OMFG! Anakin might do ~something~ *pearl clutch* (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} darkforcerising) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} makebelievelog,@ 2012-09-25 09:12:00 |
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What: Anakin and Claudia are sharing a dream (Inception Style, due to the plot) - their dream is a high speed airspeeder chase through Coruscant.
When: Monday night when everyone usually sleeps
Where: Physically they are both in their respective rooms, asleep - mentally (in their dreams) they are on Coruscant, Anakin is the Dreamer.
Rating/Warnings: Some swearing, blasters being fired, vomit inducing piloting
Status: Complete
Anakin banked the speeder to the left, whipping the tail end of the vehicle around and using that momentum to slide up against the rooftop where Claudia stood impatiently waiting. He knew that look and the quip that was about to issue from her mouth. He flashed a disarming and reckless grin at her as the speeder stopped just mere inches from her legs.
“Get in!”
Claudia's arms uncrossed as she moved to hop into the speeder. Anakin had his Padawan haircut and was younger than when she knew him, but the oddness of those two details didn't register in Claudia's mind as anything weird. It was simply how it was.
"What's happening?!" Claudia buckled her seatbelt, almost immediately, despite excitement to be riding in a vehicle that flew. She wanted the vehicle to be flying forward, not her body to be flying toward the ground.
“He clipped me pulling out of the tunnel and-”
Which tunnel exactly wasn’t really germane to the discussion, nothing before this point in time was relevant. So it seemed. Only that they move forward, which fit perfectly with everything Anakin wanted to do.
Anakin was angling the speeder away from the building before Claudia had her straps secure.
“He’s-”
He wasn’t allowed to finish before a blaster bolt cut across the nose of their speeder. Anakin didn’t flinch but followed the trajectory of the blast and spotted the telling red speeder parked some distance away next to another building below and to their left.
“There he is!”
Gunning the thrusters forward he cut down and directly through the stream of traffic with no thought to the multi-tonned metal boxes hurtling through the air at them at speeds no brakes could stop on a credit.
"Crappppp! I don't want to die!" Claudia cringed, fighting instinct to cover her head with her arms.
"You're not going to die,” Anakin said evenly.
"Tell that to the drivers you just cut - ah! Can't we go fast in this thing and not zoom next to other cars?!"
"Shortest distance between two points is a straight line."
"That might be, but if there's a solid item between the points that you run into and explode because of, it doesn't do much good!" Claudia shrieked, sarcasm latent in her words despite her worried state.
Anakin glanced over only for effect, not out of necessity, "You're strapped in. You'll be-" The blaring sound of a warning horn cut off his final word as Anakin dropped the speeder another few meters to avoid a cargo vessel barring their path.
Claudia was wide-eyed and shocked. Despite being in a notable high speed chase or two, she wasn’t used to the vehicle without wheels aspect. She wasn’t used to the idea that a vehicle could be dropped underneath. She ducked, letting out a cry of, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” with no actual word included, and stayed ducked down for a good pause after the vehicle had been passed.
As they emerged from under the cargo vessel Anakin barked a laugh, but that mirth turned to a curse when he saw the back of the red speeder race into a cross stream going in the direction that would take it under their own speeder and almost the direct opposite way they were headed. He slammed the brakes and jammed the steering mechanism to their right, sweeping them in an arch that threw the occupants of the vehicle into their restraints, as he dropped down further into the new lanes of traffic. As soon as they straightened Anakin let off the brake and was back pushing the accelerator forward for all its worth.
“If you’re riding shot, shouldn’t you, you know, be aiming something that shoots?”
“I need to know what vehicle I’m aiming at, or - who.” Claudia shot back, but then a literal shot came their direction. “Or the red speeder could just shoot at us and let me know. Right.”
Cursing under her breath, using a few words that she hoped the Padawan didn’t know the meaning of, Claudia pulled her mini TESLA out and swapped the power down to minimum with a brief flick of the thumb. She didn’t know how the flying vehicle would react to getting hit by the gun and she didn’t want to risk a massive mid-air explosion.
