Blurred Sides (COMPLETE)

4.1.6

Caleb kept from the edge of the building across the street and hid behind a chimney. Peeking around the edge, he focused far down the street and saw the group of speeders heading directly towards the starting point of the parade. There were still about twenty floats that were waiting to begin the route. It was up to Caleb to intercept the terrorists before they got there.

He waited and double-checked his timing. When the speeders got closer, he jumped down on top of the riders. Caleb basically tackled the last rider in the group and they nearly fell off. Luckily, the rider had a pretty strong grip and they managed to cling to the speeder. Somehow, the speeder stayed on course.

Off in the distance, Ahsoka laughed as she ran to intercept the rest of the riders. Ideally, Caleb probably should have just used the Force to stop all five riders at once, but hey, this worked too. It was the kind of showy move she was used to Anakin pulling, but Caleb was probably just inexperienced. In any case, she needed to help him.

The other four riders, who, by this point, had realized that their plan had been discovered, turned right. The fifth rider, who was still trying to shove Caleb off, kept on going straight. Ahsoka let Caleb deal with his rider while she jumped down to the street the other four had taken. She used the Force to push the riders off and then slowed the speeders.

She had a few seconds before the riders got up and reacted, and she used those seconds to instruct Caleb.

"Caleb, knock out your rider and check for weapons." Ahsoka took a defensive stance as her opponents regained their dignity. "Let me know what you find."

Caleb, who had just managed to sit up straight on the speeder, yelled back in response. "I got it, I got it!"

Ahsoka shook her head. What a first mission. Then again, her first hadn't exactly been calm either. She turned her attention to the four riders. They were all on their feet and had pulled out their blasters. Ahsoka thought for a moment, then took out her lightsabers. She needed to take these guys down quickly, and intimidation was the easiest way to do that.

She never intended to actually use them on the riders, but they had the desired effect. All of them recoiled but didn't run. It wouldn't have helped them, she was undoubtedly faster than them. Especially, as she saw, since they all had heavy black packs strapped to their backs. Bad news.

"Drop the packs and the blasters, or we do this the fun way," she told them. A classic Skywalker line, and one of Ahsoka's personal favorites.

One of the riders obliged immediately, only to be scolded by his friends. He picked up his blaster from the ground and readjusted the straps of his bag. None of the others moved an inch, but Ahsoka could tell that they weren't all that excited about facing a Jedi with two lightsabers. This was going to be easy.

She charged at them, and all four riders started shooting. When Ahsoka easily dodged all of their shots, they lost their nerve and started to run. She knocked their blasters out of their hands and took them out. Without her lightsabers, of course.

Ahsoka gathered all of their weapons before checking the packs. She undid the straps and opened the first pack. A bomb. Just like she had suspected.

Ahsoka activated her comlink. "Caleb, anything on that fifth rider?"

"Behind you!"

Ahsoka turned, and sure enough, Caleb was slowing the last speeder to a stop, with the rider in tow. He hopped off and dragged the rider to the others, and handed Ahsoka the bomb bag and the blaster.

"Did you check the bag?" She asked him

"Not yet," he said. "I wanted to find you first."

"For future reference," she told him, undoing his bag as she spoke. "Check the bag first, because you never know if this," she presented the bomb to him. "might be in it."