A/N: Okay, let's see if anyone besides me still cares about Space Dandy. This chapter has been sitting half-written on my desktop for almost the past two years. I've been crazy busy with both school and other personal projects. After I graduated last year, I started working intensely on my original stories, but while doing a much-needed file purge, I ran across this chapter, and decided that, before I did anything else, I'd finish Space Dandy: It's a Fanfic, Baby!. But even before that, I've been hard at work re-working and "remastering" all of the previous chapters. It might be better if you go back and re-read them, as I've done some minor reworking, and corrected a few things. Bear in mind, when I wrote the first two chapters, only the first 4 Episodes of Space Dandy had premiered. As you read this, I'll likely be working on what is to be the final chapter for this series. As much as I love Space Dandy, his story has already been told, and in a way, I feel like I've contributed all I can to the fandom by starting what I still believe was the first-ever Space Dandy fanfiction with Chapter 1. I really hope you enjoy this chapter. It'll be a few days before I can post the final chapter, as I want to give this series the end it deserves. It's been a blast writing this, and I've actually learned and grown quite a bit as a writer. I'm glad I accepted the dare when a friend of mine on Twitter dared me to write a "Space Dandy story and put Carrie in it." So again, thank you so much for reading and we'll see you again in the final chapter!

The universe is filled with billions of extraterrestrial beings, many of them new and undiscovered! But one man named Dandy plans on finding and registering them all! He travels the universe with his crew and amazing pompadour in search of adventure, excitement, and boobies! These are the adventures of the dandiest guy in space, Space Dandy!

The screen flickered until Meow's face appeared in an extreme close-up, the front of the sofa inside the Aloha Oe's lounge area in the background. Our hero, Dandy, and his trusty robot sidekick, QT, sat behind him, picking up invisible objects with tweezers. They examined them with magnifying glasses and dropped them into plastic zip bags.

"Hello, am I live?" Meow asked, obstructing the viewer's view of Dandy and QT with his face, and his left arm.

"Should be," QT answered behind him, not taking his optic sensors off of his seemingly delicate work. "Wi-Fi signal has a full eight bars."

"Yeah, but how do I know if I'm live?"

"You should see a red box at the bottom of the screen that says 'live'."

Meow put his face closer to the camera, giving the viewers an extreme close-up view of his left eyeball.

"Ah, I see it now."

Meow held his phone further away, making sure his face is center-screen.

"Sorry about that folks, welcome to my first livestream! I know normally I livestream up-skirt and cleavage shots of the ladies at Boobies, but lately I've been getting a lot of questions from you guys asking when we're going on another alien hunt."

Meow aimed his camera over the back of the sofa at Dandy, who scowled at him in annoyance.

"Dandy? Any answers for our…" Meow leaned in to check his phone screen. "448 watchers?"

"Buzz off, flea-bag," Dandy replied crossly. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

Dandy shoved Meow's arm towards the center of the sofa. Carrie, who has been hiding under the sofa, stuck her head up out of the cushions. She puffed out her cheeks and blew a raspberry in the direction of Meow's phone, spitting saliva all over the camera lens. The stream view count jumped to 879 watchers.

"Eww, Carrie!" Meow wiped the phone on the back of the sofa, only smearing the thick mucous-y saliva all over the front lens. Meow aimed the camera at QT, who was busy examining a long strand of hair.

"Here's a good one, Dandy," QT said, dropping it in a bag full of hair.

"So, QT, any leads on any unregistered aliens?" Meow asked the cleaning robot, his stream view count creeping past the one thousand mark.

"I'm afraid not," the yellow robot replied. "I haven't heard anything in months. Besides, aren't you the guy who's supposed to have all the intel on all the unregistered aliens?"

"Yeah, usually something pops up on a blog comment or on one of my social media accounts, but it's been pretty dry for a long time."

Meow turned his phone back towards his face.

"But don't you worry folks! Because Team Meow has been keeping this crew rolling with his oodles of woolongs!"

Meow jumped backwards and he landed in a huge pile of cash. His rising view count hit 1,231 and stalled.

"Alien hunting may be a bust, but we're practically drowning in dough, all thanks to our number one moneymaking machine, yours truly!"

"Dude," Dandy said. Meow aims his phone at Dandy. "All we're doing is digging Carrie's hair out of the bathtub drain and sending it off to various alien research laboratories across the universe."

"Yeah, turns out Sepian DNA is worth quite a lot to researchers," QT adds, using a pair of tweezers to drop another strand of hair in the zip bag.

"Yeah, but it's dull as hell," Dandy groans, leaning over the couch. "I've been staring at and measuring strands of hair for what feels like an eternity. Plus we gotta keep this on the D.L."

"Well, with the sudden drop in information regarding locations of unregistered aliens, we've got to pay the bills somehow."