The bolt of electricity arched from Claudia’s weapon towards the other vehicle but at the last moment the red speeder swerved into the adjacent lane, barely evading her shot. They disappeared around the front of the luxury speeder traveling next to them Anakin could see they were aiming to turn down a crossway. He had to speed up around the vehicle next them, but the driver seemed to take that moment to give into air-way rage, and, finding offense in Anakin’s driving, speed up as well. With the slower traffic of the lane they were currently in drawing closer the gap of opportunity was quickly diminishing.
Anakin was not having it.
Cutting power to the thrusters, the luxury speeder shot past them, and with gut lurching precision Anakin slammed the accelerator forward just barely as soon as the tail end of that luxury speeder was beyond them. The heat of the other speeder’s exhaust washed over them, but they were no worse for wear as they merged into the turning traffic.
They had lost time due to that luxury speeder’s ego and Anakin set about weaving in and out of the lane to catch up.
“Kriffing-” he grumbled to himself.
"Kriffing, shit - just get us up there, speed-boy." Claudia remarked back at Anakin, hunkering down a little and watching them zoom by various objects and buildings. With the continuation of flying without a massive crash or plunging to their death, she was starting to relax and give into the instincts that helped her to do her job as a Warehouse agent.
When she got a shot, she fired one off. The vehicle dipped down a little and rather than hitting the vehicle, she hit one of the inhabitants. Not the person driving, thankfully. Someone unconscious and unable to drive could've resulted in someone innocent getting hurt and that wasn't what she wanted in the least.
Anakin muttered a special curse just for Claudia’s quip. Those ‘someone innocent’s were exactly who he also had to keep in mind as he wended his way past the other vehicles. And perhaps the curse was for them too, couldn’t they see they were putting their lives in danger by stubbornly refusing to exit the air-ways?
When Claudia’s blast took out one of the passengers of the escaping speeder their anger could be seen clearly in the redoubling of their efforts to blast him and Claudia out of the sky. Anakin was undeterred, nor was he fazed by the hot bolts whizzing past them. Tight maneuvering danced them safely out of harm’s way with breathtaking millimeters to spare. No one should have any cause for complaint. Not even redheaded, chatty passengers.
But while Anakin’s driving was superb, the firing of the escaping mobsters was not.
Anakin saw, out of the corner of his eye, an errant bolt strike the power couplings on a freighter traveling to the front and left of them. The flatbed trailer of the vehicle disengaged and started to veer at an angle, cutting towards them. But something else must been hit, or the power had surged along the whole system when struck, because now the Steelton cables started to snap with reverberating reports and the load on the trailer, dura-steel pylons, shifted, slow at first before gaining momentum to spill right over the edge of the bed.
Anakin banked hard to the right and pulled up to avoid the falling cargo. And something juked the speeder down, the source of the pull located near the back exhaust, as they tried to clear over the bed.
Catching a glance behind he couldn’t quite make out more than a cable caught on the fender. But something was clearly dragging at them, draining their power.
“What the kriff is it?” he hissed, dodging another blaster bolt. The speeder was obviously having difficulty flying true and Anakin worked frantically over the controls to maintain a straight course. “Find out!”
"Oh, right, so I'm just supposed to unbuckle and go crawling back on a speeding, flying vehicle with you driving to crawl back there and see what it is. Oh, yes, of course. Shouldn't there be a droid or some mechanical system to check for this?!"
“Yes!” Anakin shouted back as the speeder rear end started to fishtail.
Glaring, Claudia put her TESLA into its holster and unbuckled her belt. She turned around in her seat, but didn't go so far as to actually get up. Rather, she looked back for a moment and tried to push her nerves down. "If you get me killed, I don't care if I'm force sensitive or not, I will come back and haunt you, Skywalker, and you'll never get a moment of peace!"
“So long as you’re all glowy,” was Anakin’s comeback.
With that quick promise tossed out, Claudia carefully and quickly made her way to check before scooting back up to her seat. A blaster shot whizzed by the side of her head at one point, leading to letting out a quiet whimper.
"Caught around pylon." She informed him, grabbing onto the side of the cabin to steady herself when the vehicle had one particularly violent shake.
