Chapter 6
"You failed again." Jayko scolded Erk as he paced around his the conference room.
"Jayko, my friend, why didn't you go?" Erk interrogated.
"I had business of my own." Jayko sighed. "I have no choice but to restrain you from your duty until further notice."
"And you can do better than I can?" Erk questioned.
"Apparently. You hardly laid a scratch on them last attempt."
"We all make mistakes. Some we have to live with. Apparently, you can't let any go."
"Be careful, Erk. Don't let your mouth become your best weapon."
"Oh did I hurt your feelings?"
"If you have something to say, you might as well spit it out while you can."
"I'm saying, I, am better than you."
"Wanna bet?"
Erk stood, then asked with a fake surprised tone, "What is this? You wanna lose?"
"Bring it."
Erk grinned under the mask, then disappeared into smoke. Jayko looked around for him, then sensed for him. He swiftly turned to slice him with his vibroblade, but Erk phased through it and surrounded Jayko, and entered his mind.
Jayko found himself in floating in, what appeared to him to be, a purple and black cloud tornado. Erk appeared from nowhere and stood in front of him.
"I have more power than you, Jayko. I can do things almost no one else could ever get close to accomplishing. I could kill you right now, but we're not enemies. If you think I won't be able to get them next time, you're dead wrong."
Then they snapped back to reality.
"That was nice, and all, but I have an attack to lead. I'm going to get more done than you ever did."
Erk just hummed once, "Prove that you can do better. I want to see you bring me their lightsabers."
"I'll bring their heads." Jayko said, exiting the room. A second later, he entered again and said, "And you can't tell me what to do. Get to Kamino."
Only a few minutes later did Jo, Aang, and Exar reach the town. It reminded Aang of the town on Tatooine, but looked like a mixture of Mos Eisley and Takobo City. The town was composed of only two blocks, and had various kinds of buildings. The tall buildings were luxury condos and resorts, everything else was either half that size or smaller. The town was surrounded by the forest, and had a perfect view of the sky.
"Nights here must be beautiful." Exar said, looking up into the sky where trees shaded them from the sun, and where bright puffy clouds populated the sea of baby blue.
"Can't disagree with that." Jo said.
"Too bad we can't stay here forever, we need to get a ship back to Coruscant."
"Aang." Exar said, putting an arm around Aang's shoulder, then continued, "You, need to relax. You're often too focused on the mission at hand, and you barely take a breather any other time."
"I meditate."
"You don't always have to. You can take a moment to just, enjoy life, you know? Just loosen up a little bit."
"A little cliché, but really convincing. Bu-No! no. We have to meet up with our masters soon. There's an attack we're supposed to be a part of."
"What? I, er, we weren't told about that." Exar said.
Aang just shrugged.
"Now where might we find a pilot?" Exar asked himself.
"Right here." Jo asserted, staring right at a casino sign over the door of a building.
"Well." Exar finished.
"Alright," Jo said, rubbing his hands together, "How much we got?" He asked, faking a stereotypical scoundrel with an accent.
"How much what?" Aang asked.
"Money." Jo whispered, scoping around.
"Why are you whispering?"
"Have you never been anywhere like this before? You never know what kind of money-loving thieves could be around." Jo replied.
"Right. Good point." Aang replied seriously, but with a sarcastic tone. "Exar, we're going in." Aang advised, waving him inside.
"Glad I could be of help." Jo mumbled as he followed along.
The team slowly entered the casino, observing the environment until they were stopped by a security guard. "Tell me your name and age."
"It'd hardly matter, we're here strictly on business." Aang replied. Then he noticed a small symbol on the handle of the guard's holstered gun. Aang looked back up to the guard then said, "Es lebe die Republik."
The guard grinned and stepped aside, "Enjoy."
"Like I said, 'we're here strictly on business.' " Then they walked on. The casino was a large, round room like any other bar, cantina, or casino. The bar, where many fancy drinks were served, was in the middle of the room, and was getting more populated. Tables were set along the edges of the room; special tables in the back received a view of a sunset and a moonlit sky at nighttime, but it wasn't as popular in the daytime. Game tables covered half the floor around the room, and a music booth was set near the entrance.
"What language were you speaking?" Exar asked.
"I don't know. It was something I was taught."
"Interesting. Anyway, where do we start?"
"Ask the bartender."
Exar thought about the quickness of Aang's response, then said,"You seem so decisive."
"Something wrong with that?"
"A thought just came to my head: You seem like you know exactly what to do with these kind of people. You spoke some form of gibberish and convinced a guard to let us in, and you seem so sure that the bartender can help us. It just makes me think you're hiding something from us."
Aang turned to reply, "You know I'm technically old. I've been around much of the galaxy and done a lot. This is one of those places where I've been."
"But I thought you hadn't been anywhere like this before." Jo stated.