QT pinched the zip bag closed and admired his work.

"There's another fifteen hundred woolongs worth going to the Surian Supernova Alien Research Institute from our gracious donor Ca-"

Dandy shushed his robot companion quickly.

"Don't say where you got that from." Dandy pointed to Carrie, who had picked up a spare magnifying glass off the table. "You-know-who will get mad again."

"Oh, I forgot…"

Carrie crawled out from under the couch and plopped down between QT and Dandy, her long, heavy tail shoving QT into the couch arm and her weight nearly launching Dandy out of his seat. Meow zoomed in on Carrie's bouncing bosom and his stream view count starts drastically climbing, quickly passing the 2500 mark.

Carrie leaned over on Dandy's shoulder, pushing him into the side of the couch.

"Can I help?" Carrie asked.

"No!" Dandy answered sharply. He shoved her over on QT. "Go bother someone else."

"M'kay."

Carrie stood up and meandered off, nearly overturning the table with her tail. The view count jumped to 7,145 with the numbers still shooting up at a steady pace.

"Good riddance," Dandy grumbled. He tweezed another strand of hair out of a huge clump resting on the table.

Meow aimed his phone back at himself.

"So, as QT was saying, and as I found out several months back, Sepian DNA is quite valuable. Hair is worth a hundred woolongs per inch, feathers are worth three fifty a piece." Meow's face quickly scrunched up into an angry scowl. "Hey! No meme spam or you'll be banned from chat."

Behind him, Carrie burrowed into a pile of woolongs and tunneled slowly closer to the Betelgeusian. Meow continued to talk to his viewers.

"Saliva samples are worth seventy five woolongs per pint, but it costs too much to store it and send it out."

Carrie poked her head up behind Meow, then ducked out of the camera's line of sight. Meow leaned back into the woolong pile, grabbed a fistful of it, and used it to fan himself.

"Sepian venom is worth up to eight hundred woolongs per pint, with some… private, customers willing to pay double that."

Meow aimed the phone at his neck, showing a handmade necklace made with a string and seven rows of large, serrated teeth. Meanwhile, Meow's stream hit near-viral status, passing the ten thousand view mark.

"Genuine Sepian teeth, however, are a hot commodity among both researchers and collectors, and fetch twenty five grand per tooth on the black market. Just like these pearly-whites."

Meow used his thumb to lift the necklace off of his neck and wave it in front of the camera.

"As much money as we've made these past few months, I can't help but find it unsettling that we're making it by selling hair and teeth from… our anonymous Sepian friend," QT added off-screen.

Meow fanned his handful of woolongs out like playing cards.

"As long as we keep making this mad cash by doing literally nothing, I don't give a-"

Before he could finish and just as the stream count exploded to a hundred thousand views, Carrie swiped Meow's phone out of his paw.

"I wanna see your talk box," Carrie said, holding the phone under her large breasts. Meanwhile, Meow's view count soared well above six hundred thousand viewers.

"Hey, give that back!" Meow shouted. "You're not breaking another phone!"

Carrie laughed and squeezed under the couch.

"Just let her have it," Dandy told the Betelgeusian. "We can buy you a new one."

"Hell no! I'm in the middle of a livestream!" Meow grabbed Carrie's tail and tried to pull her out. "I was going viral!"

Meow pulled with all his might, but Carrie was too strong. She dragged Meow under the couch with her. The two wrestled over the cellphone under the couch, causing it to tip over backwards. Dandy and QT tumbled backwards, the cushions burying them. Carrie escaped, still gripping Meow's phone. Meow pulled Dandy's boot off his foot and threw it at Carrie, but she ducked.

Dandy stood to his feet, angry and ready to go off on his insubordinate crew members, but his boot ricocheted off a chair and into the coconut tree growing over the couch. The blow knocked a coconut out of its branches. The tropical drupe fell onto Dandy's head and knocked him unconscious. The alien hunter hit the floor face first, a large pump knot sticking out of his pompadour.

In the chaos, Carrie took refuge under the table, but Meow made another grab for her thick tail. Carrie flailed her tail around, trying to shake the Betelgeusian off, but only managed to topple the table, and its contents, to the ground.

No longer in a teasing mood, Carrie's playful mood turned to one of frustration as Meow clung to her prized tail. She shook it harder, but the stubborn Betelgeusian gripped it with all his might.

"Give me back my phone, lizard butt!"

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Or, more like, the Sepian's temper… Ugh, that doesn't make any sense, you know what I'm trying to say. Needless to say, Carrie wasn't happy with Meow's choice of words.

She slammed the smaller alien into the wall, hard. Dazed, Meow foolishly hung on, only to cause Carrie to perform the same action once more, only much harder. She managed to embed the poor Betelgeusian into the wall, but the impact also caused Dandy's beloved palm tree to topple over and right onto the angry Sepian, putting a quick end to her rampage.

