SESSION #21.5: DRAGON HEAD DANCE
"What's the date?"
"Eh?"
Faye Valentine sighed. "Hey, what's the date."
Ed grinned at her. "Date-date. Faye-faye wants to date-date."
"What? Arrrgh ..." Faye adjusted her the holster in her back and stalked off to find Jet or Spike. That damn little brat was off coasting in cyberspace again. She'd be better off finding some time to comb that hair of hers ...
Faye could think of someone else like that. He was slouched in front of the HTV, idly poking it with his shoe.
"Hey, what's the date?"
Spike Spiegel yawned. He'd finished with his form practice a half hour ago, taken a shower, and was counting the minutes until Big Shot came on. He checked the clock ... okay, one-thirty ...Two hours!
"What?"
Faye felt like stomping. "Don't you know? That bounty, whatshisname Ferrato, he's due to arrive in Ophir City on the 2nd of December, according what Jet's informant said."
"So?" Another one of Faye's bounties? Spike had already forgotten.
"He's eight hundred thousand woolongs, that's what!"
Hmm. Eight hundred thousand, that ... okay. Spike checked his watch. "Well, Mars calendar ... it's December 3rd already."
"Arrrgh!" Faye slapped her forehead. "How many bounties have we missed out on already this month?!"
Spike closed his eyes. "Well, there was Fouad Smith, remember. The one you let get away on Tijuana."
"Hey, Jet was supposed to be in the alley!"
"Also Jackie Bourgoza, five hundred thousand woolongs, the one who outran you back on Europa."
"I was wearing high heels!" Faye snapped. "Are you forgetting the bribe we had to pay Jet's ISSP buddies for when you torched that bar?"
Spike opened his eyes. "Hey, he was shooting at you!"
"So you had to use your plasma cannon?"
Spike clenched his fist. Faye gritted her teeth. They stared at each other. A silent growl seemed to pass between them.
Jet poked his head into the room. "Oy, fighting again?"
"Hah!" Faye turned up her nose.
"Nobody worth fighting in here." Spike closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head.
"Well, if you're both done ...Someone's got to go get some food. You can pick the menu, but remember, we're short this month. Again. Who was it blew that Bourgoza bounty?" Jet had a small grimace on his face. He already knew ...
"Hi-her!" Spike and Faye were already pointing at each other.
... what they were going to do.
"You've got six hundred woolongs. For the month. I've got to fix Hammerhead's motor guidance system, Ed's checking on our next bounty. That leaves you two. Now get going." Jet jerked his thumb. "And try not to get into trouble. For once."
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"Check that out." Spike pointed at the spreading black mass at the bottom of Orphis' giant canyon. "Army base. One of the biggest around outside Tharsis. Half the people in Orphis are ex-Army. Stay away from that airspace, they'll shoot you down before you get a chance to open that big mouth."
Faye swung Redtail in behind Spike's Swordfish II as they cruised down onto the 40-mile rock outcrop that was Orphis City. "Where are we going shopping again?"
"We've stopped here before. Over near the main spaceport, Ahmad's Universal."
"Wait a minute. That's where you two got that defective ECM missile!" [see Session 9, JAMMING WITH EDWARD] Faye remembered that missile. It's missing had nearly gotten her killed.
"Well, yeah, but we've only got six hundred woolongs. Besides, we're buying food, not missiles." Spike grinned. "They've got some clothing stores over there."
Faye steamed. "That's supposed to take my mind off?"
"Well, a mini-casino too ..."
"Baka." Faye cut in front of Swordfish II as the legal jetway opened up on her HUD.
Ahmad's Universal was a giant merchant mall that sold to the Army base and all the space traffic centered around Orphis City. There was an area like it in every city with a spaceport, chock full of goods both legal and illegal, syndicate gangsters, crooked cops of the ISSP, planetary, and local varieties, and enough regular, arrestable criminals to keep the Bebop in woolongs until its engines finally went to the big scrapyard in the heavens. But Jet had told them to stay out of trouble ...
"Hey, what's the date?"
Faye stewed. This was not going to be one of those days, she swore. She was not going to let them get to her. "It's December 3rd, remember?"
"It's Jet's birthday."
"Huh? His birthday?" Faye asked. It was hard to put Jet Black together with birthdays . It was hard to imagine Jet at a birthday party, or even Jet as a kid. She wondered if he had always had those sideburns.
"Yeah, I remember. We caught this one bounty last year, and Jet said that money always came on his birthday."
"We don't have any money now."
Spike was smiling. "Well, at least we should buy him a cake. Maybe it'll make us lucky."
"A cake? Hey, what are you talking about ."
"A cake!" Spike snorted. "Over there, there's a bakery. Bazooka Bakery."
The comm channel sparked. "Ed loves cakes! Lemon frosting cake!"
"Ed? Didn't Jet tell you not to cut into the comm. channels?" Faye waggled her finger at the comm. "So much for your souvenir!"
"Ed wants lemon frosting cake! Lemon frosting, okay for Ed?"
Spike shrugged. "Three things I hate ..."
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The baker's assistant was very enthusiastic.
"Well, you're in luck! We got lemon frosting, we got strawberry frosting, coldberry frosting, with real coldberry from Callisto. We also got raspberry, coconut, tapioca, red-bean ..."
"Okay," Spike cut in. "We'll take the lemon. Faye, pay the man."
"Hey, wait a minute, who said anything about me paying?" Faye stepped forward and lowered the sunglasses on her nose to look at Spike. "It was your idea."
"I don't have any money, except for groceries."
"Well, who said I did?"
"Excuse me, miss?"
The clerk behind the counter couldn't have been more than twenty, but his eyes were big as saucers. "Your name is Faye?"
Faye stared at the kid. He was rail-skinny, with dark hair and tanned skin, freckles. Totally average. "So?"
"My name's T-Tylor." The kid almost stuck his hand out, then seemed to think better of it. "So you guys are together?"
"Watch it," said Spike.
"In his dreams, maybe," snapped Faye. "I think I have a bit more class than that."
"Class!?" Spike almost gagged on his cigarette
"Anyway," said Faye. Good God, she'd have to pull this stuff again ...
She leaned over the counter to give Baker's Assistant Tylor a better look at her. "How much would this cake be?"
"Ha, ha . We're having a sale," said Tylor helpfully.
"A good sale?"
"Uh, maybe ..."
Spike smiled inwardly. Typical Faye ... this poor kid was out of his league. At least he wasn't paying for the cake, and it would cheer Jet up. They'd missed four bounties in a row now, burned up forty thousand units of fuel, and were down to their last hundred thousand woolongs. Well, it wasn't anything they hadn't gone through before ...
Faye kept grinning and pushing her cleavage together to keep poor Tylor spinning and baking. Fifteen minutes later, he'd whipped up a five- pound chocolate cake with lemon frosting and cherries circling the center. Faye spelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY JET BLACK for him and blew a little kiss that Spike thought was overdoing it.
"Are you sure you don't want to charge us for it?" Faye simpered.
"Uh, it's okay. I mean, the owner's away on vacation, I'm in charge, so ..." Tylor was beet-red, a nervous grin written on his face.
"Hey, do you mind carrying this out to my pod for me? You look like such a chivalrous, gentle young man ... strong, too!"
Tylor had the cake boxed and wrapped and was holding the door for Faye before Spike had finished his second cigarette. As he approached the two bounty hunters' ships, he gaped. "Wow, are those 60mm Nambus? GSN-45s?"
He was pointing at the twin guns on Faye's Redtail. Faye looked at him quizzically. "Well, yeah."
"Dual Tigerfish ASM launchers? Wow! I always thought this setup was the perfect one for a light reconnaissance fighter! Combination of good light weight and great firepower! You could take out a small freighter with this stuff and still carry enough fuel to make a Titan-Mars run!" Tylor ran his hands over the patched armor on the left engine exhaust. "You must know what I'm talking about. Your armor says so."
Spike snorted. He took a drag of his cigarette, savoring the bitterness, and heard the first shot.
"Down!"
Faye hit the deck, her Glock already out. She jacked the slide, twisting her head to see where the gunfire was coming from, and was surprised to see Tylor already crawling along Redtail, heading back to the shop. Smarter than he looks, she thought.
People down the block were gaping as a hovercar jumped the corner and slammed to a stop. The rattling of submachine guns scattered them as a man and a woman bailed out of the car and sprinted towards the bounty hunters. Two low-slung black sedans charged down the street and skidded at the intersection. Faye would have laughed at the ineptitude of the drivers if the two fugitives hadn't been running full speed at them. She held back from aiming the Glock; this didn't involve them, and she didn't want it to. Those cars screamed syndicate, and Faye had already had enough of syndicate business to last her a lifetime. Even my lifetime, she thought .........
The first car spun its wheels and charged, two men leaning from its windows. Fire stabbed at the running couple, arcing high. Faye gritted her teeth from behind Redtail. The dark-cut suits with blue trim those men were wearing, so familiar ... The men who had held her at that old church in Tharsis had been wearing those suits, before Spike had come in with guns blazing ... not for her, never for her, gunning for that empty-eyed man called Vicious ...
Red Dragons. Had to be. She darted a quick look at Spike.
His cigarette had fallen from his lips. Impossible ...
"Ho Nam!" Spike shouted. Before he knew what he was doing, he was already standing, his Jericho in his hand. Faye's mouth dropped. WHAT was he doing?!
"Hey!"
Spike's first shot creased the first gunman's arm. The second blew the top of his skull all over the sedan's roof. The syndicate car skidded and came to a stop ten feet in front of the running pair, dumping the second man into the street with a bone-crunching thud. He didn't move, but Spike put two into the back of his head to make sure.
The man, a graying Chinese in a black suit, spun on a dime and turned back towards the car. As the front door began to open he was sprinting back, firing straight-armed with a .40-caliber revolver. His companion, a younger dark-skinned woman, stopped as well, reaching for him. "Dieh!" [Father! In Cantonese]
The old man had to be using APDS rounds; the heavy .40-caliber slugs punched through the door like it was tissue paper. Faye could hear screaming from inside the car, saw blood splatter against the windshield. A body slouched down out of the door. The older Chinese leaned inside the car and more gunshots rang out. He looked back and saw his younger companion running back towards him, firing at the car down the block with her pistol.
"Lornette, get back!"
His dark-skinned companion had caught back up with him. The second car had stopped at the intersection and men were spilling out, laying down fire that sent both of them diving to the pavement. Bloodstained glass littered the street as a third car edged around the corner.
Spike aimed, fired twice and missed once. "Ho Nam!"
The older Chinese had dragged a Nambu light machine gun from the car's interior. He threw his pistol to the young woman and braced the machine gun on the car's hood, ignoring the bullets snapping past. A torrent of fire blazed from the Nambu, sweeping across two men and sending the rest scrambling back from the sedans behind the corner.
They both turned, the man dropping the machine gun and catching a glimpse of Spike's face.
"Spike!" The older man, Ho Nam, stopped as if shot. "Spike! Is it you?"
The young dark-skinned woman, Lornette, stepped in front of her father. "Who---"
"Lornette! It's Brother Spike, from Tharsis!"
Spike didn't wait. "Let's go!" he shouted. "I'll cover you!"
"Spike!" Faye shouted. "Wait!"
Spike was already vaulting onto Swordfish II. The monopod's cockpit swung open and Spike was already angling the jets before it even started closing. "Ho Nam! I'll draw them off! You get away!" Swordfish II's Gatlings charged with a high whine, and Faye already knew what he was going to do. She covered her ears.
Spike swung the nose of Swordfish II across the intersection and cut loose. The roar of the 45mm chainguns blanked out all other sound as shell casings showered the street. Asphalt, sedans, and syndicate gunmen exploded into pieces.
Faye sighed as Swordfish II lifted off and darted south. The acrid stink of cordite and burnt metal hung in the air. Now didn't Jet say, stay out of trouble, Spike?
She looked around for the man and girl who'd been running from the Red Dragons. They'd already left. Good idea. It wouldn't be long before more syndicate men were here, and they'd be bringing drone fighters with them. Time to get going back to Bebop, so they could find Spike and get the hell out of Orphis. Jet was going to be pissed.
"Miss Faye!"
It was Tylor, waving from the door of the store. Two bullet holes had punched through the Bazooka Bakery's display window, but he looked okay. "Don't forget your cake!"
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Edited the grammar on this one ... Please Read and REVIEW! Tell me how I can get better!
"What's the date?"
"Eh?"
Faye Valentine sighed. "Hey, what's the date."
Ed grinned at her. "Date-date. Faye-faye wants to date-date."
"What? Arrrgh ..." Faye adjusted her the holster in her back and stalked off to find Jet or Spike. That damn little brat was off coasting in cyberspace again. She'd be better off finding some time to comb that hair of hers ...
Faye could think of someone else like that. He was slouched in front of the HTV, idly poking it with his shoe.
"Hey, what's the date?"
Spike Spiegel yawned. He'd finished with his form practice a half hour ago, taken a shower, and was counting the minutes until Big Shot came on. He checked the clock ... okay, one-thirty ...Two hours!
"What?"
Faye felt like stomping. "Don't you know? That bounty, whatshisname Ferrato, he's due to arrive in Ophir City on the 2nd of December, according what Jet's informant said."
"So?" Another one of Faye's bounties? Spike had already forgotten.
"He's eight hundred thousand woolongs, that's what!"
Hmm. Eight hundred thousand, that ... okay. Spike checked his watch. "Well, Mars calendar ... it's December 3rd already."
"Arrrgh!" Faye slapped her forehead. "How many bounties have we missed out on already this month?!"
Spike closed his eyes. "Well, there was Fouad Smith, remember. The one you let get away on Tijuana."
"Hey, Jet was supposed to be in the alley!"
"Also Jackie Bourgoza, five hundred thousand woolongs, the one who outran you back on Europa."
"I was wearing high heels!" Faye snapped. "Are you forgetting the bribe we had to pay Jet's ISSP buddies for when you torched that bar?"
Spike opened his eyes. "Hey, he was shooting at you!"
"So you had to use your plasma cannon?"
Spike clenched his fist. Faye gritted her teeth. They stared at each other. A silent growl seemed to pass between them.
Jet poked his head into the room. "Oy, fighting again?"
"Hah!" Faye turned up her nose.
"Nobody worth fighting in here." Spike closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head.
"Well, if you're both done ...Someone's got to go get some food. You can pick the menu, but remember, we're short this month. Again. Who was it blew that Bourgoza bounty?" Jet had a small grimace on his face. He already knew ...
"Hi-her!" Spike and Faye were already pointing at each other.
... what they were going to do.
"You've got six hundred woolongs. For the month. I've got to fix Hammerhead's motor guidance system, Ed's checking on our next bounty. That leaves you two. Now get going." Jet jerked his thumb. "And try not to get into trouble. For once."
--------------------------------------
"Check that out." Spike pointed at the spreading black mass at the bottom of Orphis' giant canyon. "Army base. One of the biggest around outside Tharsis. Half the people in Orphis are ex-Army. Stay away from that airspace, they'll shoot you down before you get a chance to open that big mouth."
Faye swung Redtail in behind Spike's Swordfish II as they cruised down onto the 40-mile rock outcrop that was Orphis City. "Where are we going shopping again?"
"We've stopped here before. Over near the main spaceport, Ahmad's Universal."
"Wait a minute. That's where you two got that defective ECM missile!" [see Session 9, JAMMING WITH EDWARD] Faye remembered that missile. It's missing had nearly gotten her killed.
"Well, yeah, but we've only got six hundred woolongs. Besides, we're buying food, not missiles." Spike grinned. "They've got some clothing stores over there."
Faye steamed. "That's supposed to take my mind off?"
"Well, a mini-casino too ..."
"Baka." Faye cut in front of Swordfish II as the legal jetway opened up on her HUD.
Ahmad's Universal was a giant merchant mall that sold to the Army base and all the space traffic centered around Orphis City. There was an area like it in every city with a spaceport, chock full of goods both legal and illegal, syndicate gangsters, crooked cops of the ISSP, planetary, and local varieties, and enough regular, arrestable criminals to keep the Bebop in woolongs until its engines finally went to the big scrapyard in the heavens. But Jet had told them to stay out of trouble ...
"Hey, what's the date?"
Faye stewed. This was not going to be one of those days, she swore. She was not going to let them get to her. "It's December 3rd, remember?"
"It's Jet's birthday."
"Huh? His birthday?" Faye asked. It was hard to put Jet Black together with birthdays . It was hard to imagine Jet at a birthday party, or even Jet as a kid. She wondered if he had always had those sideburns.
"Yeah, I remember. We caught this one bounty last year, and Jet said that money always came on his birthday."
"We don't have any money now."
Spike was smiling. "Well, at least we should buy him a cake. Maybe it'll make us lucky."
"A cake? Hey, what are you talking about ."
"A cake!" Spike snorted. "Over there, there's a bakery. Bazooka Bakery."
The comm channel sparked. "Ed loves cakes! Lemon frosting cake!"
"Ed? Didn't Jet tell you not to cut into the comm. channels?" Faye waggled her finger at the comm. "So much for your souvenir!"
"Ed wants lemon frosting cake! Lemon frosting, okay for Ed?"
Spike shrugged. "Three things I hate ..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The baker's assistant was very enthusiastic.
"Well, you're in luck! We got lemon frosting, we got strawberry frosting, coldberry frosting, with real coldberry from Callisto. We also got raspberry, coconut, tapioca, red-bean ..."
"Okay," Spike cut in. "We'll take the lemon. Faye, pay the man."
"Hey, wait a minute, who said anything about me paying?" Faye stepped forward and lowered the sunglasses on her nose to look at Spike. "It was your idea."
"I don't have any money, except for groceries."
"Well, who said I did?"
"Excuse me, miss?"
The clerk behind the counter couldn't have been more than twenty, but his eyes were big as saucers. "Your name is Faye?"
Faye stared at the kid. He was rail-skinny, with dark hair and tanned skin, freckles. Totally average. "So?"
"My name's T-Tylor." The kid almost stuck his hand out, then seemed to think better of it. "So you guys are together?"
"Watch it," said Spike.
"In his dreams, maybe," snapped Faye. "I think I have a bit more class than that."
"Class!?" Spike almost gagged on his cigarette
"Anyway," said Faye. Good God, she'd have to pull this stuff again ...
She leaned over the counter to give Baker's Assistant Tylor a better look at her. "How much would this cake be?"
"Ha, ha . We're having a sale," said Tylor helpfully.
"A good sale?"
"Uh, maybe ..."
Spike smiled inwardly. Typical Faye ... this poor kid was out of his league. At least he wasn't paying for the cake, and it would cheer Jet up. They'd missed four bounties in a row now, burned up forty thousand units of fuel, and were down to their last hundred thousand woolongs. Well, it wasn't anything they hadn't gone through before ...
Faye kept grinning and pushing her cleavage together to keep poor Tylor spinning and baking. Fifteen minutes later, he'd whipped up a five- pound chocolate cake with lemon frosting and cherries circling the center. Faye spelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY JET BLACK for him and blew a little kiss that Spike thought was overdoing it.
"Are you sure you don't want to charge us for it?" Faye simpered.
"Uh, it's okay. I mean, the owner's away on vacation, I'm in charge, so ..." Tylor was beet-red, a nervous grin written on his face.
"Hey, do you mind carrying this out to my pod for me? You look like such a chivalrous, gentle young man ... strong, too!"
Tylor had the cake boxed and wrapped and was holding the door for Faye before Spike had finished his second cigarette. As he approached the two bounty hunters' ships, he gaped. "Wow, are those 60mm Nambus? GSN-45s?"
He was pointing at the twin guns on Faye's Redtail. Faye looked at him quizzically. "Well, yeah."
"Dual Tigerfish ASM launchers? Wow! I always thought this setup was the perfect one for a light reconnaissance fighter! Combination of good light weight and great firepower! You could take out a small freighter with this stuff and still carry enough fuel to make a Titan-Mars run!" Tylor ran his hands over the patched armor on the left engine exhaust. "You must know what I'm talking about. Your armor says so."
Spike snorted. He took a drag of his cigarette, savoring the bitterness, and heard the first shot.
"Down!"
Faye hit the deck, her Glock already out. She jacked the slide, twisting her head to see where the gunfire was coming from, and was surprised to see Tylor already crawling along Redtail, heading back to the shop. Smarter than he looks, she thought.
People down the block were gaping as a hovercar jumped the corner and slammed to a stop. The rattling of submachine guns scattered them as a man and a woman bailed out of the car and sprinted towards the bounty hunters. Two low-slung black sedans charged down the street and skidded at the intersection. Faye would have laughed at the ineptitude of the drivers if the two fugitives hadn't been running full speed at them. She held back from aiming the Glock; this didn't involve them, and she didn't want it to. Those cars screamed syndicate, and Faye had already had enough of syndicate business to last her a lifetime. Even my lifetime, she thought .........
The first car spun its wheels and charged, two men leaning from its windows. Fire stabbed at the running couple, arcing high. Faye gritted her teeth from behind Redtail. The dark-cut suits with blue trim those men were wearing, so familiar ... The men who had held her at that old church in Tharsis had been wearing those suits, before Spike had come in with guns blazing ... not for her, never for her, gunning for that empty-eyed man called Vicious ...
Red Dragons. Had to be. She darted a quick look at Spike.
His cigarette had fallen from his lips. Impossible ...
"Ho Nam!" Spike shouted. Before he knew what he was doing, he was already standing, his Jericho in his hand. Faye's mouth dropped. WHAT was he doing?!
"Hey!"
Spike's first shot creased the first gunman's arm. The second blew the top of his skull all over the sedan's roof. The syndicate car skidded and came to a stop ten feet in front of the running pair, dumping the second man into the street with a bone-crunching thud. He didn't move, but Spike put two into the back of his head to make sure.
The man, a graying Chinese in a black suit, spun on a dime and turned back towards the car. As the front door began to open he was sprinting back, firing straight-armed with a .40-caliber revolver. His companion, a younger dark-skinned woman, stopped as well, reaching for him. "Dieh!" [Father! In Cantonese]
The old man had to be using APDS rounds; the heavy .40-caliber slugs punched through the door like it was tissue paper. Faye could hear screaming from inside the car, saw blood splatter against the windshield. A body slouched down out of the door. The older Chinese leaned inside the car and more gunshots rang out. He looked back and saw his younger companion running back towards him, firing at the car down the block with her pistol.
"Lornette, get back!"
His dark-skinned companion had caught back up with him. The second car had stopped at the intersection and men were spilling out, laying down fire that sent both of them diving to the pavement. Bloodstained glass littered the street as a third car edged around the corner.
Spike aimed, fired twice and missed once. "Ho Nam!"
The older Chinese had dragged a Nambu light machine gun from the car's interior. He threw his pistol to the young woman and braced the machine gun on the car's hood, ignoring the bullets snapping past. A torrent of fire blazed from the Nambu, sweeping across two men and sending the rest scrambling back from the sedans behind the corner.
They both turned, the man dropping the machine gun and catching a glimpse of Spike's face.
"Spike!" The older man, Ho Nam, stopped as if shot. "Spike! Is it you?"
The young dark-skinned woman, Lornette, stepped in front of her father. "Who---"
"Lornette! It's Brother Spike, from Tharsis!"
Spike didn't wait. "Let's go!" he shouted. "I'll cover you!"
"Spike!" Faye shouted. "Wait!"
Spike was already vaulting onto Swordfish II. The monopod's cockpit swung open and Spike was already angling the jets before it even started closing. "Ho Nam! I'll draw them off! You get away!" Swordfish II's Gatlings charged with a high whine, and Faye already knew what he was going to do. She covered her ears.
Spike swung the nose of Swordfish II across the intersection and cut loose. The roar of the 45mm chainguns blanked out all other sound as shell casings showered the street. Asphalt, sedans, and syndicate gunmen exploded into pieces.
Faye sighed as Swordfish II lifted off and darted south. The acrid stink of cordite and burnt metal hung in the air. Now didn't Jet say, stay out of trouble, Spike?
She looked around for the man and girl who'd been running from the Red Dragons. They'd already left. Good idea. It wouldn't be long before more syndicate men were here, and they'd be bringing drone fighters with them. Time to get going back to Bebop, so they could find Spike and get the hell out of Orphis. Jet was going to be pissed.
"Miss Faye!"
It was Tylor, waving from the door of the store. Two bullet holes had punched through the Bazooka Bakery's display window, but he looked okay. "Don't forget your cake!"
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Edited the grammar on this one ... Please Read and REVIEW! Tell me how I can get better!