Ask Plot Coruscant Fish in a Barrel

Kliedden Raxx

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Even after a week here Klied still hadn't gotten used to Coruscant, he was beginning to think such a thing was physically impossible for someone like him. The hunter wanted to catch his bounty, get his reward, and take a month long trip to the farthest reach of the Outer Rim. And he would, if not for a deal he had made with a certain local brawler. And what was more, he had to finish his current job before he focused on anything else. He stood in a filthy, darkened alleyway of Level 1997, as if there were any other type of alley down here. Across the street was Grizzie's Bar, where he was waiting for his quarry to emerge. Since last week's events he had exchanged one fur coat for another less conspicuous one composed of dark brown Bantha fur. The hunter's wardrobe didn't exactly lend itself to subtlety in an urban center but he was trying his best. At least it was busy enough that he'd be able to hide in the crowd.

Finally the man he was waiting for exited the bar, a blue skinned Nautolan of average height and build. He wore light armor and carried an impressive looking blaster pistol at his hip, but didn't look like too much of a challenge. The alien looked around suspiciously before starting down the street. Not suspicious enough. Klied began to follow at a safe distance. He was certain this Nautolan worked for his target Jalir T'lol. The amphibian had come to the area shortly after Klied and Poffo's little dust-up in the club went on the local holonet. He had hung around the club first, asking pointed questions about Poffo, and then moved on to Grizzie's where the brawler regularly fought. It was too convenient to be a coincidence. If he was a henchman of the Klatooinian gangster, he would know where to find him. T'lol himself had disappeared ever since the police started coming down on his operations, and even Klied hadn't been able to sniff him out. It wouldn't be easy getting a trained hitman to talk, but Klied had a feeling he and Poffo would be able to figure something out. He had been most impressed by the brawler's ingenuity so far.

He tailed the Nautolan for a good twenty minutes before the alien finally disappeared inside a dingy looking motel. "Bingo." Klied said in a low voice, grinning to himself. It helped his theory that the man was staying in a place like this and not his own apartment. Now all they had to do was figure out how to nab him. They could always just figure out what room he was staying in and rush him, take advantage of the element of surprise. But Klied wasn't overly fond of the idea of starting a fight somewhere where bystanders could get hurt. Especially not after what happened last week. The other option he thought of was to have Poffo leave a trail to lure the Nautolan to a spot of their choosing to ambush him, but if that wasn't done correctly they risked losing their quarry. Deciding to discuss strategy with his partner Klied turned and started walking away from the motel, bringing a comlink to his lips. "Sauvage, I think I've got our guy. Meet me at the Derbit." The Derbit Diner was a little place Klied had taken a liking to since coming to this level, mainly because theirs was the only food he considered even remotely edible. And it wasn't far from the motel either.

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Poffo Sauvage

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It had been a few days since Poffo had any contact with Klied the bounty hunter. He was wondering if the guy had bailed. The lower levels of Coruscant weren't for the faint of heart, and Klied had been introduced to some brutality early and often. Poffo could tell that this guy had been in a scrum a time or two and not one to back down, so he had stayed in the area despite his best intuition. Being on the run from T'lol, Poffo would bounce from area to area if he had made too much noise in expectation that goons would come to take him away. Getting the message from the bounty hunter was both a relief and made him nervous as hell. No way to spin it, he was the bait in the trap. "Yeah, man. I hear ya. I know the place, yeah. I'm not far."

Poffo tried to conceal his identity as best he could with a long trenchcoat, a wide-brimmed hat, and huge, oversized sunglasses. Sauvage knew it was an exercise of futility. You can't hide those shoulders and arms behind a trench coat. Still, better than nothing. Also, he rarely carried the old DC-17 blaster, but this was a rare time, an extenuating circumstance for sure. He had it hidden under his trenchcoach. He walked into the Derbit with a slight limp, took a seat in the same booth as Klied, and tried to position himself with his back as close to the wall as possible to give himself the widest possible view of the room. He immediately snapped and got a waitress's attention. She was a smoking hot Zeltron with light pink skin and aqua blue hair. It was no secret why Poffo flagged her down so quickly. He ordered a small meal and watched her with a grin as she left for the kitchen. He turned his attention to Klied. "So, you think you got our guy, yeah? Which one of Jalir T'lol's goons did he send to do his dirty work?"

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Kliedden Raxx

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The Derbit Diner was a small and reasonably clean place, at least in comparison to the rest of the restaurants on this level. There were no rodents or insects scurrying about and only a single light was flickering. And the service was pretty friendly too, although Klied supposed that was probably because he had come here for breakfast every day since arriving. The place was fairly busy this morning, a little over half of the tables were filled with chatty customers. Thankfully everyone here seemed to mind their own business, leaving Klied and Poffo to speak freely in their booth at the far end of the building.

When Sauvage sat down Klied looked the brawler over, giving him an amused smirk. "Nice hat." He joked. "I'm not completely sure but he's been skulking about your usual haunts and asking a lot of questions, so he's our best lead." He continued as he tore into a piece of rubbery bacon. "Didn't look particularly impressive to me but he's dressed the part of a hired killer. You see any blue Nautolans when you were working with T'lol?" Nautolans rarely left their homeworld so if he was one of T'lol's creatures Poffo definitely would have seen him before. He might even have some insight on how best to approach the hitman. For all Klied knew the alien could be much more dangerous than he appeared, it wouldn't have been the first time he'd underestimated his quarry because of appearances.

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Poffo Sauvage

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At the news of the blue Nautolan, Poffo began frantically looking around the diner. He even stood to get a better view and then sat back down, obviously shook. "Yeah, yeah, man. I know the blue dude you're giving me the mental sketch of. I got a real, clear, picturesque view of him in my mind. Yeah, I do," Poffo said. "Bet he has a nice, showy side piece on his hip, if I was betting. That's Mil Ro, no doubt in my mind, that's him."

