It's Just One of Those Bad Times

Chapter 2

Spike, Jet and Faye walked through the tall revolving doors of one of the biggest office building on Mars, The Nortomolla building. The inside perimeter is lined with doors and elevators that reached to the top of the ceiling of business companies that owned office space in the building. Soon as the group set foot inside the mammoth office building they stood their looking like tourist behind the revolving exit doors. The building was full with hustle and bustle of office workers walking on the white marble floors that looks the janitors polished it with wax, probably every night. On the top of the building a huge window showed the endless semi cloudy Mars sky, it was a breathtaking scene the three bounty hunters thought.

In the middle of the building was a water fountain with extremely chubby little angles pouring water pots, Spike couldn't figure out if it was suppose to be cute or creepy but he knew for a fact it looked tacky. " I bet the water bill is high." Faye awed as she looked at the water fountain. Spike inhaled on his cigarette, " The lady who called must be more than a millionaire to rent office space in this building." Jet tapped Spike on his shoulder and whispered, " Spike, I don't think your suppose to smoke in here." He pointed to the red sign that was posted near the front door entrance. It had a bright red circle and a line inside that covered the middle of a lit cigarette, it read 'No Smoking'.

Spike looked at the sign, shrugged his shoulders, and continued smoking. Totally disregarding the sign. "  Hell with that!" He mumbled, " It's not like millions of people are going to die from second hand smoke in a large building like this!" He tucked his hands in his coat pocket and lowered his head. It looked like he wasn't having a fun time. " I'll put it out when someone notice."  Spike said. This was his last cigarette he smoking right now, and he'll be damned if he just threw out a perfectly good cigarette.

A petite, slender woman around Spike and Faye age walked over to the trio. Her dark brown, semi curly hair was in a messy bun with some slightly curled strands loose at the front of the ear. On the front of her eyes were black, round, thin-rimed glasses that was in front of her soft deep brown eyes, " Excuse me sir " The woman asked politely to Spike, "I don't mean to be rude but may I ask what is your name, please?"

" Spike Spegal."

The nervous woman smiled at Spike and immediately lowered her head down looking at the clipboard. She flipped the pages a couple of times until she stopped, " …Umm ... Okay your names are here. I'll escort you guys to my boss." The burnet turned around and started walking, " This place is really big, on my first day I got lost for a half an hour."

The group walked around the office building, which seemed like an eternity, but in actuality they were waking for six minutes. To beat the boredom Jet asked with a friendly tone, " So what's your name?" The girl turned her head and her glasses fell down her nose, she used her index finger to lift it." My name is Eliza—I mean Miss. Silvermill."

" Well you can call me Jet." The large man said. He pointed over to Spike who was slowly sucking on his cigarette, " You know Spike over there and the girl in yellow is Faye."

" Hey." Faye greeted. " Please don't use that Ms. title on me, it make me sound old." She asked. Spike almost had to laugh at that statement.

Eliza smiled, "Sure thing."

Faye walked over to Eliza and asked slyly, " So why are we here Eliza?" Eliza looked at her clipboard and found the little yellow sticky note. In three second flat she read it and relays the message to the trio, " Umm—my boss, Ms. Dorenson want to see you for an important meeting today."

" For what?" Spike asked.

Eliza shrugged her shoulders, " I don't have a clue." She seemed a little frightened when she said that to the group. She continued, " To tell you the truth, I never know what's happening, I just go find the visitors Miss. Dorenson wants and bring her to wherever she wish to meet them." Spike inhaled the last of his cigarettes and threw it in an ashtray filled with sand and cigarette buds sticking up like cactuses in the desert. He continued walking along with the rest.

Something felt inside of him that this would be a long, long, day. " How come she just can't do it herself? Spike questioned with a hint of impatience." It's because she's busy to get out her office." Eliza answered in hesitation, worried that the man with odd fuzzy hair was getting irritated at the wrong person. Spike rested his hands in his pocket once again and mumbled loudly, " I think your boss just plain lazy to get off her ass and meet me at my ship." Eliza wanted to burst out laughing of Spike's remark because of the sad reality but she have to keep her composer up, she couldn't do that around these professional businesspeople.

The group finally arrived at a hallway that had elevators wall to wall down the hallway. Eliza pushed one of the elevators that was marked MAIN, she showed a friendly smile, "This is one of the express elevator that goes up to Ms. Dorenson's office and other bosses who work in this building."

" The only one?" Jet asked, " So what happens if the elevator is out of order or something?" The elevator bell made a pleasant ring and the door opened. Everybody walked inside.

