Sarah Fortune had achieved what she wanted. Gangplank was dead, besides what the unfortunate rumours typical after Harrowing might say. The problem? Said Harrowing had only achieved to feed the government problems and the gang wars in Bilgewater.
One would think that after so much death, the gangs of criminals, pirates andmore, would get tired. But no. It had only served as motivation, making them think that their rivals would be too weak to act. There wasn't almost nothing left of Bilgewater.
Literally.
The fires and the damage of the night of Harrowing almost made more bad to the buildings than to the people. Something that results extremely easy, when most of the buildings are wood made, and settled in almost vertical cliffs.
For Miss Fortune, even if in her objective of bringing stability back she was failing, this had a bad side, and a good side. The good part is that her actions and those of her men in the night of Harrowing had accomplished earning her the sympathy of the general population, and the respect and fear, even if in Bilgewater there is no difference, of the other bands. The bad side?
She was broke.
Between the damages to repair, and the loss of men, she almost had no time to sustain the payment of her men in the Mermaid. Thankfully Rafen knew how to keep them at bay under these circumstances, because if note, half of them would already had left. And those who did… well, lately there was always someone willing to work for her.
Thinking in what to do with that, and trying to relax, she practiced shooting in the back yard of her villa. Luckily, that part of the island was left intact and it found itself so, relatively, remote from everything else.
Her pistols had always been her best asset, but after Harrowing it had been left clear to her that her mother was right. Never again was going to ask to someone between her men that he reloaded them.
"If you have come for the mutiny attempt, I already told you that I would discipline them myself this afternoon. That I entrusted that task to other without making myself present, it would weaken me in front of the view of the others."
Rafen wasn't still able to surprise her. But he still saw so clear through her as always. It wasn't the strength of her image what had her worried.
What worried her is that executing someone without even bothering to know who he is, is something Gangplank would do. Luckily it was not the case.
"No. Don't worry. You left that clear enough. It's for another matter. Something that could solve our problems of cash."
"Well. Once that is solved, everything will continue as it must. What is it about?"
Fortune kept shooting while they talk. But for some reason, Rafen had stopped talking to her.
"Old man?"
When she turned around to see him, and saw the expression of his face, she knew it had to be about some difficult business.
And in Bilgewater, that meant potentially lethal.
She blow the cannon of her smoky guns, for then sheath them, caressing the grips of the handles.
"Let's speak inside." said passing by him.
Sarah observed the amount of the reward with incredulity. An incredulity that kept transforming into happiness.
"Rafen, please, tell me this is a joke of bad taste."
"I wish it was."
The man answered with a peculiarly apathetic tone for the news he was bringing. He should be almost jumping of joy. Like her.
Noticing how she had lost composure, Fortune started to calm down.
"You wish it was? Rafen, for this amount we could buy half of the island, and then rebuilt the other half. What is the problem?"
"Sarah, please."
He only referred to her by her first name when he was particularly nervous. Not even in Harrowing she saw him like this.
"You keep enough years dragging corpses to the board of bounties for not to know what means a…"
"An amount like this, it means that either the sought one has completely banished and it would be impossible to locate, and it would be better to give the reward for lost, or that it you find him, you can give your life for lost, because the one offering the bounty only does it to pull out to light the one he is searching for, and he knows that something less than a battalion wouldn't be able to capture him."
She sat over the table, crossing her legs with confidence, and pulling out a cigar out of the snuffbox of wood over the furniture.
"And I would say that I don't have enough fingers in my hands and feet to enumerate the amount of contracts of that kind that I have completed."
When she wasn't able to find the matches, Rafen approached her with his own to light it up.
"I know. And I also know that you sent back to Piltover many men of science with methods that their countrymen consider morally cuestionable."
"Yes. Those are the ones that when they tell me what they would do with my body, they disturb me in a sense completely opposite to the usual."
"But in this case, the one proclaiming the reward is from Zaun."
"Cough, cough! … What?"
She gave another glance to the paper. What kind of experiment or area of knowledge could be considered too immoral even for the prime contributor of monstruosities and war weapons for Noxus?
Maybe at the end she would reconsider.
"… I'm curious about it."
Or not. He always had empty hopes with her.
"Look, until that moment, I could agree with you in a certain manner. But then it was when I noticed the name of some guy called Mundo in the contract."
"Mundo? Like in Dr. Mundo, the scientist working for Noxus, or Mundo the serial killer?"
"Both are the same."
"Is him who they seek?"
"No. He was the one that put the bounty."
NOW the things were getting weird.
Between all the amount of candidates to member of Miss Fortune's band assembled in the canteen of the docks, only one called attention. Not so much for its talent or its presence, if not for the fact of being a woman.
It's said that a woman in a ship brings misfortune. Sarah Fortune made herself famous being the exception to that rule, on purpose. But old habits die hard. So many men looked suspiciously to the girl of the lonely table.
Well, although maybe the fact that she was playing to the knife game with her own hand and her own knife could be the cause of said suspicion.
But of course to some people, pride is stronger than prudence.
Or intelligence.
"What are you doing here, girl?"
She answered without stopping, or even looking at them, at least.
"Looking for a job. Like all of you, I guess."
The man looked at his companions, waiting for them to say something. But it seemed that definetly, this depended on him.
"Forget it. Neither Bilgewater or the sea is good place for a lonely single woman. Neither working place."
"I thought the boss was a woman."
"She is an exception no one understands."
"Also, even if that was the case, I'm not here because I'm a good sailor."
Finally she stopped, and looked him to the eyes.
"I'm here because I'm good at killing."
