You've Got Spirit, Kid/Story

You've Got Spirit, Kid an MI5 Chronicles story

Valeria Kennt and her 11-year-old adopted daughter Kayla Moonreaper entered the farmhouse nestled away in the outbacks of Dantooine. They had just returned home from a "play date" with a bunch of Kayla's friends, including the boy in the neighboring farm, Onayim Ekim.

"Did you have fun today, Kayla?" Valeria asked.

"Yes! I wanna do it again!"

Valeria chuckled. "We need to do that more often. It looked like you guys had a lot of fun." She paused. "You sure seemed to spend a lot of time with Onayim."

"What?" Kayla said, seeming a little surprised. "He's my best friend."

Valeria cracked a smile. She and Onayim spent a lot of time together today. Kayla was only 11. That was the beginning of those tween years, preadolescence. This could be the start of Kayla's interest in boys.

Valeria wasn't looking forward to having those discussions with her yet. But that wouldn't be until Kayla's teenage years. There was still time to prepare...

"Anna," Valeria called through the house. "Can you get some dinner ready?"

Anna was the BD-3000 luxury droid that Valeria reprogrammed to be a maid and nanny. She acquired the droid on Coruscant back in her younger days when she was a mercenary. She has since given up that life. Valeria was more focused on raising Kayla now. Although, she admits, she does enjoy getting out into the fray once in a while. Like helping the anti-terrorist organization MI5, for example. Valeria has assisted them before. Her friend (and Kayla's biological mother) Shasta Moonreaper is part of MI5. Valeria enjoyed getting a call from Shasta, helping MI5.

"I'll go wash up for dinner," Kayla said, running through the house to the bathroom.

Valeria paused and looked around. She never heard a response from Anna. "Anna? Where are you?" Maybe she was outside. Cleaning? Doing some sort of yard work?

Valeria went out the back door to look for the droid. She took only one step out and something grabbed her by the neck and pulled her aside. An arm was wrapped tightly around her neck and another arm was around the top of her head. She had been out of the whole mercenary thing for a number of years, but her instincts were still beginning to kick in. Even though it was getting difficult to breathe, she managed to grab hold of those arms that restrained her, lean back and then quickly fling forward, tossing her attacker over her head. A skinny dark-haired human man slammed down on his back. Valeria took a second to catch her breath which was just enough time for the man to get back to his feet and pull a blaster.

Now seeing the man's face clearly, Valeria's memory was at work. She recognized him. But from where?

"Trying to remember who I am, aren't you?" the man asked. "It's taken me 11 long years, but I've finally found you."

11 years? So around the time Kayla was born? Wait. It was starting to click now. "Buzzy Bakken?!"

"In the flesh," he responded.

Buzzy Bakken was an expert at building and programming droids. 11 years ago, both Valeria and Shasta had been hired to kill Buzzy. He was just a teenager then. His hideout was destroyed, but Buzzy managed to escape with his life. It was then that Shasta informed Valeria about the newly-conceived child she was carrying.

"So," Valeria started, "you're out to get revenge, is that it?"

"You and Moonreaper ruined my life and destroyed everything I had. After taking a few years to get back on my feet, I tried tracking Moonreaper first, but realized she was MI5. MI5 security was too much. So I chose to come after you instead. You weren't easy to find, I'll admit. This farmhouse in the middle of nowhere was the perfect hiding place."

Valeria just continued to let him monologue, giving her a chance to figure out a way to get out of this mess.

"And I also discovered that you adopted Moonreaper's daughter. A half-Human half-Zeltron. She's a cute little girl. Can't wait to see her when she hits puberty." He gave a little wink.

"You sick son of a bantha. If you lay a hand on her..."

"What? What are you gonna do? You can't do anything when you're dead."

Anna the luxury droid suddenly came walking around the corner of the house behind Buzzy with blasters in both hands.

"Ah, it's about time," Valeria said, relieved that her droid came to her rescue.

"Have you forgotten that reprogramming droids is my expertise?" Buzzy added.

Anna stopped next to Buzzy and pointed the blasters at Valeria. It appeared Buzzy reprogrammed Anna. Valeria hung her head. She hadn't expected that. Was she really getting that rusty? Has she been out of the mercenary thing that long? She's been outsmarted by a kid. Well, he was a kid a decade ago. He's got to be in his late-20s by now.

"First I'll enjoy torturing you," Buzzy stated. "And when I think you've endured enough, I'll put you out of your misery. Then I'll use the girl Kayla to lure Shasta Moonreaper to me, and I'll do the same to her. Then my revenge will be complete."

Valeria said, "You've got spirit, kid, I'll give you that. But if you, by some strange miracle, kill Shasta, do you really think you'll be able to hide from MI5?"

The back door opened again and Kayla stepped out. "What's going on?" she asked.

Buzzy turned to grab her and Anna turned her head to look. That gave Valeria the split-second opening she needed. Valeria leaped toward Anna and knocked her to the ground. Valeria opened a panel on the back of the droids head, equivalent to the area at the base of the skull, and grabbed a few wires. "I'm sorry, Anna." Valeria ripped the wires out, disabling the droid. She then pried the blasters from her metallic hands and spun around. Buzzy was gone. And so was Kayla.

Valeria swiveled her head quickly glancing at the open land around the house. Buzzy wasn't in sight. So the only other option was for him to head to the front of the house.

Racing through the door and back into the house, Valeria sprinted down the hallway and skidded to a stop at a 6-foot-tall metal cabinet with a security lock. She quickly typed the code into the keypad and the cabinet opened, revealing an arsenal of weapons. Before the cabinet doors had even finished opening, she grabbed the sniper rifle and immediately ran for the front door.

Standing on the doorstep, she could see Buzzy off in the distance. He was dragging Kayla along with him. She could hear Kayla screaming. Valeria aimed the rifle and through the scope she could see them running away. They were roughly 200 yards out. A landspeeder was parked further away hidden behind some brush. Buzzy had the blaster in his left hand and Kayla's arm in the other. Valeria wanted to kill Buzzy right then. But that may traumatize Kayla even more than she already has been. She relaxed her breathing and focused on the movement of Buzzy's blaster, swinging forward and backward in his hand as he ran. When she thought she had the timing right, she fired.

The blaster bolt hit Buzzy's left hand causing him to let go of the blaster...and Kayla. Kayla hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt. Buzzy spun around to see he was being targeted with a sniper rifle. He continued running off toward the speeder, zigzagging as he went, knowing a moving target would be harder to hit.

Valeria ran toward Kayla. She reached her about the same time that Buzzy reached his speeder. "You okay?" Valeria asked as she picked Kayla up off the dirt. "Are you hurt?"

Kayla just cried and threw her arms around her. Valeria dropped the rifle and hugged her back. She looked up to see Buzzy disappear in the distance in the speeder.

Stroking her head, Valeria tried to comfort Kayla. "It's okay, now. You're alright."

It appeared that this farmhouse was no longer safe. She and Kayla would have to pick up and move somewhere else now. There's no telling how many of her past enemies crossed paths with Buzzy Bakken in his search for her. She used to be a mercenary, so she made lots of enemies. It was time for the next chapter in her life. She just stayed there in the dirt for a few moments, holding Kayla in her arms.

Kayla's safety was top priority.

End