only in dreams...
Measure 2: Hard Times
Spike sneaked by the couch that Edward was sleeping on the floor next to. He made sure his footsteps landed on spot that didn't make a sound. This is something he could not easily accomplish. One small, slow step on Ein's stump of a tail was fatal. You might ask how Spike could not help but missing this, but it was unseen and Spike's eyes were on Ed at the moment.
Ein screeched. Lights turned on. Spike ran. Spike tripped. With the last strength left in his neck, he turned around to see the lightning fast Edward clutching his knees and wailing.
"You're taking Edward too!" She cried. Faye's light turned on and she dashed out.
"What are you two up to?" She yelled. Spike and Edward were gone. She shrugged and turned off her light, yawning.
"Target location: M-A-R-S." Jet typed in. He chuckled to himself. "How much money I actually earn is none of Faye's business. I'll simply do one modification and keep the rest for precious food." Jet licked his lips at the thought of what he could buy on Mars. His ship sailed through the glimmering stars as he maneuvered around all the meteors.
"B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L-1-2-3" Faye said as she typed, Ein obediently by her side. She looked at him.
"That isn't right...is it?" She groaned, still in her pajamas and clutching her fist where she desired coffee. Ein scratched behind his ear then innocently looked back at Faye longingly awaiting praise. Instead Faye threatened with her fist, but then withdrew back to the hidden panel.
"B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L-1-2-3-4" She slowly entered. The bebop shook deeply as a wall opened itself up, looking as if it had simply never been opened. She happily peered in, soon to be greatly disappointed when she spotted only an empty room.
"I'll kill that demon child, I swear it!" Faye said, checking all the corners of the room. "So empty! Such lack of food and waste of time!" Ein simply barked. Faye turned her head, Ein was again barking at a wall. Faye squealed with joy.
"Oh! A treasure so amazing it needs two doors!" She danced towards it and opened a similar panel and pressed in Mile's code. Miserable failure. She punched it, soon after hurting her fist and retreating back to the couch. She immediately called up Doohan. Doohan answered, rubbing his forehead with a towel and greeting her.
"Doohan, you know that secret door you and Miles built? I need the second code!" She wailed, sucking her knuckles. Doohan looked surprised and confused at first then smiled.
"Oh, that, yes, but I don't know the second code. Those codes were all made by different people here on Earth. Mine is the fourth." Faye held back a scream.
"There are four?" She said in a hysterical whisper.
"Six." Doohan smiled. Faye again held back oral anger, by simply gasping in air and biting her lip.
"Okay, Edward! We're headed straight for Earth!" Spike said, speeding closer near Venus. He was above Venus, actually, when something went wrong.
"Spike! This is bad, bad, oh so very bad!" Edward cried, fidgeting with the controls in the back.
"Spit it out, tell me the news!" Spike said, feeling the Swordfish II shake underneath him.
"Fuel levels are critical. Need FUUUUUEEEELLLL!" Edward screamed as the Swordfish II dipped and spun, plummeting toward Venus. Spike jerked the controls around, pointing the ship towards the hyperspace gate.
"We're gonna make it! Calm down and stop screwing with the controls!" Spike expertly pulled through the gate, giving the money meant for entering Earth away at the Venus toll booth. And almost in control, Spike zoomed towards a parking area when the Swordfish gave it's last cry and slid into the ground uprooting trees and sending dirt airborne. Innocent passerby were covered and buildings were dirtied. Police and curious people gathered around to see what was happening.
"We're okay!" Spike said, raising his hands and coming out of the Swordfish, Edward still unconscious inside it. A man from the ISSP walked up to him.
"Name?" He said loudly and unkindly.
"Spike Spiegel, master bounty hunter. You know Jet Black?" Spike usually added Jet into his conversations with ISSP officers, just in case it would give him an edge.
"No. Age?"
"Excuse me!" Spike groaned, his face growing tense, "I'm older than you, I'll tell you that." The officer looked up at Spike from his pad with a menacing look that said 'Don't mess with me' and Spike answered with a 'why not' face. After an episode of faces, the crowd was parted for a jolly old officer with a thick brown mustache and a worn outfit.
"Who's this, officer?" Grunted the fat fellow, who seemed to take forever to approach. The young officer saluted and stated.
"Spike Spiegel, sir!" And then the jolly man looked up at Spike in a amazement.
