The panda gentleman adventurer Zan Zheng woke up with a head full of cotton, a dry mouth, bright lights searing his eyes, and tied standing to a pole. An unfortunately familiar situation in his life.

And like many of those situations, his last memory was of spending time with a pretty woman. Specifically, his muggy mind served up a blurry memory of a busty mouse batting her eyes at Zan.

"Ahhhh shit," Zan muttered. "That damn witch... Captain Leona."

"Co-captain," corrected a male voice.

The lights dimmed and Zan was able to make out four figures. His old rival, the space pirate Leopold Bluehair was standing in the center alongside his sister Leona.

"That you, Leopold? You finally get your ship back from your sister?" Zan laughed. "Wait, no. Co-captain means you two are working together? We'll see how long it lasts before she launches you out in an escape pod again."

Leona laughed at that. Leopold ignored his co-captain.

"Yeah, smart guy? Well, you're the idiot who fell for the honeypot."

"I can't help it if your sister is hot when she takes off the nerd glasses and lets her hair down."

Zan hoped to bait Leopold but the mouse ignored the barb. Not much of a protective brother instinct, Zan guessed.

The panda blinked to finish clearing up his vision and groaned. Flanking Leopold and Leona were some other old acquaintances. One smiling and one glaring and the smile was the scarier expression!

Sadistic Sadie and Savage Sable, the Rad Rodent Terror Twins. A pair of mouse mercenaries who weren't even twins! They weren't even real siblings!

All the most annoying mice from his past had banded together to make his life difficult? What did he do to deserve this?

"What do you murine menaces want from me?" Zan asked.

"Well, for starters, we'll take all of your cargo," Sadie said sweetly. "I mean, its the least you can do after that trouble you caused me and Sables at the Nezumi Casino."

"We had a cushy gig before you made us look like idiots in front of Lady Naomi," Sable said sourly.

He kept a smirk to himself. He'd outwitted them so easily that he was surprised they were only fired.

"Fine. You rob me blind and we're even. Seems harsh but I'm not in a position to do more than complain."

"A few crates of contraband doesn't nearly make up for the aggravation you've caused me," said Co-Captain Leopold.

Co-Captain Leona cleared her throat.

"Or my sister," he tacked on. "But since scuttlebutt has it that you're tracking down the Furphy Vault, we'll take all the information you have on it."

"Furphy? Better make it fifty because either way, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Leona pulled out a small device and hit a button. Zan heard his own recorded voice saying "Yeah! I'm on the trail of the Furphy Vault! More money than anyone could possibly need! On a related topic, I bet you'd look good in a pearl necklace, babe!"

Zan groaned at the leering tone in the recording of his voice. "Oh, geez, how drunk was I?"

"That was after only one beer. Granted, some of my special herbs had somehow found their way into the bottle."

From now on, no more drooling after hot mice, Zan told himself. But he knew he couldn't stick to that.

"So much for not knowing a thing about it," Leopold gloated. "Anything to say for yourself?"

"Your sister pulls off the captain hat better," Zan offered.

"Charming. But when we swipe the Furphy Vault right out from under the vaunted Captain Zan, it'll establish Captain Leopold's Pi-Rats as a group to reckon with!"

"Co-Captain," Leona said immediately.

"Boo, terrible name. Absolutely awful," said Sadie.

"None of us are even rats," Sable agreed.

"Let's not do this in front of the prisoner," Leopold hiss whispered.

"I actually like that thing he said," Sadie continued. "Murine Menaces. Love that alliteration."

"No, no, no!" objected Leopold. "We can't just take an insult and use it as a name!"

"That's how we got the name terror twins," Sable said. "Someone called us that and Sadie liked it."

"YOU'RE NOT EVEN TWINS!"

"Eyes on the prize, bro," Leona said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Leopold collected himself. "Sable, Sadie. Interrogate this jackass. Find out what he knows. Leona and I will search his ship."

"Aye, aye, Co-Captain," Sadie lazily saluted.

The co-captains walked out, leaving Zan in the tender hands of the terror twins.

"We can talk this out, right?" Zan said, hopefully.

Sable twirled her laser pistol on her finger and laughed. "No! Give him hell, Sades."

Sadie snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled out a Pain-mo-Tron. "Hell is level one on this thing. Let's see how high we can get."

--

"Aren't you supposed to be doing something?" prompted Co-Captain Leopold. He moved a crate off the hover-dolly and stacked it against the wall.

Sadie took a long sip of coffee. "Ship charter says I get coffee breaks."

"Ship charter also says not to guard a slippery prisoner alone," Leona said. "And Sable is where?"

Sadie took another long sip of coffee. "She's got a laser pistol."

"I can just about guess how this is going to turn out," Leopold said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The three mice returned to the holding room.

"Yup," said Leopold in a resigned tone. "This is about what I expected."

Sable was flopped on the floor of the room, pants missing and a blissed out expression on her face.

"Aww, terror twin," Sadie said, disappointed. She nudged Sable with her foot. "Dereliction of duty is only fun when we do it together."

Leona/Leopold's co-owned ship rocked as Zan's rocket took off, breaking away from the tractor beam that had kept the ships together.

"Yup," Leopold repeated. He sat down against the wall. "Great first outing of the Pi-Rats. Auspicious beginning. So glad we joined forces."

Sable snorted and roused. "Wzzl?"

"You're so ending up in the brig for this," Leona said.

"He confused me with his pelvic sorcery," Sable mumbled.

"I feel the smallest amount of partially responsible for this," Sadie said, helping Sable to her feet. "She can never keep her head on straight with pandas."

Leona went over and knelt next to Leopold. "Well, this isn't a total loss. We stole his cargo. And all his cologne. You got to spray-paint 'Leopold wuz here' across the hull of his ship. Oh, right, and I'm competent. So back at the bar, I shaved a tracking sigil into his back fur. We can follow him right to the vault!"

Leopold cheered up. "Ha! Leopold's Pi-Rats will have the last laugh, Captain Zan!"

"Boo! Bad name!" mocked Sadie.

"Boo," echoed Sable, groggily.

"You don't get a vote until you get out of the brig!" Leopold snapped.

---

So here's some more of my characters given somewhat different roles for the wacky sci-fi adventures of Zan Zheng.

Leopold, Leona, Sadie and Sable are all space pirates. And they all have history with our hero Captain Zan. Oh, and Leona and Leopold are not tiny micro-mice in sci-fi. They're to scale with everyone else.

I felt like Zan needed some space pirates to contend with. I don't remember why I chose to make all my mice the pirates but I'm pretty sure it was because of Sable's crush on the superhero panda and wanting to play off that with space Sable having a connection to space panda.

And boom. Space pirate mice. Including Co-captains Leopold and Leona because without a giant lioness to fixate on, Leopold had to get a real career.

---

Captain Zan Zheng and Sable Faisselle owned by me
Art by @X_Manino over on Twitter