Who: Agent Washington, Agent Carolina, with special guest appearance by Kanan Jarrus When: May the Fourth be with you plot (suuuupaaaa backdated) Where: Disneyland, 8am What: Park opening and fighting swarms of troopers Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete when posted!
Wash had never been to an amusement park before. At least not that he could remember in the jumbled up mess of memories in his head. His mother had never taken him to one and she had never forked out the cash to let him go with his friends for birthday parties, or classmates for end-of-the-school-year field trips. Wash had always been one of the kids who had stayed behind at school, cleaning or doing busy work while his classmates rode roller coasters and ferris wheels. In high school Wash had figured out how to ditch on the days his classmates made the annual trip to the theme park and spent the day riding his skateboard, during his senior year, he’d made a point to work as much as possible so that he would have at least a little savings to start out with when he moved out and joined the Marines.
He was almost thirty now and he and Carolina had just entered the happiest place on earth. It was Carolina’s birthday and Wash wanted to make it a special one for her. He felt as though he owed it to her, especially after what had happened last month.
After they had paid for their tickets, Wash had grabbed a map on their way inside and was looking it over. “Where should we go first?” He asked, looking at it. “Do you have any rides you really want to go on? We should probably do those first before the lines get really long.”
He glanced up to see a crowed of people start to gather on Main Street USA in front of them. It was still pretty early in the day, not a lot of people were there yet, but still enough to apparently congregate on the street. They appeared to have all stopped and were looking at something. A loud and excited murmur was coming from the crowd as if something exciting was about to happen.
“What’s going on over there?”
It figured that a theme park like Disneyland would have some sort of birthday buttons. The girl had taken one look at the back of her military ID and Carolina had had to interrupt the woman before she went and blurted out her name. Back in Texas she had visited a handful of theme parks, but they had all centered around roller coasters on class trips. None of them had been on someone’s birthday. Still, this was the self-proclaimed happiest place on earth. She should have expected that they would have something special for all the birthday celebrators.
Carolina was still fiddling with the button as she looked over Wash’s shoulder at the map in his hands. “The guidebook said something about fast pases, didn’t it?” There was no way she was going to go to City Hall and get a ‘welcome call’ like the girl had suggested. She partially turned one corner of the map in his hands to try and see if there was anything written about it on the other side. A cartoonish-looking storm trooper looked back up at her. I completely forgot Disney bought Star Wars. Chuckling, she let go of the map.
“Why don’t we start in Tomorrowland? Then we can…” Carolina trailed off as she looked back up and saw the gathering crowd. It seemed odd for them to have an event right after the doors had opened, but she had nothing to compare it to. “Do you think it’s a parade?” There was definitely something blocking the crowd’s passage into the various sections of the park, but she could not see what it was from where they stood.
Carolina playfully tugged Wash toward the front of the crowd. It was her birthday and she was in the happiest place on earth with the brother she never thought she would have. It was going to be a wonderful day. “C’mon. Let’s see what’s so interesting.”
“Parades usually have music, don’t they?” Wash asked, “Like marching bands or something?” He also thought it was a little weird for an event to happen right after the doors opened. Then again, this was Disney, maybe it was some kind of celebration to welcome the early birds who arrived at the park first? However, even as Carolina pulled him by his shirt sleeve towards where all the excitement was going on, Wash began to get that feeling in the pit of his stomach, the feeling that usually precipitated when Orange County decided it wanted to do one of its things.
They’d just had a Thing, though, less than two weeks ago when people woke up not only in strange places but in strange bodies. What the hell was the OC trying to do now?!
Wash had his answer the moment he and Carolina made their way through the crowd. A line of what Wash could only describe as soldiers in white armor stood with firearms blocking passage into the rest of the park. For a moment all Wash could think about was the Insurrectionists from the Dreams, but the armor was all wrong. If Wash didn’t know any better, he’d say they were storm troopers.
There was an excited murmur going through the crowd. Apparently everyone else thought it was some kind of special show as well. Everyone became suddenly silent when the line of white armor clad troopers suddenly raised their blasters and aimed them directly at the crowd.
“Oh. Shit.”
The smile faded from Carolina’s lips the moment she spotted the blockade. Even a first time visitor to the park would realize that this situation was not normal. On the outskirts of the crowd, she could see people in official-looking vests speaking on handheld radios. They looked worried. “Or something.” She agreed. The cheerful music coming from the hidden speakers clashed with the anxious looks from guests and staff alike.
