Webs Betwixt Stars 2 (Patreon)

The trip to Florrum would take a few days, which gave me time to run MJ and Gwen through the hypnosis app. I wasn’t entirely sure how purchase bindings worked, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to treat them as if they were in the process of being captured. So while I had them sitting in front of the holotable, the hypnotic patterns running through the air captured their attention. In the meantime, I fiddled around in the cockpit and managed to connect to the holonet.

What I learned let me get a better idea for when during the Empire Era I was. More specifically, the Clone Wars had ended a little over four years before, meaning I was just prior to the period of EA’s last few games. Fallen Jedi or something like that.

Timeframe determined, I turned my focus onto the upcoming mission. Florrum was an arid world, under the purview of one Chedix the Hutt. Part of the Illip kajidic, the same one that produced the hutt doctor in The Old Republic MMO, he was known for his cruelty toward prisoners. According to the database on my datapad, this included subjecting them to various tortures, including using them as test subjects for medical experiments.

The slab of carbonite I was supposed to retrieve was most likely one of his test subjects, probably someone of high interest, like a politician or military leader. If so, then it might be worth it to try and remove some of his other victims from the facility and bring them back with us, for local bounties if nothing else. We'd see once we got a chance to look at a prisoner roster.

That done, I checked the time, and saw that Gwen and MJ had been in a trance for a bit over five hours at this point. Getting out of the Captain’s Chair, I made my way back to the main room, looking over the two women in their mid to late teens. The remnants of the webbing had dissolved by this point, leaving Gwen in her symbiote-clothes and MJ in the torn scraps of her shirt and daisy dukes.

I had a smirk on my face as I looked them over. God, I couldn’t wait until MJ’s baby bump started to show. Pushing that thought aside for now, I instead pulled out my phone and checked the progress the two were on. My eyebrows rose at seeing that they were both listed as being at Hypnotic Depth Seven.

I’d kinda assumed that they’d be at HD Five, given how from what I remembered the trance increased their HD at a rate of one per hour, maybe having purchased them it had an improved rate or they had a head start? I’d find out for sure once I started hypnotizing whomever was in that slab of carbonite Gwen and I’d be picking up.

Leaving my two waifus to it, I made my way into the “back” of the Fury. I had some powers to practice with. Template Stacking limited me to the equivalent of a Tier Four version, but having the Force was practically a requirement if you were going into Star Wars and had the option to take it.

Setting a few bits and bobs around me, I sat down and closed my eyes, focusing on the energy I could now feel flowing through me. It was almost like moving a limb, or taking a breath. You know you’re doing it, but it’s so natural that most of the time it doesn’t even register in your mind. Taking a deep breath, I followed the trails of energy as they spread out from my body.

I could feel my mind creating a mental map, based on the flows of energy, not just the flows touching me, but the ripples and vibrations of how those flows… no, I was looking at it wrong. The Force wasn’t like a river, or at least that’s not how it appeared to me. It wasn’t water, taking the path of least resistance to the deepest point. The Force was a web.

I could feel the grin forming on my face as the realization hit me. Looks like I chose the perfect body to sleeve into. With another deep breath, I reached out with my mind to the closest point where multiple strings intersected. I felt it, the dull, quiet feel in the Web of the Force, and with a flex of my will, it lifted up into the air.

Opening my eyes, I felt a boyish glee fill me as the datapad was floating in front of me. It was a simple datapad, lighter than most of my college textbooks had ever been, but it was a sign that it was real, that I had the Force.

Reaching out, I began lifting the other items, lifting their points in the Web and thus lifting them in the physical. Having lifted them, I began the process of rotating them around me, sitting in the center of a swirling dance of odds and ends. It was dumb, it was silly, it was fun.

I admit, I lost track of time. For entirely understandable reasons, of course. But I eventually remembered about the two girls stewing in the mind scrambling lights and sounds. A quick check showed that both were at HD Ten, and I grinned.

Taking a moment to consider how I wanted to proceed, I sat down next to MJ and asked, “Can you hear me?”

“…yes,” she slurred, her eyes still locked on the display being projected from the holotable.

“You are loyal to and in love with me, right?” I asked again.

“…yes.”

“I am in charge, which means you do what I say. Understand?”

“…yes.”

I took a breath, bracing myself for the real test. Letting out the breath, I ordered, “When the screen turns off, you are to kiss Gwen on the lips, and I don’t mean a peck. Give her a kiss like you are lovers.”

MJ’s face twisted slightly, “…not attracted to women.”

“You say that like it matters. You do what I say, and I say that when the screen turns off you will kiss Gwen like you are her lover. Am I understood?” I asked, my voice firm and commanding.

“…yes.”

I smiled, glad that it seemed to work. Up next was Gwen’s, and I had a different plan in mind for her.

[hr][/hr]

Thankfully, one of the things that I was still able to do even with my abilities in the Force being nerfed compared to the source was the Mind Trick. Otherwise the worker at the docking bay would have been a problem, given how we had no money, no records, no nothing. I really should have thought of that when I was putting the build together.

Too late now, but the weak minded dug who worked at the spaceport did know where the auction was being held. The auction itself was to be held in four planetary days in a facility just outside the city. I shared a grin with Gwen as the sun started to set.

The ship had come with a closet filled with the basic essentials as far as clothes went, as well as some things linked to each of us. In my case, that included a black, albeit non-symbiote, version of the classic Spider-Man costume complete with web shooters.

Once the sun had fully set, Gwen and I locked up the ship, leaving MJ staring at the hypno-screen, and ran across the rooftops to the place where the auction would be held. Even on alien worlds, with countless alien races, no one ever looked up.

“Gwen,” I said, getting her attention. “I think your partner should be part of this.”

