X-Men: A New Hope

Chapter Three

Tatooine

　

Luke’s landspeeder flew across the Tatooine desert, wondering if he really should have let Threepio be the driver. But then again, this was his droid counterpart they were talking about. Why shouldn’t the droid drive?

Luke narrowed his eyes, then teleported a while ahead. He saw the droid, then waved his hand to Threepio telling him to stop. Then he walked back up to Artoo. "Where do you think you’re going?" he asked.

The droid beeped in reply. "What do you mean, Obi-Wan Kenobi?" a prim voice asked from behind, and Luke sighed as Threepio joined the conversation. "Luke is your master, not this Kenobi!"

Artoo made a rude noise at Threepio. Wisely, Luke cut in before Threepio could reply. "It’s fine, let’s just get him back to the landspeeder," he said.

He had just turned to leave when Artoo began squealing in worry and rocking back and forth on his legs. Luke frowned. "What’s wrong?" he asked.

Threepio looked around at the top of the cliffs. "He says that there are life forms operating on top of the cliffs," he reported, then gave an electronic gasp. "Oh, my!"

Luke whirled, grabbing the rifle he had in the back of the landspeeder. When he looked up, he too gasped in surprise.

Standing on top of the cliff was the look-alike Camie that he kept telling himself was not Camie. She was watching them, and when she saw that Artoo was squealing, she backed away. "Who in hell is that?" Luke muttered.

Then there was the sound of a low moan from the top of the cliffs. Luke whirled the other way, looking up. "Sand People," he muttered. He took off at a run, then looked to Threepio behind him. "Come on!" he told the droid before running off again.

　***

Danielle watched in curiosity as her fellow mutant and his protocol droid started moving off towards the Tusken Raiders’ camp. "He would not," she murmured in disbelief.

But he did. Both of them began to come closer and closer to the camp. She raised a hand to the comlink Chewbacca – or Beast, as he was known in the X-Men – had personally fashioned. "Pyro? Beast?" she asked softly.

There was a soft roar, then Han’s reply. "We’re here."

"I’m moving in," she told them. "I keep hearing something about an ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ that sounds familiar."

"Go for it. We’ll be waiting here."

"Storm out."

She held her arms out and felt the familiar feeling of blood rushing through her body. She had rehearsed this action many times before after she, Han, and Chewbacca had personally fashioned their X-Men suits so people couldn’t see how they usually were.

She heard a faint whistling, then smiled as up and down her body, pieces of her black X-Men armor began fastening itself around her. Finally, she felt the cloak she wore fastened around her neck and onto her wrists came on. "That never gets old," she said happily as lifted up into the sky so she could see everything that was going to happen.

***　

Luke waved Threepio down when he was still a good ways away from the Tusken Raiders. Seemingly almost glad, Threepio stooped so that he was hidden from view. Luke concentrated on getting as close to the Tusken Raiders as possible, and to his surprise, he teleported a few good meters closer. He had a great view!

"Thank goodness for that mutation," he murmured.

He raised his macrobinoculars, taking a look down to see the Tusken Raiders huddled around their banthas. He frowned. "Not a lot of them . . . " he murmured.