"If you're lookin' for trouble, you just found it, bantha-meat."
Mirri ducked as the massive Androecian hurtled his fist towards her. She flinched as it connected with something behind her. Probably someone, actually. When there was silence for a few seconds, she cautiously looked up. The Androecian was snarling at something behind her. She turned and saw that Graey's "friend", Alyk, had actually caught his fist. She had a strange expression on her face.
"Picking on little girls now, Slate?"
He growled. "That ain't no little girl. She's a Jedi."
"She doesn't have a saber on her." Alyk observed.
"She's wearin' the seal."
"But-" Alyk argued, pushing his fist away, "She's not armed. I'd say odds are you'd have an unfair advantage in this fight."
He scowled and shoved Mirri out of the way roughly. She collided with a wall, and felt a flash of pain along her right side. That's it. She thought angrily. Let's just see what the little Jedi can do, shall we? She felt the force welling up inside her. The dishes on the table next to her began rattling. Meanwhile, Slate was advancing on Alyk. With a grin, she pulled what looked like the hull of a saber out of her coat pocket. As she was distracted, the dishes on the table dropped and remained still. No way! She's a Jedi?
Surprise number two was when Alyk ignited it. What the hell? The glowing green blade came out only about six inches before stopping. Also, the end formed a point. Mirri mentally flipped through one of her textbooks, trying to remember its name. Lightdagger! That's it!
So what the hell was a spice smuggler doing with a lightdagger?
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Alyk grinned when she saw the bewildered expression on Slate's face. "Not so tough now, are we?" Alyk said, all the while advancing ever so slowly towards the Androecian. Slate backed up as Alyk advanced towards him. Bumping into the wall, he let out a yelp of fear, and took off down the dark corridor. Alyk laughed at the 7 ft. tall alien's antics. Hitting the ignition stud, Alyk switched off her dagger, and stuffed it back into her leather jacket. Mirri walked slowly up to her, staring enchantedly at Alyk.
"Where in the name of the Force did you get that thing?" she asked incredulously.
"That's for me to know, and you to find out, Kid," Alyk replied, cracking her knuckles. Mirri narrowed her eyes.
"I'm not a 'Kid' you ass." Alyk lifted her eyebrows, and looked at the small and compact eighteen year old. She was asking for trouble alright. Alyk considered maybe giving the girl what she wanted, but dismissed the notion. If Skywalker found out she was running drugs and spice into his academy....anyway, it wasn't smart to upset a Jedi. Especially one who had just been redeemed from the Dark Side. Alyk began to walk away.
"Sure, whatever. Look, I have some....business to conduct, and then I'm leaving. So why don't you have a couple drinks, and then take a ride on your speeder?" Alyk nearly laughed out loud when she saw the teen's face get red. She began to walk down the corridor, towards Graey's room, hoping that Skywalker would take a hint and leave. However, it wasn't the case.
"So," Mirri began, falling into step beside Alyk. "Where you from? Or is that another, 'for me to know, and you to find out' question?" Alyk looked over at Mirri coolly.
"You catch on quick, kid." Mirri didn't say anything, but continued.
"You're a Jedi, huh?"
Alyk laughed. "Me? No way. I don't believe in any of that stuff. Just an ancient hokey religion to me."
"Oh, really?" Mirri asked. She looked sideways, and a moment later, with a small flick of her wrist, grabbed Alyk's pant leg with the Force. The older girl let out a cry of surprise as she tripped and fell to the ground. Mirri couldn't hold in her laughter as Alyk picked herself up, and searched the ground for the 'object' that had tripped her. Alyk turned to Mirri, and angry expression on her face.
"What's so funny?" Mirri straightened up, and calmed herself down.
"Nothing," she said, a playful glint in her bright blue eyes, "absolutely nothing." Alyk looked down at Mirri. I'll have to keep an eye on this one, she thought. She's too cocky for her own good.
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She growled slightly, but let the incident slide. Eventually the kid wouldn't be able to run to daddy or her ridiculous Force for protection, and that would be the day she'd hit more trouble than she could imagine... With a resigned sigh, she turned to the little delinquint and gestured toward Graey's door.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to discuss something with Graey... sort of personal..." She explained vaguely, subtly directing Mirri toward her own door. "So why don't you go back to your room and have a nice, warm bath and we'll talk later, kay?"
