Fumo presents…
Something he doesn't own and makes no claim to… Outlaw Star, but all characters not of the series are his and if you even try to copy them you'll just wined up looking stupid so ;P
This is Outlaw Galaxy: Old Habits Die Hard
After playing that unfortunate bill, Jean didn't stick around. He was too excited about that evening and wanted to tell the crew as soon as possible. The possibilities of what could happen as a result of that dinner, his old friend Angelo may decide to join up with Starwind & Hawking Enterprises, and pursue less suicidal endeavourers within in his company.
Jean made his way quickly across the streets, down the lift and to the ship to tell the crew the good news. As he entered the docking bay he noticed none of crew was doing anything Jean had asked them to. Jean figured as much, but he still like to order people around to keep at lease an air of seniority.
Entering the ship, Jean followed the sound of conversation to the galley. Entering that room, he spied everyone enjoying a nice breakfast. Melphina had cooked the last of the bacon and eggs and found some tea biscuits and coffee to serve the rest.
The crew turned to him as he entered and managed a few hellos to him.
Jean frowned, "I thought I told you to get to work."
Jim frowned back at him, "Yeah right. Like we'd work while you got drunk."
"Yeah, you big dummy!" Aisha yelled at him.
Jean took a seat, "No respect. Nobody listens to what I say, anymore."
Sazuka smiled as she sipped on a hot cup of coffee, "I guess you have a mutiny on your hands, captain."
"Tch, mutiny. In the olden days Captains could hang crewmen from the mizenmast for disobeying him. It's a tradition I'm seriously thinking about bringing back!"
"Oh hush up, Jean." Melphina said as she walked toward him from the cooking equipment, with a plate of eggs and bacon she placed in front of him, "After breakfast, we are all going to go work, that includes you, Jean."
Jean was still amazed at how much more sure of herself Melphina had become in the year or so that he'd known her.
Before she could walk away, Jean held on to her arm and rubbed his head against her arm in a mock little kitty cat way, "Thank you, sweetie…"
Melphina chuckled and patted him on the head and returned to her kitchen,
Jim looked at Jean funny, "Well, you're in a bright mood for a drunk. Did something good happen to you."
Stuffed some eggs and a piece of bacon into his mouth, "Very good. I ran into my old friend, Angelo Western.
Melphina sat at the table and munch on some scrambled eggs. Sazuka sipped on her coffee as she quietly read her Daily Newscript, a thick sheet of trashable, flexible Plextic that held micro processors that access all that day's news, a nifty innovation out dating newspapers. Aisha slouched back in her chair eating a strip of bacon in the most annoying way, she held it up, one end in her mouth, and chewed it, but more like gnashing it many times with no foreseeable end or swallow on the horizon. None of them taking too much interest in the mention of that name, except for Jim. Jim looked up from a roll he had just buttered with a look of surprise on his face.
"You mean that guy you were always talking about? Your partner before me? I thought you said he was dead?" Jim asked.
That little outburst seceded in grabbing the others' attentions. The three women looked up at Jim with interest. Then to Jean.
Jean smiled, receiving the attention he craved, "Yep, that guy."
"You had a partner before Jim?" Aisha asked quizzically with bacon in her mouth.
"Uhhh, duh!" Jean jeered sarcastically at the young beast girl, "I'm like twice as old as him, I think I've made some other friends before him."
Aisha growled at him, and emphasized it by ripping the bacon in half, "I doubt it…"
Melphina decided to interrupt the building argument, "So, who is this Angelo?"
Jean laid back in his seat, "Angelo was my bud a long time ago. We grew up together, and when I worked as a smuggler for Virgil Loe, that's Fred Loe's dad, he worked with me. Ahh, those were good times…" Jean said nostalgically.
"How come you've never mentioned him before?" Melphina continued.
"Well… the way our friendship ended, it wasn't particularly pleasant. The only ones I've talked to about him and his…," Jean searched for the right word, "…disappearance was those few people I came in contact with after his disappearance and Jim."
Jim mumbled with a mouthful of bread, "Yeah, I feel special…"
"You keep jerking us around here, Starwind! Is he dead or not?" Aisha complained.
"He's not, ok! But, to understand… um, how things are now… I have to tell you the story from the beginning." Jean leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, "I've told yall how I got on Sentinel, right."
He was answered with nods.
"But, I've never said to much about after that. Ok, after I crashed on Sentinel, I had nothing, what so ever. I had to suffice by leaving off the streets of Metrotown, I was about… ten or eleven, I had to steal and cheat to stay alive, . I wasn't great at it, but I got to the point where I could get away fast enough that a shopkeeper couldn't kick my ass. Now, there are a lot of kids like that in Metrotown, I mean, it's the biggest city on Sentinel, with the highest homeless rate, one of those kids was a boy with blue hair, Angelo Western. Now, I never really knew him, but when I was living there, I'd seen him steal and such, just like me."
"One day, I was not fast enough, and I was gonna get seriously thrashed by this stupid meat vendor, no way out, the police don't help the "street trash" they wanna see less of them, then, out of no where, this blue-haired kid smashes into him and knocks him over. We go to run, but the guy trips Angelo up, and he falls. So I return the favor, and hit that vendor in the back of the head with a… I think it was boot… a steel toed boot I found in the garbage… yeah…"
"Anyway, after that, me and Angelo decided it would be wiser to work together from now on. We were a great team, watching each other's back, helping each other survive. Life in the streets went on, we moved up from simple stealing to…" Jean counted on his fingers, "Pick pocketing, mugging, swindling games like 3 Card Monty and such, bigger gambling events like dog fights, dice games, fight clubs, and rigging gambling events, heh, heh, basic shit that we got pretty good at."
