Crossroads

[Andrewza]

Mortem watched the Givin priest give a call to those nearby. His voice carried far even over the noise of even over the crowd. She was all ways surprised how they could pull it off. Of course she had her own tricks.
To all Mortem blended even through the force she would just be some one normal. A task not hard to do here with all the people here helping to mask her presence. She watched appearing to be just a young teen age slave girl enthralled by the sith. But in truth she was looking through the force feeling the emstions of the crowed. Most where of fear, some hope since the sith represented that to many and then there was hate. But what she was looking for was the Jedi, only a Jedi would be calm. Many jedi thought they could hide them selfs from the inquisition but there calmness among a storm gave them out.

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

Pain...pain and suffering and anger and vengeance...that is what his life had become since that day. Perhaps The Ragged Man found Nar Shadda to be a sort of home for that reason - those things came here in abundance. Everywhere he looked, he saw poverty, disease, death, apathy, he hated it all, it was against all he believed in...but it also fed him, sustained his life where food and drink did little. His presence in the Outer Rim had largely gone unnoticed initially, but after what people told him had been at least 15 years, he had become something almost mythic...The Ragged Man, a spirit of vengeance that would reap the souls of sinners and whatever else they spouted down there in the streets. Here was where his reputation was at it's most potent, which made sense, a planet such as this was rife with lost people looking for vengeance against those whom wronged them, and at the very least, people knew to leave him in his corner booth unless they had good reason.

He gazed out into the smog of Nar Shadda's packed streets and bustling allyways, his mind wandering, nursing his 15th drink in less than half an hour. The bartender liked him, always had credits, one of the few here that didn't run a tab, everything up front, probably why his reputation was at it's most heightened in this bar particularly, because of him not wanting troublemakers annoying him. That didn't stop some though, his trance-like state ended as stiff singing and shrieking scraped through his ears, his head falling forward. Sounded like someone with no singing voice had decided to get up and kill everyone's hearing. He endured it for a few moments before simply rising to his feet and turning toward them...only to see a boy smash their heads together. Knowing a fair amount on Gamorreans, and he guessed the boy didn't, The Ragged Man figured him for a fool at first until he saw the boy slip something in his pocket. This seemed...interesting, and his eyes followed the boy to the cyborg, feeling his own rusting and decaying arm and leg twitch at the sight of her.

He made to follow them, but as he started to move, his head grew heavy, woozy...painful. At first, he thought it was the drink, but he could feel something, something just beyond the smoke...the Force. He closed his eyes, opening his mind to his surroundings...the bar, outside, everyone was obscured by grey fog, his mind burrowing through it all in black tendrils. He could feel it, the Light Side, a Jedi?...but wait...there was another. He could feel his mind reaching out, over the balcony and slithering through the crowd, zeroing in on the one who stood above them all.

"S-s-s-s-sith....Sith..."

His eyes snapped open again, his black veins pulsing through his pale and thin body with increased vigour, his lightsaber already in his hand. I flick of his thumb and the unstable green light spat out, crackling and buzzing as he rose to his feet, drawing on as much of the hatred around him as he could. As soon as his lightsaber ignited, whomever was left of the bar ran, some of them even screaming his name...he really shouldn't be taking pride in that but he did. The Sith...they were everywhere now, every corner hid an inquisitor, every hill housed a Dark Lord. He enjoyed gutting those whom refused to help him...though admittedly it was also enjoyable seeing the ones that did get dragged down into slavery after he sold them too. He turned back, putting a foot on the balcony his seat sat before, gazing down at the Sith. He was just standing there, bragging, boasting...well, he would die like the rest of them...one step closer to The Dark Man.

"SIIIIIIIITH!!!" He shrieked out, in a voiced high and cracked like glass was in his throat.

 

[Paradox]

Vex sighed as his impromptu partner unloaded his blaster into the two Gamorrean thugs. He finished his drink and stood up as the bar exploded into chaos, eyeing the Jedi. He moved his claw hand and took the credits. Shouting over the din. "The man you seek was here less than a week ago, but you missed him. He was last seen at Oola's Junk Emporium. Seems like he was running from something or someone, now I suggest we all go our separate ways."

While many patrons, mainly the dancers and such, ran out screaming. Others began to brawl and draw weapons.Vex pulled his hood up and hid his face even more, quickly weaving through the bar to the man who had dispatched the Gamorreans. He grabbed his arm, avoiding the fights and blows flying as he pulled him with his superior strength. "Move. I believe a Sith is on the way as well."

"Time we gather our reward and part ways, this is a bit too much excitement." He said as they burst out of the back door behind the cantina.

 

[Stryker]

Ra'taak was inclined to agree. The communique from his comrade indicated there was Sith sighting. And this drunken, yet seemingly capable saber wielder was crying out the word. He felt a a disturbance in the Force. They were not here to to squabble with the Sith over land rights, prove points or take home trophies. It was a simple information gathering.

