A/N: This chapter is going to specifically be from Taz's view of things. Up's will be next, I promise!

2. Starship

Running. That's all her legs had been doing for an hour or two, and the robots hadn't let up. They were upon her in a matter of seconds as she tumbled to the ground. They were htting her, beating her senseless again. It hurt so bad, but it would be over in a matter of seconds. There was the head-robot, about to deliver it. The final blow...

Taz shout up from the small cot and clutched the white sheets to her chest. Where..where was she? Oh. She was in the hospital. That estúpido ranger...he had protected her, made her seem weak. And he would pay. She tugged the IVs out of her arm with a smirk and laughed as an angry beeping erupted from the machine. She was like a spider, crawling along the walls until she made it to a bathroom. Her clothes dropped to the floor beside her change of clothes. Ranger-Guy had undoubtedly gotten those. It had probably stricken him to touch her undergarments. Hopefully. She stepped into the water and layed against the wall, letting the water beat on her skin with agonizing heat. She scrubbed the blood and dirt from her body before sqooshing a palmful of some strange green soap onto her hair. Once it was all washed out and she felt clean, she jumped from the water and threw on the white tank, camo pants, and black she tied her back with a small bandana. Red, red for fire, red for the blood shed.

Before Taz counld even think, she was letting the swelling of tears fall onto her knuckles as she laced her boots. She sniffed and wiped them away with her golden brown arm. The tears streaked once, then they stopped. 'Duro, duro, duro!' She repeated inside her head. She would be a block of steel, never showing emotion or pain. She stepped from the bathroom, water dripping into her headband off her hair. It would dry in every direction, make people wonder. Taz stalked off down the hall and past the nurses on a hunt for her. Ranger-Guy had to be here somewhere, but la nave espacial fue tan grande. She would never find him on this gigantic ship. Taz brushed her hand along the glass wall of the gym but she stopped. "It is dat ranger...dat cabrón!" She shoved a few older men aside as she growled, setting into a run. She was stopped by the immense crowd of people surrounding the boxing ring. He was in there, and she had to fight him. "Who's next? Anyone got the balls to fight me?" Taz's eyes flickered. Before she knew it, she was yelling "¿Qué hay de mí? What about me?" She stepped through the people and cracked her neck, Ranger-Guy chuckling above her in the ring.

He was laughing. At her. She glared up at him with eyes full of pure fire. There was nobody, nadie that laughed at her. As stupid and small as she looked, she stepped up with confidence. Taz vowed that she would show them all just how tough someone like her could be. Ranger-Guy smiled toothinly and said "Well, ladies and gentleman, we've got our own little resident robo-killer! Remember that one I was tellin' y'all about?" There was a sound of admiration to the tiny girl, sienna skin glowing under the fluorescent lights hanging in the gym. There was a fire set in those narrowed eyes, golden colors floating around int the sea of brown. Her hands swung together in two fists, a small smile playing on her lips. The Ranger-Guy looked down at her, approaching her with caution. "An' what might yer name be, young'in?" She scoffed and looked into his dodger eyes, pointing an angry finger up at him. "Jou listen to me now, jou hijo de puta, I will tell jou my name. But jou better promise me one thing. Jou will never come and make me, más fuerte en mi familia, look like some sad, spayed 'ittle puppy! Jou had no right to bust in dere and save me. Jou...jou will pay." She poked her finger into his chest and pushed him a good few inches from where he stood before. "Taz." He looked puzzled, but she only gave him a questioning look. She was asking for his name. "Mi nombre es Taz. ¿Cuál es tu nombre? Jour name?" He sputtered a bit before answering her. "Up."

