STAR WARS - INTERLUDE SIX
"Rescue the Children," written by Steve Bowden and edited by Mark L. Stinson

While he was treating the children he noticed that one of his jars of medicine started floating and crashed into one of the fighters that appeared to be standing guard in the room. When he questioned Morris Jahammer on the subject he was severely beaten and thrown out into the alley behind the residence. He was told by the fighter that if he ever mentioned his visit to the house to anyone, that he would be in no better shape than the children. At this point in his story the healer seemed a little more disturbed than what a mere death threat should have caused. As I sat there Ranar continued the questioning and found that there were two guards watching the children in the basement. Both were apparently good fighters, but did not seem overly bright. They both have some degree of fame in the fight-club circuit. At that point Ranar got the good healer to draw us a rough map of the first floor and the basement of the fight club owner's house. He explained that was all that he had been able to see when he was there...so we didn't press the point. We spoke a little longer about other topics, just to put the healer Miter Barnes at ease. I also took the opportunity to introduce him to Walla, a fellow healer, but of a different school. Walla seemed to take great interest in him and they went off to a table for a drink and conversation. Despite the fact that Miter's mood was improving from when we first began talking to him, his hands still appeared to be shaking, and there was true sadness in his eyes.

After the healer was out of ear-shot, I asked Ranar what he thought. He sat there for a moment and finally spoke. "I believe that if the children have powers, Mr. Jahammer may plan to use them to make money in the fight circuit. And judging by Morris Jahammer's reputation, these gifted children will not be treated half as well as Vette was treated by Fight Manager Al Mord. If we are going to get the children out, it should be done with minimal force and not an all-out-assault." I immediately agreed and we made plans to sneak into Jahammer's house that night. I couldn't help but think I would feel more comfortable if the Jedi's and my bodyguard were here for this mission, but they had left earlier this morning to talk with a resistance group in another burrough.

Twelve hours later, what passes for night had come to our little segment of Milos, and Ranar and I were out in front of Jahammer's three-story-house. We had watched the residence from across the street for a couple of hours. We had seen a few fighters come and go, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was darker now and we had found that the house had a window in the back that led to the kitchen. We waited until we thought that everyone was asleep and then turned our attention to the back window. The window had bars and I had to use my telekinetic powers to pull the bars out of the mortar. This was done with minimal noise thank Kib.

We climbed through the window and found ourselves in the kitchen. Not wasting any time, we headed down a long hallway. It was dark but the house seemed to be exactly as the healer had sketched it. Through the living room, and then a training room on the other side...was the door to the basement and a 6'4" fighter wide awake sitting in a high back chair. DAMN! Ranar motioned me to be still and hide in the shadows...and that is exactly what I did.

Ranar moved amazingly quietly, even for a man a good a half meter shorter than him. He seemed to meld into every available shadow...taking advantage of every second the fighter looked to the other side of the room...or every time the fighter rubbed his eyes...to move from one shadow to another. Somehow he managed to work his way slowly around the room without the guard seeing him. Granted the house was dark, and the fighter had only a single light to hold back the shadows...but Ranar was a much better sneak that I would ever have imagined! I actually lost track of him from my hiding place several times...unable to percieve him creeping his way along. Then I noticed a gleam in the darkness and saw Ranar standing behind the fighter. Ranar hit the fighter over the head with the butt of his sword. I fully expected the strength of the blow to be enough to knock the bastard out...but instead, he immediately stood up with a surprised look on his face, and I must say, Ranar looked a bit shocked himself. At this point I jumped into the room and shut the door behind me. If the fighter started yelling we would have the entire household in this room in a matter of moments. Before the fighter even had a chance to raise the alarm, Ranar swung his sword in a wide arc...and the fighter grabbed at his own throat. The fighter's hand covered the wide gash left there by Ranar's sword...and a gout of blood ran between the figher's fingers. The fighter opened and closed his mouth, as if he were trying to yell, but nothing came out except more blood. He dropped to his knees, and then face-first onto the carpet. I walked up to Ranar and whispered, "This is not what I had in mind." Ranar looked directly into my eyes, "This is not what I wanted either, but I had little choice. The children are my only concern right now." Ranar, as always, possessed a brilliant clarity of thought. I agreed with him whole-heartedly.

I went for the door to the basement, turned the knob, and found that it was locked. Ranar bent over the fighter and began checking his pockets. He looked up and smiled...I noticed he had a key in his hand. He tossed me the key and picked up his sword. I turned the key and the door opened smoothly. The minute I opened the door I could hear screams and crying from the children. There was no way that anyone in the basement could have heard the door open...not with the children screaming like that. I started walking down the stairs with Ranar right behind me. The lights were on and when I reached the bottom of the stairs...I was frozen with absolute horror. The children where tied to a bed...one on her back and the other child on his stomach. The images...the dreams would haunt me later...those two vicious fighting-men...abusing those two young children in the most vile of way imaginable. Oh, Mung, take me to that final oblivion if I must think of that most horrible crime against innocence one more time.