"Jet's partner? Isn't that right?" He gaped. Spike grinned, this is what he wanted.
"Alright, Mars already! Closer than I thought!" Jet smiled, diving down to meet Mars. His communicator turned on and Faye was on the screen, Ein by her side.
"Hey, Faye! What's hanging?" Jet laughed. Faye moaned.
"Listen, can you make a trip to Earth for me, please?" Faye begged, silently, so not to wake her insanity.
"Why should I? I'm already at Mars! Go yourself!" Jet grumbled. Faye shook the communicator.
"No, really! If I go then the Bebop will be abandoned and we could get robbed!" Faye said, having made up the excuse up only seconds before. Jet started to talk, but he was interrupted by the shaking Hammerhead, muttering to himself as he again made it stable.
"Listen, Faye. I'm going to Mars. That's that. You asked me in the first place." He turned of the communicator.
"Mr. Spiegel, I'm sorry but we can't help you unless you present information indicating you have any sort of insurance." Rob, the fat policeman, said scratching his bald head. Spike moaned.
"Don't you trust me? I invested years ago!"
"If so, you haven't been paying what they ask." Rob said, looking at Spike from his papers. Spike flinched.
"INSUUUUUUUUURRRRAANNNNNNCCEE! Spike-person not pay and Swordfish II hurt bad!" Edward cried, pulling on Spike's arm. Spike tore his arm away and glared at Rob.
"Listen...if you don't believe me, then what can you do? Just lend me money, okay? I'll pay you back." Spike was interrupted by his pocket communicator. He picked it up and turned it on, and Faye answered.
"What do you want?" Spike asked, Rob looking around to see if it was Jet.
"Oh, Spike! YOU KNOW HOW YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO EARTH? ARE YOU THERE YET?" Faye screamed. Spike held his ears.
"Why the hell are you yelling? And I'm on Venus, not Earth!" Spike yelled back, but not as loud. Faye paused.
"THE RADIATOR BROKE, IT'S NOISY, SO SPEAK UP, CRACKHEAD!" Faye screamed again. Spike twitched, then started yelling into his communicator, Edward screaming non-sense in the back.
"I'M ON VENUS, I CRASHED! I'M NOT ON EARTH!" Spike screamed then hung up.
"You can say that again." Rob said to himself, holding his ears. Before he could do anything about it, Ed had climbed upon Spike's back, pinching his cheeks.
"Edward thinks Spike is blushing!" Edward giggled.
"Welcome to Mars!" chimed a too-happy-to-not-be-faking-it type person to Jet. He outstretched his arm, presenting a small booklet. "Learn of the great things you can do on Mars today!" Jet cringed and slunk past him.
"I'll pass." He said, raising his hand in the air as a quick 'no thanks' and left. He saw no signs of disruption, so he decided he need to ask a local. He spotted a man with purple hair purchasing a hot dog and approached him.
"Listen, bud. I'm a bounty hunter and I need a bounty. Were are they all? I thought this place was full of them." Jet said, letting the man take time to process what he had been asked. After a short pause, he smiled.
"Oh, well they all went away, to the mountains to the East." The man pointed to Jet's right and continued, "Across the small desert." The man walked away, not saying good-bye. The vendor continued the man's speech.
"Good sir, there were many bounties here, but they stole us clean. They retreated to the town amidst the mountains. There's a desert between the two but it's not too long. Oh, and if you catch the one, Atsuka Kajime, can you get back everything he stole, there are very precious things with him." The vendor said, putting away his mitts and tools.
"Atsuka Kajime..." Jet murmured to himself. he grabbed a handheld computer and typed up the location of the bounty prices. A grim face depicted Atsuka as a man with black hair draping over his eyes. The sum on his head was a hefty two hundred million Woolongs. Jet clicked off the computer and slipped in his pocket.
"Thanks, partner. I'll be sure to look for him."
"Don't mention it, as long as you get what he has...that's plenty thanks for me." Said the man cleaning his hands. Jet nodded a good bye then ambled Eastward.
"Jet on Mars, Spike on Venus! What am I to do?" Faye wailed, holding Ein above her head. She brought him down and petted him a few times. A smile found itself upon her face.
"I think I know why Edward likes you," Faye said to Ein, scratching him behind the ear, "It's nice to have someone who listens to you, who is always by your side to help, and is cute and fluffy!" Faye giggled. Her mind wandered into thoughts of Spike, who seemed to match that description as well. Her thought were suddenly suspended with the message from Doohan that popped up on the screen.
