Guardian Angels

	"He's rabbiting! Don't let him get away!"

	Kei cursed as her partner's voice came across the commlink. They 
hadn't been on Jaina more than an hour and already things were going 
to hell.

	Jaina was an unimpressive ball of rock whose principal export 
would have been mud -- if anyone cared to export. It was far off the 
major travel lanes and totally unremarkable.

	Which meant it was a perfect haven for criminals when things got 
too hot.

	To make things worse, Jaina was run by a fanatical religious 
cult that turned a blind eye to most of their "tourists" while 
stridently maintaining their neutrality and isolationism to the 
United Galactica. This tied the hands of the WWWA in most cases... 
unless the WWWA agents were in hot pursuit of a criminal.

	"Zen," she said over her commlink, "where is he now?"

	Overhead in the Lovely Angel, the WWWA Trouble Consultant 
Trainee checked her scanners.

	"Zen sees him! He's going down the street to your left."

	Kei turned and ran down the street, blaster out and ready. The 
city was named Bartonian and was typical of Jaina. Small buildings 
(to Kei's mind, at least, since she came from over-crowded planets 
that used arcologies and anti-grav towers) loomed medievally over 
rough-paved streets. Leering gargoyles sat on every roof, and the 
neon and plasma lights advertising amusements for the "tourist trade" 
underlit their carven faces like the fires of hell. Shadows lurked 
everywhere, and the average citizen of Jaina kept to the streets and 
minded their own business.

	Unfortunately, the sight of a beautiful redhead carrying a very 
large and nasty looking blaster sent everyone on the street running 
in a panic.

	"Damn it! Zen, find the bastard!"

	""Relax Kei, I've got him in my sights," Yuri's voice came 
across the commlink. "He's--shit! Ducked into another building. The 
one with the red roof."

	Kei ran toward the building. She was about to kick the door in 
when her quarry suddenly exited the building in a most expeditious 
manner, i.e. with no part of his body touching the ground and with 
enough force to bowl Kei over.

	Kei shoved the man off her and stared at the doorway. Standing 
there was perhaps one of the biggest men she had ever seen, easily 
more than six and a half feet tall and weighing 300 or more pounds, 
all of it muscle. He looked like a poster-boy for the private armies 
of a steroid manufacturer in his gray and green combat jump suit and 
blond crew cut. The one inconsistency was his weapon, a sword that 
was bigger than him. He smiled when he saw Kei. 

	"Kei-chan! Funny meeting you here."

	"No...." Kei moaned in shock.

	"Hey, that guy's getting away," the man added as Kei stared at 
him in shock.

	"What? Damn it!" Kei leaped to her feet and leveled her blaster 
at the fleeing man.

	"Don't worry, my partner's on him."

	Even as Kei sighted down the barrel of her gun, there was a 
flash of light near her quarry. A brunette with wild hair and a 
skimpy black costume appeared to the right of the man and flung three 
thin spikes at the man. The first spike hit the ground in front of 
him, making him pause in his headlong run. The second and third 
slammed into his legs, hamstringing him. The man howled and fell to 
the ground.

	As the quarry fell, Kei saw Yuri running up. However her partner 
stopped short at seeing the brunette.

	"Yuri-love!" the brunette exclaimed. She disappeared in another 
flash of light and suddenly appeared right behind to Yuri, one hand 
around Yuri's waist and the other resting over Yuri's bosom. "It's 
been too long," the woman purred.

	"S-s-solude!" Yuri stammered.

	Kei was going to go free her partner when a beefy hand rested 
casually on her shoulder. She spun around, her fist flying at her 
attacker, only to have it caught in another large hand.

	"Now, Kei, is that any way to greet an old friend?" the blond 
man asked, leaning close.

	"Aster, let me go!"

	"Ano, is anyone listening to Zen?" a voice crackled unheeded 
over the commlink. "Is something wrong? Moshi moshi?"

*****

	The four of them were soon sitting around the Lovely Angel's 
cabin. Yuri was rather stiff, though perhaps Solude's insistence on 
sitting in the her lap had something to do with it.

	Aster, for his part, seemed content to sit quietly by Kei. 
Occasionally he would place his hand somewhere on her. Occasionally 
she would hit him, hard, in the solar plexus.

	Then Zen-chan entered the cabin, immediately attracting a lot of 
attention from the two newcomers.

	"Ooh, red hair!" Solude crooned.

	"Now, now, you have Yuri-chan, don't you?" Aster said, eliciting 
a blush from Yuri.

	"Don't you have Kei? You've got a red head already!"

	Zen-chan looked at them in surprise. "Er..."

	Solude suddenly vanished from Yuri's lap and reappeared in front 
of Zen. "Hello," she purred.

	Zen-chan felt her cheeks burning and stammered, "H-hello. Kei, 
Yuri, who are our guests?"

	Solude wrapped one arm around Zen's neck. "Oh, I'm a close, 
personal friend of Yuri's." She looked over at Yuri and winked 
saucily. "Isn't that right, lover?"

	"S-solude! Stop spreading rumors!"

	Aster stood up and walked over. With one hand he picked up his 
partner and dropped her back in Yuri's lap. Solude squawked at being 
manhandled, but on seeing were she was placed seemed content to just 
snuggle next to the red-faced Angel.

	"Um, Zen is very confused."

	"I'm Aster, lovely lady," the big man said, smiling. "That's 
Solude, my partner. We're Trouble Consultant Team #246, the Demi-
Hunters."

	"You're pains in the ass, that's what you are," Kei growled.

	Aster just grinned and looked surprised. "But, Kei, I thought 
you LIKED being spanked. At least, when--"

	Kei launched herself across the room at Aster who sidestepped 
far more quickly than his bulk seemed to allow. Kei slammed into Zen-
chan and the two went down in a tangle of arms and legs.

	Solude chuckled as she looked at the entangled pair. "Does that 
give you any ideas, lover?" she purred to Yuri.

	"Solude, get out of my lap!" Yuri said.

	"Oh, so you want to be on top this time?"

	"Zen will faint now, Zen thinks," Zen-chan said before losing 
consciousness.

*****

	Once the WWWA trainee was revived and everyone was firmly placed 
in their own seats, the talk turned to more serious matters.

	"What are you guys doing here?" Kei asked the Demi-Hunters, 
trying to ignore Solude as she blew kisses at Yuri. Yuri seemed to 
shrink in on herself each time that happened, especially when Zen-
chan looked at her questioningly. "Jaina is a neutral planet. We only 
got in because we're were chasing our target."

	"It's funny how these things work out," Aster said. "We were 
patrolling this area when, just an hour ago, Jaina called us in with 
a description of your target and practically begged us to come and 
get him."

	"An hour ago? That's odd," Zen-chan said. "That was when Zen 
told them we were chasing a fugitive. Why would they call in another 
team when they knew we were already here?"

	Kei and Yuri glared at Zen.

	"Oh," Zen-chan said in a very small voice.

	"Anyhow, who is this guy?" Solude asked. "He didn't seem very 
tough... at least not tough enough to call in the --"

	Kei and Yuri tensed.

	"-- LOVELY Angels," Solude finished with a wink. There was no 
missing the emphasis on the first word.

	"He's a courier for LUCIFER," Zen-chan said, naming one of the 
largest and most dangerous terrorist organization/crime syndicate in 
the Galaxy. She immediately wished she hadn't, for Aster and Solude 
once again turned their attention to her. It made the trainee feel 
like on of the targets at the WWWA shooting range. "H-he's supposed 
to know where one of their bosses is at the moment."

	"Nammo, call up our briefing," Yuri said to the Lovely Angel's 
general-purpose and maintenance droid, who obediently plugged into 
the ship's computer. In the center of the room, the picture of a 
beautiful young man with long lavender hair and an arrogant smirk.

	"This is our ultimate target," Yuri said. "He goes by the name 
Gorgeous, if you can believe that. He's a sector chief for LUCIFER. 
He's also as slippery as hell. No one ever seems to be able to tell 
where he is, just where he's been."

	"He's also a raging egomaniac," Kei chimed in. "Supposedly he's 
obsessed with his ideal of beauty. If you ask me, he's got the worst 
taste in the galaxy."

	"Well, now," Aster said, cracking his knuckles. "Since we helped 
nab your courier, I think it's only fitting that you let us assist 
you in this case."

	"There's no need!" Yuri said.

	"We can handle it!" Kei chimed in.

