Aug 22nd, All Part Of The Job
Title: All Part Of The Job
Author: selonianth
Rating: FR15
Crossover: Firefly
Disclaimer: Don’t own Firefly or BtVS. Both are owned by the indestructible Joss Whedon.
Summary: Buffy, Zoe, and Mal go to meet Niska and Buffy reveals a bit about herself.
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Zoe came to knock on Buffy’s door as they pulled into Niska’s Station and her jaw dropped. Buffy was in full leather, a black leather long sleeve shirt with a vest over it, tight black leather pants (pants that tight should be outlawed in the first mate’s opinion even if she was taken), and a black trenchcoat. As she watched Buffy started sliding weapons into position all over her body.
The Ulak’s slid into two slots in the back of the Vest, the trench knives each went into a boot, strapped onto her ankles, dull black throwing knives slid into slots on her vest that made them look like simply decoration. Buffy slid the wakizashi into a sheath across her back under the vest. The long blade and the gun on her thigh were the only two easy to see weapons. A well trained person might notice the others, but it was only because she’d seen the blond arm up that Zoe was fully aware of just how prepared Buffy was.
Feeling much more at home near the known psychopath’s station in full hunting gear Buffy sighed happily and said, “Now, I’m ready.”
Zoe raised one ebony brow, “Do you go to every job so well armed?”
The slayer nodded with a grin, “Yep. In my experience there is no such thing as too many blades, or as the case may be guns and grenades.”
Zoe shuddered at the decidedly Jayne-esque comment. “Don’t tell Jayne that... he’ll never let Mal live it down and we’ll be forced to let him bring his grenades everywhere.”
Buffy frowned. “Why not? He can always leave them on the mule.”
Zoe took a moment to think this over, they did tend to come across situations were extra firepower was needed... but grenades? “I can see why we might like him to bring more than his repeater and SMG but grenades?”
Buffy raised an eyebrow this time as if questioning Zoe’s intelligence, “One word. Reavers.”
Right. They did run into Reavers on a creepifying basis... “Point accepted.”
Buffy nodded. “Knew you’d see it my way, let’s go down to the cargo hold so we can go meet this Niska.” Left unsaid was that she was pretty sure that Niska was the snake River had warned about.
Zoe nodded and the pair walked down to the Cargo hold. “Sorry for the wait Captain, Buffy had to arm-up.”
At Mal’s incredulous look Buffy got defensive, “What? I’ve heard stories about this psycho and I want to be prepared.”
Mal took a moment to think about that, weighed their luck against this guy’s reputation and realized Buffy had a point. Nodding he said “You have a point. Jayne, go get Vera in case this gets humped. Zoe, Buffy, and me will go meet with Niska. You stay here just in case.”
The big merc nodded and jogged back to his bunk to get Vera... and a couple others of his girls.
Jayne sent off Mal hit the button to open the doors and they were quickly led to Niska, all three people making a mental tally of how many people Niska had and where they were in between the ship and his office. They were led through a great hall, up a staircase and then down a long hallway before they reached the office Niska was waiting in.
While on the skyplex Niska started to make his point about what he’d do if they failed the job River, still onboard the Serenity, began to smile a very... unsettling smile that set Simon on edge. “River?” he asked uncertainly. “River, what is it?”
River smirked. “I fear all they have done is woken a sleeping dragon,”she mused simply. Then in a sing-song voice that sent shivers down Simon’s spine before turning to wander into the bowels of the ship she sang, “The snake can try to bite, but the honey badger doesn’t give a fuck.”
Buffy watched Crow start to cut down Niska’s nephew and as the door was closing to hide him from view she flicked her wrist toward the thug and knew her dart had landed on his thigh even as he was hidden from view, the dart contained a fast acting poison, enough to take down a full grown african elephant. Crow would be dead in less than thirty seconds, thirty very painful seconds.
Knowing she should warn Mal Buffy spoke up, “Mal.”
“Yea?”