"Then around fifteen, we gained the attention of Virgil Loe, at the time he had built a virtual empire for the sale of guns, bombs, missiles, etc. He made them on urban nightmares like Sentinel and Heyfong and smuggled them to all the corners of the galaxy. Virgil needed some new street guys on Sentinel, young dudes who could protect his industry in the city and help with the secret shipments off planet."
"When he asked us, we were thrilled. We had been looking to expand our enterprises, if you know what I mean." Jean began to speak boastingly, "Sure, we were young, lots of Virgil's older partners resented us, but we had something they couldn't match, our street smarts. I mean, we spent like 5 years fighting and conning and risking our asses to get to a point where the ghetto belonged to us. There was nothing that went down in Metrotown that we didn't know about, we were perfect for the job, and it turned out we WERE perfect at the job."
Jean stopped for a moment to observe his listeners. They all looked at him attentively, even the normally cool Sazuka betrayed a look of eager interest.
"For the next 2 years or so, we were Loe's connection to the street. We took care of every problem he had. An upstart dealer in Metrotown or Virginia, we'd take care of it, he needed a store house out of the way, we took care of it, needed some one to meet a buyer or even deal, he called his "street trash" connections, heh, heh. In turn, we got the rewards and protection he could offer from the police."
Jean sat back and gave a long sigh, as the others waited for him to continue.
Melphina looked at him with impatience, "So what happened…"
Jean held up his empty plate, "Can I have some more?"
"Oh, sure…" she said as she moved for his plate and back to the counter.
Jean continued, "So, then came a hot night in June. Me and Angelo and some other of Loe's men, had to go to a small farm outside of Virginia City to deliver a shipment of rockets or something. The sale was to go down in a long barn, where underneath the shippers hide there spacecraft, and we were to come in with a shipment of weapons hid in a shipment of oats. It was all routine, nothing was supposed to go down, we weren't expected anything out of the ordinary."
Jean stopped to observe his crew again. They all had there eyes plastered on Jean. Aisha looked the most interested, she gave Jean and unyielding stare, a piece of bacon hanging out of the side of her mouth.
Jean looked at Aisha, and held up his empty mug, "Coffee…"
Aisha's stare became very vacant, and the bacon disappeared between her lips, "Whaaa…"
"Gimme some coffee." Jean clarified.
Aisha looked at the coffee mug, then to pot of black coffee on the table in front of her, "Ohhhhh…"
Jim and Sazuka chuckled as Aisha quickly filled up his mug. Melphina returned with a plate of warm scrambled eggs, and pulled her seat close to Jean's.
"Thanks baby. So! We got there, we show the merchandise, they show their cash, and right when we shake hands, the Sentinel Bureau of Investigations busts in. Turns out it was a sting to catch both us dealers and the shippers, a weasely little guy I knew that worked for Loe got caught buying "Astral Meth" and made a deal with the SBI to finger Loe for his own protection. There was a big gun battle, but the SBI agents were better armored and better equipped. There was a plan among the smugglers to jump in the ship under that barn and blast off the planet. Last time I saw Angelo… he jumped into the hatch…"
Jean's smile faded and he crossed his arms, he looked down as if he was remembering something difficult. Melphina put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed him compassionately.
Jean continued, "He yelled for me to hurry up… I ran for the hatch, but… but my fear of space froze me, I mean I wanted to go, but I just could walk to the hatch… seconds later the ship blasted off. I never saw him again, I had no idea what happened to him, Loe's other men, or the smugglers. I'd always assumed the ship was destroyed and he was dead, or it was capture and he was in prison…"
Jean gave a long sigh, "Well, I hid from the SBI agents by hiding in a grain silo for three whole days before I could come out…"
"Whoa, three days in a grain silo! What did you do to keep yourself busy?" Aisha asked quizzically.
"Masturbation."
"Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!" Aisha screamed as she backed away from Jean.
"You wanted to know so just grow up!"
"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black." Sazuka jeered at Jean, a sly smile on her face.
Jean scoffed then continued, "So, three days later, I returned to Metrotown. I had to lay low for awhile, because with what the SBI collected from the barn, the were able to arrest Virgil Loe and a whole bunch of his organization and send them to prison."
Jean leaned back and took a sip of his coffee, "That's about it. I took the money I'd collected, started Starwind Enterprises, and found a young "street trash" kid who reminded me a lot of myself, the rest is history."
Jean leaned forward again, "And then today, I'm sitting in a random bar, then someone sticks a gun in my back, I'm thinkin' it's Ron McDougal or sumthin. Turns out, it's Angelo! It totally freak me out…" Jean finished by shoving a spoonful of eggs into his big mouth.
"Wow, Jean. What a story." Melphina said leaning away.
"How along ago was it when this Angelo disappeared?" Sazuka asked.
"Um… we were both 17, that's… four years about."
"Wait. So, you just ran into up there?" Jim asked confused.
"Well, yes and no… he had apparently heard about me from where ever he was, and he came looking for me… just running into him was coincidence… I guess."
"This Angelo sounds like a pretty impressive fighter, going throw the same battles as you Jean," Sazuka mused, "and he must be good at finding people if he tracked you to Blue Heaven. Do you think he would join our crew, if you asked him to?"
"I'm hoping for it!"
"So what's Angelo like?" Melphina asked, resting her chin on Jean's shoulder.
"Well, he's got blue hair, um, a medium build, he's a little shorter then me, upstairs and downstairs, if you know what I mean." Jean said as he burst out laughing.
Everyone else just stared at him flatly.
Aisha leaned close to Jim and whispered, "Jimbo, is that a penis joke?"
Jim whispered back, "Yep…"
"How does he know the size of that guy's penis?"
