Dusty — Roleplayer Guild

	The sudden lack of resistance sent Serpentine tumbling backwards rolling head over feet twice before coming to a stop at the feet of the frozen students. Jumping upright Serpentine staged herself to continue the fight before realizing the incapacitated state of her opposition. Confused Serpentine stood down looking around the expanse of the mall. Fruitta was further away looking exhausted, and Talon seemed to be dealing with the still furious Mr. Johnsen. Apparently breaking his whip had been the solution after all, the man was devoid of his powers and his minions were stilled. A sigh of relief escaped Serpentine and she relaxed, a cheery smile working its way onto her face. Who knew what they would’ve done if their desperate plan failed. All three of them together really struggled taking down just one bad guy. They might’ve been defeated altogether if the fight had continued unchecked.

	Serpentine’s roving eyes caught a tiny fluttering movement emerge from the whip’s broken pieces. It flew like a miniature black bird but flitted madly about drifting away towards the mall’s exit like a smoky apparition reminding Serpentine of a flying mouse. Mentally noting the thing’s departure Serpentine limped over to where Talon stood over the defeated Mr. Johnsen only then realizing just how sore the brief clash had left her.

	“Fruitta, Talon. I think I saw his kwami escape out of the mall. It looked kind of like a rodent, but it had wings. So some kind of bird, I dunno what it has to do with a military drill sergeant though. I'm drawing a blank on the correlation.” She drew to a stop next to the others, placing her hands on her hips. “We did it, I think…” Serpentine gave the other heroes a thumbs up, not entirely sure what they were supposed to do from thereon out. However the sounds of rapidly approaching police sirens adequately answered her unasked question. “We ought to leave him for the authorities to handle, uh Fruitta, is that your necklace beeping?” Serpentine recalled from her earlier conversation with Ossar that after using her ‘special’ power the kwami contained within the Miraculous would be depleted and after five minutes the suit would give out and the kwami would have to eat in order to recharge. Perhaps the beeping was a warning, meant to inform the wearer of this impending possibility.

	Mac walked over to the young man with sharp eyes, his expression guarded as he took the man’s hand tightly. Not tight enough to hurt him, but tight enough to imply he would. He gave three shakes before letting go, his deep voice was cold as he purposely ignored the comment on the name, “Nice to meet you. Name’s Mac. As for our captain, she’s tied up in a trade deal down in the city. She should be back in about an hour or so. Are you looking to trade?” 

	His steel gray eyes looked down at the man,not trusting him for a second. Ursa made it abundantly clear that she had no interests in friends or relationships outside of this ship, so that left two kinds of people who would look for her. People looking to make a deal or people looking to turn her in. Instinct and history made him think more the latter when looking at this cowboy. The fact that he got this close to the ship, and knew about Ursa’s name was just their bad luck. He had to be smart in his approach if he was law enforcement.

	“Well not exactly, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here Mac.” Taking up a relaxed pose the sheriff looked around, admiring the outside hull of the Ranger, taking the freighter in with undisguised admiration. “See, I ain’t here so much for trade as I am about another, more lucrative style of business. I wouldn’t be asking to much if we could take this somewhere more private and get to know each other a little better would I? At least until Captain Ursa shows up. if it ain’t too much trouble of course? Cause we wouldn’t want th’ locals getting the wrong message now would we?”
	
	Was it mere chance he’d happened upon not only one of the most high profile smugglers in the galaxy, but also the suspects in a much larger case involving the Theonia system? There was a massive amount of profit to be made even if Ursa wasn’t involved in what was going on there, but if Jean could rope two buffalos with one lasso, well he wasn’t going to complain. Idly Jean reached up and scratched at his vest pocket, feeling the reassuring weight of his audio recorder hidden inside the stitching, using the guise of insignificant itching he flipped a small switch turning the device on.

	Mac nodded, his expression unchanging as he turned to look at the ship, before his eyes turned back to the cowboy, “I don’t know what other business you would be referring to other than trading. We are nothing more than a respectable trading vessel and I have the documents to prove such if need be. However, this conversation should continue more privately. Follow me and we can see what we can do for ya.”

	He headed into the ship without a second word, knowing the cowboy would have to follow him if he wanted to continue taking. He turned as he entered eyeing Takashi, who was sitting just inside the hatch on a brown crate, a cigarette stuck in between his scaly lips. Mac nodded to him before heading down the hallway towards one of the rooms. He opened the door and walked in first. The room was small and very tidy. It was the captain’s quarters and contained both file cabinets, disc’s, bookshelves and a wooden desk that had two tablets set into the wood. The only thing out of place was Ursa’s western which sat just to the left of the large leather swivel chair on the opposite side of the desk. Mac turned pointing to a seat just opposite, before pressing a button on the wall, “Anna, can you bring some water to the Captain’s quarters. We have a guest on board.” 

	He waited for an, “Alrighty!” before he hung up and looked evenly at the cowboy, “Is this more to your satisfaction. I can assure you, that this room is highly secure.” He moved over to stand by the door leaning against the wall as he eyed the young man, “Interesting accent you have there, Mr. Wylder. Texjas?” 

