Chapter 2: Why Can't It Ever Go Smooth

AN: In order to improve clarity, I'm going to try posting the new setting in bold immediately after each scene shift. Hope this helps.

Firefly Shuttle

Jayne shifted the large, bulky rifle uncomfortably. "Hey, Mal, why can't we just use our regular guns?" the killer asked. "I hate this high-tech, Alliance, luh-shu," he grumbled.

"The rifles may be 'high-tech, Alliance, luh-shu', but they're nonlethal high-tech, Alliance, luh-shu. And like I done told you before, if anything goes down, we can't risk killing nobody."

"Well, why the Hell not? Not like it's anything we haven't done before."

"True, but previously we weren't pulling jobs in our own past. The less we muck about with history the better. No sense opening that can of worms. Let's just get in, get what we need to fix up our ship and get out without impacting the time stream any more than absolutely necessary."

Jayne said nothing in reply, but he did let out a barely audible huff. If there was one thing the bruiser hated more than being saddled with Alliance weapons, it was being told he couldn't kill anyone – some people just got in the way and needed killing.

Still, he was all for the 'get in and out as quickly as possible' part. After all, it wasn't like he was getting paid by the hour. Actually, now that he thought about it, he wasn't going to see any money at all off of this job. Shiny, things just kept getting better and better.

Eventually the shuttle touched down in the desert, and Mal, Zoe and Jayne got out. They began to make their way to the rocket base, leaving Wash behind, alone with the shuttle that was to take them back to Serenity.

Inside the Rocket Base

"Remember, Chuck, the Ring spy could be anyone. So stay close and let us know as soon as you flash on anything," Sarah reminded in a pleasant, somehow encouraging tone.

"And don't do anything to tip the guy off," Casey added in a significantly more threatening one.

Chuck nodded and then took a deep breath before following Sarah and Casey into the base commander's office.

The three were disguised as technicians, there to examine the rockets' computer guidance systems and make sure that they were still functioning properly. And even the base commander had no idea that that was just his three guests' cover, for even he was not above suspicion. Of course the orders for the inspection had already come to him from higher up the command chain, and he didn't suspect a thing. The base commander issued temporary passes to Chuck, Sarah and Casey; and, since Chuck didn't flash on anything in the man's office, the three continued onward.

It wasn't long, however, before Chuck did flash on someone, a custodian of all things. The human Intersect stopped dead in his tracks and smiled nervously as the janitor in question raised an eyebrow at him and continued on past. Of course, once the Ring agent was around the corner, Chuck told his handlers what he'd seen.

They both nodded. Sarah said that he'd done a good job, but that he should go wait in the car now, and Casey just emitted another of his trademark grunts – number seventeen, Chuck noted, slightly pleased with a hint of 'now get out of my way'. And he figured that was the closet thing to a compliment he'd ever get from the government trained killer.

The two left Chuck to make his own way back to the safety of the 'Nerd Herder' while they took off after the Janitor, and that was when everything went slantwise.

Red lights pulsated, and a siren started blaring, indicating that the base was under attack. And the janitor noticing this, turned back to cast a suspicious look over his shoulder. He spoted the two 'techs' following him and, assuming that his cover had been blown, made a break for it. He ran outside, where it seemed a fire fight was already in progress. Muzzles flashed in the twilight of the setting sun, and bizarre, blue bolts of energy zoomed through the air. The Ring agent didn't have the foggiest idea what was going down, but he hoped that, whatever it was, it would create enough chaos to cover his escape.

Sarah and Casey, however, were determined to keep that from happening. As they exited the building, they too saw the signs of the most unusual fire fight that had broken out; but concentrating on the task at hand, they refused to let themselves be distracted. They saw their target making his way around the building, most likely heading for the parking lot on the other side.

Sarah kept on the man, while Casey circled around the other side, planning to cut him off. But this plan proved fruitless as the NSA agent came around the building corner and found a heavily armed, dark skinned woman already there.

