'A Better Title.' Part 2
POSTED BY: ebonezer
UPDATED: Thursday, May 12, 2005 14:20
VIEWED: 17383
PAGE 2 of 6
Mantichorus gritted his teeth. Herald. Damn. "Come to drag me back to the lab?"
Unflinchingly, Herald took a step forward. "Dead or alive - but they would prefer alive."
"Not necessarily..." Mantichorus offered, seemingly calm, while his brain ran through the possibility of being able to embed one of the shuriken he kept in his pouch in some part of Herald's anatomy. He guessed any such attempt would merely piss him off. "If you, you know, missed the brain..."
Herald smirked. "Nice try, Alias Mantichorus. No, they want you very much alive, so as we can have a better look at--"
"Better look at what?" A voice said behind Herald, as the dull click! of a gun being primed echoed through the alley.
Herald sighed. "We were going to overlook your... 'unfinished work', Soul, but if you interfere, your family will be paid a visit."
"Shut it, Gabriel." Soul said calmly. "Manti?"
Mantichorus sighed. "I've undergone 'enhancement' at the hands of the UAP bio-tech department - basically, I'm a low level pre-cog."
Soul stared for a moment, then replied, keeping his gun on Herald; "You're psychic?"
"Slightly." Herald replied. "He was chosen as he had a strong instinctive streak - he was able to subconsciously determine how to avoid bullets in close-quarters. From that, it was easy to make him fully pre-cognitive."
"But I'm not." Mantichorus replied, looking Soul straight in the eyes. "From time to time, I get bursts of things that may happen - when I do, I blackout. It happened back on ship."
Soul nodded slowly. "How'd you escape?"
"One of the researchers developed a conscience halfway through the project." Herald spat. "Before they left, they released him." He glared at Mantichorus. "Do you know where they are?"
"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you." Mantichorus said shaking his head... and... "Oh...shit..." He fell face down into the dirt.
Herald gaped, and Soul saw his chance. He dived at Herald, and brought his gun down in an arc across Herald's temple. The Expendable spun once in a way that was vaguely comedic, and then hit the dirt.
"Nice one..." Mantichorus groaned, pulling himself upright. He put his hand to his nose and wiped the blood away. "Always get a damned nosebleed with the blackouts." He grinned shakily.
"You OK?" Soul asked.
"Hell, no. But I'll survive." Mantichorus sighed. "Still need to get the parts and oil." He said wearily. "Oh, and..."
With that, Mantichorus knelt beside Herald, and whispered something in his ear. Soul could only half-hear it, but it sounded like Herald had a daughter, and Manti was saying that it wasn't too late.
"Well?" Soul asked, as Mantichorus stood up.
"Unless he does something to change things soon, he'll have a kid who they'll f**k with so much, I'll look like they never touched me." Mantichorus sighed. "Hell, Soul, we better get that stuff, or the captain'll have my guts for garters."
Soul nodded, and after a moments pause said; "What shall we tell the others?"
"I'll tell 'em... or you can if I lose m'nerve." Mantichorus replied. He took a step and almost fell over. Soul moved to support him, but Mantichorus waved him away. "I'll be fine... What about your wife and kid?"
"I'll give them a wave." Soul replied. "I have a cousin on one rock which you can't even see the stars through the atmo. They'll be safe there." He paused. "Oh, and by the way... 'Alias Mantichorus'?"
"Didn't want my family to suffer for my actions. Adopted Mantichorus as soon as I left my home rock." He explained. "Might go and say my real name on ship later."
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A/N: Yeah, I'm psychic - vaguely. Gabriel Tam will mellow with age, which is why he's so different here than when you see him in the series. I'm goin' to write a tie-in with this from Gabriel's POV after Simon does a runner. I hope no-one has a prob' with me bein' psychic? Oh, and the shuriken were the other things that I kept in my pouch along with the encyclopaedia. Phew.
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Ebo, Teela and Gilco moved back to the ship at a steady clip, Ballard really wasn't what you might call "welcoming" or "a good place for three women (even if one was heavily armed) to hang out."
As they aproached the ship they noticed a shortish man with a long grey beard sitting on a quad with a large-ish package on the back. There also seemed to be a parrot on his shoulder.
"Can I help you with something?" Teela asked.
"Could be you can. I hear you're in the shipping buisness."
"Word travels fast around here."
"I overheard at Tifanies. I got some merchandise that I would liked moved as discreetly and quickly as possible."
"As possible," the parrot echoed.
Teela eyed the bird for a second then said, "Where's it goin?"
"Banning. I've got a rich coustomer there waiting for his merchandise. He's not a patiant man."
