Experienced Outlaw Star fans:
Allow me to beg your forgiveness. This is my first OS fanfiction, and as of yet, unfinished. The characters are as I see them, having only watched the series twice through. If you don't like the way I spell the names, that's your problem.
This is a alternate time line fic, which means it does not follow the time line set by the actual series. Actually, it follows a similar time line, but at some point it breaks off into a paradox and becomes a different story entirely.
---
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the pictures in my head. Original characters do belong to me.
Warning: As of yet, this is an alternate time line fic, with yaoi (m/m), het (m/f), and humor. Small dashes of sap, language and angst thrown in for good measure. Pairings--wouldn't you just like to know? This fic reaches into the very edges of lime, but do not expect any lemons. If you don't know what that means, email me and expect to be embarrassed. Underage people are drinking--don't try this at home!
Author: Kasey
Archive: Not unless I send it to you.
Status: Incomplete, self-edited.
Key: /italics/ and *emphasis*
---
"At a Minute or Two 'Till Two, Today"
---
-Part Three-
---
"Melfina!!" Harry MacDougal sat straight up in his bed, panting hard. He shut his eyes tight as he clutched his head. "Oh, oh, Melfina!" he moaned.
"What's wrong?" Ron MacDougal, the elder of the two brothers, poked his head into Harry's cabin. "Harry?"
Harry rolled out of bed and cracked his knees on the hard metal floor. "It...it's the /Outlaw Star/," Harry gasped, his face wrenched in pain. "They found my tracking device."
"Are they disarming it?"
"...Yes."
"Damn!" Ron ran back out of the cabin. "We'll have to go after them now!"
Harry's door shut on it's own as his brother ran down the corridor towards the control room of their small ship. He slumped on the floor.
"Ah..." he whimpered, feeling Melfina's soft hands pulling at his beacon. "Oh, Melfina..."
---
Melfina shivered as she heard Harry's voice through the beacon. It was almost done. "I won't listen to you," she whispered, part to him, and part to reassure herself. "I won't listen." Finally, she pulled the beacon from the web. The strands of the web disintegrated without the beacon to hold them together.
Closing her eyes and trying not to listen to Harry's static-y cries, she crushed the beacon between her hands.
---
"No!" Harry rolled around the floor of his cabin until he felt the final blow, and his beacon was destroyed. "*NOOO!!!!*"
He stopped rolling, curled up in a ball in the middle of his cabin. Tears started rolling down his cheeks.
"Why do you keep doing this to me, Melfina?" he sobbed.
---
"Are you okay?" Asjia asked. Gillium had ejected Melfina from the connection tube the moment she had passed out, and Asjia had been the one there to catch her.
"The... the MacDougal brothers," Melfina gasped weakly. "They're on their way here..."
"Gillium," Gene said, sitting in the captain's seat, "Is Melfina strong enough to get us out of here?"
"No," Gillium replied. "We will have to fight them off from down here."
"Damn!" Gene slammed his palm down on the control panel. "We don't know where they are, or where they're coming from... we have no way of making any sort of plan or preparations... Gillium! Use the data Melfina gave you and see if you can at least get us some sort of time frame for how long we've got 'till they get here."
"The signals were very strong until Melfina destroyed the beacon," Gillium said. "I am estimating that they will arrive in less than three hours."
Jim shook his head. "It's not enough time to get out of here, Gene," he said. "We'll have to fight them on the ground."
"And on their terms, too." Gene tapped his finger against the control panel. "Well, then, Jim ol' buddy, I think we need to turn this as much in *our* favor as we can."
"How do we do that?" Gillium asked.
"Suzuka, are you fighting with us?" Gene asked, over his shoulder.
The assassin was holding a cold, damp cloth to Melfina's head. "Yes."
"Asjia?"
"Sure thing! I want another crack at those little munchy monsters they keep turning loose on us!"
"Great. Here's the plan..."
---
"Find her, little brother?"
"No!!" Harry was still shaking, even as he adjusted the controls to bring their ship into Hayfong. The backlash from Melfina had damaged some of the circuits connecting his electronics to his natural body tissue, so he was relying completely on his programming.
"Well, you'd best find her soon. You know they won't be waiting for us at the ship. And they won't leave her alone at the ship again, either."
"Just shut up!" Harry cried, his voice cracking. "I'll find her!"
"There they are!" As they dropped through the clouds, Ron pointed at a large clearing a few miles from the spaceport. "I know it's them! I can feel it!"