The main elevator was octagon shape and had three big windows that show the view of the city. When everyone entered into the elevator the door automatically closed after a couple of seconds. Eliza then pushed one of the buttons and the elevator started to move upward.

"Ms. Dorenson has a helicopter port on top of the roof so there's no way she'll be stuck, and they got stairs too just incase of a fire." Eliza stated, " In fact this elevator rarely brakes down like the others inside the building. Except when it happened thirteen years ago I heard, it took the whole night to rescue Ms. Dorenson and some other guy. Nobody really knows what his name is and all the guys who worked that long ago retired or either forgotten about him."

Spike looked outside the window and look down at the city. The higher the elevator got the smaller the city got. Eliza must have been accustomed to the ride since she wasn't paying any attention at all to the scenery. However, Fay and Jet were looking out of the window. They were accustomed to ride in elevators like this but this elevator had a better view of the city.

Too bad the city doesn't look this pretty on the ground thought Spike.

Jet whistled with astonishment, " Too bad Ed couldn't come along, would of like the view." At the corner of Spike's eye, he noticed Eliza next to him looking out the window, but she wasn't looking out the window, her weary eyes showed an troubled mind thinking.

" Eliza?"

Eliza look over to Spike and she snapped out of her thoughts, she noticed how close she was to him and quickly she backed away from him without rising any attention to Jet, Faye, and especially Spike. " Huh? Oh I'm sorry-I-" She made a tight hold of her note board in front of her chest, it was like a security blanket. " What is it?"

Spike wanted to say something but he felt it wasn't the appropriate time to say it. Besides, the question was stupid. " Never mind." He instead said. Faye finally got board of the scenery and turned around looking at Eliza, " So what do you do here?"

" Me- umm- I'm a accountant for Nortomolla."

Jet turned his head from the window and look at Eliza with interest, " You're an accountant? That's a dying profession."

" Yeah." Eliza said, " Computers are more cost efficient and more reliable then hiring an human accountant, but computers still make mistakes, just not as likely. It's one out of a million it happens. But when that ever does happen I'm around to fix the problem and the accounting computers too. "

" So what floor do you work on?" Spike asked.

Eliza looked down at the burgundy carpet while making a circle with the tip of her brown shoe, " I work in the sixth floor basement next to the heating system. I was promised a larger office somewhere on the first floor but that was three years ago when I first worked here."

" That sucks." Faye says, " If I were you I would of quit this job three years ago."

" I would too," Eliza sighed, " But if anybody was in my shoe's they wouldn't have a choice."

Finally, the elevator slowly stopped and an electronic bell ranged. Eliza perked up and smiled, " Well, were here everybody follow me." She and the others walked out of the elevator and they were in a nice waiting room filled with comfortable crème colored chairs and one wall that was just a large panel of glass showing nice horizon of the city.

 " I'm going to see if Ms. Dorenson isn't busy to come and see you now." Eliza said, " She always gives somebody an appointment and then she always yells at me about her being busy…and well…you know."  Eliza quickly opened the door and slide inside, " I'll be right back." She closed the door. Faye looked at Spike and singed, " I think you got a secret admire Spike."

" Don't start Faye." Spike grumbled. He plopped down onto one of the chairs and rested for a while, " This better be good, walking all the way over here in the damn heat, I just finished my last cigarette, and worst of all, I'm waiting."

" But isn't it worth it." Faye grinned, " You met the girl of your dreams."

Spike just sat their grumbling unknown words. Something he was doing a lot more lately.

" I think she's a nice girl Faye." Jet said, " What do you thing Spike?" Before Spike could give his answer the door opened and Eliza popped her head out,

" Ok. She's ready to see you."

Somewhere in the business district in the city of Mars inside a medium size candy and ice cream store people of all ages were sitting inside their tables eating sweets. The door opened and Ed and Ted walked in.  " Ed what you did in the arcade was so amazing!" The blond haired boy exclaimed, " You got a high score in only a half an hour!"

" It was easy." Ed said happily, " Anybody can do it! Even you!"

" I did horrible," Ted said with distraught, " I only made it up to the thousands. I've really never play videogames at home."

" Aren't you homeless?"

" What I met was." Ted thought for a while until he continued, " I've rarely play them at the arcades, even when I'm with my father or not."

Ed stares blankly at Ted, " Oh." After much deliberation the two decided to buy with their money super double fudge Neapolitan ice cream sundaes with nuts, whipped cream, a cherry on top and all the toppings the store had. To put it a simple way their order was considered the works in the ice cream parlor world. 

