This is Rated R for blood, violance and similar themes. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Do Angels Fear the Reaper? CHAPTER 6 On the planet IG88 where Kei and Yuri decided to live out their days, Kei sat in a chair beside Yuri’s hospital bed. Yuri had just come out of the ex- ray room and had her arm and leg put in a cast. She was looking very upset having had her honeymoon turned into a living hell. She didn’t even have anything to do with it. Well, she hoped she didn’t. She lay there in the bed with her eyes glued on Kei’s saddened face. Yuri was furious and could do very little to console herself let alone for Kei to do anything. Upon Kei’s lap were the petals of some flowers Kei had bought for her. The fluffed flowers were now scattered all over the floor having been flung back in an outburst. “Yuri, please hear me out,” Kei pleaded. “Look, Kei, my head was shaved thanks to fire that you caused by bringing that nutcase there, my husband is undergoing skin grafting to recovered from the second and third degree burns he received upon saving me from the destruction that you caused by bringing that nut case over, my honey moon was ruined because of all this! What more do I need to hear?” Yuri ranted. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything differently then how it went,” “You could have saved me on your own!” “I would not have stood a chance against that demon. Both of them would have my life in a second or yours,” “But bringing them together is what caused all this, didn’t you figure that out while you were flirting with him at that damned bar you mentioned?” “I was not flirting,” “Look, Kei, I don’t care, this has, damn it, Kei this has all gone to hell for me! What do you expect me to do about it?” “I’m sorry, Y..” “It’s Mrs. Suzuki!” she clenched her teeth. Kei looked up in shock and then back at her hands and then feet. She stood up to leave. “Where’re you going?” “To work, I need to,” Kei didn’t finish her sentence. She wiped her eyes with her free hand and left the room. “Kei, come back tomorrow, ok!?” Yuri called after her. She hoped she wasn’t too harsh. After a few minutes of silence she realized she was too harsh. She looked at the petals on the floor beside the bed. -- A half hour later Kei got out of the taxi and headed into the bar she got a job at. It was the same bar Pete owned. After all that happened, this was a place of refuge for her. She decided to enjoy it even though her arm was still in a cast from that sword attack. It would probably leave a scar. She had already gone through multiple blood tests. She had no idea how many people he had slaughtered with that blade and frankly did not want to know. She walked passed some people talking and went behind the bar. She grabbed a glass and put it in the sink behind her. Out of the corner of her eye was the one thing that made her feel very old. Sitting, flirting, and chatting with a man who looked too good to be true was Riza. Kei could have sworn she was watching herself on TV. “Let me get this straight, you single handedly took out the entire red serpent smuggling operation?” he mused. “Heh, yeah I kicked their asses here to Mars! Was a lot of fun,” she grabbed her drink and found it empty, “Mind getting me another?” she asked sweetly. “Sure,” he got up and walked away. He stopped when he saw Kei’s face. She was dry and not amused at the scene. “You, ok, Miss?” he asked. “No, say, Mr. hot stuff, you know who that is?” she asked. “She would be Miss Riza Fonte, she said she worked at the 3WA,” he smiled. “Yes, and did she say her code name?” A watch alarm went off and Riza ran out of the door for her motorcycle. Her partner had just called her. It was an emergency. “Uh, damn, she ran off, code name? No she didn’t actually, why?” “Never mind, best you don’t worry about that,” Kei yawned and walked over to another customer. -- “Jaded, you idiot! I was having a great date, why’d you go and get us another mission!?” Riza shouted through the com link as she rode her motorcycle across town. She was headed fro the space dock where the Lovely Angel awaited. “Listen here, Rizzo, this mission was not of my choosing. Chief Gooley along with the Central Computer chose us for this mission. We are the best for it and we must take it right away. I told you not to go off on some stupid date in case something like this happens!” “What’s the mission?” Riza gave in. “A terrorist has hijacked a United Galactica heavy cruiser and taken the crew hostage. General Sheevus is on that ship!” “Damn, that old man still alive?” “He won’t be for long if you don’t get your butt over here now!” “I’m at the damn space port already, shudap!” Riza cut communications and headed for the ship. A few days later Kei was seated once again with a bouquet of flowers she bought with her latest pay check beside Yuri’s bed. Yuri took them and looked them over. “Thank you Kei, I’m sorry I was so upset,” “No, you were right, I wasn’t strong enough to find a better,” Kei was cut off. “Kei, drop it, that doesn’t matter any more. We have new lives to love now. Sides my hair is coming back!” she laughed as she ran her fingers through the stubbles on her head. Kei laughed as well until a massive explosion a few miles away tore the good mood away from her. “What the hell was that?” she stood up and ran over to the window. She stared in horror as a shock wave raced towards them. Kei turned her back to the window just as the shockwave struck. Glass flew in shard and stuck to her back. A few hit hard enough to shed blood. She winced until the destruction stopped. "Are you ok?" they asked each other. The