Rio 35
Killian walked up to a pair of what looked like glass doors. Not very effective to keep people out he mused.
Someone walked out of the doors as he approached and he did a double take.
The man wasn't that remarkable per se but what he was wearing was quite shocking.
The man was wearing one of the ugliest shirts he had ever seen and some sort of equally hideous short pants.
The man nearly collided with him as he looked back for his companion. If what the man was wearing didn't shock him.
The woman hurrying to his side dressed in only her undergarments and holding a huge hat, made him either want to stare or cover the poor girl with his coat.
He had honestly seen whores wearing more clothes this this woman.
She brushed past both Killian and Cora and looped her arm through the hideously dressed man's arm.
Cora snorted beside him. Killian turned ever so slightly
"At least your trollop can afford clothes" said Cora
Killian grinned and walked in the door.
Despite the insult at the end Cora had actually said something nice about someone, maybe there was hope for her yet.
Inside the ineffective glass door was a long counter top that didn't even have the decency to have alcohol behind it.
Killian walked up to the counter. Another man heaved his heavy frame out of a chair that squeaked in protest and walked to the other side.
"Can I help you sir?" said the man behind the counter.
Cora was standing at the same counter leafing through some brightly colored papers.
"Actually yes you can I need a chart, one that shows Maine specifically" said Killian
The man nodded and tapped something into a box. Then he went towards the back of the room and pulled open a huge filing cabinet.
The man pulled a neatly folded paper from the drawer and closed the drawer. He walked back over to Killian.
"You're in luck only one left, that'll be $75.50" said the man
Killian gave him a blank look. Did the man mean seventy five gold pieces? That seemed a bit steep for a bit of parchment.
"Ah I'm afraid I don't have that much coin on me, would you take silver?" said Killian
The man gave him a strange look.
"We do accept credit cards. Silver, platinum, gold, you name it so long as it has the visa or MasterCard logo" said the man
Killian was confused and wished Rio was here to handle this. He honestly didn't expect to have this many issues with the currency.
Cora moved closer to them and stared at the man behind the counter with narrowed eyes.
"What is this card of masters you speak of?" said Cora
The man looked at Cora in shock.
"Ah it's a credit card, you know plastic" said the man
"We do not have plas tick" said Cora
"Well then you can't have the map, your welcome to come back when you have the cash for it" said the man
He started to walk away. If he had seen Cora's face he probably would have been smarter to run.
She waved her hand and the man vanished from view, as did everyone else in the office.
Cora swayed and grabbed the counter to keep from falling.
"Grab it and hurry I don't know how long that will last" said Cora
Killian glanced at the witch then jumped over the counter and scooped up the map. A small overweight bunny was sitting next to it.
Killian chuckled and jumped back over the counter.
"Sorry mate should have warned you about her temper" said Killian
He tucked the map into his shirt and helped Cora out the door.
"Got it?" said Cora
"Yes darling, thanks for the help by the way" said Killian
He wasn't sure how much power the witch still had but he reasoned it was safer to remain on her good side.
"Good let's get out of here, I have seen enough of this wood of holly village for my tastes, the natives need a lesson in manners" said Cora
He helped her towards the door until she shrugged off his help in irritation. Together they made their way back to his ship.
All the while Killian kept an eye on Cora to make sure the woman did not tip into the harbor.
He pulled the gangplank as soon as they boarded and Cora went to lay down, as he spread the map across the table in his cabin.
The first thing he noticed was the material it was made out of, some sort of paper to be sure but it was shiny like it was coated with something.
He slowly plotted his position and where they needed to go and frowned.
They were in the right world yes but the witch had landed them on the wrong coast of a very large continent.
He groaned and started plotting a course around it until something on the map caught his eye. He picked up his magnifying glass and examined it.
It was a small section cutting across one of the thinner continents that said canal. He wondered if it was big enough to accommodate his vessel since it appeared to go all the way through.
He heard the sound of sirens approaching and for some strange reason thought they were for him.
He set something on the map to hold it down and exited his cabin. He was just unmooring his ship when several cars with flashing lights showed up.
He quickly stowed the line and unfurled the sails. The ship slowly lurched forward and he smoothly turned the vessel in the limited space.
Tacked the line in another direction so the wind would push them out to sea and headed for the channel again.
He spared a quick glance over his shoulder, as several men in what looked like guard uniforms entered the office of the harbor master.
The spell must have worn off and they must have discovered the theft.
Oh well no matter they couldn't possibly track him across open water and there were literally thousands of courses he could take.
Except he told the man Maine his mind supplied and he cursed his own stupidity. He exited the channel and tacked for open water.
Cora came back out on deck, just as he spotted the rather large white and red vessel bearing down on them. The side said coast guard
"I don't suppose you can make us invisible, it seems they are none too happy with our actions" said Killian
Cora rolled her eyes but complied. She swayed again and looked slightly grey afterwards
"There now do try not to cause us anymore trouble, dear captain. I truly do not want to see what the dungeons of this world are like" said Cora
She swayed her way back down stairs walking for all the world as if she were drunk.