"Jean, there were so many things wrong with that joke, and I meant what's his personality like!" Melphina said in the abrupt tone she had taken in her year with Jean.
"Heh, heh, I'm sorry, I've been sitting on that one for a month, I couldn't resist! Anyway, well… he's cocky, but cunning… he's very outgoing, but knows when to keep quiet… smart, nice guy generally…he's a playa for sure, good with the ladies… hmm, he's just like me actually, he's like another Jean Starwind."
"Oh no, two Jean Starwinds! Say good bye to the universe. That's enough testosterone to drown us all…" Aisha jeered, before a giant scone was shoved into her laughing mouth by an irate Jean.
Aisha gagged on the British tea biscuit, leaned a little tow far back and crashed onto the floor. As usually, the crew chose to ignore Aisha on the floor.
Jean recomposed himself, "Yes well, anyway, he invited us to go to dinner so you can meet him."
"All right, so I finally get to meet the famous Angelo." Jim called, picking up the roll he had stopped eating to listen to Jean's story.
"Oh, that would be nice, Jean." Melphina spoke into his ear.
"Where does he wanna take us?" Jim asked as he finished his roll.
"A place on the Upper Starside called Silver Fox."
"Ohhh, Silver Fox!" Aisha squealed as pulled herself off the floor, large scone in her hand a giant bite missing, and Aisha chewing on something, "That place has such good smelling food. It costs like 100 Wong a plate, but it would be worth it. I tried to go there once, but they said they had a dress code, I told them I was the Ambassador, but they didn't care, and then I got shovey, and so I ended up with my ass in the street, hungry…"
Aisha was interrupted by the scone she was hold being shoved back into her mouth by Jean.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, deary." Jean mused.
"A 100 wong a plate, huh. That sounds like my kinda place." Sazuka said, sipping her coffee she had let get cold while listening to Jean's story, and suppressing a yucky face.
"Yeah, I'll bet. Around 6 we gotta get ready, put on your fanciest duds and your most painful high-heeled shoes, but first, can we please get some work done."
-------
Jean waited impatiently at the door of the Outlaw Star. He was freshly cleaned, and wearing his nicest outfit, a dark gray sports jacket worn open in the front with a large collar, a dark gray pants, a shiny, burgundy red silk shirt, tucked in, and an exceptionally shiny pare of black, 126 wong, Gizur-skin dress shoes that Jean bought because he felt he owed it too himself.
He tapped his foot on the metal corridor, venting his frustration. It was almost seven, and he was the only one ready to go. He was very eager to go, he wanted to hear all about what happened to Angelo after their seperation, and he wanted to tell Angelo everything he did as well. Jean, however, was not sure if he would tell Angelo everything.
When he knew Angelo, there was nothing he kept from him. But in the last 4 years, he had come to depend on a certain set of people for the things he encountered. So the only people who knew about the Leyline debacle were his crew and Fred Loe, no one else. Stories were leaked by pirate defectors and Katarl Katarl soldiers who escaped from the Leyline, but they were just rumors, and Jean would never admit to them. Now he was faced with one person he trusted most before he meet all them, and he could not make a decision.
He came up with a story about their search for the Leyline, about all the amazing stuff leading up to the Leyline, Hilda, the XGP, the Space Race, etc., but not saying or denying they found, making it sound like they gave up or are still looking. He would also leave out important details to the Leyline adventure; like Melphina being the key, he would just call her an advanced bio-android designed to pilot the Outlaw Star; or the location of where the crew killed Hazonko, the Hanten guys, and the McDougal brothers, he would just said they crossed paths. However, if Angelo got wise, which is very well what might happen, Angelo was no fool, and asked him outright wither he had found the Galactic Leyline or not, Jean would have to decide to reveal the truth or outright lie.
It wasn't that Jean only wanted to keep what had happened to his inner circle, it was also to protect Angelo. Their involvement in the Leyline fiasco had brought them more harm then good, rumors about them ran rampant, there were always people asking questions, looking for secrets, testing for weaknesses. He would bring anyone in to that kind situation, especially not his best friend.
Jean's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of foot steps on the rampway to the Outlaw Star. Jean turned to see Swanzo, the resident Corbonite mechanic of Blue Heaven. His large metal sphere of a body barely shook as he walked up on his limber legs.
Jean smiled as Swanzo walked up, "Evenin' Swanzo."
The Corbonite walked up to the taller humanoid, and placed his hands on his "waist/equator" in a very human mimicry, "Ok, Starwind. I got you your stuff, now, it's pay time. Are you going to pay up, or give me another IOU?"
Jean made a false look of hurt, "Swanzo, I'm appalled that you think so low of me. I'll pay what do I owe you?"
"Ok…" Swanzo counted on his fingers, "A paint job and a registration number, 50 wong…"
"Ok."
"50 feet of laser-link wire, 570 wong…"
"Ok."
"2 tones of replacement Titanite plating, 1,500 wong…"
"Ug, ok."
"A quadra-synk power cuplink… a Microsoft System Regulator… three atmosphere-safe energy relays, 6,600 wong…"
"Wow, ok."
"A new Nova Battery for your navigation tank, which I don't know how you ran it out it's guaranteed for a century, that cost a lot, 4,700 wong…"
"Damn, ok."
"An Anarchy-Net systems corrupter the deluxe Cyber-Reimer version…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is that, who asked for that?"
"Jim did."
"Oh."
"11,000 wong."
"Well, that is a shit-load of money, lemme add that up..."
Jean mumbled softly as he counted on his fingers calculating the total, but it sure didn't look like was trying very hard. Swanzo looked at him with as good an "as if" look he could with only two lights for a face. Jean finished with a nod to himself. Then he reached down to a metal briefcase and handed it to the confused Swanzo.
