Not That Bar

[awesome_lilly]

Mal leads them from Milliways to the bar, but it's Lilly who pushes the door open and steps in first. She glances around the dim, dusty bar, crowded with surly looking patrons, its one real decoration a badly flickering holographic pool table. There's a row of unidentifiable bottles behind the bar, and a bartender eyeing them warily. She loves it.

"Shiny," Lilly breathes, before stepping forward as Peter and Mal enter behind her. "Okay guys, who wants to get a table and who wants to get drinks? I'm buying, Bar changed money for me."

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[highking.livejournal.com]

There is a very brief silence during which everyone processes what just happened.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Well. Probably not all hell. Just a little bit of it. But Peter's never been in an out and out brawl before, so it's a little surprising when he discovers that he's slammed Ugly down on the bar, back bent at an uncomfortable angle, and is punching him repeatedly, as hard as he can.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly has just enough time to nickname a few oncoming customers Smelly, Sneery, and Squinty before Sneery throws a drunken punch at her. She ducks instinctively, reaching around for something she can use as a weapon. Her hand closes around Baldy's dropped pool stick, and she grins.

In the absence of a pool table, a pool stick is basically a long pointy thing. And thanks to Peter, Lilly knows what to do with long pointy things. (Because of swordfighting lessons, people! Jeez!)

She straightens up, slips into form, and swings the pool stick gracefully into the side of Smelly's head.

[badinlatin]

This leaves Mal with the oh-so-appealing choice between Sneery or Squinty.

Mal chooses Sneery.

As evidence of this, as Sneery picks up a whisky bottle and smashes it against the bartop to shatter it, Mal punches him in the temple before Sneery turns back around to put the bottle to use.

"Nice place," Mal quips to the bartender.

[highking.livejournal.com]

...and Peter gets Squinty.

Alright, he can deal with that.

Squinty gets in one good punch as Peter turns away from Ugly, sending him reeling for a second - but he quickly recovers, driving his shoulder into Squinty's chest and sending him sprawling backwards over a table full of folk who'd just been trying to have a quiet drink and stay out of the fight.

One of them stands up, knocking his chair over backwards and starting towards Peter

[awesome_lilly]

His friends pull him back, though, and for a moment it looks like all that Peter, Mal, and Lilly will need to worry about is the slightly-more-than-seven not'dwarves and Lilly running out of nicknames for them.

There are snatches of conversation coming from that table that aren't so reassuring, though. Look at 'is fancible clothes - gotta be from the gorram Core - stupid chŭnrén should go back then - and then the leader, smiling a little, asks his friends how much they think rich boy's parents would pay to get him back.

Lilly hears and sees none of this, as she's busily occupied in keeping close to Mal and fending off large gross men with her pool stick/sword. It helps that she has no qualms in dropping form to poke them sharply in the balls.

[badinlatin]

Mal shoots a smile at Lilly for her creative uses of a pool cue, giving one of the not'dwarves just enough time to pick up a chair and ram against Mal's chest with the legs of it, throwing him off balance and nearly to the floor.

Instead of pushing back toward him, Mal rotates the chair so that the man's arms cross and drops his weapon, giving Mal ample leeway to thrust the back of the chair into his attacker's neck. Politely.

[highking.livejournal.com]

Peter's busy fighting off a couple other not'dwarves when somebody grabs him arms from behind, somebody else punches him hard in the stomach, and a third claps a hand over his mouth.

He struggles, but he's no real match for the five men crowded around him, and it isn't long before they've dragged him outside.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly rams her pool stick into a not'dwarf's stomach, earning a satisfying grunt as he doubles over. She twists the stick so it cracks sharply on his head, and that one's down. The one behind him, though, is still up and swinging a chair leg that connects with Lilly's cheekbone before she can get the pool stick back up.

It fucking hurts, and sends her staggering back against the bar.

Fortunately, however, Lilly is rather small and there's plenty of room for Mal to swing a punch over her head and directly into the nose of Man With Chair Leg (it's a Native American name). The gushing blood is a pretty good indication that his nose is broken, too.

