Azula Amongst the Stars

Chapter 14

Azula, Cetro, Skeeve and Lectro sat in the rear compartment of a windowless hover van while Sev and B3 were ungracefully tossed onto the floor with four of Slater's men sitting amongst them. Slater's personal extravagant air limo led the way through the air while the larger, more robust van followed behind.

They all sat in silence as the vehicle soured through the sky. Sev stared at the ceiling from his not so comfortable spot on the floor, "You know, you guys should clean the ceiling of this place. It's super dirty."

One of the thugs kicked his side, "Quiet!"

Azula looked over the four guards sitting at each corner of the compartment. Each one a different species and a wall of muscle who could easily overpower her and the others in their current state, all armed with a plasma blaster at their hip hidden by their suit jackets, only visible to her by the faint glow of its battery.

"So firespitter... How's that plan coming along?" Cetro asked under his breath.
"Still working on it." She looked at the thug next to her, noticing he was the bouncer at the club entrance with the cybernetic implant on his head. With her thermal vision she could see a faint glow emanating within it.

"Well whatever it is you better do it quick before-'' the thug next to Cetro elbowed him hard in his ribs telling him to keep quiet.

"Hey guys, how about we just comply for now, so we don't end up dying?" Skeeve said to them.

"They won't kill us, Skeevy boy." Sev said from the floor, "They need us alive to make this stupid trade."

One of the thugs revealed his weapon to them all as a final warning, "Alive, but no one said uninjured."

Everyone stayed silent. Azula stretched her back as a way to hide her positioning a hand to make a reaching motion for the heat source on the side of the cyborg thug's head.

She focused her energy on the heat source like she did on Sev's shoulder but the heat source remained the same. She focused harder and the source began to glow brighter. The thug shook his head as if a bug was in his face and tapped the metal implant in some vain attempt at cooling it down.

"What's wrong?" The thug across from him asked, prompting Azula to stop.

"It's nothing." He responded not wanting to let any weakness be known.

Azula leaned over to Cetro, "Get ready to attack."

Cetro saw the discomfort on the cyborg and had a vague understanding as to what she meant. He looked to the rest of the group and through subtle facial gestures he made them aware of what to expect.

Once settled back in she raised her hand discreetly feeling the heat source once more clenching it and watched as it began glowing brighter and brighter. The thug visibly began to grow more uncomfortable; his face twisted in discomfort, his brow began to sweat and he began to sway as if he was growing dizzy.

Once he grasped his head as if he was soothing a migraine the other thugs began to take notice.

"What's going on with you?" The thug across from them asked.

"Something's up with my cyberware."

The second thug got up and came closer to take a look. Once he was close enough Azula tensed her hand and poured all her energy into the heat source. The thug tensed up and cried out as the cyberware on his head exploded into a flurry of sparks and caught fire, taking the second thug by surprise.

Before he could recover she planted both feet into the distracted thug's hip, sending him back into his seat. The other two began to react. Cetro threw his weight into the one closest to him trying to pin him to the wall while Lectro spun in his seat and began kicking the thug next to him when he reached for his weapon.