Poffo relaxed his body and sat back as the waitress brought his drink. She left and Poffo leaned back in. "If he's here, he's the least of our concerns. I'm here to tell you that Mil is a PUNK! He talks a rough and tumble game, yeah, but he's got the biggest yellow stripe you could ever find on a blue back, and that's a fact. Mil is a sidekick, puuuure and simple. It's the man he accompanies that can give you the shivers from top to bottom. And from what I gather, you ain't spotted him yet. And buddy, I want to go on the official record as saying you may not be glad when you do!"

Sauvage found himself questioning his part in this whole agreement. Mil Ro is one thing, but he was Brag Tyllon's lackey, and Brag was the real danger, and dangerous enough that this bounty deal may be not be worth it.

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Kliedden Raxx

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Klied raised an eyebrow quizzically as Poffo started acting all nervous and stood up to take a look around the diner. This other guy must have been quite a big deal if he was evoking that kind of reaction from a beast like Sauvage. As Poffo sat back down and explained the situation Klied looked down at the table and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Potentially two hitmen then. That would make things more difficult. But they only needed one of them. If they could manage to catch one away from the other they'd be in a much better spot. And from what Poffo was saying it sounded like this Mil Ro character was the weaker link.

"If there are two of them working together it's likely they'll be staying at the same spot." He explained coolly. "Last I saw this Mil Ro he was going into a motel not too far from here. We can stakeout the place, see if this other man you're talking about shows his face. If he does we'll just have to find a way to distract him while we grab the Nautolan and extract the info we need. That shouldn't take too long. From what you're saying he sounds like a pushover." Klied recognized the danger from Poffo's reaction alone but had no intention of backing down now. He had been in life threatening situations time and time again, and no man or beast had gotten the better of him yet. He lived for this sort of challenge. If anything this was going to be a damn good time as far as the hunter was concerned.

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Poffo Sauvage

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Poffo shook his head while he shed his oversized darkened glasses. He didn't think that Klied understood the gravity of the situation. "Let me tell you right now, my bounty hunter friend, I get the distinct impression that you are not showing the appropriate level of concern, yeah." Poffo said. He was dead-set serious. "We're not talking about some three-credit punk. No, no. We're talking about Brag Tyllon. Brag is an ice-colder killer. The meanest son of a bantha I've ever seen in the lower level of this planet, yeah, and I've seen some pretty mean SOBs. Now, I'm sure that a highly decorated, highly accomplished bounty hunter such as yourself has taken in a lot of tough characters, guys slyer than a Pyke hitman and tougher than a Hutt brute, yeah, but I don't want you to underestimate this particular individual, yeah, because T'lol is a no-good-punk-thug!"

Poffo settled himself and nodded a few times. "He's T'lol's top lieutenant, yeah. He's a clever one. Just because you ain't see him, don't mean he ain't put his baby blues on you, yeah. I know you planned on using Mr. Macho as bait, and a fine plan it is, yeah. But you need to take into strong consideration that Brag is using Mil Ro in the exact parallel role that we've cast me to play in this piece of cat and mouse theater." Poffo downed his drink quickly and put his glasses back on.
"If I was going to place a bet, my bet would be that the coward Ro is some bait that Brag is setting for us."

Sauvage leaned back and crossed his arms as he looked at Klied behind his glasses. Brag was as clever as they came, and the fact that he was here was evidence that T'lol didn't care too much about getting Sauvage back alive. He was just trying to settle a score. Poffo knew a deal was a deal, but getting killed wasn't written in the fine print.

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Kliedden Raxx

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Klied was surprised by the level of concern Poffo was showing over this Brag Tyllon. He seemed genuinely afraid. The hunter paused and steepled his fingers as he fell into deep thought. The patrons in Grizzie's Bar, the security footage from the club. Yes, he would have stood out somewhere. It made sense that this Tyllon character would be keeping an eye out for him, even if he didn't know who he was exactly. Klied knew he hadn't been followed, he was a perceptive man. If someone had been watching him while he had been watching Ro he would've seen it. Unless of course Tyllon was watching from a great distance, perhaps with droids. How to resolve this predicament?

"We'll just have to be even more clever won't we?" He asked. "They'll know of me, but not who I am. I'm still an unknown factor to them..." He smirked and looked up at Poffo. "Given the events of last week they might even think I'm hunting you as well. Maybe I can approach Ro, convince him that you're my bounty, and get him and Tyllon to join me in the hunt. Then we can turn the tables on them once they think they've got the upper hand." A plan was forming in his mind. He could 'track' Poffo to a destination of their choosing, say he needs help bringing the brawler down and that he can't do it alone, they'd buy that. And once the two gangsters were in place they could spring their trap. He'd just need to play his part right, a brash up and coming bounty hunter that had stumbled out of his depth and needed some backup. It wasn't all that far from the truth anyway.

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Poffo Sauvage

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"Ooooh, yeah!" Poffo said with a fist pound on the table. "Now you're talking like a man with crystal clarity in the dome and headed for home, like the man with the plan. I dig it."

There were a lot of things to like about this plan for Sauvage. The initial danger was all on Klied's shoulders. If it went south right out of the gate in the initial conversation with Ro and the bounty hunter ended up dead, Sauvage might be able to slip out of the neighborhood, find another two-bit hood, and start using his fists for some spending credits. If the bounty hunter's gamble paid off and the assassin tag-team bought Klied's story, Sauvage might get the T'lol monkey off his back, finally be able to live without looking over his shoulder, and might even get started on a new career as a bounty hunter himself. A lot to like indeed.

