Bane: Grettings Chancelor, you and I have a lot to talk about.
Palpatine: Who are you and what have you done to the Senat building, are you responsible for the power outage.
Bane: I am but a simple bounty hunter who is here to finish the job he was pay'd to do, and that is free the Hutt Ziro from custody.
Palpatine: I do not negotiate with the likes of you.
Bane: Ah but I have something you want. He shows the captive senators and the corpse of senator Pilo.
Bane: If you don't free Ziro within the next 6 hours, we will blow up this entire building and everyone in it, if it so much as crosses my mind that you called for help, Il simply blow it up anyway. The choice is yours.
John (thoughts): So, I have 6 hours to save Skywalker and the most important people in this galaxy for my first mission as a Jedi, no pressure. Id rather not risk anything, I need to get Skywalker, he should know this place better than me, but without his light saber im not sure how long he can last.
John, runs back into the building hallways, he closes his eyes and tries to use the Force to find out where Skywalker is, he sees him wounded but still alive running away from 2 sentinel droids and a mercenary. He doesn't have much time before they get to him.
John (thoughts): Using the stairs wont get me to him in time, but this might work.
John finds a window and jumps out, he uses a concentrated Force blast from his feet to jump several stories into the air, he grabs the wall with his free hand, and uses his other hand to cut through a wall with his light saber. He then hears the mercenaries outside and sneaks up behind them.
Sentinel Droid 1: Where do you think he is?
Sentinel Droid 2: I do not know, but judging by his injury he should not have gotten far.
Sentinel Droid 1: Roger, roger. John: Hey guys, whats going on?
The mercenaries turn around and immodestly identify him as a Jedi and start shooting at him.
John charges at them and cuts the droids heads off before they can even draw their weapons. The 3rd imp like mercenary tries to knife him but John punches him into a wall, the imp starts coughing up blood and sees a massive dent from where he impacted the wall.
Imp: What....are.... you ah. John grabs him by leg and hangs him over the hole in the wall from where he entered.
John: Start talking, who paid you to free Ziro.
Imp: The Hutts.
John:...Do you really think im that stupid? I know that Ziro tried to kill Jabbas son and he allied himself with the Seperatists to do so, but Ziro is a proven incompetent imbecile, so he must know something very important for the Seperatists to risk so much getting him back, what is it?
Imp: Youre smart kid, Il give you that, a lot smarter than the rest of the Jedi but im no rookie, you can't intimidate me.
John has a smirk on his face as he drops the imp and listens to him scream.
Imp: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA PLEASE ILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING JUST SAVE ME!
John, brings him back up with the Force, but doesn't let him back in just yet.
John (thoughts): Good, he's scared, he knows I don't play by the Jedi rules and I will go further to get what I want.
Imp: Pant, pant, pant the Seperatists have a factory on Geonosis, the Republic knows about it but they don't know where it is and what it's producing, Ziro is the last living person who knows, please can you let me go now AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Suddenly his head gets electrocuted, John tries to take off his communication device but he's too late, the shock from the fall and the further damage done to his brain kills him.
John levitates his body back into the building and turns around to find Skywalker.
Anakin: Pant, okay, I don't sense them but I hear some one walking up.
He grabs a nearby box and holds it up in the air. He sees someones foot and immediately tries to attack. John steps back and lets Skywalker fall. He makes a small chuckle.
Anakin: John?! What are you doing here? Where are the mercenaries?
John: The mercenaries are dead, I took care of them, I also know the reason as to why these guys are here, but first lets patch up your shoulder, Il fill you in.
An hour later....
John: Your shoulder feeling better?
Anakin: Yeah, so Ziro knows about this prototype weapon and the Confederacy doesn't want us to find out where it is, how did no one know about this?
John: Theres a mole in the Republic, some one powerful who could have access to Ziro 24/7. Oh and by the way, why does senator Amidala have your light saber?
Anakin: I um, um I must have dropped it, it can happen.
John (thoughts): Hes obviously lying but I have more important things to worry about now.
John:If you say so, we should focus on getting the senators to safety, if we can get them out of Banes hands hes as good as done.
Anakin: I have an idea, the floor below the senators can be cut through with a light saber, if one of us can distract the mercenaries long enough, the other one can cut through the floor and saves the senators.
John: How do you know all this?
Anakin: I played a lot in this place as a kid, you find out a couple of secrets along the way.
In the senate meeting room....
Bane calls Chancelor Palpatine.
Bane: Chancelor, how is the process of freeing our friend going?
Palpatine: We are getting there but we need more time, if you could perhaps free several hostages...
Bane: Heh, just for trying to insult me Chancelor, your time has been cut significantly, you now have 45 minutes to free Ziro and get him over here on a transport craft. So please, try to hurry up before my associates get bored and start shooting out of fun.
He turns off communications to the Chancelor.
John and Anakin over hear the conversation, and decide who's going to do what part of the plan.
John: Have you fixed those droids yet? The holograms ready.
Anakin: Almost, you sure this'll work?
John: If what you say is true, the Chancelor will bring Ziro even faster here if he finds out youre a hostage, the droids and the hologram of the Imp should fool them long enough for me to cut through the floor and free you all.
Anakin: How are you going to find out the factories location?
John: Heh, trust me, I always have a plan.
The end of the second arc in the next issue...
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