Paranormalities: Episode II - Ch.12 The Messenger

All the Archfiends on the Obelisk list have been eliminated, and three weeks have passed since then. Now, Zolph Vaelor is back to more mundane duties, sometimes completely unrelated to the Valkoran War, while Grein pours her intellect into more research on the Forceless Collective.

On Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Alliance, Zolph, along with Besh Squad and Hiriss Moraana, has been assigned to bodyguard duty for Senator Bal Mophula, a corrupt politician who’s been taking bribes from the New Trade Federation in order to pass a bill that could give it and other major corporate groups some control of the HoloNet, under the pretense of cracking down on piracy and Valkoran holo-criminals. Due to said bill’s controversial nature, Mophula’s bodyguards are preparing for any possible attempts on the corpulent Twi’lek senator’s life.

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In Senator Mophula’s office, Zolph slouched against a wall with a scowl on his face while Besh Squad patrolled the Senate building.

“Of all the senators in the Alliance, why do I have to protect this sleaze ball?” Zolph muttered to himself.

“Did you say something, Master Jedi?” Mophula asked Zolph from his work desk.

“Nothing! Just talking to myself.” Zolph answered the obese green Twi’lek in denial.

“Anyway, the voting session is coming right up, and I will need your protection from those radical anarchists and Valkoran sympathizers.”

Of course, as far as Zolph could tell, these claims about national security were just a cover to give Mophula's party and mega corporations power to silence their critics. “If I may offer a suggestion, Senator, shouldn’t the public have a say on this bill? The Alliance is a democracy after all.”

“Why should they? They’ll just have it shot down before it can even make it to the Chief of State.”

“Well, the HoloNet as a whole is less than happy with you.”

Zolph’s comlink started to ring, prompting him to answer.

“This is Xad. We’ve got the Convocation Chamber ready to go, and Spectre’s keeping a lookout for other snipers. Is Senator Mophula ready?”

“Yeah, let’s get this over with and let democracy determine if this ‘bill’ is worthy.”

“I know how you feel, Vaelor, but sadly, duty comes first. Varessi out.” The transmission ended.

Zolph turned his attention back to the Twi’lek. “Well, Senator, don’t keep them waiting.”

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Reaching the Grand Convocation Chamber, Mophula got into his hover booth and positioned it before the Head of State.

Zolph and Xadisall, waiting at the booth’s dock, tried to keep their eyes for any snipers in the vacant booths while the corrupt senator gave his introduction speech, despite Spectre already providing an eye in the sky.

“At this rate, I would ask for anything to get out of this.” Zolph personally confided with Xad.

“Like you said, we can only hope democracy prevails over corruption. And thankfully, we have some sane senators that understand how the HoloNet works.”

Suddenly, a blaster shot fired from one of the booths, interrupted Mophula and barely grazed one of his four fat head-tails, but didn’t hurt anyone else in the chamber.

“I SURRENDER!” The senator shamelessly cried out.

Zolph looked to the source booth and noticed a figure in black clothing fleeing the scene. “I could recognize the sound of that shot anywhere.” He then turned Xadisall. “Xad, keep guarding the politicians. I have a feeling our hit man has different reasons for being here.”

Zolph then rushed out of the Chamber and ran for the would-be assassin’s location.

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As Zolph rushed through the Senate halls, he came across many wounded but not dead Alliance guards. He also came across Bad Kitty, Boltz and Patcher.

“You three alright?” Zolph asked with concern.

“Besh Squad is unharmed, but that assassin has ruined Boltz’s toys.” The Gand engineer answered.

“Oh, I will make that punk rue the day he crossed Besh Squad!” Bad Kitty responded with anger.

Patcher then made an observation. “Judging from the lack of casualties, I get the feeling our assassin is trying to minimize bloodshed.”

Zolph made a theory. “Or maybe he isn’t actually here for an assassination. His shot just barely hit the Senator’s head.”

“You sure about that, wise guy?” The hulking Cathar asked him. “Maybe he’s just a lousy shot.”

“Would an inept assassin be able to get past security, successfully incapacitate the guards and sabotage Boltz’s sentry guns?” Patcher answered Bad Kitty back.

“Did I ask you, squiddy?” Bad Kitty backtalked the Nautolan medic.

“I think I know who this assassin is.” Zolph then questioned the squad further. “Tell me, if any of you noticed him, was he wearing a lot of black, a breath mask with red goggles and have a cloth draping from the back of his head?”

