I own nothing except a few characters and the plot.
TROOPS: NEW YORK
A Spectre Returns
NEW YORK
Tevin had been able to relay the message to Ezra that Ben wanted to meet with him through Obi-Wan and Landon. Ezra figured talking to this person was something to do since McKnight Shoes was closed due to the pending inquiry into the shooting death of a CIA operative by Imperial troops. He knocked on Ben's office door.
"Come in." Came a voice from inside. Ezra entered the office and found ia nice couch among the furniture. Sitting in a chair was a man tying his shoelaces.
"General Felth said you wanted to see me."
"You must be Ezra. I'm Doctor Loomis, I didn't know when you were coming so I was about to hit the gym. Did anyone tell you why I wanted to see you?" Ezra shut the door.
"Landon said something to do with my past. Then Josh told me you were a doctor who specializes in Jedi with emotional problems. He said I must have said something to either General Felth or Admiral Piett that gave them a reason to worry about me."
"Pretty much. They got an archive of an old file on you, but told me most of what was in there is now suspected to be false after the agent who put it together joined the Rebellion. I also talked to Obi-Wan about you. He said that you were constantly tempted by the Dark Side, but in the end resisted it every time."
"I was right up there on the Emperor's Top Ten List of wanted criminals." Ezra said as Ben wrote. The next hour progressed with Ezra telling Ben about having to live on the streets of Lothal, The Spectres, Maul, and losing his parents. Ben told Ezra that the person who ordered their executions had probably suffered the same fate at the hands of the Rebellion or the New Republic when they freed Palpatine's political prisoners.
"I'm sure you'll adjust to New York as well as Michael did. It's a new start for you and from what I was told everyone is bending over backwards to make your adjustment to life here as easy as possible some more then others given the recent trouble I was told about." Ben said.
'Yeah, that's how I found the time for this. The shoe store is closed due to it being a crime scene. I heard Colonel Cuckoo finally got what he deserved."
"He's been a pain in Michael's butt for the past ten years. I'm sure Michael was happy about finally having a reason to give a kill order on that guy." Ezra's eyes widened when he heard that.
"General Felth told me there was a history. He didn't tell me how far back it went though."
"There is no love in this building for the CIA. I'm going to tell them you have PTSD, but it isn't as bad as they thought it was and with the right supports you'll make it. Also, you can just call him Tevin from here on out. This place is very laid-back when it comes to military regulations. The only person here who gets full name and rank is Admiral Piett as a sign of respect. If something else bothers you, let someone know." Ben said and sent Ezra on his way. He found Landon and Josh waiting for him along with Chopper.
"I'm okay guys." Chopper warbled a response.
"We didn't see Stormtroopers come over here so we figured that out." Josh said earning an electric shock from Chopper.
"Not funny. Does your dad smack you on the head like he does to everyone else?" Ezra asked.
"I got this personality from him. I wonder if that buffet actually has food today since the regular broken shoe scam artists probably all know the store is closed by now. Probably not. Let's get pizza instead." Josh said.
"They probably all dumped their unwanted shoes on the sidewalk in front of the store. I wonder what the city's gonna charge for that to be cleaned up." Landon said. Chopper warbled something else.
"No Chopper, pizza is not for droids." Josh said. Ben watched the four from his doorway. Then added to his notes on Ezra that as long as Ezra had Chopper, Josh, and the McKnights he would be fine.
Josh had grabbed Lucy Felth before the group went out for pizza. Lucy's interest seemed to be directed towards Ezra more then anything.
"Dad says there's a long story behind you and how you know the droid." She said.
"We call him Chopper and I just spent an hour telling my life story to one of the doctors. I'm sure Josh will read the story off of his dad's desk at some point."
"Maybe. I've been kept busy with Lightsaber training. You mean Lucy will read whatever report is made off of her dad's desk or hear about it over dinner. Ow!" Josh said as Lucy kicked him under the table.
"If it isn't emailed now that the resident hacker and phone tapper from the CIA is dead." She shot back.
"Speaking of which, he's thinking about selling the store. He's waiting for me to finish school before he makes a final decision." Landon said changing the subject.
"You can always enlist." Josh suggested.
"We were thinking of sending me to Trade School. He doesn't want me in Syria or in debt for the rest of my life."
"He means join our military. As you've seen, we take anyone. Trade schools are good. The city can always use more tradespeople." Lucy explained as a cellphone beeped.
"My dad wants to talk to you about something. You might want to get yourself a phone at some point in time." She said to Ezra.
