Title: Familiar Faces
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: A series of Firefly crossover shorts wherein Mal and his crew run into some familiar faces.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to their owners who I'm too lazy to look up and list.
Part 2. Hazzardous Encounter
Much to Mal's chagrin, none of them spotted the contacts until they were on top of them. Or rather, until the contacts were over them.
An orange ground car – with wheels and everything, no jets or grav systems in evidence – came sailing through the air over Serenity, honking an abbreviated version of the Independents Anthem. It landed on a conveniently shaped slope without being smashed to pieces and whipped around in a spray of dirt to come towards them. As it pulled up, Mal took notice of the Indepent flag painted on the roof.
Oh yeah, Mal thought sourly, that was really low profile. No chance of attracting Fed attention here. Nope. Not at all.
Two young men, one with blonde hair and the other with black, climbed out of the car through the windows. It seemed the doors didn't work. The passenger was armed with what appeared to be… a bow and arrow?
"You Malcolm Reynolds?" the blond driver asked.
"Depends," Mal replied. "You got cargo?"
"You got cash?" Mr. Bow and Arrow asked back.
"I got cash," Mal replied. He brushed his coat with one hand, showing the bag of coin hanging from his belt.
The driver grinned. "Then we got cargo," he whooped. He strolled round to the back of his vehicle and popped open the cargo hatch. "Five crates of our Uncle Jesse's best moonshine." He hauled one such crate out to show them. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out, sending jars crashing to the ground. "Er, make that four crates."
"Aw, Bo, not again," the other man groaned. He turned back to Mal. "Sorry 'bout that. The idjit there is Bo. I'm Luke." His eyes drifted over to the girls. "And we are very happen to make your acquaintance."
"Be that as it may," Mal said irritably, "There ain't no five crates no more. Looks like we may have to renegotiate the price."
"Oh don't you worry 'bout that none," Luke replied affably. "We'll just run back to the farm and get another crate."
"I dunno," Mal said dubiously. "The longer we sit here, the more likely the law's gonna swoop down on us."
At that notion, the two locals burst into howling laughter.
"Not much chance of that," Bo said.
"Yeah, we left the sheriff in a creek mile or two back," Luke added. "Again."
"Well, that's good to know." Mal hesitated. "But… bow and arrow?"
With a grin, Luke turned to the side and shot a stubby little tree. Seconds later, they were all showered with kindling. The arrows were packed with explosives.
"Huh," Jayne finally said, speaking up for the first time since the locals' arrival. "Where can I get me one of those?"