"...Maybe," Harry said slowly, his voice still uneven. He ran a quick scan. "It is! Sh-she's down there!"
"Good," Ron said, smirking. "And it looks like they're waiting for us. How nice."
---
"Here they come!" Gene cried. Asjia and Suzuka stood just behind him. They watched as the MacDougal's ship passed overhead, and two figures came plummeting down from the sky. A few seconds later, the ship turned to pass by again, dropping more figures. Then the ship turned once more and headed towards the spaceport.
Suddenly, parachutes exploded from the first two figures, followed by more from the other congregation.
"Looks like the party's starting," Gene said as the outlines of the MacDougal brothers cleared up and he could recognize their faces. He flipped the safety off of his gun. "Leave Ron MacDougal to me."
"We'll take care of those bio-engineering nightmares," Suzuka said. "But what about Harry MacDougal?"
"If everything works right, Jim and Melfina should take him out." Just then, the MacDougals let go of their parachutes, and dropped the remaining few yards to the ground.
---
Harry hit the ground, rolled, and was on his feet in seconds. He made a B-line for Melfina. The other bio-android shrieked and ran back towards Jim.
"A little closer," Jim murmured, "...And... Now!!" He had clocked Harry's speed perfectly. He pressed the button just a second and a yard before Harry stepped on the small, neatly covered mound of dirt. The remote reactor set off the three underground castor shells, and Harry MacDougal was in the middle of the explosion.
Melfina crouched behind Jim, shivering as she listened to Harry's screaming.
---
The elder of the MacDougal brothers had faced Gene with a castor, which Gene had cancelled out with a castor of his own.
"We're not gonna play *that* game again, are we?" Gene asked. "I really get tired of playing tag with you guys like this. It's a pretty poor excuse to waste ammunition."
"Do you have any idea what the bounty on your head is, Gene Starwind?" MacDougal asked. "I've come to collect." He loaded his gun with another shell, and aimed at Gene.
"Oh, I think a couple of thousand wong," Gene replied casually, "But you'll find that I'm pretty attached to my head. I use it to do all my thinking for me." He was retreating slowly as he reloaded, drawing MacDougal forward.
"Trying to run away so quickly?" MacDougal asked. "I don't think so." He fired at Gene, whose reflexes allowed him to fire the checking shot and run before they hit. MacDougal took off, running after Gene.
Jim watched the whole thing from a distance, on a radar screen. "Dammit, Gene! Now he's too far to the left. Take him to the right and circle around, okay?"
Gene tapped the tiny communicator in his ear. "Got it, Jim. Doin' good." He cut a sharp right.
MacDougal cursed and turned to follow. "Damn you, Starwind! Stop playing these kid games and get back here and fight!!'
"Yahaha!! Can't catch me!" Gene called back. He narrowly missed hitting a tree, but still managed to stay a few yards ahead of MacDougal. He tapped the communicator again. "How are we doing?"
"Just keep going straight, now," Jim replied. "And stay ahead of him--oh, no, Gene! He's reloading another castor!!"
"Shit," Gene cursed. "Am I gonna make it, Ji--" He was cut off by a loud explosion behind him, and MacDougal's shocked roar of pain. He kept running until the he was well away from the flames.
---
Gene returned to Jim's hiding place, carrying MacDougal's injured and unconscious form over his shoulder. "How'd it go?" he asked softly, noticing Melfina's upset expression.
"Just like you planned," Jim replied. "You're getting better at this, Gene." He grinned at his friend. "The other brother ran straight for Melfina, and we got him just right. As for Suzuka and Asjia, well..." He sighed and thumbed over his shoulder.
"Hn?" Gene looked up to see the two women warriors arguing over who had defeated the last of a number of robots that were littering the clearing they had fought in. "Oh." He turned back to Jim. "So, what's the bounty on this guy?" he asked, indicating MacDougal.
"Dunno, I never checked." Jim hit a few buttons on his computer. "Wow!! That guy's worth almost a *million* wong, alive! That'll sure pay for all those castors we used!"
"Yeah... and how about him?" he pointed to Harry MacDougal's limp form, which was still where the castors had exploded just minutes earlier.
Jim typed away. He frowned. "I dunno. There's no record of him, anywhere. And no price for him, either. I guess... we just finish him, unless he's already dead."
"...He's not," Melfina said softly. "I can tell."
"Yaaahh... I hate killing in cold blood," Gene said, wrinkling his nose. "But that guy's just bad."
"Gene?"
"Yeah, Melfina?"