	"Well," purred Solude, once again firmly ensconced on Yuri's 
lap, "we COULD always ask the CC what it thinks of us working 
together."

	Kei and Yuri hung their heads, defeated.

	Zen-chan looked at them curiously. "What's wrong? Zen doesn't 
understand."

	"The CC," Kei moaned, "thinks we four make a GREAT team."

	"Any time the question of us working together comes up, it 
always decides to do it," Yuri added.

	"Well," rumbled Aster, "I can't fault its judgment, can I? We do 
work well together, Kei-chan. Professionally, I mean!" he quickly 
added as she glared at him.

	The Lovely Angels sighed, in unison.

	"Zen is confused, but Zen thinks we should question our 
captive," Zen-chan said.

	Solude and Aster seemed positively delighted at that suggestion. 
"Let us take care of that," the blond man said, cracking his knuckles 
again. Suddenly, Zen-chan was VERY conscious of how big and mean 
Aster looked.

	"Oh, yes," chuckled Solude, producing three of her needle-spikes 
between her fingers. They gleamed dangerously in the cabin lights. 
"We'll make him talk."

	"Hey, it's against the law to torture prisoners!" Zen-chan 
protested.

	"Don't worry, little lady," Aster said. "We won't lay a finger 
on him."

	"We won't have to," Solude said, with a smirk. "Unless he's into 
that sort of thing," she said, with a wink thrown at Yuri.

	The Lovely Angels sighed again.

	After the Demi-Hunters had left for the ship's brig, Zen-chan 
turned to her teachers. "What's wrong?" she asked.

	"Zen, you've just met the most sex-obsessed, lecherous, and out-
and-out kinkiest trouble consultant team in the whole WWWA," Yuri 
said.

	"And they like you. I'd run," Kei added seriously.

	"Are they that bad?" Zen-chan asked.

	"Worse," Kei said.

	"Much, much worse," her partner chimed in.

	"They why does the CC team you up with them?"

	At this the Lovely Angels became even gloomier. "Because they 
keep surviving."

	"Nani?" Zen-chan asked, slipping into Japanese.

	"Remember, we told you once that people around us have a nasty 
habit of dying?" Yuri said.

	"Not that it's our fault!" Kei said.

	"For some reason, Aster and Solude are the sole exception. We've 
been teamed up with them... oh, about a two dozen times. Each time, 
they lived through the mission."

	"Isn't that good?" Zen-chan asked. Then she thought of how Aster 
and Solude acted. "Oh."

	"Don't worry," Kei said. "We can handle them. And they're not a 
bad sort," she added grudgingly. "They won't make you do anything you 
really don't want to do."

	"They just make you want to do it," Yuri grumbled.

	Kei and Zen-chan stared at her. Yuri blushed and then glared 
back at Kei, who coughed embarrassedly and turned away.

	There was a loud scream from the direction of the brig.

	"They said they wouldn't touch him!" Zen-chan said, outraged.

	"They haven't," Yuri said, laying a pacifying hand on Zen-chan's 
shoulder. "They're just scaring him half to death. He'll talk."

	"They have a reputation almost as bad as ours," Kei added. "The 
press--stinking jackals--likes to call them D&D. It's short for 
'Death and Destruction.'"

	"Ano," Zen-chan said after a moment, "how does Solude teleport 
like that? Does she use her ship's transporters somehow? Zen thought 
point-to-point transport was too risky to do so often."

	Yuri shook her head. "It's a natural ability for her. Don't ask 
how she does it, no one knows."

	"Bugs the shit out of the WWWA scientists," Kei added, "like 
Yuri 'n' me's powers."

	"Whoa," Zen-chan said. "That's handy."

	"See how handy you think it is when you're trying to keep her 
out of your bed," Yuri grumbled.

	Zen-chan turned bright red.

*****

	A little later, Aster and Solude came out of the brig. Solude 
was grinning like the cat who ate the canary.

	"We got it," she crowed. "Gorgeous is vacationing on the planet 
Parania. It's only a few parsecs away. We can make it easy."

	"Good work!" Yuri said. "Let's lay in a course and get off this 
mud ball."

	"Ship will be ready to lift in a few minutes!" Kei said. "Zen, 
get us all clearance to depart."

	Solude laid a hand on Aster's bulky forearm. "We'll be right 
behind you," she said, a glint of mischief in her eyes. Then, both 
she and her partner disappeared in a flash.

	"She can take others with her?" Zen-chan asked, her eyes wide.

	"Yup," Yuri said. "It's a weird sensation. Not bad, just weird."

	"Engines are hot!" Kei called.

	Zen turned back to the communications. "Jaina Control, this is 
the Lovely Angel, WWWA-234, requesting immediate clearance to 
depart."

	"Granted! Granted! Just go! Please!" came a panicky voice.

	Kei and Yuri growled but Zen-chan was used to this sort of 
reaction.

	"Thank you, Jaina Control," she said sweetly. "Have a nice day."

	"Next stop," Yuri said, as the Lovely Angel took off, "Parania!"

	As the ship pointed its nose to the sky, Zen-chan saw another 
ship also leaving the spaceport. It was a blocky thing, with short 
stubby wings, unlike the predator-like grace of the Angel. It was 
bristling with gun ports, however. The part of Zen-chan that was 
trained to be an engineer whistled as she calculated how much power 
the ship needed to fight with all of that. The engines looked 
oversized as well. Definitely built for power, not grace.

	"That's the Demi-Hunter," Yuri confirmed. "Aster and Solude are 
not very subtle people."

	Soon the two ships were climbing side by side through the 
atmosphere.

	"Hey, Yuri-love," Solude crooned over the comm, "why don't we 
have a little race, to see which ship gets to Parania first. Usual 
stakes?"

	"No way!" Yuri said.

	"Oh, are you saying your wimpy little ship is going to lose?"

	Behind Zen, Mughi growled in protest at the classification of 
the Angel. Zen reached back and stroked the vaguely cat-like mountain 
of dark red fur soothingly.

	"Hey, our ship can beat yours ANYTIME!" Kei protested. "You're 
on!"

	"Alright, let's synchronize our hyperdrives," Solude said, 
sounding satisfied. "Transmitting data."

	"Kei!" hissed Yuri. "You KNOW what their 'usual stakes' are!"

	"We can take them easy," Kei said, looking at the data sent from 
the Demi-Hunter on her engineering console behind Yuri and Zen. "OK, 
Hyperdrive activation in five... four... three... two... one..."

	Zen turned to the view screen, eager to see the transition to 
hyperspace. It was always thrilling for her to see them go from 
normal space to... well, Someplace Else. There was a strange triple 
flash behind her just before the transition to hyper.

	"And... we're in the chute. next stop, Parania!" Yuri said.

	A pair of arms wrapped themselves around her shoulders. "And 
what should we do to pass the time, hmmm?" Solude purred, kissing the 
side of Yuri's neck.

	Yuri and Zen-chan practically jumped out of their seats. "S-
solude!" Yuri stammered.

	"Miss me, love?" the brunette asked with a smirk. "I thought you 
might get lonely without me."

	"Where's Kei?" Zen-chan demanded.

	"Oh, she's with Aster on the Demi-Hunter. I didn't want him to 
feel lonely... much as I'd love to spend some 'quality time' with 
both Lovely Angels." She pressed herself against Yuri. "So," she 
asked, nibbling on Yuri's ear, "have you seduced your partner yet? 
You make the cutest couple, you know."

	"Solude, we're not like that! Let go of me!"

	"Make me."

	"Um, Zen will be going now. Zen will let you catch up with each 
other." With that, Zen-chan bolted for the door.

	There was a flash of light and her face suddenly ran into 
something very soft and cushiony. She looked up to see Solude smiling 
down at her.

	"Oh, that IS nice," Solude purred as she rubbed her barely-clad 
breasts against Zen-chan's face. "Do you want to join us, kitten?" 
she asked, moving closer to the trainee. "I don't bite... much."

	"Um... Zen is... er... ano..."

	Yuri grabbed hold of Solude's ear and yanked. "Stop bothering 
Zen, Solude!"

	Solude was suddenly in Yuri's arms. "Oh, jealous?"

	"Zen is outta here!" Zen-chan said, making for her little cabin 
at breakneck speed.

	"Now look, you've let her get away," Solude pouted.

	"I can't believe you! Do you know how dangerous it was, 
teleporting between two ships preparing to jump to hyperspace? You 
and Kei could have been killed!"