"Faye! I got some info for you that might help!" Doohan said. Faye snapped into attention.
"Okay, what I've got for you is my password. It's DR1V3R3000" Doohan said, pausing to let Faye write it down then continued, "And I know one of the doors opens to one of your good friend's passwords. And I think your friend Edward knows one of them, too. That's the extent of my knowledge." Doohan bent down out of the screen, then came back up with a little pad in his hands.
"Other than that the very last door is...your very own password, isn't that something?" Doohan smiled at the pad, then at Faye. Faye gasped as her back slammed against the couch. She didn't recall any such event. Of course she hardly recalled anything from her past. They stared blankly, she didn't know what to think. Whenever she did that, it was still unknown to her what the treasure was, hidden in her thoughts of the past. Lost in the shroud of memories back deep inside her thoughts, maybe never to come out.
"Bye, Faye." Doohan said, turning off the communicator. It brought Faye back from her thoughts, but she was still distant. She tried to push away the thought of her past, and she tried, but she just sighed and went into her room.
"I can't believe them! What assholes!" Spike screamed. "Claiming I have a bad debt history! They must be mistaking me for Faye!" He rambled. He looked down at Edward who was next to him. She was sulking.
"Hey, Ed, what's wrong?" Spike said, bending down to her height. Edward reluctantly began talking.
"Edward misses Ein." Edward said, clutching her hands behind her back and turning side to side and rocking back and forth on her feet. Spike sighed. "We can't get to Ein until we get money for fuel, okay?" Spike said. This didn't cheer her up. Spike sighed. With no idea on how to make her happier, he simply wrapped his arms around her in a warm, soft embrace to comfort her. Ed accepted wrapping her arms around Spike and crying on his shoulder.
"Edward wants Ein back!" She cried. Spike patted her on the back saying comforting words.
"That's sweet." Said a velvety woman's voice. Spike looked up at the figure.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I interrupt? It's just nice to see a father and daughter opening up to each other like that...it's very sweet." Said the woman. Spike looked at her. He knew he could place her face somewhere in the back of his mind.
"Are you...by any chance...Stella?" Spike whispered.
Measure 2: Hard Times
Spike sneaked by the couch that Edward was sleeping on the floor next to. He made sure his footsteps landed on spot that didn't make a sound. This is something he could not easily accomplish. One small, slow step on Ein's stump of a tail was fatal. You might ask how Spike could not help but missing this, but it was unseen and Spike's eyes were on Ed at the moment.
Ein screeched. Lights turned on. Spike ran. Spike tripped. With the last strength left in his neck, he turned around to see the lightning fast Edward clutching his knees and wailing.
"You're taking Edward too!" She cried. Faye's light turned on and she dashed out.
"What are you two up to?" She yelled. Spike and Edward were gone. She shrugged and turned off her light, yawning.
"Target location: M-A-R-S." Jet typed in. He chuckled to himself. "How much money I actually earn is none of Faye's business. I'll simply do one modification and keep the rest for precious food." Jet licked his lips at the thought of what he could buy on Mars. His ship sailed through the glimmering stars as he maneuvered around all the meteors.
"B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L-1-2-3" Faye said as she typed, Ein obediently by her side. She looked at him.
"That isn't right...is it?" She groaned, still in her pajamas and clutching her fist where she desired coffee. Ein scratched behind his ear then innocently looked back at Faye longingly awaiting praise. Instead Faye threatened with her fist, but then withdrew back to the hidden panel.
"B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L-1-2-3-4" She slowly entered. The bebop shook deeply as a wall opened itself up, looking as if it had simply never been opened. She happily peered in, soon to be greatly disappointed when she spotted only an empty room.
"I'll kill that demon child, I swear it!" Faye said, checking all the corners of the room. "So empty! Such lack of food and waste of time!" Ein simply barked. Faye turned her head, Ein was again barking at a wall. Faye squealed with joy.
"Oh! A treasure so amazing it needs two doors!" She danced towards it and opened a similar panel and pressed in Mile's code. Miserable failure. She punched it, soon after hurting her fist and retreating back to the couch. She immediately called up Doohan. Doohan answered, rubbing his forehead with a towel and greeting her.
"Doohan, you know that secret door you and Miles built? I need the second code!" She wailed, sucking her knuckles. Doohan looked surprised and confused at first then smiled.
