We have a winner of the very first contest here on Venom’s bite, Reyna al’Thor my corpmate and deadly pilot, has written a sweet little story with yours truly. Sit back and enjoy… (Reyna, brand spanking new Hellcats hot beverage mug coming your way, be sure to shoot me an address to my personal email, oh and it’s coming via UPS 2-Day so can you receive UPS packages?)
With Help of a Friend – Reyna al’Thor
Reyna al’Thor sighs, floating in her pod. Closing her eyes, she loses herself in the silence of space, trusting Aura to keep an eye on her immediate surroundings. Her Punisher was currently drifting slowly in a deep safe in Evati, so the young capsuleer wasn’t incredibly worried. Deep space was the only place she could relax lately and think. The station grew more confining each day, crushing her, making her feel like she couldn’t breathe. Lately, she had found herself longing for the open spaces of a planet, and she silently curses herself for gaining outlaw status, preventing her from ever going into secure space again.
“Incoming conversation request from Venom Orchid. Do you wish to accept?” Aura’s cool, soothing voice asks. The young Khanid nods and a small screen pops up over her eyes, showing the pretty face of the new Hellcats director.
“Hey grrl,” Venom greets her in her usual seductive purr. “You’re not plugged into the local or Bastards channels, and haven’t paid any attention to corp for ages. What’s up?” she asks, worry knitting her brow.
“Oh, I’m not plugged in? I hadn’t noticed,” Reyna lies sweetly, making Venom laugh.
“Girl, for a pirate, you’re a damn terrible liar,” the Brutor woman teases before growing serious. “What’s really up? You haven’t been roaming with us in ages, you’ve been missing meetings, and if you’re not floating around out in space, you’re holed up in your quarters,” she lists off. Reyna blinks in surprise.
“Either I’m REALLY obvious or you’re spending far too much time and effort watching me,” she teases, making Venom smirk.
“Or both, grrl,” Venom replies lightly, loving the smile that her last word always managed to draw to Reyna’s lips. “Now spill, or so help me I’ll come out there and bump you a few times!” she mock-threatens.
Reyna smiles at Venom’s threat, then sighs softly and looks away, her smile fading, replaced with a wistful expression. “Venom, I’m just so… I don’t even know how to say it. I love flying fleets with you guys, but outside of fleet I just don’t feel like I fit anywhere,” she tries to explain, just feeling stupid.
“Now you know that’s just sil…” Venom starts, just as Reyna’s overview flashed, drawing her attention.
“Check check, two ships warped in on me, must’ve probed me out, gonna try and warp out,” Reyna explains in a rush as she aligned to Planet V, the telltale chirp of their targeting systems locking her ringing in her ears.
“Shit, come, on warp…” Reyna mutters under her breath, urging the warp drive to life, mentally cursing herself for being so caught up in her thoughts that she had forgotten the golden rule of low-sec, to always ALWAYS be aligned and moving towards something else, lest she be caught off guard. Aura calmly informs her that the warp drives weren’t responding.
“Reyna, what’s the situation? Do you need help?” Venom asks in quick succession, already suiting up in her pod to help her corpmate.
“Rifter, Jaguar, got me pointed and webbed, hurry,” Reyna relies curtly, always short during combat as she locked the ships in return and focused fire on the more fragile Rifter as the enemies opened fire on her. The two ships tore through her shields in a trice, though they found the thick armor of the Punisher to be a bit more substantial.
“Hang on, Reyna, I’m coming as fast as I can!” the Brutor calls, her crew prepping her own Jaguar.
Reyna grimly fights on, growling as she broke the Rifter’s armor, putting the frigate into structure and blowing the sonovabitch up, managing to catch his pod as he jettisoned, popping it as well for good measure before turning her sights and poor, battered Punisher on the assault frigate. Her small armor repairer was working hard to keep up with the damage the Jaguar was putting out, but it was starting to fail as her capacitor ran dry.
“Shit, shit, shit…” Reyna curses under her breath as the Jaguar slices armor from her hull, skilled as any surgeon. The Khanid turns her lasers back on once she had some cap, determined to bloody that jerk’s nose a bit before she popped, hardly aware of a new blip on her overview until the Jaguar’s shield melted, then slowly its armor.