The noise of both Carrie's tail slamming into the wall and the palm tree crashing down on top of causes Dandy to come to. He dazedly sat up, holding his head, but quickly regained his senses as he immediately noticed the damage in front of him.

"My ship!" Dandy yelled. "My palm tree!"

Meow fell out of the new dent in the wall and yanked a semi-conscious Carrie out from under the palm tree. He pried his now broken and bent in half smart phone from her hand.

"My livestream," the alien cat-weasel thing lamented. "My viewers!"

Carrie shook off her daze, but was horrified by the mess in front of her.

"Oh no! The poor tree!" The Sepian cried.

"Forget the stupid tree!" Meow shouted at her. "Get me some tape!"

QT examined the fallen palm tree.

"No major damage to the trunk. Some of the palm leaves have snapped off, but with a little T.L.C. it should live."

Dandy groaned and kicked the overturned table.

"This isn't working out," he said. "We're going stir-crazy. We gotta get out and find some aliens!"

Carrie sadly cradled the palm tree. One of the broken palm leaves snapped off, causing Carrie to weep over the damaged tree.

"We could go by and see Scarlet at the registration center," QT suggested. "Maybe she has a lead for us."

"And on the way, we can pick me up a new phone, one that's Sepian-proof," Meow added, giving Carrie the stink-eye.

"Alright then," Dandy said. "QT, you can clean this mess up."

"Right!"

"Meow, make sure Carrie doesn't damage my palm tree."

Dandy pointed at Carrie, who was now squeezing the palm tree and sobbing hysterically.

"I killed Mr. Tree…" Carrie sniffles.

Meow groaned and rolled his eyes.

"The tree's fine, just put it back in the dirt," Meow grumbles.

After a quick stop at the local smart phone shop, and a brief pit-stop at the small plant shop conveniently located on a small asteroid close-by, our crew once again docked their ship at the Alien Registry Center. Not only do they not have any new rare aliens to register, but they now have another problem...

"Dammit, Carrie!" Dandy screamed. "Put my palm tree down right now!"

Carrie squeezed the tree, still crying.

"No! He needs me!"

"So help me, if you kill my palm tree, I'll drop you off at nearest asteroid and leave you!"

Unable to persuade their friend to release the tree, the four of them made their way to the front counter, where Scarlet was seated as usual. However, aside from the workers, the registry center was completely empty.

"Please don't tell me you're registering that as a rare alien," Scarlet said, immediately noticing the large palm tree Carrie is still clinging to. "I told you, we don't register plants."

"No, we're not here to register the tree," Dandy retorted. "Carrie's just being stupid."

Carrie puffed air out her nose and turns away.

"However, we are here to ask you if you had any leads on where we can bag a rare alien."

Dandy propped himself on Scarlet's counter with his elbow, giving his best "dandy" smile.

"C'mon, I know you've got something!"

"Haven't you heard?" Scarlet asked flatly. "There's been a temporary ban on alien hunting."

Dandy's eyes widened in shock.

"What?" He, Meow, and QT all said in unison.

"Yeah. A couple months ago, poaching became a new fad and the demand for alien hunters bottomed out. Black market prices for products made from rare aliens skyrocketed and a lot of hunters started killing and selling rare aliens instead. It got so bad, they had to put a ban on all alien hunting."

"Why didn't I hear about it?" Dandy asked, still in shock.

"We hadn't heard from you in so long, we figured you gave up alien hunting."

"No, our usual leads have been dry," QT explained.

"Well, I do have one lead, but it's pretty dangerous. I don't think this crew would even be remotely qualified to handle it."

Dandy grimaced.

"Are you trying to say something, Scarlet? That I'm a bad alien hunter?"

Dandy leaned closer to Scarlet.

"Well, maybe if you didn't follow every rumor you hear from every drunken spacer you meet, I'd think otherwise."

"I'll tell you what, if you give me special permission, I'll take this case and prove to you that I'm the best alien hunter in the whole damn universe!"

"You'd have to be to get this guy. Are you familiar with the term, 'star eater'?"

Dandy squinted his eyes at Scarlet.

"Are you making fun of me? Aren't those just tales smugglers tell to keep space cherries out of their trade routes?"

"Apparently not," Scarlet replied. "The guy that started this whole poaching thing is one, it turns out. He's a black market kingpin who owns the entire poaching market. If you take him down, the market shuts down."

"What's a star eater, anyways?" QT asked.

"They're enormous snake-like creatures," Scarlet explained. "From what we at the registry know, they're one of the few creatures capable of surviving in space. Supposedly they feed off the energy generated by stars, and are responsible for stars that spontaneously die out."

Intrigued, Dandy raised his eyebrow.

