The rough part of town (open)

[Lahrik Novkar]

The door creaked open to a run down looking gym buried in one of the shadier regions of Coruscant. Out of it stepped a young man, roughly eighteen years old, sporting a t-shirt and windpants. Ever since being expelled from his martial arts classes Lahrik Novkar, Law, had taken to going to a gym to work out, but due to a recent cut in hours at his job, gym membership was one of the first bills that had to go.

The gym he'd just stepped out of, for all he knew, was more or less abandoned. The doors were unlocked, and some of the equipment had been stolen. Regardless, the mats were still softer than duracrete, and there were enough weights laying around for him to get a decent workout from.

For the better part of the day, Law had been out searching for a new apartment. He was quite satisfied with his current one, but if something cheaper could be found, it'd take a lot for him to turn it down.

All in all, his life was becoming utter crap.

The little bit of enjoyment Law was able to draw out of each day was exercise. Now that he'd gotten his daily workout in, he was content to head home and settle in.

As he turned the corner, he came upon a group of ruffians who were talking. He kept his eyes firmly set in front of him, purposely avoiding eye contact, even though he could feel them staring at him. He was almost to the end of the alley when he felt a hand on his shoulder...

"A little far from home, ain't cha?"

He shrugged the hand away and started walking again, this time a bit faster. Once again, the man grabbed his shoulder, this time turning Law around to face him.

"You deaf? I asked ya a question. I want an answer."

The man confronting him was the largest of the four.

"I was just on my way...Sorry if I disturbed you.."

"Well see, thats the problem. You gotta pay to come through here."

Law patted his pockets for a moment before looking back up at the man.

"I forgot my wallet at home. You have my word it won't happen again."

Law slowly started to edge backward. At this point, he was ready to bolt. He was confident that he could outrun them, but at this point, it was too little too late. The 'spokesman' of the group swung a sloppy right hand at him. Law swiftly dodged the punch, but was quickly trounced on by the other three. Rather than fight, he dodged what he could, and braced himself for what he couldn't. One of the men managed to land a punch to his ribs, and another caught him with a punch to the side of the head.

Even as he hit the ground, his eyes were focused toward the end of the alley. A sharp kick to the ribs however, managed to put a stop to any escape he'd hoped to make.

With no other options left, Law covered his head with his arms and curled into a ball. Hopefully, they would quickly tire of beating him senseless and walk away. That couldn't come soon enough...

[SashaKovalev]

Alexander Millard was not on a mission to save the galaxy. In fact, he’d been in enough trouble lately that he was pretty much bent on minding his own business. But it was difficult. It was extremely difficult to just walk on by when it was four on one. There seemed to be a sense of honor lacking, and if anything, that was something he was focused on establishing. That he had honor. That he had respect. That he deserved the respect of his master.

In the past, his first reaction would have been to jump into the fray without a second thought, lightsaber ignited just for the fun of conflict. As he stood there now, his lightsaber was the last resort as a weapon – a lesson taught by his master some time ago that he had been working to perfect.

He wasn’t infallible. In fact, he was far from it. Only a few years older than the one taking a beating, he was still in the young, rather rash stages of life and prone to making mistakes – particularly, as of late, it seemed, very big ones.

He wasn’t in this part of town for fun as he might have once been. He had a good friend who had once owned an apartment there, but it had since been raised to the ground and she was not often found there. Not to mention, his last encounter with her had partially led to the series of large mistakes he had made and he wasn’t about to repeat them.

Rather he had come here to close a bank account he kept there and to reinvest it on Balmorra instead, and this was the easiest and fastest way to cut across the city.

“That doesn’t seem like a very fair fight…” He commented, loud enough to gain the attention of the ruffians who had chosen to make a bloody mess of their victim. It was enough to stop the constant kicking, as they now had a potential new target, though one of them did give Law another kick, just for good measure.

[Lahrik Novkar]

Law laid flat on his stomach for a moment. He'd try'd to take the break to get to his feet, only to find himself flattened by another kick. A few moments later, he was finally able to push himself to his feet. He saw where this was heading. Though he appreciated the gesture, he just couldnt bring himself to let it happen.

"It's ok" he manged to choke out in between coughs. "I instigated this."

Inside, he hoped that it would be enough to get him out of there, and diffuse the whole situation...

[SashaKovalev]

He raised an eyebrow at Law.

Well that was an interesting piece of information. And the young dark jedi didn’t believe a word of it. At least, not the part about it being ok. Maybe Law had instigated it, in which case, Sasha wasn’t sure whether to think the guy crazy, brave, or insanely stupid. And he would have simply walked away at that point – he wasn’t about to force assistance on the guy if he preferred having the daylights beat out of him – only, he, too, had apparently instigated as well, because his path was now blocked by two of the four.

In this instant, he was brought back to a recent evening where he’d been involved in an altercation in which he had not been the instigator at all. He’d come out of it with a fat lip and a missing tooth in addition to a rather stern admonition from his master. And he was determined not to make the same mistake again.

“It aint a free passage through here, ya know.”

“Funny, it was the last time I came through here…..” He replied, odd violet eyes staring at his opponents. He was sizing them up as he did so, trying to determine the best method of dealing with them.

“Things change.”

Sasha nodded, slowly. Yes, they did, he thought. Things did change.

He cast a glance back at Law.

“I take it you were a little short on credits…?” He asked. There was a hint of amusement in his voice, though the situation was not at all very funny.