"Here ya go." Jean smiled.
Swanzo took the case cautiously, "What is this, Starwind?" Swanzo opened the case to find stacks of crisp, clean paper wong amounting at least several thousand, "Oh wow!"
"You can keep the change for all help you've given us along the way."
Swanzo closed the case, and looked up at Jean with suspicion in his eyes/light bulbs, "Where did you get all this cash, Starwind?"
"Well, it's a weird story. I took the liberty of raiding some of those McDougal brothers secret accounts. I mean for all the damage they caused, and Hilda, and they wouldn't need it, seeing as they're dead. But it was also weird, there were a whole lot of accounts in the name of Harry McDougal and Melphina, so we didn't even have to con them. But, boy, that Harry guy was screwed up, must of thought Mel would marry him or something…"
"Ut oh." Swanzo said, seemingly for no reason.
"What?"
Swanzo sighed, "Once again you've done something irrational and not thought out, and you're now busted back down to kid."
"Nuts. What did I do now?"
"Well, kid, the McDougal's may be dead, but they have a lot of friends, a lot of famous, outlaw friends, when they get whiff that you've offed the McDougals then stole from them, they're going to come looking for you."
"Bring it on, I'll vaporize 'em just like I did Ron McDougal."
"Well, hooray for you, but friends aren't the only thing they made. Now recently, so it says on the street, the Space Forces, in an under the table deal, paid them a giant wad of cash to destroy their mistake, the XPG. Now that the rumor that they failed is out, and a young Jean Starwind has both the XPG and their money, they're going to come for both. Commissioner Tony Thorpe of the Spcae Forces doesn't like loose ends."
"So, what are you saying, you don't want the money?"
"No," Swanzo turned to leave, "I just never saw you, good bye kid."
Jean could help but start to laugh, he waved as Swanzo walked down the ramp, "See ya later, Swanzo… or not, I don know… bye!"
Jean chuckled some more, but his attention was drawn away as a door down the corridor opened. Out walked Melphina, and Jean's breath was taken away, she was a stunning vision. She wore a sensuous tank top dress, it was a creamy white color that fit her form all the way down to just above her knees, along side of the dress was a pretty pattern of a pink rose with a long green stem that wrapped around the back. She also had on some nice tall white strapie heels. Her hair and face were perfect, and she had a provocative light red lipstick on her cute lips.
She smiled at him as she walked toward her lover, "Looking good, Jean. How about me?"
As soon as she came close enough he grabbed her in an embrace. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her against his body. He met her on the lips with a passionate kiss. She did not fight it, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him into her. When they parted for air, Jean placed his forehead against her's in a intimate moment.
"I think you look gorgeous." He said intimately.
She smiled, and bit her lower lip as she stared longingly into his eyes, one of the many things about her that turned him on. She used her finger to stroke his ear lobe, another thing she purposely did to turn him on.
"Do you think we have time for a quicky?" he propositioned.
She smiled at him slyly.
"Damn, Jean can't you keep in your pants for at least an hour?" Jim complained as he walked in from down the hall. He was quiet the little gentlemen; in his black coat, his smooth brown colored vest with small gold buttons and a low V-neckline, and over top of a clean white dress-up shirt, as well as a neatly pressed pair of black pants, and some very fine black dress shoes. He wore a nice red, silk tie that trailed off underneath his vest, and in his vest's breast right pocket there came a gold chain that dangled a bit and then hooked into one of the button holes on his vest. Very snazzy, indeed.
Jean smiled, then pounced. He grabbed his big chunk of Jim's cheek and pinch like an over affectionate grandmother might, "Well aren't you just the cutest wittle thing. All dressed up like a big man." he insulted jokingly.
Jim smacked Jean's hand off his face, "Unlike you, who looks like a giant toddler."
Jean poked and prodded Jim, and added a few more "smart" remarks for good measure, while Jim tried to fend him off. Melphina chuckled lightly to herself as she watched the two old partners bicker.
Enter Aisha Clan Clan, which froze most of the people in the room who couldn't help but stop everything they were doing to watch her entrance. Jean was froze mid-poke, and Jim froze in mid-bitch slap.
She was in a very small dress, extending from a few inches above her breasts and a few inches below her crotch. It hugged her body tightly, highlighting the curves of he stomach, hips and butt. It would have been quiet a provocative dress, hadn't she looked so goofy on her, and if it hadn't been Aisha Clan Clan wearing it.
She looked very uncomfortable in that dress, she was constantly pulling at the parts that hugged her body too much, constantly pulling the dress down around her legs and up on her chest. It was as well a bright red color that was hard to look at directly, and along the side was a pattern of a dragon using different pieces of a gold material that made it look rather gaudy.
Jean smiled to himself as he watched her tug at the fabric over her belly, "Getting a little fat there, eh, Aisha?"
Aisha bared her steely fangs, "Shut up! I just saw this dress in a store, and it looked kinda pretty, but it just goes to show that you humans' best designers can't make a dress to suit the superior Katarl Katarl physique."
Jean chuckle to himself, "Whatever…"
Aisha growled at him, but was distracted by the last one they were waiting for entered from a wash room.
All eyes fell to Sazuka and stayed there. She was stunning in an elegant kimono, it was sterling white with green edges, along the green edge at the bottom, a beautiful painted forest of cool green trees, around her waist was a green sash that made a large bow in the back. Her lips were a deep red color, she wore two earrings made of green jewels, and her hair was in the intricate style of the Geisha of ancient Japan, tied with a red silk ribbon.
No one said anything, they were too captivated to speak.
Satisfied with her fellows' reactions, she smiled, "Shall we go?"
