Guess who's been re-watching Cowboy Bebop?
This nerd.
And no this is not a crossover before you ask, just an inspired thing.
(Also yeah heads up, I only did two double checks on grammar and spelling so just a warning)
Songs Listened to whilst Writing:
- Cowboy Bebop OST - The Real Folk Blues (the ending theme)
- Cowboy Bebop OST - See You Space Cowboy
Everything was still falling back into its usual routine. Everyone was trying to get back to how they were, before the betrayal. And he was glad.
He just wasn't glad that he was somehow dragged into a new debacle involving a rip in the fabric of Space and two flying ships... Or rather, flying and dog fighting ships.
One was a brilliant crimson and darted around whilst the sleek silver one followed closely behind before firing a missile at the former. The pilot of the the red ship tried it's damnedest to dodge it but one misjudged barrel roll and the missile clipped the left wing and promptly exploded, throwing the spacecraft into the beach with a earth rumbling crash whilst simultaneously throwing the Pilot out of the cockpit with a smash of glass that was lost in the rest of the noise.
Fire burned and crackled whilst the beach became smattered with wreckage whilst the silver ship simply left, believing it's job to be done. And so he let his curiosity and some strange feeling in the back of his head take over as he rushed forward and pulled them properly from the wreck, pulling their surprisingly light body away from the burning spaceship before laying them out and pulling off their broken helmet.
Yet surprisingly, the Pilot, that was tossed from their ruined craft, slowly moved. They were either lucky as hell or possessed some sort of regenerative ability. Yet it wasn't that he hated, it was just his damn instinct that he despised at that moment.
"Fuck me..." He heard them grumble but he couldn't quite pick up on their voice as he slowly backed away, unsure on what to think of them as they sat there on the Sandy beach, their jumpsuit slightly charred and ripped in certain places only for them to suddenly move, rolling so they were on one knee with a strange pistol that looked like it had been crossed with a sub machine gun and had extra glowing strips added for effect. Her eyes were narrowed as she scanned him up and down, her anger becoming mixed with confusion as she took in what he was, or what he was wearing. "Who are you? Where am I?"
"Look, calm down punk I'm not gonna hurt you-"
"Oh don't call me the punk, asshole. I'm the one with the gun and a decent sense of style so answer the damn questions." He just grumbled to himself, unable to help but glare at her as she kept that damn pistol trained on his head. So he quickly stepped to the side and then forward, seeing the blast of blue energy before hearing the sound of it being fired as his hand wrapped around the barrel and twisted it from her grasp. It happened under five seconds and she staggered back when he gave her an extra push to be sure that she wouldn't try and take her weapon back.
"Like I said, calm down." He snapped again and she just kept glaring at him, but they both couldn't help but look away from one another when a loud rumbling echoed through the air and they turned their eyes to the sky. "Well shit." And at the sight of the familiarly logo-ed aircraft carrier coming in for landing, he turned and ran.
"Hey!" She shouted after him, about to take chase only to glance back at her ruined ship and then at his retreating form as he still held onto her pistol. "Dammit!"
After quickly grabbing something from the wreck, it wasn't too difficult to catch back up and duck into the sewer opening after the weirdly dressed guy in black and red spandex. Just because it wasn't difficult didn't mean that she loved it, instead she hated it, from the smell and from what she was walking through in her white and red suit that looked more like a racer leather driving suit than a pilot's outfit. "Dammit come back here you asshole-" She came to a screeching halt, the filthy water splashing as she stopped herself from colliding headfirst into the strange spandex clad guy who bore a spider motif on his chest and back... Who could also walk of ceilings.
"Why the hell are you following me?" He growled at her and she just scoffed, reaching up and shoving his shoulder.
"What are you? An idiot? Or just a forgetful nutter? 'Cause you've still got my gun." She snapped in reply and he just looked at the pistol he just remembered that he was still holding onto only to just turn back around and continue walking.
"Better in my hands than in yours." The Spider said with a shrug of his shoulders and she was tempted to throw the silver briefcase at him only to remember it's contents and just continued to trudge after him through the sludgy water. "Seriously, stop following me."