The figures were wearing white armor and an all-too-familiar helmet that made Carolina do a double take. Storm troopers? And a lot of them. Something about the way they held themselves and the weapons in their hands erased any doubt in her mind that these people were a squad of actors instead of actual soldiers. She knew that stance, hell she practically lived in that stance. It was not something that she expected to see in the middle of Anaheim, much less in fucking Disneyland of all places.
Then the storm troopers raised their weapons. Time seemed to slow down and between one heartbeat and the next, Carolina had to make a decision. They were surrounded by innocent civilians who had no place in a firefight. Or any fight, for that matter. There were children here, for God’s sake. Her eyes flickered from a girl who could not have been more than five holding a Minnie Mouse plushie back to the storm troopers. Would it be better to try and surrender or to risk the chaos as people ran for the exit? They never asked us to surrender. Wash’s words brought her back to the present.
“Back! Everybody back!” There was no mistaking the authoritative tone of her voice. Carolina spread her arms wide and stepped out in front, as if she could somehow cover an entire row of people while they backed away in confusion. A moment later the first shot went off and the confusion quickly turned to screams and a mad scramble for the entrance. Oh, hell.
“Wash! Get them to safety! I’ll pull their fire!” Gritting her teeth against the pain she knew was about to come, Carolina grabbed the nearest object - in this case, a water bottle someone had dropped in their hurry to leave - and threw it at the front row of fighters, managing to peg one of the blasters. The shot went off-course, hitting a tree and setting it aflame in a shower of sparks. At least that got some of their attention. Carolina went for the rest by sprinting forward and to the side of the line. Her ribs were already starting to protest, shooting daggers into her spine and cutting her breathing to short strips, but she didn’t care. She was a damn Marine and a “little” bruise was not going to stop her from her duty to protect the people around her.
There was no use surrendering to storm troopers with clear orders to kill whatever stood in their way. As Carolina shouted for everyone to get back, Wash was already moving up as well, ushering the confused onlookers away from the line of storm troopers. “Head back towards the entrance,” he ordered, his voice firm and authoritative. If he could just keep everyone calm and orderly they just may get out of this without any casualties. His hopes were dashed the moment he heard the first shot ring out.
Wash jerked, his attention drawn back towards the line. He had expected this, but he was still surprised as fuck. All he could do for a moment was stare at the line of white clad soldiers, the black line of their helmets pulled in perpetual frowns. Hell. The movies didn’t give this guys any form of justice. That was intimidating as fuck. His surprise was short lived as someone practically ran straight into him, nearly knocking Wash off his feet. Wash stumbled backwards just in time to hear Carolina bark her orders at him.
And just like that, it was as though the two of them were back overseas in the midst of a mission, seeing to the lives of civilians while the enemy bore down on an unsuspecting peaceful town in the middle of the desert. Wash’s entire posture changed. His shoulders squared and he herded the crowd of panic and chaos towards the front gates. “Get to the entrance!” He shouted again. “Keep your eyes forward. Move! Move!”
He came to a stop at the front gate. Two ticket takers had ventured out of their booths, looks of absolute confusion on their faces. “You!” he pointed at a young woman. “The park needs to be evacuated. Go make an announcement.”
She stared at him dumbfounded, seemingly unable to make up her mind whether or not this was some kind of elaborate prank and if she should listen to some random asshole who had emerged from the crowd. Wash wished he had on his fatigues and was carrying his sidearm, he never had anyone second guess him when he actually looked like a gooddamn soldier.
“There is an invasion in the park!” Wash shouted. “Get to a PA and evacuate the guests!”
The girl still looked shell shocked, but nodded her head. She disappeared back into her booth. It was a moment later before an announcement could be heard over the park’s speakers in an eerily calm and pleasant voice: “Attention, Disney World Guests! We regret to announce that the park is closing. Please proceed in an orderly fashion to the nearest exit. Repeat, the park is closing. Please proceed to the nearest exit.”
“You, you and you,” Wash pointed at three more ticket takers. “Form a line and keep the guests as calm as possible.”
“Who are you?” One of them demanded as the other two hurried off to do as they were ordered. “What’s going on?!”
