A Warm Welcome Home

[Sebby]

Nar Shaddaa was not exactly a place anyone would be excited to come to. Usually, people didn't come here if they had a choice. It was rampant with lowlifes, crime lords, and the like and not the friendliest place in the galaxy by far. However, Felix was one of the weird ones. To him, this was his home. Where his family was, where he grew up, and a place he could come back to after a years-long journey through the galaxy. After he was introduced to the Jedi, Felix felt that it was time to return to Nar Shaddaa to pay a visit to his parents before leaving to train for probably a few more years. He did a terrible job keeping in touch with them, and they should at least see him and know what he's up to. They were probably worried that Felix ended up like his sister. That's how terrible the lack of communication was.

After traveling with Khelsea and meeting the Jedi, Felix was actually in a pretty good mood by the time he arrived on Nar Shaddaa. Things were finally looking up after his recent travels. Felix landed his tiny ship near his parents' droid store in the late evening, hoping to surprise them with his visit. Actually, they would be more relieved than surprised, given Felix's reputation. When Felix entered the shop, he was greeted with silence and a dark room full of droids and parts. As he looked over the room, he frowned as there were no signs that his parents were home. They never did anything at this time in the day, but maybe something had changed in the years Felix was gone. Oh, well. He wasn't too concerned, given that they had lived here for so long. Felix thought that he should just find something else to do to kill time until his parents came back.

With his hands in his pockets, Felix left the shop and started to walk down the dark and crowded street toward the nearest cantina. This time in the evening was when the lowest of the criminals came out the most. Nar Shaddaa wasn't that great during the day either, but the evening was even worse. Having grown up here, Felix was pretty much used to it, and he knew how to escape from a terrible situation. He did it almost every day, anyway. And he was confident in his ability to fight off anyone that came his way, even without any Jedi training yet. With the confident grin he always sported, he walked into the cantina and scanned the room for an empty table. It was extremely crowded tonight, and the lowest of the low were gathered here to make their criminal plans or whatever it was that they did. Just across the room, Felix spotted a couple of very familiar former customers that he had. Those were the guys that were literally after his head after he swindled them and they recognized who he was. Felix had no idea what that was all about, but he had to avoid them at all costs.

Keeping an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't spot him, Felix slipped behind group after group of people, sneaking around to find a good place to sit. Unfortunately, he wasn't really watching where he was going.

 

[wristclerk]

Setting foot on Nar Shaddaa was like setting foot on a barbarian planet. With no real law to govern this place it was controlled by Hutts, which he didn't mind because he was waiting to be accepted into their ranks as a certified smuggler, but that was besides the point. The real reason he was here was for some much needed relaxation and to find a good shop or two to do some minor repairs to his droid R6-F3.
Walking down a long stretch of platform he came across a droid shop a little ways down, he started making his way there, when a man came out of the shop, the lights looked like they were turned off so maybe this man was the owner?
Rooney tried to call out to him however over the low rumble of the spacers platform and the shouting by pedestrians his voice barely carried out. So instead Rooney decided to follow the man and perhaps catch up to him.
Walking up to a small cantina based on the platform he entered, after losing the man he was after. He stepped inside and was immediately greeted by the smell of liquor and death sticks. A large cloud of smoke wafted past him in an attempt to escape from the scene. This area was even more crowded than the walk ways outside, however his loyal droid companion was in some dire need of repairs and he couldn't forgo the shop any longer.
Stumbling through the cantina he finally found the man he was searching for. Rooney bumped into the man who was obviously trying to hide from someone or something and asked, at the top of his lungs, "Excuse me sir, do you mind opening up the droid shop again, I'm in need of some repairs soon, my droid, see, he needs a new scanner, a new lenses, and a couple new trinkets."