(let's just assum I knows everything, ok, thanks, that's smoker style ok, good fer ya…)
Something he doesn't own and makes no claim to… Outlaw Star, but all characters not of the series are his and if you even try to copy them you'll just wined up looking stupid so ;P
This is Outlaw Galaxy: Old Habits Die Hard
After playing that unfortunate bill, Jean didn't stick around. He was too excited about that evening and wanted to tell the crew as soon as possible. The possibilities of what could happen as a result of that dinner, his old friend Angelo may decide to join up with Starwind & Hawking Enterprises, and pursue less suicidal endeavourers within in his company.
Jean made his way quickly across the streets, down the lift and to the ship to tell the crew the good news. As he entered the docking bay he noticed none of crew was doing anything Jean had asked them to. Jean figured as much, but he still like to order people around to keep at lease an air of seniority.
Entering the ship, Jean followed the sound of conversation to the galley. Entering that room, he spied everyone enjoying a nice breakfast. Melphina had cooked the last of the bacon and eggs and found some tea biscuits and coffee to serve the rest.
The crew turned to him as he entered and managed a few hellos to him.
Jean frowned, "I thought I told you to get to work."
Jim frowned back at him, "Yeah right. Like we'd work while you got drunk."
"Yeah, you big dummy!" Aisha yelled at him.
Jean took a seat, "No respect. Nobody listens to what I say, anymore."
Sazuka smiled as she sipped on a hot cup of coffee, "I guess you have a mutiny on your hands, captain."
"Tch, mutiny. In the olden days Captains could hang crewmen from the mizenmast for disobeying him. It's a tradition I'm seriously thinking about bringing back!"
"Oh hush up, Jean." Melphina said as she walked toward him from the cooking equipment, with a plate of eggs and bacon she placed in front of him, "After breakfast, we are all going to go work, that includes you, Jean."
Jean was still amazed at how much more sure of herself Melphina had become in the year or so that he'd known her.
Before she could walk away, Jean held on to her arm and rubbed his head against her arm in a mock little kitty cat way, "Thank you, sweetie…"
Melphina chuckled and patted him on the head and returned to her kitchen,
Jim looked at Jean funny, "Well, you're in a bright mood for a drunk. Did something good happen to you."
Stuffed some eggs and a piece of bacon into his mouth, "Very good. I ran into my old friend, Angelo Western.
Melphina sat at the table and munch on some scrambled eggs. Sazuka sipped on her coffee as she quietly read her Daily Newscript, a thick sheet of trashable, flexible Plextic that held micro processors that access all that day's news, a nifty innovation out dating newspapers. Aisha slouched back in her chair eating a strip of bacon in the most annoying way, she held it up, one end in her mouth, and chewed it, but more like gnashing it many times with no foreseeable end or swallow on the horizon. None of them taking too much interest in the mention of that name, except for Jim. Jim looked up from a roll he had just buttered with a look of surprise on his face.
"You mean that guy you were always talking about? Your partner before me? I thought you said he was dead?" Jim asked.
That little outburst seceded in grabbing the others' attentions. The three women looked up at Jim with interest. Then to Jean.
Jean smiled, receiving the attention he craved, "Yep, that guy."
"You had a partner before Jim?" Aisha asked quizzically with bacon in her mouth.
"Uhhh, duh!" Jean jeered sarcastically at the young beast girl, "I'm like twice as old as him, I think I've made some other friends before him."
Aisha growled at him, and emphasized it by ripping the bacon in half, "I doubt it…"
Melphina decided to interrupt the building argument, "So, who is this Angelo?"
Jean laid back in his seat, "Angelo was my bud a long time ago. We grew up together, and when I worked as a smuggler for Virgil Loe, that's Fred Loe's dad, he worked with me. Ahh, those were good times…" Jean said nostalgically.
"How come you've never mentioned him before?" Melphina continued.
"Well… the way our friendship ended, it wasn't particularly pleasant. The only ones I've talked to about him and his…," Jean searched for the right word, "…disappearance was those few people I came in contact with after his disappearance and Jim."
Jim mumbled with a mouthful of bread, "Yeah, I feel special…"
"You keep jerking us around here, Starwind! Is he dead or not?" Aisha complained.
"He's not, ok! But, to understand… um, how things are now… I have to tell you the story from the beginning." Jean leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, "I've told yall how I got on Sentinel, right."
He was answered with nods.
"But, I've never said to much about after that. Ok, after I crashed on Sentinel, I had nothing, what so ever. I had to suffice by leaving off the streets of Metrotown, I was about… ten or eleven, I had to steal and cheat to stay alive, . I wasn't great at it, but I got to the point where I could get away fast enough that a shopkeeper couldn't kick my ass. Now, there are a lot of kids like that in Metrotown, I mean, it's the biggest city on Sentinel, with the highest homeless rate, one of those kids was a boy with blue hair, Angelo Western. Now, I never really knew him, but when I was living there, I'd seen him steal and such, just like me."
"One day, I was not fast enough, and I was gonna get seriously thrashed by this stupid meat vendor, no way out, the police don't help the "street trash" they wanna see less of them, then, out of no where, this blue-haired kid smashes into him and knocks him over. We go to run, but the guy trips Angelo up, and he falls. So I return the favor, and hit that vendor in the back of the head with a… I think it was boot… a steel toed boot I found in the garbage… yeah…"
"Anyway, after that, me and Angelo decided it would be wiser to work together from now on. We were a great team, watching each other's back, helping each other survive. Life in the streets went on, we moved up from simple stealing to…" Jean counted on his fingers, "Pick pocketing, mugging, swindling games like 3 Card Monty and such, bigger gambling events like dog fights, dice games, fight clubs, and rigging gambling events, heh, heh, basic shit that we got pretty good at."
