DISCLAIMER - The following story may contain embellishments of certain 
people's characters, but then again what's a fanfic without embellishments? 
This story doesn't reflect a true representation of a past relationship nor 
does it document how the current relationship came into play.  Slippy Toad, 
Falco Lombardi, General Pepper, Corneria, The Lylat System, Arwings, and 
anything I may have forgotten are all (c) the people at Nintendo.  Nog Fog 
and Sir Maximus are (c) Maki Naro and are from his impending comic series.  
This story was written at the time that the information given about Sir Max 
and Nog Fog was current but is subject to change seeing as how it's still in
its drawing board format. Karma Leafbarer is (c) me and Matt Starlight is (c) 
his player. No part of this story may be reproduced, distributed, or 
rewritten without prior permission from the author...yadda yadda yadda. Now 
that I have given credit to everyone who deserves it and given you fair 
warning, on with the show!





                        In A Listless World Such As This
                              By: Katie Popp 1999

This story is dedicated to Maki Naro, my one true love, my inspiration in 
life and the man who taught me that when life gets to look like its 
insurmountable, to just throw up your hands and say "Alright!" because its 
probably gonna get a whole helluva lot worse. :)



                                   CHAPTER ONE
 

               "I'm sorry!" Karma cried, scuttling backwards across the 
floor and covering her face with both hands, giving her assailant a clear 
shot at the rest of her. There was a whistling noise as the black strap of 
leather came down on her again leaving an angry red weal across her hip.
               "You don't EVER mouth off to me...you understand??" a gray 
wolf snarled, his fangs glistening in the dim light of the kitchen, a runner
 of slaver hanging from the corner of his mouth.  He absently wiped it away 
on his sleeve and turned to glare at his wife. 
               "Yes."  Karma whispered, her orange eyes wide and glassy with
tears. The belt came down again, this time across her wrist. 
               "Yes WHAT??"
               "Yes sir." Karma corrected herself, inwardly burning with shame
that she had forgotten.
               "You think just because you fly planes for Pepper and his 
goddamned fleet, you're better than me?? Is that what you think??" the wolf 
asked.  Karma took a shuddering breath trying not to look at the red marks 
marring her yellow skin. She had hoped his rage would be quenched sooner than
this...but it HAD been awhile since she had summoned the nerve to talk back 
to him.
               "N-No.  I don't.  You're always better than me, honey." she 
said, trying to keep the tears at bay.  "I just do it to keep the both of us
fed and housed. I'll never talk that way to you again."  
               "And...?" he prompted, holding the belt he had been beating her
with out into her line of sight.  It swung pendulously back and forth before 
her and she cringed.
               "...and I love you." she quickly added. There was a long pause
...a pause that seemed to last hours before he finally retracted the loathsome
piece of leather and reattached it around his waist. Karma felt the fear 
deflate out of her in a cold rush and relief came in such a great surge, she
nearly swooned.
                "Good.  That's all I needed to hear." he said calmly. A thin
sheen of perspiration stood out on his forehead caused by the effort of the 
beating which he knuckled away with the back of his paw. "I don't know why you
make me hit you like that." he sighed, looking at the tree frog where she 
cowered against the wall, still trembling.  She slowly uncurled from her 
defensive position, eyeing him warily.  "You can get up." he told her 
softly...almost gently. Karma nodded once, her eyes still burning with tears 
that begged to fall as she carefully stood, wincing a little at the pain in 
her waist.  She looked scared, small...just the way Matt Starlight liked 
her. 
                Karma hated the beatings...moreso, she hated the shame that 
came afterward as she observed her battered complexion in the reflection of 
the microwave door out of the corner of her eye.  She was aware of him moving
closer to her and wrapping his paws tightly around her waist and kissing her
hard.  
               "I don't like to hurt you...you know that." he whispered.  
She nodded slowly. "I love you...but I can't have you disrespecting me.  God
knows what you'd do next. Leave me for one of those pilots or something."  A
hurt tone crept into his voice. 
               "Matt...Matt you know I'd never do that." she said, desperate
to calm him down. She knew she wouldn't do anything like that...knew she 
couldn't. 
               "You would. How do I know you really love me?" he asked, turning
away from her. Karma winced a little, his words stinging her.  She loved him.
Even after all he had done, she knew she loved him.
               "Matt, I work so hard for you." she whimpered, putting her 
hands on his shoulders. He relaxed a bit under her touch.  "I'm so sorry about
tonight...I--I'll make it up to you."
               "Yes you will." he smirked. It wasn't a devious smirk...moreso
it was tired.  He pulled her close and held her for a few moments.  "Go get 
ready for bed." he whispered against her cheek.  Karma smiled and pulled away,
walking briskly to the bedroom.  She was sore, and not entirely willing, but 
she knew he would be in a better mood afterward...he always was.  She would do 
anything to keep him from hitting her...she knew it was pathetic, but it was true 
as she struggled out of her purple sweater and jeans and into one of her nightgowns. 
               Her mind wandered to the fact that she hadn't cleared the table
and would have a hard time washing the dishes tomorrow and the fact she might
have left the sink running as she crept under the cold bedsheets and settled
on her back.  That wasn't important right now, she reminded herself as she 
took a deep breath. She heard his footsteps in the hallway and braced herself.
She hated waiting most of all...just wanted to get it out of the way.  He 
appeared slowly in the doorway and stood, holding her gaze for a long time.
She managed to smile a little at him as he turned out the light. 

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               "Calling Karma Starlight...do you copy? Mrs. Starlight, pick 
up!" the telecom in the hallway blared, jolting Karma out of a sound sleep. 
She sat up abruptly, sparing a quick look beside her. Matt hadn't awakened 
and continued to sleep, shifting onto his side and breathing heavily. Karma 
wasted no time in swinging her legs over the side of the bed and rushing out
of the bedroom.
               "This is Karma...what can I do for you?" she inquired, brushing
a strand of brown hair out of her eyes as she hit the "receive" button.  She
shivered a bit in a cold night draft whisking through the house, glad she had
remembered to put her nightgown back on after earlier.
               "Starlight, this is General Pepper. You're needed to fly a 
cargo mission to Fortuna." the old hound on the other end of the connection 
said in an official-sounding voice.  
               "When?" she asked, squinting to see the hallway clock. 
Four-thirty...she didn't have to be up for another four hours yet.
               "Now, Starlight."  Karma's mouth nearly dropped open.
               "Now??" she asked, trying not to raise her voice. "General, 
do you have any idea what time it is?"
               "Exactly.  Karma, I only want what's best for my pilots. We've
lost five of them this week alone to Venom's scouts.  You'd be safest going 
early while their defense is down." the general reasoned.
               "But general--"
               "You'll be accompanied by Slippy Toad and Falco Lombardi." Pepper
interrupted. "They'll protect you should you be in need of reinforcements."
               "What about another pilot? Surely there's someone--"
               "Starlight, I'm counting on you. Be in the docking bay by five."
the general instructed and with that, the connection was terminated.  Karma 
sighed, standing in the hallway for a few more moments. 
               "Karma? You coming back?" Matt called sleepily from the 
bedroom, having been awakened and catching the last snippet of the conversation
between his wife and the general.
               "I've gotta go, honey." she said, turning abruptly to face him.
               "I heard. Where ya going?" he asked, rubbing at one eye and 
yawning.
               "On a cargo mission." she replied, studying his expression.  
She felt her heart sink when he glared at her. 
               "There you go again." he sighed. "You're putting that damned 
job ahead of our marriage."
               "Matt, its not like that." she protested. 
               "What about what I want, Karma?" he asked, getting out of bed
and shuffling toward her, grasping her tightly by the wrists. "I wanted to 
spend today with you.  Are you going to take that away from me?"
               "Matt, you're hurting me." she protested, trying to twist out 
of his grip. His yellow eyes narrowed behind the spray of black fur over his 
muzzle. 
               "I'll do more than hurt you." he growled. "You're not going." 
               "I HAVE to go." she argued. "The general recruited me. You can't
just waltz out of something like that."
               "You can and you will." he snapped. "You call that hound back
and--"
               "Matt, I'm going to do this!" she screamed suddenly, cutting 
him off.  That had done it.  The wolf's eyes blazed with hatred as he flattened
his ears along the bullet of his skull. Somehow he was going to get it through
to her that HE wore the pants in this family.  And if this dippy frog didn't
straighten out and fly right soon, she was going to be watching the sun rise 
from a hospital bed for the next month.
               "Enough." Matt growled, whirling around and walking stiffly 
back into the bedroom.  
               "Matt---"
               "Shut up." he snarled at her. "Gonna give you a beatin', babe.
Sorry about that."  Karma, for reasons unknown to herself, followed after him.
Maybe she had somehow hoped to change his mind...however, what she found 
herself doing was shoving past him and dashing for the dresser to get her 
uniform where it was neatly folded on top.  She had no sooner closed her fingers
around the course fabric when she felt a stinging blow hit the backs of her 
legs. 
               "Stop it, Matt." she said sternly, turning to walk to the door.
Matt was slightly taken aback by this but didn't stop and continued to follow
her, raining blows on her left and right, becoming more and more discouraged
all the while.  Karma didn't crumple to the floor as she sometimes did, she 
didn't beg him to stop as she usually did...and worst of all she didn't cry 
as she ALWAYS did.  He cocked his arm and landed a hard blow between her 
shoulder blades, listening to the satisfying snap of flesh on leather. She 
stopped then, standing half in the bedroom and half out, her eyes narrowing 
to slits. 
               "Don't make it worse for yourself. Take your medicine." Matt 
told her, an eerie calm in his voice as he wrapped the length of the belt 
around his hand once more. When she didn't respond, the wolf prepared to 
strike her again, drawing his arm back. Tomorrow he wouldn't be able to lift
that arm past eye length without taking almost a handful of aspirin first, 
but that didn't matter at the moment. What was more important was that Karma
learned her lesson.  They'd deal with her mouthing off...that was priority 
number one. Then the love could come back. Hell, they could even discuss this
matter of Pepper calling her away from home to go on these missions if she 
wanted to.  However, now school was in session and Karma was about to get a 
lesson in Respect 101. Matt Starlight style. 
               "God damn you!" Karma hissed, whirling around as her hand shot
out to grasp the belt tightly.
               "I don't think so." he said, leering at her as he jerked the 
belt out of her reach. "Don't you EVER try to grab something from me again, 
you understand??"  Karma's expression was carved with deep lines of hatred 
as she regarded him with an icy glare.  A nagging thought resurfaced somewhere
in his mind.  "Are you here, Matt? Are you?"
               "I'm going, Matt, and I think maybe I'll stay gone." she growled
through clenched teeth. "You hear me, you flea-bitten sack of guts?"  She 
clutched her uniform tightly in her arms.
               "Put that damned thing down." he ordered. 
               "Never!"
               "NOW!!" he bellowed, his voice resounding off of the walls of
their home, sounding like a gunshot piercing the silence.  For a moment, 
Karma's confidence wavered and she felt her grip loosen a notch -- NO! She 
regained her defiance and, plucking up what little courage she had left, 
sprinted for the front door.  "Karma! Get back here!!" he wailed after her, 
his voice trembling with rage. She knew if she slowed down or even looked over
her shoulder, it would be her undoing as she tore the door open, the sweat 
from her palms making her fingers slip and cut a fingernail down to the quick.  
               "Dammit!" she hissed, examining the wound quickly.  It was 
bleeding, but not bad enough to stop her as she slammed the screen door open
and ran for all she was worth.  The pain in her lungs didn't stop her, nor 
did the burning in her legs or the bellowing behind her.  She ran for what 
seemed forever, Matt's cursing and threatening becoming fainter and fainter 
behind her and at last melting away into the listless chirring of crickets 
in the bushes. 
               She became aware for the first time, as she stopped running 
and fell to her knees gasping painfully, that she had been crying.  As air 
screamed in and out of her lungs, she sobbed with reckless abandon not caring 
who saw her crouched on the pavement in her nightgown. She was so frightened
and knew she would eventually have to pay for this ill-gotten freedom. She 
always did.
 
                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

             "Hey Karma." Slippy greeted her pleasantly as she ambled into 
the docking bay, her uniform looking more than a bit disheveled. 
             "Hi Slippy." she smiled, combing her fingers through her hair 
in an attempt to straighten it.  "Am I late? I couldn't exactly get to a 
clock." 
             "Nope." he said, shaking his head and straightening the red cap
he wore. "Actually General Pepper hasn't even contacted us yet.  Falco and 
I've just been hanging out waiting for ya."
             "That's good." she nodded, shooting a nervous look at the door 
as though she were expecting Matt to appear at any moment.  Slippy took this
opportunity to examine a large bruise on her jaw, like a crow's wing, marring
her complexion. He knew a tomboy like Karma could have acquired an injury 
like that anywhere but never the less felt a wave of concern wash over him. 
             "You okay?" he asked her, cocking his head at a questioning 
angle.
             "Hmm? Oh, I'm fine, Slip. Why?" she asked, her tired orange eyes
meeting the toad's inquisitive blue ones.
             "You look a little...umm..." he searched his brain for the right word.
 "...shaken up."
             "Oh...well, that's what ya get for dragging me out of bed at 
four in the morning." she smiled accompanying it with a little laugh.  
Slippy didn't exactly feel inclined to return her falsified pleasantries. 
             "Just so you know, if you ever need a place to stay, my bunk's 
open to ya." Slippy offered, putting a hand on her shoulder. She attempted 
to look like she didn't know what he was talking about, but in the end failed
miserably.
             "Thanks." she whispered.
             "You two done makin' baby frogs over there?" Falco asked irately 
from the cockpit of his arwing where he had been busily cleaning it, the 
ground around it littered with empty soda cans and various wrappers.
             "Shut up, Falco!" Slippy called over his shoulder, his 
high-pitched voice echoing off of the concrete walls of the docking bay. 
             "Sorry to say it, Slip, but she's married. I dunno how, but she
is." the bird chuckled, approaching the duo.  "So explain somethin' to me, 
Karma.  You've got a pretty interesting mix going there with Matt. When it 
gets...you know...kinda cozy with you two, how do ya do it?"  Karma gave the
bird a look of mingled mortification and anger.
            "That's not something for you to worry about, you jerk!" she 
growled at him.  
            "Geez, sorry! I was just askin'!" he laughed, putting his hands 
up defensively. She sighed, rolling her eyes. 
            "I think your mom must've pushed your egg out of the nest a few 
times." she grumbled. "Its the only way to explain you."
            "Hey watch it." he said warningly. 
            "Oh you're REALLY scary." she assured him sarcastically. "Why 
couldn't Pepper have gotten one of YOU guys to fly the cargo there?"
            "Because then who'd fly up ahead and look for fleas?" Slippy 
asked. "Don't worry so much about it, Karma."
            "Who's worried?" she asked. "It's a pain in the tail, that's all.
What am I flying there anyway?"
            "Beats me." the toad shrugged. "All I know is its packed in crates
and ready to go."
            "That's reassuring. So for all I know, I could be risking my neck
to restock a supermarket on Fortuna somewhere with Springles?" she asked, 
folding her arms and giving the two pilots and indignant look. 
            "Look, Pepper's a little senile but not THAT senile." Falco told
her. "Whatever it is, it must be important." 
            "What was that about being senile, Lombardi?" Pepper inquired as
he strode into their midst. 
            "Oh! General Pepper...we were just talking about you." Falco 
faltered.
            "Yes...I heard." Pepper grumbled, glaring out of the corner of 
his eye at the bird who looked as though he wished he could disappear into 
the cracks in the floor. "I'm glad to see you made it, Mrs. Starlight. Are 
you ready to begin?"
            "Yes sir." Karma replied in the most official voice she could 
muster.
            "Good. I've charted out the safest and most direct route to 
Fortuna." he told her, handing her a disk.  "Just program that into your plane's
navigational system and you'll be good to go."  Karma nodded, receiving a 
smile of approval from the old hound.  "And I expect you two to keep an eye 
on her." he said sternly. "We can't afford to make another attempt on this 
mission if we lose a sixth pilot."
            "You can count on us, general!" Slippy said enthusiastically with
a salute.
            "Yeah whatever." Falco grunted.
            "Very well...you may take off when ready." Pepper told them, 
turning and walking briskly out of the docking bay to return to matters in 
his office which commanded his attention. 
            "Well, I guess we're ready to roll then." Karma sighed, looking 
at her two escorts expectantly.
            "Right." Falco nodded, heading for his arwing with Slippy, leaving
her to climb aboard the massive cargo plane to which she had been assigned. 
The door opened with a faint creak as she climbed into its dark interior.  
Upon sensing motion, several small lights flickered on, making things easier
to see as she slid into the pilot's seat. The faux leather felt cold against
her skin as she gingerly inserted the disk Pepper had given her into the 
navigational device.  
           "Please enter password." a mechanical voice prompted.  Karma leaned
forward and keyed in "L-O-L-L-I-P-O-P".  There was a slight pause as the 
machine mulled over the data given. "Welcome, General." it said pleasantly. 
The tree frog grinned, delighted she had gotten it on the first try.  "Setting
course for Fortuna." She watched as the screen came alive with a small map 
of the Lylat system and a red line was slowly drawn from Corneria to Fortuna.
She had to admit, the route DID look pretty good.  "Proceed."  She took this
opportunity to start the plane and listened to the deafening whine of the 
engines on either side of her. Takeoffs always thrilled her as she carefully
taxied the cargo plane into position for takeoff. 
          "Ready whenever you are, Karma." Slippy's voice crackled through 
the telecom link. 
          "Then let's roll, boys." she smiled, the plane rumbling out of the
docking bay toward the runway with the two arwings close behind. 