 

[Sebby]

Felix's sneaking around was successful so far. Maybe he could find a booth or something to kill some time in before heading back to the shop. He wasn't even sure how long his parents would be out, but they usually went back before nighttime. Just as Felix began to turn to slide into one of the booths, he heard a loud voice from behind him. At first, he dismissed it as being directed at someone else...that was until he heard the part about the droid shop. Felix felt his shoulders tense up as the area around them went quiet for a moment after the man was done yelling. He slowly turned around to face the stranger, then glanced around at the dirty looks the both of them were getting.

Just act natural, just act natural... Felix thought, bringing to mind what Khelsea had tried to teach him before. Immediately making a run for it only made him stand out even more. Anything that worked against that would be better in this situation. He opened his mouth to reply to the man, but heard some mutterings from a familiar voice nearby. Something about Felix being "Alfero's kid." Felix could feel his heart pounding at that. He had to have known this would happen if he came back to Nar Shaddaa. Well, it was too late now.

"Of course!" He finally responded to the stranger in front of him. "Follow me back to the shop! Hurry now!" With that, Felix quickly made his way to the exit of the cantina, pushing past some other patrons to get out. He heard one of his former customers shouting "Hey!" from behind him, but he ignored it. Anything to get out of here would be best.

 

[wristclerk]

Looking around the cantina Rooney noticed all of the faces staring at the two men. None were too friendly, but all were perplexed. Rooney supposed that it had something to do with the droid shop owner but he couldn't be too sure about him. He guessed he might have an enemy or two, but that came with the territory of being a smuggler.
As the droid shop keep pulled Rooney and his droid out the cantina he could feel eyes staring a hole through the back of his head.
As the duo made there way back to the droid repair shop a petty thief made is way up behind Rooney. The thief pulled out a small vibroblade knife and tried to stab Rooney in the back of the neck, however, Rooney heard him just in time, pulled out his DL-18 blaster from his right holster, with his left hand he swung around and grabbed the knife with his left hand and stuck the DL-18 blaster in the thief's gut and fired. The bullet went straight through, killing the thief causing him to drop the knife on the ground and fall to the platform floor. Rooney blew the smoke off the end of his blaster, flipped it back a couple times and put it back in his holster.

"That happen often around here?"

 

[Sebby]

Before his enemies had any chance to catch up, Felix ran out of the cantina with the stranger and the droid in tow, running all the way back to his parents' droid shop. They still weren't home, as evidenced by the lack of light behind the windows, but Felix might be able to help this new customer anyway. Felix took a moment to catch his breath after stopping in front of the shop, and he turned around to look at the stranger he had brought with him, only to be met with the sight of someone running at them with a knife, and then getting shot. Felix's eyes grew wide as he watched the display that he should be used to by now. Startled by the blaster fire, Felix yelped and fell back on his butt. How very graceful of the aspiring Jedi. After the would-be killer was down, Felix scrambled to his feet, brushing himself off. He nodded in response to the man's question, regaining his composure quite quickly.

"Well, yeah. It is Nar Shaddaa, after all!" Felix laughed, trying to relax himself. "I, uh...have a bit of a reputation, you know. Mostly good! But some people don't like me. Sorry." He motioned to the door to the shop before unlocking it and opening it, stepping in. He turned the lights on, which revealed the many droids and parts lined up against the wall and down the middle of the shop. "It may look small, but it's got everything you could possibly need! Let me take a look at that droid, and uh...close the door behind you. I don't want any more of those goons looking for me."

 

[wristclerk]

Rooney entered in the droid repair shop with his fellow companion close behind. Rooney turned around and closed the door just as the man said.

"So, why are these thugs after you?" Rooney asked trying to skip around why the man was so frightened of blaster fire for being born and raised on Nar Shaddaa.

All of a sudden a couple grunts ran past in search of whoever had shot and killed their friend, Rooney supposed. He just smirked at their ignorance. "Anyway can we speed things along mate? I hate to spend any more money than need be, gas is expensive here and so is docking and I was hoping to find some scrap, but R6's repairs are far beyond what I can muster out of scrapping. So I need an actual repair job. Unfortunately I think I might have to stay here a little while and lay low, after all I've got a target on my head now too. Say, you look like the adventurous type, you own this place all by yourself?"