The anger within me was beyond imagining. I could feel my blood boiling, and an power...a fire...raging within me as it had never raged before. In a flash Ranar had gone past me, and both men were attempting to roll off of the beds. One of the men grabbed a gun from the top of a stool and fired off a shot into Ranar. But the Golden Warrior would not be stopped this day...and with a single savage stroke the fighter's guts slopped out around his feet. By now the fury within me was too much to control...and turned towards the second fighter...who was still struggling to get his belt buckled. I don't know what exactly happened but by body started to glow and flames shot up around me. I focused all my hated at this evil man standing in front of me and the flames shot from my body directly towards him. The flames engulfed him and he began writhing within a column of flame...this flesh popping and boiling from his bones. The smell of burnt flesh filled the basement. Ranar looked at me with horror in his eyes, "Your tattoos...they're blazing!" He appeared completely shocked at what I had done. Then, once again, his clear reasoned thought floated to the surface. "You fool, you're going to set the whole house on fire!" I tried to see through the flames that were still shooting up around me...I kept wondering, why am I not burning?

Ranar was cutting the ropes from the crying children and wrapping them up in blankets. I couldn't seem to get control of the flames...I was still raging at what had happened to these children...these poor broken children....Ranar left the children together for a moment, and ran over to me. Ignoring the flames, he tried to physically shake me and bring me out of this raging spell. But, he had to pull back when his gloves caught on fire. Seeing Ranar's hands on fire seemed to bring me back to my senses...perhaps it distracted me, or my concern for Ranar washed away some of my anger. The flames that were around me subsided. I looked around the room it was more or less a blazing inferno now. This house was going to be consumed by the flames...and if we didn't get out...we would be consumed with it. Ranar picked up the smallest child and handed her to me. "We have to get out!" We ran up the stairs with the carrying the children as carefully as we could.

As we reached the top of the stairs, the flames had begun to climb after us. We entered the room where Ranar had killed the first guard and noticed that all the lights were on now. On the other side of the room stood a man pointing a gun directly at us with two others standing beside him with clubs. "Put those precious children down or die. They are mine!" I grabbed the other child from Ranar, and set them both down behind us.

Ranar answered the man in a low growl, "This house is on fire. I suggest you run, because if the fire doesn't kill you, I surely will..."

This man we faced was clearly Morris Jahammer. He began to laugh and I could feel my anger begin to boil again. I had to control it this time...the childrens' lives depended on it. I focused my mind as Ranar lunged at Jahammer. I summoned my magic and used my limited form of telekinesis to push one of the guards into Jahammer, knocking his gun arm arm aside...Ranar was on him in a flash. Ranar was wounded from the bullet he had taken in the basement, and I didn't think he would last long against three men. I couldn't jump into the fight and leave the children alone with the flames. I feared we all may if I didn't do something. Then all of sudden, Jacob the fire mage was there by my side. He had apparently came in through the same window we had used. Had he been following me? Was he checking up on me? At that point I didn't much care! Jacob grabbed both the children and seemed to shelter them from the encroaching flames. "Help your friend...with an unburdened mind, Morgan. I will make sure these two little ones survive the flames."

I pulled my staff and went into battle. I remember feeling like I needed a bodyguard just a little over a year ago! Now, I felt so much more confident in battle...perhaps if I survive this fight I should release Kenai from his burdens regarding protecting me. The battle seemed to be taking forever. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jacob rushing the children out of the room to safety. The flames seemed to wrap around them...caressing them instead of consuming them. Ranar had managed to take one of Jahammer's men out already and was fighting the other bodyguard. That left Mr. Jahammer to me. He no longer held his gun...it must have fallen to the floor when I pushed the guard into him. But he had managed to find a club and was coming at me. The four of us circled and fought for a time in twin dances of death. By now the room had caught fire and was becoming deadly hot. Sweat was running off my forehead from the fire and the fight. I heard Ranar's opponent go down behind me, gurgling and sputtering his last breaths. He would soon come to my aid. In my excitement I had become distracted...and given Mr. Jahammer an open shot at me. He knocked my staff from my hands and it went flying across the room and out into the hallway. I jumped back, pointing my gauntlet, and in an act of desperation fired. The net flew out and hit Mr. Jahammer...pinning him to a wall. The battle was over. I looked at Ranar he was panting and bleeding. Ranar looked for a moment at Mr. Jahammer, desperately struggling to free himself from the energy net, and then looked at me with dark eyes. "Let the bastard burn...we need to get out of here."

"But he will burn to death...."

Ranar smiled a cold smile, "AND?!? Seems like poetic justice to me. We don't have much time...."

Ranar was right about how much time we had...the flames had burned through parts of the ceiling and floor already, and Ranar was bleeding and could hardly walk on his own. He would need help to get out. I ran over to Ranar, grabbed his arm around my neck, and ran from the house. Once outside Ranar borrowed my staff to walk with. Within moments the house was completely engulfed in flames. No one inside could have survived. I knew that the children where safe with Jacob and probably already headed for the Gutter. I took Ranar down a side street and did the best healing I could in the amount of time I thought would be reasonable. Then we headed back to the Gutter for a drink, a night's rest, and maybe even a prayer or two.