"So where can we find this big bad star-eater?"

"He's not too hard to find. He makes his home in a scrap field in the Araiyan System."

Scarlet stood to her feet and adjusted her glasses.

"I'll tell you what, I'll give you the coordinates and grant you special permission to go after this guy, but on one condition."

"Sure, just name it," Dandy replied.

"You have to take me with you. I wanna give this guy a good ass-kicking before you register him and turn him into the authorities. He's about to cost me my job!"

"It's a deal."

Dandy extended his hand and Scarlet grabbed it.

"Welcome to Team Dandy, baby!"

In no time at all, our heroes found themselves in the Ariayan scrap field. It's like an asteroid belt, but more densely packed thanks to electromagnetic fields put in place to keep the junk from floating off. And when I say junk, I mean literal junk. Two whole parsecs of nothing but space junk. Odds are, every lost satellite, abandoned spaceship, and defeated mecha will eventually wind up here.

The Aloha Oe waded through this sea of junk, searching for its target. Dandy manned the ship's main controls with Meow tapping on his new phone and QT poured over the ship's sensors with Scarlet behind him.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Dandy asked.

"We're looking for the universe's biggest space colony, however, it only has one inhabitant. Jaal Kai, the last known star-eater."

"Our sensors are showing a massive object dead ahead," QT said.

Sure enough, the floating sea of junk parts to reveal a massive super-colony made of space junk. The Aloha Oe flies along its equator, searching for a way inside.

Meow snapped a picture on his phone and Carrie poked her head through the cockpit's doorway.

"Whoa," Meow said in awe.

"I wonder what's holding this stuff together," QT added.

"He'll be at the center," Scarlet says. "He's big enough that we shouldn't have much of a problem finding him."

"If he's as big as you say he is, we're in for a hell of a fight."

Dandy piloted the little canoe-shaped spaceship into a crevice and landed it on a large sheet of scrap metal.

"This thing seems to have a suitable atmosphere, but I advise wearing radiation-proof suits," QT says, pouring over the ship's console.

The five of them disembarked from the Aloha Oe, everyone wearing radiation-proof suits.

"We're gonna have to split up if we wanna find this guy," Dandy says.

"I'm going off on my own," Meow saod. "My last stream has gone completely viral."

Meow showed a short video someone posted of Carrie and himself fighting over his phone.

"I don't want you guys ruining my stream. I'll give you a ring if I find him first."

And with that, Meow wandered off on his phone, talking to his viewers.

"Guess that leaves us," QT observed.

"Right. QT and I will go down that tunnel over there."

Dandy pointed to a tunnel left of where Meow went.

"The girls can take the tunnel to the right. If you find him, message us and we'll regroup. Don't try to fight him until we're all together. Carrie?"

Carrie's attention immediately turned to Dandy.

"You take care of Scarlet. Don't let anything bad happen to her."

Carrie saluted.

"You can count on me," she replied enthusiastically.

"That sounds surprisingly well-thought out," Scarlet added.

"Oh, Scarlet, since I'm sending you out with Carrie, there's a few things you should know."

Scarlet looked at Dandy, confused.

"What do you mean?"

Dandy pulled out a ratty stuffed animal from his coat pocket; it's a duck with a missing button eye and a large hole in its side.

"Squeak-ee," Carrie cooed, her attention focused on the stuffed animal.

"This is Mr. Squeakers, Carrie's favorite toy," Dandy explained.

Scarlet nodded, but was understandably puzzled by Dandy's words. Carrie slowly reached for the toy, but Dandy jerked it out of her grasp.

"Now, listen because what I'm about to tell you is very, very important."

Dandy turned to the reader.

"I'm sorry, folks, but this might take a few paragraphs. Skip down if you want."

Dandy held the stuffed duck up to Scarlet's eye-level.

"Carrie is very prone to wandering off. She's a fantastic bodyguard and tracker, but she has trouble staying focused on doing her job, so we keep Mr. Squeakers to put her back on track."

"Okay," Scarlet nodded.

"If Carrie goes too far ahead or wanders off, grab the squeaker in Mr. Squeaker's head and squeak him twice."

Dandy held up two fingers to illustrate his instruction.

"Only, squeak him twice, and only when Carrie is far enough ahead of you. Two quick, long squeaks. Carrie should return to you no matter how far ahead she is."

Dandy locked eyes with Scarlet, his voice deathly serious.

"Don't, ever, squeak Mr. Squeakers more than twice and never, ever, when Carrie is close-by. And always wait thirty seconds to squeak him another two times if Carrie fails to return."

"Why?" Scarlet asked. "What's with all these rules?"

"Squeaking him more than twice, uh, over-excites Carrie," the alien hunter continued. "To put it bluntly, in her excitement, she might maul you to death to get Mr. Squeakers. And if you squeak him when she's close to you, you won't have time to throw him to her."