She was dressed in tight pants – leather, Casey guessed. She had on a short red jacket, and a large duffel bag hung at her side, its strap stretching over her neck and to the far shoulder. But the thing that drew Casey's attention the most was the large, Sci-Fi-ish rifle that rested in her hands.

Obviously she wasn't with the base's MPs, and that meant she was with whoever was attacking them. Casey started to bring his gun-arm up, but he never got the chance; for the woman, upon first catching sight of him had had a knee-jerk reaction, raised her own 'hand canon' and fired.

The shimmering blue sphere hit Casey in the chest, right where his heart was; and although it didn't pierce his flesh, it still hurt... a lot. The NSA agent went flying backwards, driven by the kinetic force of the Alliance concussion rifle, and landed a couple feet away. He stared up at the women who'd shot him and noticed a surprised and slightly regretful look on her face as the world dimmed before his eyes and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Elsewhere – Outside the Rocket Bases' Command Building

Jayne continued onward. He and Mal and Zoe had gotten separated shortly after the fire fight started, but he knew where the shuttle was. If he could just reach it with his hide intact, he'd be fine. Sure Zoe had the parts they needed to fix Serenity; but somehow, in Jayne's list of priorities, staying alive toped getting the ship fixed.

Besides, it wasn't like he could do much about the ship right then and there anyway. There was no way he was going to be able to sneak back and pilfer some more parts, not now that the base was on high alert. And even if he could, he'd have no idea what to grab. No, the fate of Serenity, for the moment at least, rested solely on the shoulders of her captain and first officer... wherever they were.

So Jayne continued onward, around the building that stood between him and where the shuttle had set down. However, as he cleared the building a black car went speeding by, almost running him down in the process, and then something very unexpected happened. An odd, very small vehicle followed the black car, but this vehicle didn't nearly run Jayne over. Instead it screeched to a stop in front of him, and the passenger's side door was thrown open.

"Hurry up, Casey! The Ring agent's getting away!" a strange blonde woman shouted.

Jayne's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. He had no idea who this woman was... or who 'Casey' was for that matter. And the only thing he knew about this 'Ring' agent was that, apparently the guy or girl was getting away and this upset the blonde woman sitting in the small, land vehicle's driver's seat.

At first Jayne was just going to continue on and leave the obviously confused girl, who was driving the unimposing 'rover', to whatever insanity she was in the throws of. However, two MPs came around the building, spotted him and started shooting. And as the automatic gunfire split the air to his left and above his head, Jayne quickly decided that the safest thing he could do at the moment was leap into the passenger's seat and let this blonde drive him (hopefully) away from the people who wanted his head on a platter.

And so, the interplanetary criminal dove into the Nerd Herd car, and Sarah slammed her foot down on the gas petal. The car abruptly accelerated, and Jayne felt the force of that acceleration push him into the synthetic leather of his seat.

From somewhere behind him, a sharp yelp pierced the air; and as Jayne recovered from the inertia he craned and turned his neck to see what had emitted that sound. It was then that the hardened fugitive saw the geek sitting in the back, his fingers digging into the 'pleather' of the back seat, holding on for dear life. Jayne emitted a strange sound, half way between a sigh and a growl, before his attention was diverted back to the front windshield by the roar of gunfire.

The driver in the car they were chasing had stuck his left hand out the window and was firing wildly at his pursuers. Jayne reached for his own side arm, in order to return fire. And it was only when Jayne's hand groped empty air that he remembered that, in accordance with Mal's orders, he'd left his pistol back on Serenity.

"Don't tell me you don't have a gun... for once?" the blonde to Jayne's side said, apparently having guessed at the merc's troubles. She sighed and then continued, "Take mine – in my waist band, behind the coat."

Despite the life threatening situation, Jayne's lips pulled into a slight smirk as he once again 'groped' for a pistol, only this time in much more... interesting territory. Of course, always having been one to prize staying alive, Jayne's hand didn't linger... for too long on the blonde's lower back; and pulling out the concealed weapon, he stuck his hand through his own window and began firing through the other vehicle's rear window.