"Then at least tell me where I am." She demanded and finally gave up and jumped down from the ceiling, easily twisting through the air and landing on his feet with a soft thump that barely echoed off the sewer walls.
"You're in Manhattan." She frowned, and behind his black mask he raised an eyebrow. "In America?"
"What year?" She then asked, confusion still heavy in her strange eyes and he just huffed before indulging her questions.
"2017."
"What?!" Her voice echoed off the walls, bouncing for yards and yards before fading altogether and he let his expression under the mask turn from a wince to an annoyed look.
"Really? That loud?"
"Oh now you definitely need to give me back my gun I don't want any of you luddites getting your grubby hands on my tech." The supposed girl from the 'future' suddenly spat out, trying her damnedest to snatch her weapon back but she successfully got her hand on it and tried to pull but he didn't let his arm move more than a foot.
"Careful, or I'll break your precious gun." He tightened his hand on the silver and blue glowing pistol, and the metal began to worryingly creak under the sudden strain and her odd eyes widened before narrowing as she dropped her briefcase and pulled on his arms with both hands.
"Do that and I'll break yours with my knee." She suddenly threatened before trying to do what she just said, trying to knee him in the crotch but he blocked her leg with his free hand and pushed her back into the curved sewer wall. He held her there, and she didn't resist against his strength as the faintest flicker of pain crossed her features.
"Look, I don't give a shit about what you do punk but just stop following me."
"Oh yeah? Then why did you pull me from the wreck then?" She challenged and he pulled away as quickly as he had put them there, almost tripping up over the briefcase as he went, deciding against giving her an answer. "Oh wait, you're one of those, 21st Century heroes aren't you?" An amused note made its way into her voice as he turned away, quickly making his mind up about leaving her there in the middle of a city she had no idea about. "Or what? One of the bad guys? Come on you can tell me, just don't expect any spoilers from the future from me though."
"Like as if you even know anything, you don't even know where you are." He whirled back around, watching how the mystery girl in a vinyl jumpsuit just put her pistol back in its holster on her thigh and he almost, literally face-palmed. Dammit why did he forget things so easily? Wait why did he even let go of that damn thing? Why did he even care anyway if she had it back?
"I do now and everyone where I'm from knows what the 'Big Apple' was like with its heroes and villains." She picked up her briefcase and walked up and stopped next to him, keeping some distance between them much to his relief but from the way she was smirking and had her hip cocked out to the side, she wasn't treating this like she hadn't been obviously thrown into the past anymore, but like a game. He just wasn't sure if he was a player in the game or just an obstacle to her. So he kept quiet and started moving again. "Oh come on Mr Hero, you can talk to me."
"She says, when not even two minutes ago you were threatening to kick me in the balls." He replied snarkily and she just gave a soft huff of laughter as she matched his pace.
"I need answers and you obviously want the company-"
"I don't need friends-"
"I never said anything about being friends but you're talking so you want someone for company." She, may or may not have had a point. He had reached a month of being dead in the eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D and he, actually missed, talking to someone. Dammit why did he have to be a social creature like most people and not just an antisocial person like Iron Spider?
So he gave a relenting groan and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"What do you want to know then?"
"Well, gotta wonder where we're going. You don't know anywhere I can get changed without smelling like shit, do you?" She was sure to ask as a flicker of hope burned in his brittle and stony heart, and damn did he hope that she didn't want to know his- "Also what's your name, asshole? Just 'cause I'm a bitch doesn't mean I can call you asshole for as long as I know you."
"What? Got plans for getting rid of me already?" He dryly mumbled to himself more than anything, he didn't even mean to say it out loud and she just chuckled.
"Who knows? I might be nice for once and leave a loose end trailing. Pft... Like it matters since I'm in the bloody past." She grumbled towards the end only to give him a gentle nudge in the side with her elbow and he was quick to shoot her a look. "What? Cough up a place and a name then, I haven't got all day."
"One of the closed train stations and... I call myself Scarlet Spider." She simply hummed.