"Sweet little Carrie?" Scarlet asked, astounded by what she just heard.

Dandy nodded.

"That Meow you just saw, that's Meow number nine. We had to clone him eight other times because he kept squeaking Mr. Squeakers more than twice."

Dandy awkwardly held up eight fingers, the stuffed yellow duck still in his hand. Scarlet's eyes widened as Dandy leaned in and put his hand on his chest.

"I'm actually Space Dandy the fourth. Space Dandy the third accidentally squeaked the toy halfway after squeaking it twice, and Carrie tore his shoulder clean off."

Carrie laughed.

"Don't laugh, you little monster! We've had to clone you eighteen times because you think you can make your eyes glow by staring at the ship's reactor."

"It'll work one day," Carrie retorted.

"Anyways," Dandy continued, getting back on topic, "if you accidentally squeak him more than three times in that thirty second timeframe, drop him and back away slowly. Understand?"

Scarlet nodded as Dandy handed her the stuffed toy.

"Good. Remember, only twice, and when she shows up, give her the toy. Don't tease her with it. That's what got Meow killed the last three times."

Dandy turned back to the reader.

"Okay, now I'm through. Let's go bag us a star-eater!"

The four of them split off into their designated directions. Dandy and QT walked through a massive corridor, the walls and floor looking like a patchwork of several different types of ship interiors. The only thing illuminating the hallway was Dandy's flashlight and QT's screen.

"So what do you think this star-eater looks like, Dandy?" QT asked.

"Beats me," Dandy answered. "I guess we'll know it when we see it."

The two of them continued onward without saying a word, as the echoes of Dandy's footprints reverberated through the seemingly endless corridor.

"What if Scarlet and Carrie find it first? Or Meow?"

"They won't," Dandy said flatly. "Scarlet will probably wander the tunnels, trying to keep up with Carrie. And Meow will likely fall asleep before he gets too far away from where he started."

"That's a good point," QT replied. "Wait, how do you know which way to go?"

"Because I'm Dandy, baby. I always know which way to go."

QT rolled his eyes.

"Also, I've got this voice in my head telling me to go this way."

"A voice?"

Dandy nodded. "Yup. Not too much farther now."

The two of them kept going through the darkness.

Meanwhile, not too far away, Scarlet wandered around in a corridor, also holding a flashlight. Carrie was nowhere to be seen; she had possibly heard a noise or noticed something shiny and ran off to see what it was.

"Carrie!" Scarlet called out. "C'mon, Carrie, quit playing games."

As Scarlet peered inside a large hole in the wall, she heard the sound of the air ducts above her head rattle. Startled, she shone her flashlight up at the rusted ductwork. It rattled again, knocking bits of dust and debris down on her head.

"Carrie!" Scarlet exclaimed again. "Come here!"

"Can't catch me!" Scarlet heard Carrie yell from somewhere far off. The metallic banging in the vent suddenly grew more and more distant until she couldn't hear it anymore.

"Carrie," Scarlet groaned. "Wait…" She pulled the ratty old stuffed duck out of her bag. "I wonder if this works, or Dandy was just pulling my leg."

Scarlet grabbed the toy's head and gave it two firm, loud squeaks. These squeaks echoed throughout the whole structure. Scarlet waited a few seconds before she heard a distant metallic bang, like the sound of a heavy piece of metal hitting the floor, followed by a thud. She then heard a shriek and the sound of heavy footsteps closing in on her location.

"Carrie, is that you?"

Scarlet turned around to see something running at her at high-speeds; it was Carrie. She ran at Scarlet as fast as her short thick legs could carry her. Scarlet threw the duck on the ground in front of her and Carrie pounced on it. She picked it up in her mouth and shook it around, biting down on the sqeaker.

Scarlet let out a sigh of relief; looks like what Dandy told her earlier had some weight to it.

"Don't run off like that," she scolded the Sepian. "Now let's get back on track."

Scarlet turned to lead them back on the right pathway, but Carrie grabbed the back of Scarlet's shirt. Scarlet turned back around.

"What is it now?"

"This way," Carrie said, pointing the opposite direction. "We gotta go this way?"

"That way?" Carrie nodded.

"Follow me," Carrie took off, holding her squeaky toy tightly in her fist.

"Wait, Carrie!"

Scarlet groaned again and took off after her.

Not too far from Scarlet and Carrie was Meow; he had been walking around aimlessly, still holding his phone. His livestream had been cut out due to lack of service and he was desperately trying to get a signal, but had no such luck.

"C'mon, c'mon, gotta find a signal."

Meow walked further into the darkness when suddenly, the signal bars on his phone went up.

"Yes!" The Betelgeusian shouted.

