“Hmm.. Has a nice ring to it. Better than the Thrusting Fluffers, which is what I was thinking. And either would probably mean a design more graphic than any project you’d want the missus working on. Maybe we’d best leave this to our agent?”

" Beauty and the Beast." Krydil says jokingly while looking at Zara and Yoonmuff, then turned his attention back to Varik and his work on Zara's Bike's maintenance, he sipped his coffee as he watched.

At Zara's comment, Varik laughs hard, long, and loud, buckling over and wheezing. After he regains control of himself, he straightens up and says, "That wasn't quite the sort of "thruster" I was thinking of." He taps his noggin with the tool in his hand, "I guess our minds have different priorities!" In response to Krydil he nods, "That sounds pretty good... Long as no one expects them to kiss, I s'pose." He turns to the newly arrived promoter, "Well, er... What's your name? You got any ideas?"

Regaining his stance after the fluffy Gigoran's hug Darren looks up at him. "Nice to meet all of you. Yes, I know my department really well Mr. Nyy."

Darren looks at Zara and gives a light smile. "I have heard much about you. I agree you should probably do the more swift races. You seem more comfortable with it then fluffy here is. What's your name?" He asked as he looked up at the big Gigoran? "Oh and as for my ideas on the name of team. It has to be simple, something the locals will understand." He pulls a sabacc deck from his coat and revels a two cards from the deck. "Called Sylops, Makes a pure sabacc, best hand in the game. Thought the symbol looked good too." He looks down at Varik. "Would you wife be willing to work for free? We need to save as many credits as possible if this team is going to succeed. If you add fluffy to the name it is clearly addressing one of the racers, you would have to change the name if one of you ever left." He Said looking back and forth between the group.

Varik lends his approval to the naming idea, but at the question about "free" scratches the back of his head, grimacing somewhat. "Cally? Work for free?.. Maayybee... I'll see what I can do. She'd tell you that designing the logo is easy enough, but she'll have to get a holographic scan of the bikes so that she can work on the actual design for them . Also depends on how quickly you want this job done..?"

“I like the design, and the name works.”

(Turning to Varik) “No one works for free. I’m sure we can all pitch in something to get this going, at least cover costs, until we can do better.”

“How many credits do you have? Cuz we need 500 to enter.” Can he at least get a “Hey, I’m your husband discount? “Well if she’ll do it for us tell her she won’t be able to be paid till we win some races.”

"Yeah, she'll probably take an IOU at least. I'll see what I can do."

Darren nods in approval. "Darren Glider by the way. What's your name? We need a way to make some fast credits."

The hefty Besalisk shakes his hand, "I'm Varik Rourke. Good to meet you."

"I quite like 'The Sylops' too! Has a nice ring to the name." Yoomnuff chimed in.

"So that's a check on the name. Now let's see the speeders." Darren takes a few steps closer to the speeder. "What's it's top speed, and is there any upgrades you can make to it for cheap?" He looks down at Varik.

Varik scratches his chin as he looks at the bikes, "I'm not sure... Krydil knows the Flashfury better than I do, so I'll focus on the Nightscreamer. It's slower than some racing swoops, but it's pretty fast in its own right and a skilled pilot can push it a bit faster if he knows how to really juice it. I've been over the specs a few times, and I know a couple techniques that might allow me to boost its straightline speed and maneuverability, but I haven't tried them before. I'll see what I can do."

Zara turns to Yoomnuff. “I know a place up by the Northeast, racer hangout, if you want to check out the competition? Rough crowd, swoop gangers hang there to, but we should be alright.” Maybe..

Yoomnuff wasn't one to go looking for trouble but getting a feel for who he was riding against might be a good idea. "I will join you. having all the information one can garner on an opponent makes victory all the more certain." the sack of fur said, his hesitation being completely lost in the voice modulator's translation.

The journey for Zara and Yoomnuff was an easy one to make. It had been a while since the final race of the Three Crown Cup, and things had settled down now. The start of the season surely lacked the same love and dedication as the final, those actively paying attention now were diehard fans and the teams themselves. Now most people had been forced to return to work. Still, it was easy enough to find a place broadcasting a speeder or swoop race in the city of Tyrena. If you knew where to look you could even find footage of the now illegal pod racing (though you best hope you aren't caught).