They cyborg made a hasty fairwell, and Ra'taak was grateful for the information he did garner.

"Peace be with you." he said as he vaulted over a table and weaved his way out of the establishment in a sprint. He darted down a dark ally-way and spoke into his communicator. "Caramon, we've been compromised. We must pull out. This mission is a loss." He rounded a corner, dodged past a few people and made his way to his star-fighter. It wasn't long before he was secure in it pulling away from the planet.

 

[Caramon]

“Caramon, we’ve been compromised. We must pull out. This mission is a loss.”

Ra’taak’s voice rang true as Caramon continued towards his vessel. Passing by screaming frantic patrons as they held their families and were trying to get as far away as possible. Another presence in the force was felt as well but the young Jedi could not put his finger on it. He wasn’t of the Darkside, nor of the light. Yet he challenged the Sith.

“10-4 Ra’taak. Rendezvous back with you at the temple.”

The small starfighter sat waiting for its pilot to return. As quickly as he could, Caramon jumped into the cockpit with a push of a button the repulsor lifts activated, the landing gear retracting as the space craft hovered above the ground for a couple of seconds before tilting upwards and racing towards the stars.

 

[Soup]

Xel saw his cybernetic buddy and pocketed his blaster pistol. When the man pulled on Xel's arm, Xel was suprised to find that this man was extremely strong, much stronger than Xel could hope to be anytime in the near future. Xel now ran along with the man through the cantina's back doors.

Xel heard the word "Sith" and he was immediately frightened. His entire body tensed up. Was the four-eyed lightsaber wielder a Sith? Someone else? Xel knew little of what was happening, but he was more determined than ever to get their weaponry and leave the planet. Xel allowed the cloaked man to guide Xel, as he had no idea where the warehouse they were targeting was. "Couldn't agree more!" Xel said over the noise of blaster bolts coming from the cantina. He reached for the access key in his pocket and secured that it was there. Like last time he was in a rough cantina situation, everything was escalating very quickly.

 

[Vinn Esper]

Scream walked into the empty bar to find very few people and a few dead scum bags. Scream walked over to the bodies, without saying anything. He gazed upon the corpses noting the exact positions each had fallen, and the placement of the wounds. Scream also noted the shape of any burn marks andante blood spatter.

Using a complex equation involving variables for uncontrolled decent, slope, and kinetic displacement, Scream recreated the beings positions, prior to being shot in his mind. From this recreation he was able to create additional variables and he now stood in the same are where the shooter had fired from.

He was just in front of the table, standing in a position which could've allowed a being to look each of the three victims in the eye simultaneously. This was personal, Scream thought. If it was personal, it wasn't Jedi.

Scream turned to the bartender, "Sixty cases of alcohol are loaded onto two land speeders, evenly. They make three stops. Each speeder unloads one tenth of their alcohol at the first stop. At the next stop, they each unload one third of their cargo. How many cases of alcohol are delivered to the final stop?"

The bartender just stared at the Sith with a confused look on his face. Scream stared back, the tortured visage of his glance never moving. "I am Scream. I want to know what happened here." Scream was standing in between two vacant tables and had eyesight of the door, if anyone came in, as well as the bar.

 

[Andrewza]

Mortem moved closer waiting with in a crowed as the Givin entered the bar. She sensed a large upswelling in negative emotions> Some one was very angry but who. They where not Jedi and only her and Givin where here from the Empire so it had to be a third party. She centred her self and reached out in the force to look for the source of the hatred but it was not easy with so many people and made harder by the fact this was not a friendly moon but still some thing was not right.

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

From above, in the bar's VIP floor, The Ragged Man stood with one foot on the edge of the balcony overlooking the main bar. The Sith, he was one of their priests, he could sense the fanaticism practically dripping from him, he worshipped the ground the Sith walked on...but that only made him a target. He was surveying the area, his visage one he had seen so many times before...one of pain. It never mattered what kind, it was enough to drown him in the dark side, and that pain reflected back on the Ragged Man, bringing to mind the smoke that filled and suffocated his lungs that day, the phantom pains, fingers and toes twitching even after they were sliced off, the echoes of his loved ones as their skin boiled and peeled from the fires...the Dark Man did that to him, he was the progenitor of his pain, and he would be the one to bring him peace...he would find the Sith.