Meow took a couple of steps to his right, but the signal dropped back down. He frowned, annoyed. He tried walking forwards again, this time his bars going up to two.

"Aha!"

Meow pressed onwards, not paying any attention to where he was going until he came to a crossways. He started to the left, but the bars on his phone immediately dropped to zero.

"Oh come on!"

Meow turned around and tried the right path; his bars immediately jumped up to three bars.

"Yes! Two more and I can stream in HD!"

Meow walked into the pitch black corridor, his phone screen failing to illuminate anything but his face as the blackness swallowed him up.

Meanwhile, Dandy and QT had made their way deeper into the bizarre structure. They had come across a gigantic round tunnel. There were no platforms or stairs leading down to it, only a precariously hung metal scaffolding that only went in one direction.

"I guess we're going this way," Dandy said as he stepped onto the scaffolding, causing it to groan.

"Can't we just turn around and try to find another way around?"

"Don't be such a puss," Dandy chided the robot. "This is the only way forward."

"Let me guess, the voice in your head?" Dandy nodded. "Give me a break!"

QT reluctantly rolled onto the scaffolding behind Dandy and off they went, the scaffolding groaning louder as they pressed forward.

"You better not be messing with me, Dandy!"

Back with Scarlet and Carrie, well, now it looked like it was just Carrie, as it seems like she had left the red-head behind. Carrie stopped and looked behind her into the inky blackness.

"Carrie wait up!" She heard Scarlet yelling in the distance.

Carrie smiled as Scarlet's flashlight finally broke through the darkness and she could see Scarlet cautiously moving towards her. Carrie waited until Scarlet finally caught up to her.

"Don't tell me you're already lost," Scarlet said as Carrie turned around to face her.

Carrie's stomach growled. "It's hungry time," Carrie said. She looked up at Scarlet hungrily.

"Don't look at me, I didn't bring anything."

Carrie smelled the air and turned back around.

"This way, follow me!" Carrie took off again.

"Wait!" Scarlet screamed after her. "Next time I'm going with QT."

Carrie led Scarlet deeper into the corridor, the further they went the wider it got. Even with Scarlet's flashlight, the only thing she could make of Carrie was the glare of the flashlight reflecting off the scales on her tail.

Scarlet was starting to lose Carrie when he noticed she had stopped beside a faint, bright light. Carrie seemed to have grabbed the light source and she ran off to the left and disappeared.

"Scarlet, is that you?" Scarlet heard a voice call to her.

Scarlet ran towards the voice and found Meow standing there.

"Carrie took my phone and I can't see where she went," Meow grumbled. "I know she went this way, but it's too dark in there."

Meow pointed towards a dark entryway. Scarlet shone her light, but could see nothing.

"She's probably long gone now," Scarlet said. "She claimed she knew where she was going, but now I think she's just playing games with us."

"Yeah, that sounds like Carrie," Meow muttered. "Maybe we can call her back with that stuffed rat she likes so much. Do you still have it."

"No, I already used it once and she never gave it back."

"I told Dandy he needed to stock those things, but no, no one ever listens to Meow!"

"Let's just go after her. Maybe this leads to a dead end and we can corner her."

Scarlet and Meow wandered into the dark entryway.

Deeper into the massive ship-like structure, Dandy and QT were cautiously making their way along the metal scaffolding. Dandy took one careful step forward after another, QT rolling along slowly behind him.

"Do you see an end anywhere?" QT asked.

"There's a door just up ahead," Dandy answered. "We'll check it out, then move onwards if it doesn't lead anywhere."

Dandy and QT slowly made their way to a metal door in the wall. The door was rusted and had a very primitive keypad beside it, which was obviously used to punch in a code of some sort to unlock it. Dandy pulled on it and pressed the keys, but it didn't seem to be working.

"So what now, Dandy?"

"Guess we keep moving."

Dandy and QT turned to continue along the treacherous scaffolding when suddenly, the door slid open. Carrie charged out of it, slamming into Dandy. Her weight caused the scaffolding's support beams to buckle and it broke off the side of the tunnel wall.

Carrie grabbed the railing with one hand as the scaffolding dangled them over the deep tunnel. Dandy clung to her tail and QT clung to the alien hunter's leg. They looked down to see a dark, seemingly bottomless hole; they definitely didn't want to fall.

Meow and Scarlet ran to the doorway, panting.

"Watch out, it's a dead end," Meow warned Scarlet.

"Meow!" Dandy yelled. The Betelgeusian and registrar lady looked down to see their three friends dangling precariously over the deep hole.

"Dandy!" Scarlet called back, worried.

"Tell Carrie she better not have dropped my phone or I'm gonna kick her ass!" Meow yelled down at them.

Sure enough, Carrie hadn't dropped the phone; in fact, it was being held in her free hand. The Sepian moved the phone to her mouth, then used her free hand to grab onto the railing for a better grip.