"Ebo?" Teela asked, "Can we hit Banning with the fuel cells we got?"
Ebo thought a moment, "Should be fine, so long as we get paid enough to refuel once we're there." She added.
"Pretty Polly!" the bird squaked.
"Shut up you!" the man yelled at the bird, "We can pay real good. This client of mine is well to do, and willing to pay heartly for this cargo. This is some rare stuff you got here," he patted the box, "Many men would kill for riches such as this."
"Lovely," Teela smiled.
Gilco laid a hand on her sidearm, "We'll just try and kill 'em right back."
They talked price for a few minutes then the man loaded the box onto Sidere and rumbled off on his quad.
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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.
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Supplies in tow, (and in bags) Manti and Soul made their way back through town in the direction of Sidere.
Soul turned to Manti. "So if Herald is here, and he's obviously in communication with someone, then it's safe to assume that he's not the only one who knows that we're here."
Manti nodded. "That's probably a safe bet." He turned to Soul. "That was a quick rescue back there. How'd you find me so fast." He paused. "For that matter, how did you know to come looking in the first place."
Soul grimmaced and explained to Manti about the implant. "While I may not be able to see the future, I can see the present pretty gorram well if I want to. The only problem is, every time I Interface, they can track me. Even if Herald never let's anyone know that we were here, when I Interfaced to find you, I sent up a red flag so high I'm suprised that there isn't a ship here already to bring us in."
Manti looked up into the sky as if he was expecting a ship to drop in on them. "I might be able to help you with your implant," he said to Soul.
"How?"
"I've picked up a few tricks over the years, including how to hack the Cortex while covering your tail. I think I can mask your signal so you can Interface all you want, and no-one will be the wiser."
Soul nodded, impressed. "If you can do it, be my guest."
They passed the last of the burnt out buildings and out into the dry field where Sidere sat waiting for them. Soul paused. "I think that for right now, we shoul keep our secrets, well, secret."
Manti looked at him without responding.
Soul continued. "It's not that I don't trust them, it's just that I really don't want to be dragging anyone else into the mess we've gotten into."
Manti looked over at Sidere, where a large crate was being unloaded into the cargo bay. "I think the girls have got us some cargo, and if our track record keeps up, they just got us into another mess." He looked back at Soul. "We can tell them when the time comes, but I'm done hiding from everyone." He grinned. "Besides, Ebo's kinda cute, don't ya think?"
Soul's mouth dropped open as Manti laughed. Soul shook his head and the two of them turned and continued towards Sidere.
"I wonder if Teela's got any more passengers?" Soul thought out loud.
Manti chuckled. "On this rock? Well, you never know."
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OOC: Okay boys and girls, if it's okay with the gang, I think we could stand to pick up a passenger or two before we leave Ballard, so...anyone need a ride?
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But if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.
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Ebo stood in front of the box, staring at it.
Soul looked over her shoulder, "Is there someting especialy special about this box that I'm missin?"
"Thats what I'm tryin to work out. Parrot-dude says there's something really shinny in there. At least, he talked like there was something shinny in there," Ebo took a long pause, "Suppose we could take a peak?"
"No," Teela said, stepping between Ebo and the box, "This time the box stays closed."
"But-"
"It says closed!"
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ooc: Just killen time till we get some passenger types really. But i got a shinny idea for whats IN the box that I'm sort of setting up for.
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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.
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"Tzao-goa!I gotta get offa this planet!", Jazaf whispers to himself. Looking down he checks his bag and runs a silent
checklist in his head, positively sure everything is in it's proper place he looks around at the ships docked.
"Now where in this Gorram..."his eyes stop at a firefly class spaceship,he wonders if they would allow a 'tourist' such as
himself stay onboard for a spell.Looking around, he spots a few people crowded around a box in their cargo hold.
"It stays Closed!!!"
Jazaf laughs nervously 'okay, there is the Captain no doubt about that.' he thinks to himself.
Shoving the nervousness aside, or as best he can, he hoists the bag on one shoulder and walks toward the crew.
"Um... Excuse me"
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OOC: Hi, newbie to this role-play forum thing. Just got into the Firefly series...
but it was SoS' fault! heh
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OOC: Wassup Jazaf!! Welcome aboard, man! And Ebo, whatever idea you've got, let's run with it! BTW: anyone know what's up with Teela? Where's she been?
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Soul stepped back from Teela, completley agreeing with her order to leave the box closed. They had had more than enough fun when they opened the last box. He looked over as Manti chuckled and made his way off to the engine room with the oil.
Teela called behind him. "I wanna be ready to go in fifteen minutes!" she shouted.