"Could we..." She stopped, and looked at the ground. "Could we run some tests on him? I-I mean, if he was right, and we *are* the same...type... maybe I can learn something about... about myself."
Gene raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing. We'll have to find a way to restrain him, though. But, yeah... I'd like to see what makes that crazy kid tick."
"So how should we work this, Gene?" Jim asked.
"That's easy," Gene said. "Suzuka and Asjia will take MacDougal here in to collect the bounty on him--"
"I'd better get a pretty good cut of that bounty," Asjia cut in. Jim sighed.
"--And I'll carry that one back to the /Outlaw Star/," Gene finished, pointing to Harry's still immobile form. "Jim, you and Melfina will come with me. We can figure out how to restrain him on the way there."
---
The Chief of the Space Military Forces shook his head in disbelief. "You're telling me that you two ladies brought in Ronald MacDougal all by yourselves?" he asked for the third time.
"Well, we had some help," Asjia replied, standing up very tall and proud, "But they couldn't make it."
"We're just here to collect and leave," Suzuka added.
The Chief sighed. "Well, then, you deserve it! My thanks, and congratulations. Pay them," he instructed the treasurer.
"Yes sir!" The man nodded to Suzuka and Asjia, and led them out of the room to the register.
The Chief took a long drink of water and typed a few commands into his computer. A visual of MacDougal's cell came up on the screen. He was still out cold. "Amazing..."
---
When Harry opened his eyes, it was to see Melfina's virtual domain. He looked around him, eyes wide, not immediately recognizing the place.
"He's awake," Melfina's voice came from somewhere nearby. Harry looked around but couldn't see her.
"Melfina!!" he yelled. "Where are you?!"
Suddenly Melfina appeared in front of him. "Here I am," she said warily.
"Melfina!" he gasped. He reached for her, but found his arms pinned to his sides. "...What?"
"It's a firewall," Melfina told him, her voice even softer than normal. "We uploaded you into my database as a virus. The virus scan alerted the firewall, and it will hold you here until we're done."
"D-done doing what?" Harry asked, his voice wavering. "Let me go, Melfina! Please let me go!"
"No!" Melfina turned away. "I can't."
"Then why didn't you just kill me?!" Harry's breathing was erratic, and his face had gone white.
"We're just going to scan you... to find out more about me," Melfina said. "You said... that we are the same type of android."
Harry nodded. "Yes, that's right. Ron is, too. Where is Ron? What will you do with me when you're done?"
Melfina's eyes went wide. "I don't know!" she cried, and disappeared.
"Wait!" Harry called. "Melfina, come back!!"
---
"Is it holding him?" Jim asked Melfina.
"Yes," she responded. "It's working just fine."
Gene frowned, looking at Harry's body. They had essentially plugged him into Melfina's connection tube, and after that, they had bolted him to the wall. "Just for good measure," Gene had said.
"Is he bothering you, there?" Gene asked, finally.
"No. The firewall is holding him in place, and he can't reach past the guards. The virus scan is also monitoring him..."
"Good. Let's start running that other scan over him so we can get this done with as quick as possi--"
"Gene..."
"Yeah, Gillium?"
"Incoming message from Fred Lowe."
"Yeah? Put him on screen." A moment later, Fred's smiling face appeared on the screen.
"Gene! Wonderful, you dealt with the MacDougals and you're all safe. I just got word that two women succeeded in taking out the bounty on Ronald MacDougal's name. Who actually got him?"
"I did," Gene replied. "But I gave him to Asjia and Suzuka."
"But what about the other one? Harry MacDougal?"
"See for yourself." Gene stepped out of the way to allow Fred to view Harry, who's physical body would stay unconscious until Melfina let him go.
"Oh!" Fred tilted his head, rubbing the lobe of his right ear between two fingers. "That's Harry MacDougal, really?"
"Yep," Jim piped up. "We're running some tests for Melfina, and then we're gonna get rid of him... I hope."
"Well, I don't know what else we can do with him," Gene said, shrugging. "I'm not letting him go so he can just harass Melfina again... and because of the type of android he is, there's not many prisons that would hold him."
"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Fred said. "Will you be coming back for dinner, tonight? Bring Suzuka with you. She may not be my favorite person in the world, but I'd like to congratulate her on your battle, today."
"Accepted," Suzuka said, stepping into the room. She handed Gene an envelope fat with wong bills. "I'll be there."
"Wonderful! See you all tonight, then!" Fred pressed a button to cut off the communication. He turned his chair to face the window behind him "...And to save you all from any more of Asjia's cooking!!"