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                                 CHAPTER TWO

       
           "No! It's still not right!" Sir Maximus groaned as Nog Fog attempted
yet again to duplicate a series of roundhouse sweep kicks.  "Kid, we've been
going over this all morning!"
           "Sorry." Nog Fog sighed, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of 
his eyes. "Can't we move on to something else now? This is getting kinda 
boring."  His query was met with a blow to the jaw from his trainer. 
           "NO we can't move on!" he growled. He realized how hot and muggy 
it suddenly felt in the paper bag he wore over his head as he glared daggers
at his student through the cut eyeholes. He sighed deeply. Nog Fog was looking
to be more and more of a lost cause, and sadly was one of earth's only hopes
against the likes of Buglore, Donnamakite, and Nitro.  "I need a break. I'll
see you back here in ten minutes." he grumbled, straightening the small golden
crown that was placed atop his head. 
                    "Okay...." the youth said, sounding doubtful. He hated it
when Max got in moods like this. It would either result in them not picking up 
training again until tomorrow or else the continued session later on would be 
unbearable.  He watched as Max stormed away, hating to have disappointed his 
trainer but at the same time feeling a bit spiteful.  After all, he HAD been
trying his hardest.  Oh well...maybe next time, he thought as he deactivated 
the lasers on either arm of his enertiatron suit.
                   The weight of the metal armor no longer bothered him...in 
fact, he had been wearing it for a good couple of years ever since winning it 
in a battle. He guessed the suit had something to do with why Maximus had shown
such an interest in taking him under his wing in learning to become a superhero.
Maximus....he was another matter.  Nog Fog found himself pondering his trainer's 
origins more than once when he had a spare moment to think.   Max had kind of 
dropped out of nowhere...quite literally.
                  He claimed to have hailed from another galaxy and originated 
from a planet which had imploded. He had come to earth with intentions of 
training Nog Fog to be a hero and defeat the evil that, from time to time, 
plagued the planet.  Nog Fog had found him to be an odd person at best...he 
spoke with the knowledge of the elders and yet could take things anything 
BUT seriously when he felt so inclined.  
                  The thing that bothered the youth most of all, was Max 
constantly wore that paper sack over his face. He even slept in it.  When 
asked about it, Maximus had always said it was for strategic reasons but s
ometimes he wondered if it went deeper than that.  Oh well...Nog Fog found 
it best not to pry at him.  Maximus, he had learned the hard way, was quick 
to anger and even quicker to throw the first punch.  He stretched, feeling 
his vertebrae pop before turning to go into the small dwelling he and Max 
shared, letting the screen door slam behind him. 

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                 Sir Maximus found himself the midst of the sparse woods 
behind the house.  They lived in what could best be described as a desert in 
the middle of Arizona someplace. It was hot and dry with scattered rain showers,
but luckily was not without its foliage.  He tended to wander when he was 
frustrated and today was no exception as he pushed through a scrub oak bush, 
the twigs snagging at the red cape he wore and making unpleasant scraping 
noises against his enertiatron suit's chestplate. Like Nog Fog, he also wore 
one, with the given exception he had owned his far longer and was better-
versed in its workings.  
                Through the paper bag, a gentle breeze wafted over him, 
relaxing him somewhat and a bird sang its melody from an unseen source. Out 
of all the places he had come to love on earth, the woods were still his 
favorite for the sole reason that they made him feel protected and secluded 
from the outside annoyances of the world.
               He sighed heavily, doing his best to let the aggravation from 
earlier slip away as he refocused his mind on more peaceful notions other 
than pounding his student into oblivion.  It was a lovely summer day and the 
trees whispered to each other as he sank to the ground and crossed his legs 
in a meditative position. He never really had been able to master meditation 
very well, but was willing to do anything to relax at this point. As he rolled 
his eyes back in his head and gave himself over to the velvety blackness of his
subconscious, he once again reassured himself that his efforts would not be 
for naught and Nog Fog would eventually learn all he had to teach. 
             "Just give it time." he whispered before letting his head drop 
onto his chest and falling into a dream-like trance.
               
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               Maximus was awakened by a nearby hoot of a barn owl, realizing 
with some degree of embarrassment he must have fallen asleep. The sky had 
deepened to a dark blue color and the stars had begun to wink on as he got 
up, working the pins and needles out of his legs. Unfortunately, he realized 
with frustration, the attempted meditation had done nothing to relieve his 
stress about the earlier failed training session. 
               The pale moon lit the path out of the woods as he stretched 
and sauntered through the blanket of dead leaves back toward the house.  He 
could see as he approached there were several lights on in the windows, pooling
on the grass in a milky yellow color.  He supposed Nog Fog might have wondered 
about where he had gotten to but probably wasn't too concerned. It had gotten 
him out of training after all. He took a deep breath of the night air before 
opening the door and going inside.  
               As usual, the stereo was blaring a discordant techno song and
battered Max's ears as Nog Fog was lounging on the couch, leisurely flipping 
through the channels on the small television across the room. 
              "Oh yeah. Saturday night television's REALLY gonna help you out 
when Donnamakite and Nitro show up." Max grumbled, making the blonde-haired 
young man look up suddenly. 
              "Oh hey Max." he smiled.
              "Don't 'hey Max' me." Maximus said, narrowing his eyes a bit. 
"Tomorrow you and I are gonna work. You understand me?"
              "We were supposed to work ten minutes after you stormed off."
the youth reminded him.  "Where were you anyway?"  
              "Meditating." Max replied.  "I needed to clear my head before 
we went on with these training sessions." 
              "Took you three hours to meditate?" Nog Fog snickered. "I was 
beginning to think ya fell down a rabbit hole and ended up in Oz or something." 
              "Laugh it up." Max growled. "We'll see how funny it is when 
you're working your tail off tomorrow."
              "Whatever." he sighed, clicking off the television and reaching 
for the knob on the stereo.  "There's some ramen noodles left if you want'em." 
he called after Max.
              "Maybe later. I'm going to bed." Max muttered, walking down the 
hallway, opening the third door from the right and entering.  The kid needed to 
learn that he wasn't ordering him around and holding these training sessions 
for his own amusement. There was a point to all of this.  As much as he hated 
to admit it, Donnamakite WAS a force to be reckoned with...this he had learned 
from previous encounters with her. He didn't exactly look forward to another 
run-in with the wench.  In his mind's eye he could see her cold eyes glaring 
through an unkept mane of blue hair...and that voice of hers....Max felt 
pinpricks of revulsion scamper up and down his spine.  
               And then there was Nitro, her beefy sidekick.  He was just as 
repulsive and resembled an enormous, rather obese purple salamander. Nitro, 
Max had decided, was living proof that brawn could exist without brains.  
This was probably the reason Nog Fog had succeeded in defeating him so easily 
and absconding with his enertiatron suit several years ago. The kid certainly 
didn't win using a technique of any sort...he had proved he had no technique 
other than fighting dirty in their training sessions. It wasn't that Max 
minded...well yes. Max DID mind very much.  On his home world, there were 
codes of honor and they didn't involve a "do anything you can to win" policy.  
However, teaching Nog Fog honor was like trying to nail jello to a 
tree...and every bit as rewarding.
               He unfastened his belt, taking care with the katana fastened 
to it as he laid it on the small wooden nightstand beside his four-poster 
bed.  Besides the bed and nightstand, his only other piece of furniture was 
a dresser in which he kept a couple of changes of clothes. Unlike Nog Fog, 
he didn't deem it necessary to wear the enertiatron suit twenty-four hours 
a day and would sometimes wear normal clothing when he felt inclined to do 
so.  
              Max shut his eyes and concentrated, allowing a mild surge of 
energy to wash over his body and cause the metal suit to fall away from him 
in several pieces which he laid neatly out at the foot of the bed, ready for 
use in the morning. He was left standing in a black T-shirt and a pair of 
bluejeans as he detached the red cape from around his neck and tossed it 
carelessly on top of the on his nightstand. 
              A thought occurred to him as he slid between the cold bedsheets. 
He had long-since managed to retain some information about meditation bestowed 
on him by a long-ago friend, Tigerlilly.  Tigerlilly had been Max's friend 
since childhood and had bestowed upon him the knowledge of many things he 
had yet to put to use...one of them being the process of giving oneself over 
completely to one's subconscious.  As of now, Maximus decided one of the things 
he needed most was a dose of inner peace before continuing with Nog Fog's 
training. Maybe then he wouldn't be so quick to throw his arms in the air and 
admit defeat when the kid didn't get it right after the first few tries.  
After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and fiddled with the alarm clock's 
buttons until it was set to go off two hours earlier than its usual time. 
Satisfied, he settled onto his back and reached for the lightswitch.

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


                                 CHAPTER THREE



               Karma heaved a sigh as she shifted the cargo plane's controls
to the left. They had been flying for almost five hours in the dark 
recesses of space and it was beginning to try her patience.  She could sense 
Falco and Slippy were beginning to feel the same way judging by how they had 
drifted out of their guard dog formation and were amusing themselves blasting 
stray asteroids.
              "That's thirty five for me, Slip Shot!" Falco crowed over the 
comlink as he successfully blew another floating rock into oblivion.
              "In your dreams, pinfeathers!" Slippy shot back.  "That was 
only thirty two!" 
              "Like it matters." Falco snorted. "You're still losin'."
              "You guys, don't you think you should save some of that ammo 
for the venomians?" Karma asked irately, beginning to get annoyed with the 
continuous spray of gravel scattering across her aircraft's visor. 
              "There's no venomians out here." Falco assured her. "We passed 
their front lines WAY back there. This is farther than all the other cargo 
carriers made it. Relax, froggie."
              "I dunno Falco...maybe we SHOULD be keeping an eye out." Slippy 
reasoned.  "I mean, they could be anywhere."
              "Is this a common thing with you amphibians or something?" Falco 
asked.  "You're both worried over nothing. Take it from me, nothing's out there."  
As if on cue, loud static began to pour over the ship-to-ship stations.  
"What the heck?" Falco wondered aloud. 
              "Identify yourselves." a cold voice commanded, making the three 
Cornerians wince a little with apprehension.
              "Huh?" Slippy asked, an eloquent reply given the situation.
              " 'e said identify yaselves!" a less threatening, but none the 
less cold, british accent filtered loudly into the ships. 
              "Falco Lombardi, Cornerian Starfox fleet. And who're YOU yutzes?" 
Falco inquired, making Slippy and Karma simultaneously gasp. Falco had always 
been a bit brash, but THIS was going a little too far. 
              "Jemoto Elburn 'ere...and me mate Scourge Cassida." the British 
voice replied.
              "Yes...and we don't take very well to your kind in this area." 
Scourge added.
              "Why? I don't see your names on it.  Either of you frogs see 
'Jemoto and Scourge' written anywhere out here?" Falco inquired.
              "Falco, cool it." Karma warned. "Umm...sorry for intruding but 
we've been sent on an important mission to deliver--" 
              "The Lylat system belongs to Andross. You pathetic Cornerians 
are all that stand between him and total conquest." Scourge interrupted.
              "We're not here to fight." Karma implored. "We're just trying 
to get to Fortuna." 
              " 'Ey, well ya have to get past us first!" Jemoto growled. 
Karma looked up in time to see a Wolfen II fighter loop into view from behind 
a large asteroid up ahead. Behind the wheel sat a rather angry-looking silver 
fox, his brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.
              "Indeed." Scourge agreed, another fighter zipping into their 
sights, this one driven by a bad-tempered lemur. 
              "Aww crud...Wolfens." Falco groaned.
              "Way ta go, Falco." Slippy grumbled.  Karma sighed, trying to 
keep her cool.  
              "You guys, I don't have laser cannons on this thing..." she 
informed her flightmates in a worried voice. 
              "Don't worry about it. We've got things under control." Falco 
assured her. 
              "Do ya now, mate?" Jemoto sneered. "Lets see how ya handle THIS 
then."  A spray of red laser flew from his Wolfen's cannons, riddling the 
nose of Slippy's plane with a series of small smoking dents before dashing 
out of sight.
              "Geez!  These guys are fast!" Falco remarked. No sooner had he 
spoken than his arwing vibrated with the impact of several laser blasts.  
              "Guys?" Karma asked apprehensively.
              " 'Ey lookit that, will ya?" Jemoto grinned, swerving his Wolfen 
around to face the cargo plane.  "Got a cargo there, missy?"
              "It doesn't concern you." Karma answered coldly. 
              "Scourge, I'm goin' after the lass. You take the arwings." 
Jemoto informed him. 
              "You always take the easy work for yourself." Scourge said 
coldly, firing an almost solid flag of lasers at Slippy's ship.  The frog 
emitted a squeal of outrage as ribbons of smoke began to curl up from his 
left wing.
              "Eh shutup." Jemoto grumbled. Karma felt a cold wave of panic 
wash over herself. She was flying a clunker of a plane at best with no shields 
and worst of all, no cannons. "'Ello luv." his voice filtered through her 
speakers like a foul mist. Suddenly she was blinded with an urge to 
flee...she didn't care where, she needed to get away. "Now jus' hold still..." 
               Karma felt a scream rising in her throat but managed to 
suppress it as she veered to the left, a spray of red laser hindering her 
sight.  "Dammit!" he cursed. "I hate it when I miss!"
              "Karma! Falco! I can't take another hit!" Slippy cried, sounding 
truly distressed.
              "Yeah you're ALWAYS the first to go down." Falco chided. 
              "Don't worry, you won't be far behind." Scourge's staticy voice 
informed them.  There was a pause. Karma couldn't see what had happened since 
the arwing and wolfen had drifted out of her line of sight.  And besides, she 
was a bit more concerned with Jemoto and where he was.  Her ship faltered in 
midair and a red warning light flickered on in the cockpit.
              "Shit!" she hissed, knowing she'd been hit.  It was now or 
never...she had to get away and wildly twisted at the controls.
              "Karma, what the heck are you doing??" Falco demanded.
              "I'm breaking away!" she replied. "I'll catch up with you when 
the coast is clear!"
              "You're crazy, Starlight! Don't do this!" Falco implored.  
Before Karma could reply, her ship was rocked with another impact. 
              "Yer mine, love." Jemoto growled.  From where she sat, Karma 
could see black smoke billowing from somewhere on her plane. She felt her 
stomach knot as she looked wildly for somewhere she might get away.  Eventually, 
she caught sight of a distant cloud of silver flecks dotting the vast 
blackness. An asteroid field...surely she could lose him there.  And she was 
sure she could steer around the asteroids after the flight training she had 
been put through.
             "Come and get me." she whispered, steering in the direction of 
the field.  As she suspected, Jemoto gave chase, staying close behind her 
plane.  Karma gritted her teeth, hoping she knew what she was doing as she 
steered directly into the path of the oncoming asteroids.  Her orange eyes 
watered with nervous anticipation as she watched one of them careen into view.  
"Steady, girl..." she urged herself, trying to keep from shaking as she shifted 
the controls slightly to the right.  The plane swerved in the desired 
direction as the asteroid rumbled past.
             "Heh...bringin' a plane that big into a field of flyin' rocks? 
Thought you Cornerian rats were smarter'an that." Jemoto taunted over her 
comlink.  
             "Don't...count me out yet." she panted, trying slow her heartrate 
back to normal as a bead of sweat ran down her nose. 
             "Bettah keep an eye on ya tail, froggie." Jemoto warned. Karma 
didn't need to wonder what he was talking about, she knew he was behind her 
and knew he was seeking a good place to land a well-placed laser blast...one
that would take her down for good. The cargo plane rattled again, shaking the 
tree frog to her very foundation. A siren went off, momentarily commanding her 
attention. 
             "Warning. Warning. Warning." an eerily calm female voice droned 
again and again.  The navigational screen took on a red glow. "Shield depleted 
by 85%." it boasted.
             "No...nooooooo." Karma groaned, knowing she was a sitting duck. 
             "Say hi to the big guy fer me." Jemoto growled, hitting the "fire" 
button a last time. Karma shrieked as half of her right wing was blown into 
oblivion, sending her plane into a kamikaze barrel roll. 
             "Evacuation advised." the computer informed her. Had it been a 
real person, Karma would have wasted no time in beating her to a pulp.  
Evacuation was NOT a prime choice at the moment...not when the pressure outside 
was great enough to crush her in seconds.  The dials whirled crazily and 
Karma found it impossible to get her bearings as she desperately tried to 
control herself. Then she saw it...something that made her face go as pale 
as a sheet.
             The damaged cargo plane was heading straight for an asteroid...not 
just an asteroid, but an asteroid the size of a small moon.  Her mouth went 
as dry as a box of cotton as she abandoned the controls, her eyes shut tightly. 
            "I'm so sorry, Matt...you're right...I should have stayed home." 
her mind gibbered as her body tensed for impact.  The silver fox watched smugly 
as the totaled aircraft whirled helplessly to its doom, a wisp of brown hair 
blowing freely across his eyes. Another one down...now all he had to do was 
steer out of this godforsaken storm and find the other two.  He was about to 
turn around when something suddenly caught his eye. For a brief moment, the 
cargo plane was engulfed in a purple aura and then vanished. 
            "Bloody hell!" he gasped, blinking a few times to make sure he 
wasn't seeing things.  No...his eyes had never lied to him.  He had just seen 
that cargo plane vanish in thin air.  Jemoto felt strangely light headed for 
a moment, trying to let this all sink in before finally shrugging it off and 
turning the Wolfen fighter around.  He had more important things to worry about, 
after all. 