	Solude stroked Yuri's cheek. "We all do crazy things for love, 
Yuri," she said. She pulled in close. "You should know that best of 
all."

	"S-sol--" Yuri began, but she was cut off by Solude's lips 
pressed against her own. For a moment, she tried to protest.

	Just for a moment.

*****

	Aster ducked another piece of equipment thrown at his head. 
"Honest, Kei! I didn't know what Solude had planned!"

	"Yeah, right! You planned this, didn't you!"

	"I'm the one who should be upset, you know! Solude has a shot at 
your cute trainee." Damn it, Solude, he thought, you're not playing 
fair again!

	For some reason, Kei stopped short and began to laugh.

	"Kei?"

	Kei kept laughing.

	"Kei? What's so funny?"

	"It's Zen," Kei finally managed through giggles. "Solude's in 
for a big surprise if she keeps chasing 'her.'"

	"Oh? What?"

	Moments later, Aster gave a shout of disgust, followed by a 
rumbling belly laugh.

	"Oh," he said, wiping tears away from his eyes. "I wish I could 
see Solude's face when she finds out. Still, it's pretty strange."

	"And women who can teleport under their own power and men who 
can bench press hover tanks are ordinary events?" Kei chided.

	Aster laughed again. "Ah, Kei, I've missed you. You and Solude 
are the only ones who really keep me on my toes."

	He barely ducked as a survival pack flew through the air at him.

	"Hey! Watch it! You could hurt someone!"

	"That's the general idea!" Kei screamed.

	Aster sighed. He didn't like to fight women, but if that's the 
way Kei wanted it...

	Kei was reaching for something else to throw at Aster when 
something tackled her to the deck plate. She grunted, angry at 
herself for forgetting how fast Aster could be.

	"Get off me, you lummox!" she screamed, trying to wriggle out 
from beneath him.

	"Oh, you're losing your touch, Red," Aster chuckled. "You used 
to be so much more inventive."

	Kei let loose a string of profanities that would have made 
Mughi's hair stand on end. It was only interrupted when Aster kissed 
her on the lips as hard as she could.

	Kei screamed against his mouth, beating futilely on his rock 
hard muscles. But the screams softened as the kiss went on, sounding 
more like moans, and her arms wrapped around the big man's body to 
pull him closer rather than push him away. Finally they broke for 
air.

	"Red, if we have to go through this each time we meet, I'm going 
to start wearing body armor," Aster chuckled.

	"You're not?" Kei purred. "What's this then?"

	"Huh? Oi! Watch it! That's not armor."

	"Certainly feels hard enough..."

	Aster groaned. "Kei, you're going to be the death of me..."

	Kei pulled him close. "Shut up and kiss me," she ordered. "It's 
a long trip to Parania." This kiss lasted even longer than the last.

	What a way to go, Aster thought to himself before he became 
concerned with other things.

*****

(Author's Note: If you want to see what happened on the trip to 
Parania, drop me a line at jhosmer@ix.netcom.com. If enough people 
want it, maybe I'll write it. :)

*****

	Zen-chan cautiously stuck her head out of her cabin. It had been 
a long night for the trainee. It wasn't that she didn't like girls. 
She was male in THAT respect. But aggressive women like Solude were 
harder to deal with. At first, she had locked her door with a sense 
of relief. Then she remembered Solude's little teleporting trick and 
began to sweat.

	But Solude hadn't bothered her all night.

	Something seemed wrong about that, but Zen-chan couldn't put her 
finger on it. More to the point, she couldn't figure out why Solude 
hadn't done SOMETHING.

	Still engrossed in thought, Zen-chan stepped into the Lovely 
Angel's bathroom. Not surprisingly, it was built according to the 
Japanese fashion, with the bath in an adjoining room. She splashed 
some water on her face and scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

	Hundreds of years of advanced technology, and still no solution 
for morning breath, Zen-chan groused, running her tongue over her 
teeth.

	Then she heard a giggle from the bath.

	Zen-chan froze for a moment, but then relaxed. It was probably 
just Yuri or Solude. Still, the first episode of Ranma flashed 
through her mind and she definitely didn't want to be on the 
receiving end of that... even if she DID look like Ranma-chan.

	"Yuri-love... right there..." came Solude's voice.

	Zen-chan turned slowly and looked at the door to the bath in 
disbelief. It was open a crack. Zen-chan knew she shouldn't... but 
the part of her that was male, helped by a growing sense of outrage, 
quickly silenced her objections. Just one little peek...

	She looked.

	"Ara..." she muttered, in her best Kasumi-voice. It wasn't very 
good, however, because Kasumi did not usually have to suppress the 
sense of anger and betrayal Zen-chan was feeling at that moment.

*****

	Solude stepped out of the bath, one towel draped over her neck 
and breasts in a very small concession to modesty. She was feeling 
VERY good at the moment.

	Then she noticed the petite redhead in the bathroom, glaring at 
her.

	"Morning!" Solude said, grinning. The little girl here must have 
a crush on Yuri, she thought, and she's feeling jealous.

	Zen-chan finished brushing her teeth and spat into the sink. 
There were more modern devices than the good old-fashioned 
toothbrush, but when nanotechnology prevented you from getting 
cavities or gum disease, they all boiled down to breath sweeteners. 
"Morning," she mumbled, turning pointedly away from Solude.

	Solude smirked and teleported right behind Zen-chan 
(incidentally leaving the water on her body behind... a good trick 
for drying her hair.) She wrapped her arms around the trainee and 
pressed her generous assets against Zen-chan's back. "What's wrong? 
Not a morning person?" she teased. Then she whispered sultrily in 
Zen-chan's ear, "I like you too."

	The door to the bath slid open and Yuri stepped out, towels 
wrapped around her body and hair. She seemed tired, but had a faint 
smile on her lips. It faded quickly when she saw Zen-chan.

	"Z-zen," she said, clutching the towel closely. Solude looked 
between the two of them, puzzled.

	"Don't tell me 'this isn't what it looks like,'" Zen-chan said, 
glaring at the Lovely Angel, "because I got a pretty good look."

	Zen-chan slipped out of Solude's grasp and stomped her way out 
of the bathroom. Solude looked after her in surprise. "What's got her 
panties in a bunch?"

	Yuri just hurried after her friend.

*****

	Zen-chan stalked her way to the bridge of the Lovely Angel. She 
gritted her teeth and tried to stomp down the anger she felt boiling 
in her small frame. "'Most sex-obsessed, lecherous, and out-and-out 
kinkiest trouble consultant team,' she said. 'Don't spread rumors,' 
she said," Zen-chan muttered.

	"Zen, wait!" Yuri said, coming up behind her friend, still clad 
only in towels.

	Zen-chan turned to face Yuri. "Yuri, I don't think it's a good 
idea for us to talk right now."

	"Let me explain, please."

	Zen-chan raised her voice, something she rarely did, both 
because she was usually calm, cool, and collected and because she 
hated how her voice tended to squeak. This time, however, there was 
nothing humorous about her tone. "Explain what? Explain how you lied 
to me?"

	Yuri flinched. "I didn't..."

	"You did your best to make me think that Solude was some sort of 
letch forcing herself upon you, Yuri," Zen-chan said angrily. "What I 
saw this morning could in NO way be considered HER forcing herself on 
YOU. More the other way around!"

	Yuri blushed as red as Zen-chan's hair. "What were you doing 
peeping on us?"

	"I thought you might be in trouble!" Zen-chan yelled back. "I 
thought Solude might be doing something you didn't like! Or maybe you 
don't like it unless you're the giver and not the receiver?"

	Yuri raised her hand and brought it down on Zen's cheek with a 
slap. The blow sent the smaller girl to the deck. "HOW... DARE... 
YOU...!" Each word was forced out through a mouth kept under tight 
control

	Zen-chan put her hand to her cheek and stared up at Yuri, partly 
in anger and partly in disbelief. She had sparred with the Angels but 
they had never hit her in anger like that. She was already regretting 
her outburst, and not just because of the slap. THAT, she had 
deserved. She hadn't wanted to confront Yuri. She had asked Yuri to 
leave her alone, give her time to find her balance before talking 
things over. Nothing good ever came of words spoken in anger.

	Case in point.

	Yuri spun on her heel and stalked back the way she had come, 
leaving the WWWA Trainee to her thoughts.