Mirri found herself moving towards her room, already looking forward to the sweet-smelling shampoo, the relaxing bubbles...
"Hey!" She whirled around to face Alyk. "How did you do that?" The smuggler grinned slyly and tried to play innocent.
"Do what?"
"That was a Jedi mind trick!"
"Was not!" She crossed her arms. "Just a very simple form of hypnosis." She smiled smugly. "See? You don't need the Force for everything." Mirri scowled.
"I hope all your enemies think that way too." She paused. "Hypnosis?"
"It's easy." Alyk replied, shrugging. "I'll explain it to you tomorrow, okay? I really have to talk to Graey."
Gee, maybe she isn't such a bitch after all. Mirri smiled slightly and opened the door to her room.
"Sure."
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Alyk was true to her word. She showed up during lunch to explain the hypnosis thing. It turned out to be as easy as she said.
"Okay, let's say you're talking to someone, right? Now, when two people are communicating, they both do little things while they're listening, or talking, or whatever. Like, they fix their hair, they stand a certain way... you following?"
Mirri nodded.
"So what you hafta do is watch for those little behaviors and start copying them. Just subtle things. Don't imitate them exactly or they'll notice. Just copy the small stuff. It doesn't take very long, just a few minutes normally. Then you do something, like, say, brush your hair out of your face." She did just that. Mirri found herself doing it too, but caught her hand just in time. Alyk laughed. "See? If they start following your lead, then you've got 'em. It makes people a lot more prone to the power of suggestion. You catch on to it, though."
Mirri smiled. "That's so cool! And I guess it doesn't work too well on Jedi, though, huh?"
"Sometimes you meet gullible Jedi, or young Jedis-in-Training. It makes it a lot easier to get people to see things from your point of view though. And to stay out of your business." She said the last part deliberately. Mirri grinned.
"Hmm... you know, of course, that now I'm going to have to try this out on someone, don't you?"
"Of course." Alyk looked past her and nodded her head in the direction of the door. Mirri turned and saw that her father had just entered.
"If you ever wanted a raise in your allowance, now's the time to go for it."
Oh, this was going to be great.
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Mirri turned to look back at Alyk in disbelief. "Are you nuts? You must have been kicked in the head by a ronto or something!'
"What?" Alyk said. "Don't tell me that you don't think you can do it." Mirri narrowed her eyes, and muttered a curse in Rodian. She stood up, and holding her head high, started walking towards Luke. Alyk let out a snort of laughter. Maybe this would teach the kid some respect for people.
Mirri walked slowly up to Luke, her heart thudding loudly in her chest. Calm, she told herself sternly, I have to be calm, or this will never work. Taking a deep breath, Mirri jogged over to where Luke was talking with Mirri's other Jedi instructor, Tionne.
"....and Lando is having trouble finding funding for Gemdiver Station, and--" Luke cut off as Mirri came jogging up to him. "Hey, sweetie. How's your day going?"
"Hello, dear father. I was just, uh, wondering if we could spend some quality time together. I mean, what better way to strengthen the bond between father and daughter than a nice, uh, relaxing walk in the jungle." Luke narrowed his eyes.
"Alright, out with it. What have you done this time?" Mirri pretended to be hurt.
"Why, father, how could you jump to such conclusions!" Luke laughed out loud.
"You're as a bad an actor as your Uncle Han." Luke reached up and scratched the back of his head. Mirri did the same, only she scratched her arm. Luke turned back to Tionne, and began talking to her again. Mirri leaned against one of the tables, where, unfortunately, Slate was eating.
"Hey, get out of here, Jedi brat!" Slate cried.
"Bite me!" Mirri snapped. Luke turned around to face Slate.
"Stop it, you two. Slate, go back to your meal. Mirri, stand over here." Mirri moved over, reluctantly it seemed, to stand behind Tionne. "Anyway," Luke continued, "like I said before, Lando is having some trouble finding funding for Gemdiver Station. I told him that I'd be happy to give him a loan, but Corusca Gem mining isn't exactly cheap, and not to mention--" Luke cut off, as he noticed Mirri copying his same gestures. They were small movements, and to someone who didn't know what to look for, they wouldn't be noticeable. But Luke was a Jedi Master, and he noticed everything. And he also knew in an instant what Mirri was trying to pull over on him. "Alright, young lady. Enough."