                      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

             The alarm clock beeped irately on the nightstand and Maximus 
sat up with a yawn.  Five-thirty. Good, he had another three hours before Nog 
Fog would be getting up. That was enough time to probably make some good 
progress on his technique. He quickly got out of the warmth of his bed, somewhat 
loath to leave it, and pieced on the cold pieces of metal armor before padding 
quietly out of his room.  The house was dark and silent.  From here, Max 
would faintly hear the sound of Nog Fog's radio quietly playing...for some 
reason, the kid couldn't sleep unless he had music of some kind blaring.
             The kitchen, as he had suspected, was left in shambles and the 
aforementioned ramen noodles his student had offered him the night before had 
become a cold soggy mess in a pot on the stove. Oh well...that could be dealt 
with later.  Most likely he'd make Nog Fog clean it up anyway.  He opened the 
front door quietly, shivering a little in the morning draft before stepping 
fully outside.  
             Crickets chirred still in the bushes as Max headed in the direction 
of the woods but veered off to the left before reaching them, walking instead 
around the perimeter of them and down a slightly trampled path through a shaggy 
field of tall grass. Mice and other creatures of the night hurriedly scampered 
into hiding as he passed them, not really noticing them much.  Soon, the field 
began to thin out and led to a drop off into a sandy ravine. 
            He stopped at the edge, judging its depth before taking a running 
leap to the bottom, landing squarely on both feet.  This seemed like as good 
of a place as any, he decided, seating himself on the sandy bottom of the 
ravine.  His mind turned back to what Tigerlilly had told him...the details 
were sketchy in his mind's eye and he hoped he remembered them all as he began 
the process.  
            The most important thing, he remembered, was to have nothing on 
your mind but the meditation otherwise its soothing effect would be lost so 
it was important to make sure you were entirely comfortable.  Was he 
comfortable? Maximus shifted his position a little so that his weight was 
more evenly distributed. There...he decided that was sufficient as he shut 
his eyes and let himself slip away, feeling a heaviness leave his body as he 
did so.  He felt his head lulling forward as he relaxed and-- *CLUNK*
           He was jolted back to reality, realizing he had just struck his 
chin on the metal chestplate of the enertiatron suit he wore.  Obviously, 
this wasn't going to work out, he realized as his fingers found the release 
button and pressed it. There was a series of metallic clicks as the chestplate 
fell away into his hands.   He regarded it for a minute before setting it 
aside a few feet away from himself and refocused on the meditation.  Where 
was he? Oh yes...total relaxation...

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

           "Unnnngghh...." Karma groaned, sitting up and mindful of the pain 
in her neck.  She looked about herself groggily. She was still in space...that 
was good, at least she hadn't crashed.  The monotonous programmed voices had 
since stopped informing her of her ship's less-than-flyable condition but the 
warning lights all remained ablaze, bathing her in their red glow.  "Starlight 
to base...base do you copy?" she asked, fumbling with the radio to get it to 
turn on.  Nothing but a thin line of static.  
           She guessed she had drifted out of range...but what had stopped 
her from crashing into that asteroid?  There was no way she could have missed 
it...not with the damage Jemoto had inflicted on her plane and how she had been 
careening directly toward it.  Karma shook her head slowly, unable to fathom 
it as she rubbed her eyes.  "Better get home, I guess." she sighed, tapping 
the navigational screen to coax it to work.  It made a whirring sound but 
brought nothing up.  
         Confused, she hit the "location" button, hoping it would jog something 
in the small computer's memory. The screen flickered before filling with one 
continuous message "Uncharted solar system...no data found." Karma was beginning 
to get frustrated as she hit the button again...and again.  Still the same 
response was listed. Deciding the computer had somehow been damaged, she gave 
up on it.  Surely she could find her way to Corneria on her own.  
         She tentatively took the wheel.  "Please work..." she urged, tilting 
the wheel to the right slightly. The plane shuddered but obeyed, turning in 
the desired direction.  THERE! There was Corneria straight up ahead.  It looked 
a bit more vast than she remembered it, but then again she had only lived in 
one part her whole life...she supposed wherever she landed, she would have to 
explain her situation and borrow a ship.  Certainly they'd be understanding...after 
all, Venom could strike at the most inopportune times.  
         She pushed forward, beginning to feel the gravitational pull of the 
comforting blue planet up ahead.  Karma promised herself that once she got 
home she would turn in her flight license and never go out on missions again.  
Maybe she could get an office job or better yet, she and Matt could move out 
to the countryside somewhere. There was no stress there...they could fall in 
love all over again. Who knew? Maybe they could even start a family.
        The damaged wing began to shake and smoke as they were overtaken by 
re-entry. Karma silently willed it to stay on...the cargo planes had been 
designed to take the force of re-entering the gravity field, but even they 
could crash without wings. The engine whined and sputtered, protesting as 
Karma urged the craft on.  "Don't do this to me...PLEASE don't do this to 
me...we're so close." she muttered worriedly, noting for the first time her 
fuel gauge was dangerously low.  She guessed the tank had sprung a leak due 
to the hits she'd taken.  Once they were out of the re-entry zone, she'd have 
to land the first place she was able or risk crashing.  Her half of a right 
wing was holding up amazingly well and she found if she kept the controls 
shifted slightly in that direction, she could maintain the craft's equilibrium.
       That bright side, however, was dashed as a horrible sound dimmed her 
hopes.  The engine made a loud grinding noise that grew fainter...and 
fainter...and stopped. The engine had stopped working.  "Oh god...oh dear 
god...." she gasped, yanking back on the controls...the most important thing, 
some little voice in her head told her, was to stay in the air as long as she 
could. However, pulling back on the controls had little to no effect as the 
plane began to drop in a graceful arc at first...and then like a rock.  She 
cried out, knowing this time she would most definitely meet her doom and there 
would be no unseen hand to catch her. The patchwork world below became more 
and more defined as the plane rocketed straight toward it...and somewhere 
along the line, Karma blacked out.

                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

          Maximus was long lost in the meditation process.  He had never come 
quite this far with it before and guessed his previous attempts at meditation 
had simply been a glorified way of taking a nap.  His mind's eye swirled with 
pale blues and grays, making his body feel as though it were surrounded by a 
comforting aura of warmth. He had tried this once before with Tigerlilly when 
they had been a little more than children but hadn't been able to reap any 
results.  Probably because his thread of patience had been too short then and 
had considerably lengthened as he had aged.
         His mind resounded with snatches of thoughts and memories as he slowly 
lapsed into a peaceful, dream-like state. Yes this was much different from 
the other times he had attempted meditation. His thoughts, however, were irked 
by a distant humming noise that was steadily growing nearer. Curious, he shook 
himself out of his deep state of mind and looked for a source. Not seeing 
anything nearby, he cast a quick glance skyward and was nearly startled out 
of his skin to see a large smoking craft barreling toward him. 
       "Holy hell!" he exclaimed, scuttling backwards as quickly as he could 
until he thought he had reached a safe distance. There was an earth-shattering 
crash followed by a long silence.  When Max dared to look, the sight nearly 
sent him into convulsions of anger.  A rather large plane, one that looked 
like it had been quite torn up recently, had landed directly on top of the 
breastplate of his enertiatron suit and had quite effectively destroyed it.   
"DAMMIT!!!" he cried, pounding one fist into the soil. "GOD DAMMIT!!!"  
He was trembling with rage and felt he was more than justified in doing so.  
Not only had his relaxation been shattered, now one of his key elements to 
defeating Donnamakite and Nitro was gone because of whatever jackass was 
piloting that hunk of junk.  
        The door to the offending aircraft yawned open with a creak and someone 
staggered out. Even from here Max could tell the person was hurt, but it didn't 
effect his anger in the least bit.  "Whoever you are, I hope you're goddamned 
proud of yourself!!" he bellowed, stalking briskly forward and glaring icily 
at the figure who appeared to be too weak to stand. "You have NO idea what y
ou've just done!! You hear me??" he got no reply...the figure seemed to be 
failing to even acknowledge his presence which escalated his anger.  "I'm 
talking to you!!  Who the hell are---better yet, WHAT the hell are you??" he 
asked, finally getting a good look at the figure's face. It looked up at him 
with bleary orange eyes hidden behind thick lashes, its yellow skin marred by 
bleeding gashes in several places.
       "C-Call...Corneria City...tell...them...Star..L-Light...needsss...to 
go...home..." a female voice gasped, trailing off as she collapsed, lying 
still in the sand. Max fought the urge to kick the body as he circled it. He 
was angry enough to explode and this...THING was the reason for his current 
situation. The notion crossed his mind to simply leave her here...let her die 
if that's what the good lord intended.  What the hell was she anyway? She 
looked like a giant salamander. 
       When he thought he had his anger enough in check, Maximus carefully 
turned the body over, glaring at the strange female spitefully as her eyelids 
fluttered.  From the way her leg was bent, he could almost be certain it was 
broken. As he eyed her battered form, some notion spoke up in his head that 
she probably hadn't intended to crash...and most certainly not on top of his 
suit.
      "Falco....Slippy...." she muttered, looking as though she were trying 
to move and not having much success. 
      "Well, whatever you are, I guess we can finish this when you wake up." 
Max grumbled, working his hands under the body and lifting it over one 
shoulder.  She made a pitiful mewling sound that, if she were in better shape, 
would have been a cry of pain as Maximus walked with his fairly odd cargo 
back to the house.

               * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

       "Any sign of her?" Matt asked, peering over General Pepper's shoulder 
at the computer screen.
       "I'm afraid not, Mr. Starlight."  Pepper said regretfully. "We've done 
all we can.  It's almost as though she just disappeared.  Her ship wasn't 
found, there was no body...there wasn't even evidence of a crash."
       "Well maybe she made it to Fortuna." Matt suggested.
       "Mr. Starlight, don't you think that's the first place we checked?" 
Pepper asked, sounding somewhat exasperated. The wolf's eyes narrowed.
       "Look, you old fleabag. I want my wife back. NOW!" he snarled, pounding 
a fist into his open palm. 
       "I'm afraid yelling at me is going to accomplish nothing." the hound 
said indignantly in reply. "We have some of our best search teams working on 
the problem as we speak.  If they find anything, you and I will be the first 
to know." 
       "General Pepper, sir?" an official-sounding voice filtered through 
one of the speakers on the radio.
       "I read you, Arlin." the hound said, jolting upright in his chair.
       "Lombardi and Toad said they lost her somewhere near Sector X, 
correct?" the voice asked, crackling a bit with static.
       "Right." Pepper nodded.
       "Near the asteroid field?"
       "Correct." 
       "I think we might have found the problem then." Arlin said, somewhat 
proudly.
       "Explain." General Pepper instructed.
       "Well, after scouting the area, we've found something rather interesting." 
Arlin began.  "Have you ever heard of wormholes?"
       "Interdimensional warp pockets, yes I've heard of them."  Pepper 
muttered.
       "I think we've found an active one in this asteroid field...and I'd 
bet anything it's where Starlight ended up." Arlin informed him.  Pepper was 
silent for a moment, thinking of a good way to reply to the last statement.
       "Well go get her, you son of a bitch!!" Matt growled threateningly.
       "General?" Arlin asked, sounding confused. 
       "So sorry, Arlin.  Starlight's husband is a bit..err...ANXIOUS for 
her return."  Pepper faltered, sparing Matt an angry look. 
       "Understandable.  We're doing all we can, Mr. Starlight." Arlin said 
respectively.
       "You're not doing enough!" Matt replied angrily. "Pepper, I want 
permission to go out after her myself!" 
       "Mr. Starlight, I'm afraid you haven't quite had the training necessary 
to--" he was silenced by Matt's steely gaze. 
       "I've got a flight license and I have access to any of the planes in 
the docking bay, thanks to my wife's clearance codes. I'm going with or without 
your authorization, SIR."  he delivered the last word with much resentment. 
Pepper regarded him for a very long moment, his expression unplaceable.
       "Go then." Pepper said quietly. "I'll say this now...I've never liked 
you, Starlight.  Your wife has always covered up for her bad treatment, but 
don't think I don't know what goes on behind the closed doors.  The only thing 
I'd object to about you taking this mission is possibly losing a valuable 
aircraft." the old hound lifted one lip to show his maw of fangs.  "The fleet, 
your wife, Corneria in general could ALL get along just fine without you."  
Matt stood, awestruck, for a moment as though someone had just hit him but 
quickly regained his composure.
       "Keep your pleasantries to yourself, you senile old bastard." he said 
through clenched teeth. "There's a system of order that's kept in my house 
and my wife respects that."
       "Yes...poor girl." Pepper remarked, turning his attention back to the 
computer screen and refusing to acknowledge Matt's presence any longer. For 
a moment, Matt fought the urge to hit him before angrily wheeling around on 
his heel and walking briskly out of the office. He didn't care anymore...he 
was going to get Karma back, he decided, and no one was going to stop him 
from doing that.  He walked down the hallway, his shoes resounding off of the 
walls as he did so until he reached his destination...the third office door 
from the end of the hallway.   A young she-ferret looked up as the door was 
pushed open and stopped shuffling papers for a moment.
        "May I help you sir?" she asked. 
        "I've been granted permission to use an arwing for a search party 
mission." he began.  "I'd like to fill out the release form."

