Outlaw Star Fan Fiction ❯ Outlaw Star: Growing Pains ❯ Gene Starwind: Outlaw, Husband, Father ( Chapter 9 )

Meanwhile, on planet five in the Hei-Fong planetary ring…

Gene Starwind sat in a darkened room, the same room he'd spent the majority of his nights for nearly four years. The gentle breathing of his daughters made him crack a small smile. Small and innocent, yet both were evil little things when they didn't get their way; they were spoiled to the core in other words, but rightfully so thanks to him. He couldn't explain why he watched them sleep, or more accurately, why he felt compelled to do so. It had become a weird habit since he had to abandon Jim. He watched the two of them sleep, gun draped across his lap, and with an overprotective streak that was going to be a bitch when they grew up. Still, he'd lost one child, and after everything that'd happened, he wouldn't lose another.

"Fucking McDougals," he muttered, folding his arms over his chest. His chair barely made a sound as it leaned back against the brick wall-it mimicked its owner with the silence. Closing his eyes, Gene began to walk back through the memories of that day. It served as a sort of penitence for being a failure.

Ron had mentioned something about a tracking device, but as the C'tarl-C'tarl ship followed them in sub-ether space it became apparent that tracking wasn't all he'd had Harry do. The psychotic man-machine had uploaded a computerized version of himself into Gilliam's mainframe. Gilliam was running down a list of battle strategies when the youngest McDougal appeared on Gene's monitor. And before anyone could react, the deranged man sent Gilliam into stasis and cut the ships engines. And to think, he almost felt sorry for him back at the Leyline when he was the walking dead. What shred of pity that could of formed was completely gone now. The remaining emotion was the hatred he once felt towards the unknown gold ship, but now he had faces… people to focus that rage on.

The ensuing attack on the ship and Melfina began at the same time, which split his attention in half. All Gene remembered hearing were Melfina's screams for Harry to get away from her, Harry's pleading, and Ron's missiles and grappler arms attacking the ship. Gene fought valiantly, true enough, with the grappler arms. But none of the guns, missiles, or communications worked (other than to allow Ron's voice to pipe through the speakers). He'd lose everything at that rate and for awhile, it seemed like that didn't matter while he swore at the freak with the bow in his hair.

Then Ron said, "Seems kind of familiar doesn't it, Starwind? At least you put up a better fight than your old man did. But alas, we both know how this ends. Another day, another Starwind turned into space debris, etceteras. It's kinda pathetic when you think about it…"

He was blatantly trying to piss him off-and it worked. Gene smirked, recalling how sweet it felt when his grappler arm blade shredded through the rear hull of the El Dorado and one of its engines. The victory was short, however, as Ron repaid them fourfold by knocking out all four of their engines. Not satisfied with that, he began a maelstrom of anti-armor missiles.

And just when his headache seemed to reach its climax, Harry started threatening Mel for not cooperating. The controls began to spark then smoke, forcing Gene out of his seat as the panel went up in flames. So, of course with all of this bad news, Ron just had to pull off the ship's grappler arms. The XGP-one of the most advanced ships ever made-now sat like a wingless dragonfly on an anthill - defenseless. Everything had gone so wrong… so hideously wrong. And when it looked like this was as bad as it got, a sub-ether portal opened and the C'tarl-C'tarl ship came out. The oxygen gauges were reading low, there were fires in most of the lower compartments, and Melfina was screaming while Harry did who knew what to her inside of that computer world. Coming out of his stupor at the last possible moment, Gene went to work.

"What… what are you doing?" Harry screamed, flashing the ships lights on and off in a physical display of his aggression. Gene ignored him, trying futilely to open the lid on Melfina's chamber. It wouldn't budge. He jumped from the platform and with Suzuka's help, they attempted to break the glass. Another missile hit the ship and threw them to the ground, as Harry closed the blast casing, effectively shutting Melfina in even further.

"She's mine! MINE! MINE! MINE!" he screeched repeatedly, proving that his artificial intelligence replica was just as insane as the original.

"Get the robot girl and let's go, little brother!" Ron suddenly shouted, as his ship seemed to be on the receiving end of an attack. A series of explosions came over the COM system, as Ron swore up and down about the ship he couldn't evade. Gene smiled, as he saw fuel floating away from the El Dorado as the gigantic C'tarl ship bombed it straight to hell. He wanted to kill the both of them himself, but he'd take the role of a spectator and like it-and he did. Ron came back to deliver his last words, which were: "I don't know how long… Ah… Starwind… you!" Gene repressed a laugh, as it sounded like the older McDougal pissed himself.

The signal turned into static after that, but it didn't clear up this time. The El Dorado floated in chunks, lightly tapping the damaged hull of the Outlaw Star. For a moment, Gene forgot about the mayhem aboard his ship, as his revenge seemed complete. Of course, per the pattern, the good news turned sour as a C'tarl-C'tarl face popped onto one of the view screens. If he went for the whole cat-women thing her white fur, black stripes, and blue eyes might have done something for him. Of course, she came across as having a superiority complex on the level of possibly three Aisha Clan-Clans-the ultimate in turnoffs. She demanded to know what they were doing out there without clearance and/or at all.

"It doesn't really matter, because you'll be detained either way. However, if you answer me now, your sentence may be reduced," she said snidely. The communications deck was flickering with flames and even if it was in working order, Harry had full control and probably wouldn't let Gene work out a lie to appease her. Speaking of him: Harry's attention shifted to his brother, who'd obviously been blown to pieces by the unnamed C'tarl. Still Harry screamed for an answer.

"Ron, answer me… come on… this isn't funny! You killed him did… didn't you!" he finally accused the woman on screen, who seemed impassive to the whole ordeal beyond making an arrest. "I… I… DIE!"

Suzuka jerked his arm furiously, pointing to her weapons monitor. The psychopath was planning to attack the C'tarl ship and given the limited carrying capacity of the Outlaw Star versus the sheer size of C'tarl vessel, they'd all go down. Everything on the deck began to blink sporadically from the physical damage and Harry's 'mindset', but Melfina stayed captive until a certain redhead got trigger-happy. There was no way to know how a Caster Shell may effect the solution Melfina was in or how it'd effect Melfina as a person being suddenly ripped from within the cybernetic world. The only certain in a world of ifs and buts was that waiting around would spell certain death. So, throwing the dice and getting an uncharacteristically worried glance from Suzuka, he fired. The rust colored energy spiraled from the barrel, smashing the black metal head on.

