The Android's Blues

A Cowboy Bebop/Dragonball Z Crossover Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Two

The android was impressed to see there was a television program for bounty hunters. A man named Aristotle Pakele was wanted for grand theft. He had stolen billions of dollars worth of diamonds while they were in transit from the mines on Triton to Mars. He was close by but so were other bounty hunters and mobsters anxious to steal the diamonds themselves. The Bebop landed on Mars and they went to work.

Faye was noticeably absent when Spike and 18 left the Bebop. Jet and Ed relayed information to them over their two-way intercoms. On a tip from an ex-ISSP buddy, Jet led his friends straight to the prize.

Pakele sat in a coffee shop. His long, greying beard and wide girth made him an easy target. Spike whispered to 18 before she crossed the street. "There's a bounty hunter near that dumpster and probably a handful of yakuza coming up the block. Don't forget the reward is for the diamonds and Pakele, alive. Wait for my signal."

"No problem." She walked casually into the restaurant. The android was wearing a salmon colored tank top and a pair of bright blue Capri pants Faye had lent her. 18 had thought she'd stick out like a sore thumb, but the style here seemed to be consistent. A bell over the door made Pakele visibly nervous as she entered, but her appearance soothed him. 18 looked to Spike. Thumbs up.

"Hi there, this seat taken?" she asked.

"Hehe, why no, Baby. It's wide open." Pakele grinned a fairly toothless grin. 18 smiled seductively at him and reached under the table. Before she could grab him in an uncomfortable place, she heard the click of several guns being cocked. Pakele gasped. Outside, Spike was busy with the Yakuza and the other hunter. Inside, the whole shop was filled with the same kind of people.

"Sorry, I know you guys saw him first, but this is my first time out. I've got to get him." 18 stood up and faced the throng. Dozens of muzzles were aimed at her head. She snorted with amusement. "Pakele, get under the table and stay there."

"Huh?" he asked, astounded, but did so.

"Ok," 18 said to her adversaries dryly. "Try to get through me."

Outside, Spike swung his heel into the eye-socket of the last standing enemy and turned his attention to the cafe just as the shots rang out.

"18!" he shouted, pulled out his gun and tried to get inside. Before he could force the door open, the sound stopped. Inside, there were bullet holes everywhere. Gangsters and hunters lay over the tables and on the floor, piled up, unconscious, but alive. Pakele twitched under the table. A neat void of bullet holes framed the area behind the android. She hadn't let a single one reach the bounty.

Spike stared at her, dumbfounded. Her fists were still clenched. She relaxed finally and let scores of bullets fall to the ground. "I don't think I've had a workout like that in years." She looked to the table. "Hey, Aristotle, you can come out now."

He stuttered and crawled slowly out from under the table. "Holy shit..."

"You can say that again," Spike muttered.

"Ho… Ly... Shit."

.x.

It wasn't until after they claimed the 300K bounty that Spike asked her how she did it. 18 looked at him funny. "I told you, I'm an android."

"Yeah, I know but I didn't see it. You can really catch bullets?"

18 smiled. "You're impressed?"

"Hell yeah. You're like Superman."

"I saw you fighting out there too. You know your stuff."

"I can't catch bullets, though."

"Really?"

Spike stopped walking. "That surprises you?"

"Sure."

He raised a suspicious brow.

18 smiled. "Is there a nice isolated place around here somewhere?"

"Why...?" he asked suspiciously.

"I could train you."

"To catch bullets?"

"Maybe. Let's take a walk, shall we?"

Spike shrugged and they wandered out of the city and into a desolate industrial districkt. "Ok," 18 stopped, satisfied that an abandoned warehouse was sufficiently out of the way. "I assume you're familiar with Chi energy?"

Spike nodded.

"Just let me know when I've lost you, ok? I want you to channel your Chi as if preparing to take a blow or deliver a punch. Channel it down into your hands." She held her own hands in front of her and slightly apart to demonstrate. "Concentrate that energy till you can actually see it forming a ball between your hands."

"What?!"

"Don't doubt yourself. You can do it."

Spike sweat a little as he pushed. Slowly to his great surprise, a tiny bluish ball began to form.

"There ya go! Now cool down and do that five more times." She turned and began walking away.

"Hey, wait! When do you show me how to catch bullets?"

She looked over her shoulder. "Do it five times today, and ten times tomorrow then ten more times that for the next five days, but never in the ship. I won't be held responsible for any collateral damage. Then I might teach you something way cooler than catching bullets."

.x.

The Bebop crew's next bounty was a female hacker living in a ship that she was using to control satellites primarily used to transfer funds from planet to planet. It was easy for Spike and Faye to board the ship once Ed had disabled the security matrix and 18 blazed them a path through the airlock door. As they ran through the entrance, 18 backed away from a sparking cable.

"What's the matter?!" Faye asked, panicked that they had stumbled into a trap.

"Nothing. I just don't get along with that many amps." She followed them towards the cockpit.

"What would happen if you got shocked?" Faye asked, trying to sound innocent.

"I'd probably shut down."

"Would you two quit makin' small talk?" Spike moaned. "We got a job to do."

They came to the last set of safety doors.