“Gunnery Sergeant David Barrow, United States Marines,” Wash answered. It was a little bit of a lie, he hadn’t been a marine in over two years, but he doubted this poor guy would have any chance to check that. Besides, people tended to react better to name and rank than not. Wash was about to answer the second question when the first couple of Storm Troopers broke through the crowd carrying blasters and shooting at random. Thank god their aim was just as terrible here as they were in the movies. “That!”
“What...the….there aren’t any special shows scheduled for today.”
No shit. “Get the guests out,” Wash ordered again. Finally the ticket takers seemed to fall in line. Once crowd control seemed to be taken care of, Wash doubled back up Main Street to where he had last seen Carolina. Thankfully at that hour the park hadn’t been too full and he didn’t have to fight the current so much.
Draw their fire. Sure. It was just like Carolina to throw herself in harm’s way. Wash wasn’t too worried, however. Carolina could take it. Toughest and most skilled fighter on the squad, she usually was out in front, taking the enemy by the horns and making them wish they had never gotten out of bed that morning. Sometimes armed with only her bare hands.
Speaking of which, Wash needed a goddamned weapon. Of all the days he decided to leave his sidearm at home…
An abandoned broom plucked from the street made for a very makeshift weapon, but Carolina had worked with worse before. Normally, rushing a line of trained soldiers firing plasma weapons from the future would be considered a bad idea. Luckily for Carolina, the storm troopers were living up to their reputation; she barely had to dodge one or two shots as she ran forward, intent on giving Wash as much time as possible to get the merry park-goers out of the park. Whatever the troopers had expected, a lone woman running full-speed at them with a broom was not one of them and for an instant, she saw the front line hesitate.
An instant was all Carolina needed. She kicked the plasma rifle out of the first storm troopers hands as she reached him, then swung the broom like a bat at the next one’s neck, toppling him into the troopers behind him. The former Marine slid past the staggering group as they fell, broom coming down on the joint piece of the next trooper’s arm with a loud crack. As the trooper bent to cradle his arm, Carolina shoved him into the legs of the soldier behind him and using his back as leverage, she twisted to kick yet another trooper in the helmet with her steel-toed boots.
By the time the first few troopers were struggling to their feet, Carolina was already deep into their ranks. Red hair danced through the stream of white, leaving chaos and tortured cries in her wake. She could not see the entrance anymore, but she hoped that the distraction had worked long enough for the street to be empty. The broom had broken nine or ten lines ago - she had long stopped counting, but her boots still swung at weak points and arms wrapped coldly and efficiently around limbs and necks, breaking each with equal regard. This was war. There was no time for sympathy on the battlefield and one hit from any of those blasters would kill her just as quickly as any hesitation to act on her part.
Still, the number of soldiers seemed to be increasing by the minute, heading further into the park and toward higher ground. There had to be hundreds of them and Carolina knew that there was no way she and Wash were going to be able to fight off this many soldiers on their own - at least, not without weapons. Or backup. Luckily, she happened to know someone that might be able to help.
With a grunt of pain, the former CO rolled behind a toppled popcorn cart, blaster burns decorating the spots a few feet from where she had been. They really were horrible shots. Crouching behind the flimsy cover, Carolina pulled out her cell phone to make a call. One of the bucket heads - I think I like that name a lot more than ‘stormies’ or ‘plastic boys’ - tried to get around the cart, only to be met with a fist to the shoulder and a boot to the stomach. The man’s plasma rifle had not even hit the ground before it was scooped up into Carolina’s hands and she was returning fire to defend what little cover she had left. She heard Wash before she saw him as he made his way toward her. Hopefully, he had found a few more weapons to use against this army of buckets.
A blaster shot managed to hit the popcorn kettle, heating the copper pot and sending a wave of fresh-popped popcorn out of the broken glass and into the street. As soon as Carolina spotted the blond man beside her, she grinned. It was a fierce, almost feral teeth-baring grin, but she could not disagree with the fact that fighting her way through overwhelming odds felt good. “Glad you could join me, Gunney.”
“My first trip to a goddamn amusement park and it gets overrun by goddamn Stormtroopers!” Wash said with a half scowl. All complaining and bitching aside, it actually felt good to be fighting at Carolina’s side again. Fuck, it felt natural as hell. Wash hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this until he and his commanding officer were again standing back to back. There was something of a smirk hanging out in the corners of that half scowl. He really was made for this shit.
Somewhere between the front gates and the popcorn stand, Wash had acquired a blaster rifle. It wasn’t his signature battle rifle, but it worked in a pinch. He used it to take down two bucketheads who were intent on pinning them down. Over his shoulder to his boss he asked, “who the hell were you calling?”