"I'm the brawn and you're the brain. You bring 'em on, and I'll bring the pain, yeah! You tell me where to be, bring him, and I'll snap 'em real good."

Poffo was smarter than he let on. He wasn't going to win any academic contests, but as it pertained to street smarts, Poffo's experience and cleverness would be more akin to street genius. Sauvage knew however that the dumber others thought he was, the easier it was to use the tricks up his sleeve.


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Kliedden Raxx

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Klied realized the danger he was putting himself in, but saw it as a well calculated risk. For the moment he had the initiative, with Tyllon and Ro taking a more cautious approach. He could control where they met. By doing so in a populated area, with police no too far away, he could avoid them trying to kill him. He'd be able to get a good read of Tyllon as well, and see if he'd be capable of pulling the wool over his eyes long enough to get him into a position where he could be taken down with minimal opportunity to put up a fight.

"Go to the docks on Level 1993, Section 887." He laid out the plan. "They're used for hauling foodstuffs, mainly operated by droids. They're relatively isolated and would be an easy spot for smuggling to take place. That will sell the story that you're trying to escape from there. I'll lure them to the cargo containers. It'll be tight quarters there, easy to ambush them from above. Watch for me to make the first move. I'll try to take out Ro quickly, then we can double-team Tyllon. Just remember we need him alive. Don't kark me on this Sauvage."

Without waiting for a response he pulled out some credits and left them on the table to pay for breakfast before standing and leaving the diner. The plan was solid, and he knew Poffo could be trusted to hold up his end of the deal so long as he didn't flake on the ambush. Klied doubted he would though. The man couldn't keep running forever. He seemed too proud to be content to live the rest of his life in hiding. So it was up to Klied to make sure all the pieces fell into place. The trap was set, the bait dangling right in front of them. The quarry just needed a little coaxing. He could manage that.

He would give Poffo time to get a head start before setting his plan in motion. He watched the motel for some time, waiting for the Nautolan to show himself again. When he finally did he kept to much of the same route as before: visit the club, visit Grizzie's, ask people about Poffo. Now that Klied had the brawler's insight he realized that this guy absolutely was bait, he wasn't trying very hard to find Poffo at all. Maybe they thought the brawler would be dumb enough to try and take them on straightforward? That would explain why Tyllon still hadn't shown his face.

Soon enough his opportunity came. Ro wandered down the street to a common area where several food vendors were set up. There were a lot of people here, eating or just hanging around. The hunter noted three police droids spread out across the area, trying to be unobtrusive. This would do fine. If they were as smart as Poffo suggested they wouldn't try to start a tussle here, and that suited him just fine. Ro went to one of the vendors to order a truly disgusting looking sandwich. Maybe it was an alien thing. As the Nautolan sat down on a bench to eat Klied strolled right up and unceremoniously sat down besides him, a little too close for comfort. Time to put on a show.

He offered the confused hitman a big smile and spoke in a low , threatening tone while throwing his arm around his shoulder. "Hey there. Word around town is you've been asking after Mr. Macho!" He gave the amphibian a deadly glare while maintain the friendly smile for the police droids. "Problem is he's my acquisition. And you're getting in my way." He couldn't immediately ask for help or he'd give the act away. Better to start off being territorial, a bit arrogant, then let them think they'd convinced him to let them in on his plans. Let them think they were playing a fool.

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Poffo Sauvage

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After Klied left, Poffo waited a few moments before laying down some credits and making his exit as well. He hurried down a few levels and found the correct docking section. It wasn't going to be easy to find a place that gave him a wide view of the docks that did not expose himself to being seen. There were a few dockworkers of various galactic species, but Klied was right- it was mostly droids. That would be helpful if they were winning the fight to come, but not so helpful if things went south. Either way, neither the droids nor the sentients would pay him much attention, and likely wouldn't just scatter if a fight broke out. Stuff got stolen all the time on these lower level docks and the workers weren't going to risk not going home over some canned stuffs for the poor folks living in the lower levels of Coruscant.

He found a stack of cargo containers he could climb and get a decent view of about 60% of the playing field. He could also clearly see two of the three main entrances to the docks and he could see the docking platform itself that led out to the huge canyon that provided the means for ships to quickly fly from one level to another. Odds are, he would see Klied...if Klied wasn't smoked by Brag before he got to the docks. If he didn't, hopefully he would hear the ruckus and be able to help before it was too late. Poffo did a quick survey, making a mental note of paths he could take- container stacks he could jump to and which ones he could climb. The fastest and quickest ways to the ground level. With Klied not knowing where Poffo would be, the bounty hunter may have the odds stacked against him, and Poffo hoped he could buy some time. Poffo took off the trench coat and the hat. He looked down at his blaster that he could hit the broad side of a dewback with. If Poffo wasn't going to be able to help, he had to close the gap quickly. Still, the having the blaster was better than not having the blaster.

All he could do was wait and hope they stood a chance.


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Kliedden Raxx

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The Nautolan just blinked in response to Klied's threat, completely taken off-guard. After a few awkward seconds past he broke into a nervous grin, trying to summon some bravado.

"Oh man, you're way out of your depth pal," he countered unconvincingly. "You got any idea who I am?"

"You look like a fish wanting to get fried to me." Klied answered in a low, malicious voice. He pressed the point of his knife into the Nautolan's side. "I couldn't care less who you are or who you work for. All I know is Poffo Sauvage has the price of a lifetime on his head, and I'm gonna be the one to collect." Poffo was right about Ro, the punk was already shaking like a leaf. What kind of hitman lost their nerve that quickly? "I've been tailing him for a week, and right when I'm about to swoop in for the kill your dumb ass blunders in and spooks him. Now you're gonna crawl back into whatever swamp you came out of and let me do my work, or I'm gonna mount your head on my wall with the rest of the animals." Might have laid it on a little heavy there but he seemed to get the message across. Ro looked about ready to wet himself.

