Chapter 3: The Hunt Begins
"Boy Spike you really stepped in it this time. How does it feel to be the galaxy's newest mass murderer?"
"Faye, I've already had a bad enough day already without you trying making it worse." Spike was currently lying on a cot inside a jail cell, trying to keep himself occupied by counting the cracks in the ceiling. Faye was leaning against the wall opposite of Spike's cell, amused by the sight of Spike being behind bars. Jet was currently up front trying to bail him out. The cops had interrogated him for three hours and Spike kept telling them what he had seen but they refused to believe it and thought they got the right guy, just because he had been at the scene. [Not like they noticed I had a gun that only had five bullets fired and not a drop of blood on me.] Spike thought with some amusement. [I was there so I was the one that did it. What a bunch of geniuses.]
"I think those ten guys you killed are having a worse day then you." Faye said. Spike let out a sigh. He knew she was only kidding and that he shouldn't answer, but he was so bored that any type of conversation seemed good.
"I've already told you that I didn't kill those guys. And I've also told you and the cops who really did it."
"Sure Spike. Some giant with dreadlocks and a weird skin disease goes in and wipes out ten guys armed with machine guns, all by himself, and then just disappears into thin air?"
"Unless you think I made all that up and I was able to kill ten guys and only have this happen to me." He replied, pointing to his injured shoulder, now bandaged by the police doctor. He was still trying to figure out what had almost hit him, and the weird thing was that he thought he had seen that type of blast before.
"Lucky for you the cops don't. Anymore." A third voice said. Spike sat up and saw Jet and a guard at the cell door. The guard opened the door and Spike walked out. "They finally came to their senses and figured you were too clean to come out of a bloodbath like that."
"About time." Spike replied as they exited the station. "What took them so long?"
"They said most of the killings could have been done at long range but some of them had been up close and personal. What convinced them was one real piece of work. They say that that the guy had his backbone torn from his body. You can't do that from far away." Faye swallowed at the mention of the mutilation. Spike smirked and nudged Jet.
"I managed to hear some rumors about the others. Is it true what they said about the headless guy? That he ended up looking at his own body?"
"Yep." Jet answered, catching on. "They said that the head rolled at just the right angle so that he would have been able to see his own body fall. The weird thing was, they say that the way his arms were he tried to catch his own head as it fell. Would have been kinda funny if he managed to catch it."
"Will you two knock it off!!!" Faye yelled, beginning to look a little green. "Are you trying to make me sick?!?!"
"Just returning the favor." Spike said with a grin. Faye said nothing and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets.
"Speaking of favors." Jet said, seriousness returning to his voice. "You owe all of us a big one."
"What? The bail?" Spike asked, confused. Jet nodded. "Come on Jet. Even bail set for an accused murderer isn't that high."
"Maybe, but this case was an exception. These murders are starting to get people nervous, and even though the cops knew you weren't the one who did it they didn't want to release a potential witness that might be able to lead them to the real killer. So the bail was set higher, much higher."
"How much higher?" Spike asked, not liking where the conversation was going. Jet let out a loud sigh before answering.
"We are now completely out of cash. We can't buy food, fuel, or any other supplies."
"So that means …" Spike began
"It means that we're stuck here until we find a bounty big enough to get us back on track." Spike couldn't help but notice the tone of accusation.
"Look, this wasn't my fault." Spike defended. "I was investigating a lead about a bounty and things kind of got out of hand."
"You just can't seem to stay out of trouble can you?" Faye asked. Spike was about to respond when Jet intervened.
"Look, we're not going to get anywhere by fighting with each other. Spike, go get the Swordfish and ….."
"That's it!!" Spike exclaimed, interrupting Jet. "How could I have been so stupid?"
"Natural talent?" Faye asked sarcastically. Spike ignored the comment and explained.
"Ever since that guy shot me at the warehouse I've had this funny feeling that I knew what he had shot me with."
"The doctor said it was probably a miniature missile that just missed and singed you with its rockets." Jet said. Spike shook his head.
"A missile would have detonated when it hit the wall. What he used went through the wall like it wasn't there and almost went through me. It was a blue flash of light and it looked a lot like a blast from the plasma cannon on the Swordfish."
"Get serious Spike." Faye said. "A portable plasma cannon? That's impossible."
"Actually not." Jet stated. "I've heard that ISSP and several private organizations are working on a plasma cannon that one man can carry."
"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who would have access to projects like that." Spike said. Suddenly the day seemed to be getting much better.
