Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is the creator of Firefly. Firefly is a show owned by the FOX network. Mr. Warburton is the creator of Codename: Kids Next Door. Codename: Kids Next Door is a show owned by Cartoon Network. I own none of the things listed in the previous set of sentences. So don't sue. (Seriously, don't. I own literally nothing, it'd be a waste of your time.)
Persephone is a planet of two extremes, housing both the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Of course, being at one end rather than the other doesn't make you a better person. Scum, after all, has no concept of class differentiation and the richest can be just as much of a band of cut-throat, thieving, murdering individuals as the poorest. The richest, however, may be slightly nicer than the poorer, having the decency to apologise as they're murdering you or thanking you for being stupid enough to be wearing the valuable thing they want to steal.
The Firefly class ship that was approaching Persephone's atmosphere was clearly not going for the richer end. Whilst she was a pretty little thing, small and cosy, she wasn't very high end. She was rough, like she hadn't been cleaned or decently maintained in a good few months. Bits and pieces were, effectively, being stapled onto the ship in the hopes that more vital bits and pieces would stay put and not detach themselves. The whole ship gave off an aura of people trying to get by with little supplies. Accurate, really.
So the little Firefly began its descent towards the rough end of Persephone, Eavesdown Docks. Suddenly, a panel on the front of the ship flew off into the ether. This caused the ship to begin shaking and rattling violently, its seams close to bursting apart at any second. This made the boy with the football shaped head and the red shirt in the cockpit very worried.
"What was that?" Nigel Uno asked out loud. He gained no response from the pilot next to him and proceeded to ask the same question again, but more specifically. "Was that the primary buffer panel?" Right next to him, the ship's pilot, Hoagie Gilligan, started flicking a series of switches. His rapid speed was not deflating Nigel's fears.
"Did the primary buffer panel just fly off my gorram ship for no gorram reason?!"
Hoagie then changed his switch flicking routine to a different switch flicking routine.
"Looks like," he replied, strained. He suddenly realised that he wasn't holding on to the wheel and remedied that situation as fast as possible.
"Things don't just fly off my ship for no gorram reason, Hoagie!" Nigel retorted.
"Well, I've been telling you for weeks that we needed a new primary buffer panel and you said, 'Nooooo, Hoagie! Food is more important than parts of my own ship!'" Hoagie shouted back, mockingly.
"Food keeps us living, Hoagie!"
"So does the buffer panel!"
"Wait… slow down…!" Nigel was now worried about the possible imminent case of death headed his way. "Can you land this thing?"
"It's going to be tricky even if Kuki can adjust the engine levels, otherwise our landing's going to be pretty interesting!"
"Define 'interesting'." Hoagie took his eyes out of the window of the ship to look at Nigel.
"'Oh, God. Oh, God. We're all gonna die'?"
Nigel was not excited by this news and reached for the intercom.
"This is your captain speaking. We're in for a rocky landing. We'll encounter some turbulence followed by a small, possible, minor, temporary case of dead." He then hung up the intercom and started for the back of the ship, where the Engine Room was located. "Get this thing on Persephone!" he shouted back.
"Yeah, that part'll definitely happen!" Hoagie replied.
As Nigel climbed down the steps to the bridge, he saw Wallabee Beatles stood near his bunk room, loaded to the teeth.
"We're gonna die?! I don't wanna die! I like living! Living is good!" he nervously started babbling to Nigel.
"We're not gonna die," was Nigel's calm reply. The very millisecond after he said that, though, the ship shook violently once more, only much harder than before this time. Both boys were nearly taken off their feet. Fortunately, the ship settled again. Nigel then noticed the abundance of weapons that Wally was carrying.
"What do you need all of those for?" he inquired.
"In case any of those goons plan on messing with us," Wally replied, sounding genuinely confused as to why Nigel asked that question. Nigel reached over and grabbed the shotgun from Wally. He held it up in a "are you serious" fashion.
"Big gun scares people," was Wally's genuine reply.
"Wally, we're making a deal. Not robbing a bank." Nigel tossed the shotgun back to him.
"And what if those guys suddenly rescind on the deal?" Nigel thought this over for a moment. For once, Wally had a point. Then he looked down and saw the satchel around the kid's waist.
