Calling Serenity {Mal / OC}

2 : Let's Be Bad Guys

Calling Serenity

Chapter 2 : Let's Be Bad Guys

Mal pulls the Mule up, and halts it. The town looks mostly empty at the moment, the small buildings made of Adobe and wood, mixed with metal and plastic ; whatever was at hand to build them. As the crew climbs out of the small speeder, Zoe hitches it up.

"What are we hoping to find here that equals the worth of a turd?" Jayne retorts, looking the small town over.

"Security payroll. Alliance don't have the manpower to 'enforce the peace' on every border moon cluster- they hire out to the private firms, who will not work for credit. They get paid in cash money, which once a month rests here." Mal explains to his twitchy, weapon-loving friend.

"Don't that lead back to the Alliance anyhow?" So much for Jayne's knowledge in grammar.

"No private firm would ever report a theft of its own payroll. They'd appear weak, might lose their contract." Zoe adds, trying to enlighten Jayne's small-as-hell brain.

"We're as ghosts in this. Won't but rattle the floor." The captain instructs, mostly to Jayne. He sometimes likes to be dramatic.

Jayne cocks his gun, with a smile on his face. Or a smirk, but Iris couldn't really tell. She just had a sense that an impending doom would soon happen.

"Shiny. Let's be bad guys."

Mal helps River out of the Mule, and asks her, "You ready to go to work, darlin'?"

River seemed to ignore his question, and stated, "There's no pattern to the pebbles here, they're completely random. I tried to count them, but you drove too fast. Hummingbird."

"Right. Great. Let's go." River always spoke in riddles half of the time, so Mal decided to dismiss the fact about hummingbirds.

Jayne kicks the door open, and it slams against the wall, making everyone inside jump. Mal and Jayne stride in, Iris following, pulling out her hog-leg and shooting the only security camera without even looking. Zoe follows, closing the door so River won't be hurt. There's maybe about fifteen people in the room, mostly store workers and farmers. The store seemed to be a mix of a general store and a post-office.

"Hands and knees and heads bowed down! Everybody, now!" Mal yells, pointing his trusty gun at all the folks.

Two men who appear to be farm folk rush Mal and the others. Mal draws on the elder one, and he stops dead in his tracks. Mal's gun is long, not unlike Civil War era issue, but very much new in design. The other tries to tackle Jayne, which was not necessarily a great idea. Jayne clotheslines him so that hard he spins right upside-down, and Jayne grabs him by the legs and bounces his head right off the floor, knocking him out cold.

"Y'all wanna be looking very intently at your own belly buttons. I see ahead start to rise, violence is gonna ensue." Iris concluded earlier that Mal can be very intimidating at times.

"Now you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet : I will end you."

The guy who rushed Mal complies along with everyone else. Jayne dumps his catch on the floor and rips open his dirty shirt to reveal a private security uniform.

"Looks like this is the place." Jayne says, as he grins. He always did love money.

He takes a shiny official pin from the guard he's clocked and looks up at Mal, who motions for Zoe to open the front door. She does, and River steps in. She walks around the hunched-over captives, as Mal addresses them.

"You've probably guessed we mean to be thieving here, but what we are after is not yours. So let's have no undue fussing."

"She's locked up, Cap'n."

Iris, her sawed-off gun in hand, walked around the civilians on the ground, while Zoe guards the entrance to the store. River, in the middle of the civilians, suddenly looked up the Iris, alarmed, then pointing to a young man on the floor. Iris looks at her questioningly, before River gives her a sarcastic nod.

"You know what the definition of a hero is? It's person who gets other people killed. You can look it up later." She states, resting the nozzle of her gun on the young man's cheek. He sighs, and slides the gun he had hiding across the room.

"I'll take the entrance as well, Zoe. You can go on ahead with Mal." She nodded and left to join the captain and Jayne.

Iris had too much on her mind at the current moment. The nightmares had started coming back. They had finally diminished about the second year she was on the Serenity. She just woke up one day, and it wasn't from panting and distress, like how she woke up only a few hours ago. She still had bad days, where her mood deteriorated greatly, but they were usually around the day of Elliot's birthday, as well as hers. She was doing great the past few months, and not a horrid memory had passed through her mind. She was happy on the Serenity. Of course she was tired and hungry lots of the time, and shot people, but it wasn't all that bad.

She thought about what Simon had told her. It was probably him just being stupid. That was her final conclusion. But, Iris did consider observing Mal when he was around her. No. It was a stupid idea. Mal was the captain, and Wash wouldn't dare let him even touch her anyways, being Iris's cousin and all. Wash was the closest actual thing Iris had to an actual family. He reminded her so much of her aunt, on her mother's side. Ginger hair, the likable persona, and the endless number of jokes.

Iris looked over at Mal. He was tall, and well-built. Although he wouldn't admit it, they both had a liking for old poetry. He was the last of the Browncoats, and the last one alive including Zoe on the Independent's side in the Battle of Serenity Valley. He never really did like talking about his past six years ago, and neither did she. Iris could admit though, that he was quite attractive, but, nonetheless, he did have a wife, who did, although, try to kill him. He was more or less tricked into marrying her anyways. She always did love his ocean-blue eyes, though.

River suddenly screams, knocking Iris out of her thoughts. She quickly rushed over to the small, frail seventeen-year-old girl, lying on her back on the ground, her eyes shut tight, trembling as Iris comforts her. Jayne is already by Iris's side.

"What's wrong, dear? Are you alright? What's going on?"

River opens her eyes wide, and pants. She whimpers out a response, feeling quiet and intimidated bye what she's about to say next.

"Reavers."

Wooaaahhhhh cliffhanger!!! Haha, don't worry, the next chapter will hopefully be up soon, that is, if you guys would please vote, comment, and share! Especially you silent readers. I'd love to know what you guys think. Even you, Matt. Yes, I know you're reading this. Don't make faces.

Keep calm and everything's just shiny, Cap'n!

:)

~ Crystal