Nothing happened.

Gene loaded up and fired again, getting a slight crack in the metal for his efforts. Harry stopped mid-rant and began to berate the hell out of him, before Gene fired a rare number 33. It was the last shell he had and the recoil threw him and Suzuka over the driver/navigational consoles. Under the force of the rainbow colored energy, the blast casing exploded into shrapnel. The hysterical assassin couldn't really do much in the ways of intimidation now; he couldn't physically hurt them through Melfina. Gene and Suzuka emerged from the other side of the consoles with only minor burns and heated tempers.

"This isn't how the plan was supposed to be! Melfina comes with me; then you people die! No, no, no, this weird cat-girl shows up and tries to take Mel…"

"SHUT UP!" Gene and surprisingly, Suzuka both interjected cutting the lunatic off. They rushed to Melfina, who'd toppled out of the containment unit, only to find her without a pulse. By now, the C'tarl-C'tarl officer was losing patience and interest in the soap opera.

"Prepare to be boarded and taken to…" Gene's mind got fuzzy as he tried to recall the location that she named. Whatever the case, Suzuka got Mel up and going by saying something about plates. Thankfully, they all shacked up in his room on the ship and luckily, he was able to grab Mel's clothes and Suzuka's sword before the ship went up. The three lovers made a mad dash for the escape pod through the smoke and Harry's final plea for Melfina to stay with him. Pandemonium ensued then, as they heard missiles launch from all sides. The once smooth C'tarl voice turned into a cold yell, promising death now as her ship received minor hull damage.

And how did Harry respond? "You can't catch this ship in a million years!"

Of course the psycho hadn't bothered to look at any of the computer monitors he controlled, or he would've seen the main engines were all shot. Melfina was in a daze, resting on Suzuka heavily while Gene kicked the reinforced doors for all he was worth to get into that pod. A sudden impact hit the ship and sent the three spiraling to the floor indicating Harry had finally pushed the arrogant animal lady too far. Then a whole flock of jolts rumbled across the ship, things looked grim and strikingly familiar to the last Starwind. He'd die in much the same way as his father-all because he didn't want to be old. Well there it was-one big finale where he could kiss the world goodbye in a blaze of glory… with both of the women he loved by his side.

"Excuse me," a snooty voice replied, as it slid down the track above the fallen shipmates. "If you would be so kind as to get me down from here, I may be able to unlock that door. His focus is not on maintaining control of the ship's locks, thus, I should be able to easily get us out of here."

Gene hopped to his feet and snatched the now yellow Gilliam down in the middle of his speech. The self-proclaimed most advanced CPU told him what to do. The instructions entailed of holding the robot's tiny arm steady while he tried to bypass Harry (whom could be heard yelling as though he were in a conversation with two people, though only conversing with himself). Another missile hit the ship, this time causing Gene to stumble, utterly falling and snapping Gilliam's arm off in the lock switch.

"Or perhaps I was too confident in my abilities," the coffee cup sized robot said, proving that its self-confidence only went so far.

"I suppose this is where it ends," Suzuka said, as she folded her knees under her and cradled a visible distraught Melfina. Gene stood there, absorbing what'd happened, and listening to metal twisting as the ship shook him to the floor again. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?" Gene sarcastically replied, beginning to pry at the door with his bare fingertips. He could feel Suzuka's eyes burning into the back of his head, silently whispering that it was hopeless and that he should sit down and die with them. Heh, could they even die if the ship exploded? The only person certain to die by staying there was Gene and he didn't want that. He pulled harder to spite the knowledge of that uncertainty.

The skin on his fingertips sliced on against the warm metal and began to bleed profusely, but he kept pulling. It hurt, but the more the ship shook, the harder he had to pull. The armor on that ship, while above the norm, wasn't indestructible. Acknowledging such things as facts and odds weren't something he usually did, and it scared him to do it. Acknowledging the odds meant he knew it was hopeless… meant he'd die, and to spite that, he put his left foot on the doorsill and pulled with everything he had left.

"Stop… you're…" Suzuka attempted to beg, as she realized that the red substance rolling across the floor was his blood.

Then as if by the grace of his will, the door hissed open with no warning or reason.

Had Gene actually performed a Herculean feat of strength and against all odds come through again? No. Missiles were swarming that side of the ship and more than likely shorted out a power relay to the door. Whatever the case, all four-Gene, Suzuka, Melfina, and Gilliam-made their way into the two-person escape pod just as the front of the XGP exploded. Whatever holds on the ship Harry McDougal had died in that instant allowing them to open the hatch only seconds before the entire ship met its doom. The ship's explosion sent them spiraling away into space as a hunk of debris, which probably explained why the C'tarl-C'tarl didn't pursue them. At that time, however, they were all thankful to be alive.

Gene only remembered the next events based on word of mouth, as the claustrophobia coupled with a decent into endless space rendered him unconscious minutes later. Jim and Aisha wouldn't come up until the next day when a towing convoy found the now former outlaws adrift. It gave them a lift to Hei-Fong 5, as that was the closest planet around. Like a strange case of déjà vu, he found himself awakening in a hospital bed. Melfina and Suzuka were there when he awoke, smiling a bittersweet smile of relief and sadness. They reminded him of the two they'd left out there. At the time, he dismissed there worrying-they were simply lacking the Starwind Power of Positive Thinking. Or rather, they had the power to see reality for what it was.

Well, after a couple of hours of lounging around he decided that it was time to skip out on the bill. It didn't exactly work like that on Hei Fong 5. Suzuka explained that she had more than enough money to pay the bill, as her former assassin role left her with more money than she needed or could ever hope to spend. After his mouth was finally cranked shut, they signed out, and made it to the second home of Starwind & Hawking. Now it was time to draw up the plan to rescue Jim and Aisha. Now it was time to find another ship or person willing to charter them to the C'tarl-C'tarl home world. Unfortunately, that's as far as the rescue mission got. No matter how much money they offered, no one wanted to take a mission that involved going up against the C'tarl-C'tarl Empire. It was depressing enough to desert them, or rather, Jim. But it was a whole new level of self-loathing to accept there was nothing he could do.

