Chapter 2: First Meeting

On board the Bebop.

It was as close to normal as things could get on the Bebop. Bounties had been scarce lately and the crew needed distractions to keep themselves from going crazy, as well as to help them forget about the dwindling food supply. Ed was surfing the web, so involved she was unaware of anything going on around her. Spike was using the spare time to work on the Swordfish, which was badly in need of a tune-up. Jet was using his police contacts to try and find a bounty worth going after. Faye had resigned herself to channel flipping out of sheer boredom. On almost every station was the same thing. Reports about the massacre of the Red Dragon enforcers on Mars yesterday.

"Isn't there anything else going on?" Faye said sarcastically. She finally settled on one station that had yet another shot of the crime scene, with the bodies removed and cops milling around, looking for clues.

"At this hour there is still no motive known and no suspects named." A voice over said. "Rumors still run rampant. Some say it was the work of a rival crime syndicate at war with the Red Dragons. Others say that it was the work of a fanatical cult. While none of these theories can be confirmed or denied there is no question of the brutality of this crime. This station has received exclusive footage of the crime scene, the mutilated bodies still in place. We caution that the following scenes may be too intense for some viewers." Now interested Faye turned up the volume. The station cut to a tape, shaky and a bit amateurish but the picture was still clear and showed everything it promised. Four Red Dragon enforcers, blood everywhere. The camera zoomed in on each of them, displaying their injuries. All of them were pretty gruesome. One had most of his upper body blown open, looking like a bomb had gone off in his chest. Another was cut open from belly to chest, most of his internal organs lying on the street. The camera skimmed over a third, gunshot wounds just weren't all that spectacular compared with the others. The fourth only had two holes cut into his back, but he was lying in a huge pool of blood. A cop and the coroner turned the body over and displayed two more holes in his chest, the coroner explained to the cop that the position of the wounds showed that the man had been impaled on two large blades. The camera then moved away from the body to outside the alley and displayed the body of the final dead enforcer. This one had the most bizarre cause of death, his head was missing. The camera swept around the area and showed the head was nowhere in sight.

"Since when did you become interested in slasher movies Faye?" Spike asked as he entered the room, causing her to jump a little.

"Since never." She answered, slightly annoyed "This is the only thing anyone is running." Spike took a closer look at the screen.

"The head of this individual has yet to be found, taken for unknown reasons. It appears that syndicate warfare has just taken a new and terrifying turn. A new breed of criminals appears to be emerging, one that takes pleasure in the killing and mutilation of other human beings."

"And has no brains whatsoever." Spike put in.

"The voice of experience?" Faye teased.

"If you're going to kill someone professionally you don't stick around and fool with the bodies. You just do the job and get out. This isn't syndicates fighting each other, it's probably just some nutcase trying to make a name for himself by taking out some of the big shots. Nothing but a small fry." He had not answered Faye's question directly but she knew he was speaking from experience. He almost never talked about his past but what they did know was that he was a former Red Dragon himself. It was probably the same reason he didn't seem to have much interest in what had happened, he had no sympathy for any of them.

"You might be right about him being a nutcase, but he's officially no longer a small fry." Spike and Faye looked up from the screen and saw Jet standing at the doorway leading to the bridge. "Just got word from Bob. A fifty million Woolong bounty has just been posted for capture of whoever wiped out the Red Dragon squad on Mars." He had Faye's interest but Spike looked bored as he lit a cigarette.

"Who put the bounty out, the cops or the Dragons?" Spike asked in a disinterested voice.

"Who cares whose paying!! Fifty million is fifty million!!" Faye yelled.

"Well Jet?" Spike asked, completely ignoring Faye.

"Don't know who's paying." Jet admitted. "But this is something too big to pass up. We're almost out of food as it is and if we don't get some cash soon our fuel will be the next thing to run out."

"If you say so." Spike answered with a shrug.

"Don't tell me you've suddenly lost interest in eating." Faye said.

"Of course not." Spike replied as he ground out his cigarette in an ashtray. "I just think that it's a waste of our time going after someone who's probably disappeared by now if he has any common sense. Besides the bounty hunters the Red Dragons are going to go after this guy, and go after him with all they've got. They're not really the type of people you want to make enemies out of. But like you said fifty million is fifty million." That decided Jet went back to the bridge and set course for Mars. Three hours later they arrived on Mars and found the place teeming with bounty hunters. Each went to a different city while Ed stayed on the ship to watch for any new information.

"It shouldn't be to hard to get a lead on this guy." Jet had told them before they left. "Even psychos like to brag about their accomplishments, and killing an entire syndicate hit team is something that no one can keep secret for long." Unfortunately they all ended up having the same trouble the other bounty hunters had. A lot of people had heard rumors of who might have reason to do it, but all of them were too old or too sacred to have done it. None of them would have been able to kill one enforcer, let alone five of them at once. As Spike left what felt like the hundredth bar he had been to looking for info and found, of course, nothing he decided to call it a day and started towards the landing area where he had left the Swordfish. Next to that landing area was an abandoned warehouse that had been the sight of little activity until recently.