"18, do the honors?" Spike smiled.

"Sure, sure." She gripped the slight gap between the alloy doors and peeled them away like an orange rind. "Hello!" she chimed. The bounty, an obese woman probably in her late forties, was cowering under the ship's console.

"Holy Hanna!" She gawked at the doors. "Don't kill me, man!"

Faye cuffed her. "Just relax and we won't have her rip your arms off." The woman fainted.

"Faye..." Spike grumbled.

"No problem," 18 bent and picked the woman up effortlessly.

Spike marveled. "Man, what can't you do?"

"Yeah, you're a regular Swiss army knife..." Faye grumbled and followed them out of the ship.

That afternoon, the ship landed on Mars and everyone got some much deserved time off. Faye sighed, exasperated. "Finally!" she groaned. "I haven't been shopping in I can't tell you how long!"

"Three days, ten hours," Jet answered. "And the crap you bought the last time is still cluttering up the ship. Don't buy anything stupid this time."

"Stupid?" Faye asked and put her hands on her hips.

"Like the inflatable chair we don't need…"

"It deflates, you know!"

"I'll deflate it, alright," Jet growled, cocking his gun.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's get out of her before you two kill each other." He looked to their new friend. "18, would you come with me?" he asked raising a knowing brow.

She smirked slightly. "I don't see why not. I've got nothing better to do."

Faye narrowed her eyes at her. "So what are you going to spend all your Woolong on, hm? Motor oil?"

18 scoffed but otherwise ignored her. "Let's go, Spike."

Faye smoldered as she walked away. Jet had already taken his leave and Ed waved madly from the ship's cockpit with Ein jumping up into view occasionally. "Speaking of greasy things," Faye said to herself, grinned and strolled off into the city.

.x.

In a dim, lazy bar in a bad part of town Faye lounged in a booth and waited. In a moment two men in crumpled suits slid in on the opposite side. "Whaddaya got?" said one. "Better be good," said the other. Two more men stood in the shadows.

"I understand you like toys," she carefully.

"We're listening."

"I have a hell of a toy for you. An A.I."

The men began to get up.
Faye sipped a soda not wanting to dull her senses around such sharp individuals. "Five foot five, blond and strong as hell." She raised a brow. "And did I mention, female?" she said and flipped open her phone to show them a picture of 18.

"You have gained our interest," said one.

Faye took another drag off her cigarette and licked her teeth and grinned.

"What's your price?" One of them asked her.

"70K, chump change."

"50," he bartered.

"65."

The man to his left breathed deep. "If she's as strong as you say she is, why risk getting our men killed? You bring her to us."

Faye crushed the cigarette out. "You're the android experts. You come get her."

"70K."

She raised her brow. "Done."

.x.

When everyone came back to the ship, Jet had a list of possible targets here on Mars which he briefed everyone on. Faye retired to her room and was thinking about taking a nice long bath to celebrate her ingenious plan when there was a knock on the door. "Who knocks around here?" she wondered and instinctively located her weapons. "Come in?"

She was surprised to see the android standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry to bother you," 18 said with that cool, artificial confidence that made Faye nervous and mad at the same time. "Can we talk?"

She narrowed her eyes at her. "What for?"

"I seem to have upset you somehow. Since I'm not sure what I did, I'd like to see if I can make it better."

"Why?" Faye almost laughed at how preposterous her intentions sounded. "You're a machine, what do you care about what I think of you?!"

18 blinked and pouted. "I see."

Fayed clenched her fists. "You see what? You can't possibly have any Idea what human's feel!"

18 sighed and sat down. "I may not remember my past at all, but I had thought that perhaps at one point I had been human. I understand that you think of me as an object rather than a person."

"You do, huh? You're more than 70 years old, you told us. You think that makes you human? Look at you! You're perfect, false! You're beauty will never fade. You're strong enough to defend and provide for yourself, forever!"

"And that's enviable?"

Faye growled. "Who said anything about envy?!"

18 didn't bat an eye. "You did. My beauty, my strength; these things anger you not because you hate them but because you wish you had them. You are beautiful and strong now but you fear that being human those things will fade."

Faye didn't reply with words but with her hand. She slapped the Jinzouningen across the face and seethed.

18 was unmoved. "You envy me, and I envy you."

"Oh, really?"

She nodded. "I lost everything I ever knew to the past. If there were humans I knew, they would be long dead now. Anyone who could tell me who I am, where I came from are long gone. If I were human, I would have had a normal life." She lowered her head. "I wouldn't feel the way I feel now."

Faye stared at her and her posture slowly relaxed. "You're kidding, right?" When she looked back up, 18 looked sad. She found the edge of her bed and sat without taking her eyes off of the android and laughed. "Oh, man. We're a couple of sad sacks, aren't we?" she said softly. "You don't want to be me, honey. I have the same problem you have." 18 took a seat across from her and Faye explained her story of being trapped in cryogenic stasis for fifty years and losing her memory. "Only difference is you have plenty of time to start over. Me, I'm just getting by until the end."

18 shook her head. "But you get to change."

Faye sort of half-smiled. "Whoopitido."

To be concluded…