*****

	Zen-chan was curled up on her bed in a fetal position, staring 
blindly at nothing. Usually, Zen-chan liked the boredom of hyper 
travel. It gave her time to read or to tinker with her latest toys. 
It was almost like a paid vacation. Now, however, the walls of the 
Lovely Angel seemed to loom menacingly around her, as if the ship 
itself was angry at the insult she had given its mistress. She 
couldn't even curl up with Mughi, for the great cat (being very 
empathic) had sensed the mood of the ship's inhabitants and was 
hiding somewhere in the engineering spaces.

	While she lay limply on the bed, her mind was whirling, going 
through the same train of thought again and again. It always ended 
with one conclusion... she had been wrong. She had been cruel to 
Yuri. She had to apologize. She didn't want to face Yuri. She had 
been wrong.

	The recursive loop came to a screeching halt, however, as Solude 
appeared with a flash. Zen-chan suddenly found herself staring at a 
handful of needle-spikes with their points held not an inch away from 
her pupils.

	Solude's face was utterly cold and full of loathing. "Before you 
start getting any ideas," she said, "I'll have you know that I can 
easily plunge these spikes into your brain before you can move. Do 
you believe me?"

	Zen-chan stared at the spikes and the cold eyes behind them. 
Very carefully, she nodded.

	"Good, that makes things easier. I don't want to kill you," she 
said. The loathing on her face intensified. "I want to HURT you." Her 
voice lingered on the word hurt, caressing it, savoring it. "Your 
nanos make you hard to kill, but I know where it'll hurt the most... 
take the longest to heal."

	Zen-chan believed that, too.

	"You hurt Yuri," Solude said flatly. "I've spent the last hour 
trying to pick up the pieces of her heart. A heart you tore out and 
stomped on. That makes me VERY angry." Her eyes gained some sparkle 
at that and Zen-chan realized that Solude was exerting an incredible 
amount of control over herself. The look of her true emotions was not 
very pleasant. Before, the eyes had been cold and hard, but 
professional. Now they gleamed like the eyes of a predator in the 
darkness.

	"Zen is sorry," Zen whispered.

	Solude took a deep breath and shuddered as she let it out. "Yuri 
wants to see you, talk to you," she said finally. "That's the only 
reason I'm not hurting you." Again, she said the word hurt as if it 
were a lover she longed to see. "But if you make her cry again..." 
She pressed the point of one of her needles directly under Zen-chan's 
eye.

	'First you will know fear, then pain, then you will die,' 
gibbered a small part of Zen's mind that wasn't whimpering in terror. 
She didn't move, for fear it would send the other trouble consultant 
over the edge.

	Solude pulled the needle back and grabbed Zen-chan's shoulder. 
There was a flash and the two of them were in Yuri's cabin. There was 
no sensation, just a flash of light and then they were somewhere 
else, not even the disorientation usually felt when using a 
transporter. However Solude did it, Zen-chan would have placed money 
on it not being a form of matter-energy conversion and transmission.

	Solude dumped Zen-chan on the floor. Yuri was curled up on the 
bed, her face red from crying. She was in almost the exact same 
position Zen-chan had been in.

	"Yuri... Yuri-love," Solude said softly. The professionalism was 
gone now and the voice was full of raw pain and sympathy. "I brought 
her, love."

	Yuri looked up. "Thank you, Solude," she whispered.

	"You still want to be alone with... that?" the brunette asked.

	Yuri nodded.

	Solude sighed and vanished with a flash.

	The two friends were left alone, looking at each other.

*****

	Outside Yuri's cabin, Solude re-materialized and sagged against 
the wall. She hadn't found that fun at all. It was one thing to play 
it tough when interrogating scum, but... You weren't supposed to do 
it to your fellow TCs. Even one that--

	She had been so angry, she didn't know how much of her act had 
been an act. She hugged herself and shivered, though not against the 
cold. She didn't know what to make of this.

	She did know what would happen if Yuri got hurt again.

	Zen would bleed.

*****

	The two Trouble Consultants stared at each other for several 
minutes, each waiting for the other to go first. Finally, however, 
the waiting got to be too much.

	"I'm sorry," they both said at the same time.

	Yuri and Zen-chan stared at each other for a moment, then they 
started giggling. It was a short, but much-needed, respite.

	"I shouldn't have snapped at you like that," Zen-chan said 
slowly. "I didn't want to confront you over that at all..." She 
looked at Yuri to find the other girl staring soberly back at her. "I 
have been hurt before, badly, and I thought..."

	"You thought what?"

	"I thought that you didn't trust me..." Zen-chan said. "You and 
Kei kept saying how awful Solude and Aster were... and then I see you 
and Solude... Why didn't you just tell me?"

	Yuri sighed. "It's not that simple, Zen. It's never that 
simple."

	"Zen would have understood."

	Yuri met Zen's gaze with a look of mixed sadness and anger. 
"Could you? Try it."

	"Huh?"

	"Stand up to me and say, 'Yuri, I love both men and women.' 
'Yuri, I've got a male lover that makes my body melt when I'm his 
arms.' 'Yuri, I want some guy to jump my bones and rock my world.'"

	Zen-chan looked extremely flustered as Yuri's recital continued 
until the last part. Cocking her head to one side, she said, "'Rock 
my world?'"

	"You know what I mean."

	"I just didn't think ANYONE actually used the phrase 'rock my 
world.'"

	"ZEN!"

	Zen-chan held up her hands placatingly. "Sorry, sorry. Zen was 
kidding."

	"See? I knew you wouldn't understand." Yuri was practically 
sobbing now.

	"I'm sorry, Yuri... please, tell me... I'll listen. No jokes."

	Yuri looked up, still sniffling. "You promise?"

	"Cross Zen's heart and hope to--" Zen-chan remembered Solude's 
threats and flinched, "--have my eyeballs skewered."

	Yuri looked at Zen questioningly, but the redhead didn't say 
anything more. Finally, the dark-haired woman began to talk.

	"I've always been attracted to men AND women, Zen... it never 
made much of a difference to me. When I met the right sort of person 
of either gender, my heart would meltdown."

	"Zen thought that bisexuality and homosexuality was pretty much 
accepted in the United Galactica... what was the problem?"

	Yuri snorted. "It's easy to claim there's no discrimination or 
inequality when every minority or faction can go and get a planet for 
themselves. But you're right. For the most part, it's seen as 
acceptable as long as you aren't too obnoxious about it."

	Zen-chan groaned. "Not, 'Don't ask, don't tell.'"

	"No, not that bad... it's just that you shouldn't throw it in 
the faces of people who are uncomfortable with it." She shook her 
head. "Anyhow, I had a wild time of it in high school before I went 
to the WWWA Academy. Once there, I had to tone it down... you know 
how the training is... there just wasn't any time for serious 
relationships.

	"I never had done it with Kei. She's far more interested in boys 
than girls. Besides, we were friends for so long that the thought 
never occurred to me."

	Zen looked at her in disbelief.

	Yuri laughed. "OK, maybe the thought did cross my mind, but I 
didn't want to risk our friendship." The smile slipped away, 
ephemeral as a ghost. "After we graduated from the Academy... well, 
you know about our partners?"

	Zen nodded. After graduating, the Angels had not been teamed 
with each other, but with a succession of partners. None had lasted 
more than six weeks before dying in the line of duty. In the end, the 
Central Computer had to partner them because no one else was willing.

	"Our first mission together we were both scared that our 'jinx' 
would claim one of us. I saw so many good partners die... the thought 
of losing Kei was unbearable." Yuri looked like she might start 
crying again, but she kept her composure somehow. "We did our job 
successfully--though there were some things that happened that were 
not our fault--" she stared at Zen-chan as if daring her to comment, 
"and we survived. We felt like we had dodged the bullet. That night 
we both got drunk and..."

	Yuri looked down at her feet. "It was wonderful. I remember 
wishing that I had done it earlier. After that, Kei acted like 
nothing had happened... I didn't bring it up either."

	"'It never happened?'" Zen asked, sadly.

	"No, that's the funny thing... it's more like it was too special 
to talk about... a magical moment that would become mundane if we 
spoke of it. So, everything was the same as always... until our 
second mission. We'd survived again, and we did it again."

	Yuri got a far away look in her eyes. "It was some sort of post-
mission tradition for us. We'd get back home, I'd get a bottle of 
wine, Kei'd get the chocolate, and we'd spend the night together. It 
was beautiful."

	"Then, we had one particularly tough mission at Beta Cygnus 
Three." Her face looked haunted. "It was genocide on a scale 
unmatched since the Third Reich on Old Earth. After that mission, we 
fell into each others' arms as if hoping the magic would cleanse us. 
It did... but we were careless."

