Conflicted

Second Impressions

"Before we begin our first challenge,  let me say there is only one rule inside The Box. There are no rules. Escape, quickly, because only the survivors will advance to the next challenge." 

With that, the screen disappeared, and the white cubes returned. Suddenly, a tile dropped down, and green gas was released.

"Dioxis. Breathe, it, and you're dead." Kenobi told us.

Suddenly, columns began rising up from the floor. All of the bounty hunters jumped on one of them. One kicked me off a column. I fell to the ground. I leaped up and landed on another rising column. 

"That wasn't so hard." One of them said.

At that exact moment, the columns rose once more and hit the roof. The bounty hunter quickly dropped down, in between to columns. He hung from Embo's column.

"The way isn't up, it's down." Kenobi said. The filters in my helmet can protect me for a short time. I'll scout a way out." Kenobi dropped down. We waited in anticipation. Then we finally heard his voice. "There's a hole in the floor which gets you below the gas line. Jump down the hole and follow the tunnel."

"What if he's wrong?" One of the hunters said. 

"Got a better idea?" I told him. With that, we all dropped down and located the hole in the floor. I  went into the hole and crawled through the tunnel. The tunnel led upwards. We climbed up and into a dark room. We heard Eval's voice ring through the room. 

"Moralo Eval is impressed. No casualties in the first challenge." The cubes now displayed a screen of Eval. He laughed. "I guarantee you that will not be the case in the next one." With that, the room turned dark again. I examined the wall. Suddenly, a hole opened in a cube. Suddenly, a  blade of energy shot out from it, and the part of the wall shot out. I flipped over it. Several other hunters dived out of its way. It stopped at a certain point and retracted back. Soon, it was happening everywhere. The Ithorian screamed. It fell to the ground, a hole in its chest smoking. I was dodging from everywhere. 

From the corner of my eye, the mysterious bounty hunter in black was already scaling the wall, headed towards a shaft in the ceiling. I reached out in the force, but I knew he wasn't Force Sensitive. It was all timing and skill. 

"There's a pattern to the blades." Kenobi said. "Follow me." 

I was already on my way up. I caught up with The Shadow. He immediately grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall. 

"Sorry kid, but I ain't taking chances." He said. 

I kicked his knee, and it buckled. He quickly recovered, and jabbed at me. I caught his fist and then swung at his face. He staggered back. The piece of the wall we stood on began retracting. I quickly jumped to another column. Most of the bounty hunters were already through the ceiling. Some others were dead. The Shadow made his way and got to the ceiling. I did the same. We made our way up to a red room. 

I shoved The Shadow hard, and he only stumbled back. 

"Do that again, and you won't have hands anymore." He threatened.

I ignored his threat. "What the hell was that back there." 

"Both you stop it." Bane said. "Focus."

Moralo Eval appeared once more. His voice boomed through the room. "To reach your final challenge, you must pass through my ray shield." At that moment, on three sides of the box, ray shields lit up, and it slowly began closing in. A panel of a cube lowered and revealed a switch. "The switch to turn it off is on the other side." A ray shield covered the switch. "The syringe on the platform contains a highly electrolytic serum that will allow you to pass through the shield. However, it is toxic to all but one of you." With that, the screen vanished. 

Suddenly, a platform surrounding the syringe rose up. All of us but one was on it, and a ray shield activated on the floor, killing the bounty hunter. The Parwan reached for the syringe. Cad Bane grabbed his arm. 

"Who put you in charge." Bane asked, growling. The Parwan only replied with a unintelligible sound. Bane sighed. "Anyone know what this thing is saying?"

"I do. His blood can take the electrolytic serum. I'm sure of it. I used to hunt Parwans." Kenobi said. "Depends on the blood type of the Parwan."

The walls of the room had ray shields turned on and they began closing in. The ray shield on the floor also began rising. The Parwan injected the serum into its skin as more tiles began dropping. One of the bounty hunters got shocked and hung on between two columns. The one holding his feet dropped, and he was electrocuted. More columns dropped as all of us were on a single column each. The Parwan struggled to get through. The ray shields around us got dangerously close. The Parwan pushed the button and the shields turned off. A part of the wall pushed back, revealing a new path. We all walked through. 

It was a long hall. We finally entered a dark room. We were up high from the floor. The wall closed behind us. I looked around, waiting for ray shields, or columns shooting out the walls with electric pikes at the end. Eval's voice boomed through the box. 

"The final challenge has arrived." Suddenly, way below on the floor beneath us, the tiles opened up to reveal flame jets. Heat filled the room. A wall slid back, and Eval appeared. Embo said something, to which Eval replied, "Unfortunately, no." A section of the floor came up to our height, the flame jets turning off. Near the entrance of where we came, a sniper hung from the wall. "We are going to test your sniper skills. Hit the target." A golden spot darted throughout the walls far from us. 

"Step back boys, I'll show you how it's done." One of the bounty hunters said. He grabbed the sniper, and took aim. He fired. He hit the golden spot, and it paused, and then continued darting through the walls. He fired again, hitting the spot again. He fired one more time, and missed his shot. The ground beneath his feet lowered quickly, taking him into the flame jets. Eval let out a cackle. 

"I get it." Kenobi said. "If we miss the target, this platform gets smaller. Soon there won't be any platform left." Kenobi made his way to a new sniper. However, he was stopped by The Shadow.

"Enough foolin' around." He said. "Let's get this over with." He grabbed the sniper and walked up. He suddenly began firing in quick succession, making every single one. The floor the rest of the bounty hunters were standing on rose up.

"Let's see how skillful you really are." Eval said. "Five more shots." Now there were two golden spots. The Shadow shot them all with ease, until the last one. He ran out of charges. "Oh what a shame. Out of charges. It's also important as a bounty hunter to be lucky. And yours just ran out." 

The floor began to sink, taking The Shadow with it. However, Bane used his fibercord to catch him. "If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man." Bane said. 

"You heard him, Eval." Dooku's voice boomed. "Show us what you are made of." 

The flames on the floor shut off, and The Shadow let go of the fibercord. A wall shoved Eval onto the floor. The Shadow circled Eval. Eval quickly tapped buttons on his gauntlet. Suddenly, five droids flew out. The Shadow wastes no time in disposing. He dodged a laser and grabbed the droids legs, ripping them out and stabbing it into two others. He caught another droid and threw it into the last one. He now dashed towards Eval, smashing his fist with Eval's gauntlet and then breaking his right arm in three different places. He now slammed Eval to the ground, letting punch after punch connect with his face. Dooku's voice boomed throughout the room.

"Finish him." 

Wasting no time, Eval's neck was snapped.

"Impressive." Dooku said.

The Shadow walked back to us, his fists and cloak bloodied. 

"Congratulations on surviving the box. We are going to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on the festival at Naboo. With the leader of the Republic as our hostage, we will demand the release of all Separatist prisoners, and the Republic will fall. The man that will be leading you is...The Shadow. All of you work for him now." 

He stared right at me, as if he could see my eyes through my helmet. There's something off about this bounty hunter, and I'm going to find out.