Outlaw Star: Forgotten Dreams 7- Internet, Please, Hold the Anchovies

That's right, lucky number seven is up! I know what you're saying... "Geez... When is this chick going to STOP WRITING??" Well, here is my reply...

NEVER, YO!

Ahem...

So, last time, Jim got a tape and a note from his dead brother. He was half-naked and tripped in Gene's pants, but unless you're fourteen and are obsessing over an eleven-year-old kid like me, that has no relevance to the summary. Yeah, I just had a Pepsi... Ooh! I don't own Pepsi!

Now time to thank everyone who's enjoying the fic thus far! Let's begin now, shall we?

--

Jim read the note again.

'It doesn't make sense...' he thought silently. 'Kokurando died... I remember that much. Besides, if he knows where I'm living, why didn't he just come see me? And why isn't there any return address on the envelope? He would've had to have dropped it off, not have mailed it.'

Jim sighed and set the note aside. He flipped open the laptop on his bedside table and searched the Internet for any site providing lyrics to songs. He quickly found an appropriate search engine.

'Song title: Red Dragonflies; Author: Unknown'

He waited as patiently as possible while the results loaded.

'Results: Sorry! No matching results.'

"Sorry my a-" Jim began to shout.

"Hey. Dinner," Gene said, standing in the doorway. Jim hurriedly covered the screen, attempting to hide his blushed face. "Unless you're looking at pornography, I'm not interested."

"Why? Would you take away my laptop?" Jim asked as he closed the window.

"No, I'd pull up a seat."

"Take-out again?" Jim muttered blandly, staring at the delivery pizza at the table. Gene was already helping himself to over half of the large pizza.

"I can't cook and I'm not eating that crap you call soup ever again. Now eat," Gene ordered, pushing the remaining slices, still in the box, to the boy.

"What's on it?" asked Jim, taking two slices and putting them eagerly on his paper plate.

"Everything," Gene replied through his pizza.

"Anchovies?"

"That's everything, isn't it?"

"I don't like anchovies."

"So peel them off."

After eating, Jim returned to his small room and continued searching for anything he could find on the song. Eventually he gave up and picked up the paper with the note, reading it for the two hundred, twelfth time. He tossed it aside and held the envelope in his hands now.

'To Mr. James Arthur Hawking, Jr.'

"Why would my brother be so formal? Wouldn't he just put 'Jimmy Hawking' or something? ...Wait... 'Jr.'? I didn't know my name really was Jim. I knew it was my dad's, but I just took it... Oh! Oh! Idea!" Jim cried, leaping at his laptop yet again.

'Search: James Arthur Hawking, Sr.'

'Results: James Hawking became a master hacker at a young age. He was revered by many, but despised by even more. By allegedly working in partnership with government and police forces in order to thwart numerous crimes against the state as well as several individual persons, James Hawking not only gained the title 'The Wizard', but he also earned many high-in-power enemies. James Hawking died tragically when his private spaceship mysteriously crashed on the planet Earth in 1997, also taking the lives of his wife and eldest son. The body of his youngest son was never recovered.'

Jim stared, mouth opening and closing, yet no voice to be found, staring at the screen. That's when Jim got his brilliant idea. He printed the papers and scribbled something at the bottom, then ran his the door.

"Gene! I need a phone book!" the boy cried when he finally found the man, reclining on the couch in front of the television.

"It's under that stack of books," Gene said half-mindedly, pointing with his bare foot to a messy pile across the room. "Why?"

"I'm going to find out about my father."

After jotting down an address and a phone number of the paper, he pulled his baggy coat on and opened the door.

"I'm going out," he called to Gene in the other room.

"You're not running away again, are you?" Gene yelled back, unenthusiastically.

"Come on! You provide me with disgusting, salty, tiny, headless fish! Who would run from that?" Jim asked sarcastically as he headed out the door.

After about an hour of walking, he finally made it. 2784 Sohma Avenue. He took in a deep, slightly ragged breath and rang the doorbell. A fairly attractive middle-aged woman answered the door.

"Can I help you?" she asked after Jim remained silent.