"You think you can pull us up?" Dandy asked her.

Carrie looked down at him, smiled, and gave him a thumbs-up, but as she shifted her weight, the scaffolding sank. Without warning, the floor under the doorframe where Scarlet and Meow stood gave way, and the two of them fell down towards where Dandy and company were hanging.

Debris struck the scaffolding, causing it to finally give way completely, sending Dandy and his crew tumbling into the deep abyss, screaming.

Dandy abruptly woke up lying on a cold metal floor. He sat up and checked himself out; he seemed unharmed. He looked around to see his friends all waking up around him.

The five of them stood to their feet and examined their surroundings. They found themselves in a massive corridor illuminated by a series of lights placed in the floor. Above them was the hole they fell into, and in front of them was an impossibly huge corridor that was too dark to see into beyond its entrance.

Meow immediately noticed his phone on the floor.

"My phone!" Meow ran over beside Carrie and grabbed his phone; the screen was cracked, but it still worked properly. "You cracked my screen!" Meow jabbed Carrie in the arm. "Hey! You hear me? You're not getting away with this!"

Carrie ignored Meow and stared at the corridor, then suddenly started to growl as her hair stood up on end.

"Whats wrong, Carrie?" Dandy asked her.

A dim orange light appeared from the floor of the corridor. Carrie backed away as the light grew brighter and brighter. A massive snake-like eyeball rose up out of the ground, embedded in a huge, scaly socket. The source of the glow was a strange pit that glowed with energy of some kind. The glow engulfed the room in a deep red-orange light, and it got unbearably hot.

"Welcome, Space Dandy," a booming voice echoed.

"The voice in my head," Dandy whispered. "You must be this star-eater."

"That's correct, Space Dandy. So, you've come here to put an end to my business and have me captured and registered?"

"That's right, baby!" Dandy unholstered his pistol and pointed it at the giant eye. "Now, are you gonna come quietly, or do I have to get rough?"

Dandy's threat was answered by a deep, low chuckle that grew louder and louder. The eye disappeared, replaced by a giant wall of grey thorn-like scales. The five of them backed into the center of the room as it shook violently, then they looked up.

A giant, reptilian mouth stuck out of the massive hole in the ceiling. The glowing pits illuminated the creature more; it looked like a giant, six-eyed eel covered in thorny scales with two sets of jaws, the lower set containing a massive pair of tusk-like canines that jutted out from the sides of its mouth. They could also make out a set of gills that shot out hot flame as the creature breathed.

"Why does the author make all the bad-guys so huge?" Meow asked as he started recording with his phone.

"I am Jaal-dan, the last of the star-eaters," Jaal-dan introduced himself. "And you, Space Dandy, are dead!"

The massive head of Jaal-dan shot down at them like a snake, his lower mouth open. Dandy and his crew scattered, leaving the massive beast to bite down on the floor.

Carrie charged at the beast, but was thrown back by some unseen force. Dandy fired at Jaal-dan's eyes, but his laser bolts were stopped mid-air, then deflected back at Dandy and his friends. Dandy, QT, and Scarlet dodged the attacks, but Meow was hit.

Blackened and scorched by the shot, Meow screamed in pain.

"What the hell is this guy?" Meow screamed.

Carrie pulled herself up on her feet.

"Carrie, get your ass over here and help us!" Dandy screamed.

Jaal-dan's massive head pulled itself off the ground and struck at Dandy, but the alien hunter rolled to the side in the nick of time.

Carrie pulled herself off the ground. She roared angrily at Jaal-dan and charged at him, but before he could react, Carrie's stomach grumbled loudly and she collapsed to the ground.

"I told you we should've brought snacks!" QT shouted.

"We need the Hawaii Yankee Special™!" Dandy yelled.

"Go ahead and call your ship," Jaal-dan's voice boomed.

Dandy did just that as he pulled a key fob-shaped device from his pocket and pressed a button on it. In no time, the Hawaii Yankee Special™ crashed through the floor, fully transformed. It knelt down and its stomach opened up.

Scarlet gave Jaal-dan a judo-kick to one of his eyes, causing it to swell up and close.

"Get to the robot," Scarlet yelled at Dandy.

Dandy ran towards the giant mecha, but a massive clawed hand nearly crushed him.

"You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" Jaal-dan hissed.

Jaal-dan backed Dandy into a corner, Meow still recording with his phone. Scarlet groaned and took off towards the Hawaii Yankee Special™ as fast as she could.

Jaal-dan noticed her immediately and sent another of his massive clawed feet crashing down on her, but she jumped over it. Jaal-dan's body snaked its way further out of the hole, revealing many rows of clawed feet. Several of them reached for Scarlet, but she dodged them all and finally made it to the transformed Aloha Oe.