"No grenades," he ordered as he left.
"Aw, come on!" Wally shouted back.
Nigel almost made it to the kitchen area when Abigail Lincoln appeared out of her bunk and crossed his path.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Your boyfriend's going to kill us again," Nigel deadpanned.
"I'll go talk him out of that, sir," Abby replied as she headed to the cockpit.
"That'd be a great favour to me, Abby." She stopped for a second to notice Wally.
"Why do you have grenades?" she quizzed.
"Captain won't let me take 'em with us," Wally answered.
"Captain's got a point. We're not staging a coup d'état." She then headed up to the cockpit.
Nigel was making his way through the rather large kitchen area when the ship shook yet again. Various kitchen utensils fell to the ground, as did numerous cans and even a shelf which they were being stored on. Several lids for several cans flew off from the impact of hitting the ground revealing that they'd been empty anyway. That was a situation Nigel was hoping to rectify by the deal on Persephone. Assuming they got there alive, of course. He steadied himself on the table before striding angrily to the Engine Room to meet with the engineer.
"KUKI!" Nigel shouted as loud as he could so that Kuki Sanban could hear him over the roar of the malfunctioning engines. He finally made it to the archway that entered the room. "Kuki!"
"Everything's shiny, Captain, nothing to worry about!" Kuki speedily replied whilst appearing from nowhere to walk past Nigel. He was slightly taken aback by her sudden appearance but pressed on accordingly.
"If everything's shiny then why…"
Nigel never did get to finish that question because the ship rocked again, this time sending Kuki and him flying to the wall on the right hand side of the room. The wrench that Kuki was holding similarly went flying, though she couldn't place where it landed.
"I probably needed that," she admitted sadly as the pair pulled themselves up.
"Can you keep us living?" Nigel went straight back to business.
"Captain, you're talking to me and Hoagie here," she replied matter-of-factly. The ship shook again, more mildly this time but the combination of both Kuki's answer and the last three jolts did precisely nothing to assuage Nigel's fears. He started to leave before he stopped at the arch. He turned around and shouted to Kuki.
"My ship don't crash! My ship crashes, you crashed her!"
"Great pep talk, Captain!" she shot back. Nigel turned to leave…
…and almost walked right into Rachel McKenzie.
"Oh… Hey, Rachel!" Nigel nervously sputtered out. Nervously, because Rachel didn't look happy. "Are you… scared about our impending doom?"
"This is not scared," she rebuffed. "This is anger."
"Well, it's… kinda hard… to tell one from t'other face like yours…?" he quipped, before immediately regretting it. Rachel, however, rose above decking Nigel and started a new conversation topic.
"Please?"
"No." Nigel's reply was sharp and to the point. He then tried to make an exit by heading to the lower deck, but Rachel followed him, eager to continue pressing the issue.
"Why not?"
"Because it's Persephone."
"That's not a decent enough answer."
"It's an answer enough."
"Persephone has plenty of clients…"
"Yes, who will come up to your shuttle, enjoy a wild night of passion and then abscond with our scrap metal."
Now, the pair were making their way past the Med Bay and headed for the Cargo Bay on the lower level.
"You always see the worst in people."
"That is highly untrue. I see people for who they are and on Persephone it just so happens that they are passion-filled, ravenous, absconding scumbags who are some of the worst people in the 'verse. I don't even like coming here and it's only cos we're desperate as to why we're turning up in the first place."
The Cargo Bay was extremely large, encompassing the bottom two levels of the ship with enough room to stock a herd of animals if necessary. Fortunately, none of the crew have had to transport a herd of animals yet, but if the job called for it…
The ship shook again, less violently than before but sill violently enough to legitimately worry Nigel.
"Well, we'll be turning up as charred corpses at this rate," he nervously noted. He then returned to using the walkways to lead Rachel to her pod.
"You just don't approve of what I do!" she accused, steering the conversation back to her. "That's it, isn't it?"
"No and yes."
"The no being…?"
"The no being that that's not it but the yes being that I don't approve of what you do." Nigel's blunt honesty took Rachel back slightly, but she pressed on regardless.
"I give people what they need!"
