Mal and Zoë were up against either side of the threshold, bullets relentlessly ripping past steel and titanium. Mal checked to see his shoulder had been scored.
"Is there a little sum'um our Xiao friend forgot to mention?" Zoë suppressed a smirk, Mal gritting his teeth, "Gorrammit, Jayne, where the hell are you(?)!"
Jogging down the hallway with a laundry bag full of filled magazine clips and grenades, Jayne had the grin of a three year old on his grizzly face. He took out a concussion grenade, sending it skittering into a corner that a few Feds were turning. Jayne flicked on his transmitter as he ducked a flying soldier.
"Mal?" A static crackle at first.
"Geez, don't yell! I got sensitive ears!" Jayne grinned.
"Got the girl?"
"Uh…bitbusyrightnow, Jayne." The transmission shorted out.
Feds pushed towards the exit of the cell, Mal and Zoë tossing in two smokescreen grenades.
"Quit fighting, she ain't here, sir!" He softly banged the back of his head against the wall in frustration.
He sighed, nodding to Zoë as he made his escape. Three Feds emerged from the screen, rushing to take Mal and Zoë down. Mal switched channels on his transmitter as he tossed a flash bomb behind him.
"Simon! Get the hell out of there!" Simon's eyes widened.
"Ok, I'm in an Alliance building that's crawling with Feds; how the hell do I get out?" He said calmly, trying to contain his terror.
"Whoa, careful with that pretty tongue of yours. Get to the roof. Your outfit's easy to pull it off. Go!" Inhaling deep breaths, Simon stepped out of the laundry room and headed for the roof despite the sprinklers and alarms.
"You!" A Fed grabbed Simon by the arm, "What are you doing here(?)!"
"I…I've hailed air support. One of them is suffering traumatic injuries to his spine and heart. Let me go, please!" The urgency in his voice came from fear, though it convinced the Fed to let him go.
Simon turned his back to the Fed, eyes widening for a second before sharply exiting the corridor and into the stairwell.
"Wash, we could use some help here right now!" A bullet just missed Mal's ear as he shouted into the transmitter.
Zoë and he romped up the staircase as much as three steps at a time, dropping armor to lighten their weight.
"Where the hell is Jayne?" A flurry of bullets and whoops answered Mal's question.
"He found the armory, sir."
"Looks like. Jayne! Quit foolin'! You can play with your new toys some other time!" Mal rammed the roof door open with his shoulder.
Jayne scrambled up the stairs, passing Zoë with his bag of treasure.
"Hot damn, shoulda been there, cap'n."
"Yeah, well, maybe I won't make such a boom of things next time." Jayne looked the other way as the three of them sprinted for the rendezvous point.
"Where the hell is Simon(?)!" As if on que, Simon came bolting out of the stairwell, out of breath as Mal grabbed him by the collar and sprinted to the net that was being lowered by the cargo hull doors of a hovering Serenity.
"Will Inara be ok?"
"They probably sent her out when the alarm sounded." Mal flung Simon into the net, Jayne tossing his payload with him as Mal held his transmitter to his ear, "First batch, Kaylee. Step to it." The net raced up, Jayne firing a volley at the on-coming Feds.
"Kaylee, I don't feel like dancing in hell right now so let's MOVE IT while we're still young!" The net dropped on Mal's head, Zoë and Jayne clambering in.
"Hey, wait for me!" Mal grappled the netting, firing his revolver at the closest Fed before the cargo hull doors clamped shut with the crew inside.
"Wash, all present. Moon 'em!" Mal punched the intercom off, Serenity revving up and blasting through Persephone's outer atmosphere.
She tripped over a garbage can, spilling fresh blood as she held back her cry of pain. Lai had limped into the lower docking stations, trying to find a shuttle to commandeer. She didn't know how much blood she lost, but by the ringing in her ears and how the lines of objects misplaced color, she knew it was a decent amount. She couldn't go to any medical station; she'd be tagged and dragged back. If she found a small shuttle of such, she might have a shot for Blueshore, an outer planet that had sheltered her when she was dumped as a child. Before Xiao had taken her in.
A pack of Feds marched down the lot ramp, Lai's amber eyes flickering in panic. Untying her red scarf and stuffing it in her hip pouch, she silently threw herself against the hull of a docked shuttle, pressing up against the metal as the squad stopped in front of the craft.
Just my luck"I am sorry that we cannot focus on this charge at the present time, but we will contact you when we can."
"Thank you for your time." Inara curtsied and fixed her gold mantle, stepping into her shuttle and locking the door.