"T-take it easy man..." The Nautolan stammered, dropping his sandwich. "We're on the same side yeah? I'm after him too-"

"I know you're after him idiot." Klied snapped. "That's why I'm telling you to back off."

"Look our boss will double whatever the bounty for him is," Ro offered. "I-I-I can guarantee that. He want's Sauvage dead. Like really-"

"You shouldn't make offers like that when you don't know how much I'm getting paid." Klied cut him off again.

"We only make offers we can back up." A grizzly voice cut in. Klied looked up, perplexed. Hovering above the two of them was a DRK-1 probe droid, seemingly modified to have a transmitter. The black eye focused intently on Klied. "Hello there." It said. "You seem like a competent bounty hunter. It's taken us quite some time to track down Poffo Sauvage and it appears you've already got him pinned."

"Who are you?" Klied demanded, although he had a pretty good idea.

"Brag Tyllon." The droid answered. "We work for Jalir T'lol, who is a man you want to be friends with on Coruscant. Find Sauvage for us and not only will you receive a much greater bounty, you will be welcomed into his employ with open arms." Klied feigned thoughtfulness.

"How well does he pay?" The hunter asked. Ro chuckled and pulled out his blaster, a Westar-55. Most impressive. "Fair enough." Klied said with a shrug and put away his knife. He looked back at the droid. "I know where Sauvage will be tonight. You two come with me and we'll take him together."

"No I think not," Tyllon replied, much to Klied's dismay. "You will take Ro with you. I will observe and come to your aid if you need it." Dammit, Klied thought to himself. That is not what he wanted to hear. This Tyllon guy was smart, cautious. He wouldn't be able to pull an ambush like that. But what choice did he have? If he said no now the whole thing would fall through. They'd just have to play it by ear, and hope they came up with something on the fly.

"Fine, deal." Klied said, and stood up. "Let's get moving, I haven't got all day..." The Nautolan got up and started following him, the probe droid buzzing away. This was bad, very bad. He had to try and warn Poffo somehow. Once they got on a shuttle heading for the lower levels Klied excused himself to use the restroom. The second he was in the cramped chamber he locked the door and hissed quietly into his commlink. "Sauvage, I've got Ro with me but Tyllon is hanging back. He's watching everything with a probe droid. We'll need to improvise..." He didn't get a chance to say any more before they reached their destination. Klied took a deep breath and started escorting his Nautolan companion to the docks.

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Poffo Sauvage

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The sun had already set on the surface of the city-planet, but on the lower levels of Coruscant, the sun was a mythical celestial body. They never saw it down here anyway. He had gotten the commlink message, and no doubt, Brag was living up to his reputation. No way was Tyllon going to make this easy. He could well make the battle against Turssk and his goons look like child's play.

Poffo was well-placed to see a large portion of the docking area, but no place here had a view of the entire area or all the possible entrances. What he was able to do was catch most of the heavy traffic areas. If there were some shenanigans going on where he couldn't see, the dockworkers would let him know. If it was fisticuffs, the tough guys that moved cargo would run toward it and enjoy a good scrum. If the blades or blasters got pulled, they would be moving away and on the double.

What he saw instead were workers that were walking quickly away from a particular area, an area and entrance he couldn't see. If Poffo had to guess, they spotted Ro. Klied could fly under the radar, even if he didn't look like a local. This was the docks with ships coming in from all over smuggling everything and all types of folks. Being alien from here wasn't a problem. But, if he knew Ro, he would be carrying a big flashy blaster and trying to show off. He always overcompensated for his lack of courage and skill. The dockers liked a good fight, but they didn't dig weapons- especially weapons that shot lasers. Sauvage tried to stay low and made his away from stack to stack of cargo containers. He heard some some talking and maneuvered his path to get a view. Sure enough, Klied was walking about two steps in front of Ro and the aqua Nautolan was telling a bunch of untrue stories about all of his "exploits."

Poffo figured that the spy droid wasn't far behind, and Brag wouldn't be far behind that. Brag, a human, could blend in just about anywhere and could be anyone at anytime. A sneaky little weasel for sure. Poffo needed to catch them right after a turn. If he could work his magic on Ro quickly enough, he might get to stage a little trick before the probe droid gave Brag a view of the action. There was a narrow alley between the row of containers that Poffo was on and the next row of shipping containers. One of the containers was a large, empty walk-in cooler that shipped cold foods or beverages to the lower levels. Best yet, it the second container after a turn they would have to make to go down this alley. When he thought they might be in ear shot, Poffo took the brass knuckles for his left hand and tossed them into the steel container creating an echoing clang nearby.

He just hoped like hell Klied and Ro would take the bait.


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Kliedden Raxx

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Klied rolled his eyes as Ro continued mouthing off about all his great feats of skill. The Nautolan hadn't shut up since they got here, it was beginning to give him a headache. Which only made it harder for him to try and formulate a plan. He had hoped to get both hitmen together so it would be easier to take them down, but Tyllon hadn't taken the bait. Klied wondered if that was because he knew about his partnership with Sauvage or because he was just that cautious. Either way it would be a pain to find a work around. The one positive was that they only needed one of them alive. If Klied could just incapacitate Ro, not a tall order, he and Poffo would be able to go all in against Tyllon and take him out.