Add to that dismal stain on the mood a streak of good news-Suzuka's once over revealed that she was pregnant. She hid the news quite well for about four months, which didn't even come out via the gut she'd developed.

Then as if to pay his worthless soul back double for the pain he'd inflicted on others, Melfina began to feel regularly ill after that day in space. He thought he'd contributed to it by ripping her out of that navigational chamber, but she assured him that it wasn't his fault. Still, you don't hand a depressed guy this kind of good/bad news pattern and not expect him to think the worse. Mel went back to the doctor-a good doctor thanks to Suzuka's wealth-and came home with a diagnosis that'd leave him gasping for breath. Melfina, bio-android, was but an android in certain parts of her mind and 20 percent of her physical body. In other words, she was a human being with computer parts; thus, she could reproduce. Two hours later after he'd recovered from this joyous news, Suzuka struck and reveled in his expression he imagined.

"I suppose we'll need two cribs then," the former assassin said with a sinister little smile as he paled. "I guess this is my fault for not suggesting you use some form of contraceptive. Not that I mind…" Gene shook his head while recalling the slow-motion process in which he passed out.

Everything after that became a blur. Work, diapering, feedings, singing, sex, and sitting up most of the night remembering kept his schedule pretty full. The routine hadn't changed in about 4 years. Jean and Jeanna (short for Jeanette), ah the miracle of working his name into his kids' names, he honestly felt like he could watch them forever and never get bored. Sure, Suzuka got the right to name any future children after agreeing to Jeanna, but at least his name would live on. Melfina actually decided on Jean's name, which made the child's father a smiling (not to mention obnoxiously loud) idiot in the delivery room. Only Gene Starwind could turn childbirth into a fistfight-which he did. How was he supposed to know Jean was crying for the sake of it instead of that idiot-orderly's iron-grip?

"Deck one male nurse and its assault" -Gene shrugged, easing his chair back onto the floor- "but he can squeeze my kid like a damn pillow? Asshole…" Melfina tried to convince him that the baby wasn't hurt, but how was he supposed to know?

Gene released a small sigh while getting to his feet, holstered the double-barreled sawed off on his hip, and walked between the two cribs. Two redhead beauties who he'd undoubtedly have to use on the riffraff… more commonly known as teenage boys. He frowned, not exactly looking forward to that day. In the present, he looked down on each girl with enough pride to guarantee him his spot in Hell… along with the various murders, wife coveting, etc.

Still, he couldn't help seeing Jim at times like this. He'd 'raised' him from a similar age, though he admittedly slacked off, but he did play the role of parent for a few years. And in those years of real parenting, he came to hold the boy in his mind as a son more than a little brother. Now look at how the experiment in parenting went… It went straight to hell. He should've told him to sit his ass down on that ship and let Aisha do the grunt work. No, he sat there like a mute and let him suit up, jump off the ship, and into the awaiting arms of C'tarl justice.

Now his 'son' was either dead, tortured daily, or disemboweled by now given the C'tarl-C'tarl Empire's extreme measures. That was more frustrating than anything-the not knowing kept him up at night, wondering, hoping, and praying that if Jim died it was quick and painless. In the eyes of Gene Starwind, he'd failed his first shot at parenthood. And as he leaned into each crib and gave each girl their nightly kiss on the forehead, he would not fail them. He would not get lazy and let them spiral off to get killed.

Gene stepped into the hallway and made his way downstairs, finding Melfina and Suzuka both sitting at the kitchen table. His bare feet lightly padded across the floor, slightly startling Melfina as he emerged from the shadows.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," Melfina said, as he made his way over to the table and took a seat. She said the same thing every night, but it didn't seem to make a difference. Midnight of every night, he'd wake up, go sit in their room for a couple of hours, and pay his silent retribution. It was an odd thing seeing Gene Starwind quiet instead of the customary loud, obnoxious, arrogant, rude, or a combination of the four. She looked at Suzuka, sensing the same worry that the other woman didn't show, but all the same felt.

"I know," he agreed with no objections. Gene sat on one side of the table, as Suzuka and Melfina sat beside each other on the other.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Melfina asked, though knowing it was futile query. "It may make you feel better."

Gene stared at them for a moment, wondering if perhaps this could at least get them to stop worrying about him so much.

"Are you sure you want to hear it?"

They nodded.

"Didn't Jim say something about a building?" Suzuka asked. "You found him, correct?"

"Incorrect," Gene answered with mild wit. "It's actually the truth, but there's more to it than that."

"In any event, I want to hear it." Melfina said.

"Guess I'll start from the top. It's January 13, 2243, on Earth's calendar date. So it's January 13, 0150 on the Toward Star. I'd been drifting inside that pod for the better part of 3 or 4 days," he began.

"Why were you adrift?" Suzuka asked, beginning to needle for information into his past beyond the superficial bits and pieces he let slip every now and then.

"McDougal Brothers attacked me and my dad. He pushed me into the only escape unit and went boom with the ship," Gene replied sarcastically. "I ran out of fuel and we never got around to installing any radios or controls, so I floated. Being the guy I am, I was panicking like a little baby. Then… his ship just exploded. I started screaming and the next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital on Sentinel 3. Don't ask me how I ended up in another galaxy when I was only a few million miles off my home planet, but I was.

Anyway, they released me about two days later to one of my dad's friends, Clyde. He just happened to be next door visiting his aunt when he saw me. We started talking and I started explaining what happened, so he let me move in with him since I didn't know anyone there. I don't have to tell you two that he's a nice guy, but he left Earth to settle on a lousy planet. I knew I wouldn't be able to live with him long. I started getting into trouble out of the gate, and it didn't help when I started sneaking in his liquor cabinet. I don't know if you've ever been mad at everything and nothing at the same time, but I was. You bumped into me -boom- we fight. Say something I didn't like -bang- I tried to rip out your tongue.

It wasn't like I was a bad guy or anything. I just had a lot of stuff to deal with. And the way I dealt was making other people hurt. I fought anyone, anything, and at anytime-that was the only way to make the memories stop. Then about three months after I moved into Clyde's basement, I found a way I could hurt people and get money for it. Bounty hunting was my ticket and since Sentinel 3 didn't have any hang-ups about who did the criminal round up, I exploited that. Excessive force doesn't even begin to describe how I caught some of those guys, but I'm getting ahead of myself now.