Ed was gulping it down like she didn't have anything to eat in weeks, making drips of ice cream and chocolate fudge all over the side of the table she was sitting. Wile Ted, however only took two spoonfuls of his and let it rest, letting the Neapolitan ice cream mix inside the tall glass making little multicolored rivers of white, pink, and brown run down the glass. " Are you going to eat your ice cream Ted?" Ed asked while taking another bite. Ted was looking out the store window aimlessly watching the people walk by the shop, " What did you say Ed?" He asked. " Are you going to eat that?" Ed pointed out.

Ted looked at his sundae and lightly pushed it towards Ed's side of the table," No, I really don't have the appetite for it you can have it. My treat to you." Quickly she snatched her second sundae and started eating his at the same time, " Thanks you! thank you!"

Ted smiled, " No prob Ed just don't gag on the ice cream okay."

 While Ed was eating, something came into mind. She wanted to ask him about it when she gave him the coffee beans this morning but all of that escaped her mind when Ted got all that money. " Where did you come from?" She asked.

Ted glanced at her and smiled, " I'm from here." The blond haired boy automatically started twisting the end of his blue shirt while looking down, he continued, " My Dad and me don't really have a home but when we get enough money were probably going to move to Venus, if were not allergic. But where I really want to move to is Earth."

" Earth!" Ed exclaimed. She made a tooth-to-tooth smile and her golden orbs brighten up. She giggled, "Earth's nice and there's lot of water! Lots of salty water and beaches!" 

Ted eyes widened with joy. He stand out of his seat and shouted with excitement, " Is it true that the beaches are pretty in Earth!" Ed took a big bite of the ice cream, " Ed sees a lot of beaches and they're clear blue. But don't drink too much of the salty water. You'll get sick. And you have to be careful of meteors, but they have forecasters telling you where the meteor is going to hit."

Ted sat down on his seat and he stopped twisting and tugging the end of his shirt looking out of the store window while looking at the people walking by,

" Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to see the ocean. I mean, when I tell some of my family and some of my friends they always tell me, why go to Earth, it's nothing there except broken buildings."

Ed stared at the blond haired boy, it sounded like he was explaining something to someone, but it sounded like he was explaining something to himself. Ed took another bite of the melting ice cream and continued listening to Ted.

" I know they are right, all the buildings are broken and they say the people are crazy—Not that you are crazy Ed and your not—" Ted apologized, "But I want to see real water, not the fake stuff that's in the river."

" Mars water isn't really water?" She asked.

" It's not." Ted exclaimed, " Sure that stuff is water but its actually part of the Mars water cycle. A totally different water system."

She looked at him and asked, " What's the Mars water cycle?"

" You don't know?!" Ted exclaimed, " If it wasn't for the cycle then we wouldn't be sitting here on Mars. See look"

Ted took a spoon out of Ed's finished sundae and scope a spoon full of melted vanilla ice cream and made a circle out of it,

 " Ok. Lets say the inside of the circle is the city, right." Ed blanked a couple of times and smiled, " Uh huh."

Ted grabbed the sprinkle shaker and he shook some sprinkles onto the other side of the table. He grabbed some of the multi colored sprinkles and put some on the edge of the model city, " Now these sprinkles represents the mist machines that are on the edge of the city. Now these machines take the frozen water that's inside of Mars and melts it." The boy look at the whip cream that was on top of Ed's other sundae, he wipe some with his finger and made little dots inside the model city. Every time he finishes his sentence Ed always awes. He continued, "Then it heats it up causing it to make mist and then they turn into clouds. Then it rains and then it makes water and when the suns heat the water that is in the rivers and in the lakes in the city it makes clouds and then the cycle repeats itself again."

" Wow, " Ed exclaimed, " That's a lot just to make H2O.

Ted blushed and he scratched his head underneath his red hat, " Aww, it just what my teacher taught me for the Mars Water cycle or 'MWC'. But the regular water cycle or Earth Water Cycle, EWC for short, is easier if you remember it this way: Condensation, Evaporation, Precipitation. You see it rhymes"

Ed paused when she took another scoop from her ice cream and asked, " Went to school?"

" Yeah!" Ted exclaimed, "Everybody go to school, right?"

" Nope. You pay when you're in Junior high."

Ted's eyes widen as if he did something wrong. Immediately he grabbed a napkin and tried to wipe the cream model away, " Umm…well…I just learned it from reading a magazine." The fair skinned boy rolled up the soiled tissue and placed it safely at the corner of the table, he smiled, " Hey Ed are you done because I was wondering if we can go,"

" Why?" Ed asked, " We just got here."