His senses were on high alert, well trained from time spent in various wilder areas of the galaxy. He picked up on every man, droid and gutter rat scurrying about this place. No one was getting past his notice. Tyllon's probe droid was following several meters behind, trying to stay just out of sight. If Klied could just get it's attention turned elsewhere he could destroy it. That would force Tyllon to come out of hiding and deal with things himself.

They passed a tight alley between the containers and Klied caught movement out of the corner of his eyes. He turned his head ever so slightly and saw Poffo moving amongst the shadows. He grinned to himself. Perfect. Showing no sign that he had seen anything he kept walking, rounding the corner. He passed an open container and kept going, Ro just a few steps behind him. Then there was the clatter from inside the container. Immediately the Nautolan's confident persona evaporated, the alien jumping in fear and his hand going to his holster. "You hear that?" He asked Klied nervously.

"Hear what?" The hunter played dumb.

"In the container!" Ro shouted, and pulled his blaster. The thing looked heavy in his hands, and he was shaking so much Klied doubted he could hit a bantha, let alone Poffo. "I think someone's in there..." Klied glanced back by the corner. Tyllon's probe droid had come around and was getting closer, clearly intrigued. The hunter nodded to Ro and unslung his cycler rifle.

"You go in first, I'll cover you from back here." He said.

"Why do I have to go first?" Ro asked frightfully.

"Because your weapon is better suited to close quarters," Klied explained. "Don't worry, I've got you covered." Ro looked ready to make another protest but the probe droid hovered up close.

"Do as the man says Ro." The droid ordered sternly. The Nautolan did not look happy with this development at all, but followed orders. As he crept slowly into the container, blaster in one hand and flashlight in the other, the droid hovered behind him near the entrance. Klied slowly positioned himself behind the droid, out of it's line of sight, and then took aim.

"Look out!" He shouted, and fired a shot right into the back of the droid before it could react, destroying it. Tyllon was blind now. Ro spun around, confused, but Klied was already grabbing one of the container's doors and slamming it shut. "Sauvage now!" He shouted, hoping the brawler was close enough to hear.

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Poffo Sauvage

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Sauvage had postitioned himself on the opposite side of the narrow lane with a clear leaping path to the empty refigerarted container. It was about an eight foot drop, risky, especially with Poffo still recovering from a pretty bad ankle sprain, but it also provided him with huge advantages. First of all, it gave him a stealthy attack from the high ground. But what Poffo loved was that the explosion of contact would be incredible. As Ro fully stepped inside the container, Poffo watched the spy droid fall to the ground and heard Klied yell, "Sauvage now!" It sure looked like he was trying to close the Nautolan in the container, but Poffo couldn't resist this opportunity.

Poffo lept with his hands clasped together high above his head, lept the narrow distance between the containers and came down with two vicious hands the back of Ro's neck. Ro crumpled to the floor violently. On the bright side, Savuage's ankle felt good. "Thank goodness for medical contacts in the lower levels," Sauvage thought. Poffo drew his foot back and kicked him hard across his cheek and then stomped on his wrist that held the blaster which the amphibian promptly dropped. "Hey, Freakshow! You ain't going nowhere but to Madness Town! Yeah!" Poffo could smell that at some point in this exchange, Ro had lost his bladder. Moments like these brought a small to Poffo's face. Poffo kicked the shiny, expensive blaster out of the container and stood for a moment to think.

Brag was still dangerous and he was a wild card. Even together, Sauvage had doubts that they could survive a fight with Brag Tyllon. He would be lagging behind the probe droid a fair distance to avoid detection, but not so much that his presence wouldn't be felt pretty soon. He hated to do it, but he felt like the best way for both Klied and Poffo to survive this inevitable confrontation was to keep the ruse alive. The only way to ensure that it looked like Klied was indeed after Poffo was to have a battle scar. Sauvage pointed to the Nautolan. "You keep your damn mouth shut and tight. Or don't, yeah. Give me an excuse to smoke you." At his feet were the brass knuckles he had orginally tossed into the container. He picked them up and put them in his pocket. He removed the brass knuckles from his right hand and put them in the pocket as well. As he took a few steps back toward the door of the container, Sauvage whirled around threw a nasty right hook at Klied's left cheek. Klied would be beyond pissed if it landed, but it would leave a mark that not even Brag would question as legitimate.

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Kliedden Raxx

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The Nautolan never saw it coming. Despite Klied's "warning" he was still blindsided by Poffo's attack, being knocked to the ground and not even putting up a show of a fight. The hunter stayed out of Ro's line of sight as the brawler laid into him, not wanting him to realize what had truly just happened. Instead he kept lookout for any sign of Tyllon. Even though his probe droid had been destroyed the hitman still wasn't showing his face.

As Poffo threatened Ro the Nautolan obediently pantomimed the act of pulling a zipper shut over his own mouth and scooted backwards further into the container. Klied grinned at the sight of the boastful hitman being put in his place, that was until he got a good look at Poffo's face as the brawler turned to face him. He's going to punch me again isn't he? Klied thought, moments before being punched. He turned just in time that the blow wasn't as hard as it was meant to be, but it still hurt like hell. He'd have to remind himself later to get the brawler back for that, even if it was an act. He was getting tired of nearly being concussed.

The hunter made a show of spinning to the ground and scrambling away from Poffo in panic, grabbing Ro's discarded blaster and firing a few shots at the brawler. He purposely aimed wide, the bolts scoring against the containers just behind him. He would give his partner time to escape before setting the blaster to stun and firing a shot at Ro, putting him down for the count. That was one enemy out of the picture, now they just needed Tyllon.