"What?" Mirri asked innocently. "What did I do?"
"You know very well what you were trying to do. I can't believe that you actually thought you could get away with it. Let me guess: you were going to ask for a raise in allowance? Or maybe a new speeder bike?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Mirri grumbled. Luke sighed, and turned back to Tionne.
"If you'll excuse me, my impish little daughter here seems to be in the mood for replacing the motivators on the broken down speeder bikes in the hangar bay." Tionne nodded, and Luke took Mirri's arm and dragged her down the corridor toward the Hangar bay. The last thing Mirri saw before turning the corner was Alyk Nikrud, hunched over her drink, laughing hysterically.
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Mirri pounded her fist against the stone wall of the hangar bay. "I can't believe this!" she yelled, her voice echoing off of the walls. "I'm going to kill her!" Mirri looked over at the three finally repaired speeder bikes. It had been been three hours since Luke had forced Mirri to sit and repair all of the broken speeder bikes in the hangar.
Getting up from her spot on the floor, Mirri cracked her knuckles. They'd pay. She was sure that Graey had been on it too, the little nerf-herder. Walking as fast as she could, Mirri headed towards Graey's room. To her satisfaction, she found it empty. Chuckling quietly to herself, Mirri grabbed a handful of Graey's underwear, and strode quickly out of his room. A few minutes later, she was back at the hangar bay, and, hopping onto her speeder, headed full speed into Yavin 4's jungles. After a short search, she found what she was looking for: a YT-2200 light Correllian freighter.
"Bitch," she murmered to herself. Grabbing a provision bag from the back of her speeder. She headed towards the ship, and a moment later, found herself inside the dark ship. "Probably has security," Mirri murmered to herself. Stretching out her senses, she searched the ship. Eventually, she found her way to the sleeping compartment, and, grinning wickedly, grabbed a handful of Alyk's underclothes. She ran back out to her waiting speeder, and letting out a snort of laughter, revved up the engines, and took off back towards the Academy.
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"You should've seen the look on her face, Graey!" Alyk said, laughing hysterically, "it was priceless!" The two 'friends' were walking out in the courtyard of the Great Temple, reveling in the warm sunshine.
"You should take it easy, Alyk," Graey said, his voice low, "that kid is psychotic. There's no telling what could happen if you piss her off enough." Alyk snorted.
"Yeah, right. What's she gonna do, rip me apart with Force lightning? As long as daddy is around to keep an eye on her, she wouldn't dare do anything of the sort." Graey sighed.
"I don't know, from what you said, she was pretty mad--" Graey cut off suddenly as they rounded the far turn of the temple, and saw, to his horror, that tons of under garments lined the top half of the hangar bay. Not just regular garments, he thought. Those are mine!
"Hey!" Alyk shouted, "what the Hell!?" Both Graey and Alyk took off toward the hangar bay, a sick feeling in both of their stomachs.
"She didn't," Graey said to himself, "she couldn't have!"
"She did!" Alyk said fiercly. "I'm going to strangle her!" Alyk jumped as a hand landed on her shoulder.
"How do you like my decorating?" Mirri stood behind Alyk and Graey, a feral grin on her angelic face.
"You are so dead!" cried Alyk. She leaped at Mirri, just as Master Skywalker rounded the corner.
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After skidding to a stop, she stalked back to where Graey was standing, trying not to look embarrassed or really ticked off. She growled and grabbed Graey's shirt as she passed, dragging him along behind her.
"Alyk," he called out ahead of him, "where the hell are we going???" Without turning, she glared at him and answered.
"To rid ourselves of a problem."
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Still laughing and trying to catch her breath, Mirri rounded a corner and came face to face with her father. He could tell she had done something.
"Mirri," he asked with a resigned sigh, "Do you know anything about the..uh, clothing out front?"
Unable to keep a straight face any longer, she burst out laughing. The Jedi Master crossed his arms. "Mirri..."
"No," she managed through giggles. She managed to straighten up. "I heard it was some locals playing a trick on a new student."
"Locals? Here?" He narrowed his eyes.
"You know, dad." She replied, brushing past him. "The kids that have been here a while." There was a moment of tense silence before he responded.
"All right. Behave, Mirri."
"You know me." She grinned and rounded the corner.
"That's what I'm afraid of," He muttered, shaking his head.
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