Italics - thoughts
All brain, and no heart
It didn't take long for me to break my vow to respect Faye better.
It didn't take much either...
Sitting on his small bed inside his compacted dorm, Spike let his room fill with once again smoke from his many cigarettes. Shoulders hunched, elbows resting on his knees, Spike contemplated in his mind of why he had acted the way he did in such a short amount of time.
Shit, I messed it up pretty badly.
He gave a loud groan before smudging the cig in his fingers and grasping a new one from his pack to smoke. All the while, his mind trailed back to his actions earlier in the day.
It had only been a couple of minutes after the leave of Andy that Jet had returned with the bounty money to split. Spike remembered something about money just being split between Jet, himself, and Ed. And Faye went ballistic when she heard.
{Flashback}
"Explain to me why I don't get a share?" Faye scrambled from the couch,
standing, "I was the damn victim!"
"That's right Faye, you were the victim, you weren't any part of the help," Jet calmly explained as he split the money three-ways.
If Faye could hiss, this would be the moment she would, "I was the lure. I lured you guys over there! Don't tell me that wasn't helping!"
"Yeah, but we really didn't need to go after you," Spike suddenly blurted out, consciously unaware that it was in fact he who felt responsibility to bring her back home.
Turning to the lanky cowboy, Faye felt appalled with his comment, but her demeanor held no affect to the words, instead they resumed to turn into anger, "Y-you, shut up!"
Spike noted her tone and flashed her an angry look, "Like you said, Faye, you're the 'annoying tenant who wastes all the ship's resources and doesn't help any'. I'm only stating a fact."
Though Faye's displeasure surely have risen its peak, it was uncomprehendable
to her expression that the words and the actions of the green-haired man
had begun to sting her mind and her heart. It hadn't even been an hour
since she thought they were starting to get along fine, and already the
inviting feeling passed. Now she felt uninvited and more seen as a person
with a lesser value, "Fuck you, Spike! Fine! Split the money with the three
of you, see if I care!" she hadn't meant her voice to crackle in the end,
and so to save her from embarrassing looks, she quickly exited the room
and entered the hanger...
{end Flashback}
..Where she left without another word..
He threw his half done cigarette into the ashtray, raked a hand through his green hair, and sighed deeply. He was utterly dumbfounded at the reason he acted so, which came as a really painful mystery, and apparently didn't notice that he was bringing tension and rivalry into the air between them.
I'm an asshole... the words ran around in circles in his mind, agreeing to it each time they passed another round, "What kind of guy, who overly feels protective to a girl and honestly would like to be with her more, suddenly give her such a great amount of misery in some world record time?"
"Only Spike-person can do it!" the sudden appearance of the young red-headed crew member made him almost fall on his back over his bed.
"Ed!!" Spike yelled after gaining back his composure, "What the hell are you doing here?!" he noticed that he hadn't even heard the girl enter in, his door was completely shut, "And.. how the hell did you get in?!"
Ed gave a twirl before landing on her knees several feet from where Spike sat, "Oooh~ Ed is a tricky one, hehehoooooo!" jumping up to her feet, she tip-toed towards Spike's bed and sat down with a grumpy look that matched Spike's, "While Spike-person was in his little 'thinking mode', Ed snuck in unnoticed! Ed is a tricky one!" she shouted and began to do tumbles, which was almost impossible to do on Spike's small bed, but then again.. with Ed, anything was possible.
Grumbling, Spike stood up and crossed his arms, "What do you want, Ed?"
Creating a massive and dangerous tumble out of Spike's bed, Ed finished
with a cartwheel with her hands to the floor, "Ed is here to tell Spike-person
that Jet-person has terrible, terrible news." she squealed.
"Yeah, what's that?" Spike dully asked, groping his pockets for another smoke to waste.
"Jet-person and Ed found new bounty! New bounty is some 'religious cult', Jet-person said so!" Ed jumped to back on her feet and made a bug-eyed face. She lifted her arms in front of her, as if she was a zombie of some sort, "New bounty makes new members by hypnotizing! Hehehe!"