Carolina barked a laugh at Wash’s complaint, knocking one buckethead on his head with the butt of the blaster before kicking him into three more behind him. “I have to say, this is one hell of a birthday gift. Remind me to send the Dreams a thank you card.” She twisted her head slightly to avoid a wayward bolt that seemed dangerously close to actually being a decent shot. He was probably aiming at the cart.
It was easy to fall back into old habits. Surrounded on all sides by enemies trying to kill them, relying on the Marine at your back to make sure that did not happen; God, this is what she lived for. No amount of bar fights or rounds at gyms could compare to this. Nor was there anyone else she trusted more to watch her back.
“Backup.” The CO replied, half turning to both answer Wash as well as shoot another buckethead on his five who had managed to break through. “I guess you could say he’s a bit of an expert when it comes to these kinds of things.” Green eyes glittered in amusement. She was a bit worried that Kanan was a bit too injured to be thrown into the front lines, but it was not as if she had any room to talk. They were both stubborn fools. He would’ve been a good Marine.
“Backup,” Wash repeated, more than a little skeptical. He had no idea what kind of “expert” Carolina had in mind, and honestly considering his experience with so-called “experts” in his Dreams, he was apprehensive about just who was going to show up. However, he didn’t exactly have the luxury of worrying about it, not with what was starting to look like an infinite amount of storm troopers coming from who knew where!
The two marines continued to do battle throughout the park. At first Wash searched for the source of where the stormtroopers were coming from, but that objective was soon abandoned in favor of just keeping as many of the bucketheads from leaving the park as possible. No small task for the two of them, even with all their combat training. Wash had lost all sense of time and place. He had no idea how long they had been fighting and the only thing he had to indicate where in the park he and Carolina were was a map stuffed into his back pocket he didn’t exactly have the luxury of checking.
All Wash knew was that they were vastly outnumbered and pinned down somewhere between the Matterhorn and Cinderella’s Castle. Wash’s back was pressed against a retaining wall. Behind him a well manicured bed of flowers had been ripped to shreds under blaster fire. He was beginning to see absolutely no way out. Stormtoopers were terrible shots, but that didn’t mean they would never hit their mark especially with a horde of them descending down on them this quickly. Wouldn’t it have been just his luck to go out under what was probably the geekiest of circumstances: a blaze of glory while fighting a bunch of stormtroopers. Too bad it had to happen on Carolina’s birthday. That was what really pissed him off.
Wash was ready to make his stand, all too too ready., much like he had been with the Jabberjays, Wash had been pushed just that one step too far and thoughts of his on self preservation simply did not exist.
The distinctive sound of a light saber activating pulled him back and for a moment, cleared the mounting cloud of rage from his mind. He risked a look slightly over his shoulder and blinked at what he saw.
A mother fucking Jedi.
Carolina gritted her teeth as the waves of troopers continued without an end in sight. Where the hell were they coming from? More importantly, how we're they going to stop them? What she wouldn’t give to have her faithful teal armor right about now. Her side had long since gone numb with pain, and while she knew mentally that such a thing was a definite bad sign, she was grateful for it. Any healing that her body had managed in the last two weeks had been undone, but until the numbness turned to incapacitation, there was no way the Marine was about to stop. Even then, it would be a toss up as to whether the inability to move would be enough to overcome the sheer determination raging inside her. Thankfully, it never came to that.
The iconic sound of a lightsaber behind her made Carolina grin. She did not have to look to know that their backup in the form of one (slightly banged up expert) Jedi had arrived. It was more of a miracle that he had managed to find them in the sea of white, but the looming shape out of the corner of her eye told her that the two had not strayed all that far from the location she had given him. At least there was that. With the ease of someone well-used to fighting in groups, the redhead adjusted her position at Wash’s side to make room for the newcomer.
“Hey, Kanan. Glad you could make it to the party!” Carolina called over her shoulder, punctuating the sentence with an elbow to a nearby stormtrooper’s neck. The bucket’s head snapped upwards, leaving her free to commandeer his blaster. Two guns were definitely better than one and with how little kickback the weapons produced, it was easy enough for her to apply the training from the Dreams to their current real-life situation. If you could call fighting stormtroopers in Disneyland “real-life”. Only in fucking Orange County.