---
---
Allow me to beg your forgiveness. This is my first OS fanfiction, and as of yet, unfinished. The characters are as I see them, having only watched the series twice through. If you don't like the way I spell the names, that's your problem.
This is a alternate time line fic, which means it does not follow the time line set by the actual series. Actually, it follows a similar time line, but at some point it breaks off into a paradox and becomes a different story entirely.
---
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the pictures in my head. Original characters do belong to me.
Warning: As of yet, this is an alternate time line fic, with yaoi (m/m), het (m/f), and humor. Small dashes of sap, language and angst thrown in for good measure. Pairings--wouldn't you just like to know? This fic reaches into the very edges of lime, but do not expect any lemons. If you don't know what that means, email me and expect to be embarrassed. Underage people are drinking--don't try this at home!
Author: Kasey
Archive: Not unless I send it to you.
Status: Incomplete, self-edited.
Key: /italics/ and *emphasis*
---
"At a Minute or Two 'Till Two, Today"
---
-Part Three-
---
"Melfina!!" Harry MacDougal sat straight up in his bed, panting hard. He shut his eyes tight as he clutched his head. "Oh, oh, Melfina!" he moaned.
"What's wrong?" Ron MacDougal, the elder of the two brothers, poked his head into Harry's cabin. "Harry?"
Harry rolled out of bed and cracked his knees on the hard metal floor. "It...it's the /Outlaw Star/," Harry gasped, his face wrenched in pain. "They found my tracking device."
"Are they disarming it?"
"...Yes."
"Damn!" Ron ran back out of the cabin. "We'll have to go after them now!"
Harry's door shut on it's own as his brother ran down the corridor towards the control room of their small ship. He slumped on the floor.
"Ah..." he whimpered, feeling Melfina's soft hands pulling at his beacon. "Oh, Melfina..."
---
Melfina shivered as she heard Harry's voice through the beacon. It was almost done. "I won't listen to you," she whispered, part to him, and part to reassure herself. "I won't listen." Finally, she pulled the beacon from the web. The strands of the web disintegrated without the beacon to hold them together.
Closing her eyes and trying not to listen to Harry's static-y cries, she crushed the beacon between her hands.
---
"No!" Harry rolled around the floor of his cabin until he felt the final blow, and his beacon was destroyed. "*NOOO!!!!*"
He stopped rolling, curled up in a ball in the middle of his cabin. Tears started rolling down his cheeks.
"Why do you keep doing this to me, Melfina?" he sobbed.
---
"Are you okay?" Asjia asked. Gillium had ejected Melfina from the connection tube the moment she had passed out, and Asjia had been the one there to catch her.
"The... the MacDougal brothers," Melfina gasped weakly. "They're on their way here..."
"Gillium," Gene said, sitting in the captain's seat, "Is Melfina strong enough to get us out of here?"
"No," Gillium replied. "We will have to fight them off from down here."
"Damn!" Gene slammed his palm down on the control panel. "We don't know where they are, or where they're coming from... we have no way of making any sort of plan or preparations... Gillium! Use the data Melfina gave you and see if you can at least get us some sort of time frame for how long we've got 'till they get here."
"The signals were very strong until Melfina destroyed the beacon," Gillium said. "I am estimating that they will arrive in less than three hours."
Jim shook his head. "It's not enough time to get out of here, Gene," he said. "We'll have to fight them on the ground."
"And on their terms, too." Gene tapped his finger against the control panel. "Well, then, Jim ol' buddy, I think we need to turn this as much in *our* favor as we can."
"How do we do that?" Gillium asked.
"Suzuka, are you fighting with us?" Gene asked, over his shoulder.
The assassin was holding a cold, damp cloth to Melfina's head. "Yes."
"Asjia?"
"Sure thing! I want another crack at those little munchy monsters they keep turning loose on us!"
"Great. Here's the plan..."
---
"Find her, little brother?"
"No!!" Harry was still shaking, even as he adjusted the controls to bring their ship into Hayfong. The backlash from Melfina had damaged some of the circuits connecting his electronics to his natural body tissue, so he was relying completely on his programming.
"Well, you'd best find her soon. You know they won't be waiting for us at the ship. And they won't leave her alone at the ship again, either."
"Just shut up!" Harry cried, his voice cracking. "I'll find her!"
"There they are!" As they dropped through the clouds, Ron pointed at a large clearing a few miles from the spaceport. "I know it's them! I can feel it!"
"...Maybe," Harry said slowly, his voice still uneven. He ran a quick scan. "It is! Sh-she's down there!"