She ran at him full force just as he uttered his 'name.' She pushed him back against the ropes, kicking him angrily in the stomach. He let out a grunt of pain before running at her just as she fluttered out of sight. She was surprising, aiming at him with elbow jabs, uppercuts, roundhouse kicks, headbutts. Taz aimed to kill, aimed to destroy. Occasionally, she would get a few hits in, but he was blocking her attacks. A few times, they would come face to face, nose to nose. Up would smile, but she would kick or punch him and he would be on the defense again. Suddenly, Taz took a blow to her head and fell flat, wincing and not getting back up. Up panicked and stooped down to her side, timidly putting a hand to her back. She flipped backward and kicked him squarely in the back, pinning him flat with her foot. Just as he was about to get back up, she kicked him in the chest, knocking him flat and breathless. "Tres." She said loudly nwhen a few seconds had gone by. Taz turned her back from Up, from the crowd. Just as she was about to leave, she whirled around. "Jou have de stupidest name. De hell kind of name es Up?" She said it with a fake sweetness. Such sweetness, then fury, made everyone in the gym begin to yell and whoop. She could just make out Up saying, as the door closed, "It's been 4 years since I've been taken down...And I got taken out by a butterfly!"

oOoOo

Taz laid back on the soft earth beneath her, staring into the star-filled sky of space. The ship's beach simulator was amazingly realistic, salty breezing lifting her hair and sand filling the spaces between her toes. She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, beginning to roll down a dune of sand. No sooner had she stopped rolling did a strange figure join her on the beach. She hid herself behind a large plank of dritwood. It was the Ranger-Guy...Up. He looked both ways, scanning for people, before moving to open a little composition notebook. But...there was something familar about that notwbook. It was hers! Taz stood up and began to run in the sand, careful to pad her steps with holes in the sand. He mumbled as he read aloud. "Uh...Lemme see...Today is my Keeseeyera. Everytime someone talks about it, I spit fire. I want to be a ranger, my doesn't me mahdrey..?..understand?" He continued reading, going on about how she had cut her hair, soon finishing the entry. Before he could get to a particularly interesting part about her first day on the ship, she jumped from behind him into his arms. Sitting atop the notebook, she pressed her nose gently to his and whispered, "Sería prudente a la mente de su negocio."

Of course. He doesn't speak Spanish, the confundido idiot. She immediately regretted pushing her face into his..With much fire, she snapped to angry attention. "It would be wise to mind jour bidness." Her eyes smirked as she looked into his. Those eyes. For some reason, being here on the beach in peaceful silence, it constricted something in her heart to be so close. He was moving closer to her, and she was moving closer to him. She wrapped her lags around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder. Words bubbled quietly from somewhere inside her. "I apologize for beating jou...jou are wonderful..and jou saved my life, Up.." He just smiled and whispered gently back. "I was goin' easy. And I am happy to have saved a fireball like you.." His compliment caused color to rise in her cheeks. Anger to his claim of easing his powere melted like butter, and she smiled. A small, timid smile played on her trembling lips. No. She wouldn't cry in front of some self-righteous Starship Ranger.

In a matter of moments, she was in his arms, being rocked from side to side as shivers and sobs wracked her core. He was so warm...so gentle. It always seemed that he could see her at her weakest. She reached up and kissed his cheek gently, salty tears tickling his neck as they slid from her eyes. "Muchas gracias...teniente Up." She wiped her eyes on his shirt and pulled him up, down to the water. He was easy to push into the shallows, easy to ride as a raft into the knee-deep (Midthigh for Taz.) water surrounding them. "Up?" He grunted a reply, rowing himself out into the water. "I want you to teach me. To help me be a ranger so I can fight alongside you. We can be...a team." She barely whispered it. It nearly slipped away into the wind and waves as well. "Um..you want to train in combat?" She nodded, laying across his chest and humming a few strains of a salsa tune. He nodded and layed back. "Hey. Get up before you get sick! Let's go and watch The Karate Kid. Y'know. The good one, with Jackie Chan!" Taz grinned and began wading through the shallows to get to the shore, to the familiar comfort of a movie. To the place where Up was there, and she was safe.