"Oh! Yes! Um... Are you Mrs. Narita? My name is James Hawking, uh, Jr., and I'd like to speak to your husband, if he's home..." he stuttered, shifting his feet. He glanced back up at the brunette lady with his huge blue eyes. She gave him a pathetic once-over and opened the door a bit, inviting him in.

Jim sat on the comfortable couch while Mrs. Narita placed a cup of hot tea in front of him, taking a sip of her own.

Replacing her cup to the table, the woman asked, "I don't suppose you're my husband's dead work partner, are you, kid?"

"Um, no, but I think my dad was," Jim said with mock confidence. "Ma'am-"

"Meilu," Mrs. Narita corrected quickly. "I don't like feeling old."

"Right... Meilu, I was wondering if I could talk with Mr. Narita about my father. See, I've lived at an orphan-"

"Noboru told me about you. He said Mr. Hawking's son needed a home, and that he owed it to James to raise his kid for him," Meilu muttered, clearly rueful, yet somewhat detestable.

"That was me!" Jim cried, suddenly jumping from the couch, nearly spilling his tea.

"It doesn't matter," Meilu whispered. In a vengeful movement, eyes sealed shut, she quickly snatched up hers and Jim's cups, still full, and made her way back into the kitchen. Before entering the room, she turned back to Jim and, tears welled in her emerald eyes, said, "The day Noboru was to pick you up, he never came home. His body was found beaten to death by some Yukuzos who called themselves the Kei Pirates. They said it was revenge for James Hawking double-crossing them."

Jim's eyes lingered uncomfortably at his feet.

"I want you to leave now."

'My father was a Yukuzo?' he asked himself, knee-deep in disbelief. He knew he had to find out who these 'Kei Pirates' were.

"They also said they were going to find you," Meilu added painfully regretfully. Jim's face, now holding a pang of fear, shot up to look at the woman's. "And kill you."

Jim finally found his way back to the apartment at around one.

'Not bad," he thought to himself, 'seeming how I left around five...'

Gene awoke sharply at the sound of the door closing.

"Hey, you're home. I wasn't sure if you were planning on coming back," he muttered, slurring his words and rubbing his eyes in tiredness.

Normally Jim would make a smart comment to something like that- something about Gene being completely immature, leaving the door open slightly ajar and sleeping nearly nude with the television still on, or that he didn't seem to be too worried about him, but the boy was far too caught up in his own troubles to even register what the redhead was saying to him, or that he had even spoken at all. He only noticed slightly at Gene saying 'home'.

He was... Home.

Jim cast the thought aside and flipped open his laptop and once again went to his search engine.

'Search: Kei Pirates'

'Results: The Kei Pirates were a band of notorious gang members committing several atrocious crimes, the last of which being the theft of a massive time bomb, which has yet to be recovered. James Hawking, the man responsible for the discontinuation of the unspeakable acts of the Kei Pirates, perished mysteriously shortly after releasing key information to the government. Soon after, most Kei Pirates were taken into custody, but few supreme leaders, including Inui Karahaba, Ishiyama Ijimeru and Ota, and Tenako Kuraitenshi, who managed to escape from the police forces. However, the Kei Pirates have not resurfaced, and have seemingly died out.'

Jim stared at the computer screen.

"This is it... This is the information I've been searching for!" Jim cried in a celebratory manner.

"Shut up and go to sleep," Gene ordered as he threw a pillow at the blond from the doorway, knocking him over.

--

Oh, wow! Child abuse! Get a load of that, huh? So, some new questions have popped into the picture- who are they Kei Pirates, and was James Hawking, Sr. one of them?

Wow, that took longer than expected... I've been writing that for a few days now...

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I get to spend the entire day in my first period class, in gym, with crazy Mrs. Todd. ::scream, thunder, fish dies:: Guess where my bus stop is, all (you guys are all ). HALF A MILE AWAY. No, wait. Correction. In sixth grade it was half a mile away. Now it's three quarters of a mile away. ::cries:: I'm a freshman! I'm going to be lost! Ack!

Oh, well... Keep reading, and I'll keep writing! Byes!