Hell. Fucking hell.

Shit hell and fucking hell.

This was bad.

Pria threw a slurry of curses around in her head, not finding an immediate solution like she wanted. She had no time to think, which was her least favorite amount of time, when it came to thinking.

She'd have to take off the auto-pilot. She should be able to do that, considering she spent the day figuring out how the ship worked. But it would take time, and again, she didn't have any. Her only weapons were her staff, and her magic. Neither of which she could use to destroy a ship, let alone two. Also the idea of killing anyone sent chills down her spine. Seeing as the signal wouldn't go through, they wouldn't even get help until they got out of here. Which meant they either had to do as told, or die.

She exchanged a nervous look back to Hensen. Wondering if he had anything up his sleeve. Judging by the terrified way he looked and Pria felt, their chances weren't good.

But should she try? She like she should. Attempt to save the ship and make a daring escape. That's what she wanted to do, wasn't it? Help people? How could she if she couldn't help her first real client? Let alone herself. She looked to the man on the screen, trying to think of some way to maybe at least buy some time.

"Alright."

She said dryly. Attempting to regain some composure.

"You can board."

She didn't say anything else. If anything was going to get done, they needed movement. Better at least seem defenseless.

Hensen clutched his bag in fear, his knuckles going white as two men appeared on tge ship, each holding a weapon. They aimed their weapons at the two of you. One of them quickly checked the ship to see if there were more people here. When they were satisfied one of them laughed. "Just two kids?" He said. "What are two kids doing in a luxurious shuttle like this? Well, no matter. You!" He pointed at you "Sit over there." He pointed necxt to Hensen. He wanted to get you away from the controls.

Hensen gave you a look that begged you to just do as they asked.

Fucking hell. They were here a lot faster then she had hoped. Their ships didn't look super fancy so she was hoping they'd have to go through the long process of physical docking. Instead they were warp-capable.

Alright then, time to make due. She took a deep breath, paling a little at the sight of the two confident men. She wasn't ready at all for this, but it's not like they'd give her any time. She started walking forward, ahead to them instead of the seat. She held her collapsed staff in an outstretched fist ahead of her. One end pointing towards her, and one forward to the enemy.

"I know it's not much, but I'm armed. I just thought you should know." She said, with a hair of confidence. She stopped partway over, so that one of them would have to come to her to disarm her. She had another hand in her pocket, tightly clenching her trusty mirror. No time but the present.

As the man stepped forward to grab the thing, she clenched hard on it, causing it's automatic process of quickly expanding to it's full length. This was a trick she had used before to push over things far too heavy for herself. The force that this staff output when expanding was enough to wind you, or give a black eye. She held it level to his sternum, hoping for the first. She raised her mirror to ready in response to the assumed blast or strike from the other assailant. A prayer of good fortune to her goddess racing through her head.

"Dear Astem, mother of reflections and patron of strength within. Holy shit please let this work"

The other assailant did try to shoot you as the first man toppled backwards, but the mirror sucked up the blast. "What the..." The second man aimed at you, but you could see Hensen pull something from his bag.

He held a small ball, which he had sgown before was a prop he'd made tp go with one of his superhero costumes. Except this wasn't just a prop, it actually worked. He'd shown you on the trip towards the convention what it was capable of, which was giving off a blindingly bright light for two seconds, it had rendered you nearly blind for a short time, after which he had apologised over and over again, hanging over you with his foul breath.

If you were paying attention to him, you would see him get the device and activate it, turning away and closing his eyes as he did so. You'd better close your eyes as well. Oh and duck away as the second assailant made to shoot you again.

Pria essentially flung her self to the floor, overcompensating for a dodge, throwing her arms up to protect her face and shutting her eyes. The "click!" sound of the device going off sent flashbacks to earlier in the day. Nothing but a sharp whiteness made her panicked for a little when he showed off the device, blinding her for a short while. The two men vocalized in agony, which was a good sign. Pria opened her eyes and scrambled up to hr feet. Just in time to see Hensen fly at the man she had downed with the staff. She didn't have time to help him, the alert going off in the ship. That one with the blaster must have hit something important, which was really not good.

She dashed forward to the one farther away, swiping with her staff at his legs, hoping to knock him down. If everything went according to plan she'd have one taken care of like this, and a shot in her mirror should things come to the worst. She just hoped Hensen could manage the other one.

The second man went to the ground as his feet were surprisingly swept away from under him. They were swearing, both of them. Hensen managed to get a few good punches in, but then the men's eyes recovered as well and the first attacker was actually getting a grip on Hensen, still not a fully grown man. The pirate was effectivrly starting to fight him off.

"You little cunt!" Your attacker had regained siggt as well and you had now pretty much lost your advantage of the first attack. You'd have to make the difference now or you'd be in trouble.