"It's not quite that simple." Jet put in. Spike knew it was too good to be true. "There are several problems with the theory that somebody's using one of those weapons." He began ticking off the points on his fingers. "The biggest one is that the most optimistic date for the completion of a prototype is at least three years away. Even if they did have a prototype now it would need a power pack that weighs eighty pounds and looks like a high tech backpack. Spike, you didn't see this guy carrying any large packs did you?" Spike shook his head. "Just as well, a power source that small with so much energy would be more likely to blow up then work correctly."
"So that means we're back to square one." Spike stated.
"And nowhere near the fifty million." Faye sighed.
"Well standing around complaining about it isn't going to get us anywhere. Lets get back to the Bebop and check for any leads that might have turned up." The flight back was quiet as each one of them was caught up in their own thoughts about what had been happening. When they got back Ed greeted them in her usual hyperactive way.
"Did you bring Edward something good?" She asked excitedly.
"No Ed." Jet answered, not wanting to deal with this right now.
"Did you get something good to eat?" Ed asked Faye as she entered.
"Ask the jailbird about food." Faye said coyly.
"Get off it will you Faye! It wasn't exactly my idea to get arrested!!" Spike said angrily as he followed her in. Ed let out a high pitched giggle and started running in circles around Spike, flapping her arms.
"Jailbird, jailbird, jailbird!" She sang. Jet and Faye started laughing. Spike stopped walking and gave Ed an annoyed glance.
"Ed, unless you have something important to say leave me alone." He growled. He had had a bad enough day already and didn't need any more aggravation. The threat was intended to scare her off or at least shut her up but instead she broke into a very large grin.
"Edward has something very important to say." She assured him. Spike let out a sigh, knowing she wouldn't leave him alone until she told him what.
"So what do you know that's so important?" He asked. [Knowing her she probably just wants to show off her latest round of laser graffiti on Earth, not that the planet could get any uglier.]
"Edward knows the name of the bounty head Spike person is chasing." She announced. To everyone's surprise what she said was important. With information like that they might be able to figure out this guy's next move.
"So who is he?" Spike asked impatiently. Instead of answering Ed turned and scampered off. The others followed her to the corner where she had set her computer and watched as she opened a holographic news broadcast that was paused. The picture showed the aftermath of the warehouse shootout, heavily armed cops formed a defensive perimeter and behind them other cops carried out a body covered by a white sheet that was stained red with blood. As Ed started the broadcast other bodies started to be brought out, some badly misshapen because of the damage that had been done.
"As you can see the police are taking no chances in this, the second massacre in as many days of known Red Dragon operatives." A voiceover narrated. "With this second attack the brutality of the crime has increased as well as the body count. Ten men, all armed to the teeth, mercilessly slaughtered by person or persons unknown. Rumors run rampant, rumors of unspeakable mutilation, of heads and spinal columns ripped from the victims. Police believe that this is the work of the same person or persons that killed several other Red Dragon operatives just yesterday. Whoever is committing these crimes appears to targeting associates of the Red Dragon organization, and going after them with a vengeance. Some say it's a rival syndicate, others say it is a lone homicidal maniac. Whatever might be right one thing there is no doubt of, he is a true Dragonslayer." Ed paused the video.
"Everyone calls him Dragonslayer now." She said cheerfully as she turned around. She saw three faces that seemed to droop, and Faye's eye dangerously starting to twitch. Most people would have realized that they should have stopped joking but Ed never lost her smile. "Edward has also found something better."
"What? That his real name is St. George?" Jet asked in a rare moment of sarcasm.
"Who?" Spike and Faye asked. Jet sighed and shook his head.
"Never mind." He turned his attention back to Ed. "What else have you found Ed?"
"Big bounty. Biggest Edward has ever seen." She restarted the video.
"In response to the escalation of violence that has been seen here today a large bounty is being offered, higher then the fifty million Woolongs previously posted." The narrator went on. "The current bounty is now set at five billion Woolongs." Faye pushed Ed out of the way but instead of protesting Ed just laughed and somersaulted away. All three leaned in to make sure they weren't hearing things. "In a move the likes of has never been seen before the five billion is being offered if anyone can bring this murderer in dead, provided they have concrete proof that they have indeed killed the Dragonslayer. If they manage to bring in the Dragonslayer alive the bounty is set at ten billion Woolongs. It appears the term of the ancient west 'wanted dead or alive' has again found a place in modern times. Police were pessimistic when asked if such a large bounty will bring a quick end to the bloodshed citing the already high body count and the fact no one has seen the Dragonslayer and lived to tell about it. We will have more on this story as it develops." The video ended and all three were silent.
