Chapter 2: No Disappointments
"What a bastard," Fredrick said sitting in the diner, looking around at the space outside.
"It couldn't be that bad," one man said around him.
"Look at my ship!" Fredrick exploded at the man. "That truck out there, it's wrecked to Bejesus! It'll take at least a million wulongs to fix and that means I'm stuck, without transportation and I have to find a new job to get it paid off!"
"Just calm down," Silverfang said, "We'll think of something."
A woman turned at the bar and looked at the men then. "Whatcha talking about?" she asked.
"Nothing," Fredrick said as he glared angrily into space.
"Hey, hit and runs happen all the time, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," the woman said.
Fredrick was not in the mood to hear from a woman. He was never too good with them and was throughoutly pissed with them. He didn't need to be lectured by a woman; he would take his own advice. "Shut up you bitch, I didn't ask you," Fredrick yelled back at her.
Surprisingly, the woman wouldn't back down. She just stood and looked at Fredrick. "And you call yourself a trucker," she said as she turned around.
Fredrick was through. He was also pissed and it took all the strength of the guys to hold him back from slugging the woman. "Hey don't get excited. You'd be hitting real legend there," one of the men said.
"A legend?"
"Yep, that's VT," the same man said.
"T..the same VT who did that two day trip on Earth?" Fredrick couldn't believe it. He had insulted a legend. He didn't even know it, how stupid was he? Fredrick thought this and was overcome with guilt and embarrassment. VT... damn.
"Maybe you shouldn't..." one man tried to encourage but stopped.
"Uh, sorry VT..." Fredrick managed to say, pulling himself up to the counter of the bar.
"Yeah... don't mention it," VT said coldly. She was learning to like bounty hunters a bit better. At first, she blamed the job for taking away her husband and then shunned others because of it. One man had made her believe in them again. Now she owed him far more than he had taken credit for. VT wanted to make sure that he got what he deserved.
"What a coincidence, huh? You ran into a man that was worth more than he broke," one of the truckers laughed.
"Yeah but that is a dangerous job, better to let the hunters take care of 'em," Fredrick said back.
VT turned and looked at the truckers. Were they talking about a hunt? "Hey fellas," she called out.
They turned toward her, some with awe and some with contempt but answered. "What?"
"Who was behind the hit and run?" VT asked, acting all cool about it, like she didn't care at all.
"You wouldn't believe it, a five million wuolong bounty. Turned out that he was a junk collector or something and steals trucks," one of the truckers said.
"A bounty head? What's his name?"
--
Jet didn't like being at the end of the ropes, helpless and dependent entirely on a luck situation, that was Spike's thing. Jet liked to be prepared instead of surprised. Spike was soldier, and Jet was the General. When the planning went AWOL, you had to depend on hope, and the job of the general was done. Jet really hated this.
That was where he was, sitting on the couch, waiting desperately for some news from Ed or Faye or Spike. Bob hadn't been much help besides telling him that the guy he was looking for killed a room full of cops and then a few more bounty hunters. Rome was only 22, which meant that he was an assassin or very lucky.
With luck on his side, the only person that could possibly catch him was Spike who had a greater sense of luck on his side. Circumstances were all that it came down to. Now he was thinking like Spike.
"Dammit!" he cursed aloud as the communicator rang. Jet looked in surprise then bolted for it, picking it up and letting a picture form on screen. "Jet," he said. He looked and saw a woman on the other side that he had never seen before.
"Are you a friend of Spike's?" she asked.
"Yeah, he's not here right now," Jet said. Meanwhile he was thinking about how many crazy friends Spike had made, most were almost intolerable but some were okay. Jet had a feeling that woman was okay.
"That's okay, I just need to talk with someone who is a bounty hunter and knows Spike," VT said.
"Okay, shoot."
"A trucker friend of mine recently got his ship into a hit and run and the perp was a five million bounty named Pouch Rolenzo, a junk dealer. Just thought you wanted to know," VT said.
