***Please note- "Outlaw Star" and it's character is copyrighted by Bandai entertainment in addition to a bunch of guys I've never even heard of before. If you're one of them, please don't sue me!!!***

Aisha looked down into the boiling pot. Over the past few weeks she developed a taste for Terran food, especially seafood. The emphasis on traditional Ctarl Ctarl food was mostly on portions and calories, while the Terran food placed a lot of emphasis on taste. Too bad the servings were entirely too small for her high metabolism. Still, she thought she'd try her hand at a few basic recipes. The one time she did serve Ctarl Ctarl food to the Terrans, it didn't go over very well.

Melfina seemed especially distant this morning. Her human traits were unnoticeable as she silently shuffled about the kitchen in a robot-like fashion, rinsing and drying the dishes from the previous night and putting them away while wearing a forlorn, vacant stare the whole time.

Gene was nowhere to be found: he either didn't come home at all the other night, or (much less likely) he had left early. Jim was gone too, but he had said something about trying to drum up some business for Starwind and Hawking Enterprises earlier that morning. Not surprisingly, Suzuka was nowhere to be found. Of course, she could be out running a wooden sword through some poor bastard, but sunset was still a few hours away.

Aisha sensed something was amiss with Mel, but wasn't sure how to tactfully ask what was wrong. Instead, much of the morning was spent in awkward silence between Aisha and Mel until Jim returned with a stack of flyers from a nearby print shop.

"Where's Gene?" he asked with a hint of urgency in his voice.

"I don't know Jim, I don't think he came back last night" Mel said

Aisha took a look at the stack of flyers and asked "What are these for?"

"Those are some flyers I thought I could distribute and try and find some new customers" Jim explained indifferently as he opened up his little laptop computer.

"Uh, Jim?" Mel asked "With the pirates still looking for us, do you really think it's a good idea to distribute thousands of pieces paper with our home address on them?". It was the closest thing to sarcasm that the bio-android could muster up.

"Believe me, Mel, the thought had crossed my mind but I don't think we could afford the anonymity right now." Jim replied as he started typing on his computer. "We need work."

It was becoming apparent that Jim didn't return to show off the flyers, since he was now diligently going through various databases on his computer. Aisha was looking over his shoulder and saw that it was a directory of fugitives, mercenaries and pirates wanted by the Space Forces.

"Are you sure Gene didn't come back at all, Mel?" Jim asked hopefully.

Melfina shook her head no.

"That's just great- that lech!" He turned his attention back to the screen and enlarged one of the fugitive's profiles. "Dammit, that IS him!".

"What's going on Jim?" Aisha asked.

"Radek De La Guerra- a mercenary who's wanted by the Space Forces. I thought I saw his face before, and I saw him this morning. I KNOW I did." he insisted.

"You don't think the pirates sent him, do you?"

"I don't know, Aisha. That's why I wanted to see Gene. The bounty on this guy is up to 637,000 Wong."

Aisha blinked. Jim could almost hear the wheels turning in her head and realized it was a big mistake to blurt out statistics like that in front of her.

"Forget it Aisha!"

"What?! Even if the bounty is split 4 ways, it's still a lot of money." she said defensively.

"It could be a trap set by the pirates for all we know."

"So what? I'm not scared. If what you just said is true, that's way too much money to let somebody else collect. How can it not be worth the risk?" She paused for a second. "I see. You don't trust Aisha, do you?"

"No, it's not that...."

"Then what is it? You think I'm not up to the task?"

"No! It's just that......Well, I've never done this sort of thing without Gene before. If I did it would feel kinda like I'm betraying him somehow."