	“Naw, you’re almost right there Mac. Its Tejaxs. You must get around a lot to know that, even if ya pronounced it wrong, Tejaxs is ‘ardly a well known system. Backwater n’ out o’ th’ way. And ya picked it out by my accent. Haw, I couldn’t claim to do that.” Jean reclined into the proffered chair, kicking up his boots so that they rested on the desk. He wasn’t in any rush to get to his business, even if Mac was First Mate chances were he wouldn’t dare say anything incriminating without Ursa’s permission. Maybe he could wheedle something out of the tough looking Mac, but he’d have to relax the man, convince him he was no threat.

	“I saw th’ crewman back there smokin’, do ya mind if I?” Jean pulled a small pack of smokes out of his jacket pocket, rolling one between his fingers. “Y’all do seem like a respectable tradin’ crew. One I could trust with transportin’ something very valuable, an’ tha’s with minimal reportin’ to authorities thrown into th’ mix as well. I am talkin’ to th’ proper folks about this, right?”

	Mac kept his tone even as he responded to this new fellow, “I get around. Tends to happen in my line of work and I am a lot older than I look.”  

	When the young man pulled out the cigarette, Mac waved him to carry on before he responded to the last question, “I’d rather you speak to the captain about matters of business, but on this ship we take the law very seriously. I don’t know what ship you think you are on but we focus entirely on trade. Legal trade as much as any vessel in this port.”

	Suddenly Anna walked in with the water placing it on the desk before eyeing the cowboy with curious eyes. She gave him a small smile before turning to Mac, “Sorry if I was interrupting.”

	Mac gave her a warm smile, “Nope. Not at all.  Thanks beautiful.” 

	She winked at him touching his arm before leaving. Mac turned his attention back to the young man, “I won’t lie to you son. Our Captain already has an extensive clientele of trading partners. We don't take on new ones often. Especially small fry. So you may just be shit out of luck. Water?”

     “Well, once Miz Ursa finds ‘er way back to her ship we’ll know for sure.” Jean lit up one of his cigarettes taking in a long draft. He eyed the stolid Mac with approval respecting the man for his tact and loyalty. If this was the kind of personnel Ursa kept close it explained quite clearly how she had managed to avoid the authorities for so long. Good help and unflinching loyalty was a rare sight in the galaxy now days, with criminals selling each other out for data slider with a mere hundred kredits on it, sometimes they’d do it just out of spite. Jean could tell even in his short conversation with the dark skinned first mate that Mac wasn’t the type of man to stab his captain in the back. At least not willingly.
 
            	Giving Anna a big smile Jean accepted the humble liquid raising the glass to his lips when a thought stopped him just before he drank. Only a day earlier he’d been foolish enough to wet his throat from the offerings of a young lass, only to end up helpless on the floor drugged and beaten. The signs of that brutal punishment still showed, though Jean had been careful to wear gloves and makeup his eyes to conceal the bruising from the casual observer. The idea that he could’ve been caught in the same trap twice in the space of twenty five hours would be beyond embarrassing. Without lowering the glass from his mouth Jean cast about, his eyes landing on the loaded bookshelf. “Which one o’ y’all is the big reader? Ursa sounds like a smart gal, I wouldn’ be surprised if’n she was a page turner herself. Say, what’s th’ titles of all them books y’got there?” In the process of distracting Mac Jean dropped his hand holding the glass of water out of sight below the desk, emptying it into his boot. The movement was swift and seamless, and Jean placed the now empty glass on the desk as if he’d just drunk it, his face the perfect expression of innocence.

	Mac gave the young man a shrug as he watched calmly the young man pick up the glass. At the mention of the book shelf he looked over looking at a few titles, “Ah... Our captain is quite the arduous reader. I would like to offer up a genre but she reads everything. Even Plasmogon’s Bible 12th testament. That tomb took her three days and drove the crew half mad when she wouldn’t stop talking in ye old english. Feel free to look at them if you wish.” 

	When his eyes turned back he saw that the young man had finished his water. He smirked walking over to the jug to pour himself a glass. He did it slowly making sure the cowboy got a good look as he brought the glass up to his lips and drank. When it was fully downed he smiled, “Nothing better than quality water. A luxury many people don’t fully appreciate.” 

	He was about to say something else when Takashi came in and whispered something into Mac’s ear. Mac’s expression didn’t change but he did move away from the cowboy to stare Takashi in the face, “Are you sure?” 

	Takashi looked at the cowboy before nodding, “Of course.” 

	Mac turned back to Jean and gave a small smile, “Sorry. I have to deal with something. Be back in a few minutes.” 

	Jean waved Mac off reassuring his host of his intent to wait patiently in the office, going so far as to take a book off the shelf, leafing slowly through the pages. Mac headed towards the door, turning once more to show his steel grey eyes, a sinister smirk highlighting his words, “I hope you are comfortable. I promise this won’t be long.” 

	He exited the room, shutting the door behind him with a soft click. Once the door was shut, thick metal covers slammed over the one small circular window and the door on Jean’s side. Leaving whatever occupant that was inside completely secure. Takashi leaned against the wall of the hallway, “Idiot shouldn’t have come on this ship. He was trapped the moment he went in that room. By the way it was hell and a hassle getting that beast onto the ship. Damian almost lost a ball pulling him inside. What are we going to do with them. ” 
	
	Mac pushed the little lizard man towards the cockpit, “We wait for Ursa to decide. If it were a few years ago I would say plug him and get it over with but she will probably say to desert him on an abandoned space port or something. You know how she is with cops. Now tell me more about her text...who the hell is Bob and why the hell would Ursa want us to search him now?”

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