Spike couldn't find what was so terrible about it, not that mesmerizing people into joining them was not terrible, but why did it matter to them, "So, what's the deal? Jet got some grudge against this guy or what?"
"Nu, nu~" Ed stopped suddenly and grabbed Spike's arms, surprising him, "Jet-person saw the commercial with weird-bald-guy talking about the cult! Then Jet-person and Ed saw terrible thing!"
Unsure that the expression Ed held on her face was even possible, Spike sputtered to ask, "What did you see?"
"Ed saw Faye-Faye and so did Jet-person!" Ed suddenly yelled and ran out of the room, "Jet-person wants to tell Spike-person that Faye-Faye might be in trouble! Woho!!"
~
"This guy goes by the name, Londes." Jet threw a picture and an ISSP
report towards the man sitting across him, "He used to be a Neurobiologist,
studying brain functions, et cetera, until he claimed to have a vision
of God and himself shifting spirits into digital data. Soon after, he suddenly
disappears, then suddenly reappears as an electronic image with his group,
or cult he calls SCRATCH."
Spike eyed the picture of an aged old man with no hair, "So what the
hell does this.. SCRATCH do again? Some sort of religious cult, right?"
"Right. The human brain functions by a weak stream of electrical pulses. His theory is that, if you are able to copy that as data and play it over the universal network or netspace as a program, then you can exist only as a soul. No body, no real feeling, not anything but data that moves around the galactic net," Jet replied thoroughly, aware that he may have lost Spike along the way.
Staring at the picture again and wrinkling his nose at the aged man, he looked up at Jet as he spoke, "What kind of moron would want to believe that, let alone join?"
Jet shrugged, "The promise was that if the soul leaves the body, all your problems will go away since the body is only a shell for your presence here on the universe, and so Londes states. There are already 20,000 members, of which 100 have committed suicide or ended up missing. Since that report, cops finally moved their lazy asses to investigate."
"And you're sure you saw Faye in that commercial?" Spike asked for the thirteenth time.
Jet gave a grim expression, "Yeah."
Slapping the file on the table, Spike groaned and stood up, "Okay, let's get this shit over with."
~
The horde of people stood before a tower of television sets that stood
inside a run down warehouse. The mass of bleak, dismal people stared with
open mouths at their cult leader as he spoke his preaches.
"What is a physical body? The body is merely an object. It is an existence all too impure to store the gods within us called souls. Now you will remember. The blood stained history! Material desire. Hunger. Sexual drive. Desire to dominate. Desire for fame. As long as there is a body, desires will be born. As long as there is desire, human ego will not disappear. Humans will continue to fight to fulfill their bodies' desires, and it will never end. At this rate, there is no future! Now awaken your soul! Now be rid of that filthy body!"
The mass seemed to rivet with the speech as they thrust one hand into the air and cried out a cheer. Silence enveloped soon before their electronic leader began to speak again.
"Remember, my children, temptation to go back to your lives will not help you, it will threaten you." the mass nodded to his voice, "Eliminate those who try to stop you from your true freedom."
~
Walking along the streets of the well populated city, Spike was out
venturing in hopes to find any of the cult members of SCRATCH, which he
thought was pathetically stupid to even try when it clearly showed that
most of the city's population is part of the organization. All he had to
do was go to a well visited area and find people who are wearing matching
blue jumper suits, handing out flyers to uninterested people. And that
place was the park.
He trotted down the scenic broadway, heading towards the group he's been meaning to question. As he was nearing them, he could see the many flyers with the praises of their leader scattered around the ground he stepped on.
"Hello sir, we represent SCRATCH, an electronic transcendence group. We are the disciples of God, sent here to free your soul from your body and lead you to the infinite sea of electrons," one member greeted him, a woman with short, brown hair.
Spike looked at her, startled with her long introduction, "Um..hi." he responded.
"Would you like to free your soul from your body?" she asked, her face still engraved into a light smile.
