Acting

<snip>
"Is it a spin off from Firefly? Is Bradley the captain of a star ship? Oh! I can't wait!" She jiggled on the spot and continued to halt the two women from moving on. "Hey! Mike! MIKE! They are doing a new Firefly spinoff with Bradley Cooper and Drew Barrymore!" The woman bellowed across the foyer.
</snip>
"Oh, you what!?" Mike screeched back, an edge of near-hysteria in his voice "I... Oh, my God, I... I can't believe it" he shrieked as he hurried across the foyer, his fingers tapping away at the screen of what Cass took to be a primitive terminal of some sort
"What the hell is this?" she hissed in Jade's ear
"I dunno" Jade shrugged, trying in vain to edge around the woman, and get away from these strange people "Mistaken identity?”
“No, no - Don't go!" the woman begged "Tell me about all about Firefly – Please!"
“Fire...?”
"Ohhh, my God Claire!" Mike gasped as he stared at Cass, his voice rising to a crescendo as he approached "It's Shannyn frigging Sossamon!"
His companion's eyes widened in surprise
"Oh wow" she enthused shakily "It is you! You had your hair cut short again; I didn't recognise you! Are you in the spinoff too?"
"I think you might be mistaking us for someone else" Cass began
"Ha!" Mike grinned "Love it! That English accent is flawless!"
"English...?" Claire's eyebrows shot up as her mouth fell open "Oh, my God” she gasped “Are you going to be the bad guy!?"
"What?" Cass was lost "What do you mean 'bad guy'?"
"Oh, that’s brilliant," Claire breathed, slowly shaking her head in admiration "It’s perfect – You’ve just the right combination of menace and distain"
Cass opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and turned, frowning, to Jade instead
"Menacing!?" she demanded, in disbelief “Am I menacing?”
"No, no," Jade said automatically "Not at all"
Truth be told, Cass didn't usually have to bother - It was, more often than not, the massive, three metre high robot looming behind her, bristling with weaponry, that did the menacing
"Huh," Cass grunted, only somewhat mollified
“Seriously,” Jade soothed “you’re lovely”
“I wouldn’t go that far” Cass muttered, as she nervously pulled her terminal out of her handbag and frowned down at the screen
"Hey, can we all get a photo together?" Claire asked, clasping her hands in supplication "Please?"
Mike’s eyes lit up as he glanced over towards the other side of the foyer and caught sight of a grim looking Jay and Katrina exiting the breakfast restaurant
“How about we get a picture with the whole cast?” he asked, before turning and raising his voice to yell across the foyer “Hey Brad! Bradley Cooper! Can you... Whoa!”
He quickly shut up as Cass pulled a pistol from her bag and jammed the muzzle of the weapon up against his neck
“Be quiet” she snarled, her nanosuit oozing slickly up around her neck and over the exposed skin of her arms
“Oh, fucking Jesus!” Claire squeaked, her voice several octave’s higher as her hands shot up to her mouth in fright
“Everyone move” Cass snapped, clamping a vice-like hand around Mike’s upper arm and hauling him back, out of view behind a massive, circular pillar supporting the mezzanine balcony above
“Cass!” Jade was horrified “What’re you doing!?”
“It’s the renegades!”
Jade turned to glance out from behind the pillar and across the foyer at the two police officers that had marched in, a man and a woman, each armed with what looked like pulse rifles, which they were carrying slung from their shoulders with relaxed confidence
“Oh...”


“Mister and Mrs Chrysler!” Khan boomed as he and Williams came to a halt a wary seven metres or so from the two Dwarfer’s “What a delightful surprise”
“Stop right there bitch!” Williams snapped, her rifle swinging with long practiced ease to train on Katrina who had begun moving around in a flanking manoeuvre “Back!”
Raising his eyebrows, Jay glanced coolly at his wife as she took a couple of very deliberate steps backwards, before returning his gaze to the two renegades, and ignoring the slowly gathering crowd of onlookers
“Now,” he said icily “What the hell are you two doing here?”
“The same stuff as ever” Khan shrugged dismissively, his smile broadening beneath his luxuriant, black beard “Living well. Fucking with Brittany’s big schemes...”
“Figures you’d know about her” Jay grimaced, wondering if they knew about Cassandra and her heritage as well
“Of course” Williams sniffed “We’re here screwing with her big plan to decimate this place in fifty years”
“Well, as much as I’m in favour of that,” Jay sighed as he folded his arms “You’ve broken our timeline. We can’t have mass produced pulse rifles in this era. We need to get out of here”
“Ah, you’re trapped here as well eh?” Khan grinned and clapped his hands to rub them together “Excellent”
“How can that possibly be 'excellent'?” Cass grumbled, listening in on one of the headsets as she pulled another pistol from her bag and stealthily edged around the pillar
“This is so cool” Mike whispered to Claire, his voice high with excitement as he gave her the thumbs up
“Now” Khan continued brightly “Our data indicates that a transdimensional object of some sort intersected a time gate at about the time of your arrival. This appears to have triggered a couple of paradoxes that have trapped us all here; so it seems that we owe you all an apology”
“What for?” Jay asked suspiciously
"We thought it was an attempt to ensnare us" Williams breezed
"So what are you apologising for?" Jay demanded
“The bomb we locked around one of your companions necks," Khan sighed "and for the neurotoxins we injected into the other two”
“You what!?”
“Look upon it as insurance for us” Williams smirked “And tell that bitch behind the pillar: She’s dead if she doesn’t put up her weapons”
“Cass...” Jay warned sternly
“Fuck’s sake” Cass spat and stepped out into the open to make a show of placing her guns down on the floor
“Good enough” Williams nodded
“Now what have you done to my crew?” Jay snarled menacingly
"Nothing yet," Khan smiled, holding up his hands and spreading his fingers wide “but as a gesture of goodwill: The bomb’s a modified RA-25 collar; you can deactivate with it a low concentration of uric acid”
“And the neurotoxin?”
“That’s the nasty one” Williams grinned, evilly
“Unfortunately so” Khan nodded solemnly “Amongst other symptoms, the victim usually experiences auditory and visual hallucinations to begin with; with these eventually leading to total neurological collapse”
“They’ll be drooling vegetables in a couple of days!” Williams chuckled, obviously enjoying this
“I assume there’s an antidote?” Jay asked stonily
“Of course,” Khan nodded “No long term side effects if it's administered early enough, and it’s all yours if you resolve the paradox for us”
“You see,” Williams smirked “We don’t want to upset our business partners; so we're leaving it down to you to retrieve our pulse rifle”
“Two days” Khan said solemnly “We’ll be in touch”
The renegades turned to leave and elbowed their way through the large crowd of sci-fi / steampunk convention goers that had unaccountably gathered to watch the exchange
“And cut!” Cass yelled, startling everyone as she strode out into the centre of the lobby “That’s a wrap!”
Mike ran from behind the pillar, with Claire not far behind him, as the crowd burst into spontaneous applause
“That,” he screamed “was utterly fucking awesome!”

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I think that ties everything in nicely enough
Any ideas about how we steal a pulse rifle from a casino safe before Artemis and Boyd have their brains turned into sludge?
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