Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star- I never said I did. Completely random and unrelated thought, but wouldn't it be great if there was somebody out there who was willing to create a doujinshi based on some of my fics? Or the fics in my "Favorites" list? Random thought.


Many things seem like good ideas without the benefit of hindsight. The price on this particular bounty Gene took an interest in was pretty high and it wasn't because this man was a habitual jay-walker. His name was Xin Chu, a one-time member of the Kei pirate guild. In addition to being a behemoth of a man, this bounty in particular was an accomplished practitioner of Tao-spells. For whatever reason, he broke away from the Kei pirates and attempted to start up his own rival pirate guild. It never really amounted to much more than Tong group specializing in extortion and whose members were either killed off or imprisoned in a few month's time. However, the fact that Xin Chu was still alive after directly challenging the Kei pirates was something of an accomplishment unto itself. Which was what led him, along with his young partner Jim Hawking, the demure assassin known as Twilight Suzuka and former Ambassador Plenipotentiary Aisha Clan Clan of the Ctarl Ctarl Empire to Xin Chu's last reported whereabouts- a spaceship salvage yard on the desolate planet Morenci-9- in the middle of the night. To Gene Starwind, the six-figure bounty was too good to pass up. Aisha Clan Clan and Twilight Suzuka seemed to relish the thrill of the hunt instead, honing their skills as a beast of prey and assassin respectively. However, given the hazardous and generally seedy nature of the bounty's last confirmed locations, Gene insisted Mel remain on the Outlaw Star.


Jim had cautiously scaled one of the considerably high stacks of gutted spaceships for a better vantage point as the others began cautiously searching the scrapyard. The boy genius was quietly relaying thermal readouts from his lofty vantage point to Gene and the others via radio. At almost the same instant the boy's night-vision optics picked up an unfamiliar heat signature above the trio of Outlaws, Aisha's ears picked up some sort of movement. A rather sizeable but detached grappler arm was suddenly closing in on her and Suzuka from above. Without a word and an almost inhuman speed, Suzuka leapt and cleanly sheared the falling grappler arm in two with her boukuto. Gene hurriedly rolled out of the way as one half of the arm as it crashed into the ground, while Aisha almost casually knocked the other half of the severed grappler arm into the pile of debris she heard the noise coming from. A tall figure easily evaded the metallic debris Aisha flung at him. It had to be Xin Chu- none of his lackeys were as quick as this man. As Suzuka and Aisha's focus was on their quarry, the Ctarl Ctarl became aware of heavy metallic scraping noise adjacent to them. Neither she nor the assassin noticed the falling pile of heavy scrap metal until it was nearly on top of them, set in motion by the severed grappler arm Aisha had tossed in there. The two of them disappeared under landslide of rusted steel.

Gene Starwind also saw the events unfolding and realized that it was just himself and Xin Chu for the time being.

"Aisha! Suzuka!" he heard Jim yell out as he saw the pile collapse on top of the two of them. However, the boy didn't despair too much- It would take a lot more than what Xin Chu was throwing at them to take down Aisha Clan Clan and Twilight Suzuka. "Gene- what do you have for the Caster?" he asked over the radio.

"Two #17s, two #3s and a #11." his partner replied.


"Start off with the #11. If he's still kicking after that, give him a taste of the #3s."

"Shit! Why can't I use the #3s first?" He grumbled as he slipped the #11 into the breech and lined up the eerily still pirate in his sights.

"They're the most expensive!" the boy reminded Gene.


"EAT THIS!" Gene yelled as he pulled the trigger of his Caster. The rivets along the barrel began glowing and then rotating- the furthest ones out clockwise and the next one in counter-clockwise. The red-haired outlaw braced himself for the familiar and satisfying recoil as the #11 shell streaked out of the muzzle. Except it never happened. Only a small amount of smoke drifted lazily from the business end of the caster. The shell was a dud.

"That wasn't very smart." the pirate growled. He bowed his head slightly, closed his eyes and started chanting. His right hand was held vertically in front of his face, while his left was out to his side with each finger curled. A bluish light was glowing in the palm of his hand. Each of the Outlaws knew what the pirate was doing, they were simply wondering exactly what form the counterattack would take. Charging him could actually make them more vulnerable. Gene was desperately trying to pull the breech of the Caster open, but it was jammed with the dud round.

The luminous blue sphere was now about the size of a basketball and hoovering above the pirate's open palm. Gene dropped the Caster and had managed to pull the double-barreled shotgun from his overcoat when he reached for something on his wrist. As he did so, the blue ball of electricity broke into dozens of smaller spheres and flew at the red-haired outlaw in all sorts blindingly quick arc-like trajectories, each one resulting in a deafening explosion around the outlaw. Gene Starwind was lost in the smoke and dust from the series of explosions, and Jim Hawking had assumed the worst.


"NO! ANIKI!" Jim yelled out. Instead of watching events unfolding from afar, Jim decided to directly participate. The boy was now sliding down the pile of grappler ship parts that had served as his observation post. This was done with surprising poise and control on Jim's part, due to the urgent situation at hand. In his haste, Jim had failed to notice the shimmering white light from Gene's light shield. He had managed to activate it in time to save himself and, for the time-being, was okay. As he stumbled off the pile, Gene noticed that the boy was carrying a pistol in his hand. Before the outlaw could say anything, Jim placed himself between Gene and the pirate. Already, the boy had distracted the pirate enough to prevent him from delivering the killing blow to Gene. However, even if Gene was confident that conventional ballistic munitions could affect Xin Chu, Jim was standing directly in his line of fire.