He stepped off the Balcony, falling down and slamming into the ground with a resounding *CRACK*, his robotic hand having embedded itself in a poor corpse's head. Standing to his full height, The Ragged Man took one brief glimpse at the Bartender, motioning for him to go, and the old man gleefully ran off as he drew his lightsaber above his head, the sparks of the unstable green blade adding more singe and burn marks to his decaying hood. "You...youaresith, yes you aaaaare...one of their p...p-p-p-PRIESTS!!" He spat, his black veins burning and throbbing through him with great vigor as he started to incessantly giggle - it had been a while since he faced a Sith. "Scream is your nameyes? Appropriiiiaaaate, as you will, you will SCREAM before...or after, depending on how long it takes you to tell me where. he...IIIIIIIIIIS..."

 

[Vinn Esper]

From his position, Scream had felt a dark presence above him and had seen the man standing above the bar. Scream had estimated a sixty percent chance he was a Sith agent of sorts. However, as he finished speaking, Scream felt a sudden huge build up of darkside energy.

Estimating a ninety percent chance of incoming attack, Scream acted immediately. He calculated the probability of success for three possible responses, finally settling on the one he felt had the highest chance of success. Scream sent a Force Push towards the left side center mass of the individual. This was meant to be powerful enough to knock the unknown individual into the wall to the Screams right side.

After using the Force Push, Scream rolled forward under the table in front of him. As he rolled, he continued to follow the dark energy build up of the unknown individual. Scream wanted to keep track of the darkside users whereabouts in the room.

His roll would finish with him on the other side of the table. Once out of the roll he would stand up, turn around and attempt to reacquire the unknown individual with his xpc. If he appeared to continue to pose a threat, Scream would fire a three round burst from his xpc towards the beings legs.

 

[Andrewza]

Mortem giggeled. This guy was for real a enraged force user. It was clear what she would do, she would have fun. The crowed that gathered was trying to flee but with one whisperd word the weakwilled stoped and with a casual wave of her hand and few dark words they all had the great desires to kill the man that had just drawn tge green light sabre. A desires that over rulled if the desires to live. A few drew vibro blades or even just knifes there where 2 with blasters but most had fists. There was no doubt that he could defeate them, this type of mental manipulation striped them of any desire to live they would easy to strike down. But they would destract him and give the preist time to act all so. Would this man slauter the innocent would he full the darkness. Has the 12 bloodlusted rushed in Mortem droped to her knees panting to get her breath back.

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

Having taken the first move by jumping down and announcing himself, The Ragged Man knew the second would be the Sith's, most likely a move formulated as he rambled. As soon as the priest turned, he felt his feet leave the floor, invisible hands swatting him to the side as if he were a fly. The bar was ramshackle, cobbled together from ship scraps and bolted bulkheads, each wall in this place was made of some kind of metal, so the impact would hurt, a lot. There was a chance to recover, but it was slim and he needed to be quick - first, he quickly lifted his legs as he reached a stack of tables and chairs, they would throw him off. As he was about the smack against the wall, he thrust the robotic limb closest to the wall, his leg, straight toward it, the momentum of the throw giving his leg the punch it needed to embed it's claws toes in the wall.

Despite the recovery, his upper body still hit the wall with a resounding *CRACK* as he heard something snap in his arm, a sea of fire and pain washing over it almost instantly. His momentum only allowed him to stay upright against the wall for a few moments, so in the few seconds he had, The Ragged Man refocused his attention to the priest, rolling behind a table, and closed his eyes, taking all that pain in his arm, the throbbing and searing hot hurt, and focused it downward into his palms. Using his pain as fuel, The Ragged Man launched himself from the wall via his own Force Push, catapulting toward the Priest at roughly the same speed he himself had been pushed at. He closed the distance in seconds, but he had failed to see the blaster, and by the time he had reared his robotic arm back for his own crushing blow, three bolts were hurling toward him. He managed to avoid the first, but the second clipped his thigh, and the third impacted against his side, blinding him briefly in pain.

 

[Vinn Esper]

Scream watched has the strange and unidentified partly robotic being attempt to correct himself in response to his force push. He began to calculate his next move when the thing embedded itself in the wall and he once again felt a build up of dark side energy. He let his gun drop and hang by it's strap off his shoulder.

Then he called his red light saber to his hand, and with his free hand, he reached out grasping the table he had rolled under with the force. The table was directly in front of him. So, when the man launched himself towards scream, it was a simple matter of lifting the table directly into position along his trajectory.

Scream held the table in place and continued to track the man by the uncontrolled force energy he was releasing. Just as the man would impact the table, unless he was able to find some unforeseen variable and somehow dodge, scream would release the grip on the table.

An impact against a table would significantly slow the beings trajectory. Scream would immediately reach out with the force attempting to grasp the reckless dark sider. He would then try to use the force to throw the force user across the room into, and through the other wall, and out into the street where another Sith was waiting.

 

[Andrewza]

Mortem recoverd after her mass suggestion of the week mined. They still tried to kill the man. One fireing wildly with a blaster as the others a mix of scum and slavez rushed.

Mortem her self now stood alone the rest of the by standard haven fled. She readed for combat drawing her own blade but not yet igniting it.