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



                                     CHAPTER FOUR


         Nog Fog was awakened rudely by the slamming of a door and heavy 
footsteps in the hallway.  He blinked, his eyelids feeling heavy, as he turned 
onto his side.  He hated it when Max got up early...he hated it even more when 
Max got HIM up early.  He made a muffled groaning noise and buried his face 
in the fabric of the pillow. His room was saturated in pale darkness..the soft 
indigo that paints the sky in the twilight hours of the morning.
       "Shh...don't move." he heard Max say quietly. This was followed by 
something muttered incoherently in a female voice. "No...don't go dying on 
me or anything. That's the last thing I need right now."  Now Nog Fog was 
completely awake and jolted upright in his bed.
       "What the hell?" he wondered, throwing the covers back. The metal 
boots of the enertiatron suit clanked loudly on the hardwood floor as he threw 
open the bedroom door and crossed the hallway, peering into Max's room. What 
he was boggled his mind.  Sprawled across Max's bed was a battered-looking 
female shape.  She was covered in dust and blood and trying to speak.  But 
what was she? An alien of some kind, he guessed.  
       "Home...Corneria...get there..." she panted, trickle of blood running 
from the corner of her mouth.  Max winced and wiped it away.  
       "Calm down."  he instructed, his voice a mixture of revulsion and mild 
concern.  "Just...calm down. We'll get a doctor or something out here to look 
at you."  Maximus knew his words were empty. There was no god-given way he'd 
tolerate a doctor out here. There'd be too many questions involved...and then 
that might lead to further investigation and he could very well do without 
that.  He hoped she wasn't too badly damaged and would simply recover on her 
own but it was looking less and less likely.
      "Max?" Nog Fog asked apprehensively. Maximus turned, looking slightly 
bewildered.
      "Make yourself useful. Go wet some paper towels and help me get her 
cleaned up." Max ordered.  Nog Fog didn't bother protesting...even he could 
see this wasn't a good time to do so as he left Max and the strange girl. 
      "Matt...Maaaatt." she wailed, trying to sit up. "I'm sorry...s-s-so 
sorry."  Maximus easily restrained her and pushed her back onto the mattress 
with little resistance.  She fluttered her eyelids, her breath rattling in her 
chest.
      "Just calm down." he said softly but firmly.  "You're gonna hurt yourself."  
A nagging thought occurred to him that he would have to change the sheets 
after this ordeal...hell, maybe the whole mattress too.
      "Call...Call Pepper." she wheezed. 
      "Err yeah, we'll call Pepper." he told her, not having the slightest 
idea what she was talking about. His anger had all but melted away and was 
being replaced with confusion.  As he looked at her, he realized just how 
peculiar she was. She looked like an amphibian of some sort...a frog was his 
best guess judging by the lack of a tail...or maybe it had been broken off 
when she had crashed. He wasn't sure.  
      "I got'em, Max!" Nog Fog said breathlessly, handing over a large wad of 
moist paper towels. He accepted them and tore one off, wondering where he 
should begin. It was hard to tell where she had been hurt most. He decided her 
face would be a good start as he wiped away a dark smear of blood across her 
left cheek. 
      "Think she'll be okay?" Nog Fog asked, eyeing the creature curiously.
      "I dunno." Max answered distractedly, slowly bringing her face back into 
recognition as he washed away the filth from the crash.  She was still quite 
young, he realized.  Maybe only in her twenties at most.  A large gash trailed 
from the corner of her right eye to her forehead and he guessed this is where 
most of the blood had come from as he got himself a new towel to tend to it. 
She flinched a bit under his administrations but didn't struggle.
      "Where'd ya find her?" the blonde youth asked. 
      "Later, Nog Fog." Max growled, not in the mood to be peppered with 
questions. The youth shrugged and posted himself quietly at the foot of the 
bed, watching his trainer and the strange female.

                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

           Karma drifted on a void of blackness, unable to come back to reality.
Cold rivers of pain washed over her from time to time, making her shudder and 
retreat further into the suffocating dark.  There was a coppery taste in her 
throat that, no matter how many times she swallowed, she couldn't get to go 
away. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe...it even hurt to think.  Strange 
voices muttered in echoed nonsense in the cage of her skull. Though they were 
somehow soothing, they frightened her terribly to the point of wanting to 
claw, scream...just to assure herself she still could.
           She somehow wanted to believe that this was all a nightmare and she'd 
wake up warm and protected in her own house. Matt could beat her all he 
wanted...she would still be glad to be home. She'd never go on flight missions 
again.  Never leave home. Never go out of her husband's sight. Finally, she 
managed to summon an inner reserve of strength, making her resurface out of 
the reservoir of inky darkness as bright light smacked her cruelly in the face. 
She let a shuddering cry and quickly shut her eyes again. 
          "I've got her face cleaned up pretty much." she heard a male voice say. 
"I guess we should have a look at the rest of her...I mean, she could be 
hurt in other places and..."  the voice took on a rather uncomfortable tinge 
as though the speaker didn't exactly relish the prospect of what he had just 
proposed.  Karma didn't like it too well either...in fact, she hated it. 
         "Yeah don't worry Max. I know what ya mean." a different voice said.
This one sounded slightly younger. She wanted to protest but knew she was 
unable as she felt her torso being lifted slightly.
         "Here...help me with her arms." the first voice said quietly. Karma 
felt her skin prickle as her shirt was lifted. There was a pregnant pause 
before she felt it being quickly replaced. "Nothing wrong there...a couple 
of scratches. We can bandage those later." 
         "You okay Max?" the second voice asked.
         "I'm fine." the reply came irately.
         "Just asking, sheesh. Your hands are shaking."   
         "What are you doing? Who are you?" she tried to ask, but all her 
mouth would form were slurred incoherent words and a raspy hiss.
         "I still think her leg's broken." the first voice, what was the 
other man calling him? Max? said. 
         "How can you tell?"
         "Trust me, I've lived a lot longer than you have. I know a broken 
leg when I see one. I just need a closer look is all. It's hard to tell with 
those pilot pants in the way."  Pants?? They were going to take off her pants?? 
That was going too far. Hurt or not, she wouldn't stand for it. She sought 
purchase on the soft surface beneath her with the balls of her hands and with 
the last ounce of her strength, attempted to push herself into a sitting 
position.
         "Look, she's trying to sit up." the younger voice remarked.
         "Don't let her." Max ordered. "She might live at this rate if she'll 
stop trying to hurt herself.  This is difficult enough as it is without her 
making it harder."  Karma felt disappointment well in her heart so greatly it 
almost brought her to tears as a powerful hand pushed her onto her back again.  
"Make sure she doesn't move." Max said quietly. Karma felt a breeze wash 
over her midsection as her pants were removed. Humiliation blossomed in her 
cheeks as there was a pause.
         "So whaddya think?" the younger male asked.
         "Not broken." Max replied. "There's some really bad bruising...
probably tore some muscles."
         "Geez, should I start calling you 'doc'?" the other voice quipped. 
There was a sound like a hammer on a coconut. "Owww..." 
         "I've seen about every fighting-related wound there is. This is torn 
muscle." Max assured the other. 
         "Ya didn't have to hit me..." the younger whined.  
         "Well, I guess she's okay externally...maybe all she needs is some 
time to recover and she'll be fine.  We still have that first aid kit?"
         "Probably. We haven't used that since the last time Nitro attacked 
the city."
         "And threw you into that armored truck...yeah I remember that." Max 
chuckled. "Well, see if you can find the medical tape and some gauze."  Karma 
twitched a little as she felt fingers run over her forehead. "You know what 
this is, kid? This is ironic.  A few minutes ago I was ready to kill her and 
now here we are bending over backwards to make sure she pulls through."
         "Why were ya gonna kill her?" the younger voice inquired.
         "Eh...I'll explain later." Max faltered. Karma strained to hear as 
more words were exchanged, but knew she was succumbing to the heavy sleep 
that tugged at her. With a final sigh, she slipped away and knew no more.

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


                                      CHAPTER FIVE


         "Make this quick, soldier. My time is valuable." Andross growled 
from behind his desk.  Silver hair fell about the ape's pointed ears in rivers 
and his wizened features were fixed into a scowl.
         "Many apologies, Andross suh..." Jemoto faltered. "Know how ya put 
Scourge an' me on patrol this mornin'? Out in sectuh 504?"  He twitched his 
white-tipped tail nervously as the ape leaned closer to him, rancid breath 
venting from between his fangs. 
         "What of it?" he asked menacingly.
         "Well...uhh...ya see, suh...if you please, suh...this mornin' two of 
the Stahfox fleet membuhs came by with a lass in a cahgo plane."  he stuttered, 
beads of sweat beginning to stand out on his forehead.
         "You had better hope, for the sake of your life, you're about to tell 
me they DIDN'T get away." 
         "Well..." Jemoto said under his breath.
         "Well WHAT?" Andross prompted, his eyes narrowing to slits.
         "See Scourge was supposed ta be takin' care of the Stahfox fleet and 
I went aftuh the lass...and I thought I had done 'er in seein' as how she was 
headed for this giant asteroid. But then somethin' happened and she just...
just...disappeahed."  Jemoto watched as the ape's nails dug into the polished 
wood of his desk, making a most unpleasant scratching sound. His eyes began to 
sting with tears of worry as he wondered if he was facing his last moments 
alive.
         "You expect me to believe that you hindered something as large as a 
cargo plane, sent it hurtling toward an asteroid, and then watched as it 
vanished??" Andross was no longer sitting and now stood, gripping the sides of 
the desk in a white-knuckled hold as he trembled with rage.
         "Y-Y-Yes suh...." Jemoto whimpered, backing away.  He wondered if 
maybe he could make it to the door before Andross reached him if he ran. 
However, he found himself unable to do anything as Andross slowly approached 
him, his very STANCE radiating anger.
         "Now you listen to me, you sorry excuse for a throw rug." Andross 
sneered, seizing the fox by his neck.  Jemoto gave a barking cough and tried 
to struggle. "I've put up with enough of your screw-ups.  I've tolerated fewer 
lies and less manipulation from higher ranking troopers than you. And unless 
you can give me a good excuse as to why I shouldn't break your neck like a 
dry twig, I'm about to rid myself of one major annoyance."  Jemoto made a 
strangled grunt as though he were trying to answer as his eyes rolled back 
into his head.  "No answer, soldier? That's really a shame." Andross said 
with an eerie calm in his voice.  
         The only noise for a long moment was Jemoto's choked breathing. Each 
second expanded itself like a soap bubble before finally a wet snapping noise 
was heard.  Jemoto's body went limp in Andross's strong fists and his head 
lulled bonelessly to the side.  The ape threw the dead fox to the ground with 
as much distaste as one might regard a pile of decomposing trash and watched 
with mild interest as a thin runner of blood ran from the corpse's left nostril, 
pelting soundlessly to the tile floor in a spreading rosette.   
         The ape sauntered back to his desk and casually reached for his 
intercom.  "Delawrence." he said flatly into the receiver.  
        "Yes sir?" a timid voice replied. 
        "Send someone up to take care of this "mess" in my office." he replied 
coldly.
        "Right away." Delawrence agreed.  Andross leaned back in his chair, 
his eyes blazing.  He was surrounded by idiots, he concluded.  They had been 
given countless chances to blow Starfox out of the sky...and today they had 
been served two key members of the Starfox team on a silver platter.  Even 
THEN they couldn't handle them. With a roar of outrage, Andross slammed both 
fists onto his desk, listening to the dull thud they made.  He silently vowed 
that one way or another, he WOULD see the Starfox team destroyed...someday.
                 
                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

           Karma slowly opened her eyes.  The first thing she was aware of 
was a dull ache that radiated to every inch of her body. Even blinking her 
eyes hurt as she shifted her head slowly to the side with a moan.  As her 
sight came into focus, she became aware of something white on her arm. She 
squinted to see better and discovered it was a bandage. 
           Tentatively, she lifted one hand, flexing the fingers until the 
stiffness left them and she was able to move them comfortably and then ran 
her fingers over her forehead.  Another bandage.  She drew her fingers back 
as though the gauze was hot and tried to recall what had happened, her head 
swimming. She remembered the crash most vividly and then the sensation of 
being crushed behind the wheel. The next thing she remembered was being 
tended to by a couple of men whom she knew only by voice.  But where was she 
now?
           Ignoring the pain, she forced herself to sit up bit by bit. Her 
head felt as though it weighed twenty pounds and lulled forward in an almost 
drunken manner.  She was in a bedroom, she realized with mingled fascination 
and horror.  It was sparsely furnished, the light was on, and the door was 
left yawning open, revealing a hallway of darkness.  More than anything, it 
was the silence that bothered her. She would have been comforted to at least 
have heard the reassuring drone of a voice nearby, but the only noise besides 
her shallow breathing was the hum of the crickets outside.
          "Help." she managed to croak, hating how weak she sounded.  "Is 
anyone there?"  Deep down, Karma knew no one would be able to hear her. Her 
voice sounded like a pitiful mewl in her throat and was more of a hiss than 
an audible sound.  "Somebody??"  At length, she gave up, a hot tear slipping 
from the corner of one orange eye.  She was too weak to do anything, even 
cry for help. She had never felt so utterly helpless before. 
           A sound made her freeze, every muscle in her body locking up. 
There were footsteps coming from nearby...VERY nearby. Her eyes remained 
locked on the door as a shape slowly appeared. A...creature, that was the 
best way she could describe it, came into view. It looked like a hairless ape 
or something of that nature with a tuft of blonde hair on its head and 
inquisitive blue eyes.  It wore a full-body suit of armor and was looking at 
her questioningly.
          "Wow...you're awake." he said after a moment. She instantly 
recognized the voice as one of the people who was tending to her earlier.
          "Who are you?" she asked as he approached. He smiled a little at 
her. It was a good-natured smile and he looked amiable enough. 
          "Nog Fog." he answered. Had she possessed the strength to do it, 
she would have cocked her head at an inquisitive angle. Nog Fog? What kind of 
name was that? "Listen, my trainer brought you here really early this morning. 
He still won't tell me where he found you or what happened, but we're pretty 
sure you're going to be okay."  he seated himself on the mattress, making her 
recoil a bit.
          "This...this isn't Corneria, is it?" she inquired, sounding exhausted 
and concerned.
          "Corneria?" the youth asked, leaning close to hear her better.  
"No...this is Earth."  the look she gave him was unplaceable. She looked as 
though she was about to cry but then quickly regained herself.
          "I need to get home." she said flatly.  
          "Home? Is that where you're from? Corneria?" he asked her. She 
nodded slowly, mindful of her aching neck.  "Max never tells me anything." he 
grumbled. "Well, I guess once you get better, we can look into getting you 
home.  For now, Max and I have been taking shifts checking up on you and I 
guess I got lucky this time.  Do you want something to eat?" She noticed for 
the first time he was carrying a bowl of oatmeal in one hand. It smelled 
wonderful and she was mindful of the pangs in her empty stomach, but the 
thought of actually summoning the strength to push spoonfuls of it past her 
lips and swallow it made a sick feeling wash over her.
          "No." she breathed, blinking slowly until she had her gorge under 
control. Nog Fog shrugged and set the bowl on the nightstand.
          "So what are you exactly?" he asked. 
          "Huh?" came her eloquent reply.
          "What are you?" he repeated.  "Are you some kind of frog? I mean, 
no offense but that's what you look like."
          "Well....yes." she answered, sounding like she was boggled he could 
even have asked such an obvious question.  "A tree frog actually. What 
species are you?"
          "Species?" he asked, slightly taken aback.
          "Yeah species." she pushed. "Are you a breed of gorilla?"
          "I..uhh...wouldn't go that far. Actually, I'm a human." he smirked, 
rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
          "Human." she repeated, trying the word out. "I've never heard of 
that before."
          "Better get used to it. Earth's crawlin' with them." he chuckled.  
"Ya know, I think I'd better let you rest. Max'll probably be in here in a couple 
of hours to check on you.  He decided to sleep on the couch for the night since 
you're kind of taking up his bed."
          "This is someone else's bed?" she asked, sounding a bit horrified.
          "Of course..." Nog Fog answered, sounding a little confused. "What 
kind of bed did you think you were sleeping in?"
          "I thought this was a guest bed or something...I didn't want to make 
someone sleep on the couch." she groaned.
          "Trust me, lady, you need it more than he does right now." Nog Fog 
assured her.
          "Karma." 
          "Hmm?"
          "My name is Karma...not lady." she corrected him.  Nog Fog rolled 
his eyes and smiled.  Even in the compromising state she was in, some women 
always had to have the last word about something. 
          "Well, it was nice meeting you, Karma."  he told her.  "Try not to
move too much...we'll see if you can still walk tomorrow."  she nodded a 
little, her throat hurting a bit from the talking she had done as the young 
man left the room. She watched him go, half of her wanting him to stay and 
have him answer all the questions she had and half of her being glad she was 
alone again.  Tomorrow was another day, she assumed, as she situated herself 
on her back and tried to get back to sleep despite the whirling turmoil her 
mind had become.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

