26 months post BDM - Set in the Coded in Brown 'Verse (Wash survived BDM) -
The building was nondescript, about 3 stories in height, made of the standard corrugated steel that cheap industrial buildings were often made of; amazing what sins could be covered up by a thin layer of steel.
The shorter man strode purposefully, shabby bowler hat tilted cockily on his head and an unlit cigar over his ear; he smelt of cigar smoke and strong cheese, and a good layer of body odor. His clothes were shabby and unwashed, and he needed a shave 3 days ago; he leered at the girls every once in a while over his shoulder. The decorative cane tapped the ground as he walked.
Three girls followed him, stumbling over their feet, looking exhausted and terrified and angry. They were all about 5'6"; one had strawberry blonde hair and a nice shiner on her face, which was tightened into an angry grimace, baring her teeth at her captor. The girl with darker hair, and a dancer's body looked unfocused and vague, as though something was wrong with her. The final girl was busty and pretty, mostly untouched; she wore a healthy mask of fear.
The guard outside the Pensar Building saw the new seller approach; nice selection of goods.
"Ya haveta sign up here."
"Sounds lovely, mate. 'Fraid'm not familiar wit' th' rules o' yer exchange yet."
"Just sign 'em in, either give their names or just make one up, don't rightfully care. S'long as their collar number is right." The guard picked up each girl's downcast chin, checking them over; the strawberry blonde girl tried to snap her teeth at the guard, and her head was snapped back by the chain in the seller's hand, as he cuffed her expertly. "Better mark this one as belligerent; don't worry none on it, should bring a nice price with certain clients." He looked over the busty brunette, expert eye seeing the very real mask of fear over her pretty face, the tracks of tears visible in the dirt. She'd make a nice ornament in a rich man's house. "This'un looks pretty good, not a mark far as I can see."
"Girl 'ad an unhealthy fear o' death." the seller winked, filling out the information on the flimsy.
"This one looks a bit out of it though. She follow orders?" the guard asked, checking over the darker-haired brunette; she had a nice body, but her eyes were too unfocused. She was dirty and had bruises on her arms.
"Should."
"A'right. All looks good, go ahead in and talk with the auctionmaster. Give 'im these chits, he'll put the girls in the selection. Ya can wander about, see if there's anything ya like; just report fer the auction when the collar number comes up."
They entered the auction house, and found that the building was open plan, 3 stories in height. Girls were lined up along the walls in cages, or held on chains by shabby and disreputable men.
The seller wandered about, seemingly aimlessly; he appraised the other ladies in the place with a practiced eye and seemingly made mental notes about ones he'd be interested in. He also kept away the more hands-on buyers, who seemed to insist on touching the goods. "Ya touch the goods, 't comes outta my cut. Comes outta my cut, I cut it outta ya. Dohn ma? Ya can wait 'til ya make a bid on 'em at auction."
By seeming coincidence, he found himself in front of the business office; he looked around, spotting all of the burly guards along the walls and on the auction block; seemed the auction was about to begin. He thumbed a hidden button on the ivory head of the cane.
Wash saw the light begin blinking on the control panel, along with a beeping noise; he pulled down the comm, and said "2 minute warning. Be ready to move in 2."
"Affirm." he heard back over the comm. Wash spun up the engines, getting Serenity ready to move in for support if need be.
Badger thought hard, and River heard it; she touched the other two girls briefly, and conveyed the message.
2 minutes out. Get ready for fireworks.
As the time ticked down, Badger took one final look around the room for the camera hidden in the cigar over his ear to get a clear count.
His earwig comm whispered "30 seconds, get ready for showtime."
He pressed a second hidden button on the cane, leering offensively to cover his actions. The cuffs on the girls all unlocked.
3 seconds before the doors burst in, River swept gracefully towards the business office, taking down the door with one swift kick and slipping in, entirely unnoticed by everyone in the room until the door broke. With two swift actions, she incapacitated the men sitting at the counting tables, and a third strike gave the man at the computer console a concussion. She grabbed the weapons off of the unconscious men, and ran back out just as the doors burst open, locks shattered by precise explosives.
"Federal Marshals! Everybody freeze!" she heard Mal yell; Mal and Jamie were at one door with Inara not far behind, and Zoe and Jayne kicked in the other door, aiming at the guards nearest to the door.
River tossed 2 of the pistols to Jenny and Petaline, and they took up cover behind convenient posts nearby; Badger pulled his own pistol out of the holster at the small of his back; his gun was loaded with electrical rounds, meant for nonlethal purposes.
The whole room froze for a moment; then moved into action. The various girls in the room, all having resigned themselves to being sold into slavery, now dropped to the ground and took cover. The sellers and buyers in the big room, nearly a hundred, seemed torn between running and fighting, but the large weapons in the hands of the 5 agents entering the room, from the only two entrances or exits, seemed to convince them otherwise. Those who had weapons removed them slowly and set them down, while the guards around the room wavered on protecting their bosses, seeing death in the eyes of the agents that had entered. One lifted his gun to fire, and Jayne dropped him with a chest full of rubber pellets; they hurt like hell but wouldn't kill. The others seemed a mite calmed by that fact, and dropped their weapons nearly as one.
Badger and the ladies helped cuff the sellers and buyers, as Inara read all of the arrested men their charges and rights; local law enforcement agents arrived now to help with the cleanup of the scum.
