Some Time Later

"So, let me get this straight. Just to make sure for my report okay?"

The large man with a skin like that of granite spoke to the small fuzzy creature that had maybe a bit too many limbs. The skittish alien nodded as another one of their kind came up and offered a drink to both. The larger one who wore a uniform, waved it away after saying 'thank you but no drinks on the job'.

"Your ship came out here to do some free range mining, nothing wrong with that but we'll check your cargo and tools to make sure. I remind you, you aren't in trouble, yet, but that's not the point here Cerni." the officer said, using the alien's name. The fuzzy creature nodded, and he continued as he checked his device.

"After you arrived, you were ambushed by a group of ships, Phezih designed and crewed, that **** your surrender and boarded. They attempted to loot your ship and take hostages. All of this is pretty standard all things considering, though I'm sorry this happened to you."

"But then..., another ship entered the area. The Phezih decided to raid this other ship while still holding yours. For fear of witnesses probably." The officer scrolled down, "This was when it got in your words...., weird."

"The two away ships ended up being 'dealt with' though you don't know how. Then, someone from this other ship ended up boarding the Phezih vessel and 'tore through them like a plasma sheet through Zun buns', your words."

"This person, clad in odd power armor and using a melee weapon, eventually stumbled across you and your crew in the holding cells and rather than deal with you in a similar manner, helped you flee to your own vessel while he dealt with the rest of the pirates. Your crew took the chance, and seized your ship back from the pirates that had yet to be recalled to the main vessel."

"You... found them in the freezer right? We don't have..." Cerni started but the officer held up a hand.

"They're in OUR holding cells now, don't worry and we're doing sweeps to make sure none of them escaped into the vents or something. You'd be surprised how many try to hide in the belly of ships at times. Now continuing."

"After some time, during which your crew tried to get your ship underway, it seems this armored figure dealt with the pirates on the vessel. They, along with a orange skinned female, hailed you to see if you were okay. You feared they might go back on their deal, but instead of that, or shaking you down for payment, they offered to return you the cargo the pirates had taken from you."

"You must know we are checking the records of your ship and the pirates to make sure you don't have any... contraband." his pure yellow eyes narrowed towards the small creature that started to make excuses. Only to be cut off, "After your cargo was returned, the other vessel seemed to hang around for a time while you sent out a request for us. And before we got here, this strange heroic vessel left to parts unknown."

"This is the statement you wish to provide?"

"Yes yes... I believe that is the gist of things..., though may I look it over with my crew once more to make sure?" Cerni asked.

"A copy of this will be left on record, and you will go over your statement as group under supervision. Do you agree?"

Cerni agreed and was lead off as the large figure leaned into his too small chair, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. This was going to be such a pain when it came to the paper work. At least a group of pirates were taken out but someone going out of their way to help wasn't the problem The fact they had been so... dominating in doing so.

The interviewed pirates had been a mix of fearful babbling and just... insane claims. Like the armored figure changing armors mid fight and using things like water and earth to destroy their gear. And the woman was... well she was the source of the fearful babbling. And if he hadn't seen the results and vids, he'd chalk it up to gas leaks or something. The ship had an engine ripped out for Star's sake. Besides there was something else they were trying to figure out, though he already had a good idea.

"Sir." He looked up and saw one of his men standing next to him, "We got the visual records from the Pirate's cargo hold."

"Let's see it."

The visual record was about what he had expected. The two figures, the armored one and the woman had gone into the cargo hold to check things out. Fast forwarding, he saw a few members of the attacked crew come in, seemed to identify what was theirs, and the pair of strangers helped move them to the right vessel.

Some time later in the recording, the woman showed back up and started to move the crates herself. And these were industrial sized cargo crates, they were as big as some habs he'd lived in before joining the ****. And yet this woman just lifted them without a care in the world, in complete vacuum too. That did explain why the pirate's cargo hold was basically empty when they had arrived.

"Should we put out..."

"No." He stopped his man before he could finish, "Any group that would want their cargo back would be too embarrassed to admit to it. And any single entity is probably too long gone. We'll file a report and reach out to a few people but I think that cargo is long gone." The captain paused for a moment and tapped on the screen, bringing up a close of up the woman.

She was a looker with that colored skin, long hair, and full figure. In another time and place, he figured he'd be looking at some sort of model for some fashion brand. But she if she could rip an engine out like that, not to mention so blatantly steal from pirates, well...

"Put a call out though for her and the ship she was on." He said, giving the device back to his subordinate, "Make sure all sectors know about this."

"Should we take her in for questioning?"

"No. Just standby and observe." He said as he rubbed his face again before straightening up, "I don't think she will be a problem outright but I could be wrong. Still, she might cause more... incidents. Woe be to the poor fools that get caught up in her path."

"Not. Funny."

"It was TOTALLY funny, did you see their faces? I'm so glad I picked up the recordings. Look look, you can see their 'wat' through their helmets. Here let me rewind it."