"Yes, everyone needs a pretty woman to stick her tongue down their throats."
"That's only one part…"
"Tell me how often you Companions use other parts." The pair arrived at Rachel's shuttle.
"And that's preferable to working for criminals?"
"It's preferable to being a whore…"
"Don't call me that."
"That's what it is, isn't it?"
"It's legal. Which is more than I can say for your line of work."
The intercom broke up their argument and Hoagie's voice echoed throughout the cargo hold.
"OK, you might want to hold onto something as we're about to touchdown at Eavesdown Docks. This is the part that could hurt."
Approximately 0.6 seconds after Hoagie got off the intercom, the entire ship crashed hard. Nigel and Rachel were thrown down onto each other on the catwalk and the entire structure of the ship rattled for a few seconds. Then, silence. All engines cut out. All rattling stopped. Silence. Rachel and Nigel realised there were on top of one another and immediately proceeded to stand up and away from each other. The intercom crackled again.
"We're OK!" Hoagie triumphantly called out. "Everything's shiny! Nothing's broken!" A loud crash could be heard over the intercom as he said that. "Much. Nothing much," he fixed.
Rachel and Nigel stood awkwardly staring at one another. Nigel noticed Rachel was pulling a face.
"Are you trying to use puppy dog eyes on me?" he asked.
"Maybe. Is it working?" she responded. Nigel stood staring into her big, beautiful brown eyes for a moment longer before he answered.
"We're not staying." He then turned to leave.
"Come on! I need to make a living too!" she shouted. This stopped Nigel in his tracks for a moment. He hadn't considered that. In all the time she'd been back on his ship, he's never given that a thought. Nigel was going to fix that mistake. He spun around.
"We need passengers to make it so that our ship is less suspicious to Adult patrols. If you can get some on board, I'm sure you can convince them to join you for a night of… pleasure."
"And if none of them consent?"
"That's my compromise. Take it or leave it. Mind, pretty girl like you should have no trouble… persuading them." He then headed for the stairs. "Meet with Kuki if you're taking it," he called back.
Rachel leaned against her shuttle door for a moment. She'd done it again. Nigel Uno, could you be played any easier?
Down the stairs, Nigel met up with Abby and Wally, the trio ready to head out to their deal. As the cargo doors opened, Hoagie shouted over the intercom, "Hey, if anyone headed out gets a chance, could you find a new primary buffer panel? I don't much fancy trying that landing again." Abby grabbed the intercom near the doors to respond.
"We'll all try. And nice flying, babe." With that, she hung up and headed off with the other two guys. Rachel and Kuki both stood at the cargo doors and simply stared outside for a bit, taking in the view. Kuki was the first to break the silence before the pair headed off to pick up passengers.
"Well, here we are."
AN: Hi, there. If you have read this then I shall assume that you, like me, are part of a small group of people who are fans of both the beloved cult Joss Whedon TV show Firefly and the beloved cult Mr. Warburton cartoon Codename: Kids Next Door. If so, let's be bestest buddies!
Anyways, this first little chapter was a test more than anything else. The idea popped up in my head recently (specifically the links between characters on both shows) and it's only just in the last 18 hours that I figured out how to do something with it. So, I wrote this in a hurry. And I had fun and enjoyed it. I'll probably write some more at some point.
However, do not expect this to be constantly updated on a regular schedule. It is something that I'll probably come back to and write for every so often but not on a constant "OK! Here's chapter 2 all planned out! Here's a deadline day! Let's get it done, boo-yah!" thing. It's a nice little distraction that I will work on every once in a while due to my very busy life and my very dry ideas well.
Of course, that's not to say that some reviews (positive reviews, especially) and alerts are not going to make me a bit more likely to crank out more chapters at a faster rate. On the contrary, if there's demand, I'll be happy to oblige! So let me know what you all think!
Also, I need help figuring out who on the KND cast would work best as Simon Tam, River Tam and Shepherd Derial Book. (I'm guessing that you too got the links between the KND characters and the Firefly characters) If any of you have any suggestions, let me know!
Well, that about does it! Boy, am I glad to be back writing after 2 years! So, review and let me know if you'd like to see more! Til next time!
"No power in the 'verse can stop me!"