"Sure...?" Spike replied and took the flyer that was handed to him. He took a glance at it and recognized the picture of Londes on the front, "Hey miss, excuse me but before I.. 'free my soul' or whatever, can you tell me when I'll get to meet Mr. Londes?"
The woman's face quickly changed dramatically into despise, "Are you sure you want to join us, sir?"
Spike chuckled nervously, "Are you kidding me? Of course I am! I-I was just curious as to when I'll get to meet our leader." at first the girl's face didn't shift, and he got the idea that maybe she wasn't buying it. He found out seconds later that in fact, the woman had bought his demise and smiled proudly at him as she gave him a ticket.
"Before meeting Mr. Londes, we will have to free your soul first," she explained and pointed to his ticket, "Please bring this to your local shop. You will receive the latest 'Brain Dream' for the use to transmit your soul into the infinite sea of electrons. Of course you will have to purchase it, but this ticket helps you to get one as fast as possible." she gave a quick nod before moving to a new passerby, leaving Spike oddly staring at the ticket in his hands.
"Uh.. thanks," he called out though he knew the girl wasn't listening at all. Turning around, he shoved the ticket in his pocket and trotted back to the Bebop.
~
Hearing a loud hiss of air-locked doors opening, Jet turned his head
to find the green-haired tenant standing there with a smirk, "Whatcha'
find?"
Spike casually walked down the small steps of the rec room and sat across his balding comrade. Still with a smirk on his face, he pulled out from a plastic bag in his hands, an electronic device with goggle-like features and connections of several wires. Throwing it to the gaping man in front of him, Spike laid comfortably back into his seat, "Let's 'free our souls' first."
Jet questionably handled the device in his hands, "By playing online games?" he marked incrediously, "What the hell are we supposed to do with this?"
"Apparently," Spike gave a sigh, bewildered that Jet didn't even know how the cult operated, "This kid's toy is how your soul gets transferred into the netspace." he unfolded the flyer he got earlier and placed it onto the small table, turning it around to face Jet, "One of the members explained that you needed it, in order to join. I guess you can go see how it goes, maybe even let Ed hack into it a little bit." he recommended.
Letting out a chuckle from deep within his throat, Jet shook his head unbelievingly, "Great job, Spike. I'm proud," he awarded sarcastically and placed the device on the table, stopping abruptly after remembering something, "Oh yeah, we got some great news for you."
"What's that?" Spike asked as he looked over the man in front of him.
"Ed's tracked down Faye's ship signal. Seems that she's around here, which we are lucky for, and not far," Jet informed and handed Spike a small tracking device, "So if you aren't busy, you might want to go check with what's up with her."
Standing up and tightly holding the tracker in his hand, he turned to leave when Jet's voice caught him in the middle of his first step.
"If it doesn't seem like she's herself, there's a good chance that she's been brainwashed," Jet let out, "Don't do anything irrational. Just try to get her back here in no harm. Some of the ISSP officers who have handled several of the members before, claimed to have stated that the members would often forfeit by taking their own lives."
At the last phrase, Spike froze from his spot.
"If Faye's not herself..." Jet trailed off and stopped as Spike responded softly.
"I know," he began to walk back towards the hanger, "I get it."
~
In his red zip craft, Spike overlooked the outskirts of the city where
ruins of old buildings and warehouses stood crumbling and dissipating with
each year.
"Hey-lo Spike-person!" Ed cried from his transmitter.
"Hey Ed," Spike greeted back and held up the tracker in his hand to the screen, "Tell me where you spotted Faye's ship."
Nodding hastily, Ed clacked the keys on her tomato furiously as she sent information into the hand held device in Spike's hand, "Ah, look!" she spotted, and so did Spike, "Faye-Faye is flying!"
Flying? What the hell? He watched inquisitively as the dot in the green screen danced around his position. He noticed the dot seem to be closing in on his craft. That's when he looked up just in time to spot the Redtail fly from below to the front of his craft.