The glass shattered, and the man in the other car stopped firing. He pulled his left hand inside. And, realizing that his own chance at escape rested in reaching the highway and out maneuvering his pursuers, he tightly gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he gunned the car for all it was worth.

Sarah, seeing how close they were getting to the highway and realizing the potential for disaster should their high-speed chase reach an area with that many other vehicles, quickly came to a decision. "Chuck," she began as she opened a hidden compartment in the Nerd Herder's dashboard and pushed the red button within, "time to get out of the car."

Suddenly the roof retracted into the trunk, and thrusters fired beneath the backseat. And with a high pitched, girlish shriek, Chuck was ejected. The Intersect, her asset, safely out of harm's way, Sarah said a prayer and pushed the green button which rested beside the red one. Almost instantly, the small car's speed doubled, and Sarah guided it to her target.

"Oh, gos se," Jayne grumbled as he figured out what the crazy blonde beside him was planning. However, the space outlaw had time for nothing else, since the two vehicles collided virtually at the same second the words exited his mouth.

The thrusters underneath Chuck's seat exhausted their meager fuel supply. A parachute opened behind the back rest, and the geeky spy was safely lowered back to the ground. And as soon as he touched down, Chuck was fumbling nervously with his seat-belt, trying to get it off as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, all his fumbling only resulted in the simple procedure taking twice as long as usual.

But eventually, the Intersect freed himself from the ejector seat and rushed over to the twisted hunk of metal that had once been two separate vehicles. He ran to the driver's side door, Sarah's door, and only when he saw her through the broken window glass, saw her chest rising and falling with each breath she took, did the geek realize that he'd been holding his own.

He let it out now as he turned her head to the side and tried to focus the computer in his brain on assessing her condition. Finally he flashed and the intersect told him that his handler had only suffered some bruising and minor scrapes and cuts, the latter most likely from the shattered glass, and that she was only dazed.

"Sarah, are you okay?" Chuck couldn't help but ask, though he already knew the answer.

The blonde stirred slowly. "Wh-what? Oh, yeah. I'm... fine. Wouldn't want to do that again," she quipped, "But fine." Sarah flashed Chuck a quick smile and then turned to the large man sitting beside her. "Casey, are you okay?"

The man let out a long moan as he firmly pressed his hand into a gash that ran down the side of his head, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. "Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze!" he swore before turning to Sarah. "Who the Gorram is Casey?!" Jayne demanded angrily.

"Oh, crap," Chuck commented as he came to the most logical conclusion. "Sarah, I think Casey's got amnesia."

Inside the Firefly Shuttle

Wash opened the hatch as soon as he saw his wife coming. "Hey, Baby, did you have fun shopping?" he greeted. "Get everything on the list?"

"Honey, you know I love you, but now's really not the best time for jokes." As soon as the words left Zoe's mouth, Mal appeared at the hatch, a large, unconscious man slung over his shoulder.

Dropping the man to the floor and then climbing in himself, Mal shouted, "Wash, get us in the air!"

The pilot quickly complied. And only once they were safely on their way back to Serenity did he ask about what had happened.

"Well, security was a might tighter than we were expecting," Mal answered. "They spotted us on our way back out, started shooting and then all kinds of Hell broke lose. We got separated, ran around like chickens with our necks chopped for a bit. Somehow, Jayne got a hold of one of the local's clothes and must have figured they'd help him blend in better."

"And did they?"

"That they did; that they did. In fact, he blended in so well that Zoe shot him in the confusion, and I had to haul his unconscious self all the way back here."

"Oh, sounds like... No, actually that doesn't sound like fun at all."

"No, it don't," Mal replied and then let out a long breath. "But at least we got the parts we need to fix up Serenity," he then continued as he cast a proud look at the duffel bag resting beside Zoe.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed. Please drop a review and let me know what you thought. Thanks.

Have a good day, and God bless.

Metropolis Kid.