“Snake.” was all Buffy said as her hand came up, pulled one of the throwing knives from her vest, then her hand snapped out and Niska’s head snapped back, dead. The entire movement so fast the crime-lord hadn’t even had a chance to reach for security. “Niska has a safe in the wall behind you, and a larger one under us. I trust you can get in without causing too much noise.” That was two out of the way, only twenty left to go of the ones who would be in the way at all. The rest of Niska’s men were all scattered in other areas of the station and wouldn’t even be aware their boss was dead.
Mal stared at the blade buried in Niska’s throat. “What the hell was that?”
“He was the snake River warned us about, I guess that makes me the Honey Badger. I’m going to go clear the path. I’ll send Simon and Jayne along when it’s clear. Don’t leave this room with that money till they get here,” Buffy explained, her last words covered by a dark look.
Mal would normally argue about someone ordering him about, but the look in Buffy’s eyes and the tone of her voice hinted that not only would this be a very pointless act, but potentially fairly painful and only nodded.
“That computer,” Buffy said pointing at Niska’s desk. “Controls almost everything to do with the station. Find the lights. When I click on my radio twice turn off the lights in the great hall till I click it twice more.”
Mal nodded again, letting her take control of getting them out of the station alive, and possibly with more money than Niska was going to pay them anyway. That settled the Blonde slipped out of the room silently and Mal looked at Zoe and said, “I’m so glad she’s on our side.”
Zoe nodded with a stunned look on her face. “I couldn’t agree with you more sir. She looked excited to get a good fight, like twenty people with guns was going to be nothing but entertainment.”
Buffy walked down the long hallway quickly, reaching the spiral staircase she ripped a panel out of the wall. “I always wanted to do this...” Tossing the panel on to the stairs the Slayer jumped on it riding it down.
When the blond reached the bottom she grinned. Loudly, to get the guard’s attention which was pointed at Serenity she said. “Hi Boys.” Then as they turned around she clicked the radio twice and the lights went dark. Instantly she was among the guards, blades flashing in the light from their attempts to shoot her even in the dark. Less than thirty seconds later she clicked it twice again to view her handiwork and grinned. It had been a long time since she’d gotten to go one-twenty in a fight that actually made her blood rush.
Wiping her ulak’s off on the guard’s uniforms she sheathed them as she walked back to Serenity. Pressing a button she chuckled finding Simon and Jayne pointing guns at the door. “Guard’s are dead and you’re both needed.”
Buffy beckoned them to follow her and turned around, her heeled leather boots making a click as she walked, ignoring the twenty-odd bodies around her. When she heard Simon and Jayne stop upon seeing the bodies. “Don’t worry, they’re all dead. Come on now,” and she continued walking, the pair jogging to catch up as Buffy went up some stairs. She stopped and pointed down the hallway she’d ran down. “At the end of that hallway is Mal and Zoe. They’re waiting for you. Help them carry what they can to Serenity. Make no more than two trips. Go.”
Simon and Jayne ran down the hallway. Simon didn’t quite understand why he was listening to her so easily when he argued with Mal over every thing he was told. Jayne however understood just fine. Anybody who could take out twenty people by herself with nothing but blades was someone to be listened to.
Buffy watched them go for a moment, then grabbed the railing of the balcony and let herself fall. It was nice finally being able to use her abilities again, normally she was restricted to olympic athlete levels when her real limits far exceeded that. She simply couldn’t use that power anywhere alliance cameras might see.
Moving quickly she found the main reactor of the skyplex and grinned. “Time to throw a giant Slayer-sized wrench in the works.” She quickly closed all the valves tight and watched the temperature slowly climb. In roughly fifteen to twenty minutes this place would go critical and there wouldn’t be anything bigger than a thumbnail leftover, certainly no footage for the Alliance to see of who did the job. As an afterthought she loosened some of the valves enough for the temperature to only hold steady, not increase or decrease, and hooked a remote into the circuit board. When she pushed a button all the valves would clamp down tighter than a virgin nun’s legs in a whorehouse.
Job done Buffy started walking back up to Serenity, killing two engineers and ordering four more to head to lifeboat’s and get off the station. She made it up to the main open space where Niska’s men had been. She was waiting by Serenity when Mal, Jayne, Zoe, and Simon all came through carrying a small crate. “Second trip?”
