Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Runaway

Chapter 47 - Scruffy

Ugh, I'm so so so sorry it took me so long to write this! I hope it was worth the wait!

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Calli knew right away that Hunter would not want the tooka cat, nor an animal of any kind, on his ship. There'd been a few instances when a member of the squad would ask to have a pet and Hunter would immediately shoot down the idea without a second thought. 

One example was when Wrecker asked if they could keep the rathtar that once belonged to a crime boss that they helped the Republic take down. They'd found out she'd been aiding the Separatists financial wise, and this was enough for the Republic to send their best team in to arrest the woman and without her leadership the entire operation collapsed. When Wrecker set eyes on the rathtar, it was love at first sight. Cue him going to Hunter and at first the Sergeant thought he was kidding and laughed off the question, but when he saw that Wrecker was in fact serious, he immediately said no. When asked as to why, Hunter laughed again, this time at the absurdity of his brother asking this in the first place. He spouted off numerous reasons, the first and foremost being that a.) The rathtar wouldn't fit in their itty-bitty ship and b.) rathtars are a carnivorous animal and one simple careless mistake, and they'd end up being that thing's lunch. 

"Well, Calli would be an appetizer." Crosshair quipped, unable to resist himself. That smart remark earned him a punch to the shoulder. 

There was one instance when Hunter let a pet on board, and that was simply because he didn't know there had been one on the ship until it had been discovered. The culprit: Tech. He'd smuggled a bunch of Felucian Fireflies he'd caught in a container during the first mission Calli had done with the squad on the planet these insects inhabited.  Why? "To study them of course." That had been Tech's reasoning when Hunter had found out about them. You may wonder how Hunter finally figured out his little brother had a secret stash of fireflies. The answer: when he and the rest of them woke up to find dozens, no hundreds of them flying around the ship. 

Tech at first denied that he had any involvement, and even tried to pin the blame on Crosshair or Wrecker who were known to be pranksters. But when Hunter went into Sergeant mode, Tech couldn't bring himself to deny any further. He was very hesitant, but eventually admitted that "one or two" had "possibly" escaped the small habitat he'd built. But he reasoned that without proper temperature and food, they'd quickly die and that'd be the end of it. Of course, Tech didn't think that they'd find a suitable place to lay eggs and even if they didn't, he didn't think they would survive. 

Well, this was one of the rare times Tech had been utterly, utterly wrong. And Tech hated being wrong. That's why he sunk so low as to blame someone else and avoid the humiliation. Needless to say, Tech was in trouble and Calli was given a break from scrubbing carbon scoring duty. 

But Calli reasoned that this wouldn't turn into a total disaster. Since this tooka cat was injured, he wouldn't cause as much trouble as most cats would. She told herself that she wouldn't get attached to him, just treat his wounds and give him food, then let him go. Calli could do that, right?

Hunter would still have a fit though, which is why Calli needed to come up with a fool proof way to sneak the cat aboard the ship, past the lounge where no doubt the boys would be hanging out, and into the med bay. 

Calli's plan: Hide the cat in the satchel she'd brought with her that had had a fresh change of clothes she could change into after her time in the bacta tank. It would only be for a few minutes at most, and the material was a breathable-ish fabric. Just to ensure the cat wouldn't suffocate, Calli used the knife she always kept stashed in her boot to slash a few cuts into the fabric near where the cat's head would be so that it could get a good supply of oxygen, and she hoped it would pass for just random cuts from the wear and tear that came from using something a lot.