A/N: This is purely an experiment- I don't even know if I'm going to finish it.
Chapter One:
Chasing Shadows
A tall man in a blue suit and big brown hair was on a stool in a dingy bar. Around him people kept eyeing him mistrustfully. He didn't fit in there, but he was doing no one any harm. While he kept it that way, he was safe.
As for Spike himself, he just sat there staring into space, his eyes glazed over, a cigarette smoking away softly between his fingers, a drink in his other hand. He kept alternating between the two absent mindedly.
He was still frustrated by the day's events.
As he signalled to the bar tender for another, he let his mind cast over what had happened.
*
That inane bounty hunter show was on, the one where the white girl wore next to nothing and looked like some traditional blonde bimbo and the black man had one of the worst Spanish related accents imaginable. Spike was barely paying attention to it, all he wanted to know was what bounties were on offer.
"Oooh!" squealed the girl, "this is an unusual one."
A wrap sheet popped up on screen, with a sketched picture beside it. The picture was of a white woman, wearing sunglasses, and a cap. There was no detail to her whatsoever. The wrap sheet had her down only by an alias, 'Eagle'.
"There is very little known about this bounty," beamed the girl, "but there's a big reward on her head! What is it?"
The man took over. "Twenty three million woolongs, amigos, last seen on Earth," he announced brightly, "but careful, she's hard to catch! No one knows what she really looks like, because she either is in disguise or uses other mobsters to do it for her!"
"And she's a dangerous woman too!" the girl feigned shock, "attempted murder, murder, fraud, laundering, trafficking- my goodness!"
"The only defining feature that we know of, amigos, is that she has an Eagle tattoo-"
Spike turned off the tv. Faye walked in, yawning. She glanced over at him as he lit up a cigarette.
"Nothing?" she asked.
He shook his head, taking a long draft from the white stick in hand. "Unless you count Eagle," he commented, "and no one knows what she looks like… good on the cowboy who goes after her."
"Eagle? Isn't that about twenty million on her head?"
"Twenty three."
"What?! Spike are you insane?! With that amount of money-"
"We have no leads. Nothing. What do we do? Go and scour every planet in the solar system?"
"No…"
"Thought not."
He turned and lay down in the sofa, staring at the ceiling, listening to Ed singing about impossibilities and money. Nothing that child said meant very much. How she'd become a genius hacker was beyond him.
Faye scowled, crossing her arms. They were bordering the poverty line again, and her gambling wasn't exactly helping. She sat opposite him, lighting up herself. It always got frustrating when there was a drying up of bounties.
"Guys!" Jet's voice boomed in on the main room. Ed's ears pricked up as she looked up at him, Ein doing exactly the same thing. The two adults didn't even blink. "That big bounty, the Eagle woman-"
"Not you too!" moaned Spike, "we have no leads-"
"She's in Mars, New New York."
"And you know this because?"
"Police tip off, I've got a friend in the force. There's gonna be a heist at on the Martian bank."
Spike tilted his head back, looking at him. He rolled his eyes and sat up. "All right! All right, I'm in… that's too big-a bounty to pass up."
Faye smirked, just the same as she was when it involved money.
*
They landed, planned, armed and set up. By the time they had arrived on Mars, they had three hours to prepare to take in Eagle. Jet, Spike and Faye set up in the bank. It was a large spacious place, made of polished stones, the ceiling supported by old fashioned pillars, the windows were medium sized and high up, all the windows to speak to bankers were apparently seamless bullet proof glass, a little section on each booth could open to allow access to information from the customer.
As they had walked in Jet glanced around, eyeing the place for weaknesses. He frowned. "How the hell does this chick think she's going to get her hands on any money whatsoever?"
"Insider job?" asked Spike, shrugged, lighting up, ignoring the no smoking sign. The little security guard standing near by didn't seem to have the guts to point it out to him.
"Maybe…"
That had been an hour ago. They were still waiting around. There was nothing.
"Jet!" Faye snapped down the line, "what time did your contact say it would be?"
"In this hour," he promised, "they'll be here any-"
Outside they heard shouting. The three of them looked up from their posts, and took off for the outside. There was the shouting of thief, three coppers were yelling down their radios, and a grey van rushed passed them.