Mal nodded, he could tell the direction she was coming from and knew why she’d gone there. “How much time before whatever you did destroys the skyplex?”
“It’s set to remote. When we leave I’ll push the button, after that anyone, or anything, anywhere near this place is going to turn to dust,” Buffy replied holding up the remote. “River, sweetie, do you know how many mercs are still on this station?”
River cocked her head to the side for a moment before she responded, “Two hundred and fifteen mercenaries still occupy this station.This does not include the other fifty men loyal to Niska.”
Mal just looked at her funny and she just smiled. “So two hundred and sixty five then. Well, seeing as we have a nice empty cargo bay I guess I should ask. Do you know where any other valuable things are, other than the two crates we left in Niska’s office?”
“The only stuff that could be easily and quickly sold are in the cargo bay, Serenity can undock, move down to it, redock and load from there.” Buffy had spent plenty of time inspecting the blueprints for the skyplex. They were still in the database from when the place was originally constructed, before Niska’s operation took over.
Mal nodded and they all moved onto Serenity quickly. Once they undocked from the skyplex he pointed at the crates of money “Store those. Now. Kaylee, you and River get up to the bridge or engine room, just get out of this cargo bay.”
River bounced up and moved up the stairs toward the Cockpit and Kaylee headed to the engine room.
“Wash, bring us to the cargo-hold a couple levels down.”
“Shi.”
Once they felt it re-dock Mal hit the button to open the door, only wide enough for one or two people to move through. “Buffy, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Buffy grinned at him and slipped through the door silently looking around the dark cargo hold and listening. Poking head head back she said “Clear, if we hurry they won’t get here in time to stop us.”
Mal hit the button to open the cargo-bay doors further and turned to address Jayne, Zoe, and Simon. “Ok, spread out, we look for easy to sell, or otherwise useful, items. Medicine and weapons first, unmarked and unstamped protein if you find any. Move.”
It didn’t take long before the first good discovery was made, Fourteen crates of various high quality medicines were loaded into Serenity that Simon insisted would be highly desired by people on the Rim. Then two boxes of protein bars Mal decided they’d keep for themselves knowing how hard it had been to get rid of them before, plus he’d seen how much Buffy could eat.
Five massive crates of guns were loaded onto Serenity, Jayne claiming one or two of the individual guns for his own use because he didn’t have one yet. Then Buffy was the one treated, a collection of blades was another crate, and the last one they’d be able to fit in the cargo hold and still move around. All in all the loading took more time than they’d want, nearly seven hours, and the crew wanted to get the hell out of dodge before anyone thought to check the cargo hold.
Cargo-Hold full Mal grabbed his radio. “Wash, get us out of here. Head for Beaumonde and wave the twins. Tell them we have a host of cargo they might want.”
“And our deal?” the slayer asked as they left the cargo hold going up into the common areas of the ship. Buffy knew Mal wouldn’t forget, he was an honorable man, she just wanted to know what he was thinking.
“This time of the year Ezra and Beaumonde are nice and close together. Technically the best planet is Bernadette to modify the ship with it’s supplies for settlers but as it’s a core planet...” Mal trailed off.
Buffy understood, Beaumonde was very well equipped for both modifying the ship for the greenhouses, and had all the parts Kaylee might need to fix the ship up. “We don’t want to risk Simon and River by taking them to a section of space where we could be searched for any reason the captain of the alliance ship could think of. Even if it was complete and utter bullshit.”
Mal nodded, glad the blonde understood the delay and the risk in heading to a Core Planet instead of a border one. “Exactly. Should only take us a couple days or so to complete business on Beaumonde. After that we’ll shove her in a drydock and go about modifyin and updatin her.”
They’d been passin by the Engine Room when Mal said this so Buffy was treated to Kaylee jumping on Mal with a giant hug as they passed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The hyper mechanic squealed. “I can finally update the stuff I’ve been dreaming of!”
Mal just looked at Buffy with a horrified look on his face. Buffy just shrugged as she walked off with a smirk on her face, leaving Mal to the tender mercies of an over-excited mechanic.