She didn't notice the wet smear on her blood red carpet.
"Did we get her?" Mal shook his head, taking off the Fed garb and checking the severity of his wounds.
"I'll see to that." Simon was still a bit shaken but slowly relaxed as Mal looked up at an entering Wash.
"You didn't find her(?)! So what do we say to Shiang Lu's little reunion? "Terribly sorry, your cargo was misplaced"(?)!"
"It was full of Feds, love." Wash's face mellowed in shock.
"We were set up?" Jayne hauled the bag of ammo and guns with a grin of carnal glee.
" 'Pparently, because these bills are void." Mal tossed the wad to Wash.
"Son of a," He swore in Chinese, mixing it with frustrated English.
The click of a shuttle door called Inara's arrival, stepping out and asking what the fuss was all about. She went down to the base floor with the others.
Lai gingerly crawled out from a hanging drape, seeing the door open. She checked her wound, taking in a sharp breath through clenched teeth. Gripping the bedpost for support, Lai heaved herself to her feet, blood staining the sheets. She looked to what equipment she was able to salvage from the detainment armory.
She had her neko-te, her red scarf, some trap wire, a small roll of bandage, her explosive tags; pieces of paper that were soaked in alcohol and covered in volatile powders. She dug through and gripped a small blue container, rattling the contents softly. She dug her fingers into the clasp, opening it to find two pills. She clipped it shut quietly and limped towards the exit, the carpet soft underneath her mangled feet.
She peered just outside the threshold, seeing Mal and Jayne heave the bag of guns into the secret compartment beside the scaffolding stair.
"Mal! Mal, get up here quick!" Lai backed away in horror as Mal and Jayne ran right past Inara's shuttle.
Inara soon followed, the cargo bay silent. Lai took her chances and stepped out from the shuttle.
"What is it?"
"Alliance cruiser!" Wash flicked switches on and of frantically, Jayne growling as Zoe placed her hand on Wash's shoulder.
"Did they ping us?"
"Yes, and they're getting their little toy soldiers out to play."
"Gorrammit, they picked up the cargo we'z just took!" Jayne turned and went to his bunk to arm himself.
"Fight or Fly, cap'n?"
"Like we have guns on this boat." Something caught Mal's eye, the spark of an idea coming to place, "Wash?"
"Uh oh, not another psychopathic idea that I'll instantly fall in love with, is it?"
"Yup."
"Shiny; what is it?"
"Since the cruiser's a might bit big, I think we'll fumble their gunships with a little cat and mouse." He pointed to the belt ahead of them, grinning, "Up for some adrenaline charges?"
Wash nonchalantly leaned back in his chair, holding the steering wheel.
"Damn straight."
Lai crawled down the first scaffolding stairs on all fours, her injured muscles still smoothly flexing down her spinal ridges and shoulder blades. She faltered on the last step, tumbling down the next two flights of stairs before smashing into the floor in front of the secret compartment. She gasped instead of screaming, the scent of blood spreading out underneath her.
"What was that?" Her pupils tightened, hearing multiple footfalls.
The ship lurched to the left, throwing Lai into a shipment of barrels covered in a blue rainsheet. The tail ends floated on top of her, her feet tucking in underneath.
"Kaylee, open her up." She opened up the cargo hull doors, Mal and Jayne pushing a barrel with a transmitter strapped to it.
"Keep losin' em, baby!" Zoë called into the cockpit intercom, the ship clattering as it avoided floating debris.
Hooking the barrel to the harness, they lowered it into the outer hull doors, unhooking it and closing the top level.
"Ok, on my word." Mal pushed the intercom button, "How's it lookin', Wash?"
"They're certainly frisky today, I can assure you." The ship rattled again, "Open, cap'n!"
"Now!" Kaylee opened the outer doors, the barrel floating freely in space just as a missile homed in on it.
"Run to the engine room and give Wash a boost. He'll need it." Kaylee nodded and raced up the stairs, Mal wiping his brow.
"That should drive them crazy." The barrel dodged the missile, the small booster strapped to the bottom soaring straight for the gunship that launched the attack.
Serenity's back engines glowed an ethereal gold before blasting off into the depths of space.
"Nice work, everyone. Wash, be it best not to call Xiao at the moment."
"Too late."
"Crap." Mal hauled himself back up the scaffolding stairs, Jayne following and leaving the cargo bay absent once more.
Lai crept out, her fingers covered in her neko-te claws as she pried off the grate silently and crawled in, pulling the grate back on.