Boltz then answered him. “Now that you mention it, Boltz has seen the assassin and he matches your description.”

“From my experience, the guy I’m suspecting is not what I’d call a lousy shot. I always had to either dodge or deflect them.”

Spectre then caught up with the rest of the squad. “Sorry, Vaelor. Even at the highest booths, this particular hit man was too quick with the strike for me to hit him beforehand.”

Zolph complimented the Kyuzo markswoman. “There’s no need to apologize. This particular assassin is a Force user. If not for political reasons, why is he here in the Core Worlds?”

A blaster bolt then zipped by Zolph’s head. He looked to notice Arcidus standing not too far away from them before fleeing again. “I think he wants me to follow him. Well, see you guys later.”

Zolph then pursued Arcidus.

Bad Kitty yelled at Zolph as he ran off. “Hey! Why do we have to get stuck guarding the slime ball?!”

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As Zolph chased after Arcidus, he was led outside the Senate building and followed him by airspeeder into the Coruscant Underworld.

Arriving at a parking area on Level 1320 of the planet, Zolph came across Arcidus’s airspeeder and disembarked from his own speeder. Considering that Arcidus wasn’t trying to get far from Zolph, it was apparent he wanted to be followed.

As Zolph moved into the slums, he then received a transmission on his comlink from Hiriss.

“Zolph. Your transmitter indicates you’re now below the surface. What are you doing there?” Hiriss asked him.

“Arcidus came to the capital and faked an assassination attempt on Senator Mophula, so I decided to follow him.”

“Are you sure he was faking it?”

“Positive. I know Arcidus. He’s the polar opposite of a stormtrooper. Besides, I doubt the Valkoran would have any interest in a bill that would give the Trade Federation policing power over the HoloNet, and he’s not even trying to get far from me.” Zolph then looked into an alleyway. “In fact, he’s watching me right now as we’re speaking.”

“No interest? You don’t think the Valks would be using this political shavitshow to…?”

The conversation was abruptly ended when Arcidus shot the comlink out of Zolph’s right hand. He was lucky his hand was artificial, or that shot would have hurt a lot more. Zolph tried to chase after Arcidus, but the assassin used the Force to camouflage himself only enough for Zolph to sense him before running away.

Zolph briefly turned back to retrieve his comlink, only to find it disabled.

“And Hiriss is going to think I just turned it off to shut her up again.” Zolph told himself, fearing the inevitable lecture he was going to get from Hiriss.

Focusing on the matter at hand, Zolph followed Arcidus into the slums of Level 1320.

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Moving through the darkened streets of the Coruscant Underworld, Zolph bypassed several crowds of people and buildings as he followed the otherwise invisible Arcidus. Maesterus’s apprentice led Zolph into a back alley.

As Zolph followed, he was suddenly ambushed by a hulking, brown-skinned Karkarodon – an aquatic species resembling bipedal sharks – and an Anacondan – a species that were essentially large sentient stalk-eyed snakes, not even humanoid.

As the Karkarodon thug pulled out a knife, he taunted Zolph with a modulated voice. “Well well, what have we here? A young wannabe Jedi punk?” He glanced at the lightsaber hanging from Zolph’s belt. “You’ve just wandered into the territory of yours truly, Rakan the Devourer.”

Zolph responded back in a deadpan tone. “I’d like to clarify three things. One, I actually am a Jedi; I just choose to dress like this. Two, I haven’t even heard of you. And three, I’m very busy right now and I don’t have time for two street thugs. So, please get out of my way.”

“So, you claim to actually be a Jedi?” Rakan then chuckled before commanding his Anacondan lackey. “Ratter, bind him!”

The Ratter tightly and quickly coiled his body around Zolph, and taunted him in a raspy voice. “Don’t try to move, tough guy. The boss needs his nourishment.”

Rakan moved up close to Zolph and grabbed him by the chin. “I guess that means if I eat your midi-chlorians, I can be a Force user too.”

Karkarodons were typically stereotyped as being cannibalistic towards other sentient species. Not up to societal standards, some Karkarodons only define cannibalism as “eating members of the same species as oneself”. Sadly, Rakan the Devourer only served to perpetuate this stereotype.

Zolph was annoyed by the Karkarodon’s popular misconception. “Ugh. For the love of-! The Force does not work that way! And another thing I’d like to clarify: you’re an idiot. If I’m a Jedi, you shouldn’t be trying to pick a fight.”