Without hesitation, the Redtail began to fire bursts of ammo towards his craft, but with Spike's quickness he eventually got out of the way before any of the bullets did more than graze his Swordfish II. Swerving tightly to his left, Spike maneuvered his craft with precise as the Redtail trailed with it's machine guns on.
"Spike-person! Faye-Faye with you!" Ed shouted excitedly on his screen as she too noticed that Faye's signal was near his, "Okay now, Ed will go help Jet-person! You and Faye-Faye have fun!"
Gripping his handle as he narrowly turned to his right, Spike responded with a groan, "Fun?! She's firing at me, dammit!" his eyes noted a quick descent in the other's craft and frantically looked around to see where she was. He then remembered about the tracker and quickly glanced at it, seeing that Faye was right beside him on his right. The information was proven true as Faye's zip craft flew beside his.
Quickly shifting his transmitter to Faye's channel, he shouted to the screen at the sight of her almost demonic face, "Faye, it's me! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
The Faye on the screen seemed to not care, "You're after Mr. Londes. You'll never take away our freedom."
"What--?" Spike stared hard at the woman in the screen, but then remembered about what Jet had said before he left.
"If it doesn't seem like she's herself, there's a good chance that she's been brainwashed."
He gave a deep, ragged breath and spoke cautiously, "Faye, it's me Spike."
"Who is Faye? I have no name," the woman interrupted, "I need no name."
"Dammit, you are Faye! Before you joined this stupid cult, you're name was Faye Valentine!" Spike yelled through the intercom, already irritated with the corrupt Faye.
The Redtail sharply made a 90 degree turn to face Spike before it's rocket launchers opened it's heavy vessels to let out on of its deadliest weapons.
"We are ordered to eliminate those who interrupt our work for freedom,"
Faye spoke in monotone as she triggered the rockets out of it's casings.
Reeling back his Swordfish, Spike pulled the lever with his distraction
canisters and fired it to the sky above, where Faye's rockets would eventually
follow its heat. He gave a short sigh of relief as they did what he expected,
but came back to the revolting fight against the brainwashed Faye.
"Nothing will stand in our way! You humans are always selfish!" she began to ramble and once again started to fire her machine guns at him, 'causing him to run from them again.
"Fuck, Faye!" Spike gritted his teeth, feeling tired of playing like he shouldn't do anything to harm her, but if he didn't then his ass was on the line. Quickly halting and pulling up, he gained a good position as the person behind the other craft. Feeling his trigger finger itch as they rubbed against the red switch behind the handle, Spike gave a deep breath before beginning to fire at the red craft in front of him. He felt his ship give a slight rumble before a long stream of endless bullets struck a critical area of the Redtail, which made it's left side collapse and smoke out. As he saw it spiraling downwards, he held his breath hoping that the craft would simply land by sliding instead of a crash. He watched with large, beady eyes, ready to face the possible collision.
He gave a breath as he passed overhead the Redtail, which made the land by colliding bottom first, and found the craft damaged but not in any dangerous state. Turning about to land near it, he inspected the cockpit area of the Redtail only to find a bruised but over all well, Faye, standing with a gun in her hand, pointing to him as he descended near the ground.
He kept his eyes at her face, her hair whipping the sides and front of her face as his craft made a land, and sat in his cockpit once he was safely on ground. Spike didn't know what to do next: was he suppose to get out there, risking himself to catch a bullet or even get killed? Or just fly away at the moment? Opening up his intercom, he began to speak to her from the inside the safety of his ship.
"Faye, listen--"
"I am not Faye!" she interrupted him once again and gave a warning shot, which dented his wind shield.
"Listen!" Spike yelled, "Who the hell are you then?!"
"I am No.8020056, A class," she replied thoroughly, still holding her gun high to him.
Spike new without thinking that Faye wouldn't miss her shot if he so much as stepped out. So he had a plan.
"You are Faye!" --she fired three times at him, creating more dents on the glass before him-- "You're brainwashed! They're not going to free you in this damn cult! They're going to kill you!" --the words seemed to trigger an impulse to destroy him quicker, and with that the woman fired her gun in a steady pace until it produce only an empty click.