"Roxie, bounty hunter and star pilot extraordinaire." Her playful tone was gone and he spotted her out of the corner of his eye, seeing the blank look on her face like she was lost in her thoughts.
"No last name?"
"Don't have one. Don't need one." Roxie replied and it was his turn to just simply hum in reply. A single second of quiet past, nothing but their footsteps on the dirty concrete ground as they followed the tunnel to the destination he kept going back to no matter what he would do in a day. "So how long til we get there?"
"It's only gonna be 'we' until you're changed and gone, got it?"
"Yeah yeah, now answer the question 'cause I'm about to lose my patience with you, Red." He ignored her sudden choice of name for him and increased his speed, stepping in front of her and continuing to lead the way, hoping it would keep her quiet. So instead she sighed and decided to abandon that question altogether since he obviously wasn't going to give an answer. "So, what's the deal with you being down here then?"
"Non of your damn business, and I thought you said you knew about Manhattan and its heroes?" He suddenly snapped, hating that she wanted to ask about him. He was just him, a... Nobody. A monster, a betrayer. And she didn't need to know that.
"I never said anything about knowing everything about Manhattan and its heroes."
And so they kept walking, and kept bitching back and forth at one another whilst slowly breaking through the ice by accident by answering one too many questions about each other. They both found that they were secretive about certain things, like how Scarlet just didn't want to talk about anything to do with him in particular and how she didn't want to talk about where she was from or what had happened to cause her end up in this time period. But they both took it all in their separate strides surprisingly well just as they got to the train station he had mentioned through a series of tunnels and sets of ladders and grates.
"Talk about finally- Nope wait this place smells like a dump too." Roxie grumbled as she leant against a dusty pillar only to watch him walk straight past her and up to a certain wall.
"You don't want much do you?" He rhetorically asked but she still, annoyingly and sarcastically, answered.
"I live a simple life of simple needs." He was glad for his mask as he rolled his eyes whilst he pushed a certain brick in the wall which moved back and clunked into place, letting the entire wall separate into two separate pieces and horizontally detach before sliding neatly into the walls. "Nice going Red."
"Shut up."
"Yeah, no." Scarlet just couldn't help but roll his eyes at her smug grin as she followed him into his hidden base and he was tempted to just, do more than kick her out then and there. "So, what are you then, Red? Hero? Villain?" She asked then question that she had already asked twice before in subtly different ways and he didn't want to answer it each time.
"Non of your damn business."
"Well excuse me for trying to keep the small talk going."
"Then stop trying to get to know me." She gave him a foul look as she looked over her shoulder, putting the briefcase down on one of the few desks in what used to be an abandoned mini HYDRA hideout but, well. She didn't need to know that.
"Look Red," Roxie started, entering the codes into the briefcase locks before laying it down and opening it, revealing all sorts of objects within. "Unchangeable things and the like don't exist, and unchangeable people don't exist either." She pulled off her boots, throwing them to the side only to pull the zipper on her jumpsuit all the way down and immediately climb out of the tattered piece of vinyl so she was in nothing but her underwear. He wasn't complaining about the view as he flopped down in his hardly ever used bed but he wasn't just going to sit lay there and watch her. Well, he was but not noticeably. She could have anything in that briefcase of her's other than clothes.
Surprisingly, he wasn't wrong.
"What kind of space bounty hunter wears a suit?" He couldn't help but ask when she finished buttoning up her black waist coat only to loosen her red tie and pop to top button of her white shirt with a simple twist of her fingers.
"What kind of spider wears spandex?" She shot back in response as she pulled on her heeled boots that came up past her knees for, whatever reason. He couldn't see a particular one but he wasn't going to question her choice of outfit as he looked back at the ceiling instead.
"Hm, I'll give you that."
"So, any of these computers work?" She asked as she finished strapping her pistol back to her thigh and he was quick to sit up.
"Don't touch the computers."
"Aw, why not?" She playfully asked in return and he naturally glared at her. It was just his go-to look for people who were pissing him off in any way imaginable.
"Activate them and I'm pretty sure S.H.I.E.L.D will find out about it and then I'm stuck without somewhere to hide." Roxie wasn't listening to him as she crossed the gap between her table and the computers taking the entire wall across from them.