I had to move out of Clyde's basement when he started telling me that I couldn't do the hunting. I told him he could kiss my ass, and off I went into the back alleys of Sentinel. I found my own place soon enough, but I recalled Clyde was a sort of stool pigeon or guy in the know about the under belly of the Sentinel 3 crime scene. So, I made my way back to him, did some mock-apologizing, and asked if he knew anything about getting started in my new profession. He, of course, still refused to help me… at first. I figured I'd show him and start getting people on my own.

The first guy I went after put me in the hospital for a week. Clyde footed the bill, and decided he'd better help me before I got myself killed. I went back after said guy, and accidentally killed him. I know it sounds sick, but when he pulled that knife and I wrestled it away from him then jammed it in his neck… it felt great. Of course, the cops on Sentinel bought self-defense excuse with me being a bounty hunter on the books. Hell, they promoted killing criminals, on the side, without any penalties. If anything, this left it up to me to decide who lived and died-not a decision to be made by a teenager who drank. I guess you can justify it by saying at least I killed crooks, but that ain't saying much.

Anyway, Clyde only gave me the soft collars or guys too inferior for the big shots. I'm talking shoplifters, pickpockets, vandalism specialists, and I'm gonna get rich catching these nobodies? Heh, I had to start somewhere. So, I started picking these guys off with nothing more than a knife-the same knife Aisha's super cat-woman ribs broke. I literally carved a little name out for myself with the locals after a few months, but I wanted something bigger.

Enter Clyde and computer geeks. It turned out there was a big market for computer hackers, which meant easy money to me. After all, how hard could it be to catch a guy who sits around a computer all day? For a 14-year-old with issues these guys weren't any challenge, especially if you had the right resources. I had the resources all right. They were worth more, easier to catch, and I made a good living off the hacking market.

Well, it was good until Clyde sent me after this guy called the Computer Wizard.

There was a two hundred and fifty thousand wong reward out on this guy and another hundred thousand was added every other day. Clyde, figuring I had no shot in hell, gives me a list of accomplices and old addresses for this guy. Right off the bat I'm thinking this is easy, because he has a list of people a mile long. You don't become a good crook by having this many associates, especially when they're so easy to find.

All I found were corpses though. A list of just about 300 and all of them were dead…"

"You expect me to believe you, Gene Starwind, asked around for 300 individual people?" Suzuka interjected, heavy on the skepticism.

"Who said anything about asking? I told you I had the resources, and what better resources than a hacker? I honed my 'people' skills on this cute little librarian, who did a little freelance hacking for me," Gene replied while hiding a smile as Suzuka frowned. "I needed somewhere to stay after Clyde kicked me out, and why not the warm bed of an able-bodied 23-year-old?"

Suzuka and Melfina kicked him in the shins for that.

"Just finish the story," Melfina said with a small frown.

"Fine," Gene said, rubbing his foot over the dents in his legs. "It turns out the majority of these people died around the same time, which at the time, I took as a sign this Computer Wizard guy was offing people to stay in the clear. Well, as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, nobody heard anything on the guy. So I decided to start shooting the small fish until the big fish came out for a sniff.

It's about 2 a.m. on August 17 and I know this because I'm officially 15 and the ultimate badass… in my mind. Clyde gave me this sweet Ling-Xi Dragon-9mm rounds, pearl handle, silencer, and laser sight. It intimidated better than the knife, so I was all for it.

At the time, I'm chasing this skinny little twerp named Mr. Sacks. He was a beginner in the hacking scene, but never the less stole two billion wong from the Sentinel National Bank. He was worth about fifteen thousand to me, and I needed the exercise, so I went after him.

Man, I never saw a guy run so fast with a computer on his back. Anyhow, I'm chasing him down Old Time Rd. in the even older river district when I trip over this trashcan he throws in my way. I hop to my feet completely prepared to put my new birthday present to use and empty a clip in his head. Luck wasn't with me though. I stalked up and down that street with no luck in finding him.

I sighed, shot a few windows out, and decided to check my list for any other collars that had a large enough reward worth the work. Of course, there's one guy sitting at the top just laughing at me and that's the Computer Wizard. According to Clyde's source, he lived on this street as a boy. I could've kicked myself for not checking there earlier, but I could do that later. The reward for this guy had skyrocketed to a cool twenty-million-wong.

I kicked the door in, with no casing or anything. At first, it's just quiet, ordinary old building fare-rats, roaches, and a scent of month-old piss. I almost call it quits because of the smell, but something tells me to go to the second floor. As soon as my foot hits the top step, two people break and run. Since the walls were gone, I had a clear view across room and I could make out the shadows splitting up. I decided to chase the shorter one, seeing as how it was probably the computer geek.

I chased him up the fire escape, then followed him across the roof, jumped to another roof, and then another. I cornered him on the last roof, because from there it was a straight shot to the ground. I start my usual speech about giving up and what not, but then we fell through the damn roof. I counted four floors on the trip down-we crashed through all of them. It turns out we were in this condemned joint on Bakers St. A stack of plastic car covers or something broke the fall, and I knew I had him because I landed on top sort of. Well, I thought I had him. He pushed me on the floor and made a break for it.

I managed to get up because he was my get rich quick ticket, and I couldn't let my money just walk away. I find him outside, searching for a way out. I smiled then, because I was blocking the only way out.

'Come on, turn around and we can do this the easy way,' I told him. 'Or I can shoot you in the back of the head and drag you in.'

This is the moment of truth now. The Wizard turns around, drops his hood, and it's a woman! Hot little blonde about 5'7'', 110 or 115 pounds complete with black sneaking suit and combat boots. I mean this thing is so tight you can see the nip… So, I pull up the one picture that Clyde had of this Computer Wizard guy. He's 32 according to the bio and I thought about 6 feet tall from the picture. And since this obviously isn't him, I asked who the hell is she.

