The Flame - Part II of the Moonwalker Series

Serenno

The sound of the training bolt echoing around the walls of the landing bay faded as Sarah stood still, remaining in firing position with her hereditary rifle in her hands. On rare times when she was alone, she'd sneak off and train with it in the landing bay, the one place she could be alone under the condition she never used live fire.

She figured she could make that shot a tad more perfect and, gazing down the scope and aiming directly at the tiny reflector disk she'd stuck to one of the walls, she fired again. The training bolt hit it better than it had last time, and the bolt bounced once, twice, and then a third time before finally hitting the ground.

When it did, the unwanted memory of the first time she saw Crosshair doing that invaded her mind—the audible smirk in his voice, the way her knees shook at how good he was with his rifle, the way she smiled at his cockiness and at how he was obviously pleased to have finally impressed her.

With a heavy sigh, Sarah lowered the Firepuncher and returned to the present. She walked over to the barrel she'd placed a few feet to her right where the holo image of Tech's calculations rested. It seemed she'd finally gotten the angles right, but it was only a calculation made for three disks. For some reason, Sarah never saw herself using as many disks as Crosshair would, not by a long shot.

Then, in an abrupt rapture of the silence that surrounded her, her comm began to beep.

"Come in," she answered, hesitant.

"Sarah, you are needed at the cantina," Tech's voice came from the other end.

"Why?"

A brief rustling came from the comm, a sign that it was being shifted from possession, and then Wrecker's voice came in.

"We need you to convince Hunter to do something," he said, his tone somewhat shy.

"What makes you think I can do that?" Sarah rolled her eyes as she reached for the holo-image and began to pack her things up. "I'm on my way, but I can't promise anything."

"If you coerce him, he just might do it," Tech answered. "I predict he will be left vulnerable against your big eyes."

"And your hips," Wrecker cut in. "Maybe do that thing where you squeeze your arms at the sides of your chest and it makes your tits—"

"Please tell me Omega can't hear you," Sarah interrupted.

"She cannot," Tech confirmed. "Are you on your way here?"

"You want me to manipulate him?" Sarah couldn't help but chuckle. "Damn. Stay put, I'm heading there."

"Interacting with you should be enough to lighten his tension," Tech replied. "All of ours, frankly."

Sarah sighed and cut the comm connection, heading straight for the cantina. When she arrived, she noticed Tech, Wrecker, and Echo huddled around a table with Cid. Of all of them, Cid was the first one to lay eyes on Sarah, directing at her a dim smile.

"Hardly see ya around here anymore, Strider," Cid said.

"Sorry," Sarah answered, her tone gentle and sincere towards Cid, who'd never once questioned Sarah for how she felt. "What's going on here?"

"Dark and broody doesn't want to go on the next mission I've arranged for ya," Cid answered.

Sarah was mad at Hunter and that wouldn't change for a long time, but she also knew him enough to know that whenever he didn't want to go somewhere, he had a good reason for it. She figured convincing him of anything would be more difficult than swaying hips and batting her eyelashes at him, that was, if she didn't agree with him for the first time in months.