power went out for a moment and the back up generator kicked in. A nurse ran into the room and soon left upon seeing that everything was relatively ok. Suddenly the pair felt outside themselves. Destruction, collateral damage, untold casualties. If that blast hit any closer, they might have become a statistic. Kei took her shirt off carefully and pulled it over her cast. "How's it look?" "A few cuts, I should call a nurse in," Yuri offered. "No, they'll be busy, can you do it?" Kei sat down on her bed. "I guess," -- "Damn it, you ok?" Riza asked. She pulled herself out of the wreckage of the UG cruiser. "Yeah," Jade moaned and grabbed Riza's hand. They were soon free of the wreckage. Jade looked at her leg and found it badly cut. It had been a clever trap. The hostages survived while the ship was locked on auto-pilot. They attempted to fix it, now they were lucky to be alive. "Another casualty count," Jade sighed. "Forget it, Jade, we have company!" Riza grabbed her blaster and hid in the wreckage. An insect like drone ship flew over. It was a UG model. "Riza! That's not the enemy!" "Use your gun scope on it!" Jade aimed her gun and got a good look at the serial number on the other side. It was in code and only certain gun sights could read it. The drone flew out of sight to turn and make another. "Same model as this ship." "Thought so, this terrorist aims to take us out," Riza commented. "I need to get this treated, soon," Jade held her leg. The wound was getting worse. "There's a hospital a few miles ahead, I'll try and get us over there," Riza watched the drone fly out if sight again and picked Jade up in her arms. She ran down the street which was littered with ruptured concrete and shattered glass. After a few blocks, Riza spotted an abandoned car and tossed Jade inside. Back in Yuri’s room, "This just in, the downtown area has been struck by a United Galactica cruiser. The cause, damage and causality counts are not available yet. Stay tuned for more information as we can provide it," the newscaster explained on the TV. Kei sat there as a nurse bandaged up her back. "A UG cruiser eh?" Kei thought aloud. "Hang on tight, Jade. There's the hospital!" Riza bounced the car up and down with each enormous rupture in the concrete. Jade had wrapped some cloth tightly around her wound, but the jarring proved a problem. "Can't you take a different road?" she whined. "All these roads leading to the hospital are messed up deal with it!" Riza barked. "Uh, Riza, behind you." "What?" she looked in the review mirror. Three UG squadron type mobile assault suits were hot on their tail. The middle one took aim and fired. Riza jerked the car away and narrowly dodged the blast. "Explosions?" Kei walked over to the window to the street down below. Three UG suits and a speeding car were heading for the hospital 5 stories below. "Yuri." "Yes?" "Looks like we have company," Kei sat down in a chair and sighed. A moment later an explosion rattled the building. "What was that?" Yuri asked. "You know what it was." "A rocket launcher?" Kei nodded. People ran in fear, nurses closed doors. The fire alarm was set off followed by water sprinklers. Kei ripped the plastic curtain off the window and tossed it to Yuri. Water fell down upon them for a minute or so and stopped. "What's going on, Kei?" Yuri tossed the wet curtain aside. "The Dirty Pair." Yuri blinked at the comment. Another explosion rocked the building. "One down?" Kei nodded. This was almost scaring them more than the battle at Nexus. Their life passed before their eyes and ears in surround sound, vibrating seats and visually if they cared to look. It was very unsettling. "You going to go out there?" Yuri asked. "I guess so. I wish I had a gun though." "Heh, I know what you mean. They used to appear whenever you needed one." "I'll just have a look around." Kei put her wet shirt back on and dragged the chair behind her. Another large explosion jarred the building. "I'm going to regret this." She opened the door just as a speeding tro con flew by with her grav jets flaring. Behind her were two speeding UG suits. Rockets flew by, walls were obliterated. Kei flung the chair into one of them, they both slammed into the wall opposite her and tried to recompose themselves. The other trocon finally caught up, her leg was in a cast. She fired shots at the two UG suits and destroyed their jets. They returned fire only to have the first trocon come back and slam a rocket launcher into them. Kei had shut the door only to have it and herself flung across the room in the explosion. She tossed it aside and groaned. “Damn it, Rizzo! Don’t kill them! We need to know where they stashed General Sheevus!” she complained. Yuri cringed at the attitude in her voice. “Hey, Dirty Pair!” Kei shouted in anger. “Dirty!?” Riza opened her eyes wide and went to shout back, but stopped upon seeing who it was. “Get them the hell out of here! No fighting in the hospital, you morons!” Kei bitched. “Yes, Ma’am,” Riza muttered and drug a suit to the wall that had been blown earlier. They both rocketed outside and carried the suits to the ground below. “Kei, you alright?” Yuri asked. “I hate feeling like how people felt about us!” she sat on the bed and shoved her open hand upon her face. “Heh, well, could you see if my husband is ok?” Yuri requested. “Yeah, sure, be right back,” she sighed and left the room. Her hair and clothes were soaked and drying, her cast was damaged although her arm seemed to have survived. Her back was a mess from the glass and worst of all, she felt old. She would be lucky to survive whatever mess the new pair would cause.