her mouth again as she blew another bubble.

“Known Criminal Activity. Breaking into a prison on Tier Two with friends. Slaughtering thousands. Property damage to the prison. Property damage to the nearby office building. Failure to comply with laws and law enforcement, as well as one Ultramarine by the name of Brother Gaius. Blacklisted.” He looked up at her a bit more sternly.

She could hear the plastics of the guns all around her creek under the eagerness of every soldier who wished to be the one to destroy her and leave her a blue mess right there on the inside doormat. The crowd got restless as they began to mutter, some women even covered the eyes of their young children who were looking in at this.

Ash didn’t flinch, she had a plan. It dangled around her neck.

He lowered his eyes back to the information he was reading off and continued. “Punishment delivered for listed crimes and the crime of returning to Coruscant while still blacklisted and without the Emperor’s permission in the form of a Banishment circle. Several witnessed Ash falling into the portal to the Underverse on- Well about three months ago.”

The men with their guns slowly lowered them. Not all at once. Majority of the sights blinked right out of existence from her heart and head as the information registered instantly to those behind them. After that, it took roughly half a minute for all the trained weaponry to lower away from the target that was the morality mirrored humanoid that she was.

“That feels wrong, too.”

“Are you saying that Brother Gaius did not banish you to the Underverse and that we should in his stead?” The man looked a little confused why she would offer that information.

“Negative. I think your time frame is wrong.” Ash began to chew on her gum again.

“The date states it happened roughly three months ago. It is not incorrect.” He replied, still stiff and dry as ever. He was a rough fuck.

“Got it. So what’s going to happen now? Kicking me out?”

“That’s a negative. You have been formally and thoroughly punished for all crimes. The blacklisting against you and your name has been lifted. Temporarily. I am sure with a background like that you will give us a reason to reinstate it in no time.”

“Fair enough.” Ash kept her responses as short as his.

“Protocol does state I have to ask what business you have doing back here, especially since evidence says you shouldn’t even exist.”

“Meh. The Underverse wasn’t really my type of place.” She could tell that her calm responses put the man at unease. Just being a Prime just upset him. “But if it will make this go by faster, I am headed back down to Tier Six. I had been trying to make personal contact with someone who might know how to do a good job on a tattoo when I got dropped on by that Stud Muffin, Gaius.”

“Brother Gaius, address him with respect, scum.”

“Easy there baby, don’t go sweet talking me too much~! I might have to stay and show you a good time.” She made a point to wink at him.

He was unamused. “If that is the case, you won’t mind an escort.”

“Depends, will it be you?” She taunted with a smile.

“Also a no.” He said boredly, rotating to glance around. To Ash all the faces were the same, no one special stood out to her. To him, however, he knew exactly who he was looking for by the way they stood. He pointed to one of the plastic white masks. “Officer Jazza here will make sure you get to your destination without causing any trouble.” He explained, the officer he spoke of followed his orders and came closer while the superior man turned back to the demon. “The quicker you get to take care of business and get out, the better.”

“How much does he get paid to babysit little ole me?” Ash asked, her tail coiling in anticipation.

“She is not a babysitter, she is an escort.” He said. At his words, Ash’s tail fell in disappointment.

“Oh.” It was the sourest word she’d spoken to this date. Followed up with a very sarcastic, "Joy."

[Ash]

Ash dismissed the bike once it was clear she wasn't going to be alone for this whole trip. As annoying as it would have been followed by a normal soldier, at least it would have been bearable if the soldier was a male. Females... They were the worse.

She learned a long time ago that she was never likely to get along with women. Emma has always been the tomboy type and more likely to hang out with guys than females in general. While little girls - namely her twin sister - were playing with dolls and dressing up in their mother's clothes which were beyond big for the small framed babes, and the high heels which always made Isabelle sound like a fucking horse prancing throughout the house - which she can only now truly make that comparison because she has been around an actual horse for the second time in her life - the troublesome twin was out in the yard climbing trees. Apparently, she has always had a thing for climbing large jagged structures.

When they reached middle school and the guys preferred to hang out with her, mostly because of the Street Rats gang she was in, girls became obviously bitter and cold towards her. This only seemed to intensify when Emma didn't seem to give a shit about their threats or salt.