          "How is she?" Max asked, startling Nog Fog as he walked down the 
hallway.  He had been standing there for the past few minutes listening to 
the two of them talk.  
          "She's better." Nog Fog nodded happily. "She's actually talking...
and understands English." 
          "She speaks fluent English from what I could hear." Max muttered. 
"Did you find out where she came from or what she's doing here?"  the blonde-
haired youth shrugged.  
          "She comes from somewhere called Corneria and I think she's here 
by mistake." Nog Fog told his trainer. "She didn't seem to happy when I told 
her where she was."  Maximus nodded. 
          "So she IS an alien." he said quietly as if confirming his own 
suspicions.
          "She's pretty nice." Nog Fog continued. Max glared at his student, 
almost SURE of where this was going. "Kind of pretty too in a weird sort of 
way.  Do you think maybe me and her---"
          "No. I don't." Maximus cut him short.  "I honestly don't."

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


                                       CHAPTER SIX


          "Matt! What're you doing here?" Slippy squeaked, looking quite 
startled as the gray wolf lumbered into the docking bay. 
          "I'm here to get a plane." he answered simply, fixing a glare on 
the toad. "There a problem?"
          "N-No...no problem." Slippy answered. "But whaddya need a plane 
for?" 
          "I'm going off to find my wife, if its any concern of yours." he 
sneered. "While you're sitting here dinking around with your tools she could 
be anywhere.  I'm sick of the search teams' half-assed attempts to find her. 
I'll do it myself." he paused, his eyes scanning the different aircrafts.  
"I'll take that arwing." he said decidedly, pointing to an arwing with red 
trim. 
          "That one? But I'm not done--" Slippy began.
          "Then GET done." Matt snapped. "I want that thing ready to go in 
the next ten minutes or else Pepper's gonna wonder where the interesting 
green smear on the walls in here came from." Slippy shuddered, half with rage 
and half with revulsion. 
          "I'll do what I can." he told the gray wolf.  "God, how does Karma 
put up with him??" he wondered to himself as he gathered up an armload of 
tools and scuttled toward the arwing.  Really all that was wrong with the 
aircraft was there was a leak in its fuel tank. That could easily be fixed 
with a blowtorch and a piece of scrap metal to meld over the hole.  However, 
he didn't happen to have a blowtorch and so made do with the materials he was 
presented with. He had a few rivets in his toolbox left over from a previous 
project.  One of those would work, he decided, as he grabbed one up and 
hammered it into place firmly to the point of not being able to pull it out 
anymore.  "There....ready to fly." he said loud enough for Matt to hear.  
          "Good." Matt said flatly, clambering onto the wing and pushing 
open the pilot door where he got inside hurriedly. 
          "Godspeed!" Slippy called after him as the arwing's engine ground 
to a start. "And may SOMEONE up there find it within their heart to let you 
never come back." he added under his breath with a mock salute as the plane 
roared out of the docking bay. Behind the controls, Matt fixed a determined 
look on his face.  He'd show all those pissant flunkies of Pepper's when he 
brought his wife home.  He knew she'd never leave again after this and he 
planned to make sure of that.  

                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

          The sun peeked over the distant mountains, painting the sky a 
golden red color and setting the clouds ablaze.  Yellow light began to pool 
on the floor of Sir Maximus's and Nog Fog's small dwelling, gradually 
spreading to the couch where Max slept, gently coaxing him awake. He groaned, 
stretching and poking a finger through an eyehole in his paper bag to rub at
his eyes.  He felt like he had been hit by a mack truck...he supposed it 
didn't help that he hadn't slept much the night before. 
         Remembering his reason for being on the couch, Max got up and 
shuffled down the hallway into his room.  Karma was lying peacefully on her 
back, her head turned to the side and her hair spreading over the pillow 
like a dark brown fan.  For a brief moment, because he failed to see the 
steady rise and fall of her chest, he worried she might be dead and quickly 
put a palm before her mouth, relaxing as he felt warm breath vent over his 
fingers.
         Evidently, this had somehow disturbed her as her eyes fluttered 
open and she turned to look at him, her face dropping instantly from sleepy 
malcontent to shock. She sat up and groaned, obviously having hurt something 
before quickly resuming her state of fright. 
        "Who are you??" she demanded to know. 
        "I think I'm more entitled to ask that question than you are." 
Max countered.  "Who sent you?"
        "Sent me?" she asked, her aura of confusion so thick it could be 
cut with a knife.
        "I think it's a pretty unlikely coincidence that your plane dropped 
directly onto my suit. That HAD to be planned." Max told her, his voice 
holding a tone of resentment.  "You working for Donnamakite?"
        "Donna muh kee tay?" she asked, her voice tone rising. "Who's that??
What're you talking about??"
        "Look, you've got a lot of explaining to do." Max said.  
        "And you don't??" she asked.  Had her voice been better, she would 
have been screaming at him. "I want to know who you people are, where I am, 
and how I got here, dammit!"  Max glared at her for a long moment, letting a 
shuddering sigh to contain his anger.
        "You're on earth, in my house, in MY bed I might add.  I'm a trainer 
and live with my student, Nog Fog. Anything else you wanna know??"
        "What have you got over your head?" she asked, wrinkling her nose a 
little with distaste.  Max inwardly flinched.
        "That...is none of your business." Max managed. 
        "You said I could ask...and if you don't want me here that much, why
the hell did you bring me here??" she demanded to know.
        "I don't want you here...but that's not to say I can turn my back on 
someone dying either. Believe me, you've been a less than likeable houseguest."
he told her, crossing his arms over his chest. He hadn't even noticed that 
Karma had managed to summon the strength to heave herself out of bed or that 
she was crossing the room until she was nearly touching noses with him. 
        "You listen to me." she growled at him. "I never asked to be here, 
I never asked you to bring me here, and I CERTAINLY never asked to land on 
this planet...wherever this planet is. So just back off and let me see if I 
can fix my ship so I won't darken your doorstep anymore." she supposed she 
hadn't meant to be quite that harsh, but she wasn't about to stand by and let 
him speak to her that way. She made a quick inventory of her outfit to make 
sure she was still fully dressed and then walked stiffly out of Max's bedroom. 
        "Yeah?? Yer welcome!!" Max called after her angrily.  "And good luck 
getting that tin can in the air!! It doesn't even LOOK like a friggin' plane 
anymore!!!"  he whirled to look at the sheets. There were several reddish 
brown stains that had long-since dried since they had seeped from her wounds 
and there were smears of dirt everywhere. He grabbed the sheets tightly and 
tore them from the bed, throwing them to the floor in a rage. Who, in god's 
name, did she think she was? Not even a blasted 'thank you'.  
        "What're you doing up?" he heard Nog Fog say in the hallway. 
        "Leaving." Karma's voice replied firmly. "Your friend with the paper 
sack on his head doesn't want me here." 
        "Really? But he's the one who brought you here..." Nog Fog answered, 
sounding a little more than confused.
        "Whatever." she sighed.  "He's acting like it's my fault I crashed 
or something. I don't recall ASKING to be brought here." 
        "Well...he's been on a hair trigger since ya came here. I dunno why 
but he has." Nog Fog offered. 
        "That's no excuse." she grumbled.
        "At any rate...at least you're looking better." Nog Fog told her, 
trying to change the subject. 
        "I just want to fix my plane and go home..." she sighed. "I'm sorry 
for sounding like an ingrate...it was really nice of you and your friend--"
        "Trainer." Max corrected, standing in the shadowed hallway where he 
was watching her, his expression not without resentment. 
        "...of you and your TRAINER to help me." she corrected, glaring at 
Maximus.  "I wish there was something I could do to repay you two..."
        "You could tell me why you totaled my suit." Max muttered eliciting 
a puzzled look from Nog Fog and a dark expression from Karma as she quickly 
closed the distance between her and the strange being.
        "For the last time, I wasn't INTENDING on totaling anything!" she 
snapped. 
        "Well for not intending to ya sure did a good job of it!" Max snorted 
in reply. 
        "You know what? I'm not even going to waste my breath arguing with 
you. You're too damned immature." Karma hissed.
        "You just know I'm right." Max countered. It was impossible to tell 
whether he was favoring her with a smug look or not under his paper bag, but 
never the less she felt her rage rising.  "And as for immature, I've lived 
for hundreds of years, you phibiod freak!" 
        "Freak?? Looks who's talking! You getting enough air in that lunchbag??" 
she punctuated this by rapping with one fist on top of the bag he wore over 
his head. 
        "Knock it off!" Max growled, knocking her arm away.  Nog Fog stood 
by, listening to the two of them argue and trying not to laugh. For a moment 
he entertained the idea of telling them they sounded like they were married 
the way they were bickering but in the end didn't dare for obvious reasons. 
Being hit by ONE irate alien was bad enough, after all.