As Klied stood and rubbed his face he inspected the Westar. A truly beautiful weapon. Perhaps he'd hold onto it. It was then Tyllon finally rounded the corner to join him. This man looked the part of a ruthless killer much more than Ro did. He was an older battle-hardened fighter, half of his face covered in scar tissue. On the scarred side of his face his eye had been replaced with a cybernetic one, and he was equipped with a pair of gauntlets with holographic interfaces as well. Klied assumed that was how he had been controlling the probe droid. From the complexity of the equipment he might have had several droids at his disposal. He was clothed head to toe in heavy armor and armed to the teeth, with grenades and other gadgets on his belt, and a blaster rifle in his hands. As the man strode forward he took a brief glance inside the container to see the unconscious Nautolan before looking back to Klied.

"What happened?" He asked curtly, clearly displeased with the circumstances.

"Bastard took us by surprise," Klied only partially acted out his frustration. "I managed to drive him off though, he went that way." He pointed in the wrong direction. Tyllon looked skeptical, but didn't press him for any more information.

"Very well, you take the lead. I'll be behind you. We can't let him get away." Klied nodded in compliance and started moving again. He just had to lure the hitman into another tight space. Hopefully Poffo would be two for two with his sneak attack.

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Poffo Sauvage

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Poffo took off after the sucker punch, a little disappointed with himself for not connecting better. If he had knocked him out, he would have had more time to plan and it would be a great sell to Brag. Hopefully, the mark on his left cheek would welt up and it would sell to Tyllon. The blaster shots flailed around Sauvage as he ran away, and he certainly hoped that Klied wasn't trying to kill him from being pissed about the punch. He had seen the bounty hunter shoot, however, and there was no way he would miss that many times. Poffo thought Brag might think the same thing, so Poffo decided to add some reality to the charade. Using a piece of scrap metal on the ground, Sauvage cut himself along his forearm. It wasn't terribly deep, but it was nasty looking, and bled like a gutted akk dog. Harmless, but he figured there was no way that the bounty hunter wouldn't see it, and he knew full well that Brag wouldn't miss it. If he could get Tyllon to believe that good ol' Poffo was actually shot at and hit by Klied, that may be just enough to get Brag to let his guard down around Klied to have a shot.

Poffo ran, leaving a trail of blood behind him for Klied and Brag to follow. Poffo darted into an open container littered with unmarked containers of goods, ripped off his shirt, and tied it around the arm to stop the bleeding. The trail would have to go cold for them here and it was as good a place as any for an ambush. Sauvage crossed the path between the rows of shipping containers, careful not to step in his blood trail on the way out. Sauvage couldn't use the aerial assault here. The path was far too wide. There were plenty of shadows, and nooks, but at some point, he would have to cross the path, and that was about fifteen feet by Poffo's estimation. Brag Tyllon was the quickest draw he had ever seen, and he never missed. Never panicked, always calm and collected. He certainly wouldn't whiz in his pants like the Nautalon punk stunned out in a pool of his own piss.

Poffo found a shadowy nook, the closest, dark spot he could find to where he hoped and expected Brag to stop. He knew Brag was a clever sort, could sniff things out, but Sauvage had at least laid the groundwork to give it a snowball's chance in Mustafar of panning out. Poffo just had to wait and hope things played out like he planned.

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Kliedden Raxx

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"He went this way..." Klied said as he followed the trail of blood. He was pretty sure he hadn't hit Poffo, meaning the brawler had inflicted the injury himself to sell the act. That was good, because Klied didn't really have the stones to shoot him himself. Even a glancing blow with a heavy blaster might have put his partner down for the count. And he had a feeling Tyllon might know that too. He just had to hope the hitman bought it, but as they pursued their target he was awfully quiet. Perhaps he was just focused on their task. Or perhaps Klied would need to stay on his toes...

He tracked the blood to the container where it stopped. Being an experienced tracker Klied was able to tell Poffo had turned around and left again just by eye as he approached. Even though Poffo had made a pointed effort to avoid stepping in his own blood some of the spilled food packets had been moved ever so slightly in his passing, now strewn about in a manner that didn't match with how they had fallen from the crate they were in. Klied was confident Tyllon hadn't noticed that detail though, most people without his training wouldn't.

"He's close." The hunter said, and crouched down by the puddle where Poffo had treated his injury to inspect it. In reality he was preparing for the engagement to come in his head. He himself probably wouldn't be able to get the jump on Tyllon, but he had to at least try to distract him long enough for Poffo to-

Klied turned his head ever so slightly as he heard a click. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Tyllon raising his weapon. He had seen through the act. It surprised Klied, not even a smug remark at his expense? This guy really was a professional. Still, he had no intention of going down that easy, time to see who's reflexes were faster.

The hunter was in the less prepared position, but still was able to turn around and raise his blaster with alarming speed. It just so happened that Tyllon was faster. He fired a bolt from his rifle, thankfully because Klied had just moved he only took the hit in the arm. The hunter grit his teeth and closed one eye, grunting through the pain as he fell back on his rear from the blow. Nevertheless he fired back in retaliation, hitting the hitman square in the chest.

If it weren't for the heavy armor that blast would have killed him. As it happened it just managed to knock the wind out of him and throw him on his back. Klied kept firing, but the hitman rolled over onto his hands and knees and pushed himself back to his feet, running to hide out of his line of sight. Klied stood up as well, letting his wounded arm hang off to his side as he stalked forward. No time to dress his own wound, they wouldn't be safe until Tyllon was dead. He just hoped his attack had given Poffo enough time to close the gap and engage the hitman in hand to hand combat.