" I know." The blond boy said. He raised out of his seat and continued, " I think Ein want us to untie him from the fire hydrant." Ed reached out her hand to his, Ted look at her golden orbs," Ted." She called out his name.

" Huh?"

Ed gave the boy a friendly smile," Don't hide your brains, there aren't many smart kids and even if there are some smart kids, they usually hide it because they're afraid. I don't really meet any kids like me and since I've found you I want you to be my friend."

Ted nod his head and smiled, " Thanks Ed. I really appreciate you… being my friend."

" No prob." Ed grinned, " Hey! Let's go to another arcade! I can teach you how to play better."

Ted nodded his head, " Sure thing."                        

There was wall-to-wall carpeting with a shade of white that look like it was soft to the touch. White leather sofas and comfortable chairs strategically placed in the office to face the mahogany desk that had a tall black leather seat facing the large window looking at the city including the Mars desert. 

" Ms. Dorrenson?" Eliza called out carefully as she quietly walked closer to the desk, " The-"

" What is it now Eliza?" The woman ordered.

Hesitant and somewhat intimidated Eliza said, " Excuse me Miss. Dorrenson but-"

" Look lady what do you want us for?" Spike demanded. Eliza looked at him with shock in her deep brown eyes; she knows how her boss can become really snappy sometimes. " You must be Mr. Spegal." Ms. Dorenson smiled calmly. Eliza sighed with relief She turned her seat around and smiled at Spike and the others, " Sit down gentlemen and lady and I'll get straight to business." Everyone sat down at his or her preferred seat and Eliza was too until Ms. Dorenson said,

" Miss. Silvermill."

Eliza sighed, " Yes Ms. Dorenson?"

" Can you please make yourself useful and go and fetch some refreshments for our guest." Ms. Dorenson ordered, " They must be really parched from the long walk you put them up too." Eliza sighed tiredly, " Yes M'am." And she walked out the room closing the door for Ms. Dorrenson's privacy.

Spike considered Ms. Dorenson to be a fairly attractive woman for her age. She was approximately five foot six inches but since she was wearing high heel shoes that would make her one-inch from off the ground. Her stomach was flat like an ironing board, which shows she works out constantly. She also has a nice fair skin tone. Everything on her body was in place and perfect, her clothing, her hair, her make up, everything.

" I like to thank you three for coming over I'm very much obliged." Ms. Dorenson pointed out eyeing Spike. " I guess you want to know why I called you in my office so I'll get straight to the point as you like. Last year a former partner of mine bust out of jail when the cops were exchanging him to another prison."

" Why haven't they caught him yet if he's an escapee?" Jet asked.

" Because when he escaped, fifteen other men had their freedom back too so he's considered low priority. You can say he's not the type to go on a killing spree." She answered, " Bedsides, I heard from other sources that he was going to get parole for good behavior or some other nonsense."

" Great that'll make the job more boring." Spike mumbled to himself. Ms. Dorenson continued walking back and forth in front of the glass window waving her hands in the air occasionally, " Now I concluded that he would will just disappear off the face of the universe, you know. I thought he'd go to Jupiter, spend the rest of his life in some floating dump in space or go to Earth, but I concluded wrong. While I was sound asleep in my home he went pass my security system, went pass my security guards, and kidnapped my only son." Ms. Dorenson used her hand to comb her light blond hair back to the other side of her head. She looked down in distressed, " His name is Theodore Dorenson I've haven't seen my poor, innocent son in three weeks."

" Why haven't you called the authorities?" Jet questioned suspiciously, they would of put out a APB all over for the kidnapper and your son."

The brunette looked up at the three and yelled slightly, " Because."

Spike, Jet and Faye stared at Ms. Dorenson who was trying to put her composer back together, " If I bring this out to the public, this will bring bad publicity! Think about it! Why would an escape convict kidnap my son? The public and my competitors will start to think and my business will be in the verge of ruin. That's why I ask you people to look for my son so people wont talk and I can get my son back without any paperwork or publicity. Besides I don't even know if I could even call the cops, I don't know what intentions this man has in store for my son."

" Wait a minute," Spike interrupted, " How the hell did you get my phone number?"

