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Star Coins are the universal currency of the cosmos, accepted by virtually every race in the galaxy.
"Pfft—!"
This time someone genuinely lost it. A breath stuck in their throat. They nearly blacked out on the spot.
Five billion Star Coins?!
Are you robbing us?!
What kind of ship do you think this is? One encrusted with Infinity Stones?!
If we had five billion Star Coins, would we still be doing this blood-on-the-blade line of work?! We'd have bought an island on some resort planet and retired years ago!
The entire bridge lurched sideways in the Ravagers' collective perception. Hermione's demand had hit them like a physical blow.
Yondu's blue face was edging toward purple. He pulled in several slow, deep breaths before he trusted himself to speak.
"My lord, we truly don't have that kind of money!"
Thinking fast, he added quickly:
"We're part of the Ravagers! Our leader is Stakar! I beg you — for his sake — show mercy. Let us go..."
He was banking on the name. Stakar was a legend among their kind. Surely that would make her hesitate.
Hermione glanced at him once. Flat. Unimpressed.
"Ravagers still have to obey traffic laws."
"Today, even if Stallone, ahem, even if Stakar himself showed up, he'd still owe what's owed."
"My lord, we, "
He tried to keep going. About Ravager pride. About how they weren't people you pushed around. About how five billion was genuinely unreasonable.
"No money?" Hermione's voice stayed perfectly level, giving away nothing. "Then there's no point keeping you around."
Dozens of fiery serpents stirred at once. Tongues flickering. Temperature spiking. The next second, they looked ready to lunge forward and burn every last person to ash.
"We have money! We have money!" Yondu blurted it before he could think. "We have a way to get it! Soon!"
The Ravagers around him grabbed onto the lifeline the same way he had, nodding hard.
"Yes! The captain's right! We can get the money!"
Hermione raised an eyebrow. Go on.
The serpents didn't pull back. They held their circle, silent and patient, pressure steady.
"The Orb!" Yondu's words came out in a rush, like slowing down for even a second might make her change her mind. "We got intel on The Orb, it's on Morag! I've already sent one of my men to retrieve it! The kid's unreliable, but his luck's always been freakishly good. He'll get it!"
"Once we have The Orb, we sell to the highest bidder. At that point, forget five billion. More is possible."
Hermione reached into her pocket, pulled out an hourglass, and set it on the control console beside her.
Golden sand began to fall.
"One hourglass. Keep going, tell me everything about The Orb."
Watching that sand slip away, Yondu felt his own life counting down with it. He didn't dare hold anything back. He laid it all out: how he'd gotten wind of The Orb's location, how he'd sent Peter Quill to Morag, who the potential buyers were.
"...So as long as Quill brings it back, we contact a buyer and move it immediately!" He wiped at the cold sweat running down his forehead. "If the market cooperates, five billion Star Coins, absolutely no problem!"
He finished and looked at her carefully.
Hermione nodded. The price seemed acceptable. "How long?"
Yondu hesitated. "Hard to say. Interstellar trade is complicated. Finding the right buyer takes time. Roughly... about a year?"
"You expect me to wait a whole damn year?!"
Hermione's palm came down on the console with a flat, heavy crack.
"No, no, no! Not a year!" Yondu's hands flew up. "Half a year! Six months maximum! If we're lucky, maybe even a month!"
He steeled himself. Gritted his teeth. "My lord, how about this? Once we have The Orb and sell it, we split seventy-thirty!"
Hermione tilted her head. "Why am I only getting seventy percent?"
Yondu nearly choked on his own spit.
He'd meant seventy for them. Thirty for her.
He didn't let a flicker of it cross his face. Instead he launched into the sob story.
"My lord, you have no idea what this line of work costs us. The risk alone, and I've got all these men to feed. This ship burns through credits every single day just sitting here. We've got to keep a little for ourselves, or the crew can't survive..."
Hermione raised one hand.
"It's all yours!" Yondu yelped, pure reflex. "All of it! Every last coin! We won't take a single cent!"
"That's more like it."
Hermione nodded with satisfaction, then seemed to remember something. "Though... your girl here blocked your route... no wait, that's not it... ran a scam on you... no, that's not right either... demanded compensation. After all that effort, and I haven't seen a single coin yet. That doesn't seem fair, does it?"
"It doesn't," Yondu agreed immediately.
"And if you lose your life before you even get to sell it, that doesn't seem fair either, does it?"
"Even less fair!"
"In that case," Hermione pointed at the deck beneath her feet, "until the money comes in, I'll be borrowing this ship of yours in the meantime?"
"No problem, whatever you say!" What else could Yondu say? As long as he kept his life, forget collateral. He'd hand the ship over outright.
"Good."
Hermione snapped her fingers. The fiery serpents dissolved all at once into drifting sparks and faded into the air.
The scorching heat bled out of the bridge. What remained was a group of Ravagers who were barely still standing.
Everyone exhaled, long and ragged, like men who'd just walked back from somewhere they weren't supposed to return from. Their clothes were soaked through with cold sweat.
They hadn't even finished that breath when Hermione spoke again, in a tone of complete reasonableness.
"Right. Since this ship is mine now, what are you all still doing on my ship? Get out."
"..."
Silence swallowed the bridge.
Every Ravager stared at her.
Get out?
Out where?
Their eyes were filled with something beyond disbelief, edging toward pure horror.
What was this Earth girl thinking?
This was space. A vacuum. Without a suit, there was exactly one outcome.
Yondu's stomach dropped straight through the floor. He finally understood, what he'd stumbled into wasn't some opportunistic scammer. It was a cold-blooded devil who killed without blinking.
This little girl was a hundred times more ruthless than any of them. And they were hardened pirates who'd roamed the stars their whole lives.
"Hm. How does this hatch open..."
Hermione was squinting at the control panel, studying the buttons with mild confusion.
"Actually, forget it."
She stopped. Seemed to give up entirely.
The Ravagers exhaled.
Then Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at the hatch.
"Alohomora!"
HISSSS,
The heavy hatch blew open.
Instantly, the suction hit, enormous and immediate, and the air inside the bridge tore outward in a roaring flood.
[FULL STORY ACCESS]
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