[Lahrik Novkar]

At this point, Law was put in a funny position. He could leave at this point, but that meant leaving the guy who stepped up to help him in a four-on-one situation.

He glanced back and forth nervously between Sasha and the ruffians, not really sure what exactly he planned to do if another fight broke out....

[SashaKovalev]

“So….how much are you looking for?” He asked. He had no intention at all of paying these guys anything, but a few more minutes of time to stall would be good.

He really didn’t want to end up in a fight – not today, if he could avoid it.

His eyes shifted from one thug to another, and then back to Law, catching them and holding the gaze for a brief moment. He wondered what this guy was made of. Would he stick around? Would he run? It was a dog eat dog galaxy, and Sasha wouldn’t have blamed him a bit if he was out to save his own hide.

At the same time, he did hope that the potential trouble he’d just walked into was for someone who was worth it. One more black eye or lost tooth and all chances of redeeming himself in the eyes of his master would be lost.

[Lahrik Novkar]

"Really, guys...there's no need for this."

Law held his hands up, trying to calm things down a little.

"This is your alley, Im sure there's another way.."

His heart was racing now. If it came to blows, he would be obligated to help Sasha, but on the same token, he felt obligated to never strike another person. He still remembered the last time he'd ever hit anyone, and the suffering that he caused.

These men were filth, but they were still people.

[SashaKovalev]

Law’s efforts to restore peace to the situation brought Sasha back to a place he had, for some time, completely forgotten about. A time where once he had worked side by side with Terran Starek, a jedi, to get out of a difficult situation. This situation brought him back there.

It wasn’t an aura about Law that made him seem like the jedi he reminded Sasha of, but rather the words that seemed so ridiculously patient, so….diplomatic that they had him on the trip down memory lane. He had been reckless back then, and would have resorted to violence no sooner than the words had slipped out of the jedi’s mouth. He had thought the jedi and his patience to be a pathetic waste of force abilities. But by the end of the experience, Sasha had realized that strengths and weaknesses came in all shapes and sizes. If it hadnt been for Terran’s way of thinking, combined with Sasha’s, neither would have escaped to tell the story.

And now, though he would never have the patience of Terran, or likely, even, this man here, he did realize just how far he had come. And how useful, sometimes, patience could be. If only he’d had it the other night when he’d made such foolish comments to his master….

And for once, he considered something other than violence. He considered using his head. Violence would be a last resort.

Im sure there's another way..

These words echoed for a moment before he returned from his revelry. And as he slipped from it, he reminded himself to always keep in mind that there were other paths to follow rather than anger and foolish reactions born from it.
And as the thugs chortled in amusement, Sasha worked on formulating a plan.

He wasn’t sure it would work, this plan of his. But if it didn’t, at the very least, perhaps it would provide a distraction for a moment or two. And in that time, perhaps the situation would somehow end up altered by the hands of fate herself.

He stared hard at Law for a moment, concentrating. He had used illusions only a couple of times before – once on a young child, and once with his master on a mission. If this worked, he would look exactly like Law, and perhaps the confusion of the moment would allow them to make a break for it, or even better, the men would find the odd change a bit too creepy for their tastes.

[Lahrik Novkar]

Law kept a close study of the situation, waiting for any sign that the inevidable fight was about to start...That was, until the four men started backing away slowly.

"Just uh....Dont let it happen....again........right..."

Was all the 'ringleader' was able to mutter before he and his company backed off. Law glanced back over to Sasha once more, and nearly lept out of his shoes.

He found himself looking at a mirror image of himself, which was to say the least....suprising. Law slowly started backing off himself...

"Um...thanks for the help...I think I need to go get some sleep now.."

[SashaKovalev]

So it had worked. Perfect. He held onto the illusion for as long as he could, relieved when the four who had previously blocked his path had left. It wasn’t that he’d been worried about dealing with them – the force went a long way when used intelligently – but he just hadnt wanted to have to do it. He was still somewhat defeated from the way his master was refusing to have anything to do with him, and in truth, he just hadnt had any desire for any sort of conflict.

As Law began backing away, Sasha merely shrugged. He hadnt really been intending to get involved and certainly didn’t give a care at all what became of the guy. It was just another passing acquaintance, one of hundreds over his life time.

But before the guy got too far, Sasha remembered something else he’d meant to take care of while he was there on Coruscant. He’d been back to the planet where he’d grown up to stand up for a friend at his wedding roughly two years ago. The marriage apparently hadnt lasted, and the last Sasha had heard, his friend’s wife had left him. The friend had then left the military and was supposedly living on Coruscant and just barely getting by. Sasha had meant to visit his buddy and offer what support he could, but had been tied up with a few things until now.

“Hey!” He called out to Law, “You know where Crown Oaks – the apartment complex is?”

[Lahrik Novkar]

Law turned around to see Sasha catching up to him. Honestly, he was a bit freaked out at this moment. He really wanted to act like he didnt hear Sasha, and just keep walking. But the fact remained that Sasha had pulled him out of a rough spot, and for that, giving directions was the least he could do.

"It's a few blocks to the north, if you follow 12th street you cant miss it. There arent any vacant apartments though, Ive already been there once today."

[Zango Jett]

Jinzo slinked out from the mouth of the passage, having just witnessed a four on one, then a possible two on one, ending with something weird happening. Jinzo had never seen anything like this before, and so was curious. Was this guy a trick con artist, or was he some kind of Jedi? Jinzo decided to find out should the two run into more trouble, which was an almost certainty on the lower levels of Coruscant...........