Anakin’s brow crumpled together as he heard the prognosis. That wasn’t something he could shake off. Some other action was required.
“Horizontal controls, vertical controls,” he pointed at each in succession. “Accelerator,” he signaled at the level of his legs to indicate what the pedals below. “Brakes.”
He didn’t pause to make sure Claudia understood before he was unbuckling himself. “Take the controls.”
"Take the - take the what?" Claudia objected, despite the fact she was already sliding over to do what she had been told.
"The controls, you know, Donovan, the levers and knobs that keep this thing up in the air.'
"This thing won't stay up in the air if you don't take care of that problem, so just - go!"
"Way ahead of you." And, after a brief shuffle and a dip in altitude as they changed positions, Anakin was hunched low over the back of the speeder, inching closer to the fender. He already had his lightsaber in hand, prepared to severe the cable the moment he got close enough for a clean swipe.
"Horizontal, vertical, accelerator, breaks-" Claudia repeated it like it was a mantra, despite the fact that she was keeping her eyes on the non-existent road they were on. She was trying to keep the speeder going after the red vehicle, determined not to lose them after all of this fuss. No, they were going down, now.
Of course, it would've helped had she been more familiar with the vehicle controls. She was an excellent driver when it came to four-wheeled vehicles and was rather sure she could've picked up driving a speeder rather quickly and without any worry under other circumstances, but this was make-or-break. "This is like the worst video game, ever, combined with the best! I don't even-"
Despite her sarcastic quips and worries in the midst of the high adrenaline chase, Claudia was kind of enjoying herself. She was kind of really enjoying herself. Flailing with controls aside, of course. That was the case until one of the shots actually seemed to be on trajectory toward hitting her. She swerved the vehicle to avoid and, between her new driver status and the somewhat gunked up controls, didn't do the best job possible when swerving back. The overcorrection was a notable one and she cringed as she did it, well aware of her mistake after the fact.
Anakin was progressing just fine until that latest maneuver he would call losing control rather than simply just swerving entirely unbalanced him. Sure, the speeder tail end was being shimmied this way and that from the pylon they’d picked up from the freighter, and there were blasts firing past on either side, but neither was hardly worth a Jedi’s avid concern. He was just about in position to cut the cable free when a warning rippled through the Force, giving him just enough time to reach out a well-placed arm for the fender as the speeder seemed to just slide right out from under his feet. He went over the edge and dangled by one hand.
“Claudia!” he shouted back as he oriented himself, trying to calm his mind to focus on the Force and the task at hand. “Did you get bored up there, or forget we’re hundreds of meters above ground? It’s an easy rookie mistake.”
"I got bored, obviously. Hey, if you want me to be better at driving a speeder, get me one so I can practice! Save me from buying a car." Claudia yelled back, not even thinking about the fact her car purchase plans were back at the Make Believe castle, not in the dream world that she had yet to identify as being anything odd.
Setting his determination he ignited his blade. “Get ready to compensate,” he warned, the loss of the extra weight dragging them down could be surprising to an inexperienced pilot and, despite any skewed evidence to the contrary, Anakin didn’t really want to plummet to his death. “I’m going to cut the cable!”
"Ready, set, go already!" Claudia was in full-on adrenaline mode, as prepared as she could be.
Anakin rolled his eyes at Claudia and swung his blade, all in one smooth cascade of motion. The taut cable sliced in two and the pylon fell to the streets far below. As predicted, the reduced drag unsettled the speeder and it juked about a bit more pronounced than before. Using the Force Anakin clung tighter to the fender while Claudia worked to right the thing. He deactivated his blade with a snap-hiss and secured it to his belt before turning to the task of pulling himself back up onto the speeder and back to the cockpit.
Ducking as a blaster bolt singed past just above his ear, he tapped Claudia’s shoulder. “Training session’s up, Rookie. Back to shot.”
"If you call me 'Rookie' one more time, I will get vehicle with four wheels on it and whip you around so fast you'll lose your Jedi lunch!" Claudia promised, scooting back over and honestly being a bit thankful to let Anakin take control again. Still, it didn't mean she was going to let him get away with calling her a Rookie over and over.