Manti waved his hand behind him. "Yeah, yeah."
Teela turned to Ebo, apparently to order her around too, but Ebo threw up a quick salute.
"I'll get us ready, boss," Ebo said. She turned and ran for the stairs behind Manti.
"Um...excuse me," came a voice from behind them.
Soul turned around and saw a man standing just inside the cargo bay, a bag hung over his shoulder and a look on his face like he was in a hurry. Teela strode over to him and struck up a conversation. Another passenger, then. Well, it wasn't like the ship was crowded yet. There was a transaction of a sort between the stranger and Teela, and then a nod on Teela's part signfied, at least to Soul, that Sidere hat acquired yet another straggler.
The man walked further into the cargo bay. Soul strode over and stuck out his hand. The man looked at him cautiously, and then grabbed his hand firmly.
"So," Soul said, "what's your name?"
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But if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.
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"uh...Jazaf"
"Well Jazaf, welcome aboard Sidere! My name is Soul"
Soul went on to point out the other members of the crew.
"So where are you headed?" Soul asked
"Anywhere I can..." Jazaf said underneath his breath.
"Mind repeating that?"
"Uh, I mean... that is I haven't decided yet. I have...", Jazaf rummages thruogh his bag looking for his money pouch, "only
55 credits to my name. But I would be more than willing to work off the rest of the charges. I'm pretty sure that I can
fit in somewhere.." Jazaf notices some shady looking men walk past the cargo bay door and instinctively brings hid bag closer.
Soul notices the odd movement but pushes it to the back of his mind. "Well, let me talk it out with the rest of the crew."
"Sure."
Jazaf watches as Soul walks deeper into the ship. Holding his bag tighter he whispers 'No one on this gorram mudball is
gonna take you away from me.'
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"Teela? We're good to go. You ready?" Ebo shouted into the comm and the engines roared to life.
"Yeah," came the broken reply, "We're good to go."
Down in the passanger dorm Soul poked his head in the door to Jazafs's dorm, "You might want to hold onto something."
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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.
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"Teela? We're good to go. You ready?" Ebo's voice came over the comm. The reply came shortly.
"Yeah. We're good to go."
Mantichorus looked at the engine. It would work, and that, in his opinion, was enough.
He hit the comms with a slightly vicious grin on his face. He hadn't felt this good in ages. "Our Father, who art in Heaven..." he said, completely deadpan.
"Manti, shut the hell up!!!" Ebo replied, sounding pissed off.
Mantichorus shook his mirthfully. He really shouldn't torment his crewmates. That Jazaf... Guy obviously had history, but then, who didn't?
He hit the intercomm again. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sidere. 'Cause sometimes, runnin' away is the only option."
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A/N: Look at me take this plot nowhere.
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SAFFRON: "Durran... This isn't what it looks like..."
MAL: "Unless it looks like we're stealing your priceless Lassiter, 'cause that's what we're doing. Don't ask me about the gun, though, 'cause that's new."
DURRAN: "Well. I appreciate your honesty. Not, you know, a lot, but --"
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Teela was in the kitchen doing kitchen-y things (picking up everything that had fallen down durring a shaky take-off) when Manti poped his head in, "Uh...Teela, you might wanna come down to the hold."
Teela raised an eyebrow, "Why?"
He scratched his head, "Well, you know that box we picked up?"
"Ebo opened it didn't she."
"Little bit, yeah."
They found Ebo sitting amid a pile of shreaded paper closely examining something.
"What did I say about opening the box?" Teela asked, suddenly feeling as if she was scolding a child.
Ebo gave her a blank look, "I dunno, wern't you listening either? Do you know what this is?" She handed a small, flat, plastic box to Manti.
He looked at it for a moment then opened it and let out a low whistle, "This is really incredible."
Ebo stood up, "What is it?"
"Its a-oh man, whats it called a CD. An incredibly rare artifact from Earth that was. These are worth a lot. I mean, a lot a lot."
"Whats it do?" Teela asked.
"It stores music. You need a special player to make 'em work though, and the players are even more rare then the CDs. What else is in there?"
Ebo began pulling more things out of the box. More CDs, a gameboy, an camera, DVDs, a palm pilot, and a rock.
Soul and the new passenger who's name Ebo couldn't remember (sorry) wandered in and marveled at the artifacts.
"This is fantastic," Soul was saying, "a large fourtune in Earth that was artifacts."
"Yeah, but what's with the rock? Seems sort of out of place, dontcha think?"
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OOC: I couldn't resist. Everytime I see Trash i wish they would spend more time on the Earth that was stuff. So i figured we could marvel.
I'll let someone else deal with putting us in peril.
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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.
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