 

[Sebby]

The question the man asked was one Felix had heard countless times. Almost everyone he meets gets a taste of just how much crap Felix is in from his former business practices in one way or another. At this point, Felix wasn't even sure if it was just his business practices that got him in so much trouble, but then again, he couldn't think of any other reason those thugs would be after him. No one really knew that he was training to become a Jedi, and besides, this whole thing started before he was dropped off with the Jedi. Thanks to Khelsea, he became more of an honest salesman, but that didn't stop the guys already ticked off at him from chasing him. Whatever the real reason, Felix kept getting them off his trail for this long, so he'd probably be fine. Besides, he had to concentrate on the matter at hand, which was a new customer.

"Who knows!" Felix replied with a carefree shrug. "People here would smack you for looking at them wrong. Could be anything, really!" Okay, so he wasn't being entirely truthful, but why would this stranger care anyway? Oh wait, maybe he'd care because he was now associated with Felix. Oops. With the man trying to hurry the repair process, Felix waved a hand before walking around the counter to pull out a large repair box from under one of the shelves. His parents more or less left everything as he remembered before he left. He walked back to the man and his droid, shaking his head. "Actually, this is my parents' shop, but don't worry! I know a thing or two about droids and the like! I built my own ship, after all. Now, let's see here..." He knelt down in front of the droid, tapping his chin slightly before opening the tool box.

 

[wristclerk]

"Oh, you built your own ship? What model? I re-built my ship as well, an old YV-929 light freighter. It's got a 2.0 hyperdrive class rating, pretty good maneuverability for a freighter and plenty of cargo space. Don't tell anyone... but I'm a smuggler."
Rooney smirked at the sound of that. The only reason he was a smuggler was for the exciting life of it, he got to see the galaxy.

"So, if your parents own this place... where are they?"

 

[Sebby]

Felix paused in his work when the man revealed himself as a smuggler. It wasn't like he'd never seen a smuggler before, but usually they don't openly talk about it with strangers. Did he think Felix might have a job for him? At least it eased Felix a bit to know this bit of information, as it meant that the man didn't have a mark on his head for being associated with Felix, if he did at all. From what he could remember, smugglers never really had the easiest time traveling and tended to tick off more people than Felix ever could. As Felix continued to work on the repair, he tried to think on how to answer the stranger. It wasn't exactly complicated, but he wanted to at least try not to sound like an arrogant idiot when he talked about it.

"It's a ship of my own design," Felix finally replied. "I designed it when I was fifteen, and finished building it three years ago!" When the whereabouts of his parents was brought up, Felix set down his tools and looked around, his eyebrows pulling together in concern. This was really not looking good. His parents should be fine, but the fact that they hadn't returned to the shop yet was a bit worrying. "I don't know...they're usually home by now."

 

[wristclerk]

Rooney took a little stroll around the shop. Looking for anything useful he could lift and maybe add it to R6 later when Felix wasn't looking. However there was hardly anything here at all, in fact it looked as though this place had been stripped of any useful items at all, or perhaps they just kept the useful items in the back?

"Mind if I take a look in the back?" Rooney shouted to Felix.

Before he could answer however he was already behind the counter and moving towards the door that lead to the back of the store. Pushing open the old style swing door he came to a larger warehouse type shop, filled with spare parts, some half finished droids, and old ship parts lying around. As he was walking around looking at some of the workbenches he noticed a spot of dried blood on one of the hammers lying on the ground. He nudged it with the tip of his boot, then he noticed a pool of dried blood surrounding the hammer.

"Hey, uh... you might want to take a look at this!" Rooney yelled from the back room up to Felix.