She went back to doing her thing, with the man laughing briefly.
"Oh, yes? Then I would like to see it."
The young woman didn't take long to notice that the entire local was enveloping her. They observe her, interested in the conversation. Now she was bound to act.
She nailed the dagger on the table, with strength. The man wanted to give a step back when the brunette got up, but he didn't. He couldn't show himself insecure in front of the others.
The appearance of that girl remembered to him in a way to Captain Fortune. Both seemed to share the same sense of clothing, since both seemed to enjoy wearing clothes that only covered over the stomach. Of course no man, and less one of Bilgewater, was gonna say anything about it.
The woman put her hands over her waist, while smiling to him. Obviously, he was taller than her, so the given image gave more in favour of her conversationalist than herself.
More relaxed, the man tried to put a hand over her shoulder. So he ended launched over that shoulder by the arms of that girl, and falling on his back over the table top.
Before the pain of the impact left, he already had the dagger the brunette had nailed over the the table, over his throat.
"Really? You really want to know?"
The young woman changed fast position, when the friends of the menaced one try to jump on her back. She impulse herself with the hands over the table, and with the sole of her boots, kicked them in the chin. Finally, she landed on her feet over the furniture, holding against the table with a foot the man that she attacked.
"So?"
The man denied with his head. The brunette winked at him with her only eye, and kicked him in the flank, making him roll back to the floor.
When she looked up, everyone started laughing. Even the men she kicked.
It seemed that in the end, Bilgewater wasn't so different of Noxus. What enable you to scale positions and being respected, was strength. In both it seems that this is what is worth to gain power.
The revelry in the cantina was interrupted by a shot. Everyone put himself on alert, except the girl, that observed the balustrade in the upper part. Miss Fortune had came out, and given a warning shot to grab attention.
What she didn't have clear, is if she saw what just happened. And in case she saw, if that made her look bad or good in front of her.
The way she looked at her, solved both doubts. It seems she was one of hers.
"Well, gentlemen. As everyone must already know, after Gangplank's fall and Harrowing, one followed by the other, most of the bands have been annihilated, and those who not, have seen drastically reduced their numbers and influence. That includes mine. But I like to think that if this has served for something, is to purge the stupidity and weakness. And for what I see, everyone of you has been smart enough to come to join me. From now on, you must to demonstrate that you are hard enough to survive me."
Everyone laughed excited, until Fortune stopped them with another shot of her other weapon.
"That said, there is something you must understand before working for me. I don't know if you know, but at the start of my career, I worked as a bounty hunter, and I still do. So don't expect from me, not believe that you can perform, certain behaviours that would be seen badly even by the lax laws of the area. That said, and before your zest sunk, don't believe that we are going to devote to abide the law. Bilgewater is in chaos, which means that someone must re-establish order. We are not going to follow the law. We will become the law!
They howled again, and Miss Fortune disappeared behind the door behind the balustrade.
The dark haired one finally went down the table, and got close from behind, out of curiosity, to one of the groups of men talking.
"Fuck. How hot she is."
"Shut up, that one of her own might hear you."
"Does it matter? From what I heard, she has slept with half her crew. Is no mystery that this gal is a slut of care."
"Like if you could get a chance with her."
"And who says not?"
It took half a second for him to process that that was a feminine voice.
And another two seconds in realizing that the woman in front of him was Captain Fortune.
"I say so."
The men started to pull back while she walked away from the stairs leading to her office, and entered the multitude. After briefly examining with curiosity the man that talked without thinking, she took a look at the multitude.
"You, you, you and you. And maybe you. Look." said to the man with the loose tongue. "Those five would have a chance."
She turned around towards them.
"But for that, you first have to impress me."
She blow a kiss to the air to the closest one of the pointed out men, and the one she felt more attractive physically, and then she headed to the door of the building.
"Tomorrow I want all of you stepped on a line in front of the pier where the Syren is docked. There I will decide who comes aboard, and who doesn't. And those who doesn't, will have a chance another day."
"Where is that pier?"
Miss Fortune stopped just before reaching the door, and turned around to look at the dark haired one, standing and alone. Green eye, black eye patch, and dark hair. She carried two swords at her back and covers for knifes in arms and legs. Pointy pant legs and gauntlets. That wasn't seen in Bilgewater very often. Besides that, her clothing was a red jacket, a white top, and black trousers.
"You are not from here, right?"
The dark haired one denied with her head looking at another side, like she didn't cared. Miss Fortune headed towards her.
"What is your name?"
"Ariana. Ariana Katleen."
"Very well, Ariana. If you are asking yourself how did I knew…
"I don't."
Fortune looked at her feeling between surprised and offended. Those around feared she was testing her nerve, but their suspicions proved unfounded when the captain smiled.
"I know because of how clean and little worn out your clothes are. But of course, people like you aren't unique here. Come with me, Ariana.
The mentioned one didn't hesitate. She headed to the door, and Miss Fortune opened and hold it so she could go through. Like she didn't care or didn't needed to prove she was the one in charge.
"Ha. Hey, look. She is even into muff divers." The loose tongued one commented, before taking a punch in the nose by the same man that Ariana had taken down before, that then started a fight.
Hi.
This is a translation of a fanfic in spanish that I had been writing for a long time ago now. English isn't my native tongue, even if I know it fairly well now, so I would be thankful if you pointed any grammatical mistake here.
The idea is basically a serialized story of the adventures of Miss Fortune after the fall of Gangplank. So in the future, expect a lot of violence and sex. I will change the rating of the story to mature when that happens. But for now, I want to reach a more broad audience.
So I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and let me know what you think of it.