Within 2 hours of the sting beginning, it had ended, with no loss of life. The arrested slavers, sellers, and buyers, almost 150 in all, were picked up by several prisoner transport vehicles.
Once they were off their hands, the crew of Serenity returned to the ship; exhausted, stressed, and ready for bed, but surprisingly for one of their jobs, with no wounds or injuries of any kind.
"I'm gonna kick your ass in training tomorrow, Badge. Didja really have to hit me?"
"'ey, love. Ifn' I hadn'a hit ya, the guard woulda been all over it. Slave seller like that, they got eyes fer it."
"Okay, I know that. Still."
"Then kick me arse in return. Just sayin', luv. Hadta do it fer th' job to go down smooth."
"Fine. Go take a shower, you smell like ass."
"Unfortunate side effect o' havin' ta look like a slaver; th' buggers needta shower more."
Badger went and took a quick shower, washing away the grime of his disguise, popping a breath refresher to get rid of the smell of the moldy cheese.
Petaline, River, and Jenny helped each other remove the makeup that had been used to replicate bruises.
"You know he hadta do it, honey." Petaline soothed, checking Jenny's head for a bruise.
"He plays the part a little too well some days." Jenny snarked.
"It's a past life fer him. He just knows how they think."
"He's definitely a bit different now, than even when you came on board. Bit of a civilizing influence, havin' family aboard. Just...sometimes he worries me a bit, knowing what he knows."
"No different than when I first came aboard. They were scared of me too, back then." River murmured. "He's trustworthy, I know that much. Just a good actor."
Jenny nodded. All cleaned up, she went to find some comfort.
Petaline curled up next to Badger, and he wrapped his arms around her, feeling her fall steadily asleep. These sorts of jobs always exhausted her; mostly emotionally.
He waited until she was completely asleep, then got up, sliding his arm out from under her head. He'd find no sleep tonight, he knew.
River sat at the co-pilot seat, glancing at Mal as he sat at the pilot's seat.
"Should be asleep, ai ren." he murmured.
"Can't sleep with the thoughts floating."
"I know. Feel 'em too."
"You're getting stronger, ai ren, aren't you?"
"Startin' to understand why you always hated crowds. It's an effort to keep the thoughts out, even with all the bits and pieces in my brainpan."
"You won't ever be quite as strong, I don't think; but you'll have better control."
"Yea. You feelin' Badger wanderin' 'bout too?"
"Thoughts swirling about his part in the raid today. Feeling pain at his usual role; always the inside man, always the criminal."
"It's the role he's good at. Not one of us could pull off that role, 'ception of maybe Jamie. And he looks too clean cut. Either me or Jayne would have killed somebody by now, and we've had two operations go off flawlessly because he's able to scope the situation out right."
"I know that. But I think he may need some encouragement."
"I'll have a chat. Why don't you get autopilot set up and get to bed?"
"Soon as we're enroute."
Mal found Badger standing on the catwalks, wearing clean sleep clothes and staring out over the overhauled cargo bay; instead of the grating floor, they'd set up padded flooring for any athletic and combat training they needed to do; they also had set up a small firing range at the side of the bay, with armored sections to prevent a hull breech.
Badger seemed to be ignoring him, but Mal could sense that he was aware of his approach.
"You did good today."
"Clearly ya weren't inside wit' us."
"The job went off flawlessly, and nobody even got shot; sounds like a win to me. 'Specially when we rescued what, almost 200 would-be slaves?"
Badger grunted, trying to will Mal away.
"Look. I know what's eating at you."
Badger gave him a strange look now. Mal hadn't let wind of his expanding ability leak to any of the other crew, except Simon and River, although Kaylee probably had a pretty good idea, and Zoe probably knew just from her own observation of the situation; couldn't hide much from the woman.
"You don't like being the bad guy in these situations. I understand that; it's a natural feeling. But in earnest, if we thought you were the kind of man who would take advantage of a situation like that, we'da spaced you long ago."
"That's real comfortin', Mal." Badger snarled. "Yer not the one 'oo 'as to take these ladies inta places they oughtn't ta be, unarmed, and make as if 'e's sellin' 'em off ta slavers. Jus'...brings up bad memories."
"The fact you're feeling badly about it tells me that you're human. That's all. We've all got this dead skin of our former lives hangin' off us; you think Jamie likes bein' reminded of bein' an Operative once? Or that River likes bein' reminded that she's a government-crafted killin' machine? I don't particularly enjoy remembering all of the things I've done as a thief, or as a soldier. Fact is, though, that those things are part o' us. They're the pieces of us that form what we are today. You wouldn't be such an effective inside-man if you didn't have those memories and that part of you. Just as long as you control it, and it doesn't control you...you don't haveta worry 'bout it."
"Wager yer right."
"Why don't you get to bed? Petaline is probably getting lonely." he suggested.
Badger nodded and headed off to bed.
Petaline stirred slightly as he climbed in, and opened her eyes, examining his face. "I know what yer thinkin', darlin'. We go in as volunteers. We trust ya to bring us out again."
"Ya can honestly say ya don't feel scared 'bout goin' inta those places, chains on ya, and ya 'spect I'll get ya out every time, 'thout fail?"
"Surely do, baby. Wouldn't go in if I didn't." she said, then curled up closer to him, kissing him repeatedly. He finally gave up trying to feel bad, and began kissing her back, feeling her soft skin under his hands as he she moved under his touch.