"Oh, that, yes, but I don't know the second code. Those codes were all made by different people here on Earth. Mine is the fourth." Faye held back a scream.
"There are four?" She said in a hysterical whisper.
"Six." Doohan smiled. Faye again held back oral anger, by simply gasping in air and biting her lip.
"Okay, Edward! We're headed straight for Earth!" Spike said, speeding closer near Venus. He was above Venus, actually, when something went wrong.
"Spike! This is bad, bad, oh so very bad!" Edward cried, fidgeting with the controls in the back.
"Spit it out, tell me the news!" Spike said, feeling the Swordfish II shake underneath him.
"Fuel levels are critical. Need FUUUUUEEEELLLL!" Edward screamed as the Swordfish II dipped and spun, plummeting toward Venus. Spike jerked the controls around, pointing the ship towards the hyperspace gate.
"We're gonna make it! Calm down and stop screwing with the controls!" Spike expertly pulled through the gate, giving the money meant for entering Earth away at the Venus toll booth. And almost in control, Spike zoomed towards a parking area when the Swordfish gave it's last cry and slid into the ground uprooting trees and sending dirt airborne. Innocent passerby were covered and buildings were dirtied. Police and curious people gathered around to see what was happening.
"We're okay!" Spike said, raising his hands and coming out of the Swordfish, Edward still unconscious inside it. A man from the ISSP walked up to him.
"Name?" He said loudly and unkindly.
"Spike Spiegel, master bounty hunter. You know Jet Black?" Spike usually added Jet into his conversations with ISSP officers, just in case it would give him an edge.
"No. Age?"
"Excuse me!" Spike groaned, his face growing tense, "I'm older than you, I'll tell you that." The officer looked up at Spike from his pad with a menacing look that said 'Don't mess with me' and Spike answered with a 'why not' face. After an episode of faces, the crowd was parted for a jolly old officer with a thick brown mustache and a worn outfit.
"Who's this, officer?" Grunted the fat fellow, who seemed to take forever to approach. The young officer saluted and stated.
"Spike Spiegel, sir!" And then the jolly man looked up at Spike in a amazement.
"Jet's partner? Isn't that right?" He gaped. Spike grinned, this is what he wanted.
"Alright, Mars already! Closer than I thought!" Jet smiled, diving down to meet Mars. His communicator turned on and Faye was on the screen, Ein by her side.
"Hey, Faye! What's hanging?" Jet laughed. Faye moaned.
"Listen, can you make a trip to Earth for me, please?" Faye begged, silently, so not to wake her insanity.
"Why should I? I'm already at Mars! Go yourself!" Jet grumbled. Faye shook the communicator.
"No, really! If I go then the Bebop will be abandoned and we could get robbed!" Faye said, having made up the excuse up only seconds before. Jet started to talk, but he was interrupted by the shaking Hammerhead, muttering to himself as he again made it stable.
"Listen, Faye. I'm going to Mars. That's that. You asked me in the first place." He turned of the communicator.
"Mr. Spiegel, I'm sorry but we can't help you unless you present information indicating you have any sort of insurance." Rob, the fat policeman, said scratching his bald head. Spike moaned.
"Don't you trust me? I invested years ago!"
"If so, you haven't been paying what they ask." Rob said, looking at Spike from his papers. Spike flinched.
"INSUUUUUUUUURRRRAANNNNNNCCEE! Spike-person not pay and Swordfish II hurt bad!" Edward cried, pulling on Spike's arm. Spike tore his arm away and glared at Rob.
"Listen...if you don't believe me, then what can you do? Just lend me money, okay? I'll pay you back." Spike was interrupted by his pocket communicator. He picked it up and turned it on, and Faye answered.
"What do you want?" Spike asked, Rob looking around to see if it was Jet.
"Oh, Spike! YOU KNOW HOW YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO EARTH? ARE YOU THERE YET?" Faye screamed. Spike held his ears.
"Why the hell are you yelling? And I'm on Venus, not Earth!" Spike yelled back, but not as loud. Faye paused.
"THE RADIATOR BROKE, IT'S NOISY, SO SPEAK UP, CRACKHEAD!" Faye screamed again. Spike twitched, then started yelling into his communicator, Edward screaming non-sense in the back.
"I'M ON VENUS, I CRASHED! I'M NOT ON EARTH!" Spike screamed then hung up.