He turned and let the larger ship pass them, even though the wake from their vessel bounced them around quite fiercely
"How rude, bad form mates bad form" said Killian
He turned toward the area labeled Mexico on the map.
He fully intended to see if that Panama Canal would accommodate his ship, it would shave days off their journey if it did.
"So anyways when Lancelot finally let them out, we all agreed that our best course was to see if the wardrobe would still work" said Rio
David covered Snow's hand with his own and she squeezed his fingers in appreciation of his comforting gesture.
"It was intact and we were going to use it to return until Cora showed up" said Snow
"Yeah looking like Lancelot" said Emma
She was dabbing another scoop of sour cream onto her tacos.
Henry was just sitting there munching on his food and watching the adults talk.
"Wait what happened to Lancelot?" said David
Snow glanced towards Henry and bit her bottom lip in worry.
"She killed him" said Rio
Snow glared at her when Henry stopped eating in shock.
"How do you know she did that, I mean he could be alive somewhere" said David
They all shook their head no.
"She admitted it right after we figured out he was a fake" said Emma
"How did you figure out she was a fake?" said Henry
Emma opened her mouth to admonish him for interrupting
"That's easy she mentioned your name" said Rio
She lifted her taco to take a bite of it. Emma turned her glare on Rio instead.
"She knows my name?" said Henry.
He sounded scared to Rio and she instantly regretted being so open with him.
"It's all right Henry she can't follow us here. Rio burned the wardrobe so she couldn't get here" said Snow
She gave Rio a matching glare.
"What? You're the one who messed up and chatted to the old witch" said Rio
Emma opened her mouth to protest.
"No Emma, she's right. I told you not to talk to her and you did anyways" said Snow
"You were unconscious" said Emma
"You told the bad guy my name?" said Henry
He sounded shocked and somewhat betrayed
"To be fair, Cora is an excellent actress that almost fooled all of us" said Rio
Snow nodded in acceptance
"Too true" said Snow
"Didn't you learn anything from my book?" said Henry
Rio firmly resisted the urge to laugh her ass off as Emma was chewed out by her own son.
"You burned the wardrobe?" said David
It was obvious he was trying to change the subject to deflect Henry's ire away from Emma.
"Yep, it was the only way to stop her and get her to stop throwing fireballs" said Rio
"Fireballs?" said David
Snow reached out and squeezed his hand in reassurance this time.
"Yeah but once that wardrobe went up she freaked. If it wasn't for Mulan, Rio would have been toast" said Emma
"She left soon after that, since she couldn't get what she came for" said Snow
"Then what did you do?" said David
Snow looked at the others and bit her bottom lip for a second. It was obvious she didn't want to reiterate this part.
"We returned to the haven and found it destroyed" said Rio
David was stunned and actually set down his food.
"And the residents?" said David
The clipped tone of his voice told her, that he had already guessed but just wanted it confirmed.
"Dead" said Emma, her tone equally clipped.
David sat back in his chair and wiped his hands down his face, then turned towards Rio.
"No he survived, it's how we figured out he was working with Cora in fact" said Rio
It still bothered her that Shanse and her family had died because of her.
If she ever got the chance she would repay Cora for their deaths, even if she hadn't been the one to kill them.
"No before you ask, he didn't participate in the slaughter but he did kill one group" said Snow
She looked right at Rio with clear sympathy in her eyes. David gave her a confused look.
"He killed a family that gave me shelter because he claimed he was attempting to be merciful, by giving them a quicker death than Cora would have" said Rio
The stunned and horrified look he gave her told her he finally understood.
"He.. Oh god... is he?" said David
Rio and the others nodded yes. He glanced at Henry who simply stared back.
"Are we sure he should be hearing this?" said David
Emma turned towards her son and opened his mouth to tell him to go back to his room.
"Actually the rest isn't that bad" said Rio
Snow gave her a strange look.
"You nearly beating the man to death isn't that bad?" said Snow
She gasped and covered her mouth, when she realized that she had said that out loud.
"Whoa!" said Henry
"All right that's enough Henry off to bed with you" said Emma
Henry groaned and glared at Emma
"But aunt Rio promised I could hear the rest" said Henry
Emma opened her mouth to deny it.
"He's right I did" said Rio
Emma turned her angry glare on Rio
"Alright fine but the rest is edited" said Emma
David frowned at her.
"Oh don't worry you won't miss much" said Snow
"So anyways, we tied him to a tree as soon as we figured out something was up with him" said Snow
"Of course that was after Rio cold cocked him" said Emma
"Cold cocked?" said Henry
"Knocked him out with a punch" said Rio
"Oh!" said Henry
"He wouldn't answer our questions so Rio drugged him" said Emma
"Drugged him?" said David
"Eh gads guys you make it sound like I slipped him crack, it was truth serum" said Rio
"Truth serum? What were you doing with truth serum?" said David
The others turned to look at her.