“I’ll test that theory for myself. Dinner time!” Rakan yelled. As he opened his gaping tooth-filled mouth, Zolph noticed a voice modulator in lieu of a tongue.

“That reminds me of a story someone told me.” Zolph calmly told him.

Rakan then stopped before he could take a bite out of Zolph’s head. “And what story would that be?”

“An eccentric bounty hunter told me that he flirted with a Karkarodon on Ord Mantell after drinking too much, got kissed by him and then bit his tongue off while his face was in his mouth. Would that Karkarodon happen to be you?”

“And who was this bounty hunter?”

“Gahmah Raan. He’s the only known member of his species that’s been in space.”

Rakan then got agitated upon hearing that name. “Wait a second, he’s still alive?! I tore his face off! He should have bled to death!”

“He grew it back. His species can regenerate lost tissue pretty quickly.”

“That son of a Hutt! I can’t let you live now that you know about this humiliation!”

Zolph tauntingly asked him. “Aw, what’s the matter, ‘Devourer’? Did someone wound your ego?”

“Oh, I will enjoy killing you very-!” Rakan was suddenly interrupted when his body flashed and disintegrated into a smoldering pile of ash. Zolph could see Arcidus not far away uncloaked with his hand raised before cloaking again.

Ratter was shocked by his boss’s sudden death. “Well, since the boss is dead, does that mean I get to have all of the Jedi?”

Zolph took the opportunity to unbind the Anacondan wrapping around him using his Force and cybernetic-enhanced strength, grabbed him by the neck with his cybernetic arm and lightly squeezed on it.

“What do you think?” Zolph asked him.

“Uh… on second thought, I’ll leave you alone now and just stick with nuna.” Zolph dropped Ratter on the ground, letting him slither away.

“That’s what I thought.”

Zolph continued following Arcidus while a few homeless Gotals gathered around the smoldering remains of Rakan the Devourer as if it were a campfire.

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As the pursuit continued and Zolph dealt with more violent street thugs trying to find an easy mark, he was led into a darkened and abandoned warehouse a few levels higher.

“Okay, Arcidus. Enough fooling around. What are you really here for?” Zolph called out.

“You.” Arcidus’s voice echoed in the room.

The warehouse doors suddenly sealed themselves shut, making it even darker inside. After two adjacent red lights – specifically Arcidus’s goggles – flashed, the spot under Zolph’s feet glowed orange. Zolph quickly moved out of the spot, just before it erupted in a fiery column that burned a hole in the roof.

“Okay, so you lured me here just so you could kill me in private.” Zolph then ignited his aqua-bladed lightsaber to illuminate the room.

“Don’t be absurd, Vaelor. You should know by now that I knew you would dodge that.” Another blast was ready to erupt under Zolph’s feet, prompting him to dodge again. “And that one too.”

Arcidus then emerged from behind a stack of metal crates with his black-bladed lightsaber ignited.

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have tried to combust your body directly, or better yet, I would have let that cannibalistic serial killer and his lackey eat you. Besides, even if I did either of those things, you know how to resist my combustion ability after I burned away some of your duplicate jackets and you would have handled the cannibals just fine.”

“Then what the hell is with the lightsaber?!” Zolph asked him.

“Just trying to make a convincing scene of things” Arcidus then lunged at Zolph, attempting to slash him, shoot at him with his blaster pistol and make more fires.

Zolph made efforts to dodge or deflect some of these attacks, making similar efforts to attack Arcidus, only for him to remain unharmed. Eventually, the whole warehouse was full of fires, lightsaber and blaster scorches.

Arcidus then deactivated his lightsaber and stopped Zolph just as he was about to strike another blow. “Okay, we’re done. Now we can talk peacefully.”

“Then what was the point of all this fighting?” Zolph asked.

“In case you’ve forgotten, Valkor’s got some spies around, even here in the Alliance capital. So I need to make sure it looks like there was a struggle and that I came to kill you.” Arcidus then suddenly sensed something approaching. “Get down!”

Arcidus pushed Zolph down on the floor and used the Force to disguise him as a burned corpse. A Coruscant Security Force probe droid then entered through the hole in the warehouse roof to get a good look at the scene before hovering away.

“Okay, the probe’s gone now.”

“But that was a CSF probe.” Zolph pointed out as the illusion faded away. “Now they’ll be sending a squad to arrest you for murder.”