Here's my chance... Opening the hatch above him, Spike clambered out and pulled out his own gun, pointing it directly to the woman, "Give up, Faye!"
The woman gave a slight snarl before jumping off her cockpit and quickly running off, taking shelter to the collapsed buildings a few feet behind her. Letting out a soft swear, Spike jumped off his own cockpit and ran after her. He was absolutely surprised on how fast she was as she ran, but then thought that Faye was always used to running away.
As they ran down a hall of white, dissolving brick, Spike could see that they were heading to a room in the middle of the building where a tower of television sets sat in it's middle. The Faye in front of him stopped as soon as they entered the room, staring at one screen in the tower that was open and held a face, Londes' face, on it.
"Human brains are very gullible to everything they learn, like faith and religion," Londes spoke out through the screen, "People will believe anything for the gain of hope, faith, self-respect, and sometimes even happiness and recognition. All humans are basically computers in flesh. You program the computer with something, and that's what they will always use or function with."
Seemingly not interested on what Londes had to say, he shot a single bullet to stop his preaches, only to have the other sets spring to life with the same face.
"Ah-ah," Londes tsked, "Witness the human sins of wrath, pride, envy; three of the seven sins written in the book almost all of the population in this universe believes in. You see, people act as they do because they knew or read that the act exists. I believe that if people had no religion at all, then maybe all the sins written in the book of God would be forgotten, and none will exist in their worlds. This is why I have made this cult; isn't this what you strive to know?"
"You claim to beautify humans by brainwashing them with mindless antics before killing them, and then suspect that their lives would then be saved?" Spike spoke out, unaware that Faye had picked up a nice revolver on the floor for her to use. His eyes trailed for the large television screen until they stopped at the figure of Faye, pointing another gun at him.
Londes became quiet after a while, studying the bounty hunters words in his mind, "Beautify them, yes, before I kill their wretch less, pathetic lives. They don't know this, and will never do. While I'm still in this world, be it reality or electronically, my followers will follow my every heed until the days I have no longer use for them. Death is the only way," Londes clarified, "Only way to be cleansed from the sins of living."
"Faye.." Spike spoke out, focusing on the armed woman in front of him, "Faye, put it down."
Giving out a short laugh, Londes finished with a chuckle, "The follower you express as Faye is no longer herself. My brainwashing has proven very affecting to her mind for she was vulnerable when my other followers got to her. Because of this, talking to her or changing her mind will not be easy. She only listens to what I say. Care for a demonstration?"
Spike watched in horror as Londes ordered Faye's hand, that which carried her gun, to lift to her right temple.
"Only one command to pull the trigger," Londes threatened, "One command, and she will be freed from this cruel world."
~
"Okay Ed, hook it up and log on," Jet ordered as he placed the goggles
on himself and waited with the sound of keys being punched in by Ed.
"Ed will do what Ed can do!" she chanted as the screen of the SCRATCH website came in view, and a woman began to do an introductory.
"Welcome to SCRATCH, an electronic transcendence gr-" the woman on the screen didn't get to finish.
"Blah-blah! Ed gets it! Too much talkie~" Ed punched in some invalid names and access codes, before the woman appeared again with a welcome. Then, a vivid screen of the vast space came into view as Londes' voice came in the background.
"Blood, muscle, and bone. When those are lost, humans face death..."
As Jet stared awkwardly at the pictures before him, he could feel a slight wave of nausea affect his vision and his body.
"What lies beyond that?" Londes continued, "Heaven? Hell? Reincarnation? Such things cannot possibly exist. Those are mere excuses.."
Jet could start to feel his fingers shake, and his limbs shiver at the odd wave alternating his mind. Ein knew something was wrong as he began to bark at the mesmerized Jet.
"Ein? Ein mad at ugly-bald-guy?" Ed scooped up the angry corgi, "Ed is mad at ugly-bald-guy too! Ed will growl with you!" she briskly got on all fours and followed Ein as he growled at Jet's figure.
