[i]At Emmett's comment, Juniper's little beady eyes squinted. For some reason he seemed to care about whether she got hurt or not. She instinctively wanted to laugh. Emmett didn't know her from the stars. Maybe it was the fact she was so young and innocent. Either way, only mere seconds passed between his comment, and the door opening up from the pod. She could hear Jean's voice through the loudspeaker, shouting not to open the door but it was too late, it was already opened. Emmett took Ursa on his back the best he could, just barely quick enough to escape the barrage of fiery blasts aimed at them. Juniper however was almost not as lucky, some of the flames singeing her grey fur as she jumped out into the darkness of the room.

She skittered into a corner where she thought she would be safe for a moment, watching with wide eyes as the pod went up in flames, holes from the blasts included. At this point she was completely hidden by darkness, and decided to use it to her advantage. She was unsure at this moment if Naefario had seen her, but she could feel he was angry nonetheless. Juniper watched as he turned, aiming his weapon around willy nilly, searching for her. She held her breath, only to release it again when the weapon was no longer aimed in her direction. [color=aba000]"Come out, come out lil' mouse... I saw you run away from me..."[/color] Naefario's voice rang through the room and it made Juniper feel sick and also angry. 

Before she could shift into something more useful though, Naefario began to close the distance from where he stood, and herself. He must have watched her run over there, despite the fact that it was mostly dark in the area. Maybe her eyes gave it away. She watched as Naefario stormed closer to her and without hesitation, she began to shift. Her body began to become more slender and elongated, the fur disappearing only to be replaced by tiny black scales. Her face changed completely with the exception of the beady black eyes. From her mouth whisped a long forked tongue, and before her legs disappeared, she sprinted out mid shift to try and get behind Naefario. Though as big as he was, he was quick. His arm came down and snatched her up by the tail, her paws and legs virtually disappearing at this point into her body. She resembled a good sized [url=https://www.cobraintpharmacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/black-mamba-1-300x300.jpg]Black Mamba[/url].
[/i]

As Naefario lifted her up to eye level adamant curiosity in his gaze, a wry smile on his bloodied lips. [color=aba000]“Yer one o’ em shapeshifters. Mayhap this wann’t a complete disaster n’ waste after all..”[/color] Juniper’s body curled up and she shot upward, aiming for his wrist. Her venom laced fangs sunk into the flesh that was available, and she ensured to bite down hard. Before a moment had passed, Juniper pulled back and struck him again in nearly the same spot. He reacted quickly though, and roared, pulling her away and tossing her to the floor against the wall with a loud thud. She winced and hissed out, narrowing her beady black eyes.

[color=aba000]“Likkle turd,”[/color] the death blaster on Naefario’s arm retracted clicking and whirring until it took the form of a cybernetic hand, blue nerve endings flickering in the pod’s low light. He squeezed his afflicted arm sucking on the bite marks, and spitting out droplets of venom and green blood. [color=aba000]“Why is eveyone ‘board this shuttle a goddamn rabid animal, in some cases literally.”[/color] The pirate captain chuckled, his guffaws turning into a wheezing cough. [color=aba000]“I’ve ne’er met a crew o’ smugglers who fought this hard ‘afore. An’ imagine me, Cap’n Naefario, terror o’ th’ space lanes, dread commander o’ th’ [i]Gorefill[/i] beaten by a damn medical robot an’ killed by a lass n’ snakeskin.”[/color] A sound behind Naefario caused him to spin about, his hand reforming into the carbon disintegrator, a purple light growing in its interior. It was Emmett and Ursa, the former trapped under the unconscious form of the latter, a mere two meters away. Keeping the deadly weapon centered on the fallen smugglers Naefario turned his gaze back to Juniper, fixing her with his single glaring eye. [color=aba000]“I could kill ‘em in a heartbeat ye know. Faster n’ yer venom could bring me down, and once I slay them an’ catch you the hard way, well there’ll be anti venom aboard me ship. So let’s make a deal, make this easy why don’t we.”[/color]