Meanwhile on the background the console continued. Beep. Beep. Beep.

God of course this was how things were going. Two "kids" against grown thugs. At least Pria was still standing over her target.

"Language."

Was all she said before bringing the pole arm across his cheek as hard as she could. It probably wouldn't take them out, but it would be enough to let her hold her mirror up to him and let the shot release. She looked away as the captured shot rang out, down onto the nearly immobilized target.

She wasn't happy to do this. But she didn't have many options.

The second man was siriously injured by your reflected blast, but not dead. He was writhing in pain. But the first man was definitely overpowering Hensen now. The boy tried to kick and scream but the pirate had a pretty good grip on him.

The man looked down at his companion as you shot him. "Damn, you are a load of trouble, little girl." He said

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The beeping was getting louder now. 'Life support failure imminent' sounded a robotic female voice. 'Life pods are being prepared. Life support failure imminent'

The man swore and looked over at his companion, then at you two again "Drop your weapon, little girl, or we all die. This one first." He put his gun to Hensen's head and kept out of your way, so your pole could not reach him again.

Pria snatched the gun from the first man up, turning to point it at the one struggling with Hensen, but clearly it was too late. The alert signal rang out, and the imminent death of anyone on this ship became apparent. "Shit." Pria hissed under her breath, the man threatening her and Hensen, gun to his head. She walked slowly and as non-threateningly as possible away from the man writhing in pain. She was glad she didn't need to take a life.

"Okay. I won't argue there."

She really wished she had any other options here, but time was seriously a factor. With a huff from her nostrils she let the blaster clatter to the floor, mindful to let it fall away from either enemy. She let her staff down too, the clang of metal on metal dwarfed by the loud emergency sirens blaring.

"Now you hand over my friend, and we get on a pod."

She didn't phrase it like a question, nor a plea. It was an order. In her pocket she wrapped her fingers around her trusty mirror. Even if it couldn't hold a shot anymore, it could deflect them. She was ready to throw it if need be too. Though she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

The man holding the weapon to Hensen's head laughed. "You'll get to a pod, will ya?" he said mockingly. "I don't think so, missie. You attacked us, you can go down with your ship." He dragged Hensen to the back of the ship where the life pods were, in the meantime kicking his injured partner. "Get off that lazy ass, Jace. Ye'r not dead yet so move it!"

The second man responded to his partner with a grunt, but then started pushing himself up. He was struggling, but he managed to make his way to the back of the small shuttle as well. The first thug, all the while, kept his eyes on you, making sure you weren't making any funny movements. He used his elbow to open the hatches of the life pods and the second man all but fell into one. "Oi, Rutger." The first man said. "Two pods are about to be launched. Pick them up."

Whether or not someone replied you didn't hear, but the man seemes satisfied. He shoved Hensen straight at you, then dove into the pod, closed the hatch and launched them both. Hensen tripped from being shoved so hard and fell into your arms. "Ouch."

Pria caught Hensen as best she could, doing enough to make sure they were both standing. She looked at the pods setting off with disdain. Once they were gone she sighed, blowing some hair from her face that came loose in the altercation.

"That could have gone better."

She pushed Hensen off of her and patted him on the shoulders.

"Could have gone worse too."

She picked up the gun and her staff, which the two were stupid enough to leave where she dropped them. She collapsed her weapon and slipped it into her pocket, then looked over the gun for a second, before handing it to Hensen.

"If you could figure out how exactly that thing works in the next few seconds I'd appreciate it. We're not done with them yet."

Without another word she rushed to the console, checking over the damages. Even if they didn't have the pods anymore, they'd have the transports. Whether or not she could rig it for them both to get off of here was the real problem. She began flipping toggles and pressing buttons. She'd never actually used this function on a ship before, but knew the practice in theory.

"I'm really sorry this happened. I should have done things differently. I don't think we can save the shuttle." Her cool demeanor was slipping away as she worked at the controls. The panic she felt earlier was stewing in her gut again, and she felt the sweat on her brow. "I'm going to try and get us over to their ship. If we do this right we can take them by surprise, get the ship and take down the one that first stopped us with their own weapons." She looked to Hensen finally willing to meet his eyes. "You're okay right?"

She had been meaning to ask, but felt self-conscious about it. She'e be surprised if he wasn't right pissed at her at the moment.

Except that when you came to the console you saw the shuttle that had been in front of you had moved up to the sbip behind you and was docking it. They weren't going to leave their ship behind.

"Leave them." Hensen said to you, clutching his side. "Please. We'll get an emergency message out when they're gone." He figured out how to disarm the weapon and put it in his bag, with his convention props, then grinned. "Maybe I should make a superhero comic based on you. That was pretty cool."

BEEP.. BEEP.. 'Life support failure imminent.' BEEP.. BEEP.

You had about ten minutes before the life support system would give out.