This gave Aisha pause. "Look, Jim. That's very admirable, but I think Gene would appreciate that kind of money as much as any one of us. I'm sure his ego will recover, if that's what you're worried about"

Persuasive was not one of the adjectives Jim would have used to describe the exiled Ctarl Ctarl looking down thoughtfully at him, but she had a good point. He thought about it for a moment before breaking down. He showed her De La Guerra's wanted profile, some of the communications gear that he and Gene often used in addition to some of the optics that Jim used to help spot any traps or helpers that their quarry back on Sentinel would use. There was a wide array of pistols, rifles, submachineguns, knives, light shields and grenades also available, but Aisha scoffed at such "toys". The only item she opted to use was the miniature 2-way radio that could be worn as an earring, although it took a few minutes to get her ears to stop involuntarily twitching and clip it into place.

Melfina had turned off Aisha's boiling pot, which Aisha immediately forgot at the mention of 637,000 Wong, and now was looking a little bit distressed at the sight of all this.

"Uhhh...what should I tell Gene if he comes back while you two are gone?"

"Just tell him we went out to make some money" Jim said.

"OK. Please be careful."

"No need to worry Mel" Aisha said, tousling Jim's hair "Jim's in good hands"

Jim pretended not to like that and made a feeble attempt to pull away while letting out a half-hearted "Quit it..."

Aisha slipped into her tatty gray cloak. "Come on Jim- Aisha wants to go hunting!"

Radek De La Guerra wasn't behaving like a typical fugitive. Maybe that's because he was a compulsive gambler who was actually winning. Jim had plenty of time on the way over to give Aisha the vital stats about their quarry. He liked cards and dice more than he did women and booze, so it was no big surprise that he would be found at a casino. And that's where Jim- almost literally- bumped into him that morning on his way to the print shop. Jim saw that he was on his way to the craps table and remembered his face from some wanted posters he saw on Sentinel. Apparently was winning big time in the time that Jim had returned to the offices. While on the way to the casino where Jim last saw Radek, Aisha boosted Jim onto the fire escape of the building across the street from the glass-and-steel casino where he would attempt to view the goings-on from the rooftop. Unfortunately, Heiphong was nothing like wide open terrain of Sentinel and Jim could barely see past the casino's lobby from the rooftop. As for Aisha, it didn't take her too long to find Radek once she stepped into the casino. He was the fellow at the craps table with the dice and big pile of Wong, casino chips and even some Dragonite in front of him. He was doing very well for a man who had stepped into the casino with just under 300 Wong to his name, and of course he drew a large crowd of onlookers. Aisha half-seriously wondered if Suzu was in the building anywhere.

Radek was largely oblivious to the crowd gathered around him, and for a man with such large winnings, he certainly wasn't showing much emotion. He was clad in some work trousers, a shirt and, not unlike Aisha, a somewhat grimy cloak/trenchcoat. Aisha observed her quarry from across the casino floor- he probably was handsome- at least for a Terran- at one time, but countless late nights of boozing, cards, dice and life on the run had caught up to him with a vengeance. If she didn't know any better, it looked like he was attempting to have an intimate conversation with the dice. Adjusting her cloak and hood, Aisha decided to make her move and waded into the crowd of spectators.

"Radek De La Guerra?" She asked, placing her hand firmly on his shoulder.

For a moment, he said nothing. Then he slowly turned his head and asked "Who wants to know?"

"I understand you like games of chance...." Aisha said with a confident smirk.

"Forget it, sweetie. I'm not buying what you're selling."

"I've come to offer you the ultimate game of chance." she asked

That seemed to grab his attention. "I see. And what are the stakes?"

Aisha pulled off her hood and declared "The name of the game is "Mortal Combat with a Ctarl Ctarl", and the prize is your life!"

There was a collective gasp from the crowd and they started to slowly pull back, as if any sudden movement could provoke Aisha. Some of them still remembered the Ctarl Ctarl contestant in the Universal Strongman Competition who maimed her opponent and about half the spectators in the Coliseum a few years back. Through the earring/radio, Aisha could hear Jim groan in dismay and ask "What the hell are you doing Aisha?!?". She paid him no mind.

Radek blinked and eyed Aisha as she got into a fighting stance. "A Ctarl Ctarl? I'm impressed. I have to say, I haven't seen one of your kind before." He paused. "I tell you what, I'll let you have the first shot."