[color=aba000]“How about you and I bargain? You know what that is little Theonian, to bargain? My girl there isn’t look in a good way, she’ll need help soon before she dies, an’ I don’t want her to die. How about you come back with me aboard this pod, an’ I let them live. No funny business, no tricks. A fair trade.”[/color]

[i]Juniper’s snake tongue whisked out again slowly, in thought. Over the course of the next couple moments, she shifted back into her human form. She couldn’t quite respond to him in the form of a snake. She gave herself enough space so that she could shift and then keep some distance from Naefario. Her eyes were bright amber, reflecting her emotion in some ways through the colour. She was scared, but she also knew that she had to fight. This Captain wasn’t going to let up, unfortunately for her. She knew he wouldn’t be the last space cadet she’d ever meet who would fight to the death anyhow, now that she was somewhat wrapped up with Ursa and the other two. 

Finally she caught a glimpse of the others behind the Captain and her stomach lurched. Ursa looked terrible. She could die at any moment. But there was also no way in Purgatory she was going with this creep. But, he didn’t have to know that. She chewed on her lower lip softy for a second, then looked up at him. 

[color=f7976a]“You drive a good bargain… I come back with you in the pod… which you nearly destroyed just a few minutes ago… and you let those two live?”[/color] She repeated what he said, with some slight attitude, though her voice was strangely foreign. It echoed in a weird way through the room.[/i] 

The pirate inclined his head looking pleased. [color=aba000]“Aye, that’s th’ jist of it. And I swear on me oath as a Cap’n, and me desire to make a lot of kredits that ye will come to no harm under my care. Ships like this bucket O’ bolts are going for a lot these days, but little Theonians, well, yer going for premium prices. My business partner will pay through the nose to have you, unharmed. So we c’n either do this th’ hard way, where yer friends die a rather gruesome death, or th’ easy way, where ye shift back into the harmless mouse, climb onto me hand and fly back to me ship. Easy as ye please. No one’ll die. It’d be th’ noble thing ter do.”[/color] Naefario twisted his barbaric face, an odd unnatural light in his eyes.

[color=aba000]“Better make yer decision quick.” He warned. “Yer other friend is coming fast, an he’s not gonna bargain, that I c’n guarantee. I’ll be forced to put yer friends here to th’ knife ‘afore I kill him, for insurance sake. So, what will it be little Theonian?”[/color] Naefario lowered his hand of flesh to the ground, offering Juniper a large platform on which to ride once she was a shrew once more, his other glowed with a violet light, most likely charging up to kill Ursa and Emmett in a single blast. 

[i][color=f7976a]“I don’t trust you one bit… But I don’t want them to die because of me.”[/color] Juniper watched his eyes and felt sick to her stomach. Her own gaze then shifted from his, to Ursa and Emmett and she breathed out slowly. She shifted back into her shrew form, and climbed up onto Naefario’s extended hand. She feared he would simply curl his fingers up and crush her, but if it really was money he was after, he wouldn’t. She was much more valuable than he could imagine anyhow. She sighed and wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t look away from her new friends.[/i]

Nodding approvingly Naefario closed his fist around Juniper, trapping her beneath a cage of firm, but gentle fingers. With a cold efficiency he cleared the pod making sure none of the smugglers remained on board before igniting the engines, never once loosening his grip on his valuable prisoner. Juniper could see through the gaps in his fingers as he lifted the pod off the landing deck. Beneath them someone shouted, two plasma bolts ricocheting off the pod’s thick hull. Naefario ignored them, jettisoning the pod through the airlock and out into the oxygenless expanse of space. The two ships drifted nearby, the [i]Ranger[/i] and the [i]Gorefill[/i] looking like deformed, lifeless planets against the endless black backdrop. Instead of angling towards the smoldering [i]Gorefill[/i] Naefario aimed in the opposite direction, activating the hyperdrive engines, and opening up the navigation screens, typing in a long list of encrypted coordinates. As if to answer her unspoken query the pirate pointed at a distant star as space and time folded around them.

	
[color=aba000]“When I take ye there lass, I could buy a fleet O’ those wrecks. Better not ter share me fortunes wit’ them cowards, haharr!”[/color]

With these words space closed around them and in less then a heartbeat they were gone.