	Tears began to glisten in Yuri's eyes. "We had our reputation by 
that time, as the D--that name. The tabloids were always hounding us. 
That night, one of them got a few pictures..."

	Zen sat down next to Yuri and hugged the taller girl as she 
began to cry.

	"The pictures were bad, and they... they had to touch them up, 
so we could deny it was us... but t-they were so nasty about it. When 
we found out, Kei and I stormed their offices and K-kei... she..."

	"What, Yuri?"

	Yuri took a deep breath. "She told them she didn't love me. She 
said that she'd never love another woman and that she'd 'rather die 
than be a dyke.'"

	Zen winced.

	"She didn't mean it like THAT, but..." Yuri tried to laugh and 
it came out more as a croak. "Kei-chan never thinks before she talks, 
does she?"

	"Oh, Yuri... I'm sorry..." Zen whispered.

	"She tried to apologize for it... but the magic... it was gone. 
The next mission, we didn't even try. It was dead, all because the 
public saw us together."

	Zen hugged the other girl tightly, uncertain what to say.

	"I was practically celibate for years after that... I would date 
and flirt, but I couldn't... I saw her face and heard her denials... 
it hurt too much. You understand?"

	Zen nodded.

	"Then we met Solude and Aster on a mission. They didn't die, 
though they came close. Afterwards, Solude 'ported into my room with 
a bottle of wine and some chocolate and... it was magic, Zen. It was 
the same as with... Kei."

	"So, you deny it in public--"

	"--to keep the magic alive. I would have told you... but, I... I 
was afraid I'd jinx it. I'd lose it again."

	"Do you love Solude?"

	Yuri hung her head until her hair shrouded her eyes. "I don't 
know," she whispered. "I like her, a lot, but I don't love her as 
much as she loves me. No one could. Or I'm afraid to."

	"Afraid?"

	"Ask her how she feels, Zen... then you'll understand."

	"Zen thinks she has made her feelings known quite... pointedly," 
Zen-chan said, remembering the needles held before her eyes.

	"She's been hurt before, Zen. She had a partner once who went 
bad, killed some people, and had to help hunt her down. They were... 
close once."

	"Zen will talk to her, but will she talk to Zen?" Zen-chan asked 
wryly. "She has a pretty low opinion of me."

	"I'll talk to her," Yuri promised.

*****

	On the bridge, Solude was curled up against Mughi, trying to 
find some comfort in his fur. She suddenly sneezed. "Damn!" She 
looked at the giant cat. "What sort of shampoo are they using on 
you?"

	Mughi tried to look innocent.

	"That's it, bath time!"

	Mughi ran for it.

*****

	Zen-chan stepped out of Yuri's cabin and sighed. The Lovely 
Angel was asleep now, finally. Zen-chan herself felt like turning in. 
Physical combat and emotional turmoil always seemed to take the same 
toll on a body, she mused to herself. She turned on her heel toward 
her cabin--

	--and suddenly her feet went sliding out from underneath her.

	"WHOOOOOOAAAAA!" Zen-chan cried as she fell on her rear. For the 
first time, she noticed that the corridor was covered with water and 
suds. "What the...?" the WWWA trainee muttered.

	Suddenly she heard the pounding of feet. Mughi, looking about 
half his usual size because of his fur being soaking wet, came 
barreling down the corridor. Zen-chan barely managed to throw herself 
to one side as the giant cat half-ran and half-slid his way down the 
corridor, leaving wet paw-prints and suds in his wake.

	"Get back here!" came a cry as Solude skidded around the 
corridor, a bucket in one hand and a sponge in the other. she came to 
a stop as she saw Zen-chan. "Oh, it's you," she said.

	"Please try to contain your enthusiasm," Zen-chan grumbled. 
"What's going on?"

	"I was trying to give the big scaredy-cat a bath and he bolted 
on me." She then glanced at the door to Yuri's cabin. "How's Yuri?"

	"She's sleeping," Zen-chan said, getting carefully to her feet. 
"We had a long talk."

	An uncomfortable silence filled the hallway. Neither looked at 
the other as it stretched on.

	At last, Solude broke the silence. "You guys friendly again?"

	Zen-chan nodded.

	"Good! I didn't really want to hurt you, y'know?"

	"Zen was almost positively absolutely certain that you didn't 
mean to skewer Zen's eyes."

	The smile on Solude's face dropped away. "Um, yeah..."

	The silence stretched on. Finally Zen said, "This is 
uncomfortable."

	Solude nodded. "So, what do we do about this?"

	Zen-chan took a deep breath. "I think I need some time to 
myself, Solude-san."

	"Um, yeah, that would probably be a good idea..."

	Zen-chan turned away, then stopped. "Solude-san?"

	"Yeah?"

	"Do you love her?"

	Solude opened her mouth, then closed it. She lowered her gaze to 
the floor. "More than I can say."

	Zen-chan walked away.

*****

	"Oi, Kei-chan?"

	"Huh? Wha--?"

	"Got any idea how much longer we have until we reach Parania?"

	"What? You bored?"

	"No! No! Not at all!"

	"Then c'mere!"

	"Help!"

*****

	Yuri sat in front of her mirror, slowly brushing her hair.

	A flash of light announced Solude's arrival behind her. The 
brunette leaned over Yuri and buried her face in the Angel's hair. 
"Hello, love."

	Yuri reached up and cupped Solude's face. "Did you see Zen?"

	"Yeah, we talked a bit."

	"Solude."

	"I didn't do anything!" Solude protested. "Things are just a 
bit... uncomfortable." Solude kissed the top of Yuri's head. "That 
girl has a real crush on you, you know."

	Yuri started to giggle.

	"What's so funny?"

	"Zen's not a girl."

	"Well, okay, that woman has a real crush on you."

	Yuri tried not to burst out laughing. "No, I mean 'she' is a 
man."

	"Huh?"

	"Zen was born a man."

	Solude gagged. "Oh, yuck. I was attracted to her, you know."

	"She's a woman in every way, you know."

	"Not every way!"

	"Yes, that way, too."

	"It's not the same."

	Yuri's giggles died away. "Is this going to be a problem?"

	Solude made an exaggerated retching noise.

	"Solude, Zen is my friend. I'd like it if you can get along."

	Solude sighed. "Yuri-love, you're asking a lot of me."

	"Why? You have friends who happen to be men."

	"I have a PARTNER who is a man, but I've never been ATTRACTED to 
one. Bleah. I've got a bad taste in my mouth."

	Yuri reached up and pulled Solude's face down to hers. "Really? 
Let me help you with that." She kissed Solude deeply for several 
seconds, before Solude pulled back.

	"Yuri, seriously, it's not the fact Zen is a man. It's how you 
and he act together."

	Yuri took Solude's hand and kissed it, but Solude snatched it 
away.

	"Listen to me, please! I won't let you distract me this time."

	Yuri sighed. "Do we HAVE to have this talk...? I just did this 
with Zen."

	"Do you love... him?"

	"What?"

	"Do you love Zen?"

	"Solude...."

	"Do you love me?"

	"I--"

	"Yuri, please.... I've seen you with others. You never give 
anyone, not even Kei, as much slack as you gave Zen."

	"What do you want me to say, Solude?" Yuri whispered. "When -I- 
don't even know what I feel."

	"Yuri... I love you. I love you so much, it hurts. I want... I 
wish that you loved me as much."

	"Solude, I--"

	Solude placed one finger on Yuri's lips. "After Parania, after 
we get Gorgeous, I'm going to ask you to move in with me, love... for 
now, just think about it. Please?"

	"Solude."

	"Don't decide anything now. Just think about it. I'll ask the 
question later, and whatever you decide... I'll live with it."

	Solude leaned forward and kissed Yuri gently on the lips, then 
vanished.

	Yuri rubbed her lips with a finger. "Oh, damn...."

*****

 	The Lovely Angel came out of hyper in the Parania system, 
followed closely by the Demi-Hunter. Kei wasted no time in getting on 
the comm system.

	"Yuri, Zen, you still alive there?"

	Yuri's wan face appeared. "We're here, Kei, though I'd wager our 
trip was more interesting than yours."

	"What happened, Yuri?" Kei asked, concerned. She hadn't seen 
Yuri so depressed in a long time.

	"I'll tell you when you get over here," Yuri replied. 