 

[Sebby]

As the man began to make his way around the shop, Felix looked up occasionally to watch what he was doing. It wasn't rare to find someone who tried to steal something while he was working, so he made a habit to keep an eye out when his customer began to wander off. As he continued working, he heard the man ask about looking in the back of the shop. At that, Felix stood up and turned, almost replying but the stranger already opened the door and stepped inside the storage. How rude. Felix decided to take time out to repair this man's droid, and he was just going to go snooping around? Felix pursed his lips and set down his tools before he walked behind the counter to follow the man. Before Felix could see anything in the back room, the man shouted about something that he needed to see. Felix quickened his pace slightly, turning the corner into the room. Felix looked around for anything that might be out of the ordinary, and his eyes eventually fell on what had caught the stranger's attention. A hammer...and blood. Felix was no expert, but he could tell that the blood had been there for a while. His eyes grew wide as he stared. First his sister disappears, and now his parents? From what Felix could see, his parents could quite possibly be dead, but he tried not to think about that.

Putting a hand over his mouth, Felix closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to calm the beating in his heart and the trembling of his shoulders. Khelsea taught him a small bit of what it meant to be a Jedi, and the Jedi Code. Jedi weren't supposed to get angry or scared, but at the moment, Felix felt like he couldn't help it. How could he forgive someone who would try to harm his family? After a moment, Felix opened his eyes again and took in a deep breath. Maybe that's not what happened here, but this coupled with the fact that his parents weren't around did not look good. Felix turned to the rest of the storage, flipping on the lights. He walked forward and looked around, but he still couldn't find anything except for the metal scraps and unfinished droids that occupied the storage. He eventually saw some tracks on the floor, evidence of something being dragged through the room. If something did happen, then why? Felix never ticked off anyone this badly, and his sister and parents wouldn't either. Felix shook his head, wanting to free his mind from thoughts like that. He could think about the why after he figured out what happened. Felix followed the tracks to the other side of the storage and opened the back door. It lead to a small street, but Felix couldn't find anything out here besides the occasional passerby. His parents could be long gone by now, and Felix wasn't sure what he would do if they did get taken by someone. He was no fighter.

He turned back toward the stranger and walked back into the room, the door closing behind him. "Your droid should be good to go," He said quietly. "I have to get back to my ship." His plan was to go back to Lamaredd and the Jedi to get some training in. He couldn't help his parents if he got killed in the process.

 

[wristclerk]

Rooney was quite honestly shocked. The man saw the evidence, said that his parents were missing, and now he wanted to go back to his ship?

"Listen pal, I may not know what its like to have parents, but I sure as hell know if you love someone, you fight for them. We have to investigate this incident, and no one on Nar Shaddaa is going to help I can guarantee that. So before you go prancing off to wherever it is you need to go, we need to solve this. Your parents are missing, there's blood, obviously some maniacs have a grudge against you, based on what I saw in the Cantina... we need to figure this out. R6! come in here, scan the area to see if you find anything."

The droid rolled into the back room and started a preliminary scan of the entire room, analyzing the blood, the hammer, and the drag marks leading out the back of the shop. It would take a couple minutes for the results to become conclusive but until then, Rooney wanted some answers from this guy.

 

[Sebby]

This guy was right, Felix should fight for the people he loved, but that's exactly what he wanted to do. In his current state, he'd no match for anyone who could've taken his parents, which was why he needed to continue his training with the Jedi. If he learned anything there, he'd have the advantage. At least, that's what he assumed. There's also the chance that these criminals are a lot stronger than the usual found here. Felix started to wonder if these were the same people that took his sister. There were a lot of similarities with both cases, almost no trace of anything left behind. Except now, they left the hammer and blood. Felix looked to the stranger with a scowl on his face.

"I know I need to get to the bottom of this. That's my plan," He said and shook his head. "But I need to get back to my ship. I can't do anything if I don't have any training. All I've got is this one blaster." Felix tapped the holster on his belt, which held the very weak blaster pistol he carried around. He never fired from it, as he never had to. The only real reason he'd use it was to help get out of a tight spot, but up against more experienced people, it was almost useless. Felix took one last look around the room before walking back out to the main shop, behind the counter. From what he could see, there was no note, so he didn't think they might be trying to lure him out.