“Actually, some of the spies are in the CSF, and some of them are trained technicians and slicers. I also destroyed your comlink so this conversation we’re having doesn’t get leaked to any potential comm channel slicers. Even if they do send a squad to the scene, I’ll be gone then.” Arcidus then removed his head cloth and his mask, revealing a short-haired, light brown-skinned human male with some burn scars on his face. “Anyway, perhaps you’d be more comfortable talking with someone whose face isn’t obscured.”

“That’s not entirely necessary. Three of my compatriots are a Kel Dor, a Kyuzo and a Gand.”

“I’m not counting species with biological handicaps that require masks to overcome. Besides, I thought you deserved to see my face for once.”

“You’re Aiken Cremas? Grein told me some tidbits about your past, such as how you accidentally killed your own parents and were once trained as a Jedi. And the scars you got from learning how to control your power.”

“We can talk about my past at another time. But for now, I have some reports for you.”

“Did Maesterus send you here? Because after recently remembering that Forceless can recollect the memories of other Forceless, I’m worried that Valkor may know about your treachery if Maesterus sent you.”

“That’s exactly why he didn’t send me and I came on my own volition. He heard about what Masochus did to you on Guaymar, and he’s worried that Valkor may be able to monitor him through his own symbiote despite his possession immunity.”

“I know for certain they learned about my… special ability through Harphscor, but Maesterus is still the big enigma and he has the same eyes as every other Forceless host. You may want to ask him if he can access the thoughts of other Forceless, or better yet, Valkor’s thoughts.”

“From what I heard from Valkor, Forceless may be hive-minded when acting in groups, but only Archfiends are given access to the memories and thoughts of other Forceless, and Maesterus is not considered an Archfiend. Even further, not even Archfiends can access Valkor’s thoughts.”

“If Maesterus knows, then Valkor may know that he knows.” Zolph then clutched at his cranium. “Oh great, this has gotten even more complicated.”

“Yes, Maesterus’s master plan is in some jeopardy, and I get the feeling Valkor’s trying to let him know to keep him in line. As a result, he’s giving other supporters of his like me some free reign on planning since he trusts us enough.”

“Still gotta watch out for traitors though.”

“Indeed. As for the report, Valkor’s not very happy about your recent string of victories over his Archfiends. From what I hear, he’s planning on finally unleashing a secret weapon he’s had in storage for a long time that could drastically turn the tide of this war in the Valkoran’s, and by extension, the Forceless Collective’s favor.”

“Can you tell me anything about this weapon?”

“He didn’t give any specific details. That’s why I said it’s a secret weapon. He’s keeping even his followers in the dark about it.”

“I have a bad feeling about this. If he’s being that secretive about it, it must be something truly terrible.”

Suddenly, there was some banging on the warehouse door.

“Well, that would be my cue to disappear.” Arcidus then put his mask back on and Force cloaked himself just as Besh Squad blew down the door.

“Commander Vaelor! You’re alive!” Patcher shouted with joy as Arcidus snuck out of the door. “Looking at that holo-recording, I thought the assassin killed you.”

“Oh come on, Patcher!” Bad Kitty criticized him. “Do you really think Zolph would go down that easily?!”

Boltz then commented with some unusual curious enthusiasm. “Boltz is amazed! What kind of technology did you use to make yourself look like a charred corpse?”

Zolph answered the Gand. “No technology involved, Boltz. Just the Force.”

“Aw.” Boltz said with disappointment. “Why do you Jedi have to pull the fun out of science with the Force card? Not even your attempts at science can explain that!”

Patcher joined in as well. “As a medicinal scientist, I also have to agree with Boltz.”

Xadisall then interrupted. “If the professors are done complaining about the ‘unscientific-ness’ of the Force, I think Zolph has some intel he’d like to share.”

“That’s correct, Xad.” Zolph responded. “But there aren’t any probes with you, are there? Because I’m led to believe there may be Valkoran spies in our ranks overhearing us as we speak.”

Spectre chimed in. “I have to agree with Vaelor. It may be better if we discussed his discoveries where there are less prying ears.”

Xad responded. “Very well, Spectre. We’ll discuss this with Master Skywalker and General Choi in person.”

Zolph then questioned Xad on another topic. “Since you’re here, I take it the Senate votes are over?”

“Yep. And the bill fell apart to a majority vote. You should’ve seen the look on those Neimoidians’ faces when they learned that they wasted millions of credits on trying to push an unconstitutional bill.”

“I thought you military weren’t allowed to voice your opinions on political issues.”

“Not in public, at least, and the media isn’t around.”

“Now we just need bills to eliminate corporate personhood and limit the amount of money that can be put into a vote.”