"Okay... maybe kinda funny."

It was also maybe a little hot to see Blackfire flexing her muscles like that. He knew she was strong, she was from the DC comic verse after all. But he hadn't really processed how strong she was. Seeing the recording of her dead-lifting a ship engine out of place was certainly something to see. She wasn't kidding a passing threat of 'breaking him'.

Blackfire had taken the time to collect the Pirate's internal recordings and made a bit of a 'slide show' of the fight. She found it funny and used the excuse of 'wanting to see how you do on your own without me' as pretext. But he was sure the real reason she did all this was sitting in between him and Blackfire.

Layla was as happy as she could be, watching not just her father beating up the bad guys like it was a cartoon but Blackfire too. And she was doing so in a bit of luxury as she had a nice seat of fine furs, silks and other goods around her. Heck Blackfire somehow managed to find as small tiara for her to wear. No idea why the pirates had that in the cargo hold instead of at whatever base they should have had. When did Blackfire even have time for looting?

"...Fuck it. She's happy." He thought as he leaned back into the sofa of the rec room.

He was surprised he hadn't just... lost his cool more when he heard about what that one pirate had threatened to do but considering what the poor sods went through before he got to the bedroom; maybe THAT was punishment enough. Was pretty sure they didn't bend that way, regardless of what Blackfire said about their anatomy. He did however put what Layla did to use. A grin formed on his face when the video cut to a part of him holding down a couple pirates down by slamming a rock onto their tails.

He was a little surprised with how Blackfire had reacted. Sure she had become a bit more protective but..., well he was supposed to be the pissed off parent. Heck, seemed part of the plan of 'Throw Zac in a rock into the bridge', was to get him out of the way so she could go a little... wild. She had cut those parts out though, not wanting to traumatize the poor girl more as 'if she gets nightmares or trauma I'm going to have to listen to that for the next week or so, no thank you' she had said.

"I'm gonna go for a refill, you girls want something?"

"Juice!" Layla waved her arms as she said this.

"I am fine." Blackfire just kept watching the screen, "Go off and get your... what is it soda? Go go on."

He excused himself and went to the kitchen. Which had been restocked a bit. Blackfire wasn't shy about taking stuff from the Pirates, including their food. She would have taken more, but Zac caught her in the middle of her pantry raiding. He felt bad about the people that had been attacked so he put a foot down and told her to leave enough resources for them as well. Both food and goods to try and recoup their loss. At the very least, get their own stolen cargo back.

She still took more than enough to tie them over on supplies... kinda. He wasn't sure about the food but Blackfire was confident she could eat it at least. Even if she didn't; she could offload it at the next stop and pick up Nutrient Blocks. Which were the equivalent of either bad energy bars, or according to her, could be used to make stock or broth. Point was, ANYTHING that was organic could consume those. Their safety and self life was their main selling point. Taste was a whole other matter.

But he wasn't sure he was going to feed himself or his daughter that stuff.

Speaking of her, Blackfire had insisted on making sure Layla got part of the loot for her..., contribution. She even went through the trouble of cleaning everything for her so Layla's asthma wouldn't trigger from the new particles. She did have an attack after Blackfire had saved her but she had surprised him again. During that time Zac was cleaning up the rest of the attackers and when he got to Layla's room, Blackfire was finishing giving Layla her inhaler. Even when she didn't 'care to learn', she always seemed to be watching and learning.

It was a bit... off putting compared to his ex. Once she went back to her old ways; if she didn't care for something it just classified into two categories. One, Doesn't exists or Two, Should be remembered for something to be used as a tool or weapon.

Blackfire did the same more than likely, but nothing was outright discarded. She was always learning, keeping track of things and filing them away for later. If it got the person more annoyed, she'd claim to not remember. A stand offish 'be prepared' mentality. Which made a bit of sense for a villain like her.

"Lost in thought?"

He turned as he closed the freezer door to see Blackfire standing there with that same small cat like grin she had when she was starting to 'play'. Still, she didn't have the same glint in her eye as she did in the bedroom or when about to tear into people. He should be safe... right?

"A bit. Can you blame me?" he placed a cup on the counter and pour out some apple juice from a container, "It HAS been a day..., how often did you do this?"

"Get into fights or pillage others? Though is there a difference..., I suppose time to loot afterwards." she didn't wait as she took a seat at the table, "It honestly depends on a lot of factors such as my own personal mood and what needs I have at the time. But they weren't going to just let us go so... well 'we had to save the day' didn't we?"

"Layla would have asked why we didn't save the other ship...," Zac noted as he got himself some cider to drink. He paused as he got an idea and started to pour out another cup.

"AH yes, the girl....," Blackfire hissed as he could hear her eyes roll before a follow up sigh came out, "She would have nagged for a few days before something else distracted her. And there's not much to distract her on the ship..., so just had to get in front of that."