Ms. Dorenson laughed shrilly and smiled at him, " Don't you know what Nortomolla deals with Mr. Spegal? Have you not followed any economic news?! I'm the CEO and owner of the biggest cell phone manufacturing in Venus, Earth, Mars and in a few colonies. And I own the satellites that transfers calls all over the solar system. But to answer your little question I learned a little trick from my former partner to listen in to any conversation I want to hear, which caused his downfall. That's how I came to know you Spike."

Jet's eyes almost budged out of his eyes when he heard Ms. Dorenson said that.

" Whoa! Hold on a minute!" Jet said slightly tightening his grip on the chairs armrest, " So you can listen in on anybody's conversation without getting caught!? That's invasion of privacy! That's illegal!" Ms. Dorenson smiled mischievously, " I would be sitting in jail now. It's a nifty little trick don't you think? And besides your friend bought that phone, the parts, and the little chip. And he signed right on the dotted line on the contract stating I own the phone, so in legal terms it's my phone. So is it against the law to go and view your own property?"

Dorenson lean against her desk and started reminiscing about the past, "When I was a younger woman I use to listen in on a lot of conversations. It excited me at first hearing husbands and wives planning meetings with their secret partners, hoodlums planning on stealing a car or starting a gang war, listening to a father from Earth who doesn't have enough money to send his two kids to secondary school…"

 "… Or listening to the many financial problems of life, like certain people who are having trouble paying for certain medical bills. " Dorenson glanced over at Faye with her dark grayish blue eyes and grinned. Faye threw back a look witch wasn't happy at all but nervous and uptight. Dorenson grinned.

" But I don't listen in on cell phone calls as much as I use to do. People's lives are beginning to sound pathetic and mundane and I grew tired of it all. But one day as I was just playing around aimlessly with my device I found you and the rest of your partners…."

" I learned a lot about the way you do business based on your cell phone conversations and you get the job done…."

" Alright then," Spike said, " I got all the info I want, now what are we goin' to do to get your kid back?" Spike asked in a semi professional manner.

" I'm glad you're interested, now this is what were going to do." Ms. Dorenson said, " My former partner knows about my little ' invasion' in the cell phones so he's not going to dare use a cell phone, so he's going to use public phones."

" You can't intercept public phones because it's the city's property right?" Faye questioned.

" Yes." Ms. Dorrenson said. Knowing my former partner he would probably try to leave Mars in a few days. So I want you to split up and go find my son. Once you find my son it wont be long before he'll come looking for him. So were going to split up. Faye and Jet could go together and Spike you'll just have to go at it alone. I'll be monitoring you from your cell phones from here on out."

Spike sighed. He knew it. It was going to be a long day.

The door opened and the group found Eliza holding a few sodas in her hands. Totally unaware about the meeting that just took place. She slightly grinned and her eyes showed she was nervous, " I—I'm sorry. I didn't know you was still talking with them."

" Silvermill you silly little--." Ms. Dorenson paused so not to try to say the wrong thing in front of her guest. She continued to scorn Eliza, " What in your right mind would possess you to give adults a couple of cans of soda—" She pause for a while in thought and said, " Silvermill are you doing anything this evening?"

" W—why did you ask?"

" Because you're going to help Mr. Spiegel to help find my son." Ms. Dorrenson answered. " You certainly have nothing to do anyway."

By the way Eliza looked her expression on her face made Dorenson's decision a blessing in disguise but a curse. The woman with the glasses stuttered a bit trying to protest Ms. Dorenson's swift decision," B—but I have to—"

" Go and do it Silvermill no question's asked." She smiled in triumph as she pulled out two pieces of paper. " Alright, here's a picture of my son. You don't have to worry though it's fairly recent."

Spike grabbed the picture from her and glanced over it. He was wearing a school uniform so he assumed it was his school picture. He was skinny, had his mother's skin tone, and had his mother's eyes. He would have looked like his mom if it weren't for the blond hair.

" There, the groups are even." Dorenson said, " Oh yeah I forgot to tell you if you carry out the mission I'll pay you a handsome reward for your services. Now carry one everyone time is of the essence!"

Spike suddenly knew it was going to be a long, long, and possibly longer day then he had expected. But maybe, just maybe, this day may be worth it.

End of Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hello I'm back! Thanks for reviewing the fic I'm very please how it's turning out. Sorry it took a while to post the second chapter. I was very busy with school stuff and you know I didn't have enough time from working on it. From one of the reviews they noticed my error on Ed's speech; she does speak in third person. But I decided no to use it so I'll be easier to write her dialogue and for some readers to understand. So how did you like it? Did you like the new characters? Don't forget to review and look out for the last chapter of the story chapter 3!

Jerseygirl :)