                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



                                   CHAPTER SIX


          The days dragged on slowly.  After some coaxing from Nog Fog, and 
seeing the condition of her plane, Karma had agreed to stay. After all, there 
really was nowhere else she could go. She had willingly given up Max's bed 
for the couch for which, Max was more than grateful. He and Karma continued 
to avoid each other whenever it was possible, however, to keep unneeded 
static at bay.  After a time, the situation hadn't looked as hopeless as he 
thought and it wasn't too much of a contest to distinguish the cargo plane's 
parts from the delicate machinery of the enertiatron suit's breastplate and 
he made it a point to make a trip to the ravine at least once a day to see 
about finding more.
         Karma, meanwhile, faced an inner struggle.  Her heart had been 
broken when she saw the smashed remains of what had once been her aircraft. 
She had a little mechanic knowledge thanks to Slippy, but nothing that could 
help her enough to repair the damage done.  Max had been right...it didn't 
even LOOK like a plane anymore. It looked like a pathetic excuse for modern 
art.  She had given in easily to the fact that she was never going home and 
it hurt her to think of everyone she had left behind. 
         She sat on the edge of the sandy ravine, staring off into space 
wearing a shirt that was far too big for her that had been loaned to her by 
Nog Fog and her flight pants. After Max had grudgingly led her there to see 
her plane, she found herself spending more and more of her free moments 
sitting there and thinking.  Her thoughts were interrupted by a scuffling 
sound, which made her jolt a little. Karma froze, waiting to see who'd 
appear.  She relaxed a little as Maximus walked into view. He was clad in a 
white longsleeve shirt and black pants. He had reminded her more than once 
it had been her fault he wasn't able to wear his enertiatron suit...whatever 
that was...and had been reduced to wearing normal clothes for the past few 
days. Part of her wanted to believe he was just teasing, but another part 
wanted to believe he truly hated her for what had happened. 
         She watched him go about his normal routine of kneeling beside the 
wreckage and sifting through the rubble, tossing away large jagged pieces of 
twisted metal and examining the sand closely for smaller pieces. At length, 
he came across one that interested him.  He regarded it for a long moment 
before tucking it into a pocket and getting up. Karma listened to him scramble 
back up the side of the ravine and walk away, leaving her in solitude again 
with her thoughts as her only company.    
        She sighed wistfully, wishing she could be home. She imagined all the 
things she might be doing...going out to lunch with her husband, talking to 
Slippy on the docking bay floor while he tinkered with planes, maybe even 
talking to her mother on the phone. As though she had just remembered it, 
she reached into her flight pants' pocket and withdrew a black wallet.  
After a long moment of feeling its weight in her hands, she slowly opened it 
and stared at its contents with misty eyes.  
         "Whaddya have there?" a voice asked, startling her to the point of almost 
dropping the wallet. She whirled around, seeing Max standing over her looking 
curiously at what she held in her hands.
         "What do you care?" she huffed, pressing the wallet protectively against 
herself as though she was afraid he'd try to take it from her.  He shrugged.
         "Did you even HAVE any friends back home? I can't imagine people staying 
around you for more than about ten minutes with that attitude." Max told her. 
         "Very funny...I used to be married." she said threateningly before her 
expression melted into one of self-loathing.  "Did I just say 'used to'?" 
she groaned. Max cocked a questioning brow.  "I AM married." she said with 
as much sureness in her voice as she could muster.
         "Well, glad you're so certain of it." he snorted. "What were you 
looking at?" Little by little, Karma moved the wallet into his line of sight 
and showed him the snapshot of her husband. It was in black and white and 
was well-worn at the edges.  Max regarded it for a long moment, his face 
expressionless.  "You're married to a wolf?" he asked skeptically.
        "Is there a problem?" she asked, her voice welling with venom.  
        "Well, how could you?" he asked.
        "What do you mean, how could I??" she asked.  "I loved him, he asked
me and I said yes!"
        "No I mean literally, how could you? A wolf and a frog mating boggles 
my mind." he reiterated.  Karma faltered a moment, not knowing what she could 
possibly say to counter that.  As Max watched her face go from yellow to a 
curious pink color to beet red, he couldn't keep from snickering.  "What'd 
he do? Did he bite ya? Did he make you howl?"  Karma winced as he broke off 
into slight laughter. "What was that look for? You're acting like someone 
just hit you or something."  he remarked amid his chuckling. Karma's mind 
flashed. She saw the belt coming down on her over and over again, marring 
her flesh as she cried and pleaded with the bearer to stop. Underlying it 
all was Maximus's laughter.
        "Shut up!" she cried, leaping to her feet and shoving him. Max was 
unprepared and fell onto his backside with an audible woofing noise, goggling 
up at her. 
        "Geez it was a joke!" he cried, getting up and dusting himself off. 
"What the hell is your problem??"  
        "You think its funny?? You think getting hit is funny??" she shrieked. 
Max looked confused.
        "I never said--"
        "See how funny YOU think it is when someone's beating YOU into a 
corner with a belt!!" she cut him off, thrusting the wallet into her pocket 
and running past him.
        "Karma!" he called after her, getting up.  Karma wasn't listening.  
All she wanted right now was to be away from everything as she ran directly 
for the woods. Amid her pounding footsteps she could hear another set and 
knew she was being followed.  "Wait!" Max called from dangerously close behind 
her.  Just a little further and she'd be able to lose him in the woods...
just a little more.  Her hopes were shattered as she felt a strong hand close 
around her shoulder and yank backwards, bringing her to a stumbling halt.
        "Let go!" she growled, struggling, as Max closed his arms around her
to keep her from getting away. 
        "Calm down!" he told her firmly. She thrashed and struggled for a 
few moments more before slowly resuming a more tempered attitude, standing 
stiffly as her chest heaved with exertion.  "Now listen, I know you've been 
through a lot." he began, speaking against the side of her head as he 
continued to restrain her.  "And I know you don't like me very much, but 
when someone knocks me over without a good reason, I expect an explanation. 
Now I'm going to let you go, and you're going to tell me what that little 
episode was all about back there."  Saying this, he slowly released the girl.  
He half-expected her to bolt for the woods as soon as he did but she remained 
standing there, her head lowered and her shoulders trembling.  "I'm waiting."
        "I--" she began, her voice choked off by a sob. "I can't talk about 
it." she whispered, shaking so badly she was beginning to lose her balance.  
A thought occurred to Max that he should be ready to catch her if she fell, 
but he quickly dismissed it.
        "Why?" he asked. "I want to know how my teasing about your husband 
tied into being hit with a belt."  Karma refused to answer and continued to 
cry helplessly.  She wanted to scream at him to put two and two together but 
couldn't find it within her power to do it as she sank to her knees in the 
soil. Max wavered uncomfortably but didn't offer her comfort as she cried 
heavily for the next few moments.  At length she stood up, wiping at her eyes 
with the back of her hand.  "Are you okay now?" Max inquired.
        "Yeah." she said simply, squeezing her eyes shut.  "I'm gonna go 
now..." She turned to leave.
        "Wait..." Max said suddenly, his hand shooting out and grabbing her 
upper arm.  Karma looked at him, her eyes swimming with mingled emotions. 
They remained locked at the gaze for several moments before he slowly 
released her, watching as she headed back to the house.  His mind was a 
churning sea of thought as he stood, wondering what could possibly be wrong 
with her.  Maximus wasn't quite sure how long he stood but was shaken out of 
his state of pondering by a gentle roll of thunder. He looked up to see the 
sky masked over by a sheet of gray clouds and felt the first few splatters of 
cold rain pelt onto his shoulders. 
        He wondered if he would ever truly understand what was going on in 
her mind as he walked with a leisurely gait toward his home.  He felt a sick 
feeling beginning to rise in his throat as saw Nog Fog standing at the door.  
"God, what now?" he groaned as he came up the walkway.  
       "What'd you say this time, Max?" he inquired as his trainer came into
the house.
       "What're you talking about?" Max asked irately.
       "Karma's in the living room crying." his student said with concern.  
       "That's not my problem." Max replied. "I tried to find out what was 
wrong with her and she wouldn't tell me. You wanna give it a go, be my guest."  
Nog Fog favored him with a look of skepticism before shrugging and walking off, 
evidently deciding he didn't want to deal with it either.  Max had every 
intention of heading off to his room to see if he could repair a bit more of 
the chestplate. It was coming along rather nicely and would probably be ready 
to be worn again with a bit more tinkering. He was only missing a couple more 
parts, after all.   However, he found himself heading in the direction of the 
living room instead.
        It wasn't really that he cared that she was crying, he supposed...well, 
yes actually he did.  But moreso, it was the fact that he had so many 
unanswered questions. Just what button had he pushed to make her go berserk 
back there?  What was this about a belt? He edged towards the couch, hearing her 
sobbing quietly and seeing her shoulders heaving. He stood for a moment, not 
really sure of how to go about getting her attention and settled, finally, on 
clearing his throat loudly.
        "Please...just leave me alone." she whimpered, not even turning.  
        "What was that all about back there?" he asked, ignoring her request. 
        "I already told you...I can't talk about it." she muttered. "It's none 
of your business anyway." 
        "Ordinarily I'd agree there but when you attack me and start ranting 
like a lunatic, it becomes my business." Max pushed.  "Did someone hit you back 
home?" 
        "Please--"
        "Did they?" he asked a bit more firmly. There was a very long pause 
before Karma's head slowly nodded. "Who did?"  Again there was silence, but 
this time he got no answer.  "Karma..."
        "M-My father did." she told him, wincing at how blatant of a lie it 
was. "But he only did it when I deserved it. I...just have a problem with talking 
about it and after all that's happened, old things that shouldn't bother me 
are bubbling back to the top."  there was an uneasy pause and she worried he
hadn't believed her for a minute.  She couldn't tell him the truth...she 
couldn't tell ANYONE the truth about her and Matt. That was something she 
had promised to take to the grave.  She heard Max walk around the back of the 
couch and felt him sit down beside her.
        "Why didn't you just tell me that?" he asked.  "Jesus, Karma.  You 
think I wouldn't understand something like that? Of course I'd know why my 
mentioning it would have bothered you." she leapt a little when she felt one 
of his hands settle on her shoulder. 
        "I didn't think you'd care." she said quietly. "You hate me for 
wrecking that chestplate and for being here and--"
        "Teasing must be lost on you." he interrupted.  "That chestplate's 
well on its way to being fixed."  she gave him a quizzical look. 
        "Why'd you make such a big deal out of it then?" she asked, finally 
summoning the courage to make eye contact.
        "Because you take things too seriously." he told her simply.  "Every
time someone says something you act like it came from the voice of god.  
Lighten up."  Karma froze and Max braced himself, almost sure she was going 
to scream at him again but then she slowly exhaled, her shoulders slumping 
forward.  
        "You're right." she said in a small, defeated voice.  He shot her a 
surprised look.  "I--I've been a little uptight lately." she continued. "I'm 
just so tired...and I'm never going to see home again."  For the first time, 
he noticed the dark circles under her eyes. 
        "How long has it been since you've slept?" he asked her.
        "Two days or so..." she replied. 
        "That's not healthy, you know." he remarked.
        "No kidding." she grumbled.
        "There you go again." he remarked.
        "Just stop, okay?" Karma said, looking at him imploringly. He tried 
to avoid eye contact with her and not face those twin orange lanterns 
glistening with tears but in the end found it impossible.  He took a deep 
breath and moved an arm around her comfortingly, not exactly comfortable with 
it but in the end, even he couldn't turn his back on so much suffering. 
        "Look at it this way...things can't possibly get any worse, right?" 
he asked, cringing inwardly as she rested her head on his shoulder, her 
crying slowly subsiding. 
        "Things can always get worse." she whimpered. She had forgotten she 
was supposed to be holding a grudge with him...she was just glad to be 
comforted by SOMEBODY.
                 "Well think about it, you've lost your home, your ship, your 
husband, your friends, you're stuck in the middle of nowhere with strangers...how
does it get worse from there?" he asked.  There was no answer. "Karma?" 
Again no answer. He turned to look at her and a knowing expression crept over 
his face.  She had fallen fast asleep against his shoulder looking, for once, 
at peace.  He watched her for a long time, contemplating how he was going to 
go about shifting her off of him and getting up...but then wondered if he 
really wanted to.
                 He realized then that he was fairly tired as well as he 
stifled a yawn, reclining a little. He HAD been staying up rather late the 
past few nights working on repairing his enertiatron suit and had still been
getting up at his appointed time each morning. Karma muttered something 
incomprehensible and shifted her weight, continuing to slumber against him. 
Maximus cast a look out the nearby window watching as an afternoon breeze 
tousled the spindly branches of a small tree and kicked up small clouds of 
dust.
                 Somewhere along the line, he slept.

                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               "Karma, we've talked about you smoking before." an eerily calm 
male voice said. They were both seated in the front seats of a darkened car, 
most likely at a drive-in movie as the radio softly played a slow oldies song.  
She was much younger...in her late teens perhaps.
               "Hmm?" she asked around the filter of the cigarette, looking 
up from her backpack as she attempted to fish out a lighter. "What'd you say, 
honey?"
               "I said take that damned thing out of your mouth!" the voice 
replied, becoming a cruel hiss as a gray paw struck her squarely on the 
jawline. She yelped with surprise, the cigarette falling from her lips, the 
teethmarks in the filter visible. "We've talked about you smoking, haven't 
we??" the voice asked, keeping itself below bellowing level. She shuddered 
but nodded. "Where're you keeping them??"  With shaking hands, she reached 
into her backpack and withdrew a crumpled packet of cigarettes which were 
promptly snatched from her hands and crushed between two large paws.
               "Matt..you didn't need to--" she tried to say.
               "Shut up." he growled at her. "If I EVER catch you smoking 
again, it'll be the last time you'll have thirty-two teeth in that mouth! 
Do you understand me??"
               "I--" she began.
               "I said, do you understand me???" he asked through clenched 
teeth, seizing her by the shoulders and shaking her violently. 
               "Yes!" she exclaimed, looking almost child-like in her fear. 
               "Good." he said calmly. There was a long silence. "You know I
don't like to hurt you, Karma." he said quietly, almost guiltily after that. 
"Why do you make me do that?"  To this she had no response.  "Cmon..this 
movie was a waste of money. Let's go to the back seat." he said, tugging at 
her arm.
               "But Matt..." she protested. He shot her a glare that could 
have stopped a train. 
               "I said let's go." he repeated slowly, as though she hadn't 
heard him the first time.  "Now, Karma, or so help me god I'll---"

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               Max and Karma jolted awake at roughly the same time. Karma 
favored Max with a confused look as her breathing returned to normal.
              "Max, what was that all about?" she inquired.
              "Huh?" he asked, still a bit disoriented as he pulled away 
from her. "A nightmare, I guess...you?"
              "Same." she muttered.  Max shook off the fragments of the dream, 
wondering why he had been dreaming about Karma in her younger years and 
wondering who this "Matt" character was.  If her past was anything like the 
dream portrayed, he knew she had every reason to be acting so odd. An odd 
feeling crossed him when he realized how much he had wanted to interfere with 
what was going on...but then, that was what superheroes were for, he decided, 
shrugging it off.
              "I think I'd better leave." she said, getting up. 
              "Where ya gonna go?" Max inquired. "You've got nothing you're 
supposed to be doing...not unless you're going to the drive-in with a freak 
who doesn't like ya smoking." he added in, seeing if it would ring a bell.  
She stopped, turning and favoring him with a look of disbelief.
              "H-How did you know about that?" she faltered, the blood 
draining from her face.
              "The drive-in?" he asked, playing dumb a little. "Why?"
              "Max, I'm sorry but that was NOT coincidence." she told him, 
her expression hovering somewhere between concern and anger.  "How did you 
know that?"
              "Is that what you were just dreaming about?" he asked, studying 
her face. She hesitated but then nodded.  "Then that's how I knew it."
              "What?" she asked, screwing her face into an expression of 
befuddlement. 
              "You have to understand where I come from, some people DO 
practice with telepathy and because of that we're a little prone to picking 
up brainwaves.  I think you were broadcasting." he explained. "Mind 
explaining?"  
              "Max, just leave well enough alone. Okay?  It doesn't concern 
you...let's leave it at that." Karma told him, waving one hand as though to 
dismiss him.  He caught her wrist.
              "Let's not." he pushed.  "Was that your husband?"
              "I'm not gonna do this." she growled, forcing out of his grip.
              "Fine." he sighed.  He didn't even know why he was prying at 
her so much. Ordinarily he left well enough alone in these sorts of matters 
but something...he wasn't sure what...was making him want to find the root 
of her problems and remove it.  Whatever it was, he certainly found it 
frustrating and watched as Karma got up and walked back outside.  
              As the door closed behind her, Karma heaved a sigh that filled 
every cavity of her chest.  Max knew too much and she didn't like it at 
all...she knew people had suspected before, but no one had ever come right 
out and asked her.  She especially didn't like the fact that Max wasn't even 
a friend and getting so personal.  What was with him anyway?  She seated 
herself on the porch, her mind churning.  The sky had turned a soft indigo 
color as the day came to its end and she watched as the first of the stars 
winked on, radiating silver beams of light across the nighttime sky.  It really 
wasn't that different from Corneria's nights. The only difference was there 
were fewer stars.  
              She heard the door open again behind her and didn't bother 
turning. She had a pretty good idea of who it was as she leaned forward, 
resting her head on her hands.  Max stood for a long moment, wondering if he 
should give up and go back inside. He shifted his weight and then cleared 
his throat loudly to get her attention. Karma gave no reaction and continued 
to stare straight ahead. 
             "Hi." he muttered.
             "Hi." she replied, sounding less than interested. 
             "Ya know...you're right. What happened really WAS none of my 
business." he made himself say. "I guess I just don't really understand you 
is all."
             "What's to understand?" she asked, turning to look at him. 
             "Everything." he answered, coming forward and sitting beside 
her.  "I mean, I even understand Nog Fog and he's a REAL mystery sometimes."
             "Well, what do you want to know?" she asked, turning to face 
him.  
             "Let's start with something basic. How did you get here?" he 
asked, the questions he WANTED to ask her boiling at the back of his mind. 
             "I was out on a mission with some flightmates. We got attacked 
by some scouts from Venom who shot up my ship pretty badly and...well...I'm 
not really sure how I got here but I kinda crashed on this planet." she 
explained. 
             "Yeah, I know all about the crashed part. Kinda hard to miss 
that." Max nodded. "What about you and your husband? Any kids?" he inquired.
             "Hmm? Oh...well, not yet.  I don't think Matt's ready to--" her 
voice trailed off as she realized the slip-up she had made. 
             "Matt...so that WAS your husband." Max said quietly. She felt 
her cheeks flush with humiliation.   
             "Listen...that was a long time ago." she breathed. "That was 
one of our first dates really."
             "Then why'd you marry him?" Max asked, looking confused. "The 
guy's a jackass."
             "Because he takes care of me...and he loves me." she told him. 
             "Weird kind of love." Max said under his breath. 
             "What would you know about love anyway?" she countered, though 
not spitefully.
             "More than you think...I was married once." he told her, seeming 
to have a problem getting the words out. Karma favored him with a look of 
sheer bewilderment.
             "Married? You??" she asked, unable to keep from laughing a 
little. Max was a little surprised and insulted at the same time. It was the 
first time he had seen her laugh since she had arrived but it wasn't exactly 
a laughing matter.
             "Yeah laugh it up." he growled. "Yes I was."  there was an 
uneasy pause between them. 
             "Was she pretty?" Karma inquired, realizing only after she said 
it how stupid it sounded. 
             "She was...she was incredible." he said, sighing wistfully.  
"Powerful too. She could've been a mage with the right training."
             "What happened to her?" Karma asked, realizing with some 
amusement that the role of the interrogator had shifted to her. 
             "I dunno." he muttered. "After our homeworld imploded, I couldn't 
find her." he paused, thinking. "We had known it was going to happen...it 
had been foretold eons ago that once our race reached its evolutionary peak, 
the planet would be destroyed. Evolutionary culling, they called it.  They 
saved as many of us as they could by loading us into escape pods...and even 
now I like to think she was in one of them. Maybe she's alive somewhere and 
started a new life and doesn't even remember me by now. Even that would be 
better than her being dead."   
              Karma looked down to see his right hand clenched into a fist 
so tightly it was shaking and placed her hand on top of it, trying to sooth 
him more or less. "But that's behind me." he said quickly. "I guess I wasn't 
intended for the family stuff...I'm a fighter and trainer now..."
             "And you're happy?" Karma prompted. 
             "Yes." he answered, summoning as sure of a voice as he was able.  
"I guess part of the reason I took such an interest in you is you and her had 
one major thing in common." he added after a pause.
             "What?" she asked curiously.
             "A name." he told her.
             "Her name was Karma too?"  Karma asked, sounding skeptical.
             "Yeah." he replied, sounding somewhat embarrassed. "Not really 
a common name. That's why it intrigued me a little."  The yellow frog exhaled 
heavily, wishing she knew what she could tell him. 
             "Max, for what its worth, I'm sorry." she said finally. 
             "Unless you're the reason my world imploded, you have nothing 
to be sorry about." he told her.
             "Still..." she protested. "It sounds like you've gone through 
more than I have."
            "Only because I've lived longer. You sound like you've got a 
pretty rocky story behind you too." he offered.  Karma remained silent, not 
sure how to respond to that.  He wasn't quite the monster she had thought at 
first.  She saw now that behind the paper bag and the snide remarks there 
really WAS a person.  A person that though she wouldn't admit it, was in 
fact someone she found she could very easily talk to.  She wasn't sure why 
she did it or what it was that had prompted it, but Karma found herself 
moving closer to him and linking her arms around his neck. 
           Max recoiled at first, utterly shocked by what she was doing.  
He wasn't ready for this...in fact, he had decided long ago he would be 
perfectly happy to never have anything like this distracting him again.  
Still, it had been a long time since he had been able to comfort someone...
and even longer since he had been comforted.  It was for this reason and 
others he couldn't quite place that he found himself returning the hug. 
Neither of them knew quite how long they remained locked in each other's arms, 
silently reflecting on how things may have been, but the evening soon turned 
into a star-mottled night and the nocturnal creatures scuttled about their 
hidden ways closeby. 
          "We should head inside probably." Maximus said at last, breaking 
the silence. Karma lifted her head from his shoulder and nodded, regretting 
having to leave the warmth of his embrace. As they passed through the 
threshold of the door, Maximus paused to hold it open for her.  She walked 
slowly past to take her usual nighttime residence on the couch and stopped, 
looking over her shoulder at him.  
         "Max..." she said, taking a deep breath. "Thank you. Thank you for 
everything."  He was momentarily taken aback but recovered.
         "You're welcome, Karma.  Goodnight." he said quietly, shutting the 
front door and walking down the hallway.  She watched as he disappeared 
inside of his room and the door closed before laying down, making herself 
comfortable.  She could feel her feelings beginning to change about him even 
as she laid there.  He had a personality on him that was different from the 
other males she had let get close to her in her life. Max wasn't demanding 
or harsh like Matt was, but at the same time he wasn't childish and boyishly 
innocent like Slippy was. Could she bring herself to like him? Yes, she was 
certain she could. Love him? Well...yes maybe even that too in time, she 
mused as her eyes slipped shut.  For the first time since she had arrived 
on earth, Karma slept soundly.