'Don't worry about who I am,' she says, pushing her hair back out of her eyes. 'I don't have time for these games…'

I shot once right over her left shoulder to let her know I meant business-big mistake. She doesn't make a move, but the little bit of her face that I can see let's me know the muzzle blast didn't faze her. I'm getting ready to ask her who she is again, when I hear something… a BIG something rustling behind me. I turn around and BOOM! With a single punch, this monster knocks me out of the door and clear into the opposite wall. I slide down the wall like wet spaghetti. And when I'm sure that killed me, I find the power to stand up. It takes a few seconds, but the pain gets me worked up and ready for a fight… until he steps into the light.

I said he looked 6 feet tall earlier-tack on another foot when he's standing up. This guy is at least 7 feet tall, dark blonde hair, and solid muscle. I'd dealt with muscle-heads before, but something about him let me know that he was faster than I was. He walks over to the woman, keeping me in my place with a look. Swallowing my fear, I get ready to start killing everything that moves, then, I caught sight of his eyes in the little lamplight. I nearly pissed myself. They were this cold blue color and they just said, 'I'm going to kill you very slowly if she's hurt.'" Gene came back to the table, pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

Suzuka and Melfina sat in stunned disarray. "Well, finish!" They snapped, as he casually sipped.

"Like I was saying," Gene began, capping the juice. "This guy is about the size of every hacker I'd chased down combined. He's got this black trench coat thing happening, making him look even more intimidating, add to that his speed and I was looking for my gun something fierce. I had the gun in my hand the whole time.

'What do you want with us?' he asks, checking the chick for a bullet wound.

'You the Computer Wizard?' I asked him back, trying to come off cool. He didn't buy it, she didn't buy, and I could hear the hammer on my gun rattling that told me I didn't buy the act.

'Who's asking?' he asked, which sort of pissed me off by his arrogance in not knowing who I was. Damn it! I killed Xing Lei, and he didn't know who I was? Ugh… but I didn't say that to him.

'James, James, James,' a voice says from somewhere, interrupting us. It was one of those voices you hear and you just know some shit's about to happen. 'James Hawking, Computer Wizard, dead man-they're all one in the same.'

Deciding I better put the interrogation on hold in case that was Jackson Green trying to muscle in on my hard work again, I challenged whomever it was to come out and face us. The next thing I know, ninjas start raining down from everywhere. They were coming out of the windows, off the roofs, hell I think some may have come out of the sewer. They'd trapped us. I did a head count before they struck and I think it was 30 or 40 of them. Naturally, I'm wondering what else this guy has hacked to have so many people on his trail. I'd find out eventually, but in the meantime…

'The name's Gene Starwind,' I said in attempts to get on my potential allies' good side.

'Katarina and James Hawking,' he answered, taking his coat off and pulling out a couple of Earth-model .45s from the holsters under each arm. He tosses one to his wife and then says, 'Understand, if you led them to us, I'm going to kill you.'

He tells me this like I don't know.

So, to keep up my favor in his eyes, I shoot a ninja in the head. In the next few hours my life would change for the better. Or worse depending on how you looked at it. We're all standing here at this point, when all of a sudden the guys in the ninja getups spring these mechanized claws. I just started pulling the trigger then.

It turned into a full-blown war from there. One moved on the left: Bang, shot through the neck. I hear something behind me. Without thinking, I dropped down, spun 180, and caught that one right through the heart. I went through three clips, dropping those freaks in blue pajamas and animal masks. I got caught reloading though and one of them hit me in the face," Gene rubbed his hand across the scars on his cheek and smiled. "Lucky. I pistol-whipped him for a minute, then cocked the hammer and took half of his face off at point-blank.

By now, it looked like we won, because every ninja had enough holes to be certified Swiss cheese. The Hawkings and me are taking a breather, as the guy with the voice just appears out of thin air. He had a lion's mask on (except it had about four pairs of eyes), this powder blue bodysuit, and some kind of weird symbol on his chest. Seeing them together, I noticed he was as big as the Wizard except he had a sword-a giant scimitar or something. Before I can even draw a bead, he goes straight for Jim's dad swinging for the jugular. They exchange a few punches, evading this or countering that ending the first exchange with James losing his gun.

Jim's dad takes a punch in the jaw, then this brutal shoulder throw into the side of this building and Katarina flips. I tried to stop her from joining, told her to get one of the guns. She told me she couldn't see where they'd landed and went to help. They fought for what I thought was forever. No one landed anything substantial or deadly, but make no mistake about it they were trying to kill each other. Jim's mom goes for this stupid flying roundhouse like thing, and she misses by a mile.

The ninja guy comes under her foot and puts his knee in her gut; she's wide open and then it started going in slow motion. He draws back the sword, prepared to strike her down, but James pushed her out of the way. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, but it was the sword going through his chest and body armor. James just stands there completely neutral until the ninja puts his foot on his chest and pushes him off the sword. Now, I've somehow ended up on my ass watching this all unfold with my mouth open. I still have my gun in my hand, but I can't find the nerve to use it.

The ninja guy then gets a page or something. He flips out his phone and starts talking, completely dismissing Katarina. I can't say he was being bold, because she was too concerned with stopping the blood pumping out of James's chest.

'One down. One to…' He turned to scope Katarina's position when he heard her crying suddenly stop, too late. The bullet hit him right between the lowest set of eyes on his lion mask. Joe Ninja drops to the ground in heap, dead as a doornail.

James is barely breathing by the time we get to him. I'm sort of numb from the fighting and all, but watching that woman breakdown like that did something to me. For all of the things I did to ruin other people's lives, I finally saw that I wasn't the only one with problems. I felt weird for even being there, kinda like I was intruding on some personal moment, but I couldn't leave.

'You can't die,' she kept repeating. I wasn't used to caring about people bleeding.

'Come on, we need to get him to a hospital,' I told them, but they shrugged me off.

'It doesn't matter where we go… they'll… find us,' James whispered. 'Look, I'm as good as dead now. Kat, get the boy… and go.' He said, trying to push her hands off of him.

She refused to move.

'So they can hunt him down? I can't put him through that… I won't put him through that!' she screams, trying to stop the blood pouring out of his chest. "I… can't do this alone."

I don't think I ever felt sorry for someone until that morning. And once I got caught up in the sympathy pool, they drug me under.

'Hey, Gene, right?' he asked, reaching out to me, I guess. I took his hand; he had a card in it. 'You have a family?'

I told him no, then he squeezes this card into my hand as a sign to take it.

'Do us a favor, find our son and get him somewhere safe.'