Aisha didn't expect this at all. He didn't even take a step backwards, and instead was letting her take the first shot. What was he up to? There was no way he could out-muscle her. What was he hiding? For a few seconds, she stared at him, dumbfounded. Did he underestimate Aisha's strength that much?

He seemed disappointed that Aisha didn't attack right away, and instead started goading Aisha. "Come on, little lady! I thought you were a big bad Ctarl Ctarl". He puckered his lips and made kissing noises at her.

That seemed to be the right button for him to push, as Aisha left her fighting stance and closed the distance between herself and Radek with blinding speed. Just before she reached him, she saw him flick something on his wrist. She let loose a series of vicious punches and kicks, but it took her a few seconds to realize that they weren't connecting, but were instead bouncing off a shimmering, translucent white light just millimeters from Radek's face. He wasn't even flinching. That bastard has himself a light shield, she said to herself.

By this time the crowd, which was trying to remain calm, had panicked and stampeded for the nearest exit. Aisha took a few steps back, eyeing Radek with a hateful gaze.

"Cute toy." She said "but how long do you think it's going to protect you from me?"

"Long enough. You see, that's not all it can do...." He twisted a dial on the shield

No sooner had he said that then Aisha flew backwards and crashed into a slot machine, both of which collapsed on the floor. It felt like she was pulled from behind somehow.

"Try and understand, this is top of the line." He pointed to the shield on his wrist and was beaming with pride."It comes equipped with a pulse generator. Instead of deflecting projectiles as they approach me, it can knock down projectiles and even assailants from a distance. Pretty neat, huh? This thing could knock down a whole platoon of Space Forces Rangers if I needed it to."

Aisha was in pain from the impact and landing awkwardly on the floor with the slot machine, but she decided to put on her game face and got back into a fighting stance. Radek simply laughed at this.

"I can keep this up all day."

She effortlessly picked up the slot machine that she crashed into and threw it at him. It bounced off of the shield and broke into a mess of springs, levers, electrons and Wong coins. She saw him pull out a slide-action grenade launcher from his overcoat.

"My biggest winning streak ever! Ruined by a stupid fucking animal like you!" He wasn't laughing anymore. Instead, he leveled the grenade launcher at her. Aisha thought about charging him again. She reasoned that he couldn't actually fire the weapon while his light shield was working- otherwise he'd probably blow himself up. Instead, she took 2 steps backwards and dove for cover behind the row of other slot machines. The round impacted with the slot machine that she was standing in front of no more than a half second ago and sent a red-hot shower of shrapnel, springs, screws, levers and coins all over the front of the casino with a deafening explosion. Aisha remained on the floor tried to figure out what to do next while the ringing in her ears went away. Except she could've sworn the ringing was actually saying "Holy shit! What just happened! Aisha?!? Can you hear me? I can't see anything."

It was Jim, on the other end of the radio......

"AISHA!!!!!!"

She cringed, since the boy's yelling into the radio wasn't helping the ringing in her ears go away. "I"m fine." She reassured him. "This asshole thinks he can delay the inevitable with some of his little toys."

No sooner had she said that then she heard Radek rack another round into the chamber of the grenade launcher. She was on her feet and running, her and her Radek now separated by a row of slot machines. The one she was using for cover while talking to Jim blew up as another grenade was fired into it. Radek was shooting at the slot machines one by one in an attempt to flush Aisha out and rain down some killer shrapnel on her in the process. So far, because of her thick skin, the shrapnel was doing little more than putting more holes in her grey cloak, but Aisha kept moving and did her best to cover her eyes. There was a good chance she would be blinded if any shrapnel hit her eyes and she didn't want to take a direct hit from one of the grenades, remembering what happened to her when she was shot by Gene's Caster.