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



                                 CHAPTER SEVEN


        "There!" Max grinned, fitting the last gear into place and slamming 
the small hatch shut on the breastplate. The silver surface glinted merrily 
at him as he looked over it.  Aside from a couple of barely noticeable dings 
in its smooth surface, it looked just as it always had.  He had made a final 
trip to the ravine that morning to seek out any remaining parts and had found 
the few scattered remnants of them.  
         Now he placed it tentatively against his chest hoping it would...yes! 
The metal bonded to him almost instantly as though it were a child greeting 
a long-lost parent.  He smiled, turning to grab up the rest of his 
enertiatron suit.  He was almost as thrilled as he had been the day he had 
passed his training and acquired the suit many years ago.  
         His race had invented the initial design for the enertiatron suit 
and its unique ability to amplify one's strength and brainwaves to perform 
normally impossible feats. For awhile they had thought it unrealistic to 
actually construct it, but had somehow managed.  He owned one of the few 
remaining suits while Nog Fog owned another. He had won it off of Nitro in 
one of their earlier encounters.  Then there was Donnamakite who owned the 
last one he was aware of. He wasn't sure how she had come into possession of 
it, but one thing was for certain. She was almost as well-versed in the workings 
of her suit as Sir Maximus was in his, making her a very dangerous opponent.
         Max finished piecing the metal armor onto his body and stopped to 
revel in the feeling of how good it felt to feel whole again. To complete the 
image, he grabbed up his katana from where it had been residing on his 
nightstand for the past few days and reattached it around his belt. 
There...perfectly back to normal, he thought to himself approvingly as he 
walked out of his room.  
         "Karma?" he called into the living room, startling her out of her 
slumber.
         "Hmm?" she asked, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. 
         "Its fixed!" he declared excitedly.  She smiled in return.
         "Great, Max." she yawned, stretching a little.  He supposed it was 
more of a reaction than he had been expecting out of her as she slowly woke 
herself up.  "Sorry for squashing it to begin with."
         "Eh...it wasn't your fault." he told her carelessly, realizing how 
big of a contrast that was from how big of a deal he had made out of it when 
she had first crashed.  Had it really only been seven days ago?  Something 
else was eating at him too...probably the real reason he had burst in on her 
to begin with.  "Hey...umm...Karma?" he faltered, feeling his blood freeze 
slightly when she focused her full attention on him.  "About last night. I 
just wanted to say that I've probably been needing that for a long time...
just didn't know it until then. Thanks." he finished with a smile that he 
knew she wouldn't be able to see underneath the sack. 
         "You're welcome." she smiled back. "I think it did us both some 
good, actually."  It dawned on her that she hadn't had a nightmare about her 
husband the previous night, which accounted for her good mood in most ways. 
Talking to Max on a friendly basis for a change felt like a massive weight 
had been lifted from her chest. She didn't feel like she had to constantly 
be on her guard anymore and reminding herself to hate him.
         "Well, I guess this means Nog Fog and I can go back to training 
tonight." Max told her. "He's not gonna like that too well."
         "I can imagine." she smirked as she stood up.  "Where is he anyway?"
         "Still sleeping." he told her. "Why?"
         "Max, I want to apologize." she told him. 
         "Karma you don't have to--" he tried to say but was interrupted as 
she closed the distance between them and grasped his hands. 
         "No. Let me do this." she said firmly.  "I---I've been a real bitch
ever since you brought me here. You could have left me out there to die and 
you didn't and you let me stay here even after all the grief I gave you.  I 
can never repay you enough for that." she paused, trying to swallow around 
the lump in her throat. "I guess I need to just face that I'm never going to 
see home again and stop making everyone else miserable." She tried to squeeze 
back tears as she felt him pull his hands out of her grasp and put them around 
her shoulders.
          "You'll see home again." he assured her. "Maybe not soon, but 
someday.  At least your planet is still there for you, right?"  
          "Yeah." she muttered. "I guess I can take comfort in that at least." 
Max fidgeted a little as she nuzzled her head against him. 
          "What're you going to do when you go home?" he asked, releasing 
her and backing away a couple of steps.
          "Turn in my flight license, I guess." she told him.  
          "And be a housewife?" he asked, sounding slightly disgusted.  
Karma lowered her head a bit.  "Karma, I'm not going to lie to you." he said 
quietly.  "Ever since you brought up being hit by a belt, I suspected your 
husband.  I didn't even know who he was and I didn't like him.  And then 
after that dream when I had a face and actions to go with that suspicion..." 
he put a hand on her shoulder.  "You remind me so much of my wife and it seems 
like just this morning you actually turned into a person.  You actually smile 
now...and laugh.  And I'm afraid that as soon as you go home, that spark that 
rekindled in you just now is going to go out forever." she felt his hand 
squeeze her shoulder gently. "I--" he took a breath. "I really don't think 
you should worry about him." 
         "Max, he's my husband. I'm bound to him." Karma whispered.
         "Did you two make a pre-marital agreement that you'd promise never 
to be happy?" Max asked.  She wanted to be angry with him but couldn't find 
it within herself.  Even though his face was hidden, she knew his expression 
must have held a tinge of hurt and it prevented her from being angry.
         "Max..." her mind went blank before she could think of anything more 
to say. He was right...she knew he was right and she also realized something 
else. After all of the pain she had gone through, he was the first person to 
take the time to dissect her problem and try to solve it.  He acted like he 
truly cared...like he wanted to be involved. It flattered and frightened her 
at the same time, but nothing could prepare either of them for what came out 
of her mouth next.  "You might think I'm on the rebound and that this is too 
sudden, but I like you. I like you a lot. You know me better than I know 
myself."  She didn't know how she knew it, but somehow suspected he had been 
waiting for exactly this as he moved forward quickly and embraced her tightly.
         The moment, however, was short-lived as there was the sound of 
someone clearing his throat and Karma and Max whirled to see Nog Fog leaning 
against the wall in the hallway, favoring them with a knowing look.  Max, 
more than a little embarrassed, quickly released Karma and let her make herself 
scarce as she disappeared out the front door. 
        "Well..." the blonde youth grinned. "You two look like you're gettin' 
kinda friendly."
        "Whatever." Max muttered.
        "What? What'd I say?" Nog Fog demanded to know as Max walked into 
the kitchen and opened the fridge. "I mean, you guys were hugging and 
everything. I just thought--"
        "Kid, I dunno what's going on between me and her but I'm not sure I 
like it." Max sighed, retrieving the milk carton from the top shelf.
        "Huh?" he asked. "Why not? Don't you like her?"
        "I dunno." he replied, letting the fridge slam shut and putting the 
milk carton on the table, seeming to have momentarily forgotten about it.  
"I think I'm just wanting to see too much of my wife in her. Besides, she's 
married."
        "I didn't see her complaining about that a few minutes ago." Nog Fog 
offered. "Maybe she likes you because you're NOT her husband." 
        "Thank you, Dr. Ruth." Max said sarcastically but not without good 
humor. 
        "You like her, fess up." the blonde-haired young man pushed, a 
ridiculous grin on his face. Max looked at him for several moments before 
also smiling.
        "Nah." he said, waving one hand dismissively. "C'mon...we've got 
some training to catch up on."
        "Do we have to?" Nog Fog groaned. The response was Max seizing him 
by one ear and dragging him away from the table. "Owwwwww!! Cut it out, Max!" 
he wailed helplessly as he staggered along after his trainer. 

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

         Karma found herself wandering outside. She didn't know whether Nog 
Fog's interference had been a curse or a blessing as she tried to sort out 
her thoughts.  On the one hand, she felt extremely guilty for going behind 
her husband's back and with a man she hardly knew, no less.  On the other 
hand, with Max she felt as though no one was trying to control her and 
strangely enough she felt safe in his arms...a feeling she never had with 
Matt. She always felt as though she was walking past a viscous dog on a 
tattered leash and that one day the leash would snap and she would cease to 
exist when she was around her husband, in fact.
         She tried to weigh her decision more practically. The odds she would 
see her husband or even get within the vicinity of the Lylat system again 
were next to nothing. She was almost sure Max liked her and she quite 
obviously was growing fond of him...was it right? In some aspects, yes.  Her 
mind wandered to the times Matt had hit her for some trivial thing...to the 
time back in high school he had broken her left wrist apparently on a whim. 
All those times he had made her believe it was her fault...that she was to 
blame...that she deserved it. She ran a finger absently over the bandage 
across her forehead. Finally, she had come to a realization.
         "It wasn't my fault." she said quietly, hearing her voice whisper 
past her lips like a soft spring breeze.  A crow cackled in its rough voice 
at her from a nearby tree.  "It wasn't my fault." she repeated.  Louder this 
time, sounding more sure of herself. A wind whisked over her, tousling her 
mane of brown hair.  'It wasn't my fault!!!" she cried at the top of her 
voice, hearing it reverberate with diminishing tones across the distance. 
Satisfied with this and her doubts pushed aside, Karma decided she had never 
been happy with Matt and that this may have been god giving her a second 
chance at life.
          She smiled broadly, ideas already beginning to stir in her mind. 
She'd go back to the house, she'd tell Max exactly how she felt, and then-- 
          A paw landed heavily on her shoulder, startling her out of her 
fantasy. She turned to see Matt standing there, grinning at her.  Her first 
reaction was to be happy, but it quickly gave away to a sickened disgust as 
she realized that the revelation she had just reached had been for nothing.  
He approached, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her hard. 
         "Miss me, honey?" he asked.

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

         "Okay, come at me!" Max ordered, watching as Nog Fog shifted his 
stance on the opposite side of the front yard. He nodded and lunged forward, 
attempting to land a blow to his trainer's chest. Max, however, easily dodged 
out of the way and brought his fist hard down on Nog Fog's shoulder.
         "How do you expect me to get better if you keep kicking the tar out 
of me?" Nog Fog asked, rubbing the forming bruise.  
         "That's the point of the training!" Max told him. "You're supposed 
to be able to avoid that!  I can tell ya right now, Donnamakite's not going 
to sit here and give you pointers in battle. You'll be on the ground and 
wondering what hit yo--"  he was interrupted by a blossoming pain in his 
knee as he crumpled to the ground, glaring daggers at his student who had 
just unexpectedly attacked him.
        "How was that?" Nog Fog asked hopefully.  The response came as a 
glancing blow over the head.
        "THAT was called fighting dirty." Max grumbled, rubbing at the injury 
as the pain slowly faded. "I thought you were past that." 
        "Well that's what I'D do if I was on my back in a battle." Nog Fog 
pushed.  Max rolled his eyes. The kid never had honor, he never would.
        "Okay, look we'll move on to kicking." Max sighed. "Ready?"
        "I guess so..." Nog Fog said, watching as Max backed up, gearing up 
to deliver a blow.
        "Hi guys." Karma's voice filtered past both mens' ears. Nog Fog 
turned, forgetting he was about to be attacked.
        "Oh hi Karma!" he said pleasantly, rudely interrupted by a foot to 
the chest, knocking him to the ground. Max got up quickly and dusted himself 
off, running over to meet Karma but stopped short when he saw the hulking 
gray figure she was accompanied by. He didn't need to ask. He knew who it 
was.
        "You must be Sir Maximus." Matt smiled, offering him a paw. Max 
shuddered inwardly as he took it. "Karma tells me you and your student have 
been keeping her under your roof for awhile."
        "Yeah." Max said quietly, drawing his hand back.  His expression 
slipped a notch and his eyes narrowed a bit as he leaned closer to Maximus.
        "I trust she was sleeping in a different room?" he asked almost 
menacingly.
        "Of course she was." Max replied, sounding almost wounded. "I'm not 
that kind of guy." 
        "Okay then." he said, his pleasant nature returning. Max spared Karma 
a quick look...she looked utterly shattered as she stood quietly at her 
husband's side.  "You know, I hope you don't mind but the missus and I have 
a lot of catching up to do and my ship's a little low on fuel.  Do you think 
we could impose on you for one more night?"  
        "Well...I dunno..." Nog Fog cut in, brushing off sand as he approached.  
"I mean, we only have two bedrooms and the couch isn't big enough for two 
people."
        "No it's okay." Max said, obviously having a hard time with what he 
was about to say. "They can have my room. I'll take the couch."  He blatantly 
ignored Karma's look which screamed "You can't be serious" as he forced 
himself to make eye contact with Matt.  He hated him...he hated him with a 
passion and yet couldn't bring himself to do anything other than stare for a 
long moment before shaking his head and going back inside. 
        "What's wrong with him?" Matt asked, jerking a thumb in the direction 
Max had just gone. Though she knew precisely what was the matter, Karma 
shrugged and did her best to look confused.  Inside, Max walked stiffly to 
his bedroom and swiftly gathered the tools he had been using to repair his 
enertiatron suit off of the bedsheets, throwing them aside.  Every nerve in 
his body was twanging with the ferocity of a plucked guitar string as he 
watched the tools clatter merrily to the ground and come to rest in a 
disheveled mess. 
        "Why??" he asked, turning his head heavenward.  "Why, dammit??" he 
repeated, wheeling back and striking the wall with one tightly clenched fist.  
Seemed like the story of his life...something would go his way and someone 
would always be there to snuff it out. 
 