Author: selonianth
Rating: FR15
Crossover: Firefly
Disclaimer: Don’t own Firefly or BtVS. Both are owned by the indestructible Joss Whedon.
Summary: Buffy, Zoe, and Mal go to meet Niska and Buffy reveals a bit about herself.
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Zoe came to knock on Buffy’s door as they pulled into Niska’s Station and her jaw dropped. Buffy was in full leather, a black leather long sleeve shirt with a vest over it, tight black leather pants (pants that tight should be outlawed in the first mate’s opinion even if she was taken), and a black trenchcoat. As she watched Buffy started sliding weapons into position all over her body.
The Ulak’s slid into two slots in the back of the Vest, the trench knives each went into a boot, strapped onto her ankles, dull black throwing knives slid into slots on her vest that made them look like simply decoration. Buffy slid the wakizashi into a sheath across her back under the vest. The long blade and the gun on her thigh were the only two easy to see weapons. A well trained person might notice the others, but it was only because she’d seen the blond arm up that Zoe was fully aware of just how prepared Buffy was.
Feeling much more at home near the known psychopath’s station in full hunting gear Buffy sighed happily and said, “Now, I’m ready.”
Zoe raised one ebony brow, “Do you go to every job so well armed?”
The slayer nodded with a grin, “Yep. In my experience there is no such thing as too many blades, or as the case may be guns and grenades.”
Zoe shuddered at the decidedly Jayne-esque comment. “Don’t tell Jayne that... he’ll never let Mal live it down and we’ll be forced to let him bring his grenades everywhere.”
Buffy frowned. “Why not? He can always leave them on the mule.”
Zoe took a moment to think this over, they did tend to come across situations were extra firepower was needed... but grenades? “I can see why we might like him to bring more than his repeater and SMG but grenades?”
Buffy raised an eyebrow this time as if questioning Zoe’s intelligence, “One word. Reavers.”
Right. They did run into Reavers on a creepifying basis... “Point accepted.”
Buffy nodded. “Knew you’d see it my way, let’s go down to the cargo hold so we can go meet this Niska.” Left unsaid was that she was pretty sure that Niska was the snake River had warned about.
Zoe nodded and the pair walked down to the Cargo hold. “Sorry for the wait Captain, Buffy had to arm-up.”
At Mal’s incredulous look Buffy got defensive, “What? I’ve heard stories about this psycho and I want to be prepared.”
Mal took a moment to think about that, weighed their luck against this guy’s reputation and realized Buffy had a point. Nodding he said “You have a point. Jayne, go get Vera in case this gets humped. Zoe, Buffy, and me will go meet with Niska. You stay here just in case.”
The big merc nodded and jogged back to his bunk to get Vera... and a couple others of his girls.
Jayne sent off Mal hit the button to open the doors and they were quickly led to Niska, all three people making a mental tally of how many people Niska had and where they were in between the ship and his office. They were led through a great hall, up a staircase and then down a long hallway before they reached the office Niska was waiting in.
While on the skyplex Niska started to make his point about what he’d do if they failed the job River, still onboard the Serenity, began to smile a very... unsettling smile that set Simon on edge. “River?” he asked uncertainly. “River, what is it?”
River smirked. “I fear all they have done is woken a sleeping dragon,”she mused simply. Then in a sing-song voice that sent shivers down Simon’s spine before turning to wander into the bowels of the ship she sang, “The snake can try to bite, but the honey badger doesn’t give a fuck.”
Buffy watched Crow start to cut down Niska’s nephew and as the door was closing to hide him from view she flicked her wrist toward the thug and knew her dart had landed on his thigh even as he was hidden from view, the dart contained a fast acting poison, enough to take down a full grown african elephant. Crow would be dead in less than thirty seconds, thirty very painful seconds.
Knowing she should warn Mal Buffy spoke up, “Mal.”
“Yea?”