"Says the woman who was doting on her." He put the third cup over a high tech heater device to warm it up as he looked for something in the cup-board.

"Hmmrpm. Don't spin this back on me." She tilted her chin up, "As I said, I didn't want to deal with her having nightmares. Last thing I want is her knocking on the door in the dead of night."

"Odd. If anything you seemed proud of what she did." He grinned, "I saw how you were talking up how brave of a warrior she was after the fact and ... 'A good little minion for following orders' I believe is how you put it?"

"And you aren't?"

"I mean..., I suppose it's a culture thing." Ding! Zac paused to take the cup off the heating element, "I am a bit proud she stood up to the pirates but also just terrified by what could have happened to her. Last I checked we only have a moderate first aid kit and station on board nothing super high tech..., and while you're super tough and I have the armor, Layla doesn't have anything like that."

"So Layla putting herself at risk like that..., I can't help but be worried. You worrying over her is still..., something I'm getting used to. Makes a bit of sense as so long as she's safe and happy, I am too. The doting on her like that though, I figured you'd horde the loot. Giving it away..."

"Hmmmrhpm. She followed what I suggested, and a warriors first combat should be marked for the occasion. It wouldn't be right to just skip over her contribution." She waved her hand as she talked and turned her head away from looking at him.

He could see the flush on her face for just a moment though. Whatever reasoning she gave so she could still be the 'bad girl' was okay with him, if it made her happy. As long as her justifications didn't come back to bite them in some shape or form. He took time time sprinkle something into the heated drink before walking over to her and sliding the cup to her.

"Listen, while I'm all for building up her confidence..., taking on armored pirates is a bit too much. She is a human not a...Tameranaian..., which you guys probably start off by wrestling something Elephant sized to just get started on your combat training. So if you want to try to do something like that for her... maybe scale it back..., I dunno. Maybe we can get a training dummy for the hold?"

"Technically Bear sized creatures. And it's Tamaranean." She leaned over and tapped his forehead softly, "There's no I for one." She then gestured towards the cup, "What is this?"

"Give it a try."

She rolled her eyes with a huff and took a sip. He had to stifle a laugh when he saw her eyes widen as she gulped down more of the drink. At the rate she was going..., maybe next time he should give her one of those bigger plastic cups instead of a mug. He wondered if there were some of those 'jumbo' cups they could pick up. Though with Blackfire...., how much could she drink at once.

"I figured you could use your own... reward. And you seem to like Cinnimon a lot so..., thought you'd get a kick out of some apple cider. It's basically a 'harder' version of apple juice."

"This is..., an acceptable beverage." She put the cup back down, and grinned again, "Perhaps I'll have you serve to this to me upon more victories."

"Only so long as the supply holds; not like we can get more till we get back home." He said as he got up, grabbing the cup meant for Layla, "Let's just.... try to avoid having more fights if possible."

"Mmmm, but it's so much fun and easier than talking it out." she purred as she leaned forward towards him, giving a wink before sitting up straight again, "Still I must admit, getting into every little fight and scuffle on the way back to my planet will just tie us down. The upside is that at least we can... fairly distribute the shares of the liberated goods if we do."

"That's call looting."

"Potato, Tomato." She waved him off but he could still see the grin on her face.

"Well at the very least, it's not going to be a boring trip huh. What is the next stop?"

"Just a small refueling station..., you can think of it as a rest stop or 'gas station'. The kind that has an interior shop and a small restaurant. I'm SURE you have plenty of experience with this kind of thing." She half chuckled and half grumbled, "Perhaps you'll have them eating out of your hand this time too."

"Hey if you want me to do the talking and you do the cultural translations, maybe." That would make things a bit easier but he was certain that would ruffle Blackfire so much. He continued, "Look let's just... try to keep our heads down. That's all I'm asking."

"Well, Layla's probably starting to wonder where her drink is. You coming?"

"Hmmm. In a bit. I have to set up some things on the ship. Just tell her I'm organizing some loot and maybe if she doesn't complain, she'll get something picked out for her."

"Just don't bribe her too much; she didn't like her mother trying to 'buy' her off."

"YES yes I sort of figured." She waved him off as she took another sip, "So long as I don't throw gifts at her as a way of getting rid of her, should be fine right?"

He just shrugged and started to make his way to the rec room. Blackfire took time to finish her drink as she thought. Layla and herself had gotten 'rewards' from their acts in the fight but Zac hadn't yet..., and it wasn't like she could just dump loot on him either. There... was an idea though, something he had said before. Shortly, she found herself in their room with a crate of fabrics and outfits she had lifted from the cargo hold. Most of this might get sold off, as several were not going to fit her at all, even if she tried to fit them to herself.

"No. No. UGH, No, need too many arms, too many legs..., too many.... breasts.., is there NOTHING here." She muttered as she went over to the computer for ideas.

Zac's searches might be rather vanilla but... well humans had all sorts of ideas a girl with fabric could work with.