“I’m here, grrl, let’s get this cocksucker! YARRRR!!!!” Venom cries, putting her own Jaguar in a tight orbit around the enemy, 200mm Autocannon II’s pouring EMP rounds into the enemy. Watching armor get stripped off the enemy assault frigate, then smoke and fire trail from the weakening hull was intensely satisfying, but he didn’t give up the fight on Reyna, apparently determined to take down his original target. His ship explodes with less than a quarter remaining of Reyna’s own hull strength. Venom easily snags the Jaguar’s pod in her skilled, merciless claws, and they both give him a trip back to his clone bay before allowing themselves to relax.
Venom directs them to warp to another safe, all of Reyna’s attention focused on holding her ship together. The young Khanid silently savors the victory while Venom whoops and cheers, excitedly reliving every minute of the battle. Once they were safely ensconced in another deep safe, Venom starts to calm down.
“How’s your ship? I see smoke,” she observes worriedly.
“Down to a quarter hull, but shields are restoring nicely, and armor is almost repped,” Reyna replies, studying the readouts before looking back at Venom in the conversation window. “You really saved my bacon, Venom. Thanks,” she murmurs with a shy smile.
“What’re sisters for, luv?” Venom replies with a grin. “Ready to dock up?”
Reyna nods. “That’s plenty of excitement for one afternoon,” she laughs, allowing Venom to warp them both home. Once docked, they both hop out of their pods, Venom wiping goop off of herself with a towel before wrapping another around her bare body, with not a care for anyone that might be watching. She winks at a few of the more handsome men in the hangar, leaving a stream of slack-jawed men in her wake as she walked to Reyna’s poor Punisher, watching as the Khanid woman haggled with the repair crew, a long robe covering her body, which was further covered by a skintight bodysuit. Venom grins wickedly as Reyna finally settled on a price, grumbling about price-gouging sons of bitches as she stalked out of the hangar.
“You know the man gives special discounts to Hellcats in return for… favors,” the Brutor informs her, grin widening at the scandalized expression on Reyna’s face.
“I’ll just pay a little more isk,” Reyna mumbles, her blush deepening at Venom’s laugh. The Brutor wraps an arm around Reyna’s shoulder, making the shorter woman jump and pull away slightly, not generally one to favor close contact of any kind.
“Loosen up, grrl!” Venom exclaims. “We’re going out tonight. I won’t accept any excuses. We have a victory to celebrate,” she grins. “So shower and put on something slinky. I’ll meet you right here. That’s an ORDER, missy!” Venom states firmly, making Reyna smile slightly.
“Aren’t you abusing your power just a little?” she asks, shaking her head. Venom laughs heartily.
“Damn straight I am, hun. Now go shower. Scoot!” She pats Reyna’s butt lightly to make the Khanid do as she was told, laughing at the deep flush suffusing the Khanid’s cheeks as she scurried off. “Ah, virgins are fun,” she laughs once Reyna was out of earshot, walking into her own chambers to shower and dress.
Reyna enjoys a long, hot shower, industriously cleaning every bit of goop off of her body and out of her hair before turning the water off. She wraps a towel around herself and one around her hair, walking to her closet and considering her options. “Slinky… slinky…” she mumbles under her breath, frowning at the utter lack of ‘slinky’ in her closet. “Well, this will have to do,” she states, picking out a pale lavender halter-neck dress made of several layers of floaty material, each layer rather sheer, and even with all of them, there was still a teasing outline of her body underneath. She had never had cause to wear the dress, having only purchased it on a Hellcats shopping trip after Persephone had teased her about her lack of dressy garments. After doing her hair and makeup, Reyna slips into the dress, completing the look with a long, silk sash wound around her elbows and a pair of lavender heels.
Reyna hurries to the designated meeting spot, falling on her ass at least twice before remembering how to walk in heels, smiling at Venom as the Minmitar studied her. “Not really slinky, but it works for you. Totally hot,” Venom purrs, her admiring stare making Reyna shyly hide her face in her sash. “None of that, now! Come on, our public awaits,” she grins wickedly, turning and strutting down the hallway as though it were a catwalk. Reyna blushes as she catches herself admiring Venom in her tight, strapless black dress that ended just below her buttocks, the taller woman swaying in her stiletto heels, the Khanid utterly entranced by Venom’s easy grace.