                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

         The day lingered painfully onward for both Karma and Max as Matt 
told them of his journey through space and how he had found the wormhole into 
this solar system completely by chance after being given Karma's last known 
coordinates.
         "So then there was this flash of light and suddenly I was out in the 
middle of nowhere. I tried to contact Corneria but all that came through on 
the comlink was some static and my navigational equipment was going crazy." 
Matt explained, putting a paw around Karma's shoulders as they all sat at the 
dinner table. Karma spared Max an imploring look once in awhile as he stared 
fixedly down at his hands while Nog Fog seemed the only one interested.
         "Then what happened?" Nog Fog asked, his eyes flashing.
         "This is the interesting part, son. I was ready to do a one-eighty 
and try to go back when suddenly my tracking equipment picked up a bleep."  
Matt smiled.  "Guess some parts of Karma's ship still worked...that's what 
brought me in." he nuzzled her a bit, making her cringe but then force a 
smile.  "I'd have to say I really missed her...was going crazy without her."
          "Yeah I'll bet." Max grumbled.
          "Huh?" Matt asked, looking up.
          "I said, I think I'm going to take a walk." Max said, excusing 
himself from the table and leaving his plate of food untouched.
          "Max, you didn't finish your dinner!" Nog Fog called after him. 
The answer was the front door slamming loudly, making the young man flinch. 
"Wonder what's eating him?"
          "Beats the hell outta me." Matt shrugged. "He's an odd one. What's 
with the paper sack?"
          "Oh...strategic reasons." Nog Fog told him, smirking a little. Matt 
gave a clueless nod.  The three of them continued to talk as they finished 
their food, Nog Fog and Karma moreso than Karma as she focused her gaze 
blankly ahead, only catching snatches of the conversation.  Her mind was 
elsewhere, focusing mainly on all of the possibilities that could have been 
that now would never be.  She wondered about Max, where he was, what he was 
doing...her mind stung as she thought of how badly she must have hurt him.  
This caused a single tear to slip from her eye and pelt onto her shirt.
          "Something wrong, Karma?" Nog Fog asked, jolting her back to 
reality. 
          "No. Why?" she asked, trying to sound naive. 
          "Well, I just thought...nevermind." he said, dismissing the matter.
          "She's probably just a little overcome." Matt suggested, squeezing her 
shoulder with almost unbearable tightness. "Right, honey?"
          "Right." she nodded, putting no feeling whatsoever in her voice.  
Her mind then returned to its clouded state. "God Max, I'm so sorry." her 
mind screamed. 

                * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *




                                 CHAPTER EIGHT


           The evening air had cleared his head and Max felt he was ready to 
face the rest of the evening with Matt. He was acting rather amiable after 
all and he supposed that once Karma returned home, what happened was none of 
his business. He had just been too anxious to begin something, he guessed, 
and had ruled out the possibility that Matt may have come seeking his wife.  
          "Easy come, easy go." he thought to himself, feeling a blessed coolness 
as the sun began to sink over the horizon. He kicked a stray pebble, watching 
it careen over the sand and disappear in a cluster of purple shadows. He cast 
a look upward at the moon that was just beginning to peer out from behind its 
satin blanket of clouds and a ribbon of breeze wafted over him as though it was 
a comforting caress. He nodded once as though approving of something and turned 
back in the direction he'd come, convincing himself what happened from here 
on out was no longer his concern. 
          The house's lights blazed like far-off lanterns in the distance as 
he walked toward them.  It was hard to believe that just last night he and 
Karma had sat on the front porch holding each other about this time. No...he 
wasn't going to think about that. Absolutely not. He trudged up the walkway 
and opened the door quietly, stepping back into the house. 
          "Hey Max." Nog Fog greeted him as he turned off the sink, leaving 
the dishes in a slightly unclean pile to the side.
          "Hi." he said warily, looking around.  "Where's Karma and the wolf?"
          "Oh Matt?" Nog Fog asked.  "He's a pretty nice guy.  He got kinda 
tired and took Karma to bed with him."  Max stood stone-faced for a moment. 
"I think they wanted to be alone if ya know what I mean." 
          "Yeah...whatever." Max said under his breath, waiting until Nog 
Fog wasn't looking before walking quietly toward the hallway.  From here he 
could tell his door was closed and the light inside had been put out and so 
he stood...listening.  Though hushed, he could hear voices inside.  He 
couldn't make out what was being said but knew who was who.  Karma spoke 
first, her voice quiet and and frantic, then Matt his voice also quiet but 
sounding a bit threatening.  Intrigued, Max walked painstakingly forward and 
pressed the side of his head against the door.
          "Matt, we'll be going home tomorrow...it can wait." Karma pleaded.
          "I haven't seen you in almost a week. You know what that was like?" 
Matt replied.  "I missed you. I missed being with you." There was a pause. 
"I missed touching you." 
          "Stop!" she hissed. "This isn't right! This is someone else's house!" 
          "Excuse me? Are you telling me no??" he asked, his voice turning 
spiteful. 
          "Yes." she answered. "I've stood for a lot of things Matt, but this 
I will not--" there was a sound like a sharp snap. 
          "Maybe you've forgotten your place while you were gone." Matt 
growled. "Let me reassign it to you.  You're my wife. Is that registering??" 
there was a dull thud and a small cry.  "You cook, you work, and you listen 
to me. What's so hard about that??"  Max couldn't believe what he was hearing 
any more than he could contain his anger. His grip tightened on the doorframe 
steadily until the wood cracked and splintered under the pressure. He had heard 
enough. 
          "LEAVE HER ALONE!!" he bellowed, side-kicking the door.  He was 
dimly aware that it had fallen off of its hinges as he did so and crashed 
loudly to the floor. Ordinarily he would have marveled at having summoned 
that much strength but not tonight.  Matt looked up, his eyes wide as he 
stood over Karma where she had fallen, a small river of blood slowly seeping 
from her nose and the gash on her forehead reopened with the force of the 
impact she had taken to the floor.
          "What the hell do you think you're doing??" Matt growled at him. 
"This is none of your business!"
          "Ya know what? I'm sick of hearing that." Max replied, crossing the 
room until he was squarely facing the wolf. "And I'm sick of knowing how you 
treat your wife and thinking that there's nothing I can do about it."
          "Get out of here." Matt snarled dangerously, his fangs glistening.  
For a moment it looked as though Max would obey and turned a bit but then 
wheeled around, his fist striking Matt squarely in the jaw. The wolf 
staggered back a step, dabbling his fingers at his bottom lip and searching 
for blood.  "Yer gonna pay for that, bag boy." he vowed.
          "Max...stay out of this." Karma groaned, pushing herself up onto 
all fours. Matt kicked out at her, knocking her to her belly again. 
          "Shut up, you bitch." Matt hissed.  Max tried to suppress his violent 
intentions to a level below lethal as he watched her try to find purchase on 
the floor once again and fail, her struggles slowing.  He drew back and kicked out, 
aiming straight for the back of Matt's neck but instead of feeling his foot 
connect with fur and bone, he felt a vice-like paw clamp onto it and twist 
it painfully.  "Why the hell did you get involved anyway?" Matt demanded to 
know as Max's shoulders collided with the floor. 
          "Because you have no right."  Max shot in return, quickly regaining 
his feet. "A rabid badger could treat her better than you treat her." 
          "Oh, I see how this is." Matt smiled, his face twisting into an 
expression of knowing hatred. "You were hopin' to push her into bed, is that 
it?? You upset because daddy came home??"
          "You think that's what this is about? Sex?" Max asked, sounding 
like he may be ill. 
          "Can't trust you for a minute, can I Karma? As soon as I'm not 
around you latch onto the first thing you see with two legs and a--OOF!" 
Matt didn't get an opportunity to finish his thought as a fist buried itself 
in his belly.  The wolf doubled over, hitching and twitching the end of his 
tail as his breath slowly returned. Max tangled his fingers in the wolf's 
tuft of black-tipped hair between his ears and yanked his head upward, 
ignoring Matt's yelp of protest.
         "You listen, and you listen good." Max said in a low, dangerously 
calm voice. "I don't like to kill...in fact I hate it, but if you EVER touch
her again I'll kill you without a second thought. And believe me, I'll live 
long enough to forgive myself for it."  he studied Matt's expression for any 
change but saw none. 
         "We're gonna be off this rock by tomorrow. Took the liberty of 
checking out the cargo in my wife's plane. Turns out it was a new antifreeze 
fuel formula...but all that matters is its fuel." Matt told him, smiling 
through his pain. "And what the hell are you going to do to stop me then?"  
Max gritted his teeth and felt the ball of his hand connect with the wolf's 
muzzle, bloodying his nose.  
         "Did that hurt?" Max asked maliciously after a moment. Ordinarily 
he would have been repulsed by what he was doing but this time, somehow, he 
wasn't allowing himself to feel anything aside from his anger. It clouded his 
mind and radiated an almost tangible aura throughout the room.  It was all 
there was...him, the offending wolf, and hatred.  "You think it doesn't hurt 
your wife when you do the same to her??"
         "I don't--" he tried to answer.
         "That's right, you use the belt don't you?" Max hissed. He punched 
Matt again, feeling his fist come away with a wet feeling...maybe with blood, 
maybe with saliva. He didn't know, and in all honesty, he didn't really care. 
Max released his grip on the wolf suddenly, watching him slump to the floor.  
The gray wolf moved, perhaps to stand up. Sir Maximus, filled with disgust, 
loathing and anger, wheeled back as hard as he could and kicked him.  He had 
meant to hit him in the shoulder but the kick had been badly-placed and hit 
him in the left temple. Hard.  There was a sickening cracking noise and Matt 
laid still, his eyes slightly open and his jaws hanging slightly apart, the 
tip of his tongue touching the floor.
         "Karma?" he asked, ripping his attention away from the wolf and 
scuttling across the room to check her condition.  She slowly turned her head 
in the direction of his voice.
         "Max?" she asked wearily.
         "Did he hurt you??" Max asked, realizing the error of his question as 
he eyed the rivers of drying blood on her face from the reopened gash on her 
forehead.
         "He backhanded me is all...didn't see it coming. Hit my head on the 
floor." she groaned, sitting up. "Did he leave a bruise?" she asked, sounding 
mildly concerned.
         "No...but, trust me. People would notice." Max replied, watching as 
she touched her fingertips to her face and brought them back smeared with 
blood.
         "Aww hell..." she cursed, still not quite with it Max guessed.  He 
moved forward and put his arms around her, helping her to her feet. Her legs 
wobbled beneath her as though they were completely boneless as he helped her 
to the bed and sat her on the edge of it.  "You didn't have to do that." she 
murmured as Max brushed her bangs out of the way to seek the source of the 
bleeding.
         "What's going on?" Nog Fog asked, peering with concern into the room. 
Seeing the layout of the scene before him, he knew what Max was about to send 
him to fetch and headed into the bathroom to find the first aid kit.
         "Karma, its over now." he told her, clasping her wrists. Her appearance 
made his heart ache so badly he wanted to turn away.  It was amazing she had 
gone from being a vibrant young creature to being the wounded trembling mass 
he saw before him. "He's not going to hit you anymore."  Indeed he wasn't, 
Max realized as he cast a look over at Matt's still body.  He knew the final 
blow he had delivered had done some sort of damage. Hell, the bastard might 
be dead already.  He fought the urge to break off into peals of insane 
laughter. Luckily, the look on Karma's face drove the laughter away.
         "Max...I couldn't tell you before..." she said softly, one hand 
moving out to touch his shoulder.  Even beneath the enertiatron suit's metal 
casing he could feel her trembling fingertips.  
         "Just calm down." he urged. "We can talk later."
         "You're...going to let me finish." she insisted, forcing a slight 
smile.  "Max...I love you." the words sounded so strange to the both of them.  
It was the first time Karma could remember saying them without being forced 
and the first time Max had heard them directed at himself since he could 
last remember. 
         "You don't mean that." he said, sounding disbelieving. 
         "I do." she pushed. "I know I haven't been the best I can be...
and...you've seen what my past is like.  I'll understand if you don't feel 
the same but..." she broke off, unable to finish as she lowered her eyes. 
There was a pause...a pause that seemed to fill the world before she felt 
him gently tilt her head up to make eye contact with him again. 
         "Karma, the past is the past." he told her. "You can't change it 
and it doesn't help to regret it." he stood up. "Which means I probably won't 
dwell on what happened here tonight for very long." he paused for a moment. 
"Well, except this...Karma, I love you too." he blurted.  That was all she 
needed to hear as they simultaneously lunged at each other, embracing each 
other tightly. The horror was over, Karma realized with a strong sense of 
revelation. The thought of being a free spirit made her start to laugh...she 
laughed until she was crying and cried until she was laughing again. Max, 
though a little worried, continued to hold her, feeling content for the first 
time in a very long while. 

               * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



                                   Epilogue


          "Sir, we've got an arwing touching down on runway number five that 
didn't request permission to land." Louis piped up over the intercom. 
          "I'll send someone out right away." Pepper replied, swiveling his 
chair to look out the nearest window.  He was graced by the sight of a 
painfully familiar-looking arwing with red trim taxiing around a turn before
slowing and coming to a complete stop. Even from here, Pepper knew that a 
landing such as that had to have been performed on automatic pilot.  Curious, 
the old hound got up from his chair and made his way out of his office. 
           It wasn't long before he found himself out on the airfield warily
approaching the arwing. A gray figure was slumped over the wheel and Pepper 
felt his innards turn to ice as he moved quickly forward, clambering with 
amazing agility for a creature his age onto the wing of the plane and 
throwing open the hatch. 
           Matt Starlight was slumped forward, moaning pitifully.  The thing
that caught Pepper's eye, however, was the note that someone had taped to 
the wolf's back. He leaned forward to better read it. It was written in bold
green ink and he almost instantly recognized the handwriting. 

                 He's hurt, but not dead. Take care of him, General.
                 I'm tired of doing so.
 
                 Signing off,
                 Karma Leafbarer

            Pepper felt a rather wide grin spread over his features as he 
noticed she had signed with her maiden name.  
            "Well done, Karma." he commended her as though she were standing
beside him.  "Very well done."
 
                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

            "Ya know, you can't stay on the couch forever." Max told Karma 
as she settled onto the cushions. 
            "Well what am I supposed to do?" she inquired with a smile. 
"Want me to kick you out of your bed again?"
            "Very funny." he replied wryly. 
            "You aren't proposing we share one, are you?" she groaned.  
Max grinned behind his bag, knowing her reaction would have been something 
like that. 
            "Maybe later." he said playfully. "I don't think three days as a
couple quite qualifies us for sharing a bed yet."
            "Definitely." she agreed.  "You said I could hit you if you 
started moving too fast." she then took the liberty of reminding him. Max 
nodded.
            "I'm not Matt, don't worry." he replied.  "We have that guest 
room we could clear out for you." he offered.
            "You sure?" she asked. 
            "Yeah...we never used it much anyway." Max replied. "Needless to
say you don't get many guests when you live in the middle of nowhere."
            "I think I need to look into getting a job." she suggested. "At 
least till I have enough to buy some new clothes. No offense to Nog Fog, but
these shirts just aren't cutting it."  Max laughed, looking at the large 
T-shirt she was wearing that almost touched her knees.
            "I'd have to agree with you there." he chuckled. "They don't 
really show you off very well."
            "Oh? Who says I have to show off?" she asked, a gleam in her eye 
as she got off of the couch.  
            "Not me." he said, putting his hands up defensively. "You look 
great in whatever ya put on." he added, approaching her and linking his arms 
around her waist. Karma sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.  "Ya 
know, I can tell already this relationship is going to be a welcome change 
of pace from what we're used to."
            "Yeah.." she said softly. "No more being afraid..."
            "No more being alone..." he added.
            "I love you, Sir Maximus." she said, her words slightly muffled 
against him. 
            "I love you too, Karma Leafbarer." he smiled, shutting his eyes.
Max had been right. The past would heal itself and those who had been hurt 
would tend their wounds. There were more important things in life than regretting 
and fearing what was to come...Karma realized this now as she clung to her new 
lover, feeling protected, safe, and most importantly loved for the first time 
in years. 

 


                 Carpe Diem


                                     THE END



AUTHOR'S COMMENT - Not one of my best stories, sadly, but not one of my worst 
either.  I'll take this opportunity to say no, I was never beaten in a 
relationship...I just like writing from different standpoints and this time 
chose to write from a victim's standpoint. I hope you all enjoyed it, such 
as it was, and Maki, if you're reading this, I love you more than I could 
ever say ^_^