Plus, she wanted to be able to try and shoot at these guys again.
“Please, Donovan,” Anakin said as he slipped down in the pilot’s seat and took hold of controls, setting the speeder flying steady again. “You couldn’t get an internal combustion engine going fast enough to turn my stomach.”
"It's not the speeds you can hit, it's how you use the vehicle." Claudia shot back with a glare, now really wishing she could drag him into her territory. Perhaps a drive around the Warehouse in her car... if only that were feasible.
It was their good fortune that either the driver of the red speeder was incredibly stupid and failed to take advantage of their cable malfunction to put more distance between them, or the ego of the young mob-boss’s son in the speeder got the better of all their good judgments and kept them within shooting distance, thinking they could take them down with a well placed shot. And that latter might have been effective if they weren’t terrible aims.
Having the speeder back under full working order, full power Anakin brought the speeder back up to a proper chasing speed, and they started gaining on the red speeder once again.
Claudia pulled her TESLA again, preparing to aim. The red speeder was going down.
Incidentally, something was going to go down, however, it wasn’t to be the red speeder.
Anakin didn’t think it was by any skill a blaster bolt grazed the left stabilizer. Judging by the erratic fire from the mobsters thus far he would say it was one of those one in a thousand shots they were bound to connect with eventually, given how often they were firing. Plus, Anakin had closed the gap between them considerably; shooting at them should have been like hitting the broad side of a spice-line barge. It was sad really, that it had taken them this long to hit something.
But it was a lucky shot nonetheless that sent the speeder, despite all that Anakin was trying to do, careening to the left, stuck in a spin.
“Shit, hold on!” he warned. “Here’s that whipping around you wanted.”
They crossed through the traffic, amazingly unharmed, yet again, and clipped balustrade of one building, all the while spinning towards the left. He cut power to the stabilizers, cleared the feeds and started counting to five, the required amount necessary to make sure he’d have a fresh start. Just as he reached four, the speeder gracelessly broke over the top of another building, and started to skid. The speeder shuddered in a way Anakin knew beyond a doubt Was. Not. Good.
And then the controls went dead in his hands.
They had stalled.
But only in the sense that power had cut out to every system on board. They were still moving at roughly the same speed they were when they had started skidding across the building top. And the other side was fast approaching.
“Claudia!” He didn’t look up as he spoke. He was desperately focused on his speeder, his hands flying over the various buttons in an attempt to get systems functioning again. “Why aren’t you buckled?!”
Giving up on getting things started with both hands Anakin reached out and grabbed ahold of Claudia’s arm as they tipped over the edge of the building in their oh so dead speeder.
“Because I forgot to rebuckle! Shiiiiiiit!” Claudia wasn’t sure that buckling would do much good if Anakin didn’t get the speeder working again. Plummeting to doom in a speeder, or outside of a speeder, still resulted in doom at the end.
Anakin’s stomach jumped into his throat as they plunged towards the bottom levels of Coruscant hundreds of meters below. His free hand was still frantic at the controls when everything - the air, the solid objects under his hand, Claudia - took on a grainy quality but all in an acceptable way he didn’t question. And when the darkness edged in at the corners of his vision, still, it was natural.
Everything faded black without protest.
Back in his room Anakin hardly stirred from the dream. If it affected him there was no perceptible reason to believe so. He did roll over in his sleep to face Padmé, unconsciously draping an arm around her waist as his body came in contact with her sleeping form. And then all was still again in the Amidala-Skywalker residence.
Claudia woke up, wide-eyed, staring at the ceiling above her bed. For the briefest of moments after waking, the dream was extremely vivid in her memory, then a few details less so. It was almost - nice. After the worries, tears, and the start of such utter grief finding its way into her life through that stupid TV show... it was actually a rather nice thing to cling to for a few moments.
She stared at the clock and made a mental note to text Anakin in the morning to ask about options relating to vehicles. A distraction, if that, but she needed distractions. She had been planning to buy a car; if she could have that instead or even have her car adapted, why not? After a few moments, she sighed and crawled out of bed to return to the couch.