As the pair pull up outside of a ratty looking bar with a variety of speeders parked outside. The bar was almost exactly on the border of the north-east sector, and so many gangers would use this place as a sort of neutral ground to drink and relax. The place had once had a name but the sign had long since been stolen and never replaced.

Inside of the bar there were a number of day drinkers, most dressed in leather jackets and riding gear. There were a dozen or so holoscreens showing repeat recordings previous three crown cup finales from previous years. Sat among the racers and gangers were 'professional' gamblers and would be agents. This was clearly a sports bar, or at least had been in its brighter days. Still, it was a place to start looking for information.

When Varik got down to working on the Nightscreamer, he turned his music back on to "Force Forsaken" picking up where he'd left off. He first focused on boosting its straightline speed, but he ended up figuring out how to make the engines a bit more modifiable instead, trimming out waste and regulating the power flows to make it more stable for future attachments. By this time, he's finished his playlists and the work day. He looks at the bike reluctantly, wishing he'd have been able to really get what he was trying for, but he had made it a bit more modifiable, and all-in-all it's been a pretty good day. They'd taken on a couple quick jobs, but not enough to actually make much in the way of money. They had some pretty happy customers though, so maybe word would spread.

He puts up his tools away in his locker, relieved to have a good place to put them, and says his goodbyes. On his way home, he thinks about what he'll try to do tomorrow on the bike. I don't have a ton of time left before the race, so I'll guess I'll shift tacks and focus on tuning up the steering vanes. Straightline speed is no good if you hit a tree, and from the sound of this downhill race they're talking about, that'll be a danger. He keeps a watchful eye out as he walks, knuckle dusters conveniently placed in case he comes to need them, but no one bothers him on his way home.

When he opens the door, he smiles as he is greeted by Zeak screaming "Dadddyyyy!!" and cannoning into him to give him a hug. He scoops up his son in his brawny arms and receives a more sedate greeting from the rest of his family, his girls having grown "too old" to stampede their father when he returns home. He misses those days, though Rissy had a disturbing habit of running directly into his stomach, and that generally hurt a bit. He mentally drops the topic of what to do with the bike, ready to shift to his family, when Cally asks him "So, how was work?" After getting an enthusiastic barrage of questions from Rissy and Zeak about what bikes the racers had, and about the racers themselves, and about other mechanics, etc. etc. he realizes that, for a while, thinking about work and focusing on his family will be the same thing.

The next day, he confirms his decision to shift tacks and work on the steering vanes, tuning them up and making them a bit more sensitive. That Gigoran may be a good racer, but there's a reason racers hire mechanics . He thinks to himself as he works. The bike had been having mediocre maintenance, and it wasn't living up to its potential yet. By the end of the day, he's pretty satisfied with his work. Business was slow again today, but he was feeling pretty good about his work on the bike. Before heading home for the day he approaches Krydil, "I've got a project of my own, building a swoop from the ground up. Right now, the parts are at my old job since they're nice'nuf to hold onto 'em for me, but I need to move 'em soon and I'd like to move them over here if I can. D'you mind?"

Zara instantly regrets bringing her new teammate to this particular dive, but goes with it. No turning around now. Squaring her shoulders, she swaggers up to the bar.

”Two Eblas. In a bottle, not that bantha pils you keep on tap.”

She takes her beer over to where some other racers are watching the last cup. At an appropriate lull in the excitement of the race, she speaks up. “Hey, any of you fellas racing in the downhill? Gravity being what it is, even you guys might have a shot, right?”

As the racers headed off to scout out the competition he sat down in front of Zara's Swoop the Flashfury, knowing they would be doing a downhill race he focuses first on the Swoop's handling as to best avoid any obstacles on the track. However try as he might the the bike wasn't cooperating much with him that day, " Stubborn, much like your Owner." He would mumble to himself then looked over to Varik's work offering help with his work on Yoonmuff's Swoop. When the day came to the end and Varik called it a night and headed home Krydil went upstairs to go to sleep himself well before Zara and Yoonmuff returned from their little adventure.

