Project Boussh: Showoffs by Alison Sky Retsim held onto Alison's face, looking her over carefully. His fingers pressed into her skin, and for a moment, Alison was sure that he would leave a mark on her skin with his nails. She watched his hand, holding the tiny needle. Suddenly, she saw a path. Almost like in the Searching For Bobby Fisher. When the chess board is cleared, Bobby was ablke to see all the moves needed for victory. Now, looked at the needle, with the swords almost cinematically set in the background, Alison could see what she needed to do for victory. Without thinking, Alison twisted her arm and jabbed her elbow into Retsim's stomach. He doubled over, dropping the needle to the floor. Alison twisted past him, then pushed him into mis-matched as he turned his blaster in her direction. With that distraction, hobbie and Ooryl took off in different directions. Hobbie went to Emily's side, punching Ahchay across the jaw. Emily got free and instantly ran to the animal cages. "Help me free them!" she cried as she opened the first cage. Two birds were inside, and instantly took off, flying straight at Retsim. They dove down at him, pecking and scratching. Alison grabbed one of the swords, and suddenly felt completely at ease. It hardly weighed a pound, and was balanced perfectly to be held in one hand. After a test swing, Alison was in love with the reflective silver blade. A blaster shot rocked her back to reality. She looked up to see mis-matched aiming a blaster shot at her. With her quick reflexes, Alison brought the sword up, thinking that maybe, with her luck, it could reflect the bolt. So, she was very surprised at seeing the bolt bounce off the sword at a 33 degree angle into the wall a few feet above Ooryl's head. The Gand dropped to the ground quickly. "SORRY!" Alison shouted, as she grabbed the other sword and dove for cover. She ended up next to Emily, who was struggling on opening the cage of the baby penguin. "You know how to work a sword?" Alison asked. Emily looked at the sword and smiled. "It's my favorite weapon." Quickly, they discussed a plan. Right as they finished their idea, Hobbie rolled over the table, landing on the ground beside them. He had a gash across his forehead, and was holding his stomach in pain. The two Terrans ran to his side as Ooryl dove beside them. "Is he ok?" Alison asked, looking around the corner of the table. Mis-matched and Ahchay were spliting up, each to come around a different side of the table. "Come out now, and I won't let them kill you," Retsim stated. Alison and Emily nodded. "Protect Hobbie," Alison told Ooryl. "And the penguin," Emily added. The two Terran wingmates jumped up as one, each landing on opposite sides of the desk. Mis-matched was before Alison, holding a thick metal pipe. He swung at Alison, aiming high at her neck. She moved her sword to block it, aiming the sharp end outwards. There was a flash of sparks, and Alison jerked back as she felt an impact on her shoulder. A clatter followed, and Alison saw a piece of the pipe now on the floor. "Idiots, they have the swords!" Retsim shouted. "Use your blasters!" Emily ducked as the first blaster shot singed a bit too close to her hair. She twirlde and kicked her foot out, catching Ahchay in his ribs. He jerked, then reached out to grab her foot. JUmping up, Emily placed her weight into the foot that Ahchay held and kicked his head with her other foot. Ahchay fell to the ground, and Emily twisted around, kicking Ahchay one more time in the head. She nailed him in his nose, and the bone pressed back into his brain, killing him. Alison, meanwhile, deflected blaster shot after shot into the walls. She was getting more used to the angle the sword deflected the shots in. Finally, one shot came at her, and with a twist of the sword, the shot hit back into the chest of mis-matched. Both Terrans quickly twisted around. In frontof them now stood Retsim, his face covered with red marks from the birds. He looked at both of them and laughed. "You wouldn't dare," he uttered. Without a word between the two of them, Alison and Emily twirled the swords around through the air and around themselves. In the slow dance of revenge, the tip of both swords entered Retsim. Alison's entered from the back, Emily's from the front. "For Wes and Hobbie," Emily stated, pulling her sword free. "For Face and the animals," Alison said, taking the sword back from the body. Retsim looked down at the blood coming out of his chest. He tried to give a meanicing glare at either of them, but instead collapsed, face-first, onto the floor. Looking around, Alison came out of her daze. She went to Emily, and the two wingmates just stared at each other. They had done it, and fianlly a small part of their mind was satisfied. "Alison, Emily!" Ooryl cried out from behind the table. Quickly, the two Terrans ran to the Gand's side. Hobbie was up, sitting against the empty cage door. He smiled at the two girls. "Let's get out of here." "Not after we free each and every one of these creatures," Emily stated. "They need to go back to the surface, to let the islands thrive again." She reached into the cage and pulled out the baby penguin. "And I need a new pet." Alison smiled, then looked down at the sword in her hand. "I'm keeping the sword, myself." Emily laughed. "I plan on keeping mine too, you know. After all, we're wingmates. We had better carry similar weapons." "Oh god," Hobbie moaned as Ooryl helped pick him up off the floor. "Just what we needed. Two more sword wielding females." Alison smiled. "Don't worry Hobbie, we won't show off too much." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A shuttle brought the group back to the surface, after a few more tiny skirmishes to get past the guards. Finally, they landed on the sandy beach, which had been cleaned up quite a bit. Shannon slept with Hobbie in the back while Ooryl helped Emily and Alison chase the animals back onto the beach. Alison and Emily had the swords wedged between their belt loops, swinging behind them. The baby penguin slept in a makeshift sling in front of her chest. They were going to bring it back to the spaceport... or at least Alison hoped that Emily would bring it back. The younger Terran had grand plans of keeping it in her pool at home. As they herded the animals, Ooryl came up beside Alison. "You handeled yourself well," he stated. "I was scared out of my mind," Alison admitted. "But i guess stress is the best motivator to take action." "Ooryl has learned that often, before one can lead, one must learn how and when to lead. It is a path that once one has experianced, it is a lesson that continues to blossom." Alison gave Ooryl a sidelong glance. "You know, Ooryl, I never was able to understand your findsman ways in our historical records. Yet somehow, now they all make sense." Ooryl gave her a toothy grin. "Next time, Ooryl will write you a manual." Alison laughed, then they got back to work. Once the animals were gone, They went back to the shuttle. Hobbie came out, a band-aid on his forehead from where the cut was healing. "Shannon's awake. She says that we can drop her off on the mainland." "How much did you tell her?" Alison asked. "Just enough," Hobbie replied. "She wants to know where the young actor went to. I told her he went to get help." "I can pilot the shuttle back. Seen it in enough seaQuest episodes to know the controls." "Ooryl can fly one of the X-wings back. Better not let her see an non-human." "I want to fly again," Emily stated. "I was just getting the hang of it, and Snipe I think likes me." Alison turned to Hobbie. "You might want to relax anyways. Come on, flyboy. I'm sure Shannon has auditions she wants to get to."