	"Sure," Kei said, uncertainly. Then she smiled. "At least we 
won!" she said, trying to cheer her partner up.

	That did get a small, but wry smile. "No, WE didn't."

	"Huh? The Lovely Angel was first!"

	"Yes, so technically, Solude, Zen, and I won, while you and 
Aster lost." Her smile broadened. "Should I send Zen over to collect 
'the usual stakes' from you?"

	Kei's curses almost didn't need the comm system to be heard.

*****

	Inside the Lovely Angel, the TCs went over their plans. Zen sat 
as far away from Yuri and Solude as she could, drawing strange looks 
from Kei. Aster was also looking at the redhead, shaking his head 
periodically in disbelief. Yuri tried to ignore the strained 
atmospere.

	"According to our source, Gorgeous is at the Pleasure Dome 
Xanadu."

	"Does that mean what Zen thinks it means?"

	"If you think it means 'adult playground' then yes."

	Zen blushed lightly. Solude chuckled and raised an eyebrow 
suggestively, causing the blush to deepen.

	Yuri chose to ignore them and continued her briefing. "Xanadu is 
like a fortress, designed 'officially' to protect the privacy of its 
guests. Since some of these guests are wanted criminals, and that 
their chosen 'pleasures' are likewise criminal, their defenses are 
top-of-line... including, we suspect, some lethal military hardware."

	Aster gave a low whistle. "Sounds tough." He threw his partner a 
smile. "Nothing Solude can't get around, though."

	"But, if their security is so good, won't they know if we 
suddenly appear?" Zen asked.

	"Don't worry," Solude said with a wink. "I have a plan."

	"Zen has a BAAAAD feeling about this."

*****

	Kei pulled Yuri into her cabin while Solude was 'acquainting' 
Zen with her plan.

	"Okay, so spill it, Yuri. What happened with Zen?"

	Yuri turned away, staring down at her hands. "About what you 
would expect. She learned about me and Solude."

	"Oh." Kei was now the one to look away. The two Angels stood 
there, both unable to meet the other's gaze. "And...?"

	"I told her," Yuri said tonelessly.

	"Ah." Kei paused. "I know we never talked about THAT..." she 
began, before trailing off awkwardly into silence.

	"Do you want to?" Yuri asked in the same emotionless manner, 
giving Kei no clue as to whether she wanted a yea or a nay.

	"Um... No, I guess not," Kei said, afraid of reopening their 
oldest, and deepest, wound.

	"So...."

	"So...?"

	"How did she take... it?"

	"Not... well, I would say." Yuri told her partner, as succinctly 
as she could, the events of the trip to Parania.

	"Shit," Kei said. "I didn't know it'd hurt Zen like that."

	"Some people are sensitive about betrayal," Yuri said, lightly, 
almost carelessly.

	Kei looked at her partner. "Yuri...." she began helplessly, 
searching for words to express what she felt, but found voice only 
for her thoughts. And they were no help.

	"Don't say anything, Kei," Yuri said, almost sadly. "Don't say 
ANY thing," she said more firmly.

	Kei left her partner alone.

*****

	A blue-green jewel of the cosmos, Parania floated in the void of 
space. A paradise by any definition, Parania had only one flaw. It 
was far, far away from the usual space routes that the United 
Galactica favored. For some businessmen, however, Parania's isolation 
was a bonus, especially for their business.

	Parania had become THE adult pleasure location of the Galaxy. 
Any desire, any fetish, any perversity could be accommodated in a 
setting that harked back to Eden. Only the rich and powerful could 
afford Parania's rates.

	At the center of it all lay the Pleasure Dome Xanadu. A sealed 
ceramacrete and durasteel bunker, it served the truly paranoid. 
Nothing that went on inside its walls was ever spoken off outside 
them.

	Which is probably a good thing for our heroines.

*****

	"And now, ladies and gentlemen, a special attraction, showing 
now for the first time at Xanadu!" The MC's voice floated over the 
dark, smoke filled room as lights slowly brightened on the stage. "I 
present for you, Yei and Kuri, the Lovely Pair!"

	The curtains swished aside and two young women in WWWA battle 
bikinis stepped out. One had long red hair and the other had short 
black hair. Slowly, their pistols tracked across the audience, then 
they raised them to their lips and blew across the barrel as strip 
tease music began to play.

	In the audience, a red-haired waitress clad in the skimpy, 
almost see-through uniform favored by Xanadu, tried not to drop her 
tray as the two dancers ripped open their tops to the cheers and 
applause of the audience. She tried very hard not to look at their 
round, firm, bouncing--

	"Hey, Zen-chan," purred a voice in her ear, "you're drooling."

	Zen glared up at Solude regretting, not for the first time, that 
her female body lacked the height and mass to be intimidating. "Zen 
can't BELIEVE you talked them into this."

	"I offered to let you dance up there, fem-boy," Solude said in a 
nasty tone.

	Zen shuddered and blushed nearly as red as her hair. She still 
remembered Solude's spikes and the threats that accompanied them. And 
it was obvious that the older TC wasn't going to let Zen's birth 
gender slide. But the thought of dancing up there like Kei and Yuri--
she couldn't do it.

	Solude's plan for infiltrating the Pleasure Dome had been simple 
enough. A little judicious hacking and they were simply the latest 
employees. Kei and Yuri were given jobs as stripping look-alikes for 
the Dirty Pair, a very popular attraction given the criminal element 
that favored Xanadu. All they needed was a little hair dye so they 
didn't look too good and they were in. Zen had been given a 
waitressing job, as that was about all her sense of modesty could 
handle... especially as she watched Yuri slide her leg between Kei's 
thighs and begin grinding--

	Solude whapped Zen on the head. "Get back to work, Zen, or I may 
have to punish you."

	That was not an idle threat, as Solude's position in Xanadu was 
as a dominatrix, all clad in leather and bearing whips. She claimed 
she couldn't bear the thought of touching a man... but she was used 
to hurting them. The gleam in her eyes and her ever-present spikes 
had kept Zen was inquiring too closely.

	Aster had the easiest job, serving as bouncer. It wasn't to 
protect the dancers, however. It was to keep the patrons from getting 
anything they hadn't paid for.

	Zen-chan hurried off to serve her tables, putting up with her 
customers' leers and groping hands. She wished she had a gun, like 
Kei and Yuri. Perhaps the ONLY thing that had gotten them on stage 
was that they could keep their guns as 'props.' Well, that and the 
fact that Yuri seemed to really enjoy getting Kei all flustered on 
stage with her gloved hands sliding over her partner's--

	"Hey! Can we get some service here?"

	Zen-chan tore her eyes away. She was in the Hell of the 
Beautiful Untouchable Female Friends Having Lesbian Sex in Front of 
You. *

* Chinese have a lot of hells, Jack.

	Zen-chan managed to serve the drinks with a minimum of mistakes 
and butt-pinchings, and was turning back to the bar when she spotted 
their quarry.

	He was bishounen, she had to admit. Tall, well built, with long 
flowing hair in the stereotypical widow's peak. The lavender shade 
identified him... that and his cold arrogance. It was Gorgeous, all 
right.

	Surreptitiously, Zen-chan activated her throat-mike. "Target 
acquired," she sub-vocalized.

	<Got him,> came Aster's reply.

	<I see him,> Solude seconded. <Wait for Kei and Yuri to finish 
their dance.>

	Gorgeous swept over and took a seat, his eyes on the stage. In a 
stroke of luck, he sat down at one of Zen's tables. The redhead 
hurried over.

	"Can I get you something, sir?" she said in a perky, high-
pitched, bimbo voice. Zen-chan really, really, hated this job.

	"Terran whiskey sour," he ordered. One of the most expensive 
items, given that Terran whiskey was hard to find after what the 
Nanoclysm had done to humanity's birth world. Still, this was Xanadu, 
and some was available. Zen-chan was just glad it wasn't one of the 
drinks that had the little live critters squirming in them. One of 
them had made a truly prodigious jump and landed in her cleavage. Of 
course, there had been no end of helping hands trying to fish it out.

	"Yes, sir." Zen-chan headed over to the bar, one eye on the 
Angels. The music was wrapping up and they were clutching each other 
tightly around one of the brass bars on the stage, panting and 
rubbing their--

	<Focus, Zen-chan!> came Yuri's amused sub-vocalization over her 
ear-piece.

	"Zen-chan WAS focusing. Zen-chan was finding it hard NOT to 
focus."