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

As he shot toward the Sith, The Ragged Man saw the table move, and he knew what was coming. Despite his speed, there was yet another possibility of recovery. The Sith was thin, skeletal, much like himself, he may not have much in the way of strength, so it may be possible to overwhelm it with his own. In the last second he had to move, The Ragged Man thrust his metal arm forward once more, using it as both a shield and a ram as he impacted the table. He had hoped that the momentum and his own strength would be enough, and that the impact would cause the table to come loose from his hand and ram into the Sith using it for cover. Again, the impact was painful, he dropped to the ground before the table in a heap, only to feel, once again, the familiar sting of blaster bolts against his robotic leg.

He turned his head toward the crowd, noting the murderous look in their eyes (though the blasters and vibroswords helped), now he was going to have to deal with them too. He staggered to his feet to see if the sith had indeed been struck by the table.

 

[Vinn Esper]

Scream realized he had made an error as soon as the table began to be propelled back in his direction. Unfortunately, the table was way too close for him to be able to do much about it. In addition to the proximity table, Scream's own surprise at seeing it come towards him prevented him from responding.

A side of the table hit Scream in the upper chest, knocking him to the floor and breaking into several pieces in the process. Screams head was spinning and he couldn't focus for a moment. He muttered something about the correct answer being thirty six. As he began to recover from being hit by the table, he used the force to launch a jagged piece of table from atop him, to out in front of him.

Though he couldn't see much in front of him he figured the unknown being would be coming. Scream scrambled to regain his footing, keeping his red light saber out in front of him, so he could defend himself. "Who are you?" He asked the being he was fighting.

 

[Andrewza]

Mortem could hear the sound of battle in side as she moved to cover the entrance, masking her self in the force again but her yet unlit light sabre in her hand she looked in side. Though for now she bid her time, no need to reveal her self just yet

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

Indeed, the Sith had been caught off guard by the table and now lay next to defenseless, holding his lightsaber out in front of him like a wounded animal growling, all bark, no bite. With a brief moment to himself, The Ragged Man quickly examined his environment, searching for a solution to the mob problem. Despite the fact that he would have no problem cutting them all down, he figured he wouldn't have time. In seconds, he eyed the second floor, VIP only, the bartender was the only one with access to the room but there was a balcony that overlooked this floor, the same balcony he himself jumped down from earlier. New strategy in mind, he looked back down to the Sith, feeling the anger in him starting to give way to small sparks of anxiety as he demanded his name. "My n-n-name has loooooong been forgotten, now I am the cold dead hands of all those the Sith have wronged" He spat.

He barely saw the piece of wood heading toward him, there wasn't enough time to dodge. It shredded through his side, blood spilling quickly through the robes, but whilst he did double over in pain, The Ragged Man had felt far worse. He howled in rage, the spirits howling with him, and he reached out again, grabbing the Sith with the force and throwing him up on to the second floor. With any luck, the force of the throw would have caused him to slam into the ceiling. He then jumped up after him, trailing his lightsaber along the ground.

"I...am...VENGEANCE!!!!"

 

[Vinn Esper]

As Scream rapidly began to excel toward the ceiling, he heard the man's voice from below. "I am vengeance," he declared very melodramatically. Scream was madly entertained by his theatrics. Now, it was time for some theatrics of his own. As he ascended past the second floor, scream threw his light saber at one of the support beams for the balcony, severing it. As he caught it, he felt his back impact against the ceiling.

Now, Scream was falling towards the balcony, where the man was standing. Scream reached out grasping the balcony as he deactivated his lightsaber. He pulled hard drawing heavily on his remaining strength. Scream pulled it away from the remaining support beam hard, sending the entire balcony crashing to the main floor. Due to the sub standard construction, sections of wall came down with the balcony, and Scream bounced off of one of these sections away from the strange man.

It would take him several minutes to recover to the point that he could tell he had ended up in the kitchen area, on the floor. The entire building was groaning and shaking. It's structural integrity would be severely compromised by Scream's actions. The crashes of ceiling fixtures falling could still be heard.

Scream knew this building was coming down imminently. He got up and began to move toward the kitchen exit. If the man managed to get out of the building before it collapsed, the fight would continue outside. Once he was outside, scream would move around to the front side of the building. He wasn't in a rush being that the other Sith would be near that door. He took deep breaths drawing on the rage he was beginning to feel to give him the strength to overcome the pain of the most recent actions.

 

[Andrewza]

While this escalated. The building rumbled as part of it gave way. Seeing the felow inqustor move free from the man Mortem enterd the fight brandishing her blade as it sprang to live. But her first move was mental as she movec in to his mind "hi there big guy, why so angry. Did some one hurt you feelings haas haa" all the time she looked at him smilling.