"I was on my way to breaking the bank, you stupid bitch! Do you know how long I've DREAMED of doing that?" He racked another round into the grenade launcher's chamber, and then decided to change the subject. "An immortal Ctarl Ctarl? I don't buy that. Everybody's gotta go sometime, and it looks like today is your day. I wonder what would happen if I SHOT YOU IN THE FACE POINT BLANK WITH THIS?!?!?!?" He fired off another round and once again, and Aisha was pelted with flying debris. "Looks like I'll find out. Maybe it won't kill you outright, but you sure are gonna regret starting shit with me." Radek mused.

Aisha caught a glimpse of Radek's position in one of the overhead mirrors above the casino floor- he hadn't moved very far from the table. She was too far away from him to close the distance to him without him getting some shots off. Even if he ran out of ammunition, there was still the light shield.

No sooner had she thought that than she heard a dry *clickclickclick* coming from his position- He did run out of ammo. She got up and sprinted past the slot machines to the other end of the craps table and crouched beneath it.

"Running and hiding? What happened to that sweet young thing that challenged me to "The Ultimate Game of Chance" a few minutes ago?" He called out as he started reloading.

"Heads up Jim, he should be coming your way in a minute" she whispered

Instead of coming out from behind the table, Aisha began lifting up her end. Radek was busy reloading and didn't notice this until the casino chips, Wong and dice started sliding down towards his end of the table.

"Oh Shit...." he said softly as he realized what Aisha was trying to do. The table was now at a perfect 45 degree angle, with a thick layer of wood reenforced with steel separating himself from the Ctarl Ctarl. If he fired a grenade off, there was a good chance it would ricochet before detonating and he would just blow himself up. There wasn't much room to run around it, and even if he did squeeze by, he would be face to face with one pissed off Ctarl Ctarl. He could always try and scoop up as much of his winnings as possible before running off or.....

Using the light shield never occurred to him until it was too late, since Aisha was now shoving the table forward while still keeping it at a 45 degree angle. He took a few steps backwards and found himself pinned between the table and the glass window at street level. Aisha gave the tilted craps table another hearty shove, and sure enough the casino's glass window gave way, sending Radek sprawling out to the sidewalk on top of a pile of broken glass. Half of the table was now out on the sidewalk as well. Aisha jumped atop the table, walked across it, knocking aside the broken glass that was in her way and stood at the opposite end of the table, staring down at De La Guerra on the sidewalk. The look in her eyes spoke volumes on the slow and painful demise she was capable of inflicting on him. Radek didn't notice her at first, as he was still on the ground rubbing his head and checking himself for cuts, of which there were plenty. He let out a startled yelp, and purely out of desperation fumbled with the still-functioning light shield on his wrist. Through some fluke, he was able to generate another pulse, which although not as strong as the first one, knocked Aisha back a few paces and off her feet. Slowly but surely he was getting his composure back as he clumsily scooped up his grenade launcher, a few odd rounds and some chunks of dragonite that fell off of the table. He got to his feet, deftly pulled a capsule-shaped grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin and tossed it in her direction. Aisha got to her feet just in time to get a faceful of white smoke from the grenade.

Radek was off and running as the smoke grenade went off, blindly sprinting across the street. Almost as quickly as the smoke had appeared, it began to dissipate, and Aisha was left standing atop the table, rubbing her eyes and coughing. She was now very angry with herself for letting 637,000 Wong get away so easily- but then she remembered her earring.

"Jim? Can you see him?" She asked.

"Yeah! He took off straight ahead..."

By now, a crowd of onlookers had gathered on the sidewalk and were gawking at the odd scene in front of the casino. Aisha swiftly leapt over them and onto the hood of a car parked in front of the casino. Then, almost like a frog hopping across a pond using lilly pads, Aisha leapt across the street using the hoods and roofs of all the cars that were now stopped or slowing down to try and get a look at what had just happened at the casino.

Once on the other side of the street, she still didn't see De La Guerra.

"I don't see him. Where is he now?"

"He just turned down a blind alley. Go straight and it will be the first one on your left."