"Good," Ron said, smirking. "And it looks like they're waiting for us. How nice."
---
"Here they come!" Gene cried. Asjia and Suzuka stood just behind him. They watched as the MacDougal's ship passed overhead, and two figures came plummeting down from the sky. A few seconds later, the ship turned to pass by again, dropping more figures. Then the ship turned once more and headed towards the spaceport.
Suddenly, parachutes exploded from the first two figures, followed by more from the other congregation.
"Looks like the party's starting," Gene said as the outlines of the MacDougal brothers cleared up and he could recognize their faces. He flipped the safety off of his gun. "Leave Ron MacDougal to me."
"We'll take care of those bio-engineering nightmares," Suzuka said. "But what about Harry MacDougal?"
"If everything works right, Jim and Melfina should take him out." Just then, the MacDougals let go of their parachutes, and dropped the remaining few yards to the ground.
---
Harry hit the ground, rolled, and was on his feet in seconds. He made a B-line for Melfina. The other bio-android shrieked and ran back towards Jim.
"A little closer," Jim murmured, "...And... Now!!" He had clocked Harry's speed perfectly. He pressed the button just a second and a yard before Harry stepped on the small, neatly covered mound of dirt. The remote reactor set off the three underground castor shells, and Harry MacDougal was in the middle of the explosion.
Melfina crouched behind Jim, shivering as she listened to Harry's screaming.
---
The elder of the MacDougal brothers had faced Gene with a castor, which Gene had cancelled out with a castor of his own.
"We're not gonna play *that* game again, are we?" Gene asked. "I really get tired of playing tag with you guys like this. It's a pretty poor excuse to waste ammunition."
"Do you have any idea what the bounty on your head is, Gene Starwind?" MacDougal asked. "I've come to collect." He loaded his gun with another shell, and aimed at Gene.
"Oh, I think a couple of thousand wong," Gene replied casually, "But you'll find that I'm pretty attached to my head. I use it to do all my thinking for me." He was retreating slowly as he reloaded, drawing MacDougal forward.
"Trying to run away so quickly?" MacDougal asked. "I don't think so." He fired at Gene, whose reflexes allowed him to fire the checking shot and run before they hit. MacDougal took off, running after Gene.
Jim watched the whole thing from a distance, on a radar screen. "Dammit, Gene! Now he's too far to the left. Take him to the right and circle around, okay?"
Gene tapped the tiny communicator in his ear. "Got it, Jim. Doin' good." He cut a sharp right.
MacDougal cursed and turned to follow. "Damn you, Starwind! Stop playing these kid games and get back here and fight!!'
"Yahaha!! Can't catch me!" Gene called back. He narrowly missed hitting a tree, but still managed to stay a few yards ahead of MacDougal. He tapped the communicator again. "How are we doing?"
"Just keep going straight, now," Jim replied. "And stay ahead of him--oh, no, Gene! He's reloading another castor!!"
"Shit," Gene cursed. "Am I gonna make it, Ji--" He was cut off by a loud explosion behind him, and MacDougal's shocked roar of pain. He kept running until the he was well away from the flames.
---
Gene returned to Jim's hiding place, carrying MacDougal's injured and unconscious form over his shoulder. "How'd it go?" he asked softly, noticing Melfina's upset expression.
"Just like you planned," Jim replied. "You're getting better at this, Gene." He grinned at his friend. "The other brother ran straight for Melfina, and we got him just right. As for Suzuka and Asjia, well..." He sighed and thumbed over his shoulder.
"Hn?" Gene looked up to see the two women warriors arguing over who had defeated the last of a number of robots that were littering the clearing they had fought in. "Oh." He turned back to Jim. "So, what's the bounty on this guy?" he asked, indicating MacDougal.
"Dunno, I never checked." Jim hit a few buttons on his computer. "Wow!! That guy's worth almost a *million* wong, alive! That'll sure pay for all those castors we used!"
"Yeah... and how about him?" he pointed to Harry MacDougal's limp form, which was still where the castors had exploded just minutes earlier.
Jim typed away. He frowned. "I dunno. There's no record of him, anywhere. And no price for him, either. I guess... we just finish him, unless he's already dead."
"...He's not," Melfina said softly. "I can tell."
"Yaaahh... I hate killing in cold blood," Gene said, wrinkling his nose. "But that guy's just bad."
"Gene?"
"Yeah, Melfina?"