Red Dragon Headquarters- Two hours earlier.

The clan elders had demanded to see Vicious immediately. He didn't need any of his spies to tell him what this was about, a team of their enforces had been killed after they had eliminated a smuggler that was about to talk to ISSP. The same smuggler he had been ordered to intimidate so he would not do something so foolish. But he went ahead and did it anyway, so he received what he deserved. Vicious briefly wondered if they were going to accuse him of the crime. Most of the team had been killed with a bladed weapon; something that Vicious was unsurpassed in using. Deciding that accusations meant nothing he stood before the elders and waited.

"Someone has interfered with the will of our clan." Wang Long said, getting right to the point.

"Our blood has been spilled and our code demands that the person who has done this will have his own blood spilled, as well as all those associated with him." Ping Long continued.

"Any who seeks to attack the Red Dragons with impunity must be punished." Sou Long finished.

"Then you know who has done this?" Vicious asked, ignoring the speech.

"Several weeks ago you were told to show a smuggler the error of trying to betray us. You failed. He was about to betray us to ISSP and has obviously contacted someone to avenge him in case of his death." Ping Long explained.

[Fools.] Vicious thought to himself. [That smuggler was almost too scared to go to the police, and too stupid to find anyone that would be able to do this to us. These corpses are thinking too much in the old ways.] Aloud he asked. "You have a name?"

"We have the names of several close associates the smuggler had before he came to work for us. You are to find them and draw any information you can out of them. Whether or not the information is useful is inconsequential, you will force them to tell everything they know and then make them examples for all others. To show what will happen if any oppose the will of our clan."

"You will also take ten of our best men with you." Sou Long said. "For there is a great chance you will meet up with whoever has killed the group that eliminated the traitor. While they have shown great arrogance they have also shown great skill. It would be wise for you not to underestimate them." Vicious had his own opinions about who had done this but he kept them to himself.

"As you wish." Vicious said in a tone that turned the phrase of respect into a mere formality. The group of assassins that were to accompany Vicious were a handpicked team of the best the Red Dragons had in the entire solar system. All were very good shots, and each had killed at least twenty men. Most importantly their loyalty to the syndicate was absolute. All of this meant little to Vicious. If they were destined to die it wouldn't matter how good they were. Unlike the last team all of them were armed with cut down versions of assault rifles that could be concealed under the trenchcoats they wore. All except for Vicious, who carried only his sword. They set up in an empty warehouse not far from where they had landed so they could make a quick getaway if necessary. Vicious had then sent his men all through the city looking for the people whose names the elders had given him. They would go to where the person lived and, at gunpoint, would force them to sit motionless while they waited for Vicious to arrive. If they made any great amount of movement they would be shot in the leg. The combination of the stress of waiting with a gun pointed to their head and seeing who their interrogator was made all of them very eager to talk, but none of them had anything useful to say. As per his orders Vicious killed them in the usual way, letting them relax slightly before striking, slitting their throats so quickly that they seemed unaware of it until they saw all the blood. After killing all of them and finding out nothing they had returned to the warehouse to plan their next move. The warehouse was darkened, the power had long since been cut off. The only light source was a series of skylights.

"We have accomplished what our leaders have sent us to do, and at the same time we have not." Vicious said, sensing the men's fear even though their faces were neutral. "We have not found who we were sent to find, something that would be considered a grave failure. If you wish to go back and report this you will all die." Some of them were now sweating and one gulped nervously. Vicious tried to keep the disgust out of his voice. "I have no intention of dying quite yet, so I will continue to look. Search or die, those are your only choices." Vicious knew that all of them would stay, their fear or loyalty made certain of that. [Weak willed and easily manipulated.] He thought to himself. Yet despite that something about this felt wrong, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

He didn't know what made him look up at that moment but he glanced up at one of the skylights and saw a red beam coming through it that was hitting the back of the head of the man farthest away from him. Vicious reached for the handle of his sword and following suit the men began to bring up their weapons, starting to turn to see what their boss was looking at. The man the beam was hitting was turned halfway around when a blue light shot out of the same source as the beam. The blue light struck the man in the temple and exploded out the other side, taking a large portion of his brain with it. Without waiting for orders the rest of the assassins opened fire on the skylight with their rifles on full auto.

Not far from them Spike had just opened the cockpit of the Swordfish when he heard the unmistakable sound of rifle fire. Looking towards the source of the noise he saw tracers shooting out of the roof of a warehouse not far from where he was. From the angle of the bullets Spike could tell that they were aimed shots, not just random pray and spray. What had him puzzled was the fact there was nothing on the roof to shoot at. What was going on over there had nothing to do with him and probably didn't have anything to do with why he was here, but this was too weird to ignore so he got out his gun, flicked the safety off and ran to investigate.