"Jim! Get out of here........." Gene urged the boy. However, he wasn't listening. The tow-headed genius' attention was focused on the pirate in front of him.

"Very good. Now what, kid?" Xin Chu asked Jim. "Are you going to shoot me?"

"If I have to." the boy-genius said unflinchingly.

This elicited a chuckle from the outlaws' adversary. He looked down at the boy and said "Looks like you'll have to."

Suddenly, the pirate shook his right hand as though it was damp he was attempting to shake it dry. The last thing Jim saw before everything went dark was the pirate's hand glowing the same shade of blue as the ball of lightning that split apart and attacked Gene. However, Jim didn't have the benefit of a light-shield. There was a series of explosions around him and the boy's light frame was airborne for about 20 feet before the hull of a derelict and stripped spaceship none-too-gently stopped his flight. Gene's heart sank upon seeing Jim's body crumple to the ground. He was perfectly still.


Before the fighting could resume, both Gene and his adversary noticed somebody quickly making their way to where the boy had fallen. It was Aisha Clan Clan. Both she and Suzuka had made their way out from the collapsed pile of spaceship parts in time to watch Xin Chu's attack on the pre-teen boy.

The platinum-haired Ctarl Ctarl hoped that her eyes were deceiving her or the injuries to Jim weren't as bad as she had feared. However, upon closer examination, Aisha knew she was wrong. For one moment, Jim actually looked perfectly peaceful until he struggled to move. The Ctarl Ctarl's nose could pick up a faint scent in the air- Jim's blood. It physically hurt the Ctarl Ctarl to see her young friend like this. The sight of young James Hawking crumpled on the ground, writhing in agony and bleeding from his nose and scalp was akin to ripping out both of Aisha Clan Clan's hearts from her chest.

"Jim? Oh no.......Jim....." Aisha said. It felt as though the breath had been sucked out of her. "Hey... Come on. Wake up, will ya?" she was gently cradling the boy in her arms. She could feel that he was struggling to breathe.


"Aisha. Is that you...?" he softly gasped. His small hand reached up and gently brushed past her ear before resting on her cheek. "I blew it........didn't I?"

"Shhhhh. Don't talk like that Jimmy. You'll be OK......just save your breath. Can you do that for me?" Aisha asked him in the most reassuring tone she could muster while she gently embraced the boy and rocked him back and forth.

"I'm sorry......It hurts.....Aisha. I can't see." Jim said, his azure eyes staring blankly past Aisha and at nothing in particular. The boisterous Ctarl Ctarl was at a loss for words as her young friend lay blind and dying in her arms.

"It's so dark.....I can't......". With those words, he fell silent. His labored breathing hitched and stopped as his hand fell away from her face.

Aisha was in denial as she absently stroked Jim's hair, still cradling his broken and battered frame. She wasn't prepared for this. He can't be dead, there was just no way. It seemed like they had just met- he still had so much living to do, and she was supposed to be the one who was going to see to it that he didn't let a moment slip by. This wasn't supposed to happen. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Aisha was admonishing herself for getting so attached to such a fragile thing as a Terran boy. But he was so much more than a boy to her- he was her adoptive little brother, her best friend ever, a friendly face in a vast universe that had proven to be so very hostile and uncaring, a voice of reason when it was really important and possibly more. She wasn't sure how or why, but all she could remember was that she and Jim became fast friends shortly after her expulsion from the Empire. There was no ulterior motives behind his actions. All he asked for was a friend and somebody who would be there for him to offer words of encouragement when it was important, and Aisha had obliged.

"Jimmy....don't leave us......" she murmured despairingly, aware that she was too late.

The Ctarl Ctarl was overcome by a profound and unfamiliar sense of sorrow as a single tear welled up in her eye- she now realized that she never told him how much he meant to her when she had the chance. Now his promising future had been forever taken away from him. Somebody like him wasn't supposed to die a painful, senseless, lonely death on some shithole planet.

Aisha Clan Clan gently set the boy's body down, still in disbelief. The hard-working and good-natured boy who was kind enough to share his place in the sun with her now lay lifeless in front of Aisha. Out of desperation, she softly ruffled his hair- almost hoping that he'd try to pull away and yell out "Quit it!". Instead, Jim remained motionless- even after a lone teardrop fell on his forehead. Aisha barely noticed as a shadow was cast over the two of them. It was Xin Chu.

**Author's Note: OK- Some of you might be asking "Why the hell haven't you updated 'Out of the Ashes' yet?". And with good reason.....I mean, shit, it's been almost 10 months or something like that. The best answer I can come up with at the moment is "I dunno" *shrug*. But that's not to say I haven't been working on it at all. Far from it- the next chapter is pretty much finished, but there's still some editing that needs to take place. I can't give you a concrete date on when I'll update it, but for those of you interested, I haven't abandoned my work on 'Out of the Ashes'. As for this fic, much of it was lifted from an earlier work of mine that I wasn't really satisfied with, save for one rather angst-ey part. If you've read this far, I'd like to thank you in advance for your patience!**