"You can say that again." Rob said to himself, holding his ears. Before he could do anything about it, Ed had climbed upon Spike's back, pinching his cheeks.
"Edward thinks Spike is blushing!" Edward giggled.
"Welcome to Mars!" chimed a too-happy-to-not-be-faking-it type person to Jet. He outstretched his arm, presenting a small booklet. "Learn of the great things you can do on Mars today!" Jet cringed and slunk past him.
"I'll pass." He said, raising his hand in the air as a quick 'no thanks' and left. He saw no signs of disruption, so he decided he need to ask a local. He spotted a man with purple hair purchasing a hot dog and approached him.
"Listen, bud. I'm a bounty hunter and I need a bounty. Were are they all? I thought this place was full of them." Jet said, letting the man take time to process what he had been asked. After a short pause, he smiled.
"Oh, well they all went away, to the mountains to the East." The man pointed to Jet's right and continued, "Across the small desert." The man walked away, not saying good-bye. The vendor continued the man's speech.
"Good sir, there were many bounties here, but they stole us clean. They retreated to the town amidst the mountains. There's a desert between the two but it's not too long. Oh, and if you catch the one, Atsuka Kajime, can you get back everything he stole, there are very precious things with him." The vendor said, putting away his mitts and tools.
"Atsuka Kajime..." Jet murmured to himself. he grabbed a handheld computer and typed up the location of the bounty prices. A grim face depicted Atsuka as a man with black hair draping over his eyes. The sum on his head was a hefty two hundred million Woolongs. Jet clicked off the computer and slipped in his pocket.
"Thanks, partner. I'll be sure to look for him."
"Don't mention it, as long as you get what he has...that's plenty thanks for me." Said the man cleaning his hands. Jet nodded a good bye then ambled Eastward.
"Jet on Mars, Spike on Venus! What am I to do?" Faye wailed, holding Ein above her head. She brought him down and petted him a few times. A smile found itself upon her face.
"I think I know why Edward likes you," Faye said to Ein, scratching him behind the ear, "It's nice to have someone who listens to you, who is always by your side to help, and is cute and fluffy!" Faye giggled. Her mind wandered into thoughts of Spike, who seemed to match that description as well. Her thought were suddenly suspended with the message from Doohan that popped up on the screen.
"Faye! I got some info for you that might help!" Doohan said. Faye snapped into attention.
"Okay, what I've got for you is my password. It's DR1V3R3000" Doohan said, pausing to let Faye write it down then continued, "And I know one of the doors opens to one of your good friend's passwords. And I think your friend Edward knows one of them, too. That's the extent of my knowledge." Doohan bent down out of the screen, then came back up with a little pad in his hands.
"Other than that the very last door is...your very own password, isn't that something?" Doohan smiled at the pad, then at Faye. Faye gasped as her back slammed against the couch. She didn't recall any such event. Of course she hardly recalled anything from her past. They stared blankly, she didn't know what to think. Whenever she did that, it was still unknown to her what the treasure was, hidden in her thoughts of the past. Lost in the shroud of memories back deep inside her thoughts, maybe never to come out.
"Bye, Faye." Doohan said, turning off the communicator. It brought Faye back from her thoughts, but she was still distant. She tried to push away the thought of her past, and she tried, but she just sighed and went into her room.
"I can't believe them! What assholes!" Spike screamed. "Claiming I have a bad debt history! They must be mistaking me for Faye!" He rambled. He looked down at Edward who was next to him. She was sulking.
"Hey, Ed, what's wrong?" Spike said, bending down to her height. Edward reluctantly began talking.
"Edward misses Ein." Edward said, clutching her hands behind her back and turning side to side and rocking back and forth on her feet. Spike sighed. "We can't get to Ein until we get money for fuel, okay?" Spike said. This didn't cheer her up. Spike sighed. With no idea on how to make her happier, he simply wrapped his arms around her in a warm, soft embrace to comfort her. Ed accepted wrapping her arms around Spike and crying on his shoulder.
"Edward wants Ein back!" She cried. Spike patted her on the back saying comforting words.
"That's sweet." Said a velvety woman's voice. Spike looked up at the figure.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I interrupt? It's just nice to see a father and daughter opening up to each other like that...it's very sweet." Said the woman. Spike looked at her. He knew he could place her face somewhere in the back of his mind.
"Are you...by any chance...Stella?" Spike whispered.