Of course, I'm ready to deny this. But I looked at him; I mean really look at him in his eyes. They looked like my dad's did. They had that look that said, 'I love you; I'm already dead; I'm doing this for your own good; I'm sorry' all at the same time. I froze and he died with that look on his face. I took my hand back once I realized the man was a corpse, but when I looked at his wife, I saw the same thing looking back at me. I had to get away from them; I had to run and never look back.

'Please,' she whispered.

I'd officially stopped running before I even started. She held in more of her tears, as she took the card out of his lifeless hand. It was like someone else was in the driver's seat and made me take that card, made me flip it over and see that it was really a picture of their family… their smiling, joyful, greeting card, happy family.

Want to know the sad thing?" he asked, as that far off look in his eyes faded back into the present where Melfina lightly cried and Suzuka sat in similar plight. "I still tried to refuse. I don't know if that was my way of trying to inflict maximum pain or if I'd finally found something else to fear, but I looked her dead in the face and said, 'I don't want your kid. You can take him and get out of here since you've killed that guy.'

'You poor boy,' she said with a pained laugh. 'He's only one of many. He's part of Shang-Li, and they are a very large and wealthy group.'

'How do you know?' I asked. 'He could've been lying about how big his little posse is.'

'You're after his bounty, right?' she asks, pointing at her corpse of a husband.

I nodded.

'Did you ever stop to consider why so much money would be wasted on a hacker listed as changing a few stop lights?' She stood up, walked over to the fallen ninja and dragged him over to her husband's body. 'Two hundred billion wong, is the collective amount he supposedly stole from them. My husband worked on the inside with these people, trained with these people, is one of those people.'

Katarina lifts the sleeve on the ninja's outfit, showing off a seven-point star tattoo on his wrist. She did the same thing to James… identical tattoo. Next she shows me her wrist, same tattoo on her too. I asked her where this little show was leading-with the usual Starwind charisma-then she sort of lost her patience and slapped me. I almost lost it, but she snatched the mask off the ninja guy.

'He never stole anything! This is the face on their cameras,' she pointed to the ninja, who-thanks to the rising sun-I realize is James' twin brother. 'But he (James) was supposed to be keeping records the night the money went missing. Michael knew it was our anniversary-he was the only one who knew we were married-and he told James he'd watch over things so he could spend the night with me.'

She told me about how the brothers had this weird, almost murderous sibling rivalry that always let James come out the winner. He was the better assassin, the better hacker, and from the looks of things, the better lover. All three of them were crooks when they were younger, and someway or another she ended up with Mike. According to Katarina, he used her as a symbol that proved him better than his brother. Of course, lonely nights equaled an opening in the future Mrs. Hawking's schedule. James, having a sweet tooth for her too, slid in to fill that space so to speak. So, after 5 years of Michael's shit, she leaves with and marries James. Next, they get in with these space pirates.

Here's the kicker, it turned out Mike was in the group a full 2 years before them. He never told them, but according to her, they (Katarina and James) were the better everything when it came to Michael. This leads them to trying to get even more revenge on Mikey by showing off their skills for the brass. The top guys liked what they saw, and James and Katarina started getting the big jobs. This puts the then top dog, Mikey, on the bench and we all know how he liked playing second fiddle to his brother.

'Heh, I should've known things were going bad when he started trying to get back in our favor,' she says, giving me this weird smile. 'But the bastard could always fake his way through anything… like I usually had too. James wrote him off as trying to kiss our asses because we were supposedly the next in line if one of the elders suddenly… vanished.' She smacked him in the face with one of her husband's guns then. From there it's your usual: Michael orchestrates his brother's demise, she's stuck in the middle, and it all ends in the slums of Sentinel 3 between four moldy buildings.

Four years of marriage, Jim's birth, and life looked to be pretty sweet minus the fact that his parents were criminals. By the time Jim was a year old, though, they were on the run. They'd been running ever since thanks to the bitter ex-boyfriend. In other words, James' write off was wrong. This leaves an exact duplicate of him in the center of the record files. Michael looted every dime of the money and once James brought up that he'd left Mikey Boy there, the leaders of the group played a video of him eliminating a target at the time the money went missing.

I'm not saying that he spun this lie for his wife to make up for his botched hacking job, but if the guy on the tape wasn't wearing his mask (like she said): how do you know which is which? For that matter, why wouldn't there be a camera in the records room that showed the switch off? Whatever happened, they sentenced James to since it was his responsibility to be there. Of course, you don't catch a guy like that and expect him to march to his death.

With her help, he broke free and the family gets going. Outside of Katarina herself, no else is even remotely capable of catching him, so the first year was kind of living on easy street. Aaan! There was another capable body within their little group. Hell, he had the same body. They just didn't think he hated them enough to do it, but Mikey was going for kiss-ass of the year honors. When Mikey joined the hunt, they had to start hanging in abandoned buildings, and sewers.

'All I had to do was refuse to help him and they would've overlooked me,' she then tells me. 'Now I'm his accomplice and second on the list. I guess I loved the big lug too much to leave him. 29 years old and I'm already dead.'" Gene shook his head, as the melancholy smile faded and he became aware of Suzuka and Melfina again. "She pushed a bang out of her face and sighed, smiling up at the sky as the sun had started rising.

'You know, you'll die if you keep chasing shadows through old buildings.' She told me. 'Then again, I think you already know that, don't you?'

I didn't answer.

'Chase the shadows as hard as you can and you'll find him. That bastard chases every one of us, but when you turn things around and chase him he plays coy-ducking, dodging, and hiding among the common shadows. Ah, but the secret to it is pursuing him when you're at your best, your youngest, your bravest, and your most beautiful.'

I figured she was losing it at that point, because I couldn't make heads or tails of that.

'What does that mean?' I asked, as she kept smiling.

'Don't let it rule your young life, only to become an old man and then realize what you could've seen… could've done. Live in the moment and do whatever your want, because one way or another, he will catch you. It means NEVER live in the shadow of death, Gene-make him live in yours. You decide: Do I catch him or do I let him catch me? Answer that question and the rest are easy.'