So this was Kanan. Wash spared a look over his shoulder. He knew who Kanan was: a Jedi and the man Carolina was sleeping with regularly. He had wanted to meet the man, yes, but he would have preferred it to have been under different circumstances.
Kanan didn’t look as though he should have been out there with them. Hell, bandages around his throat and stitches in his face, he didn’t look as though he should have been out of the hospital at all. But, Wash recognized the look in Kanan’s eyes. Even if Carolina hadn’t called him, it would have been impossible to make him stay at the hospital the moment he heard what was happening. So long as Kanan didn’t become a liability, Wash was happy to have the back-up.
Kanan hadn’t actually used his lightsaber in the Dreams. He kept it stored away along with the holocron his master had given him right before she had died. Kanan was afraid to keep it, but he had been more lathed to get rid of it. Because of this, Kanan hadn’t been sure he would actually know how to use it once it arrived in Orange County. So, he had Dutch teach him how to wield a sword, just in case.
The saber itself had appeared on the table near his hospital bed just the other day, as if it had known what was coming and wanted him to be prepared. The moment Kanan had picked it up, he had known exactly what to do.
So he stood now with the two Freelancers, saber at the ready and adopting the first stance in Form III, as if he’d been practicing it his entire life. “Sorry, I’m late,” he told the other two, “you wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get here.”
“I think I have an idea.” Carolina looked back to flash him a lopsided grin. For the first time since she had left the Marines, she felt like she actually knew what she was supposed to be doing. Not that fighting movie grunts had ever been anywhere near something she had thought she would have to do.
Oh, yeah. Introductions. If Carolina had had her way, the two of them would likely never have met. She was naturally a private individual and having to separate her personal life from that of a commanding officer for over a decade had practically honed it into an art. Even now, she still found it difficult to share that side of her with the brother-in-arms who was now her only family (that she cared to talk about). It was not that she didn’t trust him, just that, well, were sisters supposed to discuss their sex lives with their brothers? Somehow, she doubted Wash wanted to hear much about it. Then again, that comment he had made about wanting to meet Kanan could be taken that way. She shook her head. Best not to think about it. There were plenty of other things that were demanding her attention right now.
As she made the necessary introductions, each name was punctuated by a plasma bolt to the head of a stormtrooper. “Wash, Kanan.” Carolina turned, placing a boot on a trooper’s chest and sending him to knock over a few more in Wash’s direction. “Kanan, this is my brother Wash.”
While they had been waiting for Kanan to arrive, it had become obvious to Carolina that there was no way they were going to be able to defeat all of the bad guys before they made it out of the park and into Orange County proper. There was just no end to them. Holding out and defending a difficult position was one thing, but continuing to stay and beat their heads against the wall was another. They had provided enough of a distraction for the park goers to get to safety; now it was their turn. Two of them had gotten pinned, but three… with three people, they stood a good chance to get the fuck out of there.
“I don’t know about you boys, but I’m ready to get the hell out of here.” Back at their apartment, Wash had his armor and Carolina had a shit ton more weapons that would help alleviate the burden on her numb side. Jesus, she really wasn’t looking forward to seeing what that was going to look like in the morning.
“Nice to meet you,” Kanan said. He had cleaved his way through the crowd to reach the two Freelancer. He ducked under a white armored arm belonging to a Storm Trooper who had gotten much too close for comfort. Kanan pivoted on his toes and thrust his hand out, using the force to shove the soldier away and slamming back into a pair of his cohorts. “Kinda wish it wasn’t during a full on invasion.”
“Welcome to the OC,” Wash answered. He had turned to cover their six now that they had an extra hand in the fight. The lull in the opposition on his side gave him a momentary chance to glance around the area. There was no sign of the swarm letting it up. He agreed with Carolina, there was no sense in defending this position. There was no value to it. And the three of them had no hope of keeping the swarm from spilling over into the rest of the county. It was definitely time to move.
“Ready when you are, Boss.”
“Fine with me,” Kanan agreed. “I’d like for my first trip to Disneyland not to involve combat.”
“I think it’s a bit too late for that.” Carolina quipped. At least it had been a memorable first trip to the theme park. Trusting the two to guard her back, Carolina turned in the direction she remembered the entrance being and began quickly carving out a path with blaster fire to get them the hell out of there. Next time, she hoped that ‘happiest place on earth’ motto would not extend to fighting innumerable enemies...and maybe they’d avoid Tomorrowland. Just in case.