"None of the previous paths to salvation had such a clear vision as this..."
Jet let out a groan and immediately, Ein gave a vicious bite into the older man's leg, with Ed following suit also biting him in the same leg. Crying out in surprise, Jet tossed the device from his eyes and rubbed the now sore leg, "God, what was that for?!"
He blinked out a few times before finally realizing that the weird sensation in his mind and body disappeared, "What the--" and then it came to him, the function of how 'Brain Dream' recruited members for SCRATCH.
"Ed, get Spike!"
~
"Isn't it sad when one experiences such a situation?" Londes spoke
out mockingly, "When one suffers the loss of another, preferably someone
dear to their hearts? This is what life is. Life makes and
takes what is brought to you. Only the lucky ones make through this
life with fulfilled happiness."
Spike burned the screen with Londes' face with a scowl, "I don't get it. Why do you want to do these things?! Why are you doing this?!" he gestured a hand angrily towards the unwavering Faye, who still had the barrel to her forehead.
Londes gave a meek smile, "The world is unfair. And it was unfair to me," he gave a pause, "I was once brilliant and promising, and in mere seconds I became a nobody. A nobody who could no longer promise anything to this world. Why was I given such a fate? Answer me that, and I will answer your own question."
"Fate is what our life is all about; figuring out our fate and ways to shift them," Spike recoiled, "You said life gives and takes, and so it does its job. You have no right to seek revenge on life, especially when you talk about life being an uncontrollable object. These actions of yours go against every word you preach."
In the screen, Londes' face seemed to hesitate, "You know nothing of my preaches!" he shot back acidly, "Perhaps I teach you them now!"
The building gave a low groan as Spike's eyesight seem to deceive him, showing the ground before him start to melt and rock back in forth like a stack of gelatin. Faye's figure seemed affected by the sensation also, her hands held her head as she fell back, moaning.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Spike let out angrily, his body not responding, he fell to his knees.
"Fate will deceive your life," Londes spoke seriously, a slight amused
tone hinted also, "And I'll help it do it's job now."
To be continued....
~review pleaze~
On the next chapter:
********************************
Ed: OmGosh! Strifey's made a cliffhanger!! ```^_^``
Jet: Well, I thought she just lost inspiration because she thrives on the ability to lose ideas within the speed of sound? O]o
Strife21: *runs in and thwacks Jet on the head*
Jet: X]x oooowww... dammn...
Ed: ```^-^`` Heeeey~ Strifey! Where's Spike-person and Faye-Faye?
Strife21: .->.>...out...they're..doing me a favor...
Ed: ```^-^`` Ooooh!! Is Spike-person and Faye-Faye busy?
Strife21: NO, THEY'RE NOT LOCKED UP IN THE WAREHOUSE!!! STOP INTERROGATING ME!!!
Ed: ```._.`` .....
Jet: o[O .....
Strife21:...................................................I MUST GO NOW AND CRY! *walks off fast*
Ed: ```^-^;;`` Woohooo~ Strifey has gone psycho!
Jet: ..O]o Hey! I just noticed this is the second time I showed up on this little preview-thing! *struts around*
Strife21: *appears and suddenly Jet disappears*
Jet: [gone]
Ed: Psycho! Psycho!! ```^o^``
Strife21: *huddles and whispers to the audience* ...the next chapter will be "All brain and no heart pt.2"... *runs off*
Ed: ```^-^;;`` Don't worry, people, Strifey's just stressing... heehee.. Psycho!
Announcer Guy: What's going on in this fanfic? Why's the Strifey acting like she's scheming? Where's Faye? and Spike? Will the next chapter be uploaded sooner than a month? Will Jet be back to do this...preview-thing? Will Ed notice that Strifey is indeed psychotic and is scheming? Will you ever notice that Strifey is indeed running out of ideas within the speed of sound? Will you ever find out why the announcer for DBZ is on this, and if yes, will I be here long? Find out in the next episode of.....
It all Started.. With the Fat Guy
~laterz, cowboy....~