	The music ended to thunderous applause, and the Angels picked up 
their clothes, putting them on as sensuously as they had removed 
them. Then they drew their guns with a twirl.

	<Get ready--> came Solude's voice.

	Zen-chan hovered near the bar, where she had placed a rather 
large "purse" at the beginning of her shift.

	"Freeze!" Kei yelled, pointing her gun directly at Gorgeous.

	"Three-WA!" Yuri seconded, firing her blaster into the ceiling 
to get everyone's attention and to show their threat was real.

	Then all hell broke loose.

*****

	Zen-chan forced her way through a stampeding crowd of half-naked 
prostitutes. It wasn't as much fun as one might think. For one thing, 
Zen-chan was NOT interested in girls with high heels tromping all 
over her body. Plus, being as short as she was, she was constantly 
running face-first into over-inflated... er, egos.

	Gorgeous hadn't hesitated at all when the Angels had tried to 
arrest him. His bodyguards had quickly moved between him and them. 
The Angels were crack shots and the guards went down before they 
could even raise their weapons, but that was enough of a distraction 
for Gorgeous to dive through the door and out.

	The WWWA operatives had given chase, but Xanadu was a maze of 
twisty corridors, all alike, and they had had to split up. Because 
she was a trainee, Zen-chan had been given the job of making it to 
the Dome's control center.

	The door for it was just up ahead, if she had read the schematic 
right. Fortunately, the crowd was thinning. She flattened herself 
against the wall beside the door and slammed her electric lock pick 
into its slot. (Gah! Hentai! Get your minds out of the gutter!)

	The door slid open with a faint his and Zen-chan dove through 
the door, pistol held high.

	There was a loud CRACK and blood fountained into the air.

	"Gomen Nasai!" Zen-chan said, falling backward and holding her 
bleeding nose.

	"Hime-san! Hime-san! Hime-san! Hime-san!" a man cried out.

	"Don't call me Princess, call me QUEEN!" the woman in the room 
said, clad all in red leather (and not much of it, really) and 
holding a whip.

	"Jo'o-sama! Jo'o-sama! Jo'o-sama! Jo'o-sama!"

	Zen-chan quickly scrambled from the room and shut the door. Just 
down the hallway she could now see a door marked with signs clearly 
designating it as the control room.

	"Someone up there must really, really hate Zen," the WWWA 
trainee muttered. "Zen only hopes to meet this person someday to... 
complain."

	[Elsewhere, the author sneezes.]

	Repeating her entering procedure--in the right room this time--
Zen-chan was grateful to see that there were only a few technicians 
present.

	"Everyone! Out!"

	Zen-chan had to dodge aside as the techs made a beeline for the 
door she was standing in the middle of.

	"OK, remember, step aside next time," Zen-chan muttered.

	The control room was filled with monitors (some of which showed 
VERY perverted scenes) and control panels. It didn't take Zen-chan 
long to seal all the doors. That trapped Gorgeous inside.

	"OK, now to find him," Zen-chan muttered, flipping the monitor 
in front of her from one camera to the next. Most of the rooms were 
now empty, fortunately for her blood pressure.

	Then her blood ran cold.

	The image on the monitor showed Gorgeous holding a gun over an 
unconscious--or dead--Yuri. As the stunned trainee watched, the 
lavender-haired terrorist scooped Yuri up in his arms and carried her 
off.

	"BASTARD!" Zen-chan screamed at the monitor, quickly flicking it 
forward, trying to follow Gorgeous through the complex. Meanwhile, 
she keyed her comm-unit.

	"Kei! Solude! Aster! Anybody!"

	"What's wrong, Zen-chan?" Kei replied.

	"He's got Yuri! Gorgeous has Yuri!"

	"WHAT?! How could you let that happen, fem-boy!" Solude snarled 
over the comm.

	"I've got him on the monitors!" Zen-chan said, ignoring the 
accusations of the other Trouble Consultant. She couldn't think about 
them now. They would only add to her feelings of guilt.

	A quick comparison of what the monitors were showing her and a 
map of the Dome quickly revealed where Gorgeous was heading. There 
was a huge auditorium/gladiatorial pit in the center and he heading 
right for it. Probably to meet his own twisted sense of aesthetics 
for a showdown, Zen-chan thought sourly.

*****

	"He's heading for the auditorium," Zen's voice crackled over 
Kei's comm.

	"On my way! Keep an eye on him, Zen!" Kei replied, setting off 
at a dead run. Nothing was going to happen to Yuri. They had beaten 
the odds together for a long, long time. Nothing was going to break 
the streak. Nothing.

	She turned a corner and almost ran into someone. A very, very, 
big someone. She almost shot him before recognition flared.

	"Aster?"

	"Their coliseum is this way," Aster said shortly, leading the 
way down another hallway. A moment later, Solude flashed into sight.

	"That hallway leads straight into the auditorium," Zen-chan 
reported over the comm.

	"This has GOT to be a trap," Kei muttered.

	"Yeah, but he's got Yuri!" Solude said.

	"He knows about me," Kei said. "He probably expects me to just 
run in there after Yuri. He PROBABLY doesn't know about you two."

	"I don't like where you're going with this, Kei-chan," Aster 
rumbled.

	"Zen can keep you informed on how things go," Kei said. "I need 
you both to be in reserve."

	"But YURI--"

	"Solude!" Kei snapped. "There's no time for that! Can you be 
professional about this or not?"

	Solude closed her mouth and nodded once.

	"Okay."

	"He's in the auditorium! Zen will be right down!"

	"Stay there, Zen!" Kei yelled. "We need you to be our eyes."

	"But--"

	"That is an ORDER, trainee!"

	"Yes, ma'am!" Zen-chan shot back bitterly. She knew Kei was 
right, but the need to help was nearly over-powering.

	They reached the door and Kei shot her companions a look. They 
came to a stop and took up positions where they wouldn't be seen. 
Then Kei ran inside the coliseum.

*****

	Yuri groaned as she opened her eyes. Her head was pounding like 
it was fit to burst. Funny, she didn't remember getting drunk the 
night before....

	She had been chasing Gorgeous, she remembered now. She had 
turned a corner and he had been standing there, an insufferable smirk 
on his face, and then his sonic stun-gun had gone off. She groaned 
again as the memory of that wall of sonic-force hitting her replayed 
itself.

	She surveyed her surroundings through slitted eyes. Some sort of 
arena, she thought. She was sitting in a chair with her hands and 
legs tied to it. She tested the knots and they were quite 
professionally done.

	Why do I always get the kinky ones? she thought to herself with 
a sigh. Kei just gets shot at. I'm the one who stars in bondage 
fantasies.

	"Ah, awake at last."

	She glared up at her captor. No sense pretending to be asleep. 
"You might as well surrender, Gorgeous," she said. "My partner will 
be here soon."

	"I know. She's running to your rescue as we speak." He knelt 
beside her and took her chin in his hand, turning her face this way 
and that to study her profile. "I can see why, too. You are quite 
beautiful. I'm sorry I only caught the tail end of your act. It was 
quite impressive."

	Yuri spat at him, her spittle hitting his face.

	His backhand set her chair rocking.

	"Trying to make me lose my temper, little girl?" he said 
nastily, wiping her spit off is face with a gloved hand. "A bad idea, 
if you think it will help you escape. It will just make your last 
minutes more... interesting."

	Yuri forced herself to look bored. "You call that a threat? I've 
heard better. Sure you're not overcompensating for something... 
lacking--"

	Another backhand sent her heavy chair wobbling again. No matter. 
She could take a few hits. She had to stall until Kei got there. Kei 
would rescue her. She knew it.

	Gorgeous pulled out his gun and flicked a switch on it. He 
pointed it at her head. "It's almost show time," he said, looking 
down at a comm-unit on his wrist.

	"GORGEOUS!"

	Yuri thought she had never seen anything as beautiful as the 
sight of Kei running into the room to her rescue. The redhead had her 
gun pointed directly at the terrorist.

	"Put the gun down, Gorgeous," Kei said, in a dangerously tight 
voice.

	"I think not, dear officer of the law," Gorgeous said. "LUCIFER 
has had quite enough of your interference with our organization. 
Congratulations. You've been upgraded from inconsequential to 
annoying."

	"You're not getting out of here, Gorgeous," Kei continued, 
ignoring his rant. "We've got the doors sealed. So just put the gun 
down and come quietly."