"I'm just worried." Pria started, as she continued away at the controls, more and more frantically trying to get things working. "That with the life support gone we'll die before anyone could get the message." She was working now to see if that could be rectified, if the life support was directly damaged they didn't have much of a choice, they'ed have to jump ship asap. Regardless Pria hit the button to send out an alert message. The sooner help came the better, even if they tried to take the other ships. "Also they might just blast us as soon as they are out of range. They're probably pretty upset with us right now."

She huffed out some air and looked at Henses, forming a toothy smile matched with arched brows.

"Thanks. I'm just glad we're not dead yet."

They did send you another blast, trying to take oit your engine before they rushed off, both ships heading in a different direction. Hensen caught himself as the ship shook, then made his way to the back.

"We won't die if we use these." He said, opening a cupboard and pulling out aomething silver and white. "Space suits. They can keep is warm and breathing for a couple of hours. Think you can get that message out? Cuz I'm not sure but I don't think these suits are that fancy."

Pria let out a sigh of relief when Hensen pulled out the suits. It was standard protocol to have a certain amount of suits on-board any ship. She wasn't quite sure how she forgot that. Pria double checked to see if the message she had just activated was jammed or not, but judging by the other two ships speeding away, it seemed like it went through. "Yeah, I just did."

She made her way over to him and took one of the suits out of the compartment as well. "Fancy enough to keep us alive" She said with a smile. She started suiting up without another word, and when she had the helmet on she waited for him to be suited up too. Then she was able to use the short term communicators inside the suits.

"I don't think the ship will explode or anything, we should be okay to sit inside it while we wait."

Unless the console was blaring warnings of such a nature, she didn't intend on going out to open space for no reason. Who knows how far they'd drift away.

The message waa aent. The ship wouldn't ezplode indees. In fact, aside feom the life support it seemed to be in relatevely good condition. The engine was still working, they hadn't taken the time to aim that last blast very well and they had done cosmetic damage only. You could fly back to the planet while -hopefully- help would come your way.

While space suits weren't as rediculously thick now as they had been in the olden days, it was still weird to operate the ship with gloves on. In the meantime you had a very hyper teenage Sumarion aboard, whu seemed to think that what had just happened came riggt out of a comic book and was therefore the coolest thing that had ever happened to him in his obviously very dull life. You were now about the coolest person he'd ever met. He told you so in a very animated manner.

"And then your staff just shot out *BOOM* and that other guy was flattened like a Purellian Duckface and they tried to shoot you but your magic stopped them and..."

His excited voice rang through the com system, blaating in your ear. You may be relieved of the awful smell the Sumarions brought along witg their breath, his voice just kep droning on straight into your head. In the meantime it would be about ten minutes before you were hailed by the safety department from the planet regarding your diatreas call.

Pria did her best to humor Hensen and just smile and nod. She was distracted by a swarm of negative thoughts though. Would she have to pay for the repairs on the shuttle? She probably wouldn't even get payed. She avoided school to not go into debt and now this happens...What were the chances of this shuttle being picked? It all felt like such horrible luck she couldn't help but stew in the negativity a bit.

At least the thing still flew, that was a massive relief. Pria decided it'd be best though to stay put. In case a ship wanted to come find them it'd be smarter to not fly away from the original source of the signal. Luckily a few minutes later they got a response. Good because it meant this would be over soon, and it meant Hensen might quiet down for a bit.

Pria answered the call, nervous yet relieved to re-tell the situation and get moving back home.

A holo image of a blond man dressed in a spaceguard uniform popped up above the dashboard. His face looked stern, but his voice was business-like though friendly as he spoke. "The spaceguard of Verindy received your distress-call." He spoke. "I see you are in suits. That's good. Are your suits holding?"

Space suits, you had learned, Needed to be replaced every two years because the material could wear down after a while. Space suits were also expensive, however and many people neglected to replace them, especially on private shuttles. But Hensesn's family was not worried for money. These suits were up to par.

"What is your position?" The man would ask and after you answered "How many are aboard? Is everyone suited up? What is your siruation? Has life support fully failed yet? (If not, turning it off now that you were suited would save a lot of energy). What happened? Are there injuries?"

"Thank goodness. Yes, the suits seem to be alright."

Pria relayed the co-ordinates, the fact that it was just to two on the shuttle, and explained what had happened. Downplaying her aggression in the altercation. She looked to Hensen when asked on injuries, making sure he was alright again.

"As far as I know we're mostly okay. Our shuttle has enough power to fly, but I wouldn't like to chance it without any life support.

The man nodded. "We have your coördinates." He said. "Help is on its way. Please stay with your vehicle." The he frowned. "By the way, the shuttle you are riding is licenced to mister Trellion. You are not him." It was definitely a question for you to answer. Who were you and how did you come by the shuttle?