"They went round the back?" asked Faye, but the men had already taken off. Moments later they found themselves on their own vehicles, and took after the van themselves. Police cars were already on their trail.
Spike's eyes narrowed. No way was he going to give up a bounty that easily. He angled his ship and dove, straightening up only a few metres above the rest of the traffic, and just behind the van itself. He opened fire. Someone on the passenger side of van leaned out and opened fire on him.
"Tch," grumbled Spike, still firing away at the van.
"Turn 'em right!" ordered Jet, over the radio.
"Gotcha."
He angled the ship again as they approached the turning. The van took the bait turning onto an open road. Where Jet and Faye were waiting, parked at the end. The van noticed too late they slammed on the breaks as the two open fire on them from the other end busting the engine. The van turned it's side towards the two ships screeching to a halt, the trajectory turned it over first onto it's side and a bump in the road turning it onto its back. It came to a stop meters from the waiting ships.
Spike parked his, and climbed out of the ship, running towards the wreckage. In the back of his mind he could not help but think that the job had been a little too easy. If Eagle had been so elusive, why had she been so easily caught?
He reached the car the same time his team mates did. They pulled open the doors and pulled out the occupants. There were three, two men and a woman, dressed in fitted black clothing and wearing balaclavas. They had their hands up already looking sullen once they spotted the hand guns in their assailants hands.
Spike ignored the men, letting Jet deal with them, and focused on the girl. He grabbed the bottom of the balaclava and pulled it off her.
"Ow!" she shrieked, "what was that for?"
He squinted at her. He'd seen her before. "Who are you?" he asked bluntly.
She sighed. "Wendy Johnson," she replied.
"Not Eagle?"
"What? Why would I be that bitch?"
Spike scowled. He looked at Jet and Faye who looked just as surprised as he was. He knew it had been too easy.
The police arrived after about a minute, arresting the three of them, and handing of the meagre reward on the small fries heads.
As the three of them headed back to the Bebop, he played their story of in his head. Eagle was their boss, she had set up the heist, they were just the pawns. Originally she was meant to go herself, but three days previously she had changed her mind, having set up another job. She had sent the small timers instead.
The girl was convinced she knew there had been a tip off and had set them up. When pressed for the reason why she would want them to be caught, she clammed up. The two men were no more helpful.
By the time they reached the Bebop, they were where they had been in the first place. No leads on a big bounty, nothing to do, only they were no longer near the point of starving.
"I knew it," Spike snapped, "there was no point! I knew that had been too easy."
"Well at least we have enough money for food now," pointed out Jet, make a list, "anything you want?"
He frowned and stood again. "Some meat of some kind…" he stalked towards the door, his hands pushed into his pockets.
"Where are you going?" Jet frowned.
"I need a drink… don't wait up for me."
"All right…" Jet shrugged. Spike was strange as ever.
*
And there he was. He hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings. Once he was paying attention again, he found he had bought two new cigarette packets and he was standing outside a dingy dodgy looking bar. Not that he cared.
He was fully aware of the looks he was being given by the local occupants, he didn't particularly care. He knew as long as he kept inconspicuous he would be left alone. He was also certain a lot of these people had bounties on their heads, but he was alone, there was no way he was going to take on thirty people, all likely to be armed to the teeth with god only knew what.
So he did what he could, drank his whiskey and smoked his cigarettes and lost himself to the haze of alcohol.
Behind him the door opened with a creak and a young woman walked in. The attention focused on her for a moment, then away again. She was a fairly unassuming person. Dressed in fitted hip hugging blue jeans, a light grey t-shirt with a caption written on it that no one could really make out, it was low cut showing a little cleavage. A black leather jacket was hooked onto her finger that she had slung onto her back. The woman herself was medium height, a curvaceous build of a generous bust, small waist and slightly wider hips, though her stomach was almost completely flat. Her complexion was a dark olive colour. Her features of wide almond shaped dark brown eyes, sloped nose and pouted rosy lips gave her away as being of earth's Middle Eastern descent. Her thick dark chestnut straight hair was cut to just brush her shoulders, and framed her high cheek boned face. She was fairly striking in appearance, it was her fairly ordinary clothing that made her appear somewhat dull, though clearly there those in the bar that recognised her.
