Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Runaway

Chapter 3 - A Strange Bunch

When Calli woke up about an hour later, she expected to be locked up in a holding cell or at the very least have binders on her wrists. But when she opened her eyes, she was greeted with the bright afternoon sun shining on her face and not the cold durasteel roof of a cell.

Calli groaned quietly as her retinas burned from unintentionally looking at the yellow orb and used her right hand to shield her face. This simple movement was enough to set her arm on fire as the cut on her forearm screamed in pain. She'd been ignoring the wound for the past couple of days, and by now it must be infected. Of course, that's what the medical supplies she'd "borrowed without permission" were for.

Realization set in, and she was quick to sit up and look around for her bag. Calli could care less about where she is, but that bag was her entire life. It held all of her worldly possessions.

"Look who's finally awake." A low, husky voice quipped from somewhere slightly above her. Calli's head snapped to the left where the voice came from and looking up, she scowled when she saw Hunter sitting on a crate that she hadn't noticed was there, looking down at her while casually twirling a vibroblade with his fingers. Yeah, that wasn't threatening at all.

Calli strained her aching body as she got onto her feet, all the while glaring at the man.

"Where's my bag?" Calli internally winced at how hoarse her voice was. She really needed some water.

"Tech has it." Hunter motioned to behind her with his chin and turning she spotted her bag in the hands of another man whom Calli recognized as the goggled man from earlier.

Anger coursed through her as she watched him take out something from the bag, this time being a laser pointer she swiped from an unsuspecting droid while it had been powered down, inspect it through the round goggles he wore over his eyes and then set it aside in a pile of other things he's already looked at. The laser pointer was very fun to mess with tooka cats and other small critters and never failed to make Calli chuckle when she needed it - as an added bonus, she could guide them to knock something over and that proved a great distraction for the unsuspecting vendor, then which the teen could snatch a loaf of bread or piece of fruit to eat.

Seeing Tech violate her personal property like that made Calli upset, justified or not since she technically violated theirs first. Still, Calli was angry and that's all she could think about as she stomped over just before he could get his hands on anything else. She yanked the bag out of the man's hands, and he startled, too focused on his task to realize the owner had woken up.

"Didn't your mom tell you it's rude to look through other people's stuff?" Calli said coldly. The goggled man didn't seem put off by Calli's gruff demeanor, and looked at her with - confusion?

"We do not have a mother."

"Well I'd love to hear that story but I have this thing called, "I could care less"." Calli noticed the supplies she had acquired from the ship were nowhere to be found and she internally groaned. They must have taken them away when she was out cold.

"If you think we would let you keep the items you stole, you must not be as smart as I thought you were." Calli cast a glare at Tech while harshly zipping her bag closed. She disliked being on the losing side of this whole situation and that she didn't bother hiding. As if this couldn't get any worse, the other two members of the crew had exited the ship that was about five yards away and Calli heard them before she saw them.

"Oh, look who's awake." Calli recognized the loud, tough voice of Wrecker and when she turned around her heart sank when she saw the guy she had hit with her bag walking alongside the larger man. If she remembered correctly, Wrecker earlier mentioned a "Crosshair", and something about the tattoo over his right eye told Calli that this guy had to be him. Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair.