A Revision of the one that started it all. I have learned so much since first publishing it; and I felt it deserved a good revamping. It is the same story now better portrayed! So whether you are reading for the first time or you are a veteran fan of mine; please feel free to review any and all of the chapters! Especially if you like the slight changes!

CHAPTER 1

Billie Shade, the famous now ex bounty hunter looked around the Sargasso base as various criminals and ex bounty hunters like herself scrambled around in a panic trying to make repairs. Although it was a large and intimidating space station, it looked as though it had never been anything overly impressive. The sort of place that felt like an afterthought to something that was great; sort of the shadow of an empire that could make one dwell on the inevitable way that time ate away at all things. But it was still abundantly clear that something was amiss, in fact the place looked like a pissed off ex employee had come through with a blaster… recently by the behavior of various apes and reptilians running about.

"So, I take it this isn't how this place usually looks?" She said jokingly to her new boss.

The lupine shot her daggers with his good eye, and then whipped his head forward once more and said:

"This way. I'll show you where you'll be crashing during your time here."

'No sense of humor…' She thought to herself.

Billie didn't even know why she had taken him up on his offer to join Star Wolf. Spur of the moment decision really; however her life had never maintained any real direction so it was of no consequence. The arrangement had been little more than a fight or flight response that manifested as a sort of oral contract. But Billie had little reason to care about where she wound up anymore, and even if she did she of all people could understand how temporary everything was.

'Everything in life is just one phase after another.' She finished her thought.

The infamous Wolf O'Donnell however, still had one hell of a steep bounty on his head. Which of course had been the initial reason she… 'approached' him. But this now ex-bounty hunter no longer had need to care. She was officially his underling now.

As they moved through the vast space sanctuary, she took in the way all in this place addressed him. 'Lord O'Donnell' they would say on his approach: even though he seemed to look right through them, it was clear he had done something to earn their respect.

'Maybe he's a good leader.' She let her thoughts wander as she looked up his height from behind his broad frame.

Their footsteps seemed to become louder the farther from the noise of the deck below got. She looked down from the elevator that was little more than a platform secured in a gravity lock; it slowly moved them up and away from the noisy decks below, and into the silence of the upper base they went. Her black eyes dared to dart over to him from over her right shoulder. He seemed to be staring blankly forward; she just couldn't get a read on this guy.

'How interesting.' That was what he had said…

what did he mean by that? Why was he so trusting of someone like her? With her reputation for being bad news for his type? He was an enigma standing before her, the electronic patch over his eye giving absolutely nothing of his character away from her side glance. Could he even tell she was staring at him?

'And why the hell is he so quiet?' She thought.

That was really making her a bit nervous. She clutched her suitcase in her hands and looked down. And then she was jolted from her thoughts when the lift came to a stop, his feet moved forward without so much as a grunt from him. A bit flustered from her swimming thoughts she jogged after him until she caught up.

He stopped in front of a hallway that was void of windows, or light unlike every other room in this place; at least from what she had seen so far. There was just enough lighting from the bulbs above their heads to see the doors all the way down to the end.

"My room is the one all the way at the end, Leon's is this first one. You can choose any other. Figured I'd let the lady choose before Panther."

"Oh, what a gentleman." She said sarcastically.

"Just stay in my good graces girly." He shot back not liking her tone.

"So Panther is new as well I take it?"

He gave a slight nod and nothing more as he crossed his arms.

"Why are you recruiting so heavily all of a sudden Mr. O'Donnell?" she asked innocently, trying to be polite, but coming off cheeky.

"Mr. O'Donnell? So polite, just call me Wolf. And a while back I had to lay some people off… it left something of a void in my life." He said it like he had killed the poor bastards.

"Oh I see, what did they do to piss you off?"

"Let's just say we had some ethical and economic differences and leave it at that." He retorted flatly.

"Got it."

"Ah, so she can be taught."

"It's hard to find decent help these days isn't it Mr.… uhm, Wolf." She corrected herself.

"Yeah. But I'm hoping with a reputation like yours you won't turn out to be such a bitter disappointment; Welcome to Star Wolf."

And finally his intentions were out of the haze.

"Thanks. I think…" she said as he began to walk into the distance barking orders at the closest ape.

Apes had really become a scapegoat since that scientist went crazy a few years back… a lot of people hated and feared the lot of them. Billie didn't remember the name of the scientist; but she didn't really care either. She hadn't been 'around' during the Lylat war.

Billie looked from room to room as her steel toes broke the silence of the hallway. She tried to find a room that spoke to her cracking the doors slightly ajar to peek in at every stop.

"Dudgie place." She muttered continuing her search.

She chose a relatively small room, one down from Wolf's; simply for the fact that the interior looked like the cleanest one to her. Her fingers moved blindly against the wall until they settled on a light switch; she pressed the button and a light over the lumpy looking bed lit the room up pretty well; and boy did this room need some TLC. Heaving a tired sigh, she tossed her suitcase down to the floor with a thud, and then plopped her body onto the mattress and began replaying the events that took place hours earlier in her mind's eye.

Radical Billie Shade had been sitting in some dank bar full of low lives, right on the end of the Lylat system. It was a popular hangout for people who knew things that they probably shouldn't, as it was floating around in some uncharted patch of asteroids near sector X… well at least it was uncharted to the Cornerian military. And in that fact laid the appeal.

She suckered a few guys at first, letting them win and spread the word, and then she would lean back and wait for men who were after a bit more than money to try and take her down. Each and every man willing to challenge her to an arm wrestling match at this point; lost quite a bit of their mad money. They all under estimated her because she was a woman; not that she gave two shits… Part of the charm of sexism aside from chivalry, was being able to play things up a bit to get what was desired from idiots.

It was just an easy way to make some coin in between nabbing bounties, and it had been a long time since she got one that was worth the pay… Radical once maybe, but every profession had a dry season. Not that she was in one: more like she was just tired of the chase…

One after the other however, the poor bastards kept marching in to their defeat at the hands of the lady lupine. A lupine in itself was becoming something of a rare sight in this system of canines. It was true every breed of dog came from a common wolfish ancestor that canines throughout Lylat shared. But throughout the process of not only physical evolution but cultural as well the features of the Wolf were becoming a dulled thing. Wolves were once hated among royalty and all of the 'old money' that married off to their cousins to keep the blood 'pure' for their tempers, and other primal tendencies. They simply had been viewed as something of the 'Old world' for a long time. But in this day and age they were making a comeback in pop culture, the more wolfish or even fox like that one looked was a sign of exotic beauty. Particularly in females…

Although mostly a white lupine, she did bear a brownish black blaze running up her muzzle that licked its way up around her eyes almost like thick eyeliner. Her irises matched her deep black hair which although hung down to the backs of her thighs these days, was always in a loose braid that she wrapped around her neck like a scarf. Every man met their doom at the snowy huntress, and payed what they had bet.

It is here that her deep, dark eyes caught a sight that would alter her life forever. Every bounty hunter in Lylat was aware of Wolf O'Donnell, or more importantly: his bounty. Veteran of the Venom army; with a bounty that followed him from it. She looked to either side of him at other recognizable faces; Panther Caroso the infamous hacker, and Leon Powalski the blade wielding stalker of death. They in themselves were almost as famous as Wolf, but held less bounty. Billie Shade only wanted the prize in the middle.

"My lucky day…" She said slamming some poor buck's arm down to the table spilling his drink down to the floor with him.

'If only he were alone.' She thought watching them approach the bar tender.

They weren't there to drink, it looked like they were getting some kind of info.

"Hmm…" she said strumming her black claws over the tabletop.

Her brain hatched a plan beneath twitchy black tipped ears. Very nonchalantly, she stood up putting her coat on as she strolled slowly out of the bar into the ship lot.

Her eyes darted around at the lot, various vessels of all makes and models pressed against the tapestry of space beneath the artificial atmosphere. Floating on an asteroid like this, with the only light source in this part of deep space being the strange X nebula; it was hard to tell what was up and what was down if you didn't keep part of your eye line on the paved over rock at your feet.

She spotted the famous Wolfen at last, and her feet led her up to it with a mind of their own. If there was one thing Billie knew, it was ships… and The Red Fang; an artifact in itself being a machine of Venom build. What secrets it could confess the machine could speak.

"Has to be it." She muttered climbing up to sit on the glass canopy.

"And now we play the waiting game." She looked down at her palms, wondering what would become of her if she failed this one.

From what she'd heard about O'Donnell; he took no prisoners.

"It doesn't matter…" she mumbled under her breath.

"Either way I win."

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

Not too long after that she saw the three figures she had been waiting for emerge from the bar. They headed in her direction immediately, and as they drew close she made herself known.

"Well, well, well…" as she spoke the three men came to a slow stop and looked up to her.

"Turns out you're not so hard to find Mr. O'Donnell. You are Wolf O'Donnell, are you not?" she asked in a sly voice.

And moments later she jumped down in front of them; delicately landing on all fours with a soft plop.

"Who's asking?" Wolf said quickly.

"Billie Shade." Was all she said as she stood up straight pulling out her plasma pistol.

"Billie Shade?" Leon said.

"The bounty hunter?"

"Can't be…" Panther said smoothly.

"I had heard that the Radical Billie Shade was a man. It couldn't be this fetching woman before us."

"My parents wanted a boy okay?!" she exclaimed in a fluster.

Everyone who had heard of her reputation assumed that, it drove her nuts. But she couldn't hate it too much because most of her bounties couldn't pull her out of a crowd because of it.

"But the point is…" she calmed her tone.

"I am Radical Billie, and I'm taking you down Mr. O'Donnell."

"Humph." A sly smile seemed to cross Wolf's lips in that moment.

"Put that down, before you get hurt."

"Oh please don't start." She said annoyed from repetition.

"You really think you can take all three of us?" Leon exclaimed almost laughing.

"YES!" Billie said incredibly annoyed by him.

"I can already tell, O'Donnell there is just like every other jackass I've ever hauled in. You killed the wrong guy, you stole from the wrong guy, you slept with the wrong guys wife!" she spat looking from Leon, to Wolf, and then Panther as she did so.

"Guess what? I. DON'T. CARE. And while I expect that gun threats mean very little to someone with your war record Mr. O'Donnell; you are still just like all the rest."

"And how's that?" He asked seeming amused.

"They always start off cocky; like the sun just shines out of their ass. They ask me to put the gun down; try to be all buddy, buddy. And then thinking it will be easy to beat me because I'm a woman they ask for hand to hand combat. Then when I start laying them out; they run!" She paused…

"You can run Star Wolf, but I will catch you. And when I do you'll try to reason with me, and when that fails you may even try to flirt with me, and then when that fails you will get on your knees and beg me to let you go. Then I'll knock you unconscious, you will awaken several hours later in a jail cell, and I shall be long gone with my money."

The three just stood there in a shocked silence for a minute. Then Wolf let out a low deep laugh, Billie perked up her ears and gritted her teeth.

"So…" Wolf began

"she is a bounty hunter after all."

Billie aimed her gun right at his leg, ready to immobilize him.

"I tell you what Radical Billie, you put that gun down and we will do hand to hand combat."

"Tch." Billie said through gritted teeth.

"But, it's not in me to run from a fight; so if you win, we'll come quietly."

"WE?" Panther and Leon exclaimed.

Billie stared into his one eye; he looked sincere enough… for a criminal. Her white tail twitched a bit not knowing yet what to make of him. But against her better judgment she holstered her gun.

"Okay Mr. O'Donnell. Have it your way."

"Rip her to pieces Wolf!" Leon exclaimed.

Panther chimed in; "Do be careful Wolf; I believe this rose has thorns."

Billie struck her stance: feet apart to keep balance, arms protecting her center and knees slightly arched for stability. She was ready, or so she thought…

Wolf moved in a gray flash. She barely caught his hand as he sent it heel first into her stomach. Hardly able to hold his massive hand in place as it dwarfed her hands, she could see he had some viscous claws beneath that leather. In a ditch effort to shake him off she twisted his wrist before his other hand could come barreling towards her head. Thinking fast she cart wheeled backwards away from this slash; giving him a kick in the chin with her steel toed combat boot. She heard him grunt in pain, but when the cart wheels were finished he wasn't in front of her; she looked up to see his large frame shooting down from above her.

Reflexively she put her arms up side to side protecting her head. They took the blow of his fists, and then she heard his feet touch the ground. Lifting her arms to her side she slammed her palms into his ears; he coiled back from the wringing pain.

Not missing the opportunity she sent her right hook towards his good eye. He caught it and squeezed until she felt the crushing twinge of pain. She let out a short but high pitched squeal and then sent her left knee into his abdomen. He hooked the bottom of her thigh with his free hand and pulled up.

She fell backward… her back and her head hit the pavement. She laid there in a daze sucking in air until she felt weight on top of her; Wolf straddled her holding her hands over her head by the wrists with his right hand, and then wrapped his left around her neck in a merciless grip.

"It's over." He said looming over her like a colossus.

She looked at him, still slightly dazed and sputtering for air. Her eyes flickered in winces up at him from her pathetic situation.

"Good, now finish her Wolf!" Leon called from behind them.

And in the next moment Wolf heard something he never expected.

"Just do it…" She managed to get out on shallow breath.

"What? Kill you?" He looked down at his prey.

She closed her eyes and didn't struggle any farther; simply let herself go limp and waited for what was next.

"How interesting…" Wolf said leaning over her with the hint of a smile on his face.

And then he released her throat; she instantly coughed and gasped for sweet oxygen.

"Why are you a bounty hunter?" He asked the still pinned lycan.

"Money? Currency?"

"No, *gasp* it's just *wheeze* all I know how to do." She kept her eyes closed as she struggled with speech.

"I see." Wolf leaned his head to the side, and looked up like he was considering something.

"Look if you're gonna kill me just make it quick already!" She yelled in a cracking voice opening her eyes.

"Ha-ha, easy there." Wolf released her hands and stood up.

"Don't fuck with me!" Billie spat as he offered her his hand.

"I wasn't. I believe in civility among seasoned warriors." Wolf meant that, his jaw hurt like hell and his ears still had a ring.

"How would you like a better paying job?" he said crouching down to her level.

"You mean, on Star Wolf?" She asked looking down from her sitting position.

She couldn't look at anyone right now, although she didn't know why.

"I could use someone of your talents. It's tough building up a solid reputation in the bounty hunting game." His tone was low and sincere.

"Having a woman on the team would be a breath of fresh air." They could hear Panther from the distance.

Billie sat in thought for a moment… and then she looked up to the tall Wolf as he stood back at full height and once again offered that clawed square palm. Her mind went blank looking at his face… she felt instinct push her at this decision.

Timidly she laid her hand on his and he pulled her to her feet, they walked her to her ship as they spoke of their arrangement among the backstage of stars all around.

As the memory closed, Billie laid back on the lumpy mattress and put a hand to her achy neck.

'If he had wanted to snap my neck in two it would have taken little to no effort on his part…' she thought.

"So why didn't you?" she said aloud to the silence.