Lilly gives Mal a quick, grateful smile before grabbing her pool stick, straightening up, and looking around. Most of their attackers are gone, either slumped on the floor or crawling back into booths. A few bar patrons are still watching idly in hopes of a bit more entertainment, but most have gone back to their drinks.

She turns to grin at Mal and Peter only to realize there's a definite lack of Peter.

"Oh, tāmāde! Mal, where's Pete?"

[badinlatin]

Mal quickly scans the bar inhabitants. No British-accented anything in sight.

No belligerent patrons in the back booth, either.

Mal points this out. "Lilly..."

[awesome_lilly]

"Wángbadàn de biăozi, Lilly swears. She turns to the bartender and smiles sweetly.

"Here's the deal," she says, speaking low enough not to be heard by anyone but Mal. "I'll pay for the damage to your bar, but only if you tell me where those húndàn took my friend."

The bartender eyes the damage to his place, the coin in Lilly's hand, and the likelihood that she and the other one'll be killed before explaining how they'd found the others.

"Outbuildings in back," he hisses, looking like he's not speaking much at all. "They do business there."

"Xièxie," Lilly replies, dropping the coin on the bar and raising her voice as she continues. "That's for the damage."

She turns to Mal.

"So, I reckon we should go check on Pete, huh?"

[badinlatin]

Mal only steps to one side and sweeps his arm in front of Lilly in a 'Go on then' motion, Mal walking in front of her.

Going out the back door to the bar here is nothing like Milliways, much to Mal's chagrin. But the outbuildings are all facing inward, with almost identical doors on all of them.

One has a shiny new lock on it, giving Mal a grin of "I pick this one!"

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly strides up to examine it.

"Well, that's encouraging," she says, after a minute. "Not only are these guys stupid enough to put a shiny new lock on their building, it's a crap lock."

She fishes around in her pocket, finally triumphantly pulling out a hairpin.

"I thought I might have left one of these in here last time I wore these pants. Okay, now let's see..."

It's been a little while since Weevil taught Lilly to pick locks, but she remembers enough that after a few moments, the shiny lock gives a very shiny click. She looks at Mal.

"So far, these guys have kidnapped someone in the middle of a bar, dragged him off just behind the bar to a building clearly marked by a brand-new and easy to pick lock and don't appear to have a guard around. You think they're that really stupid or is this a trap?"

[badinlatin]

Mal clicks his tongue against the side of his mouth and glares, "Do I have to answer that or can we get on with things?"

Mal's gun is out captainy-style, waiting for Lilly to open the door.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly rolls her eyes, and slides the door open cautiously, flattening herself against the side of it so she's not a target. She's learned more from gunslingers than what they look like naked, after all. No one seems to notice the open door, so she slips into the building, followed closely by Mal.

They take a cautious step or two down a dark hallway lined with a few crates, some stamped by the Alliance, and then there's a little more light and the hallway opens into a square room stacked with crates.

Incidentally, it also contains six armed men and one lightly bruised High King. The men appear to be arguing, and one of them keeps gesturing towards Peter with his gun.

Not good.

[badinlatin]

Mal glares at the Alliance crates as they pass, getting a guage on his opponents.

Stealin' whatever comes their way. Not even hard to steal some o' this. Amateurs.

Once they get to see Narnia-person slowly gaining rank of King Target-Practice, Mal pulls the knife out of his boot as an offer to Lilly.

[highking.livejournal.com]

Peter's eyes, meanwhile, are darting from one to another of the men who've kidnapped him. He's been trying to sort out which he should attack first, but the truth of the matter is, they have his hands tied to a chair, and a gun pointed out his head, and there's no way he'd survive if he tried to take them down. So he's watching, and waiting for any slim opportunity.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly is very much not happy with the sight of her best best best best best friend tied to a chair. She's even less happy to hear that one of the men is arguing that since they can't find an ident card it might be easier just to shoot him and get back to selling off their stolen Alliance electronics.