"I'll just make this quick," Jaal-dan growled at Dandy. "I control the market on rare and unregistered aliens now, and soon, I will control all the universe!"

A massive blast struck the side of Jaal-dan's head. He turned to see the Hawaii Yankee Special™ with its pistol aimed at Jaal-dan's head. It fired again, but the mech was tossed backwards.

"Your friends are no match for my telekinetic powers. I've been using them to lead your friends all throughout my ship. They're all drained and exhausted."

Dandy looked around at his friends. QT's low-battery warning flashed on his screen. Carrie tried to pull herself up, but she was too hungry and drained of energy to even stand. Meow was still recording, his livestream views climbing past the sixty-thousand mark. And Scarlet, still in the Hawaii Yankee Special™, was trying to get the robot operational.

"Meat typically doesn't agree with me, but you'll likely be burned to ashes before you reach my stomach, so it doesn't matter."

Jaal-dan crept closer and closer to Dandy. Hot flames shot out of his gills as he inched closer to the cornered alien hunter. Dandy desperately opened fire on the star-eater, but his shots were just deflected by Jaal-dan's telepathic abilities.

As Jaal-Dan opened his upper jaw to eat the dandiest guy in space, when he suddenly received a massive blow to the head; the smaller Hawaii Yankee delivered a Scarlet-style judo kick to the star-eater.

Jaal-Dan was temporarily stunned by the attack and was unable to counter as Scarlet shot out his five other eyes. Enraged, he struck at the small mecha, but missed.

"This is for threatening my job!" Scarlet yelled, gripping the mech's controls.

The Hawaii Yankee's foot hit Jaal-Dan in the forehead, embedding his head into the ground.

"Wow, I didn't know Scarlet could pilot a mecha," QT said.

Jaal-Dan threw the Hawaii Yankee with his mind again, but the force of his throw was much weaker than before, and the robot was able to land on its feet. The Hawaiian themed robot charged at the massive snake-like monster.

Jaal-Dan struck at the robot with his massive lower jaw, but missed. He then found himself on the receiving end of another kick to his forehead, this time the blow penetrating his skull. The Hawaii Yankee did a backflip off of Jaal-Dan's head and landed in front of him as the star eater collapsed to the floor, bleeding.

"And that was for trying to kill us," Scarlet told him.

Carrie, Dandy, QT, and Meow gathered around Jaal-Dan's head. Carrie poked it, causing Jaal-Dan to groan.

"You literally beat his brains out and he's still not dead?" Dandy shouted.

"That was my second brain," Jaal-Dan explained weakly. "I don'… understand how you beat me…"

"You toyed with your opponents too long," Scarlet answered. "You had every opportunity to finish us off."

Jaal-Dan groaned and collapsed to the ground. Galactic Police sirens echoed throughout the tunnels, red and blue lights flashing. Soon, the entire structure was flooded with Galactic policemen. They chained up the massive Jaal-Dan and dragged him out of his home; his length was easily three times the size of even the biggest cruiser in the fleet.

Gen, the Galactic Police Officer from Chapter Eight, met with Dandy, his crew, and Scarlet, holding a check in his hand.

"Good work, Mr. Dandy. Here's the bounty on Jaal-Dan."

Gen handed Dandy the check. Dandy smiled, but his face quickly gave way to a frown.

"Actually, I think this belongs to someone else," Dandy told the policeman. He turned and handed Scarlet the check. "This belongs to you."

Scarlet was reluctantly grabbed the check, Dandy still gripping the other end.

"Fifteen billion woolongs! You're rich!" Gen announced.

Dandy's eyes widened when he heard the amount. He gripped the check tightly as Scarlet pulled on it. Noticing he wasn't going to let go, Scarlet gave Dandy a hard kick to the head, causing him to release the check and fall to the ground.

"Thank you," Scarlet thanked the dazed alien hunter.

Dandy pulled himself up off the ground, laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"How would you like to join our crew?" Dandy asked, surprising Scarlet. "You handled that Jaal-Dan guy pretty well. And you've got to have some killer intel on all sorts of rare aliens."

"Thanks, but I think I've had enough excitement for one day."

Dandy sighed. "You want us to drop you off at home?"

As Dandy asked, the Hawaii Yankee suddenly collapsed into a pile of broken parts, and the still-transformed Aloha Oe made a horrible metallic grinding noise.

"I think I'll hitch a ride with the police," Scarlet answered.

Dandy, QT, Meow, and Carrie watched as Scarlet boarded a vessel and the Galactic Police Force took off into deep space, leaving the four of them stranded.

"So, how exactly do we get home?" Meow asked.

Dandy thought for a second. "Carrie can push us."

As Dandy said that, Carrie collapsed again, her stomach growling.