"Did Edward do good?" Ed asked. Nobody answered her.
"Dragonslayer?" Spike finally spoke up. "Do you think that they could have come up with a stupider name?"
"You know the press." Jet answered. "The cornier the gimmick the better."
"Who cares what the guy's name is!" Faye broke in. "Were talking about ten billion Woolongs!!"
"If we bring him in alive." Spike pointed out.
"What do you mean 'if'?" Faye challenged.
"I mean there's a reason that they put dead or alive on this guy."
"Spike, give me a break. You can't put a bounty on a dead body, everybody knows that."
"Actually you can." Jet interrupted. "It's a condition saved for the worst of criminals. The last one was about twenty years ago, on a fellow called Trencher. Nobody ever found out his real name and it was rumored he was an ex assassin for the syndicates, a good one that was completely insane. Liked to shoot anyone just for the hell of it, especially cops. If that wasn't enough he even managed to bomb several police stations during their busiest hours. All in all he managed to kill fifty civilians and thirty officers before they decided to put the dead or alive label on him. He was on his killing spree for almost three weeks, no bounty hunter wanted to risk trying to capture him because they knew he wouldn't be taken alive, and going after him for no reward didn't sound appealing to anyone. About eight hours after he was labeled what was left of his body was brought in, so badly burned and shot up that they needed to identify him through DNA records. The bounty was paid and that was the end of it. This though," He pointed at the screen. "it's too soon to label this guy, even with what he's already done, without the cops taking their shot first."
"This has Red Dragons written all over it." Spike said. "It was their guys that got wasted and only they could get results this fast."
"This is all very interesting, but it still doesn't explain why we shouldn't try for the ten billion!" Faye exclaimed. Spike and Jet sighed.
"Do you want to or should I?" Spike asked Jet.
"Go ahead, I've already tried." Jet answered.
"What?" Faye asked, not understanding.
"The reason they have the dead or alive label on this guy," Spike explained. "is because they don't expect him to be brought in alive, and they don't expect many bounty hunters to survive either. The Red Dragons have already sent their best against this guy and all of them are now in the morgue." He left out the part about him accidentally saving Vicious. "The only reason they're offering more for him being brought in alive is that they want the pleasure of killing him themselves, and knowing them only after a long session of torture. If they don't," He shrugged. "at least they know he's dead and they can stop worrying about it."
"Either way the Dragons win, and the bounty hunters take all the risks." Jet finished.
"So we're just going to let something this big pass us by?! Listen to yourselves!! This is the largest bounty any of us could ever hope for, and you just want us to turn it down?!?"
"Now we never said that we wouldn't go after this now did we Faye?" Spike answered with a smile.
"What!?!" Jet blurted, surprised at Spike's remark. "Spike didn't we just point out why we shouldn't go after this guy?!"
"Yes." Spike replied calmly. "And it was a very good reason, but there are a couple of reasons why we should take this one. I suppose the money would be the first reason."
"Even ten billion doesn't by a stiff much these days." Jet interrupted. "I don't intend to go on any suicide missions."
"Every bounty we go after is a potential suicide mission Jet, it all depends on how you view it. Severity against the amount of cash involved is what makes us decide what type of suicide we end up taking."
"So you think that the amount they're offering is enough to risk almost certain death?" Jet asked.
"No amount of money is worth dying for, but I do have my own reasons for trying to catch this guy. Number one would be this." He pointed to his burned shoulder. "I don't like people shooting at me, and I owe him some payback for almost taking off my shoulder. Second, he has the Red Dragons running scared. Nobody has ever been able to do that. That alone makes it worthwhile, if only to get a chance to thank him."
[That sounds like something Spike would do, risk his life to thank the enemy of his enemy.] Aloud he asked. "You're sure about this, that the risk is worth it?" Instead of answering Spike lit up a cigarette and took a long drag from it. "I guess I should have known better then to ask. Now you," He said turning to Faye. "I know I don't have to ask you what you think we should do." Faye said nothing and gave Jet an 'I told you so' smile. Jet let out a defeated sigh. "All right we'll do it, but we'll do it the right way and not go off half cocked like all the other bounty hunters are bound to do. I'll check with my contacts here and Ed you ….." He looked to where Ed had been sitting and saw she was gone. Looking around he couldn't find her anywhere. "Where'd she go?" A loud whoop answered him as Ed dropped down from the ceiling, causing them all to jump.
"Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the fourth reporting for duty." She said with an exaggerated salute. Jet wondered for what seemed like the millionth time how could Ed move around like that and not be noticed. He decided to focus on the matter at hand.
"Ed, you look for whatever you can find on this character that might be on the net. Spike is the only one that got a good look at him so he'll give you a description." Jet saw Spike arch one of his eyebrows. "Got a problem with that?" Spike shook his head and held up his hands in mock surrender. "Good. Cause if we do this right we bring in Dragonslayer or whatever the hell his name is with as little trouble as possible."
As the crew of the Bebop made preparations for their hunt the one that had been named Dragonslayer was on his own hunt. Several hours had passed since he had been wounded by the one called Spike in the storage building. The wound had been treated and now he had started the hunt again. He did not try to seek out Spike because he knew Spike would eventually come after him. He knew the eyes of a fellow hunter when he saw them, even if one of them was a fake. He scanned the night skyline of the city he had chosen for his hunt, the sky filled with ooman vehicles. The last ooman hunt was over fifty of their years ago, and they had progressed quite a bit in that time. When last they had attempted to hunt on the ooman home world they found it devastated, all the great cities and even continents lay in ruin. Their attempts at faster then light travel had shattered the planet's only moon, and it now rained a constant flow of meteors that threatened their species with extinction. The planet was determined to be unsafe and was deemed off limits. All these years later one lone hunter had decided to go back to the star system the oomans called Sol and discovered things none on his own home world could have imagined. The oomans had perfected their own type of faster then light travel and had used it to colonize many of the planets and moons in the system, leaving their shattered and almost dead home. They had begun to develop energy weapons and personal craft, once dominated by wheeled vehicles, had evolved into the flying craft that now filled the skies above him. Those craft had forced him to keep to the shadows until nightfall, something that had never been considered to be a problem in the past. It hindered his efforts but at the same time brought new excitement to the hunt. All the advancements made by the oomans added new challenges to overcome, something a true hunter craved. Their adaptability and resourcefulness had made oomans one of the most dangerous prey known, and so far he had not been disappointed. The only mishap had been the fleshwound caused by Spike, but that was negligible. He knew that Spike would seek him out and when they fought again, he would have a fine ooman skull to display. Until that he would seek out other trophies.
He had been scouring the back streets of the city, an area that on any planet or at any time was a gathering place for violent oomans. The sound of yells caught his attention and he leapt onto the roof of the building closest to it and gauged the situation. Two packs of ooman youths were yelling and gesturing at each other in aggressive ways. His knowledge of the ooman language called English was good, he had developed it over many hunts and he was able to determine that the argument was a territorial dispute. He shook his head in disgust. How could any rational being consider territory like this worth fighting over? It made him wonder if it was a folly of youth or for oomans in general. Below him the yells had gotten louder and the gestures more violent, and anyone could tell that fighting would break out at any moment. As the hunter watched one of the smaller ones of the larger gang drew a weapon and shot one of the opposing gang. The members of both gangs then took out their weapons and blazed away at each other. The firefight continued until all of one side had been killed, but the victors had suffered as well. Only two remained alive, and in a display the hunter found truly abnormal the two began to celebrate! Almost all of their comrades had died but they did not seem to care. If any hunting party every showed the lack of respect for fallen brothers like these two were showing they would be killed on the spot. Deciding that they deserved such a fate, and the fact that they were the only survivors, the hunter activated his targeting lasers for his plamcaster. For his first target he chose the smaller of the two, the one that had started the fight and had somehow come out alive. Locking on target the ooman never saw the bright flash that struck his chest and exploded out his back, destroying almost every vital organ in his chest cavity. The remaining ooman looked up and searched the area but when he found nothing he turned and ran. Leaping down from the building the hunter gave chase and even though he was faster the ooman he was chasing knew the area better and was able to keep ahead of him, but not by much. Although his prey could not see him it could hear someone perusing and fired blindly behind him, his shots never coming close to hitting the hunter. His prey turned down a side street and a second later the hunter heard an ooman scream. Judging by the pitch it was a female. Turning down the sidestreet he saw his quarry had stopped and now held his weapon to the head of a female ooman younger then himself. The female was struggling to escape but his prey pressed his weapon harder into her temple.
