Flufto

Flufto was the nickname of a batch of cloned and customized tookas owned by the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra. Aphra cloned over sixty of the creatures in a laboratory on the Outer Rim planet Son-tuul. Each clone was modified with bio explosives in its genes and exploded in response to the codephrase "Snugglebum Oogiewoogie."
Aphra kept the tookas shrink frozen in a crate, keeping her own Flufto on her during her mission to the planet Skako Minor. Her first tooka was detonated to wipe out an Imperial squad that surrounded Aphra's crew. Another was then taken out, but eventually used as a projectile explosive on the cyborg creature known as a chthonic worm god.
When Aphra's crew visited the Rebel Alliance flight school, the Lucrehulk Prime, her Flufto was allowed to run into the school's control core so that she could chase it inside. The rotation general, Hera Syndulla, shot the tooka dead. After capturing Syndulla, Aphra and her team infiltrated the Imperial complex Hivebase-1, where the rogue archaeologist allowed her remaining tookas to defrost and escape, spreading out through the base before they were detonated thanks to some name changing in the firing registry.
==Biography==
===Mass produced===
Around 1 ABY, the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona AphraDoctor Aphra (2016) 3 was forced to work for the Son-tuul Pride syndicate and its most recent leader, the assassin droid 0-0-0. The droid granted Aphra her own laboratory on the Outer Rim Territories planetDarth Vader (2015) 7 Son-tuul, where she used an old splicer rig to clone one of the feline creatures known as tookas, the doctor having kept one of the creatures as a pet when she was younger. The new tooka was modified with bio explosives in his genesDoctor Aphra (2016) 17 so that the feline could explode in response to the codephrase "Snugglebum Oogiewoogie," and at least sixty copies of him were made and shrink frozen in a crate.
Aphra carried one of the tookas around with her, naming him Flufto. When 0-0-0 questioned what she was carrying, calling him a hairy outgrowth, the rogue archaeologist mentioned her work with the tooka cloning. The doctor was then introduced to a new crew of mercenaries for her new mission to find the assassin droid's lost memories, being required to choose a crewmember not to bring with her. Rexa Go—0-0-0's cyborg muscle and the only other mercenary beside Aphra to know the true target of the mission—suggested leaving behind Flufto, but Aphra raised her blaster at the cyborg, telling Go that she would die if she touched the tooka. Ultimately, the swordsman Rabael Dir Glorio was left behind while Aphra and her crew voyaged to their first destination, the planet Skako Minor.
===Huggable bomb===
On Skako Minor, Aphra's crew was guided to the location of the Techno Union foreman Wat Tambor's workshop by the Skakoan guide Hallio Bas. However, the guide was working with the Galactic Empire, and an Imperial squad laid a trap for Aphra's crew. After the lead Imperial officer ordered the deaths of the mercenaries, Aphra gave Flufto to Bas, asking that he look after the tooka. The Skakoan accepted him, believing the feline would be a worthy meal for his people. At this moment Aphra recited Flufto's detonation codephrase, causing an explosion that wiped out the Imperial squad. In the wake of the fireball, Go confirmed with the rogue archaeologist that Flufto had been a customized tooka.
Go put down her crate for Aphra to retrieve one of the shrink frozen tookas, a new Flufto, other crew members having assumed the crate's contents were alcohol. The crew began exploring Tambor's workshop but were attacked by Imperial forces led by Lieutenant-Inspector Magna Tolvan. The skirmish activated the cyborg creature known as a chthonic worm god, which attacked both parties. In the chaos, Aphra, carrying Flufto, found herself stuck with Tolvan, and she made the Imperial throw her tooka at the worm god while she shouted the codephrase to make him a projectile bomb. While the explosive tooka attack did not defeat the creature, it was ultimately killed by Aphra's crew, who looted Tambor's workshop before departing.
===Another one bites the dust===
Aphra took another Flufto out of the crate before her crew disembarked at the Lucrehulk Prime,Doctor Aphra (2016) 21 a Lucrehulk-class Battleship used as a Rebel Alliance flight school. Aphra, carrying Flufto, and her crew were given a tour of the school by the Alliance officer Bini, who thought they were recruits. However, the rogue archaeologist actually intended to kidnap the Lucrehulk Prime rotation general, Hera Syndulla, as part of her plan to infiltrate the Empire's Tarkin Initiative research and development complex Hivebase-1, where the doctor had learned 0-0-0's lost memories were stored.
During Bini's tour, Aphra allowed Flufto to get loose and run into the Lucrehulk Prime control core, being attracted to the high energy field. Although the core was access restricted, the rogue archaeologist used her tooka's rogue behavior as an excuse to run inside after him, much to Bini's distress. The weapons alarm also set off due to Flufto's bio explosive induced genes. Aphra climbed and pretended to try and grab the feline while she bugged the control core's systems with her electro-tattoos.Doctor Aphra (2016) 19 That was when Syndulla, who had been using the control core to remotely control some of the flight school's training X-wing starfighters, shot Flufto dead.
===Destruction by explosive cats===
Aphra and her crew were ultimately successful in capturing Syndulla and used their possession of the rebel leader to get close to Hivebase-1 while allowing the Lucrehulk Prime to follow them to the complex as a distraction as they infiltrated the base. After covertly landing in the hangar, Aphra's crew began searching for Hivebase-1's database. The cyborg mercenary Caysin Bog asked whether the rogue archaeologist wanted to bring another Flufto, but Aphra turned the option down, claiming that the tookas' attraction to energy sources might cause a mess. Secretly, that was Aphra's exact intention, as she hit the crate before she left, allowing the lid to open slightly and affect the shrink-freezing of the remaining tookas.
While Aphra and her crew made it to Hivebase-1's datacore, the tookas defrosted and escaped from the crate, running free through the Tarkin Initiative complex. Several of the felines found the idle Dek-Nil, a droid from Aphra's crew, who startled the creatures by springing back to life. Dek-Nil went on to use a dataport to change the names in the base's firing registry. As the tookas continued to spread out through Hivebase-1, the base's Commander Yewl ordered for its weapons to fire on Lucrehulk Prime, which Aphra had used, through her bug, to rip and steal the complex's datacore using a tractor beam. However, the Imperial officer giving the orders read the tampered firing registry, which included "Snugglebum Oogiewoogie," over the comms, detonating all of the tookas simultaneously and destroying Hivebase-1.
==Personality and traits==
Flufto and each clone had black skin and purple fur. A clone's face was white with black eyes encased in purple eye masks, and the feline was customized with bio explosives in his genes. When activated for detonation, Flufto clones' eye masks gave a red glow. The tooka clones were also customized to be attracted to energy sources and fields.
==Behind the scenes==
Flufto first appeared in the fifteenth issue of the 2016 Star Wars: Doctor Aphra comic series, written by Si Spurrier, illustrated by Emilio Laiso, and published by Marvel Comics on December 20, 2017.
==Appearances==
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 15 
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 16
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 17
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 18 
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 19
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 38 
==Notes and references==
Category:Aphra's crew
Category:Clones
Category:Individuals of unspecified gender
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Named pets
Category:Tookas