She walked over to the bar, sitting a seat separate from Spike. She glanced at him and glanced at his drink. She smirked, and signalled to the bar tender.
"What'll it be miss?"
She pointed at Spike. "I'll have what he's having."
He looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. "It's whiskey."
"I know."
"Sure you can handle it?"
She looked at the bar tender. "I'm certain." The bar tender took the hint and walked off to get her drink. "I'm not as much of a push over as you probably think."
"It's your funeral."
The young woman just looked over at him, and rolled her eyes. As her drink arrived, she searched her pockets for something. She kept muttering curses, he looked over at her. She pulled out a lighter and lay it down, but still she looked. He rolled his eyes and held out the open packet to her. She looked up at him.
"Go on."
She smiled brightly, and took it and lit up, moving one stool over to sit beside him. "Thanks." She held out a hand. "Shaheena Jaaved."
"Spike," was his only answer, taking the hand she offered.
"Spike," she said it slowly, "fairly sure I've heard of you."
He looked suspicious. "Yeah?"
She leaned over and muttered. "Bounty hunter right?"
"Yes. How'd you-"
"Oh you know, on the grapevine… my brother's a copper."
"Ah." That made more sense.
"So you been to Mars before?"
"I was born here," he shrugged.
"Miss it?"
"Nah not really."
She looked at him sharply, confused. "But it's your home."
"Not any more," he told her, "you make your own home. Mars was just where I was born. That's about it."
Shaheeha laughed, and took a little sip of the whiskey. "I wish I could think like you…"
He looked at her side ways. There was something awfully familiar about her. He wasn't sure he liked what it was. At the same time, he found himself… interested in the young woman. "What are you doing here?"
"On Mars or here?"
"Here?"
"Hummm… I get asked that an awful lot, I still don't really know the answer. Guess I just like it here. What about you?"
"Don't even get me started…"
"Let's just say I have…" she smirked at him.
Spike wasn't sure how it happened, but he began relaying to her the past events of the day. Explaining about the bounty on a con-artist known as Eagle, with no real picture of her, the heist, the arrests and the frustration of having caught the wrong people. By the time he had finished he was on his sixth double whiskey and the woman was on her fourth, still smoking away.
She kept nodding at the right time, gasping, frowning, generally reacting, though she didn't comment.
"Sounds rough," she nodded, "maybe you'll get your mark."
"Maybe… I heard she was last seen on Earth."
"Didn't the girl you arrested say she was on Mars?"
"Mars is a big place."
"So's the solar system, you still manage to get your job done," she smiled at him and finished off her drink, and glanced at the time. She sighed and stood up. "It was nice meeting you, Spike, but I'd better get going."
He looked up surprised. "You have an appointment? At this time?"
"Ummm… something like that. Call it a family matter," she dug around in her wallet and pulled out some woolongs, "hey Stretch," she signalled to the bar tender, "this should cover my bill and his right?"
The bar keep looked at the tender and nodded.
"Then keep the change, keep topping him up till it runs out. Yeah?"
"Yeah yeah…" the bar tender walked back to the end of the bar, having lost interest.
Shaheena looked at Spike and grinned. "It's for the story. Nice meeting you Spike." She turned and made for the door.
"Uh hey! Shaheena!" he called after her.
She paused at the door and looked back. "What?"
"Will…" he hesitated.
She laughed. "I'll be here, same time tomorrow. Maybe I'll tell you an exciting story tomorrow instead." She walked, and left.
Spike was looking confused, nursing his drink. Why had he done that? There had been little point in that… but he had done it… never mind. The young woman was engaging, and if she hung out in places like this, she might be able to help him. Besides… she wasn't exactly ugly…
*
Three days went by, Faye won money on a few games, Ed was having fun on the computer games and Jet was updating the shop. Each one was keeping an eye out for a quick bounty and any extra information on the where abouts of Eagle, she was a big catch. In three days her bounty jumped up to thirty million after an apparent corporate business scam.
As for Spike himself, he managed to catch two more small bounties, both connected with Eagle. Neither could give him a description of the woman, just that she was fairly young and very clever. And every night he found himself in that same bar, looking for that same woman. In three days, she only turned up once.
Fourth day, he was hoping to see her again.
He grabbed his usual place at the bar, and ordered a whiskey, a cigarette at his lips as usual.