"Well, we know you're not crazy. At least not to the level of some of our officers. Ow!" Josh said earning another shock from Chopper as the four humans and one droid threw out their trash and left.
"One of the city's high schools needs a substitute teacher for the remainder of the year and there's a huge drug problem in this school that PD already sent an undercover in, but we want one in there too. I send anyone else, they're probably made the minute they walk in. I send you, it buys me some time. Michael leaned on some people who made suspicious financial transactions to rush the paperwork through for you, It's English and History classes, but some of the kids are real troublemakers. I singled out one of the biggest ones for you. Jamal Wilkins, he's your PD undercover. Don't put him on the spot in front of people or risk having his cover blown unless something happens and you find yourself with no choice." Tevin said to Ezra.
"Can I bring Chopper? He seems to be behaving himself around me and he doesn't exactly get along with other droids."
"I already cleared it. Nobody will suspect Chopper is recording and transmitting data for us. You start Monday morning at 7:30." Tevin handed Ezra a file containing everything he needed to know about his first actual assignment with the team. The next Monday, class was in session with Ezra and Chopper. The first class was about Galactic Events in History. Namely, events leading up to the Galactic Civil War. Ezra knew he would be learning about these events along with the class.
"It looks like this book picks up at the Lothal Uprising although the assigned pages match the Battle of Yavin." He said checking the lesson plan and the textbook.
"Ms. Guzman said she was going to skip over the Lothal part as unimportant." One student said. Chopper warbled a protest from the back of the classroom.
"Did she intend to skip over the Battle of Scarif too?" Ezra asked the class while making notes to himself to check a few things with Tevin and Chopper after school. A hand shot up.
"Is Scarif important?" Another student asked.
"According to the book, Scarif leads into Yavin. Maybe she wanted to avoid this event. They did what to Alderaan?" Ezra made a note in huge letters to inquire about Alderaan and tried to regain his composure. He hoped whoever gave that order was long dead. The remainder of this class went as it should. Ezra skimmed through the material on Lothal and Scarif as well as the details of Alderaan before reaching the Battle of Yavin which gave him some satisfaction in reading that Grand Moff Tarkin had been destroyed with the Death Star. His next class contained his NYPD counterpart who proceeded to give Ezra all kinds of trouble. Ezra in turn used The Force to tell Jamal that Ezra was already aware of who he was and to keep the act up. Jamal then proceeded to strut out of the class mooning Ezra as he did. During fourth period, Chopper intercepted a drawing being passed around the room that Ezra did not find funny at all.
"Do you want to discuss this in the Principal's Office or maybe at a Police Station?" He asked the student Chopper had taken the drawing from.
"It's what I believe." The student who made the drawing said.
"Keep it to yourself from now on, especially around me. And this so-called piece of art that you put on the back of your worksheet that you didn't do, but took the time to put your name on. I'm keeping it in case someone asks for samples of your work." Ezra wrote down the student's name on the list of things he wanted to discuss with Tevin. The last class of the day was his second English class of the day that also contained Jamal who walked in, saw Ezra, and promptly walked out. This time followed by Chopper carrying the offensive drawing from earlier along with a Detention slip for cutting class. Ezra had told Jamal to see him after school to discuss the drawing. Luckily, Jamal did as he was told this time reporting to Ezra's classroom and shutting the door behind him.
"Ms. Guzman had no control over this classroom at all." He said taking a seat.
"They don't know half of what Chopper can do. Unless you want to give it to your boss, I'm turning that drawing over to General Felth along with the name of the person who made it."
"I'm stuck with him in Fifth Period. He made the shooting a gun motion at me and two other minority students along with the student that I think is in this drawing. That student is the head of the school's LGBT Peer Outreach. I think your bigot artist is our dealer. Who would suspect a bigot of being a drug dealer? Nine out of ten cops or Feds wouldn't. You and I can be that tenth one who does. The whole city knows about Pratchard being gay. Let your people scare him. If the school's drug problem is suddenly over. Then we did good for our first day working together. We took down a drug dealer on a hate crime. Wouldn't be the first time that happened. Son of Sam got nailed on parking tickets. Al Capone got nailed on tax evasion. We get the evidence he's dealing in here and he'll beg Pratchard for a deal that avoids a hate crime. I'm gonna go see Mr. Dobbs about faxing this to Felth and getting a search warrant or his consent for a locker. Been wanting evidence on this guy for months." Ezra fought a smile then turned to Chopper.
"I think we've found Spectres 8, 9, 10, and possibly 11." Chopper warbled a response in agreement.