"I've been here before, I pretty much know this place from the inside, to the outside."
"You know this place... Maz said this place was built recently. Within the past half-decade. That's almost as long as we've been a team."
...
"And?"
"So is there something you want to tell us?" Exar then asked.
"It really isn't a big deal." Aang looked around the place. "I helped build this place." Aang faced them again, "Weeks before I joined the team."
"If you've been here before, why did the guard need to ask your age?"
"We get new guys every couple years, and nowadays," Aang paused, then continued. "You never know who you can trust." He said with a quiet tone.
"Don't I know it." Exar agreed with a solemn tone.
"Okay, okay, I don't like the look of this. Let's hurry along before something else happens."
Aang sensed a shift in the force, then swiftly turned and caught a stun blast in mid-air. That blast caught most of the peoples' attention. Aang took notice and declared, "Jedi business. Go back to your drinks." Exar ignited his lightsaber and Aang let the blast hit the lightsaber, getting absorbed.
Aang looked in the direction of where the blast originated, and saw a bounty-hunter-like character, spinning a gun around his finger and shoving it back in his holster. He had a large hat that covered his bandana-covered face; he had a cowboy-like appearence with his long trench coat and twin TX-23 "Fireworm" heavy blaster pistols.
Aang looked to the team and nodded his head in the figure's direction. They approached the table and sat on the other side, facing the mysterious person. "Howdy Jedi." The bounty hunter greeted with a confusing tone. The Jedi couldn't tell if he was an enemy with a menacing tone, or if his voice was just raspy.
...
"Is your voice always like that?" Jo asked, purely confused right before Aang elbowed him. "Dude, two elbows was unnecessary."
"I'm sure he meant to ask 'who are you?' " Exar insinuated.
"Well I'm not well known around these here parts of the outer rim. My name is Anson Tomas. Some call me 'The Tinkerer' and some weirdo decided to call me 'Bomb'. It ain't a bad name, it just confuses me that 'bomb' is the first name that came to mind."
"Well an interesting fellow you are. Why did the obscure 'he' you mentioned, call you 'bomb'?" Exar interrogated.
Then Anson pulled back his coat, revealing an old brown shirt and two leather straps, that formed an 'X' on his chest, with several thermal detonators lined up on each strap.
"Well that's impressive... and obvious." Jo partially complemented.
"Now don't stare, that's rude." Anson said, pulling his coat back over himself. "Now who are you three Jedi? And what brings you here?"
"I am Exar. Our ship was destroyed and we've found ourselves in need of a ride back to the Republic capitol, Coruscant"
Anson understood, but also noticed the crate Jo was holding, and asked, "What's in there?"
"That is classified." Exar replied.
"Uh huh. Well I could offer you a ride, but it'd cost you somethin'."
"You're not going to see what's in here." Jo clarified.
"Fine. Who are you?"
"Name's Jo."
"And I am Aang. I helped build this casino."
"A mighty fine job you did there." Anson complemented.
"Aand I also established the rules. And I'm sure carrying more than one or two blasters is against the rules."
"Is that so?" Anson asked, sneakily reaching for one of his blasters. "What are you gonna do about it?"
Jo tried intervening by talking to Aang, "Hey, dude, not now. We have to get a ship-"
"Can it, Jo." Aang swiftly interrupted.
"Gettin' a little serious here. Too serious for my liking." Anson said, raising his blaster and trying to fire, but Exar used the force to hold him back.
"Restrain yourself." Exar commanded, standing up.
"Is something wrong here?" A guard asked, stepping up.
"No. Everything is under control here." Aang replied, and the guard went away, but not before noticing Anson's frozen form.
Exar used the force to make Anson drop the blaster and sit down.
"Well that's new." Anson said, almost speechless and almost impressed.
"You know what happens when a rule is broken?" Aang asked.
"Do I ever. But let's get something straight: I'm not a bad guy, just someone protecting himself between both sides of the law."
"That would make you a bounty hunter."
"Yeah," Anson replied, picking up his gun, twirling it around his finger, and holstering it. "I guess I am."
"So what's going on?" Exar asked.
"Rules are broken, then you participate in a standoff." Aang answered.
"What!? That's a bit harsh, even by your standards." Jo said.
"We'll talk about it later."
"Aang, ther might not be a 'later' for you."
"Oh yes there will; standoff is at sunrise. You'll have plenty of time to discuss things with your friends. But I'll tell you what: if you win, you can take my ship; if you don't, then I'll take that crate and we'll pretend this never happened."
"Sounds good enough." Aang said as he got up to exit, the team following him.
"Aang, what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking: we're going to get ourselves a ship."
"By killing someone who's practically a stranger? You of all people should know better."
"Believe me, Jo," Aang told strictly, "I know what I'm doing."
...
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Exar said.