"And there's no way out?" Aisha asked as she began following Jim's directions.

"I don't think so.....wait!" there was a pause from Jim's end "I lost sight of him for a second. He's right under me now. It looks like he's reloading."

Aisha began sprinting at the mention of this.

"Careful Aisha! I think he's up to something....I've got a bad feeling"

"Of course he's up to something. It's because he's cornered" Aisha said with her characteristic bravado as she rounded the corner of the alley.

Sure enough, there was Radek standing in the alley with his back to her. He was frantically trying to reload his grenade launcher. Aisha said nothing as she threw off her cloak and charged him from behind. As she leapt to tackle him, her intuition told her that his was entirely too easy, but it was too late- She had committed herself. However, her intuition was right. Instead of tackling him, she simply passed through a motion-hologram of De La Guerra that was displaying a perpetual loop of him reloading a grenade launcher. Aisha landed headfirst in a pile of garbage bags. The real Radek, complete with a real grenade launcher, stepped out from a shadowy doorway in the alley, right next to the garbage where she had landed. Aisha felt hot gunmetal pressed into her cheek. He was standing triumphantly over her with the loaded grenade launcher held in one hand.

"Holo-cube" he explained. "It's usually used to bait a sniper into taking a few shots and giving away his position, but in your case it worked beautifully. I still didn't get to break the bank, but it looks like I'll get my other wish today."

"It's been fun...." he said with a smirk.

"AISHA!!!!" Jim frantically yelled out from the roof. Radek hesitated on pulling the trigger for a moment to look up and see who was yelling. While he was briefly distracted, Aisha seized that golden opportunity and grabbed the barrel of the grenade launcher, pushing it up and away from her face. Radek pulled the trigger anyways.

Instead of detonating immediately, the round ricocheted off of the walls of the alley for a few seconds before exploding. This gave Radek just enough time to switch on his light shield and prevent himself from being riddled by shrapnel with his own weapon. Jim flinched and dove for cover. Aisha flew backwards into the wall at the very end of the alley and then went limp. Radek stood with his arms covering his face, blindly hoping that there was enough power left in the light shield to save him.

Jim saw Aisha's body go flying before it was lost in the smoke from the blast and he assumed the worst. He lost his composure and picked up the elderly Glock he usually had with him on jobs like this. Radek was 4 stories beneath him and Jim saw that his light shield had used up all of it's power shielding him from that blast. He tossed the shield to the ground.

"AIIIIISHAAAA!!!!" Jim yelled. Radek paid him no mind, since for the time being he was more concerned about the ringing in his ears and checking himself for shrapnel. When Jim didn't get an immediate answer, he slid over the ledge of the building, grabbed onto a pipe that was running vertically up the side of the building, leveled his pistol and started sliding down.

"ASSHOLE!" he yelled at Radek. He lined De La Guerra up in his sights and squeezed the trigger. A bullet whizzed by Radek's head, and the angry boy with the pistol sliding down the side of the building now had his undivided attention.

Unfortunately, sliding down a tall building and the combination of adrenaline, rage, sadness and remorse that Jim was feeling was not helping with his accuracy. He kept his pistol leveled at roughly where Radek was standing and squeezed off four more shots. His eyes were starting to get clouded by tears of helpless rage, and multiple Radeks appeared.

Radek couldn't believe it. He survived an attack from a fierce Ctarl Ctarl and his own grenades, only to be ambushed by some little punk kid. It dawned on him that the boy and the Ctarl Ctarl must have been working together, and had the sense to keep moving. He lost his grenade launcher in the blast, but that didn't mean that he was unarmed. The boy fired off more shots at him as Radek pulled a machine pistol from his overcoat. He fired a burst of 3 or 4 rounds at Jim. The boy fell off the side of the building and his body hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Aisha remembered the explosion. She had survived it OK, but was starting to black out. She heard Jim cry out her name, a flurry of gunshots and then something that she could never forget before. As Jim ran out of ammunition, she saw Leilong close in on the boy with alarming speed, the wicked gleam of Leilong's knife, a swift slashing move, some blood in the air and then Jim hitting the ground. Suzu said something and then an all-enveloping darkness....Except she wasn't at Monkoku Hill, and Leilong was long dead. She was sure that she was imagining things again. But once she opened her eyes, she was filled with the same sense of dread as when Leilong knifed poor Jim. She saw him attempting to slide down the building, firing a pistol along the way. De La Guerra was still armed and returned fire. As Jim made his way down the building, Radek continued firing, Jim fell, and Aisha winced. He can't be dead, not after all the poor kid had been through. It wasn't possible...it wasn't right.