"Could we..." She stopped, and looked at the ground. "Could we run some tests on him? I-I mean, if he was right, and we *are* the same...type... maybe I can learn something about... about myself."
Gene raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing. We'll have to find a way to restrain him, though. But, yeah... I'd like to see what makes that crazy kid tick."
"So how should we work this, Gene?" Jim asked.
"That's easy," Gene said. "Suzuka and Asjia will take MacDougal here in to collect the bounty on him--"
"I'd better get a pretty good cut of that bounty," Asjia cut in. Jim sighed.
"--And I'll carry that one back to the /Outlaw Star/," Gene finished, pointing to Harry's still immobile form. "Jim, you and Melfina will come with me. We can figure out how to restrain him on the way there."
---
The Chief of the Space Military Forces shook his head in disbelief. "You're telling me that you two ladies brought in Ronald MacDougal all by yourselves?" he asked for the third time.
"Well, we had some help," Asjia replied, standing up very tall and proud, "But they couldn't make it."
"We're just here to collect and leave," Suzuka added.
The Chief sighed. "Well, then, you deserve it! My thanks, and congratulations. Pay them," he instructed the treasurer.
"Yes sir!" The man nodded to Suzuka and Asjia, and led them out of the room to the register.
The Chief took a long drink of water and typed a few commands into his computer. A visual of MacDougal's cell came up on the screen. He was still out cold. "Amazing..."
---
When Harry opened his eyes, it was to see Melfina's virtual domain. He looked around him, eyes wide, not immediately recognizing the place.
"He's awake," Melfina's voice came from somewhere nearby. Harry looked around but couldn't see her.
"Melfina!!" he yelled. "Where are you?!"
Suddenly Melfina appeared in front of him. "Here I am," she said warily.
"Melfina!" he gasped. He reached for her, but found his arms pinned to his sides. "...What?"
"It's a firewall," Melfina told him, her voice even softer than normal. "We uploaded you into my database as a virus. The virus scan alerted the firewall, and it will hold you here until we're done."
"D-done doing what?" Harry asked, his voice wavering. "Let me go, Melfina! Please let me go!"
"No!" Melfina turned away. "I can't."
"Then why didn't you just kill me?!" Harry's breathing was erratic, and his face had gone white.
"We're just going to scan you... to find out more about me," Melfina said. "You said... that we are the same type of android."
Harry nodded. "Yes, that's right. Ron is, too. Where is Ron? What will you do with me when you're done?"
Melfina's eyes went wide. "I don't know!" she cried, and disappeared.
"Wait!" Harry called. "Melfina, come back!!"
---
"Is it holding him?" Jim asked Melfina.
"Yes," she responded. "It's working just fine."
Gene frowned, looking at Harry's body. They had essentially plugged him into Melfina's connection tube, and after that, they had bolted him to the wall. "Just for good measure," Gene had said.
"Is he bothering you, there?" Gene asked, finally.
"No. The firewall is holding him in place, and he can't reach past the guards. The virus scan is also monitoring him..."
"Good. Let's start running that other scan over him so we can get this done with as quick as possi--"
"Gene..."
"Yeah, Gillium?"
"Incoming message from Fred Lowe."
"Yeah? Put him on screen." A moment later, Fred's smiling face appeared on the screen.
"Gene! Wonderful, you dealt with the MacDougals and you're all safe. I just got word that two women succeeded in taking out the bounty on Ronald MacDougal's name. Who actually got him?"
"I did," Gene replied. "But I gave him to Asjia and Suzuka."
"But what about the other one? Harry MacDougal?"
"See for yourself." Gene stepped out of the way to allow Fred to view Harry, who's physical body would stay unconscious until Melfina let him go.
"Oh!" Fred tilted his head, rubbing the lobe of his right ear between two fingers. "That's Harry MacDougal, really?"
"Yep," Jim piped up. "We're running some tests for Melfina, and then we're gonna get rid of him... I hope."
"Well, I don't know what else we can do with him," Gene said, shrugging. "I'm not letting him go so he can just harass Melfina again... and because of the type of android he is, there's not many prisons that would hold him."
"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Fred said. "Will you be coming back for dinner, tonight? Bring Suzuka with you. She may not be my favorite person in the world, but I'd like to congratulate her on your battle, today."
"Accepted," Suzuka said, stepping into the room. She handed Gene an envelope fat with wong bills. "I'll be there."
"Wonderful! See you all tonight, then!" Fred pressed a button to cut off the communication. He turned his chair to face the window behind him "...And to save you all from any more of Asjia's cooking!!"
---
---