"Then around fifteen, we gained the attention of Virgil Loe, at the time he had built a virtual empire for the sale of guns, bombs, missiles, etc. He made them on urban nightmares like Sentinel and Heyfong and smuggled them to all the corners of the galaxy. Virgil needed some new street guys on Sentinel, young dudes who could protect his industry in the city and help with the secret shipments off planet."
"When he asked us, we were thrilled. We had been looking to expand our enterprises, if you know what I mean." Jean began to speak boastingly, "Sure, we were young, lots of Virgil's older partners resented us, but we had something they couldn't match, our street smarts. I mean, we spent like 5 years fighting and conning and risking our asses to get to a point where the ghetto belonged to us. There was nothing that went down in Metrotown that we didn't know about, we were perfect for the job, and it turned out we WERE perfect at the job."
Jean stopped for a moment to observe his listeners. They all looked at him attentively, even the normally cool Sazuka betrayed a look of eager interest.
"For the next 2 years or so, we were Loe's connection to the street. We took care of every problem he had. An upstart dealer in Metrotown or Virginia, we'd take care of it, he needed a store house out of the way, we took care of it, needed some one to meet a buyer or even deal, he called his "street trash" connections, heh, heh. In turn, we got the rewards and protection he could offer from the police."
Jean sat back and gave a long sigh, as the others waited for him to continue.
Melphina looked at him with impatience, "So what happened…"
Jean held up his empty plate, "Can I have some more?"
"Oh, sure…" she said as she moved for his plate and back to the counter.
Jean continued, "So, then came a hot night in June. Me and Angelo and some other of Loe's men, had to go to a small farm outside of Virginia City to deliver a shipment of rockets or something. The sale was to go down in a long barn, where underneath the shippers hide there spacecraft, and we were to come in with a shipment of weapons hid in a shipment of oats. It was all routine, nothing was supposed to go down, we weren't expected anything out of the ordinary."
Jean stopped to observe his crew again. They all had there eyes plastered on Jean. Aisha looked the most interested, she gave Jean and unyielding stare, a piece of bacon hanging out of the side of her mouth.
Jean looked at Aisha, and held up his empty mug, "Coffee…"
Aisha's stare became very vacant, and the bacon disappeared between her lips, "Whaaa…"
"Gimme some coffee." Jean clarified.
Aisha looked at the coffee mug, then to pot of black coffee on the table in front of her, "Ohhhhh…"
Jim and Sazuka chuckled as Aisha quickly filled up his mug. Melphina returned with a plate of warm scrambled eggs, and pulled her seat close to Jean's.
"Thanks baby. So! We got there, we show the merchandise, they show their cash, and right when we shake hands, the Sentinel Bureau of Investigations busts in. Turns out it was a sting to catch both us dealers and the shippers, a weasely little guy I knew that worked for Loe got caught buying "Astral Meth" and made a deal with the SBI to finger Loe for his own protection. There was a big gun battle, but the SBI agents were better armored and better equipped. There was a plan among the smugglers to jump in the ship under that barn and blast off the planet. Last time I saw Angelo… he jumped into the hatch…"
Jean's smile faded and he crossed his arms, he looked down as if he was remembering something difficult. Melphina put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed him compassionately.
Jean continued, "He yelled for me to hurry up… I ran for the hatch, but… but my fear of space froze me, I mean I wanted to go, but I just could walk to the hatch… seconds later the ship blasted off. I never saw him again, I had no idea what happened to him, Loe's other men, or the smugglers. I'd always assumed the ship was destroyed and he was dead, or it was capture and he was in prison…"
Jean gave a long sigh, "Well, I hid from the SBI agents by hiding in a grain silo for three whole days before I could come out…"
"Whoa, three days in a grain silo! What did you do to keep yourself busy?" Aisha asked quizzically.
"Masturbation."
"Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!" Aisha screamed as she backed away from Jean.
"You wanted to know so just grow up!"
"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black." Sazuka jeered at Jean, a sly smile on her face.
Jean scoffed then continued, "So, three days later, I returned to Metrotown. I had to lay low for awhile, because with what the SBI collected from the barn, the were able to arrest Virgil Loe and a whole bunch of his organization and send them to prison."
Jean leaned back and took a sip of his coffee, "That's about it. I took the money I'd collected, started Starwind Enterprises, and found a young "street trash" kid who reminded me a lot of myself, the rest is history."
Jean leaned forward again, "And then today, I'm sitting in a random bar, then someone sticks a gun in my back, I'm thinkin' it's Ron McDougal or sumthin. Turns out, it's Angelo! It totally freak me out…" Jean finished by shoving a spoonful of eggs into his big mouth.
"Wow, Jean. What a story." Melphina said leaning away.
"How along ago was it when this Angelo disappeared?" Sazuka asked.
"Um… we were both 17, that's… four years about."
"Wait. So, you just ran into up there?" Jim asked confused.
"Well, yes and no… he had apparently heard about me from where ever he was, and he came looking for me… just running into him was coincidence… I guess."
"This Angelo sounds like a pretty impressive fighter, going throw the same battles as you Jean," Sazuka mused, "and he must be good at finding people if he tracked you to Blue Heaven. Do you think he would join our crew, if you asked him to?"
"I'm hoping for it!"
"So what's Angelo like?" Melphina asked, resting her chin on Jean's shoulder.
"Well, he's got blue hair, um, a medium build, he's a little shorter then me, upstairs and downstairs, if you know what I mean." Jean said as he burst out laughing.
Everyone else just stared at him flatly.
Aisha leaned close to Jim and whispered, "Jimbo, is that a penis joke?"
Jim whispered back, "Yep…"
"How does he know the size of that guy's penis?"