Radek's shots had missed Jim, but one of the bullets slammed into the vertical pipe he was holding onto, just a fraction of an inch above his fingers, causing Jim involuntarily let go and fell down. There was a separate pile of garbage that he landed on before bouncing off of it and landing in the alley- almost at Radek's feet. He was painfully aware that he had lost his grip on the pistol during the fall and heard it clatter to the ground somewhere behind him. Radek was a little bit surprised that the boy was still alive. He let out a little chuckle.

"Dammit kid, you've got nine lives" he said with a sort of grudging admiration as he leveled the pistol. "I gotta admit, you and the cat woman were pretty good, but it's over. I really hate to do this....". The thing was, he really did hate to do it. Killing kids, even if they did shoot at him, was not his style. Besides he could use somebody as resourceful as the kid when he went into the casinos and gambling halls- telegraphing signals, spotting marked cards from the dealers and so on. As he was pondering the ways a boy like Jim could help increase his winnings, he was aware of movement to his side.

Jim closed his eyes and heard another burst of shots from Radek's machine pistol. He was dead, and this must be the afterlife. It was funny- He thought he'd live a little bit longer, and he also thought that getting shot would hurt a little bit more. Where were the bright lights? Somebody had scooped him up and was holding onto him tightly as they were moving. Such soft skin for such a tight grip. Was it an angel? He reluctantly opened his eyes and realized that his face was pretty much buried in Aisha's barely concealed chest. Jim let out a little yelp that was borne of a mixture of surprise, relief and being caught in a very awkward position. This wasn't the afterlife, the 2 of them were still in that stinking alley with that psycho gambler. Somewhere along the way, she had shed her green scarf and the leather panels that she often wore. There were more gunshots, but Jim was transfixed by the copious jiggling of Aisha's cleavage and quite thankful for his front row view. In the back of his mind he realized that she must have put herself between Radek and him and was carrying him to safety. Aisha set him down in the same doorway De La Guerra had hid in earlier, since it would offer the boy some degree of protection.

"What the hell were you doing?!" She asked in a sharp scolding tone, largely unaware of the faceful she just provided Jim "You could've gotten yourself killed"

Jim was too flummoxed to provide and answer or even argue. Instead, he found himself wondering how skin that could deflect knives, bullets and grenades be so soft, feminine and alluring. His sadness, rage, fear and helplessness had melted away into joy, relief and more than a little embarrassment. She was crouched in the doorway next to him.

"Just stay here, Jim. I'm going to go finish this." He wanted to tell her to be careful, but by the time the words would have came out, all he saw was a 3ft. white-haired braid with a golden ring streaking down the alley. By the time Jim snapped out of his reverie, he was aware of one final burst of shots from Radek's pistol, followed by the fugitive's swearing, gunmetal clattering on the pavement of the alley, Aisha's beast-like scream, a series of punches and kicks landing, and then some bones breaking. Jim stepped out from behind the doorway and saw that Aisha was still pounding the now battered, bloodied and mostly dead bounty. Jim ran up to her.

"Aisha! Stop it!" he tugged at her arm as she pulled it back to continue pummeling De La Guerra. "We can't collect the bounty if they can't identify the body!"

Aisha stopped pummeling Radek's corpse for a moment and looked at Jim. Her facial expression changed from triumph to concern as she regarded the boy.