“Snake.” was all Buffy said as her hand came up, pulled one of the throwing knives from her vest, then her hand snapped out and Niska’s head snapped back, dead. The entire movement so fast the crime-lord hadn’t even had a chance to reach for security. “Niska has a safe in the wall behind you, and a larger one under us. I trust you can get in without causing too much noise.” That was two out of the way, only twenty left to go of the ones who would be in the way at all. The rest of Niska’s men were all scattered in other areas of the station and wouldn’t even be aware their boss was dead.
Mal stared at the blade buried in Niska’s throat. “What the hell was that?”
“He was the snake River warned us about, I guess that makes me the Honey Badger. I’m going to go clear the path. I’ll send Simon and Jayne along when it’s clear. Don’t leave this room with that money till they get here,” Buffy explained, her last words covered by a dark look.
Mal would normally argue about someone ordering him about, but the look in Buffy’s eyes and the tone of her voice hinted that not only would this be a very pointless act, but potentially fairly painful and only nodded.
“That computer,” Buffy said pointing at Niska’s desk. “Controls almost everything to do with the station. Find the lights. When I click on my radio twice turn off the lights in the great hall till I click it twice more.”
Mal nodded again, letting her take control of getting them out of the station alive, and possibly with more money than Niska was going to pay them anyway. That settled the Blonde slipped out of the room silently and Mal looked at Zoe and said, “I’m so glad she’s on our side.”
Zoe nodded with a stunned look on her face. “I couldn’t agree with you more sir. She looked excited to get a good fight, like twenty people with guns was going to be nothing but entertainment.”
Buffy walked down the long hallway quickly, reaching the spiral staircase she ripped a panel out of the wall. “I always wanted to do this...” Tossing the panel on to the stairs the Slayer jumped on it riding it down.
When the blond reached the bottom she grinned. Loudly, to get the guard’s attention which was pointed at Serenity she said. “Hi Boys.” Then as they turned around she clicked the radio twice and the lights went dark. Instantly she was among the guards, blades flashing in the light from their attempts to shoot her even in the dark. Less than thirty seconds later she clicked it twice again to view her handiwork and grinned. It had been a long time since she’d gotten to go one-twenty in a fight that actually made her blood rush.
Wiping her ulak’s off on the guard’s uniforms she sheathed them as she walked back to Serenity. Pressing a button she chuckled finding Simon and Jayne pointing guns at the door. “Guard’s are dead and you’re both needed.”
Buffy beckoned them to follow her and turned around, her heeled leather boots making a click as she walked, ignoring the twenty-odd bodies around her. When she heard Simon and Jayne stop upon seeing the bodies. “Don’t worry, they’re all dead. Come on now,” and she continued walking, the pair jogging to catch up as Buffy went up some stairs. She stopped and pointed down the hallway she’d ran down. “At the end of that hallway is Mal and Zoe. They’re waiting for you. Help them carry what they can to Serenity. Make no more than two trips. Go.”
Simon and Jayne ran down the hallway. Simon didn’t quite understand why he was listening to her so easily when he argued with Mal over every thing he was told. Jayne however understood just fine. Anybody who could take out twenty people by herself with nothing but blades was someone to be listened to.
Buffy watched them go for a moment, then grabbed the railing of the balcony and let herself fall. It was nice finally being able to use her abilities again, normally she was restricted to olympic athlete levels when her real limits far exceeded that. She simply couldn’t use that power anywhere alliance cameras might see.
Moving quickly she found the main reactor of the skyplex and grinned. “Time to throw a giant Slayer-sized wrench in the works.” She quickly closed all the valves tight and watched the temperature slowly climb. In roughly fifteen to twenty minutes this place would go critical and there wouldn’t be anything bigger than a thumbnail leftover, certainly no footage for the Alliance to see of who did the job. As an afterthought she loosened some of the valves enough for the temperature to only hold steady, not increase or decrease, and hooked a remote into the circuit board. When she pushed a button all the valves would clamp down tighter than a virgin nun’s legs in a whorehouse.
Job done Buffy started walking back up to Serenity, killing two engineers and ordering four more to head to lifeboat’s and get off the station. She made it up to the main open space where Niska’s men had been. She was waiting by Serenity when Mal, Jayne, Zoe, and Simon all came through carrying a small crate. “Second trip?”