"I do own a pharmaceutical company too" said Rio
"Yeah but why were you carrying it?" said Emma
Rio shrugged
"For the same reason I carry two guns, a Taser, and some grenades in my purse, I don't always have my security people around" said Rio
The others looked completely shocked
I suddenly understand why you don't fly" said snow
"Okay moving on, you drugged him then what?" said David
"He made his confession and we were going to leave him for the ogres, but he dangled a possible way home in front of us. So we took him with us" said Emma
"He led us to a beanstalk and told us what we were after was at the top, so we drew straws, Rio won or rather lost depending on your perspective" said Snow
"You climbed a beanstalk?" said Henry
"Yep" said Rio
"Cool!" said Henry
"So you went up with him how come you didn't leave him up there?" said David
Rio sighed she knew this was going to come out so she might as well face it.
"I freaked out about halfway up the beanstalk, he was below me and said something and I looked down.
He talked me through it and stayed close to me the rest of the way up" said Rio
"That is until we reached the clouds and he slipped, I managed to catch him but it was by his hook" said Rio
"His hook?" said David
Henry gasped and gave Rio a wide eyed look that told Rio he had figured out who Killian was.
Rio flipped her wrist over with the bracelet and showed them the scar.
"Oh my lord, you never said he did that to you" said Emma
David looked the scar over with a critical eye.
"He kept me from bleeding to death when we reached the top, so I couldn't leave him to die" said Rio
"So what happened up there you never said" said Emma
Rio licked her lips nervously and then took a sip of her tea.
"We used the knock out powder Mulan gave us on the giant and then we started searching his house" said Rio
"Wait there was a living giant up there?" said David
Rio nodded yes.
"He woke up before we found the compass unfortunately and caught me.
He was going to crush me, when Killian stabbed him with a sword that was up there already and the giant dropped me in his teacup" said Rio
"His name is Killian?" said Henry
Rio nodded yes to his inquiry.
"Killian and he has a hook?" said David
Emma opened her mouth to explain who he was and Rio shook her head no.
She wanted to see if David could figure it out for himself.
"I climbed out of the teacup in time to see the giant bury Killian in some rubble, when he punched the wall above him.
I thought he was dead, so I shot the trip wire the giant had holding up this huge cage" said Rio
"You shot a trip wire?" said Emma
She sounded slightly impressed to Rio
"Yeah but I don't know if I could ever do that shot again, I think it was mostly luck" said Rio
"So you trapped the giant in the cage, then what?" said Snow
Neither Snow nor Emma had gotten the whole story out of Rio, so they were listening as attentively as David and Henry were.
"I noticed I was standing on some sort of ledger as I was about to make my way down some curtains, turns out the giant was cataloguing his magical items and keeping them in display cases in another room. So I found the compass on the list and another entry caught my attention." said Rio
Emma and Snow frowned at her.
"The bracelet" said Henry
"What bracelet?" said Snow
Rio raised her wrist and then removed the spell covering it. David gasped.
"You can do magic?" said David
Henry was smirking because he already knew she could.
"It belonged to someone named Baba Yaga, it transfers magic from one user to another and it's how I managed to actually be able to fight Cora" said Rio
"Whoa! Wait a minute you fought Cora?" said David
Rio nodded yes.
"Kicked her ass too" said Emma
"I retrieved it and the compass, but I hid this from everyone until I could use it. I walked back into the room the giant was in and we had a conversation.
I got it to agree to help me bury Killian properly and when he helped me uncover him, Killian was still very much alive.
We left the giant's on good terms, the giant even wished us luck and told us to help ourselves to his treasure." said Rio
Rio reached into her pocket and fished out the necklace because the rest of the table was giving her doubting looks.
She dropped the jewelry on the table and the others gasped.
"As we were making our way out Killian slipped up and I figured out he had some of his men waiting for us at the bottom of the beanstalk" said Rio
"Some of his men... oh" said David
He narrowed his eyes and Rio could tell he had figured it out.
"So we fought, I lost but barely and we climbed down.
His men had already taken the others prisoner so I surrendered even though at that point I wanted to shove him off that beanstalk" said Rio
Killian lowered his glass in shock then raised it again because he was certain he was seeing things.
No sure enough it was a ship. The biggest vessel he had ever seen to be sure.
In fact he had seen castles smaller than that behemoth but it was heading into the canal.
Which meant if it could accommodate that floating building his smaller vessel was sure to fit.
"Is that a boat?" said Cora
"Yes" said Killian
He handed the glass to Cora and she stared at the vessel in shock. She slowly lowered the glass and shook her head in disbelief
"It seems to be crewed by a great many of those poor girls who cannot afford clothing" said Cora
Killian nodded yes and steered his ship so it was several feet behind the huge vessel.
"He took us back to his ship and forced us to join his crew" said Emma
She gave David a pointed look.
"He's Captain Hook?" said Henry
Rio nodded yes and so did the others.
David sat back in his seat with a shocked look on his face and Rio took the opportunity to finish off the last of her tacos.
"Wait you were pirates?" said David
Snow broke into giggles at his shocked and indignant look.
"Aarg!" said Snow, Emma and Rio, at the same time.
That was the last straw and Rio started giggling too.
"So wait, he had a queen and a princess as a member of his pirate crew?" said David
"Two princesses, Aurora was there too" said Rio
"Aurora?" said Henry
"Sleeping beauty" said Emma
David started laughing his ass off.