"Hi stranger," a vaguely familiar voice approached him. It was the first time she had turned up so quickly after his arrival.
"Hey," he looked over at her, then frowned. He could see the beginnings of a bruise just below her eye. "What happened there?"
She touched it, winced then shrugged. "Oh I had some trouble in the street, that's all."
"What?!"
"Oh don't worry, I never let a man hit me and get away with it," she smirked, "now then, dear, how have you been? Stretch, a drink please!"
As usual, Spike found he was the one talking and Shaheena was only listening. She asked him questions, about his crew, his job, his life, he answered all of it, but for most of his past. As for Shaheena? He knew she had two siblings, her mother was dead, and her home planet was Venus. That was it. No details.
He wandered if it was this lack of information that drew him to her. The mystery behind those green eyes, the life that seemed to radiate from her being. Whatever it was, it was making him feel strangely uncomfortable.
"So what about you?" he asked, ordering his next drink, he changed this time, to a scotch.
"What about me?" she was lighting up.
"I know nothing about you."
"Isn't it better that way?" she laughed, "people wasn't to know everything nowadays…" Spike looked at her, she was no longer looking at him, her eyes were misty, her expression distant, "I almost miss the old days… I mean the real old days… where there was some mystery to life… to other people. There was almost a romance about it."
"A romance?"
"Mmmm… the sort of… let what will happen… happen. There's a romance in that."
"Like lovers meeting by chance?"
She snapped back to reality and looked at him with a frown. "Lovers?" she shook her head, "oh my dear Spike, for all your tough nut attitude, you're still an old softy at heart. There is no such thing as love! Only lust and sex."
"But you said-"
"Romance? Oh that's a different story altogether. Romance is the aspiration to that feeling of love, it never actually happens."
He was shocked. Even his cynical self had a belief in love! She pouted.
"Awh… I'm sorry… I should learn to watch my mouth shouldn't I?" she smiled sadly, "it's just the way I think. And with that, dear heart, I shall be off," she slide off the stool walked around and put her hands on his shoulders. She deftly picked the cigarette from his lips and pressed a kiss there instead.
Spike himself was reeling, by the time he gathered himself, she had broken the kiss. She replaced the cigarette, and patted his cheek.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, innocently.
He grunted in reply, he heard her laugh again as she collected her jacket, cigarette and change and walked out of the dingy bar. Spike didn't move for a while, running over what she had said in his head. It didn't make sense. The girl was not much older than he was, probably much younger. Still she spoke like someone beyond her years, and as if there was something she knew, and was keeping it that way.
He sighed, and swung his blazer over his shoulder and walked out. He would accomplish nothing by sitting on his ass dreaming.
*
More days passed. Spike saw Shaheena three times after that. She never brought up the kiss, but each time she bid him good bye, she'd kiss him again, and the last two times, he kissed her back, without even thinking about it.
Faye, Jet and Spike had been able to catch a few more bounties in connection with Eagle, but none could identify her, and none could give much of a description of what she was up to when or why. All they could do was confirm that she was in the city… somewhere…
"I almost think we should give up," growled Faye one evening, when Spike returned, having failed to see Shaheena that day.
"Why?" he asked, sitting down.
"She's not turning up anywhere, no one seems to know what she looks like, all we have is that tattoo to go on, and even then it's only a vague description. Face it… we've met our match. We should get going. What do you say Jet?"
"I'm with Faye on this one… we should get going."
Spike sat up. He didn't want to leave just yet. He felt like he had his own mystery to solve, he at least wanted to say good bye to her. "C'mon guys, give it a couple more days," he chided, "we're getting close, besides, it's not like we're loosing money by staying here. Faye's had better luck than ever with her gambling, and we catch pocket bounties almost on a daily basis. Thirty million woolongs guys- it's worth it isn't it?"
Jet made a face. "Maybe… but I feel useless just sitting on my ass-"
"Three more days, come on, just… three more."
"Fine!" Jet threw his hands in the air, beside him Ed copied the action with vigour, "christ why are you so insistent?"
"It's a lot of money," Spike smirked.
Faye just looked at him and shook her head. He was entitled to his own business… it was just that this was the first time his own business involved sticking around in one place for long periods of time for a functional reason. It made her somewhat suspicious.