"Jean, there were so many things wrong with that joke, and I meant what's his personality like!" Melphina said in the abrupt tone she had taken in her year with Jean.
"Heh, heh, I'm sorry, I've been sitting on that one for a month, I couldn't resist! Anyway, well… he's cocky, but cunning… he's very outgoing, but knows when to keep quiet… smart, nice guy generally…he's a playa for sure, good with the ladies… hmm, he's just like me actually, he's like another Jean Starwind."
"Oh no, two Jean Starwinds! Say good bye to the universe. That's enough testosterone to drown us all…" Aisha jeered, before a giant scone was shoved into her laughing mouth by an irate Jean.
Aisha gagged on the British tea biscuit, leaned a little tow far back and crashed onto the floor. As usually, the crew chose to ignore Aisha on the floor.
Jean recomposed himself, "Yes well, anyway, he invited us to go to dinner so you can meet him."
"All right, so I finally get to meet the famous Angelo." Jim called, picking up the roll he had stopped eating to listen to Jean's story.
"Oh, that would be nice, Jean." Melphina spoke into his ear.
"Where does he wanna take us?" Jim asked as he finished his roll.
"A place on the Upper Starside called Silver Fox."
"Ohhh, Silver Fox!" Aisha squealed as pulled herself off the floor, large scone in her hand a giant bite missing, and Aisha chewing on something, "That place has such good smelling food. It costs like 100 Wong a plate, but it would be worth it. I tried to go there once, but they said they had a dress code, I told them I was the Ambassador, but they didn't care, and then I got shovey, and so I ended up with my ass in the street, hungry…"
Aisha was interrupted by the scone she was hold being shoved back into her mouth by Jean.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, deary." Jean mused.
"A 100 wong a plate, huh. That sounds like my kinda place." Sazuka said, sipping her coffee she had let get cold while listening to Jean's story, and suppressing a yucky face.
"Yeah, I'll bet. Around 6 we gotta get ready, put on your fanciest duds and your most painful high-heeled shoes, but first, can we please get some work done."
-------
Jean waited impatiently at the door of the Outlaw Star. He was freshly cleaned, and wearing his nicest outfit, a dark gray sports jacket worn open in the front with a large collar, a dark gray pants, a shiny, burgundy red silk shirt, tucked in, and an exceptionally shiny pare of black, 126 wong, Gizur-skin dress shoes that Jean bought because he felt he owed it too himself.
He tapped his foot on the metal corridor, venting his frustration. It was almost seven, and he was the only one ready to go. He was very eager to go, he wanted to hear all about what happened to Angelo after their seperation, and he wanted to tell Angelo everything he did as well. Jean, however, was not sure if he would tell Angelo everything.
When he knew Angelo, there was nothing he kept from him. But in the last 4 years, he had come to depend on a certain set of people for the things he encountered. So the only people who knew about the Leyline debacle were his crew and Fred Loe, no one else. Stories were leaked by pirate defectors and Katarl Katarl soldiers who escaped from the Leyline, but they were just rumors, and Jean would never admit to them. Now he was faced with one person he trusted most before he meet all them, and he could not make a decision.
He came up with a story about their search for the Leyline, about all the amazing stuff leading up to the Leyline, Hilda, the XGP, the Space Race, etc., but not saying or denying they found, making it sound like they gave up or are still looking. He would also leave out important details to the Leyline adventure; like Melphina being the key, he would just call her an advanced bio-android designed to pilot the Outlaw Star; or the location of where the crew killed Hazonko, the Hanten guys, and the McDougal brothers, he would just said they crossed paths. However, if Angelo got wise, which is very well what might happen, Angelo was no fool, and asked him outright wither he had found the Galactic Leyline or not, Jean would have to decide to reveal the truth or outright lie.
It wasn't that Jean only wanted to keep what had happened to his inner circle, it was also to protect Angelo. Their involvement in the Leyline fiasco had brought them more harm then good, rumors about them ran rampant, there were always people asking questions, looking for secrets, testing for weaknesses. He would bring anyone in to that kind situation, especially not his best friend.
Jean's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of foot steps on the rampway to the Outlaw Star. Jean turned to see Swanzo, the resident Corbonite mechanic of Blue Heaven. His large metal sphere of a body barely shook as he walked up on his limber legs.
Jean smiled as Swanzo walked up, "Evenin' Swanzo."
The Corbonite walked up to the taller humanoid, and placed his hands on his "waist/equator" in a very human mimicry, "Ok, Starwind. I got you your stuff, now, it's pay time. Are you going to pay up, or give me another IOU?"
Jean made a false look of hurt, "Swanzo, I'm appalled that you think so low of me. I'll pay what do I owe you?"
"Ok…" Swanzo counted on his fingers, "A paint job and a registration number, 50 wong…"
"Ok."
"50 feet of laser-link wire, 570 wong…"
"Ok."
"2 tones of replacement Titanite plating, 1,500 wong…"
"Ug, ok."
"A quadra-synk power cuplink… a Microsoft System Regulator… three atmosphere-safe energy relays, 6,600 wong…"
"Wow, ok."
"A new Nova Battery for your navigation tank, which I don't know how you ran it out it's guaranteed for a century, that cost a lot, 4,700 wong…"
"Damn, ok."
"An Anarchy-Net systems corrupter the deluxe Cyber-Reimer version…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is that, who asked for that?"
"Jim did."
"Oh."
"11,000 wong."
"Well, that is a shit-load of money, lemme add that up..."
Jean mumbled softly as he counted on his fingers calculating the total, but it sure didn't look like was trying very hard. Swanzo looked at him with as good an "as if" look he could with only two lights for a face. Jean finished with a nod to himself. Then he reached down to a metal briefcase and handed it to the confused Swanzo.