Inside the warehouse the assassins' ammo had run out and they were in the middle of reloading.

"You think we got him?" On of them asked.

"Had to of." Another replied. "Nothing could have survived something like that." Vicious did not share the optimism of his men. No body had fallen through the skylight and there was no blood dripping down.

"Go up there and make sure there's a body." He ordered one of them. He was about to comply when a something hit the floor under the skylight they had just shot up. They raised their weapons and found themselves staring at nothing. Well almost nothing, all they were able to see was something shimmering that looked vaguely human. Most thought they were seeing things so they did not fire. In that moment of hesitation some kind of net shot from the thing and hit the assassin that Vicious had told to check for a body. The net carried him to into a wall, where it attached itself and started to make a whirring sound. The man caught began to scream as the net tightened and cut into his skin. He screamed louder as bones began to break with a sickening crunching sound, until finally passing out due to blood loss and the shock of his injures. The rest of them turned back and raised their weapons only to discover the thing had disappeared completely. As they began to look franticly for it a large spear burst through the chest of one of them and then was quickly pulled back out. The man fell to the floor, dead before he had even hit it. The others began to fire in the direction the spear had come from when the chest of another one of them literally exploded, hit in the back by one of the strange energy blasts. Now them men began to panic and started to fire in all directions, hoping to keep whatever it was away from them and maybe escape in the confusion. All the while Vicious just watched and tried to keep out of the line of fire. Very little surprised him anymore, and while he was taken off guard by what was going on he refused to let himself regress like the others had. One minute they had been one of the most feared groups of people in the solar system and now they had been reduced to a pack of panicking animals.

Outside the warehouse Spike had been creeping along the wall when a second hail of gunfire erupted and instinctively hit the deck. It was a good thing to because a second later several bullet holes appeared in the section he had just occupied. [Ok, let's see what we have here. A supposedly abandoned warehouse with a lot of gunfire coming from it, and screams. Very loud screams.] Another burst of gunfire passed over Spike's head and he began to crawl forward. [Now they're firing blindly, but at what? You could hardly miss in an enclosed space like this.] The gunfire began to die down was well as the screams but Spike continued to crawl, not wanting to risk standing up and hit by a lucky shot. Or unlucky, depending how you looked at it.

Inside there were only two people left alive, Vicious and one of the assassins that had somehow survived long enough to reload his gun a second time. He reached for a third clip but found he had none. He held his rifle like a club and began to shout into the darkness.

"All right motherfucker, where the hell are you?!?!?! What's the matter?!?! Afraid to fight like a man?!?! What are you some kind of wuss?!?!" Silence answered him. "SHOW YOUSELF!!!!!" Behind the man Vicious saw energy flash and heard it crackle, slowly revealing something. It was too dark to get any real details but it was humanoid in shape and stood over seven feet tall. A sight that, for the first time in years, made surprise register on Vicious' face. The last assassin saw the look on his boss' face and slowly turned around. When he saw what was behind him he let out a terrified scream. Vicious might not be able to see what the thing looked like but he being closer the thug could see things Vicious couldn't, and what he could see was that this thing wasn't human. It had brown and yellow skin, its face was covered by a mask that had a faceless expression but instilled fear all the same. Panic taking over the last thug swung his rifle at the creature as hard as he could. The creature didn't even flinch when the rifle struck its broad chest and shattered into several pieces. The thug dropped what was left of his gun and started to walk backward. The creature clamped down on the man's shoulder with such force bones began to pop and lifted him off the ground. With his other hand the creature grabbed a handful of the thug's hair and gave a mighty pull, which was accompanied by a sucking and cracking sound. Vicious watched, now amazed, as the creature yanked the thug's head and entire spinal column off the rest of his body with the same amount of effort a normal man would use tearing a piece of paper in half. The creature looked the head in the eye, which still had a flicker of life in it.

"Wuss." The creature said in the thug's voice. It then attached the head and spinal column to its belt before turning to face Vicious. "You will die." The thing told him in his own voice. Vicious said nothing and calmly drew his sword.

"All things must die." He told the creature. "Those who fear death are not worthy of living." The creature responded with a growl and raised its right arm. It clenched its fist and two blades popped out of a device attached to its wrist. The two combatants rushed forward and both swung their weapons at the same time. Metal clashed and two pieces of Vicious' sword fell to the floor, cut clean through by the creature's wristblades. The creature knocked what was left of the sword out of Vicious' hand and lifted him by his neck.