I looked down at James again; he still had that silent look that said everything. I looked up at Katarina, watching me with the same look though brightened marginally by her smile. I stood up and walked away. I turned the picture over and looked at the back, read the address, and froze. I suddenly got what she was saying. Katarina was looking up at the sky with the same bittersweet smile on her face, cradling her dead husband's head in her lap, and a blood-covered hand clutching one of his guns.

'Goodbye.' I barely got the word out of my mouth before I'd turned around and ran off. Then…" Gene held up his hand in a familiar sign, pointing at the fridge and whispered "…POW!" His hand dropped much how he imagined Katarina's did. There was a very long pause, as Gene seemed to stare into space. Melfina and Suzuka sniffled, using the sleeves from their robes to get rid of the tears.

"I made up my mind on the walk over to give the kid to a shelter or something. I didn't have the resources or the know-how to deal with a child and I didn't want to explain all the complicated stuff. So, I go across town, past the apartment where I started, and onto Chanting Way," Gene paused, flashing a sheepish smile recalling the following events. "There's nothing there but an old fishing warehouse, so I go in and sitting on the office floor in front of this computer was Jim. They had him dressed in this weird little red shirt with a fire engine, kid-sized cargo pants, and a little black bomber jacket. It would've made a funny postcard if you can imagine a little boy having a conversation with two robots while banging on a computer keyboard.

'Do you always come in without knocking?' he asks, almost flooring me with the sarcastic snap from a 2-year-old. Right off the bat, Jim let's me know he isn't one of those particularly whiney kids, but he's instead one of those weird genius babies.

'Do you know where your parents are, kid?' I ask him, a little cautious about how to get him to go along with me.

'Where are your parents?' he asks me, then follows up with, 'Or don't you have any Mr. Walk in Without Knocking?'

'They're dead.' Yeah, the truth hurts, but I was more amazed by his digesting of such a thing so young. He apologized immediately, and offered me the red robot as a consolation prize. We sat around for a little while after that. I didn't know how to tell him that his parents were collecting flies." Gene stopped for a moment, sighing heavily as he massaged his right temple.

"You don't have to continue-I mean, this is enough for tonight." Melfina's concern didn't go unnoticed or unacknowledged, as the outlaw smiled and shook his head no. Suzuka, in her silent contemplation and thorough analytical way, watched Gene's turmoil turn into a familiar drumming on the table. It hadn't been so bad before, but with the rings on, it became an irksome noise.

"We sat around for awhile talking. He'd told me his parents would be back at around 9 a.m., so I asked what did he plan to eat." He chuckled a bit, recalling Jim's instance that he turn his back while he got his 'secret snack.' "The boy existed on a diet of peanut butter sandwiches while his folks were gone.

'If I take exactly two bites every half an hour, I'll have enough to last me until they get back.'

He took his third and fourth bite right in the middle of telling me that.

'How about I take you out to get a burger or something?' I asked him, noticing it was already a quarter past 10 a.m.

'Um, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers,' he says, after we've spent the better part of four hours together talking. Now, I start spinning shit at a rate that surprised me, considering I'd been up for more than 24 hours.

'Now how can family be strangers?' I ask him, doubting he'll buy a word of what I'm thinking.

'Huh? You ain't in my family!' He said it loud, but I could tell he wasn't sure.

'Uh-huh, I bet you I am.' I wait for him to bite…

'Uh-uh, are not!' Chomp!

'My dad's name is James Hawking…' I waited for the reaction…

'No… no way! That's my dad's name, too!' He stood up and approached me for the first time then.

'Yep, and my mom's name is Katarina Hawking.' I waited for the reaction…

'No… no way!' Jim was standing right in front of my bloody being then." Gene paused as Suzuka chimed in.

"Wait, you told him your parents were dead though. He couldn't have believed this story… unless," she said, noticing Gene didn't seem to flinch out of his dead stare at the table.

"Exactly," he said. "That's the thing about Jim, he always thinks on the level of an adult, but if you can appeal to the child underneath that he has to keep in check, you can outsmart him easily. I learned that about him quickly, and that's why I decided to let that adult-mind in the kid's body figure it out.

'But… but… you said your parents died,' he said when he started putting two and two together. 'And… and if your mommy and daddy have my mommy and daddy's names…' I just sort of let my head move by itself and it moved up and down.

I'd been standing in the shadows sort of, but with him that close he could see the blood. Three things happened after that. One: He demanded proof that it was his mom and dad who'd died. Two: I showed him the bloody picture. Three: I'd talked myself into being his last living relative, meaning that I couldn't take him to a shelter. I explained the whole fucked up situation to him and just stood there while he cried-and he cried a lot. He didn't ask me anything else after that-he just followed me. I took him to Clyde's to get some real food in his system, while I went back and collected what little he had in the warehouse-couple of toy robots, a blanket, the computer, and this little number. It fell out of his blanket, so I figured it was a toy." Gene stood up from the table and walked to the refrigerator. He pulled a large metallic box down, sat it on the table, and popped the locks.

"I thought it was a big toy rocket or something at first, but then I saw the trigger. One pull starts the turbine; the second obliterates whatever's in front of it. It came in real handy when the second wave of ninja rolled into the warehouse. There were only four this time, but they were a lot faster than the other ones. Heh, heh, they must've kicked my ass for at least an hour after I ran out of ammo. I had Jim's stuff tied up in his blanket, and by sheer luck, one of the ninjas threw me off the second level right beside it.

'I could've sworn their kid was younger than this,' one of them said. 'Goddamn it! Human Resources are a bunch of morons.'

I rolled over and saw the Castor, and hoped to God it had a few rounds in the chamber. Above me, our friendly neighborhood ninjas were conversing among themselves or something. Whatever they were doing, they didn't see me stand up. I couldn't see anything on a count of my eyes were swollen shut, full of blood, etc. So, I just pulled the trigger in the direction of the voices. The recoil threw me through the sheet metal door, cooked the ninjas in their own shit, and added these beauties to the collection." Clad only in shorts, Gene stood up and pointed at various scars covering his arms, torso, and legs. "I woke up a few minutes, hours, day… hell, I woke up. I dragged my carcass back inside and got his stuff, then made the now two-hour journey (thanks to possibly broken legs, ribs, and internal bleeding) back to Clyde's bar.

'Boy, what the hell happened to you this time?' he shouts, as I try to act like it's nothing.

'You know me… had to get… toys,' I flashed the trademark grin and fell out.