On the next day Krydil woke up bright and early thinking he could get a little more speed out of the Swoop. First things first he would have some breakfast, not feeling like cooking that day he went into the pantry to find his favorite cereal box. taking it out of the cupboard he would notice it was empty, " But Zara doesn't eat my Raging Rancor Crunch." He said puzzled that his cereal was gone, then thinks to yesterday and the day before that where Zara had a "House Guest"over, " That girl must have eaten the last of it and left me an empty box... Where does Zara find these Girls." Shaking his head defeated Krydil cracked open some eggs, scrambled them and made some Caf for breakfast.

As he got down to the workshop he would notice Varik as he was walking in to work, waving hello he then started to his work on the Bike's engine, focusing purely on getting the Flash in Flashfury. Apparently like Racer Like Swoop because the Flashfury took well to the Speed enhancements, he'd heard of Astromechs implanting their signature on star fighters if the fighter brain wasn't wiped periodically but a Swoop taking on the personality of it's racer, that was new to him. By the end of the day he was satisfied with his work and then turned to Varik as he asked his question. " Sure you can build a Bike here. I am thinking of making a cruiser eventually, so I don't have to drive my truck everywhere, You can imagine the difficulty I have parking that thing." He said pointing to his massive Swoop transport Truck.

Yoomnuff wasn't a stranger to the seedier parts of town, far from it, but he still didn't like going around there. Letting Zara take the lead, Yoomnuff grabbed his Eblas and sat down with Zara and her new friends, hoping his presence would be enough to keep things from escalating if these bar-goers didn't take being called slow well. Yoomnuff preferred to run his bike, not his mouth though he had nothing but respect for the human's boastful attitude.

As everyone started to disperse Darren started making his way to the regi str y offi ce. How our we going to get 500 credits, playing sabacc? Non of them probably even knew how to play sabacc, maybe Zara. Zara seems like she knows what she's doing when it comes to racing, more then Yoomnuff does. Who knows, he might impress me.

The bartender is quick to open and slide a pair of somewhat dusty bottles down the bar to Zara. They barley look away from the screen sat opposite the bar as a particularly explosive crash is shown on the projector. As the pair make their way across the bar they get a few strange looks, making an odd pairing in the bar (particularly the furrier of the two). Those looks however quickly return to the screens or the drinks as they continue their morning.

As Zara calls out to the leather clad swoop riders, they turn to face her, confusion on their face. For a moment the question hangs in the air, but a nikto stands to answer. Drink still in hand he shouts out "What do you know about the downhill, girly? I'd bet your just another 'biker babe', not taking it serious like".

Zara recognised the nikto, though they had never spoken before. This is Chynn Qerk, a local of the north east sector. She knew that he was a swoop ganger, and a nasty piece of work. However he was also a competent racer when it came to it. As he makes this comment, his gaze turns to Yoomnuff, watching him closely for a reaction.

As Darren makes the walk to the registry office, he is hit by the hustle and bustle of the city raging around him. Eventually he is able to push his way through to the mid-sized structure. It looked like the cross between an office and a betting shop, and seemed to be filled with the clientele that would fit both. Walking through the door he finds a throng of people milling about, and is eventually able to make his way to the front desk responsible for racing licences.

The licences were all required since the imperial takeover of Corellia. Acquiring one was not difficult, assuming you had not prior record, but keeping them was a harder task. Racers had to meet certain safety requirements, take part in a minimum amount of races, pay a regular fee for the licence renewal and avoid any entanglements with the law. Only the higher ranked or more veteran racers could afford to bend such rules. It was for these reasons that Zara and Krydil had struggled to compete in the previous years.

A middle aged woman dressed in a grey uniform looks up at Darren expectantly. "Yes? Can I help you?"

The garage slowly begins to see more customers thanks to the work of the new mechanics. It was nice to see business returning to the place, and it begun to put a dint in their debt, but was still a long way off breaking even. More work would still need to be done.

"Yes. I'm here to register a racing team, and to get a license."

Girly.. biker babe..? Don’t do it, Zara...

”Look, pal, I’m just trying to make some friendly conversation. Thought this was the place to talk racing, and you guys might be the ones to talk to. Don’t know much ‘bout the downhill, ‘s why I was askin’. Anyway. If you want to see how serious, like, I am about racing- you can see me out there. Cheers.”

Zara turns away, pretty sure she’s not going to learn anything useful here, and just hoping she hasn’t dragged her new teammate into a fight.