"God I love this job!" The creature exclaimed in another voice. He stabbed with his wristblades and Vicious twisted his head, managing to keep the blow from being fatal. The blades struck him at the bottom of his jaw and came out the other side of his face at such an angle that they missed the brain by just over an inch. The creature yanked the blades out and though a great deal of blood came with them Vicious was still struggling to escape. It was about to strike again when a door was flung open, flooding the area with light.

This was getting to weird for Spike. The gunfire had stopped and he heard someone shouting obscenities that no one answered. Then he hears the same person scream, followed by the sound of bones breaking. Then the same person says the word "wuss" even though it sounded like he had just been killed. Then to top everything off he heard Vicious talking to, himself? Spike knew Vicious well enough to know that he might be considered crazy by most but he didn't talk to himself. He made his way to a door and kicked it open, gun ready. He was unprepared for what he saw. Someone, or something, was holding Vicious above its head. He also saw the glint of bloody metal and Vicious' face bleeding heavily. Unfortunately when he kicked in the door both looked over at him.

"Spike." Vicious was able to gurgle. The big guy dropped Vicious and Spike saw a red beam come from him and settle on his chest. Without thinking he dove to the side and began to fire through the wall. A blue blast came from the other side of the wall and brushed Spike's shoulder. It felt like someone had put a red-hot piece of metal against his skin and held it there. Later experience would tell him just how lucky he had been that the blast hadn't hit him directly. At this point he was happy enough to hear one of his shots being followed by a roar of pain as the bullet struck home, even if the cry did not sound human. Standing up he looked at his shoulder to see how badly he was hurt and noticed for the first time his shirt was burning!!! Despite how much it stung, and how stupid he must have looked, he patted the burning portions out all the while hissing in pain. Inching his way back to the door Spike waved his hand in front of it. When it wasn't shot off he entered the room, sweeping his gun from side to side, covering the area. He couldn't see Vicious or his new friend, but the area was fairly dark and he could only make out the shape of someone running to the other side of the building. The form opened another door and Spike could tell it was Vicious from the silhouette. Guessing that the big guy got out by the same route Spike relaxed slightly and took a closer look at the scene. In the darkness he could only see forms lying on the ground, obviously dead. The smell of blood and burned flesh hung heavy in the air, and it made Spike glad he couldn't see that much. One thing was for certain, whoever this guy was he was very good at killing people. And if it hadn't been for Spike's interference Vicious would be dead now, and he knew he was going to hate himself for that for quite some time. He was about to turn and leave when he heard something move above him. He brought up his gun and aimed it at the skylight that had been shot up but he couldn't see anything. No, wait! Something was moving up there, maybe. Spike blinked his eyes and squinted. Yes he did see something!! He saw….. a heat shimmer!? Spike shook his head and looked again. He did see a heat shimmer, but it also had a slight tint of green in one place. His finger tightened on the trigger.

[If this doesn't prove anything nothing will.] Spike thought as he lined up the shot.

"FREEZE!!!!" Spike started and turned around and found himself facing a cop in full SWAT gear, the MP5 he was carrying aimed at his head. "Drop the weapon and put you hands over your head!! NOW!!!!"

"Late as usual." Spike grumbled as he dropped his gun. "You got the wrong guy." He told the cop. "Who you want is right up there." He looked back up at the skylight and did a double take when he saw nothing.

"Right." The cop replied. "Put you hands on your head, slowly." Spike did as he was ordered. "Somebody get a light in here!" The cop yelled to someone outside. Another cop came in and turned on a powerful flashlight. He got a good look at one of the more gruesome kills, dropped the flashlight and started puking his guts out. The fist cop managed to hold his lunch in and cuffed Spike behind his back. "You're under arrest under suspicion of murder." As the cop read him his rights Spike gave him an annoyed glance. He could easily get out of the cuffs, beat the stuffing out of the cop and his airsick partner, and then get away but that would only make him seem even guiltier.

"I'm telling you you've got the wrong guy!" Spike protested.

"Sure. You just happen to walk in here with all these bodies lying on the floor."

"Yeah that's about it." Spike said. Unamused the cop gave him a rough shove with his weapon. As Spike was being forced into a police car another watched from atop the warehouse. He zoomed in on the face of the one struggling in cuffs and froze the image, moving it into the upper left part of his readout. It then looked at its hand, one that was covered in its own blood from concealing the wound the one in the image had caused. He was impressed with this one, none had ever escaped after he had locked his plamcaster on them, but somehow this one had. In addition the ooman had wounded him. It was a flesh wound true, and it had only been hit because of blind luck but the fact that the ooman had been able get any shots near him while diving and while under fire proved that he was indeed worthy prey. He searched his voice recordings and found his name, said by the one with white hair.

"Spike." The voice said. The name was committed to memory. He watched the car go, the area was swarming with armed and armored oomans so it was too much of a risk to pursue it now. But somehow he knew the two of them would meet again, and he was looking forward to it.