Mal nodded, he could tell the direction she was coming from and knew why she’d gone there. “How much time before whatever you did destroys the skyplex?”
“It’s set to remote. When we leave I’ll push the button, after that anyone, or anything, anywhere near this place is going to turn to dust,” Buffy replied holding up the remote. “River, sweetie, do you know how many mercs are still on this station?”
River cocked her head to the side for a moment before she responded, “Two hundred and fifteen mercenaries still occupy this station.This does not include the other fifty men loyal to Niska.”
Mal just looked at her funny and she just smiled. “So two hundred and sixty five then. Well, seeing as we have a nice empty cargo bay I guess I should ask. Do you know where any other valuable things are, other than the two crates we left in Niska’s office?”
“The only stuff that could be easily and quickly sold are in the cargo bay, Serenity can undock, move down to it, redock and load from there.” Buffy had spent plenty of time inspecting the blueprints for the skyplex. They were still in the database from when the place was originally constructed, before Niska’s operation took over.
Mal nodded and they all moved onto Serenity quickly. Once they undocked from the skyplex he pointed at the crates of money “Store those. Now. Kaylee, you and River get up to the bridge or engine room, just get out of this cargo bay.”
River bounced up and moved up the stairs toward the Cockpit and Kaylee headed to the engine room.
“Wash, bring us to the cargo-hold a couple levels down.”
“Shi.”
Once they felt it re-dock Mal hit the button to open the door, only wide enough for one or two people to move through. “Buffy, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Buffy grinned at him and slipped through the door silently looking around the dark cargo hold and listening. Poking head head back she said “Clear, if we hurry they won’t get here in time to stop us.”
Mal hit the button to open the cargo-bay doors further and turned to address Jayne, Zoe, and Simon. “Ok, spread out, we look for easy to sell, or otherwise useful, items. Medicine and weapons first, unmarked and unstamped protein if you find any. Move.”
It didn’t take long before the first good discovery was made, Fourteen crates of various high quality medicines were loaded into Serenity that Simon insisted would be highly desired by people on the Rim. Then two boxes of protein bars Mal decided they’d keep for themselves knowing how hard it had been to get rid of them before, plus he’d seen how much Buffy could eat.
Five massive crates of guns were loaded onto Serenity, Jayne claiming one or two of the individual guns for his own use because he didn’t have one yet. Then Buffy was the one treated, a collection of blades was another crate, and the last one they’d be able to fit in the cargo hold and still move around. All in all the loading took more time than they’d want, nearly seven hours, and the crew wanted to get the hell out of dodge before anyone thought to check the cargo hold.
Cargo-Hold full Mal grabbed his radio. “Wash, get us out of here. Head for Beaumonde and wave the twins. Tell them we have a host of cargo they might want.”
“And our deal?” the slayer asked as they left the cargo hold going up into the common areas of the ship. Buffy knew Mal wouldn’t forget, he was an honorable man, she just wanted to know what he was thinking.
“This time of the year Ezra and Beaumonde are nice and close together. Technically the best planet is Bernadette to modify the ship with it’s supplies for settlers but as it’s a core planet...” Mal trailed off.
Buffy understood, Beaumonde was very well equipped for both modifying the ship for the greenhouses, and had all the parts Kaylee might need to fix the ship up. “We don’t want to risk Simon and River by taking them to a section of space where we could be searched for any reason the captain of the alliance ship could think of. Even if it was complete and utter bullshit.”
Mal nodded, glad the blonde understood the delay and the risk in heading to a Core Planet instead of a border one. “Exactly. Should only take us a couple days or so to complete business on Beaumonde. After that we’ll shove her in a drydock and go about modifyin and updatin her.”
They’d been passin by the Engine Room when Mal said this so Buffy was treated to Kaylee jumping on Mal with a giant hug as they passed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The hyper mechanic squealed. “I can finally update the stuff I’ve been dreaming of!”
Mal just looked at Buffy with a horrified look on his face. Buffy just shrugged as she walked off with a smirk on her face, leaving Mal to the tender mercies of an over-excited mechanic.