After finally getting off my ass and doing it, here you are, another chapter with a special appearance by FF.N's own Executor Zurg!
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The Misadventures of a Rogue Hawking
by Gracelyn Musica
Chapter Four
Deus ex Machina
( ::smirks:: don't hurt me, Zurg)
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Aisha Clan-Clan looked over her shoulder for the fourth time in about as many minutes. In the corner of her sight, she swore she saw a shifting shadow down the darkened alleyway. Ears perked for any noise, she continued towards the Starwind and Hawking building, patting down her clothes for the key to the door.
The clatter of metallic trash made the C'tar-C'tar whip around, staring suspiciously into the dark. Peering, she saw two glowing eyes and heard a faint meow echo off the walls.
Just a cat, Aisha, she mentally scolded herself, turning back to the front door. She pulled out the key, unlocking the door and slowly pushing it open so the bell wouldn't go off and awaken the household.
That's when something attacked her from behind, forcing her though the door frame and onto the floor with a bang.
---
The clatter awoke everyone, especially when the bell fell from it's place over the door to the floor with a smash.
Jim jerked awake from his place on the sofa, throwing the tattered blanket that was stretched across his waist at Kou, who fell off the couch onto the floor, fighting with the cloth over her face.
"What the HELL is going on?!" Gene roared from the second level. Jim could see his partner running a hand though his short red hair in the pale moonlight filtering though the glass windows.
"Hell if I know!" Jim shot back, grabbing the nearest weapon--the broom--and swinging it wildly.
"SHIT! JIM! Other way!" Kou yelped, turning her kid brother towards the mass of blah that was Aisha and her attacker.
SMACK.
"JIM!!!" Aisha screeched, hurling insults at the blonder and her attacker in hissing C'tar-C'tar. Jim, however, continued to smack at the writhing mass on the floor.
A light switched on for a split second before a gunshot rang throughout the building, plunging them back into darkness. "Brilliant Starwind, you shot the bulb," Kou's sarcastic voice floated over the noise, followed by Gene's eloquent retort of "Bite me, Hawking!"
Jim, however, froze with the broom over his head. In the split second the light was on, he could have sworn he saw two pairs of ears... Nah, just his imagination.
Muttering curses about certain redheaded bad shots, Kou fumbled around, searching for another light switch. She stepped on shards of broken light bulbs, cursing again as the sharp glass cut her feet. Finally, her questing fingers found another switch and the building was flooded with bright spotlights, which shocked everyone into freezing as they were:
Gene, his (still-smoking) pistol pointed in the air, half-dressed and hair a mess;
Melfina, in a long nightshirt, her arms tight around Gene, face buried in his shoulder;
Suzuka, her long robe wrapped tight around her thin frame, wooden sword brandished;
Kou, leaning up against the wall, wincing as a pool of blood slowly formed at her feet;
Jim, eyes wide, holding the broom mere centimeters from Aisha's nose;
Aisha, bruised, scratched, slightly bloody and pissed;
And a young C'tar-C'tar firmly latched around her waist.
"What the FUCK?!"
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"Zurg? What kind of a name is Zurg?" Kou demanded, wincing as Jim pinched her leg.
"What kind of a name is Koushiro?" the blonde demanded. "Shut up."
The crew of the Outlaw Star sat in the informal living room, Kou's feet propped up in Jim's lap as he took out the slivers of glass and wrapped her bloody feet.
Zurg looked downcast, his cat ears drooping. "I'm sorry for causing so much trouble. I thought it would be funny."
"Don't worry," Gene reassured him. "Seeing Kou bleed from anywhere is always worth it."
"Well, I'll be sure to take pictures next time I start my--"
"KOUSHIRO!"
Kou smirked at the beet-red faces of her two brothers and fell silent.
Aisha was tapping her chin, thinking. "Zurg... Zurg... You mean Zurg? As in Zurg from the Academy?"
---
"Okay everyone, it's time for our lab experiment. Everyone please partner up."
The teacher, an aging C'tar-C'tar with gray in her fur glared over her wire-rim glasses. All of her students in front of her were bright and eager to start the lesson.
Well... Maybe not ALL of them...
"Aisha!" The teacher hissed, throwing a piece of chalk into the third row. It bounced off Aisha's hair with a faint 'thunk' and fell to the floor, crumbling into bits.
"If you'll kindly rejoin the rest of the class, Ms. Clan-Clan, you'll see that everyone else has partnered up," the teacher informed her scathingly. Aisha looked to both sides to find that her friends were partnered up.
Grumbling about the misfortunes of her fate, the young C'tar-C'tar stood, scanning the room for a partner-less classmate. Finally, in the back of the class, she saw an empty seat next to a pair of ears. Padding towards the vacancy, what she found was a very young C'tar-C'tar, about four or five years younger than she, with dark-colored fur and shaggy black hair. He swung his feet back and forth under his chair. "Hi!"
"Hello..." Aisha said, watching as the kit unstopped the chemical vials in front of him.
"You're Aisha Clan-Clan," he informed her. "I've seen you around," he continued, daintily dropping a few clear drops from a vial into a large beaker of green fluid.
"And you are?" she countered, watching with mild interest as the liquid turned a bright purple.
The kit furrowed his brow at the reaction, reaching for another vial. "My name... is-"
CRASH.
The entire class turned as the boy knocked over the vial of sulphuric acid, the liquid instantly dissolving though the metal desk onto the stone floor, the tiles bubbling. At the surprise of the crash, the youngster dropped the vial of purple.
Ka-BLAM.
The liquid exploded on impact, glass shrapnel flying everywhere. Aisha ducked, covering her head with her arms, and felt the boy covering her body with his own. When her senses stopped reeling, she looked up to find the kit clutching at his cheek, blood trickling though the gaps of his fingers.
"Zurg. My name is Zurg."
---
"Explains your scar," Suzuka said levelly.
"That's the best story I've heard in a long time," Gene said, his voice trembling from held-in laughter.
Kou hissed slightly as Jim swiped at her foot with a disinfectant towelette. But she was giggling. "Yes, fine, fine story."
"Zurg," Aisha asked, turning towards her fellow species and ignoring her rude crew mates. "Why are you here?"
Zurg's ears perked up. "You mean you didn't hear? Our parents arranged for us to marry! Isn't that great Aisha?" the young C'tar-C'tar chirruped, smiling so wide you could see his elongated canines.
His enthusiasm was met with cricket sounds.
"Aisha? Aisha!"
"Oh, my," Melfina exclaimed, putting a hand over her mouth as Aisha's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed into Zurg's arms.
The three owners of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises began snickering madly. "Congrats, Zurg, you've got your hands full," Jim told the male C'tar-C'tar from behind his hand.
"Guess this means more crew, eh?" Gene asked hopefully.
"This puts me in the mood for smoothies," Kou piped up. "Nothing like a bit of sugar to celebrate a happy occasion."