"Just keep quiet little girl and you might get to walk away." The gang member told his hostage. "Ok, whoever's following me get this straight! There is NO way you are going to get me like you did my buddy!! I'm going to take my friend here and we're going to walk away slowly. You try to follow me and her pretty little head gets splattered all over the wall! You got that?!?!" The prey was looking around franticly trying to find whatever had been chasing him. The hunter was not worried, between his cloak and the darkness no ooman could have seen him. But the prey's hostage, she seemed to be staring right at him. Not paying attention to the female's terrified expression he readied his plamcaster. "ANSWER ME!!!" The prey demanded. When he got no answer he cocked his weapon. "I'll kill her I swear!!!" The prey was panicking now, so the hunter decided to answer the prey.
"NO!" The hunter said in the prey's own voice. The prey's expression went from panicked to horrified at the sound of his own voice. In that instant the hunter locked onto the prey and fired. The blast struck him in the forehead and exited out the back of his head. With the brain destroyed the prey simply went limp and fell forward onto his hostage, who pushed him off. He fell onto his back, his face frozen in a surprised expression. He had expected the hostage to run once the danger was over but she just stood in one place, looking at him even though she should not know he was there. Her heat image revealed no weapons and she had not yet alerted any others so he determined that she was not a threat. Even so as he approached the body of the prey he remained cloaked. Keeping an eye on the hostage he saw her follow his movements, somehow she was able to tell where he was. He kept a wary eye on her as he examined the prey. It had been skilled enough to survive as long as it had but it's actions with the female made him stop and consider whether it was worthy or not. Innocents died during hunts, it was unavoidable, but only a coward would hide behind children while trying to save their own life. "Not worthy." He told the prey in the voice of the one with white hair. He looked over to the female, expecting her to run at the sound of another voice coming from the same being. Her only reaction was that her eyes became wider. The rules of the hunt dictated that he should leave but this female intrigued him. She could somehow see where he was despite the cloak, and in spite of all she had just witnessed she had not run away or passed out as most oomans would. The species must have become braver over the years, or just stupider. In a move that the hunter found surprising she bowed in his direction.
"Generous sir. My name is Meifa and I thank you for what you have done. May I ask the name of the person who has saved me?" The hunter let out an angry growl. He had 'saved' her only because she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and it had involved his prey. Deciding to break the rules of the hunt to deal with the insult he deactivated his cloak and let the female see just who her 'rescuer' was. His height was greater then all except the tallest oomans so he towered over the young female and expected her to scream and run once she got a good look at him. Her eyes widened and her heart rate shot up but she did not move. The look on her face was part terror and part wonder. "Y, You're the Dragonslayer!" Now the hunter was truly puzzled. The second part of what she had called him made sense, but the first part? He knew enough about ooman legends to know that a dragon was a large reptilian creature that was supposed to be able to fly and breath fire. This was a creature of myth and if this female thought they existed her mind must be damaged in some way. The hunter repressed a sigh, he was getting worked up over the actions of an insane ooman. He reactivated his cloak and began to climb one of the buildings, anxious to continue the hunt. He never looked back but he could feel the eyes of the insane female on him the whole way up. Once he reached the top he began jumping to other rooftops and disappeared into the night.
As Meifa watched her rescuer climb the building and disappear she tried to put everything into perspective. When the sun had set earlier that day something felt wrong, nothing she could be sure of but something did not feel right so she went out searching. The feeling became greater as she walked and she began to follow it, not realizing she was walking deeper and deeper into the worst parts of the city. She had been snapped back to reality when she heard the gunfire and had wanted to run but she had become so lost she didn't know which way to go. That's when things began to move quickly. Someone grabbed her and put a gun to her head, telling her to be quiet. She then felt the presence of a Chi, one that was somehow unnatural. She felt the presence coming closer but could see nothing. The man with the gun began shouting and when he threatened to kill her his own voice answered back no and then a flash of light killed him. Whatever had done it came closer but it was still invisible. She could tell where the presence was but she could not see it. When it spoke again in a different voice she thought for a brief instant that it might be some sort of spirit that did not want to be seen. Wanting to know the truth she thanked whoever it was, hoping it would talk to her. What she got instead was an angry growl and before she could apologize the invisible became visible and she saw a creature that was not of this world. She was scared, even terrified, but something fell into place just then. She remembered hearing people talking about killings done by someone called Dragonslayer that were so brutal they were described as inhuman. What stood before her was definitely not human, but when she called it Dragonslayer it said nothing and tapped something on it's wrist and again became invisible. It then climbed a building and disappeared. Now what would she do? Going after it was out of the question. If she told the police they wouldn't believe her, she almost didn't believe it herself. She started to run, looking for a phone. There was only one person that would listen to her now, she just hoped he was close enough to help.