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Poffo Sauvage

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Poffo watched as the ruse initially appeared to work in their favor. Klied was bent down inspecting the pool of blood that Poffo had semi-intentially left there to get them to pause at this location, but something was off. He saw Brag raise his weapon to fire on Klied. Poffo held his breath. There was no way that he could cover the ground fast enough to save Klied. Poffo immediately began scanning for exit points, but out of his peripheral vision he saw the bounty hunter spin to take a shot. Brag got off the first shot- damned if he didn't always manage to do that, but Klied's movement saved him from taking a fatal shot, though he took it on the arm pretty good. Even more impressive, this hunter got off a shot that tattooed Brag in the chest. It stunned Poffo so much that he didn't move. If he had been right on top of it, he could have pounced on Brag right then and there, but as it was, Brag had time to roll over, shake off the cobwebs, scramble to his feet, and try to run to safety. Sauvage shook himself out of his surprise and tried to get a bead on where Tyllon was going.

Poffo had the advantage of reconning th dock before anyone else. He had studies the the exits and entrances from his perch before he took down Ro. He knew exactly where Tyllon was going. There was an air taxi station on the edge of the docks. In an out, taxis came by. Brag could hitch a ride, tell the driver to get lost in the traffic, and that would be it. Klied and Sauvage would be back to square one, but worse- they'd have a pissed off Brag Tyllon hunting them with an axe to grind. Poffo sprinted, taking paths out of Brag's lane of vision. Brag had a head start, but he was still reeling from that blast to the chest from Klied. It was a dangerous play, because if Brag caught sight of him with any reasonable distance between them at all, Poffo wouldn't be able to defend himself against Tyllon's blasters.

Sauvage had no choice but to the roll the dice. He took a hard right which would put him on Brag's main path to the taxi hub. Just as he hit the path, he crashed into Brag, surprising the hell out of both of them. It was to Poffo's advantage as he was bigger, had more mass, and wasn't trying to shake off a blaster shot to the chest. Poffo stumbled, fell, and rolled, but Brag went flying, crashing into a container filled with caf grounds. The container crashed along with Brag and spilled its contents, revealing small bags of white spice that were hidden under the deep top layer of black and brown caf grounds. Several dockworkers starting cussing loudly, but wanted nothing to do with the contraband bags of spice and quickly made their way to different sectors of the dockyard. The impact was enough to knock the long gun off of Brag's sling as well as the beautiful, burgandy metal helmet that matched the rest of his custom armor.

The hitman vomitted on the street and blinked his eyes heavily. He was definitely concussed. The impact didn't do well for Sauvage either. He shook his head and turned to see Brag wipe his mouth and dart into a nook that broke right into the darkness. He was probably trapped, but he still had two sidearm blasters. He had a concussion, and maybe he was seeing double, but Sauvage wouldn't count Brag out. Even if he was seeing triple, Poffo thought that Tyllon would shoot the one in the middle with deadly accuracy. Sauvage thought it best to wait on Klied. he was skilled with a blaster himself, and as a bounty hunter, he probably had more experience gameplanning for something like this. While he waited and kept his eye on the only exit/entrance to the hideaway that Brag foundhimself, Poffo inspected the spice. It was avabush spice. He had seen T'lol use it in a tea as a truth serum. That might be useful.

Klied came up on the scene with Poffo staring at the entrance to the nook. The rifle was laying in the path as was the helmet. Poffo was holding his blaster at his side, but it was obvious by the way he held it that he wasn't real comfortable with it. Poffo eyed Klied, his arm drooping, his gait slow and lumbering. He was hurting bad. "Oh, Yeah. Look what the loth-cat dragged in," Poffo said to Klied. He tossed a packet of avabush spice to him. If he didn't recognize it, he could fill him in later. "Our good buddy is bottled up, yeah. He's trapped in there real good. Wounded, he's wounded real bad, and you know how dangerous a wounded animal can be, yeah." Poffo gave Klied a long look up and down. "And by the looks of things, you must be pretty damned dangerous, yeah."


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Kliedden Raxx

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As Tyllon made a break for it and Poffo gave chase it was all Klied could do to keep up. He cursed, holding his wounded arm as he haphazardly trundled after them. This wasn't good. They had to either kill or capture Tyllon. If he got away, it wouldn't matter that they already had Ro. Tyllon would report back to T'lol what had happened and he would disappear again, and any info they managed to get from the Nautolan would be worthless. They had to end things here, and soon.

Fortunately he arrived on the scene to see Poffo had things reasonably under control, with Tyllon cornered and bereft of his blaster rifle. He still wasn't completely defenseless, but this was an obvious improvement on the situation for them. Klied just grumbled in displeasure as Poffo made a teasing remark, and caught the bag as it was tossed to him. Some kind of spice? Klied wasn't sure if that was supposed to be some kind of pick-me-up. He didn't generally bother with narcotics. Wordlessly he stuffed the bag in his back pocket while giving Poffo a quizzical glance.

The brawler explained to him the situation. So Tyllon was hiding in some kind of crawl space, hidden in darkness. He'd have his blasters trained on the only entrance and be able to fire on their silhouettes as they approached so going in after him was out of the question. They'd need to force him to come to them. As the wind from the port hit Klied's back an idea formed in his head. He looked at Poffo.

"Seems to me like the solution is simple enough." He explained. "We'll burn him out. Start a fire here, let the wind carry the fumes into the nook. He'll either suffocate or be forced to come at us in the open, and we'll be waiting for him." Klied had used the tactic on several hunts in the past. It worked well enough on animals, he saw no reason it wouldn't work on sentients as well. "Keep an eye out here, I'll get the supplies we need."

