A Galaxy Quite Close to Home

Chapter 2: Finn

"Aye, Troop, look what we caught sneakin around our part of town!" three men pushed into the room, smelling like alcohol and weed, one of them beaten and bruised. The other two grinned drunkenly and shoved him to the ground.

"My names Finn..." he mumbled under his breath and looked at the beaten stranger. "Who's he?" he cleared his throat.

"Enemy's best drive away man, rookie." they looked at each other proudly and then back over at Finn.

"Tie this piece of trash up." they kicked their new prisoner down and laughed on the way out, snickering and teetering on their feet. Finn sighed and got up, walking over to the man on the ground and kneeling.

"You alright, man?" he kept his voice low so that nobody in the house could hear.

"Yeah. No. Does it really look like it? Your buds are way outta line. They were on my stompin grounds." he spat, blood mixed in with saliva.

"They aren't really my 'buds'. Your name?" he helped him up to his feet.

"Poe. Yours?" Poe stood a few inches taller than him.

"They call me Troop... but, uh. The name's Finn."

"Alright, Finn. Care to explain why you're helping me? I'm a rival." Finn looked around and whispered.

"Because it's the right thing to do." he tried to keep a straight face.

"You're trying to get out of this. What'd they ask you to do?" Poe smirked and tongued his cheek. Finn sighed and closed his eyes tight, balling up his fists.

"Their idea of 'initiation' is killing a man. I lost my nerve. Can't do it. I have to get out of here now." he looked up into Poe's eyes and the obviously, slightly older man, nodded.

"Alright. There a car around here?"

"Yeah. But I'm not the one with the keys." Poe smirked.

"I don't need keys." Finn's heart soared a little and they started to hurry out of the house and to the street, Poe with a slight limp. They hurried to the nearest car and broke the window. Poe hopped in and reached across to unlock the other door. Finn looked around nervously, afraid that they would get caught. Seconds after leaning down by where the pedals were, the car started with a loud roar.

"You just hot wired it???" Finn squeaked out looked at the man next to him with wide eyes.

"They told you I was the best get away driver!" He said excitedly and switched the car into gear, hitting the gas pedal and speeding off down the street, driving right over the curb. Behind them there were angry shouts and a gunshot, breaking one of the tail lights. Finn ducked down in surprise and gave Poe an "oh shit" look. The driver just kept going, turning a tight corner and tearing down the road. The sound of tires screeching behind them made Finn turn around. They were being followed.

"Do you even know your way around this place?" the young man cried out anxiously.

"I grew up around here. Know it like the back of my hand!" he spun the steering wheel so hard that the car stopped at the end of the rubber-burning turn. Finn gripped the dash like his life depended on it, searching next to him for the seat belt but it had been cut out.

Their runaway was cut short by a car cutting them off, smashing into a truck. Finn's head hit the dash and he was knocked out.

When he woke up his head throbbed and vision swam. His body laid sprawled out on the pavement and the car he and Poe had stolen was entirely smashed. Nobody else was around surprisingly. There were never police called in this neighborhood. He got up, surprised that he could even stand. Being thrown from a car wasn't exactly something you walked away from. Finn decided that it was a sign he was doing a right thing, abandoning the group of thugs. He stumbled towards the car, reaching in and grabbing at what looked like the jacket that Poe had been wearing. Sure enough it was his jacket, but it was empty. He looked at it and then looked into the seat, wreckage shoved through the front windshield made it impossible to see to the other side clearly.

"Poe??!" he called out with no response. He sighed and felt dizzy, stumbling backwards as the smell of gasoline filled his nose. A sense of danger washed over him and as he instinctively ran away from the car he was knocked to the ground by the force of a blast. The car blew into a fireball behind him and he covered his head, scrambling back up to his feet and running as far away as he could.

Finn wandered the streets, cold and sure he had a concussion, knowing that his acquaintance was surely dead. From an alleyway he heard a commotion and he hurried up to see what it was. There were three figures fighting in the shadows, one a young girl, the other two were large, punkish looking men.

"Why.. would they be attacking a girl?" he whispered to himself and squinted, trying to focus his eyes. His head was throbbing like crazy.

The girl was wielding a metal baseball bat and was incredibly agile, able to dodge their cumbersome attacks and come back with strong swings. His jaw dropped when he saw that both men lay on the ground, defeated by the petite girl. She looked back over her shoulder and saw him. He wanted to disappear into the shadows but was held in place by fascination. She was spooked by his presence and picked up a bag before sprinting away from the scene. Finn stumbled into the alley and past the two men on the ground. They were unconscious but still alive, much to his relief. He thought he had just witnessed a murder. At the end of the small street he turned right like she had. He had taken notice of her hair, being pulled back into three buns instead of just one. It was unique enough that if he saw it again he would know.