The grin on her face was visible even before the mouth of her mask split into a fang filled maw and her fingertips sharpened into claws. In mere moments, she was unmistakably the host to one of the countless versions of Venom in the multiverse.

“So good to see a Parker again,” Venom purred, the long, slimy tongue sliding out to lick her lips.

“Later,” I chided. “For now, focus on the job. Keep your senses sharp, and don’t be seen.”

“We’ll hold you to that,” Gwenom said before crawling onto the wall where it met the roof.

I followed, and the two of us slipped through a window, wall crawling along the wall to the ceiling. We’d apparently arrived in the storage room, where Chedix was keeping everything stored in preparation for showing to the buyers. It was all I could do not to whistle as I took in the items around us.

The room was surprisingly well lit, probably for the multitude of goons walking through the aisles on guard. I didn’t bother restraining the urge to roll my eyes, ignoring them as Gwenom and I crawled across the ceiling to the section holding a number of slabs of carbonite.

“Which one are we taking?” Gwenom asked as we came to a stop above them.

“Hang on,” I muttered, pulling out the Company Phone, and finding the mission slip. “27BFE O-17 334.442/-707.231”

Carefully, while keeping an eye on the various guards, We shot weblines down to the different carbonite slabs and pulled them up to examine the labels. I was looking at one, and nearly crapped myself when I recognized the face frozen inside, when Gwenom spoke up.

“Got it, thaw her now, or wait until we get to the ship?”

“The ship,” I said, before pausing. “Getting a big slab of people-cicle to the ship will be easier if the security is distracted, yes?”

The grin on Gwenom’s face was a sight to see, and I pressed the buttons to begin the thawing process before letting it down to the floor as quickly as I safely could. I did not want to be in the line of fire when she got out, even with the hibernation sickness she was sure to have. Turning back to Gwenom as the sound of a body hitting the floor rang through the otherwise silent storage room, I jerked my head towards the window we came in from.

“What the? Who thawed a bitch?” I heard one of the guards ask, and I shook my head. That fool was going to die a horrible, painful death.

Gwenom and I reached the window just as there was a scream of rage, fury, and hate. Followed by the back half of the building all but exploding outwards in a wave of Force. Even without being in its path, my heart clenched in my chest and breathing became difficult, the sheer weight of the Dark Side nearly crushing me.

It’s hard to put into words, the sensation of the Spider Sense going off. What they were telling me at the moment was that if I so much as twitched, I would attract the attention of a predator I couldn’t beat. So I froze, doing my best to breathe without moving my chest, as the giant presence, so much larger than me it was like a tarantula next to a garden spider, left through the hole they made in the building.

As the sounds of death and destruction grew quieter, I let out an explosive sigh of relief. Gwenom turned her head to stare at me and asked, “Who was that?”

“That was Vaylin,” I answered. “ A Force wielder who in most timelines died thousands of years ago, this one was apparently frozen in carbonite instead. She is easily one of the most powerful Force users in history, supposedly she was using it to move things around before she even left the womb.”

“And you set her free… as a distraction…”

“I figured a distraction would help with the ‘no witnesses’ part of the mission, and do you really think anyone will be looking for us with someone who causes that,” I gesticulated towards the giant hole in the building that Vaylin had made,“running about?”

“Point.”

The return trip to the ship went smoothly, both of us were more than strong enough to carry the carbonite slab with one hand and with Vaylin wrecking shop as she lashed out while blind from over three thousand years of carbonite sleep any security at the spaceport was long gone to try to contain the crazy Force user.

“Gwen, get the slab secured, we’re taking off before that psycho bitch manages to wander over here,” I said, jogging to the cockpit as we boarded. The Fury took a moment to start up, and a light on the console started to flash as the spaceport tried to contact us. After a moment’s consideration, I accepted the call, I needed to know if it was a witness who saw Gwen and I.

“Personal Transport Fury: You are not cleared for departure, power down your engines!” the dug I’d mind tricked bellowed.

“Considering I saw half a building explode, I’m not sticking around to get tangled up in whatever gang war this is,” I shot back, the landing gear pulling in as I angled the Fury skyward.

Whatever the dug was going to say was cut off, as a piece of building went flying past the windows in front of me and crashed into the building behind the Fury. The call also cut out at the exact same moment, so the dug was probably dead. Time to go, right now!

Gunning the thrusters, the Fury took off into the sky, and we were soon in the relative safety of orbit. Considering my next destination, I punched in the coordinates for Dantooine on a bit of a whim and made the jump to hyperspace. As the swirling blue lights filled the windows, I collapsed in the chair and let out a breath of relief. And that was supposed to be an easy mission!

As I had the thought, there was a chime from my pocket, and I pulled out the phone. Opening it up, I smiled at the indicator of the mission being completed. That was ten credi… wait I thought the mission was for five? Tapping on my credit balance, my eyebrows widened.

“I didn’t know having a Patron would boost mission rewards,” I muttered. Well I wasn’t going to complain about that. The automatically accepted mission to capture Vaylin on the other hand, that I was less happy about. Half of that was immediately sent to start paying off my debt, and I put the phone away as I stood, stretching and popping my back.After the satisfying cracks, I muttered, “Let’s go see who our trophy is.”

MJ was no longer in a trance when I walked out of the cockpit, my desperation in getting away from where Vaylin was having sent her flying, but I ignored her beyond that as I made my way to medical. The slab was resting against the wall, Gwen in street clothes again as she glanced my way.

The features of the woman inside were barely enough to tell me that much. Her head was turned to the side, rendering the better part of it hidden under the carbonite itself, while her hair hid most of the rest. Really, if it weren’t for the fact that she had a not-inconsiderate set of tits on her I wouldn’t be sure.

“Well, let’s see who we’ve got with us,” I said as I hit the buttons to thaw her out.