I woke up the next day with Jim beside me, crying. Heh, he thought I was dead, and nearly had a heart attack when I grabbed his hand.

'Shut up,' I said, 'I'm not dead.'

'Yeah, you're the luckiest son of a bitch I've ever known,' Clyde says from my left. 'I couldn't get you to a doctor, because it'd be a little risky. Some strange guys have been snooping around here looking for you and your little… friend. I didn't say anything, but I don't think it's safe for you to be in public for awhile.'

For once, I didn't argue. Later in the day, we were watching TV when a rather interesting news report came on.

'In other news, local hacker James Hawking alias The Computer Wizard, was killed today when his car exploded during a chase with police. Looks like all of you bounty hunters are out of luck, because there goes your fortune.'

They didn't say anything about Katarina or Michael, which led me to believe this was a setup in one of two ways. A) James and Katarina dumped their kid on me to run off, blowing the dead twin up and making it look accidental. B) Katarina and Michael plotted and killed James, dumped Jim on me, and ran off to live happily ever after.

Well, the answer turned out to be C) Katarina and Michael were later listed as John and Jane Doe, found dead in an alley with gunshot wounds to the head.

Anyway after two months of down time from my injuries, Melissa kicks me out because she doesn't want a kid. I can't stay with Clyde, because he doesn't have the resources to take care of the both us. So, what could I do for money? For that matter, where in the hell were we supposed to live? I solved the first problem by getting this job busing tables. The pay stank, I stank, and we lived in this stank little building. Of course, I didn't have the money to lease the place, so I kinda borrowed it for the next three years. I 'borrowed' the electricity from Mr. Wong's Fish Market. I 'borrowed' the cable from Mrs. Jones's hair salon. And last but not least, I 'talked' this plumber's daughter into getting him to hook up the water.

In the midst of all of that, I managed to get Jim through about 10th grade with his studies. He could've gone further but by the time he was eight. But I was worn out. I got lazy, quit my job, and started drinking again-the usual. Still, by then he was old enough to realize the value of money and ways to make more. That's when we came up with Starwind & Hawking. We'd do odd jobs for cash, set the price, and our own hours. You know how well that went. So, in between normal jobs I went back to the bounty-hunting scene since none of the pirate types had been around in awhile. And when I wasn't looking for crooks that paid off, I was a bouncer for Clyde. The cycle continued for another three years. We'd made enough cash to legally lease the building and pay for our own necessities.

Call it a moment of divine intervention, but I finally realized the all-around shit I'd made of his eleven-year-old life. Sure, he was a genius and only grew in smarts with each hour he sat in front of that computer, but that wasn't a life… a childhood. I planned to change the situation and give him somewhat of a childhood plenty of times. It just never panned about between the liquor, the women, and then when Hilda called… game over. I had too much to juggle then and all I could do for him was hope he'd learned enough from me to make it. I don't know what to do… I just keep imagining him sitting in some cell waiting for me to show up, and I can't. He always showed up to drag me home when I was drunk or pawning his car to get me out of jail. And the one time I need to pay him back, I'm sitting on my ass." He sat with an unreadable expression on his face, tapping his fingers against the bronze colored metal of the Castor Gun.

"You're 35 years old?" Melfina asked, trying to change the glum mood. Gene's eyes narrowed, only turning in their sockets to stare at the porcelain doll of a woman to his left.

"So? Is this where you tell me it was stupid risking our lives for immortality when I've aged oh, so well?" The sarcasm in his voice was heavy, yet the tone alluded to his understanding. "I know. I used to lie about my age so much until I started believing I was 27 still. Heh, because I didn't want to grow up, Jim's probably dead."

"There's still the alternative of building our own ship," Suzuka suggested.

"And there's still the alternative of our kids ending up like Jim back then," Gene was quick to say. "I'm not going to do that to them."

"Then what are you going to do?" Melfina asked, not particularly keen on the way he kept staring at the Castor.

"Move on," Gene said quietly, simultaneously closing the lid on the gun box. He slumped back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head, noting how a nice bottle of scotch would make this easier. Of course, he'd long since ditched the bottle when his own kids were born. They wouldn't bear witness to him chatting up the plants or the coat rack because he didn't know when to say when. "So, any other questions?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood himself this time.

"Must you always go in their room with a gun?" Suzuka asked, nil seriousness of course.

"This from a woman who got married holding a sword instead of a bouquet," Gene quipped. "You were still scared that Mel was going to shoot you, weren't you?"

"No! It… I wasn't."

"She was scared," Gene and Melfina said, smiling at each other like little kids.

"And you two should talk. Mr. Sweaty Palms and Mrs. 'I do… what?'" Suzuka said, turning their smiles into frowns.

"Hey, my hands weren't sweating that much!" Gene nearly shouted, grinding his teeth as she'd gotten to him again.

"Actually," Melfina began, "they were."

"Oh, so it's gang up on Gene Day?" he asked wryly, as his chuckling wives nodded. "Oh, I see. I seem to recall a certain someone begging me not to take my 'sweaty' paws off of them." Suzuka's face turned red, as Melfina began to laugh louder. "And what about you?" he directed at Melfina, as she started to quiet down.

"What about me?"

"I… I… eek!" Gene let his head flop onto the table, emulating how she'd passed out after a romp in the shower of their honeymoon suite. Suzuka began to laugh, as her companion gave a cute pout.

"I don't sound like that!" her voice only made the former assassin laugh even louder.

"Care to place a bet on that?" Gene asked, raising cryptically slow from the table-complete with a nasty little smirk.

"Um," Melfina hesitated, feeling rather vulnerable as Gene and Suzuka started passing glances back and forth. "I have to… uh, get up early?" Tomorrow was her day off and she knew it… and so did they. The nefarious smiles of her companions didn't fall, as she eased her chair back. Gene's smile went wider, as Melfina's nipples were obviously erect against the waist-length satin robe. She made a run for it.

"Hurry up," Suzuka said over her shoulder to Gene, as she silently moved across the floor after Melfina.

Gene smirked, making sure he locked the case holding the lethal Castor, and then put it away. The girls slept like bricks-thankfully inheriting that from him-meaning that Melfina's sudden squealing didn't wake them.

"I can get used to this," he said before sprinting down the hall towards the bedroom.