"Actually, right now we're about to catch Edmund Rome," Jet said. VT, on the other line, looked at Jet like he was crazy. "What?" Jet asked.
"Nevermind, I don't have info on bounties that big," VT said. The door opened and in walked a hulk of a man. He stood at seven feet tall and was very muscular, looking like he could bench press a car. He had mostly short black hair, some long strands hung into his gold eyes. He walked in slowly and sat down at the bar, looking around at everyone in contempt. Everyone else turned away.
"Sorry, I couldn't be of better help," VT said as she hung up the communicator and looked around for a second before spotting a man next to her, the big man. Her eyes went into shock and she turned to face him. She remembered him alright, she remembered everything...
"Excuse me!" he yelled so the whole stop could hear him. "I'm a bounty hunter and I'm looking for a hacker that goes by the name Mo Use. If any of you have seen him, then tell me or I'll rip your throat out," he said.
"Who the hell are you?!" one man asked from the back of the bar.
The man squinted and saw a thin man at the back of the bar. "You!!" he shouted. The man's courage instantly diminished and he got up. He started to run for the door when the large man ran a few steps and picked up the thin man by his collar. The man struggled in mid-air. He was only 5'8 and the large man was 7 feet tall and extremely muscular. "What's your name?" the large man asked, menacingly.
"Uhh... um... Phantom B," he said.
The large man looked annoyed. He stared down at the thin man. "I mean your real name, trucker," he spat.
The man looked around nervously. "Uh... Ulysses," he said.
The large man burst into laughter. "You've got an old fashioned name, bud." He said. "Now, what do you know about the hacker, Mo Use?"
"Pouch Rolenzo knows him," the man said. "But he's a bounty and..." the man didn't finish as the large man dropped him on his ass. The thin man flinched, then got up on shaky legs.
"Pouch Rolenzo, huh?"
VT waited for him to leave. She didn't want to get into a fight with him like last time and she seriously didn't want to get involved in his "business" anymore. Once he had squeezed info from the man, he would leave. VT and he would meet another day.
--
Jet was trimming his bonsai as Spike walked in from the hanger. He yawned and sat on the couch to find Jet's eyes on his, filled with hope. "Nothing," Spike said and Jet let out a sigh.
"You know..." Jet started. Spike opened his eyes and looked at his partner. Usually this tone meant something disappointing for him. He sighed himself. "A friend of yours called and said that she had information on a bounty that's only five million. We... we could use the repairs,"
"Are you saying that we give up on Rome?" Spike asked.
"Well, no not exactly," Jet said. He was the Black Dog, he didn't usually let go and what he was doing know was letting the bad guy go. This guy had killed cops and that was an offense to Jet. If he was still on the force, it could have been him that was killed.
"Then what?"
"Spike, we need some money so please, call her up and catch this guy," Jet said. "Look, I'll keep on Rome and if anything shows up, I'll let you know," Jet said.
"I'm not one to keep anything hanging, Jet," Spike said. "Especially when we haven't found the guy yet."
"Spike...... please."
--
The beep came loud and Faye looked up from her magazines to see Edward smiling. "Edward has found it!" she shrieked and started throwing up her hands to cheer. Faye smiled as well.
She knew that getting Edward to hack into M.A. files wasn't a bad idea. With their level of intelligence, Faye could get information way faster than a few rumors and, best of all, she could get that 50 million bounty all to herself. The whole genius of the plot was that Mo Use, the hacker that had cut Ed off last time, wasn't there.
"Send it to my ship Ed," Faye said walking out.
"Aye-aye," Edward said saluting and hitting a few buttons.
As Faye was leaving, a thought hit her and she turned to Edward. "Oh and Ed," she turned. "Don't tell Jet or Spike about this, okay,"
"Don't worry, Ed had Faye-Faye covered like a Christmas present," Faye could smell the money already.
--
Author's Note: I hope you readers out there enjoyed Chapter 2. Once again, I will be grateful for any insight. So please read and review. Thanks.
