SERENITY
CONSUMING VENGEANCE
Disclaimer: Serenity/ Firefly and all related pre-existing characters don't belong to me. Enough with that da bian huah, and on with the ruttin' story already!
CHAPTER ONE: PURPLE VENGEANCE
Captain Malcolm Reynolds glanced at the cards in his hand, and sighed. He sat with Jayne Cobb and Zoë Washburne, absorbed in a tricky card game. It had been a whole damn year of peace, he reflected… since River Tam, who now sat across the table reading a hefty book and turning the pages faster than Mal could blink, had annihilated a mass of Reavers, since the monstrosities had been wiped out by the Alliance… and since the Alliance's own Operative had turned on them, and let the crew of Serenity go free… and it seemed like it had been that long since any of them had seen Simon Tam or Kaywinnet Lee 'Kaylee' Frye. They rarely seemed to venture from their rutting room, except when the team had urgent need of their medic or engineer.
"Uh… don't mean t' intrude here or whatever, Mal, but… you gonna lay a gorram card or wha'?" Mal stared blankly at Jayne and then said:
"Oh, right… I'll raise to…" And then their world exploded! Mal felt himself thrown from his seat and slammed into a wall… everything went black. After a while, Reynolds mumbled:
"Jayne? Zoë? Gorram it… what just happened?"
"E.M.P, cap'n," came a call from the door.
Well, taikong suoyou de xingqiu saijin wo de pigu… thought Mal, If it ain't Kaylee Frye finally 'merged from her ruttin' quarters. What he actually said was:
"Hey, you got that gorram medic up and out witcha?"
"I'm here." Simon did not look particularly amused.
"Well, that's shiny, ain't it? Now, do yer ruttin' job an' check on Zoë and Jayne- in that gorram order! Kaylee, who shot at us, gorram it!?"
"Alliance craft." It was River speaking, standing in the doorway when moments ago she had been at the table, which was now a mere pile of wooden wreckage in the centre of the room. Her eyes were wide but she showed no fear, "Ten of them. Closing in…"
The three tall men in black strode up to the receptionist of a dark, gloomy inn, deep within the rancid slums of the third moon of Tybalt V.
"We are here to see a Mr. Reeves. John Reeves. I believe he is a resident here." The first man, a pale figure with a small sprawl of blond hair, spoke calmly and determinedly.
"Never heard o' no John Reeves," replied the receptionist.
"Oh, don't lie to us, madam… we know he is here," interjected a man with mid-length black hair, garbed in a purple overcoat, "And he is a fugitive from the Alliance."
"Ain't no browncoats hidin' out here, mac."
"Did we say he was a browncoat, dear?" The third man, who wore a brimmed hat that cast his face in shadow and large sunglasses, moved a step closer to the woman so as to cast his long shadow over her, "Where is the man calling himself Reeves?"
"Did you think I would really be stupid enough to try hiding from you, gentlemen?"
The three strangers turned to face a hulking black man, who clutched two katana swords.
"Ah, old friend," the first inquisitor nodded his head and then pointed a knife at 'John Reeves', "Did you really think the Alliance wouldn't seek retribution for your betrayal?"
"'Course not. That's why I was ready for you punks." And the former Alliance Operative smiled cockily, and threw a katana. The three Operatives dodged:
"You're ours, traitor!"
John Reeves burst out into the street, running full pelt through the alleys of the small town of Jeopardy, running on and on…
Suddenly, he sprinted full on into an outstretched spear, and then slid back of the end, eyes glazing over.
"Liu kou shui de biao zi he hou zi de er zi" hissed the blond Operative, "You stupid BASTARD!"
And then Reeves struck the blond man on the wrist, knocking the spear away, and staggered through the streets, on and on… desperate to escape…
"Not so fast, Reeves!"
John saw the black haired foe drop from a low-slung roof. He nicknamed the fellow Long John for his eye patch, and swivelled to avoid a hurled knife.
The blond came up behind him: Goldilocks.
"Yer trapped, you ruttin' son of a doxy!"
The final man, Shades, aimed a shotgun and fired. Reeves leapt aside, but the shell punched through his leg and he fell, slamming into the dirt…
The last thing the former Operative known as John Reeves saw was Goldilock's swinging spear…