	Gorgeous laughed. "On the contrary, dear lady. It is you who are 
not getting out of here. We gave a lot of thought on how to get rid 
of you. Some of my comrades were quite inelegant in their solutions. 
Kinetic strike from orbit, sabotaging your spacecraft." He made a 
motion to indicate tossing those ideas into a well-deserved 
wastebasket. "I realized that we should make an example of you. To 
show others that LUCIFER is not an organization to be trifled with."

	"You're boring me to death over here, windbag.

	"It's quite simple," Gorgeous said. "The best way to kill 
someone is to cut out their heart."

	Yuri saw his finger tighten on the trigger, then everything went 
black.

*****

	Zen-chan could only stare in horror as Yuri's face exploded 
bloodily from the shot. "TC down! TC down!" she screamed into the 
comm unit. Tears threatened, but she forced them back even as she 
turned to run from the control room. The only thought going through 
her head was the need to get to Yuri.

*****

	Kei saw Yuri's chair topple over backward from the force of the 
shot. For a long moment, she could only stare numbly at the widening 
pool of blood around her partner's head. Then she screamed and fired 
off several wild shots at Gorgeous.

	The agent of Lucifer was already in motion, however, running for 
a nearby door. Kei chased after him, firing wildly as she went.

*****

	"TC down! TC down!"

	Solude and Aster didn't hesitate as Zen-chan's panicked voice 
rang out over their comm-units. Aster charged while Solude vanished 
in a burst of light. Solude reappeared in the center of the 
auditorium, while Aster pounded across the room in a distance-eating 
stride.

	Solude almost fell to her knees as she saw Yuri lying there in a 
pool of her own blood. Gorgeous be damned, she thought and swiftly 
went over to try and help her love.

	Aster also saw Yuri's body, but his decision was easier. He saw 
Solude kneel by the downed TC so he was free to chase after Kei. She 
would need his help, he thought.

	Solude paid him no attention as he ran after Gorgeous and Kei. 
She called upon every bit of first aid that the WWWA had ever taught 
her. The problem was, she couldn't see through all the blood to find 
the wound! She had few alternatives. Begging Yuri to forgive her, she 
ripped the dark-haired girl's bikini top off and began to use the 
fabric to clean away the blood, looking for where it was coming from. 
(Her leather outfit was too rough and strong for the task.)

	The wound was worst than she feared, a jagged mass of pulped 
muscle running from Yuri's chin over her right cheek and around the 
eye up to her hairline. The bleeding was slowing now, but she hoped 
that wasn't for the reasons she thought.

	She applied pressure to the wound, just as she had been taught, 
trying to forget the sight of the bone she had seen in the bloody 
wound.

*****

	Kei ran, screaming obscenities at her target. The only thing 
going trough her head was that he had killed Yuri. HE HAD KILLED 
YURI! This didn't help her aim, unfortunately. Or fortunately, if you 
were Gorgeous.

	She could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Yuri was gone. She 
couldn't believe it. There had been so much she had never gotten to 
say, so much she had left for a later she was sure would come. Now, 
it was all gone.

	Well, this bastard wouldn't outlive Yuri for much longer, she 
thought, running as fast as she could.

	So, she was totally unprepared as the floor fell open beneath 
her.

	Screaming, she tried to tuck and roll, as her instructors had 
taught her, but it was too sudden a drop. She landed badly and HEARD 
the snap as her right leg broke beneath her weight. Then her face 
slammed into the floor and she grayed out for several seconds.

	When she could focus again, she found herself staring up at 
Gorgeous, who was laughing at her.

	"Say goodbye to the Dirty Pair," he laughed, making a show of 
aiming the gun directly at her head.

	Then his chest exploded in a spray of blood.

	"They really, really, don't like that name," Aster growled, 
letting his smoking gun fall to his side.

*****

	Yuri opened one eye and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. She 
could hear the beeping of machines around her, and felt bandages 
covering her face. She was in a hospital, she realized. Feeling how 
slow and uncoordinated her mind and body felt, she realized she was 
doped up pretty heavily.

	She lolled her head to the left, careful not to put pressure on 
the bandages that covered the whole right half of her face, and saw 
what she had expected. Kei was asleep in a chair, one leg bound in a 
cast and floating through anti-grav support. Her left cheek was an 
ugly yellow and black bruise.

	"Kei?" she croaked.

	Kei woke immediately and was at Yuri's side in a heartbeat. 
"Yuri, you're awake!"

	"How'm I?" the brunette slurred.

	"You're going to be OK," Kei said through teary eyes. "Your face 
is a mess, but that bastard had set his gun so low that it could only 
do surface damage."

	"Why?"

	"He wanted to make us think you were dead, so we'd do something 
stupid," Kei said honestly, though her face--the uninjured parts, 
that is--flushed as red as her hair.

	"You okay?"

	"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kei waved off her own injuries.

	"Z'n?" Yuri asked, feeling the drugs pulling her back down into 
unconsciousness.

	"She's fine. So's Solude and Aster," Kei said hurriedly, seeing 
Yuri was slipping away."

	"Kei?"

	"Yeah, Yuri?"

	Yuri mumbled something and then felt back into sleep. Kei, 
meanwhile, looked like someone had cut her heart out and fed it to 
the dogs. She reached out to shake Yuri, to wake her up and make her 
take back what she said, but the sight of her bandage-swaddled head 
made her stop. The tears now ran freely down her face.

	"Yuri..." she said, then the emotions took her, and great 
heaving sobs wracked her body.

*****

	Zen-chan flipped nervously through the ancient magazine she had 
found in the hospital waiting room. She wasn't quite sure how a 1989 
copy of Newsweek had made its way to a hospital in the United 
Galactica, but had shrugged it off as one of those cosmic things.*

* You know, like what happens to socks in the wash, and where 
ballpoint pens go, and why everything goes horribly wrong as soon as 
someone says "It can't possibly get any worse."

	Kei finally walked--stumbled actually--into the room and Zen was 
at her side in a flash.

	"How is she? Is she okay? Did you talk to her?" Zen-chan shot 
out the questions so fast that Kei had trouble deciphering them. Then 
she tried to muster a smile. "She's going to be okay," Kei said. The 
smile faded and a slight sob rose to the surface and broke free.

	"Kei? What's wrong, Kei?" Zen-chan asked worriedly.

	"Yuri--she--she--?"

	A gnawing feeling of dread filled Zen-chan's belly.

	"She doesn't want to be my partner anymore." Kei said.

	Zen-chan's mouth dropped open in shock.

*****

	In her room, Yuri surged toward consciousness again. A quick 
look revealed that Kei was gone.

	She probably hates me now, Yuri thought morosely. I can't blame 
her for that. But she nearly got killed because of me. We can't 
function as a team like that.

	Her mental voice sounded too much like she was trying to 
convince herself, but she let it go. Kei would not die because of 
her, Yuri swore. I'll do anything to make sure of that.

	In the end, Gorgeous was right.

	Say goodbye to the Dirty Pair.

TO BE CONTINUED IN
"Fallen Angels"

COMING SOON!

*****

Author's Note:

	Yeah, I know. I'm surprised it's done, too.

	This story originally started as a harmless conversation online 
with my good friend Zen. (OK, OK, there is no such thing as a 
harmless conversation online where fanfiction is concerned. :) We 
were discussing his fics, especially the Revenge Wars and his Fanfic 
review MSTings. In then, Zen, transformed by a Jusenkyo curse, is 
drafted into the WWWA to serve as a trainee under the Dir--er, Lovely 
Angels. We got to thinking about what sort of adventures s/he would 
run into. As a result, while he toils away at "Angel's Fear" which 
tells the story of Zen and the Angels without the Revenge War 
complications, I decided to write some stories featuring them with 
OTHER TC teams, all stolen from other animes. Three "Maze: Megaburst 
Space" characters showed up in this one, for example.

	Yes, I know the thought of Kei & Yuri yuri (girl/girl pairings, 
the opposite of yaoi... sorry, couldn't resist the pun :) might not 
be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm writing this. I see these stories 
as a sort of freewheeling write-when-blocked-on-Sailor-Moon-Z sort of 
thing. They are not fluff pieces--my stories always seem to get 
serious when I try that--but I'm not taking the canon very seriously 
here. If you enjoy the story, great! Drop me a line to let me know. 
If not, well, try some of my other stories. Maybe you'll find 
something you like there.

	Anyway, for the final word, I thought I'd call in Vash the 
Stampede.

VASH: LOVE AND PEACE!

Draft completed: 5 April 2001