This isa little idea I had, caused by my wanting to kill off annoying FF characters.
I do not claim to own any of the characters from Cowboy Bebop or Final Fantasypresented in this fic, as I said it is purely an excuse to kill of some annoying ones.
Please r&r, twud be really good. That way, I'll be more inclined to continue...enjoy!
Bebop/FF Crossover – Around The World
Chapter One - A Solution To Solve The Lack Of Money And Chicken Wings
Spike Spiegel stared mindlessly at the ceiling, or what passed for a ceiling. Was it possible for whatever the top of spaceship was to be correctly defined as a ceiling? He didn't know.
More to the point, he didn't care.
What he cared more about was where his next meal was coming from. He didn't know about that either. Work, if you can call it work, had dried up completely within just the past weekend.
It was only Monday, and Spike was already beginning to think his livelihood had taken a one-way ticket down the pan.
Of course, it was no one's fault that there wasn't a good bounty anywhere in sight. No one's fault except for the police that is. And the Government. No one on the Bebop ever had a good word to say about either of them, and recent matters had not improved things. It had been decided more than three months ago that there would be a crack down on the fine art of bounty hunting, and that anyone who even thought about earning money in such an unscrupulous fashion would end up on the wrong side of a set of prison bars for the rest of their life.
No problem with that, Spike thought, at least I'd get some food.
Expectedly, there had been a few stragglers, the ones who decided they still wanted people dead and the ones who decided they didn't mind doing the job for good money. It came as quite a surprise to Spike that the police actually kept their promise, as usually they had a little trouble pulling their finger out. However, the problem with the sudden police kick-start was that most of the prisons were now full of renegade hunters. This, of course, led to an increase in the already high crime rate. As Spike had said to Jet the day before last, 'The authorities can't do anything right. They try to sort out one thing, and then they make another problem…and when are they gonna see that all we're doing is getting paid for cleaning up the environment?'. Things were beginning to get more dangerous than they were before the rules were changed, and it was all down to the Government.
This, as can be expected, was no surprise to Spike at all.
Since work had dried up, Spike had taken to a lifestyle of gorging on noodles and chicken wings when he could get hold of them, and going a little over the top on the exercise to make sure his choice of diet couldn't destroy his physique.
This was nothing that Jet could be happy about, as he had decided that Spike should finally learn to tidy up after himself if there was nothing else to do. Of course, due to Spike's nature, the Bebop was strewn with chicken wing bones and empty takeaway boxes.
Faye was none too happy about the situation either. Her distinct lack of money meant that she could no longer live her lavish lifestyle, in particular the gambling, which was what would have caused her to lose all her money if she actually had any in the first place.
Ein could perfectly have been described as a 'kept dog' – he was never without his usual supply of premium dog meat (something Jet insisted on, whether anyone else agreed to it or not), except for one time when Spike was very desperate for food and there was nothing else in the kitchen. As a result, Ein was no happier or contently full of food than anyone else on the ship.
All in all, the bounty drought had done nothing to anybody's advantage, except for the fact that Spike could laze around to his heart's content. Apart from that, there wasn't anyone who wouldn't give a limb for something to do and a tidy sum of money to go along with it.
Thankfully for all on the Bebop the wait was almost over, as Faye was about to discover during one of her usual satirical rants towards anyone who was willing to listen. This particular rant, unsurprisingly, was aimed towards Spike and his decidedly poor housecleaning skills:
"When exactly are we not going to be swimming in chicken wings?" she said in a disgusted tone as she sat down on the sofa next to Spike. This tone arose from the fact that, as she sat down, she got a sharp jolt because of the pile of wings beneath her. In an almost hypocritical state, she discarded them to the floor as Spike replied.
"…You know where we keep the mop and bucket, Faye…."
"You're such an idiot sometimes, Spike."
"…and you know how to use them," he considered for a minute what Faye had just said to him, "What do you mean, sometimes?"
"Are you even paying any attention?" Faye asked irritably, although she knew that he must have been to some extent. She hit Spike around the head with the magazine she was reading, completely oblivious to the fact that he wasn't the least bit interested in her rambling.
Anything interesting in there?" Jet asked Faye as he entered from the kitchen, somehow juggling three cups of the cheapest possible coffee and a bowl of the most expensive dog food he could find.
"How is it that Ein is allowed to eat much better than us?" Spike asked as he watched Jet sit the bowl down on the floor, "It isn't fair. Surely he's a lot lower on the food chain than the average human…" He noticed that Faye was none too happy that she had been interrupted before she could even open her mouth.
"When were you ever average?" Faye asked in monotone, only to get no response in return.
"Because Ein respects his peers, Spike," Jet said, in answer to Spike's question, "Which is more than you seem to be doing lately.
"As I was saying, Faye, is there anything interesting in the magazine?"
"…No," she said miserably while turning the page. Her mood lightened more than a little when she clapped eyes on an advertisement, "Oh…my…GOD!"
"What are you reading, Playgirl? Shouldn't you be doing that in the privacy of your own bedroom?" Spike tittered, although he knew that Faye's magazine was in fact called 'Bounty Hunter Monthly', a magazine that, funnily enough, was now only available on the black market.
"Oh my God, you guys…" Faye seemed practically mesmerised by the magazine, causing everyone, even Ein, to gather round, "You have to see this…"
The advertisement in question read as follows:
WANTED ALIVE: FOR A TOTAL OF 175M WOOGIL!
A number of suspicious characters have been found across the recently discovered galaxy, simply named FF, and are urgently required by a one Heto Katari. The names given to the Galaxy's planets are not names but simply numbers, and the locations for the wanted characters are given below:
Cait Sith (VII) 15m wg.
Fujin & Raijin (VIII) 15m wg.
Steiner (IX) 15m wg.
Wakka (X) 15m wg.
Brother (X-2) 15m wg.
PLUS! 100m extra wg if you catch 'em all!
Contact Heto if you are interested in taking up the challenge:
2397481
REMEMBER! IT AIN'T GONNA BE AN EASY RIDE!
All three of them sat quietly around the magazine (Ein had begun barking incessantly), which Faye had just placed on the table. She, along with Spike and Jet, were evidently in a state of disbelief – how could something that good actually be possible?
Out of the three, it took Spike to finally state the obvious, "What in the hell is woogil?"
"A newly developed currency…" Jet said uncertainly, scratching at his chin, "I've heard of it before. It's unique – only available in FF."
"What's the conversion?" Faye asked easily, not bothering to think about how Jet knew what he did. She was clearly more interested in what she could get out of it.
Jet seemed to calculate the value in his head before answering, "…About twice as much." he smiled.
"That's three and a half million!" Spike and Faye cried in unison. If there was one thing they actually agreed on (it was very likely that there was only one) it was the sheer quality of a good payslip.
"So what are we going to do?" Spike asked, knowing he was asking a very stupid question, "I mean, they said it was dangerous…"
"Since when did you care?" Faye smiled, all her earlier thoughts of Spike-hating seemingly washed away.
"Fair point," Spike replied, reaching for the telephone, which was also on the table.
"What're ya doing?" Jet asked, obviously slow on the uptake.
Spike was in too much of a good mood to refuse him an answer, "That Heto Katari guy had better be in, 'cause he's about to get a phone call."