She's about to take the knife when she pauses, and instead pulls Mal back a step or two.

"Okay, there are too many of them with guns for you to just shoot them all, but I think I might have a plan."

She looks up at Mal, aware he's probably not going to like her plan.

"I need you to stay in the shadows here and cover the man holding the gun on Peter. I'm going to talk to them, and I think they're less likely to shoot an unarmed girl on sight. Also, I have an angle here that you don't. Okay, mu ji?"

[badinlatin]

Lilly was very right. He doesn't like this plan at all.

Mal makes Lilly take the pocketknife anyway, making a 'If someone gets too close...' face.

After studying Lilly's face for a moment, he grunts and allows her to pass him, pistol sighted on the not-too-bright one with the gun.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly takes a deep breath and steps forward.

"What up, sais? Mind if I interrupt for a moment?"

It kinda seems like they might, the way all their guns are suddenly pointed at her.

[highking.livejournal.com]

Peter's eyes widen and he makes a muffled sound of protest through his gag.

He's waiting for her to look at him and hoping she can read 'Lilly what the fuck are you doing get the hell out of here' in his panicked expression - but, then, it's Lilly, so he's not really counting on it.

But he's struggling harder against his bonds, now.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly is very carefully not looking at him, but she wouldn't have paid attention anyway. Instead, she's smiling brightly at the leader of the men.

"You may be wondering how we got in here. I'm wondering how stupid you have to be kidnap a member of my crew and think no one would come looking for him, or that if they did one lock would be enough protection."

She sighs, shaking her head. Whatever she's really feeling, her voice and demeanor is that of someone totally in control of the situation.

"Look, I have a soft spot for aspiring criminals. I used to be one. These days I'm not so much aspiring to be one, though. I am. So's my crew, of which the young man tied to the chair is a member. And me and my crew really don't like it when someone gets in the way of our dealings. Ask Levi Ming."

She pauses, laughs a little.

"Well, I guess you'd have to ask his corpse, along with the bodies of the men he thought were protectin' him. But if you don't untie my boy there and let him go, then hell, you might end up bein' able to have a little chat with Mr. Ming after all."

[badinlatin]

Mal, doing his best lurking he's done in a spell, lets his eyes widen when Lilly is speaking to Peter's kidnappers.

How the good gorram did she learn to talk like that?

[highking.livejournal.com]

Peter's eyes close tightly as he waits for the sound of gunshots...

...a sound that doesn't come.

The thugs are looking at each other uncertainly, though there's still one gun pointing at him, and several pointed at Lilly.

"We ain't never heard of no girl runnin' a crew," one of them finally says. "Could be you're just makin' it up."

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly just looks at him.

"I ain't no girl," she says, thankful that the shadows in the room give her a little bit of cover on the being sixteen and yes, actually a girl.

"I'm Captain Lilly Kane," and her eyes flicker to the leader, who seems to have recognized the name.

"And I'm captain of a crew whose first mate alone dropped three of Ming's men on Dyton Colony before they had time to clear leather. I reckon you've heard that story, we didn't exactly have time to be discreet."

Her eyes are still on the leader, who does also appear to have heard that story.

"Look, I don't particularly want trouble. I just want to get my crew member back, give him a little talking-to about letting himself get caught, and go on our way. I'm no friend of the Alliance, I won't be telling anybody about anything that went down tonight."

She smiles, and there's no humor in it.

"Unless, of course, you want to make yourselves into a story like Ming. Because news like that do tend to get around, don't it?"

[highking.livejournal.com]

The leader lowers his gun slowly, glowering.

"A rich boy we can't get a ransom for ain't no use to use, anyhow. Untie him."

Two of the thugs rush to obey him, ripping away the gag and the knots at Peter's wrists and ankles.

"Now get this yi dà tuó dàbiàn out of my sight," he snarls, shoving Peter toward Lilly.

Of course, Peter is taller and heavier than he is, so he's not easily shovable. Peter walks calmly across the room to Lilly, leaving the other man looking several kinds of stupid.