"Jim- you're bleeding", she pointed to the boy's forehead.

He wiped at some blood that was trickling down his forehead. "Well, I just fell off the side of a 4 story building. I guess I couldn't come away from that without at least a few scratches." He blinked in surprise."You're bleeding, too."

The sides and some parts on the front of Aisha's dress was riddled with tiny holes from the shrapnel, although nothing more scandalous than her belly button was really exposed. Beneath these tiny holes were some scratches and welts, some of which were bleeding. Jim saw that beneath her braid, there were 3 large holes in her dress that were running down her back, the edge of each hole ringed with powder burns and displaying a very nasty looking welt. He realized that Radek must have shot her in the back at point-blank with his pistol. She probably threw himself right in front of him as he pulled the trigger. Jim shuddered, thinking about what could have happened if she was a second slower. For a Ctarl Ctarl, getting shot must be similar to getting beaned with a baseball- it won't neccecarily kill them, but it could still hurt plenty.

She looked down at some of the scratches and then smiled at the boy. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Aisha went to the back of the alley to retrieve her scarf, cloak and the leather panels. Then she picked up Radek's corpse and flung it over her shoulder like a sack of flour. She was about ready to walk off when Jim spoke up.

"Hey, look Aisha!"

She turned around and the boy was holding a chunk of dragonite. Her eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?"

"It must have fell out of his pocket" he said, pointing to the corpse.

They both were thinking the same thing as she placed his corpse back on the ground. Jim opened up Radek's overcoat. There were 2 more pistols, a short-barreled shotgun, some smoke grenades and a few hundred Wong kept in the jacket. Jim relieved the late Mr. De La Guerra of those possessions before scouring the alley for the holo-cube. That was definitely something that he and Gene might be able to use in the future. Aisha was still looking at the dragonite, her mouth watering. She couldn't help but think of how much groceries she could buy with that. Then she let out a sigh of despair.

"What is it Aisha?"

" I was raised to understand that stealing from the dead is wrong, even if it is just a Terran...." she pouted.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm the one that's doing the stealing. Besides, he did try to kill us" he looked down at the ground in front of him and said "Ah! There you are", picking up the holo-cube. "Besides. I don't think he'll be needing these anymore..." He bundled up his newfound contraband.

Aisha donned her panels, scarf and cloak while she waited for Jim. He clambered back up the fire escape to the roof so he could retrieve the optics and communications gear he brought out with him, and then bundled up the items he took from Radek as well as his antique Glock. Then they headed for the nearest police station so that they could collect their bounty.

Tact was never one of Aisha's strong points, Jim reminded himself as Aisha slammed Radek's corpse onto the top of the police sergeant's desk. The startled officer looked up as Aisha loudly proclaimed "I'm Aisha Clan Clan and I'm here to collect the bounty on this pathetic Terran!". Jim remained a few steps behind her out of sheer embarrassment.

"I see...and who is this exactly?" the policeman nervously inquired.

"He calls himself Radek De La Guerra, and he didn't put up much of a fight when he realized his silly little toys weren't any use against an immortal Ctarl" She smugly declared. Modesty wasn't one of her strong points either, Jim reminded himself.

Suddenly, an effete man in an expensive suit who was filling out a report with another police officer away from a few desks away from Aisha stood up and pointed at her, yelling "THAT'S HER!!! That's the beast that trashed my establishment and attacked one of our patrons this morning! It's her!!! OFFICERS!!!! ARREST THAT BEAST!!!!"

"Oh no....." Aisha whimpered as she was now surrounded by dozens of police officers with a variety of weapons drawn and trained on her. Resisting arrest would be somewhat futile, since she had burned plenty of calories while pursuing De La Guerra. Even if she did escape, there would probably be a bounty on her and she would have no place to go.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!! I'M ONE OF THE PROUD CTARL CTARL!!!!" Aisha shrieked as the door to her jail cell slammed shut with a loud *clang*.

TO BE CONTINUED................