"Can't hide forever- Hey whoa-" He had sprung to his feet and yanked her back with a webline that stuck in the middle of her back, making her spin and stagger straight into him. She winced when he pinned her into the table, her lower back having hit the corner awkwardly enough just to get a pained look but no noise.
"What did I just say?" He growled at her and she huffed in response, wriggling back and sitting on the table instead of being pinned against it before pushing him back with her foot against his stomach, bringing attention to her hand which rested on the grip of her pistol.
"Oh why don't you just shut up and stop being a coward-"
"I am not a coward-" She blatantly laughed in his face and didn't care for whatever consequences were going to come her way.
"Yeah you are! Hiding in a sewer, not owning up to whatever you did, which, I could give less of a fuck about but seriously," She gave him a push back and slid off the table and grabbed her briefcase. "Grow a pair and admit what you did was wrong. It's the only way you're gonna move on and get over it. Now, where's the exit? I wanna see who I can con out of their money with an empty case."
She didn't really care about him, didn't care about the world, just herself and if she had any quick way to make cash. Yet here she was, giving away advice like she was giving away free leaflets at the mall. So he just quietly lead her to the corner and jumped up, easily pulling down the escape ladder for her to which she handed him her briefcase before beginning to climb. "Throw me that up when I tell you."
"Please tell me this is the last time I'll ever see you." Scarlet couldn't help but grumble, rubbing his eyes the best he could through his mask and she just glanced down at him before looking back up and pushing up the trapdoor to lead to more ladder rungs.
"Hm, no. I'm gonna find you again just to spite you."
"Bitch."
"Asshole." She held out her hand and he passed her the case but she didn't continue climbing the escape ladder into the city above. "But in all seriousness though, go accept what you did, just 'cause you've left them thinking that you sacrificed yourself doesn't mean that you can't leave them without answers."
"Wait how do you-"
"I'm from the future, what do you expect? I've gotta remember some things about the Earth before it was completely trashed, right?" Roxie asked, an odd sparkle in her eyes which he just noticed in the better light of his hideout were an odd, almost glossy red. But she didn't turn back around to keep climbing and just sighed softly. "But seriously, say sorry whilst you've got the chance. If the history books know anything then it's that the other Spiders will at least give you the chance to talk."
"Why the hell do you even care about what I've done and what I should do?" He was quick to snap, hating how she was probably saying a lot of wise words that he should really be listening to.
"You know the ship that shot me down? Same pilot I didn't say sorry to at the right time or the right place." And so with one hand, she turned back to climbing up the ladder with some difficulty but she soon developed a decent rhythm and speed. "Catch you later, Red." Her farewell seemed more like a challenge and what he knew of her it probably was.
"Pft... Yeah..." She was about to disappear from his life for either forever or for just a little while and he didn't care either way what would happened as he turned back around to go and try and take a nap. It had been a busy, weird day that started with seeing two spaceships dogfight like it was the second World War and ended with him being giving somewhat sound advice from a girl who blatantly came from the future that also claimed she was a bounty hunter which didn't seem as true as she obviously wanted it to be.
So he just gave a small huff of laughter before saying his own farewell, wondering if she even heard him.
"See you space cowboy."
...
...
...
"Cowgirl, get it right, Red."
"Oh fuck off already would you?"
So I guess this is also an update thing the more I think about it so here's the low down: - This is just a random One-Shot unless you really like it then review the crap out of this, I guess. I wouldn't mind having a reason to delve into some bounty hunter sci-fi stuff in Marvel - Also how did you not expect me to put in a 'space cowboy' thing at the - No, seriously, watch it, its even on Netflix. - Also the English dub. - 'Cause Japanese Sub Spike is good - But English Dub Spike is sexy - Please guys if this gets enough views or favourites or whatever to convince me I'll keep going with this and change it to a multi-chapter thing or whatever 'cause I could do with getting into Sci-fi more often
- Cold Whispers and Forgotten Dreams is still a thing, don't worry about it I'm gonna update it when I can get around to it.
See you later guys