Venom leads the way to “The Hub”, bar of choice of Bastards and Hellcats alike, the sultry Brutor attracting the attention of just about every man in the place as she strutted in. Reyna thanks whatever gods were listening for the distraction and manages to slip away, sitting at a small booth near the window, which offered a fantastic view of the system. She gazes out the window wistfully, not noticing a man walk over to her until he cleared his voice. She glances up and smiles warmly at RoninData, CEO of the Bastards corporation. He gestures to the other side of the booth.
“Mind if I sit down?” he asks, doing so as she shook her head. He looks her up and down admiringly. “You look great tonight,” he compliments, enjoying her blush, then jumps into business. “Heard you had a bit of a scare today?” he asks, and she nods and laughs softly.
“Yeah, a couple ships probed me out while I was floating in a safe. Rookie mistake, not being aligned. I would have paid dearly for it if Venom hadn’t showed up when she did,” the young Khanid murmurs, always one to downplay any contribution she made to a fleet. Ronin shakes his head.
“It WAS a rookie mistake. I expected better of you,” the Bastards CEO states firmly, watching her lower her proud head under the deserved criticism, then he smiles. “But you managed to make the best of a bad situation. That Rifter was all yours, and you stayed alive until backup showed up. I’m proud of you, Reyna,” he smiles warmly, and she found herself blushing deeper, not used to the gentle side of the usually-gruff Bastards CEO.
“Hey, Ronin! Stop hogging all the sexy!” Venom exclaims, plopping down beside Reyna, holding two drinks, putting one down in front of Reyna. Khanid and Sebiestor both look away, Ronin rubbing the back of his head lightly and muttering something about needing something in his hangar, slipping away. Venom looks after him curiously. “Huh, what’s up with him? Was I interrupting something?” she asks the second question with a teasing grin at Reyna, who blushes deeply and shakes her head before looking at the drink curiously.
“I really don’t drink often, Venom…” Reyna murmurs hesitantly. Venom just laughs.
“Come on, grrl, live a little! You looked death in the face and walked away smelling like a rose, you deserve a little celebration! Besides, this is a good drink. Malibu and pineapple. Super sweet, you won’t even taste the rum,” she promises, taking a deep drink of hers. Reyna tests it a bit more hesitantly, taking then a deeper drink once she had confirmed Venom’s words. “’Atta girl,” Venom grins.
About two hours and 20 drinks later, both girls were completely wasted, singing loudly along with the music and dancing, falling over each other and laughing, several Bastards and other men in the station having attempted to keep up with them and failed, just watching and cheering as the dancers kept going. Another hour and 5 drinks later, even the two girls were slowing down, leaning against each other as they swayed slightly to a slow song coming from the jukebox. Reyna rests her head against Venom’s upper chest, falling asleep. Venom almost stumbles as she found herself supporting her own weight and that of the small Khanid woman, only a timely intervention by Ronin keeping them from spilling on the floor. Venom laughs drunkenly as she attempts a wink at Ronin, failing utterly and collapsing in a fit of giggles. He rolls his eyes.
“Time for bed, ladies,” he orders in his most authoritative voice, glancing at Reyna.
“She beat me to it,” Venom slurs happily, pushing the sleeping girl into Ronin’s arms, standing and swaying her way to the door, blowing him a kiss. “Be a gentleman and take the lady to bed, hmm?” she purrs, attempting another wink and laughing before stumbling off to her own bed. Ronin sighs and looks down at the passed out Khanid in his arms, before scooping her up and carrying her to her room, pulling off her heels and tucking her into her bed, fondly kissing her forehead and leaving her to her sweet dreams.
The next morning, Reyna wakes up to an incessant beeping from her PDA, informing her of a new email. She sits up slowly, holding her pounding head, wondering exactly what had happened last night. She picks up her PDA and checks her new email, a smile spreading over her lips, the pain in her head completely forgotten.
“See, grrl, you fit right in. And tomorrow, we’re doing it again. Prepare your liver! YARRRR!!!!”
Er, their tires.
We did well.