High school was much the same. Ash was called a whore and a slut even before she lost her virginity in the back seat of some guy's car at seventeen. She honestly couldn't even remember his name. Ironically though, she could tell you the color of the vehicle was a dull grey, the seats were a boring beige. The windows were down just a crack and covered in fog by the time they were through. She remembered the position they fucked in, which shoulder he bite her on, and the sex itself. His face, however, his name? All lost in an endless wave of easily forgotten people.

Another very clear memory was the girls back at the base who were crushing on the guy finding out about it and trying to make her look bad in the cafeteria. They came at her 4 against one, tried to use harsh language as a hammer to confuse and soften her up for the final blow. They struggled to keep up the calm act when Emma had tossed back insult after insult in the same bored way she'd been talking about chores with her sister at the time. In fact, their words did more damage to Isabelle than her younger sister. Her older twin had been in tears, trying to stop the mean girls.

They eventually picked up on that, which had been the only thing that bothered Emma. So eventually the girls had gotten their desired effect when she stood up and turned to face them. By that time she was a pixie cute with pink splashes, angry blue-grey eyes, and a single lip piercing. Their tongues lashed at her a little longer, a lot of 'oh you don't like us picking on your sister' comments which she'd brushed off by not saying anything. When they were ready to claw her eyes out she finally spoke. Asking if they were going to do anything or just stand that like the fangirl club they were. She remembered calling them out for being jealous bitches because she fucked their prince and now they can't stand the idea of him being tainted by good pussy.

The pissed off look on all their faces as the whole cafeteria of that high school had reacted in various ways that immortalized their shame in hundreds of young minds was so worth it, she didn't even mind being slapped first.

Later that hour she was in the principal's office waiting for her mom to come pick her up for fighting in the cafeteria. Her mother bitched her out all the way home about how it's unladylike to do that, despite knowing nothing about what was going on. In hindsight, she wondered if she had told them they called Vivian Shutter the words they'd used for her, had her mother would have been that ignorant? It was a waste of time to think about that now.

Come to think of it, no woman alive seemed to get along with Ash. Not that she cared. It was just an observation spurred on by her knew traveling company.

Thoughts of being a stripper had never crossed Emma's mind once growing up, it took her a year or so out of high school to be in a position where dancing seemed like a better idea than the day-to-day bullshit that part-time jobs had become. Hell, becoming a shadow runner was much more appealing than anything else the world could offer, but she didn't feel strongly one way or another towards the big cooperations. Of course, they were shit, but none of them directly affected her because she was already living on the edge of reality.

So when she actually applied for the job, she had been sure between her piercings, tattoos, lack of boob - which never bothered anyone she slept with - would be a hindrance. She somehow landed a job, mostly for all of those things. She was unique, different, something that was untraditional for a strip club. She became a reason why other people came to this one. It was all fun for her, especially when the other girls got salty. Not that their clientele every suffered. They had plenty of grown men throwing themselves, some even highly attractive specimens. What they were upset about have they had someone who was actual competition around, they were jealous she was getting any attention at all.

One, in particular, had tried to start a fight in the parking lot after hitting on her friend. When he denied her and instead asked for Emma, the woman tried to pick a fight. By this time, however, Ash's past self-had learned more than enough martial arts and other ways of fighting that the girl was hopelessly outclassed. She ate dirt, and then she went and cried to the boss. He liked her, so there was no huge punishment, just had to take a few days off. Good thing though, the friend had been there to tell her about a job to do.

So she didn't have high hopes for this new girl in her life. If she didn't shoot her out of rage or jealousy at some point, Ash would be highly surprised.

"Sir." The clearly female voice came from the stormtrooper's helmet as she came beside her new assignment.

"Officer Jazza, escort Ash to the locations of business, and return back with a full report of her activities once she has left."

"Yes, sir."

"Ash. Do yourself a favor, and don't try to escape her watch. If we suspect you are up to anything illegal we will not hesitate to reinstate the blacklisting and then act accordingly."

"Whatever, can we go now?" Ashe sounded as angsty as an edgy teenager talking to a parent.

"You are free to enter Coruscant." He said, then stepped to the side and allowed her access to the first tier of seven. His eyes watching her every step of the way until she and Officer Jazza vanished into the crowd on the way to the elevator.