"Here ya go." Jean smiled.
Swanzo took the case cautiously, "What is this, Starwind?" Swanzo opened the case to find stacks of crisp, clean paper wong amounting at least several thousand, "Oh wow!"
"You can keep the change for all help you've given us along the way."
Swanzo closed the case, and looked up at Jean with suspicion in his eyes/light bulbs, "Where did you get all this cash, Starwind?"
"Well, it's a weird story. I took the liberty of raiding some of those McDougal brothers secret accounts. I mean for all the damage they caused, and Hilda, and they wouldn't need it, seeing as they're dead. But it was also weird, there were a whole lot of accounts in the name of Harry McDougal and Melphina, so we didn't even have to con them. But, boy, that Harry guy was screwed up, must of thought Mel would marry him or something…"
"Ut oh." Swanzo said, seemingly for no reason.
"What?"
Swanzo sighed, "Once again you've done something irrational and not thought out, and you're now busted back down to kid."
"Nuts. What did I do now?"
"Well, kid, the McDougal's may be dead, but they have a lot of friends, a lot of famous, outlaw friends, when they get whiff that you've offed the McDougals then stole from them, they're going to come looking for you."
"Bring it on, I'll vaporize 'em just like I did Ron McDougal."
"Well, hooray for you, but friends aren't the only thing they made. Now recently, so it says on the street, the Space Forces, in an under the table deal, paid them a giant wad of cash to destroy their mistake, the XPG. Now that the rumor that they failed is out, and a young Jean Starwind has both the XPG and their money, they're going to come for both. Commissioner Tony Thorpe of the Spcae Forces doesn't like loose ends."
"So, what are you saying, you don't want the money?"
"No," Swanzo turned to leave, "I just never saw you, good bye kid."
Jean could help but start to laugh, he waved as Swanzo walked down the ramp, "See ya later, Swanzo… or not, I don know… bye!"
Jean chuckled some more, but his attention was drawn away as a door down the corridor opened. Out walked Melphina, and Jean's breath was taken away, she was a stunning vision. She wore a sensuous tank top dress, it was a creamy white color that fit her form all the way down to just above her knees, along side of the dress was a pretty pattern of a pink rose with a long green stem that wrapped around the back. She also had on some nice tall white strapie heels. Her hair and face were perfect, and she had a provocative light red lipstick on her cute lips.
She smiled at him as she walked toward her lover, "Looking good, Jean. How about me?"
As soon as she came close enough he grabbed her in an embrace. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her against his body. He met her on the lips with a passionate kiss. She did not fight it, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him into her. When they parted for air, Jean placed his forehead against her's in a intimate moment.
"I think you look gorgeous." He said intimately.
She smiled, and bit her lower lip as she stared longingly into his eyes, one of the many things about her that turned him on. She used her finger to stroke his ear lobe, another thing she purposely did to turn him on.
"Do you think we have time for a quicky?" he propositioned.
She smiled at him slyly.
"Damn, Jean can't you keep in your pants for at least an hour?" Jim complained as he walked in from down the hall. He was quiet the little gentlemen; in his black coat, his smooth brown colored vest with small gold buttons and a low V-neckline, and over top of a clean white dress-up shirt, as well as a neatly pressed pair of black pants, and some very fine black dress shoes. He wore a nice red, silk tie that trailed off underneath his vest, and in his vest's breast right pocket there came a gold chain that dangled a bit and then hooked into one of the button holes on his vest. Very snazzy, indeed.
Jean smiled, then pounced. He grabbed his big chunk of Jim's cheek and pinch like an over affectionate grandmother might, "Well aren't you just the cutest wittle thing. All dressed up like a big man." he insulted jokingly.
Jim smacked Jean's hand off his face, "Unlike you, who looks like a giant toddler."
Jean poked and prodded Jim, and added a few more "smart" remarks for good measure, while Jim tried to fend him off. Melphina chuckled lightly to herself as she watched the two old partners bicker.
Enter Aisha Clan Clan, which froze most of the people in the room who couldn't help but stop everything they were doing to watch her entrance. Jean was froze mid-poke, and Jim froze in mid-bitch slap.
She was in a very small dress, extending from a few inches above her breasts and a few inches below her crotch. It hugged her body tightly, highlighting the curves of he stomach, hips and butt. It would have been quiet a provocative dress, hadn't she looked so goofy on her, and if it hadn't been Aisha Clan Clan wearing it.
She looked very uncomfortable in that dress, she was constantly pulling at the parts that hugged her body too much, constantly pulling the dress down around her legs and up on her chest. It was as well a bright red color that was hard to look at directly, and along the side was a pattern of a dragon using different pieces of a gold material that made it look rather gaudy.
Jean smiled to himself as he watched her tug at the fabric over her belly, "Getting a little fat there, eh, Aisha?"
Aisha bared her steely fangs, "Shut up! I just saw this dress in a store, and it looked kinda pretty, but it just goes to show that you humans' best designers can't make a dress to suit the superior Katarl Katarl physique."
Jean chuckle to himself, "Whatever…"
Aisha growled at him, but was distracted by the last one they were waiting for entered from a wash room.
All eyes fell to Sazuka and stayed there. She was stunning in an elegant kimono, it was sterling white with green edges, along the green edge at the bottom, a beautiful painted forest of cool green trees, around her waist was a green sash that made a large bow in the back. Her lips were a deep red color, she wore two earrings made of green jewels, and her hair was in the intricate style of the Geisha of ancient Japan, tied with a red silk ribbon.
No one said anything, they were too captivated to speak.
Satisfied with her fellows' reactions, she smiled, "Shall we go?"
(let's just assum I knows everything, ok, thanks, that's smoker style ok, good fer ya…)