Thankfully being in a port Klied was able to find highly flammable materials easily enough. The dock workers clearly didn't approve of his stealing, but they weren't going to do anything to stop him. Even wounded he was armed to the teeth, and dressed like a madman besides. Before long he returned to Poffo to set the fire, and as he predicted the wind carried the smoke right into the nook where Tyllon was hiding. Now all they had to do was wait. Klied stowed the Westar in his belt and unslung his cycler rifle, standing back at a fair distance and taking aim on the entrance in anticipation. Several minutes passed. Tyllon would certainly be feeling the pressure now. At any moment he would react. Klied just forgot one thing.

As the hunter stood waiting for his quarry to reveal himself he took notice of a shadow slowly creeping up behind him. Looking over his shoulder he spotted two Viper probe droids floating above them. Klied cursed internally as he recalled the gauntlets on Tyllon's arms. He knew the hitman had more than one droid. The hunter dove out of the way as one of the droids fired on him, the other attacking Poffo. He rolled and came up in a crouch, taking a shot and destroying one of the probe droids. The kick of the rifle sent racking pain down his wounded arm, but he grit his teeth and fought through it as he took aim on the other. He fired again but only made a grazing hit on the droid, but he did manage to draw it's attention.

It was then Tyllon finally appeared, the hitman bursting forth from the black smoke and charging directly towards Poffo, brandishing a vibroblade in one hand and a blaster pistol in the other. There was a crazed, furious look in his good eye. He was ready to kill.

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Poffo Sauvage

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A relatively secure and controlled situation went haywire and to complete chaos quick and in a hurry. Poffo's saving grace was being prepared for the action to start. As the smoke poured out of the cave of containers that hid the hitman, Poffo loosened his stance and stood on the balls of his feet. ready to pounce on his prey like a Nexu. His readiness is what saved him. Klied's eyes directed Poffo's to the floating mechanical assassin behind. He dove quickly to his left as the blaster fire began to rain down on him. As if the droid wasn't enough of a problem, Brag came storming out of the smoke and clearly pissed at Poffo. Sauvage only caught a glance before he took to flight, but he knew the look in Brag's cobalt eyes was no longer business. It was personal.

Blaster and a vibroblade in hand, the odds were against Poffo surviving this encounter. That said, Poffo wasn't going to go out like a punk. He'd fight to the end, and maybe Lady Luck was on his side. Poffo sprinted about 20 yards down the corridor to where containers were stacked like steps to a second level of containers. He bounded up the containers to the top layer with the droid firing and Tyllon giving chase. Tyllon was faster than Poffo as a sprinter and was gaining. Poffo didn't know if he should feel relief for Tyllon not taking shots with the blaster or not. It either meant that T'lol offered a bigger price for Poffo to be brought in alive or it meant that Brag had decided to make Poffo suffer immense pain before he was killed.

On this level, there were several more large containers and rows with in. Poffo rounded around one of the larger containers, with Brag chasing and gaining. Poffo knew the droid woould lose him around the container and stop to calculate options, and he used that to his advantage. He kept circling the container, and while the droid was still focused on end of the cargo hold that Poffo initially went behind, the brawler completed the looop, leaped, and wrapped his huge arms around the floating droid. It fought like hell, and at this point, Brag had seen enough. He was going to end this game of cat and mouse and raised his blaster to end it. Relfexively, Poffo spun to face Brag, still holding the droid. Tyllon's blaster fire smoked the droid, a cluster of sparks and shrapnel fanning out in Poffo's face, chest, and arms. At first, Poffo thought the droid had exploded, but if it had, he would be dead. Instead, Poffo saw where chunks of the blaster had been blasted off in bits of shrapne. Poffo could only imagine those large, goofy sunglasses that were his calling card saved his eyes and vision. His face and chest were busted from the mini explosion. Bits of metal were imbedded in his cheeks and chest. He was bleeding profusely. The wind was knocked out of him and he couldn't breathe. He had felt broken ribs before and it was a good bet the impact of the blaster fire against the droid he was bear-hugging had done exactly that.

Poffo fell back, still managing to hold the droid despite the impact. He looked up at Brag who was walking toward him now, the blaster still raised. Poffo tossed the droid, turned his head to the side and spit a massive wad of blood from his mouth. He tried to draw his own blaster as a last ditched effort, but Brag calmy shot it off his hip before Poffo could reach get his hand wrapped around it. Poffo was too blasted tired and hurt to care. He wiped his mouth, panting, and looked at the hitman. "You ain't nothing but a punk, Brag, yeah." He coughed up some more blood and had to pant to catch his breath. "You always been a punk. If I ever said you weren't, I take it back. Why don't you put that blaster down and face me like a man. Yeah, let me show you want the madness is all about."

"Shutup, Sauvage," Brag shot back. "Those droids aren't cheap. I'd kill you for it, but T'lol wants to kill you himself. Besides, I'll add the cost of the droid to my T'lol's bill." The professional walked within a few feet of Poffo and snorted. "I knew you were tough Sauvage. I didn't take you for clever. You're not as dumb as you look." Poffo shouldn't have felt proud of the compliment, but coming from a man known for his professionalism, toughness, ability, and skill, Sauvage couldn't help but have some pride well up inside of him. Brag sheathed the vibroblade, but kept the blaster pointed squarely at Poffo's nose. With his now free hand, he tossed Sauvage a pair of stun cuffs. "Put these on. I have to deal with that little friend of yours."

Sauvage didn't have much of a choice. His best bet would be that Klied would somehow manage to take care of Brag himself. Klied was tough, a good shot, and he didn't let little things like "reason" get in the way of doing the job he was sent to do. He might be just crazy enough to survive this thing. Sauvage put the cuffs on, and Brag gave them a friendly jolt of the remote on his wrist. Poffo's battered body straightened as the electricity pulsed through him. Brag relesed the button and smirked at Poffo. "Now, be a good boy, and stay put."
 
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